#anyway i love accidental cryptid Elsa and the cryptid club trying to find her (which is the entire kingdom of Arendelle)

[sweetalnazar]

OK bc i can’t draw it, let me elaborate on cryptid Elsa

To begin with, i don’t think Elsa ever wanted to rule. It was an obligation, a responsibility she thought she had to do (that eldest child feel) and she never considered she could do otherwise

Even after the end of the first movie, she still stayed as Queen bc well, yeah freedom is fun & all but all she loves is in Arendelle and she has a responsibility towards her loved ones

But Elsa has never been one for crowds or people. She likes her alone time, she likes having her freedom. ‘Into The Unknown’ reveals her longing for a different life, despite the risks and Elsa is fully aware of what she’s risking

Anna on the other hand, despite being similarly isolated, loves people. Maybe not formal settings but interacting with people and caring for them are right up her alley. She just needed some time to grow up a little and realize she would be glad to take on that responsibility (one reason why i adore Frozen 2 is that it did so good in character development and the respective character arcs)

Back to cryptid Elsa, what I really enjoy the most is the freedom of her new life. Sure it’s tougher and rougher than living in a castle, but it’s her life now, no one else’s. No more dealing with a thousand problems, no more having to constanly socialize and seem perfect, no one to answer to, but she still has a purpose to stop her feeling directionless (being the fifth spirit) and she still has a family to stop her feeling isolated (the Northuldra and the spirits)

I think Elsa has often considered her situation to be all or nothing: either she must force herself to act and carry out the part of the queen and hide everything that goes against that, or she abandons everything to be true to herself (in the first Frozen, we see how content & at peace she is in her ice castle. ‘Into The Unknown’ confirms this again). She must be what ppl want her to be, or she will lose them

Frozen 2 showed her she could have both. She could finally be true to herself and her own wants, while still being loved. She can let herself be selfish and choose her own path, without having to worry she risks all she loves in the process

I imagine she’ll crave so much alone time. Like she just tells the Northuldra “hey i’m going out, not sure when i’ll be back don’t wait up” and like half the kids in the tribe are more or less doing that too to catch up with the outside world, so Yelana is just “sure, don’t get yourself killed”

It’s weird at first, being alone. No not being alone, but knowing that there’s no time limit. Sure, she could bump into someone while she’s out but that’s not the same as stealing precious few moments before duty calls yet again. She walks and walks, with Bruni, with Gale and when she’s tired, she sits down and waits

A voice should be calling her by now. Asking her to help out with something, solve something, something. But a minute passes, then ten, then thirty and still....silence. The leaves in the trees rustle and she can hear the crash of the waves in the distance, but no footsteps. No one calling her name. It’s wonderful

Maybe she continues walking some more, creating shelter and finding her own meals. Maybe she goes back to the Northuldra that same day. But even when she’s back with people, there’s an underlying giddiness inside of her, as she slowly starts to realize her time is finally finally her own

She can go where she wants! Do what she wants! As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone, she could do anything!

So she does. The second time she goes out, she has more supplies packed, has a better plan of where she wants to go. And she just, does. She might get lost, she might fall and stumble, but she has her spirit friends to help her out so she’s not too worried

And herein is where the cryptid Elsa legends start becoming a thing. I mean suddenly coming back to Arendelle like a mystical religious figure on a magical horse made of water and abdicating to basically become a hermit was already Big, but Arendelle citizens are used to it by now. Never a boring day with the Arendelle royal family

An ice harvester, young and stumbling after his veteran mother sees a flash of magic in the distance, and a figure basically somersaulting up a mountain. Open-mouthed, he knows exactly who it is and when he gets home, he rushes to tell his friends of what he saw

It seems like idle gossip at first but the people of Arendelle do have a soft spot for their former queen and they do want to know how she’s doing doing. Except they can’t help get excited over it. It’s like a game, trying to spot the elusive Queen, sorry Princess Elsa, with her magic and her strange companions doing who knows what

Olaf does one of his dramatic over the top retellings of the sisters’ adventures after someone describes another ‘sighting’. Mattias, who never wants to miss an Olaf story happens to walk by, chimes in and embellishes a few details for the audience. Olaf and Mattias play off each other to wide eyes and hushed gasps and when asked if all they said was true, both nod very seriously

The rumors get more and more bizarre from there and Elsa stories become more and more sought after, a game to the point the palace staff have a tally against the dock crew to see who can get more sightings of Elsa that month

Meanwhile, Elsa is casually living her new hermit life, completely unaware of what’s going on. Sure the few Arendelle citizens she meets gasp and point a bit when they see her, but they did that when she was queen too. Some things never change, she muses to herself

It’s only after Anna finds out that Elsa does, and even then Anna and Kristoff had at least a few weeks where they indulged in the Elsa sighting contest too (they had an advantage since Elsa comes over every Friday for family game night)