Revenge in animation

P

paramorefreakk012

New member
What do think about how the concept of revenge is explored in animation? What characters have the best reasons for revenge and what characters have worst reasons for revenge and what series has best explored the concept of revenge?

For the most part there two types of revenge, revenge that is at least somewhat justified and just petty revenge. More sympathetic villains and even heroes can desire revenge and have a good reason for it. There difference between heroes and sympathetic villains is villains can be blinded by their desire for vengeance, even it is justified and be willing to harm others often heroes can choose to let the law deal with a villain instead of killing the villain. Mr. Freeze had a good reason to kill the man who ruined his life, but willing to kill everyone in his building to get to him is going a bit too far.

And of course there is petty revenge, where a very unlikable villain, often a psychopathic megalomaniac will seek revenge for even most the petty of reasons or will seek revenge on parties who don't really deserve or the villain is flat out insane and their concept of revenge is insane.

Demona trying destroy the human race for something that occurred a thousand years is pretty insane, 2003 Shredder trying to destroy the multiverse just kill all the TMNT, is really insane.
 
Hell Girl is an anime series which centers around revenge.

Basically, people send the names of anyone they want revenge on to a website, and a mysterious girl appears and gives them a doll with a string tied to it. If they pull the string, their tormentor gets sent straight to Hell. There is a catch, though - whoever pulls the string will be sent to Hell themselves when they die.

Their motives vary from episode to episode: "he's a stalker", "he's an a-hole", "he's a vengeful ex-lover", "she cheated on me", "he destroyed my family", "she's horrible and she's holding my dogs hostage", "she's a psycho bxxxx who won't let me live my own life"...some are particularly petty cases like an ex-best friend or a foul-mouthed stuck-up brat, while one person literally ASKS for it, and one person seems too nice for anyone to want vengeance on. Sometimes after hearing their end of the bargain, whoever holds the doll questions how pulling the string would effect other people, let alone their own soul.

The general message of it is that revenge is a double-edged sword, even though some people are just plain horrible.
 
I know it's just an animated segment of a live action movie, but what about the "Origin of O-Ren" chapter of Kill Bill? Plenty of vengeance there. :D
 
I really don't mind the concept of revenge...hasn't the very concept of it been around since the start of animation? I mean, look at most (if not all) the classics: characters usually going against one another to get their revenge, be it justified or petty.

I do believe, however, the best form of revenge is to chop up the target's parents into chili, a la Eric Cartman. :D
 
The first thing that came to mind when I saw this topic was Gill from the "Kim Possible" episode, "Sink or Swim".

He was something of an anomaly as he was a villain that desired revenge rather than dominating the world (or maybe, that would've been an eventual step; who knows? He did have the means.). And why not? Though petty, his reasons were somewhat just: Ron switched his swim time for Gil's arts and crafts time. The lake ended up polluted by runoff from science camp.
 
No mention yet of the South Park episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die"? I guess you could say that the ending was extreme, especially the reason why Cartman wanted revenge on him in the first place, but really, it all played out. During the episode you were rooting for Cartman to get even with the jerk, and he does...in the most gruesome way possible.

It's also the episode that more or less changed Cartman's character, and I think it was for the good of the show.
 
What's really insane about it is that it's worse than just being angry and vengeful over something terrible that happened a thousand years ago. It was over something she caused, and she won't own up to her culpability in it. She turned humanity into her scapegoat, and she is her own worst enemy.

I actually blogged about this very topic recently: Demona: Victim of Her Own Evil.
 
There is one example of the success of revenge having its harsh consequences on the character. Fullmetal Alchemist Anime1
Roy Mustang.
He finds out that Fuhrer Bradley was responsible for killing his best friend Maes Hughes. So he confronts Bradley and- after much difficulty- burns him away. Its clear he was doing it for revenge ("So you're doing all this to avenge Hughes?"/"You got it."), and the series makes it clear that it was the wrong thing to do. A few episodes earlier, Schieszka declared that Roy promised Hughes that he would follow the noble path to become Fuhrer, not to be guided by petty issues like revenge. Well, Roy certainly threw that out the window! Adding to the cost was an innocent child getting killed in the process.
What's sad is that Roy probably had no choice. As soon as he learned the truth, Amestris had begun a campaign to invade and destroy Drachma. Roy remembered too well the horrors of the Ishbal war- and knowing the truth about these wars happened for truly horrible reasons- he wasn't going to let it happen again. Killing Bradley was the only solution, and he alone had enough firepower to do the job, even though his priority was vengeance. Damned if he did, damned if he did not.
In the movie Conqueror of Shamballa, we see a depressed Roy in self-exile. It doesn't take a genius to understand why he is in such a state. His revenge cost him his dream, killed a child, and dishonored his best friend's memory.
 
What? No mention yet of Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto? Mr. I-must-kill-my-brother-to-avenge-the-death-of-my-family? What bugs me most about him is not how he's so obsessed with revenge that he absolutely refuses to move on with his life, as much as (as far as I've seen) nobody in the show ever calls him on it, or tells him that revenge will solve nothing.
 
Characters from 90s cartoons come to mind immediately for me, like Depth Charge and his obsessive quest for revenge on Rampage in Beast Wars or Archangel and Apocalypse in X-Men. There was also Morph who tried to take down the X-Men because of his abandonment and apparent death during the Sentinel battle. Depth Charge let his quest for revenge alienate him from the other Maximals he was eventually destroyed while achieving it. In action based shows, it seems that there will always be at least one character, usually villains, whose actions are fueled by revenge.
 
What about him? I actually do not remember this character from when I watched this show.
And I just realized that a thread discussing revenge in animation could not be complete without discussing Disney's The Lion King, in which Simba must take revenge on his uncle, Scar for killing his father, Mufasa, and in doing so, save the Pride Lands from Scar's tyranny. In this case, Scar did not only murder the king and take his place, but in doing so, virtually destroyed the Pride Lands in his reign. Simba, as the rightful heir to the throne, has to be the one to dethrone Scar and avenge Mufasa. It is partly for this theme of revenge that I find The Lion King to be such a great work of Disney, enjoyable for all ages.
 
You see revenge happen a lot in anime as well as cartoons that are geared more toward adults than children, other than that I can't think of many instances when someone was out for revenge in an animated series other than multiple Wolverine scenario's in the X-Men cartoon from the 90's. But then again there are multiple kinds of revenge, some harsh and some based more on comedy rather than physical violence, so in that respect I guess revenge could happen more often than someone may think.
 
Oh, yeah, that Looney Tune "Chow Hound" is AWESOME. One of my faves. That last line.."This time, we didn't forget the gravy..." is so cool. Best cartoon revenge EVER.

I can't think of any other types of cartoon revenge that come up to that, but I can think of a couple I'd like to see: like Wanda getting even with Cosmo for being such a pain in the butt, (maybe they could wind up in a Fairy World Divorce Court TV show) and Squidward getting even with Spongebob for the same thing. It's too bad really; Spongebob used to irritate Squidward just because he was so cheerful. Now it looks like Spongebob goes out of his way to annoy and harass him, breaking into his house and spoiling his day off and so on. It's just not funny. Squidward isn't the most sympathetic character in the world, but I wind up feeling sorry for him, and I don't want to, and it's not much fun.
 
In the original Cutie Honey series, Honey battles Panther Claw to get revenge for her father. Later versions water this down and make Honey more of a crime fighter.
 
Justice League and Justice League unlimited spent a GREAT deal of time with the whole revenge topic. It's actually one of the reasons I love Superman so much.

In the episode "A Better World" from Justice League, we saw a parallel version of the league known as the "Justice Lords". Their campaign for world order was built around revenge of the death of Flash. That death became the preventable pin that broke the camels back.

Throughout Justice League Unlimited Season 1 and Season 2, the Cabnus arch spent a great deal of time exploring the idea of trying to always put aside and prove revenge was not an appropriate direction.

The whole concept was quiet literally a struggle to prove one could rise above revenge and one could pursue revenge easily and not realize it.

To me, it was neat watching this whole struggle of "I won't use revenge because I need to prove to everyone I won't". To steal a little from marvel, the whole concept explored the saying "With great power comes great responsibility".
 
There's the funny kind of revenge in the Simpsons. Bart got a bigger brother, so as revenge, Homer got a little brother. But it didn't really turn out good when the two big brothers met face to face and got into a fist fight.

"And what is your purpose for wanting a little brother?"
"Don't say revenge. Don't say revenge."
"Uh, revenge?"
"That's it, I'm getting out of here. *footsteps and door slamming*"
 
That might be my favorite Simpsons joke of all time (especially because the Bigger Brothers employee actually marks off "Revenge" on her little checklist).
 
Back
Top