Princesses Disney Article: Why I Like Anna plus Than Elsa

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posted by WinterSpirit809

I posté this on the Frizen fan club while back and now I'm posting it here.

Everyone on here that knows pretty much knows how much I l’amour Anna and despise Elsa. I mean, I certainly like Elsa plus than I did when I joined in July, but I really hated her when I joined. So that's not saying much.

Right now, Elsa is twelfth place on my Disney Princesses as opposed to thirteenth place like she was when I first joined, while Anna made it to the top, instead of seconde place. So, both have moved up on my list, but Anna is still way in front of Elsa on my list.

It may not come as a surprise, since Elsa is the most hated Disney Princess on Fanpop. But I don't dislike her because of the most common reasons like she's a coward (I used to think this though) ou she's an introvert. No, I get there was a reason for everything. No, I disike her because of her fans.

But this is not an Elsa hate article, it's a comparison article. So, I will save my rage for another time.

Let me begin with his fans claim that Elsa is mature, calm and wise compared to her sister. toi may be thinking "well, yeah she is.." But let me explain how she's not.

For mature and calm for one, how is freaking out and running away considered calm whatsoever? Yeah, Elsa had better posture and wasn't as daring as Anna but in my opinion at least means nothing. Elsa didn't know what to do under pressure, and Anna did. Anna went to look for Elsa and stopped at nothing until she found her. Elsa was far from calm. Just par having good posture and the ability to stay calm with nothing going on, doesn't exactly qualify as "mature".

As for being wise, does this refer to the fact she a dit "You can't marry a man toi just met."? Okay, so while she may be wise in the romance department, that doesn't make her wise in general. She wasn't wise when she ran away. She wasn't wise when she refused to try and clean up her mess.

Let's déplacer on shall we?

What about personality?I'm one of those few people who believes Elsa does in fact have a personality. Her personality was even plus shown during La Reine des Neiges Fever.

But the fact that it is easily mistaken that Elsa has no personality says a lot really.

Elsa is kind of boring which has been a dit before but I am so sorry. The only thing that interested me about her were shallow- ice powers and her looks. She always talked in this blunt tone and I don't know. She's always depressed, and before toi say she was suffering from anxiety/depression, coming from someone who suffers from depression that has been passed down through genes, I can tell toi that although there are people who are sad all the time, typically people with depression has the ability to crack a smile every once in a while, make a joke, even if it's fake. I guess Elsa tried a little but but she just was this woe is me.

Anna had suffered a lot too. She may not be afraid of herself, but she was shut out for most of her life. She was lonely, with her sister shutting herself out and her parents always with Elsa, ou so it seems from 'Do toi Wanna Build A Snowman?

Everyone pities Elsa for what she went through but does anyone realize that Anna also went through pain? She felt unloved par her sister for years. But what I admire about Anna is she never gave up on Elsa. Throughout this movie, despite keeping a smile on her face, all Anna really wanted was love. But she remained positive that she would find true love. She went all those years positive that she would gain her sister's approval. Anna never really gave up on anyone, and her l’amour for her sister actually saved the day!

Also Elsa really didn't do anything for me. It really get's annoying when people are constantly saying "Elsa represents this and that", because I get people relate to her, but still...

As stated before, I suffer from depression, but I look up to Anna, not Elsa. To me, Elsa was not that good of a role model for depressed people, as she constantly ran away from problems and never fixed them. I get that Elsa was supposed to be flawed, but I still find Anna a better role model. She taught me that I have people I can go to for help and I don't have to handle things alone.

Well that's all for now! I hope toi enjoyed!

AudreyFreak, Sparklefairy375 and 6 others like this

wavesurf This was a thought-provoking article!! Great job! Yes, I dislike Elsa for many of the same reasons you mentioned ( on top of the huge problem I have with the Elsa fanbase). Just like you said, it's not that Elsa has zero personality. It's just that her personality really rubs me the wrong way. I prefer people who roll up their sleeves and attempt/try to fix their own problems-- and who don't wait for others to come fix the problems for them. You could fail, yes, but "trying" is so important!!!! But eh... That's why I thought Anna was way more honorable and relateable. Also... I could not understand how Elsa was suddenly this "fearless heroine," the no-man-needing-woman, the ultra-feminist icon, the LGBT rights icon, the anxiety/depression role model, etc., etc. I mean-- Elsa collectively has less screentime than Anna does-- and yet audiences "ascribe all of these things to her"? How is it that I watched the same movie as everybody else, and I saw Elsa spending most of the entire movie in withdrawal mode? As in... most of the movie consisted of Elsa [i] living in denial of everything going on around her[/i]. Even Frozen Fever consists of Elsa "denying" that she has a cold. I know everybody gets scared, or sick. But please, at some point you have to face your problems, or admit that you have a problem. And it's perfectly fine to go get assistance from other people!!!! Going it alone is not how "real world" achievements are made. Cooperation is the name of the game. Anna represents this aspect. Anyway, this was a good argument for liking Anna. I do like her more than her sister.

UnholyNoise As someone else who has suffered from depression and anxiety, I see a lot of myself in Elsa, and I know others who feel the same. Some people will find their echo in Elsa and some won't; it's valid either way. And I have sympathy for how she handled (or didn't handle) things because I probably would have done the same. When people say Elsa is wise, they mean that she was constantly putting the needs of the kingdom and her sister over her own wants. She has all this internal conflict over what she really wants to do (letting it go, being close with her sister) and what she feels is best for everyone. She knows the winter in Arendelle is her fault, and she knows she can't fix it, so she removes herself from the picture before she makes everything worse. And I admire that. But she's still pretty overrated. Like... people can like any character they want, and for whatever reason, but it really burns me to see Anna, the actual heroine in the movie, the one who matters most to the plot, have her role diminished all the time because she's not edgy enough or sexy enough or doesn't have special flashy ice powers. A lot of people write Anna off because they think she's too romantic or too quirky, or too plain compared to Elsa and it sucks. Whether people like Elsa more is up to them, but there's no denying that Anna is the more important character. She needs more love.

audreygrace412 Neat article! I agree with most of your points and I love Anna myself, while I like Elsa and think she's okay.

MalloMar I'm gong to agree mostly with UnholyNoise. I've started liking Elsa a bit more recently. She does run from her problems, but in her mind, she's protecting her people. Yes, her logic isn't quite right, but she has good intentions. Overall, she's a character I feel sorry for. Of course, I have a thing for flawed characters anyway. I like that she can stay composed (Okay, not for very long) despite the 'storm inside'. So don't get me wrong, I don't like her because she's 'independent, strong and a great role model', but more so because she ISN'T. On the other side (Go ahead, make a Dr. Facilier or Adele reference), I prefer Anna as well. It's funny how certain fans consider Anna the dumb, awkward, 'more dependent' one. Sure, she's not graceful, but she has a different type of maturity. She took action and kept a level head. As anukriti2409 said in a comment on a current article, 'Elsa didn't need a man, but she needed a woman.' Anna is the true hero of Frozen, though she made mistakes in being too trusting. Without Anna, I'm not sure Elsa would have returned to take responsibility. Anna doesn't give up on Elsa and believes the best, even though she's been shut out all her life. In short, I like both sisters for very different reasons. I'm sorry about the long and opinionated comment. This is a great article. It's nice to see some dedicated Anna fans. :)

AangLite Honestly I agree with most of your points but I actually like Elsa a bit more than Anna. For me it's just a realism thing. With Elsa I can understand her being a coward and reacting the way she does to everything. In no way do I support her decisions and I think people that parade Elsa around as being the badass heroine are just delusional. For me, Elsa is a very scared and lonely girl who tries to suppress her emotions so much that when she finally "Let's go" and let's herself feel them, she creates a horrible situation. And it's only Anna sacrificing herself that allows Elsa to realize how wrong she's been, and allows her to fix everything. With Anna on the other-hand, I just can't relate to how she reacts to everything. The whole first third of the movie is Anna being completely shut out by her sister. They don't know each other, can only bond over superficial things like chocolate and there is a very deep resentment there. Then all of a sudden after Elsa's secret comes out it's like Anna forgets everything that's happened and loves her sister unconditionally and to be frank without reason. She literally believes that she can just walk up to her sister and that'll fix everything and to be fair, the movie shows that no, she can't. The end result of that decision is Elsa placing a death curse on her. But Anna's faith in Elsa is never shaken, to the point where she sacrifices her own life to save Elsa. Why?!?! Sisterly love only can explain so much. And that type of love has to have a solid foundation, not over 10 years of little to no bonding at all. Honestly if we had been given scenes of Elsa and Anna bonding during the movie Anna would be one of my favorite characters. Perhaps Elsa explaining to Anna WHY she started ignoring her. I mean, Anna never even learns why she has the white streak. Overall Anna is too forgiving to the point where it's unbelievable and I think it acts as a severe detriment to her character. She makes it seem like you can treat people horribly and you deserve them to keep coming back to you no matter what. It's a very abusive relationship and honestly makes Anna seem more like a weak victim than anything else.

wavesurf ^ @AangLite: What you've said is exactly where I think Frozen completely falls apart... It's part of why Frozen is at the bottom of my Disney movie list. I don't think Jennifer Lee was a good screenwriter for this movie [i]at all[/i]. It takes more than "memory wipes" from trolls to solve issues, and having a sibling "die" to fix a major psychological plot-hole ( without any buildup, aftermath, or reasoning) is verging on nonsensical to me. One of my first original objections to Frozen while back on IMDB.com was that there literally were so [i]few[/i] moments where Anna and Elsa actually talked to each other. Not screamed at each other over a blizzard, but TALKED. There were no scenes in this movie where the sisters were seen "talking over" the "forced separation" in their lives. I mean, turning from winter to spring and back into winter is "flashy" and cool ( I guess) for the kiddos, but it does not explain away the sister-against-sister dynamic from a dysfunctional household. Oh, well. I digress...

AangLite ^ I honestly think Frozen is a near perfect movie for the first 2/3. It has all this wonderful buildup, super interesting parallels between Anna and Hans, and beautiful music and animation. Then the last 1/3 it's like everyone just gave up and decided to end the movie with as little conflict as possible by turning Hans into the main villain and creating a strong sisterly bond out of nowhere. It's gotten to the point where I just watch the first 2/3, stop and create my own little head-canon on how it ends. Because to be frank, the nonsense I create in my head is more satisfying than what we got. It just disappoints me by how much [i]potential[/i] there was.

wavesurf ^Yep. I'm with you there. I thought they had something going, and I was expecting the movie to [i]deliver[/i] on that promise. And then...it didn't.

TheMusicalMolls This was a great article! I pretty much agree with you on everything. And I also agree that the writing didn't really deliver on the whole "sisterly love" thing. It seems a little strange that they would suddenly have such a strong bond after years of separation and psychological problems. I'm not really sure what happened there...