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Marking as Needs Help in lieu of an “actually YMMV” option.

Easily Forgiven Wick Check

The Problem: So, Easily Forgiven is defined as a villain who is forgiven despite committing particularly heinous crimes- in short, a villain who is too vile for the repentance to be believable. The problem is that what qualifies as "too evil to forgive" is subjective- as the wick check will show, it has been used for things ranging from genuinely baffling (genocide, general mass murder, abuse, rape) to more dickish but not particularly heinous things (causing a breakup, firing someone for a dumb reason, insulting someone in public) to Poke the Poodle-level acts and honest mistakes. While the description claims it can be used objectively/in-universe, most wicks read as subjective judgements, and of the 85 wicks checked, only 10 qualified as in-universe judgements. Since basically everyone has a different threshold as to what they will forgive, what one fan may consider too evil or dickish to be forgiven may be seen by another fan as not a big deal or something that can be amended if the person does enough work to atone for it. On top of that, concerns have been raised about this being redundant to Unintentionally Unsympathetic.

Potential Solutions: At minimum, this should be YMMV, possibly merged into Unintentionally Unsympathetic, and I can see value in splitting off an In-Universe Examples Only trope about a character saying or thinking another character was easily forgiven.

Also, if we do make this YMMV, Magolor from Kirby's Return to Dream Land will need to have his Pantheon entry changed as he is currently the god of Easily Forgiven. Luckily, I think Welcome Back, Traitor can serve as a good replacement.

Wick check:

On this page, we will be doing a wick check for Easily Forgiven.

Why? Easily Forgiven is defined as a villain who is forgiven despite committing particularly heinous crimes- in short, a villain who is too vile for the repentance to be believable. The problem is that what qualifies as "too evil to forgive" is subjective- as the wick check will show, it has been used for things ranging from genuinely baffling (genocide, general mass murder, abuse, rape) to more dickish but not particularly heinous things (causing a breakup, firing someone for a dumb reason, insulting someone in public) to Poke the Poodle-level acts and honest mistakes. While the description claims it can be used objectively/in-universe, most wicks read as subjective judgements. On top of that, concerns have been raised about this being redundant to Unintentionally Unsympathetic. At minimum, this should be YMMV, possibly merged into UU, and I can see value in splitting off an In-Universe Examples Only trope about a character saying or thinking another character was easily forgiven.

Wicks checked: 85/85

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    Reads as subjective judgement (58/85) 
  1. Characters.MCU Wanda Maximoff:
    • In Age of Ultron, Tony and Banner leave the team in guilt, while Wanda, an ex-HYDRA agent who mind-raped Tony and Banner into building Ultron and Hulking out, isn't blamed by anyone, for anything, to any degree. Instead, she gets enlisted into the Avengers.
    • Averted in WandaVision. She is fully aware that removing the Hex from Westview and sacrificing her family will not be enough for the people she unintentionally mind-controlled to forgive her, so she leaves the town behind and goes into self-imposed exile to learn how to fully control her abilities.
    • In Multiverse of Madness, her Earth-838 counterpart never gave Wanda any harsh words despite the latter's multiple attempts to ruin her life (hijacking her body, then committing several murders and planning to Kill and Replace her to steal her children, to be specific).
  2. GameOfThrones.Tropes E To F:
    • Robert cemented his control of Westeros by forgiving any remaining Targaryen loyalists who surrendered, including Barristan Selmy, Jaime Lannister, Varys, Pycelle, the Tyrells, and the Martells.
    • In season 8 episode 1, Cersei sends Bronn to kill Jaime. The only reason Jaime is even alive by the end of episode 4 is because Tyrion bribed Bronn with the promise of the castle he yearned for the entire series. Despite this, Jaime returns to King's Landing and comforts Cersei in her last moments, dying in embrace with her. In fact, he shuns Brienne, the woman who actually loved and believed him, in order to be by Cersei's side.
  3. Literature.Tara Duncan: Not Brainwashed: Fabrice, regarding his Face–Heel Turn fueled by his lust for power. Later on, he thus seems Easily Forgiven.
  4. Characters.Everhood: (Pink) At the end of the game, everyone Pink meets in the Waiting Room forgives them for their genocide. Given that, after their deaths, they understand that death is not the end, they come to better understand why Pink did what they did.
  5. Fanfic.The Unity Saga: Not quite, as Han never forgives Luke for killing Chewbacca during his stint on the Dark Side until after his erstwhile friend dies, but it's Played Straight by most of the other characters.
  6. Literature.Anansi Boys: Spider commits rape by fraud with Rosie, and she marries him in the end.
  7. Fridge.Baten Kaitos: In Eternal Wings, while Kalas appears to be Easily Forgiven by his comrades after he comes back from his Face–Heel Turn since they don't mention his part in the current disaster very often. When you think about it makes sense, after all. If they mentioned it to the majority of the populace, they'd have no doubt turned into an angry mob and torn him apart.
  8. Series.Why Women Kill: April is infuriated when she realizes that her new friend "Sheila" was in fact the wife of the married man she's been having an affair with. However, she gets over it very quickly when she reads the love confession letter Mary wrote to bait her abusive husband into killing Rob, as it demonstrates Rob's serial infidelity. In the epilogue April and Beth Ann live together and raise April's daughter.
  9. LovingAShadow.Anime And Manga: Naruto:
  10. Film.Radio Rebel: Stacy, considering that she was ruthlessly mean to Tara from the beginning of the film and even more so when she found out that Tara was Radio Rebel. Luckily for her, Tara isn't the type to hold a grudge.
  11. Series.Jessie: Paranoia Gambit: This is unintentionally pulled in the episode "A Close Shave". Bertram and Zuri fear that Luke will want revenge on them for accidentally shaving the middle of his head, despite Luke having already forgiven them. They even end up destroying their own things thinking Luke was giving them as a prank.
  12. Heartwarming.Arlo The Alligator Boy: After spending the whole film trying to avoid his son, Ansel saves Arlo from Ruff and Stucky by revealing his identity as a bird-man, and getting him out of their clutches. Not long after that, he explains everything to Arlo, and by extension, his audience, outright admitting that he had made the worst mistake of his life abandoning his son. Yet despite everything he did, Arlo still instantly forgives him.
  13. VideoGame.Vs Beepie: Boyfriend doesn't hold a grudge against Beepie for her attempts to steal him from Girlfriend, likely since this isn't the first time their lives have been threatened (and also likely since she's not the only BF fangirl), and sings some more songs with her to cheer her up.
  14. Recap.Cheers S 4 E 8: Given what a complete Jerkass Dave was to Sam and Diane back in Season Two's "Old Flames", it's curious that Sam is now on such friendly terms with Dave. It's even curiouser when he doesn't seem to understand why Diane doesn't like Dave, given how hard Dave worked to break Sam and Diane up.
  15. DubInducedPlotHole.Video Games: The English localization of Kingdom Hearts III has an infamous one near the end by completely mistranslating the motivation of one of the series most important characters. In the original Xehanort, while dying, reveals that he believed the war between Light and Dark had become a futile cycle, and his intent was to end the world and start over from scratch, something which is mutated in the localization into him trying to bring "balance" to light and dark, with zero mention of wanting to start from scratch. This ends up making the entire character incoherent, leads to lots of inconsistencies in the storyline, and makes his Alas, Poor Villain look completely unearned.
  16. Film.City Dragon: Ray, after having an affair with his boss, and generally treating Tina like crap (though unlike John, he never physically hurts her, it's mostly just sniping between the two of them), which causes her to walk out on him he...has Philthy play a song on the radio on the off chance Tina will hear it (she does), and then after she gives birth she calls him from the hospital to come see her. It's a bit more understandable after he stops John from hurting the kid, but Tina had already seemed to forgive him before that.
  17. MoralEventHorizon.William Shakespeare: In the last scene of Two Gentlemen of Verona, Proteus tries to rape Silvia (before being talked down by Valentine) and his being rather suddenly forgiven by both Valentine and Julia does not ring true for many modern viewers.
  18. VideoGame.Star Control:
    • The first time you meet Fwiffo on Pluto, he (in typical Spathi fashion) mistakes your harmless lander crew for a hostile force and, without any provocation, opens fire and kills several people. He blames his ship's automated defences for the incident, but it's pretty clear that he is lying. A few minutes and one conversation later, he becomes your first alien ally, and his ship forms an important part of your fleet, potentially for the rest of the game. You can fight him to avenge your dead crew instead, but he's alone on his ship (meaning it has only one hit point), making the victory feel quite hollow, and failing to ally with him makes the game much harder.
    • Pkunk are pretty eager to forgive you after you insulted them and possibly destroyed several of their ships, as long as you promise to "try" not to blow them up anymore.
  19. Series.Wanda Vision: None other than Wanda at the end of the series. Despite having kidnapped an entire town and forced them to play roles in her weird meltdown, including not letting some of them see their children. After beating Agatha, Wanda simply leaves for a journey of self-discovery.
  20. Manga.Silver Diamond:
    • Touji is sent to kill Chigusa, Narushige, and Rakan and also manages to put some holes in Chigusa while attempting to do just that. Doesn't stop Rakan from saving him from getting shot by Chigusa, giving him dinner, and telling the others to be nicer to him - all in the span of a day. Then he gets added to the team.
    • Rakan is the king of this trope. He later forgives another hitman sent by Kinrei, who almost brought a house down on him; a girl who tried to kill all of his comrades so her village would get to keep him forever; and a group of guards who stubbornly refuse to even consider that someone of the Kingen family might not be telling the truth. They all wind up becoming valuable allies and the first two have already undergone a Heel–Face Turn.
    • The great Aversion happens with Hoshinomikoto. Rakan simply cannot forgive the pain he put Chigusa through.
  21. Wrestling.Cody Rhodes: So, Randy Orton can concuss you, your father, and your best friend, but it's all good in the end and you're willing to join with his new group. Worse still was Orton's treatment of DiBiase and Rhodes in Legacy, which consisted of being outright abusive at times and STILL attacking their family members and such. They did eventually get tired of it…which somehow was a Heel–Face Turn for Randy Orton. It was supposed to be the other way around, but fans decided that they hated Ted and Cody more and made Randy the de facto good guy for kicking their asses. The writers ran with it…until Cody's had time to stew over it, and he came back for Orton's blood.
  22. Characters.Harry Potter Ravenclaw: (Marietta Edgecombe) Played with. Cho defends her against Harry even after she ratted on the D.A., the implied justification being that by this point Marietta is Cho's seemingly last friend.
  23. YMMV.Shakugan No Shana: Desingated Hero: To some people, the Snake of the Festival and/or Snake Yuji is a rare antagonist example- he is clearly intended to be a Hero Antagonist who has the noble goal of wanting to create a world where Flame Haze, Crimson Denizens, and Humans can life in harmony. But the things he does in pursuit of this goal are rather hard-to-swallow: sacrificing millions of innocent lives, human and denizen alike, in the war, driving Margery to the Despair Event Horizon, and outright kidnapping Shana to have her stay with him and holding her down on a bed, all while leaving his other love interests Kazumi and Hecate in the dust. Needless to say, some people view him winning and reconciling with Shana as a prime example of an Easily Forgiven Karma Houdini.
  24. BrokenBase.Steven Universe: In "Barn Mates", many viewers felt that Lapis was being unreasonably cruel to Peridot by refusing to even consider she's changed. However, others felt Peridot was Easily Forgiven and the episode gave a Broken Aesop of how victims aren't allowed to be angry at those who hurt them if it's at the expense of their friends, especially after Peridot apologized to Amethyst for being Innocently Insensitive in an earlier episode.
  25. YMMV.Destiny Of The Shrine Maiden: Esoteric Happy Ending: Depending on whether you consider a permissible happy ending to be a reincarnation as a new person, or strange hints of turning girls into "too much" loving sisters, the end of the series can become that. In addition, if we interpret Himeko's words as a sign of preserving their personality after reincarnation, this makes the ending of the anime completely happy (where the Orochi was destroyed permanently and Himeko and Chikane could finally be together forever no matter how many times they reincarnate), and the end of the manga even more embarrassing. There's also the matter that it's an ending where a rape victim forgives and gets together with her rapist, and they reincarnate together for all eternity, which needless to say makes it downright horrifying for those who don't approve of Chikane and Himeko's relationship. However, future works like Shattered Angels, Zettai Shoujo Seiiki Amnesian and Himegami no Miko show that Chikane and Himeko reincarnated several more times, each time without the threat of the Orochi, and usually have better relationships than in the original manga.
  26. DethroningMoment.Anime And Manga: The ending to Fruits Basket would have been good if it weren't for one thing: Akito being a massive Karma Houdini. I get that Tohru is a Nice Girl and it wouldn't be out of character for her to show compassion to her enemies, but did she honestly forget all the atrocities she did? All of the members of the Sohma clan she emotionally and physically abused? Putting Rin and Kisa in the hospital? Ruining Hattori's life? Attempting to kill her and Kyo during her Villainous Breakdown? Akito doesn't need forgiveness. Akito needed time in prison (or at least some serious therapy). I don't care about her Freudian Excuse. Sasuke Uchiha wasn't this Easily Forgiven. And this is only one of several wicks on the page and on Dethroning Moment pages in general.
  27. JerksAreWorseThanVillains.Video Games: The Shantae series has a fun and colorful cast of both heroes and villains. In fact, series Big Bad Risky Boots is a big fan favorite for her competence, attractiveness, and Hidden Depths, and several other villains are nearly as popular- even the Pirate Master and Empress Siren, two surprisingly evil mass-murderers with no redeeming qualities, are loved for how threatening and cool they are. However, many fans utterly loathe Mayor Scuttlebutt for firing Shantae for little to no reason in almost every game and being completely shameless about it, yet getting off with almost no problem every single time. It should say something that it's widely agreed that one of the best parts of Shantae and the Seven Sirens is the fact he doesn't appear at all.
  28. Recap.Kim Possible S 2 E 11 Exchange: Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In addition to his sense of humor, Yori is also attracted to Ron because he is a Nice Guy, as seen by the look she gives him when he forgives Fukushima after he loudly disrespects him in front of everyone.
  29. Improved Second Attempt: In Persona 5, the character of Goro Akechi and his subplot were considered decent in theory but poorly handled in practice, with the game and its characters telling the player he felt kinship with Joker instead of showing it and having him awkwardly dump his backstory without prompting to make the player sympathize with him. The Updated Re-release Royal changed his Confidant from an automatic story one to a manual one, meaning the player needs to actively go out of their way to bond with him, and re-wrote the Confidant to give Akechi and Joker's bond more natural development and make the backstory drops less forced. While the climactic scenes with him are mostly the same as the original, these changes made them feel much more organic. The new third semester returns him to the party, but alleviated fears he would be Easily Forgiven by making him a Token Evil Teammate who the rest of the Phantom Thieves barely tolerate, while giving him a lot of hilarious Comedic Sociopathy.
  30. ComicBook.Chick Tracts:
    • Quite a few people who change their ways upon being converted, especially abusive parents or spouses (Ahmed in "Is Allah Like You?", Roy Davis in "The Secret", and Henry Walker in "Lisa").
    • Surprisingly, initially averted in Happy Hour. After pushing his wife down and indirectly causing her death of a heart attack, and later spending the grocery money on liquor, Jerry tries to apologize to his children, but his children will have none of it until they go to church and learn the value of forgiveness, forgiving him two panels after the previous incident.
    • Eric in Baby Talk, who breaks up with his pregnant girlfriend, leaving her to either get an abortion or raise the baby alone. Granted, he recognizes his mistake and tries to fix it, but she doesn't seem angry at him at any point, and apparently takes him back.
  31. Literature.Clifford The Big Red Dog: Mac cheats against T-Bone in order to win a race against him. When he confesses, his friends take the news just a tad too well.
  32. Recap.Big City Greens S 3 E 8: Bill quickly forgives Cricket for not listening to him. Justified as Cricket both just nearly died and learned his lesson.
  33. Literature.The Familiar Of Zero: Louise essentially kidnaps Saito from his old life by force, enslaves him, forces him to do her chores, beats him whenever she gets upset, and denies him food as punishment when she's unsatisfied with his work. But despite all this, Saito still ends up falling in love with her.
  34. Recap.Bluey Circus: Hercules is accepted into the game (as the "strongman"), even after trying to force the other kids into playing the game he wanted to play.
  35. Characters.Angel Beats: (Ayato Naoi) Even if Death Is Cheap, his pre-Heel–Face Turn actions were too much, but the SSS seems alright with Naoi casually hanging out with them. It's still downplayed; while the SSS are willing to tolerate him, nobody exactly likes him, and Yuri mainly sees him as useful for his Hypnotic Eyes.
  36. Manga.Boruto: Sumire almost destroys the village near the end of her arc in the anime, but she's brought in and reaccepted into the academy despite this. As Shino himself says, it helps that no one was seriously hurt.
  37. RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness.Tropes D To I: The various members of Tsukune's circle of friends can do such things as nearly kill each other and pick fights for the pettiest of reasons, and by the end of the day, Tsukune will have forgiven them and gotten them to forgive each other.
  38. PlayingWith.Turn The Other Cheek: Exaggerated: Summer has made Danny's life a living hell, beat him up for no reason, crossed the Moral Event Horizon in killing his entire family, and tore up a letter to his best friend, but Danny instantly forgives her anyways.
  39. YMMV.She Ra And The Princesses Of Power: Broken Base:
    • In the same vein as Cassandra's in Tangled: The Series, whether or not Catra's redemption was well done. For some, it was a powerful piece of Character Development that put them through the grinder before successfully redeeming them as intended, making them deeply sympathetic and demonstrating how nobody is beyond atonement. For as many others, it was overly rushed favoritism that robbed the character of moral complexity or straight up turned them a Karma Houdini with no more than a slap on the wrist, by failing to fully acknowledge the scope of some of the terrible things they did, such as causing Angella to sacrifice herself, making them Easily Forgiven.
  40. Literature.Re Zero: Subaru can be surpisingly forgiving about being murdered. Being killed by Rem once doesn't prevent Subaru from falling in love with her. He's also quite happy to see Puck for the first time after the spirit killed him, declared his intention to destroy the world, and killed him again.
  41. Memes.Naruto: Chapter 699: ...Yeah, sorry. Explanation 
  42. Film.The Room: Mark nearly shoves Peter over the edge of the roof, and is forgiven almost instantly in an awkward fashion.
  43. ICarly.Tropes A To E: In iCan't Take It, Sam ruins Freddie's chances of getting into an exclusive science camp that would help him get into any college he wants. Because Freddie didn't know what time it was when Sam asked him. Freddie finds out and gets angry, then, after prodding by Carly, forgives her about 2 minutes after and kisses her again to end the episode.
  44. Film.Maleficent: Aurora very easily forgives Maleficent for cursing her to die on her 16th birthday after Maleficent has a Heel–Face Turn and undoes the curse.
  45. Recap.King Of The Hill S 4 E 14 High Anxiety: Karma Houdini: Buck suffers no repercussions after trying to frame Hank, even as he confessed it to the Sheriff (something that's actually illegal) and is Easily Forgiven by Hank (although that's no surprise considering his fervent worship of Buck).
  46. Webcomic.The Bikini Bottom Horror:
    • Gary bears no ill will against the guilty Patrick for killing his owner. As it turns out, it's because he knew SpongeBob didn't really die.
    • Guilty!Patrick is also forgiven, or at least left alone by the remaining citizens of Bikini Bottom as they rebuild. The only one who doesn't, and thinks he got off too easy is Pearl, because Mr. Krabs is dead and she could've stopped the Tortured One due to being a sperm whale. She also derides Patrick (all of them) for being cowardly by waiting to attack until she was on a school trip. Unfortunately, she's the only one who wants revenge for Mr. Krabs, as Sandy points out that the greedy man started the whole thing and got what he deserved.
  47. Fanfic.Wreck It Ralph 2: Vanellope accepts the Sugar Rush II racers' apologies for what Princess Vanellope forced them to do, and invites them to be racers in Sugar Rush to boot.
  48. Characters.Tangled Cassandra: After attempting to kill Rapunzel several times, enslaving people, and taking over Corona in Season 3, the finale has Rapunzel readily forgiving her without holding a grudge, even telling her she loves her after Cassandra's Heel–Face Turn. Eugene is also fine with her despite how rude she was to him and the fact that she tried to kill him, too (even pulling her in for a hug). Justified, as it was made plain how Zhan Tiri had urged Cassandra on, and Cassandra had owned up to her misdeeds enough to shed Tears of Remorse and beg Rapunzel not to forgive her, thinking she doesn't deserve it, helped Rapunzel defeat Zhan Tiri, and temporarily died while doing so.
  49. OnceUponATime.Tropes E To F:
    • Neal seemingly puts his father killing his mother behind him, but isn't over the whole abandoning thing. He also doesn't have a grudge against Hook after selling him out to the Lost Boys.
    • Regina murdered a whole village among other things but apparently that's fine since she wants to be good now.
    • Hook killed David's father but is almost immmediately forgiven because "it was a long time ago" and he's "not that man anymore".
  50. Implied Rape: Futurama: Midway through the second movie, "The Beast with a Billion Backs," it's revealed that Yivo, the monster who had been brainwashing every adult in the universe by sticking tentacles in their necks, was actually mating with them without consent. Despite a few jokes alluding to Black Comedy Rape ("It touched me in a bad place — my spinal cord!" and Yivo claiming "Your universe dresses provocatively"), it's never actually stated to be rape explicitly. This is likely because of Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi; Yivo is Easily Forgiven and the entire universe is willing to go on dates with shklim and even live on top of shklim.
  51. Seinfeld.Tropes A To H: Jerry has this in a couple episodes.
  52. NotMeThisTime.Video Games: In Psychonauts, Coach Oleander tries to kidnap everyone at the camp in order to create an army of psychic-powered war machines. As soon as he's thwarted and subsequently reformed, news comes in that the head of the Psychonauts has also been kidnapped. Oleander makes it clear that he had nothing to do with this one, stating "I was here the whole time, you saw me!"
  53. Heartwarming.A Christmas Carol: Some adaptations contain this exchange when Scrooge arrives at Fred's dinner. Never has Easily Forgiven been any sweeter.
    Scrooge: Can you forgive this stubborn, misguided fool?
    Fred: My dear uncle, there's nothing to forgive.
  54. Quotes.Angst Dissonance:
    Another thing among Destiny of the Shrine Maiden's ten thousand sins is codifying that godawful cliche of unrequited lesbian love being the deepest and most undeniable misery there is. It’s so godawfully painful that you're not only justified for murder/rape/deicide/general douchery, but all your stupid friends who've lost their family and friends, or have actually had legitimately awful things happen to them, just CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE DEPTH OF YOUR FEELINGS. And thus you are automatically both way more badass and way more sympathetic than they are. You know. Because.
    Like seriously, Chikane's raped her best friend and murdered all the punch-clock badguys under the pretense of joining them, and their boss is totally cool with it, because her heart is so awash in an ocean of tears that she's capable of becoming the god of grief and loathing. Their team had a rape victim, two political exiles, a eugenics victim, and someone who had to give up their life's dream, but HOLY CRAP CHIKANE. You had a crush on a girl you had Algebra I with, and she didn't like you like that! YOUR GRIEF DOTH OVERSHADOW US ALL.
  55. FandomSpecificPlot.My Hero Academia: In fanfics that have Bakugou's bullying revealed it's fairly common to Izuku being one of his defenders to the point that fics have Izuku convincing the likes of Aizawa or Nedzu to not expel Bakugou on the grounds that he was a product of his environment and deserves a chance to change.(Ex: Deku? I think he's some pro..., Blank Canvas)
  56. Manga.Shitsurakuen: While it is somewhat understandable that some of the guys went along with the system, it still doesn't excuse how extremely cruel they have been treating the girls. The most egregious example of this might be between Koharu and Shinji. He tried to rape her and she is the one who apologizes first (for reasons no mortal could comprehend).
  57. Literature.Dragonkeeper: Kai forgives the emperor for torturing him.
  58. UnintentionallyUnsympathetic.Western Animation: Castlevania (2017):
    • Lenore ultimately came off as this for some viewers. She’s treated as the Token Good Teammate among the four vampire sisters and is meant to be seen as the most sympathetic for the compassion she gives to Hector as well as briefly mentioning a tragic past where her parents were murdered. But her actions in Season 3 i.e manipulating Hector while he’s imprisoned, giving him a Disproportionate Retribution for trying to escape and then tricking Hector by slipping a soul binding ring on him while having sex with him so he’ll obey, comes off as too much of a Moral Event Horizon. In the Season 4 ending, having genuinely bonded with Hector (off-screen) she gives a token apology and is Easily Forgiven by the guy who needed to cut his own finger off to be free of her power. Some even found Lenore’s suicide viva sunlight unsympathetic since said she hates feeling trapped, yet was perfectly okay with her Love Interest being held captive by her for months.

    In-Universe Judgement (10/85) 
  1. Characters.Megalo Box: (Santa, Bonjiri, and Oicho) Averted. When Joe returns, the only one of them and Sachio who could be seen as this is Bonjiri, and even then he's rather awkward about it until Joe gets the deed to his restaurant back and Sachio admits to his role in him leaving. Santa's next to do so, and that's only because his attempt at writing an article about him sparring with Liu left an impression on him and prompted him to give him a chance. Oicho takes the longest of the three to do so, showing up in time help him, Bonjiri, Santa and Aragaki stop the gym he was rebuilding from collapsing in a typhoon, and even then she's somewhat prickly.
  2. Characters.Rosenkreuzstilette: (Grolla Seyfarth)
    • And then after that, her second and saddest Shoot the Dog moment is when she's forced to take on the undead form of her own grandfather and mentor, Raimund Seyfarth. To her, being made to slay her grandpa and lay him back to rest again is Easily Forgiven. But, in her words, the fact that Graf Zeppelin interrupted his peaceful slumber by bringing him Back from the Dead... not so much.
  3. Fanfic.Twice Upon An Age:
    • Invoked by Varric in one of his author's notes, after the Inquisitors make amends following their large disagreement; he remarks that it might seem to the reader like they were too quick to forgive each other. But as he points out, the big problem with their argument was that they were both wrong and they were also both right, and since they're willing to acknowledge that, it's easy for them to forgive.
    • Varric invokes this in his opening notes on Agents Acquired, observing that "Scholar" is quite irritated with him for giving her more work to do; but the reader shouldn't worry, because she always forgives him. The author's own notes more or less confirm this, much to her bemusement.
  4. WebOriginal.Mushroom Land: Berserk Button: You better not call Maggie a retard. Subverted, as Agatha is easily forgiven
    Maggie: YOU are the retard! But I love you anyway.
  5. Funny.Bart Baker: In "Sorry", Justin Bieber acts like a jerk because as long as he "feels regret", he can always go back to act like a douchebag.
  6. DidntThinkThisThrough.Fan Works: For His Own Sake:
    • Naru angrily accuses her family of not really caring about her and cuts them out of her life. After Granny Hina cuts her off for good, she turns around and expects to be Easily Forgiven for her outburst.
  7. HonestTrailers.Tropes E To M: The Honest Trailer for Black Widow (2021) suggests that Malina gets forgiven too easily for her part in forcibly recruiting a multitude of young girls into becoming assassins.
  8. HardTruthAesop.Bojack Horseman: A theme that's returned to many times is that awareness of a problem and feeling contrite about it is not enough to redeem you as a person, particularly when it doesn't stop you from making the same mistakes over and over again. The show is also not shy about insinuating that redemption, as far as Hollywoo imagines it, may not be possible for some people if their victims decide that they're too far gone to accept help anymore. Best exemplified by Todd in "It's You", who sums this up to Bojack by saying "You can't keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself like that makes it okay! You need to be better!"
  9. Film.Undercover Brother: White She Devil, much to Conspiracy Brother's chagrin - especially when she's made an official Agent.
  10. BittersweetEnding.Fan Works: While Heartbreak intially ended on a Downer Ending, it's sequel chapter concludes on a more softer, if still somber, note. Yang reaffirms her love for Garnet and is able to get back together with him, but she will have to live with the fact that she basically broke his heart for nothing, and that Garnet's trust in her is at an all time low, coupled with the fact that she won't be so Easily Forgiven by most of Garnet's friends and family, especially his mother.

    Involves Both (3/85) 
  1. Characters.Friendship Is Magic Starlight Glimmer:
    • True to the nature of the show, the Mane Six forgive Starlight Glimmer for all of the trouble she caused. In the same episode they show it is a downplayed trope. They point out that even though Starlight has turned over a new leaf and is very remorseful, she is still a volatile mixture of friendless, insane power and talent. Worst of all, Starlight has No Social Skills whatsoever; letting her go free would be a mistake. Princess Twilight takes Starlight in as a student in the study of friendship, starting with the Mane Six and Spike. Starlight herself lampshades this in "The Crystalling", still surprised that Twilight Sparkle was able to forgive her so quickly.
    • Downplayed in "Every Little Thing She Does", where Starlight makes a catastrophic mistake mind-controlling her friends with a magic spell. The Mane Six are rightfully pissed off at her, and Starlight has to really work to earn their forgiveness, which she manages to pull off.
  2. Fanfic.Crimson AU:
    • Subverted between Akira and Mishima. While he says he forgives Mishima, he reveals he didn't mean it, and he is still pissed despite understanding the circumstances.
    • Haru has no issue forgiving Makoto for lying to her twice even though she used her as a means to investigating Akira.
  3. Manga.A Silent Voice:
    • When Shoya meets Shoko again after five years, she forgives him and even wants to be his friend after initially running away from him. The problem is the girl's mother, sister and Ishida himself aren't so forgiving of his actions.
    • Despite being one of the main people who caused his bullying back in elementary school, Ishida decides after talking to her a few times in high school that Kawai seems to be pretty nice person. Later on she joins his group of friends. However, after the Drama Bomb, he's far less forgiving of Kawai.
    • While he wasn't nearly as harsh to Nagatsuka, Ishida still insulted him and pushed him away during the Drama Bomb. Nagatsuka's response was to say that Shouya just had a bad day, and he was the one who tried to get everyone back together first after Shoya's coma.

    Flat-out misuse (6/85) 
  1. DarthWiki.A Ko Project: Somewhat, as he goes to jail for what he's done, only seeing people to use his A-Shi-Mode spell on them. Example says the villain goes to jail- doesn't sound like he was forgiven.
  2. Manga.Nononono: Shingu sabotages Shiriya's run in revenge for being sabotaged, and also to be allowed into a prestigious training institution. It turns out that the revenge was purely a very bad misunderstanding and that Shiriya purposely ignored the fact that Shingu sabotaged his skies for Shingu's sake, and to challenge Nonomiya and Amatsu to stretch themselves (they had to make up for his fall in their own jumps). Shingu breaks down, admits his crime, and says he will turn himself in to the police. The team manager and his associate interrupt him and ask him not to do that. Whilst not exactly forgiving him, they understand his anger, and they do not want to disrespect Shiriya's decision. Not forgiven
  3. Characters.Marios Mystery Meat: He quickly gets over his frustration of Sponge popping out of his expensive spaghetti. This hardly seems bad enough to qualify...
  4. Fanfic.Aimless: Averted for Joshua after what happened at the gates of Warfang. Many of the natives are not exactly fond of the guy who killed 60 people, to put it lightly.
    • The aversion also applies to Cynder for her actions while she was under Malefor's control as the infamous Terror of the Skies. So much so that a few of the dragon guards, one of them being Rimeer, schemed to kill her despite all of her efforts to atone. Kilat attacks her as well and only barely tolerates her afterwards at Joshua's behest. Not forgiven.
  5. Fanfic.Syngenesophobia: Averted hardly. The sisters are well aware that what they did to Lincoln is unforgivable, and it may take months or even years before Lincoln is willing to forgive them, if at all. Doesn't stop them from trying, though. Despite this, it's unknown if their friends and classmates would ever forgive them at all. Whether or not they'll come to terms with this is currently unknown. Chapter 27 pretty much confirms that the sisters have accepted that they're outcasts and they have lost most of their friends, only caring that Lincoln recovers. Chapter 37 has Lincoln contemplating if he should forgive his sisters or not, despite feeling remorse or even because of. Mostly, because he fears what will stop them from repeating if they lose their tempers again. By chapter 40, he's at least started the process of reconciliation towards some of the sisters, making forgiveness even more possible.
    • In chapter 41, we see Lori threaten Lincoln after he chastises her. Despite this and being scared of her outburst, Lincoln handles it better than he would have earlier in the story, even taking the time to listen to Lori's apology and explanation, suggesting he may be much further along the process of forgiveness than even he realizes. Example claims to be aversion.
  6. Series.How I Met Your Mother: Averted after Stella leaves Ted at the altar. The gang actively encouraged Ted to let her have it afterwards. Not forgiven, according to the example.

    ZCE (8/85) 
  1. Characters.Princess Sarah: After all that she's been put through, Sarah not only lets Miss Minchin off the hook, but makes a donation of several thousand pounds to the Seminary. Doesn't say what she did, or which one as put through troubles
  2. Fanfic.The Just Series: Flamiken.
  3. WebAnimation.Cops Skyrim: Somehow, against all odds, he managed to get his job back in Season 6. Who? What? Huh?
  4. WesternAnimation.As Told By Ginger: No other way to explain for Dodie and Macie who tried to break Ginger and Darren up.
  5. Manga.Fairy Tail Blue Mistral: Being Fairy Tail yeah. Most of the people who wrong them are usually forgiven if they had some good intentions behind their actions.
  6. Recap.Steven Universe S 5 E 28 Change Your Mind: Steven, Blue, and Yellow don't hold it against White despite everything she's done to them.
  7. Characters.Monster House: (Mr. Nebbercracker) Despite his acts, he ends up being forgiven by the heroes at the end. It probably helps that everyone soon learned he had a fake persona for 45 years and up until that point.
  8. KarmaHoudini.Anime And Manga: The Twelve Kingdoms has Yuka and Kouya, both of whom are Easily Forgiven.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 12th 2023 at 3:43:06 AM

Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#51: Jul 3rd 2023 at 5:13:59 PM

Down voting all options except making Easily Forgiven YMMV. None of them solve the core problem of disagreeing what level of transgressions make an easy forgiveness noteworthy.

In an IUEO scenario, it's the narrative that tells us what is noteworthy. It's the YMMV scenario that has the problem of determining what counts for the purpose of defining what a valid audience reaction would look like.

Question: Does the trope have to apply only to villains?

While I don't imagine heroes being "easily forgiven", and would guess that most examples will be villains or anti-villains, I think it could apply to anti-heroes in certain circumstances.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Jul 3rd 2023 at 1:25:18 PM

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
MyFinalEdits Officially intimidated from Parts Unknown (Ten years in the joint) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Officially intimidated
#52: Jul 3rd 2023 at 6:47:21 PM

Posting this comment to make public that I voted in favor of making the page IUEO by requiring in-universe judgement. I didn't upvote or downvote any of the remaining options.

135 - 161 - 273 - 191 - 188 - 230 - 300
MasterN Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button from Florida- I mean Unova Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#53: Jul 3rd 2023 at 7:01:43 PM

So what will we do with the few examples of characters who the audience doesn’t consider Unintentionally Unsympathetic but does feel they should have worked harder for their redemption, like Diamond Tiara?

One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.
StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Captain of USS Bajor
#54: Jul 3rd 2023 at 8:00:43 PM

I don't think there's anything wrong with broadening it to other kinds of offenders. Somebody else brought up Teal'c from Stargate SG-1 earlier: there's an entire episode of season 1 devoted to pointing out that Jack O'Neill forgave the Big Bad's right-hand man on not a whole lot of evidence for him being reformable. It's also made clear that even if SG-1 are willing to forgive him, he'll never forgive himself: he just hopes to make amends.

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#55: Jul 3rd 2023 at 8:27:29 PM

If this is made IUEO (which it probably will be at this rate), I still plan to run a second crowner for whether to drop the villain-only aspect and/or rename. (I just think running a second crowner would make the votes easier to keep track of instead of adding more "If X, then Y" options, plus I think a new crowner would get more attention than new options on the current crowner.)

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 3rd 2023 at 10:28:29 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition from The Void (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
#56: Jul 3rd 2023 at 8:50:52 PM

What about the whole retooling idea? "Instantly forgiven"? That's more than a rename.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#57: Jul 3rd 2023 at 9:37:05 PM

[up]Do you mean what you mentioned in this post? What about that is not already covered by an IUEO restriction?

Well, we could still have it alongside the two options I previously mentioned; that would settle the issue either way.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 3rd 2023 at 11:38:58 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition from The Void (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
#58: Jul 3rd 2023 at 9:38:58 PM

The difference is that a regular IUEO restriction without any sort of retool would require something like a character acknowledging that the forgiveness was handed "too easily". My idea is purely about the speed of the forgiveness, which wouldn't even need an outright call-out in-universe (but could still be IUEO as most tropes are by default anyway).

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#59: Jul 3rd 2023 at 9:41:14 PM

Ah, OK. Well, I still plan to put it on the next crowner alongside other options for refining this when it's made IUEO.

On the subject of crowners, I might do what I did with taking into account the Three-Day Rule being a rule of thumb and not a strict requirement with Sudden Death (as detailed in this post) and call it a bit early either tomorrow night or the day after tomorrow due to how the consensus is overwhelmingly in favor of IUEO and nothing else, to the point that downvotes wouldn't really matter unless people started reversing their upvotes en masse.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 3rd 2023 at 11:52:00 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
MasterN Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button from Florida- I mean Unova Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#60: Jul 4th 2023 at 3:47:48 AM

So what are we gonna do with all the non-IUEO examples? Move them to Unintentionally Unsympathetic?

One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#61: Jul 4th 2023 at 4:03:34 AM

[up]If they fit. In addition, if we rename Easily Forgiven after it's made IUEO, we can turn the original name into a disambiguation page.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
MasterN Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button from Florida- I mean Unova Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#62: Jul 4th 2023 at 7:50:34 AM

And the ones that don’t? Where the audience sympathizes but feels they should have worked harder for their redemption? Is that not tropeworthy? Does someone have to take it to TLP?

Edited by MasterN on Jul 4th 2023 at 7:50:48 AM

One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.
Libraryseraph Showtime! from Canada (Five Year Plan) Relationship Status: Raising My Lily Rank With You
Showtime!
#63: Jul 4th 2023 at 7:57:30 AM

That doesn't feel like it needs a TLP, tbh. Trying to make a YMMV item for every possible fandom reaction feels like it'll invite complaining

Absolute destiny... apeachalypse?
Ferot_Dreadnaught Since: Mar, 2015
#64: Jul 4th 2023 at 8:06:02 AM

@Wyldchyld: About limiting to villains and such. Et Tu, Brute? shows even Allie’s/those close to them can commit such wrongs. And what counts as a severe enough wrong the forgiveness would be easy is the subjectivity we're trying to remove.

So I'd drop the villain part and expand to any acknowledged easy forgiveness.

MasterN: That can be worked on after/independently of this cleanup.

miraculous Goku Black (Apprentice)
Goku Black
#65: Jul 4th 2023 at 8:14:10 AM

So what we do with "If Easily Forgiven is made YMMV or disambiguated, split examples involving explicit in-universe judgment (the second category of the wick check) to a new In-Universe Examples Only trope. The name would be decided with another crowner" getting upvoted. But The other two options It mentions being massively down voted. Do nothing.

I mean I'm not in support of either. Since I don't like adding more complaining tropes to this site but this is a bit weird.

Edited by miraculous on Jul 4th 2023 at 8:14:54 AM

"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."
MasterN Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button from Florida- I mean Unova Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#66: Jul 4th 2023 at 9:42:30 AM

Honestly, while I myself agree that excessive negativity should not be on this wiki and have cleaned up quite a bit, I do feel that our anti-negativity stance is causing us to reject notable and valid Audience Reactions out of a fear that they’ll become filled with negativity, instead of simply monitoring the examples to make sure they are written as neutrally as possible. If I am outvoted, so be it, but I just wanted to say my thoughts on the matter.

[down] And that I find to be a more valid reason to not have an item.

Edited by MasterN on Jul 4th 2023 at 9:48:56 AM

One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.
WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition from The Void (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
#67: Jul 4th 2023 at 9:45:08 AM

I'm not worried about complaining, but more that I don't agree with making an audience reaction for every possible reaction. It just feels overly specific.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
ANonagon9 (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
#68: Jul 4th 2023 at 10:40:27 AM

Glancing through the wick check, the issue of Easily Forgiven being used for things that realistically aren't a big deal doesn't seem to be that big of an issue. If I did the check myself, some of these wicks would be outside the problem category.

What does seem to be a problem is complaining, where a lot of examples, even objectively correct ones, are either needlessly negative or have a justifying edit. Considering 3/85 examples are in-universe judgements that still have subjectivity issues (as opposed to 10 which were deemed in-universe and have no issues), this means even with the in-universe criterion, around 1/4 examples still have issues to sort out.

All of this is to say that pivoting to an in-universe approach may cut down on the subjectivity issue, but the complaining problem wouldn't be effectively handled.

In my opinion, a better, and less complaint grabbing manner to handle this may be to build it as a ground-up characterization trope, along the lines of Doesnt Hold Grudges.

MasterN Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button from Florida- I mean Unova Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#69: Jul 4th 2023 at 10:45:29 AM

That could itself be a good idea- an All-Loving Hero is often characterized by their forgiveness of even the worst villains.

One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.
GastonRabbit MOD Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#70: Jul 4th 2023 at 1:00:45 PM

As I previously mentioned, calling in favor of making this IUEO due to overwhelming consensus and the crowner being stable. I'll hook a new crowner with the retool and rename options.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
GastonRabbit MOD Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#71: Jul 4th 2023 at 1:02:42 PM

All right, let's sort out those other issues.

Edit: Added the idea for characters not holding grudges. Since it strikes me as morally neutral, removing the villain focus is part of it instead of being addressed separately like the retool into a trope for characters quickly forgiving.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 4th 2023 at 3:12:13 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Ferot_Dreadnaught Since: Mar, 2015
#72: Jul 4th 2023 at 1:35:08 PM

[up]The character tending to not hold grudges/be forgiving sounds the same as Turn the Other Cheek. EF is/was about the ones receiving said forgiveness.

So if we rework EF to be about acknowledging they don't hold grudges against them, would there be reason to keep them separate tropes?

Edited by Ferot_Dreadnaught on Jul 4th 2023 at 1:38:33 AM

GastonRabbit MOD Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#73: Jul 4th 2023 at 1:42:19 PM

Since we have Turn the Other Cheek, I'm just going to drop this crowner because both "Quickly Forgiven" and "Doesn't Hold Grudges" would be redundant with it. I'll hook a new crowner for whether to rename and/or drop the villain aspect.

Edit: Done.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 4th 2023 at 3:47:24 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
MasterN Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button from Florida- I mean Unova Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#74: Jul 4th 2023 at 1:50:57 PM

In the meantime, I guess I’ll start sandboxing examples to be moved to Unintentionally Unsympathetic.

One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.
WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition from The Void (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
#75: Jul 4th 2023 at 1:52:21 PM

Oh... well... in that case I'm not really sold on the in-universe idea anymore. I guess we'll see how this goes.

Current Project: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

Trope Repair Shop: Easily Forgiven
9th Jul '23 3:21:29 AM

Crown Description:

Easily Forgiven was made In Universe Examples Only and limited to examples involving explicit in-universe judgment, the requirement that the person being forgiven is a villain was removed, and the trope is being renamed. What should Easily Forgiven's new name be?

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