Revenge Tropes

"Revenge is sweeter than life itself. So think fools."

- Juvenal

""And I... will make them pay for what they've done!""

- Captain Picard, Star Trek First Contact

""I'll have my reveeeengeeeeee!""

- Juri, Super Street Fighter 4 (Repeatedly)

"An eye for an eye" has long been the standing policy for most humans. Perhaps it's related to reciprocal altruism - just as people are prone to repay kindness, they are also prone to repay evil. In any case, the concept of revenge works even better in fiction.

See also:
 * Crime and Punishment Tropes
 * Hatred Tropes
 * Morality Tropes


 * Animal Nemesis: A person fixates upon an animal as his arch-rival as a result of twisted logic. Also called Captain Ahab Syndrome.
 * Avenging the Villain: A villain goes after the hero in vengeance for another villain that the hero killed.
 * Best Served Cold: Dedicating one's life to fighting evil in hopes of getting revenge.
 * Buy Them Off: Trying to buy off the victim of a crime so they will not seek revenge when they learn that the person has wronged them.
 * Color Me Black: Taking revenge on a racist by transforming them into the object of their hatred.
 * Crusading Widower: The death or murder of a family motivates the father to seek revenge.
 * Cycle of Revenge: Vengeance begets vengeance, and tends to lead to a blood feud.
 * Designated Bullet: Saving or Crafting a specific special bullet for your specific special target.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: For when "eye for an eye" just isn't enough for some people. (Hell, the concept of "an eye for an eye" was invented to avoid this!)
 * Extreme Melee Revenge: Carrying out revenge, melee style, WAY beyond what is necessary or (sometimes) even deserved.
 * Feuding Families: A Cycle of Revenge between families.
 * Flushing Toilet Screaming Shower: Messing with the water temperature in some way to get back at someone using the shower.
 * Food Slap: A character avenges a wrong by throwing food or drink at the offender.
 * Gaias Vengeance: Earth has had enough of being abused by humanity, and now, she's striking back.
 * Genocide Backfire: Trying to wipe out a people to keep them from destroying you will only give the survivors (and there are always survivors) all the reason they need to destroy you.
 * Gypsy Curse: A curse that is more about vengeance and spite than actual justice. Expect it to be Disproportionate Retribution.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: When a character out for vengeance becomes just as bad as (if not worse than) the scum they're trying to take vengeance on.
 * Honor Related Abuse: When parents off their offspring because they somehow "stained" the family's honor. Often comes with a heaping helping of Values Dissonance and Unfortunate Implications, particularly when a woman is targeted for this.
 * The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Someone who is pursued decides to stop running and turn the tables on their pursuers.
 * I Ate What?: Character eats or drinks something that's not intended to be food, usually prepared by someone wanting to get back at them. Ew.
 * It's Personal: The villain has killed or otherwise hurt someone important to the hero. Now the hero wants revenge.
 * Misplaced Retribution: Revenge directed against those who cannot reasonably be blamed for the crime, save by some extremely shaky justification.
 * Opposites Attract Revenge: When a Love Triangle leads to a vendetta between the two rival love interests.
 * Paranoia Gambit: A Batman Gambit involving the victim sabotaging oneself out of paranoia.
 * Parking Payback: Parking somewhere you shouldn't has consequences.
 * Pay Evil Unto Evil: Doing bad things to bad people because they deserve it. The core of revenge.
 * Rape and Revenge: A person (usually a woman) gets revenge on their rapist.
 * Relative Button: A person finally confronts another over the family members they murdered.
 * Remember the Alamo: A battle cry named for an enemy atrocity; a call for revenge in war.
 * Restrained Revenge: Settling for a much lesser (often petty) token revenge to show that you have "forgiven" them.
 * Reunion Revenge: Someone uses a Class Reunion as a means of getting back at the people who wronged him or her back in school.
 * Revenge: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. What this index is all about.
 * Revenge Against Men: A woman seeks to avenge herself against men in general or a particular man who done her wrong.
 * Revenge Before Reason: When someone pursues revenge over more sensible goals, often leading to ruin.
 * Revenge By Proxy: When a villain targets an innocent connected to the person he wants revenge on, just to make the person suffer for what he did to a person connected to them. One of the more despicable forms of revenge.
 * Forced to Watch: Forcing the target to watch their loved one be abused/assaulted/maimed/tortured/raped/frozen/petrified/killed/erased/condemned/wedgied horribly, just to take the Cold-Blooded Torture aspect (and Moral Event Horizon crossing) Up to Eleven.
 * Would You Like to Hear How They Died: The other way the perpetrator of Revenge By Proxy can twist the knife (and be launched across the Moral Event Horizon.)
 * Revenge Fic: Fanfic where the author is out to kill a character he or she hates or make his or her life a living hell.
 * Revenge Myopia: Seeking retribution against someone who may have acted in self-defence, or on behalf of someone who is less than pure.
 * Revenge of the Nerd: A unbelievably hot woman seduces the guy who made fun of her in school as a nerdy wallflower, then rejects and humiliates him.
 * Revenge SVP: When someone isn't invited to a party, the snubbed one seeks revenge.
 * Revenge Through Corruption - Villain does Revenge By Proxy or Sins of Our Fathers through corrupting the enemy's loved one(s) - i.e., an engineered Face Heel Turn.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Revenge that dispenses with Machiavellian plotting and goes straight for the violence.
 * Sins of Our Fathers: Children are punished for what their parents have done.
 * The Chain of Harm: Evil you do to one person doesn't stop there, it messes up their entire family.
 * Then Let Me Be Evil: The character gives up on trying to be good and decides to do unto others as has been done unto him.
 * This Is Unforgivable!: As a way of expressing his/her desire for revenge on someone for pushing him/her too far or doing something horrible to those close to him/her, one character announces that what the other character did was unforgivable and therefore he/she must pay for what he's/she's done.
 * This Means War: Similarly to This Is Unforgivable! above, in order to avenge their loved ones who were killed or the fact that they got pushed around too much, a character declares war against the other character before proceeding to kick their ass and get revenge for said loved ones.
 * Vehicular Sabotage: Taking revenge on someone by damaging the car they know and love... possibly in a way that will get them killed in the process.
 * Who's Laughing Now?: When a character becomes a villain to get revenge on those who have treated them as a Butt Monkey or Chew Toy.
 * Woman Scorned: She's been done wrong by her man, and she wants revenge.
 * You Killed My Father: If a character's father has been killed, it will be that character who kills the guy responsible.