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Our final pairing is a gift to the readers. If the first 13 pairings didn't convince you that there is a canonical match between the 13 Disney princesses and the 13 Olympians, then the serendipity of this final one surely must. The most famous Greek god who is technically not an Olympian, matched up against the most famous Disney heroine who is technically not a Disney princess.

Hades is the god of the dead and the underworld. His realm is cold. A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like he's the king.

Hades is Elsa.

The eldest male god (read, older sibling) is seen as orderly, lawful and fair, yet feared due to his associations with death and the underworld. Likewise, Elsa is the only Disney princess who is feared for her powers, although she is not evil.

In early drafts of Disney's Frozen, Elsa was written as a self-proclaimed Snow Queen with blue skin, spiky black or blue hair, and an army of snow monsters, who intentionally froze her sister's heart. Her concept art bears more than a passing resemblance to Hades himself as portrayed in the 1997 Disney animated film Hercules.

Hades' most famous item is his Cap of Invisibility (kyneê), used in his first war against his father, Cronus. Elsa's early childhood revolved around 'conceal it, don't feel it', taught to her by her parents, manifested by gloves and the locked door. Just as Elsa stopped concealing her powers after becoming queen, Hades stopped using his Cap after becoming King of the Underworld. Finally, shared with Demeter, Hades's most important myth is the abduction of Persephone, an allegory of winter. Elsa takes on aspects of all major roles in that story, being simultaneously the ruler of the cold realm, the one held captive, and the one who caused the winter in Arendelle.

The model reads the match as almost total. Six exact matches on temperament — aloof, regal, brooding, resolute, patient, self-effacing. Four on narrative role, including the-one-who-stays and cast-out in the same profile, which is Hades precisely: the god who was put out and then made the outside his own. Three on iconography. The match rates higher than any of the 169 cells in this book — the 14th bonus pairing is stronger than any of the first 13.

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Extra-diegetic. Hades is not an Olympian on a technicality, because he doesn't live on Mount Olympus. His other name is Plouton — the Rich One, derived from all the earth's underground riches. It's why the Romans called him Pluto. Elsa, similarly, is not a Disney princess, because Frozen makes so much money that Disney presents it as its own standalone powerhouse.¹

Footnotes

1. See GamesRadar. ↩