fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2674 ]

[ SECRET POST #2674 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2674 ⌋

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay, I have to ask this, but what is everyone's definition of "Fridging"?

Because the way I've been seeing it used here is way different than how I use it.

My definition of fridging is when any character is killed just to fuel the main character's angst and only for the main character's angst, not pushing the plot or anything. Not gender specific in either respect. AKA- mostly how Tvtropes define (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StuffedIntoTheFridge)

This may be a bad idea to post this when I'm stupidly tired but god damn it this has been annoying me.

Edited 2014-04-30 02:04 (UTC)

This is the definition I first came across:

Women in Refrigerators

...and they appear to have taken most of the explanation away. Huh.

As I understand it, fridging - as it tends to be used in criticism - is

1. Character who exists only to die
2. Death serves only to fuel protagonist's angst - maybe it can also "fuel the plot" but serves to make us feel sorry for the protagonist (notably not so much the actual character who died)
3. Usually a woman. I think it's fair to use fridging to describe anyone, but I generally have seen it about women, maybe because so many women die to fuel angst. I'd also think it often applies to children, and probably parents, too, but I think the term originated when pointing out sexism in stories.

I'm not necessarily anti-fridging - I think it's okay for things to happen to the protagonist that hurts them. I think the only time it'd bug me is if the character who dies is badly written, or very obviously written just for the sake of dying, and seems inauthentic because of that. Depending on the story, I'd also probably be irritated if the only female character happened to be the one who was fridged.

I think I am more willing to agree with a diagnosis of fridging if it includes your point about making the audience care about the protagonist but not about the dead character.

How are you seeing it used here?

Honestly? Lately, there has been the vibe that "A female character I liked died"= Fridging. Hell, I saw someone say that if a female character is died to push the plot, then that's fridging. It's kind of irritating.

Hmm, I see what you're saying. It definitely depends on which female character dies and in what manner, and I don't see that it would always even have to be a female character.

I think pretty similarly to you. Fridging is when a character is killed (coma'd, whatever) purely to give the main character(s) motivational anger or guilt. The fridgee is pretty much a prop that might have some lines. More fridginess if the character dies onscreen.

This has always been my definition too. I don't consider a character to be fridged if they were developed as an actual character before their death.

I use it when the person killed has no personality of their own, or no personality we get to have learned about or no screentime and we're only told about them. They're like a blank slate that only existed to die.

I think there's another problem where even women characters who actually had a real role in a story die more often than men. But I wouldn't necessarily call them frigid.

I agree, it's about a death causing angst/trauma but not advancing the plot much (if at all). I would consider Jill Masterson from Goldfinger an archetypical example.

I think I'd go a bit broader than that, especially if by "pushing the plot" one means "AND NOW HE'S OUT TO GET REVENGE". That's classic fridging.

That's what my understanding of fridging someone means. Killing a character just for the sake of making another character angst, and said dead not being relevant to, or affecting the plot.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #2674 ]

The Definition of Fridging

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