It's Personal: Difference between revisions

[[File:jaws_revenge_350_8170jaws revenge 350 8170.jpg|link=Jaws the Revenge|frame|Nothing more personal than [[Voodoo Shark|a shark on a vendetta!]]]]

{{quote|''Now Halloween is over. No more tricks. No more bombs. No more webbing. No more masks! You were right earlier. This has never been about Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. It has always been about [[Spider-Man|Peter Parker]] and [[Norman Osborn]]. Tonight we will settle this face-to-face. As men!''|'''[[Spider-Man|Peter Parker]]'''}}

The [[Disposable Woman]] is a character who exists only to make [['''It's Personal]]''' happen. When it gets personal, characters insist they must [[I Work Alone|work alone]].

If a character has this as his primary motivation rather than as part of another quest, then he's [[Not in This For Your Revolution]].

** And in the OTHER''other'' sequel, ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]'', the version manga of Duke Fleed hated Commander Barendos after he {{spoiler|dropped his little siblings from a height from three kilometers}} in front of him. The sole sight or mention of him press HARD Duke's [[Berserk Button]].

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'': Do NOT mess with Yugi (or Tea, for that matter). Yami WILL kill you. For that matter, don't screw with Mokuba. it's a great way to get Kaiba pissed off.

** {{spoiler|Aizen}} already made it very personal for Hitsugaya {{spoiler|after brutally stabbing Momo Hinamori, Aizen's previous lieutenant and Hitsugaya's childhood friend/prospective love interest, when the former defected from the Soul Society}}, but when {{spoiler|Aizen tricked Hitsugaya into ''impaling Hinamori'' in chapter 392}}... talk about cranking the ''"[[It's Personal]]"'' meter [[Up to Eleven|up to astronomical proportions]].

** Ishida's battle with Mayuri is probably the most epic case of this in the series.

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'', it's revealed that Gauron and Sousuke initially had nothing against each other. And then Gauron decided to attack the Guerilla village Sousuke had been living in, mass slaughtering all the citizens while Sousuke and Kalinin were out. Not to mention how, after that, he decided to accept a job from the KGB to go after Sousuke and Kalinin and kill them. After all ''that''... it became personal.

* The very first episode of ''[[ToA AruCertain Kagaku noScientific Railgun]]'' has Saten trying to be [[Badass Normal]] by stopping an escaping bank robber. Unfortunately for her, she's just a teenage girl while her target is an adult man. Fortunately for her however, Mikoto witnesses the bad guy kicking into Saten. Cue Mikoto showing [[Wave Motion Gun|why]] is her nickname "the Railgun" despite the fact that as a [[Badass Bystander]], she has no real reason to join the fray.

* "''[[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index|]]'': "Stiyl, I'm gonna go punch Fiamma. While I'm gone, you take care of Index.]]"

{{quote| '''Tubby''': Lulu's played her last dirty trick on me! This time, I'm just really fed up! This time, [[Large Ham|the worm is gonna turn!]]}}

* The presence of this trope is what distinguishes a superhero's [[Arch Enemy]] from his or her [[Sliding Scale of Villain Threat|most dangerous enemy]]. The two are rarely one and the same.

{{quote| '''Allfather D'aronique''': You killed her, Custer. {{spoiler|You killed my Aunt Marie!}}<br />

* In ''[[Superman: Red Son]],'' Lex Luthor was originally hired to kill Superman (here a champion of the Soviet Union) by the US Government and just saw it as another problem to solve with his genius intellect. But he decides to devote his entire life to the task shortly after Superman defeats a Bizarro duplicate he created. But he later reveals that wasn't the problem- the thing that drove him over the edge was that Bizarro managed to beat him in chess, implying that he, and by extension the original Superman, was more intelligent then he was.

*** His son then took up his mantle during a single storyarcstory arc where he built an entire robot army of spider-slayers which, as expected, were destroyed by Spidey. He even turned himself into a cyborg in order to beat Spidey one-on-one. [[Foregone Conclusion|He lost.]]

** It was the driving plot point in most, if not all of the action films of the [http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/80actionguide.cfm 80s and early 90s.] It was particularly [[Egregious]] in martial arts films revolving around a tournament (''Bloodsport'', ''Kickboxer'', ''The Karate Kid'', ''The Best of the Best''). It's not enough motivation for the hero to just compete with honour in a competition. Nope, his main rival has to have killed his brother, molested his girlfriend and [[Kick the Dog|kicked his dog]] too. Cop movies were bad too--intoo—in every ''Lethal Weapon'' movie, the villains threaten Murtaugh's family, and in the second film {{spoiler|we learn the villains have not only killed Riggs' current squeeze, but also killed his wife ''previous to the events of the first movie''}}.

* The 1989 [[Tim Burton]] ''[[Batman]]'' movie adds this to the relationship between Batman and the Joker -- itJoker—it is revealed that the Joker was the man responsible for murdering Bruce Wayne's parents.

** Played straight in ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', however, when Joker kills {{spoiler|Rachel Dawes}} and drives {{spoiler|Harvey Dent}} insane. Also inverted, however- Joker is actually ''trying'' to make Batman think [[It's Personal]] and act as such, ''trying'' to push him over the edge and actually kill him. More broadly, he is personal in symbolising everything that Batman is opposed to, and intentionally threatening the (mostly) crime-free city he had dedicated his life to.

{{quote| '''Vader''': "[[The Obi-Wan|Obi Wan]] never told you what happenned to your father."<br />

'''Luke''': "He told me enough. He told me [[You Killed My Father|you killed him]]."<br />

{{quote| '''{{spoiler|Saint Clair}}''': "Please understand... it was all business. It wasn't personal."<br />

** The novelization has him outright confirming that it was Huck Finn he was out to avenge.

** The conflict in ''[[Godzilla vs. Destoroyah]]'' becomes personal after the latter brutally tortures Godzilla Junior to death, then [[Kick Them While They Are Down|attacks Godzilla while he is]] ''[[Kick Them While They Are Down|grieving]]''.

{{quote| '''[[Black Widow (comics)|Natasha]]:''' I've been compromised... [[The Atoner|I've got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out.]]}}

** [[Iron Man]] and [[Captain America (comics)]], because Loki kills {{spoiler|Agent Coulson}}, hitting [[And This Is For|a little too close to home]] for both of them.

{{quote| '''Nick Fury:''' They needed the push.}}

* A dramatic literary subversion, from [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld/Men At Arms|Men Atat Arms]]'':

{{quote| "He killed Angua. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"<br />

** In a later book, ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'', Carrot decides to go to have a nap while pursuing {{spoiler|Angua's}} kidnappers by boat, on the basis that if he stayed awake fretting about her, he would be useless when they caught up to them.

** Partially subverted in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld/Thud|Thud!]]''. The baddies {{spoiler|and the Summoning Dark}} try to get the main character Vimes to make it personal multiple times. Whether they succeed is subject to discussion (though it does seem so in the end).

* Based on the previews, it looks like this is what the next [[The Dresden Files|Dresden Files]] book will be. For the first 11 books of the series, Harry fought vampires, necromancers, werewolves, faeries and [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|God]] knows what else because it was his job and because he [[We Help the Helpless|helps the helpless]]. According to Wikipedia and [[Jim Butcher]]'s own Web site, though, this next book will be different. (Which is implied by the name, ''Changes'', which is itself a change from the [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]] of the rest of the series.) The first line of the book:

{{quote| {{spoiler|I answered the phone, and Susan Rodriguez said, "They've taken our daughter."}}}}

== Live -Action TV ==

** ''[[Law & Order|Law and Order]],'' [[It's Personal]] episodes give us rare glimpses into the characters' home lives/personal histories (Logan confronts the priest who abused him in childhood, Logan tracks down his partner's killer, Briscoe tracks down his daughter's killer).

** ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'''s Det. Olivia Benson is searching continuously for her mother's rapist/Benson's biological father. While only one ''SVU'' episode dealt with investigating Ma Benson's rape, this [[Backstory]] was touched on in any episode involving pregnancy from a rape and at other times as well. Det. Benson has also been stalked by perpetrators at least three times in six seasons. On the other hand, her partner, Elliot Stabler, has his buttons pushed by any crime involving children (which is roughly every episode that doesn't involve a rape--andrape—and, for that matter, not a few which do). The series itself could be said to be made up almost entirely of [[It's Personal]] episodes, with each investigator having buttons that make them consider the case personal. (Why let someone work on a case they are clearly biased towards? No one ever plants evidence in this world, I guess...)

*** Benson took it to the extreme when someone who was convicted because of her testimony and was later cleared by DNA evidence ''eight years later'' started ''actually'' killing people. Other people ''she'' had brought in and testified against. She took it so personally that she said she would accept responsibility for the man's ''crimes''. He committed [[Suicide by Cop]] before the situation was resolved.

* Happens with some frequency in ''[[ER]]''--from—from the very first episode, Carol Hathaway was treated for a suicide attempt and by the time the final episode aired, nearly two-thirds of the characters having been in the ER for one reason or another, and not all surviving.

{{quote| '''Oz''': If I may suggest: "This time it's personal." I mean, there's a reason why it's a classic.}}

{{quote| '''The Doctor''': There's not a force on the planet that can stop me now!}}

{{quote| '''The Doctor''': You just killed someone I like, that is not a safe place to stand!}}

*** There are quite a few episodes in which Scully deals with her faith, and the slow losing of it. Others include "Redux II", "All Souls", "Biogenesis" and its sequels, and all of the things surrounding Wiliam's conception and birth.

*** Also, involving either Mulder or William in a conpsiracy is a good way to bump the episode up to a "it's personal" for Scully.

{{quote| '''Mulder''': "There are those who can be trusted. What I need to know is who among them is not. I will not allow this treason to prosper, not if they've done this to you."}}

** For the rest of the team, it was personal mainly because they hadn't gotten paid. In later episodes, though, Eliot's old girlfriend's barn is burned down, which pisses him off about both the girlfriend and the horses, and Parker gets obsessed with a job dealing with mistreated orphans, because she was one herself.

** At the end of the first season, Nate targets the man who is the head of his old insurance company. In season two, there are also several versions of this, they target a hacker who tried to kill Sophie and a psychic who brought back bad memories for Parker among several others.

{{quote| '''Mal''': To turn on ''any'' of my crew, you turn on ''me''!}}

* In ''[[Life]]'', Crews has pretty much taken the Roman situation to an [[It's Personal]] level after finding out that his partner's been abducted, probably by Roman, who has shown an increasing interest in her.

{{quote| '''Gob:''' Let me ask you something. Is this a business decision, or is it personal? 'Cause if it's business I'll go away happily. But if it's personal, I'll go away... ''but I won't be happy.''<br />

{{quote| '''Stringer Bell''': But y'all was fucking with my stash. Anything after that -- part of the game<br />

'''Omar''': Maybe, but you see, y'all went ''past'' that with Brandon.<br />

''(Later)''<br />

* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' has had quite a few where the case directly related to one of the team, and some where it didn't but one of the team identified with one or more of the people involved.

** Merlin is a fairly calm person, generally speaking, but if you dare to threaten someone he cares about, he ''will'' hurt you.

* ''[[Hulk Hogan]]'' has been involved in numerous examples of the trope, with perhaps the most important being [[Andre the Giant]] ripping off his crucifix during a Piper's Pit segment, as part of the lead-up to ''[[Wrestlemania]] III''. The feud continued to become more and more personal as Hogan felt that Andre, who had sided with [[Bobby Heenan|Bobby "The Brain" Heenan]] in a [[Face Heel Turn]] out of nowhere after being out of the ring for some time, had betrayed him by doing so.

* Partially Subverted in the feud between [[Randy Orton]] and [[John Cena]] in the last several years. Orton made things personal with Cena when he attacked Cena's father on multiple occasions. Cena returned the favor in recent years as he constantly got in Orton's way and drove the character to a near-obsession with getting Cena out of his life, and just when it seemed he was going to do so at Bragging Rights, Kofi Kingston prevented Orton from getting the victory. Which then caused a feud between Randy and Kofi.

* In ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'', Raynor, Zeratul, Mengsk and Artanis have all sworn revenge against Kerrigan for her general Not-So-Magnificent Bastardry.

{{quote| Forget duty! This is personal!}}

{{quote| '''The Boss''': Are you going to kill him?<br />

* In the first ''[[Mercenaries]]'', the player character was going after [[Big Bad|General Song]] for the One Hundred Million Dollar bounty on his head. In the sequel, [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Ramon Solano]] hires you to rescue General Carmona, a friend of his. Carmona then launches a coup, and Solano is installed as the President of Venezuela. Rather than pay the merc and let them be on their way, Solano tries to have them executed. People trying to kill them? That's something Jennifer, Chris, and Mattias are used to. Getting screwed out of a paycheck? [[It's Personal]] now.

{{quote| ''"Yeah! No one shoots him in the ass and gets away with it!"''}}

{{quote| '''Shepard:''' That was for {{spoiler|Thane/Miranda}}, you ''son of a bitch!''}}

* In the viral advertising website for ''[[BioshockBioShock (series)]] 2'', Mark Meltzer was devoted to finding out more about the recent kidnappings of six and seven year old girls around the North Atlantic, namely, who, why and where to. He eventually estimated where the next kidnapping was due to be and went there with his family. {{spoiler|His family included a seven year old girl. The kidnapper, a Big Sister, obviously recognised Mark as a threat and kidnapped his daughter. He then put his search into finding out where the girls had gone to in full motion after that, until eventually he found where the girls had been taken...Rapture. In the game however, he unfortunately is caught by Sofia Lamb, the [[Big Bad]] who kidnapped the girls in the first place and is made into a Big Daddy for his daughter Cindy (now a Little Sister), something you discover only after [[Tear Jerker|you kill Mark]].}}

* The ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' duology have a luggage shuttle of these. Carth going after Saul Karath for the destruction of Carth's homeworld, the death of his wife, and letting his son fall into the hands of the Sith. Juhani and Xor getting into a scrap because Xor killed Juhani's dad, then later tried to buy her as a sex slave (for a T-rated game, they sure got a lot of crap to sail under the radar...). Canderous wanting to kill Jagi for insulting his honor in the first game, then being tricked by Kreia in the second because he needed to find out why {{spoiler|Revan abandoned him}}. In the second game, Bao-Dur also joined the Republic forces and created the horrific Mass Shadow Generator to make the Mandalorians pay for what they did to his homeworld. Atris's hostility towards the Exile has shades of it. You can also state this as a motive for either PC. Strangely, most of these revenge motives get inverted or subverted in some way.

* From the same family, you also get a couple of these in ''[[Jade Empire]]''. Sky's got a "thing" about slavers...[[Dead Little Sister|having your five-year old daughter run through by a group of them]] would kinda do that. There's also "The Serpent" running the Imperial City arena that Black Whirlwind has an axe to grind with...literally. And it certainly goes there with your PC and {{spoiler|"Master" Sun Li - he killed your people, spent your entire life grooming you as a [[Unwitting Pawn]], then ''killed'' you after all}}.

{{quote| '''Ellis''': Aw, shit, we missed him? You know what, that's the last straw. These zombies have just made themselves an enemy.}}

{{quote| '''Ellis''': Aw, c'mon Coach, that biker guy seemed nice.<br />

'''Coach''': He's probably stolen the Jimmy Gibbs Jr. by now.<br />

{{quote| '''Bill''': ''*concerning Zoey's death*'' One of those sick sons of bitches just sealed all of their death warrants.}}

* CJ's reasoning behind {{spoiler|taking on Big Smoke alone}} at the end of [[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas|San Andreas]].

{{quote| '''CJ''': {{spoiler|Smoke}} played me. Tenpenny played me.}}

{{quote| '''Doc''': Rayner, you killed my mentor, and you kidnaped my sidekick. I met Death himself last night, and he's going to follow me all the way to your house. You made it ''personal''.}}

* Even though the trope isn't played straight by any means, it's said in [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005762 these] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130821191029/http://www.mspaintadventures.com/scratch.php?s=6&p=005763 pages] of ''[[Homestuck]]'' we get one from [[The Omniscient|Doc]] [[The Omnipotent|Scratch]] after {{spoiler|Spades Slick breaks Vriska's God Tier clock, leaving it stuck on 'Just'}}:

{{quote| '''Doc Scratch''': {{spoiler|Slick}}, I can tolerate many things from a guest. Curt manners. Egregious womanizing. Murdering the help. Casual arson. Even atrocious candy bowl etiquette. But it is the desecration of a priceless timepiece where I must draw the line. I'm afraid I must now insist that you take your beating ''quite'' personally.}}

* [[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|Doctor Horrible's]] rivalry with [[Designated Hero|Captain Hammer]] is more or less a fact of life for the both of them, with the Doctor trying to take down Hammer with nonlethal means, and getting thoroughly pounded on every time by the Captain. However, when Hammer announces to Horrible that he's going to sleep with [[Love Interest|Penny]] "just because you want her," [[It's Personal|it gets personal.]] The normally [[Technical Pacifist|pacifistic]] Doctor upgrades his [[Stun Guns|Stun Ray]] to a [[Death Ray]], and makes his intentions quite clear with his next song:

{{quote| ''It's a brand new day, and the sun is high<br />

** Also, Nemesis, the Greek Goddess of Retribution and Punishment, took Athena's freeing of Arachne as a [[It's Personal|personal insult]]. This is why the goddess makes Arachne's life so difficult.

* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' has another example of this being done to a villain. [[Ax Crazy|Lenny Priestly]] takes any attack ([[Law of Disproportionate Response|or anything he thinks is an attack]], [[Stupid Evil|or a good excuse to pretend someone's attacking them]]) as personal and immediately becomes even more psychotic than usual.

* An episode of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' has recurring character Sideshow Bob attempting to rig the election for Mayor of Springfield by including the names of dead people and animals as those who voted for him. When Lisa's cat Snowball appears on the list, she angrily declares that "''now'' [[It's Personal]]!" Bart [[Lampshade Hanging|points out, with some irritation,]] that "he ''did'' try to kill me, you know."

{{quote| '''Fry''': So they're trying to learn things? The bastards!<br />

'''Nibblonians''': Yes. Then, once it has collected all data in the universe it will open its protective shell, so as to scan itself.<br />

'''Fry''': I'm as mad as I've ever been!<br />

'''Nibblonians''': Then, it will destroy the universe, so no new information can come about.<br />

{{quote| '''Blight''': [being stalked from the shadows by Batman] Who are you?!<br />

'''Batman''': [unseen, pauses] You really want to know?<br />

'''Blight''': Yes!<br />

'''Batman''': [enters] [[You Killed My Father]].<br />

[[Beat|[Slight pause] ]]<br />

** Then again, Blight was turned into a "walking meltdown" thanks to a fight with [[Batman Beyond|Batman]], and Batman kept foiling his various [[Evil Plan|Evil Plans]]s, to the point where Blight visably lost his temper at even the mention of Batman's name. So in a way it was personal for Blight too...just for completely different reasons.

* While the [[God Save Us From the Queen|Queen of the Crowns]] is a very big threat to Earth in ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers|Galaxy Rangers]]'', [[I Have Your Wife|making a Slaverlord of Zach's wife]] pushed it into this territory. [[Fanon]] will state that the feeling is very much mutual - Zach's been an equal pain in her side, and the only sentient being to have escaped her Psychocrypt.