History Main / VengeanceDenied

--> "''Woo!'' Hope you'd never swore you'd kill him yourself! Because you've just been ''robbed of that! Ha ha!''"

--> "Woo! Hope you'd never swore you'd kill him yourself! Because you've just been ''robbed of that! Ha ha!''"

** In season 1, Club President Clay orders Tig to kill fellow member Opie, mistakenly believing Opie to be a [[TheMole federal informant]]. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Tig accidentally kills Opie's wife Donna instead]] when she is driving Opie's truck late at night instead of her own car. Clay and Tig conspire to make the club believe that a rival faction of [[GangBangers black gang members]] committed the murder. However, Jax finds out through [[DirtyCop police informants]] that Clay was actually targeting Opie, Jax's [[ChildhoodFriends best friend]], but unfortunately doesn't have enough definitive proof to get the club's permission to kill Clay or Tig. For several seasons, Jax, Opie, and Opie's dad, Piney, know what Clay and Tig did, but club rules state that they themselves will be killed if they enact revenge outside of club procedures. In season 3, [[CrusadingWidower Opie]] murders [[TheBadGuysAreCops the ATF agent]] that intentionally mislead Clay into believing he was a rat, but his resentment against Clay is stoked even higher when Clay [[ItsPersonal murders Piney]] in season 4, after Piney discovers hard evidence that Clay murdered [[YouKilledMyFather John Teller, Jax's biological father]]. Still constrained by club rules, Opie dies in a prison fight before he can exact revenge on Clay or Tig for Donna or Piney's murders. Clay is, however, eventually murdered by Jax.

*** Arya also wants to kill Joffrey's mother Cersei for enabling his rise to power and also playing a part in many other actions taken against House Stark. However, she loses her chance to do so in the penultimate episode of the series when [[spoiler: Daenerys Targaryen snaps and decides to [[KillEmAll burn King's Landing down]], indirectly killing Cersei in the process as the damaged Red Keep collapses on her.]]

* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': Throughout the series, Aki is one of many devil hunters out to slay the [[PersonOfMassDestruction the Gun Devil]] for killing his family. After Public Safety collect enough of its pieces to find its location, Aki asks to join the mission to hunt it. [[spoiler:Then they let him know the AwfulTruth: the Gun Devil was incapacitated by an unknown force after its major attack and the worlds' governments took as much of its body as possible. The mission was never to ''kill'' the Gun Devil, but claim its power for Japan.]] Then things go FromBadToWorse, as Aki is [[spoiler:coerced and then mind controlled into fighting the Gun Devil anyway, killed by it, and has his corpse taken over and used for a killing spreed until Denji puts him down]].

* In ''Videogame/DevilMayCry 3'', demon hunter Lady swears revenge against her father Arkham for sacrificing her mother to demons in a bid to become a god. When she later finds Dante standing over her father's corpse, she wrongly assumes he killed him and attacks him for interfering in her vengeance. [[spoiler:Subverted later in the game; Arkham was FakingTheDead, and Lady gets to kill him after all]].

** When Yes Man reveals that he's the one that orchestrated the theft of the Platinum Chip, you can reveal to him that you're the Courier that Benny shot in the head. While he does feel bad about it and [[PleaseKillMeIfItPleasesYou offers to let you destroy his body]] he states that as an AI he'll simply upload himself to another Securitron and apologizes for how it'll be impossible to truly enact proper vengeance.

** When Yes Man reveals that he's the one that orchestrated the theft of the Platinum Chip, you can reveal to him that you're the Courier that Benny shot in the head. While he does feel bad about it and [[PleaseKillMeIfItPleases offers to let you destroy his body]] he states that as an AI he'll simply upload himself to another Securitron and apologizes for how it'll be impossible to truly enact proper vengeance.

Compare and contrast this trope with AntiClimax, RedemptionRejection, SparedButNotForgiven and KillSteal.

** Emperor Zakath of Mallorea, for much of his life, had his eyes bent on vengance, only for it to be thwarted twice. The first was against King Taur Urgas of Cthol Murgos for forcing to kill the love of his life after being tricked that she was a traitor, only for King Cho-Hag of Algaria thwarting it after killing Taur Urgas at Thull Mardu. The second was when Zakath [[RevengeByProxy taking his revenge against the entirety of Cthol Murgos]] and against Taur Urgas' last remaining son Urgit, only for it to be halted by prophetic intervention [[spoiler:(revealed to him that Urgit is not the son of Taur Urgas)]] and the fact that his empire is infested by demons.

* In ''Literature/DownAndOutInPurgatory" by Creator/TimPowers, the protagonist spends years plotting the death of the man who murdered the love of his life, only for the man to die of natural causes. This is where the story ''begins''; the protagonist refuses to let this stop him, and pursues his quarry into the afterlife.

* In "Down and Out in Purgatory" by Creator/TimPowers, the protagonist spends years plotting the death of the man who murdered the love of his life, only for the man to die of natural causes. This is where the story ''begins''; the protagonist refuses to let this stop him, and pursues his quarry into the afterlife.
%% * Neville Longbottom in the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' series made it his life's mission to take down Bellatrix Lestrange when word broke that she had escaped from Azkaban. Unfortunately, the one time they actually met in combat, she wiped the floor with him. He never got a second chance to go for her, because during the last battle, [[spoiler:Bellatrix attempts to kill Ginny Weasley, which causes [[MamaBear Molly Weasley]] to step in and kill Bellatrix.]]

* In Lauren Groff's ''The Monsters of Templeton'', many characters have been wronged by Marmaduke Temple, and three of them are angry enough to kill him. [[LotsaPeopleTryToDunIt And all three try to do it on the same night.]] One succeeds; the other two back off, but don't seem too perturbed at being beaten to the punch.

-->'''Cal:''' What have you ''DONE?!''\\
'''Coulson:''' ''(Genuinely confused)'' Uh, you're welcome?

* After barely escaping Alfheim with their lives, {{Literature/Wulfrik}} leaves Broendulf behind in Wisborg, with the understanding between them that they fight over their love Hjordis after Wulfrik has killed the wizard responsible for their current predicament. But once Wulfrik returns, Broendulf has been caught and tortured so that he's in no state to fight. Wulfrik just stabs him through the head, angry that he's been denied vengeance against him.

* During the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode, "The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!", Scrooge has an unexplained hatred of explorer George Mallardy. It is later revealed that the reason for this is that [[spoiler: Scrooge was abandoned on a prior trek up the mountain by Mallardy, who cut the rope holding them together after Scrooge refused to lighten his load.]] However, due to the magical nature of the mountain, Mallardy got lost on the way up and died on the mountain. Huey even points out that the mountain took Scrooge's revenge for him.

* ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'': There are actually multiple occasions where Team Rocket are harassed or cheated by a {{Jerkass}} Pokemon with little to no provocation. Of course, since their choice of retaliation is always to try and capture them and hand them over to Giovanni, Ash's team are obligated to stop them and blast them off.
* Nena Trinity had a grudge to settle with Ali al-Saachez in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' for the deaths of her 2 brothers. However, she was eventually killed by Louise who ironically had just as much vengence against her for causing her family's death. Nena's vengence could have gone unopposed had she not made an enemy of Louise.

** Damion Pope goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on the Sons after Tig [[RevengeMyopia accidentally kills his daughter while performing a drive by on local gang members]] who he believed had attempted to kill Clay (Clay lied). [[PayingEvilUntoEvil He forces Tig to watch]] as he [[DisproportionateRetribution burns one of Tig's]] [[SinsOfOurFathers daughters alive]], gets the Sons locked up for his daughter's murder, and will only have them released if they voluntarily sacrifice one of the life of one of their members (Opie volunteers). Upon their release, it is agreed that Jax has a limited amount of time to handle business according to Pope's specification and at the end of that time, he expects Tig to be handed over to be murdered. Still stinging from [[spoiler:Opie's death, Jax manipulates it so that Tig ends up getting [[ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine to murder Pope]] and blame Clay, denying Pope the satisfaction of killing his daughter's killer]].

* During the ''WesternAnimation/Ducktales2017'' episode, "The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!", Scrooge has an unexplained hatred of explorer George Mallardy. It is later revealed that the reason for this is that [[spoiler: Scrooge was abandoned on a prior trek up the mountain by Mallardy, who cut the rope holding them together after Scrooge refused to lighten his load.]] However, due to the magical nature of the mountain, Mallardy got lost on the way up and died on the mountain. Huey even points out that the mountain took Scrooge's revenge for him.

Compare and contrast this trope with AntiClimax, RedemptionRejection, and KillSteal.