Disney Fever Daily

Introduction

Although I love to study, observe, and analyze fictional villains, especially those from my favorite movies, both Disney and non-Disney, Gaston has always been my least favorite (animated) villain from Disney because he is extremely vain, narcissistic, arrogant, egotistical, chauvinistic, superior, and shallow. In real life, as well as in fiction, I strongly dislike people who display snobby, condescending, supreme, and superior attitudes by obsessively thinking so highly of themselves, and believing they are better than others in everything, from their social class to their physical appearance, so much so that they coldly dismiss, insult, belittle, and/or ignore others they see as being below them and not worth their time.

But my other main reason for hating Gaston goes even beyond his attempted murder of the Beast and aggressive persistence to force Belle to marry him after she refuses his so-called “proposal”. Because I am a feminist who believes in gender equality, and that women have the ability to do almost anything men can do (even though I accept that men will always be physically stronger than women by nature), I also detest Gaston due to his prejudiced, inferior, sexist, misogynistic views of women.

Now please don’t take this the wrong way; I don’t let my hatred of him stop me from enjoying Beauty and the Beast, because I LOVE the movie, and I do think Gaston makes a great presence with his role as the main antagonist. And I’m not a misandrist, or a person who hates the male gender as a whole, so I apologize in advance to my male friends on here if you think I’m giving off that impression. But in real life, I hate prejudice and bigotry aimed towards people when it comes to their race, gender, nationality, and/or social rank. And since I am a woman with feminist beliefs, I sometimes take it personally (more so than any other types of bigotry) when men exhibit sexist beliefs about women.

So with all of his major flaws, those being his bigoted, condescending, inferior views of women, his beliefs that men are (and always will be) above women, AND his narcissistic, egotistical, conceited, self-centered personality, the overall reason I hate Gaston and announce him as my least favorite Disney villain is because he is THE epitome and archetype of the very kind of man that I despise. Now I don’t know anyone like that in person, but I know that there are still prejudiced people out there in the world today. I have seen both real (like on live talk shows) and fictional men who show these kinds of prejudiced demeanors. When real men in particular show this kind of attitude, I get very offended by it. And Gaston probably holds these thoughts at greater extremities than any other fictional prejudiced male characters (at least those of which I know or am aware).

The more I thought about how strongly Gaston’s prejudicial thoughts on women are displayed, which are what drive Belle away from him, the more that I believe that, despite setting his sights on marrying her and determining to make it happen at all costs, I believe that Gaston considered Belle a challenge, and even a threat, to his public image, to his gender, and to his own identity. I say this because her personality makes her so unconventional and atypical for a woman for the era in which the film is set. And due to these thoughts, I decided to write this analysis on how I think Gaston saw Belle as a threat to himself and his own gender, but remained set on marrying her, regardless of her refusals. And of course, I will throw in my interpretations of Gaston’s prejudiced attitude towards women since the kind of personality Belle has goes against what he thinks both men and women should be.

What Men Want

During their first meeting, Gaston insults Belle by making sexist remarks about women who read and are intelligent. He states that it’s wrong for women to read since it leads to them thinking for themselves and getting intellectually smart, which he also thinks is ridiculous (though more so for women). In their next scene together, which is when Gaston makes his “marriage proposal” to Belle, he makes more sexist remarks, this time about women and housewifery. He describes to her how he envisions his life as a married man: living in a rustic hunting lodge in which his latest animal kill would be cooking on the fire, while his “little wife” would be massaging his feet as their six or seven children (all of whom would be sons) play on the floor with their dogs. Part of Gaston’s sexism in this scene is stressed with how he doesn’t even appear to consider the possibility of fathering any daughters. He arrogantly and proudly announces that his desired number of children is six or seven “strapping boys, like me!” The manner in which Gaston makes this statement sounds as if he is 100% confident (as indicated by him lightly pounding on his chest while saying said gender) that the chances that this many children would be boys, and only boys, is absolutely and logically possible. Therefore, he is also confident that there are no chances that any of his six to seven children would be a mix of boys and girls, or even all girls.

Additionally, in both of these scenes, besides what Gaston says that offends her, Belle recoils from him in annoyance, shock, and revulsion because he is VERY brazen. He makes unwanted advances on Belle to the point that he attempts to physically force himself onto her and get her under his control. By doing so, Gaston shows a total lack of respect for Belle’s personal space and property (hinting that he doesn’t think she should even have any in the first place). This all starts in the first scene, when Gaston literally and curtly snatches Belle’s book out of her hands and keeps it out of her reach to prevent her from taking it back from him. Then he carelessly tosses the book into the mud, and even tries to prevent Belle from retrieving it by stepping in front of it and the mud puddle. While he does this, Gaston flatly tells Belle that she has to stop reading and start paying attention to more important things (namely, himself, which does not impress Belle at all). After she recovers and cleans off her book, Gaston puts his arm around Belle’s shoulder and subtly forces her to walk with him as he suggests they go to the tavern together. Before they start “walking together”, Gaston again snatches the book out of Belle’s hand and attempts to keep it out of her reach when she tries to take it back.

Now this moment interests me because I realize that Gaston was starting to use more direct force to try to get Belle to stop reading. He was trying harder to get her to do what he wants her to do and make her see things his own way. And of course, Gaston arrogantly believes that his views and ways of doing/seeing things is right, so he tries to get Belle to see that while also showing her that what she does and likes is wrong. But Belle finally succeeds in grabbing the book back from Gaston, during which she turns down going with him to the tavern since she has to get home to help her father. The fact that Belle uses physical force herself when she grabs her book out of Gaston’s hand also interests me, because I see it as her way of telling him, “I’m not gonna let you stop me from reading because it’s what I love.” What happens between the two over the book and him “inviting” her to the tavern shows me that Gaston was trying to take the reins and show Belle that he wanted to be in control of her. He wanted to be in charge of her. He wanted to dominate her by telling her what to do, and would resort to using more abrupt force if necessary, in order to make her see things his way. But Belle taking her book from Gaston and turning down going out with him showed that she ABSOLUTELY would not give him that chance to do that. She refused to let him believe that he could dominate and control her, that she would willingly submit to him, that he was in the right to tell her what to do and not to do.

Nope! Just with using her book, Belle stood up to Gaston, defied him, and resisted him. By doing so, she indirectly told him that she is capable of making her own decisions, that she is very independent and likes to do her own thing, regardless of what he and others think. To Belle, Gaston is not someone who has the right to give her orders and make her do something she doesn’t want to do…and this is why he frowns after she manages to take her book out of his grasp while saying that she cannot go out with him.

During the proposal scene, before and while he describes his visions as a married man, Gaston again displays a total disregard and disrespect for Belle’s personal space and property. This begins when he briskly opens the door to her cottage and lets himself in without waiting for her to open it first after he knocks on it (AND without even waiting for her to grant or deny him permission to come inside in the first place). Once inside, Gaston makes more advances on Belle by continuously walking towards her, as if he’s trying to make her keep her eyes on him and block her attempts to get away from him. He then dirties her book (which is placed on the table) for the second time when he sits down and slams his muddy boots on it, kicks his boots off, and stinks up the book with his feet. (The fact that Gaston puts his feet, both boot-covered and bootless, smack-dab on top of the book clearly shows that he is again telling Belle, even without words, that he will NOT stand for her reading because she is a woman, and that he hates the concept of reading entirely.) When Gaston finally makes his proposal, not only does he continue to advance on Belle by trying to corner her, he does not ask her to marry him. Rather, Gaston tells her that he wants her to be his wife, then tells Belle to say she will marry him, like he’s giving her no choice in the matter, which is fitting because by then, he has her pinned against her door.

Like their previous meeting, Belle is shocked and repulsed by Gaston’s actions throughout the whole scene (though she manages to keep a straight face when he is inside her home). She groans and makes a face of pure disgust when she first sees him outside her door. She is repulsed by Gaston’s descriptions of married life, and more so by him dirtying her book and by the odor of his feet. When he finally “proposes” to her, Belle is more appalled than ever, but keeps a cool face as she successfully tricks him into leaving her house while simultaneously telling him her words of rejection.

The things Gaston says, and even the things he DOESN’T explicitly say, and the way he acts, during these two scenes, combined with how he displays his own arrogance, narcissism, and superiority as a man, and as a person in general, provide enough information for me to decipher just how prejudiced he is when it comes to how he sees women. It is CRYSTAL clear to me that Gaston considers men to be the superior gender, that men are (and meant to be) better than women at anything and everything, not JUST physical strength. He believes that women will ALWAYS be beneath men, and that women should KNOW their place by being the inferior gender. As such, Gaston has absolutely NO respect for women at all! In fact, he doesn’t even have respect for other men, despite regarding the male gender as the superior one! The only person for whom he has ANY respect is HIMSELF!!! 😡 (As if that was hard to figure out, anyway! 😆)

As part of his belief that men are superior to women, Gaston sees women only as potential property for men. He sees them as nothing more than objects, as things, as possessions that are meant to belong to men. He does NOT see women as people who are capable of having or are meant to have their own individual personalities. In seeing them as men’s property, Gaston thinks that women are useless and worthless except for the only two significant purposes they have to men.

So while he believes he has women’s places figured out in the world, especially in married households, like I said above, Gaston believes that men are supposed to be the masters, the bosses, of women, whose primary purpose is to serve their men. This means that only men are meant to be the ones “in charge”. They are meant to be the ones who take control of things. They are meant to be the dominant person in the relationship. As the ones in control, married men have the right to tell their wives what to do and treat them any way they want. Men are supposed to make all decisions, not just for themselves, but for their wives and children. Women (and even children) do not have any sort of rights, especially if they are married. They are not meant or allowed to have any say in the matter; their opinions are never important when it comes to making decisions. Women should never even bother to voice their own opinions, and they must never even speak at all unless their husbands speak to them first and/or give them permission to speak. Since men are supposed to be dominant and the women submissive, women must never, NEVER attempt to meet or rise above men’s level by defying them, disobeying them, or standing up to them, and that includes talking back to them! As part of Gaston’s belief that women must be dutiful and obedient to their their husbands, they are not allowed to ever do anything or make any decisions without their husbands’ approval or permission first. Whatever feelings, thoughts, and desires women have or may have, none of those should matter to their men. Men can always get what they want, and do what they want, whenever they want it. But the same does not, nor should it ever even, apply to women. Men do NOT need to ask their wives’ permission for something, but women always have to ask their husbands’ permission and earn it. If the man does not allow the woman to have what she wants, then she has to drop it all together.

So in summary, in Gaston’s eyes, women were put on the earth to be nothing more than mens’ slaves and sex partners. Women cannot, are not allowed, nor should they ever even try to do anything that is regarded as being stereotyped for men, and men only. They should never try to compete with men in any way, because men are the best gender and will forever be above women. To him, women are always meant to be seen and never heard; they should not be allowed to think or speak for themselves. This essentially means that Gaston thinks women should be brainless and be lacking in any kind of intelligence or intellect, which would explain why he is so dead set on trying to discourage Belle from reading. When in the presence of other people, be it just men or men and women together, women must keep their mouths shut at all times. They are NEVER supposed to speak at all unless spoken to first, and ONLY when a MAN speaks to them first, no less! And furthermore, when a man speaks to a woman first, she must ALWAYS answer immediately, without hesitation, and not keep the man or men who spoke to her waiting for long!

Keep reading

Before I read the new post-Frozen II novel, Polar Nights, I was hoping that it would especially feature some new information about Runeard and Rita, and much to my delight, it did, and they played HUGE roles in the flow of the story, even as posthumous characters! 😁😁😁

In the book, Anna and Elsa learn from Kristoff the story of Princesses Sissel and her younger sister, Inger, who were from the neighboring kingdom of Vesterland. He says that the sisters hated each other and Inger wanted the crown for herself. About fifty years ago, the two sisters were visiting Arendelle regarding their kingdom being asked to contribute in funding the building of the dam in the Enchanted Forest. At one point, when Sissel and Inger were alone together near a rushing river, Inger pushed her sister into the river and Sissel eventually drowned when she went over a waterfall. A witness reported the murder to King Runeard, who banished Inger from Arendelle (and Vesterland) and put her on a prison ship, which went down in the sea, causing Inger to die by drowning, too. And despite her death, Sissel came back from the dead as a creature called a draugr, seeking revenge on those who wronged her.

Naturally, Anna and Elsa are shocked by the story, particularly by how their grandfather had done something good and just…

…but as the novel unfolds, the sisters discovers that the entire story surrounding Sissel’s death and Inger being accused of murder was a lie.

Halfway into the book, after the sisters have had several encounters with the draugr and deduced it is actually Sissel, Elsa conjures up the memory of what really happened on the day of Sissel’s death using traces of water that have remained in a locket that Sissel was wearing the day she died (brought to Elsa by the draugr itself). Elsa and Anna discover that, not only were Sissel and Inger very close and that Inger was more interested in science and the environment (and thus did not want to be queen nor aimed to steal the throne from her sister), but Inger had figured out that the dam would cut off the water flow and cause other environmental devastations to the forest. It would also affect Vesterland by depleting animals that the citizens hunt for food. She was arguing with Sissel over this matter by the river, and while Sissel understood what Inger was saying, she felt they would be powerless to stop Runeard since he would not listen to them and did not care that his desired project would negatively affect the Northuldra and Vesterland. Sissel was also terrified of Runeard so much that she feared standing up to him, as she believed arguing with him over the matter would only lead to him punishing Vesterland by cutting off their trading partnership with Arendelle, since Arendelle controls the port that allows food, medicine, and other goods to come in from other kingdoms and travel to Vesterland. But due to Inger’s persistence about how harmful the dam would also be to their kingdom, Sissel finally relented and decided to request another audience in Arendelle to tell Runeard that Vesterland would not help to fund the dam.

However, no sooner than the sisters were feeling better about the matter that a flash flood occurred. Inger got in the way of the rushing water as it headed down the river, and when SIssel pushed her out of the way to escape harm, she tripped on a tree root and fell into the rushing water. As she was pulled downstream, Sissel struggled against the strong current and tried to grab something to help her get back to shore. She yelled for her sister to help her, and Inger chased after Sissel on the river bank. When Sissel managed to grab on to a branch near the shore, the witness from Kristoff’s story, a shepherd boy named Stig Petter, raced to help Sissel. Sadly, with the branch breaking as she held on, Sissel accepted her fate to die. Before she let go and went over the falls, she told Inger that she loved her and was proud of her. As a distraught Inger mourned the loss of her sister, Stig vowed to help Inger.

Following the end of the memory, Anna and Elsa realize that the draugr of Sissel was never trying to harm them or anyone else, but rather has been trying to clear her sister’s name and has removed some memories of the Arendellians so that they don’t remember the false story regarding her death. Elsa and Anna search through Arendelle’s court records to find more information, discovering that Stig lied and said that Inger had murdered Sissel by pushing her into the river, and the court believed Stig instead of Inger. Upon finding and meeting the elderly Stig to get the entire truth, Anna and Elsa further learn that Stig was actually blackmailed by Runeard to lie and say that Inger murdered her sister. The former king of Arendelle told Stig that he had to lie or he (Runeard) would tell everyone that Stig helped Inger murder Sissel and he’d have him imprisoned, too (or possibly executed). This was because Runeard (presumably) learned that the sisters were planning to voice their opposition of the dam and would not let their kingdom help fund its construction. In doing so, they would have also told other kingdoms that the dam would actually harm, not help, the forest and convince these kingdoms not to help with building it, either.

Without enough funds needed to construct the dam, the project would never get off the ground, and Runeard could have been exposed as a liar and traitor. Even with Sissel dead, Inger would have never stopped fighting to make sure Runeard could not build the dam. But being the stubborn, xenophobic tyrant who was ruthlessly obsessed with protecting his power and set on destroying the threat he believed the Northuldra posed to him, Runeard refused to let his plan be ruined at any cost, even if that meant lying and causing harm to innocent people who got in his way. So even with a witness present to the real account of Sissel’s death, the king took advantage of the situation by framing Inger for murder and put her on a ship to get rid of her for good, eliminating the sole opposition to his goal.

Yet while Inger couldn’t save her sister or stop Runeard from building the dam, she did manage to escape the terrible fate that almost befell her. Having gotten to know both sisters during their visit, and knowing what a cruel man her husband was, Queen Rita was the only one (besides Stig) who believed in Inger’s innocence. Though she tried to defend Inger in the court, Runeard adamantly refused to let her speak and banished her to her chambers. Not wanting an innocent woman to be condemned for a crime she never committed, Rita secretly helped Inger escape the prison ship (and Arendelle) before it set sail (which was seen by Stig). She paid several men to take Inger off the ship and gave her safe passage to another. Inger was also warned by Rita to never return to Arendelle since she would surely be recaptured and put to death if she did.

All that being said, what this book revealed about Runeard and Rita’s relationship further reinforces what I have believed about them from Dangerous Secrets, but most especially the former in what kind of man he really was: a cold-hearted, selfish, bigoted, power-hungry scoundrel who never cared about anyone or anything other than his kingship and the power and authority that came with it. Runeard’s position as king made him believe that he could do whatever he wanted, that he was always in the right to do so, that he was never wrong, and he didn’t care how his actions could affect others unless they could still benefit himself. But most of all, as I’ve said before many times, Runeard arrogantly believed being a king meant that he was better and smarter than everyone else since he was in the highest place in society. He discriminated all other people as being beneath him, especially peasants (like the Northuldra and shepherds like Stig), and refused to treat them fairly or equally.

Such views are backed up perfectly by the fact that he laughed in scorn when Stig said he would tell others about Runeard’s threats. Runeard also said that no one would ever believe him because he is a poor shepherd, meaning that (to him, at least) no one would ever believe the word of a lowly shepherd over the mighty king of Arendelle.

But most importantly of all, Runeard’s behavior towards Rita completely support what I have said in “There Goes the Bride”. Being the king, it’s crystal clear that Runeard felt that HE had more power and authority than everyone, even more than Rita, the queen and his own wife. Therefore, only HE had first and final say in EVERY decision made, and that the opinions of others, including his wife and the people he ruled, were never important. The fact that Rita tried to voice her belief that Inger was innocent, but Runeard harshly silenced her and sent her out of the royal court (he probably even locked her in her chambers so she couldn’t interfere) reinforces what I believed in him trying to control her and having seen her as his inferior, not his equal partner.

Ultimately, Polar Nights helped prove that Runeard was so hellbent on creating the dam just to bring down the Northuldra that he sought to keep even Rita out of his way when she became a liability to his scheme. 😠😡

But since Inger managed to escape with Rita’s help, she managed to live a long life (though she never became the ruler of Vesterland) and had a family (including a granddaughter named after her deceased great-aunt). And in the end of the book, Inger returns to Arendelle and manages to reunite with the spirit of Sissel after the draugr sheds her form following the truth being revealed about her death. 🥲😭

Second image here is a fan art of Queen Rita, made by my dear friend @greatqueenanna. 

In Encanto, there is a recurring element of butterflies, both as live animals and in image form. While there are designs of them shown in characters’ clothing and places within the Madrigal home, particularly on the magical candle, there are more moving images and live butterflies shown conspicuously during the second and third acts, including the moments with young Alma and Pedro (and even in Alma’s flashback story in the prologue). In many cultures, butterflies are known as symbols of spiritual rebirth, new beginnings, and transformation, all of which are meanings that apply to the movie’s motif of this animal.

Butterflies are particularly symbolic of transformation since they begin their lives in a completely different form as caterpillars. When a caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis, it pupates into chrysalis inside a cocoon, then it hatches and begins a brand new life as a butterfly. Butterflies have also come to represent rebirth and new beginnings because they often hatch from their cocoons during the spring, which is the season of hope and new life.

The film’s theme of butterflies, and caterpillars becoming butterflies, is emphasized by the song “Dos Oruguitas”, the majority of which plays during the montage showing Alma and Pedro’s relationship. The song’s title translates to “Two Caterpillars,” illustrating how Pedro and Alma, the said caterpillars, grow and evolve from two individual people to beginning a whole new life and future together as a fully-fledged family. Although their new family life together is tragically cut short when Pedro sacrifices himself to the soldiers chasing them and the townspeople accompanying them, his act imbues Alma’s candle with magic and the encanto is created. When this happens, Alma and everyone else is instantly shielded from the soldiers by the mountains, which literally cocoons them in safety. The creation of the encanto and casita presents a whole new beginning, and future, for Alma, her children, and the villagers, which is why butterflies fly around as it happens and why the candle contains a butterfly image.

Butterfly designs are featured within the casita, including on the walls of the kitchen, the main hall, and the nursery, possibly to allude to how the home serves as the Madrigals’ protective cocoon. But I think they also function to foreshadow how the family undergoes transformation with each other and their home. For much of the movie, the Madrigals consist of hierarchy as well as segregation and disconnection. Alma, the matriarch, favors most of her children and grandchildren because of their abilities. However, there are two members she treats as outsiders: Bruno, for the negative repercussions his gift caused the family and the community, and Mirabel, for having no gift at all. As a result, both Bruno and Mirabel feel disconnected from their relatives and are viewed as the black sheep. After the casita falls apart, a meaningful transformation and new beginning occurs for the Madrigals. Bruno reconciles with his relatives, including his mother, who also reconciles with Mirabel, causing the entire family to unite. The rebuilding of the casita also symbolizes the family reuniting and becoming a happier, stronger unit.

Out of all the places where butterfly images appear in the house, I am most interested in why they appear in the nursery. I think there is a more significant reason why they are featured in that location, and it’s because they allude to the inhabitants metaphorically growing from caterpillars to butterflies. What I mean by this is, the nursery is the room in which every Madrigal child lives until their fifth birthdays. On said birthday, the children receive their magical gifts and move out of the nursery into their new rooms. If any of the children are close in age, they share the nursery until it’s time for the older child to move out. But because Mirabel never received a gift, the nursery became her permanent room, and she shared it with Antonio until his fifth birthday.

One thing that has been on my mind regarding this animal theme is the significance of the yellow butterfly that appears during the second half of the movie (mainly the one in Bruno’s vision). Here are all the moments in which yellow butterflies, both in image form and in life, appear in Encanto:

Like all butterflies in general, yellow butterflies represent rebirth and new life. But in other cultures, they also represent the souls of the deceased, as well as hope and guidance. Yellow butterflies also signify a spiritual experience in which they are considered messengers. This meaning says that, when one sees a yellow butterfly, they will soon have an unforgettable spiritual experience, that someone will answer your prayers, and a miracle might happen that will change your life. Taking all these meanings in mind, I believe the yellow butterfly represents Pedro’s spirit watching over his family.

Pedro’s death and Alma’s grief is the catalyst for the miracle, which is why a yellow butterfly appears on the candle after it becomes magical. After his death, he continues to guide and watches over his family through butterflies. This counts both the live butterflies that fly around the house as it takes shape and the designs of them in the house, including with the mosaic and Pedro’s portrait. In Bruno’s vision, I believe that the butterfly is Pedro guiding Mirabel and Bruno to the answer they need to save the miracle. The vision shows the butterfly landing on a grass blade, which is where a real butterfly lands when Mirabel and Alma are at the river following the destruction of the casita. The appearance of the butterfly there would indicate that it is Pedro continuing to guide Mirabel in the right direction of mending things with Alma. It is there that Alma apologizes to Mirabel for being so hard on her and explains her realization at why she became the way she is. Finally understanding the pain and loss her grandmother had suffered. Mirabel assures Alma that it is because of her that they were granted a miracle and that they are a family, so nothing is broken that they cannot fix together. Touched by her granddaughter’s words, Alma says that she asked Pedro for help, and tells Mirabel that she was the answer to her prayers. Such words seem to be affirmed when a swarm of yellow butterflies circle around the two before flying away into the distance. While this happens, the last set of lyrics of “Dos Oruguitas” plays, in which the caterpillars are now referred to as butterflies, referencing how they grew and changed.

Another thing I noticed regarding the butterfly motif is that, unlike the other Madrigals (sans Agustin and Félix), whose clothes contain pictures of things that relate to their respective gifts, Mirabel and Alma are the only family members whose clothing contains the butterfly motif. Mirabel prominently has butterflies embroidered in her skirt and shirt, including with one on her shoulder. Alma has butterflies pictured in the bottom part of her dress, her black shawl, and she wears a butterfly pendant on her waist. Other than (possibly) subtly representing the fact that neither of them has a magical power, I see that this grandmother and granddaughter have butterflies in their apparels because as characters, they evolve like butterflies over the course of the movie. They grow and transform as the result of a traumatic experience in their youths, and by the end, they learn to move on from those experiences and become much happier people. Mirabel and Alma’s character developments also affect the evolvement of their relationship, which goes from close and affectionate, to distant and cold, then to loving once again.

Though Mirabel was confused, humiliated, and traumatized after not receiving a gift as a five-year-old, she spent years living by the mantra “Make your family proud” (which Alma ironically said to Mirabel before her failed gift ceremony), and she strives to be helpful to her family and her town every day. But due to her lack of a magical power, Mirabel feels very insecure and disconnected from the rest of her family since she cannot contribute to them and the town the same way her relatives do with their powers. While the majority of her relatives get along with Mirabel and do not exclude her or treat her any differently from the rest of them, Alma shuns Mirabel and does not see or treat her as an equal to the rest of them. This makes Mirabel feel even more left out in the cold, so she particularly, and desperately, strives to regain her grandmother’s approval and acceptance. Over the course of the movie, Mirabel discovers how her relatives are feeling so stressed with the expectations they face with their gifts, and she helps them to be more open with their feelings and to see that their gifts alone don’t make them who they really are. Mirabel eventually comes to see that her presence in her family is the true Madrigal gift, and she finally learns to completely accept herself, even while being without a magical power.

Alma’s character evolvement is also the most distinct in Encanto. As a young woman, Alma became so riddled with grief after losing her home and witnessing Pedro’s murder. When she was given a second chance and a new home when the miracle happened, she vowed to preserve it and never lose her family the way she lost Pedro. Over time, though, Alma unintentionally took their miracle for granted by becoming a controlling perfectionist over her children and grandchildren with their gifts and how they affected the family and community. She reprimanded Pepa whenever the latter was in a bad mood because of the negative weather she would subsequently produce. She came to only see the worst in Bruno for the predictions he made. And most of all, she treated Mirabel very coldly for years just because Mirabel did not get a gift. As such, Alma lost sight of what was the real miracle: the family itself, not the gifts each of them possessed. Alma admits all of this to Mirabel after the casita is destroyed, and Mirabel is the one who helps Alma make peace with her tragic past, leading to the two reconciling at last. Alma then apologizes to and reconciles with the rest of the family, including Bruno, whom she, without hesitation, welcomes back to the family with open arms.

And so there you have it with the butterfly motif in Encanto! 😁🦋 As a closing remark, I also want to say that this analysis title of “The Butterfly Effect” has an additional meaning, and that is how Mirabel’s decision to save the miracle leads to her triggering a chain of events that affect other members of her family and what becomes of the house. True to this term, what initially seems like one change in the beginning that doesn’t seem like it will affect much becomes a catalyst that influences how other things change as the movie unfolds. 😉

Ah ha ha! Clever pun title for an analysis on this scene from Encanto, don’t you all think? 😆🤣

But seriously, I wanted to say that this is one of my favorite moments in the whole movie because it’s when Mirabel has finally earned the pride of her entire family, just as she always wanted.

Earlier in the film, things in the Madrigal family become tense, as everyone is unsure whether Mirabel is directly tied to the fading of the magic. Family members including Alma, Pepa, and Isabela accuse Mirabel of recent misfortunes after she indirectly ruins Mariano’s proposal to Isabela. Prior to this, Pepa and several others learn that Bruno’s last vision was of Mirabel seemingly being the reason the house was cracking apart (part of why Pepa makes her accusation). When Alma hears about the vision, she interprets as meaning that Mirabel is indeed responsible for the cracks appearing and Luisa’s strength fading (which happened after Mirabel told Luisa she felt she was carrying too much responsibility).

However, when the casita finally splits apart and starts to fall, Mirabel takes it upon herself to save the candle. After her family have been pushed outside, they notice Mirabel still inside, in a precarious situation while trying to get to the candle. They don’t tell to hurry and get it; rather, they tell her to leave it and get out of the house before it falls to the ground.

The Madrigals’ only concern in that moment is Mirabel.

After the house is finally destroyed and Mirabel runs away due to feeling responsible for everything, despite the loss of their home, everyone searches for her, showing they care so much more about her and her safety.

Though Mirabel was never given a magical gift, all of the Madrigals come to see that she is a gift in her own way, as the heart of their family. As an optimist, Mirabel is the one who has kept them together and been there for them individually through their rough times. She helped Antonio overcome his nerves before he got his gift. She helped Luisa be more open about her deep-rooted insecurities. She helped Isabela learn to be more honest with her feelings and unlock a greater potential of her gift. But most importantly, while it seemed harsh for her to have said it at first, Mirabel helped her grandmother realize that Alma’s perfectionism and control over the family was causing the tension, leading to Alma comprehending that acted this way because she was just fearful of losing them all just like she had lost Pedro years ago.

Mirabel’s optimism helping her family is also portrayed in the beginning of “All of You”, in which she tells them that, while they lost their home, things will still be okay as long as they stick together as the family they are. After assuring them that they are truly more than just what their individual gifts have made them, Alma apologizes for being so hard on everyone, then assures her children and their children that they are the real miracles because of who they are, not because of what their magical gifts make them.

When construction of the new casita is finished, Alma sings that one more thing is left before they can celebrate, and when Mirabel asks what that is, Bruno sings a doorknob is needed. Immediately afterwards, Antonio presents one to Mirabel saying “We made this one for you.” The knob has an “M” inscribed in it, perhaps to initialize the family’s surname “Madrigal”, but I think it’s meant to stand for “Mirabel” (which could work both ways, since her full name is an alliteration 😉).

Once she hears those words and the knob is placed in her hands, Mirabel looks up and sees her entire family gathered in front of her. That and the way they look at her show that they not anticipate her putting on the knob, but that they all agreed that she deserves to do the honors.

Now some may be thinking that the Madrigals have chosen Mirabel as the one to put the doorknob in place just because she never got her own door as a young child, but I think it’s far more than that. Mirabel’s relatives have chosen her as the one to put the knob on the new door because they have all come to realize how much they cherish and believe in her. Having witnessed how much she truly loves them all through her bravery and selflessness of risking her life to save the candle and the miracle as the casita crumbled apart, they feel that she earned the privilege to do this.

When Mirabel begins walking up to the door, Antonio walks with her, as a callback to when she walked with him to his new door during his ceremony. As she walks, the individual groups of her relatives (e.g.; her maternal aunt and the latter’s family, her sisters, her parents, and her maternal uncle) all praise her for the good she has done for within the family.

Pepa, Félix, Dolores, and Camilo sing in agreement about how she is the star among them all who burns so brightly because of how she helped them be optimistic in the face of dire negativity and made them understand that they’ll be okay as long as they have each other. Even Camilo, the one who loves to tease others with his ability, gives his approval that Mirabel deserves this by nodding his head.

Isabela and Luisa commend their little sister for her bravery, and the warm smile Isabela wears while singing shows she has repaired her relationship with Mirabel enough that she truly believes her youngest sister deserves this.

Agustin and Julieta tell their youngest daughter to see herself in turn, meaning that she should see herself as special just as they all do, regardless of her never having had a gift (which echoes Julieta’s earlier words of wishing her daughter would see herself the way she does).

Tying in to the Madrigals seeing Mirabel as the heart of their family, Bruno then tells her that SHE is the real gift, and thus she deserves to let them in.

And finally, Mirabel comes up to Alma, who tells her to open her eyes, an obvious reference to the moment she said these very words to young Mirabel at the beginning of the movie (reversing the earlier said words by her saying them in English first, then repeating them in Spanish). By this, Alma tells Mirabel to understand that she is truly an amazing person as the whole family sees her.

When Alma asks Mirabel what she sees, Mirabel, who looks at her reflection in the doorknob, and with tears in her eyes, replies that she sees herself, and all of herself. By this, she means that, after ten years of feeling like she was "lesser” than everyone else in her family and trying so hard to live up to the Madrigal name, Mirabel has finally learned to love herself and sees how special and important she is within her family. 😊😭

Turning around afterwards, Mirabel takes one last look at her family, who all continue to look at her with beaming smiles of admiration and pride on their faces, before walking up to the door to put the knob in its place.

Once she does, the work is finally complete and the magic returns in the new sentient casita.

Now how is that for “love is an open door”? 😆🤣

In honor of the second anniversary of Frozen II, I decided to celebrate by writing an analysis, but one unlike any I have ever done before: an analysis that discusses the meanings of the pun titles for those I wrote about the movie (some of which also discuss the original Frozen)! Now how is THAT for an idea?!?! 😁😄

While I have almost sixty essays for Frozen II, only half of them actually have titles. Many of them are puns of movie, book, and song titles, and even terms, phrases, and idioms/expressions, which includes words that rhyme with or are spelled similar to words from the original sources that inspired the titles. The titles are also puns in at least one other way, as they are the key to and underscore what I discuss in the body of the text. And before any of you ask, yes, this analysis ALSO has a pun title, which is a reference to the film Analyze This! Since I’m analyzing the titles of my past essays, I can’t think of a better title to emphasize this concept! 😆

So here are the names and definitions of all my titled essays about Frozen II, and if you want to read them for yourself, I included their links for easy access as well. Enjoy! 😁

“The Color Purple”

“Identity Unknown”

“Two Songs, One Woman”

“Let Down Your Hair”

“Frozen in Time”

“King Runeard, the Lying Hater”

“The Last Word”

“Free Spirit”

“Born (to Be) Free”

“Mum of All Tears”

“The Truth Shall Set You Free”

“Girls in the Mist”

“Keep Your Hands to Yourself”

“Pride and Prejudice”

“A Royal Title”

“Kindred Spirits”

“Striking Resemblances”

“Going off the Deep End”

“Distant Relative”

“Family Ties”

“Split Decision”

“Raise Your Voice”

“Names of the North”

“Panic Attack”

“Go with the Wind”

“Bridge of Spirit”

“Three of a Kind”

“The Men with Two Faces”

“Princess Protection Program”

“Let It Show”

“Marry-Go-Round”

“Safety Worst”

“Family Matters”

“Canon Fodder” (a collab with my good friend @greatqueenanna )

“Reflections of a Mad Man”

“Hello, Goodbye Dolly”

“Middle Link”

“There Goes the Bride”

“Sinister of Magic”

Last year, I said in my Beauty and the Beast essay “Bride and Prejudice” that I am a feminist who believes in gender equality, and because of my beliefs, I strongly dislike men who display toxic masculinity. By that, I mean men who discriminate women by abusing them, mocking them, thinking that they are meant to be men’s slaves or only have jobs pertaining to housekeeping or cooking, and believe that men are the superior gender while women will always be inferior to men. And also because of my beliefs, I absolutely hate Gaston since he is the exact epitome of the very kind of man I detest, what with him having all of these said sexist, misogynistic views about women. He believes men are and always will be inherently superior to women and that women are meant to be controlled by men. Therefore, he dislikes women being above or equal to men in any way, particularly with being smart or independent.

So while I think Gaston is the prime example of the worst kind of man, I simultaneously love Belle and think she is one of the best heroines and feminist icons in Disney animation due to her having an intelligent, independent, witty, bibliophilic, rebellious, and free-spirited nature in a time when women were meant to be seen and not heard. She openly challenges society’s expectations of a woman of her time by choosing who she wants to be, not caring what people think about her, and refusing to be controlled, demeaned, or humiliated, especially by prejudiced men like Gaston.

And I have been thinking more about since then that I have decided to write this essay on which Disney heroines, both princesses and non-princesses, are feministic. This may be my biggest writing project ever for Disney, so sit back and enjoy as you read! 😁

Women in History

As I stated above, I am a feminist because I believe that both genders should be treated as equals, rather than perceiving one as superior to the other. Although sexism and such discrimination has been against both genders, and still is today, my main advocacy of it is for women since I’m a woman and I’m eager to stop discrimination and stereotypes against women, including in the media.

For centuries, mostly in European countries and during colonial America, society has regarded women as inferior to men. While men had a lot of freedom, women lived and were expected to follow strict gender roles set for them, so they had virtually none of the same privileges as men. Men had the freedom to go almost anywhere, do almost anything, and be almost whatever they wanted, but women did not. Men could wear shirts and pants since such clothes were considered masculine, but women could only wear dresses, skirts, and stockings since they were expected to be ladylike in all ways, including with their clothing. While it may not have always been considered a big deal for men to get married, it was expected for women to do it, perhaps because they are the gender that carries and bears children. Men were educated and had careers, but women were expected to stay home, keep house, and raise children. It was also frowned upon and considered improper if women were more interested in things that were stereotyped for men as opposed to things stereotyped for their gender.

Since many Disney animated films are period pieces, a lot of the early ones had their heroines portrayed as conventional women of the times, though without very much proper character development that showed them living very restricted lives. However, such portrayals began to change with the portrayal of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, but more specifically so with Belle in Beauty and the Beast in regards to feminism. Belle was arguably the first Disney heroine, and not just the first Disney Princess, to be portrayed as a feminist due to her being a very independent, intelligent, bold, outspoken, free-thinking woman who stands up to and rejects the unwanted advances of the sexist, misogynistic villain Gaston. She subsequently became an icon for feminism in Disney animation, and many of her successors have followed suit, especially over the last decade, including Jasmine, Mulan, Elsa, and Moana. After watching their films over again, I have figured out which Disney heroines best represent feminism based on the following criteria I have created regarding their personality traits and actions:

Now that I have listed what I think makes Disney heroines feminists, I want to discuss which heroines are best represented as feminists based on this criteria. I have picked heroines that I think are most obvious feminists by have strong personalities or abilities that fit most to all of the criteria, and a couple others that I designated as honorable mentions because they fit most of the criteria, but also contrast some of it or don’t project strong, feministic-type traits as much as the others do. Of course, these are all just my honest opinions with which some of you may not agree, so I feel there is no solid right or wrong answer.

I am only focusing on human female characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios, and my choices are the Disney Princesses and non-monarchs. That means no animal characters, whether they are anthropomorphic or non-anthropomorphic, and no characters from the sequels made by DisneyToon Studios will be included. Now even though Merida is from Pixar, I am including her because she is a Disney Princess, and a very feministic one. I am also not ranking the heroines based on who I think is most to least feministic, but by the order of which came first in the years their films came out.

Keep reading

For me and other Frozen fans who have read Dangerous Secrets, we have learned about Agnarr and Iduna’s pasts as well as small, yet simultaneously crucial, pieces of information about Runeard and Rita regarding their marriage.

Despite Runeard having only a few lines in said book, what Agnarr reveals about his father strengthens what I have believed he was just from his short time on screen and key lines in Frozen II, and that he was just as bad, if not worse, than I initially thought he was. First of all, given that he was revealed to be a very distant, neglectful husband, I strongly believe that Runeard never cared about marrying for love or saw marriage as a partnership based on love and devotion. Due to his status as a king, the only benefit he saw from marriage was that it would increase his political status and power, which he knew would be done by him marrying a princess from another country so that their kingdoms could form an alliance and then he could use the alliance to his advantage.

Now I have said this before, but I want to mention it again: based on his sneer, scowl, and gruff voice in which he speaks in the scene below, it’s perfectly clear to me Runeard saw himself as a supreme being who was above everyone else by being a king. Since was in the highest social rank place and had more power than anyone else in society, he believed he was better and smarter than everyone else, and hated the idea of anyone or anything being better or more powerful than him (which included magic).

As a result of his feelings regarding his status, Runeard discriminated everyone else as being beneath him based on their social class, race, and even gender. He was also bigoted towards magic, and so he held great wrath and bigotry towards the Northuldra just for following magic. At the same time, Runeard also was prejudiced towards the tribe for their race and social class, making him a racist and classist at the same time. And while I think Gaston is the Disney Villain who is the best example of a misogynist, I also think Runeard had a degree of misogyny and sexism towards women. 

Following their marriage, Runeard never saw Rita as a person or as his partner, but as his possession and personal property to what he could do whatever he pleased. While Gaston believed that a married woman is supposed to be her husband’s slave and sex object, I don’t think that Runeard saw Rita as his personal slave since they did have servants who did and would do any and all manual tasks and labor for them in their castle home. However, similar to Gaston’s beliefs that married women must obey orders and commands their husbands give them, I do think Runeard expected Rita to do whatever he told her to do, to obey any order he gave her without argument or defiance, just because she was his wife. As her husband, Runeard saw himself as Rita’s superior while she was his inferior. He believed that she must honor and respect him as a wife should honor and respect her husband like the marriage vows say, though it’s not hard to determine he never extended her the same courtesies.

In summary, despite her own rank as a queen, Runeard viewed Rita as being beneath him, not only because she is a woman, but because he believed a queen is still below a king in status. He refused to treat her as an equal partner and felt her only significance to him was to bear him an heir who would succeed him as Arendelle’s ruler.

Based on what Pabbie and Gerda revealed about Rita growing homesick and depressed over missing her kingdom and her old life during the years she was married, and Runeard growing impatient with her instead of being understanding, it’s easy to figure out that Runeard was everything but a wonderful husband. He may have given her all the lavish gifts, riches, and material goods one could ever want, but even that was never out of true love, affection, or kindness on his part. The fact that she was completely completely cut off from her country shows that Runeard utilized two typical abuser’s tactics with Rita: isolation and control. Due to her prolonged grief from missing her home, she probably never even went back to visit because Runeard completely forbade her from doing so. But just why would he have forbidden her from visiting her home? Perhaps because he believed that if Rita went back, she would never return to him. Now of course, it would never have been out of care or concern for her, but in seeing her as his property, Runeard adamantly wanted to have total control over Rita and deny her any basic rights. He probably would say or did say to her, “You’re mine! You are my wife, and you are going to stay here with me!” Such a thought goes to show that Runeard used other typical abuser’s tactics of domination and possessiveness with Rita.

Whether Runeard ever physically abused Rita is unknown, but given that he was driven to extreme measures of violence when he murdered the Northuldra leader years later, I don’t think it’s a far-fetched idea. Despite appearing calm and composed in public, largely to protect his false image of benevolence and kindness, I have a hunch that in private, Runeard would explode into a violent rage when angered. If he ever became angry at Rita, I think he would get violent and physically assault her, especially if he felt that doing so would “put her in her place”. I even wonder if Runeard ever tried to beat Agnarr when he was angry with him, but Rita would step in and take the beating herself because she loved Agnarr so much and did not want Runeard to hurt their son.

Given the chances that his abuse towards Rita bordered towards physicality, combined with everything else he did and didn’t do to make her so unhappy, I believe that she went to the trolls to have her memories erased so she would consequently have the will to freely leave Runeard because he never would have allowed her to leave him otherwise. In other words, if Rita attempted to run away and announced to Runeard that she was leaving, including by packing her things as she announced her intention to leave, Runeard would have prevented her from leaving by getting physical, including beating her severely. But could his abuse have been bad enough that he would he have killed Rita to permanently prevent her from leaving? Yes, I think Runeard would definitely have killed Rita if he caught her trying to leave him (and make it appear to be an accident), because he wouldn’t have accepted it or allowed it to happen. Since Runeard didn’t like anything that challenged or threatened his power and authority, he wouldn’t have accepted or allowed Rita to challenge him by confronting him, standing up to him, and trying to leave him.

And so when Rita could no longer take living with Runeard due to his cruelty and abuse, she went to the trolls and had Pabbie remove all memories of her family and life in Arendelle. The other major reason she did this was so she could live with having to leave Agnarr behind; though she wanted to take him with her, she realized that doing so would cause Runeard to come after them. He would stop at nothing to prevent her from escaping with his only heir, and Agnarr’s life would be put in great danger. Therefore, the best choice Rita felt she could make to keep Agnarr safe was for him to remain in Arendelle.

What became of Rita after she fled is unknown, as it wasn’t made clear if she returned to her home or simply vanished into the dark and started a new life as a nomad. It is also not made clear how Runeard discovered that Rita left him and how he realized magic was connected to her leaving him. Regardless, once Rita left him, Runeard no longer had any power over her and couldn’t do anything about it. I have total confidence that the situation made him enraged since he had lost control over something he wanted to control with all the power he had and could muster, and especially so because magic, which is something that he cannot control, was involved with her disappearance.

Once he knew Rita was gone and was not going to return, Runeard became in complete denial that he had been an awful husband and was the only person to blame for her departure. He took the easy way out by claiming that she was carried off by evil spirits, scapegoating and blaming magic, the thing he detested most in the world, just so he could avoid taking responsibility for something wrong he did.

When in Ahtohallan, after singing “Show Yourself”, Elsa comes across visions of moments and memories from the past. One of which she takes particular notice is of her grandfather Runeard during his reign as the king of Arendelle. And in only about one minute, her feelings about seeing him drastically change in rapid succession.

After seeing the memory of Iduna rescuing Agnarr from the forest, Elsa hears someone address Runeard by name, to which she turns in their direction and gasps, “Grandfather!” She is delighted to finally see a vision of him and walks up to the figure of him and the servant by his side.

But then Runeard says, “The Northuldra follow magic, which means we can never trust them.” Upon hearing this, Elsa says, “Grandfather?” in a quizzical tone of voice, clearly shocked at this statement. She increasingly becomes more appalled and devastated as Runeard continues, “Magic makes people feel too powerful, too entitled. It makes them think they can defy the will of a king.”

Finally, in a calm tone of voice, but with a clear look of anger on her face, Elsa defiantly responds, “That is not what magic does. That’s just your fear. Fear is what can’t be trusted.”

As I said, in just a few seconds, Elsa’s feelings for her late grandfather change very quickly in this brief scene. Since childhood, Elsa presumably viewed Runeard as a noble, generous leader, and had love and respect for him despite never knowing him. She also presumably heard many good things about him from Agnarr, her father and Runeard’s son, that she further held him in high esteem. Therefore, she was happy to finally see a vision of him from the past.

But when Runeard says that the Northuldra can never be trusted due to their associations with magic, Elsa is immediately distraught. She is shocked to learn that he was actually a cold, prejudiced, closed-minded man who not only hated magic, but detested and distrusted anyone and everyone who had any kind of association with magic. She defends herself when Runeard says that magic only makes people feel more powerful and entitled than the power of a monarch.

Elsa’s feelings go from sadness to anger as she listen’s to Runeard’s words during this scene shows that SO MUCH is going on with her. First of all, Elsa’s response in defending magic comes from her own personal experiences. Elsa knows better than anyone that magic doesn’t make you feel too powerful. On the contrary, for nearly her entire life, she was traumatized by her powers after she accidentally injured Anna. She subsequently became burdened by insecurity, depression, anxiety, self-loathing, and overall poor self-esteem because she felt hopeless at controlling her powers. They always made her feel like a burden, a danger, a curse, not only to her family, but to the rest of the world. Elsa’s powers caused her to struggle with so many negative emotions that she shut out the people she loved most for fear of harming them, which only tripled these emotions because it left her deprived of affectionate, loving attention and gestures when she needed them most. Furthermore, Elsa knew that her powers made her far from ordinary, that her uniqueness increased greater chances of people fearing her just for them, not accepting her. And after her fears were realized following her coronation and her accidental eternal winter curse on Arendelle, it was ultimately due to Anna’s loving sacrifice that Elsa finally understood that love is the key to it all.

So in complete contrast to Runeard’s beliefs, Elsa’s magic NEVER made her feel entitled or superior to others, ever! Her powers always made her feel powerless! By this time, even after ruling Arendelle for three years, Elsa takes her role as the queen in stride. Her people love her and her gift, but she never shows them off in a condescending way and still doesn’t see herself as being superior over them or her own sister just for being magical.

But second of all, Elsa is upset in this scene because she clearly takes Runeard’s statement VERY personally. This is her grandfather here. Her own family. Her own flesh and blood. Hearing his negative attitude towards magic makes her realize that, had he known her, he would have immediately despised her simply for being magical! He probably would have never acknowledged her as his descendant. He would have automatically denied her birthright, disowned her, acted as if she didn’t exist.

This hurts Elsa very deeply because it is a stark contrast to the rest of her immediate family. Agnarr, Iduna, and Anna always loved Elsa so much, unconditionally, and unquestionably that they accepted her and her magic. (Anna accepted Elsa’s abilities before her accident and her memory wipe, yet continued to love her sister despite never knowing why they were suddenly kept apart.) Despite the problems Elsa’s powers occasionally caused and the negative effects it had on her self-esteem as she grew up, Agnarr and Iduna never stopped loving their oldest daughter and felt despondent in not knowing how to help her. And now, after years of hiding from the world and fearing that others will never accept her magic, Elsa’s people, friends, and family have accepted her, abilities and all. They love her for who she is. For the past three years, she has been gradually learning to love herself with success. And now that she realizes where her powers came from and understands her life’s true purpose as the fifth spirit, Elsa has finally gained complete confidence and trust in herself. She has fully embraced herself and her magic, which brought her to tears of great joy mere minutes ago.

And so all of a sudden in this scene, upon learning of Runeard’s feelings about magic and people connected to magic, Elsa instantly realizes with devastation that her grandfather never would have accepted her AT ALL. She took this as a punch to her gut.

But her response was a powerful one, and one that she’ll never stop defending.

I am so proud of my girl for growing from a guilt-ridden individual who hated what made her special to a confident, strong woman who will never stop fighting for what magic truly is and does! Love you, Elsa! 😄❤️😄❤️😄❤️

Special thanks to my friend @aqueenthatisfrozen​, whose own analysis about Elsa’s reactions and response in this scene was an inspiration for this one!

As a collaboration project with @greatqueenanna​, we decided to discuss the books of the Frozen franchise and explain what makes some canon and what makes others not canon. Our reasoning for this is because there is a great deal of confusion among fans on what novels, comics, and guide books have reliable information about characters, motivations, and overall lore. We focused our attention on books because they are what specifically tend to have added information or significant prequel and post-movie content that adds both story and lore to the franchise.

In my post, I will be discussing which books have a strong case of not being canon; that is, they fall under the categories of Loose Canon and Non-Canon. greatqueenanna has her own post that begins the discussion towards what is canon (Hard Canon and Soft Canon). Please read it below to see the full collaboration effort, with the details on what books are considered canon and why.

- Canon Fodder Part 1 -

Which Elements Help Make a Book Canon?

As stated in Part 1 of this collaboration, when discussing the canonical strength of a specific book, two main components are examined to determine where it falls on the canon spectrum:

Collaboration with Filmmakers - Did the author(s) work with the main creative team of Frozen while writing the book?

Consistent Lore - Does the book’s story follows the lore presented by the main team?

Which Books Do NOT Have These Elements?

A Frozen Heart, Journey to the Lights, and the Anna & Elsa: Sisterhood is the Strongest Magic series are chaptered storybooks that offer a lot of lore to the franchise. A Frozen Heart alternates between the third-person perspective of Anna and Hans, giving readers a glimpse of their inner thoughts and pasts before they met, such as showing Hans’s life with his family in the Southern Isles. Likewise, Journey to the Lights and the Anna & Elsa series tell different stories of the sisters and their friends following the events of the first movie.

Pictured storybooks with unique stories vary in offering lore to the franchise, which may or not contradict that of the films. Their stories include Anna and Elsa’s childhood (Anna and Elsa’s Secret Playtime), the two traveling to another kingdom in which they encounter the Duke of Weselton (Across the Sea), Anna and Kristoff babysitting baby trolls while also sharing some information about Kristoff growing up in the Valley of the Living Rock (Anna Is Our Babysitter), and others set after the first movie as well as after Frozen Fever.

Despite their stories with the main characters and whatever lore they may or may not offer, it is unclear just how much or if these books’ authors consulted with the filmmakers while writing them, which makes their standing Loose Canon.

Like the aforementioned storybooks, the guidebooks A Frozen World and A Year with Elsa & Anna offer the franchise a significant amount of lore, including pieces of information that have already been confirmed by the filmmakers.

But also like said storybooks, they are considered Loose Canon due to them having a lack of involvement and/or acknowledgement from the creators. A Year with Anna & Elsa also recaps some the pictured storybooks mentioned above, making it somewhat dismissible. Additionally, both books were made years after Frozen came out, so they did not have the same access to the filmmakers’ notes and such as the novelizations and official guides did.

Comic books, whether they are in actual printed books or magazines, can also be sources of lore for the franchise. They include stories, both long and short, that take place after the events of both movies as well as those within the timeline by being in between. In other words, there are comics about Agnarr’s childhood before Runeard’s death, Anna and Elsa’s childhood before and during their separation, and Kristoff’s childhood before and during the time he lived with the trolls.

But the fact is, except for some retellings of the movies, these comics are virtually nothing more than glorified fan fiction in illustration, and they occasionally contain contradictions and inconsistencies to the films. Additionally, the creators were not involved with the making of them, making their standing in canon extremely weak.

However, it has been brought to my attention by @super-mam-te-moc​ that there are some comics that make an exception as being canon. As @greatqueenanna​ mentioned in “Canon Fodder Part 1”, from 2018 onward, author Joe Caramagna had collaborated with Black Horse Comics, apparently under the supervision of Jennifer Lee, and wrote four Frozen related comics series: Breaking Boundaries, The Hero Within, Reunion Road, and True Treasure.

Since these series of comics have the collaboration element, they are an exception to others and can be considered canon.

Conceal, Don’t Feel is part of A Twisted Tale, an anthology series of books based around alternate “what-if” spins on familiar animated Disney films. It is a retelling of the main Frozen story, but in an alternate universe in which Elsa and Anna do not know each other.

Because this main plot concept obviously contradicts the plot of the original film, and also because the creators appeared to have virtually no involvement with it at all, it is safe to say that this book is entirely Non-Canon.

Introduction

A while ago, I had written a post discussing all of the content in the Frozen Franchise, decoding what should be considered canon to the overall story.

As a collaboration project with @hafanforever ​, the two of us decided that we would discuss the books of the Frozen franchise, and discuss what makes some canon and what does not. The reasoning behind this was due to overall confusion on what novels, comics, and guide books have reliable information about characters, motivations, and overall lore. We focused our attention on books because they are what specifically tend to have added information or significant prequel and post-movie content that adds both story and lore to the franchise.

In my post, I will be discussing which books have a strong case of being canon; if you have seen my canon post, this will basically fall under the hard canon and soft canon. Hafanforever has her own post that continues the discussion towards what is not considered canon (Loose canon and Non-canon). Please read it below to see the full collaboration effort, and see more detail on why certain books are not canon.

Also, a big thank you goes to @hafanforever​ for not only choosing to collaborate with me on this project, but also for coming up with the title for our posts.

Which Elements Help Make a Book Canon?

When discussing the canonical strength of a specific book, I look for two main components that determine where it falls on the canon spectrum -

Collaboration with Filmmakers - Did the author of said book have help from the main creative team to some extent? Working collaboratively with the main creative team guarantees that the interpretations of characters and situations will follow their true intentions.

Consistent Lore - Does the story presented in the book follow the established lore presented by the main creative team? When a book follows established lore to a tee, it gives the book more credit because it means that the author is doing their research.

Which Books Have These Elements?

Novelizations are typically made during a film’s development, with the specific intention to deliver the film in a novel format. However, I included them in soft canon simply because there are times when the novel is being written and is close to being done, but the film team decides to remove or shorten a scene and there is no time to change it. However, for the most part, they follow lore consistently and do not have any major changes. Thus, novelizations have the Creation Time Period element and Consistent Lore element.

These three guide books - Frozen: The Essential Guide, Frozen: Unlocking Arendelle, and Frozen 2: The Magical Guide - each has the Creation Time Period element and Consistent Lore element. Like novelizations, they might include old concept art or removed scenes, simply because there was no time to change it. Thus, that is why I have them as Soft Canon.

- Updated 2/3/21- Joe Caramagna, from 2018 onward, had collaborated with Black Horse Comics, under the supervision of Jennifer Lee, and wrote four Frozen related comics series - Breaking Boundaries, True Treasure, The Hero Within, and Reunion Road. Thus, this series of comics has the collaboration element and can be considered canon.

Finally, we have the two Frozen 2 Novels - Dangerous Secrets and Forest of Shadows. What makes these novels particularly special is that they add significant lore to the franchise and have an established shared universe with each other. Both novels mention -

Also, both novels include elements that the main creative team wanted to have for Anna in Frozen 2, but were forced to get rid of due to time constraints or narrative flow. This includes Forest of Shadows focusing on Anna’s self-worth and love of Arendelle and Dangerous Secrets including Agnarr and Iduna’s feelings for Anna (Her love could hold up the world.)

These novels are Hard Canon because they have Consistent Lore, the added bonus of Creation Time, and Collaboration, not only with the films but also with each other.

In these interviews listed below, both authors confirm that they had extensive help from the creative team and were assigned to their projects during the creative process of Frozen 2.

https://www.yayomg.com/frozen-2-forest-of-shadows/

https://www.laughingplace.com/w/articles/2020/11/03/frozen-2-dangerous-secrets-interview-with-mari-mancusi/

Also, Mari Mancusi has confirmed on her Tumblr the same information, as well as more information regarding the removed elements from Frozen 2 concerning Iduna and Agnarr. This includes the couple’s tree and scenes of Iduna in the Orphanage. 

*BONUS*

Art-books are essentially ‘The Making of’s’ in book format, and have notes from the creative team as well as official concepts and concept art.

In honor of the first anniversary of Frozen II, I wanted to write an analysis about Elsa and all three of her songs. I have previously discussed how “Show Yourself” is the true successor and counterpart to “Let It Go”, and that the two songs make up two halves of the one circle that is Elsa.

However, “Into the Unknown” is still vital to Elsa’s characterization because it acts as a middle bridge between the other two songs. With that in mind, you realize that each song plays a purpose for Elsa regarding her feelings about her magic and are stages of Elsa moving forward and accepting them: “Let It Go” is the beginning, “Into the Unknown” is the middle, and “Show Yourself” is the end. 

“Let It Go” - This song is about Elsa’s acknowledgement of her magic. Elsa acknowledges the fact that she has powers, and now that they have been revealed, there is no point in hiding them anymore. For the first time since childhood, Elsa is happy because she doesn’t have to repress or conceal her magic anymore. She is free to be who she really is, free to use and fully enjoy her powers. As she sings, Elsa realizes in order for her to be truly happy and to be herself, she has to have a degree of freedom; a freedom from the limitations and restrictions that were thrust upon her, which she obviously disliked.

This song shows the beginning to Elsa’s quest for freedom, but when the song ends, it isn’t TRULY over for her. While she does become happy and lets go of her fears upon reaching the mountain, these positive feels are only temporary. Elsa doesn’t find TRUE freedom, peace, or completion. Even though she is no longer hiding her powers, she is still afraid of them. She still feels burdened by her own self-loathing and insecurities. She is still haunted by the pain of the past.

Simultaneously, Elsa does not want to run away. She does not want to be entirely alone. She wants to be accepted for her magic. She wants to be loved…but Elsa believes that none of that would ever happen. So she felt the only solution was for her to run away and live in seclusion. But by choosing to run away to protect her kingdom, Elsa makes an irresponsible decision since she abandons it and her role as its queen, and she later learns that she can’t run from her problems forever.

“Into the Unknown” - This song is about Elsa questioning her magic. After three years of ruling Arendelle, Elsa has gained acceptance from Anna and their people. This acceptance has made Elsa feel more confident in herself and her powers that she is now totally open about them. She no longer tries to hide or repress them. She has reached whole new levels of comfort and confidence in her magic, which allows her to control it without having fear of harming people. 

Despite all this, Elsa is not content with her place, as she is stuck with many questions about who and what she really is. She wonders from where her powers come, why she is the only one in her family who has them, and if she is meant to use them for a different, if not greater, purpose in her life. A purpose other than ruling Arendelle, and using them to solve crises and entertain her people. Simultaneously, Elsa longs for the freedom she had in “Let it Go”. She does feel freer now than she did then because she no longer fears her powers, fears harming people with them, or fears what people will think of them. At the same time, however, Elsa still feels a degree of repression and confinement because she does not feel free to be who she really is due to her role as the queen.

This song shows the internal battle between what Elsa wants and what she needs to be for everyone else. It and her earlier scenes in the film show that Elsa considers her life situation to be all or nothing. She feels her only choices are to either abandon her leadership role and her family in order to be completely true to herself, or takes up her part as queen while simultaneously forcing herself to conceal everything about who she really is, since being her full self goes against what is expected of her as a ruler. In all, Elsa is afraid that if she was truly herself, she would only make another big mistake that could endanger her kingdom.

“Show Yourself” - This song is about Elsa’s complete acceptance of her magic. Before this, she has learned (with Anna’s realization) that she was born with ice magic as a reward for when her mother rescued her father during the battle between their peoples in the Enchanted Forest years earlier. But by the end of the song, Elsa has uncovered EVERYTHING she has ever wanted to know. She knows why she has these powers, and that they are a gift. She has found the voice that has been calling her, which is the memory of Iduna vocalizing for Gale to help with rescuing Agnarr. She has discovered that she is the fifth spirit, the one who will unite and serve as a bridge between the Arendellians and the Northuldra.

So at this point, Elsa finally has all of the answers. She understands herself, and who and what she truly is. Now that she knows her true purpose in life, and knows for sure that her powers are a gift and meant for good, Elsa can fully embrace herself, magic and all, at last. There is no more hiding, no more questions, no more holding back, and no more worries for her.

At the end of this song, Elsa is TRULY free, complete, and at peace. She is FINALLY happy…but this time, she’s not alone nor is she unloved.

And I couldn’t be more proud of my girl for finally conquering her inner demons and accepting herself, magic and all! 😁😁😁 I love you, Elsa! 😁😊❤️

In my first official analysis about Frozen II following the release of the film, I’d like to start by saying that, while I thought “Into the Unknown” was gonna be the song I would love the most, I have to say that my mind has been changed with my pick now going to “Show Yourself”. Now I did enjoy “Into the Unknown” and all the excerpts of it I heard from ads before the release of the film’s soundtrack. However, I am glad I did not listen to all the songs before watching the movie because I don’t think I would have understood the lyrics to “Show Yourself” and all the spoilers that came with it! My guess is that the promotional campaign focused so much on “Into the Unknown” in order to cover up all of the secrets that would be revealed during “Show Yourself”. And in just three days, I have listened to this song over and over again, and the more I do, the more I have come to realize that THIS is the song that is meant to be equivalent to “Let It Go” from the first Frozen! When I listen to it, it brings me to tears, especially when Elsa starts to sob in joy! 😭 And of course, I can think of just how these two songs relate and contrast to one another that I HAD to write it down for an analysis, so here I go! 😄

I see “Let it Go” and “Show Yourself” being counterparts that complement each other, the two halves of a whole circle about Elsa’s magic and her self-acceptance. “Let It Go” is the starting half of Elsa gaining her freedom and coming to terms with who she really is and her powers, and then “Show Yourself” is the closing half because it not only went further with Elsa fully accepting herself, powers and all, but also her self-discovery and self-realization. So what was started with “Let It Go” has ended with “Show Yourself”.

Going back to the first movie, in “Let It Go,” Elsa sings about how she is free for the first time in her life. She is free to be the person she truly is, the person she wants to be, and so she embraces her powers once again. Elsa becomes happy as she lets it all go (so to speak 😉). In the midst of her singing, she pulls her hair down from the bun she has worn for years (which represented her confinement of her powers and her isolation from people) into a braid, showing her rejection of her past and her return to the happy, carefree person she was as a child. Finally, Elsa creates her Snow Queen dress over her coronation dress (which covered her entire body, another representation of her repression of her powers) as her way of rejecting the past and making a whole new beginning in her life.

However, there is a downside with and after “Let It Go”. Despite what she sings, I don’t think Elsa is TRULY happy with her powers, leaving Arendelle, or about being all by herself. This is because she still has the feelings of anxiety, fear, and self-loathing she has had since childhood. There is no doubt in my mind that Elsa would still be wondering why she was born with magic in the first place, and I’m sure she thought about it the most after she harmed Anna and they were separated from each other. Not knowing why was also the cause of Elsa’s turmoil, so even though she was feeling genuine joy after leaving Arendelle, the negative feelings she had felt for years wouldn’t have just gone away overnight. For another reason, Elsa running away after her powers were discovered wasn’t the best solution to it. In real life, we are taught that running from problems don’t always, if ever, work because they can come back to haunt us unless and until we figure out the best way to resolve them. Elsa knows this, but since her magic makes so different from the rest of the world, it’s easy for her to imagine the worst about it, including how people would react to them. Therefore, she ran away because she didn’t know what else to do; she just didn’t see another way around it. Her line “I’m never going back” reflects that feeling of her only seeing running away as the best option. So while Elsa may have accepted herself, or rather, started to, while singing “Let It Go,” she still wanted to be accepted and not hated or feared by society, but felt that would never happen. Lastly, I don’t think Elsa was entirely joyous about being all by herself. Though she always pushed Anna away out of the fear that she would only harm her again, Elsa still loved Anna deeply and longed to reconnect with her. But again, her fear from the past was too hard for her to forget, which caused her turmoil and anxiety to remain as she continued to resist Anna’s efforts to mend their relationship.

Three years later, upon reaching Ahtohallan, Elsa sings “Show Yourself” and finally learns the whole truth about why she had been born with magic. As a child, Elsa’s mother Iduna was a member of the Northuldra, a tribe of people who resided in the Enchanted Forest, a place of magic and home to the four elemental spirits. During a conflict between Northuldrans and Arendellians in the forest, Iduna rescued Agnarr, who was the prince of Arendelle, before other people who were still in the forest became trapped in it by a mist.

For me, the best part of the song is the lyrics starting with “Where the north wind meets the sea” and ending with “All of my life” because it is during these lines that Elsa finally finds all of the answers to the questions she has had her whole life. She sees the memory of her mother saving her father, and then the memory of adult Iduna singing a lullaby. As these lyrics are sung, Elsa realizes and understands that her powers were a gift granted to her by nature because of Iduna’s heroic act. Upon realizing this, Elsa also discovers that she is the fifth spirit who unites differences. 

So at this point, Elsa finally has all of the answers. She has discovered the purpose of her existence, her true calling in the world, her destiny, and she wholeheartedly embraces it all while crying tears of joy. Like in the original film, she sang her main song about self-acceptance, but in this film, she goes further by singing not only about self-acceptance, but about self-discovery and self-realization. While she wasn’t 100% happy about herself during and after “Let It Go,” this is complemented in “Show Yourself” when she becomes overjoyed at learning the truth of her life’s purpose. Her joy is also because she sees her mother again through the memories, and Iduna is clearly very proud as she looks down at her daughter. And on the side, Elsa not only has Anna in her life again, but also a family with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven, so knowing that she has people she loves and who love her in her life adds to her joy.

Furthermore, like in “Let It Go”, during “Show Yourself,” Elsa undergoes a change in her hair and dress to reflect her new major changes. In the former song, she lets down her hair, although it’s in a braid, which is how she wore it as a child, symbolizing the first step she takes in becoming free and who she is as the Snow Queen. Then in “Show Yourself”, her hair is entirely down and loose, showing her final step in being free and learning just who and what she truly is as the fifth spirit.

So back to what I said at the beginning, I see “Let It Go” and “Show Yourself” as being the two halves of a circle that focus on Elsa’s freedom and self-acceptance; “Show Yourself” completes what began with “Let It Go”. In “Let It Go,” Elsa embraced her powers once again and started to become who she is, but she wasn’t entirely at peace with herself because of her desire to be accepted by people, to reconcile with Anna, and to know why she had powers. Then in “Show Yourself,” she realizes that she was given these powers by nature because of her mother’s selfless act and that she is meant to be the fifth spirit. And now that Elsa finally knows the truth, she wholeheartedly embraces her magic, realizes who she is, and is overjoyed.

Special thanks to @elsaspants whose recorded video of “Show Yourself” was the source of my gifs from the song! Thank you very much! 😄

In Frozen II, when she is 24 years old, Elsa hears the mysterious voice calling her for the first time one fall afternoon. At this time, she is celebrating the season with her family and kingdom. That same evening, Elsa hears the voice calling again when it is her turn to act out charades while playing it with her family. But during the middle of the night, she (and we the audience) hears the voice being more persistent than before when and after it wakes Elsa up, and she acknowledges it while singing “Into the Unknown”. Although Elsa quickly realizes that she is the only person in her kingdom who can hear this voice, when in the Enchanted Forest, it calls to her again after she meets Bruni, and she discovers that he can hear it, too. He shows Elsa that it’s coming from the north, so she decides she must keep going in that direction to find it. Later, after learning about the existence of a fifth spirit from Honeymaren, and upon discovering that her parents were going to Ahtohallan to learn more about her powers before they perished, Elsa concludes that this is who has been calling her from Ahtohallan. Upon coming to this magical river after taming the Nokk, Elsa starts singing “Show Yourself” and hears the voice calling out to her a couple more times. When she reaches the main chamber of Ahtohallan, Elsa steps into the centerpiece between the diamonds of the four elemental spirits, taking her place as the fifth spirit, and unlocks visual moments of the past. One of these moments is of Iduna as a girl, holding the unconscious Agnarr in her arms the day she rescued him while the battle took place between their respective peoples. Seeing her mother vocalizing during this moment makes Elsa realize that she has finally found the source of the voice. (And yes, the voice that Agnarr said he heard as a boy, as shown when he briefly open his eyes and falls back into unconsciousness, was that same voice of Iduna.)

So once Frozen II ends, I know that, since it doesn’t offer the direct answers, it has brought up the following questions by fans and especially first-time viewers:

Considering the fact that there were originally no plans for a sequel, specifically one which would focus on the origin of Elsa’s powers, the fact that the mysterious voice is finally calling out to Elsa when she is 24, and never did so much sooner, may initially seem like a major plot hole within the story. But despite that, I can offer a plausible explanation for it.

In the beginning of Frozen, Elsa is a joyful, playful young child who has a close bond with Anna, and they especially love to play together using the former’s magic. The fact that she is shown as very happy and playful might explain why Elsa appears to have no problem controlling her powers. But after accidentally injuring Anna to the point of nearly killing her with her powers, Elsa becomes so traumatized that she believes they are monstrous, and that they make her a danger to her entire family and her kingdom. Agnarr and Iduna decide the best thing to do is to cut themselves off from the outside world while they help Elsa learn to control her abilities. While the couple do their best to help their daughter, nothing successfully works for too long, if even at all. During this time, Elsa isolates herself from Anna and refuses to play with her anymore, under the presumption that staying away is the best, and pretty much only, choice she has to protect her sister from her powers. Although she maintains contact with Iduna and Agnarr for guidance, when she is 12, Elsa withdraws from her parents by totally banning them from making any kind of physical contact with her.

Over a period of 13 years, Elsa grows up struggling to control her magic with little to no success, as she is too burdened by her own fear, insecurity, guilt, depression, misery, and anxiety; all of which are the very emotions that only hinder her ability to keep her powers in check. Throughout these years, being fearful, isolating herself, and seeing her powers only as destructive is why Elsa never considers seeing them as a gift and what possible good purpose(s) they could offer. By the end of the movie, Anna’s sacrifice finally helps Elsa realize that love is the key to allowing her to be in complete control of her magic. Of course, even with this discovery, it does not mean that Elsa would instantly become 100% confident about herself and her magic. After spending more than a decade of living in fear and isolation, putting everyone else’s safety and other needs before her own, and thinking that her powers were nothing but dangerous, it is only natural that it would take a lot of time for Elsa to feel much more positive and at peace with them. Not to mention by then, while she would no longer fear her powers (at least not in terms of being terrified that she would lose control of them at any moment), Elsa would continue to wonder why she has them in the first place, so she still wouldn’t completely understand them.

Elsa has been and was always meant to be the fifth spirit ever since her birth. But it was due to those years of isolation and fear of her powers that prevented her from learning of her true identity much sooner. If she had not grown up the way she had, then yes, I believe that she would have been able to acknowledge and embrace her destiny far earlier in her life. Probably not while she was still a child, but most likely when she had reached young adulthood.

Moving on to Frozen II, its main events take place three years after the original film. As said by @yumeka36​ in this analysis, when this new story begins, it is a time where Elsa has reconnected with Anna and gained acceptance from her sister and the people of Arendelle, which has allowed her to reach a level of comfort and stability with herself and her magic, enough that she could start thinking about grander things. These things would include wanting to learn the origin of her powers and wondering if there is some greater purpose for which she was meant to use them, although Elsa likely simultaneously believed that she would never be able to find the answers to these questions. Also by this point in her life, Elsa’s powers have grown immensely that she can do things she hadn’t only a few years before, which includes Olaf being made of permanent frost that keeps him melting completely. 😉

While Elsa has not become 100% happy with who she is and her current place in the world even after three years, she has come so far (if you’ll please excuse the pun, but I think it makes for appropriate foreshadowing! 😆) by becoming more confident in herself and her magic, which has grown even stronger (most likely because of her improved confidence and happier emotions). So with having reached these levels of stability and strength, perhaps the magical side of Elsa has begun to take over, allowing her to hear the voice finally calling out to her. And it calls out to her as a way of telling her that she is now ready to take the next big step in discovering who she really is and from where her powers come.

When she realizes that she is the only person who can hear the voice, Elsa initially feels curious, then distressed. Right before and during her number, Elsa tries to ignore the voice’s persistent, continuous calls, but her curiosity ultimately gets the best of her, as she believes it has something important to tell her about her powers. Even though by now she is happy with her family in Arendelle, Elsa is not content with her role as queen because she still desires answers about her magic and wonders if her purpose is really meant to be ruling Arendelle. As @yumeka36​ also said, when Elsa finally decides to follow the voice, the spirits sensed that desire and awoke, then proceeded to evacuate Arendelle, in anticipation that she would discover the truth and choose to do the right thing.

Moving on to the origins of the voice, during “Show Yourself”, when we see the memory of Iduna calling out while she holds Agnarr, a gust of wind, which is obviously Gale, can be seen, albeit very briefly, before the camera shifts back to Elsa. Some fans and viewers probably think that Iduna is either vocalizing to Gale or to something else that isn’t actually there, like the fifth spirit. But I say that, during this flashback, Iduna is indeed calling Gale.

How do I come to this conclusion? Because Gale’s name actually has a few different meanings that presumably reference her role in the film’s story. As a noun, a “gale” is defined as a very strong wind (making her name appropriate as the Wind Spirit) that is more than a breeze and less than a storm, but also as a song. With the latter definition, and as a verb form, “to gale” means “to sing” or “to call”.

Make sense?

I also believe without a doubt that Iduna’s vocalization is, in fact, a special call she had for Gale, which suggests just how strong of a friendship the two had before Iduna was cut out of the forest. Although Gale, along with the other spirits, was shown to be acting out against both groups of people as the battle took place, as shown by the figures in Ahtohallan, she still helped Iduna get Agnarr (and Iduna herself) to safety before the mist covered the forest.

Why? Perhaps it was because Gale had such a strong bond with Iduna that she couldn’t refuse helping her friend. Perhaps it was because she could see that Iduna was so selfless and pure of heart to be rescuing her own enemy that she wanted to help her. Or perhaps it was because Iduna was just an innocent bystander in the battle (like Agnarr himself) who was doing absolutely nothing wrong, so Gale took enough time to help her friend do what was right and got both of them out of the forest before she and the other spirits unleashed the mist.

As for the reason as to why the memory of Iduna vocalizing is the source of the voice calling out to Elsa, here’s what I think about it. Despite being a Northuldran, the enemy to Arendelle, Iduna took the first step in doing what was right by rescuing the Arendellian prince during the battle, and she called out to Gale to help her get Agnarr to safety. Sometime after Agnarr returned home and Iduna also took up residence in Arendelle, the two subsequently became friends and grew up together, ultimately leading to them falling in love, marrying, and giving birth to Elsa, then Anna.

Elsa, the couple’s first-born child, was given magical powers of ice and snow by the other forest spirits as a reward of Iduna’s heroic act. She is, in essence, a chosen one destined to do the next right thing 😉 and finish what her mother started by righting ALL of the past wrongs that were caused by Runeard.

So because Elsa is the gift of Iduna’s good deed, the fifth spirit who was chosen to rectify the evil deeds committed by her grandfather, it is why the voice calling to her is that of her mother when she did the first right thing by saving Agnarr.

So I think what happens at the end of this particular scene in Frozen II has caused some controversy about Elsa’s actions. I’ve seen fans here on Tumblr displaying anger towards her because they believe that she was only hugging Anna, and then had Olaf join them, in an act of trickery to lure them closer to her so she would make sure that her ice boat creation would surround and hold them before she sent them away.

However, while I agree that Elsa’s move was a bit sneaky and deceptive, I understand why she did it and why she felt it was her only choice, even though she knew Anna would consequently be furious with her over it. And now that I think about it, I look at Elsa’s hug from another perspective and believe that it wasn’t merely a trick to lure Anna and Olaf into her boat trap, but her own way (though a rather forceful and indirect one) of saying goodbye to them.

Before this happens, Elsa has decided to venture to Ahtohallan alone, without Anna, saying that crossing the Dark Sea to reach Ahtohallan would be too dangerous of a trek for both of them to make. Yet Anna adamantly insists on coming to prevent anything from happening to Elsa, which she had earlier promised to Pabbie.

The thing here is, Elsa turns out to be completely right about the Dark Sea. When she tries to cross it, she gets knocked down twice by the waves, struggles to swim in the deep, choppy waters, and has to use her powers to try to overcome the obstacles to get further out and closer to Ahtohallan. Things get more complicated for Elsa when the Nokk appears; several times, it aggressively attacks her and attempts to drown her, forcing her to fight back with all of her might until she finally makes it settle down.

This whole scene reminds me of the earlier scene when Elsa decides to go to the forest and tries to discourage Anna from coming, saying that she (Elsa) has her powers to protect her, while Anna does not. But Anna stubbornly refuses to take no for an answer, given what dangerous feats she overcame on their previous adventure without the use of magical powers.

The entire scene of Elsa against the Dark Sea proves her point about her powers’ use in protecting her perfectly. She would not have been able to take care of herself by working to get past the big waves and fighting the Nokk if she had to do it with Anna, too. Maybe this sounds a little biased, and I don’t mean for it to sound that way, but it’s true that only Elsa could successfully face off against the Nokk since they are both magical beings (and as it turns out, Elsa is an elemental spirit just like it). Okay, yes, we’ve seen how Anna can do a damn great job of taking care of herself in tough situations, and I give her credit for it. I am not at all dismissing her as a weak, inept, incompetent, helpless damsel in distress, because I KNOW she isn’t. She’s tough, plucky, spunky, brave, and fearless. But Anna DOES have her limitations, and I think she sometimes overlooks or underestimates that about herself. Successfully crossing the Dark Sea and taking on the Nokk is NOT something she would have been able to do at all.

Getting back to Elsa’s reasoning that she had to go to Ahtohallan by herself, like I said, the scene of her doing so proves that she was right. Now she probably didn’t anticipate on encountering the Nokk, but I bet Elsa did think that there might be risks about which she didn’t know yet while crossing the Dark Sea, which is another reason why she refused to let Anna come along. 

Another thing here that catches my attention is how Anna doesn’t seem to heed Elsa’s words about the sea being too dangerous if they both tried to go, since she immediately responds to Elsa’s statement with, “No, no. We do this together. Remember the song? ‘Go too far and you’ll be drowned’.” It is crystal clear from these words, and from her earlier scenes where she never wanted to leave her sister’s side, that Anna had a desperate desire to protect Elsa during this journey.

When she adds, “Who will stop you from going too far?”, it sounds like Anna isn’t thoroughly considering that the chances of Elsa dying was much greater, and for herself as well, if they tried to pass the Dark Sea together. Anna wanted to ensure that Elsa didn’t head too far into Ahtohallan’s depths and dying, but they wouldn’t have even made it to Ahtohallan without crossing the sea first. They both could have perished before getting there, and then their mission would remain incomplete. Then again, perhaps Anna did realize the possibility of them both not being able to make it across the sea, but she just didn’t want to accept or even think about it because she was far more afraid of losing her sister if Elsa went all alone.

Obviously, the fact that the two discovered moments earlier that their parents had died trying to reach Ahtohallan in search of answers to her powers is what made Elsa decide that Anna could not go with her. She guiltily felt responsible for Agnarr and Iduna’s deaths, and she didn’t want to carry extra weight on her shoulders by feeling responsible for Anna’s safety and taking the chance of her dying if they went together. Since Anna is the only blood family Elsa has left, she refused to risk losing her, too.

I mean, remember: Elsa briefly lost Anna once before, and at her own hands, so she was determined not to let it happen again. Any chance of losing Anna again on this journey would no doubt be permanent, and Elsa would never forgive herself if that happened. 😔

Like the earlier scene, Anna stubbornly refuses to take no for an answer to Elsa’s decision to go to Ahtohallan alone. While she understands Anna’s fear of the chance that she (Elsa) may die on her trek, Elsa knows that she may have to take that risk just to do what is right for Arendelle and the forest. But successfully crossing the sea is something that is far beyond Anna’s control.

So having made up her mind that crossing the sea would be more dangerous if they both go, Elsa puts her foot down (by LITERALLY doing so when she creates the ice path 😆) with utmost and firm determination that Anna cannot continue the journey by coming to Ahtohallan with her. 

When Anna says that she wants to come because she can’t bear to lose Elsa, Elsa says she can’t lose Anna, either, and pulls her sister in for a hug. Like I said above, I see her hugging Anna, and Olaf, not just as a ruse to ensure that she could send them off to be safe, but to say goodbye. If Elsa thinks that she may die and thus never see them again, then she wanted to embrace them now since it may be for the last time. Despite Anna’s insistence and voicing her fear of losing Elsa, Elsa feels that her fear of losing Anna is even greater since Anna would be in much greater danger with trying to cross the sea. So she resorts to forcing her sister not to accompany her by making the ice boat and sending Anna and Olaf away to make sure that they wouldn’t and couldn’t follow her. Elsa also creates the ice path on which for the boat to slide to ensure that the two would be sent too far away for them to easily follow and catch up with her.

Additionally, I have been wondering if Elsa’s desire to journey to Ahtohallan on her own wasn’t just for the safety measures of her sister, but also because of her introverted nature, because of her independence and desire to do certain things alone (which she clearly demonstrated when she made up her mind to travel to the Enchanted Forest). Additionally, the fact that Elsa is another elemental spirit of the forest, the fifth spirit, means that she had to go to Ahtohallan by herself, as part of her destiny to learn her true identity. She had to be independent, as she likes to be, and discover the whole truth for herself, on her own.

While Elsa is the introvert between the two sisters, Anna is the extrovert, and with this kind of nature, I don’t think she truly understands the ways of introverts. It is with this scene, and even in Frozen, when she insists to Kristoff that “nobody wants to be alone, except maybe you” as a response to him saying “Most people who disappear into the mountains want to be alone” that shows that she doesn’t entirely comprehend their ways. Maybe after three years, Anna understands Elsa and Kristoff’s introverted behaviors a little more. But when considering the big picture, I think she still believes no one ever really wants to be alone, or even do things alone, just because she doesn’t want to. After all, Anna spent nearly all of those 13 years alone and isolated from the outside world, and she wants to make sure she never goes back to that life. And yet despite her tragic childhood and adolescence, Anna grew up to be kind, sweet, loving, and good-hearted, and never hesitates to help others and do what was right. However, it also seems to have made her a bit delusional and unrealistic by thinking everyone else wants to be around people like she does, or that they always need help for every situation. Anna doesn’t appear to fully understand that some people like to be independent and have to do things on their own, nor does she seem willing to accept the fact that she can’t help everyone with everything, especially Elsa. She has to learn that she can’t be by Elsa’s side all the time just to stop every bad thing that might happen. She has to learn to accept and respect the fact that Elsa feels comfortable taking on some challenges all by herself and doesn’t always need help. In the first movie, Anna’s ignorance of Elsa’s secret is part of why she didn’t understand why her sister was so distant and closed in. But even after discovering it, she still disbelieved that Elsa wanted to be alone and that it was a major reason why she ran away. And while she was right in the long run, Anna sometimes seemed to go too far with her optimism since she didn’t really listen to Elsa’s concerns that she couldn’t remove the winter curse. Likewise, when she first met Kristoff, Anna didn’t understand his grumpy, rude, unfriendly behavior towards her and Oaken, or his contemptuous attitude towards people and society.

So now in this scene, Anna seems to be unable, or perhaps just far too stubborn, to comprehend the fact that Elsa MUST do this on her own as part of her destiny, and that her powers could help her through this, while the same could not be said for her (Anna). Again, the tasks of making it across the Dark Sea and simultaneously taming the Nokk are beyond Anna’s control. It would have been far more treacherous than climbing the North Mountain, surviving a frozen heart, and saving Elsa from her ex-boyfriend without powers to aid her. 😉

Moving on, when Anna and Olaf are finally out of sight, the last shot of Elsa in the scene shows her holding herself and looking unhappy at what she did. As I said in “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”, Elsa does feel guilty and unhappy over sending Anna away the way she did, knowing full well that having done so has made her sister angry at her. But right now, Elsa is far more concerned about Anna’s safety than her happiness, and she would rather send her away to be safe than let her come along for the rest of the journey just so Anna can be happy that they are still together.

So again, Anna could not come with Elsa to Ahtohallan because the perils of the Dark Sea could have killed them both. If it didn’t kill both of them, Anna would have been the more susceptible victim because she possesses no magical powers to help her, especially in dealing with the Nokk. With even one of them dead, Elsa and Anna’s mission would never be finished; as I explained in “Girls in the Mist”, they HAD to do it together.

Elsa’s decision to split her and Anna up in this scene means that for now, she has broken her promise that she and Anna would do their mission together. But when Elsa temporarily freezes to death upon going into the most dangerous part of Ahtohallan, Anna manages to lift the mist and free the forest by provoking the Giants into destroying the dam.

Because she was alive and safe like her sister wanted her to be, Anna was able to successfully finish the work Elsa started. So even though they weren’t physically together the whole time, they STILL did it together, meaning that in the end, Elsa kept her promise to Anna. 😁😄😊

So it’s been several weeks since I posted a Frozen/Frozen II analysis, and even longer since I wrote one about Elsa/Elsa and Anna. Did you guys miss me? 😉

Anyway, there is one topic from the second film that has been on my mind since it came out, and as of late, I have been thinking about it more and more that I decided to write an analysis to try and make things as clear as possible once and for all.

In the film, when Honeymaren first mentions the existence of the fifth spirit, she tells Elsa that this spirit serves as a bridge between the magic of nature (which consists of the Northuldra and the four elemental spirits in the Enchanted Forest) and humanity (which consists of the non-magical people of Arendelle). Honeymaren’s description makes it clear that the fifth spirit and the bridge are one and the same.

Elsa goes to Ahtohallan to find the source of the voice that has been calling her, believing it belongs to this fifth spirit. Instead, Elsa discovers that the fifth spirit is her, which apparently means that her purpose is being the bridge between the Northuldra and Arendelle. 

Upon reuniting with Anna following the end of the curse on the forest, Anna voices her realization of her sister’s identity:

But then Elsa responds with the following words:

By saying that a bridge has two sides and that their mother had two daughters, Elsa implies that she and Anna, meaning the two of them TOGETHER, are the bridge, that each one of them represents each side.

This would mean that BOTH girls are the fifth spirit, not just Elsa herself…and this has been confirmed to be true by Jennifer Lee.

For a while, I was very confused by these words and tried to make sense of them. Now I understood the concept that both girls represent each half of the whole bridge, but I felt that only ONE of the sisters could actually be the TRUE fifth spirit. Of course, that would be Elsa since she has magic like the other four spirits of the forest. And earlier, when in Ahtohallan, Elsa steps onto the centerpiece located between the diamonds of the four elemental spirits. As she as she does, it lights up, and its official symbol appears, flanking each of the diamonds. This is the moment that makes the audience, and Elsa herself, aware that SHE is the fifth spirit.

So wIth all of this in mind, it would seem that the fifth spirit was actually not the official name for the ENTIRE bridge, but just for the half that represented magic.

But recently, I have been thinking more and more about it, and as I do, I understand how Jen Lee saying that the two girls do act as the fifth spirit, and thus, the bridge.

Before going to Ahtohallan, Elsa is realized by Anna to have been born with magic as a gift of Iduna’s heroic act of rescuing Agnarr during the battle between their respective peoples. By the end of the movie, we can comprehend that while Anna was born without magic, both girls were born as a reward to Iduna’s good deed. They were both appointed as the fifth spirit with the purpose to serve as the bridge between magic and humanity.

Elsa and Anna were born because they were meant to work TOGETHER to right the wrongs caused by Runeard and bring a true, peaceful unity between the Northuldra and Arendelle. Yes, Elsa may be the only sister with powers, but she would not have been able do EVERYTHING entirely on her own. Anna HAD to come to the forest to help her sister, even though they were unable to remain side by side throughout the entire journey.

Like I explained in “Girls in the Mist”, when the group first came upon the mist, it ONLY parted when the girls held hands and Elsa touched it. (This moment was the earliest hint that both sisters were necessary to undo the curse on the forest.) While in the forest, Elsa managed to tame three of the spirits and discovered the cause of the curse in Ahtohallan. After Elsa temporarily froze, Anna finished her sister’s work by provoking the giants into destroying the dam, which lifted the mist. This act also caused Elsa to thaw out, and she raced back to Arendelle to prevent the tidal wave released by the broken dam from destroying the kingdom.

So even though they weren’t physically together the whole time, Elsa and Anna accomplished their mission together, and this proves that they play the role as the fifth spirit TOGETHER. The two of them make up the bridge, with each one of them acting as each individual side of the bridge. Elsa represents the magical side as the OFFICIAL fifth spirit and the protector of the forest, while Anna represents the side of humanity, the non-magical side, as the queen of Arendelle.

As the two halves of the whole bridge, Anna and Elsa have fulfilled their purpose in uniting Arendelle and the Northuldra, bringing true peace between both lands and people. And now with Anna assuming her role as Arendelle’s queen and Elsa assuming her role as the guardian of the forest, the two sisters will continue to keep the peace and unity together. 😉😊

When Elsa is looking at memories in Ahtohallan, one she comes across is of her parents when they were teenagers. As Agnarr reads under a tree, Iduna hangs down from it, and he tells her he is reading a book by “some new Danish author”.

If you look closely in the photo below from said scene, you can see the cover features the silhouette of Ariel’s pose from the teaser poster of The Little Mermaid. That being said, it means that Agnarr was reading “The Little Mermaid”, which was written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, who also wrote “The Snow Queen”, the story upon which Frozen is loosely based.

Although the original story by Andersen was published in 1837 and Agnarr and Iduna presumably died in 1840 (according to the map they took with them on their trip to Ahtohallan), I think we don’t have to be so by the book (if you’ll excuse the pun 😆) and follow real-life protocol. Dangerous Secrets confirms that Agnarr was indeed reading “The Little Mermaid” during this memory, so I say we just accept that in this fictional universe, it was published a lot earlier in the 19th century.

However, what is most interesting with Disney putting this Easter egg in Frozen II is that both films are alike by featuring a prince being rescued by a girl who sings while he is unconscious, and then those princes later fall in love with and marry their rescuers. Furthermore, both girls have heritages that are initially unbeknownst to their love interests, with Agnarr not knowing Iduna is a Northuldran, and Eric not knowing that Ariel is a mermaid. However, while Eric discovers that Ariel is a mermaid and marries her soon afterwards (since she is transformed into a human), Iduna keeps her heritage a secret from Agnarr for many years as they grow up together, and even after they marry, though she finally tells him before they set out to find Ahtohallan.

Since Frozen II came out, I have been eager to do an analysis to compare and contrast Elsa’s three dress transformations, and here it is at last. You can read more about some potential meanings of the colors of Elsa’s main dresses in both feature films here, and read about her and Anna’s main clothes from the original film in my analysis “Colors of the Clothes”.

Different Dresses

In Frozen, Elsa makes her first dress transformation near the end of her song “Let It Go”. She turns her coronation gown into an ice-made, crystal blue, off-the-shoulder dress with a right knee-high slit, a bodice covered in blue ice crystals, and long, translucent, powder blue sleeves. Attached to the back of her bodice is a long, transparent, pale blue cape decorated with large snowflakes. Elsa’s transformation also causes her tights to disappear, leaving her legs bare, and changes her dark brown flats to ice blue kitten heels.

In Frozen Fever, when Elsa transforms her ice dress into her party dress, its general design remains the same, being off-the-shoulder with a bodice, a right knee-high slit, and an attached transparent cape. But because Elsa uses her magic to freeze pink flowers on different parts of her outfit, the chlorophyll from the stems turns her kitten heels and dress emerald green, the latter of which has light green translucent short sleeves and a bodice covered in teal ice crystals patterned to resemble leaves. The pink flowers decorate Elsa’s sleeves, bodice top, and her now-emerald green cape, which also contains flower and leaf designs.

In Frozen II, Elsa undergoes her final dress transformation towards the end of her song “Show Yourself”. Her pale blue dress becomes a white off-the-shoulder dress with a right knee-high slit and white long sleeves, which have the symbol of the four elements at each shoulder. The color of her leggings change from pale blue to light grayish-blue. Running along Elsa’s chest and down to her waist are different-colored, diamond-shaped ice crystals that represent the four natural elements of fire, water, air, and earth. Her transparent cape fades to blue at the bottom and is split in two parts, as if to showcase her status as the fifth spirit. During her transformation, Elsa also goes from being barefoot to wearing white, open-toe ballet flats.

From Covering up to Coming out of the Blue

When the film introduces her as a child, Elsa is happy, playful, and carefree, and the bright blue nightgown she wears symbolizes these positive emotions. But following her separation from Anna over the next ten years, Elsa’s clothes become darker and duller in color (primarily blue with purple thrown in), and cover the entirety of her body. The dark colors/shades of her outfits and her body being completely covered highlight Elsa’s confinement and isolation from Anna (and the entire outside world), the suppression and concealment of her powers from outsiders (which is also emphasized by the gloves she always wears), and her own emotions of depression, anxiety, fear, and other negative ones that result from her feeling burdened by her struggles to control her magic.

On the day of her coronation, Elsa’s clothing conceals her entire body, from her cape color covering almost her whole neck all the way down to her feet being covered by tights and shoes. Like the clothes we briefly see her wear during “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”, Elsa’s coronation outfit hiding the entirety of her body represents her concealing her powers from her people. Besides her powers, Elsa is also concealing her real self on this day. As an introvert, she does not like being in the spotlight and sometimes feels shy around people. She is worried, nervous, anxious, and terrified about being the center of attention and can only think about the worst that could happen. When she talks to Anna and tricks her into dancing with the Duke, Elsa shows how warm, playful, and mischievous she can be. But she does it briefly and with restriction, then she becomes closed in again to avoid taking a risk on having her powers be exposed.

However, when she runs away to the North Mountain and sings “Let It Go”, Elsa reveals a liberated side to her personality. Without being hindered by stress, responsibilities, or the fear of hurting others, Elsa gains much more confidence in her abilities and accepts them as a part of her once again. Since her secret has finally become an open book to Arendelle, Elsa shows no worries or cares about what people will think of her. She also finally rejects her father’s rules about concealing them so she can be free to be who she really is. She creates a brand new dress over her coronation one as a symbolic way of rejecting her past and fate as the queen of Arendelle. Elsa gives her dress and it’s attached cape a bright blue color, one that is almost identical to her childhood nightgown. Elsa’s desire to be free of her past restrictions and no longer repress her powers or anything else about herself is also shown when she makes her tights disappear and has her legs be completely bare.

In contrast to her coronation dress and casual outfits from her childhood and adolescence, Elsa’s ice dress is sparkly, lighter and brighter in shade and color, and looser and more comfortable in fitting. While blue is sometimes believed to be the color that best associates with depression and sadness (as in saying that a person feels “sad and ‘blue’”), I think these meanings best fit the dark blue colors of Elsa’s clothes that she wears during her 13 years of isolation. Blue can also be linked to peace, quiet, reservation, and confidence. The paler the blue color, the more freedom one feels. All of these traits are displayed in Elsa during the song, so it is perfectly reflected by her ice dress being a crystal shade of blue. In nature, crystal blue is often associated with water, particularly ice and occasionally snow. Since Elsa has ice/snow magic, this shade of blue has another reason to be an appropriate color for her dress.

The Big Blue/Green

Now in terms of Elsa’s dress in Frozen Fever, its green color is meant to represent spring, a season of renewal, rebirth, and growth. It is also the time of year when the weather is warm, allowing flowers to bloom. On Anna’s 19th birthday, nearly one year after the main events of Frozen, Elsa works to make up for lost time with Anna by giving the latter a big surprise party. That and the two of them spending the day together is how Elsa celebrates their new beginning as sisters and friends. So she makes herself a brand new dress of a whole new color in order to be properly clothed for such an event. Furthermore, since flowers bloom in springtime, the addition of Elsa freezing the flowers on her dress (as I explained in “Dressed to Party”) make for a perfect decoration choice.

Besides the fact that Elsa makes her ice and spring dresses herself, as described above, and largely because Elsa creates the spring dress over the ice one, they are also similar in their basic designs, especially with crystalized bodices and attached transparent capes. Simultaneously, they also have some notable differences (other than their colors), such as the ice dress’s cape being decorated with snowflakes, while the spring dress’s cape is decorated with the pink flowers. But one other difference that stands out to me is the sleeve length of each dress, with the sleeves of the spring dress being shorter than those of the ice dress. The more I thought about it, the more I believe that their lengths are meant to represent how Elsa feels about herself and her powers. Elsa created her ice dress at a time when she was feeling much more happy, confident, and free…but she wasn’t feeling ENTIRELY happy, confident, and free. At that time, she was finally just BEGINNING to accept herself and her magic. Due to the haunting memory of harming Anna in their childhood, Elsa still saw herself as a freak of nature. She was still burdened by inner turmoil, poor self-esteem, self-loathing, and other insecurities regarding her magic. She wanted to be loved and accepted, not feared or hated. And of course, Elsa wanted more than anything to reconnect with Anna. But she still thought that her powers would never allow society to accept her. She still thought that they only made a danger to the world. And so Elsa was convinced that it was best if she lived in total isolation to protect her kingdom and Anna.

With all this in mind, I think that the long sleeves of Elsa’s ice dress represent how Elsa felt that she still had to run away, hide, and live alone, away from people. It wasn’t what she really wanted to do, but thought that it was the best decision overall. Although she yearned for acceptance and to mend her relationship with Anna, Elsa believed that none of that was ever going to happen. However, after she removes the eternal winter on Arendelle and returns as the kingdom’s reigning monarch, Elsa and Anna show their people that there are good things that the former can do with her magic. Due to her sister’s love and encouragement, and the acceptance she has started gained from the Arendellians, Elsa finally starts to become more confident about herself. Therefore, her original playful, fun-loving, carefree personality, long dormant since her childhood, makes a return.

By the time of Frozen Fever, things are going much better for Elsa. She and Anna have rekindled their bond, and their friends, family, and people have come to respect, trust, and love their queen, magic and all. The love and acceptance she has received over the last year has no doubt helped Elsa to start becoming more confident, relaxed, and comfortable with herself and her magic. As a result, her original personality has not only remained but strengthened, allowing her to gain much more control over her powers than she ever had in her life. However, despite the newfound happiness and confidence she had started to gain by the end of Frozen, I didn’t think it meant that Elsa would be able to instantly move forward into the future with all new confidence and never look back at her past with shame and guilt. On the contrary, as shown in Frozen Fever, she continues to feel guilt over the past. She aims to make up for it by going to great lengths to give Anna a memorable birthday, wanting her sister to be content at all times. In doing so, Elsa shows her perfectionist ways by wanting even the slightest detail to be perfect, and frets if even the smallest thing isn’t matching her ideal vision of perfection.

So I think the sleeves of Elsa’s party dress being shorter than those of her ice dress represent her powers no longer being a secret from the world, and that her people have accepted them. Having her secret no longer BE a secret, and having been finally accepted by society, has made Elsa feel more genuinely happy and free than ever before. Yes, she still has feelings of guilt over the past, and she shows guilt in the present time when she apologizes to Anna, thinking that her illness has ruined the latter’s birthday. But it’s only expected that she would have some of those old feelings after just one year of extraordinary changes and progress. With Anna remaining by her side, the optimism and encouragement Elsa would get from her sister would help her continue to grow into her confidence about herself and her abilities.

Blue Woman, White Dress

Frozen II follows in the footsteps of the original Frozen by having moments that mirror scenes from its predecessor, and one of them is that both films feature Elsa singing a song during which her clothes undergo a magical transformation and she gets a brand new dress. But I want to point out that Elsa’s dress transformations in Frozen and Frozen II are distinctly different in one key way: Elsa HERSELF transforms her dress in the first film, but she does not do it in the second film. As I said in “Free Spirit”, Elsa transforms her ice dress with her own magic. It is based on her own conscious effort AND her own conscious choices of running away, exiling herself, and living in complete isolation.

While Elsa does show joy and an ability to let go of her fears, as I said above, these feelings are only temporary. Based on the events that unfold later, she does not continue feeling the positive emotions she displays in “Let It Go”. The fact remains that Elsa is still haunted by the pain of the past. She still obviously wants to know why she is so different from everyone else by having these powers. When she decides to live in her ice palace on the mountain, Elsa is still hiding and living in fear. She thinks the world will only ever see her as a monster. Because she is still burdened by her insecurities and feels that running away is her ONLY solution, Elsa does not find TRUE or COMPLETE happiness, freedom, confidence, or peace. 

In Frozen II, during “Show Yourself”, the transformation of Elsa’s dress happens by the magic of Ahtohallan rather than by the magic of her own hands. It is done without any conscious effort on her part. Similar to what she did during “Let It Go”, Elsa makes a choice about her future, but what differs this time is that it is one she HONESTLY believes for herself. She’s finally ready to face her future without being hindered by the past. Her transformation happens so effortlessly because it reflects the elation and joy she is feeling inside from having just come upon all of the answers she has been seeking. Elsa finally learns that the spirits of nature bestowed her with her powers to reward Iduna for rescuing Agnarr the day the battle between the Northuldra and Arendeliians took place. She is a gift of her mother’s heroic deed and a chosen one who is meant to undo the wrongs of the past. Elsa has discovered the purpose of her existence and destiny as the fifth spirit, all of which she has embraced.

So unlike when she underwent the transformation of her dress in the first movie, Elsa now has permanent feelings of joy and elation. Because she has finally found all the answers for which she has yearned all her life, she no longer has to hide, run away, or repress herself. Because she finally knows her true place in the world, she no longer feels any stress, restrictions, or worries about herself and what people will think of her. Knowing now what her true calling is and why she is magical, Elsa has at last gained complete, permanent confidence in herself and her powers. NOW she is truly and completely happy, free, confident, and at peace.

As I said in this analysis, the colors of Elsa’s main dresses in both feature films, from crystal blue to pale blue to pure white, are meant to be like how ice turns from blue to white or colorless as it goes from being under compression and pressure to having so much less pressure. While I described above the positive definitions of blue and how they fit Elsa when she creates her ice dress, her reaction upon learning what she has done to Arendelle reinforce how her dress’s color can be like blue ice, and thus have negative associations. When she journeys to the forest in the second film, Elsa’s blue dress is a paler and far lighter shade, reflecting how she has become less stressed, pressured, and more confident since her people have accepted her magic. Yet she is still wearing blue because she stills feels discontent with her role as the queen and wonders why she is magical. But when Elsa undergoes her transformation into her fifth spirit dress, it is colored pure white. White is known for being a color with psychological meanings of wholeness and completion, along with the new and beginning. The fact that Elsa has found out everything she has wanted to know about herself makes her feel whole and complete, especially now that she has been given a whole new beginning with her true purpose as the fifth spirit. Therefore, the color of her dress being white is entirely appropriate.

Conclusion

Elsa goes on quite a journey throughout the Frozen franchise, and her three dress transformations show that perfectly. In Frozen, after she accidentally harms Anna, Elsa starts out as a guilt-ridden person living by confinements and restrictions while simultaneously being unable to accept her special gift. But it is thanks to Anna’s love and optimism that she slowly starts to gain confidence and freedom over her three-year reign as queen. By the end of Frozen II, Elsa has found out everything she ever wanted to know and started assuming her true identity, so she feels better about herself than she ever has before.

I said in my analysis “Two Songs, One Woman” that “Let It Go” and “Show Yourself” act as the two halves of one whole circle, with the circle being Elsa’s relations with her magic and her journey of earning her freedom and accepting herself. What began with “Let It Go” has ended with “Show Yourself”, culminating with Elsa discovering everything she has wanted to know and realizing who and what she really is.

Elsa’s story is now complete, and I couldn’t be happier to see my favorite Frozen character grow and change as she learned to accept herself and her special gift. 😁😄😊❤️

To close this analysis, I want to give a shoutout to one of my fellow Frozen fans and Tumblr buddies @foreverfrozensolid for coming up with the title! 😁😁😁