Can we talk about how excellent it is in Frozen that Prince Hans, who turns out to be an utter scumbag, is not coded as The Villain in any way *until* he totally and undeniably turns on Anna? Thread:

Yes, this thinking is brought to you by many many lockdown rewatches with the smalls. And I will say Frozen is not unproblematic, but as mainstream films go it’s actually not bad. Prince Hans is one example.

So. Prince Hans appears at the beginning as a fairly bland and featureless ‘romance hero’ for Anna; she’s full of personality but he’s very generic. They meet, have a nice sing (it’s Disney) and decide to get married - & it’s not a grand proposal, it’s presented much more equally

Deciding to get married after less than a day is obviously a Bad Plan, not a great romantic adventure, and everyone around Anna responds in that light: Elsa won’t give them her blessing, Kristoff explicitly states he doesn’t trust her judgment because of that decision.

Prince Hans, btw, is not accompanied by any foreboding music, any secret looks to camera of his Plotting Face, any unseen-by-the-sisters moments where he’s really mean to someone. I’ve even watched it with the smalls and asked them to look for clues that Hans is not nice.

And btw Anna is not at any point held up to be worthy of criticism or shame for *loving* him (for a certain Disney-film value of love, obviously), only for *deciding* to marry him too soon.

Anyway.The moment Anna actually needs him he reveals himself to be a total shit, who not only doesn’t love her but was - and is - scheming & manipulating against her & her sister, & then leaves her for dead. And it’s really not foreshadowed much at ALL, at least on kid-film-level

But what’s importantly brilliant about this is that villains in the real world don’t come with menacing music. Dangerously bad romantic partners, in particular, don’t come complete with I Am A Baddie stylings - and instead are often especially charming & delightful to begin with.

And it’s NOT YOUR FAULT if you didn’t see past that. Unlike a villain who’s clearly coded as such from the outset, it’s not like everyone but you saw it, so how stupid you must be. It just means that for ANYONE, making very fast and irrevocable decisions is best avoided.

And what a brilliant thing to teach young children: you can’t always spot who is kind and who isn’t until you’ve seen enough of their *actions*, not just their words. Love freely, AND be cautious.

In short, grow up to find yourself a Kristoff (of any gender) who *asks* what you need or want before doing it, will cheerfully tell you if you’re being rubbish without holding it against you, and puts your health and happiness above pursuing their own grand romantic agenda.

(Huh, I had a lot to say about this. We have watched a LOT of Frozen in the last few months!)