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"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
I'm an avenger!
— Sasuke (almost every fucking chance he gets), Naruto
Vengeance. You do not get much of it in real life, and the little you do get is cold, late, and adds up otherwise as having been a really bad idea. So you look for it in fiction. Where you find out that, seven times in ten, revenge was a really bad idea for your surrogate, too. The other three times ... well, hey, somebody had to get some, sooner or later. That, and the girl. And a pony. With a jetpack.
Revenge in its basic form is essentially Paying Evil Unto Evil. Someone has done something seriously bad to another person or someone that person loves, and for some reason, there is no justice to be had for the crime, so the character sets out to exact their own kind of justice upon the person or people responsible. Avenging a death may be regarded as Due To The Dead — and the ghost may agree.
An avenger has several options when pursuing his or her vendetta. He or she can devise a Machiavellian plan, maneuvering things (and occasionally people) in place until the time of final vengeance is at hand, which is the route taken by many classical revenge tales. Often the avenger takes steps to ruin the other guy's life in some manner before the final act, which may or may not end with the other guy's death. Another option, often chosen by action heroes or the more bloodthirsty avengers, is the Roaring Rampage Of Revenge, where the avenger dispenses with this and goes straight for the bloodshed, hunting down everyone who had anything to do with the crime in question and eliminating them one by one, often in a Gotta Kill Them All fashion, until they reach the Big Bad behind it all and take final vengeance. (Possibly mutilating the corpse.)
Kill Me Now Or Forever Stay Your Hand, Forgiveness, and Defeat Means Friendship may stop this vendetta. Finding the person and discovering they have become The Atoner can snatch it away from you. On the other, if they try to buy you off, they may still be fair game. May also invoke The Only One Allowed To Defeat You; if your enemy is defeated by someone else, how can you avenge yourself?
Sometimes, the person seeking revenge is doing out of a subconscious sense of guilt and responsibility, or to cover up some other emotion. Bringing this out into the open can produce an interesting effect.
The character often finds that completing the revenge will leave his life feeling flat and empty. Revenge wasn't satisfying, or now that it's over, he doesn't know what to do with himself. Sometimes, during the course of the pursuit of revenge, the avenger becomes just as bad as, if not worse than, the one who committed the initial awful deed to begin with. And sometimes, revenge doesn't end with the person who committed the crime — other people connected to the original villain may well decide to pursue vengeance against the original avenger, which may very well lead to a Cycle Of Revenge.
Being that revenge is one of the darker character motivations, villains, being a rather unforgiving lot, will often choose to take vengeance on those who have, in their eyes, wronged them, even if the "wrong" in question was something legitimately justified, such as stopping a villain's original evil plan and putting him behind bars or stopping an associate of his, which resulted in the associate's death. Villains in general are more likely to engage in Disproportionate Retribution than many heroes, and don't usually care about what happens to innocents that get swept up in the mess — some such villains deliberately target innocents who are connected to the person they want revenge on, just to make the person suffer all the more. Others target anyone who has anything to do with a certain organization responsible for what led them on this rampage, regardless of whether or not those people were actually involved in the crime in question, or take it out on the descendants of those who wronged them to start with. Others, particularly those of a Humans Are Bastards world-view, will broaden their vendetta to cover more and more people until the vendetta essentially covers all humanity. This can be tempered, or even overridden, if the character keeps it up; killing the man who killed your father can be noble if he continues to slaughter people wherever he goes, and your Revenge can be viewed as the icing on the cake.
Examples:
Anime
- The fulcrum around which Gun X Sword turns is Van's hunt to avenge the death of his bride by killing the Claw. Over the series, the other protagonists obtain reasons to want the same thing. Unusually for anime, the desire to obtain revenge is portrayed in a largely positive light.
- Mikagami Tokiya in Flame Of Recca at first starts out as an avatar of vengeance whose purpose in life is to take revenge in the name of his dead big sister. Over time, however, he starts learning that walking the path of revenge will lead to his doom, so he eventually wises up and lets go of his vengeful life, fighting less suicidally and somehow became stronger.
- Makina in Shikabane Hime claims that she doesn't care about Heaven, and is only staying undead so she can find the person who killed her family.
- Revenge and how it turns on itself is a major theme in Naruto- it starts with Sasuke, but ultimately turns out to be the driving force of the plot as a whole, responsible even for the Kyubi attack in the prologue.
- Also a major plot of Berserk, as Guts seeks revenge on his former commander Griffith and the Apostles for the events of the Eclipse that led to the deaths of the Band of the Hawk and robbed his lover Casca of her sanity.
- This explains the entirety of Kaname Tousen's actions - from joining Soul Society to his defection with Aizen.
- In Code Geass, revenge against Britannia - and in particular his father, the Emperor - is one of Lelouch's main motivations.
Eastern Animation
- In Firing Range, the motivation of the inventor is revenge against the ones who gave his son a posthumous medal after leading him to his death. He gets it, by causing the tank to kill them.
Film
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze:
Tatsu: What next, Master? We rebuild the Foot?
Shredder: No...there is only one thing next: REVENGE.
- The thousand-year plan of the Sith in Star Wars, which Sidious finally brings to fruition.
Darth Maul: At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.
- Although it's been obscured by time and the numerous other tropes it's spawned, the revelation that Darth Vader was Luke's father in The Empire Strikes Back had originally played as a subversion of Revenge. Critics of SW:ANH were so convinced that the sequels would conform to a simple Luke-avenges-his-dad story, they dissed Lucas for being trite, never suspecting how The Reveal would overturn those expectations.
- Essentially the entire plot of Falling Down. One man's revenge (albeit a bit excessive) against all the little annoyances in the world, be it arriving five minutes too late to get breakfast at a fast food restaurant, which is met with drawing a machine gun and accidentally firing it in to the ceiling, needless construction, which is met with a rocket launcher, or price gouging, which is met with vandalism and price slashing via bat.
- Sweeney Todd is about a barber who seeks revenge against the corrupt judge who sent him away for fifteen years on a false charge and then raped his wife Lucy. Though his primary target is Judge Turpin and the Beadle because of their role in what happened to her, he ends up killing a lot more people, becoming the legendary Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
- A popular plot in action movies in general, though most tend toward the Roaring Rampage Of Revenge.
- Both Oldboy and Lady Vengeance take this trope to it's logical and horrifying conclusions.
- Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen:
The Fallen: Revenge... is MINE!!
- Alec Trevelyan of the James Bond movie GoldenEye wanted revenge against the British government for the betrayal of the Lienz Cossacks, which included his family, who believed that they were under British protection near the end of WWII, only to be sent back to Stalin who promptly had them all shot. The fact that he was also doing so to make himself a pile of money off the destruction of London using a nuclear satellite that used an electromagnetic pulse weapon was just the icing on the cake.
Literature
- The Warhammer 40000 novels are quite fond of revenge as a motive and a plot.
- In Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn novel Malleus, Eisenhorn vows revenge on those responsible for the atrocity that cripples Ravenor. In Hereticus, it is invoked; Medea passionately desires revenge on the man who killed her father. In time, she realizes that this was displaced desire that she could have known her father, who died a month before her birth.
- In Dan Abnett's Gaunts Ghosts novel First & Only, Gaunt's Back Story includes his killing the general whose cowardly abandonment of the field of battle killed Gaunt's father and the men with him. Later, this general's son attacks Gaunt, for his father's death and the dishonor it brought on the family.
- Revenge, and an inter-regimental feud, is also used to mask the real conflict of the novel.
- In William King's Space Wolf novel Space Wolf, the Grimskulls sought revenge on the Thunderskulls who had captured their settlement, enslaving their women and children. They went off, licking their wounds, and were lucky enough to find another settlement which they could overrun, killing the men and enslaving the women and children, which they regard as a god rewarding their perservence with a prize. They returned for Revenge on the Thunderskulls. When Ragnar Thunderskull and Strybjorn Grimskull are taken to become Space Wolves, their enmity continues. At one point, Ragnar is tempted with the prospect of killing Strybjorn; the Marines gravely observe that they have never had an aspirant come so close to failure without failing before. When Strybjorn saves his life in battle, and falls beneath an attack, Ragnar realizes his desire was wrong. He insists the others with them go on to Bring News Back, so he can tend Strybjorn's wounds and bring him out safely.
- In Wolfblade, Ragnar is warned that foiling Cezare's plot means that he will seek revenge on him.
"Let him," said Ragnar.
"Spoken like a true son of Fenris," said Haeger with almost paternal fondness.
- In Graham Mc Neill's Ultramarines novel Dead Sky Black Sun, at the end, Vaanes is convinced that Uriel's convincing him to join the attack on the fortress, which killed many of his band, was deeply wronging him, and so allows himself to be persuaded to join the forces of Chaos, for Revenge.
- In Graham Mc Neill's Storm of Iron, Larana Utorian's suffering at the hands of the Chaos forces and desire for Revenge are what lets the daemon tempt her into allowing it in.
- In Graham Mc Neill's Horus Heresy novel False Gods, when hunting a traitor, Horus comes upon corpses still wearing the remnants of their Imperial uniforms. He wonders if they remained loyal and promises to avenge them. Later, when Horus is felled by his wounds, Loken is determined to avenge him on the forces responsible.
- In Graham Mc Neill's Ultramarines novel The Killing Ground, the desire for Revenge after a massacre drives the bulk of the novel.
- In James Swallow's Blood Angels novel Deus Sanguinius, after Rafen's duel with Arkio ends with his killing him, Mephiston urges him into the fight with the Chaos forces that had tainted him — he should avenge him. And in the end, the thwarted daemon plots revenge on Rafen.
- In Chris Roberson's Blood Ravens novel Dawn Of War II, when Phaeton hears that the tyrannids have killed his mother, he declares he will kill them all; the Space Marine tells him to let them do the fighting for now, but perhaps he might be a Blood Raven one day, whereupon his younger brother is also eager to be one so he can fight.
- In Steve Parker's Gunheads, Wulfe's Back Story includes an incident where a medic jumped to save him from a wound that would have killed him. A few days later, the medic was captured by orks and tortured to death. Wulfe thinks that he's still trying to avenge him.
- In Chris Roberson's Imperial Fists novel Sons of Dorn, Zatori wants revenge on Jean-Robec for killing his master (partly because he should have been protecting his back), and Taloc wants revenge on Zatori for killing his father. A long-term undercurrent, since the Imperial Fists will stop them if they try, and they fear the punishment.
- In Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book, Mowgli takes Revenge on the village for how they treated his adoptive parents. He persuades Hathi to help because of the revenge Hathi took on another village — that one involving killing men.
- Moby Dick, surely. Captain Ahab is basically a walking piece of revenge on a stick. (Literally - he has a wooden leg.)
- The Count Of Monte Cristo is a defining example of revenge as plot.
- Revenge tragedies
 were quite common in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, with perhaps the best known of such being Shakespeare's Hamlet, which has its title character seeking vengeance for his father against his uncle, who murdered him to take the throne. Seeing as how it's a tragedy, though, it doesn't exactly end well for the prince of Denmark.
- Edgar Allan Poe wrote a few revenge stories. In "Hop-Frog" a deformed dwarf jester burns the king and seven ministers to death at a masquerade for striking his beloved and splashing wine in her face. In "The Cask of Amontillado," a man lures his friend into a cellar with the promise of fine wine, only to bury him alive, claiming revenge for vague injuries. Both revengers get away scot-free.
- Revenge is pretty much the Hat of the Camorri in the Gentleman Bastard series. The Grey King's sole motivation is revenge against Capa Barsavi and the nobility of Camorr. Locke sets himself against the Grey King in order to avenge Nazca, Bug, and the Sanzas. And in the course of Locke's revenge, he pisses off the Bondsmagi...
- In Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Gods of Mars, during the Gladiator Revolt, the women slaves in the stands start to take revenge.
In all parts of the structure the female slaves were falling upon their masters with whatever weapon came first to hand. A dagger snatched from the harness of her mistress was waved aloft by some fair slave, its shimmering blade crimson with the lifeblood of its owner; swords plucked from the bodies of the dead about them; heavy ornaments which could be turned into bludgeons—such were the implements with which these fair women wreaked the long-pent vengeance which at best could but partially recompense them for the unspeakable cruelties and indignities which their black masters had heaped upon them. And those who could find no other weapons used their strong fingers and their gleaming teeth.
- In Terry Pratchett's Thud, the Summoning Dark is "an invisible and very powerful quasidemonic thing of pure vengeance."
Religion
- The Bible: Choose a chapter, any chapter.
- The Talmud: A man invited his friend Kamtza to a feast, but his servant accidentally invited Bar Kamtza, a mortal enemy. Bar Kamtza thought that the other man wanted to make peace, and so came to the party, where he was ordered away. Trying to save himself from humiliation, he offered to pay, first for his own portion, then for two, and eventually for the entire party, but the host refused to listen and kicked Bar Kamtza out. Bar Kamtza therefore hatched a plot which ended in the enemy king coming to Jerusalem, the Temple being destroyed, and the Jews being sent into exile.
Live Action TV
- Veronica Mars is a revenge addict. When she starts to run short on targets for personal revenge she looks for other people to get revenge for.
- A major theme on Lost. Sawyer's desire to avenge his parents carries through the first three seasons. In the fourth, we learn of Ben's desire to kill Penny in revenge for Alex's death. Charlie, Shannon, Sayid, and Sun have also sought revenge for loved ones at various times.
Music
- Ween's song "Buenos Tardes Amigo" is a revenge song being sung to the man who killed the narrator's brother. The twist is that the narrator was actually the killer himself, probably due to jealousy, and is framing the listener to keep anyone else from knowing the truth.
Myth And Legend
- Achilles' chief motivation for leaving the Greek army, the initiating action of the plot of Homer's The Iliad, is vengeance against the Greek commander Agamemnon for taking his trophy wench. His withdrawal from the fighting (and the subsequent plea to Zeus to give victories to the Trojan cause in Achilles' absence made at his behest by his mother) leads to his cousin's demise, making this one Older Than Dirt.
Video Games
- The entire premise of the Crusader series of games—and naturally, when you start wreaking such havoc, the bad guys get in on the act.
- Both Kael'thas and the generic Blood Mage from War Craft III: The Frozen Throne have a sound pack distressingly but understandably focused on pronouncements of vengeance.
"My blood cries out for the vengeance of my people's blood, which can only be repaid with twice as much blood! Or maybe three times as much blood! Like, if you went to hell and it was full of blood, and that blood was on fire, and it was raining blood, then maybe THAT would be enough blood. But, uh... probably not."
- Tasha in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, her character theme is acctualy titled "Goddess of Revenge".
- Tasha's love of revenge is lampshaded in one of the War Room segments, she claims "My hobbies include professing my love for the Lazurian Army and vowing revenge."
- While Ryu Hayabusa's final goal in the Xbox version of Ninja Gaiden is to reclaim the Dark Dragon Blade stolen from his village, it's obvious in a number of cut scenes that he's hellbent on killing Doku, the Greater Fiend responsible for destroying the village. The chapter of the game in which Ryu finally kills Doku is titled "Vengeful Spirit".
Western Animation
- Stripperella. Spoofed in "Beauty and the Obese", where Mad Doctor Cesarean's motive for making supermodels fat is because beautiful women have spurned him all his life. And because his mother was a model who ran off when he was five. And because his promising career as a model was ruined when he became horribly disfigured in a modeling accident. Oh, and his grandparents were killed by models. He hates heights too, but you can't harm heights.
- Gargoyles' major theme is how "revenge is a sucker's game" and never accomplishes anything except spreading the need for revenge. Oddly, the only character who has a firm grasp of this in the beginning is the Affably Evil Big Bad, which is why he wins so often.
- In The Venture Bros after his defeat Phantom Limb renames himself Revenge, collects a gang of inanimate objects, and goes on a campaign against The Guild (Not that one).
Revenge: Revenge!
Web Original
- In Epic Tales this is Shadow Hawk's motivation for being a superhero. Or so he claims. His best friend Diana thinks he just doing it for the thrills, although this is only mentioned once. Also the revenge thing seems to have been glossed over in the two most recent stories.
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