History Main / GentleGiant

* Surprisingly, this has been used on occasion in pro wrestling. When Wrestling/AndreTheGiant got older and couldn't really wrestle anymore because of his gigantism, he became this trope. Also, the Oddities (Golga, Kurrgan, and Silva) from the late 90s WWF were pretty much this trope after their HeelFaceTurn from a CircusOfFear to a bunch of happy-go-lucky lets-have-fun dudes.
* Also, the APA appeared to care more about drinking beer and playing cards in their "office" than wrestling. That is, until you hired them. Or spilled their beer.

* Even TheBigShow has dabbled into this trope on occasion whenever he's teamed with the smallest guys on the roster such as Spike Dudley or Rey Mysterio. Harshly adverted as a heel.

* Cloud giants in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' are literally {{Gentle Giant}}s who mostly care about philosophy and the arts, but woe to the evildoer who pisses one off.

* ''WarCraft'''s tauren are nearly an entire ''race'' of {{Gentle Giant}}s. No, you'd be best not to trust those vicious promotional images they gave you. Trust me.

* Guy from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'' is the original GentleGiant in the ''FinalFantasy'' series. He's simple-minded, doesn't talk much, and can talk to animals. Most significantly with beavers.

* Ultra-Man, a stalwart member of the [[GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse Global Guardians]] is a bit of a mix between the GentleGiant and the GeniusBruiser. Regardlesss, he is the moral compass of the team.

** Ragdoll cats. Along with the Maincoon, this breed of cat is regarded as a GentleGiant because it can grow three times the size of other cats, yet are one the most docile, mellowest cats among any breed. Their are rumours that they even lack the instinct to fight back due to their overwhelming gentle and innocent nature.

** The whale shark. Not only the biggest shark, but the biggest fish alive today, period, at forty feet long. Gentle towards human divers - indeed, one of the most docile and gentlest marine animals any diver would have the fortune to encounter, and friend to all living things except its natural prey - plankton. The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVAbJoINVPo Megamouth shark]] also qualifies. You see, [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks not everything is worse with sharks]].

** Gorillas. [[http://www.lelion.co.uk/index.html And more specifically]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-CMxMv34_A Jambo]]. Still not wise to approach them in the wild, though.

* President WilliamHowardTaft was known for being a huge man. He was 5 feet, 11.5 inches tall; his weight peaked at 335–340 pounds toward the end of his Presidency. He was a kind and gentle man, known for being incredibly loyal (sometimes blindly loyal, according to some) to his family, friends, and political party.

** While the in-game backstory says this, it falls apart under AI limitations. Namely if you pass within spell-casting distance of a giant camp you can't see said giant and his mammoth will hunt you down and smash you into the lower atmosphere

* The prisoner Grossberger in ''StirCrazy'' starts off very scary but ends up becoming friendly and protective towards the characters played by GeneWilder and RichardPryor. He also has a beautiful singing voice.

* Rubeus Hagrid from the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books[[labelnote:*[[CompletelyMissingThePoint Although he's only half giant.]][[/labelnote]]. [[BerserkButton Unless you insult Dumbledore, Harry, or anybody else he cares for]].

* Rubeus Hagrid from the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books[[hottip:*:[[CompletelyMissingThePoint Although he's only half giant.]]]]. [[BerserkButton Unless you insult Dumbledore, Harry, or anybody else he cares for]].

* Fezzik from ''Literature/ThePrincessBride''.

-->-- '''Doug''', ''TheKingOfQueens''

''[[DoesNotLikeGuns Just don't bring out a gun in front of him]].'']]-]

* Strong Mad from ''HomestarRunner''. He is big, he is muscular, and he is hostile, but he nevertheless has a soft side and a big heart. He is especially gentle towards his best friend, The Cheat, [[PapaWolf of whom he is quite protective]]. Also, despite the oldest of the Strong brothers, Strong Mad is also the most childish and naive, and a bit of a CloudCuckoolander.

* TheGorillaz has Russel, who despite being very large (and growing to enormous size after [[ILoveNuclearPower ingesting large amounts of nuclear waste]]), is a good person. 2D as well is 6"2, but is very nice and stupid, at least if you don't [[DespairEventHorizon push him over the edge]].
* In "Down Under" by MenAtWork, the narrator meets a man who's "six feet tall, and full of muscle", who befriends him. (Leading to the song's most famous line, "He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich."

* The T-800 in ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay''. Double points for being the villain in [[Film/TheTerminator2 the first]].

* In ''Down Under'' by MenAtWork, the narrator meets a man who's "six feet tall, and full of muscle", who befriends him. (Leading to the song's most famous line, "He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich."

** Great Danes, Saint Benards and newfoundlands are some of the friendlist dogs on Earth. There is a reason for this, most people would not breed from a dog with the body of a Great Dane and the brain of a Terrier. In general Most kinds of dogs breed for water rescue Such as the aforementioned are huge but very kind and gentle

* CountryMusic singer Don Williams was nicknamed the "gentle giant" because, despite being six feet and change, he has a soft, gentle singing voice and often sings quiet midtempos suited for it.

* Kurita from ''Manga/{{Eyeshield21}}''. His teammates are terrified... of his ''hugs''.

* The T-800 in ''Terminator2JudgmentDay''. Double points for being the villain in [[Film/TheTerminator2 the first]].

* Rubeus Hagrid from the ''HarryPotter'' books[[hottip:*:[[CompletelyMissingThePoint Although he's only half giant.]]]]. [[BerserkButton Unless you insult Dumbledore, Harry, or anybody else he cares for]].

* Similarly, the Giants in the ''ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'' are an entire race of Gentle Giants.
* Creator/RoaldDahl's title character in ''TheBFG''. All the ''other'' Giants are evil though.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Hodor is almost seven feet tall but has the mind of a young child. He's timid, frightened easily, and completely incapable of defending himself.

* The Giants in Creator/CSLewis's ''{{Narnia}}'' are usually depicted as dumb or evil (especially in ''The Silver Chair''), but in the second book (''The Lion, The Witch And the Wardrobe'') we meet a very gentle and polite one: Rumblebuffin, who was TakenForGranite by Jadis the Witch ''especially'' because of this. Aslan revives him and he joins the cause of the Pevensies immediately.
** The Giants in the Silver Chair are ironically the ones referred to as 'Gentle Giants'. While they are far gentler and more refined then their brutish cousins, few of them show qualms against eating weaker, sentient beings.

* Boxer from ''AnimalFarm''.

* In Robert Asprin's MythAdventures series, one of the members of M.Y.T.H. Inc., is Chumley, a huge green-furred troll. Although he works as muscle-for-hire under the persona of 'Big Crunch,' he's actually the most erudite and poetic of the M.Y.T.H. Inc. crew.
* In RogerZelazny's novel ''Roadmarks'', Mondamay is a large alien robot with the power to obliterate entire planets, but finds himself left behind by his creators due to a malfunction. He becomes a potter and lives a peaceful life until reactivated by an assassin and ordered to kill a friend.
* [[Literature/BlackDogs Gunnar]] a ten foot tall anthropomorphic giant ground sloth, is very calm and placid, but can be provoked to violence. He often acts as the voice of reason to his extremely aggressive and bloodthirsty companion Spite, who is an anthropomorphic weasel and about three feet tall.
* Tyson from ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians.''

* ''{{Literature/Dinotopia}}'' is a {{Utopia}} with peaceful dinosaurs. Go figure. The largest ones are explicitly the most careful around smaller beings, to the point where they can safely play with young humans by flinging them into water or annihilating them at tug-of-war.

* ''InDeath'': Leonardo is very much this. Dr. Mira even refers to him as such in ''Vengeance In Death''.
* In Stephen King's ''TheStand'' there is the character of Tom Cullen: a big, strong, friendly man with a mild case of mental retardation. Tom is so gentle that he would never dream of commiting violence, and possesses a child-like sense of innocence and wonder.

** He not only does it but a while later volunteers for a SuicideMission to sneak through the enemy camp and get help. He's discovered just before he gets to safety and goes down in a true CrowningMomentOfAwesome of his own involving [[LastStand dozens of dead Cossacks]], the Tatars [[DangerouslyGenreSavvy taking one look at his sword and bringing out the archers]] then finally Longinus himself [[GoOutWithASmile going down with a smile]] and a prayer on his lips once he has [[{{Determinator}} well over a dozen arrows sticking out of him]]. Sienkiewicz was often criticized for [[AuthorAppeal willingly]] distorting historical facts in favor of BlackAndWhiteMorality but Longinus' character was nailed ''extremely well''.

* Queequeg from MobyDick is a pretty intimidating guy: tall and strong, decked out in tribal tattoos, has filed-sharp teeth, a partially shaved head, and is always seen toting around his beloved harpoon. Ishmael was initially terrified of Queequeg, but became fast friends with him after discovering how kind and polite he really was.
** Obviously, many of the whales are portrayed as such, only fighting back when the whalers strike first.
* Innocent Smith from G.K. Chesterton's ''Manalive'', although just how gentle he is [[AmbiguousInnocence comes into]] [[PsychopathicManchild question]].

* Subverted in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' with the dragon Spit Fyre, since while he's depicted as being rather gentle in the first books, in ''Darke'' it's mentioned that he nearly ate a person who had run into his Dragon House for a dare.
* In The Wanderer and The Adventurer by Mika Waltari, Antti is almost superhumanly strong, and very tall. Despite sometimes accidentally breaking things (sometimes people's necks, for example...) he is not violent by nature and is, all things considered, a somewhat docile person. The protagonist/narrator thinks him dumb as well, but the reader may well disagree, as he can both use his incredible strength as a means of subtle threats, and can think on his feet very admirably. At some point one starts to wonder whether he prefers to keep up a facade of stupidity to get into less trouble, but he might just refuse to keep up a facade of intelligence like the narrator, Mikael, does. As a character, Antti is very TheLancer-like, and sort of a StraightMan to the sometimes CloudCuckooLander protagonist.
* Adzel in the Polesotechnic League series by Poul Anderson. He's a sort of huge mix of a dragon and a centaur, he looks like a bloodthirsty scaly monster, yet he's a pacifist scholar following the buddhist doctrines. You can't blame him for his size, after all.

* Who could forget TheBigGuy Robert from EverybodyLovesRaymond ? He's massive, hulking, sometimes seen as dull-witted but actually very smart in many situations, became a cop, and is one of the gentlest guys you will ever meet, both in the show and reality.
* [[AsHimself Lou Ferrigno]] from ''TheKingOfQueens'', lampshaded in the quote above.

* The overweight lovable slob Hurley from ''{{Lost}}'' fits this to a T - he's also quite resourceful. He made a golf course on the island early on.

* Willy on ''MissionImpossible'' mostly fits, although it can be assumed he was just as intelligent as the others.

* Nick Stokes, ''{{CSI}}''. Evident when Greg Sanders was attacked in the episode "Fannysmackin'"; normally a gentle soul, Nick went berserk at the kids who were taunting him. For a few seasons, some fans joked that the [[BreakTheCutie constantly tormented]] Nick would have his "Day of Justice."

* Hoss Cartwright from ''{{Bonanza}}'' fits the trope; in addition, he is quite naïve.
* Junior Gorg from ''FraggleRock''.
* Kubiak from ''ParkerLewisCantLose''.

* ''NightCourt'''s Bull Shannon. He's a 6'8", bald, muscular, very intimidating guy who's strong enough to crush a bowling ball in his bare hands (seriously, he did just that in one episode), and he's one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet, so nice that more than one young mother has hired him to babysit their children.
* ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' 's Bobby Goren, [[HugeGuyTinyGirl who seems particularly large compared to his partner]], [[ActionGirl Alexandra Eames.]]

* There is a reason Finn from ''{{Glee}}'' has been called Frankenteen.

* Herman Munster of TheMunsters, definitely. Body of a Frankenstein, personality of a BumblingDad.

* Big Bird on SesameStreet. His foreign counterparts also play the trope straight, including:
** Abelardo from Plaza Sesamo (Mexico)
** Pino--Big Bird's blue cousin-- from Sesamstraat (Netherlands)
** Moshe the giant [[SeldomSeenSpecies meerkat]] from Takalani Sesame (South Africa)
** [[KingOfBeasts Boombah the lion]] from Galli Galli Sim Sim (India)

* Frankie from ''BoyMeetsWorld'' is ultimately revealed to be one when he has a good influence.

* Larry Kubiac from ''Parker Lewis Can't Lose'' becomes one in the later seasons.
* Gouki of ''SeijuuSentaiGingaman''.

* From TheyMightBeGiants' "Particle Man": "Universe Man, Universe Man, size of the entire universe man. He's usually kind to smaller man..."

* Not a song, but a performer: BarryWhite. The Walrus of Love was a huge guy, but as easygoing and loving as you could find.

** In some episodes, Ed is seen defending his younger sister, Sarah.

* {{Marzgurl}}. She's about the tallest female contributor on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses and is sometimes depicted as rather strong, but she is a rather nice person in real life.

* Marshall from ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. He's played by 6'4" Creator/JasonSegel, but he's the most sentimental (and sympathetic) male character on the show, but winds up coming in handy when Ted and Barney try to pick a fight outside the bar.