Hans Deserved Better - Tumblr Posts
I know it’s no longer ‘cool’ to talk about/critique Frozen, but my friend Cait and I were talking about twist villains and how Hans was a bad example, and how he didn’t even need to be a twist villain for it to still work and yeah no I’m still thinking on it.
Because no, really… why did we need Hans to be a twist villain? Why did he have to actually be playing a long con and be all ‘muahaha, actually I don’t love you.’ We already had the threat of the eternal winter, the fracturing relationship between Elsa and Anna, and if you needed another outside force to be the villain, Duke Weselton was right there.
You wouldn’t even need to change much, really.
Instead, have it so Hans and Anna do kiss… and nothing happens. They’re both shocked and upset - not by the implications, those don’t hit them yet, but because they had an idea on how to save her, and it failed. Meanwhile, Duke Weselton is shit-stirring and going after Elsa.
You bring Olaf in at some point, and while he and Hans are trying to keep Anna warm, it comes out that maybe it didn’t work because Anna doesn’t love Hans. And, similarly, Hans doesn’t really love Anna - their ‘true love’ was based on infatuation after knowing each other for less than one night, while they mostly just goofed off and had fun, and neither of them actually know much of anything about the other.
(It wouldn’t just be Anna not knowing anything about Hans, you make it so Hans doesn’t know much about Anna either. Neither of them know each other’s favorite foods or colors or best friends or bad habits.)
Scene keeps going til it comes out that the one Anna really loves now is Kristoff.
And yeah this still raises a problem in that Anna and Kristoff didn’t know each other that long either, but it’s a Disney movie, people get married after three days, whatever.
So now the plan is for both Olaf and Hans to get Anna to Kristoff and protect Elsa from Duke Weselton. Make Weselton the guy about to cut Elsa’s head off.
The movie then proceeds like canon, up to the point where Hans is punched out. Now instead Weselton is publicly exposed for his shit-stirring, it’s declared they will no longer be in a trade relationship with his duchy, and Elsa instead turns to Hans and he’s made Ambassador of Southern Isles. Hans and Anna part on good times, agreeing to be friends, Hans and Kristoff are also friendly with one another, and the takeaway is “Sometimes relationships don’t work out and that’s okay, it’s neither person’s fault.”
And instead of “Don’t marry a man you just met because what if he’s evil?” it’s actually “One great date does not guarantee a great relationship, relationships/love is based on mutual experiences and trust, not a sudden burst of attraction and infatuation.” Which honestly is a much better message for the kids.
…why did Hans need to be the villain?