Discussion Main / TheVamp

I think The Vamp and Femme Fatale should be merged. Everywhere else on the internet and in pop culture their synonyms. Femme Fatale is more common today, so indeed every Vamp listed here I can find examples of being called a Femme Fatale. And on The Other Wiki a search for either leads to the same page. And we don't split this in 2 for the Tween/Teen counterpart, the Fille Fatale covers both underage Femme Fatales and Vamps.

Distinguishing this trope into 2 subtropes would work if it was clearer what the distinction was. But one page says the difference is The Vamp uses explicit Sex while the Femme Fatale just uses her feminine wiles. But I think a lot of Femme Fatales only appear to not be using explicit sex because of censorship.

Another page says it's that The Vamp is less likely to be sympathetic and fall in love with her victim. To some degree whether that happens is purely YMMV. And those 2 supposed differences certainly don't always or even usually correspond, a female villain is far more likely to fall in love with the hero if they have actual sex, hence the Sex–Face Turn.

But I think to a lot of tropers the Femme Fatale mostly just applies to explicit homages to the 40s Film Noir variety, even though other tropers consider all those to be Vamps.

Weird question, but what is the name of the picture? It's been driving me crazy for ages.

Would The Vamp be The Seductress from The Three Faces of Eve?

Archived TRS topics:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1345713417008033700&page=1

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...).

Does this trope have to limited to "evil" characters? It seems to me that the core of the trope is a woman who uses sex appeal and seduction to come out on top.

This doesn't always apply to villains. Take Inara Serra for example - that's her whole bent, using her allure to her advantage - but she's no evil, nor does she use her seductiveness for evil ends. Now, there's a more traditional Vamp in the character of Saffron/Bridgett/Yolanda in the same work, but that doesn't make Inara's use of sex as power any less significant.

And there are plenty of other strong female characters who use sexuality to their advantage, but who are not villainous as they do so. Take Bayonetta for example. And probably one of the best examples of using sex to beat your enemy, featuring in the same book as Delilah, would be Jael.

Either we expand the trope too include heroic characters, or we create a separate trope for heroic vamps.

Fun fact: this troper has seen the page image used as a Harry/Hermione photoshop manip. Apparently Harmonian shippers do not understand Irony.

Casanovas are men who take advantage of women and sleep around. Vamps seduce people to gain something from them or lure them to The Dark Side. The two cna overlap easily, but all Casanovas are not Vamps, and a man can try to seduce a woman for his own benefit without being a Casanova.