Avenging the Villain

"He was the only man capable of saving these fools from their wretched existence... And you... You murdered him!!! You shall pay! No... not just you... The whole world shall pay!"

— Ramirez, Skies of Arcadia

If the heroes have defeated a Big Bad or Evil Overlord, there is a chance that they have offspring, or a little brother, or maybe just an apprentice, who will come back to menace them in the sequel, next season, or what have you.

This isn't a trope that would be used for villains who only care about themselves, and it's pretty rare in one who'd bother becoming the Big Bad, because it shows that the villains had loved ones or people they cared about. In many cases nonetheless, the villain's brother/sister/etc. won't actually care about the deceased villain, and may or may not be out for the hero's blood for other reasons. In fact, subversions are more common than straight examples. If the character in question realizes that the slaying was accidental or justified, they might settle for Restrained Revenge, making them much more sympathetic and fair in the process.

Sometimes results in Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, if the new enemy is even more powerful than the former — plus, now? It's Personal.

Some antagonists can take it to the next level and try to Resurrect the Villain to help seek his own revenge!

Related to You Killed My Father, Overlord Jr., Cycle of Revenge, Revenge Myopia, Villainous Legacy, and some cases of Dragon Their Feet and Dragon Ascendant. Moral Myopia can also lead to this. noreallife

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Akame ga Kill!:
  • Seryu swears revenge on Night Raid for the death of her mentor and foster-father figure Ogre, which results in the death of Sheele.
  • Kurome, after recognizing Chelsea as the one who killed Bols, decides to pay the favor back with interest after Chelsea tries and fails to kill Kurome in a similar manner.
  • Wave swears to avenge the deaths of Bols, Seryu, and Koro by Night Raid's hands. He ultimately doesn't, but that's because he lets go of his grudge to Opt Out of the war and take care of Kurome.
• In the DVD-bonus episodes of Baccano!, Graham Spector arrives in New York to avenge Ladd Russo's defeat from the 1931 story arc.
• Basara: Princess Senjyu tries to murder Tatara to avenge her husband but fails. Tatara's friends advise him to kill her with her unborn child so she can't raise it to avenge his father. She gets spared and only held captive. When Tatara delivers the baby and her husband's men fight alongside the rebels, she ceases her hatred and names her child not Shido but Motomichi, which basically means "find your own path".
• In the Forest of Witches Arc of Black Clover, while part of Fana's motivation to travel to the aforementioned forest is to take the magic stone in possession of the Witch Queen, her main goal is to avenge Vetto's death in the Underwater Temple at the hands of the Black Bulls.
• In Bleach, this happens when Zommari comes to avenge Aaroniero's death by Rukia.
• Chainsaw Man:
  • Katana Man's motivation for working for the Gun Devil to kill Denji was that Denji killed his yakuza grandfather, completely ignoring that he got himself killed stupidly putting his trust in the Zombie Devil and was already a shambling corpse by the time Denji got to him.
  • In Part 2, Barem (AKA Flamethrower Man) wanted revenge on Denji for killing Makima, because unlike the other Weapons, who were Brainwashed and Crazy, he was a willing follower of her World of Silence plan and felt that Denji destroyed mankind's best chance at survival.
• Digimon: After Etemon suffers his final defeat (he'd later return as Metal Etemon, but people didn't know that back then), two of his followers briefly discuss this trope but agree they didn't like him to the point of trying to avenge him.
• Dragon Ball:
  • In the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament in Dragon Ball, after Master Shen finds out that Goku supposedly killed his brother Mercenary Tao, he orders his students to kill Goku and his fellow Turtle School students. Tao later turns up alive as a cyborg.
  • Demon King Piccolo producing his son, Piccolo Jr. (whom we now know as "Piccolo"), just seconds before dying, to have him get his revenge on Goku. Subverted in the Dragon Ball Z saga, where Piccolo Jr. and Goku team up in the first few episodes, and he becomes an invaluable part of his team for the rest of the show.
  • One of Babidi's motivations for reviving Majin Buu is avenging his father's death at the hands of the Supreme Kai, while at the same time finishing his father's work.
  • Cooler seeks to kill Goku in Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, whom he blames for Frieza's death. However, the only reason he cares is that he believes that Frieza being killed by a lowly Saiyan has brought disgrace upon their clan's name, and he makes it clear from the start that he never gave a rat's ass about Frieza either way. In the dub, he even states that if Goku hadn't killed Frieza, he would have done so himself.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): Wrath attacks Lust in a rage after she helps the Elrics cripple Sloth, who he thinks is his mother. The two fight, and Wrath inevitably kills Lust.
  • Not that they weren't going to be fighting him anyway, but in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Gluttony goes into an insane rage at Mustang for his having killed Lust, which briefly makes Gluttony much more powerful than usual and for a while forces the main characters, who are all insanely badass, into just running.
• In volume 9 of Goblin Slayer, the titular character finds himself under assault by the brother of the ogre he killed way back in volume 1.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: Rey Za Burrel's older brother, Rau Le Creuset, was a Death Seeker and Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds who died while trying to take everyone else with him. Rey — a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to make sure that no one ever lives a life like Rau did — spends much of SEED Destiny trying to off Kira Yamato, the one who killed Rau, typically ranting about how he is Rau while doing so. It would seem that avenging the villain plays at least some role in Rey's motivations.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans:
    • Gaelio Bauduin starts out as a Gjallarhorn officer with a sense of justice. After seeing the maiming of his new friend and the death of his childhood friend at the hands of Tekkadan, he's gradually shattered into a sad and vengeful person who dedicates his life to avenging both of them.
    • Corlis Stenja, the older brother of Orlis Stenja, a corrupted Gjallarhorn officer, goes after Tekkadan for killing his younger brother.
    • Ein Dalton, a Gjallarhorn soldier, spends his entire life to avenge Lieutenant Crank Zent's death at the hands of Mikazuki, who's one of the two people who respected him in his entire life. Unlike Gaelio, Ein blames everyone in Tekkadan for Crank's death, to the point where he outright attacks Kudelia of everyone.
• Inuyasha:
  • There is a challenge sent to Shippo by someone wanting to avenge Hiten and Manten, the Thunder Brothers. Although Shippo is petrified by the thought of fighting a lightning user, the duel does take place. This someone turns out to be a little female demon (the brothers' little sister). After her battle with Shippo subsides, she falls for him.
  • Discussed and defied in episode 100; Inuyasha and his group come across Garamaru, the brother of Gatenmaru, the blood-sucking moth demon bandit whom Inuyasha killed way back in episode 52. When Inuyasha asks if Garamaru is coming after them to avenge Gatenmaru's death, he simply laughs it off, stating that he never really liked Gatenmaru anyway.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stardust Crusaders:
    • Enya the Hag tries to kill both Polnareff and Hol Horse for their part in her son J. Geil's death (Polnareff for killing J. Geil to avenge his sister's murder, and Hol Horse for seemingly leaving his former partner to die).
    • When Telence introduces himself as the younger brother of D'Arby, the heroes assume that he's interested in doing this for his brother, but Telence denies this by seeing his brother as a gullible fool and deeming he was defeated by his oversight.
  • Diamond is Unbreakable: A rare heroic version regarding Okuyasu Niijumura for his Big Brother Bully Keicho after he was killed by Akira Otoishi's Stand; Red Hot Chili Pepper. Though in this case, while Okuyasu is angry and wants to take down Otoishi partially out of vengeance, he is aware that Otoshi only got his powers because of Keicho recklessly firing the Stand Arrow at people in hope of finding a Stand User capable of Mercy Killing their mutated father.
  • Golden Wind: The Execution Team wanted to take over Passione and corner the drug trade, but the deaths of Sorbet and Gelato were the triggering instance that fully turned them against The Boss.
  • Stone Ocean: Part of Pucci's motivation for his plan to obtaining Heaven is to avenge the death of DIO.
  • JoJolion: Tamaki Damo targeted the Higashikatas as he believed they were responsible for the disappearances of his Rock Human acquaintances that were members of Damo's Locacaca-smuggling cartel.
• In the Kill la Kill OVA, which takes place some time after the end of the series, Rei Hououmaru (who escaped the final battle) returns in order to avenge Ragyo Kiryuin. In the end, Satsuki manages to talk her into dropping her vendetta and moving on with her life.
• Brocken Jr., of Kinnikuman infamy, originally sought revenge against Ramenman for the death of his father, Brockenman. This is despite the fact that both Junior and Ramenman were "faces" and Brockenman a "heel". Brocken Jr.'s Image Song even has him acknowledge that his father was a cheap fighter who got what he deserved, but he intends vengeance all the same. He changes his mind after Ramenman defeats him. Funnily enough, when Ramenman fought Brockenman, he himself was a monstrously brutal "heel". Not only did he needlessly kill Brockenman (in the manga, Ramenman ripped Brockenman's body in half), he made him into noodles and ate him, too. You can't blame a guy for wanting to beat the piss out of the man who murdered and ate his father for laughs, justifying a desire for revenge.
• Psycho for Hire Medium the Fingernail of Mardock Scramble becomes obsessed with killing Rune Balot for having killed his comrades in the first film, unaware that his current partner Boiled is the one who set them up to die in the first place.
• In Naruto, Kabuto swears to do this to Sasuke for "killing" Orochimaru.
• In Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, the Hundred Tales Clan remnants seek vengeance for their leaders' death by the Second.
• The entirety of the plot of Peacemaker Kurogane has Suzu's Roaring Rampage of Revenge against The Shinsengumi for Yoshida's death as its driving force.
• Lucia has an offhand comment early in his role in Rave Master that makes it seem like part of his motivation is to avenge his father. Really, though, it's more that he's just lashing back at the world.
• Rurouni Kenshin: Two of the other people Kenshin killed at the same night Tomoe died are the reason two of Enishi's allies are out for him. The previous group's leader has an apprentice who wants to defeat Kenshin. Not for revenge as Sanosuke assumes but because killing the one who killed his master is the only way to prove himself stronger than that master. The second one, a Sissy Villain, plays the trope straight. A friend of his, with whom he liked to compare who killed more people, was killed by Kenshin.
• In Samurai Champloo, Jin killed his master Mariya Enshirou in self-defense. Try telling that to Mariya's other students, who are hunting for Jin throughout the series to avenge him. Particularly notable is Not-So-Harmless Villain Ogura Bunta, who managed to hold his own against Jin when he finally encountered him. The shame of his defeat, however, caused Bunta to be Driven to Suicide, according to Jin's Unknown Rival Yukimaru. For his part, Yukimaru doesn't care about their master, and just wants to kill Jin to absorb the reputation of the thousand man killer. In an subversion, Mariya Enshirou isn't a villain. He was ordered to kill Jin (his best student) by the Shogunate. That he was killed by Jin, while Jin was half-asleep, in a flaskback is a testament to just how skilled Jin is with a katana.
• Two of the Big Bads of Slayers are avenging the deaths of their masters.
  • In the first season, Eris goes after those who killed Rezo, only to get killed by a clone of Rezo she created for her trouble.
  • The third season, TRY, has Valgaav, a follower of Gaav, who died in the previous season. He's bent on releasing Dark Star into Lina's world in hopes that it'll destroy those who he believes killed Gaav, namely the remaining Mazoku and Lina Inverse and company. And that's not even mentioning how he's the only survivor of the Ancient Dragon clan, slaughtered by the Golden Dragon clan.
• Speed Racer: In the episode "The Most Dangerous Race," Speed defeats Snake Oiler and several other members of the Car Acrobatic Team in the Alpine Race. The other members of the team all crashed over the course of the race, while Snake made it to the final stretch of the course, though he then had an accident caused by an oil leak. Later, in "The Trick Race," other members of the Car Acrobatic Team seek vengeance against Speed, including Snake Oiler's brother, Kobra.
• Adiane's main goal in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is avenging the death of her lover Thymilph (though the one directly responsible for his death had died in a Mutual Kill).
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • In Mokuba's first appearance in the manga, he has his classmates kidnap Yugi so he can challenge him to a duel, cheat, win, and avenge his brother's loss in Duel Monsters.
  • This is the premise of Yu-Gi-Oh! R, where Pegasus's adopted son/protégé seeks revenge against Yugi.
  • Avenging Pegasus's defeat is Duke Devlin's motivation for challenging Yugi to a high-stakes game of Dungeon Dice Monsters in the anime. In the original manga, he's avenging the defeat of his Monster Clown father at the hands of Yugi's grandfather.

Comic Books

• Captain America: Baron Helmut Zemo tries to avenge his father Baron Heinrich Zemo's death by trying to kill Captain America.
• The Urbe twins in the comic story Indiana Jones and the Arms of Gold, even though the father they're avenging never had his own story.
• JLA (1997): Prometheus has a similar backstory to Batman, except his criminal parents were shot by the police.
• Lucky Luke: The Daltons started with villain-worshiping their cousins and desiring to become equal to them in notoriety. They mistakenly thought that the best way to do this would be by offing the one who brought the other Daltons down: Lucky Luke. Their grudge became more personal with time, however.
• Elizabeth Hawkesmoore from Nikolai Dante joined the Russian army for the chance to kill Dante after he killed her father, Sir Richard Hawkesmoore.
• In Orphan Blade, the Five Fingers of Death are initially only interested in killing Hadashi in order to recover the titular bokken, and have no quarrel with his companions Katze or Sayako, but after Katze kills Lola and Sayako kills Yoko, the Reaper in White decides to extend her vendetta to them as well. Also, Yoko's son Tenmaru and his girlfriend Frau later track down the three heroes to avenge the deaths of their friends.
• In Project Superpowers, Mrs. Octopus, implied to be the widow of the supervillain known as The Octopus (from The Spirit) and one of the members of the Supremacy, has a personal vendetta against the Flame and Flame Girl because she believes that they killed her husband.
• In The Punisher: Circle of Blood, Frank's pursued by the son of a mobster he killed; unlike his father, he committed no crimes and has no illegal ambitions beyond avenging his dad (not to mention that he was pretty much browbeaten to take that path). Frank manages to talk him down at the very end of the arc.
• Red Sonja: The eponymous heroine is hired to dispatch evil wizard Kalas-ra and succeeds within a single issue. Two more issues are devoted to his brother Katharas-ra's quest for vengeance on her and her allies.
• Spider-Man: This happens fairly often.
  • Since Kraven the Hunter died, several previously unknown sons (both legitimate and illegitimate), and more recently a daughter, have shown up seeking revenge. This is especially ironic as Kraven, having nothing else to live for after he defeated his ultimate foe, killed himself! Spider-Man really was innocent. They eventually all teamed up in Grim Hunt to resurrect him.
  • Harry Osborn became the Green Goblin to avenge his father's death at Spider-Man's hands. In the alternate future in Spider-Girl, his son does the same, but Spidey's daughter manages to talk him down and break the Cycle of Revenge.
• Starman (DC Comics): Nash vows that she'll destroy everything Jack Knight holds dear and him after Jack kills Nash's brother Kyle (who in turn had killed Jack's brother David). Nash believes that because she let Jack go, she's an "accomplice" in her brother's murder (while ignoring the fact that she did the exact same thing for David Knight's murder). Nash then becomes the second Mist and goes completely Ax-Crazy, becoming her father's equal in villainy. But she tops it when she rapes Jack, gets pregnant with his child, and literally tells Jack that she's going to raise their child to despise Jack utterly.
• Superman:
  • In The Leper from Krypton, villain Ventor wants to kill Superman because he blames the Man of Steel for his brother Bruno's death, who died in prison after getting arrested.
  • In Who is Superwoman?, the titular villain dies when attempting to kill Supergirl, prompting her father Sam Lane to seek revenge against the Maid of Might.
• Teen Titans: The Titans make an enemy of Deathstroke because H.I.V.E. hired Deathstroke's son, the first Ravager, to capture/kill the Titans. Ravager died in the process, leading Deathstroke to take up his son's contract with intent to fulfill it. Of course, that later led to the events of The Judas Contract and the rest of Deathstroke's family becoming allied with the Titans.
• This was the Shredder's original motivation in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage). His brother, Oroku Nagi, was in a Love Triangle with Hamato Yoshi over the affections of Tang Shen. When she chose Yoshi, Nagi beat her up; Yoshi responded by killing him. The young Oroku Saki proceeded to get himself promoted to leader of the Foot Clan's New York branch, all so he could kill Yoshi and Shen in turn. Pretty much all adaptations have foregone this motivation.
• Tomahawk: After Lord Shilling dies battling Tomahawk, his sister Lady Shilling adopts the identity of the Hood so she can take revenge on Tomahawk.
• Xombi: After Manuel Dexterity is killed by David Kim, Manuel's sister Manuella tries to get rid of Kim to avenge her brother, only to also get killed by him.

Fan Works

• Zigzagged in Absolute Trust, Alec was subjected to Cold-Blooded Torture by Jet due to Alec being a Firebender, only for Alec to accidentally kill Jet earlier than when it happened in the actual show. Due to Alec knowing how exactly Jet had his Start of Darkness because of The Rough Rhinos, Alec manages to setup the situation of Avatar Day to have every one of the Rough Rhinos killed except for Colonel Mongke: the Rhinos' leader and the Firebender directly responsible for murdering Jets' family, who receives a Cruel Mercy by having both his arms chopped off, tied to his Rhino, and sent back to the closest Fire Nation base with a written message:
  This is what happens when the Fire Nation tries to burn down innocent villages. Do not test us.
• In Ace Combat: The Equestrian War, Greyback attempts to avenge Vulture's death. It doesn't end well for him.
• In Pokémon fanfiction Cindy's Story, Asesina wants revenge on Cindy and Alyssa for Anonimo's death.
• Friendship Is Magical Girls: Twice during the Magic Arc, Rarity is attacked by Changelings who wish to avenge Princess Pupa's death at her hands (even though it was actually Trixie who finished her off) — first, Dungabeet attacks her at impulse when she reveals that she's the one who beat Pupa, while Antleo specifically tracks her down in an attempt to kill her.
• In Guardians, Wizards, and Kung-Fu Fighters, Lothar seeks to honor and avenge Raythor after he's framed as a traitor by the Guardians and thrown into the Abyss of Shadows.
• Hellsister Trilogy: Satan Girl attempts to kill Supergirl to avenge her lover Mordru. The Girl of Steel kills her evil duplicate in self-defense, and later on, Satan Girl's son Nemesis intends to avenge her mother's death by killing Supergirl.
• In the Fan Film Judge Minty, Minty shoots a female gang member, although he regrets it due to her young age. When Aquila (the gang's leader) finds the woman's body, he goes completely berserk and out for revenge against Minty, implying that Aquila and the woman were lovers.
• Invoked in Kara of Rokyn when Lex Luthor dies in the course of his final attempt to murder Superman, and one of his minions wishes that Luthor's son avenges his father when he grows up.
• In The Lion King Adventures, Loony Fan Mtumwa becomes quite different and attempts to avenge Scar after his death in Series One.
• Naru-Hina Chronicles: Mizuki, Naruto's Starter Villain who later appeared in a filler arc, has a brother in NHC named Touji. The latter heard his brother's dying wish, which was to get revenge on Naruto, and decided to fulfill that wish given that he's Mizuki's only living relative.
• Juri from The Neo Domino Purge. When he reappears, he's intent on getting revenge for his dead father.
• At the climax of the Pony POV Series Dark World arc, this is Fluttercruel's reason for becoming the Dragon Ascendant — to avenge Discord's mortal wounding by Rancor. However, it's also a case of Misplaced Retribution, as due to her insanity, she blames the Elements of Harmony rather than Rancor.
• Averted in Real Men Don't Make Sandwiches due to Pragmatic Villainy. Vegeta mentally observes that Cooler is extremely unlikely to come after them, as he'll be too focused on continuing to run their empire in his fallen father's place.
• In the Sherlock Holmes fic A Study in Regret, the reason the story happens at all is because Colonel Moran is avenging the death of Professor Moriarty. Moran kills Watson and tortures Holmes.
• Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation: The last descendant of the Joker wants revenge on the last descendant of Batman for his son's death, who also took up the mantle of the Joker. Never mind that Batman isn't responsible for the Joker's son's death and was just trying to arrest him.
• In Tainted Ideals, Constatin's goal is to avenge his brother by killing Kiritsugu's daughter after his earlier attempt to kill Kiritsugu himself failed miserably.
• TMNT: Secrets of the Sewers has a interesting variation. When the Shredder is presumed dead, the Foot High Council take it upon themselves to fight the Turtles and Splinter to avenge his death... but they're only doing so because Shredder's twisted things around to make himself look like an honorable man and Splinter a despicable traitor. They back down once they realize their error.

Films — Animated

• The bad guys in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride are a faction of lions who pledged allegiance to the now-dead Scar and were banished by Simba. Scar's former mate Zira is trying to raise her son Kovu up to kill Simba for killing Scar and become the new king. Never mind that the hyenas were the ones to kill Scar.
• The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea: Morgana initially claims that she's coming after Ariel and Eric to avenge the death of her sister Ursula. However, it's ultimately subverted; in reality, Morgana always hated Ursula for being their mother's favorite and wants to prove herself better by accomplishing what Ursula failed to do.
• Part of Prince Charming's motivation in Shrek the Third is avenging his mother the Fairy Godmother, the villain of the previous movie.

Films — Live-Action

• 5 Card Stud: After a card shark is caught cheating, he is taken out and lynched by the drunkards he was playing against. Soon afterwards, the men who were in the lynch mob start being murdered, one after another; all by hanging, strangling, or smothering.
• In About the Little Red Riding Hood, the plot kicks off because the old She-Wolf wants to avenge her son, The Big Bad Wolf from the original fairytale.
• In Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman, the hitman el Chinchinero's son attempts to avenge his father by shooting the Machine Gun Woman as she leaves Longara's club.
• The plot of The Dark Knight Rises is because Bruce "let Ducard/Ra's die" in Batman Begins. Bane and Talia, who used to have a rather strained relationship with her father prior to that, then seek to accomplish his visions.
• Die Hard:
  • In the first film, one of Hans's henchmen, Karl, spends most of the film trying to kill McClane after the latter kills another of Hans's henchmen, Karl's brother Tony.
  • The villain of Die Hard with a Vengeance is revealed to be Simon Gruber, the brother of Hans Gruber, the first movie's Big Bad. Subverted, however; where Hans was a Western Terrorist Without A Cause who eventually degraded into a mere bank robber, Simon is a Consummate Professional who was disgusted by his brother's sociopathy. He's just using vengeance as a cover for a heist, believing that no-one would look past it. But that doesn't mean he doesn't care.
    Simon Gruber: There's a difference, you know, between not liking one's brother and not caring when some dumb Irish flatfoot drops him out of a window!

    Unfortunately, that sliver of annoyance turns out to be his downfall — he should have realized that if McClane could figure out his brother's plan, his own were no safer. And he taunted him with that stupid aspirin bottle.

• Django Unchained: After Schultz kills Candie and gets himself also killed in the process, Stephen and Candie's sister get to work devising a suitable scheme to punish Django for his death.
• The main motive of Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th franchise is avenging his mother Pamela Voorhees, the killer in the first film.
• In The Godfather Part II and the novel The Godfather, averting this trope is the reason the Sicilian mobster Don Ciccio gives to the wife of Antonio Andolini, whom he had killed for not paying tribute to him, for ordering the death both of her older, healthy son Paolo, who has played this trope straight, and also of her young, sickly son Vito. It doesn't work. In the movie, Signora Andolini is killed in front of her son Vito for trying to defend his life, but Vito manages to escape. Decades later, Vito Andolini returns to Sicily as Vito Corleone and kills the now senile Don Ciccio in exactly the sort of scenario he was trying to avoid.
• The villain in Halloweentown II is Kal, the son of the first film's Big Bad Calabar.
• I Shot Jesse James: After killing Jesse James, Robert Ford and his brother Charles worry that Jesse's older brother Frank James will come after them for revenge. It takes several years, but Frank does eventually come after Bob.
• James Bond:
  • Played with in The Man with the Golden Gun when, after the inevitable defeat of Scaramanga, his manservant Nick Nack hides on James's escape ship — only to be quickly overcome and serve as a makeshift figurehead for the ship.
  • Stamper in Tomorrow Never Dies attempts to kill James Bond with a Taking You with Me at the end of the film, in retaliation for Bond killing both his employer, Elliot Carver, and his mentor Dr Kauffman.
• In The Karate Kid Part III, Terry Silver actually mostly abandons his job for the time being and goes to absurd lengths to ruin Daniel and Miyagi for what they did to his war buddy John Kreese. Note that "what they did" consisted of winning a karate tournament against one of his students. Sure, Kreese blames them for the decline in his business, but that seems far-fetched.
• Part of a Sequel Hook in Kick-Ass, when Red Mist seems to imply that he's going to become a super-villain for all the new superheroes to fight.
  "Wait 'til they get a load of me."
• In a similar vein to the Die Hard films, Jet Li's character, Wah Sing Ku, at the end of Lethal Weapon 4 is attempting to flee Riggs and Murtaugh with his brother, all the other villains having been killed. When Murtaugh shoots Ku's brother while aiming for Ku himself, Ku sticks around and tries to kill Riggs and Murtaugh in revenge. Riggs then shoots Ku underwater after they fall off a pier while fighting.
• The villain of Master of the Flying Guillotine is seeking revenge on the hero for killing his two pupils from the previous movie, One-Armed Boxer. Eventually, he extends this wrath to every one-armed man in China, which there seems to be an abundance of for some reason.
• In Riddick, mercenary Boss Johns wants to avenge the death of his son in Pitch Black at Riddick's hands rather than collect Riddick's bounty. After Riddick saves his life and tells him how much of a scumbag his son was, Boss Johns rescues Riddick from the monsters in turn and honors their earlier arrangement.
• In Scanner Cop II, Carl Volkin was committing home invasions and rapes together with his equally psychotic brother until police officer Sam Staziak stopped them both and killed the younger Volkin. After getting out of prison, Carl vows to get revenge on Staziak.
• Scream:
  • Scream 2's main villain was revealed to be the mother of Billy Loomis, the killer in the first film. Notably, she doesn't care that her son was a serial killer and only wants revenge for his death.
  • Scream VI, expanding on the above, has all the villains being related to one of the killers in the previous movie (his brother and sister as Ghostface and their Dirty Cop father helping it all), wanting revenge while framing the one who killed him.
• Subverted in Sexy Beast. Gal spends the second half of the chronological story terrified of his gang boss Teddy due to what Gal did to their fellow accomplice Don. Right when it looks like Teddy is going to take Gal out, he admits that he didn't give a shit about Don, and since the job was successful anyway, he lets Gal off with a slap on the wrist.
• In Shark Week, the Big Bad Tiburon undertakes his elaborate scheme of revenge in order to avenge the death of his son, who was a drug dealer, in a botched arrest attempt.
• A hallucination of Norman Osborn rather strongly insists upon this in Spider-Man 2. Spider-Man 3 than sees Harry taking his chance to avenge his father and become the New Goblin.
• In Stardust, Lamia averts this trope. When Tristan kills both of her sisters to rescue Yvaine, she is beside herself with grief at having lost the only family she had, making eating Yvaine's heart to become immortal unbearable, so she lets them both go. Of course, it's all an act, she never cared for her sisters and proceeds to explode every mirror in their faces just for fun.
• The basic plot of Taken 2. The villains are the extended family of the Albanian sex slavers whom Bryan wiped out in the first film. Why they think it's a good idea to pick another fight with the dude who singlehandedly annihilated an entire slavery ring is a good question.
• One of the main villains of Underworld: Blood Wars, Semira, has a vendetta against Selene for killing Viktor, the Big Bad of the first film.
• The Wizard of Oz: The Wicked Witch of the West lands in Munchkinland to find the entire population celebrating the death of her sister. While the audience knows that nothing that happened was in Dorothy's control, all the Witch knows is that her sister has been crushed by a house and the house's owner is wearing her shoes, and Glinda and Dorothy say very little to clear up the misunderstanding. See Wicked for an even more sympathetic take on the Witch of the West.

Literature

• In the story of Aladdin, the villainous African magician has a younger brother attempting to avenge his brother's death.
• Older Than Print: Beowulf has to take on the mother of the monster Grendel immediately after killing him.
• In Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles series, after the primary antagonist Zemenar is killed, his son Antorell works to avenge him — although, actually, Antorell was already among the antagonists, so Zemenar's death just made him angrier and very slightly less ineffectual.
• The villain of the Flashman novel Royal Flash is an expy of Rupert of Henzau. One of the novellas in Flashman and the Tiger, which is set decades later, has that character's son, who has an identical appearance and personality, and uses an Older Hero vs. Younger Villain scenario.
• In the James Bond novel For Special Services by John Gardner, Nena Bismaquer is revealed to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld's daughter, who's out to take revenge on her father's nemesis.
• In Bruce Coville's The Ghost in the Third Row, the present-day antagonist turns out to be the daughter of the titular ghost's murderer. As she's trying to present her father as wrongfully accused, she's understandably opposed to the Kid Detective heroine looking too closely into the theater and its ghost.
• The Goosebumps book How to Kill a Monster ends with the heroes captured by the monster, even after their attempts at killing it by making it fall through the stairs and poisoning it. Said monster is allergic to humans, and keels over dead after merely licking one. Unfortunately, the monster's friends are pissed off after this. Cue the horror, as the book ends with the heroes alone, far away from town, and in a marsh filled with these hungry, soon-to-awaken creatures. Hopefully the other monsters are allergic to humans too.
• Lee Nez: Blood Retribution has a pair of vampire assassins stalking the title character for killing their leader (who was also Lee's creator) in the previous book.
• Flipped around in The Mako Saga. Lee kills Captain Hourne during his rescue of Mac just because he's an enemy soldier who's trying to rape his longtime best friend-turned-Love Interest. But in the epilogue we find out that Hourne was the Big Bad's secret son. Uh-oh.
• This is fairly common in Redwall:
  • A purely villainous example occurs in Mariel of Redwall. Saltar the searat swears revenge on his leader Gabool because Gabool killed his brother. "There was never any love lost between me and Bludrigg, but he was my brother, and blood must be repaid with blood."
  • The villains of Marlfox scale things up in response to one of their number being killed.
  • Slitfang of Triss challenges Kurda in no small part from the perception that she's partly responsible for Plugg Firetail's death.
• Rupert of Hentzau ends with Rupert's servant Bauer shooting Rudolf to avenge his master.
• The Big Bad Russian President Evil in Starfire is the son of a previous Russian President Evil, who was killed by Patrick McLanahan in the earlier Dale Brown book Plan of Attack.
• In Star Wars Legends, Luke Skywalker had to deal with this from time to time.
  • The Sith Lord Lumiya served directly under Darth Vader and sought to kill Luke to avenge him, several times, despite Luke's best efforts to Save the Villain. She ultimately orchestrated a second Galactic Civil War and became an Evil Mentor to Luke's nephew Jacen, all simply to spite Luke.
  • Iron Lady Natasi Daala was a retired Imperial admiral who was also the lover of Moff Tarkin, and despised Luke and The Republic for killing him. She attacked the New Republic twice before being installed as the leader of its successor government the Galactic Alliance in Fate of the Jedi, and immediately became a President Evil abusing her authority to exile Luke and persecute his Jedi using the aforementioned fall of Jacen Solo as an excuse.
• The main villain in the second Sword with No Name novel is the son of the slain Evil Sorcerer from the first book. His main goal isn't to avenge his father, but he doesn't hesitate to try to kill the protagonist after he shows up.
• In The Dresden Files book Summer Knight, Harry Dresden kills Aurora, who had gone crazy and was trying to destroy the world. In Turn Coat, seven books later, he summons her mother, who acknowledges that it needed doing but still can't forgive him and barely restrains herself from killing him.
• Temeraire: The dragon Lien travels from China to Europe to become The Dragon to Napoleon after her lifelong companion Yongxing, the Arc Villain of the second book, is disgraced and killed. As she coldly explains, Temeraire destroyed the life's work of her Only Friend, and she'll go to the ends of the earth to tear down everything he loves in retribution.
• The main antagonist of 20 Years After, the lesser-known sequel to The Three Musketeers, is Mordaunt, the vengeful son of Milady de Winter.
• The sole motivation of evil vampire Victoria during the second and third books of the Twilight series is to avenge the death of her boyfriend, James. Victoria believes that since Edward killed the person she most cared about (James), she should get even with Edward by killing the person he most cares about (Bella). Ironically, it isn't actually Edward who kills James in either the book or the film adaptation. It's some of the other members of the Cullen coven. And when the Cullen's ask the Denali coven for help, they refuse unless the Cullen's allow them to kill the werewolves, because the werewolves killed Irina's mate when he was about to kill Bella.
• Liam Calhoun and his mother Mary Patricia Calhoun from Vengeance In Death are willing to stop at nothing to avenge John Calhoun's death. What is rather creepy is how John Calhoun raped and torture-murdered an innocent young girl and these two want to avenge him.
• Warrior Cats gives a couple of examples in Darkstripe and Hawkfrost, whose motivation for attempting to kill Firestar is mainly vengeance for Tigerstar's death.
• Whateley Universe: Maxine Granger is the loving daughter of a Mook who was killed by a superhero; as Ironmonger, she joined up with four other supervillains in order to get her revenge. When this goes sour, she escapes and renames herself 'Lodestone', under which codename she attends Whateley Academy and plots her renewed vengeance.

Live-Action TV

• Alex Rider (2020): Duplicate!Alex travels to London, intending to destroy Alex's life for ruining Dr. Greif's plan and getting him arrested.
• Angel: Connor sets out to avenge Holtz when Holtz kills himself in such a way as to implicate Angel.
• Arrow: Season 5 Big Bad Prometheus is eventually revealed to be the son of a Villain of the Week whom Oliver killed back during the timeframe of Season 1, with his whole motivation being to destroy Oliver's life as revenge. Later on, it turns out he's working with Talia Al-Ghul, daughter of Season 3 Big Bad Ra's Al-Ghul, whom Oliver killed in their Final Battle; like Prometheus, she wants to destroy Oliver for this.
• Breaking Bad: Tuco Salamanca's Ax-Crazy cousins Leonel and Marco come up to Albuquerque to kill Walter White in revenge for Tuco's death, and later set their sights on Hank Schrader.
• Criminal Minds. Chazz Montolo targeted Morgan, believing he was responsible for the death of his son Giusseppe, despite Morgan rightfully pointing out that Giusseppe's own associates from the Hitman Network did him in after he had became a liability.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In Season 4, immediately after awaking from a coma, Faith sets out to kill Buffy to avenge Mayor Wilkins, the Big Bad of Season 3.
• In Falling Skies, it's revealed near the Grand Finale that one of the reasons for the Alien Invasion is the Espheni Queen's daughter's death at the hands of the ancient humans during the aliens' previous (unsuccessful) invasion attempt.
• At the end of the Crisis on Earth-X crossover, Oliver from Earth-X is killed by his Earth 1 counterpart. Some time later, an episode of The Flash has Siren X (Laurel from Earth-X) come through a breach to exact her vengeance on Central City for the death of the man she loved (even though he was already married to Kara-X).
• Game of Thrones: Cersei's vendetta against Tyrion for the murder of Joffrey (which he didn't commit) and the murder of Tywin (which he did).
• Highlander: In the episode "Double Jeopardy", Morgan D'Estaing goes after Duncan for killing his teacher, recurring villain Xavier St. Cloud.
• Miami Vice: Esteban Calderone's son Orlando (played by a young John Leguizamo) attempted to kill Tubbs to avenge his father's killing.
• NCIS:
  • At the end of Season 7, Gibbs' back-story comes back to haunt him: A Mexican druglord had killed his wife and daughter many years ago, whom Gibbs avenged by killing him with a sniper rifle. Now the boss's daughter, who has taken over the cartel, abducts Gibbs in order to exact her vengeance. She is aided by her brother, the Mexican government official fighting the drug war.
  • There's also Sergei Mishnev, a Russian-born mercenary, who's out for Gibbs, whom he blames for the death of his good friend Ari Haswari (despite the fact that it was Ziva who actually killed Ari). He even goes after Gibbs's ex-wives, killing Diane in the same manner that Ari killed Kate several years before.
• Power Rangers:
  • Trakeena from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy goes after the Power Rangers for killing her father.
  • In Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, after the Rangers destroy Diabolico, Lokai claims "Those rangers will pay for this dearly!" Diabolico eventually comes back to life and Queen Bansheera eventually becomes the new Big Bad. She then kills (or causes the deaths of) Lokai and Viper for failing her, causing Diabolico to swear vengeance on her. He gets it.
  • Thrax, of the 15th anniversary, wants to destroy the current Rangers because it was a group of Rangers who purified his parents (Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd) back in Power Rangers in Space, "killing" the people that they were as villains (since there's little to no resemblance now, physically or mentally).
• Revolution: The episode "No Quarter" has Private Richards hell-bent on getting revenge for his dead best friend, Templeton. Templeton is the soldier that Danny Matheson is blamed for killing back "Pilot". Despite getting a beating from the private, Danny repays the guy by strangling him with his chains, threatening to kill him if he ever lays hands on him again, and then lets him go.
• Supernatural:
  • In the episode "Two Minutes to Midnight", Pestilence is determined to kill Sam and Dean because they dispatched his two brothers, War and Famine.
  • In "The Girl Next Door", Amy Pond's son claims that he will kill Dean for killing his mother.
  • Villain-on-villain example: Meg makes it her life's mission to kill Crowley after Crowley helps the boys kill Lucifer. Funnily enough, she doesn't seem much interested in revenge on the Winchesters, possibly because Crowley's crime was treachery and the humans were simply trying to save their world. Ironically, Meg doesn't realize that Crowley saved her life, because Lucifer held demons in contempt and planned to kill them all when he had no more use for them, which Crowley was smart enough to realize without overhearing Lucifer's master plan.
• Tomica Hero Rescue Force: Averted Trope, because when the Big Bad Daen does a Heel–Face Turn, and thinks that Redemption Equals Death, his "daughter" Maen (really a sentient computer program who resembles him) awakes. But in reality, his daughter is a millions-years-old super-advanced Nanocomputer capable of shapeshifting. It's actually the one who turned Daen evil in the first place, wanting to use him to eradicate humanity, because it calculated that humanity would be a threat to Earth.
• A frequent occurrence in Walker, Texas Ranger, where the Villain of the Week is essentially avenging their friends and/or loved ones after they are either killed or imprisoned:
  • Sheik Ali Faisal, an Iraqi terrorist from Season 8's "Thunderhawk", lost his father after NATO took out one of his chemical plants and his been in the market for a nuclear weapon capable of wiping out the country.
  • Season 9's "Legends" has Alex convicting a prominent Dallas mob boss, but after the fact, his son seeks revenge for everyone responsible for the conviction, ranging from the judge and jurors and ending with Alex and Walker (who likely arrested the boss).
• Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: Skewed sideways. New Sorrowful Knight Icerondo mortally wounded his predecessor, Sorrowful Knight Aigaron. After helping Aigaron pass on by releasing his soul from his armor, Ian Yorkland/Kyoryu Black, the Ranger who had every reason in the world to hate Aigaron, decided to avenge his enemy, even using Aigaron's tohohawk to deliver the final blow to Icerondo.

Music

• GWAR battles Mr. Perfect onstage after he reveals that he slew Oderus Urungus.
• In The Megas' songs, several of the Robot Masters are out to avenge their fallen comrades.
  Wood Man: I'll avenge the deaths of my robot brothers! ("Carved from Mighty Oak")
  Quick Man: I see the faces of my brothers that have fallen before... ("The Quick and the Blue")
  Skull Man: Can you hear them calling out your name? Speaking for the dead. I feel their vengeance, guiding my hand. ("Cracked Skulls")

Mythology & Religion

• Norse Mythology features the case of Skaði, daughter of the giant Þjassi (who got killed after kidnapping the goddess responsible for maintaining the gods' immortality and being a dick about what they'd have to do to get her back). The gods actually manage to pay her off (as noted under Real Life, this is all perfectly in line with moral Norse behaviour) with a marriage, and she ends up becoming the goddess of hunting, winter, and skiing (with an association with mountains as an environment). She's actually loyal to the gods after that, despite the marriage falling apart (she shacks up with Odin instead), which pays off when it means she gets the opportunity to torture the god that actually killed her father after said god (Loki) does a Face–Heel Turn.
• Irish Mythology:
  • Colgan was a viking raider who made war on Ireland until the hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill defeated and slew him. Colgan's son, Midach, despite being adopted by Fionn, eventually left the latter's warrior group and assembled a Legion of Doom and trapped Fionn and his allies in a magical lodge. With the help of some allies not trapped in the lodge, Fionn is freed and Midach and his forces defeated.
• In The Book of Mormon, a Nephite named Amalickiah leads a failed revolution to overthrow the democratic government and instate himself as king. By conspiracy and several murders, he later becomes king of the Lamanites and leads them in a long and bloody war that captures several Nephite cities. When he is later assassinated, his brother Ammoron continues the war, swearing to avenge his murdered brother. He fails: the Nephites retake their cities with God's strength, and Ammoron is also assassinated.

Radio

• The Six Shooter: In "Rink Larkin", 11-year old runaway Rink swears vengeance on Sheriff Jay after learning that his bank robber father had been gunned down by the sheriff.

Tabletop Games

• Many Role Playing Games have rules that if your character has an enemy at character generation, there is a cost to lose the flaw and simply killing your enemy without paying the cost will result in someone taking his place in this manner.
• In GURPS Cabal, the Cabal in question has a tradition of vengeance. Every member has two other members that he is assigned to avenge should they die, and every member has two other members who will avenge him upon his death. So if anyone kills one Cabalist, he will have two others avenging that one. Killing those two will being four avengers, etc. (And since the Cabal is formed of mystics, sorcerers, monsters, etc., this can get scary real quick.)

Video Games

• Apex Legends: Playable Legend Valkyrie is the daughter of Viper, an Apex Predator merc killed by Jack Cooper in Titanfall 2. Played with in that she tried to go after her father's former commander Blisk instead of Jack, but ended up being talked down after Blisk points out how she'd be left with nothing if she killed him. They ended up parting on peaceful terms after she took Blisk's invitation to join the Apex Games.
• The Borderlands 2 DLC Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt, which canonically takes place after the end of the main game, has the main antagonist Professor Nakayama wishing to avenge the death of Handsome Jack, to whom he was fanatically devoted to the point of infatuation.
  • The Sir Hammerlock vs. The Son of Crawmerax DLC features Sparky Flynt the son of Captain Flynt, who wants revenge for his father's death. He's pulled together a group of other people with grudges against the Vault Hunters, most of whom also involve this trope (except for Sgt Jarter - his grudge against Axton is pretty understandable).
    Sparky Flynt: My dad was an asshole, but that doesn't mean you had to kill him! Now DIE!
    • Later Averted with the Borderlands 3 character Zane Flynt - he's Captain Flynt's brother but perfectly willing to work alongside the Vault Hunters who killed him.
• The Cyclops in Castle Crashers attempts to avenge the groom of the kidnapped princess, until the player just frags him too. Twice.
• In Clock Tower, Bobby and Mary go off the handles in trying to murder Jennifer for killing Dan. Though that's not to say they weren't already trying to murder her, but it's the thought that counts.
• Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate: It's been stated that the primary reason Nyotengu came to the human world is to avenge the death of Bankotsubo, Final Boss of Dead or Alive 2, at the hands of Ryu Hayabusa.
• In Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, Frank meets Evan MacIntyre, a harmless (albeit annoying) ice cream vendor clown who quickly becomes enraged when he discovers he's talking to Frank West, who fought Evan's brother, Adam (who also was a clown, but was violently mad), with the altercation leading to the latter's death. This results in Frank once again battling a homicidal clown.
• Disco Elysium: The Hanged Man, the victim of the murder you're investigating, is revealed to have been the leading officer of the Krenel mercenaries stationed in Martinaise. Aware of their colonel's rotting body hanging on a tree, the group began to organize a "tribunal" (read: a bloody and brutal reprise) against the people of the city over the death of their leader. You're tasked with finding the real killer to placate them before it's too late. However, the real killer can't be found until after the tribunal (which acts as the climax of the game), and as a result there's no way to actually prevent it. All you can do is try to limit the damage they cause.
• At the end of Double Homework, Dennis’s father vows to avenge his son’s death at the hands of Dr. Mosely/Zeta.
• Dragon Age:
  • In Dragon Age: Origins, you kill Arl Howe, a murderer, torturer, and anti-elf racist whom at least two of your origin stories have personal reasons to hate. In the expansion Awakening, his son Nathaniel sneaks into your castle to assassinate your Player Character. He decides to just take a few family heirlooms, only to get caught and thrown in a cell. You can then choose between killing him, conscripting him, or letting him go — in which case he comes back and asks to join your team of his own free will.
  • Played for laughs in Dragon Age: Inquisition. After the player kills a minor villain named the Hand of Korth, his father, Chief Movran the Under, will be captured while throwing live goats at the player's castle. He admits to doing so purely out of custom, as he's as glad to see his "idiot son" dead as much as the rest of the clan is.
• In Dragon Ball Xenoverse, part of the Big Bad Towa's motivation for tampering with the timeline to screw over the Z-Fighters is because she's the younger sister of the Demon King Dabura, who was killed by Majin Buu after Goku and Vegeta woke him up (ignoring the fact that Dabura himself was trying to wake up Buu).
• In Duel Savior Destiny, Shezar is actually pretty pissed off in Mia's route when Mudou is killed before him, though they never really got along. None of his teammates seem to care and simply try to replace Mudou.
• The plot of the James Bond game Everything or Nothing features Nikolai Diavlo carrying a personal vendetta against Bond for killing his mentor, Max Zorin.
• In E.V.O.: Search for Eden, when you kill the male and female Yetis, this leaves their child (Junior) an orphan. Their child becomes a major opponent in the next level of the game, since he understandably wants revenge for your murdering his family (even though you had no choice).
• Fire Emblem:
  • Seen repeatedly in the latter half of Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, where many good people fight your army only because you killed their parents earlier in the game.
  • In the prologue chapters of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Lyn gets the Ganglion after her due to killing Migal, one of their comrades, in self defense. In the main story, Eliwood and Hector face Linus or Lloyd of the Reed family. Despite Eliwood and Hector sparing the Reed brother, he's killed by another villain with Eliwood and Hector framed for the murder. This leads the surviving Reed brother to try to avenge his brother or die trying.
  • The second chapter in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance has a bandit named Ikanau seeking revenge for the Greil mercenaries killing his friend earlier. Various bosses from the nation of Daein also mention wanting to avenge the deaths of their fellow soldiers to the heroes. A chapter set in Daein also downplays this by having the protagonists meet Daein civilians who angrily call out them out for killing their family members.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening mostly uses 0% Approval Rating for all of its villains, but has an example in the optional chapters. Two villains are a pair of bandit twins. After the first twin dies, his sibling seeks revenge on his brother's killer. Whilst intended for comedy, the twins proved popular for this act of brotherly love in a story otherwise ruled by No Honor Among Thieves and won a popularity poll for best villain in the artbook.
• In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, this is Karst's motivation for wanting to kill Isaac, who'd fought her older sister Menardi to the latter's death. This goes a long way toward making Karst one of the most sympathetic antagonists in the series. Also a subversion, as The Lost Age also reveals that Menardi's goal, if not her methods, was heroic all along.
• In Heroes Rise, Prodigal's goal is to become the greatest supervillain the city has ever seen as a homage to her mother, Miss Artillery, who was accidentally killed by your parents. Getting Revenge by Proxy on you is a bonus. However, at the end of the sequel, Prodigal shows up and offers an alliance with you against the Greater-Scope Villain President-Elect Victon, revealing that her mother may still be alive and the whole thing was set up to get your parents out of the way.
• In Kindergarten 2, Jerome has developed a murderous vendetta against his classmate Lily for her involvement in his father the principal's death in the first game. However, in this case, he doesn't actually know that his father was a bad guy; he thinks that Lily is just paranoid and unstable. Fortunately, he manages to see reason when she points out that a man with nothing to hide wouldn't hand out bombs to his students set to go off if they say they know where their missing classmate Billy is, and the protagonist backs up her story.
• King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! has the Royal Family kidnapped by Mordak due to the fact that Alexander turned Mordak's brother into a cat in King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human and Mordak wants to force Alex to turn him back.
• Mass Effect: Andromeda:
  • If Ryder allows the Collective to take over Kadara, Sloan Kelley's right-hand turian Kaetus promises to get revenge on them (having missed the coup due to a near-fatal beating).
  • At the end of the "Firefighters" quest, if Ryder screws up and gets the well-meaning but dramatically misguided Knight killed, her son Alain takes this to mean that Ryder's been corrupted by SAM, and vows to fight them in her name, taking on the identity "Paladin".
• Mega Man:
  • In Super Adventure Rockman, Wood Man confronts Mega Man to avenge Shadow Man after the former completed destroyed Shadow Man to the point of no repair. His words upon being defeated are apologizing to Shadow Man for failing his vengeance.
  • Mega Man X:
    • In Mega Man X3, Gravity Beetle joins Doppler's army to avenge the death of his brother, Boomer Kuwanger.
    • In Mega Man Xtreme, when X defeats the Shadow Hunter Zain, his partner Geemel vows revenge.
    • In Mega Man X5, one boss is Squid Adler (a.k.a. Volt Kraken), who quit the Maverick Hunters partly because he was depressed at the death of Launch Octopus.^note If you don't remember that, it's because X5's translation was sloppy, apparently missing the reference to a past character; "Octopardo", a transliteration of his Japanese name, was used. Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2 corrects this error. When he himself goes Maverick, he swears vengeance for his friend.
  • Mega Man Battle Network:
    • Dr. Regal in Mega Man Battle Network 4 and 5 is the son of Dr. Wily.
    • In Team Proto Man, Mr. Gauss's daughter Tesla is eager to get back at Lan for defeating her father, but not because she particularly likes him — she's just mad about the stress she's suffered, what with him being in jail and her having to take over as CEO of his company. She quickly forgets about it and even joins the protagonists.
    • This is subverted in Battle Network 6 with the character of Ann Zap, the wife of Count Zap, whom Lan defeated way back in the first game. She doesn't know who Lan is when she meets him, but when she figures it out, she actually thanks Lan for sending him to jail to pay for his crimes and get his life back together.
  • Mega Man Zero:
    • Kuwagust Anchus in Mega Man Zero 2 mentions his brother, Herculius Anchus, a boss from the first game, during his own boss fight. When the obligatory end-game Boss Rush comes along, Kuwagust is resurrected alongside Herculius for a Dual Boss.
    • One of the eight Bosses in Mega Man Zero 4 is Tech Kraken. (For some reason, this seems to be a common theme with Krakens...) He's a pupil of the late Phantom of the Four Guardians, joining Dr. Weil's army to fight Zero for this reason. Interesting to note that neither Phantom nor Kraken are actual villains. And once Zero defeats him for the second time, Kraken no longer holds a grudge, and even encourages Zero to go on and defeat Dr. Weil!
• Mitsumete Knight:
  • This is how you'll get to fight one of the Eight Generals of Valpha-Valaharian, Rinanore of the Ice and Fire: she's in love with fellow general Borankio the Unshakable, and if you manage to kill him during the second war battle, one month later, she'll defect from Valpha-Valaharian just to challenge you to a duel to death and try to avenge his death.
  • This is also how you'll get to fight another General, Salishuan the Spy: if you manage to kill leader of Valpha-Valaharian Wolfgario the Ravager in his unmasked version, that General, who happens to be his daughter Raizze Haimer (one of the winnable girls in the cast), will challenge you and try to avenge her father. In a very emotional variation of the trope, how much she's in love with you will determine if she'll survive this battle or not.
• Parodied and deconstructed in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Jasper's reason for killing Bishop is to avenge his father and brothers, who were nameless NPCs killed by Travis in an entirely optional mission.
• Franziska Von Karma in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All, the daughter of Manfred Von Karma, whom in the previous game Phoenix defeated and sent to jail. She first appears making it clear that she has it out for Phoenix, while he tries to convince her that it's not such a big deal. It turns out to be a subversion; she wasn't trying to avenge her father... she was trying to surpass her big-brother figure and childhood rival, Miles Edgeworth.
• Subverted in Robopon 2. Dr. Zeke is the previously unseen brother of the Big Bad, Dr. Zero, from the first game. But rather than vowing to avenge his death, he goes back in time to save Zero so they can both destroy the hero.
• Piastol from Skies of Arcadia; she thinks Vyse killed her father and sister and tries to kill him in return. The party luckily manages to explain the real events to her, but since her arc was added to the remake, she never joins you to go defeat the real killer, who is the final boss.
• Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time: It's initially believed that this is Le Paradox's reason for going after the Cooper Clan across history, as his father was jailed for a crime that was actually committed by Sly's father^note Ironically, Le Paradox's father had in fact planned to frame Sly's father for said crime, but Sly's dad beat him to the punch. Ultimately defied during the Final Boss, as Le Paradox admits that he actually went after the Coopers simply to prove that he was a better thief than them.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Jedi Knight PC's first Arc Villain, Darth Angral, starts pursuing them across the galaxy after the Knight kills his son Lord Tarnis in the line of duty, with Angral watching over Video Phone — after goading Tarnis himself to kill the Knight.
• The Big Bad of the John Woo game Stranglehold, Mr. James Wong, is the father of the original Big Bad from Hard Boiled, Johnny Wong. He's none too happy with Tequila on that score, even without his daughter falling in love with the Cowboy Cop.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Bowser Jr. in New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Sunshine wanted his "Mama Peach" brought back after Bowser told him Mario never fights fair and gives the idea to outsmart Mario.
  • The Elder Princess Shroob in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Somewhat notable in that she seemed to care about her sister, despite said sister not trying to reunite the Cobalt Star at all.
• Subverted (or at least played with) in Super Robot Wars 3 and Original Generation when Lune Zoldark, daughter of the Divine Crusaders' leader (whom you killed in the previous game/arc), attacks your group to avenge her father's death. The twist comes in that she knows exactly what the situation regarding her father was about, and after losing promptly drops the grudge and joins your side, having fulfilled her familial duty in engaging you.
• Ultima:
  • In Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress, the current Big Bad is a disciple and lover of the Big Bad from the first game.
  • In Ultima III: Exodus, the titular Big Bad is a child of both Big Bads from the previous two games.
• In Warframe, killing planet boss enough times causes you to attract the attention of Stalker, who sends you a letter with the warning that blood will be avenged, and eventually shows up in one of your missions to take personal vengeance. It should be noted that Stalker himself has no affiliation with bosses whatsoever (especially when avenging Phorid or Lephantis), he just really, really hates the Tenno.
• World of Warcraft:
  • In the expansion Cataclysm, Vanessa Vancleef replaces her father Edwin Vancleef as the leader of the Defias Brotherhood, as well as the final boss of the Dead Mines. Revenge for her father's death is one of her primary goals.
  • While Deathwing didn't need much of an excuse to ravage the world, the fact that his daughter's head hung from the gates of Stormwind did draw that city to his special attention.
• In X-COM: Terror from the Deep this is the motive behind the second Alien Invasion. After humanity repelled the first one, their evolutionary cousins who crashlanded on Earth millions of years ago (killing the dinosaurs) were incensed to learn of their defeat and launch attacks on mankind from the Eldritch Ocean Abyss where they had been lying in wait.
• Explicitly defied in the Yakuza Kiwami remake of the first game, where after Shimano's death, his second-in-command Majima sends a message to Kiryu stating that while he knows that Kiryu and his allies had something to do with it, he won't be seeking vengeance because as far as he's concerned, Shimano fought his own battles.

Visual Novels

• Two instances in Choices: Stories You Play:
  • Part 2 of Witness: A Bodyguard Romance revolves around Aisling O'Connell going after Niamh and Cassian to avenge the imprisonment of her parents for murder.
  • In Murder at Homecoming, the reason April committed the titular murder was to avenge the imprisonment of her brother Brett for crimes he committed.

Webcomics

• Goblinslayer from Goblins swears revenge on Thaco and the other goblins for, among other things, killing The Dragon Saral Caine.
• The set-up for How I Killed Your Master. More specifically, the master in question ruined the narrator's life when he was a child and he's explaining to said master's pupil why he did it.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Belkar kills a kobold in one early strip. His son turns up later to take revenge on Belkar. The trope is slightly twisted. While kobolds are a Usually Lawful Evil race, Belkar is himself rather unpleasant, and the kobold in question, Yokyok, appears to be Lawful Good, making him all the more fitting an Evil Counterpart (well, you know) for Chaotic Evil Belkar. (Word of God is that he was intended to be the odd man out his party alignment-wise, just as Belkar is in his own group.)
  • An Ancient Black Dragon shows up to menace one of the protagonists, revealing herself to be the mother of a young black dragon the party killed many, many strips earlier. In the resolution of that threat, Vaarsuvius then takes rather extreme steps to prevent another such occurrence.
  • In an unusual use of this trope, revenge is taken on a villain for killing another villain. Nale kills Malack, then gloats to his dad and his "Aunt" Laurin about it, who were two of Malack's oldest friends. Tarquin seems willing to overlook the matter until Nale screams in his face that he wants nothing from his father — whereupon Tarquin promptly plants a sword in his gut, both for Malack and their tempestuous past with each other. A furious Laurin then disintegrates Nale's remains and blows them away so that he cannot be resurrected. The situation is then ripe for this trope to happen again, as Nale's girlfriend Sabine is enraged and gives advice to Vaarsuvius on how to fight Tarquin and co.
• Slightly Damned's Lazuli swore revenge on the angel Kieri after she fought and wounded her in a battle and killed her comrade Talus.
• In Sluggy Freelance Zoe killed the demon K'Z'K several years ago. Now a cult that worships K'Z'K is keeping her under surveillance for unspecified, but undoubtedly very nasty, reasons.

Web Original

• In Comic Fury Werewolf, the Werewolves kill someone who led a lynch on one of their own.
• Dreamscape: Kaila's avenging the Master of the Dammed, who was killed by Keela. This is the main fuel for Kaila's vendetta against her.
• Epic Rap Battles of History: In "Hitler vs Vader 3", Darth Vader cuts Adolf Hitler in half to avenge Boba Fett.
• The Gamer's Alliance:
  • When a minor villain named Dorecia is killed, her lover Ferron promises to hunt down her killer, who turns out to be Refan.
  • Belial wants to avenge the death of his brother Antigonus, who opposed various heroes in the past, and this later gets reversed when Antigonus comes back to life and finds out that Belial has been assassinated, so he swears to punish the ones responsible for Belial's death.
• lonelygirl15:
  • Near the start of the third series, the protagonists are pursued by the Shadow of Bill Porter, the Big Bad of the previous series. Subverted when the Shadow is abruptly run down by a car in "In the Bedroom".
  • Similarly, in KateModern, Michelle Clore's Shadow comes after the main characters after the death of his Elder leaves him furious.
• In Noob, Précieux continues the quest to prove that Sparadrap is actually a better player than he seems after his mentor Dark Avenger ends up quitting the game over not being able to get proof for too long and being tired of the Villain Decay the situation caused to him.
• In Volume 6 of RWBY, Neo is out for revenge after Roman's death at the end of Volume 3. His death was actually an accident — he was eaten by a random Grimm during a fight sequence — but Neo blames Cinder for getting Roman into that fight in the first place. After a tussle, Cinder convinces her that her vengeance is misplaced and that they're better off working together to defeat the true enemy: Ruby, whom Roman died fighting.
• Within Lapenko: Zakhar, season three's Big Bad, wants to avenge the previous season's Big Bad and his lover Natella by killing Grigoriy, who is responsible for her death.

Western Animation

• In the Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "Avatar Day", Aang is arrested and put on trial because in a past life (Avatar Kyoshi), he killed the village's founder, Emperor Chin. This is a partial subversion of the trope, as the villagers believe Chin to have been a benevolent ruler, but Kyoshi reveals that he was a horrible tyrant expanding his empire. Also, the aforementioned killing was less of a murder and more just not bothering to save the guy after the idiot fell off a cliff on his own.
• The Boondocks: Subverted in "Stinkmeaner 3: The Hateocracy". A couple of Colonel H. Stinkmeaner's old associates target the Freeman family seemingly out of revenge for Robert's Accidental Murder of the blind old bastard way back in Season 1. However, while Stinkmeaner was an old "friend" of the Hateocracy, they don't personally care about him (nor each other). They're just using the thin excuse of "revenge" to try and murder the Freemans for the fun of it, and probably would have gone after some other random person anyway.
• Castlevania: After Dracula is killed near the end of Season 2, his right-hand minion and loyal friend Issac sets out to avenge him, spending most of Season 3 building an army that will enable him to kill everyone he holds responsible for Dracula's death. Then, he intends to finish what Dracula started.
• Gargoyles uses this trope in "City of Stone" to hammer home the pointlessness of revenge: Canmore wants to kill Macbeth to avenge Duncan's "murder", even though Duncan was a treacherous villain who brought his fate upon himself.
• Infinity Train: After MT is forced to kill Agent Mace in self-defense, his partner/best friend Agent Sieve goes completely nuts and tries to kill MT and Jesse to avenge him.
• The Legend of Tarzan: The sister of Clayton (the villain of the movie) appears to take her revenge in one episode, poisoning the eponymous character and putting his friends and family in death traps (giving him the choice between saving them or going after the antidote). After he chooses to save them and rescues her from a death trap, she realises that she made a mistake and gives him the antidote.
• Men in Black: The Series: In "The Big Bad Bug Syndrome", Agent Elle is the target of a bounty by the Bug Queen for killing Edgar in the first film. But because all bugs are siblings, they also fight amongst themselves for the bounty.
• The Simpsons:
  • The son of Frank Grimes, who comes to get revenge on Homer after his dad died. How could Grimes have a son if he wasn't married? He happened to like hookers.
  • Also, Goliath Jr. in the Bible Stories episode.
    Bart/King David: You killed my best friend!
    Nelson/Goliath Jr.: You killed my father, who was like a best friend!
• Steven Universe: Jasper reveals that part of the reason she wanted to destroy Rose Quartz was to avenge Pink Diamond.
• Occurs quite a bit in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the original comic books, the Foot Clan's vendetta against the Turtles begins after they kill the Shredder in the first issue. The same occurs twice in the 2003 animated series, first when the Shredder is believed to be dead in the second season, and later after the same character is exiled in the fourth season, leaving his adopted daughter in control of the Foot Clan.
• Transformers: Prime:
  • Dreadwing comes to Earth primarily to avenge his brother Skyquake's death at the hands of the Autobots. However, Megatron refuses to have any agendas conflicting with his own, and orders Dreadwing to give up his revenge quest (so that he'll only fight the Autobots when Megatron orders it). Since Dreadwing is undyingly loyal, he reluctantly complies. His loyalty hits a breaking point after the events of "Patch", where he learns that Starscream is being allowed to rejoin despite desecrating his brother's death. Dreadwing tries to kill Starscream over it despite being told to stand down by his master. Megatron is forced to kill him.
  • When Silas has himself transferred into Breakdown's body, Knock Out wants to dissect him for this desecration. He gets his wish when Silas fails to be an asset.
• The purpose of the appropriately-named Knights of Vengeance in the early second season of W.I.T.C.H. (2004) is to avenge the previous season's Big Bad, Evil Overlord Phobos. Of course, this is all just part of Nerissa's schemes.

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