#fridging

[idkaguyorsomething]

the 1996 doctor who movie contains a perfect textbook example of fridging, wherein an established longtime character is killed off unceremoniously, with very little agency or time spent on their own perspective when they’re literally being killed, usually as a means to provide shock value, raise the stakes, or make the main character feel bad for thirty seconds before moving on

what sets it apart from every other loving wife and children in every superhero backstory ever, though, is that the person they fridged was THEIR OWN MAIN CHARACTER

#you can’t get this shit anywhere else #i love it and i hate it #doctor who #seventh doctor #eighth doctor #doctor who 1996 #fridging #time lords in refrigerators #yeah okay it definitely wasn’t as bad as some other examples #but if you’ve seen that poll i’m running you can tell how it uh. it sure was something.

[waywardtfw]

You know what??? Screw tumblr era fan-fiction. I’m going to start writing fan fiction about the Epic of Gilgamesh. Clearly we need to tackle this issue at the root. Team Gilgamesh/Enkidu for life!!!!!

#bury your gays #enkidu #gilgamesh #enimies to friends to lovers #fridging #destiel #merthur #spirk #clexa #supercorp #heros journey #tropes #fanfiction #stucky #let them be happy

[hollow-keys]

Something that gets me is that Gail Simone's Women in Refrigerators list (which you can read here) is so poorly defined that it includes women who are disabled, have experienced trauma or ar infertile regardless of circumstance. It includes Aurora because she has DID, Starfire because she was raped and enslaved, Oracle for being paralysed (who doesn't even get to be called Oracle, she's called Batgirl I), being infertile gets several characters, including Firestar, on the list, and perhaps funniest, Rogue is there for being, and I quote, "Just plain messed up." Apparently, any of these things happening makes a female character inherently disempowered regardless of circumstance. How progressive.

#fridging #barbara gordon #ableism #cw abuse #dc comics #marvel comics #📨

[mildlycursedhistoricalobject]

God, Amber Volakis had so much potential to be a genuinely challenging, complex character, and they really just…killed her off before we could actually get to know her.

#fridging #for the record this is an amber positive post #amber volakis #she deserved better #wilson’s heart #house md #‘female version of house’ she’s so much more than that noooo #she’s a complex character but the moment you start seeing her depth the writers are like #house and wilson need character development! #rip #i love her :(

[cluelessrebel1988]

I enjoyed a lot of things about the new Flash movie, but I'm not thrilled about the fact that Sasha Calle's Kara Zor-El -- who was not only one of the most interesting characters in the movie but who, imo, had potential to be one of the most interesting characters the DCEU has ever produced -- ended up being fridged to help complete Barry's character arc

#the flash spoilers #the flash 2023 #kara zor el #sasha calle #supergirl #fridging #there was so much potential for her character too #i really didn't love that part

[alpaca-clouds]

Let me talk about Women in Refrigerators

You know what? This is a thing that is kinda annoying me in the Castlevania fandom. How everyone is screaming about Women in Refrigerators, while folks so clearly do not understand what the trope actually is about and why it is a bad trope.

Like, there is not a single death of a named woman in Castlevania, that not at least someone has called "fridged". Alright, maybe Drolta. But other than that... yeah, folks definitely have called Lenore and Carmilla fridged. And... No, people, you misunderstand the trope.

The name of the trope was coined based on Green Lantern vol. 3 #54 (from the 90s), in which Green Lantern finds his death girlfriend stuffed in a refrigerator - mostly for shock value in the reader. Mind you, this was the 90s, when superhero comics were really, really edgy and stuff. And in fact the kind of story happened a lot of times during this time. Female characters being killed, raped and tortured for pure shock value, with the story not featuring any idea of what this did to the female character, but rather focusing on what this does to the male characters. (And mind you: Yes, a woman can be considered fridged and still survive the ordeal. A lot of folks do consider Barbara in The Killing Joke fridged as well.)

So, what does "Fridging" in terms of the trope mean? Basically it means that a female character suffers a horrible fate just so that another (most probably male) character can be motivated to do something and react to this thing happening, setting in motion a character arc for the surviving character - or even setting into motion the plot.

In many examples it should also be noticed that at times the female characters mostly just exist to meet their horrible end. Supernatural as a show is really bad in this regard. Like, within the first episode of the show THREE FUCKING WOMEN get fridged, just so that the brothers can travel together and start the plot.

So, let's move back to Castlevania.

Lisa is fridged. There is no way around it. Yes, it does not feel like it, because they still managed to make her a character of sorts, but yeah, she definitely is fridged. She dies a horrible death and that death is what motivates the plot, as well as what motivates both Alucard and Dracula. That is very classical fridging no way around it.

Carmilla and Lenore, though? Yeah, they are not fridged. They are characters who just die. Their death is not used to motivate another character. Their death is also not random, like most fridging deaths. Especially Carmilla is basically asking for her death, of course. She is a villain and gets the same death as all other villains. And while it is a bit different with Lenore, she definitely is not fridged either, giving that she literally dies in the last episode with no plot or development happening because of her death.

In Nocturne it gets a bit more complicated. Is Julia fridged? In a way, I would argue, she is, mostly on the value that she exists as a character to die and for her death to be the basis for Richter's character arc, giving him the trauma he needs to overcome.

Esther meanwhile does not feel fridged to me. Because Annette's trauma is not deeply linked to her death, rather than the entire slavery experience in general.

Tera? Well, for Tera it is too early to tell. I still assume that her change into a vampire is going to be used to have the characters realize, that vampires are not inherently evil, and to give us a view into what vampire society looks like. At least that is what I assume.

By the way: The fridging of female characters is my big issue with the PS2 Castlevania games. Like, in Lament of Innocence both Sara and Elisabetha are getting fridged to motivate Leon and Mathias. And the same is true for Rosalie in Curse of Darkness, who as a character only exists to motivate Hector. I mean, she is so replacable as a character, that Hector fucking replaces her by the end of the game.

#castlevania #castlevania netflix #castlevania nocturne #refrigerated women #women in refrigerators #fridging #feminism #women in media #julia belmont #castlevania lisa #castlevania tera

[shyjusticewarrior]

Jason Todd wasn't fridged because male characters can't be fridged. It's very important to me that y'all know that. Especially since DITF does have actual fridging.

#dc #dc comics #comics #comic books #ditft #death in the family #media commentary #media analysis #fandom critical #batfans #jason todd #red hood #robin jason todd #kid jason todd #bruce wayne #batman #batman comics #tropes #social commentary #fridging #shelia haywood #jim starlin #batman characters #jason peter todd #comic analysis #batfamily #batfam #batkids

[evilwickedme]

It's very frustrating to talk about fridging bc the original point of it was like a very specific criticism of how minorities are treated in comic books in particular and it's now been universalized so much people think it means "killing a woman off because she's a woman" or "killing any character to motivate another character" (the definition according to tvtropes fyi, kill it with fire kill kill kill kill). Fridging isn't bad because you're killing a character as motivation, and it's not bad because you're killing a minority off, it's bad because it's a pattern of behavior from an industry overrun by white men writing and drawing and editing those stories. You're allowed to kill a woman off if it suits your story, but the issue was that women are constantly getting hurt or depowered or raped or killed off to motivate other, non-coincidentally male characters.

The problem that stood behind the original women in refrigerators website was that the narrative that the comic book industry at large was telling was that the purpose of female characters was to get hurt in order to motivate some other guy. Kyle Rayner's girlfriend gets stuffed in a fridge, we're not sad because her life got taken from her too soon, we're sad because Kyle Rayner just lost his girlfriend. Gwen Stacy gets killed by the Green Goblin, we're not sad because she didn't get to live a full happy life, we're sad because she didn't get to live a full happy life with Peter Parker. That is not to say that the story doesn't still get told. Peter going after the Green Goblin is horrific and terrible and amazing and leads to some great plot and character development. But the choice was not to hurt Peter himself, not even to threaten his loved ones but not actually harm them, the choice - CHOICE! - the writers in the comic book industry consistently made was to hurt a character who was already part of a marginalized group, and to do that for the benefit of a (presumably) white male cishet able bodied main character's narrative.

I speak mostly in past tense because once fridging took hold in the collective popular consciousness it didn't disappear completely, but it did fall out of favor in being used so blatantly. It became isolated cases rather than the main feature of one of the best selling batman books of all time. Characters get killed off occasionally, and those characters are even sometimes members of minority groups, and biases still inform those writing choices, but I'm struggling to remember reading a comic in the last couple of years that specifically fulfills the criteria for fridging.

Anyway if you're reading this in context, you know that at the end of this month (may 2023) Marvel is planning to celebrate the most famous fridging of all time by absolutely not learning their lesson and fridging another character. They're being lazy about it, too - they've decided to do it to Kamala Khan in Peter Parker's book, two characters that mean close to nothing to each other, and being extra awful by making it a Pakistani Muslim woman being killed off during AAPI month, and so far the information we have doesn't even involve Kamala's own friends and family and superhero team mourning her at all. It's supposed to motivate Peter, because it's part of his book, and it's also supposed to parallel Gwen Stacy, and they chose to do... This. Kamala is a wildly popular and beloved character who deserves better, and frankly Peter deserves better too. If you're going to fridge, at least do it well.

But I'm also already seeing white men, who supposedly agree with me and think this is bad, saying, well it's for MCU synergy, not "because she's a female" or "because she's not a white character" (direct quotes don't @ me). And firstly, ok, way to assume the rest of us didn't also catch up to the obvious conclusion that marvel comics is doing MCU synergy, AGAIN. The thing is that those aren't separate concepts at all? Or well, they are, but they don't negate each other. They're trying to do MCU synergy and make Kamala into a mutant, but they could've done that a million other ways, just as cheap and not as offensive - a simple retcon would've sufficed, they just did that a few years ago with Franklin Richards.

They chose to do it by killing her off, and they chose to kill her off in somebody else's book to motivate him rather than tell a story about her, and they chose to do it while celebrating Gwen's fridging for some fucking reason. This is context that, when removed from the situation, makes the whole thing meaningless. And you can say a lot about Gail Simone, but that she didn't have a Goddamn point is not one of them.

#how do I even tag this #fridging #women in refrigerators #kamala khan #ms marvel #spiderman #peter parker #gwen stacy #comics #marvel comics #marvel #sexism #racism #gail speaks

[boyfridged]

when it comes to fridging, what is uniquely horrid is not only that on the meta-level the aim is to expand a narrative of another character; it’s also that for that to happen, in-universe, the grief ought to be even more objectifying than it is naturally. it becomes, in a sense, voyeuristic. inappropriate. the image of the dead character is, by necessity, distorted and flattened down. even in real life, studies of bereavement hallucinations show that the dead come to either guide the mourners to peace or taunt them with guilt. in text their voice is that of fears and hopes of others too, but notably, never with a further reflection on their desires that could be at least an afterthought for grievers in real life. and that’s also why the resurrection stories have so much (psychological horror) potential when it comes to these characters – because they come back to the reality in which their pain no longer belongs to themselves, where the trauma of their death has been exploited and their identity contorted. they’re confronted with an idea of themselves that is either demonised or idealised; a saint and a martyr, and find that there’s little space left for their authentic selves. or perhaps, alternatively, they morph into that faux form, and it becomes questionable if they are still the same person they used to be. the problem of post-mortem survival of identity already poses a challenge because of the nature of crossing the line between the spheres of the dead and the living; but what about the dialogical nature of forming an identity? cemeteries belong to the living; they decide which picture will be engraved into the tombstone. and it might be, that even with no corpse underneath, the image will preserve and haunt even the revenants themselves.

#an (old) old draft from my old blog. #i think it sums up everything i ever said ab it quite nicely #the dead girl complex #<3 #jay.zip #jason todd #jay.txt #phantom pains #fridging #fridges?? #or was it my tag on the main... #wait #cemeteries are for the living #?? #i have to check it #core texts

[besttropeveershowdown]

The Worst Trope Ever Showdown: Round 1, Side B

Fridging

Killing off a character specifically to hurt another (usually killing a female character to hurt a male character)

Propaganda:

No one has ever been fridged respectfully or with agency. It’s all about who is hurt by their death. They become a prop.

Robs characters of agency

Because it’s overused especially for women

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2D1GHHMb9g

Sexist as fuck!

kill or torture female characters to develop male characters, WORST!!!

a character (usually a woman and/or person of color) is killed off purely for another character's Development - turning the killed character into less than a person

When a character (usually female) is only killed to motivate another character (usually male) it makes that character lack agency or a deep personality. It contrubutes to a bigger idea that men are more important than women and its often violent.

Parental Incest

Parents have sex with their kids.

Propaganda:

🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

#the worst trope ever showdown #wtes polls #anti tropeaganda #fridging #parental incest #tw incest #tw misogyny #tw death

[formerheroeswhoquittoolate]

why I'm unhappy with secret invasion: an accidental essay that turned out WAY more aggressive than I wanted it to (sorry about that)

I'm furious about how Secret Invasion is going. It feels like Marvel just went ahead with a Samuel L. Jackson vanity project, but and it's barely interesting and it's fucking with canon characterization. And it's fucking Secret Invasion! This could be meaningful! But instead it feels like it's trying to redo what TFATWS already did and did better. We already HAD a show about a global terrorist movement and the evils of white privilege, and it was actually really good, so what is this show supposed to be again? Oh. I see. It's different because Nick Fury is in it. Gotcha.

Oh, and [spoilers for ep 1 and 2]

They killed Maria Hill in the first episode. Not only did they kill her (which is bad enough from this studio, considering they've also killed Gamora, Natasha, and Wanda), but they fridged her. And not even kind-of-fridged, like with the aforementioned characters, where the death was required and mostly reasonable by in-universe circumstances, even if it was an easy out. No. Maria was literally, actually, to-the-letter fridged. They even confirm that in the dialogue of the second episode. Fury actually says that Gravik killed her to hurt him. She didn't have to die -- hell, if she wasn't going to be relevant to the rest of the show, she didn't even need to be in it in the first place! (More on that in a minute.)

And the thing is. The thing is. I would be so much happier with the show if the roles were reversed. Canon Fury is all "I still believe in heroes! There's good in people! Befriend the aliens!" He's a badass spymaster, yeah, sure, but he's also pretty optimistic about people. And then there's Maria Hill.

[Image description: Maria Hill, saying "Best advice you'll ever get from me, a dedicated law enforcement officer, to you, an amateur looking to go pro: 'Assume everyone is a broken, nightmare, garbage person and then be pleasantly surprised if it ends up not the case.' It'll save you a lifetime of disappointments."] [Image credits: Bendis and Pichelli's Spider-Man #12 (2017)]

That seems to have carried over into the MCU fairly well. And to see her? Struggling to fulfill Fury's goal after his death, operating without her mentor for the first time, trying to figure out how to reconcile his faith in the Skrulls with her natural instinct that everyone is lying all the time? To see her actually doing the work, speaking to the security committee and telling them to piss off, because Fury was in Moscow to do a hero's work and he died a hero, no further questions? To see her, the character who has long been reduced to the sidekick of male characters with a much shorter stint in Marvel's canon, fully come into her own as the protagonist of this series? It would have been perfect. We could have actually gotten a show full of espionage and intrigue instead of a hamfisted... racism metaphor? I'm not even sure at this point. This could have actually been something besides a Samuel L. Jackson vanity project. I know I said that already, but I am going to say it again. This show is here so Jackson can look cool and badass and also be a funny old man. And I wouldn't care if they weren't reducing every other meaningful character in the series to a Skrull, a corpse, or a realpolitik adversary. Like, fuck this false advertising. Maria Hill, Everett Ross, and Rhodey were all in the trailer like they were going to be relevant. As if this was going to be an interesting web of an ensemble cast. Instead, it's the Nick Fury show with a few redeeming scenes from the terrifyingly cheery British spymaster lady.

It's almost like Marvel knew no one would want to watch the show if they just straight-up said it was going to be all Nick Fury. And I haven't even started on the bullshit that was the train conversation (a whole monologue about sitting in the colored section on trains and then straight-up telling Talos there's not enough room for his people on the train? Was I the only one thrown off by that?) or the dialogue between him and Rhodey in the bar ("even when I'm out, I'm in.") or the Skrull wife reveal (which felt like it wanted to be some big important twist but it also had exactly zero setup) or... whatever is happening with Talos and Gaea. The next episode comes out in two days, and I'm still crossing my fingers that a miracle of plot will happen and it will get better. But it's going to take a miracle.

#marvel #mcu #secret invasion #nick fury #maria hill #skrulls #marvel cinematic universe #talos #everett ross #james rhodes #comics #fridging #rant post #except I have evidence #so it's really more of an essay

[skittlebits]

I cannot believe Marvel once again advanced the Man’s plot by killing off a Lead Female. This is what, the THIRD TIME now?

#fridging #mcu #secret invasion spoilers #secret invasion #maria hill #maria hill deserved better #she was so underutilized

[yikessintheyard]

they better uno reverse and bring back Maria Hill cause WOW what a disservice if after 11 freakin years they kill her off in THE 1ST EPISODE after promoting her as a protagonist for the show!?!?!

the MCU really just hates women, huh?

#say sike right now #secret invasion #maria hill #colbie smulders #mcu #marvel disney plus #disney plus #SHIELD #agent hill #nick fury #skrulls #fridging #secret invasion spoilers

[racefortheironthrone]

Do you think the term 'fridging' has become overused, and if Brienne does sacrifice herself for Jaime, would that not count?

I think that one of the useful things about the term fridging is that the website "Women in Refrigerators" is still up so we can know exactly what Gail Simone wrote when she coined the term back in the 90s. To quote her:

"Hi. This is a list I made when it occurred to me that it's not that healthy to be a female character in comics. I'm curious to find out if this list seems somewhat disproportionate, and if so, what it means, really. These are superheroines who have been either depowered, raped, or cut up and stuck in the refrigerator. I know I missed a bunch. Some have been revived, even improved -- although the question remains as to why they were thrown in the wood chipper in the first place. I know I missed a bunch -- I just don't know my comics deaths the way I should. I'm not editorializing -- I'm just curious to find out what you guys think it means, if anything. The preceding letter was written and sent by me when I realized one day that most of my favorite female comics characters had met untimely and often icky ends. The history of the idea and this site are listed here, and the responses from various comics professionals are listed here. An important point: This isn't about assessing blame about an individual story or the treatment of an individual character and it's certainly not about personal attacks on the creators who kindly shared their thoughts on this phenomenon. It's about the trend, its meaning and relevance, if any. Plus, it's just fun to talk about refrigerators with dead people in them. I don't know why.

In Simone's original meaning, "fridging" specifically applied to superhero comics, it involved a spectrum of violence from depowering to sexual assault to physical assault to mutiliation to murder, and it was disproportionately gendered. Notably, the qualification that "fridging" is done in order to motivate the (disproportionately male) protagonist rather than as part of a heroic character arc for the woman being fridged, came around a little later, mostly from those creators who were responding to Simone's initial provocation. However, you can see that this particular qualification was an idea floating in the aether at the time Simone was writing her first foray.

Do I think the term has become overused? It's certainly spread to more genres outside of superheroes, but I don't think that's an over-extension, since we're usually talking about the same phenomenon happening in "heroic" subgenres of fantasy, sci-fi, romance, etc.

Does this apply to Brienne sacrificing herself to save Jaime?

No.

Brienne's self-sacrifice is the logical and emotional climax of her own character arc, one rooted in chivalric romance in which Brienne seeks to play the role of the tragic knight. She is introduced as an existential true knight, someone who finds life in Westerosi society a constant trial and humiliation but who longs to escape into a world of song and story through glorious deeds:

"Because it will not last," Catelyn answered, sadly. "Because they are the knights of summer, and winter is coming." "Lady Catelyn, you are wrong." Brienne regarded her with eyes as blue as her armor. "Winter will never come for the likes of us. Should we die in battle, they will surely sing of us, and it's always summer in the songs. In the songs all knights are gallant, all maids are beautiful, and the sun is always shining."

As in real-world chivalric romance, the structures of Westerosi chivalric romance are built around tragedy: the Dragonknight doesn't get to settle down with Naerys, but gives up his life to save King Aegon IV, and it's the doomed chaste romannce and the stubborn attachment to duty that makes it all so damn chivalrous.

Thus, from Brienne's introduction to now, we see Brienne looking for someone worthy to sacrifice her life to save:

she starts with Renly, except that she can't save him from the magic (although that does mean that she doesn't learn how unworthy he was) and becomes blamed for his death instead.

then she shifts to Catelyn, except that she can't save her because Catelyn sends her away so she's not there during the Red Wedding.

Jaime and Brienne's ASOS trek across the Riverlands, from the revelations of his backstory to him jumping into the bear pit to his quest-giving at the end, is entirely about setting him up as the third of three lord/lady-coded characters that Brienne could sacrifice herself for. And lo and behold, we have a situation where Jaime and Brienne are about to come face-to-face with Lady Stoneheart, a scenario we've already seen be grounded in questions of sacrifice and honor.

So unless GRRM somehow fucks up and makes the conclusion of Brienne's arc more about Jaime than Brienne, it's not a case of fridging.

#comics #comics meta #gail simone #women in refrigerators #fridging #asoiaf meta

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

tang shen (and karai) getting shafted

“The Woman Dies,” Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton / TMNT Mirage “The Turtles’ Origin Is Told” / TMNT 2003 “Tang Shen” / TMNT 2012 “Tale of the Yokai” / ROTTMNT “Shreddy or Not”

Inspired by this by @maliagf​

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tang shen #karai #oroku karai #hamato karai #tmnt 2k18 #tmnt 2012 #fridging #character death #violence against women #spinning wheels #web weaving #tmnt tang shen #tmnt screenshots #tmnt mirage #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt 2003 #tmnt idw #tmnt comics #idw comics #misogyny #female characters #japanese characters #chinese characters #asian characters #dead characters

[thegunslingerfollowed]

Fixing Sky's plotpoint

Earlier I was thinking about Sky and how I thought it was a lazy writing choice to essentially fridge her(Fridge as in: having her death be entirely in service of another character's development with little to no effect on the rest of the plot. This is generally considered to be negative thing). This isn't particularly fleshed out, but I think they could have done this better by:

Establish Sky as someone who Viktor actually values the opinion of and cares about. In the show, we only really see Sky showing affection to him and being shut down(that scene where she asks if he wants to do something with her after working in the lab and is rejected). This could be done pretty easily and not take up much more screen time than it currently does.

Have the hextech injure but not kill her due to Viktor's negligence and have her lose some sort of trust in him. I think this would be better than killing her because it doesn't fridge her and allows her agency in the plot through her reactions to this situation. I think she stills needs to be hurt somewhat seriously(maybe losing a limb in a similar way to her death in canon?) because I don't think Viktor would give up hextech just because of social rejection. But I think a combination of the loss of respect of someone he cares about and the fact that the hextech has the power to injure extremely seriously could have a similar effect to her death in the story without all the fridging. Having someone she looks up to end up injuring her could also add depth to Sky's emotions and character.

I'm sure there's more ways than this you could write this to not fridge Sky(including ways in which she stills dies but is developed enough that its effect is not just to motivate Viktor) as well as not take up much more screen time(we have more important plotpoints happening at the same time). This also isn't a very fleshed out idea it was just a shower thought of mine.

#d originals #arcane #sky arcane #sky #viktor #arcane viktor #arcane sky #arcane netflix #viktor arcane #fridging