Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
" You let one of them go, but that's nothing new. Every now and then, a little victim's spared... because she smiled, cos he's got freckles, cos they begged. And that's how you live with yourself, that's how you slaughter millions, because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind."
" Only a killer would know that."
— And the response directly to that. The scene itself could be considered a Pet The Dog moment for the Doctor.
This term was coined by cynical screenwriters, basically meaning: show the nasty old crank petting a dog, and you show the audience, aw shucks, he's all right after all. Often used to demonstrate that a Jerk Ass is really a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold. If used as an Establishing Character Moment then you skip right past the Jerk Ass phase. the term "Save the cat" is an alternative.
Effective Execution: When a Pet The Dog moment is used to show that an antagonist or an Anti Hero is not a bad person, despite being set against the protagonist or has a severe Jerk Ass attitude. Because of limited screen time and the fact that most of the time is spent opposing the hero, such a villain may come off as having no redeeming qualities; petting the dog informs the audience that he isn't outrightly evil. Such opponents will almost always eventually become Friendly Rivals or switch sides and become allies of the protagonist, or are otherwise Worthy Opponents.
Ineffective Execution: When a Pet The Dog moment is used to show that a bastard of a protagonist or a Complete Monster of a Antagonist with no redeeming qualities is, deep down, a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold. They might even go so far as to suggest that the miserable bastard is a facade, a complete fabrication because of something like Parental Issues, and thus undermine the effectiveness and purpose of the character.
A kitten is frequently substituted, especially in anime. No one who likes cats is totally evil, and no one who is mean to them is actually good.
In Western countries, owning an adult cat as a pet is a sign of utter evil. Petting the cat here is a sign of planning to take over the world.
Of course, this doesn't mean specifically petting a cute animal, but it is any sign of nobility within a morally ambiguous character.
Sub Tropes include Photo Op With The Dog, Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas, Morality Pet (a character's entire relationship with a villain is one long Pet The Dog moment).
Compare Licked By The Dog.
Contrast Kick The Dog, Resuscitate The Dog (when a character tries to undo or atone for having Shot The Dog), Bait The Dog (when this is darkly subverted).
Truth In Television when you look at some public figures... or if you have an older brother.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Hiruma from Eyeshield 21 is the bossy, trigger-happy, insult-spouting Magnificent Bastard quaterback/captain of the Devil Bats, but he gets a Pet The Dog moment or two. In episode 14, Hiruma is impressed enough by the determination of Yukimitsu during the "Tower of Hell" try-outs that he lets him on the team, even though the huge bag of ice Yukimitsu had been carrying to the top of the tower had melted.
- In an omake, Hiruma gets a literal "pet the dog" opportunity...which he ignores completely. Although when it turns out the dog was really vicious, it's the beginning of a beautifully warped Boy and His Dog relationship.
- He and the Ha-Ha Brothers (the juvenile delinquents who used to harass Sena) get one later in the manga when they attempt to protect Mamori and Suzuna from the freakishly big and strong Gaoh (who wasn't specifically intending to hurt them, but was pretty much single-mindedly stomping up into the stands to confront a heckler).
- Galvatron, of all people, gets one in "transformers: Headmasters" part of the Takara anime series. He's moved to genuine sorrow and anger when Soundwave is killed, suggesting there's something halfway decent beneath the arrogant psychopath he normally appears as.
- On One Piece, when we first meet Captain Smoker, we're led to assume he's a ruthless commander (though not to the extent of the tyrannical Captain Morgan). However, to show he's not such a bad guy, we get a scene with a little girl accidentally spilling her ice cream cone on Smoker, and Smoker offering to buy her another. Smoker winds up as more of a respectful antagonist of the Straw Hats than the Knight Templar or corrupt government agent archetype that most One Piece Naval captains fit.
- That scene was played brilliantly. The girl's father freaks out because a superhuman monster has just been offended by his daughter, and Smoker leans down...and almost worriedly says, "Oh gosh. My pants ate your ice cream. They're so mean—here's some money to buy some more, okay?" And he hands her the series' equivalent of fifty dollars, or some other ridiculous amount. It's so adorable.
- Zoro's own moment way back at the beginning is played in a very similar way. Up until then, he was hyped as a heartless monster, but when he eats a poorly-cooked and filthy rice ball a sweet little girl he saved earlier made for him, and asks Luffy to tell her it was good, you know he's a massive softy at heart.
- Zoro often has his moments with Chopper too. You didn't see how upset he got when Chopper was attacked by Ohm. And in some ways, he has a lot of Pet The Dog moments with Luffy too.
- Subverted in Azumanga Daioh with the Dirty Old Man Mr. Kimura. The characters spot him picking up trash and feeding stray animals, and suspect he may not be so bad after all... then they overhear an inappropriate comment of his and decide nope, he's still a pervert.
- From Full Metal Alchemist: Riza Hawkeye's softer side is best shown whenever she's around her beloved pet puppy, Black Hayate. Although her dog training methods are a bit harsh...
- Roy Mustang also has a moment in the same episode. "Dog, huh? ...I LOVE dogs!" Mind you, this is something of a subversion, as he explains that he likes dogs because you can "treat them like a jerk and they'll still love you", all of which adds up to making Mustang one of the most awesome anime characters ever.
- Manga Bradley counts. Even though he was raised to be Fuhrer since birth and turned into a monster under control of the Big Bad. He still had the freewill to choose his own wife.
- Alluded to in the Digimon Adventure 02 series, when the homicidal BlackWarGreymon takes a fondness for a flower and a child Agumon. This is slightly an exception, as he is not evil, so much as angsty, and is destroying things to find a purpose for his synthetic life.
- Psychopath Desty Nova from Battle Angel Alita gets this sort of moment only in unreality, when he's in Alita's mind trying to remake her memories and trap her in virtual reality. Part of the illusion puts him in the role of her father figure. They share a truly empathic moment where Nova no longer seems insane, and he wishes that the moment could last forever... then he tries to defend Alita from the approaching "monster" even though (in the virtual-reality reality) it appears to be working toward a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Bumbling Jerk of a Dad Genma is shown tucking in a sleeping his son Ranma like a small child in one story.
- Doctor Clive in Haré+Guu is kind to Marie even wearing the ridiculous outfits she gives him.
- A scene in Hellsing Volume Five shows a Nazi vampire lamenting his inability to go to the park and feed pigeons on Sunday off-days.
- Subverted in Monster. Sure, it looks like Johan has a soft spot for children, volunteering at an orphanage between murdering in cool blood and preparing himself to become the next Adolf Hitler, but that's only until you hear the disturbing ideas he's planting in their impressionable little minds...
- Subverted again at around the same time: Johan reuniting Schuwald with his long lost son was be heartwarming as hell...until it became immediately apparent that he did it to stall the investigation into the death of Schuwald's original suspected "long lost son" (who he killed). And when the private investigator tries to pursue the case anyways, he Mind Rapes the guy and pushes him to his death. Yeah, Johan's kind of a dick.
- He also has a touching moment just before this where he sheds Tender Tears over Karl's Orphans Ordeal, which will really do your head in by Fridge Horror once you get a few issues further into the story. The possibility the tears might still be real only adds Mind Screw to the already fairly MindScrewy characterization.
- "Here. You can buy your pills with this."
- And he loves his Half Identical Twin and wants to reunite with her. So much that he kills the only parents she's ever known in one of multiple attempts to kidnap her.
- Somewhat subverted in Gash Bell; in one episode, Kiyomaro and Gash see a giant-sized young man carting along a boy holding a spell book. The giant is shown helping kids in trouble, fixing a broken-winged bird, and helping little old ladies; they assume the giant is a kind "mamodo" (demon), but then are confused when they see him and the boy conjuring up a plan to destroy an elementary school. As it turns out, the boy was the mamodo, and he was downright rotten.
- Played straight during the Faudo Arc during Rodeux's final moments when it was revealed that he had been trying to get his human partner to overcome her depression over an eye injury. Up to that point he had been shown to be a plain Jerk Ass.
- Kyon in "The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya". With which moment should we start? Generally said, his treatment of Yuki Nagato, going so far as to threaten to use Haruhi to reconstruct the universe because of her. Given to that he previously was presented as an apathetic cynic, this is a good way to go.
- Spiral's Eyes, Kousuke and Rio are originally portrayed as sociopaths, perfectly comfortable with killing anyone that gets in their way... and rather violently, especially in the manga. Eyes recalls killing several animals, culminating in a husky he strangled with a wire. There is a slight twist when Eyes is completely unaffected by the death of the cat he and Kousuke had just fed, but the camaraderie they show towards each other in later episodes, and their mutual concern for Rio while she's in the hospital somewhat negate it. Once Ryoko, Kanone and the Hunters are thrown into the mix, it becomes apparent that the Blade Children aren't inherently evil; they're just trying to survive. Twisted, but not evil.
- In Deadman Wonderland apparently Ax Crazy Senji (aka Crow) cheers for Ganta at the latter's second match and even gives Ganta's move's a name despite having had an eye surgically removed because he lost to Ganta at his first match. Meanwhile, mole You's brutal behavior is because 1) he's in prison and 2) he needs to save as much money as he can to buy his little sister's freedom. Ironically she probably doesn't deserve it. Genkaku, shown in a flashback to his past, was revealed to have a humanizing moment while taking care of a small, wounded kitty. Unfortunately for everyone, it dies.
- In Dragonball, Piccolo was — literally — pure evil. Then he gets stuck raising his arch enemy's adorable little son, who doesn't understand why people don't think he's just awesome. Piccolo develops a soft spot for Gohan, performs a Heroic Sacrifice on his behalf, and, despite some early denial, is an official good guy from there on out. Some fans even believe Piccolo to be a better parent than Goku or ChiChi, Gohan's biological parents. Piccolo also got the chance to pet many other dogs after that, most notably Dende and the planet Namek, which he actually started caring about. The original Piccolo wouldn't have given them a second thought.
- Vegeta gets several, becoming more and more obvious, but the first that was definitely intended as such is when he get together with Bulma, has a son Trunks, reacts to protect his son's life, then is later motivated by the lives of his girlfriend/wife and son, and even his wife's honor throughout the Buu Saga.
- Same thing happens to Majin Buu later in the series, except here with an actual dog.
- Fakir from Princess Tutu has what you could call a "Pet the Duck" moment—when the typically cold and angry boy finds Ahiru (in her duck form) in his locker, he sneaks her under his coat, takes her outside, and then proceeds to feed her bread. He smiles at her and then pets her head before walking away.
- This happens a couple other times, until he's crying next to a lake and she swims up to him, where he actually HUGS A DUCK.
- Paul von Oberstein in Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (Legend of Galactic Heroes) is, if not evil, a pretty (and unashamedly) unlikable guy, to the point of allowing an entire planet of people to die because it would be good propaganda (in the anime anyway). However, in the second season we learn that he has taken in and dotes upon an elderly dalmatian he found in the street. Though we only see it once on screen it's mentioned a few more times, most notably his last words are to request someone take care of the dog. Of course, in his case, it doesn't indicate his underlying heart of gold. He's just a jerk who really likes his dog.
- In The Prince Of Tennis, Ryoma Echizen and Kaoru Kaidoh are aloof, asocial, and kind of jerks sometimes. But the episode "Karupin's Adventure" showed that they both adore petting the cat, since Ryoma freaks out when he realizes his beloved Himalayan cat Karupin has been out of home and almost cries when his sempai return it to him, and a scene prior to the return has Kaidoh playing with the kitten and later blushing when one of his sempais notices he's in a good mood despite not dropping his antisocial facade.
- Azumanga Daioh has Sakaki, a large, athletic, intimidating girl who wants nothing more than to pet cats. Who always viciously attack her, with one exception. Which makes a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming.
- Believe or not, a demon in Berserk gets one of these. The Count, the first major demon we see, has a young daughter named Theresa, the one thing he still cares about. When he's dying from Guts's attack, the Godhand give him a chance to be regenerated... if he sacrifices her. Anyone who makes a deal with the Godhand is destined to go to Hell when they're destroyed. The Count's choice: he dies, rather than give his daughter to the Godhand.
- Father Mozgus is a Complete Monster, obsessed with torture and execution of "heretics". His assembled inquisitorial squad is composed of freaks... freaks that he personally rescued and gave a chance at something better. The man's priorities are backward, but he does have a charitable side.
- For a large part of Petite Princess Yucie, Beth doesn't seem to be an overly sympathetic character—until you find out how she lets her fairy assistant spend the night
◊.
- Partially subverted in Tekkaman Blade II, where the new Tekkamen are shocked to see the alien Tekkamen they've been fighting mourn the death of one of them during a battle. They're actually reluctant to finish the battle once they realize the enemy is human (so to speak), until Aki transforms into a Tekkaman herself and proceeds to brutally slaughter the aliens herself.
- Ai Haibara of Detective Conan, formerly a member of The Syndicate, is given this, with literal dogs and some cats.
- Jinnai to Ifurita in the last episode of El Hazard: The Wanderers: "You did a good job." Too bad she wasn't awake to hear it.
- In Mahou Sensei Negima, Chachamaru literally Pet The Cat(s) when she - after performing many acts of kindness in town from catching errant balloons stuck in trees to helping old ladies cross the overpass - rescued a stray kitten in a box going down a river, which followed her afterwards implying she knew the animal. From this the heroes tailed her to discover that she feeds and takes care of a number of stray cats in her spare time. This made for quite a very happy scene, so naturally, the pair of heroes said (with Tender Tears) "Aww! She's not so bad!". The more Cynical Chamo (who has a Heart Of Gold as well) reminded them she's a robot.
- Known Jerk Ass Tosaka turned his character around a bit when he protected Ako from giving up her slave rights to safety, called off his blackmail of Negi, saying he was just bored, and later told Negi in all details that his Missing Mom, Princess Arika, was a really sweet person whom he looked up to. He denies being a good character in almost every appearance thereafter.
- During his fight with Rakan, Fate pets the dog. In a flashback anyway. Turns out his minions' loyalty stems from the care he gave them as orphans from the great war, and they are just the ones who chose to stay with him—he sent the other 57 off to school
. Even Rakan notes that it's surprisingly nice of Fate. Granted, Fate's boss is the one who caused the war in the first place, but taking care of the war orphans is far from the more normal Big Bad tactics of killing everyone. Combined with his sudden growth spurt and visible emotions, Fate seems quite different.
Anon #2: Well it's only fair that they have a future before he destroys it.
- Inu Yasha's older brother Sesshomaru is displayed as an evil demon who only wants power and to be the best...then they give him a cute lil HUMAN girl that follow him around, after he clearly stated how he hates humans...
- Kagura's actions towards Kohaku, especially since she ended up dying for him.
- Subverted by Precia Testarossa in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. After many episodes of Fate insisting that her mother, Precia, had a good side deep within her, we finally get to see Fate's precious memory of a kind Precia playing with a younger her. Then we get to the end of the episode, where Precia reveals in a thoroughly nasty way that even when this moment ''truly happened... Fate is a clone, that the precious memory wasn't hers but of her original, Precia's daughter Alicia, oh, and that she had always hated Fate for not being a perfect Replacement Goldfish of poor Alicia and would prefer it if she died, effectively turning her Pet The Dog moment into a Moral Event Horizon.
- In Fushigi Yuugi, Nakago gets one of these in a flashback revealing he rescued Soi from being gang-raped.
- In the Osamu Tezuka manga/tokusatsu Ambassador Magma, Goa likes children despite being the Big Bad of the series.
- Xanxus in Katekyo Hitman Reborn gets one with a touching families stick together speech in the Future Arc... Right before blasting an enemy apart.
- Touka in Saki initially appears to be an arrogant Libby. The series then proceeds to throw so many Pet The Dog moments at her, that by the end, she probably qualifies for sainthood.
- Vanilla from Kaiba is a corrupt and callous ship's sheriff who takes bribes as a matter of course and is perfectly willing to summarily execute stowaways. (In Kaiba, people's memories can be stored on chips and transferred to other bodies, so this is not quite as bad as it seems, but Vanilla still shows no remorse for the execution even after the stowaway was found not to have transferred her memories to a chip.) His lecherous infatuation with Chroniko (Kaiba in a young girl's body) is also really creepy. Eventually, though, it is revealed that Vanilla became a sheriff in order to raise enough money to buy a body for his mother, and that deep down he genuinely cares about Chroniko, to the point that when they are being shot at by police, he transfers Kaiba's rather than his own memories to another body, sacrificing himself in the process.
- All Diclonii and Slipets in Elfen Lied are dog petters by default. Diclonii will kill anyone, men, women, children, their own parents. However, not one instance is ever noted of one harming an animal, with the anime showing a dog even biting a diclonius, and the diclonius just petting it to make it feel better.
- In Darker Than Black, Dolls are a frequent outlet for characters to do their dog-petting. Dolls are people who have been left shells of their former selves, and it's indicated that
Complete Monsters enterprising people are fond of selling them as sex slaves. Both the protagonists and their more sympathetic antagonists treat the Dolls they work with with kindness, and some of those characters evidence a willingness to kill anyone who harms those Dolls.
- Light Yagami gets a couple of these in Death Note, both with family members. He offers to run an errand on his sister's behalf, with no apparent ulterior motive - of course, this gets him into position to commit one of his most heinous acts of the first arc, when he tricks and murders Naomi Misora. Much later, in the manga, he talks his father out of quitting his police job; the motive is purely that Soichiro has risen to the top of his profession and Light can't let him give it all up. Again, this is despite the fact that Light's own actions are responsible for the Kira case, which is destroying Soichiro, and that in a few chapters' time Light will rationalise, accept and plan for Soichiro's murder, although he never has to carry it out. While over in animeland that doesn't happen, Light is so far gone by the same point in the anime that when he can't go through with the murder of his sister, it manages to come off as a Pet The Dog!
Comic Books
Film
Literature
- Western Fantasy Fiction has Drasek Riven from the Erevis Cale trilogy and The Twilight War. The second chosen of Mask, God of Thieves, Riven is a dark hearted angry man. The main character of these books, Erevis the first chosen of Mask, even remarks upon Riven's status as the better killer. Riven is a literal case of Petting the Dog, as the first sign of a good sign to him is when leaving a stakeout because he 'has other business to attend to'. Following Riven through the city we discover that he has two mongrel alley dogs he regularly feeds with scraps bought from a butcher. Before leaving the city, Riven even goes to the effort of paying (quite handsomely) a man to feed the dogs for the next year. Riven's case could have been done poorly, yet he never loses his status as a badass or suffers from Badass Decay; all of which is a testament to the author.
- Lord Vetinari of Discworld fame has several pet the dog moments—most related to his ancient terrier Wuffles.
- Granny Weatherwax, meanwhile, acquires a kitten in Wintersmith, which she promptly names You (as in: "Stop that, You!"). She makes a show of not caring for it... but then cares for it when no one's looking. By the end of the book You is found curled up on top of Granny Weatherwax's head, under her hat (Granny gives the lame excuse that it keeps her head warm).
- Greebo is one to Nanny Ogg. Despite the fact that Greebo is part homocidal, part sadistic and all wild fire explosions, he is still a cat. That does not stop Nanny Ogg from loving it. Subverted in that Nanny Ogg has a penchant for being nice but breaking out the badass when it is appropriate.
- Even DEATH has a fondness for cats.
- In From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, the antagonist, Captain Nicholl, eventually challenges one of the protagonists, Mr. Barbicane, to a duel in the wilds of Florida. When two other protagonists try to stop the duel, how do they find Captain Nicholl? He has put his weapon aside, to save a small bird who has got stuck in a tarantula's net.
- Raistlin of the Dragonlance saga, a treacherous, twisted Villain Protagonist (albeit an ensemble one) driven by bitterness and insatiable ambition, has a kindly streak when it comes to the downtrodden and pitiful... as he knows firsthand what it feels like to be helpless and hated. This leads to many Pet The Dog moments, especially with Bupu the Gully Dwarf, who inadvertently becomes a kind of Morality Pet.
- Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke includes a sort of intentional and public Pet The Dog, when the Overlords issue a decree that all nations of the world must have strict laws to prevent animal cruelty. It's unclear whether the Overlords really are that nice and well-intentioned, or if they just want everyone to think they are.
- In the War Craft novel Lord of the Clans, Grom Hellscream chastizes his fellow orcs for kidnapping a child, since that was not how warriors acted.
- In Joe Abercrombie The First Law Blood Knight Ferro is almost on the point of killing The Igor Severard because he was trailing her and asks him for any reason why she shouldn't. After reflection Severard says that he's worth killing, but the birds he usually feeds don't deserve to lose that source of food. Ferro doesn't kill him - which is arguably one of her own rare Pet The Dog moments.
- Mandalorian Walon Vau, a Drill Sergeant Nasty type, dotes upon his pet strill Lord Mirdalan. He takes Mird with him everywhere, wipes up any food it spills on itself, is prepared to sleep outside with the strill when it isn't permitted indoors. The man is tough as nails, but he takes Mird into battles in the same way, and with the same care, as fathers in his culture take their sons.
- The RiffTrax for Spider-Man 3 commented — "See, this just goes to show that Spidey cannot, and will not, kill this guy. I mean, imagine how different Star Wars would have been if the first scene had shown Darth Vader stroking a puppy."
- One could argue that the entire Gaunt's Ghosts and Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!) book series of Warhammer 40000 are extended Pet The Dog moments for the entire Imperium of Man, showing unmodified, poorly equipped, (relatively) poorly trained human beings fighting wholeheartedly for the Imperium and the Emperor, and that many of them are genuinely good people with noble motivations, forced to fight horrors beyond comprehension by sane minds.
- In fact most games, books, whatever that are about one planet or army will be this. The Imperium as a whole is Lawful Evil.
- In the X Wing Series, Imperials who aren't totally evil inevitably Heel Face Turn into Rebels. As Imperials they avoid the casual cruelty of their peers. In the books, one Imperial Star Destroyer captain has a scene where he fusses over his outfits, trying to pick the one that will please his lover the most. Another goes over how he was assigned to wipe out a village which had produced an assassin, and while he did destroy it, he went down and told everyone first, and gave them time to evacuate. In the comics, Sixtus Quin admires how the Rebels fight before being betrayed and pulling a Help Face Turn. And Baron Soontir Fel, of course, has stunning integrity and loves his wife.
- Jefferson Pinkard from Harry Turtledove's Timeline 191 series starts out as a very likable character but slowly does a Face Heel Turn until he's become the alternate universe's equivalent of Adolph Eichmann, ruthlessly sending the black population of the CSA to their deaths in concentration camps. However, to the end of the series he genuinely loves his wife and stepson and often worries about what will happen to them when the war turns bad for his side.
- Henry, from The Secret History, did organize the murder of one friend, attempt to kill another, and represent himself as a Magnificent Bastard in general. But he did save Richard from dying of exposure in the Vermont winter.
- Captain Nemo has several of these moments, the greatest one being when Arronnax finds him sobbing over a picture of his family.
Live Action TV
- ER's Frank the Receptionist, who was generally a cynical overweight jerk but once had a heart attack; at the end of the episode, we discovered that he had a handicapped daughter who loved him very much.
- Even further, it was revealed that Frank, usually so abrasive to everyone he works with, can't stop talking about how great they are and how much he admires them when he's at home, thus retconning in that he'd been petting the dog to some extent all along.
- Dr. Romano was a real jerk in his first seasons, and kept many of those qualities throughout his stay on the show. However he had a number of "pet the dog" moments, such as when he told Benton's son Reese "look after your daddy" in sign language, or when he refused to give up on Lucy after she was stabbed. His love for Corday also provided him with several such moments. The most literal "pet the dog" moment however came when he called Corday into surgery and she was shocked to see who their patient was...
Corday: Robert, this is a dog.
Romano: Correction Lizzie. This is my dog.
- Deadwood's Al Swearengen is the camp's kingpin, a brutal pimp, highwayman, and murderer. He starts the series by stepping on a woman's throat and plotting a child's murder, but Pets the Dog a number of times throughout the show's run to almost become a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold. Beneath his unrelentingly caustic demeanor, he has a soft-spot for fellow orphans, and employs a handicapped cleaning woman as a way of looking after her. At the end of the first season he treats the delibitated preacher with kindness, and ultimately mercy-kills him. He also risks life and limb a few times protecting campfolk from Big Bad George Hearst.
- Everybody Loves Raymond petted the dog with an episode named "Pet the Bunny". Ray, when writing a premature eulogy for his father, recalled how he saw his moment of vulnerability... petting a bunny.
- That wasn't the only time Frank petted the dog. When he found out his misogynistic buddies at the Elks Lodge were talking about Debra, he told them all off, albeit reluctantly.
- Not to mention the episode, name unknown, where Frank actually holds Marie in bed to comfort her after a particularly abrasive conflict.
- Though the trope of Badass Decay originally bore the name of Spike from Bt VS, the character, despite also being something of a Magnificent Bastard, in fact exhibited signs of this from the start. More to the point, he was portrayed as being genuinely in love with his partner Drusilla (feelings that it would be difficult to interpret as genuinely mutual), and able to feel hurt and betrayed. In the end a combination of the two even led him to upset the Big Bad's apocalyptic plans. In the same season he had been introduced, no less. Furthermore, in connection to this it was soon routinely suggested that he held some kind of (twisted) affection for the main character(s), and possibly even the world at large. Though many more events (and many, many, more tropes) would be applied to him over the course of the show, the seed of his Badass Decay was visible almost from day one.
- The definite Pet The Dog moment came in season 5 when Spike, knowing full well that Dawn was the interdimensional key Glory was looking for, is captured by Glory and viciously tortured for the information and did not tell her. This was the turning point in his Badass Decay where even Buffy considered him a reliable ally.
- There was also his honest platonic affection for and respect of Joyce, Buffy's mother, whom he got on rather well with after their first meeting (when she hit him with an axe and told him to get the hell away from Buffy).
- The best example of that affection is the episode where Spike, drunk and upset because Dru left him, proceeds to kidnap and threaten his way through the entire population of Sunnydale, except Joyce. From Joyce, he wants hot chocolate with marshmallows in.
- Or when he leaves flowers after Joyce's death, without a tag so Buffy didn't know it was him. Prior to this Spike had been trying as hard as possible to get Buffy to like him, but this action proved that he genuinely liked Joyce.
- The Mayor's treatment of Faith is a definite Pet The Dog. He was still an evil monster, but he did genuinely seem to care about her and was a hell of a lot better support for her than the Scooby Gang was.
- For that matter, one could consider him to be her Morality Pet, at least until she becomes good again.
- Angel's treatment of Faith in his respective show was perhaps evenmoreso Pet The Dog.
- If you think you've gone too far with Pet The Dog, you can always remind the audience of why the character needed Pet The Dog in the first place. They did it with Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf. He started out as a petty control freak with neuroses up to his eyeballs; in fact, for many of the early episodes, he fulfilled the role of the antagonist. But now and again the writers slipped in a moment of humanity, such as when he learned of his father's death, or a moment where he wasn't quite so self-centered as usual. Then they showed us what he could be like as a hero (the dimension-hopping Ace Rimmer: What a guy!), and let him show the occasional backbone ("Better dead than smeg"). By the time he left the cast, he was almost, shall we say, a decent human being. So of course Lister missed him, which was revealed through a... um... dream. And Kryten figured out the best way to cure Lister, as shown in this clip
(or look up "The Rimmer Song").
- The novelization of the series made this even more explicit when Rimmer creates a double of himself from an old computer backup, and it's eventually revealed (even to Rimmer himself) that he has changed, and the "new/old" Rimmer is a far bigger jerk.
- Subverted by Barney in How I Met Your Mother. Barney, who normally plays the role of the petty, womanizing, suit-clad jerk, was revealed to have formerly been a meek, loving hippie-type in an embarrassing old video. When asked to explain by his friends, he demanded that each of them tell an embarrassing story about themselves in return. After they did, he revealed that he had once deeply loved a hippie girl named Shannon. She eventually left him for a suit-wearing womanizer, prompting his stark personality change. Barney also told of how he recently visited Shannon, finding out that she was single again, with a job as a teacher and a beautiful kid. He mused on how that could have been his life in apparent sadness, while his friends comforted him. However, he then revealed that he greatly preferred his current life, and that in addition to tricking everyone else into telling embarrassing stories about himself, he had had sex with Shannon upon their reunion (even producing a cell phone recording of the incident when his friends didn't believe him).
- Barney does not always subvert this trope - his willingness to travel to San Francisco to persuade Lily to come back to Marshall is a clear Pet the Dog moment.
- As is the way he cheers up Robin in the third season episode when her old boyfriend comes to town and manages to pretty much destroy her self-esteem, despite her being much more successful than him. Sure, he got laid in the end, but just this once it didn't seem intentional.
- Your Mileage May Vary. Everything else Barney has ever done that ended up with him having sex with a woman, no matter how innocuous, has turned out to be planned out for that purpose.
- In the episode "Single Stamina", after stubbornly refusing to support his brother's upcoming gay marriage (because he opposes all marriage in general), Barney suddenly softens and has a change of heart at the news that the couple's going to adopt a baby boy. Later, alone at the reception, he talks to his new infant nephew saying how he'll be there for him.
- In the episode "Chuck vs. The Wookiee" of the comedic spy drama Chuck, Sara, a near-total cipher, is seen feeding a pet fish, a nice hint of humanity. Then she's attacked by a masked assailant. During the struggle, a gun and the goldfish fishbowl are knocked to the floor. The assailant seems to reach for the gun...and instead rescues the goldfish, making this an instance of two characters petting the same dog.
- There have also been a few scenes which have shown that Casey hasn't repressed all his compassion, perhaps most notably when he offered to help Sarah's Lovable Rogue father get his sentence reduced.
- The second season of The Office (American version) gave regional manager Michael Scott, initially modeled after his English counterpart as an unsympathetic egomaniac, a few very poignant Pet The Dog moments early in its run, when the character tears up at "Office Olympics" day, and is shown to genuinely care for children in the Halloween episode. Later seasons write Carell's character to be much more likable.
- Dwight Schrute (assistant TO the regional manager) is portrayed as a very unlikable (outside of humor value) character. Pet The Dog is subverted (TWICE) and played straight when he sits with a tearful Pam. He first takes off his jacket, making it seem like he's going to give it to her, but then just says "It's hot in here." He offers her a handkerchief and says he'll stay with her in a genuinely kind moment, putting his arm around her shoulder. Then he says, "You must be PMSing pretty bad." It's here
- Subverted by Sylar from Heroes: While Sylar is at the Bennet house, the dog Mr. Muggles seems contented to be picked up and petted by Sylar. But that scene doesn't make Sylar one iota less creepy.
- Simon Cowell had a completely literal Pet the Dog moment on Season 7 of American Idol... a contestant entered with a six-week-old Pomeranian puppy named Panda, who she handed over to the judges. Simon very quickly nabbed the little creature, and his next words were, "I'm going to steal your dog." He kept stroking that little puppy through the entire audition, and it took some coaxing to get Panda out of his arms again.
- Basically every episode of Life With Derek is set up so the title character can do this at the end.
- Lieut. LaGuerta on Dexter is initially introduced as the Pointy Haired Boss, who netted the position through a combo of politics and luck and has a severe hate-on for Deb and an... interest in Dexter. Then, in an episode halfway through the season, a young Cuban boy is found at the site of one of Dexter's latest victims, and LaGuerta goes all maternal, looking after the kid and even thinking of adopting him if the boy's uncle isn't found. This has not stopped LaGuerta from being any more devious than before (hell, in Season 2, she sabotages her replacement by pursuing a clandestine affair with her fiance).
- Throughout the pilot for Firefly, Mal is constantly and repeatedly shown to be a mean, cranky, selfish bastard....until his touching scene in the infirmary with Kaylee that shows that he's not the "mean old man" he tries to be. By the end of the pilot, in spite of all the trouble it may cause him, he chooses to shelter Simon and River. As the series progresses, it becomes more and more apparent that Mal's Jerk Ass-ness is just a cover.
- Jayne also gets his own Pet The Dog moments, such as when he watches Kaylee's operation in the pilot like a big, nervous Mama Bear, or when he is quite visibly shaken at the death of the mudder who gave his life to protect him in "Jaynestown," or when he frees River and Simon in the hospital in "Ariel" after escaping himself.
- The Operative, of all people, gets a Pet The Dog instance, while he is killing a man. As the man is dying, the Operative comforts him with the knowledge that he did fine works, and made the world a better place, and is quite visibly affected as he watches the man die.
- Mob boss Tony Soprano on The Sopranos is an inveterate dog-petter; his love of animals is frequently played up as one of his few signs of true humanity, as well as his protectiveness towards not just his children but, as long as they're young enough, others'. In one episode he loses it and kills one of his best-earning lieutenants for apparently killing a racehorse by arson (who did so for purely financial reasons) — the same racehorse Tony sat up with all night when it was sick.
- Of course, it's never outright revealed if said lieutenant actually was responsible for the horse's death. Tony's love of and affection towards animals is one of his most redeeming qualities, so it's entirely possible it was just the horse incident that set him off, but it could also be that it was the last straw, Tony being sick of dealing with the bastard, and he used it as an excuse. But in any case, the guy'd had it coming since he'd murdered the stripper.
- Though ironically, after spending pretty much the entirety of his time on the series the series being an irredeemable jackass, Ralph was finally showing signs of heading towards redemption after his son was seriously injured, which occurred in the exact same episode in which he died.
- It also serves as a way to reveal more information about the character. Sociopaths tend to have more affection for animals than people. In fact, the series makes the same comment toward the end, when Melfi's shrink shares new studies with her which basically state that although affection toward animals and small children may seem like it humanizes sociopaths like Tony, therapy actually does very little other than train them to better imitate normal people and thus become more deadly.
- Drug kingpin Avon Barksdale in The Wire, when asked for a donation of ten thousand dollars by one of his former soldiers who was looking to start a boxing gym as a means of youth outreach, proceeds to erupt into incredulous laughter at the proposal. Once the laughter subsides, he donates fifteen thousand instead.
- Additionally, drug dealer and convicted killer Wee-Bey Brice owns multiple tanks full of pet exotic fish, and talks about them with the same fondness that any other dedicated pet owner would. Even after he's incarcerated he continually makes sure that his wife and son are taking care of them properly. More importantly he lets Bunny Colvin adopt his son to give him the chance that he never had, recognising that his soldier's life and gangster mentality has got him nowhere.
- Inverted in Farscape. Aeryn's mother's first appearance turned out to be, in light of her later actions, a pet the dog moment, which she very sorely needed.
- Scorpius had a particularly interesting pet the dog moment in his third episode, when he takes in an orphaned girl: he embraces her, gives her a room aboard his command carrier, and even states to his officers "we must know when to be strong and when to show compassion." However, it's subverted in that the "orphan" is a hungry carnivore in disguise, and it's implied that Scorpius has taken her in for no other reason than to use her as a minion.
- However, Scorpius is shown to be a subversion of the Bad Boss, rewarding and encouraging his loyal minions rather than kicking them out the airlock when the time comes. Of course, it's likely because he's more practical than cruel, but still...
- More moments courtesy of Scorpius: when Sikozu was facing an execution, he helpfully supplied her with a password that allowed her to bluff her way out. Particularly interesting, considering that the two of them had never met before- and that he'd been "executed" less than a minute ago.
- Commending Braca for obeying orders and taking part in mission that would have killed Scorpius had it failed.
- During the two-part episode "Self-Inflicted Wounds," Pathfinder Neeyala has two Pet The Dog moments: firstly, she briefly comforts one of her crew-members before sending her on a suicide mission; the second is revealed to have spanned both episodes, in that her plan to sabotage Moya was intended to force Crichton and the others to escape aboard her own vessel and avoid a wormhole-y death when the Pathfinder ship left Moya. Ironically, this leads to her downfall when Moya's crew decide not to give up so easily.
- Rygel gets a couple of Pet The Dog moments as well, namely in the season 2 finale when Aeryn dies he gives her his medallion, saying she is far more deserving of it, or after Zhaan dies, and he goes to steal her stuff, then admits he doesn't want it.
- Sawyer on Lost has had several Pet The Dog moments, including some literal dog-petting when Vincent was the only one who'd have anything to do with him after his con involving the guns. Other moments include offering to babysit/read to Aaron for Claire and offering his fish biscuits to Kate when they were imprisoned by The Others.
- Also, Ben Linus is genuinely fond of his adoptive daughter Alex.
- but not quite fond enough to come out of that house to save her
- House is built upon the title character being one of the prime examples of a Jerk Ass, but a given rule for any protagonist Dr Jerk characters is that they will be a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold. House may be mean, cruel and sometimes outright immoral, but he is still a doctor and his job is to save people's lives. One episode in particular had him treating a patient whose heart gave out and she needed an emergency transplant. House had deduced privately that she was bulimic, and had been using ipicac, a drug that caused heart damage. Both of these critera would certainly void her chances of receiving a heart. House risked his medical license by lying to the transplant board that she had no psychological problems. Afterwards, she asked him why he risked so much for her. He replied "You're my patient. Don't screw it up."
- House also found a sick rat in 'Hunting', treated it, named it Steve McQueen and kept it as his pet. In a later episode he asks his team to bring him a rat. Cameron replies that he already has one, and he indignantly informs her that [he is] 'not gonna kill Steve!' Later on however, in 'Euphoria' a rather odd "pet the dog" moment, he subjects Steve to a poisonous environment in order to find out what disease is killing Foreman. (Both Steve and Foreman survive)
- In season 5's 'Simple Explanation' (and presumably in following episodes) House is genuinely grieved by Kutner's suicide.
- "Merry Christmas, Cuddy."
- In Wilson's Heart, there were two massive moments that silenced anyone who thought he didn't deserve Wilson's friendship; where he agrees to pretty much fry his brain (the only thing that he thinks makes him worthwhile, remember?) so that he can try to save Amber and the bus-limbo scene, where he admits that he would rather be dead than be in pain all the time, miserable and to have Wilson hate him, thereby proving that he really does care for Wilson and value their friendship.
- Three Words, One Episode: The Socratic Method. In fact, he petted the dog so much in this one that Hugh Laurie was worried that they were making House too nice.
- House isn't exactly the biggest fan of human contact, so it's kind of a big deal to see him hug someone (in "Sports Medicine," "Honeymoon," and a couple times during the Stacy arc of season 2). It's interesting that House has actually been hugged about twice as many times, (such as by Chase in 'Half-Wit', Cameron in 'Words and Deeds' and the little girl dying of cancer, Andie, in 'Autopsy').
- Plus there was also the part of 'Words and Deeds' when he apologised to Wilson for the whole Tritter fiasco.
- In the season 3 episode 'One Day, One Room' he takes a rape victim's case because she wanted to talk to him, despite the case being 'boring' as their was no mystery/puzzle involved.
- In 'Here Kitty' when Debbie jumped onto his laptop, presumably screwing up whatever he'd been working on, he petted her instead of the more expected action of shoving her away. On the other hand, he also carried her around in a bag for most of the episode...
- There was also the moment in 'Fetal Position' when he realised the baby was more than just a fetus when the baby reached out of the womb and grabbed his finger.
- A literal realisation of the trope was in episodes at the end of Season 3 with Wilson's dog, Hector.
- In Scrubs Dr. Kelso has a real fondness for his dog, Baxter. This is because, as he says, Baxter is "the only creature in my life that never disappointed me". Kelso is also shown to genuinely love his son even though his son can't hold down a job or a boyfriend. And he ends up liking the young son of a man needing surgery, as well. Yeah, Kelso gets a lot of these moments.
- The Janitor has had a few as well, particularly when he once spent an entire day keeping a patient company.
- He has also been implied to own a pet rabbit, whom he made shoes for.
- M*A*S*H 's Major Winchester gets one when he tries to give a group of Korean orphans a bunch of candy for Christmas in "Death Takes a Holiday". He deliberately works to ensure no one knows about it.
- Of course, unlike Major Burns, Major Winchester was envisioned as a Worthy Opponent from the start, so he has lots of Pet The Dog moments.
- Including talking a concert pianist whose hand was crippled out of depression and defending a stuttering patient Although the latter was inspired by his sister having the same handicap
- In the Doctor Who episode "Boom Town", Blon Slitheen has a nice chat with a young woman about family instead of eating her. It is subverted however, when the Doctor doesn't fall for it.
BLON: I spared her life.
DOCTOR: You let one of them go, but that's nothing new. Every now and then, a little victim's spared... because she smiled, cos he's got freckles, cos they begged. And that's how you live with yourself, that's how you slaughter millions, because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind.
- Subverted in an episode of Cracker where a serial killer reveals to Fitz that he was going to drown a litter of kittens but decided not to because 'they hadn't done him any harm'. Fitz points out that none of the killer's victims had done him any harm either and that rather than making him sympathetic, the villain was just showing a kind of 'sick sentimentality'.
- Happened a lot in Becker
- All In The Family used this frequently.
- Al Bundy has done this once or twice.
- In Mystery Science Theater 3000, Dr. Forrester invents Nummymuffin Cocobutter, the most sickeningly cute pet imaginable which he will use to distract the rest of the world and take it over. He eventually gets sucked into his own evil plan and ends up just fussing over Nummymuffin along with Frank.
- Dan Fielding, the lecherous, hyperambitious DA of Night Court has several:
- Talks Harry out of quitting,
- Talks a delusional Roz down from a roof,
- Gives up his chance to join a prestigious club in order to protect Christine from a sexual predator
- Pleads (admittedly half-heartedly) with God to spare a girl undergoing a dangerous operation.
- Alex of Wizards Of Waverly Place has several, especially with Justin but also with Harper when she helped her at Gigi's "loser party".
- An episode of Burn Notice features the team conning a soft-hearted gangster with a fondness for greyhound racing. One indicator that he's not quite the villain he thinks he is comes from his story about the biggest bet he ever lost: A dog that crashed and broke its leg before the race even started. His response was to buy the dog and turn it into a pet.
- In season 2 of Veronica Mars, when the Sherriff is called on Duncan and Veronica breaking into the household of some abusive parents, it is expected the Sheriff - usually an incompetent Jerkass - will arrest them and not believe the parents are abusing their daughter. Instead he pretends to arrest Duncan and Veronica, goes back to the household and investigates the parents. He also indicates his own father was abusive.
- Sue Sylvester from Glee is a complete and total Jerk Ass with few redeeming qualities if any, so when in one episode she lets a mentally challenged girl onto her prized cheerleading squad the 'Cheerios' the viewers along with everyone in the show conclude she's about to do something despicable that goes far beyond the Moral Event Horizon, reinforced by the fact she's pushing the girl just as harsh as she treats her other cheerleaders. At the end of the episode Sue ends up paying out of her own pockets for the School's handicap ramps, which baffles Will and the Principle as they try and figure out her motive. It's revealed she has a sister with Down's Syndrome living in a home, who Sue visits and reads to. She gave the girl a spot on the cheerleading squad because she just wants to be treated like everyone else.
- Lord Yu, one of the Scary Dogmatic Aliens of Stargate SG-1, got a few Pet The Dog moments. Generally, he was the least evil of the System Lords. In one episode, he spared and released Teal'c, who was caught while trying to kill him, and even offered a warning about an untrustworthy apparent ally. Yu also briefly allied himself with Stargate Command while attempting to stop Anubis. In return, he was viewed at least a little more sympathetically than the other System Lords by the protagonists, even getting a little "you go, Yu!" from O'Neill when he was one of the last System Lords to resist Anubis. However, Yu was still a Goa'uld, an evil alien who pretended to be a god, demanding worship from innumerable human slaves, while condemning his human host to the horror of millenia of imprisonment within his own body. He very clearly remained a terrible and dangerous villain, and nearly personally killed Daniel Jackson in one episode.
New Media
- The *chan boards, of all places, has this in the concept of the Ms Paint relationship thread. See here
for examples. (Note that most of them are the NSFW usual fare — whether this a good thing or not is left to the reader's discretion.)
- Furthermore, the channel on 4chan known as /r9k/, a board originally developed with a filter that blocks unoriginal text or images, has (d)evolved to embody the Ms Paint relationship thread, becoming the unofficial place to ask questions, share or complain about relationships. Many believe that it needs to be cauterized.
Theater
- "The Policeman's Song" in Gilbert And Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance laments that even thieves and murderers love the simple, pure English countryside. ("When the coster's finished jumping on his mother / He loves to lie a-basking in the sun...")
Video Games
Web Comics
- Order of the Stick:
- Haley's motive for collecting money.
- And we can't forget that she favoured helping the dirt farmers even though there would be absolutely no reward.
- Belkar Bitterleaf, a Chaotic Evil halfling who on one occasion used a kobold's head for a salsa bowl, has recently adopted the late Lord Shojo's cat, Mr. Scruffy. While he justifies it by using the cat for a weapon at one point, he seems to genuinely care for it. Then again, he also liked Lord Shojo for being a Magnificent Bastard, to the point of going berserk when Miko killed him ("YOU KILLED THE WACKY OLD DUDE WITH THE CAT?!?").
- Miko seems to have a genuine affection for her paladin steed, leading to a few Pet the Dog scenes, especially her final moments.
- Tsukiko seems to be getting one of these in her deluded, but still caring, attitude towards the undead.
- Richard of Looking For Group has a rather shocking Pet The Dog moment when he saves a child from an explosive blast. The reason? The child wasn't afraid to die.
- A more straight example is how Richard seems to like the rabbit the rest of the group jokingly gave him as a mount when he was shrunk. Well, at least, it's one of the few woodland creatures he's run across that he didn't immediately immolate.
- In 8-bit Theater, Black Mage's love for White Mage is literally the only thing at this point from stopping him from being a Complete Monster.
- In xkcd, Black Hat Guy gets such a moment which includes baking a cake
. Aw...
- The Ork from Da Real Wurld [[Warhammer40000 40k]] seems to like the grots that infest the character's house. The Dark Eldar chick constantly demands he do something about them, and he seems genuinely saddened when she shoots one off his head. For an ork, he's suprisingly well-balanced.
Web Original
- In Survival Of The Fittest, Dorian, one of the terrorists behind the Act, has been shown to send most of the money he earns from working in the organisation behind SOTF to his mother. It helps that he's well... pathetic too.
- "You hear that, world? I love my pink, freakish, orb-shaped son!"
- In There Will Be Brawl, Wario, the series' resident sneaky and manipulative bastard, is revealed to also be taking care of his mentally-handicapped brother, Waluigi.
Western Animation
- In the The Spectacular Spider Man episode First Steps two kids poke fun at a little girl's sand castle. Sandman uses his power to turn the area around them into a huge Disney-esc castle, chasing the boys away. The little girl thanks Mr Sandman. He smiles and tells her to go homes as its getting cold.
- Bender on Futurama petted the dog a few times, but the show spoofed this on at least one occasion:
Bender: "But inside, you've got the heart of a robot."
Fry: "Aww...thanks, Bender."
Bender: "Just like inside me, I've got the heart of a human!" [takes a human heart from his chest compartment] "...what?"
- Bender's biggest pet the dog moment was most likely in Jurassic Bark, where he spends the whole episode acting like a insensitive, possessive, abusive, jealous jackass because Fry, his best friend, is spending so much time trying to figure out how to clone his old dog Seymour, his best friend before Bender. Eventually, Bender gets so fed up he takes Seymour's fossil and throws it into a lava vent. However, when this causes Fry to collapse in grief, he realizes (and even admits), that Fry loved his dog much the same way Bender loves Fry. He then dives into the boiling lava to retrieve Seymour despite Fry's protests, melting his eyes in the process.
- Virtually any time Bender realizes he seriously hurt Fry's feelings leads to him showing unusual kindness.
- Subverted by Duckman. The grouchy and sarcastic main character frequently shows signs of tenderness when he has his late wife on his mind — but he's usually thinking back on their sex life.
- Rampage from Transformers: Beast Wars is generally depicted as nothing short of a monster, a sadist, and a walking nightmare... except in the episode "Transmutate", in which he finds a kindred spirit in the episode's freakish, disfigured, and pitiful title character. He even goes so far as to be moved to sorrow by its death. This is both an example and a rather dark subversion: showing this sliver of tenderness causes further signs of his depravity to stand out all the more.
- The trope can apply to pure villains as well. In Justice League Unlimited, Galatea, the murderously psycho clone of Supergirl, shares a moment of genuine warmth with her "father," Professor Emil Hamilton, just before she cheerfully goes on a mission of mass murder.
- Deconstructed on Avatar The Last Airbender. Prince Zuko is given several moments that establish him as less of a villain than most of the Fire Nation: sparing his arch rival Commander Zhao — and later trying to save his life, choosing to save his uncle over chasing the Avatar, refusing to rob a pregnant woman when he's starving, etc. All this, however, does not lead to a Heel Face Turn, but only doubles the shock when it doesn't happen. - Though it doesn't make any surprise when it eventually does happen.
- The Monarch in The Venture Brothers, tears up moments before he was to be declared man and wife with Dr. Girlfriend. The Phantom Limb interupts the wedding with copters which prompts the Monarch to scream "OHHHH, DICK MOVE!"
- The Monarch pet the dog so hard in season two, that fans were actually upset to be reminded in the following season that he is, in fact, a professional villain, and therefore not very nice.
- Stewie Griffin, in the early seasons of Family Guy, was a diabolical and downright sociopathic baby who, after petting the dog a few times, had his character changed completely by the fourth and fifth season. But who are we kidding? It's all just for laughs.
- Another Family Guy episode offers a subversion when greedy tobacco company executives discuss making a line of toys to get kids interested in smoking cigarettes, complete with an Evil Laugh. Until the head pulls up a puppy and starts to pet it and talk to it in baby voice. He then hands the dog to another executive, pulls out a rifle and says Pull...
- Invader Zim has a few Pet The Dog moments with his minion-disguised-as-a-dog.
Gir: -tearing up after Zim yells at him-
Zim: Guh... I can see you understand your mistake, Gir, and me being angry will get us nowhere.
- Of course, the above example is a bit of a stretch, since GIR wasn't crying because he realized he'd done wrong, but rather because he missed the cupcake he had just eaten. But still, Zim thought he was being nice.
- In The Boondocks, Uncle Ruckus, a black man coincidentally racist against other black men and a white supremacist, is shown petting the dog many times (excluding all of the times has talked to Granddad), namely in the episodes "The Trial Of R. Kelly" (the park scene), "Granddad's Fight" (Ruckus is willingly Granddad's co-sensei, and even comments after the fight with Stinkmeaner: "I told you a nigga that black couldn't fight."), "Return Of The King" (where Ruckus comes to dinner with Granddad even after throwing random objects at Martin Luther King), "The Itis" (where Ruckus comments: "If there's one thing a colored man is good at, it's cooking up a pig."), "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back" (Ruckus helps Huey, Riley, and Granddad exorcise Tom), "Home Alone" (Ruckus agrees to babysit Riley and Huey), and "The Story Of Catcher Freeman". (Ruckus comments: "Catcher Freeman was the greatest nigga that ever lived!")
- And none of those cover the most notable and most genuine act of dog petting Ruckus ever did, in the Christmas episode; after filling in as a mall Santa and leaving Jasmine completely disillusioned when it comes to Santa's existence, Ruckus later approached her and explained that of course he wasn't really Santa, but he was, in fact, a Secret Service agent assigned to fill in for Santa, as Santa needed to be protected from the threats against him (namely Riley Freeman and his paintball gun). Ruckus then assured Jasmine that the real Santa would be back next year, much to her delight. It's a surprisingly genuine and heartfelt moment which, since it's The Boondocks, is immediately subverted by Huey's narration where he impassively observes that Christmas miracles "only come from the lies adults tell children."
- Played with by the Joker on Batman The Animated Series and his relationship with Harly Quinn. Almost any time he shows real affection towards her, you can tell that he is just using her as another part of his mind games. She would catch on that he doesn't really love her, and all it took was a token gesture of affection and she would melt in his arms again.
- Eventually expanded upon in the comics, where the Joker actually does have feelings for Harley, but his insane mind alternates rapidly between being attached to her (leading to Pet The Dog moments), not really caring about her (leading to Kick The Dog Moments), or having feelings for her but hating the fact that he does (leading to some really bad moments), which all in all adds up to one screwed up relationship.
- Joker gets a good, if twisted, one in "Emperor Joker," as he's preparing to use Mxyzptlk's powers to destroy the universe, Harley tries to talk him out of it, so he explains his surprisingly sympathetic motives (he believes any universe where a person like him could exist is fundamentally screwed up and needs to die), and then turns her into a constellation so she go peacefully and light the sky at the end of the world. Of course, he then proceeds to brutally murder everyone else (by which we mean everyone else) - They get better - but the whole thing is surprisingly sentimental given that it's the freakin' Joker.
"Say goodnight, Harley. I always wanted to see my dame in lights. Heh. Even in a moment of abject saccharine, I still got it."
- In two Ben 10 Alien Force episodes in a row, a featured villain (Charmcaster and Vilgax) save the life of a child (Charmcaster levitates a boy away from being hit by a truck, and Vilgax defends one of his species' children from Ghostfreak's minions.) The two still engage in evil-doing afterwards, though.
- In Transformers Animated there are very few moments where Sentinel Prime acts less of a Jerkass, notably in "Return of the Headmaster" where he shakes Optimus' hand after helping him regain his stolen body, and "Predacons Rising" where he took some responsibility for what happened to Elita-1 (It was his idea to go to the planet where that event happened in the first place). But his biggest Pet The Dog moment to date was at the end of "Decepticon Air" where he offered Optimus a spot in the Elite Guard, showing that the two Primes have buried the hatchet.
- In one episode of South Park where cats are banned from the town (Kids are getting high off thier urine), Cartman has to hide his cat in the attic. Then he ends up hiding one cat he finds in his backyard. Though each time he says no more, he finds himself harboring every cat in the town, in a blatant holocaust reference. Of course when it's all over and Kyle asks Cartman if he sees in similarities between this and some other part of history, Cartman is clueless.
- In The Simpsons, Mr. Burns has one when he decides to take care of The Simpsons' puppies. Admittedly, he was first planning to make them into a coat, but he did decide to spare them later on.
- Cotton from King Of The Hill hates most things and most people for no reason. But most scenes featuring him and Bobby have him showing his own brand of love.
- On The Fairly Oddparents, Denzel Crocker, Evil Teacher and Big Bad before the Sorting Algorithm Of Evil set in, has willingly given up a baby he was raising as his heir when he believes someone else can raise it better.
- Used with little subtlety in How The Grinch Stole Christmas, when Cindy Lou Who wakes up and sees him looting the family's presents. He could have just tied her up and gagged her, but instead he tells her a comforting fib, gets her a glass of water, and sends her back to bed, foreshadowing his Heel Face Turn.
Other
- Subverted in Parasyte. when Shinichi's girlfriend starts worrying that he's slowly becoming a sociopath (a side effect of the parasite Migi partially breaking off into his bloodstream), she is adamantly relieved when she finds him comforting a dying puppy. Looks like her fears are unconfirmed after all...At least until he casually tosses its corpse into a trashcan.
- Doubly subverted, though, when after his girlfriend leaves, Shinichi realizes how cold and inhuman he was becoming, and then pulls the dead dog out of the trashcan and finds a tree to bury it under instead.
- The British Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks published in the 1980s and 1990s contain an interesting example in Lord Azzur, the tyrannical ruler of Port Blacksand, the otherwise hopelessly corrupt and vile City of Thieves. While Azzur was a notorious pirate and murderer before he seized control of Blacksand, he indulges some rather odd acts of charity, including providing a luxurious home for a woman abducted by the evil Snake Men of the Desert of Skulls and left with the head of a giant snake, and celebrating the New Year by executing several of Port Blacksand's wealthiest citizens and donating their riches to the poor.
- Seen in both Garfield and Get Fuzzy, where the cats in those comics are horrible to their owners and the dogs they live with, but lavish affection on their stuffed bears, Pookie and Smacky, respectively.
- Ads: Credit card companies love this trope, and know how to use it very effectively.
Real Life
- Listen to Richard Nixon's Checkers speech
. Please, do it for me. As my best friend once said, "I'm surprised they didn't rub Nixon's face with a steak and bring out the dog for it to lick his face."
- In a Real Life example, Hitler was very fond of his German shepherd, Blondi. But he kind of messed that up
when he poisoned her in a fit of paranoia at the end of the war.
- In Petshop Of Horrors Tokyo, (male) Blondi is given to Eva Braun by D's grandfather and pretty much causes World War II. Then again, he turned out to be a Qilin instead of a dog.
- Hate it when that happens. So embarrassing.
- Another Hitler example: In the beginning of Downfall, Hitler needs a new secretary. When Traudl Junge applies for the job, she's very nervous for being together with the Führer and makes (very) many mistakes while typing. How does Hitler react? Hit her? Scream at her? Bite the carpet? No, he just says that she'll have to try again.
- Also, he would become friends with the performers at his private circus showings and worry about them if they were hurt.
- And there's a picture
◊ of him, feeding an adorable little doe out of his hand.
- The fact that Nazis were capable of selective compassion was mentioned by Aharon Appelfeld as one of their more horrifying attributes in Beyond Despair, "They knew man as a beast of prey, not metaphorically, but as a physical reality with his full stature and clothing, his way of standing and sitting, his way of caressing his own child and of beating a Jewish child."
- Something Awful may proudly be (or at least used to be) some of the greatest jerks on the internet, but often remark that new members can get lost in Pet Island.
- 4chan saves a cat.
- Bikers help fight animal cruelty.
- Josef Fritzl (yes, the guy from Austria who imprisoned his own daughter for years in a cellar and had seven kids with her) once saved a kid from drowning. Which probably helped to fool the people in his city thinking of him as an upright citizen.
- Some robbers who entered a house nursed a baby who was the child of their hostages
.
- Five Inspiring Acts of Kindness By Terrifying Crime Syndicates
. Subverted in that despite the disaster relief and building schools, they're still terrifying crime syndicates.
- Despite the Historical Hero Upgrade touted by anti-communists regarding the Romanov family, they were still rather callous or even brutal toward the large peasant population that made up the majority of the Russian Empire. However, it cannot be denied that the czar and his family really were very loving and close with each other.
- Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB and The Dragon to Leonid Brezhnev, initiated a major anti-dissident campaign that effectively ended the Khrushchev Thaw and put thousands of people into prison or exile. He is also believed to have been the mastermind behind the Soviet invasions to crush the anti-Soviet movements in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. However, after succeeding Brezhnev he surprised everyone by replying to the letter of a 10-year old American girl named Samantha Smith, who asked him whether or not he was going to start a war with the US. His reply
and the invitation to visit the best summer camp in the USSR as his personal guest certainly qualifies as his personal Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming.
|
|