


They promise that they'll come back to kill the hero, and shove his "mercy" and offer of friendship down his wind pipe. Villains who claim that their bad past/circumstances led them to do this will likely make you realize that Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse.Īll too often, these guys refuse to see reason. It invariably takes the hero beating the rival, be it in a Cooking Duel or Good Old Fisticuffs, and proving Right Makes Might for the poor deluded soul to realize they were wrong all along, sometimes even coming around and realizing that Defeat Means Friendship. Any attempt to get them to see the (all too obvious) truth, show mercy, or realize they're a step away from utterly ruining the receiver's life/committing murder will never succeed. well, most of the time it is an actual brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, supposed to culminate in the receiver's humiliation or death. That said, the "Justice" these rivals have in mind is more akin to a brutal beatdown. It's a common tactic of militaries the world over, with some regimes (such as Nazi Germany) being infamous for it. Pay back any offense tenfold, or even a hundredfold if necessary, until the survivors learn to stay away and/or do everything in their power to keep you in a good mood.

If you have tried an eye for an eye and it really didn't do anything except help sell eyepatches, the only way to stay alive is to be drastic. In some situations, it makes sense to let the opponent know that if they so much as sneeze on someone you protect, it will cost them a limb.
