Basic Trope: Hug counteracts a Freak Out.
- Straight: Bob is in the midst of some form of mental breakdown, and Alice hugs him, making him come back to his senses and calm down.
- Exaggerated: Long-term psychological problems that would normally take years of therapy can all be fixed with a nice, big Glomp.
- Downplayed: Bob is still bawling his eyes out, but Alice's hug at least prevented Bob's breakdown from worsening.
- Justified:
- Inverted:
- Alice slaps Bob in the face in order to calm him down
- The hug makes Bob even angrier
- Alice hugs Bob to give him a mental breakdown.
- Bob, in a fit of rage, hugs Alice.
- Bob is in pain, but restrains himself. Alice notices this and gives him a hug. This makes him drop the act and bawl his eyes out.
- Bob is going through a bit of distress and hugs Alice to calm himself down. Alice sees the hug for what it is and allows it.
- Alice hugs Bob and he becomes angry.
- Alice hugs herself, much to Bob's confussion.
- Subverted:
- The cooldown hug doesn't work, and Bob might even react badly to it, such as lashing out at Alice.
- Alternately, Alice was only hugging Bob in order to restrain him or stab him in the back.
- Interrupted Cooldown Hug
- Double Subverted: Despite it going very badly at first, and appearing to make things worse, Alice persists in trying to give Bob a Cooldown Hug, and it eventually works.
- Parodied: Alice's hugs can soothe anybody and can end all conflicts.
- Zig Zagged:
- Alice gives a cooldown hug to Bob but it's interrupted causing Bob to re-rampage but Alice (or someone else) tries again and is successful.
- Averted:
- Alice's hug does nothing for Bob.
- Alice never hugs Bob.
- Enforced: The author once saw one of their friends get better after being hugged, and found it to be so sweet they knew it would make it into their book.
- Lampshaded: "Mental Problems? Nothing a hug can't fix!"
- Invoked: Bob pretends to be freaking out to get his crush Alice hug him.
- Exploited: Evulz uses this as an opportunity to kill both of them.
- Defied: Alice decides that coming near Bob right now is a bad idea.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Bob finds the hug to be condescending, but is willing to admit that Alice cares for him and calms down. However, he eventually concludes that this action belittled his outrage and goes on to believe that Alice does not take him seriously, which just ends up making things worse.
- Alice becomes very stressed by the responsibility of taking care of Bob.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice is informed about how her treatment of Bob affected him, feels genuinely sorry and lets him know that she did not mean to mock his suffering and wanted to show that she embraced him. The words soothe Bob's spirit.
- Alice is a Cuddle Bug and hugging Bob is also enjoyable for her as a result. Any stress she feels is relieved by how much she likes the hug.
- Played For Laughs: Alice's Interrupted Cooldown Hug is only met with Bob saying "Do you mind?! We're trying to have a moment here."
Back to Cooldown Hug
