Cycles of Revenge in Western Animation.
- Fans of Batman: The Animated Series know the tragic story of Victor Fries — everything he does is motivated by a mad lust for revenge against those who he holds responsible for what happened to his wife, Nora. Unfortunately, this creates a cycle that continues in Gotham Girls, where Nora's sister Dora Smithy became obsessed with vengeance against Freeze for what he did to Nora, and in the process became more or less his female equivalent, eventually cemented by her own Karmic Transformation into an icy mutant with no emotion left but her love for Nora, locked away in Arkham just like her hated brother-in-law.
- The Dragon Prince has the death of Queen Sarai at the hands of the King of Dragons nine years before the series, and he is killed by King Harrow in return. Season 1 sees the elves kill King Harrow in revenge for the dragon king, and soon after the humans start planning revenge for that. King Harrow implies that this has been going on for generations, and the heroes' quest is to break it by having human princes return the dragon prince to his home. By the end of Season 3, Viren has killed the leader of the Moonshadow Elves, and Rayla has killed Viren, so the cycle still hasn't ended yet.
- Gargoyles grabs hold of this theme firmly from multiple angles. Goliath wants revenge against the Vikings for his clan's genocide, Macbeth wanted revenge against Demona for her treachery, Demona wanted revenge against all humans... the list continues on, right down to a nameless guy who is always being shafted by the Gargoyle exploits, who was able to break his own cycle by settling for shooting a Gargoyle in the face with a Pie Cannon.
- By the end of second season, Macbeth and Goliath manage to drop their respective beefs, but Demona never lets go of her vendetta against humanity, and she in turn is pursued by a family of Hunters sworn to kill her.
- Two of the three most recent Hunters drop the axe thanks to Elisa's influence and the realization of how much their blood feud has cost them (up to and including one of them ending up paraplegic), but the nicest of the three snaps, and the cycle is perpetuated. Interestingly, the leader of the three most recent hunters admits it has been long forgotten why they hunt Gargoyles. All they know is that it is their family legacy.
- There was pretty much a Seesaw of Revenge going on in the backstory, starting in 997 and possibly ending in 1058: In 997, Gillecomgain's father, Mail Brigti, was killed in battle against Findlaech, and although Findlaech didn't strike the killing blow (and didn't even want to kill Mail Brigti anyway), Gillecomgain still blamed Findlaech for Mail Brigti's death. Then, in 1020, partly to avenge Mail Brigti and partly because Duncan commanded it, Gillecomgain murdered Findlaech. In 1032, Findlaech's son Macbeth learned that Gillecomgain had killed his father and killed Gillecomgain for revenge; then, in 1040, he learned that Duncan had demanded his father's death and killed Duncan as well. In 1057, Duncan's son Canmore "killed" Macbeth to avenge Duncan, and Macbeth's son Luach swore vengeance against Canmore. Whether the cycle was broken when Luach died in battle against Canmore in 1058 is debatable.
- Gargoyles does contain one aversion to this trope. Xanatos refuses to pursue revenge on any of his enemies, calling it "a sucker's game". Judging by what happened to the other revenge seekers on this show, Xanatos may be right. Xanatos did pursue revenge, albeit reluctantly, in "Double Jeopardy," but he was also thoroughly defeated by Thailog in that episode.
- This exchange highlights it beautifully.The Sisters: You must give them the code.
Demona: (In a trance) I will have vengeance for the betrayal of my Clan... Vengeance for my pain.
The Sisters: But who betrayed your Clan? And who caused this pain?
Demona: (Getting agitated) The Vikings destroyed my Clan!
The Sisters: Who betrayed the castle to the Vikings? (Note: It was Demona.)
Demona: The Hunter hunted us down.
The Sisters: Who created the Hunter? (Note: Demona did)
Demona: Canmore destroyed the last of us...
The Sisters: Who betrayed Macbeth to Canmore? (Note: Demona)
(Pan to wide-eyed 'What have I done' look on Demona's face)
Goliath: Your thirst for vengeance has only created more sorrow. End the cycle, Demona... give us the code...
Demona: (Tears forming while saying slowly) The access code is... alone.
- In Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures, the Quest kids find themselves caught in a hidden war between the descendants of loyalists from The American Revolution and the Continental Army agents sent to kill them. The original point of the fighting (recovering the original Declaration of Independence, which the Loyalists stole) is all but forgotten (not to mention 200 years moot), and is primarily boiling down to killing the guy on the other side for killing your father, or him coming after you for killing his (usually both).
- In The Legend of Korra has one in Yakone's family. Yakone was a vicious mob boss who was an extremely powerful bloodbender, forcing Aang to take away his bending. Yakone raised his children as Tykebombs to take revenge on Republic City and the Avatar for this. This abuse drove one of his sons, Noatak, to seek revenge on Benders in general, becoming Amon, while his brother Tarrlok ended up becoming a pseudo-fascist politician with ambitions of ruling Republic City. Ultimately, both brothers ended up becoming Yakone's instruments of revenge, in spite of their attempts to escape his plans. Tarrlok finally ends the cycle by killing himself along with Amon, ending Yakone's legacy along with them.
- While only the chorus for "Murmaider" is heard in Metalocalypse, both the tie-in first album and the music video in the Season 2 DVD play the full song, which has this trope as the central theme. Set to mermaids committing genocide on each other. Brutal.
- My Little Pony:
- My Little Pony 'n Friends: The furbobs and the stonebacks have a rivalry of this sort. The stonebacks can't speak and only express themselves with grunts and snorts, making the furbobs to think they were trying to attack them, causing the latters to antagonize the stonebacks and to drive them to actually attack. This has led to the current situation at the show's start, where the two groups have been locked in a cycle of aggression where the stonebacks seek out the furbobs, are insulted, get mad and destroy the furbobs' current home, making the latters fear them more and starting the cycle again.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- Ultimately subverted before it can truly begin in "One Bad Apple". In it, Apple Bloom's visiting cousin, Babs Seed, joins local mean girls Diamond Tiara & Silver Spoon in bullying the Cutie Mark Crusaders, to the point that they employ a Batman Gambit prank to get her back. However, when told near episode's end that Babs herself had been a victim of bullying due to her lack of Cutie Mark, the Crusaders realize part of what drove her actions and try to stop what they've begun so as not to become bullies themselves.
- "The Hooffields and McColts": The titular families are locked in a persistent feud whose origins neither side actually recalls. They're just been sabotaging, inconveniencing and attacking each other for so long that "get the other side" is the only motivation they care for anymore. It's eventually revealed that the patriarchs of their families were originally friends, but disagreed about how to properly preserve the natural beauty of the valley they had settled in and started to spitefully sabotage each other's projects, which eventually spiraled into the current feud and ironically devastated the valley they had started the argument over.
- Rick and Morty: The central theme of episode "Unmortricken". It's completed by Rick Sanchez, who beats Rick Prime to death, but is broken by a few others:
- Evil Morty walks off with Rick Prime's weapon, and is questioned why he isn't using it considering how much he hates all Ricks. He says he could end the Rick Experiment if he wanted, but he would be better off just making sure Rick never bothers him again. The last thing he wants is for an infinity of Summer Smiths, or anyone else, coming after him for revenge.
- Slow Mobius ends up getting killed by Rick Prime's Omega Weapon, which erases him from all infinite timelines. His wife still remembers him, and swears to take revenge, eventually going through the same journey to seek out information, until she meets another person who is also going through the exact same journey, which convinces both of them to settle down and raise their families together.
- Rocky and Bullwinkle ran afoul of the Floys and the Hatfuls during the "Missouri Mish Mash" arc. Boris Badenov disguised himself as members of both clans as part of a plot to retrieve the Kurwood Derby.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): Initially, Oroku Saki/The Shredder tried to kill Hamato Yoshi over Tang Shen's love, only for her to be slain by mistake, causing Oroku Saki to want vengeance (even though it was clearly his fault) and escape with Hamato Yoshi's daughter Miwa in tow, intending to rebuild the Foot Clan after its destruction at the hand of the former Hamato Clan that left him an orphan. When Shredder eventually learns that Hamato Yoshi became the mutant rat Splinter and lived in New York City, he starts a war with his adopted turtle sons to lure him out into the open. Near the end of season 4, Shredder actually succeeds in killing Splinter and injures Karai (who actually is Miwa) in the process, but this naturally causes the modern Hamato Clan to gun for him in response, thus Leonardo is the one to kill him, and the Foot Clan is defeated. Then in season 5's first story arc, Tiger Claw rebrands the Foot Clan's remnants into a cult with a demon's power, but that plan gets foiled by the Hamato Clan and he calls a truce with them. The cycle appears to finally be broken afterwards (outside of an incident with Bebop and Rocksteady getting hired by versions of Shredder and Kraang that come from another dimension, yet those two called it quits after they learn that their goals were not beneficial for anyone).
- ThunderCats (2011) has this as an undercurrent of the generations-long war between the Cats and the Lizards. Implicitly, this is Lizard General Slithe's motive over a long career of fighting the Cats.
- Time Squad: Parodied when the team visited the actual Hatfield and McCoy's, only to find that the McCoy's have become total pushovers who turn the other cheek no matter how much the Hatfields abuse them. Larry teaches them to grow a spine and stand up for themselves with methods he got from a motivational speaker from the 1980's. Unfortunately, this leads to the two families settling their grievances like adults and deciding to live peacefully, and Otto and Tuddrussel end up having to gaslight the two groups with pranks and vandalism to start the actual cycle of revenge and preserve the timeline.
