Be sure to dress warmly when you're about to deliver 0 degrees of hurt.
"Born of cold and winter air
And mountain rain combining
This icy force both foul and fair
Has a frozen heart worth mining"
And mountain rain combining
This icy force both foul and fair
Has a frozen heart worth mining"
— Frozen (2013), "Frozen Heart"
Tropes involving ice, cold, snow, and winter.
Name comes from a line in Suburban Commando.
Contrast Heat Index and 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.
- 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, Lightning: Part of a trio of Elemental Powers.
- Fire/Ice Duo: A fire person and ice person working together.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.)
- Polar Bears and Penguins: Having polar bears and penguins in the same place.
- Polar Penguins: Penguins are used as a visual shorthand for cold climates.
- Polar Madness: Too much time in the ice can drive people insane...
- Pretty in Mink: A stylish fur is the most luxurious way to stay warm in 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.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: An ice-themed level in a game, often with slippery ice.
- Sled Dogs Through the Snow: In the arctic, sled dogs are used as a form of transportation.
- 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 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 youkai with ice powers.
