In both Frozen movies, Anna receives a proposal of marriage, and she accepts both times. However, the circumstances surrounding Anna’s relationships with both men results in her acceptances, and the reasons for her acceptances, being completely different.
In the first film, Anna meets Hans on the day of Elsa’s coronation. For the first time in 13 years, the castle gates are opened and strangers from all over come to Arendelle. Having spent all those years alone and shut out by her sister while never knowing why, Anna sees the day as a chance to change, or rather, escape, the boring, lonely life she has lived and find companionship, possibly even romance.
However, because the gates would be closed and locked again the following day, Anna’s desire to find love is really out of desperation. She is desperate to find someone who will pay attention to her and not ignore her after years of being rejected by Elsa. She is also desperately bound and determined to avoid returning to her painful life of being confined inside the castle and isolated from the outside world.
So then once she meets, then spends time with, Hans, Anna gets her wish. Not only does he give her the positive attention she had craved, but he presents himself as the EXACT kind of man she had hoped to meet: handsome, charming, noble, polite, smooth, and flirty. Hans sweeps Anna off her feet with all of these traits the moment they meet, and he continues this later when the two spend the entire evening on a “date”. During this time, Hans and Anna engage in all of the classical romantic clichés: dancing, talking, flirting, making each other laugh, taking moonlit walks, looking at the stars, and even sharing a romantic duet.
These clichés are exactly what Anna thinks romance is all about and what two people are traditionally supposed to do together while they fall in love. Because she does all of these things with Hans, she believes that she has found true love in him, despite knowing him for such a short time. And since he does yet ANOTHER classic romantic cliché by proposing to her at the end of their duet, Anna readily accepts with no hesitation.
By the end of Frozen, following Hans’s deception to take over Arendelle, Anna shares a kiss with Kristoff. While it may seem just the contrary because they share their first kiss, she is not in love with him. He may love her (although it may be easier to say “he loves her” instead of saying “he likes her” umpteen times), but she does not love him. After Hans was revealed to be pretending to love her and indirectly tried to kill her, Anna has become traumatized by his betrayal. It has made her realize that love is not at all what she thought it was. It does not happen fast, it is not always obvious, and it does not need to involve romantic clichés.
Despite their kiss, Anna is only just BEGINNING to fall for Kristoff. She wants to make sure to avoid the mistakes she had made with Hans by taking things slow with Kristoff so that they can get to know each other and build up a relationship based on mutual trust and respect, one that could someday lead to love.
By Frozen II, Kristoff and Anna have been dating for three years. In that time, they have really gotten to know each other, and there’s no doubt that they see each other and do something together almost every day, which would make the three years feel even longer. Once he makes his first appearance in the film following the prologue, Kristoff is shown to be finally ready to take the next step in his relationship with Anna by wanting to marry her and starting a family.
Kristoff first admits his love for her out loud at her party in Frozen Fever, but by the full-length sequel, the love between the couple has become mutual. This is shown on Anna’s part when she kisses Kristoff’s lips (which he doesn’t expect, since he first tries to make his proposal to her) and addresses him with a term of endearment, saying, “Thanks, honey. Love you!” And while she exits the library immediately afterwards, Kristoff calls to her (though in a disappointed voice since he didn’t get a chance to ask her) “Love you, too.”
A running gag throughout the film is Kristoff making more attempts to propose to Anna, with all of them ending in failure. But upon everyone reuniting once the dam is broken is the mist is lifted from the Enchanted Forest, Kristoff makes one more attempt, and finally succeeds. However, unlike Hans, he doesn’t jump the gun by immediately asking Anna to marry him and kneeling down while he says it. Rather, he kneels down, tells Anna how much of an extraordinary person she is, and that he loves her so much before finally asking the question and presenting the ring at the same time.
Like when Hans proposed to her, Anna does not hesitate in accepting Kristoff’s proposal…but as I said above, her acceptances are entirely different, and it’s all based on how she really feels about the two men.
Anna’s reaction to Hans is more of a mild happiness, one that is only based on the surface, on the superficial level. This is because she doesn’t really know him, so her feelings for him are just based on a naïve, shallow crush, not true love. While she appears genuinely surprised based on her gasp after he asks her, the way she gasps seems (and even sounds) forced, fake, and rehearsed, as if she was expecting him to ask and her reaction of accepting was based on how she believes a woman is expected to answer. Notice also that Anna subtly shakes her head as she says “Yes”, which is a tell-tale sign that she doesn’t actually mean what she says. Again, Anna was looking for love anywhere because of Elsa’s rejection of her, and she was desperate to not return to a life of isolation. Now that Hans has proposed, she thinks she has found her ticket to a better life, so she accepts just so she can make sure she lives life the way she wants to live.
With Kristoff, Anna knows him very well after three years, and so when he proposes, she is so overcome with emotion that she starts crying tears of joy as she says yes. Unlike her initial relationship with Hans due to his false nature, Anna and Kristoff truly and deeply love each other. This time, she is genuinely stunned when he kneels down. She realizes what he is going to ask, but she was not expecting him to do it, which is proven by when she gasps and places her hands over her mouth. In contrast to her surprise when Hans proposed to her, Anna’s shock upon realizing that Kristoff is going to pop the question is more natural and genuine. Her reaction comes from deep within her that she sobs tears of real joy as she accepts. Also notice that when Anna gasps and sobs before she answers the question, she fans herself with her hands. It seems as though she was so shocked and elated when Kristoff was moving in to ask the question that she was becoming flushed, so she fans herself to cool down from the overwhelming euphoria.
Lastly, since Hans’s proposal was the classic romantic cliché proposal, it felt fake and unnatural since it wasn’t based on true love. Kristoff’s proposal feels more real, more natural, and even more pure, since he’s asking right from his heart, and to the woman he truly loves.
Anna’s reaction to Hans’s proposal was one of mild happiness based on her simple infatuation on him and her desperate chance to change her world of loneliness. But her reaction to Kristoff’s proposal is one of pure joy based on their true, deep love for each other, so they want to be together forever.
And based on the differences of her own reactions below, we can see that Elsa approves of Anna and Kristoff together, as opposed to Anna and Hans together. 😉
The differences between Anna’s reactions concept was requested by @greatqueenanna. And I owe a thanks to my awesome friend and soul sister @minervadeannabond for coming up with this title! 😁👍🏻❤️
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