That realizing her power is simultaneously liberating and dangerous is the point. "Let It Go" was written as Elsa's villain song, back when the story was more closely derived from the original "Snow Queen", and it was also what persuaded the writers to take a different tack with her.
The X-Men comparison is very close, with a dash of the Hulk: awakening into her adult power makes her hated and feared, and part of her wants to be. She wants to throw off those childhood restraints that she's worn, thanklessly, for people who've never even slightly understood what she's going through. And puny humans keep pushing her into becoming the threat they insist she is, because whether well-meaning or malicious they won't leave her alone. (The Duke of Weselton is pretty much Thunderbolt Ross.) She wants to be who she is, in the face of a world that says that the only acceptable way to live is to spend every single moment keeping it in.
But of course they're right: she's Scott Summers without his ruby-quartz glasses. Jean Gray fighting a losing battle with the demands of the Phoenix Force. To choose be herself is to be a threat. And her story is fundamentally, ineluctably tragic-- minus the power of love to show a way out.
But "Let It Go" is all about that exhilarating moment of just saying to hell with prudence, and it lets us experience that with her. It's all bender, no hangover; the giddy romantic abandon, not the regrets of the morning after.
At that, it's all in the voice and CGI acting. those same lyrics, unchanged except sung in cold anger or hot rage, could serve equally well as the villain's declaration of war. Which of course it was supposed to be.
("I know what you’re going to say: she’s my sister, and I should be trying to get along with her." "No! She’s crazy, and she needs to go down.")
The X-Men comparison is very close, with a dash of the Hulk: awakening into her adult power makes her hated and feared, and part of her wants to be. She wants to throw off those childhood restraints that she's worn, thanklessly, for people who've never even slightly understood what she's going through. And puny humans keep pushing her into becoming the threat they insist she is, because whether well-meaning or malicious they won't leave her alone. (The Duke of Weselton is pretty much Thunderbolt Ross.) She wants to be who she is, in the face of a world that says that the only acceptable way to live is to spend every single moment keeping it in.
But of course they're right: she's Scott Summers without his ruby-quartz glasses. Jean Gray fighting a losing battle with the demands of the Phoenix Force. To choose be herself is to be a threat. And her story is fundamentally, ineluctably tragic-- minus the power of love to show a way out.
But "Let It Go" is all about that exhilarating moment of just saying to hell with prudence, and it lets us experience that with her. It's all bender, no hangover; the giddy romantic abandon, not the regrets of the morning after.
At that, it's all in the voice and CGI acting. those same lyrics, unchanged except sung in cold anger or hot rage, could serve equally well as the villain's declaration of war. Which of course it was supposed to be.
("I know what you’re going to say: she’s my sister, and I should be trying to get along with her." "No! She’s crazy, and she needs to go down.")
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