Maybe the character is running from the Big Bad. Maybe Alice is hiding from her abusive lover. Maybe The Team is trapped in a building that's seconds from exploding. Maybe they're about to go to school and take a long, boring test they didn't study for.
Regardless of the details, the character(s) are is a situation they do not want to be in. They need something to help them escape, anything.
Then, suddenly, a ghost shows them the way out. Or an ancient artifact turns into a portal. Or a dragon shows up and carries them away. Or they get caught in an alien tractor beam.
This is the Supernaturally Aided Escape. Whatever situation the character(s) is in, be it a mundane bad thing or something life-threatening, a supernatural force will come and aid them.
How/why the supernatural force helps will vary from situation to situation. It could be that the character(s) helped the supernatural force earlier on and they want to return the favor. Or maybe the force is a Benevolent Monster who thought they needed a hand. Maybe the supernatural force was hungry and thought the character(s) enemy looked tasty. Or maybe it was a big Deus ex Machina and the writer just needed an interesting way for the characters to escape.
Bear in mind that the term "supernatural" is used very broadly here: so long as something/someone exists outside of what's considered normal, it works. The rescue could come from a ghost, dragon, fairy, alien, ancient magic artifact, vampire, yokai, griffin, mermaid, sea monster... So long as the creature is a) not human and b) something that has to do with magic or the unexplained, then it counts. Humans with magic/powers or ordinary robots do not count (although robots made by aliens do). If the character didn't know the supernatural existed until they're saved by a supernatural force/being, then this trope can double as The Reveal.
Super trope of Extradimensional Emergency Exit and Teleportation Rescue. Often crosses over with Villainous Rescue (especially if the creature/force that helps is Always Chaotic Evil). Compare with Always a Bigger Fish, A Wizard Did It, Deus ex Machina, Divine Intervention, Summon Bigger Fish, Androcles' Lion, Travel Transformation, The Chase, and Chase Scene. Contrast with From Bad to Worse and Frivolous Summoning. May briefly result in Help Mistaken for Attack if the supernatural force appears without any context. If the character is trying to escape an abusive relationship (and manages to do so with the help of the supernatural), see Rescuing the Abused.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Dan Da Dan: In the first chapter/episode, Momo has been captured by the Serposians, a One-Gender Race of male clones. To facilitate reproduction, they intend to "have intercourse" with her then harvest her reproductive organs. She is only saved because Ken "Okarun" Takakura went to a haunted tunnel she told him about and got possessed by a spirit known as Turbo Granny, who then proceeded to teleport through Momo's cell phone to rescue her. And then, after the aliens manage to deal with him, the strain causes Momo's own psychic powers to awaken, which she uses to utterly smash the aliens and their ship.
- Delicious in Dungeon: When Laios' Dungeon Crawling team is trapped in a room with the walls closing in, all hope seems lost until some ghosts phase through the walls and open a secret exit. Since every other ghost they've seen has been murderously insane, Chilchuck fully expects to die to them instead, but they only lead the team to safety then disappear.
- Gundam:
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00: The 00 Raiser, being a Super Prototype Mobile Suit running a Super Prototype system, gained various abilities that were completely unexpected due to the high amount of refined GN Particles created by the Mobile Suit. One of those is "quantization", which allowed the 00 Raiser to teleport away from an attack and reappear so it can deliver a counterattack.
- Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: It's revealed that Zeknovas are essentially designed to be this. As the timeline was essentially created by a Lalah Sune who lost her Char Aznable, she wants to protect the Char of this timeline at all times. Thus, when she and her Elmeth ended up in this timeline, her Psycommu unexpectedly resonated with the Psycommu installed in the Red Gundam, and Zeknovas are created to pull the Red Gundam (and hopefully Char with it) away from danger.
Comic Books
- Avengers: The Initiative: Armory first got her powers when the Tactigon, an alien weapon, decided to bond with her just after she'd jumped off a bridge. The Tactigon, sensing its new host's imminent demise, turns itself into a grappling hook, and wraps around one of the beams on the bridge, pulling Armory up and saving her.
Fan Works
- As If It Couldn't Get Worse
: In this Danny Phantom / Batman crossover, Danny's been experimented on by his parents ever since they learned about his ghost half. He's been left severely injured and traumatized by the experiments, and is at the point of embracing death when a group of cultists (heavily implied to be ghosts possessing human hosts) accidentally summon Danny to Gotham. While Danny's still injured, the ritual helps him gain enough strength to run and later seek medical help from Doctor Thompkins. And, most importantly, it gets him away from his parents.
- The Beauty, The Beast, The Boy, and The Dragon: Hiccup not only got away from Berk thanks to Toothless (a dragon), but because the Enchantress transported the two of them from the Barbaric Archipelago to France.
- Ben 10: Unlimited:
- Professor Paradox saves Ben from suicide by opening a portal under him and sending him to the DCAU. Ben is mad about this at first, but once he regains his will to live from the Justice League, he is beyond grateful.
- Ben himself acts as this for the Justice League when they're imprisoned by the Thanagarians, as he's an alien who popped in out of no where and started beating up the invaders.
- The Blue Dragon (Batman): Zuko was rescued from his father's abuse (and his canon mission of hunting the Avatar) by a mystic waterfall that sent him to the DC Universe.
- The Consequences of Hubris: After befriending Loona and realising that experiencing how much life in Heaven is better than in Hell via Shared Dream is traumatising her Panty decides to find a way to get Loona into Heaven.
- The Door (Zootopia): The humans in the story (all of whom suffered some form of abuse) all ended up portaled to Zootopia through unknown, likely supernatural means. Considering how many of them were in the middle of life-or-death situations before they suddenly found themselves safely in Zootopia, none of them are complaining about the rescue.
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: In "Hunt's End", Ami suspects that her target escaped the room she thought he was in, in some way other than sole entrance/exit that she used: down a "sink-like basin"'s drain due to using voluntary Animorphism to turn into something small enough to go that way.
- The Dragon and the Butterfly: Hiccup experiences this several times:
- He's able to escape his abusive relationship with his father via Toothless (who first saves him emotionally by becoming his friend, then saves him literally when the two escape Berk).
- Hiccup and Toothless are saved from exhaustion/homelessness/starvation when the magic golden storm transports them to the Encanto (where, even if it takes a while, they find a home and loving Family of Choice).
- Future Is Bright (Danny Phantom): When Danny is trying to escape Vlad's castle, he gets stuck in one of the air vents he's trying to stealthily move through. Dairy King phases through the vent and gets Danny out, giving him a supportive smile before dematerializing. Downplayed in that, while he was happy to help Danny in some way, he wasn't about to risk Vlad's wrath by getting Danny out of the castle completely.
- Harry Tano: The entire plot of the fic kicks off because Ahsoka was examining an ancient artifact right as Order 66 was issued. The clones open fire on her as she accidentally activates the artifact. It sends Ahsoka to Earth... specifically into the cupboard under the stairs.
- If Wishes Were Ponies...:
- Harry manages to get help after being beaten nearly to death by Dudley's gang via being sent to Equestria through the portal tree (which sensed his longing to be somewhere safe, and thus sent him to just outside Sweet Apple Acres).
- Later, when he believes he's being hunted by an evil centaur, Harry calls for Philomena the Phoenix. She's able to bring Twilight (and an armada of Equestrian soldiers) to the rescue. While the centaur wasn't evil, they did manage to stop Professor Quirrel from killing the unicorn, saving her life.
- Iris Hawthorne: Ace Attorney: In "Farewell, My Turnabout", Diego Armando's ghost helps Pearl Fey escape from the basement that Shelley de Killer and Dahlia Hawthorne are holding her in. She's recaptured a few minutes later, but Diego is able to pass on information about her location to Iris via Maya.
- The Last Seidr: When Loki causes the collapse of the base where the Tesseract was kept, Fawkes the phoenix helps get Harry and Nick Fury out.
- A Loud Among Demons: Lincoln was kidnapped by his substitute teacher to be used as a human sacrifice in an occult ritual. Before said ritual can be completed, I.M.P. shows up and kills the teacher (as he was the one they were hired to kill). They save Lincoln's life, but the flubbed ritual leads to other problems...
- No Mutant Left Behind: The fic starts because Donatello is saved from Karai when Professor Charles Xavier hears his distressed thoughts. He sends some of his students and faculty to arrest Karai and get Donatello to Jean Grey for medical treatment. They later do the same for Michelangelo when he's up against Tiger Claw.
- What Do You Find in Me?: Zig-zagged. Harry was saved from his abusive life with the Dursleys when he was turned into a Cybertronian, but seeing as how he had no idea what he was or what he needed to do to survive, he nearly died of starvation in the woods. Then Optimus Prime came to his rescue and Ratchet nursed him back to health, saving him for real.
Film — Animated
- Aladdin (Disney): When Jafar's men throw Aladdin into the sea, Aladdin accidentally rubs the Genie's lamp. While Genie has to use some Exact Words (as he can't do anything for anyone without them wishing it), he manages to get Aladdin out of the water before he drowns.
- The Boxtrolls: As Fish eventually tells Eggs, the boy was born to a human father. Said father was the town inventor/mechanist, and he was the only human who saw the Boxtrolls as simply builders, and not the monsters everyone else saw them as. So when Snatcher tried to recruit the inventor for his schemes (with him threatening Baby Eggs to try and get him to cooperate), the inventor gave the baby to Fish. Fish saw them attack the inventor and ran off with Eggs so the boy wouldn't be targeted. He and the other Boxtrolls managed to keep Eggs safe for the next ten years.
- Coco: During the Riveras’ struggle to recover Hector’s photo from Ernesto, the latter grabs Miguel and throws him from his tower. Dante (Miguel’s dog and spirit guide) tries to save him, but he’s not strong enough, and the kid keeps falling. Fortunately, Pepita (Imelda’s spirit guide, a HUGE flying jaguar) picks up Miguel a moment before the kid hits the ground. She also makes sure that Ernesto receives what he deserves.
- Elio: The titular character is a lonely young boy with a fascination with aliens and outer space. He feels as though no one on Earth (neither the kids at school nor his aunt) understands him, so he desperately wishes that aliens would abduct him and save him from his lonely existence. He gets his wish when an alien government hears his call for help.
- The Little Mermaid (1989): The titular mermaid saves the life of Prince Eric when he's nearly drowned in a shipwreck.
- Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken: Shortly after discovering her kraken powers, Ruby saves her crush from drowning (although Chelsea takes credit for the rescue).
- Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island: After getting chased by zombies for half the runtime, the gang discovers that the zombies of Moonscar Island don't mean to hurt them, but are chasing them away from the true threat: The cat creatures who mean to take their life-force during the full moon and turn them into zombies as well.
- Tangled: While Rapunzel and Flynn are running from the royal guards, they get trapped in a fast-flooding cave. They try to find an exit, but it is too dark to see under the water. Thinking that they’re going to die, Flynn confesses that his real name is Eugene Fitzherbert; Rapunzel, on her turn, confesses that her hair glows when she sings and immediately realizes that this is the solution. She hurriedly sings, and her shining hair reveals a hidden exit beneath the water.
Film — Live-Action
- Aladdin (2019): When Aladdin is thrown into the sea by Jafar's men, Abu and Carpet manage to throw the lamp to him. Aladdin accidentally rubs it before passing out due to a lack of oxygen. The genie has to use "a little gray area" to do it, but he manages to get Aladdin to safety, saving his life.
- Attack of the 50 Foot Woman: The remake pulls this off at the end. Right when it seems like Nancy and her Jerkass cheating husband will die the same way as in the original film, the same alien craft Nancy encountered earlier abducts them both, saving their lives. The ending implies that this is not the first time such a thing has happened, as the husband ends up in a type of couples therapy with several other men, a (still giant) Nancy and several other giant women.
- Exaggerated in the Disney Channel Original Movie Can of Worms. The film depicts a boy named Mike who believes that he's not meant for life on Earth after a cruel school prank humiliates him in front of his crush. He makes a call out into the universe asking for aliens to rescue him. He never imagined that they'd answer. The aliens who show up all want to "save" Mike in different ways: alien lawyers insist he sue Earth for his years of pain, an alien that helps refugees (who just so happens to look like a dog) tries to get Mike to a safe place off Earth as quickly as possible, and the movie's Big Bad wants to add Mike to his menagerie.
- Dolls (1987): Towards the end of the film, while David is fighting Mr. Punch, the other dolls enter the workshop and drag the unconscious Judy and Ralph to safety.
- Harry Potter:
- In the first film, Harry accidentally finds a shadowy figure (later revealed to be Professor Quirrel) drinking the blood of the unicorn. The figure tries to kill Harry, but luckily, Firenze the centaur arrives. He scares off the figure and saves Harry's life.
- In the second film, Harry, Ron, and Fang the dog are trapped in a forest, surrounded by spider monsters. Just when all seems lost, the Weaselys' enchanted car arrives, running over several spiders. The car is able to get the boys and dog safely away from the spiders, dropping them off (literally) in front of Hagrid's hut before driving back into the woods.
- In the fourth film, Harry's and Voldemort's wands end up in a stalemate, which inadvertently frees the spirits of the last few people Voldemort's wand killed (Cedric Diggory, a groundskeeper, and Harry's parents). The ghosts encourage Harry to let go of the spell, then swarm Voldemort. This buys Harry enough time to grab Cedric's body and the Portkey, allowing him to escape.
- Haunted Mansion (2023): The ghosts inhabiting the mansion aren't inherently bad: most of them were Forced into Evil by the Hatbox Ghost and, when left to their own devices, are perfectly harmless and happy to help the humans. For example, when Ben and Travis were in danger of being killed by the Stretching Room, the ghosts in the paintings directed them on how to escape.
- King Kong (2005): Anne realizes Kong doesn't want to hurt her when, after finding herself being targeted by monsters, the giant gorilla beast shows up and fights them to the death.
- Mr. Crocket: Played for Horror. The titular Mr. Crocket is the ghost of a children's TV show host who sees himself as a friend and protector to all children...and he will NEVER condone mistreating a child. When he finds a kid with Abusive Parents, he kills the parent(s) in question and takes the child to his pocket dimension... Though they aren't much safer there than they'd be with their bad parents.
- The NeverEnding Story (1984): When Atreyu is in danger of sinking into the swamp (much like poor Artax), Falcor the Luck Dragon sees him in trouble and pulls him out right before he falls unconscious. Falcor takes him to a healer, who manages to save the boy's life and take him to the next stage of his journey.
- Prey (2022): While out in the woods, Naru is targeted and chased by a bear. She manages to hide in a beaver's dam, but the bear keeps getting closer and is seemingly seconds from killing her... until a Predator arrives. He, seeing the bear as worthy prey, kills it. Since he doesn't deem Naru worthy prey (yet), he lets her escape as he bathes in the bear's blood.
- A villainous version appears in The Shining, where Delbert Grady unlocks the pantry door Jack Torrance has been locked in, eliminating any ambiguities about the existence of the supernatural in the process.
- Splash: In A Minor Kidroduction, Allen was saved from drowning as a boy by a young mermaid. By the time he has grown up, he believes the incident was a hallucination, until the mermaid in question shows up again and tells him who she was.
Madison: Remember when you were eight and fell off the ship? You were safe under the water, weren't you?
Allen: Yeah.
Madison: You were with me.
Allen: You mean, that was real? You mean, that was you?
Madison: [grins]
Allen: That was you! [hugs her]
Literature
- The BFG starts when Sophie is sneaking around the Orphanage of Fear she lives in, knowing that if she gets caught after bed, she'll be punished by its horrible owner Mrs. Clonkers and shut in the basement with the rats. However, she thought she saw something outside which turns out to be the titular Big Friendly Giant who kidnaps her and whisks her back to Giant Country, as she's seen him and he doesn't want humans knowing he exists. Sophie is actually very pleased by this because it means she escapes her terrible orphanage life, and the BFG as his name implies is much nicer than Mrs Clonkers, even if it does mean Sophie has to hide from the other child-eating giants in Giant Country.
- The Chronicles of Amber: Corwin escapes his imprisonment when the half-mad Dworkin strolls into his cell, where Corwin convinces him to sketch a seascape with a lighthouse on one of his cell walls, which, since Dworkin has the innate ability to turn paintings into portals, allows Corwin to basically walk out of his cell and into the scene in question.
- The Dresden Files: At one point in Proven Guilty, Harry ends up seeking the aid of Lasciel's Shadow— the mental imprint of a Fallen Angel— to escape from manacles that nullify his magic; he does this by letting her suppress his pain so he can dislocate his thumb, and then is granted the ability to see in the dark by her.
- Extra Normal: In a Pet Gets the Keys example, Charlie escapes her family's vault by having Miss Sinister (the family's pet possessed Evil Doll) bring her her phone. From there, she's able to text her siblings to come let her out.
- Fairy Tale (2022): Charlie, while making his way to Lilimar, stops a dwarf from torturing a red grasshopper. This grasshopper turns out to be the king of the grasshoppers, a type of forest spirit, and he later returns Charlie's kindness by helping him and his fellow prisoners escape from Flight Killer's dungeons.
- The Fifth Elephant: After being framed for an assassination attempt on the dwarf king, Cmdr. Vimes is imprisoned in a cell in the mine. He manages to get out by distracting a guard, but quickly finds himself with no way out besides an ancient mineshaft lined with rotting wooden steps, which start snapping when he's some way up, leaving him dangling over a very deep drop. Much to his surprise, however, he's rescued by Lady Margolotta, who as a vampire isn't bound by mere gravity.
- The Graveyard Book: Nobody "Bod" Owens goes to a pawn shop and uses a brooch to buy a headstone for one of the ghosts in the graveyard that he lives in. However, the greedy shop owners decide to imprison him until he tells them where they can get more treasure like it. However, the aforementioned ghost is so touched by what Bod is doing that she temporarily gives him the ability to become invisible and helps him escape after the shop owners knock each other out while fighting over the brooch.
- James and the Giant Peach: James and the bugs manage to escape Aunts Spiker and Sponge forever thanks to a magical spell (pills known as crocodile tongues) making the bugs anthropomorphic and causing a long-dead tree to grow a giant peach. Said peach is chewed off the stem by the Centipede, and the first thing it does before it begins rolling towards the sea is squash the women who made James' life miserable for four years, finally freeing him.
- Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits: When Aoi was little, her mother abandoned her. The girl didn’t starve to death thanks to a mysterious ayakashi that brought her food until she was eventually found (by humans) and sent to her grandfather.
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: When the White Witch is preparing to kill Edmund, a group of Narnians sent by Aslan (mainly centaurs) come to his rescue.
- The Spirit Ring: Thur, one of the protagonists of this Historical Fantasy novel by Lois McMaster Bujold, is able to escape from his enemies when some friendly kobolds remove the bars of the window of the room he's being held in by pulling them down into the solid stone. (It is a very tight fit through the window, and Thur's swimming abilities are also needed, as he is being held in a castle overlooking a lake.)
- A Wrinkle in Time: Done twice by two different supernatural aides. When IT nearly gets Meg and Calvin (and successfully gets Charles Wallace), Meg's father manages to tesser and get the kids (as well as himself) off of Camazotz. They land on Ixchell, a neighboring planet with friendly aliens. Meg, as the text reveals, is still in danger of being possessed by IT because of her anger at her father for leaving the family for as long as he did and for seemingly leaving Charles Wallace behind. Aunt Beast, one of the aliens, manages to treat Meg's exposure to IT before she can be fully taken, saving her life.
Live-Action TV
- In "Rose", the first episode of the Doctor Who reboot, Rose is targeted by alien mannequins. The Doctor (a Human Alien known as a Time Lord) gets her to safety before literally blowing up the aliens (along with the store Rose is employed at).
- Goosebumps (1995): In the two-part episode "The Ghost Next Door", the titular ghost saves a boy from asphyxiating in a burning building by getting the attention of rescuers outside.
- The Haunting Hour: In one episode, a girl finds herself targeted by two werewolves. Right when all seems lost, a third werewolf shows up and fights off the other two. The ending heavily implies that the third werewolf was the girl's Disappeared Dad.
- The X-Files: In "Shadows", Howard's poltergeist saves Lauren several times over the course of the episode, namely from Dorland's attempts to get rid of her (first via kidnapping, then threats, then assassins).
Theatre
- Ride the Cyclone: Double Subverted. The central premise of the musical is that Fortune Teller machine The Amazing Karnak was NOT able to save the teenage victims of the Cyclone roller coaster disaster, since he was set to Family Fun Novelty Mode and thus unable to warn them that they were about to die. However, he has the unexplained ability to bring just one of the victims Back from the Dead, and offers their spirits the chance to state their case and choose among themselves, by unanimous vote, which one it will be before he himself is destroyed by a severed power cable. It's implied he knew all along which one would be chosen as he guides events to reach that conclusion.
- Sylvia: After getting her captor Orion and his servants drunk to the point of passing out, all Sylvia requires is a ride back to the mainland. Eros shows up with a boat to give her just that.
Video Games
- Chrono Trigger: After breaking Crono out of prison, the party finds themselves fleeing through the woods, pursued by guards. A Gate suddenly appears before them, and out of sheer desperation, they jump into it and find themselves transported 1,300 years into the future, where they first learn about Lavos and its impending emergence.
- Cute Knight Kingdom: It's a mystery to be solved why, when the protagonist is about to die by monsters if she ever loses a battle, she suddenly is safe and sound behind her childhood home.
- Divinity: Original Sin II: The prologue ends with the Kraken destroying the main characters' ship at sea, plunging them into the water. As they sink, a light shines down on them, and a voice tells them it has plans for them, and they suddenly find themselves on shore. The voice is later revealed to be a Patron God that chose them as Godwoken.
- Ghost Trick is all about the player, Sissel, invoking this by using their titular Ghost Trick powers to help people escape from being killed or murdered. Since this involves rewinding time after they've already died, from the player's perspective, it's a case of Set Right What Once Went Wrong, but from the perspective of whoever they're saving, an unseen force has suddenly manipulated their surroundings in just the right way to keep them out of harm's way.
- Kingdom Hearts II:
- In the middle of the game, Sora confronts Saïx and is told of Organization XIII's plans, meaning he is playing into the villains' hands. Sora and his friends Donald and Goofy are surrounded by Heartless when fairy Maleficent opens up a dark portal under the trio to allow their escape to keep fighting the Organization.
- At the end of the game, Kairi and Pluto are being kept prisoner in a cell in The World That Never Was by Saïx, a member of the Organization XIII. Suddenly, Naminé, Kairi's Nobody, opens a dark portal in the wall of the cell to get Kairi and Pluto out. Kairi is one of the Princesses of Heart, seven maidens with no darkness in their hearts, while Naminé is her Nobody, and Nobody is a being that normally exists as the leftover body after a person's heart is stolen. By all accounts of the series's canon until this game, Naminé's one of a kind.
- In Chapter 4 of Poppy Playtime, the Ex-Employee escaped from Yarnaby when Doughy the Doughman helps open doors and give directions. Later, Doey rescues them from the jaws of Pianosaurus… by eating him.
- Warriors Orochi: The third game's Downer Beginning sees most of the world's heroes either brainwashed or killed at the hands of Kiyomori and the Hydra. Ma Chao, Sima Zhao, and Hanbei Takenaka are cut off with no conceivable way to escape and ready themselves for a Last Stand. Cue the arrival of the immortal mystic Kaguya, who scoops them away from the void and transports them to safe area, wherein the heroes begin to utilize her Time Travel powers to save the world and counterattack.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney: Maya Fey's ability to channel the spirit of her dead sister Mia helps Phoenix turn around several seemingly hopeless cases. The most notable example is the second case of the first game, when Maya is on trial for Mia's murder; just as all seems lost, Maya channels Mia, who points out a piece of evidence Phoenix had overlooked that completely blows the true killer's alibi apart and allows Phoenix to win the case.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: The Reveal in "True Colors" shows that Marcy intended for the Calamity Box to be this for her. She'd been told by her parents that they were moving out of state for her dad's new job, which meant that Marcy's friendship with Anne and Sasha would never be the same. She, having read about the Box, didn't know if it would actually send them to another world, but she was desperate for any way to stay with her friends. While it did give her an escape, it also led to a lot of things happening that she never wanted.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- The Avatar State is meant to be a form of this: when an Avatar enters this state, they gain the abilities and knowledge of the Avatars before them, allowing them to perform feats no other bender can pull off. It's also meant to protect the Avatar and their friends in their darkest moments, such as when Aang entered the Avatar State and fused with La to protect the Northern Water Tribe from Admiral Zhao's forces.
- During the Winter Solstice, the Fire Nation soldiers have Team Avatar trapped as a volcano is about to explode. Then, Avatar Roku (the last avatar before Aang) possesses Aang's body and manages to curb stomp the soldiers, buying the kids valuable escape time.
- Centaurworld: Horse accidentally activated the Key when she fell off a cliff during a battle with minotaurs. The Key saved her from falling to her death by sending her to Centaurworld, kicking off the plot of the series.
- The Ghost and Molly McGee: Attempted in the episode "No Good Deed". After Darryl gets his teachers unjustly sent to prison, he and Molly attempt to get them out by sending Scratch (a ghost) into the prison to shut down the defenses. Unfortunately, they learn in the process that phasing through an electric fence makes ghosts act "silly" (i.e. he starts acting as though very drunk).
- The Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon: During his story about the titular dragon, Gobber insists that Thor himself once rescued the Viking from the Boneknapper. Since Gobber is an Unreliable Narrator, none of the Viking teens believe this (nor is the audience likely to).
- Over the Garden Wall: During Wirt and Greg's time with Lorna, they learn that she's possessed by an evil spirit that compels her to do bad things unless a specific bell is rung (forcing her to do whatever the bell ringer says). Wirt realizes that this can be used to send the spirit away, so he uses the magical bell to drive it off, saving Greg, Lorna, and himself.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- In the episode "I, Brobot ", Perry stops Doofenshmirtz while he's on his way to wave a giant magnet over his new girlfriend's house. When the Mad Scientist tries to drop the magnet on top of Perry, the magnet is caught by Santa Claus (which Doofenshmirtz points out doesn't make sense).
Doofenshmirtz: How does that make sense?!
Santa: I'm on a summer run! Farewell, Perry the Platypus!
Doofenschmirtz: Bah, humbug.- In the episode "Excaliferb", the boys and their friends are falling from a cliff to their doom. Luckily, Isabella (who is a water sprite in the episode's setting) summons the rest of her fairy friends. They control the river at the bottom of the gorge, turning it into a water slide that safely gets the heroes to the ground.
- Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie: In order to Set Right What Once Went Wrong (and to save him from an incoming Kraang attack), the alternate Michelangelo and Leonardo create a mystic portal through time to send Casey back to when the Turtles were teenagers. This act helps Casey Jr. escape the apocalypse, but it costs both alternate turtles their lives.
- In the Star Wars Rebels Wham Episode "Zero Hour, Part II", it seems as though the Empire is going to wipe out Chopper Base and everyone in it. Then the Bendu shows up, bringing a massive storm with him. This distracts the Stormtroopers and buys the Rebels time to get more of their people out.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: In one episode, the gang investigates when various expert sand-castle builders begin disappearing whenever a giant coral creature appears. In the climax, Scooby is nearly swept away when the cave the gang was in began to flood, but the coral monster saves him. Velma reveals that there was never any connection between the disappearing builders (who were actually kidnapped and hypnotized for a construction project) and the creature. Most likely, the disturbance of the construction made the monster feel as though its home was under attack, and it wanted to defend it. Scooby even thanks the monster for saving him.