Basic Trope: Saying, "I'm cold" means that a person is sick, dying or even a ghost.
- Straight: Alice begins complaining about the cold when everyone else doesn't notice that it's cold. Eventually, it turns out that she has a Victorian Novel Disease and the rest of the plot is about trying to Find the Cure! before she dies.
- Exaggerated: Characters die the moment they casually say, "It's a bit chilly".
- Downplayed: Alice complains that it's cold. She turns out to have a mild flu that requires a few days of bed rest.
- Justified:
- Alice is getting a fever. note
- Alice is a ghost, and ghosts do not have blood, therefore they feel cold.
- Alice's disease is impeding her heat receptors.
- There's something wrong with Alice's blood.
- Alice has been fatally injured and lying in the snow. The shock is not helping.
- Inverted:
- Alice complains of the cold all the time, and only stops complaining when there's something wrong.
- Alice complains of being hot when she has her disease.
- Subverted:
- Alice complains about the cold several times, and Bob wonders if she's sick, but she isn't.
- When Alice is cured, she's still complaining about the cold and it turns out to be unrelated to the illness.
- Double Subverted:
- Parodied:
- Alice goes to visit Bob, whose house is full of ice for whatever reason. Alice says, "It's freezing in here!" and Bob instantly thinks she's dying, despite it being perfectly logical to think it's freezing.
- Alice, whilst dying, says: "God damn it. Turn that fucking A/C back on RIGHT. FUCKING. NOW."
- Zigzagged:
- Sometimes, complaining about the cold spells danger, other times it doesn't.
- Alice keeps saying, "I'm cold," when Bob doesn't feel cold, and when he puts his hand on her forehead, it feels warm, however it's later revealed that she's some sort of humanoid alien that has a higher body temperature and therefore a lower tolerance for the cold. However, she does start showing symptoms, but they turn out to be some sort of Plot Allergy that her species has to something.
- Averted:
- Nobody states they're cold.
- People complain they're cold, but it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them.
- Enforced: "A Victorian Novel Disease requires that Alice be oddly asymptomatic, but we need her to show some symptoms or else the audience will think she's not sick. Let's have her feel chilly."
- Lampshaded: "Oh no! Whenever one of us feels cold, it means we're in trouble!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice feels cold, but decides not to voice it because she knows that means she's doomed, so she tries to tempt fate by not mentioning she's cold despite the fact she is.
- Discussed: "Why do I feel cold? Hope I'm not catching anything."
- Conversed: "How come in fiction, saying 'I'm cold' always means you're doomed and never means you just need to put a jacket on or something?"
- Implied: Alice was complaining about the cold in one episode and is dead or in danger of dying in the next.
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
- Played for Laughs: A ghost complains, "Being a ghost is not without its downsides, it's so chilly!"
- Played for Drama: She's in danger of dying, of course it's dramatic!
I’m cold, so cold...
