Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-24947594-20140516051707/@comment-24674051-20140611164521

It would not be unlike Once to Start the character from a known position personality-wise, and then grow them from that point, and use the Frozen storyline to help build the flashbask story. Consider Snow and David. They started, in the Pilot, right where they left off in the fairy tale, but grew organically from there, and their backstory contains references to the original fairy tale while also building in some original material (Snow Falls, reinvented again with Snow Drifts). In Regina's case, she started at a point just before her character dies in the fairy tale. The point is these characters were easily recognizable, and still retain much of their charm while adding some layers of depth. Even Zelena and Pan are easily recognizable for their characters, even though their characters are nowhere close to any previous incarnations.

Bringing in Frozen, I think they will wisely start with the character to be easily recognizable (just as Elsa was in the S3 Finale). But they will develop from that point, Having Elsa with the wild, uncontrolled Ice Magic is a good starting point. I think they could easily build in some layers by picking up on her feeling isolated and alone growing up, since she was basically locked away in her room, and add to that the additional isolation caused by however long she was locked in the urn.

In a different twist, it might not be unlike Elsa to have asked Rumple to lock her up herself. She feared her own magic and wanted to protect everything she held dear. Anna and Kristoff were gone searching for her when the first curse was cast, explaining why they were not in SB the first time around. After failing to find Elsa, they gave her up as dead, and Anna returned to rule the kingdom in her stead. Anna's backstory would, in this scenario, most likely occur in the time between the first curse broken and the casting of the second curse (ie, seasons 2 and 3a plus the lost year).

There are many different ways that the writers can take this, be true to the Disney version, and still add the right amount of Once twist to the character. I am approaching the whole thing with an open mind, prepared to be enteretained.