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| 3 | %% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks! |
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| 6 | ->'''Belkar:''' Ha! The kobold tried to kill Mr. Scruffy, and in the end, he died shielding him from acid! Payback's a bitch!\ |
| 7 | '''Elan:''' But... what about all the awful stuff you already did to him as payback before that?\ |
| 8 | '''Belkar:''' You gotta pay down the interest before you can touch the principle, kid. |
| 9 | -->-- ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' #[[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0848.html 848]] |
| 10 | |
| 11 | A character gets what is treated as LaserGuidedKarma or an otherwise appropriate consequence for their wrongdoing, but they suffer so horribly that even those who [[AssholeVictim agree]] that they deserved punishment [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor think they got more than they really deserved]]. While this typically applies to villains as most feel that TheVillainMustBePunished, this can easily apply to other characters if they get over-punished for a minor misdeed. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The heroic version of this is CantGetAwayWithNuthin. If done too often in a series, this can make a character a DesignatedMonkey. Can cause the one giving the punishment to become a DesignatedHero or UnintentionallyUnsympathetic. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | For in-universe cases of this, see DisproportionateRetribution, EvilIsPetty, and DogKickingExcuse. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Compare FateWorseThanDeath, DeathIsDramatic, AlasPoorVillain, AlasPoorScrappy, AntagonistInMourning, CartesianKarma, ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill, UnintentionallySympathetic, EasyRoadToHell, FelonyMisdemeanor, and JerkassWoobie. Contrast KarmaHoudini, DeathIsCheap, DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist, and JokerImmunity. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | ---- |
| 20 | !!Examples: |
| 21 | |
| 22 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 25 | * ''Manga/BungoStrayDogs'': Chuuya is forced to kill Fukuzawa within two days or his own boss along with Fukuzawa will die, causing him to declare war on the ADA. While the executive makes it clear it's not personal and he hates the situation they're stuck in, Ranpo taunts him about Dazai to trap him in one of Poe's more brutal books containing one thousand characters, five hundred of whom are bloodthirsty murderers that must be identified to escape. On top of that, without access to his powers in the book world and not being especially good at puzzles, Chuuya is fully expected to die. Luckily, he eventually gets out, but one has to admit the trap was over the top. |
| 26 | * ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'': Izumii Ran had one in his backstory. When he was younger, he used to [[BigBrotherBully beat up his younger brother]], Aoba, because he believed his parents [[ParentalFavoritism favored him]]. How does Aoba get back at him? [[DisproportionateRetribution By starting a fire in Ran's room with a lit cigarette]], which not only made their parents think Ran was smoking, [[AbusiveParents but his father breaks his nose]]. To add insult to injury, [[NoSympathy Aoba grins at his expense]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing pretends he was glad Ran didn't get hurt by the fire]]. If anything, that justifies Ran's delusions of being TheUnfavorite. Ran is no doubt a {{jerkass}} to the extreme, but he didn't deserve to get violently beaten by his father for something he didn't even do, which isn't helped that the incident took place before Ran committed some of his [[MoralEventHorizon more vile acts]]. |
| 27 | * ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'': Often even {{Mooks}} in the series engage in terrible acts of KickTheDog to justify Kenshiro's PayEvilUntoEvil, but this still occasionally happens. |
| 28 | ** In a {{filler}} episode in the first season, Kenshiro faces the Snake and Scorpion [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Biker Gangs]] led by their respective leaders, Junk and Baron. The two gangs are underlings of the ArcVillain, Shin and extort the villagers of their supplies. When asked by a villager to stop their feuding and break their control over the village, Kenshiro tricks the two gangs into killing each other in [[EnemyCivilWar all-out war]], then proceeds to kill every last survivor. Kenshiro usually gives his opponents a chance to run or surrender, but in this case, he gave no opportunity to anyone in the gang. Add to the fact that members of the Snakes actually got a small PetTheDog by letting a child into a restricted area in exchange for an apple and that Junk offered to do anything in exchange for mercy (with Kenshiro retorting that he'd only take Junk's life), Kenshiro's insistence on leaving no survivors among both gangs and giving Junk a CruelAndUnusualDeath seems a little needless. |
| 29 | ** In the ''Fudoh Arc'', a man selling eggs is killed by a gang of [[TheAPunkalypse apocalyptic punks]] with his chickens roasted and eaten. Upon confronting the robbers, Kenshiro immediately gruesomely kills them all, even when a {{Mook}} offers Kenshiro the fried chicken to save himself. Whilst the punks definitely did deserve punishment for their murder and robbery, the fact that Kenshiro has a technique to permanently reduce an opponent's strength means he could've punished the gang without gruesomely killing them all. |
| 30 | * ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'': |
| 31 | ** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond Is Unbreakable]]'' has Terunosuke Miyamoto, a one-off villain who ends up turned into a [[AndIMustScream living book]] by Josuke for [[RelativeButton harming the latter's mother]]. Many fans find his fate to be too harsh since he's not as heinous as villains who suffered similar fates (like [[TheUnfettered Kars]] and the SerialRapist Anjuro), and is arguably less heinous than some of [[DefeatMeansFriendship Josuke's reformed friends]]. |
| 32 | ** ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'' has Illuso, who while seen as one of the more ruthless and unpleasant members of La Squadra, has many fans believing that his [[CruelAndUnusualDeath gruesome and horrifying death]] at the hands of Purple Haze, which infected him with a flesh-eating virus that basically liquefied him as he felt the most excruciating pain possible, was worse than he deserved since despite planning to capture Trish and nearly killing Fugo and Abbachio, he's nowhere as nasty as other villains like Cioccolata or Diavolo. That said, readers of the spin-off ''Literature/PurpleHazeFeedback'' may disagree, as that story [[AdaptationalVillainy characterizes Illuso]] as [[spoiler:a SerialKiller responsible for the death of Sheila E's sister]], though that plot point may have been written to mitigate this reaction. |
| 33 | * In the ''Anime/MidnightHorrorSchool'' episode "Noisy Noisy", the bullies [[TerribleTrio YumYum, Tubee and Usop]] throw books off the library shelf and try to frame [[TheStoic Docky]] for it with [[GenkiGirl Noisy]] being their accomplice. However, after Noisy reveals the truth about Docky's accusation...the rest of the students gang up on the trio and start bad-mouthing them for what they did to both Docky and Noisy, which in turn made the former use his whirlwind abilities on the trio to send them running and the latter sends the elevator down, which got the trio stuck in it with the whirlwind. Despite the trio's deed being bad, it ''wasn't the Worst Thing that they did'' and many felt bad for the trio when Docky sent his whirlwind after them, with it being more or less being an act of [[NotSoStoic raging out]] than a form of revenge. |
| 34 | * In ''Manga/MuhyoAndRoji'', Zansetsu Hirata, the spirit of an artist who impersonated artists staying at the hot spring where he'd died in order to complete his final work, ends up being DraggedOffToHell, rather than being sent to purgatory. This punishment comes off as too harsh for several reasons, since Zansetsu hasn't directly harmed anyone, makes no excuses for his actions and willingly leaves the task of finishing his work in the hands of Yontani, a washed-up author he'd come to sympathize with. |
| 35 | * ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'': The title character himself gets this in the third movie, ''Anime/NarutoTheMovieGuardiansOfTheCrescentMoonKingdom''. Naruto spends the first third of the movie dealing with Hikaru's bratty behavior, even after he at least tries to make an effort to be friendly with him. The straw that breaks the camel's back for him is when Hikaru wants to buy Naruto as a slave, but he hits him with a toy arrow after he rightfully refuses, prompting Naruto to bop him on the head and make him cry. Sakura punishes him by beating him up, is DeniedFoodAsPunishment until [[OrderedApology he apologizes]], and [[KickTheDog then taunts Naruto by waving food in his face]] when he sticks to his guns. Naruto was supposed to be seen as in the wrong, but it's hard to feel sorry for Hikaru when he constantly abused Naruto, only for Naruto to get punished for fighting back. |
| 36 | * From ''Manga/YuGiOh'' is VillainOfTheWeek Goro Inogashira, a [[TheBully bully]] who steals the booth location from Yugi's class during the school festival because it's right by the entrance and sees the most foot traffic. The worst thing that happens to Yugi and his classmates is that he and Jounouchi end up in the infirmary with some injuries. In response, Yami Yugi challenges him to a Shadow Game, ending with him dying in an explosion. Normally, most of the one-shot villains from the manga's early days are treated as {{Asshole Victim}}s who deserved their punishments, but very rarely did anyone ever die, even people who committed more heinous crimes than Goro. One such example is Kokurano, a PhonyPsychic from the chapter before Goro's. He was guilty of arson, attempted murder, and {{attempted rape}}, yet all that happens to him is that he gets knocked out with chloroform and exposed as a fraud, which makes Goro's death look like DisproportionateRetribution by comparison. One future guidebook would establish that he wasn't actually killed, just hospitalized (the original story simply shows him caught in the explosion, then moves on). |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 40 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': |
| 41 | ** In [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks a golden age story]], the robbing SuperVillain, the Penny Plunderer, is given the electric chair as a jury's punishment for trying to steal rare pennies and trying to murder Batman and Robin. That other villains, even back then, such as the ''ComicBook/TheJoker'', have done much worse than the Penny Plunderer, yet didn't receive capital punishment, has not gone unnoticed. |
| 42 | ** Initially, [[ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily Jason Todd's death was treated as a tragedy]]. However, later writers portrayed Jason as the "bad Robin" for disobeying orders (something every Robin has done, including Dick Grayson, the original), which ended up giving off the implication that Jason deserved to be beaten senseless with a crowbar and caught in an explosion. |
| 43 | * While ''ComicBook/ChickTracts'' are already notorious for frequently having characters end up in {{Hell}} for [[AuthorTract not following the author's Christian beliefs]], the most infamous instance is "Flight 144", where a missionary couple who have spent fifty years helping countless Africans by building schools and hospitals get sentenced to eternal damnation for [[HardWorkHardlyWorks believing that their good works were worth more than Jesus' sacrifice]]. That same tract has a man who killed somebody in a drunken brawl (which he seems to have genuine remorse for, to be fair) end up in {{Heaven}} because he helped his cellmate find Jesus. |
| 44 | * ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'': In ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice'' Prometheus had maimed Oliver's son, killed his son's daughter, and bombed Star City. At the end of this storyline, Oliver kills Prometheus and hunts down and kills his villain allies. While the story treating this as him having fallen from grace is somewhat understandable given DC's unofficial "[[ThouShaltNotKill superheroes don't kill]]" rule, him being rebuked by his JLA teammates, banished from his hometown, and his wife Dinah leaving him was considered by many to be overkill for his "misdeeds". |
| 45 | * Several Horror comics where the AssholeVictim gets an ironic death can elicit this depending on how extreme it is compared to the severity of the crime. An infamous example is ''[[Creator/ECComics Haunt of Fear]]'' #19's "Foul Play", where a UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} player [[OpposingSportsTeam murders a rival player]] with poisoned spikes. Rather than informing the police when they figure it out, the rival's team takes vengeance by luring the killer to the stadium at night and [[CruelAndUnusualDeath brutally dismembering him]] (''implicitly while he was still alive'') and playing a macabre game with his body parts as equipment. It's supposed to be [[VigilanteExecution vigilante justice]] but given how needlessly gruesome and sadistic the method is, the players just look like even worse psychopaths than their victim. |
| 46 | * ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': During the Apocalypse War, Chief Judge Griffin is captured by Sov Forces and brainwashed to become TheQuisling. Dredd infiltrates the base where he's kept and manages to snap Griffin out of it; Griffin then concludes that he has committed treason and deserves to be executed, an order that Dredd swiftly carries out. While Griffin had indeed become a propaganda tool for the Sovs, it was clearly not through his own choice. His only crime was being captured alive. |
| 47 | * This is a major reason for the fame and infamy of ''ComicBook/StardustTheSuperWizard''. All the villains in the series are written as completely unsympathetic, with many of them either killing people by the truckload or planning to do so. However, Stardust invariably follows up their defeat by punishing them in incredibly over-the-top ways that go beyond PayEvilUntoEvil and frequently come off as full-on BodyHorror torment (for instance, shrinking a man down into just a head, then throwing the head into space where it is absorbed and apparently devoured by an alien giant). The narrative also never treats this as anything less than heroic, which causes it to feel even more disconcerting. |
| 48 | * Similar to the above is DC's own ''ComicBook/TheSpectre'', whose specialty is inflicting horrifying divine punishment on evildoers. Problem is, his targets tend to be small-time crooks who've only committed one murder, or even were just ''an accomplice'' to one, yet he executes them in ways that are far more sadistic than their own crimes. One example is him melting a bank robber alive as the man begs for mercy, even though all the man did was stand by while his boss murdered some guards. Especially jarring in a universe where people like the Joker, Deathstroke, and Black Manta have ''somehow'' escaped this guy's notice[[note]]and the Joker is [[JokerImmunity the only one with an excuse]] -- namely, he (yet again) [[InsanityDefense is so deranged that he may not be 100% conscious of his actions]], and the Spectre refused to judge him because of that[[/note]]. Later stories do acknowledge that the Spectre is a monster with an extremely narrow worldview, but he's nonetheless treated as a force for good. |
| 49 | * ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'': This is the reason why the original version of ''ComicBook/TheJudasContract'' is so divisive amongst fans. The story depicts Terra, a teenage girl, as TheSociopath who [[ForTheEvulz revels in her deeds]] and gets killed when she loses control of her powers, while ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} is treated as a sympathetic AntiVillain. However, ''Deathstroke'' was the one who wanted to kill the Titans in the first place as revenge for his son's death ([[MisplacedRetribution which wasn't even their fault]]) and was in a ''sexual'' relationship with Terra (who, mind you, is young enough to be his daughter). Modern adaptations of this story tend to [[{{bowdlerise}} excise the sexual relationship between the two]] and [[AdaptationalVillainy make Deathstroke the more evil of the pair]]. |
| 50 | * ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': In the lead-up to ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord to stop him using a mind-controlled Superman to massacre thousands of people in order to start a war between humans and metahumans. For this, Diana had her reputation dragged through the mud and she was forced to take on a secret identity as part of a new job to learn humility. Many felt that this was incredibly unfair given the circumstances under which Diana killed Max. It didn't help that even though the entire Trinity were all supposed to have been seen as losing their way, only Diana had to deal with the consequences of her actions while Superman and Batman's respective mistakes (covering up [[ComicBook/IdentityCrisis2004 the Justice League's history of using mindwipes]] and creating Brother Eye) were swept under the rug. |
| 51 | [[/folder]] |
| 52 | |
| 53 | [[folder:Fairy Tales]] |
| 54 | * In Creator/TheBrothersGrimm's [[DarkerAndEdgier version]] of ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'', the stepsisters have their ankles and toes cut by their mother in order to fit the shoe. At Cinderella's wedding with the prince, birds [[EyeScream peck out their eyes]], rendering them blind and crippled for the rest of their life. While the stepsisters routinely bullied Cinderella, many found this punishment overly harsh since their behavior is very likely the result of bad parenting from the WickedStepmother. It's made more jarring by the fact there's no mention of the ''stepmother'' being punished, even though she abused Cinderella just as much as they did. |
| 55 | * Creator/CharlesPerrault's "Diamonds and Toads"/"The Fairy" ([[https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=35&tale=862 link]]), a "Literature/MotherHolle" variant, involves two sisters' respective encounter with a fairy. She blesses the good sister with having diamonds fall from her mouth whenever she speaks. The bad sister, however, rudely rebukes the same fairy, causing her to be cursed with having to spit toads and snakes whenever she speaks. The mother later drives her two daughters out of her house. The good sister meets and marries a prince while the bad sister, after wandering for a while, dies alone and miserable in the woods... which is a frankly harsh punishment for rudeness, especially considering that the mother [[KarmaHoudini gets no punishment]] for her bad parenting. |
| 56 | [[/folder]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 59 | * This is sometimes considered to be one of the biggest flaws of specific types of fanfiction such as Salt Fics, {{Revenge Fic}}s, {{Fix Fic}}s and {{Accusation Fic}}s. While the exact details tend to differ depending on which style is used, there is a consistent element of the writers creating these in order to deal with an element, character, or story point that they have grievances with, justifiably or not. That in itself isn't much of an issue, [[GoneHorriblyWrong but where things tend to go awry is that the fiction]] has the possibility of going straight past justifiable grievances into outright vicious overreaction. It also doesn't help that this can also depend very heavily on the fic writer's self-awareness, since Karmic Overkill can be the result of them making the exact same mistakes as the original story, just punishing the "right people" too excessively because they don't recognize what the actual issue was in the first place, or simply not being skilled enough to actually put their "better than the original" ideas into practice. |
| 60 | * In ''Fanfic/TheBridge'', the Human Twilight is technically working for the Windigos, even badly wounding Sonata by stealing her gem. However, she does all this unwittingly, thinking [[BitchInSheepsClothing Zephyrus is a kindly mentor]] guiding her toward a great destiny. Despite this, she suffers ''[[TraumaCongaLine brutally]]'' for being an accomplice: Aria, furious at what happened to Sonata, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beats Sci-Twi so badly]], she is left with broken ribs and a broken arm. In fear, she becomes a horrifying fusion of Midnight Sparkle and Windigo. After she is defeated with a blast of the Elements of Harmony, Aria knocks her out, unsympathetically thinking she worked with the Windigos for power. Then Wallflower, strung along by one of the Windigos, erases Sci-Twi's memories after the Elements reveal to her just how evil the Windigo really is, allowing Zephyrus to possess her body. This is a ''lot'' of punishment for a young girl who acted naively to go through. |
| 61 | * ''Fanfic/ChuninExamDay'' spends several chapters punishing Sakura and Sasuke for their "crimes", to the point where even readers who hated the characters felt bad for them. |
| 62 | ** Sasuke undergoes massive amounts of AdaptationalVillainy, being TheSociopath rather than an IneffectualLoner whose worst crime up to that point was calling Naruto a chicken once. Almost every loop sees him murdered or at least mutilated for Naruto's entertainment and/or convenience, such as the harem repeatedly stealing his eyes to further their training. One particular loop sees him {{mind rape}}d by Ino, who forces him to very publicly soil himself and tell everyone that the Sharingan evolves by making its wielder play with their feces. Afterwards, Ibiki threatens to kill him if he tells anyone what happened. |
| 63 | ** The worst Sakura ever does is not want to date Naruto, and for all the story claims otherwise, she does show him moments of friendship and genuine concern when he's acting out of character. While she never dies for Naruto's amusement, she's nonetheless humiliated repeatedly in basically every loop she appears in. Even women who barely know her gleefully join in on her mistreatment just because she [[FelonyMisdemeanor refused to date Naruto any of the several thousand times he asked her]]. Once she's brought into the loops, Sakura is then ostracized for an unknown length of time that's implied to be years or decades, until she's so lonely that she offers to be Naruto's SexSlave if he'll show her some affection. Eventually, she begs him to stop bringing her into the time loop, functionally killing that version of her for good, just to end her loneliness. |
| 64 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' fanfiction ''The Diary of a Loud'', Lincoln punches Lola in the [[EyeScream eye]] hard enough to send her to the hospital just because she read his diary to her classmates. This was meant to be portrayed as Lincoln punishing Lola for her prior behavior, but it became ''immensely'' unpopular due to Lola [[WouldHurtAChild just being six (or seven) years old]], along with it seeming disproportionate since she was ''sent to the hospital''. |
| 65 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheEndOfEnds'', the villain, Count Logan, who is [[spoiler:Beast Boy after getting a SuperpoweredEvilSide]], sucks people who were mean to him or otherwise were just living happy lives into his book and kills them. He also has his minions blow up Tamaran because Starfire got together with Robin [[spoiler:when Terra didn't get together with him]]. In fact, the entire reason why he blew up the universe was because [[spoiler:of his getting "dumped" by Terra and slights, real, exaggerated or otherwise, from everybody else]]. All the horrific things he's done are presented as justified by the story. |
| 66 | * One of the reasons that ''Webcomic/HowIBecameYours'', a ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' fancomic featuring Zuko and Katara as a couple, gained infamy is because of this trope. The offending incident has Mai, who caused Katara to miscarry Zuko's child, gets gruesomely and painfully ''bloodbended to death'' by Katara (for those who don't know, "bloodbending" is when a waterbender takes control of the blood inside someone else's body, which means that the waterbender can control ''everything'' inside the person - and yes, it's considered to be [[NightmareFuel a horrifying concept]] in the show). Even people who ''wanted'' Zuko and Katara to be together ended up being disgusted by her actions. |
| 67 | * This might as well be a running theme in the ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomverse'' series. The authoress admits that she actively tried to invoke this reaction at times to help serve as a {{deconstruction}} of the usual AccusationFic tropes, as some characters in-universe even question whether some of these characters actually deserve the punishments they get. But perhaps she did this a bit ''too'' well: |
| 68 | ** ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': One of the biggest complaints about the story is the sheer lengths the universe goes to punish [[Characters/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrailGohFujihachi Goh Fujihachi]]. He becomes Vermillion City's personal scapegoat, with everybody pointing fingers at him and blaming him for Chloe running away, never even bothering to see past the cookie-cutter reality. ''Then'' he reaches a breaking point in Act 2, when [[spoiler:Parker subjects him to the mother of all nightmares just to make himself feel better because of it, leaving Goh a shell of his former self with nary a hint of sanity left.]] Then, [[HopeSpot just as he's recovering from the previous event]], [[spoiler:he gets kidnapped by a lunatic who wants to use his Mew Tracker to get a Shiny Mew, with them even giving him ''an injured Mew'' as leverage, all while holding him at gunpoint.]] What did he do to deserve all of this? He searched for his best friend for days on end, growing sick with worry, only to be told to his face she wanted nothing to do with him when they eventually did talk. Yes, Goh needed to be told off for taking Chloe for granted, but by the time the poor kid finally manages to see her again, it's hard not to feel bad for a kid who was so desperate to fix a friendship that they willingly enter a DeathWorld with no promise of their own escape. |
| 69 | ** ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainVoyageOfWisteria'': [[Characters/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrailTheApex The Apex]], especially [[Characters/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrailGraceMonroe Grace Monroe]], did a lot of bad things (such as murder, injury, inflicting mental and psychological traumas, robbery, pillaging and generally being all-around assholes). But did it really have to end with them [[spoiler:lost, separated, chased by understandably angry denizens, being dragged off to the Hazbin Car and Grace being killed and reincarnated as a mute music note?]] The author has stated that she actually welcomes debates from people over this, particularly where it started going from "ignorance" to "blind arrogance". |
| 70 | * The author of the ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' fanfic ''The Longest Road'' was one of many viewers understandably irked by how Erika denied Ash the right to face her in a gym battle simply because he didn't like the perfume her shop sold. However, the story's original attempt at [[TakeThatScrappy punishing her]] involved Ash [[ForcedOutOfTheCloset outing her as a lesbian]], exploiting a law that made it ''illegal'' for LGBT people to train Pokémon at all, let alone act as gym leaders. Many readers found this too harsh, especially since all of her employees (being members of the LGBT community themselves) would lose their jobs as well. This led to the offending chapter being revamped so that Erika got in trouble on more reasonable grounds. |
| 71 | * ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': |
| 72 | ** "[[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS03E01Chameleon Chameleon]]" gave rise to many, ''many'' [[AccusationFic Salt Fics]] that were [[FandomSpecificPlot/MiraculousLadybug inspired by its events]], as well as the events of later episodes. Many of these stories involve Adrien, Alya, Nino and/or other classmates of Marinette having their reputations, futures, and lives absolutely ''destroyed'' for the crime of... [[DisproportionateRetribution being tricked]] by a ManipulativeBitch. The fact that Marinette often becomes a DesignatedHero whose characterization is completely altered so that she acts more like [[AlphaBitch Chloé]] or (ironically enough) [[BitchInSheepsClothing Lila herself]] doesn't help. |
| 73 | ** ''Fanfic/TheKarmaOfLies'' punishes Adrien for his refusal to act against Lila by having him [[GoneHorriblyRight unwittingly continue protecting her]] by [[LaserGuidedKarma suffering her karmic backlash in her place]], on top of his own KarmaHoudiniWarranty running out. By the end of the story, he's effectively lost everything he once took for granted -- his [[RichesToRags access to his family's fortune]], his [[ConvictedByPublicOpinion reputation]], and his freedom. Meanwhile, Lila, who's even more manipulative and evil than her typical portrayal in [[AccusationFic Salt Fics]], remains a KarmaHoudini. While Adrien is shown to be [[ItsAllAboutMe self-absorbed]] and [[TheyJustDontGetIt resistant to any lessons]], [[NotHelpingYourCase digging himself deeper]] all the way to the end, debate remains about whether or not he deserved to suffer to ''that'' extent. |
| 74 | ** One {{Recursive Fanfic|tion}} for the above, ''Fanfic/KarmaOverbalance'', {{Lampshade|Hanging}}s this in the title. Set after the events of ''The Karma of Lies'', it has Marinette learning that Adrien was completely broken by everything he endured, to the point that he decided to [[spoiler:murder Lila when she returned to Paris, intending to figure out some way of taking Marinette down due to her ParanoiaGambit working a little too well]]. Adrien accepts that he's going to be sent to jail "where he belongs", while Marinette will continue enjoying her KarmicJackpot... though Marinette herself wonders if ''she'll'' suffer some karmic backlash for [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the role she unintentionally played in his downfall]]. |
| 75 | ** A second RecursiveFanfiction, ''Fanfic/KarmicBacklash'', explores it further by [[spoiler:having Adrien completely distraught at the living hell his existence has become and [[DrivenToSuicide trying to kill himself]]]]. His former friends (except for Marinette and Luka, who TookALevelInJerkass in the year between ''Karma of Lies'' and this one) completely toss the idea of him being an AssholeVictim out the window by [[EveryoneHasStandards admitting they are still sore about his deeds, but they are horrified by what he did to himself]] and trying to help him. The plot also makes clear that Karma as presented in the prior story is most definitely a KnightTemplar and [[spoiler:comes to collect for Marinette deciding to leave Lila go with a proverbial [[ParanoiaGambit slap on the wrist]] and [[PrideBeforeAFall getting too prideful about her 'karmic windfall']] by [[HourglassPlot subjecting her to the same horrors Adrien suffered]].]] As for Lila, she got some LaserGuidedKarma after all [[spoiler:courtesy of the next girl she bullied stabbing her a hundred times.]] |
| 76 | ** ''Fanfic/TwoLetters'' is a DeconstructionFic that targets how Marinette's personality frequently changes in Salt Fics, wherein she grows so tired of dealing with {{Entitled|Bastard}} and {{Ungrateful Bastard}}s who [[DudeWheresMyRespect take Ladybug completely for granted]] that she decides to [[TakeThisJobAndShoveIt retire]], passing on the Earrings to a SketchySuccessor whom she regards as "the hero Paris truly deserves". Over the course of the story, it becomes clearer and clearer that Marinette has [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis Become Her Own Antithesis]], having StoppedCaring about others to the extent that she believes ''everyone'' in Paris deserves to suffer, not just those few who legitimately hurt her. What's more, [[TheEndingChangesEverything the ending reveals]] that [[spoiler:she has gone full-blown VillainProtagonist and pulled off a successful MemoryGambit... one that involved lying to her amnesiac future self in order to convince her that everything she's doing is completely justified]]. |
| 77 | ** ''Fanfic/WeightOffYourShoulder'' (a RecursiveFanfiction to ''Two Letters'') lampshades how some people consider the canonical resolution to [[spoiler:Chloé Bourgeois']] KarmaHoudiniWarranty of [[spoiler:sending her to live with her even-more-of-an-AlphaBitch mother who is definitely going [[AbusiveParents to step up with her abuse]] (which already is a significant part of Chloé's FreudianExcuse)]] by having it be part of a BadFuture that [[EveryoneHasStandards Marinette (and everybody else who is heroic in the cast) show disgust to]] because they think it's too cruel while the members of the cast who are jerks ([[spoiler:namely Bunnyx, who in this tale is a TimeTravelingJerkass who wants said bad future to occur because [[ShipperOnDeck it guarantees LadyNoir will sail]]]]) think it's proper karma. |
| 78 | * ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': |
| 79 | ** ''Fanfic/{{Apotheosis|MHA}}'' might as well be the ''definition'' for this trope, thanks to multiple characters that often get more punishment than they really deserve. The most prominent is All Might, who tells a Quirkless child that he shouldn't try to be a hero because it's dangerous (and shows the boy his own secret ''[[DentedIron crippling injuries]]'' to show that he's being serious and why the job is too dangerous for someone without powers), and in return gets his reputation destroyed and quirk stolen by a VillainProtagonist. Most readers who aren't super into the story tend to find this to be overkill to the extreme, as it treats someone telling a kid a [[BrutalHonesty hard but honest truth]] as the ultimate act of evil that they must be ''destroyed'' over. |
| 80 | ** ''Fanfic/OneForAllAndEightForTheNinth'' displays this in regards to Bakugo, where his canonical bad attitude, violent reactions, and issues with Izuku at the start of the series are used to set up a plot point where he's not only expelled, but labeled as not just a villain but an A-ranked Villain. For context, this is the same rank that, at various points in side materials, has been applied to SerialKiller villains like Dabi, Stain, Muscular, and Moonfish, and surpasses the ranking of villains like Overhaul[[note]]whose crimes include using a little girl's blood to create bullets while she is fully conscious[[/note]], all for being aggressive, jerkish, and inflating his mockery of Izuku's quirkless status (which is even stated in fic to have elevated his villain rank by an entire letter) to an extreme, and fairly literal version of JerksAreWorseThanVillains. The author eventually acknowledged this after the ranking discrepancy was pointed out, later retconning it so that his actual actions deserve a D ranking (increased to C because his victim was quirkless) and the A rank was an attempt by the government to strongarm him into working for them to avoid punishment. |
| 81 | * ''Fanfic/PartiallyKissedHero'': |
| 82 | ** Draco Malfoy suffers extremely disproportionate punishments for what he does. In an early chapter, he makes an insensitive comment about Harry being [[YourSoulIsMine Kissed]] by a Dementor, and gets thrown off the Hogwarts Express in retaliation, leaving him with severe injuries. Later, he tries to kill Luna out of revenge for [[YouKilledMyFather her murdering his father Lucius in cold blood]], and in response, Harry has him tortured in front of the entire Slytherin house by a Confunded Snape. After ''that'', he gets forcibly [[GenderBender turned into a girl]] and [[BreedingSlave made to bear twenty-four children by Crabbe and Goyle]], which is treated as entirely deserved. |
| 83 | ** The Dursleys are made out to be [[AdaptationalJerkass far more abusive than they ever were in canon]], giving Harry grievous injuries and starving him for weeks on end. Even so, Harry's payback of having them be [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally tortured]] by Bellatrix Lestrange and then [[FateWorseThanDeath cursing them to eat and be eaten by one another forever]] received a lot of criticism as far beyond what they deserved, even if the story insists that it was justice. |
| 84 | * In ''Fanfic/PoundAndPumpkinCakesAdventuresAndMisadventuresInPottyTraining'', the chapter "The 'Joy' of Flushing" is so-named because the Cake twins [[FunWithFlushing flushed a joyboy (a type of gaming device) down the toilet]]. As a punishment for this, Mrs. Cake [[CorporalPunishment spanks them]], to which some readers objected, especially since they're only toddlers. The author himself admitted that the spanking was a bit controversial and told readers that he would delete any arguments in the comment section. |
| 85 | * In the ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' fanfic ''[[https://www.deviantart.com/legendaryeon/art/Two-Sides-of-a-Genetic-Hybrid-Human-Retribution-930525255 Two Sides of a Genetic Hybrid Human: Retribution]]'', [[DesignatedVillain Cyrus]] ends up getting discovered, and subsequently mauled, by the [[DesignatedHero titular]] AuthorAvatar. Not only does it imply that it won't end well for Cyrus either way (either [[CruelAndUnusualDeath he dies at the hands of the]] [[AliensAreBastards alien lady]] or [[AndIMustScream he ends up in a vegetative state for the rest of his life]], much to the apparent glee of the alien either way), the subsequent text in the image outright proclaims [[BeyondRedemption Cyrus had committed a 'sin too great']] (by attacking the gym leaders who were attempting to stop his plans, and [[FridgeLogic apparently not summoning two reality warping deities to destroy and recreate the world in the first place or literally attacking a small child]]), therefore drawing the attention of his would-be executor and 'suffering the severe consequences of his actions'. [[UnintentionallySympathetic But not only does the sheer brutality of the mauling in the first place end up invoking more pity than catharsis]], there are ''way'' worse villains within the same series that make Cyrus look like a saint in comparison, including [[AbusiveParents Ghetsis]], [[KillAllHumans the Kanto Elite Four]], [[MalevolentMaskedMen the Masked Man]] and the like, so the alien's reasoning for attacking Cyrus and his former lackeys the way she does ends up holding even less water. |
| 86 | [[/folder]] |
| 87 | |
| 88 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 89 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheAntBully'': While Beals takes a disturbing amount of pride and joy out of his exterminator job and tricks Lucas into signing his contract instead of asking his parents, some viewers found his fate of being turned into a deformed freak for the rest of his life to be far worse than he deserved, with certain critics suggesting that a more harmless or humiliating defeat would be a more appropriate punishment for his smugness. It doesn't help that, unlike Lucas, [[ObliviouslyEvil he has no way of knowing that the insects he's trying to kill are sapient]]. |
| 90 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero'' has Gregory Belson meet his end by falling debris from an exploding oil rig. Granted, he ''did'' cause the explosion in question and was an OpportunisticBastard who helped Mr. Freeze in kidnapping Barbara Gordon just to pay off his debt, but some thought this was too far, especially compared to Freeze's own massacre of a submarine crew. |
| 91 | * In ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'', [[FoulFox Foxy Loxy]] is shown to be TheBully and a JerkJock, enjoying tormenting Chicken Little, and to a lesser extent, other unpopular kids. However, many found her fate in the end, where she's been [[HeelFaceBrainwashing hypnotized by alien technology]] to act like a stereotypical GirlyGirl, was a bit much, as going through MindRape is a bit mean-spirited for a character who was a {{jerkass}} at worst. It doesn't help that the aliens offer to restore her to normal, but Runt of the Litter refuses, saying "She's perfect" in her brainwashed state. |
| 92 | * Akiko Glitter, the ''Just Dance'' dancer from ''WesternAnimation/TheEmojiMovie'', falls into the void while screaming in horror and glitching out once her app is deleted. Later, Gene travels to the phone's recycle bin to rescue Hi-5, and while he sees her crying in terror while awaiting her death, he ignores her, showing that we are meant to see her death as justified. While she does force the heroes to dance with her and threaten to drop them into a bottomless pit if they fail, on top of slowing them down enough for Smiler's bots to catch up with them, this is just her following her game's programming, rather than actively trying to kill the heroes, not to mention [[TheMillstone it's Hi-5's fault]] the app was launched in the first place. Because of these factors, Akiko's death is a frequent complaint that is brought up in discussions of the movie. |
| 93 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatoing}}'': When the managers of a rival restaurant discover that Marcel Toing uses food he steals from a human eatery, they cut off his supply by running around the human restaurant's floor and making sure they're seen, causing the humans to set up mousetraps and get a cat. Once Marcel finds out they're responsible for sabotaging his business, he has them captured and sent to a laboratory to be experimented on. Many viewers thought this was an incredibly harsh punishment well in excess of anything they did, especially since they were actually stopping [[DesignatedHero Marcel]] from committing crimes. |
| 94 | * ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheWitchsGhost'': Despite him being a ManipulativeBastard who wanted to TakeOverTheWorld, some felt Ben Ravencroft's punishment of being dragged to a dimension of torment with his ancestor was too excessive a punishment for what he did. Especially since he realized his mistake and turned against Sarah when she revealed how destructive she was. |
| 95 | * ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'': Although Al [=McWhiggin=] stole Woody in order to complete his collection to sell to a museum in Tokyo, one might sympathize with him when he cries on TV over the loss of not just Woody but also Jessie, Bullseye, and Stinky Pete, which, as far as we can tell, he acquired legally. |
| 96 | [[/folder]] |
| 97 | |
| 98 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 99 | * ''Film/Carrie2013'': |
| 100 | ** Carrie's mother Margaret, just like [[Film/Carrie1976 in the first film adaptation]], ends up dead when her daughter uses her {{psychic powers}} to impale her with sharp objects. However, in this version, [[AdaptationalNiceGuy Margaret is shown to be a lot less abusive]], actually caring about the bullying her daughter goes through at school. In addition, she's clearly suffering from her own issues, hurting herself with scissors at one point. This can make this death seem a bit too gruesome, even by Creator/StephenKing's standards -- and in comparison to the book, where Carrie just telekinetically stopped her heart. |
| 101 | ** For some, the mean twins Nicki and Lizzy Watson, don't get nearly enough screen time to develop them as Carrie's bullies. Unlike Chris and Tina, who have active parts in tormenting Carrie and setting her up to be humiliated, the twins are just part of the GirlPosse and are only mean by association. They get a particularly gruesome death, where Carrie pins them to the floor so they can be trampled by the crowd. While certain moments in the film point to them being aware of the prank and possibly in on it (and they were in the original script), it can seem a bit much for two minor characters to die so cruelly. |
| 102 | * ''Film/DantesPeak'': The only major sin Paul Dreyfuss committed was not immediately believing Harry 100% that the volcano was going to erupt at the very start. Not only did Paul have very legitimate reasons for waiting to push the panic button, he even had the team stay long after they normally would at any other investigation, waiting for something to happen, even beyond the time frame he initially allotted. When the seemingly inactive volcano finally does show legitimate proof that it is preparing to erupt, he immediately presses the panic button, does everything he needs to do to get the town prepped, apologizes to Harry, and orders the rest of the team to safety while offering to stay behind himself in the danger zone to try and help Harry off the mountain (the rest of the team stay too). Despite all of that, he dies from drowning after the military orders their evacuation and the bridge he's on collapses from under him (and as the very last man in the very last convoy to evacuate Dante's Peak, nobody else gets hurt). It was definitely a heavy-handed death for someone who was nowhere near an outright villain or a [[SuitWithVestedInterests Mayor Vaughn]]. |
| 103 | * ''Film/Expend4bles'': How some viewed Jumbo Shrimp's death. Yes, he was certainly a {{Jerkass}} towards Barney and Christmas for refusing to give the former his ring back, but there are those who thought Barney using him as a body double when [[TheHeavy Rahmat]] shot his plane down came off as rather [[DisproportionateRetribution disproportionate]] for an AssholeVictim like him. |
| 104 | * ''Film/HocusPocus'': While no one can deny that Ice and Jay were two bullies who deserved to be taken down a peg, many viewers felt being left stuck in cages with no indication that anyone would free them was a step too far. |
| 105 | * ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine2'': At the end, [[spoiler:Lou gets rather unceremoniously [[YourHeadAsplode shot]] by a Lou variant[[note]][[Creator/JohnCusack Adam]] in the uncut version[[/note]], who says he did the group ''a favor'' by doing so as Lou was "bad", and the men immediately move on from Lou to befriend the variant. While Lou was indeed quite an unpleasant person, this was still seen as uncalled for, given that Lou himself has already owned up to his misdeeds and even considered making changes in his life]]. |
| 106 | * ''Film/JurassicWorld'': The kids' babysitter, Zara, is portrayed as being more concerned with talking on the phone and planning her wedding than actually watching the boys. Later, when a flock of pterosaurs escapes, she's grabbed by one and carried screaming into the sky, is dropped and then grabbed by another pterosaur, dropped into a lagoon and grabbed ''again'' by a third pterosaur, is nearly bitten in half by said pterosaur, and ''then'' is devoured by a Mosasaur. Many viewers, [[https://www.comicbookmovie.com/sci-fi/jurassic_park/jurassic-park-star-sam-neill-praises-jurassic-world-says-the-actors-were-real-good-a130433#gs.ykbtx6 including]] Creator/SamNeill, thought this was an overly cruel death for a character who was annoying at worst, especially since the ''Jurassic Park'' series usually saves its most gruesome deaths for truly evil characters. However, [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally]], Zara's death was meant for a random security guard, but Creator/KatieMcGrath personally [[KilledByRequest requested]] that her character die in [[AwesomeDearBoy such a spectacular manner]]. |
| 107 | * The FinalBoss of ''Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle'' is not [[BigBad Poppy Adams]], but instead Agent Whiskey who makes a FaceHeelTurn at the last minute. His reasoning behind this, however, turned out to be [[UnintentionallySympathetic more sympathetic than the writers intended]]. His pregnant wife (whom he had described as "the love of his life") was killed when two drug addicts started a shootout at a convenience store. Not only that, but his death via meat grinder was much more brutal than Poppy Adams' (who is much more evil and would be much better suited to such a fate). |
| 108 | * ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'': There's no denying that Seymour is complicit in the murders. But the film made him [[AdaptationalWimp too passive]] and [[AdaptationalSympathy sympathetic]] of a character, being pushed around to do evil acts by [[ManEatingPlant Audrey II]] rather than taking initiative by himself.[[note]]The play's Seymour has more agency in his crimes, and [[TakingYouWithMe willingly jumps into Audrey II's maw in a vain attempt to kill the monster he created and die on his own terms]].[[/note]] Additionally, the original climax has Audrey II humiliating Seymour in a long musical number (after he witnessed his love [[DiedInYourArmsTonight die in his arms]], no less) before slowly dragging him into the maw [[UndignifiedDeath to be eaten with zero dignity]], a fate usually reserved for an unsympathetic villain. The result is a GutPunch so severe that test audiences universally hated the ending to the point [[FocusGroupEnding it had to be changed to a happier one]]. |
| 109 | * ''Film/OnDeadlyGround'': |
| 110 | ** In one early scene, some racist hicks are shown bullying a Native American man, prompting Forrest to get in a BarBrawl with them. What pushes his treatment of them into this territory is the fact that Forrest is far more violent than their harassment ever was, to the point where he [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown keeps brutalizing them after they've already been beaten]]. They undoubtedly deserved some form of punishment for what they did, but most viewers felt [[DesignatedHero Forrest]] took things way too far. |
| 111 | ** Liles is a rather egotistical and condescending woman who works as a CorruptCorporateExecutive's secretary. For this, the audience is expected to believe that she deserves one of the [[CruelAndUnusualDeath harshest and most drawn-out fates]] in the movie: getting horribly maimed in a car crash, set alight by gasoline pouring out of the fuel tanker she crashed into, and then blown to shreds when said tanker explodes. Granted, she's [[AmbiguouslyEvil possibly]] involved with the crimes committed by her boss, Jennings (she advises him on several issues related to the mercenaries and tells him that the EPA's been getting tips about him), but the worst thing she's actually shown doing onscreen is likening Alaska to a third-world country; even if she was complicit in Jennings breaking the law, her end still comes off as unnecessarily extreme and excessive. |
| 112 | * ''Film/TheParentTrap1998'': Meredith embodies almost all the tropes of children's movie villains: she is a GoldDigger, a ChildHater, and a (potential) WickedStepmother. However, some viewers feel that Hallie and Annie crossed a line when they pushed her mattress to float in the lake while she was asleep, which could have caused her to have ''drowned''. Nick does say they're "punished until the end of the century", but once they're gone, he jokes that he should thank them. |
| 113 | * ''Film/Pinocchio2022Disney'': One major criticism of the movie is that [[{{bowdlerise}} toning down]] what the naughty kids do at PleasureIsland has the unintended side effect of making their fate of [[ForcedTransformation being turned into donkeys]] seem utterly unwarranted. Gone are the brawling, vandalism, and underage drinking and smoking, replaced with kids enjoying themselves on amusement park rides, helping themselves to candy and root beer, and playing a bit rambunctiously in areas specifically intended for that kind of activity, all of which the movie [[InformedWrongness still presents as wrong]]. Not helping matters is the fact that Pinocchio only went there because he was ''kidnapped'', implying that some other kids might have been there against their will as well. The resulting moral comes off less as "don't act like a [[{{pun}} jackass]]" and more like something along the lines of "kids shouldn't have fun, no matter what". |
| 114 | * ''Film/ProblemChild'': |
| 115 | ** While many people needlessly antagonize Junior, his violent reactions to the abuse go well beyond anything sane or rational. The stunt with the car could've easily gotten someone killed. |
| 116 | ** In turn, while Junior might deserve the punishments he gets, almost every adult figure in his life straight up abandons him without even trying to talk him down, discipline him, or try and explain to him why his actions are bad. One potential guardian ditched him as a baby for urinating on him, despite him being way too young to know better. |
| 117 | * ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds'': There's no denying that Betty Childs was a rude snob in need of an attitude adjustment, but most viewers [[ValuesDissonance today]] think her being subjected to [[BedTrick rape by deception]] was a completely unacceptable form of "retribution". |
| 118 | * ''Film/{{Se7en}}'': Theodore "Victor" Allen was a drug dealer and a pederast who also committed armed robbery and assault, but his fate at the hands of [[ThemeSerialKiller John Doe]] (being slowly pumped with drugs, starved, dehydrated, and riddled with bedsores for an entire year) is so horrific that many viewers felt sorry for him. By contrast, while the movie treats his fate as horrific, both the police and the hospital doctor express NoSympathy for him, with one officer even stating, "You got what you deserved". |
| 119 | * General Zod in ''Film/SupermanII'' had Earth in the palm of his hand and Superman at his mercy, but then Superman used Kryptonian technology to [[DePower neutralize Zod and his allies' powers]], rendering him [[BroughtDownToNormal as weak as any Earthling]]. Instead of just dumping the three of them in the clink like he previously did with Lex Luthor, Superman [[CrushingHandshake crushes Zod's hand]] and throws him into an icy chasm, where his henchman soon follow.[[note]]An alternate cut sometimes shown on broadcast TV does, in fact, show them being arrested by the "Arctic Police" after their defeat.[[/note]] |
| 120 | * In ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'', one segment is about a bigot (played by Creator/VicMorrow) [[ColorMeBlack forced to experience racism himself in the bodies of several oppressed peoples throughout history]]. He almost gets lynched as a black man in the 1950s US South, flees from trigger-happy US soldiers as a Vietnamese civilian in the Vietnam War, gets hunted by Nazis as a Jew in [=WWII=] France, and ends up on a train to a Nazi concentration camp. So what did he do that was so bad that he deserved all of this? He ''said some racial slurs''. [[DontShootTheMessage Even many anti-racists thought what he suffered was severe overkill]].[[note]]It's worth mentioning that this wasn't how the segment was first planned. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen The original script]] ended in Vietnam with the man redeeming himself by saving two local children from a helicopter attack. However, while filming that scene, a tragic helicopter crash [[FatalMethodActing killed Morrow and the two child actors, My-Ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen]], forcing the filmmakers to [[RealLifeWritesThePlot work with what they had]] and end on the train scene.[[/note]] |
| 121 | * ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'': The fates of the bratty kids can already be considered this in the original ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' novel (see Literature below). However, the fate of Augustus Gloop comes across as this even more so in this adaptation as, outside of his BigEater tendencies, he's not shown to be a bad kid as he's polite to the others and his poor table manners and contamination of Wonka's chocolate with his cold are AdaptedOut. |
| 122 | [[/folder]] |
| 123 | |
| 124 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 125 | * Near the end of ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', Zedar, a traitorous sorcerer who'd betrayed his brothers to the BigBad Torak, is attacked by Durnik and kills him in self-defense, resulting in Belgarath sealing Zedar in stone for all eternity. Many readers consider this punishment harsher than what he deserves, even those who don't believe in the AlternativeCharacterInterpretation that Torak was controlling him all this time. |
| 126 | * Three of the bad kids' fates in ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' can be considered this. Violet chews gum constantly? She gets turned into a giant blueberry. Mike watches too much TV? He gets shrunk and then stretched out in a taffy puller. Augustus [[BigEater eats too much]]? He gets turned into a lump of fudge. In contrast, [[RichBitch Veruca]], probably the most [[SpoiledBrat spoiled]] and [[{{jerkass}} obnoxious]] of the lot, has nothing worse happen to her than getting thrown into a pile of trash (nothing a change of clothes and a bath can't fix). |
| 127 | * ''Literature/EmpressTheresa'': When investors in gold bullion file a class-action lawsuit against Theresa for her alteration of the economy, Theresa responds by putting what's effectively a {{curse}} on the lawyer who took the case, making it so that any motor vehicle with her inside will inexplicably stall and fail. This is treated as said lawyer getting what she deserves for "bullying" Theresa, even though it was the investors who were responsible for that (and even then, [[StrawmanHasAPoint they had stronger justification than the story claims]]), while the lawyer was just doing her job and has children to support. And since there's no indication that Theresa ever reverses what she did, the poor woman presumably has to deal with this problem for the rest of her life. |
| 128 | * ''Literature/FunJungle'': During the TimeSkip between the second and third books, park manager Tracey Boyd has a nervous breakdown over the [=PR=] disaster of the koala abduction and loses her job. This feels like it is being written to punish Tracey for threatening to fire Teddy's parents after he was accused of the abduction, but she only did so under orders from J.J., and gave Teddy plenty of chances and resources to prove his innocence and change her mind. |
| 129 | * ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'': Marietta Edgecombe is often viewed [[UnintentionallySympathetic more sympathetically than intended]]. She betrays Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge and gets SNEAK written on her face in boils ''forever'', thanks to Hermione's spell that she put on all the Army's members beforehand. However, many readers found that she didn't deserve this punishment for several reasons. First, Marietta never wanted to join them in the first place and was actually peer-pressured to do so by her friend Cho Chang. Second, her mother works at the Ministry of Magic, so Marietta could've been afraid that her participation in LaResistance would bring harm to her mother (though she could have cut ties with them without betraying them, implying that she actually wanted to curry favor with the authorities and not just protect her mother's job). Third, Marietta (along with the rest of Dumbledore's Army) was never warned about the consequences of her betrayal: if she had known she'd be revealed at once and scarred permanently, she likely wouldn't have betrayed them. Fourth, she later had [[LaserGuidedAmnesia her memories of ratting out Dumbledore's Army and her involvement with them erased]], so she's permanently disfigured for [[AmnesiacsAreInnocent a crime she doesn't even remember committing]]. |
| 130 | * ''Literature/TheManWithoutACountry'' by Edward Everett Hale: Though Philip Nolan was involved Aaron Burr’s treason plot against the United States (which, in RealLife, Burr was acquitted of) and though his outburst that he wishes never to hear of the United States again makes him guilty of contempt of court, his fate to be confined on Navy warships for the rest of his life, forgotten about, and prohibited from hearing any news of home again is way too excessive for most readers, since it is basically a form of psychological torture that he endures for more than fifty years and causes him to snap and be brainwashed into not merely loving, but worshipping his country, [[MyCountryRightOrWrong believing that everything it does is justified because it is his country, not because the act is good]]. The narrator fully agrees with that sentiment, and seems unaware that Nolan’s constitutional rights, under the Eighth Amendment, were violated by the country he comes to love so much. |
| 131 | * ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' does this to Gabe, Percy's abusive stepfather. While he was no doubt an awful person who [[AbusiveParents verbally and possibly physically abused Percy]], [[DomesticAbuser definitely physically abused Sally]], and told the authorities that Percy murdered Sally after her disappearance to [[DisproportionateRetribution get back at him for wrecking his car]], some people felt that [[spoiler:Sally murdering him by [[TakenForGranite petrifying him with Medusa's head]] and then selling his stone form to an art collector after passing him off as a sculpture she made]] was too harsh of a fate for him. The movie adaptation softens it to the head being left in his fridge, with a note warning him not to open it, and him doing so anyway, meaning he brings it on himself. This is also the only change to the story that Rick Riordan, the writer, actually liked, suggesting in retrospect he agreed with the thought that Gabe's fate was too extreme. |
| 132 | * ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' (and its AnimatedAdaptation ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'') frequently utilized these sorts of punishments onto the locomotives for their bad behavior. |
| 133 | ** One of the most infamous cases was "The Sad Story of Henry/Come Out Henry", where after the vain Henry refuses to make his runs in the rain and stays in a tunnel, the workmen lose patience and brick him up in there "for always and always". The narrative puts emphasis on [[AndIMustScream the miserable state]] this has left Henry in, though it assures the reader that he deserved his punishment. |
| 134 | ** In "Granpuff", to scare Falcon and Stuart into behaving, Duke tells a tale of a rowdy American engine who often derailed and toppled his goods trains. He ignored warnings over and over ("Who cares about a few spills?"), until eventually the manager got sick of his carelessness and had him rebuilt into a pumping engine. While he definitely deserved to be disciplined, many readers thought what the manager did to him was far harsher than warranted, especially since the books imply that vehicles can [[AndIMustScream remain alive and conscious after being subjected to something like that]]. |
| 135 | * In most of the stories in ''Literature/{{Struwwelpeter}}'', the fate of the children is either deserved (Frederick abuses a dog and gets bitten, necessitating an unpleasant doctor's visit; the three boys who mock a man for being black get dipped in ink as punishment), or a logical consequence of their actions (Harriet/Pauline burns to death after playing with matches, Kaspar starves to death after refusing to eat). Then there's Little Suck-a-Thumb, who gets [[{{fingore}} his hands gruesomely mutilated]] just because he sucked his thumbs. His thumb-sucking didn't even necessarily bother anyone, as the tailor barged in with his shears while he was alone in his home. |
| 136 | * ''Literature/TheWorldsFinestAssassin'': When Lugh poses as a merchant to investigate the [[OrphanageOfFear Torran Orphanage]], the villains of the arc send an assassin to kill him in his sleep. When the assassin gets foiled, the girls [[ColdBloodedTorture torture him]] to get information about his bosses before killing him. What makes this particularly over-the-top is that the assassin is not anywhere near as heinous as his bosses, who are guilty of HumanTrafficking and [[WouldHurtAChild child]] {{rape|IsASpecialKindOfEvil}}-- the man is only a PunchClockVillain, exactly the same as Lugh was in his previous life. What makes it worse is that Lugh ends up only getting the assassin's bosses arrested because despite their crimes being far worse than some of his other targets, he feels that he can't kill them as he's not on an official mission--evidently, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality he doesn't see the need to hold his friends to his own moral code]]. |
| 137 | [[/folder]] |
| 138 | |
| 139 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 140 | * ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' is a show largely about people who deserve death getting it. However, the series sometimes fails to deliver on the "deserve death" part. For example: |
| 141 | ** ''#96: Poi Vey'': A rabbi who got rejected by a hula girl he had a crush on and died when he drunkenly stumbled into a Hawaiian torch ceremony ended up evoking more pity than catharsis from the viewers, despite the narrator treating him like virtually all of the other jackasses on the show. While his attempts to hit on her were admittedly somewhat invasive, getting burned alive for it was still a bit harsh. |
| 142 | ** ''#169: Chess Pain'': When a Soviet chess grandmaster [[ManVersusMachine competing against a supercomputer]] died from [[HighVoltageDeath electrocution]], the narrator mocks him and implies he deserved it. But he was never actually shown doing anything bad; at worst, he was a bit arrogant. |
| 143 | ** ''#203: Trailer Trashed'': A newlywed husband dies while fixing up an old RV for him and his wife to live in after he tries to unclog the plugged septic tank with bleach, which mixes with the acidified waste in the tank to create chlorine gas, essentially turning the RV into a {{gas chamber}}. This is treated as him being TooDumbToLive, but since bleach is commonly used to clean toilet bowls, thinking that it might work on the tank itself is [[EntertaininglyWrong an understandable mistake]]. Not to mention that the husband himself seems like a decent human being, undeserving of getting gassed to death. |
| 144 | ** ''#236: Screwged'': The subject of this segment is treated as deserving to die in a freak hailstorm for [[TheGrinch hating Christmas]], even though the worst thing he actually does is [[ProducePelting throw rotten fruit]] at some [[ChristmasCarolers carolers]]; not nice, but hardly bad enough to warrant death. It doesn't help that he's a lonely widower shown sadly looking over photo albums in the dark, making him come off as a JerkassWoobie rather than a HateSink; most shows probably would've given him a shot at redemption and happiness rather than killing him off. |
| 145 | ** ''#239: Crib Your Enthusiasm'': A man who happens to be an infantilist (someone who enjoys dressing up and acting like a baby) ends up dying in an accident when the drop gate of his adult-sized crib severs his spinal cord. The narrator talks about him like he's a degenerate freak, but the man's interests (while certainly unusual) were harmless and the worst thing he did was throw a fake temper tantrum. |
| 146 | ** ''#389: Jelly-Belly-ed'': While the girl who died was undoubtedly obnoxious and her fake shark scare certainly deserved some kind of punishment, dying a painful death from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irukandji_syndrome Irukandji syndrome]] after swallowing a jellyfish with nobody helping her because [[CryingWolf they thought she was faking it]] went way too far for many viewers' tastes. Quite a few also felt that her [[IJustWantToHaveFriends motive]] was [[UnintentionallySympathetic more sympathetic than intended]], even if it didn't justify her antics. |
| 147 | ** ''#701: Sterward-Death'': A grouchy and apathetic flight attendant starts [[{{Retirony}} her last day before retirement]] after eight years on the job. She's rather unpleasant towards the passengers, especially when serving snacks and drinks. Eventually, the captain reports severe turbulence up ahead and warns everyone to buckle in. The stewardess ignores the warning, causing her to get [[ContinuousDecompression violently sucked out of the plane]] and [[DisneyVillainDeath fall to her death]] when the fuselage rips open. Of course, she should've listened to the warning, but no one could've predicted that the plane would suffer such a catastrophic failure. And though she was rude and sour, anyone would be that way after working so long at a job they clearly hated (especially when one considers that flight attendants are known to have very stressful careers). |
| 148 | ** ''#913: Dead Meat-Eorite'': A young man goes to a party to try and convince people to join his Christian prayer group, only for [[DeathFromAbove a small meteorite to pass through his chest]]. The narrator's commentary mocks his fate and treats what happened to him as LaserGuidedKarma, but while he did lack the common sense to realize that a party was probably the last place he should have gone for his recruitment drive, he wasn't being particularly rude or obnoxious about his beliefs, nor did he intentionally try to ruin the party for anyone else. Essentially, he's treated as deserving of death for being a harmless buzzkill with [[NoSocialSkills poor social skills]]. |
| 149 | * ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark'': In ''[[Recap/AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason1TheTaleOfTheDarkMusic The Tale of the Dark Music]]'', after [[TheBully neighborhood bully]] Koda destroys his bicycle, Andy lures him into and locks him in the basement to "teach him a lesson", then turns on heavy metal music to summon the resident EldritchAbomination, [[FedToTheBeast which consumes Koda]]. |
| 150 | * ''{{Series/Charmed 1998}}'': |
| 151 | ** Dr Williamson of Season 2 gets accidentally infected with samples of the sisters' blood he'd taken when Piper was down with a rare fever, and then made a miraculous recovery. As he's a mortal, the magic drives him mad to the point where he's hunting down criminals to get organ donors for patients in need of transplants, making him a WellIntentionedExtremist at worst. After one attempt at a potion to remove the powers from him, Prue and Phoebe decide he has to die, even though he was a human who could have been saved with a bit more effort from them. Prue even contrives a self-defence death and acts very blasé about it all until Piper calls her and Phoebe on the fact that a human lost his life because of them. |
| 152 | ** Cole Turner gets possessed by the Source of All Evil while trying to help the sisters vanquish him, and was in fact tricked by the Seer, who said he'd return to normal afterwards. He ends up killed to get rid of the Source, but hovers in an AfterlifeAntechamber for demons, where he says he'll miss out on an afterlife. Phoebe refuses to help and decides that Cole is responsible for everything that's gone wrong in her life, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality conveniently ignoring that he nearly got rid of the Source's essence until she intervened at the Seer's manipulation]]. She spends Season 5 {{gaslighting}} him into thinking all he'll ever be is evil, and he eventually ends up killed off in an alternate reality that hammers home how Phoebe would never love him. He is then shown in Season 7 still trapped between realms, given a VillainsDyingGrace that ignores how he was a complete victim of manipulation from multiple parties. |
| 153 | ** Rick Gittridge is a human criminal who gets broken out of jail thanks to Phoebe under the influence of a spell, and he uses her magic to commit more crimes. Phoebe's ultimate solution is to use magic to {{glamour}} him to look like Chris, who's been on the run from demons, and Paige to then attract the demons to their house so they can kill Rick instead of Chris. For a human who could have easily been subdued by two witches and put back in prison with no effort, it's quite shocking how cruelly he was dealt with. |
| 154 | ** Phoebe herself is the only Charmed One to get punished for misusing her magic, being stripped of her active powers, and only ever earning her premonitions back. The out-of-universe reasons were that her levitation was getting too expensive and had to be written out, but both Piper and Paige were almost as guilty as Phoebe in their misuse of magic and suffered no personal gain consequences. Likewise, Paige was the one who participated in the aforementioned killing of Rick above. |
| 155 | * ''Series/TheFallOfTheHouseOfUsher2023'': The show's take on ''Literature/TheMasqueOfTheRedDeath'' involves 78 people being [[spoiler:horrifically burned to death when the sprinklers are revealed to be hooked to tanks of acidic chemicals]]. Although Verna does tell Morella and the wait staff to get out of the building in advance, and we can infer that the guests being selected by Prospero aren't good people, the lack of on-screen {{Jerkass}} behaviour beyond hedonism can make their fate seem somewhat unwarranted. Especially since Prospero was filming them without their consent ''and'' with the intention to blackmail them later. |
| 156 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 157 | ** Amazingly enough, the death of [[spoiler: [[TheCaligula Joffrey]]]] got this reaction from some fans, due to just how [[NightmareFuel gruesomely he died]] (he's poisoned and chokes on his own vomit while the guards and his parents are unable to help him). |
| 158 | ** The fate of [[spoiler: Septa Unella]]. While many fans agree she deserved some comeuppance for forcing [[spoiler: Cersei]] to [[ShamefulStrip walk the streets of King's landing naked]], [[spoiler: leaving Unella at the mercy of [[TheDreaded Gregor Clegane]] was overkill, considering that it's implied that she'll be ''raped and tortured by Gregor until she dies''.]] |
| 159 | * ''Series/TheHauntingHour'' has Norman from "Swarmin' Norman" being eaten alive by millions of insects. While Norman did let his power to control insects corrupt him, many viewers found it to be too excessive a punishment, not only because he was a middle school-aged boy who had been mercilessly bullied his entire life, but the reason Manny, his loyal pet decided this was necessary without even trying to work things out with him was that he squashed two of his insect minions. |
| 160 | * ''Series/{{iCarly}}'': Some of the punishments on this show have been seen by viewers as needlessly cruel: |
| 161 | ** "iMeet Fred". Freddie mentions he doesn't think Fred is that funny on video. Fred responds by claiming he won't make videos anymore, which results in social isolation and emotional and physical abuse to Freddie until he took it back. Sam beat him with a tennis racket until it broke. And it turned out it was a publicity stunt by Fred. |
| 162 | ** "iHate Sam's Boyfriend": The trio's revenge on Jonah for trying to kiss Carly while he's with Sam is wedgie-bouncing him on iCarly. And he's still left in the device even after the show's over. |
| 163 | ** "iParty with Victorious" has probably the most glaring example in the show's history; if not that, then of all Nickelodeon's. Carly and Tori have discovered that their boyfriend Stephen was two-timing each of them with the other. Their response is to expose him over iCarly so the whole world knows. While what he did was bad, their revenge is the equivalent of cyberbullying. |
| 164 | ** ''iRock The Vote'' has this with Wade Collins. While Wade was no doubt a pompous bully who lied about his mother being sick to fish for sympathy, the iCarly gang get back at him by doxxing him after showing a montage of his unpleasant behavior on their webshow, including him saying he hates America, and then encourage their viewers to beat him up after telling them what hotel he's staying at. |
| 165 | * ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'': While they started out as malicious bullies, Bulk and Skull became harmless {{Butt Monkey}}s over their tenure on the show. Despite this, they were often subjected to numerous painful and humiliating experiences, no matter how badly they behaved. In one episode, the Rangers erase the evidence Bulk and Skull have acquired about their identities, humiliating them in public. |
| 166 | * One episode of ''Series/NightVisions'' had a crewman aboard a cargo ship discover some stowaways inside a crate. He does his job and informs his superiors about it, who ignore him. When it becomes clear the stowaways are trapped and that there may be something inside killing them, he tries to break them out. Suddenly, his superiors reveal the stowaways are [[ImAHumanitarian cannibals]] that they transport around so the mob can use them to assassinate people and they stick him inside the crate, where the stowaways mock him and then brutally kill him. This would ordinarily be a CruelTwistEnding, but the episode treats him as though he deserved it, with everyone (even the narrator) mocking him for the "crime" of being a NiceGuy who did his job to the best of his ability and didn't act selfishly. |
| 167 | * ''Series/SamAndCat'': Ellie from "[=#MyPoober=]" was undeniably a total brat who insulted and manipulated Sam and Cat, but ''[[DisproportionateRetribution being abandoned by the group and left alone with a total stranger for who knows how long]]'' was certainly too extreme, especially considering the fact that it's outright child endangerment. |
| 168 | * ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': This trope is part of why many fans hated [[GrandFinale the series finale]], as it shows the protagonists getting convicted and sent to prison for being jerks after neglecting to help someone who was being carjacked, with various characters [[ContinuityCavalcade testifying about the protagonists' misdeeds throughout the series]]. While the finale suggested that [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty this was long-overdue retribution]], many pointed out that throughout the series, the protagonists, especially [[ButtMonkey George]], ''didn't'' always get away with their jerkassery, and therefore this was completely excessive. |
| 169 | * In ''Series/TheSopranos'', Vito Spatafore is a SmugSnake who at one point [[spoiler:murders a random civilian for trying to call the police after Vito crashed into his car while drunk driving]], but it still doesn't really justify him [[spoiler:being [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally beaten to death]] and [[AssShove sodomized with a pool cue]] in a {{homophobic hate crime}} by series BigBad Phil Leotardo]]. |
| 170 | * ''Series/StrangerThings'' has these two: |
| 171 | ** Billy Hargrove gets this in season 2. While he was no doubt an abusive brother and a racist, the events that led to his defeat weren't entirely his fault. First, Max snuck out while he was supposed to be watching her, which gets him a beating from his abusive father and is forced to cancel his date to look for her. When he finds her, he sees her hanging out with Steve, a considerably older boy, and with him being LockedOutOfTheLoop, he makes the natural assumption that [[PaedoHunt Steve is up to something creepy]], which prompts him to beat Steve up. So, in response, he gets sedated by Max, has his car stolen, and [[FridgeHorror it's very likely]] he got an even worse beating from his father for failing to bring her home. |
| 172 | ** Jason Carver from season 4. While forming a vigilante mob and threatening and assaulting civilians was no doubt a bad thing, some felt his fate of [[spoiler: getting ripped in half by the Upside Down opening]] was too harsh of a punishment. Unlike most of the show's other antagonists, Jason was a WellIntentionedExtremist trying to avenge his girlfriend, and a combination of Eddie fleeing the scene and Vecna possessing people around him and Lucas only made the party look more guilty in Jason's eyes. |
| 173 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' |
| 174 | ** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough At Last]]", Walter Bemis is a kind man who [[{{bookworm}} absolutely adores reading]]. However, everyone in his life from his overbearing wife (who destroys everything in the house that could be considered reading material -- even the labels on the food -- and leaves one of the books Walter tried to hide in its hiding spot after scratching out every single word and then feigns interest [[BaitTheDog so Walter will find out]]) to his boss seems to hate his habit. After a huge explosion destroys everything and everyone apart from him, he finds that there is time enough to read. Then his glasses break, leaving him completely unable to. Again, all of this was because he liked reading[[note]]Serling's narration pitches it as karma for him being antisocial, but 1) Walter sees that everybody he cared about is dead and [[InterruptedSuicide contemplates suicide before finding the books]] and 2) Creator/BurgessMeredith plays his role with extreme meekness.[[/note]] |
| 175 | ** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E6LivingDoll Living Doll]]" deals with Eric, a stepfather who is having a bit of trouble adjusting to his role as such, in part due to his own [[LawOfInverseFertility inability to father children]] and the fact his wife already has a daughter from a previous marriage named Christie. The titular Doll, dubbed Talky Tina, is purchased one day and adored by Christie. However, when Christie isn't present, Tina constantly harasses Eric -- even beginning their disastrous feud by stating outright that she doesn't think she likes him very much. It culminates with Eric trying to destroy the doll (thus further alienating his family) and eventually being murdered by it when he [[StaircaseTumble takes a nasty tumble down the stairs]]. |
| 176 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'' had a segment called "The Pool Guy", where the main character finds himself trapped in a GroundhogDayLoop experiencing his own murder over and over again. In the end, it's revealed that he's a murderer who was forced to undergo a memory wipe before being placed in a MindPrison, and the man who kills him every time was his victim. According to his jailers and even the narrator, it's his [[KarmicTwistEnding just desserts]], but many viewers felt that [[AndIMustScream killing a confused, helpless man thousands of times until he goes insane]] is infinitely worse than killing someone once. |
| 177 | * At the end of ''Series/WandaVision'', the villainous [[spoiler:Agatha Harkness]] is brainwashed by Wanda into becoming the harmless [[spoiler:{{sitcom}} neighbor, Agnes, that Harkness initially pretended to be]]. It's a convenient way to keep the character around for a possible return instead of the usual route of [[SuperheroMovieVillainsDie killing off supervillains]] the MCU takes, and [[spoiler:Agatha]] had no qualms about [[WouldHurtAChild killing children]] and [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals puppies]]. However, to some viewers, it comes off as an unnecessarily harsh DeathOfPersonality, especially since earlier it was revealed [[spoiler:those Wanda brainwashed [[AndIMustScream were still fully aware inside]] and every night had to psychically witness her nightmares.]] Perhaps not surprisingly, the next movie Wanda appears in, ''Film/DoctorStrangeInTheMultiverseOfMadness'', shows that she's [[spoiler: truly become BrainwashedAndCrazy and is the outright villain of the piece]]. |
| 178 | * ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'' does this to Stevie. Her desire to put an end to the Wizard Competition so that all magic siblings keep their powers was already considered an act of DesignatedEvil by viewers, since it's been shown that the Competition has driven a lot of families apart. This at worst makes her a WellIntentionedExtremist, but the characters all treat her like she's pure evil because of it, including her brother. Naturally, some viewers think that her fate of getting TakenForGranite and then having her [[LiterallyShatteredLives petrified body shattered]] was too harsh of a punishment for her. WordOfGod tried to mitigate this by revealing that she was put back together and de-petrified, but she never appears again in the show. |
| 179 | [[/folder]] |
| 180 | |
| 181 | [[folder:Mythology and Religion]] |
| 182 | * One story of Literature/TheTalmud tells of a rabbi and holy man, whom we are meant to emulate, see a drowned corpse float by him on a nearby river. He then [[NoSympathy mocks the dead man]], saying he deserved that fate because he must have murdered someone by drowning him. Of course, this is a total stranger, so the man is more likely an unfortunate innocent. |
| 183 | [[/folder]] |
| 184 | |
| 185 | [[folder:TabletopGames]] |
| 186 | * Kei Arasaka in the ''TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2020'' sourcebook ''Shockwave''. Although he was a ruthless, high-ranking officer of an oppressive OneNationUnderCopyright, many people feel that his [[BrainUploading mind getting uploaded]] to a digital prison for ''the rest of time'' (or at least until the hardware breaks down) was way too brutal. Especially since the heroes [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim could have killed him quite easily by the end]] and accomplished all their same goals by doing so. |
| 187 | [[/folder]] |
| 188 | |
| 189 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 190 | * Mime's fate in ''Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung'' can seem overly harsh. Yes, he wants the Nibelung treasures and the RingOfPower for himself, but he decides to go after them after being cruelly taunted and beaten by his own brother who usurps power in Nibelheim (before that, as Mime recalls, life was wonderful). Then he takes in baby Siegfried in order to raise him to fight Fafner (who owns the treasures). He treats Siegfried decently (he clothes him, feeds him, teaches him, and makes toys for him), but Siegfried only taunts and humiliates him even more ''for years'', even ''setting a bear on him'' ForTheEvulz. Then Wotan randomly drops in and bullies Mime a bit more, finally telling him he'll get killed. After that Mime snaps and starts planning to kill Siegfried, but with the HumiliationConga he endures ''before'' that for no particular fault of his own, it's hardly a shock. |
| 191 | [[/folder]] |
| 192 | |
| 193 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 194 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXVI'': There is a sidequest where Clive is instructed to rescue a nobleman's son from a wolf, only to find out that he and his son were sending [[SlaveRace Bearers]] to get mauled to death by the wolf, who was actually their pet, ForTheEvulz. At the end of the quest, they try to replace the wolf, only for it to maul both the nobleman and his son to death off screen. While the nobleman certainly [[AssholeVictim deserved his fate]], his son looked no older than ten and was likely molded by his father's upbringing. This is especially jarring since in the same area, there was another sidequest where Clive met a girl (who wasn't much younger than the nobleman's son) who treated her dead Bearer like a replaceable toy because her parents influenced her to think like that. However, unlike the nobleman's son, the girl is punished with a ReasonYouSuckSpeech, and if you talk to her after the quest ends, she is clearly remorseful for how she treated her Bearer. |
| 195 | * ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'': |
| 196 | ** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'': [[Characters/FiveNightsAtFreddysWilliamAfton William Afton]], a [[WouldHurtAChild child-murdering]] SerialKiller, suffers a springlock failure, [[CruelAndUnusualDeath where an animatronic endoskeleton crushes his body, with him being alive for long enough to realize they are dying]]. And then he possesses his corpse and is left slumped against a wall in a boarded-up room for thirty years. While the majority views this as a fitting punishment, others believe that even someone like him doesn't deserve a fate as cruel as that. |
| 197 | ** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'': There are fans who feel this way about the fates of the enemy Glamrock animatronics; in the canon storyline, they are damaged and mutilated, with their parts being used to upgrade [[TokenHeroicOrc Glamrock Freddy]]. While they ''were'' trying to kill Gregory, and have apparently kidnapped other children before, that's only because [[BigBad Vanny]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy reprogrammed them to, meaning they aren't acting entirely on their own volition]][[note]]That being said, one of the Glamrocks - [[spoiler:Monty]] - is implied to have [[spoiler:murdered Glamrock Bonnie]] prior to being brainwashed which, if true, would make [[spoiler:Monty]] the exception in terms of karma[[/note]]. Many fans wish there was an option to either free them or fix them. |
| 198 | * ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': |
| 199 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'': Havetti is a brutish pirate that was extorting a portside village out of food and supplies, also admitting to throwing Makalov, a [[TheGamblingAddict compulsive gambler]] off of his shop for attempting to cheat his crew. Despite this, the fact that Havetti hasn't hurt anyone, unlike the prior bandit villains faced by the Greil mercenaries, has made more than one player regret that there is no option to take Havetti alive and that the Greil mercenaries have to kill Havetti to clear the map. Similar applies to MiniBoss, Nedata, another pirate, who seemed relatively pleasant for a criminal. |
| 200 | ** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'': Victor and Vincent are a pair of bandit twins that try to raid a village for money, only for Victor to be killed by the heroes. Later, the despondent Vincent tries to avenge his brother's death, only to be killed as well, with his death PlayedForLaughs. Given worse villains like [[spoiler:Gangrel]], a tyrant who intentionally ran his country into the ground and caused the deaths of hundreds of people, were forgiven by the heroes, it can be easy to wish there was a way to thwart Victor and Vincent's actions without killing them. |
| 201 | * ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': |
| 202 | ** [[Characters/GrandTheftAutoVTrevorPhilips Trevor Philips]] is an [[AxCrazy insane]], [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]], [[ILoveTheDead necrophilic]] [[DrugsAreBad drug dealer]], among many other sins. [[spoiler:But in Ending A, seeing him burn to death while screaming in pain ''and'' having his killers be his two best friends is deeply tragic]]. Thankfully, it isn't canon. |
| 203 | ** Franklin has this reaction after finding out Lester and Michael were the ones who organized the death of Mark Zuckerberg {{Expy}} Jay Norris and murdered him respectively. |
| 204 | --->'''Lester''': Did you hear about Lifeinvader?\ |
| 205 | '''Franklin''': Oh shit, y'all two did that?\ |
| 206 | '''Lester''': Eyes forward. We're just two strangers having a friendly chat. [[EvenEvilHasStandards And don't pretend that you liked Jay Norris]].\ |
| 207 | '''Franklin''': Oh man, I don't know, homie. I mean, yeah, the dude outsourced work to child slaves, then stole and sold everybody's private information, and even ripped his own friends' ideas off and walked around like the messiah doin' it, but... man, I don't think the nigga deserved to have his fuckin' head blowed off on TV. |
| 208 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': Paz Ortega Andrade, first introduced in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', turned out to be TheMole for Cipher who was going to launch a nuke in order to frame Big Boss and MSF and cause the wrath of all the world's powers to fall down on their heads. Then ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' picks up around six months after her failed attempt to destroy MSF, and the audience finds out that she was taken prisoner by Skull Face, and put through '''''extreme''''' ColdBloodedTorture at Camp Omega that ends up having dire consequences for Big Boss, to the point where pretty much everyone agrees she didn't deserve to suffer as much as she did. |
| 209 | * In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', one Mementos target is a middle-aged unemployed man who's cheating in order to get a high score in a video game. While he's a nuisance to others and is denying players who play fairly the chance to have their achievements honored, his crimes pale in comparison to most of the Mementos targets, who generally consist of bullies, abusers, criminals and other scum yet receives [[HeelFaceBrainwashing the same punishment]]. |
| 210 | * The games of ''VideoGame/VenusBlood'' tend to do this in VillainProtagonist routes of the games through SexualKarma. Each BigBad in said routes are by no means the nicest of people and undoubtedly is the worse of two evils, but considering what they undergo via NaughtyTentacles, it could be seen more disturbing than pleasing. |
| 211 | * ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames Wand of Gamelon]]'': Despite the fact that Hektan is an EvilSorcerer and was the one who locked up King Harkinian, his [[ImMelting death]] comes off as a little brutal, which isn't helped by Zelda calling his death [[ComedicSociopathy "good"]]. |
| 212 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Zul'jin was [[UnIntentionallySympathetic always viewed more sympathetically]], despite being a guerrilla fighter whose attacks have occasionally killed civilians. The reason for this is that his beef with the high elves and humans is perfectly legitimate as they are established as having taken the ancestral land of his race, the Forest Trolls, a race that humans and elves almost universally [[FantasticRacism treat solely as vermin to be exterminated]]. By the point, the ExpansionPack, ''ShadowLands'', revealed Zul'jin was sent to Revendreth, the setting's equivalent to {{Hell}}, whilst far worse villains, like Lady Vashj who invaded Zangermarsh, intentionally destroyed the eco-system of the area ForTheEvulz, robbed the natives and animals of their water supply, and organized horrific mass slavery of marginalized people, didn't get sent to Revendreth, even Zul'jin's biggest detractors admitted he didn't deserve to get sent to {{Hell}}. |
| 213 | [[/folder]] |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 216 | * In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', many fans were upset on seeing [[spoiler: Yuri Cosmos]] demoted in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue as even though he manipulated some parts of Case 4's crime scene and lied in court about it, it was all to [[spoiler: protect his astronauts from a terrorist bombing]], and he only resorted to these measures ''after'' he tried to tell the authorities and they didn't take him seriously. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 220 | * ''Platform/GoAnimate'': Whenever a troublemaker is punished for whatever they've done (i.e. killing someone or destroying something), they will often receive a [[HumiliationConga Punishment Day]]. [[BrokenBase Depending on who you ask]], the punishments they get from their [[AbusiveParents parents]] may end up being too excessive, especially if they're ''killed'' or mentally broken for their actions. |
| 221 | * ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': |
| 222 | ** Whenever Sniffles tries to catch the ant family, they get back at him by tormenting him in gruesome ways, such as killing him via PsychicAssistedSuicide. Even though he does try to eat them, they go too far in their self-defense. |
| 223 | ** Lifty and Shifty often have some of the prolonged and brutal deaths, at times almost on scale as Sniffles, when their thievery is often due to them being too poor to support themselves. And other times they do nothing wrong, but still die anyway. |
| 224 | * ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': |
| 225 | ** The members of C.H.E.R.U.B. were a bit self-righteous and seemed to care more about fame and glory than actually protecting and redeeming their clients, but some feel that them getting kicked out of heaven for the death of ''one'' human (who was later revealed to have [[spoiler:tested his inventions on children]]) that wasn't even directly their fault was worse than they deserved. |
| 226 | ** Blitzo was meant to learn that it was wrong for him to tell Loona that he will replace her as an empty threat knowing where her abandonment issues stem from, but some fans felt that the GroinAttack he received at the end was a step too far even while understanding where her hostility stems from. It doesn't help that the attack follows a touching scene of her telling Octavia that [[ParentsAsPeople that their dads care about them despite their mistakes]], causing a bad case of MoodWhiplash. |
| 227 | ** Chaz was a sleazy, narcissistic, perverted ConMan who was perfectly willing to break up a loving married couple for his own selfish ends. Even so, some fans felt that him being KilledOffscreen by [[TheDon Crimson]] at the end was a bit much, especially since A. his death was suggested to be pretty brutal, B. it was implied he still cared for Moxxie deep down and C. Crimson, who the episode showed to be ''infinitely'' worse, [[KarmaHoudini got what amounted to a slap on the wrist]]. |
| 228 | ** While Glitz and Glam are portrayed as rude, obnoxious and hypercompetitive, many fans called foul at the implication that they deserved to be beaten by Fizzarolli and then crushed by a pillar at the end of the episode they first appeared in. This was because the worst thing they do in said episode is act like {{Alpha Bitch}}es to him and Blitzo (with many fans claiming that they weren't much worse than Verosika, who never gets such brutal mistreatment and is even shown some sympathy by the narrative); they never once cheat or try to sabotage Fizz. It doesn't help that they will most likely end up being victimized by Mammon's exploitation just as much as Fizz was. |
| 229 | * ''WebAnimation/MangaSoprano'': Nonoka's fate in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XedhgDieOko "My sister plundered my fiancé! Now my arranged marriage partner is also plundered"]] can come off as this for some viewers. The man she triumphantly stole from Ram, Ikki-san, showed his true self after the marriage and [[spoiler:subjected her to ''very'' harsh DomesticAbuse, bribing any lawyer she brought into leaving, as he was a male chauvinist]]. While Nonoka was a brat who loved to steal things from Ram, some viewers felt [[spoiler:being trapped in an abusive marriage]] was too much since her awful behavior could be chalked up to bad parenting. What's more jarring apart from [[spoiler:Ikki-san getting off scot-free]], is that Ram and Nonoka's parents don't get any significant comeuppance other than [[spoiler:Nonoka spending their money on the aforementioned lawyers]]. |
| 230 | * ''WebAnimation/PokemonRusty'': Despite [[LethallyStupid Rusty]] causing untold amounts of death and destruction throughout the series, some viewers felt his punishment in the GrandFinale of [[spoiler:being forced to work at his parents' deli for the rest of his life]] was excessive on the grounds that A. Rusty is only ten years old, and B. everything he did was out of [[HanlonsRazor stupidity rather than cruelty]]. |
| 231 | * ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': [[spoiler:Jacques Schnee]] was a massive HateSink, a DirtyCoward, SmugSnake, and an [[spoiler:{{abusive parent|s}} and CorruptCorporateExecutive]] with no real redeeming qualities, but his fate of [[spoiler:being casually and unceremoniously murdered by [[FallenHero General Ironwood]] via Due Process's {{BFG}} form]] in Volume 8 just because he was ''there'' was more than most fans felt he really deserved, and most were content with him merely [[spoiler:losing his company and going to prison]]. |
| 232 | * ''WebAnimation/TroubleBusters'': Sometimes, the punishments issued by the titular team or other protagonists go too far, condemning the antagonists to fates far worse than the crimes and atrocities they committed. This stands out in episodes where Aoto is involved as a supporting character. |
| 233 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztAOZqPsHIk "My younger sister bragged about stealing my husband..."]]: The [=McCormick=] family takes on Noah's massive debts after their favorite daughter, Erika, mistook him for Hailey's fiancé and became pregnant as a result. After Andy and his goons take the [=McCormicks=] away, the gang metes out outright unethical punishments on them: The mother and Noah [[PlayingWithSyringes both become guinea pigs]], the father becomes [[DefeatMeansMenialLabor a janitor]] but is executed for shooting the boss, and Erika herself [[spoiler:becomes a {{breeding slave}} for childless couples. While the [=McCormicks=] mistreated Hailey, condemning them to such horrid fates is pretty sketchy, even if it's for the greater good. Moreover, the [=McCormick=] couple (who caused the episode's conflict in the first place) and Noah have it easy in comparison to Erika, who has to endure being ''raped'' until her body gives out or she dies.]] |
| 234 | * ''WebAnimation/TheTwins2022'': The "well-behaved" Lucas is a terrible person towards his "bad example" brother Lake, consistently setting up and tattling on the otherwise-decent Lake to get him in trouble and to make himself look good, then stealing Lake's toy car and threatening to break it. At the end, however, after being pushed onto the road by Lake, who refused to help him up, [[spoiler:Lucas is ''outright killed'' by a hit-and-run car]] that neither brother saw coming, followed by [[spoiler:Lake disposing of his body and [[DeadPersonImpersonation taking over his life as "Lucas"]]]]. As terrible as Lucas was, many viewers found that fate extreme to the point where several consider ''The Twins'' a ''horror'' animation. |
| 235 | [[/folder]] |
| 236 | |
| 237 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 238 | * ''Webcomic/BetterDays'': Harvey Longfellow, during and after his brief time dating Sheila Black, shows himself to be an unsavory character. He [[PhonyVeteran lies about his war record]], falsely claiming he served in Vietnam with Sheila's late husband Jim (he actually spent the war at an Okinawan supply depot), and implies that Jim cheated on her as part of a ploy to get his hooks in her. When Sheila finds out the truth and angrily confronts him about his dishonesty and manipulation, he subsequently refuses to leave her alone, eventually [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raping her]]. Virtually all of the comic's readers agreed that Longfellow was a despicable scumbag thoroughly deserving of a long stay in prison, but more than a few still felt his death from being deliberately infected with a fatal case of meningitis by some of Jim's old army friends was nevertheless excessive. This was because Harvey had been beaten to the point of hospitalization by Sheila's son Fisk, was already in police custody, and had enough evidence against him to put him behind bars for a very long time. He was no longer a threat to anyone and was going to face justice, so these readers saw his ultimate fate as unnecessary and even cruel, especially considering an even worse criminal who [[ParentalIncest molested his own children]] suffered a comparatively humane death (being shot in the head) under far more justified circumstances (he was threatening {{FBI agent}}s with a shotgun, and one of them killed him in self-defense). |
| 239 | * Most pages of ''Webcomic/NattyComics'' are about various men wronging the title character (not always intentionally) and being humiliated, injured, killed, or worse in retaliation. Even though the victims [[HeelRealization always insist they deserve it]], most people disagree and either worry about the author's sanity or wonder if [[PoesLaw the comic is actually satire]]. WordOfGod initially defended this by comparing it to the slapstick of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes,'' but he eventually disavowed the comic after realizing that many women critics disliked the brutality of his portrayed ideology. |
| 240 | * In ''Webcomic/VeganArtbook'', Shawn gets his food stolen by vegans, gets scalding hot tea thrown into his face, is on the receiving end of a GroinAttack, and is constantly bullied verbally by his sisters and other vegans. All because he is an omnivore. Most readers tend to think that Shawn is treated way more harshly than he deserves, especially since he isn't even ''against'' veganism in general, he simply doesn't want to ''become'' a vegan. |
| 241 | [[/folder]] |
| 242 | |
| 243 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 244 | * Cloud in ''WebAnimation/FinalFantasyVIIMachinabridged'' was meant to be a KarmicButtMonkey for his SmallNameBigEgo and his status as TheMillstone. However, most of Cloud's "fuck ups" were the result of either Barret's incompetence as a leader, Tifa lying to him about what Avalanche does, or just simple bad luck on his part. It reaches its peak in episode two, where Tifa viciously verbally abuses him when the Sector 1 mission already frustrated him to the point of crying, and she uses a PrisonRape threat to get him to stay with Avalanche. Many viewers were put off by this, feeling that for all of Cloud's mistakes, he didn't deserve to get ganged up on. [[AuthorsSavingThrow Season 2 sought to rectify this]], by making Cloud blow up at Tifa after hitting his RageBreakingPoint, making Tifa have a JerkassRealization and work to be better about it, making Cloud's mental issues come to the forefront so that the party has a lot less justification for picking on him, and making it so that when they ''do'' pick on him it's because he did something genuinely stupid and/or tactless that pissed multiple people off. |
| 245 | * Website/SFDebris talks about this in his commentary on the Series/WonderWoman2011Pilot, pointing out how the rule of law is supposed to protect the innocent ''and'' the guilty, the latter in particular being protected from getting more than they deserve. Otherwise, people would be saying that Willis' death from a drug overdose was well-deserved because he cheated to get his scholarship, or (by Wonder Woman's example), whoever Willis hedged out with his use of performance-enhancing drugs should break into the hospital and beat him up for cheating. |
| 246 | [[/folder]] |
| 247 | |
| 248 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 249 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'': In the episode "[[Recap/ArthurS4E1DWsLibraryCardArthursBigHit Arthur's Big Hit]]", Arthur hits D.W., then later Binky hits him. While it's meant to be a case of "what goes around, comes around", with Arthur's dad telling him that now he knows how D.W. felt, many viewers objected to this because Arthur didn't do anything to Binky, he'd ''already'' been punished by his parents, and the moral was [[BrokenAesop meant to be]] "don't hit people". |
| 250 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': Clayface is an amoral {{jerkass}} who didn't appreciate the people trying to help his {{mutant|s}} condition, and eventually "murdered" a part of himself with agency by reabsorbing her, but he's still one of the less evil Bat-rogues, and even the aforementioned murder happened after he spent [[AndIMustScream god knows how long free-floating in the ocean]] before washing up with damaged memories. When he turns up in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', he's also reluctant to join Grodd's Secret Society, only doing so out of gratitude and [[IJustWantToBeNormal a chance to look human again]]. And when he faces the Justice League, he gets an unceremonious and brutal [[UncertainDoom apparent death]] by being blown away with fireworks while his teammates were taken down non-lethally. What makes it worse is that [[ThouShaltNotKill Batman]] doesn't blink an eye at this, and how truly vile mass-murderers like Firefly and the Joker didn't get treatment this rough. |
| 251 | * ''Franchise/Ben10'': |
| 252 | ** ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'': The episode "[[Recap/Ben10S2E1Truth Truth]]" has Max's two-faced [[WeUsedToBeFriends former partner]] Phil, who is using [[PhantomZone the Null Void]] to release dangerous alien beasts [[MonsterProtectionRacket and then recapture them for money]]. He winds up trapped in the Null Void himself, a hellish unending space populated by vicious monsters, and the Tennysons make no attempt to save him. Phil may have been a slimy asshole who had no problem trying to murder his old friend to keep his secret, but his implied fate is far too horrifying for such a small-time crook. Then it gets ''even worse'' in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' where he was subject to cruel experiments by the new villains and eventually transformed into a purely inhuman spider-creature with no sense of his original self. |
| 253 | ** ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'': In season 3, [[TheRival Albedo]] finally achieves his mission of regaining his original Galvan form after he accidentally turned himself into a [[ShapeshifterModeLock genetic duplicate of Ben Tennyson]] back in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce''. However, out of bitterness from the whole ordeal, Albedo attempts to get revenge by killing Ben and absorbing the brain of [[WorldsSmartestMan Azmuth]]. Once Albedo is foiled Azmuth hacks Albedo's Omnitrix duplicate to turn Albedo into a clone of Ben again, and then into a '''Pre-Teen''' clone of Ben after Albedo asks [[TemptingFate if it could get any worse for him]]. This punishment looks even crueler when you consider Ben only won because he sucker-punched Albedo, who, thanks to his increased intellect after absorbing Azmuth's brain was in the middle of [[HeelRealization realizing how pointless his lust for revenge and recognition was]]. Had Ben held off on attacking, Albedo would've likely pulled a HeelFaceTurn. |
| 254 | * ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'': In "Dancing", while Dan was going out of his way to sabotage Elise's dancing competition, Elise sending him to a borderline zombie-infested town to ''die'' was certainly overkill. It doesn't help that Elise herself ends up [[KarmaHoudini getting away with it]]. |
| 255 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'': The Urpneys spent nearly every episode suffering violent retributions from the heroes for helping their evil overlord try to steal their dream-making trinket so he can give them nightmares. The kicker is that most of the Urpneys don't even ''want'' to do that, but their BadBoss abuses or executes the ones that don't. Despite this, the heroes are explicitly clear that they get exactly what they deserve. The later episodes tried to downplay the ComedicSociopathy, but since they're still unwilling pathetic villains, some suspension of disbelief was still required. |
| 256 | * ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': Occasionally, the cartoonish punishments the eponymous characters would experience as a result of their latest scheme blowing up in their faces would cause viewers to cry foul due to the punishment coming off as [[DisproportionateRetribution too harsh]]. One of the most infamous cases is the episode "[[Recap/EdEddNEddyS3E23IfItSmellsLikeAnEd If It Smells Like An Ed]]". Of course, there is no doubt that Eddy disrupting Jimmy's "Friendship Day" festivities by giving Jimmy an atomic wedgie was rude and uncalled for and warranted him getting taken down a peg, but the lengths Jimmy goes for payback (framing the Eds for ruining the Friendship Day festivities in different ways, turning the other kids against them and later leading the kids in ProducePelting the Eds, and then turning the Eds over to [[StalkerWithACrush the Kankers]] afterward for good measure) was seen by a number of viewers as going a bit overboard (especially since [[MisplacedRetribution Ed and Edd didn't do anything worse than laugh at Jimmy]] alongside the other kids after the wedgie) and even ended up both overshadowing the episode's interesting detective concept and [[NeverLiveItDown permanently tarnishing Jimmy as a character]] for much of the fanbase. |
| 257 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Despite Mrs. Turner being an [[AbusiveParents abusive]] and [[ParentalNeglect neglectful]] parent, Timmy giving her an allergic reaction to cats in ''Fairly [=OddPet=]'' just so she and Mr. Turner would buy him a dog seems a bit too mean-spirited to be LaserGuidedKarma for her. |
| 258 | * ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': |
| 259 | ** A CutawayGag in "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E4BriansGotABrandNewBag Brian's Got a Brand New Bag]]" had [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Lucy Van Pelt]] receiving a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown by Peter for all the times she teased Charlie Brown with the football. While Lucy was [[{{Jerkass}} far from the most likable character]] in her own series, this was still way overboard. |
| 260 | ** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS12E16HerpeTheLoveSore Herpe, the Love Sore]]": Despite all the bad things that Peter, Quagmire, and Joe have done over the course of the series, having their booths at their tavern taken by some {{Jerkass}} soldiers who bully them, people showing them NoSympathy for it, and said soldiers getting off [[KarmaHoudini scot-free]] was still uncalled for. |
| 261 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Few fans will deny that Zapp Brannigan deserved to be punished for forcing Leela to depend on him for her survival in a ploy to get in her pants in "In-a-Gadda-da-Leela". However, Zapp's punishment for all of this is to have Leela ''rape'' him. |
| 262 | * ''WesternAnimation/GrizzlyTalesForGruesomeKids'': The kids will often be killed or suffer a FateWorseThanDeath for very minor "crimes" that kids will often do, such as talk when they are told to be quiet, eat nothing but sweets, or do nothing but watch TV... basically things that could be stopped by simply ''telling'' the kids about it and explaining why it's bad. |
| 263 | * ''WesternAnimation/HighGuardianSpice'': While Aster does indeed act incredibly patronizing to Rosemary, a lot of his actions are caused more or less by his stupidity and ego rather than any actual malice on his part. It makes him [[AgonyOfTheFeet getting his toes crushed]] by Parsley's hammer seem a little too excessive along with everyone (including the professor) laughing it off, on top of that. |
| 264 | * ''WesternAnimation/KipoAndTheAgeOfWonderbeasts'': Margot, Wolf's adopted sister from her days raised by Mute wolves, may have betrayed her human sibling in a deeply scarring way, but when she shows up again she is remorseful and tries to reconnect with Wolf. The heroes never forgive her, however, with even [[AllLovingHero Kipo]] willing to trample her for hurting her friend, and Margot is blackmailed into luring the heroes into a trap. She's then "cured" alongside her brother by the villains, being transformed into mindless beasts and quickly forgotten about. Many fans felt this was way too harsh since Margot was just a child pressured into betraying Wolf by their parents and was far less heinous than characters like Scarlemagne and Dr. Emilia, who Kipo ironically wasn't as vengeful toward. |
| 265 | * WesternAnimation/ElmerFudd was an unpopular foe for WesternAnimation/BugsBunny with some ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' staff because of this trope (especially director Creator/FrizFreleng), since Elmer was such a meek and blatantly HarmlessVillain, it became a delicate dance to have Bugs do his usual slapstick runaround without it turning into overkill and devolving Bugs from a KarmicTrickster into a petty bully. As a result, more menacing foes such as WesternAnimation/YosemiteSam and Marvin the Martian were created so they could more properly provoke Bugs and rightfully earn his vengeance. One workaround they came up with was having Bugs more frequently paired up with WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck in Elmer Fudd's shorts, with Daffy being more blatantly antagonistic and Elmer more of a means to an end, with some jokes at his expense involving tricking him into hurting someone who isn't his target. |
| 266 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS2E8NoSuchLuckFrogWild No Such Luck]]", when Lincoln's sister Lynn thinks that [[TheJinx he's bad luck]], Lincoln goes along with it and lies to get some free time. While he did deserve ''some'' punishment for this, his parents and sisters making him sleep outside was seen by many fans as too far. |
| 267 | * ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': [[AlphaBitch Chloé's]] final fate in "[[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS05E23Revolution Revolution]]" involves her getting all but disowned by her father and taken away from Paris by her mother. A number of fans felt that this was too harsh of a punishment for her actions, as her mother was previously shown to be [[AbusiveParents heavily verbally abusive of Chloé]] (indeed, she's berating Chloé for tarnishing their family name on the plane ride out of Paris); as a result, it gives the implication that it's okay to punish someone by making them live with an abuser, which fans felt that not even Chloé deserved. It doesn't help that none of the people who had enabled her selfish behavior up until this point (including her father, who repeatedly spoiled her by abusing his power as mayor) [[KarmaHoudini get any form of punishment for doing so]]. |
| 268 | * ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': |
| 269 | ** Trixie in "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E6BoastBusters Boast Busters]]" elicited this response from a lot of fans. Sure, she was a lying egotist who humiliated people on stage, but getting her home and livelihood smashed in addition to getting run out of town and shown up by Twilight Sparkle was a bit too much, especially since the people she humiliated had accepted a challenge she gave. When Trixie returned in "Magic Duel", she was given an AuthorsSavingThrow by being more actively malicious due to a magical item's corrupting influence, then pulled a HeelFaceTurn later. |
| 270 | ** Among fans, it's [[BrokenBase highly contested]] whether or not Rainbow Dash's friends went too far with their actions in the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E8TheMysteriousMareDoWell The Mysterious Mare Do Well]]", where they were supposed to be trying to humble her a little. People who dislike this point out that they didn't try just talking to Rainbow about her blatant attention-seeking. Instead, they jumped straight to a complex scheme to upstage Rainbow as the greatest hero in Ponyville, and kept it up even after she had been thoroughly demoralized. |
| 271 | ** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E7WonderboltsAcademy Wonderbolts Academy]]", Lightning Dust getting expelled from the academy at the end was needlessly harsh in the eyes of some fans. While her reckless behavior did place numerous ponies in danger, there is the fact that: |
| 272 | *** At the time Rainbow Dash's friends were put in danger (their balloon having been wrecked by the tornado that Lightning Dust created), they had entered Wonderbolts airspace during a training exercise without permission -- in essence placing ''themselves'' in danger. |
| 273 | *** Spitfire had freely condoned Lightning Dust's recklessness until after the tornado incident when Rainbow Dash explained to her what had been going on -- which she would already have known if the cadets had been properly supervised during training. |
| 274 | *** After Spitfire finally realizes how bad things had gotten, she immediately kicks out Lightning Dust without giving her any chance to change her ways, where other episodes would see characters EasilyForgiven for much worse. |
| 275 | ** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E16TwentyEightPranksLater 28 Pranks Later]]", the response of ''all'' of Ponyville to Rainbow Dash going on an unrelenting pranking campaign is to make Rainbow believe that one of her pranks has GoneHorriblyWrong and she had accidentally unleashed a ZombieApocalypse. While they tried to tell her to stop, and Rainbow refused, it was a bit too much for some people. |
| 276 | ** Cozy Glow [[EnfantTerrible committed the same crimes as other villains and was wholly unrepentant despite being a child]], thus she got the same punishments of being imprisoned in Tartarus and later permanently [[TakenForGranite turned into stone]]. Many found this excessive, unable to buy a child being so irredeemable and evil [[MysteriousPast without explanation]] in such an idealistic series, and believing the heroes have given more leniency and made more of an effort to reform adult villains. And without powers, she wasn't dangerous enough to [[ShootTheDog justify such extreme actions]] instead of a less over-the-top punishment like sending her to regular prison. Jim Miller [[https://twitter.com/user/status/1051269705061687296 stated]] that "[[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime It seemed fun and subversive at the time]]" but acknowledged how some would take offense. |
| 277 | * ''WesternAnimation/NexoKnights'': A good portion of fans did not take well to Jestro's fate in Season 4 finale, [[spoiler: where he got sentenced to community service and presumably prison time as well]]. At first glance, it seems like a well-deserved fate for [[spoiler: helping Monstrox in his evil schemes, but unlike most characters, the audience was aware that he was brainwashed by Monstrox and thus wasn't in control of his actions throughout the third and fourth seasons (which only makes the fact that he was EasilyForgiven in Season 2 finale, despite having turned evil willingly in the first episode, all the more bizarre)]]. To add insult to the injury, [[spoiler: Jorah Tightwad, who sold out the kingdom to Jestro and Monstrox only four episodes ago entirely on his own will, [[KarmaHoudini gets no punishment aside from losing some of his money]], and is allowed to attend the victory celebration with the heroes]]. |
| 278 | * ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': In "[[Recap/PhineasAndFerbCandaceGetsBusted Candace Gets Busted]]", Candace is asked by Linda and Lawrence to not throw a party while they're away on a trip. A party ends up happening anyway after Candace lets her circle of friends in when they come to visit, resulting in more and more people pouring in from off the street. The episode ends with Candace getting busted for the party due to Linda hearing the noise over the phone; Candace is subsequently grounded for a week. Many viewers found the ending rather unfair, as Candace never actually ''wanted'' to throw a party and wanted everyone to leave before they made a huge mess, only for the perfect storm of events to prevent everyone from leaving and result in her getting into trouble with Linda. |
| 279 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Pingu}}'': In the episode "Pingu Runs Away", Pingu's mother spanks him as a punishment for acting up at the dinner table. Many viewers consider this her worst moment as a parent, and the episode ended up being pulled from reruns due to this. |
| 280 | * ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': |
| 281 | ** In "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS3E12MoralDecayMeetTheBeatAlls Moral Decay]]", Buttercup [[TheToothHurts knocks out several villains' teeth unprovoked]] to give to the Tooth Fairy for money. At the end of the episode, Bubbles and Blossom have [[DoWithHimAsYouWill those same villains knock Buttercup's teeth out]], and the money she collected is taken from her and used to pay for her dental treatment. Some fans consider this too harsh of a punishment, especially since Bubbles sticks her tongue out at her and Blossom is outright ''grinning'' at Buttercup during the ending. |
| 282 | ** The episode "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS1E11JustAnotherManicMojoMimeforaChange Mime for a Change]]" involves a [[NonIronicClown friendly clown]] named Rainbow the Clown being turned into the [[EnemyMime evil mime]] Mr. Mime after a bleach accident and trying to drain all of the color from Townsville. Eventually, Rainbow is returned to normal and he thanks the Powerpuffs for helping him...whereupon the girls beat him senseless and throw him in jail anyway, with the Narrator treating Rainbow like he deserved it afterward. The episode's ending rubbed many viewers the wrong way since Rainbow was explicitly [[NotHimself not in control of his own actions]] and remorseful afterward. It's theorized that Rainbow being shown entertaining guests at the girls' birthday party in the later episode "Birthday Bash" was intended to amend for the unfairness of the former episode's ending by indicating that he had been forgiven for his actions and released from jail at some point between the two episodes. |
| 283 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyLouderAndProuder'': The episode "[[Recap/TPFLouderAndProuderS2E2GrandmasHands Grandma's Hands]]" gained infamy for this. After Penny avoids doing school work and stays out past her curfew for weeks, her parents decide to lock her out of the house at night (which is both dangerous and illegal in real life, yet here it is PlayedForLaughs). Oscar ''does'' send her to Suga Mama's house... but it only gets worse from there. Penny is "disciplined" by being forced to sleep in a little dog bed, [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment denied eating breakfast]] and doing various chores. Thankfully, Penny gets better by the end and reconciles with her parents, but it still isn't hard to see why fans were shut off by this episode. |
| 284 | * ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': |
| 285 | ** In "[[Recap/RegularShowS03Ep29MuscleMentor Muscle Mentor]]", Rigby chooses to ditch work once again while badmouthing Benson (who overheard it all); in turn, Benson has Muscle Man be Rigby's "mentor", putting the latter through a ''painful'' HumiliationConga. While Rigby did start it by being lazy and disrespectful, many still saw this as way overboard. It doesn't help that Benson shows ''amusement'' toward Rigby's suffering; he even stops Mordecai from saving a drowning Rigby and Muscle Man, noting that Rigby still has a few minutes left. |
| 286 | ** In "[[Recap/RegularShowS06E27LunchBreak Lunch Break]]", Mordecai and Rigby prank Benson by ordering an $85 sandwich, prompting the latter to force them to eat ''the entire sandwich'', or else they're fired. This was seen as too extreme of a punishment for the both of them, especially considering the fact that Benson himself [[NeverMyFault outright ignores that he wasn't obligated to buy the sandwich for them in the first place]]. |
| 287 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'': Angelica Pickles is usually TheBully to the younger babies and was initially a KarmaHoudini. Later episodes addressed this by [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty having her be punished for her actions]], but some went a bit too far. |
| 288 | ** "[[Recap/RugratsS6E15SilentAngelicaTieMyShoes Silent Angelica]]" -- she wants a new toy, and Charlotte tells her she can have it if she remains quiet for a certain amount of time. Angelica does this obediently, even when Charlotte isn't around to hear her. The babies take advantage of this to make a mess, and Angelica gets blamed for it by both her parents. Her punishment is to get neither toy, [[NotMeThisTime even though she did nothing wrong for once]]. |
| 289 | ** "[[Recap/RugratsS4E1Chanukah Chanukah]]" -- her antagonism in this episode amounts to wanting to watch a ChristmasSpecial that's happening at the same time as a play Grandpa Boris is in. She gets put into a daycare room during the play because of things the other babies did, meaning she was going to miss the special for nothing. She does trick the babies into helping her find a TV... that smashes just as she's about to watch the special, and she's even left crying at the hopelessness of it all. |
| 290 | ** "[[Recap/RugratsS5E4TheWordOfTheDayJonathanBabysits Word of the Day]]" -- she overhears a DepravedKidsShowHost saying a curse word, and [[InnocentSwearing assumes it's okay to say]] and that it's the show's new catchphrase. Drew and Charlotte tell her not to say the word again, not explaining which one is the bad one even when she asks sincerely, and they punish her when she says it to ask if it's the bad one. She does get forgiven and brought to the audition she was up for...and then panics and says the word live on the air. It's presented as LaserGuidedKarma that she doesn't get to be on the show, even though no one around her would properly explain why the word was bad and why she shouldn't say it. Drew and Charlotte also don't seem too interested in finding out ''where'' she heard the word either. |
| 291 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In the episode "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E32FusionCuisine Fusion Cuisine]]", the Crystal Gems make it no secret that they are very mad at Steven and Connie for running away. While they do have every right to be mad at him, denying the former television for ''1000'' years seems a bit harsh. |
| 292 | * ''WesternAnimation/TalesFromTheCryptKeeper'': In the episode "Game Over", two boys pay for skipping school to play video games by [[spoiler:being erased from existence]], the darkest ending the series ever got and an ''extremely'' cruel punishment for playing hooky. |
| 293 | * ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'': |
| 294 | ** Tom ends up the undisputed IronButtMonkey, even for committing a minor slight or when Jerry had actually started the feud. Allegedly, it was because of this that more shorts had Jerry hindered or outright lose to Tom altogether whenever he stooped to crueler levels of slapstick assault, in order to avoid the DoubleStandard karma. |
| 295 | ** One of the most infamous instances of Tom's karma outweighing whether he deserved said karma was "WesternAnimation/TheTwoMouseketeers", an instance of Jerry (alongside Tuffy) instigating the feud that ended with Tom being ''executed'' for failing to prevent the mice from stealing food from a royal palace. Many viewers found the short's ending [[NightmareFuel disturbing]] rather than heroic for Jerry and Tuffy. |
| 296 | * ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': |
| 297 | ** Few people take issue with the first part of Alejandro's downfall in ''World Tour'', in which [[spoiler:Heather manipulates his feelings for her, knees him in the groin, and knocks him off the volcano]], as it felt like a fitting retribution for his manipulative tendencies throughout the season. However, this is followed up by [[spoiler:a freak volcano eruption horribly burning his flesh, as he wasn't able to escape with the others in time, causing him to be placed in a robot suit as a ShoutOut to ''Franchise/StarWars'']]. Most fans agree this element is too cruel and the first part of his karma was enough, especially since ''All-Stars'' reveals he was crammed in the suit for a full ''year'', with a broken voice box to boot. |
| 298 | ** While Scott was an underhanded competitor throughout ''Revenge of the Island'', his ultimate fate is quite cruel: he gets mauled by the mutant shark Fang and is left unresponsive in a "trauma chair", a ShoutOut to ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Even worse, almost nobody has sympathy and just laughs at his situation as a single tear rolls down his cheek. It's considered one of the most disturbing scenes in the series and prompted more sympathy for Scott than laughs. Luckily Scott physically recovers by the time of ''All-Stars'', though his fear of sharks is PlayedForLaughs. |
| 299 | * ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': Nanosec in his debut in [[Recap/TransformersAnimatedS1E06Nanosec the titular episode]]. He may have been a greedy crook who was recruited by Megatron to retrieve a highly dangerous element, but that's pretty much all he is, unlike the fascistic Decepticons, the sociopathic Meltdown, or Porter C. Powell, the corporate prick who callously threw a tween girl with no accountable next of kin out on the street the second he had control of her father's company. Nanosec getting tricked by Bumblebee into [[RapidAging rapid-aging]] himself until he's a withered old man who can't so much as ''stand'' without support seems like an overly-cruel fate even if it was necessary to stop him accidentally blowing Detroit sky-high, especially since the aging could well have ''majorly'' shortened Nanosec's lifespan if he hadn't been de-aged in his reappearance. |
| 300 | [[/folder]] |
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