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{{trope}}
|Herb Kazzazz, ''[[BoJack Horseman]]''.}}
▲{{Quote|"Okay. I don't forgive you."|Herb Kazzazz, ''[[BoJack Horseman]]''.}}
Fiction loves to advocate for [[Forgiveness]] and [[Turn the Other Cheek|Turning the Other Cheek]]. A person has done a terrible thing. They are truly remorseful and are willing to make amends. A simple apology will probably do the trick.
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{{Unmarked Spoilers}}
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
* In ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]'', Leon's little brother Chris comes to live with him after being raised by their aunt and uncle. Why? Because Chris thought his aunt and uncle were his parents; his cousin Sam rather brusquely broke the news that they weren't siblings
▲== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
▲* In ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]'', Leon's little brother Chris comes to live with him after being raised by their aunt and uncle. Why? Because Chris thought his aunt and uncle were his parents; his cousin Sam rather brusquely broke the news that they weren't siblings. He was responsible for his real mother's death, since she had him at fifty. This revelation traumatized Chris so much that he stopped speaking, much to his aunt and uncle's dismay. Despite them giving a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] speech to Sam, the damage was done. In the final volume, Sam comes to the pet shop where D is watching Chris, and says she wants Chris back in her life. She apologizes for what she said, and asks if they can try again. At first, Chris isn't into it, but later changes his mind, reconciling with Sam as well as his aunt and uncle.
* In her comic memoir ''Return to Society Punch!'', Naoko Takeuchi recounted that everyone at Kodansha was ''so'' sorry because they lost several pages of her follow-up series ''PQ Angels'', and they kept passing the buck. Needless to say, she did not accept their apologies. (This was before digital backups and scans.) To add insult to injury, she was pressured to do another long-form series after finishing ''Sailor Moon'', despite begging for a break, and she was burned out from working all the time. Takeuchi got so fed up that she quit Kodansha, took a long-needed vacation for a year, and went to work for Shueisha instead.<!--Since this is a real story, it might be better off in the real life section.-->▼
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'':
** In an early episode, Shingo accidentally breaks his best friend Mika's handmade prizewinning doll at school. He clams up rather than apologizing, and their classmates tell Usagi about this. Usagi confronts Shingo, as he's crumpling up apology notes, and tells him to go to Mika's house and apologize. Shingo tries, but Nephrite beat him to the punch and compelled Mika to make dolls while not talking to anyone, rejecting the apology. When Shingo asks Usagi for advice, she suggests a present would do the trick. He makes a clay Sailor Moon doll, and brings it to Mika at her next doll exhibition. It's only then he and Usagi realize a youma had possessed Mika, and drains her. The youma knocks Shingo out and smashes the clay doll. Mika revives, sees the clay shards as well as Shingo's apologetic look, and finally forgives him.
** In a [[Wham! Episode]] of R, Chibiusa gets the Senshi captured by Rubeus after stealing Usagi's Silver Crystal and attempting to return to the future. Rubeus tells Sailor Moon that he'll free the Senshi if she hands over "the rabbit" aka Chibiusa. Chibiusa goes [[My God, What Have I Done?]] about her stupidity and is sincerely apologetic, but Usagi isn't hearing it, threatening to smack her repeatedly for betraying her and her friends. Mamoru has to stop Usagi, who eventually decides to meet Rubeus alone rather than sacrifice a child on seeing how scared Chibiusa is. Chibiusa ends up coming anyway, inverting the trope as Usagi screams at her to run, that it isn't her fight, and Chibiusa insists that it is.
** In the S finale, Sailor Uranus and Neptune call out Usagi for giving the Holy Grail to Mistress 9 in an attempt to help Hotaru fight from the inside and regain control of her body. It worked, but Mistress 9 and Pharaoh 90 nearly brought about the Silence with the Grail. Usagi apologizes as her friends defend her from the Outer Senshi, saying she doesn't want them to fight. Uranus and Neptune assert that if she fights them, without her friends, they'll consider her apology. This ended up being a [[Secret Test of Character]]; when Usagi is pinned and faces a fatal attack, her Messiah powers awaken and knock down Uranus and Neptune. They then apologize to her for the insubordination to the real Messiah, something she accepts.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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** Kuvira says she is sorry multiple times for her actions in Book Four when she tried to make herself Empress of the Earth Kingdom, and no one accepts them. Suyin rightly tells off Kuvira for thinking she is entitled to forgiveness after what she did to Zaofu and the Beifongs. Asami hasn't forgotten Kuvira killed her father. Only one rejection actually makes Kuvira start her [[Heel Realization]]: when her ex-fiance Baatar Jr. says he doesn't forgive her. He calls her out for trying to kill him when Korra took him hostage, and for assuming that he would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed. Baatar Jr. admits that he fucked up, but unlike Kuvira, he wouldn't sacrifice someone he loved.
** As for Baatar Jr., he is truly repentant about helping Kuvira take over Zaofu and imprisoning his family. From what we've heard, his mother is the only one who has forgiven him and petitioned the courts to change his sentence from life in prison to house arrest. No other Beifong has forgiven Baatar Jr. or trusts him, including his father. They all are pretty cold and awkward around him, with Opal being more forthright about her dislike. Baatar Jr. fully accepts that he deserves all this scorn in this [[Ironic Hell]].
* In ''Robin: Year One'', Batman fired Dick Grayson, the first Robin, for {{spoiler|playing Two-Face's game and believing that Two-Face would spare the man he kidnapped. Robin apologizes, but Bruce wont' relent, and Alfred admonishes Bruce because Dick is still recovering from Two-Face beating him to death with a baseball bat. Batman later admits he was out of line when Robin runs away after recovering.}}
* In ''[[The Sandman]]'', Dream apologetically and solemnly tell Rose this multiple times as he prepares to kill her to save the Dreaming, as she is an [[Apocalypse Maiden]]. Rose eventually shouts at him to stop apologizing, and to get it over with already.
* ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' showed this in a few cases.
** In Slade's backstory, he apologized to his wife for getting Joey, their toddler son, permanently injured by assassins that held Joey hostage. Her response was to put a bullet through his eye. (She was aiming for the head, but he heard the pistol cock.)
** Robin couldn't stop apologizing to Starfire after learning that {{spoiler|Mirage kidnapped and impersonated her, and Kory lampshades how he failed to realize ''something'' was wrong when Mirage didn't have flight or starbolts. Even [[Heel Face Revolving Door]] Slade could tell something was off while stalking them, since he knows it's not like Starfire to hold back and let Robin do all the fighting. Nightwing attempts to salvage the situation by popping the question, but Raven's [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] crashed the nuptials while possessing Starfire}}.
** When Dark Angel erased Donna from existence, Wally West managed to bring her back with his memories of her. Just one problem: he brought back the idealized version of Donna, not the actual person. Donna suffered an existential crisis as a result, questioning if she was real or just the girl on whom Wally crushed. He tries to apologize and bring her back to the person she was, but she rebuffed him. Even when Donna regained her true self, they remained friends.
** In the ''Teen Titans: Year One'' miniseries, Donna accidentally trashed Roy Harper's car while on a date. That there was a supervillain involved was besides the point, since Donna lost her head, and control of her powers. She was genuinely sorry, but Speedy wouldn't hear it. The other Titans reamed him out for this when they found it, since it was a legitimate accident. As adults, however, Donna is more philosophical about it since they were all kids.
** The 2003 reboot started with Cassie's high school expelling her for being a superhero, specifically Wonder Girl. Her mother tries to defend her, pointing out that Cassie is being punished for doing good; the principal responds that they can't have a "pagan" in class, and her daughter isn't normal. Cassie, still traumatized by Donna Troy's death, responds by punching the teacher's desk. Realizing what she did, she runs off apologizing. Needless to say, she still gets expelled.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
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* ''[[Divergent]]'' has Al bawling when he apologizes to Tris for assisting in an attempt on her life, after she ranked first in the Divergent faction. Her response is that if he touches her again, she will kill him.
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'' has this happen a few times in the past and the present:
** In ''[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (novel)|Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]'', Ernie Macmillan apologizes to Harry for accusing him of being the Heir of Slytherin after {{spoiler|Hermione gets Petrified}}. Harry accepted the apology because he had bigger things on his mind; Ron doesn't, scowling at Ernie for accusing his best friend.
** Zigzagged with Percy, because he ''doesn't'' apologize at first for turning his back on the family and making his mother cry. In fact, he doesn't talk to them period after the Wizarding World learns that Minister Fudge was lying about Voldemort's return, meaning his father was right all along not to trust Fudge. The new Minister, Rufus Scrimgoeur, tries to use Percy to gain admittance to the Burrow, where Harry is spending the winter holidays. Percy is given a few moments with his family, where he ''could'' apologize for being an ambitious ass, while the Minister talks to Harry. Instead, Percy acted like the previous year didn't happen so his younger siblings — including [[Beware the Nice Ones|Ginny]] — tossed mashed parsnips at him.
** ''[[
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'':
** ''[[A Storm of Swords]]'' shows that Lady Stoneheart, aka a resurrected Catelyn Stark, will accept no apologies from those involved in the Red Wedding or associated with the Lannisters. When Merrett Frey begs for his life after Stoneheart uses the Brotherhood Without Banners to lead him into a trap, she gives the order to hang him.
** In ''[[A Feast for Crows]]'', Jaime is disgusted with his family for arranging the Red Wedding, which violated [[Sacred Hospitality]] by using the Freys to kill off the Starks over the crime of Robb Stark refusing to marry a Frey and instead wed Jeyne Westerling. He wasn't directly involved, but everyone blames him because Tywin Lannister wouldn't have engaged in mass slaughter if his captor Catelyn Stark hadn't released him as a hostage in exchange for her daughters. When visiting the Westerlings, who used their daughter Jeyne to curry favor with the Lannisters, Jaime is truly sorry on seeing that Jeyne has torn her clothes in mourning and still has Robb's crown. He can't directly apologize but says that he'll arrange a good marriage for her. Jeyne isn't in the mood to hear it, for obvious reasons.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Angel]]''
* ''[[Angel]]'' has this in the episode "Sanctuary," where Buffy travels from Sunnydale to "rescue" Angel from a fugitive Faith. When she finds that Angel is housing Faith, the latter attempts to apologize for what she did. Namely, stealing Buffy's body and sleeping with her boyfriend. Buffy won't have it, understandably. She cites the number of times she tried to help Faith, who betrayed her and the Scoobies.▼
** An early season one episode has Angel drugged to make Angelus come out; it ends with him [[Chained to a Bed]]. While he apologizes to Angel Investigations, despite being under the influence, they leave him tied. [[Played for Laughs]], of course.
▲**
** When Angel tries to go evil and fires his friends in season 2, they take a long time to forgive him. While rescuing Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn from parasitic eye demons, a semiconscious Cordelia tells Angel she's not okay because he hurt her feelings. He's able to buy her forgiveness with clothes; Wesley and Gunn make him work in a kiddie desk as the lowest-paid employee in Angel Investigations as punishment.
** Season 3 has a hospitalized Wesley apologize to Angel for letting Holt manipulate him, leading to Holt kidnapping the infant Connor. Angel whispers to him that this is him and not Angelus doing this, and tries to smother him with a pillow. The rest of the team has to pull him off, but they're also mad at Wesley for his screwup.
** Gunn is remorseful and apologizes to the team in season five on learning that his [[Deal with the Devil]] led to Fred's death. Wesley responds by stabbing him in the leg.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''
** In the season 2 premiere, Buffy is suffering bad PTSD from the Master killing her, and it means that she's unusually sour with all her friends. Xander tolerates this until vampires kidnap Willow, along with Giles and Cordelia, to bring back the Master. Buffy is horrified and apologizes for being off her game. He tells her to shove it unless she can help mount a rescue, though they later make up once their friends are saved.
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* "Bye Bye Bye" from [[N'Sync]] features this, as the singer prepares to break up with his girlfriend. He gives her one chance to save their relationship, but admits that he is tired of playing mind games. Nothing that she says can change his mind, including pleading.
* "Yesterday" from [[The Beatles]] implies this, where the singer is pondering what they did wrong in a relationship that lead to a breakup: "I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday." It seems their lover did not accept the apologies.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
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** In the end of the ''[[Ramayana]]'', Rama attempts to apologize to Sita for exiling her while pregnant due to rumors. She turns him down, firmly saying that she refuses to come back to the kingdom. Then she asks for her mother, the earth, to swallow her up.
* In Judaism, there are a set of rules about a proper apology. You have to apologize to a wronged party. If you have attempted to make amends and apologized three times, and those apologies have been rejected, then you have fulfilled your obligation. Yom Kippur allows you to beg for full forgiveness from God.
== [[Puppet Shows]] ==
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** One time Telly was wearing a huge cap his uncle gifted him, but it kept whacking Elmo every time he turns his head. After he knocks Elmo to the ground in Hooper's store and apologizes, Elmo finally loses it, tells Telly that this isn't okay, and please take the hat off!
** Baby Bear and Goldilocks often have this problem. Goldilocks has a competitive streak despite wanting to genuinely become Baby Bear's friend, and tends to mess up things for him in her attempts to "help". [[Nervous Wreck]] Baby Bear gets genuinely fed up and rejects her apologies. At one point Justice Sonia Sotomayor stepped in to resolve a dispute between them when Goldilocks broke his favorite chair by accident.
== [[Theatre]] ==
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* In ''[[Undertale]]'', you can choose to not forgive {{Spoiler|Asriel when he says that he is sorry for the things he did as Flowery and as himself on his final battle}}. He understands why, all things considered.
=== [[Visual Novel]]s ===
* Zigzagged in ''[[Syntherapy]]''. While Dr. Park is angry at Tara for lying to her about the AI Willow's case, and hiding the fact that Tara is banned from her college campus where Willow resides, she accepts Tara's apologies and reasons. Tara explains that she lied because Willow doesn't have an advocate to speak on their behalf. For the rest of the game, however, Dr. Park questions Tara's intentions.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Nimona]]'': After denying that he shot off Ballister's arm on purpose for most of the story, Goldenloin finally breaks down and admits that the Institute made him do it, or they would kill Ballister. He apologizes while watching a captive Ballister, for everything. Ballister rejects the apology, saying it's a bit late to say sorry when Nimona is in danger and there's too much bad blood between them.
* ''[[PvP (webcomic)|PvP]]'':
** Inverted when Francis gropes Jade, causing her to quit PVP and start her own magazine on women's gaming. When her coworker confesses to loving her and gropes her the same way, the trauma causes Jade to return to the boy's club. In the first version, since Francis is unapologetic, she opts to beat him up as a lesson. The rebooted comic has Francis snort when Cole tells him that, to avoid liability, he has to do HR training about sexual harassment, and Jade will be in charge of it. Jade makes him wear fake breasts as punishment, much to Francis's consternation.
** At a convention, Jade opted to stay in her hotel room while Brent went out to the festivities. A woman hung out with him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Brent allowed it, not knowing that Jade had seen when coming out of the hotel room. He apologized to Jade, but she didn't accept it; they had a fight and (temporarily) broke up as a result.
** Zigzagged when Jade smacks Brent for backseat-driving. While Brent was shocked that Jade would do such a thing and didn't want to talk to her, Jade did apologize but also pointed out that he was ''grabbing the wheel'', which could have made them crash. Brent refuses to listen and schedules an appointment with a therapist.
* In ''The Monstrous Duke's Adopted Daughter'', Marquis Sperado, after noticing that Leslie, the daughter he has abused since birth and even tried to murder in a fire to empower his eldest child, has the magic power his family has coveted, tries to stop himself and the rest of the household from mistreating her and even directly ask for forgiveness over the years of mistreatment. Leslie, who knows her family too well and has already planned her escape from them, immediately realizes that this is a very transparent attempt to softening her for the kill, so immediately and publicly rejects their half-assed forgiveness pleas.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[The Nostalgia Critic]] once tried to apologize to Dante Basco for his video on the "Ten Worst Avatar episodes". Dante, all decked in Zuko getup and shooting fireballs at the Critic, wasn't having it.
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** Zigzaggged in "Welcome Back Carter" has Carter and Babs break up because Peter blabbed that his father-in-law was having an affair. Carter decides to apologize; Babs says that she can't fully trust him again, but he can start earning her trust back.
** "Love, Blactually" has Cleveland's ex-wife Loretta attempt to apologize and reconcile with him, after he's started a new relationship. They broke up because she cheated on him with Quagmire. Cleveland wishes her well, but firmly asserts they are not getting back together.
* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''
** In the [[Gone to the Future]] episode, the girls attempt to apologize on learning during their flying race they actually traveled thirty years into the future, leaving the city and "the day" unprotected. Their father is a husk who can't believe they're alive and young, while the deadened citizens try to attack them. The girls quickly use their super-speed to go back in time to undo this [[Bad Future]].
** Inverted in an episode where Buttercup bullies a kid she nicknames "Paste Eater", which leads to him becoming an uncontrollable paste monster. He starts lashing out at everyone, while demanding an apology from Buttercup. Buttercup, much to her sisters' consternation, refuses to do so on the grounds that he's attacking the teacher as well, who was trying to ''stop'' said bullying and tries to defeat him the old-fashioned way. Even when she's finally forced to give the apology, she is [[Gagging on Your Words]]. Only then does he stop and use his powers to repair the damage to the school.
* ''[[Teen Titans]]''
** In "Nevermore", Robin encourages Beast Boy to apologize to Raven for upsetting her over breakfast. He tries, and for reasons he and Cyborg get trapped in Raven's mind mirror. When she realizes what they did and confronts them, Beast Boy finally apologizes. She ignores him because her angry self is on the attack.
** "Forces of Nature" inverts this, where Beast Boy refuses to apologize for a prank that hit Starfire instead of Cyborg. Instead, he keeps making jokes. As a result, she refuses to talk to him. It takes Lightning and Thunder nearly burying her alive for Beast Boy to give an apology.
** "Betrayal" has Slade out Terra to Beast Boy as his new apprentice, and that she left his friends to die in Titans Tower. Terra runs from the two fighting, collapses, and apologizes. Beast Boy asks, "[[Armor-Piercing Question|Then why did you do it?]]" She says that she owed Slade for teaching her control of her powers; in response, Beast Boy turns his back on her. He regrets it later.
** "Things Change" has Beast Boy toss mud at who he thinks is an amnesiac Terra, thinking it will trigger her powers. Instead, he splatters her in the face and she runs off before he can apologize. When he attempts to apologize the next day, she tells him bluntly that she is not Terra, only an ordinary schoolgirl.
* One ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' short has a piano fall on Tom while he's tormenting Jerry. The cat at the pearly white gates says that Tom can't get into heaven unless he has Jerry sign a certificate of forgiveness within an hour. Tom returns to life, frantic; he tries to offer a cake as an apology to Jerry, only for Jerry to eat the cake and spray pen ink in the cat's face. Faking the signature won't work because both the cat angels and dog demons are watching. When they both see the dog demon laughing as the clock ticks, Tom starts to beg and mimes his predicament, and Jerry is bewildered but signs the agreement. Unfortunately, Tom is too late and ends up in Hell... until he wakes up by the fire where a stray coal had burned him and realizes it was a dream. He not only sighs in relief but also knocks on Jerry's mouse hole, thanking him with kisses. Naturally, Jerry is confused, and ends the short shrugging at the camera.
* ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' has "drama" in the title for a reason.
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** In "L is for Loser" when Irma humiliates Martin for serenading her on the school's new radio show. While she had a legitimate point that he was overstepping boundaries, yelling it without realizing the loudspeaker was on was overkill. She tries to apologize to him later at his house, but Martin points out that she's just feeling bad, and isn't really sorry. The next day, she goes on the loudspeaker again, willingly, and gives a public apology. He forgives her, and cools it on the flirting.
** "M is for Mercy": Inverted when {{spoiler|Nerissa uses her power boost to resurrect her lover and fellow Guardian Cassidy, planning to brainwash her for a new Guardians team. She expects, after giving a sincere apology, that Cassidy would have [[Unfinished Business]] and resentment about being unceremoniously murdered; all those negative feelings would allow her to take over Cassidy. However, Cassidy has forgiven Nerissa and says that she would rather stay dead. It doesn't help that Cassidy knows her girlfriend too well, that Nerissa would have an ulterior motive for resurrecting her.}}
== [[Real Life]] ==
* A parent may say to a child "Sorry isn't enough" to explain this lesson. The child may need a while to understand it, since we are taught to say sorry when making a mistake.
* Radio host [[Don Imus]] once referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "Nappy-headed hos". Note that the women were black, with "Nappy" being a racial slur. Imus made a public apology, but he was soon fired from the show. It didn't help that he said after, "And it was a straight-forward apology that Charles and I wrote. And I didn’t offer any I didn’t think it was necessary to offer any excuse, and I don’t think there is now. "
▲* In her comic memoir ''Return to Society Punch!'', Naoko Takeuchi recounted that everyone at Kodansha was ''so'' sorry because they lost several pages of her follow-up series ''PQ Angels'', and they kept passing the buck. Needless to say, she did not accept their apologies. (This was before digital backups and scans.) To add insult to injury, she was pressured to do another long-form series after finishing ''Sailor Moon'', despite begging for a break, and she was burned out from working all the time. Takeuchi got so fed up that she quit Kodansha, took a long-needed vacation for a year, and went to work for Shueisha instead.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Drama Tropes]]
[[Category:Psychology Tropes]]
[[Category:Pages Original to All The Tropes]]
[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]
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