Harmless Freezing/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character is frozen solid and subsequently thawed with no serious adverse health effects.

  • Straight: Bob is frozen by the Big Bad's freeze ray, but thaws some time later and is fine.
  • Exaggerated:
    • Bob is frozen by the Big Bad's freeze ray for 300 years, until he finally thaws and proceeds to run a marathon while lifting weights.
    • Additionally, Bob dies from a horrible disease and is brought back to life by being frozen solid.
  • Justified: Bob has undergone special conditioning and chemical treatments to prepare for being frozen solid.
  • Inverted:
    • Bob is frozen solid but reverts into a messy pile of viscera when thawed.
    • Kill It with Ice
  • Subverted: Bob is frozen solid, but scientists can't figure out a way to thaw him safely, so they leave him frozen.
  • Double Subverted: The scientists discover a miraculous new thawing technique that allows Bob to thaw safely.
  • Parodied: Being frozen solid becomes a popular carnival attraction, where people line up for miles to feel the sensation of being frozen and then thawed.
  • Deconstructed: Bob appears normal after being thawed, but soon is beset by numerous health problems from having all his organs frozen for a sustained period of time.
  • Reconstructed: Doctors discover miraculous new drugs that allow Bob to make a full recovery.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob is frozen solid, but shatters into numerous pieces when being thawed. The scientists take all the thawed pieces, reassemble them, freeze the reassembled pieces, and re-thaw Bob as a complete person.
  • Averted: The freeze ray misses Bob, so he never gets frozen.
  • Enforced: The story's plot requires a character to survives 300+ years into the future, so cryogenics are the only feasible plot device.
  • Lampshaded: "No worries Bob, after you're frozen we will just thaw you and you'll be perfectly fine!"
  • Invoked: Bob is a scientist experimenting with the effects of freezing on the human body.
  • Defied: After freezing Bob, the Big Bad gets a sledgehammer and shatters him into tiny pieces.
  • Discussed: "Wow Bob, I would have expected the thawing to have gone...differently."
  • Conversed: "Wait, so Bob's human body, which encounters frost bite from being exposed to anything just below 32 degrees, is completely unharmed by a subzero freeze ray?"

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