Anna (Once Upon a Time)

"You have a sister, you are never gonna be alone. Other than when I'm not around, but even then I'll be there in spirit."

- Anna to Elsa

Princess Anna of Arendelle, is a supporting character on Once Upon a Time. She is the sister of Elsa and wife of Kristoff.

She portrayed by guest star Elizabeth Lail.

Past timeline
Two years after the events of the movie, Anna is engaged to Kristoff. In honor of the momentous occasion, Elsa grants Anna both a beautiful new necklace and a gown originally owned by their deceased mother. As Anna tries on the dress, Elsa discovers their mother's diary. Within the text, it is revealed the king and queen left Arendelle because of Elsa. While Elsa believes it's because they feared her and saw her as a monster, Anna believes otherwise. To prove the true reason, Anna takes Elsa to Grand Pabbie. Pabbie is unable to uncover the exact reason the king and queen left but reveals where they were heading; a land known as Mist Haven. While Elsa still worries, Anna reassures positivity and suggest they travel to Mist Haven to find out the truth for themselves. Reluctant about the idea, Elsa denies, claiming she doesn't want to abandon her kingdom and fears Hans and his brothers will strike should they leave Arendelle. Unable to convince her sister to tag along and grant permission, Anna secretly boards a ship and travels to Mist Haven, herself, in hopes of finding the truth to their parents' mysterious journey.

After arriving in the Enchanted Forest (Mist Haven), Anna seeks out a young shepherd by the name of David, an old friend of Kristoff's and the soon-to-be Prince Charming, as a means for nightly shelter. After agreeing, however, David is confronted by his sorceress of a landlord, Bo Peep, who's requesting her monthly payment. With money scarce, David and his mother, Ruth, have no choice but to deny, resulting in a proposition. Bo Peep gives the family one day to hand over the payment, or they must pay with their farm, as well as their lives. However, a spirited Anna decides to take David under her wings to teach him in the art of self-defense via sword fighting. Though the training is apparently futile, David's courage comes to pass upon learning Bo Peep branded Anna as her own, as further punishment for the lack of payment. Furious, David fights off Bo Peep and her men, stealing her magic staff and rushing to Anna's rescue. It's revealed she's alive and well, fortunately, and a proud princess congratulates her new friend on his success. Before she departs, Anna asks Ruth if she knows of other inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest with magical abilities, hoping they could assist her on her journey. Ruth sends Anna to the infamously powerful sorcerer, Rumplestilstkin, but heads a word of caution as she does. Nevertheless, Anna's journey continues, and her search for the Dark One begins.

At some time afterwards, Anna had arrived at Rumplestilstkin's castle and asks the Dark One why her parents went to the Enchanted Forest on their ill-fated voyage that has to do with Elsa's magical power. After Anna tells him she'll do "whatever it takes" to help her sister, Rumplestilstkin agrees to tell her, under one condition: she must go to the home of an old man, an apprentice of a sorcerer, and pour a bottled substance into his tea. To sweeten the deal, Anna must sign the contract and only then, once the job is done, he will tell her about her parents. Arriving at the cottage, the apprentice invited her in for some tea and biscuits. Thinking the substance is poison and unable to hurt the kind old stranger, Anna instead pours the substance into the fire. After Anna reports to Rumplestilstkin that she did what she was asked to do, he reveals that the substance Anna was supposed to give to the apprentice is actually an antidote to keep the man alive after he was poisoned a day earlier. Shocked, Anna tells him the truth and begged for more antidote to save the man. But Rumplestilstkin shows her through his crystal ball that the man was already transforming into a mouse. After she arrives back at the cottage to find the mouse, Rumplestilstkin reveals that the apprentice is actually the first line of defense of guarding a special item hidden in his cottage. He reveals the item's second line of defense is that it's protected by an enchantment spell, by which it can't be opened by people who had faced their inner darkness.

Telling Anna that she broke the contract, her punishment would be to be locked up in his castle forever, while Elsa will be heartbroken since Anna left because of her and become a monster, and her wedding with Kristoff will be off. Refusing his words and her fate as his prisoner, Anna placed a sword to Rumplestilstkin's heart and demands him to rip the contract; only to have the Dark One urge her to kill him with it. Unable to bring herself to commit such horrible bloodshed, due to her pure kindness and being overwhelmed by the thought of actually killing the Dark One, Anna collapses in tears. One of her tears landed on Rumplestilstkin's dagger, which allows him to open the box. Anna chides Rumplestilstkin for using love as a weapon, to which he replies that love is a weapon, it's just that he knows how to wield it more than others. After Rumplestilstkin emerges from the vault with the box, Anna tells him to tell her why her parents travelled to the Enchanted Forest. He tells her that the King and Queen of Arendelle had come to him looking for a way to take away Elsa's powers forever. Though Anna is convinced that her parents loved Elsa, Rumplestilstkin claimed they actually feared her. He tells her that they did not find what they were looking for, but that the box he retrieved from the vault does contain something that does: the sorcerer's hat, which has the ability to take away a person's powers. After Rumplestilstkin plans to use the hat to make himself unstoppable when it has enough power, Anna tells him that the apprentice could stop him, though Rumplestilstkin states he is not there.

However, Anna corrected him when a mouse jumps on to his hand and bites him, making him drop the dagger. Anna picks up the dagger and realizes that she can control him with it. She uses the dagger to command Rumplestilstkin to do three things—return her and the box to Arendelle, never harm her or Elsa, and revert the apprentice back into his human form. He agrees and sends Anna back home in a puff of smoke. Finally home, Anna reunites with Kristoff where they embrace and share a kiss. She informed Kristoff that her parents did go to the Enchanted Forest out of fear of Elsa, and they seek to use a box that contains the sorcerer's magical hat to rid Elsa of her powers. When Kristoff asked how is she gonna break this to Elsa, Anna says she has no idea what to tell her sister.

When she reunites with Elsa, Anna instead lied about her discovery, claiming their parents didn't find what they seek when they travelled to the Enchanted Forest. To her surprise, she discovered that Elsa has managed to control her magical powers. Even more surprising is when Elsa introduced her to Ingrid the Snow Queen, their aunt, who also has the same power. Despite Elsa's claim that Ingrid was a relative of theirs, Anna was suspicious since their aunt isn't in any of the family's portrait or records. After sharing this revelation with Kristoff, Anna decides to visit Grand Pabbie again to find out their family's secret involving Ingrid. When Kristoff discusses Anna's decision to withhold the truth from Elsa, concerning what her parents did in the Enchanted Forest, Anna decides to keep hiding the truth from her sister until the time is right to tell her, which he supports. After Anna departs to find more answers, she and Kristoff are unaware that Ingrid has been eavesdropping on their conversation the whole time.

Anna stops by Oaken's shop to get some supplies for her trek, where she would then meet Belle, who is also visiting the rock trolls in hopes recovering her memory following the recent lose of her mother. Together, they managed to reach the rock trolls' valley, and after Pabbie helps Belle, he tells Anna what he knows. He reveals that Ingrid is her mother's eldest sister, and it turns out they have another sister, a middle sister named Helga. When Ingrid and Helga mysteriously vanished in the garden one day, they were erased from all records. Now suspicious of her aunt's secrecy, Anna and Belle hurry down the mountain to warn Elsa. On the way down, however, a deadly storm conjured up by Ingrid halted their descent. Suddenly, a fierce wind strikes, knocking Anna off the cliff, where she clings to an edge and making Belle drop the stone that contains her memory. Belle was busy trying to save the memory stone, while Anna calls to her for help, which she finally prompts to do after the stone falls and shatters at the bottom of the cliff. Before Belle can reach and save her, Anna's grip finally loosens and she hit the ground and is rendered unconscious. Belle can only helplessly watch as Ingrid steals the box containing the magical hat, and whisks Anna away in a puff of smoke.

Anna awakes to find herself in the castle's dungeon cell, and face to face with Ingrid, who accuses her of wanting to use the sorcerer's hat to drain Elsa of her power. Anna denies the notion, arguing that she wasn't intending to use it on anyone until Ingrid attacked her. Ingrid then admits that she wants a family, and think that her nieces could be hers. But since she now considers Anna to be the "odd one out," due to having nothing in common with her and Elsa, and not fitting the perfect criteria as the third family member, Ingrid vows to find the perfect replacement and have what she desires: a family that loves her for who she is.

As Elsa was preparing a feast for her sister, Ingrid, now with the intent on driving them apart, appears and tells her of Anna's trip to the Enchanted Forest. Ingrid manipulates her into thinking that Anna was planning to use the sorcerer's hat to absorb all of her magic powers. Learning that she is locked up in the dungeon cell, Elsa pays Anna a visit. Elsa upsettingly accuses Anna of wanting to use the hat to strip away her magic, but it wasn't until the guards leave that Elsa reveals it was all a ruse. She tells Anna that she doesn't believe their aunt's lies. They now had plans to find the urn and trap Ingrid in it. The sisters search through Ingrid's old room, while Kristoff is put on lookout duty. As she opened the wardrobe, Anna was frightened and startled by the sight of Hans' frozen body, until Elsa explained what had happened while she was away in the Enchanted Forest, but they managed to find the urn next to him.

As part of the plan, Anna was returned to the dungeon cell, where she'll ambush Ingrid when she comes to check up on her. Unfortunately, Ingrid was on to their scheme, and Anna now found herself in chains and trapped in the cell with her. Ingrid then uses a shard of mirror to place Anna under her spell, the Spell of Shattered Sight, resulting in Anna releasing her inner anger and resentment towards her sister. As she enters the dining room, Anna finds Elsa preparing a feast for her, comprised entirely of chocolate. Instead of being pleased, Anna angrily confronts her sister for abandoning her during their childhood. While under the spell's influence, Anna throws the necklace that Elsa gifted her into a fire. As Elsa is bewildered at her sister's anger, Ingrid appears and admits she did it to show Anna's inner darkness, causing Elsa to realize her aunt has placed her sister under her spell. Ingrid demands that Elsa freeze Anna to prevent her from trapping Elsa inside of the urn; however, Elsa refuses to hurt her sister and holds her arms against her sides. In an unexpected twist, Anna, still under the spell's influence, unseals the urn and traps Elsa inside. As she is slowly absorbed into the urn, Elsa tells her that no matter what she does, she will always love her. Recovering from the magic spell, Anna was horrified by what her aunt made her do to Elsa. As Ingrid prepares to choke her, Kristoff arrives to save Anna, armed with only his ice pick. With her aunt finally consumed by her anger and overwhelm with disgust at how the couple sees her as a monster, Anna can only stand and watch as Ingrid uses her power to freeze both her, Kristoff, and Arendelle out of pure fury.

Present timeline
For the next 30 years, Anna, Kristoff, and all of Arendelle would remain frozen in a state of suspended animation. Until one day, while Ingrid is in Storybrooke finally casting her Spell of Shattered Sight, the kingdom begins to thaw, and Anna and Kristoff are finally unfrozen. While she contemplates on finding and freeing Elsa from Ingrid, Anna found a piece of gold straw on the floor that was left behind by Rumplestilstkin, and deduced that he must have followed her to Arendelle and took Elsa from Ingrid while they were frozen. As they start devising a plan to rescue Elsa from Rumplestilstkin, who originally had possession of the urn the former's imprisoned in, Hans and his brothers, who had recently been thawed out, barged in and declared Arendelle as his kingdom now. He feigns the notion that Anna dethroned her own sister, and decides to have her and Kristoff imprisoned for treason. Though Hans claims that Elsa is responsible for freezing the kingdom, Anna retorted that Ingrid is really the culprit, which he doubts. Pretending that they surrender, Anna and Kristoff managed to fight their way out and escape. As they figure out what to do next to rescue Elsa, Anna recalls reading in her mother's diary about a wishing star, which she assumes is used to grant a wish. She remembers the journal stated her parents tracked the item to a man, a pirate by the name of Blackbeard.

Taking a ship to the Enchanted Forest, the Jolly Roger, Anna and Kristoff bargain with Blackbeard for the wishing star, which they hope to use to find Elsa. When the deal is sealed, where they will pay for the wishing star in his weight in gold, they realize it's a trap as Hans and his brothers surround them. Blackbeard tells her about his past encounter with her parents who sought the wishing star, but they were unable to use it since the item needs someone with a pure heart. Hans then takes the couple to a spot out at sea called Poseidon's Boneyard, the same spot where Anna and Elsa's parents' ship went down, hoping to dump the couple to the bottom of the sea. Blackbeard then had Anna and Kristoff, with their hands tied, dumped into a large trunk, recalling how a mermaid once saved him from Killian Jones. The trunk is then shut and thrown into the sea, which sinks and fills with water. Kristoff managed to free himself and Anna from the binds. Believing they will die, Anna, begins reciting her marriage vows to Kristoff, though he insists they won't be married until they are out of danger.

They proclaim their love for each other as they're about to meet their watery fate, but fortunately, due to the power of Elsa's belief in finding her sister and her possession of the wishing star, Anna's necklace for her and Kristoff's wedding, the trunk is transported to the shores of Storybrooke where the siblings reunite, along with their mother's message in a bottle. Anna is led to the diner so the fairies can make a spell with her hair to counter Ingrid's imminent curse, since she'd been affected before and can't be again. However, they find the fairies are gone, courtesy of Killian under the control of Mr. Gold, the town's counterpart of Rumplestilstkin. At the sheriff station, Anna reunites with David and meets his family: his wife Mary Margaret, their baby son Neal, and their daughter Emma, whom she and Kristoff had just recently met when they arrived and also question about her family ties due to her being the same age as them. With the curse just moments away, Elsa helps Kristoff handcuff himself to a desk before it approaches while she, Anna and Emma brace for impact. Though the three are immune to the spell's effects, Anna could only helplessly watch as Kristoff, trying to resist, is slowly begin affected.

With the town now effected, Mary Margaret and David argue with each other from their separate cell, and Kristoff begins to express his relief that Anna keeps postponing their wedding. After fruitlessly trying to persuade Kristoff that it's Ingrid's spell that causes him to say all the hurtful words about her, Anna left him to discuss with Emma and Elsa about the situation. When Emma recalls her promise to give the people of Storybrooke their happy ending, Anna remember Ingrid's curse being similar to a story called The Trolden Glass, in which she reveals that the curse can be broken by killing the person who cast the spell, the king; meaning they have to do the same with Ingrid. Before she and Elsa left to face Ingrid, with no other option since they can't reason with her, Emma leaves Anna to look after Neal.

As the town is thrown into utter chaos, Anna tried to dissolve Mary Margaret and David's quarrel by bringing up their early lives and how they met in the Enchanted Forest as Snow White and Prince Charming, but to no avail. Later, Regina, affected by the spell and in her attire as the Evil Queen, arrives at the sheriff's station to look for Emma, but found Anna, Kristoff, and Mary Margaret and David locked up in their cells. Despite Anna's attempt to calm her down, Regina teleported her and Kristoff to the beach they arrived from. After a frustrated Kristoff attempts to swim back to Arendelle after giving up on the current event that transpires, Anna knocked him out with a bottle that carries her mother's message. Anna discovers its content and decides to bring it to Elsa and Emma, who are confronting Ingrid in her lair.

After arriving, Anna reveals to Elsa their mother's last words in the letter and reads the whole thing out loud. It's revealed that, before they died, their parents were wrong to keep the girls apart, as well as hiding Elsa and her abilities, along with Ingrid and Helga's existence, from Arendelle. The letter also shows their mother's instructions on how to restore the memories of the people of Arendelle with a memory stone of her sisters and how they should free Ingrid, and they should tell their aunt that she loved her and regretted what she had done. Still not moved by this revelation, Ingrid begins to choke Anna to death, but instead knock her down. After reading the letter and seeing the good memories of her and her sisters, Ingrid realized that Anna is right and begins to regret her action. Realizing that she is only a monster for what her powers had made her become, Ingrid undoes her curse by sacrificing her own life. Before she dies, Ingrid returns Elsa and Emma's missing memories now that she has her own younger sisters' love. Anna, Elsa, and Emma watch as Ingrid disappears into the afterlife, where she happily reunites with her beloved sisters. Thanks to Ingrid, the Spell of Shattered Sight is finally broken, the shards turn into snow and Storybrooke returns to normal. With Ingrid's redemption now complete, Anna and Elsa now seek to honor their mother's last wish to return to Arendelle to let its people know of Ingrid and Helga.

Following the end of Ingrid's curse, Elsa, at last, brings down the barrier at the town line. Before Anna can cross the town's line, Emma stops her and notices that Ingrid's spell is still present; meaning that once someone leaves Storybrooke, they will never return. Though Elsa is in no need to hurry back to Arendelle, Anna and Kristoff inform her of their reason to leave and fast: Arendelle was taken over by Hans and his 12 brothers. They ask Emma to look for a portal, but so far she has no lead, until Hook, seemingly with Mr. Gold's help, informs her that he discovered a door to Arendelle hidden in an abandoned mansion. After they found the door that will take them back to Arendelle, and confront Hans, they thank Mary Margaret, David, and especially Emma for their good deeds, of which Anna thanks them for looking after her sister. After Elsa and Kristoff walk into the portal, Anna starts to follow but stops to ask the three that she wanted to thank Hook and Gold, until she curiously asks about Mr. Gold's identity when he was still living in the Enchanted Forest. She guesses, incorrectly, that he was a "fairy godfather", although David reveals that Mr. Gold was actually Rumplestilstkin. To this, Anna reveals Rumplestilstkin lied about not knowing her or Elsa and tells them that she knows of him from their past encounter; causing Emma to suspect Mr. Gold has not changed and has ulterior motives.

An unknown amount of time later, Arendelle has been reclaimed by the two sisters and Hans is dethroned; Anna even got her hand bruised from punching Hans in the face. While in the castle's east wing preparing for her wedding with Kristoff, Anna discovers a portrait of Ingrid, Helga and Gerda, which she places in the great hall. Before the wedding starts, Elsa, struck by Anna's past decision to postpone the wedding to go to the Enchanted Forest, inquiries her on why she chose to do so. Anna cheerfully reasons that she couldn't be happy if her sister wasn't as well. With the wedding now in full swing, Elsa helps Anna walk down the aisle.