History Main / YouKilledMyFather

* ''Webcomic/{{Inverloch}}: Acheron has always assumed that his father died somehow but doesn't know much about it because he was too young to remember and his mother doesn't speak of it. Late in the story, he discovers [[spoiler:that his father by an elf for not keeping their secret deal a secret, even though it was the elves who reneged first by welching on the magical protection they had agreed to give the da'kor. Acheron's hatred lasts only a short time after Lei'ella reminds him sharply that the elves are victimizing their own kind too. On the other hand, Silvah--who turns out to actually ''be'' Acheron, soul-swapped with Kayn'dar--eagerly joins Raul's plan to sever the elves en masse... a plan that will not kill them directly, but force them to live as mortals like the other races.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'': This is Mandrake's reasoning in taking the pod holding the life of the forest; a Leafman warrior ''did'' kill his son. (Of course, it's not really justified as Mandrake struck first, and he was going to take the pod anyway.)

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'', during the climax, Frollo reveals that not only did he consider killing Quasimodo as an infant, but he also killed his mother who was protecting her son. (The fate of Quasi's father is unknown, though he was presumably arrested and hanged like the other Gypsies his parents were travelling with.)

* ''Fanfic/DistortionsSymphogear'': Samantha Acamporra's reason for joining the Four Horsemen is because she holds [[Anime/SenkiZesshouSymphogear SONG]] responsible for the death of her brother.

->''"[[JustForFun/{{Hello}} Hello.]] {{My name is Inigo Montoya}}. [[TropeNamers You killed my father]]. {{Prepare to die}}."''

->''"JustForFun/{{Hello}} {{My name is Inigo Montoya}}. [[TropeNamers You killed my father]]. {{Prepare to die}}."''

* ''Fanfic/{{FIRE}}'': During one battle, Doctor Doom (apparently) kills off the Fantastic Four, triggering an explosive reaction from Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman's son Franklin Richards.

* [[YouKilledMyFather/LiveActionFilms Films -- Live-Action]]

This is a subtrope of ItsPersonal and a supertrope of VengefulWidow, and forms a central part of many [[CycleOfRevenge Cycles Of Revenge]]. Compare CynicismCatalyst, TheLostLenore, and DeadPartner. See also BestServedCold and RoaringRampageOfRevenge. This can overlap with FamilialFoe.

!!Example Subpages:

* YouKilledMyFather/LiveActionFilms

!!Other Examples:

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

!!Examples:

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' manga for Miles Edgeworth, the son of Jose [[Film/ThePrincessBride Mo]][[MeaningfulName nt]][[ShoutOut oya]], a man Edgeworth sent to prison and who died while in there, accuses Edgeworth of killing his father and tries to attack him. Edgeworth stops him by (accidentally) blocking the knife with his cast and then gives him a CooldownHug and apology.
* Played straight in ''Anime/AfroSamurai'' when Justice kills Afro's father at the beginning of the series.[[spoiler:Then Afro does the same to Shichigoro, [[CycleOfRevenge leading to his son going for revenge on Afro]].]]
* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'':
** When the Colossal Titan kicked open Wall Maria's gate, debris landed on the Yeager house and trapped Eren's mother. He was forced to watch her be EatenAlive, and this drives his quest to exterminate the Titans. [[spoiler:After discovering that Bertolt is the Colossal Titan, Eren demands to know what he thought about causing her death. His response about having pitied Eren drives him to promise that he'll make sure Bertolt dies in as horrible a manner as possible.]] In a similar manner, he encounters the Titan who actually ate his mother [[spoiler:sometime after gaining the ability to control Titans. He makes the other Titans in the area devour it alive.]] Of course, [[TheEndingChangesEverything the very end of the series]] puts a huge spin on it by implying [[spoiler:Eren in the future used his connection to the Paths to directly send the Titan in question to where the Yeager house was and had it eat his mother just to make sure that it would send Eren down his path, especially since that same Titan noticeably saw and ignored Bertolt after he destroyed the Wall and returned to human form despite Titans otherwise always instinctively seeking to eat Titan Shifters.]]
** A more complicated example occurs when [[spoiler:Bertolt confronts Ymir over having eaten his childhood friend, Marcel. She apologizes for it, admitting that she has no memories of her time trapped in Titan form. When she asks if he hates her because of it, he admits that he isn't sure... but he accepts her apology, as she clearly didn't ''want'' to kill anyone.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'':
** Theresia, the Count's daughter, blames Guts for his part in her father's demise via the God Hand. However, Guts praises her hatred, saying it will keep her alive. Though Guts is not above shedding a subtle [[ManlyTears tear]] over Theresia unfairly blaming him for the Count's [[IronicHell well-deserved fate]]. Since Theresia hasn't been seen in over a hundred chapters, it's safe to assume Guts is safe from her revenge.
** In prototype-''Berserk'', Guts's motivation for hunting down the order of Demons was because his mother was torn apart by them.
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
** The Grand Fisher killed Ichigo's mother and uses that against him when they fight. Ichigo is determined to resolve the matter for his mother's sake, but eventually it's Isshin who does so.
** After Souken died, Mayuri captured his soul and tortured him to death ForScience. Uryuu almost kills both himself and Mayuri to avenge his grandfather, but they both survive. The storyline was never resolved.
** In the Captain Amagai arc, Amagai is haunted by his father's death and wishes he could avenge it. [[spoiler:The arc's entire plot is his gambit to destroy Yamamoto for killing his father. When he that learns Yamamoto saved his father's soul from possession, he kills himself to atone for his misguided behaviour.]]
* This is Chang Ge's motivation at the beginning of ''Manhua/{{Choukakou}}'', [[spoiler:as her parents and all her brothers were killed by her uncle, [[TheEmperor Li Shimin]]]].
* ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'':
** Subverted. [[spoiler:[[BigBad Priscilla]] demands that Teresa "give her father back" as they fight, but in fact, young Priscilla witnessed a yōma who had taken the place of her father eating her siblings, and she snuck up behind him and chopped off his head. However, by this point in the fight, Priscilla is losing her mind due to the fact that she can't cope with having been defeated by Teresa, even though Teresa is "the bad guy" who broke the rules.]] Subverted further after [[spoiler:the yōma's true nature is revealed. Since yōma merely infest humans, not replace them, Priscilla actually killed her father herself. Dae believes that she subconsciously knew this was the case, and her self-loathing is the reason she is so powerful.]]
** Played somewhat straight for Clare's motive for being a Claymore. [[spoiler:She used the flesh of her mother figure, Teresa the Faint Smile, to turn herself into a Claymore. Since that day, she has been building her strength up to kill Priscilla, who killed Teresa right in front of her.]]
* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', Lelouch blames his father, Emperor Charles, for the death of his mother. It's one of his motivations for fighting the Britannian Empire -- [[spoiler:In the end, Lelouch is at least partially responsible for his death by causing the Collective Unconscious to absorb him... [[MindScrew or something]]. He also ends up causing that same Collective Unconsciousness to absorb his mother, too, because she wasn't actually dead.]]
* One of Ian's major struggles in ''Manga/ACruelGodReigns''. Jeremy may have killed his father, but he's also his step-brother and his father was torturing him. And Ian starts [[spoiler:to fall in love with Jeremy]].
* In at least two of the iterations of ''Anime/CuteyHoney'', Honey's motive for trying to wipe out Panther Claw is because they killed her father. In two others, they kidnap him instead, but it still has the same effect -- Honey still wants to kill them.
* In ''LightNovel/DateALive'', Origami Tobiichi dedicated her life to getting her revenge on the one who killed her parents. She concludes that Kotori Itsuka's SuperpoweredEvilSide Efreet did it and tries to kill her, ignoring everybody's protests. [[spoiler:However, it is later revealed that ''Origami herself'' was the one who accidentally killed her parents in a StableTimeLoop created when she went back in time to try to prevent their deaths. She rockets past the DespairEventHorizon when she realizes this.]]
* Subverted in ''Manga/DeathNote'': [[spoiler:While Light plans to kill his father himself, said father is ultimately killed by Mello. Light is visibly distraught at his father's death, but he appears to deal with it by losing himself yet further in his [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans dubious cause]]. He barely mentions Soichiro again, and never figures his death into his conflict with Mello -- which, for such a proud guy who takes conflicts and slights so personally, is quite strange. In the end, it's [[BewareTheNiceOnes Matsuda]] [[BerserkButton who ends up]] [[ThisIsUnforgivable "taking revenge"]], subverting the trope even further.]]
* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': The death of most of Tanjiro's family, along with his younger sister Nezuko being turned into a demon, is what drives him to become a Demon Slayer and kill [[BigBad Muzan Kibutsuji]], the demon responsible for it.
** Turns out most of the other Demon Slayers are also motivated by this trope, as various of their family members fell in the hands of Demons. [[spoiler: Inosuke is motivated by the death of his parents at the hands of Douma, Zenitsu eventually gets serious in his duties as a Demon Slayer once he hears his master committed suicide, Sanemi is motivated to exterminate Muzan and co. cause he turned his mother leading to deaths in his family, Shinobu is motivated by the death of her sister at the hands of Douma, Gyomei is motivated by the deaths of his students, Mitsuri is motivated by the death of her parents, Muichiro is motivated by the death of his younger brother, Giyuu is motivated by the deaths of his sister and his best friend, Obanai is motivated by the death of his family, Tengen is motivated by the deaths of his siblings and Kagaya is motivated by the deaths of his ancestors due to Muzan cursing the family.]] This is ultimately why all of them join to kill Muzan, because he's the source of all the tragedies in the series.
* ''Manga/CaseClosed'':
** The Kaitou Kid of ''Manga/MagicKaito'' and ''Detective Conan'' has this as his driving motivation once he finds out that his father was murdered. His motives for being a PhantomThief shift away from "having fun" toward "bringing ''them'' out into the light", and we might know more about all of that if his series was more than 28 chapters long. (His Manga/CaseClosed [[OnlySixFaces counterpart]] is after ''his'' evil organization because they killed ''[[WhodunnitToMe him]]'', instead.)
** Many of the culprits of their cases have this as their motive for murder, as the victims had directly (or indirectly) caused the deaths of their loved ones.
* In ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'', this is Emi's primary motivation for becoming The Hero, since Maou's forces razed her village shortly after her father sent her with some church officials to train and fight against the demons. When she confronts Maou with this information, he actually blows her mind (and seemingly offends her) by honestly trying to apologize, saying that he ordered his minions ''not'' to attack civilians but he couldn't oversee them 24/7, and admitting that he didn't respect humans the way he does now. She drops a lot of her hostility towards Maou when she finds out [[spoiler:her father isn't dead]]. {{Lampshaded}} in the anime, when [[spoiler:Lucifer shows up]]:
-->"No, it can't be. I ran my sword right through your chest! I did the 'You killed my father' bit and everything!"
* In ''Manga/DogSoldier'', one of [[AfricanTerrorists Zardoz's]] attacks killed [[TheProtagonist John Kyosuke Hiba's]] parents.
* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'':
** Subverted by Son Goku when he can't bring himself to kill Frieza, who not only killed his father, but also almost extinguished his entire race. Played straight, however, with Vegeta [[LikeFatherLikeSon and his son]] Trunks.
** Played straight with Piccolo, who was literally born to hate and kill Goku. His father Piccolo Daimaou created him moments after Goku dealt him a fatal blow and passed on his grudge to his newborn son. Piccolo actually does manage to kill Goku during their [[EnemyMine teamup]] against Raditz when Goku holds Raditz in place long enough for Piccolo to hit them both with his new super move. Piccolo mellows out considerably afterwards, since he felt no satisfaction from killing Goku. He just couldn't keep hating Goku after seeing him pull off such a badass HeroicSacrifice. Bonding with Goku's son Gohan while training him cements the end of Piccolo's grudge.
** Gohan says something similar to Cell after he comes back in the Cell saga: "I'm glad that I can rip apart the one who killed my father with my own hands!"
** Future Trunks's father from his timeline was killed by the androids, whom Trunks later kills. His father from the present timeline is killed by Frieza, whom he kills as well. Oh, and Future Trunks also [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe splits]] Zamasu/Goku Black (who killed Future Bulma) in half.
** Majin Buu also killed Goten's mother and ate Trunks's mother. Frieza killed Vegeta's father as well as the entire Saiyan race. Yeah, the villains do this a lot.
* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', [[spoiler:after Acnologia kills his adoptive dragon father in front of him, Natsu angrily declares that he'll destroy Acnologia]].
* In the 1980s version of ''Anime/{{Gigantor}}'', Shotaro seeks revenge on Branch because he realized that [[spoiler:he was the one who killed his father]]. However, this doesn't happen since [[spoiler:Branch is abducted by aliens that later turn out to be Uchuumaou's minions, while Shotaro attempts to kill him in revenge.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', Casval Daikun took his more famous identity of Char Aznable and joined the Zeon military to avenge his father, killed by Degwin Zabi. Char's approach is a non-standard KillEmAll: he plans to kill ''all'' the Zabi, starting with Degwin's favorite son (and Char's apparent best friend Garma). He fails; while he does get Garma killed, his brother Dozle dies in battle against the Federation, Degwin is disintegrated by his surviving son Gihren's death ray, and Gihren is killed by his sister Kycilia exactly because of Degwin's murder before he can take another shot and kill Kycilia with a [[NoKillLikeOverkill rocket in the head]]. After the series, it's implied that Char encounters Dozle's daughter Mineva but, having renounced his revenge even before killing Kycilia (he did the deed to prevent her from continuing the war), spares her.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' features a rather harsh version of this in the case of Kamille Bidan's mother. Jerid Messa, AffablyEvil rival and already not on Kamille's good side, is [[PunchClockVillain given orders]] to shoot at a capsule if anyone attempts to retrieve it. Having been led to believe that it's a bomb, he destroys the capsule holding Kamille's mother, killing her just as Kamille had reached the capsule to retrieve it. Jerid is able to feel Kamille's sadness as a sickening uneasiness, and when given the opportunity, actually apologizes for having killed his mother. He is still a bit too much of a jerk about it, though, and this death starts a vicious cycle of doom and revenge for anyone who gets close to either Jerid or Kamille throughout the series.
** ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'': Neo-Canada's fighter, former space cop Andrew Graham, entered the Gundam Fight entirely because he found out that Neo-Russia's fighter is the space pirate Argo Gulsky, who some years ago killed Andrew's new wife Norma by ramming their spaceship and then [[ThrownOutTheAirlock throwing her into space]]. [[spoiler:Except that's not true; the collision was an accident, and Argo tried to save Norma but couldn't reach her in time and has been wracked with remorse ever since. When Andrew learns the truth, he returns the favor by TakingTheBullet for Argo.]]
** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', soon-to-become pacifist Relena tries to shoot Lady Une, the woman who killed her (adoptive) father. She fails. The next time the two meet, Lady Une actually ''offers'' Relena a gun to take her long-awaited revenge with, and Relena ''pushes it away'', because ending the vicious cycle of bloody retribution is more important to her in the end.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'': [[spoiler:The second Lockon Stratos, Lyle Dylandy, is the one who finally brings down Ali al-Saachez, who killed Lockon's father, mother, and little sister in a terrorist bombing years ago, and his twin brother (the first Lockon) at the end of the first season. However, it is a subversion -- Lyle rejects the idea of shooting him out of pure vengeance and only fires after Ali refuses to surrender.]]
* Seine's motivation in ''Manga/HekikaiNoAion'' is to kill the mermaids to avenge her foster father Simon's death at their hands, [[spoiler:or their teeth]].
* ''Anime/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** In [[Recap/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood Part 1: Phantom Blood]], Jonathan impales DIO on a burning spike after DIO kills Jonathan's father George.
** Since DIO [[spoiler:kills Jonathan]], this is why Lisa Lisa, Joseph and Jotaro and the rest of Joestars hate DIO with a [[ArchEnemy passion]]. All the [=JoJos=] family's win quotes in ''[[VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureAllStarBattle All Star Battle]]'' against DIO will express their united satisfaction for avenging Jonathan, even though canonically only Jotaro gets revenge. Special mention to Joseph, who has this line if he defeats DIO in his HarmlessLadyDisguise:
--->'''Joseph:''' I won! I avenged my grandfather... [[DisguisedInDrag in drag]].
* This is the reason behind [[spoiler:Yuri Killian]] being a SmugSnake [[spoiler:and betraying Kalos Eido, whom he blames for the "deed",]] in ''Anime/KaleidoStar''. [[spoiler:Ironically, Mr. Killian's death was a genuine accident. Kalos doesn't defend himself because he [[TheAtoner feels guilty anyway]].]]
* In ''Anime/KillLaKill'', Ryuko Matoi's main goal is to find the person who killed her father with [[ImprobableWeaponUser a giant pair of scissors]]. The scissors broke in half while the culprit was fleeing, so Ryuko uses one half as a sword while searching for the person who carries the other half. The culprit was [[spoiler:Nui Harime, but while Ryuko hates her, she ultimately considers Ragyo Kiryuin truly responsible because Nui was acting under her orders. Satsuki Kiryuin also never forgave her mother Ragyo for killing her father, and betrays her at the first opportunity. It later turns out that Ryuko and Satsuki's parents are one and the same, uniting them against their mother, Ragyo.]]
* This is [[DefiedTrope defied]] in ''Manga/KimbaTheWhiteLion'', where Kimba refuses to kill [[EvilPoacher Viper Snakely]] for shooting his father and for indirectly causing the death of his mother because he believes that if he kills a human, he will be going against his wish for humans and animals to coexist in peace. However, Kimba has no problems fighting Viper Snakely if it means protecting his subjects from him.
* This is originally Brocken Jr.'s thing when he first appears in ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}''; Ramenman killed his father Brockenman during the first TournamentArc, so now Jr. wants revenge. However, Brocken isn't quite so obsessed, as he's willing to pull an EnemyMine with Ramenman during the manga's Beansman arc. When the two do fight during the Big Fight arc, Ramenman hands Brocken Jr. his ass, then tells him, "Forget your father. Only then will you be a great fighter." and Brocken more or less gives up his grudge.
* ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'':
** Subverted. Knuckle Joe has dedicated years to tracking down the Star Warrior he was told killed his father. He arrives on Pop Star, is tricked by Dedede into going after Kirby, and is about to deliver the killing blow when Meta Knight shows up, claiming to be the one Joe is looking for. He reveals that he was forced to kill Joe's father, his best friend, when the latter was possessed by Nightmare. Joe is furious and refuses to believe Meta Knight at first, one would assume because he wants someone to direct his anger at.
** A rare DistaffCounterpart example occurs with Sirica in episode 60; she pursues Meta Knight under the suspicion that he abandoned her mother and let her get mauled by one of eNeMeE's monsters. It is only after Meta Knight's sword telepathically informs her that her mother willingly sacrificed her life because she couldn't wield it, thus giving the blade to him in her dying moment, that Sirica stops trying to kill him and accepts reality.
* In ''Anime/KoihimeMusou'', when Chouhi stops Sousou to say hello, Bachou suddenly tries to kill Sousou on the spot because Sousou had Batou (Bachou's father) killed. [[spoiler:She later learns that her father actually died by falling off a horse while drunk. Sousou took the blame willingly because falling off a horse was a [[UndignifiedDeath rather dishonorable way to die]].]]
* ''Manga/LoneWolfAndCub'' ends [[spoiler:with Yagyuu Retsudou dying at the hands of ''Daigorou'', after killing Ittou]].
* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'':
** Averted in ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs A's]]''. Eleven years prior to the season, Chono's father was killed when an attempt to seal the [[ArtifactOfDoom Book of Darkness]] went horribly wrong. While Chrono is on the current case to deal with it, he never expresses any desire for revenge against it or its guardians. [[spoiler:And when he's presented with a plan that could permanently seal it near the end of the season, he instantly rejects it on both moral and practical grounds.]]
** [[spoiler:Iris's]] main motivation during the ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaReflection Reflection]]''[=/=]''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaDetonation Detonation]]'' duology is getting revenge against [[spoiler:her best friend Yuri]] for the death of her father. [[spoiler:Though it later turns out that, while Yuri did kill him, it was only because he was EvilAllAlong. Oh, and he's [[BrainUploading not actually dead]].]]
* The ''Mazinger'' trilogy:
** ''Anime/MazingerZ'' gives us a You Killed My Grandfather in the first episode, when [[spoiler:Dr. Hell gets Kouji's grandfather assassinated]] and Kouji swears finding and punishing the responsible.
** It happens literally in ''Anime/GreatMazinger'' when [[spoiler:Kenzo Kabuto dies because the Mykene]] and Kouji and Tetsuya [[spoiler:(his biological son and adoptive son, respectively)]] go into a RoaringRampageOfRevenge to avenge him.
** The parents of Duke Fleed [[spoiler:and his sister Maria]] from ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'' were murdered by [[AlienInvasion the Vegan army]], and he [[spoiler:and she]] want to avenge their deaths. And Maria also wants avenging [[spoiler:her adoptive grandfather]].
* Subverted in ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'', when [[spoiler:Kaito forgives ManBehindTheMan Sara for killing his parents. She eventually commits suicide by [[CollapsingLair collapsing fortress]].]]
* In the anime version of ''Anime/MyHime'', Natsuki's beef with [[AncientConspiracy the First District]] is largely due to their apparent involvement in her mother's death. In the [[Manga/MyHime manga's]] storyline, her reason for entering Fuuka is largely the same, with the exception that she believes another [=HiME=] was responsible for her murder. [[spoiler:The whole story is later revealed to be a lie, as Natsuki's mother shows up at the end of Vol. 3 as the leader of the faction that takes over Fuuka Academy, and serves as the primary antagonist of Vol. 4.]]
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Sasuke Uchiha's entire clan, including his parents, were killed... [[SelfMadeOrphan by his brother]], no less. So Sasuke's training to get strong so he can kill him. [[spoiler:Of course, when he finally does, it turns out Itachi wasn't so bad after all, and did it so the Uchiha wouldn't rebel against Konoha, possibly causing a fourth Ninja War, for decades of oppression due to paranoia of the clan's power. That makes Sasuke's target of vengeance switch to the village of Konoha. Whee.]]
** A slightly straighter example is implied: It's revealed that Tobi unleashed the Nine-tailed Fox on Konoha when Naruto was born. [[spoiler:And that Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mother, was the previous container for it.]]
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** Nami's main motivation for hating Arlong with every fiber of her being (besides enslaving her [[YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo village]]) is because Arlong shot her adoptive mother Bellmere directly in front of Nami when she [[HarmfulToMinors was just eight years old]] and then forced her to work for him as his cartographer for eight more years. Apparently Nami tried many times to secretly assassinate Arlong, but failed each time; the most sickening part is that Arlong laughs off her attempts, because he knows it's beyond her ability to kill him and he would forgive her anyway because "''she's his friend''". In the end it's Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp who avenge Bellemere (and the village) by beating Arlong and his crew, making Nami feel free for the first time in years. Nami's hatred of Arlong briefly extends to his whole race, with Nami being reluctant to enter Fishman island; however, by the time she gets there, she reconciles that it was solely Arlong whom she despised.
** Franky utterly loathes Government Agent Spandam for arresting his [[TheMentor mentor]]/[[ParentalSubstitute father figure]] Tom and shipping him to [[HellholePrison Impel Down]] to be executed, and he endeavours to make Spandam's life absolute hell every time they come into contact. When Spandam [[KickTheDog kicks]] Tom's unconscious body upon arrest, Franky promptly breaks his skull with the [[PistolWhipping butt of a rifle]] (''permanently disfiguring him''), causing Spandam much grief. But as if that wasn't enough, when meeting him again after twenty years, Franky, despite being being chained, [[ManBitesMan bites]] Spandam's skull and refuses to let go, forcing Kumadori to separate them. But Franky doesn't just perform physical revenge for Tom; he also burns Tom's blue prints for Pluton -- the ancient weapon the TheGovernment has been seeking for years -- directly in front of Spandam's face, causing Spandam to [[VillainousBreakdown flip out]]. Franky finishes him off by smashing him to a pulp [[HoistByHisOwnPetard with his own elephant-sword Funkfreed]], and even admits that he's been dreaming of crushing the bastard for a long time.
** Robin also despises Spandam because he is the son of Spandine, the former Cipher Pol Chief who ordered the Buster Call on [[DoomedHometown Ohara]], i.e the total massacre of her hometown plus her mother, only friend, and fellow archaeologists. Robin is horrified when Spandam reveals this, and when she's free of her [[PowerNullifier handcuffs]], she wastes no time giving him a brutal smack-down and snapping his spine like a twig.
** [[spoiler:One of the main reasons why Doflamingo [[{{Patricide}} shot his father in the back of the head]] is because his father [[RichesToRags renounced his Nobility]] and tried to leave normally, leading to his mother [[IllGirl dying of illness]] thanks to the poor health conditions of poverty. That, and the fact that they got lynch-mobbed shortly afterwards. Despite that, Rocinante, Doflamingo's brother, [[CainAndAbel seeks to kill Doflamingo]] to avenge the death of their father at his hands -- among [[{{TheCorrupter}} many]], [[{{AxCrazy}} many]], other reasons. Really, the only person Doflamingo has shown unconditional love for [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas is his mother]], so his actions, while twisted, are understandable]].
** [[spoiler:Rebecca initially just fears Diamante for killing her mother Scarlet in cold blood, and [[DespairEventHorizon breaks down]] upon discovering the truth. But upon seeing Diamante pull [[DirtyCoward dirty moves]] on her father Kyros, she becomes furious and challenges Diamante, only to be [[FauxActionGirl held back]] by Robin. Like with Nami, Rebecca doesn't get to avenge her mother personally, but witnesses her father do it]].
** [[spoiler: "''The Payback War''" between the Whitebeard Pirates and Blackbeard Pirates happened due to Whitebeard (who was considered a father by all his crews) being killed by Edward D. Tech aka Blackbeard and his crew.]]
** [[Anime/ChopperSKingdomontheIslandofStrangeAnimals Movie 3]] character Mobambi goes through this with the film's antagonist Count Butler after initially believing pirates had killed his father.
** Momonosuke's primary reason for hating Kaido [[spoiler:is because he boiled his father Oden alive before shooting him in the head, then caused the events that led to his mother Toki dying shortly after. Though unlike other examples, Momonosuke's desire for revenge is subverted since he's JustAKid, so he needs Luffy and co. to help him take Kaido down.]]
* Gene Starwind from ''Manga/OutlawStar'' has a vendetta with Ron [=McDougall=] over this act, which receives regular flashbacks throughout the series that drive home its impact, and tells him as much. Ron responds that [[ButForMeItWasTuesday he can't be expected to remember every murder he has committed]], famous hit man that he is.
* Subverted in ''Manga/PetShopOfHorrors'', where [[spoiler:Leon kills Count D's father and fully expects him to leave him to burn to death after that. Instead, [[FoeRomanceSubtext D saves him]].]]
* ''Anime/PanzerWorldGalient'': [[BigBad Jordy]] wants to avenge the death of his father, killed by [[BigBad Marder]].
* Subverted in ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''. Genma says that he's responsible for wiping the Kumon school out, so everyone thinks that Ryū Kumon is there for the traditional you-killed-my-father moment, but it turns out that Ryū's father accidentally killed himself practicing a technique and Ryū just wants the other half of it to rebuild.
* In ''Manga/RaveMaster'', King aka Gale Raregroove reveals that he killed Haru's mother Sakura to make his former friend Gale Glory, Haru's father, understand the pain he felt when the Imperial soldiers Glory sent to apprehend him killed his wife and son ([[spoiler:though his son survived]]). An enraged Haru tackles King, calling him a monster. King calmly remarks that Haru has every right to hate King for what he did. He's shaken when Haru ''still'' feels sympathy for King's suffering even though King killed his mother.
* ''Manga/Reborn2004'' presents an interesting twist on this trope in that it is not the hero, Tsuna, [[spoiler:but the ''villain'', Kozato Enma,]] who is using this as his battle cry, and makes it more interesting because apparently [[spoiler:Tsuna's father Iemitsu was the killer of Enma's parents]].
* In ''Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles'', Rosalie's main reason to go to Versailles is to avenge her adopted mother, who died when a noblewoman's carriage ran over her, and discover who is her real mother. [[spoiler:She finds the killer Mme. de Polignac easily, but before she can kill her, she discover that Mme. de Polignac is her real mother.]]
* ''Manga/SamuraiDeeperKyo'' subverts this with Yuya, who, after a four-year hunt for the murderer of her father figure -- her [[NotBloodSiblings brother Nozomu]] -- discovers [[spoiler:that Kyoshiro was the one who killed him. She doesn't take her revenge, but she doesn't forgive him, either.]]
* Exa's reason for wanting to slay the demon queen in ''Manga/{{Superior}}'' (despite his otherwise strict adherence to ThouShaltNotKill) is because she wiped out his home village and desecrated his mother's corpse. This is somewhat problematic, seeing as the plot of the series revolves around the demon queen joining his party in disguise and [[InLoveWithTheMark the two falling in love]]. [[spoiler:He does ''not'' take it well when he learns the truth.]]
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': Realising that tremors caused by the Beastmen-piloted Ganmen led to his parents' deaths enrages Simon into fighting them instead of running away.
* In the ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'' anime is a mini-arc, just before the climax, where Ryou commands the titular {{Magical Girl}}s against the GiantMook that killed his parents. This is nowhere in the manga.
* Played straight (or maybe [[YaoiGuys not so straight]]) with [[spoiler:Kurogane]] in ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle''. [[spoiler:He learns that Fei Wang was the one who killed his mother, for which he vows to kill him. He gets his revenge by delivering the fatal blow to Fei Wang in the final battle.]]
* A lot of the plot in ''Manga/VinlandSaga'' is derived from Thorfinn's quest to avenge his father's murder by Askeladd, who is fully aware of Thorfinn's grudge and uses it to his advantage on multiple occasions. [[spoiler:It's eventually subverted; Askeladd is killed by Canute and Thorfinn refuses to finish him off.]] Thorfinn later has a HeelRealization when he recalls the many men he killed over the years and wonders how many of them were brothers, fathers, or sons of other people. It's one of the reasons he decides to never kill again.
* ''Anime/WolfsRain'': This is Blue's motive against Darcia, who [[spoiler:kills her master Quent towards the end of the series]].
* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'':
** In a unique villainous example, this is Malik of ''[[Anime/YuGiOh Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters']]'' motivation for trying to defeat the Nameless Pharaoh. Of course, it turns out that [[TomatoInTheMirror his]] SuperPoweredEvilSide, generated by resentment towards his duty to the Pharaoh (specifically, his father ''carving symbols into his back''), was the killer, and Malik's believing that it was the Pharaoh was based on a misunderstanding.
** Edo Phoenix of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' searches for his father's killer. [[Franchise/{{Batman}} By prowling dark alleys at night dressed in monster costumes looking for criminals]], no less.
** ActionGirl Sherry [=LeBlanc=] of ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has also been hunting for her parents' killer. She doesn't follow Batman's m.o. quite as closely as her predecessor, but she ''does'' have a BattleButler ParentalSubstitute.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'':
** ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'': Played for laughs when Nemesis and his allies are about to kill Torquemada. Everyone wants a piece of him for killing one of their loved ones: Nemesis for his wife, Purity for her father, and Mekquake for his mother. When Torquemada is confused because he never even met Mekquake's mother, he admits that he just made her up.
** ''ComicBook/ButtonMan'': As a young girl, Adele witnesses a group of men murdering her father while she hides in the closet, apparently including a man named "Harry X". She grows up swearing to get revenge against her father's killers and Harry in particular.
** ''ComicBook/NikolaiDante'': Some time after Dante kills Sir Richard Hawksmoore, his daughter, Elizabeth, joins the royalist faction for the chance to [[AvengingTheVillain avenge him]]. She is appointed commander of the Order of the Dragon by Konstantin Romanov, and on her first mission, she attacks a refugee convoy commanded by Elena Kurakin -- whose father ''she'' killed. And yes, there is taunting involved.
* ''ComicBook/AgeOfReptiles'': The main ''Allosaurus'' in ''The Hunt'' attacks the ''Ceratosaurus'' pack because they killed his mother. At the very end, when he kills the last ''Ceratosaurus'' by feeding it to a pod of plesiosaurs, it turns out that the ''Ceratosaurus'' was a father... and that his mate and children just watched the ''Allosaurus'' kill him.
* In the ''ComicBook/New52'', ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} blames Black Manta for his father's death. Interestingly, the reverse is also true. Aquaman's father had a heart attack while trying to defend his son from Black Manta. When Aquaman tracked Manta down for revenge, he was attacked by Manta's father, whom he killed in self-defence.
* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', Royal and Charles Williams' parents were killed by a Pyramid agent during a supervillain fight. When Royal learns his identity twenty years later, he uses that information to give his dying brother Charles the will to live on. The two end up becoming mercenaries on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the agent.
* ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'': Skorzeny reveals to Robo that he killed Tesla. It's an attempt to get the latter to kill him and spare him a slow, painful death due to cancer. Robo opts for CruelMercy.
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':
** Batman lost both his parents to a random mugger by the name of Joe Chill. Although this is the major cause for Bruce's decision to become a superhero, he's able to focus on the big picture. Naturally, [[ThouShaltNotKill Batman never kills Chill]], but Chill is killed by his fellow mobsters, who blame him for creating Batman.
** ''ComicBook/BatmanBeyond'': Terry nearly says this to Blight before Bruce interrupts him.
--->'''Batman:''' You killed my...\\
'''Bruce:''' [=McGinnis!!=]\\
'''Batman:''' You killed a good man.
** ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': Eventually Tim confronts his mother's murderer Obeah Man after the man bribes his way out of jail. Tim doesn't kill him, of course, but tracks him all the way to Haiti, defeats him, and ensures that he won't get away with such bribery again.
** ''ComicBook/RedRobin'': Tim actually arranges Captain Boomerang's escape from jail and sets up a scenario where Boomerang will likely end up killing himself because he can't stand being in the same city as the man who killed his father as a test for himself on Batman's ThouShaltNotKill policy. Tim ends up saving Boomerang from his own plot and returning him to police custody. The culmination makes it unclear whether he was testing himself or Bruce's and Dick's [[SecretTestOfCharacter trust in him]], since he knew they were watching the whole time.
* ''ComicBook/BlackMoonChronicles'': Haazheel Thorn and the Baron of Moork arrange the violent death of Wismerhill's dark elf father ([[FalseFlagOperation actually, the demon Urmarcht in disguise]]) just before he can finally meet him and blame it on the empire to incite Wismerhill's fury against the emperor.
* In most versions of the ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'' origin, his father (the previous Panther) was killed by Ulysses Klaw. The young T'Challa manages to injure Klaw in the process, and later "[[DeathIsCheap kills]]" him after assuming his father's mantle.
-->'''Black Panther:''' Do you have any children?\\
'''Klaw:''' No.\\
'''Black Panther:''' Good. [[CycleOfRevenge Because then I'd have to kill them, too.]]
* ''ComicBook/BodieTroll'': After Miz Bjou explains to Hokum how her tribe was transformed into Butt Truffle by an evil fairy and Bodie lets slip that he unknowingly ate the truffles, Hokum instantly goes after him. Surprisingly, he willingly offers himself up as an apology to her. She can't go through with killing him, however, which winds up working out for everyone in the end.
* ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'': Kingdok tries to invoke this in Thorn, whose parents he killed, to make her kill him, but the attempt fails.
* Baron Zemo initially blames ComicBook/CaptainAmerica for the death of his father, despite the fact that his father accidentally caused his own death while firing his pistol blindly. He eventually gets over it.
* ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade'': Stature says this line word for word to Doctor Doom when she assumes that his attack killed her newly revived father again.
* A variation occurs in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'', where Cutter's parents are among several elves killed by a monster. Since his father was chief of the Wolfriders, Cutter inherits the title, and the first thing he does to prove himself worthy of it is to devise a strategy to kill the monster. However, whatever desire for revenge he has is mixed with the necessity of stopping the menace that threatens all life in the Holt. In addition, unlike his father, who wanted to kill the monster all on his own, Cutter relies on the whole tribe working together to trap it. (He both acts as bait and deals the lethal blow, though.)
* ''ComicBook/ElfesEtNains'': Ora, or Sybil daughter of Azewën, mistakenly thinks that Eliseii killed her father in cold blood and seeks Eliseii to kill her. However, Eliseii explains the exact circumstances of Azewën's death and then gets bitten by a ghoul, robbing Ora of her revenge.
* In ''ComicBook/GothamCityGarage'', Batman doctors evidence to trick [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon]] into believing her sister [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]] murdered their father. She believes him and intends to get justice for her father until Harley Quinn -- of all people! -- reveals that she's been lied to.
* ''ComicBook/LamentOfTheLostMoors'': Bedlam defeated Sioban's father's army and personally killed him in the lost moors.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' [[Manga/TheLegendOfZelda Akira Himekawa manga]], Ghanti declares Link her enemy because he's the last of the Hylian knights, whom she has been raised to believe killed her parents. She's, therefore, surprised to find [[spoiler:that her guardian lied to her and she herself is, in fact, also descended from the Hylian knights]]. In the ''[[ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast comic adaptation]]'', though, Link wants to take Agahnim down because the sorcerer killed his uncle right in front of him.
* In ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', ComicBook/CosmicBoy, usually one of the most level-headed and rule-abiding members and their ''leader'', leaves the team seeking revenge after his mother is killed in a terrorist attack that also badly wounds his father and little brother. He's only prevented from murdering in revenge when his girlfriend knocks him out with super-strength when he has the terrorists, who are in police custody when he catches up, at his mercy.
* ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'': In a nice little inversion, it was the good guys (the [[PhysicalGod Asgardians]]) who killed ComicBook/{{Loki}}'s father Laufey when he was a young child. Loki did vow to kill them all that day, but then again, [[spoiler:it was mostly an act in an attempt to get Odin to adopt him. At the time, young Loki did not understand the grander scheme in which the whole thing operates]], but don't be too surprised; he didn't have any real tears to shed for [[AbusiveParent Laufey]]...
* ''ComicBook/{{Raptors}}'': Drago and Camilla's motive for targeting the other vampires in a RoaringRampageOfRevenge is the murder of their parents at the hands of Don Miguel's followers.
* ''ComicBook/SherwoodTexas'': Rob Hood's RoaringRampageOfRevenge is kicked off when he returns from a stint in the navy to find that his father has been murdered by John Prince, leader of the Nobles motorcycle gang.
* ''ComicBook/{{Sojourn}}'': Arwyn would probably have lived her life in peaceful retirement if Mordath's forces had not razed her hometown and killed her husband and daughter. Now ItsPersonal.
* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** Peter Parker was raised by Uncle Ben and Aunt May. When Uncle Ben is killed, Peter wants to get even, but when he realizes that the murderer was the same thug he let go earlier, he gives up on revenge because he realizes it was his own fault. In fact, ''Film/SpiderMan3'' is largely about his need to let go of his vengeful feelings.
** When he finds out that the second Red Skull killed his parents (who were SHIELD agents), he wants revenge as well. The second Red Skull ends up escaping... only to be killed later by the original Red Skull. However, Spider-Man ''does'' kill the Finisher (inadvertently and in self-defense, but without any tears), the Skull's agent who actually did the deed. The Finisher's dying confession proves that Peter's parents weren't traitors after all, which was what he really wanted.
** Gwen Stacy isn't exactly thrilled when she thinks Spider-Man has killed her father. She doesn't end up killing him, but she does try to help a politician start a crusade against him.
* ''ComicBook/{{Starman}}'': Frankie Soul's father (a villain named No Mercy) died fighting Mikaal Tomas, and in spite of their complicated relationship, Frankie seeks to avenge him.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'':
*** ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel2015'': In "Skywalker Strikes, Part II", Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader, both of them unaware of their blood relationship. Luke accuses Vader of killing his father without revealing any information. Vader says [[ButForMeItWasTuesday he's killed many fathers]] and the young boy will have to be more specific.
*** Oh, it gets even better with Vader: In the same series, he returns to Tatooine for Imperial business... and you remember how the Tusken Raiders killed his mother in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''? Well, Vader hasn't [[http://deffinition.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Darth-Vader-kills-tusken-raiders-in-marvel-star-wars-graphic-novel.jpg forgotten either]]. In fact, Vader slaughters so many of the Sand People they begin to worship him as a god.
** ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
*** Jango Fett lost ''two'' fathers. His biological father (and his mother and sister) was murdered by a group of mercenaries, and his adoptive father who trained him to be a Mandalorian (and whom he was possibly closer to) was gunned down before his eyes by the same man who killed his original family. Needless to say, Fett devotes a great deal of time to hunting down the murderer and finally enacts vengeance in a brutal fistfight.
*** In a way, the traitorous Mandalorian Montross is also responsible for Jango's second father's death: He abandoned him on the battlefield because he wanted to take his place as leader of the Mandalorians. Then years later, Montross kills Rozatta, a female Toydarian who acts as a mother-figure to Jango and is one of the few people he cares about. Shortly thereafter, Fett defeats Montross and leaves him to a particularly nasty death.
*** ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'': The big reason why Wedge Antilles hates Loka Hask is because Wedge's parents sacrificed themselves to save the refueling station after Hask took off without unhooking, letting his thrusters ignite the fuel, in order to stall the police. Hask makes it worse by rejoining TheEmpire and telling Wedge that he did him a favor and gave him what all boys secretly want -- to be rid of their parents! If only ''he'd'' had someone to do that for him -- but no, he had to [[SelfMadeOrphan do it himself]]!
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** In ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman1961'', Lex Luthor manages to kill Superman. ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} captures him and brings him to the Bottle City of Kandor, where he is judged and banished to the PhantomZone. As she takes Luthor away, Kara warns a group of gangsters that while they may have succeeded in treacherously murdering her cousin, they will have to deal with ''her'' now.
--->'''Supergirl:''' My name is... Supergirl! I'm Superman's cousin from Krypton! I've been his secret emergency weapon for years! Luthor, in the name of planet Krypton, I arrest you for murder!
** Pre-Crisis supervillain Tobias Manning (a.k.a. Terra-Man) was raised by the alien known as the Collector, who had killed his father: wiping Manning's memory of his father's death. Manning travelled with the Collector for years, stealing for him as he had for his real father, but eventually his memories returned and he murdered the Collector to avenge his father.
** [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Post-Crisis Supergirl]] bears a grudge against Reactron, who murdered her father, and Superwoman, who helped Reactron out. In ''ComicBook/WhoIsSuperwoman'', as she lays a beatdown on the titular villain, Kara declares that her father's murderer shouldn't expect gentle treatment from her.
--->'''Supergirl:''' You're asking for mercy? Like Agent Liberty got?! Like poor Mister Henderson!? Like my father!? You don't deserve mercy, you deserve a beating!
** In ''Reign of Doomsday'', Supergirl screams that she hasn't forgotten who killed her cousin as she's fighting Doomsday.
** In ''ComicBook/NewKrypton'', the Guardian says this verbatim to Codename: Assassin, who killed his genetic donor.
** The plot in ''ComicBook/TheKillersOfKrypton'' revolves around Supergirl seeking and punishing the ones were behind of Rogol Zaar killing her family and friends.
** In ''ComicBook/ElseworldsFinestSupergirlAndBatgirl'', Comicbook/{{Batgirl}} wants to take Comicbook/LexLuthor down because he [[spoiler:hired the hitman who accidentally murdered her parents]]. And Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} wants to kill [[spoiler:Lex Luthor after finding out that he murdered her cousin]].
** At the end of ''ComicBook/SupermanBrainiac'', [[ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} the titular villain]] kills Superman's adoptive father, Jonathan Kent, causing Superman to have dreams of going to Brainiac's containment chamber to lay a beatdown on him.
** In ''ComicBook/{{Crucible}}'', Tsavo reacts badly when his brother Roho wounds their parents to the death.
--->'''Tsavo:''' I'll have your hide for that!
** In ''ComicBook/TwoForTheDeathOfOne'', Syrene is not only driven by her thirst for power. She also wants to become powerful enough to kill Lord Satanis, the man who murdered her father Ambra.
--->'''Syrene:''' My father, Ambra, possessed the fabled Runestone created by Merlin, but you killed him to take the Stone as yours. But before you could claim it and before he died, he sent the Gem hurling into the past. Well, now I have reclaimed my family heritage. The Stone and its powers are mine! And with it I shall kill the man who slew my father!
** ''ComicBook/LastDaughterOfKrypton'': As soon as she sees Reign, Kara assumes she killed her father and charges head-on.
--->'''Supergirl:''' Did you do this?! Did you kill my father!?
** In ''ComicBook/StarfiresRevenge'', the titular queenpin fools her minion Rodney Ames into believing Supergirl killed his brother Derek, prompting Rodney to seek revenge.
--->'''Rodney Ames:''' No! No! You won't get away from me-- You killed my brother without giving him a chance! You won't get away with it-- Or from me!
** In ''ComicBook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow'', a girl named Ruthye asks Supergirl to help her hunt her father's murderer down.
--->She asked if I was still determined to track down the murderer of my dear father and kill him dead. I said I was and always would be.
* ''ComicBook/TheSword'': After three demigods kill Dara Brighton's parents and sister in search of the titular mystical sword, she finds it and sets out to use it to avenge the death of her family.
* ''ComicBook/{{Torpedo}}'': The boy in chapter 2, son of Pietro Mottolo, as well as a few other characters, most of which have their parents killed by Luca, naturally.
* ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo'':
** A samurai gets permission to kill the four bad guys who killed his father, but the last one has repented and become a priest, so the samurai takes his Samurai Topknot as a trophy instead.
** "One cannot live under the same sky as their lord/father's murderer." The ''Space Usagi'' version gets both personally.
** Sadly, Miyamoto Usagi has yet to fight [[TheDreaded Lord Hikiji]], who killed both Miyamoto senior and Lord Mifune.
* ''ComicBook/{{Varmints}}'': Opie's motivation for the story is to confront the man who killed her and Ned's mother.
* In ''ComicBook/WerewolfByNight'', Jack suspects that Philip Russell is responsible for his mother's death.
* ''Franchise/XMen'':
** ComicBook/{{Magneto}} saw his parents and sister shot dead before his eyes during World War 2, and for a time became a Nazi hunter. This phase of his career ended when the American intelligence agency for which he worked betrayed him and killed his Brazilian lover.
** ComicBook/{{X23}} is a victim of this trope when Xander Rice does this to ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} ''[[RevengeByProxy by proxy]]''. Wolverine killed Rice's father, Dale Rice, during his escape from the Weapon X facility where he was being experimented on. Two or three decades later, Rice is part of a civilian offshoot program attempting to recreate Weapon X. When Sarah Kinney successfully creates an OppositeSexClone of Wolverine, Rice ''immediately'' projects his hatred of Logan onto the poor girl, leading to absolutely ''horrific'' physical and emotional abuse. He makes it absolutely clear to a seven-year-old X-23 that his surgically removing her claws one-by-one ''without anaesthesia'' is in retribution for his father. What makes this even more twisted is that Xander, owing to his part in the program, was arguably [[AbusiveParents one of the closest things Laura/X-23 had to a father growing up]].
** ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}, of all people. After being abandoned as an infant due to his obvious mutations, En Sabah Nur was rescued and adopted by Baal, the leader of a tribe of nomad raiders named the Sandstormers. Then one day the forces of Rama Tut (a.k.a. Kang the Conqueror) attacked the Sandstormers. Baal and En Sabah Nur survived the initial attack by hiding in a cave that collapsed. Baal eventually starved to death, but not before telling En Sabah Nur of Rama Tut's arrival and subsequent conquest of the land, and that he believed Nur was destined to stop him. Nur's desire to avenge his foster father, one of the only people who ever really cared for him and vice versa, is the main reason Nur rejects Rama Tut's WeCanRuleTogether offer (especially ironic, since Rama Tut's goal for traveling to AncientEgypt in the first place was to recruit the future Apocalypse). That, and [[ICanRuleAlone Nur wants to rule the world by himself]].
** James Proudstar comes after Xavier, blaming him for his brother John's death. He doesn't kill Charles, however, and moves on from this, eventually going on to join X-Force, and the X-Men themselves.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Averted in ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater''. Hannah's recently Infected (as in, within seconds of contact) father is shot to death in front of her by a group of rescuing soldiers. She's naturally horrified and grieving, but not vengeful. When she thinks that Jim is [[spoiler:uh, biting]] her would-be foster mom, though, she tries to bash his skull in.
* ''Film/Aquaman2018'': David Kane/Black Manta wants revenge on Arthur Curry/Aquaman for leaving his father Jesse Kane to die, [[MoralMyopia ignoring the fact]] that Aquaman did that because Jesse [[BackstabBackfire tried to shoot him in the back]] after Aquaman spared him once.
* ''Film/AssassinsCreed2016'': Young Callum walks in to see his mother killed by his Assassin father, and has wanted to kill him since. [[spoiler:Even when given the chance by Alan, Callum spares him now that he knows the bigger picture.]]
* In ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', Neytiri's father is killed in the attack on Hometree. Sure enough, she gets her revenge using her father's own bow.
* In the {{Dystopia}}n "Biffverse" timeline of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', Biff Tannen murders George [=McFly=], presumably to widow Lorraine and get revenge for the humiliation in high school. He tells Marty this, but Marty doesn't take revenge directly; instead, he repairs the timeline so Biff will be a loser (and George [=McFly=] still alive) again.
* In ''Film/Batman1989'', Jack Napier, the man who becomes the Joker, is the man who murdered Bruce Wayne's parents. (Dick Grayson, before he was written out of the movie, was supposed to also have his parents killed by the Joker.)
* In the movie ''Film/BatmanBegins'', Bruce (before deciding to become Batman) attempts to murder Joe Chill, the mugger that killed his parents, but [[spoiler:Joe is murdered on the orders of Carmine Falcone, against whom he is testifying, before Bruce gets the chance to kill Joe himself]].
* In ''Film/BatmanForever'', Robin's entire family was murdered by Two-Face, which prompts the young sidekick into a life of crime-fighting. A major plot is his need to overcome personal revenge, though.
* ''Film/CharliesAngels2000'': The driving motivation of the BigBad is that he believes that Charlie left his father to die.
* Cataleya Restrepo of ''Film/{{Colombiana}}'' wants to avenge the death of her parents, who were murdered by rivals.
* ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'':
** The title character out for revenge on Thulsa Doom for... well, let's just let ''him'' say it, shall we?
--->'''Conan:''' You killed my mother... you killed my father, YOU KILLED MY PEOPLE! [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking You took my father's sword!]]
* Tweaked in ''Film/{{Daredevil}}'':
** It was actually [[PsychoForHire Bullseye]] who killed [[DarkActionGirl Elektra's]] father, but she thinks it was [[AntiHero Daredevil]]. Therefore, she goes on an angry rampage against Daredevil, which doesn't end well when she figures out who he really is...
** Played straight, however, with Daredevil himself and the Kingpin, who killed Matt AKA Daredevil's father.
* In ''Film/DeadLands'', a rival Maori faction kills most of protagonist Hongi's tribe, including his father. He resolves to travel to the barren Deadlands in search for a legendary warrior so he can have his revenge.
* ''Film/DeathNote2017'': Light's second victim with the Death Note is the criminal who ran over his mother and got away with it.
* ''Film/Escape2000'' (best known for being featured on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'') has the hero's parents killed by {{Mooks}} working for the BigBad. His quest for vengeance leads him to [[BoisterousBruiser a certain uproarious gang leader]].
* In ''Film/TheFall'', Roy invokes this trope for some of the main characters in regards to the villain of his story to Alexandria, Governor Odious. The Black Bandit lost his brother and father. The Indian's wife was forced to commit suicide. Otta Benga's brother died from slavery.
* In ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'', [[spoiler:Maggie]] calls Freddy Krueger out on the fact that he killed [[spoiler:his wife]], her mother.
* ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'':
** In ''Film/FridayThe13thPart2'', Jason Voorhees kills the FinalGirl of [[Film/FridayThe13th1980 the first film]], Alice, as revenge for her killing his mother Pamela (who was a psychotic, brutal murderess herself, mind you). And then he just keeps killing after that, believing that it's what his mother would have wanted.
** Averted in ''Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning''. For some reason, [[spoiler:Roy Burns doesn't go after the person who killed his son. He goes after ''everyone else'' in the vicinity.]]
* In ''Film/FrightNight2011'', [[spoiler:Peter Vincent]]'s parents were killed by the vampire Jerry Dandridge.
-->'''Jerry:''' You have your mother's eyes... [[LaughablyEvil and your father's aim]].
:: : However, it's subverted: [[spoiler:Peter helps (or [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy tries to)]], but it's Charley who ultimately stakes Jerry.]]
* Uttered by Johnny Blaze to Mephisto in the film version of ''Film/GhostRider''.
%%* This is the reason for Destro's targeting of Paris in ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; who died and what does Paris have to do with it?)
* In ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'', Vito's father, brother, and mother were murdered by a Sicilian mafia boss, Don Ciccio, when Vito was a child. Don Ciccio wanted to have Vito killed too, to avoid this trope. Vito escaped to the U.S., became an influential crime boss there, and eventually returned to Sicily to meet Don Ciccio.
-->'''Don Ciccio:''' What was your father's name?\\
'''Vito:''' Antonio Andolini.\\
'''Don Ciccio:''' You'll have to speak up. I can't hear you.\\
'''Vito:''' My father's name was Antonio Andolini... AndThisIsFor you! ''[stabs him]''
* In ''Film/HoodedAngels'', Wes is searching for the people who killed his father during the Civil War, believing them to be [[DangerousDeserter band of renegade soldiers]] who fled after the murder. When he finally gets on the trail of the killers, he discovers that he was very wrong about their identity.
* The film version of ''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'' has Prof. Bruttenholm killed by [[ThoseWackyNazis Kroenen]], causing HB to utter the magnificent line:
-->'''Hellboy:''' You killed my father. Your ass is mine!
* Shosanna from ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' watches her family get murdered by Nazis as a child. As an adult running a cinema in France years later, she turns a screening attended by Nazis into a major bloodbath as payback by setting the entire theatre on fire.
* In ''Film/TheItalianJob2003'', Stella's main reason for joining the heist is because Steve killed her father [[{{Retirony}} on his last mission]] and [[TeamKiller nearly drowned the rest of the team while stealing their gold.]]
* In ''Film/JohnWick'', the victim is John's puppy, but the effect is the same, particularly since the puppy was a last gift from John's dead wife.
* In ''Film/{{Josie}}'', [[spoiler:Josie comes to Baymont to murder Hank, who was one of the men involved in her father's wrongful execution. And [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge she's far from finished]].]]
* ''Film/KillBill'':
** O-Ren witnessed her parents' murders at the hands of the Yakuza, and went on to assassinate their boss, accusing and mocking him as he expired. Unusual in that taking vengeance set her on the path to villainy, not heroism... and she didn't bother waiting to grow up first, but lured the pedophile into bed and slaughtered him ''while still a child herself''.
** The Bride tries to avoid this by not killing Vernita Green in front of her young daughter Nikki, [[spoiler:but it's ultimately double subverted as the child witnesses the death anyway]]. The Bride appears genuinely regretful about this, and explains to the child that she will understand if Nikki wants to try to continue the CycleOfRevenge when she is old enough.
* Happens in ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist'' with the Chosen One and [[FluffyTheTerrible Betty]].
-->'''Chosen One:''' You killed my family. [[AndThatsTerrible And I don't like that kind of thing.]]
* Featured in the ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' section of ''Film/LastActionHero''.
-->"Claudius, you killed my father. ''Big'' mistake."
* In ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'', the reason for [[spoiler:37th Dolan's turn to evil]] is that, unknowingly, Kaulder killed [[spoiler:his parents, confident that they were witches who had kidnapped the Dolan]].
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** ''Film/IronMan2'': The main reason Vanko has a beef with Stark -- though technically, it's "your father had my father deported and left him to rot in Siberia." Being deported is what caused Vanko's father to develop a destructive drinking habit, which eventually killed him. However, unusually for this trope, his DynamicEntry doesn't include the traditional "MyNameIsInigoMontoya. [Insert grievance here]" announcement, and he [[NoNonsenseNemesis immediately starts using lethal attacks]]. Had they been successful, Tony would have died without having any idea who his killer was or why he killed him. This rather unconventional approach underlines Vanko's role as TheQuietOne.
** ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'': It's only because their mother Frigga was killed that Thor and Loki unite and hunt down Malekith and Kurse together with Jane Foster. Thor burns half of Malekith's face off directly after Frigga is killed, but it's Loki who destroys Kurse, who is the one who actually killed their mother. The most tragic part is, Loki has some responsibility in his mother's death, as he pointed Kurse in the right direction to Jane, whom Frigga was protecting.
** ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'':
*** Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver hate Tony Stark because their parents were killed by bombs manufactured by Stark Industries and they spent two days staring at a defective Stark munition, wondering if it would explode before they were rescued. Oddly, while they tell this story to Ultron, Stark himself is never told why they hate him.
*** Also applicable to Vision when he puts a final end to Ultron, who'd damaged his sort-of-progenitor JARVIS beyond repair.
** ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'':
*** Just as Tony and Steve [[spoiler:[[HopeSpot appear to be reconciling]] at the end, it's revealed in a ''very'' graphic video that a brainwashed Bucky was responsible for Tony's parents' murders. Then it's also revealed that Steve had known about HYDRA's responsibility, at least, for two years and never told Tony, which the latter [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out on]]. To the surprise of nobody, seeing his parents beaten and strangled to death while the physical murderer stands only feet away sends Tony into an explosive rage, him ignoring Steve's protests that Bucky wasn't in control.]]
---->'''Steve:''' This isn't gonna change what happened.\\
'''Tony:''' I don't care. He killed my mom.
*** T'Challa pursues [[spoiler:Bucky]] for the Vienna terrorist attack that killed his father. After learning [[spoiler:that Bucky was framed]], he confronts [[spoiler:Zemo, the real killer -- and captures him to face justice rather than killing him in vengeance]].
** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'', Peter is willing to join his father, Ego, and help him [[AssimilationPlot turn all planets in the galaxy into copies of himself]]. [[spoiler:At least, he's willing until Ego admits that to keep himself from being distracted by his love for Peter's mother, he gave her a fatal brain tumor. Peter immediately shoots the absolute shit out of Ego's human body without a second of warning. The best part is that Peter was hypnotized and even willing to go along with his father's plan, but this revelation snaps Peter out of Ego's control -- especially since Ego crushed his mother's Walkman, which drives the usually cheery Peter [[UnstoppableRage mad]] with rage.]]
** ''Film/BlackPanther2018'':
** Killmonger's primary motive for vengeance against the Wakandians is because [[spoiler:T'Chaka killed his father]].
** W'Kabi is adamant about [[spoiler:Klaue's death]] because [[spoiler:his parents were killed during the bombings of Klaue's attack]].
* In ''Film/TheMaskOfZorro'', the new Zorro, Alejandro Murrieta, has a vendetta against SociopathicSoldier Captain Love (who is also TheDragon) because Love killed Alejandro's brother and put his head on display.
* Subverted in the Creator/CharlesBronson film ''Film/TheMechanic1972''. Arthur Bishop (Bronson) is a ProfessionalKiller for TheMafia who kills one of its important lieutenants by [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident inducing a heart attack]]. That man's son, Steve, ends up being trained by Bishop as his protege. At the end of the movie, the sociopathic Steve poisons Bishop, who as he dies asks if this is revenge for his father. Steve replies casually: "Oh, you killed him? I thought he just died."
* Early in ''Film/MetalstormTheDestructionOfJaredSyn'', Dhyana's miner father is killed by Jared-Syn's son Baal in order to [[YourSoulIsMine collect his soul]]. She accompanies Dogen on his quest to defeat Jared-Syn in order to get revenge.
* In ''Film/MysteryMen'', Tony P, TheDragon to BigBad Casanova Frankenstein, killed The Bowler's father. Various villains are killed by various heroes, but she gets him. (More accurately, [[spoiler:it's her ''dad'' who really gets him. From beyond the grave, as a skull in a bowling ball which acts like a homing missile.]] It's complicated.)
%%* Averted with Kelly in ''Film/MysteryTeam''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
* Basically the whole plot of the movie ''Film/NevadaSmith'', where the eponymous character systematically tries to find and kill the men who murdered his parents.
* ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'': [[spoiler:Dylan's main motivation, both for framing Thaddeus and for choosing all of the Four Horsemen's other targets. In order: Thaddeus exposed Lionel Shrike's magic act and humiliated him, causing him to attempt the trick that got him killed, the Credit Republic bank and Tressler's company refused to pay out the life insurance, and Elkhorn manufactured the safe used in the trick which, due to the intentionally inferior materials and construction, warped after sinking into the water, trapping Lionel inside.]]
* Subverted by the eponymous character in the Franchise/JamesBond film ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''. Years ago, her father was wanted for treason against Great Britain, and Bond was tasked to bring him in. Instead of turning him in to the authorities, Bond [[LeaveBehindAPistol allowed him to commit suicide]]. Now, Octopussy confronts the man who was responsible for her father's death... and thanks Bond for allowing her father to take his own life rather than face the disgrace of a military trial.
* In ''Film/{{The Phantom|1996}}'', TheDragon Quill is the man who killed the previous Phantom. He spends much of the movie disturbed by the discovery that the man he killed is apparently still in business. Kit explains the truth to him at the onset of their inevitable final duel.
* In ''Film/ThePlaceBeyondThePines'', Jason tries to kill Avery because he killed his father, but decides to spare his life afterwards.
* Subverted for in the ''Film/PrinceCaspian'' [[Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]] movie. Caspian, when he learns that Miraz is responsible for killing his father, hunts him down for a [[TheReveal dramatic interrogation scene]] -- in the middle of a battle, no less. Later, he is given the chance to kill him by Peter for this exact reason. Naturally, he decides to be [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim noble]].
* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' gives us a truly iconic example: "JustForFun/{{Hello}} MyNameIsInigoMontoya. [[TropeNamer You Killed My Father]]. PrepareToDie." It actually becomes a deconstruction, as Inigo's obsession with avenging his father has [[SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining stunted his basic knowledge in other areas]], he is forced to become a goon for hire because his vendetta doesn't pay the bills, and [[AndThenWhat he has no idea what to do with his life]] after he finally achieves his vengeance.
* ''Film/PromNight1980'': [[spoiler:Alex Hammond is driven to kill because his sister's friends (and her current boyfriend), plus the resident AlphaBitch, killed his ''other'' sister in a game gone wrong years ago.]]
* Averted in ''Film/{{Push}}'': Nick confronts Carver over his father's death, but [[spoiler:in the end it's Kira that kills Carver]].
* In Creator/SamRaimi's western ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead'', this is the heroine's primary motivation for entering the pistol-dueling competition organized by the villain. Subverted in that [[spoiler:The Lady is [[SelfMadeOrphan the one who shot her father]], though this was because the villain gave her 8-year-old self a SadisticChoice between letting her father hang to death or trying to ShootTheRope with a pistol. Barely able to lift the revolver, she puts a bullet in her own father's head.]]
* ''Film/RedSonja'': Sonja swears vengeance on Queen Gedren for murdering her whole family (along with ordering her to be raped) because Sonja rejected [[PsychoLesbian her advances]] and [[EvilIsPetty gave her a slight cut on the cheek]].
* In the Icelandic historical film ''[[Film/TheRavenTrilogy Revenge of the Barbarians]]'', an Irish man is seeking the Vikings who murdered his father and pillaged his home village for revenge.
* A similar thing happens in ''Film/RobinHoodPrinceOfThieves''. "I shall not rest until my father's avenged!" (He has no such motivation in the legends.) "Recognize this? It belonged to your father. Appropriate, don't you think, that I use it to send you to meet him?" So, so dead.
* ''Film/RobTheMob'': The mafia is responsible for the death of Tommy's father, which is part of his motivation for stealing from them.
* At the end of ''Film/TheSaint2017'', [[spoiler:Simon catches up to Xander, a mysterious man escaping from a house whom he had been chasing, and recognizes him through his unique tattoo as the masked assassin who killed his parents when he was a child. At first, Simon draws his gun at Xander and is about to shoot him to avenge his parents. However, [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim he can't go through with it since he isn't an assassin and simply arrests him instead]].]]
* In ''Film/SawVI'', the main character William, an executive at an insurance company, was responsible for enforcing a corrupt policy and denied a man's application, causing his death. At the end of his game, William meets the wife and son of said man, who had held an everlasting grudge on William for what he did, and they get the choice whether to let him live or die. The mother can't bring herself to pulling the death lever. The son on the other hand...
* ''Film/ShowdownInLittleTokyo'': Before Yoshida became a Yakuza boss, he was working as a lowly assassin for the gang when Kenner was growing up in Japan and murdered Kenner's parents in front of him before trying to kill the young boy. This makes the case exceptionally personal for Kenner, and he almost blows the bad guy's head off in front of his whole gang when he recognizes him when they meet again. His partner Murata agrees to help him complete his vendetta after Kenner explains it to him.
* ''Film/SilverLode'': Ballard killed [=McCarty=]'s brother during a poker game two years previously. Naturally, [[KillingInSelfDefense Ballard's]] and [[InTheBack McCarty's]] accounts of how it all went down differ considerably.
* ''Film/SixReasonsWhy'': After his father is assassinated by The Criminal, The Entrepreneur--accompanied by The Sherpa--follows him into The Badlands seeking vengeance.
* ''{{Film/Sorceress}}'': The twins Mara and Mira swore revenge on the evil sorcerer who killed their mother and foster father (but don't realize that ''he's'' actually their birth father). At the end, Mara succeeds in killing him.
* ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'': Harry is convinced that Spider-Man killed his father and out of vengeance vows to kill Spider-Man for his father's death, to the point where he becomes the late Green Goblin's successor and tries to kill Peter, whom he finds out is Spider-Man. In reality, Norman Osborn was never murdered but accidentally impaled himself with his own glider, and Harry's vendetta against Spider-Man is entirely pointless.
* ''Film/StarshipTroopers'': Rico is about to resign from the Mobile Infantry (in fact, he's got his bags packed and is just on his way out) when news hit that Buenos Aires, where his parents lived, has been destroyed by a meteorite sent by the Bugs. He immediately joins back up so he can get revenge.
* ''Film/StarTrek2009'':
** [[BigBad Main]] [[AxeCrazy villain]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Nero]] is responsible for the death of Jim Kirk's father, George Kirk, only minutes after Jim's birth. Ironically, revenge for his father's death is never a main motive in Kirk's defeat of Nero, and he even offers assistance and fair accommodations to the Romulan crew before the ''Narada'' [[spoiler:gets sucked into a giant wormhole. However, when Nero venomously refuses any help, Kirk wastes no time opening fire to make sure the ship doesn't survive.]]
** Played straight with [[spoiler:Spock's mother, who is killed in Nero's attack on Vulcan]].
** Nero's whole motive for destroying anything related to the Federation in the Kelvin Timeline is because he believes that [[spoiler:Spock, and the Federation for that matter, allowed Romulus to be obliterated by the supernova in the prime timeline, killing his wife and unborn child in the in the process and rendering the Romulan species endangered]].
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** [[ItWasHisSled Famously]] {{subverted}} with Darth Vader's reveal: "[[LittleNo No.]] ''[[LukeIAmYourFather I]]'' [[LukeIAmYourFather am your father.]]" This was the original plot of ''Star Wars'' before ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', where Vader and Anakin Skywalker were indeed two separate people and the former killed the latter, and Anakin would guide his son as a spirit. After Vader defeats Luke on Bespin, Vader inquires what Kenobi told Luke about his father, and Luke says, "He told me enough. He told me ''you'' killed him." Then Vader delivers his famous WhamLine. And double subverted decades later, when the prequel trilogy reveals how Vader's misdeeds are responsible for Luke's ''mother's'' death.
** Played straight in the the prequel trilogy, where Anakin Skywalker goes into a [[UnstoppableRage berserk murderous rage]] over the death of his mother Shmi on Tatooine and slaughters a whole village of Sandpeople who had abducted and tortured her. The incident paves the road to Anakin's eventual [[FaceHeelTurn fall from grace as a Jedi]] and his transformation into the evil Darth Vader.
** Also in the prequels, Mace Windu kills Jango Fett in front of his son Boba Fett. Lucas avoids this trope in that case, and Boba never seeks revenge... at least, not against Windu personally. Instead, he becomes one of the most feared Jedi hunters during the Dark Times. Of course, Windu is already dead by then.
* In the ''Film/StreetFighter'' movie, Chun Li's motivation is that M. Bison, naturally, killed her father. Unfortunately for her, Bison doesn't remember any of it. He only remembers that [[ButForMeItWasTuesday it was Tuesday]].
* ''Film/Sunburn1979'': [[spoiler:Thoren used to be a Nazi saboteur named Heinrich Stressman who killed a guard while escaping his American captors. Dobbs, one of the people blackmailing him about his past, is the son of the murdered guard.]]
* In ''Film/TheSwordAndTheSorcerer'', this is why Talon is out to kill [[BigBad Cromwell]], and he isn't going to let [[spoiler:Xusia]] do it first. Cromwell killed Talon's father Richard, who happened to be his arch-rival.
* Said word-for-word in ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014''. [[spoiler:Eric Sacks was the one who killed April's father.]]
* In ''Film/TerrorInATexasTown'', George Hanson arrives at his father's farm after twenty years at sea, only to learn that his father had been murdered two days before. Hanson sets out to learn the truth about his father's death and avenge him, and to secure his inheritance of the farm.
* Such a handy, well-worn device as this trope often gets inserted into things where it doesn't belong. The 1993 version of ''{{Film/The Three Musketeers|1993}}'' combines it with DeathByAdaptation, as d'Artagnan's father is still alive in [[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers the book]]. Unusually for this trope, d'Artagnan does not set out with goal of avenging his father's murder, and in fact has ''no idea'' who killed him. Athos (and presumably Porthos, Aramis, and maybe the other Musketeers) knows, or at least suspects, who did it but never gets the chance to tell him. d'Artagnan himself learns in the final battle:
-->'''Rochefort:''' How pathetic, killed by the same man that killed your father. Tsk, tsk, tsk.\\
'''d'Artagnan:''' You killed my father?\\
'''Rochefort:''' Oh yes, as I will kill you.
* The 1969 western ''Film/TrueGrit'' (adapted from a novel) is about a 14-year old girl seeking revenge for her father. She gets to face the murderer and shoot him, but he survives, and the business is finished by her companions, who are much more badass. In the 2010 version, she ''does'' get to finish the business herself, although she still needs her companions for almost everything else.
* In ''Film/UnderworldUSA'', fourteen-year-old Tolly Devlin and his mother-figure Sandy see four hoods beat his father to death. He vows to avenge his father's death, becomes a criminal, and gets himself sent to prison so that he can get close to the one perpetrator he recognized when his father was being beaten. On his prison deathbed, Tolly manipulates the names of the other three killers from him, only to discover the three have risen to the top of the crime syndicate. This does not stop his quest for vengeance.
* The protagonist of ''{{Film/Utu}}'' witnesses the killing of his tribe by an EvilBrit ColonelKilgore and responds by starting a rebellion against the British.
* This is ''Film/{{Vampirella}}'''s motive for wanting revenge on Vlad, who killed her father on Drakulon.
* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': Well, it's actually his ''brother'', but Eddie has held [[TragicBigot a huge grudge against Toons]] since his brother was killed by one. When he finally meets his brother's killer, [[spoiler:revealed to be Judge Doom, who was a Toon disguised as a human all along, he feels avenged as Doom dissolves in his own Toon-melting acid]].
* ''Film/{{Wolves}}'': [[spoiler:The only person Cayden deliberately kills in cold blood is Wild Joe, moments after he finds out that Wild Joe killed his parents.]]
* ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' gives us an example of someone avenging the death of their mother, when [[spoiler:Erik/Magneto kills Schmitt/Shaw despite agreeing with his Mutant Supremacist ideals because Schmitt killed his mother in front of him as a child]].
-->"I want you to know I agree with everything you just said. We are the future. But, unfortunately... you killed my mother."

[[folder:Literature]]
* Mordaunt, the villain (well, one of them) of ''Literature/TwentyYearsAfter'', apparently does everything he does just so he can avenge his mother, Milady de Winter.
* ''Literature/The39Clues'': She [[spoiler:doesn't get killed by them]] unfortunately, but [[BrotherSisterTeam Amy and Dan]] are pretty mad at Isabel Kabra for killing their parents. [[spoiler:And in ''[[Recap/The39CluesIntoTheGauntlet Into the Gauntlet]]'', she ''does'' get sent to jail for life... unless she breaks out.]]
* In ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'', Andalite culture demands that Ax try to avenge the murder of his brother, Elfangor. Unfortunately, Elfangor was murdered by Visser Three, who is pretty much the most dangerous person possibly this side of [[CosmicHorror Crayak]]. He tries in book #8 and almost succeeds, but the real, [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerk]] Visser Three escapes from his host and disappears into a stream. After that the vendetta is [[AbortedArc more or less forgotten]].
* ''Literature/ArnTheKnightTemplar'' has a pretty neat subversion-inversion towards the end.
-->"Your father killed my grandfather. My father killed yours. Let it end there."
* ''Avengers of the Moon'' by Creator/AllenSteele is a homage OriginStory of PulpMagazine hero Literature/CaptainFuture. Curt Newton wants to avenge the [[ConvenientlyAnOrphan murder of his parents]] by politician Victor Corvos, who's involved in a conspiracy with his son, Martian crime boss Ul Quorn. When Curt is captured by Ul Quorn, he's surprised to find that Victor Corvos is also a prisoner. Turns out Quoron has long known that Victor murdered his mother to avoid the political scandal of fathering a child with a Martian woman, and so he offers Curt the opportunity to kill Victor as a WeCanRuleTogether ploy. Fortunately Curt doesn't put RevengeBeforeReason.
* Garion, TheHero of Creator/DavidEddings's ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad Belgariad]]'', gets some nice [[BestServedCold karmic vengeance]] on Asharak, the Grolim sorcerer who killed his parents when he was only an infant. Asharak burned them alive; Garion [[KarmicDeath burns him alive]] in his first overt act as a sorcerer. In a possible {{subversion}}, he immediately [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone regrets it]].
* Victor Draconi of the ''Literature/BlackBlade'' series killed the protagonist's father indirectly and her mother in person. The only reason Lila hasn't sought revenge (yet) is because she knows she can't take him alone.
* ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'':
** Awareness of this trope leads to a very [[SinkTheLifeBoats cold]] practice: if a family has committed treason, when they are executed so are all of their children. Right down to the infants. The only exceptions happen if the family is ruled to not be working together in concert as is proper, like the Whistler family was generations before the book's start. Several characters find this practice monstrous, but others are ruthlessly pragmatic.
--->"Their [[HasTwoMommies mothers]] and father had been killed. Do you think you could take that hatred to suckle at your breast?"\\
"They had done nothing wrong!"\\
"If we had aunts that executed our mothers for fighting over a just cause, would we calmly accept them as our new mothers, or [[CycleOfRevenge would we rebel]]?"\\
"Merilee was just seven months old."\\
"And Livi was seven, and Wren was seventeen. Which ones do you spare? Where do you draw the line?"
::: : Things come to a head when the mothers of Ren's [[spoiler:five-year-old "niece" Eldie Porter]] are found trying to kill the Queens and Princesses, and it's explicitly stated that if she's allowed to live, this trope will come into play. [[spoiler:Fortunately, the Whistlers have a [[HappilyAdopted third option]] in mind.]]
** Somewhat more literally, Jerin finds evidence that the same offenders were involved in the death of the princesses' father by poisoning. [[spoiler:Keifer, who did the actual killing, was HoistByHisOwnPetard because he was TooDumbToLive. He didn't run in time to escape a bomb his family had planted. That explosion also killed much of the royal family.]]
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/CChute'': Demetrios Polyorketes hates the Kloros because they killed his brother, Aristides, when they boarded the ship at the start of the story. The irony is that his brother panicked and ran out into the crossfire, so he could just as easily have been killed by a human defender.
* ''Literature/{{Circe}}'': Discussed and justified. This is part of the setting's culture; it is expected for sons to rise up and avenge their fallen fathers. This is why Telemachus is [[spoiler:exiled from Ithaca after Telegonus accidentally kills their father Odysseus — Telemachus knew it was an accident and did not prosecute him]].
* ''Literature/{{Conqueror}}'': [[spoiler:Sansar]] in ''Wolf of the Plains'' hires the Tartars to kill Temujin's father. Temujin kills [[spoiler:Sansar]] in a manner most ingenious, then unites the Mongols against the Tartars to massacre the lot of them. After all that, he becomes Genghis Khan.
* In ''Literature/DevilsCape'', the Behemoth's murder of her father, the previous Doctor Camelot, is Katie Brauer's main motivation to [[TakeUpMySword take up the Doctor Camelot mantle]] and bring the [[CircusOfFear Cirque d'Obscurite]] to justice, although she never lets on that her predecessor was also her father when she confronts Behemoth.
* In the Brazilian novel ''Literature/TheDevilToPayInTheBacklands'', Diadorim is on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge to kill his father's assassin and betrayer, Hermógenes.
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', it's eventually revealed that [[BigBad Lord]] [[HornyDevils Raith]], the White King, is the man who killed [[GuileHero Harry Dresden]]'s mother, Margaret [=LeFay=] Dresden. Raith used an entropy curse, so as to cause Margaret to die while giving birth to Harry. Upon learning of this fact, Harry sets about settling the score and taking him down.
* The title character of the ''Literature/FatherBrown'' story "The Sins of Prince Saradine" murdered a man and took his wife. The broken couple's son, who was a young boy at the time, immediately began training with the sword in order to avenge his father, and during the story proper he finally catches up with the Prince. [[spoiler:The Prince manages to substitute his brother, who has been blackmailing him, and is rid of two problems in one stroke.]] Also, the avenger is [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome hanged for murder]].
* In ''[[Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall First Test]]'', Kel's yearmate Seaver has this reaction when fighting [[GiantSpider spidrens]].
* ''Fraternity of the Stone'' by David Morrell. The protagonist is the orphaned son of diplomats, killed by a bomb in Japan. Realising that he's obsessed with revenge, a friend of his parents recruits him for a HeroesRUs group tasked with assassinating terrorists. After a ContractOnTheHitman plot, the protagonist finally discovers his "friend" is behind events, and confronts him with what he's always suspected -- that his friend planted the bomb in order to discredit those protesting against US bases in Japan. The friend denies it, but the protagonist decides that he's lying and kills him anyway.
* Yoko Akio in ''[[Literature/SisterhoodSeries Free Fall]]'' by Creator/FernMichaels had a mother. Her mother was taken into the USA by Hollywood actor Michael "Mick" Lyons, and was used as a slave, prostitute, and other terrible things. Fortunately, Yoko were taken away from this before she got subjected to the same fate. When she finally confronts Lyons, she pretty much tells him "You killed my mother!" He acknowledges that she died, but claims that he didn't kill her. Yoko points out that Lyons put her mother on the "sex circuit", and that he most certainly killed her.
* In ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'', [[spoiler:Maia]] insists on confronting the man who murdered his father. [[spoiler:However, having met his father about twice in his life, he is much more upset that the man killed, in cold blood, the whole crew of the airship that the emperor, prince, and archdukes were on.]]
* Subverted in ''Literature/GuardiansOfGaHoole'', where Soren was maybe intending to kill [[spoiler:Kludd]], but [[spoiler:Twilight swooped in and stole his kill]].
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Harry is the guy who gets Voldemort. Voldemort killed both of Harry's parents, who, astoundingly enough, are equally important.[[note]]To Harry, that is. The plot, on the other hand, considers Lily to be far more important than James.[[/note]]
** Subverted in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' -- Sirius is established as a traitor who sold out Harry's parents to Voldemort, but once he and Harry meet [[spoiler:he's revealed to be innocent]].
** Subverted again in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]''. Although many expected [[spoiler:Neville to kill Bellatrix Lestrange]] after what she did to his parents, it's actually [[spoiler:Molly Weasley]] who finishes her off.
* In ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', [[spoiler:after [[WomanScorned Juta Kamainen]] murders Stanislaus Grumann, Will Parry, his son, attempts to kill her, but fails when she commits suicide]].
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' series, Katniss understands that if the conditions were not so bad in the coal mines due to the decadent lifestyle in the Capitol and the corrupt government, her father would not have died in the mine accident. And in ''Literature/{{Mockingjay}}'', [[spoiler:President Coin has her little sister Prim killed]].
* ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'':
** Averted in ''Literature/DragonBones'': Ward's father is killed by a ''horse'' by way of throwing him in an unfortunate location. Ward gives the horse a pat on the back, and a bucket of oats. (His uncle wants to put the horse to death, but it is not for him to decide.) The father was abusive, and Ward doesn't mourn him at all.
** In ''Literature/DragonBlood'', the cruel king Jakoven is killed by someone whose father he had killed. And not the only one either, as he also killed [[spoiler:Erdrick in an attempt to assassinate Erdrick's twin brother Beckram]]. The people would have to stand in a line to claim dibs on killing him.
* Axel Mortmain from ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'', [[spoiler:supposedly has a grudge against Shadowhunters for the "unjustified" murder of his warlock parents]].
* The ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' loves playing with this.
** The entire motivation of the main character, ''Literature/{{Eragon}}'', for leaving home is to kill the Ra'zac, a pair of monsters working as agents of the King, as revenge for their killing Eragon's uncle, Garrow. Garrow raised Eragon alongside his actual son, Roran, but made it very plain that he didn't see Eragon as a son. Joining Eragon on his {{roaring rampage of revenge}} is Brom, a crazy old storyteller/mage also from Carvahall, who acts as a mentor of sorts for the dragon-rider-in-training. [[spoiler:Eragon's rampage is brought to an end, or at least put on pause, when the Ra'zac ambush them and kill Brom.]]
** ''Brisingr'':
*** The book begins with Eragon and Roran teaming up to raid the Ra'zac's lair and succeeding in killing them, making Roran an example of this trope being played straight... [[spoiler:Except Roran's main purpose for attacking them was to rescue his beloved, Katrina, who was being held in the Ra'zac's dungeons.]]
*** The end of the book gives Eragon the revelation that [[spoiler:''Brom was his father the whole time'', meaning that Eragon avenged his father's death, ''without even realizing it''.]]
** Wanna get really deep into this trope? Murtagh almost suffered from this ''twice''! He's the son of Morzan, the first and last of the foresworn, who was killed by Brom as revenge for killing Brom's dragon. However, father and son [[AbusiveParents weren't that close]]. Additionally, Brom had been assigned to kill Murtagh's mom, but was [[spoiler:DistractedByTheSexy]]. So instead he ends up [[spoiler:banging her, and then she disappears for nine months, at the end of which Eragon's mom shows up in Carvahall and has him before taking off again, making Eragon and Murtagh half-brothers]].
* ''Literature/InterestingTimes'' gives us what is possibly the most polite yet tear-jerking instance of this trope, when mild-mannered insurance underwriter [[WideEyedIdealist Twoflower]] confronts [[EvilChancellor Lord Hong]], who is already surrounded and defeated, and asks him if he remembers a small dispute Lord Hong had that resulted in a minor commotion in Bes Pelargic several years ago, but Hong [[ButForMeItWasTuesday doesn't even remember]]. Twoflower explains evenly that [[IFeelAngry it made him rather upset]], and [[DuelToTheDeath he'd like to fight him]]. When his daughter tries to talk him out of it, he calmly says [[spoiler:"He killed your mother"]] and that [[DoomedMoralVictor someone has to stand up to him]]. Luckily, Twoflower wins thanks to [[ChekhovsBoomerang Chekhov's BOOM-erang]].
* ''Literature/MaximumRide'':
-->'''Jeb:''' ''You killed your own brother!!''
* Subverted in ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments''. Jace [[spoiler:initially believes that Valentine killed his father, until a declaration of LukeIAmYourFather. Double subverted when it's revealed that Jace is not Valentine's son and that he really did kill Jace's father, albeit not directly.]]
* In ''Literature/TheMouseWatch'', what do Bernie and Jarvis have in common besides joining the Watch at the same time? It turns out ItsPersonal for both of them, because they both lost family members to [[NebulousEvilOrganization R.A.T.S.]]. Bernie's brother was killed by [[BigBad Dr. Thornpaw]], while Jarvis's parents were murdered by other R.A.T.S. agents. [[spoiler:The first book ends with Bernie capturing and imprisoning Dr. Thornpaw.]]
* ''Literature/TheOdessaFile'': Nearly 20 years after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, German reporter Peter Miller is working on a story involving a [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Holocaust]] survivor who committed suicide. After reading the old man's diary, he assists a group of UsefulNotes/{{Mossad}} agents in infiltrating a secret organization of Nazi war criminals intent on destroying the fledgling state of UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}. However, Miller isn't interested in Mossad's goal or exposing those who committed the Holocaust. His reason for joining the hunt is to track down and kill one of the leaders, a former SS officer who murdered his father, a Wehrmacht captain, during the war. The trope is subverted from its usual ending by Miller making a [[IdiotBall blatant error]] that allows the officer to escape and go back into hiding in UsefulNotes/{{Argentina}}, nearly getting himself killed in the process.
* Taizu in Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/ThePaladin'' seeks revenge on Lord Gitu for the slaughter of her family, her village, and her Lord. [[spoiler:His actual death is an anticlimax; the hard part is getting there, not the quick work she makes of him.]]
* In Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/PrinceCaspian'', when Peter proposes that he [[CombatByChampion challenge Miraz to single combat]], Caspian wants to do it, because Miraz killed his father. Peter overrules him: Miraz would not take him seriously. Humorously, for the movie adaptation, Creator/BenBarnes (Caspian) practiced his accent by watching ''Film/ThePrincessBride''. He was highly amused when the line "you killed my father" came up as part of his script.
* ''Literature/TheRadix'': Double subverted. When Brynstone meets his father's murderer, the villain is tied to a bonfire and about to burn alive. He tells Brynstone what he did, trying to invoke this trope and provoke the hero into granting him a MercyKill. Brynstone doesn't kill him, instead leaving him to burn.
* ''Literature/RedStormRising'': The Soviet Union uses this as an excuse when they stage a [[FalseFlagOperation false flag]] bomb attack, kill a whole bunch of schoolchildren, and blame it on the Germans. You Killed Our Daughters, indeed. [[spoiler:And then it comes around gloriously to bite the Politburo in the ass.]]
* ''Literature/Reaper2016'': Jex's father is killed in the Avalon bombing.
* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror'', ''everyone'' who lived during the days of Dawn Empire has at least one family member they lost to Dayless the Conqueror, due to the sheer scale of his crimes. [[spoiler:For Ahrek, it was his entire family, killed during the Daybreak Massacre.]]
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Arya Stark makes a hit list of those responsible for the deaths of her family members and friends. She is able to kill two people. Ironically, she ends up being with the man who is on her hit list later, [[spoiler:but she leaves him to die before heading to Braavos]].
** Oberyn Martell's main reason for going to King's Landing is to avenge the deaths of his sister, niece, and nephew by facing off with the culprit, Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** This is [[BigBad Xanatos's]] motive for wanting to kill Qui-Gon in the ''Literature/JediApprentice'' series. He may want to wipe out the entire Jedi Order, but with his old Master, ItsPersonal. [[ForegoneConclusion He doesn't succeed,]] [[SavedByCanon obviously.]]
** ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'': After he finds out that Jiliac is the one who had Aruk (his parent) killed, Durga challenges her to a duel. He manages to kill her, narrowly.
** Comes up twice in ''Literature/ShadowsOfTheEmpire'':
*** Prince Xizor hates Vader for a variety of reasons, including the fact that there was an Imperial hazard lab on Xizor's homeworld; a flesh-eating bacteria escaped and Vader ordered that to save the planet's population -- and potentially the populations of other worlds -- from a horrible, rotting, always fatal infection for which there was no cure, the city and the two hundred thousand people there were "sterilized" from orbit. Including Xizor's mother, father, brother, two sisters, and three uncles.
*** An assassin who tries to kill Xizor does it because Xizor ruined his father and [[DrivenToSuicide drove him to suicide]]. Xizor calls him an idiot and [[NeckSnap snaps his neck]].
** In ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Wraith Squadron]]'', Kell Tainer hates and fears Wes Janson because Kell's father was a pilot in the Rebellion who chickened out on a covert mission and tried to flee, which would reveal that the Rebels were there, so he was shot by Wes to prevent that.
** ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'' has the rare "dead mother, living-but-badly-injured father" variant, with Ben Skywalker very nearly succeeding in killing his cousin Jacen while trying to avenge Mara's death. Of course, his father, being the Jedi he is, forces him away before he can finish the job, despite suffering after a nasty brawl with Jacen himself and being scared that Ben's UnstoppableRage will lead to a StartOfDarkness.
* In Rebecca Reisert's ''The Third Witch'', a retelling of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', the goal of the protagonist, a girl named Gilly, is to kill Macbeth in revenge for him killing her father. Being the object of Macbeth's destruction becomes [[RevengeBeforeReason the sole meaning to her life]], much to the frustration and concern of those around her. It's a ForegoneConclusion for those who know the play [[spoiler:and thus know that Macduff kills Macbeth, so in the end Gilly doesn't accomplish her goal. She sulks for a while but then gains a positive outlook and begins to rebuild her life.]]
* In ''[[Literature/XandriCorelel Tone of Voice]]'', the reporter Ashley Betancourt is the daughter of two well-regarded journalists who were murdered by [[AbsoluteXenophobe Last Hope for Humanity]] terrorists. To get revenge, Betancourt faked evidence against the LHFH and was caught, ruining her career.
* ''Literature/TrappedOnDraconica'': Inverted as a villain (Taurok) wants kill a hero (Daniar) for this reason. [[spoiler:He thinks Daniar killed him because they dueled just before he died. It was actually a Baalarian archer aiming for Daniar during said duel. Taurok's son took the blow for Daniar and Gothon pinned the blame on her.]]
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** An important plot point in Creator/DanAbnett's ''[[Literature/GauntsGhosts First & Only]]'', with Gaunt seeking revenge on the man responsible for his father's death. Later, he finds himself on the other end of the trope, as that man's son comes seeking revenge on him.
** In Anthony Reynolds's ''Literature/WordBearers'' novels, Marduk killed Kol Badar's blood brother thousands of years ago. Kol Badar has hated him for it ever since, and would have killed Marduk long ago if not for their mutual master Jarulek staying his hand.
* Defied in the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Warrior Class'', where the BigBad Pavel Kazakov says that the strike he orders against an Albanian town is definitely not because Albanian guerillas killed his father.
* Inverted in ''Literature/WaysideSchool'': The kids trick their SadisticTeacher, Mrs. Gorf, into turning herself into an apple, which then gets eaten by Louis. Later, Mrs. Gorf's son tries to avenge her by becoming the kids' substitute teacher, stealing their voices, and attempting to frame them for making hateful phone calls to their own mothers.
* In ''Literature/TheWellOfMoments'', discovering the truth about her father's death drives Jasmine to seek revenge against the person responsible -- who happens to be in town, doesn't know that Jasmine is his daughter, and has already arranged a deal with her. Jasmine also possesses a paranormal object with the power to draw in whomever she intends to kill.
* At least part of the reason Richard goes on his quest in ''[[Literature/SwordOfTruth Wizard's First Rule]]'' is to get revenge for the death of his father, George Cypher. [[spoiler:Then it turns out that George was his ''adopted'' father. Who was killed by his real father (and the BigBad), Darken Rahl, whom Richard kills in the climax.]]
* Partially subverted in Mór Jókai's historical novel ''Zoltán Kárpáthy''. The BigBad hires an assassin duelist to challenge and kill the titular character and his mentor. He kills the mentor, but loses his arm to a challenger, who took on him in order to protect Zoltán. Needless to say, the poor kid is pretty disappointed.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* This is Claudia and Leonardo's motivation for attempting to ruin Francesca's life in ''Series/AlFondoHaySitio''. Francesca fired their father from her company, resulting in him hanging himself in despair. Leonardo gets over this, but Claudia never does.
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Connor wants to make his real father suffer because he believes that Angel killed his foster father, Holtz. He sinks him in the ocean, but he doesn't die, being a vampire and all. He'll [[AndIMustScream live forever, slowly going insane from hunger]].
* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'':
** ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': This is why Prometheus is going after Oliver and his team ([[spoiler:Prometheus's father was on the List given to Oliver by his father before [[AteHisGun shooting himself]], and was killed by Oliver in his first year back]]). It's also why [[spoiler:Talia]] is helping him ([[spoiler:Oliver killed Talia's father Ra's al Ghul]]). However, [[spoiler:Talia's sister Nyssa]] doesn't feel the same way, because she realized what a monster her father was. The only thing that she's upset about is that she didn't get to kill him.
** ''Series/TheFlash2014'': Barry feels this way towards the Reverse-Flash for killing his mother 15 years ago. Later, [[spoiler:Zoom deliberately murders Barry's father in front of him to elicit this reaction]]. On Earth 2, Iris feels this way towards Deathstorm and Killer Frost after they kill Joe. [[spoiler:Zoom ends up killing both villains anyway.]]
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'':
** SubvertedTrope in "[[Recap/BonesS1E22TheWomanInLimbo The Woman in Limbo]]". Brennan accuses a hitman from the strong-arm crew [[spoiler:her parents used to belong to]] of killing her father, but as it turns out, [[spoiler:her father is still alive. Said hitman did, however, strike the blow that caused bleeding in her mother's brain, which killed her about two years later. In fact, her father arranges the hitman's death in prison.]]
** Played straight in Season 12. Booth killed a war criminal at his son's birthday party. Said son and his sister try to kill Booth and by extension Brennan and their kids. The attack winds up killing Brennan's father and therefore invokes this trope on both sides. The son, Kovac, escapes prison and blows up the lab before Booth finally kills him.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Of course, this show has one of these. Season 7, Robin Wood discovers that [[spoiler:Spike is the vampire who killed his mother. Fans could guess it as it was known that Spike murdered two Slayers previous to Buffy, and that one of them was a black woman who was active about the time Robin would have been a child.]]
* ''Caïn'': [[spoiler:Tina infiltrated Caïn's team and put Borrel out of commission]] in order to take revenge on the two cops who drove her mother to suicide. [[spoiler:She succeeds in killing Moretti (after pretending to love him no less) and very nearly gets Caïn himself.]]
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': Detective Kate Beckett was driven to go into law enforcement after her mother was murdered. She finally manages to bring the person who ordered the hit, Senator William Bracken, to justice.
* In the ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' episode "Chuck Versus the Ring: Part II", [[spoiler:Daniel Shaw kills Chuck's father Stephan in order to break down Chuck's emotions and make him unable to flash]].
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': It takes several decades, but Dexter ultimately manages to track down and kill all the criminals who were responsible for his mother's murder by chainsaw (and, indirectly, Dexter's own obsession with murder), including the guy who wielded the weapon and the boss who ordered the hit.
* ''Series/DueSouth'': Deliberately a SubvertedTrope, when Fraser refrains from killing his father's killer in favor of due process, both in [[Recap/DueSouthS1E0Pilot the pilot]] and in the episode "Bird in the Hand" -- the latter despite the strenuous prompting of Fraser Sr.'s ghost.
* ''Series/{{Frontier}}'': Declan Harp's desire for revenge against Lord Benton is because the latter had his wife and son murdered.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':
** Arya Stark's entire goal in a nutshell. She wants to kill the people who caused misfortune to her family and friends. She executes Meryn Trant (who killed Syrio Forel and, unknown to her, beat Sansa on Joffrey's orders), Polliver (who killed Lommy and whose party killed Yoren) and she kills The Waif, who killed Lady Crane. In "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS6E10TheWindsOfWinter The Winds of Winter]]", she takes revenge for the Red Wedding (where her mother and her elder brother Robb were murdered) by killing the people most responsible for it: [[spoiler:Walder Frey along with two of his sons, Lothar and Black Walder. By that point, the other people responsible (Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton) are already dead.]] The only ones left are Cersei (for killing Lady and betraying Ned), and Melisandre (for selling Gendry), who noted that they would meet again in the future.
** Sansa gives a very poignant calling-out to Theon about betraying Robb and butchering Bran and Rickon, only to discover that her little brothers may still be alive.
** Harald has despised the Starks ever since Robb executed his father. Yet, he does not seem to be bothered in the slightest when Ramsay murders Roose, who avenged Rickard.
** Oberyn Martell's main reason for going to King's Landing (asides from filling in as a proxy for his older brother's invitation to Joffrey's wedding) is to get revenge for the deaths of his sister, niece, and nephew, who were killed by Tywin Lannister's bannerman, Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane during the Sack of King's Landing. He finally gets the chance to confront him after volunteering to be Tyrion's champion for the TrialByCombat. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it gets him brutally killed when the Mountain takes advantage of the fight.]]
** Aerys Targaryen killed Ned's father and had his elder brother Brandon DrivenToSuicide. This action, along with Rhaegar's abduction of Lyanna, incited the Rebellion that led to his downfall and the exile of the Targaryens.
** Yara accuses Euron of this at the Kingsmoot. Euron confesses and somehow wins over the other Ironborn by (successfully) painting Balon as an AssholeVictim. Yara still hates him for this and for stealing her claim to the throne.
* In the ''Series/HereComeTheBrides'' episode "Hosanna's Way," the titular Apache boy's family was murdered by a HunterTrapper for stealing food. When Hosanna sees the killer selling the trinkets he stole at Ben's general store, he grabs a knife and stabs him in the back, almost killing him.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** Immortal KnightTemplar Adam Monroe makes perhaps the biggest mistake of his immortal life when he kills Kaito Nakamura, father of the normally happy-go-lucky Hiro Nakamura. When Hiro finally catches up to Adam, [[spoiler:he ''[[BuriedAlive buries Adam alive]]'' in the same cemetery where his father was buried as a result of Adam's actions]]. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Do]] ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes not]]'' [[BewareTheNiceOnes piss off Hiro.]]
** Mohinder's father being murdered by Sylar is one of the driving forces for this character, in Season 1 at least. Hilariously mocked by actor Creator/SendhilRamamurthy in an episode commentary when they talk about how some characters tend to have "standard lines" that they say a lot. When asked what his own character's standard line is, he replies (paraphrased), "Who killed my father? My father's dead! Someone murdered my father! And variations thereof."
** [[SerialKiller Sylar]] killed [[PsychoElectro Elle's]] father. [[ElectricTorture She proceeds to]] [[GoodThingYouCanHeal kill him repeatedly]] while yelling "You killed my father!" when [[EvilOverlord Arthur]] locks them together in a cell.
** After discovering that [[SerialKiller Sylar]] killed Nathan, Claire expresses how much she wants to kill Sylar, telling him, "You killed my father!" She doesn't manage to kill him, but she does stab a pencil in his eye.
* ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' has Duncan avenging the deaths of several immortal mentors and his father, even though he was cast out and disowned. The first time, Kanwulf survived because Duncan wasn't yet aware that he needed to behead an Immortal to kill him for good. The second time, however, he gets it right.
* ''Series/KamenRiderKiva'': On the DarkerAndEdgier side of the Toku Coin, this show has Yuri Aso, whose mother was killed by Rook, the Lion Fangire. [[spoiler:Eventually, she gets her chance to exact revenge by becoming Kamen Rider IXA and almost killed him. He comes back 22 years later and is promptly finished off by Yuri's daughter, also in IXA's suit, by being hit in the exact same mortal wound that Yuri laid onto him.]]
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': [[spoiler:Nate's con-artist dad is double-crossed and blown up for good measure by Dubenich (the team's first client/target, who double-crossed them and tried to blow them up) and Latimer (an amoral investor who wanted to use the team's good work to make money with insider trading). They ''utterly destroy'' Latimer's business by dumping invasive clams into his new dam, blowing up his prized possessions in front of wealthy investors, and sending him to the Cayman Islands with a briefcase full of cash and his not-really blown up possessions when he's supposed to be at a Congressional hearing. When Nate finally confronts the two after insinuating that he's going to shoot them with his father's gun, he winds up pointing out that neither one can let the other survive if the other wants to remain free and [[DisneyVillainDeath lets them fight over the gun at the edge of a cliff]] instead.]]
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':
** When Sawyer confronts [[spoiler:Anthony Cooper]] for the indirect killing of his parents, he is finally sure once and for all that [[spoiler:Cooper]] is indeed the guy he's been looking for all his life when he confirms that he's been to Sawyer's hometown of Jasper, Alabama. [[spoiler:Cooper]] grins and asks, "Why? Don't tell me I'm your daddy!" To which Sawyer, replying so gravely that it wipes the smirk off the man's face, says, "No... you ''killed'' my daddy." You can imagine what soon ensues.
** [[spoiler:Ben kills Jacob, the closest thing to a father Ilana had, so she makes him ''dig his own grave at gunpoint'', only for this to be an AvertedTrope. Not only does Ben survive, he's allowed to join the group after explaining himself.]]
* ''Series/LostLoveInTimes'': Yuan Ling discovers Yuan An killed his real father. When he returns he confronts him about it.
--> '''Yuan Ling:''' Then what should I call you? Your Majesty? Uncle? Or the murderer of my father?
* ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'':
** Morgana discusses this with Uther, having heard the rumors that Uther arranged the death of Gorlois, the man she thought was her father -- this was long before she found out Uther was her father.
** [[spoiler:Uther's death]] is also a case for [[spoiler:Arthur]]. He knows that magic did it, but what he doesn't know is that the sorcerer in question was actually trying to ''heal'' him before being foiled by a magical pendant that reversed the healing magic and magnified the damage tenfold.
* ''Series/MiamiVice'': Gina Calabrese is willing to help the East German intelligence agent Herzog kill the drug dealer Pedrosa because Pedrosa killed Gina's mother twenty-six years ago.
* ''Series/TheMusketeers'': Subverted in the series premiere when Athos is framed for several murders, including that of D'Artagnan's father. The grieving young Gascon makes his way to the Musketeer garrison and actually paraphrases Inigo Montoya's quote (see [[Quotes/YouKilledMyFather the Quotes page]]). Athos is perplexed and Aramis is amused, but D'Artagnan remains implacable throughout the scene. Naturally, they do eventually clear up the misunderstanding over the course of the episode and become FireForgedFriends.
* ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' features a variation in that one of the heroes is the killer. Mowahd "Moe" Dusa, an orphaned Sudanese boy whom Sam Hanna brought to America, is upset when he learns that Sam killed his father. (For good reason -- Moe's father was with the Janjaweed, and Sam killed him to protect civilians.) He responds by joining a terrorist group -- but doesn't get his revenge against Sam. Instead, he has a change of heart and decides to help NCIS defeat a terrorist leader [[spoiler:and dies doing so]].
* ''Series/{{Nikita}}'': DeconstructedTrope: Alex's whole motivation is to get revenge on the organization that killed her parents. Not until the end of the first season does she learn that [[spoiler:Nikita, the former agent who has been her mentor,]] was the one who actually pulled the trigger.
* In the ''Series/OnceUponATime'' episode "[[Recap/OnceUponATimeS5E9TheBearKing The Bear King]]", Merida's father Fergus is killed on the battlefield by Arthur. Months later, Merida finds Arthur and they point their swords at each other. When Merida threatens him for killing her father, Arthur defends his actions by saying that he did what he had to on the battlefield as a knight. This is technically true, as Arthur didn't murder Fergus but killed him in battle, though he did [[BackStab stab]] him InTheBack.
* ''Series/TheOutpost'': [[spoiler:Naya]] finds out that [[spoiler:Dred]] killed her [[spoiler:mother and sister]] a long time ago, and she immediately stabs him to death in revenge.
* ''Series/{{Revenge}}'':
** For most of the first season, Emily's quest for vengeance against the Graysons is purely in response to them framing her father, David, for terrorism and sending him to prison for life. However, near the end of the season, she discovers that Conrad Grayson, in addition to the above, also [[spoiler:had David murdered in prison to keep him from exposing him]]. Emily's vendetta then shifts to finding the assassin responsible and executing him, although she later forfeits this plan.
** In Season 3, Niko Takeda, daughter of Emily and Aiden's revenge sensei, comes to the Hamptons to restart her relationship with Aiden and assassinate the person who [[spoiler:killed her father]]. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:that person is also Aiden]]. Once Niko figures out the truth, she attempts to lure Emily to her father's house and kill her as retribution, but is easily dispatched by Emily.
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': InvertedTrope. Rachel Matheson becomes obsessed with killing Sebastian Monroe because [[spoiler:her son Danny got killed off by Monroe's helicopters in "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E11TheStand The Stand]]"]]. The episode "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E19ChildrenOfMen Children of Men]]" has her accusing him of killing [[spoiler:her son]] to his face. He points out that he wasn't even there when that happened, and that much is true.
* ''Series/TheSecretCircle'': In the season 1 finale, Jake gets his revenge on Eben, who killed his parents — and it was a long time coming.
* A recurring motive on ''Series/ShakespeareAndHathawayPrivateInvestigators'' (which draws a lot of plot points from the plays of Creator/WilliamShakespeare), notably in [[spoiler:"This Rough Magic" (though the killer accidentally kills the intended target's wife)]], and GenderFlipped in [[spoiler:"The Chimes at Midnight"]].
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** The show has a weird version of this with Cronus, the Goa'uld who executed Teal'c's father in a YouHaveFailedMe moment and exiled Teal'c and his mother. Teal'c finally gets his chance for revenge in the episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S4E21DoubleJeopardy Double Jeopardy]]", where he fights his father's murderer in one-on-one combat, only to end up losing. He would have been killed if his robotic clone hadn't shot Cronus in the back.
--->'''Clone Teal'c:''' For our father.
** The episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S10E17Talion Talion]]" reveals that Teal'c's mother was (supposedly) killed by a rival in a RevengeByProxy scheme. After killing him, Teal'c reveals that while he may have ordered it, he was far too cowardly to do it himself. He killed the actual assassin years ago.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': A variation shows up in "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E7DayOfTheDove Day of the Dove]]", where Chekov wants revenge against the Klingons for killing his brother... except that he never ''had'' a brother, and it's a [[FakeMemories false memory]] created by an EmotionEater that feeds on hatred.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Another weird version appears, where the android Data does eventually get his "father"'s killer... who happens to be his "brother", Lore.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Averted in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E15DarkFrontier Dark Frontier]]". Seven of Nine was assimilated by the Borg as a child, then called Annika Hansen.
--->'''Borg Queen:''' I remember Annika. Does she remember us? She wasn't afraid, why are you?\\
'''Seven:''' You attacked us. You murdered my family!\\
'''Borg Queen:''' We did no such thing. We gave them perfection.\\
''[a drone steps forward; it's Magnus Hansen]''\\
'''Seven:''' ''[faintly]'' Papa?
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': The Winchesters' fight against Azazel seems to be more about dead family members than the whole trying-to-take-over-and-or-end-the-world thing. John starts his whole mad quest thing when Azazel sets fire to his house and ceiling-kills his wife. The boys go with the whole you-killed-my-mother thing, and Sam adds on his girlfriend for good measure. [[spoiler:In "[[Recap/SupernaturalS02E01InMyTimeOfDying In My Time of Dying]]", Dad gets added onto the list. Dean finally gets revenge when he shoots the Demon with the Colt.]] A few years later, they discover that Azazel also killed their grandparents, but since they've already killed him at that point, it doesn't have the same impact.
* ''Franchise/SuperSentai''/''Franchise/PowerRangers'':
** ''Series/SeijuuSentaiGingaman''/''Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy'':
*** Black Knight Bullblack/Magna Defender is out for the villains' blood because they killed his little brother/infant son. The problem is, he doesn't care how much collateral damage he causes in the process...
*** Later on in ''Galaxy'', Trakeena's main motive for attacking the Rangers is because Leo, the Red Ranger, [[AvengingTheVillain killed her father in battle]].
** ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'': Cole learns that the BigBad used to be human, and a colleague of his parents... who murdered them both after they got together. After defeating him and reducing him to the bitter waste of space he once was, Cole decides that he's NotWorthKilling and walks off. Of course, the season isn't over yet...
** ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'': Lothor killed Blake and Hunter's adopted parents at some point before the series began. The reveal is mainly done to clear Sensei Watanabe, whom the brothers believed to be the actual killer thanks to Lothor. The fact that they're fighting their parents' murderer is kind of dropped afterwards, although it probably would've clashed with the season's [[AffectionateParody general tone]].
** ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'': "[[Recap/KaizokuSentaiGokaigerE41SomethingIDontWantToLose Something I Don't Want to Lose]]" pits Ahim against the monster who killed her parents and destroyed her whole planet. Ahim, at any other time the nicest Gokaiger by far, ''snaps'' and tries to take him on single-handed. Her teammates [[YouAreNotAlone talk her out of it]].
* ''Series/TheSwampFox'': A young man named Gwynn works his way into Marion's brigade wanting revenge on Marion, whom he thinks killed his father. He only finds out that he's wrong when he sees Marion's wrists, which don't have scars like the killer's. The real killer was Amos Briggs, a Tory sympathizer, and after Gwynn is put in the brig temporarily, Briggs is caught and thrown in, leading to Gwynn killing him.
* ''Series/{{Unforgettable}}'': The goal of the killer in the episode "Lost Things" is to carry out a VigilanteExecution on the leniently sentenced owner of a factory whose unsafe conditions led to a fire in which his father and brother died. The murder that started the episode was just an attempt to silence someone who would have compromised his plan.
* In ''Series/{{Utopia}}'', [[TheConspiracy The Network]] are rather fond of manipulating people by [[IHaveYourWife threatening their loved ones]]. As a natural consequence of this and being extremely ruthless, they kill the father of [[ConspiracyTheorist Wilson Wilson]] and the mother of Alice. [[spoiler:Alice (a twelve-year-old girl) exacts revenge by murdering one of their agents, but Wilson [[FaceHeelTurn joins the conspirators]].]]
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': In "[[Recap/VeronicaMarsS02E22NotPictured Not Pictured]]", [[spoiler:Veronica]] is nearly driven to murderous rage when she thinks that Season 2's BigBad killed [[spoiler:her father]]. Thankfully, he didn't, and another character stops the BigBad from being killed in what would not strictly be self-defense. Of course, many fans would've given her a pass since it turned out that he did [[spoiler:rape her]] and had intended to kill [[spoiler:her father, only there was a mix-up and her father hadn't (unbeknownst to them) got on the plane that the BigBad blew up]].
* ''Series/VRTroopers'': SubvertedTrope when Ryan Steele's father doesn't actually die but is badly injured, but it's played straight the rest of the way. Generally, Ryan fights the mutants fairly and only uses his finisher as a last resort, but when they begin attacking his recently rescued father, he begins killing them with the lightning hand without even giving them the chance of a fair fight. Even Decimator, [[CurbStompBattle who usually defeated Ryan Steele fairly easily]] up to that point, finds himself [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown overmatched and quickly flees on his go-kart]] after seemingly mortally wounding Ryan's father. After that, Ryan is the one delivering the beatdown to Decimator, and not the other way around.
* ''Series/TheWhiteQueen'': When Richard of Gloucester spots the deposed Henry VI in the courtyard, he immediately grabs the sword of a nearby guard and yells, "Then let us take vengeance for our father he murdered!" Richard has to be restrained by his two brothers and two of his in-laws. King Edward IV commands his youngest sibling to not seek revenge and explains, "He is an anointed king. And how should we be any better if we match him in his butchery?" Richard is disgruntled, but obeys.
%%* ''Series/{{Witchblade}}'': In the PilotMovie, mafia hitman Tommy Gallo reveals to Sara that he is responsible for killing her father, which we then see in a flashback. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; how does she react?)
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'':
** Callisto's entire reason for living is to avenge her parents' deaths at the hand of Xena. One episode of ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' subverts this when [[spoiler:Callisto is sent back in time and ends up accidentally killing both of her parents]], but the entire thing is prevented from happening by the episode's end.
** Autolycus's career as the King of Thieves began when a crooked merchant named Tarsus murdered his older brother Malacus when Malacus confronted him over being swindled. Autolycus robbed the merchant of everything he owned as payback. In "[[Recap/XenaS03E20VanishingAct Vanishing Act]]", circumstances lead to Autolycus confronting Tarsus again. This time he decides that robbing Tarsus isn't enough and resolves to kill him to avenge Malacus. Xena talks Autolycus down by asking him if this is really what his brother would have wanted him to become.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'': In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS02E25Anasazi Anasazi]]", Mulder's father is killed by Agent Alex Krycek. Mulder is already a little off-balance anyway, thanks to some LSD derivatives put into the water in his building, and this doesn't help matters. He runs into Krycek and threatens to shoot him for killing his father. Scully arrives on the scene, and tries unsuccessfully to get Mulder to '''not''' shoot Krycek, no matter how much he deserves it, because Mulder is being framed for his father's murder and if he shoots Krycek, there will be no way to prove that he didn't kill his father. She winds up shooting him in the shoulder, and Mulder will always be grateful that she's a good shot.
* ''Series/YoungBlades'':
** In the opening of "[[Recap/YoungBladesS01E01Wanted Wanted]]", Cardinal Mazarin orders Jacqueline's father killed; she kills the henchman in revenge, and spends the rest of the series disguised as a man in order to avoid capture and hopefully get revenge against Mazarin.
** "[[Recap/YoungBladesS01E13Secrets Secrets]]" features [[spoiler:Jacqueline's brother being killed by Mazarin's ''new'' henchman; she promptly kills him, too]]. Amusingly, [[spoiler:they're both played by the same actor]].

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/TheDecemberists' "Mariner's Revenge Song" has lyrics that are all about why the person being sung to is responsible for the death of the singer's mother, and how he is now going to finally take his revenge.
* "Cow Patti" by Jim Stafford is about a cowgirl who hunts down a man for killing her father.
* Inverted in Music/TheyMightBeGiants' spoken-word piece "Lesson 16" (a parody of those language-learning tapes), in which John Linnell reveals that he killed your father in order to get with your mother.
-->I wrung his neck. Like a duckling.

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]
* Myth/ClassicalMythology: Elektra and her brother Orestes avenge the death of their father, Agamemnon, by killing his murderer, Clytemnestra... who is their mother, who killed him for killing the other kid, Iphigenia. Now ''that'' is a BigScrewedUpFamily.
* In Myth/EgyptianMythology, Horus wants Set taken down for murdering Osiris.
* Myth/KingArthur:
** In the older stories, Arthur's father was killed by the Saxons.
** Arthur's father killed Morgana's father.
* According to Myth/NorseMythology, Vidarr, the god of vengeance himself, will pull this on Fenrir at Ragnarök for killing Vidarr's father Odin.
* Invoked in ''Literature/{{Waltharius}}'': When the Frankish king Gunther orders his retainers to attack Walther for the sake of Walther's treasure chests, his retainer Hagen refuses to fight against his old friend Walther until after Walther has slain eleven Frankish champions, one of them being Hagen's own nephew Patavrid. When Gunther finally convinces Hagen to fight, and Walther accuses him of behaving dishonorably, Hagen replies that Walther himself ended their friendship by killing Patavrid, and that he is going to avenge his nephew. However, the facts that Hagen earlier told Gunther that he would not break his friendship to Walther for the sake of Patavrid alone, and that he remained passive while Walther killed five more Frankish champions after Patavrid, imply that this is an attempt at self-justification rather than objective truth. After fighting each other to a draw, Hagen and Walther reconcile and renew their friendship, without Hagen having avenged Patavrid.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' adventure path "Way of the Wicked" is just lousy with this trope. Any NPC or hero the villainous player characters kill almost certainly has a relative who will [[TakeUpMySword take up their sword]] to avenge them. The most notable ones are:
** Richard Havelyn, who starts his quest to avenge his father Thomas after the first book and becomes the party's main nemesis for most part of the game. He even commands a retinue called the Sons of Balentyne, all of them related to an important NPC the players killed.
** Killing the angel Ara Mathra incurs the ire of his brother Ara Zandra.
** The final boss Princess Bellinda has this threefold, as over the course of the campaign the party will have killed her brother, father, and most likely her mother.
** As a villainous foil to the Princess, if the black dragon Jeratheon lives to see Bellinda kill his father Chargammon, he will most likely join the party to kill her in return.

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/{{Electra}}'':
** Orestes kills his mother and her lover, Aegisthus, for killing Agamemnon. Electra herself has spent years reminding them that this is why she wants them dead.
** It's AllThereInTheManual that Aegisthus was sired and raised to avenge his half-brothers' murders.
* The plot of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' is set in motion when the ghost of Hamlet's father appears to him and tells him to avenge his murder at the hands of his brother (Hamlet's uncle).
* In the stage adaptation of ''Theatre/TheLittleMermaid'', Triton initially believes that humans caused the death of [[TheLostLenore his wife]] and [[MissingMom Ariel's mother]], but the climax reveals that [[spoiler:his sister]] Ursula killed her. She perishes shortly after thanks to Ariel smashing her [[AmplifierArtifact magic nautilus shell]].
%%* In ''Theatre/DerRingDesNibelungen'', this is the most Siegfried ever learns as to the Wanderer's identity. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; how does he react?)
* Deconstructed in ''Theatre/IlTrovatore'', where Azucena avenges the killing of her mother by the Count di Luna's father by kidnapping the Count's baby brother and throwing him on the fire where her mother was being burned alive. [[spoiler:Later we discover that Azucena actually threw her ''own'' son on the fire, and raised the Count's brother as her own son, just so that twenty years later she could trick the Count into killing his own brother, thus also illustrating RevengeBeforeReason.]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':
** In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', when Edgeworth learns that [[spoiler:Von Karma]] killed his father, he says, "So...it was you." Interestingly though, he doesn't play a part in getting them arrested -- Phoenix does.
** ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'': Kay Faraday gets one of these in "Turnabout Ablaze", when she [[spoiler:faces Shih-na, after finding out that she is really Calisto Yew in disguise -- the woman who killed her father in the previous flashback case. She tries to attack her, despite Edgeworth's [[IncrediblyLamePun objections]], and ends up getting held at gunpoint in what is arguably the highlight/climax of the case. Interestingly enough, she actually drops this attitude shortly afterward, coming to consider Yew to be more of the murder ''weapon'' than the actual murderer, who would be the BigBad holding her leash.]]
** Played with in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', when it's revealed that [[spoiler:Simon Blackquill]] was in prison for the murder of Athena's mother, but not only does she not believe it, but [[spoiler:she's actively trying to get him free]]. A variation does happen later, when the real murderer is found [[spoiler:and Athena joins Apollo and Phoenix behind the defense bench to take him down]].
* After Sepulchure's death in ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'', his daughter Gravelyn becomes sad and angry over it, and guess what? [[ThisIsUnforgivable She will never forgive Drakath for killing him.]] Hence, the reason why she formed a truce with King Alteon to deal with his threat and that of the 13 Lords of Chaos.
-->'''Gravelyn:''' Drakath will pay for what he has done! Then... My army of darkness will conquer this land. We are unstoppable!
* Lampshaded in ''[[VideoGame/{{Arfenhouse}} ARFENHOUSE!!!1 TOO!!!]]'':
-->'''HOUSEMASTRL:''' I WILL REVENGE MYH DED FATHER WHO U KLSI ZOO! I"I LKI U!!!\\
'''Joseph:''' Oh, he killed your father? *cough*cliche*cough*
* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'':
** As it turns out in ''Assassins Creed III'', this trope is the reason behind the events of the ''entire series''. [[spoiler:Juno's father was killed during the war between Those Who Came Before and humanity. This left her with a deep-seated resentment of humanity. As a result, she manipulated the plan to prepare humans for the next solar flare to ensure that she would be able to return to Earth and conquer humanity after the threat had passed. The war between the Assassins and Templars, two groups of people who both ultimately just wanted to make the world a better place and merely disagreed on how to do it, was at least partially Juno's fault thanks to her manipulations via the Pieces of Eden, since the two groups working together might have found a way to stop the solar flare without following her plans.]]
** Pretty much the case in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', as Ezio's original motivation is the framing and execution of his father, along with Ezio's brothers, [[spoiler:at the behest of the BigBad]]. After he avenges himself upon the prosecutor/judge though, he finds out about a conspiracy against the city which his father had collected evidence against, and considers the conspirators partially responsible as well.
** The opening of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'', an ImmediateSequel to ''II'', ends with the [[spoiler:killing of Ezio's uncle Mario Auditore by Cesare Borgia]] to conclude the Siege of Monteriggioni, once again motivating Ezio to get revenge.
** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'', Connor hates Charles Lee and wants him dead because he blames him for the attack on his village [[spoiler:that killed his mother Ziio]]. He does ''not'' respond well when he learns that [[spoiler:his ''ally'' George Washington was the one truly responsible for the attack. He pretty much leaves Washington alone (he merely cuts off all ties with him) though.]]
* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'', you have to avenge the death of your foster-father, Gorion. Along the way, you find out that your real father is [[spoiler:Bhaal, the now-dead god of murder, and that your foster-father's killer is one of your divine half-brothers]]. Exactly who kills him depends on which of your party members makes the killing blow, but your party kills him so it still counts.
* In ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'', Kalas seeks to kill Giacomo because the latter killed Kalas's grandfather and little brother.
* ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'': The "Rise of Wesnoth" campaign gives you [[TorchesAndPitchforks farmers you can lead into battle]]. The first farmer to attack this way reveals his/her motivation: "You killed my family! Die!"
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', wherein the player characters [[ICannotSelfTerminate assist the suicide]] of the BigBad's daughter, whom he was using as a WetwareCPU for his supercomputer. He goes from ComedicSociopathy to screaming for you to stop to TranquilFury, vowing to kill them with his bare hands.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkChronicle'', Gaspard kills King Raybrandt at the end of the [[InMediasRes opening scene of the game]], right before [[ActionGirl Monica Raybrandt's]] eyes. She doesn't take this well, and travels through time to avenge him.
* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2OffTheRecord'' gives us Evan [=MacIntyre=], a midget clown on stilts who sells ice cream. He tries to sell some to Frank, at which point a signed photo flits past him... whereupon Evan mentions his late brother, Adam, who worked at the Willamete mall. Adam was one of the psychopaths Frank killed in the original ''VideoGame/DeadRising'', and Evan attacks Frank in order to get his revenge.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', [[spoiler:Bob Page]] is revealed to have been responsible for killing [[spoiler:you and Paul]]'s father. He even [[spoiler:sends the man who did the job to kill you near the end of the game, allowing you to exact sweet, sweet revenge, in addition to getting revenge on Page himself in the ending]].
* ''Franchise/DragonAge'' has a few examples.
** ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'':
*** the Human Noble origin involves your parents being betrayed and killed by the man you all believed was your father's ''best friend''. Naturally, later in the game you get to take vengeance on their murderer, Arl Rendon Howe (you fight the guy no matter what, but ItsPersonal with this origin).
*** In the ''[[VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening Awakening]]'' expansion, you meet a prisoner who was been captured in an attempt to kill ''you'' for murdering his father. You can then recruit him and show him that his father deserved it. [[spoiler:It's the son of the man who killed your father in the previously mentioned origin story, meaning it's a thankfully thwarted CycleOfRevenge. Moreover, you can ''befriend'' the son, bringing the whole thing to a much better ending than expected.]]
*** In all origins, Alistair wants revenge against Loghain for the deaths of Warden-Commander Duncan (whom Al regarded as a father figure) and the rest of the Fereldan Grey Wardens apart from you. Depending on how you choose to resolve the situation at the Landsmeet, he can receive or be denied this vengeance; but if he gets it, he makes sure Loghain understands just why he's doing what he's doing.
---->'''Alistair:''' [[AndThisIsFor This is for]] ''Duncan''!
** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', this is the motivation for the ''Exiled Prince'' DLC. Sebastian Vael, a prince from the neighboring city-state of Starkhaven, is seeking vengeance for the ruthless murders of his entire family; Seb himself only survived the attack on the royal family because he's a priest in Kirkwall and was nowhere near the palace. His entire character arc hinges on how [[PlayerCharacter Hawke]] handles the situation.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'':
** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'': Before the beginning of the game, the Hero's father Ortega died while fighting Baramos. [[spoiler:Or so his family believes.]] The Hero sets off on a journey to avenge his father's death -- and save the world -- by killing his murderer. [[spoiler:Once the Hero has made it to [[BigBad Zoma]]'s dungeon, he sees King Hydra killing his father before his eyes. Needless to say, King Hydra doesn't outlive Ortega for much longer.]]
** In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'', this is what drives the sisters Meena and Maya on their journey. Even when they join forces with TheHero to stop the BigBad, they do so because they've been explicitly told that TheHero, in turn, will help them avenge their father's death.
** In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'', the Hero hates [[TheDragon Ladja]] because he burned both his parents to ashes.
* ''VideoGame/DragonsWake'': The player character's parents are killed by the BigBad early in the game.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** In the series' backstory, the legendary Yokudan/Redguard hero Frandar Hunding fell in battle to the giant goblins of Hammerfell while still serving as a FrontlineGeneral despite [[OldSoldier approaching 90]]. His only son, Divad, took command of the Redguard forces and wiped the goblins out.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', Balmora Mages Guild Stewardess Ranis Athrys harbors a serious grudge against the [[EvilSorcerer Telvanni]]. Another character can reveal that this is because her parents were killed by the Telvanni.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', you can choose to [[spoiler:Kill Autumn for killing your father or let him live]].
* This is the motive of several ''opponents'' in the sequel to ''VideoGame/FantasyQuest'', set 20 years after your first "rampage". For example, the vampire's wife is understandably upset you killed her husband.
* In ''VideoGame/FatalFuryKingOfFighters'', the Bogard brothers, [[Characters/FatalFuryTerryBogard Terry]] and Andy, are out to defeat Geese Howard for killing their adoptive father Jeff. Ironically, after Terry kills Geese in ''VideoGame/RealBoutFatalFury'' (Geese falls out a window and refuses to [[TakeMyHand take Terry's hand]]), he raises Geese's orphaned son Rock, apparently to keep him from going through the same process.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'': After Galuf is killed by Exdeath, his granddaughter Krile takes his place in the party (and magically inherits his abilities learned). Since the game only has four characters at a time, Krile will always be present for the final battle with Exdeath.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'':
*** Averted. It is heavily implied that Professor Gast was the father of Aerith Gainsborough. He was murdered by Professor Hojo, and Hojo then subjected Ifalfna and their daughter, Aerith, to seven years' worth of horrific experiments, which ultimately took its toll on Ifalfna when they eventually escaped. However, Aerith never knew that Hojo killed her father, and you only get to find out about this after Aerith is dead.
*** This is Tifa's personal motivation for going after Sephiroth. He single-handedly killed her father, her friends, and everyone she knew and loved in Niblehiem (minus Cloud), and he comes scarily close to killing her as well. Much of the anger towards Sephiroth still remains in Tifa's later portrayals, including physically attacking him in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy''.
*** Sephiroth also killed Cloud's mother, though it goes unmentioned in the original game, with Cloud being simply unable to describe to his friends what he saw in his burning house, though he is seen collapsing with grief in the flashback. Cloud does get to avenge his mother and Tifa's father as well as [[DoomedHometown Niblehiem]] as whole, at least three times in the canon.
---->Give me back my mother, Tifa and the whole village... I used to admire you.\\
-- '''Cloud''' (stabbing Sephiroth) ''Anime/LastOrderFinalFantasyVII''
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'': "Moms are tough", but not tough enough to escape death. His failure in regards to the counterattack at Hanging Edge continues to metaphorically haunt Snow even as he tries to rescue Serah. It also physically haunts him in the form of Hope, the son of the woman who volunteered to assist him and misinterpreted that failure as Snow leaving her to die. It gets to the point where revenge is Hope's sole driving factor, and he almost exacts his revenge before a Sanctum mech blows them both to the streets below. They manage to smooth things out from that point forward.
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' loves applying this to the lords.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight'':
*** The death of King Cornelius is one reason why Marth takes up arms and opposes the Dolhr Empire.
*** Linde gets her father Miloah personally murdered by Gharnef, and the chance of vengeance is a big reason why she joins Marth's army. And if you see any plucky mage girls in other games that had their parent/familial figures murdered by the bad guys? [[RecurringElement They took notes from Linde.]]
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'':
*** Seliph is avenging his father by fighting Arvis.
*** Leif is avenging his father Quan by fighting Travant.
*** Tine wants to avenge her mother. Seriously, if your [[GenkiGirl Genki Mother]] (Tailtiu) becomes [[BreakTheCutie completely broken and dies of sorrow]], all thanks to one EvilMatriarch standing right in front of you, who'd not want to? Apparently, if you do pit Arthur (Tine's brother) against said Evil Matriarch, Hilda, in the last scenario, he'd think the same.
*** Lachesis has it in for Chagall after he has her brother Eldigan executed.
*** As for villain-to-hero accusations, Dannan, Scipio, Brian, and Ishtar all use this line, though in Scipio and Dannan's case the parents of the heroes killed their father, close enough.
*** Blume is a bad guy who uses the inversion "You Killed My Son".
%%*** Sigurd seeks to avenge ''his'' father. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; by fighting whom?)
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'': Once Nino learns that Sonia, whom she believed was her mother, actually killed her family when she was an infant, [[BewareTheNiceOnes she immediately goes]] "[[ThisIsUnforgivable No mercy! No forgiveness!]]"
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones'':
*** Joshua avenges his mother, though you only see him doing so in Eirika's path. We never know what ''really'' happened to Ismaire in Ephraim's path (or if Joshua is actually a prince, at all).
*** After Valter murders Cormag's brother Glen, he tricks Cormag into believing Eirika did it so he goes after her and gets himself killed. Thankfully, Eirika talks him out and he realizes the truth, so he directs his revenge towards Valter.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'', Ike's fight with the Black Knight for killing his father is a significant part of the story.
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' has a villain-to-hero accusation if you make Ike fight Pelleas. Pelleas confronts Ike with "You killed my father" (Ashnard, ''Path of Radiance'''s BigBad) and Ike just says that Ashnard was a crazy dude that had to be put down. [[spoiler:Though it turns out that Pelleas isn't actually related to Ashnard.]]
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' has [[spoiler:Lucina]] saying this to [[spoiler:the Avatar]], in one of the most heartwrenching moments in the entire series, as [[spoiler:she tries and fails to kill the Avatar to prevent it from happening]]. See the Quotes page for the full dialogue, though be warned -- there are massive spoilers present. Sadly, [[spoiler:Inigo doesn't take her place if he's Chrom's son, despite the fact that he's named after the trope namer himself]].
** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' continues the trend.
*** From the very opening cutscene, we see that Saint Seiros wants revenge on Nemesis for killing her mother. And that's just the start.
*** This ultimately forms a core part of Dimitri's character arc. He wants revenge for the Tragedy of Duscur, an ambush on the entourage of Dimitri's father, King Lambert, which got everyone save Dimitri himself killed. He only has suspicions, but it isn't until much later that he can put a name to it. [[spoiler:And even then, he's ''wrong'' because the person he blames (Edelgard) had nothing to do with it and was only associated with the true perpetrators as a matter of circumstance. He also eventually does get to kill the mastermind in his own route, but by that point he's developed beyond a thirst for revenge.]]
*** In the Crimson Flower route, Ashe (if recruited) will cite the death of his adoptive father as one of the reasons why he joins [[spoiler:Edelgard in her fight against the Church of Seiros]].
*** Notably averted by Raphael. He has a good idea of who is responsible for his parents' deaths, but revenge isn't on his mind because he has to take care of his younger sister, something that revenge wouldn't help.
*** Also played with in Petra and Caspar's support conversations. Caspar's father is responsible for killing Petra's father in battle during the Empire's war with Brigid and Dagda some years prior, and Petra has to convince him that she has no desire to take her revenge out on him. [[spoiler:However, in their rank A conversation, Petra confesses that she actually ''did'' have some desire to take her revenge out on him, but lost said desire when she learned firsthand [[NiceGuy what kind of person Caspar really is]].]]
*** Even [[spoiler:Byleth]] gets into this after [[spoiler:Jeralt is murdered by Kronya]]. In the very next chapter, they seize upon an opportunity to exact revenge upon the killer with relish when the opportunity rises. [[spoiler:However, this is [[ExploitedTrope exactly what the antagonists hoped they'd do]], and they used Kronya as bait to set a trap for them.]]
*** In Azure Moon, [[spoiler:Fleche]] wants revenge on [[spoiler:Dimitri]] for [[spoiler:murdering Randolph (or so she thinks). This sets in motion a chain of events that causes Dimitri to snap out of his AxCrazy state that he's been in ever since the TimeSkip.]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheGodfather'' game, your killing of Don Emilio Barzini is partly on orders and partly because he ordered your father's death. It even gets a lampshade hung on it when you finally catch up during the baptism assassinations, with Barzini saying that he knew it would be you.
* In ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe'', the Arcade Mode lays out the three heroes' motivations: Death Adder killed Ax Battler's mother, Tyris Flare's father and mother, and Gillius Thunderhead's brother.
* ''[[VideoGame/IndependenceWar2 Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos]]'' is set in motion mostly by [[LoanShark Caleb]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Maas]] killing Felix Johnston over a supposedly-unpaid loan. A debt that apparently got inherited by young [[PlayerCharacter Cal Johnston]], whom Maas decides to have imprisoned for life when he finds him again, recovering one of his father's items. (As if suddenly becoming orphaned ''and'' inheriting a significant debt that was supposed to be paid off wasn't bad enough.) Cue Cal breaking out of prison with some other folks 15 years later to become a SpacePirate like his grandma, build up resources, and ultimately get cold, hard revenge on Maas.
* This is the main plot element of the iOS game ''VideoGame/InfinityBlade'': In the opening tutorial, your character is killed by the [[BigBad God King]], and the main game starts 20 years later with you controlling his son. You fight your way through the God King's castle before reaching the man himself... who is much more powerful than you and will [[CurbStompBattle most likely kick your ass and kill you]]. Then time furthers an additional 20 years with you controlling the son of the ''previous character'' (who for some reason retains the same level and equipment as his father) and so the game continues as you go through several generations until you manage to kill the God King.
* In ''VideoGame/Kindergarten2'', Jerome has developed a murderous vendetta against his classmate Lily for indirectly causing the death of his father the principal in the OmegaEnding of [[VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}} the first game]]. What he doesn't know is that the reason all that happened is that [[spoiler:the principal kidnapped her brother and Jerome's classmate Billy and mutated him into a monster, and the death happened as an unplanned consequence of Lily's rescue of him]]. When he finally confronts her, [[spoiler:he tries to blow her up with one of his father's bombs. However, Lily points out that a man with nothing to hide wouldn't make his students carry around bombs set to detonate if the person said they knew where Billy was. This, and the protagonist backing up her story, is enough to convince Jerome that his father wasn't the man Jerome thought he was and make him give up his vendetta, ultimately subverting the trope.]]
* The inciting incident of ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'' is [[spoiler:the brutal death of Ellie's father figure Joel at the hands of a mysterious group of soldiers]]. After witnessing this, [[spoiler:Ellie]] travels halfway across the country to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the group. As it turns out, this also applies to [[spoiler:[[VillainProtagonist Abby]], former [[TheResistance Firefly]] and leader of the group that killed Joel. She's the daughter of Jerry, the surgeon Joel murdered while rescuing Ellie at the end of [[VideoGame/TheLastOfUs the first game]], and the trauma she experienced from the event is what drove her to track and kill Joel in such a horrific manner.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': The opening of the game strongly implies that Agahnim murdered Zelda's father upon usurping the throne (the king is shown as a skeleton, among other things). He was also indirectly responsible for the death of Link's uncle, who served as a father figure to Link. After recieving a telepathic distress call from the captured Zelda, Link journeys out to defeat Agahnim and save Hyrule.
* In ''VideoGame/MarcEckosGettingUpContentsUnderPressure'', Trane learns that [[spoiler:his father was killed by Mayor Sung, which prompts Trane to reveal Sung's corruption]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'', there is a scene in which you (as Neo) are fighting Seraph and wind up fighting through a cinema in which the same scene is showing on the big screen. The lone member of the audience shouts out things such as "[[InvokedTrope Oh, I get it]]: You killed his Master [[PrepareToDie and now you must die]]!"
* ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'' pulls this one in Vent's story -- in it, Purprill points out that he was just another Maverick until he helped lead the attack on Area H ten years ago, and was remodeled into a Pseudoroid for his work. Vent's parents happened to be there at the time of the attack.
-->'''Vent:''' Your story about ten years ago eased my conscience. Now there's nothing stopping me from taking you out!
:: : Vent's female counterpart, Aile, implies, although not outright states, in her story that she's also aware of Purprill murdering her parents and witnessed him doing it.
--->'''Purprill:''' Ook! Ook! So a Maverick has come to take me back eh? Lord Serpent just doesn't understand how to treat his employees!\\
'''Aile:''' So you're the one with the Biometal! I'm sorry but I'll be taking it now.\\
'''Purprill:''' Oh, so you're not one of the Mavericks? Then get out of my park!\\
'''Aile:''' I'm the one with the memories here. You get out of my park!
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'':
*** Subverted with Liquid, who really hated his father, so he blames Solid Snake for "stealing [his] revenge!"
*** Played straight with Naomi Hunter. She implanted the Fox-Die virus in Solid Snake because he sent her adoptive brother Frank Jaeger home a cripple and indirectly placed him within the Genome Therapy project (unaware that Frank Jaeger was the one who murdered her real parents in the first place), and because he killed her benefactor, Big Boss.
** Fortune from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' chases after Solid Snake believing that he killed her father, Commander Dolph.
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' features the unending battle between bounty hunter Samus Aran and Ridley, leader of the Space Pirates, who killed not only her own parents, but everyone else on the space colony where she was born. Ridley personally killed her mother, in front of Samus. In [[Manga/MetroidManga the manga]], where he speaks, [[LackOfEmpathy he even cruelly taunts her about it every chance he gets]]. She also hates the Space Pirates because they destroyed her ''second'' family, namely the Chozo who adopted her.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/MitsumeteKnight''; it's not the player character, but one of his enemies who invokes this trope to his face. [[spoiler:After you kill FinalBoss Wolfgario the Ravager in his unmasked version, Raizze Haimer, one of the winnable girls of the cast, [[TheReveal will reveal herself as his daughter and as one of the enemy generals]], [[AvengingTheVillain and will challenge you in a duel to avenge her father]]. However, [[ThePowerOfLove if she's deeply]] [[RelationshipValues in love with you]], she'll waver between her duty and her love, allowing you to save her. If she's not enough in love, [[PermanentlyMissableContent on the other hand...]]]]
* ''VideoGame/MondoMedicals'': The [[FanNickname Shouty Guy]]'s motivation for violently fighting cancer is, apparently, because [[IntentionalEngrishForFunny "a cancer took [his] father and turned him to death"]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'': In the first chapter, [[spoiler:Claus]] tries to avenge the death of [[spoiler:his mother, Hinawa]]. This is subverted at the end of the chapter, where it turns out that [[spoiler:Claus was killed as well. He gets worse.]]
* The original 1988 ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' starts with Ryu investigating the death of his father, Ken. [[spoiler:At first the game appears to subvert this trope, as Ryu later discovers that his father is still alive. However, within minutes of finding him, Ken is killed by the BigBad.]]
* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'':
** The first game:
*** Shinobu, the Rank 8 boss, seems relatively unemotional right up until Travis turns on his beam katana. When she sees that, she accuses him of having killed her father and goes ballistic. [[spoiler:He didn't. He never even met Master Jacobs, though he did watch his training video until it broke.]]
*** At the end of the game, [[spoiler:Travis learns that his sister Jeane killed his parents. If what she said is true, though, the elder Touchdown ''really'' deserved it.]]
** In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'', [[spoiler:the BigBad's main motivation is that you killed his father and two brothers [[ButForMeItWasTuesday as part of an unimportant side mission in the first game]].]]
** ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes'' has The Bad, father of Bad Girl from the first game, who wants to kill Travis for killing his daughter.
* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': Primrose is motivated by revenge against the men who killed her father when she was a child.
* This is the motivation behind Christian and Crystal Devroe's hunt for Major Kreissack in ''[[VideoGame/OneMustFall One Must Fall: 2097]]''. Come the final confrontation -- in [[HumongousMecha giant robots before a live audience]], of course -- Christian quotes Inigo Montoya verbatim. Kreissack responds with an introduction to the bigger-and-deadlier robot their father was working on...
* The line is said in ''VideoGame/{{Outlaws}}'' by Marshal Anderson to [[spoiler:Bob Graham, who's holding him at gunpoint, and gloats about finishing him off]]. In an interesting twist, the one who actually kills the villain is not Anderson but rather [[spoiler:his little daughter Sara]].
* In ''VideoGame/PerfectDark Zero'''s sixth mission, Mai Hem kills Joanna's father, Jack Dark. Jo retaliates by burning Mai Hem with her dropship's engine exhaust, although she's NotQuiteDead yet.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', [[spoiler:Ken Amada]]'s motivation for joining the party turns out to be getting vengeance on his mother's killer. [[spoiler:The "killer" turns out to be a former member of SEES, who did it by accident, has regretted it ever since, and is fully aware of Ken's motives -- in fact, he rejoins you just to give Ken a shot at dealing with him. The trope is subverted; Takaya kills him in front of Ken's eyes.]]
* A rare villain wanting revenge on the hero example happens in ''VideoGame/Pirate101'' when Rooke swears vengeance on the player after the player destroys his brother Deacon.
* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction'' makes sure to pour on the backstory for our main character. The BigBad Percival Tachyon establishes a vendetta against the Lombax species, which Ratchet is part of, as he either killed or caused all remaining Lombaxes in the universe to flee using the Dimensionator. [[spoiler:Tachyon, however, makes sure to point out that two Lombaxes stayed behind while the rest fled -- the keeper of the Dimensionator and his infant son. He tells Ratchet that he took great pleasure in killing his father, and that it was a shame that he was sent to the Solana Galaxy before Tachyon could find him, as well.]] Subverted, however, as [[spoiler:Tachyon seems to use this as more motivation than Ratchet. Ratchet plans on defeating Tachyon to take back the Dimensionator and keep the galaxy safe either way, whereas Tachyon looks at killing Ratchet as a way to "finish the job". Perhaps more of a case of "I killed your father?"]]
* This is the entire main plot of ''VideoGame/RavensCry'' -- the PlayerCharacter hunting down the pirate band that murdered his family and killing every one of them.
* [[spoiler:Jack Marston hunts down and shoots Edgar Ross dead for the betrayal and murder of his father]] in the PlayableEpilogue of ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'': When Chris confesses that he was the one who murdered Jake's father, Albert Wesker, Jake flips out, holds him at gunpoint, and comes within a hair's breadth of shooting him in the face right then and there, but averts his aim at the last second, deciding that there are more pressing things to do (like escaping the underwater facility) and they'll settle it later.
* In a doujinshi of ''VideoGame/{{Rosenkreuzstilette}}'' called ''Rosenkreuzstilette Afterstory'', better known as ''Tearis'', Zorne Sepperin is extremely pissed off at [[spoiler:her adoptive sister, Iris, for having killed her adoptive father, Graf Michael Sepperin, in the first game. Not willing to forgive her for making her suffer by doing just that, she vows to eliminate her. Cue Freu trying to stop her through a heated battle involving her rage-born power, and Iris, knowing of the battle between the two, desperately asking Tia to kill her in order to truly end the chaos.]]
* Averted in ''VideoGame/RuneScape''. A villain in a major storyline ends up killing a particular hero who happens to have a daughter who is an extremely powerful warrior in her own right... yet while the villain dies in the end, it is not by her hand. Perhaps understandably, she is unhappy about this.
* In ''VideoGame/SamuraiShodown Edge of Destiny'', [[McNinja Galford D. Weiler]] personally hunts down [[TheDragon Draco]], this time around not just because the latter's evil, and [[JusticeWillPrevail the former is a champion of justice]], but also because the latter killed the former's father.
* ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'': In this case, Ryo Hazuki is after Lan Di (the series antagonist) because he killed Iwao, Ryo's father. Lan Di appears to be trying to get {{Revenge}} for someone in his and Iwao's past (apparently Iwao may have killed a close associate of Lan Di and he's settling the score), although Lan Di's interest in [[spoiler:the twin stone mirrors]] seems to be self-serving (killing Iwao as payback may have been a convenient double-whammy).
* Early into ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'', [[spoiler:a demon eats your mother and disguises itself as her. After unmasking the illusion, you, your two friends, and your demons beat it into submission.]]
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/SilentHill3''. Heather desperately wants to kill her father's murderer, but said murderer dies before Heather gets the chance to exact her revenge. [[spoiler:As the player, you ''can'' give Heather her revenge, but doing so plays into Claudia's plan and allows the dark god gestating in Heather to overwhelm her for the BadEnding.]]
* A villainous example in ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishmentStarSuccessor'' Stage 6: You defeat a keeper, who suddenly spits out her offspring as she dies. The infant then [[spoiler:holds your partner hostage over a pit of lava. Upon rescuing your partner, the infant]] attacks you.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia Legends'': BonusBoss Piastol repeatedly attempts to duel Vyse to the death because she has identified him as part of a pirate band who invaded her father's ship, killed him and her little sister, and set the ship on fire. Vyse's [[ButForMeItWasTuesday seeming inability to remember this only aggravates her further]]. In reality, her father was killed by his second-in-command Ramirez (TheDragon to the current BigBad) who also sat fire to the ship, her sister survived the ordeal, and Vyse was part of a Blue Rogue crew who just happened to be passing by and tried to rescue survivors off the ship -- Vyse doesn't remember the event because he was almost killed by an unknown assailant who threw a knife at his face, scarring him for life, just as he was getting aboard (Piastol was trying to fend off the "invaders").
* In ''VideoGame/SlyCooperAndTheThieviusRaccoonus'', this is one of the title character's motives for going after the Fiendish Five: They killed his parents when he was just a child. For bonus points, he ''witnessed the murder''.
* Looking for his father's killer and avenging him is Siegfried's motivation in ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Blade]]''. [[spoiler:Subverted -- it was Siegfried himself.]]
* In ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', Arcturus Mengsk's initial reason for rebelling against the Confederacy before his desire for power fully consumed him was the assassination of his father Angus, along with his mother and little sister. It's also one of the reasons he [[spoiler:abandoned Kerrigan to the Zerg on Tarsonis. She was one of the three Ghosts the Confederacy sent, and the one who personally killed and decapitated Angus Mengsk. To top it all off, Arcturus himself gets killed years later, by the same person who killed his father]].
* In ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', Fox decides to go one-on-one with Andross because he killed his father. In the ''ComicStrip/StarFox'' comic in ''Magazine/NintendoPower'', a big part of the backstory involves Andross and the LoveTriangle that he had with Fox's father over Fox's mother. It turns out that Andross killed the mother with a car bomb that was meant for the father, and sabotaged the father's ship so that it would be lost in the Black Hole. Andross (or rather one of his ''clones'') reveals this to Fara Phoenix, TheChick of the Star Fox team, after mistaking her for Fox's long-dead mother (this came about due to Fara getting into one of Fox's mother's outfits, resulting in Fox remarking that she could be his mother's twin sister). Fox hears Andross's reveal as well and goes ''well'' beyond furious and into UnstoppableRage mode. Sporting a pair of GlowingEyesOfDoom, no less!
* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'':
** In ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'', Chun-Li wants to kill M. Bison because he killed her father.
** Juri also has parents that were killed by Bison, who also took out her eye, but really it's more done so as to give Juri more [[EvilCounterpart similarities]] to Chun-Li. In the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' story mode, she literally licks her lips when she hears the Illuminati's scheme to bring down Bison.
** T. Hawk's father was also killed by Bison, not that some of the fans care or Capcom played it up.
** Sagat killed Dan's father Go in a fight, presumably unintentionally, long before his turn to the DarkSide, and Dan swore revenge. Unfortunately, the master he found to train him, the same as Ryu and Ken's, refused to teach him if vengeance was his only motivation, leaving him half trained. When they finally meet, Sagat, seeing how screwed up vengeance made him, [[PetTheDog lets him win anyway]].
* ''VideoGame/SummertimeSaga'': The main storyline involves the Main Character finding the people responsible for his father's death and avenging him, specifically [[spoiler:Mayor Rump (who was aware of it and allowed it to happen), Dimitri (who actually committed the murder), and Raznikov Chernyshevsky (who ordered it).]]
* In the opening to ''[[VideoGame/FantasyZone Super Fantasy Zone]]'', Opa-Opa's father is killed by the Dark Menon Forces, and Opa-Opa vows to avenge him by defeating the enemy's mastermind and restoring peace to the Fantasy Zone once again.
* Done with a twist in ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars3'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration Original Generation]]'': The heroes are confronted by Lune Zoldark, daughter of Bian Zoldark, who was the BigBad of the Divine Wars. After defeating her, she immediately lets go of the grudge, as she understood [[NecessarilyEvil the circumstances]], and only attacked in the first place out of familial duty.
* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'':
** In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'', the murder of Cless's parents serves as his entire motivation for wanting to destroy the BigBad and, [[spoiler:unknown to Cless and his companions, WellIntentionedExtremist]] Dhaos. [[spoiler:After the end of the first battle with Dhaos in the past, Dhaos escapes to the future of Cless's time period. Once Dhaos escapes, Cless screams in rage that someday he'll make Dhaos pay for murdering his mother and father.]]
** Subverted by ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' where, after we learn that QuirkyMinibossSquad member Kvar was directly responsible for the death of Lloyd's mother by mutating her into a monster and [[MercyKill forcing his father to kill her]], he is instead stabbed to death by Kratos. [[spoiler:Double subverted once we learn that Kratos is Lloyd's father, and thus had a higher rating on the hierarchy of "giving this villain his KarmicDeath" -- and no, Lloyd isn't very big on killing ''him'' once he finds out.]]
** Inverted in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', where it turns out that the first boss of the game was the [[WildChild adopted mother]] of [[PsychoRangers Psycho Ranger]] [[TokenMiniMoe Arietta]]. And you really can't blow it off because it really is entirely your fault (hell, the events leading up to it were caused by the TeamPet!), even if [[ButForMeItWasTuesday For You It Was Tuesday]].
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': Mikhael, aka The Heavy Weapons Guy, has this as part of his DarkAndTroubledPast. In 1941, his counter-revolutionary father was murdered by the KGB, and he detests them for it. When they started showing up at his home, he turned his home into a GildedCage and trained his younger sisters in the art of ColdBloodedTorture so they could defend themselves.
* In ''VideoGame/TearsToTiara2'', [[TheHero Hamil]] to [[TheUsurper Izebel]], who killed his father Hasdrubal. [[spoiler:It turns out that she didn't. Hasdrubal took his own life. But before doing so he ordered Izebel to pretend as though he rebelled and she crushed it. The whole thing was to ensure Hamil's eventual rebellion would succeed.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheTiamatSacrament'': Gyle, TheDragon of Ry'jin, personally killed King Khytiel and Ilisrei, the father and mother of Xandra and Az'uar respectively. He gloats about his murders in front of the two, giving them motivation to gain enough power to kill him.
* In ''VideoGame/TombRaiderUnderworld'', Natla reveals that she killed Lara's father, as if Lara needed more reason to fight the OmnicidalManiac.
* ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'', unlike the main ''Star Wars'' classic trilogy above, plays this straight with Starkiller's father murdered by Darth Vader right in front of his very eyes; he even says the line himself during his fight against Vader. It's also strongly implied that Palpatine was also involved in Vader murdering Starkiller's father.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Valis}} II'', the BigBad Magus is the brother of Roglas, the first game's BigBad.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': "You MURDERER! You killed my brother!...I mean computer!"
* ''WebAnimation/TeenGirlSquad'': "Ckhk. She killed my dog." "Um... 'kay."

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/05/28/episode-1133-pretty-obvious-really/ One]] ''WebComic/EightBitTheater'' strip reveals that this trope is the reason [[spoiler:Sarda]] antagonizes the Light Warriors, and Black Mage in particular -- [[spoiler:he is apparently the FutureBadass version of [[ChewToy Onion Kid]], whose parents the group killed.]]
* ''Webcomic/AkumasComics'':
** Jenny Wily hates Doc Robot in large part for killing her father in cold blood [[ResignationsNotAccepted for trying to resign from]] [[LegionOfDoom the Ministry]]. The other part is she considers him an unoriginal hack when designing robots.
** The Undertaker, head of said Ministry, initially started wanting revenge for the death of his father the Sprite Eater, namely Akuma, for doing the deed. He eventually grows out of it and becomes focused on his own self-improvement and power growth.
* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'': "[[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/040914c My name is Mega Man! You killed my dog! Prepare to die!]]"
%%* In the webcomic ''Elven Lacryment'', it's the mother who is killed. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; whose mother, and by whom?)
* In ''[[Webcomic/FlintlockesGuideToAzeroth Flintlocke Vs. The Horde]]'', Rok'Tar swears revenge against Flintlocke for this very reason, oblivious of the fact that his father is an NPC who regenerates after a few minutes.
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'':
** Agatha comes across Von Pinn, who tore her foster parents to pieces in front of her. Von Pinn then brushes them off as "disposable caretakers" when Agatha tells her that she'll destroy her for it. Agatha's furious destructive response sends Von Pinn through all the floors of the castle to a hidden chamber deep beneath the basement.
** Right after Beausoleil kills [[spoiler:the Master of Paris]], his victim's daughter, who is having a rather brilliant [[TheSparkOfGenius breakthrough]], [[https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20170614 jumps to perch on an electrical orb directly behind him]]. He has a moment to register that this is bad before she destroys all of his false bodies at once, forcing him to feel all of them.
--->"THINK OF IT '''AS A FINAL MOMENT OF ''SANITY''.'''"
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Jack manages to kill [[spoiler:Dave's brother (technically biological father), John's father, and Rose's mother]]. This sends [[spoiler:Rose]] into a murderous rage to hunt him down. Much later in [S] Game Over, Rose flies into a similar rage, this time at the Condesce when she kills [[spoiler:Rose's love interest Kanaya]].
* ''Webcomic/LookingForGroup'': Lampshaded by Richard.
-->"YOU KILLED OUR FATHER!"\\
"YOU MADE HIM USE A TIRED CLICHE!"
* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'':
** The comic plays with this in one strip where it ends where the father-killer is, himself, a father, starting the process over again with his son.
** In the Justice/Atonement arcs, a man is out to avenge his parents... who died due to winter. So he decides to kill the AnthropomorphicPersonification of winter, the Ice Queen. It doesn't work, and after meeting (and sleeping with) several Anthropomorphic Personifications (of Justice, Enlightenment, Inevitability, Hope, etc.) he meets the Anthropomorphic Personification of "Easy Answers", [[spoiler:who tells him that his parents faked their deaths to get rid of him. "On account of you're a prat."]]
* ''Webcomic/OrderOfTales'': [[spoiler:Kroak confronts Gerrah, who killed his parents.]]
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
** Eugene Greenhilt (Roy's father) swore a blood oath of revenge on Xykon for killing his mentor (Eugene's own father was alive or had died of natural causes at that point, but in either case the two were estranged). However, it's utterly subverted as Eugene eventually ditches that ambition and dies of natural causes. Roy's own motivation to take out Xykon is the Blood Oath passed down from his father, but this too is subverted eventually. Roy decides that Xykon needs to die because he is an evil prick, not because of a personal vendetta.
** Belkar is confronted [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0348.html here]] by Yokyok, the son of a kobold he murdered earlier in the story. Actually a parody of the trope since, while Belkar is on the protagonists' side, he is ChaoticEvil, while Yokyok is LawfulGood but was recruited by the villains specifically because he's Belkar's opposite. Finally, it's Belkar who wins. The whole scene is a (very funny) reference to ''Film/ThePrincessBride''.
* In ''Webcomic/RustyAndCo'', the child of a much earlier ArcVillain appears, [[AvengingTheVillain bent on revenge]]. Immediately {{Subverted|Trope}} when the child's [[https://rustyandco.com/comic/level-10-39/ grievance]] turns out to be that their ''inheritance'' was destroyed in the fight that killed their parent.
* Parodied in the ''ComicStrip/ThePerryBibleFellowship'' comic "[[http://pbfcomics.com/149/ Sven's Revenge]]" in which the titular Sven thinks he's killed the shark that killed his father, only to find that the supposed distinguishing characteristic of said shark is ubiquitous to this common and widespread species.
* Parodied in ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3265#comic #3265]]: A father's ghost appears to his son demanding him to take revenge for his death. But since he died because of shoddy electrical wiring, the son has to go on a killing spree through representatives of all the different agents who were responsible for its production. Thus, the reason he gives for his murders isn't "You killed my father" but "Globalization."
* A variation in [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20010722.html this strip]] of ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'':
-->'''Gasht'g'd'g'tang:''' I'm Gasht'g'd'g'tang. Your gate-copy killed my son. Prepare to die.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Grace both learns who her father was and that Damien killed him [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2004-03-17 at the same time]].
-->'''Grace:''' He had to of been my father, and you killed him right in front of me!
* ''Webcomic/TowerOfGod'': In a special case, it is Anaak Jahad's mother that is killed (though her father is murdered alongside with her), because [[spoiler:she, as a Princess of Jahad, got into a relationship with another man]]. Years later, Anaak meets her parents' murderer on the testing grounds and goes ballistic.
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''WebComic/{{Unsounded}}'' by [[TheBrute Knock-Me-Down]]:
-->Lemme trank Junior. I got a policy of kids not watchin' me crash their parents. In ten years a '''''masked avenger''''''ll show up to ruin me day.
* In [[https://derpibooru.org/images/1264366 this]] ''[[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Celestia's]] Servant Interview'' comic, in a panel clearly building off established FridgeHorror about Tirek's magic theft, Derpy declares a desire to kill Tirek on the grounds that her father lost his life as a direct result of Tirek's actions. We even get the ''Princess Bride'' quote.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In the Improfanfic ''Literature/DarkHeartHigh'', Craig Maimsworth kills (well, lobotomizes) the monster that killed his father.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* PlayedForLaughs in one of Cake Station's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm8faI5_TTM analysis videos]] on fighting sequences in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''. The example given involves two guys -- Punch Man and Kick Man -- fighting. Punch Man's father was kicked to death by Kick Man and so now he wants to break Kick Man's legs in revenge.
* In ''WebVideo/StreetFighterTheLaterYears'', Dhalsim worries that Chun-Li won't listen to M. Bison about the tournament because he killed her father. Bison's not worried about it:
-->'''Bison:''' Oh, c'mon guys, I killed your [Dhalsim] father and yours [Vega]. And most of Zangief's extended family, it was a different time.\\
'''Zangief:''' They said that fire was an accident.
* A RunningGag in ''WebVideo/SuburbanKnights'' is [[WebVideo/TheAngryJoeShow Angry Joe]] being unable to remember Inigo Montoya's "You killed my father" line. He ends up substituting in "mother", "brother", "lawyer", and finally, "hamster". The one time he gets it right... is the time he introduces himself as Amigo Toyota.
* The motivation of two (or sort of three) of the heroes of ''WebVideo/TalesFromMyDDCampaign'' for their ItsPersonal attitude towards the evil [[FishPeople Kua-Toa]]. Little One lost his mother, Angel lost her mentor in [[MurderInc The Organization]], and Draven Rowe lost his ancestral lands (though his parents got out okay).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Parodied (like everything else) in ''WesternAnimation/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes: The Animated Series''. Facing an army of homicidal love apples, pizza shop owner Wilbur Finletter voices his rage at the global ban on tomato cultivation, which has forced him to sell tomato-free pizza: "You killed my business, prepare to die!"
* The ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' franchise:
** Towards the end of the third season of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Katara tracks down her mother's killer, intending to kill him [[spoiler:until she discovers that he is ''literally'' NotWorthKilling]]. Although nothing close to Inigo Montoya's speech is used, "[[MemeticMutation My name is Katara of the Southern water Tribe. You killed my mother. Prepare to die!]]" still eventually became a meme.
** In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', when Season 3 BigBad Zaheer apparently kills Korra's father Tonraq by airbending him off a cliff (he was rescued just in time), she is suitably enraged. When she is later taken prisoner, she swears to the Red Lotus that [[IllKillYou none of them will survive after she gets free]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'':
** In the ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'' episode "Vendetta", a villain named Ragnarok is revealed to have killed Kevin's father. Kevin quotes Inigo's famous line when he first finds Ragnarok and makes sure that Ben and Gwen don't interfere in his final confrontation with Ragnarok. The latter's ship falls apart, and [[spoiler:Kevin removes the item that kept said ship around; Ragarnok dies in space]].
** Later, in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'', [[spoiler:Charmcaster confronts the tyrannical ruler of her home dimension and killer of her father, who says, "My might has long since cowed any resistance that once dared challenge me.", to which Charmcaster replies, "Is that your way of saying you killed my father?!"]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Castlevania}}'', when Lisa is burned at the stake by the CorruptChurch, Alucard wants vengeance as much as his father {{Dracula}} does and encourages his father to kill those directly responsible for her death. However, Dracula refuses his narrow his rage, citing Lisa as TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth, and chooses to KillAllHumans instead, which Alucard takes issue with.
* Franchise/{{DCAU}}:
** Played completely straight in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond''. CorruptCorporateExecutive Derek Powers arranged to have Terry [=McGinnis's=] father killed, so Terry becomes the next Franchise/{{Batman}}, and not only gets the guy who actually did the job, but ends up nearly getting Powers killed, causing him to become his archenemy Blight. When Terry later finds out that Blight is Powers, he confronts him again in the season finale:
--->'''Blight:''' Who are you?!\\
'''Batman:''' ...You really want to know?\\
'''Blight:''' Yes!\\
'''Batman:''' You killed my father.\\
''[{{beat}}]''\\
'''Blight:''' ''[irritated]'' [[ButForMeItWasTuesday Do you have the]] ''[[ButForMeItWasTuesday slightest]]'' [[ButForMeItWasTuesday idea how]] ''[[ButForMeItWasTuesday little]]'' [[ButForMeItWasTuesday that narrows it down?!]]\\
'''Batman:''' Too bad. It's all you get.\\\
'''Terry:''' So... I made him that?\\
'''Bruce Wayne:''' You may have, in part.\\
'''Terry:''' Good.\\
''[Bruce looks at him funny]''\\
'''Terry:''' Hey, this guy had my father murdered and all he's done since is hide from the law. Well, no more hiding for Mr. Derek Powers. Now everyone can [[PowerGlows see]] what he is... [[WhatYouAreInTheDark even in the dark]].
** Elsewhere in the DCAU, ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' has AntiHero Huntress track down the man who killed her parents. However, this trope is ''prevented'' by the fact that the killer Mandragora [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes has a son]]. Once Huntress realizes this (thanks to ComicBook/TheQuestion pretty much engineering the encounter to ensure that she does), she backs down. Ironically, that same son [[spoiler:becomes a villain in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', a member of the Brain Trust]].
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. Leela, after crossing paths with some suspicious cloaked figures in the sewers of New New York, gives chase to them, as she thinks that they have information about her past or her parents. After confronting them, she comes to the conclusion that they killed her parents, with which the cloaked figures agree and prepare for her to kill them in revenge. [[spoiler:Thankfully, Fry shows up just in time to reveal that the cloaked figures ''are'' her parents.]]
* Taken UpToEleven in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' as part of its Aesop about the CycleOfRevenge: Gillecomgain killed Findlaech, Macbeth killed Gillecomgain and Duncan, and Canmore killed Macbeth, all to avenge their respective fathers.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E10FightFighters Fight Fighters]]", Rumble [=McSkirmish=]'s motivation for fighting Dr. Karate is that the latter killed his father... again. Dipper later claims that this happened to him in order to get Rumble to fight Robbie for him.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Frank Grimes's son tries to kill Homer, since Homer's idiocy indirectly killed Frank in an earlier episode.
* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS10E8MakeLoveNotWarcraft Make Love, Not Warcraft]]". After giving Stan the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Sword of a Thousand truths]] in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', Stan's father's character is mortally wounded by the episode's Player Killer antagonist, and dies a mournful death in the arms of Stan's character. Stan confronts the Player Killer dramatically with "You killed my father."
* Franchise/SpiderMan cartoons:
** A villain-on-villain example: ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheNewAnimatedSeries'' features a pair of psychic twins out for revenge on [[EgomaniacHunter Kraven the Hunter]] for the murder of their parents. Since they aren't powerful enough to take on Kraven directly, they use their powers to trick Spider-Man into believing that Kraven murdered [[LoveInterest Mary Jane]]. Kraven is very nearly killed by Spider-Man's UnstoppableRage, and only survives when Spider-Man realizes what's happening.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'':
*** Peter seems unable to interact with [[spoiler:Walter Hardy]] without showing how much he hates him for the murder of Uncle Ben, his uncle/adoptive parent.
*** A non-fatal inversion: since [[spoiler:Hardy]] [[TheAtoner refuses to break out of jail]], his daughter [[spoiler:Black Cat]] cuts ties with Peter, blaming him for the fact that her father will spend the rest of his life away from her.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In the [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS2E20DeathTrap Season]] [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS2E21R2ComeHome 2]] [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS2E22LethalTrackdown finale]], Boba Fett tracks down Mace Windu, trying to kill him for killing Boba's father Jango, with the help of another bounty hunter named Aurra Sing. The plan for killing Windu starts off with a motion-activated bomb, comes to a head with an ''entire Jedi cruiser'' being destroyed, and finally ends with Boba and Aurra trying to use hostages to get Windu's attention. Made quite impressive if you consider that Boba is eleven or twelve at the time.
* During the mostly {{Narm}}ful ''WesternAnimation/StreetFighter'' cartoon, one particularly awesome moment pops up near the end, with Chun Li attacking M. Bison because he killed her father. M. Bison coolly dodges all of the attacks, and strikes back with:
-->'''M. Bison:''' Yes, yes. I killed your father. What is it with you women anyway? ''[eyes begin glowing]'' '''[[SelfMadeOrphan I killed my father too]] and you don't hear me''' '''''whining about it!!!!'''''
:: : On top of this, he ''also'' killed Cammy's parents, giving her the same motivation as Chun-Li.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StretchArmstrongAndTheFlexFighters'', Dr. C trained [[spoiler:Riya Dashti]] to become the CyberNinja Blindstrike to help carry out revenge for the murder of Blindstrike's parents, two of Dr. C's colleagues.
* ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'':
** In the 2003 ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, the leader of the Purple Dragon gang, Hun, killed Casey Jones's father when Casey was a kid; unsurprisingly, Casey is packing a grudge against Hun and everyone wearing the Purple Dragon colors. Averted insofar as Casey refuses a couple of opportunities to kill Hun, however.
** In the [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 2012 cartoon]], Karai's hatred of Splinter aka Hamato Yoshi is because he killed her mother. [[spoiler:Except that he didn't. Unbeknownst to her, Splinter is her ''real'' father and the person who killed her mother wasn't him; it was her adoptive father the Shredder, aka Oroku Saki, who also proceeded to kidnap her to raise as a tool of revenge against Splinter. Once she learns the truth, she turns the trope's direction towards Shredder instead, though it takes until Season 4 before she can get going on coming after him.]]
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/XavierRenegadeAngel'': Xavier spends most of the first season trying to do this, completely unaware that he killed his own parents [[spoiler:or at least his father]] by accidentally burning his house down.
[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'':
** The Kaitou Kid of ''Manga/MagicKaito'' and ''Detective Conan'' has this as his driving motivation once he finds out that his father was murdered. His motives for being a PhantomThief shift away from "having fun" toward "bringing ''them'' out into the light", and we might know more about all of that if his series was more than 28 chapters long. (His Manga/DetectiveConan [[OnlySixFaces counterpart]] is after ''his'' evil organization because they killed ''[[WhodunnitToMe him]]'', instead.)

* Manchurian general Chang Hsueh-liang had his father assassinated by Japanese troops in 1928. By the time he had made his way into the KMT's military heirarchy, they were at ware with the Communist Party of China, and Japan was preparing for the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar by invading Manchuria. Wanting revenge, Chang Hsueh-liang instigated the Xi'an incident, in which he kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the KMT, who wanted to focus on fighting the CPC and ignore the Japanese. Hsueh-liang forced him to work together with the CPC to fight the Japanese, which they did. After the war, the CPC indeed did become more powerful and finally ousted the KMT, and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Hsueh-liang was remembered as a national hero in modern-day China for enabling the CPC's victory.]]

** ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'': It's only because their mother Frigga was killed that Thor and Loki unite and hunt down Malekith and Kruse together with Jane Foster. Thor burns half of Malekith's face off directly after Frigga is killed, but it's Loki who destroys Kruse, who is the one who actually killed their mother. The most tragic part is, Loki has some responsibility in his mother's death, as he pointed Kruse in the right direction to Jane, whom Frigga was protecting.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13041974/1/Sailor-John-A-Pirate-s-Vendetta Sailor John: A Pirate's Vendetta]]'', Seymour Murphy teams up with Sailor John to destroy [[WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends Thomas]] because long ago, his father was killed by a Stirling Single (Emily's class), and he's sworn revenge on the entire class, [[MisplacedRetribution regardless of whether or not they're guilty]].

*** If you think Boba Fett had it bad, Jango lost ''two'' fathers. His biological father (and his mother and sister) was murdered by a group of mercenaries, and his adoptive father who trained him to be a Mandalorian (and whom he was possibly closer to) was gunned down before his eyes by the same man who killed his original family. Needless to say, Fett devotes a great deal of time to hunting down the murderer and finally enacts vengeance in a brutal fistfight.

** In ''Superman Vol 1 #149'', ComicBook/LexLuthor manages to kill Superman. ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} captures him and brings him to the Bottle City of Kandor, where he is judged and banished to the PhantomZone. As she takes Luthor away, Kara warns a group of gangsters that while they may have succeeded in treacherously murdering her cousin, they will have to deal with ''her'' now.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13041974/1/Sailor-John-A-Pirate-s-Vendetta Sailor John: A Pirate's Vendetta]]'', Seymour Murphy teams up with Sailor John to destroy [[WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends Thomas]] because long ago, his father was killed by a Stirling Single (Emily's class), and he's sworn revenge on the entire class, [[MisplacedRetirbution regardless of whether or not they're guilty]].

* ''Anime/RingingBell'': Poor Chirin. His mother is killed by the Wolf. You can tell it's personal when a little lamb tries to kill a wolf! For extra tearjerker points, [[spoiler:when he finally succeeds, he feels no real satisfaction since the Wolf had become a surrogate father to him by that point. Chirin is also rejected by his former flock since he's even ''scarier'' than the Wolf now.]]

* In ''ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade'', Stature says this word for word to Doctor Doom when she assumes that his attack killed her newly revived father again.