Exposed to the Elements

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Frostbite? Barbarian Science sneers at you!

"Someone's either drunk, asking for frostbite, or pretty hardcore."

—Sergeant Johnson, Finishing the Fight

A trope where characters with a Limited Wardrobe or Memetic Outfit find themselves wearing far too little to possibly be comfortable (or healthy) given the current temperature—but will usually not act any differently to how they do in other temperatures.

It should be noted that this trope was born (and is still used) to show how badass and/or "Hardcore" a character was, not about Fanservice as the image above show. Started with the Iconic Barbarian figure popularized by Conan (and still used to this day), it was a simply shorthand to demonstrate how savage, deadly and probably super human the individual is. It's through the abuse of writers to show a little of skin that had come to the (often mocked) trope of today.

Curiously, this is not as Unrealistic as its seems. In real life, there a sects of Monks who can control their own temperature and avoid frostbite (and sickness) even in bellow zero temperatures by (possible) mantras and at least one confirmed case (Wim Hof) of a man absolutely immune to the cold; this is of course exaggerated in fiction.

This trope also applies to other times the clothing is grossly inappropriate to the environment. To be expected in Video Games, especially free roaming ones unless finding appropriate clothing becomes a Broken Bridge.

Not to be confused with being exposed to actual elements.

Examples of Exposed to the Elements include:

Anime and Manga

  • Justified Trope in Claymore, as the procedure that turns the title warriors into Half Human Hybrids also makes them much more resistant to the elements. When one Claymore, Clarice, shows up in the snowy north in a heavy fur coat the other Claymores quickly realize something is up, and it's revealed that she's an incomplete hybrid (and thus dead last in ranking) and is not resistant to the point of the others, who treat her like The Load and consider her useless.
  • Sailor Moon. Especially in the first season finale, which takes place in the arctic circle. They did act differently than usual, though. Usagi whined and complained about being too cold but Mars scolded her for being a baby.
  • Digimon
    • Played straight in season 1, where the Digidestined are scattered across the digital world, with Tai notably in nothing but underwear and sneakers in a snowy climate. He does find his clothes fairly quickly, though.
    • Averted in the second season of . The characters still have somewhat Limited Wardrobes, but they have outfits for each season—so when it's winter, they wear warm clothes, etc., while in the Real World.
  • Chrono in Chrono Crusade wears a coat, leggings and gloves constantly, no matter what the weather is like. He rarely comments on the weather at all or even takes off his coat to cool down. Of course, he is a demon.
  • Amu in Shugo Chara transforms into her Heart persona (outfit: cheerleader skirt and teeny tiny tank top) while skiing and instantly complains that it's completely inappropriate for the situation.
  • Averted by the Dirty Pair; the Angels always change into something warmer in cold weather.
  • One Piece
    • Poked fun at when everybody puts on winter clothes when they go to Drum Island, except for Luffy who fails to notice it's cold until it's too late. At one point he even puts a fight on hold while he goes to find a jacket.
    • Averted again, same arc, when Zoro gets lost wearing nothing but his pants (long story). When he finally finds his way back, the local village is in the middle of a Mexican Standoff with Wapol's Mooks. He immediately beats down all of the mooks so he can get a pair of their boots and a jacket.
    • Bizarrely played with in the anime's "Ice Hunter" filler arc. Most of the Straw Hat crew wears weather appropriate clothes, except for Luffy and Franky. They both wear a parka and gloves but continue to wear shorts and a speedo(respectively), Luffy retains his sandals and Franky continues going barefoot. Don Achino, the villain of that arc, also wears next to no clothing but he's justified thanks to his Devil Fruit powers.
    • In one of the episodes about the rest of the crew after their defeat by Kuma we see Franky, who is in a winter country. The locals are naturally horrified to see him in his speedo in the middle of a blizzard, to which he replies, "Ew! No!" (seriously.) He then tries to warm himself up with his patented 'SUPAAA!' dance, but it doesn't work and he freezes solid in a block of ice. Yup.
  • When the plot of Naruto eventually leads to the snowy Land of Iron, many of the characters are quite inappropriately dressed for the area. While some at least started wearing jackets or coats, the Leaf and Sand Village ninja are still wearing sandals, Sakura and Karin are still wearing biker/short shorts, Temari and Samui are still wearing a sort of dress/skirt exposing most of their legs, and the Raikage continues to not wear anything on his upper body but a cloak that leaves 60% of his chest exposed.
  • Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
    • Averted sharply; not only does Ed nearly collapse from exposure while inadequately dressed, he almost gets frostbite on the stumps of his arm and leg because his automail, being made of metal, conducts heat away from his body very efficiently.
    • Inverted in dealing with Sloth. He freezes solid within seconds when they kick him out into a snowstorm while he's lightly dressed and doused in fast-evaporating diesel fuel. For an illustration of the principle, turn a compressed-air-in-a-can duster upside down and spray it on something (but NOT your skin). The fluid gas that comes out almost instantly boils off once it's no longer under pressure, riming whatever you spray it onto with frost. But even this could only give you a good frost burn in that time frame. When you account for how huge he is, the amount that would be coating him wouldn't be enough to freeze him solid even if all of it were completely evaporated using only his body heat.
  • Fairy Tail
    • Played with in an early arc. Natsu plays this trope straight, not being bothered by cold weather due to his powers. Lucy, on the other hand...
    • For both Grey and Lyon, exposing themselves to the elements in snow-covered regions was part of their training routine. Afterwards, as a habit, Grey wears a shirt or a long coat only about half the time. On the other side, he isn't in such cold places any longer...
  • Pokémon
    • Characters occasionally dress for the weather, but usually walk around in their standard, summer-y outfits no matter what. For Misty, this involves a couple walks in snowy mountains wearing micro-shorts and a really short, sleeveless t-shirt. When "dressing for the weather", half the time she just puts on a jacket and continues walking around in shorts, too. Like all other Pokemon media, neither Dawn nor Candice spent a second of their time in snowy areas not wearing a short skirt, either.
    • This is played with in many ways in Pokémon Special. Platinum faints due to the freezing cold, but Candice is just fine because she simply claims that nothing should get in the way of fashion. Maylene is also alright because running around keeps her warm. Later Platinum gets a coat, but takes it off when running also warms her up. When the three of them meet together, Candice dubs them as the "Thin-Clothed Trio".
  • The protagonists of RG Veda dresses pretty lightly whaterver the circumstances, even when travelling through a snowy mountain range. Including an utter and complete lack of footwear.

Comic Books

Jarael: But I'm freezing! Did your friend really wear something like this out in the snow?

  • X-Men
    • In the miniseries Phoenix: Endsong, Emma Frost doesn't seem the least bit bothered traipsing around the Arctic half-naked. Beast and Wolverine are too, but the former has fur and the latter is Wolverine. Well, she IS Emma Frost.
    • In a '90s issue, the team goes to Siberia. Psylocke, whose costume exposes most of her arms and legs, adapts by... putting on a short jacket, which she doesn't even bother to close.
  • Both averted and played straight in Watchmen. When they assault Ozymandias' Antarctic base, Nite Owl wears a specially designed cold suit (which resembles a snowy owl). Rorschach just wears a scarf with his usual suit and longcoat. (It should be noted he is in serious danger of freezing to death during this sequence. He's too crazy to care.) When Silk Spectre arrives in her rather skimpier outfit, she's freezing.
    • Rorschach is hinted to be superhuman a few times throughout the book, so it may be justified in his case. He also hid in a fridge once with no adverse effects.
  • Red Sonja (depicted in the page pic) averts and plays this straight, depending on the writer and artist of the story. The better writers will have her wearing several layers of fur when she is in a snow-covered realm. The worst ones will have her marching through the snow in a Chainmail Bikini without even as much as the still revealing fur cloak seen above.
    • The very first quote from Sonja in that very same comic is "I hate the cold." This might have been an attempt at Lampshade Hanging, but it just doesn't work. Instead, it makes Sonja look painfully unintelligent. Who wouldn't hate the cold if they trudged through a frozen wasteland in a metal bikini?!
    • This played straight and then averted in the Furry Comic parody, Red Shetland, where the title character dresses in that exact way through a wintry forest, until she stays in a farm house where the elderly matron makes an appropriate suit for the weather, which Red accepts with grace and her Stag lover agrees that it looks great on her.
  • This is lampshaded in the Superman story For the Man Who Has Everything. Wonder Woman, in her swimsuit-style costume, tells Batman and Robin they must be cold and should go inside. Robin finds it more likely she would be cold.
  • Justice League of America
    • Averted in an early issue when the League goes to Siberia; many of the Leaguers are shown to be huddling and shivering with no coats (except Batman, because he's so Badass Normal... and also, it's a nice cloak).
    • They also go to Siberia in the Terror Incognita storyline, but are wearing costumes designed for the cold (except for Green Lantern who just wills a force field).
  • Angela, from the Spawn series, has ribbons in her armor that have heating abilities, enabling her to hunt dragons in freezing weather wearing a chainmail bikini.
  • A Conan comic from the 1970's had the woman Conan was rescuing going about in a snowy wasteland clad in little more than a gossamer loincloth and bra, and some magic slave chains. Averted the trope, as she turned out to be a sort of synthetic life form made of ice and snow, with the magical slave chains being pretty much all that held her together, and she melted away when they were removed.

Fan Works

  • In the opening chapter of My Immortal, Ebony is outside wearing little more than a corset and a miniskirt whilst it is sleeting or "snowing and raining" as the story puts it.

Film

  • Santa Claus Conquers the Martians has Billy and Betty wandering through the Arctic in woefully inadequate winter clothes. Especially Betty, who's wearing a skirt with no leg covering at all.
  • The Fast Runner takes this to the logical extreme, with Atanarjuat running around naked in one particular scene. (To be fair, it's an homage to The Naked Prey.)
  • Superman
    • In Superman II Lois Lane wears a thin, skimpy dress to Superman's Fortress of Solitude, which, lest we forget, is at the North Pole surrounded by nothing but ice. He asks her if she's cold and she says she should be, but she's not. In a deleted scene, used decades later for the Dick Donner director's cut, she wanders around the Fortress wearing nothing but a blue Superman top (in the great scene in which the giant head of Jor-El gives her the evil eye!).
    • This follows Lois's untroubled exposure to the freezing upper atmosphere during the "Can You Read My Mind" sequence in the first movie.
    • Superman Returns ill-advisedly attempts to partly explain this phenomenon as Superman takes Lois flying again with the hilarious line:

Lois Lane: I forgot how warm you are.

  • In Resident Evil Extinction, Alice's clothes don't seem to be very suitable for the desert. I mean, you have to cover your face at the very least.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End features the crew sailing through a frozen ocean. One unnamed chinese crewmember's foot is frozen through, to the point that he accidentally snaps his big toe off. The rest of the crew are still wearing the same clothes they had in Singapore, yet suffer no ill effects apart from Pintel and Ragetti shivering.

Literature

  • Lampshaded in The Dresden Files, where various supernatural gribblies can walk around in frigid conditions wearing nothing heavier than T-shirts, and Harry complains about this at length, along with his own inability to do the same, despite the fact that he's a wizard and later on the Winter Knight.
  • Done explicitly by the Marat in the Codex Alera series, where they have no problems skipping about in bone-chilling temperatures in loincloths. Being Marat, though, their ability to resist extreme temperatures comes in quite handy. This causes some impropriety in the Aleran lands since the women dress the same as the men. When Tavi brings on a team of Marat horsemen as auxilliaries for the First Aleran, he convinces them to wear actual clothes and armor by presenting them as gifts, which the Marat don't refuse because that insults the gift-giver.
  • Lampshaded in Discworld, where an explicit requirement for taking on the life of an adventuring barbarian is resistance to cold.
    • Played with in The Last Hero. The Silver Horde never talk about it, but they have all supplemented their loin cloths with a variety of leather, rubber, and woolen garments that serve a variety of support and warming purposes. They are a group of octogenarians climbing up a 10 mile tall mountain in the middle of the equivalent of the Arctic.
  • In Animorphs, the title superheroes can only morph very skimpy skintight clothes, so when they're in the Arctic, they're very poorly dressed. However, this is explicitly referred to, and until they turn into first seals,then polar bears, they're in serious danger of freezing to death. Cassie's wolf and Rachel's grizzly bear is okay for a while, but even they (Cassie's isn't an arctic wolf)are in serious trouble, and one of the grizzly's legs breaks off after freezing.
  • Both played straight (Torc) and justified (Paul/Pwyll) in The Wandering Fire.
  • In Mistborn, Ham is a Pewterarm, or one who can burn pewter to increase most of his body's capabilities. Cold doesn't bother him, so his preferred uniform is a vest, even in the middle of winter. In fact, it gets exaggerated to the point that he tears the sleeves off of any top given to him, and even refuses to lead the heroes' troops unless they agree that he will never have to wear long sleeves. If the series were movies rather than literature, it would look like a silly amount of fanservice.
  • Subverted in The Wheel of Time. The Aes Sedai are known for their mastery of a concentration trick which allows them to ignore extremes in temperature. However, while they'll show no external signs, harsh weather can still harm them.
  • In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Gods of the North", the woman wears a light veil of gossamer. On a snowfield. Really, Conan, that is a hint you know.
  • The Witch Species in The Golden Compass live in cold climates and wear relatively little. Although they feel the cold, they know it won't harm them, so they put up with it in order to better commune with nature.
  • Averted in The Magic Treehouse book Sunset of the Sabertooth, when Jack and Annie show up in the Ice Age wearing nothing but swimsuits and towels. Realizing that they'll freeze to death if they don't find better clothes, they take shelter in a cave and put on some fur clothes left by the family that lives there.

Live-Action TV

  • Inverted in Brimstone: Ezekiel Stone wears long sleeves and a trench coat in the middle of the day in LA. Justified Trope with Fridge Brilliance when you realize that Stone spent the last fifteen years in Hell and consequently summer in southern California is much colder than he's used to.
  • In two early back-to-back Doctor Who serials, Jamie finds himself wearing his kilt in both Tibet and on a glacier. In the former, he is told to put on warmer clothing, but claims that as a Highlander he is unaffected by the cold. He later regrets the decision. In the latter, no one seems to care.

Tabletop Games

  • Technically speaking, in 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons, if you have frost resistance 10 (which is pretty easy to get), you're completely immune to any natural cold. Some players take advantage of this to have barbarians walking around the arctic in a loincloth. Also note the "Endure Elements" spell, which does the same thing, but only applies to weather. There are also a couple of magical items which provide protection from cold. Someone wearing Boots of the North with a loincloth and cloak will be comfortable in temperatures as low as -50 Fahrenheit. Adding ordinary cold-weather clothing will take that down to -100.
  • A non-fanservice example happens in the Dungeon Ravenloft "The Price of Revenge"; the PCs first meet Eliza (a Creepy Child who initiates the plot) in the middle of a blizzard in the dead of winter; her clothing consists of a dirty, tattered shawl and little else, not doing much to hide her "gaunt form". If they ignore the hungry wolves with her and show concern for this, she replies, "I hadn't noticed." Which might not be a lie, seeing as she's a vampire.
  • In Changeling: The Lost, one of their low-end magical powers allows them to be comfortable in any temperature, regardless of clothing or lack thereof.

Theatre

  • A famous moment in the history of Broadway musicals was Mary Martin introducing Cole Porter's song "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" in Leave It to Me. As the chorus boys (of which Gene Kelly was one) danced around her, she stripped off a few articles of clothing. The backdrop for this scene (which was not strictly relevant to the drama) was the snow-covered Siberian steppes—the Irkutsk train station, to be precise.
  • At the end of In The Next Room, or the Vibrator Play, Catherine and Dr. Givings strip down and have sex in the snow.

Video Games

  • Danger Girl for PlayStation uses this trope, then throws it in the player's face. First, the loading screen for the stage shows Abbey Chase in a slinky, extremely sheer evening gown, out in the snow. Then, right after the obvious Fanservice, she immediately begins complaining about the cold and taking damage, and the player has to very quickly find warm clothes before she freezes to death.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog seems comfortable in zones ranging from the lava filled depths of the Marble Zone to the snowy peaks of the Ice Cap Zone wearing nothing but his fur, White Gloves, and a pair of red shoes.
  • The Final Fantasy series:
    • Final Fantasy VII avoided this: when you're approaching the Northern Crater through a snow-covered wasteland, you actually have to move quickly to avoid freezing, and as you climb the crater-wall, you're forced to frequently stop and work up some heat through exertion. If you bring Yuffie, the characters will actually comment on her poor choice of clothing when you reach the top of the crater. If you bring Tifa, she just spends the trip shivering and stammering about how cold it is.
      • Tifa from Final Fantasy VII was a notable offender, particularly during her stay at the Great Glacier.
    • Final Fantasy IX provides a number of examples (such as walking blithely through a sandstorm without their faces covered), but has one aversion where Zidane walks through an icy cavern and into a blizzard in just his usual vest, and his posture changes to show that he's freezing.
      • In fact, as a whole Final Fantasy IX provides a subversion of the usually horrendously impractical clothing of Final Fantasy games. Out of the main cast, only Zidane and Amarant are badly dressed; all the other characters are completely covered up.
    • Final Fantasy X has all the characters undergo this, but with Kimahri it's especially noticeable, given that he's from the snow-capped mountain environment. And his entire tribe wears little more than loincloths. While this would be understandable given that his species has fur, he seems just as comfortable in tropical climates as snow-capped mountains, so...
    • Likewise, "I'm Too Sexy for a Closed Shirt" Tidus, "What, I'm Supposed to Stay in This Dress?" Lulu, "We Don't Wear Sleeves Round Here, Ya?" Wakka, and Rikku who wears...well, next to nothing don't seem all bothered by Mount Gagazet.
    • Speaking of islands, Lulu's fur-trimmed leather dress can't possibly be comfortable on tropical Besaid where she lives. Considering that its revealing nature wouldn't keep her warm in cold climates either, this is Awesome but Impractical in action, folks. (Not that Final Fantasy clothes, save maybe the white mage from Final Fantasy I, have ever been practical.)
    • In Final Fantasy X-2, Kimahri does actually mention the "cold mountain winds", this being about the only reference to weather in either game.
    • And the official holder of the "Miss Beltskirt" title is Ashe of Final Fantasy XII. It's even bright red to draw the eye... but she suffers no ill effects in the frozen wastes of the Paramina Rift.
    • Balthier is the only one who could even remotely be considered to be dressing for the weather. Vaan and Basch both have open vests, Penelo's outfit leaves her arms and thighs bare, and Fran wears a metal bikini. Larsa is covered up, and even wears gloves, but he's only in the party temporarily.
    • Even worse: many of the characters are from a desert nation. It may seem reasonable to wear less clothing in a hot environment, but desert-dwellers know that what you really need is to cover up with loose robes. Tight clothing, like Balthier's, holds in the heat, and exposed skin risks severe sunburn; you'll loose more moisture to the sunburn than you would sweating in robes.
  • Neverwinter Nights
    • Averted in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. No matter what you're wearing in chapter 3 you take cold damage. Also, Nathyrra has a particularly bad time with the cold, since she's lived all her life far enough underground that her environment was pretty warm.
    • Though all outfits in A Dance With Rogues are pretty Stripperific, your character takes cold damage for wearing nothing or clothes defined as underwear while outside. Also, Pia complains about the cold at times.
  • Project I.G.I.: The protagonist is bare-headed and wears a navy blue jumpsuit in the first missions of the game. He continues to do so after the winter levels begin, eschewing both heat conservation and camouflage. In the first winter mission, Ekk believes he will die from exposure, and mentions on the radio to search for 10 minutes then no more.
  • Claire in Resident Evil Code: Veronica is kidnapped and dumped in the Arctic with just a midriff-baring T-Shirt and jeans. Your hear no complaints. Justified as she had no time to search for something warmer considering she had other things to worry about at the time.
  • Tomb Raider:
    • The original Tomb Raider. Lara wears khaki shorts and a T-shirt in the high Andes. And, in the second game, she wears khaki shorts and a... bomber jacket in Tibet.
    • In the third game and Legend she actually wears trousers and a coat in cold environments. And when replaying completed levels, Lara can wear any of the outfits she has previously unlocked, regardless of impracticality (although the skimpy swimsuit is not wearable outside of the house level, possibly due to a programmer oversight).
  • Similar aversion in Zack and Wiki Quest For Barbaros Treasure. Zack, who wears an open sleeveless coat with no shirt and shorts throughout the game, shivers, sneezes and huddles for warmth whenever he's not doing anything in the Ice World.
  • Averted in the No One Lives Forever video games. The protagonist, Cate Archer, wears a coat in cold climates.
  • Jak and Daxter
    • At the beginning of Jak 3, Jak's clothing is way too warm for the desert environment he finds himself in. Logically, he overheats to dangerous levels; Damas later tells him his monks were ready to pray for him. His hair is cut off together with his shirt sleeves before he goes out again.
    • Jak's heavy, relatively tight-fitting, dark-colored clothes are still wildly inappropriate for a desert, though. Arabs are associated with those loose, billowy white robes because such clothes are by far the best things to wear in desert conditions (lightweight, breathes well, reflects heat, offers protection from the sun and sand).
    • Played straight in the first game, when you go to Snowy Mountain wearing a sleeveless shirt and sandal-like footwear.
  • Variation. Disgaea's Etna frequently complains about the temperature whenever she's in a Fire and Brimstone Hell. Interestingly enough, she does nothing of the sort in any wintery locations, despite wearing about as little as she can get away with in a T-rated game. That's assuming all demons are associated with fire and brimstone.
  • Related to the above, another example is Annah of Planescape: Torment, who justifies her outfit by finding even room temperature to be uncomfortable (when she gets excited, her leather—let's face it -- swimsuit starts to sizzle). At the same time she is very resistant to cold damage.
  • The Tales (series):
    • Averted in Tales of Eternia. When the party enters Ifrit's volcano, they don't have to change, but Undine's influence protects them from the heat (at the cost of Undine's own health, which is also implemented in the dungeon). When the party climbs Celsius' mountain as the spirit creates a bitter snowstorm over the entire surrounding countryside, they have to obtain winter gear beforehand, and their sprites even change on the mountain, though not in battle.
    • Lampshaded in Tales of Symphonia. If you equip your characters with their swimsuit titles in Flanoir, the NPCs there will comment on how freezing you must be. Played with another skit in which Sheena complains about the cold, to which Genis replies that she's not wearing much. She then points out that he's even more lightly dressed than she is, after which he really starts to feel the cold.
    • Also lampshaded in a Tales of the Abyss skit—however, no amount of clothing could possibly help you when you're inside the crater of an active freaking volcano, which is when this skit normally shows up.
    • Played with in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, the sequel to Symphonia where one skit has Presea mentioning that she's invented a midriff baring outfit for people that nonetheless protects them from the elements and damage. Called the "Loni-Kyle".
    • Subverted in Tales of Destiny: Attempting to enter a frozen river dungeon without the appropriate fur coats means you instantly freeze to death. Like Eternia, there is no physical change to the characters regardless of if their coats are on or not.
  • Lampshaded in Odin Sphere with the Stripperiffic Velvet: merchants on Winterhorn Ridge greet her with, "A half-naked maiden, on this mountain?" and, "Wow... you came all the way up here dressed like that?" Also Subverted, as your HP is constantly dropping and you need to periodically consume warming potions.
  • Dragon Quest VIII, possibly unintentionally, has the swimsuit for Jessica first available just before entering the game's version of the arctic. And since it changes her look in cutscenes, it makes one wonder why she isn't dead from frostbite yet.
  • Jedi Academy allows you to play as a female Twi'lek, with some of the outfits almost as Stripperific as the one in the image up top (seriously, black vinyl bikini?), and this you wear in every single level in every single environment... except for in the Hoth level, where no matter what gender or species you play as, you wear the same gear the Rebels did way back in Episode V. (Which is appropriate, because you're going to the abandoned Echo Base.)
  • Played straight and subverted in Seiken Densetsu 3. Altena is located in a very cold, snowy area. However, its female mages wear dresses not designed for warmth. The game states that the queen of Altena keeps their home warm with magic. On the other hand, when their princess Angela escapes the castle wearing what looks like an orange leotard, she collapses from the cold. Lucky for her, some NPCs show up to help.
  • Perfect Dark
  • In Perfect Dark Zero Joanna Dark's outfit in a freezing cold snow covered mountain is torn jeans, a half jacket, and a half sweater that exposes her midriff.
    • In the original game, she wears her standard spysuit in cold climates, which one can assume is well insulated.
  • Played straight in most MMORPGs. In World of Warcraft, you can run around colder climates in your underwear and not be any worse off (besides lacking in stats). You can also take animal companions to any climate in the world, regardless of whether or not the creature is suited for it. (Reptiles on the north pole? Sure! Bears in the desert? Why not?!) For the record, Dungeons & Dragons does indeed address this issue for pet classes. That is, figure it out or your pet dies from exposure. However, armor models in Northrend are rather suitable for the climate, and you can't use flying mounts there until you learn how to fly in cold weather. Sadly, a few fans still bitched about the lack of skimpy armor. Perhaps they should take a trip to the north pole in their underwear themselves sometime... Arguably justified with the Dwarves. One of their racial bonuses is frost resistance, which would logically allow them to wear less in the cold.
  • Hydromancer armor in Guild Wars stands out somewhat, as it provides cold resistance while being rather Stripperific. This trope applies more generally also.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask deserves mention because even as Link is fine with no sleeves or pants in the snow while other characters will bundle up or shiver. Even Link will start to shiver and sneeze if he's left stationary, in both Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time. Seeing as he runs everywhere, movement probably keeps him warm. Stopping on a mountain gets him cold real quick. He is also fully affected by the opposite and can't stay in extremely hot areas for long until he finds a protective tunic. How exactly a Palette Swap protects from heat is another question...
  • The main character of Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions wears clothing designed to resist hypothermia, and he only takes his mask off during cutscenes. Inverted in that there is a Lethal Lava Land level, and not only does he still wear the same clothing, you're constantly losing heat even while directly above a pit of boiling lava!
  • Sigma Star Saga is one of the "ignoring temperatures for Fan Service" examples. Scarlet is introduced on a planet that's covered in ice, but there and everywhere else she wears significantly less than would be expected of any normal human female. This also applies to Psyme, but for her it's semi-justified—most members of her species don't wear clothes in the normal sense.
  • Uncharted 2: After almost freezing to death in Tibet, Nate gets some winter apparel. Though he is still remarkably comfortable climbing icy, snowy walls and ledges without any gloves. His winter clothes are quite light and he doesn't wear any sort of head protection. Plus he keeps getting his pants wet in icy water and trodging through snow, causing snow to collect in huge amounts on his legs. Apparently Nate can wisecrack his way out of frostbite and gangrene.
  • Mass Effect
    • In the first game, all party members wear covering armor that cannot be taken off, complete with sealed headgear for hostile environments. Come Mass Effect 2, all the party members have two costumes at best, and they are comfortable wearing nothing above the waist except for a mouthpiece to help them breathe... in near vacuum. Actually somewhat averted there too, since the only things you have to worry about in space are the radiation, micrometeorites, breathing, and that little issue of your eyeballs decompressing and basically exploding in slow motion. The later two can be fixed with a mouthpiece and some discreet goggles. It is also worth noting that most of the less covered characters are aliens or biotics (basically people with psychic powers who can make barriers). And everyone has a "kinetic barrier" that might also help.
    • Averted again in Mass Effect: On ice-world Noveria, quarian Tali will sometimes if spoken to remark "I'm wearing an environmental suit, and I'm still freezing." She's wearing a sealed, thermoregulatory suit. Interestingly, other teammates will merely express minor discomfort ("The sooner we get off this frozen world, the better"—Liara), and you can visit colder worlds on non-essential side missions wherein they don't say anything. The only other awareness raised to the environment is on the volcanic, lava-pooled planet Therum, where Garrus reminds you to keep hydrated and remarks how he thought his homeworld Palaven was hot. Again, you can visit hotter planets, including a Venus-like pressure cooker of a world.
    • There's also one planet that has chlorine gas enveloping all the lowlands. Which is apparently not an eye irritant in the Mass Effect universe.
  • Dragon Age
    • Morrigan doesn't seem to mind wandering around on top of a mountain through caves carved into a glacier while wearing an improbable cobbled-together outfit. Though in the CGI Sacred Ashes trailer she does grumble about having to "freeze to death while digging for the bones of a madwoman!" during said wandering-around-on-top-of-a-mountain quest.
    • Leliana doesn't complain either, despite the fact that female leather armor in Dragon Age is exceedingly impractical. That's only true for one specific set of leather armor—the Dalish one, which is intended for elves living in forests. All other armor sets look the same on males and females.
  • Used intentionally in Lunar 2: Eternal Blue to introduce the Mysterious Waif, Lucia. When a woman is standing naked in a blizzard and doesn't seem particularly bothered by it, it's safe to assume she's not an ordinary human.
  • Monster Hunter has various armors that provide protection from the elements due to set abilities, and charms can augment this protection. Practicality is another issue, however—the Loc Lac set leaves the head and arms exposed (the right arm is usually safer than the left if you're wielding a Sword and Shield), which is never a good idea in a desert town, and the Barioth set which protects against cold is skimpy enough to raise issues.
  • Pokémon
    • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl gave us two new protagonists: Lucas, a guy with a t-shirt, jeans, and a backpack; and Dawn, a girl with a mini-dress that has an outrageously short length, boots, and a large handbag. They both have scarves and a Nice Hat. Why is this a big deal? Because an eighth of the game takes you through snow up to your neck and blizzards. Lampshaded by a girl in Snowpoint City who will exclaim "Eww! Aren't you cold with just that scarf?!"
    • To make matters worse, when Platinum rolled around, they altered the setting and the characters' wardrobes to be suited to a colder environment. Lucas got an overcoat, thicker pants, and a thicker scarf. What did Dawn get? Sleeves. No pants, no shorts, no more length to the skirt, just sleeves. Oh, and more snow to walk through. Have fun! (She did gain a coat though, but it's still open bottom.)
    • Gym Leader Candice has the shortest skirt of any character or NPC in the history of Pokemon and maybe even Nintendo as a whole. So, GameFreak made her live in the Slippy-Slidey Ice World. It was Lampshaded in more then one manga, where they either question her or she has a cold at least once.
    • Platinum gives us a short scene where we find Maylene visiting Candice at Snowpoint. Note that Maylene wears a Leotard of Power, some pants, is completely barefoot everywhere she goes, and the only way to Snowpoint City without flying is to march through a raging blizzard. She walked there and didn't notice a thing.
    • Pokémon Black and White: The female Player Character wears a sleeveless top and short-shorts, and seems perfectly fine during the winter season. Further driving the point home is how Cheren and Zinzolin, both much better dressed than she is for Cold Storage (which is exactly what it sounds like), won't stop complaining about how the environs are freezing their nuts off. Clearly, she's twice as tough they are, or her Plot Armor keeps her warm.
  • As the heroes of Age of Mythology trek through Scandinavia, Amanra, still wearing clothes fit for Egypt, hopes it will be warmer in Midgard.
  • The Harvest Moon series is guilty of this in nearly every game - the characters' outfits never change at all throughout the four seasons (which follow typical spring - warm; summer - hot; fall - cool; winter - cold fashion). The Wii installments Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade, however, give each character separate spring/summer and fall/winter outfits.
  • Rob's standard outfit in 1080: White Storm is a thin wifebeater. Akari's alternate costume is a similarly thin belly top.
  • In Mount & Blade about a third of the map is permanently covered in snow. If you get into a battle in this area, neither you, your allies, or your enemies have any sort of wardrobe change. So if you're up against Looters, there's a good chance some of them will be running around in just their shorts, just as anywhere else on the map.
  • Nobody in Jade Empire seems at all troubled when they go to a mountain atop the Land of Howling Spirits, which is basically Tibet, despite Dawn Star's continuing pantslessness, Henpcked Hou's sleevelessness and Sky and the Black Whirlwind having open shirts, and depending on what character model you choose, the Spirit Monk can be severely lacking in skirt length or constantly shirtless. (The Black Whirlwind could be handwaved by noting that he's pretty fat and hairy, which would keep the heat in.)
  • In Lightning Legend Daigo no Daibouken, Yuki Shirogane, a Snow Girl from the icy Zehgo Village, has clothes that doesn't cover her legs. Another character, Forelock, lampshades this when meeting her in his storyline. She answers him it's not a problem, giving the justification that Snow People like her have a biology fit for cold weathers and thus don't need a lot of clothes.
  • Averted in The Mark of Kri, where Rau, otherwise a Walking Shirtless Scene, puts on a heavy coat for the snowy level.
  • Street Fighter
    • Not as extreme as some examples, but take Cammy. Look at her usual outfit. Now look at her stage in Super Street Fighter II. It's got an aurora borealis going on, and while it's not covered in snow or anything like that, it has a late fall look to it at best.
    • Ryu's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2 takes place on a snowy mountain, and he fights there wearing nothing but the karate gi on his back.
    • The last two stages from Street Fighter X Tekken are explicitly in the Antarctic (one in a speeding vehicle with an open rear hatch, the other out in the snow). None of the characters bother with a coat (to say the least), and roughly a fourth are not even wearing shoes.
  • Any of the Darkstalkers when fighting in the snowy stages of Bishamon or Sasquatch. Most extreme cases being Felicia and Morrigan, who barely wear anything yet can fight in arctic conditions regardless.
  • A huge number of the characters in Batman: Arkham City, both men and women. The male thugs will at least complain about it.
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, some higher and/or further north areas have ice everywhere and heavy snowfall, including two of the main cities, but nobody freezes, even if not wearing any clothes or armour at all. Some NPCs will point out if you are underdressed for the temperature though.

"Ysmir's beard, you're going to freeze to death!"

  • League of Legends has four champions from the frozen northern regions, only one of whom is "dressed" sensibly for the climate - the armored polar bear. Ashe has a cloak, leather armor, exposed skin, and tights. Tryndamere fights shirtless. Sejuani wears metal shoulderpads, a metal thong, a bra. Sejuani's case is explained as a form of Macho Masochism. Both Ashe and Sejuani also have some control over ice magic, which might make this less suicidal.
  • In Chrono Trigger, none of the party is particularly geared for the elements. However, Ayla, in a fur bikini, and Marle, in a tank top and sandals, suffer the most from it. Amusingly, the cover art depicts a snowy battle were Crono wears a cloak over his clothes and Marle is dressed in boots and a heavy coat.
  • Two of the dive locations of Blue World are the Arctic and the Antarctic. There is a handwave about body gel that helps with cold weather,and special air tanks or something, but no mention of a dry suit. And considering the character's costume can be changed to a bikini, you *could* go diving in those places in a bikini.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles, some members of the party complain about how cold it is upon entering Valak Mountain, but won't suffer any ill effects from it. One might think there would be some warmer looking armor sets to be found there, but it's actually the complete opposite, as you can loot swimsuits that are said to be designed for cold weather use.
  • Monster Girl Quest Paradox has many characters that wear little or are completely naked. The setting has both a desert (which should get very cold at night) and an entire continent constantly covered with snow. While the majority of characters are monsters, some are still normal humans. Moreover, even many of the monster characters wouldn't be particularly resistant to cold, and some (e.g. lamias) should actually be more vulnerable to it than humans.
  • In Time Gal (think Space Ace, but with a scantily clad anime girl as the heroine) the protagonist goes through several time periods, including the Ice Age; fleeing from an angry mastodon seems more of a concern for her than freezing.

Visual Novels

Web Animation

Web Comics

  • Ozy in Ozy and Millie sometimes combats the winter weather by putting on a jumper. Which sounds like an aversion, until you take into account that he still doesn't bother with pants. Then again, he is an arctic fox.
  • Spectacularly mocked in this RPG World comic, which also mocks Stripperiffic.
  • Averted in Looking for Group; the token Stripperiffic healer gets a fur coat for snowy weather.
  • Sluggy Freelance had it lampshaded and parodied on this fake box art for The Frozen Funds expansion of the fictional "MMORGYPOO" Years of Yarncraft, which shows a scantly-clad Rose Elf wearing little more than a cloak that literally says, "This is my winter armor! Am I NUTS?" The expansion apparently also introduces the "Nude Elves".
  • Penny Arcade mocks Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.

"Well, I am a Time Bitch. I can't come out here in performance fleece."

  • Played with in this strip of Keychain of Creation, as Secret finally gets her revenge on Marena. It's notable that Marena refuses to dress for the snowy weather despite constantly complaining about the cold.
  • Parodied in a recent arc of Edemia World, where a female adventurer has been eating tons of magical "magma berries" that make her body warmer, so she's able to withstand the freezing snow without batting an eye.
  • Wapsi Square: Getting the beach all to yourself!
  • In Fite!, Guz warns Lucco of winter's approach and offers him a tunic. Lucco declines, instead doing . . . this.
  • In Everyday Heroes, a flashback shows a certain ex-villain complaining about her skimpy gear.

"OK, I'm about to commit a felony by breaking and entering... I have no moral qualms about that... and the fact that I'm dangling from a rope 200 feet above the ground doesn't bother me... but wearing this outfit while working outside in November... whoever thought that this was a good idea needs to have his frickin' head smacked."

Web Original

  • Gloriana of the Whateley Universe wears her superhero costume in the middle of winter in Boston and finds this out the hard way. Plus, she left her cape at home because it was too bulky to hide in a purse.

Western Animation

  • A self-conscious reference appears in Drawn Together, in which one member of the fictional League of Heroes is named "Not Dressed for This Weather Woman".
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender*
    • Sokka and Katara have furs for the cold weather, but Aang appears to suffice with a light suit/robe in the South Pole. Apparently all of the Air Nomads are fine wearing that much even though they all live on mountains. In Avatar Extras, it's revealed that Aang knows a special breathing technique that keeps him warm while he's sleeping. No explanation on how he's able to keep warm when he's awake, though.
    • Averted and Justified Trope with Zuko. In the first season finale, he covers himself head to toe in protective gear, and is able to survive swimming in freezing waters due to a special breath technique that allows him to breath fire. However, he is in very real danger of freezing to death the whole time, which prompts Aang to take him with them after he gets knocked unconscious. Two seasons later, he gets stuffed in a "cooler" (a cross between a solitary confinement cell and a freezer) and uses the "breath of fire" technique to keep himself warm.
  • Averted in Justice League Unlimited episode "The Balance". Upon entering the center of Tartarus, which is frozen, Hawkgirl begins complaining about the temperature and becomes very irritated when she learns that Wonder Woman's "armor" magically shields her from the cold.
  • Averted in Teen Titans. When the team goes to Siberia on a mission, most of them wear modified costumes suited for cold weather (Raven's fur-trimmed cloak is especially nice). The only exceptions are Starfire, who isn't bothered by cold (at least until a heavy snowstorm takes its toll), and Beast Boy, who quickly regrets the decision and takes various animal forms to avoid freezing his ass off. The locals draw attention to Starfire's outfit rather quickly, but for different reasons.
  • Thundercats
    • Averted somewhat. After New Thundera reforms, they get snowsuits for when they're travelling in winter areas. And the first time we meet Snowman of Hook Mountain, Lion-o has a cape to billow dramatically around his bare legs and arms, but when the other Thundercats show up all of them are dressed in their normal uniforms.
    • On Thundera, they didn't wear anything except for utility or mark of office. During the voyage to Third Earth, Jaga was explaining to them how on this hostile new world they were going to have to wear clothes to deal with the environment (of course, that depends on your definition of clothes). Apparently life was so good on Thundera, it was Crystal Spires and Togas minus the togas.
  • Averted in Conan the Adventurer of all places. Although they all suffer from Limited Wardrobe, everybody has a cold outfit they switch to when climbing mountains, or journeying north. Conan goes from his trademark loin cloth to being covered from head to toe in fur.
  • Gargoyles
    • The Gargoyles wander around in all climates in those handsome barbarian shorts. Goliath actually says that cold does not bother them early in the series, although in a later episode a different one complains about the cold. Maybe he just can't get as many updrafts.
    • Elisa nearly freezes to death on the "world tour", when their open skiff emerges from Avalon in Norway, and they need to move fast to get her to shelter and warm clothes.
  • The girls of Winx Club traipse through the dead, blizzard-y galaxy of Sparks/Domino in their skimpy fairy outfits. Their class also went on a hiking expedition in a swamp in school-issued hiking uniforms consisting of short-shorts.
  • A one-time character in an episode of American Dad is a cheerleader in a outfit asking Steve why he stopped rummaging her trash. Note how the rest of characters are dressed for winter but not her.
  • Inverted in one episode of The Boondocks, where Huey continues wearing heavy winter gear in the middle of an unexpected heat-wave during winter. He doesn't seem too concerned about the heat, but everyone else keeps asking him why he's still wearing all those layers.
  • In the Futurama episode "Cold Warriors" when the characters go ice fishing, Amy wears a parka that exposes her belly button (just like her default outfit).
  • In the Peanuts special, It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty wears her ever-present sandals while walking to school, despite the heavy snow and below-freezing temperatures. She doesn't show any discomfort.

Real Life

  • NFL Cheerleaders often wildly underdress for a sport that is played outdoors in fall. ESPN.com columnist Gregg Easterbook thinks this helps teams win, and gleefully points out when cheerleaders dress warmly and the home team subsequently loses. He also complains when coaches overdress as well.
  1. ↑ The Disney Princesses share lodgings
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