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ultraericthered · 5 months

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Disney's Most Hated Villain 10 Years Later

Now when I say "Disney's most hated villain", I don't mean he's the Disney villain that most people hate most, I literally mean he seems to be the villain most hated by Disney themselves. The shots taken at him in Big Hero 6, Frozen Fever, Kingdom Hearts III, Frozen II, and even recently in Once Upon A Studio all seem to suggest that there are some people high up at Disney who just really did not care for this guy, like they blame the ascendance of "twist villains" in Disney movies on him and want to take it out on him, despite how massively successful and popular the movie he was the villain of was and still is. It's just the most preculiar thing. A whole 10 years later and we've finally get another traditional, openly and bombastically evil villain in King Magnifico of Wish, and given how utterly polarizing that movie is turning out to be among all the earliest critics and audience viewers, I have to wonder if he'll now become Disney new punching bag for setting this new course! I swear, there's no pleasing folks these days!

But this post is for some thoughts on him and why I feel a lot of people online still get Hans wrong. He's not the most competently executed and well defined case of a twist villain, nor is he the worst, most bullshit twist villain ever who needed to be excised from the film so Elsa could keep the Big Bad spot. Taking him as he is, Hans is a B grade or C grade Disney villain at most, with lots of character potential even if it doesn't fully come together in the movie itself.

By far the most common and greatest misconception about Hans as a character is the idea that the moment of the reveal that he was an evil villain the entire time, and the very nature of re-establishing and re-contextualizing his character as a villain, is meant to cast him as some devious, manipulative mastermind who was pulling strings for the film's whole present day plot and had ill intent behind his every word and deed, even if that seems contradictory to the character we'd been watching up to that point. This is false. Hans has never mastered the chessboard, only played on it. He had a firmly set goal from the moment he showed up in Arendelle - become its ruler - but he did not have any solid plan on how he was going to make this ambition a reality. So he was winging it the whole movie. I mean, he basically says as much to Anna in that scene yet so many viewers were too distracted by reeling from either shock or confusion over the outing of Hans as the bad guy that they seemed to miss that.

The crux of Hans as an antagonist in the film is that he is a broken soul who grew up miserable and with an absence of love in his life, and it warped him into a high functioning sociopath who can easily detach himself from his heart and emotions, becoming whatever the current circumstance or person he's presently interacting with best requires him to be in the ways that best advance his own interests. He's like the worst possible outcome of what Anna or Elsa could've grown up to be had their childhoods taken an even worse turn. And above all, he is a man of many masks, rarely ever showing his true face. The mask is hollow and flexible, serving as a mirror to whoever Hans is in contact with (His nice, adorkable, and worried moods perfectly match Anna's, his angry and confrontational moods perfectly match Weselton's, his saddened and sympathetic moods perfectly match Elsa's - absolutely none of it is authentic). There's only a select few times we see the mask pulled back and get to see Hans' true face, those times being these moments and shots here:

The first shot is him lowering the phony Prince Charming mask and visibly expressing that he was genuinely charmed to meet Anna. No, he doesn't have any "love at first sight" feelings for her, nor is he at the point where he plans on getting close to her and asking for her hand in marriage - it's simply an amused fondness for this quirky, clumsy Arendelle girl he just conversed with.

This next shot is him looking towards the mountain and realizing Elsa is there. In animation, there's even the briefest hint of a grin as he turns and gives orders afterwards, 'cause he wants to seize and exploit this opportunity to play the big hero for Arendelle. Also worth mentioning is that while Hans has no one he loves, he does treat his horse Sitron well. It's pretty much his only friend.

The infamous split second shot where Hans' eyes dart up towards the chandelier before he jumps to action and turns the soldier's crossbow away from Elsa and to the candelier that drops on Elsa. This is Hans as a Xanatos Speed Chess player shown in practice.

That smarmy, mean-spirited grin that comes over his face as he says the infamous, ever memetic line that reveals his villainy.

The shot when he sees Elsa has broken out of her prison cell. Again, the good guy mask is lowered to show he's not pleased.

THIS SHOT. This is Hans fully unmasked and fully unrestrained.

The last we see of him before he's thrown out of the story.

So what's with all the Hans hate, from Disney fans and Disney itself? TV Tropes' page of Character Perception Evolution states this:

I'm not sure how entirely accurate this is since from what I recall, Hans and the twist of his villainy was getting shit on from very early on. I have to disagree that the twist was not properly foreshadowed or at least not in a way that was substantial enough (aside from those "lowering the mask" parts, all of Hans' lyrics in "Love Is An Open Door" put his intentions and the angle he was playing in plain sight, he immediately flip-flops his position when Anna charges him with looking over Arendelle in the sisters' absence, and right before the reveal he straight up lies by omission to Elsa's face by not telling her that he's currently the leading authority in Arendelle and thus has the power to grant her leniency rather than "persaude the other nobles" to do so), but the execution of the reveal with his sudden shift into a totally different character than the one we'd been watching for the previous two thirds of the film absolutely should've been handled better in execution; he needed to slow it down a bit in between saying that notorious line and snuffing out all the lit fires in the room while expositing in a villainous monologue sort of way. The idea that Elsa should've been the villain rather than Hans and Hans should've been the male love interest instead of Kristoph are simply opinions, and I'm not exactly in agreement with them, more on that in a bit.

I've said it plenty of times before and will repeat: to me, the most crippling weakness of Hans as the villain of this film is that the way he's been designed, the very nature of his sociopathic character who always wears masks, mirrors other characters, and comes up with new moves to advance his interests, rendered it very difficult for us to get a good grasp on who he truly is and feel like we'd really gotten to know him by the time the movie was over. And you could make the argument this isn't a flaw so much as it is a necessary evil in order to make Hans' role in the story work as best as it could...but I feel that argument falls flat when Disney/Pixar later gave us a similar twist villain who did what Hans did but better and even more effectively as a full-fledged character in a much shorter amount of screentime.

Erenesto De La Cruz, like Hans, is first cast in a positive light and set up as a good guy in the story, though we don't meet him in person until the third act of Coco. Like Hans, he's got an amiable personality and fast strikes up a friendly relationship with the main character. Like Hans, he is very evidently not without genuine decent qualities. Like Hans, the reveal of him as a murderous sociopath who is the true villain of the story is a very shocking moment. And like Hans, he's a big factor in the climax and gets dealt a satisfactory karmic comeuppance. But the thing that set Ernesto apart from Hans is that he doesn't wear any masks to conceal he's "secretly evil". He has a public image that conceals this, yes, but for all the time he's on screen and an active agent in the story, he is his authentic self. All of the nicer qualities we see from him aren't made up, they're real parts of who he is...and who he is just also happens to be a vainglorious sociopath devoid of a conscience who will do anything to anyone under any circumstance in order to "seize his moment" and build up a legacy that keeps him the center of attention even long after he's passed away. While he's still under the mistaken belief that Miguel is his great grandson, before he learns he's actually that to Hector, he has him put away and draws a parallel to how he poisoned Hector to death as he does so - he was never at any point in life pretending to be Hector's best friend, "Hector WAS my best friend", as he puts it. And it just ultimately matters less to him than himself and his own self-interested pursuits. That is a truly chilling villainous character who leaves a strong impression after the movie's over despite how little he was on screen. Hans was almost that, but fell short of the mark because we were left with no clear picture of who he was.

Luckily for Hans, he did get other chances to show more character:

In closing, I will still have to defend Hans' position as the story's only true villain. Yes, Disney going all out with Elsa and her powers driven out of control from her fears as the primary antagonist probably would've been the best option, but once they were set on making Elsa much less of a villain than envisioned, someone needed to play the part in order to make the climax happen and it absolutely could not be the Duke of Weselton, a character so comically unpleasant and openly against Elsa and in it for his own interests rather than Arendelle's that there is no way in Frozen Hell that Elsa would ever be convinced by him of anything like Anna being dead from Elsa's own freezing powers. That lie had to come from someone who could convincingly make Elsa believe it because they'd come off so sincere, someone she'd think could have no possible reason to lie to her. It had to be someone like Hans, someone with a heart so frozen cold that he could effortlessly mimic human emotion he didn't really feel. That is a crucial part of the story's climax that, even beyond the danger to Anna's heart, was foreshadowed from the very beginning.

#Disney #Frozen #anniversary #disney villains #Prince Hans #analysis #opinion #criticism #defense #they wasted a perfectly good character

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frozenwastelanders · 11 months

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THE TUNDRA CALLS... ❄️

The Cold Season was brutal on all. It tore through the Clans with no prior warning, ravaging the territory with harsh, blistering snowstorms and such heavy snowfall you couldn't see a lick of land underpaw. It grew so cold you would catch frostbite if outside for only a few minutes. Illness spread like wildfire, and the death toll rose quickly, unable to be tempered by the augurs and their dwindling herbs. The Clans distanced themselves, closing off from each other as they sulked in their own misery and death.

One augur, however, they grew discontent with their leader's inaction. Starclan was punishing them, and they had to act quick to right their wrongs. They went to their leader and urged them to host another Gathering, to bring the Clans together under Silverpelt's shine, where Starclan would see them once more. The leader was hesitant; they had not held a Gathering in many moons, not with so many cats sick and the weather being worse than ever. Still, they gave in to their augur's pleas and made the trek.

When they got to the Clearing, they found a small collection of the other Clan's warriors and apprentices there, the leader looking haggard but unphased. It was a cold, miserable Gathering in near-whiteout conditions, and for a moment the augurs had almost lost hope; but then, the blizzard eased and the clouds parted, revealing an array of shimmering blues and greens they had never seen in the sky before.

The augurs said it was a sign, that Starclan's Lights deemed it such. The Clans must stand together rather than apart to pull through the season and survive.

So they did. The Clans worked together to stay afloat, sending mediators bustling back and forth to share news and the measly herbs they could spare. They held Gatherings, even as their member counts fluctuated. In the end, they made it through, and the Newleaf following the Cold Season was one of prosperity and health.

It has been eight years now since the Cold Season, and the Clans are still struggling to find their footing after such a catastrophic Leafbare. While they have not seen a winter nearly as bad as the season of legend, they are still wary, not quite over the horrors of the past.

The Clans have found peace now, but how much longer until the past catches up to them ? How much longer until the shaky serenity they've established is shattered ?

CATS OF THE FROZEN WASTE is officially open for new members ! After months of working on this, I'm beyond ecstatic to finally bring my team's creation to life and bring a unique new experience to the Warriors text-based roleplay scene.

We offer:

A 16+ semi-literate to literate community that encourages growth.

Inclusivity towards all, and a welcoming, friendly staff team.

Two unique Clans; Evergreenclan and Ermineclan, both with two unique ranks & expansion on existing ones and their own nuances in culture and views on the world around them.

Distinct Clan worldbuilding and the opportunity for your cats to make a real dent.

Expansive, fleshed out lore, religion and more that is always being expanded on.

Flexible character creation and no 'main character' plots.

Simple behind-the-scenes roleplay systems and easy to track progression, as well as an active OORP scene with many channels to bond with others through and fun miscellaneous bots.

& more !

We are freshly opened and thus all of our HRs are currently available to be applied for ! Our roleplay is planned to start once all spots are full and we have a few cats in both Clans. While we are a 16+ community that intends on exploring darker themes in the plot and such, we do not allow any sort of NSFW content to be roleplayed.

The team here at COTFW truly look forward to all those who join us, and we can't wait to see how your cat's story unfolds !

Please consider reblogging so others can find our post and consider joining, thank you ! We look forward to everyone who joins !! <3

#wcrp #new wcrp #warrior cats #warrior cats roleplay #warrior cats rp #warriors rp #discord rp #cats of the frozen waste

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