Frozen: Arendelle's Future

So, my post about Elsa is longer and more complicated than even I anticipated, and I'm still making my way through it. So, I'm taking a break to address an interesting question: What are the advantages for having the Snow Queen as your monarch? After all, the events we see in the movie give plenty of disadvantages of having a Queen with the powers that Elsa does: the threat of eternal winters or the fjord being frozen at any time, being blasted by magic or impaled by an icicle, that kind of thing. We know that she gains control of it by the end of the movie, but If I were a citizen of Arendelle, could I really be sure that having Elsa as my ruler would be a good idea? If I were to accept Elsa back, I would want her to prove that her powers have as much potential to benefit the kingdom as they do to hurt it, and that she will only use them in such a way. The only example they show in the movie of such use is free winter recreation and ice sculptures whenever the town wants, which is great and all, but not really as useful as I think I'd be looking for. So, here's a list of things that I think would prove Elsa and cryokenetic powers to be a huge asset to the kingdom:

It will never be too hot. Heat waves can be a serious public health hazard. But, Elsa can create as much ice as she needs to to moderate the tempature to her citizen's liking. It's more powerful air conditioning than we have in modern times, since she can literally cool the great outdoors. 

Doesn't that kind of put Kristoff out of a job though,
despite his new title?

It will never be too cold. This one I'm not entirely sure about, because while we see that Elsa has the ability to dissipate winter storms that she creates, that doesn't neccisarily mean that she can end natural winter storms at will. But, it seems logical enough, especially given the scope of her powers that we see in the movie. Which means that if ever the winter storms become too hazardous for the Arendellians, Elsa can just reign them in a bit. Also, you'll never have to worry about an early or late frost ruining crops. If my assumptions are correct, then Elsa would have next to complete control over the natural climate, which is an advantage that can't be overstated.

No summer droughts. While Elsa can only create/control frozen, and not liquid, water, that's an easy fix with the help of the sun. Create a winter storm in the mountain, build up a lot of snow, then remove the storm and let the sun melt it so it runs downstream. I suppose there's no proof that Elsa can remove a storm without removing the snow it creates, as we only see her removing both at the same time in the movie, but with the ability to create water (even solid water) out of nothing on a massive scale, I'm sure she could figure something out. 

Total military protection. Going back to the song "Frozen Heart," and how everything the ice miners sing about the ice is basically true of Elsa as well, Elsa is easily stronger than 1, 10, or 100 men. In fact, she alone could end any invasion of Arendelle. If they attack by sea, which is basically their only option, she could just freeze and destroy their ships. Even if they somehow did get a land force to within attacking distance, she could freeze out the armies while they're marching. If they ever even get to the point of combat, a handful of Marshmallows could take them down without a problem. The only way Hans beat the first one was because there was a canyon nearby that Marshmallow fell down. Besides that, Elsa's living snowmen are basically invincible, with the exception of melting, and as Elsa controls when the sun does and doesn't shine, that's not really a problem.  

Free unlimited labor. Not that I'm suggesting that she makes hundreds of Olafs so she can force them into slavery, but it's pretty obvious from the movie that her snow creations have a strong loyalty to her. Which means anytime the townspeople need a bit of extra muscle (figuratively speaking), I'm sure Elsa could whip up a few friends who would be happy to volunteer. With that kind of advantage, Arendellian industry would boom: you could let the snowmen do the menial labor jobs, so the towns people could focus on crafts and trades. I suppose the only problem with that is that it wouldn't work as well in the summer; without the protection of winter microclimates like Olaf's, they would melt, and if you have too many snowmen living in town with their own localized winters, that would probably just end up being one big winter. But creating life temporarily, then letting it melt once its job is done, seems a little... cruel. So I imagine she'd have to make some frozen living quarters for them to live whenever she isn't asking them for work, but it would have to be somewhere away from town, otherwise it would ruin the natural summer climate, which we already know Arendellians aren't a fan of. Fortunatley, she already made frozen living quarters, and there's no reason to let her awesome Ice Palace go to waste. She could let her snowmen live there, and then ask them to come into the village in shifts to help out when needed. I'm sure her citizens would appreciate the helping hands.

Tourism. I know that if I heard of a kingdom with an attractive young queen with magical ice powers that she can perform amazing feats and create beautiful works of art with, I would want to see it. I mean, come on, what's not to love?

So, basically, Elsa could single handedly create an unprecendented golden age of peace and prosperity. Although, again, you have to weigh that against the fact that she could (and just about did) also turn Arendelle into an uninhabitable frozen wasteland, so you'd have to have quite a bit of trust in her. But we can see by the end of the movie that she seems to have it all together, and that the townspeople seem to have accepted her, so I certainly think that things look bright for their future.

Just so long as no one lets the power go to their heads, anyway. While the movie ends with a presumed happily ever after, leaving Arendelle with that much power makes me a little wary. Any ruler with that much control over the well-being of her people would have to be very, very careful to keep her pride in check. We can see from "Let it Go" that Elsa has something of a weakness for flamboyancy, vanity, and power. Add that to the fact that she's now the Queen, and you have a situation that's perfect for hubris to grow. But the same is true of her citizens: with a queen who could make their society strong and rich with not much effort on their part, they could also become complacent and power hungry. What I'm afraid of for Arendelle is classic, Book of Mormon style pride cycle. When things go really well for a society, in this case thanks to their magical queen, it becomes that much harder for that society to stay humble and virtuous. And if either Elsa or her citizens fail to remember their humility and virtues, bad things could happen to them really fast. 

But that's kind of dark and depressing note to leave Arendelle on. I'm not really that worried about it though; I think that Elsa learned her lesson well during the course of the movie. She learned that she needs to put love first, and love is how you counter pride and strengthen your virtues. Plus, I think Anna will help keep everyone in check. For all her faults, Anna is gifted with a strong sense of loyalty and virtue, and those are developed a lot during the movie. She's also in a unique position in the social order- she's royalty, but she's not in power. She's not part of the town, nor born to be queen (that's actually a line from one of the removed songs, which I want to talk about eventually as well) which gives her an outside perspective on everyone else. If anyone were to begin going down the wrong path, she would be the first to notice, and she wouldn't hesitate to help set them straight. 

So I personally think that with Elsa and Anna working as a team, Arendelle will be led into a time of prosperity. And everyone really will get their happily ever after.