Defrosting Ice Queen/Video Games


Examples of Defrosting Ice Queens in Video Games include:

Visual Novels

  • Adrian Andrews in Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All. She is smart, calculating, and is pretty much straight to the point. She doesn't like to waste time with trifling details and will shut you down if you try to talk to her about topics that don't get her attention. However, all of this is just a mask. She only acts cold because she is pretending to be tough and independent. Celeste Inpax, her mentor, was her strength and when she committed suicide, Adrian tried to do the same as well. Her cold demeanor is to hide the fact that she can't live on without depending on other people. By Trials and Tribulations, she is a much more cheery person.
    • Also Lana Skye in in the Bonus case of the first game. When Phoenix first meets her, she seems devoid of emotion, but once the case has been won, she can smile at last. The reason for her behavior is because Gant blackmailed her into becoming Chief Prosecutor and assisting with his schemes in order to avoid having Ema be suspected of Neil Marshall's murder, and Lana became cold in order to endure doing illegal things fo him.
    • Franziska Von Karma, of all people, begins warming up a bit in Trials and Tribulations during the time when Maya is missing.
    • Miles Edgeworth would count, also. He's cold and rude towards everyone, even when Wright becomes his lawyer in 1-4 and believes in his innocence the whole time. He begins to show emotion during his trial, where his LIP TREMBLES after Maya gets held in contempt of court to save the case and he gets persuaded to show his happiness for being acquitted in an extremely awkward shout.
  • Saber from Fate/stay night. Shirou wins her over via the standard tactic of getting the shit kicked out of him repeatedly. Saber, of course, spends the entire time wondering why anyone would go to such lengths to protect her, Broken Bird that she is.
  • Subverted in Umineko no Naku Koro ni. A large part of episode 3 of the visual novel focuses on Beatrice realizing how cruelly she has been abusing her powers until that point. She reforms, eventually even helping the Ushiromiya side of the game board, and ends up denying witches to have Battler win the game, causing her own demise. At the very end of episode 3, all of this is revealed to only be an act to get Battler to voluntarily recognize the existence of witches, and Battler almost signs a contract to do so until he is interrupted by the unexpected visitor Ange, who explains to him that he has been tricked.
  • Dark Souls has Rhea and Quelana. Rhea is an uptight princess who warms up to the player after rescuing her after her companions all either betrayer her or died, leaving her trapped in a pitch black cave filled with dangerous monsters. Quelana is one of the Daughters of Chaos, the children of the Witch of Izalith. After her mother and sisters where horribly corrupted after a failed experiment, Quelana became a Broken Bird who eventually warms up the to the player after they prove their skill with pyromancy and by ending her mother's suffering.

UNSORTED

  • Metal Gear Solid's Solid Snake goes from gruffly agonising about the battlefield and trying to avoid revealing he's falling in love to making speeches about love and how beautiful caribou are. He's not quite as sappy in his later appearances, but much more emotionally-open and compassionate than he was at the start.
    • Played with quite a bit in MGS3, where Naked Snake/Big Boss spends most of the game stubbornly refusing to play along with EVA's advances on him, often in quite tragic ways, particularly when at one point, EVA kisses him passionately, and Snake simply stands there, with a hollow, yet sad expression on his face, as if he is incapable of feeling any form of attachment. It gets interesting when Snake finally warms up to EVA, and it seems they may in fact live Happily Ever After, but in reality, EVA was playing Snake from the beginning, and would have killed him, were it not for the Boss asking her to tell Snake the truth. The result is not only the re icing of his heart, but the beginning of his descent into villainy as Big Boss.
  • Most otome games include at least one (male) example of this. Probably the most memorable was Himuro Reiichi in Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, the protagonist's overly-strict homeroom teacher. If pursued long enough he is reduced to a blushing sensitive sap who loves to play the piano and go for long drives in the countryside. Eventually he confesses his undying love for the main character in a shy sort of way.
    • From the first Tokimeki Memorial, there's Mira Kagami. Also somewhat of a Broken Bird who had her heart broken many times when younger, so she swore off love completely to not get hurt again.
    • And Tokimeki Memorial 2 has Kaori Yae, who's a Broken Bird like Mira, albeit for different reasons : she was betrayed by her friends of the Volley-Ball Club she was a member of in her former High School, who abandoned her after she Took The Heat in order to save the club from a scandal. She'll need a considerable ammount of The Power of Love from the protagonist to heal the scars in her heart and make her turn back to her former Genki Girl self. No wonder she's the Ensemble Darkhorse of this game.
  • Demon Princess Rozalin from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. A partial subversion of the standard-issue Fairytale princess with an unbearably arrogant (and murderous) attitude - and a hand-held gatling-gun. It's downright impressive how many chapters she lasted before falling into the arms of the handsome, red-headed, fist-fighting hero, really....
    • It did help that he didn't like women, and that before he got some Character Development he didn't seem like much more than a hot-headed thug out to kill her father.
  • Rouge the Bat is the Sonic the Hedgehog series' representative of this. Beginning as a villainous jewel thief who wanted to acquire the Master Emerald for herself, seemingly unconcerned about its powers to stop evil acts in the right hands, the plot later reveals her to be a government agent, although she still steals jewels on the side, and the government itself is depicted as less than pure in Sonic games, and she seems to discover the value of friendship eventually. Perhaps it is Shadow's act of rescuing her from death in a base that self-destructs that opens her mind to this, as she becomes fairly loyal to him in subsequent games, returning the favor multiple times. She also gives Knuckles back the Master Emerald after he saves her life, and it is suggested that they fall in love; they nearly kiss, though both stop and quickly hide their emotions. Knuckles claims he was just trying to save the Master Emerald; Rouge is sour-grapes about it.
    • Blaze is another good example. Initially, she's extremely seclusive and chilly. She believes that she has to do everything by herself, and reacts with anger and confusion when the other characters suggest she get Sonic's help. This is best shown when, at the halfway point of Rush, she forces Sonic to fight her to see who should go after Eggman. By the end however, she's grown more friendly and open, mainly due to Cream's encouragement.
  • Celes Chere in Final Fantasy VI is cold and unfriendly towards the rest of the cast for quite a while. On the way to the battle of Narshe, Celes proclaims that she's not just some love-starved twit and Edgar himself says that she's cold as ice. The person that defrosts Celes is Locke. Celes slowly falls in love with Locke and realizing that he's still alive despite The End of the World as We Know It is what motivates her to Putting the Band Back Together.
  • Cloud from Final Fantasy VII fits this trope primarily toward Tifa, though his negative reaction is due to a truly epic and widely applied inferiority complex.
  • The defrosting of Squall Leonhart in Final Fantasy VIII makes up most of that game's plot.
  • Lulu in Final Fantasy X begins the game as, for the lack of a better word, cold-hearted, cynical bitch. She's constantly annoyed at everything and berates Wakka for being an irresponsible and naive idiot, who never thinks anything through and refuses to face reality, and has nothing but pure contept for Tidus, whom she (mostly rightfully) regards as the escaped loony who is Too Dumb to Live. She only tolerates Tidus's presence, because Yuna requested it and she never asks for anything that isn't really important to her. It's only after Tidus, in all his naivity, starts asking questions nobody else has ever asked before, that she begins warming up to him, and at least starts to respect him for his endless optimism that motivates everyone to keep going. (Though he actually just was the only one who didn't have the slightest clue what their quest was really about.)
  • Lightining in Final Fantasy XIII. It doesn't help the fact that she is like Squall.
  • Mitsuru Kirijo from Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3. Although she's the Ojou instead of a Rich Bitch, she doesn't seem very adept in social situations and has a few trust issues, namely withholding key information on the origin of the Shadow threat from her teammates until confronted by one of them. She begins to warm up to the party after her father, who had been her primary reason for fighting, is shot dead in front of her and Yukari snaps her out of her subsequent depression. Right around this when the Protagonist can start a relationship if intelligent enough and is when we can see her soft side.
  • Ice Witch/Queen Blanc Neige from Shining Tears definitely count. Frequently partnering with her will make her actually lessen her haughty attitude and smiles for the first time, if you can hook up with her.
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn's Soren would qualify as a male example, even if a portion of said defrosting occurs during timeskip. Notable in that gender roles aren't actually reversed; the cause of the defrosting is the male protagonist. I'm sure you can see where this is going.
    • Fire Emblem has another male example in Jaffar, thanks to the influence of his best friend (and possible love interest through supports) Nino.
  • Most BioWare games have an example somewhere.
    • Aribeth in Neverwinter Nights is not so much icy as very professional and unwilling to discuss anything outside of the mission in the first chapter. Later events crack her shell enough that she will fall for a male player character.
    • Nathyrra in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is rather sarcastic in response to the player's early flirtations but warms up gradually through the third chapter.
    • Bastila Shan from Knights of the Old Republic.
      • Best stated by HK-47:

Mockery: (in Bastila's voice) Oh, master, I love you, but I hate all you stand for, but I think we should go press our slimy, mucus-covered lips together in the cargo hold!

  • Lucian does this to Lenneth Valkyrie in Valkyrie Profile.
  • Thanks to the tidbits about her past revealed in Castlevania Judgment, we can now safely assume that Sypha Belnades is a version of this. Before even meeting Trevor Belmont (her future husband), she is known to be a character who would attack those who wield dark powers, regardless of their heart (she attacked Cornell for just being a werewolf, and Shanoa for wielding the Glyph, which has dark powers), and coming off a bit bitchy, due to a very troubled past (she and her kin were persecuted for how long we do not know). In the end of her story in Dracula's Curse, however, it is implied that she has learned to find happiness thanks to Trevor.
  • Also arguably on Lamia Loveless (considering Signum from above is an Expy of her), being a robotic example. She starts out as a complete cold soldier and efficient spy who pretty much only cares about fulfilling her mission, without much care about life, especially her own. Further interaction with the good guys, however, made her learn to value life and be more open to emotion thus learning what it feels to be human.
  • Tear Grants from Tales of the Abyss who eventually　warms up to Luke and ends up whispering that she loves him just before he goes off to free Lorelei at the end.
  • Midna in The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess definitely goes through this process. At first, she teams up with Link because they have a common enemy, but by the end she genuinely cares for him (and Zelda). So much so that she uses a tear to shatter the Mirror of Twilight and protect Hyrule from its evil influence.
    • In fact, it's amazing at how this works alongside her animations. One of Midna's idle animations while as Wolf Link is to pat him on the sides in a sort of "Giddy up" motion. At the beginning of the game, it comes off looking extremely humiliating and condescending. At the end, it seems beautifully playful and friendly. There is zero change to the animation at all, it's all character perception.
    • There's also Tetra ( aka Zelda) in The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker. Especially after her true lineage is revealed.
  • Miranda in Happy Salvage is introduced as a cold, selfish maverick that doesn't need anyone's help that wants to cheat you out of any profits you make from your dives. She warms up fairly quickly. All this BEFORE you find out not only does she have a sick little brother but the siblings are also orphaned children of a pirate father that was betrayed by his own comrades. Let the healing begin.
  • Komachi Tsugumi in Ever 17 starts out as a total Jerkass who always seems to look down on the others. However, she eventually warms up to the others and even falls in love with Takeshi and bears his children.
  • Zhores from Absolute Obedience is a rarer male example. His code name is the Ice Queen, even. By the time Louise is done with him, there are explicit in-game metaphors to him melting, and becoming sweet and warm.
  • Neku Sakuraba in The World Ends With You, a Jerkass loner who, over the course of three weeks, learns the value and meaning of friendship.
  • King Graham in King's Quest V defrosts a literal ice queen by playing a tune on his harp.
  • Aoba in Family Project. Oddly enough, it's actually in her own route that she gets the most jerkassy and cold before melting into a Yamato Nadeshiko. However, in all routes she does warm up to them quite a little... making her quite a Tsundere. Better than nothing.
  • Nick from Left 4 Dead 2 acts this way in the beginning. The only thing he believes he has in common with the other survivors is they they are caught up in the zombie outbreak together. He planned to quickly ditch the survivors as soon as he could and he even degrades them occasionally, such as calling Jimmy Gibbs Jr. (Coach and Ellis' hero in stock car racing) an asshole or making fun of Ellis' accent and branding him with the stereotype of southerners ("You can almost call this the cement river, Ellis!"). As the survivors progress in the campaigns, Nick starts to warm up to them, though is still sarcastic most of the time. When Ellis dies, Nick softens up even further by saying "Remember all those things I said about you, Ellis? I was only joking..."
  • Fatima from Luminous Arc 2 if the player choose the correct dialogue choice of trying to understand her, instead of siding with the rest of the Witches. Noticeable moments of defrosting is during her Intermissions, as well as Fatima route only events: Master Mattias's grave and the Final Bond.
  • Ridley Silverlake in Radiata Stories, who starts off as a Rich Bitch before her near-death experience with the blood orcs, and later falls in love with the hero.
  • Master Chief from Halo who is depicted in the first game and novel as being a Stoic man of few words willing to do whatever it takes to complete the mission. By the end of the third game Cortana has helped him regain a little of his humanity, also due to him losing so much During the War. Shares emotional moments when rescuing Cortana and holding Sgt. Johnson as he dies.
  • Selena from Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility (and Animal Parade). At low friendship levels, she'll say things like "I dislike chatty people", but she defrosts into a very happy and caring woman. Sadly, many people see her low-heart quotes and think "Oh, Rich Bitch"...
  • You can do this in Wild World with Sable and Brewster by visiting them every day.
  • Gwen from Guild Wars takes some defrosting before she warms up to her love interest.
  • Princess Elika in the 2008 offshoot of Prince of Persia. She initially is put-off by his cocky and flirty demeanor, but eventually warms up to the Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Helps when that guy is helping you save your land from an evil power even if he barely knows you.
  • Frank Pritchard from Deus Ex Human Revolution defrosts quite a bit, going from straight-up jerkass who holds Adam in contempt to something a lot closer to friendly—still snarky as hell, but clearly concerned when Adam does things like vanish without a trace for three days and go into the Very Definitely Final Dungeon without Frank as Mission Control. But not because he cares. He's just worried about company security.
  • Patroklos in Soul Calibur V starts of as extremely cocky to the point where he kills a man because he believes to be Malfested. As the story goes on, he is not that kind of a person anymore.
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