Anna

Anna is a supporting character on Once Upon a Time. The sister of Elsa, a Queen with potentially threatening ice powers, Princess Anna often served as the yin to her sister's yang, helping to soothe her pain and control her magic. Bubbly and spirited, Anna is a kind soul who can't help but to greatly influence the lives of almost everyone she crosses paths with, in her quest to find answers regarding her family's history and her sister's gift. Anna disappears under intriguing circumstances, setting her sister off on a quest of her own, to find Anna and learn the truth.

Before the Curse
In Arendelle, Anna and Elsa place flowers at their parents' grave markers. Elsa assures Anna that they would be proud of her, and Anna says that they would be proud of both of them. Elsa says that she has a surprise for her wedding and leads her back. She takes Anna into the palace to show her the surprise: their mother's wedding dress. Anna hesitantly touches it and Elsa insists that she wear it for her wedding, giving her a necklace to wear with it. As Anna tries it on, Elsa looks around and notices a book on her parents' desk. Opening it, she realizes that it's her mother's diary. Anna comes out in the dress and notices that snow is filling the air. She asks what's wrong and Elsa says that their parents' death was her fault. She runs out and Anna goes after her. Anna catches up to Elsa in the forest and asks what is wrong. Elsa finally tells her that their parents didn't go off on a diplomatic mission as they thought. Anna reads the diary and in it their mother says that they have to figure out a way to stop Elsa's powers. She doesn't believe it and points out that it doesn't say where they were going or what they had planned. Elsa doesn't believe it and apologizes, and Anna insists that she's not a monster and will prove it. Anna takes Elsa to the troll field over Elsa's objections, and calls to Grand Pabbie. Anna asks what her parents were really doing on the voyage. Grand Pabbie doesn't know but he says that he knows that they were going a land called Misthaven. After Grand Pabbie goes back to sleep, Anna asks for two weeks to go to Misthaven. Elsa says that her parents said the same thing and walks away. Later, after Kristoff reveals Anna's plan to her, Elsa goes to the dock and realizes that Anna's ship has left. Kristoff assures her that Anna will be fine. Elsa worries that Anna acts before she thinks and worries that they don't know anything about Misthaven.

Anna makes her way across the countryside and comes to a cottage. David answers the door and Anna asks for him by name. She explains that she got his name from an old friend in Arendelle, and she explains that she's on a secret mission, going by the alias of Joan. Anna asks to sleep in David's barn and he readily agrees. As they talk, Bo Peep rides up in a carriage with guards, and David tells Anna to get under cover. Once Bo Peep leaves, Anna wonders how David can work for a warlord. He points out that they have no choice but Anna suggests that they should fight back despite Bo Peep's army. She offers to teach. Anna fences with David but he soon wants to give up when he can't beat her. He insists that it's about survival. She offers to stay and help if that's what David wants, but will leave if he doesn't. Later, David goes to the barn and tells Anna to save herself. Bo Peep steps out of the shadows and shows him Anna's necklace, and says that she's imprisoned Anna and branded her so she can find her wherever she goes. However, David defeats Bo Peep at her pavilion, he takes her crook and uses it to track her to a nearby stable. Anna has already freed herself and attacks him until she realizes who it is, and David gives her the necklace. She's impressed and surprised that he won, and David admits that she was right about fighting impossible battles. When Anna wonders why he fought, David says that he did it for Anna, and so he wouldn't be trapped in a life he doesn't want. Later, Anna prepares to continue on her mission and Ruth thanks her for changing David. When Anna asks if there is someone in the Enchanted Forest that her parents might have turned to for help in magic, Ruth says that there is such a man but he's dangerous. As she goes to write down the wizard's name, David brings out his steed - which belonged to his father - and offers him as a gift. He tells Anna that he kept it as a reminder that he doesn't want anymore, and helps her mount up. Anna says that he's all heroic now. Rose gives Anna the paper with the name on it and she rides off to find... Rumplestiltskin.

Anna visits Rumplestiltskin at his Dark Castle and wants to know why her parents came to the Enchanted Forest all those years ago, offering to do whatever it takes for this information. This gladdens Rumple and he makes the princess sign a contract, sending her on her way to poison a sorcerer's apprentice who guards a magic hat. She goes, but cannot poison him, shocked to learn that the "poison" was actually an antidote to the spell Rumple had earlier enacted to turn the kindly old man into a mouse; he explains that he needed her tear to break the enchantment guarding the box containing the hat, which can only be broken by those who've faced their inner-darkness and overcome it. She argues that she never even considered killing the man, so it doesn't count, and so he tells her that her parents came to the Enchanted Forest because they feared their daughter Elsa and goads her into killing him - which she does contemplate, but ultimately can't do - and he takes her tear afterwards. He then takes the hat for himself, wanting to use it to collect enough magic to end his dagger's thrall over him, but the apprentice (still in mouse form) soon bites his hand and causes him to drop said dagger, which Anna then picks up and uses to force him to hand over the hatbox and send her back to Arendelle. He begrudgingly obliges, and she quickly reunites with Kristoff, not knowing how she's going to break the news to her sister that their parents really did leave because they were afraid of her.

After a joyous reunion with Elsa, Anna is introduced to Ingrid, who is revealed to be her aunt. A confused Anna points out that her mother never mentioned a sister, but Ingrid explains that memories for her were probably too painful. She then reveals that she was trapped in a magic urn by people who didn't understand her magic; Anna is shocked to discover someone else in the family has ice magic. The young princess later visits her fiancé, Kristoff, and expresses her suspicions over Ingrid, stating that she'll visit Pabbie to get some answers. However, Ingrid overhears this entire conversation. Anna goes on her journey to Pabbie and on the way she meets Belle. Once she reaches her destination, Pabbie reveals that Anna's mother in fact had two sisters and after a tragic incident took Ingrid and Helga, the second sister, away, he was asked to remove all memories of them from everyone in Arendelle. This news startles Anna so she hurries back home, however, on the way a storm approaches. Anna senses that it's the work of her aunt. The storm knocks Anna off a cliff, and after being left to drop by her new companion Belle, she is taken hostage by Ingrid. Ingrid also comes into possession of the magic hat Anna obtained during her adventures in the Enchanted Forest. Ingrid locks Anna up in a cell and explains that she can't be a part of her happy family as she doesn't understand her. Despite Anna's pleas, Ingrid reveals that she will turn Elsa against her and find a replacement.

Ingrid lies to Elsa and tells her that Anna planned to use the magic hat on her which would take away her powers, causing Elsa to storm into the dungeons, where her sister is being held, and angrily confront her. However, this is soon revealed to be a ruse for the guards' benefit so that Ingrid doesn't found out that Elsa is freeing Anna; the two sisters make amends as Elsa returns Anna's necklace to her and all soon becomes clear. They search the castle for the magic urn so that they can trap Ingrid and eventually find it in the closet with a frozen Hans, much to Anna's surprise. They then station Anna back in her cell so that Elsa can send Ingrid there and Anna can trap her; however, Ingrid is already lying in wait and she seizes the urn so that she may cast the spell of Shattered Sight over Anna, which only allows her to see the absolute worst in her sister. Because of this, she berates Elsa for all she put her through during childhood and ends up throwing her necklace into the fireplace. She then traps her sister in the urn, but Elsa doesn't care, knowing that Ingrid has done something and that these aren't her sister's true feelings. When Elsa is trapped, Anna comes to her senses and tries confronting Ingrid, along with Kristoff, but the Snow Queen simply embraces the fact that everyone thinks she's a monster and freezes them, as well as the entirety of Arendelle. She then proceeds to take Elsa's memories, but Rumplestiltskin, who wants the sorcerer's hat back, steals the urn so that a trade can be made. However, instead of trading, Ingrid follows a prophecy and heads into a land without magic, leaving Anna and everyone else behind; frozen.

Season 4
In her ice lair, somewhere in Storybrooke, the Snow Queen is seen waving her hand over a frozen something, emanating magic and thus causing the ice to neatly schlep off, shrinking into snowflakes with then melt into water, all of which swirls about in the air around her before finding its way elsewhere. As the ice continues to clear, it becomes apparent that she hasn't been thawing a frozen something... but carving a frozen someone. And that someone, false life created by the Snow Queen, opens their brand new eyes with a bright blue flash of light. This is revealed to be a fake Anna, which the Snow Queen uses to lure Elsa into a trap by making her follow her through the woods and up a cliff, through means of an ice staircase, only to return Anna to mere snowflakes and chain Elsa down with shackles of ice. Elsa manages to escape, however, by mastering her fear.

Gallery
Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character.