Revenge Novels

[MakBow]

What do you think of revenge novels?

I'm writing a revenge novel currently (Two at the moment, one is posted yet) (Don't ask why)

I want to know what you think is the biggest disappointment in a revenge novel.

I want to make sure my revenge novel actually works for what it does.
I do intend to have my MC get his revenge no matter what and in a pretty disgusting, yet satisfying way, his harem being his key for actual development and not just a bunch of people following him as well as having their own characters and motivations to help him and each other.

I just want to avoid any of the pitfalls.

Re:Healer | Scribble Hub

 

[L1aei]

I just want to avoid any of the pitfalls.

Not that I'm some veteran of revenge novels, but one thing that tends to tank them is starting off with this huge, burning desire for vengeance, something that would make both the author and readers practically boil, but then stretching the story out with too many side plots or character detours before delivering the payoff.

You know, the danger? Keep it hanging for too long, that original spark cools.

Yeah see, it's like you've taken this fiery craving for revenge, baked it into a cake, and then kept adding layer after layer of frosting while leaving it to sit out. When readers finally take a bite, what should've been explosive ends up tasting… stale. Keep that heat alive; don't let it die under all the extra toppings.

 

[MakBow]

Not that I'm some veteran of revenge novels, but one thing that tends to tank them is starting off with this huge, burning desire for vengeance, something that would make both the author and readers practically boil, but then stretching the story out with too many side plots or character detours before delivering the payoff.

You know, the danger? Keep it hanging for too long, that original spark cools.

Yeah see, it's like you've taken this fiery craving for revenge, baked it into a cake, and then kept adding layer after layer of frosting while leaving it to sit out. When readers finally take a bite, what should've been explosive ends up tasting… stale. Keep that heat alive; don't let it die under all the extra toppings.

Yeah, I have no intention of stretching the story beyond what it needs to be. I already have every character needed for the story and planned out. How they get introduced is what I just go crazy on, nearly all the necessary layers have been added for my revenge novel and after that, it's just matter of having it all wrap.

 

[Eldoria]

What do you think of revenge novels?

I respect your artistic freedom. But I won't be reading your fiction specifically because of the point below.

I do intend to have my MC get his revenge no matter what and in a pretty disgusting, yet satisfying way, his harem being his key for actual development and not just a bunch of people following him as well as having their own characters and motivations to help him and each other.

After all, I've read a lot of revenge tropes, especially in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese fiction. Most of them are simply about satisfying the protagonist's ego.

But, frankly, as a reader, I feel empty after closing the last chapter.

That's not to say I dislike the revenge trope. NO! Revenge is worth discussing in fiction because it has been a pattern of conflict throughout history. But—

Revenge is never the moral of the story in my fiction. Revenge is simply a logical consequence of trauma and systemic injustice throughout history. However, revenge itself is never the goal—at least in my fictional narratives.

I'd rather have my protagonist hug her daughter and plant flowers than continue to be a tool of bloody justice for victims seeking revenge against tyranny.

Revenge in my narratives is merely a plot device—not the goal, nor is it the moral of the story. Good fiction opens up new perspectives for the readers—not merely satisfying the perpetrator's ego.

 

[L1aei]

After all, I've read a lot of revenge tropes, especially in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese fiction. Most of them are simply about satisfying the protagonist's ego.

But, frankly, as a reader, I feel empty after closing the last chapter.

Oh, come on. You had to have felt something satisfying after Lloyd Frontera executed his vengeances.

 

[Indicterra]

Often times doesn't properly work, heck it's been ages since I read a good revenge story

 

[Eldoria]

Oh, come on. You had to have felt something satisfying after Lloyd Frontera executed his vengeances.

Try watching the anime "91 days". It's ethical revenge fiction that truly describes how I felt after closing the final chapter of revenge fiction.

91 Days

As a child living in the town of Lawless, Angelo Lagusa has witnessed a tragedy: his parents and younger brother have been mercilessly slaughtered by the Vanetti mafia family. Losing everything he holds dear, he leaves both his name and hometown behind, adopting the new identity of Avilio Bruno...

myanimelist.net

 

[MakBow]

I respect your artistic freedom. But I won't be reading your fiction specifically because of the point below.

After all, I've read a lot of revenge tropes, especially in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese fiction. Most of them are simply about satisfying the protagonist's ego.

But, frankly, as a reader, I feel empty after closing the last chapter.

That's not to say I dislike the revenge trope. NO! Revenge is worth discussing in fiction because it has been a pattern of conflict throughout history. But—

Revenge is never the moral of the story in my fiction. Revenge is simply a logical consequence of trauma and systemic injustice throughout history. However, revenge itself is never the goal—at least in my fictional narratives.

I'd rather have my protagonist hug her daughter and plant flowers than continue to be a tool of bloody justice for victims seeking revenge against tyranny.

Revenge in my narratives is merely a plot device—not the goal, nor is it the moral of the story. Good fiction opens up new perspectives for the readers—not merely satisfying the perpetrator's ego.

Yes, while revenge is the goal, it's not like its his only goal. He does want to know why she did what she did, why she tortured him endlessly for having a power he thought was good, why she thought it was a good idea to sexually abuse him and r#pe him and have him graped by others, why she wanted to break him down and violate his anatomy.

Even with that, he still will get is revenge.

The one he's getting revenge on does have reason although it is very questionable, yet it still opens a perspective.

He also has no intention of being that kind of person, some hero of justice.

He's not doing it for justice, simply karma and pay back. he does not see himself as moral and frankly, he could care less if it was.

Once it's over, he moves on.

He still wants to heal the world with his power as he always wanted (it's a apocalyptic world)

 

[L1aei]

Try watching the anime "91 days". It's ethical revenge fiction that truly describes how I felt after closing the final chapter of revenge fiction.

91 Days

As a child living in the town of Lawless, Angelo Lagusa has witnessed a tragedy: his parents and younger brother have been mercilessly slaughtered by the Vanetti mafia family. Losing everything he holds dear, he leaves both his name and hometown behind, adopting the new identity of Avilio Bruno...

myanimelist.net

I'll definitely give that one a watch. Thanks for the rec!

 

[Tetrahedron]

Key points you should watch when doing revenge stories:

1. Do not overextend the grudges the protagonist has after the revenge moment.
2. Always asked yourself: do I want to make this so the protagonist's suffering won't last long or do I want to stroke my ego and feel good on making my other characters suffer?
3. Be mindful of your readers. They can be very vindictive and will not hesitate to tell you that you should kill your other characters. My advice: don't fall for it.
4. Be mindful of where you place your protagonist after doing the revenge. Making him actively pushing others away is a no-no. The best thing you want to do is to place the protagonist on a solid neutral stance towards others.
5. Unless you had to kill the villain(ess), don't play with excessive psychological stunt. It's relatively corny. The best thing to terminate the character is to do it in the coldest way possible. Make the protagonist only stare and move out.
6. And in the end, ask yourself: is this for the better of the protagonist or ended up treating him the same as those who do bad things to him or wronged him?

All in all, I think revenge stories has its own charm, but oftentimes the charm falls flat fast if you're doing all the things I warned above

 

[MakBow]

Key points you should watch when doing revenge stories:

1. Do not overextend the grudges the protagonist has after the revenge moment.
2. Always asked yourself: do I want to make this so the protagonist's suffering won't last long or do I want to stroke my ego and feel good on making my other characters suffer?
3. Be mindful of your readers. They can be very vindictive and will not hesitate to tell you that you should kill your other characters. My advice: don't fall for it.
4. Be mindful of where you place your protagonist after doing the revenge. Making him actively pushing others away is a no-no. The best thing you want to do is to place the protagonist on a solid neutral stance towards others.
5. Unless you had to kill the villain(ess), don't play with excessive psychological stunt. It's relatively corny. The best thing to terminate the character is to do it in the coldest way possible. Make the protagonist only stare and move out.
6. And in the end, ask yourself: is this for the better of the protagonist or ended up treating them the same as those who do bad things to them or wronged them?

1. The revenge will happen near the end of the novel
2. My protagonist will suffer, even after escaping his captor
3. I would never fall for that. I already have everything set up for who dies and who doesn't.
4. By the second chapter he has a partner. He has no intention of spreading his own hate towards others. His hatred is directed towards one person, and he doesn't direct towards anyone else. Even people who protect the one he wants revenge on because he knows they're being deceived so he will try not to kill them but will if he has too.
5. In the end when he meets the villainess, it's not really going to be a do it and move out, more so a conversation of why she did it, how he felt, how he could understand to some extent, but felt there were other ways, and then revenge. It's not just about pain but proving a point to how wrong she was about him and how her paranoia got her to do amoral and unforgivable acts to him.
6. For the protagonist, he has no intention of graping her, torturing her physically, or anything like that (at least near the end, the torturing part, not the grape part). it will simply be one act that is far worse than whatever he could give her

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Personally, I am not that big of a fan of revenge plots. It's not that it's bad but most stories with revenge as the main plot either become one of three things,

1. It's the same "I was betrayed" sob story followed by them being better off without the people who betrayed them, and yet they still try for revenge even though their life is better.
2. The people who "betrayed" them were just making smart decisions about their group because MC is being carried by everyone else, making the MCs revenge completely unjustified while also making them look like a psychopath.
3. They never actually take their revenge because it takes forever or they take their revenge so soon that is barely a chapter in the plot(the one time I saw this done well was where the MC regrets it so much that he tries to fix it by teaching others to follow a more civil a peaceful route of justice).

 

[Macha]

Personally, I am not that big of a fan of revenge plots. It's not that it's bad but most stories with revenge as the main plot either become one of three things,

1. It's the same "I was betrayed" sob story followed by them being better off without the people who betrayed them, and yet they still try for revenge even though their life is better.
2. The people who "betrayed" them were just making smart decisions about their group because MC is being carried by everyone else, making the MCs revenge completely unjustified while also making them look like a psychopath.
3. They never actually take their revenge because it takes forever or they take their revenge so soon that is barely a chapter in the plot(the one time I saw this done well was where the MC regrets it so much that he tries to fix it by teaching others to follow a more civil a peaceful route of justice).

Some revenge plots also don't made sense. I mean, MC regressed to the past and started taking vengeance on the people who haven't betrayed them?

 

[MakBow]

Personally, I am not that big of a fan of revenge plots. It's not that it's bad but most stories with revenge as the main plot either become one of three things,

1. It's the same "I was betrayed" sob story followed by them being better off without the people who betrayed them, and yet they still try for revenge even though their life is better.
2. The people who "betrayed" them were just making smart decisions about their group because MC is being carried by everyone else, making the MCs revenge completely unjustified while also making them look like a psychopath.
3. They never actually take their revenge because it takes forever or they take their revenge so soon that is barely a chapter in the plot(the one time I saw this done well was where the MC regrets it so much that he tries to fix it by teaching others to follow a more civil a peaceful route of justice).

1. For my world, his life isn't really better since despite having friends, the trauma and vague understandings of his torture still drive him as he wants to know why it happened.
2. There's no group, it's just a villainess who took captured a guy because of her paranoia as well as all the rather immoral characters being more than just evil, most of them not being evil at all.
3. His revenge will happen no matter what in my story and I've already had the number of characters who will appear in my story, so it isn't going be really long novel. It's fairly straight-forward that does offer characters

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Some revenge plots also don't made sense. I mean, MC regressed to the past and started taking vengeance on the people who haven't betrayed them?

It's like the opposite of an I became the villainess so I am rewriting my route style stories.

 

[BigBadBoi]

Some revenge plots also don't made sense. I mean, MC regressed to the past and started taking vengeance on the people who haven't betrayed them?

Depends on whether they're absolute pieces of shit tbh

 

[CharlesEBrown]

All the revenge stories I've run into (quite a lot, sadly) were audionovels my wife listened to, and all started with a regression - the MC is killed due to the betrayal and comes back in time, before things "went wrong" to try and screw over the bad guys before the bad guys kill (almost always) her.

One cute twist had another character also regressed, and the reason why she regressed (if the reason why he came back was ever revealed, it was in a section she listened to when I was not around, but he had a bond with her since childhood, and when he saw her making bad decision after bad decision, and then found himself in the past, he found "some way" to regress her to his point so he could save her (and avenge both of them).

Just try not to be like the billion and one other revenge novels out there, but also try not to be so different you lose sight of things (c.f. Confessions of a Revenge Queen - where she only really got revenge on two of the four or five people who screwed her, wound up recruiting one to her side, getting involved in multiple international conspiracies, taking over a multimillion dollar company, making friends with a weird chick who might have magical abilities ... oh, and kept forgetting her own occasional psychic powers except when there was absolutely no other way for the writer to get her out of her current situation.... and then promptly forgot them again).

 

[Cookiez_N_Potionz]

I hear these are popular, but sometimes they go a bit too far

 

[MakBow]

I hear these are popular, but sometimes they go a bit too far

Yeah, they do sometimes (Redo of Healer), but I have zero intention of doing that. Mine is small, simple, and straight-forward. No unnecessary violence, no shock-value grape

 

[Cipiteca396]

Revenge stories killed my whole village. I'll never forgive them.