permissions;

❝ listen to me. your power will only grow.
there is beauty in it. but also great danger.
you must learn to control it.
fear will be your enemy. ❞
at the core of her powers, Elsa can manipulate ice and snow. her abilities span from being able to freeze the floor with a stomp of her foot, to building an entire ice palace. yeah. shit's crazy. she can also bring inanimate things, made of snow, to life. the main problem with her power, the part that she ultimately has to learn to control, is that it manifests itself through her emotions.
+ so, on the one hand, if she's feeling safe and happy, or excited to use her powers, she can create a giant castle and gorgeous chandeliers made of perfectly symmetrical ice fractals. while she was singing Let it Go, she used her powers to build the same snowman she used to build for her sister, using her powers. only because she was in such a great mood, she actually brought him to life. and he's super friendly, and cheerful, and optimistic.
- however, when she's scared, whatever she creates will have sharp, jagged edges, and if she brings anything to life while she's upset, well. you get marshmallow. he was the result of her fear after she learned she froze over the entire city, and he serves as a giant, angry snow bouncer for her castle, after that.
this next section is particularly important for player plots, if you want to.. go here with her powers.
- another seriously scary flaw to her power is that if she hits you with a blast of her power, not the snow or ice that forms from it, but a shock of power, it can be fatal.
-- if hit in the head, the spell can be removed easily enough, by someone else who has magic ( we're never told if she can remove the "ice" from someone's head, but I think she probably could, if she had to. hopefully she never will ), but while they still have the "ice" there in their head, the person will feel freezing cold, and a strand of their hair will turn white as snow. we're never shown in canon what happens after prolonged exposure, but I think it's similar to what happens when a person is hit in the chest, but maybe slower.
-- worse yet, if a person is hit in the chest with a blast of power, it's said that it forms ice around the person's heart, and it's not as easily removed as a shot to the mind, because the only thing that can "cure" it is an act of true love. it starts the same as getting hit in the head, only you turn colder, faster, and eventually your hair turns all white. after that, it's only a matter of time before you literally freeze over. like, straight up ice sculpture.