Easily Forgiven

""I trust you implicitly, thieving child.""

- Joey, Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series

They betrayed you, they tried to kill you, in some cases they really did kill you. But within the space of an episode or two, you find it in your heart to forgive them. As long as they're a fellow series regular.

Usually an instance of Plug N Play Friends. If the unmasked traitor was an active party member or contributing part of the team, and remains an active party member or contributing part of the team, it's Welcome Back, Traitor.

If some sort of Hand Wave is given for this, then it's a case of "Get Out of Jail Free" Card. Such easy forgiveness may be given after an insincere The Grovel. The kinds of people most likely to easily forgive are The Messiah, the Friend to All Living Things and those who prefer to Turn the Other Cheek, although more cynical characters may take a Restrained Revenge. If no such excuse exists or "apology accepted" speech occurs, then it's a Karma Houdini. Compare Welcome Back, Traitor and Any Torment You Can Walk Away From. Contrast Reformed but Rejected, where the bad guy does want to be forgiven and works for it, but doesn't get accepted. See also Protagonist-Centered Morality.

Anime and Manga

 * Duke Devlin on Yu-Gi-Oh!.
 * Seto Kaiba repeatedly tried to kill the protagonists in the early manga, including Tristan's year old nephew who just happened to be with them at the time. One of the ways was locking them in a house with a child mass murderer. They do hold a bit of a grudge for a while, but still forgive him far too quickly.
 * Same goes for his little brother Mokuba.
 * Because it happened before the second anime begins, it seems nobody even remembers Mokuba is an attempted murderer and serial cheater (which, in the Yu-Gi-Oh world, is practically worse.) He's just Seto's Morality Pet.
 * Kaiba does get a bit of a pass on the strength of the fact that during their second fight Yugi destroyed his heart (as in "Mind crush!") and left him to rebuild it properly without all the deformity that resulted from years of abuse, so in theory he's morally a different person whose previous misdeeds are irrelevant. Since he's still a Jerkass who's completely willing to kill people if they're party to an attempt to kill him first, this policy may need reexamining, but it's based on sound magical theory.
 * Both Kaiba brother's Easy Forgiveness rests on a foundation of Mokuba's Easily Forgiving Seto for emotionally mistreating him and, shortly before Mind Crush II, torturing him with the Mind Crush I simulator he'd built to use on Yugi after beating him. Yugi&Yugi take pity on them both for their evil adoptive father and screwed-up relationship that used to be all Big Brother Instinct, and fix Seto. Violently. From then on, Yugi is focused on continuing to fix Seto during most of their interactions.
 * Pegasus and Marik, in a case of Defeat Means Friendship.
 * Marik at least had the excuse that he believed the Pharaoh was responsible for killing his father and enslaving his family, and once he realises his error (and sees his Super-Powered Evil Side) he helps Yugi win his duel against said Evil Side and resolves to atone for his actions.
 * Dartz a Filler Villain,, a businessman corrupt corporate and leader of his destroy-the-world-because-humanity-ruined-it cult. His goal involves taking the souls of millions of souls of both humans and Duel Monster, literally killing off two worlds, he treats his henchmen poorly and will throw them away if they're useless, when he's not taking advantage of their Dark and Troubled Past. But it gets worse   He's more a Complete Monster than the rest of the antagonists,, yet he is just let off the hook and ascend to heaven.
 * Shizuru in My-HiME is Easily Forgiven by by Natsuki (a good number of the series' fans too) for the things she did as a Psycho Lesbian. Haruka and Yukino weren't quite as easily convinced, though.
 * Same thing with Mikoto, who was directly responsible for killing two of Mai's Most Important People. Mai, however, realizes she was Brainwashed the whole time, and decides not to hold it against Mikoto.
 * Given how much of a clusterfuck the Carnival was, though, it's fairly justified.
 * In a special added to the Blu-Ray release "The Black Dance/The Last Supper", Mai tricks into coming to the beach and burying himself in the sand, and she and the other Hi Me take turns force-feeding him extremely spicy food in revenge for what his alter-ego, the Obsidian Lord, did. Natsuki invites Nao and Yukino to join in, but when they decline, she fears that they're planning on doing the same to.
 * While the theme of forgiveness vs. revenge is developed in an interesting and moving way in Gankutsuou, it is difficult to believe that Albert would actually forgive the Count so easily for Sure enough, Albert gets to understand that Edmond Dantes is truly  - and the fact that he's just witnessed  probably helps- but psychological realism really goes overboard when he decides to . Why doesn't Albert suffer from massive post-traumatic stress disorder every time the Count shows up towards the end of the series anyway!?
 * It makes the point that even after losing everything, not everyone will go mad and become a heartless bastard like the Count did, which makes Albert a foil for the Count.
 * Futhermore,
 * In Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Jean constantly forgives Nadia for her (misdirected) outbursts of anger at him without hesitation. (She eventually changes her ways as a result.)
 * Nina Wang from Mai-Otome. Sure, she was perfectly complacent with, but somehow Arika still manages to forgive her, saying that she never wanted the two of them to fight in the first place . We know Arika has the patience of a saint, but still...that's an awful lot of blood Nina's going to have to wash off her Robe.
 * To be fair, it was only Arika and a few others who forgave her. For the rest of her victims, it wasn't so easy,
 * Arika also has no reservations about fighting alongside the Aswad, who attacked her during the survival exam and.
 * Kouga in Inuyasha. He started out by slaughtering Rin's entire village, and to top it off, kidnaps Kagome, falls for her, and tries to force her to be his bride. He falls into The Rival role, and the only person who distrusts him even slightly (aside from Rin, who rarely confronts him) is Inuyasha, and that's treated like a schoolyard dispute.
 * Subverted in One Piece. After a series of events that lead to Usopp leaving the crew and challenging Luffy for the ownership of their broken ship, the Going Merry, Usopp is planning to come back and act casual about it. Luffy learns about this and rushes off to find him, but he's stopped by Zoro. Zoro tells Luffy and the rest of the crew that they shouldn't easily forgive Usopp, because they can't trust someone who left the crew so easily, nor can the captain let himself be walked over. If he comes back on his knees, fine; but letting him back in full of pride is unacceptable. Later, the crew begins to depart without Usopp in order to escape from some marines. Usopp runs to the shore and begins shouting out his rehearsed excuses, but most of the Straw Hats ignore him. As the ship gets further away, Usopp panics and finally blurts out an apology, and begs to be let back in. Satisfied, Luffy uses his rubber powers to bring him aboard the ship.
 * Subverted again during the Impel Down arc when Luffy comes across Crocodile. Crocodile offers to help in exchange for being let out of his cell, but Luffy turns him down cold because of all the things he did in Alabasta.
 * Played straighter with Bon Clay (a.k.a. Mr. 2) at the end of the Alabasta arc. Affable as he was, Mr. 2 DID directly take part in framing the king to incite the rebels to full-blown warfare, but after an Heroic Sacrifice to distract the Marines away from the escaping Straw Hats, he's been considered a friend of the crew ever since. He only briefly complains about Mr. 2 being with Baroque Works when Mr. 2 contacts him again.
 * Luffy is also relatively friendly toward Buggy and Mr. 3, despite the former trying to kill him (almost succeeding in Loguetown) and Nami and the latter almost turning Vivi, Nami and Zoro into wax figures.
 * Played straight with Boa Hancock. Despite the fact that she turned several of her people to stone just for speaking up on Luffy's behalf and her sisters tried to smash those people just to hurt Luffy, after he defeats her sisters and she agrees to restore her petrified victims Luffy seems to forgive her within seconds.
 * Also played with in regards to Nami and Jinbe after Jinbe apologizes for indirectly allowing Arlong to terrorize her hometown. Jinbe was even willing to accept any punishment as necessary but Nami explains that Arlong was the one who she will not easily forgive and she harbours no hate towards Jinbe or any other fishmen.
 * Rokudo Mukuro from Katekyo Hitman Reborn. He manipulated Lancia into killing all of his friends, beat up Tsuna's friends and used them as hostages, beat Tsuna up quite a bit during their fight, revealed his plan was to possess Tsuna's body so he could destroy the Mafia and turn the world into a sea of blood, and generally fought dirty. He is shown to be entirely unapologetic about the whole thing the next time he meets Tsuna, even stating that he plans to take over Tsuna at the next opportunity. However, when he  and showed Tsuna the vision of his body in prison, Tsuna quickly develops sympathy for him, and it becomes obvious that Tsuna has already forgiven him for the whole ordeal (much to Reborn's chagrin). Tsuna even goes so far as to excuse his unapologetic proclamation as him just being stubborn and shy.
 * Andrei Smirnov in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 counts very much here. He . But in the latest episode, thanks to a certain Deus Ex Machina device... he is forgiven. Thankfully, said Deus Ex Machina comes with him finally realising how much of an ass he was and getting rid of what makes him annoying, thus somewhat rescuing him from the Scrappy Heap. It could be a subversion, since
 * Mars has two Egregious instances. In a Cliff Hanger, Harumi escalates her bullying of Kira to an unthinkable level by threatening to smash Kira's fingers with a small barbell. She doesn't follow through, but it's jarring when Harumi become's Kira's closest and most supportive female friend not two volumes later. An even worse instance is when Kira's mother, stricken by Soap Opera Disease, takes back the stepfather who . Kira's mother may forgive, but Kira certainly doesn't.
 * Umineko no Naku Koro ni has Beatrice, the main antagonist of the series.
 * The Twelve Kingdoms: and . Not only do murder and assault go completely unpunished, but the two are quickly returned to their normal lives despite both showing a serious lack of morality.
 * In Gundam Seed Destiny, even though lots of fans hate the Clyne Faction, Lacus and Kira are certainly forgiving and hold no grudges.  This makes sense though since "Grudges are pointless and only prolong hatred" was a big lesson everybody learned in Seed and thankfully wasn't lost to Aesop Amnesia. On the other hand, Shinn held grudges for the whole series, and Durandal tried to eliminate anyone who stood in his way. Certainly makes you wonder just who the nicer guys were.
 * A little over midway through the series, Shinn receives ridiculously easy forgiveness. Shinn learns that the captive Stella's condition is rapidly deteriorating to the point where the Minerva's doctor is already making plans for her autopsy. Shinn then takes it upon himself to save her, assaulting several crewmates, stealing the Impulse Gundam, and making unauthorized contact with the enemy in the process (nevermind that he's returning her to the same people responsible for her condition in the first place and expecting them to take better care of her). Upon returning to the Minerva, Shinn is put in the brig and Capt. Gladys notes that he would be executed under normal circumstances. But then, not only does he receive a full pardon (courtesy of Chairman Durandal), but after his next few major battles, Shinn is rewarded with another Order of the Nebula medal and membership in FAITH (essentially autonomous special forces). An arrogant punk who should have been executed for treason is now one of ZAFT's most decorated war heroes.
 * That's close to a subversion though: Durandal's forgiving Shinn in order to cement his loyalty and allow  to more easily control him in the future. It works beautifully too: Shinn spends the rest of the series thinking that Durandal is a wonderful person and leader who can do no wrong and that , thus cementing both his loyalty and obsessive need for their approval. Brilliantly played, Durandal.
 * There's also the fact that Durandal has to maintain a Good Publicity, and ZAFT was wrong anyway: they can't give a war prisoner the health care she needs, so they decide to use her as a rat lab instead. And Durandal is a Pragmatic Villainy: despite his treason, Shinn is too precious anyway.
 * Lunamaria Hawke not only forgives Shinn, but ends up his lover.
 * Neo Roanoke is welcomed into the Archangel's crew with open arms and never confronted over the things he did while working for Djibril, including putting Stella in the cockpit of the Destroy Gundam after promising Shinn to keep her away from combat. This one is justified on several levels: no one on the Archangel is aware of the more heinous details of Neo's actions, and more importantly, he, so especially once he chooses to come back to them of his own accord they're automatically predisposed to trust him.
 * Vegeta. As the series progresses he goes from a mass-murdering psychopath to a member of the main cast. The main characters (with the possible exception of Tien) conveniently forget all the people he and Nappa killed during their invasion of Earth, as well as everything he does during the Namek Saga, all the while being motivated by his own self-interests.
 * Most of the main characters didn't want to forgive him, it's just that Goku decided to, and they won't argue with him. Goku is pretty much the king of this trope though.
 * One could argue that after being killed by Frieza, and then being revived shortly afterwards gave him a kind of "clean slate".
 * Vegeta isn't really forgiven until much later. During the Freeza Saga they didn't forgive him they simply had an Enemy Mine situation. They don't seem overly happy to see that Vegeta has acheived Super Saiyan status in the Cell Saga either. The only way he qualifies as rediculously easily forgiven is if we throw that label on Piccolo, Android 18, and Majin Buu. Except Piccolo all of them were treated as actual friends not just people who were tolerated by their second appearance.
 * Eh, your mileage may vary there. Android 18 (the version the Z Fighters meet, not Trunk's alternate universe version) does nothing bad but steal a car and beat the Z Fighters up in self-defence. Piccolo, the one who's not forgiven, actually has an excuse for the evil due to the fact he is an entierly different person - other than physical apperance - to King Piccolo, and the worst thing he personally did was try to kill Goku in a fight, something Goku doesn't see as any different than a handshake. Buu has no excuse though, so played strait there.
 * Buu does have an excuse in that he was basically a child who was specifically designed to kill more things than possible. When given the proper moral guiding, Buu just accepts that killing is wrong and promises not to do it anymore.
 * Subverted in Fullmetal Alchemist. Winry didn't forgive for killing her parents.  One strong theme in this manga is how to deal with sins, forgiveness, and cycle of hatred.
 * Also subverted with the Ishbalan people after nearly getting wiped out in a genocide. Scar's master says that they should not forgive the Amestrians, because good people should be outraged at injustice, but they do need to endure it and not continue the cycle of hatred. The result is a rare middle ground between forgiveness and vengeance.
 * Subverted again when Izumi forgives Edward and Alphonse for disobeying her repeated warnings to not attempt human transmutation ... but still expels them as her students. They now consider each other peers rather than master and student, though.
 * In the anime, the two are forced to repeat the month-long island training, although they have a much easier time.
 * Hilariously played straight with Paninya in Rush Valley. Paninya stole Edward's silver watch, the proof that he's a state alchemist, which sparked off a chase sequence that caused a lot of damage. When they capture her, a furious Edward wants to have her arrested, while Winry berates him for being so horrible for not forgiving a 'minor' slight ... mostly because she wants Paninya to introduce her to the man who made her incredibly well-designed automail legs. (Edward does forgive her after a punch or two).
 * She does, however, give Paninya a What the Hell, Hero? speech after hearing that she steals to repay the man who made her legs, telling her that he wouldn't want it.
 * Sailor Moon in the anime forgives Ali and En, the Akayashi Sisters, the Black Moon brothers, Professor Tomoe, the Amazon Trio, the Amazon Quartet, Nehelenia, and Galaxia. Although it's not shown that any of these people (save Galaxia) killed anyone, they all were trying to kill the senshi and destroy the world. In most of these examples, the characters in question were being either heavily manipulated by the Bigger Bad, literally fighting for their own survival the only way they knew (Ali and En) or in Tomoe and Galaxia's case, possessed and not in control of their own actions. Nehellenia is the only one that comes off as really questionable, as she was really motivated by her own vanity in SuperS and in Stars, by envy and revenge. She gets a second chance anyway.
 * In the manga it's only the Shitennou, the Quartet, and Galaxia. Of course, they were brainwashed by higher-up villains (Queen Metallia, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90, Queen Nehelenia and Chaos)... who were not forgiven. Several of the characters that were forgiven in the anime were also significantly less sympathetic in the manga, where they were pretty much psychotic murderers.
 * Actually Galaxia was a victim of Demonic Possession in the anime, but just manipulated and psychotic into manga. Considering that she killed most of the cast and reanimates them as Brainwashed and Crazy puppets just to screw with Sailor Moon immediately before, this trope was played very straight there, although as a deliberate illustration of Usagi's desire to stop the recurring cycle of war and killing.
 * In Magic Knight Rayearth, when Ascot turns to the good side he is instantly forgiven for earlier and in turn instantly forgives the Magic Knights for.
 * Bleach After their first encounter Ishida doesn't seem to have that many problems with Mayuri for killing off the last of his people and torturing their souls.
 * No, he did have a problem with it, however in that arc he was far more concerned with the rescue of Orihime than to worry about his vendetta against the Mad Scientist.
 * Of all people, Goldie Musou, the main antagonist of Gunsmith Cats, gets Easily Forgiven by the protagonists after temporarily losing her memory, and
 * Subverted on both Manga and Anime of Elfen Lied
 * Naruto had the Sand Village ninjas (particularly Gaara and company) start off as murderers conspiring with the current Big Bad to try and overthrow and destroy the Hidden Leaf Village. The plan fails, but in no small part thanks to the Sand Village's assistance and at least tacit approval. Later on, the Sand Village as a whole, and Gaara, Temari and Kankuro specifically, are close allies with the Hidden Leaf Village and friends of the protagonists, mostly just because Orochimaru became a common enemy when he killed the Kazekage.
 * More than that, it was revealed the Kazekage had been killed before the war even began. It's a bit easier to give a large group of what amounts to soldiers the benefit of the doubt if their hierarchy is completely compromised.
 * And they were already allies at the time the war began—the Kazekage technically did agree to betray them, but never got the chance to go through with it because Orochimaru killed him, and since he's dead now the villages are just going to go back to military alliance footing. Plus, new Kazekage? He's really fond of the village that produced Naruto.
 * It's implied that Konoha, weakened after the conflict and shorthanded, decided not to hold the Sand Village responsible in order to get a chance to recover.
 * Naruto's willing to
 * Sasuke appears to have spent the last couple of years of realtime seeing how far over the Moral Event Horizon he can go before everyone drops him like a hot rock.
 * Naruto is willing to forgive the village at large for treating him as an outcast, largely because of a few people (including Iruka and his classmates) who considered him a nuisance at first but didn't shun him outright and because he believes that more than anything, he must believe in himself. He does once become irritated at how easily the villagers turn from hating him to worshipping him, but as a flashback montage in the Pain invasion shows, the process was more gradual than he thought.
 * In a way, the Ninetails sort of counts. While he was
 * Yuno Gasai of Mirai Nikki Two chapters later, all is forgiven between the two. To her credit, she has become much tamer since that incident.
 * The finale of Infinite Ryvius shows EVERYONE from the ship being invited back to crew it, all on excellent terms after apparently having escaped both legal consequences and personal grievances for their widely publicized behavior in earlier episodes. For the record, they include gangs, rebels, dictators, torturers, rapists, murderers, and utter lunatics (one of whom led her own secret death cult!) Oh, and kids from the ship aside, there's also.
 * Most of the villains in Fairy Tail. Tried to exterminate an entire village just for daring to oppose your plan to revive an ancient demon that ravaged the Earth? That's all right, just a misunderstanding. Tried to revive an even greater evil to turn the world upside down, enslaving and killing countless innocents to do so? Fine so long as you lost your memory of the deed and helped the heroes out against a smaller threat. Betrayed your Guild, turned your former comrades against each other and then tried to kill them all along with the town they resided in? You didn't really mean it even though you tried and almost succeeded, so don't worry. Unfortunately you'll have to leave the Guild, but we'll be your friends forever!
 * Red easily forgives his former enemies in Pokémon Special, though admittedly, most situations fall into the Enemy Mine category. See that guy who tried to electrocute you to death (twice)? Say "Yo, what's up!" See the lady who stole your Eevee and tortured it? Take a bath with her! See the alien Pokemon that nearly killed you and your Pokemon? Oh, it was all a misunderstanding and I'm technically your ancestor! No prob!
 * Done in Project ARMS with pretty much all of Ryo's allies, since virtually all of them met via being sent by the Egrigori to kill him (or were trying to kill him to rebel against the Egrigori...or just trying to kill him). Hayato even comments on it after a group of Egrigori mutants kidnap them and try to kill them, only to be perfectly friendly after the battle is over. One of the mutants points out that all of them are on the Egrigori's hit-list, so they'd best put aside differences if they want to survive. It helps that most of those easily forgiven were also tricked, or horribly brainwashed since childhood and quite happy to give up their dangerous lives.
 * Rurouni Kenshin: The Juppon Katana are a band of deadly killers who followed Shishio in his attempt to overthrow the government and rule in a very Social Darwinist manner. And then, after they are defeated, they all get very generous deals from the government with the explanation that they have talents that are very useful. Admittedly, Henya and Soujiro (who was never captured) were able do things that probably no one else on earth could, but the rest aren't unique. Cho was a good sword fighter, Kamatari and Fuji are both somewhat sympathetic, but nothing they could give the government as spies (or, in Fuji's case, a defending soldier) is so incredible that it outweighs what they've done all the capital crimes they've committed.
 * It is averted with Anji, who despite being probably the most sympathetic of the lot got sentenced to life imprisonment. Also, for some of the group, this is more an example of the authorities extending a literal "Get Out of Jail Free" Card than it is an example of the protagonists readily forgiving villains. It's worth noting that while Shishio was a nut, the series gives some credence to his accusation that the government was totally cynical and amoral, and the pardons could be considered supporting evidence.
 * Any protagonist in Eureka Seven who meets Anti-Villain Dominic quickly sees him as a really nice guy even when knowing his ties to the world's corrupt military. Upon first meeting him in a particular scene in Episode 45, the Gekkostate crew are at first wary of him joining forces with them against a common enemy, but decide to trust him implicitly when he states his reasons for doing so are to protect the girl he loves, which immediately makes him openly comparable to main protagonist Renton.
 * In Code Geass Villetta is easily forgiven by Ohgi for shooting and incapacitating him during the Black Rebellion. And, of course, the whole racist Britannian agent thing.
 * Ohgi himself is easily forgiven for betraying Lelouch and siding with Schniezel by various people who were on Lelouch's side. They even actually attend his and Villetta's wedding!
 * In Revolutionary Girl Utena
 * When  abruptly kissed Kanami in The Second Raid, she was rather offended. She was willing forgive him if he let her new Guardian Entity from Mithril live. However, there could be a hint of subversion, considering that after   left, she.
 * By the third season, Shibuya Yuuri, the young king in Kyou Kara Maou, has a policy of unconditional forgiveness, much to the consternation of his fiancé and advisers. To the point that  only has to apologise to be forgiven for manipulating Yuuri into become a weapon of mass destruction and killing hundreds of people.
 * In the last episodes of Black Cat, surviving members of Chronos and the Apostles team up in spite of spending most of the series trying to kill each other. They are joined by several Sweepers (bounty hunters) who had been manipulated by or defected from Chronos and had just been battling against the apostles. For that matter, some members of the Apostles had previously defected from that group or tried to kill other members of that group. Even the orphan children had been abandoned by their one member to gain power. Yet all these people work togther in the final battle.
 * An unintentional example in the Warrior Cats Expanded Universe manga Ravenpaw's Path. During Shattered Peace, Ravenpaw and Barley are chased off the farm they live on by the farmer because he is tricked into thinking they killed his chickens. The farmer says that if he sees them again, he'll shoot them. However, when they come back and defeat the rogues who took over their home in The Heart of a Warrior, the farmer doesn't care, despite still thinking they killed his chickens.
 * The second princess of England in A Certain Magical Index is easily forgiven despite committing.
 * The second princess of England in A Certain Magical Index is easily forgiven despite committing.

Comic Books

 * When Hal Jordan came back from the dead he was not Easily Forgiven. In this case it makes no sense as he was possessed by a cosmic being that they all know is completely real.
 * The problem was while the Earth heroes more or less forgave Hal (even Batman), the Green Lantern Corps which Hal decimated was much less so. Especially when a sizable group of them were left for dead in space by Hal and were captured by Manhunters for years. It's more of a "Why didn't you do better trying to stop that cosmic being, Mr. Willpower?" than anything.
 * Similarly, the Marvel heroes have never really forgiven Spider-Woman for being imitated by the Skrull Empress.
 * Speaking of Spider-Woman, another odd example is the Night Shift, a gang of criminals led by the Shroud (a hero who pretends to be a villain) in Los Angeles, most of them Jessica's former enemies. There are no less than two reasons for several of them to hate each other: Dansen Macabre once tried to murder the Shroud, while Tik-Tok worked for the vigilante Locksmith, who had once held Macabre and Gypsy Moth prisoner. Oddly enough all this never comes up in stories featuring the Night Shift, and Macabre is even Shroud's Number One.
 * Now that the Brightest Day has brought back Hawk, nobody at all seems inclined to mention the deaths he caused as Monarch and Extant—not even Atom Smasher, who arranged his death.
 * Moonstone is still a regular Thunderbolts member despite (amongst other things) murdering random civilians to distract Ms. Marvel in the middle of a fight. Admittedly the purpose of the team is to give supervillians a chance at redemption, but at what point do you give up on trying to redeem an unrepentant serial killer?
 * Moonstone is more tolerated than forgiven; most of her shenanigans didn't actually interfere with an official mission after all. Songbird, for one, would happily drop kick her over the horizon if given half an excuse.
 * A common problem in Jack Chick tracts, especially when applied to abusive parents or spouses. This is especially bad in "Lisa" when the daughter forgives her father for sexually abusing her and allowing his friend to do the same, which causes her to get herpes.
 * Surprisingly, initially averted in Happy Hour. After pushing his wife down and indirectly causing her death of a heart attack, and later spending the grocery money on liquor, Jerry, after briefly flying into a rage, tries to apologize to his children, but they will have none of it until she goes to church and learns the value of forgiveness, forgiving him two panels after declaring that she hates him.
 * In "Greed," Kelli essentially tricks an old man into making her his heiress by preventing him from hearing from his relatives, then not giving him medication until he dies. After she converts and dies of cancer, some of the relatives are set on not forgiving her (although one changes her mind after hearing she will get her share of the estate after all), and this is played as a bad thing, with it suggested that they will not be forgiven for their sins.
 * In "Baby Talk" Eric dumps his girlfriend when he learns that she is pregnant, but then accepts Christianity and, after preventing her from being forcibly taken to get an abortion, promises to help her raise the baby and gets back together with her. At no point is she shown to be angry with him.
 * For some reason the Asgardians have no problem forgiving Loki. And then trusting Loki. Of course, to be honest, they were like that a lot in the original Norse Mythology too, up until he actually killed Baldur.
 * Played with. A lot of the time in recent comics, they don't actually trust him, he's just a Manipulative Bastard who really is that good at what he does. For the moment, thanks to causing the destruction of Asgard (not what he was going for, either: he wanted them to win but underestimed The Void), only Thor has forgiven Loki and most find his Heroic Sacrifice in trying to save Asgard to be worthless. The fact that the trope has been Averted now means that he's in trouble, since he's stuck as his child self and therefore pretty defenseless unless Thor protects him.
 * Subverted when Rogue has a Heel Face Turn and wants to join the X-Men. They threaten to disband if she is allowed on the team and she has to work to earn their trust.
 * Ms. Marvel to this day has not forgiven Rogue though she tolerates her presence (barely). Justified since Rogue used her energy draining touch on Carol long enough to drain her powers for an extended period of time and send her into a coma.
 * Bombshell from Teen Titans is allowed membership on the team, after she betrayed them prior, had tried to kill them, and tried to frame two other (innocent) members of the group as the real traitor. Sure, Ravager was also allowed on the team, but she was Brainwashed and Crazy when she was their enemy... Bombshell has no such excuse.
 * Superman has gotten shafted plenty of times by his tendency to extend this too freely. In fact, in a 1960s imaginary story, Luthor dupes Supes into becoming his best friend after publicly renouncing evil, then promptly slaughters him with Kryptonite while laughing derisively at Superman's dying expressions of heartbreak and betrayal.

Fan Works

 * The "easily" part is averted in Windows of the Soul, in which Natsuki acknowledges the severity of misdeeds and her flaws as a person, but nevertheless forgives her. Much of the fic involves  inability to forgive  for what  has done.
 * The Death Note Fanfic Constant Temptation dials this Up to Eleven when L forgives Light a.k.a. Kira the guy who's killed hundreds of people (by the first episode). And Kira is not just forgiven by L but also the very Police Taskforce assigned to catching him (because he is now dating L and has Daddy Issues. There's also an Enemy Mine excuse.) But to be fair Kira being Easily Forgiven occurs in most L x Light Slash Fic.
 * Pick any fanfic containing a Mysterious New Girl. Chances are that the only person who won't instantly forgive her all her misdeeds (no matter how severe they were) the minute she makes it obvious she wants them to is the Mary Sue herself.
 * Many Naruto fanfics have Naruto being beaten within an inch of his life only to forgive them as well as Hiruzen's (Third hokage) Bullshit excuses for letting it happen.
 * Done to Demona in The Gargoyles Saga, Demona gives up trying to destroy humanity, and becomes one of the good guys all because Angela waves a finger in her face. Less than two months after attempting mass genocide of the human race, Demona is eating Christmas dinner with the heroes.
 * Yet subverted with Fang, who is shown to still be imprisoned in the Labyrinth. Talon eventually allows him out so he can help rescue civilians in a burning building, but continues to subvert this trope by putting a security cuff on Fang's ankle that will stun him out cold if he strays too far from Talon.
 * In another Death Note Slash Fic I Won't Say the easily part is averted. Light "wins" and learns L's true name but he doesn't want to have to kill L because he's fallen in love with him. But in order to ensure that L cooperates and doesn't arrest him or have him executed he casually mentions that he knows Watari's true name too. This does nothing to improve L's opnion of him and initially L does NOT want to forgive him and makes life miserable for Light whenever possible and for the rest of the fic Light plays the Dogged Nice Guy and (sort of) The Atoner trying to win back what little trust he had.  Later however this trope is played entirely straight when L invites Beyond Birthday to join them for Christmas dinner.
 * In Naruto Veangance Revelaitons, Ronan, after being told to kill his daughter (and girlfriend) Mandy, does so. Mandy's mother Sakura is shocked for a moment, but immediately forgives him after Ronan says he loves her and Taliana more. Gubgub's Dramatic Reading points out the Unfortunate Implications of a mother forgiving her husband so easily for killing their child.
 * In the Professor Layton fanfic bleeding at the sped of sound, the main character, a cyborg vampire, wants to eat Layton and plans on killing Luke first. After luring him away and announcing her intention to kill him, Layton catches her, but she cries, causing him to forgive her and declare his love for her.
 * In Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami- Dark's punishment for trying to destroy the world? He gets grounded.
 * Fluttershy holds no grudges against Firefly when she initally berates the timid pegasus for not fighting the griffins. When Firefly apologizes for her behaviour, Fluttershy gives her a hug.
 * Princess Celestia Hates Tea: Despite Twilight's wild accusations of being a changeling queen that got Celestia attacked by her own staff, getting blasted by the Elements of Harmony, getting her room exploded, and nearly getting her banished to the moon for a thousand years, the old goddess is surprisingly cordial with Twilight in the upcoming mess she caused.

Film

 * Sandman in Spider-Man 3. Apparently, the fact that Sandman has a sick daughter and didn't mean to is enough to get forgiveness from Spidey.
 * It must be taken into account that it took Spidey most of the film to reach this point.
 * And the fact that earlier on, Spidey was ready enough to murder Sandman when the revelation that  comes out of the bag.
 * The fact that he'd already accidentally killed one guy for it in the first movie (and got no satisfaction from it) might have something to do with it too.
 * In From Dusk till Dawn, Seth Gecko's reaction to his brother having raped and murdered their hostage while he was gone quickly fades from disgusted to 'don't do that again' and then hugs him and forgives him... sort of justified because we're apparently supposed to be shocked at the mildness of his reaction. It it also used to show Seth's blind love for his brother, as well as the fact that Seth is also a psychopath, if not a rapist.
 * In Bad Lieutenant, the rape of a nun shocks even the hardened eponymous character.
 * In Top Gun while Iceman did apologize for what happened to Goose, Maverick seems awfully willing to forgive a guy whose Glory Hounding result in an accident that killed his best friend. Lampshaded in the How It Should Have Ended spoof, where Maverick punches out Iceman after the climatic battle because "My real best friend is dead because of you!"
 * Back to The Future; yeah, it's feasible that Marty's dad could forgive Biff and hire him as a handyman even after all the bullying, but the idea that he'd forgive him for an Attempted Rape of his wife - or anyone - stretches it.

Literature

 * Fingerprints: A major villain from the first six books suddenly joins the heroes in the seventh. The reason for the Heel Face Turn makes sense; the speed with which the main character accepts it does not. The villain even admits to being baffled by the hero's easy forgiveness.
 * Harry Potter. Kreacher seems to have been forgiven by Harry and the others for his direct involvement in the plot that . Now it's certainly true that Kreacher was constantly bullied by Sirius and also thought he was doing the right thing but it's definitely out of character for Harry to be so forgiving of anyone who got anyone, as important to him as Sirius was,  . Now Kreacher did eventually help Harry, Ron and Hermione out a lot to redeem himself but it would be more convincing if they'd brought up the issue.
 * Harry actually did bring it up. Hermione had to remind him that while Sirius was a good guy, he was also a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who got Hoist by His Own Petard.
 * Harry quickly learns that he can use Kreacher for his own ends to help defeat Voldemort. This plays a very big role in why Harry treated him so well - he wanted Kreacher to do as he said and not run off to obey other members of the family like he did before.
 * In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, particularly media set during the early days of the Rebel Alliance, the Rebels are such a small presence that they're always eager for new recruits, even recruits who have defected from the Empire. Even when these former Imperials have killed Rebels. Some of their best people are ex-Imperials who quit for various reasons. By the time of the X Wing Series, around three or four years after Endor, attitudes have changed and members of the New Republic are suspicious of new ex-Imperials; Wedge Antilles is very ready to forgive former enemies, even ones he's flown against personally, but he's the exception. He and other characters argue about whether it's ever too late to change.
 * A repeated theme throughout numerous works in said Expanded Universe mention that while Luke Easily Forgave Darth Vader for years of death and destruction after ten minutes of good behaviour (admittedly good behaviour that was essential in toppling The Empire), the rest of the galaxy most certainly did not, and still generally consider him one the greatest evils in galactic history. Leia in particular was originally outraged that Luke would forgive the "monster" that tortured her, and even decades later while she admitted that he was essentially a good man, he was also a good man that did horrible things.
 * In New Moon, when Edward breaks up with Bella, he gives her a number of different excuses and pretty much blatantly lies to her and hurts her feelings as he leaves. She then spends most of the book in a stupor because of this. Not once does she bring this up when they are reunited at the end of the book. An even more ridiculous example is in Eclipse, when Edward bribes Alice to essentially kidnap Bella while he's away and hold her hostage in their house. This includes spying on Bella while she's at school, not letting her out of the house, and almost not letting her use the phone. Bella is understandably angry with Edward because of this, but the instant he comes back, she forgets all about that and starts making out with him.
 * Then again, in Eclipse, she was planning on talking with the enemy, which Edward thought would only lead to disaster.
 * At the end of Shadows Fall, all of the characters who have  come trooping through a door, arm in arm and chatting like best buds, even though   mere minutes before.
 * In Hothouse Flower and The Nine Plants of Desire, Armand puts Lila through numerous meaningless, life-threatening tasks until she finds a certain plant. When he tells Lila about this, she just laughs it off.
 * Jane of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre silently forgives her fiance Rochester when he begs it
 * Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: Hoo, boy! This trope certainly pops up. For example, Charles sends presidential men with gold shields to scare Jack Emery, but the men misconstrue the orders and give Jack a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in the book Payback. Jack Emery knows that Charles is responsible for this, but after the book Free Fall, in which Jack becomes an honourary member of the Vigilantes and is revealed as this to the entire group, it seems that Jack has pretty much forgotten about the whole affair. Also, Jack and Ted Robinson start out as friends, become enemies by the book Free Fall, but once Ted more or less becomes a member by the book Collateral Damage, it's all cool now. Although Jack did say that they are trying to take it one step at a time.
 * In Warrior Cats, during the fifth book of Omen of the Stars,
 * In How the Grinch Stole Christmas, all the Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot, but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did not. So he stole all their Christmas accoutrements and all their food. But he gave it back after, which apparently justified making him the guest of honor at Christmas dinner.
 * Grinch gives it back when he finds out the Whos are completely unfazed by the fact that all their stuff is gone. He got the message of the spirit of Christmas after that, and the Whos are so happy he learned to be good and appreciate other people that they honoured him.

Live Action TV
"Wesley: I understand not wanting to go back. Not wanting to be who you were. I understand it. And I can forgive it. But you knew what was happening to her. You knew who was responsible and you didn't say anything. . (picks up knife stabs Gunn) I'm less forgiving about that."
 * Subverted in Farscape. Some things -  - are not forgiven fully for more then a year, much like they would be in real life. In fact, one episode is all about the others being unable to forgive Aeryn for
 * Subverted in Angel.
 * Also subverted when Wesley himself later stabs Gunn non-fatally in revenge for not telling anyone that he passed Illyria's sarcophagus through customs, a bonehead move on Gunn's part which.

"Atia: Why would Servilia want to see me, she hates me! Antonius: So do I. But that's no bar to friendship."
 * Played straight there after however when Wesley kills, restores his and Connors and lies to Angel about his willingness to kill  and Angel lets it all slide. Not that he could really afford firing him at that point.
 * Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
 * And Tara, with the blindness thing. And Xander with the musical demon. And Buffy, with the psychological institution one. And Angel, with . It's safe to say that just about everybody got one of these, at least.
 * The Scoobies generally forgave those who were close to them more easily than those outside their inner circle. Faith had to work harder for forgiveness. Amy was particularly pissed that the gang took 3 years to transform her from a rat back to human, and then very quickly cast her out. They never forgave her, but easily forgave Willow who.
 * Amusingly subverted in an episode of Firefly, where Simon figures out that Jayne had sold out both River and himself in a previous episode. Simon doesn't forgive Jayne, but he does point out they have way too many mutual enemies as it stands, and that constantly being at each others' throats over this would be pointless and stupid. Then, as he leaves, River sticks her head in, looks directly at Jayne, and warns him that "I can kill you with my brain."
 * In Torchwood, Captain Jack is shot dead by Owen. Despite the fact Owen was unaware that Jack would resurrect, Jack easily forgives him.
 * In that same episode, the team mutinies against Jack and unintentionally releases a giant monster that steals the life force of anyone its giant shadow falls upon. Jack manages to destroy it by letting it feed of him. However, the effort leaves him dead for three days, which is the longest to date that he's ever stayed dead. He still forgives the team, minutes after reviving. It might be subverted, given that he ran off to find the Doctor a few scenes later.
 * And, in "Cyberwoman", we find out Ianto's been hiding a dangerous Cyberman in the basement. He endangers the whole planet, tells the main character he wants him dead and is forgiven by the end of the episode.
 * In "Exit Wounds", Captain Jack forgives his brother, Grey, for burying him alive for almost exactly 1900 years. By 'alive' we mean that he suffocated to death and then revived every couple of minutes for nineteen centuries as the city of Cardiff is established above him. Mind you, this is after Grey has John Hart systematically blow up Cardiff, in addition to stabbing Jack in the back (literally!) when they're first reunited. To be fair, though, Jack blames his own failure to protect his brother for being the root cause of all this. And he didn't know what had happened to Owen and Tosh until after the forgiving.
 * In the finale of the third series of Doctor Who, the Master's reign of terror over the earth is ended. Said reign of terror involved the murder of at least one tenth of the Earth's population, the enslavement of the remaining nine tenths, messing with the Doctor's physical aging process and rendering him wheelchair-bound for most of the year and birdcage-bound for the rest, the repeated killing of the aforementioned Captain Jack, and building weapons with which he planned to take over and/or destroy the rest of the universe. At the point of the Master's defeat, the Doctor finally says that "one thing" he had to say to the Master, which he'd hinted at several times in the episode. What did he say? I forgive you.
 * This is however by far the worst punishment the Doctor could bestow on the Master. Remember, the man's plan is just as much "Make the Doctor my bitch" as it is "Take over the Universe" (Some would say that his plan was "Take over the Universe in order to make the Doctor my Bitch"). By forgiving the Master in such a off-handed way, he proves his complete and utter failure in that.
 * Degrassi the Next Generation does this to a ridiculous extent to justify the current Heel Face Turn. Here are some things Degrassi villains have done, all of which were forgiven promptly by the victim after the turn:
 * Stealing irreplaceable property.
 * Taking credit for a subordinate's work, then firing the subordinate for complaining.
 * Posting topless photos of a classmate on the internet, and broadcasting it on every computer in the school.
 * Helping a pedophile stalk a classmate, purely for the fun of it (!).
 * Being the leading cause of a student being shot and paralyzed from the waist down.
 * Happens a lot on Rome. Eirene goes from hating Pullo for having to agreeing to marry him within the course of an episode. Caesar forgives Brutus for siding with Pompey in the civil war. Vorenus forgives Pullo not once but twice, the first time  and the second  Antonius and Octavius quickly set aside their previous battle-to-the-death differences and join forces to fight against Brutus and Cassius. The list goes on... It could probably be best described in the words of Antonius:


 * Justified in that many of these scenarios involving historical figures actually played out that way in real life.
 * A staple of Gossip Girl. Anything can be forgiven if you're one of the main characters, related to one of the main characters, or have feelings for one of the main characters. Examples include  They might not be smart or moral people, but holy crap they're forgiving.
 * This happens a lot in Professional Wrestling, but there are some examples that stand out more than others. In a recent example, apparently if you concuss Cody Rhodes, his father, and his best friend then he'll be perfectly happy to hang out with you after an argument or two.
 * An extremely obvious one is the recent (apparent) reconciliation with Matt and Jeff Hardy. Essentially Matt said that he had made a mistake and Jeff forgave him. The "mistake" apparently involved Matt burning Jeff's house to the ground, killing his dog, and trying to murder him and/or end his career at least three times. The forgiveness came only a couple months after the end of their fighting over it.
 * Heroes season 3: It's true, she did try her best to kill him at first, but subsequently it looks more like that was self loathing than hatred. This is even remarked upon by Noah.
 * Although it's a little more believable when you keep in mind that Elle's father was something of a Smug Snake who put his own daughter through Training from Hell regardless of any of her own wishes.
 * Seems to happen quite a lot in the various Star Trek series: One of the regular cast spends the episode trying to kill everyone, drive the ship into a black hole or whatever, and is welcomed back with open arms by all concerned.
 * This is especially clear in the fifth film. It's specifically stated that the people the villain converts are not brainwashed; they're completely acting of their own free will in following him. Yet none of them face any repercussions.
 * In The Next Generation episode "The Mind's Eye," they never even bother to un-brainwash Geordi. There's still a visual trigger that will make Geordi follow any command, and everyone's just hoping that it never gets used again.
 * Not quite in the league as most of these, but in the series finale of Stargate SG-1, after a vitriolic and contemptuous rant at her enumerating in painful detail why he would never sleep with her, Daniel Jackson comes up short when he sees he's actually hurt Vala, and is forgiven.
 * Well, his vitrol and contempt were based on the assumption that she was simply mocking his attraction and potential affection for him. When he suddenly realized that she had only been feigning as much in order to protect herself from potential rejection, he accepts her instead. It's not so much that either of them "forgives" the other, but more along the lines of them both putting aside their defenses to be happy together.
 * After the whole Bosco/Faith/Cruz shooting incident at the end of Season 4 of Third Watch, and also after the Faith/Cruz/Donald Mann shooting incident at the end of Season 5, enemies Faith and Cruz are soon back to work alongside each other.
 * Largely averted on Lost: Sawyer and Charlie's behavior in "Fire + Water" and "The Long Con" is not soon forgiven by their fellow Losties. Season 3 makes it clear Sun won't be forgiving Sawyer anytime soon. In season 4, Sayid has not forgiven Michael for his murder and treason from season 2. Also, three years after rescue, Kate, Sayid, and Jack are still harsh with Locke for his efforts to keep everyone on the island.
 * Cleverly averted in season 5 with.
 * First subverted, then played straight on CSI: Miami. First, it takes the team several episodes to warm up to Natalia again after she reveals that she'd originally been sent there to spy on them by the FBI. . But then a few seasons later, Ryan, WITHHOLDS EVIDENCE from a crime scene because a friend's son has been kidnapped by the Russian mob, which he only tells Horatio, yet despite very realistic anger from the rest of his team when he finally produces the evidence, by next episode, it seems to not only have been forgiven but forgotten too. Sometimes this show is really good about continuity, sometimes it throws it out the window. I kinda wish it'd make up it's mind.
 * Played absurdly straight on Robin Hood. Ask yourself: would you go on a field-trip with the man who brutally slaughtered your wife? Robin does. Made even more idiotic considering Robin doesn't display any such altruism toward Isabella or Allan, whose crimes against him are barely a blip on the radar screen compared to Guy's.
 * In her first appearance Kate sells out Robin's whereabouts to Guy in order to secure the safety of her brother. You can't says that she's Easily Forgiven, as Robin and the outlaws don't even seem to think that there's anything wrong with it in the first place.
 * Subverted in How I Met Your Mother, where Ted's friends are upset and furious with Stella who left Ted to be with her ex-boyfriend, only leaving a note to explain her actions.
 * Also averted when Lily returned to Marshall after leaving him to go to San Francisco, Marshall doesn't immediately take her back and she spends much of season 2 getting back into Marshall and Ted's good graces.
 * In The Vampire Diaries Damon. Over and over again. He murders people on a whim, uses his Mind Control powers to effectively rape people, torments his brother and murders his best friend, [[spoiler: it's strongly implied he was about to force himself on Elena when her brother interrupted them, in response he murdered him and within a few episodes they're acting as he's just one of the team. When he does something that isn't reprehensible they act as though he's done something laudable, as opposed to adhering to minimum standards of acceptable behavior.
 * A lot of times, it seems that they're not so much forgiving him as giving up on him ever being a reasonable human being. Then he does something not-horrifying, and it makes everyone think "well, maybe he can change..." and then he kills someone just to prove that he's still evil. The only reason they haven't killed him is because he's Stefan's brother (and he can't bring himself to kill him), not to mention the best fighter.
 * "I forgive you, let's go home."
 * In the Smallville episode "Rage", Chloe doesn't seem to mind Lionel Luthor's presence at the dinner table, despite his earlier attempts to kill her.
 * Also happened with Tess, especially in the last season. She kidnapped Lana and Lois at separate times, actually killed at least five people, and tried to kill others. Clark seems perfectly fine with her around.
 * Does it count when she spent a good chunk of early part of season 10 trying to be forgiven and actually helping before she's officially welcomed into Watchtower? Because that doesn't happen until after Chloe leaves.
 * iCarly: In iCan't Take It, Sam ruins Freddie's chances of getting into an exclusive science camp that would help him get into any college he wants. Because Freddie didn't know what time it was when Sam asked him. Freddie finds out and gets angry, then then forgives her about 2 minutes after and kisses her again to end the episode.
 * In Babylon 5, we are not even shown a scene where Sinclair forgives Delenn for being there when he is subjected to the Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique. It might have been a touching scene, but it is just assumed. Presumably Fan Fic can fix this oversight.
 * He never does forgive her; in fact, he never finds out she was involved.
 * Played with in Law and Order Special Victims Unit. The characters tend to stay pissed for the duration of an episode, but are usually over it in the next. Bear in mind though that episodes tend to take place over a few days, and there is no telling how far apart episodes are. Stabler and Benson tend to forgive each other pretty quickly, but that makes sense considering how long they've known each other.
 * Fin however was pissed at Stabler for awhile. It's implied that he forgives him, after a pedophile attempts to post a picture of Stabler's underage daughter on the internet and Stabler beats him half to death. Fin considers this to be a sign of extreme restraint, as he would have killed the man outright.
 * The eponymous bikers of Sons of Anarchy are able to forgive each other a lot of crap. Extreme transgressions (like murdering another member's wife) will also be forgiven if they were done for the good of the club. However, betraying the club or failure to back up another member are seen as unforgivable offences and treated with extreme prejudice.
 * This is played with in the feud between Tiggs and Kozik. Tiggs cannot forgive Kozik even years after the events and the audience is left to wonder for a long time what was that so bad that it caused such a rift between them. It turns out it was over the death of a dog.

Music
"A Quick One While He's Away" by The Who; the girl who is the subject of the song is forgiven by her long-absent boyfriend immediately after admitting her infidelity with Ivor the engine driver. A rare justified example — said boyfriend mentions he wasn't entirely faithful himself.

Newspaper Comics
""On second thought, let's see you grovel a little!""
 * Parodied in one strip from Calvin and Hobbes when Susie decides to forgive Calvin for some nasty things he said that made her cry. He's so overjoyed that she immediately rethinks this decision:


 * In another strip, Calvin causes the family car to roll out the driveway and fall down a ditch across the street. He and Hobbes hide in a tree, but is confused to find his parents are more concerned about whether he was safe than about the car (which, incidentally, wasn't damaged.)
 * Subverted and played straight in FoxTrot when Quincy eats Paige's signed boyband picture. Andy bends over backwards to appease Paige, and when Paige calls herself on this, Andy forgives her without a second thought.
 * Bill the Cat in Bloom County. Among the horrible things he's done include, in separate arcs: Espionage against the United States by seducing Jean Kirkpatrick stealing data from her and selling it to the Soviet Union, causing the Chernobyl disaster after being traded to them in a prisoner exchange, shooting up the neighborhood with a machine gun while running for President, selling out the other members of his rock band and ruining their reputation, becoming a televangelist and accusing Opus of "Penguin Lust" on the air (never explaining what that is) and then being caught in a pedophile human trafficking ring. Despite all this, the other characters have a loyalty and admiration towards Bill that keeps him from ever truly being punished; Opus has named him sole beneficiary of his will and he has earned the Bloom Party nomination for President three times. Only Portnoy seems willing to express a dislike for him, trying to do so during two mock retrospectives of the character.

Professional Wrestling

 * Pretty common following the standard Heel Face Turn: often the reformed heel doesn't even have to earn redemption, as it's enough that he's agreed not to be mean anymore. Lampshaded histrionically by Christian who was outraged that Heroic Sociopath Randy Orton is allowed to do whatever the hell he wants in WWE. He screamed at Triple H to do something about the situation in his capacity as Chief Operating Officer, demanding to know something along the lines of "Don't you even care that this man once attacked your father-in-law and brother-in-law and terrorized your wife?!" Well, apparently Triple H didn't care.
 * This can be particularly egregious in cases of tag-team matches. In these cases, seeing a total monster, who's undergone a Heel Face Turn teaming up with the same person who's life they completely destroyed a few months ago is not particularly unusual in pro wrestling.
 * Subverted more often in TNA, where it's more common for there to be tension between two tag-team partners when one of them has recently undergone a Heel Face Turn. Even characters who weren't evil to begin with, such as Sting, are frequently mistrusted by other faces for having a mysterious agenda.

Theater

 * William Shakespeare's plays have several examples:
 * The title character of Richard III manages to seduce and marry Lady Anne after killing both her husband and her father-and-law. Earlier, she explicitly cursed any woman stupid enough to marry him.
 * In Two Gentlemen of Verona, Proteus tries to rape his best friend's girlfriend. His best friend and his own girlfriend both forgive him, after seeing him do it. By the end of the scene, his best friend is talking about how much fun it'll be for the four of them to live in a house together.
 * Claudio from Much Ado About Nothing.
 * In Aphra Behn's The Rover, at one point or another just about all of Belvile's friends try to rape his love interest Florinda, in some cases after mistaking her for a prostitute. But then they find out Florinda is Belvile's love interest and not a prostitute, and all is A-OK. Florinda's sister even marries one of them.

Video Games

 * The Dead or Alive series of fighting games are so thoroughly removed from the terrible-but-somehow-great Xtreme Spin-Off. 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.
 * Fallout 3 has a major sidequest which ends when you get a man to return to his home town, The villagers welcome him home.
 * To be fair plus
 * Summoner has loads of this, including:
 * 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. Of course, it turns out that.
 * 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. As a matter of fact, he never even menaces him except for the first two times you bump into him.
 * To be honest, by the time he joins the party, he's doing it under orders and can't really kill Joseph by that point. He then gets to see firsthand how Joseph hates himself more than Jekhar does over what happened to Ciran and Masad, and that Joseph is the world's only hope. On top of that.
 * 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 actually tries to bring him to task for his dastardly behavior (not to mention that Yago dumped them before, meaning that it really IS his fault.)
 * Joseph also forgives pretty fast after  been betraying him nearly since they met. Of course,, but still.
 * Flece forgives Aoqi pretty easily for . Although her reasons were rather compelling, it remains that she was basically a stranger who killed.
 * Super Robot Wars: Original Generations (and indeed just about any installment in the series, licensed mecha or not) absolutely loves this trope. 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 Later on, there is a picture that lampshades this thing.
 * And even those who do not repent are not safe from this. Cases in point:
 * Ingram, who was revealed to be Brainwashed And Scheming all along.
 * Shu, who attempted to do an Earthshattering Kaboom in a Xanatos Gambit 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 OF SRW 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. Speaking of that, probably she feels the same way to the ODE System and Juergen who put her to death in the first place.
 * Not even non-OG is safe from this and in fact, it can take it to extremes. In Super Robot Wars D, you can even recruit Katejina Loos and instantly forgive every single act of sheer depravity that she has done.
 * In all fairness, in the game's storyline, Katejina hasn't committed as many acts of sheer depravity, so this makes somewhat more sense.
 * Tales of the Abyss: when the party
 * It's even worse when you consider that all of them except Tear (and Guy, a bit later)
 * And could have asked for help at any time. They had shown earlier that they could easily . Like Jade couldn't come up with something.
 * The party's main issue was the motivations and how they reacted;.
 * Two problems with that. One,  Two,
 * It's Character Development. The Party didn't handle the first incident very well, and they know it. By the time of the second incident, they've grown as individuals and are trying to avoid making the same mistakes they made with.
 * Tales of Vesperia has a pretty bad one too, though not as bad as Abyss's.
 * Also noteworthy is
 * Another example might be
 * Another, less known example is
 * Tales of Legendia is a prime example of this. Granted, in the game itself, this comes off more like an example of the party's endearing-if-stupid idealism than anything else, but still.
 * Gaspard in Dark Cloud 2. 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.
 * The transition of the Turks from fairly serious (albeit quirky) villains in Final Fantasy VII to comic relief, Heel Face Turned semi-heroes in the Compilation. Mostly based on Pandering to the Base on the part of the games' creators, but feels a little odd when one considers how easily the "we were just doing our jobs" angle works 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.
 * To be fair, there is also a "just doing our jobs" scene in Crisis Core, where Tseng (one of the Turks), . Zack does not take that lightly, and spends the rest of the game remembering it.
 * The Turks were hardly taken seriously in the original game, despite the Sector 7 collapse. Every time you fight them they toss comments around leisurely, you see them outside of battle quite a bit lounging around, and there's an entire sidequest in Wutai involving them and their "just doing our jobs" stuff.
 * Final Fantasy VII also has Yuffie committing (literal) Wutai Theft and Cait Sith . Each one is welcomed back more or less unchanged.
 * In Cait Sith's case, he actually was not welcomed back; the were his way of forcing his way back onto the team. Still, Aeris seems pretty broken up when  shortly afterward (for all the difference it didn't make in the long run.)
 * Nobody commented on Kain from Final Fantasy IV yet? Not only he turns from Face to Heel and back at an alarming rate, each time he comes back to the good side everybody welcomes him with open arms. Curiously enough, when he finally turns good for real, the only one to distrust him is Edge, who has seen him betray the party only once.
 * Considering this was rather a case of mind control than betrayal, it makes sense they don't blame Kain too much. Also, Cecil (and Rosa) and Kain were friends going way back, so it's believable that he honestly believed Kain's betrayal's were results of brainwashing and not how he actually feels or thinks.
 * Rydia is an interesting case in that she, like Edge, rejoins the party after Kain returns the first time, but doesn't necessarily hold his betrayal or his role in the destruction of her village against him. Averted when she initially has difficulty forgiving Cecil for his role in destroying Mist, but becomes more willing to do so after he risks his life to save her from Baron soldiers.
 * This one's an extreme spoiler, but in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years,
 * 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...
 * Warcraft has an odd mutual example of this, and many more subversions. 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, pretty much everyone, orc and human, does not easily forgive the other side.
 * To add this in the Frozen Throne expansion to Warcraft III, Daelin Proudmoore (Jaina's father) shows that he can't let go of his grudge against the Orcs and vows he will never stop fighting them.
 * Averted with Baine Bloodhoof toward Garrosh Hellscream in The Shattering Prelude to Cataclysm. Baine realizes that Garrosh did not intentionally, but also acknowledges that he was partly responsible for . 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.
 * 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.
 * 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. To be fair, Eric did seem to sincerely apologize after that. 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.
 * Everyone in Touhou. Everyone. No exceptions. Except Tenshi. While this makes sense for most of the characters, who were either just doing their job, not doing anything too bad, or just in the way, this can be something of a problem for characters like Yuyuko (who was willing to greatly delay spring for the sake of making a cherry tree blossom ) or Utsuho (who considered nuking Gensoukyou purely out of power madness).
 * In Knights of the Old Republic
 * Bastila is also pretty easily forgiven for going to the dark side (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.
 * To be fair, Malak was the one doing most of the torturing in her case. It's not like most people would behave rationally around the one responsible for their complete Freak-Out.
 * Subverted and played straight in the first Devil May Cry game; even if he saves Trish just because she looks like his mother, Dante is enraged by the discovery that she is working for Mundus, and threatens to kill her if they meet up again. That is the subverted part. Now for the played straight part, he finally forgives her after defeating Mundus. Though by that point Trish had taken a spear in the chest for Dante and gave him the powerboost he needed to beat Mundus, so his forgiveness is somewhat understandable.
 * In The World Ends With You, Neku and Beat don't hold 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.
 * In Dragon Age 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.
 * 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.
 * In Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright is surprisingly determined to reach out to and "save" Miles Edgeworth, especially when Edgeworth is on trial as a murder suspect. What is amazing is that Phoenix is doing this even though Edgeworth ruthlessly and relentlessly used every tactic he could, including some very underhanded ones, to get Maya and then Phoenix himself convicted for the murder of his beloved mentor (Let's face it; Edgeworth is not stupid. He HAD to have realized who Mia Fey's REAL murderer was...).
 * In Dragon Age 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.
 * 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.
 * In Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright is surprisingly determined to reach out to and "save" Miles Edgeworth, especially when Edgeworth is on trial as a murder suspect. What is amazing is that Phoenix is doing this even though Edgeworth ruthlessly and relentlessly used every tactic he could, including some very underhanded ones, to get Maya and then Phoenix himself convicted for the murder of his beloved mentor (Let's face it; Edgeworth is not stupid. He HAD to have realized who Mia Fey's REAL murderer was...).

Web Comics
"Aylee: I suppose there are some things saying sorry can't fix. Riff: Like murder. A moment of silence follows as Aylee reflects on this."
 * Particularly in the early strips, the cast of Sluggy Freelance was surprisingly tolerant of Aylee's human eating tendencies and Bun-Bun's general sociopathic tendencies. They do eventually put their foot down on Aylee eating people and convince her to quit, but Bun-Bun still gets a mostly free pass for all the violent and manipulative things he's done, does, and will do. Of course, that might just be because he'd kill them all if they tried to get tough with him. Better to keep the switchblade-wielding bully on their side.
 * There is a brief part in the Cannibals Anonymous Storyline in which, after Aylee upset Zoe by serving a human for Thanksgiving, Torg fired her, but later accepted her back after she worked on improving herself, in which the seriousness of her activities is mentioned to a degree.


 * Played with in Order of the Stick: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0724.html
 * This strip is even more extreme.
 * General Tarquin mentions that no matter how many people  kills the audience still thinks he's lovable. Averted when Roy shows that he isn't going to forgive   so easily.
 * An earlier example: in strip 125 Belkar is trying to kill Elan. In strip 126 Belkar and Elan are chatting about multiclassing.
 * Averted on a few occasions in General Protection Fault. When Trent is hired to replace Trudy, Dwayne does so reluctantly, as GPF is still rebuilding itself and needs a marketing person, and eventually fires Trent after he loses his lawsuit against Fred. Dexter is not easily forgiven for using the Mu T Ex to go into Bog of Bloodbath, which resulted in him and a few others going missing for a few days and nearly getting fired, especially not by Patty., but those who suspect the truth indicate that they have not forgiven her for her actions.
 * In Mitadake Saga, no-one really holds much of a grudge against Kazu, despite the fact that he killed someone. Although this may be a Meta-joke.
 * Truth in Television for those who play the game. Very rarely will anyone call you out for killing someone if you thought they were the killer (or were pretending to). Of course, when this is averted, it is averted violently.
 * in Homestuck is welcomed back with seemingly open arms after his his brief stint of semi-genocidal madness wherein he . This quick forgiveness particularly comes out of character for Terezi who had just a few minutes prior (in-story) been ready to kill someone else over suspicion for the same exact murders.
 * Kanaya is not so forgiving, and would be happy if she never saw him again. Fortunately, seems to be afraid of her and also avoids her.

Western Animation
"Skips: Uh... Sorry for, you know, back there... It was unprofessional.
 * Raimundo in Xiaolin Showdown, after willingly turning evil and then back again. Omi does express suspicion about him from time to time.
 * To be fair, Raimundo did give up everything he could have wanted to save their lives and turned down a choice to become their level because he wasn't ready.
 * Also, given the fact that afterwards Omi kept falling into Chase Young's traps to be prepared for his ally he really couldn't say that he didn't know what Raimundo did.
 * Subverted in Justice League Unlimited with Hawkgirl. At first glance, it seems that the team will sweep her assignment from the Thanagarian Empire under the rug at the end of the episode because she's one of the True Companions, but she resigns from the team. She spends a season mostly off-camera doing some soul-searching and still has to save the world a few more times before Wonder Woman's fine with having Hawkgirl in the Justice League again. It remains a sore spot for her and detractors of the Justice League still bring up that the League let Hawkgirl back on the team after what she did... a sore spot that Lex Luthor is notably willing to exploit.
 * Every "villain" in Horton Hears a Who!! The directors bring this up a couple times on the DVD commentary, justifying it by saying it stays true to the spirit of Dr. Seuss' works, as Seuss "was not in the comeuppance business." There was originally a more clear comeuppance for the Kangaroo when everyone turns their back on her, but it was taken out for this reason.
 * On The Fairly OddParents, Mark Chang goes from Timmy's enemy to a good friend after his Heel Face Turn. This is despite the fact that Mark has threatened to slurp out Timmy's brain through a bendy straw, kidnapped his babysitter (he liked that), tried to kill him in death combat, and launched a weapon that he thought would destroy the Earth.
 * In Gargoyles, Goliath readily forgives anyone who stops attacking and tries to undo whatever they've done. Even if two minutes before that they were roaring at each other and fighting tooth and nail. It's most apparent in that lengthy section in season two where he and a few others were being sent all over the world by Avalon. Of course, those few times when he wasn't attacked right off the bat and tried being friendly first didn't work that well...
 * One theme of the show was that holding grudges didn't work out, and that things like revenge only made things worse. Probably a message there.
 * Some subversions, however, with the other characters. Lexington continued to harbor a grudge against the members of the Pack throughout the series. While it took some time (as well as his bond with Alex) for him to put aside his grudge with Fox, and we never saw him meet Dingo after his Heel Face Turn, it's safe to assume the others don't get that luxury.
 * Kim Possible, episode "Ill-Suited"; Ron is let off the hook despite lying to Kim, cheating at a major sporting event and stole high tech weaponry that put lives in danger. Kim forgave him and Barkin let him stay on the team. Although he did have to do 20 crabwalk laps around the field. Though it is a stark reminder of how in Season 1 Kim was grounded just for lying.
 * On the villainous side of the fence, consider Drakken and Shego's Post Script Season appearances up through "Mad Dogs And Aliens". On two different occasions, Shego was busted out of prison by other villains, and gave no thought to Drakken (except to yell "Later, loser!" on her way out). In MDaA, Drakken orders Warmonga to throw Shego out, then holds her captive intending to make her watch Warmonga score the victory over Kimmie that she never could (and claims as her prerogative). Really, it's amazing that they were on speaking terms, much less working together, in later episodes.
 * Subverted in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Katara is really reluctant to forgive people who betrayed her, and will express this as openly and occasionally violently as possible. She is initially angry with her father for leaving home, and takes the longest to forgive.
 * Played straight with Appa, who is really the first to forgive, even giving him an affectionate lick upon seeing him. Of course, there is the fact that  . Also note that Appa is not, despite appearances, a simple-minded animal, having an intelligence on par with humans.
 * Toph has a similar mindset, as she criticizes the group for, in their bitterness, . She even . Although.
 * Played straight, also with Katara but in a different way. She is easily forgiven for things herself. A striking example being her comment to Sokka in The Southern Raiders when she accuses him of not loving their mother, Kya, as much as she did when he shows no interest in going on a potential suicide mission into the heart of Fire Nation territory to hunt down and kill the man who killed Kya. Although this could be more to do with the fact it was never addressed, rather than Sokka forgiving her for it.
 * Uncle Iroh, who Zuko had stabbed in the back at the end of Season 2, forgives him instantly when Zuko tells him how sorry he is for what he did.
 * King of Omashu. In the episode The King Of Omashu, he holds Katara and Sokka hostage to force Aang to participate in three gruelling challenges, because if he doesn't, his friends will be trapped in a crystal prison. Then Aang realises that the King is his old friend Bumi, they hug, and it is forgotten. Makes you wonder why Bumi didn't tell Aang this in the first place, instead of making him figure it out.
 * This was explained through the whole thing: it was all a test to make Aang "think outside the box" about his current situation - something that actually helped him at the climax of the series.
 * It makes sense: when Aang knew who Bumi was, he probably assumes Bumi would have freed Katara and Sokka anyway.
 * Kevin Levin, former sociopath and Arch Enemy to Ben and his family who tried to kill them several times, is immediately trusted and forgiven by Gwen in the first episode of Ben 10 Alien Force, and Ben fully accepts him as a friend and ally in only the fourth.
 * In Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, this is explained somewhat when the ten-year-old Ben is brought to the present and helps out the team. Paradox declares that the young Ben would dimly remember theose events after returning to his proper time, leading him to trust Kevin later on.
 * Codename: Kids Next Door has Nigel staying in a relationship with Lizzie past her introduction, which involved her mind-controlling him to DESTROY his friends so that they could have time together. This is strictly played for laughs.
 * Everyone from Total Drama Island with the exception of Heather.
 * Which becomes a bit ridiculous by season three, when Leshawna openly brags about knocking her tooth out even after she should have realized it was totally unjustified (as Heather had been trying to help her at the time). Bridgette even calls the others out on this toward the end of the show.
 * Buck Strickland from King of the Hill has done some pretty nasty things to Hank and he always sticks by his side, his worst act was framing Hank for the murder of his mistress Debbie. He plants a lot of evidence that made it seem like he was guilty of the crime, and yet Hank almost immediately forgives him after the murder is solved.
 * Regular Show has Skips being forgiven for
 * Huh? ....You know what? Water under the bridge."


 * Huntik Secrets and Seekers has Zhalia easily forgiven . See the quote.
 * Fungus in Monsters, Inc.. had been Randall's henchman, aiding him in his evil plot, yet at the end he is seen cheerfully working alongside the others, as if there had never been any bad feelings between them.
 * Subverted Trope. Well, Sully DID put him in the Scream Extractor, and it is implied often that he was coerced into helping them.

Real Life

 * Reputedly, Alexander the Great's relentless pursuit of ex-emperor Darius III of Persia was not because he wanted to kill him, but because Alexander recognised Darius' genius and wanted to recruit Darius to govern Persia in Alexander's name.
 * This was pretty much Alexander's Modus Operandi, Curb stomp the enemy on the battlefield and then make him his vassal. It is one of the reasons as of why his empire disintegrated once he wasn't around to keep them in line.
 * Very shortly after Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt, he paid a friendly visit to his would-be killer in jail to let him know he wasn't mad at him for shooting him in the chest. In fact, it was the first thing he did after he got out of the hospital.
 * Julius Caesar made a point of forgiving pretty much everyone on the opposing side in the civil war between him and Pompey, whether they surrendered or had been taken captive. A rather smart strategy, as he came off in a much more positive light than Pompey in the eyes of the Roman people. Unfortunately for him, several of the people that he forgave conspired to assassinate him. His successor, Augustus, decided not to follow that same path and refused to grant clemency to Caesar's killers.
 * It was primarily his fellow Roman aristocrats who benefited from that mercy. Plutarch's Lives tells the story of Caesar's capture by pirates, early in his career. Although ransomed successfully, he promised the pirates that he would hunt them all down and kill them. Which he did. The only mercy granted to the pirates was that he had them executed and crucified... in that order.
 * As depicted in Invictus: After spending 28 years as a political prisoner on Robbins Island, Nelson Mandela is released and within a few years becomes President of South Africa. Incredibly, one of the first things he does is hire for his cabinet some of the same men who had worked for the previous government that had imprisoned him.
 * Richard I the Lionheart: was betrayed by his brother John Lackland countless times; forgave him again and again.
 * The whole family was like that; the two of them and their other brothers, as well as their mother, launched several civil wars against their father Henry I and each other only to forgive each other and do it all again.