History Manga / BeautyAndTheBeastOfParadiseLost

** [[spoiler: Beast told Belle that La Medium was the respected spiritual mentor of his reign and that he saw her as his “mother figure”. Actually, she was locked in a small cell with only spiders as her regular companions and he hated her because of her pursuits.]]

** ** In the original fairy tale and most of its subsequent versions, Beauty’s father sets the plot in motion when he picks up a rose from Beast’s garden. In the Russian retelling ''Literature/TheScarletFlower'', it is a magic red flower. In Paradise Lost, Evance has AdaptationalVillainy and it’s Belle that starts the story by picking up red wild roses.

** ** Yvonne, the king's mistress, has the title of Countess of [[Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast Villeneuve.]]

** * During his reeconter with La Medium in Issus, Beast says she can do to him whatever she wants, as long as she lifts the curse from his people. La Medium’s answer? She decides to become the most beautiful woman in the world (by killing ALL the other attractive women), so he won’t reject her anymore.
** [[spoiler: When Beast announces his decision of going to the capital to face La Medium, princess Belle won’t let him go, not caring if he’s doing that to break the curse to end the suffering of the castle denizens. Worse, when they suspect that she lied about not being able to walk, she rants that SHE is the victim of the curse because it stopped her from marrying Cyril, then she exhibits her burned hands to remind him that she set fire on her parent’s castle for him! It doesn’t work this time, and [[TakeThatScrappy she has to see Belle going with him to the capital. ]]]]

** [[spoiler: Princess Belle combines this with PrivilegeMakesYouEvil. She betrayed her family and her own kingdom just to have Cyril and she never lets him forget that. Not to mention the HumiliationConga she makes Belle go through out of petty jealousy.]]

** In the Beauty and the Beast Russian version Literature/TheScarletFlower, Beauty’s father sets the plot in motion when he picks up a red, magic flower that is the heart of Beast’s garden. In Paradise Lost, Evance has AdaptationalVillainy and it’s Belle that starts the story by picking up red wild roses.
** Belle’s InternalizedCategorism seems a dark {{Flanderization}} of Beauty’s issue in [[Literature/BeautyARetellingOfBeautyAndTheBeast Robin McKinley's romance Beauty]]

** Yvonne, the king's mistress, has the title of Countess of [[Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast Villeneuve.]]

** Played straight with the current [[spoiler: queen, the king and Madame Yvonne, his mistress. The latter had the queen's face horribly burned, and the king apparently knew that. In spite of wanting her husbands love, the queen coerces Raphael into being by her lover and [[HeKnowsTooMuch plans to kill La Medium soo people will never know that their queen has dealt with magic.]]She could have contented herself with the beautiful face she bought from the witch, but can't resist the latter's suggestion of disfiguring her rival. As a result, the queen's new face is destroyed and she is arrested on the charge of having tried to kill Madame Yvonne. That's exactly what the king needs to annulate his marriage and make his mistresss the new queen, although that doesn't keep him from making a pass on a disgusted La Medium. Or Yvonne from hooking up with Raphael.]]

** [[spoiler: Princess Belle is a lot worse.  From her first appariton to the moment she wakes from her coma, anyone could think she was the PrincessClassic, with kindness and all; but soon it becomes evident (for the readers, at least) that she is a DevilInPlainSight that uses her sweet smile and falsely kind words to keep everyone wrapped around her finger. As soon as she meets Belle, she begs for her to become her friend and personal assistant, in spite of Beast’s resistance.  Belle is delighted in meeting someone so nice, until the princess condescendingly rants about how lonely and miserable she must be and rubs on the girl's face that everything – Cyril, the castle, the rosary that saved Belle's life - is hers. She also insists for Cyril to announce their engagement and has Belle sewing her wedding dress. The poor girl is an emotional wreck at this point, and the princess takes advantage of this to sneak offfscreen a pin in her wedding dress and hurt herself with it, making everyone think that Belle was careless. To add insult to injury, she pretends to defend her seamstress, saying aloud that it is just normal for Belle to be distracted because she is in love with Cyril, too! Fortunately, Giselle and Isolde come to save the cornered girl.]]

** Giselle first seems the friendly sidekick bird made popular by Disney films, offering to help Belle to escape from the “terrible beast” before he eats her, but locks her up in a basement full of idoles and then almost makes her fall to her death. In both situations, she is saved by said Beast whom calls Belle out for relying só much in appearances. Afterwards, Giselle tries again by luring her into seeing the other Belle and convincing the girl that Beast was just being “good” to her because she had the same name as his comatose fiancée. When Belle still refuses to leave, Giselle threatens to hurt her, but Beast and Lucas catch her red-winged. [[spoiler: Much later, it is revealed that Giselle has became too comfortable with their cursed life (despite hating her new appearance) and didn’t want a stranger, especially a commoner, disrupting it. Also, she doesn't want Lucas' heart broken again, like it happened when Cyril was bethroted to the other Belle. But, after princess Belle wakes up unexpectadly, Giselle sees [[ManipulativeBastard the princess manipulating Cyril again]] and realizes that not only this situation would hurt Lucas a lot more but that her brother could be happy with the peasant Belle, whom, despite her flaws, is a good person.]]
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle is a lot worse.  From her first appariton to the moment she wakes from her coma, anyone could think she was the PrincessClassic, with kindness and all; but soon it becomes evident (for the readers, at least) that she is a DevilInPlainSight that uses her sweet smile and falsely kind words to keep everyone wrapped around her finger. As soon as she meets Belle, she begs for her to become her friend and personal assistant, in spite of Beast’s resistance.  Belle is delighted in meeting someone so nice, until the princess condescendingly rants about how lonely and miserable she must be and rubs on the girl's face that everything – Cyril, the castle, the rosary that saved Belle's life - is hers. She also insists for Cyril to announce their engagement and has Belle sewing her wedding dress. The poor girl is an emotional wreck at this point, and the princess takes advantage of this to sneak a pin in her wedding dress and hurt herself with it, making everyone think that Belle was careless. To add insult to injury, she pretends to defend her seamstress, saying aloud that it is just normal for Belle to be distracted because she is in love with Cyril, too! Fortunately, Giselle and Isolde come to save the cornered girl.]]

* BettyAndVeronica: Belle (the protagonist), who is naive but honest and [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe loyal to her saviour]] and Princess Belle, a ProudBeauty [[spoiler: and a passive-agressive AlphaBitch.]]

** Giselle first seems the friendly sidekick bird made popular by Disney films, offering to help Belle to escape from the “terrible beast” before he eats her, but locks her up in a basement full of idoles and then almost makes her fall to her death. In both situations, she is saved by said Beast whom calls Belle out for relying só much in appearances. Afterwards, Giselle tries again by luring her into seeing the other Belle and convincing the girl that Beast was just being “good” to her because she had the same name as his comatose fiancée. When Belle still refuses to leave, Giselle threatens to hurt her, but Beast and Lucas catch her red-winged. [[spoiler: Much later, it is revealed that Giselle has became too comfortable with their cursed life (despite hating her new appearance) and didn’t want a stranger, especially a commoner, disrupting it. Also, she doesn't want Lucas' heart broken again, like it happened when Cyril was bethroted to the other Belle. But, after princess Belle wakes up unexpectadly, Giselle sees [[ManipulativeBastard the princess manipulating Cyril again]] and realizes that not only that situation would hurt Lucas a lot more but that her brother could be happy with the peasant Belle, who , despite her flaws, is a good person.]]
** [[spoiler: Princess Belle is a lot worse.  From her first appariton to the moment she wakes from her coma, anyone could think she was the PrincessClassic, with kindness and all; but soon it becomes evident she is a RoyalBrat that uses her sweet smile and falsely kind words to keep everyone wrapped around her finger. As soon as she meets Belle, she begs for her to become her friend and personal assistant, in spite of Beast’s resistance.  Belle is delighted in meeting someone so nice, until the princess condescendingly rants about how lonely and miserable she must be and rubs on the girl's face that everything – Cyril, the castle, the rosary that saved Belle's life - is hers. She also insists for Cyril to announce their engagement and has Belle sewing her wedding dress. The poor girl is an emotional wreck at this point, and the princess takes advantage of this to sneak a pin in her wedding dress and hurt herself with it, making everyone think that Belle was careless. To add insult to injury, she pretends to defend Belle, saying aloud that it was just natural thaat she was nervous because she was in love with Cyril, too! Fortunately, Giselle and Isolde come to save the cornered girl.]]

** [[spoiler: During La Medium’s flashback, princess Belle shows up while Cyril is orchestrating his coupe d’etat to rebuke him that they were supposed to be marrying that day and then calls La Medium a “disfigured woman”. That establishes her fundamental selfishness and cruelty, but still, it could have been taken as the speech of a spoiled kid who doesn't know better and the whole thing is told from La Medium’s point of view. Yet, as soon as the princess meets Belle, she bluntly [[InnocentlyUnsensitive asks if only her hair was cursed]]. And, when she asks Belle to be her friend, Beast tells his fiancée to leave the other girl alone, hinting that he knew she would pick on her... [[IdiotBall even though he believed later that Belle forgot the pin on the dress.]]]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Despite his flaws, Beast is that mostly. He won’t admit any harm done to his guests and threatens to punish his own sister if she messes up with Belle again. He has Isolde confined, initially for not trusting her but also to keep the staff calm, or otherwise they would cause a riot to lynch not only her, but the rest of the idoles and probably the Doctor. Although he disapproves the Doctor’s experimens with idoles, he acknowledges his habilities. Too bad that [[spoiler: princess Belle’s authority undermines his because all the staff idolize her. She has them barring the Doctor and Isolde from coming to her wedding with Beast, though the Doctor is his closest friend. Cyril, by his turn, is impotent to help Belle [[DisproportionateRetribution when the servants want to get on her for supposedly hurting their beloved princess]], partly because he suspects Belle had stuck the pin, but also because defending her in that exact moment would confirm he loved her and not his fiancée, which only would make everything worse. When he decides going to the capital, he leaves Giselle and Lucas in charge, knowing they wouldd manage it; also, since the princess’ lies were exposed, she may have lost the staff’s sympathy, at least partly.]]

** Evance is so twisted with grudge that he refuses to hear Belle's arguments that Laetitia might be still alive and threatens to kill her with an axe if she'll not go back inside the house.

** It's La Medium , however, who takes the cake. After leaving Issus, she had everything: riches, position and respect of the society. She also took revenge on the people who imprisoned and used her, far much more than they deserved. The young man who broke her heart was disfigured, framed for HER crimes and burdened by the suffering of the people he cares about, for centuries, [[IfICantHaveYou but she still wants to have him or destroy him]]

** Even when Belle was a kid, Evance’s behavior towards her was very ambiguous. He made her cover her hair with hoods and hats because its color reminded him that she (probably) wasn’t his daughter, but saved her from falling from a cliff. After his wife’s disappearance, he isolates Belle from the rest of the world insisting that “he is the only one able to love her”; abusers frequently say that to keep their victims from receiving any help. And, when the demon possess Evance’s corpse, he first calls for Belle, rambling “No matter where you go or how much time passes, you will always be mine.” before the demon’s mind takes over and asks confusely who Belle is. Much later, Beast remarks that Evance lied to Belle about her appearance to [[IncestSubtext “keep her all to himself”]]. Belle is too innocent to realize but she left him right on time, [[LecherousStepparent before things]] [[RapeAsDrama went a lot worse]].

** Evance could do a seminar about psychological abuse. When Belle was a kid, he bought her a beautiful bonnet as an excuse to shame her violet hair. After Laetitia’s “death”, [[BreakTheCutie he convinced Belle that she was too ugly to be seen by other people, forced her to slave away as a seamstress]] and [[AlcoholicParent drank all the money she earned]]. When she finally breaks out, he runs after her with an axe, revealing cruelly that he never believed she was his daughter. He didn’t want Belle to be happy again because his own happiness had gone away with his wife, so he wanted her to rot inside the house long after he was gone.. [[AssholeVictim It’s impossible to be sad when the fake beast stabs him with a claw]].

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Averted. Belle falls for Beast because she learns to see the good camouflaged in his actions, but is not happy about that and still resents his manners.

** In a sketch between chapters, the cat maids comment they used to raise cats before they worked in the castle, [[LampshadeHanging so that's probably why they were turned into felines]]. Which means that the curse transforms people according to their activities or personalities; the butler was turned into a clock because he was obsessed with timings and schedules, the gamekeepers are hound dogs, etc. Giselle became a literal CagedBirdMetaphor because even before the curse she was already a shut-in because of her position as a princess and for not wanting to see Lucas suffering with his UnrequitedLove for [[spoiler: Cyril]].
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Deconstructed. The entire manga not only has beautiful characters with rotten souls but makes a harsh criticism of people’s obsession with beauty and youth. La Medium became rich by changing the faces of nobles, including the queen, [[spoiler: who wants desperately recover her husband’s love, after his lover disfigured her face.]] Justified, because back then women rarely had some money of their own and were forced to depend on their husbands and lovers completely. And beauty was seen as fundamental to keep men’s insterest (In spite of feminist achievements, this kind of mentality still exists, unfortunately).

* ChickMagnet: Beast. In spite of his cursed form and behavior, La Medium and [[spoiler: princess Belle (after she woke up)]] are still obsessed with him.[[spoiler: Not only girls: Lucas, a transman, became Cyril's chamberlain to stay close to his beloved.]] And Belle, of course, but she only met him after he was already the Beast and initially hated him, so her love really came from noticing the good camouflaged in his actions]] without being influenced by the memory of the gentle, handsome young man he once was.
** [[spoiler: Surprisingly, the demon-dragon La Vouivre fits, too, though she's not exactly "in love". The doctor reveals that her species eats men to reproduce because they have no males, and teases Beast saying that [[LampshadeHanging he “can’t beat ladies off with a stick.”]]]]

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Belle is a nice, hardworking girl but is shunned by most of the castle denizens for being an outsider, a human and a peasant. Although she is officially the seamstress, the cat maidens make her cleaning the garden and the castle, partly by order of Madame Giselle, to press Belle into leaving. Lucas is, initially, the only one to treat her with open kindness, going as far as apologizing for Beast’s boorish ways, but he is a bit of cold towards her and tells Belle that she should leave the castle.

* AnimalMotifs: The butterflies are a recurring element in the manga. Kid Belle wears a cloak with butterfly motifs. When Beast mentions the idoles to diissuade the girl from searching her mother, both the living corpses and Belle appear surrounded by butterflies. {[Same butterflies show up again when she has her face stolen and her soul is transported to Samhain.]] In La Medium’s flashback, it’s shown that she attracted Cyril to her cell when he was a child by conjuring to him a beautiful butterfly, before showing him as a young adult secretly destroying another one as he lies that he finds La Medium attractive.

''Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost'' (''Rakuen no Bijo to Yajū'') is a terror retelling of ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast''. Its author, Creator/KaoriYuki, is very known by her morally ambiguous characters and dark plots(''Manga/CountCain'', ''Alice in Murderland''). And, of course, this manga is no different. However, the dark twists are not there just ForTheEvulz: the manga discusses trauma caused by DomesticAbuse and the dictatorship of beauty. The manga began serialization on Kodansha's ''Palcy'' website in 2019, with a hiatus in 2020, when Yuki had to be hospitalized because of a serious disease. Fortunately, she recovered throughout 2021, and concluded the manga in October of the same year.

Belle is a spirited, brave girl [[DontGoInTheWoods who insists on going to the forest, dismissing the rumors about a beast that kidnaps women to steal their faces]]. Until she and her mother, Laetitia, are found by the monster, who asks the latter if the child is beautiful. Laetitia hurriedly says no and pushes Belle into the river; hours later, her faceless body is found and burned along with the corpses of other victims to keep them from turning into dangerous zombies called “idoles”. Twisted by the tragedy, Belle's father [[MadwomanInTheAttic locks her away for the next five years]], insisting that she is too ugly to show her face in public. But she suspects her mother may be still alive, because the body found wearing her clothes didn’t have her rose-shaped birthmark. So, when she hears rumors outside about the return of the beast, she slips out of the house. When her father tries to get her back, he is killed by the beast, who carries Belle away without answering her questions… and then is killed, too. By a second beast!

* AbhorrentAdmirer: La Medium harbored an obsessive crush on prince Cyril (future Beast), back when she was the "saint" of Issus/the king's prisoner, although she was old enough to be his grandmother... or great-grandmother. Yeah.

* AdaptationExpansion: In Gabrielle de Villeneuve's original story, the prince was turned into a beast by an evil but nameless fairy after refusing her love. In Kaori Yuki's version, she is a witch with a DarkAndTroubledPast who keeps obsessed on the prince 200 years after she cursed him and that has no qualms into destroying other people's lives to fulfill her goals.

** Yvonne, the king's mistress, has the title of Countess of Villeneuve. Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve wrote the first version of [[Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast Beauty and the beast]].

** [[spoiler: During La Medium’s flashback, princess Belle shows up while Cyril is orchestrating his coupe d’etat to rebuke him that they were supposed to be marrying that day and then calls La Medium a “disfigured woman”. That establishes her fundamental selfishness and cruelty, but still, it could have been taken as the speech of a spoiled kid who doesn't know better and the whole thing is told from La Medium’s point of view. Yet, as soon as the princess meets Belle, she bluntly [[InnocentlyUnsensitive asks if only her hair was cursed]]. And, when she asks Belle to be her friend, Beast tells his fiancée to leave the other girl alone. As much as he missed the princess, he suspected that she would eventually pick on Belle... [[IdiotBall though he believed later that Belle forgot the pin on the dress.]]]]

** Played straight with the current [[spoiler: queen, the king and Madame Yvonne, his mistress. The latter had the queen's face horribly burned, and the king apparently knew that. In spite of wanting her husbands love, the queen coerces Raphael into being by her lover and [[HeKnowsTooMuch plans to kill La Medium to erase all evidence that she had dealt with magic.]]She could have contented herself with the beautiful face she bought from the witch, but can't resist the latter's suggestion of disfiguring her rival. As a result, the queen's new face is destroyed and she is arrested on the charge of having tried to kill Madame Yvonne. That's exactly what the king needs to annulate his marriage and make Yvonne the new queen, although that doesn't keep him from making a pass on a disgusted La Medium Or Yvonne from hooking up with Raphael.]]

** In the Beauty and the Beast Russian version Literature/TheScarletFlower( and most of the other adaptations) Beauty’s father sets the plot in motion when he picks up a red, magic flower that is the heart of Beast’s garden. In Paradise Lost, Evance has AdaptationalVillainy and it’s Belle that starts the story by picking up red wild roses.

* ArrangedMarriage: The king of Issus arranged the marriage between his son Cyril and princess Belle because she was the daughter of the rulers of a neighbouring kingdom. [[spoiler: He went back on this because she was just the sixth daughter of a not-so-important king when he could get something better through his son, but the uncommitment caused a war. At this point, the princess was so head-over-heels about Cyril that she set fire on her parents' castle, killing them, so the royalty of Issus had no choice but getting her back.]]

** [[spoiler: Princess Belle not only was happy of [[RoaringRampageOfRomance having her kingdom destroyed by the war but she took advantage off it to burn her parents' castle]]. She saved Cyril's life, but her hands were burned, and she uses her scars (among other ammunitions) to guilt trip him.]]
** Played straight with the current [[spoiler: queen, the king and Madame Yvonne, his mistress. The latter had the queen's face horribly burned, and the king apparently knew that. In spite of wanting her husbands love, the queen coerces Raphael into being by her lover and [YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness plans to kill La Medium to erase all evidence that she had dealt with magic.]She could have contented herself with the beautiful face she bought from the witch, but can't resist the latter's suggestion of disfiguring her rival. As a result, the queen's new face is destroyed and she is arrested on the charge of having tried to kill Madame Yvonne. That's exactly what the king needs to annulate his marriage and make Yvonne the new queen, although that doesn' keep him from making a pass on a disgusted La Medium.]]

* BettyAndVeronica: Belle (the protagonist), who is naive but honest and [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe loyal to her saviour]] and Princess Belle, a ProudBeauty [[spoiler: and a possessive AlphaBitch.]]

** The scar Evance got in his arm when he saved kid Belle from falling in a cliff, which he called his “badge of honor”, was one of the reasons why Belle put up with his abuse because she saw it as a proof that he loved her. When the fake possessed Evance’s body, he ripped off his arm to grow a hand with claws - [[HoistByHisOwnPetard and the scar with it]]. That made her realize that the man that came to get her back wasn’t her father.

* BettyAndVeronica: Belle (the protagonist), who is naive but honest and [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe loyal to her saviour]] and Princess Belle, Beast's seductive but [[spoiler: spoiled, possessive and narcissistic fiancee.]]

** [[spoiler: Princess Belle is a lot worse.  From her first appariton to the moment she wakes from her coma, anyone could think she was the PrincessClassic, with kindness and all; but soon it becomes evident she is a RoyalBrat that uses her sweet smile and falsely kind words to keep everyone wrapped around her finger. As soon as she meets Belle, she begs for her to become her friend and personal assistant, in spite of Beast’s resistance.  Belle is delighted in meeting someone so nice, until the princess condescendingly rants about how lonely and miserable she must be and rubs on the girl's face that everything – Cyril, the castle, the rosary that saved Belle's life - is hers. She also insists for Cyril to announce their engagement and has Belle sewing her wedding dress. The poor girl is an emotional wreck at this point, and the princess takes advantage of this to sneak a pin in her wedding dress and hurt herself with it, making everyone think that Belle was careless. To add insult to injury, she pretends to defend Belle, saying aloud that it was just natural the girl was nervous because she was in love with Cyril, too! Fortunately, Giselle and Isolde come to save her face.]]

** Downplayed with Giselle. After she saves Belle from the princess' trap, the former reminds that the bird tried to kill her. Giselle waves it off with a huffy "you shouldn't hold a grudge" However, when they say goodbye before the trip, they are in such good terms that Giselle even sheds a tear.

** In the beginning of the manga, Laetitia tries to dissuade Belle that her father will be angry if he finds out that they went to the woods, with the little girl replying that he’d never do anything in front off her mother. Then she complains that her father hates the color of her hair. Poor, poor child.
** [[spoiler: During La Medium’s flashback, princess Belle shows up while Cyril is orchestrating his coupe d’etat to rebuke him that they were supposed to be marrying that day and then calls La Medium a “disfigured woman”. That establishes her fundamental selfishness and cruelty, but still, it could have been taken as the speech of a spoiled kid who doesn't know better and the whole thing is told from La Medium’s point of view. Yet, as soon as the princess meets Belle, she bluntly [[InnocentlyUnsensitive asks if only her’s hair was cursed]]. And, when she asks Belle to be her friend, Beast tells his fiancée to leave the other girl alone. As much as he missed the princess, he suspected that she would eventually pick on Belle... [[IdiotBall though he believed later that Belle forgot the pin on the dress.]]]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: At the first chapters, Beast criticizes Belle harshly because of the lingering effects of her trauma and for defending her father, saying she “must like being a prisoner”, although he is basically enslaved to his people through his GuiltyComplex. His tone changes gradually after their trip to Issus, with him saying he feels sorry for her and trying to help Belle to overcome her mental issues.

** [[spoiler: Princess Belle betrayed her family and her own kingdom just to have Cyril and she never lets him forget that. Not to mention the HumiliationConga she made Belle go through.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: If the Doctor hadn't talked to the Duke Albert, he wouldn't have been recognized and maybe Beast's cover wouln't have been blown, or at least, not before they had the chance to find out where La Medium was hiding. Beast also goofed when he called the Vengeful Guy (see NoNameGiven)"ankle biter", same insult he used previously to the army when they tried to shoot Belle along with him.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Despite his flaws, Beast is that mostly. He won’t admit any harm done to his guests and threatens to punish his own sister if she messes up with Belle again. He has Isolde confined, initially for not trusting her but also to keep the staff calm, or otherwise they would cause a riot to lynch not only her, but the rest of the idoles and probably the Doctor. Although he disapproves the Doctor’s experimens with idoles, he acknowledges his habilities. Too bad that [[spoiler: princess Belle’s authority undermines his because all the staff idolize her. She has them barring the Doctor and Isolde from coming to her wedding with Beast, though the Doctor is his closest friend. Cyril, by his turn, is impotent to help Belle when the servants want to get on her for supposedly hurting their beloved princess, partly because he suspects Belle had stuck the pin, but also because defending her in that exact moment would confirm he loved her and not his fiancée, which only would make everything worse. When he decides going to the capital, he leaves Giselle and Lucas in charge, knowing they wouldd manage it; also, since the princess’ lies were exposed, she may have lost the staff’s sympathy, at least partly.]]

* The court painter forced to become the queen’s lover is called [[Creator/RaphaelSanzio Raphael.]]

** Beast’s personality and his CharacterDevelopment ressemble ''{{Manga/Inuyasha}}'s'' a lot. Both are target of [[RunningGag gag ears]] and can't let go an old love out of guilt; said loves are brought back by sel-serving witches, too. La Medium, by her turn, is much like Naraku: she uses fragments of a magical stone to create servants which she abuses; she lives off other people’s body parts, toys with her enemies’ feelings and has a sickening obsession about someone who doesn’t love her.

** Evance could do a seminar about psychological abuse. When Belle was a kid, he bought her a beautiful bonnet as an excuse to shame her violet hair. After Laetitia’s “death”, [[BreakTheCutie he convinced Belle that she was too ugly to be seen by other people, forced her to slave away as a seamstress]] and [[AlcoholicParent drank all the money she earned]]. When she finally breaks out, he runs after her with an axe, revealing cruelly that he never believed she was his daughter and that he wanted her to rot inside the house for having taken Laetitia from him. [[AssholeVictim It’s very satisfying when the fake beast stabs him with a claw]].

* AdaptationExpansion: In Gabrielle de Villeneuve's original story, the prince was turned into a beast by an evil but nameless fairy after refusing her love. In Kari Yuki's version, she is a witch with a DarkAndTroubledPast who keeps obsessed on the prince 200 years after she cursed him and that has no qualms into destroying other people's lives to fulfill her goals.

* ArrangedMarriage: The king of Issus arranged the marriage between his son Cyril and princess Belle because she was a daughter of the rulers of a neighbouring kingdom. [[spoiler: He went back on this because she was just the sixth daughter of a not-so-important king when he could get something better through his son, but the uncommitment caused a war. At this point, the princess was so head-over-heels about Cyril that she set fire on her parents' castle, killing them, so the royalty of Issus had no choice but getting her back.]]

** Played straight with the current [[spoiler: queen, the king and Madame Yvonne, his mistress. The latter had the queen's face horribly burned, and the king apparently knew that. The queen, by her turn, could have contented herself with the beautiful face she bought from La Medium ([[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness whom she planned to kill to erase all evidence that she had dealt with magic]]), but lets herself to be manipulated by the witch into disfiguring her rival, too. As a result, the queen's new face is destroyed and she is arrested on the charge of having tried to kill Madame Yvonne. That's exactly what the king needs to annulate his marriage and make Yvonne the new queen. La Medium knows her customers pretty well.]]

** Frequently, your self-image has nothing to do with the way other people see you. At least twice Beast said he found Belle beautiful, especially her eyes, and La Medium wants her face and body. Also, nobody seems particularly disturbed by Giselle’s cage-head; Beast and Lucas are happy when she finally abandons the confines of her room.

* SpidersAreScary: La Medium's favorite servants are spiders. [[spoiler: She filled Denis with them, back when she was still the saint, using them later to see what happens in Beast's castle. Also, she takes advantage of Denis' friendship with Isolde to possess her through a spider slipped on the idole]] and tell him to meet her in Issus, where she receives riding... a giant spider.

* BeastAndBeauty: Need to ask?

** Yvonne, the king's lover, has the title of Countess of Villeneuve. Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve wrote the first version of [[Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast Beauty and the beast]].

* BirdsOfAFeather: Despite [[BelligerentSexualTension not seeing eye-to-eye most of time]], Belle and Beast bond because both are trying to make it up for their mistakes and have strong tempers that their hard knocked lives couldn't tame completely. Beast gets to admit he identifies himself to her because, before the curse, he was pressed to be what people expected from him, like she is. [[spoiler: Also, he is emotionally chained to his fiancée by guilt just like Belle was to her father, although he doesn't seem to realize it.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Giselle can be pretty sarcastic, to not say callous, same for the Doctor. Belle and La Medium have their sharp-tongued moments, too. Beast.... well, he is a [[StepfordSnarker snarking machine for very painful reassons]]

** Even when Belle was a kid, Evance’s behavior towards her was very ambiguous. He made her cover her hair with hoods and hats because its color reminded him that she (probably) wasn’t his daughter, but saved her from falling from a cliff. After his wife’s disappearance, he isolates Belle from the rest of the world insisting that “he is the only one able to love her”, which is a behavior typically from abusers to keep their victims from receiving any help. And, when the demon possess Evance’s corpse, he first calls for Belle, rambling that “No matter where she goes or how much time passes, she will always be his.” before the demon’s mind takes over and asks confusely who Belle is. Much later, Beast remarks that Evance lied to Belle about her appearance to [[IncestSubtext “keep her all to himself”]]. Belle is too innocent to realize but she left him right on time[[LecherousStepparent before things]] [[RapeAsDrama went a lot worse]].

* {{Hypocrite}}: At the first chapters, Beast criticizes Belle harshly because of the lingering effects of her trauma and for defending her father, saying she “must like being a prisoner”, [[spoiler: although he is practically enslaved to princess Belle through his GuiltyComplex and her emotional abuse.]] His tone changes gradually after their trip to Issus, with him saying he feels sorry for her and trying to help Belle to overcome her mental issues.

* SignatureHeadgear: Giselle's bird form [[NeverBareheaded always wears a black bonnet]] adorned with frills. La Medium is rarely seen without her own frilled hat.

* StepfordSnarker: Beast's DarkAndTroubledPast, along with all the guilt, transformed him into this, [[spoiler: except when he is around his fiancée.]] None of those close to him - Lucas, Giselle, Doctor and, eventually, Belle - is fooled.

** Giselle first seems the friendly sidekick bird made popular by Disney films, offering to help Belle to escape from the “terrible beast” before he eats her, but locks her up in a basement full of idoles and then almost makes her fall to her death. In both situations, she is saved by said Beast whom calls Belle out for relying só much in appearances. Afterwards, Giselle tries again by luring her into seeing the other Belle and convincing the girl that Beast was just being “good” to her because she had the same name as his comatose fiancée. When Belle still refuses to leave, Giselle threatens to hurt her, but Beast and Lucas catch her red-winged. [[spoiler: Much later, it is revealed that Giselle has became too comfortable with their cursed life (despite hating her new appearance) and didn’t want a stranger, especially a commoner, disrupting it. Also, she doesn't want Lucas' heart broken again, like it happened when Cyril was bethroted to the other Belle. But, after princess Belle wakes up unexpectadly, Giselle sees [[ManipulativeBastard the princess manipulating Cyril again]] and realizes that not only that situation would hurt Lucas a lot more but that her brother could be happy with the peasant Belle, who , despite her flaws, is a good person.]]

-->'''Lieutenant Antoine:''' I am Antoine, Lieutenant of this Beast-hunting brigade. And you, Sir, are without a doubt the storied beast! The size of an ox, with black horns and fangs as sharp as a wolf's. A monster terrible enough to send chills down the spine of a grown man... Prepare to face divine, ironclad justice!
-->'''Beast:'''Say, old man, how would you like if I judged YOU based on your looks? Or am I right to assume you're just a mustachioed, out-of-shape clark playing soldier who can't actually fight a damn?
-->'''Lieutenant Antoine:'''Why, you!! You stooped to insults, I see!
-->'''Beast:'''You started it! Do these look like horns to you? They're my ears, asshole!

** Even when Belle was a kid, Evance’s behavior towards her was very ambiguous. He made her cover her hair with hoods and hats because its color reminded him that she (probably) wasn’t his daughter, but saved her from falling from a cliff. After his wife’s disappearance, he isolates Belle from the rest of the world insisting that “he is the only one able to love her”, which is a behavior typically from abusers to keep their victims from receiving any help. And, when the demon possess Evance’s corpse, he first calls for Belle, rambling that “No matter where she goes or how much time passes, she will always be his.” before the demon’s mind takes over and asks confusely who Belle is. Much later, Beast remarks that Evance lied to Belle about her appearance to [[IncestSubtext “keep her all to himself”]]. Belle is too innocent to realize but she left him right on time, [[[[LecherousStepparent before things]][[RapeAsDrama became a lot worse]].

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Evance gets his consciousness back in his last moments to stop the demon who possessed him from attacking Belle and [[GoThroughMe shields her from the king’s army shoots]]. That doesn’t make it up for the horrific way he treated her, but makes Belle realize that, in spite of saying otherwise, her father wanted her to live.]]

** Speaking of Studios Ghibli: a girl who has lost her parents and is saved by a mysterious guy who encourages her to get a job among magic creatures that try to turn her away because she is human brings Anime/SpiritedAway to mind, but that must be unintentional.

** The rosary Beast wears around his neck breaks without him noticing it and is found by Belle after the incident with La Vouivre. She fixes it and takes it with her to give him back later, [[spoiler: but it becomes the only thing anchoring Belle to the living world when her face is stolen. It makes her remember her name and about the Beast; also, when La Medium tries to stop him from save her, Belle burns the witch’s face with it. Much later, princess Belle sees her carrying it and asks it back to Cyril, since she gave it to him when they were engaged – soon after she “saved” him from drowning. She [[KickTheDog humiliates Belle “asking” her to put the rosary around her neck]], but that backfires later, when she tries to keep Beast from traveling. He notices that princess Belle is no longer wearing the rosary and remembers that her allergy keeps her from wearing any jewelry aside pearls… which means she lied when she said the rosary was hers, so she couldn’t be the girl carrying it that he met in the woods when he was a kid. [[ThrowTheDogABone After the ball incident, he gives the rosary to Belle, saying it is “hers only”.]]]]

** [[spoiler: Princess Belle is actually a sociopath that abuses of Cyril emotionally. Giselle never liked her, but didn’t want her replaced by Belle because the latter was a stranger and a peasant. She quickly changes her mind after the toxic princess wakes up.]]

* StepfordSnarker: Beast's DarkAndTroubledPast, along with all the guilt, transformed him into this, [[except when he is around his fiancée. None of those close to him - Lucas, Giselle, Doctor andd eventually, Belle - is fooled.

** Even when Belle was a kid, Evance’s behavior towards her was very ambiguous. He made her cover her hair with hoods and hats because its color reminded him that she (probably) wasn’t his daughter, but saved her from falling from a cliff. After his wife’s disappearance, he isolates Belle from the rest of the world insisting that “he is the only one able to love her”, which is a behavior typically from abusers to keep their victims from receiving any help. And, when the demon possess Evance’s corpse, he first calls for Belle, rambling that “No matter where she goes or how much time passes, she will always be his.” before the demon’s mind takes over and asks confusely who Belle is. Much later, Beast remarks that Evance lied to Belle about her appearance to [[IncestSubtext “keep her all to himself”]]. She left her “papa” right on time, [[ParentalIincest or things probably]][[RapeAsDrama would have become a lot worse]].

** According to Giselle, both she and Cyril were regularly beaten by their parents, as a form of “discipline”. Unfortunately,[[DeliberateValuesDissonance that was common in the 18th century]]. Although in real life nobles normally had the son of a servant (whipping boy) to be beaten in their kid’s behalf.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Belle is a nice, hardworking girl but is shunned by most of the castle denizens for being an outsider, a human and a peasant. Although she is officially the seamstress, the cat maidens make her cleaning the garden and the castle, partly because Madame Giselle told them só, in orer to convince Belle to leave. Lucas is, initially, the only one to treat her with open kindness, going as far as apologizing for Beast’s boorish ways, but he is a bit of cold towards her also tells Belle that she should leave the castle.

* DeadpanSnarker: Giselle can be pretty sarcastic, to not say callous, Belle and La Medium have their sharp-tongued moments, too, but there's no doubt that it's Beast who takes the crown.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: La Medium harbored an obsessive crush on prince Cyril (future Beast), back when she was the "saint" of Issus/the king's prisoner, although she was old enough to be his grandmother. As creepy as that was, the king used La Medium's crush to keep her obedient, by promising that he would marry her to the prince someday.

** [[spoiler: The engagement between Cyril and princess Belle caused a war because his father wanted to undo the commitment. The princess not only was happy of [[RoaringRampageOfRomance having her kingdom destroyed but she also set fire on the castle of her future in-laws]]. She saved Cyril's life, but her hands were burned, and she uses her scars (among other ammunitions) to guilt trip him.]]

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Deconstructed. The entire manga makes a harsh criticism of people’s obsession with beauty and youth, especially La Medium. She became rich by changing the faces of nobles, including the queen, [[spoiler: who wants desperately recover her husband’s love, after his lover disfigured her face.]] Justified, because back then women rarely had some money of their own and were forced to depend on their husbands and lovers completely. And beauty was seen as fundamental to keep men’s insterest (In spite of feminist achievements, this kind of mentality still exists, unfortunately).

* DysfunctionJunction: Practically everyone has issues.

** [[spoiler: Lucas was biologically a girl, and Cyril's childhood friend. They used to practice fencing (according to Cyril, she/he was better than him), but people judged Lucas for her unladylike behaviour. Following Cyril's advice, he decided to be "faithful" to his true self, cut his hair and assumed his new identity as a man, scandalizing the court.]]

** The first chapter references Literature/LittleRedRidingHood. Not only Belle wears a cape with hood, but she goes to the forest against her parents' wishes. Twice.
** Belle's problemms started when she decided to go to the forest, because it was the only place where red roses grew. In the original story, Beauty's father starts all the trouble when he picks up a rose he couldn't find anywhere else.

** La Medium's fixed idea of becoming the most beautiful woman in the world brings the Evil Queen of Literature/SnowWhite to mind. Also, the Queen tries to kill Snow White with a poisoned comb, and La Medium is about to use one to destroy Belle's beauty, before noticing she has the rose sigil.

** [[spoiler: Lucas was biologically a girl, and Cyril's childhood friend. They used to practice fencing(according to Cyril, she/he was better than him), but people judged Lucas for her unladylike behaviour. Following Cyril's advice, he decided to be "faithful" to his true self, cut his hair and assumed his new identity as a man, scandalizing the court.]]
** Beast met the Doctor when the latter lived as a commoner in a village slaughtered by La Medium's minions. Doctor seems to have some notions about magic, having made for Beast a magical binding so the prince wouldn't destroy things accidentaly (or kill someone) whenever he lost his temper. [[spoiler: During the masquerade, he calls a duke "Albert", and the latter reacts with shock. Moments later, the doctor comes running to warn Beast and Belle they have to go because the locals recognized him as "Lord Maurin". The army was after him because, apparently, he had been excommunicated years ago, which explains why he was hiding in a remote village.]]

** [[spoiler: After the ball, Beast reveals the main reason he brought Belle with him was because he wanted to leave her in the human world, so she would have a normal life. He seems to have forgotten she has nowhere to go and that the army may capture her because of her association with him; by other turn, he has already realized he can't protect Belle from [[{{Yandere}} La Medium]] and [[{{Yandere}}Princess Belle.]]]]

** In a BreatherEpisode, the cat maids comment they used to raise cats before they worked in the castle, [[LampshadeHanging so that's probably why they were turned into felines]]. Which means that the curse transforms people according to their activities or personalities; the butler was turned into a clock because he was obsessed with timings and schedules, the gamekeepers are hound dogs, etc. Giselle became a literal CagedBirdMetaphor because even before the curse she was already a shut-in because of her position as a princess and for not wanting to see Lucas suffering with his UnrequitedLove for [[spoiler: Cyril]].

** La Medium's fixed idea of becoming the most beautiful woman in the world brings the Evil Queen of Literature/SnowWhite to mind.

** Beast’s personality and his CharacterDevelopment ressemble ''{{Manga/Inuyasha}}'s'' a lot. Also, both can't let go an old love because they're driven by guilt... and both are target of [[RunningGag gag ears]], too. La Medium, by her turn, is much like Naraku: she uses fragments of a magical stone to create servants which she abuses; she lives off other people’s body parts, toys with her enemies’ feelings and has a sickening obsession about someone who doesn’t love her.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Whenever a woman has her face stolen by La Medium, the place where it used to be becomes a dark surface, with no visible facial muscles. Even without eyes and nose, they can see and breath - well, Isolde can, since she is still alive and the other idoles are zombies.

* ChickMagnet: Beast. In spite of his cursed form and behavior, La Medium and [[spoiler: princess Belle (after she woke up)]] are still obsessed with him.[[spoiler: Not only girls: Lucas (a transman) became Cyril's chamberlain to stay close to his beloved.]] And Belle, of course, but she only met him after he was already the Beast and initially hated him, so her love really came from noticing the good camouflaged in his actions]] without being influenced by the memory of the gentle, handsome young man he once was.

** Belle hides her face behind her hair because she thinks she is ugly, much for other people's confusion.

** Despite his hatred towards Belle, Evance built her a bathtub and restroom devices, and kept her informed of all the rumors about the (fake) beast and the kidnappings. As much as he insisted he wished that Belle was taken instead of Laetitia, looks like that he feared to lose her, too(see RedemptionEqualsDeath). Beast seems to realize that, emphatizing that Evance convinced Belle she was ugly to "keep her all to himself".
** [[spoiler: Lucas was biologically a girl, and Cyril's childhood friend. They used to practice fencing(according to Cyril, she/he was better than him), but people judged Lucas for her unladylike behaviour. Following Cyril's advice, he decided to be "faithful" to his true self, cut his hair and assumed his new identity as a man, scandalizing the court.]]
** Beast met the Doctor when the latter lived as a commoner in a village slaughtered by La Medium's minions. Doctor seems to have some notions about magic, having made for Beast a magical binding so the prince wouldn't destroy things accidentaly (or kill someone) whenever he lost his temper. [[spoiler: During the masquerade, he calls a duke "Albert", and the latter reacts with shock. Moments later, the doctor comes running to warn Beast and Belle they have to go because the locals recognized him as "Lord Maurin". The army was after him because, apparently, he had been excommunicated years ago, which explains why he was hiding in a remote village.]]

** Against her will, Belle falls in love with Beast as she realizes the lengths he goes to free his people from the curse. Still, she believes that he only cares about her because she has the same name as his beloved fiancée. Nice going, Giselle!

* IWorkAlone: Beast insists into picking up the shards and confront La Medium by himself, alleging that others would just stand in his way. Of course, he doesn't want anyone else to get hurt because of him. Belle won't buy any of this and insists into going to Issus with him. [[spoiler: She gets in trouble out of naivety, but she also proofs she can stand of her own and helps Beast to snap out of his HeroicBSOD, earning his respect.]]

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Evance gets his consciousness back in his last moments to stop the demon who possessed him from attacking Belle and [[GoThroughMe shields her from the king’s army shoots]]. Although that doesn’t make it up for the emotional scars he left on her.]]

** [[spoiler: After the ball, Beast reveals the main reason he brought Belle with him was because he wanted to leave her in the human world, so she would have a normal life. He seems to have forgotten she has nowhere to go and that the army may capture her because of her association with him; by other turn, he has already realized he can't protect Belle from [[{{Yandere}} La Medium and his fiancée.]]]]