Basic Trope: Person A does something bad. People from group B forgive them with no repercussions.
- Straight: Bob destroys an important book. Alice is a good Samaritan and forgives Bob, not seeing him as a bad person.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob assassinates the President of the United States on live television. Alice buys him ice cream.
- Bob was an Evil Overlord who tried to take over the world and caused the deaths of numerous people, including Alice's friends and family. After he apologises, however, Alice forgives him immediately and they become friends.
- Bob strips Alice naked, takes photos and videos of her, uploads them online and handcuffs her to a pole in the middle of the city so everyone can laugh and photograph her and makes her his Sex Slave, resulting her in her losing her job and family. She forgives him and serves him happily.
- Downplayed:
- Alice is still quite resentful towards Bob after the bad things he has done, but grudgingly decides to give him the benefit of the doubt. At least for now.
- Alice forgives Bob completely without any reservations... but all Bob did was Poke the Poodle.
- Justified:
- Alice is an All-Loving Hero.
- Alice is just very naive.
- Bob is a chronic Jerkass to his colleagues, but Alice, his boss, looks the other way because Bob has a crucial skill set nobody else in the firm has.
- Alice does not want to risk Bob switching sides entirely.
- Alice doesn't want to risk another fight, so of course forgiving him was the best option.
- Alice forgave Bob simply because she wanted to forgive him. Forgiveness after all is completely personal, not a law, and whatever Bob did wasn't enough to shake that personal desire.
- Bob and Alice are in imminent mortal danger which forces them to work together to survive. Alice might not want to forgive Bob, but she cannot afford to let personal feelings get in the way.
- Alice was a Butt-Monkey who went through a Humiliation Conga prior to Bob destroying the book. After everything she went through, she's willing to let Bob's deed slide because it's the least of her concerns.
- Bob is too young to understand his actions.
- Alice is a Kindhearted Simpleton and/or Wide-Eyed Idealist who doesn't know anything about the concept of revenge, so kindness is the only thing that she can give to everyone.
- Bob points out how and why Alice or her companions could easily destroy him if he steps too badly out of line again, right after reminding them of just how useful he can be. Furthermore, he admits that he's asking for what he did to be forgiven, not forgotten. Alice pragmatically accepts that deal.
- Inverted:
- Redemption Equals Death
- Rejected Apology, Reformed, but Rejected, Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves
- Easily Condemned
- Bob didn't even meant to destroy Alice's important book, But she's filled with rage and declares that she'll never forgive him.
- Alice makes it clear from the beginning that she isn't a forgiving person, as Bob learns the hard way.
- Subverted: Alice says she's forgiven Bob, but she actually hasn't and still holds a grudge against him even if she's trying to move on.
- Double Subverted: Alice initially avoids Bob due to lingering resentment, but then becomes comfortable around him.
- Parodied:
- Bob, Joe, and Alice get together for lunch. Bob flips the table (intentionally) and then immediately asks forgiveness, which is given.
- Bob is committing new atrocities every day, but each time he gets forgiven by everyone.
- Bob blows up the planet, but Alice still forgives him.
- Zig Zagged: Alice has Blue-and-Orange Morality; destroying the important book is easily fixed in her eyes. But then Bob steps on a butterfly and Alice tries to kill him. When the fight comes to a draw, they both forgive each other and are best friends again.
- Averted: Alice doesn't let Bob off so easily. Bob has to spend the rest of the episode (or even more than one episode) trying to make amends with her.
- Enforced:
- Alice can't just dump Bob in The Bob & Alice Show!
- The show is about how revenge is bad, and that redemption is the only thing stopping people from enacting Then Let Me Be Evil.
- The show had always been on the Idealistic end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism, and this trope is needed to keep the show thematically consistent.
- Lampshaded:
- "Wait, why are you forgiving me so easily? Don't you know how important that book was?"
- "You're forgiving Bob for burning that book that easily!? You can't be that naive!"
- Defied:
- "There's no way i'm forgiving you that easily! If you want my forgiveness, you must EARN IT!"
- Regardless of whether Alice forgives him, Bob turns her down anyway. Either from thinking he doesn't deserve it or not caring about it at all.
- Alice is about to forgive Bob but is stopped by Charlie who tells her that if she forgives him he will do it again.
- Invoked: Bob deliberately made himself indispensable to get others to overlook his more unsavory aspects
- Exploited:
- Bob knows how forgiving Alice is, so he uses this to get away with a number of schemes.
- The villains repeatedly use Bob as an unwilling pawn because they know that his teammates can't stay mad at him.
- Bob uses this to his advantage by crying Crocodile Tears, then stabbing everyone in the back once he's forgiven.
- Discussed: "Alice is awfully forgiving to Bob even after the atrocities he did."
- Conversed: "Ugh! The writer must have a low moral sense in having Bob being forgiven for all of his crap."
- Deconstructed:
- Through a first-person narrative we find that Alice was not forgiven for an offense, thus leading her to forgive others.
- Bob notices how easily Alice forgives people, so he comes up with a Freudian Excuse and makes a speech about how tragic his life is. It makes Alice let her guard down, thus allowing Bob to successfully betray her.
- Alice's teammates call her out on how easy she forgives Bob. Stating that she's being a naive Wide-Eyed Idealist, and warn her that Bob would take advantage of her forgiveness and kill her.
- The above gets to a point where Shane promptly leaves Alice's group before.
- Bob, despite getting forgiveness, and being told by Alice he was put in a difficult position, still feels guilty about what he did and moans about not deserving it.
- Bob is completely unrepentant and shoves the forgiveness back in Alice's face, telling her he will still continue his evil acts, therefore making Alice's forgiveness entirely meaningless.
- Charlie feels that Alice let Bob off way too easily and attempts to take matters into his own hands.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice understands the weirdness of how easily she forgives people, but still will not let up because of her principles.
- Alice was aware of the betrayal and counters it, pointing out how miserable Bob really is by making another speech with his real Freudian Excuse. Bob is shocked by Alice being the only one who understands him, even to the point of becoming The Atoner.
- Alice is aware of it and explains to her teammates on why she's so easily forgiving to other people, stating that she was once bad once. Until a priest forgave her of his misdeeds and told her to Go and Sin No More. Moved by the priest's actions, Alice had a Heel–Face Turn. This moves her teammates.
- Played For Drama:
- Alice's excessive willingness to forgive is her Fatal Flaw.
- Alice undergoes a Face–Heel Turn and forgives Bob's actions as they are no longer happening to her specifically.
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