Basic Trope: Exacting proper revenge takes some time.
- Straight: After Bill deliberately runs over Andrew's mailbox, Andrew takes his time coming up with a plan to get back at him.
- Exaggerated: Andrew waits until ten minutes before the heat death of the universe to exact his vengeance on Bill.
- Downplayed: Andrew doesn't plan out any revenge on Bill, but he does equip his new mailbox's post with a set of spikes that will do some serious damage to the next car fender that impacts it.
- Justified:
- Andrew knows rushing into things won't get him anywhere, and that he has to be patient if he wants to retaliate properly.
- Andrew was somehow indisposed and unable to get revenge immediately. On the other hand, he is able to exploit the fact that Bill has grown fatter, lazier, forgot the evil deed and/or just was not expecting Andrew to still hold a grudge.
- Inverted: Instead of wasting time planning, Andrew simply hauls off and feeds Bill his teeth.
- Subverted: Andrew toys with the notion of planning out his revenge... before simply getting an ax and cutting down Bill's mailbox.
- Double Subverted: But this act makes Bill swear revenge and for a variety of reasons (including occasionally forgetting his oath) he doesn't gets around to it until a couple of decades down the line.
- Parodied:
- Andrew isn't concerned with striking back at Bill right away, considering this kind of thing happens every other week.
- Andrew spends twenty years thinking of the perfect, most Machiavellian revenge scheme… ding-dong-ditching.
- Andrew spends so long and gets so bombastic doing his "it's the slow knife, the one that takes decades, that cuts the deepest" speech that Bill gets ticked off and tells Andrew to just cut to the damn chase. "You literally could have stabbed me a hundred times already, I just want you to know that."
- Zig Zagged: At first, Andrew never planned to do anything to Bill, but after a few weeks with no retaliation, Bill gets a little too comfortable making Andrew his punching bag. Since enough time has passed between the first incident and the present, Bill doesn't expect it when Andy steals his car, drives it into a ditch and sets it on fire.
- Averted: Neither Bill nor Andrew do anything worthy of wreaking vengeance on one another.
- Enforced:
- In the past, Andrew has gotten into hot water due to his propensity to fly off the handle, and planning out a retaliation that may not happen is his way of defusing his anger so he doesn't do something he regrets in the heat of the moment.
- The writers are fans of Kill Bill, The Count of Monte Cristo or any other story where this kind of revenge happens and they decide to emulate it. The hard part is choosing a reasonable Handwave for why Andrew doesn't decides to get even ASAP.
- Lampshaded: "No need to get mad. I'm gonna really enjoy the next six weeks."
- Invoked: Andrew wants sn opportunity to plan out his own personal Edmond Dantes-styled revenge, and lets Bill run his mailbox over for that reason.
- Exploited: Bill takes advantage of Andrew's lack of response by doing several more things to piss him off.
- Defied:
- Andrew doesn't bother seeking revenge against Bill, since there would be no point or dignity in fighting with an overgrown child.
- It does not matters that it's only a Dope Slap and the reuniting fight will put him six months in the hospital as a best-case scenario, Andrew refuses to let Bill walk away with even the thought that he will never be punished and strikes back immediately.
- Discussed: "Say, Bill, you ever seen that one movie with the karate lady who gets bloody satisfaction?"
- Conversed: Bill rattles off all the things Andrew could do to get back at him over time if he wasn't so "busy doing other stuff".
- Implied: Andrew's eyes narrow every time he sees Bill, or whenever Bill is mentioned in conversation.
- Deconstructed:
- Bill and Andrew waste their lives trying to one-up each other in retaliatory efforts instead of going about their business.
- Andrew's revenge is just not as satisfactory, or is seen as justified, when he took so long building up his scheme that Bill does not remembers what he did as clearly as Andrew wanted and/or he really thought Andrew had, if not forgotten, then at least forgiven it… or that Andrew had considered it a sucker's game.
- When the police eventually begin to look for who injured Bill, Andrew will become a person of interest because people who were wronged by Bill (even years ago) are typically the first to be scrutinized — and Andrew did not really made a good job hiding the fact he really wanted Bill to suffer.
- Reconstructed:
- In the act of plotting his revenge against Bill, Andrew takes the opportunity to get back at a lot of other people besides him in the process.
- Revenge was obtained all the same, and for a split second there it felt really good, so Andrew still thinks it was Worth It.
"Do you know the TV Tropes proverb that tells us 'revenge is a dish that is best served by examples'? There are many examples... on the main page."
