Cooldown Hug: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

These days it's [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] almost as often as it's played straight, usually in the form of [[Deadly Hug|the hugger being stabbed]] somehow [[Don't Sneak Up On Me Like That|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.

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* [[Invoked Trope|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 {{spoiler|attempting to strangle her}} in the ''[[End of Evangelion]]''.

** Also, Misato pulls Shinji close and {{spoiler|kisses him}} to try to motivate him out of his near-catatonic depression.

* Casca does this to Griffith as he's [[Shower of Angst|clawing at his arms until they bleed while taking a bath]] in ''[[Berserk]]''

** Natsuki does the same thing to {{spoiler|Shizuru, just one episode prior. Though it was really the kiss that had more effect, the hug was definitely part of it}}.

* 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 {{spoiler|who is currently in her evil mode}}.

* 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 [[My God, What Have I Done?|horrified by what she's just done]].

* In the [[All There in the Manual|manga chapter]] of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' that features the Lightning Squad, it's revealed that his time in the [[Artificial Human|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 [[Schoolgirl Lesbians|vaguely romantic overtones]].

* Classically subverted in the last few pages of ''[[Lone Wolf and Cub]]''. {{spoiler|After Itto is finally [[Killed Off for Real]], Retsudo holds his arms out like he's ready to grab and disarm little Daigoro. It turns out that Retsudo just wanted a hug, but that doesn't stop Daigoro from running him through.}}

* In ''[[Ikki Tousen]]'', this is the only way that {{spoiler|Sousou}} can control [[Super-Powered Evil Side|his inner dragon]], usually applied by {{spoiler|his childhood friend, [[Huge Schoolgirl]] Chuukou}}. An in an inversion, once ''he'' is the one using it, {{spoiler|on the [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] Myousai, during ''Great Guardians''}}.

** 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 [[Marshmallow Hell|boobfaceplant]].

* MM uses a hug to stop Sanpeita's first [[Superpower Meltdown]] in ''[[Kemeko Deluxe]]''.

* In ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]'', Karako gives Nagi one of these when Nagi went berserk. And she {{spoiler|gets run through by Genkaku for it}}.

* Rena from ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' tries to do this to Keiichi, off-screen, in [[Bad End|The "Spirited Away by the Demon" Chapter]]. {{spoiler|Of course this doesn't work, and due to his [[Through the Eyes of Madness|paranoid delusions]] that she and his other friend were trying to [[Mistaken for Murderer|kill]] him, he [[Batter Up|bludgeons her to death]].}}

** Another successful usage occurred in its sequel, ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]''. Ange uses this in order to snap {{spoiler|Battler}} out of his [[Heroic BSOD]]. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|thanks to doing this, Ange herself dies}}. But hey, it worked, right?

* Used in the penultimate episode of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' by {{spoiler|Sumeragi on Billy.}}

* [[The White Prince|Canute]] calms [[The Berserker|Bjorn]] with strong words and a hug in ''[[Vinland Saga]]''. {{spoiler|This leads to tragedy when Atli of all people stabs Bjorn in the back.}}

* Hisoka Kurosaki gives this to his partner Asato Tsuzuki in ''[[Yami no Matsuei]]'' in order to {{spoiler|stop him from commiting suicide}}.

* Happens with Sena in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]''. {{spoiler|After beating the Bando Spiders, him and Suzuna bump into each other. Suzuna starts talking, but Sena just collapses in her arms, having exerted all his strength that game.}}

* Kenichi from ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'' tries to do this on Miu when she [[Unstoppable Rage|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.

** There's a subversion, though. {{spoiler|Minoru ''did'' manage to calm Hakko down enough to keep her from shooting everyone else... but it was still not enough to bring her back from the [[Despair Event Horizon]], and soon afterwards the poor girl simply lets herself die in the collapsing labs, next to Santana's lifeless body.}}

* ''The [[Violinist of Hameln]]'': Flute gives these to Hamel on several occasions in the manga: The first time is just after {{spoiler|[[The Reveal]] of his demon horn, when he went berserk and was only stopped by Flute [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|running up and embracing him from behind.]]}} Later, Flute giving him these seems to be the only way to turn him back to normal when {{spoiler|Hamel's demon blood takes over, though the first time he actually put his fist through her chest before succumbing to the hug.}}

* At the end of the ''[[Fruits Basket]]'' anime (and volume six of the manga) Tohru encounters {{spoiler|Kyo in his true form, clutches tightly to his arm and tells him that she is scared of how he looks now, but that she is still his friend and wants to be together with him. Kyo calms down and changes back to normal, explaining his mother always claimed to love him but was terrified of his true form and was always checking to make sure the beads were in place. He tells Tohru "You dont have to love everything" and then he hugs her, changing him back to his regular cat form}}.

** Kyo gives one to Tohru in volume nineteen when she's panicking about {{spoiler|being a terrible person for pretending to be as much like as her dead father as possible so her mother wouldn't leave (after being in shock after his death)}}.

* This happens early in the ''[[Chrno Crusade]]'' anime, in the form of a Cooldown Tackle, when {{spoiler|Chrno goes [[Berserk Button|berserk]] when he thinks Rosette has been injured, and starts to forcibly release the seal on his demonic powers.}}

* In [[Rave Master]], Elie hugged a crying Haru who is grieving for the lost of his father.

* 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 {{spoiler|Sakaki}} after he has a bit of a freakout. {{spoiler|And then it turns out she's hugging him to ''drag him off a cliff.'' }}

* {{spoiler|Inugami}} gives one to {{spoiler|Aoshika}} in [[Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest]]. {{spoiler|Coupled with an [[Anguished Declaration of Love]].}}

* 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 {{spoiler|Rin suffers in Chapter 26}} is ended when he receives a Cooldown Hug. What makes this even more [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|heartwarming]] is that they were {{spoiler|on fire at the moment, and shrinking violet Shiemi, who hugged him, did so in order to prove her trust that he would not burn her with said flames}}.

* 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.

* 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 {{spoiler|Kyon being shot}}.

** 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 by Applejack and Rarity on Rainbow Dash after she nearly goes catatonic from [[Claustrophobia|not being able to see the sky during the blizzard]].

** The second by Shield Maiden on Rarity after [[Actual Pacifist|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 [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|calm her down and assure they will remain best friends, no matter what happens]].

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Played with in ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]] 3: The Last Stand'' as Wolverine fights his way to Jean. {{spoiler|Unusually for this trope, he's only able to calm her down momentarily, and takes that moment to stab ''her'', though at Jean's request.}}

* Sirius does this to a [[Wolf Man|transforming Remus]] in the movie version of ''[[Harry Potter|Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban]]''. It doesn't work.

* A drunken and remorseful {{spoiler|Loki}} tries this on his insane partner-in-crime {{spoiler|Bartleby}} at the climax of ''[[Dogma]]'' and gets a shiv in his kidney for his troubles.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. This is essentially how {{spoiler|Xander "defeats" [[Big Bad]] Willow}} at the end of season six.

** Giles and Buffy share a mutual hug at the end of "Passions", with Giles weeping over {{spoiler|his dead lover Jenny Calender}}, 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 one episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|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]]'', {{spoiler|Maya tries to calm down her son, Taiga, with one of these. This is one of the "hugger gets stabbed" subversions, though she doesn't die.}}

* ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'' needs one of these the first time he uses [[Mid-Season Upgrade|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.

* ''[[Grey's Anatomy|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]].

* Done literally on [[Heroes (TV series)|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 [[Good Thing You Can Heal|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.

** 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 [[Tear Jerker|"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 [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|cool down]] in between bigger power moves

 

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* 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.

* 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 {{spoiler|dying}} 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. {{spoiler|Isn't It Sad, Sacchin?}}

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', [[Player Character|Shepard]] has the option of giving one of these to Tali after she {{spoiler|discovers her father's corpse}} 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.

** 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. {{spoiler|This one's a [[Subverted Trope|subversion]], though - she'll be ''pissed'' if you select the option to hug her, since she'll see it as being condescending.}}

* Rena {{spoiler|tries to do this Keiichi during the "Spirited Away by the Demon" Chapter}} in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' even as {{spoiler|Keiichi readies to bash her head in. He was too far gone for the hug to work but it does play in important role later on as a memory that causes Keiichi to remember the past events.}} It does work in the "Atonement Chapter" except that their roles are switched.

* ''[[Collar 6]]'': {{spoiler|Laura to Michelle.}}

* [http://owmysanity.comicgenesis.com/d/20100607.html From David to Nancy] in ''[[Ow, My Sanity]]''.

* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', {{spoiler|Karkat calms Gamzee down from a homicidal rampage by papping his face and shooshing him ([[Overly Long Gag|repeatedly]]), and then hugging him.}}

 

== [[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 Leash|explosive collar]] and killing herself that way.

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Used in ''[[Futurama]]'', when Fry begins thinking he's a robot after [[Go Among Mad People|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.

** 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 the Season 2 finale of ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'', Gwen {{spoiler|transforms into a full Anodite about halfway through}}. 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.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Peace Tropes]]

[[Category:Hug Tropes]]