Warning: Major spoilers for Frozen II

The first song in the film “All Is Found” essentially lays out the entire film for the audience within the first ten minutes. The obvious foreshadowing is the focus on water and memory, for the song details Ahtohallan a river that holds all the answers to the past, and later Olaf explains his theory of water having memories since it is passed on to later generations. These memories can only be seen when they’re frozen, a feat first demonstrated by Elsa after her bout with the wind spirit and after finding their parent’s ship which continues to be reinforced through the revelation that Ahtohallan is a glacier.

However, there is a less subtle way the song details the overarching theme within. At first, the song seems to suggest that digging too far into the past is a mistake for it states “Dive down deep into her sound, but not too far or you’ll be drowned” but then the song concludes “when all is lost, all is found.” So, what at first seems a contradiction is perhaps a message on the necessity of not avoiding painful truth and displays the journey of all the main characters.

The obvious painful truth is that which involves everyone, that Arendel first attacked the Northaldra and tricked them by building the dam, thus making all of their woes at the fault of the city. They all have to face that they have been living in relative comfort on the backs of a catastrophe caused by their ancestors and to make it right they may have to lose the people and the place they love the most.

Elsa’s painful truth revolves around her childhood trauma. When she, Anna and Olaf uncover the moment of the girls’ parents’ perishing, via Elsa freezing the water held in the ship, Elsa blames herself for their death much like she has blamed herself for the family’s lack of traditions in “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure.” Because of this, she pushes Anna and Olaf away to tread alone to Ahtohallan where she eventually discovers her grandfather’s first strike against the Northaldra and is frozen in ice (a beautiful reversal from the first movie).

Her painful truth can be summed up best after she thaws, stops the giant wave from destroying Arendelle, and returns to Anna. Elsa’s sister realizes that Elsa is the fifth spirit who is fabled to be the “bridge” between the physical and magical world. After this, Elsa states “a bridge has two sides, and mother had two daughters” suggesting that Elsa finally realizes she cannot take on the woes of the world, the past or her burdens to Anna alone.

Throughout the movie, Elsa shows a complete disregard for herself, jumping into a flaming forest, nearly following massive earth giants, and attempting to cross an ocean, with Anna being her voice of reason. She can’t stop blaming herself for every pain in her and Anna’s life, and her pushing away of loved ones could be seen as an admission that everyone else’s life would be better off without her making her solo suicide mission the natural solution. Realizing that she needs Anna is her first step in forgiveness and perhaps seeing she causes more pain by pushing away.

Anna’s painful truth centers around her overprotective behavior towards Elsa. Multiple times she runs in a panic to find her sister like a mother losing a child and tries to encourage Elsa to take fewer unnecessary risks. She is afraid of losing her sister once again, but this time she sees it could be permanent. As the audience finds out later, her actions are futile as she winds up in a cave alone and has to save the day herself.

The truth she realizes is that she may not always have her loved ones around her forever. This doesn’t necessarily mean death, but that loved ones sometimes have to make their own journeys across great distances. It is this truth that allows Anna the strength to become queen and feel secure in her sister being a part of the Northuldra.

Olaf is a little trickier to pinpoint. The audience sees the snowman grappling with the concept of aging and acquiring maturity, but for a majority of his scenes, it just seems comic effect. He states lots of fun facts and some grim musings, but still with that optimistic innocence that is a staple of the character. However, that all changes once Elsa pushes Olaf down a river with Anna.

The truth of Olaf’s story is that there are negative emotions he can experience and that not everything will make sense in the end. His song dismisses all the negativity he experiences with “that will all make sense when I’m older,” but Elsa’s actions towards him made no sense and he felt angry about it. His painful truth is truly captured when he says to Anna “you said some things never change, but ever since then everything has done nothing but change.” Unfortunately, there is very little that is certain and the little snowman has to mature because of this realization and his temporary death.

Kristoff’s painful truth, compared to the others, is much simpler: he realizes that love and his relationship with Anna aren’t always going to be easy. Growing up with “love experts” one would think Kristoff is the prime candidate for romantic proposals, but he continually has miscommunications and slip-ups with Anna throughout the film. He even sings to Sven “why is love so hard?” Kristoff learned that he may not have all of the answers about love as he tried to portray when he first met Anna.

By the end of Frozen II, each character is a better version of themselves through realizing these painful truths. Kristoff and Anna finally become engaged, Anna is queen and seems to be effectively coping with the separation of her sister. Elsa seems more sure of herself and happier than the audience has ever seen and Olaf did mature and become a little wiser. The story explains that it is the pain these characters endured which allowed them to become who they were meant to be.