Basic Trope: A female character always wears a stereotypical belly dancing outfit, and is notably attractive.
- Straight: Amani is a beautiful belly dancer from the story's "Arabian Nights" Days-themed region. She wears a revealing, two-piece dancing outfit with lots of gaudy gold jewelry, she has her waist-length hair tied up in an elaborate braid or enormous ponytail, and she isn't shy about impromptu performances.
- Exaggerated:
- Amani is constantly swaying and shimmying seductively while idle, even in places and situations where it doesn't make sense.
- Amani wears an incredibly skimpy outfit, amounting to nothing but large rhinestones over her nipples and crotch, held together by jangling golden chains.
- Amani's proportions are comically erotic, with enormous breasts, a colossal rear, and an impossibly narrow waist.
- Amani's flimsy clothes don't fit her terribly well, and she's incredibly prone to Wardrobe Malfunctions where her top slips down or her pants fall off in the middle of a dance.
- All of the above, all at once. People notice.
- Downplayed: Amani knows how to belly dance and is conventionally attractive, but doesn't ever see the need to dress in a belly dancing outfit, wear flashy jewelry, or bare her midriff.
- Justified:
- Amani comes from a culture where belly dancing is a spiritual form of art, and practitioners are expected to wear the traditional uniform at all times.
- Amani's belly dancing is linked to her magic or abilities, so having an outfit that facilitates ease of movement is crucial.
- Amani enjoys the male attention she receives, and it certainly makes it easy to distract guards at a moment's notice.
- Amani honestly just likes the outfit.
- Inverted: Amani is a belly dancer, but in her native culture, a belly dancer's traditional garb is lots of heavy clothing and enveloping robes, leading many to question why the art is called "belly dancing" in the first place.
- Gender-Inverted: Baqil is a male belly dancer, always clad in belly dancing attire.
- Subverted:
- The traditional belly dancing outfit of Amani's culture is actually quite conservative.
- Amani doesn't want to wear the stereotypical outfit, as she finds it to be too revealing.
- Amani wears the typical outfit, but is intensely unattractive.
- Double Subverted:
- Amani finds the outfit to be too restrictive, so she makes some adjustments.
- Amani constantly ends up in situations where she has to distract or seduce, so she ends up having to wear the skimpier outfit anyway, much to her chagrin.
- Amani's ugliness stems from a curse, that she eventually dispels.
- Parodied: From inside a changing booth, Amani asks everyone not to gawk when she comes out, as she's putting on the dancing garb of her native culture. She steps out of the booth, and we see that she is wearing an over-the-top disco outfit.
- Zig-Zagged: From time to time, Amani will don one or two elements of the stereotypical attire, but generally avoids wearing the whole ensemble at once. Finally, in a situation where she has to put on a lengthy performance, she wears the entire outfit at once, and decides that she actually enjoys it.
- Averted: Amani plans to purchase a typical belly dancing outfit, but can never seem to find one anywhere.
- Enforced: "We need more Fanservice without making anyone look like a slut. Hey, let's draw on a cultural practice with revealing clothes!"
- Lampshaded: "Do you ever find it weird that Amani wears that outfit all the time? Even when it's cold?" "For her, it's a cultural thing, okay. Don't make it weird."
- Invoked: Fighter Bob buys the outfit for Amani as a gift, while claiming it's a sign of respect for her culture.
- Exploited:
- Show Some Leg, when used to distract.
- Proud Beauty, when used in a generally persuasive way.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!, when used to get away with overtly immoral things.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!, when flashing or drawing attention to her breasts to compel men to do what she wants.
- Amani is part of a thieves' guild, who pickpocket viewers that are spellbound by Amani's performances.
- Defied: Fighter Bob asks Amani, why not wear a traditional belly dancing outfit all the time? Amani scowls.
- Discussed: "Amani's a belly dancer, you see. And this is how they dress... all the time, apparently. Look, it's a cultural thing."
- Conversed: "So they've got this Amani character now. Her thing is belly dancing." "Yeah, I figured that one out by myself."
- Implied: Fighter Bob tells Sorceress Alice about his encounter with a belly dancer named Amani, and how she had, er, a very pretty outfit on.
- Deconstructed:
- Amani gets cold easily, when the party has to traverse cooler climates.
- Amani has to deal with constant catcalls and jeers from crass men.
- Amani has to combat assumptions that she's either a stripper or a sex worker.
- Reconstructed:
- Amani simply warms herself up by dancing whenever they camp. The male party members have no complaints.
- Amani either doesn't really mind it, or simply thinks the men are being nice and saying hello.
- Amani explains that her uniform is a part of her culture, to everyone she meets.
- Or alternately, Amani actually is a stripper, and doesn't mind it when people guess correctly.
- Played for Laughs:
- Amani actually has no idea how to belly dance. She just really likes the outfit and the accessories.
- Amani tells the party that she's tired of being objectified for her outfit, so she's finally going to switch to a different culturally appropriate dancing attire instead. Next time we see her, she is now clad in a skimpy coconut bra and grass hula skirt.
- Amani dances with Fighter Bob on stage for a tavern audience, and explains to him that the power of belly dancing lies in being slyly seductive without revealing too much. As she performs an acrobatic whirling step, her top flies off, and she turns to face the audience as they gasp and wolf whistle. Fighter Bob (also staring) says that doesn't really seem slyly seductive at all, and Amani attempts to cover up as she hisses that wasn't on purpose.
- Amani has been told by her teachers that her dances have magic power, but the truth is she's so attractive that her dancing causes anyone to stare, and Amani has no concept of people being attracted to her so she assumes it's magic. This leads to lots of incidents where sleazy men attempt to take advantage of her with ideas on how to "increase her magic power," and the party has to constantly rescue her from situations where they catch her stripping completely naked, giving lap dances, or worse, while she maintains that she was told it would "augment her magic."
- Amani explains that in her culture, her outfit is actually modest compared to typical belly dancing attire. Fighter Bob asks what the typical attire looks like, so Amani unclasps her top and drops it on the floor. We see the reactions of Sorceress Alice, who gasps, and Fighter Bob, whose eyes go wide as his gaze shifts down slightly. Alice says that's much too inappropriate, but Bob says he's more open-minded than Alice about other cultures.
- Played for Drama:
- The constant catcalling from men starts to weigh on Amani's spirit, and she starts to wonder if a wardrobe change is in order.
- Amani's searing attractiveness leads other female characters to envy and resent her.
- One of the villains is enchanted by Amani's looks, and can't bring themselves to seriously fight the party on account of their secret love.
Come and watch the performance, back at Sultry Belly Dancer.
