Basic Trope: A character (almost Always Female) who has some very Alpha Bitchy traits, but turns out to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Straight: Claire is spoiled, manipulative, gorgeous, popular, and even a bit nasty towards Alice and Bob, our heroes. Once Alice and Bob get to know her, however, they find that she's really not so bad, even kind of nice.
- Exaggerated: Claire's a flat out Alpha Bitch... and yet she spends most of her free time at places like charities and nursing homes.
- Downplayed: Claire is really nice most of the time, but is not without her follies for which she will eventually be brought down to earth.
- Justified:
- Claire's not the smartest girl in the world, so her beauty and wealth easily go to her head. However, her parents did bring her up right, teaching her to be nice to people.
- She's a former bullying victim who ascended to Alpha Bitch status. She hasn't forgotten the pain she suffered through and is resolved not to make other students suffer through the same thing.
- Claire does have a bit of a nasty personality, but she really does care about others and tries her best to be supportive.
- Inverted:
- Claire is dirt-poor, and everyone assumes that she's nice. She's not.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
- Subverted: Claire's your typical Queen Bee, and she decides to run for student body president of Troperville High School. She takes into consideration that more people will probably vote for her if she's nice to them, so she decides to do that, but only for the sake of her campaign, as she plans on going back to her normally bitchy behavior once the election's over (whether or not she actually wins).
- Double Subverted: However, while she's campaigning, Claire realizes that people genuinely like her more when she's nice to them, so she decides to become nice to people for real.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: Claire isn't so bad once you get to know her... but that was all an act... but she becomes nice for real... though she has a tendency to sink back into her old habits... until Alice points this out, at which she shapes up.
- Averted:
- Claire is an Alpha Bitch, and not even a little bit nice.
- Claire is outright Spoiled Sweet.
- Enforced: "Hmm... Claire needs some Character Development".
- Lampshaded:
- "Wow, who knew that she can be so sweet when she wants to be?"
- "Just because she has a 'soft spot' doesn't make her any less of a bitch."
- Invoked: Claire realizes that she doesn't have very many real friends, and notices that Alice and Bob have lots of friends. She also notices that they're nice to everyone. Claire, wanting to have friends too, copies their behavior.
- Exploited: Claire is trying to be a kind person despite her wealth and popularity, but Alice, who is bitterly jealous of her, exploits people's assumptions about her to make the whole school think she's a straight-up Alpha Bitch.
- Defied:
- Claire refuses to even pretend to be nice.
- She makes sure that she's never even remotely nasty.
- Discussed:Bob: Hey, remember when Claire used to be mean to us?
Alice: Yeah... with the way she acts now, you'd never guess that she used to be such a brat. - Conversed:"I like Claire's Character Development in this show".
"It's always cool to see a mean girl be not so bad after all". - Deconstructed:
- Claire's an Alpha Bitch who, after finally realizing that she isn't exactly the nicest person ever, decides to become kinder and friendlier to others. However, because of her previous behavior, nobody's willing to believe that Claire has truly changed. As a result, she finds it extremely difficult to make new friends.
- Just because Claire is nice to Alice and Bob doesn't stop her from being mean to those she deems as losers since she has a reputation to maintain. Alice and Bob are less than pleased with this.
- Alternatively, Claire's victims might see Alice and Bob being friends with Claire and assume they are just as nasty as her.
- The disconnect between Claire's Alpha Bitch reputation and the supposed good heart she has underneath can't go on forever - she has to either drop the Loveable part and become a bitch to everyone or the Alpha Bitch part and be nicer to everyone.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice and Bob, seeing Claire Eating Lunch Alone, are reminded of how bad it made them feel and decide to join her. Once they get to know her, they realize that she really has changed.
- Unfortunately, no way to reconstruct 2. If Claire changes, nobody will believe her, leading to deconstruction 1, and eventually to reconstruction 1, but that doesn't have a true resolution as they will still believe that Claire hasn't changed. Eventually, this loops right back to deconstruction 2 as Claire becomes nasty again.
- Through some convincing, Claire's victims will see that she isn't so bad. However, this is going to go back to deconstruction 2 as they'll still see her as an Alpha Bitch.
- Claire finds a way to thread the needle through Character Development — her default attitude becomes nicer while still being popular, but her Bitchy side is held in reserve when it comes to other Alpha Bitch seekers who truly deserve being taken down a peg. This may require Alice and Bob to stay around to correct her if she's going off-course.
Back to Lovable Alpha Bitch.
