He's a Friend - Television Tropes & Idioms

The hero is a peace maker. Smoothing over conflicts between warring people. And sometimes this hits closer to home.

Our hero has two sets of friends. They both like him, but they are unfamiliar with each other. Maybe they have never seen each other. Perhaps they have good reason to avoid the other. Ultimately the two meet, and it can get violent. Neither side is inherently evil, they just don't know each other. They may be trained to think of them as the enemy, or they might think they are a threat to themselves or to our Hero. Perhaps one side is a peaceful member of the side that the other demonizes.

Our Hero demonstrates his peacemaking skills and steps in quickly to smooth things over between the two. He introduces the two usually say something like "He's a friend." He shows that they are not enemies. This usually leads to the two sides making up quickly. Or not.

In short, two of the Hero's friends are fighting/aggressive, then the Hero steps in to introduce them to each other. Compare Character Witness for when a less important character vouches for the hero.

Examples:

Fanfiction

Young Justice's Collide has Robin assuring the rest of the team that an alternate dimension Jason Todd is a friend. Superboy was initially against the idea because Jason had earlier attacked Robin and "[he] don't like people who hurt [his] friends."

Film

The Iron Giant: Hogarth, Dean and Giant. "His name is Dean, we like Dean."
How to Train Your Dragon: "Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid"
- Before that, Hiccup says "She's a friend" to Toothless in order to calm him down and stop him from attacking Astrid.
Princess Mononoke: Inverted. San explains to Ashitaka's pet elk that she is a friend.
The Lion King: Simba introduces Timon and Pumbaa to Nala.
Wall-E: Hal the Roach gestures to EVE that WALL-E shouldn't be blasted.
In Thumbelina, the dog starts acting threatening toward the prince who came to visit, until the title character remembers and curtsies to him, telling the dog he's a guest, not an intruder.
Thumbelina: Oh! Ah, [curtsying] how do you do? How nice of you to come visit!
Toy Story: After Buzz first meets Woody, several other toys appear. Buzz does a Diving Save on Woody and threatens the other toys with his "laser". Woody explains that the other toys are Andy's.
- Toy Story 2. When Andy's other toys arrive to rescue Woody from Al's apartment, they see Jessie tickling him and think he's being attacked. They charge in and threaten Jessie and Bullseye, but Woody defuses the situation.
When Brandon Heat and Bunji first meet in Gungrave, they were in a middle of a gunfight and they ended up pointing guns at each other suspiciously but immediately stopped when Harry told Brandon that Bunji is working for him now.

Literature

The Dresden Files:
- Mouse growls at Molly.
Harry: [firmly] Be polite. She's a friend.
- In an earlier book, Harry had to do the same thing between Ebenezar and Kincaid. Ebenezar is Harry's mentor and one of the better father figures in his life; Kincaid an utterly amoral mercenary. The fact that Kincaid is willing to shoot Ebenezar is no big deal, but the fact that he has a reason to was definitely a surprise to Harry and the reader. Ebenezar's Dark and Troubled Past (and present) became a plot point from then on.

Live-Action TV

The Doctor has to do this for Rory in the series 5 finale of Doctor Who, since as far as River knows, Rory is an evil plastic-alien in the shape of a human. And while he technically is, he was human first.
He's on our side now.
Oh. I dated a Nestene Duplicate once. Swappable heads. Did keep things fresh.
- Turns out to actually be a subversion, since we discover half a season later that Rory was actually River's dad, and she knew exactly who he was, and was just pretending so as not to give away any spoilers. In retrospect, he probably wouldn't have appreciated the sexual innuendo.

Video Games

Halo: When the Master Chief jams a gun under the Arbiter's chin, Johnson stops him with a quickness:
Sgt Johnson: "Chief, wait! The Arbiter's with us!"
- Done even earlier in the original, where Chief tells Cortana this about 343 Guilty Spark. Ironically, that was seconds before they...stop being friends.
Similarly done in Mass Effect 2 Lair of the Shadow Broker, when Liara pulls a gun on Vasir. Liara immediately declares that no she is not.
- Also happens several times if the player delays recruiting Tali to the point where they can bring Legion along. Maybe taking the Geth on a mission to rescue the AI-hating aliens from hordes of its identical evil cousins wasn't such a great idea, eh Sheppard?
In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, when Mario and Doopliss have switched identities, his partners are tricked into fighting him, and it doesn't help that Vivian (who had previously fought against Mario) is fighting alongside him. After Mario and Vivian defeat Doopliss, one of his partners asks him why Vivian is accompanying him. Vivian starts to explain, but Mario steps in and apparently tells them the whole story, convincing them to accept her.

Western Animation

Batman Beyond: Bruce's dog, Ace, takes some time to warm up to Terry.
Jackie Chan Adventures' second season, when El Toro, a one shot ally from the previous season, turns up he attacks Tohru (since the last time they met him was before his Heel Face Turn) until the situation's explained.
Jonny Quest TOS.
- "Werewolf of the Timberland". The wolf Gray One has just saved Dr. Quest and Race Bannon from being attacked by the "werewolf" (a man in a werewolf suit), but they don't realize this and Race Bannon prepares to shoot the wolf. Jonny and Hadji arrive and call out to them, telling them that the wolf is a friend.
- "Calcutta Adventure". Pasha Peddler shows up in his helicopter right after the team has been attacked by a mook in a plane. Race thinks he might be an enemy, but Hadji tells them he's a friend.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Sokka has to do this for Zuko twice during "The Boiling Rock," once for Suki, who remembered him from when he destroyed her village, and once for his father Hakoda.