Elsa/Relationships

The relationships of Elsa from Frozen.

Family

Anna

Since the two were young, Elsa and Anna have always been the best of friends and loved each other dearly. The two enjoyed playing together, and Anna loved it when Elsa used her magic to create a winter wonderland. However, after Elsa accidentally hit Anna with her ice magic and almost killed her, Elsa became too scared to go near Anna out of fear her powers could harm her again, and agreed with her parents when they decided that Elsa and Anna should be separated until the former garners complete control over her magic. Even when Anna later became all the family Elsa had left after their parents died, she still refused to allow her sister to be in her presence. While Elsa's desire to stay away from Anna was out of her love for her, Anna felt distanced from her and constantly tried to reconnect with Elsa without understanding or knowing about Elsa's powers, as the troll king removed all magic including memories of magic to revive her. During the coronation party, the two seemed to temporarily reconnect as they enjoyed themselves and Anna expressed her wish that they could always be close like this. Elsa, caught up in the moment, sincerely agrees but knows why they must keep their distance and closes herself off again, which they are both saddened by, though Anna was not aware of Elsa's feelings. They also seemed to reconnect by their love of chocolate, after Elsa saying what is that amazing smell and they both sniffed the air to the delight of finding it was chocolate.

When Elsa's powers are revealed to the kingdom after the two got into an argument about Anna's engagement to Hans and how Elsa always shuts everybody out, Elsa runs away and Anna, knowing it wasn't Elsa's fault as she was the one who pushed Elsa, volunteered to get her back, saying "She's my sister. She would never hurt me." When she got to Elsa's palace, she tried to get Elsa to come back home with her and fix the eternal winter Elsa had cast on the kingdom together, but couldn't persuade her as Elsa didn't know how to fix what she had done and was too afraid of, and distressed at, hurting others. Elsa's negative emotions explode unwillingly, striking Anna's heart. Nonetheless, Anna's love for Elsa prevailed and proved to be the thing Anna held most dear to her, shown best when she chose to not get saved by Kristoff but instead ran in front of Elsa to protect her from Hans' killing strike, freezing to solid ice and sacrificing her own life in the process.

This demonstrates just how deep Anna's love for Elsa is and that no matter what happens, their sisterly bond is the most important thing to her. This act of true love is also ultimately what saves Anna from Elsa's curse, as Olaf makes the connection that Anna's actions were an act of true love, which teaches Elsa how to finally thaw winter and control her powers, allowing her to restore her bond with Anna. Elsa and Anna truly care and love each other and while Elsa was too scared of hurting Anna to get close to her and Anna was at times somewhat pushy and insistent on helping Elsa (which could at times make things worse) the two will always love each other and do anything for the sake of the other's happiness.

The shorts Frozen Fever and Olaf's Frozen Adventure show their sisterly bond growing stronger as they catch up on the yearly celebrations they missed in the past, such as birthdays and the holidays. The former sees Elsa celebrating Anna's birthday with her despite Elsa's illness and ends with a feverish Elsa under Anna's care following a spectacular birthday celebration; Anna remarks that her best birthday present is tending to a bedridden Elsa. The latter reveals that Elsa had kept gifts Anna made for her, which were based on Olaf, every Christmas as a reminder of their childhood and the love they have for each other, leading the sisters to realize that Olaf is their tradition.

In Frozen 2, Elsa continually shows that she is impressed with Anna's bravery and intellect, at the end trusting her as her successor as queen of Arendelle while still making promises to visit her to keep their bond.

King Agnarr and Queen Iduna

On the night Elsa accidentally injured Anna with her magic, Elsa called out to her parents for help, and they were responsive as they immediately rushed to the scene. When they took Anna to the Valley to see Grand Pabbie, they brought Elsa along. After the troll managed to heal Anna, Pabbie warned Elsa and her parents that her powers can be dangerous if not controlled. At this, the King and Queen decided that until Elsa garnered complete control over her powers, the castle gates would be locked, the staff would be reduced, and Elsa would be separated from Anna.

Agnarr and Iduna moved Elsa and her belongings to a different room to limit her contact with Anna. During the isolation, Elsa would spend most of her time alone in her new room. The only other people whom she allowed in her room were her parents, hoping they could give her advice on controlling her powers. They tell her that when she notices her powers are getting stronger to remain calm. To further help, Agnarr presented Elsa a pair of gloves and he taught her the mantra, "Conceal don't feel". When her parents died at sea, not only was Elsa devastated, but her training was left incomplete, and she was now truly alone.

King Runeard

Elsa was the eldest granddaughter of King Runeard. Although Elsa was born years after Runeard died during the conflict with the Northuldra, Elsa seemed to admire her grandfather as the beloved monarch her father described him as. Years later, Elsa journeyed to Ahtohallan with the help of the Nokk to discover the true cause of Arendelle and the Northuldra. It was that point where Elsa discovered her grandfather's true nature as a heartless tyrant who feared that magic would threaten his power. Elsa was disgusted by her grandfather's true nature and the crimes he committed that she managed to inform Anna of this before freezing solid as a result of having traveled too deep into Ahtohallan. Thanks to Elsa discovering the truth and Anna destroying their grandfather's dam, Runeard's legacy was put to an end.

Allies and Friends

Olaf

Olaf was based on a snowman Anna and Elsa created when they were young and has a powerful connection with Elsa, as he is not only her living creation, but also the physical representation of Elsa's happiness and desire to be with her sister again like they were when they were children. Thus, Olaf's desire for summer is Elsa's desire to rekindle the warmth between her and Anna. Olaf describe her as the most nicest, gentlest and warmest person ever. When Elsa first saw Olaf alive, she was surprised, as she did not know she had imbued her beloved snowman with life. At first Elsa was happy, as he reminded her of the fun that her powers once brought the two sisters, but this also brought back the painful memory of how the fun times came to a tragic end when Anna was hurt by Elsa's powers. As a result, she tried to isolate herself from Olaf and Anna again to keep them away from her and her powers, but due to the latter's persistence, she had to use force by creating Olaf's younger "brother" Marshmallow to throw them out of her palace.

However, Elsa saw the error of her ways when she realized how powerful her bond with Anna was, as Olaf was the one to realize that Anna's act of true love for Elsa thawed her frozen heart. Thus, Elsa learned that love was the answer to ending Arendelle's winter. When Olaf started to melt, due to the return of summer, Elsa saved his life by rebuilding the almost-puddle snowman and giving him his own flurry to keep him cold. In the end, he enjoys summer and helps Anna to skate with Elsa, much like when the three skated together in their earlier years, showing that Olaf loves both the sisters.

In Frozen Fever, Elsa was shown to still be friendly with Olaf. When she caught him eating Anna's birthday cake, instead of getting mad with him, she gently reprimanded him that the cake was for Anna. When Elsa caught a cold, her sneezes created baby mischievous snowman, making Olaf overjoyed of having "little brothers," where he hugged and gave them all names.

Kristoff

Although she had little interaction with Kristoff (including after she struck Anna in the heart with her powers, and at the ending), it is enough to show that although she was scared and wary to be around him at first, as she was with pretty much everyone else, she soon comes to accept him after knowing what he did for her sister. When Kristoff attempted to confront Hans for trying to kill the two sisters, Elsa seems touched by Kristoff's protectiveness over her and Anna. She even gives him the title "Official Arendelle Ice Master and Deliverer" along with a new sled as gratitude for helping her and Anna. The storybook app of the film shows Elsa approves of Anna and Kristoff's relationship, trusting it more than Anna's previous one with Hans.

And in the storybooks taking place after the film, it is shown that Elsa and Kristoff have a very good friendship, which is made stronger by their love for Anna and also for ice.

In Frozen Fever, Elsa and Kristoff are shown to have a bond following the events of the film, with Kristoff partially acting as Elsa's confidant.

In Frozen II, Elsa and Kristoff's friendship has grown to the point where she actually sees him as part of the family. And when Elsa comes back alive after being frozen at Ahtohallan, she welcomes Kristoff into a hug with open arms. She also expresses happiness when Kristoff proposes to Anna.

Sven

Though there wasn't much interaction between Elsa and Sven in the first film, it was assumed that both of them were on friendly terms by the epilogue.

In Frozen Fever, Elsa and Sven were now shown to be on good terms with each other as Elsa allowed Sven to help with the preparations with Anna's birthday party.

Grand Pabbie

Although Elsa and Pabbie's interaction was brief, the wise troll's words of wisdom stayed with Elsa for the years leading up to her adulthood and coronation. The encounter between the two proved to be some of the most influential of Elsa's life, eventually leading to her isolation and understanding that, while her powers are indeed a beautiful gift, it can be very powerful and dangerous, should her control over them be lacking in any way. However, Pabbie's words weren't completely understood, as the troll stated fear would be Elsa's enemy. Whilst her parents believed it was the fear others would have, what Pabbie truly meant Elsa's fear, as her emotions control her abilities. Being somewhat ancient, and highly mystical, Pabbie also holds the most knowledge and understanding over Elsa's mysterious powers, more so than any other character in the film.

Marshmallow

Unlike Olaf, who was created by Elsa's happiness, Marshmallow was born out of Elsa's desire to be alone for Anna's safety, and his existence exhibits a hostile side to Elsa's nature. Elsa, fearing confrontation, had reluctantly created him when Anna refused to leave her even after she was accidentally harmed by Elsa. Although Marshmallow had excessively forced Anna and her friends out, he returned to Elsa's side loyally and took his role as her defender quite seriously. He had even tried his best to defend her when the palace, and by extension Elsa within it, came under attack. Elsa had watched Marshmallow fight the invaders, possibly out of concern that Marshmallow would not be able to keep them away from the palace. However, as other guards had swarmed into the palace and forced her to retreat, Marshmallow risked his own life to prevent other soldiers from getting in, but had fallen into the gorge in the process. Marshmallow survived this and returned to find Elsa's palace empty (after the events of the film had taken place), yet also found Elsa's tiara and donned it, which had a calming and positive effect upon him.

Enemies

Hans

Inadvertently and without knowing it, Elsa and her nature as a winter elemental has been a major obstacle to Hans' pursuit of becoming Arendelle's sole monarch. Originally, it was Hans' plan to marry the soon-to-be queen regnant of Arendelle so he could rule the kingdom with her by his side. However, he gave up on the idea when he soon learned of her dislike of being around people. It was unknown to him that she was doing this to keep her subjects safe from her unstable winter magic. He did not learn of her abilities until she and Anna got into an argument about Anna and Hans' engagement. The instability of her emotions, caused her to inadvertently reveal her powers to everyone at the ball. From then on, as each event unfolded unintentionally thanks to the Snow Queen, Hans had to constantly change his plans to become king of Arendelle. This includes making the Queen seem like a monster in the eyes of the public, then killing her to end her accidental winter curse and become a hero from the people's perspective. His pursuit of the crown would be complete without having to marry Anna. This is also how he backed up Anna's claim about Elsa's innocence and dismissed the Duke's about the queen being a monster when she ran away and accidentally unleashed a winter curse on the kingdom, when her powers were revealed, this was done to further get into Anna's good graces.

This also required getting into Queen Elsa's good graces by stopping her from killing the Duke of Weselton's thugs after they provoked her into an angered state and appearing to show mercy towards her, when it was ultimately to get her to let her guard down for a chance to kill her with the chandelier, and locked her up in the castle dungeon and chained her down in shackles, then again after he lied to her about Anna already being killed by her accidental curse when chasing her out to the frozen fjords. However, Elsa was saved from his treachery by Anna and his plot for usurpation was foiled.

The Duke of Weselton

Originally, the Duke of Weselton was polite to Elsa, even offering her a dance at the coronation, but this was all to exploit Arendelle's riches in trade. When her powers are revealed to everyone, he is the first to call her a monster and continued to believe so, even though Anna and Hans tried to reassure him that she was not and was just scared. When Hans goes off to find Anna, the Duke volunteers his henchmen and tells them that if they encounter Queen Elsa, they are to kill her, which they try (and fail) to do so. When Hans told him and the other Dignitaries (as one of his lies) that Anna had died from Elsa's magic, the Duke showed some sadness over Anna's alleged death and was the first to say that there was no doubt that Elsa was a monster and that they were all in danger. At the end of the film, Elsa cuts off all ties with Weselton due to the Duke's persecution of her.