Two tropes?: Ugly Cute

This is used to refer both to physically-ugly characters who are behaviourally endearing, such as Quasimodo, and to characters who are physically cute but in unconventional ways, such as Wall E.

Should it be split?

edited 22nd Aug '11 9:36:44 AM by HiddenFacedMatt

I am not so sure about this, but I think it is probably unnecessary to split Ugly Cute along those lines because it is already a YMMV trope and is pretty intertwined with subjectivity. I feel like unconventional cuteness, while somewhat broad, encompasses both of those ideas well though I am interested in hearing some more arguments for a possible split.

edited 26th Aug '11 12:53:43 PM by LouieW

... practically forgot I made this thread; bumping to see what others have to say.

I think that in some cases, it may be subjective which of these apply. Some people might find Wall-E physically repulsive; others might find Quasimodo not-so-repulsive. Since the trope is YMMV to start with, I think it's fine as is.

That's sort of like saying Complete Monster and Jerkass Woobie should be merged because they're both subjective. Sharing subjectivity doesn't erase distinction between concepts.

edited 13th Sep '11 7:36:24 PM by HiddenFacedMatt

Should this even be subjective? Cute Bruiser isn't. Gonk isn't. In fact, most Physical Appearance Tropes are not subjective at all. I don't see why this one should be.

edited 17th Oct '11 10:43:23 PM by Zeta

Because most physical appearances fall into easily definable characteristics.

Yeah, it probably does deserve to be YMMV. After all, whether something is "ugly," "cute," or both is highly subjective, even though there are a lot of creatures & characters that 99%+ of people would agree were deliberately meant to invoke the trope.

As for splitting as proposed above, heck no. Just no. There's too much overlap between the two proposed categories. Very few ugly creatures with cute mannerisms aren't also given a cute feature or two that would qualify them as physically cute in an unconventional sense and vice versa. This is particularly true in visual media.

This sounds like a YMMV thing.

BTW, where does one put things that are supposed to be cute, but the "cuteness" features are so badly overdone that it becomes a nasty, disturbing, uncanny valley, gross, or just butt-ugly face instead?

Uncanny Valley and/or Fetish Retardant?

And yeah, this trope is okay as is.

edited 5th Feb '12 4:13:14 PM by Ekuran