Disney’s Frozen 2 delves further into the mythos of the Frozen franchise, exploring the origins of Elsa’s elemental ice powers – but why does not Anna have them? Following Iduna, a member of this Northuldra tribe, rescues Agnarr, the son of King Runeard, through a struggle between the Arendellians and the Northuldra people, the four elemental spirits gift their daughter Elsa with ice magical as a reward for Iduna’s selfless action.
Within Frozen 2, Elsa sets off a trip together with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven throughout the Enchanted Forest to discover the origin of an unknown voice calling to her from a distance. Since Elsa experiences different embodiments of the four elemental spirits, including the fire soul Bruni, the Kelpie Nøkk, the Earth Giants, and the wind spirit”Gale,” she starts to notice that she has a calming influence over the elemental figures. Traveling to Ahtohallan, the mythical river rumored to keep memories from yesteryear, Elsa finds that her powers were a gift from the spirits and that she is the reincarnation of the fifth spirit, a mediator between the natural world and human civilization. While Frozen 2 investigates the reasons why Elsa herself has magical powers, it does not directly address why Anna and her parents don’t have any magic powers to speak of.
Since Elsa’s forces are a gift from the spirits, Anna’s lack of powers could be attributed to the simple truth that she was born second. When Iduna rescued Agnarr throughout the struggle between the two feuding states, the spirits took note of her guts not only because she risked her own life to save Agnarr, but since he was the son of Northuldra’s enemy. Since Northuldra has a connection to the elemental spirits and Arendelle includes a link to the modern world, both nations signify on a microcosmic scale the larger split between nature and civilization, which the goal of the spirit to adjust. Since the union of Agnarr and Iduna ultimately embodies the equilibrium that could be accomplished between culture and nature, the spirits then blessed their first-born child Elsa with the forces of the fifth soul to help further that cause. Anna, who had the misfortune of being born second, only missed out to the spirits’ present.
With their first-born child Elsa as the receiver of the spirits’ gift, Frozen 2 also answers the alternate wonder why Agnarr and Iduna do not have magical powers themselves.
Since Elsa finally finds inner peace after finding that she is the fifth soul at the end of Frozen 2, both perspectives that Elsa’s powers were either a gift or a curse could finally coincide because Elsa’s powers triggered both negative and positive impacts during both films.
