Writing What do you think about yandere villainess as an antagonist to the protagonist?

What do you think about yandere villainess as an antagonist to the protagonist?

Depends. Is it enemies to lovers?

Personally, I'm not a fan of relying on archetypes or classifications for any of the characters, because I find doing so to be very limiting, almost to the point the it stifles creativity for the character, and the narrative. To that end, I'd advise against relying on archetypes for any characters.
Build the character first, to suit your vision and your narrative. The rest will follow. So, since there isn't any actual character here, I can't say one way or the other what I would think of them, as a character.

That said, utilizing the archetype as a base for said antagonist can certainly work. How well it works comes down to the execution and the narrative you're writing.

If you're going to use a character like that, some of the things you may want to consider are:
What is the character's role as an antagonist? (Are they a minor one, or a major one)
What is the story's narrative structure built around?
What are the story's narrative goals?
What is the story's genre?
What are the narrative themes in play?

As an example: A sci-fi story about space exploration and an eventual rebellion against an interstellar empire doesn't lend itself well to such an antagonist on the surface, especially if they are intended as a primary antagonist. However, the same story could also feature such an antagonist as a minor/supporting antagonist and work exceptionally well.
It all comes down to the execution and the interplay between the characters.

Ideally, that sort of antagonist would probably work best within a romance or love-triangle structure, especially if you want to insert psychological thriller and/or horror elements, but there is no reason that you can't utilize the archetype for any story or narrative structure.

Its a classic for a reason.

Eldoria said:

What do you think about yandere villainess as an antagonist to the protagonist?

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Envylope said:

Depends. Is it enemies to lovers?

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Very good.
Especially if enemy to lover trope

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Envylope said:

Depends. Is it enemies to lovers?

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She's not just it... she's more like a yandere sister who wouldn't hesitate to burn the world to find MC.

Sounds kind of like a more serious take on Project A-Ko - where the MC is really just a bit of a McGuffin (Seiko, often called C-Ko) that both Eiko (A-Ko) and B-Ko (who's father is a corporate raider and Elvis impersonator...) want to win the affection of (since they're school girls this is "friendship" of course)... The complication is that B-Ko (the yandere in this equation) is a bit of a psychopath with bottomless cash reserves and a team of sycophants at her disposal and A-ko is ... well, apparently the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman (though I maintain the artwork for her mom looks more like the 50s Lois Lane than any version of Wonder Woman I've seen)... Oh, and C-ko is an alien princess being sought out by her people, who, regardless of gender, all have women's bodies.
Yeah, it's even weirder than that...

Dunno, i've never created a Yandere villain, at least not yet, as long as she's killing me out of love, and not at the whims of some higher threat!

Pretty sure this is just any story about a stalker. It can probably work, though I suspect most of the people here are too horny to write it as anything other than smut.

I have one. Nendra is probably the most miserable person in my story. She’s part demon and has a lot of psychological problems partially as a result, most importantly including sadistic intrusive thoughts and anger issues. She’s actually the wife of the guy the MC got isekaied into, who was also part fiend, and she latched onto him as someone who might come to understand her.

Original guy never did because she’s terrifying and swaps between nice and psychotic with minimal explanation and she was a much stronger sorceress than he was. The MC dealing with his body’s marital issues is a whole ongoing thing.

I hear yandere.
I hear villainess.
I approve

I'm planning to write one.
Sounds good to me.

Eldoria said:

What do you think about yandere villainess as an antagonist to the protagonist?

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What's a yandere?

Sylver said:

What's a yandere?

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Eldoria said:

View attachment 47654

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Purple school girl?
Oh, a lovestruck stalker!

Sylver said:

Purple school girl?
Oh, a lovestruck stalker!

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Yeah that’s the basic idea. The Yan is a shortened version of a Japanese term for “to be mentally ill” and dere is a shortened version of “lovey dovey”.

So in love + insane, and generally that means specifically dangerous insanity. It’s easy to romanticize but if you take the concept remotely serious it becomes terrifying and/or sad very quickly.

Jerynboe said:

Yeah that’s the basic idea. The Yan is a shortened version of a Japanese term for “to be mentally ill” and dere is a shortened version of “lovey dovey”.

So in love + insane, and generally that means specifically dangerous insanity. It’s easy to romanticize but if you take the concept remotely serious it becomes terrifying and/or sad very quickly.

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Ooooh, so like Doki Doki?

@Assurbanipal_II Villainess protagonist! What do you think?

Sylver said:

Ooooh, so like Doki Doki?

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Monica definitely qualifies. As do… basically all of the characters in that game when under her influence.

Eldoria said:

What do you think about yandere villainess as an antagonist to the protagonist?

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pangmida said:

@Assurbanipal_II Villainess protagonist! What do you think?

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Oh, I was pinged.

I am sceptical. I do not think that the reduction of a villainess to her core trait being infatuated supposedly with a man is a good idea. Why would you define her solely through her love? Is that not a tad too simplistic?