Revenge by Proxy: Difference between revisions

* [[Fullmetal Alchemist|Scar's]] quest to kill all State Alchemists, in revenge for the Ishbalan Massacre eventually leads him to attempt to kill Edward Elric, a State Alchemist who is not only 15, but was never involved in Ishbal at all.

* In ''[[Naruto]]'' {{spoiler|Sasuke}} has decided to make use of this trope to have his cake and eat it too. While initially {{spoiler|Sasuke was after his older brother for killing the entire Uchiha Clan, and then the three elders of Konoha who decided it had to be done to avert a coup, eventually Sasuke just snapped and decided ''everyone who'd ever heard of the Uchiha'' needed to die because they weren't aware their lives had been saved by his family's murders. Sasuke's out of touch with reality at this point.}}

* In ''[[Rave Master]]'', {{spoiler|Haru's dad, Gale, told the Imperial where Demon Card's Headquarters is with the deal of taking King alive as prisoner to end his corrupt ways. To his horror, the Imperial killed all the people inside the Headquarters including King's wife and son (presumably). As revenge for it, King broke out of prison and killed Gale's wife, Sakura, in front of him. He even put the Dark Bring, End of Earth (which causes another Overdrive), inside him which forces Gale to be away from his children and facing eternal solitude.}}

 

* Very common in [[Naruto]] fanfics, when either young Naruto is nearly beaten to death by villagers or Iwa is out for his blood because he looks like the Fourth Hokage

* Seems to be [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Trixie's]] motivation for becoming the prosecutor in ''[[Turnabout Storm]]''; it's an opportunity to get payback against Twilight by having one of her friends sent to the Moon or the Sun for murder.

* ''[[Ponies Make War]]'': After the Mane Six and the [[La Résistance|Loyalists]] manage to {{spoiler|[[Storming the Castle|retake Canterlot]]}}, [[Big Bad|Titan]] sends [[The Dragon|Terra]] to destroy Ponyville. As Luna points out, it's not about gaining any strategic advantage, Titan just wants to punish them for defying him.

* In ''[[The Ghost Map]]'', [[Big Bad|Colonel Moran]] gives [[Sherlock Holmes]] a [[Sadistic Choice]] as his revenge: commit suicide, or Moran will murder Mrs. Watson. In the process of Holmes's attempt to talk him down, Moran decides for him and gives him [[Irony|a cocaine overdose.]]

** ''[[The Dresden Files|Summer Knight]]'': Mab comes to Harry with a deal that will free him of [[The Fair Folk|faerie]] influence, in exchange for him doing three favors for Mab. Dresden quickly adds on some more conditions, which include "Not hurting Harry because he refused to do a favor," and "no telling someone else to hurt Harry." This doesn't work; she then hurts him simply out of spite, which was not covered by the terms.

** ''[[The Dresden Files|Dead Beat]]'': {{spoiler|Mavra}} threatened Murphy to get Harry to do what she wanted him to. Harry did it, then informed her that if she ever threatened Murphy again, he would, and I quote, "kill you so hard your last ten victims would make miraculous recoveries." We haven't seen {{spoiler|Mavra}} since.

* In Simon Spurrier's [[Night Lords]] novel ''Lord of the Night'', the priest kills Cog, a [[Gentle Giant]] utterly loyal to Mira, who is unconscious, before he turns on Mira. This is a mistake.

* In Harper Lee's ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'', after Atticus Finch defends a black man whom Bob Ewell's daughter accused of raping her, Ewell is infuriated, and attempts to punish Atticus by attempting to murder the latter's children. This revenge makes even less sense than the trope usually would, since the man in question was innocent—Bob Ewell ''himself'' was the one who beat up his daughter—and Atticus actually lost the case due to a racist jury.

** The case still exposed Ewell as [[Complete Monster|the scum of the earth]], and he probably wanted revenge for humiliation.

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: In the book ''Home Free'', Owen Orzell reveals to the Vigilantes that he had worked with [[CIA]] director Calvin Span and [[Big Bad]] Henry "Hank" Jellicoe. Jellicoe has already been captured and is currently rotting away in a federal prison. Span is dead, because sometime after he was forced to resign from his job as CIA director by President Martine Connor, he was shoveling snow off his driveway and died of a heart attack. Orzell points out that Span knew better than to do that, because he had heart surgery a few years ago, and that he had clearly become a [[Death Seeker]]. Orzell asks if they're going to punish him in Span's place, and the Vigilantes say yes. Now this example is treated sympathetically, because the president had essentially enlisted the Vigilantes to take down Orzell, and Orzell's hands are just as dirty as Span's and Jellicoe's.

* In Tolkien's ''[[The Children of Húrin|The Children of Hurin]]'', Morgoth punished Hurin for defying him by cursing his children and [[Forced to Watch|forcing him to watch]] as their lives are slowly destroyed.

 

== Live Action TV ==

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]

[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]