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     Harsh (Tsun) 
Fanfiction in General
  • When dealing with romances between a protagonist and an attractive antagonist in fan fictions the difficulty of the antagonist having a highly abrasive personality often arises. Transforming the antagonist into a tsundere and setting their attraction on the protagonist allows for character development and easier movement away from "evil".
    • It's also common for characters who hate each other and/or are sworn enemies in canon to be portrayed as this by fanfic writers who want to hook them up together but also want to make the pairing at least marginally more plausible than the alternative of completely ignoring their canon hatred of each other, portraying them as only thinking or acting like they hate each other because they can't/won't admit that they actually love each other. Also see Foe Yay Shipping and Belligerent Sexual Tension.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

  • Often seen in the much beloved fanon ship between Katara and Zuko in fandom.

All of Us Are Dead

  • Ji-min in This Is A Wild Game Of Survival takes glee in sabotaging Gyeong-su's relationship with Na-yeon and later throws brutal, unwarranted insults towards Na-yeon, but she is hiding a lot of hurt over her homophobic family and fears losing them, but really does care for Na-yeon deep down- she just does so selfishly.

Crossover

  • Firefly from Ace Combat: The Equestrian War is a mild case of this.
  • Tatl Beryllia in The Blue Blur of Termina. She regularly switches between belitting and snarking at him, and being surprisingly cool with him, to the point of lightly flirting with him at times.
  • In Cardcaptor Rad, Alexis is Type A, while her cousin serves as her Type B counterpart.
  • Fate of the Clans:
    • While Genji acts gruff with people he only just met, he insults those he's close to in a joking way.
    • Mikoto can hide a softer side behind a tough exterior, turns his head away when he's embarrassed, and doesn't like to admit if he sees someone as a friend.
  • Last Child of Krypton: Asuka hides her vulnerable side underneath a harsh outward shell because she does not want to be hurt again. Shinji realizes she is a better person than everyone -including her- credits her for, and after getting together she dares to show her softer side more openly.
  • The Dragonborn in the Crossover fic, Portalborn is a prime example. She's mostly tsuntsun to nearly everyone and sometimes deredere with Farkas. The conflict she has with Doug Rattmann is more tsun and rarely dere, but he's normally just too scared to do anything about it anyway. He gets a little bit braver in more recent chapters and is stated by some characters to be in love with her. Judging by the Dragonborn's confused thoughts, it's probably mutual.
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Since she was a kid Asuka fabricated a mask of a tough, self-reliant girl did not need anybody so nobody realized she was very vulnerable deep-down and hurt her. However, when she rooms with Shinji she starts trusting him and showing him her softer, nicer side gradually.
  • In Thousand Shinji, Asuka behaved like an angry, rude child to hide her frightened, sad true self. However, Shinji reached out to her and suggested her saving her rage for the Angels. From that point on, Asuka started opening up to him, and showing her softer side openly.
  • The Terminators: Army of Legend has Kira, a harpy from the matriarchal Avione tribe, to Alex, the human protagonist. Initially she is very hostile to him, to the point of relentless bullying and abuse, but slowly starts to fall for him, even if she won't admit it. Justified, since her sister (whom she was close to) fell for a human, was betrayed, and subsequently killed by said human.

Death Note

Digimon

The Dresden Files

The Fairly Oddparents

Godzilla

  • Rodan's default personality state in Abraxas is hot-blooded, aggressive and mean-spirited. He gives the Vivienne Graham half of Monster X a "You Are Better Than You Think You Are" speech because he prefers dealing with a Monster X that can control itself. In Abraxas: Empty Fullness, he alerted Mothra to Monster X's depression because he was sick of waiting for them to get out of their funk on their own. Honest!

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed

  • The Same Moon Shines series gives us both Jiang Cheng (who often hides his worry for his friends and loved ones with sharp words) and Yu Ziyuan (who drove her beloved Cangse Sanren away with the same behavior).

Harry Potter

  • There are countless fanfictions where it is revealed that Draco is this to Hermione.
  • Tisiphone Gibbs, from the fic The Ollivander Children, comes off as quite harsh and even rude to others, but is noticeably sweeter to her little brother, Hector.

Hetalia: Axis Powers

Left 4 Dead

  • Smoker from Respect a Woman, a Left 4 Dead fanfic/comic/project that follows the relationship of two women before the infection breaks out. Hunter even invokes the trope by name. In reality, both of them are "soon dairys" in the sense that they're constantly ribbing each other while refusing to talk about their feelings openly. But they do have some "dere" moments.

Luca

Metalocalypse

  • This Metalocalypse Slash Fic explores, among other things, how William Murderface's canonical Harsh Tsundere tendencies might express themselves in a romantic relationship.
    Murderface was strange. Toki knew. He was unstable, and needy, and seeking approval at all times, while at the same time hating himself for everything that he did. He couldn’t exist happily on his own, even though that was what he longed to do. Half of the time, he couldn’t even understand what it was that he wanted. He hurt himself out of frustration. He tried to hurt others out of anger. But he couldn’t hurt Toki. Not anymore. Not when he quietly invited Toki in to sit on his bed. Or when they stared at each other at dinner. Or when Toki softened him, slowly, gently, and they lay together in bed, asleep or awake, alone. Then, Toki was invincible. Then, Toki could brave the thorns around that tiny, warm heart that beat at the same pace as any other human being’s. That tiny heart that Murderface had wanted to give to him, because he was the only other person that had ever managed to touch it.

My Little Pony

  • Rainbow Dash is frequently depicted as such in Ship Fics, due to her attitude in the show towards being mushy.
    • In Spring Is Dumb, Rainbow Dash, who has brought an early spring to Ponyville this year as a birthday present for Rarity, is upset because she got in a fight with Rarity, and now she totally isn't collecting gifts for Rarity in apology. Really.
  • The archetype is stated to exist in Equestrian romantic novels in Anchor Foal; the typical backstory for such mares is that they come from Protocera, the Griffon nation, which is much more aggressive and individual-focused than Equestria. In what might be a Take That! to the archetype, it's noted that when they do show up, especially in the Harem Genre, they almost never win.
    Harem Fantasy: "Well, it's a pretty common thing, for my kind of story. If you want a pony to be a lot more aggressive than normal, you have them come from Protocera. You can usually spot them within the first few chapters, because they're just about always one of the first ponies to be added to the harem. They're easy to pick out. They deny they're attracted to the main character every chance they get, push them around too much, call them an idiot, and expect that character to fall in love with them."
    Discord: "Does it work?"
    Harem Fantasy: "It depends on the writer, but they usually don't win."
  • The Triptych Continuum story "A Duet for Land and Sky" has Akane Mutsu, who is essentially a Tsun-Tsun tsundere given a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome — namely, she's an emotionally unstable, selfish and abusive Jerkass whose Arranged Marriage is on the rocks because her fiancé wants nothing to do with her and has run away from the altar multiple times. Considering the character is an obvious Shout-Out to Akane Tendo of Ranma ½, doubles as a Take That!.

Neon Genesis EvangelionIn general, Evangelion fics will either play Asuka like her canon counterpart, give her Character Development to make her a Type B, or even transfer her Tsundere-ness to another character and give her a completely different personality.

  • A Crown of Stars: After what she had endured in canon and the prior story Asuka had become more jaded, more embittered and more frightened than never to trust people, open up and become vulnerable. She was so burnt-out that she did not want to love anyone because she was too broken up inside and hurt to let anyone in and she didn't even feel worth being loved. Thanks to time, therapy, and support she got better and she and Shinji got together, but she still had a hard time to express her feelings openly.
  • Advice and Trust: Rei of all girls towards Kaworu. This is partly because she's biologically compelled to feel oppressed by his very existence, but as the author has pointed out, Asuka was the closest thing she had to an example of normal teenager behavior until very recently.
  • The Child of Love: Due to their parents leaving her and her mother dying, Asuka dons a mask of harshness and arrogance to push people away so that they don’t hurt her. She likes Shinji but precisely for this (and because she doesn't think he likes her back) she pushes him away harder, even though he is the only person can understand her. At the beginning of the story she pushes him away harder because she is afraid of him, but her pregnancy gradually brings her softer side out.
    Asuka:"You're really an idiot sometimes, but when you want, you can be a really good friend..." (grinning now:) "...and a great lover."
    Shinji (grinning):"You too. Sometimes you can be a real pain, and then suddenly, you're so nice..."
  • Child of the Storm: Carol Danvers is noted as spiky, hot-tempered, and defensive, in response to an emotionally abusive father. One of her female friends wryly quips that she has more prickles than a cactus, and on Clark Kent before meeting her steadily ratchets her up from 'spicy' to 'firecracker' to 'gunpowder' and finally, to 'napalm'. However, she's a bit of an unusual example since mostly we see her Dere side, because she's around Harry, with their relationship varying between progressing steadily through Best Friend, to Just Friends, to Anchored Ship and Courtly Love. With a metric fuckton of UST. Then they finally get together, but the UST is even more sparky. While we see more of the Tsun side from other perspectives, she's generally noted to be softening.
  • Evangelion 303: Asuka prided on being the best and not relying on anybody. However when Shinji arrived and beat her she started to get drawn to him. She did not want to admit that she was falling for someone but she could not hold her feelings back, and she was falling apart due to her inner tensions until she accepted her feelings and they got together. She still needed a long time to admit to herself and him that she genuinely loved him.
  • Ghosts of Evangelion: Asuka fabricated an angry, mean personality in order to push people away and hide her fragile, frightened self. She also tends to get mean when she's nervous, upset and scared.
    "Do you want me to help you?" she asked. Her voice had a nervous edge to it.
    He stopped, then looked at her. "Why would you want to?" he asked. "You don't even like me."
    She frowned. "That's not true," she said. "My mama asked me where I wanted to play, and I said here. I like being with you."
    "But you're always mean to me," he said.
    "That doesn't mean I don't like you," she said. "I'm just afraid you'll go away, and it makes me nervous and upset. So I get mean even though I don't want to."
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: Asuka pretended to be arrogant in order to push everyone away and hide that she was a very vulnerable girl. After hooking up with Shinji her temper gets slowly better.
  • Averted in Nobody Dies, in which her canon personality traits are transferred to her old brother Uriel. Instead, Asuka is The Woobie, who has been unintentionally mentally abused by her mother and rendered a stuttering wreck who went so far as to fabricate evidence of a Contact Experiment (which Yui put the kibosh on as part of the fic's Point Of D Ivergence prologue) using an e-cigarette lighter. She got better once she met Shinji, while Uriel also underwent Character Development.
  • In Rise of the Minisukas, Shinji gets himself an entire army of them guarding his back (example being Shiki being big "yeah, whatever" in attitude often but disliking Asuka because she reminds Shiki of how she was before and when Matarael kidnaps Shinji Shiki not only leads the charge to save him but when he's finally safe Shiki (and the rest of the Minisukas) hug him). Asuka herself is constantly denying in her head that she finds Shinji attractive.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

  • The classical variant is practically a staple of Pertemis (Percy Jackson and Artemis) shipping. A number of fanfics for this will, after she's made the transition to deredere, include the use of the modern version of Tsundere, having her constantly flip-flopping between the moods.
    • Titan of the Hunt plays with this further, by having her Diana aspect default to deredere and her Artemis aspect default to tsuntsun.

Persona

  • In You're Not Alone, it takes several seconds of Yukari insisting she's cold for her boyfriend to realize she wants to cuddle.

Pokémon

  • ''Evil Anonymous'' is about Giovanni's struggle to escape from a facility whose staff claim to be in the business of rehabilitating villains. He ends up partnering with Cyrus, and they become pretty good teammates and near-friends. His thoughts betray his true feelings, and occasionally he'll slip up when he speaks, but the Rocket Boss swears repeatedly that he continues to put up with his counterpart only because he is a halfway-decent ally and no one else is going to bother to care about him. Meanwhile, he continues to yell at Cyrus and call him a robot.
  • Guys Being Dudes: During their first date and video chat, Arlo alternates between displaying affection, claiming that he doesn't actually like Spark and is just hanging out with him to fulfill Sierra's assignment, and cringing with embarrassment whenever his affectionate behavior is revealed. Apparently he behaved like this while dating Candela too, since she called him this which sent him on a Wiki Walk which somehow ended in him exploring Yaoi Genre relationship dynamics.
  • In Tales of Faith, there are several Oranyan/Tsunderes: First is Elazul. He's very harsh towards practically everyone he meets... except for his male closest friend, and later, a woman and then a child. It is later revealed the reason for his coldness is his fear of losing close ones, especially after his little brother's death. Second is Cress. Her dere side appears mostly on her moments with her female friend, Heart. Heck, Alvin actually ships them just to get their reactions. Finally, Vanitas. She is very, very cold to everyone (especially Vanille), only Elazul can bring out her softer side.

RWBY

  • White Sheep (RWBY): A (mostly) platonic version with Cinder. She spends much of her time thinking about how Jaune needs to obey her and he'll get himself killed if he doesn't—not that she cares if he dies, obviously, but his mom would be mad, and Cinder has spent so much time molding him it would be a waste for him to just die... Basically everyone sees through it, even if most of them assume her interest is romantic.

Star Trek

  • In Two Sides of a Coin, Kanril Eleya comes off as this. She's a Fiery Redhead at the best of times and here it's compounded by her confused feelings towards her ex-fiance, Jerrod Dalton. She punches him out on their first meeting, apparently for leaving her ("It's all right, Chief Howard! I deserved that.") and is pretty curt with him otherwise, while being dere towards her current boyfriend Reshek Gaarra. When he later is injured by a Romulan Boarding Party and subsequently dies of his wounds, she's sent into shock and spends some time drowning her sorrows, before delivering the eulogy at his funeral.

Super Smash Bros.

Teen Titans

Undertale

  • It's not uncommon to see fan works where Flowey gets this portrayal, especially in stories set after the events of the True Ending where Flowey still has fresh memories of being compassionate from back when he was Asriel. Incidentally, The Fallen Child, (aka Chara) has frequently been portrayed as one too.

Warhammer 40,000

  • Zara of ToyHammer insists—quite loudly—that she's not one of these. "I am not a hormonal teenage girl with a crush she can't admit!" (From the looks of it, the only part of that sentence that's true is that she's not a teenager.)

X-Men

     Sweet (Dere) 
Fanfiction in General
  • If a character is naturally shy in the original medium, it can be difficult to bring them into the spotlight in a fan-work. As a result, authors often give them buried tsun-tsun characteristics that emerge in response to a key point, giving the player a backbone and respect from others.

Crossover

  • In the crossover fic Action Pack Naruto himself is portrayed as Sweet, while his brother is in a whole other category...
  • Children of an Elder God: Due to have a better parental role model after being ditched by her father, Asuka's personality is softer. She still has a harsher, rougher, angrier side, but she displays her kinder self more easily, and her character gradually softens up after meeting Shinji.
  • Beth Lestrade, in her original show, fits Harsh quite well. However, in Children of Time, she is solidly Sweet — justified in that she's several years younger than she is in the show, and she's not done yet developing as a person. She does her best to be a good friend to Sherlock Holmes, very much in love with him but convinced that he'll never return her feelings. However, after a day of very thorough abuse from him (betrayal of trust, handcuffs, insults), she starts lobbing insults back with precision and ends up slapping him when he crosses the line. She regrets it very quickly and kisses him on the abused cheek, and accepts his apology a few minutes later. She eventually earns her happy ending in the most traumatic way possible.
  • Fate of the Clans:
    • While Emer, Cú Chulainn's wife, can be sweet, she isn't afraid to speak her mind. She'll also give Cú Chulainn a severe tongue-lashing if he does anything to worry or piss her off.
    • It's implied that Klaudia Weismann, Adolf's older sister, also had this personality. She would take care of her younger brother but would also scold him quite a bit.

Cuticle Detective Inaba

  • Chikane Ogino in Cuticle Detective Inaba (revised) is very kind and caring towards other people, however she has a short temper and will often lash out violently, mostly towards her love interest, Hiroshi Inaba. She is, at times, annoyed with his brother and sister complex and his slight pervertedness towards her. However, she has her moments where she is flustered and shy towards him, mostly when he compliments her. She also cares for his safety and does not like to see him sad. Chikane loves Hiroshi very much and sometimes tries to think of ways to confess her feelings.

Hetalia: Axis Powers

  • The Hetalia: Axis Powers fandom seems to love this trope:
    • While Greece is normally portrayed as a sweet, laidback guy who's nice to everyone (especially to Japan, his most common love interest) and acts differently around Turkey only because of their long rivalry (and Turkey's interest in Japan just adding more fuel to the fire), it isn't too hard to see how that interpretation can be easily rewritten to make Greece into a Sweet tsundere who's friendly to everyone except the one he's actually secretly in love with. Some Turkey/Greece fanworks even essentially do away with Greece's 'default' Nice Guy state (or simply show him interacting only with Turkey and thus not having much of a chance to show his 'dere' side with others), turning him into an all-out Sweet tsundere. This can lead to quite a bit of Mood Whiplash while reading Greece fanfics, going from Greece/Japan fics where he doesn't display the faintest sign of tsun to Turkey/Greece fics where he goes violently tsun with physical blows and insults - yes, even the shipping itself is tsundere!
    • Some fans see Japan as a Sweet tsundere toward his former adoptive brother China, as China appears to be the only nation Japan openly expresses annoyance or irritation around. Though considering that Japan once stabbed China In the Back, some other fans see Japan as fitting a different trope more in regards to him...
      • Heck, even a few Greece/Japan fanworks depict Japan as a partial Sweet Tsundere toward Greece, getting along with him excellently until Greece goes into Chivalrous Pervert mode which leads to Mr. Spazzes-Out-At-A-Mere-Kiss-On-The-Cheek blushing furiously and denying just as furiously that he wants anything physical or outright shouting at Greece or shoving him away for daring to bring that topic up. (Good thing Greece is so persistent/patient with him, huh?) One doujinshi even had Japan deliver Amusing Injuries on Greece and give him the cold shoulder for a while after they ended up making out in an RPG (don't ask).
    • China himself is sometimes depicted as a Sweet tsundere in Russia/China fanworks, usually being implied to have become one out of necessity of withstanding Russia's childishly sadistic side without breaking or showing vulnerability.
      • Also happens in most China/South Korea fics, with China's outward annoyance toward Korea's antics being a cover for his deeper-seated feelings for him.
    • Taiwan becomes a Tsundere when she's paired up either with the aforementioned Korea or Hong Kong.
    • Also, when Hungary is paired up with either Turkey or Prussia instead of Austria, she becomes a pretty snippy and violent Tsundere towards them. Exaggerated if her beau is actually Romania.
    • Speaking of Romania, several fics portray Bulgaria as Sweet towards him, in spite of their relationship being vastly different in canon.
    • The British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales, etc.) tend to be written as an entire family of Tsunderes, to varying degrees.

The Hunger Games

  • In Some Semblance of Meaning, protagonist Vale Whitaker is generally kind-hearted and polite toward anyone else, but when it comes to Obsidian Citrine, everything he does initially seems to be a Berserk Button for her. However, as she comes to understand him better, she does soften up toward him. (It doesn't hurt that he saves her life a couple of times.)

Lord of the Flies

Luca

Naruto

  • The already mentioned Iruka Umino of Naruto is often portrayed in a Sweet light when paired with Kakashi. (This seems to have something to do with his canonical tendency to blush easily and wicked temper.)

Neon Genesis Evangelion

  • Advice and Trust: Asuka becomes sweeter after fully committing herself to her relationship with Shinji, frequently fending off would-be suitors with a healthy amount of threatening gazes and verbal attacks.
  • Doing It Right This Time: As per canon, Asuka used to hide her softer side behind a very harsh façade so that nobody hurt her. It really didn't help. Then she wakes up in Berlin three months before the Third Angel arrives and decides she's going to, in her own words, "use less tsun and more dere this time". She's had a few close calls but has yet to relapse. Shinji's Death Seeker tendencies don't help.
  • HERZ: Due to her many emotional wounds and psychological scars Asuka was reluctant to open up. Rei warned her unless she managed to open her heart she would not find happiness. After Shinji’s suicide attempt she finally manages to open up and her temper softens.
  • Higher Learning: Asuka showed her harsh side at the beginning to hide her vulnerable, fragile self. However Kaoru's lessons helped her to realize she did not need to be afraid and she did not have to push everyone away. After a while she starts showing her nicer side, especially after hooking up with Shinji.
  • Once More with Feeling: After meeting Shinji, Asuka starts showing her softer side thanks to his influence. She still has a harsh side that she uses to protect herself, but she is less afraid of making friends or letting herself be vulnerable.
  • The One I Love Is...: Asuka hid her softer side under an intentionally harsh side because she was afraid of other people due to her childhood trauma. Thus, although she fell for Shinji, she was reluctant to show her feelings openly, restricting herself to drop hints he never got. When Rei started to pursue Shinji, though, she had no option but dropping her façade and displaying her feelings and her nicer side in plain, honest fashion.

Pokémon

Sekirei

  • Karasuba in Birds of a Feather is normally very affectionate towards Minato, often snuggling against him, sitting with his head in her lap, or sharing his bed (non-sexually), though every few days she'll leave for several hours at a time. She's also both territorial and addicted to bloodshed; those times she leaves him for hours are when her bloodlust becomes too great and she has to resist the urge to kill him.

Sherlock Holmes

Squirrel Boy

  • A platonic example in Snow Way Out. Mr. J and Rodney bond more due to being lost in the snow together, Mr. J even forgives Rodney for causing the situation and pets him on the head, but when Andy asks if they are friends, Mr. J immediately denies it and chases Rodney for seeing through it.

Undertale

  • It's not uncommon to see fan works where Flowey is given this portrayal, especially when the stories in question take place after the True Ending where Flowey still has fresh memories of being compassionate as Asriel. Incidentally, The Fallen Child (aka Chara) has frequently been portrayed as one as well.

X-Men


Wait! Please, don't go! I do have this link back to Tsundere, it can help you write better stories.

Alternative Title(s): Fanfic

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