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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"To err is human, to forgive, divine."''
|'''Alexander Pope''', ''An Essay on Criticism''}}
'''Forgiveness''' is perhaps the hardest thing anyone can do, because the things that truly need forgiving are usually those that hurt the deepest. Then again, has the offender really earned forgiveness? Do they have to? Or is forgiveness for such a sin even possible? Is there such a thing as an [[This Is Unforgivable!|unforgivable sin?]] And just to complicate things further, who's to say forgiveness is a good thing in this situation, or ''at all?''▼
▲{{quote|''"To err is human, to forgive, divine."''|'''Alexander Pope''', ''An Essay on Criticism''}}
▲Forgiveness is perhaps the hardest thing anyone can do, because the things that truly need forgiving are usually those that hurt the deepest. Then again, has the offender really earned forgiveness? Do they have to? Or is forgiveness for such a sin even possible? Is there such a thing as an [[This Is Unforgivable!|unforgivable sin?]] And just to complicate things further, who's to say forgiveness is a good thing in this situation, or ''at all?''
So it is that this cornerstone [[An Aesop|Aesop]] causes a lot of problems to all involved. Storyteller included.
The necessity of Forgiveness and its effects are all over the [[Sliding Scale of
# Any character with a legitimate grievance who wants [[Revenge]] shouldn't exact it. It just perpetuates the [[Cycle of Revenge]] and makes them into monsters as bad as their targets. To get true emotional closure, they should forgive the offender.
# They shouldn't take revenge... but if they do, it doesn't make them monsters, and is in fact perfectly fine and justified method of gaining Justice. Usually, this story has [[Anti-Hero
# They not only can, but ''should'' take revenge. It will not only give them emotional closure, but will be a long overdue public service since the offender is seriously messed up. Besides, the set up for this isn't one of an "escalating" cycle a la [[The Punisher]], but a single, one off deal that may even end it.
* [[Turn the Other Cheek|Not taking revenge will spiritually cleanse the character]], allowing such things as [[Redemption
* Not taking revenge will emotionally destroy the character... at least in the short run. In the long run they might be better off, unless the overarching
* Taking revenge does no lasting mental or emotional damage, perhaps even healing emotional scars, but it does [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him|morally bankrupt the character]].
* Taking revenge does lasting emotional damage ''and'' morally bankrupts the character.
* Not taking revenge empowers the offending party (the proposed target of said revenge), and the offender will come back again and again, knowing they won't suffer any repercussions for their actions.
Of course, a story pushing the most idealist of these by having the hero forgive and pardon the trespasser commonly has said trespasser indignantly refuse the forgiveness and outstretched hand with treachery. This being fiction, the [[Laser-Guided Karma]] from spurning their generosity results in them [[Always a Bigger Fish|getting eaten by a bigger fish]], shot/stabbed by the hero or a less forgiving companion who was on their guard, or simply [[Self
Then again, it's not uncommon for sadistic heroes to "forgive" the bad guy with a [[Cruel Mercy]] that makes it impossible to harm anyone ever again.
See also: [[Easily Forgiven]], [[Forgiveness Requires Death]], [[Cuteness Equals Forgiveness]], and [[This Is Unforgivable!]].
The opposite of this trope is [[Apology Not Accepted]].
Not to be confused with ''[[Forgiveness: A Gift from My Grandparents|Forgiveness]]'', Mark Sakamoto's memoirs, which was the winner of the 2018 edition of [[Canada Reads]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In one arc of the ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' manga and anime, a little boy's big brother dies protecting him from some bad guys. The little boy gets the chance to take revenge by killing one of the bad guys (who is unconscious), but is convinced not to: it wouldn't give him his brother back, and it would destroy him emotionally (basically bullet point 4 above). Instead, he should live a life that would make his brother proud of him, protecting those weaker than himself and not giving in to evil.
** That's Kenshin's view, anyway. The boy was first stopped from attacking by Saitou, because revenge killing is illegal and would saddle Saitou with paperwork. Also, the man, as an underling of the [[Big Bad]], can be tortured for information, which would be more satisfying as revenge in Saitou's view. Saitou is endorsing forgiveness in a practical sense, but emotional closure or spiritual well-being apparently don't factor in.
* In ''[[Gundam Seed]]'', after {{spoiler|Athrun}} [[Heel Face Turn|joins the good guys]], someone approaches Miriallia and tells her that it was him who killed her boyfriend Tolle. Miriallia just walks away, saying that revenge won't change anything, thus becoming the first character in the show to actually forgive a misguided enemy.
** However, in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', Saji Crossroad follows Aesop 1 and tried his damnedest to get Louise Halevy to follow his footsteps. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|Louise ignores him and goes on to exact righteous vengeance on her parents' murderer Nena Trinity. She ends up in effects 4, for a short while until her mentality and moral compass gets restored by Setsuna's GN Particles, and Saji's persistence}}
* In ''[[Naruto]]'' taking revenge makes Team Ten and especially Shikamaru grow up and get over their grief (although it's largely motivated by finishing the mission that {{spoiler|Asuma}} died trying to complete). It's Aesop three.
** Sasuke on the other hand leans ''very'' heavily on Aesop three {{spoiler|to the point of wanting to kill his entire home town for the actions of few elders.}} Tough to say how he'll end up.
** Naruto, on the other hand, {{spoiler|completely forgives Pain, unlike the two above}}.
*** So it's [[Take a Third Option|option number 4: decide on a case by case basis, rather than relying on simplifications for life-and-death decisions]].
* ''[[Monster (
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' had these as recurring lesson. [[Anvilicious|Again and again]]. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|Then again]], [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|some lessons needs to be always reminded]].
* A certain <s>German</s>Roman soldier in ''[[So Ra No
{{quote|
* In the final episode of ''[[Gundam Wing]]'', Lady Une (having since resolved her [[Split Personality]]) offers Relena a gun, saying that she's like a body without a soul and letting the girl take revenge for Une murdering her father. Relena pushes the gun aside, saying they need to break the [[Vicious Cycle]].
** Earlier in the series, after Heero is duped into killing well-intentioned [[The Federation|Alliance]] leaders, he goes around to their families and likewise offers them a gun. Field Marshall Noventa's widow writes Heero a letter, asking him to stop beating himself up over an honest mistake and encouraging him to think about the future rather than fixating on the past.
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* [[Messianic Archetype|Unsurprisingly,]] [[Superman]] is all about this, from cheerily recommending Metropolis's reform program to various petty criminals he catches to trying to convince supervillains that if they stop being evil, he'll be more than happy to help them out.
** His long time science assistant Emil Hamilton started out as a villain and attacked Superman. It helps though that he was basically a nutty scientist pushed over the edge by corporate double-dealing ala Luthor. He was clearly from the beginning the sort of criminal that could be rehabilitated.
*** Sadly, Hamilton fell into villainy again due to a combination of feeling sidelined as Superman sought aid from other science-minded heroes like Steel and forming a crazy theory that Superman was draining the Sun of energy and bring about the end of life on Earth...4.5 billion years later.
* Reed Richards of the [[Fantastic Four]] still doesn't really hate Doom (who has tried to kill him a hundred or so times and is constantly making his life hell), mostly feeling miserable and guilty about being the reason for Doom's turn to villainy, even though it wasn't his fault at all. On more than one occasion, a fight between the two has degenerated into Reed begging Doom to reform, and Sue once baldly told Doom that Reed is incapable of holding a grudge, in contrast to Doom, whose entire existence is based around his seething [[Green-Eyed Monster|jealous]] grudge against Reed.
== Fan Works ==
* One of the common [[Flanderization]]s of Albus Dumbledore in ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fic is to turn him into a figure willing to forgive any atrocity by Voldemort and other evil/"dark" wizards, giving them endless "second chances" in the hope of securing their eventual [[Heel Face Turn|redemption]], even in the face of all common sense and their own admission of never intending to redeem.
== Film ==
* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'', Tia Dalma and Davy Jones continually tear each other up not so much for their past sins as because they can't forgive each other. (Will is deeply moved watching them, and quite possibly inspired to avoid that, despite the wrongs he and Elizabeth had done each in the film, by asking Elizabeth to marry him during the battle; since [[They Do]], they know they can forgive each other.)
* In ''[
* One of the major themes on the movie, ''[[Super 8]]'' such as {{spoiler|From the captured alien stopping his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] to Alice's father forgiven for the (indirect) death of Joe's mother.}}
* In ''[[Spider-Man (
== [[Literature]] ==
* From ''[[Sword of Truth|Temple of the Winds]]'', you get the fourth [[Once an Episode|Wizard's Rule]]: "There is magic in sincere forgiveness; in the forgiveness you give, but more so in the forgiveness you receive."
** This valuable lesson is promptly forgotten in subsequent books; or more precisely, the protagonists never attempt to apply it to anyone besides one another.
* In [[
** To be honest, most of the New Testament was all about this, really.
* In the Irish medieval epic ''Voyage of Maeldun'', the hero hears of his father's death and set out to avenge it. He gets lost at sea, and at the end is directed home by a wise hermit, who forbids him to take his revenge because God has preserved him in his perils at sea.
** Alfred Lord Tennyson did a poem "The Voyage of Maeldune" on it. The hermit cites the [[Cycle of Revenge]] for why he should give it up.
* In [[Rick Cook]]'s ''[[Limbo System]]'', when humans are held prisoner by aliens, the priest among them discusses philosophy with prisoner aliens. At one point, he says that people must especially love those who have wronged them, and an alien is delighted with the concept: by loving them, you have freed yourself from bondage to them.
* In ''[[
* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Chronicles of Chaos
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': this is Dumbledore's specialty. Other characters even accuse him of being too willing to forgive. Justified by his backstory revealed in ''[[Harry Potter and
** The ''Harry Potter'' series in general has a strong [[Power of Love]] and forgiveness [[Aesop]]. There's Snape spying for Dumbledore {{spoiler|because he was in love with Lily Evans}}, Narcissa Malfoy
* ''[[Someone Else's
== [[Live
* The recurring theme in ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* This is shown fully in the end of series 3 of the new ''[[
* In the ''[[Babylon
== Music ==
* "The Heart of the Matter" by Don Henley.
==
* In [[Dorothy L. Sayers]]' ''The Emperor Constantine'', Constantine discusses with his mother how he had pardoned but not forgiven his enemies before. He realizes that he may not pardon his wife's treachery, but he must forgive her.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Castlevania]]'' has this pop up occasionally, starting with ''Symphony of the Night''.
* ''[[
* {{spoiler|[[The Atoner|Aribeth]]}} can be looking for it by the end of [[Neverwinter Nights]]. Of course, events revealed in Hordes of the Underdark indicate that she didn't get it on the material plane, and her quest through the Hells has been a continuation.
* Another one from ''[[
* Forgiveness tends to be the Paragon option in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. A specific example is {{spoiler|pushing Garrus towards forgiving Sidonis in his loyalty mission.}}
* ''[[
* Forgiveness is a theme that is relevant for Presea in ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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** In the story "Forgive Me Not" of ''[[PB and J Otter]]'', Pinch accidentally rips Jelly's favorite cape. She keeps doing Jelly's chores, but Jelly won't forgive her. When Jelly accidentally breaks Aunt Nanner's sunglasses, Aunt Nanner forgives her and she realizes that she needs to do the same for Pinch.
** In "The Grudge Won't Budge" story of ''[[Dragon Tales]]'', Zak is mad at Wheezie for breaking his snoot flute. His anger and unwillingness to forgive is represented by a furry Grudge that actually clings on to him and won't go away until he can bring himself to forgive Wheezie. The Grudge talks to him in a wheedling voice, encouraging him to hold on to his anger and feelings of having been wronged.
** In "Playtime at Tolee's" on ''[[Ni Hao, Kai
** ''[[Adventures
* Obligatory ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' example: Katara was the last of the Gaang to forgive Zuko because he had personally hurt her with his betrayal in Ba Sing Se, but after he helped her find her mother's killer, she forgave him. In regards to Katara finding her mother's killer: {{spoiler|when she does, she's a heartbeat away from skewering him with rain-bent-into-icicles; when she sees the cowardly shell of a man he (still) is she spares him, but does not forgive him}}.
** And then, later on, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|in one of the most touching scenes of the series, Zuko]] {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|finds forgiveness at the hands of Iroh, who reveals that he had always loved Zuko despite all the bad things that he had done]].}}
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[[Category:Peace Tropes]]
[[Category:Goodness Tropes]]
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