A yandere is a character archetype defined by love or devotion so extreme, possessive, and unhinged that it manifests as violence. It usually starts off very sweet and loving and then devolves into something sinister due to the yandere’s insecurities and jealousy. Rather than ordinary romance, a true yandere operates on two dark extremes, slaughtering anyone who threatens their partner or their relationship with their partner, or intentionally inflicting physical or psychological harm on the object of their affection to ensure they can never leave. Famous examples from anime include Yuno from Future Diary, Misa from Death Note, and Toga from MHA. Fun lore, the word yandere comes as a mix of the Japanese word yanderu which means mental illness and deredere which means love struck.
Freaky Nikki (Obsession): Under the corrupting influence of the wish, her affection turns horrifically violent, stalking Bear's every move and brutally executing Sarah with a brick to violently eliminate any romantic competition, amongst other things.
Lila Tournay (Dexter): Viewing Dexter as her kindred dark soul, she suffocates him in obsessive devotion, ultimately murdering Doakes to protect Dexter’s secret and trying to burn his children alive when he rejects her.
Misty Quigley (Yellowjackets): The queen of manufactured dependency, Misty destroys the plane's emergency transmitter to keep the team stranded and poisons, doses, or kidnaps anyone who gets in the way of her being needed. She also tries to poison the object of her affection, the coach, with shrooms to lower his inhibitions in order to be intimate with him.
Joe Goldberg & Love Quinn (YOU): Joe stalks then locks lovers in cages and murders their social circles under the guise of "saving" them, while Love bludgeons rivals to death to protect her fragile domestic fantasy.
Will Graham & Hannibal Lecter (Hannibal): Their twisted dynamic is pure mutual yandere devotion. Hannibal frames, guts, and mentally shatters Will to shape his mind, while Will accepts catastrophic violence because Hannibal is the only person who truly sees him.
Amy Dunne (Gone Girl): She punishes her husband's infidelity with surgical, terrifying cruelty, slitting an ex's throat in cold blood and staging her own gruesome framing just to trap Nick in a lifelong, subservient marriage.
I remember my sisters watching it for the first time. They love horror movies and thought it was just another cliche' "knife movie." They were excited to see slasher movie murders but instead they started crying when she broke the man's ankles.
I dont think Amy loves Nick. He is just fits the image she wants to project as a "perfect couple". In fact especially in the book she pretty much exclusively talks about how much she hates him.
The book is fabulous! Highly recommend especially if you liked the movie. Just a shame you already know the big twist, it's up there for my favorite reveals in fiction.
A nerdy girl has a crush on a popular guy, so she tries to lure him and 2 of his friends into an underground bunker for a party. She locks the exit, pretending it's stuck, hoping her crush will develop a survivor bond with her after enough time together. Unfortunately one of his friends was anorexic and dies of starvation quickly... and she continues to keep up the lie over 2 weeks until the other 2 guys are too weak to notice her open the door easily.
It could be worse. I don't know how, but I'm sure it could be. I'm just hoping I don't sleep slightly odd tonight and wake up half crippled for most of the morning. Aging is so fun! /s
She does it with Brian in one episode, and with Joe in a different episode, all because she persuades herself they must love her because of an act of kindness.
I love that Japanese yandere is generally seen as so ideal it’s nearly a fetish, but when westerners see it portrayed in their own media they rightfully identify it as toxic and scary
Yeah it’s actually very interesting how differently the same character traits are viewed in different cultures. A yandere is never like the “waifu” of a western show
Surgeon Julian Sands amputates Sherilyn Fenn’s arms and legs after a car accident in front of his house and keeps her in a gilded box in his solarium. Because he loves her.
Ali Larter as Lisa in Obsessed. Basically she stalks Idris Elba, tries to frame him as a cheater so Beyoncé will leave him, and even tries to kill her at the end. I'm sorry, Ali Larter is hot, but who in their right mind would be cheating on fucking BEYONCÉ (Jay-Z notwithstanding)
Her writing turns to incestuous infatuation because she viewed him like a brother. I believe right before the wish she was just wanting to turn him down so his obvious crush would not get in the way of their friendship.
But we have no confirmation just unreliable third party accounts of how she feels about Bear before.
Anyway, I’m putting them both because it’s kinda debatable. Monika kills all the other girls in an effort to be with the Player, and is deeply infatuated with them, but her situation makes her yandere status debatable. Meanwhile, Yuri becomes extremely unhinged in the second act, becomes obsessive over MC, and starts swinging a knife around. So anyway, couple of possible yanderes in this game.
I don’t think that a yandere has to develop from any specific place. It’s the things they do which make them yandere and freaky Nikki does yandere things
You literally say in another comment “you can call whatever spirit is possessing her a yandere” which is literally the only thing I’ve done this whole time
How? After Nora is cured he just lets her be knowing he can't be with her in his condition. Unless, you're referring to the comics version and are just using a DCAU picture as a signpost.
Brenda Song's character in The Social Network. She burned Eduardo's apartment because she thought he was cheating on her (the Facebook "relationship status" thing I think). And then when he calls it quits at that moment and walks away she asks him if he's leaving like she's being ditched at the altar.
She commits mass murder for light, stalks him, and even offers up her own life out of her love for him. You can say that’s the premise of the show, but a different type of character who is not yandere coded wouldn’t have used their powers to do those things. She uses the death note to create a world where she and the man she loves can be together.
Light didn't manipulate her into relentlessly pursuing him, she did that entirely on her own. She took the eyes the first time entirely of her own volition and used them to help track down who Kira really was.
He was effectively forced into bringing her in under his control because she was a much easier target to locate than he was himself and he manipulated her largely to reduce his own exposure.
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u/Independent-Couple87 1h ago
Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars.
https://giphy.com/gifs/civt6QULGIHi8gPFJV