History Main / RevengeIsNotJustice

* ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'': Shylock faced prejudice for being Jewish during a time period where he is belittled, shunned, and mocked for his faith and several lines of his imply that he has given up on any further pretences of amicability, stating that he wants a pound of Antonio's flesh to satisfy his need vengeance since Antonio ridicules him at every opportunity. Since Shylock chose to act on his lust for vengeance; he lost his wealth, his property, his daughter, and his faith because as the court points out, Shylock still tried to mutilate and even kill Antonio. Since Shylock made an attempt on his life, Antonio is owed half of Shylock's fortune as compensation. [[note]] In the play, Shylock is considered "alien" for being Jewish and forced to forfeit his property to both Antonio and the government as punishment for trying to take Antonio's life. Making his punishment unfair and prejudiced in the modern era but the trope still applies because Shylock is punished for acting on his desire for revenge.[[/note]]

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This {{trope}} only happens when there's an InUniverse acknowledgment of this. A character has to receive a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, a KirkSummation, see that someone's DisappointedByTheMotive, or some other kind of speech on why they're wrong. Whoever gives the rebuke, there needs to be a voiced acknowledgment that the character's vengeful drive doesn't justify how they've hurt others. At the very least, an explicit statement must be made by the omniscient {{Narrator}}. One way to accomplish this is a small round of MiseryPoker, specifically by pointing out others who have suffered just the same, if not more, and still chose not to commit the same misdeeds as the accused. (Bonus points if that very suffering is caused, directly or otherwise, by the accused's wrongdoings.)

Compare and Contrast FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse where someone uses their childhood as an excuse, only to be told that it doesn't give them the right to hurt others. Revenge Is Not Justice is about someone using experience outside of their childhood to hurt someone, despite being told that they have no right to do this. Not to be confused with WasItReallyWorthIt and VengeanceFeelsEmpty where a character is asked if their revenge brought them any peace or justice in the end but it is a common question at the end of their revenge plots.

* ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'': Shylock faced prejudice for being Jewish during a time period where he is belittled, shunned, and mocked for his faith and several lines of his imply that he has given up on any further pretences of amicability, stating that he wants a pound of Antonio's flesh to satisfy his need vengeance since Antonio ridicules him at every opportunity. Since Shylock chose to act on his lust for vengeance; he lost his wealth, his property, his daughter, and his faith because as the court points out, Shylock still tried to mutilate and even kill Antonio. Since Shylock made an attempt on his life, Antonio is owed half of Shylock's fortune as compensation. [[note]] In the play, Shylock is considered "alien" for being Jewish and forced to forfeit his property to both Antonio and the government as punishment for trying to take Antonio's life. Making his punishment unfair and prejudiced in the modern era but still maintains the trope by having Shylock punished for acting on his desire for revenge.[[/note]]

* ''Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice'': Shylock faced prejudice for being Jewish during a time period where he is belittled, shunned, and mocked for his faith and several lines of his imply that he has given up on any further pretences of amicability, stating that he wants a pound of Antonio's flesh to satisfy his need vengeance since Antonio ridicules him at every opportunity. Since Shylock chose to act on his lust for vengeance; he lost his wealth, his daughter, and his faith. The court points out that Shylock still tried to mutilate and even kill Antonio, even if he didn't go through with it and so Antonio is owed half of Shylock's fortune for this attempt on his life.

* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': Parker Cerise has been reeling over the trauma of his sister running away from home, learning how she was bullied by her class with little to no adult help at all, her ChildhoodFriend abandoned her, Ash takes their father's attention away and the implications that Chloe ''could'' go back to the Train if no one changes their act. This, combined with Professor Hale delivering the Unown box at a '''very''' bad time, has him use the Unown to unleash justice in his sister's name with disastrous results. It takes a long time for others to tell him that what he wants is the satisfaction of crushing those who have hurt his sister even though the mistakes were either very small due to them being InnocentlyInsensitive, the fact that his targets have already had their lives ruined and also revealing that he and Chloe were also as much at fault than everyone else who caused her to be a near suicidal wreck.

* ''Film/BatmanBegins'': Discussed. Seven years after Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered, he returns to Gotham City to attend the public trial of Joe Chill, who agreed to cooperate with Gotham's DA in taking down the Falcone crime family in exchange for early release from prison. When Rachel Dawes, Bruce's childhood friend and the DA's assistant, tries to dissuade Bruce from going (as she was the one who was going to drive him to the trial), Bruce firmly insists on going, as unbeknownst to Rachel, Bruce had fully intended on killing Joe Chill himself. Shortly after the trial's conclusion, one of Falcone's hitmen gets to Joe and kills him before Bruce could. Frustrated that Falcone had escaped justice again, Rachel and Bruce later discuss how Falcone managed to pull it off, which Bruce noted that he should thank Falcone for it, only for Rachel to point out that what he wanted was revenge, not justice, and imported the importance of an impartial judicial system, which Bruce complains as being broken. Disgusted, Rachel drives Bruce up to a diner that Falcone frequents, making sure to drive him by the countless homeless encampments along the way to show Bruce just how bad Gotham's crime families have been making things for Gotham citizens and how much they're destroying everything Bruce's parents have fought for, and pointing out that Joe Chill himself was a victim of Falcone's criminal empire, despite his crime. She then promptly slaps Bruce after he reveals the revolver he planned to kill Joe Chill with, and tells him how ashamed his parents would be of him. Bruce ultimately takes the lecture to heart, and it's the starting point on his journey to becoming the Dark Knight.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': ''Literature/BattleGround2020'': After Rudolph accidentally shoots and kills [[spoiler: Karrin Murphy]] due to his RecklessGunUsage, Dresden goes into a cold rage and attempts to murder Rudolph with magic in revenge. His close friends Sanya and Butters attempt to talk him down, but Dresden ignores them, and attacks them when they attempt to get between him and Rudolph. So confident is Dresden in his actions that he attempts a BarehandedBladeBlock on the holy sword Fidelacchius, believing the weapon cannot hurt him because his actions are righteous. It is only after his hand is burned by Fidelacchius that Dresden comes to his senses and realizes how close he came to crossing a line he could never come back from.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': In Season 7, Joe agrees to help new police detective Kristen Kramer track down her brother Adam, who was responsible for luring Kramer's unit into an ambush. However, he clearly states that he only does so to bring Adam to justice, and that if Kramer's hunt for him turns into revenge, she's on her own.

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'': Kratos is the Spartan warrior who wanted revenge against Ares for tricking him into murdering his wife and daughter. When he succeeds in killing Ares, Kratos doesn't feel any better and he resorts to killing himself, but is saved by the Olympians who give him Ares' title as the God of War. In the sequel, he decides to kill Zeus and anyone who gets in his way. [[spoiler: Hermes and Hera try to tell him that his crusade against the gods has only brought him more nightmares and thrown Greece into chaos, claims that Kratos ignores it until he kills Zeus. Once Kratos killed Zeus, he realized that what he's done and he seemingly commits suicide, only for that to fail and for Kratos to spend the next 150 years regretting what he did and hating himself.]]

* ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'': [[spoiler: Dr. Octavius wants revenge because Norman Osbourne ruined his career years ago and continues to cause trouble for him even after. When Octavius's tentacles begin to chip away his inhibitions, he becomes more and more desperate for revenge. At first, Peter assumes that it was the tentacles manipulating until he discovers that Octavius was always in control and he knew all along that Peter was Spider-Man. Finally realising that his friend and mentor was willing to sacrifice countless civilians to hurt Osbourne and that their friendship mean't nothing to him, Peter finally drops the special treatment and defeats him.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheAmazingSpiderMan2'' has this as one of its major themes. The game opens up with Spider-Man hunting for his Uncle Ben's killer, only for a SerialKillerKiller to beat him to it; shortly afterwards, Peter finds he feels [[VengeanceFeelsEmpty no peace or satisfaction]] from it, and spends the rest of the game hunting for it. During the FinalBoss, he counters the killer's NotSoDifferent claim by retorting that feeling anger and the desire for revenge is human; what's important is whether or not he acts on those feelings.

* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': After ComicBook/TheJoker drugged ComicBook/{{Superman}} with Kryptonite-laced fear toxin and tricked him into killing his pregnant wife Lois Lane and detonating a nuclear weapon that destroys Metropolis, the Man of Steel not only kills the clown in revenge, he adopts a KnightTemplar WellIntentionedExtremist stance on crime. He even blames Batman for allowing the clown to run amok and put him in Arkham Asylum, an infamous CardboardPrison whose criminals don't reform. However, anyone can notice Superman was clearly motivated by revenge and not altruism when it comes to the post-Metropolis crimes he commits, such as brutally crushing any opposition to the [[TheDictatorship One Earth Regime]] he established, and frequently gets condemned by the Insurgency for breaking the no-kill rule.

It may overlap with IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim where a character is discouraged from murdering their enemy because they will become worse than them. It may also overlap with CycleOfRevenge where revenge begets revenge. HeWhoFightsMonsters also correlates with this since revenge makes someone just as bad as their aggressor or a new brand of evil.

* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': This is a typical topic of conversation for any person who tries to talk Frank Castle into stopping his vigilante war. As they see it, murdering criminals for the sake of getting even for the death of his family is wrong (depending on the universe, the people who committed the murders were the very first criminals Frank killed, so he already got his pound of flesh, too). [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint What they never seem to understand]] is that, DependingOnTheWriter, Frank is either so hardcore a BloodKnight that if he was not killing crooks he would probably be a worse SpreeKiller so at least he?s doing something constructive with his mayhem, he is a DeathSeeker hoping to go out guns blazing, or he has already adopted the mentality that every scumbag he kills saves many other people in the long term, so there is no way in hell he is going to stop or going to let anybody stop him as long as he is still breathing.

* During Gunvolt's TrueFinalBoss fight in ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt2'', [[spoiler:there's a part during the BossBanter where Gunvolt tries to warn Copen that getting vengeance sucks, in reference to killing Asimov to avenge Joule's death in the previous game and the HeroicBSOD he subsequently suffered from prior to the start of ''2''. Copen, who's not only already head-deep in vengeance but also (wrongly) believes that Gunvolt killed Mytyl, is far too angry to listen.]]

'''Danny Reagan:'' (angrily) "[[QuoteToQuoteCombat Do not take vengeance against evil, but wait for the Lord and He will avenge you.]]" [[Literature/BookOfProverbs Proverbs 20:22]].

Compare and Contrast FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse where someone uses their childhood as an excuse, only to be told that it doesn't give them the right to hurt others. Revenge is not justice is about someone using experience outside of their childhood to hurt someone, despite being told that they have no right to do this. Not to be confused with WasItReallyWorthIt where a character is asked if their revenge brought them any peace or justice in the end but it is a common question at the end of their revenge plots.

--> '''Sam''': Just because she was promiscuous didn't give you the right to rape her! You bragged to me that you beat two prior aggravated rapes. You were a menace.
--> '''Max''': You were my lawyer! You were my lawyer, that report could have saved me fourteen years!
--> '''Sam''': You're probably right.
--> '''Max''': You self-righteous fuck!

--> '''Eric''': I don't know what [the cure for cancer] is, but I know it's not killing and torturing people for your own sick fucking pleasure.
--> '''John''': I've never murdered anyone in my life. The decisions are up to them.
--> '''Eric''': Yeah, well, putting a gun to someone's head and forcing them to pull the trigger is still murder.

--> Jerry Phillips: "For if there was harm, you shall appoint as penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth." [[Literature/BookOfExodus Exodus 21:23]].
--> Danny Reagan: (angrily) "[[QuoteToQuoteCombat Do not take vengeance against evil, but wait for the Lord and He will avenge you.]]" [[Literature/BookOfProverbs Proverbs 20:22]].
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': When the woman who stole Cam's identity was caught, she had to decide whether to press additional charges. Arastoo gave her a speech about revenge possibly making her a monster and she ultimately didn?t approve the additional charges.

* ''Literature/TheBible'': The bible gives mixed messages on this (from a Doylist perspective, not all of the scripture was written at the same time or by the same people). The books of Mosaic law, beginning with [[Literature/BookOfExodus the Book Of Exodus]], echo the Code of Hammurabi that one who causes harm to another should suffer equal (but not greater) harm in return (Ex. 21:22-25, Lev. 24:17-22, Deut. 19:16-21). The later [[Literature/BookOfProverbs Book Of Proverbs]], however, commands the reader to not take vengeance but let God handle it (Prov. 20:22). In [[Literature/TheFourGospels the Gospel of Matthew]], Jesus repudiates the eye for an eye commandment, saying that one is not to resist an evil person: "if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also" (Matt. 5:38-40).

--> '''Talia Kaahs''': I'd say what I did was no different from self-defense.
--> '''George Ogel''': No, seeking revenge is not self-defense.

--> '''Zhi''': Spirit of universe has slaughtered my happiness and so I must slaughter too. All who disrupt my garden of peace shall die! [spits at corpses]
--> '''Nick''': Oh God. You did this! These people were just looking for safety, you had no right to kill them!

--> Thane: Removing evil from the world is not the same as adding good.

--> [[spoiler: '''Otto:''' You should be on my side!]]
--> [[spoiler: '''Peter:''' I ''WAS!'']]

** One of the cornerstones of ThePaladin is the acknowledgment that that "vengeance cannot be a part of what we must do", Warcraft III centers around TheWisePrince and Paladin, Arthas Menethil, SlowlySlippingIntoEvil as more and more of his people die in plots by TheUndead and his increasing frustration with [[YouAreTooLate always being too late to save them]], until he decides to forego the paladin oaths and begin his descent into FallenHero territory, eventually becoming a servant of the very undead he swore to destroy as his obsession with vengeance led to him picking up [[EvilWeapon Frostmourne]] which promptly stole his soul in exchange for a hollow victory, after which Arthas returns to his kingdom, murders his father, and brings his kingdom to ruin, raising everyone he can find as undead.

--> '''Freeze''': It can't end this way... Vengeance...
--> '''Batman''': No. Justice.

This {{trope}} is a standard {{Deconstruction}} of PayEvilUntoEvil. Sometimes, characters that have gone through something horrible believe that they have the moral high ground or that they are in the right for their actions, no matter how evil those actions are or who the targets are. This trope comes into play when a character (possibly even the character with the excuse themselves, if they're going through CharacterDevelopment) acknowledges that their actions are wrong; no matter what they have been put through, one bad action won't justify another.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Paranorman}}'': The witch, Agatha, was persecuted for her supernatural powers and eventually executed. During her trial, she cursed her accusers to return as zombies, subjecting them to the same torment she felt at their hands. However, this does not come to pass until Norman fails to keep her spirit asleep and Agatha exacts vengeance by wreaking havoc on the town. Eventually, Norman points out that as awful as everyone was to her, that does not give her the right to cause suffering and she's no better than the townsfolk.

* ''Film/BatmanBegins'': Discussed, seven years after Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered, he returns to Gotham City to attend the public trial of Joe Chill, who agreed to cooperate with Gotham's DA in taking down the Falcone crime family in exchange for early release from prison. When Rachel Dawes, Bruce's childhood friend and the DA's assistant, tries to dissuade Bruce from going (as she was the one who was going to drive him to the trial), Bruce firmly insists on going, as unbeknownst to Rachel, Bruce had fully intended on killing Joe Chill himself. Shortly after the trial's conclusion, one of Falcone's hitmen gets to Joe and kills him before Bruce could. Frustrated that Falcone had escaped justice again, Rachel and Bruce later discuss how Falcone managed to pull it off, which Bruce noted that he should thank Falcone for it, only for Rachel to point out that what he wanted was revenge, not justice, and imported the importance of an impartial judicial system, which Bruce complains as being broken. Disgusted, Rachel drives Bruce up to a diner that Falcone frequents, making sure to drive him by the countless homeless encampments along the way to show Bruce just how bad Gotham's crime families have been making things for Gotham citizens and how much they're destroying everything Bruce's parents have fought for, and pointing out that Joe Chill himself was a victim of Falcone's criminal empire, despite his crime. She then promptly slaps Bruce after he reveals the revolver he planned to kill Joe Chill with, and tells him how ashamed his parents would be of him. Bruce ultimately takes the lecture to heart, and it's the starting point on his journey to becoming The Dark Knight.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Paranorman}}'': The witch, Agatha, was persecuted for her supernatural powers and eventually executed. During her trial, she cursed her accusers to return as zombies, subjecting them to the same torment she felt at their hands. However, this does not come to pass until Norman fails to keep her spirit asleep and Agatha exacts vengeance by wreaking havoc on the town. Eventually, Norman points out that as awful as everyone was to her, that does not give her the right to cause suffering and she's no better than the townsfolk.
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* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': In ''The Southern Raiders'', Zuko reveals to Katara that he can help her find the man who killed her mother. This prompts her to go off on a quest to find the killer and take his life, despite Aang's warnings nothing good ever comes from revenge and murder is never the solution. Later, when Katara finally finds the killer, she sees what a pathetic man he is and lets him live, giving up on her quest but making it clear that she does not, and will never, forgive him.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE14HeartOfIce Heart of Ice]], this is the main reason Batman tries to stop Freeze from killing [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ferris Boyle]]. Even though the man ruined his and his wife's lives, Batman still tries to save him out of principle. The caped crusader does give evidence of Boyle's wrongdoings and leaves him to be arrested.

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* ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'': A major aspect of Talia Kaahs's character is her seeking revenge against Dr. Rex for abducting her and ruining her life. While this merely served as her [[ItsPersonal personal motivations]] in the original RPG, the Expanded Universe stories Scars and Because Of You explored it in greater depth to show why her lust for revenge ultimately causes her to question whether she's a genuinely good person. [[spoiler: In particular, George Ogel gives Talia Kaahs a major TheReasonYouSuckSpeech when he finds out that she decided to assassinate Dr. Rex in an AlternateTimeline, ultimately forcing her to admit to herself that her selfish quest for revenge is not the same as seeking justice.]]
--> Talia Kaahs: I'd say what I did was no different from self-defense.
--> George Ogel: No, seeking revenge is not self-defense.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2:

-->-- '''Uther The Lightbringer''' to his student, prior to battle[[labelnote:*]]Arthas would go on to become ''[[FaceHeelTurn even viler]]'' than the orcs.[[/labelnote]], ''Videogame/{{Warcraft}} III''.

** By the time of ''World Of Warcraft'', Arthas has slain his mentor, Uther. When the ''Shadowlands'' expansion, centered around the afterlife, rolls around long after Arthas himself has been slain, we learn that Uther, now a [[{{Psychopomp}} Kyrian]], with a bit of goading from a [[FallenAngel Forsworn]], tossed Arthas' soul directly into [[{{Hell}} The Maw]] without it receiving the JudgementOfTheDead it was due under the guise of it being 'justice' for all the atrocities Arthas committed in life, and definitely not vengeance. This puts Uther in line with the rest of the Forsworn during a civil war between them and their Kyrian brethren, and when the Forsworn's connection to The Maw is revealed, Uther has a HeelRealization that no, what he did was very much vengeance, and his refusal to see that means he played a part in a plot that might have doomed the Shadowlands as a whole.

** One of the cornerstones of The Paladin is the acknowledgment that that "vengeance cannot be a part of what we must do", Warcraft III centers around TheWisePrince and Paladin, Arthas Menethil, SlowlySlippingIntoEvil as more and more of his people die in plots by TheUndead and his increasing frustration with [[YouAreTooLate always being too late to save them]], until he decides to forego the paladin oaths and begin his descent into FallenHero territory, eventually becoming a servant of the very undead he swore to destroy as his obsession with vengeance led to him picking up [[EvilWeapon Frostmourne]] which promptly stole his soul in exchange for a hollow victory, after which Arthas returns to his kingdom, murders his father, and brings his kingdom to ruin, raising everyone he can find as undead.

* ''Series/BlueBloods]]: In "Sins of the Father", an aggrieved father targets the crew of a porn studio after his daughter apparently committed suicide after being fired from it, and justifies himself [[AsTheGoodBookSays by quoting from the Bible]].

* ''TabletopGame/Pathfinder'': While Shelyn, goddess of beauty and romantic love, and Sarenrae, goddess of healing and the sun, are on cordial terms with Calistria, goddess of lust, one source of disagreement between them is that Calistria is also goddess of revenge. Shelyn and Sarenrae, in contrast, command their followers to spare the lives of enemies who are willing to repent. The [[CharacterAlignment alignment system]] seems to side with Shelyn and Sarenrae: Calistria is ChaoticNeutral (meaning she can sponsor ChaoticEvil divine spellcasters), while Shelyn and Sarenrae are both NeutralGood.

** By the time of World Of Warcraft, Arthas has slain his mentor, Uther. When the Shadowlands expansion, centered around the afterlife, rolls around long after Arthas himself has been slain, we learn that Uther, now a [[{{Psychopomp}} Kyrian]], with a bit of goading from a [[FallenAngel Forsworn]], tossed Arthas' soul directly into [[{{Hell}} The Maw]] without it receiving the JudgementOfTheDead it was due under the guise of it being 'justice' for all the atrocities Arthas committed in life, and definitely not vengeance. This puts Uther in line with the rest of the Forsworn during a civil war between them and their Kyrian brethren, and when the Forsworn's connection to The Maw is revealed, Uther has a HeelRealization that no, what he did was very much vengeance, and his refusal to see that means he played a part in a plot that might have doomed the Shadowlands as a whole.