Anna: More than Just the Ordinary Spare

Even though Anna is known for being optimistic, the fact that she has been locked away in the castle without much human contact and apart from Elsa for much of her life has caused her to struggle with self-confidence. Most especially in the deleted song “More than Just the Spare,” Anna viewed herself as nothing special in comparison to Elsa. Elsa is the heir to Arendelle, the future queen. She has always had a mysterious quality to her. She is very proper, regal, poised, and basically appears and behaves flawlessly, just as a queen should.

So while Elsa appeared to be the picture of perfection, Anna was pretty much her antithesis because she was not a typical princess at all: gawky, awkward, inelegant, impetuous, and pretty much the picture of imperfection. Their strong personality differences, along with their separation, has caused Anna to develop low self-esteem, possibly even an inferiority complex, to the point where she believed that Elsa wanted nothing to do with her and that she had no one who loved her.

Two of her quoted lines, “It’s just me” and “I’m completely ordinary!” refer to the fact that she has a low outlook on herself, that she sees herself as ordinary and nothing special in comparison to Elsa. As a matter of fact, not only is Elsa referred to before she says both quotes, but Hans is also present in both situations and responds to what she says, with “Just you?” and “That’s right, she is!”, the latter of which he says in pretending to defend her.

Now when he says, “Just you?”, it sounds somewhat casual of him, and maybe he sounds slightly confused that she, a princess, would call herself “just.” But in a subtle way, it’s the start of his process of reeling her in. Hans says it to make it seem that he is interested so that she will be interested in him right then and there.

Then later, when he stands up for her, he’s not really doing it for her, but for himself. He knows every pick-up line and action in order to woo a girl, including knowing that women like it if/when men stick up for them. So here, he is still trying to act perfect around Anna, though he doesn’t take a moment to think about her feelings. In fact, after he says this line, she gives him a look of dismay. For a brief moment, she looks slightly confused and hurt since he agreed with her, but not in the way he was “supposed” to. It’s because of the way she looks at him that Hans realized he wasn’t being perfect for her and could have even given himself away, which is why he quickly adds (and in a softer tone), “In the best way.”

Now maybe Hans started out as neutral about it after Anna said, “It’s just me,” but he eventually became aware of just how low Anna’s self-esteem was. Through their conversations about their families, and then when he proposed to her, he realized how she was very needy and desperate to be loved and not live alone. By the time he “defends” her, he realizes it now more than ever. So then when she finally returns and is dying due to her frozen heart, Hans uses it to his advantage by manipulating her up to when he nearly kisses her, then coldly reveals his true nature by saying, “Oh, Anna. If only there was someone out there who loved you.”

When he says this, it makes Anna believe that she is once again alone and that there is no one out there who loves her or ever could love her.

For further details on how far Hans goes even more in putting Anna down after he reveals his true self, see this post and this one.

But fortunately, Hans and Anna were proven wrong, as Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, and Sven all show a great amount of love and care for her. As long as all of them are part of her life, she’ll never feel lonely or unloved again. :)