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patrickat:
untilstarsfall:
khaleesioftheharleys:
untilstarsfall:
I’m really tired of revenge stories in which the hero realizes that revenge is “wrong” or won’t bring closure or satisfaction because that’s not always true. Sometimes revenge is exactly what the person needs to move on. Especially if they’re getting revenge for a loved one’s wrongful death or something.
I just want stories where the heroes lose their shit and get revenge and are fucking satisfied with it.
Time to do some writing, I guess.
What’s annoying is the way these narratives often conflate revenge with any kind of justice. Not forgiving the person who slaughtered your family isn’t “living with hatred in your heart” for fucks sake, not wanting the person who killed thousands of people to just get away with it and carry on life like nothing happened doesn’t “make you just as bad as them”.
Exactly like catharsis is a beast with many faces and sometimes those faces are ugly and it’s jaws are bloody. It also plays into the ‘perfect victim’ narrative where the hero is expected to recover from a traumatic experience a certain way. If they aren’t forgiving and at peace then somehow they’re ‘flawed and wrong’ for it.
This is one of the reasons I love Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy because she explores the theme of vengeance and forgiveness in its many forms throughout the story.
More revenge stories that end like this one.
I tackled it in an old X-men First Class fic, and I quite like the difference between revenge and justice:
Charles shakes his head, Erik can feel him trying to find the right words for what he wants to say. He’s wanted to say this for a long time now. “Did you ever see the trial last year? The Eichmann trial?”
Erik frowns, “I read about it.”
"I saw it. On the screen. I watched it because I thought- it was justice, after-“
"I know.”
Charles’ eyes are bright, and burningly determined, and he’s smiling. “Do you know what I saw? A little man in a glass box. To stop snipers, you see.” Charles lifts his hands, as though trying to capture the right words by hand. “He looked pathetic. Everyone remarked on it. Just cringing in a box. Alone. Surrounded by all the people he’d tried to kill, and who were getting revenge on him. They read out his crimes for everyone to hear. So that everyone would know what a monster he was, and so he knew he would go down in history as that monster. And that they’d hang him, and that was too good for him, he deserved much, much worse, but because everyone here was not a monster they were just going to hang him and be done with it.”
Charles pauses, breathing quickly to catch his breath. “I know you asked me not to argue, but please. You’re-” A harsh laugh, “You’re such a good person, it kills me when you think like this.” Erik numbly cradles Charles’ cheek, he can feel a muscle there twitch. “Please. Don’t think this is the only way you’ll get your revenge. Capture him. Knock out his mutant guards and take him alive. Let him stand in that glass box. Let him hear his crimes aired to everyone. Tell them about what he did to you, to me, to your mother. That he murdered her in front of you and just about did the same to us. That he- tortured you, broke our bond.”
Charles swallows, pauses, a deep breath. “And you won’t be the only one. There’ll be others he hurt, maybe just like you. And he’ll have to hear it all, and see it broadcast to everyone. No one will believe him about mutants. They’ll think he’s mad. And then they’ll hang him like Eichmann and it won’t have been revenge, it will have been justice.”
patrickat:
untilstarsfall:
khaleesioftheharleys:
untilstarsfall:
I’m really tired of revenge stories in which the hero realizes that revenge is “wrong” or won’t bring closure or satisfaction because that’s not always true. Sometimes revenge is exactly what the person needs to move on. Especially if they’re getting revenge for a loved one’s wrongful death or something.
I just want stories where the heroes lose their shit and get revenge and are fucking satisfied with it.
Time to do some writing, I guess.
What’s annoying is the way these narratives often conflate revenge with any kind of justice. Not forgiving the person who slaughtered your family isn’t “living with hatred in your heart” for fucks sake, not wanting the person who killed thousands of people to just get away with it and carry on life like nothing happened doesn’t “make you just as bad as them”.
Exactly like catharsis is a beast with many faces and sometimes those faces are ugly and it’s jaws are bloody. It also plays into the ‘perfect victim’ narrative where the hero is expected to recover from a traumatic experience a certain way. If they aren’t forgiving and at peace then somehow they’re ‘flawed and wrong’ for it.
This is one of the reasons I love Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy because she explores the theme of vengeance and forgiveness in its many forms throughout the story.
More revenge stories that end like this one.
I tackled it in an old X-men First Class fic, and I quite like the difference between revenge and justice:
Charles shakes his head, Erik can feel him trying to find the right words for what he wants to say. He’s wanted to say this for a long time now. “Did you ever see the trial last year? The Eichmann trial?”
Erik frowns, “I read about it.”
"I saw it. On the screen. I watched it because I thought- it was justice, after-“
"I know.”
Charles’ eyes are bright, and burningly determined, and he’s smiling. “Do you know what I saw? A little man in a glass box. To stop snipers, you see.” Charles lifts his hands, as though trying to capture the right words by hand. “He looked pathetic. Everyone remarked on it. Just cringing in a box. Alone. Surrounded by all the people he’d tried to kill, and who were getting revenge on him. They read out his crimes for everyone to hear. So that everyone would know what a monster he was, and so he knew he would go down in history as that monster. And that they’d hang him, and that was too good for him, he deserved much, much worse, but because everyone here was not a monster they were just going to hang him and be done with it.”
Charles pauses, breathing quickly to catch his breath. “I know you asked me not to argue, but please. You’re-” A harsh laugh, “You’re such a good person, it kills me when you think like this.” Erik numbly cradles Charles’ cheek, he can feel a muscle there twitch. “Please. Don’t think this is the only way you’ll get your revenge. Capture him. Knock out his mutant guards and take him alive. Let him stand in that glass box. Let him hear his crimes aired to everyone. Tell them about what he did to you, to me, to your mother. That he murdered her in front of you and just about did the same to us. That he- tortured you, broke our bond.”
Charles swallows, pauses, a deep breath. “And you won’t be the only one. There’ll be others he hurt, maybe just like you. And he’ll have to hear it all, and see it broadcast to everyone. No one will believe him about mutants. They’ll think he’s mad. And then they’ll hang him like Eichmann and it won’t have been revenge, it will have been justice.”
