Crossovers
- Jet from Ace Combat: The Equestrian War is one of very few griffins that avoids any serious punishment after the war.
- Originally, Colonel Moran was going be this in Children of Time, despite the fact that he commits as many despicable acts as his boss, Professor Moriarty, does. In the end, however, the authors discovered that he really truly crossed the Moral Event Horizon several times over, and there was just no way it would be fair to the characters or to the audience to let him live.
- Played with in the case of the plasmavore, however, who undergoes something of a High-Heel–Face Turn. (She's an alien vampire and first entered the series by going on a killing spree throughout Paris, though out of the necessity of needing to feed on blood to survive, since she can starve to death.)
- In Christian Humber Reloaded, the main character eventually reaches the point at which he's too powerful to bring to justice, so the police stop trying.
- Death Note Equestria has Ace and Colgate discuss this trope at one point: The Kira Neutrality Movement's plan to remove Kira's motivation to kill — by being harsher on criminals — doesn't take into account a way to actually capture Kira, letting her get off scot free with mass murder. Ace finds this an acceptable loss; Colgate disagrees.
- A Different Medius: Azurai never receives any comeuppance for being a mass murderer, aside from Buwaro being displeased when he learns about this.
- The First Saniwa: Minamoto no Yorichika was a bully towards his half-brother Yorimitsu in their child years and a Revisionist collaborator bent on handing his half-brother to the Obviously Evil bad guys in exchange for his clan's honor as an adult, but he's protected by the heroes by virtue of being essential to history's not changing its course and isn't even mentioned to have received any kind of comeuppance.
- The Hasbroverse turns Cobra Commander into one — according to a blog post by the author, when Serpentor had Cobra attack the Decepticons, the Commander panicked, grabbed as many bank books/PIN numbers as he could, hopped on a hydrofoil with a handful of loyal soldiers (who probably count too by extension), and fled Cobra Island. Because of this, he not only escaped the resulting massacre, but now lives like a king in upstate New York.
- Justice League of Equestria:
- Mare of Steel: Silversmith gets off scott free from his involvement with Steel Wing and Brainiac's plans during the story.
- Deathstroke likewise escapes punishment for aiding Silversmith.
- The Many Dates of Danny Fenton: Katie Kaboom never really faces any consequences for both destroying the restaurant she and Danny (originally) were going to eat at or for the emotional stress she put Danny through. The ending could be looked as The Bad Guy Wins.
- Appears several times in Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover.
- Discussed for Samantha Shepard, who killed millions during her Heroic BSoD in Fractured (SovereignGFC). So far absolutely nothing has been done as punishment. If anything, the opposite occurred as vast amounts of resources were poured into rebuilding her!
- Sarah seems to have gotten off pretty light as well—however many she killed has been implied to be far in excess of what Shepard managed. She remains unpunished for two reasons, the first of which revolves around the stakes and the second being, "How do you actually punish a Physical God?"
- Admiral Nimitz does not like that around Pandora, bombarding civilians with nuclear weapons seems to be not only normal but encouraged as a means to punish an errant corporation. For all the talk about how bad this is by Trans-Galactic Republic moral standards, nothing happens to Torgue or the Maliwans.
- Jackie Jakobs captured and tortured Vault Hunters and members of Shepard's squad. Given that she was a bit messed up it makes sense for her characterization at the time, but she still experiences no repercussions even after her Heel–Face Turn.
- Averted for the Illusive Man, whose plans to establish human dominance fall apart in a way that results in his death.
- Downplayed for the Citadel Council, who blatantly sentenced whole sections of the galaxy to death but simply live their lives as unremarkable civilians aboard Ultimatum afterward.
- In The Prayer Warriors, which features Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and the Carter Kane Chronicles, Voldemort, despite being both an enemy to the Prayer Warriors and Hogwarts, is forgotten about after one attempt to blackmail Draco into killing Michael by threatening to kill Ebony. So far, the Prayer Warriors have also succeeded at killing everyone who disagrees with them; while they suffer casualties in the process, their dead quickly return to life, and any defeats they face are typically, at worst for them, mere setbacks.
- In With Pearl and Ruby Glowing, Tyler barely gets into any trouble for how he treated Meilin and feels like he should be punished because he assaulted her first.
- Sasha and the Frogs: Played With. On Earth, Sasha tended to get out of terrible situations scot-free, with Anne left to take the blame. However, in Amphibia, pretty much all of Sasha's actions end up having surprisingly swift consequences for her. It gets to the point that Sprig and Polly decide to name the phenomenon.Sasha: I’m sorry for not backing you up, Sprig. I’ve just been so worried about getting in trouble again.
Sprig: You mean the Sasha-Karma? Oh, totally. I get you.
Sasha: You guys have a name for my bad luck?!
- How to Break a Family: Tommy and Timmy Tibble dared D.W. to go and buy some candy for them, which led to her getting kidnapped. When the adults ask if they'd seen her, they lie, falsely claiming that they hadn't. The lie is never exposed.
- In The Saga of Avatar Korra, Korra herself is a zig-zagged example of a Karma Houdini. In this story, she was kidnapped and raised by the Red Lotus to become a weapon for them. During the end of Book One, she is assigned the task to assassinate Unalaq and his family. While she ultimately decides not to and ends up fighting against the Red Lotus, she inflicted numerous injuries on Unalaq and his family which hospitalized them. She ends up getting horribly scarred by the Red Lotus because of her decision, and she manages to deliver some Laser-Guided Karma to them in return. At the end of Book One and the beginning of Book Two, Tenzin and other officials plan on preventing her from facing legal consequences for her actions due to her mitigating circumstances. Ironically, she is one of the few examples that believes she probably does deserve punishment.
- The Bolt Chronicles: Laser-Guided Karma is the norm in this series, but there are a few exceptions.
- In "The Seven" and "The Cameo," the questionable actions (including dissolute sexual behavior and insensitive treatment of others) of Bolt’s father Blaze do not result in comeuppance.
- Played with in "The Ski Trip." After wreaking havoc at a ski resort (riding up a lift without a ticket, snitching someone's pair of skis, tearing up a trail by skiing erratically, engaging in a snowball fight), Bolt and Mittens and Rhino are banished to their hotel room for the rest of the trip. When they turn on the TV, however, they discover a movie marathon featuring the Marx Brothers, to be followed by one starring The Three Stooges from the Curly era — both favorites of theirs. Rhino's reaction is, "We should be naughty more often!"
- Calvin & Hobbes: The Series: The Anti-Hero Socrates gets away with his complicated pranks almost every time, although sometimes it's subverted.
- Alternate Destination: Zarm is never punished for orchestrating the death of Linka, something which led to Gaia interfering with the time continuum.
- Danganronpa: Academy of Discontent takes this zigzagging all over the place: Fuyuhiko and Peko take Monokuma up on his offer of the First Blood Perk, murdering Tenko and Sakura in hopes of escaping together. However, Monokuma determines that Tenko died first, so only Fuyuhiko is allowed to graduate. While they go unpunished, they aren't happy, as neither one actually got what they wanted, and Fuyuhiko is forced to leave Peko behind to face the anger of the remaining survivors.
- A Gun to Love's Head: Misa and Light. L has Misa proved innocent and helps Light fake his death so he can start over with him. Also Mello's punishment for threatening to murder L and Light is that he gets grounded.
- Auld Lang Syne
basically ends with one depending on the reader’s perspective on Dexter; after receiving a large inheritance from a previously unknown aunt, Dexter decides to move to Argentina with Debra and Harrison, his ‘need’ to kill now replaced by his relationship with Debra, a later flash-forward showing that Dexter and Debra now have a daughter and Dexter makes money writing true crime novels.
- Irreversible Damage: Both Greg and Chirag spend the story causing chaos and mayhem, which in Greg's case includes causing numerous people to drink the dancing potion despite knowing full well that they'll dance until they die of exhaustion, smothering Rowley with a pillow, and causing Manny to have a fatal allergic reaction. Neither gets any consequence for this: the story ends with Greg moving to Boston with his family to get a fresh start in life, being rid of his mother and Manny, and being enrolled in an all-girls' school where he-now-she won't have to deal with boys for a good long while, while Chirag is still invisible, at large, and causing trouble.
- All That Glitters (Othellia): Zig-Zagged throughout the work. Anna initially thinks that Hans has gotten off lightly for his crimes, but vouches for him after the second blizzard, believing he's earned another chance. Elsa still distrusts him. By the end, both sisters firmly believe he deserves more punishment for what he's done, but Anna prevents his execution anyway.
- A Marriage Of Convenience focuses on Hans redeeming himself, while his father and brothers are never called out or confronted for how they treated him.
- Another Day in Bluffington Duology: Roger is a Downplayed example in "The Convert". While Roger does end up staying in jail for the death of Percy Femur, they let him go after a year due to lack of sufficient evidence to convict him.
- Savior of Demons: By the end of the three-part Arcos Special, the Magnificent Bastard Ratsura hasn't gotten the comeuppance he sorely deserves, and nobody suspects him as having a hand in the Saiyans' attack.
- Cul-de-Sac (Ed, Edd 'n Eddy): In the original theory, neither the serial killer who targeted Nazz or Kevin's abusive father are punished for their crimes. Some revisions avert this; the serial killer gets arrested and executed, while Kevin's father goes to prison and is killed by some of his fellow inmates.
- Corrin in Peril involves the Nohrian cast viciously abusing a captive Corrin. Corrin's siblings launch a rescue operation, and while they succeed in freeing Corrin and killing Laslow, Charlotte, Benny(possibly), and Beruka and Camilla's wyverns, the rest of the Nohrians escape, and King Garon isn't even faced in battle.
- A Caged Songbird: Despite starting the entire war, Littlefinger is rewarded for supporting the new regime with a seat on the Small Council and his titles he accumulated before leaving for the Vale are left intact.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Like in the Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) novelization, Alan Jonah reveals that his daughter was abducted on her way home from school and her body was found stuffed in a storm drain days later. Unlike in the novel, Jonah also states here that the perpetrator of the crime was never found and brought to justice.
- Harry Potter and the Acts of Betrayal:
- Molly Weasley conspires with Dumbledore to use love potions to turn Harry and Hermione into love slaves for Ginny and Ron, respectively. While Dumbledore winds up being sent to Azkaban for his crime, the last mention of Molly implies that she goes free.
- Nymphadora Tonks uses her shapeshifting powers to rape Harry in his sleep while wearing Ginny's face. However, this is treated as less reprehensible than Ron raping Hermione with the love potion. The only punishment she receives is being forced to go by her Embarrassing First Name for the rest of her life, with Harry treating this as an adequate punishment.
- The Odds Were Never In My Favour: Provided that you have Dumbledore's favor, it's possible to get away with pretty much anything at Hogwarts, even if you do something that's expulsion-worthy... or even worse. The most you might get is multiple detentions... which naturally leads to repeat offenders. Such as the student who kept trying to murder Alex; in the end, the only thing that stops him is getting his head smashed by an angry troll during his third attempt.
- Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Like in canon, Austria had abused Italy for hundreds of years, both verbally and physically. Italy doesn't resent Austria though. In fact, he had to stop Germany and Japan from enacting revenge on his behalf and had to beg Hungary to not clobber Austria.
- Checkmate (Anla'Shok): Caesar Flickerman is monstrously cruel to many of the tributes who appear on his stage and are being sent to die for their ancestors’’ actions, and also seeks to stop the Rebellion at any cost while approving of murdering the relatives of Rebels. He changes his face with Magic Plastic Surgery, gets a job with the new regime, and is apparently never punished.
- In a fan novelization of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a monster called Reisu helps Ganondorf find an innocent soul for him to make Phantom Ganon with. Not only does he manage to reap the soul of a Kokiri girl, he is never destroyed by Link afterwards, making him the only monster so far that Link doesn't tangle with.
- The Boy Who Cried Idiot: Zigzagged:
- In the original ending, Martin and the parents realise they were wrong and apologise to Lincoln, while Chandler gets punished for his misdeeds, yet the other kids who were mean to Lincoln never get punished, Mrs. Johnson and Principal Huggins never realise they're wrong in blaming Lincoln for something he didn't do, and the sisters are never punished for beating up Lincoln.
- The first alternate ending averts it: the parents still apologise to Lincoln and unground him, and Martin never takes the sisters' things meaning they don't beat him up, so it ends with them having apologised for kicking him out of the house. Also, all the students who laughed at Lincoln apologise and Martin admits that he was the book thrower, leading to all of them being suspended, and Mrs. Johnson apologises for wrongly blaming Lincoln.
- In the second alternate ending, which is just Lynn Sr. grounding Lincoln forever, no one learns their lesson.
- In the third alternate ending, Lincoln beats up everyone who falsely blames him, meaning they've all paid for their crimes... only, he gets away with all the violence.
- In Daycare Scare, the fic's O.C. character, Leo who is the "second Loud brother" and much younger and more prone to crying than Lily, cries due to being in a new environment, in this case being Lily's daycare and thinking that the other Loud siblings expect Lily don't care about him anymore. Lily hugs her brother to clam him down and gives him her pacifier that thankfully sends him to sleep his carseat. But suddenly shortly afterwards, a bully around Lily's age named Billy steals Leo's pacifier and this leads into a fight between Billy and Lily when the latter tries to defend Leo. Billy then blames all of this on Lily to the teacher that results her getting sent to the time out chair for around five minutes, Leo to continue crying and Billy to get completely away with everything he caused. This also causes the main story of the fanfic to happen where Lori stays home to look after Leo and Lily after the former's traumatic experience there.
- In Lincoln is Done, Lola is punished for disobeying her parents but all the other sisters except Luna did too and they're not punished. Lincoln is also not punished for running away and being mean to his sisters and punching Lola.
- While BURN THE WITCH revolves around Lila's Karma Houdini Warranty expiring, her previous status as this plays a key role. Prior to the fic's events, Lila's family moved around so frequently that she never stayed in a place long enough for her various deceptions to catch up to her. By the time people figured out that she was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, she'd already be somewhere new. Due to this, Lila grossly overestimates her abilities, and is completely unprepared when things start unraveling.
- Crumbling Down: In a Downplayed example, Alix doesn't face any consequences onscreen for stealing a fire ax from the Grand Paris hotel, and it's implied that she held onto it for a long time afterwards.
- Feralnette AU: One of the reasons why Marinette Stopped Caring about trying to salvage her social life is that Lila managed to get away with causing her temporary expulsion, with Principal Damocles and Miss Bustier buying her claims of having a "chronic lying disease". This convinced Marinette that there's no point trying to expose her, as it's clear that nobody will bother doing anything about the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing anyway.
- Here sees Alya facing a lawsuit for defamation of character and defamation of the deceased. Much of this stemmed from her providing an unquestioning platform for Lila's claims; the latter specifically from a video blog where they gossiped about Lila babysitting Manon two months after she'd been killed by a reckless driver, venting about her being a Spoiled Brat. Yet Lila successfully throws her under the bus, making herself out as a hapless innocent manipulated by Alya, leaving her to face the brunt of Paris' scorn.
- The Karma of Lies:
- By refusing to help expose her and actively playing along with Lila's deceit, even when he knows that she's conning his classmates out of their possessions, Adrien prevents her from facing any consequences for her actions for so long that he winds up drawing her karmic backlash down upon his head. He proceeds to make matters worse for himself in his efforts to reveal the truth too late, while Lila is ultimately able to make it out of Paris with a nice chunk of change swiped directly from the Agreste emergency fund account.
- That said, the Epilogue plays with this, by having Ladybug offer Lila one final warning that if she doesn't change her ways, she'll ultimately wind up dead at the hands of one of her victims. She also drops hints that she may have used the Rabbit Miraculous to see what kind of fate befell her, something that leaves Lila incredibly unnerved.
- Karma's a Bitch: Zoe ends the fic having successfully stolen Adrien's trust fund, having conned the class out of several valuable items, and having made it back to America with Lila having taken the fall for her. Lila tries to convince Adrien to have Zoe investigated, but Adrien says that even if Lila is telling the truth, he doesn't really care, because one way or the other Lila was complicit, and she's the one he truly has a grudge against.
- Scarlet Lady: While Chloé gets a lot of Laser-Guided Karma throughout the comic, it also targets and deconstructs her status as such in Mme. Bustier's classroom in several ways:
- One of Chloé's biggest Fatal Flaws is how she fails to grasp that her actions have consequences, both short and long-term. This can be directly traced to how Mme. Bustier not only refuses to punish her for anything she does, but pressures her classmates to involve her in activities. Even things outside of school, such as forcing Nino to involve Chloé in an amateur film or making Marinette — Chloé's favorite victim — invite her to a slumber party at her house! Due to this, Chloé genuinely cannot comprehend the concept of her actions causing problems for her, even as she suffers more and more consequences.
- Even when Chloé accidentally admits that she tried to bribe all of her classmates into voting for her right in front of her teacher, Mme. Bustier just gives her a disappointed look while asking if that's really true.
- "Zombizou" throws an even harsher spotlight on the issue when Marinette reaches her Rage Breaking Point and calls Mme. Bustier out on her blatant double standards. The incident serves as a death knell for Bustier's coveted reputation as "the nice teacher", as the rest of the class (sans Chloé) admit afterwards that they were all just as frustrated by her behavior, but nobody wanted to be the only one speaking out against her.
- Truth and Consequences:
- Downplayed by Marinette's circumstances at the end. Despite everything that happened, the other heroes believe that the Earrings are too powerful to take out of play entirely, and her reputation as Ladybug is too important for keeping the peace in Paris, meaning they can't expose the Awful Truth of the deal she made with Hawk Moth. The only thing she loses are her friends.
- Played straight by Nathalie, who not only avoids prison time, but winds up as the CEO of Gabriel, helping Adrien manage the family business and fund his activities as a hero.
- In Perfection Is Overrated, The Advisor/The Avatar, who created the SUEs (each of whom has tried to kill the Himes and reshape the world as they see fit), never answers for his actions, although Natsuki does (unsuccessfully) try to kill him. The Avatar points out that the sense of futility they feel in trying to make him answer for his actions is the same experienced by those who try to go up against a Mary Sue who, unlike the SUEs, is not on a relatively level playing field with the canon cast.
- All For You: All For One attempts to invoke this while negotiating with the heroes, claiming that since he's going into "forced retirement", he shouldn't have to do jailtime, and he still desires full custody of his son. This doesn't work out quite the way he hopes.
- Deconstructed and Played With in King: Katsuki doesn't necessarily want to get away with murdering a man; however, U.A. is deeply invested in ensuring that he doesn't damage their reputation, bringing in an Amoral Attorney to manipulate matters in their favor. Ultimately, the crime gets covered up, but all his classmates are aware that something happened and that U.A. and Aizawa are complicit in hiding the truth.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Aftermath of a Fallen Star: After participating in a plot to assassinate Princess Twilight Sparkle, Amadeus Blueblood is stripped of his title, power and standing in Equestria... but still manages to escape to the far-off kingdom of Unicornia, a place that's implied to share his bigoted beliefs. On the upside, Luna sends the Tantabus after him.
- Besides the Will of Evil: After willingly submitting to Reiziger's control and contributing to the utter annihilation of Equestria, Rarity is purified, apologizes for her actions, and receives a full royal pardon from Princess Celestia. Subverted in that pretty much everyone outside of the royal family and the Mane Six is unhappy about this, wanting to see her punished for her betrayal.
- Cultural Artifacts: The ponies who attempt to rape Big Guy after he becomes an Alicorn face no punishment beyond Celestia's stern disapproval of their actions.
- A Diplomatic Visit: Balanced Meal essentially got away with murder, harassing the griffon chef Gravon until he could come up with a trumped-up excuse to get him arrested and sent to prison, where Gravon died before Celestia could free him. Balanced went on to found a notorious ponies-first hate group, and despite everything, was never properly brought to justice.
- Discord's New Business: Lampshaded by Rarity herself. Nopony's mad at her for kidnapping them while under the influence of Greedgrowth Insanity, since they all got something beneficial out of it, including business opportunities and a chance to relax in a natural hot spring.
- Earth and Sky:
- The Flim-Flam brothers' Sycophantic Servant Otto Bomb, who willingly aided them in all their illegal activities in the story, eventually ditches them after they decide to continue the Pegalthon even after being disqualified and ordered arrested. Despite a run in with the Royal Guard, Otto evades capture and is last seen living comfortably in Mexicolt with a beautiful mare, though he's at least reformed a bit by turning his talent for explosives into a lucrative fireworks business.
- All things considered, Chrysalis turns out okay too, as she sets herself up as a beloved foal actress in Los Pegasus in order to replenish her power.
- Nicely averted with Blueblood. After Chrysalis's impersonation of his wife is foiled, it at first looks like he'll be free of consequences from his role in that and his hateful marriage... for about two minutes, until Fancypants shows up and begins his Humiliation Conga.
- Subverted. The titular character from Evil Belle isn't really hurting anyone (though she thinks she is), but she makes it clear that she does have malicious intents. But other than the humiliation of her plans failing, she hasn't received any consequences.
- In A Gem of a Day, Suli Polomare goes unpunished for stealing Rarity's design... until the sequel, where Rarity teams up with Coco Pommel to expose Suri, get her thrown out of the Seamstress Club, and leave her facing legal consequences for her theft.
- A Great and Powerful Heart: Aside from a threatening speech from Trixie, Sheriff Brass and the residents of Promise got away with abandoning two foals to their death out of cowardice and racism. Later subverted in The Great Alicorn Hunt when Trixie and Jasper expose Brass and his goons in Filli Terram for their crimes, and Celestia orders Promise's to stay under her jurisdiction until it can be reformed.
- In The Nuptialverse, it's established that, unlike canon, Trixie didn't have a Heel Realization after the events of "Magic Duel". Instead, still left half-mad by the Alicorn Amulet, she flees into the Everfree Forest, where she's eluded capture ever since. When she makes her move in Direction, she's finally defeated, captured, and purged of its influence, making her become The Atoner.
- Parting Words Discusses and Deconstructs this at length: Applebloom and Scootaloo angrily reject Applejack's claim that the whole situation with Babs Seed should have taught them that Poor Communication Kills and that they should have told somebody what was going on. Turns out that the Cutie Mark Crusaders don't expect anyone to listen to them because everyone keeps ignoring the problem. Not only do their bullies go unpunished, they keep being told that they shouldn't defend themselves, as "Fighting back makes you just as bad". Celestia, disguised as an innocuous passerby, ends up questioning this, forcing Applejack to gradually realize just how poorly she handled the whole situation.
- Deconstructed in Some Mistakes Are Forever: Sunset hates the fact that she wasn't punished for driving Solomon to suicide, as not only does she want to face justice for her crimes, it also underscores how everyone in Canterlot High forgot about him.
- Zig-zagged in Vinyl and Octavia Duel Destiny. The main villain, Giovanni, is killed at the end, but The Chessmaster gets away with everything they've done, with nopony even realising that they were behind the events of the past two fics.
- Androgyninja's A Drop of Poison: Sasuke's situation at the end of the story plays with this. During the Konoha Crush, Sasuke abandons his duties and defies direct orders in order to pursue the Sand Siblings — a decision fueled by his arrogant overconfidence and desire for personal glory. This gets him called out by both Sakura and Kakashi, with Sakura throwing in a few punches for good measure and Kakashi promising that he will face consequences for this. However, his primary punishments effectively cancel each other out — while he remains a genin and won't be eligible for any promotions for at least a year, that feels like a moot point when he's also joining Jiraiya and Naruto on a training trip. While Sasuke's ego has taken a beating, from an outsider's perspective like Sakura, it seems like he's getting nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
- Destiny is a Hazy Thing:
- Despite nearly getting himself and his team killed through a nasty combination of being dangerously overconfident in his skills as a shinobi and being criminally neglectful, Kakashi isn't punished, much to Anko's frustration.
- Averted with Sasuke after he charges in to fight Itachi, ruining an ambush and getting several other shinobi killed. Not only are the higher-ups in Konoha pissed off at him, the villagers start thinking that he's mentally unstable.
- Played With in A Blight on Bonesborough: While Philip succeeds in escaping to the Human Realm during the Day of Unity, their other plans fail, as he's exposed as a witch hunter, lost most of his supporters in the Boiling Isles, and wasn't able to activate the Draining Spell.
- Rayquaza a.k.a. The Ghost King in Latias' Journey. He starts the story by massacring everyone in Altomare note , because Latias turned down his romantic gestures, and then attempts to murder her crush. He eventually apologizes, not because he murdered so many people, but because he made Latias upset. That said, she not only forgives the Ghost King, but also reciprocates his love by only halfway through the story. The author gives a justification that it was just Kyogre's subconscious suggestions that made Rayquaza do it, but this falls apart since comes at the end of the whole story, meaning Latias had forgiven and romanced him when she believed him to be responsible.
- A Fool Named Fortune: Roy gets away with yelling/swearing at people he shouldn't, even if their slight is an accident. He usually apologizes later to the other character, but still...
- The Key to a Successful Interview: While Kasumi is able to defeat the up-until-then-Invincible Villain that was Shampoo and manages to force her to cool it with the sociopathic tactics and stop trying to get rid of Akane, Shampoo is never arrested for her crime of stealing government property and using said property to cause the worst (In-Universe) school shooting in Japanese history (even if nobody was killed), and she decides to (forcefully) become friends with the rest of the cast, saying that Defeat Means Friendship. Understandably, the rest of the cast remain apprehensive of her.
- In Farce of the Three Kingdoms, the nominal heroes get away with all their misdeeds. Special mention goes to Guan Yu, whom Cao Cao pardons for murdering his employees because he likes him.
- In The Adventure Through Runescape, the Demon Clan escape from prison and pull a Karma Houdini in the last few chapters of the story. The same also applies to the Big Bad's right-hand man, though this is meant to be a Sequel Hook.
- Raise: Despite Blake being a known terrorist who participated in the attack that claimed Weiss' life, she avoids any jailtime since her parents are the leaders of Menagerie. Instead, she gets to attend Beacon, where she becomes a student, much to Jaune's deep displeasure.
- White Sheep: Discussed. Salem has terrorized the human race for thousands of years; while the full extent of her crimes is unknown, at absolute minimum she used her infinite army of monsters to trap people in small bastions of civilization and killed anyone who tried to strike out into the wilds. Until about twenty years before the start of the story, when she fell in love, started a family, and decided there was no need to destroy humanity after all. Once the world as a whole learns of her existence, it's pointed out several times that a lot of people want to see her punished for her crimes—but her children simply will not allow that to happen. And they've still got that infinite army of monsters. Thankfully, the world leaders are pragmatic enough to accept one criminal (even a terrible one) getting off completely unpunished is a small price to pay for the end of a Forever War.
- A Caged Songbird: Despite the role he played in starting the entire war in the first place, Littlefinger backs the right horse, and is rewarded for supporting the new regime with a seat on the Small Council, while all the titles he accumulated before leaving for the Vale are left intact.
- A Game of Vengeance and Justice: Tywin Lannister effectively gets everything he wants by the end of the story, going on to die peacefully of old age in the sequel, fearsome reputation intact and his hand-picked heir succeeding him without any issues.
- Silver is one in Sonic Destruction. At least, according to himself. He never got in trouble for the king and queen of Epirus dying when the meteorite they were inside of crashed, though how he could be responsible for such an occurrence is never stated.
- Pretty much none of the major villains of Sonic X: Dark Chaos are punished for their actions. Maledict pardons the heroes and leaves with his armies in tow, Jesus and the Angels call off their invasion, and Tsali and the Metarex leaders decide to end the conflict and go their separate ways.
- Jimmy's Visit With Dr. Franklin: Ebon never got any sort of punishment for what he put Jimmy though.
- After starting a multi-dimensional war and nearly enslaving the universe in the second arc of Hellsister Trilogy, Darkseid fakes his death and escapes to build his strength up back again and put in motion his next scheme, unbothered by his enemies.
- In Kara of Rokyn, Nasthalthia Luthor aids and abets her uncle Lex Luthor’s final scheme which nearly kills who-knows-how-many persons, and then she gets away scot free.
- Why The Rainbows Make Me Cry manages to not only deconstruct this trope, but even subverts it a little with The Scout. He doesn't feel so great about it though.
- Jewel of Darkness: Unlike canon, Mad Mod isn't captured by the Titans when they escape his "school", instead escaping and promising to return.
- Subverted in Cruel to Be Kind. Diesel appears to get off scot-free for his cruel taunts that led to Emily attacking him and severely damaging him, until the Fat Controller reveals that Diesel isn't going to be punished because Emily has already punished him far worse than the Fat Controller ever could.
- Tales of the Undiscovered Swords: Granted, Himetsuru is sent on an Uriah Gambit as the death sentence for his Royal Brat behavior, but not only does he survive it in a moment of badassery, he also reveals himself to be a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk in the process and doesn't get any comeuppance for that. He's still a dickhead with princess complex at the end of the story.
- Better Bones AU: Clear Sky never atones for his actions in this AU, but is still let into the "good afterlife" StarClan as a respected Clan founder.
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun
- An Apple For The Teacher: While Sullivan curses all of the human teachers and employers that mistreated Iruma, Iruma's Abusive Parents are spared from the same fate, remaining unpunished for their crimes.
- Atonement: Zig-Zagged by the villains Tether converts. Examples:
- Purity/Kayden and Rune/Cassie both get off pretty lightly, considering they're formerly members of a Nazi organization, but Kayden did help the Protectorate stop Coil, and Cassie is still just a teenager.
- Riley deconstructs this trope. Many people want her to reform for her actions as Bonesaw, despite all the good she's been doing after her Heel–Face Turn, and she suffers from a lot of angst over it. Most of the criticism goes away after she helps Madison kill Jack Slash, but it never fades entirely.
- Emma never actually faces any punishment for accidentally killing Taylor- Madison at least gets a good deal of community service as punishment. She feels utterly worthless for what she's done (and still suffers from crippling self-esteem issues as a result even many story arcs later) but never actually gets any corporeal punishment.
- Young Justice: Darkness Falls, The Light's leadership is not brought down by the end of this story. Black Manta even manages to escape imprisonment.
- A few from the Shadowchasers Series stories:
- At the end of Shadowchasers: Torment, most of the villains are arrested or killed. However, the Three, the true rulers of the Cult of Tharizdun who orchestrated the whole plot, remain at large, and at the time of writing, have yet to appear again in the franchise.
- It's assumed that most villains in Shadowchasers: Ascension are horribly punished by Mephistopheles for disobeying orders, and a few are killed before the climax; however, Ibza not only gets away with everything he contributes to, he receives a promotion for remaining loyal and betraying his master's treachery. The heroes express how much the distorted politics of Hell sicken them.
