Snowflake Challenge #9

Challenge #9: Favorite Tropes

Skipping #7 because both bragging and blatantly seeking compliments are go against moral code, and skipping #8 because if I even have a process, it clearly sucks TT I haven't completed anything in 87 years. So, my favorite tropes! This question is probably so easy if you read fanfic, but I don't, so I always have to look up my favorite canons and try to figure out why I like them.

So, this time I'm going with Defrosting Ice King. I like Ice Queens too, but due to what I like to read/watch my examples are mooostly M/F with the F as the main character, although there's platonic examples too. This is a really popular trope and I feel somewhat ashamed to be using it for this challenge, but I suppose I'm not so above it all. Even I feel moe when I see a gap </3 (Translation: Even I feel deep affection when I see someone do something very different from my initial impression of them.) But I like it best when it's an over-time thing! Finding out someone serious has a plushie collection at home has nothing on seeing someone serious cry over another person they swore they'd never give a hoot about later. Also the idea of someone caring about another so much that they stick with them even though they're cold or kind of mean, thus allowing them to open up, makes me :)

I like pictures, so you're getting pictures.

Exhibit A: Kamisama Kiss

- 25 or so episodes later (and do note the apron) -









(^just to be clear, he is removing the mushrooms here)


Rather than just being "cold," Tomoe is very decidedly an Ice King of the Jerkass variety. I'm not looking up how TV Tropes defines Jerkass though. I just know he is mean and rude and arrogant, which makes him seem awful to new people probably but it's in a comedic way I swear. Not a good person. Great househusband! 10/10, would tell him off again.

Exhibit B: The Legend of Hei

The subtitles were soft and the thing I was using to screenshot doesn't catch such subs, so I'm putting them under the images.


Wuxian (blue guy): "Saved me the trouble of finding you."
- ONE HOUR LATER -

Hei: "Can... Can I go with you?"

Wuxian: "Of course."

Wuxian: "You sure you want to wander with me? Don't you want a home?"

Hei: "I wanna be with you."

Wuxian: "Alright."

TV Tropes says Wuxian is the Ice Queen, but I don't buy that. Even if one may assume from the beginning he's just an agent/assassin and it's later proven he's pretty chill and deadpan-comedic, it's not that Hei changed him through the power of love. It's just that there's more to him than being good at his job. On the other hand, Hei is cold and tries to escape Wuxian many times but eventually ends up sobbing at the thought of being apart from him, and that's all because of Wuxian's kindness. Hei's like a widdle Ice Prince.

And look! I've got some "Not So Above It All" too!




"We also accept mobile payment."





"This is my jade pendant. Keep the change."




"DINE-AND-DASHERS!!"

Wuxian is kind of the king of that trope. To me.

Exhibit C: From Far Away

In case you don't know, Japanese comics are read from top to bottom (like English comics) and right to left (not like English comics).
My favoritest meetembarassing ever btw:







- You'll never guess what happens 6 volumes later -





Saved my favorite couple for last :33333333 I judge all love confessions by comparing it by the urgency in this one, I really do. And I like that Izark is kind and caring throughout, but still rather distant until the confession. Mean guys are funny, but nice guys are like french fries for the soul. (French fries are chicken soup to me.)

Izark has some Not So Above It All moments, but I imagined trying to find the page where he draws on the face of someone who lost a fight and sighed really deeply. Not, not today.

There's lots more examples I like, like Reika in Aim for the Ace, Michel from The House in Fata Morgana, Edmond from NU: Carnival, Sesshomaru of Inuyasha fame, Clavis (maybe Julious and possibly Lumiale too?) from Angelique, whom I really wish I could have included because he is SO funny but I can't do an entire Angelique run before the next challenge gets posted, Seung-gyu from Bad Boss in a 4D chess kind of way because Young-jo didn't even know she was defrosting an Ice King as he was Nice Guy-faking, probably Felix from Fire Emblem, aaaaaand Utena thought she was simply defrosting an Ice Queen with Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena, but it was some other deeper shit she was unprepared for.

This trope has a lot in common with tsunderes, so why not just say I like tsunderes? It's technically true, many characters I like can be described as such, but I associate the word "tsundere" too much with girls who are unnecessarily abusive, not even in a hot way, so I'm not a fan of it. A tsundere done well is fun though. Kuuderes too!

If you have any ACG reccs with non-babyish art styles -- YMMV but compare Yamamori Mika's art with Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table, which is the first example I could think of LOL -- let me know :] It can be any gender combination or any kind of love.
If the guy doesn't have long hair I don't care