History Main / BeautyEqualsGoodness

* Played oh so straight for years on end with the family of [[Comicbook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] villain Dr. Sivana. Sivana himself could be kindly described as a stunted little troll with [[BaldOfEvil no hair]] and a face only a mother could love: evil. He has four kids. Georgia is basically her father, only female and with hair: evil. Thaddeus is his dad mark 2: evil. Magnificus apparently comes from a completely different family, with golden hair and absolutely no deformities: good. Beautia, winner of the All-Time Prize for Least Subtle Name, is absolutely stunning: good. Captain Marvel himself: physically Superman in red, and the hero. [[hottip:*:To be brutally honest, possibly the most difficult part of this to accept is how Dr Sivana managed to have ''any'' kids while looking like Gollum with NerdGlasses.]]

* A passage ''Literature/TheTwits'' ''seems'' to be saying this, describing how "ugly thoughts" show on your face, and saying "a person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly". It turns out to be the very different concept of Goodness Equals Beauty.
-->You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always be lovely.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} In Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/TheTwits'': Goodness equals beauty. The narrator explains that no matter what skin or bone structure you have, as long as you are a happy person who thinks good thoughts, your face will always shine like the sun.

** Furthermore, the Witch of the West was originally going to be played by the beautiful Gale Sondergaard.

* Averted in ''Film/BasicInstinct''.

** In ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', the parasprites are utterly adorable. They also constantly eat any and all food they can find (and, after Twilight messes them up with magic, any ''non-food'' they can find) and reproduce in a revolting manner. The fourth gen is generally devoid of ugly mook villains - the changelings are bug-like but still fairly aesthetically pleasing, Sombra and Nightmare Moon were sinister but attractive, and Discord's mismatched appearance makes him look weird and strange rather than ugly.

* In the ''Film/HarryPotter'' series, the protagonists are good-looking British teenagers, while the villain, Voldemort, is [[http://bathnbody.craftgossip.com/files/2010/09/voldemort2.jpg something out of a nightmare.]] Of course this could be because Voldemort has [[spoiler: split his soul losing much of his humanity in the process [[IWasQuiteALooker he looked]] [[http://quizilla.teennick.com/user_images/S/SA/SAI/saintgirl11/1132887422_quizcos854.jpg much more attractive]] when he was fully human.]]
** In fact, Tom Riddle's attractive features were often something he would use to win sympathy and gain the trust of others. In ''Half-Blood Prince'', a memory shows that an old lady clearly had the hots for him, which he used to get her to show him her most prized treasures [[spoiler:right before poisoning her and stealing the treasures to be horcruxes.]]
** Subverted by Hagrid. He's good, kind, and loyal to his friends but you wouldn't call him handsome. We also have Horace Slughorn who is short, fat, dumpy, and though seemingly a coward, steps up to the plate when duty calls, albeit a bit reluctantly. Let us not forget Flitwick who is a short and strange looking man, and completely on the side of good. On the other side we have Lucius Malfoy who is quite handsome and quite evil. Most notably is Bellatrix Lestrange who is played by Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter, and is [[AxCrazy a sadistic psychopath who enjoys torturing her enemies.]]

* Nazi propaganda continuously portrayed the regime's enemies as shrunken, deformed subhumans, and eulogised the handsome, dashing, blond haired blue eyes Aryan hero. The regime itself was obsessed with its image. Even AdolfHitler himself had adoring fangirls.
** It wasn't just them. The US portrayed the Japanese as fanged snake people in [[WartimeCartoon cartoons and comics]].

** All visual propaganda uses this. Showing how evil your opponents are would take up too much space on the poster -- more or less subtle differences in beauty are used instead.

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RedRightHand exists because of this trope. UglyHeroGoodLookingVillain is a specific inversion. The failed subversion of SuetifulAllAlong is common. For the InvertedTrope, see EvilIsSexy, although the two aren't mutually exclusive. For animals and more nonhuman characters, see WhatMeasureIsANonCute. The trope UglyGuyHotWife both subverts this and plays it painfully straight- unattractive men are shown to be good husband material, yet it still works on the assumption that because the wife is hot, that he was lucky in love even if nothing else is known about her. GorgeousGorgon may play this trope straight ''or'' just plain [[PlayingWithATrope play with it]] depending on the gorgon. May not apply in the case of TheBeautifulElite if they are so beautiful that they don't seem human. In older works, may be a factor in MakeUpIsEvil: only an evil character would have no natural beauty and so have to resort to ''paint''. The opposite of this trope is BeautyIsBad. See also ExpectingSomeoneTaller. Contrast EvilMakesYouUgly, HotGuysAreBastards and FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon.

As this trope is ubiquitous, please only add {{egregious}} cases. {{Invoked|Trope}} and {{defied|Trope}} examples are the best ones. HistoricalHeroUpgrade often leads to HistoricalBeautyUpdate because of this trope.

* Marv from ''ComicBook/SinCity'' is a massive, ugly monster of a man but is also a good man. Meanwhile, [[TheVamp Ava Lord is pure evil but was extremely beautiful to the point where she could easily manipulate almost any man into doing her bidding.]] Junior was also fairly handsome and looked every bit the golden boy future President his father wanted him to become -- too bad about the whole [[Monster/ComicBooks "raping and killing little girls" hobby]]. It's played straight with Junior after the experimental treatments that saved him from Hartigan's NoHoldsBarredBeatdown also disfigured him. Physical beauty in general is not a good barometer for morality in a setting like ''Comicbook/SinCity''.

[[folder: Film ]]

* Quite a few early Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon movies have caught flak for playing this straight. In ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' we had the grossly overweight Ursula; same with Radcliffe of ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'' in comparison to the Adonis-like John Smith. Then there's Disney/{{Cinderella}}'s ugly step-siblings, the rakishly-thin Jafar of ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', and the monstrous-looking Huns of ''Disney/{{Mulan}}''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'' the Boggans are ugly, and the animals they use as mounts (bats, crows and a star-nosed mole) are ones that are generally disliked by humans. Whereas the Leafmen are all good-looking, and ride hummingbirds.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} 2'' actually both plays this straight and inverts this: The good guys are a shiny American racecar, a pair of shiny British spy cars, and a rusty American tow truck, while the bad guys are all mean, beaten-up Lemons, led by [[spoiler: a malfunctioning British SUV posing as an electric car.]]
* The sequel to Disney's ''Disney/TheLionKing'' features a rare, ''justified'' version of this trope. The Outsider lions are scraggly and have duller, scruffier coats. But that's because they were living in a barren wasteland and likely had poor diets, so naturally they were going to be leaner and their coats would be less bright. By the end, [[spoiler: the outsider lions come to live in the pridelands and they have the same body build as the rest of the prideland lions]].

[[folder: Film]]
* Subverted very cruelly in ''Film/{{Audition}}'' when the lonely, widowed male lead discovers that his beautiful, demure bride-to-be is AxCrazy.
* Subverted in ''Film/MeanGirls''.

* Inverted in the 1953 sci-fi movie ''Film/ItCameFromOuterSpace'' where the hideous one-eyed aliens are not launching a covert invasion of Earth; they only want to quietly repair their spaceship and leave without conflict.
* ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''. An alien that can at best be described as wrinkled and stubby, and also one of the most sympathetic and beloved characters in cinema history.
* Averted, lampshaded and parodied in the ''Film/AustinPowers'' movies where the hero doesn't look good at all and one of the first things said to him after he is unfrozen is that he should get a make over for his teeth. At the end of one of the movies when they watch a movie based on Austin Powers (yeah.) [[AdaptationalAttractiveness Austin is played by Tom Cruise]].
* In the Film/JamesBond movie ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', Aris Kristatos, a handsome Greek tycoon decorated by the British government for valor during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and devoted to his patronage of an aspiring Olympic figure skater Bibi Dahl, warns Bond that Milos Columbo, a swarthy, greasy-haired heroin smuggler, has the encryption device that Bond is attempting to retrieve. When Bond meets with Columbo, he declares that, yes, he is a smuggler, but [[EvenEvilHasStandards he never smuggled heroin]], and that Kristatos is the real drug smuggler, having warned Bond that he may have to kill Columbo to knock out the competition. By the end of the movie, Kristatos has attempted to kill Bond (and clearly had non-fatherly designs on Bibi), while Colombo aided Bond in taking him down.
* Christopher Johnson and his son of ''Film/{{District 9}}'' are the only two white spots in an otherwise BlackAndGrayMorality CrapsackWorld. They also happen to be giant space roaches.

* Lampshaded and subverted throughout Passione d'Amore. The good-looking male has an affair with a good-looking married woman. (She gets away with stringing him along because she's pretty.) Then, he gets sent to some backwater area and starts to interact with the local colonel's daughter, whom everybody agrees is quite ugly. It also shaped her character: even her parents avoided contact with her. She never gets a 'beautiful all along' makeover, but he eventually falls in love with her anyway. Then she dies. And he goes to tell his pretty lover that he isn't taking her shit anymore. It's mainly notable for the 'pretty dude/ugly woman' pairing.
* Played with in ''Film/TheAvengers''. All the good guys are played by a very handsome/beautiful cast but Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, is very handsome as well. But the Chitauri [[spoiler: and their leader Thanos]] is hardly what you would call good-looking.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* This was the moral to Disney's ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' - the attractive Gaston is actually a terrible person while the Beast is very kind and gentle. Of course, the Beast and the Prince he turns back into could be considered quite attractive themselves, depending on one's taste.
* While Tiana and Naveen are plenty attractive in ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', the animation crew also took great pains to make the sinister Doctor Facilier quite charismatic and attractive as well, to explain how he could lure in unsuspecting victims. And then Ray the Firefly is drawn to resemble an in-bred hillbilly, but is still one of the most insightful and helpful characters.

* Both applied AND {{subverted|Trope}} in ''Disney/{{Tangled}}''- the main leads are all handsome or cute (Disney even had its own female employees choose what Flynn should look like) and two of the villains (the Stabbington Brothers) are ugly- however the main villainess is pretty hot (while young) and the Snugly Duckling Pub Thugs, despite their looks turned out to be nice guys. They even {{lampshade|Hanging}} it in one of the movie's best musical numbers.
** It's also lampshaded with Flynn's Wanted Poster, which portrays his criminal self as uglier than he actually is.
* DoubleSubversion in ''WesternAnimation/BartokTheMagnificent'' where the ugly Russian witch BabaYaga is actually portrayed as being a benign character, and she even makes a magic potion that can turn people into who they really are. According to Yaga, the titular bat is supposed to drink the potion, which will turn him into a brave hero, but the potion is later stolen by the evil Ludmilla, who is portrayed as being beautiful. Ludmilla actually wants to use Jaga's potion to make her even more beautiful so she can take over Russia, but when she finally drinks it, said potion realizes that Ludmilla is evil once consumed, and as a result it turns her into a dragon.
* The villain of ''HappilyNEverAfter 2'' starts out ugly and turns herself beautiful so she can marry the king.

* Subverted in both of Disney's ''Disney/{{Cinderella}}'' sequels, where Anastasia is an ugly stepsister but is a nicer person. She's a little better drawn arguably, but it's more of a result of her not scowling all of the time.

* Nancy Callahan in ''SinCity'' is the most noble and innocent character in the series and is described as the most beautiful.

* Played very straight in ''SolomonKane'', where Kane in the start is ragged and crazy-looking with his messy beard and hair, and his crazy LargeHam expressions, but after doing HeelFaceTurn he smoothes out his facial hair and becomes ruggedly handsome. Likewise, when TheDragon recruits warriors, he does some kind of demonic possession-thing where the recruits receive horrible scars, black eyes and bad teeth, [[NoOntologicalInertia all which go away when they die.]] Oh, and TheDragon himself is horribly scarred under his mask, and the BigBad invokes TwoFaced appearance with his tattoos.

* Creator/JohnWayne's 1968 pro-[[TheVietnamWar Vietnam War]] project ''Film/TheGreenBerets'' played this straight with a young Creator/GeorgeTakei as a handsome South Vietnamese commander, and his Viet Cong counterpart as anything but.

** BernardCornwell's TheWarlordChronicles retained the good-looking "Prince Charming" Lancelot and then thoroughly subverted it, turning him into a cowardly, snivelling, petulant bastard with [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation no redeeming features whatsoever.]] He didn't even have the good grace to be {{magnificent|Bastard}} about it. One could argue in fact that Lancelot is the major villain of the series- he's certainly one of the least likable characters.

* With the possible exception of ''TheLostSymbol'', most Creator/DanBrown novels have a female lead who's an expert in her chosen academic field and is impossibly attractive to boot. Of course, the [[AuthorAvatar vaguely handsome nerd]] [[WishFulfillment ALWAYS gets the girl at the end]].

* Subverted in ThePaleKing with Meredith, who becomes a vain, neurotic mess if you let her talk about her problems long enough.

* Every single one of {{Danielle Steel}}'s protagonists is stunningly gorgeous or handsome, without any extra effort or help needed, and if they're over forty, it's frequently mentioned that they look much younger than they are. The closest she's come to an unattractive heroine is the HollywoodPudgy title character of the novel "Big Girl". The beauty is just the tip of the iceberg, as most of them border on PuritySue--intelligent, hard-working, etc. Any "flaws" only serve to make them more endearing and appealing.

* The major subplot of the ''AmericanGothic'' episode "Eye of the Beholder" plays with and then toes the line of this trope from the [[ADayInTheLimelight heroic perspective of a minor character]]. [[EvilPlan In order to obtain custody of his 'son' Caleb]], [[ManipulativeBastard Sheriff Buck]] tries to discredit Dr. Crower as a potential legal guardian by [[{{Backstory}} revealing his past difficulties with alcohol]]. To attest to this, he needs the aid of an orderly at the hospital who worked with Matt before he came to Trinity. When the orderly refuses, Buck sends his wife a magic mirror which swiftly turns her into a [[SexIsEvil tempting]] [[TheVamp seductress]]. The orderly breaks the mirror... which also horribly disfigures his wife. Freed from the spell, she urges him to refuse Buck's deal and stand by his friend Matt instead, and he professes to [[AnAesop love her no matter what she looks like]]. Despite this and the name of the episode, the orderly inexplicably does Buck's bidding--and even though his testimony is as unbiased as possible, and Buck doesn't get his hands on Caleb due to a delicious BaitAndSwitch ChekhovsGun from earlier in the episode, the sheriff still keeps his end of the deal by rewarding the orderly, restoring his wife's beauty so they can leave town in peace and good conscience. [[BrokenAesop Sigh]].

** Some of this is averted in the film starring Sir IanMcKellen, in that Richard looks fairly attractive to those who don't realize his looks are based on [[PuttingOnTheReich British Fascist Party leader Oswald Mosley...]] then again, [[MisaimedFandom to a few, it probably makes the character more attractive...]]

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' does an almost facepalmingly straight adherence to this rule. Almost all the good guys will be bishonen, ruggedly handsome men, hot chicks, {{Cool Old Guy}}s (sometimes [[GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave good looking for their age]], too) and most of the bosses will be [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081028112002/fireemblem/images/c/c6/Heintz.gif old]], [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081120190454/fireemblem/images/e/e7/GLASS.png plain]] or [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080910224036/fireemblem/images/a/a4/Gheb.png gonks]]. They'll attempt to mix things by always adding [[http://www.fireemblemwod.net/fe6/big/gonzales.gif one or two gonks]] and a [[http://serenesforest.net/media/fe10illust/e/makalov_en.png non hottie]] to the good guys side, and typically the bad guys will have one or two good looking guys on their side, however they'll usually be either [[AntiVillain good at heart]] or [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/VincentASM/Site/FE6/Narshen.png wear an unflattering facial expression on their portrait]]. Sometimes a few of the ugly minor bosses will hint or be revealed to not have been bad at heart after their death. The simplest way to put it is ugly characters are the TokenMinority for the good guys and attractive characters are the TokenMinority for the bad guys. Ugly good guys far outnumber attractive bad guys, seems EvilIsSexy is not one of Intelligent Systems' favorite tropes... for males. When it comes to females, [[http://serenesforest.net/media/tcg/3/fe3-049.jpg evil]] [[http://serenesforest.net/media/fe6illust/s/brunnya.png is]] [[http://serenesforest.net/media/fe7illust/s/ursula.png sexy]] [[http://serenesforest.net/media/fe8illust/few/Selena.jpg too]]. This can sometimes make sense (Most of the early foes are low class bandits, the latter ones are old nobles are in some games a separate species, while most player characters are nobility or young), but often doesn't.
** Basically if you're a sympathetic character in ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'', you're either at least quite attractive, or you're old. And if you fall into the latter category, you were likely [[IWasQuiteALooker quite a looker when you were younger]]. There are only a few major exceptions to this (i.e. most axe-users).

** A major and famous exception is Oliver, from VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius. In ''Path of Radiance'', he's a regular boss who has to be disposed of (and there's a good chance that an ally character kill him for you), and he's basically an insufferable narcissist, viewing himself as the epitome of beauty... Despite the fact that he [[http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/File:OliverFE9Portrait.png looks like this]]. He makes his return in ''Radiant Dawn'' where, against all odds, despite being once again the boss of a chapter, he ''is'' recruitable. Except that, well, he hasn't changed much (if at all) between the two games: he's still the same vain, self-absorbed character, who only joins you as a protector of beauty (he's quite fond of herons). Though they decided to make him [[http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/File:OliverFE10Portrait.png less evil-looking]], he's still the {{Gonk}}. Heck, even Ike begs him to return on the enemy side.

* Korean webcomic Noblesse. For a "shounen" series, it certainly emphasizes a lot on androgynous male beauty. & you can bet every attractive bad guy you see will be working for the protagonist by the end of the arc.

* Played straight so very hard in Epic. Name one sentient character that breaks this rule.

* In the Film/JamesBond movie ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', Aris Kristatos, a handsome Greek tycoon decorated by the British government for valor during WorldWarII and devoted to his patronage of an aspiring Olympic figure skater Bibi Dahl, warns Bond that Milos Columbo, a swarthy, greasy-haired heroin smuggler, has the encryption device that Bond is attempting to retrieve. When Bond meets with Columbo, he declares that, yes, he is a smuggler, but [[EvenEvilHasStandards he never smuggled heroin]], and that Kristatos is the real drug smuggler, having warned Bond that he may have to kill Columbo to knock out the competition. By the end of the movie, Kristatos has attempted to kill Bond (and clearly had non-fatherly designs on Bibi), while Colombo aided Bond in taking him down.

* A strange example - neither subversion nor aversion but not completely straight either - comes from the work of Rex Stout, the writer of the NeroWolfe novels. Stout wrote a short story called "Murder is No Joke" in late 1957. One of the characters, Flora Gallant, is a fat, shrewish, bitter, ugly, crude middle-aged female social misfit - virtually a perfect example of the trope played straight. The next year, Stout was asked by the ''Saturday Evening Post'' to expand the story into a novella. In this version, Flora Gallant is a gorgeous, vivacious young woman who romances Archie to some success - the opposite of the trope. The rest of the plot, including the identity of the killer, is identical, except that in the first story, Archie has Flora tagged as the killer; in the second, he thinks she's the next victim. [[spoiler: She's neither.]]

* In Meredith Anne Pierce's 'Literature/TheDarkangelTrilogy'', the titular angel (or vampire) is described as stunningly beautiful. He's also completely evil (securing his immortality by drinking the souls of young women), and the main character (who is described as average looking), falls in love with him, partly because of his beauty. The trope is played with however because the female protagonist ''knows'' that this is a terrible reason to love a person, and yet cannot bring herself to kill him. She eventually [[spoiler:restores his humanity]] and in doing so he is said to lose some of his supernatural good-looks.

* In ''TheRiftwarCycle'', beauty doesn't really equal anything. Villains are just as likely to be attractive as heroes (perhaps even more so), and most heroes are fairly unremarkable in their looks. Of the ones that stand apart, some are just ugly (Pradji with his squashed nose and pockmarks), others possibly attractive save for one or two off-putting qualities (Arutha's perpetual gloom, Erik's brutish face), and others are beautiful, but it doesn't do them any favors (Tomas's disturbing slightly-alien features, Sandreena's gorgeousness destroying her childhood). Similarly, all the elves of the series are beautiful, but you can't tell the good from the evil ones just at a glance.

* In ''TheEnchantedForestChronicles'', almost all of the princesses, princes, and knights are described as being very attractive, but most are oblivious, self-centered, and generally useless. Some are shown somewhat sympathetically (at one point, Cimorene points out that it wasn't their fault they were raised to be so idiotic), but Cimorene's thick-headed unwanted fiance, Prince Therandril, is still one of the obstacles she has to deal with in the first book (he just can't accept that she won't marry him). In ''Talking With Dragons'', the princess and knight that Daystar and Shiara meet are shown to be ridiculously incompetent to the point of it being hilarious, though they still have the redeeming feature of truly loving each other. Meanwhile, the books have a variety of magical creatures of various degrees of beauty, none of whom are universally good or bad (the last book states that even some of the wizards were on the side of the Enchanted Forest). In particular, the dragons are shown as being terrifying, but they're all intelligent and mostly pretty helpful, if one gets their respect.

** Besides that, there are quite a lot of of witnesses who are guilty who subvert the trope. [[spoiler:April May, Dee Vasquez, Alita Talia, Matt Engarde, Cammy Meele, Callisto Yew, and Daryan Crescent]] all are attractive, but have done ''very'' amoral things {[[AlwaysMurder most of which are murder]]). The first game also has Miles Edgeworth, who is very [[{{Bishounen}} pretty]], but a complete {{Jerkass}}, but eventually becomes a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, and then gets CharacterDevelopment until he's a much better person.
* Subverted and played straight in ''[[VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete]]'' with Phacia and her sisters. Then, played straight in ''[[VideoGame/LunarEternalBlue Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete]]'' with Lucia. In fact, some {{NPC}}s in the game express disbelief at how someone that beautiful can be the Destroyer (which Lucia isn't, but oh, well...).

* Played straight early in ''TheWitcher'', as the bad guys are brutish and ugly compared to the Witchers, who are [[GoodScarsEvilScars scarred enough to increase their masculine charm]]. Act I ends in a conflict between a beautiful witch who has been the town's doctor, and an unruly mob who sell their own children into slavery. This trope fades as [[GreyAndGrayMorality good and evil become less clear]], and by the end both the BigBad and BigGood are equally immaculately handsome in their [[KnightInShiningArmor finely-crafted armor]].

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* In English literature, the most common OlderThanRadio example of this trope is ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'', even though it is a {{deconstruction}}. Wilde was critiquing the commonly held belief during the 19th Century that physical appearance both reflected and was influenced by morality, piety, and social status. The trope still applies to the portrait of the protagonist and would have applied to him had he not sold his soul.
* A strange example - neither subversion nor aversion but not completely straight either - comes from the work of Rex Stout, the writer of the NeroWolfe novels. Stout wrote a short story called "Murder is No Joke" in late 1957. One of the characters, Flora Gallant, is a fat, shrewish, bitter, ugly, crude middle-aged female social misfit - virtually a perfect example of the trope played straight. The next year, Stout was asked by the ''Saturday Evening Post'' to expand the story into a novella. In this version, Flora Gallant is a gorgeous, vivacious young woman who romances Archie to some success - the opposite of the trope. The rest of the plot, including the identity of the killer, is identical, except that in the first story, Archie has Flora tagged as the killer; in the second, he thinks she's the next victim. [[spoiler: She's neither.]]

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/RichardIII''. While the real Richard may have had a slightly deformed spine and was noted for ruthlessness against political foes, everyone remembers Richard from Shakespeare's play, a hunchbacked, deformed villain who [[MoralEventHorizon commits numerous brutal murders during the play]], leading up to the time when the attractive and competent and morally pure Henry Tudor can finally deliver KarmicJustice to Richard at Bosworth Field. It is worth noting that not all of this was potentially Shakespeare's own idea -- the regime in power at the time were the direct descendants (as in the granddaughter of) Henry Tudor, and wouldn't have been too chuffed at seeing anything that even remotely painted Richard III or the rest of the House of York in a good light.
** Some of this is averted in the film starring Sir IanMcKellen, in that Richard looks fairly attractive to those who don't realize his looks are based on [[PuttingOnTheReich British Fascist Party leader Oswald Mosley...]] then again, [[MisaimedFandom to a few, it probably makes the character more attractive...]]
* Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' does not so much subvert it as play with it: Goodness equals Beauty but not vice versa.
-->''[[LightIsGood Angels are bright still]], though the brightest fell;\\
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,\\
Yet grace must still look so.''

* Beautifully averted in ''Literature/{{Paprika}}''. The obese Tokita appears to have no deep and dark issues with his weight, being a [[GeniusDitz happy, brilliant, affable scientist]], ''and'' it turns out [[spoiler:the girl of his dreams, Chiba, is plenty enthralled with him as well, and they get married!]]

* In English literature, the most common OlderThanRadio example of this trope is ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'', even though it is a {{deconstruction}}. Wilde was critiquing the commonly held belief during the 19th Century that physical appearance both reflected and was influenced by morality, piety, and social status. However, the trope still applies to the portrait of the protagonist and would probably have applied to him had he not sold his soul.

* Played straight so very hard in ""WesternAnimation/Epic". Name one sentient character that breaks this rule.

* One fairy tale subverts this trope and then plays it straight - the protagonists are a prince and a princess who are both very ugly and crippled, but are shown as being good-hearted. The princess is even given the choice between being beautiful and being good, and decides that being good is the better option. [[spoiler:Their goodness wins them the favor of a fairy, who eventually rewards them both with beauty. Then, they get turned into animals by an evil witch, and have to get turned back after going on a quest.]]

* Korean webcomic Noblesse. For a "shounen" series, it certainly emphasizes a lot on androgynous male beauty. & you can bet every attractive bad guy you see will be working for the protagonist by the end of the arc.

[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/AwkwardZombie http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spotthegoodguy_6741.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Lyn]] plays "Spot the Good [[StealthPun Guy]]."]]

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* In a sort of RedemptionEqualsBeauty, Bramble, the villain of the ''WesternAnimation/BitsyBears'' pilot is relatively unattractive, with a dry BobHaircut, but the instant she thinks about reforming, she suddenly becomes more attractive with long, wavy hair. (Seriously, it changes between frames. You can see it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jnS_Ya_Ups starting at 3:45]])

* Oh so averted in ''Film/BasicInstinct''.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Lyn]] plays "Spot the Good Guy."]]