History Main / Revenge

* The thousand-year plan of the Sith in ''Franchise/StarWars'', which Sidious finally brings to fruition.
-->'''Darth Maul:''' At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.

* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': Inigo Montoya has spent his life training in sword fighting to avenge his father. He even has a catchphrase he plans to recite to the killer

* Roger of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' often parodies this of the DisproportionateRetribution order. In "The One That Got Away" for example he discovers a stranger has been using his credit account and in retaliation ''proceeds to destroy his life in every manner possible'' [[spoiler: this causes complications when the culprit in fact turns out to be a split personality of Roger obliviously created]]. In turn his victim sets an assassin on him. Naturally HilarityEnsues.
* Katara in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' is not a forgiving girl and holds a grudge against Zuko longer than anyone in the group, but asks for his help in ''The Southern Raiders'' to help track down the man that murdered her mother so she can kill him. Aang tells them not to go because revenge isn't worth it and she should just forgive him, but Zuko agrees with her and they set off. They track the man down, but seeing how disgusting and pitiful he is she decides he isn't worth dirtying her hands. She and Zuko return and Aang assumes she's forgiven the man, but the only one she's willing to forgive is Zuko; The murderer was simply too pathetic to kill, but Zuko is genuinely remorseful and trying to repent.

** In the Season 5 finale, "The Cutie Re-Mark", [[spoiler:Starlight Glimmer uses a TimeTravel spell to undo Twilight's friendship with the other members of the Mane 6 in order to exact revenge for Twilight stopping her from stealing other ponies' cutie marks in the name of equality. She snaps out of it after accidentally causing the apocalypse in one timeline.]]
** In the Season 6 finale, "To Where and Back Again", [[spoiler:after having not been seen in the show since the Royal Wedding, Queen Chrysalis and her Changeling Swarm return for revenge for that defeat by taking their previous plan up a notch with kidnapping all five Alicorn Princesses, Prince Shining Armor, Spike, and the Elements of Harmony, essentially decapitating Equestria's government and primary defenses in one fell swoop to clear the way for a full-scale invasion. However, thanks to Starlight Glimmer and Thorax, a traitor to the Swarm, the Swarm pulls a HeelRaceTurn and destroy Chrysalis' throne, free the ponies they kidnapped and cocooned, and effectively go from enemies to Equestria to one of their most powerful allies, except Chrysalis, who swears revenge again over losing everything and escapes to return in the future to take her vengeance on Starlight, then possibly the Royal Family and Mane Six again.]]

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': When [[spoiler:Kate Beckett]] finally got to [[spoiler:personally arrest her untouchable nemesis [[CorruptPolitician senator Bracken]]]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' after his defeat Phantom Limb renames himself Revenge, collects a gang of [[VillainousBreakdown inanimate objects]], and goes on a campaign against The Guild ([[WebVideo/TheGuild Not that one]]).

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'':

* In ''Fanfic/APrizeForThreeEmpires'', the Supreme Intelligence and Ronan the Accuser's primary purpose for capturing and killing ComicBook/CarolDanvers is to harvest her special DNA, but eliminating a hated enemy who has constantly thwarted their plans is a nice bonus.

** ''[[Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS]]'': In this series, this is the initial motivation of the main character. The whole first season revolves around Yusaku Fujiki/Playmaker and his friend Cal Kolter working together to exact revenge against the Knights of Hanoi for the “Lost Incident”, which resulted in Yusaku and Kolter’s younger brother being tortured for several months. [[spoiler: At the end of the first season, Yusaku declares his own revenge over after defeating Revolver, and from there, he finally begins to move on with his life again.]]

* This is the main motive of Thief King Bakura (and by extent, Yami Bakura) of ''Anime/YuGiOh'', who desires revenge for the massacre of Kul Elna.

* Hiei from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. He was cast out of his birthplace by his own people, simply for being male, while they held his mother back as she pleaded for his life. While Hiei's feelings on his mother are unclear, his primary motivation early in life was to kill every ice maiden in the Glacial Village and burn the place right out of the sky and into the ground.

** Solkan, one of the Gods of Law, is strongly associated with revenge and retribution as part of his broader focus on justice, and this serves as a common part of his public appeal. In Tilea, he is viewed as the patron of the vendetta, a dueling tradition with very strict rules, and invoked when people feel that they have been cheated or wronged. In the Empire, his northern incarnation, Söll, is popular among surviving Sollander families who want vengeance on the Orcs who destroyed their province.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': The Dwarfs have a serious problem with this. They're incapable of ever letting something go, and everything anyone does that displeases them is a deliberate, malicious strike against them. One instance involves a human fortress being razed because they hired dwarven engineers to help build it and shortchanged their payment by a handful of coins out of thousands. Instead of accepting that this was probably just a clerk miscounting or a ripped bag losing a few coins in transit and either brushing it off or sending someone to ''explain what the problem is'' and asking for the complete payment, they instead stewed on this vile theft for a century, assembled an army, and laid siege to the baffled fortress.

-->'''[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Revenge:]]''' [[CatchPhrase Revenge!]]

An avenger has several options when pursuing his or her vendetta. He or she can devise a Machiavellian plan, [[TheChessmaster maneuvering things (and occasionally people) in place]] [[BestServedCold until the time of final vengeance is at hand]], which is the route taken by many classical revenge tales. Often the avenger takes steps to ruin the other guy's life in some manner before the final act, which may or may not end with the other guy's death. Another option, often chosen by {{action hero}}es or the more bloodthirsty avengers, is the RoaringRampageOfRevenge, where the avenger(s) dispense with this and goes straight for the bloodshed, hunting down everyone who had anything to do with the crime in question and eliminating them one by one, often in a GottaKillThemAll fashion, until they reach the BigBad behind it all and take their final vengeance.

* ''VideoGame/FatalFury'': After Geese Howard killed Jeff Bogard, Jeff's sons became martial artists to eventually kill him back.

* Tasha in ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin'', her character theme is actually titled "Goddess of Revenge".
** Tasha's love of revenge is lampshaded in one of the [[{{Omake}} War Room]] segments, she claims "My hobbies include professing my love for the Lazurian Army and vowing revenge."

* ''Manga/{{Magi}}'': Hakuryuu's goal is to avenge his brothers and father who were killed by [[spoiler:[[EvilMatriarch his own mother]], the empress Ren Gyokuen]]. This trope is deconstructed by showing how self-destructive his path is and how it turns him to the dark side. It is then reconstructed when Hakuryuu rejetcs all his friends and sister peaceful advices and chooses by his own will that he'd rather drive himself into a corner than abandon his vengeance.

* This becomes a theme in ComicBook/{{Black Panther}}'s appearances in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', T'Challa wants to kill Bucky for the death of his father T'Chaka, [[spoiler: But gets over it after seeing Iron Man and Captain America tear each other apart over Bucky's actual killing of the former's parents as a HYDRA agent]]. in ''Film/BlackPanther'', Killmonger wants revenge on the whole world in general for the historical treatment of enslaved Africans and their descendants, and Wakanda in particular for the death of his own father. In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', [[spoiler:Star-Lord's grief and anger over the death of Gamora causes Iron Man's attack on Thanos to ultimately fail]]. The first act of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' has the heroes left feeling hollow after taking their revenge on Thanos, and much of the final act of ''Film/BlackPantherWakandaForever'' is about Shuri's desire for revenge on Namor after his attack on Wakanda.

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[[folder:Standup Comedy]]
* Creator/BillCosby's routine called, aptly, "Revenge", recalling his childhood where he plotted to get back at Junior Barnes for hitting him with a slushball. He crafts a perfect snowball and stores it in the freezer, intending to use it on him in July, where there's not a snowball in sight. [[spoiler:When the time finally comes for Bill to take his revenge, he finds out that his mother had thrown the snowball away, and has to resort to spitting on him]].

* The 1996 film adaptation of ''Literature/HarrietTheSpy'' has Harriet enact even more revenge on her classmates than in the book, even carving their names into her desk so she can cross one off the list when she hits them. As in the book, she cuts Laura's hair off from behind. Then she draws all over the posters of various heartthrobs Beth Ellen keeps in her locker, hangs Carrie's bra off the flagpole in front of the whole school, sabotages Pink and Janie's respective science projects, makes photocopies of an embarrassing photo of Sport dressed like a maid and posts it all over school, and finally the most savage of all - she corners Marion in the bathroom and reveals that she doesn't have a father like she's been saying, and that her biological father is in Amsterdam [[KickTheSonOfABitch "because he doesn't love you]]".