History Main / BeautyToBeast

Also related to IJustWantToBeBeautiful as the most likely reaction to losing beauty. See also PowerUpgradingDeformation for a silver lining to this fall from grace.

** ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivor Resident Evil: Dead Aim]]'': Morpheus D. Duvall was a former Umbrella executive obsessed with eugenics and beauty who it is stated had undergone plastic surgery in order to retain their youthful appearance. While biologically male, their transformation into a Tyrant initially sees them take on an attractive female form, though as the fight goes on, damage leads to the same uncontrolled mutations as other damaged Tyrants, causing them to turn into an enormous mass of flesh. To quote the Sphere Hunter in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R10dA-uWMc&t=1872s her video]] on the game:

* OlderThanFeudalism: Very common in Myth/ClassicalMythology. If a parent's boasting about their daughter's good looks didn't get them sacrificed to the nearest sea-god, then the girl herself, saying she was lovelier than the goddesses, would find herself [[BodyHorror transformed into a horrible monster of some sort.]] Meet Medusa. This also had an uncanny tendency to happen to [[TheMistress any]] [[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal woman]] whom [[ImAManICantHelpIt Zeus]] found to be more sexually attractive than [[ClingyJealousGirl his wife Hera]]

* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', the Claymore warriors definitely seem pretty, but let's not forget the whole [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Awakening]] thing.
** Nor the fact that the incisions necessary to infuse Youma flesh into human bodies to make Claymores leave scars bad enough (not shown for quite a while in the manga, never in the anime) that, in her back story, Teresa used them to eliminate any ideas a gang of bandits had about raping her. [[spoiler: They don't look bad for the first few seconds, until you realize that there is a deep and ''[[WoundThatWillNotHeal permanent]]'' incision where guts and blood can spill out, that starts at her chest ''and connects to her vagina'']].
* ''Manga/AssassinationClassroom'': As revealed in his backstory, [[spoiler:Koro-Sensei]] was quite the {{bishonen}}. [[spoiler:Dangerous antimatter experiments ended up turning him into the cartoonish octopus creature he is today.]]

* ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'': Although already pretty much a PsychoForHire, when the Comedian's face is slashed open in a bar during the war in Vietnam by a [[PregnantBadass pregnant Vietnamese woman]], he reacts by pulling out a gun and [[MoralEventHorizon shooting her in her very visibly-swollen belly]]. And the child she was carrying? Was ''his''. The gash on his face, made with a broken glass bottle, scarred horribly.
* One of the ComicBook/{{Punisher}}'s RoguesGallery is a prime example. Billy Russo was originally nicknamed "The Beaut", but after the Punisher introduced him face-first to a glass pane, he now goes by the name Jigsaw. Granted Russo was already a murderous mobster when the Punisher met him, but as Jigsaw he's gone completely AxCrazy.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, two ex-Cerberus characters discuss this trope with an Alliance soldier who happens upon them. One even has her pre-enlistment headshot--a marked difference from her current {{Cyborg}} form. Her friend even [[LampshadeHanging comments]] on how "cliche" the transformation is. Before, idealistic ([[TakeOurWordForIt presumably attractive]]) young woman who wanted to defend humanity when [[FantasticRacism no one else would]]. After, a hideous abomination with sunken ElectronicEyes, DeathSeeker tendencies, and bloody cybernetics sticking out of places since ([[PunchClockVillain working for]]) EvilMakesYouUgly without [[NoOSHACompliance OSHA compliance]].

* Erik (Creator/ClaudeRains) in ''Film/PhantomOfTheOpera1943'' had him starting out looking normal and then disfigured afterward, in that case by a vitriol-throwing -- probably that plot-device came by way of ''Film/MysteryOfTheWaxMuseum'' (1935 -- remade in TheFifties as ''Film/HouseOfWax1953'' (which is probably another example)). Other adaptations of the novel that disfigure their Erik-equivalents include [[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1962 the 1962 film]], ''Film/PhantomOfTheParadise'', [[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1983 a 1983 TV movie]], and [[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1989 the 1989 film]], but in the book and other adaptations he's deformed from birth.

* "Baby" Jane Hudson in ''Film/WhatEverHappenedToBabyJane'' She freaks out when she happens to glance in the mirror when she's reliving her child star career and sees her ravaged, sagging, horribly made-up face staring back at her.

* Cleopatra in ''Film/{{Freaks}}''. It's very much a KarmicTransformation.
* In ''Film/TheHunger'' (and the novel it was based on), a human who is turned by vampire Miriam will maintain their good looks for several centuries, so long as he/she feeds once a week. What happens when those centuries are up? RapidAging, as her current lover John learns. John is played by Music/DavidBowie, and the scenes that document his aging, aging, ''aging'' into decrepit hideousness are regarded as a triumph of special effects makeup work even today.
* In ''Film/Deadpool2016'', Wade Wilson was played by an [[HeroicBuild appealingly muscular]] Ryan Reynolds. After he contracted terminal cancer, volunteered for an experimental program as a last-ditch attempt to cure it, and was subjected to horrifying mad science torture in an attempt to give him superpowers, Wade lost his boyish good looks and most of his sanity, becoming a bald, CoveredWithScars CloudCuckoolander.
* ''Film/WhenEvilCalls'':
** Victoria is a [[AlphaBitch beautiful and popular student]]. [[DrivenByEnvy Jealous of her gorgeous looks]], the [[PlainJane homely Jane]] wishes she was prettier than Victoria. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Jane's wish is granted]] and Victoria is horribly disfigured in a [[FreakLabAccident lab accident]] that destroys her beauty and leaves her face a [[FacialHorror horrifying mess]].
** The stunning and [[BigBreastPride well-endowed]] Carol wishes she was older after her teacher, Mr. Dale, rebuffs her [[TeacherStudentRomance attempt at seduction]]. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor She soon ages so rapidly that most of her skin rots away and her face becomes a living skeleton.]]

* In ''[[Film/TheGrudge The Grudge 2]]'' series, [[AlphaBitch the popular school beauties]] of the International High School, Vanessa and Miyuki, are transformed into horrifying ghosts by the Grudge curse. Vanessa also loses her beauty while she is still alive.
* Laura in ''Film/FriendRequest'' is the most gorgeous and popular girl in her school, but the spirit of a tormented classmate gradually deprives her of her looks, leaving her disfigured and ugly.
* In ''Film/BloodRedSky'', it's shown in flashbacks that Nadja was a fairly attractive woman when she was human. Then she got bitten by a vampire, and in the universe of this film, vampires [[LooksLikeOrlok Look Like Orlok]]. By the start of the film, her infection has already caused her hair to fall out, forcing her to wear a wig. Her transformation speeds up considerably after she gets shot and then loses access to the medicine that stalls her infection, and by the end, the other passengers aboard the plane are reacting to her with horror as she turns increasingly inhuman.

* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, the stylishly handsome Bill Weasley has his face clawed by a werewolf, leaving permanent extensive scars. Once his family learns that his personality will be intact, they secretly hope that his ruined looks will drive off his fiancée Fleur, whom everyone but Bill can't stand. Upon hearing a suggestion of doing this from Molly Weasley, Fleur denies that the thought even crossed her mind, declaring that she is more than pretty enough for the both of them. After this, the Weasley family starts to warm up to her.
** Voldemort was originally very good-looking, but his dark magic and his curse backfiring on him when he tried to kill Harry Potter corrupted him into a snakelike creature. This doesn't seem to bother him since he just wants to live forever anyway.
* In the book of ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'', the first part of "Chapter One: the Bride" is about the most beautiful women in the world, and how they all lost their looks. (One [[FormerlyFit lost her figure to chocolate]]; one survived smallpox, even if her skin did not; and one worried so much about whether she was "perfect" that [[SelfFulfillingProphecy she prematurely aged herself]].)
** [[FateWorseThanDeath "To the pain"]] is an example as well; it disfigures someone's body and face, leaving them with their ears perfectly intact ears to hear how repulsed everyone is with them. Westley threatens to do this to Humperdinck, though it never happens.
* In the modern "Beauty and the Beast" adaptation ''Literature/{{Beastly}}'', the JerkJock is cursed by a witch to become a beast because he's [[ItsAllAboutMe so shallow and self-centered]] that all anyone likes him for are his looks.
** The film adaptation ''tried'' to do this, but most critics felt that he merely became HollywoodHomely instead. He [[AdaptationalAttractiveness still gets to keep his six-pack abs]], and he looks more like a hardcore punk kid than anything else. Some viewers ([[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/2/28/ including]] [[Webcomic/PennyArcade Gabe and Tycho]]) even felt that he was ''more'' attractive and badass-looking in his "beast" form than he was in "[[PrettyBoy pretty-boy]]" mode.

* In one of Creator/JackVance's ''Literature/DyingEarth'' stories, a beautiful witch curses her victim by giving him the hideous face of a demon. At the end of the story, he regains his rightful appearance, and she... well, guess.

* In ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'', Glokta is this with a side of BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil (for a given value of evil; as [[BlackAndGrayMorality this series goes]], he's one of the least bad guys). He was originally a good-looking up-and-coming officer until he was captured by the Gurkish. Among other things, he was subjected to EyeScream and TheToothHurts, which had obvious effects on his face.
* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' has Silk's mother, a former beauty who was badly scarred by a plague. It's described as so tragic -- for Silk and his father -- that Silk spent 20 years out of the country and breaks down crying after seeing her, and his aunt describes it as a mercy that the plague also left her blind so she couldn't see what had become of her face. Something of a BrokenAesop, given that Silk is a genius who occasionally {{lampshade|Hanging}}s that he's stuck with the FaceOfAThug.
* Tanith Lee's short story "The Beast" is a "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast" retelling that inverts a lot of the fairytale's traditional tropes: instead of Vessavion starting the story as an ugly Beast who becomes handsome at the end when the Beauty returns to him and recognizes his inner beauty, he starts the story as a handsome and seemingly perfect man who [[KarmicTransformation becomes an ugly Beast]] (and [[DeathByDespair dead]]) at the end when his wife Isobel leaves him after learning about his secret hobby of murdering ugly people and taking their incongruously beautiful body parts for his collection.

* OlderThanFeudalism: Very common in Myth/ClassicalMythology. If a parent's boasting about their daughter's good looks didn't get them sacrificed to the nearest sea-god, then the girl herself, saying she was lovelier than the goddesses, would find herself [[BodyHorror transformed into a horrible monster of some sort.]] Meet Medusa.
** This also had an uncanny tendency to happen to [[TheMistress any]] [[DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal woman]] whom [[ImAManICantHelpIt Zeus]] found to be more sexually attractive than [[ClingyJealousGirl his wife Hera]]
* Of course, this is the backstory of the fairy tale "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast".

* [[GorgeousGorgon Medusa]] cites this as her motivation for trying to attack Skyworld in ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', but Palutena quickly points it out to being a FreudianExcuse, saying she just changed Medusa's appearance to match her dark heart.
* Cassiopeia in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' was once a beautiful noble's daughter who seduced other men in order to gather secrets for her father. This proves her undoing when one of these lovers makes her take a vow of secrecy upon a serpentine blade...turning her into a monstrous lamia after she betrays his secrets.
** Soraka's original lore had her acquire her present half-unicorn form as a cosmic punishment for using her celestial magic for revenge against the chemist Warwick. Her Celestial Soraka skin depicts her glamorous form before she was cursed. This later got retconned to her ''always'' being half horse when her lore was completely rewritten.
* One of the Vahzilok arcs in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' deals with an Eidolon, which in this game are the most humanoid of the reanimated corpses Dr. Vahzilok creates, who tries to regain her former human beauty.

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' has Imalia, a [[LooksLikeOrlok Nosferatu]] vampire who used to be a supermodel. It's said that the Nosferatu clan like to do this to vain, beautiful people in order to BreakTheHaughty. The tabletop game calls them "Cleopatras" (after the villain from the movie ''Freaks'', due to her FateWorseThanDeath).
* ''VideoGame/JumpStartAdventures4thGradeHauntedIsland'', anyone? Look at Tiffany, the princess girl. She now looks like a warthog!
* In ''VideoGame/TheGameOfTheAges'', you rescue a group that's under a curse that mutates their looks and leaves them mentally retarded. Just asking about them earns you some indignation from townsfolk, who turn out to be relatives.

* If you run out of lives and get a GameOver in ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', then the WickedWitch Gruntilda succeeds in her plot to [[VainSorceress steal Tooty's beauty]]. Just to rub it in the player's face that they failed, they get [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnA_6I4y0_0 a cutscene]] in which Gruntilda is transformed into a HotWitch (visually based on [[Music/SpiceGirls Posh Spice]]) and Tooty into a hideous {{gonk}}.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonsLair II'', Time Warp the evil wizard Mordroc puts a magic ring on the beautiful Princess Daphne’s finger which turns her into a giant ugly horned, pig-snouted, purple-skinned, wart-covered monster, she is changed back when Dirk removes the ring and places it on Mordroc which kills him.
* ''VideoGame/{{Primal}}'': Player character Jen is a pretty PerkyGoth woman. Over the course of the story, she gets four VoluntaryShapeshifting forms drawn from the sapient races of Nexus, all of which are very monstrous-looking.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** Played for comedy on an episode where Krusty the Clown temporarily loses Sideshow Mel as the co-host of his children's TV show and hires actor Luke Perry, who is his half-brother (don't think about it too much), as a replacement. In a big all-star special edition of the show intended to boost ratings, Krusty fires Luke out of a cannon that sends him shooting all the way across town. He crashes into the Kwik-E-Mart and smashes right through several dozen jars of battery acid; we don't see what happens to him immediately afterward, but we hear him screaming, "AAAH! MY FACE! MY VALUABLE FACE!" Interestingly, the next time we see him, the acid scarring has completely healed.
** Moe gets plastic surgery to look attractive, but then later a wall falls on him and [[StatusQuoIsGod his face goes back to what it was before]]. Once Moe [[LampshadeHanging points out how it doesn't make any sense]], the episode ends.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': Calender Girl was a model who turned thirty and is alleged to have had a nasty facial scarring beneath her mask. However, she's still quite beautiful, but her obsession has rendered her unable to see anything but the flaws. It crosses over with GorgeousGorgon, since she's actually not ugly under the mask.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'': In one episode, April O'Neil gets mutated into a [[FishPeople fish woman]] while in another she gets turned into a [[BeePeople wasp woman]]. Both times, the turtles and April are horrified about how hideous she now looks. A third episode saw her mutated into a [[CatFolk feline]], though her appearance was not commented on that time. [[StatusQuoIsGod Of course by the end of the episode she is transformed back every time]].
* ''WesternAnimation/WilloTheWisp1981'': [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep The Prince]] is turned from a handsome prince into a shaggy [[Series/TheAddamsFamily Cousin It]]-like form in the first episode. While there are some attempts to change him back, StatusQuoIsGod from there on in.
* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'':
** In season three, this happens to Stella twice—once when [[WickedStepmother Countess Cassandra]] turns her into a green, fishlike monster, and then later, when obtaining the Water Stars necessitates a SentimentalSacrifice from each of those pursuing it, Stella's is her face, leaving her with BlackBeadEyes. While neither was a [[LaserGuidedKarma punishment for being vain]], Stella is the [[TheFashionista the most image-conscious of the girls]], which in the case of the Water Stars is why that was what she had to sacrifice. [[spoiler: [[StatusQuoIsGod neither is permanent.]]]]
** Also in season three, when the Ancestral witches get fed up with Valtor's failure, they transform him from an attractive wizard to a hulking, horned monster with shades of BigRedDevil. The Trix are so disgusted with this that [[spoiler: [[EvilIsPetty they completely abandon him]].]] While the Ancestresses hope that this new form will be more effective in fighting the Winx, this is also a punishment for his failures.
* On two occasions In WesternAnimation/SuperFriends the beautiful Wonder Woman is turned into an ugly beast, the first was in “The Incredible Space Circus” in which she is turned into a fanged and clawed bipedal rhinoceros monster, and in “The Island of the Dinosoids” she is turned into a dinosaur woman.

** In WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland Simone and Lena have sold their souls to a cat god to give themselves immortality and initially to get revenge on the pirates who killed their friends and families, they become werecats and feed on the souls of people who then become zombies, during their initial transformation they’re still rather attractive and feminine looking, but during the second stage they’re much more beastly, feral, and scary looking.

* In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', the Claymore warriors definetly seem pretty, but let's not forget the whole [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Awakening]] thing.