Interrupted Cooldown Hug

"It was Beauty that killed the Beast."
—King Kong

Whenever the powerful and dangerous but misunderstood monster is being calmed down by their best (usually small human) friend, Love Interest, or Morality Chain with a Cooldown Hug, some idiot will rush in and attack.

Candidates include: a twitchy Red Shirt, the "real" love interest to the hugger who is scared/jealous, or an angry General Ripper who can't stomach a non-violent resolution. Just as often it's the "heroes" plan to calm down the beast only to attack it. If this doesn't end in tears with the monster's death, then he'll just rampage some more and jump away. Expect the attacker to be berated, possibly demoted, but just as often left in power and unrepentant with his tactics. The hugger may or may not lose their calming ability afterwards, especially if they agreed to it as a plan to attack the monster.

Usually followed by the hugger suicidally running towards the massed array of guys with guns shouting "No! He's not a danger anymore!" Heaven help the ill-advised ambushers if they harm the hugger in the crossfire, because there is now no one standing between them and a literal Unstoppable Rage. Bonus points if the attack is a large explosion which would hurt the hugger, forcing the beast to shield them and abscond with them to safety. More generally, this can sometimes apply to efforts made to stop Let's You and Him Fight or Right Hand Versus Left Hand, and as such is a form of Poor Communication Kills.

If the huggee does not, in fact, respond to the attempted hug and hurts the hugger, or does so accidentally trying to hurt those that interrupted the hug, expect an immediate reaction at having kicked the Morality Pet.

Examples of Interrupted Cooldown Hug include:

Anime

  • A non-superpowered example can be found in Trigun. During the Whole-Episode Flashback, a crazed member of the starship crew (who had just killed someone with a gun and wanted to shoot Knives next) was being calmed down by Rem, but was killed by another crew member who hadn't seen the whole ordeal and made a split-second decision to protect Rem.
    • This is also echoed when Wolfwood kills Zazie The Beast just when it seems like Vash might be on the verge of talking him down.
  • If you stretch it a little, what triggered Majin Buu's transformation can be seen as such a scene. Mr. Satan (Hercule in the dub) has, over a period of time (and a number of miserably failed assassination attempts), befriended Buu and, in the process, essentially defused a threat that had proved capable of beating anyone's ass it so chose. And then some douchebag shoots Buu's puppy, followed by shooting Mr. Satan himself. Healing Hands applied to both cases, but what was the rule about what not to do again when someone is much more powerful than you?
  • Brutally played straight and subverted in volume 15 of the Violinist of Hameln manga. The berserking monster Hamel was calming down until a bunch of well-intentioned red shirts pelted his back with arrows; in his subsequent fury he stabbed through the first person he saw - the hugger Flutein front of him. It had all been a Xanatos Roulette by the Monster Clown designed to get rid of what the baddies perceived as the party's most dangerous member which would be Flute and her amazing ability to make people feel better about themselves, but it backfired spectacularly when the hugger staggered back up and kept on hugging, eventually cooling Hamel down. The Red Shirts even apologized for screwing things up when the battle was over.
  • In the Alabasta Arc of One Piece, every time it looks like the Rebel and Royal Armies are calming down and just might be able to talk things out, someone from each side starts firing again, starting up the fighting again. Justified in that these people were planted in both armies by Crocodile specifically to do this.
  • In Gundam Seed Destiny, Shinn manages to talk Stella down from her Destroy-assisted rampage, and there is a momentary scene where they psychically hug each other... and then Stella spots the Freedom approaching, flashbacks to it shooting down Neo and goes right back to destroying everything in sight.
  • In episode 4 of Darker than Black, Mai is going into a fiery freakout due to Power Incontinence and a very bad day, when her dad hugs her and tells her he loves her. However, we then see from another angle that he was holding a knife; he was planning to kill her to stop the destruction. Things really go downhill when the bad guys attack him.
    • He was planning to kill her as the only alternative to her ongoing degradation into a drooling superpowered zombie he could give. Though the shock worked just as well.
  • Subverted in the Fruits Basket manga, where Kureno hugged Akito and gave himor rather, her a Start Over Again Speech. Akito responded by getting pissed at Kureno's half-assed attempts to save him and stabbed him in the back with a knife.
  • In volume 15 of A Certain Magical Index Accelerator's prevented from landing the killing blow on the story's Big Bad by one of the few people he respects. It's right when Accelerator hesitates that said Big Bad attacks the other person. This was a very bad move on his part.


Comic Books

  • A variation occurred in one issue of Grant Morrison's JLA run. The General had just transferred his mind into the body of the utterly invulnerable "Shaggy Man". Batman attempted to subdue him using hypnosis, which nearly worked - but then Superman and a bunch of other heavy hitters plowed into the monster.
  • Also, in the introductory arc for Weapon X in Exiles, John Proudstar and John Proudstar (it's an Alternate History thing; one of them is in his home reality as Alpha Flight's Shaman and the other hopping around as the Exiles' Thunderbird) had nearly calmed down the Hulk, when Weapon X's Deadpool shot him in the head just to deliberately tick him off again and start a fight.
    • And at one point in normal Marvel continuity, Deadpool required some of the Hulk's blood after a gamma reactor messed up DP's Healing Factor. The Hulk had cleared off a small area of Manhattan because he was dying, and had resigned himself to the fact. Deadpool goes in, riles him up, and impales him on a signpost. Got the blood, though.
    • One of the most terrifying What If 's ever involved Bruce and Rick not making it to the trench, producing a mindlink between the Hulk and Rick, with the latter terribly ill from radiation exposure. Rick repeatedly tries to warn the Hulk away—until General Ross decides to torture Rick to draw the Hulk back into the line of fire, and he dies. Prompt a Hulk rampage rarely equaled prior to World War Hulk, killing off a good third of the (admittedly very small at the time) hero population of the Marvel Universe.
  • At one point in The Avengers, the Avengers were fighting a villain. Just as she was giving up, Yellowjacket blasted her, renewing the fight. This led to Yellowjacket's court-martial, which indirectly led to Hank Pym (Yellowjacket's secret identity) hitting his wife, Janet van Dyne-Pym, aka the Wasp. This has become a defining moment for both heroes.
    • Interestingly, this did actually happen somewhat by accident—Pym genuinely hadn't been paying attention for a few crucial moments because his weapon was malfunctioning and he was busy trying to fix it.
    • Also in The Avengers, this happened frequently to arch-villain Ultron due to his twisted "family tree" among the Avengers. Kurt Busiek's 'Ultron Unlimited' storyline subverted this by having the Vision offer Ultron a hand of friendship in one panel, the rescue team Avengers charging into Ultron's lair in the next panel...then, after the page turn, Ultron blasts the Vision in the face before the rescue team arrives.
  • Happened once in Spider-Man when the Molten Man went after his step-sister, Liz Osborn (wife of Harry Osborn). Spider-Man showed up to stop him, enraging Molten Man and greatly annoying Harry, who had almost managed to talk the guy down before Spider-Man came blundering in and ruining things.
  • Happened in the penultimate chapter of the X-Men's (in)famous Dark Phoenix Saga. Jean Grey had gone completely Dark Phoenix, destroyed a solar system, and trashed her entire team. Twice. Cue Cyclops, the last X-Man standing, and a truly touching "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight speech, fueled by The Power of Love. She almost seems to be willing to come around...when she gets brain-blasted from behind by Professor X. Nice job breaking it, Mentor.
    • To be fair, it actually worked. The Professor had a psionic battle with the Dark Phoenix in the center of Jean's mind and won, with Jean's help, bringing her back to normal. Then the Shi'ar Majestrix appear, mighty pissed off that Jean destroyed a solar system, and decide she has to die. The Professor at least calls for a trial by battle between the X-Men and the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. The X-Men are getting owned and Cyclops and Jean are the only ones left, until the Imperial Guard attacks them at once and one manages to hit Cyclops. That's when Jean has a massive Freak-Out and completely flips the script, bringing back the Dark Phoenix. At this point, Jean could've wiped out Imperial Guard with literally nothing more than a passing thought, but she realizes that if she unleashed that power she wouldn't stop with them. (Official What If stories have shown that she would've destroyed the entire universe.) So before she completely reverts to Dark Phoenix...she kills herself.
  • In Ultimate Spider-Man Harry Osborn is giving a verbal cooldown hug to Norman Osborn (whose powers are related to the Hulk's). Then Tony Stark shoots him. Unusually this does take him down rather than just making him mad, but it set up a lot of trouble for later on.
  • In Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Jedi turned Sith Ulic Qel-Droma reunites with his old friend Nomi Sunrider, genuinely repentant for his Face Heel Turn, and in the process convinces an angry Jedi out for his blood of his Heel Face Turn and that killing him would not bring her satisfaction. And then he's shot in the back by a random spacer. To make matters worse, he gloats about it and complains about the horrified Nomi not giving him any credit for his accomplishment. This would have been a Shaggy Dog Story with a Deadly Change-of-Heart for Ulic if he hadn't been shown becoming a force ghost. The angry Jedi who'd been out to kill Ulic before notes that if he hadn't turned her away from The Dark Side, she would've killed said spacer very painfully for what he'd just done.
  • The former Trope Namer, Incredible Hulk. Every time Rick Jones, She-Hulk or any other friend or loved one is close to calming him down, someone attacks him thus making him angry again. It's usually General Ross.


Literature

  • In Small Gods Brutha goes out to speak to the united army invading Omnia and convince them that while they'll freely surrender and disarm, pillaging and conquering the kingdom will only continue a cycle of violence. At which point an impromptu Omnian defense force shows up, making it look like he was just keeping them talking.
  • Used, quite suprisingly, in Professor Branestawn's Treasure Hunt, with the Diddituptite Islanders. The Professor had realised both that the Diddituptites were reknowned for both being Cannibals and having a Feast dance - which the Professor happened to know. Then Colonel Dedshott arrived with the sailors on the ship (long story) and a massive fight broke out. However, it was all happily resolved in the end.


Film

General: That missile is targeted to the Giant's current position! Where's the Giant, Mansley?!

  • Happens to David and Alex at the end of An American Werewolf in London, although it's debatable whether or not she was actually getting through to him.
  • An amusing part of Independence Day was where a news report was specifically warning citizens not to do this. Not that it helped...
  • X-Men: The Last Stand. Just when Logan managed to calm down the Phoenix (Jean Grey), the military's reinforcements arrive and despite his "NO!" start firing anti-mutant needles at her. Cue Dark Phoenix blasting everyone to shreds.
  • A non-superpowered example occurs in the 1996 movie Set It Off, a drama movie about four minority women who become bank robbers for various reasons. At the climax of the movie, the four end up cornered after their last robbery goes wrong. A group Mexican Standoff between the robbers and the police occurs as a result. A sympathetic officer tries to talk them down so that things can end with no one getting hurt, and though they seem to be going for it, a Red Shirt cop decides that it would be smarter to open fire on the heavily-armed and quite agitated group, fatally shooting one of the girls. At the end of the day, several cops (including the idiotic Red Shirt) are dead, as well as 2 other members of the group, with the only living member of the four escaping to Mexico.
  • InThe Incredible Hulk: After forcing Bruce to Hulk out at the university, General Ross hits him with everything the soldiers have at their disposal. The Hulk is neither amused nor stopped. In a moment of relative quiet, during which the remaining soldiers are running for their lives and the Hulk is standing still (though still furious), Betty gets close to him and her presence calms him a bit. She reaches out to him, and he's appeared to have calmed right down... and then an air strike starts tearing up the field.
    • Though to be fair to Ross, he actually tried to call this one off. Mainly to save his daughter from being blown up.
  • In Children of Men, the British infantry and the Uprising stop fighting once they hear the cry of the first baby born after the global calamity that rendered the humanity infertile. True to this trope, some idiot restarts the carnage.
    • With a rocket launcher, no less.
  • Subverted in Ultimate Avengers. Betty is calming down the Hulk after he pretty much beats up all of the Avengers. Captain America sees the Hulk going towards Betty and is about to attack the Hulk before Nick Fury explains the situation to Captain America. The Hulk manages to turn back into Bruce without any problems... aside from the superheroes he's already beaten up.

Live Action TV

  • Doctor Who ("Robot"). Sarah Jane Smith just had the Killer Robot calmed down when Sergeant Benton appeared in the doorway and, naturally thinking his friend was about to be attacked, opened fire with his submachine gun. Benton was rather miffed at Sarah's lack of gratitude.
    • In the revival series episode "The Doctor's Daughter", just after the Doctor and his companions convince the two sides of a war that they can be friends, and share the thing they've been fighting for, the leader of the humans shoots the title character, although she ultimately survives.
  • At the end of the Stargate SG-1 episode Menace Daniel has just calmed down a mostly-innocent but unfortunately powerful girl who is also incidentally the creator of the Replicators, possibly convincing her to call off her "toys" when Jack bursts in and shoots her. Subverted in that it's debatable how likely a good resolution would have been no matter what Daniel did.
  • One episode of Criminal Minds features a paranoid schizophrenic taking hostages on a train because of his delusions. Agent Reid, whose mother is mentally ill, makes a connection with him and seems to be about to talk him down...when one of the other hostages non-fatally shoots him.
    • "A Real Rain" is a possible example. Gideon is talking down the Vigilante Man, who has taken a hostage. The guy actually does let go of the hostage, and starts to slowly get up, when Hotch shoots and kills him (he was still holding a gun, and its left ambiguous about whether or not he was actually going to use it).
    • "Distress" is an inversion: the team uses the suspect's army buddy to make him think the arresting SWAT team is the cavalry coming to his rescue (he was having a psychotic break and thought he was in a war zone) until a kid rolls up on his bike out of nowhere; the suspect goes for the kid (trying to save him from the gunfire in his hallucination) and the SWAT team is forced to take the kill shot.

Videogames


Western Animation

  • In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends movie "Destination: Imagination", Frankie succeeds in calming and befriending World, the god-like imaginary friend that lives in the toy box whose emotionally unstable from years of being left alone, only to have Mr. Herriman show up and say exactly the wrong things to anger it, leading to the end of the toy-box world and World going One-Winged Angel on the group.
  • In South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, Kyle has just convinced the armies of Canada and the U.S. to stop killing each other, so naturally his mom screams "Noooo!" and shoots Terrence and Phillip—thus allowing Satan to bring a thousand years of darkness upon the Earth.
  • A variation from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic: in "Over a Barrel," the buffalo and the Apple-loosan settlers are caught up in a land dispute, with the buffalo chief Thunder Hooves promising to trample the entire town at high noon. Just as the clock strikes twelve, Little Strongheart convinces the chief not to go through with it, and the ponies heave a sigh of relief...only for Chief Thunder Hooves to be riled up again by Pinkie Pie reprising a song from earlier in the episode that he disliked.
  • Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes,, in the episode "Everything is Wonderful," Hank Pym is trying to talk down Simon Williams (who let himself be turned into an energy being to get revenge on Tony Stark). He just about gets Simon to stand down when Stark busts in, repulsors blazing. Made doubly tragic in that had Tony simply told Simon why he bought out Williamstech in the first place, none of it would have happened.

Real Life

  • Ron Artest, who was well known for his tough attitude on the court, got into an altercation at the end of a game, and rather than letting it escalate, he lay down on the scorer's table. A fan took this opportunity to throw a drink on Artest, which led to him going berserk and charging into the stands.
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