Bridal Carry

"Can we not tell anyone you just carried me in your arms like a baby?"

— Lucifer Morningstar, Lucifer (2016)

A man carries a woman in his arms — one arm under her legs and the other supporting her back like a groom carrying his bride. It usually denotes or foreshadows a romantic relationship between the characters or a major difference in their physical strength or both. It's also called a "princess carry".

Variations of this trope are common and include:

• Switching the roles of the carrier and the carry-ee (i.e. the Damsel in Distress carrying The Hero in this fashion).
• Making the carry-ee just a bit too heavy for the carrier to handle.
• Having the carry-ee complain about the treatment.
• Having the carry-ee bang their head against the doorframe when the couple tries this while walking through a door.

When the participants aren't romantically involved, expect fans to cite this as "proof" that they really are.

If the person being held is injured, dead, or dying, it may cross over into Pietà Plagiarism. Usually, coexists with rescue tropes like Rescue Romance and Embarrassing Rescue. See also Security Cling. Contrast Over-the-Shoulder Carry and Effortless Amazonian Lift; the Touch of the Monster variant Rape of the Sabine Women visually evokes this with a monster or villain carrying an unconscious or struggling victim. In cases where one person is carrying another away from danger, this may overlap with Crisis Catch And Carry.

Not to be confused with Tribal Carry.

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Examples

Advertising

• A commercial for Duracell batteries features two toy couples; a newlywed couple powered by the newer Duracell battery, and an older couple powered by the older Duracell. The husbands of both couples walk down the hallway of a hotel on the way to their rooms, but when the older couple's battery runs out, the husband ends up keeling over and dropping his wife. The newlywed couple successfully make it to their hotel room and hang a "Please Do Not Disturb" sign on the doorknob.

Anime and Manga

• In Chapter 27 of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You, Rentarou carries Nano like this when helping her down from the platform she is on.
• Appleseed. Being a cyborg, Briareos carries Deunan this way◊ when they have to cover distance quickly or go Roof Hopping In a Single Bound.
• Subverted in A Channel when Tooru having hurt her leg asks Run to carry her and has an Imagine Spot of Run carrying her bride-style. But reality wasn't that kind.
• In the manga Aoharu × Machinegun, it is the Heroine Hotaru of all people who does this to two of her love interests, Matsuoka and Midori, in the omake and manga chapter.
• Moe does this twice to Ao in Asteroid in Love, and has nothing innocent in her mind.
  • In Chapter 20 (adopted in Episode 6), Ao collapsed on Moe when Ao learns Moe started learning something about astronomy from the magazine Ao gave Moe in Chapter 15. Moe first sniffs Ao, then suddenly holds Ao up this way... as she gets an idea School Festival refreshments, based on the fragrance of Ao's shampoo.
  • In Chapter 27 (adopted in Episode 8), Moe attempts to take Ao away for Elopement in this way.
• Berserk:
  • Guts scoops up a battle-exhausted and initially bashful Casca in his arms◊ after the Battle of Doldrey so that he can carry her to see Griffith. It says much about the romantic significance of this gesture that although he's given piggyback rides to other females who needed carrying, such as Princess Charlotte and Schierke, Casca is the only one who he has ever swept off her feet like this. It's also the literal beginning of Casca's more than platonic feelings towards him, despite her initial hatred.
  • A subversion later on when Mozgus holds an unconscious Casca in this fashion, when he gains angel wings and flies away from Guts who can do nothing while Mozgus's men hold him back. With Casca in the white dress and Mozgus’s angel wings it looks beautiful and angelic, but the priest is planning to burn Casca alive for being a "witch", Guts manages to save her however.
  • In chapter 369 Griffith captures and carries a Brand-stricken Casca in this fashion before flying away from Elfhelm on Zodd. Like with Mozgus, out of context it’s a beautiful painting-like picture but in context since this the man that raped Casca, mutated her baby with his demon seed, shattering her psyche in the process and now after she’s just been cured is carting her off to his False Utopia it’s horrifically upsetting for both Guts and long time readers.
• Black Butler loves to have this happen whenever Sebastian, in all of his demonic butler glory, rescues his young master, Ciel, from imminent danger.
• Bleach:
  • Yoruichi does this to Soifon in the third movie and in the anime, after her fight with Suzumebachi.
  • Happens in the manga with Shinji and Hiyori. The former saved the latter after Gin had cut her in half. He's carrying her top part, at least.
  • Renji carries Rukia like this will trying to escape with her from the execution grounds.
• In Brave10, Yukimura wraps Rokuro in his cloak and carries him on the night of Anastasia's betrayal after Rokuro's stabbed his own magic eye out to prevent her taking its secrets, repelled Isanami's darkness blast from Sasuke, and then succumbed to poisoned wounds from his earlier fight. As Yukimura carries him back to his rooms, they banter sadly about whether losing the eye counts as a failure for Rokuro to keep his promise to Yukimura or not.
• Case Closed:
  • Horribly used when Ran, Conan, Sonoko, Sonoko's sister Ayako and Ayako's friends see a mysterious bandaged man carry a kidnapped girl away in his arms, right before the girl's mutilated body is found. It was a stage trick with a doll, piano wire... and the woman's already decapitated head.
  • In another episode, Ran is carried like thisby the killer of the week, who has drugged her and is about to try drowning her to have an alibi.
  • Again in the flashback to New York case with Shinichi carrying Ran away after they saved a disguised Vermouth's life.
• In A Centaur's Life after seeing a catboy/mermaid couple going around like this, Himeno expresses a desire to be carried around like this.
  Kyouko: "So you're considering dating construction cranes?"
• Code Geass: Akito the Exiled Has Akito carrying Leila this way...in his mecha. They have a Lady and Knight dynamic and end the series as an Official Couple
  • In the fifth movie Haibara intends to sacrifice herself to allow the gang to escape the bombed tower by counting the time bomb until the end. However, she's stopped by Genta of all people who dashes to her and carries her back to the car they intended to use to escape. He also gives her a speech that roughly means "everyone life is important and we won't let you left behind!". He's not The Big Guy for nothing!
• Debusen: The serial killer Mitsuru is tricked into visiting in Chapter 39 tries to carry Mitsuru this way, but is unable to do so due to Mitsuru's weight.
• In Digimon Adventure 02 the few times Kari has access to Angewomon, Angewomon carries Kari in this fashion when getting around. Previously when Kari was smaller Angewomon would hold Kari under her arm or Kari would ride Angewomon's back.
• Occurs once with Satoshi and Daisuke in D.N.Angel. Daisuke fell ill at school and Satoshi carried him to the infirmary. And Dark generally does this to the girls that he rescues.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Funnily enough in Dragon Ball, Goku does this to Bulma when she’s falling and she is briefly knocked out, very impressive too since Goku only went up to Bulma's knees at that point, which is due to his Saiyan strength.
  • Tien carries the murdered Krillin in this fashion. It's so heart-wrenching to see the tiny lifeless kid in the big dude's arms.
  • In Dragon Ball Z, when Goku recovers from the heart virus, he does this with Chi-Chi but not before spinning her around and throwing her up in the air and catching her. In a Saga full of heartbreak it's a incredibly sweet◊ moment and actually more joyful than the manga where Goku just get out of bed and leaves. In another rare moment later Goku carries Chi-Chi like this during the Universe 6 Saga◊ in Super.
  • Krillin does to Android 18 after Cell pukes her out of his body and since he is so short, Krillin only goes up to 18's waist, it looks plenty strange.
  • Gohan does this with Videl after the latter's match with Spopovitch.
• In the final episode of Eureka Seven, Renton carries Eureka this way in space when they kissed each other for the 2nd time. After a year, they officially became husband and wife in the Thurston family register.
• In Fairy Tail, Natsu carries Erza this way after saving her from the exploding Tower of Heaven. In a later arc, Elfman and Evergreen get gravely injured in a battle, and Elfman bridal carries the unconscious Evergreen back to the camp.
• In Fist of the North Star Kenshiro carries his fiance Yuria in his arms◊, before Shin shows up and ruins everything. Ironically after Shin dies, Kenshiro carries him like this◊ saying they both loved the same woman thus Shin has Ken's respect.
• In Fushigi Yuugi: Tamahome frequently carries Miaka, usually to save her.
• In Guilty Crown, Shu does this with Ayase in one of the penultimate episodes to get her into the cockpit of her Humongous Mecha. Ayase is both a proud woman and physically disabled; her handicap is a rather large Berserk Button for her. The friendly smile and tone of voice she uses shows how her view of Shu as gone from The Load to one of her closest friends.
• Gunslinger Girl. While waiting for a meteor shower to start, Triela effortlessly scoops a surprised Henrietta up in her arms whereupon they all start singing Ode to Joy. In this case, the trope is being played for heartwarming cuteness.
• In the second chapter of Handsome Girl and Crossdressing Boy, Iori tries to show how assertive he can be but ends up getting this from Hazuki.
• Katou carried Iwaki across the threshold in the Yaoi Genre series Haru wo Daiteita, with just a little staggering and sweat on his face.
• Hellsing, at the start of the series, Alucard carries the newly turned Seras Victoria like this, symbolic in the sense that Seras is technically reborn as a vampire.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • A bonus strip for Christmas has America complimenting Lithuania on his stripping skills and then carrying him bridal style to Poland's house.
  • Hungary carried the Delicate and Sickly teenaged Holy Roman Empire, who's afflicted with a Soap Opera Disease (implied to come from the progressive debilitation of the HRE lands under all of the in-fighting between the Germanic states).
• In the first episode of I Dream of Mimi, Akira carries Mimi to the bathroom and hide from a rogue android. He even tells her that she's light for a Robot Girl, presumably because of the advanced technology or body frame used in creating her.
• We see this in Inuyasha among with male leads carrying their female love interests; Inuyasha carries Kagome and Miroku carries Sango. There are also a few cases where Kagome finds herself in the arms of Kouga in this manner. Even Rin gets carried like this, though her case isn't romantic at all.
• In INVADERS of the ROKUJYOUMA!?, Koutarou does this for Harumi during the race in episode 3, after a bunch of students trip and fall over each other, creating a large roadblock.
• Itazura Na Kiss: Naoki carries out Kotoko like this a lot when she's sick or injured, for example as she faints in the street and Naoki has to take her to the hospital.
• Jewelpet:
  • Jewelpet Happiness: Kousuke's grandfather met his wife Kasumi when she saved him from drowning in this fashion.
  • Lady Jewelpet: used a lot, and often an Invoked Trope. Episode 4 is entirely about the Petit Ladies having to pass a test about being "princess-carried" (for this is how the show calls it). In episode 16, Charon forces Levin to carry her around like this because she wants to use the trope in her novel. In episode 18, Lillian thinks the present test is going far too smoothly, so she stages a fall for Romeo to catch her like this.
• Happens a few times in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure though strangely subverted since it’s never between love interests, but parents and their children.
  • Joseph carries his mother Lisa Lisa in this fashion during the Final Battle, echoing her cradling him as a baby.
  • Jotaro carries his daughter Jolyne like this◊ while saving her from Enrico Pucci in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • In another platonic example, Polnareff carries an unconscious Kakyoin like this after the latter is blinded by N'Doul.
• In the Yaoi Genre anime Junjou Romantica:
  • After Misaki sprains his ankle while escaping from captivity, Usami carries him away this way, in front of his brother and their servants. Later, he's carrying Misaki piggyback, and Misaki complains it feels silly, prompting Usami to ask "would you rather be carried like a princess?"
  • Once again Usami carries Misaki in this way to the bedroom after Misaki's attempt to seduce him in chapter 21.
• Parodied in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War when Shirogane and Osaragi have Iino and Ishigami perform a bridal carry as one of several exercises to have them get along better. Rather than carry her the traditional way, Ishigami uses some rope to hold up Iino, since the two of them don't want to touch each other for any longer than is absolutely required.
• In Kamisama Kiss Tomoe carries Nanami like this when they first contracted. He later does it again after he saves her from Mizuki and when she falls from a ladder.
• Hilariously inverted in chapter 11 of Karneval, where Eva carries a wounded Gareki (under the threat of being kissed if he doesn't comply) because he was staggering and slowing their progress. He's not happy about it.
• King Of Idol: Mahoro did this to Sena due to the latter being unable to move (too afraid of ghosts and stuff)
• In Komatta Toki ni wa Hoshi ni Kike! this seems to be Kiyomine's preferred carrying method when carrying Takara, he uses it whenever Takara has hurt himself, can't walk by himself, or just to annoy him; at first it embarrassed Takara, but as time went on, he got used to it, to the point of it being natural.
• Last Order: Final Fantasy VII: After putting the Buster Sword sword through Sephiroth, Cloud remembers his childhood crush Tifa is still in danger, promptly throwing his helmet off he scoops the recently slashed Tifa up in his arms, and slowly carries her to safety fulfilling The Promise he made her. It's also the first time we see Cloud's face in the Flash Back.
• Morgiana from Magi: Labyrinth of Magic often does the gender-inverted variant, mainly to Alibaba.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:
  • The aftermath of Nanoha and Fate's final battle in the first season, with Nanoha carrying the beaten Fate in this manner.
  • The light novel version of the first season does it again, only this time, it's a picture of Fate carrying the beaten Nanoha as they gaze into each other's eyes.
  • Chapter 14 of the manga adaptation of the first season features Fate performing this for Nanoha in a Big Damn Heroes moment when the damage dealt during their mock battle, combined with her low mana level, results in Nanoha falling off a tall building and almost crashing into some debris at the bottom.
  • Nanoha does this to Vita in Chapter 19.5 of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, as Vita had fallen asleep in the car while Nanoha was driving to Hayate's house for dinner. After waking up, a deeply embarrassed Vita screams "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" at the top of her lungs, while Nanoha tells her that she tried to wake her up but failed.
  • Erio and Caro have alternated in carrying each other bridal style in both the series and promotional material.
• Mission: Yozakura Family: Tsukiyo carries Taiyo this way after they end up rescuing each other from plummeting into the water at the end of the test.
• Domon Kasshu does this a few times in Mobile Fighter G Gundam. First, he carries Allenby when she faints after they defeat her Berserker System and finish their fight fairly (a pose mirrored by the Gundams). He also picks up a conscious Rain, right after the Sekiha Love Love Tenkyoken. There's also an Official Art or two floating around of the robots doing it◊ (not counting the Pietà Plagiarism bit just after the Mid-Season Upgrade).
• In Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, Shinn carries Stella and Athrun carries Meer like this. In both scenes, the girls are dead.
• Miia from Monster Musume expresses a desire to be carried like this. Centorea cannot help but wonder if that's even physically possible.
• The Mystical Laws: Shou catches Theta in this fashion after he orders the angels to let go of her at her request.
• In My Bride is a Mermaid, Nagasumi carries Sun like this whenever she turns into a mermaid on land.
• In Nabari no Ou, Raikou catches and carries Gau like this once.
• Naruto:
  • In Chapter 234, Kakashi carries an injured Naruto away from the Valley of the End.
  • In Chapter 498, we see a young Minato carrying a blushing Kushina like this after rescuing her from the Kumo ninja who kidnapped her, complete with Full Moon Silhouette.
  • Obito carries the lifeless Rin away◊ from the bloodbath he created after she was killed.
  • Naruto carries Hinata like this a couple of times in the climax of the Canon movie The Last: Naruto the Movie. In the final scene, it preludes The Big Damn Kiss with a Full Moon Silhouette.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Setsuna does this all the time with Konoka, including on most promotional artwork. It underscores their Lady and Knight relationship.
  • The cover of Volume 14 features a magically aged-up Negi carrying Ako like this as Ako falls in love with Negi's aged-up form, while Negi is unaware that he's inadvertently leading her on. It doesn't end well.
  • In chapter 345 Negi does this to Ayaka.
• One Piece:
  • Sanji really, really loves this trope and usually refuses to carry attractive females any other way, which kinda makes sense since Sanji never uses his hands in combat anyway.
    • Sanji has carried Nami in this fashion six times (counting the One Piece manga, movies, games and Filler) with the most famous example being when Sanji crashes Nami's forced wedding with Absalom and sweeps the unconscious Nami into his arms. Also very much a Title Drop since Nami is an actual bride in that scenario, albeit an unwilling one.
    • Viola gets this treatment from Sanji after switching sides, plus he carries her while Sky Walking too.
    • Happens again in One Piece Film: Gold when the Gild Tesoro sends a tsunami of molten gold at the crew, Sanji flies away with Carina in his arms and Nami clinging to his back.
    • Overlaps with Crisis Catch And Carry during the Tea party wedding escape in Whole Cake Island, where Sanji catches Nami in his arms after Smoothie drops her and the pair share a smile, while Pudding looks on. Likely she's troubled/jealous since she's the actual bride in the Arranged Marriage. Though in the anime, Pudding gets carried the same when Sanji initially runs away but the romantic vibe is spoiled when she takes the opportunity to try and shoot him in the face.
    • Non-romantic example in Wano as Sanji cradles Toko in his arms while protecting her from X-Drake.
  • In the anime when the Merry comes to save the crew in Enies Lobby, Franky catches a falling Robin in his arms◊ and they both smile at each other before he puts her down.
  • Trafalgar Law spends 30+ chapters getting carried all over Dressrosa in both bridal and fireman style by Luffy and Cavendish when he's stuck in Seastone chains and too severely injured to fight anymore. In typical Law fashion, he's not amused.
  • One truly tear-jerking example in Kyros's Flash Back in Dressrosa, when his wife Scarlet is shot by Diamante. Despite being turned into a toy by Sugar's Devil Fruit, Kyros rushes to carry his wife to safety, but due to effects of the curse, she is unable to remember him and just to add salt on the wound, Kyros cannot feel Scarlet with his toy body.
    Kyros: With these tin arms... I can't even feel the warmth... of your dying body.
  • Leo does this to Mansherry which leaves her overjoyed, until he remarks that's she's gained weight. Manhserry also refuses to move if Leo doesn't carry her, which annoys the latter who thinks she's being selfish, oblivious to her obvious infatuation with him.
  • Rare gender inversion in the “Oh my Family” cover series where Chiffron carries her husband Bege like this while running in the Chapter 982 cover.
• Kanou does this to Ayase twice in the Boys' Love series Okane ga Nai; once when Ayase is drunk and once when he is drugged.
• In Otoboku - Maidens Are Falling For Me, Mizuho does this for Shion after the latter passes out from illness, and carries her to the nurses room.
• PandoraHearts:
  • Gil carries a sleeping Oz to bed in this manner.
  • Break also does this to Alice when escaping Cheshire's lair.
• Gammon in Phi-Brain: Puzzle of God does this to Elena while rescuing her.
  • And once again Gammon carries someone in this way, which is Kaito to his bed in the hospital.
  • Kaito carries Rook in this manner in the last episode of the first season after defeating the latter.
  • Freecell carries the unconscious Kaito in this manner after saving him from under the rubble.
• In Popcorn Avatar, Lisa and Amano/Indra experience this with their respective avatars. Not coincidentally, this happens for both during a personal turning point in their relationships.
• Pretty Cure:
  • In Episode 12 of HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, Yuuto carries his girlfriend Risa like this when he asks her to marry him.
  • In Episode 3 of Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure, Cure Precious carries Kokone like this after rescuing her.
  • In Episode 2 of Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure, history repeats itself as Cure Sky carries Mashiro like this after rescuing her.
• Psyren:
  • Ageha has done this to Amamiya a couple of times.
  • In the Invasion arc, Kabuto does this to Future!Fredrica.
• In episode 9 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Big Damn Hero Homura carries Madoka like so.
• Ranma from Ranma ½ carries people in this manner on occasion, most commonly Akane.
• Reborn! (2004): Gamma to Uni at the end of episode 192.
  • Tsuna in his Hyper Dying Will Mode carries Kyoko like this while rescuing her from Tazaru's attack.
• Rebuild World: Akira occasionally takes Sheryl out of danger like this, which she can't get enough of (being a Dogged Nice Girl for him). The second time, he puts her into Carol's arms to escort her to safety, prompting both women to Double Take and Carol to tell him he's horrible with women.
• At the end of chapter 47 of part 2 of Rosario + Vampire, Miu Sai-Lung does this to Routier.
• In Rozen Maiden, Shinku insists that Jun carry her like this even though he considers him her servant. Turns out he's technically her master.
• Rurouni Kenshin (a.k.a. Samurai X)
  • In the first episode, Kenshin saves Kaoru from a fake Battosai and ends up sweeping her off her feet in this manner.
  • Later in the Kyoto Arc, Yumi (Shishio's mistress) objects to being carried over Sano's shoulder, so he asks sarcastically if she'd prefer to be carried bridal-style, using a straw dummy to demonstrate. (She doesn't.)
• In the first opening to Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, it briefly shows Nozomu holding Matoi like this.
• Harima from School Rumble does this to Yakumo when he (mistakenly) tries to steal her away from a wedding, which is really a photoshoot. Also, he thought she was her sister.
• Sarutobi Sasuke does this three times in the Sengoku Basara anime: once in his Embarrassing Rescue of Kasuga (who gets so flustered that she ends up falling out of a tree trying to get away), again saving Yukimura from an explosion, and thirdly rescuing Oichi's body from the burning castle.
  • In the second season he's shown cradling an unconscious Kasuga in his lap this way.
• This tends to happen a lot in Shugo Chara! with Ikuto and Amu. We have one where he does it — while she's in a wedding dress-like outfit!
• In Skip Beat!, Ren does this to Kyoko because she sprained her ankle. The villain of the day, Ruri, is quite angry about it. So is Kyoko.
  "The turtle who did not go to the hospital."
  "The lard goes to a suspicious circle of inexpensive pancakes."
• Sailor Moon:
  • The number of times Tuxedo Kamen holds Sailor Moon in this fashion (it happens more in the manga) is almost ridiculous.
  • Interestingly enough, Sailor Moon herself will invert this trope sometimes, one example in the first 90s anime Sailor Moon rescuing Chibiusa in this fashion from an enemy attack in the second season.
  • In the first anime, the villain Nephrite does this with Naru after he rescues her from Zoisite, which is what starts his Heel–Face Turn.
• Seraph of the End:
  • In a Ho Yay example, Mika occasionally does this to Yuu.
  • Yuu also does this to Mika as they fled from Guren, Mahiru, and Noya in chapter 87.
• Slayers:
  • Early in the first season, Gourry carries Lina to a town after she was injured in a fight. Much to the latter's dismay.
  • Later in Slayers Try, Xellos picks up Filia this way to rescue her from a rockslide, only to then drop her directly on top of the villain.
• In Special A, Kei does this to Hikari frequently, referring to it as the "Princess Lift." He quite obviously does it as a sign of affection, which she completely misses. She's also a bit oblivious as to why this flusters her so much (except when she's sick, and she asks for it... completely forgetting that she did so afterwards).
• In episode 2 of Steel Angel Kurumi 2, Kurumi carries Nako like this on the way to school. And in the last episode as well.
• The Story Between a Dumb Prefect and a High School Girl with an Inappropriate Skirt Length: Izubuchi carries anyone who needs to get to the infirmary and can't walk like this, which has made several girls, especially Akina, fall head over heels for him.
• Teasing Master Takagi-san: In Karakai Jōzu no (Moto) Takagi-san, a spinoff depicting Nishikata and Takagi as a married couple raising their daughter Chi, Chi is pretending to be a princess, prompting Takagi to suggest getting her dad to give her a "princess carry". However, because Chi is in kindergarten, and thus much smaller than her dad, it ends up looking more like a "baby carry", much to Chi's embarrassment when her parents point it out.
• Tiger & Bunny:
  • Barnaby has a habit of carrying those he rescues (usually Kotetsu, but others as well) in this fashion. This doesn't go uncommented upon.
    Barnaby: "It's been a while since I carried you like this. Have you gained weight?"
    Kotetsu: "Shut up and put me down!"
  • Happens a third time at the end of the series when they reunite after their 10-Minute Retirement.
  • And again in Season 2, but this time it's Kotetsu's habit instead of Barnaby albeit fewer. One of them is when he catches the injured Barnaby when the latter attempts to fight Lunatic in Episode 20.
• To Love Ru Darkness: Kyouko falls for Rito despite shipping him with her best friend Run, after being subjected to the "Princess Carry". Twice.
• Togainu no Chi:
  • Nano carries an unconscious Akira like this in Episode 10. Akira then carries Keisuke in the same way at the end of the same episode.
  • Also happens to Akira on Shiki's route in the game. It's not quite as sweet, though, considering the carrier had just claimed the carried as his property.
• Tokyo Ghoul:
  • Kaneki does this to Touka when rescuing her from Ayato.
  • Kaneki does this to a deceased Hide in the root A anime.
• In Tokyo Mew Mew, Ichigo gets carried quite often by The Blue Knight, often during or following a Rescue Romance. She also gets carried by Aoyama a few times when he's not in his Blue Knight form.
• Wedding Peach: In episode 40, Yousuke carries the exhausted Momoko after they stop running due to a punishment ordered by Petora/Gozuboro Iwamoto.
• Your Lie in April: The first opening features a brief scene where Kousei holding Kaori like this.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: In episode 109, Kurosaki carries Sayaka like this after saving her from falling debris.
• In YuYu Hakusho, Yusuke carries Kurama like this during the Dark Tournament.

Asian Animation

• In the first episode of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Happy, Happy, Bang! Bang!, Wolffy carries his wife Wolnie in this fashion so they can escape from some lightning bolts that are being sent after them.

Comic Books

• In 52, Black Adam carries his new bride, Isis, to bed in this manner on their wedding night.
• The Authority: Apollo sometimes carries his lover Midnighter this way, if he's hurt or they can't use Midnighter's teleportation doors for some reason. And despite being the definition of Manly Gay and having a generally grouchy personality outside of battles, Midnighter does not seem to mind at all. Midnighter was also the one wearing white during their wedding, inverting the couple's everyday costume color scheme.
• Batgirl: In Batgirl (2000), Cassandra Cain sees Stephanie Brown holding her like this during a near-death experience (Steph was supposedly dead at the time).
• Batwoman: In Batwoman (Rebirth), Batwoman carries a larger man up a sizeable hill showing no strain. Examples can be seen here, here and here.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer : In the season 8 comics, an injured Oz carries an even worse injured Bayarmaa off the (still-raging) battlefield this way.
• Empowered:
  • Empowered with a traumatized Ninjette.
  • Also, sometimes ThugBoy with Emp, and (in a dream/Imagine Spot) ThugBoy with Sistah Spooky.
• "Golden Eyes" and Her Hero "Bill": Happens after Bill has rescued his sweetheart Golden Eyes from capture by the Germans during World War I. The author's normally Purple Prose gets even more purple as she narrates the scene:
  "-against the evening sky, went Bill, for once not hearing the every word of his men-for in his arms he carried Golden-Eyes-his girl-his pal-his little American with a "heart good as bread," her draggled finer blowing against his knees, the sweet feel of her again on his breast-above his heart. He clinched her tight, his blouse about her-tied by the arms under her chin, and knew the strange, wonderful savior of Love and Victory mingled."
• Green Arrow: In the cover of Vol. 6 #36, Black Canary is depicted effortlessly carrying a wounded Green Arrow out of the sea.
• Guardians of the Galaxy: An unused Arc Cover, clearly mimicking the classic Crisis Core cover.
• Justice League of America: In JLA (1997): New Maps of Hell, the Flash briefly carries Batman like this. When Batman asks why he couldn't ride on his back, Flash explains that his legs would fall outside Flash's personal force field and snap clean off from the friction.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992): After a whirlpool engulfs both Vitreous and the Wizzrobe, Zora appears from beneath to rescue Link.
• The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: In Hearts of the Yukon, Scrooge is about to rescue a fainted Goldie from a burning building... when a chunk of ice from a frozen fire hose knocks him out cold. So Goldie "comes to" and saves him instead.
• Major Bummer: The series includes this, a parody of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 iconic cover.
• Marvel Versus DC: Storm carries an unconscious Wonder Woman this way after beating her.
• Ms. Marvel: Carol Danvers often does this, particularly in later years. She's also carried Scarlet Witch like this at least once.
• The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: Smithers carries Burns in his arms and runs away when they see aliens from Kang and Kodos' race that are actually holograms created by Lisa using Fry's Holophoner.
• Spider-Man:
  • When Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson came back from their honeymoon, he carried her across the threshold in one arm while balancing their suitcases in the other. MJ's reaction: "I always dreamed of being carried across the threshold, but one hand? That's class!"
  • In Secret Wars (1984) Spider-Man plays this straight with She-Hulk of all women, despite being half her size.
  • Both Spidey and the Green Goblin carry Gwen in this fashion in The Night Gwen Stacy Died. In Peter's case after her neck broken.
  • Rare male and male example, Harry as the Green Goblin carries Peter like this◊ out of a building he rigged to blow as part of his Heel–Face Turn.
• Superman:
  • Superman tends to carry people he is positively disposed towards in his arms like this, whether it's his Love Interest Lois Lane, his cousin Supergirl or his friends (Jimmy Olsen and Batman have both had this happen to them).
  • Supergirl often carries people she loves like her best friend Batgirl or her cousin Superman in her arms.
  • In The Unknown Supergirl, Superman gets hit by Kryptonite radiation while flying and starts falling down. Supergirl quickly grabs him and holds him in her arms while flying him away from the Kryptonite.
  • In Strangers at the Heart's Core, Supergirl carries a fainted jet pilot in her arms when she takes him to the base infirmary. Later, Kara carries her adoptive mother in her arms when Edna passes out after being rescued from a car crash.
  • Power Girl carries Huntress (Helena Wayne) like this at one point.
  • In Superman vs. Shazam!, Supergirl carries Mary Marvel in this position while she takes Mary out of the exploding Big Bad's castle.
  • Many Happy Returns features this twice. Once where Linda lifts and carries a wounded Supergirl to safety, and again◊, with the characters reversed, mirroring the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths pose.
  • The cover◊ of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, featuring Superman carrying Supergirl's body in his arms, has been referenced countless times.
  • In one scene from Fringe episode "Over There, Part 2", several framed comics can been seen hanging on a wall in the background, including a Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 variant here where Superman and Supergirl have swapped positions.
  • Wonder Woman carries Kara in her arms after knocking her out in Supergirl (2011) #17.
  • In Justice #12, Supergirl does this to Poison Ivy.
  • Cyborg Alura holds her original self in Supergirl (Rebirth) #3.
  • Must There Be a Superman?: Green Lantern Katma Tui carries an unconscious Superman to the main Power Battery to be healed.
  • The Attack of the Annihilator: Supergirl holds Batgirl in this position while taking her to safety after the latter has been shot down by the Annihilator.
  • In Escape from the Phantom Zone, Supergirl collapses after getting hit with a psychic attack, prompting Batgirl to carry her in her arms when they escape from Project Cadmus' black site.
  • Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom Superman carries his unconscious cousin in his arms when he flies her away from the battlefield.
  • In Let My People Grow!, Supergirl catches and carries Superman in her arms when her cousin passes out while flying.
  • Supergirl (1984)provides a non-romantic example. Zor-El carries his daughter Kara in his arms after saving her from being dragged into the vacuum of space.
• Squadron Supreme: In Supreme Power #10, Princess Zarda carries Hyperion as shown here.
• Teen Titans: Genderflipped in the New Teen Titans books, where alien princess Starfire often flew around carrying her boyfriend Nightwing.
• Vampirella: The series features this pose many times, where Heroic Seductress Vampirella carries many people with ease, men and women alike. You can see two examples from 1995's issue #7 of Vampirella Strikes both here and here.
• Witchblade: Cover B of issue #128 illustrates a woman carrying another in her arms.
• Wonder Woman: Diana is known for being the most famous gender-inversion of this trope, often craddling her love interest Steve Trevor in her arms whenever she saves him from danger.
  • In All-Star Comics #8, Diana carries Steve to safety after he crash lands on Paradise Island.
  • On the cover of Sensation Comics #94 Steve Trevor is carrying Wonder Woman in his arms in a bridal carry across a river, though in practice Diana carries Steve far more often than he carries her.
  • Wonder Woman (1942): Di carries Steve in her arms for a bit after she's rescued him from Giganta.
• X-Men:
  • Cyclops famously does this with a seemingly dead Jean on the cover of Uncanny X-Men #136 in a manner not in-similar to the Crisis on Infinite Earths cover.
  • Storm and Rogue being able to fly frequently carry the male members such as Wolverine◊ (much to his displeasure), Nightcrawler◊ and Gambit like this. In Gambit’s case, he’s so smitten with Rogue he doesn’t take it as a blow to his masculinity (like Logan would do) and happily gives her bridal in turn whenever he can despite being far less physically strong than her.
  • Heroic Seductress Emma Frost once carried a wounded Negasonic Teenage Warhead out of a cave this way.
• Hulkling sometimes carries Wiccan like this in Young Avengers. Not often, since Wiccan can fly, but occasionally.

Comic Strips

• One The Far Side comic shows Frankenstein's Monster carrying his Bride through the door crossways, her head and feet having knocked holes right through the wall.
• Dave Berg of MAD once made a strip about this trope. The bride asks the groom whether he'll carry her, and he replies that this is an obsolete custom from the time when men used to steal their brides. The bride thinks about it and then remembers that she actually "stole" him from "some tramp", and the strip ends with her carrying him.

Fan Works

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) fanfiction, Thor pulls a platonic Bridal Carry when he carries theborderline-comatose Monster X away to safety, as depicted in the Chapter 6 cover art.
• In Captain Proton and the Planet of Lesbians, Proton tries using his Jet Pack while doing a Bridal Carry and finds he can't reach the chest controls to turn it off, causing them to ricochet around the room like a pinball until they crash.
• Child of the Storm has (predictably) Clark pull a variation of this on Lois Lane when he catches her. This is at least partly to cushion her fall (from a plane) to minimize the jolt as he matches her descent speed and slows the both of them down in line with the laws of physics, taking the trouble to support her back, neck, and head in the process. The UST is not ignored. He then does it again, more conventionally, to whisk her over to the plane (which he has since rescued) and drop her off discreetly... and unfortunately does it a little too fast, meaning that Lois, still somewhat off-balance, ends up throwing up on him.
• In the Crack Fic A Charmed Life Ryuk does this quite frequently with Light.
• In two separate alternate timelines in Empath: The Luckiest Smurf where Smurfette is married to someone, her husband picks her up and carries her out of the kitchen, supposedly into the bedroom. In "Wedding Bells For Bigmouth", Bigmouth tries to do this with his bride Bignose after the wedding to carry her over the threshold, only to keep banging her head against the door a few times. He decides to slip her in vertically in order to complete the tradition.
• In Jonathan Joestar, The First JoJo, Jonathan catches Jolyne in this manner when she first enters Mr. President's room.
• In Off the Line this is the easiest way for Vincent to carry Cloud/Rainstorm while he's flying. Rainstorm returns the favor when Vincent randomly drops unconscious.
• Passing Days shows the Servants often carrying Vy to bed in this manner, usually because she's too tired to walk on her own or they just can't leave her alone in good confidence to do so.
• The Ultimate Evil: Shendu takes Valerie from her trashed apartment this way after she's nearly killed by Hak Foo.
• Alistair carries the barely-conscious Elissa out of Fort Drakon this way, after the fall of the Archdemon, in Shadow and Rose.
• The Power of Seven features a gender-inverted version as Fleur tends to carry Harry in this manner, such as taking him to her bedroom after they first have sex in a corridor.
• PMD: The Rogue Team: Chapter 2's cover features Tabor the treecko carrying his partner Erin in his arms while they go down stairs.
• Once the half-dead Victoria catches up to the evacuees of Haven and collapses in a snowbank in All This Sh*t Is Twice as Weird, Cullen gets her to the medical tent in this manner.
• Ritsu carries Mio this after getting Happily Married in the Palcomix K-On! comic On This Day.
• Fates Collide: When Archer and Cinder Fall decide to have lunch at the von Einzbern mansion, Cinder complains that the walk is too far. In response, he picks her up and leaps to the house.
• A version of this is done by anthropomorphic snakes in Old West when Rattlesnake Jake is taking the intoxicated Grace Glossy back home while holding her in his coils. Flirty in her drunken condition, she happily comments on this and laments that she wasn't carried through the front door by her estranged husband Benjamin Hares when they were married.
• Matt does this with Alesha in two separate Law & Order: UK stories, taking her to her bedroom.
• Fate/Starry Night:
  • Archer carries an injured Ritsuka away from Mt. Enzou like this until Jack insists on being the one to help her mommy. Ritsuka is glad that no one is around to see him get carried like a princess by a little girl.
  • When Shinji Matou is exhausted after enduring a procedure to open his Magic Circuits, Perseus carries him this way. Shinji gets embarrassed because they are both guys.
• In Amazing Fantasy, Jirou catches Izuku and Uraraka in this while escaping the zero-point robot at the U.A. Entrance Exam. He finds it terribly embarrassing.
• In the first chapter of A New World on her Shoulders, Penny carries Ruby this way to quickly take her to Ironwood's introduction speech for the new Atlas students.
• In The Heart, The Soul, Shinji carries an unconscious Asuka in his arms bridal style when he takes her to the infirmary after the battle against Arael.
  After a while, I realized that she had fallen asleep. Taking great care, I gingerly shifted her in my arms, hooked my left hand under her knees, and gently picked her up. She seemed amazingly light.
  It wouldn't matter how much she weighed. I would have carried her out of Hell, demons at my heels, if I had to.
• Nonon gets to be carried like this a couple times in Natural Selection. Once by Satsuki when they're investigating Matoi Manor, and once by Ira when they're escaping Honnouji. She's not pleased either way.
• In Chapter 44 of The Command Quarters, Megatron carries Starscream like this when the Seeker is shot down in battle.
• In Lady Luck's Favor, Danny Phantom carries Princess Dorathea like this while taking her to the school dance.
• Discussed and justified in Extra Life. After Chiaki is mortally wounded in her execution, Izuru bridal carries her to another room. It's noted that under normal circumstances she should either be moved with a stretcher or simply not moved, but the extent of her injuries is such that she's going to be dead in minutes and Izuru doesn't have the medical supplies necessary to save her on hand.
• In Total Drama Legacy, Lightning often does this to Cameron. This is an indicator of just how Happily Married they are.
• You Are (Not) At Fault: When Shinji discovers Asuka has fallen asleep on the beach and has not yet realized it is starting to rain, he carries her in his arms to a service station where she can have shelter from the rain.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles:
  • After Mina manages to save Akamaru, she is unable to move and tells Kiba to leave her in the forest that they are currently. Kiba decides against it and carries her in his arms.
  • Hinata faints after imagining herself as Naruto's wife following a comment from Tenten. When she wakes up, she finds herself being carried by Naruto in his arms while Tenten is carrying their shopping bags. Hinata tells Naruto he doesn't have to carry her, but he says it's OK given that he enjoys holding her.

Films — Animation

• Hercules: The main character carries Meg's soul this way while rescuing her from the Underworld, pausing only to clock Hades — and then punch him into the River Styx when he touches Meg.
• Minion carries Megamind into the office threshold style.
• Delightfully spoofed via Gender-Inverted Trope in Monsters vs. Aliens. A cheerleader type is trying to seduce an athletic jock in a car when the alien robot crashes nearby, and we have a great shot of the girl running and holding her boyfriend in her arms.
• Not exactly "carrying", but Peter Pan catches Wendy a couple of times like this. Later, he does the same with Wendy's daughter Jane in the sequel Return to Neverland.
• There are several examples in Robot Carnival: Starlight Angel has a flying scene with a robot and a girl; Deprive has a cyborg and a girl, etc., etc.
• Double subverted in Shrek 2, where Shrek bashes Fiona into the doorframe, breaking right through the wall. He also does this when carrying her over the threshold of his house. They're interrupted by Donkey being in the living room singing "One is the loneliest number".
• In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, after the Prince wakes Snow White, he lifts her up and carries her to his horse in this fashion.
• The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water has a gender-flipped version in the scene when the gang are on dry land and are crossing the road trying to avoid the bicyclists and skaters and Sandy carries Squidward in her arms to safety.
• Toy Story 3 does this between Spanish Buzz and Jessie. He was saving her from falling trash.
• In Treasure Planet, Dr. Doppler carries the badly wounded Captain Amelia to B.E.N.'s lair this way, with B.E.N. commenting on the implications.
• Up: Literally. Carl carries Ellie, still in her wedding dress, to their house in the opening montage.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Abduction of Saint Anne, Dave carries a chloroformed Anne from her mansion to the van.
• In About Scout, Scout carries Lulu out of the hospital after her overdose to get around the fact that she needs an adult to check her out.
• Against All Flags: When Hawke rescues Princess Patma from the burning ship, he scoops her up in his arms and charges through the smoke and flame off the ship.
• Batman does this to Rachel in Batman Begins. The scene was also the basis for one of the film posters, in which it was not clear if Rachel was dying or merely unconscious.
• In Beach Party, Frankie carries Dolores into the beach house, only to trip on one of the guests. Later, Sutwell carries her out of his plane after she gets motion sickness.
• In The Beasts Are on the Streets, Jim carries Hal this way after accidentally shooting him.
• In Bedtime Story (1964), Freddy, who is Obfuscating Disability and can't walk in front of other people, drives a riding lawnmower to the beach. Afterwards, Leon carries him back while he complains about how weak and helpless he is.
• In The Big Cube, Lisa is dismayed to see Johnny carrying Bibi upstairs this way on what's supposed to be Johnny and Lisa's wedding night.
• In Blackenstein, Eddie carries the unconscious girl he abducts from the dune buggy to the abandoned warehouse like this. As they arrive, she wakes up and starts screaming.
• In Blood Harvest, Jill's stalker carries her like this at several points, often while she's chloroformed.
• Done in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when Truly Scrumptious accidentally runs her car into a pond (the first time) and Caractacus Potts comes to her rescue. Truly is at first reluctant to accept his help, likely due to the romantic connotations associated with this.
  Caractacus: I'm going to carry you.
  Truly: Oh dear. Must you?
  Caractacus:Well, unless you'd rather ride piggyback.
• In the film An Education, David does this to Jenny.
• Fair Play: One of the scenes that establish how loved-up Emily and Luke are before the promotion is him sweetly carrying her in his arms while crossing the street. He's also literally asked her to marry him in the previous scene.
• Enchanted: After Giselle was poisoned after eating a poisonous apple and is on the verge of death, she was carried like this by Prince Edward.
• Fifty Shades of Grey: Christian carries the exhausted Anastasia after they had sex in the red room.
  • Fifty Shades Freed: Christian carries Anastasia when about to go on honeymoon and upon going home (greeted by a surprise from his family).
• Fire with Fire: Jeremy carries Talia away from the fire at the end this way (he is a firefighter).
• The Flash (2023). Alternate Batman prepares to use his grapnel gun to get up a cliff, but Prime Barry has been Brought Down to Normal so he can't climb up using his Super-Speed, meaning Batman has to carry him up there. Prime Barry tries getting into Batman's arms in this position, only to get a Death Glare from Batman, who instead grabs Barry around the waist and hauls him up that way. Played straight shortly afterwards when Prime Barry has to carry Kara Zor-El, emaciated from years of confinement in darkness, out of her prison. She in turn does this trope when Prime Barry needs to be struck by lightning to regain his powers.
• The monster carries Caroline this way when he carries her back to Victor's lab in Frankenstein 1970.
• Ghost (1990): Sam carries Molly and twirls her while discussing about furnitures placement in their flat.
• The Glenn Miller Story: Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson's characters do this of the bride & groom variety.
• Hannibal. After Clarice Starling passes out from the gunshot wound in her shoulder, Hannibal Lecter carries her bridal-style to safety (well, safer than a pen full of flesh-eating pigs, anyway).
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Hagrid does this to an injured Malfoy.
• Spoofed in Hercules Returns. In the Gag Dub of a sword-and-sandal movie where The Hero does this after saving the Damsel in Distress from drowning, she responds thus:
  "Look, I know you saved my life, but get your hand off my left tit and put me down!"
• A gender-inverted example in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, when Galadriel carries an injured Gandalf to safety. She shows no sign of exertion, indicating her inhuman strength.
• Horatio Hornblower:
  • One cute Plucky Middie gets carried by another sailor when he's injured.
  • When Lady Barbara gets sick, Captain Hornblower takes her into his arms and carries her below-deck.
• Done (with two guys, obviously) on the poster for I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. Bonus points for Kevin James wearing a fireman's hat.
• In Jason's Lyric, Jason tearfully carries his injured and unconscious girlfriend, Lyric, outside of her home and takes her to the ambulance after his brother, Joshua, (accidentally) shot her.
• In Lemonade Joe, Doug Badman carries his love Tornado Lou into her room when she fainted.
• In Life with Father, Clarence carries his sick wife Vinnie back upstairs after she comes down to see what he was yelling at the ceiling for. (He'd taken offense to the minister referring to her as "this miserable sinner" and was improvising his own prayer.)
• In Like Normal People, Roger holds Virginia like this in the swimming pool to help her overcome her fear of water.
• In The Long, Long Trailer, the groom does this — and bumps her head on the doorframe. Also, because he's shy about them being newlyweds, he tells the other guests at the trailer park that she's twisted her ankle, and all the women start fussing over her. One even slips her a sleeping pill, thinking that she needs to sleep off the pain — meaning that their wedding night isn't going to be what he's expecting.
• Done in Love Story when Oliver and Jenny move into their new apartment. The doorman is initially concerned that something is wrong with Jenny, then delighted when they claim that they're newlyweds.
• Mad Love (1995): After Casey has a screaming panic attack in a restaurant bathroom, Matt carries her out of the restaurant and back to the nearby motel.
• The Man with Two Brains. Twice. The first time, Dr. Hfuhruhurr waits hours in the pose for the photos to be developed before letting his new bride down, and then, in the finale, had problems carrying her through since, well, Anne had an eating problem when she had her own body. Hilarity ensues, but it's heartwarming because Hfuhruhurr doesn't care about her weight.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Hulk does this to Betty in The Incredible Hulk and Black Widow later in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It just looks odd in both cases since Hulk's arms are bigger than the women's entire bodies.
  • Jane gets this from Thor in Thor: The Dark World. After kicking Loki out of the Dark Elf ship, Thor picks up Jane in this fashion. Probably very easy considering how muscly Chris Hemsworth is.
  • In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when Cap and Natasha are bombed by a Hydra missile, Cap carries her out of the rubble in this fashion (still somehow holding on his shield as well). This is one of the reasons fans enjoyed their relationship, platonic or not.
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron: Pietro generally carries his sister Wanda in his arms when they need to travel somewhere quickly thanks to his superspeed. They're very close siblings. In the climax, Vision catches Wanda in this fashion to evacuate her from the plummeting Novi Grad landmass before Tony and Thor blow it up.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Drax carries Mantis in his arms when she's knocked unconscious and they were escaping from Ego the Living Planet, the carry transitioning to a overhead hoist when the ground starts sucking Drax down. There's no Ship Tease however as Drax sees Mantis as a daughter surrogate after losing his biological one.
  • An incredibly touching Tear Jerker example happens in Spider-Man: No Way Home where Webbverse Peter catches a falling MCU MJ who was knocked down by the Green Goblin and holds her in this fashion after landing safely, redeeming himself for failing to save Gwen when she was similarly dropped to her death in The Amazing Spider-Man. He even starts crying at the moment and MJ asks if he’s okay.
• In My Demon Lover, Kaz carries Denny into her apartment this way.
• Played for Laughs in the Chris Columbus film Nine Months, wherein Hugh Grant's character very nearly wrecks out his back carrying his very pregnant bride across the threshold.
• In The Odd Way Home, Dave holds Maya in his arms to comfort her as she's Going Cold Turkey.
• An Officer and a Gentleman is the Trope Codifier. Cue the Joe Cocker song. "Love lift us up where we belong, where the eagles fly on a mountain high..."
• Piggy (2022): How the stranger carries Sara away from the wreckage after his van hits a bull.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. When Syrena's box breaks and she gains legs, Philip carries her as she's not used to walking. It's quite touching.
• The newlyweds in Rear Window first enter their new apartment normally, getting everything settled with the landlord. Then they walk out just so he can carry her in this way.
• After Rocky marries Adrian in Rocky II, he carries her all the way home from the church like this. When she tells him it's unnecessary, he says it's good for the arms.
• Scarecrow Slayer: The Scarecrow carries the unconscious Mary like this when he takes her back to the field to make her into a scarecrow.
• In Selena, Chris does this to Selena in one scene.
• Willoughby carries Marianne home like this after she sprains her ankle in Sense and Sensibility. Later, Col. Brandon does the same thing when she collapses in the rain.
• In Shallow Hal, Hal tries this with Rosemary, but she's too heavy for him. She carries him instead.
• In Spaceballs, Lone Starr carries Princess Vespa, who is still in her wedding gown, through the Thirsty Desert in this manner for a while before collapsing himself.
• Space Mutiny. The beefy hero does this to his Love Interest after she mentions marriage. Other than that, there's no apparent reason to carry her to another part of the set that way.
• Spectre. James Bond lifts Madeline Swann in his arms as they make their escape from the rigged Vauxhall building. The symbolism is made more obvious by the fact that she's wearing a white coat.
• Suicide Squad (2016): Deadshot carries Harley this way when helping her down from the roof of a car. Many fans have pointed to this moment as a potential Ship Tease for the two.
• Supergirl (1984): Spoofed. Supergirl, in her Linda Lee identity, goes on a date with Ethan. At one point Ethan tries to carry her, but he can't lift the petite girl because Kryptonians are denser than humans.
• Superman: The Movie: At the climax, Superman carries a dying Lois in his arms.
• In Trial of The Incredible Hulk, a curious scene happens where the Hulk rescues Daredevil from the Kingpin and carries him to safety... exactly like this.
• True Grit: After Mattie's been bitten by a snake, and Rooster rides her horse to death to get her to a doctor, he carries her in this fashion nearly the rest of the way. In the 1969 version, it doesn't take him long to find a wagon to "borrow" to get her the rest of the way. In the 2010 movie, however, he has to run long and far before finding a doctor. By the time he collapses on his knees near the house, still clutching her in his arms, he's nearly out of breath and passed out himself.
• In Tuff Turf, Frankie leaps into Morgan's arms after a dance.
• Edward likes to carry Bella around like this a lot in The Twilight Saga, apparently because he thinks she's incapable of walking without hurting herself.
• In When the Bough Breaks (1994), the killer carries Jenny to a bed this way, where he prepares to rape her. Later, Macleah carries her to a window the same way.
• In The Wild Child, Itard carries Victor to bed this way after one of his tantrums.
• In the 1998 The X-Files: Fight the Future, this is how Mulder carries Scully toward the exit of the giant spaceship they're on.

Literature

• Anita Blake is shaken up by doing some "major magic" with a werewolf and drops her machismo long enough to let Jean-Claude carry her this way. Both think it's kind of romantic until Anita notices... something... about Jason's pants...
• A Brother's Price averts this — when Jerin finds a wounded soldier, who is unconscious at the time, he carries her over his shoulder. Played straight on the cover.
• In Everworld, Christopher does this to his injured Love Interest Etain as they escape from the battle. His narration notes that it must have looked like a scene from a corny romance novel.
• Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World: This is Michio's favorite way to get his harem into bed, and he will make multiple trips if he has to.
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi: An injured Wei Wuxian refuses to be carried on Lan Wangji's back, so he's surprised that the latter has no problem carrying him in his arms all the way back to their inn even after teasing him that he will lose face.
• After the climax of Heart of Steel, Alistair carries a battered and exhausted Julia to a room to recover. She falls asleep in his arms.
• This trope is defied in I Heard That Song Before. When Peter asks if it's still customary to carry the bride over the threshold after he and Kay return from their honeymoon, Kay senses he feels uncomfortable and wonders if he did this with his late first wife (she and Peter had a highly tumultuous relationship, and some suspect Peter was involved in her drowning death in their pool). Kay says she'd rather walk inside hand-in-hand, leaving Peter visibly relieved.
• Infinite Stratos:
  • Ichika does this to Houki to help her get into the IS suit. Houki becomes quite happy when he does this for her.
  • He does this again with Houki at the end of episode 12, after sharing an Almost Kiss with her, right before being chased by the other four girls in the harem, who are very angry that she's way ahead of them with Ichika.
• Journey to Chaos:
  • When his wife is in the midst of an over-protective motherly rant, Retina utilizes this in combination with a "Shut Up" Kiss to remove her from the guild lobby and allow Tiza to continue her mission unhindered.
  • Tiza suffers a Power Strain Black Out in Ceiha and Nolien carries her in this fashion to someplace safer. When she wakes up, she uppercuts him because she doesn't like being treated like a Damsel in Distress. It's also embarrassing because of their UST
• Juniper Sawfeather: In Whisper of the Woods, June spends several days tree-sitting to stop a treant from being chopped down. When she's finally lowered to the ground, exhaused, dehydrated, and frostbitten, Carter carries her in his arms back to camp.
• Kyo Kara Maoh!. There are a few times in which Yuri was carried and/or caught from falling a long distance like this. Probably because he's usually a male Damsel in Distress when he's not in Maoh-mode. He carries Wolfram this way one time during that one episode in the snowstorm.
• Love Over Gold: When Katrien and Diane get back from their honeymoon, Katrien insists on carrying her over the threshold of their apartment. Diane protests that it's a patriarchal custom signifying ownership and possession. Katrien offers to let Diane carry her over the threshold, but Diane, being much smaller, refuses.
• Masters of Rome: Julius Caesar shows off by carrying his bride Pompeia all the way from her home on the Palatine to his in the Suburba.
• In Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Monster Men, Number One carries Virginia off like this. Number Thirteen rescues her and, knowing no better, carries her in the same manner.
  Now that he had won her, what was he to do with her? He was but an adult child, with the brain and brawn of a man, and the ignorance and inexperience of the new-born. And so he acted as a child acts, in imitation of what it has seen others do. The brute had been carrying the lovely creature, therefore that must be the thing for him to do, and so he stooped and gathered Virginia Maxon in his great arms.
• Post-High School Reality Quest: At a frat party, Buffy drunkenly attempts to text her boyfriend Tristan but accidentally texts Merrill instead. He shows up, carries her to her car, and drives her back to her dorm.
• In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero Lost from the Prospero's Daughter trilogy, Astreus carries Miranda in this fashion.
• In The Scarlet Pimpernel, Sir Percy carries Marguerite like this to get to the boat.
  And his arms, still vigorous in spite of fatigue and suffering, closed round Marguerite's poor, weary body, and lifted her as gently as if she had been a feather.
• In Shakugan no Shana, Yoshida summons Pheles to their location. The effort makes Yoshida woozy and she falls over, but Pheles catches her and holds her like this.
• In Superheroes Anonymous this is called 'damsel carry' and how Blaze, Hostage Girl's very own superhero, always carries her after rescuing her from the latest Supervillain.
• Sword Art Online: Towards the climax of the Alicization arc, Kirito carries Asuna this way as they fly to the World's End Altar. The two have long been a couple and have just been reunited after he was rendered comatose in both the virtual world and real life.
• The Syrena Legacy: In Of Poseidon, Emma accidentally knocks herself out by running into the cafeteria doors. Galen carries her to the nurse's office in his arms.
• Thomas Hardy's Tess Of The Durbervilles sees Angel Clare carrying the eponymous heroine this way. It's one of the things that makes her realize her feelings for him.
• In Vanishing Point, Eight sweeps Fitz up into a Bridal Carry because he's been shot in the leg and can't run. In case one was left with any doubts as to author Steven Cole's more probable intentions, this is how the scene is described:
  While she did so, Vettul helped Fitz up, and now the Doctor swept him almost romantically into his arms and led the way through the smoky corridor... "Keep your eyes open for Hox", the Doctor yelled, Fitz clutching on round his neck like a damsel in distress.
• Warformed Stormweaver: After Rei is beaten nearly to death, he wakes up in the hospital and is informed that his love interest carried him from where he was ambushed by herself. His first thought is to be horribly embarrassed that everyone saw a girl carrying him.
  Rei: At least tell me it was over her shoulder...
  Catcher: [grinning] Nope. Full princess carry, man.
• In Wild Orchid, Danny tries to carry Penny into their room at the resort, but she's the same size he is, so it's more of a bridal drag.
• In the Xandri Corelel book Failure to Communicate, Xandri's Love Interest Diver carries her back to her room after she takes a powerful, fast-acting sedative.

Live-Action TV

• In The Adventures of Superman episode "The Haunted Lighthouse", Superman lifts Jimmy Olsen under the knees and back when saving him from drowning.
• In the final episode of As Time Goes By, Alastair rings the bell with Judy in his arms because they are newlyweds and he's carrying her "across every threshold we cross".
• The A-Team:
  • "The Rabbit Who Ate Las Vegas": Face carries Amy over the threshold of a hotel room while they're masquerading as a honeymoon couple. He sets her down quickly once the bellhop leaves and remarks that it's no wonder that he never married.
  • "Bad Time on the Border": Hannibal lifts Maria's mother Delia under her knees and shoulders as he carries her to the helicopter. Unlike in many cases, there is no intended romantic subtext; he's rescuing her to help her pre-adolescent daughter and she's too sick to walk.
• Austin & Ally first has this with the titular couple in a Halloween Episode and later when Dez picks up Carrie to help her deliver several trophies at once.
• The Benny Hill Show:
  • Benny's character marries a girl who gains a lot of weight as soon as they get past the ceremony, and he can barely carry her over the threshold afterward.
  • In another sketch, Benny Hill's character is carrying his new bride into their new home when he has to stop so the bride can carry on a long conversation with a neighbor.
  • In another sketch Benny plays an actor who is carrying his new (fat) bride across the threshold, but she keeps messing up her line so he has to carry her out and back in again and again and again.
• In The Borgias, Cesare carries a sleeping Lucrezia to her bed after she passes out during her wedding reception. He does it again when she's overcome with grief and fainting upon finding the murdered body of the father of her child, Paolo in the square. He carries her from the streets of Rome back into her rooms at the Papal Palace.
• Bridgerton:
  • In season 1 episode 6, as newlyweds and still on honeymoon, Simon carries his wife, Daphne, to their master bedroom as soon as they arrive at his duchy. Later, in the final episode after their reconciliation.
  • In the opening of season 2 episode 8, Anthony carries the injured and unconscious Kate back to Lady Danbury's house after she falls from her horse.
• Broad City:
  • In "Working Girls," Trey carries a Dirty Old Woman he's training like this.
  • In "The Last Supper," Abbi carries Ilana out of the restaurant where they've been eating after a Self-Induced Allergic Reaction makes Ilana's throat close.
• Buffyverse:
  • Angel carries Buffy like this in "Halloween" (after a spell causes Buffy to act like a Damsel in Distress), while Buffy carries her little sister Dawn to escape Glory in "Spiral". Justified as both characters have Super-Strength.
  • Gender-flipped at the end of "What's My Line, Part 2," when a freshly-healed Drusilla hoists Spike out of a charred pile of rubble, scoops him into her arms, and walks off.
  • Giles briefly carries a sick Buffy like this in the Season 1 episode "Witch".
  • Xander carries an injured Anya this way at the end of "The Gift". As he'd proposed marriage to her earlier in the episode, it's likely for Rule of Symbolism as well.
  • In Angel, Wesley does this more times than the titular protagonist. First time in "This Old Gang of Mine" he does it with Fred to get her off the stage when Gunn's murderous gang comes in gun blazing. The second time he does this with Faith in Slow Motion after Angelus drinks from her, also very heartwarming considering Faith tortured him last time she was in L.A (and props to Wesley actor Alexis Denisof who had injured back while filming but carried on anyway). The final time is when Fred is dying and Wesley carries to her deathbed again in Slow Motion in the most tearjerker-part of the series.
  • Angel carries Cordelia like this in the first episode before jumping off a balcony and later does the same with Fred in "Magic Bullet".
• Twisted in Chinese Paladin: Xiao Yao sweeps his wife Ling'er off her feet and carries her away from danger... after having paralyzed her with a nerve jab to prevent her from taking part in the fighting.
• When Anna of Chuck falls over and is in danger of being trampled during a store evacuation, Morgan runs heroically to her and carries her out of the shop in this manner, to cries of "What are you doing, Morgan? Put me down!" He has no answer when a fellow employee asks why he carried her out when she could have just walked.
• In The City Hunter, Yun Sung carries Na Na up the stairs to her apartment after she's sprained her ankle.
• In one of the Halloween episodes of Community, the each member of the group shares a Halloween story. In Annie's, Vampire!Jeff carries her into a cabin this way. In Troy's, he uses a frame-by-frame duplicate from Annie's story to carry a wounded Abed into a cabin in the same manner.
• This Stock Pose can be seen several times in Cranford; mostly with brides and grooms, but also when a father carries his ill daughter.
• The Daily Show got the armed forces to carry correspondents down office corridors on two occasions, to the tune of "Love lifts us up where we belong": Colbert by a Rear-Admiral, and Sam Bee by a Captain. The latter doubled as a Take That! to the arguments that female soldiers' are physically too weak to be allowed active service.
• Daredevil (2015). In a flashback to when they were dating, Matt Murdock carries Elektra across the threshold of a Big Fancy House which they've just broken into.
• Doctor Who:
  • A non-romantic example: the Fourth Doctor carried everyone in his arms since at 6'3" he was almost always bigger than them.
  • The Tenth Doctor staggers down the hall with an unconscious Martha in "Smith and Jones". Since the crisis was over and he'd lost a litre or two of blood, you wonder why he made the effort.
  • Rory carries an unconscious Amy this way in "The Girl Who Waited". In this case, they actually are married.
  • In "Asylum of the Daleks", the Eleventh Doctor carries Amy this way after she faints from an invasion of Dalek nanogenes. Some fans took exception to this, and inverted the image.
  • Eleven does this to Clara in "The Name of the Doctor" after she falls unconscious from the strain of being split into thousands of echoes and scattered across the Doctor's timeline.
  • Gender-flipped in "The Doctor Falls", when Cyber!Bill carries the unconscious Twelfth Doctor.
  • The Thirteenth Doctor is carried by Yasmin Khan (over the threshold of the TARDIS) after she is fatally wounded because of the Master in "The Power of the Doctor".
• Fellow Travelers:
  • In the fourth episode, when Hawkins Fuller and Timothy Laughlin spend time together before Christmas, the former lifts the latter bridal-style and then carries him to the bed in Hawk's apartment. Although Hawk has never told Tim that he loves him, this gesture plainly demonstrates his romantic affection for his lover.
  • In the eighth episode, there's a brief shot of Hawk holding Tim in a bridal carry when they enter Frankie's house to pick up the tuxedo Tim will wear at a fundraising gala. Hawk's action is more practical than romantic this time around because Tim is dying of AIDS and has trouble walking, but it nonetheless displays that he cares immensely for his ex-boyfriend.
• A common tactic in Fort Boyard when looting the treasure at the end: Since the rules forbid carrying gold in your clothes, a way to increase one's carrying capacity is to carry a woman and pile as much gold as possible on her belly before the time expires.
• Friday Night Lights had Tim do this with his newly-paralyzed friend Jason, just so Jason could be out of his wheelchair for a little while. Jason comments that maybe he should just have Tim carry him everywhere from then on.
• Friends:
  • In the episode "The One With The Chicken Pox" had Ross and Rachel parodying An Officer and a Gentleman: Rachel kept having to go back for stuff, so in the end, Ross just dumped her on the couch.
  • In "The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS", Chandler carries Monica into the hallway when they go to his apartment to have sex. On the way out he accidentally bangs her head against the doorframe but they quickly agree to ignore it.
  • In the episode "The One After Vegas", Monica and Chandler have decided they aren't ready to get married, but keep seeing "signs" that they should. At one point, Monica's hurt her leg, so Chandler gathers her up and carries her into her apartment before they realize what they're doing.
• General Hospital. Jagger does this with Brenda in two separate love scenes.
• Chuck carries Blair up the stairs this way in a season four episode of Gossip Girl.
• Hannibal carries an unconscious Will this way in season three. Reportedly, this was rather impractical on set as Hugh Dancy is heavier than he looks, but it just looked more cinematic than the fireman lift.
• Played with in an episode of Home Improvement when Jill insists that Tim carry her like this, unaware that he'd pulled a groin muscle earlier. It doesn't end well.
• "The Duchess and the Devil" from Horatio Hornblower has two sailors in this classic position, and it's Played for Drama. Horatio carries his friend Archie Kennedy in his arms when he realized that Archie has been starving himself. He tries to get help for him from Don Massaredo, the commander of the Spanish prison they're in. Conveniently, it's also raining and it looks very dramatic.
• Marshall carries Lily this way into their new apartment in How I Met Your Mother.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022):
  • "...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self": A same-sex variation occurs when Lestat de Lioncourt carries an injured Louis de Pointe du Lac bridal-style up the stairs of what is now their home (the townhouse is owned by Lestat, but Louis becomes its second resident after Lestat transforms him into a vampire). The bridal carry obviously symbolizes that they're essentially married, as much as two men can be in 1910.
  • In the Season 2 trailer, Lestat carries a dead man in this manner during the late 18th century.
• Jessie: When Emma and Caleb decide to run away together, Emma asks Caleb to carry her because she is wearing high heels and can't run. Caleb instantly complies.
  Emma: And I thought our private jet was a fun way to travel!
• Used in the prequel season 6 of Kaamelott. Guenièvre insists that Arthur carry her that way after their marriage "because it's romantic." Not just to go through a threshold, mind you, but as long as possible. After some long, agonizing minutes, Arthur finally drops her like a sack of potatoes as he gets exhausted and his back gives up.
• In episode 42 of Kamen Rider Fourze, Kamen Rider Meteor carries Tomoko this way after they're released from the Dark Nebula.
• Amusingly subverted by Colin in London's Burning when he and his new bride Sonia are about to enter their honeymoon suite and he performs a Fireman's Carry instead, much to her amusement.
• MacGyver: Used as a distraction in "The Gauntlet". Mac approaches a two-soldier patrol carrying the journalist (who is playing injured or unconscious) he is working with. He tosses her at one of the soldiers, after which the two subdue their respective opponents.
• Arthur from Merlin carries Morgana to the physician's quarters like this after she's hit her head after falling down a flight of stairs.
• Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: Jack catches a drugged Phryne (just as she collapses, natch) and carries her to safety this way in "King Memses' Curse". Definitely a Ship Tease in this case.
• In Mock the Week: Unlikely Letters for an Agony Aunt. "Dear Diedre: Can that giant man lift me up like a baby?" You bet your ass he can!
• Monty Python's Flying Circus
  • In the "Buying a Bed sketch", a man carries his bride like this across a field, then on the streets of a city through traffic, until they arrive at a large department store.
  • The "Scotsman on a Horse" sketch ends this way when the Scotsman arrives at a church to interrupt the wedding and carries off the groom.
• My Favorite Martian: The Martian tells Tim to carry him because he's not used to Earth's gravity yet. He does, using this method.
• NCIS: Los Angeles: Played for Laughs at the end of season 8's "Payback," an otherwise serious and dramatic episode in which Kensi is kidnapped by The Mole within NCIS. The kidnapper is seconds away from dismembering her with a chainsaw when Deeks takes him out with a Double Tap. They share a moment of mutual relief, before Deeks insists on carrying her this way out of the building despite her protests that not only is it unnecessary, it's embarassing.
• The O.C.:
  • Happens in the pilot episode, when Marissa drinks until she is unconscious. Her friends ditch her in front of her house and after they leave, love interest Ryan carries her inside.
  • Again in the first season episode "The Escape" in which Marissa downs a bottle of sleeping pills with a shot of tequila after finding out that her parents were getting a divorce and her boyfriend Luke cheated on her. She stumbles into an alley and the episode ends with Ryan picking her up.
• In Once Upon a Time, Rumpelstiltskin unwittingly saves Belle in this fashion after she falls off a ladder.
  • In one episode, Hook carries Emma this way. Justified since she was freezing to death and too weak to walk to a hospital.
• Person of Interest. Subverted in "M.I.A". John Reese is carrying a Victim of the Week out of a building this way, but it means he can't grab a weapon when a gunman appears. Fortunately he's shot by Root in a Big Damn Heroes.
• Scrubs:
  • An episode from Dr. Kelso's perspective had two parodies of An Officer and a Gentleman with Kelso's Asian Babymama gathering him up in her arms while "Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong" plays in Vietnamese.
  • Inverted again in the last scene of the (intended) series finale which involves JD imagining scenes of what his future will be like, including getting married to Elliot, who bridal carries him.
    • Earlier when J.D was having a imagination segment he carries Elliot like this but manages to bang her head on every doorway killing her by the time he gets back to Dr. Cox.
• Clark does this a lot to people in Smallville.
  • Chloe, many times: Dichotic, Rush, Arrival, Noir
  • Lana, many times: X-Ray, Nicodemus, Vortex, Reckoning
  • Victoria in Shimmer.
  • Sasha in Drone.
  • Supergirl: Kara saves Lena from her fatal fall and then bears her up to her office in her arms to the delight of shippers everywhere.
  • Kyla in Skinwalker.
• Stargate:
  • Stargate Atlantis:
    • When Elizabeth Weir unexpectedly collapses, John Sheppard carries her to the infirmary this way. Probably a subtle Ship Tease (the actors said they played to this, while the writers usually deny it).
    • Ronon also carried Rodney this way after he collapsed in "The Tao of Rodney" — one wonders why, as these two aren't even slashed much in the fandom, and weren't particularly close friends on the show. Perhaps it was just easier to dump Rodney in the Ancient chair from this position than from a more sensible fireman carry. Or it was done for Pietà Plagiarism purposes.
  • During the Stargate Universe episode where the Destiny is invaded by the Lucian Alliance, Eli has to carry a wounded Chloe this way. He jokes that this kind of exercise could easily get him to lose some weight and that they should do it more often. There's some subtext here too, in that he is the Romantic Runner-Up who hasn't yet gotten over his crush on her.
• In the Starsky & Hutch episode "Shootout," Hutch carries Starsky to a back office after he's shot.
• During the final episode of season 1 of Stranger Things, Dustin carries Eleven after she passes out, despite Mike being her love interest. It's likely that this was due to Gaten Matarazzo (who plays Dustin) being the strongest out of the three boys, and therefore the only one capable of feasibly carrying an unconscious Millie Bobby Brown. Overlaps with Crisis Catch And Carry.
• Teen Wolf has Derek carry Stiles at one point. This is Played for Laughs...and Ship Tease.
• In the Korean Drama Sungkyunkwan Scandal, when Sun Joon rescues Yoon Hee after she falls into the river.
• Dean does this to Jo in Supernatural after she is attacked by a hellhound.
• Voyagers!: A platonic female-on-male variation occurs in "Voyagers of the Titanic"; Olivia comes to take Jeffrey back to the lab to make things easier once they've recreated the rabies vaccine. She lifts him into her arms to carry him there.
• WandaVision: The first episode begins with a The Dick Van Dyke Show-style scene in which Vision carries Wanda to the entrance of their new home... and drops her outside as he uses his powers to phase through the door. He opens the door, picks her up, and resumes carrying her like nothing happened.
• A more dramatic version on Without a Trace, when an agent becomes determined to rescue a fellow agent — and former lover — from a hostage situation (she's been shot) and carries her out of there like this.
• Wives and Daughters: An utterly tragic use of this trope: Squire Hamley carries his dead son Osborne in his arms. He died outside alone and he wants to bring him home.
• During Wonder Woman (1975), Lynda Carter performs this lift into carry many times, mostly on heavy-looking men, and does it with ease. here is one of many examples.

Music

• Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" music video starts with a groom carrying a bride into their new home.

Pinball

• The backglass for Jack*Bot shows Pin Bot carrying The Bride in his arms, while simultaneously holding a handful of cards.

Professional Wrestling

• Nattie Neidhart gets carried this way by a referee she runs into after getting away from "Portuguese Princess" Ariel at SHIMMER.
• Cody Rhodes stands behind Summer Rae when she attempts to interfere in a Goldust\Fandango match, knowing how it will inevitably turn out, and catches her this way so she won't get hurt. She smiles in gratitude until Fandango notices, at which point Rae starts throwing a fit.
• At the July Noches de Coliseo Carlito Colón backed off from Estrellita, who picked a fight with him for pulling down Hijo del Ninja's pants, but then took her up on the offer after Rico Rodriguez and Barbi Hayden had beaten her up, leading Hijo del Ninja to hurriedly carry Estrellita away from Colon in this manner.
• Chris Nowinski did this with Molly Holly after saving her from being put through a table by Bubba Ray Dudley, as part of their Nature Adores a Virgin storyline.
• This position is how Kane held The Undertaker's real-life wife Sarah when he got her off Bubba Ray Dudley's shoulders when he was about to power bomb her through a table. Though it is notable that she was being portrayed as an Action Girl and even beat former WCW Diamond Dallas Page in a match during this time.
• Kane also did this to Lita after their marriage, though due to the context of their marriage Lita isn't exactly happy about it.
• Antonio Cesaro catches Tyson Kidd's real-life wife Natalya like this after she was standing on the side of the ring and he accidentally knocked her off. He just threw her aside when he saw his partner was being counted for the three count, however.
• Undertaker does this to Stephanie McMahon after she was attacked on Smackdown.
• Alexa Bliss was held like this during a segment with Randy Orton and The Fiend (Bray Wyatt) both holding her for an extended amount of time. Seeing both are rather big and Alexa is very tiny it isn't surprising.

Theatre

• King Lear enters during the final scene, carrying his daughter Cordelia this way... just after it's announced they were just a little too late to prevent her execution. Also an example of Pietà Plagiarism.
• In Paint Your Wagon, Ben, having married Elizabeth, tries to carry her over the threshold, but proves too drunk to pull it off.
• The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom carries Christine this way after she faints at the end of "The Music Of The Night". Thanks to her white dressing gown, this hints at his deepest desire and actually foreshadows the play's climax, where he dresses her in a wedding gown and tries to force her to marry him.
• Bullshot Crummond opens with a plane crash, whereupon the villainous Otto von Bruno staggers onto the stage holding Fraulein Lenya, whom he promptly dumps on the ground.
• Elisabeth: Depending on the production, Death can bridal carry some (or all) of these characters: young Elisabeth, young Rudolf, and adult Rudolf.
• Sera Myu In the Nogizaka48 adaptation of the Dark Kingdom arc, Kunzite (like in the manga and animes) sweeps up an unconscious/dead Tuxedo Mask and abducts him.

Video Games

• Assassin's Creed. In the second game, Ezio has to carry Rosa to safety after she finally collapses from an arrow wound to her leg. After running and fighting with an arrow sticking out of her leg for quite a distance, mind you.
• Castlevania: Rondo of Blood: Richer carries Maria like this after rescuing her, subverted from a romantic angle as Maria is not Richer’s love interest but rather a little sister figure.
• In Dead or Alive, Gen Fu can perform this action momentarily to any◊ girl◊ character. Bonus goes to Marie Rose who is easiest set up on due to her small frame and Momiji who gets her own bridal carry in Ninja Gaiden.
• Devil May Cry:
  • In DMC4 Nero carries his childhood sweetheart Kyrie like this◊ after rescuing her from the Big Bad.
  • In a scene straight out of a Heavy Metal album cover Dante carries a naked Trish like this while on his demonic motorbike in DMC5.
• In Dragon Age: Inquisition, if Dorian and the Iron Bull are still together at the end of the Trespasser DLC, one of the epilogue slides shows Bull carrying Dorian this way after having rescued him from would-be assassins.
• In the first Dragon Quest, after rescuing the princess, the hero carries her back home in this fashion. The whole way back.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Infamously done in Final Fantasy VII, when Cloud leaves Aeris in the Lifestream for a sort-of Burial at Sea.
  • Less tragically done in the Nibelhiem Flash Back (both versions) when Cloud carries the wounded Tifa in this fashion to safety after getting the jump on Sephiroth.
  • At one point in Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, Vincent saves Yuffie from Nero's attack and takes her to a safe place by carrying her in this way.
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake: Cloud carries Jessie inside this way when she injures her leg. Later, when Aerith falls off a building, Cloud catches her and holds her this way for a few seconds before putting her down.
• Fire Emblem:
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Eliwood carries Ninian this way in Chapter 7, after saving her from the Black Fang. In addition, if they reach A support, the ending will include a CG image which has him carry her in this way as well.
  • A platonic example is the Masked Knight aka Prince Conrad catching his younger sister Anthiese Celica this way in Fire Emblem Gaiden.
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Raphael Kirsten picks up the female Avatar this way in the CG accompanying their S support.
• In The Force Unleashed, Starkiller carries Juno out of The Empirical this way.
• In Halo: Reach when Kat is shot by an Elite sniper, Carter holds her lifeless body in this fashion while waiting for support to arrive. Very tragic and kinda impressive on the Carter's part since while's Kat armor may be form fitting it still weighs over a few tons.
• Hi-Fi RUSH has an example that’s played more for side splitting laughs rather than romance. Idiot Hero Chai carries the defeated Korsica out of her base this way, but rather than being gentle Chai not only slams her face into the ID scanner to open a door but proceeds to accidentally bang Korsica’s head on every door frame as he escaping. He actually tries to be careful with her on the third one but the door closes on Korsica’s head as he tiptoes out.
• In Kingdom Hearts, Riku carries Kairi during Neverland, as she has become an Empty Shell having lost her heart.
• In The King of Fighters, Kensou carries an unconscious Athena in his arms in KOF'99. He does the same for Bao in KOF 2000.
• The Last of Us: Papa Wolf Joel carries his daughter Sarah like this after the car crashes during the infection breakout, symbolically mirrored at the end of the game when Joel carries Ellie like this when escaping the Fireflies.
• During Mass Effect 3, while you're on Mars, Ashley/Kaidan have a run-in with a Cerberus mech, which results in having their head slammed against a burning shuttle. After Shepard kills the mech, a male Shepard carries a previously romanced Ashley this way. A female Shepard, however, hoists Kaidan in a fireman's carry^note The carrier places the carried person across their shoulders and grasp their legs and one arm. If neither was romanced in ME1, then this trope is averted.
• In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, after Quiet risks her life jumping into a toxic part of Mother Base to retrieve Shabani’s necklace, Venom Snake helps pull her out and then he scoops Quiet into his arms and carries her away in this fashion. It serves as a Ship Tease and confirmation that Venom truly cares about her.
• Musashi Samurai Legend has the titular hero do this with some of the damsels. While carrying them, however, he is restricted to two attacks: throwing said damsel into the air, performing a 360-degree slash, then catching them before they hit the ground, or smacking her into the enemy! Hilariously, it's possible to miss the catch, meaning you may spend some time actively dropping the damsel while trying to fight off your pursuers.
• In MWULTRA the player character Ian carries his bandmate Jo in this manner if they are embarking on the final mission together. Ian can be drunk at any point during the game, this included, in which case movement will be both slowed down and delayed.
• Gender inverted on the cover of NieR: Automata 2B holds 9S in this fashion.
• Persona:
  • In Persona 4: Arena, Aigis picks up Kanji after defeating him in her storyline, much to his embarrassment. Her being much shorter than him doesn't help.
  • In Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, the faked portrait at the end of the Group Date Cafe scene depicts the protagonist and their "destined partner" as this, with the protagonist as the carrier (unless if their partner is one of the Persona 3 boys, Theo, Zen, Koromaru, or Aigis if playing as the P3 protagonist). If their destined partner is a girl, the protagonist has the option to actually pick them up like so—except if their partner is Aigis, who proclaims to be too heavy and picks the protagonist up instead.
  • In Persona 5, Ann (as Panther) lands in Yusuke's arms in this manner when they landed at Madarame's Palace, at least before Morgana landed on Yusuke's head.
• In Pokémon Sun and Moon, one of the many available Ride Pokémon is a Machamp, which uses its upper arms to push heavy boulders and its lower arms to carry the player character like this.
• Resident Evil:
  • In Resident Evil 4 ladies’s man protag Leon will briefly hold Ashley in this fashion after Falling into His Arms from a height before setting her down. Likely a case of Story And Gameplay Integration as Ashley doggedly refuses to just use a ladder to get down when there is one, meaning she just wants to the chance to jump into Leon’s arms. The remake definitely plays it off sensually.
  • The Resident Evil 5 storyboards reveal Wesker carried the wounded Jill in this fashion◊ after they fell out the of a window in the Lost in Nightmares DLC.
  • When The Virus debilitates Sherry in Resident Evil 2 both Claire and Leon respectively cradle her in their arms.
  • Similarly Joe Baker cradles his niece Zoe like this when she’s infected.
• In Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE, Cu Chulainn's mount animation consists of him carrying the player in this manner while looking into their eyes... regardless of gender.
• Silent Hill 2 has a heart crushingly tragic version where after making peace with his wife Mary for killing her out of mercy when she was sick and in pain James slowly picks Mary up and carries her away◊ making an image iconic enough to make one of the covers and the trailer.
  • The mood-breaker comes from Guy Cihi who claimed the Motion capturing on that scene was difficult since Mary's actor Monica Taylor Horgan was heavier than she looked.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), two whole levels are devoted to Sonic running and carrying the (human) Damsel in Distress in this way.
• One reason why Taki is among the many people shipped with Sophitia in the Soul Series. The first Soulcalibur game for consoles had pictures featuring the events of Soul Edge — one picture features Sophitia being critically injured after shattering one of Cervantes's Soul Edge swords. The enraged Cervantes is about to kill Sophitia, but he's shanked by Taki. Then Taki takes up Sophitia in a bridal carry and takes her to safety as well as removes most of the Soul Edge shards from her body.
• Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns has the male farmer do this to Komari in an early love event for her because she's complaining about her stomach hurting. He picks her up and she complains about it, asking him to please let her down because she can walk. The player can choose to let her down and walk her home or keep carrying her, despite her embarrassment.
• Street Fighter:
  • As the leading lady Chun-Li has been held in the arms of male characters in this way a good amount of times. Mostly notably Guile in IV.
  • Rose, the fortune teller, has been held this way in the arms of both her arch-enemy M. Bison and her friend Guy all around the same time frame when she was unconscious.
  • Cammy carries her clone sister Decapre in this fashion in the A Shadow Falls story mode.
  • In 6, newcomer Marisa has a victory pose where she kneels down to her defeated opponent and started scooping them up in her arms this way.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • After Princess Peach rescues Mario in Super Princess Peach, he does one with Peach, ending with him taking out flowers out of his hat while Peach blows some kisses and hearts.
  • Mario is doing this for Princess Peach when he is rescuing or otherwise escorting her starting with Super Mario 3D Land. (If he isn't, then they're Holding Hands instead).
• While Super Smash Bros. doesn't have any direct examples, one of Palutena's throws makes her opponent assume the princess carried position before being launched. When being kidnapped by Boss Galaga all females who are damsels in their own series assume the carried pose◊.
• In Tomb Raider (2013), Lara carries Sam like this while the latter's wearing a white dress. Needless to say, this does nothing to reduce the Les Yay they've shared throughout.
• Beat rescues Rhyme in this manner in the opening cinematic of The World Ends with You.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Shulk pulls an unconscious Fiora out of the wreckage of Face Nemesis, then carries her to shore in this manner. Made all the more impressive by the fact that:
  • In the cutscene just prior to this, he took a Mechon blade to the back, spending the remainder of the scene shaking in obvious pain and limping from various injuries sustained throughout the assault on Galahad Fortress, before diving what appeared to be several kilometers down after a falling Fiora
  • This is Shulk, nerdy and bookish, weedy little guy, who at the game's start would have had trouble picking up and carrying Fiora at all, let alone after
  • Fiora's Unwilling Roboticization, which she tells Reyn shortly after this has made her "much heavier than she used to be". The Power of Love indeed.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, after Zeke sliced through the chains that Pyra is strapped on as she was electrocuted in Chapter 6, Rex slid and caught Pyra in his arms in this manner at the last second after she fell.

Visual Novels

• Amnesia: Later: Shin does this to the heroine in a flashback because she injured her ankle. And the After Story for Ukyo has him carrying her like this out of the burning university, and later while 'kidnapping' her from the wedding café photoshoot.
• A rather sad example comes from Crescendo (JP), with Ryo Sasaki hurriedly carrying Yuka Otowa to the school infirmary after she suffers a uterus-wrecking miscarriage in-class. Complete with blood dripping down poor Yuka's inner thighs.
• The first Galaxy Angel trilogy has this happening at different points in Ranpha's and Forte's routes. Ranpha has it in the second game, after she and Tact reconcile from a misunderstanding that ends in a breakup, and Forte has it in the third game, when he carries her to the infirmary so she can finally rest instead of overworking herself.
• In Heart of the Woods, one ending has the newly married Morgan and Tara(both women) do this, with the former carrying the latter across the threshold on their wedding day.
• The protagonist does this to Miren in Kimihagu.
• In Princess Evangile, Masaya does this to Konomi to save her from getting hurt after she tries to climb up a cherry tree just before the May festival. In her route in W Happiness, he does this two more times to her, the first after she wins the naginata tournament and suffers from exhaustion, and the second after she sprains her ankle during the summer festival.
• The Witness: A Bodyguard Romance's cover shows the protagonist being carried by her love interest.
• Bo does it in one scene of Yo-Jin-Bo. Muneshige and Mon-Mon give piggyback rides.

Webcomics

• In Ava's Demon, Gil carries Ava like this.
• Cucumber Quest
  • In one Q&A, Cucumber makes an offhand remark that if she's the hero, Almond would have to carry him. She obliges.
  • Commander Caboodle carries off Nautilus after saving her from Rosemaster's execution.
• Dangerously Chloe had the succubus protagonist carry her sort-of-boyfriend during their "daring escape in the air", to his giddy delight. Which covers both "strength" part (it was already established that succubi use The Power of Love in various ways) and "clumsy head-bonking" part.
• Kou carries Vix like this in Dream*Scar.
• Walter from Dubious Company has an awkward moment with his crew when he is caught doing this with Tiren while shirtless. He was just trying to escape the Quirky Miniboss Squad.
  • Tiren's Luminescent Blush and Walter folding up his wings didn't help, either.
• In El Goonish Shive, when Hedge carries Elliot away to The Nest after subduing him, he does so using this carry instead of the Over-the-Shoulder Carry as would be expected of a typical antagonist in that situation. While choosing this carry over the other one does not have the usual connotations, in this case, it is one of the clues that Hedge is not actually evil and doesn't actually have malicious intentions toward Elliot.
• When Lydia falls asleep watching The Exorcist in Cobweb and Stripes, Betelgeuse carries her to her bedroom in this fashion.
• Freefall:
  • Winston picks up Florence, so she doesn't have to walk on her injured leg.
  • An earlier example also has a near instance of Pietà Plagiarism.
• Girl Genius:
  • When Agatha is still reeling from being knocked out but she and Tarvek are in a hurry she orders him to carry her this way.
  • After Zeetha is stabbed through the chest Higgs carries her to Mama Gkika's with an arm under her legs and her arm over one of his shoulders, which she eventually moves to a near one-armed hug.
  • Tarvek picks up the heavily wounded Ruxala with an arm behind her back and another under her knees to carry her out of a crashed and burning airship.
  • Gil carries Tarvek to a bed after the latter passes out with an arm under his knees and the other supporting his back.
• Heartstopper: Nick does this to his boyfriend Charlie occasionally, whether he’s injured or just for fun.
• Let's Get Divorced!: Han-gyeol will occasionally carry his love interest Baek-hui in his arms:
  • He does it to put her to bed in chapter 29.
  • Invoked in chapter 31, when the photographer for their wedding shoot asks him to lift her up in his arms.
• There's a heartbreaking one in Pacificators. Big brother Austin does this with his little sister Amanda, who is dead.
• In Plume, Corrick picks up Vesper after she falls into a frozen lake.
• In Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger, carrying half the assassin (she was a symbiote) during the After-Action Healing Drama.
• Averted in Schlock Mercenary: Faced with a high-gravity environment, Tagon stretches out his arms to offer a ride to an unarmored female character this way. The female, being a scientist, declines — noting that while Tagon may be wearing Powered Armor, she'd be unprotected from the obvious effects of pressing against metal arms at increased gravity.
• In Sinfest, Slick while carrying Monique away from all the soulless materialism -- to home, also infected by this.
  • Parodied in some other pages where Slick carries Monique but has to put her down and rest.
• Brian carries Sarah like this after she's been drugged in Think Before You Think.
• Waterworks: Slick carries Connie this way as they are heading to an elevator.
• Gender-switched in Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic with Nephilia carrying Wolf after their wedding.
• In Yumi's Cells, when Yum collapses with a fever, Woong carries her to the hospital like this. Even thinking "Carry my princess!"

Web Originals

• Manga Angel Neko Oka: Saito carries Akane this way to the hospital when she felt sick.
• "Di-VINE Olympians 2", from Overly Sarcastic Productions, has a gag where Achilles is carrying Patroclus in one of these. For bonus points, they're wearing a matching set of "If Lost, Return To Patroclus"/"I Am Patroclus" shirts.
  Apollo: Why do we even need Coming Out Day anyway? Everyone's a little gay!
  Achilles: Well, I'm a big gay, and I'm coming out today as the World's Biggest Gay.
• The Revenge Films episode "My wife had a miscarriage... Her parents were mad, but the truth always hurts..." deconstructs this trope as Jack's coworker holds the former's wife in this way until the man himself surprises them with his presence, startling the lover into dropping her to the floor. Since the sudden drop caused her to break her hip and she was pregnant with his child, the wife not only had a miscarriage but also became paraplegic.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Aang actually does this to Katara in the first episode when jumping out of the Fire Navy ship, despite Katara being a head taller than him; Aang did have to bend his knees to support her.
  • The Legend of Korra, Mako does this for Korra after she escapes from being held captive by Tarrlok and from almost being captured again by Amon. Done again later in a frantic attempt to escape Amon after Korra gets De-bended by him. This is a one-time occurrence and Korra usually is one lifting people around.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers: A platonic male-on-male example occurs in "Hate Canal"; when Ma-Ti crumples to the ground from illness after being bitten by one of Skumm's mutated rats, Wheeler lifts him princess-style so that they can get him to the hospital. And in the episode "Missing Linka", the disguised Wheeler carries the unconscious Linka to safety. But, he left her when she wakes up.
• In The Casagrandes episode "Date with Destiny", Maria Santiago was carried out of the water by T-Bone, whom the former was covered in one of Frida's art pieces, and the water washed it off.
• Casper's Scare School: In "Our Boy Wolfie", a man carries his girlfriend like this as they run away from Wolfie.
• Castlevania: Nocturne Richer in the climax carries Maria like this after escaping the Big Bad Erzsebet. Like in the games it’s more big brotherly than romantic especially since Richer is the only family Maria has left after her mother Tera has just been turned into a vampire to spare her daughter the same fate.
• Danny Phantom: The title hero does this with Sam in the series finale after they had finally become a couple.
• A gender-inverted one happens with Sarah and Jimmy from Ed, Edd n Eddy when the former carries the latter in the episode "Urban Ed."
• Fireman Sam:
  • In "Bentley the Robot", Bentley does this with Firefighter Penny Morris when rescuing her from a near-death experience when the garage of the fire station catches fire, all due to Norman swapping Bentley's control tape with a "Raiders of the Lost Universe" tape.
  • In "Rich and Famous", Fireman Sam does this with Dilys Price while rescuing her from her roof when the attic catches fire.
• In Gargoyles, Goliath usually carries Elisa like this during the course of the series when she travels with the Manhattan Clan by air.
• Gender reversal in a flashback scene in Hey Arnold! when newlyweds Oskar and Suzie are moving into the boarding house, Suzie was the one carrying Oskar.
• In Futurama, this happens with Fry and Leela in one particularly sweet moment during "Three Hundred Big Boys" when Nixon's gala is set ablaze and Fry gets Super-Speed. As Time Stands Still for him, he immediately goes over to Leela (who's mid leap to try and kick the burning escape door down) and gently carries her away in his arms◊ before saving everyone else there.
• Jackie Chan Adventures
  • Being a 3-foot-tall slim girl, Jade was a prime candidate and picked up from the floor frequently. Not only did Jackie frequently hold her like this, but mooks who were usually taller than Jackie frequently did this to her, one huge mook was able to put her in the position◊ with one arm due to her small stature and still supporting her back and legs with the same hand.
  • In the same episode as the example image, Tohru does the action to Jackie himself.
• Kick Buttowski: Brad pulls off a literal version of this in "Bwar and Peace", where he's seen carrying his Viking bride around after their wedding.
  Brad: Yeah husband!
• Looney Tunes: Pepé Le Pew carries Penelope like this when she faints from exhaustion in Little Beau Pepe.
  • Another cartoon has Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd get married (It Makes Sense in Context) and Bugs carries a bridal gown-clad Elmer over the threshold, only to drop him off a cliff.
• In The Loud House episode, "In the Mick of Time", when Luna Loud was trying to get to Mick Swagger in the concert, she tried crowd surfing her way to him, but the crowd threw her to Chunk and he caught her in his buff arms this way.
• In The New Adventures of Superman, Superman lifts Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen under the knees and back when rescuing them.
• In The Owl House episode "Wing It Like Witches", Amity gets carried this way by her crush Luz after injuring her leg in a grudgby match:
  Luz: And...scoop!
  Amity: Haha, oh! Wow! Sports!
• In Rick and Morty, Rick carries Morty's deactivated sexbot back to his lab in this way.
• In Samurai Jack, Jack does this to Ashi in episode 4 of season 5 while they are trapped in a creature.
• The Simpsons
  • Parodied in "Life on the Fast Lane":
    Homer: I'm going to the back seat of my car with the woman I love, and I won't be back for TEN MINUTES!
  • Parodied again in "Lisa's First Word" in a flashback when he tries to carry a very heavily pregnant Marge over the threshold and does his back in.
  • Inverted at the end of Strong Arms of the Ma when Marge carries Homer to bed.
• In The Smurfs (1981) special "Smurfily Ever After", when Smurfette imagines herself being married to Hefty, he carries her in a jog through the village to his house. Smurfette asks if he's doing this because he's so eager to be alone with her, and Hefty says he's doing this because it's good exercise.
• In Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Sonic frequently carries Sally in this fashion when they escape from danger.
• South Park: Jimmy carries a prostitute in "Erection Day" complete with Joe Cocker song.
• In one of the opening sequences for the Spider-Man: The Animated Series of The '90s, Spider-Man is seen carrying Harry Osborn twice like this.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Temporal Edict", Commander Ransom carries Ensign Mariner in this fashion because she has great difficulty walking thanks to the severe foot injury he gave to her. It also demonstrates how strong he is because he effortlessly lifts her up into his arms.
• Superman: The Animated Series: True to general form, Superman's default carrying position for people he likes is in his arms, supported under the shoulders and knees.
  • "Feeding Time": Superman lifts Jimmy under the knees and back when he's evacuating him before dealing with Parasite.
  • "Brave New Metropolis": Superman carries Lois princess-style as he flies away from the lab after having been called to rescue her when she got pulled into an alternate dimension.
  • "Monkey Fun": Superman catches Jimmy in midair after he slips and falls from the roof trying to get away from Titano. The next shot shows him carrying his younger coworker in his arms as he goes to survey the damage.
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!: In the Circus Episode, Sprx carries Nova bridal style after he saves her from a snake woman monster and she falls into his arms.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), Bebop and Rocksteady sometimes carried April O'Neil like this when they kidnapped her, and one of the turtles would do this to her if they caught her after she fell from a high place.
• In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Donatello is shown carrying Leonardo this way during a nightmare sequence in the Wacky World of Wyrm.
• In the Teen Titans episode "The End Part 1", Cyborg carries Raven this way as the team brings her to a safe room.
• In the Tom and Jerry episode "Flirty Birdy," a male eagle does this to a crossdressing Tom at one point.
• Gender inverted in the Total Drama World Tour episode "Slap Slap Revolution" where Izzy is seen carrying Noah around in this style after accidentally injuring him in a previous scene. True to his Non-Action Snarker status, Noah is perfectly fine with being carried and none of the other contestants comment on the two.
  • Invoked in the wedding-themed "Niagara Brawls".
• Transformers
  • In The Transformers episode "Auto Berserk", Inferno carries his friend Red Alert out of a burning building in this manner.
  • Silverbolt carries Blackarachnia this way while approaching the Ark in the Beast Wars episode "The Agenda, Part Three".
• In Voltron: Legendary Defender, Keith catches Allura this way when they run into each other while both trying to secretly escape the team.
• Wakfu: Sadlygrove carries Evangelyne this way thrice: on their very first encounter in episode 2, then in Eva's dream in episode 20, and again for real in episode 24 after he saves her from Desherboss.
• Gender inverted in the Work It Out Wombats! episode "Gift for a Fish." Zadie and Malik roll into Mr. E, sending him flying through the air. Ellie catches him in her arms.
• Young Justice: Kid Flash rescues Artemis from firing tanks in "Bereft" and carries her like this.

Real Life

• The Trope Namer is derived from the commonly recurring event of newly wed husbands carrying their newly wed wives (typically called "brides") into their new homes.
• Women and teenaged girls often gender-invert this trope by carrying extremely young, wounded, and ill boys over to comfortable resting places.

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