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Revenge Before Reason / Video Games

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Those who put Revenge Before Reason in Video Games.


  • The ending of episode one of BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea reveals that Elizabeth has taken the goal she and Booker set out to do at the end of BioShock Infinite, to influence space-time events to prevent as many Comstocks from existing as possible, to a bloodthirsty and nonsensical extreme. The Booker you've been playing as throughout the episode is actually a Comstock who accidentally killed his timeline's baby Elizabeth when that Booker tried to take her back and was so consumed with guilt that he asked the Luteces to bring him to a new timeline, where he could forget about ever having been Comstock and just quietly live out the rest of his days. He adopted Sally after years of living in Rapture and was a good father to her; he did everything in his power to rescue her when she was abducted to become a Little Sister, which is why he jumped at the chance to find her when Elizabeth offered him information as to her whereabouts. This Comstock was atoning for his sins and hadn't posed a threat to an innocent person for a long time, and even sincerely apologizes to Elizabeth when he remembers his past, but the fact that he's a Comstock at all means she sentences him to a horrific death. This comes back to bite her, however, once she's consumed by guilt for using Sally as a pawn and then leaving her for dead. When she first comes back to Rapture to save Sally, she has a conversation with her auditory hallucination of Booker, and he subtly calls her out for her aforementioned killing. Keep in mind that her hallucination openly identifies himself as a manifestation of her subconscious, so she's just talking to herself, meaning that she knows what she did was wrong.
  • Kokonoe in BlazBlue is defined with, aside from her scientifical genius, her seething hatred against the Big Bad Yuuki Terumi, who killed her mother. She has pretty much focused so much to kill Terumi that she doesn't give a crap if she dabbles into dangerous science, planned a nuclear strike in case her plans go south, mindwipes one particularly innocent 'weapon' just for her purposes, ignores her two students so much one of them ends up corrupted into a monster and the other one ended up joining her enemy to restore him, attempts to order the death of anyone who comes near close to uncovering some of her secrets, uses the clone of her aunt to power up a massive cannon at cost of the latter's life and doesn't care if said clone is developing her own identity... In her own words, becoming a devil is fair play if it means a dead Terumi... by her hands. She doesn't want to share her frag!
  • Kabbu from Bug Fables is normally the very soul of caution, but when he runs into the Beast of the Wild Swamplands, he ignores his teammates' warnings to flee and recklessly attacks it in order to avenge the friends it killed in the past. As a result, they come dangerously close to dying and Kabbu realizes to his horror that his careless thirst for revenge nearly led to history repeating itself.
  • Celestial Hearts: Lissandra is determined to avenge her brother Hermes at any cost and is power-hungry as a result. She nearly gets the entire party killed when she recklessly tries to steal the Eye of Destruction. She claims that the Eye was set to explode no matter what, but she's still ruthless in her quest to kill Lilith, to the point where she attacks the party in order to Malady's Grimoire for herself.
  • In Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, the Player Character comes dangerously close to this when they discover that Adria, who had betrayed the heroes and used her daughter Leah as a vessel for Diablo's rebirth as the Prime Evil two acts before, has info on where Malthael is hiding, with Lorath Nahr having to remind them repeatedly to get the information before killing her, as the hero won't mention Adria without bringing up how badly she needs to die. Had Adria not been in the midst of talking about Malthael being in Pandemonium when the hero arrives, it's likely the hero would've gone for her anyway and doomed all of humanity just to get their badly-desired revenge.
  • Dragon Age:
    • Dragon Age: Origins:
      • If you choose to spare Loghain at the Landsmeet, Alistair will permanently leave the party. However, it's possible to get him to stay as King of Ferelden and save Loghain's life if you take proper precautions. If so, by Dragon Age II he's calmed a bit about this, though he's still quite bitter towards Loghain.
      • This goes the other way as well. If you are set on killing Loghain, the otherwise virtuous and good Alistar will stick with you to the end, even if you're playing the Warden as a cruel ruthless backstabbing evil jackass whose constant murdering and betrayals have long since caused the rest of the party to leave.
      • The Human Noble can demonstrate this towards Arl Howe. Despite remaining calm and rational throughout the rest of the game, various dialogue hints that just under the surface is a seething mass of rage, eager to get revenge on the man who murdered their entire family;
        Human Noble Warden: I want Howe dead NOW!
    • Dragon Age II:
      • Vengeance — the former spirit of Justice twisted by Ander's rage directed at the Templars — embodies this. Over the course of the game, Anders/Vengeance cares less about true justice and more about making the Templars pay for oppressing mages, regardless of who gets hurt.
      • Ironically, in the endgame, if you refuse to kill Anders, Sebastian will swear to raise an army and burn Kirkwall to the ground in revenge for the destruction of the Chantry, rather than reserving his revenge for Anders and Hawke which is more reasonable, despite having just condemned Anders for killing innocent people.
    • Dragon Age: Inquisition: The entire Elf race displays this mentality at various levels toward humans for the atrocities committed by the Tevinter Imperium and their pitiful state. This is despite the fact that A, it happened thousands of years ago; B, the human prophet Andraste lead the effort to topple the empire and C, as revealed in Inquisition, the Elves essentially brought themselves down and the Imperium merely picked on the bones of the Elven empire. This mentality ranges from mild, resenting humans for the history and system that they had no control over (Keeper Lanaya, Shianni, the Elf Warden) to completely blind to reason ( Keeper Zathrian, Velanna).
  • This is the Big Bad's entire motivation in Dungeon Maker II: The Hidden War. He knows that restarting the war between gods and demons will likely result in the destruction of the human race, if not the entire world but he doesn't care, just so long as he can pay the gods back for humiliating the demons 70,000 years ago.
  • Dyztopia: Post-Human RPG:
    • Barbados wants to avenge his brother Kael by killing Runi and even razing her village. Eliza points out that doing so could cause a war with the country Pon Pon Village is in.
    • If the player didn't increase Barbados's link level in the first activity point segment, Rogue/Kael will refuse to forgive Akira. In Chapter 3, he dies fighting the party on the train to Zeta and dies stating that revenge isn't worth it. Otherwise, this trope will be subverted and Kael will join the party.
  • In The Elder Scrolls, the Daedric Prince Malacath has revenge and bloody oaths as one of his spheres of interest, and there is nothing he loves more than vengeance pursued completely out of proportion to the slight that provoked it, especially when that revenge is going to cause massive collateral damage.
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim The Blades insist that Paarthurnax be killed and refuse to aid the player until the deed is done. This is despite the Blades being honor bound to serve the Dragonborn (you) and a previous Dragonborn already agreed to leave Paarthurnax alone. Secondly, if you fail in your quest the entire world will be destroyed. In fact, depending on when they confront you, you might have just watched the leader of the Blades chew out the generals in charge of the civil war for putting more focus on their petty conflict than on averting the apocalypse when five minutes later, they refuse to aid the only person in the world who can stop Alduin over a four-thousand-year-old grudge.
  • In Fallout: New Vegas the Great Khans are a tribe of Mongolian-themed raiders that have been an Arch-Enemy to the New California Republic since even before its founding. After the NCR massacred their Bitter Springs settlement, they were eager to join up with Caesar's Legion for revenge despite the fact that they're known for backstabbing and press-ganging every tribe who allied with them in the past. If the Player Character allows them to go through with it and also sides with the Legion, their sick and elderly are killed off while their women are forced to become the wives of Legion officers, and yet many of them still maintain that it was worth it.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Tellah from Final Fantasy IV seeks revenge on Golbez for ultimately being responsible for the death of his daughter, Anna. To do this, Tellah seeks the world's strongest black magic spell, Meteor. Several characters warn him not to go through with it, seeing his advanced age makes him too weak to use it. He also never gets enough MP to actually cast it. When Tellah finally confronts Golbez, he uses what's left of his life to cast Meteor, and dies as a result of the strain. It's not quite a Senseless Sacrifice, however, since the power of Meteor broke the hold Golbez had over Kain.
    • Princess Ashe from Final Fantasy XII spends most of the game plotting revenge against the Empire for conquering her kingdom, and killing her husband and her father before the events of the game. Her thirst for revenge leaves her blind to the fact that her "Resistance" is unlikely to accomplish anything, and that she is being manipulated by outside forces that are the real enemy the Empire is fighting. At one point, she acknowledges that "reason" says she should try to negotiate with the Empire instead of continuing her war, but it's a bit longer before she finally accepts that revenge won't solve anything.
    • In Final Fantasy XIII, Snow is blamed for Nora Estheim's death by her son Hope because Snow recruited her into his Ragtag Bunch of Misfits during the Purge. When Lightning realizes what Hope wants and tries to talk him out of it, he is already aware that he's playing into this trope—killing Snow won't bring Nora back and Snow is not the primary reason she died because the Sanctum was going to kill them all whether Snow led an uprising or not. But Hope is desperate for some goal he can fulfill to get closure for her death, and hunting down Snow is a hell of a lot more achievable than the powerful forces of the whole Sanctum government. (He does move past this attitude when Snow saves his life after Hope tries to stab him.)
    • One of the antagonists for Final Fantasy XIV is Nidhogg, the current leader of the Dravanian Horde. He is consumed with rage and has waged war with the nation of Ishgard for over a thousand years over the loss of his eye and his sister at the hands of Ishgard's founders. Even when both man and dragon come to the point where they're ready to atone and make peace, Nidhogg would sooner spill his own kin's blood than ever allow peace with his sworn enemies.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Raven is thrown in a jail cell with some Caelin soldiers and his best friend/servant, Lucius. He then betrays them to fight for the enemy in the hope that he could kill your main lord, Hector of Ostia. No matter how much evidence is presented that Hector is innocent of the crime, Raven blames him for and no matter how often his friend and sister tell him to give it up, he's quite willing to throw his life on the line to try and take a chunk out of him.
  • In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, after the timeskip on all routes except the Crimson Flower route, Dimitri will go to any lengths to get revenge on Edelgard, who he believes caused the deaths of his loved ones nine years prior, and neglects both his own personal safety and the kingdom he has a duty to lead in the process. On the Azure Moon route, it takes Fleche perpetuating the Cycle of Revenge and Rodrigue's ensuing Heroic Sacrifice to snap him out of it; on the Verdant Wind route, he attacks the Alliance despite them being on the same side before going Leeroy Jenkins and is unceremoniously Killed Offscreen.
  • In God of War III, Kratos is so completely blinded by his desire to kill Zeus and eventually all the gods, he refuses to listen to other people who tell them that, like, maybe killing the sun in pursuit of Zeus wouldn't be such for a good thing for the world at large. Nope, his complete vengeance shall not be denied! Eventually however he starts to see the consequences of his actions and chooses to sacrifice himself to give the power of hope to humanity in an attempt to salvage the world he obliterated.
    • By the time of God of War (PS4), Kratos has mellowed out and realized Vengeance Feels Empty. But the Big Bad is a different story; having been cursed with complete invulnerability with a side of Sense Loss Sadness, he is utterly obsessed with getting revenge on the person who did it to him (his mother Freya), to the point where the final boss battle isn't self-defense for Kratos like the other two, it's preventing him from murdering said person. Even after his curse is removed and Kratos spares him, he still tries to kill Freya, forcing Kratos to put him down. Freya then falls into this trope as she swears revenge for Kratos killing her son, despite the fact (which Atreus points out), it was to save her life (and Baldur had made it clear that he couldn't be reasoned with and would continue trying to kill Kratos and Atreus until he died). She gets over herself when the Norns give her the hard truth that the only reason the prophecy of Baldur's death came true was because she drove him insane with her curse when she was trying to protect him, so the only one she really has to blame is herself.
  • In Ghost of Tsushima, Jin has this opinion of Makoto when she attempts to kill a monk you just saved who apparently betrayed her family, believing that personal vendettas like this are highly counter-productive during a full-scale Mongolian invasion.
  • Defied by Karst in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. She prides herself on being aware of her situation and in control of her emotions when she needs to be, so even her Roaring Rampage of Revenge over the death of her beloved Cool Big Sis is second priority to the Elemental Lighthouses. At the same time, she never stopped to ask why Isaac killed her sister, which in hindsight was a mistake.
    Karst: (smiling, possibly grimly) I am filled with rage... but not so much as to be blinded by it.
  • Surprisingly inverted in Grand Theft Auto IV when Pegorino offers Niko a chance to work with Dimitri for a massive payday. Dimitri is clearly not trustworthy, and while pursuing revenge isn't quite a perfect ending (Niko's girlfriend Kate ends up dead at Roman's wedding), Niko still ends up noticeably better off than he does if he chooses to give in to his greed (Roman dies at his own wedding, bereaving his new wife and unborn child and leaving Niko with no real family left).
  • Assassin Asha in Iji. He also accuses Iji of the same, as she really wants to kill him for attacking and possibly killing Dan. The player is free to avert this by ignoring Asha's challenge, which leads to Asha's suicide.
  • Early on, a huge flaw of Ajna from Indivisible; she wants revenge on Ravannavar for destroying her village, she wants it now, and she will not let any consequences or advice slow her down. This leads to her releasing Kala, Goddess of Creation and Destruction, fulfilling Ravannavar's ambitions despite getting his head.
  • Knight Eternal: In the endgame, Stray wants to kill the queen of Zamaste in order to avenge Uno, and is willing to kill the party despite their pleas for a more peaceful solution and Dylan, Uno's son, being a member of that party.
  • The Dark Side path in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords has The Exile hunting down and killing the Jedi Masters in revenge, ignoring the fact that their help is needed to stop their mutual foe the Sith. Kreia calls them out on this towards the end.
  • The Hunters in Pittsburgh in The Last of Us pursue Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam through the Suburbs and even bring their humvee because they're pissed that Joel and his companions basically were forced to slaughter their way through past them to get to the suburbs (and the Hunters were shooting people on sight, so Violence is the Only Option). The Hunters, rather than cutting their losses and not attempting to fight the One-Man Army who slaughtered over a hundred of them, attempt to get revenge instead. This ends poorly for them. This is something of a trend when it comes to bad guys that Joel and Ellie encounter, really.
    • The Last of Us Part II: Virtually a theme in this game. Abby's need to and ultimately success, in killing Joel for the death of her father (the surgeon who was going to operate on Ellie) ends up alienating a few of her friends because she did so right in front of Ellie alongside other personal drama. On the flip side, Ellie loses virtually all sense of reason after this act and pretty much makes it her main quest to make Abby and her friends pay for what she's done. In the end, neither really come out better for it; Abby's friends all die thanks to Ellie, and Ellie, when she does have Abby at her mercy, can't go through with it and lets her go but loses her family she built up via abandonment for her trouble. The only silver lining is that they're alive and hopefully can rebuild their lives and learn from all of this.
  • The Yiga Clan's origins are this in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. They were once Sheikah but a past Hyrule king exiled them when he became afraid their technology could usurp the throne. While some swore off the technology and lived normal lives, many became resentful towards the kingdom that shunned them and became the Yiga, pledging their allegiance to Ganon instead. Their thirst for revenge against anyone who opposed them and Ganon, especially other Sheikah members, Hyrule soldiers and the Royal family, is so powerful that they would rather see Hyrule destroyed even if they go with it.
  • Mass Effect 2:
    • Zaeed wants the head of Vido Santiago on a pike in the worst way. The two started the Blue Suns merc group together. Vido wanted to hire Batarians because they were cheaper, but Zaeed considered them a little too hardcore. Vido circumvents Zaeed by betraying him and shooting him in the face. Zaeed attempts to get his revenge later with the help of Commander Shepard but ends up endangering the lives of innocent refinery workers in the process. A Paragon player can go so far as to deck Zaeed across the face in a What the Hell, Hero? diatribe, and deprive Zaeed of his revenge attempt and save the plant workers instead; depending on how the mission shakes out, you can leave him to die in the refinery or force him to get his shit together long enough to prioritize the mission. Renegade players can go along with Zaeed's Revenge Before Reason spree.
    • This political stance in the Quarian fleet regarding the Geth is personified by Admiral Han'Gerrel. If you screw up Priority: Rannoch or have a bad save, and choose to allow Legion to complete the upload, Han'Gerrel will doom the fleet in a mad attack on the geth, leading to the virtual destruction of the quarian people and the death of Tali.
  • Tech Kraken, pupil of the late Hero Antagonist Phantom in the Mega Man Zero series. Knowing that Zero retired Phantom before the end of the first game, Kraken decided to join Dr. Weil's army to get revenge on Zero. He openly stated that he doesn't care about the repercussions of working under Weil because he just wants to avenge his mentor. Fortunately, Kraken loses all of his desire for revenge after his final defeat in Zero's hands and gives Zero his blessing in defeating Dr. Weil once and for all.
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: After losing everything, including a few limbs, to XOF and Cipher a.k.a. the Patriots, Big Boss and Miller have sworn revenge on both groups, and are perfectly willing and able to cross any line to reach that end.
    Miller: "We pull in money, recruits, just to combat Cipher. Rubbing our noses in bloody battlefield dirt... all for revenge."
  • Scorpion from Mortal Kombat is a frequent victim of this. This is shown most prominently in Mortal Kombat 9 when Scorpion, offered a chance by Raiden to have the Shirai-Ryu clan restored in exchange for sparing Sub-Zero, flies off the handle when Quan Chi shows him a vision of Sub-Zero being personally responsible for his wife and child's death. Then in Mortal Kombat X, once he is returned to life and learns the truth behind Quan Chi's complicity in the Shirai-Ryu's extermination, he makes a bee-line for Quan Chi to take his head, deaf to pleas to spare him so that he could bring the allies the sorcerer had under his control back to life.
  • The New Order: Last Days of Europe: Omsk's Siberian Black League is this written large. While many other warlords lead their people on various ideologies, Omsk only has one joining tenet: Vengeance on the Reich for what they did to Russia. Everything they do is ultimately oriented towards what they call the Great Trial, which is this inevitable war, and nothing shall get in the way. Allying with other warlord states? They refuse, they're in the way of the Great Trial. The Reich has not decayed nearly enough to take? Clearly they just need more true Russians to throw at it. Germany is a nuclear power and a thermonuclear apocalypse is the inevitable ending of such a vendetta? That's what the metro bunkers are for. And if they need to march out into the nuclear winter to stomp on the ashes of Berlin while they're still glowing to get their vengeance, they will. Ironically, if they do get to go through with their vengeance, one of the post-apocalypse events implies that their leader Dmitry Yazov feels horror over what he did, and spends the rest of his life rebuilding the world and instilling in his family line a sense of duty spurred on by the guilt of having caused The End of the World as We Know It.
  • NieR: Automata has this happen to 9S during the second half after he sees A2 kill 2B, unaware that she was succumbing to the Logic Virus and had asked A2 to Mercy Kill her. During the Tower, even after learning the Awful Truth that there is no moon base, mankind is well and utterly extinct, making every android's mission on earth All for Nothing. He also learns from A2 that 2B's real designation is 2E, as in "Executioner" class, and that she's always killed 9S cause he always discovered YoRHa's secret and hated it. By that point, the Logic Virus has taken over, this time with him unable to clear it since It Only Works Once. At that point, you decide who to control in the final battle between A2 and 9S. Either way it happens, he ends up dead.
  • At the climax of Night in the Woods, a member of the Big Bad's team ends up accidentally screwing over every other bad guy thanks to a misguided attempt at vengeance. The Cult of the Black Goat would have gotten away with everything if Eide didn't just have to have his revenge for getting shot in the shoulder by Gregg. Because Eide attacked Mae, not only did Eide get his arm lopped off by a falling elevator (most likely bleeding to death as a result), he trapped himself and the other cultists at the bottom of the mine shaft with no way out. And this was after explicit orders by the rest of the villain's allies to just let it go.
  • The climax of Peret em Heru: For the Prisoners kickstarts when Professor Tetsuya Tsuchida, blaming his assistant Dr. Koji Kuroe for getting his daughter killed, shoots him dead. While in the middle of a tomb that have so far attempted to kill everybody it found guilty of wrongdoing. Right in front of the pharaoh controlling said ruins. It is no surprise that Professor Tsuchida is quickly judged and executed by Khufu himself for murder.
  • In Persona 4, Yu Narukami is given the opportunity to kill Taro Namatame for being responsible for Nanako's death. Doing so leads to the very worst ending of the game. However, if the Player chooses not to give in to this and ponders the option that Namatame is not the true killer, not only does Nanako get better, but her father (after getting some time to cool off) will piece together the evidence himself and doubts Namatame's (who turns out to be a well-intentioned Unwitting Pawn given false leads by the actual killer) actual guilt.
  • [PROTOTYPE]:
    • Alex Mercer kills countless people to get revenge on the people who turned him into what he is, overturning their operations whenever he finds an opportunity. As a direct consequence, Manhattan becomes a war-zone. This is, of course, one of the few things remaining from the original Mercer, whose corpse was reanimated after he died trying to take the rest of the world down with him.
    • [PROTOTYPE 2]: Heller's motive is to get revenge on Alex for 1) wreaking so much havoc on New York (indirectly killing Heller's family, who were caught in the crossfire of the first game) and 2) turning Heller into a creature like Alex, making him immortal when all he wanted was to die.
  • In Quest for Glory III, Rakeesh tries to convince the king not to declare war because of the disappearance of his (Rakeesh's) daughter, knowing that there are demons involved and starting a war is what the demons want:
    "Revenge for the sake of revenge is pointless. Mindless revenge is pure stupidity."
  • One of the major conflicts in Ratchet & Clank (2002) involves the titular duo looking for Captain Qwark, but he backstabs them in Umbris and leaves them to be eaten by a Blargian Snagglebeast. Ratchet is pissed over Qwark's betrayal and swears to kill him, despite Clank's insist on finding another superhero to stop Drek, which leads to Ratchet abusing Clank non-stop, and becoming a Villain Protagonist. When Ratchet finally shoots Qwark's ship down, he has a Heel Realization when realizes that his rage lead to a city being destroyed, leading him to make amends with Clank, spare Qwark when he's relocated, and become The Atoner.
  • Red Dead Redemption II:
    • After Sadie is hardened enough to voluntarily ride out with the gang, her hatred for the O'Driscolls often gets the better of her and she ends up bringing trouble upon herself and those around her. It should be noted she can be reasonable and even level-headed enough to help direct people, but it all goes out the window when an O'Driscoll is near.
    • In the Epilogue, Abigail views John's insistence on tracking down Micah Bell and killing him as revenge for betraying the gang and causing the death of Arthur Morgan as this. At this point, John has successfully escaped from his outlaw past and built a happy and safe life for his family at Beecher's Hope, and going after Micah will just be placing himself and people he cares about in danger again. Unfortunately, she's right. Though John successfully finds and helps kill Micah, this decision leads to Edgar Ross finding him, setting in motion the events of the first game and culminating in John's eventual death. To make matters worse, the game contains some subtle hints that Dutch was planning on killing Micah regardless of what John did, creating the possibility it was ultimately all for nothing.
  • In Resident Evil 6, Chris's partner Piers accuses the former of this trope. During his relentless pursuit of Ada Wong for killing his squad and turning them into B.O.W.s., Chris has let his desire for revenge blind him, which in turn may have indirectly contributed to those deaths.
  • Saints Row:
    • Saints Row 2:
      • The Boss drives the Brotherhood boss Maero into this throughout a Cycle of Revenge story arc. The Boss makes precise and sometimes lucrative strikes against Maero, who lashes out with any heavy vehicles and weapons at his disposal, going so far as to assault and threaten city officials to do it. Eventually the Boss loses reason enough to charge into a trap set by Maero.
      • Near the end of the game when the Boss is given the opportunity to confront Julius, he/she does it with no hesitation. Even when Julius points out why he tried to kill him/her at the end of the first game to prevent more bloodshed, the Boss just laughs in his face before gunning him down.
    • Saints Row: The Third: If you decide to go after Killbane in the final mission, it ultimately results in the death of two long-standing Saints members.
  • In Shadowverse: When Isabelle found out that the dragon that killed Kyle was none other than Rowen, she tried to kill him to avenge Kyle. In the English dub she succumbed to vengeful fury, while in the original Japanese version she was much more conflicted and breaking down in tears, but said she had no choice other than to kill him.
  • In Soulcalibur 3, Setsuka vows to take revenge upon the man (i.e. Mitsurugi) that defeated her father in a duel, which accidentally gave him an infection that killed him. Despite the fact that his dying words were that the swordsman was a good, honorable man and that she should not hold a grudge against him.
  • In Starcraft II Heart Of The Swarm, the restored-to-human Kerrigan willingly returns to the Zerg for the sake of revenge on Mengsk for supposedly killing Jim Raynor. This reignites a devastating galactic war, destroys any chance for peace and stability and results in countless deaths. She is thoroughly chewed out for this by various characters, and ultimately she proves she is no longer the original Queen of Blades by making her own job much harder in her attempts to prevent civilian casualties and ensure that the galaxy survives her war and has the possibility of a brighter future.
  • The Dark Side ending of the first Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game is the result of this. If Starkiller chooses to finish off Darth Vader instead of saving Master Kota from Sidious, Kota dies while Starkiller is captured by Sidious and forced to become Vader's replacement. He then takes on Luke Skywalker as his Sith apprentice after killing Obi-Wan Kenobi, perpetuating the cycle of violence that's followed him since he was a child.
  • Full-on embraced by Velvet in Tales of Berseria. When she reaches the mainland after three years at the start of the game and discovers Artorius is a beloved figurehead leading the world into a golden age and killing him makes her one woman against the world, she doesn't care one bit. She'll kill him for what he did to her, and she'll destroy herself and anything else between them in the process. Even when taking down Artorius and the Abbey turns out to be the right thing to do, any heroics perpetrated remain completely incidental to Velvet's Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • Chloe in Tales of Legendia. During the main game, her primary motivation is justice. However, justice soon turns to revenge when confronted with the person who killed her parents. Later in the game during the Character Quests, Chloe's want for revenge upon learning the identity of the killer gets to the point where she stabs Senel and leaves him for dead. Then, Chloe tries to kill the swordsman in front of his daughter who she has gotten close to. Luckily, Chloe grabs a hold of her senses when she almost grabs hold of the Villain Ball with both hands after everyone convinces her that Vengeance Feels Empty.
  • Asch in Tales of the Abyss. It's actually a lot more complicated than plain revenge, but there's certainly an element of vengeance when he faces Luke, the replica who unwittingly stole Asch's life and condemned him to an early death by fonon separation, in a Duel Boss encounter near the end. He even admits this:
    Asch: Shut up! This isn't about logic!
  • Strongly implied with Shredder himself in the climax of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. When you eventually get to Shredder's boss fight, his boss subtitle is "Ready For Revenge!" Later on, after the turtles and their allies destroy the Statue of Tyranny and cause Krang to retreat, his immediate course of action is throw mutagen on himself and turn into Super Shredder. Even his defeat has him protest about getting his revenge.
  • Touhou Project gives us Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou, two immortal girls who are perpetually trying to kill each other despite knowing that they can't die. The reason behind their feud is pretty pathetic too; it's all because Kaguya humiliated Mokou's father centuries ago. That said, it's been heavily implied even that justification is nothing but an excuse on Mokou's part, if only to have the barest scrap of an actual relationship of any kind.
  • This causes Grimlock's downfall in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron; when he finally gets his chance at revenge on Shockwave, he loses control and thoughtlessly smashes apart the space bridge control center in the process of attacking. This causes him to be unable to escape the space bridge when it collapses.
  • The First Child in Undertale hated humanity for reasons unknown. After falling into Mt. Ebott and being taken in by a kinder monster family, they manipulate Asriel, their surrogate brother, into their plans to murder the humans from their village. They poison themselves in a Thanatos Gambit in spite of having a better life just to have revenge on humans.
  • Telltale Games' The Walking Dead: Season Two: Michonne:
    • Norma's brother, Randal, relentlessly stalks Michonne to gain revenge despite not telling his sister about his whereabouts and leaving his own safe zone while it's on fire and in need of assistance. In What We Deserve, he may charge at Michonne in the middle of a gunfight with walkers.
    • Gabby, another one of Norma's group. She's the one who ultimately triggers the final battle between Norma and Michonne's group due to her desire for revenge.
  • Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne: Sylvanas Windrunner would've gotten her revenge on Arthas, prevented his ascension to Lich-Kingdom, and saved everybody heaps of troubles if only she had had the sense to kill him outright rather than seek to prolong his torment, allowing him to escape and fulfill his goals.
    • Also, Maiev Shadowsong. As Furion says: "She has become vengeance itself, bound forever to the hunt."
  • The entire story of Watch_Dogs has this theme. Aidan Pierce obsessively seeks revenge for the death of his niece, which happened because of his illegal actions as a hacker. His sister begs him to let it go and move on but he doesn't listen and soon gets in over his head.
  • In Wing Commander III, when Hobbes kills Cobra, Colonel Blair has the option of going after him or listening to reason. If he chooses revenge, he chases Hobbes and duels him, while Hobbes comments that he knew their fight was destined to happen. Consequently, Vaquero is killed in an ambush while the Victory is undefended by the Colonel. If he chooses to not chase him, the ambush doesn't happen and he gets to fight him in the final mission alongside Prince Thrakhath, but Hobbes doesn't say anything then.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction, Bandit Keith is so obsessed with beating Pegasus he doesn't care about Reshef or the threat he poses.


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