History Main / CycleOfRevenge

** With the notable exception of [[spoiler: the kid who kills Ned. He had joined NED'S side, telling them he wants to get revenge for his father's death. Turns out he was the son of the security guard that Ned killed near the beginning of the beginning of war.]]
* Played tragically straight in {{American History X}}.
* Also played straight in ''Death Sentence''. The movie begins with 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]].

* ''KillBill'' actually sets this up: when The Bride kills Vernita Green for having a hand in the massacre of her wedding party, putting The Bride in a four-year coma, and possibly killing her unborn child, she finds out a few seconds too late that Nikki, Vernita's daughter, had seen the whole thing. The Bride says, "When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting." Tarantino has said that he's interested in making a ''Kill Bill'' Vol. 3 in the future, where a grown-up Nikki Green hunts down The Bride, and a fourth film that elevates into this with Bebe hunting down Nikki for killing her mother.

* One of the themes of PowerRangersTimeForce. The BigBad is a mutant driven to madness and violence by human hatred, and he himself is responsible for causing his [[TheDragon dra]][[TheStarscream gon]] to hate ''him'' with a passion. The cycle ends when his daughter realizes that it's happening, and puts herself in mortal danger by going into the crossfire to convince him to let go of the vendetta.

* Played straight in "Murder Go Round" [[InsaneClownPosse Insane Clown Posse]] which, contrary to popular belief, clearly isn't about a ride. It details the story of a young hoodlum(played by Violent J) who is assaulted by a gang member, and decides to get him back, starting a gang of his own and killing his enemy and anybody who tries to avenge him. Eventually just killing people for the hell of it, [[spoiler: including his best friend]]. [[spoiler: It finally escalates to a gang war in which the hoodlum(running a street gang "fifty-five strong" and completely full of himself) is shot "twice in the forehead, twice in the back" and "twice in the eye", and only realizing in his dying moments how stupid and childish the whole endeavor was.]]

Played straight in "Murder Go Round" [[InsaneClownPosse Insane Clown Posse]] which, contrary to popular belief, clearly isn't about a ride. It details the story of a young hoodlum(played by Violent J) who is assaulted by a gang member, and decides to get him back, starting a gang of his own and killing his enemy and anybody who tries to avenge him. Eventually just killing people for the hell of it, [[spoiler: including his best friend]]. [[spoiler: It finally escalates to a gang war in which the hoodlum(running a street gang "fifty-five strong" and completely full of himself) is shot "twice in the forehead, twice in the back" and "twice in the eye", and only realizing in his dying moments how stupid and childish the whole endeavor was.]]

* After Playing throught {{Halo}} Reach [[spoiler: and watching the Ending many players will have the overwhelming urge to go back and play Halo CE and Halo 2, so they could Slaughter all Elites]]
** Really? I wanted to get revenge on Bungie for giving such a lousy game such an awful ending.

* This is a central theme of the "Hivebent" arc in ''{{Homestuck}}'', especially when it comes to [[SmugSnake Vriska]] and the downright ''horrific'' things she does to the other trolls (specifically, Aradia and Terezi) for incredibly petty reasons.

** In an interesting twist, Shikamaru cites this as his reason for [[spoiler:having Konoha kill Sasuke so that Sakura and Ino won't go out to avenge him if the Cloud ninja kill him, which would result in them being killed and avenged by their loved ones, creating a vicious cycle that would lead to war]].

** This is Pain's entire theme -- trying to create a weapon so strong it'll stagnate the cycle due to fear. He uses it for many a NotSoDifferent speech as well. [[spoiler:Naruto ultimately decides to break the cycle of revenge between Pain and Konoha by sparring him. [[RedemptionEqualsDeath This pays off]] [[DeathIsCheap tremendously]].]]

* The fake feud between the NostalgiaCritic and the AngryVideoGameNerd was like this at first as both countered perceived slights, before turning into a general hatred that culminated in a decisive final battle. Twice, actually. Of course, it's all a joke, so that much is deliberate.

See BestServedCold, FeudingFamilies, HeWhoFightsMonsters, RememberTheAlamo, RoaringRampageOfRevenge, TheShylock and YouKilledMyFather.

* In ''{{Naruto}}'', revenge is one of the main themes. The one who is biggest on revenge is Uchiha Sasuke, who is trying to avenge his family, who were killed by his brother Itachi, going to all possible extents to reach this goal. [[spoiler: Until he discovers that Itachi was forced to do this to save Konoha, because his family tried to get revenge on the others in the village for being treated as outsiders and for them casting out their leader. Who, by the way, also wants revenge for his clan not supporting him and assists in their murder. And then Sasuke wants to get revenge on Konoha... Just as Kakashi told him in episode 108 (I think) revenge just leads to new revenge]].

* In ''{{Oldboy}}'', Oh Dae-su wants to find the mysterious 'Evergreen' and make him pay for imprisoning him for fifteen years. [[spoiler: It turns out that Evergreen is Lee Woo-jin, who was getting him back for carelessly outing an [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous relationship he was having with his sister]] while they were back in high school, a rumor which [[DrivenToSuicide drove his sister to suicide]]. What's more, Lee's revenge [[ItGotWorse was just beginning]]]].

* In ''{{Oldboy}}'', Oh Dae-su wants to find the mysterious 'Evergreen' and make him pay for imprisoning him for fifteen years. [[spoiler: It turns out that Evergreen is Lee Woo-jin, who was getting him back for carelessly starting a rumor about his having an [[BrotherSisterIncest incestuous relationship with his sister]] while they were back in high school, a rumor which [[DrivenToSuicide drove his sister to suicide]]. What's more, Lee's revenge [[ItGotWorse was just beginning]]]].

* ''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 ritual combat. 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]].

**Most of which get subverted to some degree or another, at least in the first KnightOfTheOldRepublic game. Jagi wanted to take revenge on Canderous for [[spoiler: 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 [[RedemptionEqualsDeath commits suicide]] when he realizes that Canderous's actions were perfectly acceptable under the code of the Mandalorians.

**Juhani lampshades this trope when talking about her past, how the "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 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 Revan, he elaborates further, saying that his promise to protect you has given him a new reason to live]].