Pet the Dog: Difference between revisions

** Gaou's honest admiration for Marco and open liking for [[Worthy Opponent|Worthy Opponents]] (like Banba, Kurita, Riku) help to humanize the massive [[Blood Knight]].

** Even the montrous [[The Juggernaut|Mr Don]] has a moment where he stops a stampede of fans just so he could sign a little boy's football and give him a speech about what it means to be an athlete. He passes off a chance to flirt with an attractive girl and it's not to show off. The little boy was honestly in line first and that mattered to Mr Don.

* Galvatron, of all people, gets one in ''[[Transformers Headmasters]]'', part of the Takara anime series. He's moved to genuine sorrow and anger when Soundwave is killed, suggesting there's something halfway decent beneath the arrogant psychopath he normally appears as.

* ''[[One Piece]]'':

** Known [[Jerkass]] Tosaka turned his character around a bit when he protected {{spoiler|Ako from giving up her slave rights to safety}}, {{spoiler|called off his blackmail of Negi}}, [[Hidden Heart of Gold|saying he was just bored]], and later {{spoiler|told Negi in all details that his [[Missing Mom]], Princess Arika, was a really sweet person whom he looked up to}}. He denies being a good character in almost every appearance thereafter... Even right after his biggest [[Pet the Dog]] moment ever: {{spoiler|his [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save Ako's life.}}

** During his {{spoiler|fight with Rakan}}, ''[[Big Bad|Fate]]'' pets the dog. In a flashback anyway. Turns out his minions' loyalty stems from the care he gave them as orphans from the great war, and they are just the ones who chose to stay with him--[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/c260/8.html he sent the other 57 off to school]. Even Rakan notes that it's surprisingly nice of Fate. Granted, Fate's boss is the one who ''caused'' the war in the first place, but taking care of the war orphans is far from the more normal [[Big Bad]] tactics of [[Omnicidal Maniac|killing everyone]]. Combined with his {{spoiler|sudden growth spurt}} and visible ''emotions'', Fate seems quite different.

[[Image Boards|Anon #2]]: Well it's only fair that they have a future before he destroys it. }}

** {{spoiler|Fate}} also has another one {{spoiler|during his [[Comically Serious]] moment}}.

* In ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'', Then-Dragon {{spoiler|Kisara}} is shown petting the dog, or rather cat, thus endearing her to {{spoiler|fellow rabid cat-lover Miu}} and eventually {{spoiler|leading to her break with Ragnarok and joining the side of good.}}

** Much more recently, {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Saiga Furinji]]}} had his very own [[Pet the Dog]] moment by disabling attacking opponents without actually killing them, administering medicine for one ally's paralyzed arm, and commending Kenichi for his effort in protecting Miu.

* ''[[Great Teacher Onizuka]]'': Tomoko serves this purpose for Miyabi and Urumi (rather literally in Urumi's case, as the first thing Urumi does upon reuniting with Tomoko after a long absence is to make her sit, beg, and roll over).

** It's played more straight when the picture that Urumi hid behind a massive firewall was {{spoiler|a picture of a young Miyabi, Tomoko and Urumi as friends.}}

== Comics ==

* [[The Cartoon History of the Universe]] discusses the concept of selective kindness in talking about inter-cultural relationships: tender to their own people, callously brutal to everyone else.

* Kingdok from ''[[Bone]]'' prepares and brings food to [[Those Two Guys|the two stupid rat creatures]] for inadvertently doing him a favor. Unlike most examples, Kingdok actually retains most of his scariness and menace as he's doing this.

* [[Lobo]] of [[The DCU]] parodies this: he is a relentless killing machine who often kills his bounties instead of capturing them, yet at the same time has a soft spot for "space dolphins". But he ''did'' once spare Aquaman's life because he felt he couldn't hurt somebody who loved dolphins as much as he did.

* In ''[[Cross Gen|Negation]]'', the [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|Saurian]] party member subverts her pet the [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit|Kaliman retriever]] moment when she names him "tasty treat" in her people's language.

* In one ''[[The Far Side|Far Side]]'' comic, a band of unruly Vikings, after successfully sacking a castle and stealing its women, are eagerly awaited at their ship by the crew's dog. As Gary Larson says on this in ''The Prehistory of The Far Side'':

* In ''[[Punisher]] War Journal'', the Rhino has a few. First, he writes an apology letter to the widow of a cop he had accidentally killed and sends her money with each score he pulls off. Second, in the last issue he convinces the Punisher to leave the Stilt-Man gang alone (on Christmas no less) because he could tell they were just stupid, not evil.

* Dr. Octopus from [[Spider-Man]] has gotten a few pet the dog moments over the decades, including trying to save Aunt May from Hammerhead and trying to develop a cure for AIDS in order to save his ex girl friend.

** Bucky himself gets the rare one now and then. One that stands out in particular is when Rob and Satchel leave to go donate blood. They return to find that Bucky had baked cookies for them and decorated the living room with balloons and a banner welcoming them home.

* In the beginning of the Punisher: Max comic ''Kitchen Irish'', Frank is eating lunch in a diner when a bomb goes off in the pub across the street. People all around him get butchered when the diner's large window shatters, and once the debris settle he finds a man whose chest had been shattered, revealing his heart, giving the following Pet The Dog moment from Frank.

Castle: ''So I do. For no reason I can pin down it becomes very important that this guy makes it. Maybe he has a wife and kids. Maybe he wants to see them again like nothing else on Earth. }}

** Frank works on keeping the man's exposed heart from bleeding out, and when a rookie EMT gets there they spend an hour working together on the man before finally succeeding in stabilizing him.

== Fan Works ==

* ''[[Luminosity]]'': Santiago works for the Volturi, who are...not nice people. And yet, she appears to genuinely care about everyone she works with, to the point of giving children dance lessons {{spoiler|and needing Chelsea to cut a bond to a human so she doesn't mourn too much}}.

* The [[My Little Pony]]/[[Sonic the Hedgehog]] [[Crossover]] ''[[Chaotic Harmony]]'': Sonic is a huge [[Jerkass]] thanks to no action over the course of a year. He completely ruined Cream's birthday party, split all ties with his friends, and thought about deserting his friends in Ponyville after they were transported via Chaos Control. But even after all of that, he couldn't resist helping Rarity finding her missing goggles that she needed to finish her design. (That ''Sonic'' helped model, no less.)

 

== Films -- Animation ==

* ''[[The Little Mermaid]]''. Ursula was clearly extremely fond of Flotsam and Jetsam. She was treating the final battle as a joke up until they were killed by Ariel throwing her aim off, after which [[Mama Bear|she became]] ''[[Berserk Button|extremely]]'' [[Villainous Breakdown|pissed]] [[Make My Monster Grow|off]].

* A more heroic example - throughout the beginning of ''[[Tangled]]'', Flynn steals a tiara from the royal family (one which is so highly valued because it belonged to the king and queen's kidnapped daughter, no less), betrays and abandons his partners in crime to keep it for himself, and constantly tries to weasel out of his deal with Rapunzel, which leads to him taking her into a bar full of thugs to try to scare her into going home. When the thugs find out that he's got a bounty on his head and trap the pair in the bar though, Flynn shields Rapunzel from them.

* ''[[The Lorax (film)|The Lorax]]''. During the Once-ler's [[Villain Song]] "How Bad Can I Be", he sings: "Just look at me petting this puppy."

** [[Throw It In|This wasn't even in the script]]: during filming, a desert rabbit came up to Tor Johnson and he just started petting it. Leaving it in was perhaps Coleman Francis' greatest cinematic achievement.

* Parodied and Subverted in the [[Live Action Adaptation]] of ''[[Dudley Do-Right]]''. [[Dastardly Whiplash|Snidely Whiplash]] ([[Spider-Man (film)|Alfred Molina]]) is basking in his victory and declares drinks (at the bar he now owns) are on the house, before remarking to his henchman:

* ''[[Child's Play (film)|Childs Play]]''. As [[Ax Crazy]] as she is, Tiffany seems to love Chucky in her own crazy way and genuinely seems to care about their child later on, even before learning that he/she is their kid. {{spoiler|When she dies, she even warns him/her to not make the same mistakes she and Chucky did.}}

* Half of ''[[The Invisible]]'' is this. When we meet Annie Newton, she's an [[Emotionless Girl|coldblooded]] thief and gang leader, which is all the protagonist Nick thought she was, especially after she beats the tar out of him and leaves him for dead. He is ''very'' disturbed when he sees how much she cares for her little brother.

* Pando in the film ''Two Hands'' is a ruthless [[Affably Evil]] (emphasis on "Evil") crime boss who would have no qualms about murdering you if you cross him... but he very clearly loves his young son and is very close to him, in one scene watching [[Play School]] with him and complimenting the origami pterodactyl he made. A major theme in the movie is that even bad people have some good inside them and vice versa.

* ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]] 2'' has Ivan Vanko's care for <s> his cockatoo</s> [[Memetic Mutation|his burd]].

** Even further, it was revealed that Frank, usually so abrasive to everyone he works with, can't stop talking about how great they are and how much he admires them when he's at home, thus retconning in that he'd been petting the dog to some extent all along.

** Dr. Romano was a real jerk in his first seasons, and kept many of those qualities throughout his stay on the show. However he had a number of Pet the Dog moments, such as when he told Benton's son Reese "look after your daddy" in sign language, or when he refused to give up on Lucy after she was stabbed. His love for Corday also provided him with several such moments. The most literal "pet the dog" moment however came when he called Corday into surgery and she was shocked to see who their patient was...

'''Romano''': Correction Lizzie. This is ''my'' dog. }}

* ''[[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On the Prairie]]'': Even though they were the de-facto villians, both Harriet and (prior to 1980) Nellie Olesen got their episodes where their more admirable, softer sides got their time in the limelight:

** Mr. Muggles is [[Nightmare Fuel]] in his own right...

** Also, played with when Ted goes to pet the same dog. Ted, mind you, is radioactive by nature, which leads to this exchange:

'''Ted''': I'm not gonna nuke the dog! }}

* Simon Cowell had a completely literal Pet the Dog moment on Season 7 of ''[[American Idol]]''... a contestant entered with a six-week-old Pomeranian puppy named Panda, who she handed over to the judges. Simon very quickly nabbed the little creature, and his next words were, "I'm going to steal your dog." He kept stroking that little puppy through the entire audition, and it took some coaxing to get Panda out of his arms again.

* Lieut. LaGuerta on ''[[Dexter]]'' is initially introduced as the [[Pointy-Haired Boss]], who netted the position through a combo of politics and luck and has a severe hate-on for Deb and an... ''interest'' in Dexter. Then, in an episode halfway through the season, a young Cuban boy is found at the site of one of Dexter's latest victims, and LaGuerta goes all maternal, looking after the kid and thinking of adopting him if the boy's uncle isn't found. This has not stopped LaGuerta from being any more devious than before (in Season 2, she {{spoiler|sabotages her replacement by pursuing a clandestine affair with her fiancé}}).

** From the very first episode:

::: She, Rita and the kids quickly became Dexter's [[Morality Pet|Morality Pets]].

* Throughout the pilot for ''[[Firefly]]'', Mal is constantly and repeatedly shown to be a mean, cranky, selfish bastard.... until his touching scene in the infirmary with Kaylee that shows that he's not the "mean old man" he tries to be. By the end of the pilot, [[Honor Before Reason|in spite of all the trouble it may cause him]], he chooses to shelter Simon and River. As the series progresses, it becomes more and more apparent that Mal's [[Jerkass Facade|JerkAss-ness is just a cover]].

** Jordan also gets more than one -- talking about the abortion she got years ago, saying how much she loves Cox, staring down at Jack with a loving expression... awww...

* ''Everwood'' does it during the first episodes: Dr Abbott begins as an obnoxious almost misanthropic doctor, but then is revealed to be a very devoted father and husband; Bright starts off as a bully, but then he's shown to be a very sensitive person grieving over his friend's accident.

** Unlike Major Burns, Major Winchester was envisioned as a [[Worthy Opponent]] from the start, so he has lots of Pet The Dog moments.

*** Including talking a concert pianist whose hand was crippled out of depression and defending a stuttering patient {{spoiler|Although the latter was inspired by his sister having the same handicap}}

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Boom Town", Blon Slitheen has a nice chat with a young woman about family instead of eating her. It is subverted however, when the Doctor doesn't fall for it.

'''Doctor:''' You let one of them go, but that's nothing new. Every now and then, a little victim's spared... because she smiled, cos he's got freckles, cos they begged. And that's how you live with yourself, that's how you slaughter millions, because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you ''happen'' to be kind. }}

** It's also worth mentioning that said villain's scheme would have ended up [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroying the world]], making her arguments even more hollow.

*** If anything Snake's dismissal of Otacon's defense of Wolf on this basis is deeply ironic and not a little tragic - he loves dogs too, but he believes himself to be an intrinsically worthless human being outside of the battlefield. Snake's self-loathing becomes more apparent by MGS 4, until {{spoiler|Big Boss reappears, more-or-less apologizes to Snake for how fucked up his life was, and then tells Snake to live out the short remainder of his life in peace and happiness.}}

** From ''Sons Of Liberty'' Fortune blasts apart a squad of Navy Seals for not being able to shoot her and then apologises to the dead seagulls that got hit by their bullets.

* In ''[[Warcraft]] III: The Frozen Throne'', Illidan Stormrage is a power-hungry, demon-night elf hybrid. Still, he goes out of his way to help save {{spoiler|Tyrande, his sister-in-law, for whom he harbors an unrequited love.}}

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', Kel'Thuzad is an undead lich who serves as [[The Dragon]] to Arthas Menethil, the Lich King. However players can confront a kitten named Mr. Bigglesworth in his lair. If killed his reaction seems to be sadness and vengeful hatred towards those heartless loot-seekers that just killed his kitty.

** A more straight example is how Richard seems to like the rabbit the rest of the group jokingly gave him as a mount when he was shrunk. Well, at least, it's one of the few woodland creatures he's run across that he ''didn't'' immediately immolate.

*** Oh, it's [http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/173 far more than that]

** [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/05/07/episode-1125-unexpected/ Fixed That For You.]

** [[A Wizard Did It|Sarda]] offers the "Dark Warriors" a chance to run before he starts {{spoiler|absorbing the power of the orbs}}.

** Sarda seems to like Fighter more than the other three, probably because he realises that [[Good Is Dumb|he's actually good]] as opposed to Black Mage, Red Mage and Thief. For example, in one instance, Fighter asks for a reward (and hopes that it is candy), but Sarda says something about the next quest. In the end, Sarda tells Fighter, "By the way, Fighter, here's the candy." Also, Sarda (after resurrecting Fighter and Thief, who have been killed by Black Mage) states that the Light Warriors are "all selfish monsters who need to die for the good of everyone else." Black Mage asks surprised if that also applies to Fighter, and Sarda answers he isn't. While Fighter cheers, Sarda explains that he ''still'' has to kill him anyway. [[Kick the Dog|And then Black Mage cheers]].

* In ''[[Xkcd]]'', Black Hat Guy gets such a moment [http://xkcd.com/142/ which includes baking a cake]. Aw...

** Then, he gets another one [http://www.goblinscomic.com/09212010-2/ here.] Looks like Minmax is heading for a [[Heel Face Turn]].

* ''[[Homestuck]]''. The guy who would go on to become [[Villain Protagonist|Spades Slick]] had one such moment during the Hivebent Intermission. Begins [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004198 here].

** Even the [[Big Bad|kid's]] [[Complete Monster|version]] of Jack Noir gets one. {{spoiler|Thanks to Bec's prototyping, he's [[Undying Loyalty|incredibly loyal]] to Jade - so much so, that when Courtyard Droll kills her (as per Jack's earlier orders), he takes her to her Quest Bed, more-or-less willingly undoing her death. Note that Jack's sole motivation is to kill everything in existence.}}

* Seymour from [[Nosfera]] deciding to spare the life of the Medusa Head in front of her children.

* In the ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' episode "First Steps", two kids poke fun at a little girl's sand castle. Sandman uses his power to turn the area around them into a huge Disney-esque castle, chasing the boys away. The little girl thanks "Mr. Sandman". He smiles and tells her to go home as its getting cold. The episode is Pet the Dog from beginning to end.

* Bender on ''[[Futurama]]'' petted the dog a few times, but the show spoofed this on at least one occasion:

'''Bender:''' Just like inside me, I've got the heart of a human! ''(takes a human heart from his chest compartment)'' ...What? }}

** Bender's biggest Pet the Dog moment was most likely in "Jurassic Bark", {{spoiler|where he spends the whole episode acting like a insensitive, possessive, abusive, jealous jackass because Fry, his best friend, is spending so much time trying to figure out how to clone his old dog Seymour, his best friend before Bender. Eventually, Bender gets so fed up he takes Seymour's fossil and throws it into a lava vent. However, when this causes Fry to collapse in grief, he realizes (and ''admits''), that Fry loved his dog much the same way Bender loves Fry. He then dives into the boiling lava to retrieve Seymour despite Fry's protests, melting his eyes in the process.}}

** Another ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode offers a subversion when greedy tobacco company executives discuss making a line of toys to get kids interested in smoking cigarettes, complete with an [[Evil Laugh]]. Until the head pulls up a puppy and starts to pet it and talk to it in baby voice. He then hands the dog to another executive, pulls out a [[Shoot the Dog|rifle]] and says [[Kick the Dog|"Pull..."]]

* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' has a few Pet the Dog moments with his minion-disguised-as-a-dog.

'''Zim:''' Guh... I can see you understand your mistake, Gir, and me being angry will get us nowhere. }}

** The above example is a bit of a stretch, since GIR wasn't crying because he realized he'd done wrong, but rather because he missed the cupcake he had just eaten. But still, Zim ''thought'' he was being nice.

** The trope becomes mind-numbingly literal since GIR's Earth disguise is as a dog. There are other good moments like this: Zim promised the moon to GIR once he takes over Earth, genuinly cares about his safety against the zombies (candy-starved children) and when GIR actually does something right he stops to think to himself.

* In ''[[The Boondocks]]'', Uncle Ruckus, a black man coincidentally racist against other black men and a white supremacist, is shown petting the dog many times (excluding all of the times has talked to Granddad), namely in the episodes "The Trial Of R. Kelly" (the park scene), "Granddad's Fight" (Ruckus is willingly Granddad's co-sensei, and comments after the fight with Stinkmeaner: "I told you a nigga that black couldn't fight."), "Return Of The King" (where Ruckus comes to dinner with Granddad even after throwing random objects at Martin Luther King), "The Itis" (where Ruckus comments: "If there's one thing a colored man is good at, it's cooking up a pig."), "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back" (Ruckus helps Huey, Riley, and Granddad exorcise Tom), "Home Alone" (Ruckus agrees to babysit Riley and Huey), and "The Story of Catcher Freeman". (Ruckus comments: "Catcher Freeman was the greatest nigga that ever lived!")

** And none of those cover the most notable and most genuine act of dog petting Ruckus ever did, in the Christmas episode; after filling in as a mall Santa and leaving Jasmine completely disillusioned when it comes to Santa's existence, Ruckus later approached her and explained that of ''course'' he wasn't really Santa, but he was, in fact, a ''Secret Service'' agent assigned to fill in for Santa, as Santa needed to be protected from the threats against him (namely Riley Freeman and his paintball gun). Ruckus then assured Jasmine that the real Santa would be back next year, much to her delight. It's a surprisingly genuine and heartfelt moment which, since it's ''The Boondocks,'' is immediately subverted by Huey's narration where he impassively observes that Christmas miracles "only come from the lies adults tell children."

** Eventually expanded upon in the comics, where the Joker actually does have feelings for Harley, but his insane mind alternates rapidly between being attached to her (leading to Pet the Dog moments), not really caring about her (leading to [[Kick the Dog]] moments), or having feelings for her but ''hating'' the fact that he does (leading to some really bad moments), which all in all adds up to [[Mad Love|one screwed up relationship.]]

*** Joker gets a good, if twisted, one in "Emperor Joker," as he's preparing to use Mxyzptlk's powers to destroy the universe, Harley tries to talk him out of it, so he explains his surprisingly sympathetic motives (he believes any universe where a person like him could exist is fundamentally screwed up and needs to die), and then turns her into a constellation so she go peacefully and light the sky at the end of the world. He then proceeds to brutally murder everyone else (by which we mean '''[[Omnicidal Maniac|everyone]]''' else) but the whole thing is surprisingly sentimental given that it's ''the '''freakin'''' Joker.''

** Subverted ''horribly'' in ''[[Return of the Joker]]''. The Joker and Harley look like they're setting up for one when they tell Batman and Batgirl that they've given up their lawless ways and just want to settle down and start a family. [[Nightmare Fuel|Then]] [[Mind Rape|we]] [[Strapped to An Operating Table|find]] who "Joker Junior" is to be played by...

* ''[[Batman Beyond]]'': The temporarily reformed Mr. Freeze saves a cat from falling in the track of a speeding subway and gives it back to a grateful little girl and her family. Mr. Freeze was about as anti as an [[Anti-Villain]] could get already. He makes his first appearance in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' expressing a desire to help people out. He even starts a charity to right the wrongs he committed, naming it after his beloved, dead wife.