I’m re-watching bits of Frozen for some reason (lol, fic-writing) and I still can’t get over that “we shall see what his 12 big brothers have to say about his behaviour” line which is…just, terrible, to be honest.
The movie pretty unequivocally implies that Hans’s older brothers are abusive; both Word of God and other canon (A Frozen Heart) support this, and even if it didn’t, Christ, Hans himself says his brothers pretended he didn’t exist for two years. Not “ignored him,” or didn’t spend much time with him, or teased him; not even what Elsa did to Anna, which was avoidance - no, they outright pretended he didn’t exist. Please, please, please explain how that doesn’t qualify as emotional abuse and psychological violence.
And yet, this is how Frozen chooses to punish Hans: by sending him back to his abusive family, and explicitly, explicitly drawing attention to the notion that Hans will face some kind of retribution at the hands of his literally, explicitly abusive older brothers. That’s what Frozen sees as fair-game just desserts for Hans, a character who is canonically mentally-ill (whether you align with Jennifer Lee’s “sociopathy” remark or prefer to read him otherwise) and the victim and product (again: Jennifer Lee) of his abuse. That’s their ending: send him back to his abusers, where he will (implicitly) be punished.
I don’t care if you hate Hans with the strength of a thousand suns, and think he is totally and utterly irredeemable. Literally no one deserves the narrative treatment he gets here. And this is why I need a redemption arc for Hans. Because if we don’t get one, we’re left with this.








