So Beautiful It's a Curse: Difference between revisions

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Note that this trope can be justified in some cases, if a character is shown to inspire [[Green-Eyed Monster|jealousy]], [[Attractiveness Isolation|intimidation]], [[Male Gaze|unwanted]] [[Stalker with a Crush|attention]], or is only noticed because of their looks and not their personal merits. Women whose lives actually have been rendered miserable by their looks are seldom shown whining about it -- which makes them more sympathetic by itself. A woman's victim in [[Fairest of Them All]] seldom curses her luck, for instance. Partly, no doubt, because she's too busy trying to survive.

This leads us to the darker, and far less [[Mary Sue|Sue-driven]] application of this trope, where a character will be so beautiful, alluring or appealing that he or she will be the target of unwanted, sexualized attention. This would be the polar opposite of the character mentioned above whose beauty is causing them far less serious hardship, and takes a rather less rosy look at what could happen if anyone's attention to an extremely attractive character was [[Yandere|less]] [[Stalker with a Crush|than]] [[If I Can't Have You|pure]], or if they [[Rape Is Love|were aggressive about it]]. Usually the results are... [[Dark and Troubled Past|less than pretty, to say the least]]. This take on this trope will often be invoked in serious love and drama stories, usually aimed at an older demographic and looking at the grimmer aspects of human nature. Expect rape, stalking, or molestation to be at least mentioned, if not inspected rather closely, and be assured that it ''will'' show up in the plot in some shape or form. Odds are that there will be some serious form of [[Break the Cutie]] going on, either in backstory or in the main story, and that this will not be the kind an audience will be unsympathetic towards. This is basically what happens when beauty actually ''is'' making this person's life miserable.

This leads us to the darker, and far less [[Mary Sue|Sue-driven]] application of this trope, where a character will be so beautiful, alluring or appealing that he or she will be the target of unwanted, sexualized attention. This would be the polar opposite of the character mentioned above whose beauty is causing them far less serious hardship, and takes a rather less rosy look at what could happen if anyone's attention to an extremely attractive character was [[Yandere (disambiguation)|less]] [[Stalker with a Crush|than]] [[If I Can't Have You|pure]], or if they [[Rape Is Love|were aggressive about it]]. Usually the results are... [[Dark and Troubled Past|less than pretty, to say the least]]. This take on this trope will often be invoked in serious love and drama stories, usually aimed at an older demographic and looking at the grimmer aspects of human nature. Expect rape, stalking, or molestation to be at least mentioned, if not inspected rather closely, and be assured that it ''will'' show up in the plot in some shape or form. Odds are that there will be some serious form of [[Break the Cutie]] going on, either in backstory or in the main story, and that this will not be the kind an audience will be unsympathetic towards. This is basically what happens when beauty actually ''is'' making this person's life miserable.

It is important to remember though, that [[Tropes Are Tools]], and that the [[Lighter and Fluffier]] version of this trope can be used just as effectively as its more [[Angst|Angsty]] partner if written well in a particular context. However, be warned in that this particular trope can be '''''very''''' easy to misuse! If done well, either take on this trope can be used to do anything from establishing a non-sympathetic character view to developing a deconstruction on the entire trope, looking at the nature of superficiality and some of the more perverse inclinations of human beings. However, if done badly, it can do anything from creating a shallowly crafted [[Canon Sue]] or [[Mary Sue]] to cobbling together a particularly [[Moral Dissonance|Morally Dissonant]] [[Hurt Comfort Fic]].

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* Post-Eclipse Casca serves as another negative example in ''[[Berserk]]'', though she does not say so herself (or rather, she is unable to because of her [[Go Mad From the Revelation|insanity]]). True to [[The Ophelia]] ideal, Casca has now became much more beautiful with the added bonus of becoming [[Damsel in Distress|innocent and defenseless]], but now attracts the attention of plenty of lewd men who want to have their way with her. Luca, Casca's one-time [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold|kind-hearted prostitute caretaker]], is aware of this, and tries to [[Defied Trope|defy this outcome as best as she can]] by [[Bandaged Face|wrapping Casca's face in bandages]] and passes her off as a victim of syphilis.

** Even before the Eclipse, Casca had to deal with would-be assailants, all of whom never passed up the chance to tell her how attractive she was before trying to rape her. They were fewer and farther between, however, due to her being 1) a mercenary who could take care of herself if needed, and 2) surrounded by other mercenaries who viewed her as a "sister."

* Yvienne from ''[[Ciel ~~the~~ Last Autumn Story]]'' plays with this trope. One of her teachers compares her to an equally beautiful woman she knew named Saskia, who killed herself, and says that because Yvienne's been able to get so much so easily with it, she doesn't know how to value anything and will eventually think of everything as being trivial. Yvienne herself even says, "Have you ever once heard of a really beautiful woman being happy?" However, at the same time she knows that it's a very real benefit to her, and has no qualms about using it to her advantage whenever she has to, and almost all of her complaints about it are just made jokingly.

* Yvienne from ''[[Ciel: The Last Autumn Story]]'' plays with this trope. One of her teachers compares her to an equally beautiful woman she knew named Saskia, who killed herself, and says that because Yvienne's been able to get so much so easily with it, she doesn't know how to value anything and will eventually think of everything as being trivial. Yvienne herself even says, "Have you ever once heard of a really beautiful woman being happy?" However, at the same time she knows that it's a very real benefit to her, and has no qualms about using it to her advantage whenever she has to, and almost all of her complaints about it are just made jokingly.

* In ''Family Complex'' we have the Sakamoto family where every member, [[All of the Other Reindeer|except Akira]], is beautiful. They say that it's annoying since they get stared at a lot and the little girl gets cornered by perverts a lot .. [[Hypocritical Humor|but also know (and take use of) the many advantages beauty can bring them]]!

* Miu of ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]]'' is quite beautiful... so much so that she had some social problems at her last school because of it (implied to be other girls bullying her). To that end, in her current school she puts on glasses and wears her hair in braids to make herself look plainer, specifically to avoid such problems (although she's still considered gorgeous by her classmates).