Why Anna's Crippling Childhood Loneliness Doesn't Make Sense 

Why Anna's Crippling Childhood Loneliness Doesn't Make Sense.

"There's no one else in the castle for me to interact with... wait, what?"

The first time I saw Frozen, I felt as bad for Elsa and Anna as anyone. After all, their parents chose to keep Anna\'s erased memories of her sister\'s powers, separated them by moving Elsa out of Anna\'s room, reduced the staff and shut the gates so no one could learn about Elsa\'s powers, etc. The girls grew up in a dark, mostly empty castle. Elsa was kept isolated from everyone with only her parents to constantly coach her, and Anna was kept isolated without anyone at all.

Then their parents died, leaving them not knowing how to get on without them. Elsa was the heir but could not rule since a) she still had her powers that she couldn\'t control, b) had been so isolated and drilled with fear growing up that she was in no mental or emotional condition to break her parents\' mold.

But poor Anna! At least Elsa has a REASON to keep her bedroom door and the castle gates shut! At least Elsa KNOWS why they have to stay isolated. Poor Anna is isolated without even knowing why!

reduced the castle staff, but they didn\'t get rid of them entirely. Even if there are less people to talk to, there are still people around. Even if Elsa shut her out and Anna\'s parents are too busy focusing on Elsa to spend time with her, Anna can still hang out with the servants as they dust, mop, prepare meals, wash clothes, trim the gardens, etc. In fact, when Elsa flees and Anna orders someone to fetch her horse, you already know they have stable masters, grooms and stable boys to take care of the royal horses, since Anna doesn\'t have to brush, saddle, or bridle the horse herself.

Then link gave even further food for thought: "Given Anna’s natural boisterousness, unless Arendelle is really classist, I find it hard to imagine she didn’t interact with and even make friends among the castle staff, whom we know exist."

I hadn\'t really considered classism up till that point, but it makes unfortunate sense. We know there are servants because we see them. We hear the male staff member (perhaps the chamberlain or butler?) wake Anna through the door, we see the servants bringing out "a thousand salad plates," and after Elsa flees we see Anna call for a servant to fetch her horse, and it\'s brought to her fully saddled and ready to go. We know the staff exists... so how come Anna doesn\'t seem to think they exist?

As Grace Randolph points out in her review of Frozen, link: "We [Elsa and Anna] have these servants that don\'t even have names or personalities."

Now, you can say that we, the audience, don\'t learn the servants\' names or personalities because they aren\'t important to the story. But then, since Anna is the main character, what\'s important to her is what\'s important to the story. Her sister, opening the gates, her crush-turned-fiance, etc. If the staff aren\'t important enough to learn even basic names or personality traits, like we do of Maudy from Brave (the put-upon maid who\'s constantly tormented by the triplets), then that means they aren\'t important enough to Anna. And I\'m sorry, but that\'s... classist.

When you think about it, Anna never really looks at, talks to, or acknowledges the staff. They talk to her through the door, she runs past them in her excitement for the windows and doors being opened, and she calls out for one to fetch her horse from a distance, but there is no interpersonal interaction. While Anna sings link, she runs past the servants like they\'re part of the furniture in the castle. In fact, Anna interacts with the furniture more than the people. She shows more interpersonal connections with the suits of armor, statues, and paintings on the wall than she does the real people walking by her.

So if Anna is lonely enough that she feels her whole life is just empty halls and closed doors and her ONLY company growing up has been paintings and suits of armor... She either had no servants to spend time with, or she\'s so classist they don\'t count. We know the former isn\'t true, so the latter...?

And I don\'t even think classism is the answer. As Anna says to the ducklings in the courtyard: "I can\'t wait to meet everyone!" And she\'s shown happily interacting with peasants with her sister after the gates have been opened at the end. So Anna is all right spending time with people below her station. So, why don\'t the staff count?

Honestly, I think Anna\'s intense loneliness is a plot hole.

As Dani Colman notes in her aforementioned link article: "Anna has to endure three years of — at worst — relative isolation, and she emerges so desperate for love that she gets engaged to literally the first young man she meets. It isn\'t so much ridiculous because it’s a stupid thing to do;

it’s ridiculous because a girl that obsessed with finding love should already have a crush on a cute stable-boy." (Bolded by me.)

I must agree. We see that Anna is elated to interact with the peasants that come through the castle gates, and we see that she\'s open-minded enough to politely request things of Oaken in his spa (as opposed to haughtily demanding) and fall in love with Kristoff the ice harvester. If she\'s open-minded enough to like people despite their class, shouldn\'t she have already befriended the staff? Enough that the gates opening is a pleasant change, not The One Chance she has to interact with real people or fall in love?

Speaking of the gates: Why are their being closed so detrimental to Anna\'s social life? Yes, the castle is dark, mostly deserted, and boring. However, as noted by the link, Anna "spends three years of her adult life shut inside a castle... Even though she can leave at any time. *clip of Anna walking right outside the castle gates where people are gathered*"

This made me realize how even more trivial, or at least poorly explained, an obstacle the closed castle gates are. Unless the sisters are under house arrest, Anna should be able to physically leave the castle at any time. We see that it\'s right in the middle of a port city, filled with crowded streets and buildings. We also see that Anna has plenty of free time since she spent most of her life in the empty halls, staring at the walls, watching time tick by. (Where were her nurses, nannies, or tutors?)

If Anna has time and freedom to just sit around feeling bored, shouldn\'t she also be able to use that time interacting with servants or physically leaving the castle (either through walking or riding) to go hang out where the people are?

It\'s not like she\'s constantly monitored like Jasmine, who always has "people who tell you where to go and how to dress," and who is not allowed outside the palace wall because, in her father\'s words, "You\'re a princess!" And it\'s not like Anna\'s imprisoned in a castle in the middle of the forest like Belle, or locked in a tower in the middle of a ravine like Rapunzel. The former of whom is bound by her word and the latter of whom is constantly manipulated by her "mother" to stay. All three of whom go against orders and leave when the desire becomes great enough. Jasmine sneaks out in the middle of the night, Belle tries to run away but goes back to the Beast out of gratitude for saving her life, and Rapunzel only intended to see the lanterns and then go home before her "mother" tricked her into thinking the man she loves was only using her so she\'d feel so crushed she\'d want to retreat back.

I just find Anna\'s lifelong loneliness and isolation poorly explained, the more I think about it. Anna claims there\'s no one to spend time with after her sister shuts her out, but there\'s castle staff she should be able to spend time with. Based on her very friendly, boisterous, and open-minded personality, she should have already befriended them. If not them, there\'s literally nothing stopping her from going outside the castle gates and spending time with her people periodically. Sure, the castle itself is mostly empty and boring, but it\'s not like she\'s under house arrest or stranded in the middle of the wilderness.

And if she is classist or under house arrest, it was poorly explained.

I agree that her loneliness is poorly explained. And who would be enforcing some kind of house arrest anyway? The king and queen are dead, so I assume Elsa is in charge, and I find it odd that Anna would just keep herself cooped up for 3 years under Elsa\'s orders when she clearly has no problem standing up to her sister. It\'s also strange that she never became close to an animal like every other Disney Princess - we even know that there are horses!

I completely agree! Also didn\'t she go out when she was with those ducks? So she can go and see ducks but not people? She\'s a bigger idiot than I thought! Maybe instead of Frozen they should have named it Plot-hole The Movie! This movie was really not fully thought out! While The Princess and The Frog does have a lot of things it\'s trying to cram in it was fully planned out with it\'s explaining, except for why Charlotte didn\'t turn into a frog when she kissed Naveen (still one of my favorite Disney movies). Brave was no masterpiece but it did kind of explain things to some extent. Tangled was completely planned out and flowed very naturally like the other Disney princes movies. Frozen makes no sense with a lot of things! It\'s just a complete mess!

Amazing article. Well-written, clearly explained, and had a lot of evidence as to why you believe so. I can really see all the effort you put into this! Still, I must disagree. Occasionally chatting to older servants (who were probably in their 30\'s, 40\'s) doesn\'t replace social interaction. Also, I think the fact that her sister shut her out and her parents died definitely explains it. You don\'t just get over those things, and replace them with simple servants. I think her desperation for love is natural coming from the fact that she never got it from the one person she loved most, Elsa, and later dealing with the death of her parents, the only people left who loved her, must have been her breaking point. Anyway that\'s my opinion on the matter *shrugs* Like I said, amazing article, as always!

I agree with everything, plus, how did she even get to those ducks anyway. She was indoors, then back in, and after she saw the ducks the doors opened. Where the heck did that come from :/

Wow! You win. You have made so many valid points here I can\'t even...

Major plot hole! Okay, dclair makes some very good points, too.

dclairmont: ... I know you don\'t mean to, but your argument reeks of classism and agism.

"Occasionally chatting to older servants (who were probably in their 30\'s, 40\'s) doesn\'t replace social interaction."

I think I know what you MEAN, but this comes across as very dehumanizing. Social interaction is any kind of interpersonal communication between people of any age, gender, class, creed, etc. Saying that talking to the servants "doesn\'t replace social interaction" is basically implying she can\'t socially interact with them because they\'re not real people.

I\'m guessing you meant "interaction with her family or peers," but even then I have to disagree. First, she wants to open up the gates to bring in people, many of whom are her subjects. What\'s the difference between the subjects out there and the ones in here? Second, I always got along with and befriended adults growing up (parents of classmates, teachers, etc). I still mostly get along with people far older than me, and am still constantly told I SHOULD be interacting with people my own age. Besides, we don\'t know that ALL the servants are in their 30s or 40s. Watch "For The First Time In Forever" again (I put the link there for a reason), and you\'ll see some rather young-looking servants.

So I don\'t feel comfortable with the implication that interacting with staff is "not real social interaction" because only family, peers, and/or people in her own social class count.

"Also, I think the fact that her sister shut her out and her parents died definitely explains it. You don\'t just get over those things, and replace them with simple servants."

Her sister shutting her out and her parents first focusing more on her sister and then dying later? Yes, it\'s hurtful and tragic. However... it\'s not the end of the world. Speaking as someone who was Daddy\'s Girl until he had a son and then shut me out, and who was close with my grandparents until they moved away and never voluntarily came to see me again, I KNOW how painful it is when family abandons you. It hurts a lot. But you know what? I didn\'t just sit around staring at the walls, lamenting how these handfuls of family members were no longer paying attention to me. I went and found other people and pets to play with, and got on with my life.

It goes beyond this though. AGAIN, Anna wants to open the gates because she wants to interact with her subjects. GUESS WHAT? The staff are her subjects too. GUESS WHAT? The villagers might not be able to come in to see Anna, but Anna can go out to see them any time.

What\'s more, Anna is ECSTATIC during "For The First Time In Forever" because, in her own words: "For years I\'ve roamed these empty halls" and "There will be actual real live people, which is totally strange." And yet there\'s dozens of servants she\'s blowing right passed.

What? Do the help not count as "actual real live people"?

Very well-explained and articulate. However,I don\'t think she could have just walked through the gates: they were closed by the orders of the deceased King and Queen and only to be opened when Elsa herself was coronated Queen. I think she just wanted to respect her parents\' wishes.

Tygers - Don\'t call Dylan classist or dehumanizing. What he meant is that the servants are middle-aged people, snd Anna seems to want comapany her age. And in the second statement in bold it\'s obviously what he meant is that you can\'t replace family and get over loss that easily. It\'s hard to form emotional bonds after such a shocking and traumatizing experience.

I agree with this article so much!! It\'s a forced plot point, that could have been executed better. Like I think it would make sense if it was less sloppy. Like if they showed the servants and they were like "Anna there\'s not enough staff around that we need to be fast to do it ourselves, and you\'ll only get in the way" and this couldve happened when she was younger or something along those lines. It could of worked, but they didn\'t choose to focus on it so they just gloss over it. Brilliant work <3!

Silverrose: If there was really no way out of the castle because of the gates being closed, how do they have fresh food, water, clothes, etc? Unless they grow it all within the palace walls, there\'s no way they could physically live without staff coming in and out of town to fetch new supplies. Even if the huge gates are closed, there should be small side doors for staff to come in and out, and Anna could be able to go that way.

I\'m not saying she can necessarily just walk through the huge main gates, but I do think she can leave the castle through some other means if she put in the barest effort.

I also never said dclairmont was classist or dehumanizing. I specifically said that I\'m sure he meant what he said differently, but that what he said came across as classist and dehumanizing, and I explained why. I\'m trying to show that word choice matters, and how you phrase your arguments and what kind of words you choose to use affect what kind of message you carry across.

Well, the servants have to go out to fetch the supplies. I find it unlikely to believe she could just disguise herslef as one and sneak past the palace guards. After all, the staff is relatively small, so they must all be familiar with each other. But my main point is: I think she wanted to respect her parents\' wishes.

Jasmine managed to disguise herself as a peasant and leave the castle, even though the morons in the market place didn\'t notice she was wearing golden earrings. I think Anna can manage to sneak out and it\'s not like the kingdom is dangerous, heck, they\'re trying to protect her from Elsa so she\'s actually apparently safer outside the palace than she is inside. Besides how the heck did she get to those ducks if she couldn\'t go outside the palace walls? I doubt there are ducks in that small palace that doesn\'t even have any grass, let alone trees and a lake for ducks to swim in. PLOT-HOLES! PLOT-HOLES! PLOT-HOLES!

Also what the heck does the death of her family and her sister shutting her out have to do with her going outside the palace walls or socializing with the servants?

I\'m sorry. But I debate with Silverrose and dclairmont nor that I\'ve read their points.

Anna wants family, not just servants who would be forced to speak upon her, or a real friend.

A servant doe your work and whatever and is there for you to get you breakfast, lay out your clothes ect. I think Anna would want a real friend, someone who speaks to you for you. There probably wasn\'t a servant willing enough to straight out talk to her. Anna talking to them at work would probably be just a distraction.

Anna wants her sister basically. Her sister is her target and a friend outdoors would maybe her next.

We also never knew if Anna went to go outside, she could have sometimes.

The window is open so\'s that door, I didn\'t know they didn\'t do that anymore may mean people are coming in or whatever. It\'s unlikely she went out side, but there is possibility.

Silverrose: You said "Well, the servants have to go out to fetch the supplies. I find it unlikely to believe she could just disguise herslef as one and sneak past the palace guards."

You\'re taking what I\'m saying out of context. I KNOW the servants would have to go out to fetch supplies, because I just said so. I said so because it proves there are ways to physically leave the castle even though the gates are closed. I\'m also saying that there\'s nothing physically or legally stopping Anna from stepping outside (even if just for an afternoon walk) that we know of. As far as I know, she can leave the castle without needing to disguise herself because there\'s nothing stopping her that we know of.

Just because the gates are not open to people coming in doesn\'t mean she can\'t go out.

Silverrose said: "But my main point is: I think she wanted to respect her parents\' wishes."

Based on what evidence from the film? What about Anna or her parents\' characters points to this being a likely explanation? Because from what I\'ve seen... Anna doesn\'t really respect people\'s wishes that often. She doesn\'t respect her sister\'s wish to sleep when "the sky\'s awake, so I\'m awake, so we\'ve got to play." She doesn\'t listen when her sister begs her to slow down while they\'re playing. She takes Elsa\'s glove and refuses to give it back, keeps pushing the topic even though Elsa clearly looks distressed, orders Kristoff to take her to her sister "right now" as opposed to in the morning like he wanted, refuses to leave her sister\'s ice palace or even when her sister is clearly distressed and pleading with her to go, etc.

If you want to believe that, that\'s fine. But if you want to use it as evidence to refute my point, I implore you to use evidence from the film to support it. Something like, "Based on the way Anna acts here, here, and here, I think she wanted to respect her parents\' wishes."

But for me, considering Anna constantly doesn\'t listen when her sister Kristoff tell her "no," I don\'t think "respecting her parents\' wishes" seems very in-character of her.

Rose Of Rapunzel: AGAIN, I point to Anna singing: "For The First Time In Forever." (Seriously, I didn\'t post this because making url links are fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BulXil2ROy­

4) Anna talks about how: "For years I\'ve roamed these empty halls! Why have a ballroom with no balls? Finally they\'re opening up the gates! There will be actual real-live people. It\'ll be totally strange."

Um, yeah. Castle staff don\'t count as actual real-live people?

so trapped inside the castle and so starved of any sort of social interaction that she\'s been reduced to seeking company from the paintings and suits of armor... even though there are people and animals in the castle she can interact with instead? (As KataraLover pointed out: DUCKS?)

If she can talk to inanimate objects, she can talk to people or animals within the castle. Certainly Anna has a horse she can call on at any moment. I\'m surprised that riding isn\'t her favorite hobby like Merida\'s is. She\'d be able to interact with her horse and all the stable hands that take care of it, see the outside, see the scenery, etc.

About your response to Silverrose: Anna was five. Period.

About the other things, Anna needs to get her way so she can find out why does her sister shut her out?

Then she pushes to get what she spawns to save her sister. Respecting her parents is different.

Like I said about the servants, there\'s a chance they didn\'t want to get to know her.

She\'s a distraction, they do their job because they\'re told, not to communicate.

Anna may want to meet someone her own age, she wants true love.

Rose of Rapunzel: I\'m giving evidence from the film to support my opinion. Anna as a person, consistently from childhood to adulthood, is not shown to be the most sensitive, respectful, or obedient. She\'s pretty boisterous, overbearing, and innocently insensitive.

About the staff, it should be explained in the movie then. The narrative and Anna make it seem like she has NO ONE to talk to or interact with AT ALL in the 13 years since her parents shut the gates and her sister shut her out. That somehow it\'s just been her and her immediate family, and her immediate family hasn\'t paid attention to her and/or has died, ergo there\'s NO ONE ELSE in Arendelle she can POSSIBLY interact with UNTIL the gates are opened and company just falls in her lap.

I\'m arguing that there are people and animals within the castle she can interact with, and she has the option to step outside the castle at any time.

Honestly, Anna comes across as... well, passive and reactive. She waits for good things to fall in her lap and then complains when they don\'t, but doesn\'t actively set out to fix it.

She\'s bored in the dark, empty castle halls. Does she go outside and seek amusement there? No, she just sits around staring at the clocks and paintings. She feels lonely because her sister isn\'t paying attention to her. Does she try to spending time with other people or the animals in the castle? Not that we see.

The narrative also makes it clear (honestly, they couldn\'t make it less clear if they bludgeoned us with a sledgehammer) that Anna was desperate for love on account of her loneliness. I reiterate Dani Colman\'s point: "It isn\'t so much ridiculous because it’s a stupid thing to do; it’s ridiculous because a girl that obsessed with finding love should already have a crush on a cute stable-boy."

I have to agree with Typers_Eye, which is one of the reasons I can\'t stand Anna.

I can see your point and where you\'re coming from. But I see Dylan\'s (dclairmont\'s) too, now before we go to that zone where we want to kill each other Ill do that embarrassing thing where I side with the other. I see your point, I agree with it, but at the same time I agree with dclairmont\'s/silverrose\'s.

*sigh* I know, Rose Of Rapunzel. I\'m sorry to get so intense. I know where you\'re all coming from, but by the same token... you are all are proving my point about classism! D; *sobs*

I\'ve said that Anna being so cripplingly lonely in the castle doesn\'t make sense unless she\'s so classist that she doesn\'t count the staff as actual people to interact with, or it\'s inconsistent with her character since she\'s shown to be social and open-minded later in the film. You all seem to be refuting my argument by saying... well, the "simple servants" really AREN\'T adequate social companions, which makes me go "Okay... so not only are you arguing that Anna is classist, but you\'re advocating that as being the right way of thinking. That the system doesn\'t allow them to be friends or on friendly-ish terms, and they\'re right to believe in and/or follow it."

Ah well. I\'m sorry to argue. You can believe whatever you want. This is all opinion-based, yeah?

KataraLover: Well, thank you for the support. And everyone else too. Sorry to focus on the ones that disagree instead of acknowledging those that do. Actually, sorry to get upset at those that disagree. You\'re all wonderful regardless of which side you fall on. ^^

Great well-explained article! I had never thought of that and damn, everyday I dislike Frozen more... :( I used to love it but seriously this is a huge plot hole. The thing that makes me extremely furious is the line that you pointed out at the comments from For the first time in forever, where Anna says "There\'ll be actual real live people, it\'ll be totally strange." As you said, castle stuff doesn\'t count as real live people, they\'re like robots or something? Some users mentioned some explanations but even if we suppose they\'re true, there are still many questions to be answered.

You are completely correct with this article, and I find the supposed \'arguments\' other people are producing.... flawed :). This was really cool to read.

If you were a teenager, would you like to spend your days talking to people in their middle ages every day? Anna is socially awkward anyway because of the lack of people her age around. It\'s not like any of them were allowed leave the castle, leaving little things to interact and talk about. So yeah.

Whether or not I disagree, you always write very eloquently written. Great article!

Amazing article, I agree with you about everything

Thank you for your comments, everyone! It\'s always nice to hear feedback!

Crazy Rawr, to answer your question: I was a teenager once, and I actually DID prefer spending time talking to people in their middle ages. I actually DID prefer conversations with teachers, parents of classmates, my mom\'s work associates, etc. I found their conversation more stimulating, their stories more interesting, and their advice greatly appreciated.

I\'m honestly concerned with this on-going attitude in the comments that talking to people older than you is less than or equivalent to NO conversation or social interaction at all. People are people, regardless of their age and station.

You also said: "Anna is socially awkward anyway because of the lack of people her age around." Zees, I \'ave to deesagree wiz. The narrative makes it clear that Anna is socially awkward NOT because of "lack of people her own age," but lack of people PERIOD. The movie drills into our head how Anna has nothing but "empty halls" and no company but "paintings on the walls." Anna even says in For The First Time In Forever: "There will be actual real live people." I say again: The staff don\'t count as actual real live people?

Finally, you said, "It\'s not like any of them were allowed leave the castle, leaving little things to interact and talk about." Again, based on what evidence from the film? If the staff couldn\'t leave, it\'s doubtful any of them could have fresh food, water, clothes, etc. to physically live. If the girls aren\'t allowed to leave, it\'s poorly explained because I see NO evidence of them being under house arrest.

^But does Anna seem like the type of teenager who would like interacting with middle-aged people better than with other teens? Well, at least not to me.

About the "lack of people to interact with" thing in the movie, it\'s probably because the servants aren\'t allowed to talk to her: they could accidentally slip some information about Elsa\'s powers (I\'m assuming at least some of them knew, since somebody had to clean the ice in Elsa\'s room), so why take the risk?

The girls probably aren\'t allowed to leave because it was orders from the Queen and the King. And about my argument, respecting your diseased parents\' wishes is different from respecting other people\'s wishes.

I understand and see your point, of course: Anna\'s childhood loneliness was poorly explained in the movie, but I still think it existed.

Silverrose: ^ That\'s not the point. Both Anna AND the narrative constantly reiterate how she has no real live people to talk to, so she\'s forced to settle for inanimate objects around the castle, and I\'m arguing that there ARE people for her to talk to. If she\'s so snobby that "the help" or "such uncool old people" aren\'t good enough for her, then I\'m sorry, but her loneliness is her own damned fault. If she can\'t talk to them or they won\'t talk to her, it isn\'t shown or explained.

And I SERIOUSLY doubt any of the servants knew about her powers. Her parents specifically shut the gates and reduced the staff to help keep her powers a secret till she could control them. To make it so there will be less people around who could notice until she was in no danger of getting caught anymore.

You said: "The girls probably aren\'t allowed to leave because it was orders from the Queen and the King. " Again, based on what evidence from the film? The girls are completely unmonitored at all times since Elsa stays in her room and Anna roams the castle alone. Anna is never upset about not being able to leave, she\'s only upset about people not being able to come in.

^t\'s not that she\'s too snobby to talk to them, but Anna doesn\'t seem like the type of person who would share many interests with elderly/middle-aged people, and I think they would be overwhelmed by her bubbly, energetic personality.

And I SERIOUSLY doubt any of the servants knew about her powers

You said: "The girls probably aren\'t allowed to leave because it was orders from the Queen and the King.

They ordered the gates to be shut just so their daughters couldn\'t leave (therefore hiding Elsa\'s powers), then by Royal Decree (we can assume) the girls couldn\'t leave until Elsa was coronated queen or something.

But, like I said, I do see your points, and you\'re beginning to convince me, tbh. I\'m growing out of arguments X

Silverrose: Er, no offense, but that just opened a new can of worms: What interests? Apart from playing in the snow with her sister, I can\'t think of any interests Anna has. Anna herself doesn\'t seem to know since the entire point of "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" and "For The First Time In Forever" is that she wants SOMEONE to spend SOME time with her so she can do SOMETHING! You\'d think she\'d develop a hobby or get a pet in that time, like Rapunzel in her tower (taking up reading, baking, sewing, knitting, arts and crafts, having a pet chamelon, etc).

I\'m not even saying the staff have to be her BFFs. My point is the film makes it seem like she has

no one to talk to and nothing to do, but even just having casual acquaintances with the servants would be better than nothing. Again, it doesn\'t have to "omg we\'re best friends" and "we can share our hearts and souls," but you\'d be surprised by wonderful casual company could be, or just how people surprise you after you get to know them.

I mean, Rapunzel is also dissatisfied with just living alone in the tower with no one but Gothel and Pascal... but she had Pascal. Her motivation wasn\'t "OMG I\'m so bored and lonely sitting in this tower, with nothing to do but stare at the walls, watch the sun go down every day, brush my hair and dream for when I can have a friend." Rapunzel made the most of her isolation with the tools at her disposal. She made a friend with one of the animals that no doubt climbed onto the tower, and took up hobbies to pass the time.

Anna has 100x tools at her disposal to make her life more enjoyable than Rapunzel (a huge castle in the middle of a crowded town, dozens of human servants, her own horse and all the stable hands that take care of it, a garden in the courtyard with animals like the ducks, etc), and yet the film acts like she has 100% less.

"They ordered the gates to be shut just so their daughters couldn\'t leave.

Who says that in the film??? Direct quote, please. I only remember the father saying to shut the gates and reduce the staff. I don\'t remember him saying ANYTHING about not letting the girls leave.

Yeah, I guess you\'re right: Frozen has some giant plotholes.

They shut the gates just so they could isolate themselves from the rest of the world, thus protecting Elsa.

I feel the plot-hole and some other problems with Frozen exist because after the plot was changed from the original were Elsa was a villain there a rush to get a new script done and not everything was properly thought out.

The song was For the First Time Forever seems to be the main problem here. The "for years I have roamed these empty halls" and other quotes come from there. It was most likely made to get audience feel for Anna and show her suffering from a lack of sisterly bond and establish how she would wish to marry so fast. And it accomplices the goals, many people seem to feel terribly sorry for Anna for example. But it does seem a bit cheap way to make audience like Anna. I think we should have seen more of Elsa´s suffering instead and Anna could have just been a normal love obsessed teen who falls in love with a handsome prince and does not understand why her sister isolates herself.

Really? Because my interpretation of that scene was they shut the gates to visitors and reduced the staff so there would be less people around who could see or get hurt by Elsa\'s magic until she learned to hide them. They also moved Elsa out of Anna\'s room so it would be easier to keep her powers a secret, since she wouldn\'t have her sister constantly around looking over her shoulder.

Again, I didn\'t get the impression they weren\'t allowed to leave, just that people weren\'t allowed in till Elsa could control and hide her powers.

It was a well written article and you debate well. However I hate how we\'ve become so focused on the bad qualities of princesses. I\'ve seen so many people bashing the bad qualities of a character and completely overlook the good. It makes me sad to see great characters reduced to nothing but bad traits. I wish we all could be able to freely love our favorite princesses and look at the positive side at things. So could we please stop analyzing the crap out of a movie and just be able to enjoy it?

I liked your article, I definitely agree. It\'s well analyzed but it just makes me dislike frozen more. Ah, I hate Anna. Nice work. The only thing is I\'m not entirely sure if they could leave or not which is, itself, a plot hole. New ways to think about things I guess. I\'m in pure amazement the only problem now is I can never watch it again without think about the plot holes :/ you make great arguments by the way :3

Purple Rose: But I like analyzing princesses and movies. =(

"It\'s the best Disney movie / since The Lion King!"

I think analysis and discussions are more interesting. I do it with films I love too.

But, you make a good point. I\'ll try examining films in a positive way.

Great article and great points! To be honest, I didn\'t love or hate Frozen. I will never really understand it\'s immense success besides having good songs and breathtaking animation. But the story is all over the place and there\'s just too many plot holes ( a major one being what you discussed about, Anna\'s isolation.) that I\'m surprised people are quick to ignore it and just fully praise the movie like it\'s Disney\'s most groundbreaking film. But hey, it is what it is. it won billions for Disney, and is most likely to make more money with a heck load of future merchandise and will for sure have it\'s own personal home at the Disney parks. And now I\'m just getting off topic, anyways awesome article! I

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