History RoaringRampageOfRevenge / Literature

* The eponymous character of ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfSamuraiCat'' books, Miaowara Tomokato, is on this kind of journey to kill the men who murdered his master. In the process, he runs amok through parodies of just about everything, including Disneyland, ''Franchise/StarWars'', and others.

* The Literature/AgentPendergast novel ''Literature/BookOfTheDead'' sees [[spoiler:Constance Greene]] pursuing Diogenes Pendergast all over the globe determined to kill him for his past actions.
* In the quote above from ''The Ballad of East and West'' by Creator/RudyardKipling, a British officer rather gruesomely threatens a border raider that the British army will do this to his tribe if he is murdered during a parley.

* ''Literature/BlackIris:'' Delaney Keating's revenge is a bit smaller-scale than Dresden's, but she rivals him in ferocity. The tagline sums it up pretty well:

* Silk goes on one of these in ''[[Literature/{{Belgariad}} King of the Murgos]]'' when a prostitute he was quite friendly with is murdered. He calmly and methodically kills a dozen members of the family responsible in cold blood - even taking the time to make the first few deaths look like accidents - and shows absolutely no remorse when later questioned about it.

* In the fantasy novel ''The Conjurer Princess'', the title character sets off on one of these after her family is slaughtered at the wedding of her elder sister and her [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage fiance who she loves]], with the sole exception of her elder sister who was carried off. By the end, though, [[spoiler:she finds out that her elder sister was in on it and the BigBad actually her real lover]]...

* Also [[TheStoic calm]] is Kirth Gersen, the protagonist of the ''Literature/TheDemonPrinces'' series by Creator/JackVance, who was raised by his grandfather to have no GoalInLife other than to find and kill the five so-called Demon Princes, pirates and criminal masterminds who were responsible for the destruction of the colony world from which Kirth and his grandfather were the sole survivors. The ending has Kirth lapsing into bleak, bleak depression upon the death of his last target - raised his entire life for only one purpose, now that he's completed it he has ''no purpose at all''. Except Alice Wroke.

** Harry Dresden has [[MeaningfulName that surname]] for a reason, and god help you if you threaten anyone he cares about.

--->'''Michael:''' Harry, I'm not sure if you noticed this. But things did not turn out well for the last monster who raised his hand against [[spoiler:your child.]] Or any of his friends. Or associates. Or anyone who worked for him. Or for most of the people he knew.

* In ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' spin-off book ''Best Served Cold'', the main character Monzcarro Murcatto gets...a tad carried away. [[spoiler:One of the people on the list she literally smashes their head in with her bare hands.]]
* ''Literature/GoblinsInTheCastle'': Once freed, the goblins plan to do this in retaliation for being sealed away for a hundred and twenty-one years. When William restores their king and he regains his sanity, he calls it off.

** ''The Lies of Locke Lamora'' gives us [[spoiler:the Gray King, whose family was killed by the other nobles of Camorr because they wouldn't go along with the Secret Peace with the city's criminal elements, headed by Capa Barsavi. So when he returns to town, he starts killing the heads of every gang that works for Barsavi, drowns his daughter in a barrel of horse urine, sets up Barsavi's best thief as a fall guy, and, when the Gray King is believed dead, kills him (with a magically-controlled shark) and his sons at the party. And this is all a lead-up to his revenge on the nobles, which would involve magically lobotomizing all of them ''and their children''.]]

** Locke himself goes on a smaller one after [[spoiler:some of his friends are killed. He and Jean kill several of the Gray King's followers, the Bondmage's hawk, and the Gray King himself. They also cut out the Bondmage's tongue and cut off his hands and feet. They only left him alive at all for the reasons above.]]
* In ''Film/TheGodfather'' Luca Brasi goes on one of these after Vito is shot, and one to such a reckless extent that it takes Vito to call him off.
%%ZCE* A more tragic example is the title character of the poem "The Highwayman". It doesn't go so well, as he's immediately gunned down by King George's soldiers.
%%ZCE** The horrifying irony being that she'd shot ''herself'' (they'd tied her up with a musket to her breast and her hands tied - she works at the ropes until she can get the tip of a finger onto the trigger) to warn him off and save him in the first place.

** Invoked in ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'', where the Spartan-[=IIIs=] are recruited from children who have been orphaned by the Covenant and wish to get back at the aliens.
** ''Literature/TheForerunnerSaga'' reveals that the Forerunners were at the receiving end of one from [[spoiler:the Precursors, in retaliation for the Forerunners wiping them out millions of years before. It's hard to say it was unsuccessful...]]

* Creator/MercedesLackey's Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar novels:
** Tarma from the Vows and Honor series is the last survivor of Clan Tale'sedrin after bandits ambushed them while they celebrated. Her entire family, including the man she loved, is dead. She has been gang-raped and left for dead. What, then, does she do? She declares blood feud against the bandits, an act which is one of the most drastic possible for one of the Shin'a'in (it requires her to swear herself as one of her Goddess's servants and a {{Celibate Hero}}ine, for a start). Then she rides to a town that the bandits have taken over as their base, and kills them all, one by one.
** Herald Vanyel in ''Magic's Price'' gets kidnapped, tortured, and raped after having been given a drug that not only blocks his formidable magic but also messes with his physical coordination so that he can't even defend himself using his equally formidable fighting skills. His captors are under strict orders to keep him alive, and when they realize that they've gone too far and he's about to die, they bring in a healer, whose remedy is the antidote to the drug. As soon as the drug wears off. . . . BOOM!

* In ''Field of Dishonor'' resident ActionGirl Literature/HonorHarrington [[spoiler:goes on a brief rampage after her boyfriend is essentially legally murdered (tricked into a duel by a professional shootist) by challenging each person responsible to a duel and gunning them down.]] Additionally, in ''In Enemy Hands'' she goes on sort of a pre-Roaring Rampage when [[spoiler:Ransom orders Nimitz to be killed]] attempting to take down as many soldiers as possible before she's beaten down.

* ''The Hunter'', the first of the Literature/{{Parker}} novels, is about Parker going after his wife and partner who double-crossed him and left him for dead.

-->"I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone."
* Daine from the ''[[Literature/TortallUniverse Immortals]]'' series by Creator/TamoraPierce does the whole roaring rampage of revenge thing, taking down an entire city in the process. [[spoiler:With an army of zombie dinosaurs.]]

* In ''Literature/JKHaruIsASexWorkerInAnotherWorld'', one of the darker light novels you'll find, the main character is accidentally summoned to another world with a boy she knows. He's the Chosen One with Limit Break powers, she ends up working as a prostitute. Which she's surprisingly okay with (she had done escort work in our world) until another prostitute she's befriended is killed by a platoon of abusive soldiers. [[spoiler:She ALSO has Limit Break powers, but hers are BETTER, if way creepier. She wipes out the entire platoon in the middle of monster-infested woods in less time than it takes to tell about it.]]
* Don Pendleton's [[Literature/TheExecutioner Mack Bolan]] seems to have trouble keeping innocent bystanders alive, but since he's like the black ops version of ComicBook/ThePunisher (and in fact was the inspiration for the original Punisher) he is pretty much on a Roaring Marathon.
* The entire premise of Creator/DavidWeber's ''Literature/InFuryBorn''. Having one of the [[spoiler:Ancient Greek Furies]] involved is usually a fair indicator.
* Creator/TomClancy's novel ''[[Literature/JackRyan Without Remorse]]'' is a prequel showing how John Clark got to be the badass that he is in the present day novels. After his girlfriend, a recovering prostitute/drug addict, is killed by the pushers she once worked for, he begins picking them off one by one, Punisher-style, but not before [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing]] them to find out more information about their gang.
%%ZCE * ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': What [[spoiler:Kthonia]] decides to do after [[spoiler:Kalak]] kills her daughter.
%%ZCE * Drizzt Do'Urden in the ''[[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt Hunter's Blades Trilogy]]'', in his SociopathicHero alternate personality The Hunter.

* There's a mass-combat version in ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Return of the King]]'', when the army of [[ProudWarriorRace Rohan]] rallies behind [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Éomer son of Éomund]] to [[ItsPersonal avenge Théoden and Éowyn]] on the Pelennor Fields.

* In the 12th century German epic ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}'', Kriemhild's husband Siegfried is murdered by Hagen at the behest of her brother's wife, which is condoned by her three brothers. A few years later she marries King Etzel the Hun, which provides her with the necessary muscle for revenge, and about ten years later she invites her brothers, Hagen and the other retainers to her new place. However the brothers were fought back like madmen all night, resulting in a seven chapter long bloodbath. At the same time, Kriemhild turns into a complete psycho, sending more and more men into the hall and ordering the feasting hall to be burned down, and finally has her revenge as she [[OffWithHisHead decapitates her husband's killer personally]]. By the end, Etzel (who is based on ''Attila the Hun'', no less) is completely ''terrified'' of her.

* [[BloodKnight Clarisse]] goes on one in ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Last Olympian]]'' after [[spoiler:Silena is killed by the drakon.]]
--> "I am CLARISSE, [[spoiler:DRAKON-SLAYER!]] I will kill you ALL!"
* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' has a good few: Grath Longfletch, Lonna Bowstripe, Orlando the Axe, and Gorath the Flame.

* When ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'s'' Merlin Athrawes initially dons the identity of Dialydd Mab, which is Welsh for "Avenging Son", he does so in retaliation against the Inquisition's arrest and imprisonment of a significant number of a town's population in the paranoid belief that an explosive accident was caused by their willing sabotage. We see him attack a barge with the Inquisitors who actually gave the order aboard and kill everyone, using his abilities as a RidiculouslyHumanRobot to full advantage. Only later do we learn that he also went to the town's garrison and killed its commanding officer, his second-in-command, his ''third''-in-command, all commanders of the infantry companies assigned to cleanse Sarkyn and escorting prisoners to concentration camps, and any and all lower soldiers who "distinguished" themselves during Sarkyn's cleansing. He continues such strikes against the most heinous Inquisitors and quickly becomes TheDreaded, prompting them to treat their prisoners like something resembling human beings or else be the target of Dialydd Mab's next bullet.

--->'''Lyrah:''' "''[[UnstoppableRage I'm going to kill them all!]]''"
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: Played with. The Vigilantes obey a ThouShaltNotKill code. However, they will give the sucker a FateWorseThanDeath. The first seven books have each of the 7 members strike back against the people who wronged them without getting caught. Also, they wait very patiently for a few months to a year before striking each target.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''
** In Creator/DianeDuane's ''Literature/SpocksWorld'', a Vulcan matriarch tries to keep a young woman with the ability to kill with her mind under control by holding her husband hostage. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, the husband is accidentally killed, and the woman telepathically murders every person in the matriarch's household before throwing herself out a window.
** In the novel ''Vendetta'', Delcara mixes it up with the 1701-D crew because she wants revenge on The Borg, and her [[PlanetEater weapon of choice]] will take out a lot of innocents along the way.
* A number of the works of Creator/StephenKing feature this.
** In all versions of ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', the [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]] title character engages in this trope after a horrific prank at her [[HighSchoolDance senior prom]] ruins the happiest moment of her otherwise torturous life and [[DeadlyPrank kills her date]]. Her response is to use her powers to set the gym on fire and leave everyone inside to [[KillItWithFire burn alive]]. And it doesn't end there, either. In the book and the [[Film/Carrie2002 2002 film adaptation]], she levels most of the town, too.
** In ''Literature/TheDrawingOfTheThree'', book 2 of Franchise/TheDarkTower series, Eddie Dean goes utterly insane and dispatches several nasties with Roland's gun. Naked, no less.
** In ''Literature/FullDarkNoStars'', one of the short stories, "Big Driver", is about Tess, a rape victim who goes on a rampage against those who harmed her.
** In ''Literature/TheRunningMan'' Ben, [[spoiler:after discovering the [[TheGovernment The Games Company]] had his wife murdered, destroys their primary government building. Killing the higher ups of the company. And everyone inside. And everyone within a large radius. (Its stated debris was falling 20 blocks out, not to mention most things in the novel are nuclear powered and the dust clouds of 9/11 blasted quite far.)]]
* In ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' Kahlan's Con Dar (Blood Rage), in which she gains the power to throw lightning bolts in addition to her normal domination power and can only be used to defend or avenge Richard, definitely qualifies.

** In ''Altered Carbon'' he returns to a shady medical lab where he had been loaded into a virtual reality and tortured over the course of several subjective days. He kills the pimp who sold him out, everyone who worked at the brothel the pimp ran, and everyone at the medical lab, sparing only the boss's [[SoulJar stack]] for later "interrogation."
** In ''Broken Angels'' he ends up killing each and every single member of the mercenary company he was working with, even though he was [[YouCanBarelyStand severely injured]] and a few days away from death by radiation poisoning.
** In ''Woken Furies'', his former girlfriend falls afoul of a patriarchal cult who remove her [[SoulJar cortical stack]] and toss it in the ocean, effectively [[KilledOffForReal killing her]]. When he finds out, he goes to the village and kills every single person who was an adult at the time, in his words, "Every single person who could have done something and instead chose to not." Then he goes on a global crusade, killing every single priest of the religion, cutting their stacks out, downloading their minds into swamp panthers, and forcing them to fight to the death over and over again. When we meet him, it's implied that he's been doing it for several years. When asked at what point he's planning to stop, he says something along the lines of "they can't give her back to me, so why should I stop?"
* In ''[[Literature/{{Tarzan}} Tarzan the Untamed]]'', Tarzan goes on one of these after [[spoiler:his home is burned down by invading German troops, and, as he believes, his wife Jane is killed]].
* Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' has a bit of a delayed one after [[spoiler:some dwarves threaten his son. (They tried to threaten his wife. She was with her dragons. It didn't end well -- for the dwarves, that is.)]] Near the end of the book, after all that's happened to him, the straw breaks the cow's back when [[spoiler:Vimes realises that he's going to miss his son's nightly bedtime story because of said dwarves]], and he goes- not to put too fine a point on it- completely ''off his nut''. After slaughtering his way through the entire dwarven army, screaming bloody murder all the way, he barely stops himself (with some help) from killing their leaders... [[spoiler:so that he could ARREST them]]. Which just makes him that much more badass.

* ''{{Literature/Tigana}}'':
-->'''Alessan:''' I want Brandin. I want Brandin of Ygrath dead more than I want my soul's immortality beyond the last portal of Morian.

%%ZCE * In ''{{Literature/Vampirocracy}}'', Leon admits to himself that this is half the reason he so steadfastly pursues [[spoiler:Don.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Only in Death'', Eszrah goes on one. Believing himself dishonored by [[spoiler:living after Gaunt's death]], he does the only thing he can -- a rampage in which he kills as many as he can with Gaunt's sword before [[DeathSeeker he dies]]. [[spoiler:That is, until he finds Gaunt alive.]]
** In Chris Roberson's Imperial Fists novel ''Sons of Dorn'', Captain Taelos wants to atone for his failure by a "Warrior's Pilgrimage." He is refused the honor (for now) and sent to collect aspirants. At the end, he adds the dead from his last mission to his tally to atone for, subtracts those whose lives he has saved, and feels honored by the duty of collecting aspirants.
** In ''[[Literature/SpaceMarineBattles Fall of Damnos]]'', the Ultramarines' battle prowess goes into overdrive and their TheStoic hat flies out of the window when they think that the Necrons have killed captain Sicarius.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': In the last book of the third series, [[spoiler:Hollyleaf freaks out at learning her true parentage and exposes her mother's greatest secret. Then, she attempts to kill her mother, before running away into some tunnels.]]

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series has lots of these:
** The first book when [[spoiler:Lews Therin takes revenge on ''himself'' for killing his entire family when he was insane by drawing on the Power until he eventually kills himself and reshapes the earth he's standing on for miles.]]
** The second is after [[spoiler:Aviendha's temporary death in ''The Fires of Heaven''--Rand sees her body and proceeds to rip open a path to the World of Dreams, kill anything in his path without care for who or what they are, and when he finally finds Rahvin, the man responsible for Aviendha's death, uses balefire, a technique not even used by the Forsaken, to erase him from the pattern and turn back time, remarking that he doesn't care if he's unraveled the world as long as Aviendha is alive.]] Yeah, you don't mess with Rand's girls.

* ''Literature/THeHowling1977'': In the 1583 prologue, a mob wiped out the village of Dradja to eliminate the Evil that dwelled there and avenge a murdered shepherd and his family, as well as countless others who had been killed by the Evil over the years. The mob tortured to death every man, woman and child in Dradja they could find, piled up and burned their bodies, slaughtered all the animals and ''then'' burnt down the village itself, just for good measure.

* Also [[TheStoic calm]] is Kirth Gersen, the protagonist of the ''Literature/TheDemonPrinces'' series by Creator/JackVance, who was raised by his grandfather to have no GoalInLife other than to find and kill the five so-called Demon Princes, pirates and criminal masterminds who were responsible for the destruction of the colony world from which Kirth and his grandfather were the sole survivors. The ending has Kirth lapsing into bleak, bleak depression upon the death of his last target - raised his entire life for only one purpose, now that he's completed it he has ''no purpose at all''.
** Except Alice Wroke.

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', naturally. Granted, his hit list only has one name on it, but he very quickly demonstrates that he doesn't mind knocking off a bystander or two to get to him, and the body count simply becomes heinous by the end of the play.
* ''[[Literature/GentlemanBastard The Lies of Locke Lamora]]'' gives us [[spoiler:the Gray King, whose family was killed by the other nobles of Camorr because they wouldn't go along with the Secret Peace with the city's criminal elements, headed by Capa Barsavi. So when he returns to town, he starts killing the heads of every gang that works for Barsavi, drowns his daughter in a barrel of horse urine, sets up Barsavi's best thief as a fall guy, and, when the Gray King is believed dead, kills him (with a magically-controlled shark) and his sons at the party. And this is all a lead-up to his revenge on the nobles, which would involve magically lobotomizing all of them ''and their children''.]]

* A more tragic example is the title character of the poem "The Highwayman". It doesn't go so well, as he's immediately gunned down by King George's soldiers.
** The horrifying irony being that she'd shot ''herself'' (they'd tied her up with a musket to her breast and her hands tied - she works at the ropes until she can get the tip of a finger onto the trigger) to warn him off and save him in the first place.

* ''Literature/THeHowling1977'': In the 1583 prologue, a mob wiped out the village of Dradja to eliminate the Evil that dwelled there and avenge a murdered shepherd and his family, as well as countless others who had been killed by the Evil over the years. The mob tortured to death every man, woman and child in Dradja they could find, piled up and burned their bodies, slaughtered all the animals and ''then'' burnt down the village itself, just for good measure.

* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': What [[spoiler:Kthonia]] decides to do after [[spoiler:Kalak]] kills her daughter.
* Drizzt Do'Urden in the ''[[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt Hunter's Blades Trilogy]]'', in his SociopathicHero alternate personality The Hunter.

* Thomas Middleton's ''Theatre/TheRevengersTragedy'' is an excellent example of this trope. Vindice (his name literally means ''Revenge'') throws himself into his role as bloody revenger with glee.

* ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror.''

* In ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'', we find out that Rosalie's record is ''almost'' as clean as Carlisle's. She went on one of these after being turned into a vampire, against the guys who raped and murdered her in the first place. Among them was her fiance, whom she saved for last, and then wore a wedding dress to kill. Especially considering her [[AlphaBitch normal characterization]].

* In ''{{Literature/Vampirocracy}}'', Leon admits to himself that this is half the reason he so steadfastly pursues [[spoiler:Don.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''

* In the last book of the third ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series,[[spoiler:Hollyleaf freaks out at learning her true parentage and exposes her mother's greatest secret. Then, she attempts to kill her mother, before running away into some tunnels.]]
** Also, Ashfur, although some would call his attempts at revenge on Squirrelflight a DisproportionateRetribution rather than this trope.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series has lots of these.

* Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' has a bit of a delayed one after [[spoiler:some dwarves threaten his son. (They tried to threaten his wife. She was with her dragons. It didn't end well -- for the dwarves, that is.)]] Near the end of the book, after all that's happened to him, the straw breaks the cow's back when Vimes realises that he's going to miss his son's nightly bedtime story because of said dwarves, and he goes- not to put too fine a point on it- completely ''off his nut''. After slaughtering his way through the entire dwarven army, screaming bloody murder all the way, he barely stops himself (with some help) from killing their leaders... so that he could ARREST them. Which just makes him that much more badass.

* Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' has a bit of a delayed one after [[spoiler:some dwarves threaten his son. (They tried to threaten his wife. She was with her dragons. It didn't end well -- for the dwarves, that is.)]] Near the end of the book he slaughters quite a few of them, and barely stops himself (with some help) from killing their leaders so that he could ARREST them. Which just makes him that much more badass.

--->Over the field rang his clear voice calling "Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!" And with that the host began to move. But the Rohirrim sang no more. ''Death'' they cried with one voice loud and terrible, and gathering speed like a great tide their battle swept about their fallen king and passed, roaring away southwards.

* The Literature/AgentPendergast novel ''Literature/BookOfTheDead'' sees [[spoiler: Constance Greene]] pursuing Diogenes Pendergast all over the globe determined to kill him for his past actions.

--->Karma's a bitch. But you can call her Laney.

* When [[spoiler: the Wee Widow Mouse]] is killed by a basilisk during the first major battle in ''Literature/TheBookOfTheDunCow'', her friend John Wesley Weasel goes completely berserk, killing thousands of them to avenge her death, fuelled by pure rage. It is even suggested that he would have wiped them out completely if [[TheDragon Cockatrice]] hadn't intervened.

*** Harry is famous enough in universe for his curbstomp revenges that in ''Literature/{{Deadbeat}}'', [[spoiler: Mavra, a centuries old vampire threatens him with blackmailing a friend and]] is given a clear threat of how far Harry will go to get his revenge. That was Book 7 of the series. As of Book 15, we haven't seen her again.

--->'''Michael:''' Harry, I'm not sure if you noticed this. But things did not turn out well for the last monster who raised his hand against [[spoiler: your child.]] Or any of his friends. Or associates. Or anyone who worked for him. Or for most of the people he knew.

* In ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' spin-off book ''Best Served Cold'', the main character Monzcarro Murcatto gets...a tad carried away. [[spoiler: One of the people on the list she literally smashes their head in with her bare hands.]]

* ''[[Literature/GentlemanBastard The Lies of Locke Lamora]]'' gives us [[spoiler: the Gray King, whose family was killed by the other nobles of Camorr because they wouldn't go along with the Secret Peace with the city's criminal elements, headed by Capa Barsavi. So when he returns to town, he starts killing the heads of every gang that works for Barsavi, drowns his daughter in a barrel of horse urine, sets up Barsavi's best thief as a fall guy, and, when the Gray King is believed dead, kills him (with a magically-controlled shark) and his sons at the party. And this is all a lead-up to his revenge on the nobles, which would involve magically lobotomizing all of them ''and their children''.]]

** ''Literature/TheForerunnerSaga'' reveals that the Forerunners were at the receiving end of one from [[spoiler: the Precursors, in retaliation for the Forerunners wiping them out millions of years before. It's hard to say it was unsuccessful...]]
* ''Literature/HardToBeAGod'' follows an agent from an advanced civilization embedded undercover in a medieval society. [[spoiler: As such, he refrains from ever killing anybody throughout the story, despite numerous confrontations. The story proper ends as an attack on his house leaves his girlfriend fatally shot with a crossbow; he calmly picks up his weapons and waits for the attackers to break down the door. The epilogue takes place after he was extracted. At first the extraction team did not know where to look for him after he left the ruins of the house, but then... they saw the trail in his wake.]]

* In ''Field of Dishonor'' resident ActionGirl Literature/HonorHarrington [[spoiler: goes on a brief rampage after her boyfriend is essentially legally murdered (tricked into a duel by a professional shootist) by challenging each person responsible to a duel and gunning them down.]] Additionally, in ''In Enemy Hands'' she goes on sort of a pre-Roaring Rampage when [[spoiler: Ransom orders Nimitz to be killed]] attempting to take down as many soldiers as possible before she's beaten down.

* Daine from the ''[[Literature/TortallUniverse Immortals]]'' series by Creator/TamoraPierce does the whole roaring rampage of revenge thing, taking down an entire city in the process. [[spoiler: With an army of zombie dinosaurs.]]

* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': What [[spoiler: Kthonia]] decides to do after [[spoiler: Kalak]] kills her daughter.

* ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'': Julian, upon discovering that [[spoiler: Yang Wen-li was assassinated by Terraists who infiltrated into Yang's cruiser, went on a roaring rampage and killing any Terraists he encountered within the cruiser (with a ''battleaxe'', no less) and had to be stopped by Louis Machungo. He slipped again when he encountered Archbishop De Villiers, the mastermind of the assassination, and ended up [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill blasting him with more shots than necessary to kill him.]]]]

* In the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' novel ''Prophecy'', Barrin goes on one (that also turns the big showdown into a complete CurbStompBattle) after [[spoiler: his wife is murdered and mutilated by a psychotic enemy mage.]] His rampage single-handedly wins the war against the Keldons, which [[FridgeLogic raises the question]] of why he didn't employ those kinds of tactics to begin with.

* [[BloodKnight Clarisse]] goes on one in ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Last Olympian]]'' after [[spoiler: Silena is killed by the drakon.]]
--> "I am CLARISSE, [[spoiler: DRAKON-SLAYER!]] I will kill you ALL!"

** [[spoiler: Catelyn Stark]] after her resurrection. Spending nearly three books losing everything and everyone she held dear, culminating in [[spoiler: watching her son get slaughtered in front of her]] would probably make anyone a vengeance crazy mad lady regardless of zombification.

** In ''Literature/TheRunningMan'' Ben, [[spoiler: after discovering the [[TheGovernment The Games Company]] had his wife murdered, destroys their primary government building. Killing the higher ups of the company. And everyone inside. And everyone within a large radius. (Its stated debris was falling 20 blocks out, not to mention most things in the novel are nuclear powered and the dust clouds of 9/11 blasted quite far.)]]

* In ''{{Literature/Vampirocracy}}'', Leon admits to himself that this is half the reason he so steadfastly pursues [[spoiler: Don.]]

** In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Only in Death'', Eszrah goes on one. Believing himself dishonored by [[spoiler: living after Gaunt's death]], he does the only thing he can -- a rampage in which he kills as many as he can with Gaunt's sword before [[DeathSeeker he dies]]. [[spoiler:That is, until he finds Gaunt alive.]]

* In the last book of the third ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series,[[spoiler: Hollyleaf freaks out at learning her true parentage and exposes her mother's greatest secret. Then, she attempts to kill her mother, before running away into some tunnels.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', we find out that Rosalie's record is ''almost'' as clean as Carlisle's. She went on one of these after being turned into a vampire, against the guys who raped and murdered her in the first place. Among them was her fiance, whom she saved for last, and then wore a wedding dress to kill. Especially considering her [[AlphaBitch normal characterization]].

* In ''LightNovel/JKHaruIsASexWorkerInAnotherWorld'', one of the darker light novels you'll find, the main character is accidentally summoned to another world with a boy she knows. He's the Chosen One with Limit Break powers, she ends up working as a prostitute. Which she's surprisingly okay with (she had done escort work in our world) until another prostitute she's befriended is killed by a platoon of abusive soldiers. [[spoiler: She ALSO has Limit Break powers, but hers are BETTER, if way creepier. She wipes out the entire platoon in the middle of monster-infested woods in less time than it takes to tell about it.]]

* Warhammer 40k

** In Chris Roberson's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Imperial Fists novel ''Sons of Dorn'', Captain Taelos wants to atone for his failure by a "Warrior's Pilgrimage." He is refused the honor (for now) and sent to collect aspirants. At the end, he adds the dead from his last mission to his tally to atone for, subtracts those whose lives he has saved, and feels honored by the duty of collecting aspirants.

* ''Literature/ImperialRadch'': The plot of ''Ancillary Justice'' revolves around Breq getting the resources and opportunity to assassinate TheEmperor who killed her crew... [[HiveMind some of the emperor]], anyway.
* In ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'' spin-off book ''Best Served Cold'', the main character Monzcarro Murcatto gets...a tad carried away. [[spoiler: One of the people on the list she literally smashes their head in with her bare hands.]]

* ''Literature/BlackIris:'' Delaney Keating's revenge is a bit smaller-scale than Dresden's, but she rivals him in ferocity. The tagline sums it up pretty well:
--->Karma's a bitch. But you can call her Laney.
* Thomas Middleton's ''Theatre/TheRevengersTragedy'' is an excellent example of this trope. Vindice (his name literally means ''Revenge'') throws himself into his role as bloody revenger with glee.
* In the quote above from ''The Ballad of East and West'' by Creator/RudyardKipling, a British officer rather gruesomely threatens a border raider that the British army will do this to his tribe if he is murdered during a parley.
* In ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' Kahlan's Con Dar (Blood Rage), in which she gains the power to throw lightning bolts in addition to her normal domination power and can only be used to defend or avenge Richard, definitely qualifies.
** In the end of the second book, Richard had a rampage of his own. And long before that, Zedd had his rampage during the D'Hara/Midlands war when his wife was killed; one so bad both sides were scared shitless of him.
* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Vendetta'', Delcara mixes it up with the 1701-D crew because she wants revenge on The Borg, and her [[PlanetEater weapon of choice]] will take out a lot of innocents along the way.
* Literature/TakeshiKovacs tends to do these at least once per novel:
** In ''Altered Carbon'' he returns to a shady medical lab where he had been loaded into a virtual reality and tortured over the course of several subjective days. He kills the pimp who sold him out, everyone who worked at the brothel the pimp ran, and everyone at the medical lab, sparing only the boss's [[SoulJar stack]] for later "interrogation."
** In ''Broken Angels'' he ends up killing each and every single member of the mercenary company he was working with, even though he was [[YouCanBarelyStand severely injured]] and a few days away from death by radiation poisoning.
** In ''Woken Furies'', his former girlfriend falls afoul of a patriarchal cult who remove her [[SoulJar cortical stack]] and toss it in the ocean, effectively [[KilledOffForReal killing her]]. When he finds out, he goes to the village and kills every single person who was an adult at the time, in his words, "Every single person who could have done something and instead chose to not." Then he goes on a global crusade, killing every single priest of the religion, cutting their stacks out, downloading their minds into swamp panthers, and forcing them to fight to the death over and over again. When we meet him, it's implied that he's been doing it for several years. When asked at what point he's planning to stop, he says something along the lines of "they can't give her back to me, so why should I stop?"
* ''{{Literature/Tigana}}'':
-->'''Alessan:''' I want Brandin. I want Brandin of Ygrath dead more than I want my soul's immortality beyond the last portal of Morian.

* The eponymous character of ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfSamuraiCat'' books, Miaowara Tomokato, is on this kind of journey to kill the men who murdered his master. In the process, he runs amok through parodies of just about everything, including Disneyland, ''Franchise/StarWars'', and others.

* In the 12th century German epic ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}'', Kriemhild's husband Siegfried is murdered by Hagen at the behest of her brother's wife, which is condoned by her three brothers. A few years later she marries King Etzel the Hun, which provides her with the necessary muscle for revenge, and about ten years later she invites her brothers, Hagen and the other retainers to her new place. However the brothers were fought back like madmen all night, resulting in a seven chapter long bloodbath. At the same time, Kriemhild turns into a complete psycho, sending more and more men into the hall and ordering the feasting hall to be burned down, and finally has her revenge as she [[OffWithHisHead decapitates her husband's killer personally]]. By the end, Etzel (who is based on ''Attila the Hun'', no less) is completely ''terrified'' of her.

* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' has a good few: Grath Longfletch, Lonna Bowstripe, Orlando the Axe, and Gorath the Flame.
* In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Only in Death'', Eszrah goes on one. Believing himself dishonored by [[spoiler: living after Gaunt's death]], he does the only thing he can -- a rampage in which he kills as many as he can with Gaunt's sword before [[DeathSeeker he dies]]. [[spoiler:That is, until he finds Gaunt alive.]]
* In ''[[Literature/SpaceMarineBattles Fall of Damnos]]'', the Ultramarines' battle prowess goes into overdrive and their TheStoic hat flies out of the window when they think that the Necrons have killed captain Sicarius.
* In ''Film/TheGodfather'' Luca Brasi goes on one of these after Vito is shot, and one to such a reckless extent that it takes Vito to call him off.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Tarzan}} Tarzan the Untamed]]'', Tarzan goes on one of these after [[spoiler:his home is burned down by invading German troops, and, as he believes, his wife Jane is killed]].

* David Valentine of ''Literature/TheVampireEarth'' series has a few. When his love interest in the first book gets kidnapped, he butchers the man who did it and his bodyguard, then proceeds to head into one of the most dangerous cities in the world. He gets the girl out, too, taking quite a few people (and Reapers). In fact, the entire series seems to be mini-Roaring Rampages of Revenge focused on an individual level contained within the papa-daddy of them all, his goal of exterminating every fucking vampire on Earth.
* Sam Vimes in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' has a bit of a delayed one after [[spoiler:some dwarves threaten his son. (They tried to threaten his wife. She was with her dragons. It didn't end well -- for the dwarves, that is.)]] Near the end of the book he slaughters quite a few of them, and barely stops himself (with some help) from killing their leaders so that he could ARREST them. Which just makes him that much more badass.
* Daine from the ''[[Literature/TortallUniverse Immortals]]'' series by Creator/TamoraPierce does the whole roaring rampage of revenge thing, taking down an entire city in the process. [[spoiler: With an army of zombie dinosaurs.]]
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series has lots of these.
** The first book when [[spoiler:Lews Therin takes revenge on ''himself'' for killing his entire family when he was insane by drawing on the Power until he eventually kills himself and reshapes the earth he's standing on for miles.]]
** The second is after [[spoiler:Aviendha's temporary death in ''The Fires of Heaven''--Rand sees her body and proceeds to rip open a path to the World of Dreams, kill anything in his path without care for who or what they are, and when he finally finds Rahvin, the man responsible for Aviendha's death, uses balefire, a technique not even used by the Forsaken, to erase him from the pattern and turn back time, remarking that he doesn't care if he's unraveled the world as long as Aviendha is alive.]] Yeah, you don't mess with Rand's girls.
** There's also the incident of Egwene being captured by the Seanchan, who take control of her power and spend several months training her to be a weapon and attempting to break her will. When she finally regains free access to her own power it turns out the training to be a weapon thing was pretty successful but the breaking her will thing has thus far only instilled her with a frantic, almost mindless fear and hatred of the Seanchan.
* In all versions of ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', the [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]] title character engages in this trope after a horrific prank at her [[HighSchoolDance senior prom]] ruins the happiest moment of her otherwise torturous life and [[DeadlyPrank kills her date]]. Her response is to use her powers to set the gym on fire and leave everyone inside to [[KillItWithFire burn alive]]. And it doesn't end there, either. In the book and the [[Film/Carrie2002 2002 film adaptation]], she levels most of the town, too.
* In ''Field of Dishonor'' resident ActionGirl Literature/HonorHarrington [[spoiler: goes on a brief rampage after her boyfriend is essentially legally murdered (tricked into a duel by a professional shootist) by challenging each person responsible to a duel and gunning them down.]] Additionally, in ''In Enemy Hands'' she goes on sort of a pre-Roaring Rampage when [[spoiler: Ransom orders Nimitz to be killed]] attempting to take down as many soldiers as possible before she's beaten down.
* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Arya Stark eventually develops a to-kill list when [[spoiler:bit by little bit, her father is murdered in front of her, friends killed and/or tortured and beaten bloody time and time again as a servant in Harrenhal, and has already managed to fill a portion of her kill quota.]] The worst part? She's nine.
** [[spoiler: Catelyn Stark]] after her resurrection. Spending nearly three books losing everything and everyone she held dear, culminating in [[spoiler: watching her son get slaughtered in front of her]] would probably make anyone a vengeance crazy mad lady regardless of zombification.
** During Aegon the Conqueror's conquest, Aegon's sister-wife Rhaenys was shot down alongside her dragon when she attempted to capture Dorne by force. In response, Aegon and his other sister-wife, Visenya, launched the so-called "Dragons' Wroth", where they sacked and burned every Dornish settlement they could find with their dragons.
* In ''Literature/TheDrawingOfTheThree'', book 2 of Franchise/TheDarkTower series, Eddie Dean goes utterly insane and dispatches several nasties with Roland's gun. Naked, no less.
* In Chris Roberson's ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Imperial Fists novel ''Sons of Dorn'', Captain Taelos wants to atone for his failure by a "Warrior's Pilgrimage." He is refused the honor (for now) and sent to collect aspirants. At the end, he adds the dead from his last mission to his tally to atone for, subtracts those whose lives he has saved, and feels honored by the duty of collecting aspirants.
* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', we find out that Rosalie's record is ''almost'' as clean as Carlisle's. She went on one of these after being turned into a vampire, against the guys who raped and murdered her in the first place. Among them was her fiance, whom she saved for last, and then wore a wedding dress to kill. Especially considering her [[AlphaBitch normal characterization]].
* In ''Literature/TheRunningMan'' Ben, [[spoiler: after discovering the [[TheGovernment The Games Company]] had his wife murdered, destroys their primary government building. Killing the higher ups of the company. And everyone inside. And everyone within a large radius. (Its stated debris was falling 20 blocks out, not to mention most things in the novel are nuclear powered and the dust clouds of 9/11 blasted quite far.)]]
* Creator/MercedesLackey's Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar novels:
** Tarma from the Vows and Honor series is the last survivor of Clan Tale'sedrin after bandits ambushed them while they celebrated. Her entire family, including the man she loved, is dead. She has been gang-raped and left for dead. What, then, does she do? She declares blood feud against the bandits, an act which is one of the most drastic possible for one of the Shin'a'in (it requires her to swear herself as one of her Goddess's servants and a {{Celibate Hero}}ine, for a start). Then she rides to a town that the bandits have taken over as their base, and kills them all, one by one.
** Herald Vanyel in ''Magic's Price'' gets kidnapped, tortured, and raped after having been given a drug that not only blocks his formidable magic but also messes with his physical coordination so that he can't even defend himself using his equally formidable fighting skills. His captors are under strict orders to keep him alive, and when they realize that they've gone too far and he's about to die, they bring in a healer, whose remedy is the antidote to the drug. As soon as the drug wears off. . . . BOOM!
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** Invoked in ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'', where the Spartan-[=IIIs=] are recruited from children who have been orphaned by the Covenant and wish to get back at the aliens.
** ''Literature/TheForerunnerSaga'' reveals that the Forerunners were at the receiving end of one from [[spoiler: the Precursors, in retaliation for the Forerunners wiping them out millions of years before. It's hard to say it was unsuccessful...]]
* In her autobiography ''Literature/IKnowWhyTheCagedBirdSings'', Maya Angelou relates how her uncles likely killed a man for raping her. Though the act was on her behalf, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she was horrified by it]], feeling that because she had set the chain of events in motion by reporting the rape, she was responsible for the murder.
-->"I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone."

* In the Creator/StephenKing collection, ''Literature/FullDarkNoStars'', one of the short stories, "Big Driver", is about Tess, a rape victim who goes on a rampage against those who harmed her.
* In the fantasy novel ''The Conjurer Princess'', the title character sets off on one of these after her family is slaughtered at the wedding of her elder sister and her [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage fiance who she loves]], with the sole exception of her elder sister who was carried off. By the end, though, [[spoiler:she finds out that her elder sister was in on it and the BigBad actually her real lover]]...
* Creator/TomClancy's novel ''[[Literature/JackRyan Without Remorse]]'' is a prequel showing how John Clark got to be the badass that he is in the present day novels. After his girlfriend, a recovering prostitute/drug addict, is killed by the pushers she once worked for, he begins picking them off one by one, Punisher-style, but not before [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing]] them to find out more information about their gang.
* ''[[Literature/GentlemanBastard The Lies of Locke Lamora]]'' gives us [[spoiler: the Gray King, whose family was killed by the other nobles of Camorr because they wouldn't go along with the Secret Peace with the city's criminal elements, headed by Capa Barsavi. So when he returns to town, he starts killing the heads of every gang that works for Barsavi, drowns his daughter in a barrel of horse urine, sets up Barsavi's best thief as a fall guy, and, when the Gray King is believed dead, kills him (with a magically-controlled shark) and his sons at the party. And this is all a lead-up to his revenge on the nobles, which would involve magically lobotomizing all of them ''and their children''.]]
** The Bondmagi would find the Gray King's idea of revenge quaint. [[spoiler:The Tel Therin Imperial army attacked a group of them and managed to kill 7 of them. Not only was the army killed to the last man, the Bondmagi took a vote on whether they needed to make an example of the Imperials or not. That's right, massacring an entire army wasn't considered a strong enough message. They then proceeded to burn the Tel Therin Capital city to the ground, citizens and all, merely to prove they were serious. And to add insult to injury they made sure to leave the Imperial throne untouched and completely intact. Not to mention they fact that if you just so happen to kill one not only do they drop everything they're doing so they can murder they everloving shit out of you. They will also burn down your house, where you work, your friends, your family, the family dog, and everyone who had the distinct misfortune of making your acquaintance all to make it absolutely clear that messing with a Bondsmage will simply not be tolerated for any reason.]]
** Locke himself goes on a smaller one after [[spoiler:some of his friends are killed. He and Jean kill several of the Gray King's followers, the Bondmage's hawk, and the Gray King himself. They also cut out the Bondmage's tongue and cut off his hands and feet. They only left him alive at all for the reasons above.]]
* ''Literature/SandmanSlim'' is basically the old story of "hitter from the outfit gets sent up, goes upstate, gets out, seeks revenge on the bastards who turned him in." Only substitute "hitter" for "sorcerer," the outfit for "his cabal," and "upstate" for "Hell."

* When [[spoiler: the Wee Widow Mouse]] is killed by a basilisk during the first major battle in ''Literature/TheBookOfTheDunCow'', her friend John Wesley Weasel goes completely berserk, killing thousands of them to avenge her death, fuelled by pure rage. It is even suggested that he would have wiped them out completely if [[TheDragon Cockatrice]] hadn't intervened.
* In the last book of the third ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series,[[spoiler: Hollyleaf freaks out at learning her true parentage and exposes her mother's greatest secret. Then, she attempts to kill her mother, before running away into some tunnels.]]
** Also, Ashfur, although some would call his attempts at revenge on Squirrelflight a DisproportionateRetribution rather than this trope.
* ''The Most Extreme Crueltie and Revenge of Shylock of Venice'' is a book which all but admits to being a RevengeFic sequel to ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice''. Shylock makes a DealWithTheDevil (who turns out to be an AuthorAvatar), wrecks Venice, kills a whole bunch of characters (ending with Antonio), then has an attack of MyGodWhatHaveIDone and reverses time so that he can chose a death sentence at the end of the court scene.
* Silk goes on one of these in ''[[Literature/{{Belgariad}} King of the Murgos]]'' when a prostitute he was quite friendly with is murdered. He calmly and methodically kills a dozen members of the family responsible in cold blood - even taking the time to make the first few deaths look like accidents - and shows absolutely no remorse when later questioned about it.
* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: Played with. The Vigilantes obey a ThouShaltNotKill code. However, they will give the sucker a FateWorseThanDeath. The first seven books have each of the 7 members strike back against the people who wronged them without getting caught. Also, they wait very patiently for a few months to a year before striking each target.
* There's a mass-combat version in ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Return of the King]]'', when the army of [[ProudWarriorRace Rohan]] rallies behind [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Éomer son of Éomund]] to [[ItsPersonal avenge Théoden and Éowyn]] on the Pelennor Fields.
--->Over the field rang his clear voice calling "Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!" And with that the host began to move. But the Rohirrim sang no more. ''Death'' they cried with one voice loud and terrible, and gathering speed like a great tide their battle swept about their fallen king and passed, roaring away southwards.
* The Literature/AgentPendergast novel ''Literature/BookOfTheDead'' sees [[spoiler: Constance Greene]] pursuing Diogenes Pendergast all over the globe determined to kill him for his past actions.
* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': What [[spoiler: Kthonia]] decides to do after [[spoiler: Kalak]] kills her daughter.
* In Creator/DianeDuane's ''Literature/SpocksWorld'', a Vulcan matriarch tries to keep a young woman with the ability to kill with her mind under control by holding her husband hostage. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, the husband is accidentally killed, and the woman telepathically murders every person in the matriarch's household before throwing herself out a window.
* Buck from ''Literature/TheCallOfTheWild'' goes into one of these after local Indians kill John Thorton, and he slaughters almost every one of them in a rage.

* ''The Hunter'', the first of the Literature/{{Parker}} novels, is about Parker going after his wife and partner who double-crossed him and left him for dead.
* In ''{{Literature/Vampirocracy}}'', Leon admits to himself that this is half the reason he so steadfastly pursues [[spoiler: Don.]]
* ''Literature/HardToBeAGod'' follows an agent from an advanced civilization embedded undercover in a medieval society. [[spoiler: As such, he refrains from ever killing anybody throughout the story, despite numerous confrontations. The story proper ends as an attack on his house leaves his girlfriend fatally shot with a crossbow; he calmly picks up his weapons and waits for the attackers to break down the door. The epilogue takes place after he was extracted. At first the extraction team did not know where to look for him after he left the ruins of the house, but then... they saw the trail in his wake.]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series, the reptilian Velantians have suffered for centuries at the hands of the Overlords of Delgon, a species with mind-control abilities who take pleasure in the torture and killing of their victims. Even the Velantian space program was a result of the Overlords, with them having created a compulsion for Velantians to go into space so their astronauts could be lured to Delgon. When the Galactic Patrol stumbles on the species and the Velantians gain not only advanced technology and weapons but access to the Lens, giving the wearer the ability to mentally resist Overlord control, Worsel becomes their first Lensman and swears to utterly eradicate the Overlords from the universe, with the blessing of the Patrol. He succeeds.
* In ''Literature/{{Below}}'', [[TheDragon Finch]] goes berserk in response to [[spoiler:his best friend's death]] in a goblin temple. After destroying their idol completely, he leads a team of just two other men to ambush the goblin priest and its entourage that had dogged the party.
* In ''LightNovel/JKHaruIsASexWorkerInAnotherWorld'', one of the darker light novels you'll find, the main character is accidentally summoned to another world with a boy she knows. He's the Chosen One with Limit Break powers, she ends up working as a prostitute. Which she's surprisingly okay with (she had done escort work in our world) until another prostitute she's befriended is killed by a platoon of abusive soldiers. [[spoiler: She ALSO has Limit Break powers, but hers are BETTER, if way creepier. She wipes out the entire platoon in the middle of monster-infested woods in less time than it takes to tell about it.]]
* In the prologue of ''Literature/{{Renegades}}'', Ace Anarchy comes home to find everyone in his family but his niece dead, with her telling him that they were killed by a hitman sent by a rival gang. Some time later, he goes to their quarters and murders each and every single one of them.

* ''Literature/{{Sandokan}}'': The main character's reason for being a pirate is to take revenge on those who financed the murderer of his father. The second part of ''The King of the Sea'' is one such rampage against the British trade in revenge for the British unprovoked attack and conquest of Mompracem, and ''Sandokan Fights Back'' actually has Sandokan returning to his ancestral home to kill his father's murderer and take back his throne.

* At the start of ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'', Danglars and Fernand frame Edmond Dantes as a Bonapartist so they can take his job and fiancee respectively, and when the magistrate Gerard de Villefort finds evidence that he's innocent, he has instead him thrown in the [[TheAlcatraz Chateau d'If]] because revealing his innocence would have exposed ''Villefort's father'' as a Bonapartist and ruined his career. Twenty three years later they have become rich and powerful... And that's when Dantes, who in the meantime has escaped prison, found an immense treasure, and made plans, returns as the Count of Montecristo to utterly ''ruin'' them [[SinsOfTheFather alongside their families]], [[WouldntHurtAChild sparing only the children]]. [[spoiler:Or he tries, as his plans against Villefort accidentally get his nine-years-old child killed, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone something that horrifies him]]]].
* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Kepabar's death makes Bazil go berserk and separate from his unit in pursuit after fleeing enemies.
* ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes'': Julian, upon discovering that [[spoiler: Yang Wen-li was assassinated by Terraists who infiltrated into Yang's cruiser, went on a roaring rampage and killing any Terraists he encountered within the cruiser (with a ''battleaxe'', no less) and had to be stopped by Louis Machungo. He slipped again when he encountered Archbishop De Villiers, the mastermind of the assassination, and ended up [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill blasting him with more shots than necessary to kill him.]]]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' did this when he went after Bellatrix [[spoiler: for killing Sirius. He even tried to cast a Cruciatus Curse on her.]]
** Sirius himself did this before the series' beginning, when he [[spoiler: went after Peter Pettigrew, who betrayed Sirius' best friend James Potter to Voldemort and caused his death.]]

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', Arya Stark eventually develops a to-kill list when [[spoiler:bit by little bit, her father is murdered in front of her, friends killed and/or tortured and beaten bloody time and time again as a servant in Harrendal, and has already managed to fill a portion of her kill quota.]] The worst part? She's nine.
** [[spoiler: Catelyn Stark]] after her resurrection. Spending nearly three books losing everything and everyone she held dear, culminating in [[spoiler: watching her son get slaughtered in front of her]] would probably make anyone a vengeance crazy mad lady regardless of zombiefication.