Frozen Shouldn't Have a Bad Guy

03/25/15

So, I like the movie Frozen quite a bit. It's a good Disney movie that subverts a lot of the old Disney tropes to good effect. Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten that way due to rewrites, and those rewrites decided to make the traditional hero of these stories a villain.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly valid twist on an old, old Disney trope, but literally nothing set up this twist. He was, by all accounts, a perfectly awesome person up until he refused to kiss Anna. Seriously, he did only things a respectable person would do, even when he was more-or-less alone, up until he revealed himself to be selfish and looking to get his own kingdom.

To me, it would've been much better if they had attempted the kiss, nothing happened, because they weren't truly in love, and then he came to the conclusion that only killing Elsa would save her. Because, you know, they aren't romantically in love, but Anna may just be his first friend. They have a lot in common, afterall. They'd probably be perfectly legitimate friends. They're just not in love, and not knowing the difference confused them.

It wouldn't have to be spelt out like that, it could have just been a subtle nod in that direction. I mean, there really isn't enough of male and female characters that are more-or-less main characters, that decide they're friends. I feel it would have been a much better twist on the traditional hero than making him the villain.

But, you know, I'm weird. I've told others this and their response was, "It's also good to show that a person who seems completely likable is actually dishonest and selfish." And to be fair, that's a good point.

At least he didn't suddenly become ugly after his evil side was revealed.