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Easily Forgiven / Western Animation

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Exploring the concept of people being Easily Forgiven for their mistakes and crimes in Western Animation.

  • Adventure Time:
    • While Finn and Jake regularly beat up Ice King whenever he's doing something evil, if he isn't doing anything bad at the time they treat him like an acquaintance who's awkward but basically a good guy. Apparently they forget all about how he's a stalking, kidnapping, sexually harassing, brainwashing creep who should be avoided. Even Princess Bubblegum, who is regularly kidnapped by him, invited him to the princess potluck. As of "Holly Jolly Secrets", this may be a bit more justified since it's revealed to the characters (and the audience) that the Ice King's actions are under the influence of his magical crown.
    • Finn, Jake, and Princess Bubblegum seem pretty okay with Lemongrab, even though he previously tortured Finn and Jake and tried to do the same to the princess, and basically treats PB like garbage on occasion. The reason he is forgiven for his crimes is because of his mental issues, and his anger at PB hides a deep-seated desire to be accepted by her and relate to her. He later goes fully crazy and evil, gets destroyed and rebuilt, and is promptly Easily Forgiven again, although in this case it may be more justified since he's partially a new person upon his reconstruction.
  • American Dad! parodies and lampshades this trope plenty of times, mostly towards Stan and Roger.
    • One particular example is the episode in which Stan gets addicted to crack and prevents Steve from getting sex from a hot girlfriend who's into nerds. While Steve is still bitter at him by the end of the episode, Stan mentions that Steve will forgive him.
    • This is defied in "Four Little Words" where Stan goes to extreme lengths just to avoid Francine saying I Told You So. To wit, she warns him that setting Avery Bullock up with her friend Melinda is a bad idea. Bullock accidentally killed Melinda, and the rest of the episode involves Bullock trying to have Francine killed to make her stop investigating Melinda's disappearance. Stan decides to frame Francine for the murder, making her think she got drunk and stabbed Melinda to death, and then stuffs Melinda's body in a wood chipper in front of a clearly traumatized Francine. Francine decides to atone by dedicating her life to helping starving children in India. Two months later Stan thinks he can preemptively shut Francine down by admitting she was right and then revealing the truth. Stan clearly thinks this will be swept under the rug, only for Francine to naturally be angrier than she's ever been after her husband gaslit her into thinking she killed her best friend.
  • Angel Wars:
    • Upon being defeated, the Fallen Angel Morg is given an option to repent and re-join his former friend Michael, in spite of the chaos he wreaked. He chooses a Disney Villain Death over repentance.
    • Zig-zagged with Eli: in one episode, he and his partner get given a boring assignment as punishment for a refusal to follow orders, and Kira gets so fed up with his faults that she tells him she plans to ask for a new partner once their punishment is over. But in another episode, Eli gets a pair of demonically-made artificial wings that drive him insane and make him try to out-and-out kill his teammate. After he loses the wings, neither she nor their superiors seem to bear any grudge against him for it or even punish him for the incident; they just focus on the idea of him earning his heavenly wings the proper way.
  • Dodie from As Told by Ginger. She is hated by fans and seen as a two-faced, backstabbing Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. For some reason Ginger never ditches Dodie even as adults in the Distant Finale. It's most noticeable when Dodie and Macie tried to break-up Ginger with her new boyfriend because they were upset she wasn't spending enough time with them. Ginger calls them out at the end of the episode yet in the very next episode there are no consequences. Ginger references the situation so it's not a case of Negative Continuity either.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Avatar Aang, being the All-Loving Hero, holds no grudge against the Fire Nation for the genocide of his people that was so complete it rendered him the Last of His Kind. Admittedly, it was a hundred years ago and everyone involved is long dead, but from his perspective, it only happened recently. Aang also had friends in the Fire Nation before the 100-year gap and remembers first-hand what the people were like before they turned to world domination. The Fire Nation's military as a whole is forgiven very easily after the war, with no officers, soldier, commanders, or other confirmed war criminals facing any punishment.
    • Two of Katara's characteristics are that she is easy to trust someone, but if they betray her, she will have a very hard time trusting them back.
      • With Jet, Katara is the first member of Team Avatar to put her trust in him, even before Aang, and criticizes Sokka for being so paranoid about him and the Freedom Fighters. Then she finds out what Jet has been doing and freaks out, wasting no time to help Aang subdue him. When they meet again in "Lake Laogai", she gives him a cold welcome, and only accepts his help because Aang persuades her.
      • With Prince Zuko, Katara is similarly among the first to try and trust him, and has that trust broken when he sides with the Fire Nation at Season 2's end. Later in the series, when he returns, the others forgive him after some initial hostility, but Katara is the one who stays pissed at Zuko the longest. Even when she believes he wants to change, she isn't so sure he can. The only reason she restrains herself from attacking him is because Aang needs a firebending master and with what time they have, they don't have a choice. "The Southern Raiders" then plays with this magnificently. Katara sarcastically tells Zuko that he can try to bring her mother back if he wants to earn her forgiveness. Zuko then offers her to join the mission to confront the man who murdered her mother; he can't bring her mother back, but he can help her execute justice. Disregarding Aang's advice not to let violence get the better of her, Katara attacks the man with the full intent to murder him, but realizes that while she will never forgive him she also can't kill him. She does, however, forgive Zuko.
      • This trait is also the reason why Katara acts so cold and hostile to her father in the Season 3 premiere, compared to Sokka's clear happiness, even though they were abandoned by him together.
    • Played for Drama in the Grand Finale. Uncle Iroh, who Zuko had stabbed in the back at the end of Season 2, forgives him instantly when Zuko tells him how sorry he is for what he did:
      Zuko: How can you forgive me so easily? I thought you would be furious with me!
      Iroh: I was never angry with you. I was sad, because I was afraid you'd lost your way.
    • In "The King of Omashu", Bumi holds Katara and Sokka hostage to force Aang to participate in three grueling challenges, because if he doesn't his friends will be trapped in a crystal prison (and presumably suffocate). Then Aang realizes that the King is his old friend, they hug, and it is forgotten. Granted, they were never in any actual danger and it was all a Trickster Mentor ploy to get Aang to practice the outside-the-box-thinking skills he'd need in future.
  • In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Falcon helps the Red Skull capture the Hulk. However, the fact he does so while Brainwashed and Crazy apparently still makes him eligible for helping the Avengers during "Code White" emergencies. To boot, the team doesn't forgive him onscreen. Consequently, the show makes no implication that they did so until he becomes one of many crimefighters to come Back for the Finale.
  • Bojack Horseman:
    • The first season episode "The Telescope" inverts this hard. While Bojack's old friend Herb had a good life after being fired from producing Horsin' Around, he refuses to forgive Bojack because he never backed him up beforehand, and never contacted him up until that point. Herb makes it clear that Bojack has to live with the guilt, even after he dies the next season after.
    • In the last season, Bojack's misdeeds are exposed in an interview, leading to him being the most hated person in Hollywoo if not the world. Come the Grand Finale, pretty much everyone has forgotten his misdeeds and instead love his latest movie, implying that his career will be revitalized after he completes his prison sentence. As Princess Caroline puts it, "People have short memories. It's the best and worst thing about people."
  • Ben 10:
  • In the Johnny Bravo and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! crossover, Bravo Dooby Doo, Mystery Inc apologizes to Johnny's aunt for capturing her after they learn that she was just dressing up as the Ghostly Gardener to scare Johnny away because she didn't like him. The fact that she tried to decapitate them at one point is never brought up.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door has Nigel staying in a relationship with Lizzie past her introduction, which involved her mind-controlling him to DESTROY his friends so that they could have time together. This is strictly played for laughs.
  • Danger Mouse: In "Public Enemy No. 1", DM gets amnesia and is cajoled by Baron Greenback into going on a crime spree. When he gets his memory back he is obviously told what he had done and apologizes to Colonel K (who had initially told Penfold to arrest him). "Injured in the line of duty," Colonel K explains away.
  • DC Animated Universe:
    • Downplayed in the Series Finale of Superman: The Animated Series, "Legacy". Lois, Supergirl, and Jimmy are willing to forget everything Superman did while brainwashed by Darkseid, but not many others are. It took almost two years for the whole world to accept the truth about what really happened and forgive him.
    • Justice League: The team ultimately swept Hawkgirl's assignment from the Thanagarian Empire under the rug at the end of "Starcrossed" because she's one of the True Companions. However, the vote on doing so was extremely close, and only passed because the deciding vote was held by Superman, who is a firm believer in second chances, and Hawkgirl still chose to resign from the team over working with people who clearly, and for good reason, didn't trust her. She spends a season mostly off-camera doing some soul-searching and even after saving the world a few more times, Wonder Woman's acceptance of Hawkgirl returning to the Justice League again is never more than "grudging". It remains a sore spot for Wonder Woman and detractors of the Justice League still bring up that the League let Hawkgirl back on the team after what she did... a sore spot that Lex Luthor is notably willing to exploit. Also, Batman mentions that even years after the incident, there are still numerous Hawkgirl hate sites with active communities around.
    • Batman Beyond:
      • Supes is like this too in "The Call". After Barda suggests killing the alien creatures that have Brainwashed Superman, possibly for years, Superman himself makes a case for mercy. (Leading Warhawk to sarcastically say that he's definitely back to normal.)
      • In "Inqueling", the villain Inque is betrayed by her Spoiled Brat daughter Deanna; Batman lets her go despite her crimes. However, at the end of the episode, it is clear that Inque is very much alive, and the ending suggests that Deanna's punishment for what she did will not be pleasant. However, this issue is resolved in the comic book adaptation of the series. The first part of the story gives an backstory for Inque herself, showing that her powers were given to her when she was a starving, homeless young woman, pregnant with Deanna; she allowed a Mad Scientist to experiment on her in exchange for food and shelter, which resulted in her gaining her powers, but he went back on his word. Deanna was born before the mutation had its full effect, but when it did, the disease was cured and her life was saved. In the present day, Deanna is now in the hospital with the same disease that her mother once had. Despite her daughter's betrayal, Inque desires nothing more than Deanna's well-being, pausing only to feed a small droplet of her own substance into Deanna's IV cord before she vanishes.
  • The Dragon Prince has Amaya. When she discovers the elf Rayla in the first season, she starts a fight with her and tries to kill her. In fact, Amaya is a much better fighter than Rayla and can easily overpower her. She tries to stab her, but Commander Gren comes into the room and tells her that the princes are missing. In the third season, Rayla and Amaya meet again, and Callum says that everything was just a misunderstanding and that both should get along. And in fact, Rayla immediately forgives her attempted murder.
    • Fridge Horror comes in because Commander Gren entered the room just in time. Had he even come a moment later, Amaya would have mercilessly stabbed Rayla. It would not only have had the blood of a completely innocent person on her hands, it would also have failed the princes' mission to end the war. And Callum would probably have blamed himself for persuading Rayla to enter his family's summer house. You can see what kind-hearted person Rayla is.
    • Rayla herself is this to a degree. While she rapidly found common cause with the princes and risked her life for their sake more than once the same night they met, Callum grows rather casual unusually quickly with a person whom his first impression of which involved her running him to ground with drawn swords and declaring her intent to murder his baby brother.
  • DuckTales (1987):
    • "The Golden Fleecing". Strangely, Launchpad doesn't seem to be too angry at either the harpies or Scrooge after they collectively almost got him eaten by the dragon.
    • Also in "Sir Gyro de Gearloose", a pretty bird lady insulted Gyro by calling him a "gadget man", but when she apologizes at the end, Gyro clearly has no anger towards her.
  • DuckTales (2017) defies this at the end of "Timephoon!" after Louie's latest scheme to boost Louie Incorporated involved stealing forgotten treasures from the past, which led to the timestream acting chaotic until people were getting thrown into the past and future. After Louie undoes the damage by returning the stolen items and the time-tossed strangers to their rightful eras, he makes a heartfelt apology to the rest of the cast who immediately accept it. All except Louie's mother Della who, after being chided about her lax parenting, angrily points out Louie's scheming nearly destroyed everyone's lives and the fabric of existence. Not helping is how Della watched as the rest of their family were seemingly zapped into nonexistence. Della grounds Louie because it doesn't matter how regretful or sincere his apology is, it means nothing measured against the scope of such carelessness and he needs to be punished to fully understand what he did wrong, although she showed remorse for being harsh towards him. However, in the next episode, Della realized that Louie did learn from his mistakes and was convinced to forgive him for his selfish actions.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: There have been a few times this has happened to the titular trio. Though they usually suffer for their actions in an episode, a few instances occur where someone they have wronged forgives them for what they did before the episode ends, usually after they have given them an extreme punishment though.
    • The episode "Dueling Eds" has Eddy accidentally insult Rolf by throwing his fishball at a fence. When Eddy accidentally insults him again by giving him "the potted shrub of ridicule" Rolf challenges him to a duel to regain his honor. Rolf easily wins, beating Eddy senseless, only to then invite him at the other Eds to join him in the "Eels of Forgiveness" ceremony, with him even calling Eddy his friend. Also, Rolf claimed that giving him the "Cupcakes of Forgiveness" before the duel started would have also counted as a acceptable apology.
    • In "Brother Can You Spare An Ed", Sarah is understandably furious when Ed confesses he spent her allowance she gave him to buy fudge for her and Jimmy on jawbreakers for himself and his friends instead. She relents before beating Ed to a pulp when Double D offers her that he and the others will pay her back with interest, but she impatiently demands her money from Eddy at every interval. At the end of the episode though, when Ed and Double D have made a scam where Eddy (the one who pressured Ed to buy jawbreakers instead of fudge to begin with) is repeatedly slammed against the branch of a tree for one cent per swing, she quickly calms down and patiently waits for the promised money.
    • There have been a few instances of this with The Eds and The Kankers:
      • In "Nagged To Ed", the Kankers spend most of the episode angrily bossing the Eds around and making them clean their trailer for taking advantage of their hospitality, until they chase them away at the end, yelling at them to get lost and not to come back. As soon as the Eds run away though, the Kankers instantly regain their crushes on them and admire them as they run off with love-struck gazes.
      • In "A Twist of Ed", the Eds (well, mostly Ed and Double D) try to scare the Kankers off for good by using Reverse Psychology and subjecting them to the same harassment they regularly do to the Eds. After constantly running away from the Eds scared out of their wits, as soon as they realize the Eds are only faking their attraction to them, they instantly stop being scared of them and regain their own crushes on them. Though they do take their revenge on the Eds by trapping them in their room and subjecting them to another assault of kisses, it is clear they still consider the Eds to be their "boyfriends" and still love them despite their harassment. Marie even gives Double D a love-struck smile as she approaches him, implying the whole incident just made the Kankers even more attracted to The Eds.
    • This is part of the climax of Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, and by extension the finale of the series. After the kids witness how abusive Eddy's big brother is to him, all of them immediately stand up for him and tell him to back off, even when they themselves were hunting the Eds down through the whole film with the intent of killing them. After Eddy confesses that everything he ever said about his brother was all a lie, due to him attempting to make himself look cool, the kids end up forgiving him and the other Eds and accepting them as their friends.
  • Elena of Avalor: Averted. Finding out late in the game that your cousin helped an evil sorceress take over your kingdom and kill your parents would break anyone's trust, and Elena is not ready to forget it even when Esteban explains himself. On the other hand, Elena’s deceased parents already knew and forgave Esteban, but they don’t reveal this until the Grand Finale.
  • The Emperor's New School: Kronk remains on good terms with Kuzco despite his constant participation in Yzma's plans to drug him with Forced Transformation potions in order to sabotage him from becoming emperor again.
  • On The Fairly OddParents!, Mark Chang goes from Timmy's enemy to a good friend after his Heel–Face Turn. This is despite the fact that Mark has threatened to slurp out Timmy's brain through a bendy straw, kidnapped his babysitter (he liked that), tried to kill him in death combat, and launched a weapon that he thought would destroy the Earth.
  • Family Guy:
    • Cleveland is still friends with Quagmire even after sleeping with Loretta, ruining his marriage, and ultimately leading him to leave Quahog.
    • Peter also forgives Quagmire, despite numerous sexual schemes with Lois (also Meg once), and that time he nearly beat Brian to death.
    • Meg always forgives her family for all the bullshit they dump on her.
  • It seems that no matter what horrible thing Bender does on Futurama (put his friends lives at risk, work them as slaves, basically anything) they'll never hold a grudge for long. Flexo may be the biggest example; the second time he appeared, he very quickly accepts Bender's apology for framing him.
  • Gargoyles:
    • Goliath readily forgives anyone who stops attacking and tries to undo whatever they've done. Even if two minutes before that they were roaring at each other and fighting tooth and nail. It's most apparent in that lengthy section in season two where he and a few others were being sent all over the world by Avalon. Of course, those few times when he wasn't attacked right off the bat and tried being friendly first didn't work that well...
    • It works the other way: Xanatos explicitly says that he considers revenge a sucker's game, and is happy to make trouble with even those who've betrayed him... of course, betray him once, and you'd better stay useful.
    • Despite the abuse of Anubis's powers Jackal did when he had them, his sister Hyena was still working with him despite being deaged into a baby when it happened. Wolf also seems willing to work with him again, too, given the sequel comic has him accept being broken out by Jackal.
    • In the comics, Coldstone secretly put his trust on Demona behind Goliath's back. He doesn't seem to hold a grudge against Demona since she shot him dead in the season 1 finale.
  • God, the Devil and Bob: No matter how much destruction he causes and despite his main goal being the destruction of humanity, the Devil is always on friendly terms with God by the end of the episode. And most of the time it's God who ends up apologizing to him.
  • Gravity Falls:
    • In the very first episode, the gnomes attempt to kidnap Mabel and force her to marry them, afterwards combining to form a giant gnome and attacking both Mabel and Dipper. Yet in Gravity Falls: Legend of the Gnome Gemulets, Dipper and Mabel become their allies — and they again prove themselves untrustworthy by lying to them in order to use them as pawns to steal the Gemulets, which are not rightfully theirs. Even after this, Mabel and Dipper don't appear to consider them full enemies.
      Mabel: (discussing invitations to their birthday party) Let's see, where do we stand with the gnomes?
    • Grunkle Stan has outright lied to his family regarding who he is and had hidden a lot of truths from them but especially the fact that he has the other Journals that Dipper has been searching for and the fact that he knows all along who the author of the Journals is. Obviously, Dipper, Mabel and Soos but especially the former are outraged at him for hiding such revelations especially considering the fact that the Portal attempt could potentially bring an end to the world but as soon as they hear out his Dark and Troubled Past and are made aware of his intentions to save his brother, none of them seem to hold any form of grudge towards him. This also applies to Mabel herself as despite straight-up betraying her brother in a critical moment in favor of a criminal, Dipper doesn't seem to hold any grudges towards her.
    • Gideon Gleeful gets a redemption arc in the finale and is accepted as a friend by the twins, despite the fact that he summoned Bill Cipher in order to steal the deed to their uncle's home and made attempts on the lives of both Mabel and Dipper repeatedly (imprisoning them with dynamite, trying to slice Dipper open with a lamb shears.)
    • Despite Ford's stubborn refusal to forgive or thank Stan and the unintentionally insensitive treatment of Mabel, neither of the twins seem to hold it against him, and ultimately part on good terms. Likewise, Stan seems to regard his offer of fulfilling their childhood dreams as all the thanks he really needs. Invoked in the same episode, when Ford finally meets Fiddleford again after many years: after everything McGucket went through because of the bargain with Bill, Ford fully expects Fiddleford to hate him. Quite the contrary - as the hug makes clear.
  • Green Eggs and Ham: Averted. Finding out late in the game that the person trying to be best friends with you is a scam artist would break anyone's trust, and Guy is not ready to forget it when Sam comes to break him out of the police precinct. Sam is also genuinely offended by Guy implying that Sam's mother abandoning him is proof that he doesn't belong anywhere and is not at all excited to see him when they reunite before the climax.
  • Corey Riffin from Grojband is on friendly terms with Nick Mallory for influencing him to make Trina go into "Diary Mode".
  • Hazbin Hotel: Charlie welcomes Sir Pentious into the hotel as a guest hours after he just tried blowing it up. When that very night it's revealed that he's The Mole, his pathetic nature means she readily forgives him despite everyone else ready to just murder him already.
  • Huntik: Secrets & Seekers has Zhalia easily forgiven after Lok, Dante, and Sophie discover she's The Mole for the Big Bad. See the quote.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures: Tohru is almost immediately accepted by the Chan family once he defects from the Dark Hand. This is despite Tohru repeatedly threatening their lives and beating up Jackie. Heck, in the second episode, he nearly cuts Jade open with a sword in order to retrieve a talisman that she swallowed. Yet after Tohru joins the Chans, he and Jade become best friends.
  • Kim Possible:
    • In "Ill-Suited" Ron is let off the hook despite lying to Kim, cheating at a major sporting event and stealing high tech weaponry that put lives in danger. Kim forgave him and Barkin let him stay on the team. Although he did have to do 20 crabwalk laps around the field. It is a stark reminder of how in Season 1 Kim was grounded just for lying.
    • On the villainous side of the fence, consider Drakken and Shego's Postscript Season appearances up through "Mad Dogs and Aliens". On two different occasions, Shego was busted out of prison by other villains, and gave no thought to Drakken (except to yell "Later, loser!" on her way out). In "MDaA", Drakken orders Warmonga to throw Shego out, then holds her captive intending to make her watch Warmonga score the victory over Kimmie that she never could (and claims as her prerogative). Really, it's amazing that they were on speaking terms, much less working together, in later episodes.
  • Buck Strickland from King of the Hill has done some pretty nasty things to Hank and he always sticks by his side, his worst act was framing Hank for the murder of his mistress Debbie. He plants a lot of evidence that made it seem like he was guilty of the crime, and yet Hank almost immediately forgives him after the murder is solved.
  • Larry & Steve: A pilot gives a plane's controls to his son, and he ends up crashing the plane into a mall. The pilot instantly forgives his son after he makes a sad face.
  • Zig-Zagged in The Legend of Korra: while being freed from the Dai Li's underground Airbender training facility, Kai apologizes for stealing Bolin and Mako's belongings and generally causing them a lot of trouble. Bolin, who had previously developed a brotherly attachment to the kid, instantly forgives him. Mako, however, is understandably still pissed about it.
    Kai: Thanks for coming to get me. I'm really sorry about stealing your wallets. And running away. Aaaand getting you stuck on that train...
    Bolin: Aww, we can't stay mad at you!
    Mako: ...Yes we can! I had a lot of money in that wallet!
  • LEGO City Adventures : Tippy Doorman's punishment for attempting to take over the world which almost resulted in destruction of LEGO City? Eight hours in prison, and nobody shows enmity towards him after that.
  • On The Mask cartoon, The Mask doesn't seem too upset about Peggy having sold Stanley out to the bad guys in the movie but Stanley doesn't forgive her at first but he does eventually and it does help that she helps him and The Mask out from time to time, it is also implied that Stanley subconsciously has feelings for her which The Mask probably doesn't want him to know about which is why he's flirty with her so that Stanley does not know yet.
  • In the Molly of Denali episode "Tale of the Totem," Molly and Randall lose a shell needed for a totem pole that is being raised in Sitka. They scramble to find a replacement shell without Uncle Jack finding out. However, Uncle Jack isn't that upset about Randall and Molly losing one of the shells, as he too plays with and loses them regularly.
  • The Monster Within: After eating all the candy in a pinata, the titular monster devours a child alive, then seconds later, vomits up said child and the candy. The child and his friends instantly forgive the monster, and not only give him some candy, but even help him rebuild the pinata so he can break it open, seemingly befriending him.
  • Any villain in My Little Pony 'n Friends who is truly sorry for what they've done will be forgiven by Megan, Molly, Danny, and all the ponies.
  • Most antagonists are forgiven quickly in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, at least as long as they express a desire to reform and show remorse for their actions. Otherwise, they end up on the run (Queen Chrysalis), imprisoned (Discord before his Heel–Face Turn), thrown into Tartarus (Tirek and Cozy Glow), or straight-up killed (Sombra). Justified, considering the series' main theme (as with previous incarnations) is The Power of Friendship.
    • Played (a bit) straighter in "MMMystery on the Friendship Express", in which the Cakes spent months working on a special cake for a deserts competition, hoping to win first place. Pinkie Pie spent a whole night guarding the cake from the other chefs, who she feared wanted to destroy it to eliminate the competition. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash eat roughly half the cake, and yet, Pinkie instantly forgives them when they apologize.note 
    • In "A Canterlot Wedding", after essentially being quickly dismissed by everyone, Twilight Sparkle forgave everyone after one little apology from Applejack. To be fair, there are more important matters at hand like the Changeling Invasion and the fact that Queen Chrysalis tricked them all, and Twilight did admit after the apology that not even she could have known the truth regarding the bride.
    • Babs Seed from the episode "One Bad Apple" spends most of the episode bullying the Cutie Mark Crusaders, with the worst of it including kicking them out of their own clubhouse and forcing Apple Bloom to sleep on the floor in her own room, but when the CMC find out about how she herself was bullied, and turned to bullying herself because of this, they immediately forgive her, save her from a booby trapped second float they set up for her, and even end up befriending her by the end of the episode. The CMC even apologize for the booby trap first. In the later episode "Apple Family Reunion", Apple Bloom refers to Babs as "my favorite cousin".
    • In "Magic Duel", Trixie takes over Ponyville and rules it with an iron hoof. It takes roughly a second for Twilight Sparkle to accept her apology at the end. This might be at least partially justified due to the Alicorn Amulet and the Disproportionate Retribution that was inflicted on Trixie for what happened the last time she visited Ponyville.
    • Played with in "Inspiration Manifestation", in which Rarity gets off even easier for a similar situation after an evil spellbook grants her the power to create whatever she can imagine and a growing compulsion to remake the world around her to suit her creative vision. In fact, she's portrayed as a victim (which, in all fairness, she kind of was, having no idea what the spell would do to her) and the blame goes to Spike, who brought her the book; and even in Spike's case, it's his judgement, rather than his intent, which he receives a brief scolding for.
    • Deconstructed (with regards to the franchise as a whole) in the episode "Keep Calm and Flutter On", which involves Fluttershy forgiving Discord, despite the fact that he caused the Mane Six to go Brainwashed and Crazy and causing the World Gone Mad. The others have trouble forgiving however, partly because he still behaves like a Trickster Mentor, and partly because while they let him hang around they don't trust him in the slightest.
    • At the end of the episode "Rainbow Falls", Soarin quickly forgives Spitfire and Fleetfoot, despite the fact that they never visited him at the hospital when he hurt his wing and were planning on replacing him with Rainbow Dash, using his (not actually that severe) injury as an excuse to put the better flyer in his place.
    • In "Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2", even after he sided with Tirek, putting the entire world in danger, Twilight still considered Discord a friend, much to his surprise. This trope also applies to Fluttershy, who Discord is still on good terms with despite hurting her earlier with his betrayal. That said, he does notice he doesn't get a throne along with the others and is told he'll have to earn it, and seemed to regret what he did even before Tirek stabbed him in the back.
    • Subverted with Sunset Shimmer. After being the Alpha Bitch in the human world for the past few years, stealing Twilight's Element of Magic, and becoming a demon and brainwashing the students to invade Equestria, the first Equestria Girls movie ends with Twilight and co. forgiving her after she apologizes. However, the next movie shows the rest of the school is far less forgiving of her actions, either avoiding or antagonizing her. While the Humane Five promised to be her friends, they only seem to tolerate her at best and constantly remind her of her past (albeit unintentionally), and Twilight is also hesitant to interact with her when she returns to the human world. It's only after she manages to rally the rest of the girls in their hour of need and proves instrumental in defeating the Dazzlings that she finally earns her forgiveness and she becomes accepted by the school and her friends.
    • Human Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games is forgiven immediately after she went power crazy and nearly tore open their world in an attempt to get to Equestria. Sunset Shimmer's example and lead certainly help. Everyone actually seems to blame Principal Cinch more (not without reason).
    • In "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", even though she spent the past four seasons bullying them, even mocking Scootaloo for her inability to fly and forcing them to spread hurtful gossip throughout Ponyville, the CMC come to feel sorry for Diamond Tiara when they see that she is emotionally abused by her mother. They help her to become a better pony, and they even end up befriending her. Silver Spoon gets off even easier. While Diamond Tiara at least gets her father to donate money for the schools new playground equipment, Silver Spoon is forgiven right after she calls Diamond out on her behavior early in the episode.
    • In "The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2", Twilight opts to not only forgive Starlight Glimmer for her actions, but she also makes Starlight her pupil in the ways of friendship. This is despite the trouble Starlight caused in "The Cutie Map" 2-parter and the fact that she attempted to stop Rainbow Dash's first Sonic Rainboom. However, Starlight deeply regrets her actions, and it's pointed out that Starlight had no idea the Mane 6 were so integral to the history of Equestria, and that letting Starlight Glimmer go as insanely powerful she is (as her power rivals Twilight's) would be a bad idea. This is lampshaded in "The Crystalling - Part 1", where Starlight still doesn't understand how she could be easily forgiven and Twilight just mentions that she doesn't dwell on the past, and also continues well throughout the remainder of the series where Starlight's repeated and serious relapses are shrugged off with never any more than a brief frown from anyone else.
    • Despite supposedly being easily forgiven at the end of their respective episodes, and in spite of Twilight's claim to not dwell on the past, this is ultimately subverted in regards to Trixie and Starlight Glimmer. When Trixie shows up at Ponyville yet again, Twilight immediately doesn't trust her though Trixie herself wasn't doing much to avert those fears with her smug smirks whenever she was around Twilight, and thinks her new friendship with Starlight will ultimately be a bad influence on the latter. Twilight also only trusts Starlight as long as she can control almost every aspect of Starlight's life, and Starlight sees this lack of autonomy as not truly being given a second chance. Twilight eventually promises to do better when she sees how much her mistrust is hurting them.
    • Downplayed in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Magical Movie Night: Movie Magic. While Canter Zoom forgives Juniper for sabotaging his movie, he fires her from the set and forces her to work a menial job as he no longer trusts her. Played straight at the end of Mirror Magic, when Juniper Montage is quickly forgiven and befriended by the Humane 7 for trapping them all in a magic mirror and going on a rampage as a 12-foot tall monster. Pinkie Pie even lampshades how the Humane Seven are "a really forgiving group." They at least attempt to justify it by admitting they've done a lot worse.
    • When Sunset returns to Equestria and is forced to seek Princess Celestia's guidance in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship, Celestia forgives Sunset almost immediately for her past misdeeds as a Spoiled Brat, though it certainly helps that Sunset has clearly changed for the better and regrets everything bad that went down between them. Sunset herself is quick to forgive Wallflower Blush for all the trouble she caused.
    • All the hippogriffs and seaponies not only tolerate Twilight's presence in "Surf and/or Turf", but are actually delighted to see her, even though the last time she was there, she was thrown out for trying to steal Queen Novo's pearl. Defeating the Storm King must have earned her a lot of forgiveness credit.
    • In "The Ending of the End", it's revealed that Discord had been posing as Grogar, the Father of Monsters, and recruited the former antagonists of the Mane Six who were not reformed as part of a crazy plan to boost Twilight's confidence when she's set to become the new ruler of Equestria, only for the villains to turn on him and begin a massive takeover plot that brought Equestria to the brink of destruction. Throughout it all, everyone was understandably angry with him for the threat he unleashed, but in the end, he was forgiven for his actions, partially due to the fact that he helped to make things right.
  • In The Powerpuff Girls episode "Mojo Jonesin'", four of the girls' classmates got addicted to Chemical X and beat them up, but they're forgiven in the end. Justified in that the girls figured that Mojo Jojo did something to the Chemical X to mess with their minds.
  • Ready Jet Go!: Mitchell stalked Jet without him knowing and tried to expose him multiple times, all of which failed. However, due to Jet's All-Loving Hero nature, he doesn't hold it against him and welcomes Mitchell into the friendship group with open arms. The same goes for Sean, Sydney, and Mindy.
  • Regular Show has Skips being forgiven for killing Rigby over a game of arm wrestling. Rigby was really cool about the whole thing. The fact that he arm wrestled Death to recover his soul probably helped smooth things over..
    Skips: Uh... Sorry for, you know, killing you back there... It was unprofessional.
    Rigby: Huh? ...You know what? Water under the bridge.
  • Robot Chicken plays this for humor in one sketch. When a recently deceased man finds out Heaven is almost too forgiving. Letting in a Serial Killer who repented, a creepy uncle since the priests were guilty of the same thing, and Hitler.
    Hitler: I'm just as surprised as you are.
  • Samurai Jack: Jack holds no grudge against the Triseraquins for luring him into a trap by Aku and nearly getting him killed. After all, many have fallen victim to Aku's deception.
  • She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
    • Catra is a zigzagged example in the final season. Scorpia forgives her for her mistreatment before she can apologize. Adora is skeptical of her even after her heroic sacrifice but becomes close with her again after saving her from Horde Prime and she shows she's truly trying to change. Glimmer befriends her despite her role in the sacrifice of her mother, due to recognizing that she made similar mistakes in season 4. Ditto for Entrapta's forgiveness. Perfuma holds her accountable for her mistreatment of Scorpia, but seems to have forgiven her by the episode's end.
    • Zigzagged with Hordak as well. After turning against Horde Prime to save Entrapta, Adora saves Hordak by exorcising Prime and treats him affectionately afterwards despite his 2 decades long campaign of war on Etheria, due in part to him saving her as a baby. We never see if the other princesses forgive him and Mermista's comments imply there will be a conversation about him. The showrunner later clarified he'd be cleaning up Beast Island.
  • The Simpsons done this plenty of times towards Bart and Homer whenever either of them causes trouble. But one particular episode "Homer Badman" has Homer accepting one little apology after being harassed by protesters after being accused of sexual harassment.
  • In Marvel's Spider-Man, after the entire Superior Spider-Man debacle, Peter's social life as both normal Peter and as Spider-Man is in the dumps. However, the only friend who instantly rebonds with him after apologizing is Ms. Marvel, as Kamala figured something was seriously wrong with him in the first place (she guessed aliens, not Doc Ock taking over his mind).
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • Despite being supposedly best friends Patrick is easily one of the worst friends imaginable with a list of offenses including talking SpongeBob into playing stupid to make himself look better and then mocking him for it, rubbing it in that SpongeBob's pet snail loved him more (the snail was actually just interested in a cookie Patrick had), intentionally trying to destroy a trading card SpongeBob wanted just to be a jerk... Despite all of this SpongeBob always forgives him with nothing more than a lecture at the very most. It should be noted, however, that he generally is made to pay for things he does to other people besides SpongeBob.
    • SpongeBob is simply a very forgiving person (or rather a very forgiving sponge). He's always ready and willing to give anyone a second chance, including the series' Card-Carrying Villain, Plankton, and his own Bad Boss Mr. Krabs. Forgiving the latter easily was justified early on in the show when his antics topped out at harmless money-grubbing shenanigans that he usually tried to make right by the end of the episode, but as the show went on and Mr. Krabs started his plunge into full on villainy, his Easily Forgiven status became a lot harder to swallow.
    • SpongeBob himself profits from this trope as well. He bothers, stalks and outright destroys Squidward's life on a frequent basis, but often just turning on the water works is enough to make Squidward feel bad for him. Patrick is also very easy going to SpongeBob in "Porous Pockets" despite his snobbish and negligent attitude.
    • Squidward himself constantly tells SpongeBob how much he hates him, complains about everything he does and yells at him for every little mistake, yet SpongeBob still reveres him like a king and acts like he can do no wrong.
    • Played for Laughs in the episode "The Bully". SpongeBob runs across town screaming that his new classmate is threatening to beat him up ("CAN'T YOU SEE HE'S GONNA KICK MY BUTT??"). The townspeople take note, but mistake a harmless elderly man for the bully and beat him up. When SpongeBob runs back across town for the same reason, even as the townsfolk threaten to beat up the elderly man a second time, said elderly man not only looks completely unharmed from his previous beating, but he mistakes the mob's anger for them just being "lovely young people", as if he was never attacked.
  • Star Wars Rebels: Ezra is upset with Hondo when it turns out he played the whole Ghost crew in "Legends of the Lasat", though about a year later in "Steps into Shadow", he's moved past it and is glad to see him. Could be justified by Hondo being a Friendly Enemy and near harmless, but still. The rest of the crew aren't exactly pleased to see Hondo, but their reactions are closer to "annoyed at having to deal with him and his shenanigans" than "angry that he stabbed them in the back for selfish reasons".
  • Steven Universe usually plays this straight with the main character is a All-Loving Hero Steven, who brushes off everything from rudeness to outright violence, and is friendly and supportive to everyone — even characters who have tried to kill him several times. Lampshaded in one episode, when Greg points out how odd it is that he's holding such a huge grudge against Kevin, whose biggest crime is making the duo feel uncomfortable at a party almost a year ago.
    • Averted and played straight in "The New Crystal Gems": unlike Steven or Greg, Connie is still upset with Lapis for trying to drown her in "Ocean Gem" - but then gets over it pretty quickly and forms a team with herself, Lapis and Peridot.
    • Peridot’s arc during season 2 can be seen as a rare villain to hero example of this trope. Peridot’s biggest crime was attempting to smash Steven during their initial encounter due to her believing him to be a parasite infesting the kindergarten. In comparison, the Crystal Gems had repeatedly interfered with her work, forcing her to come to Earth, after which they destroyed her ship, stranding her on the planet, and then hunting her down as she tried to find ways to leave, eventually ending with them catching and poofing her, throwing away her mechanical enhancements at the same time. It’s made worse when Peridot later reveals the existence of The Cluster, a Geo-weapon that will destroy Earth, meaning on top of being hunted by the Crystal Gems, she had to worry about her own impending doom for an extended period of time all because she was trying to do her job. Despite all of this however, The Crystal Gems never apologize for what they put her through and the next few episodes consist of Peridot learning about each of the Crystal Gems individually while working with them to stop the cluster, with her seeming to have completely gotten over the likely months of terror she had to endure because of them.
    • The biggest examples are Blue and Yellow Diamond, who personally oversaw the cluster project. That project, if successful, would have exploded the Earth and killed literally every single human. They knew full well that humans were sapient but they didn't care. In short, they attempted genocide. But everyone instantly forgives them between "Reunited" and "Legs from Here to Homeworld". Even Bismuth, who previously felt murderous rage towards these people, suddenly seems to consider them as little more than an annoyance. (White Diamond is even more evil than Blue or Yellow, but at least in that case there's more of confrontation before she changes her ways.)
  • In "Win Some, Lose Some" in the 2003 Strawberry Shortcake, Peppermint Fizz is easily forgiven by Strawberry Shortcake for cheating at the games.
  • Everyone from Total Drama with the exception of Heather. Becomes a bit ridiculous by season three, when Leshawna openly brags about knocking her tooth out even after she should have realized it was totally unjustified (as Heather had been trying to help her at the time). Bridgette calls the others out on this toward the end of the show.
    • Speaking of Leshawna, she was eliminated in season 2 when Justin, Duncan, and Courtney told Harold to vote him off. While she understood Harold's situation (he was manipulated by Duncan and Courtney), she does not show anger towards Justin for voting her off and making Harold do the same.
  • Starscream's continued position within the Decepticon ranks in The Transformers owes itself to this trope with Megatron usually being content with insulting or throttling him after his latest coup attempt. This runs out in The Transformers: The Movie.
  • In season 3 of Winx Club, Diaspro brainwashes Sky with a love potion. She gets banished from Eraklyon for this. Come season 5 and she's back on Eraklyon working directly for King Erendor, Sky's father, with no mention of her previous banishment. It's implied that Erendor favors her, but the fact that not even Bloom mentions this at all raises a few eyebrows.
  • Xiaolin Showdown:
    • Raimundo is on the receiving end after willingly turning evil and then back again. Omi does express suspicion about him from time to time.
    • To some extent, Jack Spicer. Ever since he assisted in the recapture of Wuya, Omi has held out hope that he will change sides. Needless to say, when Jack wants to join the monks in "The Apprentice", Omi is very quick to move past all the bad blood between the two, despite none of the other Dragons trusting him. Unfortunately, their distrust is proven right. The surprise is that Jack really did want to change; he was just scared of failing.

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