But Your Wings Are Beautiful: Difference between revisions

The most common explanation is that the character believes themselves to be some kind of "freak", thinks [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]], and is scared of being tracked down by a [[Torches and Pitchforks]] mob and/or a [[Mad Scientist]], [[For Science!|for]] [[Theyd Cut You Up|obvious]] [[Playing with Syringes|reasons]]. Sometimes it's justified when, say, a character now looks like the enemy or [[Fantastic Racism|another reviled species]], or their culture involves torching anyone with a tail. Only if these attitudes are consistent with the world they inhabit however - unless the point is that the character is being too pessimistic about people's capacity for tolerance. Sometimes they'll look for a "cure". Ironically, if they manage to remove the fantastic feature they [[Flowers for Algernon Syndrome|won't become happy]], and tend to feel like a [[Broken Angel]] instead.

* [[Winged Humanoid|Hawk]] in S.L. Viehl's [[Stardoc]] series is revealed to have a full-sized pair of wings, courtesy of part-alien heritage. How did he hide them, you ask? By strapping them down to his back, under his clothing, so tightly that he was in constant pain. The resulting crouched posture and uncamouflagable hump on his back caused the main character to assume he had a horrendous spinal birth defect instead. Upon finally being let in on the secret, a stunned and enchanted Cherijo utters this trope practically to the letter. (Then again, Hawk wasn't hiding his wings so much because he was ashamed of them as because they could get him in trouble with the [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|Earth]] [[Fantastic Racism|government]]. {{spoiler|As if being a [[Transparent Closet|closet]] [[Invisible to Gaydar|case]]—and having [[Depraved Bisexual|Rico]] take advantage of his feelings—wasn't bad enough.}})