History Main / DrivenByEnvy

* ''VideoGame/AlwaysSometimesMonsters'' eventually reveals that [[spoiler:your old friend Sam]] was secretly envious of your protagonist, seeing them as more talented and luckier than them.

* Sticky Fingaz in ''[[VideoGame/DefJamSeries Def Jam: Fight For NY]]''. His resentment of the player character's greater skills leads to him switching sides and trying to kill the hero and his girlfriend.

* The true BigBad of ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' [[spoiler:Hugh Darrow, the inventor of Augmentation]] enacts a plan that will sour humanity on augmentation forever [[spoiler:by using a signal to drive every Augment alive insane]]. He claims that it's for the greater good so that people will see how dangerous augmentation is. In reality, he's simply envious of Augments because [[spoiler:his own body cannot accept augmentation. Darrow is willing to drive a good chunk of the populace mad, causing global panic and destruction, just because he's envious of other people who can replace bad limbs with augments while he's stuck walking with a cane]].
* Arl Howe, in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', is consumed with envy for his best friend and liege lord, Teyrn Bryce Cousland. As illustrated in the Human Noble Origin, this envy leads him to ally with [[spoiler:Loghain]] and murder the Teyrn and nearly his entire family and household.
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series' primary CreationMyth, Padomay is TheAntiGod [[AnthropomorphicPersonification personification]] of the forces of change, chaos, and darkness. He is the [[CainAndAbel twin brother]] to Anu, the GodOfGods personification of the forces of [[OrderVersusChaos stasis, order, and light]]. Their interplay in the great "void" before creation led to creation itself, sometimes personified as the female entity "Nir". Nir favored Anu, which angered Padomay. Envious of Nir's love, Padomay killed Nir and shattered the twelve worlds she gave birth to. Anu then wounded Padomay, presuming him dead. Anu salvaged the pieces of the twelve worlds to create one world: Nirn. Padomay returned and wounded Anu, seeking to destroy Nirn. Anu then [[TakingYouWithMe pulled Padomay and himself outside of time]], ending Padomay's threat to creation "forever". It is from their spilled and intermingled blood that the series' famous [[OurGodsAreDifferent Aedra and Daedra]] would emerge.
* The backstory of the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' DLC ''Dead Money'' has singer Dean Domino envious of businessman Francis Sinclair's happiness, which he saw as self-absorbed pretentiousness. Because of this, he planned to rob the vault of his casino, the Sierra Madre with the help of Vera Keyes, an old fling. The plan failed due to a combination of Vera getting cold feet and the nuclear holocaust happening moments afterwards, though Dean (now a ghoul) stuck around trying to rob the vault. By the end of the DLC, [[spoiler:Dean either gets killed by the Courier or survives and helps the Courier into the vault, where in the epilogue he learns Sinclair and Keyes' side of the story, goes through a HeelRealization and leaves the Sierra Madre for the world outside]].

* [[spoiler:Joseph Bertrand]] of ''VideoGame/{{Infamous 2}}''. His reason for [[spoiler:wanting all Conduits dead, is because of his raw deal as a Conduit. While people like Cole and Nix got easily manageable powers, Bertrand's Conduit form is a mindless, [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever enormous]] monstrosity. His envy and anger over this is what leads him to brand Conduits as 'Abominations']].

** ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'': Dr Wily perpetually played [[AlwaysSecondBest second banana]] to his colleague and best friend Dr Light (he was the five consecutive year runner-up of the LIT Manual Design Contest, won the silver prize at the World Technology Award and was a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Guess who was always the winner.) This eventually drove Wily insane and his dreams of world conquest are in part to prove everyone that he's better than Light.
** Mega Man's [[TheRival rival]] Bass is envious of the other robot's status as a world champion, so much so that he's eager to eliminate him.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', The Isle of Armor DLC introduces one of the tutor moves known as "Burning Jealousy". It is a fire-type damaging move that inflicts burn on opponents that boosted their stats, hence the "jealousy" part.

** ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'' had its plot ''built'' on this trope in the form of [[spoiler:Penelope, who hates and resents Sly for his successes, and for seemingly holding Bentley back. This extreme envy caused her to steal Bentley's time machine blueprints and sell them to a rival faction of the Cooper Gang with the aim of erasing Sly, his ancestors, and presumably Edward Longshanks and Robert the Bruce from history, mold Bentley into her personal weapon designer to make a fortune, and [[TakeOverTheWorld conquor the world]] through warfare. All Penelope acomplished in the end was getting exposed as an angry, sociopathic slimeball who's willing to wreck and exploit those more succesful than her, and winds up a homeless fugitive [[HatedByAll hated by everyone]]]].

* In ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' there is the hashihime [[note]]a kind of {{youkai}} associated with jealousy[[/note]] Parsee Mizuhashi who feeds on jealousy and envy and can manipulate it in others. At this point she is, herself, closer to being an AnthropomorphicPersonification of jealousy and envy more than anything else: She becomes envious of someone if she thinks they're happier than she is; if they are about on the same level, she'll boast about how she is more unfortunate; if she thinks the other person is the unfortunate one yet they aren't envious ''of her'' she'll become envious of their forbearance and if they ''are'' envious of her, then [[EmotionEater their envy becomes her sustenance]]... Either way, the person is screwed because Parsee can get violent if she's envious of someone and she would likely attack if she got enough power from another's envy to overpower them.
* ''VideoGame/Uncharted4'': Rafe. At first, it seems he's trying to buy his way into history books by funding the expedition to find the world's greatest pirate treasure. But when he finally makes it to the treasure spot, ''which is currently on fire'', he's completely fixated on killing the Drake brothers even as Nathan surrenders all rights to the treasure without so much as a complaint, and rather than figure out a way to escape a room on fire that is also connected to a mountain of gunpowder, he grabs a sword and rants about Drake's infamous misadventures and how he didn't deserve them. From an earlier conversation, he makes it clear to Nadine that he thinks that millions of gold is worth nothing compared to Sam Drake making it to the dangerously rigged deathtrap of a treasure room first.

** ''Noodnick, Daughter of Medic" Miss Brooks succesfully gets Mr. Conklin get a raise and a bonus. One of the conditions Miss Brooks insists upon is that Mr. Conklin's bonus be ''larger'' than that awarded Jason Brille.

* ''Series/{{Hunter|1984}}'': In season 1 there's an episode where a guy on a bike goes around killing cops in QuickDraw-style shootouts. This is because of a WildWest arcade game in his favorite bar where he's routinely the best, and he goes after people who beat his high score. Rick Hunter deliberately scores higher on the machine precisely because he knows it will draw out the cop killer.

* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Although he'll never admit it, the reason that Characters/DoctorDoom hates Reed Richards as passionately as he does is that he can't stand the fact that Reed is smarter, better, and more admired than him, and always manages to foil his schemes through superior intelligence. Doom finally does admit it in ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015''. No sooner does he concede the point than Molecule Man strips Doom of his godlike powers and grants them to Reed.

* The primary and secret reason for newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson's hatred of ComicBook/SpiderMan and why he uses the Daily Bugle to publicly denounce him. It is revealed in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #10 that Jameson is envious of Spidey's altruistic heroism. Jameson admits to himself he needs to tear down Spider-Man because he can't be as good a man as him.

Compare TheResenter and TallPoppySyndrome. SuperTrope of FairestOfThemAll.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' has [[PunnyName Witch Hazel]], who is very vain and obsessive about her ugliness. In ''WesternAnimation/BroomStickBunny'', she constantly consults her magic mirror to ensure she's still the "ugliest of all" and becomes jealous when Bugs shows up at her house on Halloween wearing an ugly witch mask, mistaking him for a witch more hideous than she is. She tries to give Bugs a beauty potion but ends up accidentally drinking it herself and becoming a HotWitch, to her horror.