I'm looking for a particular type of villainous protagonist. There are several male ones that fit these criteria. Fang Yuan from Reverend Insanity and Carefree Path of Dreams, Leylin from Warlock of the Magus World, Tullius from Ouroboros Record, Dantalian from Dungeon Defense, Tanya from Youjo Senki, etc. Here are the conditions I'm looking for. The MC should have a goal that drives them and not hesitate to crush anything/anyone standing in the way of that goal. The MC should have real enemies that challenge them. The enemies/victims are not all outrage fodder (villains that do pointlessly cruel things just so they can 'deserve' to be crushed by the MC). This doesn't mean that all the MC's enemies/victims need to be innocent angels, just that if they are villains, their actions have a purpose beyond making the MC look good. There's no redemption nor does the author make any attempt to redeem or justify the character's actions. When I look for evil female protagonists I've had less luck, and few of them are not quite what I'm looking for. Some Examples include, Two Good Ones: Schera from The Girl Who Ate a Death God is everything I'm looking for. Spoiler: mild spoilers She's a female protagonist who is driven toward her own goals and will cruelly crush anyone in her way. Spoiler: spoilers She's OP, and yet her enemies win in the end. She's also a rare example of a female protagonist who is not redeemed by romance in the end and although her main enemies are trash, the story does not use this to justify her actions and instead makes clear that many of her victims and enemies were innocent and unaware of the hypocrisy their side was engaging in. The MC from Kumo Desu ga, Nani Ka also satisfies all the criteria, Spoiler: spoilers although Shiro doesn't like what she's doing, so she may be a borderline anti-villain (still a villain because her motives are selfish, many of her victims are innocent and she doesn't hesitate for even a moment). I'm ok with this. Protagonist without drive/enemies: Shi Sheng from Side Character Transmigrations almost qualifies. Spoiler: mild spoilers Although the story seems to be heading in the direction of her redemption, she stubbornly resists and does as she pleases. However, my only complaints are that for the most part she doesn't seem to have any real goals, and none of the enemies give her any real trouble. Most of the time they are taken down through events that are only marginally related to the MC while she just messes around. Spoiler: spoiler I'm ignoring the master of the system because up to the current translations, we have little info on the conflict between him, Shi Sheng and Feng Ci. Redeemed through Love/Irredeemably evil enemies: These are extremely common tropes in female protagonist stories that I just dislike. I don't want the author to try to make the MC more likeable by making her enemies stupidly evil or finding a nice man to melt the ice in her heart and redeem her. I generally don't count these protagonists as villainous protagonists because they generally do that thing of returning both gratitude and enmity tenfold. This would include protagonists such as Wei Yang, Shen Miao, Shedy and Jun Wu Xie from The Princess Wei Yang, Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage, Apotheosis of a Demon and Genius Doctor: Black Belly Miss. Thanks and sorry for the long post! Note: mild spoilers should be fairly obvious early into the reading, but I've left them in just in case someone would like to go into these stories blind (I am personally really picky about spoilers). Spoilers are actual spoilers.
Yes, it’s one of my favorites! I didn’t list it because I thought the joke was that she’s not actually evil no matter how much she tries to claim she is.
Thanks! That was already on my list, but I didn’t realize it was being actively translated. I’ll try it out!
True, or Ouroboros Record. However since Lapis and Yuni both take on subordinate roles, I don’t know if I’d count them as female MCs. I’ve never read a story with an evil power couple though, that would be interesting!
The female MC in Dungeon Defence rotates a bit but... They are all evil. Spoiler: All evil Lapis is the fl in the first two but she gets replaced by Farnese and the two demon lords in 3,4,5. All those are easily classified as evil however. Oppaimon is maybe lawful evil. Maybe https://www.novelupdates.com/series/a-wild-last-boss-appeared/ +No romance +Goal driven +Faceslaps like a CN novel +Real villians -possibly not evil enough
I agree they are evil, but they are not really MCs. Dantalian primarily drives the story forward and the story as a whole revolves around him. Ooh, this is new! Thanks I'll give it a try!
The Girl Raised by the Death God Holds the Sword of Darkness in Her Arms Basically a rip-off of The Girl Who Ate a Death God, but more light and happier atmosphere. If you like Tanya The Evil, you would def like this. The MC is mysterious, even to us readers. She is also as fearless as Shi Sheng, a foodie like Schera and as ruthless as Tanya. She has a goal to find her 'foster' parent/brother/mentor/ and uncover her mysterious background in the process. Also, not related to the topic, but Spoiler Schera actually won at the end, or will win at least since it cut off when it was revealed Schera is still alive. (I suppose you didn't read the epilogue? It wasn't translated since the author didn't permitted it) She became immortal after she ate Vander
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll check it out. You should probably put this under a spoiler tag. I have read the epilogue though. Spoiler: Girl who ate a death god spoilers Although Schera survived, the rebels won and Schera only got revenge on a few specific people, which is why I said she lost in the original post. But I guess you are right. She only really wanted revenge for what was done to her and her village which she got when she killed Diener and Octavio, so she did win in the end. It would have been more accurate for me to say her side lost.
hmm...For evil power couple u can try Guild Wars on Webnovel - they are both strong and evil to some extent but i feel like the FL is more of the evil one - You will love it if u dont mind Harem or you can try The Trembling World - Mc starts off as an evil bastard who only cares about himself but slowly changes(he is still a ruthless bastard tho), then he meets FL, but FL lead is more of Cold/Ruthless type, but shes still strong af and doesnt give a shit about anyone apart from MC No Harem so far