Heartwarming / No More Heroes

• When Travis is in his apartment, there's the option to play with Cute Kitten Jeane. This has no impact on the story, but seeing Travis petting, feeding, and playing with Jeane shows that despite his JerkAss attitude and love of fighting, he genuinely loves his little kitty.
• After fighting Dr. Peace, Travis places Peace's microphone in his hands after stating that it's "Open Mic Night" in Hell.
• Travis spares Shinobu for a variety of reasons. First, she's a high school student and he has a policy to not kill a child. Second, he learned fighting techniques through her father's videos and spared her life as respect to his work. And three, he hopes that she grows up and they have a true spar. While Sylvia questions this act of charity, this ends up working in Travis's favor later in the game.
• After the fight with Holly Summers, Travis insists on asking for her name — as he only knew her as "Number 6" — and he buries her body. Seeing Travis begin to drop his arrogant attitude is one of the first turning points in the game.
  Travis: (hugging Holly's headless body, solemnly) Forgive me Number Six...I never meant to shame you.
  Travis: (burying Holly's body) Forgive me Holly, I was too late in saying this, but I love your soul... Rest in Peace.
  • Even before that scene, Travis realizes what Holly was going to do and tries, in vain, to stop her. This is one of the few times that Travis decides to actually empathize with the assassins and begins a turning point to his development in the second game.
• Despite having killed Thunder Ryu, Speed Buster takes her defeat with grace and states that Travis is going to become as good as Ryu. She gives Travis a kiss on the cheek before he beheads her as a parting gift.
• Travis telling Bad Girl she won in a strange version of Let Them Die Happy, especially since she gives a small giggle before collapsing on top of Travis.
• Travis reconciliation with Jeane, right before she allows him to kill her.
  • Prior to that, Shinbou appears and rescues Travis from Jeane probably as appreciation for sparing her.
• In a strange way, the ending. After beating the True Final Boss, his half-brother Henry, and having a crazy bunch of revelations infodumped on him, he reiterates his desperate urge to bail and find the exit from the beginning of the game. This time, however, he accepts that he can't. As Henry says, all they can do is keep running, so they have one final clash. This could have been a Downer Ending, implying that the only way out is to kill each other, but the existence of sequels paints this ending in a more uplifting tone. Travis finally realizes escapism is not the answer to his problems, so he resolves to face them head-on.

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