But Your Wings Are Beautiful/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: An abnormal physical trait a character is ashamed of is admired by another character.

  • Straight: Bob has a pair of wings which causes him to be an outcast. His Love Interest Alice however, thinks that they are beautiful.
  • Exaggerated: Bob's wings are moth-like, horrible, and everyone thinks they're ugly, except Alice.
  • Justified:
    • The wings in question are bird-like and angelic, adding to his already Bishonen appearance.
    • Alternatively: Alice thinks Freaky Is Cool, regardless of what Bob's wings look like.
  • Inverted:
    • Everyone likes Bob's wings except Alice. Bob, who is very proud of his wings, is baffled by Alice's poor reaction.
    • Alternatively: Bob hides his wings because eveyone makes a big fuss over how pretty they are, and is relieved when Alice can see past his feathers to who he is inside.
    • Alternatively again, Bob considers his wings to be his only attractive feature, and Alice struggles to convince him she finds his human features handsome as well.
  • Subverted: Everyone is freaked out by Bob's wings and refuses to go near him except for Alice, but it turns out she just needs one of his feathers for a scavenger hunt.
  • Double Subverted: The scavenger hunt was just an excuse to be near his wings.
  • Parodied:
    • Bob's wings aren't just ugly, but autonomous and go out of their way to annoy people. Alice thinks they're cute.
    • Alternatively Bob's wings aren't really ugly but Alice is WAY too into them, to the point that she constantly stares at them and tries to feel them up whenever she gets a chance. Bob is creeped out.
    • Alice tells Bob the reason people make fun of him isn't because of his wings. It's because he's a big baby about it.
  • Deconstructed:
    • Bob feels alienated by the wings because of the gawking reactions. People don't actually think they're ugly, but a lifetime of cruelty makes him believe they do. Alice has to work through the self loathing just to reach him.
    • Alternatively, the actual problems with humanoid wings are prominently addressed: being unable to sit in large backed chairs, being unable to lie on his back, the difficulties of wearing upper body clothing, the constant weight on the back, etc. Basically, the actual reasons he could complain about the wings. Obviously, this can't apply if the wings are detachable or stored in Hammerspace most of the time.
    • Alternatively, Bob's disfigurements are truly horrifying. Alice is the only one that thinks they're beautiful, causing people to distance themselves from her.
    • Again, alternatively, Bob finds his unusual features very ugly and would do anything to get rid of them. He is seriously annoyed by Alice who doesn't care about his personal feelings and only likes him because of those features. Bonus points if Alice is an annoying little fangirl, and Bob reminds her of some character from her favorite (badly written) work of fiction.
    • Alternatively one more time, Bob calls Alice out on her claim, who admits that it was a lie to cheer Bob up/make him ignore his wings. This causes Bob to react even worse to Alice then normal.
  • Reconstructed: But, once Bob gets a good PR image thanks to Alice helping him do community/hero work, his self esteem improves and people respond positively to him.
    • Alternatively, Bob gets help for dealing with the physical difficulties presented by his wings, not unlike the help reserved for people with disabilities.
    • Alternatively, this behavior is normal for Alice, for better or worse.
    • If the physical problems with Bob's wings are addressed, he replies that with magic or hammerspace, he can make them disappear and reappear whenever he wants.
  • Zig Zagged: People pelt Bob with screams because his wings are so ugly, but it turns out they're actually fangirls wanting autographs. Once they get them it's revealed they're fangirls who like mocking winged freaks.
  • Averted: People don't care about his wings, ugly or no. They're more concerned with whether he's part of the good super people or bad super people.
  • Enforced: The authors realize that the fangirls are squeeing over Bob's wings, and so have characters start reacting the same way.
  • Lampshaded:
    • "You'd think a guy with angel wings would get a more positive reaction from crowds"
    • "What are those lumps on my back? They're cancers, aren't they?" "No, they're... wings..." "Well, that's even worse than tumors." "I don't thinkl so..."
  • Invoked: Bob wants to get together with Alice, so he feigns being all emotional and angsty about his wings to try and get her to react this way.
  • Defied: Bob realizes that his newfound wings may make him feel like a freak, so he does things to build his self esteem like pose for Alice's paintings, or do community service taking medical supplies to hard to reach places.
  • Discussed: "I don't mind the gawkers, hecklers, or pelters, Alice. However, if I have to hear one more crack about hovering over a barn, there's going to be a special on street pizza."
  • Conversed: "Finally, someone in that show realizes those wings just make him hotter."

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