Ugly Hero, Good-Looking Villain: Difference between revisions

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[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]. Differs from a subversion of [[Beauty Equals Goodness]] in having this specific pairing. Expect the villain to play upon Genre Blind characters to make them turn against the hero and for [[An Aesop]] about the villain "being the real monster". This is fairly common in [[Beast and Beauty]] plots.

Often seen in series where [[Beauty Is Bad]] and where [[Hot Guys Are Bastards]].

* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' has handsome and charming [[Villain Protagonist]] Light facing unsocial and somewhat wild-looking [[Hero Antagonist]] L. Interestingly, though, whenever Light is being particularly evil, his face tends to twist into asymmetrical grins and other bizarre expressions that utterly break his boyish handsomeness.

* ''[[Monster (Animemanga)|Monster]]'': While not really ugly, Tenma is somewhat old and plain, and occasionally sports the unshaven hobo look, in stark contrast to [[Even the Guys Want Him|Joh]][[Complete Monster|an]].

* Rorschach of ''[[Watchmen]]'' is quite homely and short, both of which are mentioned in-story at least once. Also, he smells bad, dresses scruffily and has terrible table manners. And the villain, {{spoiler|Ozymandias}}, is attractive in a sort of fey, [[Bishounen]] way and [[Wicked Cultured]]. Subverted in that they're both [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]], but Rorschach is also a [[Noble Bigot]], a rape apologist, a [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] ... but, then again, Rorschach killed a handful of dangerous criminals, whereas {{spoiler|Ozymandias killed two million innocent people}} with the intention (possibly successful) of saving billions from nuclear war.

* ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and Thethe Beast]]'' uses this with ugly hero The Beast and [[Handsome Lech]] villain Gaston. This is [[Older Than They Think|"borrowed"]] from Jean Cocteau's film ''[[Beauty and Thethe Beast (Film1946 film)|La Belle et la Bête]]''. Interestingly, in Cocteau's version, the same actor played both the Beast and the Gaston-equivalent, and when the latter is killed, he takes on the Beast's appearance and the Beast's human form is that of the handsome villain. This situation leads the Belle character to muse whether she preferred this old form; this line was actually suggested to end Disney's movie as well.

* ''[[Hellboy (Filmfilm)|Hellboy]]'' is more frightening than ugly, but at least two of his enemies ('''Grigori Rasputin''' and his Nazi henchwoman, Ilsa Haupstein) are definitely [[Evil Is Sexy|sexy-type villains]]. Also note Prince Nuada, a very handsome elf prince, is the main antagonist of the second movie.

** Granny Weatherwax was never particularly attractive (although ugly would be an exaggeration), her sister Lilith is a [[Knight Templar]] fairy godmother (did the writers of ''Shrek'' read ''[[Witches Abroad]]''?) who looks like a younger and prettier version of Granny, and ironically was supposed to be the good one of the family.

** In ''[[Night Watch (Discworld)|Night Watch]]'', the villainous Captain Swing believes in something like phrenology and thinks that rough heroic cop Sam Vimes has the face of a murderer, while [[Serial Killer]] Carcer has an honest face. Although it's been noted (and explored particularly in that book) that Vimes does have the capacity to be a murderer, but doesn't let himself.

** ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'' uses the monster Aesop noted above. The heroine, Susan, is a nanny and uses a fireplace poker to kill monsters. At the end of the book, the [[Psycho for Hire|psychopathic assassin]] Teatime (whose boyish good looks are marred only by [[Red Right Hand|his creepy eyes]]) is at their home, along with Susan's grandfather, [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] (long story). Teatime tries to convince the children that he is good and that Death is the one they should be afraid of and ends up with the poker being run through him, with one of the kids pointing out that the poker "only kills monsters".

** Not to mention ''[[Lords and Ladies]]'', the Pratchett version of [[Can't Argue Withwith Elves]]. Elves are ''beautiful'', or at least appear to be.

* Played with in [[Harry Potter]]. [[The Hero|Harry]] starts off as a scrawny ten year old with "knobbly knees" and [[Nerd Glasses]], but is definitely implied to get more attractive as the series progresses. [[Big Bad|Lord Voldemort]] on the other hand, is stated to be very good-looking when he was younger, but as he gets older [https://web.archive.org/web/20210302191721/http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp19/pinkpandachan16/pictures%20of22520of2%0people250people%20in2520in%20places2520places%20and2520and%20time2520time/large_lord-voldemort.jpg?t=1247704758 this diminishes somewhat]{{Dead link}} ([[Evil Makes You Ugly|although it was his own fault]]). This is also shown with Draco Malfoy; although Harry is more unconventional than ugly, he's not played up to be anywhere near as good-looking as [[Draco in Leather Pants|his enemy]], who is described to sound almost [[bishonen]] (and a bit [[A Nazi Byby Any Other Name|Aryan]]).

* ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Literaturenovel)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'': Outside social shunning in general, the good-hearted but grotesque Quasimodo has his counterpart in handsome Phoebus, who is an utter bastard (and who, typically of [[Victor Hugo]], gets a [[Karma Houdini]]).

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* ''[[El Chavo Deldel Ocho]]'': Don Ramon invoked the trope while selecting a cast for a play held at the neighborhood when Dona Florinda complained about her son playing a villain instead of a hero. She bought the excuse.

* The Aesop that just won't die in ''[[Gargoyles (Animation)|Gargoyles]]'': First, there's [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity|David Xanatos]]. Then comes [[Badass Grandpa|Macbeth]]. Then the creators decided to finally make it explicit with the Hunter family, especially [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|the youngest Canmore brother]].

* In the second episode of ''[[Ruby-Spears Superman (Animation)|Ruby-Spears Superman]]'', Superman has a problem with an alien monster from a space police officer's spaceship. He had a choice between a ugly male and a beautiful female as either cop or crook.. It turns out the ugly male cop was the cop and the female was the crook. Bonus point for revealing that her stage was cocoon stage of the alien monster race had a battle with.