History Main / VengeanceFeelsEmpty

* ''Manga/BlackCat'': Train is once hired by a boy to avenge his father on a mob boss. Train shoots the guy, and the kid realizes he doesn't feel any different afterward. [[spoiler:Train actually used a [[AbnormalAmmo tranquilizer paint round]] that made a mess on the surface but left the mob boss alive.]]

[[folder: Visual Novel]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', [[Characters/RickAndMortyRickSanchez Rick Sanchez]] spent decades searching the multiverse on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the AlternateUniverse version of him that killed his [[ReplacementGoldfish original]] family. When he revisits his home universe in the Season 6 premiere "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS6E1Solaricks Solaricks]]" he's disgusted by how twisted his neverending quest made him, and even comes face-to-face with his long-lost ArchEnemy but decides that protecting his new family is more important and decides to finally let go. However, in the season finale "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS6E10RicktionalMortpoonsRickmasMortcation Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation]]" he's fallen right back into his old habits and is rather open over how miserable he is over it. Ultimately in season 7 episode "[[Recap/RickAndMortyS7E5Unmortricken Unmortricken]]", Rick manages to kill Rick Prime, but then finds himself without purpose, going through a HeroicBSOD as reality sets in. Lampshaded by Evil Morty knowingly asking Rick if he feels better, already aware of the answer.

* ''S: A Novel About The Balkans'' by Slavenka Drakulic. The protagonist has a recurring nightmare where she sees one of the men who raped her in a Bosnian prison camp. She stabs him, and as he dies she sees the look of incomprehension in his face and realizes her revenge is meaningless because [[ButForMeItWasTuesday he has no idea why she's killed him]].

* Variation: In S.E. Hilton's book "Tex", at one point, the main character and his older brother, Mason, pick up a hitchhiker on the side of the road. As it happens, he's actually an escaped convict, who begins forcing Tex (by holding his brother at gunpoint) to drive him to the state line; all the while, he talks about how he had some "business" to take care of earlier, but when it came time to do it, he suddenly realized he was too ''bored'' to follow through, so he just left.[[note]]We soon get clarification that while he ''did'' shoot his target, he left before actually ''killing'' him, so he survived.[[/note]] However, it is soon revealed ([[SuicideByCop after he gets gunned down by the cops]]) that [[spoiler:this was actually [[Literature/ThatWasThenThisIsNow Mark Jennings]]]]; as such, that meant he was talking about going after [[spoiler:Bryon for having turned him in to the cops several years ago]]:

* ''Cell 8'' (Swedish crime thriller/AuthorTract on capital punishment): One character is desperately waiting for the state to execute a prisoner on Death Row in vengeance for what the prisoner did, so that the character can finally move on. When that finally happens towards the end of the book, he's still not able to move on. [[spoiler: and then the ''real'' killer reveals that the prisoner was innocent all along.]]

* In the final scene of the ''Film/TheSting'' [[spoiler:Hooker, proving [[CynicalMentor Gondorff]] right, feels this way after beating Lonnegan and remarks vengeance it's not enough. He still cracks a joke: "but it's close!"]]

* In the ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' episode "Waylaid in the Windy City, Part 2" Wit gives a speech to Richard Maxwell about the futility of revenge, focusing on how pursuing revenge will harm Richard. Keep in mind that this is while Richard has the man who ruined his life at gunpoint.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', [[Characters/RickAndMortyRickSanchez Rick Sanchez]] spent decades searching the multiverse on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the AlternateUniverse version of him that killed his [[ReplacementGoldfish original]] family. When he revisits his home universe in the Season 6 premiere he's disgusted by how twisted his neverending quest made him, and even comes face-to-face with his long-lost ArchEnemy but decides that protecting his new family is more important and decides to finally let go. [[spoiler:However, in the season finale he's fallen right back into his old habits and is rather open over how miserable he is over it.]]

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6954565/1/Death-in-Scampia Death in Scampia]]'', Triela is assigned to kill a Camorra boss who ran the child trafficking ring that had her abducted, raped and tortured. She tries to feel some sense of justice, outrage or retribution, but because her memories of the past have been erased, and she's been conditioned to have no emotional attachment to the act of killing, Triela feels nothing at all when she shoots him.

** His Son Takuma is a more played straight VengeanceFeelsEmpty. His whole arc involves avenging his mother who was murdered by the antagonist, [=MCDonald=] while she tries to protect him. It lasts the majority of his story in contrast to Ryoma, who had it over and done with early on. Whenever he encounters [=McDonald=], he flies into a fit of rage. What makes it this trope, is that, there's an implication that [=MCDonald=] willingly let Takuma kill him quuck and swiftly with as a means of letting him experience this trope, something Takuma implies when he says "So this is where my revenge ends?". However it averts it two ways. First it avoids the WhatNowEnding as Takuma despite his revenge quest, still was fighting to save the Earth, rather than just revenge alone, a trait which he carries on after. Second, [=MCDonald=] was technically a HeroAntagonist as his actions were to prevent the emergence of Getter Emperor, which he believes killing Takuma, who is the son of Ryoma, and has a natural affinity to controlling the Getter will prevent this possible bad future Emperor causes. In the anime of Arc, they subvert this more as [=MCDonald=] wanted to avenge Emperor Burai, who was retconned as unknowingly being tasked with stopping Getter due to being altered by an Andromeda ship remains, a ship belonging to [=MCDonalds=] anti-Getter Emperor army.

** His Son Takuma is a more played straight VengeanceFeelsEmpty. His whole arc involves avenging his mother who was murdered by the antagonist, MCDonald while she tries to protect him. It lasts the majority of his story in contrast to Ryoma, who had it over and done with early on. Whenever he encounters McDonald, he flies into a fit of rage. What makes it this trope, is that, there's an implication that MCDonald willingly let Takuma kill him quuck and swiftly with as a means of letting him experience this trope, something Takuma implies when he says "So this is where my revenge ends?". However it averts it two ways. First it avoids the WhatNowEnding as Takuma despite his revenge quest, still was fighting to save the Earth, rather than just revenge alone, a trait which he carries on after. Second, MCDonald was technically a HeroAntagonist as his actions were to prevent the emergence of Getter Emperor, which he believes killing Takuma, who is the son of Ryoma, and has a natural affinity to controlling the Getter will prevent this possible bad future Emperor causes. In the anime of Arc, they subvert this more as MCDonald wanted to avenge Emperor Burai, who was retconned as unknowingly being tasked with stopping Getter due to being altered by an Andromeda ship remains, a ship belonging to MCDonalds anti-Getter Emperor army.

* In ''ComicBook/Amulet'', this is the ultimately the result of Max's [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge quest of assisting the Elf King]]. It's not like killing all those people (be corrupt like the Cielans, or innocent like everyone else) would make Layra any less ''dead''.

* ''Film/ThorLoveAndThunder: Thor tells [[spoiler:Gorr killing all gods will not give him what he really wants: his daughter back.]] Thor [[Film/AvengersEndgame speaks from experience]].

* ''Film/Horns'': [[spoiler: Merrin’s father prayed every day for Ig to die when it's believed that he killed her. When Ig was believed to have committed suicide, he states that it didn't help one bit.]]

Though somewhat subverted as she later feels they had it coming after she learns they pulled A FalseInnocenceTrick WoundedGazelleGambit by lying to their families about how she assaulted them unprovoked and that they were her friends.

* The end of [[spoiler:Claire Russell's]] sidequest in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', if [[spoiler:she kills Peter Sampson]]. [[spoiler:It turns out that she was lying about the circumstances of Dean's death (Peter Sampson ''did'' kill him, but it wasn't intentional) and used V all along just to be able to commit murder and get away with it. Afterwards, she doesn't feel any better and gives V her truck and quits racing forever.]]

* ''VideoGame/Destiny2'': At the end of the “Forsaken” storyline, [[spoiler:the Young Wolf finally kills Uldren Sov and avenges Cayde-6, but it’s clear that doing so didn’t make them feel any better; Cayde’s still dead, and all that their vengeance has really accomplished is wrecking relations with the Reef and deeply straining their friendship with Ghost. They don’t even get much congratulations for it; most allies they talk to afterwards are disturbed and saddened by their RoaringRampageOfRevenge, not proud. There’s no celebration or big reward. They just quietly go back to being Guardians, [[TearJerker only now Cayde isn’t there anymore]].]] And on top of all that, [[spoiler:Uldren’s body is found by a ghost and [[CameBackStrong resurrected as a Guardian]], rendering the victory almost totally moot - even worse, the memory-wiped Uldren now has to grapple with the fact he's treated like a heinous murderer at every turn when he is almost literally not the same person.]]

** In fact, when Sasuke finally ''succeeds'' in killing Itachi after the TimeSkip, he's left utterly empty. However, Tobi then reveals an AwfulTruth: [[spoiler:Itachi was ''ordered'' to slaughter his clan by corrupt members of Konoha's Council, in order to prevent the Uchiha from attempting a coup that would've led to a bloody civil war]]. Upon learning this, Sasuke ''snaps'' and [[IgnoredEpiphany declares vengeance upon a new target]]. He only seems to get over this when [[spoiler:Itachi is temporarily resurrected, giving them a chance to talk]]. Even then, Sasuke remains semi-antagonistic, scheming to [[spoiler:use his powers to become the ShadowDictator of the shinobi world, only stopping when Naruto beats sense back into him]].

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

->'''Roman Bellic''': There you go, you got your revenge. How does it feel?\\
'''Niko Bellic''': I don't know how it feels. I'm trying to take it all in.\\
'''Roman''': This is the moment you've been waiting for for so long, Niko. What do you mean you "don't know" how you feel?\\
'''Niko''': I mean I ''don't know''... I feel empty, okay? I feel empty.

* The TropeNamer is ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''. In the game's final act, Niko finally tracks down the man who betrayed his squad a decade ago, only to find that he's a broken, pathetic mess. The man even admits that he sold his comrades out for drug money and has felt gulity for it ever since, and even begs for death. The game then gives the player the option to either kill him or [[CruelMercy leave him to suffer]]; choosing the former results in the TropeNamer conversation, whereas sparing him leaves Niko feeling like he can finally move on.