History Main / RevengeBeforeReason

In the second ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtle'' film, after downing the mutagen and transforming, Shredder becomes so fixated on killing the Turtles that he doesn't realize that the bridge their under is falling apart.

* In ''SchlockMercenary'', Petey offers to Ms. Damico 25 times what she lost to Kevyn Andreyasn's manipulations to fund his plans, in exchange for releasing the captured Kevyn {{time travel}}ing copy and Karl Tagon to Petey. [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20101010.html She refuses, instead demanding "satisfaction".]]
** In a heroic example, this trope is the only thing that can make Tagon say ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules. Namely, he refuses a job to safely extract Xinchub from a messy situation despite being offered 20 times the initial bid just out of hatred for Xinchub.

* ''{{Exalted}}'': So. Let's say that you are the ghost of a First Age god-king, who has been empowered by the dead gods that once ruled Creation to go out and drag the whole place screaming into the maw of Oblivion. They have power over you that is paramount, and [[YouHaveFailedMe do not show favor to those who screw up]]. So what have you spent the last several years doing? You've been tracking down the reincarnations of the people who tormented you in the First Age, and making their lives hell over and over again. You have let plans that could put a serious cold sore on Creation's lips, including a ''zombie plague'', char on the back burner because you are so busy fucking over the people who tormented you millennia ago. You are Eye and Seven Despairs, and you are, in the eyes of your colleagues, utter dogshit.

* In Persona4, [[spoiler:the Protagonist is given the opportunity to kill Taro Namatame for being responsible for [[TheCutie Nanako's]] death. However, if the Player chooses not to give in to this and ponders the option that Namatame is not the true killer, not only does [[IGotBetter Nanako gets better]], but her father (after getting some time to cool off) will piece together the evidence himself and doubts Namatame's actual guilt.]]

* In ''GodOfWar III'', Kratos is so completely blinded by his desire to kill Zeus and eventually all the gods, he refuses to listen to other people who tell them that, like, maybe ''killing the sun'' in pursuit of Zeus wouldn't be such for a good thing for the world at large. Nope, he's got to have his vengeance!

** In a heroic example, this trope is the only thing that can make Tagon say ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules. Namely, he refuses a job to safely extract Xinchub from a messy situation despite being offered 13 times the initial bid.

-->'''[[OnlySaneMan Joachim]]:''' ''We're all with you, sir. But consider this. We are free. We have a ship, and the means to go where we will. We have escaped permanent exile on Ceti Alpha V. You have defeated the plans of Admiral Kirk. You do not need to defeat him again.''\\

* [[{{Naruto}} Sasuke. Uchiha.]] The guy has allowed revenge to motivate almost every single action he takes. ''Everything'' he does in the first half and most of the second half of ''{{Naruto}}'' is done to become strong enough to face Itachi. These actions include charging in half-cocked to fight Itachi when he was nowhere near ready, getting excessively jealous when a "failure" starts surpassing him, FaceHeelTurn-ing to the enemy, ''killing'' said enemy and absorbing his powers, and gathering his own team to help him. You would think that Sasuke might chill out a tiny bit after he finally succeeds, but nooooo. When Sasuke learns [[spoiler: his (now late) older brother did everything he did for ''Sasuke's'' sake]], he sets out on a ''whole new'' rampage of revenge, this one [[spoiler:directed at the Leaf Village itself and the current aspirant for Hokage (Danzo) in particular. You know it's bad when Danzo, not exactly a saint himself, calls him on it and has a valid point.]] Gets even worse when he abandons his new team because he's too impatient to wait for them to catch up, and [[spoiler:stabs through Karin simply because Danzo took her hostage and it was too much effort on his part to help her. Remember, she is his only medic at this point.]]

* In ''{{Warhammer}}'' the Dwarves. Every time. They are determined to avenge every slight, and never, ever forgive. And just to make sure they don't forget either, they have a giant book called the Book of Grudges in which they right them all down. They're currently going slowly extinct, and a fair amount of the blame goes to their refusal to cooperate with the other races because at some point in centuries past they were wronged by them.

* In ''Film/IronMan 2'', Ivan Vanko wants revenge on Tony Stark for the SinsOfOurFathers; his father Anton Vanko [[spoiler: invented the original Arc Reactor alongside Tony's father, Howard Stark, but Howard Stark had him accused of spying and deported.]] Needless to say, Ivan is pissed off, but his desire to get ''personal'' revenge on Tony Stark for what his father did blinds him. He invents his own personal reactor for a suit of his own and attacks Tony in public, trying to discredit him and his claims that no one else can match his own technology. Shortly afterward, when Tony defeats him, he comments on Vanko's pursuit of personal revenge over [[CutLexLuthorACheck simply selling the reactor to anyone who wants it and making a huge profit.]] Later, when [[spoiler: Justin Hammer busts Vanko out of prison]], he explains that Vanko is approaching revenge all ''wrong'', and says that instead of attacking the man personally, one should attack his ''legacy'', and arranges for Vanko to [[spoiler: create an army of "Hammer Drones" that are intended to make Stark's Iron Man technology obsolete.]]

* In ''Film/IronMan 2'', Ivan Vanko wants revenge on Tony Stark for TheSinsOfTheFather; his father Anton Vanko [[spoiler: invented the original Arc Reactor alongside Tony's father, Howard Stark, but Howard Stark had him accused of spying and deported.]] Needless to say, Ivan is pissed off, but his desire to get ''personal'' revenge on Tony Stark for what his father did blinds him. He invents his own personal reactor for a suit of his own and attacks Tony in public, trying to discredit him and his claims that no one else can match his own technology. Shortly afterward, when Tony defeats him, he comments on Vanko's pursuit of personal revenge over [[CutLexLuthorACheck simply selling the reactor to anyone who wants it and making a huge profit.]] Later, when [[spoiler: Justin Hammer busts Vanko out of prison]], he explains that Vanko is approaching revenge all ''wrong'', and says that instead of attacking the man personally, one should attack his ''legacy'', and arranges for Vanko to [[spoiler: create an army of "Hammer Drones" that are intended to make Stark's Iron Man technology obsolete.]]

* In ''Film/IronMan 2'', Ivan Vanko wants revenge on Tony Stark for TheSinsOfTheFather; his father Anton Vanko [[spoiler: invented the original Arc Reactor alongside Tony's father, Howard Stark, but Howard Stark had him accused of spying and deported.]] Needless to say, Ivan is pissed off, but his desire to get ''personal'' revenge on Tony Stark for what his father did blinds him. He invents his own personal reactor for a suit of his own and attacks Tony in public, trying to discredit him and his claims that no one else can match his own technology. Shortly afterward, when Tony defeats him, he comments on Vanko's pursuit of personal revenge over [[CutLexLuthorACheck simply selling the reactor to anyone who wants it and making a huge profit.]] Later, when [[spoiler: Justin Hammer busts Vanko out of prison]], he explains that Vanko is approaching revenge all ''wrong'', and syas that instead of attacking hte man personally, one should attack his ''legacy'', and arranges for Vanko to [[spoiler: create an army of "Hammer Drones" that are intended to make Stark's Iron Man technology obsolete.]]

* On ''24'', [[spoiler: Gael's wife shoots Saunders]] despite him being the only person who can stop the outbreak of a deadly virus.

-->'''[[OnlySaneMan Joachim]]:''' ''We're all with you, sir. But consider this. We are free. We have a ship, and the means to go where we will. We have escaped permanent exile on Ceti Alpha V. You have defeated the plans of Admiral Kirk. You do not need to defeat him again.''
-> '''Khan Noonien Singh:''' ''He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him! I'll chase him 'round the Moons of Nibia, and 'round the Antares Maelstrom, and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up!''\\

->'''[[OnlySaneMan Joachim]]:''' ''We're all with you, sir. But consider this. We are free. We have a ship, and the means to go where we will. We have escaped permanent exile on Ceti Alpha V. You have defeated the plans of Admiral Kirk. You do not need to defeat him again.''
-> '''Khan Noonien Singh:''' ''He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him! I'll chase him 'round the Moons of Nibia, and 'round the Antares Maelstrom, and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up!''
-->--''StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''

** Oh, ''Demona''. Just...[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i9O88LSw-4&feature=related watch from 4:15 onwards.]]

* Lelouch from ''CodeGeass.'' The guy starts a major war with the intent on destroying the world's most powerful empire (''which is his own homeland''). Said war results in at least two cities getting nuked and several million innocent people wind up dead. He also kills off most of his family in the process. Why? Because Lelouch is pissed off at his daddy, Emperor Charles. He also says that he wants to make the world a better place for his sister but that mostly seems to take a backseat to Lelouch getting back at whoever he feels has wronged him.
** While Lelouch is an example of the trope, this entry understates the justification for his 'being pissed off at his daddy.' Go watch the beginning of episode 7 of the first season.
** On Lelouch: ''Your Mileage May Vary'' as I'd thought that his revenge was mostly a secondary thing and he was doing all that stuff to make sure no evil bastards are left to disturb that better world

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
* [[{{Naruto}} Sasuke. Uchiha.]] The guy has allowed revenge to motivate almost every single action he takes. ''Everything'' he does in the first half and most of the second half of ''{{Naruto}}'' is done to become strong enough to face Itachi. These actions include charging in half-cocked to fight Itachi when he was nowhere near ready, getting excessively jealous when a "failure" starts surpassing him, FaceHeelTurn-ing to the enemy, ''killing'' said enemy and absorbing his powers, and gathering his own team to help him. You would think that Sasuke might chill out a tiny bit after he finally succeeds, but nooooo. When Sasuke learns [[spoiler: his (now late) older brother did everything he did for ''Sasuke's'' sake]], he sets out on a ''whole new'' rampage of revenge, this one [[spoiler:directed at the Leaf Village itself and the current aspirant for Hokage (Danzo) in particular. You know it's bad when Danzo, not exactly a saint himself, calls him on it and has a valid point.]] Gets even worse when he abandons his new team because he's too impatient to wait for them to catch up, and [[spoiler:stabs through Karin simply because Danzo took her hostage and it was too much effort on his part to help her. Remember, she is his only medic at this point.]]
** There's also Pain, who lost so many loved ones to ninja society that he set about to effectively destroy it so thoroughly people would be too scared to even ''consider'' making war. When that fear wore off, as Pain was certain it would, he would lather, rinse, repeat.
*** It should also be noted that the cornerstone of Pain's beliefs and plan is that he thinks ''[[HumansAreBastards everyone acts like this]]''.
** To his credit, Naruto himself is doing everything in his power to ''avert'' this lately. Despite his own desire for revenge on Pain for [[spoiler:killing Jiraiya, and [[NotQuiteDead almost killing Hinata]] as well as killing many Leaf Villagers]], Naruto is able to rein in his feelings and instead ultimately wins without killing him [[spoiler:which pays off ''far'' better]]. Most recently he's been trying to get the Raikage to not try and kill Sasuke for attacking his brother.
** Speaking of which, the Raikage is perfectly willing to ''[[spoiler:lose an arm (and a leg, but was stopped before that could happen)]]'' to achieve his revenge.
*** However, he subverts/averts it later when [[spoiler:he learns his brother is OK, and apparently decides to forget about Sasuke entirely.]]
* Sosuke Nekome, one of the main characters of ''DennouCoil'', is obsessed with ruining the [=MegaMass=] corporation for causing his father's death and ruining his reputation. He's willing to sacrifice anything or ultimately kill anyone who gets in the way of this plan, even the twelve-year-old protagonists Yasako and Isako. [[spoiler:Fortunately his little brother ''does'' possess reason and {{Heel Face Turn}}s in the final episode.]]
* Then there's Lockon Stratos [[spoiler:(that is, Neil Dylandy)]], from Gundam00, whose ''whole motivation'' turns out to be revenge against the people who bombed his family. To the point where he [[spoiler:flies out with only one functioning eye and a broken mech, then when the mech gets destroyed beyond any repair and severely injures him in the process, he leaves the mech - in space - and attempts to use a detached cannon to shoot the bad guy ''anyway''. Despite clearly being horribly injured and having only the use of his weak eye. Revenge turns the guy into TheDeterminator. Shame it doesn't save him from dying.]]
* Lelouch from ''CodeGeass.'' The guy starts a major war with the intent on destroying the world's most powerful empire (''which is his own homeland''). Said war results in at least two cities getting nuked and several million innocent people wind up dead. He also kills off most of his family in the process. Why? Because Lelouch is pissed off at his daddy, Emperor Charles. He also says that he wants to make the world a better place for his sister but that mostly seems to take a backseat to Lelouch getting back at whoever he feels has wronged him.
** While Lelouch is an example of the trope, this entry understates the justification for his 'being pissed off at his daddy.' Go watch the beginning of episode 7 of the first season.
** On Lelouch: ''Your Mileage May Vary'' as I'd thought that his revenge was mostly a secondary thing and he was doing all that stuff to make sure no evil bastards are left to disturb that better world
* In ''DragonBallZ'', Frieza could have chosen to escape, but he spends his remaining energy trying to get rid of Goku
** This also crosses into fantastic racism, Frieza is so shocked that he was defeated by a member of the monkey race, Saiyains, that he can't accept that he is defeated even with missing an arm and the lower half of his body.
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