Frozen 2 gave Elsa new status as the Fifth Spirit, but didn't give her an accompanying power-up — why not? As the Fifth Spirit, Elsa is able to awaken the four nature spirits of the forest: fire, air, water and earth. Despite her newfound connection with the elements, however, her powers are still primarily ice-based. In a movie all about change, Elsa's unchanging powers are a crack in an otherwise smooth narrative.
As Elsa discovers at the end of Frozen 2, the Fifth Spirit is the bridge between the magical and mundane worlds. Together with Anna, her non-magical sister, Elsa acts as a kind of intermediary between the magical realm of the Enchanted Forest and the non-magical kingdom of Arendelle. After Elsa comes into her power as the Fifth Spirit, she is able to create harmony between the four nature spirits she encounters during Frozen 2. Elsa has a connection to each of these elements, but both before and after she becomes the Fifth Spirit, she's limited by the nature of her magic, which is snow and ice-based.
Elsa's strongest relationship is with the water horse, or Nokk, whom she can turn to ice with a touch of her hand and ride over the ocean or land. Her next strongest connections are with the wind gust Gale and the fire salamander, who enjoys Elsa's ability to cool him down. Elsa never tackles the earth giants before she becomes the Fifth Spirit, and afterwards, they still seem untameable. Elsa's power does seem to grow throughout Frozen 2 as she learns more about how to control and unleash it, but at heart, it remains the same. As Elsa changes in the movie — learning the true nature of her power and finding a new place in the world — her abilities should also shift to reflect her affiliation with magic and nature as a whole.
Frozen 2 frames Ahtohallan, the river of ice, as the home of the Fifth Spirit and the source of Elsa's power. The problem is that ice is not a truly distinct element. It can't act as the center hub of the four other nature spirits because it's too strongly tied to water. The Fifth Spirit is meant to be the connecting fabric for all of magic, which in the Frozen universe is associated with nature. Elsa's ice powers create a bias toward the elements of water and wind, as well as the seasons of fall and winter. But in the Frozen franchise, and Norse mythology, fire, earth, spring and summer are equally important. At the end of the movie, Elsa's power as the Fifth Spirit is lopsided and unbalanced.
Expanding or changing Elsa's magical powers would also strengthen the overall narrative of Frozen 2. As Olaf says early in the film, "an Enchanted Forest is a place of transformation." Elsa and Anna undergo massive growth during the movie, discovering the truth about their family history and finding where they're meant to be. Elsa, formerly Queen of Arendelle, gives up her crown to Anna in favor of taking charge of the Enchanted Forest. Yet her powers, which are historically symbolic of her character and relationship with Anna, don't change at all. Even the slightest change to Elsa's magic would make the ending of Frozen 2 more impactful.
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August 08, 2021 at 12:43AM
