Instances of people attempting to take Revenge by Proxy in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- In Black Sky's spin-off, Parenting is not a Varia Quality, Pyr is furious to learn his partner Mainomai's entire bloodline was cursed to Tragedy by Hephaestus because their ancestress was the god's wife's adulterous offspring. Fortunately, he manages to dispel the Curse by claiming his partner and the partner's unborn child as his family, erasing their link to the adulteress via adoption.
- Fates Collide (Fate Series & RWBY):
- Guinevere hates Arturia and wants to kill her, but she tells Arturia that it is not enough to just kill her. First, she wants Arturia to suffer by killing everyone she loves, namely everyone in the Kingdom of Apocrypha.
- Penthesilea attacks Ruby Rose and says it's to hurt Ruby's sister Yang Xiao Long, whom she has a grudge against.
- Hearts Aflutter: Ayano Aishi uses Madison Clements, who had she had kidnapped and tortured into an Empty Shell, to be used as a proxy to murder Emma Barnes in front of Sophia Hess for bullying Taylor Hebert, the girl she is in love with.
- More Than Meets the Ear (My Little Pony: Equestria Girls & Transformers): The Dazzlings, furious after having their magic taken away, decide to go after Vinyl to get revenge on the Rainbooms. Unfortunately for them, Vinyl happened to have a really good friend nearby.
- The Greek Gods are kinda big on this trope in general: when Hades learns how Zeus tried to kill his son Harry by crashing the plane he was on in Prince of Death
, he immediately unleashes the Furies against Thalia as retaliation and succeeds to destroy her... more or less. - Turnabout Storm (Ace Attorney & My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic): This is to be Trixie's motivation for becoming the prosecutor; it's an opportunity to get payback against Twilight by having one of her friends sent to the Moon or the Sun for murder.
- The Unrelenting Frozen Seas: The Journey (Harry Potter & Riordanverse): Poseidon threatens this when Zeus discovers his daughter Rhode's existence: Poseidon invokes an image of Zeus's own daughter Thalia and declares the Sky Lord will join him in grieving if he ever does anything to Rhode.
- In Scarred Survivors, Thrymr wants to murder Belldandy because her father is Ansuz, who destroyed many demons as the 'Whispering Death' during the last war between Asgard and Niflhiem.
- Danganronpa Class Swap: After the deaths of Fuyuhiko and Chiaki, Peko tells Mahiru that since the murderer was already executed, she intends to kill the one who put both of them in that position: the Mastermind.
- Hope on a Distant Mountain: Discussed after a murder occurs on campus. Knowing how much Kyouko despises her father, Makoto wonders if she's planning to pin the death directly upon him. Rather than denying it, Kyouko lists off a number of students with criminal talents or histories that she could go after in order to attack her father's reputation, stating that waiting for a scandal is better than inventing one. Makoto walks away from her in disgust.
- The Lion's Den: This turns out to be a key part of why Komaeda kidnapped Naegi in the first place: he's incredibly resentful of how both of them appear to have been Born Lucky, only for Nagito's 'luck cycle' to put him through a Trauma Conga Line while Makoto was relatively untouched. Since he can't get revenge upon his luck for all the years of torment, he targeted Makoto as an outlet, as well as hoping that he would be the one person capable of surviving the whims of said cycle.
- Subverted in Dance with the Demons. Batman suspects Ra's Al Ghul attempted to get Catwoman assassinated to get back at him, but Ra's finds the notion of it stupid.Ra's Al Ghul: "Your wife stood against me, once and only once. It is true, you gave me a death in that adventure. A quite painful death. But it was not permanent. Thus far, my deaths have been but trifles. One renewal in the Lazarus Pit and I am reborn. Her discomfiting of me was substantial but not as great as your own. No, her death would add but little to my power, and no profit. If I wished redress for my many hurts at your hands, then have no doubt, Detective: I would kill you."
- In Power Girl fanfic A Force of Four, Wonder Woman's old enemy Badra and three Superman enemies join forces to get revenge. Superman is dead, though, so the three Kryptonian criminals decide to get revenge on Kal-L by killing his cousin. As for Badra, she manages to capture both Wonder Woman and her daughter Fury. Badra hits Fury every time she wants to punish Diana and vice versa."Fury, this is Badra," Wonder Woman said. "One of the great one-shot wonders of my career."
Badra stepped forward. Fire was in her eyes, and Fury was certain that her mother hadn't been wise in her choice of words. "Hold it right there, bitch," said the young Amazon. "If you want to pick on somebody, make it me."
The Hatorian woman looked at Fury with a smile of great maliciousness. "Oh, don't worry. I will. What I do to her will resonate doubly in your soul. That's how these mother-daughter things tend to go. Isn't that right, Diana?"
- Eye For an Eye has Roy accidentally hit and kill a man who stepped in front of the squad. He couldn't stop in time, and it wasn't his fault, but the guy's brother gets intent on killing John, to take Roy's "brother" from him.
- In the Alternate Tail Series, Edolas captured Magnolia and turned it into a giant lacrima for two reasons. One, like in canon, the Fairy Tail guild had many powerful wizards that would provide more magic. Two, Fairy Tail was the guild of Mystogan and Pantherlily, who spent years stopping Edolas from stealing magic from Earthland.
- In Forward, Adelei Niska kidnaps River and Jayne and tortures them specifically to get at Mal.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): King Ghidorah considers tearing apart Mothra and turning Thor into part of the Many, just so it can see the look on its old Arch-Enemy Godzilla's face.
- In Saving the Boy, this is why Misu Teeyer, the female tribute that replaces Katniss in the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games (due to Katniss winning the Seventy-First), wants to kill Peeta. She hates the fact that Gale had feelings for Katniss, and that Katniss failed to save Gale the previous yearnote , so she intends to kill the boy Katniss loves in retaliation.
- In All For One, One For All, Nix attempts to kill one of the conduits that The Beast healed and empowered because he killed her "pet" monsters (along with other "normal" humans) to do so. Cole even lampshades that the woman is a victim of circumstance.
Logical Journey of the Zoombinis
- In Saetwo's Story, the entire reason the Fleens are after the Zoombinis is revenge for their parents' generation kicking them off of Zoombini Island.
- For His Own Sake: Kagura actually wants Nagisa to get together with Keitaro specifically so she can hurt her by hurting him. What's particularly messed up is the History Repeats aspect: in the past, Kagura murdered Takeru, Nagisa's childhood friend, and got away with it.
- In Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With The Light, the villains the Squid and Ms. Fortune try to murder Harry Osborn and his friends in revenge for Norman Osborn ruining the life of the Squid's father and driving him to kill himself. Spider-Woman takes exception to this, even telling them they forfeited any right they had to sympathy when they started targeting people who had nothing at all to do with Norman's crimes.
- Dad Villain AU:
- This sits at the core of the Wish Gabriel made after he got his hands on the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses. Despite his victory, he hates Ladybug so much for having gotten in his way that he Wishes for the magical backlash from Emelie using the broken Peacock Pin will hit Ladybug and her loved ones. Sure, reality has been rewritten and retconned so that Marinette never became Ladybug in the first place, but he doesn't care — he just wants her and everyone she cares about to SUFFER for her original heroics.
- It's eventually revealed that Gabriel deliberately phrased his Wish so that her loved ones would be hit by the backlash effect first; he specifically wanted her to be Forced to Watch as everyone she cared about sickened and died before slowly succumbing to the same effects.
- In a spin-off AU where Sabine is the one who becomes the new Butterfly holder instead of Tom, she takes this route as well. While Tom/Viceroy wants to learn who's responsible for his family's suffering and punish them directly, Sabine/Trauermantel wishes to target those Gabriel cares about in order to give him A Taste Of His Own Medicine.
- Marinette Dupain-Cheng's Spite Playlist: After Ladybug chooses a new bearer for the Fox Miraculous, Lila convinces the heartbroken Alya that she did so because Ladybug and Lila got into an argument, and Alya was just unfortunate enough to get caught in the middle. In reality, Ladybug and Lila were never friends — she's a Consummate Liar and is manipulating Alya. She even admits to Marinette later on that part of the reason she's stringing along Alya and her other friends is to hurt Marinette by proxy!
- In Miraculous Descendent, Gabriel and Emilie Agreste used to be superheroes. They decided to homeschool Adrien and keep him in the manor as much as possible out of fear that he might be targeted by those seeking revenge upon them.
- Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots:
- You're Just Like Chloé has the Spoiled Brat in question accompany her mother to New York. Afterwards, several of her former classmates start harassing Sabrina, giving her grief for having served as Chloé's Beta Bitch... or that's how they're justifying themselves, anyway. As Marinette points out, none of them were willing to stand up against Chloé herself for fear of how she might use her father's connections to punish them... but Sabrina's merely the daughter of a regular police officer, not the Mayor. So they're taking out all their frustrations on somebody who can't fight back as effectively.
- In A Price to Pay, it's heavily Implied that Gabriel Wishes for one of Marinette's loved ones to be the life exchanged for Emilie's, out of sheer petty spite.
- Scarlet Lady: Gabriel intentionally sets up Audrey for akumatization by slighting her at his fashion show, reserving a seat for her in the second row rather than up front. Upon becoming Style Queen, she promptly takes out her anger on "Agreste Junior", turning Adrien into a glittering statue. Played With in that Gabriel isn't especially bothered by this; his only concern is that Nathalie will punish him for unthinkingly putting his son in harm's way.
- Truth and Consequences: After discovering Hawkmoth's Secret Identity, Ladybug strikes a deal with Gabriel in an effort to protect Adrien from the Awful Truth. Chat Noir eventually learns enough of the details to confront her about the betrayal; however, rather than punishing her directly, he declares his intent to let Ladybug go free, but ensure that Hawkmoth's son is punished for both his father and Ladybug's sins by being sent to prison for life, as it's clear that would hurt her more than anything he could do directly to her. He promises this unaware that he is the son in question.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- The Immortal Game: After the Mane Six and the Loyalists manage to retake Canterlot, Titan sends Terra to destroy Ponyville. As Luna points out, it's not about gaining any strategic advantage, Titan just wants to punish them for defying him.
- Pony POV Series: Nightmare Phobia, the Big Bad of the Chaos Verse, wants to take revenge on Celestia by targeting all the ponies close to her.
- And then, after she goes One-Winged Angel and has a Villainous Breakdown, she decides to just destroy the whole world and make Celestia watch.
- Pony Psychology Series: Princess Celestia's Mantle possesses a powerful Glamour that not even Luna can fully resist the effects of. This renders her unable to take out her full frustration and anger upon her sister; in order to circumvent this, she tells Twilight an Awful Truth about how the Elements of Harmony work.
- In The Vinyl Scratch Tapes, most of Blueblood's plans for attacking Vinyl revolve around Octavia.
- Naruto is very frequently forced to deal with this in fanworks.
- A common Fandom-Specific Plot is ramping up the amount of abuse Naruto receives from other citizens of Konohagakure due to their anger at the Kyuubi who was sealed inside his body.
- Alternatively, shinobi from other villages realize how much he resembles the Fourth Hokage, and start targeting him as a result.
- In Eroninja one of Tsume's detractors who tried to overthrow her as Alpha of the Inuzuka clan (only to get completely crushed) deliberately baits her son Kiba into challenging him then beating the hell out of him. It almost works, since an Inuzuka can't challenge anyone they beat previously, until Naruto challenges him.
- First Try Series:
- During the Kiri Chuunin Exam, an Iwa kunoichi tries to get revenge for her father by setting a lethal trap for some of the genin from Konoha. This backfires when this triggers a Kyuubi-fueled rage from Naruto, resulting in her teammates (her twin brother and best friend) getting torn apart while she barely escapes with her own life.
- When Barako is Convicted by Public Opinion, her husband Kita gets fired from his job of fifteen years out of disgust over her behavior.
- Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox:
- Yahiko attempts to punish Dr. Haruno for the part he played in creating the Kyuushingai by having his daughter assassinated. However, he targets the wrong girl.
- After her father fires one of his employees at Hyuga Corp, Hanabi is kidnapped by a group that includes said ex-employee.
- Naruto: the Secret Songs of the Ninja: During the Third Shinobi War, Kakashi mutilated Wabisuke Ryota's face. After capturing both Kakashi and Naruto, he makes him watch as he tortures his student. He also plans to reignite the war between their villages, declaring that he'll complete his 'unfinished business' by destroying Konohagakure.
- In All Mixed Up!, Mariana Mag goes after numerous people in order to get revenge on Oprah for firing her when she was simply trying to express herself freely by loving language instead of math. She starts anagramming the Torontonians, then the villains in Precinct 13579's Rogues Gallery, then to Odd Squad agents before attacking Oprah herself. However, Oprah isn't the final victim — Oscar is attacked after her and turned into his own personalized anagrammed object, which just leaves Otto left as the only one who is a viable threat to her. Carlos, the being that resides in the Language Room and Carol's brother, even lampshades how flawed Mariana's attack methods are.Carlos: You've taken the livelihoods of dozens of innocent people, all to get revenge on just one person. And even then, why revenge?
- In Ranma Saotome, Chi Master Qiáng Wang wants revenge on the guru who destroyed his organization. But since he's not strong enough to take on her, he decides to target Ranma, her apprentice.
- In The Ghost Map, Colonel Moran gives Sherlock Holmes a Sadistic Choice as his revenge: commit suicide, or Moran will murder Mrs. Watson. In the process of Holmes's attempt to talk him down, Moran decides for him and gives him a cocaine overdose.
- Defied by Prince Oberyn Martell in Death has no Master but Life has Servants, who's irate when three guards try to beat a young Harry Baratheon, assuming the Prince would want some kind of payback for his sister Elia's gruesome demise to the Baratheon rule. Oberyn does seek revenge, but he's no Lannister: he refuses to blame a child for his brother's sin, and he certainly won't raise a hand against him.
- In My Love Has Two Lives, Nero blames Spock for the death of his wife, so he very deliberately inflicts as much pain on Jim as he can, ensuring that each time, Spock is Forced to Watch and unable to do anything about it. He goes so far as to separate them in what might be the most sadistic way possible - Spock is deposited on Delta Vega to watch his homeworld implode whilst Nero intends to keep Jim as a prisoner until they reach Earth, at which point he will be killed along with everybody else on the planet, thus forcing Spock to feel the crippling pain of a broken bond whilst not even being able to be present for his husband's final moments. He claims he’s doing all this so Spock will feel what he felt when his wife died, but, as Jim notes, their situations aren’t all that similar.
- In The Lord of the Rings fic An Eye For An Eye, elf lord Cornallar was driven mad with grief at the death of his son Tinard at the hands of orcs and blamed Elrond for causing it. He waited hundreds of years for a chance to kidnap one of Elrond's sons and succeeded in capturing Aragorn. But things got worse once Cornallar discovered Aragorn was a descendant of Tinard's human friend who Cornallar also blamed for Tinard's death. Then he decided to make Elrond watch his son, as well as Isildur's heir, die.Elrond: Please, Cornallar, he is just a boy. He has nothing to do with all this, let him go.
Cornallar: [mockingly] Oh, he has everything to do with this, my lord. - At the climax of Heart of Ashes, Andraya lures Kathryn, Smaug's love interests, to the clutches of Fankil, both to get back at Smaug for killing Andraya's daughter Freyja and to gain from Fankil a spell required to resurrect Freyja.
- Total Drama Legacy: After Drew hears that Harold was the one who got his mother Courtney eliminated, he decides to get revenge on Harold by continuously torturing his daughter Serena.
