Heartwarming / Archie Comics

• The story where Dilton tutors Moose in science so he can pass a makeup test so the basketball team can go for the championship. Dilton puts his own project on hold to help Moose. Moose takes the test and passes with a 75. Professor Flutesnoot tells Dilton how disappointed he is that Dilton didn't finish his other project, since Flutesnoot was sure Dilton would have won a trophy for it, as he had the previous two years. Dilton tells Flutesnoot that he has won a trophy that means more to him than any of those other trophies, and puts Moose's test in the trophy case.
• The infamous story "Actions Speak Louder Than Words", Archie and Reggie want to take Veronica to the spring dance, but it's $5.00 per couple and they don't have the money. After fighting for a $5.00 dollar bill which Archie eventually gets, he goes to Veronica's house to take her to the dance only to realize that she's already going with someone else. Feeling bad for beating up Reggie for the dollar before, Archie takes him to the dance instead, even giving him a bouquet of flowers that was intended for Veronica. The last shot is of Archie, Reggie and Jughead enjoying the party, with Reggie still carrying the bouquet.
• One story had Betty and Veronica shopping for back to school clothes, and Betty becomes increasingly depressed as Veronica buys all sorts of designer clothing while Betty is stuck with bargain brands. Upon arriving home, Betty finds all of Veronica's purchases stacked up in her bedroom, with a note from Veronica claiming that she 'had no more room in her closet' and that Betty should have the clothes instead. The final shot is of Betty trying on her new jacket with tears in her eyes.
• Similarly, another story has Betty getting money as a gift from a travelling uncle. She invites Ronnie to go on a shopping spree, but Ron refuses, citing that said uncle's reputation makes him a poor man for her own taste. Furious at having her family insulted, Betty goes shopping alone. As she was just about done, a storm has started, and Betty gets worried that her new clothes might get ruined. The Lodge family limo appears and the chauffeur asks her to get inside; he was sent by Veronica to fetch Betty to protect her from the storm.
• There was also a story where Archie has a bad day and goes to Pop Tate's and ends up having a pep talk with Reggie. He reminds Archie that his life isn't so bad, because he has supporting and loving parents and the girls love him for who he is, unlike Reggie. Reggie also lets slip that his rude and jerkish behaviour is in fact a facade, because the girls are interested in him just for his car and money. Archie actually cheers up, realizing that his life is not bad at all.
• Reggie pretends to rescue a dog from an animal shelter to get a date with a dog-loving girl, with plans to return the dog after enough time passes. The dog, Runty, immediately dislikes his Jerkass new owner. Despite himself, Reggie quickly begins to bond with Runty and vice-versa and even allows the mutt to sleep on his bed. After finding out that Reggie wanted to return him back to the shelter, Runty runs away from home in search of his original owner. In the end they reconcile and Runty decides to stay with Reggie instead.
• The story where Jughead's father is being transferred to Ohio has Jughead enter a massive, massive Heroic BSoD. Although he eventually learns to accept it, he's nearly about to tell Archie the meaning of the "S" on his sweater when his parents interrupt him to let him know that his dad quit his job just so the family could stay in Riverdale as it meant so much to all of them. This is especially poignant when recalling how moving from their first hometown basically traumatized Jughead from having to leave his original best friend (and childhood sweetheart) Joani behind, and his parents did not want to have him go through with that again!
• In one story, Betty and Veronica have been violently arguing all day. Archie advises them to try to remember what they value about each other, and how important they are to each other. While Betty admits that she likes Veronica's classy behavior, Veronica explains that Betty is the only person in her life who is always honest with her and consequently the person she trusts the most in this world.
• One story has Betty comparing and contrasting her own life with a limited budget, and Veronica's expensive tastes in everything she wears or eats. She notes however that the most valuable things in Veronica's life were never purchased with money and Ronnie is well aware of it: the love of two parents who genuinely adore her, and the affection of friends who truly care for her (Archie and Betty).
• A story called "The Scene Stealer" has Veronica constantly upstaging Betty while innoccently trying to narrate some of her recent experiences. Veronica is not trying to hurt or humiliate Betty, and is genuinely confused at why she seems to be alienating her best friend. Betty thinks that Veronica is being malicious and other characters don't bother to intervene. Jughead sits patiently with Veronica, brings up situations where Veronica felt upstaged or humiliated by other rich girls, and then explains "Now you know exactly how Betty feels". Veronica genuinely gets the idea, and tries to be more generous with Betty in order to make her friend happy. The story works in part with how much Veronica genuinely cares about Betty, and with how Jughead offers help to a friend he supposedly dislikes, and has no ulterior motives in doing so.
• Many a Christmas Episode has one:
  • Archie spent all year saving up for an expensive reel for his dad, only for a fire at the factory to force the company to cancel his order. He vents to Dilton about it, who offers to help by taking Archie to see his relative, a famous retired fisherman named Captain Jack. Captain Jack has one of the same reels and outright gives it to Archie to give to his father, because he just wants to see that reel back in action. When Fred receives the reel, his excitement is palpable, then goes up to eleven when he finds out it belonged to the legendary Captain Jack.
    Archie: Sorry, Pop, but it's a used gift.
    Fred: And a million times more valuable than a new one! Son...words fail me.
    Archie: I owe you one, Dilt.
    Dilton: My pleasure.
  • In an aversion of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, Archie returns a woman's wallet after it fell through a hole in her purse. The woman had been getting ready to go Christmas shopping for a local orphanage and was going to shop at a new toy outlet, but stopped at someplace closer due to not wanting to risk losing her wallet again. The owner of that shop had been having a slow season, but immediately perked up in receiving a large order. Archie later visits the store, looking for a rare gift for his dad. The owner, still in a great mood from earlier, spends quite a while digging through his inventory and finds what Archie's looking for. Jughead Lampshades the whole thing at the end with, "Good deeds at this time of year have a way of paying for themselves."
  • Archie decides to shovel snow out of driveways to make some cash. When he stumbles upon one that hasn't been shoveled because the lady is broke, he goes out of his way to do it for her and asks to be paid in her cookies. He then finds a pair of kids trying to shovel the driveway out for their mom when she goes to work, and Archie helps them free of charge. From there, he does shovel work for people who can't have it easily. In the end, he ends up only making twenty bucks, but he felt very well rewarded.
  • Reggie gets a huge bonus check for the holidays and claims he's just buying stuff for himself. In reality, he's buying stuff for a toy drive, and just acts this way to keep up his image.
  • One day, Veronica learns Betty is trying to redeem food labels to donate stuff to the orphanage. In an act of trickery, Veronica decides to get lots of food labels so Betty would be too busy to help Archie organize the Christmas dance. Unfortunately, this backfires when Chuck and Nancy take over organizing the dance instead and Archie decides to help Betty with cutting out labels. Jealous, Veronica decides to help with the labels when the kids from the orphanage come by and thank Veronica for helping them get a van. Touched by their kindness, Veronica skips the Christmas dance to do more volunteer work at the orphanage.
  • Jughead volunteers himself as the chef for Veronica's Christmas party. After finishing his task in the Lodge kitchen a day before the party, Mr. Lodge bursts in asking for the family chef Gaston, since Mr. Lodge donated a Christmas dinner for an orphanage. Unfortunately, as Jughead informs him, Gaston has already left for his vacation. On a whim, Jug donates ALL the food he slaved over to Mr. Lodge's party, and as Mr. Lodge takes off with his staff to deliver the food, Jug feels a little guilty for ruining his friends' party. He felt so bad that it even ruins his legendary appetite. The day of Ron's party arrives and Jughead learns the venue has been moved from the Lodge mansion to Pop Tate's shop and he begrudgingly heads there. What awaits him is a party in his honor, sponsored by Pop Tate's and Mr. Lodge. The gang, instead of getting angry at Jughead for giving away all the food, were actually proud of him, and even showed Jughead photos of all the kids he's made happy because of his food.
  • To avoid Archie, Hiram takes his family out on a Caribbean Cruise with his family. However, Veronica doesn't want to spend the holidays without her friends, and it's made clear before leaving that she's absolutely miserable at the thought. So as a surprise (and to Hiram's horror), the gang secretly get the Archies booked as the entertainment for the ship. Eventually, Hiram gets fed up with their antics and has their families sent in to keep them in line, to his wife's disappointment. Just when he thinks he's finally got peace and quiet, the families drop him to thank them for letting them on the ship and Hiram gets a mistletoe kiss from Jellybean. This act makes him realize holidays are supposed to spent with the ones who love and decide to might as well join in the fun.
  • Archie goes to help the Lodge family set up their tree, and they soon get annoyed by his usual antics. When he sees his present, a bunch of video game cartridges, he gets rather sheepish and Veronica overhears that Archie sold all his video game stuff to afford presents for her and her dad. Feeling bad, the Lodge family decide to buy Archie a new video game system and games for him.
• Archie wanted to pass a note to Veronica after class asking for a date, but he unknowingly dropped it which was then picked up by Reggie. Typical for Reggie, he decides to alter the note, both for fun and to sabotage Archie and Veronica by changing the name on the note from Ron to Rona, a.k.a. Rona Lane, a shy freshman then pinning it to her locker. Rona was at first delighted, but when Archie tries to clear up the misunderstanding, he hurts her feelings in the process. Thinking that she has become the laughing stock of the school when the news spread, Rona almost breaks down, and Reggie actually steps up and apologizes while Archie tells her that they might not end up as a couple, but he can still take her out on a date as friends. As for Ronnie herself, she watches the date nearby not in her usual jealous fit, but instead she is rather feeling proud for what Archie did.
• After Jughead's sister was born, he refused to divulge her real name until Reggie managed to get his hands on a bonnet with her name on it, forcing Jughead to come clean that Jellybean's real name is Forsythia. He felt angry that his parents had named her after the same ancestor he was named after and that she had become a Replacement Goldfish for him, until his parents clarified that they didn't name Jellybean after the same relative, but directly after him.
• Fred sees Archie depressed one night, and he correctly guesses that it's because Veronica cancelled their date. Fred then sends Archie on a supposedly important errand, to deliver a message to his friend Harry Burns, manager of a nearby arena. He even convinced Archie to let Jughead tag along. Once they're gone Fred calls Harry and asks a small favor, to which he gladly obliges. Meanwhile Arch and Jug reach the arena and search for their quarry. The usher tells them that while he'll look for Burns who is somewhere in the arena, they should wait in the manager's box. Not only do the duo get to watch a good basketball game right now, they also get free food. Only when the game is over did Harry show up to them, and Archie gave him his father's message. Harry thanks the boys and sends them on their way, but curious Jug stole a peek at the note before leaving. It read: "Dear Harry. Thanks, I owe you. Fred."
  "You know, Jug. I was doing a favor for Pop, but I think he did me a bigger favor by asking."
• Archie encounters a stray puppy shivering from the cold on the way to school. He bundles it up in his jacket and attempts to keep it hidden during the entire school day but, in true Archie fashion, it doesn't work as well as he'd think. At the end of the day, he leaves the school, celebrating with the puppy that they'd made it the entire day without getting caught, followed by the scene shifting to the teacher's lounge with them having a good laugh at his antics and showcasing they had looked the other way because they knew he was doing the right thing.
• Betty wins an essay contest in school, and with it a trip to New York for the finals of the contest. Veronica tries to hide the fact that she's jealous of Betty's success, but the latter doesn't buy it, and gives her a hug goodbye. In New York, Betty joins her fellow contestants on a trip through the city, and she gets the uneasy feeling that someone is following her. Back in the hotel where the contestants are staying, Betty's roommates conspire to sabotage her entry and humiliate her, not knowing they were being spied upon and recorded by Betty's stalker. The day of the finals arrives, and before Betty comes up onstage the "stalker" reveals herself to be Veronica. She actually followed Betty to New York to keep an eye on her, and exposes the conspirators in the process.
• "Fangs" Fogarty was the local bully for the gang in the "Little Archie" series who eventually moved away before the main one. When he returns to Riverdale in one story in the main series, everyone barely recognizes him because he lost his excess weight, got his teeth fixed, and become a lot more friendly to the point of his new nickname becoming "Smiley" as he always felt guilty about being a bully when they were kids. The group immediately buries the hatchet and befriend him anew.
• One story has Veronica obtain a hope chest. After seeing it and learning what it's used for, Betty runs away in tears. Veronica, feeling guilty, orders one for Betty as well. Doubles as a funny moment given Archie chose to hide in Betty's chest and was the first thing she saw upon receiving it, making her excitement palpable.
• "The Wise Shopper" features Veronica shopping when she notices a little girl who can't afford a nice dress for her birthday since her dad lost his job. So Veronica tells a saleslady to tell the girl's mother she can afford it and Veronica will secretly pay the difference.