While Disney has yet to officially confirm whether they will be making Frozen 3, if it does, there are six big mysteries about the Fifth Spirit the movie needs to clear up. Frozen and its sequel Frozen 2 are the most successful princess movies that Disney has ever made. They’re so successful, in fact, that Disney has yet to include Anna and Elsa in their official Disney Princess lineup because the sisters make more money on their own. The franchise follows Anna, a princess from the kingdom of Arendelle, and her older sister Elsa, who has magical ice powers and must also take on the role of Queen after the untimely deaths of their parents. In the sequel, Elsa’s powers are revealed to be more than just ice magic - she’s the fifth elemental spirit of Northuldra legend.
In Frozen 2, Elsa and Anna discover the truth about their homeland, Arendelle, and the relationship that their kingdom has had with a tribe of people called the Northuldra, who live in an enchanted forest to the north of the kingdom. Along with her ice powers and being the fifth spirit, Elsa also discovers a connection to the four elemental spirits - air, fire, water, and earth - and hears a voice calling her to the enchanted forest, which their father had told them stories about as children. After traveling to the enchanted forest, using Elsa’s connection to the spirits to temporarily lift the fog that had blocked anyone from entering or leaving the forest for over 30 years, Anna and Elsa learn that their mother was from Northuldra and that their grandfather, the former king of Arendelle, betrayed the Northuldra because he feared their connection to magic. Together, Anna and Elsa work to fix their grandfather’s mistake, and Anna destroys the dam which their grandfather built to restrict the magic of the forest.
Elsa also discovers that she is the fifth elemental spirit after following the mysterious voice across the Dark Sea to find the mythical frozen glacier river Ahtohallan. It’s there that Elsa not only finds out the truth about herself, but also about her grandfather, and what happened the day of her grandfather’s betrayal. At the end of the movie, Elsa accepts her place as the Fifth Spirit, and chooses to live in the north looking after the forest while Anna returns to Arendella as queen. However, there are still plenty of unanswered questions about the Fifth Spirit that Disney needs to explain in Frozen 3.
What Exactly Is The Fifth Spirit?
While the other spirits are clear representations of a particular element, Elsa’s Fifth Spirit remains a little unclear in that regard. In Frozen 2, it’s described as the bridge between humanity and nature, but it's not explained what exactly that means. Elsa’s powers largely seem to be ice-based. Since ice is the frozen state of water, it makes sense that Elsa seemed to have bonded with the water spirit the most, taming and working in tandem with the water horse spirit, Nokk. However, the water spirit already existed and is not the element that Elsa represents. If the Fifth Spirit is the element that keeps all of the others in balance and keeps humanity in harmony with nature, the third Frozen movie should do a better job explaining what exactly the Fifth Spirit is and how exactly Elsa's powers relate to it, or if she can tap into any other elemental powers.
Is The Fifth Spirit Always A Person Or Is Elsa The First?
In the Frozen universe, there has yet to be any other human being with magical abilities besides Elsa. Even the Northuldra, who were shown to work in tandem with the elemental spirits prior to the rift with Arendelle, don’t have magical abilities themselves. With that in mind, it’s unclear whether or not Elsa’s abilities are unique, or if she’s the first or only person to have magical abilities. It’s also unclear whether she’s the only person to be the human embodiment of the Fifth Spirit. Her abilities could work similarly to the Avatar from the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe, in which there’s always a special person who is chosen to be the Fifth Spirit. Alternatively, she could have been the first and only human chosen to be the Fifth Spirit, because both Arendelle and the Northuldra needed her to bring them back into harmony with each other and nature.
If Elsa is the First Fifth Spirit, Is She Immortal?
The other spirits are represented by non-human things that don’t necessarily have a mortal life. Aside from the Fire Spirit’s salamander, Elsa is the only one of them made of flesh. It’s unclear whether or not she will continue to be the Fifth Spirit forever or if she will eventually pass away. After her experience at Ahtohallan, she returns to help save Arendelle, but the movie ends before anything more is said about what being the Fifth Spirit means for Elsa's life. She decides to pass the kingdom on to Anna and stay in the enchanted forest to look after it with the other spirits, which sort of suggests that she might need to be there forever in order to keep things in harmony. Her apparent death and rebirth at Ahtohallan also suggests that she may now have an extended life.
If Elsa is the Fifth Spirit, Is She Still Human?
As Elsa goes down into the depths of Ahtohallan, at one point she freezes over completely, essentially killing her. Her magic fades, and with it, Olaf flurries away into a pile of snow. She emerges from the ice after Anna gets the Earth giants to smash the dam, thereby restoring the magic of the forest and lifting the fog barrier. When she emerges, she has an ethereal presence as she rides on the water spirit to save Arendelle from the flood, fully accepting her place as the Fifth Spirit. Elsa's apparent death at Ahtohallan could also symbolize her rebirth as the Fifth Spirit, Elsa's Frozen 2 moment similar to Gandalf the White emerging in Lord of the Rings. What isn't clear, however, is if after Elsa emerged from Ahtohallan, she's still a human woman, or if she has become something beyond human.
Is Anna Also Part of the Fifth Spirit?
After Honeymaren told her about the Fifth Spirit being a bridge, Elsa tells Anna that a bridge has two sides, implying that Anna may be part of the Fifth Spirit as well. Anna, who has no magical ability of her own, has the bravery and determination to do “the next right thing.” In both movies, these qualities lead to her saving Elsa and in doing so, the people. In Frozen 2, Anna receives Elsa’s message about their grandfather tricking the Northuldra by building the dam. Even though Anna is heartbroken by the thought of losing Elsa, she springs into action to destroy the dam, knowing that it’s the best thing for the forest and for the people. Without Anna, Elsa’s magic may not have been enough to free the forest and restore balance and peace to both nations.
What Did The Northuldra Believe the Fifth Spirit Was Before Elsa?
Honeymaren, a young Northuldra woman who Anna and Elsa meet in the enchanted forest, is the first person to tell Elsa about the Fifth Spirit by showing her the runes on their mother’s scarf. The legend and the runes on the scarf suggest that the Fifth Spirit has been a Northuldra belief for a very long time, especially because Anna and Elsa's Northuldra mother, Queen Iduna, owned the scarf as a child, before the forest was trapped behind the magical barrier of mist. It's unclear whether Honeymaren knew that the Fifth Spirit could be embodied in a person or not, and the legend isn't explored any further than what Honeymaren told Elsa. In Frozen 3, the plot could explore the myth of the Fifth Spirit and what it meant to the Northuldra people, even before Elsa existed.