Sven: King of the Kristanna Ship

Sidekick and Supporter

Alongside Olaf, Sven is the other major supporting character that is meant to be a sidekick and bring comic relief to Frozen. In fact, their similar personalities of being goofy, childlike, playful, loving, and loyal is a main reason why they are great friends. Besides each other, Sven is especially loyal to Kristoff while Olaf is especially loyal to Anna (and Elsa, I’m sure, though his relationship with Anna is bigger focus than the one with Elsa).

But both characters are not merely thrown in the film for laughs; they are meant to symbolically represent the two most important relationships in the film. Olaf represents the bond between Anna and Elsa, while Sven represents the bond between Anna and Kristoff. In fact, most fans have named Sven as the lead or ultimate Kristanna shipper. ;)

Although Olaf has a more prominent representation as the bond of love between the sisters, there are some key moments that show how Sven represents (and even supports ;)) the relationship that grows between Kristoff and Anna. These moments include:

Knowing she will surely die if she is left alone, Sven “convinces” Kristoff to stay with Anna, since the bargain will mean a new sled for them. He starts panting excitedly and with a huge smile when Kristoff makes his decision .

Kristoff calls after Anna, saying they will stay with her. As they talk, Sven looks over at Anna and jumps up and down in excitement before he tromps over to her.

Right when Kristoff catches Anna, Sven looks at them with a happy grin. Once Anna walks off, he widens his eyes and continues grinning.

During “Fixer Upper,” as the trolls repeat singing “true love” and throw Kristoff and Anna into the hole, Sven happily dances to the music by shaking his head and body.

Sven grows just as worried about Anna as Kristoff does when she begins to succumb to her frozen heart. When Kristoff starts walking away from the closed gates, Sven looks from him to the gates, not wanting to abandon Anna and sensing that Kristoff doesn’t really want to leave, either.

After walking a distance away from Arendelle, having reluctantly followed Kristoff, Sven stops in his tracks and looks back at the kingdom. He sadly whines and decides he must convince Kristoff that they should go back.

Kristoff brushes off Sven’s angry snorts and grunts before he continues walking. But as soon as he moves, while frowning, Sven scoops him up in his antlers and walks a few steps forward before he roughly drops Kristoff on the ground.

After Kristoff argues that Anna is with her true love, Sven gives him an unconvinced look that says something like “You don’t really believe that. Stop lying to yourself.”

Man’s Best Friend

Sven and Kristoff have been inseparable best friends for thirteen years and hardly ever interacted with other people. While Kristoff developed a distrust towards people, I think that Sven was more neutral about people. From what see in their “duet,” I think Sven just goes along with what Kristoff says in it, due to his loyalty to him. But I also believe that he had a more open mind than Kristoff. I think he would act more friendly and be more willing to give new people a chance. Part of this relates to the fact that Sven acts as Kristoff’s conscience and always tries to get him to do the right thing.

So when Anna comes along, Sven shows more willingness to help her, especially after she reveals she indeed bought the carrots. ;) Even after the sled is destroyed, Sven knows it wouldn’t be right to not help Anna. Kristoff initially agreed only to make sure he got his new sled as promised, but I think Sven did it more because he was growing to like Anna and wanted her company.

But as time went on, Kristoff began to let down his mental walls and open up and warm to Anna, which could be partly because she is not what he expected her to be, and that surprised him. By the time Anna begins to die due to her frozen heart, both Kristoff and Sven demonstrate their love for her by rushing her back to Arendelle. At this point, Sven can tell that Kristoff does love Anna and feels it isn’t right to just walk away and not tell her, especially because they both also want to make sure that she is truly safe. While Kristoff is in denial of his feelings, Sven becomes so stubborn in trying to get Kristoff to comes to terms with them. He is just as unconvinced as Kristoff is that Hans is really Anna’s true love.

When they see the new storm surrounding Arendelle, Kristoff begins to run back, but has difficulty due to the snow. Sven doesn’t hesitate to rush over and scoop Kristoff onto his back before they take off together. And through all of the dangers they encounter in the frozen fjord, Kristoff and Sven don’t give up and turn back. Kristoff desperately wants to get to Anna and Sven is more than willing to make sure that happens. It’s not just because Sven himself wants Anna to be safe, but because he knows that Kristoff loves Anna, and he wants his friend to be happy. Even before he falls into the water, Sven tosses Kristoff onto the fjord and urges him (Kristoff) to keep going after he reveals that he survived.

Overall, although Sven is not shown to interact alone with Anna as much as he does with Kristoff and Olaf, he still appears as loyal and friendly to her as he is to Kristoff. From the above said points, I think it makes sense to say that Sven played a part in helping them get together. After their entire journey, Sven seems more than happy to accept Anna as an important person in his and Kristoff’s lives. Since he is already Kristoff’s best friend, he can definitely become great friends with Anna, too.

request by letitgoleviosa

thanks to arrendelle for making the gifs!