Cooldown Hug



""Awwww... Somebody needs a HUUUUUUUG...""

- Gir, Invader Zim

In fiction, the best way to calm down someone having a Superpower Meltdown or having their Berserk Button pressed is to hug them, regardless of how much danger the hugger puts themselves in to get to the huggee. Often overlaps with the I Know You Are in There Somewhere Fight, and sometimes counts as a Ship Tease between the involved characters. Often serves something of a dual purpose, in some cases not only is the person trying to use the Power of Love, they're also trying to pin their arms down so their rampage will end.

These days it's subverted almost as often as it's played straight, usually in the form of the hugger being stabbed somehow by the huggee, though it's rarely fatal. Just as often, expect to see Interrupted Cooldown Hug stop the hugger before the calming finishes.

A common tactic of the Cuddle Bug. See also Kill Me Now or Forever Stay Your Hand and Mind Hug, for when the hug is less literal. The Living Emotional Crutch may act as an ambulatory Cooldown Hug.

Anime and Manga

 * Pictured above: Yui does this to Azusa in K-On. Works like a charm.
 * Sayaka from Mazinger Z delievered several of these to Kouji, in the original series, in Mazinkaiser and in Shin Mazinger. In Mazinkaiser her hug even managed snapping him out of a berserker rage!
 * Intentionally pulled off by Hazuki in Eensy Weensy Monster. Apprently he's always wanted to try it...
 * It is only when Asuka caresses Shinji's face tenderly does Shinji stop  in the End of Evangelion.
 * Also, Misato pulls Shinji close and  to try to motivate him out of his near-catatonic depression.
 * Casca does this to Griffith as he's clawing at his arms until they bleed while taking a bath in Berserk
 * Both cases become worse when you realize that both of the receivers of Casca's Hugs o' Healing may be badass, but are painfully starved for genuine affection and intimacy.
 * During the final battle of Mai-HiME, ...and it works. For those of you keeping score at home,.
 * Natsuki does the same thing to.
 * In Mai-Otome, when Nina tries to run off to look for her father Sergay after the canceled survival exam, Shizuru stops her, slaps her to bring her to her senses, tells her they are doing everything they can to find him, and then follows with a Cooldown Hug.
 * In the Fate/stay night anime, Rin runs up to Sakura as she's beginning a Superpower Meltdown. Slightly subverted as Sakura is shown to have stabbed her, though Rin appears to just walk it off. This is a reference to the unanimated Heaven's Feel scenario of the original game, when Rin does this to Sakura.
 * After newly-turned vampire Seras slaughters enemy zombies and goes into a Unstoppable Rage in volume 2 of Hellsing, her boss Integra hugs her from behind and begs her to stop. Luckily enough, it works, and Seras is horrified by what she's just done.
 * The last episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena has a rather cruel subversion, since it looks like Anthy is doing this to Utena as she's getting PO-ed at Akio,.
 * Possibly explained -though not properly used- in the Komi Naoshi oneshot, Koi No Kami Sama: if chaos and Bad Things are happening around but not to Subject A, then the safest place to be is wrapped around Subject A's shoulders. The story being what it is, the hug is key to stopping the Chaos and Bad Things.
 * Raki grabs Clare in Claymore right after Clare begs a guard to end her life, and remarkably it works as she reverts back to her human form.
 * Clare then does the same to Jeane when she's about to awake, complemented with some direct manipulation of Jeane's powers.
 * Raki attempts it again at the end of the series, when Clare has presumably gone too far beyond the point of no return. It doesn't work, since struggling with herself for a few moments Clare attacks him, but ends up killing a fellow Claymore who knocks Raki out of the way at the last moment. That does make her snap out of it.
 * That scene happens slightly differently in the manga, with an already badly wounded  grabbing Clare and aligning their energy, turning Clare back. However, she does get stabbed even more in the process, and she.
 * Naruto has Sakura do this to Sasuke in the Forest of Death as his Cursed Seal begins to act up. Much later, this is subverted when she tries to do the same to  and it doesn't work.
 * And much later, Naruto himself gives one to.
 * Mochizuki Oboro in the manga Psyren has a slight deviation of the this as his actual power. He can heal people by hugging them.
 * Hiryuu does this to Tatsuo at one point.
 * In Inuyasha, Kagome does this to Inuyasha twice to revert him from his Super-Powered Evil Side, once in the second movie and once in the last episode of the anime. The movie instance also involved a kiss.
 * Which is odd because he was baring his teeth at the time of the kiss.
 * In the 2003 anime adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist, at the end of the Laboratory Five arc, Ed needs one of these from Maria Ross.
 * Which is notably different from most of the examples because it's done by someone who didn't really have a close relationship to Ed. Normally a cooldown hug is used as an affirmation of the huggers true love for the hugee (be it platonic or romantic).
 * In the dubbed version and its subtitling, Ed can be heard (very softly) saying something along the lines of, "Mom... You're back," when hugged by Lt. Ross, thus confirming the emotional parental transference he experienced at that time which allowed the Cooldown Hug to work.
 * In Busou Renkin, after Kazuki . It wasn't permanent though.
 * In the Galaxy Fraulein Yuna OVA, Ayako does this after convincing her older sister Gemmu to stop fighting. . Also played straight two episodes earlier than this, albeit coupled with an Armor-Piercing Slap to get 's attention.
 * In the manga Crimson Spell, spellbreaker Halvir at one point embraces cursed Prince Valdrigue to calm him down and prevent his Super-Powered Evil Side from taking over. Of course, on numerous other occasions Havi allows (if not outright enables) Vald's curse to take over and then keeps the Super-Powered Evil Side under control with sex.
 * Played straight in Soul Eater as Maka
 * Another, more recent example from Soul Eater: Marie hugs Stein
 * Pokémon Ash has given one to Pikachu in Hoenn, and Chimchar in Sinnoh. Both actually bit him during the process, although not intentionally.
 * Monferno goes under the effect of Blaze again in DP 163, and it takes two tries for Ash to get it under control. After this it evolves into Infernape.
 * The climax of Gankutsuou has Albert do this to the Count, saving the day with The Power of Love!
 * In the manga chapter of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha that features the Lightning Squad, it's revealed that his time in the illegal research facility left Erio very emotionally unstable and distrustful of everyone. When she was about to adopt him, Fate does this to Erio during one of his bouts of anger after he burns her hands.
 * Taken very literally in Venus Versus Virus, first Lucia hugs Sumire to snap her out of her beserk mode and later it is Sumire to hug Lucia has she is spinning out of control. Bonus points for vaguely romantic overtones.
 * Also, Sumire's hug to a weeping Lucia in the second volume of the manga.
 * Classically subverted in the last few pages of Lone Wolf and Cub.
 * In Ikki Tousen, this is the only way that  can control his inner dragon, usually applied by  . An in an inversion, once he is the one using it,.
 * Koukin also does this to a berserk Hakufu to stop her from . He before pulling her into his embrace, ! The boy has balls of solid rock and an endless dedication to Hakufu which is jaw-dropping.
 * That's basically the primary combat technique of Rushuna in Grenadier. E.g. she defeats Setsuna by hugging her, despite sustaining heavy wounds and falling unconscious. All Setsuna can do after seeing that is admit her defeat. That is also how ... except for the small detail that by hugging him, he causes him to fall some fifty meters onto a solid surface. He wasn't taking any chances, was he?
 * To be fair, with the exception of Setsuna, most of the people she defeats this way are male, and with her a hug is more of a boobfaceplant.
 * MM uses a hug to stop Sanpeita's first Superpower Meltdown in Kemeko Deluxe.
 * In Ranma One Half, Ranma could only be brought out of the trance of the Cat Fist by an old lady down the street. Since she's visible only in a flashback, the responsibility falls on Akane, who will throw herself into Ranma's way to grab him and calm him down. Fortunately for everyone involved, Cat-Fist Ranma utterly adores her, and gladly leaps onto her lap or into her arms whenever she calls him.
 * In Deadman Wonderland, Karako gives Nagi one of these when Nagi went berserk. And she.
 * Rena from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni tries to do this to Keiichi, off-screen, in The "Spirited Away by the Demon" Chapter.
 * This works in the answer arc, The "Atonement" Chapter..
 * Another successful usage occurred in its sequel, Umineko no Naku Koro ni. Ange uses this in order to snap out of his Heroic BSOD. Unfortunately, . But hey, it worked, right?
 * Used in the penultimate episode of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 by
 * A variation is used in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya:
 * Witch Hunter Robin gives one to Haruto Sakaki in the episde "Smells Like the Wandering Spirit." Her willingness to be openly affectionate to a teammate is one of the things that sets her apart from her more uptight teammates.
 * This is how Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne defeated her former self in the manga and Dark Fin Fish in the anime.
 * This is how Amakawa Yuuto stops from trying to kill someone and return to their peaceful everyday life. In a bit of a subversion, she actually shows more emotion at this point than at any other point in the entire manga.
 * He also does this to an enraged Himari in an attempt to save her from her awakened demonic state.
 * Magical JxR has the cheerful, childish Aru do this when.
 * In Bitter Virgin, Hinako does this to Daisuke.
 * In Mahou Sensei Negima, when.
 * Shinn does this to Stella several times during Gundam Seed Destiny, including a quasi-psychic one during the Destroy battle.
 * A variant occurs a couple of times in Junjou Romantica: when Misaki can't stop crying, Usagi kisses him, and the shock is enough to calm Misaki down; in one of the "Junjou Minimum" flashbacks, we see that he learned this trick as a child and used it on Hiroki when he was having a meltdown due to self-induced stress.
 * Whitebeard in One Piece
 * Aokiji can do a terribly literal version of this to people.
 * Canute calms Bjorn with strong words and a hug in Vinland Saga.
 * Hisoka Kurosaki gives this to his partner Asato Tsuzuki in Yami no Matsuei in order to.
 * Sayaka Yumi delivers those to Kouji Kabuto in Mazinkaiser and Shin Mazinger.
 * Happens with Sena in Eyeshield 21.
 * Kenichi from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple tries to do this on Miu when she completely loses it against Kanou. It doesn't quite work the way Kenichi wants it to, however, so he's forced to use some...drastic measures.
 * In Canaan, Minoru slowly walks up to Hakko when and hugs her? Color-coded for your convenience.
 * There's a subversion, though.
 * The Violinist of Hameln: Flute gives these to Hamel on several occasions in the manga: The first time is just after Later, Flute giving him these seems to be the only way to turn him back to normal when
 * In the manga Wild Adapter, Kubota gives Tokito one of these in vol 5 It scares Shouta, who caused it inadvertently, completely out of his mind.
 * In Bleach, Orihime stops her Hollow-fied brother from further rampage with a hug and gentle words.
 * Also, in the Bount Filler arc, Orihime frees Rukia from the influence of a Bount by hugging.
 * D.Gray-man: Allen does this to Lavi in chapter 120.
 * Road gives Allen a Cooldown Hug in chapter 192. Yes, the older-than-she-looks, dog-kicking Creepy Child. Allen was THAT out of it. And she was that upset at the culprit.
 * Pandora Hearts: Alice does this to Oz in chapter 44.
 * At the end of the Fruits Basket anime (and volume six of the manga) Tohru encounters.
 * Kyo gives one to Tohru in volume nineteen when she's panicking about.
 * Subverted in volume twenty when Kureno hugs Akito and
 * This happens early in the Chrno Crusade anime, in the form of a Cooldown Tackle, when
 * In Rave Master, Elie hugged a crying Haru who is grieving for the lost of his father.
 * Played straight in Eureka Seven, with Renton hugging and comforting Eureka in episode 35 when she is in depression.
 * Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru: Yuki does this in episode 6 to a little girl possessed by a demon, while screaming for the demon to Get Out! of the girls body.
 * Shuusei also does one to Hotsuma in his backstory.
 * In the Tales of Symphonia OVA, Alicia's Living Memory gives one of these to Presea to get her to stop beating the crap out of Regal.
 * Lloyd also hugs Colette to get her angel powers to shut off when they're going a little haywire.
 * In Serial Experiments Lain, Alice Arisu panics to the point of slapping Lain hard enough to draw blood while thrashing about. Arisu had her arm raised for a second blow when Lain finally manages to get her into a hug, and well... it doesn't exactly fix her, but she does calm down.
 * In Samurai Deeper Kyo, Akira does this to a girl whose power is to release deadly corrosive spores into the air (her first ever hug, obviously), it startled her enough to manage to stop the flow.
 * In Ookamikakushi, Kaori does this to  after he has a bit of a freakout.
 * In Angel Beats, Otonashi does this to
 * Last Order gives one to Accelerator in volume 15 of the To Aru Majutsu no Index when
 * gives one to  in Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest.
 * Sylphiel gives one to  in Slayers NEXT, when she freaks out over
 * Sheryl does this to Ranka in Macross Frontier when she gets depressed of Alto is with the former.
 * In Blue Exorcist, The crippling self-doubt from which  is ended when he receives a Cooldown Hug. What makes this even more heartwarming is that they were.
 * In Clannad,  does this to   when
 * Caesar to Nakaba in chapter 5 of Reimei no Arcana when she's freaking out over blood.
 * Yami no Matsuei: At one point, Tsuzuki tries to commit suicide again thanks to Muraki, and Hisoka hugs him and begs him to not do so.
 * Yami no Matsuei: At one point, Tsuzuki tries to commit suicide again thanks to Muraki, and Hisoka hugs him and begs him to not do so.

Fan Works

 * This has happens numerous times in Kyon: Big Damn Hero, with one time being Haruhi hugging Tsuruya because she's angry at herself as she feels responsible of.
 * A few scenes later there's another, in which Haruhi and Tsuruya Glomp Mikuru and Yuki, who are already hugging, forming a Cooldown Group Hug.
 * Used twice in Its a Dangerous Business Going Out Your Door:
 * Used by Applejack and Rarity on Rainbow Dash after she nearly goes catatonic from not being able to see the sky during the blizzard.
 * The second by Shield Maiden on Rarity after she freaks out at the prospect of having to kill something.
 * In Ace Combat: The Equestrian War, Lightning Bolt uses it on Cloud Kicker to calm her down and assure they will remain best friends, no matter what happens.

Film

 * Played with in X-Men 3: The Last Stand as Wolverine fights his way to Jean.
 * In The Santa Clause 3, Jack Frost's heart is warmed by a Cooldown hug.
 * Sirius does this to a transforming Remus in the movie version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It doesn't work.
 * A drunken and remorseful tries this on his insane partner-in-crime  at the climax of Dogma and gets a shiv in his kidney for his troubles.
 * Also happens between right before
 * In the obscure and forgettable animated movie We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, the dinosaurs have been brainwashed and turned evil, and the kid protagonists are able to change them back just by hugging them.
 * Done almost literally in the first Hellboy animated movie when Liz Sherman goes a little berserk in the first part of the movie with her pyrokinetic abilities, only stopping when Hellboy comes up close and tells her she can stop.
 * In Eastern Promises, Nikolai manages a borderline example on Kirill, who is, at the time, having something of a mental breakdown. It's both a genuine cooldown attempt, as Nikolai seems to be the only one who can really deal with Kirill's mood swings, and
 * In Tropic Thunder, just when it seems like Kirk Lazarus and Alpa Chino are going to get into a brawl, Lazarus hugs Chino and recites the lyrics to the theme song of The Jeffersons. Chino calls him on it, but the situation is still defused.
 * Though that may be less an example of the hug working and more that they had more pressing problems (namely, they just found out that they're stuck somewhere between Vietnam and Laos, Tugg Speedman has been captured by actual drug dealers, and Jeff Portnoy was starting to show serious signs of withdrawal) to deal with than N-Word Privileges.
 * San gets one of these from Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke.
 * Played straight and effectively in Mona Lisa Smile between Giselle (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Betty (Kirsten Dunst).
 * Charles Xavier does this to Erik (Magneto) to save his life in X-Men: First Class when he almost drowns himself trying to lift Shaw's sub for the first time. Also comes with liberal aplications of telepathic persuasion since they are both under water at the time.

Literature

 * Dragonlance has an example of this in The Soulforge, where Caramon does this to keep Raistlin from setting on fire/vaporizing/magic-ing the cultist woman who's denouncing him as a demon. Because this is still before Raistlin completely crossed the Moral Event Horizon, the cool-down hug works.
 * In The Elenium, Kalten does this to Sephrenia, who has blown her stack (as Sephrenia is a victim of racism all her life, Kalten recognizes her own racism towards the Delphae). It starts with him performing "Elene Magic" on the door by kicking it in, then giving her a hug. She can beat on him all she likes, but Kalten's body is about as hard as his head.
 * A rare example in the second Honor Harrington novel, where Honor is about to shoot a surrendered prisoner who ordered the mass rape and murder of captives.

Live Action TV

 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is essentially how at the end of season six.
 * Giles and Buffy share a mutual hug at the end of "Passions", with Giles weeping over, and Buffy crying for him not to throw away his life in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge as "I can't do this alone."
 * In Power Rangers Zeo, during the I Know You Are in There Somewhere Fight between the Zeo Rangers and a brainwashed Tommy, Katherine demorphs to try and get him to stop fighting them. He does freeze, and she uses that opportunity to hug him, and hold on to him even when he tries to resist, eventually breaking the spell.
 * In Power Rangers Time Force, Jen temporarily gets brainwashed and beats the crap out of Wes. He manages to grap her into a hug and refuses to let her go, despite her struggling, until she snaps out of it.
 * In one episode of Star Trek ("The Changeling"), Kirk gives one of these to Spock after the latter tried to mind meld with a robot.
 * Near the end arcs of Kamen Rider Kiva,
 * Kamen Rider OOO needs one of these the first time he uses PuToTyranno form. After wiping out both of the monster he was fighting, he starts whaling on Kamen Rider Birth instead. When Hina tries to stop him, he almost hits her, but freezes at the last second. She takes the chance to grab him, which fully snaps him out of it.
 * Greys Anatomy: The Asperger-autistic surgeon Virginia Dixon suffers from a overload after being congratulated too much by her colleagues. She then proceeds to actually ask two of the other women to give her a Cooldown Hug, even giving a scientific explanation for why this kind of hug actually works in Real Life.
 * The X-Files. Scully gives a big one to Mulder after his mother commits suicide.
 * In the series 4 premiere of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Barbara Havers is held hostage at gunpoint - on her first case back after taking a bullet to the stomach in the series 3 finale. She's terrified out of her skin, but largely keeps in control, until she is rescued - at which point she whales the tar out of the hostage-taker until Lynley manages to pull her off. She tries to hit him until it sinks in who's holding her - and then she bursts into tears and cries herself out against Lynley's chest.
 * Done literally on Heroes when Tracy, in the middle of a panic attack, turns Claire into ice when Claire attempts to calm her down. Poor woman then accidentally snaps off Claire's frozen foot and her panic attack worsens until a newly-healed Claire reassures Tracy that she's fine and the panic attacks subside.
 * In a first-season episode of Night Court, Judge Harry does this to calm down an angry teen-age runaway played by Michael J. Fox.
 * There's a game on Whose Line Is It Anyway? called Two Line Vocabulary, and in one playing, Ryan Stiles had the line "Somebody needs a hug." He repeats this consistently during the game, resulting in Colin hugging Brad when the latter would become hysterical (until Colin, as is normal for his character in the game, loses his temper and refuses hugs).

Music

 * Badly Drawn Boy, "Year Of The Rat".

Professional Wrestling

 * Extremely common among tag-team partners who are especially close, usually in consolation for losing a match (i.e. "it's okay, we'll get them next time" or "it's not your fault").
 * Another variant is a hug of respect between opponents after a long, hard-fought match. Most recently, it's been seen between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker at their Wrestlemania 26 "career vs. streak" match.
 * Interestingly enough, the bearhug maneuver is a literal Cooldown Hug. It is one of a list of maneuvers known as a "rest-hold," which looks painful or dangerous, but is actually designed to let the two wrestlers catch their breath and cool down in between bigger power moves
 * Can also be used by a heel manager and his client to get heat from an unsympathetic crowd.

Tabletop Games

 * Solar Exalted have a Charm that allows them to enter an Unstoppable Rage. The mental costs for prematurely exiting the stage are significantly reduced if the Solar is restrained by a friend or loved one.

Video Games

 * In the 9th chapter of Quintessence - The Blighted Venom, Serai was yelling to Reivier about all the trauma she'd received from being imprisoned and force-fed poison all because of Lunair, and Reivier gave her a sudden hug to shut her up. I mean, calm her down.
 * In the ending of Disgaea 2 Cursed Memories,
 * Also used in Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice, where  It's subverted in the Bad Ending when
 * Nina does this to Ryu in Breath of Fire 4 after Ryu goes berserk and messily slaughters some Empire soldiers, wrecking an abandoned town in the process.
 * Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots's touching Cooldown Hug that Solid Snake gets from.
 * Kohak gives one to Shing in Tales of Hearts, ending his thitherto escalating Heroic BSOD. She later gives another one to Chalcedny when he's getting frustrated that the operation to turn his Soma into a Cool Ship isn't panning out, making him pay attention to the wishes of his comrades, which kickstarts the transformation. (Nothing less from a game where all the Applied Phlebotinum is based on the Power of Friendship.)
 * Tsukihime, sort of.
 * A beautiful version of this occurs in Kingdom Hearts, after Sora has Kairi saves him from the darkness by hugging him and telling him to come back to her.
 * Marona does this in Phantom Brave
 * The Wii version of A Boy and His Blob has a button for this.
 * It's on the D-pad, actually.
 * In Xenogears, Elly, in her gear, Vierge, grabs, and holds on until . It leads to a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when Elly tells , ""
 * In Mass Effect 2, Shepard has the option of giving one of these to Tali after she during her loyalty mission.
 * Shepard can also hug Liara in the DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker, after she's similarly overwhelmed by the resolution of a years-long revenge quest.
 * Persona 3 has a memorable one in the trip to Yakushima Island, where Yukari Takeba has a breakdown and storms off after the party is shown a video implicating her father in the creation of the shadows they're fighting. The MC is sent off to calm her down and bring her back, and giving her one of these is one option in the ensuing conversation.
 * Her social link has another instance as well, where the MC gets the option to give her a hug after beating up a bunch of thugs that were harassing her.
 * Rena  in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni even as   It does work in the "Atonement Chapter" except that their roles are switched.
 * Persona 4 gives you the option to give Yosuke a hug during his Social Link. And it's around the waist, too.

Web Comics

 * In Gunnerkrigg Court, Chapter 16, a spectacular hug is used to both figuratively and literally cool down the huggee.
 * And here in Captain SNES.
 * Collar 6:
 * From David to Nancy in Ow, My Sanity.
 * Hannelore got one of these from Faye of all people in Questionable Content.
 * In Homestuck,
 * Simulated Comic Product's Mope.

Web Original

 * Survival of the Fittest's Maxwell Crowe does this to a suicidal Maria Graham after chucking the broken glass shard she was going to do herself in with. This not only functions as a cooldown hug, but also prevents her from just pulling on her explosive collar and killing herself that way.
 * Subverted in the Whateley Universe: in "Ayla and the Mad Scientist", Team Kimba is running Dark Phoenix simulations in the school holographic simulator. When it's time for Tennyo to play Dark Tennyo, Generator insists on trying a Cooldown Hug first. She gets disintegrated for her efforts but it gives her teammates a chance to put four tranquilizer darts in Tennyo's backside.

Western Animation

 * Kitty Pryde succeeds in calming down Wolverine with this technique in X-Men: Evolution.
 * Used in Futurama, when Fry begins thinking he's a robot after spending time in a robot asylum, Leela tries to get him back to normal by hugging and kissing him. Doesn't work, though.
 * She didn't try doing his laundry, though.
 * Oddly, it's being stabbed that brings him back to normal. "Robots don't have blood!"
 * Used by Fry when he eliminates Lrr from a high stakes poker tournament in Into The Wild Green Yonder. Luckily he read Lrr's mind to realize that all he needed was a hug.
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender: Katara's embrace in the episode "The Desert" brings Aang out of the Avatar State.
 * She does this several times, actually. She's basically the walking off switch to his Berserk Button (ironically, her endangerment is usually the berserk button itself).
 * Which makes sense, actually. Since she's usually the one in danger, her hugging Aang basically tells his subconscious that she's all right, unharmed enough to embrace him, and he doesn't need to go berserk anymore.
 * In "The Desert," it was Appa's endangerment.
 * The first time it happened was in the third episode of the whole series: "The Southern Air Temple." It can be considered foreshadowing that they would become a Canon Couple.
 * Though Katara didn't hug him out of the Avatar State in "The Southern Air Temple." She just talked him out of it, and then when he came back to his senses she hugged him.
 * In Terra's premiere episode in Teen Titans, Beast Boy brings Terra back down to earth this way. Unfortunately, it's only a temporary solution...
 * In the Season 2 finale of Ben 10 Alien Force, Gwen . She's certain that she could use her powers to destroy the threat right then and there, but Kevin, rightly fearing that she'd lose her humanity as a result, brings her back to earth with one of these.
 * In Codename: Kids Next Door, a Friendly Friend Rainbow Monkey Goodbye Hug is the only way to calm down a giant rampaging rainbow monkey. Numbuh Four has to administer one after he pisses one off and it starts destroying the tree house.

Real Life

 * The Cooldown Hug is a bit of Truth in Television as hugging has been proven to have health benefits like reducing blood pressure.