Why I don’t consider myself “Elsa critical.”
Sometimes, I write posts on this blog that are critical of Elsa’s arc in F2 or at least, critical of how that arc was executed. But I’ve always distanced myself from the term “Elsa critical” because I’ve sometimes seen “Elsa-critical” attitudes that are just... excuses to be overly negative towards Elsa and say bad things about her.
Now once, in the past, I wrote a post criticizing one of Elsa’s actions in F2 and, since I was letting my emotions get the better of me, I directed my anger more at Elsa than at the writing - even though Elsa is a fictional character and I wanted to make a point about a moment in the film that had dubious and possibly unintended character consequences. But someone reblogged that post with the statement, “Elsa never apologizes because Elsa never believes she’s done anything wrong” and my post was reblogged by people who seemed to hold the opinion that Elsa never apologizes for anything in general, even though there are countless examples across the films and shorts of Elsa apologizing and being considerate of other people’s feelings.
I tried to clarify that, “No, that wasn’t what I said,” but the version of my post with that addition was the one that people kept reblogging.
A similar incident occurred when a completely different person reblogged a gifset I made of the deleted where Elsa showed Anna the memory of her parents saying that “her love could hold up the world.”
I’ve described this commenter’s attitude in the past as being a kind of Kristanna version of Isa and I stand by that assessment. Where Isa demeans any connection Anna might have outside of Elsa, this commenter demeans any connection Anna might have outside of Kristoff.
Since this commenter ships Kristanna and dislikes Elsa so much, I don’t doubt that they consider themselves diametrically opposed to someone like Isa, but they similarly distort canon to demonize other characters (saying that, “outside of Kristoff, Anna can count on everyone else using her, leaving her, and manipulating her” is not only unfair to Elsa, but to Olaf) and prop up their ship - or at least, Kristoff as a character.
Even though celebrating Kristoff doesn’t mean you have to throw Elsa and Olaf and other connections Anna has with people (Mattias, the Northuldra, etc.) under the bus.
Now, Isa, of course, is worse because this commenter isn’t being racist or harassing creators (though having this comment added to one of my posts and then reblogged in certain circles was wearying to me), but there are still striking similarities in the ways this person tears other characters down to prop their favorite characters up.
As I’ve said in the past, it’s a similar form of extremism, just from a Kristanna shipper this time.
I’ve seen other examples of undue negativity towards Elsa in the past, mostly from self-proclaimed Anna fans. Before F2 came out, there was a post going around quipping about the fact that Elsa ruins all of Anna’s parties and never allows Anna the chance to enjoy a party.
I felt this was a bit mean-spirited towards Elsa and brought up to a friend that they seemed to be judging Elsa too personally - since Elsa is, after all, a fictional character and so the negativity directed at Elsa herself seemed... misplaced, to me. If you want to critique the way Elsa is written, focus on the writing. Or if you want to critique Elsa’s behavior, maybe find more valid textual elements to critique. I mean, yes, Elsa fled the coronation ball and “ruined” Anna’s party, I guess, but... there were kind of other circumstances going on and Elsa’s powers were being revealed and the Duke was calling her a monster and - She didn’t “ruin the party” out of spite.
My friend told me that the post was “just a joke” and that I was taking it too seriously. And, besides, if Elsa was just a fictional character, then why was I being so sensitive about the way that post portrayed Elsa?
I was under a lot of stress that night and became scared that I was letting my love of Elsa get the better of me (maybe I was being too biased, you know?), so I held my tongue after that.
I know that it’s complicated because Elsa is an insanely popular character and Elsa gets way more love from Disney marketing and merchandise than Anna even though Anna is the protagonist. I know Anna always seems to get the short shrift a lot of the time - and that’s something that absolutely needs to be discussed. I love seeing that discussed.
I also know that Elsa deserves to be critiqued and reflected on in a critical way, especially when she tends to be idealized by the fandom. I love Elsa with all my heart and admit to doing some level of idealizing of her myself, but I also critique aspects of her arc in F2 that I feel were poorly written. The thing is, in those cases, I make sure to direct my critique at the writing and not Elsa personally. Even when I’m disagreeing with some of Elsa’s actions, I don’t mean to be too... personal.
And maybe that anxiety on my part about being too personal comes from the fear I’ll be accused of taking something too seriously again, or from my knowledge that I love Elsa dearly and have a deep personal connection to her and so that will color my thoughts. And I know it’s impossible to be completely objective because we all connect deeply to these characters and that connection is what inspires us to discuss them...
...but still, yeah, some of the negativity towards Elsa from some circles seems to come from such a... personal place... that sometimes I feel certain people are blind to how extreme their negativity can be.
Keep in mind, I’ve actually seen nuanced and reflective discussions from people who consider themselves “Elsa critical” as well, and I don’t mean to disregard these people.
But if you’re making hyperbolically negative statements about Elsa, maybe you should pause and reconsider how much of your perspective is backed up by the text and how much is just your own biases.
