History Main / RevengeIsNotJustice

* ''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'': The final arc of the show revolves around [[BigBad The Ark]]'s MouthOfSauron [[spoiler: orchestrating a climactic duel against Aruto and Horobi (each of whom have destroyed the other's MoralityPet - Horobi deliberately and Aruto accidently - and are on [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge the warpath]]) by arming them with Ark Drivers]], intent on using the fighting to shatter relations between Humans and Humagears and start a RobotWar. The finale sees Aruto subject to this moral by a hologram of his father ([[IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight after a failed attempt to do the same by Isamu the episode before]]), who notes the anger in his heart and [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan reinforces the idea of "strength of heart]]." Aruto takes his father's advice into his battle with Horobi, tempering his anger with mercy instead of taking revenge, trying once more to appeal toHorobi's burgedoning emotions. This spurs Horobi into finally acknowledging both his murder of Izu and the human heart he's developed from the show's events. The duo's sins laid bare, both of them [[spoiler: forgive one another and use the duel to vent their rage rather than resort to murder; [[TakeAThirdOption destroying each other's Ark Drivers]] and de-railing As' attempts to start a war]].

''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'': The final arc of the show revolves around [[BigBad The Ark]]'s MouthOfSauron [[spoiler: orchestrating a climactic duel against Aruto and Horobi (each of whom have destroyed the other's MoralityPet - Horobi deliberately and Aruto accidently - and are on [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge the warpath]]) by arming them with Ark Drivers]], intent on using the fighting to shatter relations between Humans and Humagears and start a RobotWar. The finale sees Aruto subject to this moral by a hologram of his father ([[IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight after a failed attempt to do the same by Isamu the episode before]]), who notes the anger in his heart and [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan reinforces the idea of "strength of heart]]." Aruto takes his father's advice into his battle with Horobi, tempering his anger with mercy instead of taking revenge, trying once more to appeal toHorobi's burgedoning emotions. This spurs Horobi into finally acknowledging both his murder of Izu and the human heart he's developed from the show's events. The duo's sins laid bare, both of them [[spoiler: forgive one another and use the duel to vent their rage rather than resort to murder; [[TakeAThirdOption destroying each other's Ark Drivers]] and de-railing As' attempts to start a war]].

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "[[Recap/ArthurS4E1DWsLibraryCardArthursBigHit Arthur's Big Hit]]" ''tried'' to use this as a moral, but the lesson was so badly mishandled with an IdiotPlot that the audience believed [=DW=] had it coming. In the episode, Arthur punches [=DW=] after she destroyed a model plane after she threw it out of a window to make it fly. Their parents and Arthur's friends tell him off because Arthur should have known better than to hit his 4-year-old sister but Arthur doesn't understand the issue since he warned [=DW=] plenty of times not to touch the plane and she tried to shift the blame on to Arthur by saying he built it incorrectly as it was supposed to fly. So when Binky hits him for an unrelated reason, Arthur's parents call it karma by saying "Now you know how D.W. feels.", and Arthur finally apologizes for lashing out.

* ''Film/FallingDown'': Deconstructed. [[spoiler: Foster's rampage is caused by stress revolving around the loss of his job, marriage, and access to his child, and the general degradation of modern society. It gradually gets more dangerous and destructive. He busts up a shop because the owner was rude to him and all his merchandise was offensively overpriced, he attacks some thugs for trying to rob him and subsequently drive-by-shoot him, he lets an angry old man die from a heart attack after trying to hit him with a golf ball just because he was passing through the golf course, destroys a road to give a wasteful construction crew something to ''really'' fix, he kills a man for breaking his daughter's birthday gift and trying to turn him into the police, and Prendergast believes he might be planning to kill his ex-wife, daughter, and himself. Sergeant Prendergast empathizes with him because he lost his daughter to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, but he rejects Foster's excuse because none of these things gave him the right to go on a rampage.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'': [[spoiler:Abby wants revenge because Joel killed her father, the surgeon who was going to sacrifice Ellie to make a cure for the outbreak. Once Abby kills Joel, she gives Ellie a reason to want revenge and everyone in Abby's group believes she went too far in killing Joel. They understand her reasoning to kill Joel, but decree that she went too far in beating him to death. Abbey even agrees in the end by saying it didn't bring any peace or bring her father back. Ellie also realises that killing Abby won't undo the damage done to her or bring Joel back. She ultimately decides to spare Abby so she doesn't lose anything else in her life.]]

''Series/KamenRiderZeroOne'': The final arc of the show revolves around [[BigBad The Ark]]'s MouthOfSauron orchestrating a climactic duel against Aruto and Horobi (each of whom have destroyed the other's MoralityPet - Horobi deliberately and Aruto accidently - and are on [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge the warpath]]) by arming them with Ark Drivers, intent on using their fighting to shatter relations between Humans and Humagears and start a RobotWar. The finale sees Aruto subject to this moral by a hologram of his father (after a failed attempt to do the same by Isamu the episode before), who notes the anger in his heart and [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan reinforces the idea of "strength of heart]]." Aruto takes his father's advice into his battle with Horobi, tempering his anger with mercy instead of giving into it. This spurs Horobi into finally acknowledging both his murder of Izu and the human heart he's developed from the show's events. The duo's sins laid bare, both of them forgive one another and use the duel to vent their rage rather than resort to murder; [[TakeAThirdOption destroying each other's Ark Drivers]] and de-railing As' attempts to start a war.

* In ''Series/TheBoys'', the VillainWithGoodPublicity Blue Hawk cripples A-Train's brother Nathan, leading A-Train to brutally murder him in retaliation. When Nathan finds out what he's done he's disgusted, telling him that justice would've been putting him behind bars and that he refuses to have a murderer around his kids, yelling at him to GetOut

* The edict against using powers for personal gain in ''Series/{{Charmed1998}}'' applies to revenge, and is thus punished by swift karmic retribution. Good witches are intended to protect the innocent, not punish the guilty. Played for laughs at one point when Paige's use of a spell to punish a serial harasser backfires into giving her GagBoobs. Played much more drastically in an earlier episode where a far pettier act of revenge resulted in a BadFuture where the merely inconvenienced "victim" led a genocidal witch hunt and all the Charmed Ones were a lot more selfish.

* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'': John Kramer was a civil engineer who was [[ControlFreak obsessed with control]] until a series of tragedies put him on death's door. After surviving a suicide attempt, he decided to help people reform by putting them through various death traps that would make them "appreciate life". However, as the series goes on, the victims he targets aren't random, and they tend to be people who did him a great wrong (from denying him treatment for his cancer or denying him insurance that would support his wife when he dies). His reasoning becomes especially petty since he starts sacrificing innocent people to prove a point to his victim (one such example being sacrificing a chain-smoking janitor in ''Film/SawVI'' to motivate William and make it easier for him to pass his first trap). All this is pointed out to him by Eric Matthews in ''Film/SawII'':
-->'''Eric:''' I don't know what [the cure for cancer] is, but I know it's not killing and torturing people for your own sick fucking pleasure.\\
'''John:''' I've never murdered anyone in my life. The decisions are up to them.\\
'''Eric:''' Yeah, well, putting a gun to someone's head and forcing them to pull the trigger is still murder.

'''InUniverse Examples Only. Examples of the audience feeling this way go under UnintentionallyUnsympathetic'''

!!Examples

Sub trope of RevengeBeforeReason, where revenge is depicted as an amoral decision done in the name of justice, only to be told afterwards that it's no excuse for hurting people.

* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'': John Kramer was a civil engineer who was [[ControlFreak obsessed with control]] until a series of tragedies put him on death's door. After surviving a suicide attempt, he decided to help people reform by putting them through various death traps that would make them "appreciate life". However, as the series goes on, the victims he targets aren't random, and they tend to be people who did him a great wrong (from denying him treatment for his cancer or denying him insurance that would support his wife when he dies). His reasoning becomes especially petty since he starts sacrificing innocent people to prove a point to his victim (one such example sacrificing a chain-smoking janitor in ''Film/SawVI'' to motivate William and make it easier for him to pass his first trap).

* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'': John Kramer was a civil engineer who was obsessed with control until a series of tragedies put him on death's door. After surviving a suicide attempt, he decided to help people reform by putting them through various death traps that would make them "appreciate life". However, as the series goes on, the people he targets aren't random and they are people who did him a great wrong (from denying him treatment for his cancer or denying him insurance that would support his wife when he dies). His reasoning becomes especially petty since he starts sacrificing innocent people to prove a point to his victim (one such example being the time he sacrificed a chain-smoking janitor to motivate someone and make it easier for them to escape a trap).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': [[Recap/ArthurS4E1DWsLibraryCardArthursBigHit Arthur's Big Hit]] ''tried'' to use this as a moral but the lesson was so badly mishandled that the audience believed [=DW=] had it coming. In the episode, Arthur punches [=DW=] after she destroyed a model plane after she threw it out of a window to make it fly. Their parents and Arthur's friends tell him off because Arthur should have known better than to hit his 4-year-old sister but Arthur doesn't understand the issue since he warned [=DW=] plenty of times not to touch the plane and she tried to shift the blame on to Arthur by saying he built it incorrectly as it was supposed to fly. So when Binky hits him for an unrelated reason, Arthur's parents call it karma by saying "Now you know how D.W. feels." and Arthur finally apologizes for lashing out.

-->-- '''Uther The Lightbringer''' to his student, prior to battle[[note]]Arthas would later go on to become ''[[FaceHeelTurn even viler]]'' than the orcs in the pursuit of vengeance[[/note]], ''Videogame/{{Warcraft}} III''.

This trope is the [[OppositeTropes opposite]] of TheVillainMustBePunished, where characters acknowledge that retribution is justified.

This trope is the opposite of TheVillainMustBePunished, where characters acknowledge that retribution is justified.

* ''Film/FallingDown'': Deconstructed, [[spoiler: Foster's rampage was caused by stress, the loss of his job and mistreatment from society. It gradually gets more dangerous and destructive; he lets an angry old man die from a heart attack, destroys a road, holds a family hostage, and it's heavily implied that Foster plans to kill his ex-wife and daughter. Seargent Pendergast empathises with him because he lost his daughter to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome but he rejects Foster's excuse because none of those things gave him the right to go on a rampage.]]

'''Bill Foster:''' How did that happen? I did everything they told me to. Did you know I build missiles?\\
'''Serg. Pendergast:''' Yeah.\\

** Kratos wanted revenge against Ares for tricking him into murdering his wife and daughter. When he succeeds in killing Ares, Kratos doesn't feel any better and he resorts to killing himself but is saved by the Olympians who give him Ares' title as the God of War. In the sequel, he decides to kill Zeus and anyone who gets in his way. Hermes and Hera try to tell him that his crusade against the gods has only brought him more nightmares and thrown Greece into chaos, claims that Kratos ignores until he kills Zeus. Once Kratos killed Zeus, he realized that what he's done and he seemingly commits suicide, only for that to fail and for Kratos to spend the next 150 years regretting what he did and hating himself. Centuries later, when encountering a man who similarly wanted revenge against his family for being wronged, Kratos tries to talk him out of it but said man brushed it off, forcing Kratos to MercyKill him just before he could kill do the deed.

-->'''Anakin:''' "Revenge is never just. It ''can't'' be...

** ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' has this with Spider-Man vs the Green Goblin. [[spoiler: [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy Peter-2]]]] has to stop Spidey from murdering the Goblin in his rage over [[spoiler: [[MyGreatestFailure Aunt May's death]]]], both to [[ThouShaltNotKill stop Peter from becoming a murderer]] and because while the Goblin is a CompleteMonster, ''Norman Osborn'' can still be saved by administering an antidote, and [[SplitPersonality the Goblin getting killed would take Norman with him]]. Notably, the final fight takes place on a giant statue of Captain America's shield... on the ''inverse'' side, showing how Peter's motivation is the ''opposite'' of the justice Cap championed.

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'': Double Subverted, Travis Touchdown is trying to avenge Bishop after he was killed under Jasper Batt Jr's order, who ordered the hit out of revenge for [[CycleOfRevenge Travis killing his family in the first game]]. In the fight against Margaret Moonlight, the lyrics to ''Philistine'' berate Travis and the player for thinking revenge makes them a better person than their enemies. [[spoiler:It's not until he fights Alice Twilight that he finally absorbs the lesson that killing is wrong and violence is not as glorious as he once believed.]]

** ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' has this with Spider-Man vs the Green Goblin. [[spoiler: Peter-2]] has to stop Spidey from murdering the Goblin in his rage over [[spoiler: Aunt May's death]], both to stop Peter from becoming a murderer and because while the Goblin is a CompleteMonster, ''Norman Osborn'' can still be saved by administering an antidote, and the Goblin getting killed would take Norman with him. Notably, the final fight takes place on a giant statue of Captain America's shield... on the ''inverse'' side, showing how Peter's motivation is the ''opposite'' of the justice Cap championed.