Basic Trope: All beautiful characters in a work are good, and all good characters in a work are beautiful.
- Straight: Alice, Bob, and Charlie, the three heroes, are very attractive, while all the villains are somewhat unattractive.
- Exaggerated: Alice, Bob, and Charlie are heartstoppingly gorgeous, and the villains are all hideous, twisted monsters.
- Downplayed:
- Good characters always stop short of being ugly even though higher amounts of beauty don't mean anything. Alice is attractive, Bob is average, and Charlie is merely plain.
- Alice and Bob are fairly good-looking while Charlie is ugly. While all three are on the side of good, Charlie is less squeaky-clean in his methods.
- Justified:
- Alice, Bob, and Charlie are shapeshifters who didn't want to take ugly forms, for fear of frightening small children and weakening their cause, and the villains are a species of inhuman, deformed beasts.
- The characters can detect whether someone is good or evil, manifest in the form of attractiveness.
- The villains were cursed for their evil-ness to look like monsters, whereas the heroes were blessed for their goodness.
- The cast consist of supernatural creatures whose outside appearance reflects how they are on the inside.
- The gods grant Holy Magic only to the good, and only Holy Magic can heal, so the villains' appearance stems from their massive scarring.
- There's a deity in the show that makes people look ugly or attractive depending on what path they take in life.
- The villains are insane and neglect their hygiene, health, and even looks as a result.
- Inverted:
- Ugly Hero, Good-Looking Villain: The villains suffer from Beauty Is Bad, meanwhile the heroes are all creepy looking people with Faces of Thugs at best, and hideous to look at worst.
- Goodness causes you to be perceived as beautiful, even if your features aren't what's expectedly pretty.
- The good guys are heavily scarred and unattractive.
- Subverted:
- The heroes Alice, Bob, and Charlie seem to be the only attractive characters, but shortly after the work begins it's revealed that Charlie is in fact working for the enemy.
- Alternately, in addition to the Two Guys and a Girl being beautiful, so is one villain, who does not have a Heel–Face Turn.
- Also alternately, one of the heroes are horribly disfigured or otherwise made ugly, and they stay good regardless.
- Double Subverted:
- However, as soon as Charlie turns to the dark side, he gets an Evil Makeover and is no longer beautiful like before.
- Alternately, Charlie goes through a Heel–Face Turn, bringing the trope right back again.
- ...However they eventually turn evil or end up being revealed to work for the villain.
- Parodied:
- A villain gets a plastic surgery and instantly turns good. Meanwhile, Alice is disfigured by a huge fire and instantly becomes a bloodthirsty serial killer.
- Emperor Evulz makes a Heel–Face Turn and suddenly turns into a Pretty Boy, and hooks up with Alice. Bob, The Lancer, turns jealous and makes a Face–Heel Turn, and suddenly becomes a Gonk.
- Zig Zagged: Heroes Alice, Bob, and Charlie are all beautiful, when it's revealed that Charlie was The Mole. He shifts into his hideous true form shortly afterward. Then, villainous but attractive Daryl shows up, but he's actually working for the heroes. As soon as Daryl returns to Alice and Bob's side, though, he changes outfits and stops looking attractive. This is shortly resolved by a makeover from Alice. Then, we meet a new Hero, Evelyn, who's rather ugly...
- Averted: Some beautiful characters are heroes, but some are evil, and there are some average or ugly people on both sides.
- Everybody is more or less equally beautiful (or ugly).
- Enforced:
- A line of action figures based on the series is going to be sold, so all the heroes are good-looking to increase their appeal. Additionally, the villains are ugly so that people will like their action figures for the "monstrous" look.
- "We can't have attractive villains,
it'll have people symphasize with them!
- Lampshaded: "No, you have to lose! We're much better-looking than you!"
- Invoked:
- The hero recruits all the beautiful people of the land, and only them, into his army, hoping to add a level of intimidation for the villains.
- Beautiful people decide to become very good people because they know looks aren't everything.
- A wizard casts a spell to reward good people by making them more attractive with every good deed.
- Exploited:
- A serial killer is sentenced to plastic surgery. He never hurts another living being.
- Knowing that Alice, Bob, and Charlie are more likely to trust beautiful people because they think they're good, the beautiful but evil Daryl easily infiltrates their ranks.
- Every disillusioned, unattractive person is given a free makeover. Their newfound good looks improve their lives and steer them away from evil.
- Defied:
- Villainous overlord Steve seeks out several attractive people to add to his army, to make sure that the hero isn't the only one with some good-looking allies.
- Alternately, Evil Overlord Steve seeks out attractive people because PR is easier that way.
- Discussed: "Hey, I bet when we meet Overlord Steve's army they'll all be ugly. After all, we've got all the pretty people, so..."
- Conversed: One less-attractive character jokes that if he was in a work of fiction, he'd probably end up being evil thanks to his looks.
- Deconstructed:
- Average/ugly people are immediately pegged as inferior/evil while people cater to the beautiful, regardless of the true conduct and behavior of either group.
- Bob, who was born ugly, is treated as obviously evil no matter what he does—even if he's acting like a saint—while Alice, who is beautiful and thus is considered good no matter what, even when she acts like a jerkass.
- The "forces of good" take this standard to the logical conclusion. Composed largely of angels and the Fair Folk, they are all supernaturally gorgeous and judge only on it. Which means they are all downright psychotic narcissists who may spare you if you are young and gorgous but will snap your neck the moment your make up runs and makes you "ugly".
- Reconstructed:
- A Karma Meter affects physical appearance, which makes this attitude reasonable.
- Bob is a Hero with Bad Publicity and Alice is a Villain with Good Publicity. Their physical appearances only reinforce rumors, slander and lies. They don't hold up under scrutiny.
- Played For Laughs: Alice is Obviously Evil but hot. Bob repeatably points out her evil to no avail. "She's too pretty to be evil."
- Played For Drama: The reason for the attractive mutants avoiding the vicious unceasing torment from society. The unattractive ones had enough of this long ago. The best they can manage are Well Intentioned Extremists who seek to end the bigoted vanity of society— even if it means destroying anything in the way of their purge of the cruel and vain idiots from power.
A really good-looking person wants you to go back to Beauty Equals Goodness. You know you can trust her and that she isn't trying to lead you into a trap, because she's beautiful.
