Well, that's hard. I guess both, I can't choose now.

I just Frozen again today after I dropped by the store to buy it and I thought a bit about Elsa's situation. She basically had to get used to shutting herself out away from everyone and running away from her problems because of her parents that couldn't think of any better way for her to learn to control it. And since she was at such a young age when she found out she basically freaked out and was traumatized for the rest of her life, their was no way she could have kept calm in a situation like that. Since she was a little kid, I think Elsa definitely has tried controlling her powers before. It probably didn't go so well but I feel like she didn't just run away from her powers. I feel like she did tried controlling it and in the end she needed to be alone and free. Her whole life she had to shut herself away from the world, making herself her own worst enemy. Think about that. She never felt like she could relax without thinking something might go wrong thanks to her. She had absolutely no friends and no interaction with the outide world, that just sucks. I mean imagine that, that's just torture. Her parents who were the only people who she felt could really understand her died, she was all alone. And everybody figures out her big secret on one of the most important days of her life, that just sucks! I think I would have went totally insane and wouldn't have survived being a queen like that.

That would be impossible going through everyday as a queen, where at this point you have to have interaction with the outside world but still moving on with her battle about this big secret that she has to keep bottled up inside. That would not have worked out at all, for the sake of her sanity, she needed to run away and finally be free. When you have a high anxiety like that, is running away for a bit to relax and finally calm down running from your powers? No, it's rather trying to take things step by step imo.

Aliyah convinced me :)

...Both. Elsa WAS running away from her problems, but she also needed that. She needed to let her hair down and get out of the chains that she'd been in her entire life and at long last be free. Although she doesn't end up being free, it's still an experience that I believe needed to happen.

If being alone and free was the solution, her new-found inner peace and confidence wouldn't have crumbled like a house of cards the second she heard something went wrong.

Elsa: "I'm alone, but I'm alone and free! Just stay away and you'll be safe from me."
Anna:"Actually we're not... You kind of set off an eternal winter everywhere."
Elsa: "EVERYWHERE?! Oh, I'm such a FOOL! I can't be free!" *immediately goes back to panicking and overreacting the way she did before she ran away*

She needed to learn to control her powers, not try to avoid learning control by going to a place she thought they couldn't affect people. Because, as she learns, what happens if her powers still affect people? She still doesn't know how to control them, and she still hasn't learned any basic problem-solving.

Both

But I do not think less of her because of it. Her powers were truly dangerous and she tought people tought she was a monster. So she did not leave on a whim, she had real problems. She had tries to control her powers all her life and failed, she did not see any other choice for herself.

She just wanted to be finally free, but by doing that she was also running away from her problems.

She was taught to not learn from her powers. It was her instinct to run

Running ain't freedom. Elsa should have known that. And as the matter of fact, her runaway was pointless. She didn't learn anything new. Only she could see and use her power more than she ever did. But she didn't truly learn to control it.

Kind of both, ahh, the arguments on both sides are pretty convincing.

I agree with Tygers_Eye. :D

Both