Hold Me

Never let me go.

A Stock Phrase that pops up when a character is frightened or upset and wants to be comforted. Often used for comedic effect, especially when the character is male or some species of Woobie. If used seriously and done well it can be a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.

Examples of Hold Me include:

Played Straight

Anime and Manga

• In Animerca, Kiyo does this to comfort Lita from the abuse she's suffered from Kiyone. Later, Kasuse does this to a newly-reformed Kiyone after he's shaken by everything he's done in Season 2 and afterwards forgive each other. Brotherly love. Awwwwwwww!!!
• In Aria, Alicia does this to Akari, when the latter is being overcome by worries about what to do when she has to run Aria Company alone. It is, hands down, the most heartwarming moment of the show—which is saying something.
• This may be more of a Tear Jerker, but still... "Cold... I wish somebody would hold me close now... It really is... sad being alone..."
• During one of the final episodes Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex 's second season, as the Major and Kuze face a thankfully avoided nuclear strike they both realize they were two children who met in a hospital years ago. They promptly embrace without even saying a word.
• In Gundam Seed Destiny, Lunamaria has just learned that her sister has been shot down under suspicion of being a traitor and deserter, and worse yet, that her friend Shinn was the one who pulled the trigger. When they run into each other in the hallway, both of them are initially silent, not knowing what to say, until Shinn whispers 'I'm sorry'. Cue Luna breaking down in Shinn's arms and him holding her as tightly as he can.
• Kimi ni Todoke, chapter 23, Chizuru: "Comfort me, Ryu..." Cue hug and much squeeing.
• Spice and Wolf. Lawrence has the good sense to hug Holo as early as episode 4.
• In To Love Ru Darkness, Yami almost asks this of Rito, before hesitating. Later (after she's knocked him out), she curls up against him, holding his arm.

Comics

• An entire surprisingly touching Hellblazer story.
• In Watchmen, there is a brief moment of a man and his girlfriend belowdecks on a ship. He looks past her and sees a time bomb, with seconds left. His horror shows, she asks what's wrong. "Nothing, love. Nothing at all. ...Hold me."

Fan Fiction

• In Kyon: Big Damn Hero Yuki asks this to Kyon after rescuing him from falling into a black hole which was created accidentally when Kuyou Suou tried to protect Kyon. Unlike Kyon, she wasn't shielded from the strong gravitational forces and radiation.

Film

• "You always were an asshole, Gorman."
• In Deep Impact, Jenny Lerner drives to visit her estranged father at the end of the film, once the meteor fragments are crashing into the earth. They make their peace with one another in the face of annihilation, and as a tidal wave is rushing up to them, Jenny clutches to him and whimpers, "Daddy..!"
• Near the end of Edward Scissorhands, Kim says this to Edward after he returns to the house, knowing that most of the rest of the neighborhood is searching for him after he vandalized some of their property in anger.
  • ...and of course, he can't. Ouch.
    • But then she figures out how to get his arms around her without his scissors hacking her up. Aw!!!
• Christa-Maria to Georg in The Lives of Others. Naturally, she said it in German, but the trope still applies.
• Orange says this to White in Reservoir Dogs. The Ho Yay is somewhat diminished by the fact that he's been shot and is bleeding to death.

"I'm fucking scared, man... would you just hold me?"

• Star Wars
  • Leia to Han in Return of the Jedi.
  • Padme and Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, kind of a variation because she was trying to believe that he wasn't responsible for the trauma.
• The Ten Commandments: Nefretiri tells Moses, "Hold me in your arms! Hold me... close..." as she tells him the truth about his origins.

Literature

• It overlaps with It Has Been an Honor, Holding Hands, and, possibly, Last Kiss, but when Lorana Jinzler and Mitth'ras'safic realize that preserving the lives of the last few survivors of Outbound Flight means their deaths, they reach out and hold hands. Both of them coming from cultures that are emotionally quite reserved, exactly what the gesture meant to either or both of them is up in the air.

Live-Action TV

• Happens in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, of course. In 7x20, Buffy asks Spike to hold her after her friends kicked her out of her house. It's part of a montage of couples, with Willow / Kennedy, Anya / Xander and Robin / Faith all having pre-apocalypse sex while they just hold each other. Spike later confesses that it meant more to him than the two of them doing things he "can't even pronounce" the previous season.
• In General Hospital, Sonny Corinthos asks Liz "Can you hold me for a second?" when Carly has a miscarriage.
• An episode of MASH had Hawkeye and Margaret taking refuge in an abandoned cabin during a shelling. Their clinging to each other in desperation involved Margaret invoking this trope.
• In Sea Change, season 2, Laura gets a message that Max wants to see her. She goes over there to find out that his wife, Elena, had died about an hour earlier. When she gets home, this is the result. It's heartbreaking.
• Dean said this to Sam in the first season of Supernatural. There was much squeeing.
  • He was making fun of Sam's emotional we'll-get-through-this-together comment. "Hold me, Sam. That was beautiful."

Newspaper Comics

• In Pearls Before Swine, Pig puts up a sign that says "hold me so that my problems will go away." After Rat tells him that someone holding him won't actually make his problems go away, the next panel has Pig, with the sign changed to "hold me anyway."

Theatre

• Appears in the lyrics of "A Little Fall Of Rain" during Eponine's death in The Musical version of Les Misérables:

Just hold me now, and let it be.
Shelter me, comfort me...
... ...
And you will keep me safe.
And you will keep me close.
I'll sleep in your embrace at last!

• "With So Little To Be Sure Of" from Anyone Can Whistle ends with Fay repeating this line to Hapgood.
• At the ending of Miss Saigon, Kim's second-last line to Chris. "Hold me one more time".

Video Games

• Depending how you look at it, the "Kiss" behind the curtains in Zelda II the Adventure of Link could be a straight one of these, especially considering that Zelda is waking up in a world where everyone she knew is dead.

Web Comics

• In an early strip of Friendly Hostility, Collin returns from a nasty visit to his parents' house looking ready to smash something, Fox gives him a neck rub, and the two end up in a sweet embrace.
• The cobras who live in the basement of the Skin Horse building. Said cobras have the mentality of a sweet-natured four-year-old and are scared to death of the centipedes in the room next door... It Makes Sense in Context, I swear!

Web Original

• HUG TOM.

Western Animation

• In KaBlam!, when Henry and June think they made it to the real world, June says, "This is it, Henry...hold me!" as she hugs him excitedly. It really hints something, seeming as it becomes more official (of the duos relationship) as the show starts to end.
• An especially Tear Jerker one in Toy Story 3, when the toys all silently take each others hands as they fall toward a garbage incinerator with seemingly no way out.

Played for Laughs

Anime and Manga

• Love Hina (at least in the manga) has a funny subversion. At the lowest point of her emotional breakdown, Motoko whispers "Please...hold me" to Keitaro, but in the next panel she freaks out because he's covered his face with clothespins to keep from reacting too much to her presence and getting beaten up, and then laughs hysterically.

Film

• The chest-waxing scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. "Hold my hand. HOLD MY FUCKING HAND, MAN!"
• In Independence Day, Harry Connick Jr.'s character does this to Will Smith...during a mission briefing.
• Gregory and Wendy in the South Park movie.

Live-Action TV

• Subverted in The Zeppo on Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Xander helps Faith knock out some demons (with his car) and they rush back to her motel room. Faith groans over a dislocated shoulder and says "Hold me" - Xander goes to hug her, she places his hand on her arm for leverage to snap it back into joint.
• Vince and a polar bear in The Mighty Boosh: "Did you say hold me?"
• Crow has this reaction in the classic sporking of The Eye of Argon:

The paunchy noble's sagging round face flushed suddenly pale,
Crow: It flushed pale? Did it blanch red after that?
then pastily lit up to a lustrous cherry red radiance.
Crow: Hold me.

Video Games

• Played for Laughs in a bonus, non-canon scene in the Legendary Ending of Halo 1. Sgt. Johnson and an Elite are outside the Pillar of Autumn wreck, fighting over an assault rifle, when explosions are heard in the distance. They both turn to see what's going on, and they stop fighting over the gun, realizing that they're all about to die in a huge fireball. Johnson turns to the Elite, spreads his arms open for a hug, and literally invokes this trope: "Hold me." They ACTUALLY HUG as the Autumn blows up, and the Elite puts his hand on Johnson's butt. Makes the effort to get the ending worth it.

Web Comics

• Concerned has this segment with Frohman talking to a Civil Protection officer parodying airport security:

Officer: Did you pack your own bag?
Frohman: Yes.
Officer: Did anyone ask you to carry anything for them?
Frohman: A man on the train asked me to hold him. Does that count?
Officer: No. Please remove your shoes and step through the gates.

• Jon and Sarine say this to each other when Sara shows actual emotions in Errant Story.
  • Exploitation Now by the same artist has one Russian soldier say it to another one when they're about to be killed. This is the surprise "I always loved you" variation.
• Starslip, upon seeing a ghost:

Jinx: Hold me, sir.
Vanderbeam: No. You're pointy.

• A Zortic strip where his girlfriend talks about what it was like being locked in Splink's mind.

Western Animation

• "Hold me!" "No! I don't like you like that!"
• Professor Farnsworth uses this in the episode "A Tale of Two Santas."

Fry: But don't you see? Fear has brought us together. That's the magic of Xmas!
Prof. Farnsworth: That's a big crock of... [Offscreen explosion] Hold me!

• • From Bend Her

Oh take me in your arms and compress me. Compress me tight!

• The Simpsons in the episode "Marge on the Lam." Marge and Ruth escape from Chief Wiggum by...turning their car's lights off at night.

Chief Wiggum: Oh my god, it just disappeared! It's a ghost car! [slams on the brakes] There are ghost cars all over these highways, you know.
Homer: Hold me!
Wiggum: Only if you hold me!

• Dr. Venture at the end of the episode "The Doctor Is Sin" to Brock. For added awkwardness, Dr. Venture was naked at the time.