Why I Love Hans in Frozen (Spoiler Warning)

Beware of spoilers for Frozen and many links to TvTropes!

You might be wondering why Hans is my favorite character in Frozen.  He's not one of the three main characters or a comic relief sidekick, like the usual favorite picks.  Hans is the first love-interest in the Love Triangle who gets thrown to the sidelines until Anna comes back to him--after that, he's important again.  He acts as a quirky Prince Charming that's dedicated to Anna's safety and helping her kingdom in her absence.  Oh yeah, and he's been stringing Anna along to get the Arendelle throne.  That threw me for a loop in the theater...and once I got used to the idea, instead of hating him, I was impressed.

There are plenty of villains out there that convince the protagonists to trust them: Frollo, Mother Gothel, Ursula, Scar, Hag!Evil Queen, etc.  But a villain who convinces the audience that they're an okay guy has extra props from me.  There are clues that he isn't what he seems, but they are so tiny that you don't notice them unless you already know that Hans is evil (example: Hans looks up for a split second before he takes the crossbow and shoots the chandelier).

I love looking at Hans being nice while knowing that it's all facade.  The moment where Hans confronts Elsa, he sounds like a man who just lost someone he cares deeply about.  If you had taken a bathroom break at just the wrong part of the movie, you'd believe him without question: his manner is exactly the same as every point of the movie except the fireplace scene.  I just love that Hans has great acting chops and can improvise his plan on the fly without even flinching.  And the fact that his voice (especially singing voice) reminds me of Flynn Rider doesn't hurt.

Some people, however, are miffed that Disney decided to resolve the Love Triangle by making Hans evil, and I will acknowledge that this is a concern .  There are few "easy routes" to resolving a Love Triangle: Death of the Hypotenuse is a popular one with writers (though often hated by the audience).  Having one guy do a Face Heel Turn (usually because Love Makes You Evil) is another common choice.  Then you have Frozen's Evil All Along scenario.  It's an easier solution to a Love Triangle than having the heroine choose from two equally valid men (and maybe a Pair the Spares of Hans and Elsa), which was what I was expecting right up until Hans said, "Anna, if only there was someone out there who loved you."  Yes, what Disney did was easier, but does that make it a lesser choice?

Let's assume that Hans actually did care for Anna.  Since there's no way that Hans kissing her at that point in the movie (from a storytelling viewpoint) would have fixed things, that kiss would have failed.  Then Anna would have likely tried the kiss again, this time with Kristoff.  There are basically three ways it could go:

• Anna kissing Kristoff heals her.  This would be bad since the time Kristoff and Anna have gotten to know each other is hardly any more than the time Anna got to know Hans.  In this scenario, Disney would be saying that "clicking" with someone is a less valid way of falling in love than constantly arguing with them, which is very unfair to many relationships in the world--not to mention all of the Unfortunate Implications of a couple being mean to each other being a better thing than them getting along.
• Anna kissing Kristoff fails.  So neither boy works out as her One True Love, which would be more fair.  However, this leaves what the "Act of True Love" ambiguous.  No one is going after Elsa (except maybe the Duke of Weselton, who I would guess the Snow Queen could take in a fight easily) so there's no sword sacrifice necessary.  But let's assume the Duke has mad fencing skills and Anna saves her sister.  Now she's got two different love interests to choose from and the Love Triangle resolution will either be arbitrary or not resolved at all.  And all the kids and movie critics in the theater will be angry because the movie ended stupidly.
• Anna abandons the second kiss and runs off to save Elsa from a heartbroken Hans.  And of course Hans would be heartbroken: he'd loved this girl enough to propose and his kiss couldn't save her.  Like he portrayed to the onlookers in the actual movie, he'd kill Elsa because it's the only way he sees that could fix things (although there'd be less of a vengeance bent since he'd presumably know Anna wasn't dead yet).  Anna gets in between the two and Hans would feel horrible for essentially giving her the death blow (not really, but it'd seem like it from his perspective).  And then you have Anna making the choice between the guy desperately trying to save her (albeit as a Well-Intentioned Extremist) and the guy who was on his way back to help her (who happened to have more screentime).  The cleanest way to end it would be for Hans to bow out of the competition out of shock of what he almost did to the girl he thought was his true love.  And why in the world should Anna pick Kristoff over someone who made a legitimate (if hurtful) sacrifice for her?  Because she knew Kristoff a couple days more?  Or should she pick Hans even though the majority of screentime was of Anna and Kristoff?  Do you see how messy this can get?  Can you imagine all the kids asking their parents why Anna chose what she did?  Disney would much rather have a clean ending, if only to save the headaches of the parents paying for the tickets.

And so Disney chose an "easy route" instead.  Ironically, Hans only exists because there was a villain void when the writers decided to make Elsa more sympathetic--which may or may not be part of why the "easy route" worked for me.

But even if Disney decided to tackle one of my above scenarios head-on (or made other large-scale changes) to make Hans a good guy, I still think the story would have lost something important: a warning for girls about manipulative men.

Up until now, Disney has only really touched on unhealthy relationships in terms of parent-child or something similar, never the romantic one.  Hans is only interested in Anna so he can take advantage of her and he changes his apparent personality into one she'd fall for.  And because Hans' mask is so perfect, a girl who has seen the movie might realize that a guy who appears to be genuinely interested in her might not be what he seems.  Hans is the ultimate warning for all girls (and, I guess, all guys too, but I'm going to continue using the same stereotypical genders here) to take things slowly and really get to know a guy, because what she doesn't know can hurt her.

Sure, those girls might also take away the lesson to shield herself from getting hurt, but the story itself counteracts this: Elsa suffered when she forced herself to be lonely and was only happy when she let love into her life.  The ultimate relationship of Kristoff and Anna is the balance between openess and closedness. And they are definitely going to take it slow.