User blog:Ordeaux26/Pure Evil Proposal - Frozen 2’s Villain

Hello everyone, it’s time to do the treacherous and callous main villain from Frozen 2, who I think is going to be a very interesting candidate. WARNING: Major Spoilers Are Below So If You Haven’t Seen The Movie Yet And Don’t Want To Be Spoiled Turn Back Now

What's The Work
Frozen 2 is the 2019 sequel Disney film to the original Frozen, where the protagonists Anna and Elsa head to the Enchanted Forest to uncover the truth behind it and free the people trapped inside.

Who Is He And What Has He Done/Moral Event Horizon
King Runeard was the King of Arendelle before Agnarr, and was the grandfather of Elsa and Anna. After overseeing the construction of the Arendelle castle, he discovered the Northuldra, a people indigenous to the woods who co-exist with magic spirits and work jointly to live a peaceful, undisturbed life. Runeard negotiated a peace treaty with them, wanting to encompass them in his own kingdom. Despite that, it didn’t take long before Runeard grew concerned with their magic, worrying the people could actually challenge his power or at least not answer to his commands. He ordered the construction of a dam, ostensibly to help strengthen the Northuldrans’ waters, but in truth to corrupt their lands, bring about droughts and dead crops, weaken their resources and starve them, so those who wanted to survive would have to answer to him, and those who wouldn’t would die off (not only that, but during the sham celebratory ceremony, he had his men take stock of the Northuldra people’s numbers, implying he even then was planning to exterminate them or at least subjugate them through violence). When the Northuldra leader at the time confronted Runeard about the dam pleadingly, though not aware of the actual degree of his evil, Runeard offered to discuss matters in secret. The leader agreed, and they repaired to a little forest clearing. However, while the leader was on his knees collecting water calmly and unarmed, Runeard bolted up to him with a sword and killed him immediately, in cold blood. Then, instigated by the assassination, a battle broke out, and Runeard had the Arendellians believe the Northuldra struck first, bringing the attack he had been scheming into fruition (to wit, after killing an innocent Northuldran, he manipulated his army into assailing the rest of the innocent Northuldrans to cover his tracks -- presumably, Runeard had given up on slowly and silently devastating the people at this point, and figured he would have to take more direct, genocidal measures). What followed was a brutal battle, and even Agnarr, Runeard’s son, who he had carelessly brought with him to the blood-bath-to-be, came close to dying, but not before he saw his own father fall off a cliff, a death he would never know the true justice of. While Runeard is dead the entire chronology of Frozen 2, the cursed mist which surrounds the two armies inside the Enchanted Forest and the hateful rift between the armies in question are all consequences that far surpass his time of death. For over 30 years, Runeard had doomed both the innocent victims of his sadistic whims and his own blindly loyal men to a life of despair, regret and hopelessness. It never was enough that the man died; To save the day, the sisters have to destroy the dam, which is the primary token of his genocidal regime. His killing of the chief without remorse is probably when he crosses the Moral Event Horizon -- it takes a certain evil to be able to kill an unarmed man simply for worrying about the survival of his people while they’re being starved -- but it could also be argued it is when he builds a dam to starve the Northuldrans, as it is heavily implied that even then, his end-goal (or at least plan B) would be a bloody one (he would have no other reason to want to “know their strength and size”, if he were already confident the built dam would do the trick). Since Runeard was willing to starve an entire people unprovoked, and kill their leader and trigger a war against them after the mildest contest against his rule, it’s easy to see how he would’ve treated the remainder of the people, had he won the war; all those that had merely fought back in defense, killed for treason.

Screen Time
This one is a bit tricky: A lot of Runeard’s actions were in the past. But he is shown in clear Flashbacks and though Elsa’s vision on the island which always shows the truth. King Runeard states what he plans to do it shows him instigating the war and killing the Northuldra leader. The only one of his crimes that’s mostly implied, is the neglect of his son which is not even close to his worst crime. The killing of the previous Northuldra leader is all but shown: We see Runeard draw his sword and run up to him while he is unarmed, and while the shot rests on Elsa while he brings it down, the sound of the sword cleaving into the leader is audible, and Elsa collapses and freezes over with horror. The way through which his true motivations are revealed is a short discussion with his close, unnamed confidante, who, even though likely being Runeard’s most agreeable advisor, is flabbergasted by the King’s decision to betray a people who had done no wrong.

Character's Traits/Moral Agency
In the few bits of dialogue we are given from him, he shows to have a clearly defined personality: He is a jingoistic tyrannical dictator who is perfectly willing to do anything to maintain his power and doesn’t care for anyone but himself. He explains with eerie serenity how his dam will weaken the population, and how they’ll have to turn to him, and with similar poise he humbly requests to the leader that they discuss in private, with a mind to slay him at that very second. There is no indication he lacks a moral agency either; he is doing everything for a specific reason and appears to just not care what the costs of it are. To put the final nail in the coffin, he’s a normal human, and grew up in Arendelle, a kingdom with morals and ideals he thoroughly violated (stated in the film by Olaf with notable solemnity).

Individuals
Runeard is a single person who only views his army as a tool for his war, shown when he puts them through a brutal battle on the basis of a lie, and when he conceals from most of his men the true function of the dam (it’s deducible he only kept his right-hand man shown in the Ahtohallan abreast of the legitimate motive). When Mattias and his levies learn about Runeard’s true nature, despite swearing undying loyalty to Arendelle, they are willing to go against his orders, even if it causes the flooding of the entire city, showing just how outraged and appalled they really are when the truth comes out. This makes Runeard almost a vile Rogue-type villain, even though he led a kingdom.

Redeeming Qualities/Mitigating Factors
A possible Mitigating factor is the notion that he was indeed scared of the power and magic of the Northuldra people. This is compromised by various quotes, however, as Runeard finishes his initial statement about their power with, “it makes them think they can defy the will of a king,” showing that his true fear is simply losing sovereignty to these indigenous people, and when he describes the dam plan he says they will be weakened so, “they will have to turn to me,” yet again underlining a lust for absolute power rather than a concern for his people. Even if there is a shred of genuine mortal fear in his assessments, it’s nothing more than a sign of delusions, which is a trait perfectly possessable by PE’s, especially when they lead to actions as cruel as Runeard’s. Finally, if his deeds were truly out of regard for the safety of his own people, he would’ve at least let his men know the “rationale” behind the repressive dam, but he knew it was gruesome, once more divulging his deep-seated sadism. Another is that he possibly cared for his son, but there is evidence to the contrary. The extent we see of their “loving relationship” is that Runeard softly corrects Agnarr’s way of presenting himself by standing tall. It is worth noting that this flashback is generally rose-tinted, as Agnarr was until his very death ignorant of the heinous crimes that went down. To negate the idea of a loving father, Destin Mattias is built up as more of a father figure to Agnarr in his life, indicating a degree of neglect from Runeard. Furthermore, Runeard was ready to oppress and exterminate the Northuldra people, all the while his son was falling for one; Iduna. This could be a display of a grave lack of empathy, or ignorance (which ties to his parental negligence). The final damning sign of Runeard’s lacking care is that he started a bloody battle with no scruples, even though his son was present in the camps at the time and almost died in the crossfire. Iduna has to save Agnarr’s life: Knowing Runeard would have those like Iduna starved and killed at that point, it goes to show that his priorities were never the safety of his own child. The last possible one is that according to the tie in novel Frozen: Forest of Shadows, he oversaw the construction of the modern Arendelle castle, which could be interpreted as generous, but his reason for doing so is unknown: Knowing Runeard, it’s likely it was to expand his power and show off his might.

General Standard
King Runeard builds a dam with the intention of starving the Northuldran people so they will submit to his rule, out of fear that they can threaten his power. When the chief merely shows his concerns he kills him, which sparks a bloody battle that kills many on both sides and leads to his death, and it is also shown that he is ready to exterminate the entire tribe. Runeard ordering his men to work out how many men the Northuldran people are strong during a purportedly peaceful ceremony, showing he even then was brewing a back-up (or ultimate) plan to crush them in warfare, is a new depth of evil more comparable to real-life medieval tyrants (as well as colonialists and certain World War 2 figures) than any character in the movie, which also makes him extremely unique among Disney villains Even after his death, his actions continue to affect the movie and plague everyone involved.

In-Story Standard
Runeard as a villain doesn’t just meet the heinous standard in the story; he completely shatters it. Hans, the villain of the previous movie, never killed anyone even (though he got pretty close) and was more concerned about ruling over a kingdom than causing a ton of damage -- indeed, though it’s not his native kingdom, and though he wants to attain it through bloodshed, Hans does seem to want to rule over Arendelle well. And let’s not forget Hans also has a tragic backstory for why he did what he did; and where Hans had to kill Elsa and Anna to succeed in his plans and finally realize his dreams, nothing was actually threatening or nullifying Runeard and his power when he decided to wreak so much tragedy upon both the Northuldra people and his very own (a ruler being unprovokedly horrible due to his own paranoia is something that has roots in real life history, too). And that is something that strongly boosts the heinous level Runeard reaches: He stands to gain nothing meaningful through his horrid actions. There is no status quo for him to challenge or some higher echelons to reach, anything that necessitates his crimes. All of his evils were utterly hollow, and this alone hoists him above any standard level of villainy. Frozen II is a generally darker movie than the first, in great part owing to Runeard’s character and actions.

System Standard
Frozen’s time period is really vague, to say the least, but it doesn’t really matter, because when everyone finds out what he did they are disgusted and appalled by his actions. Though it can be ascribed to the actual temperature of the Athohallan, it’s heavily implied that the mere depths of depravity this truth bring are what temporarily freezes Elsa to death and kills Olaf by extension (“going too far” both alludes to the inhumane atmosphere of the Athohallan, and the terror of the truth). As mentioned earlier, the knights-errant in the woods are quick to abandon their lifelong directive upon learning of their deceased commander’s evil.

Individual Capability
Runeard does everything in his power and sense to accomplish his goals. He uses all of the Arendelle’s guards at hand to keep a tally of the Northuldrans’ population number, and funnels a huge amount of resources into building a massive dam, just to cut off their resources and thus weaken them. In fact, his entire goal was to increase his level of capability, as he felt his grip on the indigenous people was not strong enough. One could argue that he didn’t quite rally the entire Arendelle army to dispose of the Northuldrans, though he was technically able, but the movie makes it clear that he wasn’t honest with his men, since he knew his depravity far exceeded theirs, and thus he instead fooled them into thinking it was a case of peaceful negotiations gone sour, courtesy of the Northuldra -- causing strife and carnage where both sides had no reason to fight anyone but Runeard himself.

No Sympathy
Runeard gets nothing close to sympathy; any character hearing of his actual motivations they are overcome with silent horror and grief. While Hans from the first movie certainly does shock Anna and Elsa, they let him off with a mere tell-off and an empowering punch to the face, and ridicule him with light banter and contempt in Frozen 2. However, just learning about Runeard’s treachery, though it’s not even directed at them, Elsa and Anna are crushed.

Verdict
Runeard is a world apart from all other Frozen villains in terms of evil. His actions paint a horrifying picture: A peaceful people, met with a seemingly noble ruler, then starved to the point that their way of living couldn’t continue, and when their leader tried to simply ask for a few changes, he was slain, and an army of soldiers fell on the rest of them. Most hauntingly, no one but Runeard (in his twisted mind) ever saw any reason for these atrocities to occur until the end of Frozen 2. A genocidal and tyrannical dictator, Runeard wrought so much calamity that continues to permeate the lands, a man so evil his legacy had to be destroyed for the people to be free. In summary, I believe he is a fine pass for PE.