History Main / RevengeByProxy

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting, Dr. Rudolph Van Richten was forced to MercyKill his own son Erasmus after the latter had been turned into a vampire by [[DepravedHomosexual Baron Metus]]. In revenge, Metus murdered Van Richten's wife. This was the tragedy that motivated Van Richten into becoming the famous vampire hunter he is known as, [[LaserGuidedKarma with Metus being his first quarry]].

* ''Literature/TheBible'': This appears to be {{Satan}}'s motive in dragging as much of humanity as possible down to suffer with him in Hell; [[RageAgainstTheHeavens revenge against God]].

* When Joseph Shaw's ex girlfriend broke off their relationship and cut ties with him, he retaliated by raping and murdering any random women and girls he could catch. 21 year old Betty Swank and 14 year old Carlotta Hartness both ended up falling prey to Shaw and his accomplices, and Hartness' boyfriend, 17 year old Thomas Taylor, was shot dead during their abduction of her. Both Shaw and one of his accomplices, Terry Roach, were sentenced to death and executed for the murders by the State of South Carolina.

Often, the justification is that they want the person to suffer as they have suffered as a result of the act. Sometimes it's justified by claiming that the victim profited from the original crime. Of maybe the intended victim of the revenge is protected in some way, or if direct punishment or pain would not be satisfying enough. Killing a DeathSeeker would not accomplish the level of mental anguish required for true vengeance, for example, but killing one of their loved ones while they live on...well, seeing your loved ones taken away from you, knowing that ''you yourself'' caused it, can be a FateWorseThanDeath

** [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0628.html here.]] Months after the party kills a young evil black dragon, the dragon's mother hunts down and subdues one of the protagonists. [[spoiler:But rather than killing Vaarsuvius, she expresses her intention to take it out on V's children, instead:]]

* When Joseph Shaw's ex girlfriend broke off their relationship and cut ties with him, he retaliated by raping and murdering any females he could catch. 21 year old Betty Swank and 14 year old Carlotta Hartness both ended up falling prey to Shaw and his accomplices, and Hartness' boyfriend, 17 year old Thomas Taylor, was shot dead during their abduction of her. Both Shaw and one of his accomplices, Terry Roach, were sentenced to death and executed for the murders by the State of South Carolina.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'', the strip "Ulric" shows this against a devil-bear who took a man's wife. Unfortunately, [[ThePaladin Ulric]] has a peculiar sense of justice, neither slaying the devil-bear nor returning the man's wife, instead kidnapping the devil-bear's wife as a replacement. [[WhatTheHellHero The man is not amused]].

* Creator/MikeTyson's infamous beatdown of Larry Holmes. Growing up a huge fan of UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, he like many was aghast at a then clearly over the hill Ali, showing signs of his Parkinson's, getting thrown to the wolves and savagely beaten during his match with Holmes. A then 14 year old Tyson told the man himself that he'd get big and give Larry a thrashing in revenge. He got his wish in 1988, utterly destroying Holmes in 4 rounds and handing him his only knockout loss of his career. Notably, Ali attended the match as a guest of honor. When Ali and Tyson embraced before the match, Ali is said to have whispered "remember what you promised" in his ear. Suffice to say Tyson more than fulfilled his vow.

* Joseph Shaw was dumped by his girlfriend, and he retaliated by raping and murdering any females he could catch. 21 year old Betty Swank and 14 year old Carlotta Hartness both ended up falling prey to Shaw and his accomplice, and Hartness' boyfriend, 17 year old Thomas Taylor, was shot dead during their abduction of her. Both Shaw and one of his accomplices, Terry Roach, were sentenced to death and executed for the murders by the State of South Carolina.

* Creator/MikeTyson's infamous beatdown of Larry Holmes. Growing up a huge fan of UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, he like many was aghast at a then clearly over the hill Ali, showing signs of his Parkinson's, getting thrown to the wolves and savagely beaten during his match with Holmes. A then 14 year old Tyson told the man himself that he'd get big and give Larry a thrashing in revenge. He got his wish in 1988, utterly destroying Holmes in 4 rounds and handing him his only knockout loss of his career.

** The White Fang doesn't tolerate defectors and will kill them when they track them down, but Blake's defection is deeply personal for Adam. [[spoiler:He's not content to simply kill her. He's absolutely determined to destroy everything she's ever cared about. That includes the people she cares about. He cuts off Yang's arm as soon as he realizes Blake cares about Yang. When he finds out Blake is in Menagerie, he explodes with rage. His rant that Blake's family is the bane of his existence culminates in him issuing an order to kidnap Blake and murder her parents, a decision that makes the Albain brothers conclude that he may be too unwell to remain functioning as White Fang leader for long.]]
** Salem's current motivation. [[spoiler:Protecting humanity is what matters the most to Ozma, and the Gods are testing humanity to see if they're still worthy of living. Being a PsychoExGirlfriend who wants to RageAgainstTheHeavens, she wants to destroy humanity by having them fail the test because this is the best way to hurt Ozma and the Gods for hurting ''her''. She's also a DeathSeeker with CompleteImmortality and thinks that making humanity fail the Gods test will be a CurseEscapeClause for herself rather than using the only stated method the Gods gave her to end her immortality (learning and accepting the balance between life and death) because [[NeverMyFault that would mean accepting her own faults to begin with]].]]

** In a specific example, during the climax of ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', [[spoiler:Palpatine takes extra care to spitefully throw Ben Solo into a pit as revenge for Darth Vader/Anakin [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi doing the same to him years ago]]. Never mind that Ben never did a single thing to Palpatine personally other than try to help Rey, nor that Anakin is long dead; Palpatine wants payback, and he will damn well ''get it'', even if he has to settle for Anakin's grandson.]]

* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'': When Spider-Man refuses to give his blood to Harry Osborn because he's worried the spider venom in it could either kill Harry or mutate him into a rampaging monster instead of curing his terminal illness, Harry injects the venom into himself anyway and undergoes a PainfulTransformation into the Green Goblin. [[NeverMyFault Blaming Spider-Man for making him to resort to it]], Harry decides to murder Gwen Stacy after figuring out that his ChildhoodFriend Peter is Spider-Man, solely to spite him. [[spoiler:He succeeds in causing Gwen's death despite Peter's best efforts to prevent it, leaving Peter [[MyGreatestFailure emotionally scarred]].]]

** In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'''s case 2, [[spoiler:Roger Retinz is so furious with Troupe Gramarye for kicking him out that, with the rest of the troupe either dead or missing, he takes it out on the sole heir, Trucy, who was only a child at the time of his dismissal.]]
** In the DLC case, ''Turnabout Time-Traveller'', [[spoiler: Sorin caused a traffic accident that led to the villain's fiancee (Sorin's sister) dying. So he decides to kill Sorin's completely innocent fiancee (though he ends up framing her for murder instead after Larry screws things up) so that Sorin could feel the same thing... despite Sorin having ''also'' suffered badly from the accident.]]

** In ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'', Franziska likes to [[WhipItGood whip Phoenix, Edgeworth and/or Gumshoe]] for other people's shortcomings.

* Syndrome attempts this in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''; however, Jack Jack isn't an ordinary baby.....

* ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' has the main villain, Soto, lose all sympathy once he makes clear that his intentions were to eat baby Roshan as payback for what his father and the rest of the tribe did to their pack. It doesn't help that he is ready to vent his frustration to his second-in-command for failing and that he doesn't really seem to care for the rest of his gang.

* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy:'' The Guide sums up the three phases of warfare (anticipation, retribution and diplomacy) as being along these lines, going from "I'm going to kill you because you killed ''my'' brother", to "[[PretextForWar I'm going to kill you because I killed your brother]]", and finally "I'm going to kill ''my'' brother and then try to kill you on the pretext that your brother did it".

* In ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'', when King Gilgamesh rejects the sexual advances of the goddess Inanna/Ishtar, she sends the Bull of Heaven to wreak havoc on his whole city, no doubt killing loads of totally innocent people (not that rejecting Ishtar was wrong, considering her DeathBySex theme). Enkidu and Gilgamesh kill the Bull, and then the gods decide that one of them must be punished for this transgression. They choose Enkidu.

* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy:'' The Guide sums up the three phases of warfare (anticipation, diplomacy and retribution) as being along these lines, going from "I'm going to kill your brother because you killed ''my'' brother", to "[[PretextForWar I'm going to kill you because I killed your brother]]", and finally "I'm going to kill ''my'' brother and then try to kill you on the pretext that your brother did it".

* In ''VisualNovel/PiofioreNoBansho'', in Nicola's route, [[spoiler:Roberto]] is filled with hatred against Nicola for taking away Lili whom [[spoiler:Roberto]] is strongly implied to have feelings for. After his first attempt to kill Nicola fails, [[spoiler: Roberto]] then decides to target others who are close to Nicola, starting with [[spoiler:an assassination attempt on Dante]].

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Pandora gets revenge for a werewolf killing her husband by [[http://egscomics.com/comic/2016-12-21 eradicating werewolves from the world]].

* In the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi Code of Hammurabi]] of ancient Babylonia, the punishments for certain crimes are examples of this (as well as ValuesDissonance).
* For some crimes, ancient Egyptian law heavily punished both the criminal and their family.
* In ancient China, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_familial_exterminations Nine Exterminations]] provided for the execution of the criminal, and his entire family within eight generations, from second-great-grandfather (father side) to second-great-grandson, including the siblings, cousins, and offspring of each generation.
** Averted with women as well as young children below sixteen. Women (usually) will not be executed unless they are the criminals themselves. The wives, unwed daughters, and young children of executed criminals are usually only demoted to servants, while married women are considered part of their husbands' families, thus will not be punished for the crime of their own family.
* Specifically prohibited in Literature/TheBible. The Avenger of Blood is only permitted to kill the convict. Killing anyone other than the convict, or killing someone for something that was not a capital crime (like manslaughter if the killer was abiding by the terms of their exile) made the Avenger of Blood a murderer, and he was to be put to death.
** This prohibition stuck very firmly and spread to the later Abrahamic religions (i.e. Christianity and Islam) and entrenched themselves in the cultures they touched. It wasn't perfect -- folks everywhere get into blood feuds and vendettas no matter what religion they are if the laws or the government don't have a strong hold on them -- but the principle was accepted in law. Thus you find a derivative codified in the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem American Constitution]], specifically Article III, Section 3's prohibition on "corruption of blood": that is, no punishment or penalty can be placed on a convicted person's family for the convict's crimes.
*** Which is small comfort in some cases, as the stigma of being related to certain kinds of criminals can actually be ''worse'', and that only prevents the legal system from doing so. More than one criminal's family has been targeted by the families of victims, if not the victims themselves, sometimes with the tacit sanction of local authorities.
** On the other hand, there are several instances in the Bible where an innocent relative is punished instead of the culpable, such as when God killed David's newborn son to punish him for inventing the UriahGambit.
* This is (mostly) the modus operandi of many Mexican drug cartels, especially for avoiding possible future revenges against them by the successors. Likewise with TheMafia, especially in Sicily where ''vendetta'' is a tradition.

* ThoseWackyNazis did this to those who opposed them many, many times. E.g., since they could not directly attack the ''very'' popular Catholic mystic Therese Neumann despite how she openly criticized them, they went after her friends and family instead.
* Also done by communist regimes. A parent spoke against the government? Sure, now the kids can forget about ever being admitted into a high-school. In fact, they'll be soon taken to the office of the principal who informs them he decided they should become coal miners or factory workers right after graduating elementary school. The older family members might lose their jobs or be moved out of their homes to cheaper, smaller flats.
* This is the basis of North Korea's "Three Generations of Punishment" rule. Not only will your entire family be imprisoned with you, but your children and grandchildren will be as well (providing you live long enough to have any).
* In Albania, it is a very old tradition that if someone kills a man, his relatives will kill him-or if they can't, any of ''his'' male relatives. Though illegal, it still occurs in rural areas, with the male relatives of (alleged) murderers having to go into hiding even now sometimes.