Fire Queen Elsa is Tumblr’s hottest new fandom
The major box office success of Disney’s Frozen may have gotten a boost from the extended winter chill that swept over the U.S. over the last two months, but on Tumblr, the film’s massive fanbase has been thawing out with the hottest meme of 2014—literally.
Over the last few weeks, fans have spontaneously evolved a thriving sub-fandom around an alternate universe (AU) version of Elsa, the tormented snow queen, in which she has the ability to control the element of fire instead of ice. Replacing her austere blue and white color palette for every possible shade of red, the fandom has churned out fanart, song lyrics, GIF sets, and fanfiction devoted to the fiery queen.
They’ve also used the meme as an opportunity to explore Frozen’s controversial underbelly—its lack of non-white characters—by giving Elsa new ethnic backgrounds along with her new powers.
Art credits from top left: treepelta113/deviantART; hypnolizard; disneyineveryway; essie-art; hannahwolfcross via theheatneverbotheredmeanyway
Thanks to all the amazing fanartists in this article for allowing us to use their fabulous art to illustrate this wonderful fandom. :)
Fire Queen Elsa is our favorite meme of 2014.
