King Westergaard is a minor antagonist in the Frozen franchise, serving as one of the two unseen overarching antagonists (alongside King Runeard) of the 2013 Disney film Frozen and the overarching antagonist of the 2015 novel A Frozen Heart.
He is the tyrannical ruler of the Southern Isles and the abusive father of Prince Hans who has been overtaxing his subjects and severely punishing (to the point of where it's heavily implied that this punishment involves killing) whoever fails to pay their taxes or criticizes his rule and has been allowing Hans' brothers to bully him as they please, even encouraging some of it occasionally, shaping Hans up to the person he would become today.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- He is conveyed to be an awful father towards Hans, allowing his brothers to bully him often whenever they want and even encourages some of it as displayed by him agreeing with one of them while they were mocking Hans, telling him that the Westergaards are lions and not mice and does nothing to help him with his problems, with it being made clear that he hates Hans overall.
- As for his other sons, King Westergard doesn't seem to view them as anything other than tools and potential heirs to his throne, pretty much molding them to be just as terrible as he is. Only Lars (the third son) failed to be corrupted and treated Hans kindly.
- Despite condemning Hans for arriving late for his mother's birthday and having him apologize to her, he himself shows no love for her, having blatantly ignored her in the Great Hall and the text conveying that she has been used to this after nearly 30 years of marriage.
- He conveys further disdain towards Hans, telling him that she is the only one who would have even noticed he was missing.
- He is implicitly abusive towards his oldest son's wife, his daughter-in-law as well, with her having felt uncomfortable nearby him in the hall, keeping her hands in constant motion, resting them on her belly (since she was pregnant) before reaching for her wineglass and then thinking better of it with her having been out of place in the room like Hans felt.
- It is implied that he sometimes engages in battle against his enemies, with him making plans to invade enemy territory from time to time.
- At one point, he had waged war on a neighboring kingdom.
- When one of his farmers had a problem he didn't like, he proceeded to burn his farm down and take all of his livestock. It is also conveyed that he endangered the farmer through this as this was used in the context of describing an example of violence he demonstrated.
- He is implicitly physically abusive towards Hans himself as when fighting Marshmallow, Hans found him to be less terrifying than his father when he's angry and near the end, when Hans analyzed the weight of his failure and the fact that he was going home, he tried to resist the guards, desperately not wanting to go back out of fear, worry, and sadness.
- He has been extorting heavy taxes on his own subjects.
- He is heavily implied to execute those who criticize him as shown by how he ordered Hans to go make it clear to a villager on the third isle who has been saying "unsavory" things about him that he is doing himself no favors by getting on his bad side.
- He implicitly tells Hans to kill the villager if he does not listen, ordering him to "make him listen one way or the other", further suggested by how he asks Hans if he will do anything he asks and Hans wondering worriedly what he has gotten himself into once he exits the room.
- For 3 years, he had Hans carry out the dirtiest of tasks to the most mindless of errands. One of the tasks is conveyed to be him ordering Hans to go to each village on each isle to collect the taxes due. For those who are unable to provide what they owe, he has Hans severely punish them and it is heavily implied that he has had Hans execute them at least.
- He is even implied to have been doing that himself during the moment where Hans conversed with him about wanting to assist him with Westergaard talking like he was going to visit the third and fifth isle and punish the former for being behind on their taxes and the latter for not getting him their promised fish with how he describes himself as busy due to these issues.
- Even if he never kills anyone, it’s heavily implied he at least chops off their limbs, which was a common punishment for thieves back then. If this is true he basically ruins their lives forever out of petty greed.
- Given how he isn't in the Frozen movies, he manages to get off scot free for all his horrible acts and presumably continues his tyranny over his kingdom.
- He is overall the reason as to why Hans would be the way he is, his treatment and actions influencing Hans' villainous and sociopathic persona throughout the book, and by extension the first film.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He fails the Heinous Standards to King Runeard who had massacred hundreds of Northuldrans in a war against them with similar resources. While Westergaard's victim count regarding the subjects he had Hans severely punish is at least made clear to be high enough to pass baseline, it's not made clear if it's high enough for him to pass against Runeard. That said, he likely could have passed had the overall victim count been made completely clear and he does also have the act of waging war against a neighboring kingdom, which also could have helped him pass the Heinous Standards had it not been offscreen.
Trivia[]
- King Westergaard is by technicality the only Frozen character to be Near Pure Evil.
