Revenge Tropes

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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.

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.
Gaia's 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/fro zen/petrified/killed/era sed/cond emned/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.