History Main / VillainByProxyFallacy

* Shows up from time to time with [=UnSubs=] in ''Series/CriminalMinds'' -- for instance, a vigilante who starts targeting crimes in progress before moving onto known drug dealers and ultimately deciding to target the mother of the teen who killed his wife [[spoiler:and then himself]] because better parenting should have prevented the crime.

* Used in some versions of ComicBook/{{Batman}}, especially the ones where he never learns '''who''' killed his parents (in many versions it's a small-time hood named Joe Chill, and even then sometimes he's long dead by the time Batman first appears or he's become a crime boss in his own right). In those cases, Gotham's criminal underworld as a whole is responsible for killing his parents, which is why he's just as willing to go after a CorruptPolitician or CorruptCop with the same intensity he would a street hoodlum.
* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': Frank Castle's family was gunned out during a family picnic shortly after Frank's return from Vietnam. Ever since, he's waged a one-man (sometimes two) literal war on crime of all kinds (Mafia, Mafiya, Triads, corporate, human traffickers...), despite the fact that the people responsible for the murders, and their associates, and the people they worked for, and the families they made up are long dead at his hands (especially in the continuities where Frank is pushing 60 and still at it).
** Some criminals try to point out that they have nothing to do with the deaths of Frank's family (heroes with a ThouShaltNotKill mindset often use the same argument when confronting Frank), which doesn't help them. The truth is that Frank is perfectly aware of this and ''isn't'' blaming them for it; he just wants to remove as much scum as he can before he inevitably dies and is reunited with his family.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'': After the boys watch Terrance and Philip's R-rated movie and start cussing worse than they usually do, Sheila Broflovski leads the other parents to form Mothers Against Canada, who go on a campaign to ban all Terrance and Philips-related merchandise, eventually culminating in the duo's arrest and them being sentenced to ''execution'' for corrupting America's youth. When the Canadian government tries to get their citizens back, what does M.A.C. decide to do? Why, call for war with Canada, of course! This also includes setting up death- err, [[DeadlyEuphemism happy camps]] for Canadian-born citizens (even though Sheila's own adopted son Ike is Canadian) and will eventually result in TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. [[NeverMyFault All because she and the other parents of South Park couldn't take responsibility for not being proper parents]] [[DisproportionateRetribution and keeping their kids from watching an R-rated movie.]]

[[TheScapeGoat Before somebody thinks of blaming us]]''

* In ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'', [[spoiler:The Fifth Horseman/Dylan's plan involves taking revenge on everyone involved with his father's accidental death. He uses the Four Horsemen to get his revenge. This includes the head of the insurance company that denied his family's claim, and the bank that held the note on it. It also includes the man who goaded his father into attempting such a dangerous stunt and ''the company that made the safe he used in the trick''.]]
* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'', Drax has dedicated his life to killing Ronan the Accuser for killing his wife and daughter. After Ronan dies, he decides that he was just a pawn of Thanos, and that's who he really needs to kill.
* ''Film/NineDead'': The captor targets nine people who are in some way responsible for the death of [[spoiler:his beloved son]], locking them all in a room and asking them why they are there. He will kill a random person every ten minutes until they either figure it out or every single one of them is dead. While you can sympathize with him for wanting to punish [[spoiler:the pedophile that infected his son with AIDS, the robber who used him as a FallGuy, or the prosecutor who forged evidence to get a conviction to boost her own career, he equally blames the eyeball witness and the cop who were manipulated by said prosecutor, the guy who sold a gun to the robber and the guy who borrowed him money, even an insurance investigator who couldn't break rules without losing his job.]]

* A major point of contention between the [[Literature/SpaceWolf Space Wolves]] and the Inquisition in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. After the First War for Armageddon, the Inquisition decided that the Guardsmen and civilians who'd fought might be corrupted by Chaos (or start [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow talking about what they'd seen about Chaos]]), and enacted a mass sterilization and forced labor program for the civilians and shot down the [[SinkTheLifeboats Guard transports]]. This did not sit well with the Space Wolves, who had fought alongside these men and women, and took it upon themselves to rescue all those that they could without opening fire on Inquisitorial ships. The Inquisition failed to take the hint and almost started a civil war with the Wolves.
* In the first book of Literature/TheSaxonStories, Ragnar tracks a man who betrayed him, and attempted to murder his adopted son, to a monastery. The bishop there tries to explain that the man is dying from his wounds and that anyone who seeks protection at a church is entitled to it. Ragnar grows more and more furious at the priest sheltering a man who betrayed his lord and attempted to murder a teenage boy, until he eventually decides that the priest and church must be evil if they allow evil men to take shelter, and slaughters the bishop, the rest of the monastery, and the man in question.

* In ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'', there's an unusual example with [[spoiler: Csethiro Ceredin]]. She is angry at [[spoiler: the protagonist, Maia]], and for good reason, because he [[spoiler: forced her to marry him simply by proposing to her.]] However, she later tells him that she does not blame him and was actually angry at [[spoiler: her family, who would never have allowed her to refuse the ''emperor''.]] Played straight with Maia's cousin Setheris, who is angry at the emperor for banishing him to a remote country estate and assigning him as Maia's guardian ... and beats up the innocent Maia. Though Setheris himself never explicitly states that this is meant as revenge, it is implied that he was a much nicer person before his banishment.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Arya Stark's conflation of justice and personal vengeance leads her to this. While many of people on her death list certainly deserve to be brought to justice, such as the Tickler for torture and Weese for abuse, others were merely acting on orders, such as the Hound, doing their jobs or are just guilty by association. Cersei Lannister is on her death list [[spoiler:for being involved in the execution of Ned Stark]], but Cersei wasn't complicit in that activity, and even spoke out against it. Same with Ilyn Payne, who was just doing his job as the royal executioner. The real mastermind of [[spoiler: Ned's death, Littlefinger]], is not on the list. Meryn Trant is on the list [[spoiler: for killing Syrio Forel]], but there isn't any evidence to confirm the crime. Polliver and Dunsen are on the list for flimsy reasons, like stealing. She has Chiswyck murdered for the crime of not being as funny as he thinks he is (granted, Chiswyck was joking about a gang rape, but that isn't the reason Arya cites as his crime). The conflation of justice and vengeance, and how that conflation leads to this trope, is one of the key themes of the entire story.
* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:there is a secret organization who make and sell superpowers, but do so by testing them on people, resulting in dozens if not hundreds of capes who have physically anomalous forms and no memories. The organization also sold powers to people who wanted to be villains ''and'' heroes, which resulted in a lot of death and destruction. When this all comes to light, those who bought powers are reviled by those who got powers naturally, even though the customers were not told the details of how the powers were made.]]
** And in the sequel ''Literature/{{Ward}}'', the apocalypse destroyed the superhero union and pardoned/whitewashed thousands of supervillains out of necessity, leaving the general population paranoid that any cape on the street could secretly be an unrepentant, non-rehabilitated supervillain, and blaming the entire metahuman community for allowing one apocalypse to drive the world(s) insane.

* An unusual example occurs on ''Series/{{Angel}}'' with the VampireHunter Holtz, who seeks vengeance on Angelus for murdering his family and forcing him to [[StakingTheLovedOne stake his own daughter]]. In this case, Holtz comes after Angel even after acknowledging that Angel is essentially a different person than the soulless Angelus. The trope is played straight in that Holtz's vengeance also encompasses Angel's [[RevengeByProxy infant son]] and his allies in Angel Investigations. Holtz's assistant, Justine, is also a clearer example, in that she hates all vampires because one of them killed her sister.
* On ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Warren [[spoiler: shoots and kills Tara]] and is in turn [[spoiler: killed in revenge by Willow]]. She also vengefully targets his former partners Jonathan and Andrew, despite their lack of involvement in the shooting... and when Buffy and the Scoobies prevent these murders, she blames and attacks ''them''! And then she tries to destroy the world.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
** Sisko is an inversion, feeling this way about ''himself'' after playing a part in tricking the Romulans into declaring war on the Dominion. This includes bribery, manufacturing evidence, covering up the murder of a high-profile Romulan ambassador, and framing the Dominion for a crime they hadn't committed. It's easy to see his point, except he can live with it, if it meant preserving the Federation. [[YouKeepTellingYourselfThat At least, that's what he tells himself.]]
** A really interesting example in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E08Dax Dax]]". Ilon Tandro believes Curzon Dax was responsible for his father's death and wants him punished. Curzon is dead, but his memories and experiences live on in a symbiotic lifeform that was implanted into Jadzia Dax, so Tandro wants ''her'' charged with the crimes. Much of the episode centers around a court case to determine whether she, or the symbiont itself, can be considered to have culpability in such a case. [[spoiler: The whole line of inquiry is made moot when it turns out that Dax was actually in bed with the murdered man's wife at the time.]]
* ''Series/TheWire'':
** Part of the [[InherentInTheSystem utter, systemic failure]] of the drug war comes about because the police tend to treat anyone living near a drug-dealing operation with considerable brutality whenever such operations harm or even simply embarrass a police officer or a public official, and in turn most people living in drug-affected areas behave as if every police officer is a brutal thug or a CorruptCop because some of the police fit that description.
** In another example, when CorruptCop Major Valchek becomes enraged that stevedores' union chief Frank Sobotka has gotten a coveted stained-glass window at their church before Valchek, he sends his officers to harass the entire union with selective enforcement. Later still, frustrated that the investigation he instigates has moved on from Sobotka and the union to chase international drug and human traffickers, he calls in the FBI, knowing that they will focus on busting the stevedores' union first and foremost. By the end of the season, [[spoiler:the union is gone]], and by the end of the series [[spoiler:at least some of the members are homeless after losing their jobs.]] Really, it's safe to say that the world of ''The Wire'' runs on this trope.

* ''Series/LawAndOrder'' has numerous examples where the actual murderer gets a plea bargain relatively early in the episode so that the prosecutors can go after the "real villain"; these "real villains" included gun manufacturers/dealers, doctors/psychologists who prescribed/didn't prescribe medication, and the like.

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' has [[spoiler:Grant Ward]]. His need for 'closure' may fall into this. [[ComicBook/{{Mockingbird}} Bobbi Morse]] flat out states that there will always be someone he or his people need to seek 'closure' with, because that way he [[NeverMyFault never has to take responsibility for his own role in screwing up his life]].
* Shows up from time to time with unsubs in ''Series/CriminalMinds.'' For instance, there was a vigilante who started targeting crimes in progress before moving onto known drug dealers and ultimately deciding to target the mother of the teen who killed his wife [[spoiler: and then himself]] because better parenting should have prevented the crime.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': In ''Wolf and Cub'', Reese helps a young irrelevant number bring his brother's killers to justice. After the shooter and his accomplices are arrested, the boy insists on taking down their criminal boss, believing he was just as responsible, even though the murder was motivated by macho pride and sexual jealousy, not illegal business.

* From the very beginning, ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' makes a large deal out of the fact that various parties are trying to kill the female protagonist Lynne. At one point, the BigBad tries to frame her for murder. Why? [[spoiler:Back when she was a child, he was fleeing the police when he came across her playing in the park, so he took her as a hostage out of desperate opportunism. If she hadn't been there, he would have never gone that far. Therefore she was partially responsible for ruining his life, even though it was ''his'' choice to take her hostage from the cops that were ''already'' chasing him.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has Hope. During his character arc, he blames his mother’s death on Snow, who in fact saved her life and tried to dissuade her from leaving her child to take up arms, instead of the military that not only sentenced her to death in the first place but fired upon and killed her. Though a conversation with Lightning has him explain that he is after the military as well. So when he and Snow eventually patch things up, they can focus on taking them down alongside the rest of the party.

* ''VisualNovel/GyakutenKenji2'''s mastermind is a deconstruction of what happens when a child happens upon a legitimate evil conspiracy that pulls the strings of an entire country and intentionally ruined their life; they became so thoroughly yet ProperlyParanoid that everyone around them was working for the conspiracy, which was technically correct some of the time, since one of them is ''the president of a country'' - and then they used that as an excuse to hunt down the members of the conspiracy, regardless of their actual crimes or knowledge. The last target was a 13-year-old boy who was the son of one of the conspiracy's victims and had no idea about any of this.

* Kore ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' is a KnightTemplar with an extremely warped sense of good and evil, including FantasticRacism that extends not only to members of the 'monstrous races', but also to members of the 'civilized races' who could potentially harbor sympathy for monsters. This results in him [[WouldHurtAChild executing a dwarf child]] whose 'crime' was being orphaned and RaisedByOrcs, while delivering a speech about how allowing the child to live would result in the potential for greater evil to exist in future. When another dwarf from the same clan as the child retaliates after Kore sends a volley of crossbow bolts at them, Kore decides that two dwarves from the same clan meeting his perception of 'evil' is all the proof he needs that the entire clan is corrupt and every member needs to be killed.[[note]]Kore was cursed a thousand years ago by a demon overlord he thought he defeated. It's not known ''what'' type of demonic curse he has, but it probably prevented him from getting psychological help. Or dying.[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TronUprising'' has Cyrus, who believes that ItIsBeyondSaving while the grid is under Clu's control and tried to eradicate everything, including the programs who don't support the occupation.
* The trope is parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E16BrotherFromAnotherSeries Brother From Another Series]]", when Sideshow Bob, actually innocent and reformed for once, actually helps Bart and Lisa thwart his criminal brother Cecil from sabotaging a construction project he and Bob are working on together. In the aftermath, Chief Wiggum sends him to prison along with Cecil on general principle.

** Despite Rick believing the Galactic Federation will torture his family until they confess to where he is, this trope is actually subverted when a Federation officer informs Rick over the phone that they only want him; allowing Rick to turn himself in while the others go free.
** Played straight with the ''New'' Galactic Federation in Season Four, who have no qualms with attacking/capturing relatives to[[spoiler:, or clones of,]] their target for even the simplest signs of resistance.

* ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations2'''s mastermind is a deconstruction of what happens when a child happens upon a legitimate evil conspiracy that pulls the strings of an entire country and intentionally ruined their life; they became so thoroughly yet ProperlyParanoid that everyone around them was working for the conspiracy, which was technically correct some of the time, since one of them is ''the president of a country'' - and then they used that as an excuse to hunt down the members of the conspiracy, regardless of their actual crimes or knowledge. The last target was a 13-year old boy who was the son of one of the conspiracy's victims and had no idea about any of this.

* One of the reasons Jews were discriminated against for many centuries in Christian-dominated societies was the belief (however erroneous) that they were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. Never mind that 1.) crucifixion was a ''Roman'' punishment, 2.) Jesus himself was Jewish, and 3.) the circumstances and significance of his death and resurrection form the central tenets of ''Christianity itself''. Perhaps the worst offender was the German church under UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, a church which, rather than accepting that the Romans crucified Jesus on the basis that the Jews would never kill their own, claimed that Jesus was ''not'' Jewish on the basis that the Jews would never kill their own.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'': The replicas 'interrogate' Jack by torturing him with the day his son committed suicide on loop. This convinces him that all replicas are incapable of compassion, and he fires a temporal warhead at their home planet... right after Carter convinced one of the replicas that coexistence was possible. When he's called out on this, he is fully convinced that his decision to nuke all the replicas was right because their leader was a total sociopath. This ends badly.

* An unusual example occurs on ''Series/{{Angel}}'' with the VampireHunter Holtz, who seeks vengeance on Angelus for murdering his family and forcing him to [[StakingTheLovedOne stake his own daughter]]. In this case, Holtz comes after Angel even after acknowledging that Angel is essentially a different person than the soulless Angelus. The trope is played straight in that Holtz's vengeance also encompasses Angel's [[RevengeByProxy infant son]] and his allies in Angel Investigations. Holtz's assistant, Justine, is also a clearer example, int that she hates all vampires because one of them killed her sister.

** The Compass Killer. Driven insane from the grief and the brain damage that ensued from a madman entering his office and blowing away everybody inside with a shotgun (including his wife) before killing himself, architect Hollis Eckhart started killing everybody that had anything to do with it. The guy who sold the madman the gun, the shrink that didn't diagnose the shooter as an unstable man, the guard that didn't search the shooter thoroughly...and himself, for putting his wife in danger. It didn't help in any way at all that the madness which made him decide to perform these acts also made him identify innocent people as those that were the targets of his vengeance.
** After the team discovered he wasn't guilty of returning to his arsonist ways upon being released from prison at the beginning of season 9, Leonard Brooks resorted to this with all the people he blamed for being abused as a child...including his foster sister who was ''only seven years old'' at the time.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' occasionally brought up a more valid version of this trope, where a perpetrator legitimately had something mentally wrong with them that was attributable to another person's actions, and where the other party in question should reasonably have been able to foresee that their actions could have drastic consequences. These include:

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': In ''Wolf and Cub'', Reese helped a young irrelevant number bring his brother's killers to justice. After the shooter and his accomplices are arrested, the boy insists on taking down their criminal boss, believing he was just as responsible, even though the murder was motivated by macho pride and sexual jealousy, not illegal business.

* A tendency for Double D in ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', who is often punished along with the other Eds by the other vengeful kids, despite most inconveniences they make are caused by Eddy's callousness or Ed's oblivious stupidity. This usually counts as MisplacedRetribution, but in one episode Sarah points out that Double D probably didn't have any part in the Ed's antics, but decides to let him take the fall anyway.

** A really interesting example in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E08Dax Dax]]". Ilon Tandro believes Curzon Dax was responsible for his father's death and wants him punished. Curzon is dead, but his memories and experiences live on in a symbiotic lifeform that was implanted into Jadzia Dax, so Tandro wants ''her'' charged with the crimes. Much of the episode centers around a court case to determine whether she, or the sybiote itself, can be considered to have culpability in such a case. [[spoiler: The whole line of inquiry is made moot when it turns out that Dax was actually in bed with the murdered man's wife at the time.]]

** A really interesting example in the episode "Dax". Ilon Tandro believes Curzon Dax was responsible for his father's death and wants him punished. Curzon is dead, but his memories and experiences live on in a symbiotic lifeform that was implanted into Jadzia Dax, so Tandro wants ''her'' charged with the crimes. Much of the episode centers around a court case to determine whether she, or the sybiote itself, can be considered to have culpability in such a case. [[spoiler: The whole line of inquiry is made moot when it turns out that Dax was actually in bed with the murdered man's wife at the time.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Despite Rick believing the Galactic Federation will torture his family until they confess to where he is, this trope is actually subverted when a Federation officer informs Rick over the phone that they only want him; allowing Rick to turn himself in while the others go free.

* One of the reasons Jews were discriminated against for many centuries in Christian-dominated societies was the belief (however erroneous) that they were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. Never mind that 1.) crucifixion was a ''Roman'' punishment, 2.) Jesus himself was Jewish, and 3.) the circumstances and significance of his death and resurrection form the central tenets of ''Christianity itself''. Perhaps the worst offender was the German church under UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, a church which, rather than accepting that the Romans crucified Jesus on the basis that the Jews would never kill their own, claimed that Jesus was ''not'' Jewish on the basis that [[EvenEvilHasStandards the Jews would never kill their own]].

* In ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'', {{K|nightTemplar}}ore's FantasticRacism extends not only to members of the 'monstrous races', but also to members of the 'civilized races' who could potentially harbor sympathy for monsters. This results in him [[WouldHurtAChild executing a child]] whose 'crime' was being orphaned and RaisedByOrcs, while delivering a speech about how allowing the child to live would result in the potential for greater evil to exist in future. Kore also uses two instances of a specific clan of Dwarves trying to stop him as evidence that he should hunt down and purge the entire clan.[[note]]Kore was cursed a thousand years ago by a demon overlord he thought he defeated. It's not known ''what'' type of demonic curse he has, but it probably prevented him from getting psychological help. Or dying.[[/note]]

* ''Film/NineDead'': The captor targets nine people who are in some way responsible for the death of [[spoiler:his beloved son]], locking them all in a room and asking them why they are there. He will kill a random person every ten minutes until they either figure it out or every single one of them is dead. While you can sympathize with him for wanting to punish [[spoiler:the pedophile that infected his son with aids, the robber who used him as a FallGuy, or the prosecutor who forged evidence to get a conviction to boost her own career, he equally blames the eyeball witness and the cop who were manipulated by said prosecutor, the guy who sold a gun to the robber and the guy who borrowed him money, even an insurance investigator who couldn't break rules without losing his job.]]

* ''Film/NineDead'': The captor targets nine people who are in some way responsible for the death of [[spoiler:his beloved son]], locking them all in a room and asking them why they are there. He will kill a random person every five minutes until they either figure it out or every single one of them is dead. While you can sympathize with him for wanting to punish [[spoiler:the pedophile that infected his son with aids, the robber who used him as a FallGuy, or the prosecutor who forged evidence to get a conviction to boost her own career, he equally blames the eyeball witness and the cop who were manipulated by said prosecutor, the guy who sold a gun to the robber and the guy who borrowed him money, even an insurance investigator who couldn't break rules without losing his job.]]

* ''Film/NineDead'': The killer targets nine people who are in some way responsible for the death of [[spoiler:his beloved son]], locking them all in a room and forcing them to figure out their crime while randomly killing a person every five minutes. While you can sympathize with him for wanting to punish [[spoiler:the pedophile that infected his son with aids, the robber who used him as a FallGuy, or the prosecutor who forged evidence to get a conviction to boost her own career, he equally blames the eyeball witness and the cop who were manipulated by said prosecutor, the guy who sold a gun to the robber and the guy who borrowed him money, even an insurance investigator who couldn't break rules without losing his job.]]

* ''Film/NineDead'': The killer targets nine people who are in some way responsible for the death of [[spoiler:his beloved son]], locking them all in a room and forcing them to figure out their crime while randomly killing a person every five minutes. While you can sympathize with him for wanting to punish [[spoiler:the pedophile that infected his son with aids, the robber who used him as a FallGuy, or the prosecutor who forged evidence to boost her own career, he equally blames the eyeball witness and the cop who were manipulated by said prosecutor, the guy who sold a gun to the robber and the guy who borrowed him money, even an insurance investigator who couldn't break rules without losing his job.]]

* ''VisualNovel/GyakutenKenji2'''s mastermind is a deconstruction of what happens when a child happens upon a legitimate evil conspiracy that pulls the strings of an entire country and intentionally ruined their life; they became so thoroughly yet ProperlyParanoid that everyone around them was working for the conspiracy, which was technically correct some of the time, since one of them is ''the president of a country'' - and then they used that as an excuse to hunt down the members of the conspiracy, regardless of their actual crimes or knowledge. The last target was a 13-year old boy who was the son of one of the conspiracy's victims and had no idea about any of this.

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Drax has dedicated his life to killing Ronan the Accuser for killing his wife and daughter. After Ronan dies, he decides that he was just a pawn of Thanos, and that's who he really needs to kill.

* ''Videogame/FalloutNewVegas'': The antagonist of the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC, Ulysses, hates [[PlayerCharacter the Courier]] because he blames them for the nuclear explosion that destroyed the Divide; it turns out the Courier once delivered a package to the Divide which contained the nuke's launch codes. The Courier, who makes a living out of delivering packages without knowing their contents, [[ButForMeItWasTuesday can't even remember the package clearly when Ulysses tells them what it was used for]].

* ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has Hope. During his character arc, he blames his mother’s death on Snow, who in fact saved her life and tried to dissuade her from leaving her child to take up arms, instead of the military that not only sentenced her to death in the first place but fired upon and killed her. Though a conversation with Lightning has him explain that he is after the military as well. So when he and Snow eventually patch things up, they can focus on taking them down alongside the rest of the party.

* ''{{VideoGame/Touhou}}'': The legendary Chinese archer Houyi shot down the nine suns that threatened to burn the Earth. Unfortunately, Junko's son was killed when one of them crashed on him, so she killed Houyi in revenge. Then she went after his wife Chang'e, who was held prisoner by the Lunarians... so she went to war with the Lunarians, by unleashing pure life on them (the Lunarians are big on immortality, so life (which, by definition, can die) is a BrownNote to them). Then she fights the protagonists who came to stop her.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* On ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Warren shoots and kills [[spoiler:Tara]] and is in turn apparently killed in revenge by [[spoiler:Willow]], after which [[spoiler:she]] also vengefully targets his former partners Jonathan and Andrew, despite their lack of involvement in the shooting... and when Buffy and the Scoobies prevent these murders, [[spoiler:she]] blames and attacks ''them''! And then she tries to destroy the world.

* One of the reasons Jews were discriminated against for many centuries in Christian-dominated societies was the belief (however erroneous) that they were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. Never mind that 1.) crucifixion was a ''Roman'' punishment, 2.) Jesus himself was Jewish, and 3.) the circumstances and significance of his death and resurrection form the central tenets of ''[[WhatAnIdiot Christianity itself]]''. Perhaps the worst offender was the German church under UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, a church which, rather than accepting that the Romans crucified Jesus on the basis that the Jews would never kill their own, claimed that Jesus was ''not'' Jewish on the basis that [[EvenEvilHasStandards the Jews would never kill their own]].

** A similar demand made by these groups is that gun manufacturers and sellers should be prosecuted if the people they sell guns to commit suicide, rape, murder, etc. with their products. American laws don't necessarily hew to this trope, and immunize manufacturers from being sued for criminal misuse of their products. Other manufacturers who make things that can easily kill people, even when working exactly as they should, are given the same protection (for example, you can't sue General Motors because a maniac used one of their trucks to plow into a crowd of people). A seller can only face charges if they sell to someone who the seller knows is legally prohibited from purchasing or owning weapons, such as a convicted felon.
*** The above law has specific exceptions for the litigious application of this trope - if a seller or manufacturer was demonstrably negligent or malicious in their actions, such as knowingly violating laws and regulations in the course of their business for example, then they can still be pursued in court as an accessory to the crime and liable in civil court.
* One of the reasons Jews were discriminated against for many centuries in Christian-dominated societies was the belief (however erroneous) that they were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. Never mind that 1.) crucifixion was a ''Roman'' punishment, 2.) Jesus himself was Jewish, and 3.) the circumstances and significance of his death and resurrection form the central tenets of ''[[WhatAnIdiot Christianity itself]]''.
** Perhaps the worst offender was the German church under UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, a church which, rather than accepting that the Romans crucified Jesus on the basis that the Jews would never kill their own, claimed that Jesus was ''not'' Jewish on the basis that [[EvenEvilHasStandards the Jews would never kill their own]].

* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:there is a secret organization who make and sell superpowers, but do so by testing them on people, resulting in dozens if not hundreds of capes who have physically anomalous forms and no memories. The organization also sold powers to people who wanted to be villains, which resulted in a lot of death and destruction. When this all comes to light, those who bought powers are reviled by those who got powers naturally, even though the customers were not told the details of how the powers were made.]]
** And in the sequel, the apocalypse destroyed the superhero union and pardoned/whitewashed thousands of supervillains out of necessity, leaving the general population paranoid that any cape on the street could secretly be an unrepentant, non-rehabilitated supervillain, and blaming the entire metahuman community for allowing one apocalypse to drive the world(s) insane.

* ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'': When Opie's wife is killed by Clay and Tig, he blames and seeks revenge on the ATF agent who led the Sons to believe that he (Opie) was a rat, while forgiving those who actually orchestrated and carried out the attack.