Beast and Beauty

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Love knows no genetics.

"Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, Beauty and the Beast."

The male is usually a monster physically, capable of great rage and destruction. The female is kind, smart, and emotional. She brings out the best in him. She sees the good; he smashes anything that threatens her into itty-bitty pieces.

The 'beast' is almost always a man, though there may be exceptions.

The ideal is often so high that sexual relations are not mentioned (Not by the creators, at least). If physical relations do occur—if it's even possible—expect doom, unless some magic (like the power of True Love's Kiss) occurs to turn the male into a less objectionable form.

A common subversion is making the Beast intelligent and cynical, much like a subversion of the Gentle Giant. For a man who just looks monstrous, see Ugly Guy, Hot Wife. See But Your Wings Are Beautiful for a Distaff Counterpart. If the "beast" part is downplayed, it may be a case of Interspecies Romance.

(The subversion actually occurs in the original "Beauty and the Beast" by Madame de Villeneuve. The adaptation that popularized the tale, by Mademoiselle de Beaumont, introduced the Beast's curse affecting his behavior.)

Examples of Beast and Beauty include:

Trope Namer

  • Beauty and The Beast, in all of its incarnations.
    • A TV series entitled Beauty and The Beast ran on CBS from 1987-1990, starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman as Catherine (the Beauty) and Vincent (the Beast). Despite its brief run and disappointing third season, it spawned a vast and enthusiastic fan following.
      • There is also a slight inversion, as kind Vincent's bestial (though still handsome) features never change. In fact it is shallow socialite Catherine who undergoes the transformation through love to have a beautiful soul to go along with her pretty features.
    • The pair are still happily together after a thousand years of marriage in Fables, although not without their problems to overcome. Beast usually looks human in the series, but shifts between his human and bestial forms depending on his wife's moods towards him. Also slightly subverted as Beast is a all-round nice guy who doesn't really get that angry, while Beauty is occasionally seen as ambitious and overly-critical.
      • As Beauty puts it, a couple can't expect to be married for thousands of years without arguing at some point or another.
    • Completely subverted in the PS2 game Grim Grimoire where yes, a man is cursed into a beast unless he gets together with a woman. Except that he's somewhat of a nerd, refuses to fall in love with anyone, and doesn't care what he looks like. Meanwhile, the beauty won't stop badgering him to fall in love with her so he can turn into a handsome man again.
    • There is quite a hilarious Italian porno based on Beauty and the Beast... the stipulation of course being that she has to love him in ALL ways. When the beast finally gets ready to get biz-zay... well, let's just say Robot Monster would have been more titillating. And then the camera just has to focus more on the guy in the cut-up shag carpet than the woman while an epic romantic aria plays softly in the background. That was either the worst porn movie ever, or the greatest Dadatic deconstruction of one.
    • Subverted on an episode of The Muppet Show. Monstrous Doglion retells the story with guest-star-of-the-week in a speechless dance. At the end, when true love blossoms despite their differences, she turns into a monster and they go away happily.
    • Subverted again in another episode of The Muppet Show. Guest star Ruth Buzzi, dressed as a princess-ish wife to slovenly Big Eater Sweetums, tries to get amorous, singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" while serving Sweetums, who, in turn, cruelly rebuffs her. This escalates into Ruth proclaiming her love to Sweetums by whomping the (metaphorical) stuffing out of him in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.

Sweetums: Now that's my kind of woman!


Anime and Manga

  • Briareos and Deunan in Appleseed. Briareos is a rather large and unmistakable cyborg (what with the eight eyes and literal rabbit-ear antennae), although they began their relationship before he got shot up and turned into a big metal man. Notably, despite his mechanical form, they apparently still are able to continue their relationship as normal. Yes, even that.
    • Interestingly enough, Briareos, in the manga, used to be black. Deunan is 'every ethnicity on the planet' EXCEPT Japanese. In the movie, Briareos used to be white (or not black at any rate, though he doesn't appear to be straight Caucasian either), and they had Deunan not know he was a cyborg until she arrives at Olympus, where in the manga they live happily together before she goes to Olympus.
      • Also a bit of an inversion as Deunan appears to be far more trigger-happy than Briareos.
  • Played with in Chrono Crusade. Chrono's a demon with a terrifying amount of power, and Rosette is a blond, petite nun that keeps him in check. Surely they're an example of this trope, right? Except that Chrono has a gentle, emotional, loving personality, while Rosette is loud, Hot-Blooded, violent and overall a loose cannon. There are some signs of the archetypes there—Rosette getting hurt is Chrono's Berserk Button, and Rosette IS a very kind person despite her temper—there's definitely a stark contrast between these two and the typical portrayal.
    • However, this trope is played much, much straighter with Chrono and Mary Magdalene. When Chrono met Mary, he was either a loner coping with survivor's guilt and Unstoppable Rage (manga version) or a rebellious demon who is mentioned using a woman for pleasure and discarding her when she became "boring" (anime version). Mary, however, is a pure, holy saint with Ingenue qualities whose gentle nature convinces Chrono to give humans a chance.
  • Inuyasha and Kagome. Although it seems most of the good demons in that series are beautiful and the bad ones are Body Horrors at best. Sesshoumaru is a glaring exception—a White-Haired Pretty Boy demon who would kill you as soon as look at you. He's got a morality pet, but no remorse for his body count. His mother in the manga is much the same. The series also notes that the more powerful demons take humanoid forms.
    • Gender flipped by the parents of the Thunder brothers.
  • Ladd and Lua are a bit of a subversion. Sure, psychotically violent Ladd's gonna make sure nobody touches his girl, but only because he wants to be the one to kill her. Lua is disturbingly okay with this.
  • Hayate × Blade has Ensuu, described as a "beast" even in canon, and her partner Meiko (Sshe's definitely far from ugly). Subverted in that Ensuu appears to be more Blood Knight than mindless animal, and that Meiko is actually a Manipulative Bitch.
  • Monster: Roberto is a Beast in every sense possible, not exactly the most handsome of men, psychopathically violent, and capable of great rage and destruction without a doubt. Naturally, he deserves a Beauty and he gets the Beauty he deserves: the angelically beautiful and terrifyingly amoral Johan. From a certain perspective, Johan definitely brings out the best in him. Unfortunately for Roberto, this is a slight subversion, as his love for Johan is entirely one-sided due to Johan being completely inhuman.
  • Played with in Kyo and Tohru from Fruits Basket. While he's technically a human that turns into a cat when touched by members of the opposite sex, Kyo's "true" form is actually a monster. Furthermore, Kyo tends to consider himself a monster even when he's fully human.
  • In an episode of Slayers TRY, the heroes help out a fish woman (read: giant talking fish with arms and legs) who's in a relationship with a human man against her father's wishes get components for a potion that can supposedly help them out. It doesn't work, because although she gets turned into a human, he becomes a fish man!
  • Violinist of Hameln: Hamel might be very handsome and look nearly angelical at times (though it takes a while for the manga artwork to reflect this fact), but, being the son of the Demon King means he has a god-awful-looking alternate monster form he slips into whenever he loses his mind (though it can look compelling in the hands of the right artist). He's also a jerkish brat who puts on an arrogant façade to push people away. Also, kind, cute Flute is the one who not only turns him back into his human form, but also the one who coaxes him into slooooowly dropping the Jerkass 'tude.
  • Hyper Police: Tommy is a werewolf pretty much permanently stuck in wolf form, and deeply in love with Peau, a human woman. Though she rejects him at first, eventually they date, become a couple and even have children. A lot of children.
  • Alucard and Integra from Hellsing could be considered an example of this too, especially after the ending.

Integra: Welcome home, Count.
Alucard: I'm home, Countess.

    • Absolutely, a variation. Even with the girl's father sending her to deal with the 'beast'.
  • Krory and Eliade in D.Gray-man. Though Krory isn't ugly, he's vampire-like, has a feral and bloodthirsty Split Personality, and everyone in the village he lives in sees him as a monster. Eliade, on the other hand, is a beautiful woman who loves him despite what he is. Subverted, as it turns out Krory is a human with Innocence in his teeth that makes him thirst for Akuma blood, and Eliade is an Akuma who hopes Krory's love will redeem her.
  • Nanami and Tomoe in Kamisama Kiss. Nanami is a sweet teenage girl who inadvertently becomes the new Land God of Mikage Shrine and gains Tomoe, a ruthless fox-demon, as a familiar who isn't too fond of taking orders from her. Naturally, they start becoming attracted to each other.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist has a non-romantic subversion in Gluttony and Lust. Gluttony is the Homunculi's Dumb Muscle and has a lot of trouble getting through the day without someone telling him what to do; Lust is the brains and provides the orders that the big lug needs. The subversion comes from the fact that Lust is by far the more evil of the two, being a Card-Carrying Villain & Dark Action Girl who gets her kicks by hurting people, while Gluttony is an Obliviously Evil Anti-Villain. She does keep him focussed though, and hurting her is without a doubt his Berserk Button, complete with going One-Winged Angel.


Art

  • Luis Royo's paintings frequently contain images of this.


Comic Books

  • Benjamin J Grimm, a.k.a. the Thing, and the blind girl, Alicia Masters, from the Fantastic Four.
    • Lampshaded in the second movie, where Johnny asks Ben about the details. Ben is not amused.
  • Swamp Thing and Abigail Arcane
  • Cloak and Dagger, a Marvel Universe Superhero team, feature a beautiful, buxom blonde and a shadowed, hidden black man. Cloak tends to be the darker of the two (no surprise) and is more prone to violence and angst. Dagger is the front woman, and in a minor subversion, they actually feed off of each other—Cloak depends on her to keep him alive, by feeding him light-energy to resist the drain of his powers, and Dagger needs a safe outlet to release the energy that builds up inside her or it'll kill her.
  • The Hulk and Betty Ross.
  • DC's Angel and the Ape.
  • Marvel's Avengers: The Initiative has an inversion: Komodo and Hardball. Komodo is female and reptilian, while Hardball is an attractive blond guy with energy powers.
  • Tragic example: Marv and Goldie in Sin City. He has a single beautiful night with a Hooker with a Heart of Gold. Then she is murdered horribly, and Marv framed for the murder. Cue the Roaring Rampage of Revenge...
  • Teen Titans: Beast Boy has probably made a joke about this at some point. Raven probably didn't laugh. It's unlikely that he'd make a joke about Terra.
    • Knowing how Raven is in comics, she'd probably ask how that includes her.
    • Also despite being green Beast Boy is pretty much a Bishonen in most of his appearances.
  • Ultimate X-men once had Henry and Ororo to make this.


Fairy Tales

  • In The Frog Prince, the beauty breaks the frog curse on the prince by killing him (resurrected as a human, he then reveals that his curse could be broken only by a female killing him). This tale predates the Beauty and the Beast tales by centuries. Much later versions of the Frog Prince make the cure a kiss instead of a killing, but in most of the original tales, death or beatings at the hands of a woman were the only ways to turn the beast into a man.
  • Many other classic fairy tales are variations on this trope, like The Singing Springing Lark, East of the Sun, West of the Moon and others.


Fan Works

  • Name any X-Men romance fanfiction involving Nightcrawler or the Beast. Now see how many of those feature a female protagonist who is not a mutant herself.
    • Of course this may be canon, as both are stated to be handsome even with blue fur, and are usually paired off with very attractive normal girls (Nightcrawler's was revealed to be a witch, but we try to forget that. In X-Men: Evolution she is just plain normal).
  • Lampshaded in the title of the Metalocalypse Murderface/Skwisgaar Slash Fic Beauty and the Bassist. Murderface is by no means a monster, but he is an Ugly Cute Type A male Tsundere who can be awfully abrasive, and Skwisgaar is about as close to a bishonen as the show's art style gets.
  • The internet artist and writer Furioso, most if not all of whose oeuvre is erotic fan works of comic book characters (particularly Wonder Woman), is quite fond of this—to the point where the Beast need not even be sentient.


Film

  • Shrek and Princess Fiona, with a few interesting twists: Fiona is the one with the curse that turns her into an ogre after dark. When Shrek gives her True Love's Kiss, instead of Shrek turning into a prince, Fiona turns into an ogre. She takes this rather well considering her already ogre-like behavior. It comes back again in the first sequel when Shrek takes a potion that makes him a handsome human and restores Fiona's form... and when given the chance to make this permanent, she passes it up because they were both happier as ogres.
    • The "original" Beauty and the Beast from the fairy tale exist in this same universe too, according to a tie-in guide to the world of the films published by Dorling-Kindersley. It seems that these two had a twist to their relationship too, given that the book comments that they usually share a "glittering palace" in Far Far Away, but the Beast still has a spacious kennel to indulge his animal instincts in as well, implying that he never changed into a prince and Beauty's just fine with that.
  • Subverted in Brother Bear 2 with Nita and Kenai. Kenai is a bear (a literal beast), and Nita is his childhood friend. In the end, she transforms into a bear (courtesy of the spirits) so they can be together.
  • Quasimodo and Esmerelda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She ends up with Phoebus in the end, but it is indicated that she and Quasimodo remain good friends.
    • The sequel plays it straight all the way with a girl named Madellaine hooking up with Quasimodo.
  • In the film Mask (no, not The Mask), the main character Rocky has a disorder which causes his skull to be very enlarged and twisted, looking like a mask. He falls in love with blind girl Diana Adams, who he met at a summer camp for disabled teenagers. He teaches her how to "see" colours by using various objects to represent them. She still stays with him even after she feels his face and sees how deformed he is.
  • King Kong and Fay Wray deserve a special mention.
    • As well as Jackson's version, where the two actually communicate through actions several times. Word of God is that the affectionate interactions between Anne and Kong were based on the story of Koko the gorilla and her pet kitten.
  • The Toxic Avenger and Claire (there was a cartoon based on this).
    • Yeah, Toxic Crusaders, which featured Toxie and Yvonne, a ditzy nearsighted blonde girl who falls for him after he saves her from some thugs who want to rob her of her accordion in a junk yard. Yes, really.
      • The theme song from the commercials went something like "Toxic Crusaders! They're gross! But they still get girls."
  • Sort of used in the movie Disco Pigs. Pig isn't so much ugly as creepy-looking, and without Runt, he is violently insane.
  • Hellboy and Liz (only in the movies, though). Granted, Liz is hardly normal herself, but she can pass as a normal human when she's not bursting into flame.
    • However, her romantic options are basically restricted to Hellboy, as her powers are controlled by her emotions and she could set any lover literally ablaze. Thankfully, Hellboy is fireproof.
    • To a lesser extent, this also applies to Abe and Liz from the comics.
    • There's also Abe and Nuala in the sequel. Granted she's an elf, but she still is much closer to a human appearance than he is.
  • Subverted in the horror spoof Slither. Grant and Starla are married, Grant is forced to share a body with the head alien and ends up with Body Horror so extreme it makes most examples look adorable by comparison—he's also made the whole town into his personal alien zombie army and wants to use them to take over the planet. Only thing is, the Grant part of him still loves Starla. She tells him she'll stand by him, blahblahblah marriage is sacred Then stabs him in the face with a hairbrush handle, and five minutes later shoots to blow him up.
  • In the B-Movie spoof The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2004) the Damsel in Distress faints at the sight of the alien Mutant who carries her off in a Mars Needs Women fashion, only for her to be returned unharmed.

"It looked at me, with those eyes, those ugly eyes, and they looked deep into me, deeper than any human ever has, with a kind of understanding that frightened me to my very soul.

  • Penelope (2008) with Christina Ricci as a blue-blood woman with an inoperably deformed nose Gender Flips the story.
  • V and Evey from V for Vendetta (in both the movie and the graphic novel).
    • Although, in the graphic novel it's only a subtext and more like Evey just has a crush on V (which she grows out of) after he saves her being gang raped. Their relationship is much more like father and daughter for most of the book.
  • Edward and Kim from Edward Scissorhands.
  • Kyle/Adrian and Lindy in Beastly, based on the book of the same name by Alex Flinn.


Literature

  • Older Than Dirt: Enkidu and Shamhat in the first two tablets of The Epic of Gilgamesh. She's a beautiful temple prostitute. He's an unkempt, hairy wild man who lives in the wilderness.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire plays this one both straight with Sandor and Sansa's relationship (although with a big creepy factor due to their respective age), and subverted with Jaime Lannister and Brienne's relationship. In the latter case, Jaime is a handsome knight with a bad reputation as the Kingslayer and Brienne an ugly woman who is stubbornly honourable. However the two couples exist only as Subtext and tantalizing hints so far. The series in general is full of Beast and Beauty motives (including a ribald song titled 'the Bear and the Maiden Fair'), perhaps not as a coincidence since George RR Martin used to write for the Beauty and The Beast TV show.
  • Not ugly so much as horrifying-looking, Gwynplaine, star of Victor Hugo's novel The Man Who Laughs somehow managed to be a veritable babe magnet. It should be noted that Dea is blind and that Josiane is quite the (virgin) pervert. Also, Gwynplaine was pretty handsome, aside from his Glasgow Smile. The 1928 film adaptation inspired The Joker.
  • Cleft-palate serial killer Frances Dolarhyde, who believes he is hideously deformed but played by the handsome Ralph Fiennes in the movie, the eponymous Red Dragon, had a surprisingly sweet romantic relationship with a pretty blind coworker, before his split personality decided she had to die. Hannibal Lecter thought it was hilarious.
    • Dolarhyde is considerably creepier in Manhunter, the first version of the film, bald pate and hideous 80s fashion considering.
  • From Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series: Trool the Troll (literal troll with a heart of gold) and the vampiress Suchevane (described by more than one character as Sex On Two Legs, who was also inexplicably Unlucky In Love). It might have helped that Trool was both the Red Adept (maker of magic amulets and totems) and caretaker of the local Deus Ex Machina, the Book of Magic.
    • Also from Piers Anthony, Ogre, Ogre, with Smash the Ogre and Tandy the half-nymph.
  • Played with and gender switched in Bujold's short story Labyrinth. An eight foot tall experimental Super Soldier complete with fangs and claws can count as 'Beast', but considering that he is a four-foot-nine fast-talking hunchback Admiral Naismith does not quite fit most objective standards of 'Beauty'.
  • The Phantom and Christine from The Phantom of the Opera in novels, movies, plays, and fan fiction. In nearly all examples of these but the last, however, the Phantom realizes he's been a murderous Stalker with a Crush and lets Christine go so she can be happy with her handsome Victorious Childhood Friend Raoul, even after Christine has said she'll stay with the Phantom so Raoul's life will be spared.
  • Kerovan and Joisan, from The Crystal Gryphon (and its sequels). Although he never gets transformed to be less "different"—they just go to live among people who won't be weirded out by his cloven hooves. For quite a while there, though, he had the attitude that "no fit mate for any human woman am I." When your mother used evil magic to try to make you your world's equivalent of Damien Thorn, it kind of hurts your self-image.
  • The main plot of Quo Vadis revolves around Vinicius' transformation from a selfish, violent, lustful man to a devout Christian through his love for Lygia.
  • Gender-switched in the Nightside series, where John Taylor and Shotgun Suzie eventually end up sort of together. This is after half her face is destroyed by a blow from a spiked mace, a disfigurement the bounty huntress chooses to keep because it makes her even more terrifying.
  • In the Darkest Powers series, Chloe and Derek fit this to a T. Chloe is a cute little blond with big blue eyes. Derek, on the other hand... Let's just say that puberty has not been kind to him at all. And even if it all clears up perfectly, he'll never been male model material. 'Hulking' has been used to describe him. He is built like a linebacker, though.
  • Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier has Caitrin and Anluan in a surprisingly magic free version of the myth, considering the amount of magic present elsewhere in the book.
  • Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters features a subplot in which beautiful nineteen-year-old Marianne Dashwood gradually comes to love the much older Col. Brandon, who was cursed by a sea witch to have a writhing mass of tentacles hanging from his face, Davy Jones-style. (In the original story, Brandon was simply much older, so this trope doesn't apply there.)
  • In the story of The Nutcracker, Claire falls in love with the titular Nutcracker and declares to him that if he would have her, she would never reject him for how he looks. This is enough to break the curse and turn the Nutcracker back into a human man, as his curse could only be broken when someone loves him regardless of how he looks. Earlier, this trope is subverted when the Nutcracker (who is still human at the time) breaks the curse on a princess and is cursed in return, only for her to scorn him for being ugly.
  • The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey is based on the story of Beauty and The Beast.
  • Alex Flinn's Beastly is a modern retelling of Beauty and The Beast.
  • Essentially a re-imagining of the fairy tale for which this trope is named, Mercedes Lackey's book The Fire Rose features a pretty female scholar hired by a magician who has been shifted into a half-wolf form. Notably subverted near the end, when the beast chooses the life and love of the protagonist over the information that will allow him to return to human form.
  • Robin McKinley rewrote the story twice. She first wrote it fairly straightforward in her debut novel, Beauty a Retelling of Beauty And The Beast, which contains a number of similarities with Disney's animated version that came several years later. Some while after that, she reimagined the tale in Rose Daughter, which - among other things - had the Beast not turn back into a prince.


Live Action TV

  • Chloe and Davis / Doomsday on Smallville.
  • A television example comes from the 1984 miniseries V, wherein all the aliens look human, but are really reptiles. The alien Willie (played by a pre-Freddy Robert Englund) is a kindly, nerdy bumbler who strikes up a relationship with a human woman named Harmony. When she learns the truth, the horrified look on her face as his fake hand is ripped open was one of the most poignant scenes in the mini. Later, they hook up again as she admits that she didn't fall for his looks in the first place. Unfortunately, she is tragically killed in the end.
    • This mini also subverts the trope on a routine basis, but the nastiest example is with the character of Robin Maxwell. Long story short, she falls for one of the aliens, but it turns out she was only being manipulated into sleeping with him to conceive a hybrid child and their night together technically counts as rape. After she gives birth to two children, one mostly human and the other mostly reptilian, she murders the father with a bio-weapon engineered from the blood of the less human child.
  • In the third season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Beauty and the Beasts a fledgling Mad Scientist takes a potion which results in him transforming into a monster. His girlfriend is the only one who can calm him down. In a subversion, he's a murderer and the relationship is abusive.
    • On the other hand, Buffy's relationships with Angel and Spike both played this fairly straight. Although Buffy also abused Spike, which might make it better or worse depending on just how jaded you are.
    • Willow and Oz count in a way, as he was a Werewolf. The above-mentioned episode also focused heavily on Buffy/Angel and Willow/Oz to focus on different possibilities and aspects of this trope.
  • Max and Joshua in Dark Angel form a nonromantic example.
  • Mostly Deconstructed and Subverted in Once Upon a Time. Rumple is the beast, and while he softens a bit, love does not redeem him, the Evil Queen is more then happy to point out all the A Match Made in Stockholm implications of the setup as part of a Xanatos Gambit to ruin him, Belle almost de-powers him trying to cure him, he sends her away and the Queen gloatingly tells him that her superstitious village locked her up and tortured her until the poor girl threw herself off a tower, leaving our "beast" bereft with only a single chipped teacup as a Tragic Keepsake. Of course, her Majesty was lying about the suicide part, but Belle's real-world counterpart is locked in a Bedlam House.
  • Forever Knight Nick and Natalie, vampire and human.


Music

  • Invoked in Lordi's song "Would You Love a Monsterman?", and also with Mr. Lordi himself. His backstory has him perpetually searching for his One True Love, and his music videos often having him/the band pursuing or aiding a young (human) woman.
    • It looks like Mr. Lordi is bisexual (and also into bondage) -- at least one music video has him putting the moves on a strapping young man.


Mythology

  • The Greek god Hephaestus, son of Zeus and Hera, was so ugly he got thrown off Mt. Olympus as a baby and was crippled upon landing (or was defenstrated because he was born crippled). When the goddess of love, Aphrodite, needed a husband, all the unwed gods (including Hephaestus) were lined up for her to make her choice. Zeus chose Hephaestus for her—and she remained completely and utterly unfaithful to him.
    • In one version of that story, she chose him. In another version, Hephaestus built a chair that trapped Hera in it, and he refused to free her unless he could marry Aphrodite. The only thing all versions agree on is that she was totally unfaithful.
    • In yet ANOTHER version, Hera set Hephesteus up with Aphrodite to make up for throwing him from Olympus. And, being the goddess of marriage, she told him what to tell her so that she'd agree to marry him when she wouldn't marry any of the other gods: 'I work late.' So really, he had to know what he was getting into...
  • Hades and Persephone could also fit this trope—though Hades is not always depicted as physically monstrous, he is the God of the Dead, which tends to give everyone else an aversion to him. And true, Persephone was kidnapped against her will, but still ends up Queen of the underworld. They're also one of the very few Happily Married pairs in the entire pantheon.
  • Another fits most of the same elements of the tale, but acts as a whopping subversion: Psyche was considered to be as pretty as/prettier than Aphrodite. But, she finds it difficult to find a husband. An oracle deemed that she was to be left on the side of a mountian as a bride to a winged monster. Psyche was taken to a beautiful palace, attended to by invisible servants, and her husband would come by night, but not stay until morning. In the darkness, she could not see his face. Her sisters convince her that her husband is a terrible beast that means to devour her and their unborn child, and to hide an oil lamp and a knife for the next time he comes to visit. Turns out, her unseen husband was anything but a beast - Aphrodite's own son Eros had decided to marry her.


Theatre

Roxane: Live, for I love you!
Cyrano: No, In fairy tales
When to the ill-starred Prince the lady says
'I love you!' all his ugliness fades fast--
But I remain the same, up to the last!

    • In an even more tragic sense, it means that Roxane's love cannot surpass Cyrano's self loathing.


Video Games

  • Odin Sphere: Cornelius (White Prince cursed into Pooka, a rabbit-like creature) and Velvet (Stripperiffic princess). Just like the Shrek example, Velvet also turns into a Pooka. However, if the bonus ending is achieved, both turn human again.
  • Ziggurat 8 (Ziggy) and MOMO in Xenosaga, a killer cyborg and an adorable Robot Girl. Their relationship is parental in nature, however.
  • Though it's unofficial, Thrall and Jaina from the recent Warcraft installments and storylines are heavily implied by the fans as such example of the trope. Though that's more on the fact that Thrall is considered a Noble Demon among his kind...
    • While Thrall may have the Freudian Excuse of being Raised By Humans, Jaina just averts Fantastic Racism.
    • There's also the more canonical example of Thrall and Tabetha Foxton.
    • Also played with Tyrande Whisperwind and Malfurion Stormrage. He's starting to grow antlers, but she's the more zealous one.
  • The furry, horned, and cloven-hooved satyr/Giant Maduin and the human woman Madeline in Final Fantasy VI. They even had a half-Esper half-human daughter, Terra. There is a minor subversion though, as it turns out Humans Are the Real Monsters and drive them apart, leading to the deaths of the lovers and the capture of the infant Terra.
  • A variation in Jak and Daxter: Daxter meets a girl who falls in love with him, despite him presently being a two-foot-tall Ottsel (he was originally a humanoid just like her). Inverted in that she does most of the protecting, indirectly by giving the powerful weapons she makes to his partner Jak. In the third game, even though Daxter finally gets the chance to become normal again, he decides against it. But it works out, when the girl in question gets turned into an Ottsel herself shortly afterward.
  • Chibi-Robo! has Mort and Princess Pitts. Mort is a shy, melancholy mummy action figure who literally kills every plant he touches, and who dearly wishes he could properly express his feelings for the princess doll Pitts. Unfortunately, Pitts is terrified of anything even remotely monstrous. However, she's so touched by the kindness Mort shows her that she begs Chibi to help her overcome her fears. In the end, they get Happily Married, and live happily in Mort's shoebox under the bed with their children.
  • In the ending of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Raiden makes this comparison between him and Rose. Rose fiercely denies this, saying that he is not a beast -- he is their son's father as well as the man she loves.


Web Comics

  • The webcomic Kevin and Kell reversed this in every way imaginable—not only are the genders reversed, the "beast" is the Human, since the comic takes place in a world of Funny Animals. It all, of course, culminates in a perfect replay of the ballroom scene from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast... with the only difference being who is the Beauty and who is the Beast.
  • The Furry Fandom in general reverses this trope. The humans are the scary ones in many cases.
  • The original Drowtales had this set up with Ariel and Rik, with Rick eventually growing selfish and possessive and betraying everyone so he can have Ariel for himself. The remakes retconned this, turning Rik into a Stalker with a Crush, who tried to rape Ariel twice, and had a bridge dropped on him the second time, taking all potential future plot he was meant to be implied in, with him.
  • The "beast" in Slightly Damned (a demon) is told an in-universe variant of the trope-naming story. He doesn't like it, since even if he is loved by his "beauty" (an angel), he'll never stop being a demon. This becomes less and less of an impediment as the story progresses.
  • Homestuck has a platonic version between Equius and Nepeta. Equius is a Fantastic Racist With a Heart of Gold who builds robots so he can beat them to bits with his bare hands. Nepeta spends most of her time roleplaying and being a Shipper on Deck for all their friends. Equius specifically mentions that he's scared of what he might be without Nepeta taklepouncing him and making him talk about his feelings.
  • This is a HUGE theme in Karate Bears. here are some examples. A B C


Web Original

  • In The Gamers Alliance, Omaroch is a demon warrior and Delora ia a human cleric. Despite their opposite alignments, they bond and learn valuable lessons from one another, and eventually get married.


Western Animation

  • Pictured above are Goliath and Elisa Maza from Gargoyles. During a Halloween episode, Elisa even dresses as Belle from the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. However, while they were good friends, they didn't really notice that other options might present themselves until Elisa was mystically changed, briefly, into a Gargoyle (and then, later, Goliath and the others became humans, also for a short time). Interestingly, it was Goliath (the "beast") who didn't find Elisa physically attractive at first, not the other way around. Elisa had always been attracted to him.

Goliath: I never realized, when you were human, how beautiful you are.
Elisa: *wryly* You mean you thought I was ugly?
Goliath: Well, uhh... Careful! Updraft!

    • Their relationship is also one of the few exceptions to the Beast and Beauty rule in that neither changed their species permanently for the other, yet they still end up being together despite their physical differences.
    • Amusingly, a number of other characters notice it long before their first kiss. When Elisa was pretending to be a corrupted cop to get close to a slippery criminal and Goliath played along, the criminal instantly assumed that they were together and congratulated Goliath on his good taste.
    • Word of God holds that Goliath finds Elisa's hair to be an attractive feature, and the lack of wings or tail or horns were not, but he had his eyes opened when she turned into a gargoyle. The main thing he's attracted to about her is her soul.
  • The Huge Guy, Tiny Girl duo in Wild CATS—they're just friends but the Tiny Girl ensures that the Huge Guy remains a sane Gentle Giant.
  • Marsala and Nara Burns on Exo Squad.
  • In X-Men Evolution, the demon-like Nightcrawler becomes the boyfriend of pretty-girl Amanda Sefton.
  • Lydia Deetz, the beauty to Beetlejuice's beast. The title of one episode, "Beauty And The Beetle," even tells it.
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