This trope is all about how an angry character is completely pacified in an instant. It often shows up when The Hero is backed into a corner with no way out of the situation. There are a few reasons as to why this can happen, such as the aggressor suddenly realizing the gravity of their actions, something more pressing and unexpected has come into the picture, catching him/her by surprise and completely distracting them, or maybe they've had an epiphany about something completely unrelated. They could also have been caught off guard by an Armor-Piercing Question or an Armor-Piercing Response. In any case, the aggressor's tone has completely shifted from anger to show how serious the situation is or was, and the would-be victim has been spared from their wrath.
Can be played for both laughs and drama given how much of a Mood Whiplash a situation can become, either raising the stakes in the process or just ending them anticlimactically.
Compare Tame His Anger, Anger Born of Worry, and the Cooldown Hug. Most Anger Tropes in general can lead to this outcome, as well as it being an inverse to some Madness Tropes. Can also be the result of a Mood-Swinger, being Distracted by the Sexy, and Slap-Slap-Kiss.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Digimon Tamers, Takato becomes incensed when Impmon, who's digivolved into Beelzemon, kills Leomon right infront of them. This upsets him so much that he forces Wargrowlmon to digivolve, resulting in a corrupted digivolution into Megidramon. Takato immediately realizes that his negatively charged wishes have led to something bad and he instantly regrets what he's done upon seeing what his digimon has become.
- In Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta is about to unleash his anger on Krillin and Gohan at the loss of the dragonballs, only to instantly go to an intense fear at the sight of Frieza who has suddenly appeared over them.
- In an episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! King Dedede starts acting very nice and polite towards everyone, much to the Cappies' confusion. What's really happening is that Dedede's anger is getting sucked out of him right before he can respond angrily thanks to a monster he unwittingly unleashed on himself.
- Love Tyrant: Akane attempts to kill her sister Yuzu to prevent her from coming between her and Seiji. After all of the attempts to plead and reason with her fail, Seiji stops her by calling her by her first name, which makes Akane too excited to be angry anymore.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- Ash and co. encounter a Lugia who gets hostile at anyone around its child presuming them to be a potential threat. This is showcased through Luka, a companion they've helped earlier in the series, and her silver wing, a feather from Lugia that starts to glows red whenever it's enraged. They have to talk down the Lugia several times throughout its Story Arc.
- Subverted with the Arc Villain, Prof. Namba, who wants to capture the Lugia for his rage experiments, believing that Pokemon become more powerful when enraged. The Pokemon aren't truly upset, but are forced to grow enraged thanks to gadgets placed on them by Namba that cause the wearer to become filled with rage. The gang begin to destroy the gadgets to get an edge over Namba during their battles with the Team Rocket members.
- The Pokemon Shuppet has the ability to absorb the negative emotions of people, on which this Pokémon feeds. The emotions it feeds on include anger, jealousy, and envy, so some people are grateful for its presence. In its debut episode, it absorbs the anger from Max, who was upset with May, leaving him confused and wondering why he suddenly stopped feeling angry at that point.
- Ash and co. encounter a Lugia who gets hostile at anyone around its child presuming them to be a potential threat. This is showcased through Luka, a companion they've helped earlier in the series, and her silver wing, a feather from Lugia that starts to glows red whenever it's enraged. They have to talk down the Lugia several times throughout its Story Arc.
- Radiant: Myrddin goes into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge at the death of Jill and his unborn children, attempting to kill all the humans in the vicinity. He stops his rampage at the sudden appearance of vines being used to hold up a part of the castle that he destroyed, believing them to be created by Jill. Unfortunately, Seth confirms her death, explaining that she died protecting her and Myr's children from the fantasia vacuum since they couldn't live without the forest's fantasia, in spite of the fact that she could. Seeing that his children survived brings Myrddin to tears.
- Both Defied and played with in The Rising of the Shield Hero. In the midst of a food fight, Raphatlia is being restrained from decapitating one of Ituski's party members for belittling Naofumi in her face. She is asked to calm down, since the guy was in a drunken stupor and didn't know was he was saying (despite the fact that he's still taunting her while being held down himself). She notes that she has calmed down and states with a "calm" expression that she'll now "calmly" remove his head from his shoulders.
- Shimoneta: Both inverted and played straight. Okuma wakes up to the presence of a very angry, knife-wielding Anna hovering over him in his room at the sight of him and Kosuri asleep together. He has Kosuri fabricate a lie that they're siblings, with Kosuri implying that her "brother" has a crush on Anna, resulting in Anna immediately dropping the murderous intent and begin gushing over the idea of the two together. When Kosuri starts playing into the lie more than necessary, she's knocked to the floor and surrounded by numerous stabs at the floor made by Anna, while still wearing a "positive" expression.
Comic Strip
- Zits: Jeremy gets furious at a waitress for serving a customer who showed up after him, but is instantly placated when his meal arrives and the waitress apologizes for the food being late.
Fan Works
- The Mountain and the Wolf: Tyrion and the Wolf get in an argument over Daenerys (specifically whether or not she's still the good queen or a power-mad tyrant respectively, after having been hit by a spell and then torching King's Landing) that quickly degenerates into a shouting match. When Tyrion challenges the Wolf to explain Daenerys fleeing King's Landing instead of leading her army in the looting and slaughtering, the Wolf is about to oblige when he abruptly stops mid-sentence, grabs the air a few times, and leaves. Since he's behind Daenerys attacking, he likely realized he was about to spill the beans.
Films — Animation
- The Great Mouse Detective: Rattigan has just found out that his minion Fidget has run into Basil, so it's not long before the sleuth finds him and stops his latest scheme. Rattigan at first is furious, but then, with great effort, he subdues himself and starts acting cordial at Fidget. Fidget is surprised he's taking it so well; then Rattigan tries to feed him to his pet cat.
- Rock and Rule: While Angel is intrigued to be invited to visit the home of legendary rocker Mok, her companions are more skeptical. In fact, Omar is straight-up antagonistic. However, Mok has his servants issue Edison balls to his guests. These weird pinkish orbs quickly sedate the boys into mindless euphoria.
Films — Live Action
- In Enchanted, Giselle loses her temper with Robert when he acts pessimistic one too many times. She shouts that he makes her angry—and immediately bursts out laughing with joy: as a deconstructed Princess Classic, she's never experienced anger before, and the prospect of feeling emotions beyond blithe happiness is exciting to her.
Literature
- The beginning of Chivalry of a Failed Knight. Stella is literally Burning with Anger when Ikki tries to casually brush off the Accidental Pervert moment he had with her. As she's flaring up over the incident, Ikki tries to defend himself by stating that he only looked because he's never seen someone so beautiful, causing her to turn red with embarrassment and instantly become meek and flustered at the compliment (while unintentionally setting off the sprinklers).
- The Lord of the Rings: As Treebeard talks with Merry and Pippin, he learns that Saruman (who he once considered a friend) is now deploying armies of orcs and has directly allied with Sauron. Discussing Saruman's past and current treachery, Treebeard works himself into a rage, banging his hand on the table and declaring that Saruman must be brought to justice, now! Merry and Pippin agree with this, but Treebeard declares he's being "too hasty": "I must cool myself and think; for it is easier to shout stop! than to do it." Pippin even comments on this incident the following day:
"But [the Ents] don't like being roused. Treebeard got roused himself last night, and then bottled it up again."
Live-Action TV
- Homicide: Life on the Street: After Frank Pembleton is left by his superiors to take the heat for covering up a scandal involving a famed Congressman after ordering him to do so and is suspended by them, he intends to testify about the truth during a hearing to get revenge. When Giardello talks to him about it, Pembleton, in a self-righteous fury, rants about how he's doing this to repent for the cover-up and that he'll bring down the department even if it costs him his job; Giardello simply tells him to be sure he's not destroying his career out of pride. After thinking on it, Pembleton takes the heat for the scandal so he can keep his job.
- Psych: The episode "Ferry Tale" opens with Shawn ranting at Gus for tricking him into coming on a boat ride for an environment clean-up event on the Channel Islands. Shawn immediately calms down and forgets what he was talking about when Gus gives him a Snickers.
Video Games
- Fate/Grand Order: Exaggerated with Ryouma and Oryou's first meeting. At that point, Oryou was still in her original Orochi form, nailed down to a mountain for centuries, with her power sealed away and enraged at the gods who kicked her out of heaven and pinned her down to the earth. She rants about all that to Ryouma, also telling him about how she's going to devour this country and the world... And then Ryouma just nods, says "that must suck", removes the spear that was sealing her, tells his goodbyes and leaves. Oryou is so completely and utterly flabbergasted that she actually forgets what she was angry about and decides to follow Ryouma to figure out what's up with him.
- Persona 5 Royal: Akechi is highly aggressive in combat, screaming and attacking to the point that there's almost no difference to when he's under the Rage status ailment. However, when the fight ends, he instantly calms down and goes back to his usual, serious self like nothing happened. Sumire even comments that it's disturbing.
- Super Punch-Out!!: If Narcis Prince's rage mode is active, a knockdown on either end can instantly neutralize it, and he will return to normal before he or the player gets up. Otherwise, his anger will run for about twenty seconds.
- Tales of Legendia: As the party storms the deck of the Legacy to rescue Shirley and Stella, they are halted by Cashel, who starts to taunt Moses over the supposed act of killing his fellow bandits. Moses is outright furious and is ready to recklessly attack him, only to quickly pass the act off as a joke, stating that while he is still furious over the ordeal, he's going to come at him with a level head.
Web Animation
- Spooky Month: In "Deadly Smiles", a heartwarming scene of Pump putting a bandage on Kevin's injury is instantly snuffed when Kevin learns Skid and Pump own the thing that gave him the injury. There's build up to his anger as it looks like he's about to snap, only for him to sigh and go "whatever", deciding it's not worth it, and the scene ends with him silently staring up at the ceiling.
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball, in "The Parents", Nicole gets into an argument with her parents; both sides go back and forth with their resentment until neither side can remember where their resentment for each other started.
- CatDog: Cat lies to Dog about needing to wear a leash due to a "leash law". After revealing that he lied, Dog is on the verge of mauling him until cat points out an airplane's shadow as a distraction, instantly putting a smile on Dog's face.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers episode "Catteries Not Included" has one of Professor Nimnul's robot bulldogs detect Monterey Jack and Gadget Hackwrench, and close in for an attack. "Quick, girl, throw me the wrench!" Monty commands. With a double-ended wrench in hand, Monty twirls the tool, and addresses the robot: "Here, boy, fetch the stick. Fetch!" This instantly switches the robot from Angry Guard Dog to playful puppy, and it goes after the thrown wrench.
- In Codename: Kids Next Door: Operation: Z.E.R.O., Father tries to appeal to ''his'' father, Grandfather, only to be blasted into the ground. This ends up infuriating Father, causing him to burst into flaming fury that grow more and more intense... only for him to immediately snuff himself out and go back to his house to eat ice cream.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy:
- In "Wish you were Ed", The Eds trick Rolf into thinking that he's back in his home village. When he realizes the ruse, he's so angry that he's ready to beat the Eds senseless. After claiming that they just wanted to know more about his culture, Rolf, seemingly flattered by the news, starts playing a song from his hometown for the trio, which causes much pain for both Edd and Eddy in the end, courtesy of Ed.
- In "Pop goes the Ed", Eddy and Kevin are on the verge of fighting until Nazz walks over and talks them both down, resulting in the both of them melting.
- In "For your Eds Only", Sarah is enraged at the destruction of her room, blaming her brother for it and is angry at first, but then immediately falls to tears at the sight of it.
- In "Little Ed Blue", Ed is in a bad mood, and it gets pushed into an Unstoppable Rage. When Johnny removes one of his shoes, revealing a pebble inside, Ed instantly reverts to being the Kindhearted Simpleton that he is.
- Family Guy:
- In one episode, the Griffins are on the verge of killing each other, then Lois hits Peter over the head with a picture of a donkey, showing his head as the donkey's butt. The sight of Peter being a literal jackass causes everyone to stop fighting and burst into laughter.
- In one instance, Peter is fighting his nemesis the Giant Chicken again, only to stop and ask what exactly they were even fighting about. When neither can remember, they both decide to bury the hatchet (for a while).
- Hey Arnold!: In "Das Subway", the kids are stuck on a broken down subway with other passengers. A situation made worse by Harold secretly eating chocolate out of view of the hangry mob. This causes the on edge group to spiral into a violent frenzy. When Arnold notices something wrong with one of the passenger's dog, he calls out to the angry mob with one word, and they all immediately stop fighting and focus their attention on him.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): Invoked on Fuzzy Lumpkins. He instantly breaks out into a rage when anyone or anything comes near his property. He claims the only thing that can calm him down is playing his banjo. The girls, mainly Buttercup, uses this against him by threatening to throw said banjo into a fireplace if he doesn't relax. She pops him in the head with it when he gets close enough.
- The Ren & Stimpy Show: In "Stimpy's Invention", Ren, who has been forced to be happy by Stimpy's Happy Helmet, finally breaks free of the helmet's power and has Stimpy in a stranglehold. Ren announces that he's never been so angry in his entire life... and then suddenly, he gets happy because he realizes that he loves being angry!
- Rugrats: Near the end of the episode, "The Seven Voyages of Cynthia", Angelica holds a memorial for her missing doll, which fill both Tommy and Chuckie with so much guilt that they admit that they lost her. Enraged, she backs them into the fence and is about to let them have it right before Spike shows up from behind the fence with Cynthia in tow, instantly elating her.
Angelica: (angrily) You rotten little babies. You lost my-(Spike appears)Angelica: (happily) Cynthia!!!
- Spongebob Squarepants:
- In the episode, "Opposite Day". After failing to sell his house due to the Opposite Day hijinks from Patrick and Spongebob, Squidward reaches his Rage Breaking Point... then immediately appears calm... and then starts chasing the duo in a bulldozer, showing them just how much he "hates" them.
- In "Wet Painters", Mr. Krabs sees that Spongebob and Patrick got paint on his first dollar, he's goes into a Tranquil Fury, seemingly ready to make good on his threat to cut their butts off, only to instead lick his dollar clean and revealing to them that the paint comes off with saliva.
- Teen Titans Go!:
- In one episode, the team lose Silky when she leaves the tower for a while. She goes into an Unstoppable Rage wondering how they could lose him. Her anger is gone in an instant the moment she hears the elevator open and reveal Silky.
- In "Second Christmas", the gang, except Robin, lie to her about a second Christmas, making her miss her own family holiday in the process. She becomes furious and chucks starbolt-empowered snowballs at them. When a machine goes haywire in the tower, emitting a Pillar of Light, she (and the other titans) get excited over the assumption that Second Christmas is actually happening.
