Stuffed Into the Fridge: Difference between revisions

▲{{quote|"''They tell me your son squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross. And your wife moaned like a whore when they ravished her... again... and again... and again.''"|'''Commodus''', ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]''}}

▲A character is killed off in a particularly gruesome manner and left to be found just to offend or insult someone, or to cause someone serious anguish. The usual victims are those [[Friendly Target|who matter to the hero]], specifically [[Heterosexual Life Partners|best buddies]], [[Shallow Love Interest|love interests]], and [[Sidekick|sidekicks]].

▲* [[Gail Simone]], who coined the phrase (and has stated that the term has been distorted and over-applied since then) played with the trope in [[Wonder Woman]], where {{spoiler|Wonder Woman's best friend Etta}} was captured and tortured into catatonia by [[Complete Monster|Genocide]]. She was deliberately targeted as one of Diana's loved ones, she was tortured to make us hate the villain even more, and she was left for Diana to find with a mocking note...all the hallmarks of a fridging except for the fact that she didn't die. {{spoiler|Etta}} however, got better and was shown to be none worse for the wear in the long run, even telling Wondy not to feel guilty for what happened.

▲* Since ''[[Blackest Night]]'' was about the dead returning as intelligent but soulless zombies with the intent of overwhelming and feeding on various emotional reactions, literally ripping each victim's heart out in the process, it was conceptually predisposed to this trope from the beginning. Several characters, both male and female, were killed just to get a rise out of other characters. The textbook example of this trope, though, was {{spoiler|Gen, the girlfriend of [[Firestorm|Jason Rusch]], who was [[Nightmare Fuel|turned to salt and had her heart ripped out (simultaneously)]] while Jason got a front row seat inside her killer's head}}.

▲** On the topic of [[Blackest Night]], Alex, Kyle Rayner's girlfriend, and the [[Trope Namer]], came back to life, as a Fridge. A Fridge with a black lantern symbol magnet. [[Black Comedy]]? or just [[Dude, Not Funny]]?

▲* In the ''Death of the [[New Gods]]'' series, this happened in the first few pages to freaking ''Big Barda''. Granted, the assassin was targeting all of the New Gods, but her death is what motivates her husband Mr. Miracle's actions, such as using the Anti-life Equation -- something he once swore he would never do in the past. To add insult to injury, she was killed with no signs of a struggle and her body was found in -- you guessed it -- the kitchen.

▲* Every [[GL Red Lantern Corps/Characters|Red Lantern]] seen so far {{spoiler|except [[Lobo]] who has a ring but isn't officially a Red Lantern - his entire race ''was'' brutally murdered, but since Lobo himself did that as a child, it may not count}} had people close to them brutally murdered -- the rage they felt over these deaths is what draws the red power rings to them in the first place. Among them are an alien whose mate was eaten by Sinestro Corp member Arkillo, a [[Winged Humanoid]] woman who was kidnapped, repeatedly raped, and had her wings torn off by the Sinestro Corp member who murdered her mother (other Sinestro Corp members also abused her, so she hates the entire Corp as a result) and a housecat from Earth whose owner was murdered by a burglar. Their leader Atrocitus has the worst case -- ''his entire space sector'', including his family, was killed by the Guardians' rogue Manhunters. His entire reason for living is to kill the Guardians. The rage that Mera felt over losing her husband ([[Aquaman]]) and her son in addition to the rest of the crap she's had to deal with over the years and her own rather short temper was strong enough to make her a deputy Red Lantern during ''[[Blackest Night]]''. Guy Gardner briefly became a Red Lantern when Kyle Rayner was killed (he got better). Yes, the guy whose girlfriend was the [[Trope Namer]] got stuffed in the fridge himself.

▲* Karen Smith, the partner of the [[Martian Manhunter]] in his guise as detective John Jones, was murdered by his evil brother Malefic as part of his ongoing campaign to destroy J'onn's life. J'onn responded by [[Hurl It Into the Sun|throwing Malefic into the sun]].

▲* ''[[Cry for Justice]]'', much like [[Crisis Crossover|any other big event DC comic]], has people dropping like flies offscreen, but the stuffee was not a woman, but a girl. Lian Harper, daughter of [[Green Arrow|Roy]]. [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] was [[Berserk Button|not amused]].

▲* Poor Sue Dibny, wife of the [[Elongated Man]], got a quadruple whammy of this in ''[[Identity Crisis]]'', both in-story ''and'' out. Her mysterious murder was 1) the impetus of a company-wide [[Crisis Crossover]] in which it was revealed that she was 2) murdered by {{spoiler|Jean Loring}} in a convoluted attempt to make {{spoiler|her ex-husband [[The Atom]]/Ray Palmer love her again}}, ''and'' it was revealed that she was 3) raped years ago, which had provoked a number of retconned events from the DC universe's past, which were 4) used to fuel future drama and storylines in the other DC titles.