Frozen 2 - The dark side of the Arendelle political economy!

The time has come to address the really important issue of the day! I refer, of course, to analysing the political economy of "Frozen 2."

While Frozen 2 may seem like an optimistic film, it has a profound dark side!

Note: This analysis includes spoilers. Those complaining about spoilers from this point on will be turned into icicles, permanently!

---

The plot focuses on Elsa and Anna's efforts to right the historic injustice Arendelle inflicted on the Northuldra people by building a huge dam that damaged their land. But, as it turns out, the injustice is fixed at virtually no cost to anyone viewers care about. The one painful loss - the death of Olaf the Snowman, turns out to be easily remedied by Elsa. This could teach the next generation, whose worldview is formed by the "Frozen" franchise, a dangerously misleading lesson about the costs of addressing historical wrongs.

"The Next Right Thing" may be the best song in the movie. Unfortunately, Anna follows it up by NOT doing the right thing. She proceeds to destroy the dam in such a way that Arendelle will almost certainly be wiped out. It is saved only through the use of Elsa's magical powers, which Anna could not have foreseen, because she thought that Elsa was dead at the time. Given that the dam had already been in place for 34 years, surely Anna could have waited for a few days or weeks to give the people of Arendelle time to build barriers to protect the city, or at least salvage their more valuable possessions.

This error is just one of a series of events in which Anna demonstrates spectacularly bad judgement. Recall her impulsive decision to marry Prince Hans in the first movie and (even worse) leave him in charge of Arendelle when she goes off to try to find Elsa. These decisions nearly led to disaster for both her and her entire nation.

Despite Anna's truly awful decision-making, at the end of Frozen 2 Elsa decides to abdicate her crown and give it to Anna. Surely Arendelle will be safe under her rule! If you believe that, you might be a graduate of Trump University.

Perhaps the real point of the series is to highlight the flaws of hereditary monarchy. Of the four Arendellian monarchs we see, one is a brutal imperialist (King Runeard), one is ineffective (King Agnarr), one is dangerously unstable to the point of threatening to destroy the realm (Elsa), and the last is notable for her horrendous judgement (Anna). Sven the Reindeer would probably make a better ruler than any of them!

Elsa demonstrates even greater powers in this movie than in the previous one. She now can control water as well as ice and snow, and can raise from the dead any creature whose body includes a substantial amount of water (as is true of nearly all animals). She can easily raise an army of ice zombies anytime she wants. Compared to Ice Queen Elsa, the Night King in Game of Thrones is a just a minor pest. Her vast powers are sure to destabilise the balance of power, and lead other states to try to launch a preemptive strike, lest she freeze them all the next time she goes mad. Yes, I know, she can control her power through the use of love.

But, as Yoda said, love can lead to attachment, attachment turns to fear, fear leads to anger, which in turn leads to hate, and leads us to the Dark Side. Elsa already went down this path once, and it could easily happen again!

Elsa and Anna's supposed goal is to restore the autonomy and well-being of the Northuldra. But at the end of the movie, that goal is imperilled by Elsa's going to live with this native people. It's not clear if she has officially become their ruler. But, given her vast powers (see above), it's pretty obvious they wouldn't dare do anything but cater to her every whim. It's as if Darth Vader took up residence in your house. Even if he claimed to have distanced himself from the Dark Side, and promised to respect your rights, you would nonetheless do anything he asks. And Elsa is probably even more powerful than Vader!

Another sinister event is the discovery of the ship on which Anna and Elsa's parents died, when it sank. Strangely, they didn't find any bodies. Very suspicious! Perhaps King Ragnarr was actually assassinated, and the killers removed all the bodies and staged a fake shipwreck to destroy the evidence. If so,what was their motive in ensuring Elsa's early ascension to the throne?

All of this sets up lots of potential plot-lines for the next Frozen movie. Perhaps it can be called Frozen 3: Revenge of the Ice Queen. Or maybe, Frozen 3: Winter is Coming - Again!