Basic Trope: Someone who has been wronged strikes the one who wronged them once before forgiving them.
- Played Straight: Bob did something to Alice that he later apologizes for. Alice punches Bob in the face before telling him that she forgives him.
- Exaggerated: Alice breaks several bones in Bob's arm immediately before absolving him for every crime he's ever done in his life.
- Downplayed: Alice lightly slaps Bob on the wrist before telling him to just not do it again.
- Justified: Part of how Bob wronged Alice involved directly harming her, so she feels she is justified in harming him in retaliation before she is ready to let it go.
- Inverted: Bob strikes Alice just before asking her for forgiveness.
- Subverted: Alice hits Bob after he asks for forgiveness, and Bob asks afterward if it makes them even now. She says it does not.
- Double Subverted: ... But not long after she realizes he was too harsh on Bob, and so went back and told him that she forgives him. However, she also says he still deserved that hit.
- Parodied: Most if not all of the main cast believe hitting someone to be a perfectly valid form of communicating that they accept their apology.
- Deconstructed: Angered by Alice striking him, Bob rescinds his apology and tells Alice that she deserved what he did to her.
- Reconstructed: A little while afterward, however, Bob realizes that Alice probably felt similarly to how he now feels when he wronged her, and so decides to go back and apologize properly. Alice agrees.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob asks for forgiveness, and she promptly hits him. Bob asks her if this makes them even, and she says it does not. However, afterward, she feels she was too hard on him and goes to tell him she forgives him. However, Bob was ticked off by Alice's hitting him, and so says he isn't sorry about what he did anymore.
- Averted:
- Alice does not hit Bob when considering forgiving him.
- Alice hits Bob for reasons unrelated to any past wrongdoing on Bob's part.
- Implied: Bob leaves early in the episode to apologize to Alice for a past wrongdoing. When he returns a while later, he has a bruise on his cheek, but when asked, Alice says she forgave him.
- Logical Extreme: A solid punch to the face after an apology is a generally accepted sign in society that the person you apologized to forgives you.
- Enforced: "How can we get Alice to forgive Bob in a way that doesn't make it seem like she forgives too easily? Oh, let's have Alice hit Bob first before she does so!"
- Lampshaded: Bob wonders how genuine forgiveness is if it takes place right after beating the 'forgiven' up.
- Invoked: Bob offers to let Alice punch him once he apologizes, in the hopes that letting her let off that steam will make her more willing to forgive him now that they are more 'even'.
- Exploited: Bob knows Alice is the violent sort and wants to use that in order to knock her down a peg. He intentionally does something mean to her in order to make her angry, and when he goes to apologize, he hides a small vial of a sleeping gas in his clothing, in the hopes that her striking him will break the container and release the gas to render her unconscious.
- Defied:
- Just after he finishes apologizing, Bob quickly ducks to the side, causing Alice's punch to miss him completely.
- "Look, if you want me to do something to make it up to you, then just say the word. Expenses or personal pride shall not be spared. But if you try to get back at me by beating me up, you better be ready to lose everything, beginning with the lawsuit I'll file for assault."
- Discussed: "Be careful not to get on Alice's bad side - even if she intends to forgive you, she'll still give you a mean right hook first!"
- Conversed: "Don't you think it's a little weird that they keep hitting each other when they ask for forgiveness?"
- Deconstructed:
- Hurt feelings Vs. potential concussion is too disproportionate towards the other side, regardless of how allegedly tough, open-minded, self-loathing, and "worthy" Bob is.
- There are things that cannot be forgiven or forgotten even after death, let alone a punch to the face.
- Played for Laughs: Alice knocks out Bob in a single blow and realizes that he isn't conscious enough to hear her forgive him anymore.
- Played for Drama: Someone witnesses Alice hit Bob after he apologizes and word gets out about the incident, leaving Alice with a reputation as violent and unforgiving. In the future, those who wrong her, even on accident, decide not to apologize or make it up to her for fear of Alice just beating them up for trying.
- Played for Horror: Alice’s idea of this trope is to blow Bob's brains out and say "I forgive you" to the corpse.
SMACK My Fist Forgives You for not returning to the trope's main page.
