Prince Hans Wasn't A Villain - Frozen Theory Explained (& Debunked)
Frozen broke Disney norms by featuring a handsome prince who turned out to be evil; however, one theory claims that Prince Hans might have never been a villain at all. Released in 2013, Frozen quickly became a blockbuster, leading to the production of the highest-grossing animated movie ever, Frozen II. The first movie retold Hans Christian Anderson’s fairytale, The Snow Queen, and included a unique twist for Disney animated features. Near the end of Frozen, one of the main love interests, Prince Hans, revealed that he had been plotting to steal the throne, nearly killing both Princess Anna and Queen Elsa in the process.
Another aspect of Frozen that stood out was the Trolls, a race of magical creatures who could make themselves look like rocks. At the beginning of Frozen, the Trolls adopted a young ice harvester named Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven. Years later, they were excited when Kristoff brought a girl home to meet them and assumed they were in love, even trying to marry them on the spot. However, Kristoff really needed their help to heal Anna’s heart, which had accidentally been frozen by her sister, Elsa.
While the Trolls seemed to mean well in Frozen, their efforts have led to an interesting theory. According to this theory (via Inside the Magic), Hans might not have been evil. Instead, the Trolls might have used their magic to manipulate Hans into acting like a villain. While certain song lyrics and actions support this theory, other major events in Frozen disprove it. Here's the theory explained.
This theory finds its roots in the lyrics to the Troll’s song “Fixer Upper.” Although this song begins by explaining why Anna should love Kristoff despite his flaws, it changes when Kristoff explains that Anna is already engaged to someone else. In response, the Trolls immediately console Kristoff by singing, “Get the fiancée out of the way, and the whole thing will be fixed!” This line inspired the idea that the Trolls bewitched Hans to ensure that Anna would not want to marry him anymore. That way, Kristoff could marry her instead.
This would mean that Hans was actually good for the majority of Frozen, which seems to be supported by his actions in Elsa’s Ice Palace. While on a mission to find Anna, Hans, the Duke of Weselton’s guards, and a group of soldiers from Arendelle find Elsa’s Ice Palace. On orders from the Duke, his guards try to kill Elsa. If Hans had been evil, he could have let the guards kill her. Then, he could have married Anna without any suspicions against him and immediately become king alongside Anna. However, he forces the guard to shoot his crossbow away from Elsa, saving her life. Since Hans has a clear opportunity to let Elsa die and does not take it, this suggests that the theory that the Trolls manipulated him into later turning evil could be correct.
If this theory were true, there would be several major consequences for Frozen. First, the Trolls would be the true villains of the story. If they enchanted Hans to be evil, then the Trolls would be indirectly responsible for Elsa and Anna nearly dying by Hans’ hand. In addition, the Trolls would be some of the only Disney villains to fully succeed in their plans. Since their objective was to get Anna to marry Kristoff, they would achieve this goal sometime after Frozen II. At the end of Frozen II, Kristoff proposes to Anna, who accepts while still actively hating Hans (as shown by her describing him as a villain in their charades game earlier in the movie). This means that the Trolls accomplished their evil plan without anyone knowing they had been manipulated.
Second, this theory would create a much darker ending for Frozen and its characters. At the end of the first movie, Hans is arrested and forcibly sent back to his home kingdom in the Southern Isles. If the Trolls had manipulated Hans, then his life would have been destroyed by magic beyond his control, costing him the love of his life and most likely the respect of his family. Additionally, this would mean that the main characters all turned against Frozen's Prince Hans unjustly. They punished him for crimes that were not his fault since he had become a pawn in the Trolls’ plot.
However, these consequences are improbable because there are key details in Frozen that disprove this theory. The event that most directly contradicts the theory is actually Hans “rescuing” Elsa in her Ice Palace. On the surface, it appeared that Hans acted quickly to save her life. However, Hans noticeably looked up before stopping the Duke of Weselton’s guard from shooting Elsa and saw the chandelier above her. Despite this, he specifically forced the guard’s arm up, so he broke the chandelier and caused it to nearly crash on top of Elsa. This means even before Hans' full Frozen villain twist, he intentionally broke the chandelier, which would benefit him no matter the consequences. If Elsa survived, then he could try to persuade her to unfreeze Arendelle, which was the ultimate outcome. However, if the chandelier had killed Elsa, then Hans would have been viewed as the hero who tried to save her, making him even more appealing to Anna and all of Arendelle as a future king. Either way, preventing the guard from directly shooting Elsa furthered Hans’ plot to claim the throne.
In addition, Hans truly being a villain, and not manipulated by the Trolls, fits with one of the major symbols in Frozen. Throughout the movie, characters wore gloves to symbolize that they were concealing themselves. Elsa did this at the beginning of Frozen, wearing gloves to help block her ice powers as she also attempted to control herself emotionally. When Anna took one of her gloves, Elsa’s ice magic powers were finally revealed. She later fully embraced both her powers and herself when she willingly gave up her second glove while singing “Let It Go.” Similarly, Hans also wore gloves throughout the majority of Frozen. The only time he removed one of them was while explaining his evil plan to Anna, who was dying from a frozen heart. During this scene, Hans revealed his true nature, admitting that he never loved Anna and only wanted to become king. Before he left her to die, he put his glove back on, once again pretending to love Anna and be in mourning in front of the other dignitaries. Based on Frozen’s symbolism, this act of removing his glove while describing his evil plan proves that Hans was the villain all along, rather than being manipulated by the Trolls.
Source: Screenrant
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