History Main / TerrifyingRescuer

[[caption-width-right:346:It's okay, Sarah, [[HeelFaceTurn he's on your side this time]].]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'', the protagonist Duane saves a woman from [[spoiler:[[http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic/ch10/ch10_104.html the jaws]] of a gigantic construct of First Silver and tortured flesh]]. Unfortunately for her, he's TheUndead and quite thoroughly decomposed, so being in his arms is less than comforting.

[[caption-width-right:346:It's okay, Sarah, [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger he's]] [[HeelFaceTurn on your side this time]].]]

[[caption-width-right:346:It's OK, Sarah, [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger he's]] [[HeelFaceTurn on your side this time]].]]

* In ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, averted and played straight with the same character. The first time, despite previous actions the heroes are more than willing to accept assistance from someone who had been terrorizing them for the better part of a year due to [[GodzillaThreshold the stakes]] and an [[BreakTheHaughty attitude adjustment]]. The second time, the character's previous actions are recalled and cause even a BadassInDistress to wonder why ''this'' individual would want to save them. However, they are called out on this due to being unaware of a HeelFaceTurn.

* There's a brief moment of this in ''Anime/FullMoonOSagashite'' in episode 40. The guy that went into the canyon to look after Mitsuki unintentionally scared her and caused Takuto to take human form to attack him. Luckily, the mistake was quickly cleared up.

* In the ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'', Superman has a sad flashback of a time when he saved a little boy from getting hit by a truck. The boy was utterly terrified of him and struggled to get out of his arms. The neighborhood immediately forms an angry mob and attack him, and he is forced to flee to avoid harming them.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Ares rescues [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Cassie]] and Ferdinand from the furies, which they are understandably unsettled by. His rescue of the two and Diana from the recently unhinged Hades horrifies them even further since he captures them and his words make it sound like he's going the murder them, though Diana knows exaclty what his carefully chosen words imply and is more resigned to him rescuing them by murdering Hades once she realizes her words can't get through to Hades.

* In ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}'', Jane falls off a great height as she is chased by baboons and Tarzan catches her. She looks up at the half-naked wild man grabbing her by the waist and lets out a scream.

* Geralt of Rivia recounts in ''Literature/TheWitcher: Literature/TheLastWish'' how his first heroic act was to rescue a teenaged farm girl and her father from a group of bandits. His brutal attack caused the father to flee in terror with the surviving bandits and the girl to throw up on him and pass out. He's been a lot more cynical about stories of heroic deeds ever since.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]], this is Cass' reaction upon realising what species the Eighth Doctor is from. Despite not fighting in the Time War himself (thus far), his [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen people's actions]] have damaged their reputation [[FallenHero so badly]] that [[spoiler:Cass elects to ''die'' rather than be saved by a Time Lord]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/t2_terrifying_rescuer.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:It's OK, Sarah, [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger he's]] [[HeelFaceTurn on your side this time]].]]

* In ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', a ''MassEffect''[=/=]''StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, averted and played straight with the same character. The first time, despite previous actions the heroes are more than willing to accept assistance from someone who had been terrorizing them for the better part of a year due to [[GodzillaThreshold the stakes]] and an [[BreakTheHaughty attitude adjustment]]. The second time, the character's previous actions are recalled and cause even a BadassInDistress to wonder why ''this'' individual would want to save them. However, they are called out on this due to being unaware of a HeelFaceTurn.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

* Among the [[Characters/ShadowWars characters of the Shadow Wars]] WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanon is Claire Pie -- a giant, invisible, eight-headed Fluffy Pony with tentacular tongues and dimensional Gate powers. She is quite good at rescuing Ponies. How does she normally accomplish this? By opening a temporary Gate to the distressed Pony's location, reaching through with a couple of tentacles, and dragging the Pony through. This can be frightening, especially if you don't know her, especially since she has trouble speaking in normal Pony hearing registers and is thus TheUnintelligible save to those who know her very well.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* In a ''Literature/NancyDrew'' Files book ''Hit & Run Holiday'', Nancy and the girls are being held prisoner by the villain. When one of her henchmen shows up, they're naturally terrified that he's here to kill them, until they and the reader get the UndercoverCopReveal.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheNightOfTheDoctor "The Night of the Doctor"]], this is Cass' reaction upon realising what species the Eighth Doctor is from. Despite not fighting in the Time War himself (thus far), his [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen people's actions]] have damaged their reputation [[FallenHero so badly]] that [[spoiler: Cass elects to ''die'' rather than be saved by a Time Lord]].
* In the "[[Recap/SherlockS02E03TheReichenbachFall The Reichenbach Fall]]" episode of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', Moriarty is revealed to have terrified a pair of kidnapped children with a double of Sherlock, in order to cast suspicion on Sherlock when the children begin screaming in his presence.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' episode "Heroes", the hero [[MagmaMan Magma]] terrifies a little girl when he rescues her from kidnappers.
** In the episode "Unmasked", Batman tries to pull a small child out of a burning building, but the boy keeps crawling away, thinking he's some kind of monster. Batman has no choice but to remove his mask to show that he's human, before the boy will take his hand.

* There were many a time when one of the WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}} would rescue someone only for the person they rescue to run away from them screaming.
* Batman gets this reaction in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueTheNewFrontier,'' prompting him to rework his look onto a slightly less terrifying one.
-->'''Batman:''' Let's just say I set out to scare criminals, not children.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': At one point, while [[TheDrifter drifting]] around the Earth Kingdom in Season 2, Zuko defends a poor village from the "soldiers" (re: gang of thugs left behind after the army left to fight in the war) who have been "protecting" (re: bullying and robbing) them and saves a young boy they kidnapped. The townspeople cheer him on until he's forced to Firebend during the fight and reveals his true identity as Prince of the Fire Nation. They stand with TorchesAndPitchforks at the ready as they watch him leave, and when Zuko tries to give the boy back the knife Zuko gave him earlier, the boy and his mother are both terrified of him.

** The Salamanders Chapter of Space Marines are of particular note. They go out of their way to save civilians and are considered the Chapter most concerned with the well-being of those they protect, but their [[ScaryBlackman coal-black skin]] and [[GlowingEyesofDoom eyes like embers]] mean they can make even hardened veterans balk.

** In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', Sarah's in the middle of escaping the institution holding her when that same hulking dude steps out of the elevator and approaches her. She remembers how [[MadeOfIron impossible it was to kill]] last time and she has no weapons capable of stopping him. She's trapped between the hospital guards and ''it'' until it holds out its hand to her and says "ComeWithMeIfYouWantToLive" and her son shows up and vouches for it.

* In DCTheNewFrontier, Franchise/{{Batman}} terrifies a boy he's attempting to rescue from a doomsday cult, prompting his change in appearance and demeanour from his DarkerAndEdgier [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] version to his LighterAndSofter [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] one.

* ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'': WHATEVER it was that saved Fern from [[spoiler:being digested by Ora, by '''obliterating''' Ora into so much lifeless gore, and dragged the unconscious human right outside to safety, where she eventually woke back up.]]

* In a ''Literature/NancyDrew'' Files book ''Hit & Run Holiday'', Nancy and the girls are being held prisoner by the villain. When one of her henchmen shows up, they're naturally terrified that he's hear to kill them, until they and the reader get the UndercoverCopReveal.

* Geralt of Rivia recounts in ''TheWitcher: Literature/TheLastWish'' how his first heroic act was to rescue a teenaged farm girl and her father from a group of bandits. His brutal attack caused the father to flee in terror with the surviving bandits and the girl to throw up on him and pass out. He's been a lot more cynical about stories of heroic deeds ever since.

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', the protagonist doesn't realize that Homura is this trope ''because'' she's so terrifying. Not knowing [[spoiler:the Incubators' true, sinister nature]], Madoka is horrified when Homura shoots one and chains it up. Then it gets free, and things get [[MindRape a lot worse]] [[EldritchAbomination for everyone]].

The DistressedDamsel and/or [[DistressedDude Dude]] is sitting in their cell with head in hands, or hanging by a thread from a cliff, when suddenly, the door is broken down, or a head peeps over the cliff edge. Joy turns to terror as he or she realizes it's TheDragon (who unbeknownst to them has made a HeelFaceTurn,) an EldritchAbomination, FluffyTheTerrible, a KillerRobot... and so on.

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[[folder: Comics ]]

[[folder: Fan Fiction ]]

[[folder: Film - Animated ]]

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]

* Subverted in ''Star Wars Episode IV: Film/ANewHope''.
--> '''Princess Leia''': Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?
--> '''Luke Skywalker''': Huh? Oh! The uniform... I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you.
--> '''Leia''': You're who?
* During ''Film/TheGreatRaid'' (both the film and RealLife) some of the prisoners did not recognize the uniforms of their rescuers, and had to be coaxed out of their huts. One even hid until after the raid was over.
* In ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'', Spider-Man tries to save a boy from a burning car, and has to take off his mask to prove that he's not a monster.
* In ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'', Chris's car gets a flat, leaving her stranded on the side of the expressway. She is understandably frightened when a huge truck pulls up behind her and a hulking figure with a HookHand gets out. But this turns out to be tow-truck driver "Handsome" John Pruitt, who offers her a free tow to Dawson's Garage.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In Charles Stross's ''Literature/TheAtrocityArchive'', Mo describes being rescued from terrorists by a SWAT team:
-->''You ever had two guys point assault rifles at your head, so close you could see the grooves on the inside of the barrels? You just lie there very still and try very hard not to look threatening.''
* In ''[[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Wywern's Spur]]'' an old adventurer told the stories of Cole Wyvernspur. One of the stories was about the carpenter's daughter who refused the mad red wizard and then was kidnapped and imprisoned by him. Cole who jumped to the rescue "looked so fierce when he arrived that Bette mistook him for one of Yawataht's minions and smacked him on the head with a hammer". In another Cole entered a hydra's lair unarmed and when he left a hour later, the monster was "everywhere" -- in pieces. [[spoiler:He was turned into a ''big'' wyvern.]]

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', Ren initially thinks Eldest Whistler's flying tackle is an attack on her (she thinks Eldest is aware of just ''how'' close Ren and Eldest's unmarried brother Jerin had gotten the night before, and in this society, ''would'' react violently to this event). Turns out Eldest was knocking Ren clear of a trap that would have killed her.

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', this is Cass' reaction in "Night of the Doctor" upon realising what species the Eighth Doctor is from. Despite not fighting in the Time War himself (thus far), his [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen people's actions]] have damaged their reputation [[FallenHero so badly]] that [[spoiler: Cass elects to ''die'' rather than be saved by a Time Lord]].

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', Obi-wan is disguised as a slave trader, and the alien he's trying to rescue is terrified of him until he removes his helmet.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/StreetFighter'', Blanka rescues a drowning Japanese businessman. Upon seeing his savior, the man yells "Kaibutsu!" ("Monster!") and flees. This is part of Blanka's ongoing characterization of identity struggle caused by his forced mutation (the cartoon draws from the plot of the ''Film/StreetFighter'' film).
* There were many a time when one of the WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}} would rescue someone only for the person they rescue to run away from them screaming.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

** Mike Wasdin, a SEAL sniper, recounts a story how a team he was on saw a child whose foot was gangrenous was beyond local help, but not modern medicine. His team couldn't reveal their location, so they bust into the kid's house in ''Mogadishu'' in the middle of the night, rounded up every terrified occupant at gunpoint, put them on the ground and bound their hands and eyes, then treated the kid before releasing everyone in the house. The next night, the inhabitants calmly went along with it. The third night, they left out what meager tea and food they could spare for the team.