History Webcomic / KillTheVillainess

* EnemyMine: The Empress despises Eris because of how her father helped the Emperor orchestrate the death of her oldest son Laetatio, yet is genuinely surprised when Eris reveals she wants to put Helena in the position of Crown Princess due to having lost love for Alecto. At first the Empress is reluctant to align herself to Eris and only considers it out of revenge; but the Empress becomes overjoyed and fully aligns with her when she eventually reveals she not only wants to punish her father for his crimes and join him in that punishment, but to also give the Empress that which she wants most: a death that will destroy the Emperor and also kill him in turn. [[spoiler:It becomes somewhat sweet when after she gets the poisoned tea set from Eris, she willingly lets her know about an escape passage, just in case she does change her mind on death, though Eris declines the offer, intending on seeing it through to the end.]] The Empress calls Eris "the witch she had been long waiting for".

* BodyguardCrush: Eris picked Anahkin as her knight because his character was loyal to her in the original story, so he could be trusted with her secrets. Both of them gradually fall in love, to the point where [[spoiler: on her request, Anahkin burned Eris's body after her execution to make sure she couldn't be resurrected. He then willingly followed Eris to her world after he was killed protecting her burning body from being saved by Jason and Hubris]].
* CessationOfExistence: Implied to be the fate of the Original Eris. Medea tells New Eris that the Original Eris made a wish for death out of despair for not receiving the love she always sincerely showed Alecto and it was granted. But the Principle of Causality had to ensure Eris died on time, so in addition to the dragon that Jason had slain around the time that she made her wish, to make sure that Eris's intended fate was followed through, New Eris was taken from her world to fill the role until the time came. [[spoiler:When New Eris is angered by Alecto one too many times, she decides to stop pretending and reveal who she actually is to him. When Alecto asks where the Original Eris is, New Eris admits she isn't sure, but knows that she's gone forever from this world and Alecto was the one who drove her to this point. New Eris leaves Alecto behind as he realizes what he's lost in the Original Eris and laments how she was a "terribly lovely thing to lose".]]

* DealWithTheDevil: Played with since the "devil" in question is actually Medea who is a witch, but the way witches act in this world is no different from traditional devils anyhow. Medea makes a deal with Eris to help her go back to her world in exchange for helping Medea find "something". What this something isn't exactly elaborated on, even when Eris asks herself, beyond the fact that Eris helped Medea find a specific person that she had been seeking for quite a while to eventually become a god. [[spoiler: It isn't until after Eris returns to her world and Anakhin eventually joins her that we learn who this person is: Anakhin's little sister Kintia, who is destined to one day become the world's most powerful woman and of course, is the one that Medea wants to make into a god, in her attempt to save the world from a FateWorseThanDeath once the story concludes.]] [[spoiler: We also learn that Eris isn't the only one who made a deal with Medea. Emma, Eris's maid, upon learning about the fate of her original master after realizing New Eris wasn't her, decided to make a deal with Medea to enact karmic revenge upon the men who hurt both Original and New Eris. She pays for this by offering herself as a familiar to Medea, and when she does pay up she becomes a brown cat, commented by Medea as not being too different from her former maid profession anyhow.]]

* NoOntologicalInertia: [[spoiler: A literal example as Medea reveals that after Eris leaves and the story ends, time will cease to move forward and the world will be trapped in a FateWorseThanDeath. Part of the price that Anakin and Eris's must pay for their wishes to Medea involves them helping her find a potential candidate for Medea to train as an apprentice to be a future witch and a god whose power can sustain the world, though neither of them know who that candidate is, just that Medea eventually tells them she found one by the time their wishes are about to be fulfilled. And who is the chosen candidate? Anakhin's little sister, Kintia.]]

* OurWitchesAreDifferent: Witches in this world are women who have been so oppressed that their suffering allows them to break the laws of the world that already restricted them and destiny itself, granting them immortality and magical powers. There are currently nine witches in the world's existence, including Medea, the main one who helps Eris throughout the story. They aren't related by blood, nor do they enact a coven system as they do as they please for their own individual desires, but they all do consider each other to be sisters and are on seemingly amicable terms with one another to ask for help and give it as they need it. [[spoiler: Eris apparently has the potential to become a witch herself and almost does when she accidentally kills Alecto following his rape attempt on her. Thankfully, some timely help from Medea and her sisters help turn back the hands of time so that Eris doesn't complete her ascension as it would had permanently trapped her in the world forever if she it had finished. Interestingly, Medea admits that she wouldn't had minded Eris becoming a witch as it meant they would technically become sisters and she does like Eris quite a bit, but she still helps Eris to return home because she knows it's what Eris wants.]]

* PrinceCharmless: Alecto is not kind to Eris, even when she hasn't actually done anything particularly villainous to warrant it. This attitude of his is directed at Eris solely for the crimes her father committed against his family, crimes she herself didn't seem to be aware of. This eventually drove the Original Eris to make a wish for death out of despair, which was granted and as part of the payment for the wish, forced the current Eris, the protagonist, into Original Eris's body.
* RagsToRoyalty: Deconstructed as the story explores the inherent power imbalance in a Prince romancing a commoner. Helena can't reject Alecto's advances at all without bringing about his possible wrath for refusing. Furthermore, his attention isolates Helena from the rest of the nobility, as nobles resent the upstart woman seducing the prince, while the maids resent Helena for being treated differently. To add more problems, Alecto is too [[FoolForLove lovestruck]] to realize this imbalance in his and Helena's relationship, and the logical consequences that follow. Helena is forced to bear with the nobility's bullying and rumors alone, as Alecto doesn't really do much to actually solve the issue, like give Helena a chance to stand on her own, [[ItsAllAboutMe since he doesn't actually want that deep down]] and wants her to be his [[DamselInDistress pure and innocent one true love]] forever. [[spoiler:Helena is eventually able to win over everyone once she becomes Empress and focuses on her duties, though Alecto comes to regret it because Helena reveals her distain for him in the process.]]

* YouCantFightFate: Fate can be changed but going against the Principle of Causality often requires a horrific price - unless you manage to bargain with witches, and even then, that alone requires them to be interested in you to begin with.

* OurWitchesAreDifferent: Witches in this world are women who have been so oppressed that their suffering allows them to break the laws of the world that already restricted them and destiny itself, granting them immortality and magical powers. There are currently nine witches in the world's existence, including Medea, the main one who helps Eris throughout the story. They aren't related by blood, nor do they enact a coven system as they do as they please for their own individual desires, but they all do consider each other to be sisters and are on seemingly amicable terms with one another to ask for help and give it as they need it. [[spoiler: Eris apparently has the potential to become a witch herself and almost does when she accidentally kills Alecto following his rape attempt on her. Thankfully some timely help from Medea and her sisters help turn back the hands of time so that Eris doesn't complete her ascension as it would had permanently trapped her in the world forever if she it had finished. Interestingly, Medea admits that she wouldn't had minded Eris becoming a witch as it meant they would technically become sisters and she does like Eris quite a bit, but she still helps Eris to return home because she knows its what Eris wants.]]

* PrinceCharmless: Alecto is not kind to Eris, even when she hasn't actually done anything particularly villainous to warrant it. [[spoiler: This attitude of his, directed at Eris solely for the crimes her father committed against his family, crimes she herself didn't seem to be aware of, is the entire catalyst of the story, as it eventually drove the Original Eris to make a wish for death out of despair, which was granted and as part of the payment for the wish, forced the current Eris, the protagonist, into Original Eris's body.]]
* RagsToRoyalty: Deconstructed as the story explores the inherent power imbalance in a Prince romancing a commoner since Helena can't reject Alecto's advances at all, [[spoiler: even though she doesn't even reciprocate them]], without bringing about his possible wrath for refusing. Furthermore, his attention isolate Helena as nobles resent the upstart woman seducing the prince while the maids resent Helena being treated differently. To add more problems, Alecto is too [[FoolForLove lovestruck]] to realize this imbalance to begin with and the logical consequences that come from it and almost entirely hit Helena alone due to his status as Crown Prince, as he doesn't really do much to actually solve the issue like give Helena a chance to stand on her own, [[ItsAllAboutMe since he doesn't actually want that deep down]] and wants her to be his [[DamselInDistress pure and innocent one true love]].

* StepfordSmiler: Helena. As a maid from a disgraced house, Helena is well aware that she has no power over and freedom from the people in her life, including Alecto, whose unwanted romantic affections are a source of resentment yet she also sadly can't say no to. She has to pretend to be happy as the only way to survive in the palace. [[spoiler: Thankfully, she drops her mask of loving Alecto as soon as she becomes the Empress at the end of the story.]]

''Kill the Villainess'' (2021-2024) is a Korean fantasy webtoon, based on a web novel by Your April and illustrated by Haegi.

The series ran for 106 episode and a complete English translation is available to read on [[https://tapas.io/series/kill-the-villainess/info Tapas]].

* AffectionateNickname: Helena calls Alecto "Alec", as a sign of their closeness. [[spoiler: However, it's more likely than not that she only gave him this nickname as a means of placating him and his unwanted advances, as when Helena becomes Empress, she drops the nickname as she now has the power to protect herself and no longer has to pretend to like Alecto.]]

* AttemptedRape: [[spoiler: Alecto's unwanted advances escalates into him nearly raping Eris, as his father orders him to bed her as she cannot simply leave the arranged marriage if she ends up pregnant. This leads to Eris killing him in self defense, which then almost hastens her near ascension into a witch, were it not for the help of Medea and her sisters turning back the hands of time so that it doesn't happen. Eris is left with the trauma of what happened, knowing that aside from Anakhin who went back in time with her and Medea and her sisters, she's the only one who remembers what Alecto did, which adds further reason for her to hate him as she now knows he's fully capable of such an evil even if it no longer happened.]]

** This is how [[spoiler:Helena and Alecto's marriage is fated to end, as the former drops her StepfordSmiler mask and becomes indifferent and dedicated to the job as the former Empress was, while the latter realizes to his horror he's about to enter a similar marriage to his own parents and that Eris, the only person who truly openly loved him, is gone forever]].
* BalancingDeathsBooks: An inversion. Individuals killed before their time have their fate replaced by another via the world's own law, the Principle of Causality. [[spoiler: Original Eris ceased to exist in her own body when she made her wish for death, and around the same time, Jason slew a dragon as per fate's dictation. The Principle of Causality took the dragon's soul as payment for Original Eris's wish but because she didn't die as she was supposed to, New Eris was taken from another world to replace her and fulfill her role until the time came. And then later, as Jason finds out, the Principle of Causality allowed the slain dragon's mate, who as it turned out was the dragon he was supposed to kill, to curse him with the lifespan of a dragon, ie immortality, as punishment for her mate's murder.]]
* BodyguardCrush: Eris picked Anahkin as her knight because his character was loyal to her in the original story, so he could be trusted with her secrets. Both of them gradually fall in love, to the point where [[spoiler: on her request, Anahkin burned Eris's body after her execution to make sure she couldn't be resurrected and then willingly followed Eris to her world after he was killed protecting her burning body from being saved by Jason and Hubris]].

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the [[RebornAsVillainessStory Reborn as the Villainess]] subgenre as a whole. It certainly starts the same as most of these stories, with Eris's new soul awakening in the body of the villainess of the last story she read. However, immediately the differences are made to be known as despite her old life not being perfect, New Eris has no desire whatsoever to change the story (especially since the laws of the world actively prevent her from doing so) and actually wants to go home right from the beginning. She also quickly realizes she holds no love for any of the love interests despite knowing their backstories, due to her single-minded determination to return to her world [[spoiler:and also the fact that they themselves are not as heroic as they initially seemed on paper when you actually get to know them]]. She only allows herself to truly bond with a select few people, mainly Anakhin, Kintia, Medea, and to a lesser extent, Emma and [[spoiler:Helena]]. Everyone else as far as she's concerned mean nothing to her on a personal level. She especially hates the male love interests, particularly Alecto, whose stubborn refusal to end the engagement despite his open hostility toward her makes him a particular eyesore to New Eris, [[spoiler: even disregarding the fact that he's the reason she is even here because his constant cruelty to Original Eris, who genuinely loved him, eventually broke her and forced her to make a wish for death out of despair, which was granted and forced New Eris into this world to begin with. She truly starts to loathe him even more following his rape attempt on her which had to be undone with time travel magic after she accidentally killed him and almost became a full witch following that]].

* EnemyMine: The Empress despises Eris because of how her father helped the Emperor orchestrate the death of her oldest son Laetatio, yet is genuinely surprised when Eris reveals she wants to put Helena in the position of Crown Princess due to having lost love for Alecto. At first the Empress is reluctant to align herself to Eris and only does so to get back at her father, but when Eris eventually reveals she not only wants to punish her father for his crimes and join him in that punishment, but to also give the Empress that which she wants most: a death that will destroy the Emperor and also kill him in turn, the Empress becomes overjoyed, calling Eris "the witch she had been long waiting for" and fully aligns with her. It becomes somewhat sweet when after she gets the poisoned tea set from Eris, she willingly lets her know about an escape passage, just in case she does change her mind on death, though Eris declines the offer, intending on seeing it through to the end.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the [[RebornAsVillainessStory Reborn as the Villainess]] subgenre as a whole. It certainly starts the same as most of these stories, with Eris's new soul awakening in the body of the villianess of the last story she read. However, immediately the differences are made to be known as despite her old life not being perfect, New Eris has no desire whatsoever to change the story (especially since the laws of the world actively prevent her from doing so) and actually wants to go home right from the beginning. She also quickly realizes she holds no love for any of the love interests despite knowing their backstories, due to her single-minded determination to return to her world [[spoiler:and also the fact that they themselves are not as heroic as they initially seemed on paper when you actually get to know them]]. She only allows herself to truly bond with a select few people, mainly Anakhin, Kintia, Medea, and to a lesser extent, Emma and [[spoiler:Helena]]. Everyone else as far as she's concerned mean nothing to her on a personal level. She especially hates the male love interests, particularly Alecto, whose stubborn refusal to end the engagement despite his open hostility toward her makes him a particular eyesore to New Eris, [[spoiler: even disregarding the fact that he's the reason she is even here because his constant cruelty to Original Eris, who genuinely loved him, eventually broke her and forced her to make a wish for death out of despair, which was granted and forced New Eris into this world to begin with. She truly starts to loathe him even more following his rape attempt on her which had to be undone with time travel magic after she accidentally killed him and almost became a full witch following that]].

* LoveCannotOvercome: [[spoiler: Eris' mother, Quies Miserian was an EmotionlessGirl who could not see the point of living and found no joy in life, which caused great worry for her deeply concerned parents. As a last chance to hopefully give her something to live for, they arranged a marriage between her and Eris's father, Knieval Axel. Unfortunately, the future Marquis fell [[LoveAtFirstSight hopelessly in love with her]], to the point of abandoning his own family name to marry into the Misreian family instead. He then tried to invoke the DefrostingIceQueen trope in hopes of earning her affections, against even the wishes of Quies' parents who said that it was okay to just leave her be, but he stubbornly refused out of his one-sided love for Quies and of course failed miserably. He grew angered and bitter, turning to all sorts of hedonistic lifestyles like gambling, drugs, alcohol and even other women in a desperate attempt to get her attention in any way, but to no avail. When she got pregnant, the Marquis thought things would finally begin to look up...until after she gave birth to Eris, where Quies allowed herself to waste away since she had fulfilled her martial duty of giving her husband his heir and saw that there was no more need to stay alive, despite his protests and begging her to stay. It was on her deathbed that Quies finally made the first and only request that she ever gave in her life: for her husband to preserve her body and all her belongings and hide them away in a place only he knows, far from the world's eyes. Supposedly, she also asked to have Eris be made into the Crown Princess so she would be at the highest possible seat, but Eris finds it more likely that this is just the Marquis trying to delude himself into thinking this was what his wife always wanted as a way of denying that she never could love him.]]

* RagsToRoyalty: Deconstructed as the story explores the inherent power imbalance in a Prince romancing a commoner since Helena can't reject Alecto's advances at all, [[spoiler: even though she doesn't even reciprocate them]]. Furthermore, his attention isolate Helena as nobles resent the upstart woman seducing the prince while the maids resent Helena being treated differently. To add more problems, Alecto is too [[FoolForLove lovestruck]] to realize this imbalance to begin with and the logical consequences that come from it and almost entirely hit Helena alone due to his status as Crown Prince, as he doesn't really do much to actually solve the issue like give Helena a chance to stand on her own, [[ItsAllAboutMe since he doesn't actually want that deep down]] and wants her to be his [[DamselInDistress pure and innocent one true love]].

* UnwantedRescue: [[spoiler: All three of the suitors try to rescue Eris from prison for their own selfish reasons. Since Eris' death is her only way home, she does not want to be saved and is forced to ask Anakin to burn her body just to make sure the death sticks]].

* YouCantFightFate: Fate can be changed but going against the Principle of Causality often requires a horrific price - unless you manage to bargain with witches.

The series ran for 106 episode and a complete English translation is available to read on
[[https://tapas.io/series/kill-the-villainess/info Tapas]].

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Crown Prince Alecto, Jason Kazaar, and High Priest Hubris all warm up to the new Eris, despite their supposed roles as love interests to Helena. However, Eris despises all of them, because they were initially cruel to her, don't listen to her wishes even when they do come around on her, and they hinder her mission to die.
** Hubris fits this trope especially, since [[spoiler:he's actually Eris' ''half-brother'' and he's still obsessed over her, even with the knowledge that the soul currently inside her isn't the Original Eris. In fact, it's how he ''justifies'' his disgusting feelings]].
** All three men were this to Helena as well. Helena did not want their attention, especially not Alecto's, which only brought suffering and resentment but had to pretend otherwise because she had no power to stop them. [[spoiler: Thankfully, when she comes back from her coma after Eris dies, with her now being the Empress, Helena stops pretending she loves Alecto, rejects him and becomes MarriedToTheJob.]]

A young woman from our world finds herself in the body of Eris Miserian, the villainess of a novel she read previously. She already had a crappy life to begin with back in her world, but the life of a villainess proves to be even more difficult. Desperate to return to the life she knew, she searches for a way to achieve this after her first attempts prove fruitless, as she can't die through conventional means. The only way she can truly die is if she follows the story's plot to the end and plays Eris' original role without any deviations. However, Eris' new personality is drawing the main character and her love interests into her orbit, and they may become the biggest roadblocks in her plan to return home. With the help of a witch and her loyal knight Anakhin, Eris is determined to die and get back home...no matter the cost.

''Kill the Villainess'' is based on a Korean web novel by Your April. [[https://page.kakao.com/content/56712146 The manhwa adaptation]] was drawn by Haegi and is complete with 98 chapters. [[https://tapas.io/series/kill-the-villainess/info The English translation]] is available on Tapas.

!! Work includes examples of:

* LadyLooksLikeaDude : Kintia, Anakhin's little sister, dresses herself in a very masculine way with her clothing choice and hairstyle, but is confirmed very quickly in her introductory chapter to be a boy despite this. [[spoiler: This is also, if you can believe it, plot relevant as Medea reveals near the end of the story, that Kintia is destined to one day become the world's most powerful woman and is deliberately sought out by the witch as a potential god candidate to help save the world from it's FateWorseThanDeath.]]

* LadyLooksLikeaDude : Kintia, Anakhin's little sister, is dressed in very boyish clothes and has her hair cut in a masculine style, but is confirmed very quickly in her introductory chapter to be a boy despite this. [[spoiler: This is also, if you can believe it, plot relevant as Medea reveals near the end of the story, that Kintia is destined to one day become the world's most powerful woman and is deliberately sought out by the witch as a potential god candidate to help save the world from it's FateWorseThanDeath.]]

* LadyLooksLikeaDude : Kintia, Anakhin's little sister, ViewerGenderConfusion to cause confusion, is dressed in very boyish clothes and has her hair cut in a masculine style. [[spoiler: This is also, if you can believe it, plot relevant as Medea reveals near the end of the story, that Kintia is destined to one day become the world's most powerful woman and is deliberately sought out by the witch as a potential god candidate to help save the world from it's FateWorseThanDeath.]]