History TheDogBitesBack / Literature

* Swedish writer Simona Ahrnstedt gives us a downplayed example of this in her debut novel "Överenskommelser". (It's also published in Danish as "Aegtepagten", in German as "Ein ungezähmtes Mädchen" and in Italian as "Ritratto di donna in cremisi".) The female protagonist Beatrice has been abused by her tyrannical uncle for five long years, to the point where she was forced into a marriage with Rosenschiöld, who was forty years older than her and treated women like dirt. But she gets a [[MomentOfAwesome moment of awesome]] towards the end of the story, where she gets a small revenge on her uncle. Not only does Beatrice claim the right to "his" house, which he basically had stolen from her, despite that she had inherited it from her grandmother. (What makes it even more awesome is that she sells the house to use the money for education for girls.) This leaves her uncle homeless, but do we really feel sorry for him? Beatrice also reminds him of that his daughter wants nothing more to do with him, and that even his wife has left him...

* Swedish writer Simona Ahrnstedt gives us a downplayed example of this in her debut novel "Överenskommelser". (It's also published in Danish as "Aegtepagten", in German as "Ein ungezähmtes Mädchen" and in Italian as "Ritratto di donna in cremisi".) The female protagonist Beatrice has been abused by her tyrannical uncle for five long years, to the point where she was forced into a marriage with a [[CompleteMonster complete monster]], who was forty years older than her and treated women like dirt. But she gets a [[MomentOfAwesome moment of awesome]] towards the end of the story, where she gets a small revenge on her uncle. Not only does Beatrice claim the right to "his" house, which he basically had stolen from her, despite that she had inherited it from her grandmother. (What makes it even more awesome is that she sells the house to use the money for education for girls.) This leaves her uncle homeless, but do we really feel sorry for him? Beatrice also reminds him of that his daughter wants nothing more to do with him, and that even his wife has left him...

* Swedish writer Simona Ahrnstedt gives us an example of this in her debut novel "Överenskommelser". (It's also published in Danish as "Aegtepagten", in German as "Ein ungezähmtes Mädchen" and in Italian as "Ritratto di donna in cremisi".) The female protagonist Beatrice has been abused by her tyrannical uncle for five long years, to the point where she was forced into a marriage with someone 40 years older than her who treated women like dirt. But she gets a [[MomentOfAwesome moment of awesome]] towards the end of the story, where she gets a small revenge on her uncle. Not only does Beatrice claim the right to "his" house, which he basically had stolen from her, despite that she had inherited it from her grandmother. (What makes it even more awesome is that she sells the house to use the money for education for girls.) This leaves her uncle homeless, but do we really feel sorry for him? Beatrice also reminds him of that his daughter wants nothing more to do with him, and that even his wife has left him...

* Swedish writer Simona Ahrnstedt gives us an example of this in her debut novel "Överenskommelser". (It's also published in Danish as "Aegtepagten", in German as "Ein ungezähmtes Mädchen" and in Italian as "Ritratto di donna in cremisi".) The female protagonist Beatrice has been abused by her tyrannical uncle for five long years, to the point where she was forced into a marriage with a [[CompleteMonster complete monster]], who was forty years older than her and treated women like dirt. But she gets a [[MomentOfAwesome moment of awesome]] towards the end of the story, where she gets a small revenge on her uncle. Not only does Beatrice claim the right to "his" house, which he basically had stolen from her, despite that she had inherited it from her grandmother. (What makes it even more awesome is that she sells the house to use the money for education for girls.) This leaves her uncle homeless, but do we really feel sorry for him? Beatrice also reminds him of that his daughter wants nothing more to do with him, and that even his wife has left him...

* The VillainProtagonist Alex of ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', being a rather horrific [[TheSociopath sociopath]], experiences a lot of this; toward the beginning of the book, his [[ConLang droogs]] are fed up with the way he treats them and happily [[EyeScream blind him]] and leave him to the [[PoliceBrutality police]]; the entire third act is made up of Alex being DrivenToSuicide by former victims, though it ''is'' a BungledSuicide in the end anyway. It's notable that, by the end of the book, he's still a chronic puppy-punter.

* The VillainProtagonist Alex of ''Literature/AClockworkOrange'', being a rather horrific [[TheSociopath sociopath]], experiences a lot of this; toward the beginning of the book, his [[ConLang droogs]] are fed up with the way he treats them and happily [[EyeScream blind him]] and leave him to the [[PoliceBrutality police]]; the entire third act is made up of Alex being DrivenToSuicide by former victims, though it ''is'' a BungledSuicide in the end anyway. It's notable that, by the end of the book, he's still a chronic puppy-punter.
* Swedish writer Simona Ahrnstedt gives us an example of this in her debut novel "Överenskommelser". (It's also published in Danish as "Aegtepagten", in German as "Ein ungezähmtes Mädchen" and in Italian as "Ritratto di donna in cremisi".) The female protagonist Beatrice has been abused by her tyrannical uncle for five long years, to the point where she was forced into a marriage with a [[CompleteMonster complete monster]], who was forty years older than her and treated women like dirt. But she gets a [[MomentOfAwesome moment of awesome]] towards the end of the story, where she gets a small revenge on her uncle. Not only does Beatrice claim the right to "his" house, which he basically had stolen from her, despite that she had inherited it from her grandmother. (What makes it even more awesome is that she sells the house to use the money for education for girls.) This leaves her uncle homeless, but do we really feel sorry for him? Beatrice also reminds him of that his daughter wants nothing more to do with him, and that even his wife has left him...

* Swedish writer Simona Ahrnstedt gives us an example of this in her debut novel "Överenskommelser". (It's also published in Danish as "Aegtepagten", in German as "Ein ungezähmtes Mädchen" and in Italian as "Ritratto di donna in cremisi".) The female protagonist Beatrice has been abused by her tyrannical uncle for five long years, to the point where she was forced into a marriage with a [[CompleteMonster complete monster]], who was forty years older than her and treated women like dirt. She gets a small revenge: She claims the right to a house, which her uncle had basically stolen from her. (What makes it even more awesome is that she sells the house to use the money for education for girls.)

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* Twoflower to Lord Hong in ''Discworld/{{InterestingTimes}}''. It would have ended quite badly for him too, if it weren't for the UU faculty.

* TwoFlower to Lord Hong in ''Discworld/{{InterestingTimes}}''. It would have ended quite badly for him too, if it weren't for the UU faculty.

--->""Fool! Aye, I was a fool, an oaf, an idiot, an' all those things you said I was. That's because I took up with you, cap'n, you're bad all through, you'll never change, that's why I gotta do this. Sorry, Cap'n!"

** The aforementioned hobbits stuck Grí­ma full of arrows as soon as he killed Saruman and started his escape, most likely as payback for Wormtongue's murder of Lotho Sackville-Baggins, Frodo's kinsman and fellow accomplice.

* In Creator/CSLewis's ''PrinceCaspian'', Miraz is baited into fighting a duel with Peter by the noblemen Glozelle and Sopesian, and he calls them cowards for trying to get him to refuse. When Miraz falls in the duel, Glozelle stabs him where he lies, supposedly for the insult (though he and Sopesian had been hoping Miraz would die from the beginning).

* The BelisariusSeries. The good guys are triumphant, but the evil Malwa emperor and the real BigBad have escaped with the Big Bad plotting how to try again...only for the emperor to be recognized and the pair captured by a team of Malwa assassins who've spent the entire book helplessly trying to catch their target, the Roman Emperor, had given up and were trying to find somewhere to hide from the new regime. Until they recognize an opportunity to make a nice payday for capturing a wanted man.

** In the play, Beatty is reading in his secret library and the Hound appears. It is strongly hinted that he called it on himself.

* In ''Literature/{{Kraken}}'', Paul, the unwillingly host of the magical mob boss known as the Tattoo (who is a literal talking tattoo inked onto Paul's back), finally tires of being forced to participate in crimes and murders and repeatedly being threatened, and [[spoiler: stabs the Tattoo's chief enforcer to death, escapes his men, and has Tattoo's mouth sewn up]].

* Grima Wormtongue of Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' turned on Saruman after one taunt and demand too many -- and after [[IronWoobie Frodo]] had deliberately spared both their lives and ordered the other hobbits to do the same.
** The aforementioned hobbits stuck Grima full of arrows as soon as he killed Saruman and started his escape, most likely as payback for Wormtongue's murder of Lotho Sackville-Baggins, Frodo's kinsman and fellow accomplice.
** Note that this karmic death was apparently so appealing that even though the entire section leading up to it was left out of the movie, the back-stab was transplanted onto Saruman's Tower. Grima is similarly killed by the heroes, possibly to keep him from killing Saruman, just a second too late.

* Azhdeen the dragon in MelanieRawn's ''[[DragonPrince Sunrunner's Fire]]'' is being controlled by BigBad Ruval. Pol releases Azhdeen and things go badly for Ruval.

* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' - ''Magyk'': The constant mistreatments in the Young Army prompted Boy 412 at a HeelFaceTurn and helping the Heaps at escaping from the Hunter and the Custodian Guards.

** In one of the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' books, [[BiggerBad The Council of Thirteen]] sends a warrior known as The Inspector to evaluate [[BigBad Visser Three's]] progress in trying to TakeOverTheWorld. The Inspector spends the whole book mocking and belittling the Visser. Eventually, Marco turns into a cobra and bites him. The dying Inspector begs for help, only for Visser Three to mock him and leave.

*** Also used with Kord's ultimate fate. After Isana leaves him there, his other victim, an axe-crazy water witch he had drugged and repeatedly raped shows up. She proceeds to hang the scalps of Marat warriors on him, before telling him that Marat are searching the building for their foes, and that they will do /unpleasant/ things because he has scalps of their people. She leaves, and the Marat show up shortly afterwards.

* Maurice from ''{{Malevil}}'' is an unwilling recruit in Vilmain's bandit army. He defects to Malevil the night before the battle and he's the one who kills Vilmain in the end.

*** Less ambiguous example in Furies of Calderon-Isana, in a final and desperately one-sided showdown with Kord (who has basically spent the entire book being an utter bastard to everything with a pulse), actually manages to cripple him. Kord demands that she finish the job, but she opts not to; she'd rather he be forced to face justice with an outside that reflects his personality. Or to put it another way, helpless and covered in feces. She enjoys telling him so perhaps a little too much.

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* Seen in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' when Sandor Clegane finally gets sick of working for the Lannisters, who've treated him with no lack of disdain and disrespect, and deserts. This particular instance is also humorously in keeping with the Trope name, given that Sandor is better known as "the Hound" / "Joffrey's dog" and even cites his reason for leaving as, "Even a dog gets tired of being kicked." Might edge into BodyguardBetrayal but that he doesn't take any action against ''Joff'' specifically and instead starts opposing the Lannisters in general.

* In one of the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' books, [[BiggerBad The Council of Thirteen]] sends a warrior known as The Inspector to evaluate [[BigBad Visser Three's]] progress in trying to TakeOverTheWorld. The Inspector spends the whole book mocking and belittling the Visser. Eventually, Marco turns into a cobra and bites him. The dying Inspector begs for help, only for Visser Three to mock him and leave.

* In the final arc of ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' [[BigBad Visser One]] finds himself betrayed by his security chief [[SmugSnake Tom]]. Guess he should've promoted him when he had the chance.

* Grima Wormtongue of Creator/JRRTolkien's ''TheLordOfTheRings'' turned on Saruman after one taunt and demand too many -- and after [[IronWoobie Frodo]] had deliberately spared both their lives and ordered the other hobbits to do the same.

* Subverted in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''{{Foundation}}'' trilogy: Cornered by the Mule, an agent of the Second Foundation frees a Brainwashed victim and points out there is no way he can both stop the agent and keep his victim from killing him. When the Mule agrees to his terms, the agent allows him to Brainwash the victim again.
* In Creator/CSLewis's ''[[{{Narnia}} Prince Caspian]]'', Miraz is baited into fighting a duel with Peter by the noblemen Glozelle and Sopesian, and he calls them cowards for trying to get him to refuse. When Miraz falls in the duel, Glozelle stabs him where he lies, supposedly for the insult (though he and Sopesian had been hoping Miraz would die from the beginning).

* [[FateoftheJedi Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi]]: In ''Vortex'', [[spoiler: Lord Taalon beats Vestara twice. Later, when it becomes apparent that he's turning into an EldritchAbomination, she [[IntheBack cuts him open from behind]].]]
* At the end of the ''{{Redwall}}'' book ''Lord Brocktree'', Ungatt Trunn, his back broken, lies helpless on the shore, the tide about to pull him out to sea. As another animal comes up to him, he begs for help... but then realizes it's his former fortune-teller, the fox Groddil, whom Trunn had crippled and routinely mocked. Groddil shoves him into the sea and gives one last mocking proclamation as Trunn drifts hopelessly away.

* After having [[TraumaCongaLine his work sabotaged, his wife desert him, his friends vanished without a trace, his great attempt seemingly ruined, and having been forced to burn down his own house]], all while his enemy gloats at him and tells him how they're NotSoDifferent, it is immensely satisfying to see Montag in ''{{Fahrenheit 451}}'' turn his fire-spraying hose on Captain Beatty, especially for the look on his face in TheMovie.
-->'''Beatty''': [[OhCrap M-Montag! Like you w-would really]]...''aaaaaiiiiiggghhh!''

* EdgarAllanPoe used this one with his characteristic flair in "[[http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/eapoe/bl-eapoe-hop.htm Hop-Frog]]"

* Early in ''[[RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms The Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'', Lu Bu betrays and kills the warlord Dong Zhuo, his adoptive father-figure who had, up until that point, [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal been increasingly short-fused and abusive to him]]. It helps that Dong Zhuo was [[MurderTheHypotenuse the hypotenuse]] in an unfolding LoveTriangle that involved the two men and the pretty concubine with whom Lu Bu was in love.

* DavidWeber does this for a exceedingly well earned KarmicDeath for [[OmnicidalManiac Saint-Just]], when [[AntiHero Thomas Theisman]] ends his regime of terror. [[MadeOfWin Last line of the book when he breaks into his office and Saint-Just mocks him:]]

* At the end of ''HarryPotter'', seemingly loyal Death Eater Narcissa Malfoy seizes the opportunity to help Harry fake his own death, thereby almost single-handedly ruining Lord Voldemort's final attempt to return to power. This is a bit of LaserGuidedKarma, as Voldemort had alienated Narcissa by treating her son Draco as more or less cannon fodder.
** The end of that series pretty much served as a "bit 'em if you want 'em" moment for put upon characters, especially in the huge battle at the end. A notable example is when the House Elves join in, lead by Kreacher. It has been established that Death Eaters basically consider House Elves to be silly inferior servants and make them do all sorts of horrible things. It was also revealed earlier that Voldemort used Kreacher to test a terrible potion to hide the horcrux locket. Another House-Elf example would be Dobby, who goes back to the Malfoy Manor (where it was established that he lived in fear and pain as a servant) to save Harry and his friends. While there, he drops a chandelier on Bellatrix and disarms Narcissa before angrily telling them that he's not under the Malfoy family's control and will save Harry if he pleases.

* Lady Aquitaine manages a two-for-one in ''[[CodexAlera Captain's Fury]]'': in disguise and unrecognized, she's first taken hostage by her former ally she'd discarded as useless as he tries to flee from Tavi's forces, and then is killed by her (former) spy Fidelis as collateral damage when he assassinates said ally.

* Seen in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' when Sandor Clegane finally gets sick of working for the Lannisters, who've treated him with no lack of disdain and disrespect, and deserts. This particular instance is also humorously in keeping with the Trope name, given that Sandor is better known as "the Hound" / "Joffrey's dog" and even cites his reason for leaving as, "Even a dog gets tired of being kicked." Might edge into BodyguardBetrayal but that he doesn't take any action against ''Joff'' specifically and instead starts opposing the Lannisters in general.

* In ''FevreDream'', an early novel by [[GeorgeRRMartin the author of the above]], VampireVannabe Sour Billy Tipton spends the whole book playing TheDragon and TheRenfield to Damon Julian, convinced that he's to be rewarded with immortality. Mortally wounded at the end, he begs Julian to save him by completing the change, and Julian just laughs at him and admits that the whole deal was a lie. Billy's rebuttal is a knife through Julian's eye.

* ''VoyageOfTheJerleShannara'': In ''Morgawr'', Elven Prince [[TheWoobie Ahren Elessedil]], who'd already gone through a serious case of BreakTheCutie, goes through shattering psychological and mental torture at the hands of [[BigBad The Morgawr's]] [[TheDragon Dragon]], [[LizardFolk Mwellret leader]] [[SmugSnake Cree Bega]]. By the end Ahren has almost no self-respect left, and is alone on a ship when Cree Bega comes on board, murders his one companion, [[JustBetweenYouAndMe tells him]] about the Mwellrets' [[KickTheDog torture]] of his crush, demands the books of magic from him and then attacks. Ahren just barely manages to man up and [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice skewer]] the slippery bastard, who's had it coming for almost three books now. Easily Ahren's CrowningMomentOfAwesome, and one of the most affirming moments in an otherwise ShootTheShaggyDog story.

* In [[ModernTalesOfFaerie Tithe]], after [[spoiler:Kaye poisons Nephamael with iron nails from her boots]], Corny, who he'd been keeping like a [[PetHomosexual pet]] for the past few chapters, grabbed a nearby knife and stabbed him over and over again.

* In {{Kraken}}, Paul, the unwillingly host of the magical mob boss known as the Tattoo (who is a literal talking tattoo inked onto Paul's back), finally tires of being forced to participate in crimes and murders and repeatedly being threatened, and [[spoiler: stabs the Tattoo's chief enforcer to death, escapes his men, and has Tattoo's mouth sewn up]].

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