迪士尼公主 Article: It Makes No Sense for Hans to be the Villain

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It Makes No Sense for Hans to be the Villain

posted by OnceABlueMoon

Forget about all of your opinions on Hans. Just for a 分钟 forget about any of his scheming 或者 backstabbing that happens later in the movie. Imagine that 你 came into to this movie not expecting a villain, 或者 at the very least expecting Elsa to be a villain. What would be the impression 你 would have of Hans?

My bet is that it would be almost the exact same as Anna's. In the first 小时 of the movie, Hans gives no implication that he is anything other than what he appears. A kind, gentlemanly, slightly awkward young man who is looking for a sense of adventure and a way to escape the overbearing pressure of his 12 older brothers. A young man who is so eager to please that he is willing to do anything he can for affection. He agrees with everything that Anna says,

"We finish each other's-"

"Sandwiches!"

"That's what I was gonna say!"

Look at all that animosity.

and is willing to marry the first girl he sees at a moments glance. Of course, this could seem nefarious at first, but wait! Take off your Evil-Hans glasses for a 分钟 and really think about the situation. Hans as a Prince will have to marry a Princess at some point (regardless of what other 迪士尼电影院 tell us about intra-class marriages). Realistically Hans would be forced to marry a Princess 或者 some other type of royalty, and since he looks around 20, it would probably be soon. And realistically, after 12 other brothers got first picks his options would be rather limited. Just his luck that on his trip as the Southern-Isle's representative he meets a kind, funny and adventurous available young woman. Someone that is incessantly flirting with him and makes it seem like he is the only man she has eyes for (which considering how lonely Anna has been for her whole life is absolutely true). Why would he let such an opportunity pass? The two of them have been inseparable without a hitch for almost twelve hours (which 由 Disney's standard is like a year), so why shouldn't he ask her to marry him? The coronation will be over soon and he could be returning 首页 within the 下一个 few days, never to see Arendelle again. How could he let this opportunity pass?

In reality, if we look at Hans' actions from the perspective that he is just a normal prince, he literally gives no indication that he is anything other than that. Every action he does makes sense from that perspective, with him making sure that the citizens of Arendelle survive the impromptu winter, to transversing an entire ocean of snow to try and reach Anna. Even when Hans is 由 himself he doesn't give any implication that he has any nefarious thoughts. Look at the image below:

Even when he is all alone, Hans looks at Anna's retreating back with a lovey, dovey expression. If we are expected to believe that since the moment he got off the 船, 小船 he was planning to take the throne, we should not be seeing this image. Of course, 你 could argue that he changed his intentions later, but where do we see this? This right here is the only moment in the entire movie that we see Hans alone, and he gives zero indication that he is after anything other than getting some 更多 time to talk to Anna.

Of course 你 could then come up with the argument that Hans is such a good actor that even when he is not being observed he still acts as though he's not evil. But. That. Is. Not. Possible. At least if 你 want to keep with the assumption that Hans is human anyway. Human's have faults, humans screw up. No matter how good a human's facade is there will always be cracks in it. And even if Hans was such an impossibly good actor, he at the very least would have a neutral face when all alone. The only reason Hans would make such a face is if he knew that there was an audience watching his every move. And again, we are assuming for arguments sake that Hans is human. Such abilities don't apply to us mere mortals.

Thus, in the context of what the movie has shown us for the first two-thirds there is literally no indication that Hans is evil. If the writers had never put in the image above, then sure, Hans being evil would be as likely as anything since we would never see him alone with his guard down. But seeing as the above image is the only thing we can use for 说 purposes, Hans being evil is contradictory to everything that we know about him. He undergoes a complete change in character for literally no reason than to prevent a 爱情三角形, 三角 from happening.

That's right, lazy writing. The entire movie is full of it (Where do Elsa's powers come from? How in the world does snow powers = dress-making, and creating life?). And turning Hans evil might be the worst of their decisions. For the first two-thirds of the movie every action that Hans does is as valiant as can be. He even makes a better ruler than Anna 或者 Elsa, who literally leave their entire kingdom without one thought to the people they are supposed to take care of. That's like the President (or Prime Minister, depending on where 你 live) deciding to leave and 搜索 for his missing daughter right in the middle of a natural disaster. A ruler does not have the same types of freedom that a commoner does, something that only Hans seems to acknowledge. The Kingdom could have easily dissolved into chaos and anarchy without someone to keep order.

This even proves that Anna might have been right to say yes to Hans' proposal, seeing how at every turn he does exactly what is needed in order to keep the kingdom safe. He even saves Elsa's life.

And yet at the last third of the movie he acts completely out of character. Lazy, lazy.

Or...

Get the fiancé out of the way and the whole thing will be fixed!

Maybe a few certain character's are a bit 更多 nefarious than they appear.

MissCinico, fahmad27 and 9 others like this

TigerRanma To me, that expression is just that he's pleased that things are going smoothly, that a princess shows interest in him, so he's gonna get what he wants. Bumping into her was a good plan, Hans. You got her.

jennipop22 Ugh, I completely agree. I love Frozen but the Hans twist is literally one of the worst villain/plot twists I have ever seen in a movie. I suppose they just needed a villain so they threw Hans in there to make him evil.

Angelica_AW I agree with TigerRanma on the expression thing. He's happy that everything's going to plan. And I like the twist of Hans being the villian. Beside that, I don't think I would have really liked him anyways because he was getting in the way of Anna and Krisoff. :P (What a sad reason)

rosemina I absolutely agree with Angelica_AW. I was impressed when he suddenly turned out to be the villain. Besides, I think this was exactly the point. Nobody would imagine Hans is the villain and that made the plot twist really interesting. He was the devil-in-disguise kind of villain. Perhaps some will believe this seems a bit harsh for the "misunderstood" Hans, but the fact that he was eventually willing to let a young girl die as long as he could get a throne still remains.

324anna ^ I agree with rosemina and TigerRanma, but I will always say that Hans shouldn't be in this story. They should make Elsa the villain. If that had happened, Frozen would be my favourite disney movie.

zikkiforever Fab article but I can't agree. I can't even link you to the pics that I have caus emy iPad is playing up. Though during mostly 'Love Is An Open Door' you can see Hans expression during what Anna says. When she says 'sandwiches' you can see Hans to an eye roll. Then when Anna says something silly and she is not looking you will see his expression change to like 'What is she is on about?' and he is just agreeing with everything Anna is saying-not taking an interest. Like was he really going to say 'sandwiches'? Then when he goes out after Elsa, I am not sure it is a coincidence that the arrow that Hans took away from the Duke Of Weaselton's men hit the light. Why would he direct there, knowing fully well it would fall on Elsa who was standing right under it. During the boat scene, the smile was after Anna walked away as if to say 'She likes me. It makes my plan so much easier...' so to show his plan was working. When Anna looks away, you catch his facial expression changes. He is 13th in line...come on, I wouldn't wait. He acts innocent in front of the villagers because nobody can know his plan. They know and love the queen and will protect her. The pic where it says 'look at all that animosity' I think could be him going 'I found the princess. Perfect...' True people all have flaws, but I could even see them in his plan. Disney didn't make them that obvious to reviewers. I actually lie,d the plot twist too. Hans is my favourite villain. He is somebody you wouldn't suspect. Just that line sums him up... 'Anna if there was only somebody who loved you,' Then he locks the door and stops the fire. Still amaze article

Tygers_Eye Even though I wrote the article saying that I thought Anna's crippling, overwhelming loneliness didn't make sense since there WERE people to talk to and things to do despite her and the narrative acting like there weren't, I have to disagree with this one. You said in the article: "My bet is that it would be almost the exact same as Anna's. In the first hour of the movie, Hans gives no implication that he is anything other than what he appears." I think that's EXACTLY what the filmmakers were going for, and EXACTLY what we were supposed to think and feel. If they intended for a villain that we could see coming a mile away (like Ursula, Scar, Jafar, Hades, Facilier, etc) then Hans would only fail as a villain because he failed to trick the audience into trusting him the way he succeeded in tricking Anna. As a movie villain, he did exactly what he's supposed to do.

OnceABlueMoon Zikkiforever, I still disagree. I feel like a lot of people are confusing what Frozen is trying to tell us, with what the movie actually does. Every one is still looking at the movie through their Hans-is-evil glasses. Let's say that Hans actually was a well meaning guy, every look or gesture he made throughout the entire movie would support him being a good guy. Even wight he sandwiches scene. I don't see an eye roll. I see him look taken aback for a moment and then deciding to go along with Anna, smiling as he does. Of course this can be used to support the idea that he is using Anna and trying to get on her good side, but this scene can also be used to support the idea that he is an emotionally stunted individual whose brothers ignored him for years and is looking for affection. The scene is so ambiguous it can be used for either interpretation, but I am more willing to believe the former since all the information we've gotten previously in the movie supports that idea. And really though, what is so bad about him responding with sandwiches. It's cute and it shows them having a lot of chemistry. They're able to bounce back off of each other. I say plenty of 'absurd' and cutesy things with my boyfriend and he generally responds in an equally 'absurd' way. And with Hans under the boat, I don't know what everyone is seeing. Look at his eyebrows, the way they curve upwards. If there was any type of intended malice, the corners would be indenting downwards or at the very least straight.You can argue that he is befuddled by the princess and finds her a bit puzzling, but there needs to be a lot more in that face to support any type of nefarious purpose. As for the Elsa thing. If he really wanted to kill Elsa he should have just let the arrow kill her. He has done everything he has to, making sure that he explicitly tells all the guards not to harm her. If some guards go rouge, how will that be his fault. And that is quite good aim and precision to be able to intentionally hit a 2 inch wide chain a couple meters into the air, after forcefully pushing up the crossbow to get it away from Elsa. Tygers_Eye Because that undermines the entire point of character building. The only reason why the characters trust those stereotypical villains is b/c they never see them all alone, while we do. What reason do they have not to trust them, b/c they look weird? I would be fine with Hans being the villain if they took away that scene with him under the boat, b/c we would never see him alone. But we do see him alone, and since he can't know that an audience is watching him, we have to assume what we are seeing is genuine. And what we see is a man staring at Anna's retreating back with a patented Disney lovey dovey expression. Kristoff uses almost the exact same expression only 30 minutes later when he is alone, and we believe it just fine. But that's the thing, they are the same look.

CRaZy_rawR I'm totally okay with Hans being a villain (as long as they redeem him in the sequel) I think he liked Anna. I wrote an article myself too. [url=http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/disney-princess/articles/231445/title/hans-breakdown-part-1]My Hans Article (:[/url]

Tygers_Eye Once A Blue Moon said: [b]"Because that undermines the entire point of character building."[/b] But they DID build his character. Just not in the way we thought. Most scenes that we interpreted him feeling and thinking a certain way still make sense when you look back and realize that's how he wanted to appear to others. [b]"The only reason why the characters trust those stereotypical villains is b/c they never see them all alone, while we do. What reason do they have not to trust them, b/c they look weird?"[/b] No, because said villains make absolutely no secret of what they want and/or how they feel. Ursula doesn't reign in how sadistic and sarcastic she is from the moment Ariel enters her abode, how much disdain she feels for those "miserable, lonely and deprrrressed (pathetic!) POOR UNFORTUNATE SOULS!" nor how absolutely EAGER she is to have Ariel "belong... to ME!" Gaston is an overbearing creep that doesn't respect Belle's personal space, feelings, or right to say "no." Scar doesn't even pretend to hide how bitter he is at not being king and how he resents Simba stealing his place in line for the throne. Same with Hades regarding his job in the underworld and Hercules. Jafar's reverence to the Sultan and Jasmine is laid on as thick and sugary sweet as syrup, and he's a cloying kissup besides. As Lawrence notes in Princess and the Frog: "This chap is obviously a charlatan" (leads Naveen away from the crowd, into a secluded area, pretends to read his palm when he just read the newspaper, tells people what they want to hear to get them to agree to things they normally wouldn't, etc), Mother Gothel obviously cares more about Rapunzel's hair than her thoughts, feelings, etc. (Thought to be fair that was lifelong emotional manipulation...), etc. You go down the list of villains and they ALL drop heavy hints to the characters' faces that they are NOT trustworthy people, yet the characters trust them, or let them talk them into trusting them anyway. Hans is unique because he is a villain that we meet at the exact same time as the characters, and, except for that one scene you mentioned, we only see him when he's in the company of the other characters. When he wants to fool them, he puts on his kind front. When he admits to one of them (Anna) that he's a usurping dirtbag, we see that side of him with that character. However, that leads me to... [b]"But we do see him alone, and since he can't know that an audience is watching him, we have to assume what we are seeing is genuine. And what we see is a man staring at Anna's retreating back with a patented Disney lovey dovey expression."[/b] It's an expression we interpret as "lovey dovey" because in our first viewing, it looks like your standard meet-cute scenario. However, it's possible that, like Tiger Ranma and Angelic said, he could have been pleased that she liked him, or happy that things were going his way, or admiring his future kingdom, or something. While Hans was putting on a front of being a selfless love-struck nice guy, it's possible that he ALSO wasn't ALWAYS thinking "MUA HA HA!" sadistic mustache-twirling thoughts. I think Hans is a little more nuanced than just all good or all evil. He might be mostly selfish and unscrupulous, but he might have enough good that he can put on a convincing show of being kind because, unlike previous stereotypical Disney villains, he isn't ALL sadistic hammy evil that's incapable of having one unmalicious thought.

Onyxis You have some good points but ultimately I do not agree. There is never point in the film where Hans´s actions can not be explained by ulterior motives. And since Hans was 13th in line to the throne I think he would necessarily have to marry a princess, so noble woman would do just fine.

bluethunder25 I agree and I don't agree. I've written an article where I give more than my 2 cents about Hans being the villain. I agree with 324anna that Elsa should've been the villain. After all, the film is based on "The Snow Queen" and the Snow Queen was the villain. Disney deprived us of having the first Disney Princess who starts off as a villain. No, instead of a powerful villain who reforms in the end, we have to have the clichéd boyfriend who seems nice, but then does a 180 and becomes a douchebag. As far as Hans goes, I think from watching the movie and rewatching it that we know his motives from the moment he first walks into Arendelle. However, that does not necessarily he is a 'bad guy' per say. I can't say he's a total monster. When Anna left him in charge, he did a good job of taking care of the citizens, though he may have only been doing that to curry favor with them. He has shown that he is brave by his fight with Marshmallow. I've always said that maybe a factor from his behavior was his 12 brothers. He said that 3 of them acted like he was invisible for a number of years and as for the rest of them, well they may have been nice to his, or maybe not. And as for his parents, well its not impossible that they may have treated him cruelly, so maybe from that, he really doesn't understand love. Overall, when it comes Hans, it's a mixed bag. Having watched the movie and learned what his motives were. I guess he did kinda deserved to get punched in the face by Anna and deported, but I still don't think he's a complete monster as people make him out to be. I hope there is a sequel and that he does redeems himself, though I don't think it should be a 180 like it usually is. Hans seems to me like a Vegeta character, one who starts off as a villain, then becomes an anti-villain, then slowly transitions from an anti-hero and finally into a hero.

fahmad27 I agree with his article 100 percent! I felt that Hans' villain twist was done due to 1) Lazy writing. 2) Juat so Anna can easily pick Kristoff (who was not that great either-he's a doorknob!) 3) Just for the sake of being "subversive". Would t it make sense to have Hans stay as a good guy who eventually parts ways with Anna peacefully some can make amends with his brothers? I had a feeling that the writers who write Frozen not only lack storytelling skills (I bet I could make an adaptation of the Snow Queen better then them!), but also secretly hate Disney movies, especially the Princess movies! It felt like a wannabe Shrek (or shall I say DreamWorks) movie rather than a Disney movie that is built on their Disney heritage. The writers also seemed to lack any knowledge of how royalty live and behave. Anna would have received a lot of princess lessons so she would be graceful and well-mannered, instead of a klutz who blabbers her mouth. And Arendelle would really elect Hans to be their ruler because he's got really good leadership skills-unlike Elsa who froze their kingdom (AND doesn't want to fix it) and unlike Anna who doesn't know anything at all (Come on Disney! How about a movie about a girl who is smart? How about a movie about a girl who doesn't run away from her problems?)

elsafan1010 I have to say I disagree. As a major Frozen fan since the movie was out, I watched the movie like a hundred times and I loved every sec of it. And when I watched it first, I remember how I thought Hans was a good guy. And seriously I don't take his smile as a 'twisted hero' when he is on the turned boat. Because Disney wanted us to believe Hans was a good guy. Either that way, he's plans for other. Meanwhile, as many people agree with you and think Elsa needs to be the villain as she is the original villain on 'The Snow Queen'. But come on! In this movie, she has a sister, powers that she can't control it even isn't alike. A lot of fans like me would be disappointed sawing Elsa as the 'main villain' that makes Anna freeze and gets defeated.