Defrosting Ice Queen - Television Tropes & Idioms

Sara Werec of Soukou No Strain is a main character like this, starting with the second episode.
Motoko Aoyama from Love Hina who was probably the hardest shell among the girls Keitaro had to break considering she was always on the defensive. As it turned out she had a good reason. Her attitude stems from her older sister whom she worshiped like an idol till she got married. Since then she blames men as a way to cope with the shock.
Eri Sawachika from School Rumble, though slightly subverted.
Sesshoumaru of Inuyasha is a male example of sorts, starting out supremely arrogant, concerned only with his own status and power, and willing to kill anyone who gets in his way; by the end of the series he is... still supremely arrogant, but has acquired a Morality Pet and developed into an Anti Hero with a habit of conveniently just passing through.
Layla Hamilton from Kaleido Star seems at first to be an arrogant, ultra-perfectionist bitch who loves treating newbies badly at the beginning, but soon we see that she's as hard (if not more) on herself as she is with others and that she loves the Kaleido Stage as much as Sora does. To the point of sacrificing her circus career to gain the Kaleido Stage back from Yuri Killian and foil his revenge on Kalos Eido.
- The second season features a male version of this trope: Leon Oswald looks and acts like a perfectionist, cruel, ice-cold sociopath who practically tortures his potential partners to see their worth, but is later revealed to be deeply traumatised by the tragic death of his sister and partner Sophie, who went through exactly the same Training From Hell he subjects his partners to - and actually was succesful , therefore *both* May Wong and Sora Naegino have to struggle hard to get his trust.
Another male version: Tieria Erde from Gundam 00. He's shown as a cold, reserved Deadpan Snarker with not a lot of regard for others, but after his fellow Gundam Meister Neil "Lockon Stratos" Dylandy saves his life, he starts showing more and more emotions and becomes extremely devoted to Lockon. After the four year time skip, he seems to even enjoy having conversations with his and Lockon's partner Setsuna F. Seiei, someone he often used to imply he wanted dead. So it seems he's pretty much grown out of it unless he has to communicate with Neil's brother, Lyle — then he just frosts up. Understandable, to some degree: Lyle is Neil's twin brother who has taken up the "Lockon Stratos" mantle in Celestial Being... four years after Neil's tragic death, whom Tieria might (or not) have fallen in one-sided love with. As the second season advances, Tieria keeps defrosting and exploring his more "human" side...
Dark Magical Girl Rue/Princess Kraehe from Princess Tutu. Arguably Fakir, as well.
Marlene from Blue Gender.
Temari from Naruto. She starts out as a pretty cold and scary character who shows no remorse for others. But this was mostly due to growing up in a crazy family with a brother who had no qualms about killing her. As her family life improves, she shows more signs of being a warm and caring person. Her relationship with prospect love interest Shikamaru also seems to thaw her.
Natsuki Kuga from Mai-HiME. The ice that she uses as a weapon doesn't defrost, though.
Sheryl Nome of Macross Frontier is the archetypal example. She starts out as the "Galaxy Fairy," an Idol Singer loved by all, tremendously arrogant and haughty. However, her meetings with Alto Saotome (who refuses to take any of her crap) and Ranka Lee (whose innocence and optimism rub off on Sheryl) change her outlook on life, making her a much more sympathetic character. Of course, the series goes one further by giving her a fatal illness and doing everything possible to Break The Haughty, which only makes her even more human.
The Wolkenritter of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which Team Mom Shamal mentions as having really changed after meeting Ill Girl Hayate, particularly Signum who used to never ever smile. The Pensieve Flashbacks in supplementary materials show just how much they've defrosted, being cold-blooded warriors in the past.
Miss Haruhi Suzumiya, of course. More than an ice cold queen (or, perhaps, what happens when an ice queen defrosts too quickly), though, she's a cheerful but sociopathic Jerk Ass without any concept of human interaction. Her Character Development is all about having her re-learn what love and friendship are.
Ai Shinozaki from Corrector Yui starts as the local Daria, snarky and aloof and really disliking to team work. Slowly, we get to see how she was a Cheerful Child until her dad's death, how her mother's accident affected her, and how Yui's persistence and optimism is slowly thawing her...
One Piece: Boa Hancock. Just... Boa Hancock. Although the trope isn't being played perfectly straight because there's little to no chance she's going to end up with Luffy, considering there's not going to be any romance, and it's repeatedly emphasized without any subtlety that he's not even remotely romantically or physically attracted to her.
- Nami, too. At fist, she claims to only want to work with the crew to accomplish her goals, and tries to make it seem she doesn't care at all. (Especially when she steals their boat and treasure just before the Arlong arc to actually free her village.) It took a lot of work and patience on Luffy's part to get her to stay with the crew. ("I only want her to be our navigator" indeed.)
Ruki Makino from Digimon Tamers. She even gets a new shirt to make it official.
By her own admission, Tomoyo Sakagami starts out as this... in flashbacks. Due to a screwed up family, she could only vent her anger by fighting and hurting other people (somehow attaining a legendary delinquent status), and distances herself from her family, even her slight Morality Pet of a little brother. When her parents tried to divorce, she couldn't have cared less. After her brother cripples himself by jumping off a bridge into a river (jumping in front of a moving car in the Visual Novel), she and her family make amends to each other and Tomoyo defrosts into someone much warmer... which is the Tomoyo we see in the beginning of the series.
Three male examples in Flame of Recca:
- Mikagami Tokiya, the resident ice/water guy. He starts out as a loner brooding over revenge, cares nothing else than that, or Yanagi (who resembles his Dead Big Sister) and is extremely ruthless. However, with further interaction with his friends and the realization that revenge is getting him nowhere and would eventually kill him empty handed, he becomes a warmer individual, while still snarky.
- Rasen, a completely pale Emotionless Man who thoroughly believed that he had his emotions erased thanks to his Madogu. Until he realized that he hadn't lost his emotions at all. Then in the epilogue, he could at least talk casually...
- Kurei, the supposed 'Big Bad', flip-flops between this. Growing up in the village where he is persecuted just for being 'cursed' (turns out they're wrong) makes him cold, this gets carried over when he is sent to the future, until he meets his soon-to-be stepmother Mori Tsukino, in which he starts warming up... until her Complete Monster of a husband Mori Kouran noticed his power, takes away his mother, and promptly freezes him up again. Until a girl named Kurenai arrives in his life, gives him the first slap ever, and he starts warming up again... until Kouran blew her up, prompting Kurei to get cold again. He spends the majority of the series being a huge asshole, but after he got his ass kicked by Recca, he slowly starts to show signs that he has been defrosted, made much more obvious in the epilogue.
Umi Ryuuzaki from Magic Knight Rayearth. She starts out as the Rich Bitch, uncaring about Cephiro and just wants to go home ASAP. The situation, however, demands her to mature up ASAP, and she grew into a respectable Lady Of War. And this doesn't defrost her strongest spell Ice Blades.
This is basically the entire dynamic between Limone and Dominura in Simoun, with the former making the latter realize her repressed emotional side and evolve away from a heartless manipulator she is first introduced as. In fact, Limone's Fan Nickname is "Icebreaker" in recognition of this feat.
Nadia from Nadia the Secret of Blue Water. She initially comes across as a cold, aloof pessimist with no interest in communicating with other people (except animals, notably her pet lion cub, King). She also has a very vicious temper and stubborn, unbending views about the world. However, she finds herself falling for Jean, and the unlikely relationship that develops between them slowly transforms her, bringing out her caring side as she learns to trust others. There are a few moments when she sometimes lashes out at Jean, but he always forgives her. Likewise, when Nadia isn't brooding over her relationship with Jean, she goes out of her way to do nice things for him (cooking, encouraging him to build a gyrocopter, and even comforting him about his father's death). In fact, they get married at the end.
- There are at least two moments in the infamous island/Africa arc which are intended to show their friendship turning romantic (a kiss and later, when she admits that Jean is more important to her than the Blue Water in Episode 31), but these both turn out to be cruel teases due to poor writing and mishandling of their personalities. (Episode 35 acts as though most of these events never happened, which is why it is best to disregard them from the continuity of the story in This Troper's opinion.)
Sylia Stingray, depending on whether or not you consider Bubblegum Crash! to be canon.
In Captain Tsubasa, Carlos Santana and Stefan Levin are Emotionless Boys due to the different traumas in their lives. As they start to heal, they become this.
Lala Ru from Now and Then Here and There starts off hating all of humanity; by the end of the story, she has sacrificed herself to keep humanity alive by restoring water to the dead Earth.
Kanzaki Kaori from Toaru Majutsu no Index's light novel gradually warms up to Touma after he saves Index from having her memory reset by Neccessarius.
- She gets defrosted even further in the novels when Touma helps her get over her past.
Setsuna of Mahou Sensei Negima. Started as cold as ice due to seeing herself as a Failure Knight, but after the events of the Kyoto Arc, she opened up a lot more and became friendlier. Lampshaded by Evangeline during their match in the Mahora Festival Tournament Arc, where she told Setsuna to give up her newfound happiness because it made her boring and weak.
- Also Asuna was revealed to be a variation of this. She was originally a smart-mouthed Emotionless Girl typical of Mysterious Waifs like her, but frequent, violent interactions with her Schoolgirl Rival Ayaka turned her into the Fiery Redhead Tsundere of today.
- Apparently, it runs in the family, as Princess Arika is also a grade A Defrosting Ice Queen.
Another male example: Iceland from Axis Powers Hetalia is shown to be somewhat of a Deadpan Snarker, but he's described as a possible Kuudere in author's notes. Taking in consideration how he interacts with Sealand, it might not be THAT far from canon.
- England, as well. He's harsh and bitchy, yesh, but if he does care for you, he can be surprisingly tender once in a while.
Great Teacher Onizuka's Anko Uehara and Miyabi Aizawa.
This is how Loli!Clare from Claymore formed her relationship with Teresa of the Faint Smile. She initially opened up for entirely pragmatic reasons, because Clare was determined to stay with Teresa to the point of following her for two days straight, and if she died, Teresa would be implied in a possible murder.
Mayu Miyuki from Ai Yori Aoshi is introduced as very much this, but almost immediately becomes a softer character when she meets Kaoru at school, and becomes much deeper and sympathetic when more of her Lonely Rich Kid backstory is revealed.
Maria, Shunsuke's girlfriend from Yuria 100 Shiki. You have to wonder why Shunsuke puts up with her. (She only really has a couple of redeeming qualities.)
A pre-teen version is Menori from Mujin Wakusei Survive.
Male version from Bleach. Byakuya, oh Byakuya Kuchiki.
Mai Kujaku/Valentine from Yu-Gi-Oh.
In Shakugan No Shana, Shana begins the series as an ice queen, cold, not caring for anyone. She sees herself as 'just a Flame Haze' and Yuji as 'just a Torch'. After some heartwarming from Yuji she comes to realize that he is more than just a torch and develops feelings for him when he sees a rival for his affections.
Saber from Fate Stay Night. Shirou wins her over via the standard tactic of getting the shit kicked out of him repeatedly. Saber, of course, spends the entire time wondering why anyone would go to such lengths to protect her, Broken Bird that she is.

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Princess Kiku in Usagi Yojimbo seems to be a Rich Bitch to Usagi. After being attacked by ninjas and going on the lam, they eventually see that they're Not So Different, as she is nervous about going into an Arranged Marriage while Usagi is upset that his beloved Mariko has married his rival. They briefly contemplate running away together, but after they're rescued Kiku decides to err on the side of duty and honor and the two part forever in a Bittersweet Ending.
- It's a double Bittersweet Ending: the whole story is a flashback sparked by Usagi hearing Kiku's name as her entourage approaches. As it passes, Usagi wonders if she remembers him, and stares straight at Kiku's palanquin while the rest of the townspeople have their heads down. When nothing happens, he accepts that she probably doesn't remember him anyway and walks away... just as Kiku drops a chrysanthemum flower (her namesake) out of her palanquin door.
Veronica Lodge from Archie Comics is a rich bitch, but has gotten enough Pet the Dog moments in her time that she qualifies for being defrosted.
This troper's favorite heroine, the female Dr. Light, during DC's Crisis On Infinite Earths. It's particularly interesting — and personally amusing — to note that, of the 562 characters featured in this all-encompassing Crisis Crossover, which include the renouned Superman and Batman, she is the only one who received any Character Development.
- Except for Pariah, of course, who grew out of his always lamenting self to someone more adjusted to continuing over with life.
- Which makes her treatment at the hands of the evil Dr. Light even worse — almost as if the writer had no idea and less interest in whom he was using.
- Absolutely no idea, since the writer was Judd Winick, the Anthropomorphic Personification of Bad Writing. He's made a career out of Did Not Do The Research.
Snow White in Willingham's Fables.
XXXenophile uses the trope rather literally in the "Orgasm Lass" story, describing the heroine's encounter with the Ice Queen.
The protagonist, Carrie Stetko, in the Oni Press comic Whiteout — particularly the sequel, Whiteout: Melt. (And yes, it's set at the South Pole — explicitly so. It's still a good read.)
Starfire's evil sister from Teen Titans started to turn into this during the definitive Wolfman run. She proved herself to be a capable leader of her people and even started to put aside the needless, if somewhat understandable, grudge she bore against her sister. It didn't last.
Emma Frost is in no danger of defrosting completely anytime soon. Since she was already defrosting in the Generation X, but then Morrison reverted her to even more of an ice queen than when she was a villain), any defrosting now still seems like a regression (and then "Dark Reign" derailed her yet again). Your Mileage May Vary as to whether her relationship with Scott is humanizing or a Kick The Dog moment.
- Kick The Dog. The whole relationship started because of a mandate straight from the editor, He Who Shall Not Be Named (for he has desecrated our Spidey), who just couldn't stand the fact that Jean Grey was ever brought back to life and finally married Scott.
Glittering Goldie, especially in The Prisoner of White Agony Creek.

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Leia from Star Wars. Compare her character in the original movie to her subsequent appearances in Return of the Jedi, cooing over the Ewoks.
The best male example is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca.
Many Bond girls, at least for the brief period before they melt into James' arms.
- Vesper Lynd, Casino Royale. Technical realities of her being a civilian, and not actual royalty, while looking down her nose at the vulgar Bond are utterly meaningless, both in the story and in this trope.
- Miranda Frost in Die Another Day appears to be a straight-up version of this trope, right down to her Meaningful Name, but is actually a subversion as she's secretly working for the villain, and thus didn't 'melt emotionally' as she appeared to.
Linus Larabee from both film versions (Humphrey Bogart, Harrison Ford) of Sabrina.
Male Example: in the film I Heart Huckabees, the character Brad first appears to be a sexy, smug, condescending corporate manipulator. However, as the film moves to its denouement, it becomes clear that Brad is desperate to be liked — and convinced that being a male Stepford Smiler is the only way he can get people to like him. By the end of the film, the defrosting has already begun.
Arguably, Robert in Enchanted is another male example.
Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music is also a male example.
Phileas Fogg in the movie version of Around the World in 80 Days is another, to the extent that David Niven could ever defrost.
Young Frankenstein. Elizabeth, although it's more a case of getting hit with a blowtorch.
Every Hitchcock blonde. Dude had serious issue with women.
Megara aka Meg from Hercules combines this with The Daria.
Rose Sayer (played by Katharine Hepburn) in The African Queen. Seems to be a common theme in these Humphrey Bogart films.
Buttercup in The Princess Bride, though she defrosts completely within a couple minutes of the story's beginning.
The Proposal is a romantic comedy centered around this trope.
In Blade Runner, Rachael experiences a thaw after she discovers she's a replicant. Her confusion and vulnerability make the infamous Rape Is Love scene with Deckard all the more disturbing.
Gender-swapped in Back To The Future Part III, in which Doc, who in all likelihood has never been interested in a woman for all his many years due to his eccentric lifestyle and devotion to science, insists that love at first sight is a scientifically ridiculous concept - and is promptly proven wrong the moment he lays eyes on Clara.
Clint Eastwood's character in Gran Torino is the male equivalent of a Defrosting Ice Queen. He starts off as a racist jerk with a short fuse but gradually throughout the movie warms to his 'gook' neighbors by seeing even more reprehensible characters elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Catwoman in Batman Returns starts off as a staunch feminist, and even manipulates Batman's hesitation to beat up a woman, but eventually warms up to him. Or at least, Selina Kyle warms up to Bruce Wayne, which isn't QUITE the same thing.
Joanna from Overboard.

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In Catch 22 Nately's Whore
Maid Marian in some versions of the Robin Hood legend.
A very literal example of this can be found in the fairy tale Heart of Ice. In this tale, a young man goes on a quest to defrost a young princess's heart, without which he can only be friends.
There is a non-sexual example of the trope in the fairy tale The Snow Queen, where the titular character freezes the heart of a young boy, making him Not Himself, until he is defrosted by his sister's love.
- Except in some versions where it doesn't work, he freezes completely, and she goes home and forgets about him.
Katherine Madigan (yes, that Katherine Madigan -it's complicated) in Robert Schroeck's metafiction masterpiece, Drunkard's Walk, gets this treatment. It actually works pretty well.
Calling Perry Rhodan "literature" seems inappropriate but his love interest, the icily beautiful and scornful Thora of Arkon definitely qualifies for this trope — she ends up his devoted wife.
Male example: Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice. In fact, contrary to the claim that role reversal is unusual with this trope, the man with the cold and unfeeling façade who is melted by the love of a good woman is extremely common in romance novels, because All Girls Want Bad Boys AND Single Woman Seeks Good Man — you can have both that way.
- And in Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, Elizabeth, too.
Rachel in No More Dead Dogs. She initially thinks that Wallace is a dumb jock, but warms up to him later and by the end, a letter from a Genre Savvy Julia Roberts tells her that she's practically fallen for him.
Played with in Twilight. Rosalie Hale looks like she's warming up to Bella, but it's only because Bella's pregnant, which Rosalie can never be. She even encourages Bella to not have an abortion, even when the baby's killing her.
- And would therefore seem to be warming up to the readers instead.
Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series started off as a goody-two-shoes know-it-all. By the end of the series, she's still the resident genius, but doesn't flaunt it as much and cares as little as anyone else about breaking school rules.
Atlas Shrugged's "Dagny Taggart" (not quite an anagram for Ayn Rand but getting there) until she's raped.
- Er. That was in The Fountainhead, not Atlas Shrugged, and it was Dominique Francon.
Branded Ann, from the book of the same name. Her ship is even named the Ice Queen.
Lady Aliena in The Pillars Of The Earth. She eventually defrosts enough to fall in love with the lowly Jack Jackson/Builder.
In Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos, Virginia is cold, brisk, and businesslike when she and Stephan first meet. When they get a chance to actually talk, she thaws.
Dia Passik of Wraith Squadron wasn't quite a Rich Bitch, but she was distant and sometimes cruel, and blamed other Twi'leks for selling her into slavery as a child. After being forced to Shoot Her Wingmate Castin Donn, who was probably already dead, she had a Heroic RROD, told her squadmates that Diap'assik (her child name, representing her compassionate, vulnerable side) was dead. It wasn't. She hooked up with Face after a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming, and Word Of God says that they later broke up amicably.
- Myn Donos, also a Wraith, is a male version. He'd once been in charge of a squadron of his own, but everyone except him and his astromech was killed on their first mission, and he blamed himself and became the Wraiths' Cold Sniper, going into a catatonic Heroic BSOD after that astromech was destroyed and his failure became complete. His wingmates brought him out of it, particularly a woman who'd started falling for him. When she died, he was left a little less cold, and Lara did the rest.
After more than twenty years of suffer, Cassie from Uncle Toms Cabin is pretty much a cynical wreck of a Broken Bird. She's harsh and snarky towards Tom and Emmeline when they arrive and talks back to her owner Simon Legree and is feared by almost everyone... but as time goes by, Tom's friendship warms her up slightly, at least enough to take Emmeline with her and run away from the manse. Which, unbekownst to her, would trigger Tom's Heroic Sacrifice.
Diana Mayo from the novel The Sheik, in a somewhat disturbing way, thanks mostly to Stockholm Syndrome. After being kidnapped and repeatedly raped, she abandons her old cold, independent attitudes and realizes she's fallen in love with her rapist.

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Quinn from Glee
Kochanski in later seasons of Red Dwarf.
Hot Lips on M*A*S*H.
Romana in Doctor Who. A number of fans posit that the Doctor and she had a relationship (no doubt aided by the brief marriage of Tom Baker and Lalla Ward)
Arguably, Michelle in Season 4 of 24.
Cordelia Chase from Buffy and Angel starts out as the definition of this trope and by the end of the series has evolved into a warm caring woman.
Aeryn Sun from Farscape, her icy cold exterior barely thawing to a cool, calm and collected outlook, contrasting nicely with her malfunctioning microwave of a man.
Amber, a.k.a. Cut-Throat Bitch, from House, M.D..
Kira Nerys from Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
- Also Odo, who defrosts a lot after he and Nerys start to date regularly.
Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager.
Lilith Sternin (Cheers, Frasier) often remains an Ice Queen, but shows flashes of defrosting.
T'Pol. Just T'Pol

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In a Norse Mythology, the god Freyr fell in love with an ice giantess named Gerd, in a fairly literal example. His love managed to melt her heart, etc. (Although a lackey threatening her with a magic sword was required first.) This makes this trope Older Than Dirt.

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The title character of Puccini's Opera Turandot.
- Except probably because Puccini died before he could finish the last act, the defrosting feels rather unconvincing.
Title character of Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida is a strong, educated woman, who has forsworn all men (largely because all the men in her family are either nasty sarcastic buggers or utter idiots). The plot throws her in with the man she had been married to at birth, who is disguised as a woman for most of it. It parodies a poem by Tennyson, and does have some unfortunate Victorian Values in it, but better than a lot of portrayals of the time.
Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew cranks up the Unfortunate Implications on this one. Nevertheless, it has inspired many examples.

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Metal Gear Solid's Solid Snake goes from gruffly agonising about the battlefield and trying to avoid revealing he's falling in love to making speeches about love and how beautiful caribou are. He's not quite as sappy in his later appearances, but much more emotionally-open and compassionate than he was at the start.
Most otome games include at least one (male) example of this. Probably the most memorable was Himuro Reiichi in Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, the protagonist's overly-strict homeroom teacher. If pursued long enough he is reduced to a blushing sensitive sap who loves to play the piano and go for long drives in the countryside. Eventually he confesses his undying love for the main character in a shy sort of way.
Demon Princess Rozalin from Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. A partial subversion of the standard-issue Fairytale princess with an unbearably arrogant (and murderous) attitude - and a hand-held gatling-gun. It's downright impressive how many chapters she lasted before falling into the arms of the handsome, red-headed, fist-fighting hero, really....
- It did help that he didn't like women, and that before he got some Character Development he didn't seem like much more than a hot-headed thug out to kill her father.
Rouge the Bat is the Sonic The Hedgehog series' representative of this. Beginning as a villainous jewel thief who wanted to acquire the Master Emerald for herself, seemingly unconcerned about its powers to stop evil acts in the right hands, the plot later reveals her to be a government agent, although she still steals jewels on the side, and the government itself is depicted as less than pure in Sonic games, and she seems to discover the value of friendship eventually. Perhaps it is Shadow's act of rescuing her from death in a base that self-destructs that opens her mind to this, as she becomes fairly loyal to him in subsequent games, returning the favor multiple times. She also gives Knuckles back the Master Emerald after he saves her life, and it is suggested that they fall in love; they nearly kiss, though both stop and quickly hide their emotions. Knuckles claims he was just trying to save the Master Emerald; Rouge is sour-grapes about it.
- Blaze is another good example. Initially, she's extremely seclusive and chilly. She believes that she has to do everything by herself, and reacts with anger and confusion when the other characters suggest she get Sonic's help. This is best shown when, at the halfway point of Rush, she forces Sonic to fight her to see who should go after Eggman. By the end however, she's grown more friendly and open, mainly due to Cream's encouragement.
Cloud from Final Fantasy VII fits this trope primarily toward Tifa, though his negative reaction is due to a truly epic and widely applied inferiority complex.
The defrosting of Squall Leonhart in Final Fantasy VIII makes up most of that game's plot.
Celes Chere in Final Fantasy VI is cold and unfriendly towards the rest of the cast for quite a while. On the way to the battle of Narshe, Celes proclaims that she's not just some love-starved twit and Edgar himself says that she's cold as ice. The person that defrosts Celes is Locke. Celes slowly falls in love with Locke and realizing that he's still alive despite The End Of The World As We Know It is what motivates her to Putting The Band Back Together.
Arguably, Mitsuru Kirijo from Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3. Although she's the ojou instead of a Rich Bitch, she doesn't seem very adept in social situations and has a few trust issues, namely withholding key information on the origin of the Shadow threat from her teammates until confronted by one of them. She begins to warm up to the party after her father, who had been her primary reason for fighting, is shot dead in front of her and Yukari snaps her out of her subsequent depression.
- She is also, appropriately enough, the party's ice magic user.
Ice Witch/Queen Blanc Neige from Shining Tears definitely count. Frequently partnering with her will make her actually lessen her haughty attitude and smiles for the first time, if you can hook up with her.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn's Soren would qualify as a male example, even if a portion of said defrosting occurs during timeskip. Notable in that gender roles aren't actually reversed; the cause of the defrosting is the male protagonist. I'm sure you can see where this is going.
- Fire Emblem has another male example in Jaffar, thanks to the influence of his best friend (and possible love interest through supports) Nino.
Bastila Shan from Knights Of The Old Republic.
- Best stated by HK-47:
Mockery: (in Bastila's voice) Oh, master, I love you, but I hate all you stand for, but I think we should go press our slimy, mucus-covered lips together in the cargo hold!
Adrian Andrews in Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All. She is smart, calculating, and is pretty much straight to the point. She doesn't like to waste time with trifling details and will shut you down if you try to talk to her about topics that don't get her attention. However, all of this is just a mask. She only acts cold because she is pretending to be tough and independent. Celeste Inpax, her mentor, was her strength and when she committed suicide, Adrian tried to do the same as well. Her cold demeanor is to hide the fact that she can't live on without depending on other people. By Trials and Tribulations, she is a much more cheery person.
- Also Lana Skye in in the Bonus case of the first game. When Phoenix first meets her, she seems devoid of emotion, but once the case has been won, she can smile at last.
- Franziska Von Karma, of all people, begins warming up a bit in Trials and Tribulations during the time when Maya is missing.
Lucian does this to Lenneth Valkyrie in Valkyrie Profile.
Thanks to the tidbits about her past revealed in Castlevania Judgment, we can now safely assume that Sypha Belnades is a version of this. Before even meeting Trevor Belmont (her future husband), she is known to be a Lawful Neutral character who would attack those who wield dark powers, regardless of their heart (she attacked Cornell for just being a werewolf, and Shanoa for wielding the Glyph, which has dark powers), and coming off a bit bitchy, due to a very troubled past (she and her kin were persecuted for how long we do not know). In the end of her story in Dracula's Curse, however, it is implied that she has learned to find happiness thanks to Trevor.
Also arguably on Lamia Loveless (considering Signum from above is an Expy of her), being a robotic example. She starts out as a complete cold soldier and efficient spy who pretty much only cares about fulfilling her mission, without much care about life, especially her own. Further interaction with the good guys, however, made her learn to value life and be more open to emotion thus learning what it feels to be human.
Tear Grants from Tales of the Abyss could count too, at least in the Japanese version where she does warm up to Luke and ends up whispering that she loves him just before he goes off to free Lorelei at the end. However, it's impossible to notice this trope in American version due to her English VA's inability to actually show Tear's tender more loving side at all. This, summed to the fact that Tear didn't think twice on joining the Luke bashing brigade along with Anise and Jade after that big plot twist and her penchant for acting like a hypocrite every two or three scenes during the second half of the game caused her to look more like an cold, uncaring bitch more than anything else.
- In the remake of Tales of Destiny, Leon Magnus is without a doubt one of these. He starts off being a jerkass who makes it known how much he hates Stahn, but is eventually thawed quite a bit by The Power Of Friendship and at the end makes a heroic sacrifice in order to save the rest of the party.
Midna in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess definitely goes through this process. At first, she teams up with Link because they have a common enemy, but by the end she genuinely cares for him (and Zelda). So much so that she uses a tear to shatter the Mirror of Twilight.
- In fact, it's amazing at how this works alongside her animations. One of Midna's idle animations while as Wolf Link is to pat him on the sides in a sort of "Giddy up" motion. At the beginning of the game, it comes off looking extremely humiliating and condescending. At the end, it seems beautifully playful and friendly. There is zero change to the animation at all, it's all character perception.
- This troper personally had to congratulate the designers — Midna is also more or less the first character in any Zelda game to have Character Development.
  - Ganon in Wind Waker... Though some didn't care for it. Or Mido in Oo T going from a jerkass to... a bureaucrat. On second thought, scratch him off the list.
Miranda in ((Happy Salvage)) is introduced as a cold, selfish maverick that doesn't need anyone's help that wants to cheat you out of any profits you make from your dives. She warms up fairly quickly. All this BEFORE you find out not only does she have a sick little brother but the siblings are also orphaned children of a pirate father that was betrayed by his own comrades. Let the healing begin.
Komachi Tsugumi in Ever17 starts out as a total Jerk Ass who always seems to look down on the others. However, she eventually warms up to the others and even falls in love with Takeshi and bears his children.
Zhores from Absolute Obedience is a rarer male example. His code name is the Ice Queen, even. By the time Louise is done with him, there are explicit in-game metaphors to him melting, and becoming sweet and warm.
Neku Sakuraba in The World Ends With You, a Jerk Ass loner who, over the course of three weeks, learns the value and meaning of friendship.
King Graham in Kings Quest V defrosts a literal ice queen by playing a tune on his harp.
Mira Kagami from Tokimeki Memorial. Also somewhat of a Broken Bird who had her heart broken many times when younger, so she swore off love completely to not get hurt again.
Subverted in Umineko no Naku Koro ni. A large part of episode 3 of the visual novel focuses on Beatrice realizing how cruelly she has been abusing her powers until that point. She reforms, eventually even helping the Ushiromiya side of the game board, and ends up denying witches to have Battler win the game, causing her own demise. At the very end of episode 3, all of this is revealed to only be an act to get Battler to voluntarily recognize the existence of witches, and Battler almost signs a contract to do so until he is interrupted by the unexpected visitor Ange, who explains to him that he has been tricked.
Aoba in Family Project. Oddly enough, it's actually in her own route that she gets the most jerkassy and cold before melting into a yamato nadeshiko. However, in all routes she does warm up to them quite a little... making her quite a tsundere. Better than nothing.

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Hayasaka Erika of Megatokyo.
For Shanna Cochran in Fans! it's not so much her heart that needs defrosting as her imagination. Partly owing to her Back Story (insane mother, father who abandoned her), she's so determined to be "normal" that she's suppressed her sense of fun and wonder to the degree that she's grown up to be uptight, unimaginative and hopelessly mundane. As well as her continued exposure to her friends in the Science Fiction club and the various weird things she encounters, her imagination is freed further by a series of psychological tortures she is put through over the course of the strip which, although designed to break her, ironically only serve to make her stronger by allowing her to free her imagination and outwit her captors. The romantic angle is not entirely absent, of course, since this also has the beneficial side-effect of warming her heart as well; she gradually falls in love with Will, who eventually returns her feelings, after which Shanna is able to help him overcome his own tragic childhood.
Due to her unusual upbringing Annie from Gunnerkrigg Court starts off as a Spock Speaking killjoy, unable to communicate comfortably with her peers and oddly passive-aggressive towards those older than her. Mostly due to her best friend Kat she's gradually moved away from this, to the point where it's unusual for her not to be smiling.
Carrie from Loserz.
- This troper believes that she still has some ice left to go before she completely qualifies.
  - Considering that strip hasn't been updated in two years now, and there's been no word from the creator since — she'll probably never finish any such journey.

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Cornelia Hale in the animated version of WITCH is a pretty good example, starting out as rather hostile even to her own friends, she softens up a bit once she hooks up with Badass Normal Caleb in the second season. The original comic version of Cornelia wasn't quite as bad.
- Orube, however, really is a good example of this in the comics, beginning as a rather typical emotionless warrior woman-type and ending up being an older sister of sorts to the main characters, and falling in love with resident Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain Cedric.
In the first season (especially the first episode) of Drawn Together, it looks like Princess Clara will go this way. Ultimately, however, they end up taking her in the other direction.
Even though she has few lines in ''Justice League'', the female Dr. Light fits this. Her reaction to Amanda Waller's announcement that Ace will soon die of an aneurysm? "Problem solved, then." Waller, no slouch in the Ice Queen department herself, quickly disabuses her of this notion.
Cheerleader Liz Allan from The Spectacular Spider Man Animated Series shows signs of doing this; she is kind and encouraging to Peter, but immediately turns into The Libby around the Jerk Jock Flash... and she looks like she regrets the quasi Face Heel Turn. By mid-season, she's pretty much completely defrosted, having broken up with Flash and directly expressed interest in Peter.
This gradually happens with Sissi from Code Lyoko, in spite of the Reset Button complicating it. In the last episode of the series she even becomes an official friend of the protagonists.
Gwen from Total Drama Island, mainly helped along by her relationship with Trent.
In Avatar The Last Airbender, Katara can make and shoot ice, but Toph's the one with the hard, stone-cold exterior. She takes a while to warm up to any of the heroes, and has to adjust to the cooperation expected in a group of equals. She never gets any less sarcastic or self-reliant, but she learns to trust and confide more. Somewhere along the line she develops a crush on Sokka (despite knowing he's already got a girlfriend), who up to that point had been the most frequent target of her snarking and pranks. Marking her as a true, old-school Tsundere, he continues to be the most frequent target of her snarking and pranks, while she keeps her affection totally secret.
- She shows similar affection toward Zuko toward the finale, indicating that Sokka isn't that unique a case for Toph (though her crush on Zuko most likely ends after spending "the worst field trip ever" with him).
- Mai. Just Mai.
Happens twice in The Fairly Oddparents. In "Snow Bound" Timmy gets Locked In A Freezer with Vicky, and the two become friends...until the end of the episode, where Vicky reverts to normal. Then, In the "Wishology" trilogy, both Vicky and Trixie express sadness after Timmy's heroic sacrafice, indicating they're beginning to see him in a new light. This only results in another Reset Button, this time in the form of Laser Guided Amnesia
Blackarachnia in Transformers: Beast Wars pulls this off perfectly - she starts off being confused that Silverbolt is unwilling to hurt her for being female, then moves on to exploiting his 'weakness', before finally accepting it.

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