Basic Trope: A character gets called out for holding a grudge.
- Straight:
- Bob is chewed out by his friends for holding a grudge against Harry, a gunman who killed his family.
- Bob wants to kill Harry to avenge his family. Disgusted with his desire for revenge, they angrily rebuke him for this.
- Exaggerated:
- Harry tortured Bob's family to death slowly and painfully to death while he forced them to watch. Harry was pardoned for his brutal act despite loudly stating in court that he has no remorse and would gladly have done it again if given the chance. When Bob refuses to shake his hand he gets executed in the electric chair meant for Harry.
- Bob kills Harry for killing his family For the Evulz. As a result, not only his friends cut ties with him, but he is also hated and reviled by society for not choosing to forgive an unrepentant murderer.
- Downplayed:
- Alice tries to convince Bob that holding a grudge is not worth it.
- Bob's friends understand why Bob holds grudges towards Harry, but thinks Bob is going too far.
- Alice merely thinks that forgiveness would be good for Harry, but understands if he is not ready.
- Justified:
- They believe that getting back at Harry will make him just as bad as he is.
- Harry had a Heel–Face Turn, but Bob is very stubborn to let bygones be bygones.
- Bob refuses to believe him despite the evidence that Harry's truly remorseful. Bob's friends are frustrated with him ignoring the overwhelming proof from this.
- Harry's a Hitman with a Heart who happens to be Bob's best friend, and the former's targets were in the same vicinity with Bob's family with Harry killing Bob's family in the crossfire by accident. Afterwards, Harry became overwhelmed with guilt from this mistake, and attempts to apologize to Bob by showing all the good things Harry did in front of everyone from giving up violence to saving Bob's life multiple times. But Bob not only refuses to forgive Harry and spitefully refuses Harry to atone himself, but threatens to kill Harry's own loved ones if he ever sees him again. The others thought Bob went too far for his words and actions.
- Harry's "crime" against Bob is something incredibly minor, like beating him in a fencing tournament, and Bob is being astonishingly petty.
- Harry is Bob's brother, and other characters feel that he is being too hard on a sibling.
- Inverted:
- Bob forgives Harry for murdering his family, only for his friends to call him on it, thinking that he shouldn't have let him off the hook so easily.
- Bob is praised by everyone (and the audience) for not forgiving Harry or exacting revenge on him.
- Subverted:
- Bob's friends did not know what grudges Bob had against Harry.
- After thinking about it and seeing what kind of person Harry is, Bob's friends acknowledge that Bob's grudge is justified.
- Double Subverted:
- But even after they found out, they still think it is inexcusable.
- Even if the grudge is justified, they still think that the Bob's methods are obscene (not wanting to talk to Harry ever again makes sense, trying to poison his daughter isn't, even when Bob insists it's a harmless Laxative Prank).
- Parodied:
- Bob is forced to do 100 days of community service all because he refused to forgive Harry for stepping on his shoes.
- Bob is shunned by his friends even after he forgives Harry for being too unforgiving.
- Zig Zagged: Some of Bob's friends called him out for holding a grudge against the gunman, other thinks it's reasonable for Bob for hold that grudge.
- Averted: Bob doesn't get any heat for being vengeful.
- Enforced: "This is a plot about Revenge. Let's have Bob's friends prevent him from exacting his vengeance against Harry."
- Lampshaded: "You crazy optimists think telling me to stop holding a grudge is gonna make things okay?"
- Invoked: The officials of Bob's society continuously brainwash citizens with the idea that a good person should fully let go of the past, as a way to preserve peace and avoid more conflict.
- Exploited: Knowing that Bob still has a grudge on him, Harry pretends to see the error of his ways and have Bob reject him just so his friends can turn on Bob and side with him.
- Defied:
- Bob calls his friends out for belittling his family.
- Bob, realizing that holding grudges will make him look like a jerk in front of everyone, grudgingly forgives Harry. But Bob reminds him that he's still upset with him and must earn to regain his friendship again.
- Harry has comes to terms on accepting Bob's refusal to forgive him, and tells everyone not to hold it against him. Instead, he moves on and begins to atone for what he did, vowing to avoid the same mistakes again.
- In contrast to Bob's so-called "friends", the normally crass Johnny supports Bob. He tells Bob that he is right to feel his anger, and that it would be unreasonable to oblige anyone to forgive the murder of even one loved-one (let alone a whole family), and helps Bob with his revenge plot.
- Discussed:
- "Why would Bob's friends single him out for not forgiving that sick bastard? They must be completely brainwashed by the idea of forgiveness."
- "Spoken like someone who has never suffered for choosing to turn the other cheek. Forgiveness is not something you can demand, it's a choice that's entirely up to the victim - and I sure as hell am not going to forgive someone who murdered my entire fucking family!"
- Conversed: "Is Bob ever going to listen to his friends about forgiveness in the next episode?"
- Implied: Bob make sure his friends does not see him with grudge against Harry, knowing what would happen.
- Deconstructed:
- The same thing Harry did to Bob also happens to them one by one, and they have the nerve to swear vengeance instead of Turning The Other Cheek like they advised him. Bob proceeds to call them out on their Moral Myopia and cuts all ties with them when they fail to even realize the Dramatic Irony.
- Bob's friends say that it is okay for his family to die. Bonus points if Bob's family happened to be on one of the acceptable targets list. This turns Bob against said friends, causing him to develop a deep seated hatred of humanity as a result. He becomes an antisocial recluse and lashes out, causing society to ostracize him more and causing him to lash out further.
- Alternatively, Bob realizes just how shitty his friends truly are when their demands for his forgiveness come off as a Lack of Empathy and cuts all ties with them. When people ask why, he tells them exactly why, and said friends end up being called out on by their own families once word reaches their ears.
- Bob simply does not have it in him to forgive Harry or let go of his anger or hatred, because whenever he closes his eyes he can see his dead family. He goes to the summer cabin in the woodlands where his family once had fun times together, and blows his brains out with his dead son's hunting rifle. His suicide note simply asks that neither Harry nor any of his so called "friends" go to his funeral.
- Bob kills his friend's families to see how they'd like it.
- Bob's friends ultimately feel guilty for chewing out Bob holding a grudge against Harry for killing his family, but Bob doesn't trust them to get off his back about it, so when they go to apologize to him, he doesn't forgive them and decides to hold a grudge against them to show them how he feels. Then they decide it's not worth trying to earn Bob's forgiveness.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob's friends point out that holding grudges does more harm that good.
- Bob's friends come to realize that it's wrong to hold a grudge for small offenses, but that for severe offenses it is natural to feel anger.
- Alternatively, Bob's friends realize that while holding grudges isn't good for him, they consider that nobody should be obligated to forgive anyone easily, especially if they aren't truly sorry for what they've done.
- But by killing their families, Bob ultimately proves his friends' point.
- Bob eventually comes around on his friends and apologizes to them, only for them to give him a bitter taste of his own medicine. However, they immediately remember how crushed Bob was after the death of his family, and so they turn around and apologize for being insensitive, but Bob still doesn't trust them, so he continues the Cycle of Revenge.
- Bob decides not to care about his friends' opinions on forgiveness and sticks to his choice to not forgive Harry.
- Played For Laughs: Bob's reason to hold a grudge is extremely petty and his methods for trying to get payback are extremely feeble.
- Played For Drama:
- Either Bob being called out or Harry's apology being rejected made them who they are.
- Bob's stubbornness to forgive Harry leaves him shunned and ostracized by his friends and family. He spends the rest of his life alone in a cabin and eventually dies.
- Played For Horror: Bob becomes a Stalker without a Crush and procedes to systematically destroy Harry's life as a slow-burn set-up to the kill, and either does the same to his friends when they try to talk him out of it or threatens to do the same to them to force them to fall in line.
You really don't forgive No Sympathy for Grudgeholders? What's wrong with you?
