Times where an antagonist rejects an offered opportunity to redeem themselves in Anime and Manga.
- In the last few episodes of the second season of Bakugan, Mylene is offered a chance to join the Brawlers in their quest to defeat the Big Bad. She decides to try and kill them.
- In Bleach, after Ichigo beats Grimmjow for the last time, Grimmjow confronts him again, battered but still conscious. Ichigo tries to get him to back down, saying there's no reason to fight now, and he'll be happy to fight him any time he wants later. Grimmjow seems to ponder this for a second...before yelling at Ichigo to quit screwing around right before Nnoitra shows up and ganks him.
- Dragon Ball:
- Happens to Frieza in Dragon Ball Z. Goku gives Frieza some energy so that he might survive Namek's explosion. Goku tells him that he might use the energy to wander the cosmos and consider what he's done to so many others. Frieza considers for a moment, then launches an attack on Goku. Frieza's bad karma catches up with him.
- Earlier, Goku tried to persuade Captain Ginyu to reform, but Ginyu refused on the grounds that hurting and lording over other people was what made him happy.
- During the Cell Games, Gohan makes it clear that despite everything Cell has done, he doesn't want to kill him and begs him to repent of his crimes and end things without violence. Cell just mocks him to his face for thinking he could actually talk him down, and upon hearing of Gohan's hidden power, he deliberately drives Gohan to his Rage Breaking Point for the sake of drawing it out and having a challenge; upon this, Gohan switches gears from not wanting to hurt Cell at all to wanting nothing more than to spill his blood and make it as painful and humiliating as possible.
- Dragon Ball GT: Gogeta effortlessly beats up Omega Shenron, then offers to spare his life if he promises never to hurt anyone again. Omega is completely furious and says he'll never do that, then keeps futilely attacking Gogeta.
- Dragon Ball Super: In episode 63, Gowasu comes to the future alongside the Supreme Kai of Universe 7 to lecture both Goku Black and Future Zamasu on their actions and give them a Last-Second Chance, begging them to stop what they're doing and revive everyone they've killed with the Super Dragon Balls. Instead, Black coldly reveals that he destroyed the Super Dragon Balls, making it impossible to undo their destruction, and it's only thanks to Goku and Vegeta's intervention that Gowasu and U7's Supreme Kai don't get blown up on the spot by Black and Future Zamasu.
- It's even more blatant in the manga. Black acts like he will accept Gowasu's offer to repent and grabs his hand, before promptly impaling him; Black then calls Gowasu an idiot for thinking that he could actually persuade him to stop and change his ways, especially since Black's already killed two incarnations of Gowasu for the sake of his plan.
- In episode 131 this happens to Frieza once again. After the Tournament of Power Frieza fully expects Goku and the others to send him straight back to hell without keeping their promise to revive him, because he has outlived his usefulness to them and that's exactly what he would do. He is surprised when Whis revives him on the spot and says it was requested by Beerus due to Frieza's help. Despite this act of kindness and how he surprising proved himself to be a good teammate to the others during the tournament, he states he has no intentions of giving up being evil and vows to have his revenge on Goku one day. The episode includes a stinger scene where Frieza has already rebuilt his army and declares "the ruler of the universe" has returned. Though he does at least now have some level of respect towards Goku after the two of them worked together in the tournament.
- In Kill la Kill, after successfully putting an end to Ragyo Kiryuin's plan to have Earth assimilated by the Life Fibers, Ryuko offers her to go back home and move on from this. Ragyo rejects the offers and kills herself by tearing out and crushing her own heart, leaving a promise the Life Fibers will eventually return.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2016):
- When Zant finally loses to Link, he quietly rants that he never believed in his own power and that his entire scheme was one big attempt at making himself feel powerful. Link tries to show pity and offer Zant redemption. Zant seems to consider the offer a brief moment, only to reaffirm that all he cares about is the throne he feels he deserves.
- At the end, Ganondorf is finally defeated by Princess Zelda and Link. The latter considers sparing the villain, believing that perhaps if all three come to an understanding, then they can end the cycle of conflict that they have carried out for so long. Ganondorf smirks at the idea and boasts that he would never settle for anything so "harmonious", instead committing a Spiteful Suicide specifically so he will reincarnate and continue to torment the heroes on a future day to come.
- Naruto: Naruto verbally beats Obito Uchiha down with one of his most epic speeches and offers him a chance to at least not go down as one of the worst monsters in the Naruto-verse's history. Obito tries to choke him out, saying he regrets nothing. In the end, he's Mind Raped by his memory of his childhood love refusing to look at him and Naruto grabbing his hand and dragging him forward. This makes all the Tailed Beast burst out of him and Obito lose entirely. Though he does eventually relent to take down The Man Behind the Man.
- Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl: Ash and his friends manage to convince Meowth that his skills could make him a celebrity and cause him to reconsider whether or not to return to Team Rocket. In the end, Status Quo Is God, and Meowth still sticks with the Rockets: not because he likes being a villain (that comes later), but because they're his True Companions.
- Re:CREATORS: Mamika Kirameki attempts to convince Altair to give up her plan to destroy reality by appealing to her better nature. Altair responds horribly.
- In Soul Eater, Tezca Tlipoca tries to convince former-colleague-went-rogue Justin Law to come back to DWMA, pointing out that Justin still has the chance to redeem himself by providing the info about Kishin's location to DWMA. Tezca also calls him out on living solely by blind faith and cutting himself away from others, and offers to fix that with his friendship. Justin refuses and kills Tezca instead.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Edo Phoenix is an enforcer of the Big Bad Leo Akaba and believes in his philosophy that dueling is about conquering and hurting people. Yusho Sakaki has the philosophy that dueling is about bringing smiles to people and managed to defeat Edo. Yusho offered him friendship and a copy of his favorite card Smile World. Enraged, Edo ripped it in half and dedicated his life to crushing Yusho and his philosophy. Later, Yusho's son Yuya manages to get Edo to turn around.
