0:00:00.060,0:00:01.879
This video was sponsored by World Anvil!

0:00:01.879,0:00:06.160
100% guaranteed to not do terrible things[br]to supporting characters.

0:00:06.160,0:00:10.610
I’ve talked about this before in its own[br]trope talk, but character deaths are a big

0:00:10.610,0:00:11.610
deal.

0:00:11.610,0:00:14.660
They’re momentous occasions both in-story[br]and out because not only is the character

0:00:14.660,0:00:18.560
dead, which is obviously a bummer on its own,[br]but it also means the total loss of all future

0:00:18.560,0:00:20.210
potential for a given character.

0:00:20.210,0:00:25.419
All their arcs, dynamics, relationships, everything[br]- all lost in exchange for a one-shot gutpunch.

0:00:25.419,0:00:29.410
Now most authors recognize that this is a[br]hefty loss for their story, so they make damn

0:00:29.410,0:00:31.369
sure the impact is worth the price.

0:00:31.369,0:00:35.700
True non-fakeout main character deaths are[br]often heroic sacrifices, protracted tragedies,

0:00:35.700,0:00:39.280
or carefully-woven resolutions to their arcs[br]after all the loose ends have been tied up.

0:00:39.280,0:00:42.480
They’re usually given time and narrative[br]weight to reflect this cost.

0:00:42.480,0:00:46.000
The surviving characters will process their[br]grief, reflect on what the loss means to them,

0:00:46.000,0:00:50.110
and are often fundamentally changed by the[br]experience - maybe carrying on their legacy,

0:00:50.110,0:00:53.460
setting off on a lengthy quest for vengeance[br]or viewing their layered and complex life

0:00:53.460,0:00:55.820
as a personal inspiration to guide their way[br]forward.

0:00:55.820,0:00:57.350
This is not that trope.

0:00:57.350,0:01:00.890
“Fridging” is the cute shortened form[br]of the full name of this trope, “stuffed

0:01:00.890,0:01:04.479
in the fridge”, named for a now-infamous[br]issue of a Green Lantern comic where green

0:01:04.479,0:01:08.369
lantern Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend is murdered[br]by the villain Major Force and stuffed in

0:01:08.369,0:01:12.780
the fridge for him to find when he gets home.“Fridging”[br]is the very specific subset of character deaths

0:01:12.780,0:01:17.420
wherein a character is unceremoniously and[br]brutally killed specifically and solely for

0:01:17.420,0:01:20.679
the narrative purpose of hurting another,[br]more important character.

0:01:20.679,0:01:24.460
This motivation can be watsonian or doylist[br]- as in, an in-universe villain motivation

0:01:24.460,0:01:26.380
or out-of-universe authorial intent.

0:01:26.380,0:01:30.509
In watsonian cases, the killer is specifically[br]motivated to kill the fridge-ee because it’ll

0:01:30.509,0:01:31.869
hurt the character who cares about them.

0:01:31.869,0:01:35.930
In doylist cases, the killer might have all[br]kinds of personal reasons to want to unceremoniously

0:01:35.930,0:01:39.630
brutalize this character, but the author’s[br]motivation in killing this character is only

0:01:39.630,0:01:41.570
to make the more important character upset.

0:01:41.570,0:01:45.359
The only narrative role this death plays in-story[br]is hurting a different character, and it’s

0:01:45.359,0:01:47.679
still framed as unceremonious and brisk.

0:01:47.679,0:01:51.289
Fridging almost always refers to character[br]deaths, but sometimes the character is instead

0:01:51.289,0:01:55.119
subjected to some kind of horrible torture[br]or fate worse than death with the same overall

0:01:55.119,0:01:58.719
impact - the character that really matters[br]isn’t the one targeted for the horror, but

0:01:58.719,0:02:02.509
the hero who’s reacting to it, and the fridge-ee’s[br]personal reaction to their awful situation

0:02:02.509,0:02:06.969
is usually glossed over in favor of how much[br]that focus character suffers by proxy.

0:02:06.969,0:02:10.789
Because of Reasons, fridging disproportionately[br]affects female characters, often barely-developed

0:02:10.789,0:02:14.580
moms or love interests whose only salient[br]character traits are “the hero likes them”,

0:02:14.580,0:02:18.260
so when they’re brutalized or murdered,[br]often offscreen, their more nuanced male hero

0:02:18.260,0:02:21.220
fam slash love interests can become deeply[br]unhappy about it.

0:02:21.220,0:02:25.260
In fact, there’s a very easy litmus test[br]to help determine if a character death constitutes

0:02:25.260,0:02:29.110
“fridging” or not: if it could happen[br]entirely offscreen and have just as much impact

0:02:29.110,0:02:32.950
on the story - especially if it does happen[br]offscreen - it’s probably fridging.

0:02:32.950,0:02:37.090
Its only narrative impact is how it bums out[br]the more important characters with no exploration

0:02:37.090,0:02:40.069
of how it affects the character actually being[br]brutalized or killed.

0:02:40.069,0:02:42.930
Getting killed offscreen is such a dismissive[br]f*ck-you to a character.

0:02:42.930,0:02:46.269
There’s no sendoff, no admission of tragedy[br]- the character becomes nothing more than

0:02:46.269,0:02:48.260
a plot device for someone else’s angst.

0:02:48.260,0:02:50.350
Side character or not, nobody deserves that.

0:02:50.350,0:02:53.680
Now the “offscreen” test isn’t quite[br]enough to say if a death is fridging or not.

0:02:53.680,0:02:57.640
See, while fridging is intended solely to[br]upset another character, well-written character

0:02:57.640,0:03:00.879
deaths almost always upset the other characters[br]too - and since the character themself is

0:03:00.879,0:03:04.819
usually too dead to care, most of the lingering[br]ramifications of their death only affect the

0:03:04.819,0:03:06.969
other characters, typically by… upsetting[br]them.

0:03:06.969,0:03:10.190
So the distinction between a fridging death[br]and a non-fridging death isn’t immediately

0:03:10.190,0:03:12.180
obvious from just this definition.

0:03:12.180,0:03:16.590
The key difference is a fridging usually makes[br]the other characters upset briefly and shallowly,

0:03:16.590,0:03:19.340
while a solid character death makes the other[br]characters grieve.

0:03:19.340,0:03:23.480
Frequently, fridged characters are never spoken[br]of again after the arc they died in is resolved,

0:03:23.480,0:03:24.970
or even before it’s resolved.

0:03:24.970,0:03:28.390
(Try and convince me that Luke Skywalker was[br]still bummed about Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru

0:03:28.390,0:03:29.390
ten minutes later.)

0:03:29.390,0:03:32.890
So as a second fridging litmus test I’d[br]like to propose a corollary of the iconic

0:03:32.890,0:03:36.629
Sexy Lamp Test, which explores if a story[br]would meaningfully change if a character was

0:03:36.629,0:03:37.659
replaced with a sexy lamp.

0:03:37.659,0:03:39.440
This is the property damage test.

0:03:39.440,0:03:43.159
If a dead character could be replaced by someone’s[br]prized pokemon card collection and their loss

0:03:43.159,0:03:47.640
would have the same or more emotional impact[br]on the plot, that character was probably fridged.

0:03:47.640,0:03:51.430
Now this is kind of a rarity for this show[br]- but Fridging is a bad trope.

0:03:51.430,0:03:56.140
It’s not a frequently misused trope or a[br]hard to handle trope, it’s bad writing.

0:03:56.140,0:03:59.720
Character deaths are not bad trope-wise, but[br]fridging specifically indicates a lack of

0:03:59.720,0:04:02.660
respect for the fridged character and their[br]narrative potential.

0:04:02.660,0:04:05.519
Fridging weighs a character’s potential[br]worth to the story and concludes that all

0:04:05.519,0:04:09.069
their future potential and growth and dynamics[br]in the narrative are worth less than another

0:04:09.069,0:04:11.780
character feeling kinda bad for a little while.

0:04:11.780,0:04:15.580
This is reflected both outside of the story[br]and in the story, since this character’s

0:04:15.580,0:04:19.180
killer - be it the character who kills them[br]or the author who makes the call - demonstrably

0:04:19.180,0:04:22.420
couldn’t give a sh*t about them in their[br]own right, instead choosing to focus entirely

0:04:22.420,0:04:26.210
on how ending this character’s life will[br]make another character upset for an arc or

0:04:26.210,0:04:27.210
two.

0:04:27.210,0:04:30.240
Their own life and death isn’t as important[br]or deserving of focus as hurting the hero

0:04:30.240,0:04:31.240
by proxy.

0:04:31.240,0:04:34.419
This successfully indicates that the killer[br]is a terrible person, but it also reflects

0:04:34.419,0:04:36.680
a level of dismissiveness from the author.

0:04:36.680,0:04:41.040
A love interest/beloved character can be killed[br](or deeply, deeply hurt) in a way that predominantly

0:04:41.040,0:04:44.590
affects the plot by hurting another character[br]- without it feeling like fridging.

0:04:44.590,0:04:46.800
This is largely a matter of the execution,[br]pun intended.

0:04:46.800,0:04:51.020
If the death is unceremonious and quick (and[br]offscreen), that’s a pretty bad sign, since

0:04:51.020,0:04:54.470
it doesn’t really give the character their[br]due - it doesn’t highlight the tragedy of

0:04:54.470,0:04:58.950
their life and potential lost, it just focuses[br]on why and how this makes the main character

0:04:58.950,0:04:59.950
sad.

0:04:59.950,0:05:03.819
Every character is the hero of their own story,[br]and if they die just to further someone else’s,

0:05:03.819,0:05:07.669
it denies that character the basic dignity[br]of being their own person, who exists as more

0:05:07.669,0:05:09.500
than just a prop in someone else’s life.

0:05:09.500,0:05:13.620
It takes their death and the loss of their[br]entire future life and minimizes it down into

0:05:13.620,0:05:16.560
a short, brief emotional impact on another[br]character.

0:05:16.560,0:05:17.560
It's dismissive.

0:05:17.560,0:05:21.300
Now we’re about to enter the Spicy Take[br]Zone, because you know the MCU is my old favorite

0:05:21.300,0:05:25.810
punching bag, but personally this is how I[br]felt about most of the major character permadeaths

0:05:25.810,0:05:28.990
in Infinity War and Endgame, especially Gamora[br]and Black Widow.

0:05:28.990,0:05:32.849
Loki and Vision do die fairly quickly and[br]unceremoniously primarily to hurt the characters

0:05:32.849,0:05:36.880
invested in them, but they’re given narrative[br]weight and some dignity in the process - it

0:05:36.880,0:05:40.710
feels unfair and tragic in-universe that they[br]couldn’t be saved, rather than feeling like

0:05:40.710,0:05:41.710
bad writing.

0:05:41.710,0:05:44.289
But Gamora… well, it’s actually kinda[br]fascinating.

0:05:44.289,0:05:48.080
In the two movies she’d been in, her entire[br]arc had centered on escaping Thanos and his

0:05:48.080,0:05:51.940
deeply fucked-up abusive parenting situation,[br]healing and growing as a person and learning

0:05:51.940,0:05:53.880
to trust and even love her new friends.

0:05:53.880,0:05:57.690
Her dynamic with Nebula was following that[br]same track - realizing they weren’t enemies,

0:05:57.690,0:06:01.830
but victims of the same terrible situation[br]and the same manipulative, tortuous narcissist.

0:06:01.830,0:06:05.729
Thanos’s shadow looms large over Gamora’s[br]arc as the root cause of all the pain and

0:06:05.729,0:06:09.069
suffering in her life and the thing that scares[br]her most that she’s constantly fighting

0:06:09.069,0:06:10.069
to escape.

0:06:10.069,0:06:13.680
In Infinity War, Thanos is told by Red Skull[br]that in order to get the soul stone he has

0:06:13.680,0:06:15.259
to sacrifice something he loves.

0:06:15.259,0:06:16.289
So he kills Gamora.

0:06:16.289,0:06:17.289
Like, permanently.

0:06:17.289,0:06:18.289
She's dead.

0:06:18.289,0:06:19.289
Now that’s bad enough.

0:06:19.289,0:06:20.539
It’s worse that it works.

0:06:20.539,0:06:24.389
Gamora believes that Thanos is incapable of[br]love - and quite frankly, by every indication,

0:06:24.389,0:06:25.389
she’s right.

0:06:25.389,0:06:28.500
He’s a raging narcissist who can’t see[br]past his own chins and this should have been

0:06:28.500,0:06:30.460
the test of character that screwed him over.

0:06:30.460,0:06:34.539
(And, also, like… “you must kill your[br]loved one to get this powerful macguffin and

0:06:34.539,0:06:39.180
become strong” is like, baby’s first obvious[br]secret test of moral character, and it’s

0:06:39.180,0:06:43.620
frankly criminal that killing your loved ones[br]was actually the only way to get the stone.

0:06:43.620,0:06:45.130
That's just lazy writing!

0:06:45.130,0:06:49.009
Like, you- you had the grimdark option and[br]you had the actually interesting option and

0:06:49.009,0:06:52.650
you picked grimdark cuz you thought grimdark[br]was AUTOMATICALLY more interesting.

0:06:52.650,0:06:53.780
That's just disappointing.)

0:06:53.780,0:06:57.491
Anyway - but it’d be bad enough if they[br]just undercut Gamora’s whole personal arc

0:06:57.491,0:07:00.770
by saying that the irredeemably evil overarching[br]supervillain who slaughtered her people and

0:07:00.770,0:07:04.460
tortured her and Nebula for decades actually[br]truly loved her all along.

0:07:04.460,0:07:09.810
It crosses the line twice by having him prove[br]that he loved her by murdering her.

0:07:09.810,0:07:13.730
Gamora’s entire arc and place in the narrative[br]is undercut and sacrificed to give Thanos

0:07:13.730,0:07:17.819
a character trait that makes no sense for[br]him and to make Starlord sad so he acts dumb

0:07:17.819,0:07:22.319
in the finale - oh, and to make Thanos sad,[br]which is given more focus and weight than

0:07:22.319,0:07:23.819
Starlord being sad.

0:07:23.819,0:07:28.389
Because obviously making the pure evil villain[br]kinda bummed out was worth the cost of one

0:07:28.389,0:07:30.110
of Marvel’s most interesting heroines.

0:07:30.110,0:07:34.900
Like, I see what they were going for, but[br]it… it didn't work well, it was a bad idea,

0:07:34.900,0:07:38.979
and it completely undercut everything Gamora[br]had had in the previous movies, which is very

0:07:38.979,0:07:39.979
disappointing.

0:07:39.979,0:07:44.009
Meanwhile, Black Widow’s death is similar[br]to Gamora’s but is bad for different reasons

0:07:44.009,0:07:47.340
- because unlike Gamora, who had too much[br]character weight and potential to warrant

0:07:47.340,0:07:52.039
her unceremonious death, Black Widow was completely[br]underutilized by every other movie she’d

0:07:52.039,0:07:54.280
been in with the arguable exception of Winter[br]Soldier.

0:07:54.280,0:07:58.280
We had this franchise for a decade and we[br]never got an arc for Widow that was deeper

0:07:58.280,0:08:00.700
than "she's hot" or "she's boning the Hulk".

0:08:00.700,0:08:04.500
This made her narratively disposable, but[br]you can tell that the writers realized she

0:08:04.500,0:08:08.229
was too disposable for it to be impactful,[br]because for the first half of Endgame they

0:08:08.229,0:08:12.639
speedrun the whole characterization process[br]by suddenly giving her some character focus,

0:08:12.639,0:08:16.060
a dynamic with the other heroes and an alleged[br]personal arc about treasuring the avengers

0:08:16.060,0:08:17.539
as a found family all along.

0:08:17.539,0:08:20.840
It was an attempt to make up for lost time[br]so we’d be sold on her Heroic Sacrifice,

0:08:20.840,0:08:22.530
but it was clearly token.

0:08:22.530,0:08:25.440
The fact that the movie completely stopped[br]acknowledging her death five minutes after

0:08:25.440,0:08:29.099
they got back is really just kind of indicative[br]of how little she actually mattered.

0:08:29.099,0:08:33.169
Tony’s heroic sacrifice got every hero in[br]the MCU paying their respects, a protracted

0:08:33.169,0:08:36.979
funeral scene and an entire movie about how[br]hard it is for the MCU to move on without

0:08:36.979,0:08:40.669
him - Tasha got a bench in a lake and a solo[br]movie a year and a half after she died.

0:08:40.669,0:08:43.479
If we were supposed to believe she really[br]mattered, the story should’ve acted like

0:08:43.479,0:08:44.479
it.

0:08:44.479,0:08:47.620
And it should've acted like it for longer[br]than just, like, the hour long windup to her…

0:08:47.620,0:08:48.620
dying.

0:08:48.620,0:08:49.620
To advance the plot.

0:08:49.620,0:08:51.640
For stupid, contrived reasons.

0:08:51.640,0:08:53.060
Was she just getting to expensive?

0:08:53.060,0:08:54.350
Is that what the problem was?

0:08:54.350,0:08:55.350
I mean, come on, guys.

0:08:55.350,0:08:59.829
And it’s kind of telling that the MCU has[br]rolled back or undercut all four of those

0:08:59.829,0:09:01.339
deaths in one way or another.

0:09:01.339,0:09:04.890
Loki and Gamora have time-displaced versions[br]with zero character development running around

0:09:04.890,0:09:09.320
to replace their more interesting dead versions,[br]Vision got an actual proper sendoff in Wandavision

0:09:09.320,0:09:12.620
and Wanda got to actually grieve, plus he’s[br]got his own not-quite-the-same copy running

0:09:12.620,0:09:16.029
around now for future appearances, and of[br]course Black Widow is finally getting that

0:09:16.029,0:09:20.500
solo movie we were promised, which is a damn[br]hard sell at this point now that she’s already

0:09:20.500,0:09:22.500
dead and thus, frankly, irrelevant.

0:09:22.500,0:09:26.700
If the deaths had been properly impactful[br]and narratively worth the cost, none of this

0:09:26.700,0:09:28.360
rollback would have been necessary.

0:09:28.360,0:09:32.940
Now in fairness, the fact of the matter is[br]that characters are not… real people.

0:09:32.940,0:09:36.640
Characters are parts of a story and they exist[br]to further a narrative, and some of them really

0:09:36.640,0:09:39.279
are just props in other character’s lives.

0:09:39.279,0:09:41.580
And that's not a morally bad thing.

0:09:41.580,0:09:44.040
But the story probably shouldn’t make you[br]think that!

0:09:44.040,0:09:47.070
Sure, we the audience may be able to guess[br]that the hero’s small peaceful town and

0:09:47.070,0:09:50.990
stern but fair father figure just exist to[br]get torched by the dark lord in episode one

0:09:50.990,0:09:54.130
to set up the inciting incident and set them[br]on the hero’s journey, but the hero doesn’t

0:09:54.130,0:09:57.040
know that, and that's what's supposed to be[br]important about this!

0:09:57.040,0:09:59.310
To the hero that’s their whole world!

0:09:59.310,0:10:02.800
Torching that town and icing that father figure[br]offscreen just tells the audience that the

0:10:02.800,0:10:06.660
hero might theoretically care, but we don’t[br]have to and the story won't really convince

0:10:06.660,0:10:08.320
you that the hero DOES care.

0:10:08.320,0:10:12.530
It disconnects us from someone we’re supposed[br]to be relating to, and it undercuts the emotional

0:10:12.530,0:10:15.730
impact of the death when the emotional impact[br]of the death is the only thing this trope

0:10:15.730,0:10:16.730
has!

0:10:16.730,0:10:20.220
Now if the father figure had been with us[br]for, say, two seasons or the first act or

0:10:20.220,0:10:23.950
two of a movie - serving as a mentor figure,[br]for instance - we’d expect him to die with

0:10:23.950,0:10:26.750
some fanfare, and we'd be weirded out and[br]upset if he didn't.

0:10:26.750,0:10:30.250
A heroic sacrifice, a dying monologue, an[br]admission that the hero made him a better

0:10:30.250,0:10:33.540
man and so very proud, several references[br]to him after he dies so we remember how he

0:10:33.540,0:10:36.950
affected the hero’s journey - if we didn’t[br]get that kinda thing we’d feel cheated.

0:10:36.950,0:10:41.100
But just because we the audience haven’t[br]seen the chapter 1 dead dad for very long,

0:10:41.100,0:10:44.700
the author feels comfortable torching the[br]place offscreen after a single expository

0:10:44.700,0:10:48.170
line of dialogue and then expects us to feel[br]for the hero when the story hasn’t made

0:10:48.170,0:10:49.590
this death feel meaningful!

0:10:49.590,0:10:52.270
In this structure, the amount of weight a[br]character death is given is not proportionate

0:10:52.270,0:10:57.310
to how important the character is, it's proportional[br]to how much screentime the character was given,

0:10:57.310,0:11:01.029
which has nothing to do with how the characters[br]should be reacting to this loss.

0:11:01.029,0:11:03.690
Fridging is a very disliked trope for several[br]reasons.

0:11:03.690,0:11:07.100
For one thing, you’ll be hard-pressed to[br]find a heroic death trope people that like.

0:11:07.100,0:11:10.260
Heroic sacrifices are basically the only one[br]that’s even halfway appreciated, since for

0:11:10.260,0:11:12.820
the most part killing a character is gonna[br]feel bad.

0:11:12.820,0:11:16.860
But more importantly, fridging lacks the counterbalancing[br]qualities that can make a character death

0:11:16.860,0:11:18.410
feel satisfying or earned.

0:11:18.410,0:11:22.100
A hero might die gallantly defending their[br]loved ones, which is heartwarmingly heroic,

0:11:22.100,0:11:25.560
with an element of free will and choice - or[br]fully at peace with their fate, making their

0:11:25.560,0:11:29.250
death a natural conclusion to their arc - or[br]with some other caveat that makes the audience

0:11:29.250,0:11:31.589
believe that their death works to end their[br]personal arc.

0:11:31.589,0:11:35.740
And if their death is tragic and unfair, it’ll[br]often be tortuously prolonged to really drive

0:11:35.740,0:11:40.000
home to the audience that, yeah, sorry, it’s[br]not a fluke or a fakeout, this character isn’t

0:11:40.000,0:11:41.000
making it through this one.

0:11:41.000,0:11:44.390
For a classic Fullmetal Alchemist example[br]- spoiler alert - Maes Hughes, professional

0:11:44.390,0:11:48.430
funnyman and sweetheart, is unexpectedly killed[br]fairly early in the series because he figured

0:11:48.430,0:11:51.690
out the overarching plot way too early so[br]the villains needed him out of the way.

0:11:51.690,0:11:55.290
His death serves as a major motivation for[br]most of the heroes, most notably Roy Mustang

0:11:55.290,0:11:59.269
- but it’s not just a token heroic motivator[br]to get the protagonists in gear.

0:11:59.269,0:12:00.329
It feels awful.

0:12:00.329,0:12:04.829
It’s tragic, it’s unfair, he fights very[br]hard to stop it from happening, his wife and

0:12:04.829,0:12:08.040
daughter are devastated, and the ramifications[br]are felt all the way up to the finale.

0:12:08.040,0:12:12.480
This death would not work the same if it happened[br]offscreen and could not be replaced by a binder

0:12:12.480,0:12:13.580
of pokemon cards.

0:12:13.580,0:12:16.390
It means too much to the story, so it’s[br]not fridging.

0:12:16.390,0:12:19.620
Fridged characters do not get this kind of[br]treatment - and frankly they’re lucky if

0:12:19.620,0:12:20.949
they get personal arcs at all.

0:12:20.949,0:12:24.960
They die only to make another, more important[br]character feel sad or mad.

0:12:24.960,0:12:28.310
It’s not a heroic sacrifice, they have no[br]agency in it, they’re not at peace with

0:12:28.310,0:12:32.240
it and their personal arcs (if they get them)[br]aren’t neatly resolved in time for it.

0:12:32.240,0:12:36.050
Their death or brutalization is cruel and[br]unfair because it’s designed to feel cruel

0:12:36.050,0:12:39.709
and unfair to the character they’re supposed[br]to hurt or motivate, but as a result it undercuts

0:12:39.709,0:12:43.810
the only semi-okay parts of character deaths[br]and just makes the experience relentlessly

0:12:43.810,0:12:46.120
unpleasant and catharsis-free for the audience.

0:12:46.120,0:12:49.880
Now this is not a mistake - this is an intentional[br]part of the trope, because it essentially

0:12:49.880,0:12:53.760
sets up an unstable narrative situation the[br]protagonist must now work to stabilize and

0:12:53.760,0:12:56.449
resolve - usually by hunting down and stopping[br]the killer.

0:12:56.449,0:13:00.339
This is a motivation that starts an arc, so[br]it’s not meant to feel like an arc resolution,

0:13:00.339,0:13:03.500
which is often the only part of a character[br]death the audience halfway appreciates.

0:13:03.500,0:13:07.060
But it betrays a fundamental dismissal of[br]the fridged character, which undercuts the

0:13:07.060,0:13:09.040
very emotional impact they’re trying to[br]invoke.

0:13:09.040,0:13:13.850
As an example, when Alan Moore wrote the Killing[br]Joke, Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, is shot,

0:13:13.850,0:13:18.230
paralyzed and brutalized by The Joker - entirely[br]to upset Jim Gordon and Batman and kick off

0:13:18.230,0:13:19.449
one last terrible joke.

0:13:19.449,0:13:24.420
She’s not even killed, but how this traumatic[br]event affects her is… entirely glossed over

0:13:24.420,0:13:25.420
in-story.

0:13:25.420,0:13:28.290
In fact, all she says to Batman afterwards,[br]from her hospital bed, is how worried she

0:13:28.290,0:13:30.209
is about what the joker’s gonna do to her[br]dad.

0:13:30.209,0:13:34.460
It's heroic of her to be concerned, but that’s[br]not why her reaction was written that way.

0:13:34.460,0:13:36.220
Barbara didn’t matter to this story.

0:13:36.220,0:13:39.750
Alan Moore has actually said he kinda regrets[br]treating her that way - he thinks his editor

0:13:39.750,0:13:43.330
probably should’ve reined him in instead[br]of responding with, and I am apparently quoting,

0:13:43.330,0:13:45.139
“yeah, okay, cripple the bitch.”

0:13:45.139,0:13:48.759
That fundamental dismissiveness on the part[br]of the creator really does drive home that

0:13:48.759,0:13:51.120
fridging is a fundamentally broken trope.

0:13:51.120,0:13:54.130
If the author doesn’t care about the character[br]enough to give their pain narrative weight,

0:13:54.130,0:13:57.500
they’ll have a very hard time convincing[br]the audience to care when they suffer.

0:13:57.500,0:14:01.269
The only way the author can make the audience[br]care in this situation is by making this unimportant

0:14:01.269,0:14:04.880
death hurt another, more important character[br]- but since the author doesn’t care about

0:14:04.880,0:14:08.170
the fridged character, they’ll have a hard[br]time writing the more important character’s

0:14:08.170,0:14:09.170
reaction to their fridging!

0:14:09.170,0:14:12.480
The more important character cares more about[br]the fridged character than the author does,

0:14:12.480,0:14:16.480
so how is the author supposed to write their[br]grief when they clearly can’t even imagine

0:14:16.480,0:14:17.480
it?

0:14:17.480,0:14:20.060
It comes across as shallow and hollow because,[br]on a very real level, it is.

0:14:20.060,0:14:24.190
A fridging isn’t just lacking in resolution[br]- it’s usually lacking in real emotional

0:14:24.190,0:14:25.190
weight.

0:14:25.190,0:14:28.259
We’re lucky if we really know the character[br]who dies, and if we don’t, then killing

0:14:28.259,0:14:31.440
them only affects us by how it affects the[br]characters who care about them, and only if

0:14:31.440,0:14:33.560
we care about those characters in turn.

0:14:33.560,0:14:36.769
Killing off a character we’re not invested[br]in tells us that character was never going

0:14:36.769,0:14:40.160
to matter on their own merit, which can disengage[br]the audience from the story as a whole.

0:14:40.160,0:14:43.899
So opening a story by fridging someone sends[br]a pretty clear message to the audience that

0:14:43.899,0:14:47.980
most characters don’t matter, which speedruns[br]the “disengaged audience” problem right

0:14:47.980,0:14:48.980
out the gate.

0:14:48.980,0:14:51.100
Fun fact, this is how Supernatural begins.

0:14:51.100,0:14:54.651
I tried watching it way back when and lost[br]interest after the first season or so, but

0:14:54.651,0:14:57.250
I remember the pilot cuz it’s burned into[br]my brain.

0:14:57.250,0:14:59.670
Even at the time I could kinda tell the writing[br]wasn’t working.

0:14:59.670,0:15:03.079
First scene: we meet our protagonists as young[br]children in an idyllic home with their father

0:15:03.079,0:15:04.079
and mother.

0:15:04.079,0:15:06.209
Smash cut to the night, their father wakes[br]up to see his wife stuck to the ceiling with

0:15:06.209,0:15:07.209
a horrified expression.

0:15:07.209,0:15:09.170
Then she explodes and the house burns down.

0:15:09.170,0:15:12.200
Smash cut to the main plot: it's a couple[br]decades later, brother #1 is in college and

0:15:12.200,0:15:14.980
has a girlfriend, brother #2 shows up and[br]tries to give him a call to adventure to make

0:15:14.980,0:15:16.220
the actual plot happen.

0:15:16.220,0:15:19.730
Brother #1 refuses because he’s got so much[br]going for him in his personal life right now.

0:15:19.730,0:15:22.769
Then brother #1's girlfriend gets stuck to[br]the ceiling and explodes so it's time for

0:15:22.769,0:15:23.769
a road trip!

0:15:23.769,0:15:25.839
The first time it happened it was kinda spooky.

0:15:25.839,0:15:28.470
The second time it happened I actually laughed.

0:15:28.470,0:15:31.860
I looked this up to make sure I was remembering[br]the details right, and apparently in the plot

0:15:31.860,0:15:35.440
both of these women were killed specifically[br]because the bad guy had plans for the protagonist

0:15:35.440,0:15:38.180
- and in the case of the girlfriend, he’s[br]the one who introduced them in the first place

0:15:38.180,0:15:40.569
specifically so he could manipulate the protagonist[br]by killing her.

0:15:40.569,0:15:41.569
That’s just…

0:15:41.569,0:15:42.569
I mean, god.

0:15:42.569,0:15:43.569
That’s so funny.

0:15:43.569,0:15:44.569
That's the PILOT.

0:15:44.569,0:15:46.060
No wonder death is meaningless in this show.

0:15:46.060,0:15:48.670
So fridging tries to have things both ways.

0:15:48.670,0:15:51.980
It gives us a character who clearly doesn’t[br]matter on their own and then kills them in

0:15:51.980,0:15:55.050
a way that highlights that they didn’t matter[br]to the story by their own merit, but then

0:15:55.050,0:15:58.720
tries to tell us that their death really really[br]mattered to the character we’re supposed

0:15:58.720,0:16:00.000
to sympathize with.

0:16:00.000,0:16:03.839
It’s like the worst kind of damsel in distress[br]- a character in trouble whose only trait

0:16:03.839,0:16:05.750
we’re given to care about is that they’re[br]in trouble.

0:16:05.750,0:16:07.570
It’s almost the epitome of tell don’t[br]show.

0:16:07.570,0:16:10.870
If we don’t care about the character and[br]they die quickly and unceremoniously, we never

0:16:10.870,0:16:11.940
have a reason to care.

0:16:11.940,0:16:15.000
If we do care about the character and they[br]die quickly and unceremoniously and all we

0:16:15.000,0:16:18.960
focus on is how bad it makes someone else[br]feel, it feels like a bad use of their potential

0:16:18.960,0:16:21.970
and makes us aware of the hand of the author,[br]which is never a good thing.

0:16:21.970,0:16:26.399
Now some authors recognize this without really[br]recognizing the problem, and will try to play

0:16:26.399,0:16:27.470
it one of two ways.

0:16:27.470,0:16:30.779
In one school of thought, the soon-to-be-fridged[br]character will suddenly be given an unprecedented

0:16:30.779,0:16:34.180
amount of onscreen focus and a handful of[br]purposefully heartwarming or cute character

0:16:34.180,0:16:37.880
traits to quickly get the audience invested[br]in this hitherto non-character so it feels

0:16:37.880,0:16:39.509
halfway momentous when they die.

0:16:39.509,0:16:42.790
I like to call this the Whedon School Of Fridging,[br]or the Coulson Effect.

0:16:42.790,0:16:45.720
This is the author’s attempt to speedrun[br]the Getting The Audience Invested process

0:16:45.720,0:16:50.339
without having to actually make the character[br]stand on their own, or, like… matter.

0:16:50.339,0:16:54.090
And on the flipside, sometimes a fridged character[br]will give some kind of token justification

0:16:54.090,0:16:58.040
for why their death is Okay Actually, usually[br]along the lines of “I’m at peace now”

0:16:58.040,0:17:01.450
or “I already have everything I wanted”[br]or “the real treasure was our friendship”

0:17:01.450,0:17:02.450
or something.

0:17:02.450,0:17:05.800
This is an attempt to kludge together a “satisfying[br]character resolution” so it doesn’t feel

0:17:05.800,0:17:10.370
completely unceremonious, but it suffers from[br]the fact that the fridged character definitely

0:17:10.370,0:17:11.760
didn’t have an arc leading up to it.

0:17:11.760,0:17:15.171
It doesn’t fully counterbalance the disengaging[br]gutpunch of an unceremonious character death

0:17:15.171,0:17:17.280
because it feels token and disconnected.

0:17:17.280,0:17:20.800
If the character’s arc was really resolved,[br]we probably shouldn’t need to hear them

0:17:20.800,0:17:24.860
say it out loud seconds before they die - it’s[br]like how we shouldn’t need to hear the characters

0:17:24.860,0:17:27.623
say “I love you” to know they’re in[br]love, you know?

0:17:27.623,0:17:29.960
“I love you” shouldn’t be a surprise[br]to the audience and neither should “I’m

0:17:29.960,0:17:33.740
totes cool with death now” - both just end[br]up feeling like a way to compensate for inadequate

0:17:33.740,0:17:34.740
writing last-minute.

0:17:34.740,0:17:38.640
You may recall, Black Widow’s death in Endgame[br]did both of these things, and it was bad,

0:17:38.640,0:17:41.480
because neither of these writing tricks make[br]up for wasted character potential.

0:17:41.480,0:17:44.310
Avoiding fridging is a matter of giving the[br]character their narrative due.

0:17:44.310,0:17:47.800
It’s about treating them like they really[br]are the hero of their own story and writing

0:17:47.800,0:17:51.570
their death or brutalization as if that’s[br]where the story actually ends.

0:17:51.570,0:17:54.980
How much more impactful would a fridging be[br]if the story actually acted like an important

0:17:54.980,0:17:56.590
story was ending with their death?

0:17:56.590,0:18:01.120
And how many riots would there be if an actually[br]important main character was iced as unceremoniously

0:18:01.120,0:18:02.530
as these fridging victims are?

0:18:02.530,0:18:05.850
If Captain America had gone over that cliff[br]with a token little half-smile and an "I'm

0:18:05.850,0:18:09.120
at peace now" there would've been f*ckin'[br]riots in the streets and you know it.

0:18:09.120,0:18:13.710
I guess this is another trope that just boils[br]down to “it’s better to write actual characters

0:18:13.710,0:18:17.120
with agency and personal goals instead of[br]people-shaped plot devices.”

0:18:17.120,0:18:19.150
It's funny how often that happens.

0:18:19.150,0:18:20.150
So… yeah?

0:18:20.150,0:18:22.000
And thanks again to World Anvil for sponsoring[br]this video!

0:18:22.000,0:18:25.130
As you may know, World Anvil is designed to[br]help organize your worldbuilding, making the

0:18:25.130,0:18:28.170
whole process easier for writers, gamers and[br]creators of all stripes!

0:18:28.170,0:18:31.630
It’s a browser-based worldbuilding and novel[br]writing software with interactive worldmaps,

0:18:31.630,0:18:35.300
family trees, a fully customizable calendar,[br]custom wikis you can use for your characters

0:18:35.300,0:18:38.810
and events, a built-in word processor with[br]a scrivener-like layout, and plot and story

0:18:38.810,0:18:39.810
timelines.

0:18:39.810,0:18:42.850
They also recently added a new tool called[br]“Chronos” that lets you create multiple

0:18:42.850,0:18:46.300
visual timelines, which also connects to a[br]map view - or more than one map view - to

0:18:46.300,0:18:48.430
show how things change in your story over[br]time.

0:18:48.430,0:18:52.450
You can use it to navigate events, wars, character[br]lives, the spread of a religion - pretty much

0:18:52.450,0:18:53.920
anything that happens in spacetime.

0:18:53.920,0:18:57.400
You can also make them public so other people[br]can use them to track your story and world!

0:18:57.400,0:19:00.350
So if all that sounds interesting, check out[br]the link in the description for more details,

0:19:00.350,0:19:03.820
and if you wanna spring for an annual membership,[br]you can now get 30% off with the promo code

0:19:03.820,0:19:04.890
OVERLYSARCASTIC!