Tsundere/Literature

Usually tsuntsun ("Type A")
"Annabeth: He doesn't see really obvious stuff, like the way people feel, even when you're giving him hints and being totally blatant. What? No I'm not talking about anyone or anything in particular."
 * The rose from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The book turns a tsundere flower into a commentary on the pain that love can cause so hauntingly beautiful that it will literally drive you insane. The book is thematically based on some of the hardest times in the author's life, and it has several messages which reduce you to tears days after you read it. It's short. Seriously, go read it.
 * Holly Jones from the Robert A. Heinlein short story The Menace From Earth. Generally bossy demeanor, repressed attraction to love interest which is constantly denied, with her softening at the end.
 * Ce'Nedra from David Eddings' Belgariad is apparently generally regarded by Japanese readers as one of the clearest Western examples of the trope.
 * Aviendha from Wheel of Time is extremely rude to Rand
 * That's still better than Rand being really rude before sex and getting soft towards the end.
 * About half the women in the Wheel of Time series are tsunderes, and to varying degrees. To whit: Nynaeve starts out a major type A but marriage softens her to a B; Min isn't; Elayne isn't, although Rand probably thinks she is due to mixed signals in a couple of letters; Moiraine isn't; Egwene is usually a Plucky Girl but turns into a raging type A in the second half of volume 12, especially when confronted with her Love Interest; Siuane is a type A, but that's to be expected from a Spanish Iron Lady; Faile, despite her rep, is just a Clingy Jealous Girl trying to keep her husband away from Berelain. Oddly, the most pure example (up to and including the classic "this doesn't mean I like you" line) is the often overlooked Tuon.
 * Aravis Tharkeena from CS Lewis's The Horse and His Boy. Her Tsundere-ness is lampshaded at the end of the book, when it's mentioned that
 * In Sandy Mitchell's Warhammer 40000 novel Scourge the Heretic, Keira's normally not personable manner is considerably worse toward Mordecai Horst, being blind to it herself. It doesn't help that she was raised in a Sex Is Evil cult. But when she accuses Danuld of wanting to sin with her, and he says it's obvious that he has no chance because of Mordecai, she reacts badly but later returns to question him about what he meant, and then, with obvious difficulty, attempts to temper her behavior toward Horst. (And she resolves to consult another woman in the Inquisitor's retinue about whether sex really is so evil.)
 * Adora Belle Dearheart from Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, though she's more dere-dere towards the golems with which she works at the golem trust.
 * Pregnant o'rants in the Dragon Keeper Chronicles are like this.
 * Annabeth from Percy Jackson and The Olympians is a typical tsundere character.
 * The Demigod Files basically make it canon. Annabeth's questions include 'What is Percy Jackson's most annoying quality?' Her response could have been taken right out of any Japanese anime, including the hilarious-to-a-troper line...


 * In The Demigod Files, when Beckendorf tells Percy that Annabeth likes him, his response is: "Yeah, she likes me... for target practice."
 * She acts mostly tsun in the first book (The Lightning Thief) and has clear traits of both sides in The Battle of the Labyrinth (book four).
 * Nico di Angelo also has some traits of a tsundere character, altho not in a romantic way. He mostly acts cold (which doesn't always include typical tsun moments) but is known to soften at times.
 * Clarrise takes the "fight through life" portion of this to heart, (since she's the daughter of Ares) and we only see her kind side after she
 * Star Wars's Mara Jade. She's a Type A Mama Bear; baiting her is hideously risky at best, and suicidal at worst.
 * Heleth, from the Col Sec Trilogy, is a compact, quick-tempered Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette who's always bickering with or getting needled by the resident Keet (when she's not bickering with someone else). Every so often, you get the impression that she doesn't outright hate him.
 * In Twilight Dragon, Keaira Aleshire fits this trope to a T, and she doesn't just act this way towards her crush.
 * Karrin Murphy in The Dresden Files keeps calling Harry names, even beats him to a pulp on a few occasions, but mellows at the moment's notice whenever he hurts himself badly or saves her life (again). Pointing that out to her, however, is likely to earn you another beating.
 * Diana from the Gone (novel) series, whenever she's around Caine.
 * Zhou Qi from Jin Yong's The Book and The Sword. While she is somewhat abrasive to anyone, with the possible exception of her father, she reserves most of her wrath for Xu Tianhong: constantly berating and insulting him in front of others,.
 * Dedicate Rosethorn from the Circle of Magic series is this with a hint of Kuudere. A particularly cute example can be found in Sandry's Book when after terrifying the four children for the first half of the book, Briar hugs her and she blushes.
 * Tris is certainly a fledgling Tsundere as well.
 * As is Jory from Cold Fire.
 * Sophie from the French novel Les Malheurs de Sophie seems to fit to this trope. She uses to fight with her cousin Paul, but also really loves him.
 * Yvaine from Neil Gaiman's novel, Stardust.
 * Elinor Wylie's poem "Nancy," referenced on the quotes page, seems to be addressed to a Type A. You know what that means.
 * Tenar from the Earthsea Trilogy, at least in The Tombs of Atuan. By the time we see her again two books later, in Tehanu, she seems to have grown out of it.
 * Bridget Jones from Bridget Jones's Dairy is type A thanks to the way she expresses herself in her diary (being annoyed.) She, however, is lovestruck with Daniel Cleaver even though she's being sarcastic to him at times.
 * Marcia Overstrand in Septimus Heap. While normally being easily irritable and bossy, she can become very caring at times of trouble.
 * In Warriors Series, specifically in Bluestar's Prophecy, Bluestar Tsundere was seen as a clear Type A tsundere example towards her mate Oakheart. She would lose all her patience with him and was quite snappy, especially when she was in denial about her feelings for him since she couldn't be mates with a cat from another Clan. Despite this, Bluestar geniunely loved Oakheart and since there parting, was the only cat she ever truly loved.
 * Sandstorm is also a tsundere. She was greatly distainful and looked down on Firestar due to his kittypet blood, but when he saves her life during a border fight, she realizes that she misunderstood Firestar and develops a strong bond and friendship with him. Sandstorm fell in love with Firestar at one point and Firestar with her and they have been together since. Though Sandstorm is regarded as a sharp-tonged, short-tempered, and independent she-cat and Firestar is not spared because of her feelings towards him, since he is afraid of her when she is angry.
 * Sandstorm's daughter, Squirrelflight, became a second generation tsundere, since her mother passed her personality to her. Squirrelflight Tsundere is the most fitting to this trope since is some ways, she is even worse than Sandstorm. Squirrelflight is proud, independant, incredibly impulsive, very rude and a spitfire of a warrior, making her a Type A, though she agruable had mellowed out with age though only slighty. Squirrelflight's relationship with her former mate Brambleclaw was that of any Main Character/Tsundere couple. She was greatly annoyed with his bossy attitude and hated him, Brambleclaw in turn hating her talkative, immature personality. She forced Brambleclaw to take her on his journey to the Sun-drown-place, which he had reluctantly with many protests, agreed to, since she would have followed him anyway. Over the course of the The New Prophect Series, Squirrelflight fell deeply in love with Brambleclaw and they got together. However, there relationship deteriated due to Squirrelight never telling until way later that her kits were not actually his or hers, and they belonged to her sister Leafpool.

Usually deredere ("Type B")

 * Princess Eilonwy from Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain says "Taran, I'm not speaking to you" about five times a novel, and as the last line of at least the first three.
 * In the Night World book Daughters of Darkness, Mary-Lynnette is dere dere, but when Ash is around her automatic reaction  is to kick him in the shins. Doesn't help that he's sexist and speciesist.
 * Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. She's a good friend who is sensible and restrained a lot of the time, but DO NOT tick her off. She will show no mercy. Just ask Rita Skeeter, Draco Malfoy, Dolores Umbridge, Marietta Edgecombe or Ronald Weasley.
 * Teenager Lily Evans seems to be interpreted this way by the fans, especially in James Potter's presence.
 * Arguably, Luke Skywalker becomes a Type B Tsundere in the Star Wars novels.
 * Mel from Crown Duel is a type B to such an extent that  has to resort to wooing her through anonymous letters.
 * Leafpool from the Warriors Series became a Type B tsundere over time. She was originally, while an apprentice, a very meek and soft-spoken individual with a calm air and controlled profile, much different from both her mother Sandstorm and sister Squirrelflight. As she got older, Leafpool became more bossy and ill-tempered, becoming a full-blown Type B Tsundere in The Power of Three (Ironically, Squirrelflight had mellowed over time and Leafpool had unmellowed over time.) Though Leafpool is still usually very gentle and kind, her temper flaring up every now and then, but still not as bad as Squirrelflight. She is both a romantic and non-romantic example. Leafpool was annoyed by her former mate Crowfeather's prickly attitude and harsh words, but realized that she actually loved Crowfeather when he confess his love to her after saving her in Starlight, though there relationship didn't last long, since it was forbidden for a medicine cat to have a mate, especially a mate from a different Clan. Despite this, Leafpool contines to love Crowfeather. The non-romantic example of this is her relationship with her son Jayfeather. Leafpool loves her son dearly and has never hated him, though she often got into many arguments with him, since her son had inherited Crowfeather's rudeness and ill-tempered nature. This was especially seen when Jayfeather was her apprentice and how her patience would always be a short fuse because of his uncooperating, bold personality. Leafpool though is very protective of Jayfeather and her other two kits (Lionblaze, Hollyleaf), her motherly love clear.
 * Aglaya from Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. I mean, not only does the girl spend half the novel telling her love interest how stupid he is, the whole thing actually ends with a big girl fight-out over the guy. This is proto-anime writing at its best!
 * Demons's Marya Ignatyevna is also an example of tsundere. She spends most of the chapter A Woman Traveller verbally abusing Ivan Shatov but by the end becomes extremely clingy.
 * Also, in The Brothers Karamazov Lise acts rather tsundere to Alyosha, teasing him in order to get his attention and then blushing. Father Zosima calls her out on it.
 * Many more of Dostoevsky's characters fit the Tsunshun archetype. There may be a reason for his frequent use of these tropes.

Unsorted

 * Susana Cabeza de Vaca from Mount Dragon. Replace baka with pendejo and hijo de puta, make her dark-skinned and smart, and you have a Mexican tsundere!
 * Ogden Nash's Always Marry an April Girl Might as well be called Ode to a Tsundere.
 * Averted and Lampshaded in Another Note, the prequel novel to Death Note, as Naomi Misora warns herself against becoming a tsundere.
 * Shira in The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio. As there is a heroine like this in several of Lloyd Alexander's other novels, one gets the impression that he has something of a fondness for this trope.
 * Adorah Belle Dearheart in Discworld. When first met, she is angry and embittered after her father was hounded into poverty and early death and her brother murdered. Her attitude is of anger and forcing the rest of the world to keep its distance. She emphasises this with her work with golems, the robots of the Disc. (Any comparable anime heroines?) She gradually and very reluctantly falls for Moist von Lipwig, despite giving him plenty of snarls and no encouragement at all. But she saves his life in a pub brawl...

Back to