#frozen meta

[fuzzykazeki87]

I love how some people act like wanting Elsa to have a romantic arc is "boomer family member" energy when...actually? it’s the exact opposite?

​Imagine thinking that fans wanting to see themselves represented in a global icon is the same thing as auntie rebecca asking why you’re single at Thanksgiving. ​

The "she’s too busy being a magical spirit to have a crush" argument is so tired as well.

Since when did having ice powers and a water horse mean you lose the capacity for human connection?

Jennifer Lee literally said the "door is open," but some of you act like you’re the ones holding the deadbolt shut.

Since when did "wanting a character to find love" become a regressive concept? Especially a character whose entire arc is about overcoming isolation? Elsa spent 21 years behind a closed door and another three years learning not to be afraid of her own touch.

Wanting her to experience the intimacy, partnership and happiness she was denied for most of her life isn't "pressuring" her, it’s wanting her to have a full human experience.​

Jennifer Lee herself has said they haven't ruled anything out and that the conversation is always happening.

Elsa’s story is literally not finished. If the literal creator of the franchise is leaving the door unlocked, why are some of you so obsessed with slamming it shut and bolting it?

​Let people enjoy things.

Speculating about Elsa’s heart isn't a dumb energy, it’s literally what happens when a director creates a complex, relatable character and then tells the audience "Hey, her story isn't finished yet."

In Polar Nights, Elsa literally says that a woman who is capable of taking care of herself can still be in a relationship.

She isn't "avoiding" love because she's strong, she’s acknowledging that independence and a romantic partnership aren't mutually exclusive.

And for the people who insist she has to be Aromantic to be "empowered":

​Aro people can still have relationships! Aromanticism is a spectrum, and plenty of aro-spec people have partners or QPRs.

​Independence isn't a personality trait that bars you from love.

Her story isn't finished, the directors haven't said no, so why are some of yall so bitter about us having fun with the possibilities?

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

A little out of left field, but you've answered a few Disney asks before, so I'll throw this one out there. It's fun to have variety.

In Frozen, what if instead of proposing immediately, Hans held off and played the long game? I get the feeling the fact some nobody prince proposing to her sister who she just met set off Elsa's alarm bells and that's why she wanted to talk to Anna alone.

But, if Hans had taken it slow and steady, would he have gained Elsa's trust enough to try and kill her to take the throne, or would he have screwed up somehow.

Hans Had No Time

The thing is, Arendelle was about to shut the gates again that very evening. Elsa fully intended to close off the palace the second the party guests were gone, and the coronation was over. She had just gotten through this one day because she had no choice, but she had no interest in opening back up the gates and letting people see her potentially freezing everything.

Anna was an unfortunate casualty of this that Elsa didn't seem to know what to do with/realize there was a very large problem, probably because their parents had only just died right before this happened and this wasn't a responsibility that Elsa expected to take on.

People give Anna flack for being told she could leave at any time and then not doing it/choosing to be miserable... but the thing is where was she supposed to go as the princess of a nation? Anna can't just stroll out the door and marry the local ice-maker. That was one of those statements that Elsa blurted out and I think didn't really think through/realize there had been some... issues...

(And Anna and Elsa's parents were so busy dealing with Elsa's powers that Anna got the backseat for her entire childhood.)

But back to why Hans has no time.

The gates have opened this one, single, day, he goes to the coronation and after party and sees that Elsa is made of stone. He is getting absolutely nowhere with her... which is too bad as that would have gotten him to be king. Anna, however, is flirting with an unfounded desperation/no decorum whatsoever and has clearly grown up with 0 supervision and 0 understanding of her position in life and what she's doing.

(It's telling that Anna's growing up montage is just being bored and getting into trouble and... seems to involve no tutoring whatsoever/no contact with anyone. Probably the parents thought that too many outsiders brought in just increases Elsa's risk of an accident--but I get the feeling Anna was taught nothing which is wild even if she wasn't crown princess.)

Hans isn't just the hunky guy Anna met at a party who finishes her sandwiches, he's her chance to get out, to see the world, to live a normal life and talk to people instead of pictures.

Anna's parents are dead, her relationship with her sister is nonexistent/really frosty for reasons she can't explain at all except "dunno, maybe she hates me", everywhere she goes she just causes a mess of things--she's looking at the rest of her life and it is long, bleak, and dark.

Anna would have picked any hot guy who paid attention to her at that party (and the movie does have a good message and all, Anna shouldn't have rushed in without knowing this guy, good message for the kids... but I see how Anna got here and find it a little wild that we give Anna all the flack for that and none to the many environmental factors that led her to this point).

Anyway, Hans sees all this, knows that the Arendelle princesses have been completely isolated since childhood, and I think he sees the writing on the wall.

Chances are, once the party's over and all the dignitaries of foreign nations are sent home, neither Anna nor Elsa will be appearing for diplomatic engagements with other nations. Further, there will be no events in Arendelle for Hans to pop into. No balls, weddings, nothing.

This is the first, and perhaps last, time Hans will ever be in Arendelle.

And so, Hans has got to go for it, Anna's into him, is the most desperate woman he's ever seen, MARRY HIM ANNA AND GET HIM ONE STEP AWAY FROM THE THRONE RATHER THAN FUCKING SEVEN!!!!

In other words, Hans is as desperate as Anna is, but he knows it.

What if He Held Off?

The party continues, Anna spends the entire night flirting with Hans of the Southern Isles with seven older brothers. She's in love! She's so in love! He's so hot! They're so perfect for each other! As a result, Elsa barely sees her sister that night which is... a good thing as well as a bad thing.

Good because things are very awkward between them, Anna doesn't remember that time Elsa accidentally nearly killed her, Anna has no idea she has ice powers, and they haven't actually spoken in years.

Bad because this was Elsa's big chance to connect with her sister (they said a few words about chocolate!) and patch things up now that their parents are gone and they have, well, the rest of their life. But this also would have been a bad idea because close is bad and could lead to icy accidents.

So, Elsa's a little upset, but the worst of the coronation is over and now she just has to get through this fucking party which will wind down sooner or later.

Because Anna doesn't march up to Elsa and announce her engagement on the spot (casting Elsa in the unexpected role of Tevye while she wonders how she briefly wandered into the wrong musical) there's no conflict between them. Anna, for her own party, is so giddy at all of this happening she wouldn't even think to be disappointed he didn't propose to her right then and there. I don't think it'd even occur to her to fantasize about, she had a great time!

The conflict comes after the guests leave... and Elsa promptly shuts the gates.

Anna is dismayed, broken, and angry. The gates are shut?! She had that one day?! ONE DAY?! She bitterly complains to Elsa about this and here I imagine Elsa responds much the way she did in the film, it's her decision and if Anna doesn't like it... she can go leave.

Anna points out that she has met the love of her life tonight. Elsa can't just cut things off before Anna has a chance to see him more than one time. Is Anna supposed to become a nun? Except not because being a nun would require leaving the palace to go live in a convent at least! NUNS ARE GETTING MORE ACTION THAN ANNA.

Elsa's likely a little more sympathetic--but not really. Anna, you're not in love with this man, you just met him and know nothing about him. Calm down.

And I imagine Elsa brings up the "then leave" argument again as it's the only real argument she has without explaining "ice powers" and it's something Anna can't argue with. If Anna's choosing to stay here then she has to play by Elsa's rules, and if she can't, she can walk out those damn gates herself!

"FINE, I WILL LEAVE!" Anna declares, because if that's an option (her only option) then fine. Her sister clearly doesn't give a damn about her whatsoever, her parents are dead, AND SHE IS IN LOVE WITH HANS OF THE SOUTHERN ISLES!

Anna will leave, and go to the Southern Isles, and say "Wow, Hans, funny meeting you here, I love your southern isles, so south, such wow."

Does she know where these islands are? No. Does she have any idea how she would get there? No. Does she have any idea the implications of a princess sending herself to a foreign nation, with no warning, where if this nation isn't friendly is a great opportunity to take her hostage? No. Does she have any idea what saying "Elsa the queen told me to leave" implies/she will essentially be in exile? No.

BUT ANNA IS GOING ANYWAY.

Anna packs very poorly, too giddy about her plan/having no idea how or what to pack/having no idea how far the Southern Isles are or what the climate is there.

I imagine she Kronk-like sneaks out of the castle, despite Elsa having given her permission to go as it still feels forbidden. WOW, SHE IS OUT OF THE CASTLE, WOW! The gates aren't open but she's out of the castle! This is so forbidden and amazing.

NOW TO GET TO SOUTHERN ISLES!

Anna realizes she has no idea how to do that.

Well, islands are in the ocean so she would take... a ship! Depending when Anna snuck out she either goes to the docks to start asking people right away for passage to "The Southern Isles" or she's very sad and confused as... no one is here (because it is the middle of the night).

Those who are captaining small local fishing vessels look at her in disbelief and horror. Lady, do you know what a boat is? Do you know what the ocean is? Do you think this rowboat can handle open water?

Anna is very discouraged by this but is not returning back to the castle!

(Meanwhile, Elsa is in two states: she has not realized Anna has left because their contact with each other is so hilariously bad that she has not realized she is missing, she has realized (likely due to being told by a servant) and is now in angsty icy misery as her sister really took her up on that and abandoned her and oh god Elsa didn't actually mean it and now she's all alone in this castle all by herself and her sister has left her!!! There are likely suggestions that she send the palace guards to go pick up her wayward sister and I imagine Elas is tempted, it's the reasonable thing to do... but she did just tell Anna that she could have left whenever she wanted and boy she'd be eating her words if she brought Anna back now.

"If this is what Anna wants, this is what Anna gets.")

Anna likely eventually finds a trading vessel that does do trade with foreign nations, Southern Isles included, and gets a long hard stare. Either the captain recognizes that she's the princess, and is attempting to run away to another country, in which case they probably don't want anything involved with this because there goes their business and their head. If they don't recognize Anna (she has been cut off in a castle for years) then this is one seriously weird rich (noble???) woman who... wants to charter a course to the fucking Southern Isles, which are far away and... why?

Former case, she gets sent right back to Elsa where the pair have a massive blow up about how Elsa was bluffing about Anna leaving any time she wanted and she's trapped here isn't she! IT WAS ALL A LIE! ANNA ISN'T EVEN SURPRISED ANYMORE.

Elsa... may or may not accidentally unleash her ice powers, in which case Anna gets hit and is in serious trouble with Elsa having to desperately cart her sister to the trolls (and likely unleashes eternal winter as she's so upset while she does this), or Anna doesn't get hit and Elsa likely unleashes eternal winter as her sister has found her out and is not safe around her and SHE'S RUNNING TO THE MOUNTAINS, ANNA.

Latter case, we get Frozen but there's no Hans subplot/the Hans subplot is that Anna met a hot dude at a party and it was so cool but god what the fuck is her sister doing and ANNA IS VERY SORRY BUT WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT THIS IS MOSTLY NOT HER FAULT.

Former case, Anna and Elsa have a very weird heart to heart after the trolls where Anna learns that Elsa has had magic powers, this whole time, this is the second time Anna's been hit with them and... turned out love was the answer, I guess.

"Can we open up the castle gates?/Can I write Hans?" - Anna

If the captain doesn't recognize Anna... the thing is, Anna looks like trouble. She's horribly clumsy, clearly has 0 idea what she's doing, and while that money is so tempting they'll be on this boat with Anna for some amount of time. And what if she comes back and says "take me back to Arendelle, I changed my mind", so we're still probably back at the "Anna ends up confronting Elsa again.

Does Anna Ever Meet Hans Again?

Honestly, maybe but unlikely.

If Anna and Elsa resolve their differences then Hans was a great guy she met at a party, so hot, but Anna's distracted by hanging out with her sister/having the relationship she always wanted with her. The need to get out of Arendelle isn't nearly as strong, nor is the loneliness.

Hans is still great, love Hans, so hot, so great--but Anna's kind of busy right now and isn't really in a great place for a second major relationship in her life.

I can actually see her sort of forgetting about him, which makes it awkward if/when he shows back up and asks Anna if she remembers the sandwiches. Does she remember the sandwiches?

"... No..." Anna says because wow he is cute but.. hm, she wants to talk to her sister about chocolate, k thanks.

And Hans cries as he hit a dead end and didn't take advantage while he had the chance.

EDIT:

I am reminded that Hans has twelve brothers, not seven, which makes it even worse.

[true--north]

I finally watched Wicked and now I understand how Frozen was inspired by it, and why Elphaba/Fiyero is Elsa/Hans — with one "minor" detail. If only Hans was good, if only he was, he would have been a copy of Fiyero. The ideal prince charming mask; the depressed and deeply-feeling person underneath. The prince who was destined by everything, by the world's very laws to be with a princess, but falling in love with a wicked witch instead. He works for the kingdom, has to hunt her down but when he finally catches her, he is unable to hurt her. Hans' "no harm comes to her" and "I couldn't let them kill you." If Hans stayed good, the love triangle would've been delicious.

Earlier darker versions of Elsa would work as Elphaba even better(especially the blue-skinned one) She is a witch who didn't want to be a witch, forced into the role, misunderstood and ostrakized, but her otherness leaves her no choice. She has to face it and accept it. (Princessly "happily ever after" is not enough for them, that's why Elsa is seeking more and eventually leaves Arendelle just like Elphaba leaves Oz.

Both Elphaba and Elsa have a more than conflicted relationship with their fathers, the fathers who bring their daughters to their ill fates. Elphie's father is the Wizard from the other world and that's why she cannot truly belong to Oz; Agnarr teaches Elsa to conceal, don't feel. Elsa's mother is Northuldra, and that's why Elsa cannot belong to Arendelle, why she is drawn to the Far North. Their emotions are tied with their magic, and their magic with nature. Elsa's magic is winter, the very core of her Northern land, it has an ancient origin from the mysterious Glacier, temple of all Nature; Elphaba's body is green just like the heart of Oz, she can read the ancient magic book that lies in the foundation of her world.

Frozen's "the most hidden lie" is of course the unjust cruel war on the Enchanted Forest and the Queen's true origin(would match Wicked even more in the earlier version where both Agnarr and Iduna knew the truth but chose to stay silent)

Both Elphaba and Elsa eventually celebrate their "wickedness" and find freedom in letting their magic (and emotions) go, but unlike Elphie Elsa was alone, she had no group to join and fight for in F1, so she fell back in the old patterns of fear and selfhatred easier. She only found this group in F2 – the magical tribe of Northuldra.

Anna is built like Glinda, with all her classic Disney princess tropes, her quirks, adorable awkwardness, she is left in charge when Elsa runs away, and represents a Good Princess where Elsa represents a Witch but unlike Glinda she is a genuinely good person. Yes, like with Glinda & Elphie, there's a subtle rivalry "Heir vs Spare" undercurrent. She holds Elsa back, wants everything stay the same, doesn't feel the conflict Elsa comes through, she is a "gravity" to Elsa's dreams of defying (it's especially seen in Life's too short and I seek the truth) — but she would never choice the enemy and living in hypocrisy. Anna can be "an oblivious fool, so desperate to be loved" (her own words) but she would never close her eyes to the evil. Anna fought for Elsa and was willing to destroy Arendelle when found out it was built on lie and injustice. Their sisterhood has more strong unbreakable roots than Elphaba and Glinda's friendship, which has that flavour of forcedness and condescending pity from Glinda's side.

(As for the movie itself, I would leave some songs out, they are only for stage; some of the scenes especially Elphaba and Glinda's first meeting and farewell were too long and borderline cringy. The oversaturated absurd aesthetic of Oz was overwhelming, but maybe it's how the things have to be; I remember that as a child I disliked the original Oz books because of that. In general, I liked the conflict and themes of the movie but would prefer them better in another universe)

[frohana]

Today is five years since Frozen 2 was given to the world - five years since I saw it for the first time. In a lot of ways, it’s been a dark, sad, scary, lonely, exceptionally difficult five years, and I know that in the grand scheme of things, one film has no real bearing on any of that, but for me, it’s helped more than I can say to have had Frozen 2 as a constant in my life.

Consider this post a thank you they’ll never see to Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck, the Lopezes, and all the cast & crew at WDAS for giving the world this incredibly special film - for being brave enough to let these characters I’ve loved since I was 16 grow and change in such profound and true ways, for letting them be complicated and flawed and real, for showing us how they learn to face change in ways that really spoke to me.

Was Frozen 2 a perfect movie? I don’t know, and I don’t really care. All I know is that it was everything that I needed it to be. They knew this movie would’ve made bank no matter what and could’ve played it incredibly safe, but instead they challenged us: they pushed the boundaries of the narrative in less conventional directions, confronting questions of belonging and purpose and the nature of grief, of colonialism, and the masking of history, and a heritage lost and found. They asked: what do you do when you can’t hold onto someone you love in the way you always thought you could? How do you keep them close while letting them go? Can we change and grow and piece together new histories of who we are, without losing who we are? How do you right the wrongs of the past? How do you keep going when the world around you changes in ways you can’t control?

I could go on and on about this movie, but I’ll leave it here. I’ll conclude with the photo I took that very day five years ago, just before heading into the cinema to watch it:

I will always remember how excited I felt looking up at that huge poster of our girl. Love you, Frozen. Can’t wait for the next chapter.

[babblingflowers]

I know they're in the movie for a grand total of like 5 minutes, but I cannot express how much I love the depiction of Anna and Elsa's parents in Frozen, particularly because it shows that parents can genuinely love and care for their kids, and still harm them. Which was in stark contrast to typical parent/child dynamics in fairytale stories.

I don't really know if I would classify how the king & queen treated their daughters as capital a, Abuse but regardless, the choices they made left both girls with deep emotional trauma that they will have to reckon with for the rest of their lives. And the fact that the king and queen didn't intend to harm their children doesn't absolve them of thr harm the inflicted (it doesn't you know, count for nothing, especially given that their both dead and have no ability to apologize or repair that damage.)

And I don't just think this was an important depiction because it offers a more realistic and nuanced depiction of people, compared to cartoon villain evil step mothers (which isn't to say that heartless parents who hate their children don't also exist, but this broadens the picture of what abuse can and often does look like, especially when you factor in that neglect is the most common type of child abuse) which is important, especially for kids to see (imo).

But the idea that loving parents and parents who abuse their kids are mutually exclusive things, is something that is actively used by abusive parents (particularly emotionally abusers) to deflect and avoid responsibility for the harm they've caused to their children, as well as convince their kids that what they experienced wasn't abuse at all. "I love my kids" is not a defense to accusations of mistreatment, but shitty parents will try to convince you it is. And when we limit our concept of abuse to intentional, malevolent treatment by sinister monsters, we limit victims from being able to identify the harm done to them, and we limit abusers from ever self reflecting and changing their behavior. Because if only Evil people do bad things, and you are not Evil, you never have to worry about hurting anyone .

[da-xiao-jie]

Pt. 3 of who knows how many! Let’s over analyze Frozen 2 in honor of Frozen 3 being in production!

Alrighty, this one gets into my girl Elsa. Before I get started, please know that I love this character to death and see a lot of myself in her (the anxiety, not the magic) and I just think that, concerning storytelling, the second Frozen movie made some poor creative choices. Let’s get into it.

Let’s review, shall we? First film establishes that Elsa is isolated from her family and from people in general. She runs away when her super secret magic is accidentally revealed, sings a song about letting everything go and embracing that part of herself, does a bunch of stuff and, eventually, is reunited with her sister and they finally get the chance to catch up and make up for lost time. Great! Her arc is complete, she’s established and loved by her people and her family, which now consists of a sentient snowman, a reindeer, and her sister’s fiancé. Nice! Found family!

By this point, Elsa’s story doesn’t need anything, with the very minor point of her magic’s origin, but that’s hardly consequential because her magic isn’t going anywhere so it doesn’t matter. She’s got it now, so there’s nothing to be done.

The opening of Frozen 2 sets up the story similarly to the first film. Elsa is feeling isolated, but not in the same sense. She has responsibilities and family, but she feels like she’s missing out. Then the Voice thing happens and the story kicks off.

It’s dumb. It tries to undo all the progress Elsa made in the previous movie and in trying to make Elsa the focal character, they just rehash everything. Or try to. They make it worse this time.

Because at this point, Elsa has had her little family for three years and they should be growing closer and less inclined to want to go off. Elsa has love and purpose and, by all accounts from the first film, should be in a good spot.

Instead, in order to achieve the same success musically, they need the longing song and the other song that idina menzel sings because let’s be honest, that woman is amazing.

My issues with how Frozen 2 deals with Elsa mainly lie with how they present her once she’s been establish her as The Fifth Spirit. They elevate her to goddess status and remove her from her family, something that she hasn’t really had for more than half her life. And then, what? She moves in with a tribe and visits every now and again for family game night? What? What happened to the importance of family?

Also, what makes her the fifth spirit? She never even comes in contact with the earth spirit(s?) or “tames” them i don’t think. All the other spirits are distinctly not human and though they might have above average intelligence there’s certainly an imbalance because, y’know, Elsa’s human. And it’s pretty much implied that the spirits are eternal and ethereal. Not exactly something you see in a human who was born and struggles with mental health. She’s not a spirit! I got such a weird vibe off her in the end.

HOWEVER Elsa is a dynamite character and honestly I don’t blame them for wanting to put her in the spotlight. But what should they have done instead?

WHAT THE TRAILER ACTUALLY HINTED AT

There’s a line in the trailer that never gets said in the film and i’m pissed about it because it could’ve worked concerning the story and Elsa’s character and here it is:

“Magic can be very alluring.”

(or something like that)

Wouldn’t it make sense for Elsa, having finally learned to embrace her powers, to go the other direction and obsess over them? Wouldn’t that be interesting to watch? Wouldn’t it be cool to see Elsa do dangerous things with her magic, pushing herself to the edge of what would be considered sane or normal which then would lead to a search for the origins of her magic and in turn, more info on Trolls, magic, Kristoff, etc. Elsa, who has learned to love and be loved, might not initially listen to her family’s concerns, but maybe eventually she’ll cave because she doesn’t want them to worry and that works much better at showing how far she’s come over the past three years instead of putting her at square one yet again and then having her find something that traumatizes her yet again (so she can blame herself for her parents death and then “process” it by ditching her sister. Bleh what the heck)

Not only would it satisfy the story and kick it off in a great way, it would be very visually appealing and they could even do a whole sequence with a song and truly be the musical successor to “Let it go” It could even lead into her powers growing so strong and her skill with said strength growing so much but the end of that arc that it could lead into a third movie very easily because, I don’t know about you, but if one of my neighboring kingdoms had a queen with an insane amount of magic, I would either declare war out to protest her position or try to build an alliance and having that kind of storyline could still (eventually) lead to Anna becoming queen of Arendelle Elsa finding her place somewhere else or really just enjoying being by her sister’s side as advisor or general or something.

anyway, frozen 2 seems like it backtracks and almost retcons some of Elsa’s development so they can land her somewhere else and make her even more Special than the super-powered, musically inclined Queen she already was.

[fandomsonmysleeve]

Something really special about Eugene and Kristoff is they are considered consorts.

They become spouses to women who are of royal birth and reign their kingdoms.

Rapunzel and Anna, their girlfriends/wives, were Princesses when they first met Eugene and Kristoff who were eventually crowned Queens (I am only speaking in canon from the film Tangled— despite at the time of meeting Eugene nor Rapunzel knew she was a Princess).

As shown at the end of Tangled/Tangled Ever After and both Frozen films and the Frozen shorts, this fact did not bother the men. They never expressed feeling pressure over being in love with women of royal status or seemed overwhelmed that they would become royalty themselves through marriage. As their relationships progressed Eugene and Kristoff didn’t let these facts alter their decisions on whether or not they wanted to get married to these women. They never expressed feeling nervous over the responsibilities and duties that came along with matrimony. They didn’t pretend to fall in love only to gain power, status, and a title (LIKE HANS). Marrying a Princess/Queen wasn’t a big deal.

This is because both men looked beyond the women’s status.

All that mattered to Eugene and Kristoff when it came to the relationships were that their true loves were safe, happy, and healthy. That’s all they cared about. Royalty or not. They truly fell in love with Rapunzel and Anna for their hearts, not for their power. Both men willingly and wholeheartedly chose the women they were committed to.

Bonus:

I love this moment between Anna and Kristoff in Frozen 2. Kristoff gets formally dressed for Anna’s coronation and she lets him know in her own words (by flirtatiously saying she prefers him wearing leather) that she likes him the way he is. The way he dresses is perfectly fine and she loves him for it.

Kristoff’s face after Anna says this and walks away is extremely precious. He’s so happy to hear that she loves every part of him.

[neptrabbit]

My bad take on Frozen 2:

Elsa & Anna have to have lineage from both Arendelle and Northuldra - this is what made a simple reconciliation & solution possible by the end of the movie.

yea I know all the "it's a kids movie, no need to look that deep" talk, but I am a loser with no hobby so pls let me have this.

Looking from the macro scale, the history between Arendelle & Northuldra is marked by invasion: Arendelle soldiers attacked Northuldra during their ceremony, which in turn caused the magical forest to be surrounded by impenetrable fog for over three decades. Simple.

What is not so simple is that our two protagonists, widely loved by audiences, now represent the said regime that initiated the invasion. To distance them (especially Elsa, still head of state at that moment) from the past wrongdoings of their kingdom, this movie did two things.

First, the “Northuldra ppl aren’t credible because they believe in magic” talk. The effect of this particular line of dialogue is to completely separate the Arendelle in the past & Arendelle now, and essentially to place all the blame on Runeard. Yes, they had a magic-phobic king, but Arendelle now had a magic-wielding queen who was loved by the ppl, it’s changed! Current-day Arendelle stands for different values and, what was implied but left unsaid, Arendelle today (and their monarch) should not be responsible for what happened in the past.

(recall the “but the Northuldra didn’t give us any reason not to trust them” line right before Runeard’s line too, it’s pretty obv they were tryin to get the soldiers off the hook & make Runeard the only bad guy there)

Second, making Iduna Northuldra and to have her save Agnarr. This provides enough reason for audience to believe that Northuldra would be able to see Elsa & Anna as one of them, rather than (more logically) see the sisters as representing the kingdom that invaded them & causing them trapped in the forest. (Sure, they had a Northuldra mother, but it’s obvious that at this point they fully identified as Arendelleans and had no connection to their mother’s heritage.) To push this point further, there’s the Iduna saving Agnarr plot line.

Iduna saving Agnarr is an act of kindness which ultimately leads to Elsa&Anna’s birth. It legitimizes the Northuldra part of their identity (since they wouldn’t have been born without a Northuldra’s action), despite the reasons mentioned previously (they represent Arendelle regime & have no knowledge of their Northuldra heritage). This eventually makes the reconciliation possible & acceptable in the narrative, by showing that despite past conflict, the two lands are still connected by love, kindness, etc. Elsa & Anna are the embodiment of this love & connection (and are definitely separated from the invader Arendelle under Runeard). Anna "set things right" by destroying the dam (even tho tbh it's more like... undoing the damage). Elsa, now fully who she’s “meant to be”, then saves Arendelle using the power she received from Ahtohallan, the magic river in Northuldra myth. 

Like many in the fandom, I have a lot of reservations abt how little consequences Arendelle experiences. The castle that was built during the invasion still stands in the final version of the movie. The statue of young Agnarr & Iduna stood, but is one individual’s show of love and kindness enough to cross off all the years of hurt & bitterness experienced? Is finally freeing Northuldra from the magical forest enough of a “favor” to cross off the past invasion initiated by Arendelle from ppl’s memories?

Even though they framed it as the two lands being connected by the love between young Agnarr & Iduna, there are also little things in the movie that make me uneasy: how Northuldra was still faulted for what had transpired even during Agnarr’s reign. How Iduna didn’t tell him about her identity until very later on. How in some deleted scenes of the movie, Northuldra language was illegal to use. I’ve talked in a recent post so I won’t reiterate, but had they framed the story from the pov of the Northuldra even one bit, this whole story’s gonna turn out a lot darker and a lot less fair than it was.