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Cycle of Revenge: Difference between revisions
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[[Moral Myopia]] often deepens it, when both sides think that [[Disproportionate Retribution|one of theirs is worth a dozen of the others]], and so attempt to inflict that many deaths in retribution. The escalating body count creates a vicious circle.
Very unfortunate [[Truth in Television]], and [[Older Than Feudalism]]; the cycle of vengeance upon vengeance makes up much of the history of the human race, with examples like the infamous Hatfield/McCoy feud and current blood feuds in Albania and elsewhere that are still going on to this very day, with no one remembering just what started it, but motivated by all the violence that followed, with each successive revenge motivating the victims or others connected to them to strike back at the one who took the initial revenge. It is a very vicious cycle.
A note on the "eye for an eye" maxim: many ethnologists believe that this wasn't a demand to go out and seek revenge, but rather a ''limit'' on how much revenge that one could exact (so if someone blinds you in one eye, you can't kill them, but at most half-blind them back). According to this theory, those who laid down this rule hoped that this limitation would put a brake on the development of such vicious cycles. According to another theory, espoused by [[Department of Redundancy Department|Jewish rabbis]], the Hebrew actually implies that monetary compensation is to be given in place of the eye, with the amount of the compensation to be the same regardless of whose eye was harmed (hence, "eye for an eye"). Unfortunately, given human nature in general, people didn't much listen, and as a result - as Mahatma Gandhi, a well-known nonviolence activist, is supposed to have put it - "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
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* A horribly convoluted one in ''[[Master of Martial Hearts]]''. Basically {{spoiler|a generation ago Aya's father organized a [[Street Fighter]] expy brawl for plucky [[Action Girl|Action Girls]]. Aya's mother won, the other contestants were mindraped to the breaking point, conditioned into sexual slavery and sold. Two sisters in particular took the short stick: the younger got raped and killed by Aya's father, in front of her young daughter, Miko, the eldest got her voice box removed and was sold overseas. She managed to escape, rebuilt her life as a somewhat functional [[Stepford Smiler]] [[Cute Mute]] and had a daughter, Natsume. When the two cousins managed to know all the story, they decided to exact revenge. By masterminding and creating a new Platonic Hearts Tournament. And enrolling Aya. And making her fight, and defeat, countless otherwise innocent Action Girls. [[Misplaced Retribution|Who are then promptly mindraped and maimed as their mothers were.]] [[Disproportionate Retribution|And trying, failing, to get Aya to suffer the same fate]].}}. Casting aside the sheer idiocy of the whole plan, there's no warranty whatsoever that the cycle can't be restarted at any time, now, {{spoiler|something Aya is willing to change at the end of the series even if it means having to murder Natsume and Miko's families so they don't start any more trouble.}}
* This was fortunately averted in ''[[One Piece]]''. It began when Usopp was beaten up by the Franky Family as they stole the crew's money. Cue [[Papa Wolf|the Straw Hats retaliating]] by destroying the Franky Family's home with everyone in it. When Franky finds out his nakama were beaten up and their home in pieces, he says [[This Is Unforgivable!]] and hunts Luffy down to get even. However, a series of circumstances would have the Straw Hats and the Franky Family work together and in the end, Franky pulled a [[Heel Face Turn]] and ended up joining the Straw Hats.
** The Fishmen Island arc is all about this, bringing together several subplots that have been running since the beginning of the series. Queen Otohime is the most open-minded of the fishmen/mermaids and advocating for peaceful reconciliation rather than continued retaliation against humans, which {{spoiler|she would hold even to her death and pass on to her children.}}
** Arlong, while initially not as willing to totally kill and subjugate humans as seen in his flashbacks, let his continued hatred and prejudice {{spoiler|as well as his captain Fisher Tiger's death by humans}} convince him that all humans are nothing but trash. His actions encouraged Hody Jones, who had grown up in a culture dominated by hate and racism towards humans and sees anyone associating with humans as his enemy, attacking and killing fishmen/mermaids. {{spoiler|Hody Jones was the one who killed Queen Otohime and has even stated that humans have done nothing to him personally.}}
* Averted in ''[[Code Breaker]]'': {{spoiler|Kouji allowed Toki to believe he was the one who killed Nenene so that Toki wouldn't kill the real murderer Saechika, causing the Prince to kill Toki to avenge her long-lost brother. "I killed your sister and your brother is dead. Things are neater that way."}}
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== Comic Books ==
* In the original ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' comic books, the turtles kill Oroku Saki/The Shredder on Splinter's behalf, as revenge for the death of Splinter's former owner, Hamato Yoshi, who had died at Saki's hand. Yoshi, for his part, had been killed (along with his lover Tang Shen because Saki was a dick) as revenge for slaying Oroku Nagi, Saki's older brother. Why was Nagi killed? Because when Tang Shen, the object of both Yoshi and Nagi's affections, chose Yoshi over Nagi, Nagi flew into a rage and [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|savagely beat her]]; one berserker rage later, Yoshi had killed Nagi. Saki's death wasn't the end of things, however; after he was slain, the Foot Clan that he led became honor-bound to kill the turtles in order to avenge him, and the cycle continues until Karai, who had been sent from Japan in order to unify the then-warring Foot Clan, offers to end the vendetta if the turtles help her eliminate one of the rogue factions, a deal which they take.
* In a sort of one-sided variation, old [[DC Comics]] villain/antihero ''[[The Shade]]'' keeps being pursued by the descendants of a criminal he killed over a century ago.
* ''Scion'' was built on this trope. The Heron and Raven kingdoms fought each other for centuries without even remembering why before settling their differences by [[Combat by Champion]]. Ethan accidentally cutting Bron's face in a combat tournament leads to {{spoiler|Bron taking Ethan under custody, which leads to Ethan escaping, which leads to the Ravens declaring war on the Herons, which leads to Bron murdering Ethan's brother Artor in battle, which leads to Ethan going after Bron}}, and so on and so on until {{spoiler|the Ravens and Herons unite against the invading Tigris kingdom}}.
* This is the entire concept of Jango Fett's backstory comic series. It progresses thusly: [[Complete Monster|Vizsla]] murders ten-year-old Jango's entire family. Jango helps the Mandalorians kill all of Vizsla's men and horribly scars his face. Vizsla leads the Mandalorians into a death trap and personally kills Fett's Mandalorian mentor. Vizsla frames the Mandalorians for mass murder and the Jedi kill all of them. Fett destroys Vizsla's ship, killing most of his men and savagely beats him down (though he gets a nasty beating in return). The cycle is ended when Fett slashes open Vizsla's belly, causing him to be set upon by a pack of predatory cats while Fett plays dead.
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* In [[American History X]], this trope is {{spoiler|played tragically straight, with a gang of [[Unfortunate Implications|black]] [[Truth in Television|bullies]] shooting Danny dead in retaliation for him pulling a [[Bully Hunter]] on them the day before}}.
* In ''[[Death Sentence]]'', Nick (Kevin Bacon's character) {{spoiler|having his son killed in a gang initiation}}, which leads to {{spoiler|Nick killing the guy who killed his son}}, which leads to {{spoiler|the killers coming after him}}, which leads to {{spoiler|Nick killing one of the killers}}, which leads to {{spoiler|the killers killing Nick's wife}}, which leads to {{spoiler|Nick killing the rest of the killers}}.
* This is the entire basis of the film ''[[Changing Lanes]]'': When each man refuses to budge and try to see things from the other person's shoes, they get stuck in a cycle of increasingly un-diplomatic responses and revenge. Throughout the film, it is shown where each gets opportunities to end it by doing the right thing... opportunities that are, for the most part, promptly ignored.
* Discussed in [[Troy]]. Hector kills Patroclus in battle, so Achilles kills Hector, so Paris plans to kill Achilles. Briseis asks Achilles where it all ends, and he replies "It never ends".
* The ''[[Joshuu Sasori]]'' films develop a series of these across the first four entries. The protagonist's desire for revenge against the detective by whom she was seduced and betrayed fuels her repeated escape attempts. Thus, the guards hate her. This results in harsh punishments for all the prison inmates, which means they all hate her too, and they hate the guards almost as much. The warden hates her personally for causing all the trouble, and for the pain and embarrassment she's caused to happen to him personally. In the second film, savage new inmate Oba sees her as a threat to her dominance among the prisoners, causing more betrayal down the line, and a new vendetta for Matsu. The third film replaces the guards with detective Kondo, who takes her escape understandably personally. There's also the jealous woman downstairs from her, and old enemy Katsu to deal with. By the fourth film, pretty much every policeman and member of prison staff hate her passionately.
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* In [[The Bible]], the story of [[Religious Bruiser|Samson]] consists mainly of this trope. At one point, within a few verses, a Philistine commander claims "We just want to do to him what he did to us" and Samson claims "I just want to do to them what they did to me."
* ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'': The Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons are [[Feuding Families|engaged in a 30-year feud]], the origins of which are long since forgotten.
* A footnote in a ''[[Discworld]]'' novel (cannot remember which one) explains that war cries such as "[[Remember the Alamo!|Remember Koom Valley!]]" all tend to translate to "Let us remember the atrocity committed against us in the past that will excuse the atrocity we are about to commit today!"
** Almost certainly ''[[Discworld/Thud|Thud]]!''
*** Among others. Basically appears in every [[Discworld]] novel with dwarf-troll conflicts.
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* ''The Corsican Brothers'' (The original, not the Cheech and Chong lampoon!).
* In Nick Kyme's [[Warhammer 40000]] novel ''[[Salamanders|Salamander]]'', in the [[Backstory]], the 3rd Company had killed some renegades' captains; in the opening, they kill the 3rd Company's captain; shortly thereafter, the new captain goes in pursuit of them. {{spoiler|They get sidetracked by another issue, but happen on the killers, and get both the commander and the actual killer. Whereupon their captain is murdered after the battle.}}
* In Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Voyage of Maeldune", the hero is told to forbear his revenge because
{{quote|''And his white hair sank to his heels, and his white beard fell to his feet,
And he spake to me, 'O Maeldune, let be this purpose of thine!
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Thy father had slain his father, how long shall the murder last?
Go back to the Isle of Finn and suffer the Past to be Past.''' }}
* In Saberhagen's ''The Fourth Book of Lost Swords: Farslayer's Story'' The magical sword Farslayer, which can kill anyone from any distance, is hurled back and forth between two feuding families until only a few children are left alive.
* In [[Romeo and Juliet]], the Capulets and the Montagues avenge every death that the opposing family caused... who, in turn, avenge their deaths.
* In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[Timeline-191]]'', the Confederacy wins the Civil War and then, with help from Britain and France, defeats the USA in another war twenty years later. This leads to a culture of "Rememberance" and Revanchism in the USA, who plan for victory in another war and make an alliance with Germany for that purpose. This comes during the Great War, when the USA soundly defeats the Confederates, who then embark on an even more brutal program of revanchism and preparing for the next war under Jake Featherston's Freedom Party. If this all sounds familiar, it's because the series is largely based off of European history (see the [[Real Life]] section below) moved to North America.
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* In one episode of ''[[Hustle]]'', the gang were hired by a guy's ex-wife to ruin his life because she painted a very unsympathetic picture of him, but as the episode progresses, it is really blurred as to which of them is more at fault.
* An episode of ''[[Kung Fu]]'', appropriately titled "''An Eye for an Eye''", focuses on this situation.
* The classic ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''The Caves of Androzani''. The psychotic Sharaz Jek plunges the Androzani system into a costly war for the sole purpose of getting revenge on the business partner who betrayed and permanently disfigured him. General Chellak, on the other hand, is willing to sacrifice virtually his entire force in a suicidal frontal assault against Jek's killer androids in order to kill Jek.
* The cycle of revenge has emerged as the driving force in the overarching mythology of the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]''. "All this has happened before and all this will happen again."
* The closing episodes of the Filipino soap opera ''Kung Tayo'y Magkakalayo'' (English: "If We Were To Be Apart") deal with this, which involves Robbie Castillo, as he is engaged in a [[Mexican Standoff]] with Ringo Quijano, who's also Robbie's brother-in-law through his marriage with Gwen.
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''Dewey:'' [[It's All About Me|That would be unfair!]]<br />
''Francis:'' [[Beat]]. Yeah... [[Humans Are Bastards|It’s true]]. }}
* One case on ''[[New Tricks]]'' had the murder victim go to great lengths to break the cycle. A long running blood feud caused him to kill the patriarch of the other family so he fled to Britain, changed his name and even went so far as to have his sister (his only remaining relative) be adopted by a British couple so she knows nothing of her heritage. He is killed but this finally ends the cycle.
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**** As usual with Greek myths, there are actually several explanations why Artemis demanded Iphigenia's sacrifice, including one that was because Agamemnon's father had failed to sacrifice the first lamb of his flock to her, while according to Aischylos it was because two eagles (who symbolized Agamemnon and his brother Menelaos) had torn a pregnant hare to pieces, which enraged the goddess. And in the Iliad, Iphigenia wasn't sacrificed at all (Agamemnon offers the hands of all his three daughters in marriage to Achilles), while according to Euripides she was saved at the last moment and transported to Tauris (on the Crimea) to become a priestess at the local temple to Artemis...
**** The story is further complicated by Klytaimnestra (Agamemnon's queen) hooking up with Aigisthos, murderer of Agamemnon's father Atreus, who wanted to get revenge on Agamemnon for driving his father Thyestes (Atreus' brother) into exile from Mycene. (Because of an oracle, Thyestes had fathered Aigisthos by raping his own daughter Pelopia, in order to avenge his other children whom Atreus had killed). Aigisthos and Klytaemnestra together killed Agamemnon and Klytaemnestra for good measure also killed Agamemnon's prisoner/concubine Cassandra of Troy.
**** And all ''that'' came about from a curse on the House of Atreus from a man named Myrtilus, who Pelops killed after Myrtilus helped ''him'' murder King Oenomaus and marry his daughter Hippodameia to seize his kingdom. Granted, Myrtilus tried to rape Hippodameia, but Pelops still reneged on his promise to give Myrtilus half the kingdom.
**** Going back even '''further''', it's been suggested that part of the curse on Pelops and his descendants comes from the hubris of his father Tantalos, who originally murdered Pelops and tried to serve him in a stew to the gods. And then there was the fact that Tantalos had stolen the food of the gods and given it to his friends, along with telling them the gods' secrets. [[Disproportionate Retribution]] much?
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** And by extension, the Jets and Sharks in ''[[West Side Story]]''.
* Shakespeare's ''[[Titus Andronicus (theatre)|Titus Andronicus]]'' is one long and ''extremely'' bloody [[Cycle of Revenge]] between the title character and Tamora, the Queen of the Goths.
* There's some of this also in ''Hamlet''. In the course of avenging his father, Hamlet ends up with Laertes after him for killing ''his'' father.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Sometimes, the already twisted path of revenge is even more non-linear than normal, thanks to time-space anomalies and reincarnation, as is the case in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]''. {{spoiler|One might invoke the wrath of another for avenging one's past self, while also unwittingly putting oneself on one's own hit list along the way somehow. That can't be good for the space-time continuum or anyone else involved!}}
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' extended universe, including [[Knights of the Old Republic]], are chock full of these kinds of vendettas.
** Most of which get subverted to some degree or another, at least in the first [[Knights of the Old Republic]] game. Jagi wanted to take revenge on Canderous for allegedly abandoning his men during a battle to seize a tactical advantage. When facing down Jagi, one of the options is to point out that {{spoiler|Canderous probably saved a lot more lives by breaking from the battle plan.}} Jagi {{spoiler|commits suicide}} when he realizes that Canderous's actions were perfectly acceptable under the code of the Mandalorians.
** Bastila and her estranged mother, Helena, have a chilly reunion on Tatooine. Helena then requests that you go out to the desert to retrieve her {{spoiler|late}} father's holocron. When you do retrieve it, Bastila is tempted to keep it just to spite her mother. Turns out that Bastila's father was treasure-hunting {{spoiler|to fund the dying Helena's medical treatment}}.
** If you're inclined towards Darkness, you can [[Corrupt the Cutie|encourage Mission]] to abandon her deadbeat brother to the Exchange (organized crime) in revenge for him abandoning her on Taris.
** Juhani [[Lampshades]] this trope when talking about her past, how "Those who had been wronged saw their chance at revenge. The oppressed became the new generation of oppressors" after {{spoiler|the Jedi left Taris to fight more battles against the Mandalorians}}, bitterly lamenting that "the non-humans were never treated well in either case." There's also some cut dialogue for Juhani where she admits that she still hates and fears Mandalorians for committing genocide against her people, and voices her disapproval of Canderous among the crew. In one of the options, you can propose she go and kill him. She is still enough of a Jedi to balk at the idea of cold-blooded murder. However, when you meet up with {{spoiler|Xor, a mercenary who participated in the Cathar genocide, and who later murdered Juhani's father in a bar fight and tried to buy her as a slave}}, those with darker tendencies can cheerfully encourage her to skewer the jerk on her lightsaber.
** And when it comes to subverting this trope, Carth's the master. His primary motive for 3/4 of the game is to get revenge on his former mentor (and to a lesser extent, all Sith) for destroying his homeworld, killing his wife, and {{spoiler|training his teenage son as a Dark Jedi}}. When he finally {{spoiler|kills Saul, Saul uses his last breath to take revenge on Carth}} by announcing his friend (if you play male) or lover (if you play female) is none other than {{spoiler|Darth Revan}}! After the last Star Map is found, Carth admits that revenge didn't give him any peace, and that he can no longer hate {{spoiler|you, despite what you have done as Revan}}. With a female [[Player Character]], he elaborates further, saying that his promise to protect you has given him a new reason to live.
* To some degree, the motivations of most of the principal players of the ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' series are wrapped up in revenge upon revenge.
* Happens in ''[[Shenmue]]'' with Ryo's father...
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* In ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'', the conflict between the Sapphire Guard (an order of [[Lawful Good]] [[Knight in Shining Armor|Paladins]]) and the [[Subverted Trope|allegedly]] [[Always Chaotic Evil]] goblin races is a perfect example of this. The story makes it abundantly clear that both sides are at fault, but that the destruction of Azure City at the hands of [[The Dragon|Redcloak]]'s hobgoblin horde is a direct consequence of the Azurites' [[Knight Templar|arrogance]] in engaging in a preemptive genocidal crusade. For his part, Redcloak is only too happy to continue the cycle of atrocities.
** Vaarsuvius also gets some quality time with this trope in the arc with the vengeful black dragon and goes to some [[Disproportionate Retribution|rather extreme steps]] to end it. Unfortunately, this comes at the price of [[Deal with the Devil|owing his soul]] to some fiends who don't plan to wait for his death to collect, ''and'' she still gets hunted by agents of Tiamat for her actions.
* The plot of ''[[Juathuur]]'' is for the most part about this. Thomil is the only one concerned with actually breaking the cycle.
* Played with by the ''[[Girl Genius]]'' cast and their [[Parental Substitute|Parental Substitutes]]: the cycle tries to roll on, and is promptly... not exactly ''broken'', more like ''[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100512 derailed]''.
* This is a central theme of the "Hivebent" arc in ''[[Homestuck]]'', especially when it comes to [[Smug Snake|Vriska]] and her dealings with [[Vigilante Man|Terezi]] and [[Emotionless Girl|Aradia.]]
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' grabs hold of this theme firmly from multiple angles. Goliath wants revenge against the Vikings for his clan's genocide, Macbeth wanted revenge against Demona for her treachery, Demona wanted revenge against all humans... the list continues on, right down to a nameless guy who is always being shafted by the Gargoyle exploits, {{spoiler|who was able to break his own cycle by settling for shooting a Gargoyle in the face with a Pie Cannon.}}
** By the end of second season, Macbeth and Goliath manage to drop their respective beefs, but Demona never lets go of her vendetta against humanity ([[Word of God]] has stated she eventually will, thanks to her [[Morality Pet|daughter]]), and she in turn is pursued by a family of Hunters sworn to kill her.
** Two of the three most recent Hunters drop the axe thanks to Elisa's influence and the realization of how much their blood feud has cost them (up to and including one of them ending up paraplegic), but the nicest of the three [[Beware the Nice Ones|snaps]], and the cycle is perpetuated. Interestingly, the leader of the three most recent hunters admits it has been long forgotten why they hunt Gargoyles. All they know is that it is their family legacy.
** Gargoyles does contain one aversion to this trope. Xanatos refuses to pursue revenge on any of his enemies, calling it "a sucker's game". Judging by what happened to the other revenge seekers on this show, Xanatos may be right.
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== Real Life ==
* As already mentioned, a widely common phenomenon in cultures all over the world before the emergence of public prosecution, public executive (in other words, police), prison sentences (and, well, public prisons), and the state's monopoly of violence in general. Before these things became institutions, people all over the world were used to take justice and the enforcement of laws and sentences into their own hands.
** This is possibly the natural state of affairs when there is no organized society. All conflicts are resolved with physical violence and revenge is the sacred duty for the wronged lest the wronged lose his honor. This happens also everywhere where central government is weak, remote or effete.Once such culture of honor and vendetta has been born, it is almost impossible to weed out anymore.
* To prevent cycles of revenge from going on forever, or turning into ''spirals'' of revenge, the Anglo-Saxons, as well as many other medieval societies had the institution of "wer-gild", or blood money. Someone outside the feud would come in and decide who had suffered the most (i.e., which side had suffered the most murders.) The side that had suffered less would then have to pay a fine to the others' side proportional to the overzealousness of their revenge killings.
* There are several tribes particularly in South America and Africa that are plagued by this, having been stuck in perpetual warfare for generations because each death must be avenged with death.
* The culture of Vendetta on the islands of Sicily and Corsica caused this kind of thing to happen until very recently (and maybe it's not quite all over yet).
** On Corsica, this combined with the [[wikipedia:Corsican nationalism|separatist movement]] has led to the stereotypical association of the island in French media (including [[Franco Belgian Comics|comics]]) with the onomatopoeia ''boum''.
** This cycle of vendetta has led in many regions to severe depopulation as all males have either been killed or forced to flee due to centuries of vendette. In Albania it is commonplace in such situation for a woman to take the gender role of a male (to have "social sex change").
* [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|Israel/Palestine may or may not be this.]]
* A lot of gang violence boils down to this. Most being retaliations for other gang hits.
* The Hatfield-McCoy feud, which, according to popular lore, began with a dispute over a hog and eventually led to the murder of dozens of people. (The real reason for the feud probably had more to do with jealousy and a dispute over property rights in the valley where both families lived.)
* Most wars between Maori tribes were "revenge wars", where they would try and get "utu" for their fallen chief, by killing the other tribes chief.
* In Northern Ireland during The Troubles, cycles of revenge killings known as "tit for tat killings" were very common. Where random protestants or catholics were killed within hours of another killing-which would lead to another random killing.....
* Germany & France between 1870 and 1945. Germany's resounding victory in the Franco-Prussian war and subsequent annexation of territory led to 40+ years of "Revanchism" (meaning basically "Revenge-ism") being a dominant political movement in France and to France seeking alliances and preparing for another war with Germany. After the French & Allied victory in [[World War I]], there was a brief cooling of tensions after which the Nazis came to power and pursued their own agenda of revenge against the allies. Luckily after [[World War II]], in which both nations were devastated and left reliant on US support, they decided to work together...
** It went back further than that. From a German point of view, 1870/71 was payback for the humiliating defeats of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] (yes, they had beaten Napoleon in the end, but not without help from other great powers, most notably Russia and Great Britain). While in France, the victory of Jena and Auerstedt in 1806 was seen as revenge for the humiliating defeat at Rossbach against the Prussian army in 1757 during the [[Seven Years War]], which in turn was seen by Germans as revenge for Louis XIV's wars of aggression, and so on until the middle ages. People in all seriousness talked of the "hereditary enmity" (''Erbfeindschaft'') between Germany and France, but that term actually first was coined to describe the long-running enmity between the houses of Habsburg (German emperors and kings of Spain) and Valois/Bourbon (kings of France) that went back to the 15th century.
* The Norsemen during the [[Horny Vikings|Viking age]] were infamous for this. If a man felt wronged by another, meaning an insult or an act of violence, there were four ways to resolve the conflict.
** They could reach a settlement, tallying damages for both parties and having one pay a restitution to the other. Any man was honour-bound against breaking such a settlement.
** Next there was the option of taking revenge. If a family member had been killed, his relatives as far related as cousins (including in-laws) were obligated to avenge the victim. With communities being small, it wasn't that uncommon for men to have to choose families as they had relatives in both, and usually, it ended up with entire communities fighting for generations. A man was honour-bound to avenge an unsettled vendetta, and the only alternative if he was unable or unwilling was fleeing the country.
** If a Viking wanted revenge without starting a blood feud, they would sometimes make their case at a ''thing'' (a court of chiefs and nobles). And while revenge killings were considered good and just, legal action was seen as underhanded and hostile, and as such was reserved for only the most serious of circumstances. Sentences were fines, banishment, or being declared [[Outlaw]] (effectively a dishonourable, unavengable death sentence for you or anyone who helps you).
** Lastly there was the option of demanding a trial by combat. This meant either death, or a verdict of banishment or outlaw, for the loser, with a risk of death from wounds for the victor too.
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[[Category:Cycle of Revenge]]
[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]
[[Category:Hatred Tropes]]
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