Basic Trope: A character kills the friend or relative of someone he wants revenge on.
- Straight: Alice killed Bob's wife, so Bob kills Alice's husband.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob kills everyone in Alice's family.
- Alice is dead so Bob kills her family.
- Bob starts killing people indiscriminately, thinking they're probably related to Alice somewhere along the line.
- Bob goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, killing anyone and everyone in his way for supporting Alice's stance.
- Bob rapes Alice’s daughter in revenge.
- Downplayed:
- Alice ran over Bob's cat, so Bob poisons Alice's dog.
- Bob kills Alice's third cousin twice removed.
- Bob punches Alice’s husband in the face, but doesn’t go further than that.
- Alice accidentally kills Bob's wife. When he accidentally kills Alice's husband, he declares them even.
- Alice's husband is an abusive Jerkass, Bob is just killing him as a threat and warning to Alice not to mess with him again.
- Justified:
- Killing Alice isn't an option, for whatever reason.
- Bob is a coward who wouldn't ever dare to confront Alice directly.
- Bob wants Alice to feel the pain he felt when his wife died.
- Bob is a sadist who wants to make Alice suffer as much as possible.
- Bob finds out that Alice's husband is a monster himself, giving him more than one reason to kill Alice's husband.
- Inverted:
- Avenging the Villain.
- Bob seduces Alice's husband and he ends up divorcing Alice.
- Charles kills Alice's husband. Bob kills Charles on Alice's behalf because for some reason Alice can't.
- Alice saves Bob's wife, so Bob saves Alice's husband.
- Alice kills Bob's abusive wife. Later, when Alice finds herself in an abusive relationship, Bob returns the favour.
- Subverted:
- Bob actually wants to eliminate the characters because of a prophecy but without Alice realizing it.
- Bob finally has Alice's husband at gunpoint, but can't bring himself to kill an innocent person.
- Bob finally decides that instead of killing Alice's husband, he'll get his revenge by tricking Alice's husband into turning against Alice instead.
- Bob accidentally killed Alice's husband while he was targeting Alice.
- Double Subverted:
- On the other hand, he considers the Revenge part of the fun; he could have worked out another way around the Prophecy.
- Even though he hates himself for that, after a few moments of hesitation he shoots him anyway.
- Parodied:
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Bob goes only to the culprit himself.
- Enforced: "We need a reason for Alice to go after Bob, and a Cynicism Catalyst is just the thing.."
- Lampshaded: "Okay, seriously, I'm the one who wronged you, so why are you going after someone else?" "Because death is too good for you."
- Invoked: Alice wants to kill her husband but can't, because he knows her too well and is stronger than her. She kills Bob's wife, who is a much easier target, in order to provoke him into killing her husband.
- Exploited: Alice suspects Bob might go after her husband, so she waits with him and when Bob shows up, she defeats, handcuffs him, and locks him up.
- Defied:
- Bob sees and scorns the chance to kill the other character.
- This trope is a Berserk Button for Bob, and he's willing to team up with Alice if it means attacking anyone who does invoke the trope.
- Discussed: Alice feels so guilty she tells her friend Charles she'd deserve it if Bob killed her. Charles points out that Bob might go after Alice's husband instead.Bob: The thing about you 'hero types' is that from the very beginning, you're willing to endure harm if it means getting what you want. You're willing to sacrifice yourself if need be, and so I can't truly frighten you with a threat on your life. But what about your family? Do you see them as expendable?
- Conversed: "Why is Bob targeting Alice's husband? Alice is the one who hurt him, right?"
- Deconstructed: Alice’s husband is infuriated at being attacked by Bob despite the complete lack of provocation and tells their entire neighbourhood about it, ruining Bob’s reputation.
- Reconstructed: Bob finds evidence that Alice’s husband was actually the catalyst for Alice’s murder of his wife and clears his name.
- Played For Laughs: Alice ate Bob's noodle, so Bob eats all of Alice's friend's noodles. He has trouble digesting all of them, however.
- Played For Drama: Alice accidentally hit Bob's son with her car, and thus Bob decides to deliberately run over Alice's children. What makes this even more disproportionate is that Bob's son only got some bruising out of his ordeal and Alice was so sorry about her action that she helped pay the medical bills and other issues, and if Bob wanted to get Alice so badly he had a literal hundred moments she was within arm's reach. But Bob wants his pound of flesh in a very specific way and he will get it.
- Played For Horror: Alice wronged Bob and she is okay with it, calling it fair cop. So you can imagine what she feels when she arrives to her home one night and finds everyone she ever loved tortured to death in her living room and the walls festooned with messages written with their blood that say things like "NOW WE ARE EVEN".
Back to Revenge by Proxy.
