The Duke screaming "monster" immediately as a reaction always really irked me and still does- who just screams monster at someone, especially a fully grown adult? Can you imagine a full grown adult in real life screaming "monster!!" at someone who has revealed ice powers. I can see them saying "Oh my god!!" or any variation, but it felt like such a forced way to set up Elsa's "I'm a monster" complex. Not to mention that to be honest, I think if anyone displayed snow/ice powers a good chunk of people would be pretty interested/fascinated/think it's really cool.
Also, everyone's reaction to immediately capture Elsa, chain her up when she clearly was not trying to hurt anyone (if she was, she would have stayed in the town , not ran away and up on top of a mountain away from people) and not even try to talk to her or help her figure anything out seemed a bit baseless/mindless to me. I think any logically thinking human being would sit down with Elsa and try to calm her down and figure what was going on, try to get on her good side and make some sort of attempt rather than all the political heads just capturing her and running around mindlessly.
Mostly I'm just bothered by the Duke screaming "monster!"
It's not that I think that they couldn't be scared, it's just how mindless their reactions are. Of course, Lord of the Flies does exist...

Speaking as someone who watched shows like X-Men Evolution (and the movies, of course), people tend to fear what they don't understand. Elsa has powers and we've seen that she does have the ability to kill and cause suffering with her powers, even though it was unintentional. People will always assume that because someone has powers that they're a monster and a threat to them. One of the movie's few saving graces is that the reaction to Elsa revealing her powers is somewhat realistic. The Duke's reactions were over the top, but that's part of his annoying as hell character.

Her nerves got to her. It's realistic to me and this is coming from someone that's usually very anxious.

Do you have any idea how superstitious, God-fearing and devil-hating Christian Europeans were during her time period? (1840's) While witchcraft was not necessarily fully believed in among the educated upper classes (though still certainly believed by the lower classes) or a capital offense as it was before, women were still occasionally hung if accused as such. (link)

Since Elsa is shown to use magic right in front of people, and does so in a rather incriminating way (she looks guilty about something, she turns a fountain into a clawed formation of ice, and seems to attack the Duke), people would be afraid.

And in every crowd, there's always that ONE rabble-rouser who has to incite panic or alarm. I thought the Duke's reaction was realistic for his character, and the crowd's reaction to his words and Elsa's behavior (confusion, moved to fear by Elsa's erratic behavior along with his cries of "MONSTER! SORCERY!") is very believable.

Most people are afraid of and/or hate what is peculiar/unusual/different for them.

I agree with PL. But it's more their reaction at the end where they just happily accept her and her magic that is very unrealistic seeming. She froze their city and they hold no grudges? They don't think she's a sorceress or anything?

^yeah that quick shift too

She's the newly-crowned queen, for crying out loud! You can't just accuse a queen who is actively in power with no resistance up until this point of being a traitor. Revolutions take time, and besides, who does the duke of Weselton (or however you spell it) think he is to charge in and indict the queen?! In a normal European monarchy, she'd be able to call for his arrest/execution then and there, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

In that time period, at least. Nowadays I'm sure we'd react a bit differently. I don't see why they got over it so quickly at the end of the movie though, people at that time were really superstitious.

it would convince me more if it wasn't so easy to get in their good graces later

For once, I'm with Tygers_Eye. People back in the 1800s were superstitious up to their eyeballs. Elsa would not have been called a monster. She would have been called a witch or a heretic. That's the real "wording" people used back then for those they considered "different and abnormal."

The annoying thing about the end of the movie, among other annoying things--- is the thing that Audreyfreak pointed out. How could such a superstitious group of inhabitants in Arendelle suddenly flip a switch and welcome Elsa back so warmly? That boggled my mind, and not in a good way. It made the ending even more what the bleep??? for me.

I can see it happening to a lower class girl (except referred to as "witch" instead of monster) but really, to the newly crowned queen? Why would the folks of Arendelle listen to a foreign nobody like the Duke instead of their (supposedly beloved) Queen?

And agree with Audrey...That ending...Like it's not even the point of being realistic, but consistent.

I do not think which or heretic would really be in 19th century vocabulary in the upper classes at least people were superstitious. But I would really not blame Christianity, people have been just as superstitious in countries with other religions and Europe was even more superstitious before Christianity. People who are superstitious just because they are religious, people even today who believe in horoscopes (hardly ever religious people) for example.

But I think people would have accepted Elsa's powers if she made a speech and demonstrated she can control and make beautiful things with her power as well. Superstitious people do not necessarily only think magic can be a bad thing, folk tales (in which people actually used to believe) had fairies that did good. Her powers could have been seems as blessing as well.

^^and that's a good point about calling it superstitious. Most Western Christians were not all about witch burning or anything either.

Somewhat I guess??? The movie never really explains how well known magic and sorcery are to Arendell or what their viewpoint is from it, and it never describes how Elsa got her powers or why she was born with them. I think If people in that universe can simply be born with mystical properties to control the elements, it would be a lot more common and most likely pretty accepted as a natural thing. And I don't understand the trolls either, but if there was an entire book on them with magical powers and probably things relating to Norse Mythology, then I don't think they'd see this as abnormal, or at least they wouldn't be THAT shocked about it.

I've heard that this movie probably takes place in the 18th century, but it almost seems as if this is pre-Christianized Scandinavia considering the King turned to a folklore book instead of say the bible or a priest first. They may have considered her a 'natural born' witch first before anything else, and I'm guessing they would've burned her at the stake.

Also, considering he just insulted the queen I think she could've had his head for this. There's a lot of unanswered questions to this movie because so little is explained and it bugs me.

Yeah, this "Christians are scared of the supernatural" excuse doesn't fit with me because there is the existence of trolls, who have magic, and also the trolls ask "Born with the powers, or cursed?" so it seemed like a fairly normal, if irregular, occurance.

She randomly had powers that were hidden to everyone and she accidentally created sharp ice that could have impaled some of her guests, including her sister. There are people who are scared of different things and different people so of course they were going to over react