Sandbox / Catharsis Factor Non Video Game Examples

Non-Video Game Examples of the Catharsis Factor.

---

Works/franchises with their own pages:

• Catharsis Factor Cobra Kai
• Catharsis Factor Code Prime
• Catharsis Factor My Hero Academia
• Catharsis Factor Saw
• Catharsis Factor Scarlet Lady
• Catharsis Factor Stranger Things

---

Individual examples:

Anime & Manga

• Akame ga Kill!: After all the shit he pulls throughout the series, Honest's humiliating, grotesque demise is immensely gratifying.
• Bleach:
  • Aizen has spent pretty much half of the story acting like an invincible, smug monster who always steamrolls his opposition, mocks and insults his enemies for the giggles, and even stoops as low as to trick Hitsugaya into stabbing his Childhood Friend Momo to near-death with his Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu. Watching Ichigo, having returned after training with Tensa Zangetsu and Isshin, utterly thrash Aizen, render him completely helpless despite his numerous transformations, and reduce the normally unflappable Big Bad into an angry, screaming manchild is the absolute crowning jewel of satisfying moments in the entire series. The anime makes this even better by having Ichigo cut off Aizen's theme music before proceeding to kick his ass, just as Aizen had done to him in the Soul Society arc.
  • Loly and Menoly getting gruesomely mauled by Grimmjow was a welcome sight, given that the two of them spent the last several chapters torturing Orihime for no good reason. The same goes for when they're pulverized by Yammy later on.
  • After As Nodt's horrific Mind Rape and brutal defeat of Byakuya with the latter's own Bankai, it is downright gratifying to see Byakuya return and curb-stomp As Nodt with his Shikai, who's then reduced to throwing a pathetic temper tantrum before he's finished off by Rukia.
  • Fans had to wait four-and-a-half years, but Yhwach's death at Ichigo's hands was well worth the wait, given how disgusting and horrific his and his armies' atrocities were. The pitiful, tearful Motive Rant he gives to Ichigo as he lays dying is the icing on the cake.
• CLANNAD: The finale of ~After Story~ itself, where Nagisa and Ushio are resurrected and are reunited with Tomoya. After witnessing the latter's brutal Trauma Conga Line, this is nothing short of rewarding and emotionally satisfying.
• Daimos: Chief General Miwa Sakimori spent pretty much the entire series being an obstructive, genocidal, hate-mongering Jerkass who cared nothing for civilian losses and actively wanted to exterminate all Brahmins, without even trying to understand their reasons for fighting. He also tried to undermine Kazuya and his friends every chance he got, despite being technically on the same side as them. Then, towards the end of the series, after his corrupt actions (and friends) were exposed by even the government and his own men, inspired and encouraged by the more compassionate Kazuya, ignored his orders to throw away their lives to save his own hide thus basically reducing Miwa to be only on his own, he tries to unlawfully execute several helpless Brahmins just to vent his hatred. At that point, Kazuya decides that enough is enough and satisfyingly WRECKS Miwa by beating him within an inch of his life. It's hard not to enjoy seeing the bastard get his ass so one-sidedly kicked right before the UN caught up to him and finally giving him a lawful yet deserving punishment: He's to be stripped from his ranks and imprisoned for life.
• At the end of Death Note, after watching Light Yagami spend the whole story running circles around everyone, pulling off impossible plans and being a massive Smug Snake, it's supremely satisfying to watch Near outsmart him, Matsuda shoot him several times, and Ryuk write his name in the Death Note. Light spends the few remaining seconds of his life pathetically begging for someone to save him, the same fate he forced on the world, before unceremoniously dying of a heart attack in a pool of his own blood.
• Delicious in Dungeon has Kabru's deaths thanks to his scrappy status. Watching the guy wipe out can be pretty satisfying. Only Mostly Dead is in effect so he gets resurrected and keeps it from being tragic.
• Several examples from Digimon:
  • Digimon Adventure: Myotismon stands out among the series' villains for his cruelty, total lack of care for his subordinates and his infuriating superiority over the heroes, toying with them for most of his arc and constantly defeating even their newest evolutions. He was horribly abusive to Salamon/Gatomon, inflicting all sorts of torture upon her, and was even responsible for the first irreversible death of the series, killing the very sympathetic Wizardmon in front of his friend Gatomon. This makes it extremely satisfying when Gatomon Digivolves into Angewomon and proceeds to avenge Wizardmon by skewering Myotismon with her Heaven's Charm. She even paralyzes Myotismon first so that the bastard knows how it feels to be powerless, just like Myotismon's own victims probably felt before him. Unfortunately, this does have the side effect of triggering Myotismon's One-Winged Angel form, but luckily, Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon proceed to put paid to that as well.
  • Digimon Data Squad: Pretty much every bad thing that happens in this series can be blamed on Akihiro Kurata, a cowardly, sadistic, morally bankrupt, and utterly despicible wretch of a man who caused the permanent deaths of countless Digimon, plotting to commit genocide on them and Take Over the World. Among his many atrocities are the deaths of Frigimon and Mercurimon, the parental figures to Ikuto; the extermination of the Digimon living on Eldoradimon (along with Eldoradimon himself), his inhuman experiments to create Digimon-human hybrids and blackmailing Tohma into working for him by threatening to murder his ill little sister, before merging with Belphemon and attempting to destroy everyone who opposed him. All of this combined with a smugness, cruelty and lack of respect for human life that surpassed even the aforementioned Myotismon. Finally, Masaru and Agumon achieve their Super Mode and dismantle Kurata's One-Winged Angel form in a Curb-Stomp Battle, and when the bastard tries one last-ditch attempt to destroy the Digital World, it backfires on him and results in him being disintegrated as he's pathetically begging for his life. Due to being the most evil human villain in the entire Digimon franchise, his downfall is extremely enjoyable.
• Dragon Ball:
  • After all the atrocities Tambourine committed, including his murder of Goku's best friend Krillin, it's immensely satisfying to see Goku giving him a beatdown so nasty, he attempts to fly away, only to be vaporized.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • After Nappa trounces the heroes and kills Yamcha, Chaotzu, Tien and Piccolo, it is greatly satisfying to see Goku beat the brute into the ground.
    • Goku transforming into a Super Saiyan for the first time. His subsequent battle with Frieza has him reduce the arrogant, sadistic tyrant to a terrified and humiliated wreck who begs for mercy. When Frieza tries to kill Goku anyway, Goku finishes him off. Him getting chopped to pieces and incinerated by Future Trunks is another memorably cathartic moment and is arguably the main reason for Future Trunks's popularity.
    • Gohan unlocking Super Saiyan 2 and turning the tables on Perfect Cell, causing him to suffer a Villainous Breakdown. Cell had not only drained and killed entire cities' worth of people, he had also absorbed 17 and 18, and killed 16 just to piss off Gohan, so seeing him lose to a child he was tormenting and belittling was very satisfying.
    • Future Trunks's revenge on the Androids of his own timeline. Not only does he No-Sell their attacks with contemptuous ease but he gives them a "Reason You Suck" Speech for the sadism, murder and wanton destruction they have engaged in for years, including killing his timeline's Gohan. Seeing the sadistic and smug Androids actually react with shock and fear is absolutely enjoyable.
    • Future Trunks killing the Cell of his timeline also qualifies as well.
  • The movies:
    • Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F': Vegeta going Super Saiyan Blue and delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Frieza is wonderful to watch for those who remember how Frieza tortured and killed Vegeta on Namek.
    • Dragon Ball Super: Broly: Halfway through the fight with Broly, Goku and Vegeta try to escape in order to find an opportunity to do the Fusion Dance. They manage this by luring Broly to Frieza so the berserk Saiyan switches his attention to the murderous space tyrant who had just murdered Broly's father. Cue Broly beating the shit out of Frieza for a solid hour while Goku and Vegeta fail the Fusion dance twice before they get it right. What makes it interesting is not so much seeing Frieza getting an otherwise deserved beatdown (although that's a factor too), but rather that the audience has a moment where they can openly root for Broly without any mixed feelings.
• Watching Izaya Orihara of Durarara!! get the everloving shit beat out of him at the end of Ketsu.
• Elfen Lied:
  • While it leads to her Start of Darkness, witnessing Lucy gruesomely massacre her evil classmates for beating her dog to death is immensely satisfying.
  • After Bando's vicious Breaking Speech towards Nana in Episode 7, seeing her kick his ass with the same look that Lucy normally has is pretty therapeutic.
• Fairy Tail:
  • In the Grand Magic Games Arc, watching Natsu kick the ever loving shit out of Sting and Rouge is one hell of a joy, as while the latter hadn't been too offensive, he was silently supporting Sting's BS through out the Arc. Another moment in the same Arc would be Sting's realization of the reason Fairy Tail is at the top of the charts with a one-point lead: he let Natsu and Gajeel beat him in the train race a few days earlier, reasoning that since they were fighting over one or two points they'd get while competing for the third-to-last and second-to-last places.
  • Erza curb-stomping Minerva is rather satisfying to watch after Minerva took Happy hostage, performed a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Lucy, took Milliana hostage and tortured her, and stabbed Kagura In the Back when the latter was about to surrender just so Minerva could prevent Erza from getting the points from defeating Kagura.
• Fist of the North Star: A series dedicated to see how much low humanity can sink in form of cruel martial artists turned warlords and their mohawked thugs that prey on the innocent because they are strong and the strong bully the weak... Cue Kenshiro's arrival and then he will brutally give these bastards what they deserve with massive pain. One reason why the series attains popularity is how to see Good always curb-stomps Evil like play-doh most of the time when it comes to the hapless Mooks and Smug Villains of the week. Strong Evil exist, but while Kenshiro may struggle at first, his perseverance will pay off and still defeat the strong evil. Perhaps animenewsnetwork put it best:
  "In a typical Fist scenario, we get to watch the bad guys lie, cheat, break promises, kill innocents, and kill their own henchmen. They're not just evil, they're pathetic (and usually hideously ugly), and you can't wait for Kenshiro to get angry, flex his mucles (thus blasting his own shirt off) and wipe them out".
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't consider Scar ruthlessly executing the vile Shou Tucker anything less than incredibly satisfying.
  • For many, the scenes where Lust and Envy are burned to death (or near death in Envy’s case) by Roy’s flame alchemy are extremely satisfying, due to them being noticeably more sadistic than their siblings, as well as their roles in Maes Hughes's death.
  • After everything he's done, including wiping out the population of Xerxes, kickstarting the mass genocide of the Ishvalans, and attempting to collect all the souls of Amestris, seeing Edward Elric give Father a well-deserved No-Holds-Barred Beatdown is beyond satisfying. Seeing the normally calm and sophisticated homunculus having a major Villainous Breakdown only adds to the catharsis.
    • Furthermore, Father being depowered back into Homunculus and begging for his life as he's sentenced to the Gate forever by Truth, who manages to throw his own words right back at him, is even more satisfying.
• In Gate, after seeing Zorzal's treatment of his Sex Slaves, it's very satisfying to see him get the shit kicked out of him as one of the slaves is rescued.
  • Hell, the scenes of the JSDF blasting the shit out of fantasy armies (with Cold War era weapons no less) in a genre that generally has fantasy as superior can count too,
• The goblins of Goblin Slayer are singularly horrendous in what they do to both adventurers and villagers they get their grubby little hands on, and what they do to women is especially vile. This is why it is immensely satisfying when the title character shows up and kills them all in brutal fashion.
• Hellsing:
  • After Zorin Blitz invaded the Hellsing Organization, cruelly killed the Wild Geese mercenaries, and traumatized Seras by showing the girl's traumatic past, it was beyond satisfying when Seras become a full-fledged vampire and started to kick Zorin's shit in.
  • Maxwell also gets an incredibly satisfying end after his flying leap over the Moral Event Horizon in ordering the deaths of everyone in London; he's betrayed in true Iscariot fashion by Alexander Anderson, his own Dragon, just before getting the full Vlad the Impaler treatment from Alucard's familiars.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
  • Any time Dio gets curb-stomped is a joy to watch. Particularly when he forced a kiss on Erina in Part 1, and Jonathan beats his smug ass until he's in TEARS.
  • Steely Dan spends his entire mini-arc in Part 3 tormenting and humiliating Jotaro while he's unable to touch him without hurting Joseph due to The Lovers inhabiting his body. When the others finally oust The Lovers from Joesph's body and both Jotaro and Dan find out, Dan's bravado immediately crumbles and he has a prolonged Freak Out begging for mercy before Jotaro gives him an immensely satisfying and richly-deserved dose of ORA ORA that lasts three pages (thirty whole seconds in the anime).
  • Done again in Part 5 in a Call-Back of sorts to Cioccolata, the Psycho for Hire for Passione. Being Diavolo's most twisted henchman and a former doctor who tortured his patients to death in gratuitous fashion, it is absolutely satisfying to watch Giorno beat him to death for seven entire pages, making it over twice as long as the iconic Steely Dan beatdown. Then, after the final punch, Cioccolata is sent flying towards the garbage disposal truck where he belongs. The anime does the scene justice by making the beatdown forty seconds.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Seeing Quattro scream with a look of pure terror as a massive Wave-Motion Gun comes barreling towards her in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is incredibly satisfying given how much pain she caused Vivio and (by extension) Nanoha.
  • While it's depicted as being absolutely horrifying, Rinne delivering a brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to her three tormentors in episode 4 of ViVid Strike! can come off this way, especially for people who have been bullied in the past.
• In MegaMan NT Warrior Stream, Bass killing the previously unstoppable Slur by impaling her and crushing her head.
• In Michiko & Hatchin, after having to sit through the first half of the first episode watching Hatchin getting abused by her foster family, she finally snaps and beats the shit out of her bitch of a foster sister.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00: After all the horrible things he had gleefully done during the series, seeing Ali Al-Saachez finally get killed in the next to last episode in a failed attempt to backstab Lyle is nothing short of rewarding.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans has several examples:
  • Tekkadan crushing Jasley during Episode 42 was immensely satisfying after his betrayals resulted in the Mobile Armor incident as well as the deaths of Naze, Amida, and Lafter. Seeing Jasely beg for his life when he knows everything he has done backfired on him spectacularly was highly satisfying.
  • Iok getting crushed by Akihiro's pincers is regarded as the best thing in the controversial finale. After doing a lot of stupid things in the past, narrowly escaping death and being responsible for deaths of Naze and Amida and indirectly Lafter, it's satisfying to see Iok getting for what he deserved and Akihiro finally avenging the Turbines. And for what it's worth, Iok's death led to the reformation of Gjallarhorn and the establishment of the Mars' independent government. Even Akihiro lampshades how satisfying and unexpected it was for him to be able to crush Iok with his own hands.
  • Ride assassinating Nobliss in retaliation for organizing Orga's assassination along with Ride's group wiping out Nobliss' men has also been highly regarded in the finale. After everything Nobliss had done throughout the series, it is satisfying to see his Karma Houdini Warranty expire while he is on the toilet of all places. Fans considered it a fitting end for a monster like him to die without any dignity.
• In the manhwa The Monstrous Duke's Adopted Daughter, the Speràdo family, with the exception of the protagonist Leslie and her uncle Taryn, are a bunch of selfish, cruel, abusive and entitled nobles who treat everyone like garbage and only care about their individual well-being. Their mistreatment of their youngest child Leslie is especially despicable, as they not only abuse her physically and emotionally, but they also plan to sacrifice her in a vile ritual so that Leslie's immense magical power will be transferred to her elder sister Ellie. And as it turns out, Leslie is not the first child in the Speràdo bloodline to meet such a fate. It is greatly satisfying to see their plans slowly but surely collapse as Leslie, her adoptive family and their allies repeatedly trip them up and publically reveal the Speràdo family's true colors, which causes Marquis Speràdo, his wife and Ellie to completely lose their cool, their status, their wealth and the respect of their peers. Finally, in chapter 126, after suffering through an epic Humiliation Conga, Marquis Speràdo dies in his burning house, held down and Dragged To Hell by the spirits of the silver-haired children who were sacrificed. The guy was a total bastard and did not hesitate to throw even his closest allies under the bus to save himself, so there is no chance a reader will feel anything but glee as Marquis Speràdo dies begging for his miserable life.
• Naruto undoubtedly has many — one in particular (which was sadly temporary) was seeing Sasuke get the hell beaten out of him by the Kages at the Summit, considering how he had been treating both his current and former teammates, all people who cared for him.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • For those who dislike Asuka, Shinji strangling her to near death in The End of Evangelion qualifies.
  • Misato killing several SEELE officials and sadistically taunting the last one before killing him can be very satisfying given that they killed many NERV doctors, some of whom were completely defenseless, and were about to kill Shinji, a 14-year-old boy.
• One Piece:
  • There is a surprisingly big factor going on in this series, but two characters stand out: Luffy and Robin. Both of whom mutilate their opponents. Special mention goes to Robin, who uses her Devil Fruit powers to break the spines of her enemies. Of course, all of her opponents were assholes, so they really deserved it.
  • Meta and in-universe example with the World Nobles, a group of rich snobs who seem to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Nearly every appearance has them do something that makes the cast and fans hate them more, and nothing gives both more joy than seeing them get retribution.
  • The legendary Enel Reaction face◊. Enel, the Big Bad of the Skypeia Arc, spends majority of it in A God Am I mode because he could No-Sell whatever attack was sent his way. This expression finally came about when Enel realized that not only could Luffy hurt him, but he was also immune to his electricity attacks.
  • Whitebeard's vicious beatdown of Akainu after he had just murdered Ace. Admit it, you were cheering.
  • Luffy activating Gear Fourth and beating the shit out of Donquixote Doflamingo is utterly gratifying, given what a petty, repulsive monster the man had continually shown himself to be.
  • After almost 100 chapters and over 2 real-life years of shrugging off everything thrown at him and being an arrogant, murderous bastard in general, Luffy smashing Kaido's face into the ground and managing to draw his blood in the manga's 1,000th chapter is beyond fucking satisfying. No surprise, then, that when the anime arrived at the same point in Episode 1015, it managed to go a step above and play out the scene to an instrumental rendition of "We Are", amplifying the utter joy of seeing the Beast King getting clobbered into the ground.
• Ainz vs. Clementine in Overlord (2012). The latter had just killed a perfectly likable party of Mauve Shirt adventurers and raised their corpses as zombies, and then for an encore kidnapped another character who'd stuck around long enough to endear himself to the audience, helped brainwash him with a magic artifact and cut out his eyes for seemingly no reason than her own sick amusement. After that, having Ainz No-Sell everything she has to throw at him before catching her in a bear hug and slowly crushing her to death as she suffers the mother of all Villainous Breakdowns is equal parts cathartic and nightmarish due to the sheer brutality of it.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • After a long and intense rivalry where Paul was on top, seeing Ash and Infernape defeat him after a grueling battle in the Sinnoh League is among the most satisfying victories Ash has ever achieved.
  • In the the Sun and Moon series, Ash wins the Alola Pokemon League and becomes a Champion, something fans had been waiting for after more than two decades' worth of failures.
    • And then the next series made sure this was remembered. To repeat what a stadium filled of people, if not an entire nation were saying to Ash: Champion! Champion! Champion!
  • Remember how Ash was screwed whenever he battled someone who was ranked as a member of the Elite Four or higher? Not anymore; Pokemon Journeys sees him defeat several high-level trainers in battle, such as Iris^note who became the Unova region's Champion during the Time Skip, Drasna, Raihan, Wallace, and Steven, showing how ridiculously strong and skilled he's become. Seeing Ash rack up all these impressive victories after years of not even being able to touch opponents of such caliber is simply gratifying. And then defeats Cynthia and Leon, the two top most trainers in the world, the former being set up fifteen years ago and the latter having Ash be declared the best trainer in the world.
  • If you’re still angry at Alain for causing Ash to lose the Kalos League simply because he wanted to fight him again, you’ll probably feel very happy to see Leon mop the floor with him, especially seeing his Charizard two-shot his Mega Charizard X without even having to Dynamax. Ash then going to defeat not just Steven, one of the only trainers who Alain couldnt' defeat, but Leon as well.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Kyubey getting their comeuppance for putting Homura and the other magical girls through hell by Homura using them to contain the impurities of magical girls is extremely satisfying to watch.
  • For people who hated Hitomi for contributing towards Sayaka's Sanity Slippage, Sayaka's wraith in Puella Magi Madoka Magica Wraith Arc calling her out for being a horrible friend and demanding she give up on pursuing Kyousuke is very rewarding.
• Sailor Moon:
  • For all the cruel things Rubeus did, his Karmic Death courtesy of Green Esmeraude is nothing short of rewarding.
  • Whenever Chibi-Usa gets spanked by Usagi for her brattiness, it's wicked satisfying.
  • For fans of Eudial/people who generally hated Mimette, Tellu's "Sorry, too late" right before she pulls the plug on Eudial's machine, thus trapping Mimette inside it forever, counts as this.
• Dr. Katsuragi from the manga Sakura Gari starts out as a friendly, helpful doctor for the wealthy Saiki family, and one of Souma's lovers, but in chapter 6, he reveals himself to be a disgusting pedophile and Serial Killer. His crimes are basically these: Coercing Souma to slit his abusive mother's wrists as a means to have him for himself rather than save him from his suffering, shattering the mind of his younger sister Sakurako in the process and turning her into a borderline Creepy Child, rapes and tortures Souma for decades, is trying to poison Souma's father with arsenic and hemlock on Sakurako's orders, and when he finds out Souma likes Masataka, he goes way out of his way to torture the poor boy, from paralyzing him with an aphrodisiac, raping him, sodomizing him by shoving a foreign object up his anus right after the rape, whipping him across his back multiple times, and throwing his hand into a boiling pot of tea. It's pretty satisfying to watch Masataka finally throw that pot at him and burn his face with hot water and watching him writhe in agony. But that's not the end of it! When Souma finds out, he is pissed. Needless to say, as gruesome as his death is, seeing Souma poison him and goading the doctor's wife into setting the house on fire, with him inside is immensely satisfying and so fucking cathartic, because the guy really needed a good dose of well deserved karma.
• In Witch Hat Atelier, the unnamed perverted witch from Chapter 49 grew notoriety in the fanbase due to his actions as well as his connection to the chapter's overall wider social commentary. Even though his presence was brief, the fact that he was the personification of the entire Chivalrous Pervert trope quickly made him one of the most loathsome characters in the series, even more than the antagonists. Suffice to say, after his humiliating beatdown by the Knights Moralis and his imprisonment, come Chapter 63 and the fanbase collectively bemused themselves at his demise after he was turned into a human bomb by Engendill.
• Wolfsmund: Regardless of the opinion of the second half of the story without him, seeing Wolfram finally perish after all the hell he's put his victims through is satisfying to see.
• In Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Akira handing in his resignation by rugby tackling the chairman of his Soul-Crushing Desk Job is something everyone with an awful job wishes they could do. Then, after shaking off Kosugi's More than Mind Control with Shizuka's help, Akira severs ties with the black company once and for all, catching Kosugi's hand to stop him from tearing Akira's bucket list in half and then proving how miserable of a leader Kosugi is, leaving his old boss without anyone to torment or rely on.

Comic Books

• Every time The Punisher kills a criminal, it's extremely cathartic since they are more often than not utter scumbags.
• Secret Wars (2015) is set up by a plot by the omnipotent Beyonders to engineer the death of the entire multiverse, which results in the deaths of nearly every hero, villain, and in-between who readers have gotten to know and love. Doctor Doom outsmarts and kills them, and even if he took their powers to become a tyrannical god, it is still immensely satisfying.
• The Ultimates:
  • After all the destruction that Banner unleashes in New York by turning himself into Hulk, it's a relief to see that Captain America, who seemed to be about to have him be Easily Forgiven, was just getting close to give him a well deserved kick in the face.
  • Also, after all he did to poor Jan, it was another relief to see Captain America beat the crap out of Pym (even regardless of his giant size).
• Venerdì 12 is the story of Aldo, turned into a monster by a curse for gifting a magic carillon to his girlfriend Bedelia, who didn't love him (and in fact had got with him because she had bet she would have sex with everyone in the school and he was the last of the list) and living with Giuda, a servant that (more or less accidentally) torments him all the time, often making him suffer over his heartbreak. As a consequence there's a few moments like this:
  • Every time Aldo gives Giuda a much deserved beating.
  • When Bedelia returned to Aldo... And he punched her out. It was a dream, but no less satisfying.
  • In the finale, Aldo, faced with Bedelia's memory brought to life by the curse, takes the chance to dump her. It also has the side effect of breaking the curse, but he had no idea at the time...
• Considering what Persephone routinely goes through in every recurrence in The Wicked + The Divine, seeing a few Persephones kill Ananke instead feels very cathartic.
• Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia - There are many who enjoy the story solely for seeing Batman getting curb stomped by Wonder Woman, twice. This is largely due to the story completely averting the infamous "Batgod" portrayal of Batman and Batman having been known as an insufferable, abusive, holier-than-thou jerkass.

Fan Works

Crossovers

• The Friday the 13th fan webcomic Camp Counselor Jason sees this with its crossovers with The Last House on the Left and Carrie (1976), the former due to Jason's Accidental Murder of the convicts before they could (successfully) rape Mari and Phyllis, and the latter with Jason managing to comfort and calm Carrie down (thus preventing her murderous rampage at the prom) and Pamela going after Margaret for her treatment of Carrie.
• Dangan-Pinguino:
  • After watching Herman constantly torment the students of Hope's Peak Academy, and them being unable to fight back because of how sneaky he is, they finally launch a planned counterattack against him, finally turning the tables against him. To make it even better, Chiaki is the one who helps deal the final blow, delivering one epic Heaven Slaying Dragon Fist right to his face before he lands into a trash can.
  • On a meta level, those who felt that Nagito Komaeda was a Karma Houdini (particularly as they never showed any remorse for their actions are likely to enjoy the Adaptational Karma when they are beaten up by gangsters, then expelled for how he sold out his own classmates rather satisfying.
  • With how Chiaki's been constantly putting herself down and bottling all of her negative feelings, a huge weight gets lifted both from her and the audience's shoulders when she finally confesses to Mayuri that she isn't fine at all. From there, there's reassurance that she will start to truly open up to her friends about how she really feels about everything she's been through.
• Equestria Girls: A Fairly Odd Friendship (The Fairly OddParents! & My Little Pony: Equestria Girls): There are several in Camp Learn-A-Torium's Safety Seminar:
  • Sunset and Gilda foiling Crocker's plan sending him tumbling off a balcony, breaking his leg.
  • Gilda personally beating the shit out of Crocker and her goons beating the shit out of Gary and Betty for injuring Timmy.
  • While it wasn't supposed to be a good thing, many people also relished Timmy destroying Gary and Betty's truck in retaliation.
• Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger (RWBY & Star Wars): Darth Nihilus overpowering Adam Taurus and granting him a presumably-painful and undignified death by Force Draining him to a withered husk is immensely satisfying, coming right after Adam has sadistically tortured both Blake and Weiss and has maimed Weiss's eyes.
• Ever watch The Boys (2019) and get pissed about the Villain with Good Publicity status of Vought International and its "heroes"? Then give MHA vs The Boys a read, and watch as the now grown-up students of UA High show them what real heroes look like.
  • Taken one step further with The Boys: Real Justice. The Boys, upset at how the Justice League keeps showing them up, decide to try and take on the Legion of Doom. They promptly get their capes kicked, with the Justice League coming in and saving their lives. Before that, Aquaman (who the Deep is trying to kiss up to) is disgusted by the Deep's crimes, calls him out for it in front of a group of ocean clean-up volunteers, and all but bans him from Atlantis. That was merciful compared to what Glider did to the Deep (which had the rest of the Rogues visibly wincing).
• The Night Unfurls: Perverted mercs and orcs of the Black Dogs getting comeuppance for their Rape, Pillage, and Burn tendencies? Oh, it's satisfying alright. Said Black Dogs being butchered and slaughtered by the Good Hunter, akin to those beasts he has hunted? Doubly so.
• RWBY Crossover Fight Scene: Ghost Rider vs Salem: So Ozpin can't destroy Salem? Well, the Ghost Rider sure can. He burns out her regeneration in a single hit and then Penance Stares her, causing her to feel all the pain and torment she inflicted before destroying her soul. Very satisfying.
• For those who see the Brother Gods as the true Big Bad of RWBY, The Snap has Thanos inadvertently kill one of them, specifically the God of Light, leaving the other god devastated while the woman they cruelly punished for defying them finally gets to die permanently.
  • Icing on the cake is how they could have stopped him at any time, only to choose not to as a respect their decision after their failure on Remnant. The fact Thanos succeeded with them now being unable to stop it results in a serious Break the Haughty moment.
• Thousand Shinji: Considering SEELE's hideous actions in the original series, it's very satisfying seeing Shinji's minion mocking Keel before punishing him and all SEELE members.
• What the Cat Dragged In: For an In-Universe example, Natasha notes that akumatization could serve as this, as Hawkmoth is effectively offering his victims the power to turn the tables upon those who upset them so badly... for a price.

Arrowverse

• These Foolish Things: Oliver finally calling out Felicity for her invasive and selfish actions acts as this for many of the readers, especially when one considers how the Arrow writers never let him do this on the show proper, no matter how terrible her behavior became.

Buffyverse

• This collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer oneshots aptly titled Catharsis, or: Buffy Yells at the Scoobies (a lot), written for anyone who hated how Buffy could be a complete doormat around her friends.
  • The first oneshot, Between the Empty Places, is set in season seven, and has Buffy calling out everyone when they try to kick her out of the house.
  • The second oneshot, Tabula Inscriba, is set in season six, and has Buffy calling out Giles when he tries to leave, and then Willow for her over-use of magic to try and fix her problems.
  • The third (and so far final) oneshot, Out of the Woods, is set in season five, and has Buffy calling out Riley for all his idiotic behavior, and then Xander for thinking said behavior was totally OK.

Chrono Trigger

• Chrono Trigger: The Musical: After all of the hell Lavos puts the heroes through, his Villainous Breakdown during "Last Battle" proves to be deeply satisfying.

Danganronpa

• A New Hope (Danganronpa): Considering that, in their canon game, Tsumugi was able to successfully frame Kaede for a murder she committed, resulting in the latter getting executed, Kaede's speech being the final nail in the coffin to convince everyone to sacrifice Tsumugi over Celestia is beyond satisfying.

The DCU

• Reading Dark Mark Fan Verse stories like Hellsister Trilogy and A Force of Four is cathartic to DCU fans who miss the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths multiverse and the characters killed in the course of that event.

Helluva Boss

• Helluva Dad: Considering how utterly vile Crimson was in canon while also knowing that he walked away from "Exes and Oohs" with a slap on the wrist, getting to see Moxxie, his abused son, shoot the bastard in the arm is enough to make anyone smile.

Hetalia: Axis Powers

• Seeing Germany and Japan beating the ever-loving crap out of the homophobe in Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità definitely is this.

The Hunger Games

• If you watched/listened to Tales of the Hunger Games and are still grieving Katniss's death at the hands of Ennius Dalton, be assured that he gets his desserts when Selena assassinates him following the 99th Hunger Games.

The Loud House

• Really Isn't Your Fault: For everyone that disliked the comic for any reason, the fanfic serves as a way to get closure due to Luna being close to her canon self, Saluna and Stellacoln being preserved due to the main characters refusing to hold the Idiot Ball, with Rusty being punished on the end.
• What is a Person Worth?: Not only does Lincoln call out his whole family on their treatment of him, highlighting his parents' blatant Double Standards when it comes to punishing him for his mistakes versus how his sisters' mistakes are handled, Ronnie Anne also gets confronted over her past bullying. Chandler is also subjected to a much-needed Humiliation Conga during the climax.

Miraculous Ladybug

• BURN THE WITCH has Lila have her true nature revealed to all of Paris after she scams Rose into donating to a Fake Charity.
• The CONSEQUENCES series centers around various scenarios wherein Lila goes through some Laser-Guided Karma, often with a Humiliation Conga or two thrown in along the way. Some stories also focus on Gabriel being exposed and arrested, and WORLD BEYOND II takes Félix to task for betraying the heroes.
• the high road has Marinette force Adrien and the rest of the class to deal with the downsides of his advice to "take the high road" via Bothering by the Book, ensuring that everyone is inconvenienced by Lila's Blatant Lies until they start paying attention and realize just how blatant said lies are.
• Two Letters plays with this as part of its Deconstruction of Salt Fics. After three years as Ladybug, Marinette gets so sick of dealing with Entitled and Ungrateful Bastards that she decides to retire and pass on the Earrings to a Sketchy Successor, whom she views as "the hero Paris deserves" after their mistreatment of her. Problem is that this karma isn't laser-guided; everyone in Paris is suffering as a result, making it harder to enjoy the way that a few Jerkasses are arguably getting proper payback.

MonsterVerse

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon):
  • Guard B-04's sadistic and excessive death by Monster X's hands, though difficult to catch if you're not looking out for his name, is quite satisfying after that crass asswipe of a human being's bullying and low-blow cruelty towards Monster X's Inhuman Human half for no other reason than his own amusement.
  • After Alan Jonah's canon crimes against humanity and his escape from justice in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), plus the further crimes he commits during this story in the form of caging and abusing Monster X and experimenting on displaced refugees who came to him desperately seeking shelter; it's very satisfying to see him have his mind broken and get transformed into an insane monster just like the people he experimented on, and then get squashed like a grape by a vengeful Monster X.
• Abraxas Recursive Fanfictions:
  • Sweet Vengeance: After a pair of teenage bullies play a particularly-vile prank on Madison involving recordings of her late (infamously genocidal) mother, and after one of said bullies pretended to be Madison's friend no less; it is very satisfying when Madison gets her revenge with a little help, driving one of the bullies to piss herself and bludgeoning the other one's face.
  • Abraxas: The Clash of Silver: Walter Simmons being killed by his own Mechagodzilla under near-identical circumstances to in canon is just as satisfying here as it was in the Godzilla vs. Kong version. After the Zmeyevich-controlled Mechagodzilla has gleefully devastated the whole of Hong Kong, brutalized both Godzilla and Monster X, and seemingly destroyed the more benevolent Kiryu, it's pretty satisfying when Kong, Godzilla and Monster X working together turn the tide and begin scrapping it, with the Zmeyevich minds inside the Mecha screaming in terror before Kong rips the Mecha's head away.
  • "Shi AU" notes:
    • After all the horrific torture and suffering that Ichi and Ni have put Vivienne through during this AU since turning her into Ghidorah's fourth head, and after abusing their younger brother San too on top of all of Ghidorah's canon crimes of leading the Titans to devastate the planet and slaughter millions; it is very satisfying to see San and Shi (Vivienne) turn against the elder brother heads, ensuring Ni gets decapitated twice. Ichi panicking and being terrified of his impending death when a Mothra-empowered Godzilla prepares to finish Ghidorah off is very savory.
    • On the same note as the above, after all the nightmarish torment that Vivienne endured as part of Ghidorah, it's pretty satisfying to see Godzilla sever her from Ghidorah, and Mothra alter her severed head's DNA so that Ghidorah won't regrow from her neck stump, finally granting her literal and emotional peace from the three-headed dragon's evil elder brother heads.
    • Considering all of Emma Russell's canon crimes against humanity and against all her friends and colleagues, including getting Vivienne eaten and assimilated by Ghidorah, and how all-round Unintentionally Unsympathetic she was; it's pretty satisfying in the ending when, instead of making a Heroic Sacrifice that's made out to be a moving moment, she gets eaten by Ni's surviving severed head, the very fate that her close friend Vivienne endured by Ghidorah as a result of Emma's treachery.

My Hero Academia

• Cain offers a heaping helping of Adaptational Karma for Katsuki, as he overhears All Might taking Izuku on as his apprentice and jealously attempts to sabotage their relationship, only to repeatedly fail. Throughout the work, Toshinori repeatedly attempts to reason with Katsuki by pointing out his clearly contradictory and self-serving leaps of "logic", but once it becomes clear that Katsuki refuses to acknowledge anything that doesn't support his twisted views, calls him out for being a Spoiled Brat.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• Bitterness lets Twilight Sparkle call out Princess Celestia, Shining Armor and all of her friends for how they treated her when she tried to warn them about Cadance.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Reading Advice and Trust is very satisfactory to people who thought Shinji and Asuka deserved a better, happier ending.
• A Crown of Stars: After seeing Shinji, Asuka, their relationship and their world getting thoroughly wrecked in the original series and the preceding story, watching them finally getting help is tremendously gratifying.

Ranma ½

• Tabula Rasa: After all the times where Happosai was canoncially a Karma Houdini, we finally see Genma Sotome and Soun Tendo stand up to him when he becomes an even bigger ass than before. Particularly when Happosai tries to punish Genma by cutting his school of martial arts off, only for Soun to retaliate by exiling him from the Tendo Dojo.

RWBY

• Blaze, from Team LVDR is a violent, sadistic beast who murders and kills faunus. When one of his teammates, who he tortured and attempted to kill, has had enough after he attempts to kill her crush, she beats him until he’s crying like a child and begging her to stop.

Shadow Raiders

• This fan-written third season will provide the show's viewers therapy by destroying the Beast Planet for good.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

• Cat-Ra: Considering what Catra did in canon, reading about her counterpart going through the same difficulties and hardships she had put Adora through is cathartic to read about.
  • On the other hand, after Aroda pretty much manipulates Adora into becoming much worse than canon Catra ever was throughout Seasons 2 and 3, Catra finally defeating the two of them in the Season 3 finale while giving Adora a "The Reason You Suck" Speech over her blaming Catra for her own actions in the past few weeks causing everything to go wrong for her as Aroda is erased from existence thanks to being trapped in the Lotus-Eater Machine after Catra restores reality is a satisfying fate for the both of them.

Star Wars

• The idea of Food Scandal was born in the middle of the melamine food scandal, with the author admitting he'd wish to sic Darth Vader on those responsible. The story is about someone using cheap and toxic fillers in foodstock they sold to the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps to turn in a cheap profit, only for it to end on the Executor, resulting in Darth Vader finding out, killing a Navy officer who failed to warn him because he thought it was beneath him by throwing him into a wall, and then tracking down the culprits to make them pay.
• Given that in Star Wars Legends a not indifferent part of Wilhuff Tarkin's murderous character was owed to the Emperor manipulating his paranoia and having his beloved son murdered with insurgents framed for the deed, Wilhuff Tarkin, Hero of the Rebellion can be this, as here the Moff catches up in time and joins the fight against him-and his son's death only solidifies his resolve.
  • In a lesser way, the one responsible for Tarkin's situation is Mace Windu, who, while still killed by the Emperor, deprived him of one of his most effective minions.
• In Patron of the Art of War, after watching Thrawn try and tame and weed out Sabine’s rebel behavior and feeling so sure of himself that she will eventually cave and beg him to let her be part of his collaboration of artist, it is quite satisfying for when the Big Damn Heroes moment comes and Zeb slams him into the wall knocking him out and then Ezra follows up by stunning Thrawn when he comes to.

Films — Animation

• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker: Terry delivering an absolutely brutal and accurate "Reason You Suck" Speech to the Joker who in this universe not only tortured Tim Drake but also possessed his body. Seeing the Clown Prince of Crime verbally humiliated in such an epic manner is easily the film's greatest moment.
• Probably one of the most cathartic moments in Disney history is the climax of Dumbo. After being teased, bullied, abused, humiliated, and unfairly separated from his mother, Dumbo manages to fly at the circus just when it looks like he is going to fail, completely shocking the watching audience, and then uses the moment to get back at almost everyone who hurt him throughout the film.
• A Bug's Life:
  • A villainous example in the grasshoppers taking over the ant colony and essentially using them as slave labor to procure food late in the film. As tragic as it is for the takeover to occur; to many, it also comes across as darkly satisfying Humiliation Conga given the ants have up to this point been mostly nasty jerks to Flik for being an oddball and drove him and the circus bugs off for lying, despite them proving their moral fiber and giving a sound plan.
  • The ants finally standing up to the grasshoppers in the film's climax after Flik's "Reason You Suck" Speech to Hopper and chasing Hopper's gang off the island. Special mention goes to Atta's Ironic Echo to Hopper's "circle of life" speech earlier in the film and Dot smacking Thumper.
  • Any of the two times Hopper reacts in fear. First when he is attacked by the fake bird and then when he is confronted by a real one.
• Encanto: After Mirabel manages to bond with Isabela for the first time in the movie (and possibly her entire life), Abuela Alma treats their Character Development as an unsightly disturbance of the status quo and is quick to blame Mirabel for everything bad that has been happening. Rather than sitting there and taking it, Mirabel throws her own toxic behavior back in her face and outright blames her for messing the family up. It's so satisfying to see this happen. Even if the miracle ends up dying shortly after, this tirade finally makes Alma look inwards and realise the damage her perfectionism has been doing to her loved ones.
• Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie is this for Hey Arnold! at large. After waiting FIFTEEN LONG YEARS for the series to reach its conclusion, many people who watched the show as children and/or teens are now adults, some with children of their own. Now, a once-unfulfilled dream of their youth has been realized. And for Craig Bartlett and the crew? You just need to know that the crew wore shirts with "CLOSURE HAPPENS" written on them.
• In Turning Red, after years of being "perfect little Mei-Mei", selling out her friends to protect herself when confronted, and having a concert she'd been working so hard for weeks towards prematurely end in destruction, Mei finally stands up to her Mom and combats both physically and verbally about hiding who she was and being her own person. Her friends, including Tyler even cheer her all throughout.

Films — Live-Action

• Aliens: Many viewers were satisified to see Burke being killed by a xenomorph towards the end, which, according to Word of God, included Paul Reiser's own mother.
• From the Turkish historical epic series, Battal Gazi - the second film, Savulun Battal Gazi Geliyor, emphasizes the Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil trope with the Big Bad, Lord Igor Yanos, conquering the titular hero's homeland, imprisoning his father Hussein Gazi, and then orders his personal Mook Lieutenant legion to gang-rape Battal Gazi's sister Maria while Hussein is Forced to Watch, leading to Maria being Driven to Suicide afterwards. The rest of the movie then depicts Battal Gazi's Roaring Rampage of Revenge to save his father, and for good measure kill every single one of Igor's lieutenants by way of Groin Attack to avenge his sister's rape (from impaling their testicles with spears to shoving blades into their nethers and firing a flaming arrow between the legs), ending with the rescued Hussein slowly stomping on Igor's testicles into a pulp before throwing Igor off a tower. As the old saying goes, "An eye for an eye, a genatalia for a genatalia?"
• Adaptations of Carrie:
  • In every version, the prom disaster is very cathartic. Carrie has been a victim of bullying all her life and is given a Deadly Prank — where she has pig's blood poured on her in front of everyone. She then snaps and murders all her classmates with her telekinetic powers. The 2013 film ups the catharsis by having Carrie target her tormentors individually — including a pair of mean twins who laughed especially cruelly at her humiliation, and they're punished by being pinned to the floor while everyone else tramples them to death.
  • The 2002 film has the scene where Miss Desjardin disciplines the girls for their horrible bullying of Carrie in the opening (she got her first period, didn't know what was happening and the girls threw tampons at her). She throws a duffel bag full of tampons at the girls, gives them all a "Reason You Suck" Speech and responds to a taunt from the Alpha Bitch by slamming her against a locker. When the girl tries to say "you can't hit us!", Miss Desjardin responds "I barely touched you" — daring the little sociopath to claim she was hit and see who believes her.
    "One more word, and I'll plug you up".
• A Christmas Story: Ralphie beating up Scut Farkus. For anyone who's ever been bullied in school, it can be pretty easy to project yourself onto Ralphie as he dishes out some much-deserved payback onto Scut.
• Dead Poets Society: After Neil's death, Mr. Keating gets fired over allegedly allowing that to transpire. After the society members find out that Cameron's the first of the students to sell him out, claiming he did so to protect his academic future, Charlie punches him, causing a bloody nose. When Cameron gloats how Charlie's all but guaranteed expulsion, which does happen to him, it's still satisfying seeing Cameron getting some sort of comeuppance.
• The mid-credits scene of Don't Look Up. Since the rich elites who tried to escape the apocalypse on a spaceship were directly responsible for ending all life on Earth (namely Corrupt Corporate Executive Peter Isherwell and President Evil Janie Orlean), seeing them completely and utterly fail to properly survive on the alien planet they attempt to colonize is definitely some richly deserved karma. While the ending is unquestionably a major downer, the viewers can at least take some solace in the fact that those jackasses did ultimately face some brutal consequences.
• Long's defeat in Engine Sentai Go-onger vs. Gekiranger is much more satisfying than his in Juken Sentai Gekiranger, as this time, he goes down screaming in agony.
• Fight Club deconstructs this to Hell and back. While the titular club first allows for the Narrator and others like him to release their emotions and take out their rage at society, as well as their dull lives on each other in brutal brawling, Tyler Durden uses this outpour of emotion to manipulate them, turning the club into a cult-like society called Project Mayhem, where they terrorize the public as a way to "get back at society", with the objective of complete anarchism, with no order and no government to tell people what to do. It ends up costing a few lives, such as that of Robert "Bob" Paulson, the Narrator's Morality Pet of sorts. And then it's revealed that Tyler Durden is the Narrator's Split Personality, created out of his own desire for catharsis, freedom, and jealousy for those who got lucky in life.
• The Fugitive: Throughout the movie, the CPD have done nothing but accuse, chase, and hunt down Kimble like some preordained criminal. Even when they brought him in for questioning, he was guilty in their eyes before they started to investigate the crime scene. At every conference, they respond to their interviewers with hard-nosed pride that Kimble is a killer who murdered his wife because she was "more rich". By the end, when Kimble clears his name, the CPD are left battling questions from interviewers about their glaring incompetence and poor judgement (and that's not even getting into the questions they're going to face once the press finds out that Sykes is a former CPD cop). Not to mention they'll have to answer for trying to get an innocent (and grieving) widower executed for the rest of their career.
• Green Room's last act. After an entire movie's worth of seeing the heroic, likable punk band get brutally slaughtered by neo-Nazis, seeing the final survivors turn it around on them and blow Darcy's head off is incredibly cathartic.
• Halloween Ends: After four-and-a-half decades of being a sociopathic mass-murderer who always managed to escape justice for his crimes, Michael Myers is finally Killed Off for Real by Laurie at the end of the film. And she doesn't just kill him; she stabs the shit out of him, slices his throat and dumps his body in a shredder for all of Haddonfield to see. Michael is killed so thoroughly, it's impossible for him to come back alive in any way, shape, or form.
• The Hunter from Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is such a smug, reprehensible Psycho for Hire, especially after he targets Sam, that watching Reacher break his arms, leg, and neck is nothing short of euphoric.
• James Bond:
  • The death of Blofeld in For Your Eyes Only, particularly if you've seen the movies in order and seen him get away every time, as well as him disappearing from the films for a decade due to legal issues.
  • Licence to Kill: Bond setting Sanchez on fire using the lighter Felix gave him rivals the above for most satisfying kill throughout the entire franchise. In fact, Bond pitting the villains against each other and giving them their well-deserved punishment in the third act is wonderful.
• John Wick: The movie starts off with Iosef killing John's poor dog, so when John finishes off his Roaring Rampage of Revenge by finally gunning down Iosef, it's absolutely glorifying.
• Kindergarten Cop: John Kimble beats up a man who was abusing his kindergartner son. After telling him off, Principal Schlowski asks him what it felt like to hit the son of a bitch and he says it was great.
• Man of Steel: After five straight live-action movies, Man of Steel finally allows Superman to display his full power in a straight-up fight. Mixed audience reactions aside, this is the one movie that does Superman justice as an Action Hero.
• The My Super Psycho Sweet 16 trilogy was made for pretty much one purpose — to let people sick of seeing all the brats on My Super Sweet Sixteen watch expies of them get horribly murdered.
• Office Space: Peter, Michael and Samir smashing the printer that never worked and drove them mad with its constant error messages. Anyone who's ever had to deal with a similarly frustrating piece of office equipment has probably wished they could do the same thing.
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood does this with a now infamous climax involving the Manson Family. In real life, they were a cult responsible for murdering several people — including the eight months pregnant Sharon Tate. In the movie, they choose to go after someone else first. This someone else is Rick Dalton and his stuntman Cliff, who proceed to dispose of the cult members in a gloriously violent climax. This results in an alternate history where Sharon Tate is never murdered, and the one real-life cult member who regretted her involvement and tried to stop the massacre (Linda Kasabian) is interpreted as stealing the keys to Tex Watson's car and driving away from them.
• Pentagon Wars: Seeing General Partridge dragged across the coals and asked so many humiliating questions by the congressional committee is immensely satisfying due to his sociopathic incompetence and disregard for frontline troops.
• The Purge: The government instituted the event named The Purge for this reason. But it's a lie. The true reason for the Purge is to Kill the Poor and keep the rich in power.
• The final battle in Rambo IV. It's utterly satisfying to see the Burmese military get some brutal just deserts at the hands of Rambo and the Karen Rebels due to how disgusting and horrific their atrocities were.
  • Rambo: Last Blood: Pretty much everyone that Rambo interrogates and kills over the course of the movie, especially when Hugo takes the fight to Rambo with a group of men and they all find out the hard way what an R-rated version of Home Alone is like.^note Rated "R" for "Rambo", of course.
• Sucker Punch's main villain is a lecherous orderly in a mental hospital who has been sexually abusing the inmates for years, and is fixated on the protagonist because of her youthful looks — suggesting he could be an ephebephile. At one point — after coldly shooting two of his victims dead — he tries to rape Baby Doll. Little does he know about the knife she's stashed for such an occasion, which she embeds in his shoulder and declares "You'll never have me. Ever!" Some viewers who didn't like the movie admitted to cheering during that scene.
• Donny getting socked in the face by John and then finally getting arrested in Ted 2 after being a Karma Houdini in the first film.
• In Waitress, seeing Earl get thrown out of the hospital after Jenna finally finds the courage to stand up to him.
• The Waterboy:
  • After many years of Bobby being bullied and can't do anything about it, it is immensely satisfying to watch him finally let his rage all out by hard tackling every player holding the ball in each game.
  • It only gets better come the Bourbon Bowl championship game, where Bobby gets payback against Meaney, the Cougar player who tormented Bobby for his amusement while he was his teams' waterboy by giving him a punishing Powerbomb tackle that really knocks the hell of out of Meaney, who definitely felt that hit.
  • Coach Klein, who was intimidated by Coach Red into giving him the playbook and is then fired by him, starts creating new original plays that totally catches Red off guard and Red can only do nothing but express in frustration as Klein humiliates him like a fool and the tide of the game shifts in the Muddog's favor because of those with lastly the finisher is where Red cries in defeat like a man baby after Klein defeats him in the last seconds of the game of Bobby doing the final play is icing on the cake.

Literature

• The Beginning After the End:
  • Arthur finally getting the chance to kill Lucas during the attack on Xyrus Academy is a cathartic moment for both him In-Universe and the audience. Not only had Lucas been an haughty Jerkass ever since he was introduced, but he got off almost scot-free for causing the Total Party Kill back when they were in the Dire Tombs thanks to his corrupt family's influence (with the only penalty being the loss of his adventurer's license), and had continued to plague Arthur in Xyrus Academy even though he didn't recognize Arthur as Note. After having to put up with Lucas tormenting him for so long which had escalated into him participating in the attack on Xyrus and murdering students and faculty as a bid to get back at him, including threatening to desecrate the body of his Love Interest Tessia, Arthur finally decides that enough is enough. He reveals to Lucas about how much he had been holding back, and now that he has the opportunity to finally put an end to him proceeds to unleash the full display of his magical power upon Lucas leaving the latter powerless in the face of his Killing Intent. In the process, Arthur subjects Lucas to a Cruel and Unusual Death wherein he severs both of his arms before crushing his crotch. Lucas's Karma Houdini Warranty finally being cashed in is helps make his graphic demise all the more satisfying and well-deserved.
  • The end of Volume 9 is extremely cathartically satisfying for both Arthur and audience. After the severe Trauma Conga Line he endured between Volumes 7 and 8 wherein he saw his homeland being conquered by the Alacryans and many of his friends and family dying including his father and Sylvie, learned that Agrona had not only reincarnated his friends Nico and Cecilia as his servants and turned them against him but became evil in the first place because Kezess had committed genocide, ended up stranded in lands alien if not outright hostile to him away from his remaining loved ones and left powerless, and could do nothing but watch as Tessia was turned into the vessel for the Legacy AKA Cecilia followed by the obliteration of Elenoir on the orders of Kezess, Arthur had been looking for a chance to make his comeback now that he knows the true nature of the war. After having spent Volumes 8 and 9 finding way to Re-Power himself and Came Back Strong in the process, he gets his opportunity at the Victoriad. During the competition, he is called out by Nico who wants to exact his vendetta on him, only to promptly end the fight in a Single-Stroke Battle that sends Nico flying across the arena and leaves him powerless. Arthur then takes the opportunity to challenge Cadell, the one who murdered his Parental Subsitute Sylvia when he was young, and kills him as well. In doing so, Arthur gets revenge on the two Scythes he was forced to fight at the end of Volume 7, the outcome of which left powerless as he was barely able to beat both combined along with the rest of the Alacryan army and had been forced to overexert his power. The moment is all the more cathartic as Arthur finally gets to avenge the death of one of the individuals he held most dear to him as well as deliver unto Nico, whose petty grudge against him had led to further suffering and rendered him unlikable among the audience, a humiliating case of Laser-Guided Karma by leaving him powerless as well. After Arthur kills Cadell, Agrona and the Legacy appear in an attempt to capture him, but he is able to escape using his powers and in the process learns that Tessia is Fighting from the Inside thanks to the Beast Will he gave her. He then finally returns home to Dicathen right as Kezess has sent an Asura to exterminate the Dicathian resistance when they turned against him and slays that Asura as well. After being powerless to stop the schemes of Agrona and Kezess for so long, Arthur is finally able turn the tables on both and score a win by foiling their plans, reuniting with his friends and family, and gaining newfound hope that he can save his Love Interest from her fate.
  • Volume 10 is aptly subtitled Retribution for good reason, as the entirety of it is Arthur and his allies turning the tide of the war against both Agrona and Kezess. After having returned to Dicathen, Arthur single-handedly manages to undo the Alacryan conquest of Dicathen in a matter of days when before he had been outmaneuevered by Agrona's manipulations. In the process, he delivers a string of cathartic Curb-Stomp Battle Mook Horror Shows upon the hapless Alacryans, and in some cases they surrender to him without a fight thanks to his reputation. On top of all that, he indirectly triggers a rebellion on Alacryan soil against Agrona when he kills a squad of Wraiths Agrona sent after him and uses their portal to destroy a military facility in Vechor. Even when Kezess summons him back to Epheotus and attempts to impose some one-sided negotiations on him, Arthur is able to reverse the Magically-Binding Contract upon Kezess so the latter would have to keep his word rather than him, and in the process he secures Epheotus's aid in safeguarding Dicathen against Alacrya while he ventures into the Relictombs. At the very end of the volume, Arthur meets with Mordain and the Hearth, and through the Heroic Sacrifice of a repentant Aldir is finally able to restore Sylvie after her sacrifice at the end of the war. Sylvie's return is also accompanied by The Reveal that she was the reason Arthur's reincarnation did not go according to Agrona's plan, as following her sacrifice her temporally displaced soul wrested the future Arthur's soul away from Agrona's grasp.
• In-Universe of the Confessions (Saint Augustine), Augustine talks about how seeing his own guilty passions and miseries acted out by others acted like scratching an itch. Problem is, the scratches left "spots, pus, and repulsive pores", making him even more likely to fall into those passions and miseries despite brief respite.
• The Harry Potter books have several moments in which bullies and sadistic authority figures are utterly humiliated by their intended victims, which are very satisfying to read:
  • Hagrid introducing Harry to the Wizarding World Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is this. Before this, Harry was constantly abused and bullied by his aunt, uncle and cousin. Seeing Hagrid do the same to them is just satisfying. Dudley getting a pigs tail is icing on the cake.
  • Draco Malfoy getting turned into a ferret and being bounced across the room by Professor Moody during Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is this both in and out of universe. After Hermione worries that Draco could be seriously hurt by this punishment, Ron complains to her she is ruining this fantastic moment.
  • Every time Umbridge is resisted in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is cathartic. Most notably when Fred and George ignite a large amount of magical fireworks, which she is unable to extinguish. Another memorable moment is the school erupting in full blown rebellion against her rule as headmistress, while the teachers do nothing to prevent this and even encouraging it.
  • One done In-Universe and out early in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when Dumbledore explains the situation about the Defense Against the Dark Arts position being vacant to Horace Slughorn, namely about what happened last year, Slughorn isn't the least surprised, having no sympathy for what happened to Umbridge. Harry (and the audience) can't help but agree wholeheartedly.
• The One Who Eats Monsters: The protagonist, Ryn, is an elder being from before time who exists to hunt and eat the evil. Reading about a lesbian goddess of vengeance tearing apart rapists and other human detritus can be quite fun.
• Joffrey Baratheon from A Song of Ice and Fire is a sadistic, idiotic tyrant who's one of the most despised characters in the series. After causing a Civil War by ordering Ned Stark's execution after promising him mercy, he engages in a string of petty dog-kicking with his main target being his fiancee, Sansa Stark, whom he has humiliated, beaten and threatened with rape. In A Storm of Swords, karma finally catches up to him as he ends up poisoned at his own wedding and dies a slow death of asphyxiation, with his killer turning out to be his grandmother-in-law who wanted to ensure her granddaughter didn't suffer the same Domestic Abuse Joffrey put Sansa through. Made all the sweeter as this occurs directly after Joffrey celebrated the Red Wedding, which saw the death of Robb Stark and most of his faction, meaning Joffrey dies just when it looks like he's won everything.

Live-Action TV

• In The Boys, after an entire season of seeing Homelander be an overpowered, unstoppable, completely unrepentant Manchild who does whatever he wants, suffers no consequences for anything, and wins in the end, and seeing him flaunt his newfound power and authority for the entire first episode of the second season, he comes face to face with Stan Edgar who talks down to him without even a hint of fear, gives him a downright savage "The Reason You Suck" Speech, makes it clear he's aware of every dirty secret, matter-of-factly tells him that he doesn't control jack-shit, and coldly dismisses him. Seeing Homelander helplessly sputter and actually be cowed into submission by one of the "mud people" he looks down on with cold contempt and writes off as helpless and worthless is incredibly satisfying.
  • New Seven member Stormfront crosses the Moral Event Horizon line by revealing herself to be a virulent racist who murders Kimiko's brother as well as a whole bunch of innocent black bystanders (which she is able to pass off as just being "collateral damage"), all prior to the reveal that she's an actual, original Nazi who was around during the party's emergence. Given her casual racism, Smug Snake attitude, and attempts to indoctrinate Homelander's son Ryan, it's no coincidence that everything that happens to her in the Season 2 finale — having her Nazi past revealed to the press and public, thus destroying her reputation, getting spectacularly beaten down by Starlight, Kimiko and Maeve, and being turned into a charred, limbless one-eyed husk by Ryan, after she threatens his mother — is just an entire run of catharsis for the audience. The beatdown, in particular, is generally regarded as one of the most satisfying moments of the entire series, with Stormfront's own actress saying it she was cheering them on!
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy killing Caleb, one of the nastiest and most depraved villains in the Buffyverse, by slicing him in half from the groin upwards.
• Bully Beatdown. Watching bullies get their asses handed to them by professional MMA fighters is quite satisfying.
• Speaking of bully beatdowns, Cobra Kai season 3. Kyler and his bully friends join the titular dojo and begin targeting the others, especially Hawk who is visibly distraught by them being there and they know it. But then Brucks, Kyler's closest buddy, steps onto the mat with Hawk and Hawk beats the complete manshit out of him so outright savagely that even Tory is freaked out by it. Seeing Kyler go from a smug taunting smirk to outright terror, not even being brave enough to look Hawk in the eye as he confidently walks past after the beating, is incredibly satisfying.
• Criminal Minds has The Reaper, a sadistic serial killer who had plagued the main cast, particularly Hotch. Reaper has killed people in sickening ways for no reason other than for his own sick enjoyment and to garner fame for himself. Come episode 100, though, Reaper takes it a step too far by murdering Hotch's ex-wife, then attacks him in his own home. Hotch manages to fight him back, getting a few well-deserved hits in, until Reaper gets the upper hand. The last straw was when Reaper bragged that he'll go after Hotch's son next once he finishes him, causing Hotch to regain a Heroic Second Wind. Afterwards, Hotch goes into an Unstoppable Rage and breaks Reaper's leg before mounting and punching his face in. What sells it was that despite all the people he's killed, the Reaper had the gall to beg for mercy. After all the lives he's taken and for the torment he put Hotch through, it was gratifying to see Hotch violently beat the bastard to death in the most painful way possible, even going so far as to continue breaking the Reaper's head open by slamming it repeatedly into the floor to make sure he STAYS dead. It was just satisfying seeing a remorseless murderer begging for his life as he gets killed himself.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Joffery was an incompetent fool, but was also such a Royal Brat Jerkass that even his actor Jack Gleeson hated him; his death was this both in-universe and out.
  • Jon Snow beating the hell out of Ramsay Bolton. After spending four seasons watching Ramsay being an Invincible Villain it's absolutely satisfying. His extremely Karmic Death at the end, at the fangs of his own starved dogs, sicced on him by Sansa in revenge for what he did to her, would also count.
  • Walder Frey is a treacherous, creepy old man who betrays and murders Robb Stark along with his entire retinue over comparatively petty issues. His sons are much the same. Arya killing them, getting Walder to eat them baked into a pie, then slitting his throat, is fairly satisfying. Later she disguises herself as Walder to poison his surviving male kin as well in revenge for their participation in the Red Wedding too.
  • Ever since Season Five, Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes have been the scrappies of the show. Watching them get removed in fittingly horrifying ways at the start of Season 7 makes up for watching their previous scenes.
  • The Season 7 finale brings a satisfying end to Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish who is responsible for kickstarting the War of the Five Kings. Just when he thought that he has Sansa under his control, it turns out she was never really on his side and then Arya slits his throat using the same dagger that nearly killed Bran.
  • Then there is the Lannister army being absolutely massacred by Drogon and the Dothraki horde.
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: In the video on professional wrestling, John deliberately provides some. He lists the ways Vince McMahon, a heel and owner of WWE, has screwed over the wrestlers on his payroll, while putting clips of the guy getting his ass kicked in the ring. One is of McMahon getting his face shoved into someone's ass, with John noting that this is one of the few things in the clips that couldn't have been easily faked.
• The Mandalorian: After two seasons of Grand Moff Gideon being basically untouchable and full of himself because he knows he is, watching him slowly crumble into complete panic as Luke effortlessly defeats the Dark Troopers is amazing.
• Motherland: Fort Salem Episode 9 of the third and final season has President Wade Bitch Slap Silver, who among other things used his own daughter to spread a bioengineered plague that only kills witches, conspired to assassinate the President so he could take her place, and framed the Bellweather unit for his acts.
• In general, seeing tokusatsu villains meet their explosive demise at the hands of the heroes.
• Pretty much all the criminals in Walker, Texas Ranger are irredeemable assholes who abuse their power, hurt and kill people who can't fight back For the Evulz and are completely sure that they will never be punished. The viewers can't help but enjoy it immensely when the titular ranger and his companions beat the crap out of them.
  • Special mention to Victor LaRue, one of Walker's most vicious and personal enemies, who repeatedly tried to rape Alex Cahill and kill Walker in increasingly sadistic ways. After he takes it a step too far by holding an entire courtroom hostage, killing several people, expressing desire to murder a little girl, and trying to force Alex to do a Shameful Strip... Walker intervenes and satisfyingly guns down LaRue like the rabid beast he was. Since beating the shit out of that fucker twice didn't stick, Walker has finally had enough and just outright kills him, putting him out of everyone else's miseries.
• Detective Lassiter in Psych attempts to mend bridges with his estranged wife at one point by buying her some tacky porcelain figurines. When the attempt later fails miserably, he can later be seen in the police station firing range using said figurines as target practice, with a blissful and serene look on his face as he picks them off one by one.
• Saturday Night Live: Played for Laughs in a 1986 sketch about a "lost ending" to It's a Wonderful Life, where George Bailey (Dana Carvey) and the people of Bedford Falls beat brutally beat the crap out of Mr. Potter, who was a Karma Houdini in the original movie.
• Tim tries to do this in Spaced by repeatedly drowning Lara Croft in Tomb Raider I, after receiving a belated letter from his ex-girlfriend which purported to be an apology for her cheating on him but was in fact a transparently self-serving attempt to make herself feel better by fobbing him off with some platitudes.
• Just about every major Supernatural villain's downfall but especially:
  • Abaddon: She was one of the evilest and most egotistical demons in the series whose lethal brutality was rivalled by few, so when Dean manages to overpower her, wiping the smug smile from her face as he finally kills her with the First Blade, watching him go Ax-Crazy on her corpse is somewhat cathartic as the cruel demon is finally dead but by that point, Dean was just stabbing an empty vessel and was falling further under the corrupting effects of the Mark of Cain, thus the moment is almost subverted.
  • Lucifer: Okay, let's be honest here. His death in "Let the Good Times Roll" is made of this trope, as we finally see him pay for all the trouble he's caused for Sam and Dean and their feud with him has finally reached an end after plaguing them for their whole lives.
  • God: When the ever cruel deity is stripped of all His power and immortality by Jack and condemned to grow old, die, and be remembered by no one, it feels extremely fitting, given all the cosmic havoc He wreaked, lives He ruined/erased, and manipulation and torment He levied against the Winchesters; He faces the punishments He fears the most, and those are to walk in the shoes of what he saw as his own failed creation and to never be worshipped again.
• Unbelievable: It's incredibly satisfying to watch Rasmussen send Parker the images of Marie and to see him very quickly realize she was telling the truth the entire time and that he and Pruitt very sorely screwed up the case.

Manhua

• Sinbell, the protagonist from My Beloved Mother is such a massive jerkass and Ungrateful Bastard that it's hard NOT to smile when he get his head bludgeoned out near the end of the second act. Which somehow leads to his Jerkass Realization.

Multiple Media

• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; the 4th season finale "World's End" has an in-universe example when Simmons empties an entire submachine gun magazine into Aida. When Aida tells Simmons, "That won't stop me", Simmons, who had previously heard Aida going Yandere on Fitz when he rejected her for Simmons, answers, "I know. I just wanted to do that". Simmons' assault is also a distraction tactic, allowing a Ghost Rider-possessed Coulson to grab Aida.
  • The Punisher (2017) lives for this trope, considering who the main character is. Throughout the series, Frank Castle pulverizes truly irredeemable Jerkasses and corrupt people along the way with absolute gusto, culminating in him killing Smug Snake Big Bad Agent Orange in the penultimate episode of the first season.
  • After Thanos wiped out half the universe at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, including some beloved heroes, watching him get his just desserts in Avengers: Endgame does put a smile on one's face. Even better, it gets to be done to him twice: First on his present-day self at the beginning of the film as the surviving heroes brutally beat him down in a Curb-Stomp Battle as he's weakened from using the Infinity Gauntlet a second time and then on his 2014 self from Guardians of the Galaxy as Iron Man uses the Infinity Gauntlet to reduce Thanos and his minions to dust just like Thanos had done at the end of the last movie.
  • What If...?:
    • All-round, for some viewers it can be rather gratifying to see that for many Guardians of the Galaxy characters who went through hellish levels of suffering in their past and/or didn't meet entirely happy endings in the Sacred Timeline (Carina, Drax, Yondu, Nebula, even Thanos), Star-Lord T'Challa's universe seems to be a place where the multiverse just cuts them some trans-dimensional slack by averting their past suffering and/or letting them lead lives that they can be proud of.
    • Similarly, after Black Widow in Infinity Ultron's universe has inherited a pretty-much hopeless dead shell of a world and eventually become the Sole Survivor entirely with nothing left in her future except the chance of taking down Ultron, it's quite gratifying when she succeeds, and she earns her happy ending by being permanently transported to another universe.
    • After watching Infinity Ultron successfully kill everyone across the cosmos in his native universe — including most of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy — it's very satisfying when the Guardians of the Multiverse and Arnim Zola put him down for good by brutally erasing his programming from his body. What makes it even more glorious is that Black Widow and Zola, the Sole Survivors of Infinity Ultron's omnicide in his native universe, are among the three who directly drive the nail into the coffin.
• MonsterVerse:
  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): After all of King Ghidorah's monstrous crimes over the movie — sadistically killing as many humans as he can (including Dr. Graham from the previous movie) without provocation and with extreme prejudice, killing Mothra when the latter comes to Godzilla's aid, and attempting to brutally kill Godzilla so that he can wipe the Earth clean of life — it is satisfying to watch Mothra's sacrifice combined with the efforts of the human cast to prevent Ghidorah destroying them enable Godzilla to thoroughly and mercilessly annihilate Ghidorah, who looks during the tail end of his Rasputinian Death almost like his last remaining head is futilely begging for mercy from those he wronged.
  • Godzilla vs. Kong:
    • After Maia Simmons has the stupidity and coldness to threaten Jia in front of Kong, and then infamously decides the best way to avoid dying horribly is by shooting at Kong with a gun, it's quite delightful to see her have an Oh, Crap! right before Kong grants her a rather Undignified Death.
    • After Walter Simmons is revealed to be an insanely-arrogant Smug Snake of a sociopathic narcissist who has callously engineered all of Godzilla's rampages on cities filled with people just so he can murder humanity's savior and satiate his own ego, it's very satisfying when the very spawn of Simmons' hubris turns on and dismissively kills him without even letting him complete his Evil Gloating speech, with Simmons living just long enough to realize how horribly he fucked up before his creation dismissively shows everyone what an easily-crushed bug he really is.
  • Skull Island (2023): The death of the Kraken. Since this thing spends the series tormenting and killing everyone and thing it comes across without provocation; killing Mike's father in front of him before it proceeded to toy with him, literally throwing innocent whales across the sky to violent splatter on Kong's temple home as a way to goad Kong, and it's furthermore responsible for the tragic death of the Island Girl when it maimed her and slaughtered her village, leaving the bodies for a heartbroken Kong to find; it is very satisfying when Kong finally pummels the bastard and rips it in two.

Music

• Often the motivation of musicians in violent genres such as Death Metal, Gangsta Rap and Horrorcore. Punk Rock and Political Rap are examples of sociopolitically-oriented catharsis in music. In fact, some psychiatrists recommend that people with repressed anger listen to angry music as a way to let someone else "be angry for them".
• Twenty One Pilots entire body of work is intended to give peace of mind to people with depression or suicidal tendencies, something that both members suffer from.
• Following the tragic suicide of their lead singer in 2017, several music publications praised Linkin Park for offering people (especially young teens) with depression or repressed rage an outlet with which to purge their negative feelings. Afro Punk specifically mentioned how the band's Nu Metal blend of rap and rock appealed to young people of color, who are often expected to not listen to rock music and repress their anger, an opportunity to be angry that they would otherwise be denied on a regular basis.

Professional Wrestling

• John Cena, who has been pushed to the top of the WWE so much and so often that many are sick of him, getting utterly annihilated by Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2014.
• In an ironic turnaround, many fans came to hate Brock Lesnar for being booked as an Invincible Villain for so long with only The Undertaker being portrayed as somewhat of an equal. Thus, there was immense satisfaction when Goldberg squashed him at Survivor Series 2016 in under two minutes.
• This is part of why Roman Reigns got over in such a short amount of time at TLC 2015, after ten months of failed attempts. After two years of The Authority angle refusing to die with the aforementioned stable rarely ever getting their comeuppance, watching Reigns kick Triple H's ass to the point that he had to be hospitalized was all but therapeutic, and if it hadn't been for all the damage his previous booking had done, probably would've gotten him elevated to sainthood.
• WrestleMania X-Seven match where Shane McMahon utterly destroyed Vince McMahon is this for people who have to deal with Abusive Parents or who got fed up with Vinnie Mac's mistreatment of his son.
• Alicia Fox was constantly misused ever since abruptly losing the Divas' Championship to Melina in 2010. She spent the next four years either as a Jobber, having pushes killed completely and not even appearing as a consistent character. After yet another loss to Divas' Champion Paige in 2014, Alicia snapped and threw an epic ringside tantrum - which seemed to be channeling all her fans' frustration at how she'd been misused. For a month, throwing ringside tantrums became her gimmick, and it was extremely satisfying.

Theater

• In Les Misérables, Marius clocks M. Thenardier in the face right before the song "Beggars at the Feast". After seeing M. Thenardier abuse children, exploit the needy, scam, swindle, and smug his way through France (not to mention rob the dead), it's mighty satisfying to see.

Web Animation

• DEATH BATTLE! can cause this in multiple ways:
  • Whether you're a Brony or not, seeing a bastard like Starscream get his ass handed to him by Rainbow Dash (very much poetic - if ironic justice) is certainly pleasurable.
  • In general, seeing characters one dislikes meet their demise at the hands of their opponent.
  • Having a character/character from a series you like end up winning, especially after a years-long losing streak (most notably Ryu's victory over Jin for Street Fighter fans, Jason Lee Scott's victory over Leonardo for Power Rangers fans, Spider-Gwen's victory over Batgirl for Spider-Man fans, Shadow's victory over Ryūko for Sonic fans, and Storm's victory over Korra for X-Men fans) can be very satisfying.
    • Ryu's victory over Jin also has an additional moment of catharticism as Ryu had already lost prior. Seeing him win this time was beyond satisfying to any of his fans.
    • Shadow's victory over Ryūko also has an additional moment of catharticism as Shadow had already lost twice prior, causing him to become a Memetic Loser. Seeing him finally win was beyond satisfying to any of his fans.
    • Special mention goes to Boba Fett's victory over the Predator, as the former was the show's very first loser. Seeing the former finally win after over 11 years was beyond satisfying to any of his fans.
  • Considering just how monstrously vile Carnage is, seeing Lucy repeatedly tear into him with her Vectors before utterly annihilating the bastard with a massive explosion is quite satisfying.
  • After all of the horrific things he did to X and Zero, especially in X3, X4, and X5, it's pretty satisfying for Mega Man X players to see Ultron slowly assimilate Sigma and erase his mind; much as the latter himself had done to countless Reploids to attain his Maverick armies.
  • In Darkseid vs. Thanos, Darkseid trapping Thanos forever in the Omega Sanction: though it's the more evil villain dealing the killing blow, it's still satisfying to see a typically near-unbeatable mass murderer like the Mad Titan get his comeuppance, especially after Avengers: Infinity War.
  • Namor's brutal death in Aquaman VS Namor could be this depending how strongly the viewer feels about Namor's Moral Event Horizon's in Avengers vs. X-Men and in The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman).
  • With Widowmaker's laundry list of crimes including the assassination of Mondatta (which had massive repercussions for the world of Overwatch) and coldly mocking Tracer for failing to stop her, the sight of Black Widow garroting the life out of her before slicing her head off is quite the satisfying one.
  • After all the crap Geese Howard put the Bogard and Yakizaki families and the whole of South Town through, you've got to admit, seeing Heihachi Mishima punch Geese straight back into the volcano to his death is REALLY satisfying. And if the ending is anything to go by, Heihachi seemed no worse for wear outside of fatigue and some minor injuries!
  • Considering just how utterly vile Zamasu/Goku Black is and how many disliked the Cruel Twist Ending of the Future Trunks Saga (namely, Zamasu coming back from being bifurcated and then wiping out all life on Earth), seeing Reverse-Flash splatter Black's past self, destroy his Time Ring, completely shred the front of his body, and throw him into the Sun is quite satisfying. What's more, Reverse-Flash proves as far above Zamasu as the latter was above Dragon Ball Super's heroes.
  • Considering how beyond evil Homelander is (what with his long laundry list of despicable and inexcusable atrocities), watching him get brutally curbstomped by Omni-Man, causing him to slowly go from cocky to devolve into having a screaming Villainous Breakdown before Omni-Man kills him in what's quite possibly the show's most gruesome death to date is simply BEYOND fucking satisfying. Boomstick even lampshades it for good measure:
    Boomstick: Wiz, if there's a God, it sure seems like he was workin' out some aggression there!
• If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device: After so many years of canon Warhammer 40,000's Imperium, and thus mankind in general, stagnating with no progress, and no hope of relief from a Status Quo that refuses to budge in any positive direction, only heading endlessly towards an end that never comes, watching the Emperor finally being able to sort all the bullshit out and start bringing some actual good out of what used to be his empire is endlessly satisfying.
• In Red vs. Blue, after Felix spent all his screentime after being revealed to be Evil All Along being a sadistic, cruel, egotistical, sociopathic, and utterly loathsome and vile Smug Snake, it is very satisfying when his partner Locus, whose PTSD he had manipulated so that he could keep him as a partner, abandon him and the Reds and Blues subject him to a Humiliation Conga. The icing on the cake is watching his Arch-Enemy Tucker deliver the coup de grace in a manner that resembles how Felix betrayed the Reds and Blues.
• In Shrapnel, for anyone who hates the Ugandan Knuckles meme the characters of the same name in the series are based on (especially those who were around when the meme was at the peak of its popularity and seemed to be everywhere), seeing Reznya (along with almost every other character) treat them with the same disdain feels very fitting.
• Unbiased History:
  • Constantine annihilating the Praetorian Guard. After almost three centuries of them devolving into Chronic Backstabbing Disorder and killing several competent emperors it's satisfying to see him finally end it.
  • The execution of Phocas at the hands of Heraclius. After years of a tyrannical reign over the empire, Phocas is dismembered aboard a ship by the rightful emperor in revenge for every evil deed he did against the Roman people.
  Heraclius then chopped Phocas' cock and balls off for raping Photius' wife, his right arm for Comentiolus, his left arm for Constantina and her children, his right leg for Germanus, his left leg for Narses, and then his head for the rightful emperor Maurice and the Roman people.
  • The First Defenestration of Prague. After Jan Hus was burned at the stake by the corrupt Catholic Church and the Unholy German Confederate, the Hussites, a group of Christians sympathetic to Hus' teachings, rose up and rebelled against the king of Bohemia. Jan Želivský, leader of the Hussites, had the group storm the city hall and defeat the mayor's forces, culminating with the mayor and some of his men to be fatally defenestrated (Thrown out the window.).

Web Original

• One of the most intense sessions in the entire Critical Role canon comes in "Thordak", episode 79 of the first campaign. The players finally confront the title character, who's the Big Bad of the entire Chroma Conclave arc, as months of playing time come to a truly spectacular climax. After all the death and destruction Thordak has caused, and his being built up as a nightmare-inducing opponent, it's incredibly satisfying to see him finally get punished. It also functions as an In-Universe catharsis for the half-elf siblings Vex'halia and Vaxil'dan, as Thordak murdered their mother. They have the most significant actions in the fight, as Vex destroys Thordak's Power Crystal and significantly reduces his power level, and Vax is the one who finally finishes Thordak off after a long, brutal fight.
  Vaxil'dan: I hear my mother in the morning. Fuck you.
• Wherever Mr. Burns dies in a Dark Simpsons video (such as "Coronavirus Hits the Simpsons" and "Homer Lives Out the American Dream") is satisfying for the viewers after watching "Mr. Burns Violates Bart", where he ends up a Karma Houdini at the end. In short: Mr. Burns gets away with raping Bart and almost driving him to suicide.
• Discussed in Extra Credits. In the episode, they explain the difference between this trope and sadism.
• The Kindness of Devils: Several major villains in the series are absolutely vile and commit dozens of abhorrent crimes within their screentime. The author seems to enjoy making sure that every villain suffers a satisfying, well-deserved demise that's pathetic and/or painful, and at the peak of their Villainous Breakdown.
• Whenever The Nostalgia Critic gets to tell off his stalker Hyper Fan Girl, a lot of abuse/stalking victims comment to say how it makes them feel better.

Webcomics

• Homestuck: Seeing Gamzee get shot up after being a Karma Houdini, by Caliborn of all people.
  • Then Gamzee getting sliced in half by Kanaya's chainsaw and Caliborn getting the tar beaten out of him by John in [S]:Game Over was quite cathartic, as both were reprehensible and faced no penalties thus far for killing Equius and Nepeta in Gamzee's case (plus having just murdered Karkat as well), and killing Calliope and bullying the post-Scratch Kids in Caliborn's case.
  • Even before this, Kanaya became a true hero to all when she curb-stomped Vriska, Gamzee, and Eridan after they all went mad with power.
  • In the events leading up to [S]: Game Over, Aranea Serket was revealed to have her own agenda to defeat the Big Bad; her poorly-conceived plan led to her bringing herself back to life by stealing the Ring of Life that the protagonists were planning to use to revive Calliope, performing a Mind Rape on Jake, murdering Jade, Jake, and Jane, mortally wounding Terezi, and dooming the timeline, all while being an intolerable Smug Snake throughout. Shortly after [S]: Game Over, the Condesce—who is herself a cruel despot—pops the Ring of Life off her finger, snaps her neck, and throws her into a fiery inferno, after which Aranea completely disappears from the story for good.
  • [S]: Collide provides several more: The Condesce gets her own when Roxy impales her with Dirk's katana In the Back, after she made the trolls' planet a Crapsack World and left Roxy and Dirk as the last two humans alive on Earth in the post-Scratch universe, and Hero Killer Jack Noir is finally defeated and de-powered by PM. By the end of the flash, almost all of the bad guys are dead.
• Happens in one instance of The Order of the Stick:
  Roy: I think you just made a tactical error there, Nale.
  Nale: Oh really? You think I can't take you?
  Roy: Maybe. Maybe not. But I do know one thing: I've been suppressing the urge to beat the crap out of someone who looks EXACTLY like you for a long, long time.
  • After making life Hell for Elan for such a long time, not to mention callously murdering his other son Nale, General Tarquin's final downfall is thoroughly enjoyable. Elan makes it clear that he's not going to go along with his father's deluded scenario, frustrates Tarquin's plans to the point where the previously unflappable tyrant goes into a Villainous Breakdown, and finally extends him a Cruel Mercy when he abandons Tarquin in the middle of nowhere (since killing Tarquin would have meant going along with his delusions) with no idea of what's going to happen next. The last we see of Tarquin is him in the throes of insanity, desperately pleading for his son to come back and give him some closure.

Western Animation

• Arthur: Any time D.W. receives punishment or some kind of comeuppance for her actions is seen as this. Such as when Arthur punches her in "Arthur's Big Hit" or her parents punish her for swearing in "Bleep".
• As Told by Ginger:
  • In "The Easter Ham" Darren chews Dodie out for her It's All About Me attitude. She's acted so horrible throughout the episode that seeing her yelled at by someone normally as soft-spoken as Darren is very satisfying.
  • Ginger standing up to Joann in "Lunatic Lake" after the latter spent the entire episode being shrill bitch definitely counts — especially since she finally loses her temper with Joann when she starts badmouthing Carl in front of her. Macie throwing a bunch of maple syrup all over her also felt quite cathartic.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy:
  • For everything Sarah regularly puts Ed through, it's tremendously satisfying in "Little Ed Blue" where an uncharacteristically moody Ed shouts at her to back off, scaring her shitless.
    Sarah: Ed! You listen to me, mister! You can't kick me out! I LIVE HERE TOO!!
    Ed: SO MOVE!!
  • In Big Picture Show, Eddy's Brother getting whacked by Ed and tortured by the Kankers is absolutely rewarding after witnessing his horrific treatment of Eddy.
• In Final Space, after everything he's done, it's very satisfying to watch Gary and his father take advantage of time freezing to deliver an absolutely savage beatdown on The Lord Commander — although he is still Jack at the time, he was already set to become who he is now once time unfroze. And for those who weren't gratified by this because of the Jack thing, it's immensely satisfying when the present Lord Commander gets impaled by Nightfall and slowly dies of trauma, shortly after he's tortured Mooncake and caused the destruction of Earth all for his vain and selfish ego no less.
• House of Mouse is built on this. Many of the Disney Animated Canon’s villains are made into Punch-Clock Villains and often the subject of the various gags. As one such example Chernabog from Fantasia drops his silent intimidating mystique and is given a goofy, raspy voice; he even admits he’s afraid of the dark! Basically, if there was a Disney Villain that scared you or anyone you know as a kid? This is a good way to recover from those terrors.
• Kaeloo: Kaeloo is often portrayed as a Control Freak and her treatment of Mr. Cat is often borderline abusive. In Episode 16, after a particularly harsh act of Disproportionate Retribution, Kaeloo apologizes to Mr. Cat, but he rejects her apology and walks away.
• For anyone who has shipped Kim and Ron from Kim Possible from the beginning, and going through agonizing moments of Ship Tease, them getting a Relationship Upgrade and The Big Damn Kiss was long overdue, but worth waiting for. Especially considering the heartbreak they both go through in the movie.
• In The Legend of Korra, Mako had spent the first half of the series being hyped as the next Zuko, sucking up screen time in a Love Triangle, getting Character Shilling and being Unintentionally Unsympathetic. Not only does the Humiliation Conga he goes through in the first couple episodes of Book 3 prove the writers got the message, but his segment in "Remembrances" further calls him out on his past behavior with the cast voicing fan complaints about him as basically a Take That Us and if one wants to go even further, his reaction to finding out his ex-girlfriends are dating each other is the karmic cherry on top.
• The Mighty Max episode "Norman's Conquest" has Norman, the title character's badass guardian who normally knows no fear, being pursued by the psychotic barbarian Spike who who murdered Norman's father Erlik in ancient times. Norman's usually a Blood Knight who loves combat, but he just doesn't think he can win against Spike. It's also implied he feels a lot of guilt and shame for failing to get Erlik his axe when Erlik needed him to. Max, Norman and Virgil spend most of the episode running from Spike, who is able to find them no matter where they go. When Spike finally catches up to them, Norman fights for his life while Max and Virgil go to retrieve Erlik's axe, which will help Norman give the confidence to fight back. Once they return with the axe, all of Norman's fear and guilt are gone, replaced with an extremely pissed-off Tranquil Fury. Anyone who's ever dealt with bullying will find it incredibly satisfying to see Norman turn the tables on Spike:
  Norman: My father's axe! Now I can avenge his death!
  Spike: Over my dead body!
  Norman: Heh heh... Works for me...
• After all the times in the various Peanuts strips and TV specials in which Lucy cruelly pulled the football away from Charlie Brown when he tried to kick it (particularly in It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown in which she not only intentionally cost her team the football game by doing it but also let Charlie Brown take the blame), Charlie Brown himself experiences this in It's Magic, Charlie Brown. Having turned invisible, he not only catches Lucy off-guard by kicking the football, he also taunts her about it and laughs in her face. Even though, in the second attempt, Snoopy turns Charlie Brown back to visible and Lucy does manage to pull the football away, Charlie still gets to taunt Lucy about his previous success; and when Lucy insults "the stupid beagle", Snoopy casts a spell on her that leaves Lucy floating in the air and looking like an idiot while he and Charlie Brown happily skip home. To complete Lucy's humiliation, she is only brought back down by Linus catching her with the security blanket she hates so much. Yeah, Lucy really drew the short straw there.
  • Also, seeing Peter Griffin mercilessly beat her up in a Family Guy Cutaway Gag for pulling that stunt one time too many is just as satisfying.
  • One that was faithfully adapted from the comics was when Lucy promised not to pull the ball away from Charlie again because he was sick. Sure enough, Charlie comes to collect on this debt... and kicks Lucy's hand instead. While intended to be an Epic Fail, for a lot of people this was very cathartic.
• Planet Hulk: Caiera setting the Red King's Spike spore on him; the very same one he used to kill her parents. This causes his Death's Head Guards, who were programmed by him to prioritize eradicating the Spike infection, to burn him to death with him screaming in agony.
• The Powerpuff Girls: In "Bought and Scold", Princess Morbucks becomes mayor and legalize crime. This in turn has the Girls having to take in and bear all the crimes the various criminals gleefully do. At one point they even shed tears because they are basically painted as the bad guys (something that happens rarely). So it can be really satisfying when the three tricks Princess into removing her own law and beating up the criminals they had to ignore. It's especially satisfying for the Gangreen Gang and a couple of robbers, who confidently shows the previous law only for the Girls to show them the updated law. Cue for pre-ass kicking worried smiles.
• Primal (2019): Spear violently killing every last one of the ape-men after their champion grievously injures his companion Fang.
• The Proud Family:
  • In "Penny Potter", Oscar finally loses it and just snaps at Suga Mama for treating him as The Unfavorite. Unfortunately, this is the only time when Suga Mama ever gets called out for her behaviour that is, frankly, flat out abusive towards Oscar.
  • Anytime Dijonay or LaCienega get called out for their actions, let alone recieve punishment for them, given how they're terrible friends to Penny.
• Samurai Jack:
  • After being a Karma Houdini for over fifty years In-Universe and sixteen years in Real Life (due to the show being cancelled then Un-Cancelled after a long period) and yanking the protagonists' chain at every opportunity he got, and being an all-around monster to his foes and allies alike, Aku finally got what was coming to him during the series finale.
  • Watching Ashi give The Dominator a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown before he blows up is quite satisfying, especially for those who genuinely believe The Dominator is Eric Cartman.
  • Not like fans weren't hoping for it; after all the scenes with the High Priestess brutally torturing her own daughters, the scene in "XCVIII" where Ashi finally strikes her down is very fulfilling. What makes it even better is that with Aku's death in the past, no human being as horrible as her will ever exist again.
• The Simpsons: In "Homer The Smithers", Smithers selects Homer to fill in for him as Mr. Burns' personal assistant while he's on mandatory leave (as somebody so woefully incompetent that Burns would appreciate him more). Eventually, Homer gets so sick of being berated by Mr. Burns that he punches him in a fit of rage. Although he panics when he sees what he's done, it's still incredibly satisfying to see Homer finally deck him in the face after everything Mr. Burns did in the previous seasons.
• South Park
  • Eric Cartman is a sociopathic Enfant Terrible who commits any atrocity he likes while not having to face repercussions for the most part. However, for the times he does get punished for what he does the writers make sure that he suffers so the audience can relish at his anguish. A notable example has Cartman getting horrendously beaten up by Wendy after he makes fun of breast cancer, and yes, it's as satisfying as it sounds. Kyle himself does this when Cartman intentionally infects him with HIV. He tells Cartman "I am going to break everything that you own!" and proceeds to do as much damage as he can.
  • Cartman's karma becoming permanent is a satisfaction that was previously thought not to be possible until the end of South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid made it happen. While the circumstances for it to occur may be considered tragic since he sacrificed his happy life and family to ensure a better future for all of his peers, seeing Cartman be reduced to a homeless and miserable drunk whose all alone in the future while all of his friends get to live happy lives free from his influence is still very satisfying, given how awful he was as a child and how much his "friends" had to suffer because of his actions.
• Some of the biggest complaints about Steven Universe are that: 1) the Crystal Gems, despite loving the titular character, have no problem at sending him to fight monsters, save the universe and use him as an Living Emotional Crutch to fix their own unresolved issues; 2) The Diamonds and Spinel, despite their attempts to kill him and his loved ones multiple times, got off scot-free. So it becomes outright cathartic in Steven Universe: Future's penultimate episode when they finally admit that their actions are part of the reasons why Steven accidentally corrupted himself into a pink Kaiju-like monster, due to the trauma he experienced in the original series and movie, and they end up saving him with a Cooldown Hug.
• Total Drama:
  • Heather would usually get what was coming to her whenever she messed with the other contestants in the form of revenges by her arch enemies Gwen and Leshawna such as Gwen dumping ants on Heather after Heather read her diary to everyone or Leshawna locking Heather in the freezer for her Bad Boss behavior in "If You Can't Take the Heat". However her defeat in Island was the most satisfying. After spending the whole season treating Lindsay like trash, and betraying her, Lindsay ends up being the one to cause Heather's downfall by daring her to have her head shaved by Chef... which does happen to her but she gets eliminated anyway since she accidentally kicked the razor out of Chef's hand and onto her head instead of willingly doing it.
  • Given how thoroughly hateable he is, watching Chris McLean suffer is satisfying every single time.
    • In "Eat Puke And Be Wary", Chris gets flung into a toilet and is stuck there for the entire episode.
    • In "Brains Vs Brawn: The Ultimate Showdown" Chris gets blown up by his explosives then arrested for his waste dumping. The best part, his prison sentence lasts a whole year.
    • Being that he was the one most victimized by Chris, it a special treat to watch Ezekiel torture him in "Zeek And Ye Shall Find".
  • After spending the entirety of World Tour being a Manipulative Bastard, it was very satisfying to see Heather knee Alejandro where it hurts. However, what followed with him getting burned alive by the erupting volcano and stuck in a robot suit for a year has been criticized for being too harsh and earned him a few sympathy points.
  • Scott's fate at the end of "Eat, Puke and Be Wary" can be read as this to some. While it is brutal, even for Total Drama standards, some of his detractors might see this as very satisfying to watch after getting fan-favorite characters like B and especially Dawn eliminated and (to a lesser extent) taking advantage of Mike's disorder.
• Ch'rell getting shredded to pieces by his own device at the end of Turtles Forever at the hands of Bebop and Rocksteady of all people is definitely this for all the horrible things he's done throughout the 2003 series.

Other

• Most people have something they do when they're stressed — be it listening to music, working out, whittling, whatever.
• The Anger Room is a business in Dallas, Texas where you can pay to destroy furniture and other such objects. Other places like these exist throughout the world; this is just one of them.

---