These Tropes Were Frozen Today

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Tropes involving ice, cold, snow, and winter.

Name comes from a line in Suburban Commando.

Super-index to Polar Tropes, regarding tropes specifically associated with the Arctic and Antarctica. Contrast This Index Is on Fire.

Not to be confused with Rule of Cool, Locked Pages, or the Disney franchise Frozen.

Examples:

• Blue Means Cold: The colour blue is associated with low temperatures.
• Brain Freeze: Cold and frozen food cause headaches.
• Braving the Blizzard: The heroes have to survive being stuck in a blizzard.
• Catch Your Death of Cold: Going out in the cold makes you sick.
• Chill of Undeath: The Undead are associated with ice and cold.
• Cold Cash: Hiding valuables in a fridge or freezer.
• Cold Snap: Will usually have snow, but more like the dangerous blizzard kind of snow.
• Cold Touch Surprise: Someone puts their cold hands on another character to tease, flirt with, or startle them.
• A Crack in the Ice: The best sign that the ice sheet is about to fall apart.
• Cryonics Failure: A freezing system fails.
• Cryo-Prison: Incarcerating criminals inside a block of ice.
• Cryo Sickness: Being thawed out from suspended animation sucks big time.
• Danger — Thin Ice: Walking on thin ice brings risk of falling in and freezing to death.
• Dreaming of a White Christmas: In fiction, Christmas almost always has snow.
• Eerie Arctic Research Station: A remote lab in an icy cold location as a tension-filled setting.
• Endless Winter: The snow isn't going away.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: Negative alignment = negative temperatures.
• Exposed to the Elements: Not dressing warmly, but somehow not affected by the cold.
• Failures on Ice: Ice is like a banana peel.
• Fire/Ice Duo: A fire person and ice person working together.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Part of a trio of Elemental Powers.
• Fire/Water Juxtaposition: In instances where heat visually contrasts with cold.
• First Snow: Character hasn't experienced snow before, and may not even know what it is.
• Flash Freezing Coolant: Coolant in a given device will freeze anything it's spilled on.
• Freeze Ray: A Ray Gun with ice abilities.
• Freeze Sneeze: Cold temperatures set off the sinuses.
• Frictionless Ice: Instead of falling on ice, video games treat it like a car with faulty brakes.
• Frigid Water Is Harmless: The harm caused by submersion in very cold water being downplayed or ignored entirely.
• Frozen Body Fluids: When it is so cold, your body fluids freeze solid mid-stream.
• Frozen Foe Platform: Freezing video game enemies to use as platforms.
• Ghostly Chill: It's deathly cold, literally.
• Glacial Apocalypse: A devastating, global ice age.
• Grim Up North: It's cold and dangerous in the northern regions.
• Hailfire Peaks: Fire and ice in the same level.
• Hair-Trigger Avalanche: Snow, loosely packed on a slope, can be set off by sufficient sound.
• Harmless Freezing: Being frozen solid won't shatter your cells, but just be a form of short cryostasis.
• Hibernation/Migration Situation: An animal has to hibernate or migrate for the winter, causing drama.
• High-Up Ice-Up: High altitudes cause freezing.
• Human Popsicle: When stasis is done by being trapped in ice.
• Human Snowball: A snowball gathers up people as it rolls.
• Human Snowman: Snow falls on a person in the shape of a snowman.
• Ice Breaker: Being frozen solid makes something brittle in fiction.
• Ice Crystals: When ice is shaped into formations resembling crystal.
• Ice Magic Is Water: When elemental magic makes ice and water interchangeable.
• Ice Palace: Why stop at an igloo? Make a whole mansion or castle from that ice!
• An Ice Person: You have ice powers.
• An Ice Suit: A suit that's ice themed, whether to protect from the ice, or just be symbolic.
• Icy Blue Eyes: If you're from a cold place, you're bound to have these.
• Icy Keyboard: You can tell it's cold because the keyboard instruments sound like someone hitting icicles.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: A stock phrase, as characters may feel cold when they are near death.
• Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: When being cold creates ice, even if there isn't enough water or humidity for it.
• Jack Frost: The Anthropomorphic Personification of ice, snow, and winter.
• Kill It with Ice: Various ways ice can be weaponized.
• Let There Be Snow: Ask for snow, a supernatural person will make it happen.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Being made solid, and therefore brittle, can happen to people due to freezing.
• Locked in a Freezer: Stuck in a room that can cause you to freeze to death.
• Mammoths Mean Ice Age: If pachyderms are growing hair, it's not a warm setting. Worse, you're likely in the Ice Age.
• Monster in the Ice: Large, monstrous things frozen inside glaciers or icebergs.
• Mountaintop Healthcare: Freezing cold temperatures and high altitudes are the perfect setting for a state-of-the-art medical facility, for some reason.
• Mysterious Antarctica: It's still not fully explored, so who knows what is in those sub zero lands?
• North Is Cold, South Is Hot
• The Old North Wind: When that cold, strong gust from the North is given a physical form (and oftentimes, a harsh personality to go with it.)
• On Ice: A famous show has its own ice show.
• Polar Bears and Penguins: Having polar bears and penguins in the same place.
• Polar Madness: Too much time in the ice can drive people insane...
• Polar Penguins: Penguins are used as a visual shorthand for cold climates.
• Pretty in Mink: A stylish fur is the most luxurious way to stay warm in the cold.
• Saint-Bernard Rescue: A Saint-Bernard that carries a barrel of brandy around his neck comes to the rescue when somebody is suffering through the cold.
• Sizable Snowflakes: Real life snowflakes are measured in millimeters.
• Ski-Resort Episode: The main characters visit a ski-resort and go skiing for nearly the entire episode.
• Sled Dogs Through the Snow: In the arctic, sled dogs are used as a form of transportation.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: A snow and ice-themed level in a game, often with slippery ice.
• Snowball Fight: Weaponizing snow, but for fun.
• Snowed-In: Snow is packed around your building, vehicle, etc., and you are stuck for a while.
• Snowlems: Sentient, animated snowmen.
• Snow Means Cold: Snow as a visual shorthand for cold temperatures.
• Snow Means Death: Snow as symbolism for death.
• Snow Means Love: Snow as symbolism for romance.
• Snowy Sabertooths: Because they lived during the Ice Age, saber-toothed cats are often depicted living in snowy regions.
• Snowy Sleigh Bells: If it's snowing and the scene is happy, the music will likely have sleigh bells.
• Space Is Cold: In fiction, exposure to space can cause instant freezing.
• Spring Is Late: Winter is taking longer than usual.
• Thermal Dissonance: Something is hotter or colder than it should be.
• Thermostat Tamper Tantrum: A character who doesn't like other people changing the thermostat.
• Tongue on the Flagpole: Put your unprotected skin on something ice cold. We dare you.
• Tragic Ice Character: Characters associated with ice and snow tend to be tragic.
• White-Tailed Reindeer: Reindeer drawn looking more like generic deer than real reindeer.
• Winter of Starvation: Characters become desperate for food during the winter, and may be driven to doing immoral things to survive.
• Winter Royal Lady: An ice-themed queen or princess uses a fitting title.
• Wintry Auroral Sky: Icy settings often have aurora-laced skies, even if they are not in polar latitudes.
• Yellow Snow: Someone likely peed on the snow.
• You Must Be Cold: Someone put his/her jacket over their peers to protect them from the cold environment, to show that they're a good person underneath.
• Yuki-onna: A female Yōkai with ice powers.