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Whos Laughing Now / Video Games

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Times where somebody who's been mistreated rises up and asks "Who's Laughing Now?" in Video Games.


  • In Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception, one particular mission forces your Ace Pilot to drop unstable and prone to accidentally detonating and killing you antidote-bombs on nerve gas outlets. Your flying is severely limited during this due to the instability of the bombs, and the enemy pilots chasing you relentlessly ridicule you for it. Once you finish stopping the gas attack, the bombs magically empty out, and you are free to run the enemy pilots through like any other, and they suitably shit their pants when they see you for the Ace Pilot you REALLY are.
  • Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn: This is the offscreen backstory for Kalah the illusionist, who somehow gains great power and turns the circus where the worked into a Bigger on the Inside fantasy world where things are not as they seem, in order to take revenge on those who made fun of him — basically making a Power Fantasy real.
  • The premise of Days of Monsters is that your character was bullied as a kid and turned to mad science in order to get revenge.
  • A heroic/player version is possible in Batman: Arkham City. As the game progresses — and in the harder levels of Challenge Maps — you'll run into stun-baton-wielding mooks, and they take great pleasure in destroying your combos, shaking your screen, giving their buddies ample time to take a chunk off of your health, and generally being one of the most irritating form of mooks in the game. One of Batman's takedown moves involves him taking the stun baton out of the mooks hand and shocking him with it. You can also use the "Disarm and Destroy" Combo move to completely destroy it, further improving the odds in your favor.
  • Bendy and the Ink Machine has the phrase scrawled on the wall just to the left of a vivisected cartoon character, Boris the Wolf. It's implied, but not confirmed, that Bendy or an acolyte did it as twisted vengeance against his Sitcom Archnemesis from the movies.
    • It's revealed in Chapter 3 that Boris was actually killed by Alice, not Bendy.
  • This is Terumi's line in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger when Rachel appears to warn Noel not to look at him when he reveals his true identity!
    Terumi: Heeheehahahaha! Hahahahahaha! You recognized me, didn't you!? Hey, shitty vampire! Who's laughing now!?
    • Lotte Carmine was a scientist working at Sector Seven; for the entire time he did, he was ignored by Kokonoe, mocked by Relius, and eventually broke up with his love. He got his revenge, though at terrible prices. Then again... Eating people, insect powers, being able to deal a lot of damage... maybe him turning into Arakune isn't so bad. This is, however, subverted that the people he ate was relatively minor ones, he cannot consume his true target that is the Azure within Ragna the Bloodedge. He spends his time getting beaten up by nearly everyone (and ends up easily captured by Relius), other people (including Kokonoe and Relius) talking on how he's still a failure at his form (and they're actually proven right and Terumi hammers it down to him), his speech got impeded so bad that he can't get everything across clearly... He certainly wished to invoke the trope, but utterly fails in the middle, as he ends up with even more ridicules than respect.
    • Then Chronophantasma proceeds to reconstruct it. Turns out, Relius capturing him comes with the package of modifying him, giving him a boost of badass AND coherency in speech. Then he got 'Observed' by Hazama as Arakune, not Lotte Carmine, therefore he gets to keep his more powerful blob form forever. How badass? Let's just say he goes from everyone's punching bag into capable of beating the crap out of Bang Shishigami and stole his Rettenjou, AND fighting Hakumen and surviving instead of getting cut down. Yikes.
  • In Crusader Kings, you can revive Hellenism and reforge the entire Roman Empire with the traditional polytheistic faith of old, while setting torch to Rome and burning down the Apostolic Palace and the St. Peter's Basilica. The flavor text for decision appropriately reads - "Let the Galileans burn for a change."
  • Anytime in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, when the Imperial Guard manages to deploy a Baneblade. IG is a Redshirt Army, whose viable tactics boil down to "have more soldiers than the enemy has bullets" and the Baneblade is a huge investment in time and resources. However, the eleven-cannoned behemoth is nearly capable of clearing maps on its own, and when it rolls out... to quote the game:
    Who's dying now!?
  • In Dead Rising, heavily implied to be an aspect of Paul's Psychopath status, or rather half-stated.
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: The situation between Black Marsh and Morrowind, as of the Fourth Era. The Dunmer of Morrowind have been raiding their smaller, destitute southern neighbour for Argonian slaves for centuries. However since the Red Mountain erupted and devastated most of Morrowind, the Argonians have since easily claimed most of the southern parts of the province, turning the tables on their former masters.
  • One of the Quirky Miniboss Squads in Exit Fate says exactly this when they come after Daniel when Brunhild summons demons into them. A Hopeless Boss Fight, several Oh, Crap! moments and One-Man Army demonstrations are involved.
  • Final Fantasy:
  • Heroic (kinda) example: Tombstone from Freedom Force uses this sentence when he's returned from the dead and confronts his wife's killer, who had framed him for the murder and sent him to the electric chair.
    Tombstone: You. The innocent die while the guilty laugh. Who's laughing now?
  • Halo: A certain mod released by a gamer is "Who's Laughing Now?!" a variation of Halo: Reach's Gruntpocalypse where the Grunts are made four times tougher, immune to headshots, and benefit from two skulls which generate both extreme accuracy and bullet spam.
  • In Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, Cole is revealed as the Big Bad, stating that he's finally sick of being Henry's Hypercompetent Sidekick that does the actual work of locating the treasure while Henry goes off and gets all the glory.
  • Literal example in Kill the Dog from Duck Hunt.
  • The Last Federation: Normally, the Peltians are the weakest race, suck at ground combat and are often subjected to cruelty from the other races. However, they have a unique tech they can research that gives them a 125x orbital bombardment damage bonus, which FAR exceeds any other race, allowing them to just obliterate their former tormentors from orbit.
  • In The Legend of Zelda, the notorious Cucco calls on its comrades after being whacked with a sword one too many times by the hero, Link.
    • If you manage to glitch out of the main town in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask and hit the black Cucco with an arrow it will murder you... rather violently.
    • Wizzro's betrayal of Cia in Hyrule Warriors. Even though he's still badly wounded from his previous battle against Link and co., Cia immediately tosses him into battle against the Manhandla, whereupon he quite gleefully betrays her for Ganondorf. Averted with Volga, who just decides that she's no longer worthy of his service.
  • Lollipop Chainsaw: The Big Bad's whole motivation for bringing about a Zombie Apocalypse. To get back at everyone in his high school who ever made fun of him or humiliated him- including the game's protagonist, Juliet.
  • In MadWorld, the Black Baron is a They Killed Kenny Again character, repeatedly being killed by his hoe Mathilda to demonstrate how to play his Bloodbath Challenges. Then it's revealed that he's the current Champion, and he's actually a pretty challenging boss fight.
  • Makai Kingdom has a scene where the biggest rival of main character Zetta, Alexander, discovers the predicament Zetta is in (trapped in a book) and laughs at him before shouting "Who's the Overlord now, bitch?!"
  • Mass Effect:
    • Admit it, you've laughed when you ended a poor mook's existence with the Vanguard Rush from Mass Effect 2. And you've also probably got a good giggle realizing you're the only one who can do it. And then "Lair of the Shadow Broker" rolled around, and you met Tela Vasir. Not so much funny as just fun.
    • And then the third game comes out, and we receive the not awesome horror that is the Banshee, this super-tough, incredibly strong opponent that can warp across the battlefield to smack you in the face. Or stick their hand through your chest.
    • No one can end Kai Leng's life and not feel this.
    • Mass Effect: Andromeda: Carlot Gurling, the villain of Liam's Loyalty Mission, found an impressive find - a kett sleeper ship, left behind by its crew when they arrived in the Heleus Cluster, but still salvageable. Rather than use any information the ship might have provided about the kett, Carlot used it to go after everyone he felt had wronged him, which just gets the ship more and more banged up. By the time Ryder learns he exists, he's become convinced that everyone has wronged him and is going to pay.
  • A stage in Mechassault has the player infiltrating a base in a suit of Power Armor. About halfway through the stage, you find yourself getting chased by a light mech. At the end of the stage, you make you way into a Mech hangar, and find an Atlas in the back. Needless to say, the following stage is extremely cathartic.
  • Pac-Man. The game is founded upon the ability to change the game from fleeing indestructible enemies to eating them.
    Mr. Burns: Ha ha! The hunter has become the hunted!
  • Adachi of Persona 4. While his motive is Small Town Boredom, this is his Freudian Excuse. Considering the crap he gets up to, this doesn't make him even remotely sympathetic.
  • Magikarp of Pokémon is painfully waiting to evolve to invoke this trope.
  • In Portal 2, after Wheatley gets plugged into GLaDOS's body. He directs this attitude towards GLaDOS, who had spent a few seconds calling him an idiot, and you, who had made all this possible for him in the first place and been with him every step of the way; he claims you've been bossing him around constantly when the opposite is true.
  • In RuneScape, both Lucien and Bilrach were both looked down upon by both humans and their own kind, and were disregarded as frail and weak. Now Lucien is on his way to godhood, and Bilrach is the leader of a massive army of demons, Eldritch Abominations, and powerful warriors.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, you have the option of acting like a total disdainful Jerkass to the human thralls of several vampires. They, in turn, will write you off as a liability and take a shot at putting you back in your grave when the opportunity arises. Since one of them, Mercurio, becomes your Friend in the Black Market if you're decent to him and is strongly implied to be one of two completely trustworthy people in your life, if you push him over the edge, you've probably earned a few bullet holes.
  • Annette Durand of XCOM: Enemy Unknown was captured and tortured by the aliens, and then by EXALT. After she is rescued and recruited as a soldier in XCOM, she is quite happy to use Mind Control on the aliens:
    Annette: Remember me!?


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