User blog:Emeraldblade95/Pure Good Proposal: Queen Elsa



Just in time for the holidays, I'm nominating a character that is becoming a modern symbol of winter and christmas: Queen Elsa from Disney's Frozen.

What is the Work?
Frozen is a modern Disney film that tells an altered version of the classic tale The Snow Queen by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

The film tells the story about two sisters: Anna the younger of the two sisters, and Elsa the older of the two. Elsa possesses cryokinetic powers which she obtained from birth, but after accidentally injuring Anna while playing with her one night, she began to isolate herself from her to hie her powers (the trolls, who are affiliated with the royal family alter Anna's memories so that she doesn't remember she has these magic powers).

After her parents die, Elsa becomes crown princess, and three years later Queen of Arendelle, she is reluctant to open the gates to the castle, but is ultimately forced to according to coronation traditions.

After she has an argument with her sister over her wanting to marry "a man she just met", in doing so Elsa lashs out, and accidentally reveals her powers to Anna and everyone in Arendelle. Frightened and embarrassed, Elsa flesh to the North Mountain, where she isolates herself from the rest of the world.

Anna goes on a quest to reunite with her sister, but fails to convince her to come back, resulting in her being chased out by a monstrous snowman/atronach she accidentally creates.

Elsa is eventually captured by Hans and several Arendelle soldiers in the attempt to return her to the kingdom, and is imprisoned until everything is sorted out, but in actually that is where Hans begins his evil scheme, to leave Anna to die (as she was struck in the heart by Elsa's ice powers (by accident of course), and convicts her of treason whilst sentencing her to death.

Elsa eventually escapes from the prison, and gets lost in a blizzard, Hans confronts her again and falsely tells her that Anna has died from her injury, heartbroken, Elsa grieves while Hans attempts to kill her, Anna saves her in time, destroying Han's sword and knocking him unconscious, but in the process, freezes solid from the effects of Elsa's powers (and essentially dying). Heartbroken, Elsa apologizes to Anna posthumously, before something magical happens.

Due to Elsa's love for Anna, the kingdom thaws and Anna is revived. Happy to be reunited with her sister, Elsa orders that the gates will never be closed again and willingly agrees to send more time with her sister, she also has Hans arrested and deported back to the Southern Isles for his heinous crime, and has the Duke of Weselton banished for co-conspiring to the plot.

Three years later, Elsa begins to question her position as Queen after hearing a mysterious voice from the distance and near-catastrophic disaster in Arendelle, she attempts to locate the source alone, but is stopped by her sister who refuses to allow it unless she, Kristoff, and Olaf travel alongside her, to which she [reluctantly] agrees.

Elsa, her sister, and their friends locate a dam in a location that their father told them a story about long ago, where their grandfather King Runeard tried to "make peace" with a group of natives. Their they meet Lieutenant Mattias, an MIA soldier is King Runeard's army who clarifies that he is not sure what exactly happened to him 34 years earlier other than the natives that the Arendelle citizens befriended long ago suddenly attacked him and King Runeard for no reason.

Elsa eventually pacifies two of the four elements associated with the unbalance in Arendelle, but after trying to convince her sister that she must travel further alone, Anna once again refuses, she then sends Anna back to the native village, whilst traveling to find an iceberg (which speaks stories from the past according to legend).

Elsa tames the third element and reaches the iceberg, where she learns from her mother's spirit the truth about the unbalance: 34 years earlier Mattias she learns that Runeard didn't want peace with the natives, rather power had falsely made peace with them in order to gain their trust and had the dam built in order to keep their magical powers severely limited, and in doing so, would attack them when they let their guard down; which he later attempts and is killed in the process.

Elsa is frozen solid (in a similar matter and pose as her sister in the first film), but sends a message telepathically through a snowflake to her sister, who carries out the duty to destroy the dam by using the Earth Giants (the only elementals that where not appeased by Elsa), she succeeds in destroying the dam, but the job is only half complete, as a large tidal wave begins to head straight towards Arendelle in the process.

Elsa, now freed from her solid state, quickly travels to Arendelle and creates a large shield made of ice, which effectively stops to wave from destroying her kingdom.

Afterwards, Elsa reunites with Anna, and reveals that she is the "fifth element", she also announces that she will remain in the village to help cope with her powers better, implying that she will abdicate from her position as Queen, making Anna the next in line to the throne.

Three months past and Anna is crowned Queen of Arendelle and is now married to Kristoff with Mattias now the general of the Arendelle Army. Anna sends a message to her sister, inviting her to charades in the near future, to which she accepts.

Who is She? What has She Done?
The aforementioned section largely explains her actions, but this section will explain her personality more in detail.

Elsa is more or less the overall main character in the series. As a child, she had a very close relationship with her sister, but that all changed when she accidentally struck Anna in the head with a snowball. Afterwards she begins to isolate herself from Anna and the rest of Arendelle for quite some time.

After accidentally revealing her powers to everyone in the castle, Elsa flees and begins living in isolation, fearing that her powers will only cause further harm to the ones she loves.

After accidentally striking her sister with another icy blast, this time in the heart, Elsa begins to fall into a deep depression, and eventually becomes saddened when her sister eventually does die when her frozen heart crystallizes her. She then realizes her mistakes she made in life and regrets isolating herself from her all those years.

After Anna is revived, she reestablishes her close relationships with her sister, agreeing that she will never again shut herself away from her again.

In the second film, while she still holds a close, loving relationship with her sister and their friends, she feels that she must find her inner peace, during this time, Elsa begins to strive to once again move away from her sister in order to do this, but simultaneously fears that in doing so, Anna will get mad and refuse to allow it.

Eventually, she hits a breaking point when she does travel alone to learn the secret that is causing the unbalanced in her kingdom. After finding out the truth, she begins to crystallize, in the attempt to both allow Anna to finish the task and reconcile with her sister (again).

After saving the Kingdom from the tidal wave, Elsa ultimately decides to stay in the village, but nonetheless agrees to visit her sister as often as possible, that way the two can keep their special relationship close and healthy.

Corrupting Factors
Elsa is initially insecure for a large portion of the first film, as she feels that her powers will only cause trouble for her kingdom and could harm those that she loves. This trait is implied to return subtly in the second film as well. However in both cases, she overcomes this negative trait and becomes accepted by her society who sees her "uniqueness" in a positive light.

She does have two serious arguments in first film and another in the second film respectively, which ultimately leads to both sisters splitting apart in one way or another, but I'm unsure if this can be considered a corrupting factor.

While she is not lethal, she does accidentally "kill" her sister in the first film after Anna succumbs to the effects of her frozen heart, however she DID regret this action in the end.

Admirable Standards
Unlike her counterpart from the original book, who is neutral/evil in terms of alignment, Elsa's alignment is largely good, which is unique in comparison to other incarnations of the classic character from HCA's tale. Her character is turned from the main antagonist of the book to the deuteragonist (and later protagonist) in the films.

Elsa cares deeply about the ones she loves (even in cases where it isn't in the form that her family and friends want her to show it in), even during her insecure phase, she is shown to love her sister deeply.

Elsa is a good example of a tragic hero: she lost her parents after their ship sank in a storm (later revealed to be caused by the imbalance of the elements in the second film), and was force to confronted the reality when she became Queen, fearing that she will dubbed a "monster" or a "witch" by the citizens of her kingdom, which is later proven to be mostly false (save for the Duke of Weselton and to an extent Hans). After a suspenseful dilemma, she ultimately reunites with her sister and is accepted by her kingdom, who sees her powers not as a curse but as a gift or blessing.

Elsa also proves to do something that her grandfather tried to do the opposite of and that her parents failed to do: bring peace and harmony amongst the elements in order to save her kingdom. While many characters in other forms of media have performed similar feats in their works, she is the only one who actually does this in HER WORK.

Final Verdict
Unsure, but I think she has a decent chance in qualifying in the honorable/controversial category of Pure Good.