{"id":1723,"date":"2014-02-18T17:01:14","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T21:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1723"},"modified":"2015-07-11T04:53:54","modified_gmt":"2015-07-11T08:53:54","slug":"let-it-go-is-a-song-of-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=1723","title":{"rendered":"&ldquo;Let It Go&rdquo; is a song of evil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By which I mean, the popular song from Disney\u2019s <em>Frozen<\/em> is not an anthem for an attitude that would be at all healthy to have in the real world.\u00a0 Embracing indifference is not exactly something to celebrate.<\/p>\n<p>After all, let\u2019s not forget what the song is about: a sad, scared, angry queen embracing indifference toward the world.\u00a0 The philosophy she is deciding on is evil.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at some lyrics that reflect the evil Elsa\u2019s embracing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Conceal, don\u2019t feel, don\u2019t let them know<\/em> \u2013 Hints out how she was dealing with her problem wrongly from the beginning.<\/li>\n<li><em>Let it go, let it go, Turn away and slam the door<\/em> \u2013 She\u2019d rather evade her problems than face them.<\/li>\n<li><em>Let the storm rage on<\/em> \u2013 She has no consideration for who that storm may be hurting.<\/li>\n<li><em>The fears that once controlled me can\u2019t get to me at all<\/em> \u2013 She\u2019s replacing them with all new fears, particularly the fear of facing others with her uncontrollable powers, or letting others, like her sister, try to help her at all.<\/li>\n<li><em>No right, no wrong, no rules for me, I\u2019m free<\/em> \u2013 Oh dear!\u00a0 The most obviously evil lyrics here.\u00a0 No right or wrong?!\u00a0 Yikes.<\/li>\n<li><em>You\u2019ll never see me cry<\/em> \u2013 She\u2019s embracing indifference.\u00a0 Not good.<\/li>\n<li><em>I\u2019m never going back, the past is in the past<\/em> \u2013 It\u2019s one thing to forgive yourself and move on, it\u2019s another thing to stop caring completely, which is clearly what she&#8217;s doing.<\/li>\n<li><em>The cold never bothered me anyway<\/em> \u2013 Again, she\u2019s embracing indifference.\u00a0 And she\u2019s lying.\u00a0 Her powers have always bothered her and they&#8217;re still bothering her.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, it&#8217;s a song about embracing indifference toward the world and her self-image.\u00a0 Though cathartic, it\u2019s clearly not the right solution to her problem.<\/p>\n<p>And the storytellers know this, of course.\u00a0 The song isn\u2019t her climactic solution to her problems after which she lives happily ever after.\u00a0 The song portrays her creation of even bigger problems, both in her own heart and the outside world that she\u2019s cutting herself off from and plunging into eternal winter.\u00a0 Her living alone in an ice castle out in the mountain boonies is never portrayed as a good thing.\u00a0 In \u201cletting go\u201d of her concern for control of her powers and her self-image (an effort which initially came from a genuinely good place, even if she was dealing with it wrong from the very beginning, after being traumatized by injuring her little sister), she still holds on to the fear that keeps her away from her kingdom.\u00a0 If she was truly \u201cletting go\u201d of what she needed to let go of (her self-image fear, her over-self-consciousness), she wouldn\u2019t feel any need to stay away from her kingdom and those she loves, particularly her sister.<\/p>\n<p>Story-wise, the song serves the same purpose as Sweeney Todd\u2019s \u201cEpiphany\u201d (though Todd\u2019s pledge is much more sinister \u2013 to murder innocent victims until he can get revenge) and as Elphaba\u2019s \u201cDefying Gravity.\u201d\u00a0 In <em>Sweeney Todd<\/em> and <em>Wicked<\/em>, such goal-changing decisions eventually lead to tragedy in one form or another.\u00a0 Fortunately in <em>Frozen<\/em>, Elsa realizes her mistake and changes by the story\u2019s end, thanks to her sister.\u00a0 Still, her song is about a character who\u2019s been struggling with something and is deciding to embrace a clearly wrong answer.<\/p>\n<p>But of course that\u2019s also what gives the song it\u2019s power, in the dramatic sense; we can relate to Elsa\u2019s emotions completely, even if we know she\u2019s choosing the wrong thing.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s also why it\u2019s a bit funny to see videos of young children belting out the song proudly.\u00a0 They\u2019re singing about becoming evil.\u00a0 Yes, I know it may be over some of their heads, but I still find it funny.\u00a0 The music is great, but its beauty and power are misleading, as is Elsa being all smiley and happy about it; the philosophy she\u2019s embracing is ugly and tragic.\u00a0 After all, I don\u2019t think we want children to actually let go of things like worrying about right and wrong.<\/p>\n<p>The right answer to Elsa\u2019s problem: love (as Elsa learns by the film\u2019s end).\u00a0 The wrong answer: cold indifference (as Elsa embraces with \u201cLet It Go\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>So when you sing \u201cLet It Go\u201d while taking your evil shower (Sims joke), let\u2019s hope you\u2019re not singing the lyrics with actual conviction.\u00a0 Because that would be, you know, evil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By which I mean, the popular song from Disney\u2019s Frozen is not an anthem for an attitude that would be at all healthy to have in the real world.\u00a0 Embracing indifference is not exactly something to celebrate. After all, let\u2019s not forget what the song is about: a sad, scared, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[99,438],"tags":[636],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-rN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1889,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions\/1889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}