Basic Trope: A place or setting that seems nice but really isn't.
- Straight:
- Sugarville is a beautiful, tidy town with kind and smiling citizens and virtually no poverty or crime. Eventually, it turns out that the town is secretly run by a murderous cult.
- Sugarville may look like a really nice and pleasant Sugar Bowl, but in reality, everyone there’s a jerk, the Police Are Useless, and living there will instantly turn you into The Chew Toy.
- Exaggerated:
- Sugarville has perpetually nice weather, every day is a holiday, and everyone is singing, dancing, and having fun all the time. Eventually, it turns out the townspeople are prisoners in their own bodies that are controlled like puppets by an Eldritch Abomination. It also turns out all of them are very much aware of this, but are absolutely, thoroughly conditioned to not give out any details of their true situation by the thing holding them under its control under the threat of being gruesomely tortured and killed.
- Sugarville is a Vice City.
- Sugarville's criminals are all locked up, visitors are welcomed by beautiful women, nobody does everything without the approval of the majority, and everyone has a place. Except the "criminals" are actually innocents Convicted by Public Opinion and are subject to brutal public executions while the actual criminals run free. The public is a bunch of sheep easily led by a couple of corrupt maniacs, and those beautiful women? All begin their careers as "Welcomers" at the age of sixteen and are lusted after and sexualized constantly by older town members. Any attempt to make something of themselves is overshadowed by their beauty. And at night, the aforementioned actual criminals stalk the streets and brutalize anybody unlucky enough to cross their path. The politicians in charge lie constantly about the things going on, and deliberately hide their own corruption under pleasing rhetoric to not offend anyone. When the only sane man finally snaps and begins to give the town a collective "The Reason You Suck" Speech, he's treated by everybody as a liar and a spoilsport.
- Downplayed:
- Sugarville looks like a decent town, but citizens have an extreme political ideology.
- Sugarville is a beautiful, tidy town with kind and smiling citizens and virtually no poverty or crime. However, it's more nuanced and realistic than it looks. Actual violent crime does happen even if it's much less frequent (it's not just Mr. Meanie stealing a little food for selfish reasons like in a Sugar Bowl; it's actual murder, robbery, arson, rape, jaywalking, and those kinds of things). It seems more jarring because of how bright and happy everything is. Hence, in this case, the setting is more of The Pollyanna than a Stepford Smiler.
- From Bad to Worse: Sugarvile already looks bad as a Gangster Land.
- Most of the world really is as pleasant as it looks, but the resident vile villain operates out of a Stepford Suburbia that doesn't initially look any different than the rest of the cheery world.
- Beacon seems to be a basically functional, sane town, and this is enough to make it a beacon of hope in a Crapsack World. It isn't functional or sane.
- Justified:
- The Peace & Love Incorporated doesn't want to attract the attention of federal police. It does, however, want to attract the attention of unsuspecting lost travelers.
- Sugarville has been hit with hard times and rather than sit and cry about it, they make the best of it.
- The giant conglomerate exists with the express purpose of making sure there is no poverty or obvious crime, however minor. Nobody will spoil their perfect town.
- Inverted:
- Darksdale is a dirt-poor Gangster Land in a virtually inhospitable wasteland, and most of the villagers are ugly, grim-faced, and snarky Jerkasses. Nevertheless, most of them are perfectly happy with their lives and have a courteous, warm, welcoming community, even the ones who don't appear friendly.
- Skullstown is a post-apocalyptic settlement full of ruthless militants and scavangers struggling to maintain order in a broken world. But underneath the rough exterior, the people are very friendly and accepting, as the past tragedies have taught them to appreciate the good things in life. They have created families and a culture that promotes brotherhood and cooperation. Besides, compared to the rest of the world, Skullstown is a paradise.
- The People's Democratic Republic of Doomonia seems like your stereotypical Dystopia, where Big Brother Is Watching You at all times, any dissent or crime is punishable with 're-education' in Room 101 courtesy of the Ministry of Love, and Happiness Is Mandatory whilst almost everyone lives in depressing concrete buildings with barely any luxuries. In actuality, spying on people is just the national pasttime that everybody does, the re-education in Room 101 usually entails genuine re-education where the Ministry of Love either teaches and rehabilitates the offender why what they're doing is wrong or give the dissenters a space where they can explain to the Reasonable Authority Figures in charge what exactly they perceive they're doing wrong, and the republic's citizens aren't forced to be happy; they're actually, genuinely happy with their humble lives.
- Heel-Face Town.
- Halloweentown
- Subverted: The people that talk about the dark secrets admit that there were rumors.
- Double Subverted: Except that was the result of the Big Bad's mind control.
- Parodied:
- Bob the unsuspecting traveler tours cheerfully around the town, oblivious to the black robes on clotheslines, the hanging rope that doubles as a children's swing, and surprisingly large knives in his hostess's kitchen.
- Bob finds out everyone in Sugarville is having a comedically giant sex orgy down at the hotel.
- Zig Zagged:
- The nice and peaceful city turns out to have traps placed in all the homes! But they only activate if somebody other than those on an approved list, keeping intruders out. But they seem to get oddly violent when you talk about the outside world. Actually, one of their best citizens who helped to get the city running as well as it is to write a guide to talking with people outside of the community named "the outside world".
- Sugarville is a dirt-poor hamlet in an inhospitable wasteland, and all villagers are ugly, grim-faced, and snarky. However, most of them seem content with their lives and have a warm community. Then it is revealed they are prisoners in their own bodies controlled and mind-raped by an Eldritch Abomination who farm and eat their souls.
- Averted: Sugarville is either as good or as bad of a place as it appears.
- Enforced: "So we need a Crapsack World, but let's make it a Sunshine Noir. Everything vibrant to attract more players in the Wide-Open Sandbox."
- Lampshaded:
- "But it all looked so cute and nice!"
- "This place has vibrant nightlife and the like, but we got more criminals than prisons."
- Invoked: The Big Bad disguises his People Farm as a utopia to lure people into it.
- Defied: Sugarville really is a Sugar Bowl despite having some real-world problems, it only seems Crapsaccharine because it's not 100% perfect.
- Exploited: The hero steals all the unused items and sees all the cameras before entering. He loads all the items in his caravan before interacting with the town.
- Discussed: "This place is way too happy for a show like this. I bet half of those people are psycho-murderers."
- Conversed: "Why does it seem that the nicer a place is, the worse a secret it has?"
Back to Crapsaccharine World, where everyone is happy! Granted, it's because those who refuse to take their mind control drugs are quietly disappeared, but still...
