Warning: Due to this trope's nature, expect to encounter spoilers here.
Adaptational Karma in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- The Boys: Real Justice: Thanks to Herogasm being busted by the Justice League, The TNT Twins were arrested and sent to Stryker's Island.
- Child of the Storm: While Vernon and Petunia Dursley suffered misfortunes because of Harry's magic, they were never punished for their abusive action and left a story to hide in a safe house. At the same time, it's implied that they will never see Harry again. In this story, they are threatened by Harry's friends and guardians; their crimes are revealed to all of England, getting them to hatred of their neighbors and all of England's citizens, and the two are arrested, where they will remain in prison for the rest of their lives.
- Code Prime: Pretty much all of Britannia is a version of this trope applied to a society of humans. Despite the various war crimes and atrocities they have committed throughout the original series, they never seem to get punished for anything, only losing some prestige, but otherwise remain intact. The fanfic manages to pull this off by introducing the various Transformers characters, all of whom can upend most of Britannia's military to no end. The Autobots, aligned with the Black Knights, manage to do more damage to the Empire than what the canonical Lelouch and Black Knights accomplish in the original series. Even when they do gain allies in the Decepticons, that faction isn't exempt from their racist treatment, an attitude that leads to them not cooperating as well compared to the Black Knights and Autobots. As the end of the R1 comes to a close, Megatron discovers the Ragnarok Connection, which fully cements his casus belli for turning against Britannia. A series of well-executed ploys by the Decepticon leader manage to end up destroying Britannia (something that Lelouch swore on his entire life to devoting) by attacking the capital while their best forces are busy fighting the Autobots and Black Knights (no doubt as a result of the Megatron-orchestrated SAZ Massacre). The royal family is held hostage and would later end up as bargaining tools, some of the nobles are imprisoned and/or killed, and the entire military being completely slaughtered (except for those who do find their atrocities unfavorable and end up switching sides) by existing Decepticon forces and later arrivals.
- Codex Equus:
- Night Terror is punished for his misdeeds and attempting to trick himself out of his well-deserved punishment in Temnobog's hell-realms when Princess Luna and Tenya teamed up to defeat him and throw him into the real world. A furious Yarost was waiting for him, having learned that Night Terror got away thanks to Ispita, Yarost's Fallen mother, and dragged him down to the hell-realms once and for all. It's rumored in-universe that he was reduced to an immortal plaything for Yarost to torment.
- In Story of the Blanks, the Sunnytowners were turned into zombies for murdering an innocent filly, though exactly what caused the curse is ambiguous. Here, it's stated that the curse was of divine nature - Pakak had been attending the party disguised as a pony when he witnessed the murder of Ruby Heart and was so enraged that he cursed the entire town until they repented for their crimes.
- In Dead Silence, Mary Shaw wins in the end and escapes without punishment. Her Captain Ersatz Bitter Thicket, on the other hand, is tracked down by Maud Pie, her sister Pinkie Pie, and the Black Herons after the events of the film. They proceed to defeat her, at which point she is Dragged Off to Hell by Malus Manes and the spirits of her victims.
- Dreaming Mary:
- Boaris isolated his daughter, Mary, in her own bedroom and sexually abused her for years. He was also implied to have been responsible for the deaths of his wife, Mary's mother, as well as her uncle Penn Guindel, her tutor, and her maid. The Golden Ending has Mary finally escape captivity by herself, but it's ambiguous whether it was real or she imagined it, while Boaris continues to abuse her. Here, Sweet Words' crimes are made explicit, but they would catch up to him when Terran Princes Bright Eyes and Written Word heard Rosy Dreams' telepathic calls for help, with the spirits of Sweet Words' murder victims either guiding Bright Eyes and Written Word to Sweet Words' home or seeking out authority figures in the area to help apprehend him. This led to Sweet Words being imprisoned for life for homicide and child abuse/molestation after his arrest, allowing his victims to rest in peace knowing their abuser/killer was finally caught.
- The Chaser terrorizes Mary and pursues her when she tries to escape the dream world, letting out an incredibly terrifying Nightmare Face once Mary is captured. While Mary successfully escapes in the game's Golden Ending, it's left ambiguous whether she truly escaped or merely dreamed of herself doing it, and the Chaser faces no punishment for his actionsnote . Here, after sadistically abusing Rosy Dreams and putting her in a coma on Sweet Words' orders, he eventually meets his end when Rosy, upon witnessing the Chaser kill Mr. Penguin for defying him, gets angry enough to retaliate by unleashing a large burst of psychic energy. The Chaser is killed by the attack, upon which Rosy is able to wake up from her coma in the real world.
- In Stephen King's short story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", all the dead rockstars trap anyone who wanders into the town Rock and Roll Heaven and force them to attend an endless series of concerts for eternity - all For the Evulz. And they amputate the finger of one inhabitant when she tries helping two of their would-be victims escape, leading to a Downer Ending. In the Codexverse, all the wicked celebrities who did similar things were hunted down, cornered, and brought to justice by various Death deities and their allies in an event called the 'Applewood Rescue'.
- Elements of Justice: A Hollow Diamond
is a story that takes place after the end of Case 2 of Elements of Justice. While Diamond Tiara originally faced nothing more than a grounding for how she'd set the tragic events of that case into motion, her parents reveal here that they're tired of dealing with such a Spoiled Brat. Word of what her greed and callousness caused has spread throughout Ponyville, leaving her widely despised; Silver Spoon's parents have forbidden their daughter from spending any more time with her, and she's being shipped off to a correctional school in Canterlot. - Infinity Train: Blossomverse: Discussed and Played With. The author notes for Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily Chapter 10 says that while Grace Monroe did lose a lot in Book 3 (namely she lost a motherly figure in Tuba, a sisterly bond with Hazel, and her best friend Simon), Green Phantom Queen felt like Grace Monroe got off too easy. Because she most likely injured and crippled numerous denizens for 8 years, and led a cult of children that followed her words without caring for the consequences who worshiped her because of a simple lie of her being the total expert on the Train. And considering the size of her number, she had done a lot, her simply snapping the others out with her admitting the truth about the Conductor wasn't enough to fix everything. Hence Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail ends with the Apex disbanded, never wanting anything to do with her again, and she must take a walk of shame as she reflects on the things she could have done if she wasn't such an arrogant, haughty bitch. And then Infinity Train: Voyage of Wisteria ups this by revealing that she died and was reincarnated.
- The Cat pretty much gets away with the fact that she abandoned Simon to save her own skin and never came back for him nor did she ever tell him what numbers meant despite having knowledge of it. The confession of her cowardice is live-streamed to the entire Train, so now everyone knows that the biggest thorn in their sides is indirectly her fault.
- Poké Sisters: The postgame of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon pits the player against alternate versions of all the main antagonists of past titles, whose evil plans had succeeded in their home worlds. Originally, the only karma they face is being beaten by the protagonist and booted back to their own realities; here, every villain discovers upon returning to their original universe that their reign of terror has ended. Specifically, Archie, Maxie, and Lysandre see their plans get undone by the Legendary Pokémon opposite of the one they used before getting confronted by another (Rayquaza for the first two, Zygarde for Lysandre); Cyrus finds his universe unchanged and gets confronted by Giratina; Ghetsis finds himself faced with Looker of the International Police, N, and numerous other Trainers; and it's implied by Scarlett (who knocked him out and stole his notes on universe teleportation) that the police are waiting for Giovanni. Additionally, Faba — who assisted the villains with the takeover — ends up in jail for what he did, compared to the practical slap on the wrist he got in canon.
- In Prehistoric Park/Walking with… crossover Prehistoric Earth, Original Character Cynthia Night was a run-of-the-mill Alpha Bitch who managed to act like a major Jerkass to a large number of the other characters in the story even before she was revealed to be a Good Is Not Nice spy hired by the story's Big Good to try to foil the efforts of a more villainous spy hired by the story's hidden Big Bad. And despite going so far as to be perfectly willing to blatantly risk obstructing subsequent efforts at foiling the villains' plans altogether by choosing to keep the truth about her spy work and how she'd roped fellow Prehistoric Earth employees Will and Alice into assisting her hidden even when the secret about there being an evil spy trying to sabotage the park was no longer necessary to keep a secret, she ultimately managed to get off relatively scot-free without any real comeuppance. In subsequent Continuity Reboot Prehistoric Park Reimagined, on the other hand, Cynthia ultimately finds herself very swiftly undergoing incredibly humbling events not too long after committing some of her less pleasant actions and behaviors (while ironically being considerably more sympathetic and likable in this story than her counterpart in Prehistoric Earth was).
- Tekka Dread: Rabat in the original Vandread series got no commeupance whatsoever for giving info to the harvesters about different planets, and was even accepted into the ranks of the final battle without much fanfare. In this fic, not only does Slade give him the beating of his life, but he also makes sure to send word of his shady deals to every space port possible so he won't have any place to dock. And in the end, he gets harvested by his organs, reduced to a limbless torso connected to a life support system, even begging Slade to kill him the next time they meet.
- In the Time Break Saga, Relius faces karmic retribution for all the crimes he committed throughout the BlazBlue series when Lambda and Nu successfully kill him.
- In Titanus Normandy, Alan Jonah is killed by Commander Shepard while setting Ghidorah free.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds A Live: Streibough and Alethea are both at front in fault for causing the birth of Odio and destruction of Lucrece. The former manipulated events that led Oersted to kill the King of Lucrece and he never admits that he messed up. The latter refused to listen to Oersted over what happened and would rather kill herself to be with her "beloved" Streibough instead of believing that the sorcerer is at fault for so much tragedy. While the game never reveals if anyone in Lucrece ever finds out, Oersted revealed the truth in the prologue, (unintentionally) making the smallfolk despise the sorcerer and princess for indirectly causing their deaths.
- Jaeger got away with tempting Jack to cause the events that led Rally to be tied in a boat and Yusei to swim after him, giving Jack the opportunity to steal Yusei's D-Wheel and Stardust Dragon Card. Here, due to the fact that this story has Yusei dead from this stunt, Jaeger gets thrown out of a building by a Dark Signer Yusei and Crow has devoured the souls of Jaeger's wife and son, putting them under his command.
- You Blew It Finn centers around Princess Bubblegum reading Finn the riot act for his actions throughout "Frost and Fire" and "Too Old", spelling out all the consequences of his reckless actions. She ultimately bans him from the Candy Kingdom for a week, declaring that the main reason why she's decided not to banish or imprison him is because she knows Marceline is also gunning for him after how he kept setting Flame Princess on the Ice King for his own amusement, with the ending implying he's about to get a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from the furious vampire.
- Living in a Frog World: In the canon episode "Toad Tax", Mayor Toadstool got off scot-free for hiding the town's taxes. In the episode's retelling, he gets shot in the butt with an arrow by Anne.
- Loyalty Among Worlds: In the show, Mayor Toadstool gets away relatively scot-free for hiding the town's taxes, in the fanfic however Darrel starts a small fire on his head.
- What It Takes: Canonically, Felicity Smoak's selfishness is constantly ignored or glossed over. Here, not only is it openly acknowledged once her actions come to light, it ends up costing her everything — her friends, her job, and above all else, the relationship with Oliver that she wanted so badly.
- Vow of the King:
- In canon, Uryu suffered no consequences for using Hollow bait and risking everyone in Karakura Town. Here, Ichigo breaks both his legs for it after the fact and admits to himself he probably would have killed Uryu if anyone had died because of his actions.
- Canon Mayuri Kurotsuchi got away with all the horrible things he did and is still alive by the events of the Howls from the Jaws of Hell arc. Vow of the King Mayuri gets what he deserves at the hands of Ichigo, who vaporizes him with a point-blank Tenka-Ichiken.
- In The Butterfly Effect, Mayu's stepfather does not get away with his sexual abuse of her. Kaede and Kohta are so horrified and disgusted that, after punching him out and knocking some teeth loose, Kohta steps outside and does nothing as Kaede beats him to a pulp before using her vectors to destroy the hypothalamus in his brain, utterly ruining his health and causing multiple organ failure that he will have to shell out small fortunes in medical bills to take care of.Kaede: Hope he enjoys the rest of his miserable life.
- Family Guy Fanon has a few bits where someone who got away with evil gets their comeuppance.
- Meg gets an expanded bit of it in "Love Thy Trophy". While she did get some karma in the original episode by being forced to give the purse up so they can get Stewie back, she was never told off for her actions in the episode, and Lois never said anything, despite the seriousness of what Meg had done. In this episode, it adds an extended scene where Lois scolds Meg over her putting her own selfish desires over her little brother, grounds her for a month, and tells her she's going to clear things up with everyone. Including at Flappy Jack's. She also gets fired from Flappy Jack's because of that.
- Brian gets hit hard with on in "Play it Again, Brian". With him now losing his friendship with Peter due to him trying to hit on his wife.
- "April in Quahog" has Channel 5 getting heat for the whole "black hole" prank and the building being attacked by angry Quahog residents.
- Peter and the whole family gets some of this in "Brian the Closer". While in the original, Peter got away with messing up Brian's face and when Brian begged the family for help, they all but laughed in his face. Here, instead of tricking Quagmire into buying a rundown condo, he tricks the Griffins instead. In fact, Quagmire helps Brian in his scheme.
- Meg gets an expanded bit of it in "Love Thy Trophy
- The Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans one-shot Ghost of Tekkedan delivers this to Gjallarhorn as a whole, who in canon won the war against Tekkadan and escaped all consequences for their atrocities, with only a handful of members and associates like Iok and Nobliss getting killed for it. This fic takes place after Ride assassinated Nobliss and depicts him assassinating Rustal, Julietta, and Gaelio for their roles in the conflict and several other prominent members offscreen, and the ending states that Gjallarhorn "had lost its purpose in the new world and would therefore fade into nothing."
- Similarly, Resting in the arms of a devil has Rustal Killed Offscreen by a Dainslief — the very same weapon he used to demolish Tekkadan in canon — while the rest of Gjallarhorn's Seven Stars, deprived of their most valuable asset, promptly destroyed themselves in a vain attempt to keep their power. Instead, a Heel Face Turned Julietta takes over as chairman and promptly gets rid of what remains of the old system while extending an olive branch to Mikazuki and the rest of Tekkadan.
- In the backstory to Formerly Known as Harry Potter?, Lily's abusive uncle and aunt were arrested for child abuse and child neglect. They've been in prison for six years by the time Lily enters Hogwarts.
- Carter Blake typically gets away with abusing his position as a cop, as there are only two ways for him to get his comeuppance in-game, both with bittersweet requirements: either he loses his job by getting Ethan killed while his coworker Jayden is still alive or being haunted by Jayden through the ARI if the FBI agent dies. A number of fanfics, such as A Son's Revenge and Under Arrest, have him getting better punishments.
- Lacrime D'oro del Vento Aureo:
- Giorno's parents are killed by Thin Lizzy at the start of chapter 18. Even before then, Shiori (Giorno's mother) got some additional karma at Hitomi's hands for her actions towards Hitomi in Star-Crossed Crusaders. While Shiori was only now starting to feel regret for how she treated Giorno shortly before the events leading to her death, both her and Jacopo (Giorno's stepfather) were Hate Sinks in their own rights, especially with how Giorno wasn't the only one who had his life negatively affected by her.
- A flashback during chapter 36 has Narancia's unnamed "friend" reappear, except he's shown to look worse for wear, having fallen to drugs since Narancia last saw him, on top of still living on the streets. He tries to con Narancia again, and when he's about to pick a fight with Narancia, the result is a well-deserved beating from Fugo.Fugo: So, you're the guy who betrayed Narancia! I'll never forgive you!
- Roy Earle receives no in-game punishment for ruining Cole Phelps' life by reporting his affair with Elsa Litchmann and being indirectly responsible for his death. A number of works have him killed off to satisfy the audience, such as A Happy Ending and LA Noire 2: The Return of Cole Phelps.
- For His Own Sake may very well be dubbed Adaptational Karma: The Series as it's one long chain of karma biting the Love Hina girls in the ass by deconstructing the Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male that ran rampant in the show proper.
- Keitaro finally has enough of being treated as a punching bag by his abusive girlfriend Naru and Motoko and leaves the Hina Inn. The girls quickly proceed to fall apart without having him as a focal point for their worst qualities. Some, such as Shinobu, and Kitsune, decide to redeem themselves when their worst actions are held against them and they regret how they treated Keitaro. Others such as Naru, Motoko, Sarah, Su, and Mutsumi only grow worse as they deny any wrongdoing or blame it on "that pervert Keitaro". Keitaro himself is also held to task for his own enabling tendencies in allowing the girls to abuse him for so long. The girls who eventually fully repent such as Shinobu, Mitsune, and Motoko all gain happy endings and a renewed friendship with Keitaro. The girls who refused to change until it was too late, such as Naru, Su, Sarah, and Mutsumi, are all left with nothing to show for themselves.
- Granny Hina is denounced by her family when they see how far she's willing to go to manipulate Keitaro, even as she claims she's doing it for his own good. It's obvious she's an even worse enabler than Keitaro ever was, thanks to her allowing the Hina Inn girls to hide from their problems and do whatever they want in the toxic environment the inn became. By the end of the story she's destroyed every connection she had until she leaves Japan in shame.
- A long-deleted fanfic, Cries Unheard, gets a variation of this trope. The antagonists were explicitly dead, and that in turn was the reason Miyuki and Kagami spent the flash-forward prologue and some follow-up chapters throughout the story under police interrogation. We just never got to see said deaths play out before the fic died and was eventually deleted, until another fic, THIS IS IT!, took care of that in its place another four years later. (And their defeats were just the tail-end of a full-blown Humiliation Conga: Three of them suffer a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown hours before their actual demises, primarily by Hiyori and a few girls they never got to account for, who then reveal knowing about an arms deal they were planning and having set Yutaka free on them while they were all too busy raping and torturing Konata as their "dog", who then bites back at Kenji (part-literally). Riku and Brick are forced to retreat, and Yamato Nagamori makes good use of Brick's phone that she had swiped in order to undo all the boys' efforts to keep everyone divided. Kenji, meanwhile, betrays his accomplices for not only breaking a promise Satoshi made to him in CU, but then for killing Soujiro without him, and assists in killing them just when they think they have Miyuki, Minami, and Kagami back under their thumbs (and just moments after Satoshi was about to publish something he had been blackmailing Miyuki with, which Minami had just derailed). They are unable to fight back, and a freshly Groin Attack-ed Brick is just barely able to try to outrun a chainsaw-wielding Minami. Then, Kenji does everything in his power to escape Kagami and get away with his own part in things, and it's all for nothing. (It's also implied that their families are next, each in for an angry mob, now that some serious dirt is up on YouTube about them; even if they had won, they still wouldn't likely have much left to look forward to.))
- Miraculous Alliance:
- Audrey Bourgeois is ultimately abandoned by her family once they realize just how toxic and callous she is.
- Lila's lies were exposed right after the events of "Volpina"; as a result, nobody trusts her for a time afterwards, and she's unable to sow the same amount of discord she managed in canon. She also undergoes Adaptational Heroism once she gets over her grudge with Ladybug.
- Gabriel gets his Secret Identity exposed before Heroes' Day, and is defeated and captured during the holiday itself.
- Alan Jonah is a Karma Houdini at the end of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), with the movie's sequel and novelization hinting that his Karma Houdini Warranty hasn't expired. A number of fanworks based on the franchise have him suffering the consequences of his actions much sooner:
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon) sees him driven insane, assimilated by the Many, and finally killed by a Titan that he personally wronged.
- Hear All, Ye Who Wish to Listen has Jonah pull off a Redemption Equals Death, following the same role as Emma in the movie.
- Canonically, Bakugou Katsuki suffers no real consequences for having bullied and tormented Midoriya Izuku since they were four years old. Addressing this in fan works is such a common sight that Archive of Our Own has a tag entitled "Bakugou Faces Consequences" which features hundreds of works.
- Failure to Explode: A small tweak is made to U.A.'s Entrance Exams wherein applicants must earn at least one Rescue Point in order to be admitted to the Hero Course. Katsuki's carelessness with his explosions ensures that he doesn't get a single one; instead, he's responsible for several other participants gaining Rescue Points by protecting others from him. As a result, he doesn't get in, and since he'd arrogantly assumed his success was completely guaranteed, he made no backup plans, leaving him with nothing to fall back upon.
- Karma is a cat features several people experiencing karma thanks to the titular cat Mrowser:
- Mt. Lady experiences two doses of karma the day she makes her debut, as first her attack wrecks nine shops (Kamui Woods did no damage at all and Death Arms only slightly damaged a roof) before she, Death Arms, Slugger, and a fourth unnamed hero are arrested for their inaction when Izuku made the first move to save Katsuki from the Sludge villain.
- Katsuki's first dose of Mrowser-induced karma is for his destroying one of Izuku's hero analysis notebooks (as hero analysis goes for serious money). Mrowser hints in a phone call to Nezu that Izuku's analyses are 'S-class', which would cost Katsuki half a million yen per entry in the notebook he destroyed.
- It is hinted to be Mrowser's second case of bringing down karma on Aldera as a previous teacher was fired for trying to falsify records by marking a clearly-present Izuku as absent.
- During an eight month training period time-skip Aldera is closed permanently by presumably Mrowser before Nezu demolishes the district.
- Tenya doesn't make it into the hero course via Mrowser pulling the 'three strikes and you're out' card (one strike for impatience with Present Mic and the other two for jumping to the wrong conclusions with Izuku). He still gets into U.A. via General Studies with the chance to get back into the Hero course via the Sports Festival.
- Katsuki's second major dose of Mrowser-induced karma comes a week after the entrance exam; Mrowser uses a special hologram device to reveal Katsuki's test results (special as in being able to detect the presence of Katsuki's parents, unaware that the real Mrowser is in cat form just outside his room). The hologram reveals Katsuki's history of bullying to his parents, which really gets Masaru mad when Mitsuki reveals Izuku's 'Deku' nickname.
- Class 1-A has two roster changes within the first week of classes.
- The first change happens on day 1; Mineta, letting his perverted nature show upon realizing he scored last in the Quirk Apprehension Test (his only good score was the side jumps), is reassigned to General Studies with no chance to return to the Hero course with Hitoshi Shinso (who renames his Quirk 'Hypnotic Voice' on Mrowser's suggestion) taking his place. Mrowser worded the trade as 'my purple (Mineta) for your purple (Hitoshi)'.
- The second change happens during the first Heroics lesson, in the form of Katsuki's third major case of Mrowser-induced karma; Katsuki is expelled from U.A. for going through with a potentially lethal attack on Izuku.
- Think Before You Speak has Tenya get seriously injured by Katsuki's reckless usage of his gauntlets during their first training exercise. This, on top of his blatantly defying All Might's orders to stand down and using potentially lethal force, lands him in detention and remedial classes targeted at teaching him morality and restraint. He's also barred from competing in the Sports Festival.
- We're Not Friends Kacchan: Thanks to an angry outburst from Ochako, everyone in Class 1-A learns about how Katsuki told Izuku to kill himself. When Katsuki refuses to show any remorse, he loses Eijirou and the rest of his friends, and ultimately ensures that he'll be quietly expelled from U.A. after serving out the rest of the term.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
- Sunset's Steps:
- The CMC's actions in making Sunset into a pariah during the Anon-a-Miss incident are given extra punishment, with them being required to do 200 hours of community service and having to do chores for Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity.
- Sunset ended up having to do community service for weeks and was suspended from school for a while due to her actions in the first movie.
- Son of the Sannin: Instead of being Easily Forgiven for his atrocities and achieving his goals of immortality, Orochimaru is defeated in battle by Jiraiya and Tsunade, with the latter sucking out his soul using the Rinnegan. To drive the point home, Anko Mitarashi had gotten her cursed seal removed, which means there's no way he can resurrect himself, unless of course Orochimaru has other cursed seals lying around...
- While Sasuke in canon was given a full pardon and his only punishment was his self-imposed exile, in Sorry's Not Enough, his chakra is sealed, his Sharingan eyes removed, and is sentenced to twenty years of house arrest. Also Sakura marries Naruto rather than Sasuke.
- In Spark of Creation, Obito doesn't get to be Together in Death with Rin. Instead, a temporarily revived Rin denounces him, declaring That Man Is Dead, before Naruto leaves him and Madara to the mercy of the Blind Eternities.
- Fairly commonly seen with Gendo Ikari, often with a side order of Adaptational Villainy and changing his goals to more generic Take Over the World fare.
- In Persona 4, the girls cause considerable misery for the boys at the Amagi Inn. Works such as The Amagi Inn Revenge Scheme and The Hot Springs Revenge Plan have the girls facing consequences for their actions.
- Hours 'Verse:
- In canon Royal, Maruki gets off with just a beatdown from the Phantom Thieves. In Heir Apparent, he is arrested by the Shadow Operatives.
- Downplayed at the end of Patchwork Hearts. In canon Strikers, Ichinose's attempt to turn herself in for the EMMA incident fails because nobody believes her, forcing her to become The Atoner on her own recognizance. In Patchwork Hearts, the Shadow Operatives are able to oversee her rehabilitation on pain of jail time if she steps out of line.
- In The Other 25th Hours, Maya "Ms. Ideal" Okamura, who murdered Maya Amano and caused the deaths of everyone not in airborne Sumaru City in the process, was revealed to be life-sentenced in Morimoto on Chapter 4.
- In Persona 4 SILVER BLUE, This happens to Hanako Ohtani and Ai Ebihara in their first appearance. In canon, neither of them ever really faces any consequences for their negative attitudes and actions. Granted, they both at least show one or two Pet the Dog moments and Ai gets better through Character Development in her social link, but still. Unfortunately for them, the Labrys in this story isn't nearly as patient as Yu was in the games when it comes to dealing with their crap. When Labrys catches them both arguing with each other and about to start a fight, she ends up singlehandedly breaking up the squabble, humiliating them both in front of their classmates in the process. They then try to intimidate Labrys, which doesn't work. Then, after Labrys fails to reason with either of them, she forcibly drags them both to the principal's office against their will to face consequences for their actions.
- As Fate Would Have It: While Ghetsis suffered a Fate Worse than Death in the original Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, in this fic he ends up getting incarcerated for good. In addition, the Shadow Triad, who had remained a Karma Houdini even well into the post-game, end up giving in to the authorities after Nate, Black, and Yancy confront and defeat them.
- In Essence, Charmander's previous owner Damian gets his Pokémon license revoked for Pokémon abuse and neglect. He forgot that Pokédexes record every capture, so Nurse Joy was able to figure out that the severely injured Charmander she saved was Damian's. He also gets arrested and sent to juvie.
- MF217's One-Shot Fic Fiery Aroma. A strange kid known as Grandis shows up to Erika's Gym around the time Ash was banned from it in order to investigate possible sabotage of the perfume Erika sells regarding containing alcohol that proves the entire gym to be a fire hazard. Just as the Gym Trainers guarding the entrance had already kicked Ash out, Grandis has to deal with the immediate aftermath from which they refuse to allow him entry despite no such ban on him being placed, nor was there even any actual ban on Ash challenging the gym. For their stubbornness, Grandis sends out a Nidoking which uses Strength on them leading to the Gym Trainers being tossed into the nearest pond for their troubles.
- Zorua Trainer: In canon, Damien received no visible or known comeuppance for abandoning his Charmander to die on a rock. In Zorua Trainer, not only does he take a night daze attack after accidentally breaking Ash's illusionary disguise, the other trainers in the Pokemon Center also turn on him unlike in canon. In addition, he gets pranked by his charmander's "ghost" after Ash, Misty, and their teams band together to trick Damien into thinking he's being haunted. As the cherry on top, he gets arrested by Pokemon Rangers and has his Trainers License revoked shortly afterwards thanks to Misty reporting him to the League.
- Sabrina also experiences this after Ash's battle with her. She is removed as Gym Leader for her abuse of her powers, and she's also facing criminal charges and a long road to recovery.
- In Hope of the Shield Hero, Motoyasu suffers the consequences for his incompetence far earlier than in canon, starting with how he was able to become the Lord of Lute without Naofumi's interference and the townspeople revolting.
- Rosario Vampire: Brightest Darkness: In the original manga, Kuyou, Kiria, and Hokuto all survived the final battle with Alucard and went on to rebuild Fairy Tale. Here, both Kuyou and Kiria are killed by Tsukune at the end of Act III, and Hokuto is killed as well during the climax of Act IV; the final chapter of Act IV specifically shows them being brutally tortured in Hell.
- The Solitas Arc shows that the heroes' actions, namely, hiding the Awful Truth regarding Ozpin and Salem from Ironwood before revealing it at the last minute and Blake and Yang going behind everyone's back to Robyn about the Amity Project lead to the canon fall of both Atlas and Mantle. In the Volume 7 AU Ironside, their actions are met with more derision, and while some recognize the hypocrisy in their actions, Blake and Yang only dig themselves deeper.
- In Shakugan no Shana Final, the fused Snake of the Festival and Yuji Sakai ultimately emerged victorious in the Haze-Denizen war, and Yuji got away with a promise to make amends. In Shakugan No Shana Eternity, Yuji breaks free of the Snake's control with help from Shana and Hecate, then uses the Synchronization between him and the Snake to completely obliterate him from existence.
- Queens of Mewni: Thanks to "Cleaved" being the Series Finale, Star didn't have to face the fallout of her attempt to completely destroy magic or subconsciously merging Mewni and Earth together. Here, she's not so fortunate: her actions resulted in a massive war that claimed the lives of many of her loved ones. On top of this, she is ultimately crowned Queen as a punishment, forced to bear The Chains of Commanding and spend her reign trying to atone for her myriad mistakes.
- Two examples involving SMG4, and both from the same author:
- Mario and The Wah-Pocalypse, a retelling of The Waluigi Arc, features an interesting variation of karma being given an explanation, rather than being added. Mario throwing Toad at the front door to (try to) stop the T-Pose Zombies comes after the latter tried to poison the former, which he doesn’t try to do in "Mario And The T-Pose Virus", the video that scene is based on.
- In the video "Clown Fever", Depresso gets away with (unwittingly) infecting everyone with the titular fever, but in the fanfic "Only a Nightmare", which is the events of that video Mario does "something very illegal" to him in retribution.
- The Sea Shadow: In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Beldam is Easily Forgiven for everyone in spite of her many crimes, such as being a Big Sister Bully towards Vivian as well as setting the events of the game in motion in hopes of reviving the Shadow Queen. Here, it's revealed that she went missing shortly after the Final Battle; nobody knows or cares where she went.
- Downplayed by several Fan Films which try to present an on-screen version of Diesel's Offscreen Karma between "Dirty Work" and "A Close Shave" based off of the Fat Controller's comments in The Railway Series version:
- "The Devious Diesel" and "Sent Packing": Diesel attempts to blackmail the trucks into supporting his attempt to frame Henry for a coach-bashing incident he actually committed, but once the trucks realize that whether for trying to carry out said blackmail of bashing the trucks or for having his lies about Duck and Henry coming to light, the Fat Controller will send Diesel packing either way, decide to reveal the whole truth to the Fat Controller, leading to all the other engines turning on Diesel and the Fat Controller sending him back to the mainland.
- "Percy's Ploy": After Diesel tricks Henry into believing he's been given Gordon's express in retaliation for Henry getting mad at Diesel for misplacing his and Gordon's coaches at the wrong platforms the previous day resulting in an argument between Henry and Gordon, Percy gets back at Diesel by telling the trucks that Diesel thinks of them as easily controlled by him, resulting in the trucks paying Diesel out by derailing Diesel in front of the express's platform, which when the Fat Controller steps out of his office to survey the mess, causes him to find out about the lie Diesel told Henry, resulting in him sending Diesel away.
- "The Devious Diesel
- Total Drama Pahkitew Island Reordered: Whereas in canon, Chris received no comeuppance for his usual Jerkass behavior throughout the season, here upon suggestion from the runner-up, the rest of the cast, along with the past season winners and Chef, have him shot out of the Cannon of Shame (after getting relieved of his pants by Duncan).
- The Fire Has Burnt Out: Several characters, such as Ashfur and Clear Sky, end up in the Dark Forest rather than StarClan.
- A Mother's Touch has Reiji Akaba and Sylvio Sawatari face karma for how they nearly made Yuya lose his father's school and cards, and how four kids could've died from Sylvio's stunt of leaving them on a tower to fall. Not only does Reiji have to pay money to You Show so Yoko doesn't drag his ass to court, but the truth he hid from the world is now exposed for all to see, leaving students to be withdrawn and parents demanding answers. Sylvio and his goons also get suspended indefinitely from Leo Duel School.
- Symposium Of Supremacy:
- Reiji Akaba got away with erasing the memories of three students but not only is his reputation ruined when this gets revealed but he ends up wishing to have his memories erased as well.
- Academia got away with their crimes in the anime. Zarc decides to kill many of them and have their souls sent straight to the Burning Abyss, where Yusho Sakaki has now hired them to be workers in his movie theater, where they cannot escape.
- Numerous stories in YuyaVision, writer of A Mother's Touch offer this as well, given how many evil characters get away with their actions.
- Main story: Leo Akaba gets to live a happy life despite the entire anime being his fault. From what is shown in the fic so far, he gets to lose his memories about Ray Akaba — aka the reason for Akaba's actions — all while Zarc leers at him.
- Many of the Tops in the Synchro Dimension just suddenly get a change of heart after Yuya wins the Friendship Cup. They are instead now crushed under the Commons they loved heckling and Synchro is now run by Yliaster.
- Academia doesn't get any punishments for how they followed Akaba's teachings and hurt others. Zarc changes this into a Creepy Cathedral with the students now repenting sinners, some of them going as far as to injure themselves. For example, Zane purposefully broke his legs and confines himself in a wheelchair. A later story reveals that Zarc essentially unleashed the equivalent of a nuclear bomb that preyed on the darkness in the Fusion duelists' hearts, turning them into monsters.
- Doppleganger Court: Neither Reiji nor Shingo got any punishments for what they did in early Season 1, ranging from attempting to steal Yuya's cards, endangering the lives of four children, and nearly stealing You Show under the flimsy excuse of Shingo stating "Yuya attacked me" (when it was actually Yuto). The first chapter, which is a Courtroom Episode, shows how they essentially ruined themselves with Shingo most likely expelled from Leo Duel School and Reiji losing everything: his job, his reputation as CEO and not being able to mass produce Pendulum cards for the upcoming fight against his father.
- Main story: Leo Akaba gets to live a happy life despite the entire anime being his fault. From what is shown in the fic so far, he gets to lose his memories about Ray Akaba — aka the reason for Akaba's actions — all while Zarc leers at him.
