History Main / RestrainedRevenge

-->-- '''General Souma Yoshihisa''', ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'' volume 1

->''"Don't fail me again, Admiral."''
-->-- '''Darth Vader''' (after the ''Millennium Falcon'' has escaped Admiral Piett's pursuit, and Captain Needa was [[YouHaveFailedMe force-choked to death for failure]]), ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''

* ''Literature/TearmoonEmpire'': A case where someone does this by accident. Mia at some point has the perfect acceptable excuse to do a public MyFistForgivesYou to Sion and decides have it double as her revenge for Sion odering her beheading in another timeline that she's the only character in the story to remember. However, even her best effort hits so lightly that Sion mistakes the MyFistForgivesYou to be just for show, with Mia intending for only the two of them to know that she held back. Sion mistakes the whole thing for Mia giving him a lesson on how to be true ReasonableAuthorityFigure and thanks her profusely, while Mia is internally baffled and starts wondering if Sion ''likes'' getting hit by her.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Newspaper Strip]]
* ''ComicStrip/{{Retail}}'': In the penultimate strip of the series, Marla, who has had to endure Stuart's tyrannical incompetence for years, satisfies herself by calling him over and announcing to his face that she is quitting immediately along with most of the rest of the senior staff. In addition, Marla recommends Crystal replace her while mentioning that she has already been advised of what salary to demand, leaving the naive hippy well-positioned to negotiate a big number with Stuart cornered.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Naomi Hunter in ''Webcomic/TheLastDaysOfFOXHOUND'' wants to kill Big Boss and his clone sons out of revenge for her brother Frank/Grey Fox, but soon after FOXHOUND discovers that she's related, they keep her in line by promising to revive Grey Fox as long as nobody dies suspicious deaths. [[http://www.doctorshrugs.com/foxhound/comic.php?id=210 When giving FOXHOUND Codec injections]], she has an opportunity to 'accidentally' give Liquid (who is being possessed by the ghost of Big Boss) a lethal injection, but remembers the promise/threat and stops. So she gives Liquid the Codec injection without sanitizing the needle, so the shot might get infected.

* In "WesternAnimation/DanVs the Wolfman", Dan hunts down the eponymous wolfman responsible for scratching his car. When Dan finally finds him, his retribution consists entirely of ''keying the wolfman's car'' -- and Dan is appalled that Chris would suggest he actually ''kill'' the wolfman for being a dangerous threat to society. For the sake of context, note that Dan once destroyed ''Canada'' because he slipped on some maple syrup. DisproportionateRetribution is practically the man's middle name.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Chancellor Neighsay is a [[FantasticRacism racist against all non-ponies]] and any pony who "endangers" Equestria by allying with them. During the Season 8 finale, "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E25SchoolRazePart1 School]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS8E26SchoolRazePart2 Raze]]", he accuses the non-pony students of being responsible for the magic slowly disappearing from Equestria, with no proof to back up these claims, and locks them in their dorm room until they can be escorted off school grounds. When the students discover the real culprit is actually [[spoiler:Cozy Glow]], they end up [[EnemyMine needing Neighsay's help to stop her]], and end up helping him after he has been chained to a chair by her. While they are rescuing him though, Yona manages to get some minor revenge against him by pushing him backwards hard enough to shatter the chair he was tied too (despite having already unchained him).

** In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', Vader is not pleased with Moff Jerjerrod's lack of progress in constructing the second Death Star when he arrives and urges his crew to hasten their efforts since Emperor Palpatine is even less tolerant of failure than Darth Vader is.
*** Later depictions of The Emperor make it clear how serious of a threat this was. Vader merely killed those that displeased him; his Master made them ''[[FateWorseThanDeath suffer]]''.

* ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': The first episode sees Naofumi [[FalseRapeAccusation falsely accused of raping his party member Princess Malty]]; she goes on to be an ArcVillain partway through the series. After her various misdeeds are finally exposed, she's sentenced to death for treason along with her father by the Queen. However, Naofumi can't bring himself to watch the Queen go through with guillotining her own daughter and husband, and invokes his authority as a Cardinal Hero to commute their sentences to being assigned {{Embarrassing Nickname}}s (along with forfeiture of any royal authority): Malty is permanently renamed "Bitch", and given the [[NomDeGuerre adventuring name]] "Slut" to replace her previous pseudonym Myne Sophia.

** The alternate ending for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsWhoShotMrBurns Who Shot Mr. Burns?]]" had Smithers as the culprit instead of [[spoiler:Maggie]]. All Mr. Burns does as punishment is dock Smithers' pay by 5%.

** Bart and Nelson also become friends in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E8TheHawHawedCouple The Haw-Hawed Couple]]", with the former merely using it as protection while the latter takes it ''very'' seriously. When the truth's revealed, Nelson spends a while glaring and apparently stalking Bart, and when he finally gets him alone and cornered, he seems poised to unleash the beating of Bart's life but instead delivers a passionate TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, [[DisappointedInYou calls Bart a bad friend]], and declares their friendship over.

* In [[Literature/TheBible the Biblical book of Genesis]], Joseph is Prime Minister of Egypt when he meets his treacherous brothers (Excepting Reuben, who was halfway decent to him, and Benjamin, who was a complete innocent in the conflict) as they come to purchase food and failed to recognize him. As much as Joseph could have had them all executed, he satisfies himself by scaring them by accusing and jailing them for three days as spies, keeping Simeon in prison until they return with Benjamin, and purposefully arranging for Benjamin to be falsely accused of petty theft until he was satisfied they had matured enough to let them off the hook and reveal his true identity.

* In an episode of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', Batou is tasked with tracking a soldier he'd encountered in the past butchering civilians, who's become a SerialKiller using the same techniques. He's aided by a couple of [[{{Eagleland}} CIA agents]] ([[spoiler:who are hoping that Batou will snap and kill him to cover up that the original crimes were committed under orders, and the serial killings are the result of it driving him mad]]). When he has him cornered, he seems ready to kill him, but instead opts to [[CruelMercy empty his pistol into the wall and arrest him]], saying that unlike the killer, he's finished fighting his wars.

** In ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', Vader is not pleased with Moff Jerjerrod's lack of progress in constructing the second Death Star when he arrives, and urges his crew to hasten their efforts, since Emperor Palpatine is even less tolerant of failure than Darth Vader is.

* In ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington Honor Among Enemies]]'', one of the characters -- the series' first full-book-length viewpoint character who isn't a commissioned officer, Aubrey Wanderman -- falls afoul of Randy Steilman, a low-life thug who's spent his last 20 years trying (in no particular order) to avoid work and hurt people. After a fairly vicious beating by Steilman, Wanderman is counseled by [[SergeantRock Horace Harkness]] to seek hand to hand combat training with the ship's marine complement. One growth arc later, Wanderman hands out a fairly vicious beating to Steilman after Steilman attempts -- and nearly succeeds at -- murdering his best friend. For the beating, Wanderman suffers through a Captain's Mast (a nonjudicial punishment hearing in front of the Captain) where he is sentenced to... spend a day locked in his quarters and lose a week's pay. Compared to the penalty that ''could'' have fallen on him for his actual offense (3 grades' demotion from his ''permanent'' rank of Electronics Technician 1st Class and up to 45 days' imprisonment on the spacegoing equivalent of bread and water), he was getting a tiny slap on the wrist that conveyed ''actual'' -- if unofficial -- approval.

'''Peterman''' (smiling broadly): Well, I have a feeling that what you are about to go through is punishment enough. Dismissed.

* In [[Literature/TheBible the Biblical book of Genesis]], Joseph is Prime Minister of Egypt when he meets his treacherous brothers (Excepting Reuben, who was halfway decent to him, and Benjamin, who was a complete innocent in the conflict) as they come to purchase food and failed to recognize him. As much as Joseph could have had them all executed, he satisfies himself with scaring them by accusing and jailing them for three days as spies, keeping Simeon in prison until they return with Benjamin, and purposefully arranging Benjamin to be falsely accused of petty theft until he was satisfied they had matured enough to let them off the hook and reveal his true identity.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Retail}}'': In the penultimate strip of the series, Marla, who has had to endure Stuart's tyrannical incompetence for years, satisfies herself by calling him over announcing to his face that she is quitting immediately along with most of the rest of the senior staff. In addition, Marla recommends Crystal replace her while mentioning that she has already been advised of what salary to demand, leaving the naive hippy well-positioned to negotiate a big number with Stuart cornered.

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar: Retribution'': At the end of the ork campaign, Kaptin Bluddflagg tracks down Inquisitor Adrastia, who'd shot his ship out of orbit at the beginning, and refused to give him her hat as a bonus (the deal was to kill Kyras in exchange for [[BloodKnight getting a battle set up with three Imperial Guard regiments wherever he wanted]]). He grabs and lifts her in one hand, loudly proclaims that if she's no good for a fight, she's of no use to him... then grabs her hat, drops her and leaves. Subverted in that while Adrastia thinks she got off lightly, considering someone NotWorthKilling is [[InsultBackfire the absolute worst insult orkdom can think of.]]

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' in the ''Honest Hearts'' DLC, The Courier can convince Joshua Graham to spare Salt-Upon-Wounds after attacking the White Legs together. Yes, its still after The Courier and Joshua Graham leave a trail of bodies behind while attacking the White Legs, but sparing Salt-Upon-Wounds mirrors Graham's own story themes of violence, forgiveness, and atonement. As the DLC's epilogue makes clear though, Salt-Upon-Wounds and the remaining White Legs are [[KilledOffscreen destroyed after leaving Zion]] by a rival raider gang later.

* ''ComicStrip/PerryBibleFellowship'': [[https://pbfcomics.com/comics/cromax/ Cromax]], an alien working at a fastfood restaurant apparently and maybe accidentally infects the food with his larvae which then proceed to [[ChestBurster violently burst out of unvitting hapless customers' insides]]. Cromax's boss proceeds to fire him. What's worse, the line "No more warnings, Cromax, you're outta here." implies this incident has [[FridgeHorror happened several times]].

** Bart and Nelson also become friends in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E8TheHawHawedCouple The Haw-Hawed Couple]]", with the former merely using it as protection while the latter takes it ''very'' seriously. When the truth's revealed, Nelson spends a while glaring and apparently stalking Bart, and when he finally gets him alone and cornered, he seems poised to unleash the beating of Barts life but instead delivers a passionate TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, [[DisappointedInYou calls Bart a bad friend]], and declares their friendship over.

* This is where the idea of "An Eye for an Eye" (as found in Hammurabi's Code of Law and the [[Literature/TheBible Old Testament]]) really comes from. It was an [[FairForItsDay attempt by early societies]] to enact punishment and dissuade further crime while preventing a CycleOfRevenge that could destabilize the society as a whole and hurt innocents. Revenge was allowed, but it was enacted by the government and limited to not cause more harm that was suffered.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'', Max is prepared to kill [[BigBad Victor]], who orchestrated the death of the family he was hired to protect, but [[FriendOnTheForce Da Silva]] tells him it will be better to let Victor be tried in a court of law. Max listens, but not before stomping on Victor's leg hard enough to make the broken bone tear his skin.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'': Chief Movran the Under pelts Skyhold with a live goat as the bare minimum for avenging his son. He considers his son an idiot for going after the Inquisition when he was supposed to be attacking Tevinters. The player responds in kind, by [[{{Unishment}} "exiling"]] Movran and his clan to Tevinter "with all the weapons [they] can carry."