Revenge Before Reason / Live-Action TV

Those who put Revenge Before Reason in Live-Action TV series.

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• 24:
  • Gael Ortega's wife shoots Stephen Saunders despite him being the only person who can stop the outbreak of a deadly virus.
  • Another example: Curtis Manning tries to kill Hamri Al-Assad, leading to Jack being forced to shoot him.
  • Victor Drazen could have escaped the country if he wasn't so busy trying to kill Jack.
  • Tony Almeida works with the antagonists of Day 7 and puts hundreds of innocent lives at risk in order to get close to their leader and kill him to avenge the murder of his wife.
  • Jack Bauer himself on the other hand generally averts this trope. Although he isn't above revenge and has no problem putting several bullets into the body of someone who's killed a close friend or loved one of his, if he needs to work with said person first in order to carry out some assignment or thwart some other terrorist plot, he will put aside urges to kill them for the moment until after the mission's over. Some notable cases include him saving the life of Nina Meyers during Day 2 since he needed her to find the nuclear bomb and teaming up with Christopher Henderson to stop Vladimir Bierko's takeover of a sub armed with nuclear missiles during Day 5. This trait becomes especially important in the series finale where after a few hours of Jack going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for Renee Walker and falling straight into this trope, Chloe O'Brien is able to convince him not to assassinate Yuri Suvarov at the eleventh hour, which would in turn have kick-started WWIII.
  • In Day 9, CIA Agent Kate Morgan weaponizes this trope in order to get vital information on a stolen piece of property out of the man who framed her husband (leading to his suicide), by bluffing him into thinking she's going to kill him. He desperately blurts out the information they need, and doing so loses his only bargaining chip.
• In the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Heavy is the Head", Lance Hunter desperately wants revenge on Carl Creel, the supervillain responsible for the deaths of his friends. On a surveillance mission, he betrays the rest of his team, shooting them unconscious, then goes out and confronts Creel alone. This ends with his nearly being killed, a third party stealing a powerful and dangerous artefact, and Agent May having a grudge against him. That last one is agreed to have been the worst part.
  Hunter: She's the type to hold a grudge?
  Coulson: Savors it, actually.
• Alma Gêmea: When Cristina's love for Rafael turns into hatred, she starts making several counter-productive decisions to try to get revenge on him. Instead of trying to reach an agreement with Rafael regarding their asset division, she wants to leave him penniless. She also wants to kill Serena, when even Débora tells her she has nothing to benefit from doing that (and tries to convince her that killing Rafael would be more advantageous).
• Alta Mar: The plot for each of Seasons 2 and 3 is set in motion due to a character wanting revenge against the Fabregas family for the death of a loved one.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003): In the final episode, the Final Five Cylons all put their hands in the mind-link water to download all parts of the resurrection blueprints. Tory tries to convince them to let all their past sins be forgiven. They agree. Naturally, when Galen sees her murder his wife Cally (because she knew they were Cylons), he breaks off the Psychic Link and strangles her. As the resurrection blueprint was part of the deal they made to end the Cylon War, breaking off the download makes the hostile Cylons think it's a trap.
• Breaking Bad:
  • The Creepy Twins Marco and Leonel Salamanca fell into this. While trying to avenge their cousin Tuco, Marco is about to execute Hank but puts his gun down and opts to make him suffer with an axe instead. Him slowly retrieving it from his car and dramatically approaching Hank gives him just enough time to reach for a stray bullet nearby, reload his gun, and blow Marco's brains out mid-swing. The other twin Leonel tries to attack Walt despite no longer having legs and is restrained by the hospital workers before being finished off by Mike.
  • This ultimately gets Gus Fring killed. His drive to slowly torture and torment Hector Salamanca builds up to the point that, on being told Hector went to the feds, he throws caution to the wind and goes to Hector's nursing home to kill the man himself. By doing so, he walks straight into the trap Walter White set for him, leading to his explosive demise.
  • Skyler White sits through her husband Walter's sins unable to really do anything until the death of Hank, her sister's husband, in "Ozymandias". Thinking that Walter killed him (he didn't directly kill Hank, but his actions ultimately caused Hank's death), Skyler decides not to call 911 to get Walt arrested but to take matters into her own hands. Picking up a kitchen knife instead, she tries to tell Walt to leave. However, this was a ruse, as she wouldn't let him get away with what happened to Hank (actually forcing him to leave would make him get away with his sins.) Walt tries to talk her out of attacking and/or killing him, but she slashes him. In order to stop her harming him any further, an enraged Walt lunges at her to forcibly take the knife from her to save himself until Walt Jr. throws him off her and then calls 911 to get Walter arrested. This eliminates the need for Skyler to attack him again, but Walt then escapes, kidnapping the only family member he didn't believe knew enough to turn against him — his infant daughter Holly. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Despite never forgiving her husband for his sins, Skyler abandoned any plans to harm Walt when he tried to exonerate her for any involvement in his crimes pretending to be an abusive husband berating her for not supporting her, and when he later returned Holly to her via the Fire Department. Not to mention when Walt came back in "Felina" to tell her he found another way or securing their future than drug money, gave coordinates to Hank and Gomez's bodies, and reveal that becoming a drug dealer was for himself, not his family. Then, he left before Flynn (formerly Walter Jr.) came home, as he made it clear he wanted his father dead for his crimes in the previous episode, "Granite State". Flynn got his wish off-screen by the end of the episode though it's unclear if he ever knew or cared that Walt died partially making amends and putting an end to his own drug empire.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Played straight and lampshaded In "Faith, Hope & Trick". Kakistos the Vampire is determined to kill Faith after she horribly scarred him in self-defense a while back. While they're fighting Faith and Buffy, Kakistos' underlings cut their losses and abandon him after Mr. Trick points this out:
    Mr. Trick: (walking out after noticing Kakistos will probably lose this fight) There's a reason these vengeance crusades are out of style. As a modern vampire, you have to see the bigger picture.
  • The Kalderash Gypsies who originally cursed Angel with a soul also added a Curse Escape Clause; if Angel ever experienced even a moment of true happiness, he would immediately lose his soul. Just to be clear: the Kalderash were so focused on their revenge that they considered it more acceptable to unleash an immortal psychopath back into the world than let him be content for even a moment.
    Jenny: Uncle, this is insanity! People are going to die.
    Enyos: Yes. It is not justice we serve. It is vengeance.
    Jenny: You are a fool. We're all fools. (rushes out)
  • In "Passion", Giles attacks Angelus in a rage after the latter kills Jenny Calendar. While Xander, who always hated Angel, openly supports and endorses Giles' intent, Buffy realizes right away that Giles' plan is going to get him killed, and rushes off to save him.
  • In "Tough Love", Willow goes after Glory in a rage after Glory Mind Rapes Tara, ignoring Buffy's warnings and reminders that Glory is a Physical God and she stands no chance against her. While Willow does manage to cause Glory pain and weaken her somewhat, she ultimately goes down and is only saved from certain death when Buffy shows up Just in Time.
  • Also, in the Spin-Off series Angel, this is essentially embodied by Angel's Arch-Enemy, 18th century vampire hunter Daniel Holtz, who appears in the present day after having made a Deal with the Devil to follow Angel from the past. After Angelus (Angel's soulless, vampiric Enemy Within) killed Holtz's entire family, Holtz's desire for vengeance consumed his whole life, leading him to make the aforementioned Deal with the Devil so he could survive into the future. The fact that present-day Angel now has a soul, and has become The Atoner due to his monstrous past deeds as Angelus, makes no difference to Holtz, and he fully commits to destroying Angel, even at the cost of his own life. Holtz even acknowledges how his quest for revenge has warped him, but he's so far gone that he doesn't care about anything else by this point.
• Castle: Detective Kate Beckett nearly fell victim to this trope, as she became more determined to find her mother's murderer. For much of the show, she decided that she could not commit herself to a relationship with Richard Castle until her mother's murder was solved. In the fourth season finale "Always", her obsession with the case nearly drove Castle away from her after she refused to back down, even after his Anguished Declaration of Love. By the end of the episode, after nearly getting killed and being forced to Turn In Her Badge, Beckett decided that her revenge on her mother's killer meant nothing if she lost Castle. Cue The Big Damn Kiss / Relationship Upgrade.
• Done a few times on CSI: NY:
  • One perp kills her former partner-in-crime because she got caught with a bag full of jewelry she didn't know he'd stolen; she went to jail for it and blamed him for "ruining her life." Mac asks her if it was worth going back to jail for the *rest* of her life. She pauses merely a second before telling him, "Yes. I got him back for what he did to me so, yes, it is worth it." Mac shakes his head as she's led away to her cell.
  • One episode has a particularly silly example. A fat girl wins an audience contest during a basketball game but her triumph is spoiled by another audience member mocking her weight. She spends her winnings and the next two years on slimming down and making herself beautiful so that she can become a cheerleader for the basketball team and rig the same contest so that her tormentor wins, allowing her to deliver a Kiss of Death as he tries to claim the prize. Leaving aside the numerous more practical methods that she could have chosen for her revenge, would she not have stopped at some point and realized that she had improved her life to the point where his insults were no longer relevant? At the very least, would she not have simply run into an even bigger jerkass in the meantime who would have been even more deserving of death?
• Likewise, an episode of CSI: Miami has the team investigating three separate murders at Spring Break. All three had humiliated a fat girl at an earlier vacation years before so the girl changed her name, lost weight, and plotted to get payback by killing all three before they even realized who she was. The episode ends with the girl imagining herself in her "fat prime", smiling with pride as she's led to jail. But as soon as the door slams, her face falls as it seems to hit her how her desire for payback has now ruined her entire life.
• Doctor Who: In "The Pandorica Opens", the Alliance, composed of a huge number of aliens the Doctor has defeated in the past, including some of his greatest enemies like the Daleks and Cybermen, believing that the Doctor is going to destroy the universe by blowing up the TARDIS, summarily imprisons him in the Pandorica while ignoring his attempt to explain why this is a bad idea. As a result, the TARDIS is blown up by another, at the time unidentified, villain, resulting in the end of the universe — something the Doctor probably could have stopped if he'd had the chance.
• Drake & Josh: In "Josh Is Done", after missing his chemistry exam and getting his grades dropped no thanks to Drake, Josh snaps and angrily tries to tackle Drake on the spot — which naturally gets him into even further trouble for doing this on school grounds.
• In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, John Walker brutally murders a defenseless Nico for Lemar's death right in front of horrified witnesses.
• Farscape: The Big Bad of the first season, Crais, spends it tracking down the "killer" of his brother; forfeiting his command, career, and facing imprisonment because of it. He later admits that he was mostly concerned about his waning career and agrees that his brother's death was just an accident (his brother's Prowler grazed Crighton's comparatively primitive Farscape One module, lost control, and slammed into an asteroid). An Evil Sorcerer fueling his anger doesn't help matters.
• In The Flash (2014) Christmas Episode "Running to Stand Still", Patty, a cop, temporarily disables The Flash so he can't stop her murdering the defeated and helpless Mark Mardon, the man who murdered her father. Luckily, the Flash is still able to talk her down from killing Mardon. Also, Zoom, the Big Bad of Season 2, tries to turn Barry into a villain, claiming that they're alike, going so far as to murder Barry's father in front of him, all in order to get Barry into this state of mind.
• Friends: Ross lies to Rachel about annulling their drunken Vegas marriage, as he doesn’t want to have three failed marriages. Rachel is furious when she finds out and tries to humiliate Ross by filling out the annulment forms herself and lying to them that Ross is mentally unstable, gay, impotent, and addicted to heroin and crack. Ross initially goes along with her lies at their annulment hearing, though he eventually gets fed up with how ludicrous they are. He reveals the forms are full of lies and gets into an argument with Rachel, during which he reveals they used to date. The judge understandably isn’t impressed that Ross and Rachel lied to her (which counts as perjury, though it appears Ross and Rachel aren’t prosecuted for this) and decides they don’t qualify for an annulment due to having once been in a serious relationship.
• Frontier Circus: Cato in "Coals of Fire". Obsessed with finding the Union officer who killed his master, Cato joined the Confederate army in hopes of running across. After the war ended, he devoted his life to searching for him. When he eventually learned the officer's name and hometown, he joined the T & T Circus because it would be traveling there. Tony made multiple attempts to make him see how empty his quest was, and how a man of his talents could do so much more with his life. But it wasn't until Cato confronted his target and saw how pathetic he had become that he came to his senses and left without killing him.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Averted with regards to Loras Tyrell's perception of Brienne on the show. ^{From the books...} He holds her responsible for Renly's death and flies into a murderous rage when he sees Brienne enter the Red Keep with Jaime in A Storm of Swords. He never believes for a moment that she is capable of harming Renly. Despite his intense grief and his resentment of losing to Brienne in the melee, Loras correctly blames Stannis. However, he does intend to storm out and put a sword through Stannis' righteous face until Margaery and Littlefinger convince him he would be killed before he ever got close.
  • Rickard Karstark wants to execute Jaime even though he's a valuable hostage. He's even aware that it doesn't make sense, but his love for his sons ran deep. After being robbed of any hope of seeing Jaime dead by Catelyn Stark he more or less goes off the deep end, savagely murdering two young Lannister squires who had no involvement at all in the death of his sons, simply because they shared the same blood as Jaime.
  • Harald Karstark tries to convince the Boltons that they should kill Jon Snow because he still represents a Stark threat looming over their domain and because he wants to avenge his father, never mind that Jon's position as Lord Commander to the Night's Watch means he is required to forsake any lands and titles and also trying to target the Night's Watch would quickly earn the enmity of all other Northern houses. Roose refuses to pursue this idea which leads to Harald becoming an accomplice by inaction to Roose's murder, letting Ramsay kill him so he can take his place and go through their plan to march into Castle Black.
  • Cersei Lannister tends to focus on harming her — real or imaginary — enemies, and think about the consequences... uh, sometime later. Maybe. A shining example is her ploy to undermine the Tyrells in Season 5. Not only does Cersei's claim to power rely on the Lannister-Tyrell alliance (meaning that, if the Tyrells are undermined, she is undermined), Cersei's scheme directly results in her own imprisonment, public humiliation, and complete loss of political power and control. Most halfway intelligent people would realize they've lost and do their best to mitigate the damage and avoid future misery. Cersei is not one of these people and actually proceeds to top herself in Season 6's finale when she blows up the Sept of Baelor during the Green Trial, destroying all of her opponents in Kings Landing, along with a good part of the city. It's one of the very few plans she actually executes successfully, but it leaves her as the target of pretty much every remaining faction in Westeros. Of course, by that time, her sanity is so long gone it's hard to even speak of "reason". And this time she may have been genuinely more interested in just making her enemies suffer than in gaining anything for herself. Another perfect example is also her willingness to have Sansa dead because she suspects that the latter poisoned Joffrey (she didn't). But she does not take it into consideration one bit that Joffrey caused many misfortunes to Sansa such as the execution of her father as well as wanting to give her the head of her brother.
  • Beating out even Cersei is Ellaria Sand, a woman who, in her determination to avenge the death of her lover Oberyn Martell, directs her vengeful fury at the only Lannister within her reach — Myrcella Baratheon, who is not only a child but also an innocent who had no involvement at all in Oberyn's death. Neither this nor Oberyn's own vehement insistence in life that "we don't hurt little girls in Dorne" is enough to stop Ellaria from remorselessly poisoning her. Not content to (dis)honor Oberyn's memory by murdering an innocent child, Ellaria takes it a step further in the next season by snuffing out her lover's house entirely, murdering his brother Doran and nephew Trystane which causes the legal extinction of House Martell.
  • Mossador kills an imprisoned member of the Sons of the Harpy, despite the possible ramifications for both Dany's rule and himself. It should be noted that unlike all the aforementioned examples, Mossador is a slave rather than a noble and has little if any understanding of politics (he sees only that Dany is in a position where she cannot kill the captured Harpy, and doesn't understand why that is the case), but he still falls under this for, like Rickard Karstark above, putting his liege lord in a catch-22 that forces her to have him executed.
  • Even the mention of the Targaryens can drive Robert into a frothing rage. While there are pragmatic reasons to send assassins after Daenerys, he does not care about them and just wants to see her family exterminated. This is presumably the reason why Ned Stark hid and protected his nephew Jon Snow, the son of Ned's sister Lyanna and Rhaegar Targaryen in Winterfell, passing him off as his illegitimate son.
  • Balon passes up a golden opportunity not only to become a King of the Iron Islands again and gain complete independence for his people, and to become both fabulously wealthy and feared throughout all of Westeros by joining forces with the North solely for the sake of getting back at the family that was part of the force that put down his rebellion. This was even worse in the books, where Ned literally had nothing to do with the deaths of his sons. One of them died in a collapsing tower and the other in a battle he wasn't even present in.
  • Surpassing all of the above by Person of Mass Destruction-orders of magnitude is Daenerys in the final two episodes, who after enduring a season-long Trauma Conga Line that included having two of her three dragons killed, seeing her beloved handmaiden Missandei executed before her eyes, finding out that Varys was plotting against her after all and slowly coming to the realization that the people of Westeros would always see her as a foreign invader, she decides right at the finish line, when she's conquered King's Landing and is within walking distance of the throne she has wanted her entire adult life, to just burn it all to the ground instead. Not just her enemy Cersei, not even just the Lannisters, but most of King's Landing, innocent civilians and children included, are fed to the fire of Daenerys's now-thoroughly-Ax-Crazy vengeance. Predictably, this Jumping Off the Slippery Slope causes her to lose the loyalty of most of her remaining supporters and convinces Jon to Shoot the Dog and kill her.
• How I Met Your Mother: Marshall once pointed out that Barney, while eating a meatball sub, had gotten some marinara sauce on his tie, then chuckled a little at it. Barney considers this the most humiliating moment of his life, and is determined to get revenge by tricking Marshall into eating an exploding meatball sub. He spends months designing the exploding sub, and actually waits ten years before he gets Marshall to eat it; Barney pretends to be dying (he even spends thousands of dollars on medical treatments for a disease he doesn't have) and says that Marshall eating the sub is his last wish. Then the sub explodes in Marshall's face, Barney laughs ... and Ted points out that Barney got another bit of marinara sauce on his tie.
• Kamen Rider Double: Both played straight and averted by Ryu Terui/Accel. While he goes berserk when he sees the Weather Dopant or even hears about him, he is otherwise kept in check by Shotaro's intervention and his own conscience.
• In one episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a divorced woman spent months of preparation and committed three murders to get information on money her husband was hiding from her. When she finally got her hands on the information, rather than go after the money now that she had the ability to do so, she destroyed the information so that her husband would be deprived of the money just like she had been.
  • This became Nicole Wallace's calling card in her latter appearances. Having escaped justice more than once, the smart thing to do would be to leave New York and get as far away from Det. Goren as possible. But she repeatedly put herself in his crosshairs in attempts to get back at him for having bested her. This refusal to get out of Goren's orbit eventually gets her killed by Declan Gage.
• The Last of Us (2023): Kathleen - the leader of the Kansas City Resistance against FEDRA - may as well be the poster child for this trope. The resistance wins against FEDRA and kills all FEDRA solders and collaborators. However, after winning, Kathleen has them chase after Sam and Henry, because Henry sold out her brother (the original resistance leader) to FEDRA. This, despite an ominous floor caving in a building that is most likely filled with infected. Upon finding Sam and Henry in another part of town, one of their downed tanks sinks into the house it crashed into and scores of infected pour out. Kathleen's second in command tries to fend them off with the rest, telling her to get to safety. However, she hangs around to kill Sam and Henry, getting herself killed by a random clicker.
• Legends of Tomorrow:
  • In Season 2, Sara is obsessed with killing Damian Darhk whenever they encounter him in timeline, since he will one day murder her sister Laurel, to the point where she will thoughtlessly abandon any mission the Legends happen to be on for the smallest chance to kill him. To make things worse, Darhk is destined to be killed by Green Arrow in 2016, so killing him in the past would cause massive damage to the timeline, and damage to the timeline is the very thing the Legends are trying to prevent. She learns her lesson in Season 3, after Darhk is brought back to life, even though killing him now would have zero impact on the timeline, but it would also not bring Laurel back. Also, he has his full powers now, so killing him isn't simple. He later apologizes to her for killing Laurel and wishes he could undo it.
  • In "Outlaw Country", Jonah Hex is so obsessed with getting revenge on Quentin Turnbull he storms a saloon filled with Turnbull's people, all armed to the teeth, and would have been killed if not for the Legends.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Galadriel dresses up her desire for revenge and fighting as simply continuing Finrod's mission. Elrond is quick to point it out and asks her to put up her sword and sail to Valinor, where she could heal her wounded soul instead of leading even more Elves to die in far-off lands.
• Luke Cage (2016): Diamondback's vendetta against Luke Cage ultimately destroys his entire power base with Luke barely having to lift a finger. Shades calls him out on this when Willis shoots Misty in the club and turns his attempt on Luke into a hostage situation. It's a very, very stupid move that is unlikely to end well even in the best of circumstances. Willis bluntly says he doesn't care. He's willing to burn everything for a chance to kill Luke.
  Diamondback: At the end of this thing, either he's dead or I am.
  • In the first part of the season, Shades tries to get Cottonmouth to stop extorting Harlem businesses as retaliation against Luke since such an act makes Cottonmouth look weak. The move in fact backfires by making Luke's name ring out even more.
• Malcolm in the Middle: The episode "Forwards Backwards," has a How We Got Here plot that reveals that the pranks that Reese and Malcolm played on each other came about because Malcolm ate the last blueberry from Reese's pancake. When Lois and Hal bring them home from the hospital, following a tied Game of Chicken in a go-kart race track, Hal tells Malcolm to cancel his birthday plans because he's grounded, and right before they start another fight, Lois asks them what they remember doing on their previous birthdays, only for Malcolm and Reese to sadly say they've done nothing because they got grounded for fighting with each other. Lois explains that it's their obsession with getting even for whatever slight was done to them has caused them to not have a single happy memory to look back on because they were either too busy planning a payback or dealing with the consequences of their actions. At the very end, Lois and Hal try bribing Dewey so he'll forgive them for missing his play, but when the brand new video game isn't enough Hal gives him Malcolm's former birthday present, a rare, and expensive, comic book. Dewey takes his new possessions to his room while wishing a happy birthday to Malcolm, who's doing menial labor around the house with Reese.
• Merlin: King Odin. He hatches one scheme after another to kill Arthur in retaliation for killing Odin's son in battle years before. Never mind the fact that Arthur didn't want to fight the boy in the first place and had no choice but to kill him once battle was initiated. Arthur is finally able to talk him down, though, very impressively.
• Once Upon a Time: Regina's desire to get revenge on Snow White is what drove her evil. She's clearly aware that she has destroyed her life for revenge, which she didn't even actually get. Hook would qualify, as well.
• The Outer Limits (1995): In "New Lease", Dr. James Houghton is one of the inventors of a device that can bring people Back from the Dead-but all of their previous test subjects die again after less than 24 hours. Houghton is killed by a mugger and then revived with his own device. Believing he has nothing to lose because of his limited time, Houghton tracks down his murderer and shoots him in broad daylight with multiple witnesses. It's only after being arrested that Houghton learns the truth about the experiment-the previous resurrections were unsuccessful because the subjects had been cryogenically frozen before being put in the device. Because Houghton's body was still fresh when revived, he still has many more years ahead of him, which will now be spent behind bars.
• Revolution:
  • In "No Quarter", Private Richards wants revenge on Danny for killing his best friend Templeton in "Pilot". The problem with that is Templeton shot first and killed Ben Matheson (Richards dismissed that when Danny points that out), Danny only wounded the guy with his crossbow and the villager Caleb shot and killed Templeton. Even though Danny gets beaten up, he repays Richards for that later by strangling him a little with his chains and threatening to kill him if he ever lays hands on him again.
  • In "Soul Train", Ken 'Hutch' Hutchinson wants revenge on the militia for the death of his wife, by blowing up a train with many officers on it. Unfortunately, he is willing to blow up the train with innocent civilians like Danny Matheson in it. He ended up stabbing Nora in the gut when she tried to stop him.
  • When Danny gets killed off in "The Stand", Rachel Matheson becomes obsessed with avenging him. In "The Song Remains the Same", she tried to kill Tom Neville and had to be talked out of it by Charlie. In "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", Dr. Jane Warren suspected Rachel's motivation and tried to talk her out of it, but Rachel wouldn't listen. In "The Longest Day", Rachel has to spell it out to Aaron Pittman that she only wants to turn the power back on to avenge Danny, and she'll let another ill boy die and abandon Aaron if that's what it takes to obtain it. In "Clue", she infiltrates Monroe's tent and tries to use a live grenade to kill herself and take him with her. In "Children of Men", her attempt fails, and she ends up having a heart-to-heart discussion about her motivations, with Monroe himself having to point out that he wasn't even there when Danny got killed off.
• Scrubs: In "My Mirror Image", The Janitor realizes he has spent so much time and energy into trying to get revenge on JD (for the penny in the door incident) that he misses out on all the things he wanted to do. He doesn't change his ways until much later, though.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: In the episode "The Battle", Ferengi Daimon Bok staged an elaborate trap to gain revenge on Captian Picard for the death of Bok's son, whose ship was destroyed in a battle with the Stargazer, the first ship Picard commanded. His fellow Ferengi ultimately abandoned him, declaring that there is no profit in revenge. For reference, the Stargazer was attacked by a ship that didn't identity itself, and the Federation vessel ended up being abandoned with most crew killed. Bok still blames Picard despite the fact that it was his own son who initiated the battle. While it's true that Picard was in Ferengi space, Bok's son didn't identify himself or warn the Stargazer to leave, opening fire immediately.
• The Storyteller: The retelling of Daedalus' story presents him as falling into this. After terrible actions in the past (causing the deaths of his nephew and son), Daedalus had a chance to atone when he befriended the young prince and princess at a court. However, when he is blackmailed by King Minos into building the Labyrinth, he throws away that chance by his terrible revenge on Minos — rigging his bath to boil him alive. The story indicates that with that revenge, Daedalus essentially froze his heart, and he dies alone, a broken man.
• In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the female changeling leader of the Dominion allows her hatred of all solids (normal humanoids) to ruin her plans. In the middle of the climactic battle of a long war, she orders the destruction of a city of her allies, the Cardassians, in order to punish a group of rebels who are causing trouble against them. The loss of two million of their own causes the Cardassian space fleet to turn on their former allies in the middle of a large battle, which allows the Federation and their allies to break through the Dominion lines and win the war.
• Supernatural: All of the Winchesters are hell-bent on taking out the demons who have destroyed their family, but John and Sam are particularly scary and self-destructive about it. Particularly notable in Season 4, when Sam's quest to kill Lilith, the demon who laughed as her hounds tore Dean apart and dragged him to hell, leads the poor kid down a path that ensures he fulfills his own greatest fears about himself. And brings about The End of the World as We Know It killing her in an attempt to prevent the Apocalypse.
  • Also, Billy, the Reaper that has apparently taken over now that's Death is dead, is so pissed at the Winchester's hand in said death that when the two finally croak, she's throwing them into the Empty, which nothing can come back from. Even if they're the only things that can save the world- including herself — from the Darkness.
  • The Darkness herself is determined to kill God as punishment for locking her inside the Mark of Cain. Since darkness cannot exist without light, this will kill her too, along with everything else in existence, but she's willing to pay that price.
• Over the course of the third season of Tyrant (2014), Bassam systematically pisses away every scrap of goodwill he's earned over the previous two seasons in order to launch an almost-certainly-doomed invasion of Syria in order to avenge the murder of his daughter Emma.
• The Walking Dead (2010):
  • Nate of Dave's group of survivors. Unlike Randall and Sean, he wasn't willing to go back to the rest of his group without killing Rick, Glenn, and Hershel for killing Dave and Tony even after Rick explains to him what happened. After Sean got wounded and Walkers began approaching, he decided fleeing was a better idea.
  • Rosita plans to kill Negan using a bullet she asked Eugene to make for her, despite warnings from Father Gabriel and Eugene himself that it will go wrong and someone else will have to pay the price. When Negan kills Spencer in front of her, Rosita snaps and fires at him. She misses, and it results in Olivia's death and Eugene's kidnapping.
  • Richard of the Kingdom. His obsessive desire to gain revenge against the Saviors for all their cruelty has caused him to accidentally get Benjamin killed and led to Morgan becoming a crazy survivalist again.
  • Even though using Dwight was a good strategy against the Saviors, Tara still wouldn't forgive him for killing her girlfriend. Because of that, she starts chasing him around the woods to kill him, resulting in Dwight getting found by his Savior allies and getting taken away, ruining the plan.
  • Maggie would never forgive Negan for killing Glenn. She wants him to die so much, she would go against Rick and Carl's wishes to let him live, creating peace for everyone.

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