History Main / FairestOfThemAll

* In "[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/twelvedancing/stories/katiecrackernuts.html Katie Crackernuts]]", the stepmother has her stepdaughter's head turned into a sheep's head, because she was more beautiful than her own daughter.

A SubTrope of DrivenByEnvy, this [[{{Plots}} plot]] is OlderThanFeudalism. Long before the days of TheBrothersGrimm's jealous {{Wicked Stepmother}}s, Classical goddesses had a habit of getting ''very'' jealous if a mortal was considered more beautiful than them. Psyche, for one, became a target of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty herself, but, as usual, was saved by ThePowerOfLove.

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Every villain does what they do for a reason. The CardCarryingVillain wants to be [[EvilIsCool evil and cool]]. The DiabolicalMastermind wants money... ''more'' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney money]], most likely. The StalkerWithACrush "wants" TheHero. The EvilOverlord wants to TakeOverTheWorld ( [[Film/StreetFighter Of Course!]] ).

* In Zenescope's ''Grimm Fairy Tales'', one story focuses on a cheerleader's step-mother who is told [[{{Grimmification}} a darker, more violent]] version of Literature/SnowWhite. It turns out that the step-mother has been poisoning her daughter because she's jealous of both her beauty and her fame on the school's cheerleading squad (back in her youth, the step-mother was the best cheerleader).

* In CSLewis's ''TillWeHaveFaces'', it's implied that some of the misfortune in the story is caused by the goddess Ungit being jealous of the princess Istra's beauty.

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* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/jacobs/english/laidlyworm.html The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh]]'', the stepmother, [[FairestOfThemAll out of jealousy at her beauty]], turns her stepdaughter into a dragon; she is disenchanted by her brother.
* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sevendwarfs/stories/goldtree.html Gold Tree and Silver Tree]]'', the mother, Silver Tree, feigned illness and pretended to need to eat her daughter's heart and liver to get well; then she tried, twice, to poison her.
* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sixswans/stories/twelvewilducks.html The Twelve Wild Ducks]]'', the stepmother is [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]] of her stepson's bride's beauty and tries to have her killed.
* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/twelvedancing/stories/katiecrackernuts.html Katie Crackernuts]]'', the stepmother has her stepdaughter's head turned into a sheep's head, because she was more beautiful than her own daughter.
* {{Cinderella}}'s WickedStepmother was determined to prove her daughters were the Fairest Of Them All.

* In the BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy fantasy ''The Brothers Grimm'', the BigBad responsible for the disappearances of village girls by various means is a VainSorceress who cast a spell on herself hundreds of years ago to live forever when plague ravaged her kingdom -- not realizing that the spell couldn't prevent her from aging and rotting. She needs the girls so she can enact a complex ritual involving an eclipse, a mixture of blood samples from each, etc. to steal their beauty and restore her own. [[spoiler: Her first words once she's lovely again are "Who is the fairest of them all now?" The poor, "sleeping" beauties are saved first by her defeat and second by TrueLovesKiss.]]

** [[EstrogenBrigadeBait It didn't work very well, then.]]

* In Zenescope's ''Grimm Fairy Tales,'' one story focuses on a cheerleader's step-mother who is told [[{{Grimmification}} a darker, more violent]] version of SnowWhite. It turns out that the step-mother has been poisoning her daughter because she's jealous of both her beauty and her fame on the school's cheerleading squad (back in her youth, the step-mother was the best cheerleader).

* SnowWhite's WickedStepmother, [[TropeNamer of course]]. ''Modus operandi'': Hit man; when that didn't work, strangulation; when ''that'' didn't work, poisoned comb; and last but not least, [[HowDoYouLikeThemApples poisoned apple]]. In the Grimms' first edition, she was a wicked ''mother'' instead.

* A GenderFlip occurs in the Armenian folktale ''AraTheHandsome'', which is about a king of Armenia who is the most handsome man in the land, and the Queen of Assyria goes to war with Armenia just to have him, after he declines to marry her because he was already married.

A SubTrope of DrivenByEnvy, this [[{{Plots}} plot]] is OlderThanDirt. Long before the days of TheBrothersGrimm's jealous {{Wicked Stepmother}}s, ancient goddesses had a habit of getting ''very'' jealous if a mortal was considered more beautiful than them. Psyche, for one, became a target of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty herself, but, as usual, was saved by ThePowerOfLove.

* In the [[OlderThanDirt The Judgement of Paris]], Eris ([[AlwaysChaoticEvil goddess of chaos]]) throws a golden apple with 'For the Fairest' on it into a wedding party. After ''years'' of fighting (as in, the son of the bride and groom has grown up into the world's greatest fighter), Zeus finally picks a very handsome mortal to act as the judge between the three finalists - Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Long story short, [[EpicFail the Trojan War happened.]]

Every villain does what they do for a reason. The CardCarryingVillain wants to be [[EvilIsCool evil and cool]]. The DiabolicalMastermind wants money... ''more'' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney money]], most likely. The StalkerWithACrush wants TheHero, IfYouKnowWhatIMean. The EvilOverlord wants to TakeOverTheWorld ( [[Film/StreetFighter Of Course!]] ).

* In the [[OlderThanDirt The Judgement of Paris]], Eris ([[AlwaysChaoticEvil goddess of chaos]]) throws a golden apple with 'For the Fairest' on it into a wedding party. After ''years'' of fighting (as in, the son of the bride and groom has grown up into the world's greatest fighter), Zeus finally picks a very handsome mortal to act as the judge between the three finalists - Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Long story short, [[EpicFail the Trojan War happened.]]
* Psyche was so beautiful that Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty herself, became extremely jealous and sent her son, the god of love, to make her fall in love with a horrible person or creature. Instead, her son fell in love with Psyche. Oops.
** However, in some versions, Aphrodite was angry at Psyche because people were giving her the tribute that should have gone to the goddess of love

* How is [[OlderThanDirt The Judgement of Paris]] not mentioned already? Eris ([[AlwaysChaoticEvil goddess of chaos]]) throws a golden apple with 'For the Fairest' on it into a wedding party. After ''years'' of fighting (as in, the son of the bride and groom has grown up into the world's greatest fighter), Zeus finally picks a very handsome mortal to act as the judge between the three finalists - Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Long story short, [[EpicFail the Trojan War happened.]]

* Psyche was so beautiful that Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty herself, became extremely jealous and sent her son, the god of love, to make her fall in love with a horrible creature. Instead, her son fell in love with Psyche. Oops.

[[AC: Tabletop [=RPGs=]]]
* ''{{GURPS}}'' 4th Edition ''Magic'' supplement has a spell called "Steal Beauty".
* The Fairest from ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' -- come on, ''it's right there in the name'' -- aren't ''all'' like this. However, the special attentions visited on them by [[TheFairFolk the Gentry]] have left them more prone to losing touch with reality in the face of a crisis, and a sidebar in one book hints that some Fairest stoop to rather desperate measures once age starts to catch up with them...

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Countess ElizabethBathory reputedly [[BloodBath bathed in the blood of young women to gain their beauty.]]

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* In ''TheTwelveKingdoms'', the former Queen of Kei banished all the other women from her kingdom so that she would be the most beautiful and there would be [[{{Yandere}} no chance of Keiki paying more attention to them than to her]]. Those that would not or could not leave were executed.

[[AC:Mythology]]
* How is [[OlderThanDirt The Judgement of Paris]] not mentioned already? Eris ([[AlwaysChaoticEvil goddess of chaos]]) throws a golden apple with 'For the Fairest' on it into a wedding party. After ''years'' of fighting (as in, the son of the bride and groom has grown up into the world's greatest fighter), Zeus finally picks a very handsome mortal to act as the judge between the three finalists - Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Long story short, [[EpicFail the Trojan War happened.]]
* Psyche was so beautiful that Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty herself, became extremely jealous and sent her son, the god of love, to make her fall in love with a horrible creature. Instead, her son fell in love with Psyche. Oops.

* One of the quests in ''DarkStone'' features Mika the witch, who placed a curse on a nearby village. If any of the women in the village ever became more beautiful than Mika, she would be turned to stone. Although Mika was very beautiful in her youth, by the time of the game she's about a million years old, so all of the women are stone. The player character must locate the Mirror of Lies, which will convince her that she's still beautiful; once she believes that, she'll undo the curse.

* The Fairest from ''ChangelingTheLost'' -- come on, ''it's right there in the name'' -- aren't ''all'' like this. However, the special attentions visited on them by [[TheFairFolk the Gentry]] have left them more prone to losing touch with reality in the face of a crisis, and a sidebar in one book hints that some Fairest stoop to rather desperate measures once age starts to catch up with them...

[[AC:Comics]]
* In Zenescope's ''Grimm Fairy Tales,'' one story focuses on a cheerleader's step-mother who is told [[{{Grimmification}} a darker, more violent]] version of SnowWhite. It turns out that the step-mother has been poisoning her daughter because she's jealous of both her beauty and her fame on the school's cheerleading squad (back in her youth, the step-mother was the best cheerleader).

Every villain does what they do for a reason. The CardCarryingVillain wants to be [[EvilIsCool evil and cool]]. The DiabolicalMastermind wants money... ''more'' [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney money]], most likely. The StalkerWithACrush wants TheHero, IfYouKnowWhatIMean. The EvilOverlord wants to TakeOverTheWorld.

A SubTrope of SalieriSyndrome, this [[{{Plots}} plot]] is OlderThanDirt. Long before the days of TheBrothersGrimm's jealous {{Wicked Stepmother}}s, ancient goddesses had a habit of getting ''very'' jealous if a mortal was considered more beautiful than them. Psyche, for one, became a target of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty herself, but, as usual, was saved by ThePowerOfLove.

* In the BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy fantasy ''The Brothers Grimm'', the BigBad responsible for the disappearances of village girls is revealed to be [[spoiler: a VainSorceress who cast a spell on herself hundreds of years ago to live forever when plague ravaged her kingdom - not realizing that the spell couldn't prevent her from aging and rotting. In the climax, she uses supernatural means (a complex ritual involving an eclipse, drinking a mixture of blood samples from each girl, etc.) to steal their beauty and restore her own - and her first words once she's lovely again are "Who is the fairest of them all now?" This ritual almost results in the unconscious girls' deaths; it's prevented first by her defeat and second by TrueLovesKiss.]]

* [[CompleteMonster Countess Elizabeth Bathory reputedly bathed in the blood of young women to gain their beauty.]]

* [[MoralEventHorizon Countess Elizabeth Bathory reputedly bathed in the blood of young women to gain their beauty.]]