History TheDogBitesBack / Literature

* God bless Emilia of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' fame, exposing her husband Iago for the scum he is. True, it doesn't turn out well for her, but considering she knew how he would react, she's definitely BadAss. She even has a smaller one ''before'' that, when she tells Iago off for thinking that she'd cheat on him with Othello. Keep in mind that Iago is a paranoid bugger who spends most of the play suspecting everyone of sleeping with his wife. Emilia is the only person who actually realizes and confronts him on this.

* This is the main plot of ''Mice'' by Gordon Reece. The main characters are a timid, sensitive, conflict-averse teenage girl and her equally timid mother, who quietly endure extreme school bullying, spousal abuse, and workplace harassment until finally a burglar who breaks into their house and threatens them with rape and murder pushes them too far, and they discover that they are just as capable of violence and savagery as any other human being.

* This is the main plot of ''Mice'' by Gordon Reece. The main characters are a timid, sensitive, conflict-averse teenage girl and her equally timid mother, who quietly endure extreme school bullying, spousal abuse, and workplace harassment until finally a burglar who breaks into their house pushes them too far, and they discover that they are just as capable of violence and savagery as any other human being.

* In the ''Film/DollarsTrilogy'' tie-in novel ''A Dollar to Die For'', Tuco, after being abducted by Apaches, is re-kidnapped by outlaw Pinky Roebuck and tortured to starvation on where he buried the gold that the Count de Cabronet was going to use to save Maximilian I. As soon as they reach the gold, however, [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Tuco turns the tables and ties the treacherous truant to a tree]], camps out by his captive, revitalising himself with the food from the saddlebags, and leaves him there. This isn't the last he sees of him, though.

* Literature/TheRadix: The Knight's plans of becoming the leader of the Knights of Malta was foiled not by heroes, but by a mere bum who recognized him as his pal's abductor and reported to authorities.

* [[TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]] dies in this way in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse - his Noghri bodyguard Rukh, finally realizing that the Empire has been poisoning his homeworld instead of helping the clean-up process as they say, [[BodyguardBetrayal stabs him in the back]].
--> '''Thrawn:''' ''[[FamousLastWords But... it was so artistically done]].''
* [[Literature/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]].]]

* In ''[[{{Literature/Flashman}} Flash for Freedom!]]'' the evil slaver captain John Charity Spring is [[spoiler: shot in the back by a half-addled crew member he'd previously viciously whipped. Admittedly, the captain had good reasons to be angry with the fool, but still...]]

* Early in ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', 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.
** Lu Bu does not learn from his own experience. Mistreating his generals causes many of them to defect during the siege of Xia Pi. One steals his famous horse [[CoolHorse Red Hare]], while two others steal his weapon and bind him while he's sleeping.

* At the end of ''Literature/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.

** A darker example would be Kreacher who after constant abuse by Sirius Black, eventually starts working for someone else and finally deceives Harry into going to the Department of Mysteries room. Indirectly Kreacher [[spoiler:got Sirius killed at the hands of Bellatrix.]]
* God bless Emilia of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' fame, exposing her husband Iago for the scum he is. True, it doesn't turn out well for her, but considering she knew how he would react, she's definitely BadAss.
** She even has a smaller one ''before'' that, when she tells Iago off for thinking that she'd cheat on him with Othello. Keep in mind that Iago is a paranoid bugger who spends most of the play suspecting everyone of sleeping with his wife. Emilia is the only person who actually realizes and confronts him on this.

* Katsa from ''{{Graceling}}'' has the Grace (enhanced ability) of death, and is used by her uncle, King Randa, as an enforcer- he sends her to kill criminals and torture those who defy his orders. Katsa founded the Council, an organization who help civilians who are persecuted by others, and grows a sense of morality through her actions as the founder... meaning that when Randa sends her to force a disobedient lord to send him one of his daughters (another lord asked Randa for help in finding a wife, and Randa asked the first lord, who had two daughters each with a large dowry; the understanding was that Randa would get the dowry and the second lord would get the bride) the lord refused. Katsa realises that this is probably one of the worst things that Randa has ever asked her to do (in fact, she says that had someone else been sent to torture the lord into giving up one of his daughters, the Council would have sent someone to stop them), so she refuses to do so and when Randa attempts to have her thrown in his dungeon, she gives him a ShutUpHannibal speech and leaves the country.

** Also seen with [[spoiler: Lancel Lannister]], who King Robert treats as a general dogsbody, humiliating and insulting him wherever possible. [[spoiler: This doesn't end well for Robert.]]

* At the end of the DaleBrown novel ''Edge of Battle'', [[spoiler: Zakharov gets killed by a sheriff who he had shot InTheBack earlier.]]

* RoaldDahl's ''The Enormous Crocodile'' has the titular character's abuse of his fellow jungle animals coming back to, well, bite him. One of these animals, Trunky the elephant, repays the favour by grabbing him and [[HurlItIntoTheSun throwing him into the Sun]].

* In the ''DollarsTrilogy'' tie-in novel ''A Dollar to Die For'', Tuco, after being abducted by Apaches, is re-kidnapped by outlaw Pinky Roebuck and tortured to starvation on where he buried the gold that the Count de Cabronet was going to use to save Maximilian I. As soon as they reach the gold, however, [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Tuco turns the tables and ties the treacherous truant to a tree]], camps out by his captive, revitalising himself with the food from the saddlebags, and leaves him there. This isn't the last he sees of him, though.

* In the ''DollarsTrilogy'' tie-in novel ''A Dollar to Die For'', Tuco is kidnapped by outlaw Pinky Roebuck and tortured to starvation on where he buried the gold that the Count de Cabronet was going to use to save Maximilian I. As soon as they reach the gold, however, [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Tuco turns the tables and ties the treacherous truant to a tree]], camps out by his captive, revitalising himself with the food from the saddlebags, and leaves him there. This isn't the last he sees of him, though.

* In one of Creator/SimonRGreen's ''Hawk and Fisher'' tales, a corrupt politician who'd engineered a campaign of mayhem against his opponent and everyone who'd dared support his rival is killed, not by the heroes or any of the other Badass killers and traitors on either side of the election, but by the mousy, terrified wife he'd been beating for years, who seized the moment of his downfall to stab him thirty or forty times.

* RoaldDahl's ''The Enormous Crocodile'' has the titular character's abuse of his fellow jungle animals coming back to, well, bite him. One of these animals, Trunky the elephant, repays the favour by grabbing him and [[HurlItIntoTheSun throwing him into the Sun]].

* Swedish writer Simona Ahrnstedt gives us a downplayed example of this in ''Literature/{{Overenskommelser}}''. 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 man, 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...

* In JackChalker's ''Four Lords of the Diamond'' series, the antagonist had captured one of the four mental clones (mind-wiped criminals with the agent's personality and memory imprinted on them) of the agent sent to stop him and had changed him into a female sex-slave. He brings her to a face to face meeting with the agent in order to gloat...only for the agent to utter a [[BrownNote trigger phrase]] that causes her to assassinate the villain.

* 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.

* At the end of the ''Literature/{{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.
** ''Redwall'' example #2: In ''Mattimeo'', Malkariss is killed by the slaves he had forced to build his kingdom.
** ''Redwall'' example #3: ''Triss'' ends with the titular squirrel to free all of the others she was enslaved with. Just for effect, she does it in the ship of the girl who was chasing her... [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome and tosses said hunter's dead body off said ship before charging the guards]].
** ''Redwall'' example #4: Captain Slipp kills the badger mother Mellus, steals a silver cup, and flees. Blaggut, his ex-bosun, follows him, but cries his eyes out all night because he liked Mellus and he wanted to settle in the Abbey. Slipp physically and verbally assaults Blaggut, as he had done repeatedly throughout the book, but this time Blaggut gets up and strangles Slipp with an [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome impressive]] "fuck you" speech:
--->""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, [[ShootTheDog that's why I gotta do this. Sorry, Cap'n!]]"
** ''Redwall'' example #5 (get the idea that Brian Jacques likes this trope?): Ublaz's pet coral snake which he controls through hypnosis bites him when he treads on it while swordfighting Martin the Second.
** Redwall Example # 6: Gabool the Wild is killed by the scorpion he captured a long while ago and constantly taunted.

* In the ''Literature/{{Hurog}} duology, there is the fact that Fenwick dies by being thrown by his horse, whom he mistreated beforehand. Then, there is [[spoiler: Garranon]], who is officially loyal to the king, but keeps helping rebels, and Haverness, a very honest man, who was finally fed up with the king's negligence of duty and started to do things (like, raising armies) without the king's consent. [[spoiler: At the end, Garranon, who had been kept as a kind of SexSlave pet by king Jakoven, gets to kill Jakoven, which greatly surprises the latter.]]

* In ''[[{{Flashman}} Flash for Freedom!]]'' the evil slaver captain John Charity Spring is [[spoiler: shot in the back by a half-addled crew member he'd previously viciously whipped. Admittedly, the captain had good reasons to be angry with the fool, but still...]]

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

* 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.
* This trope is pretty much the entire plot of Stephen King's ''{{Carrie}}''. That is one dog that bites back hard.

* God bless Emilia of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' fame, exposing her husband Iago for the scum he is. True, it doesn't turn out well for her, but considering she knew how he would react, she's as close as Shakespeare came to writing a female BadAss.

** Possibly also seen with [[spoiler: Lancel Lannister]], who King Robert treats as a general dogsbody, humiliating and insulting him wherever possible. [[spoiler: This doesn't end well for Robert.]]

* Lady Aquitaine manages a two-for-one in ''[[Literature/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.
** Unfortunately averted, actually - Lady Aquitaine was ''dying'', not dead. She was found by the BigBad, who saved her life in exchange for her services as TheDragon.

* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': The Calvarians hold captive a two-headed, partially reptilian, Warg Chimera the size of an RV near the gate of their capital, in order to remind their populace that: A: They're [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy a race of badasses.]] And, B: They were descended from [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Wargs]], and that beast needs to be kept chained. When Reynard releases it from captivity, it's more than happy to savage its former captors.

* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': The Calvarians hold captive a two-headed, partially reptilian, Warg Chimera the size of an RV near the gate of their capital, in order to remind their populace that: A: They're [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy a race of badasses. And, B: They were descended from [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Wargs]], and that beast needs to be kept chained. When Reynard releases it from captivity, it's more than happy to savage its former captors.

* Katsa from ''{{Graceling}}'' has the Grace (enhanced ability) of death, and is used by her uncle, King Randa, as an enforcer- he sends her to kill criminals and torture those who defy his orders. Katsa founded the Council, an organization who help civilians who are persecuted by others, and grows a sense of morality through her actions as the founder... meaning that when Randa sends her to force a disobedient lord to send him one of his daughters (another lord asked Randa for help in finding a wife, and Randa asked the first lord, who had two daughters each with a large dowry (the understanding was that Randa would get the dowry and the second lord would get the bride) to choose a daughter to send him, the lord refused) Katsa realises that this is probably one of the worst things that Randa has ever asked her to do (in fact, she says that had someone else been sent to torture the lord into giving up one of his daughters, the Council would have sent someone to stop them), so she refuses to do so and when Randa attempts to have her thrown in his dungeon, she gives him a ShutUpHannibal speech and leaves the country.

* In GrahamMcNeill's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} novel ''Storm of Iron'', a daemon decides to possess Larana Utorian, instead of the Berserker holding her captive. It lures her in with promises of {{Revenge}} -- which she does get.

** Those last two aren't really examples. The snake biting Ublaz seemed more out animal instinct than anything else; and the scorpion only killed Gabool after the heroes ''threw it'' onto Gabool. It then immediately tries to kill them as well.

* Swedish writer Simona Ahrnstedt gives us a downplayed example of this in her debut novel "Överenskommelser". 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 man, 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". 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...