Revenge by Proxy: Difference between revisions

Often, the justification the villain uses for this act -- and it's pretty much always a villain or a ''very'' dark [[Anti-Hero]] that does this, due to it being very much [[Moral Event Horizon]]-worthy as mentioned above -- is that he or she wants the person to suffer as the villain has suffered as a result of the act, even if the hero caused it accidentally and the villain deliberately.

Sometimes the villain justifies it by claiming that the victim profited by the original crime. Wearing, owning, or using something that belonged to the villain, or one of his own, may provoke it -- but don't expect him to inquire about whether the victim knew of the provenance of the item. Or to ''ask'' for it. Sometimes the character is aware of the tainted source of his good fortune. He may attempt to [[Buy Them Off]], but if he refuses to give it up, this moves out of the scope of [[Revenge by Proxy]].

Quite a few [[Soap Opera|Soap Operas]], both US and Hispanic, have this as part of the plot.

Compare [[Sins of Our Fathers]]. Note that if the actual wrongdoer is unavailable, the trope is [[Sins of Our Fathers]]; to be [[Revenge by Proxy]], the attacker has to be able to attack the original instead, and choose a different victim. See also [[Revenge Through Corruption]] when the method of revenge is trying to inflict a [[Face Monster Turn]] on someone the character cares about. Threatening to do this is [[I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure]].

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic!]] TSR'', {{spoiler|Gauron}} attempts to do this to Kaname to get to Sousuke (knowing that that would affect him more than if Sousuke himself was hurt or killed). Of course, [[Your Mileage May Vary|depending on the person]], what {{spoiler|Gauron}} did can either be interpreted as [[Revenge by Proxy]] or [[Murder the Hypotenuse]] (in which case he was actually thinking he's doing Sousuke a ''favor''). Or, knowing {{spoiler|Gauron}}, it's possible it's just both, and he can't make up his mind what exactly he wants.

* El Indio, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[For a Few Dollars More]]'' establishes himself as a vicious monster in an early scene when he revenges himself upon a man who took money to put him behind bars. The man in question used said money to start raising a family, including an eighteen-month-old boy, and because of this, Indio feels that said family is "partly his." So Indio orders his men to take the wife and the baby outside and shoot them while he is [[Forced to Watch]]. He makes him listen to the pocket watch that he always carries -- later sadistically setting up a duel with him using that same pocket watch: "When you hear the music finish, begin. Or do you think you can?"

* The conflicts in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films (especially the prequels) are basically caused by the Sith getting revenge on the Jedi by destroying their order and taking over the galaxy for their devastating defeat a thousand years before the events of the films (and many more wars and defeats thousands of years before that). Of the four Sith seen in the movies two were never Jedi or wronged by a Jedi (that we know of) and of the two Sith who were Jedi one voluntarily left the Order out of ideaological differences while the other had [[More Than Mind Control]] worked on him by one of the non-Jedi Sith (though to be fair, Anakin thought the Jedi were holding him back from saving his wife). A few Sith we've seen in the [[Expanded Universe]] have personal grudges against the Jedi Order or a Jedi in particular, but for most of them their dogma insists they do everything they can to make the Jedi miserable because Sith Hate Jedi and the Jedi tend to stand in the way of their galactic conquests. One notable example of [[Revenge by Proxy]] in the films is Anakin's slaughter of the Tusken Raiders that tortured his mother to death, which included the women and children of said tribe that likely had nothing to do with his mother's death. [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|He didn't care]].

* Loki's plot to take control of Earth in ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'' is largely driven by [[The Unfavourite|jealousy]] and [[The Resenter|resentment]] towards his {{spoiler|adoptive}} [[Dysfunctional Family|brother Thor]], as well as rage at being deceived about {{spoiler|[[Evil Orphan|his true ancestry]]}}. He wants to subjugate the entire population of Earth--a planet which Thor treasures and protects--thereby wiping out many of the people that Thor cares about. In addition, Loki feels that he was cheated out of his rightful place as the ruler of Asgard.

** ''The Warrior's Apprentice'': Count Vorhalas threatens to let Miles swing for treason because Aral did the same thing to Vorhalas's sons. Vorhalas eventually backs down, though, [[Mama Bear|when threatened with Miles's mother]].<br /><br />This case is especially interesting as ''Barrayar'' shows that one of Vorhalas's sons was executed because of an accidental [[Revenge by Proxy]]. After Aral let one brother be executed, the other attempted to assassinate Aral in revenge. A pregnant Cordelia was caught in the attack, which led to Miles being born disfigured.

* 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.

* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Gods of Mars]]'', John Carter is particularly horrified to learn that Issus has Dejah Thoris prisoner and knows that she is the wife of John Carter and the mother of Cathoris -- the two men who dared raise their hands against her.

* Happens now and again in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]. In the [[Hand of Thrawn]] duology, a corrupted copy of the Caamasi Document surfaces. The document details Palpatine's successful plan to raze the planet of a species of [[Actual Pacifist|Actual Pacifists]] who were almost universally opposed to him, and as it turns out he used Bothan agents to lower the planet's shields. The document doesn't actually say specifically who these Bothans were, Bothan authorities deny any knowledge, and the issue acts as a [[Conflict Ball]] between peoples who want the names coughed up or, failing that, want revenge on the Bothan people, and peoples who think that revenge on the Bothan people is a terrible idea. In many cases the Bothan issue is no more than an excuse for rivals to war over.

* In the ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' short story "The Theft of Bayende, Heart and Soul" featured in the ''Tapestries'' anthology, ''both'' of the protagonists do this. The wizard Noranda-Zang has spent ten years searching for Thane, the man who killed him in battle (He Got Better obviously). When he finally reaches Thane's home, he discovers Thane's pregnant wife Bayende. He and his pet shade then ''brutally'' murder her and leave the ruined corpses of Bayende and her unborn child for Thane to find. Thane then spends ''twenty'' years searching for Zang. When he finally reaches Zang's home, he discovers Zang's son. Thane drains the life from the young man and leaves his body for Zang to find. Zang does so just as Thane is leaving the scene, and his anguished screams fill the air. The ending makes it clear that [[Revenge by Proxy]] resolved nothing, and that both of them would continue to fight each other for the rest of their lives even though both of them had lost what they cherished most.

* ''[[In Death]]'': Eve Dallas works hard to take down Ava Anders in ''Strangers In Death''. When Roarke asks her why she's treating this one like a competition, Eve admits that Ava reminds her of Magdelana from ''Innocent In Death''. Ava and Magdelana have [[Complete Monster]] and [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]] in common. Roarke says "[[Revenge by Proxy]]", because Eve wanted to take down Magdelana in her own way, and she didn't get it. She figures that taking down Ava will have to do. This example is treated a ''lot'' more sympathetically than a number of other examples in this article.

* Ben on ''[[Lost]]'' wants to do this to Charles Widmore -- off Penny because Widmore's men offed his (stolen) daughter.

** Odin then used the killed child's guts to make chains to bind Loki to a rock, where a serpent eternally drips venom into his eyes. It wasn't so much [[Revenge by Proxy]] as [[Disproportionate Retribution]].

** First he targeted a paleontologist who spent years reconstructing a dinosaur skeleton by shattering it. Then he destroyed a prominent artist's latest and greatest painting -- and the artist is too old to make another one. Then he targets Bruce Wayne by attacking his surrogate family: