Villains Are Destined to Die is a novel and villainess manhwa with uniquely dark themes and humanly flawed characters. It follows a gamer protagonist who is reborn into the body of Penelope Eckhart, the villainess character in the otome game she had been playing. While similar villainess stories like My Next Life as the Villainess focus on romance and are generous with fluff, Villains are Destined to Die dives immediately into a more gritty and desperate struggle for survival from its main character.

Penelope is calculating, and at times even ruthless, in prioritizing her survival over feelings. This makes her far from the typical heroine, allowing Penelope to reclaim the aura of a villainess as one focused on self-preservation and even self-esteem, to the extent the reader is encouraged to cheer her on through (much-deserved) verbal lashings to characters who have misjudged her.

Villains are Destined to Die has been...