So Cold Trivia Quiz

Answer: Frozen

Elsa is one of the two heroines of the Disney film 'Frozen' and its numerous spin-offs. Although she was originally intended to be a villain, and had blue hair and a more gothic appearance, she was later changed to a good, if misunderstood character. She is loosely based on the Snow Queen and is the princess of the fictional country of Arandelle. From a young age, she has had power over snow and ice and had to wear gloves after accidentally hurting her sister Anna with her power. As she gets older, her powers grow and she runs away and creates her own frozen kingdom after her powers get out of control, unleashing an endless winter. (This is the subject of her signature song 'Let It Go'.)

Anna teams up with Kristoff, a herdsman and mountaineer, and Olaf, a talking snowman, to rescue Elsa. When she finds Elsa, they have an argument and Elsa accidentally freezes Anna's heart. Anna is frozen solid protecting Elsa from Prince Hans, but survives as her sacrifice heals her. Elsa ends the winter, becomes queen of Arandelle and gains more control over her powers.

Answer: The 'Batman' franchise

Dr Victor Fries, aka Mr Freeze and originally known as Mr Zero, is a villain in the 'Batman' franchise, a mad scientist who gained power over ice after an experiment with a freezing solution went wrong. He has to wear a special air-conditioned suit, including a helmet, in order to survive in normal or high temperatures. He made his first appearance in the comics in 1959, and was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1997 film 'Batman & Robin' and Nathan Darrow in the TV series 'Gotham'.

Although Mr Freeze started as a joke villain, he was later given a tragic backstory in the series reboot: Fries' wife Nora became terminally ill and he developed a freezing ray that would keep her in suspended animation until a cure could be found. Unfortunately, his boss interfered with the experiment, causing an explosion that killed Nora and lowered Fries' body temperature drastically. Unlike many other 'Batman' villains, he prefers to work alone.

Answer: Smile PreCure!

Reika Aoki, aka Cure Beauty, is one of the five members of the team of magical girls in the anime 'Smile PreCure!' 'Smile PreCure!' has a fairy tale theme, with the villains being stock characters from fairy tales. Cure Beauty is the last to join the group, and her theme colour is blue. Like many blue Cures, she is serious, quiet and academic, and has power over ice. A keen archer from a traditional Japanese family, she is able to make a bow and arrows out of ice, and can also split her bow in half to form a pair of ice swords.

In the English dub, 'Glitter Force', Reika is called Chloe and her magical girl name is Glitter Freeze.

Answer: Mortal Kombat

Sub-Zero is a character - or rather, two characters - in the 'Mortal Kombat' fighting game series. The first Sub-Zero, Bi-Han, appeared in the first game, and later died and became the wraith Noob Saibot. He also has a spin-off, 'MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero'. The second Sub-Zero is Bi-Han's younger brother Kuai Liang, who makes his debut appearance in 'Mortal Kombat 2' and is the Sub-Zero who appears in most of the games thereafter. Both characters are member of the Lin Kuei, a ninja organisation, and are Cryomancers, descended from a line of humans with ice powers. They also have an ongoing rivalry with Scorpion, a Japanese ninja who was murdered by Bi-Han and came back as a vengeful spirit clad in a yellow version of the Lin Kuei's uniform.

Sub-Zero's original Fatality is one of the most controversial in the series; he rips out the opponent's head and spine, and the level of gruesome violence in the game made it the subject of various debates on video game violence.

Answer: 'Freeze Tag' (Point Horror series)

This is a bit of an obscure one, admittedly, but I used to be a fan of the 'Point Horror' books and Caroline B Cooney's 'Freeze Tag' was one of my favourites. Lannie Anveill is the antagonist of the book, a strange girl with the power to freeze people. The game of Freeze Tag becomes literal when she freezes Meghan Moore, the heroine, and her friends West, Tuesday and Brown Trevor, and although she eventually unfreezes the Trevors, she refuses to unfreeze Meghan until West promises to like Lannie best. Lannie is later revealed to have killed her mother with her power, causing her to die in a car crash, and has also frozen her stepfather, Jason, and keeps his body in the garage.

When the characters grow older and go to high school, Meghan and West start dating. Lannie reminds West of his promise and freezes random students, and when she catches the two kissing, she freezes them and threatens to kill Meghan unless West dumps her. She replaces Meghan as Tuesday's best friend and West's girlfriend, though West confesses to Meghan that he's only going out with Lannie because she threatens to freeze innocent people if he doesn't do what she wants. Sure enough, Lannie freezes a group of children and does not unfreeze them until West promises her his heart. She also shows West Jason's body as a warning.

West becomes obsessed with killing Lannie, as do his siblings. Meghan is upset at what West has become. West later reveals that Lannie has given him her power; if he touches anyone besides her, they'll freeze. Meghan goes to visit the Trevors and hides when Lannie shows up, while Tuesday tells Lannie to wait outside in the truck. They forget that Lannie is there for a while, but then Meghan sees the creepy smiles on the Trevors' faces and realise they know Lannie could die outside in the cold, especially as she can't open the truck, and are willing to let her die. Meghan goes out to the truck and lets Lannie out, and invites her into her house as it is warm there. The ending implies that Lannie has been waiting all her life to find somewhere warm.

Answer: X-Men

Bobby Drake, aka Iceman, is a character in Marvel's 'X-Men' franchise. He is played by Shawn Ashmore in the 20th Century Fox 'X-Men' films. He originally appeared in the comics in 1963, and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a foil to the Human Torch, who manipulated fire. He discovered his powers as a teenager when a bully tried to steal his girlfriend Judy, and he trapped the bully in a block of ice. He was arrested and imprisoned, and Scott Summers (Cyclops) got him out. He joined the X-Men after Professor Charles Xavier told his parents that he wanted to enroll the young Drake in his 'school for gifted youngsters'.

In April 2015, Iceman came out as gay in the 'All-New X-Men' series; Jean Grey discovered his sexuality with her telepathic powers. A solo series in 2017 dealt with Iceman coming to terms with being gay.

Answer: My Hero Academia

Shoto Todoroki is one of the members of Class 1-A in Kouhei Horikoshi's manga 'My Hero Academia'. His superhero name is Shoto, and his Quirk (the power that heroes are born with in 'My Hero Academia') is Half-Cold Half-Hot. He can manipulate fire with his left side and ice with his right side, and as a result, his hair is red on the left and white on the right. He also has a red scar over his left eye, as the result of his mother accidentally splashing boiling water over his face.

Shoto is the son of Enji Todoroki, aka Endeavour, a superhero who has raised him in the hope that he will surpass the legendary All Might one day. Shoto gets his fire power from him, but hates being treated like a tool by his father and mainly uses his ice power (which he inherited from his mother) as a result. However, if he overuses his ice power, he risks suffering frostbite and has to use his fire power to regulate his body temperature.

Answer: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Katara is a Waterbender and one of the main characters in 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'. She is a member of the Southern Water Tribe and, along with her brother Sokka, finds Aang, the titular Airbender, in suspended animation. Katara can manipulate both water (and liquids in general) and ice, as demonstrated when she fights the Fire Nation princess Azula and traps them both in a block of ice, before melting it with her breath and chaining Azula to a grate. She also learns bloodbending from Hama, an evil old woman from the Water Tribe, which enables her to control the water in human bodies; however, she hates using the technique.

Katara also appears in the sequel 'Avatar: The Legend of Korra' as an old woman. She, the Earthbender Toph Bei Fong and Azula's brother Sokka are the only survivors from the original Team Avatar. She trains Korra in waterbending and healing.

Answer: Heroes

Tracy Strauss is an evolved human in the HBO series 'Heroes' and is played by Ali Larter, who fans of 'Final Destination' may remember as Clear Rivers in the first two films. Larter had previously appeared in the series as Niki Sanders, a woman with a violent split personality called Jessica, who was killed while saving a woman from a burning building. Tracy Strauss is one of her triplet sisters, a former government advisor, and has the power to freeze both objects and people by reducing the temperature of matter. She later gains the ability to turn her body into water.

Tracy sacrifices her life when she gets her nephew Micah to set off a sprinkler system, and uses her powers on the water to freeze both herself and everyone in the area while he escapes. Emile Danko, a hunter of evolved humans, shoots her and shatters her frozen body.

Answer: Final Fantasy XIII

Snow Villiers is a L'Cie, a human given a mission and special powers by a divine being, and part of the main party in the Square Enix video game 'Final Fantasy XIII'. He is the leader of NORA (No Obligations, Rules or Authority), a resistance group of monster hunters, and is also engaged to Serah Farron, the sister of the game's heroine Lightning. Nora Estheim, a woman who fights alongside the group, dies saving Snow from a bazooka shot. Her son Hope hates Snow because of this, blaming him for her death.

Snow is the strongest member of the party and mainly fights with his fists, though he also has a magic coat that enhances his strength. As his name suggests, he manipulates ice. His Eidolon (a type of summon given to L'Cie to help them in their missions) is the Shiva sisters, Stiria and Nix, a pair of Ice elementals who fuse together to form a motorcycle.