"It was the happy ending the nation wanted to see. The Capitol broke precedent and bowed to public demand by bringing Danny to the Capitol. The reunion was live during the final interview. There were tears, screams, and declarations of eternal love."
This is it, the moment the whole story has been leading up to. Character X is finally reuniting with character Y again after weeks, months, perhaps even years apart. They've been looking, alternatively waiting, for each other for so long, they've never given up hope, and finally the day is here. Cue the Tears of Joy from the readers or audience as these two or more characters have a tearful embrace that's been long overdue.
Will often be the result of I Will Find You or I Will Wait for You. Alternatively, the Big Damn Reunion doesn't have to be the main plot of the story or even happen to the main characters; side plots of minor characters reuniting after a long while also counts, so long as there's an emphasis on the moment. If there're two characters seeing each other after a long while and either this is not treated like a big deal or the two characters are not happy to see each other (e.g., the hero and an old enemy of his), then the trope doesn't count. Big Damn Reunion means the characters have joyous tears at finding each other, and is often, but not exclusively, the conclusion of the story or of a character's plight. Expect it to involve a Meadow Run. Often results in The Glomp. If the reunion is a romantic one, it may also culminate in The Big Damn Kiss.
Note that it is not required for the characters involved to be actively searching for each other. One or both of them may have given up, thought the other was dead/gone, or even not tried to find the other character at all due to circumstances, and one day simply happens to find each other by chance.
Downplayed versions of the trope will happen when the two characters who meet are obviously happy to see each other, but are not able to show it due to circumstances. As long as there's emphasis on the characters being happy over reuniting, even if it's subtle, the trope still counts.
See Split and Reunion. Compare Class Reunion. If it's a reunion happening at the end of a character's life (or beyond), see Together in Death.
Warning: As this is a trope about two or more characters finding each other that often concludes a character's plight, or the story in whole, there will be spoilers.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Inuyasha: In the finale, Kagome and Inuyasha reunite after a timeskip of three years during which the gate between their world was closed, before she was finally able to come back.
- Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin: Happens often between man and dog both in this series and its sequel, Ginga Densetsu Weed. The happiest one probably happens to one of the side characters in the sequel, Sasuke the shiba, who gets a subplot of happily reuniting with his owners after two years apart. The other reunions in the show, particularly between the main character Gin and his human Daisuke, are more tragic as the first time they reunite after months apart, Daisuke is not allowed near Gin by the other dogs, and when they do reunite properly both later in the series and in the sequel, it's only for a short while. Though it doesn't stop said moments from being filled with joy from both dog and former owner.
- Berserk: After having gone on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after the events of the Eclipse, Guts learns, after two years, that his former comrade and lover Casca (who became insane after the aforementioned event) has disappeared from the one place she was safe and is in peril somewhere. Guts subsequently has to go to hell and back to reunite with her again, and ultimately succeeds.
- Ouran High School Host Club: Towards the end of the manga, the Host Club and everyone's Tamaki's helped throughout the series helps him get to the airport in time so he can see his mother for the first time in three years.
- Vampire Knight: Downplayed in the reunion between Zero and Yuuki after one year apart. The panels have a huge emphasis on the two seeing each other again across the room, but due to their falling out and different social statuses at the time, they're unable to show any emotion towards the other and act like nothing despite how hard it is for them.
- Your Name: Mitsuha and Taki meet by chance at the end and ask each other if they've met before, with both of them shedding happy tears when they finally found whom they'd unconsciously been searching for for many years.
- In episode 15 of Pokémon Generations, the plot follows the events of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 wherein N Harmonia battles against his Archnemesis Dad. Just when it appears that he's going to lose, an attack appears out of nowhere and saves him - it's Hilbert, the Player Character of the previous game who went missing between the two games...because he was searching for N. Looks like he finally found him.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 2nd A's begins with Nanoha and Fate being reunited after six months, and it's absolutely overflowing with romantic undertones.
- Jujutsu Kaisen: Invoked but subverted. By the time of the Goodwill event, Kugisaki and Fushiguro have been led to believe their classmate Itadori has been dead for two months. When the time comes to reveal to them that he has actually survived, Itadori is counting on a "touching reunion" happening between the three of them; Gojo even hijacks it to make it more grandiose. After Itadori jumps out of the suitcase Gojo brought, however, Fushiguro and Kugisaki's reactions are eye-twitching Color Failure instead of the teary emotion Itadori was expecting, to his dismay. It is made clear later, however, that they are happy he's back.
Comic Books
- Fables: Snow and Bigby happily reunite after the latter disappeared for four years, and they're finally able to marry and raise their children together.
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe:
- A Letter from Home: Averted first and then later played straight in the Don Rosa Disney comic where Scrooge meets his sister Matilda again after nearly 25 years. Because of how they fell out all those years before, it's not a happy reunion, as Matilda still wants nothing to do with Scrooge for having turned his family away because of his greed and mean temper. Later in the story, Scrooge reveals his true nature when he tries to take the bullet for Matilda by jumping between her and the villain as the latter fires a gun. The gun backfires, however, and Scrooge and Matilda later have the chance to talk things out between them and finally have a happy reunion.
- In Don Rosa's Disney comic A Little Something Special, the story ends with Scrooge getting a surprise visit from his old flame Goldie, resulting in a heartwarming and hilarious scene.
- Sin City: In the fourth book, That Yellow Bastard, John Hartigan tries to track down the girl he saved many years ago from the twisted pedophilic serial killer whose Senator father framed him for his son's crimes and put Hartigan away for many years. It turns out that she's grown up to become the gorgeous stripper Nancy Callahan when he realizes that the bad guys have been using him as bait to find her. He tries to walk out when she notices him, freezes in the middle of her performance, then runs straight into his arms with The Big Damn Kiss.
- The New Teen Titans: Who Is Donna Troy?: Wonder Girl Donna Troy is reunited with her original adoptive mother Fay Stacey (who was tricked into giving Donna up by an Amoral Attorney who claimed the state wouldn't let her keep Donna due to her financial situation). The two embrace and cry and have a long chat while getting to know each other again after over a decade of separation.
Fairy Tales
- "The Canary Prince": The prince has no idea his true love is a princess until their wedding day when her father shows up and recognizes her. He apologizes for how he mistreated her, punishes her Wicked Stepmother who talked him into it, and he becomes part of her happy ending.
- Cinderella's happy ending depends on the prince realizing that the beauty from the ball and this humble cinder-maid are one in the same, and he loves her either way.
- "The Nix in the Mill-Pond": The nixie kidnaps a man, and his wife conducts three magic rituals where she exchanges treasure for her husband's return. But their happiness is short-lived and the vengeful nixie floods the countryside, separating them again when they wash ashore in different kingdoms. One day years later, but utter coincidence, they cross paths and bond, not suspecting that their new friend is actually their lost love. When he offers to entertain her with a song on his flute — the same song she used to try and save him — they finally recognize each other and live happily ever after.
- In "Maid Maleen", the titular character and her lover are separated when Maleen is locked away in a tower. Seven years later, Maleen manages to break out of the tower, makes her way to her prince's country and she is reunited with him again.
Fan Works
- In the Peggy Sue chapter of All Assorted Animorphs AUs, as soon as Tobias and Rachel see each other, they start kissing. Later, Jake hugs Tom as soon as he gets home. Both Tom and Rachel have been dead for five years from the time-travellers' perspectives.
- In The Beast Of Gusu, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji reunite in a forest after three months apart, during which they kept looking for each other, even if Wei Wuxian had suffered some form of memory loss. They’re overjoyed at seeing each other again and refuse to let go of their embrace.
- The Bolt Chronicles: Occurs with Bolt, Mittens, and Rhino in "The Gift." When Mittens dies and enters Nirvana, Bolt and Rhino, who have both predeceased her, run up and greet her with a big hug.
- In the Animorphs fanfic The Day the Earth Stood Still, Jake hugs Tom and cries into his shoulder after the latter is freed from custody; while they'd technically only been apart for a few days, the real Tom last spoke to Jake three years ago.
- Final Fantasy VII: Another Side: Played With in regards to Zack and Aerith. As AVALANCHE goes to try and stop Shinra from dropping the Sector 7 plate, Tifa asks Aerith to get Marlene to safety and Barrett asks Zack to do the same thing, resulting in them running into each other, much to their surprise. Given the situation, there's no time for a proper reunion and they quickly go in different directions, Aerith with Marlene and Zack to help with the fight, but promising they'll talk afterwards. This gets derailed as Aerith is taken by the Turks to Shinra Tower, and the party goes off to rescue her, which results in reunion, separation followed by reunion. It isn't until they escape Midgar that they are finally able to talk, clear the air, and figure out where they go from here, culminating in a Big Damn Kiss.
- Finding Family is naturally chock-full of these; the first two chapters focus on Sprig and Ivy reuniting and catching up with the Calamity Trio. Chapter 4 has Sasha and Marcy visit everyone in Wartwood and taking the time to catch up with Hop Pop, Polly, Grime, Percy, Braddock, Olivia and Yunan, and Chapter 5 has Anne return to Amphibia and reunite with everyone previously mentioned above, specifically the whole Plantar family.
- The Ghost of Ochs: Monica, worried that her father might be in trouble after not responding to her letters assuring him she hadn't died in captivity, ventures toward Fódlan's Fangs after receiving a tip about some bandits terrorizing the area near her old homeland. After defeating the bandits, she visits the baron at his workshop where he is overjoyed to see his daughter in the flesh for the first time in almost a year.
- Infinity Train: Boiling Point has the reunion between Luz, Skara, Amity, and the Blight twins during the Cupid Bee Car saga: Luz and Skara squee upon seeing each other before hugging, while Amity hugs her siblings and tells them how much she missed them before they return the hug.
- Loved and Lost: After the dishonored heroes — the princesses, Shining Armor, the Mane Five and Spike — are banished from Equestria as exiles/slaves, they attempt to have this with Twilight one week later, reuniting with her in Canterlot during the tenth chapter. Unfortunately, things go awry when Cadence is injured by Jewelius, and Twilight, assuming the others got her hurt and still harboring resentment over the wedding rehearsal, renounces them and lets them be apprehended. They are successful in their second attempt during the 17th chapter when Twilight, after discovering that Jewelius is evil, arrives in Ponyville. Upon recovering from the shock of seeing her, they give her a warm and grateful welcome.
- Maybe Sprout Wings: After Castiel rescues Dean from the hell-on-earth that is slavery, Dean wants to take time to recover before reuniting with Sam. Sam has other ideas and tracks Dean down, leading to an emotional reunion.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles:
- The final page of Chapter 3 and a good chunk of Chapter 4 focus on Sakura being reunited with Sasuke after the latter decided to return to Konoha for the first time since his Face–Heel Turn, with Naruto joining the reunion halfway through Chapter 4.
- Naruto and Hinata have one after the former was declared KIA during a mission, only coming back to Konoha over 11 days later.
- In-universe, Naruto has written an Icha Icha novel where the hero and the heroine have this kind of reunion. When reading the chapter that features said reunion, Naruto imagines himself and Hinata as the hero and the heroine respectively.
- The Charmed (1998) fanfic "Once and Future Witches
" features Piper, Phoebe and Paige post-series going back in time to 1999 to deal with their latest threat, which includes them interacting with the Charmed Ones of that era. Once the crisis is resolved, Prue's spirit is finally allowed to visit her living sisters, as their interaction with the past without changing anything confirmed that Piper and Phoebe in particular have fully accepted Prue's death and are able to see her again.
- People Like Us: After several days of wandering around Gotham to distance himself from Arthur, Travis finally works up the courage to go back to Arthur's apartment where he finds him inside the fridge.
- The Portal: Thomas Smith winds up entering the Dragon Realms and becoming a dragon, leaving his parents, John and Sarah, pretty worried about him. In the sequel, Hard Choices, Thomas' parents decide to look for him and end up entering the Dragon Realms too, becoming dragons in the process. In Chapter 5, Thomas reunites with his parents, and his father is quite overjoyed to see him despite them both being transformed into dragons. Sarah, not so much...
- Resurrected Memories: This occurs between Ember and her younger sister Amy in chapter 61 "Please believe me part 2" when each finally figures out who the other really is.
- Ring My Heart, Tied to Your Finger: Sonny is sent undercover to help out an existing operative, only to find that said operative is his boyfriend — who was supposedly killed eight months earlier. For the duration of the operation, they have to play it cool because their cover identities have supposedly never met before, but once it's over, they finally get to reunite properly.
- Shadows Over Hell:
- Octavia spends the whole second half, trapped inside Mother's Realm, starting Chapter 30. With everyone thinking her dead, her body replaced by a fake cadaver, while she's left alone and terrified far away from her loved ones, Octavia finally manages to briefly contact Loona after a month away from her. Her friends and family immediately prepare a rescue, and after arming themselves with the best equipment they can get their hands on, going through the worst of Mother's Realm to find her, she is finally reunited with them in Chapter 57. Despite her malnourished, shaken and traumatized state, everyone is relived to finally have found her, leading to a very emotional and cathartic hug.gratifying as Hell, with everyone crying tears of joy upon seeing her again.
- Warden Rufus was to be forever separated from his wife and daughter after their deaths. Spending milennia in Hell, making a new life for himself, while his family was in Heaven, Rufus receives an unorthodox but kind gift from Krampus himself during Krampusnacht. One day together with his beloved daughter. Their reunion, however brief, is incredibly moving.
- In the Touhou Project fanfic Suikakasen, Kasen sees Yoshika for the first time in 1,200 years and hugs her... but she's a Soulless Shell now and has no memory of her. Kasen apologizes and says that she reminded her of someone she knew a long time ago... but then Yoshika's ascetic training allows her to restore her memory and they both begin to cry Tears of Joy from finally seeing each other again.
- Three Strikes
- Subverted. Pixy is excited to see his daughter again, but the reunion between them isn’t the happy one that Pixy had hoped for. Instead, Trigger is very angry with him (and the rest of her family) for keeping their history a secret from her. She goes on a rant on him before eventually walking off. Things get better soon after.
- Trigger reunites with Mage and Golem squadrons during Operation Fisherman and is quite thrilled to be working with her old friends again.
- The Star Trek fic "To the Journey" opens with Tasha Yar (who survived her death in canon) managing to help save Captain James T. Kirk following the Battle of Veridian. The senior staff of the Enterprise-D are able to keep his survival secret until they are returned to Earth, by which point Tasha has been able to contact Kirk's surviving senior staff (Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura and Sulu). When Kirk is transported down to join the conference intended to announce his return, his old friends are stunned into silence, all but Spock gaping incredulously, but soon rush towards him, the four humans giving Kirk a joyful hug and Spock ultimately doing the same after Kirk hugs him first.
- What Tomorrow Brings:
- The Animorphs get this when Tobias reveals that it was Ax in the Andalite fighter rather than Elfangor, the rest of the team making it clear that Ax can't get out of the subsequent group hug.
- The first thing Tom does after he's freed is hug Rachel. Then Jake starts crying after Tom calls him "midget."
- Tobias is shocked when he finds Elfangor and Loren, and the latter hugs him tightly while sobbing.
- In Where There's A Will, There's A Road, Lan Xichen embraces his two sworn brothers in the midst of one of these. He's also crying and relieved that they're alright.
- In the Star Wars Rebels fanfic Patron of the Art of War, when Sabine is rescued the Ghost Crew is overjoyed to be reunited with her and everyone gives her a much-needed hug. Sabine is especially relived having believed that they have been dead for a month.
Films — Animation
- Kung Fu Panda 3: A version that happens towards the beginning of the film as Po reunites with his father whom he hasn't seen since he was a cub. Towards the end of the film, Po still finds himself in the spirit realm after having defeated Kai, and reunites with Oogway who passed away in the first film.
- Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: The two horses Spirit and Rain reunite towards the end in an overjoyed manner as they both thought the other was dead or gone. Spirit then has another reunion at the end with his herd and with his mother after having not seen them for months.
- The Lion King: Simba and Nala coincidentally meet again as adults and have a joyous reunion, particularly from Nala's point of view as she had thought Simba was dead.
- Finding Nemo: The whole film revolves on Marlin trying to find his son, which he finally does in the end. The sequel, Finding Dory, has Dory trying to find her long lost parents, with another big reunion at the end.
- Parodied in Madagascar. After being washed ashore, Alex and Marty are happily running towards each other in slow motion and to swelling music... until Alex remembers Marty got them into this mess, and his face turns menacing and Marty realizes he better U-turn and leg it.
Alex: Marty!Marty: Alex!Alex: Marty!Marty: Al-Alex: Marty...Marty: Alex?Alex: (furious) MARTY!!!Marty: Oh Sugar Honey Ice Tea!
- Anastasia: While the real story was more tragic, the animated adaptation of the missing Grand Duchess Anastasia has the title character happily reunite with her grandmother, Dowager Empress Marie, towards the end of the film.
- Brother Bear: The end of the film has a small moment where Koda reunites and cuddles with the spirit of his mother. The three brothers, Kenai, Denahi and Sitka, also share a big hug upon reuniting while Kenai is a bear and Sitka is a spirit.
- Tangled: Rapunzel was kidnapped as a baby by Mother Gothel who raised the child in the belief that she was Rapunzel's mother, in order to stay young thanks to the magic of Rapunzel's hair. Every year for 18 years, Rapunzel's real parents, the king and queen, release lanterns on her birthday to mark the date of her disappearance and hope that she one day will see the lights and come home. After Rapunzel realizes Gothel isn't her real mother, and the latter is defeated, Eugene brings Rapunzel back to the kingdom to finally reunite her with her parents in a very heartwarming scene.
- Moana: Moana leaves her parents when she sails away from her island. She sails a huge distance and has a lot of adventures, but at the end finally meets her parents (and Animal Companion Pua) again, and gives them a big tight hug. Her father, who at the beginning of the movie was very strict and almost harsh to her, now has a much warmer attitude and expresses his love and appreciation of her.
- An American Tail: Fievel the mouse is separated from his family while traveling to America as he falls overboard the ship they're on, and the rest of the film is him trying to find them again while surviving the dangers that New York City poses to a little mouse. The reunion between him and his family in the end is often considered one of the most famous heartwarming scenes of 80's childhood films.
- In Thumbelina, the title character and Prince Cornelius meet and fall in love, but are separated throughout the rest of the film thanks to various characters kidnapping Thumbelina and Cornelius being thwarted in rescuing her. Towards the end, Jaquimo the bird manages to bring Thumbelina to the Valley of Fairies and asks her to sing. As she does, snow and ice around her begins to thaw, and as she stops mid-song and is about to give up, Cornelius arrives and finishes her song, and the two embrace in The Big Damn Kiss.
- How to Train Your Dragon:
- Having thought that she was killed when their son was a baby, Stoick the Vast gets the shock of his life in How to Train Your Dragon 2 when he sees that Valka was alive, having spent all of this time learning and living among dragons. Valka feels tremendous guilt from this, convinced that Stoick and Hiccup would be better off without her and expected him to be angry at her, only for him to give her The Big Damn Kiss, just happy that she is alive.
- In the Babies Ever After "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Hiccup, Astrid and their kids sail to the entrance of the Hidden World, finding Toothless, the Light Fury and their Night-light pups. Toothless cautiously approaches him, only to then tackle him to the ground and lick him relentlessly the moment he recognizes Hiccup.
- Ice Age: After Roshan and his father spend almost the whole movie apart with Roshan's father having no idea if his son is even still alive, at the end, they are finally reunited, safe and sound.
- In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Sunset Shimmer, a former pupil of Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkles predecessor, abandoned her teacher and Equestria after she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked and using a magic mirror to travel to the human world eventually tried to conquer Equestria. While she does ultimately redeem herself in the next movie Sunset never sets out to see Celestia until the events of Forgotten Friendship once she needs guidance from her former teacher after her friends lose their good memories of her. After humbly asking for the Princesses help, despite knowing that she betrayed her in the past, Celestia approaches her former student and tells her that she missed her. Sunset tearfully apologises and the two embrace their feud long forgotten.
- In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mario and Luigi are sucked into the Warp Zone and get separated from each other, with Mario landing in the Mushroom Kingdom while Luigi unfortunately lands in the Dark Lands. Luigi is eventually captured by some Shy Guys and imprisoned by the evil Bowser. Meanwhile, Mario teams up with Princess Peach and Toad to stop Bowser from taking over and save Luigi. Near the end of the film, Luigi nearly falls into lava, but Mario (now Tanooki Mario) flies down and saves him just in time. The two brothers share a heartwarming hug, finally reunited.
- In Wolfwalkers, Mebh reuniting with her mother Moll after Robyn helps Moll escape from town is framed like this, with the two of them running towards each other and joyfully embracing while their astral forms (Mebh's in her wolf form, and Moll's in her human form) hang overhead and doing likewise. Unfortunately, they don't get to enjoy their reunion for long, since Moll is shot by Bill moments later.
Films — Live-Action
- Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey: Many 80s and 90s-born people will attest to one of the greatest tearjerker memories of their childhood being the reunion between the trusty dog Shadow and his boy Peter. The sequel also ends in a similar reunion emphasising on the dog Chance and his boy Jamie, and adds another reunion by the end with Chance and his Love Interest Delaila.
- In The Truman Show, there's a big dramatic reunion between Truman and his long-lost father (who was presumed to have died earlier in the series). This was a deliberate "in-universe" effect, based on the show's premise. The director hoped this would improve the show's ratings.
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring get separated from each other at the end of the first movie. At the end of the third and last movie, they are reunited and the Hobbits especially are ecstatic to see each other again, and go hugging each other and even jumping up and down on a bed.
- The Shawshank Redemption when Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding gets out of prison he eventually goes to see the escaped banker and hero of the movie in Mexico where the movie ends.
- In Little Big Man which deals with the life of Jack the lead character is reunited with his captive wife Ogla who has now remarried and doesn't recognise him, with Louise Pendrake who tries to seduce him on two occasions, Old Lodge Skins who raised him twice, and with Younger Bear a contemporary brave on three occasions.
- Forrest Gump: After Forrest's returned from Vietnam and accidentally finds himself at a hippie rally by the Washington monument, a familiar voice calls out to him as his best friend Jenny runs across the Reflecting Pool to show herself to him, and the two share a big hug in front of thousands of applauding onlookers.
- After being separated for almost the entire movie (but never far from each other's thoughts) Finn and Rey are finally reunited in The Last Jedi when Rey uses the Force to move the boulders blocking Finn's escape route. They wordlessly run to each other and embrace amidst the falling rubble.
- Paulie: Marie and Paulie are separated when the former is a child and they are happily reunited at the end, when she is an adult.
- Without a Trace (1983): Susan's son Alex is kidnapped at the beginning of the movie and they are reunited at the very end. When she spots him, the camera zooms in on her stunned reaction. He smiles and calls out to her, she drops her groceries, they run to each other, the music swelling, and she catches him in a hug.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home has an incredibly heartwarming reunion scene between Otto Octavius and Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker. Peter spent the last twenty years mourning Otto's Heroic Sacrifice, and to Octavius, this is the boy he knew all grown up. The two characters' relief and affection at seeing each other again practically radiates off the screen.
Otto: Oh, it's good to see you, dear boy...You're all grown up! (happily chuckles) How are you?
Literature
- The Beginning After the End: This happen many times involoving Arthur:
- Arthur reunites with his family after many years of being separated when he saved them then Arthur reunites with the twin horns.
- Arthur reunites with Tessia, twin horns and his family after completing his trainning with the Asura for four years.
- Arthur reunites with his family, Virion and the remaining lances after his return from Alacrya and killing Taci and when he retakes Xyrus he reunites with the helstea family.
- Black Beauty: The original 1877 novel averts this trope as the horse Beauty's reunion with his former caretaker Joe in the end is not treated like a big deal. In the 1994 film version, however, the two have a much stronger bond and their reunion after what is roughly ten years apart is a huge tearjerker.
- A Dog's Purpose: Bailey is a dog that lives through many lives, but his favourite life is his second one where he's the dog of a boy named Ethan. Towards the end of the book, Bailey, now a dog named Buddy, is happy beyond words when he manages to find a reunite with an elderly Ethan.
- A Thousand Splendid Suns: After entering an Arranged Marriage with Rasheed, Laila is told by a stranger that her best friend and lover Tarik is dead. About ten years later, he shows up at her doorstep, and she cries heavily while hugging him, realizing she had been fed a lie.
- War Horse: After having been separated through a majority of World War I, the horse Joey and former owner Albert manages to reunite at the end.
- Aragorn and Eomer, two Supporting Leaders in The Lord of the Rings, go their separate ways in Rohan (when Aragorn sets off on the Paths of the Dead) and reunite in the middle of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, going Back-to-Back Badasses on Sauron's forces.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, two of the Marauders, share a joyful reunion in the climax of the book, having been separated for 13 years. Subverted when they also reunite with the remaining surviving Marauder, Peter Pettigrew, since they have a lot of reasons to hate him.
- At the very end of The Color Purple Celie and Nettie finally reunite after decades apart, with one sister having spent most of her life in an abusive marriage and the other doing missionary work in Africa. Celie remarks they are now old women but this is the youngest they've ever felt.
- The Sunne in Splendour: Childhood sweethearts Richard of Gloucester and Anne Neville are raised to think they will one day marry, but when her father falls out with his brother King Edward IV, their betrothal is broken. The couple finds themselves on opposite sides of the civil war, and Anne is forced to marry the Lancastrian heir. When the Lancasterians are defeated and their prince is killed, Anne is taken prisoner. Edward, who knows Richard still loves her, arranges for the couple to be reunited and both are overcome with emotion. However, Richard remains chivalrous and only gives her a chaste kiss.
- Halt and Will during Book 4 of the Ranger's Apprentice series. This is after two books of separation, Will having been sold into slavery and Halt constantly searching for him since then. Will reacts with tears of relief and The Glomp.
Live-Action TV
- Arrow: In "The Thanatos Guild", Roy unexpectedly reunites with Team Arrow after being forced to exile himself for two years. Thea in particular immediately hugs him upon learning that he is the mission's hostage.
- Black Sails reunites John Silver and Madi after the latter believed the former dead after a battle at sea. Without a single word the two express how much they've come to mean to each other.
- Double Subverted in the first episode of Doctor in Charge. Duncan Waring returns to St. Swithin's Hospital to work there, looking forward to meeting his friends again, but they had decided to prank him by pretending not to recognize him. The only person who looks genuinely pleased to see him is the usually fearsome Professor Loftus... which earns him a rather unexpected enormous hug from the relieved Duncan. Afterwards, Duncan's friends quit the charade and shoulder claps, hugs, jokes and laughs ensue.
- Doctor Who:
- More of a subdued reunion: "School Reunion" had the Doctor reuniting with Sarah Jane Smith, although she doesn't know the guy is the Doctor... till later in the story when she sees the TARDIS.
The Doctor: [wistfully and gently] Hello, Sarah Jane.
- Rose and the Doctor were separated in "Doomsday", with Rose being trapped in another dimension. She appeared several times throughout series 4, finally reuniting with the Doctor at the end of "The Stolen Earth". It's somewhat soured by the Doctor getting shot in the middle of their Meadow Run, but after he's recovered, they share a hug and Tears of Joy.
- In "The Big Bang", Amy Pond is placed in stasis in the Pandorica to be revived 2,000 years later. Her fiance Rory decides to take The Slow Path and guard the Pandorica to ensure she'll be safe. When Amy is finally revived she and Rory reunite with a Big Damn Kiss that lasts so long the Doctor wonders how they're able to breathe.
- More of a subdued reunion: "School Reunion" had the Doctor reuniting with Sarah Jane Smith, although she doesn't know the guy is the Doctor... till later in the story when she sees the TARDIS.
- A very heartwarming occurrence of this trope happens during a side plot in the 4th season of Empire where Cookie helps a former cellmate by finding her missing daughter.
- Game of Thrones: In season six episode "Book of the Stranger", Jon Snow and his half-sister Sansa Stark reunite, marking the first time since the first season that any of the (related by blood) Stark siblings get to meet up with each other after everyone left Winterfell.
- Sansa also has warm reunions with her sister Arya and brother Brandon when they arrive at Winterfell in the fourth and third episodes of season respectively.
- After having spent seven seasons separated from his other surviving siblings, Jon finally reunites with his youngest sister Arya, and his sole surviving brother Bran in the eighth season premiere "Winterfell"
- Lost:
- Rose and Bernard were separated during the Oceanic 815 crash, she was in the midsection while he was in the bathroom in the tail section. Both of them insist that the other is still alive, even when their fellow survivors are skeptical. After 48 days they're finally reunited when Bernard's group makes it across the Island to the midsection's camp.
- After eight years apart Desmond and Penny are finally reunited in "There's No Place Like Home, Part 2" when her sailboat finds the life raft carrying Desmond, Lapidus and the Oceanic 6 who've just escaped the Island. When Desmond realises Penny is on the boat he's so desperate to get to her that he climbs up the side of the boat before the crew can bring the raft to an easier access point.
- Jamie and Claire are separated by 200 years of time (literally) and 20 years of time (chronologically) in Outlander. The first half of the third series builds up the anticipation of their reunion and it's suitably dramatic and heartwarming when they do reunite.
- In the first season finale of Once Upon a Time, the curse is lifted, everyone remembers who they are, including Snow White and Prince Charming. The moment they see each other, they kiss with Charming saying "We found each other!"
- Pretty Little Liars' fourth season Halloween Episode "Grave New World" finally has Alison come out of hiding long enough to meet with her friends for the first time since her disappearance two years prior. At the end of the season, she meets with them again and is convinced to finally come out of hiding.
- The penultimate episode of season two of Stranger Things ends with Eleven and Mike coming face-to-face for the first time in a year. It's an emotionally fraught moment for Mike in particular considering he wasn't truly sure if Eleven was even alive, but once Mike finally processes that Eleven is back, he breaks out the biggest smile of his life. The beginning of the next episode has them embrace in Tears of Joy.
- Station Eleven: In the final episode Jeevan and Kirsten reunite after a twenty-year separation. Though they say nothing during the hug, their facial expressions and body language show how happy they are to see each other again.
- Supernatural:
- Many characters have been brought back from death (often more than once), resulting in a Big Damn Reunion...
- Both Sam and Dean have been brought back from death repeatedly, sometimes after months of the other brother angsting about the other's death. Depending on circumstances, expect emotionally charged bear hugs as well as checking to make sure they're not actually a demon, shapeshifter, etc. (A downplayed version may also happen if they've been separated on a hazardous mission and feared dead).
- Castiel, who has also died more than once, has a particularly poignant reunion with Sam and Dean after spending several episodes in early Season 13 in The Empty. When he's resurrected, Sam and Dean reunite with him and take him to meet his adopted son Jack, who was born and magically grew up while Cas was away.
- End of season 11, Mary Winchester, Sam and Dean's mother, is brought back from the dead. She's been dead since Dean was four and Sam was a baby. You better believe Dean was overjoyed.
- John Winchester, for only an episode. Cue teary-eyed Big Family Reunion.
- In the Series Finale, Dean dies years before Sam, but they eventually reunite in Heaven, along with their parents, Bobby and it is implied other loved ones.
- After spending a significant amount of time in Purgatory searching for Cas, Dean finds him by a river and gives him a heartfelt hug.
- Sam and Dean later reunite with Cas, who has somehow escaped Purgatory months after Dean's escape, at a motel with a disoriented and powered-down Cas not knowing how he escaped.
- In Last Call, Dean reunites with his old hunting buddy Lee Webb, who haven't seen each other since before Dean's father John died. Later turns out Lee is hiding a dark secret.
- Many characters have been brought back from death (often more than once), resulting in a Big Damn Reunion...
Music
- Zucchero: In the song "Diamante" (Diamond), Zucchero tells about his desire to return to a rural village where he lived as a child, during the years following the end of World War II. This is shown in the song's video as the story of a kid who lived in the village and met a little girl with whom he was in love, but was forcefully separated from her by an adult (who was her tutor); after a Time Skip the kid (now an adult) manages to return to the village, hugs some old friends in excitement, and in the night of that day he finds the girl (now an adult woman) and the two can finally express the love that bound them. During the last minute of the video, it's shown that the man who was the woman's tutor not only reconciles with Zucchero, but also attends their wedding.
Theatre
- Double Subverted in The Golden Apple. When Ulysses, in the final scene, tries to rush into the arms of Penelope, who has spent the last ten years waiting for his return, she repulses him violently and launches into an impassioned What the Hell, Hero? tirade. However, Ulysses convinces her to patch up their relationship like the quilt she was sewing.
- In Rose-Marie, the title character ditches the Romantic False Lead at the altar after The Reveal that Jim has been Wrongfully Accused, and goes looking for him once more to the tune of "Indian Love Call." They reunite and embrace after beginning one last reprise of the song within singing range of each other.
Video Games
- Blaster Master Zero III: Jason spends the entire duration of the game searching for Eve's whereabouts after she is apprehended and separated from him. He eventually catches up to her in super-dimensional space, and The Stinger of the Golden Ending sees Jason and Eve sharing a hug.
- In Blooming Panic, this is downplayed since the split is less than a couple days, but the reunion of all the lost server members coming back in the good ending of NakedToaster's route is very sweet.
- Kingdom Hearts:
- Sora, Riku, and Kairi reunite with each other just before the climax of Kingdom Hearts II, having been separated for a year. In the case of Sora and Riku, this famously involves a sobfest on the former's part.
- Kingdom Hearts III has three instances of this. The first is when Aqua reunites with Ventus in the Land of Departure, she having escaped from the Realm of Darkness and he having woken up from his coma. This one is mildly heartwarming. But the second and third ones, when Aqua and Ven reunite with Terra and Lea, Xion, and Roxas reunite with each other in the Keyblade Graveyard are when the heartstrings start being tugged at. These involve lots of crying in-universe and probably out-of-universe.
- Hades:
- The hero Zagreus is motivated by the desire to find his mother Persephone. When he meets her for the first time, she is initially guarded but is overjoyed once she realizes it's him.
- Beating the Final Boss ten times reunites Persephone with her ex-husband and Zagreus's father, Hades, a moment that's treated with the
- You can engineer posthumous reunions for Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as Achilles and Patroclus, couples who were tragically separated in life and in the Underworldnote . Though these reunions happen offscreen, the first time you happen upon Eurydice and Patroclus afterwards, their respective lovers will be present with them (and will occasionally show up in future encounters), obviously grateful and happy that they've been reunited.
- The Last of Us: While their separation is not particularly long, Joel and Ellie have this type of reunion at the end of winter, after Ellie's looked after a wounded and unconscious Joel for weeks, only to having to temporarily leave him to escape from a cannibalistic group and their paedophilic leader, with Joel waking up and fighting the same group to reach her, they finally have a tearful hug upon reuniting after Ellie's brutally killed the Arc Villain, made even more poignant with Joel calling her "baby girl", having grown to see her as his surrogate daughter.
- A downplayed version in Red Dead Redemption. After having fought your way through the game to have John Marston reunite with his family, said reunion is not very dramatic as his wife's first reaction is to scold him for taking as long as he did, before they discuss what they'll do now and if life really can get better for them. When getting over their initial reaction, however, they finally share a hug, before John's son arrives and gives him a hug as well.
- In Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return, Kayto Shields goes around the galaxy putting his old crew back together six years after the Liberation Day Massacre forced them all to go their separate ways. When he reunites with Asaga di Ryuvia, she surprises him by joyfully leaping into his arms. When he reunites with his childhood friend and former second-in-command Ava Crescentia, the first thing he does after the initial greeting is pull her into a big hug, which she reciprocates after a moment's surprise.
- In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, after months of tracking down his adoptive daughter Ciri, having not seen her for years, Geralt brings Ciri back to the Witcher fortress of Kaer Morhen in hopes of luring the Wild Hunt chasing her to fight for Ciri on Geralt's terms. The instant they teleport into the castle courtyard, Vesemir, Yennefer and Triss are all clearly overjoyed to see her. Special note to Vesemir lifting Ciri off the ground in a bear hug the minute he sees her and Yenn running from halfway across the courtyard, screaming Ciri's name at the top of her lungs before pulling her into a massive hug and remarking on the beautiful young woman her surrogate daughter has become.
Vesemir: Welcome home, child.
Yennefer: CIRI!!!!!
Web Animation
- RWBY actually does this three times over the course of Volume 5 as the various members of Team RWBY slowly regroup, first with Weiss and Yang in "Lighting the Fire", then when they meet up with Ruby in "Known by its Song", and finally when Blake gets the chance to talk to them in "Haven's Fate" (they all saw each other an episode earlier, but were distracted by the battle at hand). All three moments are marked by tearful hugging.
Web Comics
- Alone, Together centers on Imperial cadet Danni and Federal sergeant Jerom surviving for more than a year on a remote sandbar island. After being rescued, more drama unfolds before Jerom is returned to his homeland. Twenty years later, Jerom has an honorary doctorate, and oversees a moisture farm on that same remote island. He gets a surprise visit from Danni, now a commodore of the Imperial Navy. They hug.
- Drowtales: Ariel finally locates and rescues Faen, but instead of a happy reunion, this is an incredibly bittersweet moment, as she's completely catatonic from feeling all the ritual sacrifices that were happening upstairs.
Western Animation
- Arcane: After being separated for years with one unsure if the other was alive and the other believing the other had died, sisters Vi and Jinx get a tearful, emotional reunion. That is until first Caitlyn and then the Firelights appear, ruining the emotional moment as Jinx reverts from her past Powder persona to her new, much more hostile Jinx personality. Vi and Caitlyn are kidnapped by the Firelights in the ensuing battle, cutting it short.
- This tends to happen anytime an animated version of Billy Batson is reunited with his sister Mary after years of separation. Two notable examples are Batman: The Brave and the Bold and LEGO DC: Shazam!: Magic and Monsters.
- Ben 10: Omniverse: Gwen reunited Ben her with huging to fix omnitrix from the alien "Bullfrag".
- DuckTales (2017): Della Duck, sister of Donald and mother of Huey, Dewey and Louie, has been trapped on the Moon for the past ten years. She eventually manages to fix her spaceship and returns to Earth (and Donald, being the unlucky duck he is, accidentally gets blasted into space before they reunite). Della reunites with Scrooge and finally gets to meet her children for the first time midway through Season 2, before finally reuniting with her brother in the season finale.
- FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman: Ruff had one when he reunited with his parents in the Season 5 finale.
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983): In the 'Secret of the Sword' movie, Prince Adam is able to return his sister Adora to Eternia after she'd been kidnapped to another world as an infant. Adam assembles King Randor, Queen Marlena, Man-At-Arms and Teela in the royal chamber and has them cover their eyes as he brings Adora in to meet them. When told to remove their hands, Randor and Marlena take one look at Adora and instantly recognize her as their daughter. Cue Tears of Joy from the King, Queen and Man-At-Arms as Adora literally runs across the room to give her mother the first hug they've ever shared in 20 years. Marlena tells Adora how beautiful she is while Adora gives Adam (not He-Man for once, but Adam himself) full credit for bringing her home. Randor, usually frustrated by Adam's apparent lack of responsibility goes over to his son and tells him "Son, I want you to know that today you've made me the happiest man in all of Eternia" before giving Adam a So Proud of You hug. For the first time in two decades, the Royal Family of Eternia is whole once again.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Zuko abandoned his uncle Iroh near the end of the second season as the latter gets captured as a political prisoner. Then, in later episodes of the third season, Iroh managed to escape and now goes with his secret group Order of the White Lotus, and Zuko (who now has turned face) along with Aang's group meets the Order on the way. After encouragement from Katara, Zuko braves himself to meet his uncle again. At first he admits that he's guilty and he doesn't expect his uncle to forgive him, but then Iroh suddenly hugs him and tearfully says that he misses his nephew and he's glad that he finally finds his way. Zuko then returns the embrace and goes in tears too.
- Hey Arnold!: In "Arnold's Christmas", Mai, the long-lost daughter of Mr. Hyunh, is miraculously found by Helga as a secret Santa gift for Arnold; she shows up last-minute to her father's boarding house on Christmas Day, and the two happily reunite.
- Star Wars Rebels: Following Order 66, Ahsoka and Captain Rex went their separate ways to avoid capture. Come Season 2, taking place over a decade later, we get to see them reunite and hug each other.
- Winx Club: At the end of the movie, The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, Bloom is reunited with her birth parents Oritel and Marion after destroying Obsidian and saving Domino.
Real Life
- Christian the Lion, who was raised in captivity and set free, meets his humans again.
- Dogs welcome soldiers home after months apart.
- Saroo Brierley is the name of an Indian-born Australian man who accidentally got separated from his family at age five and ended up adopted by an Australian family. Through the help of Google Earth, he managed to find and reunite with his biological mother and sister again 25 years later. Brierley wrote his own story into a book, A Long Way Home in 2013, which later got adapted into the 2016 film Lion.
- At the 95th Academy Awards, Harrison Ford was the presenter for the award for Best Picture, which went to Everything Everywhere All at Once. When the crew headed to the stage, one of the actors from the movie, Ke Huy Quan, Ford's co-star from 39 years ago in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, immediately headed towards Ford to embrace him.
- In a similar example, Fred Rogers was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999 by Jeff Erlanger, a quadriplegic child who appeared on his show 18 years earlier. Mr. Rogers did not even wait for his cue to go on stage, rushing up without using the stairs to greet him.
- Sacagawea reuniting with her Lemhi Shoshone people during the Lewis & Clark Expedition. A 17 year old girl, she had been kidnapped and sold into sex slavery by the time she was 13 and gave birth to her first child during the expedition, but fate would see her reunite with her family after being separated by half a continent. Meriwether Lewis recorded the reunion in his August 17th journal entry:
- On setting out at seven o’clock, captain Clarke with Chaboneau and his wife [Sacagawea] walked on shore, but they had not gone more than a mile before captain Clarke saw Sacajawea, who was with her husband one hundred yards ahead, began to dance, and show every mark of the most extravagant joy, turning round him and pointing to several Indians, whom he now saw advancing on horseback, sucking her fingers at the same time to indicate that they were of her native tribe.... [When trade negotiations were ready] Sacajawea was sent for; she came into the tent, sat down, and was beginning to interpret, when in the person of [Chief] Cameahwait she recognized her brother: she instantly jumped up, and ran and embraced him, throwing over him her blanket and weeping profusely: the chief was himself moved, though not in the same degree. After some conversation between them she resumed her seat, and attempted to interpret for us, but her new situation seemed to overpower her, and she was frequently interrupted by her tears.
