Why is fridging female characters popular again? (Spoilers)

[RamaBird]

In X-Force, the issue that has been hyped up resulted in a mind controlled Colossus murdering Kayla! Who is Kayla? Nobody knows. Not even those who read X-Force. It seems she was created as a fan of Colossus cause he's a big gentle pacifist, and she got killed to show gentle Colossus doing something horrible cause he was possessed (a brand new storyline never used ever!).

Then he fridges Jean over in the Wolverine solo series. I didn't read that but that's what I keep hearing from people who did. If you read it, please tell us more about it.

And even Domino's only issue involved her going through something tragic, but it turned out to be a story about Colossus being shady (cause he's mind possessed!).

Why is this ok again? This is what we get now that Hickman is leaving? Another time travel story were nobody has heard of fridging?

[jwatson]

I thought fridging was when popular female characters were killed for the male to have drama. I don't think, and i could be wrong, anybody cares about Kayla. I read every issue of X-factor and am still going who. And is it fridging in Jean case when Logan killed the whole team and they were back by the end of the story?

[RamaBird]

I thought fridging was when popular female characters were killed for the male to have drama. I don't think, and i could be wrong, anybody cares about Kayla. I read every issue of X-factor and am still going who. And is it fridging in Jean case when Logan killed the whole team and they were back by the end of the story?

Lol. Shade. That's still a fringing. Just cause nobody cares about Kayla doesn't mean that wasn't what happened.

And in Wolverine, he killed the whole team not just Jean? From what I heard only her death was mentioned....

[jwatson]

Lol. Shade. That's still a fringing. Just cause nobody cares about Kayla doesn't mean that wasn't what happened.

And in Wolverine, he killed the whole team not just Jean? From what I heard only her death was mentioned....

Well im just going to have to say i'm glad little miss shady was put on ice. I guess i'm okay with friding sometimes? I'm hoping nobody finds her under that remote hill.

He killed the whole team.

[From The Shadows]

Well im just going to have to say i'm glad little miss shady was put on ice. I guess i'm okay with friding sometimes? I'm hoping nobody finds her under that remote hill.

He killed the whole team.

Omigosh! It was Wolverine that killed Jean, and perhaps the X-Men? Ahahahha!

How about when a male character is killed to further a female character's development, it goes both ways.

Yes, but it doesn't happen with women all that much. Not She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Wonder Woman etc. I don't really recall, though. But I think if we want to go legit male fridging that would be more along the lines of sidekicks, family, friends, but that's usually only with male superheroes rather than female.

I don't read X-Force, but it was definitely fridging. Percy created a character just so he could kill her in a shocking moment and further another character story. It's basically the definition of fridging.

Also, I think female character should be allowed to be evil. Female villains have a tendency to be revealed as just misguided or victims. Look at Emma and Poison Ivy for example.

I love Emma, and was introduced to the character when she was already on the good side, but why her and not Shaw becoming good? Same thing for Poison Ivy, she used to be this cool villaness who would take over men's minds and just kill them and Batman would show up to defeat her, now she is most of the time just Harley Quinn's girlfriend.

I think making Emma the victim of circumstance actually did a disservice to her as a woman more. She was already doing fine as a reformed villain. Instead, they made her a victim of THC. Women come in all forms, including evil forms. Women having to all be victims or harmless just does a disservice, I think, as I said. It takes women for granted.

[Spiderfan001]

This is, to an extent, why I would argue that there isn't a double-standard, and why the torture or killing of men to drive a female character's narrative doesn't garner the same attention: Because even though there are times it happens to male characters, the reality is that females are overwhelmingly the victims. While reducing any character to a plot device of this sort is inherently problematic, the reality is that women are far more likely to be considered "disposable" in this fashion.

Fridging is also specifically when a character is killed off (or maimed, tortured, ect) for no other reason than to cause emotional pain to a different character. And while it does happen to male characters, it happens to female characters much, much more. I'd bet it happens to children more than adult male characters as well. Although someone dying in the backstory probably isn't technically fridging.

If a character is killed off as part of their own story arc, then the follow up that deals with a friend/lover who survived isn't fridging, the dead character had their own story. Even if that death was stupid.

Also, killing someone merely to establish a threat as being serious business isn't fridging either, that one is The Worf Effect (so named after a Star Trek character whose background as a supposed great warrior served to make the threat of the week look more threatening by how easily they disposed of the so called great warrior).

Of course, it is possible for a death to fit into more than one category at a time.

Again it's not about Women/men, it's main characters/side characters.For e.x. chuck was "fridged" in maze runner not because he's a male or female but because he's a side character.

It's overwhelmingly female because a lot more female characters were side characters as compared to male ones.Which is being fixed.Asking comics to stop killing people will never happen, and characters death for the main character will always be something that happens no matter how well written.We just need more Female leads who headline there own story.

If they want to go the "fridging" route they just need to expand to the guys as well. The thing is when you refer to every death as "fridging" then there is no drama. In the world of heroes there is going to be death. And victims. It also depends on how its written. Writer intent is important. If you suspect there is something off about what Writer X is trying to convey then yeah, it can be problematic. If the writer has a history of only killing women for the character to feel pain then yeah, I can understand the frustration. That said, there are going to be people who die. Because that is what heroes are all about. Because a lot of times it's about saving lives. And sometimes you can't save all lives. Or there wouldn't be drama. The thing is if you are relying on death too much than that means you have run out of ideas too. I say expand the bodies to the males because superheroes without victims is next to impossible.

This, but instead of expanding male victims just make more female leads.2 wrongs don't make a right.

[Kingdom X]

I thought fridging was when popular female characters were killed for the male to have drama. I don't think, and i could be wrong, anybody cares about Kayla. I read every issue of X-factor and am still going who. And is it fridging in Jean case when Logan killed the whole team and they were back by the end of the story?

Just want to jump in to say that it doesn't have to popular characters! I don't think Green Lanterns girlfriend was a popular character on her own when she was stuffed in that fridge.

[jwatson]

Just want to jump in to say that it doesn't have to popular characters! I don't think Green Lanterns girlfriend was a popular character on her own when she was stuffed in that fridge.

Thanks for the info. I think fridging is before my time really getting deep into comics, i hear it quite a bit but i don't really get it.

[Viteh]

I do think Kayla qualifies as fridging, she was created just to die for the sake of Colossus' story. I don't think the rest are though.

I feel that at its core, the issue with fridging is similar to "the black guy dies first". Female and characters of color are seen as less important, which is why they die (or suffer) for the sake of the white protagonist.

I don't think that applies to Jean (since it was the entire team), or Domino (the story was about her, not about someone else), but it is true for Kayla.

[sunofdarkchild]

The trope name comes from what happened to Kyle Ryner's girlfriend right after he became Green Lantern - she was killed and stuffed in a refrigerator for him to find almost immediately before either character had the chance to become popular. It doesn't have anything to do with how popular the woman is, just that she is tortured or killed for the male character's development.

[jwatson]

The trope name comes from what happened to Kyle Ryner's girlfriend right after he became Green Lantern - she was killed and stuffed in a refrigerator for him to find almost immediately before either character had the chance to become popular. It doesn't have anything to do with how popular the woman is, just that she is tortured or killed for the male character's development.

Okay now it makes sense, so someone was literally stuffed in a fridge. i find that actually funny. I mean not the why but the actually stuffing someone in a fridge part.

[Nazrel]

I thought fridging was when popular female characters were killed for the male to have drama. I don't think, and i could be wrong, anybody cares about Kayla. I read every issue of X-factor and am still going who. And is it fridging in Jean case when Logan killed the whole team and they were back by the end of the story?

The characters total value being reduced to a single moment of trauma for a more important character is kinda one of the defining points of Fridging.

[Reiko]

Kayla was always a plot device to highlight Colossus' tranquil state of being, and reluctance to violence.

[Airtrap]

Kayla was always a plot device to highlight Colossus' tranquil state of being, and reluctance to violence.

Yeah it's a stock character for one time use, not every character in a story can or should be important.

Also they live on resurrection island, death is nothing more then being hit by a lead pipe really. I expect everybody on Krakoa to die a couple of times, probably gonna end with a genocide again at some point, anyway.
.

[PyroFN]

Yeah it's a stock character for one time use, not every character in a story can or should be important.

Also they live on resurrection island, death is nothing more then being hit by a lead pipe really. I expect everybody on Krakoa to die a couple of times, probably gonna end with a genocide again at some point, anyway.
.

It’s not about making every character important, it’s about writing compelling stories that don’t revolve around the author taking advantage of the shock value or to simply move the story along.

Yeah, Krakoa has a new resurrection system, but we can’t say that this has been free range for characters to die left and right beyond Percy’s writings.

In Way of X, Kurt was deeply disturbed about the X-kids committing suicide because of them knowing they can just come back. When Gabby was killed, it brought up the problems of neglecting the friends you had, trusting people with a negative history, and what qualifies as a clone. Even minor characters can serve some sort of meaningful use for the plot beyond a cheap emotional moment that won’t impact anything. In the Empyre tie-in issue, they brought a no-name kid to talk to his zombie self to show what the island is doing for those that perished in the Genosha-incident and displaying how he is getting his second chance to grow up and experience life.

It’s not always the best writing, but they at least serve a true purpose with impact on the characters beyond simply torturing the protagonist or subject.