Cooldown Hug

From terrifying ancient behemoth to big friendly guy with just one cuddle.

"Awwww... Somebody needs a HUUUUUUUG!"

— GIR, Invader Zim, "Germs"

In fiction, the best way to calm down someone having a Super-Power 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're 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 Care-Bear Stare, for when the hug is less literal, and Big Damn Hug. Compare "Shut Up" Kiss, its more romantic Sister Trope. The Living Emotional Crutch may act as an ambulatory Cooldown Hug. This trope will often be used by an All-Loving Hero, Nice Guy, or Morality Pet to prevent an Anti-Hero from going towards a much darker path. Tender Tears may often follow as well.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• 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.
• In episode 12 of Absolute Duo, K gravely injures Toru, causing Julie to go into an Unstoppable Rage and give K a serious beatdown. When Julie turns to attack Toru as well, Toru hugs her, begging her to come back to him. This brings Julie back to her senses.
• Aggretsuko: In the Season 3 Finale, Retsuko explodes at Haida when he tries to snap her out of her Heroic BSoD following a near brush with death at the hands of a stalker. While Retsuko screams at him in her metal voice, Haida pushes through the force of her screaming and takes her by the hand, telling her that they'll face whatever challenges are coming together. This does the trick and Retsuko calms down.
• Angel Beats!:
  • Otonashi does this to Naoi, who's extremely disillusioned with his life and wants to make everyone vanish by using his hypnosis powers to give them false memories^note the mechanics Make Sense In Context. It works, and Naoi remains a... close friend of Otonashi for the rest of the series.
  • Otonashi also later attempts one on Kanade. It doesn't work as well, to say the least.
• Arata: The Legend: Subverted twice. Both times when Hinohara demonized, Kotoha tried to talk him out of it. The first time, Kotoha grabs onto him and doesn't let go, but Hinohara doesn't stop until Kotoha reminds him that Tsutsuga and Nagu are both inside Tsukuyo. The second time, Kotoha thinks that the Cooldown Hug will work once more, even if Hinohara has partially merged with Tsukuyo and is in Unstoppable Rage mode. It doesn't work. The minute Kotoha touches Hinohara, he lashes out at her and badly injures her, and this is what brings him out of his demonization.
• Assassination Classroom:
  • In a flashback, Aguri delivers one to the rampaging soon-to-become Koro-sensei to prevent him from destroying the world. The hug is interrupted midway when she's impaled by a tentacle mine, but it did work enough to make him have a Heel Realization.
  • A variation, in the form of a kiss rather than a hug, is delivered by Nagisa to Kayano, to calm the latter down before she's completely consumed by her tentacles and her bloodlust. It thankfully works, allowing Koro-sensei to remove the tentacles and save her.
• Happens in the finale of the 2003 Astro Boy series. After Dr. Tenma is Driven to Suicide after his Heel Realization, a distraught Astro gently embraces him and pleads with him not to die (saying he forgives him in the English dub and calling him "Dad" for the first time in the Japanese). Tenma breaks down in Tears of Remorse and agrees to escape with him.
• Berserk:
  • Casca does this to Griffith as he's clawing at his arms until they bleed while taking a bath.
  • After Guts has a breakdown when they have sex for the first time, she gives him one of these. 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.
• Betrayal Knows My Name: Yuki does this in episode 6 to a little girl possessed by a demon while screaming for the demon to Get Out! of the girl's body.
  • Shuusei also does one to Hotsuma in his backstory when he tried to burn himself to death.
• Bitter Virgin: Hinako does this to Daisuke in order to stop him from killing her would-be rapist out of pure fury.
• Black Lagoon: At the end of the El Baile de la Muerte arc, Garcia snaps Roberta out of the Sanity Slippage she experienced during her Roaring Rampage of Revenge by throwing himself on top of and kissing her. This is our first indication Garcia's Precocious Crush has romantic feeling behind it, so Roberta is rather stunned.
• Bleach:
  • Orihime stops her Hollow-fied brother Sora 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 and using said hug to activate her powers and release her from said Bount.
• Blue Exorcist: The crippling self-doubt from which Rin suffers in Chapter 26 is ended when he receives a Cooldown Hug from Shiemi. What makes this even more heartwarming is that they were on fire at the moment, and Shiemi is an ex-Hikikomori who is still kind of a Shrinking Violet — she did so in order to prove her trust that he would not burn her with said flames.
• Buso Renkin: after Kazuki turns into a victor, Tokiko's hug is what turns him back into a human. It wasn't permanent though.
• Canaan: Minoru slowly walks up to Hakko when she suffers a massive Heroic BSoD after Santana dies and grabs a gun to shoot everyone dead and hugs her. Color-coded for your convenience. There's a subversion, though: Minoru does manage to calm Hakko down enough to keep her from shooting... but it's not enough to bring her back from the Despair Event Horizon. Soon afterwards, the poor girl simply lets herself die in the collapsing labs, next to Santana's lifeless body.
• In Episode 11 of Cells at Work! CODE BLACK, U1196 gives one of these to AA2153 during the latter's Heroic BSoD.
• Chrono Crusade: This happens early in the anime, in the form of a Cooldown Tackle, when Chrono goes berserk when he thinks Rosette has been injured and starts to forcibly release the seal on his demonic powers.
• CLANNAD: Nagisa does this to Tomoya when his father goes to jail and Tomoya loses his chances of landing a very well paying job because of it. Tomoya snaps and begins pummelling the wall with his bare fists; Nagisa manages to embrace him and pin him to the wall to get him to stop. Once he's had a few seconds to breathe, he then asks her to marry him. She says yes.
• Claymore:
  • Raki grabs Clare 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 wake, complemented by 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 Jean grabbing Clare and aligning their energy, turning Clare back. However, she does get stabbed even more in the process, and she dies.
• Crimson Spell: spellbreaker Halvir at one point embraces cursed Prince Valdrigue to calm him down and prevent his Superpowered 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 Superpowered Evil Side under control with sex.
• The Dangers in My Heart: In Chapter 63/Episode 15, Yamada confesses to Ichikawa a childhood line of her quitting activities that she felt she wasn't good at, and a developed fear who her loved ones eventually hating her for being too much of a burden. When she breaks into tears, Ichikawa gives a her hug.
• Dawn of the Arcana: Caesar to Nakaba in chapter 5 when she's freaking out over blood.
• Deadman Wonderland: Karako gives Nagi one of these when Nagi went berserk. And she gets run through by Genkaku for it.
• Dear Brother: In the anime, Hisako gives one to her daughter Mariko after realising that she and Aya aren't so different sends poor Mariko into an almost suicidal Heroic BSoD.
• Descendants of Darkness: Hisoka Kurosaki gives this to his partner Asato Tsuzuki in the Kyoto arc, in order to stop him from committing suicide after a particularly devastating encounter with Muraki, pleading with Tsuzuki to live for him even if he doesn't have anything else.
• 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.
• Dororo (2019): Dororo does this to Hyakkimaru in Episode 6 to calm his Unstoppable Rage after killing the soldiers who murdered Mio.
• Eensy Weensy Monster: Intentionally pulled off by Hazuki. Apprently he's always wanted to try it...
• Elfen Lied:
  • Mayu tries one on Lucy when she and Nana begin to fight at Maple House; after a moment, Lucy just pushes her away.
  • Kurama gives one to Mariko to stop her from killing Nana in the anime finale, with much more success.
• Eureka Seven: Played straight with Renton hugging and comforting Eureka in episode 35 when she is in depression.
• Eyeshield 21: Happens with Sena. After beating the Bando Spiders, he and Suzuna bump into each other. Suzuna starts talking, but Sena just collapses in her arms, having exerted all his strength that game.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Natsu and Lucy in chapter 174.
  • Lisanna looked like she wanted to try that with Elfman when he lost control of himself. It didn't work out.
  • There's also a brief one between Erza and Gray during the Phantom arc.
• Fruits Basket:
  • At the end of the anime (and volume six of the manga) Tohru encounters 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 don't 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 being a terrible person for pretending to be as much like her dead father as possible so her mother wouldn't leave (after being in shock after his death).
  • Subverted in volume twenty when Kureno hugs Akito and she stabs him.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): 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 with Ed. Normally a cooldown hug is used as an affirmation of the hugger's true love for the hugged (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 the Galaxy Fraulein Yuna OVA, Ayako does this after convincing her older sister Gemmu to stop fighting. Subverted, as Gemmu hugs her sister lovingly, then rips out her power core, which is coincidentally located in her chest, making the scene horrifyingly symbolic. Also played straight two episodes earlier than this, albeit coupled with a slap to get Ayako's attention.
• Gankutsuou: The climax has Albert do this to the Count, saving the day with The Power of Love! Resulting in the Count's death of course, but that's a mere detail.
• Gasaraki: Averted; Daizaburo is about to give one to Misuzu, to dissuade her from using her powers as a Kai — and right then, his eldest son Kazukiyo shoots him in the back, killing him.
• Grenadier: That's basically the primary combat technique of Rushuna. E.g. she defeats her Evil Twin 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 Yajirou defeats Big Bad Kaizan Doushi... 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?
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Used in the penultimate episode by Sumeragi on Billy.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: Shinn does this to Stella several times, including a quasi-psychic one during the Destroy battle. The last one fails. Miserably.
  • Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE: After Hiroto tells May and the others about his Dark and Troubled Past and how he lost Eve, May kisses Hiroto between the eyes before embracing him, encouraging him to cry freely and let it all out.
• Haruhi Suzumiya: A variation is used in Melancholy. In the last episode of the first arc, Kyon kisses Haruhi in a closed space variant to stop her from destroying and remaking the world.
• Hellsing: After newly-turned vampire Seras slaughters enemy zombies and goes into a Unstoppable Rage in volume 2, 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.
• Ikki Tousen:
  • This is the only way that Sousou can control his inner dragon, usually applied by his childhood friend, Huge Schoolgirl Chuukou. And in an inversion, once he is the one using it, on the Brainwashed and Crazy Myousai, during Great Guardians.
  • Koukin also does this to a berserk Hakufu to stop her from killing Ukitsu with the Hyakuhekitou sword. He takes the sword through the gut before pulling her into his embrace, forcing the entire thing right through his body and out his back! The boy has balls of solid rock and an endless dedication to Hakufu which is jaw-dropping.
• Inuyasha:
  • Kikyo gives one to Saint Hakushin, gently helping him to let go of his anger and despair at the world and finally die in peace.
  • In the final episode of the original anime, Kagome also gives one to Inuyasha when a corrupted shard of the Shikon Jewel starts to revert him to his Superpowered Evil Side.
  • Kagome also gives one to Inuyasha in the second movie when Kaguya is turning him into her full-demon slave, complete with a kiss.
• Tomoko does this to Hiroki in Chapter 10 of I Think Our Son Is Gay. Right before Akiyoshi leaves again for work, he somewhat suggested I Want Grandkids. After Akiyoshi left, Hiroki suggested, with a Longing Look, that he's doubtful whether he can fulfill his father's expectations. Tomoko, knowing what Hiroki means, gives him a hug to show she'll always support him as her son.
• Junjou Romantica: A variant occurs a couple of times: 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.
• Kemeko Deluxe!: MM uses a hug to stop Sanpeita's first Super-Power Meltdown.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: Kenichi 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.
• Kill la Kill: In episode 12, Mako gives one to the mutated, rampaging Ryuko/Senketsu monster, literally cooling her down; her body is piping hot, and hugging her burns Mako's skin. She does NOT let go. Plus a few dozen Get A Hold Of Yourself Man slaps to the face for good measure.
• Kimi ni Todoke: Happens a few times. Kento pulls Ayane into a hug when she starts to cry upon confessing that she's never truly been in love with any of her boyfriends, and Ryu and Chizu shared a particularly sweet (and sad) one as young children shortly after Ryu's mother died.
• K-On!: Yui does this to Azusa. Humorously, it seems to work instantly, no matter how worked up Azusa was before.
• The Legend of Zelda (Akira Himekawa):
  • In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (2005), Zelda hugs Link to calm him down when he's on the verge of being corrupted and transformed by the Dark World.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016), Rusl gives Link one when the latter confesses his Dark and Troubled Past.
• Lone Wolf and Cub: Classically subverted in the last few pages. 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.
• Macross Frontier: Sheryl does this to Ranka when she gets depressed that Alto is with the former.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS: In the manga chapter 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.
• Marmalade Boy: Miki does this for Yuu when he begins to leave, angry at her avoiding him.
  • She does this again while he takes comfort in her embrace, thoroughly shaken up by the dead-end search for his real father.
• Mazinger Z: Sayaka delivered several of these to Kouji, in the original series, in Mazinkaiser and in Shin Mazinger. In Mazinkaiser her hug even managed to snap him out of a berserker rage!
• Monster: A child is awakened from his instilled nihilism (instilled by none other than Johan posing as "Anna Liebert") and convinced not to commit suicide when Wolfgang Grimmer gives him a tearful hug, restoring his sense of self-worth, and the boy reciprocates.
• In My Hero Academia, when Izuku's Quirk goes out of control and awakens a new aspect because he was enraged at Monoma blaming Bakugo for All Might's retirement, Ochaco jumps in with one of these. While it doesn't itself calm Izuku down, it does provide an opportunity for Shinso to brainwash him into shutting his Quirk down.
• My-HiME:
  • During the final battle, Mai does this to a Mind Control-influenced Mikoto... and it works. For those of you keeping score at home, that marks the second time Mai's saved/spared Mikoto's life (the first time came in the first episode when Mai rescued her from drowning).
  • Natsuki does the same thing to Shizuru, just one episode prior. Though it was really the kiss that had more effect, the hug was definitely part of it.
  • In My-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.
• Naruto:
  • Sakura does 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 Naruto and it doesn't work.
  • Naruto gives one to a darker version of himself.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi: When Negi's Superpowered Evil Side manifests for the first time, the only reason he doesn't go completely berserk is because Chisame, Asakura, and Nodoka do this, with a little Get A Hold Of Yourself Man on the side.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Misato pulls Shinji close and kisses him to try to motivate him out of his near-catatonic depression. It doesn't work.
  • It is only when Asuka caresses Shinji's face tenderly that he stops attempting to strangle her.
• Noragami: The Hero Yato gives one to Hiyori in order to stop her transformation into an ayakashi. It works.
• Omamori Himari: Amakawa Yuuto stops Shizuku from trying to kill someone and returns 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.
• One Piece:
  • Whitebeard kneels down and hugs the guy who stabbed him through the chest, telling him that he still loves him, causing the poor guy to realize that he's been tricked by the enemy.
  • Aokiji and Monet can do terribly literal versions of this to people.
• Ookami Kakushi: Kaori does this to Sakaki after he has a bit of a freakout. And then it turns out she's hugging him to drag him off a cliff.
• PandoraHearts: Alice does this to Oz in chapter 44.
• Phantom Thief Jeanne: How Jeanne defeats her former self in the manga and Dark Fin Fish in the anime.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • 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.
  • Ash's Dragonite specializes in these when it's not battling. A recap episode before the Masters Eight finals notes that offscreen it once calmed down Iris's Dragonite, a noted grump.
• Psyren:
  • Mochizuki Oboro in the manga has a slight deviation of this as his actual power. He can heal people by hugging them.
  • Hiryuu does this to Tatsuo at one point.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Madoka hugs Homura near the end to halt her imminent witch transformation.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion a much darker example occurs: Homura does this to Madoka to prevent her from reawakening her goddess powers.
• Ranma ½: 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.
• Rave Master: Elie hugged a crying Haru who was grieving the loss of his father.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena: The last episode has a subversion, since it looks like Anthy is doing this to Utena as she's getting PO-ed at Akio, but it turns out that Anthy just stabbed Utena in the back — literally, with a sword.
• Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas: Sasha aka the Athena of the 18th century applies one to Sagittarius Sisyphus to remind him about how he has protected her ever since she was a child. This leads him to give her a huge Declaration of Protection.
• Sakura Gari:
  • Souma gives one to Masataka after the torture and rape deal with Katsuragi. Masataka at first rejects Souma's touch (understandably) and it's only after Souma promises to not go beyond and keeps his word that Masataka allows him to hug him close.
  • He later plays it straight when Masataka explains his Dark and Troubled Past and has an Heroic BSoD when he's done. The You Are Not Alone mini-speech that follows helps, too.
• 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.
• Satou Kashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai: Tomohiko attempts to give one to Nagisa after telling her that he's found and seen Mokuzu's dismembered remains, covering her eyes with a hand and holding on her arm while pulling her close to him. Nagisa releases herself and soon sees Mokuzu's corpse.
• Seraph of the End:
  • Guren orders Shinoa to give Yuu one when he's going nuts from his Superpowered Evil Side.
  • Mika gives one to Yuu from behind when he's going into his demon form against Ferid for showing them Akane's head.
• Serial Experiments Lain: 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.
• Slayers NEXT: Sylphiel gives one to Lina, when she freaks out over thinking she's killed a little girl. Said kid turns out to be an Undead Child, and as Sylphel calms Lina down she reminds her that the girl has been Dead All Along.
• Soul Eater:
  • Maka fires up her Black Blood to make herself as crazy as Crona, so that she can "synchronize" with him/her; connect psychically, then give him/her physical affection; even while Crona is trying to stab her. Since Maka hardens her Black Blood to deflect the hits, she's fine.
  • Marie hugs Stein to bring him back from Medusa's insanity.
• Street Fighter IV: The Ties that Bind OVA: Sakura Kasugano gives one to Ryu when he falls under the influence of his Superpowered Evil Side, the infamous Satsui no Hado. It's this close to not work since Ryu actually raises his fist to hit her, but he stops at the last moment and then slumps to his knees, with Sakura still hugging him.
• 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.
• Tenchi in Tokyo: This is how Tenchi defeats Big Bad Yuugi.
• To Love-Ru Darkness has Rito delivering one to Nana when she is hiding in her animal reserve and crying about Mea's decision to break off their (sadly one-sided) "false friendship".
• Venus Versus Virus: Taken very literally, first Lucia hugs Sumire to snap her out of her berserk mode, and later it is Sumire who hugs Lucia as she is spinning out of control. Bonus points for vaguely romantic overtones... A sobbing Lucia hugs Sumire at the end of volume 2 as well.
• Vinland Saga: Canute calms Bjorn with strong words and a hug. This leads to tragedy when Atli of all people stabs Bjorn in the back.
• Violinist of Hameln: Flute gives these to Hamel on several occasions in the manga: The first time is just after The Reveal of his demon horn, when he went berserk and was only stopped by Flute 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 Hamel's demon blood takes over, though the first time he actually put his fist through her chest before succumbing to the hug.
• Wild Adapter: Kubota gives Tokito one of these in vol 5 when Tokito goes completely berserk on hearing what might be his real name. All the creepier because Tokito breaks his arm for touching him, but Kubota doesn't even flinch, and continues to soothe him. It scares Shouta, who caused it inadvertently, completely out of his mind.
• Wish Upon the Pleiades: Subaru gives Minato one. However, the evil possessing Minato takes hold of him once more before the hug can do its magic.
• Witch Hunter Robin gives one to Haruto Sakaki in the episode "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.
• Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest: Inugami gives one to a recently gang-raped Aoshika. Coupled with an Anguished Declaration of Love.
• YuYu Hakusho: Hiei and Mukuro give each other one of these, at the same time, no less. They weren't mid-destructive-rage, but it still counts - both of their entire lives had been lived up to that point in a sort of rage and that hug basically ended it for both of them.

Comic Books

• At the beginning of Bizarrogirl, Supergirl talks to Lana Lang about her need to move on and forget about her past after the New Krypton debacle. Kara gets more and more upset as she speaks until Lana wraps her arms around Kara and hugs her.
• The time-displaced teenage Cyclops gives X-23 one in All-New X-Men #20 when she's having a mild Freak Out over what the Purifiers did to her after she escaped Murderworld. She immediately tells him she's not a hugger.
• The Incredible Hulk: Betty Ross can do this when the Hulk is especially irate. If she's not available, the next most likely candidates are Rick Jones and She-Hulk. Jim Wilson, Jarella are also both close to the Hulk so they can sometimes do this too.
  • Subverted during Betty's time as the Red She-Hulk. Since the Red She-Hulk form is Betty's repressed anger and inhibitions, it releases those years of frustrations she has towards the Hulk. In her own words, she only makes him ''crazier''.
• At the beginning of Superman story Superman: Brainiac, Supergirl has a breakdown after seeing a Brainiac's probe, so her cousin hugs her and reassures her.

Fan Works

• Advice and Trust:
  • As their relationship develops and strengthens Shinji, Asuka and Rei start to do this for each other when one of them is upset.
  • In chapter 7 Rei - who was upset after being forced to not see Shinji and Asuka for two days - hugged Shinji and later Asuka, giving her an additional hug on Shinji's behalf. The three of them felt comforted and calmer for it.
    “And she could be wrong. What if Hikari’s dead and it’s my fault for screwing up? I get my best friend killed, I get fired from the job I’ve had my whole life, I get replaced by a program, I’m fucking useless…” Asuka pinched her eyes shut and fought down tears.
    She nearly gasped as she felt Rei put her arms around her. “I am happy to see you, Asuka. I missed my friends. You are not useless. You have saved me from drugged stupor. You fought superbly and defeated the Angel even though you had only one arm left. You saved many lives by stopping it so quickly.”
    “But we failed Hikari! I failed my best friend! And now I’m not even a Pilot anymore! What good am I?” Asuka nearly wailed.
    Rei released the hug and stepped back. Asuka suddenly missed it. The embrace had been comforting somehow.
  • Rei also gives Ritsuko a hug after the latter's attempted suicide in chapter 9.
• BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant: During Chapter 75, Litchi has a breakdown over the fallout in Vale, but Tao and May are able to help her calm down by embracing her, after which she explains everything that happened.
• The Child of Love: In the epilogue, Asuka is feeling upset, blaming herself for her daughter not being normal, but she gradually calms down when Shinji hugs her:
  Asuka: [now just sniffling a bit] Hmmm... being in these strong arms feels so good, Shinji...please, hold me tighter...
• In Child of the Storm:
  • In Book I, Harry hugs Diana, who has been forced into a temporary Plot-Relevant Age-Up, been attacked by a selection of monsters whose evil she could feel, thanks to her empathic powers, then seen Harry himself, one of her few friends, being slowly incinerated by a Killer Robot, before it turns on her and she rips it in half with her bare hands. All that, combined with Blood Knight tendencies being In the Blood (her dad's the trope image for good reason) and the fact that she's freaking 12 causes her to lose control.
  • He also gives the Hulk one of these, though the big guy wasn't out of control at the time - Harry just wanted to thank him.
  • In Book II, he gets one of these from his father, as part of talking him down, a truly brutal Trauma Conga Line having caused him to snap and become the Dark Phoenix.
  • In Book III, he hands out another one in heartwarming but truly bizarre circumstances on Sakaar - basically, Sakaar exists in the space between universes and the Grandmaster is an Eldritch Abomination. Johnny Storm was one of the Grandmaster's favourite companions/experiments, and could shift between a physical form and a light form. Harry entered the Contest of Champions in disguise as Obi-Wan Kenobi to catch the Grandmaster's interest while everyone else plotted to free... everyone else. Unfortunately, the Grandmaster decided to grab the soul of Anakin Skywalker as he burned on Mustafar and splice it onto Johnny, so as to re-enact the Battle of the Heroes. Harry decided to end it with a hug - and Super-Strength meant that it was rather difficult for Anakin/Johnny to squirm free.
• In chapter 7 of Children of an Elder God, Shinji tried to comfort Asuka after she realized that Kaji would never love her. Asuka broke down and held him tightly as she sobbed. In reaction, Shinji hugged her back until she calmed down.
• A Crown of Stars: In one of the first chapters Asuka was having a nightmare while sleeping, and she calmed down when Shinji hugged her. That was the first of many times when Asuka was distraught and upset and Shinji embraced her to make her feel better and vice versa. In chapter 25:
  Shinji: You were crying in your sleep again yesterday, during that nap. You do that... too much. I hate hearing it. But yesterday, when I heard you doing it again, and I’d just swore to you I’d do anything to take away your pain... I couldn’t just listen anymore. I swear I was just trying to pull you a little closer to... to... I don’t know, give you a hug in your sleep, hoping it would help. You rolled all the way over and grabbed on to me. You stopped crying, so I just stayed like that. You seemed happy.
• Doing It Right This Time: How do Shinji and Asuka react when Rei is feeling depressed and distressed after opening up to them? They hug her. The action reassures and soothes the trio.
• Ghosts of Evangelion:
  • Subverted. Shinji often hugs Asuka when he wants to reassure her. But when she's upset, she needs space instead of physical contact.
  • Played straight when Shinji is worried about raising their daughter properly, and Asuka embraces him and tells him to stop worrying. He feels a bit better.
• HERZ: In chapter 2 Asuka wakes up from a terrible nightmare and starts to cry. Shinji embraces her, making her feel safer, and she gradually calms down.
  Asuka screamed and bolted up in bed. Dream. Again. Breathing fast, shallow. Heart pounding. Cold sweat. Lightning flashed outside of the apartment's window. Hands over her face, she began to cry. Arms encircled her. Strong arms. She clutched at him. Burying her face into his chest as she sobbed. Shelter. Safe. Her breathing grew a little deeper.
• This has happened numerous times in Kyon: Big Damn Hero, with one time being Haruhi hugging Tsuruya because she's angry at herself as she feels responsible for 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.
• In Intergalactic Illness, Hikaru hugs Lala to calm her down after her nightmare.
• Last Child of Krypton:
  • In the rewrite Shinji gives one to Ritsuko in chapter 8 while she is breaking down. It calms her down.
    He took her by the shoulders and to her immense shock, he hugged her. It was a calm, almost fatherly embrace. Her arms hung at her side, limp, and her eyes were wide with surprise. It was the most reassuring thing she could remember ever feeling. He was so strong, so sure, like nothing could move him without his wanting it to. It was like being held by a castle.
  • He also gives one to Asuka in the next chapter while she is crying.
• In Let Me Warm Your Heart, Heike gives one of these to Narcis to get him to stop crying.
• In Lost in Camelot, Bo essentially uses this when she temporarily 'whammies' Arthur to lure him away from his initial plan to confront Uther about the truth of Ygraine's death. With the prince temporarily docile, Bo takes him to a private room so that she and Merlin can talk with Arthur about his revelations before he does something he'll regret.
• Once More with Feeling: Shinji did this to Asuka unawarely (or rather, Asuka thought he was unaware. In a nutshell, she was suffering from nightmares, and like in the original series, she slept with him. It worked, and she managed to sleep peacefully... But she only thought he was sleeping. He was wide awake... and afraid of getting murdered if she noticed). Later Asuka realized he had trouble sleeping, and decided to repay the favor: she ordered him to move over, lay down on his bed and she slept with him.
• The One I Love Is...: It happens a lot of times. Some of them:
  • In chapter 4 Shinji hugs an upset and furious Asuka to reassure her after an argument between them;
  • Shinji also hugged Misato when she was crying her heart out after Kaji's last phone call;
  • Shinji hugged Asuka several times after her Mind Rape to comfort her and reassure her that he was there for her;
  • Asuka embraced Shinji when he collapsed on the floor and sobbing because Rei blew herself up to save his life;
  • Kaoru hugged Shinji when he was shivering after a terrible nightmare and feeling lonely.
• Peter Parker Needs A Hug: When his new surrogate family learns exactly what Peter's been through, he gets a few of these (even from Jason Todd).
• In Ruby Tinted Glasses Hermione's mother hugs an angry Harry after he freezes Dumbledore and silences Mrs. Weasley.
• Scar Tissue: In episode 9 Shinji is going through a horrible, sanity-shattering nightmare. Then Asuka lies down with him, hugs him… and Shinji calms down and relaxes right away.
• The Second Try: Just so many... Usually is Shinji the one doing the embracing. Funny how the timid introvert has become the most emotionally stable after the Third Impact.
  • The FIRST scene - the one that spawned the whole fic - consisted of Shinji embracing Asuka to cheer her up.
  • Shinji hugging Asuka in "Love" after their Freak Out.
  • Shinji hugging Asuka several times in "Repeat" because she was feeling awful.
  • Shinji sitting down with Asuka and embracing her after her Mind Rape (and Asuka stating who knows how much could have changed if he would have done that the first time)
• In the Superman story Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation, Klar hugs his brother George when the latter is upset because of his mess of a family.
• In Taking In A Stranger, Pearl gives Marina a cooldown kiss. During their first performance, Marina's tentacles start moving under her hoodie. To distract both Marina and the audience, Pearl kisses her. This leads to a Love Confession afterwards.
• True Potential: After seeing Risho almost killing Kiba, Naruto gets angry and calls what he did "disgusting and pathetic". This is followed by Hinata gripping Naruto's shoulder tightly and saying his name. It calms him down and he thanks her as he really needed it.
• Walking in the Shadow of Dreams: Shinji often uses it to comfort Asuka.
  • In chapter 5:
    "Shinji?" she asks.
    There is a tremor in her voice. A whisper in it that he can hear.
    "Asuka?"
    "Shinji, do you respect me?"
    "I do," he says, "I wouldn't be here if I didn't."
    "Good," she says with a shaky smile, "Because I'm going to completely f___ing lose it right now, okay?"
    He pulls her to him as she begins crying. Her face buries in his shirt as she begins sobbing, screaming, her entire body shaking as he presses his lips to the top of her head. He waits, listening. Listening to the sounds of her whispers and hitched voice, listening to her as her tears wet his shirt. Arms wrapped around her, it takes hours for her to stop. Hours of her screaming, of her crying, of her whimpering in his arms.
• Used twice in It's 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.
• According to fan artist forte-girl7, this is all that Wheatley really needs to get over the whole Drunk with Power thing.
• A Growing Affection: Not his intent, but Naruto inadvertently gives one to Hinata in the first chapter. She intentionally returns the favor a few times later on.
• A truly epic example occurs in A World Without Rainbows when Fluttershy uses one of these to stop Moonside Twilight's Super-Power Meltdown.
• Apple Bloom uses this in A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball to stop Raspberry Beryl from following through on murdering Blueblood at her trial.
• The Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) fic "Thought Reading Alchemist" features a similar trait to the anime. Instead of Ross hugging Edward, Roberta herself hugged him to calm him down.
• In the Elfen Lied fic Family Sticks Together, when Mayu confides in him about her abusive past and starts crying, declaring herself to be all alone, Alex himself is moved to tears and hugs her, reassuring her that she isn't alone and offering to be her friend.
• In The Measure of a Titan an interesting variation on this is quite possibly the story's Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. After everything goes to hell, Starfire has just been put through a Mind Rape by The Dragon, forced to relieve her days as a slave, and killed The Dragon in violation of Robin's number one rule. She then shows up to save Cyborg and OC David Foster in full Proud Warrior Race Girl mode by beating up Cinderblock, after which she lands and starts storming towards them. David then realizes that he is still wearing enemy colors, standing near a downed Cyborg, and that there have been evil clones of everyone running around, all on top of the fact that Starfire last saw him appear to have been killed. He starts babbling to save his own life... and she scoops him into a hug and laments that they had feared he was dead because she knew it was the real him immediately. David claims it is the first time he felt genuinely safe in a long time.
• RWBY: Reckoning showed this when Ruby has a night terror early on in the series. The effects:
  She struggled, to start. Like a cat that doesn't like being picked up. I felt a pain in my shin, as she kicked the tibia within, sending a searing pain up my leg. But even with the pain, I refused to let her go, trying to get her to calm down. Finally, her struggles began to weaken, to the point where they were just twitches. I smiled inwardly, grateful that I had managed to calm Ruby down. As I looked down into her face, buried in the chest of my pajamas, staining the Ursa design with mucus and tears, her head rolled back, and her silver eyes opened, locking into mine.
• In the Hetalia: Axis Powers doujinshi Our house in the big snowy fields, a teen Russia's bloody and snowy Roaring Rampage of Revenge is only properly stopped after his older sister Ukraine hugs him from behind and confirms that the bandits who attacked her and Belarus's lands are all dead by his hand.
• In Out of the Dead Land, Bucky calms down from a panic attack triggered by trying to defy his conditioning to not talk about Zola's plans after Steve hugs him. The hug also convinces him to not check to see if Steve is a robot impostor like he did with the other Avengers.
  Tony: That's it? Give him a hug and you're all good? Wait, does this mean there was a hug test available all along, because if so, I can't believe there was a hug test available and instead we all got stabbed.
• In Fallout Equestria: Starlight, this is how Radiant Star stops Spark once and for all. Unusual, considering how dark Fallout: Equestria Recursive Fanfiction can be.
• Twice in Angel of the Bat- After spending nearly an entire conversation giving Batman a "Reason You Suck" Speech with a heavy dose of Calling the Old Man Out, Stephanie Brown/Spoiler practically collapses into him, crying into his armor when he apologizes for his failures to her as a mentor and a friend. Bruce practically tells her he loves her, in his own reserved, stoic way. Cassandra Cain/Batgirl/The Angel of the Bat has a very similar argument with Jesus after a Crisis of Faith laced with Cold-Blooded Torture and Gayngst, and ends in much the same way.
• In A Minor Variation, this is how Nightmare Moon is purged by the Variant Six. Granted, the Elements may have been involved, but that's not all too clear.
• Used at least twice in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide:
  • In chapter 11, Shinji and Asuka are upset and distressed after the last battle and the subsequent emotional turmoil. So they lie on the same bed, hug each other, and calm down gradually.
    Shinji held her tighter. At that very moment, all the things he'd always feared about Asuka, and his relationship with her, seemed to evaporate in the warmth of their embrace.
  • And in chapter 15, Shinji hugs Asuka before returning to the real world.
    Slowly, she wrapped her slender arms around Shinji and clutched the back of his shirt. He hugged her tightly in return, and she melted into his embrace, letting herself go as her senses filled with his warm presence, soothing the lingering raggedness in her chest.
• Several instances in Quicken:
  • When Taylor and Emma meet again in chapter 8, Emma hugs her, rests her head against her friends’ shoulder, and cries.
  • In chapter 9, after Emma has told her tale and she’s babbling about being a completely different person and being fucked up, Taylor tells her to shut up and embraces her until she relaxes.
• The Green Hornet fanfic Bad Medicine has the Green Hornet give one to Donnie after she repeatedly stabs the man who kidnapped and tortured her and has a massive My God, What Have I Done? moment
• The Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supergirl story The Vampire of Steel, has Buffy hug Kara when the Girl of Steel is grieving her homeworld's loss.
  Without a word, Supergirl flew down and lit on both feet before Buffy. The Slayer reached out, embraced her, and hugged her firmly. “Kara, I may not come from outer space, and I may not have powers like yours. But I know what it’s like to lose people. Not like you, but... you know.”
  Supergirl hugged her back, gently. “Thanks, hon. Sorry to get so sloppy-sentimental there for a moment.”
• Twelve Red Lines: After beating Crocodile and taking down Baroque Works far more smoothly than in canon, Luffy is confronted by Robin - who hasn't managed to see the Poneglyph and is BSOD-ing hard. She tries to kill him in a tearful rage...but thanks to Jones' behavior Luffy has figured out she's one of his future crew members. He gently stops her from attacking and hugs her tightly, telling her she's one of his and that he loves her.
• In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Ash gets one from his Muk during Chapter 34, when he's almost pushed over the edge by Sabrina, who revealed to him what she knows about his father and the circumstances of his birth.
• In Pony Gear Solid Twilight gives one to Rarity while the latter breaks down over Spike's coma and Rainbow Dash's presumed death.
  • Later, she gives another to a thoroughly traumatized Cherry Jubilee.
• In What is a Person Worth?, Lincoln does this to Lana after she gets beaten up by Chandler and his goons when they were bullying Lincoln and she tries to defend him, and this brings her to tears. Lincoln then beats up Chandler and his thugs in retaliation. On the bright side she becomes the first of the Loud Family members to reconcile with Lincoln.
  • Rita later does it to Lincoln.
• In The Bridge, Mariner Chibi Moon verbally confronts her possessed and out-of-control sensei, Nightmare Godzilla to help Moonbeam Glimmer, Xenilla, and Rarity finally convince him to stand down from his rampage to kill a post-Heel Realization Starlight Glimmer. The uptill then berserk monster puts a hoof on her head and, snapped back to his senses, quietly asks Rarity to get Nightmare off him.
  "N-No more fighting….", she muttered before doing something remarkable for any pony her age. She ran up to the monster king, threw her hooves around his forelimb, and buried her sobbing face into the fur she clutched against her. "Please Sensei…", she croaked, "No more…"
• In Hellsister Trilogy, Laurel Kent is upset about being left out of a mission due to her lack of physical strength. Noticing Laurel's crestfallen state, Kara hugs her in order to calm her down.
  Laurel looked crestfallen, and Kara felt sorry for her. Rao better find something for her to do, Supergirl thought, because I can't think of anything, either.
  Nonetheless, Kara hugged her, because she thought she needed hugging. Laurel said, "Thank you, Kara. I'm sorry I can't, like...I'm just sorry, okay?"
• In Fluffy Hero Izuku, Izuku finds Bakugo crying alone due to being ostracized by all of his classmates for hurting Izuku. Izuku, ever the Nice Guy, gives Bakugo a hug to help him deal with his emotions. This marks the beginning of Izuku acting as Bakugo's Morality Pet.
• In Time Fixers: Nicktoons of the Future, Danny gives one to Darry after the latter unleashes his Ghost Rage and nearly goes on another rampage. It is very heartwarming and succeeds in calming him down until Dark Dan Phantom grabs them both and begins to absorb their ghost halves.
  • Cindy does this to Maxwell in "Hunt for the Future" when his psychic powers go out of control, along with confessing that she knows he is the future version of her infant son.
• In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, Lexi gives one to Chloe when she worries that she'll be laughed at by the Sorbet Sharks if she goes on stage to read one of her stories due to 1) being a Nightmare Fetishist and 2) it's bringing up a bad memory of when she was mocked at by her classmates.
• In Infinity Train: Boiling Point, during Boscha's self-loathing rant in Chapter 8, Phosphophyllite decides to give her a hug before she flips out. It takes a while to take effect, with Boscha even attacking Phos' back, but she eventually returns the hug and calms down.
• In Hunters of Justice, the Justice League manages to rescue the badly injured teams RWBY and JNPR after they are brought to Earth via a Boom Tube, and they bring them to the Watchtower to tend to their injuries. However, what they don't realize is that the teenagers have been deeply traumatised after fighting Brainiac's forces for two straight days and witnessing the destruction of their homeworld, and shortly afterwards, the two teams wake up in a blind panic and start a fight with Black Canary and Green Arrow. The rest of the League arrives to try to diffuse the situation, and Superman is able to calm a distraught Ruby by gently hugging her and letting her cry on his shoulder.
• Through Her Eyes : Zigzagged. Soon after the failed assassination on Weiss, Yang drags her into a tight hug, but not to calm her friend but to keep herself from lashing out.
  Weiss: Y-Yang?
  Yang: I want to kill so many things. But I can't so I'm hugging you until you're okay, so don't complain.
  Weiss: I'm not.
• In the Miraculous Ladybug story Unmasker Unleashed, when Marinette starts to really show through Unmasker and is struggling with Monarch giving her orders, Cat Noir pulls her into a hug and starts to talk her down until she breaks free from Monarch’s control.

Films — Animation

• Big Hero 6: when Hiro starts apologizing for trying to avenge Tadashi's death by having Baymax try to kill Callaghan Gogo, of all people, gives him a cooldown hug, letting him know that she and the others understand his anger.
  Gogo: We're going to catch Callaghan, and this time we're going to do it right.
• Coco: Héctor gives one to Miguel in the cenote when he breaks down over Ernesto's betrayal.
• Subverted in A Goofy Movie. Lester, a park mascot, attempts to do this when he comes across a very angry Max. All the hug ends up doing is making Max even angrier.
• In Kung Fu Panda 2 Tigress and Po nearly come to blows over Po's desire for revenge against Lord Shen for killing his birth family. Tigress ended the fight by hugging Po, much to everyone else's surprise.
  Tigress: The hardcore do understand...
• Migration: Gwen attempts to give Dax one. Dax is... less than receptive.
  Gwen: You look mad...you need a hug! (opens her wings)
  Dax: No, Gwen, I don't need a hug. (Gwen proceeds anyway, but he holds her back with his foot) No! I said no hug!
  Gwen: Don't fight it! It'll make you feel better!
  (she manages to hug him)
  Dax: Can you let go now?
  Gwen: Do you feel better?
  Dax: No.
  Gwen: (hugs him tighter) Then it hasn't kicked in yet.
• Played in Mulan, when Chien Po gives one to Yao, on the first occasion when "Ping" ticks him off.
• San gets one of these from Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke, having descended into grief and rage at her mother's death and the death of the Deer God. Notably, she stabs him before the hug, it's just that Ashitaka is tough enough (and the knife small enough) that he ignores it and holds her anyway.
• In Thor: Tales of Asgard, the teenage Thor gives one to his younger brother Loki after a particularly grueling fight.
• Turning Red: Mei's transformation is uncontrollable when her emotions run high, such as being distressed or very sad. When her friends all accept her for who she is and they all share a group hug, it comforts and calms her enough that she reverts back to human form.
• In the 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.
• Zootopia: When the main duo reconcile after their Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure, Judy suffers an emotional breakdown during her apology and Nick invites her into one of these.

Films — Live-Action

• In Avengers: Age of Ultron, there's a procedure to calming the Hulk and triggering his transformation back into Bruce Banner, which involves Black Widow gently caressing his arm, perhaps as some kind of hypnotic trigger.
• Dogma:
  • A drunken and remorseful Loki tries this on his insane partner-in-crime Bartleby at the climax and gets a shiv in his kidney for his troubles.
  • Also happens between Bartleby and God right before the latter blows him up with her voice.
• In Eastern Promises, Nikolai manages a borderline example on Kirill, who is, at the time, having something of a mental breakdown. Not least because he's been ordered to kill his infant half-sister. 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 a move to get the duffel bag the baby's in away from him.
• In The Fly (1986), when Seth allows Veronica to see him again after a month's isolation — during which his ongoing mutation completely disfigured him — he manages to retain his composure as he explains to her exactly what's happening to him and why, even as she's increasingly upset to learn these things. However, as he tries to find the words to explain why he asked her to come see him after he refuses to seek outside help (because he knows such help doesn't exist), he attempts to consume a doughnut...forgetting that he hasn't yet told her about how he eats now, leaving her gasping at the sight of him vomiting upon it. On top of the resultant embarrassment, his right ear suddenly molts away. His composure breaks and with that, he finally can tell her why he needs her — "I'm scared" — and reaches out to her for an embrace, which she returns without hesitation despite her own emotional distress, effectively making this trope apply to both characters as they try to get their heads around the horrible situation. (Incidentally, as discussed in the retrospective making-of documentary Fear of the Flesh, this embrace is notorious for eliciting screams from audiences.)
• In Glass (2019), Casey manages to bring Kevin out to the "light" over his 23 Dissociative Identities, some of them evil, temporarily simply through holding his hand. Dr. Staples posits that as Kevin created his identities in response to his horribly abusive mother, Casey's empathetic and caring physical touch helps soothe Kevin. Casey manages to stop the Beast from rampaging at the Osaka Tower by grabbing and hugging the shirtless man. Unfortunately, this also means that Kevin is no longer bulletproof, and a sniper quickly puts him down.
• Sirius does this to a transforming Remus in the movie version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It doesn't work.
• Done almost literally in Hellboy (2004) when Liz Sherman goes a little berserk early on with her pyrokinetic abilities, only stopping when Hellboy comes up close and tells her she can stop.
• Justice League: Superman has been brought Back from the Dead and is not happy, attacking the Justice League when they try to talk to him. Then Lois Lane is brought on the scene, and he calms down on the spot, recognizing the love of his life. She hugs Superman tightly, urging him to just take them away from there. Sure enough, Superman flies off with Lois, taking them to his home in Smallville where he's finally able to calm down.
• In Little Miss Sunshine, Dwayne has a massive meltdown when he realizes he's colorblind, and in the moment following, realizes his dream of becoming an Air Force pilot is dead. He refuses to continue on the family trip to California, at least until his little sister Olive hugs him.
  • And earlier when Grandpa dies and Sheryl becomes an emotional wreck while trying to explain what's going on to the kids, Dwayne tells Olive to go hug her.
• Cid receives one of these in Looper after his TK powers spiral out of control.
• In Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, The Humungus "hugs" (it's actually a sleeper hold) his lieutenant Wez as he is about to go on a premature, suicidal killing spree.
• Played straight and effectively in Mona Lisa Smile between Giselle (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Betty (Kirsten Dunst).
• Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight II: In the camp's main cabin, Adas and Wanessa both have one after the plan to catch Zosia fails.
• In The Santa Clause 3, Jack Frost's heart is warmed by a Cooldown hug.
• Schindler's List: At the end of the movie, Schindler breaks down over not having been able to save more people. His employees all come together in a Group Hug to show him he did a lot.
• The page quote can also be heard in So I Married an Axe Murderer.
• 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.
• In the 2011 film Warrior: At the end.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • Played with in X-Men: The Last Stand as Wolverine fights his way to Jean. 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.
  • In X-Men: First Class, Charles Xavier does this to Erik Lehnsherr to save his life when the latter almost drowns himself trying to lift Shaw's sub for the first time. Also comes with liberal applications of telepathic persuasion since they are both underwater at the time.

Literature

• Alderamin on the Sky: Ikta does this to Yatori after she ruthlessly cuts down all of the Royal Guards attempting to kidnap Chamille. Frozen in Shell-Shock Silence, she is approached by Ikta who starts by gently holding her hand, causing her to drop her swords before pulling her into a hug.
• Bazil Broketail: Nesessitas gives one to Relkin (by enveloping him with her tail) when he breaks down crying in despair due to his own dragon going MIA and possibly dying.
• In The Beginning After the End Tessia Eralith and Sylvie Indrath to Arthur Leywin, In Volume 7, Arthur Suffers a Trauma Conga Line after his father's death in battle to a manabeast and thanks to Troduis Flamesworth's betrayal. Sylvie is his bond meaning she can feel all boiling his emotions directly and hugged him trying to comfort him about his father's death. Later Tessia sees Arthur's state and he almost loses his sanity she carresses him, hugs him, holds him and puts him on her lap to keep him sane.
• Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Cheat Powers: Fenrys gives Flio a hug to stop him from further beating up Hiya on her behalf.
• Lan in Brightly Burning has an overly strong Firestarting Gift that's well into being a Pyromaniac Superpowered Evil Side and which he's unable to control. The Companion Kalira is horse-shaped and has to make do with her Psychic Powers to get him re-centered. Unfortunately his Gift is extremely useful in a war and once he's shipped to the front and has to start using it to kill people, she stops being able to act as a brake.
  Something enfolded him, wrapped and cradled him in an emotion he almost didn't recognize. And when he realized what it was he wept, and as he wept he returned it with all his heart and wrapped the giver in the gift. They trembled together there, in an embrace so close that there was no room for thought.
• In Caffeine, Brandon hugs Aether instead of fleeing her. A Computer Virus seeking the meaning of life, Aether decided the answer was death after tragically losing an A.I. friend, and she began to destroy the server with herself in it. Brandon, a normal person trapped in Dynamic Reality, knew Aether's answer was wrong and he didn't want to lose her too.
• A Certain Magical Index: Last Order gives one to Accelerator in volume 15 when he is about to attack Kakine Teitoku for stabbing Yomikawa, who was trying to stop Accelerator from finishing him off.
• Choose Your Own Adventure: One of the happy endings of Louise Munro Foley's Curse of the Highland Crest involves this. When Cute Ghost Girl Emily's spirit appears inside the manor, the Protagonist can either confront her or run away. If the Protagonist talks to her, it will be followed by giving the ghost a hug, allowing Emily's penitent soul to Heaven; before disappearing, she'll thank the protagonist and tell them where the MacGuffin is. If the reader decides to have the Protagonist run away, however, they will fall out of the nearest window and die.
• 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 Shining Ones, 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.
• Edgedancer (a novella of The Stormlight Archive): Lift manages to get Nale out of his Villainous BSoD-induced breakdown by hugging him until he calms down.
• Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!: Nibutani hugs Dekomori after she learns that Rikka was "cured" and was crying angrily.
• Rebuild World: The Team Mom Shizuka giving hugs to the previously neglected and abused former Street Urchin Akira helps him realize the best thing to calm down the broken down crying from trauma Sheryl, is to do this, and he holds her for virtually an entire day, promising to protect her, which makes her fall for him Because You Were Nice to Me, and work her best for him as his Supporting Leader of their slum gang. Akira gives her a few more over the course of the story serving as Sheryl's Living Emotional Crutch.
• Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: Nicks gives one of these to Dorothea who's crying over him rejecting her feelings after slipping out from a party, which convinces Nicks' eavesdropping family to continue with the two's Arranged Marriage.
• Tatu and Patu: In "Tatu and Patu as Superheroes" Tatu, Patu, and Hypercyberman defeat Dr. Void by giving him a "Group-X-Hug".

Live-Action TV

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • In the season 4 episode "Self Control", Daisy hugs an (understandably) freaked-out Simmons to prove that neither of them are Life Model Decoys by using her Quake powers during the hug. Naturally, they both calm down once they realize neither of them are cleverly disguised murder-bots.
• Angel:
  • Happens between Faith and Angel in "Five By Five". After spending the entire episode trying to get Angel to fight her, Faith breaks down crying, begging Angel to kill her. He simply hugs her until she calms down in the next episode.
  • Again with Faith and Angel, in "Sanctuary". Faith kills an assassin sent after her by Wolfram and Hart, freaking out when she sees the blood on her hands. Angel hugs her to calm her down, right as Buffy walks in the door.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • This is essentially how Xander "defeats" Big Bad Willow in "Grave".
  • Giles and Buffy share a mutual hug at the end of "Passion", with Giles weeping over his dead lover Jenny Calendar, and Buffy crying for him not to throw away his life in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge as "I can't do this alone."
• Cracker features the tall, heavyset Fitz grabbing a hysterical, furious, and much smaller young man in a Bear Hug, indicating that he's prepared to headbutt the other man if he tries anything funny, and hanging onto him until he calms down.
• Daredevil (2015). Wilson Fisk has convinced psychopathic FBI Agent Poindexter to become The Dragon, but worries that a woman he's interested in might become a Morality Chain so has her assassinated, then uses the dead woman's phone to send false text messages saying she's broken up with him. When a distraught Poindexter comes to see him he encourages Dex to let out his anger with a primal scream, then hugs Dex while giving the nod to his underling to have the assassins he has waiting outside pack up and leave as they're not needed.
• Done hilariously in the 2011 Christmas episode of the Panel Game 8 Out of 10 Cats, when the panel featured Jedward and Greg Davies. After about twenty minutes of inane blathering from Jedward, Greg Davies breaks and starts mimicking Jedward's semi-surreal speech in frustration, descending into pure incoherent gibberish. He gets a consoling hug from team captain Jon Richardson.
• In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air after Will's famous rant after his father abandons him yet again, full of screaming and shouting and crying, while Uncle Phil stands there and watches, not sure what he can do to help. Finally, Will runs out of steam and stops shouting, before miserably asking, "...How come he don't want me, man?" All Phil does is pull Will into a hug, and then the episode ends.
• Grey's Anatomy: The Asperger-autistic surgeon Virginia Dixon suffers from an 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.
• After Guiding Light's Lucy Cooper tests positive for HIV (actually, her vengeful rapist altered the test results), her boyfriend Alan-Michael calls a friend of hers to come over and offer support, then smashes the phone and bursts into tears, prompting her father and brother to pull him into his one of these.
• 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 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.
• Near the end arcs of Kamen Rider Kiva, 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 PuToTyranno form. After wiping out both of the monsters 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.
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: Cate Randa, who has PTSD from her experience of the events of Godzilla (2014), has a panic attack in the series premiere during a Godzilla evacuation drill in Tokyo, flipping out inside the shelter and trying to flee back outside until her newly-discovered half-brother's mother Emiko stops her and gives her a hug. It's made all the more heartwarming by the fact Emiko has only known Cate for a few hours, and she's living proof that Emiko's missing husband had been cheating on her with a whole other family for decades, yet Emiko still sees Cate as a traumatized woman in need of comfort.
• My Kitchen Rules has this happen during Lynn and Tony's instant restaurant in the 15th episode of season 6. The couple had been going through a bad day in the kitchen, and everything they've planned for their menu went out the window, resulting in negative feedback for both their entrée and main course. When it seems that their dessert was going to end up as another disaster, Lynn was so overcome with the stress that she started crying while serving the plates. Another contestant, Will, gave her a hug and told her that she's done great.
• In a first-season episode of Night Court, Judge Harry does this to calm down an angry teenage runaway played by Michael J. Fox.
• In Orphan Black, all you have to do to calm Helena down is give her a hug. It's worked at least three times.
• In Power Rangers Time Force, Jen temporarily gets brainwashed and beats the crap out of Wes. He manages to grab her into a hug and refuses to let her go, despite her struggling, until she snaps out of it.
• In Power Rangers Zeo, during the "I Know You're 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 Smallville, Chloe actually stopped Davis from morphing into Doomsday with just a hand on his shoulder. Now that is some Superman-calibre Cooldown Hug... okay, it is not exactly a hug, but the spirit is there.
• Star Trek:
  • In "The Changeling", Kirk gives one of these to Spock after the latter's mind meld with the omnicidal robot Nomad went badly wrong.
  • In "And the Children Shall Lead", Spock snaps Kirk out of his hallucination-induced desperate fear by pulling him into the turbolift and... staring at him from an inch or two away, his arms around him. For some reason that is never explained, this works like a charm - probably because Spock is a powerful touch telepath and thus able to cancel out the hallucination.
• Star Trek: Voyager. Captain Janeway does this to Seven of Nine even though she's gasping in pain from implied broken ribs after Seven lashed out at her, furious over how Janeway has forced her to leave the Borg Collective.
• A rather creepy and fruitless example in The Tudors; Anne Boleyn is pregnant with Henry's child, and everyone (especially her,) is aware that this is her last chance to give him the son he's awaited for so long. Henry, with his typical lack of care and foresight, decides to start seducing her handmaiden, Jane Seymour, and Anne catches Jane sitting on Henry's lap. She has an immediate Freak Out and Henry frantically tries to talk her down and gives her one of these... with his hands wrapped around her swollen belly rather than around Anne herself, leaving no room for doubt that he's long stopped caring about her as anything more than the vessel for his son. Obviously it doesn't work; later that day she suffers a miscarriage (and while she's had them before, Henry's actions that day sure as hell didn't help the situation), and Henry blames her entirely. Anne furiously reminding him that he is responsible for the shock she received (and the guilt that he suppresses with anger and arrogant self-righteousness) is implied to be one of several factors in his decision to have her executed.
• 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).
• Xena: Warrior Princess: Gabrielle calming down monster child of her daughter pretending to be his own mother in "A Family Affair" episode.
• The X-Files. Scully gives a big one to Mulder after his mother commits suicide.

Manhwa

• Magical JxR has the cheerful, childish Aru do this when Jay's Power Limiter snaps off.

Music

• Badly Drawn Boy, "Year Of The Rat".
• The start of "What Hurts the Most" has this. When the teenage daughter yells at her father for him being indirectly responsible for her boyfriend's death, he calms her down with a hug.

Pro 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. 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.

Theatre

• Miss Saigon. When Chris awakens from yet another nightmare about his lost love Kim, his wife Ellen quickly takes him in her arms and calms him.
• In most performances of The Phantom of the Opera, Christine embraces the Phantom in between kissing him as a way of affirming her previous You Are Not Alone statement. This act of compassion calms him enough to induce a Heel Realization.
• In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Phoebus gives one to Esmeralda during "Someday"

Video Games

• The Wii version of A Boy and His Blob has a button for this. It was going to be a gameplay mechanic but it was scrapped, so it has no use other than being unbelievably adorable.
• Nina does this to Ryu in Breath of Fire IV after Ryu goes berserk and messily slaughters some Empire soldiers, wrecking an abandoned town in the process.
• Disgaea:
  • In the ending of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories, Adell hugs Rozalin to snap her back to her senses when her memories and persona of her previous life as Overlord Zenon are restored to prevent the possible slaughter that would have ensued because of it. And then he throws in a "Shut Up" Kiss for good measure.
  • Also used in Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, where Raspberyl gives Mao a cooldown hug to stop him from totally snapping and turning into an Eldritch Abomination. It's subverted in the Bad Ending when the Big Bad, realizing what she's doing, kills her and sends Mao even farther off the deep end.
• From The Elder Scrolls series' backstory is Pelinal Whitestrake, the legendary 1st Era hero of mankind/racist berserker. Believed to have been a Shezarrine, physical incarnations of the spirit of the "dead" creator god Lorkhan (known to the Imperials as "Shezarr"), Pelinal came to St. Alessia to serve as her divine champion in the war against the Ayleids. Pelinal would fly into fits of Unstoppable Rage (mostly directed at the Ayleids) during which he would be stained with their blood and left so much carnage in his wake that Kyne, one of the Divines, would have to send in her rain to cleanse Ayleid forts and village before they could be used by Alessia's forces. When Pelinal went into fits of "the Madness," Alessia would pray to the Divines who "would reach down as one mind and soothe the Whitestrake until he no longer had the will to kill the earth in whole".
• GreedFall: De Sardet hugs Constantin to stop his Freak Out over the revelation that he is dying from the Malichor and, after a few moments, it works.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • In Kingdom Hearts, after Sora has become a Heartless Kairi saves him from the darkness by hugging him and telling him to come back to her.
  • Revisited in Kingdom Hearts II when Sora and Kairi reunite. Before Sora can break down and apologize for his long absence, Kairi quickly interrupts him with a hug.
  Kairi: This is real.
• In The Last of Us, Joel delivers one to Ellie after he finds her slamming a knife repeatedly into David's face.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky: After fighting the Angel of Slaughter (AKA Renne), Estelle gives one to the neglected and abused little girl, when the latter is upset, threatening to kill Estelle after she gives her a speech about how she's not the only one who doesn't want to hurt her and that it's never too late to change. Even sweeter when you find out that in the Crossbell Arc, Estelle and Joshua eventually decide to take care of Renne and adopt her into their family.
• In Mass Effect 2:
  • Shepard has the option of giving one of these to Tali after she 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.
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots's touching Cooldown Hug that Solid Snake gets from Big Boss.
• The player can receive one in the interactive romance novel Moonrise. After the terror of turning into a werewolf, losing their identity, having to walk home naked, being told of their irreversible fate by Alice, the player finally makes it home and into Rosario's arms. The hug is well-earned and calms any frazzled nerves.
• Persona:
  • 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. This one's a subversion, though - she'll be pissed if you select the option to hug her since she'll see it as being condescending.
  • Persona 4 gives you the option to give Yosuke a hug during his Social Link. And it's around the waist, too.
• Marona does this in Phantom Brave whenever Sprout is in danger of succumbing to the darkness and losing control. The last time she does it, it nearly fails, but gives him enough time for a Heroic Sacrifice to prevent his full power being used for the revival of Sulphur.
• In the 9th chapter of Quintessence - The Blighted Venom, Serai was yelling at 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 calm her down.
• In the climax of Rakuen, Yami's resentment over his dead father and fear over his own impending death becomes so strong that it makes the darkness leak out of Morizora's Forest and into the real world. Realizing that he is the dark manifestation of her son, Mom is able to calm him down and lift the darkness over both the real world and the Forest by singing him the completed "Mori no Kokoro" before offering him a hug.
• 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 dying comrades, which kickstarts the transformation. (Nothing less from a game where all the Applied Phlebotinum is based on the Power of Friendship.)
• Comes up in Book Ends in Undertale. In the Genocide Run, the Wake-Up Call Boss Papyrus will offer you one if you promise to stop killing and try to be a better person; you may take this opportunity to kill him in one hit while his guard is down. Later on, the Final Boss, his brother Sans will offer you one halfway through his boss fight if you accept his mercy. Accepting his mercy will result in him taking the opportunity to take you out cleanly with his own One-Hit Kill. Geetttt dunked on!
• In Xenogears, Elly, in her gear, Vierge, grabs Weltall-Id, which is piloted by Id, Fei's Superpowered Evil Side, and holds on until Id turns back into Fei. Elly tells Id, Fei... I won't ever let go!"
• In the remake of Live A Live if Pogo is chosen as the hero for the Final Chapter, after the defeat of the True Final Boss when Oersted is lamenting his actions Pogo will respond by screaming before giving Oersted a warm hug.

Visual Novels

• Collar × Malice:
  • In Sasazuka's route, Ichika starts to panic when she and Sasazuka are snooping around her little brother's room and they begin to find a startlingly amount of evidence that he may have connections to the terrorist group Adonis. Sasazuka, normally disliking people in general, pulls Ichika into a huge to calm her down and gets her to think rationally about the situation and to not doubt Kazuki right away.
  • In Yanagi's route, after The Reveal that Zero was her old classmate and friend Saeki, Ichika refuses to believe it and becomes overwhelmed. Yanagi embraces her to reassure her that she isn't alone.
• Fate/stay night:
  • Shirou hugging Sakura after her "The Reason I Suck" Speech. The entire scene is a massive Tear Jerker.
  • Rin does this to Sakura who is currently in her evil mode. In the anime, Rin runs up to Sakura as she's beginning a Super-Power Meltdown. Slightly subverted as Sakura is shown to have stabbed her, though Rin appears to just walk it off.
• In Hate Plus (sequel of Analogue: A Hate Story), on the path with both *Mute and *Hyun-ae as your AI sidekicks, the only way to calm *Mute down after she learns about the failure of her old self is to have *Hyun-ae give her a hug. Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, since these two had been bashing heads in Analogue and at the start of that path.)
• In Katawa Shoujo, the first H-scene in Rin's path begins with Hisao giving her this after he finds her half-naked and in the middle of a Heroic BSoD in her atelier, having spent several days painting non-stop.
  • Also towards the end of Hanako's route to the good ending, when Hanako collapses to the ground sobbing, Hisao kneels beside her and hugs her until she calms down, since Hisao also starts crying, this becomes a mutual cooldown hug.
• When They Cry:
  • Higurashi: When They Cry:
    • Rena tries to do this to Keiichi, off-screen, in The "Spirited Away by the Demon" Chapter. Of course this doesn't work, and due to his paranoid delusions that she and his other friend were trying to kill him, he bludgeons her to death.
    • This works in the answer arc, The "Atonement" Chapter. After the rooftop fight, Keiichi does this to Rena, a day after he had the flashback about killing her in the previous world.
  • Another successful usage occurred in its sequel, Umineko: When They Cry. Ange uses this in order to snap Battler out of his Heroic BSoD. Unfortunately, thanks to doing this, Ange herself dies. But hey, it worked, right?

Webcomics

• Simulated Comic Product's Mope. subverted
• DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything: Eunju attempts to calm down Dongtae by grabbing him after Mio gets killed, but it doesn't work on him.
• This page of DNA, when Orion stops Sirius from attacking Jay in retaliation for hurting Orion.
• From David to Nancy in Ow, my sanity.
• And here in Captain SNES: The Game Masta.
• From Fyre to Xeus in The Beast Legion.
• Amnesia AU: can be found here. Having found out that her adoptive mother Priyanka Maheswaran, forged her medical results, Nora goes through a Super-Power Meltdown, thinking that her adoptive mother and sister, Connie, knew that she wasn't human and that she would have lived out the rest of time alone after everyone died. Thankfully, Connie immediately hugs her and tells her that she's not alone.
• In Aurora (2019), the main character Kendal employs this on Alinua when she temporarily loses control of her chimeric powers.
• Collar 6: Laura to Michelle.
• In EarthBound (1994) webcomic The Chosen Four, Ness gets lost in Dungeon Man and grows frustrated and angry to the point of he is bursting with psychic energy and he scares minions away by only glaring at them. Then his friends find him, Paula hugs him... and he suddenly feels completely cheered up. He even forgets what he was upset about.
  • Word of God confirmed that this is a hint of Giygas trying to influence him by fueling his negative emotions, but his friends are keeping him sane.
• El Goonish Shive makes an Invoked Trope of it when Elliot gets himself worked up here.
  Tedd: Grace! Use Hug!
  GLOMP
  Elliot: Eh-buh wha-za!?
• In Gunnerkrigg Court, Chapter 16, a spectacular hug is used to both figuratively and literally cool down the huggee.
• In Homestuck, Karkat calms Gamzee down from a homicidal rampage by papping his face and shooshing him (repeatedly), and then hugging him.
• In Magick Chicks Tiffany did this to Layla, telepathically driven into mad bloodlust by Faith. While talks soothingly and lets to drink her blood, until Layla comes back to her senses.
• Never Satisfied has several examples:
  • Peony calms Lucy down after they break down and reveal they can't use magic.
    Lucy! You're not useless! You're nice and pretty and-and! I don't care if you can't do magic! That's not why I like you! And I can't do magic either! But-but— You still like me! So it... it isn't fair to not like yourself!
  • She also attempts this on Su-Yeong in chapter four, only to be interrupted by Philomena shooting her. She gets her chance to hug Su-Yeong for real in chapter six.
  • In chapter six, Tobi hugs Su-Yeong when he, Joe, and Peony find her. This calms her enough to shift down from her tier three husk form.
• Hannelore got one of these from Faye of all people in Questionable Content.
• In Three Jaguars, Marketer uses this on Business Manager and Artist. Subverted in that she doesn't let them go until they agree to a truce.
• Rachel from Tower of God nearly has an emotional breakdown when she remembers Bam's Heroic Sacrifice, but his best friend Khun is there to hug her and cheer her up. It would be so touching if you didn't know that Rachel herself killed Bam and just made up that story, crying crocodile tears and living off of Khun's kindness. The best part of it is that Khun knows. He's just keeping Rachel around to get to her co-conspirators, the people he thinks are ultimately responsible for planning Bam's death. Not that Bam is dead, but that's an entirely different matter.
• Unsounded: Sette is having a full-blown meltdown connected to the khert ghosts taking advantage of her grief that is mutating her body in horrific ways, and Jivi saves her by holding onto her until she calms down, exorcising the ghosts.
• Zebra Girl: Done by fake Sandra's mom to her during the dream sequence created by Incubus.

Web Original

• Alien Abduction Role Play: After Acktreal releases Tori from her bonds after carrying her to the holding bay, Tori immediately sprints to the door and attempts to open it, prompting her to pick her up and cradle her firmly against her body while explaining the entire story to her and apologizing for abusing her. While Tori does calm down, she goes from being combative and feisty to giving her the Silent Treatment, still refusing to forgive her.
• A variation in Critical Role: during the Whitestone arc, when Percy's literal demons start to manifest, Vex'ahlia coaxes him out of his fury while holding his hand. Given that Percy had previously been implied to dislike physical contact and was turning into smoke at the time, keeping her distance was probably a wise move.
• Dreamscape: Ahjeen does this to Keela to snap her out of her Superpowered Evil Side near the end of episode 2.
• 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.
• In Worm, Chapter 14.8, when Skitter is trapped in the agnosia fog and deeply paranoid about trusting anyone, Grue — the teammate she has had a major crush on for a while, now — gives her one. Wait, did we say "Grue"? We meant Jack Slash — the Big Bad of the entire plot arc.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Katara does this several times. First her embrace in the episode "The Desert" brings Aang out of the Avatar State. She's basically the walking off switch to his Berserk Button (ironically, her endangerment is usually the berserk button itself) and 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.
• Ben 10: Alien Force: In the Season 2 finale, Gwen 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.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: In "'Teers in the Hood", the team goes undercover after one of Gi's friends, David, is caught in the crossfire during a gang war. When Gi finds the culprit, she tries to drown him with her Water power, but Wheeler manages to talk her out of it. Moments later, he hugs her and tries to calm her as she breaks down on his chest.
• 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.
• Doc McStuffins: Lambie's role on Doc's team is generally to give out cuddles and they are often important in calming down hurt or sick patients.
• Subverted In the Ed, Edd n Eddy episode, "Little Ed Blue". Upon seeing Ed in an uncharacteristically foul mood, Edd attempts to hug him to try and make him feel better. Ed just pushes him away and shouts "Touch me again, and I will squash you!"
• Fangface: Whenever the eponymous werewolf tries to eat his friend Puggsy and simply telling him not to doesn't do the trick, rubbing his foot is a surefire way to calm him down.
• 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.
• Kaeloo:
  • In Episode 108, Mr. Cat gives Kaeloo a hug while she's mad, with the unintended effect of calming her down. The trope is Played With because he didn't know that it would calm her down, but it just did.
  • In Episode 214, Lavanade is upset because she believes that she caused a fight between Stumpy and Quack-Quack and she breaks down in tears, making her powers go haywire and causing a storm. Stumpy, who was actually responsible for the conflict and had been mistreating Lavanade for the entire episode, has a Heel Realization and runs to the middle of the storm to give his sister a hug, which calms her down and makes the storm disappear.
• Molly of Denali: In "Wise Raven and Old Crow," a baby moose goes missing. Trini breaks down crying, thinking that it's her fault, and she's just lost because of Molly being away. Tooey then gives her a hug to comfort her, like Molly would.
• Steven Universe: In "Log Date 7 15 2", Garnet puts a comforting hand on Peridot's shoulder and gently suggests she calm down. It works, as Peridot goes from crying, cackling, and yelling to asking if she'd have to get a star now that she's a Crystal Gem and asking where she'd even put it, in more normal tones of annoyance.
• Steven Universe: Future: In "Prickly Pair", after Steven brings his cactus to life, he begins dumping his emotional baggage onto it, causing the Cactus Steven to go on a rampage and mimick Steven's aggressive behavior. Steven defuses the fight by putting his shield down and giving it a hug. It works, but Steven ends up a pincushion, especially when Cactus Steven starts hugging him back.
  • In the penultimate episode "I Am My Monster", a corrupted Steven is defeated this way. The sight of all his friends and family embracing him, offering their unconditional love and support even after all the trouble his declining mental health has caused, finally gets Steven to calm down and turn back into his normal self.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012):
  • Michelangelo gives Raphael a pretty epic one when they witness Splinter's apparent murder by the Shredder and Raph strikes out in a blind rage.
  • Leonardo gives Raphael one when Raph argues with Leo about the fact that he's jealous of Leo because he is Splinter's favorite and even tells Raph how much he cares about him, much to Raph's shock.
    Leonardo: Raph, I love you, bro.
• Teen Titans: In Terra's premiere episode, Beast Boy brings her back down to earth this way. Unfortunately, it's only a temporary solution...
• We Bare Bears: The plot of the episode "Anger Management" revolves around Grizz discovering that he can stop Nom Nom's anger by giving him a bear hug.
• Work It Out Wombats!: Zeke tells Ellie that he's hurt on the inside, so Ellie hugs him, making him feel better.
• X-Men: Evolution: Kitty Pryde succeeds in calming down Wolverine with this technique.

Real Life

• A teacher actually managed to stop a school shooting this way.
• A waitress in China stopped a 16-year-old boy from killing himself by hugging him and giving him a kiss. Of course, she also listened to his story and revealed to him that she's been in a similar situation herself.
• The Hug Box is a self-pacification device for autistic people; pushing into it delivers calming pressure to the sides of the body. It was inspired by a similar device for cattle, created by Temple Grandin. Since they're herd creatures, having pressure from both sides of their body feels comforting. Parodied in 30 Rock when minor character Kathy Geiss creates a Hug Box for the elderly - that is too powerful, killing them. Pressure blankets are a similar concept and often help people with autism, anxiety disorders, and other mental illnesses.
• When young toddler children have temper tantrums, holding them often works to calm them down quicker.
• A hug can be a good way to help someone who's having a panic attack calm down, but this varies from person to person (and sometimes from panic attack to panic attack) - for some people it can make matters worse by making them feel trapped.

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