"Fridging" is apparently common term for a pop-cultural trope in which a male protagonist is motivated by the death of a wife, sister, or other close female character. In the main timeline of the story we, the reading or viewing audience, don't encounter the loved one. She lives and breathes only in flashbacks. In a slight variant, she may have died in the first scene (as famously in DEATH WISH). She may even have been killed and stuffed dead into a refrigerator by the bad guys -- as in the Green Lantern story that gave birth to the term. An illustration from that is pasted in here.
The woman in the refrigerator exists only to motivate her man. "Woman dies. Man sad. Man processes sadness by revenge violence." Understandably, many find this trope annoying.
Fridging. Always good to expand one's vocabulary. But in matters like this it inspires in me the question: has everyone known this word except me?
Recently, though not today, I also learned the acronym TIL, which I could have but did not employ in the headline above.
Christopher, if it makes you feel better, I didn't know the term either. But I pay almost no attention to pop culture of any sort, so don't feel too much better.☺
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