Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-25701646-20141117013421/@comment-25701646-20141118003342

Brzoskwinia wrote: I think that people hate Gerda for many reasons, not only because she imprisoned her own sister. She was also a bad mother for Elsa, she teach her to 'conceal, don't feel, don't let them know' and was looking for something which will help remove Elsa's powers. I agree that teaching her to "conceal, don't feel, don't let them know" wasn't the best method, but it's not like she had a lot of practice with things. In the movie, Gerda and Kai (I think that's the King's name) walk in to see one child lying on the floor and the other hysteric at having caused it. They have to run to the Rock Trolls to help. They had no idea what to do about it. The Rock Trolls idea was to erase the memories and told them that Elsa needed to learn to control her powers or they could hurt people. They were already terrified. It wasn't like there was a 'how to" manual on deal with magic. The King says, "She can control them but until she does..." and then they decide to limit her contact with the outside world and Anna. They didn't plan to shut her up forever. Of course, in doing so temporarily, they eneded up causing her emotional trauma, but they didn't have psychological studies on socialization. They did continue to interact with Elsa and work with her. The movie does show Gerda and Kai looking at books about magic and it is from these that they learn conceal don't feel as a method of dealing with it. They followed what the reference book, which knew more than them, told them was a good idea. Elsa was also terrified and wanted the powers to either be gone or under control. They needed to do something to ease her anxiety. Anna could have died and they couldn't let that happen again either. Their response to this was to try to get them under control and take them away. It turns out that they didn't neeed to. But they didn't know that. They wanted to help Elsa while keeping Anna safe and the only things seemed to be to control or get rid of the powers.(Also, we only have Rumple's word that they wanted to get rid of Elsa's powers. Maybe they were just looking for a way to control the powers) Not their reactions weren't perfect but they were because they tried to help the only way they knew how. Everything they heard or read pointed towards keeping powers hidden. They were just doing the best they could. No it wasn't good enough but it wasn't like they could help that.