The Ice Queen Trope, Explained - Why She Always Defrosts 

I'm so happy you actually gave screentime to Greta Garbo.

ICE QUEEN, DRAMA QUEEN... both misogynistic expressions aren’t as awful as the “ QUEEN SIZE BED “... why ? Because universally the standards put the queen size behind the king size, AND EVEN THE BIGGEST ONE OF ALL KNOWN AS: (SUPER KING SIZE)/(CALIFORNIA KING) 👿🔥 not even a *GENDER* - *NEUTRAL* name ! ..... like God or Pizza or any other neutral name 😝😂🚺

The Sexy alien trope. The Haunted House Trope. The sexy nerd trope. The urban fantasy trope. The dysfunctional family trope. The political shark trope. The sexy doctor and/or lawyer trope(s). Sky's the limit.

I’m sorry that’s been your experience

Same as a black girl, we are expected to lower our expectations because well you can guess and its honestly tiring.

I’m white, however, even I’ve had to deal with this double standard as a woman with morals and ambition who isn’t flirty, @Vashtibucket. I’m not lowering my standards just because society is corrupt.

Same, sis. Latina girl here and I remember watching Frozen and crying a lot when I view myself in her. And my family just realized that I am not just cold and that's it. This came from trauma.... Now I am better, I went to therapy and I reconected with my femenine and soft side. By myself. No man came to "melt my heart"... In fact I have never been in a relationship or has a boyfriend and now that I am better mentally, I am preparing myslef to be a homemaker because I want to... I am glad you choose your friends wisely, that has to be done👌👌👌

@@Chris-rg6nm watch the video The Spicy Latina here form The Take.

I agree, Ice Queens work best when they're portrayed as strong, confident characters, yet let their guards down to people they trust. 💜

1k

Right on point

So true. Super bad outcome though if they fall for you, you fall in love when they're feeling smothered. Bad for all involved. But yeah, a completely different experience. I don't think it can be created as a conscious decision (for image or whatever reason) in personal life. Something like trauma or extreme cynicism, higher neuroticism, higher anxiety/etc (increasingly likely in our environment) is likely the reason for it while growing up. Those are my observations anyway, cheers.

That there is an excellent explanation of both ends of this trope; the villain and the heroic one.

I can relate to this I have a younger brother and he's in the rebellion phase

THIS.

Yesss. I was watching Blue Crush for the first time in years the other day and the main character fits this trope too, since she's forced to raise her younger rebellious sister while her mom's out of the picture.

Katara from Avatar

This and show the good and bad. I raised my siblings and I realize as my sister gets older I did take out a lot of my anger and stress on her. I try to make up for it everyday even if she doesn’t see it as badly as I do. I know what I did might have hurt her but she’s too young to understand. That’s why in her teenage years I want to be the best and most supportive big sister.

You know what you should do, right? Don't invite them to the wedding, Queen.

@@EvaHedy 🎤dropped

I've heard similar comments my entire life.

@Nymeria, I've been labeled as "the quiet one", "the stoic" and "Ice Queen my entire life too, I also hate the "Wow, looks like someone melted your heart!" comment too. Behave like the true queen you are @Nymeria, and don't invite people who made that comment to your wedding, you don't need them on that happy day, anyway.

the most cold thing an ice queen would do is not invite them to the weading. make then right by make it real.

I laughed out loud at that part 🤣 such a good line.

😂😂

What's that from?

Facts

@@Chris-rg6nm Not me. Strength has nothing to do with femininity so any woman of ANY race can be both.

@@Chris-rg6nm We don't, only because people use it to justify any abuse towards us. Sometimes it's helpful, but it's mostly hurtful.

@@Chris-rg6nm You know it's more complex then that Chris. I say this cos I've seen you go for low hanging fruit on Take threads when you are bored and every now and again actually be insightful so lets get into it. Strong is vague. We are tired of endlessly stoic which absolutely a cultural and historical problem. Stoicism should be a choice not an expectation. Like other vague traits it virtue signals us into corner no one asked for. Personal accountabilty, social responsibility and community support is everyone's work. Often it's fallen on women of many cultures to fill in the gaps. From Mammys (black) to Mammies (Celtic). From servant here to slave there. Turn over the page for the second part of this essay.

@@Firegen1 he is definitely a big troll. I have seen his foolish comments as well.

Iconic

What people? She is an American

@@greyLeicester During the dinner party ( the one where she wore the polka-dot dress, she said her grandmother was German)

@@davriecaro3036 Ampy is just being silly. That said Betty’s character was well educated.

@@owenmccord5078 Oh okay, sorry for the misunderstanding (that is the thing with online you cannot hear the person's face to tone to see if they are telling a joke)

Seconded, I love that they made Elsa more sympathetic, and we grew to understand her motives more once we saw her internal conflicts. ❄️

Idk, i love Elsa’s character but that sounds interesting

The movie would have been better if she were evil

I think a critical moment for Elsa was being captured by Hans and his men. If she'd managed to fight them off then she probably would have become the traditional evil snow queen: She would lock herself away in her ice palace with no-one brave enough to challenge her or mount another attack, and Anna would have died of her frozen heart. As a result Elsa's guilt, heartbreak and isolation would have driven her to madness.

Ever heard of a morally gray villain?

Also if they don't thaw a bit from time to time they might come off as very unfriendly to other people in general, which will inevitably result in them portraying Ice Queens as evil or at least ill willed.

“Patriarchy” what? It just reflects what we already know, in general men and women dont value the same exact qualities from each other, usually women find high earning men with financial stability a more suiting and attractive partner meanwhile most men dont really care about that stuff, we appreciate it but dont see it as attractive, men are mostly guided by physical attractiveness more than anything, thats why men’s peak attractiveness usually comes in their late 30s where theyre economically stable, meanwhile women’s peak attractiveness are usually in their 20s. We value different things and thats okay, you have the right to embrace a career driven life as a woman but men also have the right to not find that specific trait attractive, nothing to do with double standards.

@@christianalexander6364 TLDR: Men be shallow

@@mittenista Shallow? Wanting your partner to have economic stability could also be considered shallow with that logic, its just different preferences presented by genders, what a lazy response.

@@christianalexander6364 "I want a partner who doesn't care how I look or how much money I make. I want her to love me for me, and who I am on the inside. No fatties or uggos though."

@@christianalexander6364 You clearly have a psychology degree and can back all of this up. Finally, this man has discovered the secret to real human connection that will last a lifetime! I'm 6'1, how far down would that put me, rating wise, in your arbitrary rating system for female attractiveness?

I'm assuming you've seen those awful takes about how Elsa is just the song Let it go and nothing else. its like people don't realize that Let it go is at the end of act 1 of the movie and that the story didn't end with let it go. To be fair the Take isn't doing that much better of a job. Let It Go is about Elsa learning to accept herself but the more important lesson Elsa needs to learn is that running away from her problems and isolating herself from people isn't going to fix her problems. Elsa spends the rest of the movie learning this.

Right?? Like she grew up being told by others to conceal it and don’t feel it from a young child to a young adult. Of COURSE she’s gonna seem dismissive and soft in personality, sometimes she nudges and ice formed around her so that fear constructed into her through adulthood. She can be outgoing and abrasive when the situation calls for it but again depends solely on what’s going on.

Especially her role in *To Die For* which was scary as heck. She was the quintessential Ice Queen in that movie! Also, they didn't include anyone of color (as always). Olivia Pope is a poster model for Ice Queens.

"Princess and the Frog"?

@@DawnSkyStudios Actually, I think that's a subvertion because, while it seems like you said, at the end, Tiana does get emotional (and manual) support from Naveen when it comes to her business dreams. It was refreshing when I saw it.

Actually, she should've been the villain as she was originally intended to be instead. But she wasn't going to be just another typical antagonist. She was going to be a morally gray one.

@@1992disney glad she didn't end up being either of those 2 last things you've mentioned

@@monabohamad2242/videos Shut up, feminist.

YES

Yes, great idea! So much to explore. The difference when a disabled character is played by a disabled person, disabled characters as supporting cast etc.

They can even mention Walter White Jr from Breaking Bad

I think you mean "Housewife". My mother is the breadwinner of our family, but ironically (for some people), she is actually very optimistic and sweet. My brother-in-law calls her "Señora Chocolate" (Mrs. Chocolate). She doesn't deny reality either and encourages me and my sister to do what we want to do at our fullest effort.

@@alexandraguardian9840 "Señora Chocolate" ... I love the nickname. And yeah, I meant housewife. I just wanted to make the distinction that the literal meaning of "ama de casa" sounds more like she is the one calling the shots, while "housewife" sounds a bit like she's subjected to the actual boss. Dunno if that makes any sense.

@@DLibera It's okay. If someone called my mother subjugated as an underling to my father, I would get mad or uncomfortable too.

@ImAProudIndian So then is Anna is an ice queen because she fits that’s description.

I think she okay. Since as a child she was taught to "conceal, dont' feel". And that's rather toxic in that she was not "allowed" to feel such a primary part of herself and express it, and that continued into her adulthood as well. It was further reinforced by trauma because she accidentally hurt her little sister, and her parents, while it was later revealed that they were voyaging for a way to try and help her, continued to have her suppress her powers so she never really developed proper control of it until afterward. Her "ice" was because of conditioning and trauma. And she slowly learnt how to address that, which is a rather complex theme for a kid's series of films, if you ask me.

You're not groomed to hate them. Your born hating them.

@@jeremiahnoar7504 only sexist men lol

@@namkia205 so it's sexist to not be fond of toxic female characteristics? Because let's be straight, the Ice Queen architype is toxic. Hence why she defrosts in the end.

I'm writing about a few as protagonists in books I'm writing, @Al Channel.

If you’re into opera, “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” (or “Katerina Izmailova,” if you want the film version) is a fascinating take on this trope. Based on the Nikolai Leskov novel of the same name, which presents its main character as a villainous, scheming woman who murders her husband and father-in-law after being sexually assaulted (and falling in love with the rapist), the opera by Shostakovich is an interesting update and revision, where Katerina is portrayed as a sympathetic character forced into her situation, as are the other female characters in this adaptation. While Katerina’s scheming character can be considered an “Ice Queen,” this is because she has nowhere else to go. The opera exposes the tragedy of her situation, shames the men who take advantage of her, and portrays her as a complex heroine whom the audience is intended to sympathize with.

Regina (the Evil Queen of Snow White) has a redemption arc in Once Upon A Time. I loved every second of character development. Not to mention she's still fierce & protective by the end of it.

@@Joy6168 thats so cool. Keep working on your novels. I am writing one too although it doesn’t have any ice queens in maybe i should incorporate that.

@@sophiatalksmusic3588 that sounds interesting. I’ll have a look thanks

ESTJ/ISTJ as well. Both have low Fe and Fi and lead with pragmatism Te.

INFJ can be too, only shows some warmth to people she loves and trust. It's almost like "Off and On" thing.

@@nourhajj4999 most infjs in media become mystical characters tho

Umm... I'm an INFJ and I acted cold because I "Door Slammed" someone because of pain.

@@nourhajj4999 I'm INFJ and some people think I'm a heartless bitch and others think I'm the best thing ever. It depends which side you get on😁.

I could really recommend you film Antonia's Line by Marleen Gorris, it has quite optimistic representation of many generations of women of different age and tells it's story through a femenist lens. Also I adore Netflix's series Gypsy by Lisa Rubin, the protagonist is in her 40s and her character is really developed and deep. In both film and series the age isn't an important part of the plot, Gypsy is more about identity and psychotherapy and Antonia's Line is more about being who you are in a society of obscurantism and violence.

They did a video on sunset boulevard

@@altycoggydeer Thank you👍🏻

@@yundorphin Thanks

I believe it's because women are judged by their youth and beauty, therefore older women are seen as "ruined". It probably ties into fertility and how women are pressured into having children more, or more often, than men.

Ugh, Olaf will always have my heart 💗

I have an Olaf plushie that I got from build a bear😭 I named him Ollie though🙂

Why do some people hate Olaf though?

That's true, Elsa hid that side of herself, terrified that she'd accidentally hurt someone else. She later becomes a whole lot warmer and more confident in herself. ❄️

Ikr. It's her defense mechanism, not really a part of her personality.

@@zitronentee true

@@trinaq she was always warm she just needed to stop being scared

I think others around her perceived her as an ice queen. But you're still right, deep down she is kind and loving.

Hah, same. It's hard enough to keep my composure when someone is shitty to me. Was hard to realize that I'm not made for power plays and office politics. But everything has its upsides. We can score points with honesty and competence.

Same here

Same. A lot of my favorite characters/women in general are ice queens.

Well a lot of humans murder animals to wear their skin. She is not the ultimate villian because of that.

Louder ✨

Yes, it makes me extremely suspicious when they're so willing to excuse animal abusers.

exactly the comment I was going to make

I agree. But maybe they are just looking at her in an objective way. I read the books. And nothing much besides her wishes to conquer are stated, yes, it's true that she is not narnian and she is only after power and absolute control, but so all queens, witches and basically any woman in a position in power has been portrayed...idk just saying

They really took the feedback serious, they got for their ridicoulous Harry Potter video ... not.

@@Privykos i mean... nothing changes the fact she's pretty evil 🤷‍♂️. We can add a gender layer if we want but doesn't mean it's always adequate to apply.

@@Privykos So the problem with this argument is that in their defense in 9:05 they are saying that she's bad partially because "her" world expects her to be. When she A. is not from this world but an invader, and B. already irredeemably evil. And as for your argument, all witches/women in power in fantasy are depicted as nothing but power-hungry. It's not a gendered thing. Male pure evil dictators in fantasy have been around forever. Even Avatar:TLAB, one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy stories ever, has a male main villain whose only characterization is being power-hungry and evil.

Try having a posh English accent in Hollywood.

I only got to read the first three books, but they've made me think about Cersei a lot. We get stories about her from Jamie's and Tyrion's perspective and know that she was mean since she was a little girl (I think that largely due to the treatment she got as a spoiled child). But then growing up the only thing she wanted was to be close to Jaime and they took that away from her. Of course, it's weird that she's in love with her twin brother, but they married her to an older man who she didn't know and who never bothered to pay attention to her cause he couldn't get over the loss of Lyanna. So she was away from the person she cared the most about and forced to have sex and be married to someone she hated. I'd be resentful as well.

Yes, but at the same time, even if she was already a villain-to-be, her actions are very influenced by the Witch's prophecy. Not defending her actions, just saying that she never really had a chance of redeeming herself neither. Would she had become a good woman in the future? Chances are not, but there's a certain freedom of improving that she looses that night. She IS an ice queen because to her, being good meant letting her guard down, which would lead to seeing her children dead, a new queen take her place and her brother killing her. The funny thing here is that, as you said, she forces her own destiny with her choice of making enemies left and right, especially her own brother. She was so scared of the prophecy becoming true that she made it true with her actions. That is what makes her so interesting and complex.

There's not winnig here.

Thank you! I could feel thry crib noted a few of the film adaptations and went with that version. It's not a major deal but they have a perfectly good example from Narnia if they thought about it ...

Did you see the essay on Jan? Take tissues with you 😭

Right...she was literally my fav character

Jepp. I'm with you on that one. I enjoyed the heck out of TDWP and especially Meryl Streep's performance, but I wouldn't exactly call her 'character goals'. Tough/ambitious and mean/condescending are not the same thing. And no, you don't actually have to be a ruthless bitch, to be successful in the business world. That's a total myth.

Yes! You're so right! I always hate how people held her up on a pedestal, just because she is successful/ the top of her field? Then again, I generally hate this whole thing in society we have where if someone is good at something (specifically, if they're intelligent) it doesn't matter how they treat people, we're supposed to root for them/ their bad qualities are excused. I see this a lot with a lot of intelligent middle-aged white male characters, like House, Sherlock Holmes, Rick from Rick and Morty, as well as autistic coded characters, like Sheldon Cooper (or once again, Sherlock Holmes). Just because you're intelligent/ good at something, specifically something specialized (like the fashion industry, detective work, etc.) it doesn't mean you are excused from being a dick to everyone OR that the audience should side with you. Especially for intelligent and/ or autistic coded characters, I wish this would be more nuanced - just because you're intelligent, it doesn't make you better than everyone else (in fact a lot of intelligent people I know realize how much they don't know and are always trying to learn new things and also don't think they're better than others). Likewise, just because a character is autistic, doesn't mean they're going to be super intelligent/ more intelligent than most, or really good at a specific thing but average/ worst at most, or that they're going to be 'difficult', 'brutally honest', 'uncaring of others emotions'. Autistic people in real life aren't like the ones that are autistic coded or are autistic on screen and the same goes for intelligent characters.

The cerulean sweater speech is about dressing down the main character because she is unaware of the place of power she has stepped into and how her appearance makes her look foolish among those who pride themselves upon being so in the cut that they are beyond the cut. An out of fashion sweater doesn't cut it among those who defines the cut.

I agree, she's cool as a cucumber, but has a warm heart which she only shows to her most trusted friends. 💖

That is the title of the fairy tale, in English it is usually the snow queen

and then people wonder why many women/girls dislike each other.

Well, they changed the title of that video, but it's their most controversial video to date, and has more dislikes than likes!

All good, just wait for the next vid about a white straight man and we'll get more hate

Yeah they blamed a boy who went true tons of trauma that he's not perfect

Cannot forget about that. So much victim blaming from a Channel, that preaches consciousness in Media, it was ridicoulous

I was almost forgetting... and then they tried to paint the witch from Narnia as someone "adhering to the category she was put into by society". Apparently, an abused teenager has to be the perfect hero no matter what but let's symphatize with an adult who froze an entire world out of spite.

I was waiting for this comment thanks. My favorite character.

The best

They have done the Karen and The Bad Mom but would be nice if they done a video on disapproving parents

@@jessicavictoriacarrillo7254 bruh i didn't know 😂😂😂, anyways thank you

@@rebecatorres999 They have alsp covered "the rebel" indepth with Ladybird. Mind you hitting the delinquent trope would be a good shout. Then you get to cover James Dean, Mods, Rockers, Punks and a wide range of alternative culture.

@@Firegen1 yeah lol i meant not exacly rebel, i used that term to describe the bad mom trope to kinda explain myself better but anyway 😂😂😂

they did a video on gilmore girls lorelai

Me too, I adore this Trope, and how a seemingly cold character warms and defrosts over the course of the story! ❄️💙

Concurred! Elsa, as shown as a child, was always compassionate and warm. She only became icy after accidentally hurting Anna, and being scared about potentially harming anyone else. 😢💔

@@trinaq More precisely, she became icy after her parents told her to "conceal, don't feel". Honestly her parents' terrible advice was the main driver for her iciness.

She was meant to be the 'bad guy' but once Let it go was written, they changed the plot.

@@katherinealvarez9216 When you think about it

What do you mean they're use as proxy for black people?

You have mentioned this a few times. Are you sure... I have an inclining I know what you are referring to but proxy would be the wrong term. It's a really loaded term

I know what you mean. Both are often treated the an "other" like in Annie (2014) when they take a character that was a redhead and make her black.

@@inescastellano7960 During the 19th century in the United States there was a period of time Irish immigrants among other European ethnicities were called white n words. Throughout media characters like Ginger Foutley from As Told by Ginger, Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables, and even Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter series are some examples that can be used.

I was about to say that

It's cool - they just empathized with murderous White Witch form Narnia. Harry the sacrificial boy fighting wizard hitler has an ego tho -_-

@@thakatspajamaz I still wonder if they actually watched the movies/read the books because not even Elastigirl could reach that far.

Neither have I

@@thakatspajamaz They also empathize with Cruella de vil

So far, im loving the story! Im currently reading it now =)

I started reading that recently and it's AWESOME! and not only that, you'll hate the young beauty that's pitted against her (not just because Navier is the protagonist and we automatically root for her but because there are things to legit hate about Rashta)

And mean girls and legally blonde

@kshamwhizzle haha true that!

@@lh9591 oh yeah, I completely forgot about that

I love her so much.

Ice queen from Once upon a time

@@Missmagazinebura that was elsa

I think not only white characters can be "ice queens". For example the character of Jessica from Suits or Annalise from How To Get Away With Murder are very much portrayed as ice queens.

@@thenewkhan4781 Thanks! That's good to know. It would've been nice to see more representation of that in this video. The Take is usually really great about being inclusive, so I didn't know if ice queens were just a white thing.

All media was men controlled /created and with hetcis male gaze in mind, so yes, probably all the tropes that involve women are gonna be misoginistic. No surprise. Most of the evil women characters who are bosses are basically a guilt trip for women with ambition.

@@eldron29-a54 Simplistic twaddle.

Because....patriarchy? Just a guess. Man, this channel is a wild mess, these days. I keep giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I'm rapidly loosing all hope for redemption.

Well, I can't really think of a male trope with the same characteristics that is automatically villianized for it. They're mostly anti-heros or bad-ass action heros with troubled pasts or something. The trope just reflects how being unemotional, distant or not social as a woman automatically makes you unlikable while it's totally normal for men.

Harry Potter?