It's not about a single poorly written redemption arc or one character being forgiven in an unnatural way.
This is about works that trivialize the very concept of redemption, relativizing evil and manufacturing a false gray morality where "there is no true evil, only misunderstood people." Even when a character commits atrocities worthy of real-world dictators, the plot and cast simply slap on a tragic backstory, stage an artificially emotional scene of them crying, and suddenly all their actions are justified and forgiven. Everyone pardons them without ever demanding accountability or enforcing consequences—and anyone who dares to hold a grudge is framed as the villain.
Or, short of that, the story takes characters who clearly aren't outright villains and puts them through artificial, unnatural pseudo-therapy sessions, instantly transforming them into the second coming of Jesus Christ. This flattens their personality or reduces them to a caricature of a reformed outlaw whose only crime was stealing a lollipop from a baby.
Stories like this fall into classic writing traps, such as refusing to portray genuinely evil people, or lacking the nerve to acknowledge that some individuals are simply evil for the sake of it. Even if a narrative explains a character's motives, it should never excuse them; even if a villain feels genuine remorse, a simple "please forgive me" cannot erase the past.
In severe cases, victimized characters who demand consequences—or simply refuse to forgive their abuser—are demonized or branded as terrible people. Even when their grievances are completely valid and forgiving would insult the memory of the victims, the plot relativizes evil and vilifies the righteous to force an artificial moral narrative. Realistically, such a dynamic would never hold up, revealing the author's warped, simplistic understanding of forgiveness and redemption.
Before moving on to examples, here is a phrase to summarize this trope:
"When a story redeems every single character that appears in it, it isn't truly redeeming bad people or humanizing them—it is just handing out free therapy sessions."
Steven Universe: OH BOY! I think you've seen plenty of critique videos, memes, and fan comics out there rewriting those "Steven forgiving space Hitlers" moments, so I don't think I need to elaborate too much on this one.
It's just hilarious to think about the literal perspective of the villains in Steven Universe: out of nowhere, a 10-year-old kid starts singing right in front of you, and suddenly you feel like Jesus Christ Himself just touched your heart.
Hazbin Hotel: I could literally write a bible about everything wrong with this series from its very concept, but if there's one thing Hazbin Hotel excels at, it's lacking the maturity to handle good and evil. The show sells itself as morally gray, but we have literal demons from Hell being relativized and humanized, while completely ignoring—and never seriously exploring—why they ended up in Hell in the first place.
On the contrary, its own creator relativized a character who is literally a sexual predator and abuser. Biblical figures like Lucifer, who are practically the root of all human evil to begin with, are reduced to a misunderstood twink who was wronged by the DAMN CONSERVATIVE ANGELS. The show never features characters who ACTUALLY COMMITTED HORRIFIC CRIMES, relying instead on generic gangsters and generic killers.
It also has the incredible idea of relativizing Hell while demonizing Heaven. In its pilot, the narrative at least acknowledged the core objective of redeeming even just ONE soul from Hell so they could go to Heaven. But then suddenly, Heaven became an allegory for extremist, idiot conservative conglomerates who, despite existing for infinite years, somehow don't know what good and evil are for plot convenience. The plot demonizes angels who kill demons in Hell while praising or turning a blind eye to demons doing the exact same thing, if not worse.
The series isn't even operating under its premise of the hotel redeeming sinners anymore; at this point, Charlie, the protagonist, hasn't actually redeemed a single person, nor does she even seem to understand what good, evil, or redemption mean. Yet, the story frames her as a great redeemer. And let's not even get into how much of this reflects its creator's anti-religious stance—ironically creating a show that takes complex Biblical and Judaic concepts and reduces them to something written by a 12-year-old on Tumblr... well, she did come from Tumblr.
At the end of the day, this work doesn't even properly handle the concept of redemption; it just uses it in the most simplistic, convenient way possible, applying humanization to the worst kinds of people WHO SHOULD NEVER RECEIVE IT.
Shy hero: Imagine My Hero Academia, but literally EVERY single "villain" who appears MUST be humanized, relativized, and forgiven at every single turn.
setup tries to promote fighting against violence and judgment, but we are literally in a battle shonen where characters fight each other—only to stop everything mid-battle to hold a pseudo-therapy session with a bunch of troubled kids...
Yes, there are no actual villains in this story. The "villains" are actually just a bunch of kids the author tries to sell as bad guys, but they don't do anything truly villainous. They literally look more like rebellious children committing daytime "mischief" until the protagonist shows up and redeems them in the worst way imaginable... by claiming that deep down, they're just shy...
Yes... you read that right... there are plots involving characters dealing with depression, suicide, self-harm, and dehumanization, and the story resolves ALL of these massive issues simply by having the protagonist claim that every single villain she faces is just like her... merely shy...
Yes... shyness is placed on the exact same level as an ILLNESS like depression, alongside heavy topics like suicide attempts, prostitution, and self-harm. The plot suddenly pulls this in EVERY SINGLE FIGHT. Nothing actually feels like a genuine story; instead, it feels like the author is running a poorly crafted mental health campaign, touching on topics that ARE NOT EASY TO RESOLVE, only to solve them in the most banal, overly simplistic way possible.
The irony is that not even the protagonist seems truly willing to deeply understand her enemies' problems. She just spots a flaw, projects herself onto them even when it makes no sense, and the plot validates her as completely right, bending backward to frame her as a great redeemer. It practically trivializes redemption while disrespecting and simplifying serious mental health conditions like depression, all while pretending it's delivering something complex that actually helps people facing these issues in real life.