Easily Forgiven / Video Games

Exploring the concept of people being Easily Forgiven for their mistakes and crimes in Video Games.

---

• The Age of Decadence: Averted harshly very frequently. NPCs hold long grudges, and screwing someone over early on has a tendency to hurt you later.
• In Borderlands 2, after getting nearly hanged by a Kangaroo Court, only to be saved by a Hyperion attack, Salvador tortures the man who killed the judge. His reason for caring about the man who nearly had him hanged:
  Salvador: Nobody's perfect.
• In Cave Story, in addition to being attacked by him several times, Quote directly witnesses Balrog happily force-feed an innocent Mimiga a flower that mutates them in a horrible monster, forcing Quote to kill the Mutant Mimiga in self-defense. Later, when Balrog rescues Quote and Curly Brace in the Best Ending, Quote, ever the silent protagonist, never mentions this, or does anything to interfere with Curly's friendship with him, either not actually caring about the Mimiga, or having forgiven Balrog for his actions while under the control of the Demon Crown.
• In Chrono Trigger, Magus is the main antagonist for a huge portion of the game, during which he commits all sorts of crimes. However, the player eventually has the option to have Magus join the party. If Magus joins the party, none of his past misdeeds are ever brought up by anyone.
• Gaspard in Dark Chronicle. Yes, he's a Noble Demon with a tragic past, but the main heroine Monica forgave him surprisingly easily after this was made clear even though she spent most of the game prior hating him for killing her father.
• In the first Dayshift at Freddy's, characters can potentially be mauled by a bear, sent to jail, and left in a burning building at each other's hands, but the second game never gives this more than a passing mention.
• The Dead or Alive series of fighting games are so thoroughly removed from the terrible-but-somehow-great Xtreme spinoff. The best example is that Christie murdered Helena's mother, but buy her a couple of gifts and suddenly she'll pair up for volleyball matches and mutual sun-tan oil application. With the woman who murdered her mother. Covering her in her mother's blood. While they were both on stage in an opera. In an opera house that then caught fire.
• Destiny 2: Discussed by the "Hidden Dossier" lore book included in the The Witch Queen expansion, using the framework of the Prisoner's Dilemma. In short, while retaliating against an attacker is the logical thing to do, if your attacker is also a logical being, this will lead inevitably to an eternal Cycle of Revenge that neither side benefits from. If both sides are matched, the only way you can break the cycle is to do something irrational and dangerous, which is to forgive them for everything. If your enemy just hits you again, you'll look like an idiot; but if they also decide to do the irrational thing and forgive you for everything, then the two of you will be able to pool resources that were previously wasted on conflict, and both of you will prosper. The example given is Namrask, an alien warlord whose species is engaged in such a cycle with humanity. Namrask infamously sacked London and killed countless humans, but later had a Heel Realization, renounced violence, and attempted to start a new life as a humble weaver in a human city. Should his Heel–Face Turn be taken for granted, or is he a Retired Monster who's escaped punishment for his crimes?
• Deus Ex: JC Denton spends his first day on the job (potentially) killing NSF terrorists in order to achieve his objectives, with the only caution he gets for it coming from his brother (who stresses taking a by-the-book approach). Even if you were merciless in slaughtering every terrorist you across, it's surprising how quickly the remaining ones are willing to ignore this once he switches sides.
• In Devil May Cry, Dante doesn't hesitate to forgive Trish twice in two occasions:
  • She is a recipient of this in her Establishing Character Moment. She crashes into Dante's office on a motorbike, proceeds to beat him up, throws his sword through him, electrocutes him, then throws her motorbike at him! Directly after this sequence of events however, he brushes it off and takes up her job offer like what happened before was no big deal.
  • At first, Dante is furious with her because she's working for Mundus, but he lets it go and sheds tears over her literally-dead body.
• Disgaea
  • In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Etna uses Laharl as bait to get back at Maderas for stealing her memories. Laharl actually compliments her on the fact and the two act all nonchalant about it. However, if you read Etna's diary after the fact, she's confounded that he forgave her so easily and was sure he was going to kill her for betraying him.
  • This is played as one of Valvatorez's quirks in Disgaea 4. Being a very gullible and trusting Cloudcuckoolander who is very insistent on The Power of Camaraderie, he's very quick to forgive just about any betrayal. Fenrich finds this utterly baffling.
• Dragon Age:
  • In Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, Nathaniel Howe will express disbelief if you offer to conscript him into the Wardens instead of hanging him for scheming to kill you. You can respond by claiming that some of your best friends are people who tried to kill you in the past. (This is likely referring to Zevran, who was recruited into your party during the quest where he failed to kill the player.)
  • Possible thanks to the friendship/rivalry system in Dragon Age II. In the previous game, doing enough things a companion didn't like would eventually make most of them leave in disgust. In II, outside of defined crisis points, this sort of thing instead unlocks a different set of abilities, and the hazard comes from not committing to either path, that is, not being mean enough. Rivalry points can come from anything to arguing with them to leaving a young mage to a demon to keeping a vulnerable girl as a slave to selling one of them into slavery. With a full Rivalry, it's possible to convince a companion to switch sides and rejoin you if you pick a side in the Mage-Templar war that they don't like.
• In the final route of Duel Savior Destiny Imnity pulls a Heel–Face Turn entirely without comment despite actively attempting to destroy the world not moments before. Gets a happy ending too.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • Committing crimes for the series in general. Even murder is forgiven after paying a 1000 gold fine. This is discussed in certain dialogue trees: the money from the fines the guards charge criminals go to the victim of the crime/their surviving family.
  • Culturally, this is a trait of the Argonians, at least toward fellow Argonians. Argonians live in the "now," preferring not to dwell in the past or look ahead to the future (possibly because their native language, Jel, has no past or present tense verbs). Additionally, hating each other is the same as hating themselves because they "are all people of the root."
  • The Thieves' Guild typically plays this straight on two levels:
    • While they prefer that you "not get caught," the Guild has contacts who can, for a substantial fee (though usually less than actually paying the fine) make your bounty disappear.
    • If you break a rule of the Guild itself and get kicked out, you merely need to make financial restitution to get back in.
  • In Morrowind, you can be expelled from any of the three Great Houses for a variety of infractions from stealing from your fellow House members to outright killing them. House Hlaalu allows you back in for 500 gold (plus paying whatever fines you were assessed by the authorities) and you can do this an unlimited number of times. House Telvanni allows you back in simply by asking any member ranked higher than a Mouth, and you can do this an unlimited number of times as well. House Redoran allows you back in with a simple apology, but only once. Get expelled again, and you're out for good.
• In Fable, a Player Character who's at least moderately high on the Karma Meter gains the ability to apologize when caught committing a non-violent crime, which earns on-the-spot forgiveness. The five-finger discount succeeds where the hero discount fails in the land of Albion, it would seem.
• Fallout 3:
  • A major sidequest ends when you get a man to return to his home town, days after he killed and ate his own parents. Although the group that took him in after he did so also took the fall for it and taught him how to avoid this from happening again.
  • Mesmerizing and enslaving a non-specific city resident of Megaton or Rivet City counts as "assault". It will make the whole city hostile, but if you can escape without killing anyone, they will accept you back 3 days later.
• Fallout: New Vegas: It's entirely dependent on the player's choices and roleplaying, but it's totally possible for the Courier to show some pretty ridiculous examples of forgiveness on the wasteland's worst residents (barring the hundreds who just shoot them on sight, anyway).
  • Salt-Upon-Wounds is a mass murderer who has indirectly tried to kill the Courier countless times and wiped out several towns, villages, and tribes, including the hometown of Joshua Graham. After helping to kill off his army, the Courier can convince Graham to let him go instead of executing him. In this case it's more about setting an example for Graham's followers as well as convincing him not to give in to his bloodlust, than any concern for Salt-Upon-Wounds; he was surrendering and unable to defend himself, thus shooting him would be dishonorable. However, even if you do spare him, the ending sequence has him and his tribe destroyed due to him being a shadow of his former self.
    • Speaking of Joshua, he was accepted and forgiven by the Mormons when he returned to them after his time as the Malpais Legate as if he'd done nothing wrong — when questioned on this, his writer pointed to the parable of the Prodigal Son. This surprised no one more than Graham himself. However, Daniel secretly considers Joshua both an incarnation of human misery as well as God's infinite mercy.
  • The Courier can outright rescue Benny, the man who shot them in the head at the very beginning of the game.
  • They can also convince the NCR soldiers at Boulder City to spare the gang of Great Khans raiders they have besieged. The exact same gang of raiders that Benny hired to kidnap and murder the Courier, and who dug his grave, as their leader will readily tell you.
  • The best example is Ulysses, the Arc Villain of Lonesome Road. Even though he murdered countless people as a Legion agent, helped cause the conflicts of several previous stories that the Courier got involved in, and destroyed the town of New Canaan, even specifically ordering the White Legs under his command to murder the children (and this before he tried to bombard the NCR with nuclear missiles), the Courier can opt to talk him down instead of fighting. To be fair, he takes it upon himself to spend the rest of his life in the Divide fighting off Tunnelers and Marked Men to prevent them from reaching the Mojave. Since he says he intends on doing that until he dies, the Courier might have figured that was punishment enough (as well as more pragmatic).
  • Actually deconstructed with one gang of raiders: if the Courier spares them and convinces them to leave, they turn up later in the game, having killed some civilians.
  • There's no factional reputation associated with the Gun Runners and no way to burn your bridges with them, even though the guards will hold a grudge if you attack them. If you're not built for stealth or just feel like fucking shit up, you can blast your way through their factory to steal their manufacturing specs. You can even shoot the guards in view of the sales robot and it will still sell to you any time you're not in combat.
  • Crocker and Vulpes forgiving The Courier for crimes against the NCR and Legion respectively can be this trope if they were sufficiently hated by one or both factions. This is a means to an end rather than either side having a forgiving nature; nonetheless it's not insignificant to wipe the slate clean if the slate includes a murder spree.
  • In the Dead Money DLC, if you tell Christine that Dean Domino was the one who trapped her in an autodoc that tore out her vocal cords and is thus responsible for her being mute as well as developing claustrophobia, Christine simply states that since she's done far worse for less she's in no position to hold a grudge.
• In Fallout 4, if the player completes Bobbi No-Nose's questline by stealing from Hancock and killing his friend/bodyguard Fahrenheit, Hancock will later force you to personally reimburse him as well as kill Bobbi. With a high enough speech/quickloading the speechcheck, you can negotiate him down to a fraction of your original debt and you're free to let Bobbi go scot-free when you actually meet her. He's not even particularly bothered by Fahrenheit's death, stating that it's just business and after all of that he'll willingly join you as a companion.
• A variant in Far Cry Primal. One of the Great Beasts that Takkar can tame is the Bloodfang Tiger, one of the massive Sabertooths that live in the Oros valley. We were first introduced to the Bloodfang Tiger at the start of the game, where it kills Takkar's hunting party, including driving Takkar's mentor Dalso to tackle him over a cliff in a Heroic Sacrifice. It then pops up again and nearly kills Sayla, Takkar's first ally in Oros, and when Takkar goes hunting it, it kills one unlucky Wenja hunter who goes with him right at the start of the mission. In spite of this, Takkar can tame the Tiger at the end of their boss battle, and from then on, the two of them can hang out together, fighting enemy tribes, hunting other creatures, and even just letting Takkar stroke its head like an oversized house cat.
• In the Final Fantasy series:
  • Final Fantasy II plays it straight in that Firion, Maria and Guy are all perfectly willing to forgive and forget Leon's betrayal, but also subverts it in that Leon isn't as willing to forgive himself and he departs on a Redemption Quest in the end, with the others promising to welcome him back whenever he chooses to return.
  • Final Fantasy IV: The After Years: The child Maenad who is adopted by Rydia in the ending. Despite implications of sharing a Hive Mind with the rest of her race, Leviathan and Asura (who, until recently, had been enslaved by the Maenad) do not show any traces of resenting the child.
  • Final Fantasy VII:
    • Yuffie commits (literal) Wutai Theft and is welcomed back more or less unchanged. Barret will yell at her and Cloud will tell her he doesn't care about her feelings if they're in the party during the event, but due to the fact that the sidequest is optional, it's not addressed again. Her scene of rejoining the party is even a reprise of the sequence of the party walking off without asking her for her name that plays when she's initially recruited.
    • The transition of the Turks from villains (albeit quirky ones) to comic relief, Heel Face Turned semi-heroes in the Compilation feels a little odd given how they detonated the support tower for the Sector 7 plate (destroying the heroes' homes, killing the original AVALANCHE crew and countless innocent people in the process) in the original game. Cloud in Advent Children seems to be the only person who mistrusts them. There is also a "just doing our jobs" scene in Crisis Core, where Tseng (one of the Turks), lets a village be bombed to erase evidence and doesn't show remorse over it. Zack does not take that lightly, and spends the rest of the game remembering it.
  • Final Fantasy IX has Beatrix, who is Queen Brahne's right hand woman as the leader of Alexandria's all female soldiers. Beatrix assists Brahne with nearly slaughtering all of the citizens in the neighboring kingdom of Burmecia and Cleyra in order to find powerful summon magic for the Queen to use in conquering the entire continent. It isn't until the Queen summons Odin, which completely destroys Cleyra, that Beatrix begins to doubt the Queen's sanity and it isn't until she sees with her own eyes that Princess Garnet was put under a sleeping spell and was going to be executed by her very own mother that Betrix has a My God, What Have I Done? moment. Freya, who was a resident of Burmecia, calls out Beatrix for wangsting over her actions far too late. However, Freya and the rest of the party seemingly forgive Beatrix rather quickly after several events happen, including the death of Brahne, although Beatrix has been doing her best helping Garnet look out for Alexandria's best interests and Garnet's own well being.
  • Final Fantasy XII: It doesn't take long for Player Character Vaan to forgive Basch, the man who supposedly assassinated Dalmasca's king and killed Vaan's older brother Reks. There is very good reason for this; he was framed by his Evil Twin Gabranth and Vaan saw Gabranth interrogating him.
• In the Fire Emblem series:
  • Discussed in Fire Emblem: Awakening. As a result of the former Exalt of Ylisse engaging in a war against Plegia that brought both nations to the brink of ruin, the people came to despise the Exalt's children, Emmeryn, Chrom and Lissa, insulting them and even throwing stones at them. Despite this, Emmeryn never held a grudge against her people and treated them kindly, eventually becoming a beloved Exalt. Chrom, however, is still somewhat bitter about how the people treated his sister, and sardonically comments on how they "forgave" Emmeryn after hating and mistreating her.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses
    • Discussed and subverted in the supports between Ashe and Catherine. While Ashe comes to trust Catherine as a comrade-in-arms, he also feels conflicted about the knowledge that she turned his adoptive brother Christophe over to the church for execution, which led Christophe's father Lonato to lead a rebellion against the church that ended with Lonato's death. Catherine says Ashe is perfectly justified in hating her, and says she'd smack him if he easily forgave her.
    • Discussed in a monastery conversation with Sylvain late in the Azure Moon route. After Dimitri realizes how far he's fallen in his quest for revenge, which has gotten many of the Kingdom's soldiers killed, he apologizes for his behavior. Sylvain says he can't forget the "awful" things Dimitri did, but he believes he owes his friend a chance to redeem himself.
    • On the Crimson Flower route, the rest of the students are quick to join Edelgard's side right after The Reveal that they were the Flame Emperor and thus either directly behind or indirectly involved with most of the life-or-death battles they fought in Part 1. It's downplayed for some students, who are still conflicted but joined because they trust Byleth's judgement. This is lampshaded with another of that route's exclusive characters, Jeritza, a.k.a the Death Knight, where the main Lord tells Byleth their confusion is natural and that they'll explain later. It turns out the Death Knight is Jeritza's Split Personality and he has no control over his actions in that state.
• Golden Sun: Early in the game, you meet Ivan, a young boy working for a rich merchant named Hammet. Hammet's caravan was held up due to Ivan losing an important item, and found themselves facing a Broken Bridge. Hammet ends up held for ransom after what is probably several months of in-game time (or however long it takes to go around Asia), causing his wife enormous anguish and severe financial loss for his city, and yet when you rescue him (by beating the bandits' leader Dodonpa, who was trying to backstab you and is now stuck under his giant pet toad), he not only asks that they forgive him, but that they actually drag the toad off him. He does justify it, however: if Dodonpa's men heard about it, they could end up attacking Hammet's city in retaliation.
• In Grim Fandango solving the tree farm puzzle in Year 1 involves deactivating the device on the tree and reactivating it after Glottis has climbed up it, causing him to whirl around in circles, wailing helplessly. If you deactivate the device without solving the puzzle, Glottis falls to the ground and this sort of exchange ensues.
  Glottis: (Angrily) That was a rotten trick, Manny!
  Manny: It was an accident! My hand slipped.
  Glottis: (Calmly) Oh, okay.
• King Arthur's official policy in Guenevere is to forgive anyone who expresses remorse (regardless of how likely that remorse is to be genuine), as he believes this is the only path to a better world. Guen can go along with this up to sparing someone who has tried to murder her twice in rapid succession and is in the process of openly attacking her country.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • In Kingdom Hearts, Sora sure is quick to forgive Riku after turning evil, working with the villains, kidnapping multiple princesses, including Kairi, stealing the Keyblade from him, stealing his friends, then outright trying to murder him. Keep in mind, none of these were done while he was possessed by Ansem; they were all of his own volition. And yet as soon as Sora beats Ansem, he's immediately best friends with Riku again. The only one mad at Riku for his heinous actions is himself.
  • Sora has a thing for this. Near the end Kingdom Hearts II he sees who he thinks is "Ansem" helping out Kairi, and he's immediately states he's willing to let bygones be bygones right then for that alone before realizing it's actually Riku. For context, "Ansem" is the other half of the game's current villain, which together is the Big Bad of the entire series and whom previously attempted to drown all of the Kingdom Hearts universe into darkness, and yet Sora is still willing to forgive him for a fairly minor act of kindness.
  • Implied for Ienzo towards Lea in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. While Lea (as Axel) had a direct hand in Ienzo's (as Zexion) brutal murder in Chain of Memories, Ienzo never brings it up and is polite to Lea when they're talking after their revivals.
  • Happens with Master Xehanort at the end of Kingdom Hearts III. After all that he has done, and despite the previous instance of him exploiting Eraqus's forgiveness, Xehanort is Easily Forgiven again by Eraqus after he is defeated for real, and he gets to peacefully Go into the Light with him.
  • Also in III is Saix, who was second-in-command of the original Organization XIII and was basically just a huge asshole to everyone, even former best friend Axel. He, with no regrets and of his own volition, sides with Master Xehanort. After his return as Isa, he is forgiven instantly and gets to hangout with the good guys, even being invited to their beach party.
• Subverted in Lemegeton. Sabio is surprised that Marax doesn't hate him for cutting down his friends (several fellow Ars Goetia demons). Marax, though, replies that demons don't have friends to begin with. In other words, Sabio never did anything that would draw Marax's ire in the first place.
• Mass Effect:
  • Paragon Shepard is unbelievably forgiving to terrorists, crime lords, Mad Scientists, and all sorts of assorted scum of the galaxy as long as they aren't actively shooting at someone. While sometimes they just leave them to be arrested by someone else, sometimes they let them off with a warning and forget all about them as soon as they leave Shepard's line of sight, usually with one of their squadmates calling them on it. (Contrast with Renegade Shepard, who regularly shoots or grievously wounds small time crooks and even innocent bystanders, and deals out summary executions like candy.)
  • Considering that they've wiped out all advanced civilisation in the galaxy for millions of years, everyone in the galaxy is surprisingly forgiving of the Reapers in the Synthesis ending of Mass Effect 3.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda: Part of angara culture is a belief that feelings and emotions should not be hidden, and one should be forward and forthright with them. This naturally translates into angara often hurting one another (emotionally or physically) in fits of rage or anger, but on the flipside they are remarkably forgiving once they've had time to work through things.
  • Goes both ways at the end of Peebee's loyalty mission: Peebee will try to save her abusive ex, who told her minions to kill Ryder's team and loot their corpses barely a few minutes ago, while trying to steal an artefact Peebee's after because Peebee was after it... and if Ryder kills Kalinda, Peebee will briefly ask What the Hell, Hero?, accepting Ryder's answer and potentially beginning a full-blown romance with them immediately thereafter. Meanwhile, Ryder doesn't hold much of a grudge against Peebee very nearly killing the team by shooting them blind at a volcanic planet, without warning.
• In Mortal Kombat, Sub-Zero holds no grudge at all against Frost for betraying him. Rather than killing her, he freezes her out of mercy, then laid her to rest in an ancient temple, all the while blaming himself for the whole thing. Sadly, when Frost recovered, she misunderstood the whole situation and thought he had left her to die. Some people never get any breaks.
• The Mystery of the Druids: After Halligan extorts an oath from the Big Bad that he and Melanie will not be harmed, Halligan stabs Melanie in the gut with a pair of hedge clippers. Somehow, this is treated as the Big Bad breaking his oath, causing his proxy to involuntarily self destruct. Halligan heals Melanie with some enchanted mistletoe and it's treated like Halligan heroically saving her life. The two kiss, and romantic music plays over the credits.
• In New Horizons, if a captain manages to sneak into a port of a nation hostile, he can ask the governor for pardon. Instead of arresting or executing him on the spot, he will grant it begrudgingly - for a hefty fee, depending on how bad the relations are.
• No Umbrellas Allowed: If you tell Saewoo that you forgive Junghan for scamming and attacking Bohko over a ticket to the Bunker of Freedom and then robbing your store, Darcy will call you out for it and threaten to fire you because Junghan seriously harmed the friend of Darcy's granddaughter Nari. Jihye, on the other hand, believes that forgiving him is the right thing since it's further proof that you're Jisu Cha, her kindhearted long-lost friend. Regardless, AVAC arrests Junghan for his crimes, but his punishment will be lighter if you forgive him. Doing so also makes Darcy come around to your decision the following day since he's passing his store down to you, anyway.
• Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus has this as a mechanic where, no matter how angry or depressed a Mudokon is, they are one "Sorry!" away from complete forgiveness. They could be mad from you slapping them around for fun, or suicidal from watching you lure their friends into a meat grinder for laughs, but just apologize and they become completely cool with Abe. Given the sadistic, comedic, and irreverent tone of the game, guaranteed this was intentional.
• Zig-Zagged in Persona 5 with Obvious Judas Akechi. Despite his attempts on Joker's life and his murder of Futaba's mother and Haru's father along with many others, the Thieves express a desire to work together with him to take down Shido. In the Royal Updated Re-release his rank 7 and 8 confidant events let you have Joker, who is fully aware of Akechi's involvement in the conspiracy at this point, obliquely comment on your awareness of his true personality and criminal actions, and even subtly offer him a chance at a Heel–Face Turn despite him currently plotting to murder you but his overconfidence makes him oblivious to this. However, even after he becomes the 11th-Hour Ranger it's clear that the others haven't completely forgiven him, especially Haru and Futaba who openly resent the fact they have to work with him when talked to in Safe Rooms and won't play Tycoon with him in the Thieves' Den.
• Everyone in Phantom Brave. No matter how much you want to break Marona, no matter how much you want to torment her for her powers, and no matter how much of a douchebag for good reasons you are, Marona will always forgive you.
• In Pokémon Masters, the Team Rocket Trio, during the Double Trouble event, convince the player that they are the good guys, even helping the player take down Team Break to save Shiny Celebi. Come the Blasting Off Again event, and the trio proceed to steal the partner Pokemon present, including the player’s Pikachu, and when the player realizes that their Pikachu has disappeared, they are lead to the trio’s location by Shiny Celebi. It is then that the Team Rocket Trio reveals that they were using the player to steal the partner Pokemon. This escalates in a battle where the player wins and has Pikachu blast Team Rocket off. Not long after, the player and Pikachu approach the Rocket Trio, saying that while they disapprove of the Rocket Trio’s actions, they do like how their partner Pokemon (Arbok and Weezing) were in sync with their trainers, and the Team Rocket Trio decides to help the player further, leading to the sync pair of James and Weezing being obtained.
• In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Arven had a lot of angst and trauma stemming from years of Parental Neglect after The Professor effectively abandoned him to focus on their research, which ultimately got them killed and almost did the same to him. However, after their Virtual Ghost reassures him that his parent did love him, he immediately does a 180 and (possibly begrudgingly) states that he can understand why they could see making a Time Machine taking priority over their only child.
• Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask: The main villain tried to destroy the entire city and drown its inhabitants in sand out of petty revenge because he listened to some guy he didn't know instead of his friends. To a lesser extent he framed a couple of people and put Luke in danger. But because he's friends with everybody and was really sorry, he is not only welcomed back by everybody, but gets the entire city. On the other hand, Layton expresses in a late-game journal entry that he can't forgive the person in question, but isn't willing to give up on him.
• In Psychonauts, after attempting to conquer the world with tanks powered by the brains of psychic children, a public apology to the kids (albeit a sincere one) is enough for Morceau Oleander to not only be forgiven but to also remain a Psychonaut. This gets lampshaded at the end of Psychonauts 2, where Oleander protests the decision to let Maligula/"Nona" Aquato, who devastated a country and killed countless people, remain living a normal life with her family, which earns him some glances from his compatriots that he tries to protest before simply being cowed into going along with them.
• In Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault Stuart Zurgo complains adamantly about this about the universe towards Captain Qwark. "I watched as you were involved in scandal after scandal and every time the Galaxy just forgave you!"
• Rave Heart: Zazir quickly forgives Klein for mistaking him for an enemy and attacking him.
• In Rune Factory, Lynette is responsible for wiping Raguna's memory and throwing him into a monster infested village (which she is responsible for infesting) all for the purpose of using Raguna to help unleash a dragon god on the kingdom. After the plan fails, and she's banished from her kingdom for it, Raguna forgives her virtually instantly (she's even eligible for marriage at that point). Raguna never even asks Lynette to tell him about his past, even if he marries her.
• Sakura Dungeon Actually averted with the Final Boss Vesta, even after Yomi rescues her from the collapsing Abyssal dimension. Yomi still plans to punish her for what she did. When Vesya isn't assisting Yomi in undoing the damage she did, she's staying in the prison until Yomi sees fit.
• Naja from Sands of Destruction requests forgiveness for killing Kyrie and to join the team; he is allowed to do so and only Agan is even slightly suspicious of him (despite forgiveness not being her first instinct, Morte decides to do what Kyrie would do and forgive him).
• Shadow of Destiny: Eike is way too forgiving; he immediately accepts Mr. Eckhart's apology for trying to push Eike off a tower and he thinks Hugo's just a sweet kid despite him repeatedly trying to murder Eike.
• In Shin Megami Tensei IV, Abbot Hugo has been using the Samurai as his personal army, having them enter Tokyo to find relics (something that was considered unthinkable by Samurai code, only allowed because he's friends enough with the King to convince him), using the Black Samurai as an excuse to start massive witch hunts, and a rather long list of both silly and serious charges. In the Neutral ending, though, he's welcomed along with the other Mikado survivors in Cafe Florida for a drink before Tokyo is restored.
• In Sleeping Dogs (2012), if you date both Tiffany and "Not Ping", "Not Ping" will call you out for cheating on her...before cheerfully asking you to stay in touch.
• Basically how every interaction Spider-Man has with Black Cat ends in Spider-Man (PS4). No matter how many times she tricks and betrays him, even going so far as to lie to him that they had a son together that Hammerhead kidnapped to get his help with a heist before leaving him for dead, he keeps trying to redeem her while never expressing anything more than mild frustration with her antics. She even calls him out on this when he rushes to save her from Hammerhead after the aforementioned leaving for dead at the end of The Heist DLC.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Knights of the Old Republic:
    • Revan starts a bloody violent war against the Republic, all in the name of putting in place a stronger government to fight against the True Sith he has had a vision of. Then he kills the guy who picked up the mantle, gets a medal and is hailed as a hero. It's almost justified by how Revan's identity is kept a secret... but then Vandar declares him 'Revan, the Prodigal Knight' at the celebration following the Sith defeat in front of hundreds of Republic officers.
    • Bastila is pretty easily forgiven for going to the dark side (since she was tortured) and using her Battle Meditation to allow the Sith to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of Republic officers. And then she acts surprised and somewhat disgusted that Revan attempted to redeem and forgive Malak, despite her getting the same treatment not even an hour before.
  • In Star Wars: The Old Republic, in the Sith Warrior storyline the most you can do to Malavai Quinn for his betrayal is to Force-choke him before angrily inviting him back into your party. This is most likely due to the fact that as the healer companion to a melee-heavy character, he's probably the most useful companion gameplay-wise. The player was initially going to have the option to kill him at this point but this was Dummied Out due to playtester feedback. However, the Onslaught expansion allows you to finally act on your potential grudge and kill him when he attempts to rejoin you.
• Hilda in Stella Glow. She's a former tyrant queen who destroyed her own country and has been leading an army devoted to supporting her as she sings the Song of Ruin to crystallize vulnerable villages, and it's implied on a few occasions that the survivors of the villages she attacks become child soldiers in her service. This doesn't even take into account the number of deaths she indirectly causes through negligence since she gave up explaining herself long ago and didn't bother to try again after she outlived all her doubters and had a trusted source that could back her up. Yet, her story path is centered not only on how no one holds any of that against her, but how she shouldn't even feel guilty for any of it, because everyone who matters is her friend now.
• Suikoden:
  • In multiple installments, the only way to get 100% Completion is to recruit all of the Stars of Destiny - even ones who may have committed terrible sins are forgiven by the player to obtain them as a party member.
  • This is a key component of Suikoden. After each boss fight with one of Barbarossa's generals, you are given the option to either conscript them into your army or execute them. Despite Viktor and other characters telling you that the generals have no place in your army, the best course of action is to forgive them and allow them to join, partially because they are being influenced by a dark rune, and partially because they realized that they need to atone for their sins.
  • Likewise, Sanchez is revealed to be the mole feeding information to Barbarossa's army near the end of the game, and his machinations result in Mathiu Silverberg being critically injured. Despite that, Mathiu forgives him for the act and has him tell the hero that his "punishment" is being forced to act normally so as not to let the rebel army know he acted as a turncoat.
  • In Suikoden II, Jowy betrays his closest friends and the country that graciously took him in after his own country, Highland, tried to murder him. He assassinates it's leader, aids the invasion of it's capital, assists Luca Blight in an act of genocide, is an accomplice to the murder of King Agares Blight so that Luca can ascend to the throne and then conspires to allow the enemy side to kill Luca so *he* can ascend to the throne. All of these acts result in a costly war that causes the near destruction of one nation and the total destruction of his own when his idiotic plans collapse around him. And yet, in the "best ending" Jowy gets to be forgiven by the protagonist, the leader of the force opposing Jowy who he refused to reason with until it was too late and go back to being best friends travelling together as if he wasn't a genocidal, self-centered warmonger.
• Summoner:
  • Joseph (the protagonist) was being taught how to use his powers to summon creatures using a magical ring by Yago, but when bandits attacked his village, he decided to summon a mighty demon to help fight them. The demon went completely out of control, killing bandits and villagers alike (including his family), causing Joseph to be exiled by the refugees of his Doomed Hometown. Joseph threw the ring down a well and said he never wanted to see Yago again. In spite of this, Yago was the first person Joseph ran to when the Orenians went gunning for him, and he fell hook, line and sinker for Yago's advice again. Although, it turns out that Yago was possessed by the Demon of Darkness from within the ring (the demon Joseph summoned) at the time, and tricked Joseph into summoning him on purpose.
  • Jekhar swore that he would kill his childhood friend Joseph for destroying his village and slaughtering his family with the demon years ago. In spite of numerous opportunities to do so, he never does. He never even menaces him except for the first two times you bump into him.
  • Yago abandoned his wife and their unborn daughter, Rosalind, to seek ringlore. When you ask Rosalind (now, after her mother's death, a member of a cloistered society of monks who must never return if she leaves) to abandon her vows and come with you on Yago's behalf, she actually does so. While she is very confrontational with Yago, she never tries to bring him to task for his dastardly behavior.
  • Joseph forgives Flece pretty fast after she's been betraying him nearly since they met. Of course, she is so guilt-ridden that she goes to save him soon after, but still.
  • Flece forgives Aoqi (really her mother Quifeng) pretty easily for Tancred's murder. Although her reasons were rather compelling, it remains that she was basically a stranger who killed the only father Flece ever knew.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Pauline seems to have forgiven Donkey Kong entirely for kidnapping her and holding her hostage in the original game; she doesn't even mention it in more recent games where both appear. Of course, this is the series that gave us the trope name for Go-Karting with Bowser.^note On the other hand, this was when Donkey Kong was originally portrayed as (or at least implied to be) a Killer Gorilla (similar to the one from the classic movie that inspired Donkey Kong's creation).
  • Despite all of the trouble Bowser causes, Mario and his friends never begrudge him and invite him to their many gatherings and parties. One minute he's threatening the universe, the next he's playing sports, and fairly no less.
  • The ending in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door shows Beldam, a Shadow Siren that fought against Mario every step of the way and treated her sister, Vivian, like total garbage, is instantly forgiven ans he promises not to abuse Vivian anymore. Goombella speculates that with the Shadow Queen gone, Beldam likely mellowed out.
  • Mario Party Advance: Shroomlock never arrests any of the perpetrators of the crimes in Mushroom City, including the one who robbed a bank, because they always apologize afterward.
  • Mario Party DS: Despite Bowser's wrongdoings (shrinking Mario and his friends, trapping them into a malevolent pinball machine, trying to shrink them further to crush them and potentially kill them, and finally trying to use his Megamorph Belt to defeat the winner of the pinball party session in a Final Boss battle), Mario eventually lets him and Bowser Jr. play Triangle Twisters with the gang.
• Super Robot Wars:
  • Super Robot Wars: Original Generation : Major and minor villains alike often find their way into the protagonist's squadron, no matter how grievous the crimes they committed - up to and not including nearly killing the main character, being a pain in the ass for the majority of the game, nearly enslaving earth, or even being accomplice to the destruction of the entire dimension. Examples:
  • Super Robot Wars Alpha: Ingram, who was revealed to be Brainwashed and Scheming all along.
  • Super Robot Wars 2: Shu, who attempted to do an Earth-Shattering Kaboom in a plan to free himself from an evil God. The aftermath after his death is Masaki, his own rival that utterly hates him... sheds a tear for him. This happens in EVERY INSTALLMENT where they duke it out, not just OG.
  • Juergen 'killed' Lamia in OG Gaiden, then everyone else pitied him for 'not being himself and got consumed by his own creation'. Compared to the likes of Archibald, who has done lots of *** s to the Bransteins and condemned to death even when it faces him, they were pretty merciful towards Juergen.
  • Duminuss, who was stripped from every sympathy she had in R, got a special mention, even though mostly everyone else didn't show any sympathy. She messed Lamia up by turning her Brainwashed and Crazy. But after she was returned to her senses, she easily forgives Duminuss, never mind all those crimes to her, what matters the most was 'She brought her back to life'. In here 'forgive' as in she didn't hold a complete grudge on her, and defeats her because she's in the way not It's Personal.
  • Non-OG is not safe from this. In Super Robot Wars Destiny you can recruit Katejina Loos and instantly forgive every single act of sheer depravity that she has done. In the game's storyline, Katejina hasn't committed as many acts of sheer depravity as she did in the show, so this makes somewhat more sense.
• Tales Series:
  • Tales of Vesperia:
    • Raven kidnaps Estelle and willingly hands her over to Alexei. The consequences of this (apocalypse) are wholly known to Raven. And then when you meet Raven again, he makes a full on attempt to kill you. When he has a change of heart and decide to come back, the party members bop him over the head and conveniently forget about it for the rest of the game aside from around two minor references. And this party includes Yuri, a man who, throughout the game, has shown that he's more than willing to kill someone for a lot less. Flynn refuses to even punch Raven in the Updated Re-release, albeit for a good reason; he'd also done Alexei's bidding in the past, and so doesn't feel as though the right to judge Raven.
    • Duke tries to kill every human in order to save the planet. After defeating him and saving the world, the gang casually wave to him as he walks away and is later seen playing with animals in the peaceful new world. Upon his defeat, he does lend his power to Yuri's plan, which could be seen as very redeeming.
    • No one seems to mind that Judith damaged the party's ship and abandoned them after she rejoins- even Rita, who'd had a grudge against Judith since learning that she was the person who was going around destroying blastia. She did have arguably two good reasons, but still. Yuri implies that he was considering killing the person in question if she didn't have a good reason, but lets it go.
    • Averted with Sodia, who stabs Yuri in a surprise attack, causing him to fall off of Zaude and nearly die. Yuri does not forgive Sodia for what she did, but doesn't report her for it, either. His reasoning is twofold- it would be hypocritical of him to judge her for doing to him what he did to Ragou and Cumore, and he believes Flynn needs a loyal subordinate like her at his side.
  • Tales of Legendia is a prime example. Shirley ("So who cares if our only experience with you is the part where you tried to destroy the land and kill millions of people? You're part of the team now."), Chloe ("Guys, we have to save the chick who just ran me through with a sword!"), Jay ("Well, obviously he had a reason for kidnapping her."), Alcott ("Sure, you killed hundreds of people and served as general to an evil regime, but it was all for your sick daughter, so we forgive you."), and Maurits (...let's just not go there.) In the game itself this comes off more like an example of the party's endearing-if-stupid idealism than anything else.
  • In Tales of the Abyss the party instantly forgives Anise when they find out she'd been spying on them for the villain over the course of three quarters of the game, and directly helped to kill one of the most important people helping to stop both a world war and an Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
• In Tekken, Craig Marduk killed Armor King in the 4th series; in turn, the second King beats the crap out of Marduk, only to refuse to kill him out of vengeance... well, that was forgiving, but not easy. Then, in the 5th series, Marduk goes on to disgrace Armor King by raiding some matches wearing his black jaguar mask and issuing a challenge to King. After the challenge is settled, they suddenly become best buds, as if Armor King's disgrace is easily forgotten...
• In Tony Hawk's Underground the player character (i.e. you) does this twice to his "best friend" Eric Sparrow: first when Eric purposefully didn't sign your name for the Tampa Am competition so you wouldn't go up against him and later when Eric stole the footage of your amazing "jumping over the helicopter" stunt and instead submitted footage of his own stunts in the spot you discovered, thus earning Eric a promotion to Pro status. It takes Eric getting drunk, stealing a Russian tank, crashing it into a building and framing you for it for your character to realize what a Jerkass he is.
• Touhou Project does this (and Defeat Means Friendship) so often that it's part of the structure of the setting. Youkai need to antagonise humans on a regular basis, because their existence depends on humans fearing them, and humans regularly go on youkai "extermination" hunts (really a ritualised sort of Non-Lethal Warfare) to keep them from getting too rowdy. Everyone in on the masquerade are mostly happy with the system, so any sort of trouble-making is just treated as a mild nuisance and the perpetrators can go on their way after the whole thing is over; even, say, attempting to bathe the surface world in nuclear fire is fine after you have some sense beaten into you. The few exceptions are for the ones who don't abide by the system; Tenshi Hinanawi is shunned by everyone after causing an incident purely for the sake of causing an incident (even Reimu, who usually regards perpetrators with the same indifference, dislikes Tenshi because she destroyed her shrine), and Danmaku Amanojaku ~ Impossible Spell Card sees Seija Kijin made public enemy number one after she tried to perform an upheaval of the social order in Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character (though in her case, being an amanojaku, she's so contrary that she loves being hated).
• CR-S01 from Trauma Team is very quick to forgive his now-deceased adoptive father, Albert Sartre, admitting he bears no grudge toward him at all. This is after he recovers his memories and learns of everything Sarte has done, which includes: Causing (though accidentally) the massacre at Cumberland College and then deliberately and forcibly destroying the memories of his sixteen-year-old adoptive son, leaving him to take the fall for the alleged act of bioterrorism and serve a 250-year prison sentence in a cell maintained at zero degrees Celsius with little human contact and only the idea that he's a terrible person to occupy his memory-devoid mind; and violently murdering his adoptive daughter and CR's adoptive sister Rosalia after falling victim to the disease she's a natural carrier of, thus inadvertently allowing it to spread via monarch butterfly scales and kill hundreds more innocents in the process. Of course, given CR's seeming limited capacity for strong emotions and biased, idealized relationship with the forgiven individual in question (as well as the fact that, for eight long years, he had nothing to do but brood over the horrific crimes he thought he had committed, so finally realizing he was innocent all along was sure to lift an enormous weight from his chest), his behavior is certainly justifiable.
• Trails of Cold Steel: The traitor's actions kick off a civil war, in which he is aligned with the side that the party oppose. The party somehow remain very keen to say Welcome Back, Traitor, but do not get the chance to do so until near the end of the second game.
• In the backstory to Undertale, it is told that humans and monsters were once at peace until humans initiated a war against the monsters because they feared the worst case scenario of a monster obtaining a bunch of human souls to obtain godlike power. Naturally, most of the monsters you encounter in the game are either distrusting or hostile towards you because you're a human. If you decide to spare monsters instead of killing them, they'll see that not all humans are bad. This is what leads to the Golden Ending where monsters and humans reconcile and make peace with each other again. Despite the humans attacking monsters out of fear long ago, the monsters easily forgive all the humans in the world thanks to your pacifist actions. It also might've helped that some time had passed since the war and all the humans responsible for said war are long gone.
• Warcraft:
  • The Orcs, under demonic influence at the time, threatened to destroy the "human" world of Azeroth, twice. After their defeat, most are rounded up and put in internment camps, where they languish for a generation in withdrawal from the dark energy that gave them greater power, the humans understandably not trying to treat this near-suicidal depression. When a new warchief named Thrall frees his people, he has no grudge against them, having seen both the best and worst of humans, and departs to find a new land. He later finds himself working alongside Jaina Proudmoore, who can't even remember when the orcs were a threat, to unite against a greater threat. Aside from these two however, pretty much everyone, orc and human, does not easily forgive the other side.
  • Played with in The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm. Baine Bloodhoof realizes that Garrosh Hellscream did not intentionally kill his father, but also acknowledges that he was partly responsible for his death by making the mak'gora to the death and not being vigilant enough in allowing his weapon to get poisoned. While his judgment of Garrosh remains unfavorable even in light of the new information, he decides not to challenge Garrosh, though, but work with him for the sake of the Horde.
  • Baine rather infamously combines this with Felony Misdemeanor and Crime of Self-Defense in Tides of War., where he declares the Alliance firebombing Camp Taurajo while the hunters and soldiers were away was justified, because it was a military target. Baine then exiled all tauren who fought back against Alliance military targets, despite the Alliance military sieging the gates of Mulgore and the dwarves in particular having led a genocidal campaign against the tauren in the area.
  • Garrosh's own father, Grom Hellscream, could also be considered an example. In a Dying Moment of Awesome, he kills Mannoroth, ending the Pit Lord's control over the orcs... And in doing so, is instantly forgiven for the rather large part he played in getting the orcs corrupted in the first place. Grom is remembered by Thrall's Horde as being a great hero, rather than an orc whose tragic flaw nearly doomed their race.
  • Happens again with an Alternate Universe Grom in Warlords of Draenor. He leads a genocidal campaign against the Draenei and attempts an invasion of the main universe Azeroth, and this time around he doesn't even have demonic corruption as an excuse. But he made a Heel–Face Turn at the last moment -due to his former allies having betrayed and imprisoned him, not because he felt any remorse for his actions- so everyone decides to let him go. Although, in an Author's Saving Throw for that one, it's revealed in Battle For Azeroth that after the high of victory went away, Yrel and the Draenei as a whole launched a crusade against the orcs, converting them to the Light to atone for what they did, whether they want to or not. It's also revealed that some of the orcs willingly joined and that Grom spend thirty years as The Atoner.
  • Trade Prince Gallywix used the Cataclysm to enslave a majority of the Bilgewater Cartel, losing control of them only due to an unlucky encounter with the Alliance. He then proceeded to steal critical resources from the other survivors, enslaving some of them and allying with pirates to kill those who resisted. When finally defeated by Thrall he was allowed to retain his position as leader of the Cartel when it joined the Horde, position that has stayed uncontested since.
  • Velen immediately forgives Rakeesh for leading a slaughter of his people and killing a Naaru that was believed to be the last hope of defeating the Burning Legion simply because he realized Rakeesh is his long lost son. Even more ridiculously is that partway through the fight against Rakeesh, Velen attacks the player to keep them from killing Rakeesh, ignoring that said demon is currently trying to blow up the Exodar and kill almost the entire Draenei race.
• In Wings of Glory, there are three different occasions in the campaign mode in which the player's character steals a plane for an unauthorized mission, and all three times he never faces any serious repercussions from the squadron commanding officer for doing so.
• Colin in Wintermoor Tactics Club after running off during the meeting with Enfield. He didn't do any real harm, and Ilemauzar was messing with his head, so this is fairly well-justified.
• In The World Ends with You, Neku and Beat don't hold Rhyme's erasure against Kariya and Uzuki at any point. Granted, Kariya and Uzuki did risk their safety by giving them a keypin that is vital to their quest, but the incident in question made Beat quite angry with the Reapers at the time.
• Yakuza 4: This trope actually becomes a plot point, and leads to a rift between Kiryu and Haruka. Kiryu is more than willing to forgive and help Goh Hamazaki after the jailbreak, but Haruka, who watched him stab Kiryu in the ending of the previous game, is far less inclined to let bygones be bygones. The person in question is very understanding of Haruka's position, and does what he can to accommodate her.
• In Yoku's Island Express, After defeating The God Slayer/Kickback, you can find him near the top of the map. He will apologize for all he's done, and you have the option to forgive him. If you do, you regain the ability to use him as a ball-saving item again.

---