The Defroster

"Rudeness is merely an expression of fear. People fear they won't get what they want. The most dreadful and unattractive person only needs to be loved, and they will open up like a flower."

— M. Gustave, The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Ice-Queen, and by extension the Defrosting Ice Queen, is a character who is isolated and alone. Maybe they have a tragic past. Maybe it's a Lonely Rich Kid. Perhaps they just don't fit in well with others and have stopped trying. Enter the character who is The Defroster.

The Defroster doesn't necessarily think that Loners Are Freaks. Instead, they may see incidents of bullying, or learn of the Ice Queen's tragic past, spotting Cracks in the Icy Façade, and decide that they're going to take the first steps to thaw out that frozen heart. Their reasons may vary. They may be sympathetic, having been through similar hardships themselves. They may have a romantic interest. They may just be the sort of person who can't stand to see others unhappy. Whatever the case, The Defroster will kick-start the process of thawing out the ice-princess and making her a part of their group.

The defining characteristics of a Defroster are:

1. They are a prominent character in series whose actions are clearly the catalyst for the Ice Queen defrosting. For this type, defrosting need not have been their stated goal, but the kindness they show the Ice Queen most definitely was deliberate.
2. They may defrost more than one Ice Queen in their respective works.
3. They make it their stated goal to defrost at least one, maybe multiple characters in their respective work.

Often the first recipient of Now Allowed to Hug.

Related to The Heart, Blithe Spirit, Magnetic Hero, Messianic Archetype, and All-Loving Hero.

See also The Powers Of Love, Friendship, Trust and Family, Restored My Faith in Humanity and Befriending the Enemy.

Can overlap with Morality Pet.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Black Cat has a couple of Defrosters.
  • Saya defrosts Train Heartnet, her light-hearted attitude and her explanation that even though she wields a gun, chooses not to take life is what causes him to decide to leave Chronos and become a "Sweeper".
  • Sven Volfied is the Defroster to Eve, who has been treated as a weapon her whole life. All Sven sees is a child who needs some love and attention, and while she is still The Stoic, it's obvious that she has feelings, and cares for others thanks to Sven's intervention.
• Buso Renkin has Ice Queen Tokiko Tsumura. At an early age, her entire class was wiped out by a homonculous, leaving her the Sole Survivor. She even has a signature scar from where the murderous homonculous tracked her down. She killed this monster with the kakugane that was being used to heal her and had been icy ever since. Enter our Defroster, Kazuki Mutou. The fact that Tokiko saves his life is proof that she still has a heart. But when she's injured and in danger of being taken over by a homonculous herself, his boundless optimism and status as a Determinator win her over, and she's a much kinder, more open person after he saves her life.
• BanG Dream! has Moca Aoba (and to an extent the rest of Afterglow), defrost Ran Mitake back when they were small children, though Ran is still quite shy and socially awkward with anyone outside the band.
• Kotoura-san gives us Manabe. Kotoura is already broken by the time he meets her, bitter, cynical, and distrustful due to her psychic powers allowing her to read anyone's mind. Along comes Manabe, the cheerful, straightforward idiot, to decide he wants to be her friend, and isn't the least put off by her power.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's: Hayate Yagami is an orphaned paraplegic Japanese girl who, by chance, becomes bonded with an ancient Artifact of Doom, the Book of Darkness. Said artifact and its current master are defended by four "Wolkenritter" — powerful knights who are Made of Magic and, after centuries of fighting and dying at the whims of the Book's past masters, are thoroughly alienated from humanity. Undeterred, Hayate sets about to defrost them, starting by making colorful (and revealing) costumes for each of them. Within half a year, she succeeds in transforming the icy Wolkenritter into a new family for herself — and that's when they realize that the Book is slowly killing her and that the only way to save her life is for the Wolkenritter to break the promise they gave to her to abandon violence and to start hunting mages to feed the Book.
• Akito Tenkawa of Martian Successor Nadesico defrosted at least two Ice Queens over the course of the series.
  • The first was Ruri Hoshino, who was initially dismissive of the crew of the Nadesico but interacting with Akito helped to thaw her out.
  • Then there was Inez Fresange, cold, distant, and logical until an attack by a Jovian Hacker Crab linked the memories of everyone who'd been exposed to nanomachines into a mental game of mahjong, and Inez recovered her lost memories of being a little girl on Mars, and looking for Akito. The scene where they reveal that she is Ai, and she tearfully smiles and embraces him, saying "It's so good to see you, mister." will melt the audiences' hearts, too.
• In the h-manga Monster Romance, Asuka, an Ice-Oni doesn't like humans citing a history of discrimination by humans, and even vows to her other Cute Monster Girl friends that she would never date a human, and even warns one of her closest friends, a Dullahan, that she better break up with her human boyfriend because he'll end up hurting her. However, when Eiji, a human member of her after-school club asks her out, she tells her friends she promised to meet him at a later time, both to reject him and apologize for encasing him in a block of ice. Rather than reject him, she agrees to go out with him, and after dating for several months, they eventually share their First Kiss when Asuska admits to having fallen in love with him. When Fubuki, Asuka's younger sister, and their parents go out of town for a weekend, they share Their First Time together, and she promises to introduce him when her family gets back from their trip. Fubuki herself confesses to her Childhood Friend, Shouhei, a human, who didn't want to formally declare himself to Fubuki, both because he felt he wasn't good enough for her, and because he feared Asuka would freeze him to death. Shouhei even came up with the idea to stop seeing Fubuki altogether because he felt would be holding her back from a bright future since he's just a slacker. However, after they share a passionate night, Shouhei decides that he would work to improve himself so that he could be a part of Fubuki's future.
• My First Girlfriend Is a Gal: Yukana Yame is a cheerful Gyaru Girl who begins dating the main character Junichi and is the center of a "clique" of "Gals" in Class 2-G. Over the course of the story, Yukana is either directly or indirectly responsible for "thawing" Ice Queens like Yui Kashii or Student Council President Iris Kotohayashi.
  • In the former case, Yui was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who treated Junichi like crap for years, but becomes jealous when he starts dating Yukana and realizes that she is in love with him. However, Yukana is so nice and compatible with Junichi that Yui can't bring herself to split them up. Instead, she decides to become a better person to win his love, at numerous points even helping he and Yukana through relationship problems to prove she can at least be his ideal Mistress.
  • Iris Kotohayashi is the prudish Student Council President who becomes disgusted by the harem of girls and scantily-dressed gals that have been gathering around Junichi and Yukana, and thus targets Yukana to force her to "clean up" her image. She does this by withholding funding to Class 2-G unless Yukana dresses in an appropriate uniform for several weeks. Yukana cheerfully accepts because she doesn't actually mind changing her style for a while, but Yukana's friends retaliate against Iris by forcing her to dress as a Gal. Yukana makes them stop because, unlike her, Iris is clearly uncomfortable with it. Iris then immediately grants the funding Class 2-G needed and spends the rest of the series fawning over Yukana like a Cool Big Sis, offering advice and help where she can.
• My-HiME has Natsuki Kuga in the role of Ice Queen. Her mother's dead because of a sinister organization known as District One, she's alone, bitter, and doesn't trust anyone. Until, that is, Shizuru Fujino takes an interest in her and gradually brings her out of her shell. She's still initially closed to others when the series starts but warms to them eventually as well, but it's clear from the beginning that she trusts and relies on Shizuru.
  Natsuki: Shizuru smiled and told me that she liked me. She even suggested that we were friends...Friends. I'd lived alone since my mother died. I didn't trust anyone. Still, Shizuru, I may have acted nonchalantly when you told me that, but I was actually quite surprised. Your casual reply made me so...happy.
• School Rumble had a flashback that revealed that Eri Sawachika was a Lonely Rich Kid until Mikoto Suou overheard some girls talking about her behind her back. So Mikoto drags her to a Suou family party, all the while acting as though they're already best friends until Eri actually opens up to her.
• Zombie Land Saga: Nice Girl Sakura Minamoto plays this role to Franchouchou's Defrosting Ice Queen, Ai Mizuno. Ai begins the series in a deep state of cynicism over her death and revival as a zombie, and being expected to perform in an idol group for a prefecture with little to no impact compared to her home in Tokyo. Seeing Sakura's determination to become an idol, after having been denied the chance in life, spurns Ai to return to her performer roots and help coach the other girls in becoming better idols themselves.

Comic Books

• Nightwing: Dick Grayson is known for being one of the friendliest, most approachable, and most charismatic heroes in the entire DC Universe. He is one of the few people who Batman trusts completely, and even has a brotherly bond with his adopted siblings: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, and Cassandra Cain...all of whom have been some level of Ice Queen. Dick has also dated several Ice Queens, such as the Huntress, and befriended several on the many teams he's led. He is so charismatic that even some villains like him (granted, most of those being women, but still).

Films — Animated

• Frozen (2013) has Anna's Heroic Sacrifice, and subsequent resurrection (her act of love for her sister thawing the frozen heart inflicted on her accidentally by Elsa) being the thing that finally breaks Elsa out of her own (figurative) Ice Queen status. She still remains a literal Ice Queen, but a happy and cheerful one, now.
• Donkey was the first to start thawing Shrek. As Donkey puts it himself, "You know, Shrek... when we first met, I didn't think you were a big, stupid, ugly ogre."

Films — Live-Action

• Almost An Angel has former career criminal Terry Dean as The Defroster to Steve Garner, whose debilitating illness has left him wheelchair-bound and bitter. Terry calls him out on his rudeness and actually makes Steve feel more like a normal person, stating:
  Terry: I see a man in a wheelchair, acting like a jerk in a wheelchair.
• The Grand Budapest Hotel: This trope is M. Gustave's entire philosophy. As the Grand Budapest's concierge, he is endlessly polite and professional to everyone he encounters, especially to female guests who are rich, old, insecure, vain, superficial, blonde, and needy (he very much has a type) and often gives them the comfort they can't find elsewhere. This outlook actually saves his life several times... though not, unfortunately, in the end.
  M. Gustave: Rudeness is merely an expression of fear. People fear they won't get what they want. The most dreadful and unattractive person only needs to be loved, and they will open up like a flower.
• The titular character in Michael strongly hints that defrosting Quinlan is the entire reason he's on Earth. He even cites the old fable of the man sheltering from the wind in his coat, until the sun came out.
• The Ref gives us a bizarre example of a Defroster. Gus is a cat burglar. Due to a job gone wrong, he has taken the Chasseur family hostage on Christmas Eve, while the police are out looking for him. In order to avoid being caught, he has to agree to pose as the family therapist, dealing with the family's collective frigidity toward one another. By the end of the movie, he has gotten the family to thaw to each other, and they even allow him to leave without incident, seeing as how he helped them with their troubles.
• SHAZAM! (2019) gives the role of Defroster to Freddy Freeman, and to a lesser extent the rest of his foster family, in their efforts to thaw Billy Batson out of his bitter shell at being abandoned as a child and make him a part of their family.

Literature

• In How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the role of Defroster could rightly be said to belong to ALL of the Whos down in Whoville, who still clasp hands and sing joyfully after the Grinch stole all of their belongings causes him to realize just what Christmas is all about, and return the things he's taken.
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!: The protagonist, Catarina Claes, is considered "saintly" at her magical academy for her ability to be a positive influence on others' lives.
  • Prince Geordo Stuart was a Broken Ace as a child who grew bored with most things due both to his natural talent making him the best in multiple subjects, as well as the lack of affection from his parents. While becoming betrothed to Catarina Claes, he inadvertently causes young Catarina to hit her head, which (unbeknownst to anyone except herself) awakened her Past-Life Memories and completely rewrote her personality. With knowledge of several possible futures (especially endings in which Geordo will wind up killing her), Catarina begins one crazy scheme after another to avoid her future. Most of them fail, but they gain the interest of the prince, who falls in love with her because life is never dull with her around.
  • Prince Alan grew up sickly and constantly outdone by his twin brother Geordo, gaining an inferiority complex that haunted him for years. Catarina inadvertently gains the love of Alan's fianceé Mary, and an angry Alan challenges her to any contest of Catarina's choice. Catarina chooses climbing trees and soundly defeats Alan again and again. Alan tries day after day until one day Catarina notices that he can play music far better than anyone else — even his brother. After this, Alan comes to realize that there are things he is uniquely good at, and not only mends his relationship with his brother but also falls in love with Catarina himself.
  • Student Council President Sirius Dieke attempts to use dark magic to corrupt the lives of his fellow students...especially those connected to the "saint" Catarina, whom he resents and hates for creating such a positive, friendly environment for everyone. He tries placing her in a magical coma, but she breaks the curse and confronts him, using information she's learned to call out his real name, Raphael, and help him sort out his Dark and Troubled Past. This helps dispel the evil ghost that had been possessing him — after which, he makes a Heel–Face Turn, turns himself in, and falls in love with Catarina.
  • Serena Burg's butler Rufus kidnaps Catarina and tries to hold her ransom to force crown prince Geordo to renounce his claim to the throne. At first, he intentionally tries to behave cold and aloof to frighten her into compliance. However, over time, Catarina begins having casual and insightful conversations with him, and even shows an interest in traveling the world with him after the current matters are settled. After later learning that his employer was captured offscreen, he turns himself in and (you guessed it) falls in love with Catarina.
• My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected:
  • Yui Yuigahama was part of the Service Club since day one and became The Heart of the Club, the bond for the group between Hachiman Hikigaya and Yukino Yukinoshita, with the latter developing a strong friendship and making her open to herself, becoming inseparable. This will become a problem when both developed a crush (and later love) to Hachiman, bitterly become eventual rivals.
  • In a strange example, Hachiman eventually becomes in this during his time in the Service Club, not just with the other students who help with the Club (now seen as a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold and even gaining the sympathy of the girls outside the Club), but with his own Fire-Forged Friends (Iroha Isshiki included) who meet his real self, a lonely guy who wants something genuine. In all these cases, his efforts to improve their lives with the Club defrost his image of loner and show them as a good person... at the point that Hayato Hayama feels inferior compared to Hachiman.
• Sherlock Holmes was defrosted by Dr. John Watson. Holmes was noted for his eccentricities, including not knowing that the Earth orbits the Sun. However, Watson insists on gushing over Holmes' deductive abilities, which visibly please the reclusive detective.
  Watson: My companion flushed up with pleasure at my words, and the earnest way in which I uttered them. I had already observed that he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty.

Live-Action TV

• Our Miss Brooks: Miss Brooks sees it as part of her job to try and defrost troubled students. She's also a generous, kindhearted, and quick-witted individual. Notably, Miss Brooks defrosts Mr. Whipple, The Scrooge in the episode "Mr. Whipple". Later, in The Movie Grand Finale, she defrosts one of her students, Gary Nolan. For good measure, she defrosts his father Lawrence Nolan as well.
• The Doctor goes through varying periods of being frozen and warm. It usually falls to his latest Companion to be the one to be the Defroster.
  • Rose Tyler has to defrost 9 after he emerged as a Shell-Shocked Veteran from the Time Wars.
  • Eleven became closed off and isolated after the loss of Amy and Rory. Enter Clara Oswald, Defroster, to snap him out of it. She would also have to serve this role again for Twelve after he witnessed her death in "Face The Raven".
• Forever has two Defrosters working to get Henry to thaw out:
  • Jo is determined to get Henry to open up to her. In the pilot her interest starts out professional, but she later trades more personal stories over a drink. In "The Art of Murder" after getting Henry to admit he avoids the museum because it reminds him of someone, Jo presses for her name telling him she'll get it out of him eventually, and by the end of the episode she's succeeded. Jo repeatedly tells Henry she's there if he needs someone to talk to. At the end of "The Man in the Killer Suit" she confidently tell Henry someday he'll open up, when he's ready. In "Skinny Dipper" she convinces Henry to not only tell her about his stalker, but to tell Hanson and Lieutenant Reece as well, and he's rewarded with the full support of the entire NYPD. By the finale, "The Last Death of Henry Morgan," she's started to lose patience after Henry lies to her more than once, but the last scene is Jo asking Henry about a family picture and it looks like Henry is finally ready to tell her his long story.
  • Lucas makes repeated offers to Henry to go out for a beer or catch some music together, and in the pilot it's clear Henry habitually turns them all down. By "The Ecstasy of Agony" he's worn Henry down enough for Henry to join the gang at a local bar after work, setting a precedent for a later karaoke night in "Punk Is Dead." In "The Night in Question" Lucas taking the initiative to help Henry and Abe find Abigail leads to Henry inviting Lucas into his hidden basement laboratory. By the end of the series, "The Last Death of Henry Morgan," Henry has warmed to Lucas and tells his protégé how proud he is of him.
• Lost: Most of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes' time is spent defrosting the more intense characters by various degrees, including, Sawyer, Jin, and even Ben Linus. He's very much a Big Fun character and very good at connecting with people; it all foreshadows his ultimate role, when he's chosen to become the island's protector.
• Star Trek: The Original Series: Despite his previous positive relationship with Captain Pike, Spock remains quite stoic and aloof, ashamed about his human heritage and determined to hide it. His friendship with Kirk becomes a chink in his emotionless armor almost immediately (the very first episode has Uhura calling Kirk the closest thing to a friend Spock has). Gradually, under his influence, Spock unbends into a psychologically healthier state.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has a couple of Defrosters.
  • First, The Prophets have to defrost Sisko, who is closed off, resentful of his new post, and wishes to leave Starfleet altogether. He displays open hostility and contempt toward Captain Picard, telling him that he was at the Battle of Wolf 359. Cue an interlude with the Prophets, and Sisko is once again energized by his chance to serve Starfleet and silently forgives Picard for the loss of his wife, offering Picard a sincere handshake after asking the Captain to rescind his request for a transfer.
  • Quark and Kira each work on Defrosting Odo in their own way. So much so that when Quark is engaging in an illegal, but not dangerous trade, Odo overhears Quark talking about how it's going to cost him, even though he helped Oda and Kira get together. Odo tells Kira that Quark is right in that, and so he'll let him have this one...but only this one.

Radio

• In the very first episode of Adventures in Odyssey, Whit starts the long process of being a Defroster to Connie Kendall. You wouldn't know it to listen to the show, these days, but when Connie first arrived, she wanted nothing more than to get out of Odyssey and reunite with her father, who had recently divorced her mother. She stopped at Whit's End looking for directions to a place that was hiring, and instead, Whit offers to hire her for the same amount of pay, on the spot, and proceeds to act as a father figure to the girl for several episodes, until she realizes, during a trip to California, that she now feels at home in Odyssey.

Web Original

• Nana from Cream Heroes is this to TT. TT is usually a tough cat who keeps the others at a distance, punching them if they get too close. Nana, being the Naïve Newcomer she is in 2020, sets about befriending TT by bringing her toys and lying down in front of her. TT initially only tolerates this but eventually welcomes Nana's friendship. She even seems to have mellowed out somewhat in the process.

Western Animation

• Infinity Train: Tulip makes a conscious choice to defrost Amelia, knowing that she, like Tulip before, was hurt, scared, and alone.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Starlight Glimmer acts as a Defroster on two occasions.
    • First to Trixie Lulamoon, who was initially standoffish and rude to most other ponies. When Starlight, learning to make friends, bumps into Trixie, Trixie sees it as an attempt to rub it in Twilight Sparkle's face. But then she realizes that she has come to enjoy hanging with Starlight, both of them bonding over their respective Heel–Face Turn moments, and that she'd hurt Starlight badly with the revelation of her ulterior motives in befriending her. A truly repentant Trixie then becomes Starlight's genuine friend, and her first outside of the Mane Six and Spike.
    • Her second instance of being a Defroster comes with Maud Pie. Maud has already been established as closed off and emotionally reserved. However, when Starlight takes a genuine interest in her, the two of them hit it off. Maud still speaks in her monotone voice, but her small smiles reveal that she's genuinely enjoying Starlight's friendship and company, and is able in a later episode to interact with Starlight's other friends, Trixie and Sunburst, reasonably well.
  • From the same series, Fluttershy is able to thaw Mad Trickster Discord. She's fully aware that he is attempting to trick her, but she offers him genuine friendship, and then, when he pulls his Jerkass move, after getting her to promise him that she wouldn't use her Element of Harmony against him, she keeps her word but withdraws her friendship. Realizing that said friendship had actually meant something to him, Discord relents and is somewhat reformed (though it takes a bit of time, character development, and a different trope entirely to cement his reform, Fluttershy was the one who got it started, and remains his dearest friend).
  • The Cutie Mark Crusaders, in the episode "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" make a conscious effort to defrost Diamond Tiara after learning that her Rich Bitch tendencies were caused by her demanding, perfectionist, abusive mother. Their efforts are not in vain and cause Diamond Tiara to not only undergo a Heel–Face Turn but also to realize that her real talent was in allocating resources where they work best. She is also the first to tell the CMC that their newly acquired cutie marks are "amazing".

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