Hi!

I am trying to find some more villain ML novels where there's no question the ML is a villain.

The most basic criteria for this is that the ML is an actually bad person who does actually bad things (and not for good reasons) in the present and it's not just a singular event.

Much more detailed criteria:

What he should be like:

• ML is definitely a bad person, he may outright be evil.
  • He does bad things, even when they're not necessary. He has low, no, or very skewed morals.
• He is currently like that.
  • Not in an original timeline, not potentially in the future, not at some point in the past/a past life, etc.
• He is actually like that.
  • Not just because he was the original antagonist or foil for the oMC, not because of rumors/misunderstandings or accidentally, not because he's under a curse or someone is making him/he's being blackmailed. He's not called a villain just because of his parentage/race/a title/the type of magic he was born with or because he was switched at birth and is blamed for it.
• The majority of the novel has him like that.
  • If he starts out a better person, he should quickly darken. If he has to improve, it should be at the end (and preferably for practical reasons, not just because of things like he fell in love and became a better person for it).
• He should also be the (or an) ML for a good portion of the novel.
  • Not one of those things where we go a large amount of the novel only knowing there's an ML coming because it's a danmei or where suddenly at the end they get together out of nowhere. The relationship doesn't have to be the main focus, but if it were to be removed, there should be a noticeable change to the novel.

   

• Scope and setting is also a thing.
  • A mecha pilot killing on an interstellar battlefield is not automatically bad, but a modern CEO ordering a love rival assassinated probably is. A demon lord in a setting where all we see are demonic cultivators (some who are much worse than him) might just come across as "normal" or even "good."

What he doesn't need to be like:

• He does not need to be a villain around/towards the MC.
  • He can be, of course, they can start out mortal enemies, the MC could be his prisoner or victim, etc. But he could also be a green flag pining for the MC or a green tea being nice to the MC and awful to everyone else.
• He does not have to be an antagonist.
  • He could continually save the MC (and even the MC's little friends), or help the MC save the world, or anything like that. It's just that it's not something he would ever do on his own/without selfish reasons.
• He also doesn't have to be evil in every way.
  • He could be secretly funding horrific human experimentation, but also his business could be one of the best places for women to work. He could be poisoning the emperor and grooming the crown prince while also disdaining the practice of slavery. If someone is an awesome father, but eats children's hearts to increase his power, he's still an evil guy.

This sort of ML is easier to find in k-novels (though even they sometimes fail at the last minute), but I'm hoping for danmei specifically.

NO quick transmigration, but most everything else genre and content wise is fine (bonus points for possessive/obsessive/yandere MLs lmao).

ETA: So I also probably should have specified none of the very well-known ones need to be mentioned. Especially if they're popular enough to have gotten official English releases. Sorry for wasting some people's time.

Cover

Also known as "[Bad Ending: Confinement Route] Full Walkthrough"

A dark, smutty European ambience romantic fantasy where the FL does everything she can to get the BE.

Basic Premise: The MC realizes she's a transmigrator and she's the FL in a book. She could avoid the plot or make an even better ending for herself, but she absolutely loved the BE side story where the FL was kidnapped, had her legs broken, and was kept in the ML's basement as his sex toy. So, she uses her book knowledge to mentally break the ML into the black flag yandere of her dreams.

Ending: >!HE!<

What's great about it:

There's quite a few "MC supposedly wants to be confined by ML" transmigration stories out there, but most of the time the MC doesn't actually do anything proactive or changes their mind (certainly, if the ML isn't yet that sort of yandere, they don't force him to become it). So the fact she sticks to it and will do anything to get what she wants to pretty satisfying.

Watching the ML break is both one of the best and worst parts of this. I felt so bad for him and there was a point where I was mentally cursing out the MC for not just taking things slower or accepting a less extreme ending. At the same time, having an ML get steadily darker is also fairly rare.

The last half or so is actually an interesting part where the ML creates >!a fake identity to more or less date the MC under the guise of being a nobleman who will help her escape the ML and gets to experience a more "friendly" relationship with the MC who he thinks despises him.!<

There's some decent smut. A lot of it is rape/noncon from the POV of others (but the "victim" is the MC who secretly totally loves it). There's a lot of BDSM-esque moments, though obviously not the safe kind. While MC is very dominant normally, when it comes to sex with the ML, she's very submissive and masochsitic.

I think this counts as yandere4yandere, as the MC is (clearly) obsessed with the ML and not actually interested in anyone else.

Less Great Parts:

The writing has some major flaws. It needed some more editing in parts. And there's issues especially with the story progression, as the writer starts in the present, then does a series of flashbacks to past events all in a row, that could have just been the story having a present day prologue and then starting in the past and progressing linearly, which is fairly common in k-novels.

There's also some obvious inconsistencies in the MC's actions that clearly exist just because the writer wanted certain dramatic beats, but can be a little annoying.

Yandere Features: ML is obsessive, possessive, jealous, controlling, abusive, stalking, scheming, threatening, and, obviously, into confinement. He's incredibly wealthy, powerful (political, militaristically, and magically) and can basically do whatever he wants to MC and her family.

He starts out pretty green flag, the worst thing he does is send a marriage request (when the MC came of age) that the family obviously thought couldn't be refused, and he's kind of pathetic and puppy-ish to start.

Warnings: These are actually somewhat hard to do, because most of the worst stuff that happens is actually consensual, but everyone (including the ML) thinks it's not. The most non-consensual part is the abuse by the MC on the ML. He does initially fall for the MC when she's underage, but he was in the >!form of an injured crow and she was the first one to show him real tenderness.!<

Where to read: It is complete in Korean and available as three volumes on Ridi. It is also currently being fan translated into English, I believe a free chapter is being released every few days.

Original Korean Version: https://ridibooks.com/books/2313068760

NU page: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/full-walkthrough/

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Sweetcrasy cover featuring the ML

Hi all!

I'm back with another rec! This does have a few caveats, but I think it has some really strong unique points that make it worthwhile. Sorry if you're seeing this twice, looks like this comm doesn't allow crossposting anymore.

This is a European-Ambiance Historical Dark Fantasy novel with a lot of action.

Basic Premise: The MC transmigrated into a book and found himself in the body of the destined-for-death little brother of the brocon oMC, who was the stereotypical prince of a fallen kingdom out for revenge. But when he meets the original villain who is supposed to kill him (ML), they find out they're both from modern day Korea and the MC allies with the ML to find a way home.

Some of what makes this great:

• The MC and ML are both transmigrators. They didn't know each other before, they weren't in the same exact place and time when transmigrating, they are strangers who meet after transmigration and luckily figure out the other is the same.
  • (These transmigrators desperately want to go home. I don't really care so much about this point, but I constantly see people complaining about transmigrators just accepting everything, so I figured I'd mention that. Basically the majority of the plot revolves around them trying to survive and find a way out.)
• The ML is a VILLAIN. He transmigrated into a villain and he STAYS one. He tortures, mass murders, makes deals with all kinds of unsavory beings, doesn't actually give a damn about the people he's responsible for, etc. He doesn't soften as the story goes on as so often happens and he's not a villain in name only.
• In fact, no recurring character in this novel is really a good person. Even the better ones, like the MC, would be considered very selfish and pretty dark in a lot of other novels.
• The MC and ML have one of the rarer types of relationships in a transmigration novel, unconditionally trusting each other about almost everything.
• The main villain is great. She's cunning, charismatic, and up until the end almost always multiple steps ahead of everyone else. There were actually times when, even knowing just how awful she was, I as the reader was like "maybe they should just ally with her, maybe it wouldn't be so bad" lmao

The MC:

He's just a normal Korean guy in his mid-20s who seemingly randomly transmigrates into a book he's read. He does not get any of the memories of the body he possesses, so he fumbles around quite a bit. He's normally fairly clever, there's even some parts where I started to get really annoyed with him and then we're told his reasoning and I realize he was correct.

The body he is in is very sickly and dependent on the oMC for medicine only the oMC knows how to make. In fact, it's partially because he's >!something called a sacrifice (seems to be some sort of code for mate though) for !<a dragon his family made a deal with. Along with that, there's also some weirder stuff, like the fact he >!self-lubricates.!<

At times the story very much feels like he's just the narrator and the protagonist is actually the ML, at the very least he's often in the role of the damsel in distress (as he himself bemoans).

The ML:

There's comments from multiple readers wondering if the ML was a gangster or a serial killer or something in the original world, which is pretty funny because we find out fairly early on from him that he wasan >!actor!<. Though, towards the very end, it's >!confirmed he was never really human to begin with!<.

He never read (or even heard of) the book, but he has all of the original body's memories and skills. For better or worse, as some of those come with distinct drawbacks.

This is a slowburn and at first we get very little of the ML's pov, but even from early on it starts being obvious he's pretty obsessed with the MC (to the point other characters start commenting on it). The MC is the ONLY person the ML really cares about. Once they're more officially together, he also starts becoming extra possessive.

Some Other Notable Parts:

• This has a yandere 2ML, the oMC (and one of the current antagonists). But really he's>! the dragon that royal family made a deal with, not the MC's body's actual brother.!< He's extremely obsessive over the MC (who he basically thinks of as his property).
• There's some really good side characters, one of them (>!a demon called the Gourmet!<) is definitely going to be up there as one of my favorite side characters in a k-novel. His personality is great and his part of the>! final battle!< was exceptionally cool, as well.
• The magic system is pretty cool. A lot of that is because the ML and the empire he's a part of use mostly demon-based magic and the demons themselves are cool. There's a lot of very unique forms, personalities, powers, etc. There's the typical rofan holy kingdom, as well, ruled by a Pope and with a Saintess system, and towards the end>! it's revealed their god is basically just like the demons and corrupting them!< which I always love to see.

Some Downsides:

• It jumps the shark (I thought it did it earlier, but it managed to make that one work, but then later...) and there's a lot of plotholes by the end. The major issue with this novel is the author seems to have tried to fit wayyy too much into the last half. There's a few points I desperately wish we had more information on, such as whether the MC >!was something special originally and if the ML is one of the beings that killed off the dragons back in ancient times,!< both of which were heavily implied.
  • (It actually kind of feels like the writer changed their minds about some major aspects halfway through, especially since there's some notable differences between the two halves, such as the first half where >!basically any side character could be killed/turned traitor compared to characters one expects that for not doing it!< in the second half. I'm also pretty bummed the foreshadowing of >!the original body's soul/personality becoming more dominant in the ML/him no longer being able to differentiate between them didn't happen).!<
• The base novel ends on a bittersweet note and the single side story is more like a real ending/epilogue than a side story. It also brings up some questions that will never be answered, on top of one created in the base novel (which is whether the>! world they went back to is even "real" or the ML reconstructed it for the MC).!<
• About halfway through the novel there's a ton of rape and there's very little sex that could be called actually consensual. I do not feel like this was foreshadowed enough and was pretty surprised by the extent of it. Before that point, the ML had been pretty green flag towards the MC.
• Despite the awesome female villain, this novel does fall into the typical BL novel issue where the female characters are basically all villains, victims, or love interests for men.
• There's a ton of slavery and it's treated casually by almost every character. The MC himself takes on the identity of the ML's sex slave to stay close to him at the beginning, but there are actual sex slaves (and most of them do not get good endings) as well as various other types of slaves. The ML even has an enemy of his >!turned into a sex slave for an extreme sadist (though, admittedly, that's just giving that character a taste of his own medicine).!<

Final Thoughts:

Despite the downsides, I think this is a worthwhile read, especially for anyone that likes dark rofan and BL. While it left me with some frustration questions, they're also ones that are fun to consider (I just wish I had people to talk to about my theories lmao).

The fan translation is ongoing.

RAWs: https://ridibooks.com/books/3302051706 (individual chapters you can read in-browser) or https://ridibooks.com/books/3302042657 (volumes you can download to the app)

Warnings: Violence, gore, murder, torture, body horror, rape, mind control and brainwashing, non-consensual body modification, demonic possession, a ton of insects and other "gross" type creatures, suicide, poison, slavery, abuse of all sorts, gaslighting, drugs, and some instances of various types of bigotry (the k-novel typical types for the most part)....

Sweetcrasy Cover featuring the ML

Hi all!

I'm back with another BL novel rec! This does have a few caveats, but I think it has some really strong unique points that make it worthwhile (like my Lan Ming Yue rec).

This is a European-Ambiance Historical Dark Fantasy novel with a lot of action.

Basic Premise: The MC transmigrated into a book and found himself in the body of the destined-for-death little brother of the brocon oMC, who was the stereotypical prince of a fallen kingdom out for revenge. But when he meets the original villain who is supposed to kill him (ML), they find out they're both from modern day Korea and the MC allies with the ML to find a way home.

Some of what makes this great:

• The MC and ML are both transmigrators. They didn't know each other before, they weren't in the same exact place and time when transmigrating, they are strangers who meet after transmigration and luckily figure out the other is the same.
  • (These transmigrators desperately want to go home. I don't really care so much about this point, but I constantly see people complaining about transmigrators just accepting everything, so I figured I'd mention that. Basically the majority of the plot revolves around them trying to survive and find a way out.)
• The ML is a VILLAIN. He transmigrated into a villain and he STAYS one. He tortures, mass murders, makes deals with all kinds of unsavory beings, doesn't actually give a damn about the people he's responsible for, etc. He doesn't soften as the story goes on as so often happens and he's not a villain in name only.
• In fact, no recurring character in this novel is really a good person. Even the better ones, like the MC, would be considered very selfish and pretty dark in a lot of other novels.
• The MC and ML have one of the rarer types of relationships in a transmigration novel, unconditionally trusting each other about almost everything.
• The main villain is great. She's cunning, charismatic, and up until the end almost always multiple steps ahead of everyone else. There were actually times when, even knowing just how awful she was, I as the reader was like "maybe they should just ally with her, maybe it wouldn't be so bad" lmao

The MC:

He's just a normal Korean guy in his mid-20s who seemingly randomly transmigrates into a book he's read. He does not get any of the memories of the body he possesses, so he fumbles around quite a bit. He's normally fairly clever, there's even some parts where I started to get really annoyed with him and then we're told his reasoning and I realize he was correct.

The body he is in is very sickly and dependent on the oMC for medicine only the oMC knows how to make. In fact, it's partially because he's >!something called a sacrifice (seems to be some sort of code for mate though) for!< a dragon his family made a deal with. Along with that, there's also some weirder stuff, like the fact he >!self-lubricates!<.

At times the story very much feels like he's just the narrator and the protagonist is actually the ML, at the very least he's often in the role of the damsel in distress (as he himself bemoans).

The ML:

There's comments from multiple readers wondering if the ML was a gangster or a serial killer or something in the original world, which is pretty funny because we find out fairly early on from him that he was >!an actor!<. Though, towards the very end, it's >!confirmed he was never really human to begin with.!<

He never read (or even heard of) the book, but he has all of the original body's memories and skills. For better or worse, as some of those come with distinct drawbacks.

This is a slowburn and at first we get very little of the ML's pov, but even from early on it starts being obvious he's pretty obsessed with the MC (to the point other characters start commenting on it). The MC is the ONLY person the ML really cares about. Once they're more officially together, he also starts becoming extra possessive.

Some Other Notable Parts:

• This has a yandere 2ML, the oMC (and one of the current antagonists). But really he's >!the dragon that royal family made a deal with, not the MC's body's actual brother!<. He's extremely obsessive over the MC (who he basically thinks of as his property).
• There's some really good side characters, one of them (>!a demon called the Gourmet!<) is definitely going to be up there as one of my favorite side characters in a k-novel. His personality is great and his part of the>! final battle!< was exceptionally cool, as well.
• The magic system is pretty cool. A lot of that is because the ML and the empire he's a part of use mostly demon-based magic and the demons themselves are cool. There's a lot of very unique forms, personalities, powers, etc. There's the typical rofan holy kingdom, as well, ruled by a Pope and with a Saintess system, and towards the end>! it's revealed their god is basically just like the demons and corrupting them!< which I always love to see.

Some Downsides:

• It jumps the shark (I thought it did it earlier, but it managed to make that one work, but then later...) and there's a lot of plotholes by the end. The major issue with this novel is the author seems to have tried to fit wayyy too much into the last half. There's a few points I desperately wish we had more information on, such as whether the MC >!was something special originally and if the ML is one of the beings that killed off the dragons back in ancient times!<, both of which were heavily implied.
  • (It actually kind of feels like the writer changed their minds about some major aspects halfway through, especially since there's some notable differences between the two halves, such as the first half where >!basically any side character could be killed/turned traitor compared to characters one expects that for not doing it!< in the second half. I'm also pretty bummed the foreshadowing of the >!original body's soul/personality becoming more dominant in the ML/him no longer being able to differentiate between them didn't happen!<).
• The base novel ends on a bittersweet note and the single side story is more like a real ending/epilogue than a side story. It also brings up some questions that will never be answered, on top of one created in the base novel (which is whether the >!world they went back to is even "real" or the ML reconstructed it for the MC!<).
• About halfway through the novel there's a ton of rape and there's very little sex that could be called actually consensual. I do not feel like this was foreshadowed enough and was pretty surprised by the extent of it. Before that point, the ML had been pretty green flag towards the MC.
• Despite the awesome female villain, this novel does fall into the typical BL novel issue where the female characters are basically all villains, victims, or love interests for men.
• There's a ton of slavery and it's treated casually by almost every character. The MC himself takes on the identity of the ML's sex slave to stay close to him at the beginning, but there are actual sex slaves (and most of them do not get good endings) as well as various other types of slaves. The ML even has an enemy of his >!turned into a sex slave for an extreme sadist (though, admittedly, that's just giving that character a taste of his own medicine).!<

Final Thoughts:

Despite the downsides, I think this is a worthwhile read, especially for anyone that likes dark rofan and BL. While it left me with some frustration questions, they're also ones that are fun to consider (I just wish I had people to talk to about my theories lmao).

Ongoing English translation: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/sweetcrasy/

RAWs: https://ridibooks.com/books/3302051706 (individual chapters you can read in-browser) or https://ridibooks.com/books/3302042657 (volumes you can download to the app)

Warnings: Violence, gore, murder, torture, body horror, rape, mind control and brainwashing, non-consensual body modification, demonic possession, a ton of insects and other "gross" type creatures, suicide, poison, slavery, abuse of all sorts, gaslighting, drugs, and some instances of various types of bigotry (the k-novel typical types for the most part)....

As someone who really likes to give recs when I can (and has made a ton of rec comments and some posts), here's annoying stuff I keep seeing that lowers the quantity and/or quality of recs.

And my advice for how to avoid them.

This got really long lmao I actually keep cutting stuff, but then I would think of other stuff to add, and then I just decided to stop caring about length.

If you can't read/skim it all, at least look at the large text, that's basically the tl;dr for the parts.

Normally the broader the request, the lower the quality of responses

Some people just ask for "yandere manhwa recs" or "yandere BL recs" or "red flag yandere recs".

All you're generally going to get are a few people's favorites or what they've most recently read/watched/played and/or the most well-known ones that you could easily find yourself.

It would be better to just search the sub first if that's all you want, you'll get more that way.

Be specific about relationship type and media type

If you only want straight/het stuff, say that. If you want only manhwa(/hua/ga), say that. If you're okay with anything but, idk, games, say that.

I've seen people make posts where they only talk about FLs and then act surprised when no one gives them BL recs.

When the post is completely ambiguous and seems open to anything, sometimes I'll just give BL and/or novel recs, and then the OP will be like, no, I don't want those and they just wasted both of our time.

ML Or Any Role for the Yandere?

If you're okay with other roles for the yandere, you might only get MLs from the people commenting, even if they know of 2MLs/villains/etc that could fit, because that's what most people on the sub like.

If you ONLY want yandere MLs, though, you could still technically get non-MLs if that's unclear in your post. Really easy for this to just put "yandere ML" instead of "yandere" when writing up the post.

Don't Just List One/Multiple Titles

It's very popular to say "looking for something like [TITLE]" or maybe with a list of titles and if there's anything added, it's a broad sentence or two at most.

Firstly, there's the media issue. If you're open to other types of media, but all you list are manhwa, you're probably only getting manhwa recs.

And what if someone hasn't read those specific titles, and so doesn't know what you're asking for, but they could have given you a ton of recs that worked perfectly?

Also, people take different things away from different stories. I've seen lists of titles where I literally could not wrap my head around what the OP thought they all had in common, outside of just (completely different types of) yanderes.

"I want an ML like Nathaniel from Kneel Before Me."

What do you mean? Eldritch demi/god? Nonhuman in general? Doesn't have human emotions? Is part of that worlds mythology/history? Just released from a long imprisonment/isolation? High ranking position? Mass murderer? The MC being the only being that matters to them? Attempts at mindbreak? Do you only want rofan? Only historical settings? Does magic need to exist?....

I've seen people say "I want a yandere ML like [Character]" and then most of the recs they receive are for titles where the ML looks similar to that character, even if they're otherwise completely different.

I saw one the other day where someone listed titles and gave a sentence about what they wanted...that outright didn't even apply to two of the titles. It was like ??? what do you actually want???

If you already know the most well-known likely recs, put them in the post

Most rec posts will have a portion of comments be the most obvious recs, naturally.

It can be a pain to list every single thing you know of that could be recommended, but putting a few well-known ones out there can save everyone time. It also shows you've at the very least done the bare minimum attempt on your own to find stuff.

You can also say why they would/wouldn't work as recs for your post, which could improve the quality of recs.

If you use flags, still say specifically what you're looking for

There's constant, unending debate on here about where flags begin and end, about what specific things fall under what specific flags, etc.

Some people don't believe "green flag yanderes" even exist.

Some people put yanderes largely accepted as (relatively mild, even) red flags into the black flag category and then claim there should be something more than black flag for the actual black flag yanderes.

Some people will literally say a yandere who is a red/black flag in almost any definition is a green flag.

Flags themselves are just a very broad way of attempting to categorize yanderes, they're like the equivalent of those super broad content warnings that might mean you're about to see graphic rape or might mean a teacher is hitting a side character's hand with a ruler.

Say if you do/don't want rape

Cannot stress enough that I've seen people label brutal serial rapists as green flags.

Because rape is so prevalent in the romance genre, and especially in the sorts of media that tend to have yanderes, a lot of people give it a total pass.

Conversely, because rape is such a controversial subject in many of the related fandoms, some people may hesitate to recommend you anything with rape unless you've stated you're looking for toxic MLs.

Most yanderes are abusive, saying you do/don't want abuse is too broad

Stalking is abusive. Controlling relationships are abusive. Extreme possessiveness/jealousy is abusive. Coercive relationships are abusive.

If you mean physical abuse, say you don't want physical abuse. If there are other specific categories of abuse, you can also just say those.

Is what you don't want across the entire story or specific to the yandere?

"No rape" and then probably 70% of the time people mean they don't want rape between the main couple and don't care if rape happens in any other way.

"No abuse" normally means they don't want the yandere abusing their LI. One or both of them can spend the entire beginning of the story going through horrific child abuse and that would be fine.

After all of that, though, get ready to be flexible

It's best to give hard requirements only for what you absolutely need.

You can then add in details about things you'd prefer, but that won't be deal breakers.

If you get too specific with everything, that will also limit recs.

Adding things that boil down to "this is what I want, but I'll also accept things close to it" can help a lot.

Or instead of saying you don't want certain content that you could technically put up with for the right story/yandere, you could ask for people to specify if it's in their rec (example, "please let me know if there is rape between the main couple.").

Also, on a side note: this sub is not a good place to ask for yuri recs

The overwhelming majority of members cannot give you good yuri recs. Probably can't even give you any yuri recs at all.

You will get far better recs from yuri subs, where way more people know way more yuri titles.

So, there's the pretty classic romance trope of "MC gets amnesia, ML claims to be their boyfriend/fiance/husband".

And there's the fairly common fantasy/scifi trope of "the original ML's body being possessed/replaced by someone/thing else that lives as the original ML."

And there's the not uncommon horror/suspense type trope of twins pretending to be one person and switching off secretly with their love interest or whatever.

Which has me thinking now:

Are there any stories where the yandere *replaces* the original boyfriend/husband/whatever in a *non*-supernatural/scifi way?

Where they slip into the original ML's (or potential ML's, even) life and at least at first most people accept it? Not because they're transmigrators, ghosts, aliens, demons, etc etc. but because of somewhat realistic means?

For example, if the twin of the original ML kills or imprisons his brother and pretends to be him where maybe people have a reason to accept he might have changed a little, like there was an "accident" or something that could let him fake amnesia and excuse some lapses?

Or maybe someone was a recluse or lived abroad and the MC is the only one around that knew exactly what they'd look like in the present, but the MC gets amnesia and the yandere either looks close enough or had plastic surgery or something?

I think I might have at some point long ago seen some stuff like this in 00s Lifetime movies or 90s Harlequin novels or something, but I don't think I've seen it in anything more recent.

The only thing I really don't want is the MC having faceblindness or something. Other people have to also believe the ML is the original (one of my fav parts of the second trope is when the MC realizes they're a fake and everyone else is still thinking they're real).