MithrandirOlorin
Since: May, 2012
Jan 25th 2018 at 10:43:42 AM
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I'm kind of disappointed by the lack of Visual Novel examples. The thing that might be able to convince me to try a Visual Novel, is the idea of simulating being Seduced by one.
Redmess
Redmess
Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
SeptimusHeap
MOD
(Edited uphill both ways)
Jul 31st 2014 at 11:30:44 AM
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I don't think there is an exact male counterpart. Not all gender-specific trope have counterparts in the other gender.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
captainpat
Since: Sep, 2010
May 19th 2012 at 9:23:49 AM
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Edited by captainpat
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Ok this isn't good. More than half the examples on this page are zero context examples that do not explain why these characters are femme fatales or belong under The Vamp. They need contexts. Things about the character's attractiveness, personality actions, etc... belong on the examples. I'm moving them here and if anyone wants to re-add them then they do so with added contexts.
Anime & Manga
- Kagura from Inu Yasha.
- Lust from Fullmetal Alchemist. Sloth in the first anime also counts.
- Faye Valentine of Cowboy Bebop.
- Fujiko Mine from Lupin III.
- CC from Code Geass fits the description pretty well. Later, she's revealed to be something of a Broken Bird under the mask.
- Lily Maguire from the first Fatal Fury OAV. She's one of the few cases where the Femme Fatale does win the heart of The Hero, in this case, Terry Bogard, only to tragically die in his arms.
- Evangeline, with the interesting twist of being biologically ten. She still acts the part and usually has a much bustier adult form which she prefers.
- Rue from Princess Tutu behaves this way, particularly when she's her alter-ego, Princess Kraehe. And she does get her guy, Mytho, after many hardships.
- Dorothy Catalonia from Gundam Wing.
- Kanoe, from X1999.
- Mylene from Zero Zero Nine One is a rare protagonist example.
- Nico Robin, under the guise of Miss All Sunday.
- Kikyou from Shuffle.
- Misa during the Yotsuba arc. However, she only has hots for Light.
- Angel from The Big O.
- Emerald from Sailor Moon.
Comic Books
- Batman is just packed with sexy ladies who can kick your ass.
- Catwoman in the Batman comic books (and related media) is referred to, in her universe, as the 'Feline Fatale'.
- Also, see Poison Ivy; extra emphasis on the "fatale" part.
- Harley Quinn is sometimes referred to as the 'Funne Fatale'.
- Talia, Ra's al Ghul's Beautiful Daughter, also qualifies.
- Kriss of Valnor in the Thorgal comics
- Black Cat from Spider-Man.
- In the Thor comics, Karnilla the Norn Queen, who is in love with the pure and noble Asgardian, Balder the Brave.
- Ditto the Enchantress.
- Also, Hela. This is even lampshaded during a storyarc in X-Factor.
- Looker of Batman And The Outsiders is a heroic example.
- Mystique and Emma Frost in the X Men books.
- Moonstone (Karla Sofen) from the Thunderbolts and also as Ms. Marvel in Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers.
Film
- The Black Queen from Barbarella. And, for that matter, every other character that has ever had that name.
- Inglourious Basterds' Bridget Von Hammersmark arguably qualifies, as a beautiful 1940s German movie star plotting against the Nazis, who is responsible for the death of a dozen men - both Nazis and Allies - and even shoots one herself.
- Breathless Mahoney (played by Madonna) from the 1990 Dick Tracy feature film was a classic Femme Fatale.
- Dr. Elsa Schneider from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, after she finally stops pretending to be a Distressed Damsel.
- Some Bond girls : Fiona Volpe, Helga Brandt, Octopussy, Elektra King, Xenia Onatopp.
- Flash! Ah-ah! Princess Aura (played by Italian actress Ornella Muti) was a Femme Fatale to the extreme in the 1980 movie. She reformed, supposedly.
- Disney's version of The Three Musketeers gives this role to Milady de Winter, who even reforms at the last moment and helps the heroes before dying. In the book, however, she is evil to the bone.
- The 1970s version of The Three Musketeers keeps her evil and has her executed at the end in vengeance for all of her nasty actions throughout the movie. This particular version was split into two volumes, the second of which was subtitled "Milady's Revenge".
- Mae West in several of her roles.
- Miriam Blaylock in The Hunger
- Helga from Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Her body language and voice acting screams film noir.
- Rebecca Romjin-Stamos in Femme Fatale.
- Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart in Chicago
- Velma, maybe, but Roxie is mostly just a dumb kid with delusions of grandeur.
- Lisa Locke from Essex Boys
- Played for Laughs in Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
.
- Subverted in the Thunderbirds film. We hear the voice of the Big Bad's female assistant, and then she climbs down a ladder. Large butt, horrible fashion sense, bad skin, bad teeth, frizzy hair, and big glasses, and, later on, she nearly rapes the Thunderbirds' team scientist. The last one is just barely played for comedy.
- The first Austin Powers movie has Alotta Fagina, played by the almost painfully hot Fabiana Udenio.
- Film Noir examples:
- Brigid O'Shaughnessy from The Maltese Falcon.
- Phyllis Dietrichson from Double Indemnity
- Vera from Detour
- The title character from Gilda
- Cora Smith from The Postman Always Rings Twice
- Kathie Moffett from Out Of The Past
- Elsa Bannister from The Lady from Shanghai
- Matty Tyler in Body Heat
- Mimi in Bitter Moon
- Violet in Bound (although she is depicted as an Anti-Hero)
- Mona Demarkov in Romeo Must Die
- Martha Beck in Lonely Hearts
- Grace McKenna in U Turn
- Sherry Peatty in The Killing.
- Kitty Collins in The Killers.
- "The blonde" from Following.
- Lola Cain and Lana Ravine in Fatal Instinct.
- Baby Firefly and Mother Firefly from House Of 1000 Corpses.
- Vanessa (Ursula's human form) from The Little Mermaid.
- Vera Barrie from When Will I Be Loved.
- Verna in Millers Crossing.
- Alexandra from Bunraku.
- Mini from Mini's First Time skirts the edge of this and Fille Fatale, although, given just how truly evil she is, she also qualifies as The Vamp.
- Francesca of That Lady in Ermine was thought to be this, as she saved her castle from an invading army by entering the army's Duke's tent, and then stabbing him in the back. It turned out that there were more details than this, but to most hearing this, she seemed like this trope.
- Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown. Subverted.
Literature
- Lilith, from Jewish folklore, is the Ur-Example, making this one Older Than Feudalism.
- Delilah and Samson from The Bible.
- Heroic example: Jael.
- Not-so-heroic example: Jezebel.
- The Sirens in The Odyssey. Arguably, Helen in The Iliad.
- Aphrodite in Greek Mythology.
- Lale of The Assassins Of Tamurin.
- Scherazade from Arabian Nights manages the interesting achievement of being a heroic rather then villainous Femme Fatale, who is still perfectly proper according to the values of her culture, and very sexy nonetheless.
- Pamela Widmerpool from A Dance To The Music Of Time.
- Estella from Great Expectations.
- Rebecca de Winter from Rebecca.
- Josephine Balsamo, the recurring enemy of Arsene Lupin.
- Laetitia de Malreich/Dolores Kesselbach, the villain in "813".
- Denna/Dianna/Dinneih, or whatever else she's calling herself when she appears, from The Name Of The Wind.
- War from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens is basically the ultimate Femme Fatale, with emphasis on the fatale.
- In The Princess Diaries, the way Gramere talks about herself when she was younger implies she was one of these. Now, she's just Manipulative.
- The Three Musketeers: Milady de Winter is an epitomal example, to whom Rebecca's name (see Rebecca, above) was likely intended to be a nod.
- Rei Toei in William Gibson's Bridge Trilogy is an AI, which may disqualify her from this trope, but besides that, her personality fits quite well.
- Vivian Regan in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep
- Nastasya Fillipovna Barashkov from The Idiot.
Live Action TV
- Star Trek Voyager. Queen Arachnia in the Captain Proton holoprogram is a clear homage to this type. Even Mad Scientist Dr. Chaotica is totally smitten by her.
- Angel's attractive and evil Lilah Morgan is explicitly referred to as a Femme Fatale.
- Marguerite Krux from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.
- Number Sixes in general in the new Battlestar Galactica, especially Caprica-Six with Baltar, and Gina with Admiral Cain.
- Tatiana Taylor from Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (she is also a Gold Digger).
- Fiona in Burn Notice.
- Law And Order Criminal Intent: Nicole Wallace, who is likely based on Marie-Andrée Leclerc, an accomplice of the serial killer Charles Sobhraj. Sobhraj was the inspiration for Wallace's mentor, Bernard Fremont.
- Nikki Fernandez.
- Cinnamon and the other ladies of the IMF on Mission Impossible.
- On Leverage, Sophie often channels this, but she is really more of a Con Artist that wishes she was an actress.
- Darla, Drusilla, and Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Devonne from The Wire
- Lila from Dexter
- Kim Tate from Emmerdale
- Katherine Pierce and Isobel Flemming in The Vampire Diaries.
- The Cinemax original series Femme Fatales.
- In Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Skydivers, Mike and the 'bots peg Suzy as the femme fatale of the film. Except they deliberately mispronounce it as "femmee fatalee".
Music
- The woman being sung about in "Mousetrap Heart" by Thirsty Merc.
"Fatal smile I could see she's cunning"
- Femme Fatale by The Velvet Underground and Nico.
- Femme Fatale is the name of Britney Spears' seventh album.
- Lana Del Rey's Kind Outta Luck.
- The unnamed "Madame" from Music/Calexico's "Ballad of Cable Hogue": "I knew her love would be the death of me."
- "If Tomorrow Came" by Kamelot is an example of this trope.
Newspaper Comics
- Twilight in the British comic strip Buck Ryan . At least, until her Heel–Face Turn.
- Burma from Terry And The Pirates.
- Lille DeVrille from Jungle Jim.
- Sleet from Dick Tracy.
Opera
- Some of the more well-loved female lead roles are femme fatales, i.e. Violetta Valéry from La Traviata, Kundry from Parsifal, Musetta from La Bohème, and Carmen from Carmen.
- Lulu. Queen of Night. Eboli. Abigaille.
Theatre
- Alaura from City Of Angels, a musical drawing heavily on Film Noir stereotypes.
- Salome from the Oscar Wilde play Salome.
- Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly in Chicago.
- Cleopatra, from Antony And Cleopatra.
Videogames
- Sophia Blake from Post Mortem.
- Anna and Nina Williams from Tekken certainly qualify. Nina focuses on the fatale part while Anna is the more feminine and flirtatious of the two.
- Rouge the Bat from the Sonic The Hedgehog games.
- Played pretty literally in Banjo Kazooie, seeing as the ONLY time you actually see Gruntilda as being sexy is when you get the GAME OVER.
- In Resident Evil 5, Excella Gionne is an interesting subversion of this trope in terms of who she claims to help (Wesker) and, inevitably, how much power she holds over him. In the end, it's Wesker who betrays Excella and not the other way around, leaving her wailing, pitifully calling out Wesker's name. Of course, her Uroboros form is a gigantic squid thing that can only be taken down by a LASER SATELLITE, so she kinda makes up for that.
- Katrina from the Quest For Glory series.
- EVA from Metal Gear Solid 3.
- Millenia from Grandia II. Complicated by the fact that she's the alter ego of virginal Distressed Damsel Elena. Neither of them get the guy.
- Olivia Ofrenda from Grim Fandango
- Soul Calibur's Ivy more or less fits this trope, using sex appeal in her costume and rather...dominating imagery in her moves. She starts out helping the Big Bad of the series in thanks for giving life to her weapon. She does go full-out good in her intentions later on...the costume and moves remain though.
- She also subverts the trend brutally, because she's a Celibate Hero, for fear that having a child would give the Soul Edge another potential vessel. Considering that who her birth father is, well, said fears aren't that far from the truth.
- Mona Sax from Max Payne IS this trope. Although love ends up causing her to team up with Max.
- Neverwinter Nights mod The Bastard of Kosigan has Alex, with the modification that, by the time of The Reveal, she is most definitely evil.
- Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect 2, referred to as such in the Collector's Edition Art Book.
- Viktoria from the Thief series fits this to a tee, especially in the first game.
- Viconia De'Vir from Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, especially 2. She is loyal, though.
- Carlotta von Uberwald in Discworld Noir, who pastiches Brigid O'Shaughnessy, Carmen Sternwood, and Helen Grayle.
- Midna in The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess fits this mold. She later grows out of it as part of her Character Development.
- Most likely justified due to her nature as a succubus, Morrigan Aensland is this trope in spades. Despite being relatively benevolent (she has shades of The Tease and Good Bad Girl), she's probably the closest one could get to being a heroic Vamp. By proxy, this makes her "younger sister" Lilith a Fille Fatale.
- Mortal Kombat has a few. Mileena is the straightest example and overlaps with The Vamp, although the effect works better with the veil on and her personality is mixed with that of a Psychopathic Womanchild in Mortal Kombat 9. Kira has elements of this (for example, she sultrily struts up to the opponent during her Torso Rip Fatality and—if she loses a round—will rise back to her feet in a way that is more sensual than is necessary), but is more of a pure Dark Action Girl. Nitara is an interesting example in that while she has the sex appeal, she relies moreso on her brains to manipulate others. Another subversion comes in the form of Sareena; she definitely looks the part, but never acts upon it.
- Fiora Cavazza (from the Assassin's Creed series), although she's leaning more of a Vamp; she has a lot more attributes than sex. Plus, a Vamp cannot be "corrupted". She eventually has a change of heart, and double crosses the Templars and helps the Assassins. Unfortunately, her life ends in the hands of Cesare Borgia when he catches her stealing the Apple.
- Karen Parker of [PROTOTYPE], especially she's working for Blackwatch all along.
- Trish of Devil May Cry is this until she undergoes a High-Heel–Face Turn.
Webcomics
- MAG ISA: Lucia uses sex to get into Eman's mind.
- The Jane Gang from Everyday Heroes. Iron Jane adds in a bit of Dark Action Girl.
- Snowman from the Midnight Crew intermission of Homestuck. Shipping her with Spades (in an extreme case of The Masochism Tango) is one of the most common pairings in the fandom.
- Also◊ one◊ of◊ the◊ most◊ divisive◊, apparently◊. (Yeah, those are all Fandom Secrets.)
- Also
- Alexa from Gold Coin Comics uses everything in her arsenal to win.
- In Strays, the Affectionate Pickpocket goes all the way to seduction.
- In The Beast Legion, Fyre makes here bad-ass debut byburning the Shadown minions to a crisp here
Web Original
- Some of the deadliest players in Survival Of The Fittest have been Femme Fatales, examples being Mariavel Varella and Clemence Ceillet de Rousseau.
- Kylie from Arby N The Chief.
Western Animation
- Molotov Cocktease from The Venture Brothers.
- Inque in Batman Beyond.
- Karai in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 series). First, she tries to convince Leo that she's honourable. Then, she stabs him right after he saves her life. Then, she tries to kill his entire family.
- Isn't she more of a Dark Action Girl, though?
- Andrea Beaumont, AKA the Phantasm, in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
- Hatta Mari in the Daffy Duck cartoon Plane Daffy. Also, Femme Fatale in Daffy's The Super Snooper.
- The Martian Queen, whenever she's in love with Duck Dodgers.
MithrandirOlorin
Since: May, 2012
Jul 11th 2012 at 2:34:29 PM
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Poison Ivy definitely belongs under The Vamp not here. But Catwoman should not have been removed, she is the standard Femme Fatale, hence an alternate name for her often being the Feline Fatale.
For some reason the majority of the Film Noir examples are under The Vamp now when they are the Codifier of this Trope.
Edited by MithrandirOlorin
MithrandirOlorin
Since: May, 2012
Mar 3rd 2013 at 7:25:06 AM
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I'm still confused by what the difference between The Vamp and Femme Fatale here is (Separating them is entirely unique to T Vtropes, everywhere else their synonyms though The Vamp is rarer term nowadays, so every The Vamp listed here is described as a Femme Fatale somewhere but not necessarily the other way around).
Part of the description for The Vamp seems to imply it's that the Femme Fatale is more sympathetic. Though some Tropers seem to take Femme Fatale as being modeled directly after The Film Noir variety (Though it's really only Neo Noir Femme Fatales that are likely to fit all the exceptions of that).
MithrandirOlorin
Since: May, 2012
Jul 11th 2012 at 2:33:02 PM
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There are no Music examples for either The Vamp or Femme Fatale. Plenty of songs involve either an artist singing about one (Maneater, Gypsy Woman by Hilary Duff ect...) or even more fun a Songstress bragging about being one (Ooops.. I Did It Again by Britney Spears, Dangerous by Madisen Hill ect...).
216.82.251.229
Since: Dec, 1969
24.209.249.31
Since: Dec, 1969
187.66.168.182
Since: Dec, 1969
Dec 1st 2010 at 10:16:39 AM
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That is Jennifer Connelly and Aaron Eckhart. It was a picture taken for a magazine-
68.48.42.208
Since: Dec, 1969
Sep 19th 2010 at 2:00:24 AM
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I removed this example:
- * Hedy Larue from How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.
The link in the image is wrong. The image is a photo from Vanity Fair, the magazine; the link goes to Henry Makepeace Thackeray's novel of the same title.
It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird