Archer/Heartwarming

• A precious moment between Archer and his mother, after she shoots him six times "right in the 10 ring".
  • Another one in Stage Two. He even shares a moment with Woodhouse. Not to mention accidentally blurting out the fact that he thinks he's in love with Lana. It may or may not be true, but it was sort of sweet when you consider Archer probably has no idea what love feels like considering his background.
    • As well as one with the Wee Baby Seamus. Archer makes a point of spending time with him, even though he isn't really his son, because he's "probably the closest I'll ever have." Really, "Stage Two" is a pretty heartwarming episode, at least by Archer standards.
• Archer's interactions with a fellow cancer patient named Ruth. One of, if not the only time Archer has ever shown genuine niceness to a fellow human being.
  • He even gets a Bond One-Liner out of it. Archer: Don't you worry Ruth; I'm gonna make *them* pay for it. (The "them" is the Irish mob).
  • Hell, his RAMPAGE against the Irish mob for selling fake cancer medication is at least 50% about them doing it to Ruth and other cancer patients. If it was just him, one could assume he would take only half the gear.

Malory: What do you plan on doing?? Archer: Cry havoc, and let loose the hogs of war.

• The concern Archer shows for Cheryl's pet Ocelot. One would expect him to be characteristically pissed off that it shredded one of his suits, but instead he insists on buying it toys to play with.
  • It continues with "The Limited", where he shows great concern for the ocelot being in the battlefield ("Babou, serpentine!!"). Although by the end, he acknowledges how much of a jerk Babou can be.
• From the two part season finale, we have Archer finally finding someone he actually loves, Malory's legitimate fears that Sterling had died and Katya giving her life to save the man that she loved.
  • The reveal of what Katya and Krieger were actually discussing.
• Understated one in "The Honeypot" when Archer finds himself in a bar that hosts chicken-fighting matches. A big, weeping Dominican man is sitting next to him, crying over the death of his slain rooster. The next time we see Archer, he is covered in dirt and carrying a shovel, and mentions that he spent all night helping the guy bury the dead bird. For Archer of all people, this is a surprising bit of kindness.
  • This becomes even more Heartwarming in Hindsight after the second season reveal that alligators are one of Archer's three biggest fears (along with crocodiles, which Archer explains are also native to the Everglades).

Camp Gay: Then where were you all night? Archer: Way the Christ out in the Everglades buring some Dominican guy's rooster! Camp Gay: Fun! (beat) Oh, you mean literally.

• In Heart of Archness: Part 3, when Archer tells Lana that even though they fight, he considers her his friend, and his only friend at that.
• Woodhouse's origin story in "The Double Deuce". All of it. The whole story was enough to impress Sterling.
  • He avenges his friend Reggie's death by killing the entire squad sent to kill them. He eventually ends up owning a bar in Tangier, Morocco, when a pregnant Malory Archer shows up on the run and Woodhouse delivers Sterling Archer. He even helps come up with the name Sterling.
  • Later, Woodhouse sells his bar to buy a boat to get to Lisbon, Portugal, and then sells the boat to get money to send Malory and baby Sterling back to the United States. He ends up raising Sterling singlehandedly until Sterling was 5.
  • Of course this being Archer, the sentiment is quickly undermined when it is revealed that Woodhouse kept the scalps of the Germans he killed.
• In the Season 3 finale, "Space Race: Part II," Archer chooses the ISIS crew over fighting Barry.
• In the same finale, Archer makes up for an incident in the prior episode. As ISIS launches the space shuttle to go back to Earth, Cyril is forced to be the pilot as he is the only qualified person remaining. In the prior episode, Cyril had flown a flight simulator until Archer disrupted his concentration. Cyril crashed in the simulator. On board the shuttle, Archer tells Cyril that Cyril is going to make it, which elicits a thank you from Cyril to Archer. AND in response, Cyril uses the shuttle's rocket propulsion to disintegrate Barry's shuttle, stranding Barry.
  • Yet in typical Archer fashion, the Heartwarming Moment is ruined by the end. Archer grabs the throttle from Cyril just as they're about to land, crashing the shuttle in real life.

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