Heartwarming / Manly Guys Doing Manly Things

• Awwwwwww... - when the Commander's two young children ask to sleep in his bed after they have nightmares and slowly take up all of the room. He retreats to their bed and they follow him after they have nightmares, eventually falling asleep on top of him.
  • A lot of the Commander's other interactions with his kids are pretty adorable also.
  • The Commander's daughter wants a millipede. The Commander hates Millipedes, so he gives her a list of things to do before he'll give her the millipede, namely a bunch of research on how to care for them and several months of a boring tedious task. She follows through, so he gets her the millipede. Jonesy asks why he didn't just pull the Dad Card and say no, since he hates millipedes:
    Commander: Well just 'cause I hate millipedes doesn't mean she should haff'ta.
• Panels 3 through 5 are made of d'aaaaaaaww, when Mr Bubbles (from BioShock) is caring for children at a school he works at.
• "Hey, Jonesy, quit talkin' about Jem fer a sec." When the Commander interrupts her and kisses her.
• Dream time with Mr. Fish (also might qualify as Sugar Bowl), where Mr Fish has a happy dream of hugging Jared.
  • In addition, there is some Fridge Heartwarming during the moment where he learns Hyper Beam. Mr. Fish is shown to be capable of choosing which move to replace Hyper Beam with. One of the moves shown is "Don't Eat Jared." Jared is arguably the one thing that is stopping Mr. Fish from being completely free (as he's still technically a wild Pokémon), and Mr. Fish outright avoids deleting that move. This shows that Mr. Fish does genuinely care about Jared and wants to avoid harming him if at all possible. Especially poignant if you remember how ferocious Gyarados tends to be portrayed in the anime and manga, to the point that only a handful of trainers are ever shown using them. A big reason for that, at least in the comicverse, is that Jared treated Mr Fish like a beloved pet and friend instead of an attack dog, since Lysandre is utterly baffled at Mr Fish's size and strength (his own Gyarados is the size shown in the Pokedex, which is a good deal smaller than both Mr Fish, and any Gyarados shown in other media).
• Not a test, where the Commander buys Jared a sack full of Beanie Babies for Christmas, as it's his first Christmas away from home. Jared worries if it's some kind of test and it isn't.
  • Jared hugging the Commander afterward is half this trope and half Crowning Moment of Funny.
• The Commander regarding Poison's gender. The Commander's response to Jared "outing" Poison in general — he seems baffled at the idea that her birth gender assignment might bother him at all. Becomes Fridge Brilliance after The Reveal that Commander, along with the rest of his squad, were genetically engineered, and while he doesn't, many of them have heavy cybernetic enchancments on top of it. Gender identity pales in comparison to what Commander is used to.
• Commander and Canada having a beer together after the Nomura Syndrome arc.
• The Commander empties the Epic Jar. What's more, he says that the other manly guys were in on it as well, showing that they also like and appreciate having Jared around.
• Jones and Commander have a moment when scaling Gackt's castle.
  Jones: Just make sure you get me a nice steak or something when we get back.
  Commander: Jonesy, I'm huntin' you a goddamned shank'a wooly mammoth with my own two hands after this.
  • Bonus points: He does.
• Awwww, the Commander really does care, and is trying to be a parental figure for Jared (who suffers from Parental Abandonment).
• While small in comparison to the other things the Commander has said, saying that he will still defend Chuck Norris' nondescript spacefuture freedom to say whatever he wants (including that said nondescript spacefuture has a stupid religion) is still heartwarming.
• This moment◊, where the Commander (realising that Jared is useless as a fighter) tries to make him a part of the team (as the potion holder), is oddly heartwarming on The Commander's part.
• When Commander realizes that he's going to be busy for a while cutting Kratos' blades out of Wolverine he hands Jared his keys and asks him to pick up his kids. It doesn't seem like much until the Commander practically lampshades it for us: The Commander is trusting Jared with his children's safety.
  • After Jared accidentally backs the Commander's car into a wall, he starts freaking out, but the Commander just brushes it off and tells him it's not a big deal, assuring him he was doing just fine as a new driver.
• If there's one thing Jared is competent at, it's loving Mr Fish.
• The Commander brings people home, even if he has to wreck some expensive government property to do it. Even better? The government property he's wrecking is himself. Even as his guts are literally piled up on the floor around him, all he cares about is getting all the others home safe.
• Despite being the cause of the Eldritch Apocalypse, the Commander proudly acknowledge Jared and Jonesy anyways. The former for leading his men in his absence and showing he has a real presence over them, while the latter for being great towards his friends and family in the future and treating them as regular people. And admitting he was at fault as well.
  Commander: Pretty good day all things considered, I'm proud'f us.
• Another Commander-Jared moment, when Jared expresses a desire to get fit, The Commander acts as his personal trainer, giving encouragement like telling him he can be athletic without being a 300-pound musclebound hulk, to worry about his progress and not what others are doing, and in general building his self-confidence to get him past that initial wall.
• As mentioned several times above, the Commander's relationship with Jared. It's clear through many of their interactions that the Commander is a more loving parental figure than his own parents, giving him fatherly advice and at one point comforting him after a hurtful phone call from his real father. What's more, his kids obviously adore Jared, and their interactions together are very much like that of an older brother playing with his much younger siblings. Even if his real family treats him like crap, Jared's loved and welcomed in the Lobster household.
  • Jared seems to be taking some of Commander's philosophy that "manliness" isn't defined by being a musclebound tough guy to heart as well. He's a bit less obsessed with becoming physically strong like the other guys at the office, and he even openly gushes to Commander about things that would likely get him laughed at if Commander were the stereotypical "manly guy". When he shows Commander and Jones that he learned how to crochet Yoshis while they were at the Survival Dome, you can practically feel his pride.
• Commander, after being told that his brothers and sisters were dead, and not being told otherwise for two years... reacts the same way any human being would. He doesn't turn into brooding anti-hero, but just turns into a sobbing emotional wreck, especially when the powers that be demonstrate a callous, uncaring attitude towards his suffering.
• Jared taking Commander's kids riding on Mr Fish is both this and a CMOF.
  June: Jared! Jared! Can we ride Mr. Fish? Jared! Huh, Jared?
  Jared: *cheerfully* What's the magic word?
  June: Plea—
  Sam: Abbakadabra.
  Jared: I'll take it! *cut to the three riding Mr. Fish in obvious glee*
  • Double points for being the only word Sam has spoken on panel in the whole comic.
• The reveal that Commander Badass is, to his team of time-space marines, effectively a 300 lb Jared. It makes his treatment of the guy even more heartwarming.
• Even though the survival dome was going to reset anyways, Commander is willing to make sure the Megalodon is returned to water because he knows his son won't forgive him if he ever did something bad to a shark. And acknowledging that Jared is a pro at wrangling sea monsters.
• The Commander takes offense when you interrupt his children talking.
• Pretty much from the minute the velociraptors were introduced, people said Jared needed to meet them. They finally get their wish here. Jared looks so happy.
• Jared acknowledging that he looks to Commander as a surrogate father and isn't letting Team Skull get in the way of that.
  • There's also Commander feeding Team Skull mac n' cheese because he felt sorry for how pathetic they looked.
• Commander and Tank's heart to heart talk with one another on how much Tank has been willing to change himself and how others approach him for the better. As well as a perspective on how Tank's relationship with Commander made him realize that, if he was to ever find a person as good as Commander, that he was at least not gonna clock him. Unlike their previous encounter in the Survival Dome arc, their talk is nothing but a good amicable talk between exes and some perspective on where they are now in their lives now in spite of the two being done for good.
  Commander: Tank, all I want is fer you t' live a long an' happy life with someone you never, at any point punch in th' face... or anywhere else but y'know what I mean.
• Prince Sidon becomes Jared's workout buddy.
  Jared: Do you have any idea what it's like to have a giant fish monster friend who yells positive affirmations at you all the time? ... This is the single most motivational thing I've ever experienced.

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