Defrosting Ice Queen examples in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- A Loud Among Demons: Loona basically defines this trope. She's still partial that rough and foul-mouthed hellhound like in canon, but thanks to Lincoln, she's becoming a nicer person, less prone to be an asshole to Moxxie or Millie, learning to be kinder to Blitz, and becomes a big sister-like figure to Lincoln.
- Children of an Elder God:
- Shinji turns Rei — a cold, emotionless Humanoid Abomination — and Asuka — a temperamental tsundere with no social skills — into this through working together closely, fighting together and — in the case of Asuka — living together. Both girls develop feelings towards him and are often jealous of each other.
- In chapter 4, after hearing false rumours about Shinji and Rei dating, Touji asks his friend how much he did melt the "ice queen"."So tell me, buddy," asked Touji. "Exactly how far didja... y'know... melt the ice queen, if ya know what I mean?"
- Last Child of Krypton: Since she was four Asuka tried being self-reliant and pushing everybody away so that nobody hurt her or left again. Then she met Shinji Ikari, and he was the one of the kindest, most caring and most honest persons she had ever met... and Superman, too. He was always so attentive, so caring, so sad when she got hurt, so determined to cheer her up when she was depressed, and so insistent on she being better than she thought she was she could not help to fall in love with him.
- While Leviathan in Manehattan's Lone Guardian doesn't mind being on good terms with the locals, she at first refuses to attach herself to any of them: her strongest desire is to return to Neo Arcadia, and from her perspective having friends in Manehattan would hinder that. However she eventually realizes that she cares more about those she meets than she realizes, helping her solidify her decision to defend the city when trouble arises. After the battle against Illudere, her love for her friends and the city is fully manifested.
- The Many Dates of Danny Fenton:
- Gwen of Total Drama Island. She starts off uninterested in being on a blind date, but Danny telling her off is what causes her to snap out of it.
- Debbie Thornberry was exasperated about being forced onto a blind date by her parents, but loosens up a bit after being charmed by Danny.
- Downplayed with Daria. Once she realizes how off-putting she is being, she unbends a bit, at least enough to find a rapport with Danny.
- The Night Unfurls has two not-so-textbook examples.
- The Dark Elf Queen, Olga, starts off as a haughty and proud Aloof Dark-Haired Girl who wants vengeance on the human race for their Fantastic Racism against her kind, the dark elves. After a Break the Haughty sequence that involves her being ousted from power, being imprisoned, and being free from prison with Kyril's help, she begins to warm up to her rescuer and reconciles with her old friend Celestine, whom she ultimately cares about despite warring with her for centuries, leading to her Heel–Face Turn. As the story progresses, the defrosting process becomes more prominent than ever when Olga develops feelings towards Kyril, even though he didn't mean to defrost her in the first place.
- Kyril is a stoic, brusque, and jaded Consummate Professional who is traumatised from his Dark and Troubled Past in Yharnam. The people that are in love with him certainly want this trope to occur, the ideal scenarios being him returning their affections and/or him genuinely smiling. The outcome is more nuanced than expected — he later shares a tender moment or two with each of his main suitors, yet he neither becomes more friendly nor makes an effort to get closer to them, remaining a stoic, brusque, and jaded person throughout the story. It has never been a case where the Ice King turns into a Nice Guy or falls in love when some random Love Interests appear, but rather a case where the Ice King recognises his colleagues as decent, trustworthy people as he works with them for the war effort, and he will console them when they are in need of it. There's also how the people who seek to defrost Kyril never know the full extent of his Dark and Troubled Past, because said past involves Things Man Was Not Meant to Know and he wants to preserve their sanity.
- The title character from Rorschach In Equestria undergoes this due to his unexpected appearance in a Sugar Bowl.
- Shinji and Warhammer40k: Thanks to his "I do not want anybody to get hurt" policy Shinji did it to both Rei and Asuka (the former being cold and the latter being aggressive). The result was they became more badass and him getting stuck into a real complicated love triangle.
- Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Shinji gradually defrosted aggressive, unsociable Asuka by being nice, being there for her and proving he was dependable, honest, and he could see her on her worst without looking away.
- Thousand Shinji: Shinji defrosted unemotional, cold, passive Rei and set to defrost angry, arrogant, hostile, hurt Asuka because he was immensely drawn to her and he knew she would collapse unless he did something because she was more fragile than she looked. So that he tricked Asuka into telling him about her past, bonded with her, confessed his feelings in an honest way and he won her over. However Rei had also fallen in love with him, and all of a sudden, Shinji was stuck in a love triangle between a berserker tsundere and homicidal yandere. Chaos ensued.
- To the New World has two male examples.
- Morgott was none too pleased with Eira for burning the Erdtree and shaking the foundations of what he’d been raised to believe. He eventually came to care for her, even if he’d rather die than admit it.
- Miquella was understandably pretty miffed about having to marry Eira moments after she destroyed his plans and killed his brother. As such, he didn’t trust her and avoided conversation if he could help it. Over time, he realized she was genuinely a kind person, began turning to her for comfort, and eventually fell in love.
- In The Turn (Animorphs / Mighty Ducks), Marco’s dynamic with Tanya is essentially a lighter version of this with Marco as the male equivalent, as he starts out somewhat cautious around Tanya as a new member of the Animorphs but warms up to her after Tanya saves his mother from Visser One.
- A male example in Three Strikes, Count doesn’t really get along with Trigger when she first arrives, and their relationship keeps going up and down during their time with the Spares. It's only once they join the LRSSG do they begin warming to each other.
- To Hell and Back (Arrowverse): Iris West became an Ice Queen after the "death" of her best friend Barry Allen, even earning a nickname in high school: "Ice Bitch". She's considerably warmer to those she's close to, particularly boyfriend Eddie Thawne, and her mother and brother, but it isn't until Barry returns from his disappearance/supposed death that she really begins to thaw back to her original personality.
- Heirverse: Aizen plays with this to hell and back. Played Straight in Game. Justified in Lie as he explains why he did what he did to Gin. Double Subverted in cwst he is a complete Jerkass but for somewhat understandable reasons. Played Straight again in CF, Sanctuary and Flowering Dogwood then Deconstructed in Heir as his desire to make it up to Gin causes all their problems, and finally Reconstruction he's happier being with Gin despite all the shit they go through.
- Vow of the King: Nemu, by virtue of spending time with Ichigo and his family. At the start of the story, she tries to kidnap Ichigo to be one of Mayuri's specimens. By the end of the first arc, she goes on a date with Ichigo.
- In Slice of Souls!, Lady Maria warms up to the rest of the gang over the course of the story, thanks to Solaire.
- In the Superman story Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation, Lorile belongs to an urban tribe whose philosophy comes down to "As long as no one gets hurt, I don't give a damn". So Fin-El romances her by pretending to not care either.
- This is the main point of Hope for the Heartless: Avalina gets over time under the Horned King's scary and cold shell.
- Angela Castle in Children of the Sanctum is a platonic example, over the course of the story turning from an aloof Agent Scully who tries her best to treat the Doctor with maximum contempt - into an enthusiastic companion.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi
- In The Beast of Gusu, Lan Wangji is initially distant and cold towards Wei Wuxian, as he is with most people. He warms up to Wei Wuxian after spending time together in the library and during the lectures.
- Male examples in Gankona, Unnachgiebig, UnitĂ
: Both Germany and Japan are this. Germany used to be distrusting of others while Japan was cold to just about everyone. Until they met Italy. - Matthew in Part Right, Half Wrong, a Third Crazy, from a depressed sarcastic asshole to a Troubled, but Cute Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- A non-romantic example appears in Some Semblance of Meaning with Fen. At first, she is cold and distrustful toward Vale, but she warms up to her after she sees how much Vale cares about her district partner Kit, and later, how Vale tries to protect Fen's brother.
- In many fanfics where Kim and Ron didn't meet in Pre-K and grew up separately, Kim is portrayed as an Alpha Bitch until she meets Ron who manages to defrost her.
- In the sixth chapter of The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy, Vincenzo becomes kinder and more considerate towards Luca after realizing his budding romantic feelings for him.
- In A Little Red and Blue, Sharon is inadvertently sent to the year 1944 by Wanda and is later found by the past Steve and Bucky, introducing herself to them as "Kate". She is initially rather hostile to the past Steve because of the fact that in her time, he abandoned her after she had stolen his shield for him to stay in the past with her aunt Peggy. She eventually warms up to him, even giving him some advice on how to better help the common people, and the past Steve develops feelings for her, even trying to convince her to join him as part of the Howling Commandos. When Sharon is sent back to the present, she comes across the present Steve who explains that he didn't actually stay in the past and that part of what inspired Peggy, particularly founding S.H.I.E.L.D., was Steve telling her Sharon's advice to her.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In The Flash Sentry Chronicles: Both Iron Core and Lightning Blitz started off as jerks who belittled Flash and his friends, but overtime came become a lot nicer and open.
- Iron Core starts as an apprentice knight just like Flash, but is rude to him and his friends for seeing them as small and weak. Although willing to risk his life for any of them he only sees it as part of the job and is not interested in making friends with anyone. Once he is sent to live in Ponyville though, Fluttershy slowly starts to get through to him and have him open up about himself. He starts to be more respectful to others around him and sees there are more ways to be strong than just physical strength, something he recognizes Fluttershy has.
- Lightning Blitz had been a bully towards Flash for most of his life, jealous that no one like him was chosen as an apprentice over him. After Lightning is beaten by Flash in Canterlot and is punished for his crimes he resolves to be a better pony and become what his grandfather Grand Hoof believed he could. After making his return he joins Flash and Iron as a local defender to make up for his past. He also begins to bond with Rarity, who had previously rejected his advancements towards her.
- Fleur De Lis at the start of Of Lilies and Chestnuts. She shows nothing but apprehension towards potentially adopting Chestnut, a teenage bat pony. Once the bitterness from being infertile wears off, Chestnut starts to win Fleur over with her cheeriness and willingness to learn the high-class life.
- The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: Not so much as icy as stoic, Captain General Gentle Step starts to show a lot more emotion in the sequel Picking Up the Pieces when she's around Memorizing Gaze.
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: (Possibly) Subverted in Nightmares Yet to Come. A flashback to four years prior shows Midnight evidently defrosting just slightly after a few months around Falling Star, in that her Spock Speak relaxes slightly, and her sort-of friend Fleur De Lis notes there's something different about her... only to lure Falling into a trap and try to do something unpleasant to her... only for Midnight to suddenly break free of whatever's got a hold on her and get Falling to safety.
- Tangled Up In Blues has the romantic example with Taffy, who has had a bad experience with her previous love interest and Blues needs time and effort to make enough "cracks in her wall". Subverted with Cherry, whom Blues tries to invoke this trope but fails, much to his anguish.
- Hiashi Hyuga in A Growing Affection goes from being distant and imperious in general, to being warm and supportive.
- Advice and Trust: All Shinji's female classmates are convinced that he has "tamed" the "Red Demon" (hot-blooded, fiery redhead Asuka) and the "Ice Queen" (collected, emotionless Rei) and they are sharing him because one single woman can not handle him. Ironically they are not so far from the truth. Shinji has "defrosted" Asuka and both have "defrosted" Rei (although nobody is having a threesome... sorry, "Israfel Special"). After kissing—and Shinji realizing Asuka had been dropping hints at him constantly—they got together and Asuka started being warmer, kinder, and more affectionate to him. Then they started to spend more time with Rei, and the three of them bonded.
- The story starts out when Misato takes Shinji aside to give him tips to "defrosting" Asuka... not knowing he already managed that.
- The Child of Love: At the beginning of the story Asuka is very distraught about being pregnant and not ready to acknowledge her feelings so she tries to push Shinji away very hard and very angrily. Later she calms down gradually, and Shinji tries real hard to reach her out and show he cares for her. Eventually Asuka accepts she is in love with him and opens up.
- A Crown of Stars: At the start of the story, Asuka is so embittered, traumatized, burnt-out, and soul-weary that Shinji has despaired of both having a romantic relationship. However they got help and psychological counseling they needed, and Shinji dared to reach out to her. Asuka gradually and steadily opened up to him, tried to get over her traumas, doubts, fears, and resentment, and finally fell in love with him.
- Doing It Right This Time: Shinji partially "defrosted" Asuka and Rei in the original timeline, but it did not work very well because he was oblivious to the fact that both girls had fallen for him. After travelling back in time, they want to turn over a new leaf; so that Rei is learning to identify and express her emotions and Asuka is trying not to hide her feelings and be less angry. And Shinji is still trying to figure out how he feels about it.
- Evangelion 303:
- When Shinji met Asuka she was a sullen, dour person who was not good with people, had few friends, and had never got a boyfriend. Shinji beat her in a duel she got interested in -or obsessed with- him. They started spending more time together and bonding. She realized Shinji could see her real confusion and insecurity through her bad moods and anger, and they were not so different at all. After a short while she got fed up with holding back her growing attraction and seduced him.
- Rei had been rendered emotionless after a plane crash. Kaworu stuck by her side trying to help her to recover. In the process, Rei fell in love with him and started acting somewhat warmer.
- HERZ:
- Asuka warmed up to Shinji gradually throughout the Angel War, but his actions during the latter part of the conflict combined with her new, deep psychological and emotional scars destroyed her growth and turned her into an angrier, more asocial person than she was before. Shinji spent several years trying to reach her out until she finally opened up to him.
- Rei was a cold, unemotional person until she met Shinji, and she started changing. In fact Third Impact was averted in 2015 because Shinji defrosted her.
- Higher Learning: Shinji liked Asuka but she was fiery, rude, and unapproachable due to her past traumas. With a good amount of advice and a bottle of sake, Shinji manages to connect with her and starts to defrost her, although she apologises for not being able to open up to him yet.
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, an anguished Shinji confesses to Asuka that he truly cares about her. She starts to gradually open up to him afterwards, eventually culminating in a Relationship Upgrade between them.
- Nobody Dies: When Shinji met Asuka she was very sheltered, insecure, and shy due to her abusive parents. Slowly she warmed up to him, they fell in love and she became more strong-willed and more self-reliant.
- Once More with Feeling: A very important piece of the "saving the world and those I care for" Shinji's scheme after returning to the past involves getting closer to Asuka and seducing her. It is progressing nicely so far, and Asuka feels more and more drawn to him.
- The One I Love Is...: Shinji had defrosted both Asuka and Rei... and he had no idea that he had done so until both got jealous and started fighting over him.
- Redemption Song: After the Third Impact, Asuka had become a perpetually grumpy, moody and depressed loner who usually avoided any kind of companionship. After becoming Shinji's guardian, though, the boy's attempts to improve her life conditions and mood slowly get Asuka drop her hostility and open up to him until Asuka is openly showing affection towards Shinji.
- Scar Tissue: Asuka's temper had gotten worse after Third Impact and she became more unstable and suffering from uncontrollable bursts of violence. Shinji endured it because he felt guilty. One day she went too far, got horrified at what she had done to him, and resolved to learn to control her temper and earn Sinji's forgiveness. From that point onward she became slowly warmer to him and their relationship improved.
- The Second Try:
- Shinji to Asuka. After the Angel War and Third Impact Asuka was angry, bitter, and not in the mood to grant second chances due to Shinji failing her over and again during the conflict. Still, they were living alone in a post-apocalyptic world so they had to work together closely since they could only depend on each other. Shinji learnt to reach her and she opened up to him eventually, admitting her own part in the mess that was her pre-Impact relationship, and falling in love with Shinji.
- Aki to Rei. Shinji and Asuka had been trying defrosting Rei for months, but Aki involuntarily managed to coax Rei to display her feelings in a very short while.
- Walking in the Shadow of Dreams: After Third Impact, Asuka was a mess. After a while, she freaked out and left. After meeting her again, she and Shinji got closer and he managed to go past her barriers to keep everyone away and they got together.
- A male example in the A Dip in the Inkwell oneshot "Gardening Lessons" with Todd. He initially refuses the help of Olympia and Otis in cleaning up his garden following Jamie Jam's attack at first, but as time goes on, he warms up to them and eventually becomes comfortable enough to call them his friends.
- Opalescent: Opal starts out as a comically serious doctor who is fully committed to doing her job and can't grasp the concept of "having fun". Once she enters a relationship with Otto and goes out with him, however, she starts to loosen up and enjoy things like amusement parks and entertainment centers.
- Widowmaker in Break My Heart, Break Your Heart, thanks to Tracer's efforts to undo her brainwashing.
- Pokémon: The Lost Child: At first, Sceptile is quite cold towards Empoleon, but he eventually warms up to him and is nicer to him.
- Nathanoraptor turns Abby Maitland into one of these in Camp Scare. She is initially a snarky Jerkass towards the campers she is assigned to help, but eventually grows attached and fiercely protective of them.
- Home Sick (NoonboryKedabory): As the fic progresses, Aran Ryan becomes less and less irritable and warms up to Disco Kid. The key is to watch the hugs; the first time, Aran is stiff and reluctant. The second time, he's more open. The third, he's practically falling into Disco Kid's arms.
- When Nabiki talks about what was revealed about Ranma's romantic issues in Imperial Servant, she starts crying. This is interesting because at the time, she was under the effects of a 'Zone of Truth', implying her normal Ice Queen demeanor isn't who she really is.
- Happens twice in Lords Among the Ashes:
- At the beginning of their relationship, Cinder thought of Jaune only as someone that she could easily manipulate and feign affection for in order to more easily attain her goals. By the end of the sim, she has grown to honestly care about him, not only as an asset but as her equal whom she would like to pursue a genuine relationship with.
- A non-romantic example occurs with Salem. She initially cares nothing for humanity or any of the people that she meets, but Jaune's willingness to give everything he has for his people and their desire to do the same eventually convince her that humanity is actually something worth believing in.
- Mortality does this with Holmes. When he's reunited with Watson he's glad to have a friend like him.
- In Robb Returns, Ursula Stone, Steward of Foxhold (Bronn's keep and town) and the late Lord Cawlish's bastard daughter (and only descendant), at least towards Bronn. She tends to look at him as if he were something scraped from the end of the barrel. She begins to thaw when they learn why Lysa attacked Jon Arryn and Bronn decides to rush to King's Landing with news of Lysa Arryn's capture and state.
- Don't Keep Your Distance: Arrowhead the Toad's mother, an early semi-antagonist to protagonist Paint. Early on, she frequently acts distrustful of the girl, even testifying against her at her trial for bringing one of Dr. Eggman's robots to their village - but when this robot turns out to save them all, she apologizes and becomes a great deal nicer.
- A TDA Love Triangle with Betty, Cody, and Gwenny Gwen to Cody. Originally she distrust Cody despite him hooking her up with Trent. Mainly because she thinks he wants to use her break-up with Trent as his chance to get closer to her. After talking with Cody and opening up to him about her problems and actions with him. She warms up to Cody and even says she officially thinking of him as a friend. And telling him she considers him her friend.
- Unbreakable Red Silken Thread: The first four chapters show how Cody is able to do this with Heather over the course of several years, with the fifth chapter showing the final result. To say the change is noticeable would be an understatement.
- Suikakasen has Kasen start out as a Broken Bird because of Adaptational Angst Upgrade, but its status as an Origins Episode means that she needs to change to her friendlier and more open personality from canon works. As such, she meets Yoshika, who makes the change in her personality occur through their newfound friendship. This is best shown during part of the Good-Times Montage where Yoshika eavesdropping on Kasen reading books near the start earns her a Death Glare compared to later where Yoshika doing the same just makes Kasen blush.
- In The Panda Chronicles, Aaron Z. took a while to warm up to Tae Young, but the two began getting along after about a week.
- A key element of “The Lone Wolf” is how Selene finds herself indulging more human habits while spending time with Michael, such as watching films with him.
- In Everqueen, Isha is investing a lot of effort to make the Emperor cut down on his pragmatism.
- In X-Men: The Early Years, Jean Grey plays it straight, gradually defrosting her snarky, prickly, moody teammate Scott Summers. Subverted with a girl named Sue who believes Scott is playing "hard to get" rather than being "hard to get".
