A Case of Identity

{link} | by 4mation | {T ; IC?}

For others, boredom is a minor inconvenience which is easily and harmlessly dispelled after some mildly entertaining activity. For Elsa Holmes, boredom was often a catalyst for an international incident. (Sherlock!AU)

FUCK YEAH SHERLOCK!AU FT. ACE!ELSA AND BI!ANNA. This is the sort of story that I don’t think people realise they need in their lives until they read it. I think I fangirled over this for a full day before spiralling into a mood of ‘I wanna write ace!elsa im never gonna write ace characters this amazing *begin sobbing*. 4mation is already known for their ‘Argos’ series, and this one is, imo, just as, if not //better than, that one. There’s something about the way this is written. Fast-paced, it emulates the sort of style people have come to associate with Sherlock Holmes. Elsa’s deductions are just brilliant and the way she and Anna clash is very reminiscent of the Sherlock/John dynamic seen in the recent film/TV adaptations. Basically… read this. You won’t regret it.

Avanti

{link} | by J. Peterson | {M ; C}

Yeah, this definitely hadn’t happened before, but as long as she didn’t end up stammering like a middle schooler with a crush (or spending the night in the emergency room after breaking her nose walking headfirst into any walls), Anna was going to enjoy every second of it.

Okay, so, the author is currently writing like, a ‘part 2’ to this and I’m ridiculously excited. This story has an aspect that I love and don’t get to see often; vulnerable Elsa. Seriously, I think crying after an amazing orgasm is like, my number one ‘I need this in my life’. And I didn’t know I needed it until I read this, so there you go. Pretty much anything by this author is fair game, though.

Backwards

{link} | by Sensational Sista | {T ; IC}

College/AU. There’s an unusual perspective in rowing: To move forward, you have to move backwards. As Anna joins Arendelle University’s rowing team and forges an unlikely friendship with the elusive blonde Senior, she realizes her own perspective of life and love is about to be turned around. Elsanna.

Okay, I have no idea about anything to do with rowing but this story makes me wish I wasn’t so lazy. Long chapters and worthwhile updates. Elsa and Anna have an interesting relationship in this, and the pacing is just perfect; we don’t get too much information at once, but neither are we waiting and waiting to find out more, just for the characters to hold out on us again. I am very interested in finding out more about Elsa.”>

By Moonlight

{link} | by StillEvolving | {M ; C}

When Anna’s best friend, Olaf, loses part of his livestock under the light of the full moon, events begin to spiral out of control for Anna and she witnesses something she was never meant to see.

I loved the ending. The open-endedness was frankly, brilliant. The writing was a little confusing but I remember when the author was releasing this story, and we’d get a new chapter like, every day. It was awesome. I think everyone should read this because it’s a good example (if nothing else) about how a story doesn’t necessarily have to have that happy, cliché ending.

Captain and the Queen

{link} | by Elf Sternberg | {M ; C}

Far from Earth, the Star Kingdom of Arendelle has survived. The world of Arendelle is cold and its politics torn, but its young queen is determined to see it thrive. When a starship with the promise of faster-than-light travel arrives, it and its Captain awaken an ancient threat. But it may be the Captain’s heart and beauty that truly changes Arendelle forever. Elsanna.

Full recommendation. Like… holy fucking shit. It’s complete, which is a bonus, and there’s a section that reminds me //so //much of His Dark Materials. I cried. A lot. Over about two-and-a-half chapters, too. An author after my own heart. It’s a little confusing at first, but as long as you just think ‘spaceships’, you should be fine :D usually things are explained, and if they’re not, they’re unimportant. This is one I reread constantly.

Collar Full

{link} | by xxBurningxx | {T ; IC}

Anna’s rushing down the crowded hallways of Arendelle High when her shoulder roughly collides with another body. She whips around, an apology already on the tip of her tongue, but the words catch in her throat before they can even escape. In that moment, time stops as her gaze meets with a pair of the most alluring crystalline eyes she’s ever seen. And that’s how it begins.

Short snippets told from Anna’s POV. School AU and absolutely adorable. And kinda hot because it’s not explicit at all, but the author has this awesome way of… idk. It feels more like they’re guiding us than anything else. Pointing us in the direction they want us to go and then letting us decide how we feel about it.

Couldn’t Wait For You

{link} | by TheSyndra | {M ; IC}

Elsa’s always had trouble connecting with people, but something’s different about Anna.

Autism-spectrum!Elsa~ yeah. Elsa is adorable as fuck and the author never actually //names Elsa’s developmental problem, which is really good because then she’s free to explore it outside stereotypes. Elsa is brilliant, Anna is the best friend any strange twenty-year-old could ask for, and they’re both adorable. Adorable all around.

even a flightless bird has its uses

{link} | by notantihero | {M ; IC}

Anna steps forward. “Instead of executing her, may I offer a better solution?” The cuffs restraining Elsa’s wrists clinks loudly as Anna grabs a hold of her hand. “Give her to me. I’ll make use of her as it befits our kingdom. This I can promise you, father.” AU; Elsanna; dark!Elsa

I need to reread this one again. However, I can say that the writing is brilliant, and Elsa as a character is deep and intriguing. I’m very excited to see this one through.

For the Queen Who Has Everything

{link} | by Jane | {M ; C}

(elsannaheadcanons prompt) okay but Anna going back in time for whatever reason, ends up stopping The Incident from happening, and returns back to her present. Only something has changed. It’s definitely exactly where she came from, but the town is once again covered in snow, where golems patrol the town and kill any person who dares try and stop them in their path. She slips into a local pub and asks what’s happening with Arendelle. the bartender tells her of an accident that happened 5 years ago, where Princess Anna was killed by the her sister, and now through grief, the Queen slowly turned insane, killing her parents when they boarded a ship that was destined to find a cure for Elsa’s powers, and she bought a storm upon them. And how she was crowned and became the evil tyrant the trolls warned them about, and cursed the land into an eternal winter. Anna is shocked to hear that she died and Elsa turned evil, and now she has to fix the problem she caused.

omg so this story. Basically the greatest dark!Elsa au you’ll ever read. Features incest and themes but is //amazing. Epilogue is linked because is has a link to parts 1-10 but seriously… Anna is amazing. Elsa is amazing. Olaf is amazing because he’s not being used as that annoying child side-kick. The first time I read this, I cried because I thought the ending was bittersweet enough to warrant it (like, not the //ending ending, but- well, read it. You’ll know what I mean.

In the Absence of Sun

{link} | by gschelt | {M ; IC}

Reparative therapy was meant to silence it. The years home schooled all alone in that big house were meant to lock it away. But enrolling at Arendelle Prep was the worst thing that could have ever happened to that plan for the Senator’s daughter. AU Elsanna, rated M for language, drug use, character death, and eventual *sexual explicitness*.

This story is, undoubtedly, the best written first-person fic in the entire fandom. The way the author gets into Elsa’s head without blatantly telling the readers what’s happening is just amazing. We’re walking through this story //as Elsa, and it’s a beautiful thing. My only complaint is that it hasn’t updated in so long—and right after getting to the good part! But still, at 60k words, there’s definitely enough to get you started.

Just Friends

{link} | by Ubertastic | {E/M+ ; C}

Elsa still isn’t entirely sure how Anna got it in her mind that they should be friends with benefits, but a few weeks and one set of unexpectedly romantic feelings in, their relationship will never be the same.

Ahh the angst in this one. Just Elsa and her feelings and shit. It makes my heart hurt. The explicit content is at the end, but frankly, I love the pain Elsa goes through before that.

Kill of the Night

{link} | by (the)WolfBrigade | {T ; IC}

The Guild doesn’t pay nearly enough money for the creatures Anna has to hunt down on the weekly basis. Seriously, it’s like Arendelle’s on top of a Hellmouth. So when she has to put out an ad for a roommate, all she wants is someone nice and normal. What she gets is the beautiful and awkward Elsa, who has a secret of her own.

This. Fucking. Story. The BEST powers!mAU ever. Like, everything is justified and WolfBrigade is an //amazing author.

The Legend of Elsa

{link} | by Crezth/Rinjin | {M ; C}

Medieval AU where Anna is raised by trolls, completely ignorant of the human world. By chance, she meets a young icer named Kristoff, and comes to learn about human society, where she develops an ambition for becoming a knight. Eventual Elsanna (extremely slow burn). Rated M for some violence and adult themes.

Okay, so, Rinjin is //not kidding about the slowburn. If it were any slower, there wouldn’t //be any burning. This story, in my opinion, has one of the best realisations of Anna. She is such a developed character, it’s almost impossible not to read this story and imagine it as a fanfic. I mean… it’s full of characters and concepts we know and love from Frozen (and, I’m assuming, Zelda), however there is so much //more than just that. It isn’t just ‘let’s take this workd and these characters and do something with them’. Well, it is, but it’s more like ‘let’s take this world and these characters, and do something //better’. And Rinjin, imo, succeeds.

Omega

{link} | by Those-Who Walk-Alone | {M ; IC}

Anna’s life in the military academy she trains in gets turned upside down by the arrival of a hyper-lethal vector with an affinity for ice. [Sci-Fi AU, rated M for potential content]

this. fucking. story. Okay, so, I started reading this after the author took a really long hiatus and then began //rewriting it. I don’t know the quality of the previous version but I must say, I //like this one. It’s sort of… well, it’s not an original idea (elsa’s the enemy and gets captured by her enemy and ‘made better’ and falls in love with anna), but the author adds an original twist to it. It’s not nearly as angsty. The build-up, imo, is a lot easier to read and more believable than many other stories. He uses //actual villains as villains (so, it’s not Ariel being a bitch, it’s Ursula), and that is //far more relieving than it has any right to be, but there you go.

Recomposing Hearts

{link} | by Shoestring Nemesis/Nyxie | {M ; IC}

You’re not like the others, your mind’s opened doors. / There’s something going on in that decaying little brain of yours. / But you’re still dead inside, even though you’re cunning and smart. / Because only true love can kickstart a cold dead heart.

Jesus fucking christ this is the most hilarious non-crack story I’ve ever read. Like, it’s funny because it’s not trying to be funny? Nyx has this amazing way of writing as though she were Anna, and all the little quirks that come with it. I love Elsa, but seriously, in this story, it’s hard not to focus entirely on the awesomeness that is Zombie!Anna. If you only ever read a single apocalypse!AU, make it this one.

Shattered like Glass

{link} | by sweetseptemberswimmer | {T ; IC}

Elsa has been in a mental institution for over three months. Anna is a recently admitted patient. Elsa struggles with confronting her own mental illnesses, and as the relationship between them strengthens, it puts even more pressure upon her to get better. Non-incest, AU. Rated T; Slight warning for language, and potentially triggering content.

So I love ace!Elsa fics and wow this is really amazing? because like, it’s not an interpersonal issue. because she has a friend in anna doesn’t mean that a) anna wants to bone her and b) that her asexuality is an issue with their relationship. It’s a story about elsa and anna being friends and facing their demons on their own. it’s really good. read it. The author is brilliant and this is their second ace!Elsa fic and tbh I think it’s even better than their first.

Scheherazade

{link} | by Texan Red Rose | {T ; C}

After a rough break up and a string of bad dates, Anna has come to accept that romance just isn’t in the cards for her. However, after meeting a beautiful woman in a bookstore, she’s caught between wanting a relationship and being completely honest. [Elsanna, no incest] [1 of 4]

Okay, this story. This is an awesome story because Anna. Anna is just an amazing person, and after having spoken to the author, she’s even better. I won’t say why, because spoilers, but it has my seal of approval (also, a friend whose opinion does actually matter, for reasons you’ll figure out). The story itself is fun and slightly angsty, but it’s not overdone at all. That, and TRR is a pretty awesome writer—reliable and with really long chapter updates. Part 4 is going to be awesome, and I can’t wait

Sillage

{link} | by Emirael | {T ; IC}

Modern AU. Not long after Elsa was born, her parents fell into marital strife and her father had an affair. As the years pass, Elsa eventually comes to know Anna, the half-sister she was never supposed to meet. The heir and the (literal) redheaded bastard child can’t find a way to fit into one another’s lives, but that never stops them from trying, no matter how strange their relationship becomes.

I started reading this story when it was first published as the November ‘14 NaNo and it’s only gotten better since then. The romance and drama is built up nicely, but it isn’t //overly dramatic. The characters are fleshed out—even the minor ones—making this story an absolute pleasure to read.

Solving the Girlfriend Problem

{link} | by justonemoreartist | {M ; IC}

Modern AU one-shot (initially: I’ve caved and decided to continue) of trans Elsa: Anna is incredibly happy to be Elsa’s girlfriend, really. It’s just that she’s missing a few things in her life and feeling frustrated. And when Anna is frustrated, she decides to do something about it, using an interesting means. Contains Elsanna.

The best gp!Elsa story you will ever read. Bar //none. I don’t know what it is about this story. Maybe it’s the fact that the characters are //in character, or that just because Elsa has a penis, doesn’t mean it’s all about the sex. The author actually looks into the characters as more than just a vessel for smut, and it’s actually really refreshing. Because, yeah, Elsa is okay with having a penis. She’s not about to change her body, because this //is her. But she’s not going to deny that, yeah, it can cause problems. She’s not going to deny that she was born as a boy, grew up as a boy, and only recently became comfortable in her own skin. I’m not any kind of authority on transgender/intersex/any of those topics, but there’s something about this story that //makes me want to understand. And that’s what good writing should do, I think. (also, fyi, I recommend //all of this author’s work. They’re pretty amazing at it.

Snowboarding Prologue

{link} | by Blunaowl | {T ; IC}

Frohana: Elsa is injured whilst snowboarding. Within a few seconds, her life is in shambles; it’ll take a lot longer than that for anything to go right for the two sisters after that

So the author doesn’t have their own summary so I made it up but that basically sums it up. And this is, let me tell you, the best snowboarding!AU I’ve read in a while and, even better, it’s, without a doubt, the best (spoiler alert) //amputee fic (like you didn’t see that one coming). I very much look forward to following this one. Not Elsanna but still amazing

Sorcery of the Frozen Heart

{link} | by ArielApostolos | {M ; IC}

Twins Elsa and Anna are forced to separate, losing even their memories of each other, only to be reunited at Hogwarts. Can they overcome the mysterious magic that lives in Elsa and regain what they lost? And can they survive the dark storm brewing at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardy? (Rated M for much later chapters; Eventual Elsanna; Crossover Elsanna)

mandatory hp!au xover. This is the best HP crossover I’ve read. Bar none. The story flows, the writing is solid, and better yet, the author has managed to characterise Elsa and Anna in a way that’s totally believable—especially with such little content out at the moment (it’s a new story). But, they promise a very long, very slowburn story, and personally, I can’t wait.

Streetlight Walls

{link} | by astrarisks | {M ; C}

Two women meet in the dead of the night, each harboring unsavory oddities, unique to their own. A touch and a click was all that was needed for a doomed relationship to blossom. (Crossed paths between a sociopathic perfectionist and a lieutenant gang leader—nothing could ever go wrong, right?) :: elsa/anna, non-incest. modern!au.

I first read this story when astra sent it to me with the note ‘is this too violent for the wiki?’ Because that’s what it was. It was an Avatar story about Azula and Aang and I felt sick after reading it (but in the //best way). And then she rewrote it as an Elsanna story and expanded on it and it honestly should have been my first clue as to how brilliant and evil astra is. This is an amazing story with a different take on Elsa and Anna, and yet I still think it falls within the confines of ‘canon’. It’s a ‘what if’. What if Elsa’s non-social tendencies made her crazy? And how far is Anna willing to go to live her life to the fullest?

Thaw

{link} | by Lastie | {M ; IC}

An AU tale which sees Elsa and Anna struggle with modern life in the London borough of Storiford. An unplanned pregnancy throws Anna’s life into chaos, while Elsa fights against personal anxieties that threaten to tear her away from friends and family. The sisters will make friends and lose them, face challenges and overcome them, and maybe, just maybe, keep their friendship alive

To be completely honest, I don’t remember what attracted me to this story. It’s not romantic, incest Elsanna. Thirty-three chapters in, though, I don’t regret it. I like it because, well, it can be considered slightly OOC if you don’t have imagination. I prefer to think of it as a more damaged version of Frozen. As in the ‘look, actions have real consequences’ type of thing. Lastie has an awesome way of writing Elsa and Anna so you love them and hate them and pity them, all in one go

There Sleeps a Living Flower

{link} | by Wordmangler | {T ; C}

The tiny glow of a match brings Anna the beggar girl and Elsa the privileged princess together, to learn from each other about the beauty and cruelty of winter as they form a friendship that will lead them to discover secrets about each other they never dreamed of, for an ending they never imagined.

Not strictly-speaking Elsanna but there’s enough of a relationship there, I think, to warrant this story’s placement here. It does, after all, follow the lives of Elsa and Anna as they meet each other and grow to care for the other as though they were sisters. The author is brilliant at research, and the chapters are both long, and you don’t have to wait ages for an update. It’s a brilliant plot, with just enough feels to keep you on your seat for more. The major and minor characters are all fleshed out fantastically, and as far as I can tell, no plot holes! Yay! This is a complex story, but brilliantly told all the same.

To Thaw a Wild Heart

{link} | by RatchetElsaKicksAss | {M ; IC}

While returning to the castle late one summer night, Anna stumbles upon a living myth. Setting Elsa free throws her life upside down, but it was the best bad decision she ever made. ELSANNA

So, I started reading this story because of ‘Instinctive’, the sequel. Sort of. It came out first but the main fanon is based on this one. I thought it was interesting (also, nice smut) so I started reading TTaWH. No regrets. The buildup is interesting and I really like Elsa’s character arc. The way she panics about Christmas is adorable. The author also does some of their own art for their story with is really cool because like… well, hardly any authors are also artists. Think of this story as the mandatory ‘animalxhuman’ story. But not bestiality.

Treason

{link} | by FrumiousBandersnatch10 | {T ; C}

She might be a queen, but her hands were tied. As the sovereign queen, it was her duty to uphold the law, even if it meant outing herself as a victim.

The way this was written was perfectly subtle and yet so blindingly obvious. I liked the way she didn’t actually need to say anything, really. The author didn’t rush into anything, into the ‘main’ point, as it were. Everything had a purpose. It was brilliant.