Rare's Random Thought: Yanderes are scary

There’s a certain aspect when considering a character for a story. They have to be interesting, likable, and have a backstory. However, there are also several elements in which a character becomes unlikable. It can be a tragic backstory that makes them completely rotten, emotionless or downright violent for the sake of drama. It is then that if a character is unusable for the story, they are, to put it mildly “put on a bus” in order to further the main plot along. In some cases, that can backfire.

Today I will be talking about a certain character trait that I’ve dreaded and probably the scariest (to me anyway) that could be known: The Yandere.

What is a Yandere you say? As you roll your eyes in patheticness to see why I asked that when you know the answer, reader. A Yandere is a character trait used in fiction to describe in laymen terms, cute, but creepy. They can be cute, shy and adorable to the point that you can feel something for this person. However, deep inside that fluffy exterior lies a rather unsettling persona that will manifest if a certain trigger is pulled off. In contrast to the good side of cute, the bad crappy and violent side merges to sometimes scare the viewer. It varies though if Yanderes are your thing.

The following story is based on false true events and every aspect of the not story is completely untrue.

Once upon a time in the sunny town of Joseph, Henry met up with some of his coworkers from college to have a little fun because it was his friend Nathan’s birthday. Nathan also invited his friend Charlotte. They all met up at the arcade and were having the time of their life.

When it was time to leave to eat at Frenchie’s, Nathan’s friends suddenly hit the jackpot and won lots of tickets. They decided to get a few cheap plastic toys and have a little fun in the parking lot. Charlotte however had to retreat because Sophia had to leave for work. So Charlotte took Sophia to work while Henry and the others were having a jolly good time with their newly acquired toys.

Charlotte came back as it was about time to go to the restaurant. Nathan thought it would have been fun to joke around and aim the toys at Charlotte. However, when she arrived to see a few toys aimed at her, she exploded. Now Nathan thought Charlotte was a nice girl, who enjoyed watching the same tv shows as he did. What Nathan and the others didn’t know is that Charlotte had a nasty side that came out of nowhere. Charlotte got out of her car and started pushing, choking and hurting Nathan’s friends. He dashed to his friend's rescue and started talking about how he and the others were just having fun.

Charlotte lashed out on Nathan and started crying because she saw something in Henry’s hand that caused her to be angry at him. Later on Nathan tried to reason with Charlotte as he was getting his bike from her house. Charlotte was thinking that Henry and the others were talking behind her back calling her names based on what she saw in his hand. Nathan assured that the boys were talking about card games and how much they like playing them on vespas. After the talk, Nathan left Charlotte’s house to go eat at Frenchie’s.

As puerile and stupid as that story was written, there was a key aspect to it: Charlotte was the Yandere. I explained how at first she was cute and friendly, but turned creepy and violent because of what happened to her in the past. I honestly don’t get how some people actually like Yanderes considering their antagonistic nature.

Yanderes are written to be either unlikable, or creepy. From the initial cute intro where they are shy, to further their madness to the point of obsession. They can be downright cruel to the things that they will do for their own selfish needs. Whether it’s choking a guy that did nothing at all than try to calm her down, or continue to search for someone who they want for not only money, but a little piece of ass.

I myself encountered a Yandere in the past. Long ago, Natalie claimed to be a magic user and said that they can mimic the personality of someone that is alive. Their tragic backstory is that they were to be engaged to someone, but he went missing so they went into mourning. I just happen to be around at the time. Sure it was fun hanging out with Natalie and meeting their friends, but someone came in, claiming to be famous and if this is a confusing term, it means feint, but They NTR’d in front of me while I cooked some food. NTR or Netorare is japanese slang for feint. So a couple of years later, I thought I could help Them by working. As soon as my own problems came I had to leave and move to a new place. However, Natalie started calling me leaving me incredibly long messages which round up to nothing. It was then I developed a case of Post Persistent Stalker Disorder. That condition does not exist, but it explains downright what I was going through. Seems they were looking for money and the only way was through me. So I ended up as I call it, “leaving no corpse behind” and ended up in a new place. The creepy late night messages that led to nothing are a Yandere’s inner most thoughts. Ironic seeing that happened near Halloween.

There are many examples of the Yandere, both fiction and non fiction.:

* Take the Stephen King novel Christine for example. It’s a demon car that becomes possessive and kills anyone that gets in the protagonist’s way.

*Anne Wilkes in Misery as well. I’ll leave it at that.

*Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. An elderly priest who is horny over a gypsy that he wants to punish her for being impure and have sex with her. Disney took that and made it an incredibly dark song for a kids film.

*You know that movie Beyonce Knowles starred in? What was it called that involved a crazy stalker blonde coworker that became “Obsessed” over the one nice guy who had a nice hot wife (Beyonce) and son? What was it called? Oh I remember, Big Wolf on Campus.

*Nina Einstein from Code Geass, who develops this obsession to Princess Euphemia who is half 11 and the former who hates them, starts masturbating on a table end to her picture. Oh and makes a giant nuke out of anger and trauma to wipe out all 11s. Yikes.

Ui from K-on, Yui’s younger sister. To be honest I’m stumped to why she is called a Yandere. Is it because her names means gloomy? Who knows?

*Amy Fisher, meet Joey Buttafucco’s and his wife. She got better I think.

*Legend has it that someone named Sada Abe killed her husband, chopped off his penis and ran away so she can have sex with it forever. The memento was later found and put in a museum.

*Finally there is Yuno from Mirai Nikki. She wants Yukiteru to stay with her and will do anything, anything for that to happen. Remember that thing about Natalie, and the Post Persistent Stalker Disorder? Yeah. Yuno is that.

The question now is, what do you do if you have encountered a Yandere? Easy. Run the hell away! These are beings that are not to be reasoned with. It seems near impossible to talk to yanderes when they merge. It’s more of a psychological thing that Yanderes stick to the obsessive part and focus on that, whatever it is. If you can talk to them and calm them down, good luck with that. I’ll keep my head on and avoid them at all costs. Who knows if you end up missing one of them.