Frozen Observations

30-something, he/him. I think too much about Frozen. Analyst, mapmaker, infrastructure engineer. Arendelle-content and trips down memory lane! Banner: photo of Nærøyfjord by me!

[unadulteratedhideouttrash]

[kirknspock]

[snowflaketale12]

Happy 5th Anniversary to Arendelle Archives!

Made a simple edit to commemorate such an amazing anniversary for @arendelle-archives 😊

Even though I've only been part of this team for two and a half years, it's truly been an honor to be part of the team! 💙

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[hms-no-fun]

so i feel the urge to add a bit of context here because i find the vague on-screen text deeply underwhelming.

this is not just "a picture", it's Pale Blue Dot, one of the most famous works of astrophotography ever made public. and it was not just "a dying spacecraft", it was Voyager 1, a probe launched in 1977 to study the atmosphere and moons of Jupiter and Saturn, among other things. both Voyager probes carried on them a golden record meant as an introduction to humanity for any alien species that might discover them (if you saw Kane Parsons' Backrooms, you've heard the contents of that record coming out of a cardboard caveman standee). they did this because NASA planned to sundown these probes by letting them drift out of the solar system to parts unknown. Voyager 1 is currently 16 billion miles away, the farthest any manmade object has ever traveled from earth.

AND it's not even dead! despite supposedly being a "dying spacecraft" all the way back in 1990, Voyager 1 is not expected to be fully out of commission until 2036. to keep the probe alive they've switched off unneeded tools, adjusted its trajectory, even essentially updated the firmware, and through all that time it's basically never stopped sending back priceless data for scientists to analyze.

this is the original Pale Blue Dot, by the way:

it's relevant because "a single point of light smaller than one pixel" makes a lot more sense in the context of the original than it does in the heavily corrected version up top, where our pale blue dot looks more like a vibrant dwarf star. the difficulty of spotting earth in these waving curtains of space IS the entire impact of the picture! the blue dot is "pale" because it's hard to see! by making earth stand out so brilliantly, Terribly Interesting have inadvertently created the impression that earth is this vibrant glowing pearl, bright for all to see for billions of miles around. and it just isn't! the point is not that we can see earth from far away, but that we almost can't, because we aren't the center of the universe! when science educators past have used this image they often referred to one where the earth is circled in bright red, which only further emphasizes how small and fragile our home really is.

but hey, if you DO want an improved version of Pale Blue Dot you don't even need photoshop:

this is Pale Blue Dot Revisited, released by NASA in 2020. this is a reinterpretation of the original data using modern image processing techniques to create a more realistic or at least more high-definition rendering of the scene. it's important to understand that this is not the original image dropped into photoshop and airbrushed. strictly speaking, there isn't an "original" Pale Blue Dot the way there are negatives of traditional photography. astrophotography is almost always the product of raw data being deliberately interpreted by scientists, so the same data can produce many different images (ie if they want to emphasize the infrared spectrum vs visible light). similar work was done by Don P. Mitchell in ~2005 to enhance images taken by Soviet Venera probes of the surface of Venus to be less noisy.

here's an original:

and here's Mitchell's version:

i'm not here to argue which is "better" (and i highly recommend you read the source for this one because it's quite fascinating), just to give another example of the process in action and hopefully clarify how it's distinct from editing a jpeg in photoshop. also i just think it's neat!

which is the real reason i went to the trouble of making this post. Terribly Interesting may indeed find all of this to be terribly interesting, but it appears to be interest for the sake of a vague transient feeling of having been interested and little else. it doesn't name the probe, the photo in question, nor does it give historical context for the mission it was part of. the only substantial thing it says about the probe, that Voyager 1 is a "dying spacecraft", is so frustratingly oversimplified it may as well just be a lie.

so what's actually learned here, if you're someone who knows none of this history? that one time there was a thing and it did a thing? earth tiny from far away?? obviously it's just one image macro but i see this kind of thing making the rounds SO often, a screenshot with like two sentences on it explaining the image with as little descriptive text as possible. it's like there's a space-themed inspiration-posting rulebook that says you can't imply the existence of information not contained within the image. mention NASA? mention Voyager 1? mention Pale Blue Dot? nope! "a dying spacecraft" took "one last photograph", and here's a photoshopped version to make earth more visible.

and it might not even get to me nearly as much if this was any other space photo. i could accept that space stuff is complicated and this kind of fast-food image can only say so much if we were talking about Cassini or JWST's role in helping us find exoplanets. but this is Pale Blue Dot, the brainchild of arguably THE science communicator Carl Sagan! he wrote a book about Pale Blue Dot, he was on TV to announce the image personally! it's arguable that no astrophotograph exists whose context has been more digestibly packaged for laymen than Pale Blue Dot, which just makes it that much more egregious when someone doesn't go to the trouble.

so much of what i love about astronomy and studying the past & future of space travel is that everything you can learn is a doorway to learning more. you can't earnestly read about Voyager or Cassini or Venera or any other mission without finding some odd searchable detail and going "wait, what is that" and immediately falling down an hourslong rabbit hole to find an answer. and you'll never reach the bottom! i love reading articles about cutting edge astrophysics written for people in, like, early grad school, because i fully comprehend maybe 10% of it, vaguely understand 20% (on a good day), can kind of wrap my head around 30%, and find the rest totally inscrutable... but that's still a solid 60% scrutability rating even at the lowest-quality end of the spectrum! i'm no expert and i never will be, but in scouring the written expertise of others i almost always find one or two ideas that end up sticking with me forever. and it starts, every time, from questions about a photograph.

the sin of the above image is that it's solipsistic. it doesn't give you anywhere to put your curiosity or interest, doesn't invite you to leave their website and learn more than they have space to share, it doesn't even tell you anything useful about its subject! it reduces the entire history of Pale Blue Dot down to a vague and nondescript wonder that's just a pale imitation of the highly specific and ideologically driven wonder that Carl Sagan wanted us to feel.

here, feel it for yourself:

----

[P.S.: before you lament that this is an "AI" problem, while yes "AI" has radically increased the volume of low-value (often negative-value) inspiration bait like this, know that this has been a problem in online science education for a LOT longer than chatgpt's been around. this example isn't extraordinary, just close to my heart. nothing new under the sun and all that]

[hms-no-fun]

lmao someone else got their knocks in on this post before i could finish writing mine. clearly we are hand in hand re: Talk About How Cool Voyager 1 Is You Fucks

Reblog by @katjohnadams · 1 image

💬 0  🔁 109  ❤️ 245 · Okay, I need to add some clarification and correction to this. This photo is known as The Pale Blue Dot. It was take

[gaygirldoodles]

I love lesbian rep possibly even more than the next person but I always thought Elsa was aroace even before I knew what that was

[virtual-winter]

[snowflaketale12]

I made a magazine style edit of Agnarr to celebrate the belated Father's Day that was supposed to be posted last week 💙

I've been pretty busy and it was around the same time as Anna's birthday so I didn't have time to finish this edit until now, sorry for the late post Agnarr 😭

[arendelle-archives]

Happy 5-year-anniversary! ✨💖🎉

Well folks, here it is. Our 5th anniversary! The quote above comes from my friend @bigfrozenfan shortly after our 4th anniversary and we think it's a perfect summary of the works of Arendelle Archives since its inception in 2021.

The Frozen franchise is a fine example of Disney world-building and with two movies, several short films and numerous novels, books and comics, there is A LOT of material to dig into an analyse. And that has always been the goal of the Archives-project: to provide a platform for fans who want to create their own analysis-projects, write articles, post findings and theories and so on. We want to be a stepping-stone for fans, both old and new, to explore some of the underlying, niche Frozen-topics that only gets a brief mention or hint in the movies. Like, what's the deal with Hans's ship? When was Arendelle founded? How did Runeard build his dam? Are there any accurate maps of Arendelle and other Disney kingdoms? What's the chronology of the movies and the novels? How many named characters are there in Arendelle and why are so many of them called Lars?

These are just a handful of topics that we have explored during our five years and with Frozen III on the horizon, we expect there will be plenty more lore to dig into very soon!

For this special day, our co-founder @saiten-gefroren wanted to share this message:

Today is a special day for us. It's the 5th anniversary of Arendelle Archives! First, I want to say thanks to our team. It is the participation of us together that makes the Archives flourish and stay creative. Five years ago, we were only 4 members with 2 projects, but take a look at what we've achieved so far: there are 57 members on Discord with a variety of channels to discuss. There's a Tumblr blog where we post completed projects and answer to the questions people asked. We even have a video on YouTube through collaboration. I would say the achievements today have gone beyond my initial expectations, and I'm proud to be a member of Arendelle Archives. Special thanks to my friend @virtual-winter who has always been enthusiastic and putting a lot of efforts here for all these years. The Archives would not be so lively without his sustained efforts. Second, we will not stand still by admiring the past, of course. The next five years will be even more exciting! In one year and a little more, Frozen III will come out, followed by Frozen IV. I'm sure that the whole fandom will be heated once again in the next few years, and we royal archivists will get tons of documentations to work on then. I promise the Archives will always be a good platform to share ideas, discuss, collaborate and conduct projects freely. We have obtained all these achievements together, and we will continue to do this together. The flag of Arendelle Archives will always fly! 🎇🎇🎇

From our Discord-team, we would like to thank everyone who has commented, liked, reblogged and asked questions during these past five years and we're looking forward to the next five!

[marthefrozenfan]

Some parts of the fandom hate the joke in "Let It Go" where Elsa feels "embarrassed" when she sees herself singing. They're bothered by it because Elsa was at the height of her fame, and they feel it's unfair because the song became quite popular.

But I don't see the negative side of it. It's just a joke, and besides, in that scene, Elsa was in a stage of self-acceptance, a stage where even some things she did in the past make her cringe, just like any human being who evolves and changes. Because when we grow up, sometimes there are situations from our past that make us say, "Oh no, was that really me?" And yes, we tend to feel embarrassed or cringe when we remember those situations. So what? It's part of growing up as human beings. It's okay if some situation in your life makes you feel embarrassed; it's part of it. And just like a human being, a character does too, and Elsa is a clear example.

Elsa is a human being like any other. She had every right to feel cringe during that period of her life when she was practically isolated and faced with her greatest enemy: FEAR. And in Frozen 2, when she's on Ahtohallan, she's at peace with herself and free from fear. So... what's wrong with having an emotion like embarrassment? It's normal; it makes her HUMAN. 🌹🌹🌹

[frozen-snowflakesandsunflowers]

When he first appeared in the comics, he said that his family were a rightful rulers of Arendelle because of that horn

What if he was telling the truth? What if his family were the rightful rulers?

And if he ever does return into a comics or a graphic novel, what if he finds proof that his family were and still all the rightful rulers of? Arendelle

Hi again, Dragonknights-world,

I just read the comic after you had asked so apologies for the delay in replying! The story in this comic sounds SO interesting and has SO much lore for a regular comic you'd find in magazines. But I'm not complaining, I really enjoyed it! I'm all about the lore! So just allow me to do a breakdown on the story first then I'll get to your question! And for those who want to read the story, here's the link to @virtual-winter's Reddit post to part 1 and 2 of the comic story.

What I love about the story

There's so much about this sorry that I love: I like how we have a new neighbouring kingdom that is potentially related to Arendelle. I love how Elsa was intrigued to know more about Arendelle and her family's history since it could be related to the source of her powers - showing us that she's been wanting to find that out ever since she embraced them in Frozen. And I love how they go to Grand Pabbie for information and then are off to do their adventure, just like they did in Frozen 2. I love how we saw actual animals called Narwhals and how they were part of the story in some way. I liked the little puzzle at the end destination in the cave which led to a display of viking elements like the helmet and then the Lure Horn they were trying to find.

Frozen 3 vibes

felt like a mini movie or book which I loved!

This gave me major Frozen 3 vibes with the vikings being part of Arendelle's Royal family ancestry and somehow it linked to Elsa's powers. The Frozen 3 concept art shows a viking so we know that Frozen 3 will dive further into Norse mythology. Also the stranger who claims he's related to Elsa and Anna through ancient family ties is giving the mysterious member of the royal family set to appear in Frozen 3.

Connection the lore and unintentional Frozen 3 foreshadowing?

Also this kind of builds in my theory on the real reason why Elsa stayed behind in the Forest in From 2, which is because she feared danger now that the forest is free and more magic is exposed to the world and doesn't want history, like her grandfather's war, repeating itself. Thord who claims he's related to the sisters, is after the horn because he believes it could give him powers like Elsa's. So we have people fear Elsa's powers and try to kill her, and we have people who envy her powers and try to get their own set with her help. And obviously now we know Elsa's powers came from Ahtohallan all because it was a gift to Iduna as a reward for her sacrifice. The powers made Elsa and Anna the Fifth Spirit because Ahtohallan knew they could, together, balance humans and magic and save the world when those woe sides turn on each other.

Also instead of the horn giving Thord powers, it is called the Narwhals which means their ancestors are connected to the Narwhals in terms of having a relationship with the Narwhals. It's all part of the lore which I absolutely love and makes me believe Frozen 3 will touch on Arendelle's ancestry. And I hope the Narwhals are featured in the movie because they look majestic and could be other physical animals that the sisters connect with. Plus the horn has carvings inside of it of two sisters holding hands who Elsa and Anna believe are their great great great grandmother (Runeard 's grandmother's grandmother) and her sister and Thord said that the horn carried the strength of their family and Elsa and Anna believe it's the love for each other that's the strength so what if the carving sisters are the Fifth Spirit that was mentioned in the Myth short and Frozen 3 expanded on that hence the viking aesthetic the concept art is giving??! I mean it would make sense why Thord thought the horn would give him powers, because of the magical and literal bond the sisters in the carvings had and hearing about it made him envy for powers like Elsa's.

Reading this comic and coming up with this theory is blowing my mind and making me obsessed with lore!

Also one of these sisters has a cape and a single braid and off the shoulder neckline like Elsa whilst the other has two braids, cuff and neckline details/ designs like Anna and also has a viking helmet to show they're from those times. But I obviously don't know if the fight spirit idea it's hinting at was intentional. This comic was released in December 2016 and Frozen 2 was announced in March 2015 so maybe just maybe the Fifth Spirit thing was always an idea and this comic touched on it for the idea it had. I don't know for sure but either way I love this and this is my strongest headcanon theory that these two above are the Fifth Spirit we were told about in the Myth story which had them falling out of sync with the other elements suddenly and was never seen again. So they weren't a very successful Fifth Spirit as far as we know and Ahtohallan spent centuries looking for the next one through Iduna giving her the daughters who'd be the Fifth Spirit and create balance and harmony between the spirits, magic and humans and we're witnessing their story in hopes they'll be successful and prevent history repeating itself.

The Ask

Okay now to your question, do you think Thord is actually related to the sisters and proves so? Possibly yes! Because if the grandmother had a sister, perhaps she got married to a nearby kingdom or wanted to rule her own kingdom and had the Lur Horn. Perhaps that Lur marked their bond, especially if they were the original Fifth Spirit before Elsa and Anna, and it was stored somewhere safe with other artifacts from their era. And so Thord heard of that story from his kingdom and realized Queen Elsa from Arendelle had powers so he would go to the kingdom and find the Lur that he believed would give him powers but instead it just attracts the Narwhals and is a symbol of the love between Runeard's grandmother's grandmother and her sister who could possibly maybe be Thord's grandfather's grandmother's grandmother.

But overall, as much as I love this comic and their theory/ headcanon, I don't think these comics are strictly canon but then again we can consider them so if we wanted to but I wouldn't expect this mentioned if Frozen 3 has a similar story. Thank you for introducing me to this story because I had no idea how much lore could be in a comic story and give Frozen 3 vibes!

That's all for now but I will make a theory post explaining all this soon! ❄️

[virtual-winter]

Thanks for the tag! Sorry it took me forever to respond 😆

It's so funny to think about the impact of some of the Joe Books Frozen comics despite them being a decade old at this point! And I agree that "Lur thief" is among the most interesting written Frozen stories. The strangest thing about it is the cave puzzle for sure. Who built it? How does it operate? Why does it seem like it's designed to react to Elsa's powers even though the place must be many generations older than her? It reminds me a lot of an old episode of the sci-fi show Stargate SG-1 where the team is stuck on a planet and has to solve a Norse mythology-themed puzzle in a cave.

Here are some of my other thoughts about it.

About Thord

I think it's possible he was telling the truth about his origin, or at least some version of the truth. I doubt his claim about being the rightful heir to the throne was accurate but I really like your theory about him being related to the sister of Anna and Elsa's great-great-great-grandmother.

Not Vikings

Despite their attire, there is no chance Anna and Elsa's great-great-great-grandmother and her sister were Vikings as they lived "only" five generations before the time of Frozen (so probably in the late 1600s or early 1700s). The Viking Age was a period at the end of the Iron Age that lasted from around the late 700s to the mid 1000s, so many many generations earlier. Maybe the artist overestimated how distant of a relative the queen really was or perhaps they intended for the queen to be a big Viking-fan and wanted herself and her sister to be depicted as Viking rulers? This second option is definitely more interesting and is something that I have as a personal headcanon regarding Arendelle's history.

Them being from a "modern" time period also makes sense when you consider that the classic image of the Viking wearing a horned helmet is completely false. This idea was only popularised in the 1800s and has no basis in actual archaeological finds. This is such an easy trap to avoid and unfortunately, the franchise has doubled down on this depiction many times and chances are they might do it in the sequel as well. In the first movie though, something much closer to real Viking armour can be seen in the background:

There is some other Viking memorabilia seen in Arendelle castle both in the movies and the comics so it was probably always a big deal in Arendellian culture.

About the lur

I'm puzzled by the decision to call the horn the "elfenben lur". "Elfenben" is the Swedish word for "ivory" and the horn is definitely made of bronze (confirmed by Grand Pabbie in the story). But perhaps it has ivory decorations?

Bronze horns ("lur") of the type shown in the comic were common in Denmark during the Nordic Bronze Age (ca. 1800 – 500 BC) so it’s possible the kingdom mentioned in the story is meant to be Denmark or possibly The Southern Isles that could have had access to artefacts of that type. It’s also possible it’s simply meant to be a “modern” replica since it was engraved with pictures of existing people.

Your idea about the horn being a gift of friendship from their great-great-great-grandmother's own sister definitely adds more to the story! Much more than I think the author intended.

The engraving inside the bell is also a great example of the level of detail that went into these comics. I can totally see the implied resemblance between the two women and Elsa and Anna (upscaled and edited image):

Some years ago, I wrote an analysis covering Anna and Elsa's relatives that has some information and theories about the "Viking" sisters and other characters that appear in books and comics.

About narwhals

I agree they are some of the coolest creatures in the ocean. There was actually a short story released after Frozen 2 that featured Elsa and Olaf searching for a unicorn but they instead found a narwhal in the fjord. Elsa explains that narwhals are known as "unicorns of the sea." 🦄

About the Fifth spirit

IDK how this comic could possibly play a part in the ongoing Fifth spirit lore. Since Jenn, Trent and others are probably not even aware of its existence, I'm (unfortunately) skeptical it'll have any impact on the continuation of Anna & Elsa's story in Frozen III. But it's still a very cool idea!

About Ødemark Isle

My theory is that this island is (or was) a remote Arendellian colony similar to Iceland or Svalbard (still a part of Norway) that offered plenty of natural resources not found on the mainland: "exotic" game like polar bears, walruses etc., whales, minerals, coal etc. In my headcanon, Ødemark was also [Spoiler Warning for the novel Polar Nights] the intended destination of the prison ship that was meant to transport Princess Inger. And yeah, I'm calling it "Ødemark" since the original Odemark is clearly an anglicised version of the Norwegian and Swedish words for "wasteland".

[theartoffrozen]

Animation by Isaak Fernandez for Myth: A Frozen Tale

[theartoffrozen]

Sketches for Anna’s Adventure Journal by Agnese Innocente

[ashenmind]

good lord this thing is useless

[fishmech]

idk what yall are mad about the new Lies Your Older Cousin Tells You machine is working great

[dragongirltongue]

Happy horse on mars day

[earhartsease]

[fightingbymoonlight]

Seeing people I know and like using AI is making me understand the protagonists of those old time sci fi dystopia's.

"Oh I don't normally use AI, I just wanted it to plan my trip"

You lived on this planet for decades, you know what you like, there are hundreds of websites where you can type into any search engine " things to do in [area]" and have at least a hundred different options.

"Oh I only use it so I can figure out what to make during the week with what I have"

The most popular website as you type in "recipes" into google have sections where you click dinner- quick and easy and those usually rely on staples + 1 or 2 items. I found 30 recipes on chicken alone.

"I had a writing idea, so I typed a few sentences into Chat GPT and I was able to write 20 pages with it."

Youdidn'twriteit.Youdidn'twriteit.youdidn'twriteit.youdidn'twriteit.YOUDIDN'TWRITEIT.YOUDIDN'TWRITEIT.YOUDIDN'TWRITEIT.

[roadhogsbigbelly]

i honestly don't really understand why "some people prefer watching gameplay online rather than playing games themselves" is treated as such a taboo when being a spectator is considered a pretty mundane way to engage with most sports, game shows, reality tv or even just like. chess.

[arendelle-archives]

July 10th 2026 marks the 5th anniversary of the Arendelle Archives-project 🥳

Starting Friday July 10th, we will embark on a celebration of Arendelle's history, geography, lore. And YOU can be a part of it, too! More information coming soon.

[frozen-week]

Ideas to fill the Frozen Week 2026 prompts!

Want to join the fun for Frozen Week but don’t know where to start? Here’s some extra ideas! Don’t forget that giving ❤️s, comments, reblogging and supporting creators is participating too! Be sure to check out the Prompts and read the Rules and Posting Guidelines!

Ice — memories, beauty, build a snowman, fragile, statue, special ability, secret identity, misunderstood, white or transparent

~ Tell us about your favourite memory of Frozen or the first time you watched Frozen

~ Create 3D art like a sculpture, paper craft, crochet, baking etc

~ Freeze this moment and take a photo of your Frozen book or merch (etc) collection

Air — forecast/prediction, curious, direction, breath/voice/song/music, freedom, dream, fluff and humour, gold and pastel

~ Analyse song lyrics or play/sing your own version of your favourite peice of Frozen music

~ Draw art inspired by a Frozen song or a song that reminds you of Frozen

~ Fluff fic about awkward dreams or dreams coming true or suddenly being without restriction

Fire — feisty pants, alternative powers, up in flames, passion, adventure, danger, grumpy x sunshine, red and yellow

~ Elsa with fire/other powers or give her powers to another character

~ Body swap, genderbent characters, make all the ‘good’ characters ‘bad’ and vice versa

~ Go on an adventure beyond Arendelle and tell us about other kingdoms in the Frozen-verse

Water — timeline/history, go with the flow, fresh start, battle, intuition, enemies to lovers, blue and green

~ Character mood board or gallery of their outfits from canon/non-canon

~ What is Elsa’s new life in the Enchanted Forest like? What happened in the mist?

~ Modern or historical AU, mermaid!Au, nautical!AU

Earth — digging deep/analysis, giant, mother, grass roots, forest, inheritance, location, brown and charcoal

~ Make a sepia toned video, gif set or art

~ Imagine the characters as parents. What would their children look like?

~ Explore the Norwegian, Sami and Norse cultures that influenced elements of Frozen

Spirit — concept development, magic, symbolism, bridge, lost and found, hurt and comfort, purple and silver

~ Design the next motif or banner of Arendelle for F3 with the colours purple and silver

~ Explore influences from Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Snow Queen’ as they relate to Frozen

~ Your reflections on the latest interviews with the frozen cast and creators of the journey to create the Frozen film

Love — answers, acceptance,, first kiss, kudos, friends and family, heartbreak, sacrifice, pink and black

~ Fic including a rare pair of theme of found family or redemption

~ What happened to Agnarr and Iduna on the ship in the dark sea

~ Character appreciation post, art or gif set

The possibilities are limitless! Discuss ideas on the Frozen Hearts Worth Melting For Discord server (contact @kristanna-days for invites) and check out the Frozen lore and analysis at Arendelle Archives @arendelle-archives!

Frozen © Disney. This is a free fan event run by fans, for non-commercial purposes only and not endorsed by Disney. Fan works belong to their creators, please do not use without permission.