there’s this wonderful slavic folktale called dyed moroz where the principle conceit is two girls (one good and dutiful, one bad and wicked), and the test they undergo under the pine tree where Father Frost hurts them with cold and spares/kills them based on whether or not they complain.
the good dutiful girl responds to the repeated question of “are you cold?” by sweetly and politely answering in the negative until he has asked the requisite three times, increasing the level of pain and discomfort she feels each time. By remaining stoic and sweet and uncomplaining, and by lying about harm she may or may not be experiencing, she earns the story reward of wealth and true love and happiness.
the bad wicked girl complains her head off all three times, and is frozen to a block of ice. no wealth, no warm furs, no fortunate marriage. she fails the test of stoicism and endurance because she accurately describes the situation that is occurring: an otherworldly fatherly being making it colder, then asking her whether or not she thinks it’s cold. He doesn’t kill her because she’s bad or wicked, or ugly, or a terrible stepsister, although those are all common elements in retellings of the story. He kills her because when he makes it cold, and asks her whether or not she thinks it’s cold, she confirms that that is indeed the reality she is experiencing.
also it’s a dynamite episode of mst3k
