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14* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': The amount of ColdBloodedTorture and MindRape that the Party put Winston through for his perceived crimes - keeping a journal, having a sexual relationship - is astonishing considering they're so trivial that they would have posed no threat to the Party's power base. It's very likely he would've continued writing propaganda for the Ministry of Truth, having secret meetings with Julia and pondering as to the existence of the Brotherhood until his life naturally expired... But for the Party, mere obedience is not enough; Winston has to ''love'' Big Brother, willingly or not.
15* ''[[Literature/FortyEightLawsOfPower 48 Laws of Power]]'': In one tale in this book, Lope de Aguirre was sentenced to 200 lashes by Judge Esquivel for a serious crime. Aguirre wanted to be executed instead, but the Judge didn't allow it. Afterward Aguirre chased the judge through three cities, 1100 leagues over the course of three years and four months, some of which was on his bare feet (he had no shoes). Finally the Judge reached a city where the police were a strong force... only to be stabbed to death in his sleep.
16* ''Literature/TheAccusation'': The North Korean government has a policy of this. Any accident or moment of bad judgement, no matter how small or justified, can be spun as treasonous.
17** "Record of a Defection": Il-cheol is banned from joining the Party, hindering any hope of advancement in his career and ostracizing him socially, because his ''father'' accidentally killed a crate of rice seedlings during the country's transition to collective farming. Il-cheol's nephew Min-hyuk is likewise bullied and held back in school.
18** "City of Specters": The local party secretary accuses Gyeong-hee of potential espionage based on her window curtain choices. [[spoiler: The family is ultimately [[DeadlyEuphemism "banished"]] because their infant son is frightened by posters of Karl Marx.]]
19** "So Near, Yet So Far": [[spoiler: Myeong-chol goes to a prison camp for three weeks as punishment for traveling without a permit.]]
20** "On Stage": Kyeong-hun lands in hot water for holding hands with a girl and (allegedly) drinking during the official mourning period for Kim Il-Sung's death. His friend Kim Suk-i's entire family is sent to a labor camp because her father stated that Kim Jong-il has a second wife.
21** "The Red Mushroom": Ko Inshik is demoted and sent to work in a backwater farming town when it's discovered that his presumed dead brother is in fact alive and living in South Korea.
22* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfStefonRudel'': Among other things, Stefón bombs a weapons factory for supplying Africans. Supplying people with weapons is in the end the job of any weapons factory.
23* ''Literature/TheAdversaryCycle'': The entire plot of the appropriately named ''Reprisal'' is [[spoiler: Rasalom's revenge on Bill for almost causing Carol to have a miscarriage when she was pregnant with him by refusing to have an affair with her. The goodness of him refusing to break his vows as a priest did this, so it wasn't like Bill almost killed him on purpose. Rasalom responds by ruining Bill's life, mostly by committing horrible atrocities on the people close to him. Rasalom seems to do this a lot.]]
24* ''Literature/AesopsFables'': Done a great deal. One particularly harsh example is in the story of the monkey and the camel. The monkey danced for all the desert animals and amused them with how nimble and cute he was. The camel saw this and figured that he could do just as well. He showed off, trying to dance as well, but was much clumsier and oafish. The animals were so annoyed at his terrible dancing that they drove him out of the desert, and then ate him, "serving refreshments of camel humps and ribs".
25* ''Literature/TheAffix'': Carlos Sanchez tosses a hand grenade into Wallace's [[ThePreciousPreciousCar vintage car]], seemingly killing him. Wallace reappears later to enact a drive-by shooting in which he specifically targets [[spoiler:one of Carlos' brothers]], shouting "Ojo por ojo" when he does it. In Wallace's eyes this isn't disproportionate at all.
26* ''Literature/AgathaHAndTheVoiceOfTheCastle'': Played for laughs. Professor Merlot claims that his sentencing to Castle Heterodyne, a death-trap strewn castle run by an insane and sadistic AI that thinks it is funny, to be inappropriate for what he did, which was to try to cover up secrets discovered in some of his previous employer's encrypted archives by burning the archives and ''the cryptographers''. The footnotes then state that since the burned archives likely included the final volumes of the personal journals of Barry Heterodyne, and thus all records of what the Heterodyne Boys had been up to since they disappeared during the Other Wars, historians agree that the punishment was not fair, but more appropriately harsh punishments had been outlawed by this point.
27* ''Literature/AlexRider'': In the first book, Herod Sayle planned to kill millions of innocent schoolchildren as revenge for the Prime Minister bullying him at school. Then we have Damian Cray in the fourth book, who arranged the death of a journalist who objected to the violence in his video games, and later told Alex he planned to kill him before he found out he was a spy, on the basis that Alex had done too well at what was supposed to be an extremely difficult game. And then in ''Scorpia Rising'' we have Razim, who, as a child, stabbed his nanny in the leg when she told him off for teasing his sister. Yeah, Creator/AnthonyHorowitz is fond of this trope.
28* ''Literature/Alice2014'': [[spoiler:Though Michael says that the real Matthew and Morgan were much worse than their dream versions, the special edition reveals that [[UnreliableNarrator he actually killed them because Morgan used to bully him. He killed Matthew entirely by accident because he mistook him for his twin.]]]]
29* ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'': Not as violent or as graphic as some examples, but Anne does this in one of the most infamous scenes in all of literature. Most of the girls of Avonlea school are quite used to being teased by Gilbert Blythe, and most ignore it or become mildly offended. When Gilbert [[BerserkButton dares to make fun of Anne's red hair]], Anne smashes her slate over his head and breaks it in half. ''And'' refuses to speak to him for years afterward. Quite the hefty punishment for one ill-timed comment. Most adaptations downplay this by having her ignore him until he yanks on her hair, prompting the above slate smashing.
30* Creator/{{Aristotle}}: In his view, Greek {{Tragedy}} actually requires that the TragicHero suffer disproportionate retribution for his actions. Aristotle judged that it had to be this way because if the hero was innocent than he wouldn't get CharacterDevelopment and if he deserved his fate than it wouldn't be tragic.
31* In the backstory to ''The Ashtown Burials'', side character Nolan (born Nikales) is a starving child who finds what he thinks is a corpse carrying a piece of fruit, takes the fruit and eats it. Turns out the "corpse" is in fact [[Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh Gilgamesh]], and the fruit is the Plant of Eternal Life. Gilgamesh attempts to kill Nikales, discovers he can't, and curses him to [[BodyHorror continually have his skin peel off like a snake's]]. He also ensures that Nolan will be considered an untrustworthy thief for the rest of his immortal life.
32** However, other characters such as [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Arachne]] seem to consider this a reasonable punishment.
33** In the present day, a transmortal who breaches the Order of Brendan's treaty will be sentenced to Burial - solitary imprisonment in an underwater cell - ''[[AndIMustScream forever]]''.
34* One of the girls in ''Literature/BattleRoyale'' tries whispering to her friend while the instructor is telling the students the rules of [[DeadlyGame the Program]]. He shuts her up by ''throwing a knife into her forehead''.
35* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'':
36** The Masters of Padmasa along with their top servants are very harsh to underlings. Once the Doom of Tummuz Orgmeen had a sorcerer mutilated and made into one of the Doom's sensor slaves just for ''sneezing'' while in its presence (since they all have a huge contempt for human weaknesses).
37** Evander was subjected to it by Gadjung. ''Twice''. The first time, he casts a curse on Evander in retaliation for saving Port Tarquil's mayor he tried to kill. The second time, [[spoiler:he tries to subject the prince to a slow and painful death -- even though he just delivered his prized Thymnal to him -- because, apparently, there is no compensation for stabbing Gadjung with a knife and handicapping him as a result]].
38** Penbar is ''oh, so fond'' of this. In his town, basically every offense — no matter how minor or inconsequential — seems to be punishable either by stoning to death or flogging. Then take into consideration that what he considers a crime, any sane person would consider exercising your basic rights like freedom of speech. He sentences a nameless sailor to death simply because he said (correctly) that Dian is just his follower's version of deity known as the Great Mother and plans to subject Relkin to a similar fate simply because... he ''just happened to be there, talking to said sailor''.
39* ''The Burden of Evil'':
40** In this work by the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers, a colony of hippies (called "flora" in text) is attacked by people of the town Tashlinsk, and its inhabitants beaten and arrested, simply because a few of them stole food in the town. A kind schoolteacher trying to stop the mayhem is killed.
41** InUniverse we once get a painting named "Das Motorrad unter dem Fenster am Sonntagmorgen" ("A motobike under the window on Sunday morning"). The painting shows a bedroom, in which a man in a nightgown runs towards the window, grenade in hand. The implication is that the motorbike woke the man up, and for this the man is going to blow up the bike along with the motorist. [[spoiler:The artist turns out to be UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler.]]
42* ''Literature/{{Candide}}'': The punishments are wildly disproportionate, and are PlayedForLaughs. To name a few, one character is given [[ATasteOfTheLash several thousand lashes]] for taking a walk, another character is hanged for expressing his beliefs (and for fun), the latter's companion is lashed for simply being his companion, etc. The book is filled to the brim with this sort of thing.
43* ''Literature/CaptainFrenchOrTheQuestForParadise'': The titular character retells the story of Captain Regos to his new wife. Regos, a space trader like French, once traveled with his beautiful wife to a planet ruled by a tyrannical dictator who fancied himself GodEmperor. While most planets treat space traders like royalty (or, at least, honored guests), the dictator took a liking to Regos's wife, had his people tie Regos up and send him back to his ship. However, Regos's wife refused to pleasure the dictator and was executed the next morning for displeasing the GodEmperor (a capital crime). All Regos got were her ashes. Regos spent the next several months in the system's asteroid belt building a giant [[KillSat laser cannon]], which he then used to threaten the planetary population to turn over the GodEmperor to him lest they all pay the price (he vaporized a mountain just to prove he could). Finally, someone did get smart and handed over the dictator. Regos proceeded to torture him for many days, recording the "sessions" on video before finally killing him. The video has since been distributed to all worlds with a clear non-verbal message - don't fuck with space traders. When French's wife asks him what he would do if something similar happened to her, he replies he'd build an even bigger laser.
44* ''Literature/CarrerasLegions'': In ''The Lotus Eaters'', Legate Pigna gets wadded-up paper thrown in his face and yelled at by Carrera, who was angry about how bureaucratized the Legion was getting in the year after [[spoiler: his HeroicBSOD]]. The response? [[spoiler: Plot with the enemy to overthrow the government.]]
45** Arguably, Carrera's [[spoiler:nuking the city]] to get at the family of the terrorist organization's leader also qualifies, considering earlier in ''Carnifex'' it was shown that his people could get at the family members with more selective means of killing.
46* ''{{Literature/Carrie}}'': The protagonist's mother, [[Characters/CarrieMargaretWhite Margaret White]], once caught her asking a sunbathing neighbor about her breasts when she was three. Her reaction was to try to kill her with a butcher knife.
47** [[Characters/CarrieChrisHargensen Chris Hargensen]] plans to get revenge on Carrie by getting her elected prom queen and [[PromWrecker dumping pig's blood on her while she's on stage]]. What did Carrie do to deserve this? Nothing. Chris was being punished [[NeverMyFault for picking on Carrie]].
48** [[Characters/CarrieCarrieWhite Carrie White]]'s prom massacre, where she murders everyone over a prank that only a few of her bullies were responsible for. In the book, she goes even further and levels her entire town.
49* ''Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado'': The narrator, Montresor, is insulted by his erstwhile friend Fortunato prior to the beginning of the story. While it isn't said what the insult is, apparently it wasn't so severe that Fortunato thought their friendship was dissolved. In any case, it's difficult to imagine that he could have done anything that would make [[spoiler:walling him up in a wine cellar and leaving him to die of dehydration]] anything but disproportionate.
50* ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'': Shooting someone who cuts in line is considered "justifiable homicide" on the planet Tertius.
51* ''Literature/ChaletSchool'': In ''The Highland Twins at the Chalet School'', when Fiona [=McDonald=] makes a snarky comment at Betty Wynne-Davies, Betty responds by planning to steal the Chart of Erisay, a document containing military information about the remote Scottish island where the [=McDonalds=] live. She then makes a deal with a Nazi spy to hand it over to him, after he hears her talking about it and corners her. When news gets back to the school and police are called in, Betty winds up being expelled.
52** More generally, one way to guarantee getting punished in the Chalet School, usually by fines and a heavy ticking off, is... ''talking slang''. Yeah.
53* ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheRiver'': Sundara's LoveInterest back in Cambodia, Chamroeun, is revealed to have been [[spoiler:[[OffWithHisHead beheaded with a hoe]] for (horror of horrors) stealing a potato because he was hungry]].
54* ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'': In ''Literature/BattleMagic'', [[TheEmperor Emperor Weishu]] of Yanjing is shown to be prone to this. He has a rose garden, and the gardeners working on it burned just because a small patch of mold was found on one plant when he was showing it off to Briar and Rosethorn. The rose bush that had the mold escaped being burned because Rosethorn begged the emperor to give it to her as a present after she had healed it.
55* ''Literature/ClassicSingaporeHorrorStories'': "Skin Deep" features a wealthy, overprotective father to his only daughter, who tends to go overboard when showing concern for his child. For instance, his daughter getting thrown off a horse during riding classes, with minor injuries that barely lasts? Purchase the horse, put it to sleep, and sell it to a dog food factory it is.
56* ''Literature/ClocksThatDontTick'': The Thrall district monorail breaks down one day. Despite it taking the workers only a matter of minutes to repair it, one of the Bosses had the head engineer dragged away and locked in an empty warehouse to starve to death, a Thrall's worst fear.
57* ''Literature/ConanTheBarbarian'':
58** In the story ''Literature/ThePhoenixOnTheSword'', Thoth-Amon, having gotten back his RingOfPower and wanting more than anything to make his former master Ascalante pay for all the humiliation he's heaped upon him, sends a demon of Set after him and throws in, just for giggles, everyone with him at the time. Including, as it happens, Conan whom Ascalante was trying to assassinate at the time.
59** In ''Literature/BeyondTheBlackRiver'', Conan vows to kill ten Picts for Balthus's death, and seven for the dog that died with him. To be sure, the Picts had slaughtered a lot more than seventeen in their attack.
60** In "Wolves Beyond the Border", the Pict shaman Zogar Sag is briefly jailed for mugging a merchant and stealing his liquors. He reacts by summoning a Swamp Devil [[spoiler: (actually his brother)]] and sending him to kill the merchant and the guards who arrested him. However, Conan stated that imprisoning a Pict is the worst offense you can make to him.
61* ''Literature/CrestOfTheStars'': This is actually the ''official state policy'' of the Abh Empire when it comes to foreign policy. If the Empire is wronged, they will repay the damage tenfold. Their stated rationale is that this deters others from attacking them, thereby guaranteeing the safety of Abh who are outside the Empire's protection at the moment. Jint, on the other hand, considers this quite "childish" of the Empire.
62* ''Literature/TheCrimsonShadow'': Duke Morkney sentences a man who stole from a stall to lose all his property and one of his hands.
63* ''Literature/{{Daemon}}'': In ''Freedom'', [[SociopathicHero Loki/Gragg]] takes disproportionate retribution when a man cuts in line at a coffee shop and refuses to go to the end. He freezes all of his assets, plunges him into massive debt, ruins his credit, and has a warrant placed on him for unpaid parking tickets.
64* Creator/RoaldDahl: This is a recurring theme in his books. Villains often suffer horrible punishments (often death) for their crimes, even if the crimes don't warrant it. (A lot of them are the type that WouldHurtAChild, but even so, what happens to a few of them is rather grim.) This is because Dahl as a child was sent to a sadistic boarding school where the teachers beat him constantly. So almost always his books involve kids triumphing over evil adults.
65** ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': What happens to most of the kids qualifies. Their punishments were brought on by their flaws, but still rather excessive. Even though they all live and recover to some extent they have some unpleasant permanent changes. Violet, for example, is no longer inflated, but is still blue. Just for chewing gum.
66** ''Literature/TheTwits'': Although the titular characters’ entire M.O. is playing nasty tricks on each other, they’re mostly just practical jokes, with no real physical or psychological harm done in the long run. An arguable exception is when Mr. Twit gaslights his wife into believing she is physically shrinking. He even gets her to go along with a crazy scheme to stretch out her body, which if it had succeeded could have killed her.
67* ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'': Has Gunner's Mate Dennis Silva USN, of the USS ''Walker''. Silva is pretty much the Patron Saint of this trope. Prank him into chewing "tobacco" that's actually a powerful laxative, like his lemurian buddy Chack did? He will scandalize your sister (with her willing assistance). Break his favorite gun? He will beat you to death with it, as some Holy Dominion ''soldados'' found out the hard way. Kidnap Princess Rebecca Anne [=McDonald=], who he considers his adopted little sister? ''You and everyone you know are going to die''.
68* In ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidCabinFever'', Manny warps up the password to Greg's ''Net Kritterz'' account, messes up the family's TV parental controls, cuts the power to the rest of his house (except for his room), steals all the food in the fridge and a space heater. Why? [[spoiler:Because nobody taught him ''how to tie his shoes'']]!
69* ''Literature/DigitalDevilStory'': The entire plot is set in motion because the AlphaBitch Kyoko was rejected by our protagonist Nakajima. She dupes JerkJock Kondo into beating the crap out of Nakajima. Thoroughly displeased, Nakajima summons the great demon Loki and has the demon consume Kyoko's and Kondo's souls.
70* ''Literature/TheDinosaurLords'': Duke Falk von Hornberg gets a bad case of blue balls when Princess Melodia first sent signals of wanting to have sex but she later changed her mind when she witnesses what an awful person he is. He becomes extremely enraged and believes she deliberately snubbed him to belittle him. How does he revenge himself? [[spoiler: He gets her arrested on trumped up charges of sedition against her father, Emperor Felipe and while she's imprisoned, he goes and rapes her anally.]]
71* ''Literature/Dive2003'': Captain Blade kills all of the prisoners from the Spanish galleon for little more reason than one of them throwing his gem-encrusted whip overboard in an effort to defend his Captain against Blade’s abuse.
72* ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'':
73** [[spoiler:Peter]] does whatever he can to get rid of potential rivals in the initiate ranking, from stabbing [[spoiler:Edward]] in the eye to trying to [[spoiler:throw Tris into the chasm]].
74** Also Molly, who [[spoiler:feeds lies about Tris's father to Erudite]] because Tris beat her in a fight and ranked higher than her.
75* Syph from ''Literature/DivineMisfortune'' runs on this with nearly everything she does. When Lucky breaks up with her, she transforms from a LoveGoddess to a Goddess of Heartbreak and spends a millenia being a DramaQueen that makes everyone around her miserable. She threatens to kill Janet for dating her ex-boyfriend, said ex-boyfriend's power being the only thing protecting her. When she sees a woman trying to get into her ex-boyfriend's house, wanting her DVD player back, Syph nearly has him DraggedOffToHell over it.
76* ''Literature/DorothyMustDie'': Princess Dorothy has inflicted horrible fates on her servants for doing things like [[HappinessIsMandatory not smiling]] or not using exactly 1,000 strokes to brush her hair (Jellia, the head maid, comments "we've lost more than one girl that way"). She also has a guard's eye removed and eaten by the Lion for accidentally looking her directly in the face, just for a second.
77* ''Literature/DragonBones'': Some men in the Hurog family are fond of this. Ward mentions that his father would beat his little sister Ciarra up for being late to dinner. He aims to be late to dinner himself, so his father will focus on him. There's also Oreg, who was MadeASlave hundreds of years ago, and has been serving the Hurog family ever since. He was flogged nearly to death (he can't die, but normally would have) for writing something on the wall of the main hall. Granted, it was a prophecy of ill fortune, but this prophecy/curse was Oreg's very weak retribution for his owner having slaugthered one of the sentient dragons of the region, a horrible crime.
78* ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'': In ''Renegades of Pern'', Lady Holdless Thella lives and breathes this trope. In one case, she and her raiders ambush a trading caravan, destroying several carts and killing or wounding most of the traders and their beasts. She does this because earlier, when she was chasing down a family running from her, she encountered the traders, and the man she questioned was evasive and unhelpful. Even her origin smacks of this. She became the self-styled "Lady Holdless," scourge of the countryside, because she wasn't in the line of succession (passed from father to son).
79* ''Literature/DragonSeries'': A teenager is forced into a marriage with a river spirit. Upon escaping (after a thousand years), and seeing her former village had become a wealthy and industrialized city, Civet is overcome by loss and decides that dragons are responsible. She destroys the Inland Sea where the Inland dragons live, by taking away all the water, and then uses the water to destroy River Glen, her former village.
80* ''Literature/{{Durarara}}''
81** [[spoiler: Izaya]] from surprisingly shows signs of this as of volume 9. [[spoiler: To put it simply, in middle school, a student named Nakura tried to stab him for losing a bet that he put his money into Izaya. [[MoralityPet Shinra]] steps in trying to calm the situation and only gets stabbed as a result for protecting Izaya. Nakura flees the scene and all Izaya can do is panic as Shinra is bleeding. However, Shinra [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction says the wound isn't serious]] and to call the ambulance. [[TakingTheHeat Izaya does but then tells]] [[SilentScapegoat Shinra to change the story of Izaya being the stabber instead of Nakura.]] [[KickTheMoralityPet This makes him appear to be an asshole who hurt his only friend.]] However, [[{{Yandere}} Izaya does this because he swears]] [[ThisIsUnforgivable that Nakura will ''never'' get away with it.]] ''EVER!'' So what does he do after that? He stalks Nakura ever since that incident and keeping tabs on him. He makes sure Nakura isn't suspecting him but then at the very end of volume nine after 7-10 years of planning, Izaya finally gets his revenge by framing him for two huge crimes where the bosses of those organizations want him dead. And Izaya makes sure to tell that to him over the phone before hanging up and leaving Nakura miserable for the rest of his life. Because of this incident though, it's hinted that Izaya's entire reason for becoming an information broker is because of Shinra who was the only person that cared for him.]]
82** Aoba set his brother [[spoiler: Izumii's]] room on fire so he could get in trouble for smoking and get beaten by their [[AbusiveParents abusive father]], [[BigBrotherBully just because he hit him a few times]]. [[spoiler: Izumii]], however, isn't completely innocent either, since the reason he hit Aoba was because he's under the delusion that he's TheUnfavorite, but risking the possibility of burning their house down and subjecting him to child abuse just to get back at him seem like massive overkill.
83* ''Literature/EaterOfSouls'': An ancient Egyptian serial killer murders people who'd subjected him to extremely minor offenses, like buying the company of a tavern prostitute before he could cross a room to purchase her services himself.
84* The [[JerkassGods Eleventh God of Venus]] from ''Literature/EmperorMolluskVersusTheSinisterBrain'' is known to [[YourHeadASplode explosively decapitate]] as a form of DivinePunishment for any Venusian who shows cowardice.
85* ''Literature/{{Enchanted}}'': Sunday's brother Jack was turned into a dog for killing the prince's dog. [[spoiler:Later, the prince remembers what had happened. Jack had pushed the dog away with his foot, which should not have killed, and would not have killed any other dog in the court. So the prince's FairyGodmother turned him into a dog. Whereupon Jack's fairy godmother appeared, limited it to a year, and then decreed that the prince — who had done nothing — would be turned into a frog for a year to teach him humility, or something.]]
86** Mind you, the fact that Rumbold's fairy godmother [[spoiler:is one half of the novel's BigBadDuumvirate, and Jack's godmother is her twin sister who's trying to stop her]] likely has something to do with this as well.
87* ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'': This theme is subverted in book 1 (''Dealing With Dragons''), when the princess Alianora was brought up to deliberately be thrown into princessy situations but none of them worked out properly. When she was born, her parents forgot to invite a wicked fairy, in the hopes of getting her a christening curse. Instead, when the fairy shows up she ends up eating cake and ice cream and dancing and ultimately has so much fun she forgives everyone and leave without cursing the princess.
88* ''Literature/EndersGame'': On two separate occasions, Ender -- a preteen -- responds to bullies picking a fight by dealing out a methodical, brutal NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, including deliberately going for a GroinAttack after the bully is on the ground. {{Discussed|Trope}} when he explains that he's not just trying to win the fight, but to win ''every fight'' they would have had in the future. [[spoiler:Which he does, since both bullies die of their injuries.]]
89* ''Literature/EndersShadow'': Achilles takes this to an extreme by killing people for doing ''good'' things to ''help him'' because he can't bear for anyone to have seen him helpless (and he has a fairly major inferiority complex, so his definition of "helpless" is very loose). This also includes the doctor who fixes his leg because she sedates him against his wishes. However, anyone who knows Achilles probably realizes that the doctor would've died anyway.
90* ''Literature/FarsalaTrilogy'': A young smith named Kavi loses the use of his hand when a deghan tries to grab a sword from him. Years later, he betrays Farsala to the Hrum and causes the death of the entire deghan class.
91* ''Literature/FatherBrown'': In one story, the AssholeVictim was inclined to do this. In retaliation for an insult years before, he threw a Moslem into a pig-sty, breaking his arm and his leg, and then left him there overnight. That wasn't why he was murdered, though: [[spoiler:He [[WifeHusbandry proposed to his ward]], and was rejected. His planned revenge for this was to have her marry an old friend of his, ''and then have the old friend hanged for murder''.]]
92* ''Literature/{{Fingerprints}}'': One villain in the series got her StartOfDarkness when she vowed revenge on the person who murdered her mother. Upon learning that the murderer had already died for unrelated reasons, she decided that wasn't satisfactory - someone had to ''suffer'', and it didn't particularly matter who. She began targeting the hero (who was related to the murderer but didn't even ''know'' about the murder, let alone take part in it). Unusually, the villain is eventually persuaded by the hero that what she's doing is pointless... but only because she finds another target more directly connected to her mother's murder, whom she proceeds to go after with great enthusiasm.
93* ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'':
94** In Chapter 12, when Ana sends an email to Christian saying that she doesn't want to get into BDSM and "it's been nice knowing you," Christians’ immediate response is to break into her duplex apartment, tie her up—the only thing he asks permission for—and then rape her into submission. (Despite the fact that Ana has been freaking out over BDSM for several chapters, she claims that the email was a joke. Ana doesn’t seem to realize that this doesn't make Christian's actions one bit less horrific).
95** Christian also threatens to punish Ana by raping her in public on two occasions--once when he believes Ana has spoken on the phone to a male friend (she hasn't) and once when Ana refuses an extremely expensive present. His response in the first case is to threaten to screw her in the elevator going from his penthouse to the lobby (when anyone could walk in); in the second case, he threatens to hit her and then screw her on the hood of the car, because she belongs to him, and if he wants to give her Gift X, he ''will''.
96* ''Literature/{{Flawed}}'': Someone can be branded as "flawed" for doing something as minor as helping a Flawed individual, even if that individual is at risk of dying. A single misstep can leave someone treated as a social pariah for life, even if others do worse.
97* ''Literature/FlowersInTheAttic'': The Grandmother punishes the children severely for the most minor infractions, including simply existing as the products of incest.
98* ''The Flying Machine'': In this Creator/RayBradbury short story, a Chinese emperor [[spoiler:beheads the bewildered inventor of the titular machine, has the machine burned along with the inventor's remains, and has the ashes buried secretly]], all because someone ''might'' be inspired to use such a machine to destroy the Great Wall of China.
99* ''Literature/FriedGreenTomatoesAtTheWhistleStopCafe'': Has a moment where Evelyn Couch was waiting for a parking spot at a grocery store and two teen girls take it. In response to them mocking her for being 'old and slow', Evelyn [[DissonantSerenity calmly]] backs up her husband's car into theirs ''six times'', completely destroying it. And, as icing on top of the cake, tells the girls that Evelyn 'is much older and has much more insurance'.
100* Sōsuke Sagara of ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'' breathes this trope. Strangers who so much as look at Kaname tend to wind up face-down, on the ground with a gun to the back of their heads, and Sagara preparing to "interrogate" them.
101* ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'': The series features a powerful magic guild called the Bondsmagi. One of them, Falconer, seem to be particularly guilty of this trope, as he tortures the main hero and threatens him with death of his friends just for speaking to him with no respect.
102** The Bondsmagi love disproportionate revenge. The reason everybody respects them is because killing one will get the entire guild after you to kill you, your family, your pets, etc. They're also known for burning a city to ash because a dozen of them died during a war against the Therin Empire.
103* ''Literature/TheGirlWhoCouldFly'': Conrad is forced to give up his science project for the one his teacher selected. So he [[spoiler:destroys Bella's, because she's happy and her parents love her.]]
104* ''Literature/TheGiver'': A Pilot-in-training is ReleasedToElsewhere for a navigational error.
105* ''Literature/{{Gone}}'': In ''Fear'' Cigar kills a fellow fisherman in a drunken brawl. Since he committed murder, [[spoiler: Caine sentences him to Penny for a day. 30 minutes was enough to cause a ''two-day state of shock'' in the previous victim. Even Caine is horrified at the end result.]]
106** Also in ''Fear'', Caine asks Penny to leave Perdido Beach after the backlash from what she did to Cigar. [[spoiler: So she drugs him, traps his hands in a cement block, and staples an aluminum crown to his head.]]
107* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'': In ''Literature/ChickenChicken'', the villain Vanessa puts the main characters through horrific BodyHorror... because they (accidentally!) bumped into her and didn't apologize. [[spoiler: And at the end of the book, she is disgusted by the main characters' behavior while drinking soda, and [[HereWeGoAgain decides to make them go through it all over again]].]]
108* ''Literature/TheGraceYear'': [[spoiler:Ryker]] prepares a bath for Tierney, complete with flowers in the bathwater. She is left speechless, because back home, bathing with flowers is considered a sin and [[ATasteOfTheLash punishable by whipping]].
109* ''Literature/TheGreenMile'': {{Dirty Coward}}ly guard Percy Wetmore decides to neglect soaking the sponge used for Eduard Delacroix's execution ... all because Del laughed at him when he pissed his pants after [[AxCrazy Wild Bill]] spooked him. This results in Del's CruelAndUnusualDeath in which he's ''cooked alive in Old Sparky.''
110* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
111** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'': Minerva [=McGonagall=] takes 150 points from Harry, Hermione, and Ron for being out past curfew and then Harry and Hermione (in addition to Neville) are given detention in the Forbidden Forest with Rubeus Hagrid, the forest full of creatures that have no problem killing and eating children. [[SarcasmMode Way to go Rubeus.]] Incidentally, Draco Malfoy had 20 points taken from him for the same thing, in addition to the aforementioned detention.
112** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'': [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Dolores Umbridge]] forces students to write lines in their own blood with a quill that cuts into the skin on the backs of their hands. It's stated that at least one student's hand is bleeding quite badly, and that Harry himself has another permanent scar. All of this for speaking out of turn and/or questioning the Ministry.
113** There's also the treatment Harry received from the Dursleys for most of the eleven years prior to his acceptance into Hogwarts, and occasionally afterward as well. He was confined to the cupboard under the stairs just for existing, yelled at for asking questions or innocently mentioning strange dreams, and punished (up to and including being denied meals) for exhibiting signs of the hated magic, which he neither understood nor was able to control. For example, in the first book he gets locked in the cupboard for much of the summer just for talking to a snake after the "vanishing glass" incident.
114** While Argus Filch has a case of StrawmanHasAPoint about the messes caused by the students as he's a MuggleBornOfMages, his idea of how they should be punished for it is not. His desired methods so line up with Dolores Umbridge, that he was the only one on her side as it meant he could use a horsewhip on rule-breakers.
115** Also, Draco Malfoy keeps bullying Harry and his friends just because Harry didn't accept his offer of friendship (even after Draco insults Ron in the process). This continues on for five more books until he tones it down in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince sixth book]], being focused on [[spoiler:the mission Voldemort gave him.]]
116** [[spoiler:Voldemort cursed the Defense Against the Dark Arts post at Hogwarts after Dumbledore rejected him for it. Until the day Voldemort died, no DADA teacher had lasted longer than a single school year. While there are some practical reasons as to why he did it, it's clear his main motivation was pure spite, especially since there are some implications that he wasn't interested in the job at all when he went to apply for it (as he used his interview at Hogwarts as an opportunity to hide one of his horcruxes in the castle)]].
117** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'': While the trio skips out on school. the rest of the students find themselves at a Hogwarts where being sentenced to detention regularly includes being subjected to the [[AgonyBeam Cruciatus Curse]], beatings and other tortures in addition to the punishments Umbridge had formerly allowed.
118* ''Literature/{{Holes}}'': Every member of the Yelnats family and their descendants are cursed with bad luck because one of their ancestors, Elya Yelnats, forgot to fulfill a promise to Madame Zeroni. The promise? All he had to do was carry her up a mountain, and sing a certain song while she drank from the spring on the top.
119** Admittedly, the spring apparently had some sort of healing/growth properties that would have given the old and possibly dying Zeroni a longer life. Still a bit harsh, though.
120** She did give him fair warning when the made his deal. If she didn't follow through, what good was the threat? It's also a very mild curse -- just bad luck, and usually non fatal. Stanley Yelnats the First was robbed by Kate Barlow and left in the desert to die but he still survived.
121** [[FridgeBrilliance And it did help her descendant in the long run.]]
122*** After he carried her descendant up a mountain and sung the song to him while he drank from the water at the top, thus fulfilling the promise and causing good luck.
123* In ''Literature/HowToBuildADungeonBookOfTheDemonKing'' Aur once suffered a great betrayal that left him completely disgusted with humanity. He then proceeds to become a Demon Lord with the goal of making all of mankind be miserable and serve him as their new overlord, and he constantly tries to upstage himself in extremely nefarious schemes to bring villages and towns to his rule. To add, Aur has a thing for making women his sex reliever, going for mind control and then raping to submission if they don’t like him right away. The catch? Aur is the resident VillainProtagonist and the plot [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality glorifies his deeds]].
124* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': This is par for the course in Panem: after all, it's a society that decided to punish a single rebellion by obliterating districts and ordering its citizens to give up their children to a ruthless bloodsport every year in perpetuity.
125** Katniss and Gale practically live off hunting in the Meadow, an area that is entirely abandoned by mankind and fenced off. Yet this action is considered poaching, even though the land belongs to no-one. Luckily District 12's Peacekeepers do not enforce this law, [[spoiler: at least at first]] because it carries awful penalties.
126** Victors in the Hunger Games are forced to do exactly what Snow wants with the threat of having their families slaughtered. Case in point: [[spoiler:Snow had Haymitch's mother, brother, and girlfriend killed just because he didn't like the [[{{Combat Pragmatist}} clever trick]] he used to win the games.]]
127** In ''The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes'', Dr. Gaul has Clemensia injected with snake venom for lying to her about working on an assignment that both she and Snow were supposed to do.
128* ''Literature/InDeath'': A number of murderers and criminals throughout the series have done this. ''Promises In Death'' reveals that Max Ricker sliced up three men and left them floating down a river. Why? Because they stole from a store owned by his son, Alex Ricker, and caused him embarrassment. Creepy!
129* ''Literature/InfernoLarryNivenAndJerryPournelle'': The protagonist believes that being sent to Hell for eternity is disproportionate punishment for finite sin. He later comes to the conclusion that punishment in Hell is a) not eternal, and b) actually a form of highly extreme psychotherapy.
130* ''Literature/IWantMyHatBack'': The Bear loses his hat and eventually learns it was stolen and that the thief lied about seeing his hat. [[spoiler:He eats the thief and lies about it when questioned]].
131* ''Literature/JackRyan'':
132** In ''Without Remorse'' John Kelly (later Clark), [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge after his girlfriend is brutally killed, decides to start killing any drug dealer he runs across, on his way to finding the real killers]]. Also, at one point kidnapped one of the dealers who killed his girlfriend (and bragged about it [[TooDumbToLive to Clark]]). He shoved him in a boat and drove back to his island home, leased from the Navy and stocked with all kinds of surplus gear. Like a depressurization chamber, which for the next ten hours he uses to put his captive at around 100 feet simulated depth, and to raise it when [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique the man didn't answer his questions properly]]. By the time Clark had finished, every joint in the man's body was crippled, [[EyeScream the blood vessels inside his eyes had burst]], most of his muscles were for all intents and purposes one giant bruise, and he had the next best thing to a stroke. When finished, he drove the man back to the mainland and left him on the beach for the police to find: Blind, incoherent, and crippled, spending the next month in agony before finally dying.
133** Roughly two thirds of ''Literature/TheSumOfAllFears'' is about Elizabeth Elliot trying to ruin Ryan's career and marriage for taking offense to ''her'' bad manners in the previous book.
134* ''The Judgment'': This short story written by Creator/FranzKafka has a man's father reveal that he is aware that the son has been lying to an old friend living in Russia ([[MindScrew who may or may not exist]]) about his engagement. The father then orders the son to drown himself. The son ''does so''.
135* ''Literature/JustSoStories'': The Cat who Walks By Himself gets some pretty harsh treatment simply for saying his CatchPhrase "I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me." Some of the harsh treatment may be justified, because over a large part of the story, the Cat is clearly trying to get something without giving anything back in return -- nevertheless, when the Dog and the Man lay down the law and tell what they expect of the Cat in the future (keep the mice away, be kind to babies) and the Cat ''agrees'' to their terms, they ''still'' vow that they and their descendants will torment the Cat for always and always just because he spoke out of turn.
136** Earlier on in the story, the Dog immediately tells the Cat that they can never be friends again ''just because the Cat didn't want to come along on his exploration trip.'' Really, it's not all that hard to see why the Cat would prefer not to retain too close a relationship with such jerks.
137* ''Kittens'': A short story by Creator/DeanKoontz. Sure, it's horrible when you're a first-grade girl and you find out that your father has been drowning your cat's litters of kittens and claiming that "God took them", but [[spoiler:drowning your twin baby brothers in the bathtub]] to get back at him is going a little far. (Especially disproportionate because drowning kittens was a common practice back in the day.)
138* ''[[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46113/kitty-cat-kill-sat/ Kitty Cat Kill Sat]]'': Lily has been alone and working hard to keep Earth safe for centuries, and she is far behind on her naps. So it's perhaps understandable that when an automated telemarketer scam starts repeatedly calling her station, she responds with an orbital kinetic strike.
139--> The station plates around me vibrate as I lock on and pull the trigger. I use a low velocity overhead shot, so I minimize collateral damage to the surrounding trees and plants. ‘Low velocity’ of course is still more than enough to accomplish the objective.\
140The voice, still echoing through the internal comms, cuts off abruptly. Static follows.
141* ''Literature/KnightAndRogueSeries'': The captain of the Albatross has Michael flogged for accidentally spilling paint on him. Bonus points for Michael not having been the one to spill the paint in the first place.
142* ''Literature/KnownSpace'': ''The Jigsaw Man'' involves harvesting transplant organs from people condemned for capital crimes. Given the ever-increasing demand for such organs, the definition of "capital crime" gets broader and broader, with our protagonist facing execution for [[spoiler: ''traffic violations''.]]
143* ''Literature/LineOfDelirium'': Inspired by ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'', the backstory has humans wiping out the entire [[LizardFolk Sakkra]] race after they invade three remote human colonies (they can't control their reproduction and need space). TheEmperor justifies this by claiming that the Sakkra uncontrolled birthrate would eventually result in them being a threat to ''everyone''. The other alien races still haven't forgiven humans for the genocide.
144** Also, the sequel reveals that an attempt by a human colony to secede resulted in every colonist being slaughtered by a militia from other worlds. [[spoiler:The protagonist took part in the slaughter]].
145* ''The Little Lame Prince'': In Rosemary Well's picture book version, the kingdom is under the influence of an evil usurper, and the crown prince is taken in by a convict who was "condemned to death for stealing apples".
146* ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'': In ''Literature/HarrowTheNinth'', Mercy, immortal Lyctor of the Emperor, goes on a rant about how much she hates some of his ''quirks''.
147-->"I hate you ''all''," said Mercymorn passionately. "I have hated you for ''millennia'' ...except you, my lord."\
148"Thanks," said God.\
149"I merely want to put you in a jail," said his Lyctor, now meditative, "and fill up the jail with acid once for every time you made a frivolous remark, or ate peanuts in a Cohort Admirality meeting, or said, 'What would I know, I'm only God.' Then at the end of a thousand years, you would say, 'Mercy I have learned not to do any of these things, because I hated the acid you put on me.' And I would say, 'That is why I did it, Lord. I did it for you, and for your empire.' I often think about this," she finished.\
150The Emperor of the Nine Houses said, "[[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne I ate peanuts, discreetly, the once]]."
151* ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'': The BigBad's plan. Sure, [[spoiler:the independent wizards were vastly underrepresented in the Council]], but is this really a reason to [[spoiler:try to kill all court wizards and bring the entire (working) system down]]?
152* In his autobiographical short story "Lucky Break", Creator/RoaldDahl describes how at his boarding school, the boys were beaten by the masters and even the older students for crimes like asking to borrow a pen during prep period and burning a prefect's toast.
153* ''Literature/TheMachineriesOfEmpire'': One of Khiruev's mothers kills her partner for taking their daughter to see a historical reconstruction, having decided that having harmless fun with something from before the current regime came to power is obviously heretical.
154* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': In the novels of Kamigawa, this is a big part of the Hyozan oath. The actual wording of the magical contract promises tenfold vengeance, but this is just a bare minimum. When [[spoiler:Kobo]] is murdered, Hidetsugo's vengeace includes condemning the actual triggerman to an [[AFateWorseThanDeath eternity of unbearble agony]] destroying Minomo academy, exterminating the moonfolk, and then [[KillTheGod eating their god]]. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking He also said some very mean things.]]
155* ''Literature/TheMerlinConspiracy'': Due to some inadvertent time hopping as he flees an assassin sent by two big bads who want him dead for no discernible reason, Nick winds up in the assassin's home before the hit was taken up. A little over a decade, in fact. The two big bads pay a visit as the children they were, and Nick [[spoiler:laughs as one steps on an egg,]] which sets off the two's berserk button and triggers the need for revenge years later.\
156\
157During the same interlude, Nick [[spoiler:hangs up on the assassin's ex-wife in the middle of a phone call, which sets in motion her ultimate plot to take over Britain and destroy its other magic-users before they could oppose her.]] Without which the rest of the book probably wouldn't have happened anyway.
158* ''Literature/LesMiserables'': Jean Valjean originally set out to steal a loaf of bread to feed his hungry family. However this was armed breaking-and-entering, and due to draconian laws and a series of escape attempts, he wound up serving 19 years in the galleys; and then, unable to find work or shelter after his release, he reoffended (stealing a 40-sous coin) and was given a life sentence.
159* ''Literature/{{Misery}}'': This is part of the main plot. Annie rescues Paul, who she's a big fan of, but then becomes furious when she buys his latest book and finds out that he killed off her favorite character. Annie then threatens to kill Paul unless he writes a sequel to the book where the character is brought back to life. Many of the tortures Paul goes through fit this trope as well. Annie refuses to give Paul his painkillers for days and when she finally gives them to him, she forces him to wash them down with soapy water, all because she didn't like that he had swearing in the new book he was working on. Also, when Paul complains that one of the keys on his typewriter doesn't work, Annie cuts off his thumb with an electric knife.
160* ''Literature/MoongobbleAndMe'':
161** Book 2 has the Weeping Werewolf explain that he met the Old Woman of the Forest of Night, who asked him for bread; when he didn't give her any (because he didn't ''have'' any with him), she cursed him to become a werewolf until certain conditions were met.
162** In the same book, she curses a girl, turning her to stone and forcing Moongobble to give up his bottle of Weeping Werewolf tears to cure her in retaliation for Edward's having cured the Werewolf of his curse.
163* ''Literature/MysteriousWaysADivineComedy'': the angels are quite fond of this.
164** Angels are expected to dedicate their entire lives to serving the Judeo-Christian God. Failure to do so will result in having ones wings ripped off, their magic stripped away, and they will be exiled. If they ever manage to regrow their wings or use magic again, they are accused of devil-worship and executed.
165* ''[[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet A Nightmare on Elm Street: Perchance To Dream]]'': Main character Jacob Johnson uses his powers to stop everyone in Springwood from dreaming in order to protect them from Freddy. This has the adverse side-effect of making everyone edgy, paranoid, and violent; at one point a character browses through a newspaper and finds a section mentioning a kid who stabbed his teacher in the eye with a pencil after getting a bad mark and a man who shot his wife because she was "vacuuming in a really irritating way".
166* ''Literature/NoGameNoLife'': The elf Feel strongly dislikes the Flügel Jibril, which confuses Jibril. As it turns out, years ago Jibril was flying through elven lands and happened to cross through an enchanted no-flying zone. Jibril fell from the sky, hit her head, and decided to ''nuke the elven city''.
167-->'''Jibril:''' I don't see how you can blame me if I accidentally let you all die.\
168'''Sora:''' Judge! The defendant, Jibril, is guilty!\
169'''Jibril:''' Why?!
170* ''Literature/ObjectOblivion'': Apparently... [[spoiler: derailing the Cha Cha Slide]] gets you [[PersonaNonGrata banned from South Carolina]]. [[spoiler: TNT learned it the hard way.]]
171* ''Literature/OneFatSummer'': Antagonist Willie Rumson seems to follow this philosophy, even for imagined slights against him. Comes back to bite him between the first and second books when he's caught setting fire to the house of a man who denied him a part-time summer job. When next we see him, he's on so many court-ordered drugs he's barely functional.
172* ''Literature/OneOfUsIsLying'': This is what people tend to receive as a result of Simon posting their secrets on his gossip app, About That. [[spoiler: His "murder" was really a suicide staged to ruin the lives of the four students he arranged to be in detention with him]].
173** The Bayview Four were targeted by the real killer because of this. [[spoiler: Simon hated Bronwyn because she and Leah once told him the wrong deadline for the Model UN, which he decided was deliberate. Cooper got him uninvited to an after-Prom party. And Nate dared to hook up with Keely. For this, he decided they deserved to have their lives ruined]].
174** [[spoiler: Jake decides Addy deserves to have her life ruined with a false murder charge because she cheated on him]].
175** In the backstory, Simon ruined Leah's life with gossip about her sex life [[spoiler: because she and Bronwyn told him the wrong deadline for the Model UN, which he decided was deliberate]].
176** In the sequel, [[spoiler: Jared Jackson wants to kill Eli ''and his whole wedding party'', with a bomb because Eli's biggest case involved getting his CorruptCop brother arrested, resulting in both his parents' deaths. Tragic? Yes. Grounds for mass murder? No]]!
177* ''Literature/OurMothersHouse'': Gertie is abused (sexually touched) by a local mechanic. "Mother" orders she be punished by having her hair cut, not talked to, having her most prized possession taken away, limiting how much she can eat/drink.......[[spoiler: and she later dies from it. All because she got abused and supposedly liked it.]]
178* In ''Literature/PosterGirl'' the Delegation regime used to monitor just about everything their people did via the Insight eye implants. With pretty much every action being either punished or rewarded via the Des Coin system. Things that could incour punishments included premarital sex, not sitting straight, cursing in public, women keeping a short haircut or men not keeping their beard not perfectly neat.
179* ''Literature/RainbowMagic'': In the very first series, Jack Frost captures the Rainbow Fairies because he wasn't invited to a party—even after he was told he could stay and have fun once he showed up to crash it. He goes on to do this many, many more times.
180* ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'': One of Gabool's pirates complains that they don't get enough shares of the loot. Gabool agrees and allows him to take any treasure he wants, insisting he take that one crown. After the minion puts the crown on his head, Gabool instantly decapitates him as a warning to anyone else.
181** When Vilu Daskar caught some members of his crew stealing, he had them savagely beaten and then hung from sunrise to sunset with saltwater thrown into their wounds for good measure.
182** Swartt Sixclaw found out that one of his minions may possibly be conspiring. He could simply just kill him, no. He orders him to feed a dead bird to another minion, beak, wings, skull, the whole thing. Once the other minion chokes to death, Swartt instantly accuses the first one of murder and orders him to be executed.
183** After one of Urgan Nagru's captains opines their captives are long gone and there's no point giving chase, Nagru kills him on the spot.
184* ''Everybody'' must be a ScheduleFanatic in ''Literature/RepentHarlequinSaidTheTicktockman'', else they shall have time subtracted from their life. Somebody who's fifteen minutes late has fifteen minutes subtracted from their total lifespan, someone who's a half-hour late has their life cut a half-hour short, and if someone runs out of late time to subtract from their life, then the office of the [[ClocksOfControl Ticktockman]] remotely stops their heart, ''killing them.''
185* ''Literature/TheRippleSystem'': Ned convinces Omen to ambush Corruptia in a [=PvE=] zone that also has [=PvP=] elements. Ersatz, leader of Corruptia, freaks out, declares war on Omen, and declares his intent to wipe them out completely. While certainly an overreaction, Sleep points out that this is one of the dangers of [=PvP=]; not everyone is a good sport. However, [[spoiler:corpse-camping House until she cries]] is widely agreed to be ''completely'' over the line. And then Ersatz [[spoiler:kidnaps Lars and Sarah]], two [=NPCs=], and threatens to murder them to prove a point. Even his own guild is uncomfortable with that.
186* ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': While Naofumi did believe that Malty (now Bitch) deserved to be punished for framing him for sexual assault and making him a social pariah in addition to having people killed with similar methods and her ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, her eventual fate of [[spoiler: being sent to her uncle, the grotesque king of Faubley, to be raped and tortured to death]] was ''far'' too much to the point where even Naofumi was extremely disgusted upon being sent [[spoiler:[[SnuffFilm crystal recordings of him raping and torturing her]] by said king]].
187* ''Literature/RobRoy'': Rashleigh wants to get his cousin charged with high treason and hanged because Frank slapped him during a drinking binge.
188* ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'': Cao Cao responds to the death of his father at the hands of one of Tao Qian's officers by committing a genocide against Tao's subjects.
189* ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'': In an example of disproportionately ''low'' retribution, the Grand Inquisitor gives orders that result in a massacre and is sentenced to one week's kitchen duty.
190* ''Literature/SevenBrothers'': This is Juhani's practice.
191** One fellow of Toukola [[RageBreakingPoint snatches Juhani's ABC book and throws it into the bush]]. When the ensuing mayhem ends, [[ChargeIntoCombatCut Juhani returns to focus]] grabbing the begging man's windpipe, forces him to hand the book back nicely and give it a kiss, and tells him to thank God for getting out easily.
192** Juhani vows to skin another man's head from the neck up to the eyebrows the next time they meet... for creating lyrics for a mocking song. He goes through with it in the next encounter.
193* ''Literature/{{Shadowleague}}'': A lot of characters in the trilogy teeter on the brink of this, but as of the first book (''The Heart of Myrial''), only one character has gone over - intending torture, rape and murder for a noble who seems perfectly unaware that her grunts (who have already died for their crimes) were committing said crimes, and killing whatever innocent bystanders stand in his way.
194* ''Literature/SpiderManSinisterSixTrilogy'': Mysterio spent a year driving Brick Johnson insane, culminating in making him commit suicide. He then proceeded to crash the funeral and tried to kill everyone present. Why? Because Brick didn't help Mysterio get a job when they were in Hollywood.
195* ''Literature/SirenaSelena'': La Sirena's grandmother tells a story of how when she was a young girl, there were a lot of sex workers in her neighborhood. Her father was determined to defend her and her sisters' honor. One day, he found her sister Finín making out with a sailor and along with her brother, dragged her out by the hair. He ended up giving her a beating so bad that [[GoneHorriblyRight Finín rebelled and became a sex worker for real]].
196* ''Literature/SisterhoodSeries'': Okay, some of the punishments the Vigilantes subject the villains to can be considered this. A notable instance is the book ''Vendetta'' in which the Vigilantes skin John Chai alive! Well, the story says caning, but caning and skinning someone alive are ''not'' the same thing. His crime was drunkenly committing a hit-and-run on Myra Rutledge's daughter Barbara Rutledge, killing her and her unborn child, and then getting away with it because he's the son of the ambassador of China and used DiplomaticImpunity without a qualm. The reason the punishment in ''Vendetta'' can be considered this trope is because the crime occurred in ''Weekend Warriors'', which is a few books back, and by then the reader will probably have forgotten the full impact of the crime.
197* ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'': A character speaks of feeding a dog steak and watch springs for biting him and proposes enacting horrible revenge on the main character for ''accidentally doing something involved with his friend's death!'' Now, this all happens offstage and the character's never seen again, so...
198* Lina Inverse, main character of ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'', does this a lot -- sometimes she seems to have only two levels of punishment: shouting, and blowing things up. It's primarily this willingness to fly off her head over little things and react by throwing around {{Sphere of Destruction}} type spells that gives her such a bad reputation. The biggest examples are her blowing up a restaurant for ''stepping on her own sardine'' (amidst complaints saying that she didn't want it in the first place), and nearly drowning [[ThePollyanna Amelia]] in a hot spring after the latter makes an innocent joke towards her.
199* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Has a number of examples.
200** One of the first things we learn about Gregor Clegane is that he held his little brother Sandor's face to a burning brazier for playing with one of his old toys (which, according to Sandor, Gregor was no longer interested in), scarring him for life. He also killed one of his own men just because he was snoring too loud.
201** Ser Amory Lorch stabbed Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, a girl of about three or four years old, fifty times because [[LittleGirlsKickShins she kicked him]] and wouldn't stop screaming.
202** Petyr Baelish [[spoiler: started a continent wide civil war due to a grudge he nurses from being rejected by his childhood sweetheart for a wealthier and more dashing man.]]
203** The Lannisters are well known for their harsh retribution. A popular song, "The Rains of Castamere" was written about how they completely wiped out two noble houses for being disloyal.
204*** In the first book, Tywin Lannister had an innkeeper hanged. Her crime? Owning the inn where his [[TheUnfavorite least favourite]] son Tyrion was kidnapped.
205** The Freys have possibly the most shocking example: [[spoiler:After Robb Stark reneges on his wedding promise to House Frey, Lord Walder massacres Robb, his mother, most of his noble bannermen, and most of his army at the wedding feast of his uncle, thereafter called The Red Wedding.]]
206*** Afterwards, just having the last name Frey is a crime punishable among some groups. The Brotherhood Without Banners, led by Lady Stoneheart ([[spoiler:AKA undead Catelyn Stark]]), hangs any Frey they catch. Up in the North, Lord Wyman Manderly [[spoiler:(who lost a son at the Red Wedding), has three Freys who visited his court killed, baked into pies, and fed to their relatives at Winterfell. To [[LoopholeAbuse avoid breaking]] [[SacredHospitality guest right]] like the Freys did, he gives them horses as gifts to signify they're no longer under his protection]].
207** Joffrey Baratheon/Lannister/Waters is also know for this trope, typically cutting everybody's heads off for any act of defiance or making them duel to the death. However, one of his biggest moments of douchery comes when he has Sansa Stark stripped naked and beaten bloody, ''in front of the entire court'', because her brother won a battle.
208* ''Literature/SpocksWorld'': Ruin [[spoiler: T'Pring's]] happiness with [[spoiler: Stonn]] by driving said character's beloved to suicide? They'll force the entire planet to vote to secede from the Federation, which would either send Spock and his family into exile or else trap Spock on Vulcan forever, ending his heroic and legendary trek to the stars. It doesn't help that, much like the MisplacedRetribution trope spells out, [[spoiler: T'Pring]] is more responsible for what happened to [[spoiler: Stonn]] than Spock is.
209* In the third volume of ''Literature/SpyClassroom'', there were plenty of legitimate reasons for [[spoiler:Annette]] to trap [[spoiler:her mother]] in a locked shipping container with a bomb, such as being an enemy agent and a child abuser. The real reason she did it? She unintentionally made fun of her height.
210* ''Literature/TheStarsTennisBalls'': The decidedly anti-heroic protagonist has gone very off of the deep end by the climax of the book. Holding the Shadowy Secret Agent who exiled him to an island prison captive, he gives him a choice. To be shot dead, or to have the slenderest hope of survival by swallowing burning coals, in the manner of Portia in ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar''. The poor agent manages - somehow - to choke down a coal or two, and we have the horrific description of huge blisters erupting around his mouth as his vocal chords and windpipe are burnt out. This proves too much even for the protagonist, who promptly "mercy-kills" the guy with a shot to the head.
211* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
212** A minor character in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' is trying to get to an EscapePod before the ship he's on self destructs. Two kids, Tash and Zak Arranda, who'd been on a pod leave it to help someone, then try to get back on, but the man thinks they're cutting in front of him. What does he do? Lock them in a storage closet, ''leaving them to die''. The ship does not actually explode, it was a false alarm, but that's ''harsh''.
213** A race introduced by Creator/TimothyZahn in the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology have this as part of their legal code. The penalty for murder is death, life for life - either one who is guilty, or ten of his clan who are innocent. They use this to justify flattening a Bothan space station and further inflaming the political mess engulfing the New Republic.
214** The Bothans themselves. A species had a single member slight the Bothan race, and in retaliation, they burned the homeworld, slaughtered every member of the species, erased records of them, and '''made them never have existed.'''
215** ''Literature/TalesOfTheBountyHunters'': Boba Fett firmly believes in harsh punishment for things most people wouldn't consider deserving it, or even immoral at all. This includes death for corruption or extramarital sex.
216** ''Literature/TheIllustratedStarWarsUniverse'': While leaving Jabba's palace in the company of a Jawa clan, Senior Anthropologist Hoole hears the story of another clan that [[HonestJohnsDealership sold Jabba some second-hand tech]] and fled before he could realize he'd been sold junk. Unfortunately, Jabba took being conned worse than the Jawas' usual clients: the hapless clan's Sandcrawler was found destroyed in the middle of the Dune Sea, and any Jawas who'd survived the initial attack were [[FateWorseThanDeath fed to the Sarlacc en masse]].
217 * ''Storming Heaven'': In this work by Creator/DaleBrown, a plot point in the backstory is how meddling bureaucrats put an end to a border patrol program because a pregnant drug mule carrying contraband in her body panicked after a prolonged chase by helicopters and was induced into premature labor- the drugs in her body killing both herself and her baby, resulting in horrible publicity for the program. Again, they were chasing drug mules with ''helicopters''.
218** Grzylov from ''Air Battle Force'' loses a baseful of bombers when Patrick has them destroyed to stop them attacking Turkmenistan. His response in ''Plan of Attack''? [[spoiler: Nuclear sneak attacks that wipe out most of the American strategic arsenal.]]
219** In ''Executive Intent'', Somali pirates attack a Chinese ship. At first, the Chinese helicopter sent tries to warn them off. When the pirates start killing hostages, the helicopter crew respond by attacking the pirates. Fair enough. Then the helicopter is shot down by a pirate. The Chinese response is a massive aerial and amphibious attack and takeover of Mogadishu. Later, some Yemeni terrorists crash an explosive-laden boat into a Chinese warship, sinking it. The Chinese proceed to punish Yemen too.
220* ''Literature/{{Struwwelpeter}}'': Includes a story about a boy who continues to suck his thumb, even after his mother tells him to stop. His punishment? A HumanoidAbomination called the Scissorman appears from literally nowhere and ''cuts them off''. Talk about a FelonyMisdemeanor...
221* In ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', Sigurd, encountering Leafa in the Sylph capital of Swilvane in Alfheim Online, complains about her leaving his party, even though the agreement was supposed to allow her to come and go as she pleased. When Leafa's new companion Kirito stands up for her, Sigurd, enraged by him "stealing" Leafa, threatens to kill him[[note]]Unlike Sword Art Online, death in Alfheim Online doesn't kill the player, but comes with a steep EXP penalty[[/note]]- since Kirito, a Spriggan, is in another race's capital, he can't fight back. Luckily for Kirito, [[PragmaticVillainy one of Sigurd's underlings tells him that it's not a good idea to kill someone who can't fight back while others are around]].
222* ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'': Sees a man being [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]] by a [[TheBaroness Mord-Sith]] after he assassinates a mage in the opposing army (after stabbing a little girl; the girl survives, the mage doesn't). [[DesignatedHero Surprisingly, the torturers are the heroes.]] After the man has spilled all his information, the mage's lover orders him to be tortured to death as slowly as possible, in retaliation for being so cocky when he was captured.
223** In the first book, the staff taking care of the tomb of Darken Rahl's father were executed if a single petal fell off the flowers there or a single torch went out in Rahl's presence. And he considered himself merciful for allowing them a quick death in such cases.
224** In one book, Kahlan looks through old records of trials, one of which includes an entry about a wizard who had been executed for being an incurable alcoholic. Her initial response is to think it's an example of this trope, but when she thinks about it, she realizes that, given the [[PersonOfMassDestruction raw destructive power of wizards]], it just wouldn't be safe to let the guy live.
225* ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'': Tends to do this kind of thing [[AxeCrazy at]] [[AntiHero least]] [[SociopathicSoldier once]] per book.
226** In ''Altered Carbon'', he is placed into a torture program for 24 simulated hours by some PunchClockVillain technicians hired by the BigBad. After he escapes, he remembers a passage from his favorite author about making every struggle personal. He returns to the technicians' office and kills everyone who works there, then goes to a strip club that is tangentially related to the affair and massacres everyone working there as well. He melts the heads of everyone he kills, preventing them from being resurrected in a new body, as most people are after death. His rampage is considered outrageous by everyone who learns about it.
227** In ''Broken Angels'' he massacres an entire troop of [[spoiler: Carrera's Wedge soldiers to avenge a friend despite only a few of them even being involved.]] And another character, revolutionary leader Kemp, nuked a city due to [[spoiler: Hand's manipulations.]]
228** Sometime before ''Woken Furies'' Kovacs learned that his ex-girlfriend married a religious fanatic, had a daughter who was killed in an accident, then tried to resurrect her against her husband's religion. But the priests caught her, tortured her to death, and tossed her [[BodyBackupDrive cortical stack]] in the ocean, effectively killing her for good. Kovacs found her husband, dragged the names of the ones who dumped her stack out of him, tortured and killed them, then went on to slaughter everyone in their village who was an adult at the time and had their stacks put in animals used for pit fights. By the time the book starts he's making a bit of a dent in the faith's hierarchy.
229* ''Literature/TimeLag'': The invaders make an example of a number of villages when they are faced with opposition.
230* ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'': Has Robert Doniger, the business-man who sends the heroes back in time to the Middle Ages to fix something gone wrong. Long story short, lots of things go wrong. When our heroes ''do'' get back, they get their revenge on Doniger, unethical as he is, by [[spoiler:sending him back in time with the same machine to the Middle Ages where he gets a nasty case of the ''Black Plague''.]]
231** TheFilmOfTheBook was a bit less dysfunctional, with [[spoiler: Doniger's fate being A: a quicker death, B: a sort-of accident caused when he C: tried to leave the protagonists to their fates in the past just to save his own reputation.
232*** Doninger wanting to leave them in the past to save his company's rep happened in the book as well. He says he's kidding, but the other character, who knows him very well, doesn't believe him. Also, there's the part about him wanting to sell time travel tech to rewrite history, so Doninger comes across as [[JerkassVictim deserving what he gets.]]
233* ''Literature/ToAllTheBoysIveLovedBefore'': Lara Jean's ex-friend Gen eventually reveals to her why she ended their friendship and bullied Lara Jean for years. That Gen felt betrayed that Lara Jean knew about Gen's crush on Peter and Lara Jean took Peter's first kiss (it was actually Peter making the first move) during a Spin The Bottle game in middle school. Lara Jean lampshades how ridiculous and vindictive Gen is being.
234* ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'': [[spoiler: When Atticus Finch embarasses Bob Ewell at the trial, Bob Ewell takes revenge by trying to murder Atticus's children.]]
235* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': The main cases of all three ''Literature/BekaCooper'' books involve this:
236** In ''Terrier'', a slum-dweller thinks the neighbors are puttin' on airs with their one nice thing that they own (a necklace or an antique book, things like that). Response? Ransom and murder their children as the Shadow Snake! [[spoiler:Oh, and she murdered Tansy's child and nearly kills her husband because, as a child, Tansy used to steal bread from her.]]
237** One of the minds behind the counterfeiting plot in ''Bloodhound'' [[spoiler:wanted revenge for a dishonorable discharge after he'd spent years as a loyal soldier--he only hit his officer because he was TheNeidermeyer]]. Clearly the best response is to ''overturn the country's entire economy''.
238** In ''Mastiff'', [[spoiler:the mages don't like the King's proposed sales tax on magic supplies]]. So they abduct one of the child princes with plans to kill him, kill dozens of others along the way, and plot to overthrow the government.
239* ''Literature/TsarGorokhsDetectiveAgency'': In ''The Plot of the Black Mass'', Nikita asks the German ambassador what the Russian people need to do in order to be as efficient, polite, and hard-working as the Germans. The ambassador cheerfully reveals the secret - daily public floggings for even slightest infractions (e.g. not having a clean enough house), or just as a warning. He points out that this also applies to children, but children get no more than 10 lashes a day. The Germans are not animals, after all. When Nikita walks out on the street, he calls the ambassador a fascist in his head and tells him (mentally) to stuff his German efficiency where the sun don't shine. There are no mention of this in later novels, and Nikita and the ambassador are actually good friends.
240* ''Literature/{{Unwind}}'': The process of Unwinding is basically having every single part of a person's body dismembered and harvested to be used for transplants simply because they were a difficult teenager or the parents couldn't afford to take care of them. And every sngle one of these people are between the ages of 13 and 18.
241* ''Literature/LesVoyageursSansSouci'': Grand-voleur ("Big Thief") was kidnapped when he was a kid by Séraphine Alavolette, Queen of All Birds, and forced to work as her servant for seven years for robbing and sucking one magpie egg (called an "unforgivable crime" by Alavolette when Grand-voleur complains about his punishment being too severe).
242* ''Literature/WarriorCats'':
243** [[StepfordSmiler Ashfur]] gets dumped by [[RebelliousPrincess Squirrelflight]] in favor of [[NumberTwo Brambleclaw]]. What does he do? [[spoiler: He ''tries to murder her father'', the Clan's ''leader'', and get Brambleclaw blamed for it; when that fails, he waits [[BestServedCold moons]] until he has the chance to try again, this time targeting her ''kits''.]] All because she picked his best friend instead of him.
244** Long before that, [[BloodKnight Thistleclaw]] ordered his apprentice (who would grow up to be Tigerstar) to attack and almost kill a kit who had accidentally wandered into their territory. This retribution was eventually met with another terrible revenge, as the kit was a very young [[AxCrazy Scourge]], who eventually disemboweled Tigerstar, after Tigerstar tried to give Scourge's followers orders.
245** Don't forget [[AxeCrazy Scourge]] having [[ShrinkingViolet Violet]] nearly beaten to death because she dared to look for her missing brother.
246** A non-villainous example occurs in ''The Darkest Hour''. When Tawnypaw is tending to the elders, she makes a simple mistake. One of the elders - Smallear - accuses her of not caring for the elders, saying that since her BigBad father Tigerstar hated tending to the elders, she'd end up just like him. This is the final straw for Tawnypaw since she runs away not long after to join [=ShadowClan=], which her father leads. It's even worse when one rereads the book after reading ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', since Smallear is revealed to be Tawnypaw's grandfather.
247* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
248** In Andy Hoare's ''Literature/WhiteScars'' novel ''Hunt for Voldorius'', Malya is chosen for Voldorius's equerry. They get her to obey by threatening to kill a hundred people every time she is disobedient.
249** Usually averted in Sandy Mitchell's ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!!!) series, where the titular [[ThePoliticalOfficer Commissar]] is much more likely to punish discipline problems with [[ATasteOfTheLash Floggings]], PunishmentDetail or assignments to Penal Battalions rather than with outright executions. As he himself says, blam-happy commissars tend to [[UnfriendlyFire die in glorious combat far away from the frontline]]. Cain, meanwhile, reserves executions to cases with no other option (such as guardsmen who fell to Chaos or were implanted with Genestealer implants).
250* ''Literature/{{Watersong}}'': Persephone's four handmaidens goofed off and weren't there to prevent her rape and murder at the hands of Hades. Persephone's mother, Demeter, was understandably angry at four human girls for not being there to fight a god off, and turned them into sirens. It turns out to be a case of CursedWithAwesome, since they don't mind so much having to eat the hearts of men, though Demeter gives some explanation of how eternity without love is the punishment. Two of the original sirens are killed by the leader, and the main character replaces one of them since there must always be four. In the name of continuing to punish the two remaining, Demeter refuses to help the MC, and doesn't much care about the thousands upon thousands who are suffering and dying at the hands of the sirens.
251* ''Literature/WaysideSchool'': Nearly the entire class on the 30th floor fell victim to this trope courtesy of [[SadistTeacher Mrs. Gorf]], who would turn her entire class into apples for minor offenses such as sneezing, saying "God bless you" after said sneeze, crying, and arriving late for class.
252** Also, Mrs. Drazil. If you move away, but don't hand in your final homework assignment, she will hunt you down for the rest of your life.
253* ''Literature/TheWindwaterPack'': Zephyr’s reaction when he encounters the coyote that killed his pups is to shred him quite literally. The only thing that saves the coyote's mate is that killing her would leave their son an orphan, like Zephyr himself was.
254* ''Literature/WolfHall'': Although he has other motivations for opposing More, part of the reason AntiHero Thomas Cromwell works to destroy Thomas More (ultimately leading to More's execution) is [[EvilIsPetty extremely petty]]. [[ForgottenFirstMeeting When the two first met as children]], More was a student and Cromwell a serving boy, and when Cromwell asked what More was reading, More replied in a mildly condescending way. In another instance of this, all of the people Cromwell accuses of being Anne Boleyn's lovers (who again, were executed) participated in or simply laughed at a masque that mocked Cromwell's friend and mentor Cardinal Wolsey. In both situations, Cromwell's POV [[UnreliableNarrator brings up but doesn't call attention to his less savory motives for his actions]].
255* ''Literature/{{Woodwalkers}}'': The plan of BigBad [[spoiler: Andrew Milling. The only reason why he wants to destroy humanity is because ''one'' hunter[[note]]who didn't even know woodwalkers exist[[/note]] killed his wife and daughter in their animal-form]]
256** [[spoiler: Milling also kidnaps Melody and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking sends Carag some hate-mails]] just because Carag refused to work for him.]]
257* ''Literature/{{Zomboy}}'': [[spoiler:Calvin's older brother]] Luther gets beaten by [[UndeadChild Imre]] in a football game, and is inadvertently called "toast" by Bob. His response? He and his dad and his friend go to Imre's house to burn it down.
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