• There's a very dark example in Attack on Titan with Bertholt Hoover. As a Titan Shifter infiltrator to the Survey Corps, he's responsible for Wall Maria falling, a good chunk of the people within dying, and personally tries to kill his teammates. When he's about to be Eaten Alive by Armin in Mindless Titan form, he cries out and begs for his former comrades to save him, only to notice that they're not moving.
• The Legend of Zelda (Akira Himekawa): In the Skyward Sword one-shot, with Demise's army on the move, the Hylians have no choice but to turn to Link, who was imprisoned and brutalized. Link even calls his visitors out on it.
• In SPY×FAMILY, George Glooman believes that the Desmond family is driving his own into bankruptcy and that he'll have to leave Eden Academy once his family's wealth runs out. He angrily tells off Damian Desmond, and gets the rest of his sympathetic classmates to follow his whims, since he has to leave them soon. Then George realises that his family isn't going bankrupt and he's still going to Eden after all. His classmates aren't amused.

Crossovers

• Cosmic Freaky Friday: The basic premise of the series is that the Fate/Grand Order versions of various Olympian Gods, monsters and other mythic figures merge with their counterparts in the Riordanverse and are collectively horrified by what their alternates have done, seeking to become Redeeming Replacements and fix what others have destroyed:
  • Zeus attempts to repair his relationship with Hera, heartbroken by how she regards their marriage as an Awful Wedded Life and wants nothing to do with him.
  • Demeter seeks to reconnect with her demigod children upon realizing how negligent her counterpart was.
  • Hermes tries to reach out to Castellan and provide the love and support he needs.
• Cyberpunk: Another Daybreak: One interlude reveals that Katsuo's father has been pressuring him to mend his relationship with David so that they can hook up with Hiden. David responded by blocking his former friend's phone number.
• The Faith Chronicles: Faith faces this when she returns to Sunnydale in order to help deal with Glory.
• Marinette's Island Adventure: After having their Heel Realization regarding their poor treatment of Marinette and believing Lila's lies, the Akuma class (Sans Adrien, Alya, Nathaniel, Mylene, Juleka, and Rose, and the latter three only being because they hadn't openly disavowed Lila yet) manage to get in touch with her and apologize in between episodes. While it isn't said how their conversation went, the implication is that Marinette is at least aware they are truly penitent, as Kim promised to let her punch him as payback for his beating of her.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/BioShock fanfic Vision, our Anti-Hero, Siren, due to a mix of Trauma Conga Line, Fish Out of Water, and just not being all that nice to begin with, says some rather hurtful things to another character who was just being nice to her. As she walks away, she has a small My God, What Have I Done? moment but doesn't go back to apologize. Guess who she ends up at the mercy of later?

The Brittas Empire

• True Love Is Never A Straight Path: After getting involved with Michael, Helen leaves her husband Brittas, Taking the Kids with her. When he tracks her down, she admits that she'd been cheating on him since the day they'd first met, much to his shock and dismay. Michael later dumps her, forcing her to move back in with her mother; Helen then attempts to rekindle her relationship with Brittas, only to find that he was too hurt by having learned Michael was far from the first instance of her infidelity.

Digimon

• A Dragon in Shining Armour: Craniamon finds himself in this position when he has to return to his hometown Caer Ygg, which he left on bad terms after an argument with his father.

DuckTales (2017)

• An Adventure Too Weird For Words features several variations on the same theme in its final chapters:
  • Louie desperately hopes that the rest of his family will reconsider their harsh treatment of him after he spent time trapped in an Alternate Universe future, only to find that they're continuing to blame him for everything and dismissed his disappearance as a cheap bid for attention. This leads into him fearing that the other family won't take him back, scared that he'd burned that bridge by returning to his home timeline in the first place. Thankfully, he finds that they're much more forgiving than the originals.
  • Huey, Dewey and Webby stumble headlong into this when they come across Lena and Violet, who read them the riot act for how easily they turned against their own brother/honorary brother thanks to Della's Toxic Family Influence. Lena makes clear that she's especially disappointed in Webby and considers their friendship over.
  • Finally, Donald Duck has a full-fledged Heel Realization after Scrooge fills him in on all the stuff Della left out of her version of events, and reaches out to Gladstone and Fethry in hopes of making amends. However, Duckworth makes it clear that it's far too late for anyone to reconcile with Louie, as he's already returned to the alternate future with no intent of ever returning.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

• In A Thousand Answers, Dio ends up becoming a vampire earlier than canon due to having the Stone Mask fall on him during his and Jonathan's fight, and since he hadn't yet desired that kind of power, he hates being a vampire. Unfortunately, the only two people equipped to help him are Erina Pendleton (whom he gave his infamous Forceful Kiss to earlier) and Jonathan Joestar (who started fighting him specifically to avenge Erina's honor). He's not happy with this arrangement but sucks it up as best he can.

The Loud House

• The Loud House: Calma y Caos: When he learns that their old house in Royal Woods has been repossessed and is going to be demolished, Lincoln sets out to find all his sisters and return to reclaim it, as all of them are listed as beneficiaries and need to be present. Problem is, Lincoln went into Self-Imposed Exile after his wife's Death by Childbirth, which naturally makes things tricky as he has to reconnect with all his sisters along the way.

Love Hina

• In For His Own Sake, Naru Narusegawa, Kaolla Su, and Sarah McDougal all find themselves in this position. Defied with Mutsumi Otohime and Granny Hinata "Hina" Urashima, as both decide that attempting reconciliation is effectively pointless, instead trying to accept how their own actions are responsible for destroying what they once had.
  • When Naru's mother and stepsister tried reaching out to her, she hit the latter with a vicious Breaking Speech, projecting all of her own flaws onto Mei while accusing her of being a self-absorbed Attention Whore who couldn't stand not having the world revolve around her every whim. After Granny Hina cuts her off, she goes back to her mother, expecting Saori to Easily Forgive her outburst and welcome her back. Saori turns her away, revealing that she knows Naru had gone to her father first, as well as Keitaro, but got rejected by both. Saori notes that she'd warned her this would happen if she kept lashing out.
  • Kaolla Su was absolutely sure that somebody would get her out of jail, whether it was her family, Granny Hina, Keitaro, or the other Hinata girls. Over time, she slowly realizes how serious her situation is, losing hope. Eventually, she wants to at least apologize to Keitaro. Being denied even that, she accepts her fate and states that she hates Granny Hina for being a liar.
  • Sarah McDougal disowned her own father, Seta, expecting Naru and the other girls to come get her out of St. Clavius Academy. When she learns they aren't coming, she starts acting out more, getting into trouble with the headmistress and trying to attract his attention. Haruka comes instead, informing her that she's to remain at the academy until high school, as St. Clavius only extends until middle school. Sarah is forced to realize that she'd broken the bond she once shared with her father simply because she couldn't stand not getting her way.
  • Mutsumi Otohime finally realizes that her quest to get Keitaro and Naru back together was pointless from the start, and that she'd burned all her bridges in the process. She accepts her expulsion from Toudai with as much grace as she can muster, and doesn't ask those she hurt for forgiveness, figuring that they wouldn't listen to her or wish to see her again after all she'd done.
  • In the final chapter, Granny Hina finally recognizes she was wrong, and that her actions destroyed her relationship with her family. She hires lawyers for Naru and Mutsumi, informing both girls that this was the last time she's helping either of them out, before sadly leaving Japan and her destroyed relationships behind her.

Miraculous Ladybug

• In the wake of Season 3's "Chameleon", a common plotline for Salt Fics involves Marinette's classmates Easily Condemning her thanks to Lila's Malicious Slander. Only the classmates the writer likes stick by her side; the rest break off their friendships with her. Upon realizing their mistake (usually due to Lila being exposed as a Manipulative Bitch, missing out on all the things Marinette used to do for them as their "everyday Ladybug", or learning that she IS Ladybug), they reach out to her again... and are typically rebuffed for being Fair-Weather Friends.
• Ash and Cinder:
  • In the aftermath, Adrien repeatedly tries contacting Marinette in hopes of reconnecting with her. She shoots down all his efforts, telling him that his Betrayal by Inaction was unforgivable and she wants nothing more to do with him. He eventually gives up, though Marinette notes that she has no way of knowing whether he's accepted that they will never be friends again or is just wrapped up in feeling sorry for himself.
  • She also manages to reconnect with Nathaniel, Rose and Juleka, though it takes significant amounts of time for her to slowly warm back up to them.
• Averted in Bridges Burned (Mama Always Told Me That I Should Play Nice. But She Never Met You). As Marinette reveals the incredible amount of celebrities she knows, having them use their connections to hook up friends in other classes with incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, Alya, Nino, and her other former friends refuse to even consider making amends with her. They console themselves with the notion that Lila's supposed connections are even bigger and better than Marinette's, and that they'll eventually be rewarded for siding with her instead... until Jagged Stone swings by the school. When Penny casually reveals that he's allergic to cats, Chloé gleefully asks how Lila could have saved a pet that never existed, causing the whole class to realize she'd been lying all along and they'd turned against Marinette for trying to warn them.
• Exposed: The morning after Alya outed Marinette by posting a video of her transforming into Ladybug, she bounces up to her at school and launches into an impromptu interview, opening by asking why Marinette never told her she was the superheroine. In this case, Alya doesn't recognize how she torched the bridge to begin with; she's so self-centered and entitled that she sincerely doesn't see anything wrong with what she did. Even after being extensively called out for her betrayal, she continues to insist that Marinette's overreacting and isn't in any danger. (Granted, Alya is actually right about Marinette being safe, but only because the villains are the ones to have a Heel Realization about their actions.)
• Seen with a twist in He Can Only Blame Himself: After dating for a few years, Adrien cheats on Marinette with Lila after the latter convinces him that Marinette has put her career first. Gabriel then twists the knife by firing Marinette, when it was his overworking her that triggered Adrien's infidelity in the first place. When news of the breakup goes viral, Gabriel angrily orders his son to "fix things" by reconciling with his ex-girlfriend. Rather than making his appeal to her directly, however, Adrien calls his cousin Felix — Marinette has started working for his aunt Amilie, and Adrien decides that's a safer angle to tackle. This only serves to underscore how little he respects his ex, and Felix forces him to confront how he's let his relationships with their side of the family degrade as well, right up until he decided he needed something from them.
• How about... No!: Marinette and her supporters Nathaniel, Adrien and Chloé get "banished" to the back of their classroom, with everyone but Adrien banned from going on class trips. After Lila is exposed, they arrive to find the rest of their classmates have reverted to the old seating arrangment, expecting everything to "go back to normal". The four simply reclaim their seats in the back, blowing off all of their classmates' offers to rejoin them on trips and act like friends again.
  Alya: Girl, didn't you hear us! We're sorry!
  Marinette: Oh I know you're sorry. I just don't know why you think that matters.
• The Karma of Lies:
  • Gabriel attempts to do this with Audrey after he's exposed as Hawkmoth and arrested, upon realizing that she's positioned herself to take control of Agreste Fashion. He tries appealing to her by citing their long-term friendship, only for Audrey to remind him of how he manipulated and akumatized her into Style Queen.
  • The above runs parallel to Adrien attempting to convince Marinette to help him "fix everything" by making another appeal based on their friendship. Adrien had previously let said "friendship" rot by refusing to help deal with Lila, insisting that Marinette was strong enough to handle the bullying alone even when she told him how much she was suffering. Much like his father, Adrien treats their "friendship" as a convenient card he can play to get what he wants out of their relationship without doing anything in return, only to be turned down.
  • Alya, Nino, and most of Marinette's former classmates also fall into this category. After repeatedly ditching and ignoring Marinette, having taken their "Everyday Ladybug" completely for granted, they learn that she actually is Ladybug when she and her True Companions bring down Hawkmoth. Naturally, they're eager to buddy back up with their former friend, only for her to call them out on being Fair-Weather Friends and make clear that they're not going back to their former All Take and No Give dynamic. Only a couple of them recognize where they went wrong and make efforts to atone; the rest remain Entitled Bastards whose efforts to "get her back" only serve to isolate them further.
• LadyBugOut: Alya's relationships with Ladybug and Marinette fall apart when she uses the Ladyblog to spread Tabloid Melodrama about the superheroine, with Marinette "helping" her alter ego set up her own blog to counter Alya's Blatant Lies. Alya refuses to admit how she is responsible for said relationships falling apart, even after it becomes clear that Marinette was telling the truth when she warned her about Lila. Instead, she insists that it's on Marinette to cross the brunt bridge by apologizing to her, only to find that Marinette isn't interested in placating her.
• A Lady’s Scout (and the Salt within her Soul): After she gives some of her classmates symbolic "gifts" before retiring them as temporary heroes, due to them ostracizing her thanks to Lila's lies, rumors spread that Marinette might be secretly working with Ladybug and helping her select candidates for these roles. Naturally, this causes many of her classmates to start cozying back up to her in hopes that she'll hook them back up with "their" Miraculouses, which she responds to by giving the more insistent ones their own "gifts" to signal that they'll never be trusted with the responsibility.
• Leave for Mendeleiev: While Marinette is more than happy to get away from her long-time bully Chloé, Mme Bustier repeatedly attempts to force her former student back across that bridge, trying to 'volunteer' her to tutor Chloé and otherwise make them spend more time together. All because Chloé wants more access to her favorite victim, and Bustier refuses to see the reality of the situation, insisting that she never noticed any problems before.
• Marinette's Week Off: In the sequel, Alya declares that Marinette's supposed bullying of Lila is utterly unforgivable and that she NEVER wants to be friends with her again... right before they see Marinette walking down the red carpet at a movie premiere. Alya immediately switches tracks and starts calling Marinette her "bestie" again, making no effort to hide how she's only interested in leeching off of her newfound success.
• Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots:
  • A Price to Pay has Adrien attempting this after betraying Marinette. While he initially assumed that reality being rewritten in the course of granting his father's Wish would ensure that nobody knew what they'd done, said Wish is granted in such a way so that everybody knows Gabriel Agreste killed Tom Dupain-Cheng in a car accident, then bribed his way to a "victory" in court, leaving him Convicted by Public Opinion instead. What's more, Marinette also remembers the original reality, so she's fully aware of the scope of his betrayal beyond just defending his father's flagrant disregard for the law. Played With in that that Adrien is so grossly entitled that he takes Marinette's support completely for granted, acting as though she's the one in the wrong for not accepting his Backhanded Apology and helping him "fix everything".
  • In Masked Hearts, Adrien has been dating Kagami for two years. This doesn't stop him from immediately revealing his secret identity to Ladybug after Hawkmoth's been defeated and asking her out... right in front of Kagami. Upon being rebuffed, he immediately tries paving over the damage by claiming he was just joking, but the damage is already done, and Kagami breaks up with him right then and there.
• Oh Lady Luck (How I miss you so!) opens with Alya and the majority of Marinette's classmates unceremoniously stripping Marinette of her role of class president while insisting they aren't friends anymore. Adrien then decides that he's Neutral No Longer and declares this means he's not friends with any of them, while Chloé gleefully tags along and helps turn the class's attempt at Karmic Shunning against them. Once Lila's mother outs her daughter as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, the trio get peppered with frantic apologies, only to make clear that none of them are interested in mending fences with their classmates.
• Queen of Mean AU: After Ladybug releases a video exposing Lila as somebody who's lied about having close ties with her and other celebrities, along with calling out Alya for providing a platform for her claims without doing any research, Alya and the rest of the class expect Marinette to Easily Forgive them for how swiftly they'd turned upon her. Unfortunately for them, Marinette had already decided to become the mean girl they'd accused her of being, and has no intention of being their "everyday Ladybug" anymore.
• In Raise yourselves up (We're done), Miss Bustier bars Marinette and Chloé from joining their class trip, spurring them to start the World Travellers' Club so they can make their own arrangements. After discovering just how much she overlooked when it came to their plans to visit New York, Bustier and Adrien attempt to convince the pair to let the class tag along on their trip. Both girls spell out for them and the rest of the class that even if they were willing to bring them along after how they mistreated them, that doesn't change how they failed to do any of the paperwork necessary for any kind of trip outside Paris, and it's far too late to get that all sorted out now.
• Rather be Me (than with You): After realizing how much they'd relied upon Marinette doing favors for them, her classmates attempt to reach out and repair their ruined relationship. Played With in that their efforts are all self-defeating, such as Rose stating they'll accept her back if she apologizes to them and admits she was wrong about Lila, or spreading Malicious Slander out of jealousy after realizing she's made new friends outside of their class.
• Spots Drawn in Marker: After Lila and Rébecca are exposed as having lied about the latter being Ladybug, Marinette notices that several of her classmates keep stealing guilty glances towards her. She reflects that while it's likely she'll forgive the majority eventually, she will never forget how easily they all turned upon her and dismissed her warnings. What's more, she considers Alya and Adrien to be completely unforgivable, both because of how much more personal their betrayals were and how neither is willing to admit fault.
• Tattered Remains of Broken Dreams (Yours, not Mine): Out of all the students who participated in ripping up Marinette's school sketchbook (or stood by and watched), the only one who makes any effort to repair their ruined relationship is Rose. The rest cling to the notion that they were the real victims, since they lost out on all the things Marinette was making for them. Alya is specifically noted to be giving Marinette pitiful glances, trying to guilt-trip her former bestie into feeling sorry for her.
• Played With in Two Letters. The central premise is that Marinette quit being Ladybug and passed the Earrings to a Sketchy Successor after deciding she was tired of being taken for granted. Six months later, she and Luka find themselves being approached by people trying to track down her alter ego, wanting to convince her to take up the mantle once more. A Running Theme is that none of these people appear to have learned anything from the experience and are still taking Ladybug's heroism for granted, insisting she needs to help them because "that's just what heroes do!"
  • Marinette and Luka's investigation into why people are approaching them specifically also leads them to speak with Alya and Adrien. Marinette isn't particularly thrilled about having to deal with either of them, as neither is willing to take a hint and accept she wants nothing to do with them. Even the fact that she helped Ladybug strip Adrien of the Black Cat Ring doesn't change Adrien's desire to hook up with her.
• The Wolves in the Woods:
  • After it's revealed during Ms. Bustier's trial that Marinette was telling the truth about Lila, Alya becomes hellbent on reclaiming her as her bestie...despite the fact that she spearheaded the efforts that forced Marinette to transfer to another school in the first place. Alya absolutely refuses to acknowledge that she played any part in torching their friendship, even after it's revealed that she'd known the whole time that Lila was lying and intentionally exploited the situation to try and destroy Marinette's self-confidence and force her to remain entirely dependent upon Alya's "support".
  • Adrien's efforts to "repair" his ruined relationship with Marinette are similarly stymied by his continued insistence upon Blaming the Victim, to the point that he's outraged when Luka berates him for never apologizing for his Betrayal by Inaction and declares that "Well, if she hadn't tried to expose Lila like that, then this wouldn't have happened!"
• Yeah, I'm Done: After Mrs. Rossi tries to deliver her daughter's forgotten lunch, her web of lies rapidly unravels... but it takes Adrien asking Marinette what she thinks of the whole situation the day afterwards for the rest to remember she exists and rush to apologize. Marinette calmly informs them that apologizing doesn't automatically make them friends again, and rejects all of their efforts to invite her along on all the activities they'd previously been excluding her from.

Murder Drones

• Eventuality: In Prelude to Ruin, it's revealed that Rachel has been acting as The Mole for the Solver Cult. It eventually comes out that they've been Playing Both Sides in an attempt at revenge, which leads to them being Karmically Shunned after the battle at Outpost 7. They acknowledge that this is entirely their own fault and resolve to try repairing some of their ruined relationships, particularly with Shepard.

My Hero Academia

• In Always, the rest of Class 1-A started avoiding Izuku after graduation, ostensibly to spare his feelings but mostly because they didn't want to deal with any awkwardness regarding his being Quirkless again. Ochako is the first to bridge the gap after seeing just how hard he's taking being "given space", and a Running Theme is that repairing their damaged bonds is entirely possible, but takes honest EFFORT and recognizing that they did wrong. Many former classmates take his friendship for granted and refuse to admit fault.
• Build Yourself Up (Don't Let Them Break You Down): Izuku's old teacher Aoki realizes that he and the entire staff of Aldera Middle School have placed themselves in this position. After spending years demeaning Izuku for being Quirkless and enabling his bullies to run roughshod over him, they're now completely dependent upon him choosing to Turn the Other Cheek. Otherwise, one word from him could trigger a massive investigation that could ruin the whole school. This ends up happening anyway after Izuku does an interview and mentions that he only has two friends (neither of which attend his school, and one of which is a pen pal), which prompts reporters to wonder why he's so socially isolated.
• In the sequel of Hero Class Civil Warfare, part of the aftermath of the inter-class civil war is the now changed class dynamics and friendships after the Villain Team had thoroughly curb-stomped the Hero Team. Izuku struggles to keep his previous reputation as the class sweetheart and paragon after he terrified and defeated his friends and classmates as the Kingpin. Bakugou, meanwhile, thoroughly burnt his bridges with the rest of the Hero Team when his Bad Boss nature and Control Freak tendencies caused them to get curb-stomped by the Villain Team, which negatively affects his relationship with his class and reputation among his year.
• Mastermind: Rise of Anarchy: After several of their classmates attack Tokoyami, driving him out of the Hero Course, Shouji, Satou, and Kouda all transfer out of U.A. Later, the remaining students try reaching out and repairing their relationships, with mixed results; while Satou is willing to talk, Shoji refuses them outright.
• Mean Rabbit: During the League's assault on the USJ, three of Midoriya's classmates are perfectly willing to leave him to the 'tender mercies' of the villains after finding him injured. Only Sero opposes them, and they're all forced to work together when they're attacked.
• Throughout Reality Check, Shinsou treats his new classmates in 1-A with disdain, acting like they're the ones who are biased against him despite their attempts to befriend him. His poor attitude and callousness ruins his reputation; the killing blow comes when he tries Stealing the Credit by stealing Momo's essay, causing him to be truly Hated by All. This poses a problem when the final exam for the year involves team exercises. None of his classmates want anything to do with him, to the point that they protest having him assigned to their squad immediately after the teams are announced, convincing Principal Nedzu to remove and auto-flunk him.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• In On The Care and Construction of Bridges, Rarity and Applejack refuse to confess their feelings towards each other out of fear of burning bridges that they will need to cross later, while Rainbow Dash reflects on her own burnt bridge with her friend Gilda. In the end, however, Rainbow Dash asks herself the question of what ponies do after a bridge burns down, and resolves to try and patch things up with her.

Naruto

• Androgyninja's A Drop of Poison: After Sasuke humiliates Sakura in front of their whole class by declaring she'll never be anything more than glorified Cannon Fodder, Ino realizes that they broke off their friendship for no good reason at all, since he clearly isn't the type of guy either of them should want to be with. However, she's reluctant to make the first move, fearing that Sakura may have no interest in being friends again, and thus insists that Sakura be the one to approach her instead. Meanwhile, Sakura has no idea Ino even wants to reconcile, figuring that Ino would have said something in the months since then, given the girl's usual blunt and straightforward attitude. Ino's method of fixing the situation is to constantly insult and antagonize her former friend, which only serves to culminate in them both hitting their Rage-Breaking Points during their preliminary match in the Chuunin Exams; in the aftermath, Ino explaining all this prompts Sakura to point out how she clearly Didn't Think This Through before suggesting a Relationship Reboot upon realizing how terrified of rejection Ino truly was.
  Ino: I was trying to get you to look at me.
  Sakura: I'm looking at you. Now what?
• Discussed in A Case Study in the Sturdiness of the Rookie 9. During the Chuunin Exams, Team 7 betrays Team 10 in the Forest of Death — a betrayal worsened by how they exploited Chouji's bond with Ino to lure them off their guard. Afterwards, Team 7 faces heavy amounts of distrust and disapproval from most of Konoha, as they'd just demonstrated a willingness to betray their fellow Leaf-nin.
  • Shikamaru even tells Chouji outright that after what happened, he doesn't want to be assigned any missions with him, as he doesn't feel like he can trust him anymore. Thankfully, they manage to repair their relationship over time.
• What You Knead: Sakura broke off her friendship with Ino after realizing they were both interested in pursuing Sasuke romantically. However, after Sasuke recklessly endangers her life during the bell test, Sakura gets over her crush on him and decides to reach back out to her estranged friend, hoping to repair their relationship.

Odd Squad

• Ships Ahoy!: In Red Ships, three decades after they broke up, Oprah decides to consult O'Donahue for help in the Equal Evan case. She's extremely nervous about doing so, uncertain how well he'll react.

RWBY

• Arc Corp: Chapter 146 sees Saphron apologize for her treatment of her younger brother Jaune over the years when she needs the Containment Office's help to covertly hide from the rest of ARC Corp in order to protect her newborn anomalous son, Adrian. She fully admits that he has no reason to save her life given how often she's dehumanized him and argued for his death, but hopes that he'd at least be willing to protect his innocent nephew even if he and Blake decide to leave her to die.

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong

• SV Wishes: This is Shen Qinqiu's main concern in I Wish You Were My Husband, as he has to painstakingly repair the relationships that were destroyed by his predecessor.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

• Queens of Mewni Spinoffs: In Future of Mewni, the school of Elfendor did nothing about Luminosa being assaulted, due to the culprit being being the son of a high-ranking member. After she leaves, the number of assaults on campus rises, the culprits emboldened by the lack of punishment. Luminosa then founds Mewniford, and people stop sending their children to Elfendor. The school sends her a letter begging for help, which she ignores.

The Twilight Saga

• Tough Love opens with Bella threatening to move out if her father doesn't bow to her whims and let her do whatever she pleases. Charlie then calmly spells out for her just what that would entail, in exhaustive detail, revealing that he's aware of a lot more than she'd given him credit for. As well as the fact that the Cullens aren't as obscenely rich as she'd believed and won't be able to let her mooch freely off of them. Bella then attempts to take back her words, only to discover that Charlie is still kicking her out — a threat she still refuses to take seriously until he winds up packing her bags for her.

Warhammer 40,000

• In Everqueen, with the established attitude of the Eldar toward humans, it is to be expected Isha's efforts to seek refuge with the Emperor are met with much skepticism.

The Witcher

• The Accidental Warlord and His Pack: After breaking off their correspondence with each other on a rather bitter note, Yennefer and Fringilla reunite years later in Wrapped In The Wind And Sun. Both have found their footing in their respective courts, and are able to start apologizing and reconciling.

• Amadeus (in the director's cut only): Mozart, who has already mentioned that he would prefer to spend his time composing and that he is only giving music lessons to pay the bills, lets himself be hired by a wealthy Viennese burgher to give piano lessons to his daughter. The attempt ends in a fiasco because the man refuses to leave the room while Mozart tries to teach his daughter (who is visibly embarrassed by her parents), insists on keeping his pack of dogs with him—who interrupt all music by yelping and howling—and generally behaves as obnoxious as possible, causing Mozart to rudely storm off with a sarcastic comment. Later, as Mozart's financial problems have worsened, he (obviously drunk and staggering) turns up at the burgher again and asks whether he can give music lessons to his daughter. As the daughter is married and away, Mozart further humiliates himself by asking whether he can borrow money and receives a curt refusal.
• Flatliners was all about this, when the characters fry their brain cells in a medical experiment, only to be faced with their own consciences. To overcome their dilemmas, they all have to make amends somehow.
• A good chunk of the third act of Iron Man 2 is spent with Tony trying to repent for his assholish behavior from when he was dying in the first two acts.
• Home Alone 1: Kate is horrified when she realizes that she accidentally left her son Kevin home while the rest of the family went on vacation, especially because their last interaction was her sending him to the attic without dinner as the others heaped insults at him, all to avoid being in the same boat as him. So when she finally gets home near the end, Kevin isn't exactly willing to welcome her back right away, only doing so when she gives him a heartfelt apology.
• The entire premise of Max Keeble's Big Move. Believing he is about to move, Max issues several So Long, Suckers! statements and actions towards everyone at his school that he doesn't like, then finds out that he isn't moving after all. This comes with the additional realization that even if he was moving, everyone he pissed off was just going to take their frustrations out on his two friends instead.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: In the Extended Edition, Saruman asks Théoden for mercy, invoking his long alliance with Rohan and ignoring the fact that his attack on Helm's Deep in the prior film nearly wiped out the entire kingdom.
• Men in Black II: After Sarleena's attack on MIB headquarters forces J and an amnesiac K to evacuate, turns out that the only one with a deneuralizer to help bring back K's memories is Jeebes, the nebbish alien pawnshop owner who K had shot in the first movie, so K and J end up having to go to him to get his help. Jeebes, understandably is less-than-inclined to help the two...at least until J shoves a blaster in his face and makes it clear that the bridge is officially rebuilt and Jeebes will help them with a smile on his face.

• In the first Galaxy Games book, the whole world thought they were about to be wiped out by an incoming asteroid. So all the adults went crazy doing whatever - the teachers didn't teach, many of the main character's friends' parents quit their jobs, and so on. After the asteroid was revealed to just be an alien spaceship they all had to try and get their jobs back and return all the stuff they bought on an impulse. This was easy for some, but others, it was noted, had quit their jobs by telling their bosses what they REALLY thought...
• Harry Potter: Cornelius Fudge spends the entirety of the fifth book organizing a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, refusing to heed their warnings of Voldemort's return even when things continue to happen just as Dumbledore predicted and putting the whole magical community in danger. Once Voldemort shows up at the Ministry and Fudge sees him with his own eyes, he's forced to recant his previous statements, and the whole community immediately becomes enraged and demands his resignation. The start of the sixth book reveals that Fudge made a last-ditch effort to stay in office by begging Dumbledore to help him get Harry's public support, which naturally Dumbledore refused knowing that Harry would find the idea ludicrous after all the things Fudge did to antagonize them.
• Holmes on the Range:
  • After being fired from working as a railroad detective in On the Wrong Track, Big Red doesn't see anything wrong with writing a book about his experiences and emphasizing the arrogance, apparent paranoia, and short stature of Colonel Crowe, the man who hired him (and got fired along with them for that decision). Later in the series, Big Red and his brother apply for jobs at Crowe's new detective agency and Crowe seethingly quotes excerpts of the book featuring him while making his initial resistance to working with them again clear.
  • Five years prior to The Crack in the Lens, Old Red left San Marcos in a drunken, depressed fury after the murder of his fiancée. When he returns to solve the crime after mastering detective skills, his efforts are hindered by his actions before leaving. He got into a drunken and heated brawl with his friend, the postmaster (who is now the town marshal) while Drowning My Sorrows and called his employer (who some of his friends still work for, leaving them dependent on his goodwill for continued employment) a "stupid son of a bitch" while riding off.
  Suicide Cheney: You two ain't very popular around here. In fact, I shouldn't even be talkin' to you. We got orders to run you off if you come around.
  Old Red: Joe Koska's still straw boss, is he?
  Suicide: Yeah, and he ain't forgot how you said goodbye to him.
• From Life's Little Instruction Book:
  291. Don't burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river.
• During the second book of The Magicians trilogy, The Magician King, Quentin Coldwater's return to Brakebills goes awry when he gets into an argument with Dean Fogg over top-secret information. Quentin, who isn't exactly known for maturity or humility, haughtily proclaims himself superior to everyone at Brakebills, clearly believing that he'll be back in Fillory soon, living it up as a Benevolent Mage Ruler and will never have to deal with Fogg ever again... only for the book to end with Quentin getting deposed and exiled to the real world. The next book, The Magician's Land, features Quentin crawling back to Brakebills and admitting that he really needs a job. To his intense relief, Fogg accepts him into the faculty - perhaps recognizing that Quentin's humiliated himself enough.
• In the Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries, Elizabeth and Darcy are forced to ask Lady Catherine for help.
• Wear Your Soul Round Your Neck: Thyssa runs away from her monster-filled home to become a human girl in a dark experiment. When said experiment goes south, she runs back home...but her new body shows everyone her disgust at being a monster, breeding resentment - especially when the amulet that makes her human is one-of-a-kind.

• In The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. Brisco and Bowler recruit Pete Hutter for a mission while he's in prison, promising a full Presidential pardon for all his outstanding crimes. He accepts and proceeds to piss off his cellmate. Then Brisco tells him that they have to talk to the warden and he should be out in a couple of hours.
• The first episode of the second season of Arrested Development, "The One Where Michael Leaves", is focused on Michael's attempts to leave his family for good, but repeatedly getting pulled back to them again because of the circumstances, mostly the results of said family's actions, forces him to.
• Breaking Bad: In the pilot episode, after learning he has terminal cancer, Walter lashes out at his abusive boss Bogdan and dramatically quits his part-time job at the car wash. This ends up causing a bit of trouble in season four when Walt's wife Skyler decides to purchase the car wash (in order to use it as a front to launder her husband's ill-gotten cash), and Bogdan refuses to sell to her, despite her generous monetary offer, solely on the grounds of how insultingly Walt quit his business.
• Cheers had an episode where Diane told off the gang, vowed never to return, and left...but forgot her purse.
• Cobra Kai: Hawk spends much of Season 3 aggressively distancing himself from his former friends and mentors, trying to drive them off so his Thug Dojo can reign supreme. After his Heel–Face Turn, he starts the next season being a distrusted Butt-Monkey until he finds a way to prove his Character Development.
• Curb Your Enthusiasm is basically this trope as the concept for a TV show. Plots are as follows: Larry David horribly offends a minor character, then realizes he needs their help. Larry tries to make amends, typically fails on an epic scale.
• In one episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Buddy gets offered a job as head writer to Dan Howard, but first needs to break his contract with Alan Brady, so he provokes Mel to the point that he has Rob write a memo to Alan terminating his position. Unfortunately for Buddy, the job with Dan Howard falls through (mostly due to Dan looking to Alan for a reference on Buddy, who then reads him the termination memo), requiring Rob to help Buddy get his job with Alan back.
• In the Doctor Who serial Inferno, the Doctor thinks he's got his TARDIS operational, and he's about to leave. So he says (about the Brigadier, in front of him): "I've had about all I can stand of this pompous self-opinionated idiot here!" But when he dematerializes, he only gets as far as the rubbish tip and walks back, covered in dust.
  The Doctor: Erm, Brigadier, my dear fellow, I wonder whether I could borrow a couple of your stalwart chaps to give me a hand in bringing the TARDIS back? It's landed in rather an inaccessible position.
  Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: "Pompous, self-opinionated idiot" I believe you said, Doctor?
  The Doctor: Yes, well we...we don't want to bear a grudge for a few hasty words, do we?
  • Still, he gets off really easy for this trope - just a moment of embarrassment and slight crow-eating.
• Frasier: Season 2's "The Club": Niles, thinking that Frasier has been admitted to Seattle's most exclusive men's club while he wasn't, goes to the club and hurls insults at the club's president. Then he's told that the club mixed their names up and admitted him instead of Frasier. He throws himself into an armchair and tries to say he was just kidding, but is bounced from the premises without delay.
• In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will and Carlton trick Geoffrey into thinking he's won the lottery, causing him to cheerfully dance around and call everyone out before the truth is revealed. In a variation, while everyone forgives him (the boys take most of the blame) he's too embarrassed to return and is the one that needs to be coaxed back.
• Gilmore Girls begins with Lorelai going to her estranged parents for a loan to pay for Rory's private school tuition. The conditions of the loan are the main justification for Richard and Emily's involvement throughout the series.
• A Late Night with Conan O'Brien sketch had La Bamba (the Butt-Monkey trombonist of the house band The Max Weinberg 7) get a check for a large sum of money. To which La Bamba responds "Ha! I quit!" and try to tell off the performers. Right after leaving (and the audience cheering him off), Conan gets a phone call from La Bamba crying claiming that he spent all his money on gum and asking to come back. Conan lets him come back with no ill will (and then shows the outtakes from his phone call).
• Married... with Children: When a rich man proposed to Kelly, Al quickly phoned his boss to do the bridge-burning, oblivious to Kelly rejecting the rich man in favor of a not-so-wealthy suitor.
• NCIS:
  • The plot of Season Three's "Switch" was kicked off when a Navy Petty Officer was caught sleeping with an officer's wife at Pearl Harbor; at first he wasn't worried because the husband didn't know who he was and he was due to transfer off the base the next day... only to learn that the husband was slated to be his new C.O. at Norfolk.
  • In Season Four's "Suspicion", the team is investigating the murder of a Kuwaiti Marine officer in a rural town; a racist Sheriff's deputy mentions that their main suspect is a recent immigrant from Iraq, "just like the victim." Ziva archly informs him that Iraq and Kuwait are two different countries. Realizing that the very attractive woman on the NCIS team does not share his Global Ignorance, the deputy tries to flirt with her and rebrand himself as something other than an ignorant, bigoted jerkass. It doesn't work.
• The Odd Couple (1970): In "The Hideaway", after Felix convinces Oscar that Ernie wants to be a cello player and that he has talent, Oscar tells Slim Daniels, the sports coordinator he contacted, that the deal is off, insulting him in the process. Then Felix finds out Ernie has no musical talent and was scouted for his ancestry (he's Inuit). Luckily, Slim Daniels wants Ernie regardless and guesses that he doesn't actually play the cello.
• Saturday Night Live: Discussed by Norm Macdonald when he hosted SNL after he was fired from the show. He reminds the audience what happened and talks about how he thought it was weird that NBC would bring him in to host:
  Norm: How did I go from being not funny enough to be even allowed in the building, to being so funny that I’m now hosting the show? How did I suddenly get so goddamn funny?! It was inexplicable to me, because, let’s face it, a year and a half is not enough time for a dude to learn how to be funny! Then it occurred to me, I haven’t gotten funnier, the show has gotten really bad!
• Seinfeld: George Costanza is a pro at this:
  • In "The Revenge", George dramatically quits his job, only to realize he really needs it as he's not really qualified to do anything else. He simply goes back to work the next day as if nothing happened, but that doesn't quite work^note This was based on something Larry David actually did back when he wrote for Saturday Night Live. Unlike George however, David's plan worked and he continued to work for the show for the rest of the season..
  • In "The Airport", George gets into an argument with a violent convict being escorted by federal marshals over the last TIME magazine on the rack and enjoys the moment to the fullest, taunting him about getting the magazine and wishes him "a nice life... sentence, that is!" Towards the end of the episode, George boards a plane looking for Jerry and Elaine, opens the lavatory door, and guess who he sees - without his shackles on. Nobody sees as the convict yanks George into the restroom and beats the ever-loving crap out of him.
• In Survivor, a major gameplay element involves the castaways frequently undermining and betraying one another to get to the Final Tribal Council. However, it is the voted off castaways who make up the jury of the Final Tribal Council and they get to vote on which of the finalists will win the one million dollar prize. This means that castaways have to find a balance of backstabbing the other contestants while remaining likable enough among them to garner the majority vote.
• A mild case in The Thick of It; Hugh has decided that resigning would be better for his long-term political career, and on his way to make the announcement, he says a few unpleasant things about his department and the staff. Predictably, his resignation is no longer necessary and he comes back, but nobody really bears any grudge because (a) while he was honest, he didn't say anything too hurtful or spiteful, and (b) most of them hate each other anyway and they all know it, and consequently everyone has a lot of experience with swallowing their dislike and working together to brace themselves for the next stage in the eternal Humiliation Conga which makes up their lives.
• Warehouse 13: The only way to free someone of Maelzel's metronome is to "make a pure start from whence one comes." In Jinks' case, this means reconciling with his mother, whom he refused to forgive for pleading for leniency for his sister's killer.
• In the final episode of Wings, Brian and Casey make plans to run off to a tropical island, and Casey takes this opportunity to tell off every person on the island, including her boss and random people in the park. Unfortunately, Brian has an attack of family loyalty and decides to stay and run Sandpiper Air for Joe (who's also leaving), leaving a horrified Casey stuck on the island (and working Helen's lunch counter).

• Taylor Swift's "Back to December" from her third album Speak Now is The Grovel in song form, with the narrator approaching her ex and hoping they can get back together, but fully admitting she has no right to ask, given how badly she treated him.
  You gave me roses, and I left them there to die.
  But this is me swallowing my pride, standing in front of you,
  saying I'm sorry for that night,
  and I go back to December all the time.
  It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you,
  wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine.

• Jeff Jarrett has crossed a few burnt bridges over the course of his career.
  • In the early 1990s, Jeff's father, Jerry Jarrett, owned the USWA and Jeff was regularly pushed as one of the promotion's top stars. Steve Austin got his start at the USWA and was underpaid during his time there, with Jeff reportedly making fun of his small checks on at least one occasion. By 1997, Steve Austin had become the biggest star of the WWF and Jeff Jarrett was returning for his second run in the company. The first thing Jarrett did upon his return was cut a heel promo on a number on the WWF's biggest stars, including Austin who he mocked as immature and accused his "Austin 3:16" catchphrase of being blasphemous. Austin, who already didn't like him, was outraged since he wasn't informed of the promo ahead of time and feared that the comments on religion could hurt his merch sales, resulting in Austin demanding that the writers never book him in any storylines with Jarrett.
  • Near the end of Jarrett's second run with the WWF in 1999, he was the Intercontinental Champion while also working without a contract. Preparing to return to WCW, he allegedly used his free agent status to threaten to refuse to drop the title to Chyna at No Mercy that year unless Vince McMahon agreed to pay him $200,000. A few years later, Vince would buy WCW and the first thing he did was infamously fire Jarrett in the opening of the final Monday Night Nitro.

• Downplayed case in the Lola Fanala episode of The Muppet Show, where Gonzo boasts that he's been given a Bollywood contract and will be leaving "the little people", leaving many other co-stars (particularly his chickens) jealous or betrayed. However, when Gonzo later breaks down from the weight of his decision, Kermit is supportive and lets Gonzo leave on amicable terms, but all the same, still needs to find a replacement act, and by the time he's booked one, Gonzo has realised his Bollywood contract is null and void (apparently, they intended a contract for Gonzo the Mediocre instead of Gonzo the Great).

• EPIC: The Musical: "Love in Paradise" involves a rare mutual example - Athena, who pretty much kicked Odysseus to the curb during "My Goodbye" for not heeding her advice on being ruthless (with him in turn calling her out on how she had no one to call a friend because her beliefs alienated everyone), is moved by her friendship with his son Telemachus and decides to try and bring the king home. Odysseus, meanwhile, is now stuck on the island of Ogygia with the goddess Calypso. Her extremely unwanted advances, couple with the realization that all the sacrifices he had made up to this point were All for Nothing due to having no way to escape the island, almost cause Ody to commit suicide, before chasing his mind at the last minute and praying to Athena. The latter is audibly shocked upon hearing this.

• In Bug Fables, it's revealed that Vi lashed out at basically everyone she knew before she departed from the Bee Kingdom, frustrated that nobody supported her dream of becoming an adventurer. The party is eventually given a mission to visit the hive, forcing Vi to swallow her pride and admit that she may have gone too far.
• In World of Warcraft, Genn Greymane, the ruler of the Gilneas, left the Alliance after he grew tired of helping provide for its commonwealth for seemingly nothing in return. He then built a wall around Gilneas, separating it from the rest of the world, and refused to get involved in the Third War or the war against the Lich King, neither giving the Alliance aid nor allowing refugees to shelter within the walls. However, after Gilneas fell due to attacks by the Forsaken, as well as a worgen curse sweeping through the populace, a humbled Greymane attempted to rejoin the Alliance. However, King Varian Wrynn, the leader of the Alliance, was incredibly bitter at Greymane for his actions, and earning his respect and approval was not an easy task for the Gilnean king.

• Homestar Runner: In "Marzipan's Answering Machine 1.0" Strong Bad makes a Prank Call and leaves a message for Marzipan. He introduces himself as "Mr. Nobody from the Toilet Patrol" and instructs her to stick her head in a toilet and flush it. Later, Strong Bad calls again in a different mood: he needs help baking and Marzipan seems to be the only person he can ask for advice. Instead of an apology, Strong Bad uses Implausible Denial and awkwardly insists this is the first time he has called her today.

• Played for Laughs in Gunnerkrigg Court when Parley with full sunset blush slams the door... then re-emerges to take the flower Smitty tried to give her in the first place.
  Parley: ...and ...give ...me ...that! *SLAM again*
• Subverted in Homestuck. Karkat thinks he's going to have to apologize to Vriska in order to get her to join the Red Team. When he finds out that Vriska's been kicked off the Blue Team, he instantly rescinds his apology and apologizes to himself for even making it in the first place.

• American Dad!: In "Rapture's Delight", Stan Smith blames Francine for them not getting chosen to ascend into Heaven when the rapture occurs, and he abandons her when a man approaches him claiming to be Jesus Christ and that he can get him into Heaven. When the so-called messiah turns out to be a bum who wants oral sex from him, an embarrassed Stan tries to save face, but not only does Francine reject him and move out, but she also reveals that she's entered a relationship with the real Jesus. When the two meet each other again during the Apocalypse, Stan gets Francine to fully forgive him by revealing that he always kept their wedding rings as a reminder of his love for her.
• Amphibia:
  • In "Croak & Punishment", Anne Boonchuy and Sprig try to search for a missing Blue Moon Shell, with Anne as the "good cop", and Sprig as the bad cop". However, Sprig takes his role a bit too seriously, yelling at various suspects and destroying their property. When his behavior ends up provoking Gunther, a Southern Tusk Frog, into Hulking Out, he and Anne try to find someplace to hide, but nobody is willing to protect them on account of how Sprig treated them.
    Stumpy: You think I'm gonna let you in here after you called me a thief?
    Sprig: ...Maybe?
  • In "True Colors", Sasha Waybright betrays Anne (again) and helps Grime overthrow King Andrias, causing a furious Anne to decide she's done with Sasha's manipulative behaviour and break off their friendship for good. Moments later, Sasha and Grime uncover Andrias' true nature as a Multiversal Conqueror, and with Anne and the others already working to restore him to the throne, they have no choice but to go back and try and explain why this is a bad idea. Having just burnt all her bridges, however, nobody listens to Sasha; she and Grime are defeated and Andrias is successfully restored to his throne. Things go downhill very quickly from there, and Anne (realizing Sasha was right about Andrias and has reformed for real this time) eventually does patch things up with her.
• Avatar:
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: In the second season finale, Prince Zuko is on the verge of joining Team Avatar when he suddenly defects to Azula's camp, betraying them. To make matters worse, he does this after he and Katara have an honest-to-god conversation, and the latter was willing to believe in him despite everything he did to Aang. Naturally, it takes a while for Zuko to rebuild the bridge with Katara after he chooses to support Aang for good in the third season; while the rest of Team Avatar welcome him the same episode he extends an olive branch, it is not until four episodes later that Katara is ready to do the same.
  • In The Legend of Korra, fourth season Big Bad Kuvira decides to conquer the city-state founded by her mentor, Suyin Beifong, and sacrifice her fiancé and Number Two, Su's son Bataar Jr., by shooting a fantasy nuke at his location, since he's been captured by her enemies and she can kill them all off at once. They survive, and a emotionally-shattered Bataar does what little he can to help stop her. Come the sequel comic Ruins of the Empire, Kuvira is trying to pull a Heel–Face Turn and needs the aid of the entire Beifong family in order to stop some of her former subordinates from rigging an upcoming election that could see them gain full control of the Earth Kingdom government, with them naturally being skeptical of her desire to stop this outcome even after Bataar's grandmother uses her Living Lie Detector abilities to vouch for her.
• BoJack Horseman:
  • In the episode "The Telescope" BoJack visits his former friend Herb Kazzaz when the latter is suffering from cancer, and whom BoJack left hanging when Herb was fired from Horsin' Around on account of a controversy over him being homosexual. BoJack wants to squash his beef before Herb is six feet under. At first, things seem to go well (apart from Herb chronically making jokes about how BoJack threw him under the bus), but when BoJack feels the need to apologize, Herb gives him one hell of a "Reason You Suck" Speech about how BoJack abandoning him when he needed a friend most was plain inexcusable and the horse then leaves his former friend with the bridge between them burnt forever.
    • This happens again in the season 3 episode "That's Too Much, Man!" when BoJack and Sarah-Lynn going on a drunk bender and making amends with the people they've wronged, only to actually worsen things.
    • Per Word of God, a character utilizing the show's once-per-season Precision F-Strike is meant to represent that character's bridge with BoJack being burned for good. Although Todd uses it in season 3, he and BoJack do eventully reconcile and regain their friendship, albeit never coming as close as they once were.
• In Code Monkeys, this is the result of the Snap Back of Dave and Jerry's quit(s). Dave being, well, a Jerkass, actually forces this to happen to both of them, while Jerry tries to avoid it on the off chance they aren't as successful as they hope.
• Danny Phantom: In the Grand Finale "Phantom Planet", when Vlad blows off Jack's Last-Second Chance to turn his life around so that he can successfully extort control over the Earth in exchange for saving it against an asteroid, said asteroid is revealed to be made out of ghost-proof material. Realizing he cannot stop it, he begs Jack for help, insisting that Jack would not turn his back on an "old friend". Jack morosely agrees with him, but then states that he will turn his back on Vlad. After which, he abandons Vlad in space. Vlad then faces the reality that he cannot return to Earth because he revealed his true self and since he cannot keep his end of the bargain to save the Earth, he will be hunted for all his life.
• Family Guy:
  • Happens in the episode "April in Quahog", when Peter Griffin blurts out that he doesn't care for his children the moment before the world is supposed to end... only for said warning to be revealed as an April Fool's prank from the Quahog news team. Peter spends the rest of the episode trying to make it up to the kids.
  • Subverted in the episode "Lottery Fever" when Peter tells Lois about how he quit his job after becoming a millionaire. The way he talks about it, especially the part where he told his boss what she could do with his job, suggests he did or said something nasty but the flashback shows he was polite and professional (although at the very end, he quickly mentions there was "a giant poo on [her] desk"). Played straight later with how he treats his friends. They forgive him in the end.
• Jem and the Holograms had too much of Eric's abuse while working on a movie they quit. Then they learn one of the foster girls at Starlight Foundation needed expensive surgery to avoid becoming blind so they had no choice but to come back. Eric got Jerrica to agree to become his assistant as a condition to let Jem and the Holograms back.
• In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship, Sunset Shimmer returns to Equestria and has to seek the counsel of Princess Celestia. This was after Sunset turned into a cruel and manipulative Alpha Bitch under Celestia's watch. However, Sunset's undergone enough Character Development after her Heel–Face Turn to genuinely apologize to Celestia, and the apology is accepted.
• The Owl House: At the end of Season 1, to save Eda, Lilith Clawthorne has to turn to Luz and King for help. Luz at first isn't interested, since Lilith is the one who captured Eda in the first place and used her as a hostage, but is willing to work with Lilith once Lilith explains why she cursed Eda and returns Owlbert. Even during their truce, Luz admits she doesn't like the lady's style.
• Rick and Morty: In "Promortyus", after causing as much destruction to Planet Glorzo as they can on their way out, believing they will never return, Rick and Morty realize they have to go back because they remembered they left Summer there. As Morty comments how much damage they caused, Rick points out that this is the reason they never return to worlds they've been to.
• Catra from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power spends most of the series betraying everyone who was ever close to her in her quest for power. However, halfway through Season 5, after being captured by Horde Prime, Catra decides to invoke Redemption Equals Death by heroically sacrificing herself to save Glimmer, fully expecting to be executed or mind-wiped by Horde Prime for her trouble. When the Best Friend Squad decide to rescue Catra anyway, she berates Adora for going through so much effort for her, as she didn't want to be saved. Adora quickly surmises that the real reason Catra didn't want to be saved was that she didn't want to face all the people she hurt, and Catra would only be hurting her further just by not being around anymore. Adora then tells Catra point-blank that she needs to suck it up and deal with her emotions like an adult, not keep hiding out in her room; Catra soon realizes she's right.
• The Simpsons:
  • In the Flashback episode "And Maggie Makes Three", Homer Simpson, upon quitting his nuclear plant job, plays Burns's head like a bongo in front of all the other employees and then throws Burns at a barrel of toxic waste. (Although one has to wonder if "acting like a jerk" can even apply to anything being done to Burns.) He LITERALLY burns a bridge he drives over on his way out. He eventually has to take the job back after impregnating Marge with Maggie. Of course, since this is Burns we're talking about here, he makes Homer literally come "crawling back", via through a narrow tunnel, to get his old job back, so that Burns would also literally be looking down on Homer once emerged. To further humiliate him, Burns has Smithers put a big mandatory plaque in Homer's office saying "Don't forget, you're here forever". Luckily, Homer is able to cover the plaque with pictures of Maggie and change the message to "Do it for her".
  • In "Bart of Darkness", Lisa is the toast of Springfield's youth after the family builds a pool during a particularly hot summer.
    Lisa's Brain: They're only using you for your pool, you know.
    Lisa: Shut up, Brain! I got friends now, I don't need you anymore!
    [As soon as Martin Prince builds his competing pool, all the neighborhood kids stampede there, draining the Simpsons' pool and leaving Lisa stranded at the bottom.]
    Lisa: Hello? Hey, I'm stuck in here! I gotta think of a way to get out!
    Lisa's Brain: Well, well, well. Look who's come crawling back.
  • A story in the comics had Krusty the Clown leaving town to star in a movie, giving the crowd at the airport a few choice words about Springfield. The movie flops, and when he returns the crowd is more of a mob.
• South Park:
  • Subverted when Eric Cartman finally pisses off his "friends" so badly that they end up ignoring him— making him think that he must be dead and stuck in Purgatory; and so he goes about trying to make amends for all the evil things he did, in order to get to Heaven.
  • Played straight in the episode "Gluten Free Ebola". The previous episode had the boys smugly ditching all their friends and classmates off-screen when they started their crowdfunding company. When their business failed, they returned to school to find no one wanted anything to do with them anymore and they had to spend the episode trying to appease them. This also signified that the show would now have continuity between the episodes.
  • Another example is in the episode "Naughty Ninjas". With the news of police brutality going around, the townspeople of South Park start shunning everyone in the police force, harassing them, and refusing to do business with them. Then the gentrified part of the town gets covered with homeless people due to the episode's B-plot. The townspeople realize that the only way they can get the homeless people out is to get the police to remove them. Needless to say, the policemen weren't really willing to help them out.

• In Josef Stalin's times, the study of genetics was all but destroyed in the Soviet Union, with the science itself branded a "bourgeois pseudoscience", to be replaced by a weird mishmash called "Michurin biology", now commonly known as Lysenkoism, after its most prominent leader. With Stalin supporting the new ideologically correct "science", Lysenko's camp was pulling no blows against its opponents. Of course, once Stalin died (according to some sources, even a bit earlier), the Lysenkoists started losing their positions. About a decade later, proper genetics regained its positions, and all the ideologically correct guys who, so recently, have been branding the geneticists as traitors, getting them arrested and often dead in The Gulag, were forced to elaborate on how Michurin biology does not contradict genetics, how genetics isn't ideologically incorrect, how a compromise between the two is possible...
• During the infamously long development of Duke Nukem Forever, 3D Realms were initially able to cover all game development costs themselves due to the massive success the company had throughout the 1990s. This meant that they were in the unique position of not being beholden to their publisher, Take-Two Interactive. In fact, game director and 3D Realms co-owner George Broussard would publicly, and profanely, lambast Take-Two's CEO for his complaints about the game taking so long to be made. Broussard would also reject an offer from Take-Two to accelerate development in exchange for half a million dollars. However, as the years went on and the game repeatedly restarted development due to Broussard's perfectionism, 3D Realms began to run low on cash, giving them no choice but to request 6 million dollars from Take-Two to complete development. Negotiations fell apart when Take-Two was only willing to offer 2.5 million upfront with another 2.5 million upon the game's completion, which was rejected by Broussard, who suspended the game's development. This was followed by Take-Two suing 3D Realms for failing to finish the game, leading to a year long lawsuit that was settled out of court. Development of Duke Nukem Forever would be put in limbo until the Duke Nukem IP was purchased by Gearbox Software, who would finish and release the game in 2011.
• Reddit has at least two stories by people who were framed by a relative for adultery and banished from the family, despite proclaiming innocence. Then the relative confessed to the deed while drunk, and now the family wants them back.