Basic Trope: Animals often thought of as "cute" are good guys and get the most focus, while those that are considered scary or "ugly" are evil and/or don't get as much focus.
- Straight: Alice the Cute Bunny and her friends, Bob the Robin and Charlie the Turtle are in a competition with the Jerk Jock Billy Possum and his weasel and snake cohorts.
- Exaggerated:
- Billy Possum is a Card-Carrying Villain with the help of every other “ugly" animal in the community. Also, Alice is a pure-hearted soul and her friends are the paragons of goodness.
- Billy Possum doesn’t look anything like a real possum, and instead looks more like a hideous ghoul who came straight out of the bowels of Hell.
- Downplayed:
- Billy Possum gets a few Pet the Dog moments; for example, he visits the heroes before an event to sincerely wish his opponents good luck or treats his cronies like close friends. Although that doesn't change the fact he's a jerk, he's a more three-dimensional jerk.
- Billy Possum is by no means evil/rude - in fact, he's actually pretty good friends with Alice, Bob, and Charlie - but doesn't get as much attention due to his species not being considered conventionally "cute" enough.
- Justified: Billy Possum and his friends have always faced discrimination and hatred from others based on their appearance alone, so in return they act like Jerkasses.
- Inverted: Alice the Bunny is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, while Billy Possum is The Paragon who selflessly helps others simply because it’s the right thing to do.
- Subverted: In the midst of the competition, it turns out that deep down Billy Possum is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who just wants to use the money to raise funds for ostracized “ugly” animals trapped in the slums.
- Double Subverted: ...But it turns out that he’s still an asshole to Alice Bunny when he kicks down and laughs at one of her baby sisters after calling out on him out for cheating.
- Parodied: Billy Possum breaks out into songs about his pride in “ugliness” while Alice is the The Ditz who bases her judgment on cuteness alone, often making mistakes in the process.
- Zig Zagged:
- Some of the "ugly" animals are also portrayed as good, and some of the "cute" animals are also portrayed as evil.
- The main character of the work is a vulture, insect, naked mole rat, opossum, or other animal typically considered "ugly". However, they're modified to look somewhat cuter.
- Averted: Billy Possum and Alice Bunny are no better or worse than each other, and see themselves as equals.
- Enforced:
- The series is Merchandise-Driven, so cute characters get more screen time because they're more viable as merch.
- The series is trying to use Beauty Equals Goodness.
- Lampshaded: "It’s not a very nice feeling to be discriminated against for appearance alone, Alice. So now do you know why I'm angry all the time?"
- Invoked: Evil animals are cursed to be ugly.
- Exploited: Characters can easily identify which animals are heroic and which ones are evil by which species they are.
- Defied: Alice and Billy both agree that Fantastic Racism based on appearance alone is an abhorrent thing to do.
- Discussed: "Why are all of Alice’s friends cute and friendly, whereas Billy’s gangs are nothing more than thugs who like to bully others for fun?"
- Conversed: "I don't get why ugly animals are always the bad guys. Would it hurt to see an opossum as the hero for once?"
- Implied: Bob Robin references his friend Victor Vulture in one scene, but it's implied that Victor is never given any onscreen appearances because the work doesn't consider him "cute" enough to be a good guy.
- Played For Laughs: Billy Possum is an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain who fails hilariously at all of his plans.
- Played For Drama: Billy Possum and his cohorts Wilbur Weasel and Sylvester Snake are revealed to have only turned evil because they were constantly bullied for looking "ugly" or "scary", so they simply decided Then Let Me Be Evil and went down the path of villainy.
- Deconstructed: Because Billy Possum and his friends are such jerkasses towards everyone, it inspires the villagers to engage in Fantastic Racism towards those who are “different”, committing genocide and ostracizing all the animals who aren’t “cute enough” by their standards.
- Reconstructed: It turns out later, that the animals need the “ugly” animals in their society or else things will go out of whack.
Back to What Measure Is a Non-Cute?
