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Anime and Manga
"Revenge is pointless! It only leaves you with more anger!"
— Yami Yugi, Yu-Gi-Oh!
Kakashi Hatake: Let it go. You've got to forget about revenge.
Sasuke Uchiha: What?
Kakashi Hatake: Believe me. In this world, I've met a lot of guys who feel the way you do. Trust me. For those who follow the path of revenge, it never ends well. You'll only tear yourself apart. And even if you succeed and you get your revenge, what will you have then? Nothing. Emptiness.
Sasuke Uchiha: What?
Kakashi Hatake: Believe me. In this world, I've met a lot of guys who feel the way you do. Trust me. For those who follow the path of revenge, it never ends well. You'll only tear yourself apart. And even if you succeed and you get your revenge, what will you have then? Nothing. Emptiness.
— Naruto
"I won... I think? My strategy worked... I defeated my arch enemy Alaba for sure. But why does it leave such a bad aftertaste?"
— Kumoko, So I'm a Spider, So What?
Leon: You want revenge, I say "Why not?" Let's get some juicy vengeance!
Angie: I don't know, wouldn't that be wrong?
Livia: Leon, please don't encourage these immoral tendencies.
Leon: I happen the kingdoms' leading expert in wholesale revenge.
Angie: Will you please help me?
Livia: Angie No! You must resist temptation!
Leon: The Number One De-Facto way to get Revenge: is to focus on yourself and become as happy as you can. Trying to make someone else miserable is a huge waste of energy, spending that quality time on yourself will be much more meaningful in the long-run.
Angie: Yes, you have a point.
Livia: Okay, if that's "Revenge" than I support you. From now on, let's devote our energy to self-improvement!
Angie: I don't know, wouldn't that be wrong?
Livia: Leon, please don't encourage these immoral tendencies.
Leon: I happen the kingdoms' leading expert in wholesale revenge.
Angie: Will you please help me?
Livia: Angie No! You must resist temptation!
Leon: The Number One De-Facto way to get Revenge: is to focus on yourself and become as happy as you can. Trying to make someone else miserable is a huge waste of energy, spending that quality time on yourself will be much more meaningful in the long-run.
Angie: Yes, you have a point.
Livia: Okay, if that's "Revenge" than I support you. From now on, let's devote our energy to self-improvement!
Comic Books
Andy: I don't feel any different. Me dad's still dead and I don't feel the slightest bit different.
Yorkie: No, lad. Look at old Frank there. He's been doing this for thirty years. D'you think he feels any different?
Yorkie: No, lad. Look at old Frank there. He's been doing this for thirty years. D'you think he feels any different?
"Vengeance gains nothing! Vengeance means nothing! Vengeance accomplishes nothing!"
— Faceless Fiend, The Tomb of Dracula
"I thought seeing the Goblin die would make me feel better about Gwen. Instead, it just makes me feel empty... washed out... and maybe a little bit more alone."
— Spider-Man, The Night Gwen Stacy Died
Fan Works
Natsuki: I have to wonder- was this the moment I've been hoping and working toward all those years? Everyone involved with my mother's death is now dead. They deserved it for serving the Obsidian Lord, even if I did not have a more personal grudge against them. But my mother is still dead, and this triumph seems hollow, and I'm not sure if I got what I wanted in the end.
Nao: What do you want, Natsuki?
Natsuki: I actually don't know the answer to that question myself," Natsuki said. "Was it bringing justice to my mother's killers as the court system could not? I suppose that happened, although they didn't die because of what they did to my mother. Was it to get the personal satisfaction of ending their lives? I'll never know whether that would be enough for me, although I suspect it would not. Was it to prevent anything like this from ever happening again? I doubt I could send a message by eliminating a secret organization, and I've never been the kind of hero to save the world.
Nao: Neither am I.
Natsuki: So what about you, Nao?
Nao: Our quests may have the same motive in mind, but they're different in how we carry them out. Yours is a long journey with a disappointing ending, like playing a 30-hour role-playing game only to find that someone killed the final boss for you.
Natsuki: Are you saying it's about the journey rather than the destination?
Nao: Hell no. My quest is like one of those arcade games with the same level over and over, but without any challenge or risk of defeat. It was fun for a while but I eventually realized I was never getting anywhere. I think both of us sought our revenge to gain inner peace as a substitution for having our parents back, which is something we can never have. Unfortunately for us, this method won't soothe our pain.
Nao: What do you want, Natsuki?
Natsuki: I actually don't know the answer to that question myself," Natsuki said. "Was it bringing justice to my mother's killers as the court system could not? I suppose that happened, although they didn't die because of what they did to my mother. Was it to get the personal satisfaction of ending their lives? I'll never know whether that would be enough for me, although I suspect it would not. Was it to prevent anything like this from ever happening again? I doubt I could send a message by eliminating a secret organization, and I've never been the kind of hero to save the world.
Nao: Neither am I.
Natsuki: So what about you, Nao?
Nao: Our quests may have the same motive in mind, but they're different in how we carry them out. Yours is a long journey with a disappointing ending, like playing a 30-hour role-playing game only to find that someone killed the final boss for you.
Natsuki: Are you saying it's about the journey rather than the destination?
Nao: Hell no. My quest is like one of those arcade games with the same level over and over, but without any challenge or risk of defeat. It was fun for a while but I eventually realized I was never getting anywhere. I think both of us sought our revenge to gain inner peace as a substitution for having our parents back, which is something we can never have. Unfortunately for us, this method won't soothe our pain.
"Revenge isn’t worth it... What do I know [about revenge]? (Laughs) What don’t I know? I walked across a fucking desert, killing everything that got in my way, just to track down the man who put two holes in my skull and had me buried alive. I know more than any living being should. The burning desire consumes you, takes everything you are and destroys it. And you don’t get it back. After I killed Benny, I realized I had nothing to do. The only reason I went to Vegas was to track him down. I had no purpose. I had no reason to live... Do you think [Cadence will] want anything to do with you after this? Do you think she can love a murderer?... You’ll get court-martialed. If you’re lucky, [Canterlot]’ll give you a blindfold before they execute you... You’ll be lucky if the worst [your family does] is disown you. And there is no way Twilight would want anything to do with you after all this... This isn’t who you are... [I don't know you], but I know your type. Revenge isn’t the kind of thing men like you do."
Film
"His head was over there... His body over there... And what was the point? I was too late. I was just standing there. Some idiot with an axe."
Bruce Wayne: So, you're willing to take a life.
Dick Grayson: Long as it's Two-Face.
Bruce Wayne: Then it will happen this way: You make the kill. But your pain doesn't die with Harvey, it grows. So you run out into the night to find another face, and another, and another. Until one terrible morning you wake up and realize that revenge has become your whole life. And you won't know why.
Dick Grayson: You can't understand. Your family wasn't killed by a maniac.
Bruce Wayne: Yes, they were. We're the same.
Dick Grayson: Long as it's Two-Face.
Bruce Wayne: Then it will happen this way: You make the kill. But your pain doesn't die with Harvey, it grows. So you run out into the night to find another face, and another, and another. Until one terrible morning you wake up and realize that revenge has become your whole life. And you won't know why.
Dick Grayson: You can't understand. Your family wasn't killed by a maniac.
Bruce Wayne: Yes, they were. We're the same.
"Y'know, psychologically speaking, vengeance rarely brings the catharsis we hope for."
"Vengeance has consumed you. It's consuming them. I'm done letting it consume me. Justice will come soon enough."
—T'Challa to Helmut Zemo, Captain America: Civil War
"You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you? Or my boy to me?"
—Vito Corleone, The Godfather
"It's very strange. I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life."
— Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride
"I'm so sorry about your son, Jeff. But let me tell you something that I know for sure. No sentence I gave him, not 500 years, not even death, nothing would take your pain away. And vengeance doesn't solve anything. It just makes the pain greater, Jeff."
— Judge Halden, Saw III
"Don't avenge me, Nancy. It'll be the death of you."
—John Hartigan, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
"The night Ben died... I hunted down the man who I thought did it. I wanted him dead. I got what I wanted. It didn't make it better."
Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld: [Bond points gun at him] Finish it... finish it!
James Bond: [Ejects the clip of his gun, looks over at Bond Girl Madeleine Swann] Out of bullets. And besides, I've got something better to do.
James Bond: [Ejects the clip of his gun, looks over at Bond Girl Madeleine Swann] Out of bullets. And besides, I've got something better to do.
— Spectre
Literature
"...the whole idea of revenge and punishment is a childish day-dream. Properly speaking, there is no such thing as revenge. Revenge is an act which you want to commit when you are powerless and because you are powerless: as soon as the sense of impotence is removed, the desire evaporates also."
— George Orwell, "Revenge is Sour"
"Vengeance is counterproductive, always. Not to mention the fact it gets your soul all sticky."
— Lady Sally, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
"You who gave my Aurora an iron death! I could kill you in a thousand ways. I could scatter your bones to the far corners of the earth. I could feed you to my garden and make you scream the entire while. I could visit torments on you that would make Lloyd Slate's fate seem kind by comparison. I want to eat your heart." [beginning to weep] "I could do these things. But none of them would give me my daughter back. None of them would fill the emptiness within me."
Live-Action TV
"Vengeance isn't a path to glory, Hugh. It's a one-way ticket to a dead end, looking at fucking birds."
—Grace Mallory advising Hughie Campbell to not lose himself in revenge, The Boys (2019)
"You think you wanted revenge a long time? I've been after it all my life. It's all I care about... and look at me. LOOK AT ME! Do you want to be like me?"
— Sandor "The Hound" Clegane to Arya Stark, Game of Thrones
"You know, I thought I'd feel different now that he's dead... but I don't. And you always told me that killing him wouldn't change anything. You were right."
— Helena Bertinelli, Arrow
"La venganza nunca es buena! Mata el alma, y la envenena!" ("Vengeance is never good! It kills the soul and poisons it!")
— Don Ramón, El Chavo del ocho
"You don't seem to get it, do you? You've won. All these years I've spent living to destroy you, thinking that...if I could just give you the same pain you gave me, I'd be rid of it. Life could go on. And then I do...and nothing changes. I don't feel any better. Just...empty. So you let me go, Xena. You can't win this battle. And you've already won the war."
— Callisto, Xena: Warrior Princess
Theatre
"Revenge...The most worthless of causes."
— King Arthur, Camelot
Video Games
"But my revenge was met with emptiness. The emptiness of not knowing what lay ahead."
— Dusty, Dusty Revenge
"Revenge always leads to disappointment, so I can't really say I recommend it."
— Bedman, Guilty Gear
Roman Bellic: What made you spare him, Niko?
Niko Bellic: I don't know. I wanted it for so long. He would just be dead like everyone else from our village. I was the one who survived the first attack. Living is not easy. I would live through killing Darko as well. But then, when I looked at him, I realized that nothing would change if I killed him. Revenge would not somehow shut the book on what I have seen. Only those who die get closure, the living do not.
Niko Bellic: I don't know. I wanted it for so long. He would just be dead like everyone else from our village. I was the one who survived the first attack. Living is not easy. I would live through killing Darko as well. But then, when I looked at him, I realized that nothing would change if I killed him. Revenge would not somehow shut the book on what I have seen. Only those who die get closure, the living do not.
"You best stick to them books. Because mark my words on this: vengeance is an idiot's game."
— Arthur Morgan, Red Dead Redemption 2
Illidan: You have won, Maiev. But the huntress is nothing without the hunt! You are nothing without me!
Maiev: He is right... I feel nothing. I am nothing.
Maiev: He is right... I feel nothing. I am nothing.
— World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
"You have to be realistic about these things. You have to keep your perspective. I've seen too much death to be any other way. I've held the hardest men in the world in my arms, seen them crying like babies, feeling myself slipping away... knowing in that moment that no-one is going to save them. There is no salvation. That the blood draining from their wounds is the last real thing they'll feel. And I know, about anything else, that the moment the eyes shut, the last suck of air, gulped down, pushed out... there is nothing left of the person you knew."
"Let the birds have her. Let her rot. Decompose and feed the earth. She'd have wanted that."
"Let the birds have her. Let her rot. Decompose and feed the earth. She'd have wanted that."
— Andrew, upon avenging Kim's death in Cold Winter
"This path you walk... vengeance. You will find no peace. I know."
— Kratos to the Stranger, God of War (PS4)
[Kratos having just told her the Greek Gods had tricked him into killing his own wife and daughter]
Freya: That's... I can't imagine...!
Kratos: I paid back their blood a thousand times, and burned Olympus to the ground... yet... the guilt remained. Perhaps you will kill me, Freya... but it will bring you no peace.
Freya: That's... I can't imagine...!
Kratos: I paid back their blood a thousand times, and burned Olympus to the ground... yet... the guilt remained. Perhaps you will kill me, Freya... but it will bring you no peace.
— Kratos to Freya, God of War Ragnarök
Master Monk Zonglei: You have finally gotten revenge on the person who killed your grandfather and burned down your village. How do you feel now?
Wei Cheng: For me, she was evil incarnate. Everyday, I imagine how I would take her life with my own hands. I wanted her nearest and dearest, people I'd never met, to die a painful death. You probably expect me to say that her murder didn't change anything, that I don't feel any better and other such banalities. However, I do feel better, although not because I got my revenge. She was only human. She committed all these murders because she was unable to accept her father's death. I feel better because I was able to discard my hate towards her, and feel sorry that she is dead.
"...Father. At long last, I can face you again. I did as you always taught me, Father. I found a cause I could truly believe in. And I kept my faith. Since the day you were taken from me, I swore I would avenge you. And avenge you I did. And yet ... even now that my long journey has ended ... and I have done all that I set out to do ... why... why does my heart ... still ache with this hollow pain? What am I supposed to believe in now? What cause will carry me on from here? But this is something I must find for myself ... and until I do ... I will keep dancing."
— Primrose Azelhart to Geoffrey Azelhart's grave, Octopath Traveler
"Father... Mother... I have avenged your death. But, why I’m not happy about this...?"
— The Daughter, Princess Maker 5
"I've been in your position! Vengeance won't help! It's not noble! It's just giving into the worst of yourself!"
— Gunvolt, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2
"Quinn's dead. This Is the Part Where... I'm supposed to say I feel empty, right? I'd be lying to myself. I finally feel awake. Like I can breathe again. And Lena? Nothing can change her death. But maybe I can do something that will make a difference."
— Aiden Pearce, Watch_Dogs
...and so they left, bitterly avenged and deeply lost.
— Ending text for the Heretic, Risk of Rain 2
Visual Novels
"Revenge? Revenge is good, really good. ...All your pain and suffering slips away. Everything becomes numb, and you'll feel nothing."
— Simon Keyes, Gyakuten Kenji 2
"I did what I came out here to do. I knew it wasn't going to make me feel better. ...Nothing can bring her back."
— Machete, The Price of Flesh
Web Animation
Xanu, there is no peace in revenge. The Foreclaimers that tortured you are dead. You can wipe out this generation too, but they will still live with you. Torturing you, over and over again. Forever.
— Gothi, Dingo Doodles
Web Original
Revenge can seem great. At one point, a hot dog salesman killed someone, probably, and so I avenge their death by making sure that I'm good and hammered every time I approach a late-night hot dog cart. Still, make a spreadsheet or something. Organize a basic daily itinerary. And then figure out if your time is best spent exploding everything that you desire to see exploded, or if it's beneficial to take all of the extra hours necessary to invent a little ball that removes skin, but keeps the skeletons looking theatrically horrified.
Trust me, villain in a movie from 2002. After seven Red Bull and vodkas, no matter how many hot dogs I eat, I still feel empty inside. And when you momentarily see some measly bones after putting days of work into your very personal weapon, so will you.
Trust me, villain in a movie from 2002. After seven Red Bull and vodkas, no matter how many hot dogs I eat, I still feel empty inside. And when you momentarily see some measly bones after putting days of work into your very personal weapon, so will you.
— Cracked, "Supervillain Gadgets That Are Hilarious In Retrospect"
(on the time and effort that must have gone into Green Goblin's "Skeleton Bomb" in Spider-Man)
(on the time and effort that must have gone into Green Goblin's "Skeleton Bomb" in Spider-Man)"Look, if you want to go, we’re with you, but if you exercise a little patience, I think we’ll get more out of this, and you’ll still get yours in the end. I guarantee you, the complete lack of satisfaction that you feel when she’s finally dead will be just as potent two days from now."
— Percival De Rolo, Critical Role
"Offing Little Red can't be all you wanted... right?"
— Roman Torchwick to Neopolitan, RWBY
Western Animation
[Splinter has told Karai about his past with the Shredder]
Karai: After all this time, haven't you wanted revenge?
Splinter: After all this time, I have learned revenge only leads to more pain.
Karai: After all this time, haven't you wanted revenge?
Splinter: After all this time, I have learned revenge only leads to more pain.
"I know the desire for revenge. It's a sickness that eats at your soul until you become a monster of regret and pain!"
— Scorpion, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms
"What good will any of this do? The more I make these Gems suffer, the more I long to see you again, Pink."
— Blue Diamond's inner thoughts, Steven Universe, "Reunited"
"Revenge, as they say, is a sucker's game."
— David Xanatos, Gargoyles
Wheeljack: Congrats, kid. You’re a true Wrecker now. You did Bulkhead proud.
Miko: Then why don’t I feel any different?
Miko: Then why don’t I feel any different?
'"How's it feel? Better? No? Exactly the same? (shrugs) Yeah, it always does. Hope you're happy with your choice."
— Evil Morty, Rick and Morty, "Unmortricken"
