History Main / RevengeMyopia

It's relatively common that the reason that Alice wants to kill Bob is that Bob killed Charlie. Revenge seems pretty straightforward. But it gets a lot murkier [[CrimeOfSelfDefense when Charlie was trying to kill Bob first and Bob was just defending himself]]. They were in a war, it was a fight, Charlie surprised Bob at the worst time, [[AccidentalMurder it was an accident]], the list goes on. Bob [[IDidntMeanToKillHim didn't really want to kill]] Charlie and would have avoided doing so if possible. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone It's likely Bob regrets it greatly]]. But all of that doesn't matter to Alice. Bob has to ''pay'' for what he did to Charlie.

'''Murad Hoxha:''' ''[slaps Bryan]'' I DON'T ''CARE'' WHAT HE DID! I only know... I will never see his face again, I will never hear his voice. ''(kisses a photo of his son)'' And as you held him responsible for your daughter, I hold you responsible for him!

* One episode of ''Literature/KinosJourney'' has Kino meet a woman and the man she's hired as a guard as they're about to set out on a journey. She sits with the man for a while and learns that he had killed her husband several years ago accidentally while robbing his store, and had been reformed and set free by their justice system, on the condition that he makes it up to the woman by mutual agreement. It's made clear that his reform and desire to help the woman in any way he can in penance for his crime are genuine. They part, and later Kino is riding through the woods when she hears a gunshot -- it turns out that the woman wasn't so big on the penance idea after all.
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': Sasuke starts to fall into this as his sanity goes off the deep end. At first, his revenge plan is reasonable; he just wants to kill Itachi for murdering his entire family (plus [[MindRape mind raping]] him). Then Itachi dies, and he finds out that Itachi was a good guy all along, but was pressured into killing the Uchihas because they were going to revolt (and his torture of Sasuke was to make his FaceHeelTurn more believable without having to ''kill'' his beloved little brother). So Sasuke shifts his revenge to Danzo, the guy who pressured Itachi to kill his clan, ignoring that the Uchihas provoked it by threatening civil war because they felt mistrusted (Mind you, Danzo was responsible for ''that very mistrust'' along with a lot of ''other'', and even less justified, atrocities and nobody would be all that sorry to see him go, but that's not what Sasuke was thinking about. [[VillainHasAPoint Danzo]] even points out that it doesn't matter what he actually did, because Sasuke [[RevengeBeforeReason was on a revenge kick]] and wanted to hurt ''someone'' for the Uchiha massacre.). And once Danzo dies, he [[MisplacedRetribution shifts his revenge]] to ''everyone in Konoha'' for being happy at the same time his brother was suffering.
* In ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'', Jin killed his master Mariya Enshirou in self-defense. Try telling that to Mariya's ''other'' students, who are hunting for Jin throughout the series to avenge him. Particularly notable is NotSoHarmlessVillain Ogura Bunta, who managed to hold his own against Jin when he finally encountered him. The shame of his defeat, however, caused Bunta to be DrivenToSuicide, according to Jin's UnknownRival Yukimaru. For his part, Yukimaru doesn't care about their master, and just wants to kill Jin to absorb the reputation of the thousand man killer.

* ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'': Kuyou's entire motive when he comes back in Season II is to get revenge on Tsukune for defeating and humiliating him. Sure, never mind the fact that Kuyou is a [[ANaziByAnyOtherName human-hating]] KnightTemplar who abused his status as the head of the Student Police to make everyone at Yokai Academy miserable, and Tsukune defeated him ''after'' Kuyou threatened his friends and nearly killed him by [[KillItWithFire burning him alive]], purely because he was a human.
* TheReveal of [[BigBad Kagari's]] motivations in ''Manga/PuellaMagiSuzuneMagica'' puts her schemes well into this territory. Kagari orchestrated the events of the series, from making Suzune BrainwashedAndCrazy to kill other magical girls to erasing her memories of herself and her little sister Matsuri because she wants revenge for Suzune killing their mutual mentor and mother figure Tsubaki. The problem is that while Suzune killed Tsubaki, it was both unintentional and necessary: Tsubaki had been ''protecting'' Suzune and ended up using too much magic, darkening her Soul Gem and [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie turning into a Witch]], forcing Suzune [[MercyKill to put her down]]. Heartbreaking yes, but a sad fact of their universe. Kagari seems to think that this makes her justified in forcing Suzune to kill other magical girls who are innocent in this feud before dropping the AwfulTruth on her head, which would force Suzune into despair and turn her into a Witch herself so Kagari can kill her and "make Suzune suffer just like Tsubaki did." Of course, Kagari is both insane and a {{sadist}}, and freely admits to Suzune she made the plan much more complicated than it needed to be [[ItAmusedMe because it gave her a thrill]], so some of the myopia was likely intentional.

* ''Literature/SuteraretaYuushaNoEiyuutan'': Despite bullying Daichi, horrifically, for years, and throwing him into a monster pit to be Eaten Alive, [[TheBully Samejima Sanji]] swears graphic vengeance on Daichi the moment Daichi has him cornered in a dungeon. That is, until Daichi kills him over, and over, and over again so that he learns what being helplessly bullied feels like.
* ''Literature/TheHeroicLegendOfArslan'': Zandeh wants to kill Daryun to avenge his father, who didn't even kill him, as Kharlan died when [[HoistByHisOwnPetard he fell on his own broken weapon]]. Never mind the fact that Kharlan had betrayed and tried to kill Daryun and Arslan first, both of whom he had sworn allegiance to.
* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': After Katsuya goes on an UnstoppableRage FreakOut over both a LoveTriangle over Sheryl and the FalseFlagOperation against him by Tiol making it look like Akira killed his teammates, and Akira kills Katsuya in self-defense, Airi forms a RenegadeSplinterFaction from Drankam to get revenge on Akira despite him being the victim, as well as her friend Yumina fully accepting he was such.

* Slade Wilson aka ''ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}}'' has a bad history with this:
** In his first story arc, Deathstroke blamed the [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Titans]] for the death of his eldest son Grant. Except a) the only reason Grant died was that he underwent the same super soldier experiment that gave Slade his powers but which proved fatal to Grant and b) Grant died trying to kill the Titans. And despite not wanting his son to follow the same path as him, Slade chooses to blame the Titans for Grant's death rather than go after H.I.V.E., the organization that performed the fatal experiment on Grant.
** In ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Slade destroyed Blüdhaven, the city ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} protected by dropping the super villain [[ActionBomb Chemo]], a monster made of radioactive energies, into it. When confronted by Batman, Nightwing, and Robin (Tim Drake) Slade goes into a rant about how Nightwing had turned his family against him when in reality Slade had either turned his back on his family or did a good enough job on making them hate him himself. Interestingly Slade did learn a lesson after this, arranging a complex gambit to get his children Jericho and Rose to fully embrace the Titans as family because he felt he couldn't be a good father to them.
* ''ComicBook/MasterOfKungFu'' had a storyline where an underworld boss tasks his assassins and then an evil samurai with killing ComicBook/ShangChi, assuming that Fu Manchu will reward him for it. The samurai screws up by not only dying himself but also accidentally killing his employer's life partner. The villain naturally goes ItsPersonal on Shang-Chi – who else is there left to blame for her death, [[NeverMyFault himself]]?

* ''Fanfic/SummerDaysAndEveningFlames'':
** Red Hooves wants revenge on Gilda for arresting his sister, who was in the middle of robbing a merchant blind.
** After Sherry's FaceHeelTurn and Iron puts out a country-wide arrest order, she pulls her connections to get Iron fired for daring to try bringing her to justice for all of her fellow Guardsman she got killed.

* In ''Fanfic/MyMirrorSwordAndShield'', Cornelia and Schneizel acknowledge that they would be no better than Lelouch if they sought out their revenge. They decide to do so anyway.

* ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'': Lee Jordan [[spoiler:has a grudge against Harry for getting him expelled from school. Why was he expelled? Because he tried to brutally and permanently maim her and erase her memory of it. And why would he do that? To get revenge for her family pushing his out of the joke-inventing business -- except that the real reason for that happening was because his father, finding himself falling behind, turned to inventing DeadlyPrank items that caused legal trouble and had to be recalled, so shops like Zonko's didn't want to do business with him. The Marauders didn't even push him out of the market deliberately, they just invented better products. Nonetheless, Lee blames the Marauders for all his problems, and wants to watch "Rigel" die slowly and painfully as their hope for the future, nevermind that Harry has already told him she's not interested in going into the business.]]
* ''Fanfic/WhenTheRosesBloomAgain'': Cassiopeia Black tries to persuade her brother to blame [[spoiler:the Potters for "murdering" Perseus Black]], and rouse him to retaliating. However, instead, [[spoiler:Arcturus laughs in her face and insists that even if William Potter cast the spell, it was Grindelwald who filled Perseus' head with nonsense and sent him into battle, and killing an enemy soldier on the battlefield doesn't count as murder. Instead of blaming the Potters for Perseus' death, he promises revenge on Grindelwald. Cassiopeia remains bent on avenging her brother, however.]]

* The motivation of [[BigBad Killian]] from ''WesternAnimation/SpiesInDisguise'' is [[spoiler:getting revenge on Lance for [[AFatherToHisMen killing all of his men]] and disfiguring him during a mission. When Killian reveals this, Lance points out that Killian and his men were all terrorists who were planning to kill innocent people and he was doing his job to stop them.]]

'''Woody:''' ''[scoffs angrily]'' Well if ''you'' hadn't shown up in your stupid little cardboard spaceship and taken away everything that was important to me...
* In ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots'' Humpty Dumpty's big grievance against his friend-turned-enemy Puss is the fact that Puss abandoned him to the authorities after the two of them failed in the robbery of a bank. Humpty seems unwilling to recognize that he is just as guilty by tricking Puss into aiding him rob the bank against his explicit wishes, and in the process branded him an outlaw and ruined his hard-earned reputation as the town hero. It's quite telling that Humpty doesn't even view what he did as a betrayal, thinking that Puss was just supposed to go along with it because they're blood brothers.

* Black Manta in ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'' wants to kill Aquaman because Aquaman killed his father. Well, "didn't save" his father. See, Black Manta and his father were pirates who were hijacking a submarine (which involved killing crewmembers), and Aquaman intervened. Aquaman was ready to walk away, when Black Manta's father attacked him, ending up pinned and dying as the sub filled with water. Black Manta begged Aquaman for mercy, and Aquaman refused (not unreasonable, considering the father had just proven he'd take advantage of mercy). Black Manta not only has all the facts, but he ''witnessed'' the entire thing and still blames Aquaman.

** In ''Film/ScreamVI'', [[spoiler:the Bailey family wants revenge on Sam for killing Richie in ''Film/Scream2022''. The fact that he instigated a murder rampage that left six innocent people dead and died trying to murder the woman who ultimately did him in is immaterial.]]

* In Creator/DavidEddings' ''Literature/TheRedemptionOfAlthalus'', when working as a mercenary, Eliar kills the ruler of the city-state the mercenaries were attacking. He ends up being captured and Andine, the daughter of said ruler, enacts personal revenge. He gets rescued eventually.[[spoiler: And she eventually gets over it. They end up married.]]
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' Lord Karstark wants revenge against Jaime Lannister for killing two of his sons. He does this by killing two of Jaime's relatives who were held captive, killing several men allied with him to get to them. It's pointed out that killing defenseless prisoners and your own allies is not the same as killing an enemy in battle, but the distinction seems lost on him since he's basically [[RevengeBeforeReason half-mad with anger and grief]] by that point. This also extends to his soldiers: Karstark's execution by Robb Stark for murder causes them to abandon House Stark, ''their rightful liege lord'', despite the fact that their lord ''did'' break the law and was punished accordingly.
** There are other instances where someone (Balon Greyjoy, the Sand Snakes) acknowledges that the people they spent years plotting revenge against are all dead, yet they still want revenge against their house. It gets rather ridiculous with Balon, who blames Ned for the death of his eldest son because Ned fought on the opposite side to Balon and his, one of Balon's sons having died in a battle Ned wasn't even present for. Granted, Ned also held his last son hostage.
** The Martells seek vengeance against Ser Amory Lorch, Ser Gregor Clegane, and his liege lord Tywin Lannister for the murder of Princess Elia Martell and her children during the overthrow of the regime that she married into. True, it was war and the children were in line to the throne, but it was a [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil particularly brutal]] and unnecessary murder. Tywin tries to get around it by blaming all the murders on Lorch after their death. [[spoiler:Oberyn Martell is granted the chance to fight the Mountain in a duel...and when he loses fair and square, his children, the Sand Snakes, start clamoring for revenge against the Lannisters for ''his'' death, even though Gregor admitted his crimes and died rather agonizingly of his wounds anyway, and Lord Tywin died of unrelated causes (namely, Tyrion finally getting fed up with his father and killing him).]]
** Cersei Lannister is also guilty of this after ''A Storm of Swords'', where she loses both her eldest and most beloved son ''and'' her father. She constantly sends people out to hunt Tyrion down, despite the fact that her eldest son was a psychopath who ''wasn't even killed by Tyrion'' (instead poisoned by Olenna Tyrell, who refused to let such a monster marry her granddaughter Margaery) and that her father ''really'' had it coming; not only was he about to execute Tyrion under false pretenses because he was TheUnfavorite for being a dwarf (and because Tywin's wife died giving birth to him), but Tyrion had just found out that Tywin falsely led him to think that his commoner wife was a whore. It was really just a matter of time before ''somebody'' whom Tywin and/or Joffrey wronged succeeded in killing them, but Cersei doesn't see it that way.
* In Creator/DianeDuane's novel ''Literature/SpocksWorld'', the BigBad is seeking revenge on Spock for the death of a mate. What the BigBad fails to take into account is that said mate took a suicidal risk to get closer to the BigBad because the mate thought that said character's brooding over the last encounter with Spock was romantic.

** In ''Shadow of Victory''/''Uncompromising Honor'', [[spoiler:when Manticore comes knocking on Mesa's door, Albrecht Detweiler, leader of the Mesan Alignment, kills himself and his wife with a nuke, triggering more nuclear weapons across Mesa, preventing the Manticorans from finding further proof about the Alignment and framing them for the attack. What do their children do? Organize the destruction of Beowulf's three main space habitats, totaling 43 million people - all because their father killed himself and their mother.]]
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
** ''Literature/GravePeril'' reveals that Bianca's motivation for revenge against Harry (and the entire White Council) is because he caused one of her prostitute employees' deaths back in ''Literature/StormFront''. The sequence of events went like this: Bianca attacked Harry when he came to question her about the case he was on (which she legitimately had nothing to do with), and he [[CrimeOfSelfDefense defended himself]] and left. Afterwards, she fed on the prostitute but was so shaken up that she accidentally killed the girl. Not only does she [[NeverMyFault not acknowledge her role in the debacle]], ''she didn't even know the woman's name'' ([[TheDeadHaveNames Harry does- her name was Rachel]]). [[spoiler: She may have been manipulated by Nemesis into provoking the White Council to weaken the general supernatural world.]]
** In ''Literature/ColdDays'', Titania refuses to tell Harry information that would keep [[spoiler:Demonreach]] from exploding- taking out ''half the Midwest'' with it- because he killed her daughter. (Her daughter was attempting to commit genocide on the Summer Fae, which would have had apocalyptic consequences on Earth's climate and life as a whole, [[spoiler:in addition to letting the Outsiders unmake reality itself.]]) Titania admits Harry was fully justified in his actions, and for that reason she allows him to live...but she still ''can't'' work with him. Even to prevent mass murder on a continental scale. It's Justified in that Titania is a [[TheFairFolk Summer Fae]]; emotional responses are in her nature, including pursuing a grudge that she knows full well has no logical basis. The level of restraint she managed to show when she appeared was ''amazing'' by Summer Court standards, and the result of ''years'' worth of therapy sessions with Eldest Gruff.
* ''Literature/TheHanSoloAdventures'': In ''Han Solo and the Lost Legacy,'' [[AvengingTheVillain J'uouch goes berserk when her brother dies while trying to kill Han and tries to kill him for revenge.]] Then ''she'' gets attacked by Hasti Forge, whose sister J'uoch killed in cold blood. [[spoiler:The fight ends in a DisneyVillainDeath for J'uoch.]]
--> '''J'uoch:''' He killed my brother! I'll kill Solo if I have to blow these mountains apart.
* In the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix fifth]] and [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince sixth]] ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' books, Draco Malfoy makes it clear he wants revenge on Harry for putting his father in prison, even though his father was arrested for helping his genocidal EvilOverlord master try to attack and/or kill quite a few people, Harry included.
* In the ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series, the reason Ari targets Max specifically during so many of their fights is that he blames her for stealing his father's love (which is not entirely as petty as it sounds - Ari's father leaving to secretly raise Max and her siblings left Ari unprotected to be experimented on by the [[MadScientist Whitecoats]]). Max tries to point out several times that she was a child at the time and had no idea what was going on beyond being rescued from a scary, painful place, but Ari refuses to listen. [[spoiler:When faced with the reality that he's going to die soon, in the third book, he finally does admit to Max that he knows she had no more control over the situation than he did.]] Considering that Ari's mentally and emotionally a child, his reaction is justified.
* ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'': At some point, Clip gets the idea into his head of taking revenge upon Anomander Rake aka the Black-Winged Lord aka the god the Tiste Andii of Bluerose worship for allegedly allowing them to degenerate and eventually be slaughtered by the Letherii. As far as Clip is concerned, Anomander Rake deserves to die. Never mind that neither had he anything to do with the fate of the Andii of the Andara, they did not even ask him if it's okay to worship him as a god and expect anything in return. It's questionable whether he even knew of their existence.

* In the ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' sequel Literature/TwentyYearsAfter, Mordaunt, the son of the previous book's BigBad, Milady de Winter, seeks revenge on the Musketeers for the VigilanteExecution they performed on her. When he goes to confront his uncle, Lord de Winter, who also played a role in the execution, de Winter explains to his nephew how awful Milady was and all the terrible things she did. Mordaunt responds by saying quite clearly that he ''doesn't care.'' De Winter and the Musketeers killed his mother, and so he's going to kill ''them'' in revenge.
* In the novel ''Live Bait'' by PJ Tracy, [[spoiler:all but one of the murders the police are investigating turn out to be the work of a young man who had witnessed his father's murder and has been hunting down the responsible parties in what he considers "righteous kills". Problem was, his dad was ''a Nazi war criminal'' who had escaped justice, and the killers were a vigilante hit-squad made up of Holocaust survivors (the remaining murder was actually another of their victims), making his dad's death a "righteous kill" by his logic. To be fair, he didn't actually know that at the time, but isn't dissuaded when he eventually finds out.]]

* ''{{Literature/Carrie}}'' has the famous sequence where the eponymous Carrie uses her powers to take revenge on her classmates, and subsequently destroying her entire town. This is revenge for the bullying she has been suffering her entire life, which admittedly many of her classmates did take part in. But [[RageBreakingPoint the incident that triggers this]] is the prank that Chris and Billy pulled; no one else at the prom knew about it and, while they laugh at first, it's out of shock rather than maliciousness. Some of the people who get killed in the conflict were actually nice to her, ironically enough. The adaptations play around with this; the 2002 movie has Carrie go into a complete trance when the revenge happens, and she doesn't even remember anything when she comes out of it. The 2013 one has her spare people who were nice to her (such as Miss Desjardin) and actively target her tormentors (in this version, far more people are implied to have been in on the prank).
* ''Literature/CradleSeries'': Common, due to constant use of AsskickingLeadsToLeadership and MoralMyopia. When Lindon was faced with Kral, an opponent far above him, he bowed politely, reminded Kral that the two of them had no real quarrel, and promised to leave. Kral seemingly accepted this, then dropped a poison cloud on Lindon's head when his back was turned. Lindon managed to kill him. Jai Long called this a dirty trick and murder, and Lindon is only saved by Eithan revealing that he is by far the most powerful person in the room. When Jai Long relates this story to Kral's father and Jai Long's sister, he still speaks of it as murder, and in their later duel, he repeatedly calls Lindon a coward for using tricks against a stronger opponent instead of just dying.
* ''Literature/DungeonCrawlerCarl'': Frank and Maggie are player-killers who typically spin up a sob story to explain themselves, then kill people when their backs are turned. Carl and Donut manage to escape them, though Carl leaves behind a trap he hopes they might trigger. Later, he meets them again and finds out that [[spoiler:their daughter was injured by the trap, and Maggie had to MercyKill her because she was wearing a magic ring that prevented healing]]. Both of them want to kill Carl for this, even though he was reasonably defending himself and didn't know anyone else was with them. Frank is at least self-aware enough to know he's a hypocrite, he just wants revenge anyway, but Maggie really does think that everything is Carl's fault, and ruins several other lives trying to get to him.

** This seems to run in the family; when Regina's half-sister Zelena shows up, she wants revenge on Regina for getting everything instead of her. Except Regina had no clue Zelena even existed, let alone that Cora had another child. It was their mother who decided to abandon her firstborn so as to not inconvenience her social climbing. But since Cora was first trapped in another dimension and later [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal]] by the time Zelena came to power, Regina was an easier target to focus on.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stranglehold}}'', a sequel to ''Film/HardBoiled'', James Wong wants revenge on [[CowboyCop Tequila Yuen]] for killing his son Johnny, the BigBad of ''Film/HardBoiled''. Never mind the fact that Johnny was a psychopathic gangster who was quite willing to murder innocent people just for being in his way. [[spoiler:The fact that he orchestrates the death of his surviving child, who is Tequila's wife, just to spite Tequila only makes it worse.]]

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', during the WackyRacing questline with Claire Russell you learn that she lied about [[CrusadingWidower the circumstances of her husband Dean's death]] and had been using you to get close to the man she believed to be responsible. His rival Sampson didn't commit premeditated murder as she claimed, he just did what literally any other participant in the death races would do and rammed their car. It was simply bad luck that Dean died, and Sampson points out that Claire killed people in the races too. If V tries to talk her down but didn't make the right dialogue choice earlier, she'll admit it's not right to kill Sampson...and then kill him anyway.

* In ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'' Lewis has come back as a ghost hellbent on getting revenge on Arthur for his murder. Unfortunately he is either unaware or doesn't care that Arthur was [[DemonicPossession possessed]] at the time and was visibly horrified at Lewis's murder at his own hand. Further complicating matters Arthur seems to have forgotten Lewis's death and is now desperately seeking his missing friend on a visible lack of sleep that may be causing hallucinations meaning he's not likely to recognize Lewis's flaming skeletal ghost and wouldn't be able to even try and explain what really happened if he did.

* This is implied to be the case for the two families that make up [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP-]][[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2039 2039]]. Mabel Pike essentially made a DealWithTheDevil that left her family and the Wagner family in an eternal feud, because Blaine Wagner, the family's patriarch, [[spoiler:murdered Mabel's girlfriend when they were younger]]. The exact circumstances are never given though, the feud itself only began because of the supernatural aid of a mysterious entity, and the Foundation report indicates that Blaine [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone suffers from night terrors]] while frequently murmuring the name of [[spoiler:Mabel's girlfriend.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' episode "Blind Alley", Mystique pretends to be Scott's brother Alex, supposedly stuck in Mexico after losing his passport, in order to lure Scott out on his own, knocking him out and leaving him stuck in the middle of the Mexican desert without his glasses to stop his eyes, saying "That's payback!" after Scott let her get captured inside a military base in "Day of Recovery". However, Scott did that because [[spoiler:she had abducted Professor X and impersonated him throughout the two-part episode "Day of Reckoning",]] and refused to divulge the location of [[spoiler:the real Professor X.]] Note that when he managed to find his way to the city, she intended to knock him out and do it again, somewhere even more remote.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'', the Winter Soldier claims to be out to avenge himself on Red Skull but is willing to murder plenty of innocents in the process if he has to.

'''Murad Hoxha:''' ''[slaps Bryan]'' I DON'T ''CARE'' WHAT HE DID!

* ''Literature/SuteraretaYuushaNoEiyuutan'': Despite bullying Daichi, horrifically, for years, and throwing him into a monster pit to be Eaten Alive, he swears graphic vengeance on Daichi the moment Daichi has him cornered in a dungeon. That is, until Daichi kills him over, and over, and over again so that he learns what being helplessly bullied feels like.

* ''Fanfic/WhenTheRosesBloomAgain'': Cassiopeia Black tries to persuade her brother to blame [[spoiler:the Potters for "murdering" Perseus Black]], and rouse him to retaliating. However, instead, [[spoiler:Arcturus laughs in her face and insists that even if William Potter cast the spell, it was Grindelwald who filled Perseus' head with nonsense and sent him into battle, and killing an enemy soldier on the battlefield doesn't count as murder. Instead of blaming the Potters for Perseus' death, he promises revenge on Grindelwald.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'': Lee Jordan has a grudge against Harry for getting him expelled from school. Why was he expelled? Because he tried to brutally maim her and erase her memory of it. And why would he do that? To get revenge for her family pushing his out of the joke-inventing business -- except that the real reason for that happening was because his father, finding himself falling behind, turned to inventing DeadlyPrank items that caused legal trouble and had to be recalled.

* ''Fanfic/ADarkerPath'': The Trio are ''furious'' at Taylor for breaking into their lockers and stealing their clothes, promising epic vengeance. Never mind that the reason she did it was because they had locked her in her own locker with piles of hazardous waste that ruined her own clothes, and she needed to change...

* ''Literature/DungeonCrawlerCarl'': Frank and Maggie are player-killers who typically spin up a sob story to explain themselves, then kill people when their backs are turned. Carl and Donut manage to escape them, though Carl leaves behind a trap he hopes they might trigger. Later, he meets them again and finds out that [[spoiler:their daughter was injured by the trap, and Maggie had to MercyKill her because she was wearing a magic ring that prevented healing]]. Both of them want to kill Carl for this, even though he was reasonably defending himself and didn't know anyone else was with them. Frank is at least self-aware to know he's a hypocrite, he just wants revenge anyway, but Maggie really does think that everything is Carl's fault, and ruins several other lives trying to get to him.

** This defined the relationship between Captain Hook and Rumplestilskin. Hook had fallen in love with Rumple's wife, Milah. Rather than leave a Dear John letter, Milah and Hook faked her kidnapping and let the then-human Rumplestilskin and his son believe she had been murdered by pirates. When the current Dark One Rumplestilskin found out about the deception, however, he murdered Milah and cut off Hook's hand. Swearing revenge, Hook vowed to find a way to kill him. However, since Rumplestilskin is near-unstoppable as the Dark One, most of Hook's attempts have involved hurting Rumplestilskin's [[MoralityPet true love]], Belle, who has never done anything to Hook.

* ''Literature/TheBookOfMormon'' recounts how Ammoron wants revenge against the Nephites for murdering his brother. Said brother was leading an unprovoked invasion of the Nephites at the time, conquering cities and slaughtering the inhabitants, on a mission to ''drink the blood'' of their chief captain, and was killed in the field. (And why did he want to drink Moroni's blood? Because Moroni's innovative city defences foiled the ''previous'' unprovoked invasion.)

-->-- ''Film/Taken2''

* One episode of ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' had Kino meet a woman and the man she had hired as a guard as they were about to set out on a journey. She sat with the man for a while and learned that he had killed her husband several years ago accidentally while robbing his store, and had been reformed and set free by their justice system, on the condition that he makes it up to the woman by mutual agreement. It's made clear that his reform and desire to help the woman in any way he can in penance for his crime are genuine. They part, and later Kino is riding through the woods when she hears a gunshot — it turns out the woman wasn't so big on the penance idea after all.

* ''Series/{{Revenge}}'': Victoria Grayson wants retribution against Emily for what happened to her family, actual or perceived. Thing is, after what Emily went through, and how much of it was Victoria's fault, she [[LaserGuidedKarma had it coming]], especially given that her season 3 finale fate of being committed to an asylum [[ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine was exactly what she did years ago to young Emily]].

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "The Battle", the Ferengi [=DaiMon=] Bok wants to avenge his son, whose ship had been destroyed by Captain Picard during the Battle of Maxia, even though Picard destroyed the ship entirely out of defense.

* ''[[Film/{{Taken}} Taken 2]]'' is driven by Murad wanting to [[AvengingTheVillain avenge his son Marko]], killed in the first ''Taken'' movie by RetiredBadass Bryan for kidnapping his daughter Kim. Being TheDon of a mafia with several other relatives, Murad doesn't care about how Marko worked in a crime ring and destroyed many young women's lives by forcing them into sex slavery (a fate Kim escaped just in time). He just wants to ease his pain by killing the man responsible for Marko's death ([[RevengeByProxy and his loved ones]]), and to add salt to the wound, intended to do so by finishing his son's original intentions.

* ''Film/Taken2'' is driven by Murad wanting to [[AvengingTheVillain avenge his son Marko]], killed in the original by RetiredBadass Bryan for kidnapping his daughter in Paris. Murad doesn't care if Marko worked in a crime ring, and destroyed many young women's lives by forcing them into sex slavery (a fate Bryan's daughter escaped just in time). He just wants to ease his pain by killing the man responsible for Marko's death ([[RevengeByProxy and his loved ones]]), and to add salt to the wound, intended to do so by finishing his son's original intentions.

** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseHumans Mark Russell]] for the first half of the film holds a nasty hatred towards all Titans and especially Godzilla because his son was a casualty of Godzilla's past battle against the [=MUTOs=], and he doesn't care that Godzilla is an animal who didn't in any way deliberately cause Andrew's death (this is especially notable when you realize that [[{{Hypocrite}} someone in Mark's profession should rationally know better than the average person not to make such biased judgments towards animals]]). That being said, Mark is implied to be "all bark and no bite" when it comes to seeing Godzilla killed, and he gets better via MovingBeyondBereavement.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': It's not brought up in the film, but in the {{novelization}}'s AdaptationExpansion, Ren Serizawa has shades of this in regards to his [[ItsPersonal personal hatred of Godzilla]]. Ren wants Godzilla dead because he blames Godzilla for diverting his father's love and attention away from him his entire life and also because the late Serizawa's death before Godzilla's snout permanently dashed Ren's hopes of having reconciliation with his father; nevermind that on top of the "Godzilla's an animal" think with Mark's vendetta, Ren's father ''willingly'' sacrificed his life to save Godzilla's and Ren is now knowingly trying to undo the very thing his father gave his life for.

* ''Film/{{Scream}}'': The villains of the first three films easily qualify.

* The motivation of [[BigBad Killian]] from ''WesternAnimation/SpiesInDisguise" is [[spoiler:getting revenge on Lance for [[AFatherToHisMen killing all of his men]] and disfiguring him during a mission. When Killian reveals this, Lance points out that Killian and his men were all terrorists who were planning to kill innocent people and he was doing his job to stop them.]]

* Black Manta in ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'' wants to kill Aquaman because Aquaman killed his father. Well, "didn't save" his father. See, Black Manta and his father were pirates who were hijacking a submarine (which involved killing crewmembers), and Aquaman intervened. Aquaman was ready to walk away, when Black Manta's father attacked him, leaving him (the father) pinned and dying as the sub filled with water. Black Manta begged Aquaman for mercy, and Aquaman refused (not unreasonable, considering the father had just proven he'd take advantage of mercy). Black Manta not only has all the facts, but he ''witnessed'' the entire thing and still blames Aquaman.

* In ''Literature//{{Tigana}}'', Brandin goes to [[RevengeBeforeReason extreme lengths]] to take revenge on the person who killed his son and his whole province, in spite of the fact that said son was killed in a war he started to invade said province.

* One episode of ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' had Kino meet a woman and the man she had hired as a guard as they were about to set out on a journey. She sat with the man for a while, and learned that he had killed her husband several years ago accidentally while robbing his store, and had been reformed and set free by their justice system, on the condition that he make it up to the woman by mutual agreement. It's made clear that his reform and desire to help the woman any way he can in penance for his crime are genuine. They part, and later Kino is riding through the woods when she hears a gunshot — it turns out the woman wasn't so big on the penance idea after all.

* TheReveal of [[BigBad Kagari's]] motivations in ''Manga/PuellaMagiSuzuneMagica'' puts her schemes well into this territory. Kagari orchestrated the events of the series, from making Suzune BrainwashedAndCrazy to kill other magical girls to erasing the her memories of herself and her little sister Matsuri, because she wants revenge for Suzune killing their mutual mentor and mother figure Tsubaki. The problem is that while Suzune killed Tsubaki, it was both unintentional and necessary: Tsubaki had been ''protecting'' Suzune and ended up using too much magic, darkening her Soul Gem and [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie turning into a Witch]], forcing Suzune [[MercyKill to put her down]]. Heartbreaking yes, but a sad fact of their universe. Kagari seems to think that this makes her justified in forcing Suzune to kill other magical girls who are innocent in this feud before dropping the AwfulTruth on her head, which would force Suzune into despair and turn her into a Witch herself so Kagari can kill her and "make Suzune suffer just like Tsubaki did." Of course, Kagari is both insane and a {{sadist}}, and freely admits to Suzune she made the plan much more complicated than it needed to be [[ItAmusedMe because it gave her a thrill]], so some of the myopia was likely intentional.

* ''Literature/SuteraretaYuushaNoEiyuutan'': Despite bullying Daichi, horrifically, for years, and throwing him into a monster pit to be Eaten Alive, he swears graphic vengeance on Daichi the moment Daichi has him cornered in a dungeon. That is, until Daichi kills him over, and over, and over again, so that he learns what being helplessly bullied feels like.
* ''Literature/TheHeroicLegendOfArslan'': Zandeh wants to kill Daryun to avenge his father, who didn't even kill him, as Kharlan died when [[HoistByHisOwnPetard he fell on his own broken weapon]]. Never mind the fact that Kharlan had betrayed and tried to kill Daryun and Arslan first, both whom he had sworn allegiance to.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': The Russians tend to fall into this trap whenever they show up after the Apocalypse War. They're driven by vengeance towards Mega-City One for nuking their own home city - and Judge Dredd in particular, who launched the missiles. The fact that they started this war to begin with, and nuked half of Mega-City One to oblivion, never crosses their mind let alone their conscience.

** ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} villain Reactron wants to kill Kara because she wrecked his healing radiation-containment suit... which happened because she was stopping him from killing her when he assaulted her, completely unprovoked, the first time they fought in ''ComicBook/Supergirl2005''. So in retaliation he murdered her father in ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'', tried to kill and rape her several times in story arcs like ''ComicBook/WhoIsSuperwoman'', ''Codename: Patriot'' and ''ComicBook/TheHuntForReactron''-, and in ''War of Supermen'' he murdered her mother and blew up her planet and race.
** In ''ComicBook/ActionComics #544: Luthor Unleashed'', ComicBook/LexLuthor has been living in planet Lexor for a while, where he's hailed as a hero and cherished by his wife and son. Even so, he goads Superman into Lexor and attempts to kill him. During the battle, Luthor's warsuit shoots a blast which accidentally hits one of his doomsday devices. Lexor blows up, Lex's family dies, and Luthor, who is all but physically unable to take responsibility for his own actions, swears revenge on Superman.

** ''ComicBook/TheLeperFromKrypton'': Criminal ringleader Ventor wants to kill Superman to avenge his brother Bruno, not caring that his brother would not have died in prison if he had not committed crimes which forced Superman to catch him. The story makes a point that Bruno's death has eroded Ventor's sanity, though, since he alternates between declaring he'll avenge his brother's death and claiming his brother is still alive and he will kill Superman to protect Buno.

** In his first story arc, Deathstroke blamed the [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Titans]] for the death of his eldest son Grant. Except a) the only reason Grant died was because he underwent the same super soldier experiment that gave Slade his powers but which proved fatal to Grant and b) Grant died trying to kill the Titans. And despite not wanting his son to follow the same path as him, Slade chooses to blame the Titans for Grant's death rather than go after H.I.V.E., the organization that performed the fatal experiment on Grant.
** In ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Slade destroyed Blüdhaven, the city ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} protected by dropping the super villain [[ActionBomb Chemo]], a monster made of radioactive energies, into it. When confronted by Batman, Nightwing and Robin (Tim Drake) Slade goes into a rant about how Nightwing had turned his family against him when in reality Slade had either turned his back on his family or did a good enough job of making them hate him himself. Interestingly Slade did learn a lesson after this, arranging a complex gambit to get his children Jericho and Rose to fully embrace the Titans as family because he felt he couldn't be a good father to them.

** After Sherry's Face–Heel Turn and Iron puts out a country-wide arrest order, she pulls her connections to get Iron fired for daring to try bringing her to justice for all of her fellow Guardsman she got killed.

* In ''Fanfic/SupermanOf2499TheGreatConfrontation'', the last descendant of the Joker wants to take revenge on Franchise/{{Batman}} for the death of his son, who also took up the mantle of the Joker. The fact that his son was a criminal whose death was caused by his own stupidity and not for anything Batman did is lost on the Joker.

* In ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots'' Humpty Dumpty's big grievance against his friend-turned enemy Puss is the fact that Puss abandoned him to the authorities after the two of them failed in the robbery of a bank. Humpty seems unwilling to recognize that he is just as guilty by tricking Puss into aiding him rob the bank against his explicit wishes, and in the process branded him an outlaw and ruined his hard-earned reputation as the town hero. It's quite telling that Humpty doesn't even view what he did as a betrayal, thinking that Puss was just supposed to go along with it because they're blood-brothers.

** Tony himself falls into this at the climax of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' when he learns that [[spoiler: Bucky]] killed his parents. [[spoiler: Bucky]] was brainwashed at the time, so his [=HYDRA=] handlers were really the ones responsible... but Tony's too angry and grief-stricken to care. To be fair, it was an extremely stressful time for him (and Baron Zemo, the one who made the revelation, [[BatmanGambit was counting on this]]), and part of the reason he's angry is because Steve had hidden this from him, denying him the opportunity to come to terms with it on his own time.

** ''Film/Scream1996'': Billy Loomis murdered Sidney's mother and framed an innocent man for it because she had an affair with his father, which led to his mother abandoning him. The following year, he goes on to murder five other people (three by [[GuttedLikeAFish disembowelment]]) who had nothing to do with his family falling apart and try to frame Sidney's father for it, all because he hates Sidney's family that much. (Two of their victims, Casey Becker and Steve Orth, are implied to have been picked out by Billy's accomplice Stu Macher, because [[IfICantHaveYou Casey broke up with Stu to date Steve]].) Not once does Billy realize that it takes two to tango and hold his father responsible for his part in the affair.

** ''Film/Scream3'': Roman Bridger, Sidney's half-brother, is revealed to have been the one who manipulated Billy into killing Sidney's mother and going on a murder spree. He did all this because he hated Sidney for having the mother he didn't and getting the fame that he felt he was owed. Except Sidney didn't even know about him and it is made quite clear that none of the fame she has as a survivor of the Ghostface murders is worth the years of isolation and mental trauma she has endured. This is the point where [[ShutUpHannibal Sidney has flat-out had enough]] of killers targeting her for such petty reasons, and calls Roman a selfish brat who refuses to accept responsibility for his actions and only kills people because he enjoys it.

** John Harrison and Kirk in ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness''. Harrison seeks revenge on Admiral Marcus, and ends up [[spoiler:killing Christopher Pike in his attack on the admiral. Pike's death]] then drives Kirk to swear revenge on Harrison. Both of them thus end up largely playing into the hands of Admiral Marcus and his plans to instigate war, blinded by their personal desires for revenge. [[spoiler:Even across timelines, Khan never changes...]]

* In ''Film/TwoChampionsOfShaolin'', one of the villains' daughter tries to eliminate the hero Tong Qian-jin on his wedding day, only succeeding in killing Tong's fiancée. Her vendetta is because she intends to avenge her slain father, never mind her father was a ruthless assassin who tried to kill Tong several times, and was killed in a fair fight.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s beef with Music/InsaneClownPosse resulted in him including a near two-minute-long skit on his MagnumOpus ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP'' of ICP having extremely gross-sounding gay sex, while also dedicating an entire verse on the album's title track to calling them gay. (Using harsher words than that.) However, he was entirely responsible for starting the beef by printing up fliers promising that the ICP would be present at one of his gigs, without bothering to ask ICP first (who enjoyed a mutual fandom with him, and would have been at the show if he hadn't felt entitled to use their names to get attention). Eminem responded to their mild annoyance with DisproportionateRetribution, vandalising the ICP's tour van with paintball guns, which resulted in ICP's [[SoUnfunnyItsFunny deliberately low-effort diss]] "Slim Anus", a song in which they dub poor-quality gay jokes directly over a recording of "My Name Is". ''That'' was what Eminem's skit and diss was in response to. It is worth pointing out that both parties have now squashed the beef due to D12 member Proof taking ICP bowling; they've appeared on his radio show, and Eminem has accepted he was in the wrong in the scenario.

* In Creator/DavidEddings' ''Literature/TheRedemptionOfAlthalus'', when working as a mercenary, Eliar kills the ruler of the city state the mercenaries were attacking. He ends up being captured and Andine, the daughter of said ruler, enacts personal revenge. He gets rescued eventually.[[spoiler: And she eventually gets over it. They end up married.]]

** ''Literature/GravePeril'' reveals that Bianca's motivation for revenge against Harry (and the entire White Council) is because he caused one of her prostitute employees' deaths back in ''Literature/StormFront''. The sequence of events went like this: Bianca attacked Harry when he came to question her about the case he was on (which she legitimately had nothing to do with), and he [[CrimeOfSelfDefense defended himself]] and left. Afterwards, she fed on the prostitute, but was so shaken up that she accidentally killed the girl. Not only does she [[NeverMyFault not acknowledge her role in the debacle]], ''she didn't even know the woman's name'' ([[TheDeadHaveNames Harry does- her name was Rachel]]). [[spoiler: She may have been manipulated by Nemesis into provoking the White Council to weaken the general supernatural world.]]

* In the ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series, the reason Ari targets Max specifically during so many of their fights is because he blames her for stealing his father's love (which is not entirely as petty as it sounds - Ari's father leaving to secretly raise Max and her siblings left Ari unprotected to be experimented on by the [[MadScientist Whitecoats]]). Max tries to point out several times that she was a child at the time and had no idea what was going on beyond being rescued from a scary, painful place, but Ari refuses to listen. [[spoiler:When faced with the reality that he's going to die soon, in the third book, he finally does admit to Max that he knows she had no more control over the situation than he did.]] Considering that Ari's mentally and emotionally a child, his reaction is justified.

* In the ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' sequel Literature/TwentyYearsAfter, Mordaunt, the son of the previous book's BigBad, Milady de Winter, seeks revenge on the Musketeers for the VigilanteExecution they performed on her. When he goes to confront his uncle, Lord de Winter, who also played a role in the execution, de Winter explains to his nephew about how awful Milady was and all the terrible things she did. Mordaunt responds by saying quite clearly that he ''doesn't care.'' De Winter and the Musketeers killed his mother, and so he's going to kill ''them'' in revenge.
* In the novel ''Live Bait'' by PJ Tracy, [[spoiler:all but one of the murders the police are investigating turn out to be the work of a young man who had witnessed his father's murder, and has been hunting down the responsible parties in what he considers "righteous kills". Problem was, his dad was ''a Nazi war criminal'' who had escaped justice, and the killers were a vigilante hit-squad made up of Holocaust survivors (the remaining murder was actually another of their victims), making his dad's death a "righteous kill" by his logic. To be fair, he didn't actually know that at the time, but isn't dissuaded when he eventually finds out.]]

* ''{{Literature/Carrie}}'' has the famous sequence where the eponymous Carrie uses her powers to take revenge on her classmates, and subsequently destroying her entire town. This is revenge for the bullying she has been suffering her entire life, which admittedly many of her classmates did take part in. But the incident that triggers this is the prank that Chris and Billy pulled; no one else at the prom knew about it and, while they laugh at first, it's out of shock rather than maliciousness. Some of the people who get killed in the conflict were actually nice to her, ironically enough. The adaptations play around with this; the 2002 movie has Carrie go into a complete trance when the revenge happens, and she doesn't even remember anything when she comes out of it. The 2013 one has her spare people who were nice to her (such as Miss Desjardin) and actively target her tormentors (in this version, far more people are implied to have been in on the prank).
* ''Literature/CradleSeries'': Common, due to constant use of AsskickingLeadsToLeadership and MoralMyopia. When Lindon was faced with Kral, an opponent far above him, he bowed politely, reminded Kral that the two of them had no real quarrel, and promised to leave. Kral seemingly accepted this, then dropped a poison cloud on Lindon's head when his back was turned. Lindon managed to kill him. Jai Long called this a dirty trick and murder, and Lindon is only saved by Eithan revealing that he is by far the most powerful person in the room. When Jai Long relates this story to Kral's father and Jai Long's sister, he still speaks of it as murder, and in their later duel he repeatedly calls Lindon a coward for using tricks against a stronger opponent instead of just dying.
* ''Literature/DungeonCrawlerCarl'': Frank and Maggie are player-killers who typically spin up a sob story to explain themselves, then kill people when their backs are turned. Carl and Donut manage to escape them, though Carl leaves behind a trap he hopes they might trigger. Later, he meets them again, and finds out that [[spoiler:their daughter was injured by the trap, and Maggie had to MercyKill her because she was wearing a magic ring that prevented healing]]. Both of them want to kill Carl for this, even though he was reasonably defending himself and didn't know anyone else was with them. Frank is at least self-aware to know he's a hypocrite, he just wants revenge anyway, but Maggie really does think that everything is Carl's fault, and ruins several other lives trying to get to him.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Angel falls into it in Season 3, when Wesley kidnaps Connor; it turns out he was tricked by a [[PropheticFallacy fake prophecy]] claiming that Angel would [[OffingTheOffspring kill his son]]. Angel acknowledges this, accepts it, and tells Wesley as such... but considering that Wesley's actions led to Connor being taken to a Hell dimension, he still [[ThisIsUnforgivable refuses to forgive him]] for it and tries to kill him with a VorpalPillow.

** In a massive change from the books, Brienne of Tarth [[spoiler:murders Stannis Baratheon as he is responsible for the death of [[CainAndAbel his younger brother]] Renly Baratheon. However Renly was trying to usurp the throne which Stannis had more right to, and intended to kill his brother despite Stannis offering to make them his heir. Brienne even has the audacity to call Renly "the rightful King" before she murders Stannis.]] Unsurprisingly this change has proved very controversial, making [[spoiler:Brienne]] TheScrappy for many viewers.

** "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E1Pilot Pilot]]" starts with a group of militiamen trying to take Ben Matheson into custody peacefully, and he's even willing enough to go; all he asks is a few moments to make arrangements for someone to care for his children, which the militia leader grants him. Unfortunately, his son Danny overreacts and rouses half the settlement to resisting (and dying). The militia may be bad guys, but this particular scene was a pretty clear cut case of self-defense. The heroes don't see it that way.

* The dwarves of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' keep an enormous Book of Grudges, in which every slight and insult made to a dwarf is inscribed (even those who were not done on purpose or are absurdly inconsequential, such as a kingdom missing ''twelve'' pieces of gold out of three ''wagons'' full that were promised as payment for a job). These are avenged in blood, which naturally causes more dwarves to be killed, and their names are added to the Book, despite the enormous toll this takes on the population. And this is divinely mandated, too- when two quarreling factions in an outpost realized that no one had any idea how their feud started, they decided to make peace and fight the massive Orc horde outside- only to be smote by the gods for failing to redress their grudges, leaving the Orks to take the outpost.

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', during the WackyRacing questline with Claire Russell you learn that she lied about [[CrusadingWidower the circumstances of her husband Dean's death]] and had been using you to get close to the man she believed to be responsible. His rival Sampson didn't commit premeditated murder as she claimed, he just did what literally any other participant in the death races would do and rammed their car. It was simply bad luck that Dean died, and Sampson points out that Claire's killed people in the races too. If V tries to talk her down, but didn't make the right dialogue choice earlier, she'll admit it's not right to kill Sampson...and then kill him anyway.
* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'', Lady Dimitrescu is ''all about this''. She constantly rants about how you murdered her daughters, and insulted her hospitality after she "invited you into her home", and disrespected her and her family, and this is ''after'' she kidnapped your daughter, one of her henchmen abducted you so he and her daughters could torture and kill you, and her own constant attempts at killing you.

** Manfred von Karma blames Gregory Edgeworth for ruining his perfect trial record so much that after he was murdered in the DL-6 incident, von Karma took in his son Miles and raised him to be a cold and ruthless prosecutor, the kind that his father fought valiantly against. [[spoiler:And, for good measure, it turns out [[DisproportionateRetribution von Karma is the one who murdered Gregory -- he tries to frame Edgeworth for the murder of the man who defended the man who was falsely accused of Gregory's murder years ago, and when Phoenix and Maya disprove that, he tries to convince the court that he's not the one who fatally shot Gregory]].]] The thing is, the only reason Gregory was able to put a mark on von Karma's record was because von Karma [[spoiler: brutally interrogated Jeffrey Masters, the suspect of the IS-7 incident and Isaac Dover's murder, by threatening to indict his daughter for the crime; Master finally broke down and gave a false confession to protect her, but Gregory was able to prove in court that it was manufactured, forcing von Karma to take the penalty.]] But ''Investigations 2'' adds another layer by revealing the fact that von Karma did this because [[spoiler: the chief prosecutor, Blaise Debeste, conjured up a false autopsy report (because they couldn't find Isaac Dover's body) and lied to von Karma about it, presenting it as real, which drove him to extort the false confession so they would have ''something'' to take to court and make the indictment stick.]]
** Dahlia Hawthorne considers Mia Fey her mortal enemy for catching her over several murders she committed. [[spoiler:In revenge, she works with her mother on an overly-elaborate plan that involves her being channeled after her execution so that she can murder Mia's sister... after Mia herself was already dead.]] Eesh...

* This is implied to be the case the two families that make up [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP-]][[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2039 2039]]. Mabel Pike essentially made a DealWithTheDevil that left her family and the Wagner family in an eternal feud, because Blaine Wagner, the family's patriarch, [[spoiler:murdered Mabel's girlfriend when they were younger]]. The exact circumstances are never given though, the feud itself only began because of the supernatural aid of a mysterious entity, and the Foundation report indicates that Blaine [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone suffers from night terrors]] while frequently murmuring the name of [[spoiler:Mabel's girlfriend.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Escape from Pearl Bailey": Steve get's revenge on a group of popular girls after he finds they smeared his girlfriend in a class political campaign. He later finds out that it was actually his friends who did the smear, and tries to explain this to the now angry popular kids, which doesn't matter as [[DisproportionateRetribution Steve had disfigured one girl and given the other an STD]] all for a few insults. The kids proceed to beat up both Steve and his friends.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' episode "Blind Alley", Mystique pretends to be Scott's brother Alex, supposedly stuck in Mexico after losing his passport, in order to lure Scott out on his own, knocking him out and leaving him stuck in the middle of the Mexican desert without his glasses to stop his eyes, saying "That's payback!" after Scott let her get captured inside a military base in "Day of Recovery". However Scott did that because [[spoiler:she had abducted Professor X and impersonated him throughout the two-part episode "Day of Reckoning",]] and refused to divulge the location of [[spoiler:the real Professor X.]] Note that when he managed to find his way to the city, she intended to knock him out and do it again, somewhere even more remote.

* The ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' segment ''Mandarker'' cements [[TheRival Mandark's]] motive for outshining Dexter, as revenge for destroying his lab (through Dee Dee). But while it does a good job creating sympathy for Mandark, what it fails to mention is that Dexter did that in retaliation for Mandark forcing him to shut down ''his'' lab. He curiously doesn't blame Dee Dee (who he has a crush on) even accusing Dexter of tricking her into doing it. A later episode reveals that Mandark's real motive is [[DisproportionateRetribution payback for Dexter making fun of his original name]] - [[GenderBlenderName "Susan"]].
* Frizz and Nug were at the constant receiving end of this in ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone''. The heroes thrived on punishing them for trying to steal the title stone and [[SeriousBusiness ruin dreams]] ([[DisproportionateRetribution often far more severely than the crime itself]]). They never take notice to the fact they are TheDragAlong in every instance, either due to being PressGanged by Sgt Blob and Urpgor or because Zordrak threatens to ''execute'' them if they don't. It's implied the heroes went through a great few Urpneys in this manner, before Zordrak simply got bored of offing minions. Later episodes try to make the heroes more pragmatic, as well as give them [[NotSoHarmlessVillain a much better provocation]] so their vendetta seems more proportionate, though the fact nearly all Urpneys are unwilling slaves is still never remotely brought up between them.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Starlight Glimmer wants revenge on Twilight Sparkle and her friends for taking Starlight's village away from her. She's completely ignorant of that her village was a horrible place to live, that the villagers there were under duress and threatened with imprisonment and borderline torture for any dissent, or that the entire reason Twilight ruined it was in order to free herself and her friends after being kidnapped, imprisoned, and borderline tortured into joining her cult.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AvengersAssemble'', the Winter Soldier claims to be out to avenge himself on Red Skull, but is willing to murder plenty of innocents in the process if he has to.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', Boba Fett wants revenge on Mace Windu for killing his father despite his father being a hostile combatant in a live battlefield. Mace's genuinely unsympathetic demeanor towards the boy doesn't help matters.

->'''Mills:''' I killed your son because he kidnapped my daughter!\\
'''Murad:''' ''[slaps Mills]'' I DON'T ''CARE'' WHAT HE DID!

* ''Literature/CradleSeries'': Common, due to constant use of AsskickingEqualsAuthority and MoralMyopia. When Lindon was faced with Kral, an opponent far above him, he bowed politely, reminded Kral that the two of them had no real quarrel, and promised to leave. Kral seemingly accepted this, then dropped a poison cloud on Lindon's head when his back was turned. Lindon managed to kill him. Jai Long called this a dirty trick and murder, and Lindon is only saved by Eithan revealing that he is by far the most powerful person in the room. When Jai Long relates this story to Kral's father and Jai Long's sister, he still speaks of it as murder, and in their later duel he repeatedly calls Lindon a coward for using tricks against a stronger opponent instead of just dying.

** Cersei Lannister is also guilty of this after ''A Storm of Swords'', where she loses both her eldest and most beloved son ''and'' her father. She constantly sends people out to hunt Tyrion down, despite the fact that her youngest son was a psychopath who ''wasn't even killed by Tyrion'' (instead poisoned by Olenna Tyrell, who refused to let such a monster marry her granddaughter Margaery) and that her father ''really'' had it coming; not only was he about to execute Tyrion under false pretenses because he was TheUnfavorite for being a dwarf (and because Tywin's wife died giving birth to him), but Tyrion had just found out that Tywin falsely led him to think that his commoner wife was a whore. It was really just a matter of time before ''somebody'' whom Twyin and/or Joffrey wronged succeeded in killing them, but Cersei doesn't see it that way.

* Black Manta in ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'' wants to kill Aquaman because Aquaman killed his father. Well, "didn't save" his father. See, Black Manta and his father were pirates who were hijacking a submarine (which involved killing crewmembers), and Aquaman intervened. Aquaman was ready to walk away, when Black Manta's father attacked him, leaving him (the father) pinned and dying as the sub filled with water. Black Manta begged Aquaman for mercy, and Aquaman refused (not unreasonable, considering the father had literally just proven he'd take advantage of mercy). Black Manta not only has all the facts, but he ''witnessed'' the entire thing.

* ''Film/TheKarateKidPartII'': Chozen Toguchi insists that forcing Daniel [=LaRusso=] into a fight to the death by threatening Kumiko will restore his honor in the eyes of the village. His blinkered mindset keeps him from noticing how everyone watching this unfold is clearly horrified by his own behavior.

** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'': Wanda and Pietro Maximoff want revenge on Tony Stark because a Stark missile killed their parents...except that while Tony's company did make the missile, it wasn't him who aimed or fired it. Hell, it likely wasn't even him that sold it, given this happened during the time Obadiah Stane was selling under the table.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': Sasuke starts to fall into this as his sanity goes off the deep end. At first, his revenge plan is reasonable; he just wants to kill Itachi for murdering his entire family (plus [[MindRape mind raping]] him). Then Itachi dies, and he finds out that Itachi was a good guy all along, but was pressured into killing the Uchihas because they were going to revolt (and his torture of Sasuke was to make his FaceHeelTurn more believable without having to ''kill'' his beloved little brother). So Sasuke shifts his revenge to Danzo, the guy who pressured Itachi to kill his clan, ignoring that the Uchihas provoked it by threatening civil war because they felt mistrusted (Mind you, Danzo was responsible for a lot of ''other'', and even less justified, atrocities and nobody would be all that sorry to see him go, but that's not what Sasuke was thinking about. Danzo even points out that it doesn't matter what he actually did, because Sasuke [[RevengeBeforeReason was on a revenge kick]] and wanted to hurt ''someone'' for the Uchiha massacre.). And once Danzo dies, he [[MisplacedRetribution shifts his revenge]] to ''everyone in Konoha'' for being happy at the same time his brother was suffering.