History Main / AndroclesLion

* In the SEGA ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' game, Joshua saves Licourtrix, a dragon, from a squad of hunters sent by [[MegaCorp Renraku]]. In thanks Licourtrix allows Joshua to take a scale form his body, which can be used as a spell component by a shaman during a ritual. [[spoiler:He also pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment during the final battle, binding [[BigBad Thon]] with his magic and offering Joshua a strategy to destroy him.]]

* Deadpan comic Jackie Vernon had a bit about this. A man is in the African jungle when he hears moaning and finds an elephant with a thorn in its foot. Very carefully he approaches and removes the thorn. The elephant tests its foot and goes away. ''Ten years later'' the man is in Madison Square Garden in NYC at the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus. During the entrance march of the elephants, one of the elephants stops in its tracks, looks across the arena at the man, and then breaks away and runs up to him, scattering everyone in its path. It stops in front of the man, reaches down with its trunk, raises him out of his seat, throws him on the ground, and steps on him, crushing him to death! (Loooooooong pause) [[spoiler: "It was a different elephant."]]

* A ''Literature/Panchatantra'' story has a traveller come across a well in a jungle, inside which are trapped a tiger, monkey, snake, and man (a goldsmith). He helps out the four of them, who swear to repay the debt someday. Some time later, as he is crossing a mountain, he comes across a tiger which, to his surprise, does not attack him. He recognises the tiger to be the one he helped out of the well, and in return she feeds him and gives him a golden necklace from her den. On the way to the capital city, he is waylaid in a forest by bandits who tie him up, take his valuables, and set up camp there for the night. The monkey, who lives in the forest, comes to know about this and comes to the traveller's rescue. He throws away the bandits' weapons, restores to the traveller his valuables, and frightens the bandits away by summoning his friends, who throw rocks and stones at the bandits. The traveller then makes it to the city where he meets the goldsmith and asks him to appraise the necklace given by the tiger. The goldsmith recognises the necklace as one owned by the missing princess of the kingdom, and upon learning that the tiger was the one who had the necklace, deduces that the tiger must have killed and eaten the princess. [[AllTakeAndNoGive In the only subversion of this trope]], the goldsmith goes to the king with the necklace and falsely accuses the traveller of having killed the princess and stolen her jewellery, and collects the reward for this information. The king has the traveller locked up and scheduled for execution. In his jail cell, he hears a whispering noise and looks up to see the snake he helped out of the well in the jungle. The snake, having heard everything, gives the traveller an herb with instructions on how to use it. The snake then bites the king's mother, who becomes gravely ill and cannot be cured by the kingdom's best physicians. While the king is grieving in his chambers, the snake enters and whispers to the king that he only who was wrongfully imprisoned can cure the king's mother. Intrigued and desperate, the king summons the traveller, who uses the herb to relieve the queen mother's illness and explains his side of the story to the king, who locks up/executes (depending on the version) the goldsmith for his perjury and avarice. The moral of the story is that while this trope is well and good to note in fiction or with animals, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished it is unrealistic to expect fellow humans to repay kindness with kindness]].

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

* In a first-season episode of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', Judai helps procure the release of a monkey named SAL who is being used as a test animal in a dangerous experiment. Later, in season 2, SAL finds Judai lost on the island, starving and hallucinating, and brings him some bananas (and water, when Judai starts to choke from eating them too fast).

* ''Animation/HappyHeroes'': In Season 4 episode 10, while cleaning a polluted lake, Smart S. notices a fish trapped in a net and sets her free. [[spoiler:The fish is actually a mermaid with water powers, and she takes this form when Big M. orders her to go after Smart S.]] When she realizes who Smart S. really is, she returns his favor by rescuing him from drowning in the water near the end of the episode.

* Maud and the Wyvern - The Wyvern killed almost everyone in the village that it lived in... except for one, Maud, who he sees as its only friend.

* Subverted in ''The Hairy Ape''--the ape in question [[spoiler:kills the main character after he frees it.]]

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'': Saber -a sabrecat monster- becomes the hero's loyal companion after he and Bianca save him from two cruel kids' abuse.

** Played straight in Sasa Sanctuary. In Sasa Sanctuary, a man in one of the rooms is a hunter who is being served by a Sparrow girl. If you talk to him, he mentions that when he was a young man, he saved an injured sparrow. If you talk to the sparrow, she'll tell you (excitedly) that when she was a little girl, she was rescued by a hunter, and now that very same man is staying in the inn — so she's making sure he has everything he needs.

* The BoxingKangaroo in ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 3'' isn't unlocked immediately without a code - only when you defeat its abusive trainer and run out of lives on the character you used to do it will you eventually be able to pick him mid-game.

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the ''WesternAnimation/TheDayMyButtWentPsycho episode'' "Legend of the [[{{Bigfoot}} Butt-Squatch]]" when Zack removes a giant splinter from the titular Butt-Squatch's back - only for the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero beast to unfurl its previously-stuck wings and eat Zack]] as well as Deuce and Elanor, who tagged along to find the creature.

** Another lion story - in the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas, one of the lions turned on its trainer for an unknown reason... however the lioness went and started biting at the lion's tail and chased him away from the trainer to save him while the trainer escaped.

* While this is TruthInTelevision with certain species of animals (think dogs), it also ''seriously'' needs to be pointed out that [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs this can be a very bad idea in real life.]] Approaching a wild animal in distress and trying to help it, unless you are fully prepared and know exactly what you are doing, can be ''lethal''. While experts can form bonds with animals they rescue, this is due to training and exposure rather than the rescue itself, and your average wild beast won't know that the strange hairless ape is trying to help it and might even [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished associate its rescuer with its distress and attack them]]. However, reading the bottom examples shows that this ''has'' happened before.

* In humans, this is an instinctive behavior that manifested due to the obvious benefits it provides. Since you aren't always at the top of your game, and you are not infallible, having someone go out of their way to help you is a HUGE bonus in your survival odds--and returning the favor keeps that relationship going for both individuals.
* Played disturbingly straight during the Columbine Massacre, when Eric Harris encountered Brooks Brown. Harris instructed Brown to leave the school, [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe citing their recently created friendship]]. Minutes after this, Harris and Klebold would go on to murder 13 people.

*** "Double-O Duck in: You Only Crash Twice!" has a much straighter example, where Launchpad helps a familiar quintet of two chipmunks, two mice, and a fly get their plane off the ground. Later, the rangers show up and help him defeat Steelbeak.

** ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' has an episode where Huey comes across a Bigfoot with a thorn in his foot. After removing it, the Bigfoot befriends him and Huey decides to take him back to [=McDuck=] Manor. [[spoiler:However, it's subverted as it turns out the Bigfoot is actually a fully sentient creature capable of speaking English. He staged the entire thing so he could live in the mansion and mooch off the triplets instead of living in the woods.]]
*** Another episode has a much straighter example, where Launchpad helps a familiar quintet of two chipmunks, two mice, and a fly get their plane off the ground. Later, the rangers show up and help him defeat Steelbeak.

* One of the rare worksafe pages of ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' deconstructs the "kindly hunter" version of the story. The hunter releases a deer, a rabbit, and [[RuleOfFunny a sandwich]] upon their requests, and then keels over and starves to death. In the last panel, the creatures gather around his grave and wonder if there wasn't something they could have done.

* It ''seriously'' needs to be pointed out that [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs this can be a very bad idea in real life.]] Approaching a wild animal in distress and trying to help it, unless you are fully prepared and know exactly what you are doing, can be ''lethal''. While experts can form bonds with animals they rescue, this is due to training and exposure rather than the rescue itself, and your average wild beast won't know that the strange hairless ape is trying to help it and might even [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished associate its rescuer with its distress and attack them]]. However, reading the bottom examples shows that this ''has'' happened before.

* A real-life Literature/JulieOfTheWolves went away from a wolf pack for a bit, then found the wolf pack which [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb11TtPwBxo still remembered her]].

* TruthInTelevision, though what degree depends on the animal and the circumstances. The extreme loyalty of some dogs is particularly noteworthy--there's a ''reason'' dogs are called Man's Best Friend.

* Creator/HoneyWorks' "Holy Flag" centers around a fantasy adventuring group helping others on their way to fight a demon. When the party leader first starts out, he helps a young girl out of a particularly bad slump, but she does not join him. However, she does return the favor during the final battle, where comes in just in time to restore everyone's health enough for them to accomplish a finishing blow to the demon. And she only really does this because she's thankful for the party leader's assistance that time long ago.

* In ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'', Zia and Franklin, along with Claire and Owen, helps treat the raptor Blue's injuries and gives her a blood transfusion. Later, [[spoiler:when Zia and Franklin are about to be attacked by a mercenary threatening to tase them with a cattle prod]], Zia opens Blue's cage. Blue seems to remember they and acknowledges Zia and Franklin [[spoiler:before attacking the mercenary in front of they]].

* In ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'', Zia, along with Claire and Owen, helps treat the raptor Blue's injuries and gives her a blood transfusion. Later, when Zia and Franklin are about to be attacked by a mercenary threatening to tase them with a cattle prod, Zia opens Blue's cage. Blue seems to remember her and acknowledges Zia before attacking the mercenary in front of her.

* In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', [[HeroicComedicSociopath Whirl]] (of all bots) nearly sacrifices his life for a DoorstopBaby that turns out to actually be a vicious swarm of scraplets. It subsequently takes over the rest of the ship's scraplets, and when they're turned loose on Team Rodimus by Getaway, the swarm turns into a giant hand, gently caresses Whirl, and sides with Team Rodimus, [[spoiler:and is eventually the one to kill Getaway for his many and varied crimes]].

* Alucard and Integra ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' first meet this way. Later, Alucard pulls their relationship into PoisonousFriend category, amplifying Integra's ChurchMilitant tendencies.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/22707499/chapters/60245656#workskin Poisoned Blood]]'', when the heroes encounter the Hydra (who for some reason is named Noodles and speaks in [[WebOriginal/{{Lolcats}} LOLCats]]) and prepare to attack, but Percy, due to his uncanny ability to understand and speak to monsters, recognizes that it doesn't want to fight and convinces Annabeth and Grover to stand down. The Hydra is so grateful that the heroes spared it and gave it head and belly rubs that it gives them money from its secret stash, which the strapped for cash heroes really need.

[[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs For your safety]], however, please note that this is ''not'' TruthInTelevision. The vast majority of animals are simply not intelligent enough to grasp the ethical concepts involved in this sort of thing. In fact, most won't even be able to realize that you're trying to help them, and will instead associate you with whatever situation they're in, and lash out at you. And even if you're dealing with one of the rare handful of animals that ''are'' intelligent enough to both understand that you helped them and be thankful for it, those animals are by that very fact also intelligent enough for different individuals to have different personalities, so even then the particular individual you saved might happen to be too much of a {{Jerkass}} to ''care.''

** In "The Fat And The Furriest", Homer gets attacked by a bear at the dump. Later, after he makes the anti-bear armor, he realizes why the bear was in a bad mood: a radio tag on its ear sends out signals, causing it to get irritated. So Homer removes the tag, making it friendlier with him.

[[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs For your safety]], however, please note that this is ''not'' TruthInTelevision. The vast majority of animals are simply not intelligent enough to grasp the ethical concepts involved in this sort of thing. In fact, most won't even be able to realize that you're trying to help them, and will instead associate you with whatever situation they're in, and lash out at you. An even if you're dealing with one of the rare handful of animals that ''are'' intelligent enough to both understand that you helped them and be thankful for it, those animals are by that very fact also intelligent enough for different individuals to have different personalities, so even then the particular individual you saved might happen to be too much of a {{Jerkass}} to ''care.''

** Inverted with the wolf, who's actually Amaterasu, Shinto goddess of the sun. Through the game, she runs around assisting helpless villagers, and eventually they save her in her time of need by restoring her to her former strength by praying for her.

* Inverted in ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'': The player is the wolf, who's actually Amaterasu, Shinto goddess of the sun. Through the game, she runs around assisting helpless villagers, and eventually they save her in her time of need by restoring her to her former strength by praying for her.

* In the short ''WesternAnimation/{{Sintel}}'', the title character rescues and befriends an injured baby dragon she calls Scales. Later, [[spoiler: adult]] Scales recognizes and hesitates to harm Sintel, [[spoiler: who [[TearJerker doesn't recognize Scales and strikes her down]].]]

* There is a story that says that when [[Literature/TheBible when King David was on the run from King Saul]], he went to hide in a cave, where he saw a spider he was going to kill, before the spider could stop him, saying he'd help him somehow. King David laughed but spared it anyway. The spider formed a web around the cave's opening, so when King Saul came by the cave, he said there is probably no-one in there, as they'd have to tear through the cobweb to get in. He left, and King David blessed the spider.

-->-- '''D'Leh''' before saving a saber-toothed tiger from drowning, ''Film/TenThousandBC''

* A lot of Ash's ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' tend to be acquired in this fashion. As well, there's Ash's Charizard, who was completely disobedient until Ash saved its life, again.

* ''ComicStrip/USAcres'': Parodied. [[https://garfield.com/usacres/1989/02/15 A tree lets Sheldon have its apples]] because he "once pulled a thorn from its trunk".

* A Panchatantra story has a traveller come across a well in a jungle, inside which are trapped a tiger, monkey, snake, and man (a goldsmith). He helps out the four of them, who swear to repay the debt someday. Some time later, as he is crossing a mountain, he comes across a tiger which, to his surprise, does not attack him. He recognises the tiger to be the one he helped out of the well, and in return she feeds him and gives him a golden necklace from her den. On the way to the capital city, he is waylaid in a forest by bandits who tie him up, take his valuables, and set up camp there for the night. The monkey, who lives in the forest, comes to know about this and comes to the traveller's rescue. He throws away the bandits' weapons, restores to the traveller his valuables, and frightens the bandits away by summoning his friends, who throw rocks and stones at the bandits. The traveller then makes it to the city where he meets the goldsmith and asks him to appraise the necklace given by the tiger. The goldsmith recognises the necklace as one owned by the missing princess of the kingdom, and upon learning that the tiger was the one who had the necklace, deduces that the tiger must have killed and eaten the princess. [[AllTakeAndNoGive In the only subversion of this trope]], the goldsmith goes to the king with the necklace and falsely accuses the traveller of having killed the princess and stolen her jewellery, and collects the reward for this information. The king has the traveller locked up and scheduled for execution. In his jail cell, he hears a whispering noise and looks up to see the snake he helped out of the well in the jungle. The snake, having heard everything, gives the traveller an herb with instructions on how to use it. The snake then bites the king's mother, who becomes gravely ill and cannot be cured by the kingdom's best physicians. While the king is grieving in his chambers, the snake enters and whispers to the king that he only who was wrongfully imprisoned can cure the king's mother. Intrigued and desperate, the king summons the traveller, who uses the herb to relieve the queen mother's illness and explains his side of the story to the king, who locks up/executes (depending on the version) the goldsmith for his perjury and avarice. The moral of the story is that while this trope is well and good to note in fiction or with animals, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished it is unrealistic to expect fellow humans to repay kindness with kindness]].

* Diego the sabre-tooth cat in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' does a HeelFaceTurn after his soon-to-be TrueCompanions save him from falling into lava. Granted, most characters were animals, but Diego was the only carnivore protagonist.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'', Cody saves a [[GiantFlyer Marahute the eagle]] from a poacher's trap, and she returns the favor by saving him from plummeting to his doom when she accidentally knocks him off the ridge.

* D'leh in ''Film/TenThousandBC'' had second thoughts before his concern over an about-to-drown Sabretooth Tiger led him to release it from where it was pinned under some trees since falling rain would quickly drown it. For the record, it saves his and his father figure's asses later and marks him as TheChosenOne to bring down TheEmpire.

* It ''seriously'' needs to be pointed out that [[JustForFun/TelevisionIsTryingToKillUs this can be a very bad idea in real life.]] Approaching a wild animal in distress and trying to help it, unless you are fully prepared and know exactly what you are doing, can be ''lethal''. While experts can form bonds with animals they rescue, this is due to training and exposure rather than the rescue itself, and your average wild beast won't know that the strange hairless ape is trying to help it and might even [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished associate its rescuer with its distress and attack them]].