Basic Trope: Historical figures in media are more physically attractive than their real-life counterparts.
- Straight: Queen Alice II of Troperia is often depicted as a young, beautiful, sexually desirable monarch in television shows. In fact, she looked as bland and generic as any other woman, let alone queen, of Troperia, and she ascended to the throne at the age of 45.
- Exaggerated: Queen Alice II was the most hideous queen who ever ruled the kingdom. Despite this, people have always depicted her as a radiant goddess of a beauty.
- Downplayed: Differences in appearance between the real Queen Alice II and modern media depictions of her are few, far between, and small. At most, somebody will paint her with a slightly different eye colour or skin tone than she had. Why they do this is innocuous — most often because they've read Dated History about her.
- Justified: A time-traveller gave Queen Alice II makeup and modern medicine to be more attractive.
- Inverted:
- The Sheikah Maria of Wikistania was a beautiful maiden. Due to her past actions, though, her conationals (as well as Wikistania's enemy Troperia) have grown to despise her. Time passes and she has been depicted as an ugly old hag ever since.
- Queen Alice II was ugly, but after she dies she is somehow depicted as being even uglier — or pretty, but depicted as even prettier — for reasons that may be related to what she did or didn't do, or not.
- Subverted: Queen Alice II was an average-looking lady with no physically attractive traits to boast of. She was as bland as a woman of her country from her era as can be. Despite her physical shortcomings, she was kind and fair to her people, making her quite popular among them. Centuries later, she is depicted in film, television, paintings, sculpture, et cetera, as close to what she looks like as possible due to respect, seeing that beautifying the late queen would only diminish her actual accomplishments and aspirations.
- Double Subverted: Despite this, some newer generations of artists still have depicted her as more beautiful than she was.
- Parodied:
- In her own time, it was an Open Secret that Queen Alice II hired more attractive women to pose as her at official functions, but the charade persists even now that there's no use in upholding it nor penalties for calling attention to it.
- Queen Alice II looked like an old hag with crooked teeth, hunched back, and fish eyes. Modern depictions present her as having had the body and face of the ideal woman of modern standards.
- Alternatively, Queen Alice II did have the body and face of the ideal woman of modern standards, but people in-universe can't believe she could possibly have.
- Queen Alice II had an Informed Deformity, such as her nose being only a fraction off center, eye or hair color that someone thought didn't suit her, or whatever else, but everyone knows and complains about it and denounces the casting of somebody who didn't have the same feature in Queen Alice: The Movie.
- Due to her not being as beautiful as she would have liked, Queen Alice II was extremely modest in Real Life, but the movie about her casts the most beautiful actress alive, and as a result Alice is a Shameless Fanservice Girl in the movie.
- Modern artist Alan paints a picture of Queen Alice II, with what other people interpret as Icy Blue Eyes. Her blue eyes were only a bit warmer than Alan conveyed in his painting, but the artistic establishment of Troperia excommunicates him for how he showed Alice.
- Zig-Zagged: Queen Alice II of Troperia was regarded as attractive by contemporaries, but is plain or even ugly by modern standards. Modern depictions of her make her beautiful according to modern standards, which prevents her good looks from becoming Informed Attractiveness.
- Averted:
- Queen Alice II was already a beautiful woman in her days.
- Queen Alice II turns out never to have existed.
- Enforced: The government has launched a mandatory propaganda program to depict Troperia's significant historical figures with more handsome or beautiful appearances to promote nationalism and patriotism to the masses.
- Lampshaded: "Damn, that portrait of the late queen over there looks way too pretty for a lady from her era. I bet she didn't actually look like that, though."
- Invoked: Queen Alice II has hidden her unattractive face from the judging public's eyes, compensating with good deeds and being kind and fair to her people...
- Exploited: ...hoping that someday people would depict her with a beautiful appearance due to her past deeds.
- Defied:
- The current queen has banned false depictions of her ancestor, perceiving it as very disrespectful towards her legacy.
- Queen Alice II has been Condemned by History and gets the Un-person treatment.
- Discussed: "Ugh, is this what my distant ancestor looks like?" "Yes, Your Majesty. Queen Alice the Second may not have been beautiful, per se, but her great deeds have made her more than worthy of mention among our nation's greatest rulers." "Maybe we should hire a painter and replace this one with a more beautiful version of her visage."
- Conversed:
- "Huh. Makes you wonder if some of our own local historical figures actually looked like what their paintings and sculptures depict them as."
- Adam, the director of Queen Alice II's new biopic, talks about the last version, which cast Claire, a very plain woman, in the role, and how his version will probably be much more popular because he's cast Ms. Fanservice Betty as Alice.
- Played for Horror: Historian Bob finds the only known photograph of Queen Alice II, which shows she was downright ugly. He has graphic nightmares about the picture.
- Played for Laughs: Historian Bob finds the only known photograph of Queen Alice II, which shows she was a plain woman. He compares it to the famous painting of her as a Head-Turning Beauty in the national art gallery and bursts out laughing due to the disconnect from what he was taught throughout school.
- Played for Drama: Historian Bob's attempt to change official depictions of Queen Alice II goes nowhere, and it frustrates him badly.
- Deconstructed: A group that opposes the Troperian royal family finds out that their matriarch, Queen Alice II, was less attractive than depicted and accuses the royal family of rewriting history.
- Reconstructed:
- Their complaints don't catch on because there are more serious issues to deal with and their focus on inaccurate depictions of a past monarch make them look like they don't have real plans to address the problems.
- Their complaints catch on for a time, but it turns out they are doing this with their pretender (if they want to establish a new royal house) or their political leader who they hope will become president (if they want a republic).
- Implied: Amy and Ben are on a guided tour of the art gallery, where they see the painting of Queen Alice II. The guide says, "She didn't look exactly like that, of course: the painter had to show her in her best light because, after all, she was royalty."
- Intended Audience Reaction: It's all meant to get viewers to question whether there is any validity to the idea that Beauty Equals Goodness.
The main page looks good because later people gave it an Historical Beauty Update.
