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Sandbox / Freakiness Wick Check

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TRS Category: Ambiguous Name

Introduction

According to the trope's description, Freakiness Shame is defined to be "A character (Known as "Character A" in this Wick Check) has some fantastical characteristic, such as wings, horns, or a tail, of which they are deeply ashamed. [...] Later, some other character (commonly, her love interest) (Known as "Character B" in this Wick Check) catches a glimpse of these and assures the character that their wings, or horns, or tail, or whatever, are not in fact ugly but very attractive."

Concerns were initially raised that a significant number of examples on the trope page were about mundane features that might not be very good looking (mostly Covered with Scars or similar), but in the ensuing discussion further concerns were raised about the title strictly about Character A's shame about their features, without indicating it requires Character B to find the same features attractive.

This trope was originally launched as But Your Wings Are Beautiful but was changed by Fast Eddie's fiat, potentially due to the original title sounding like a line of dialogue; the original title has more emphasis on Character B but not Character A feeling ashamed. A wick check is thus initiated to determine the use patterns of this trope.

Wick Check

Wicks were sampled between 9:20pm to 9:30pm PDT of July 27, 2023. There's a total of 565 wicks, including those in redirects but excluding those listed in the folder below, as well as duplicated entries. There's a total of 551 wicks that might be checked. Since sqrt(551) ~ 23.47, checking 50 wicks. All wicks are put into a text file in Notepad++, and the randomization is based on the location of the tropes after they are sorted (with the namespaces). Because some wicks have multiple examples, there's a total of 53 examples checked. Because a significant number of examples have multiple types of misuse, in here, the numerator of the percentage calculation would be the number of examples containing that one misuse; as a result, the percentages won't add to 100%.

For convenience, the characters' "freakiness" is marked in green, while indications that another character sees it attractive are marked in gold.

    open/close all folders 
    Excluded from Randomization 

    Correct use: Character A feels ugly due to a fantastic feature, but Character B thinks it's beautiful. (11/ 53 ~ 20.75%) 
  • Characters.Being Able To Edit Skills In Another World I Gained Op Waifus:
    • (Rita Melpheus) Freakiness Shame: Especially in the manga. She finds her beast-man traits even more embarrassing than public nudity. The fact that Nagi and Cecyl, but especially Nagi, find them charming makes her really fall for him, and she learns to stop hiding them. Beastman traits are sufficiently fantastic, and several people is stated to find that charming.
    • (Iris Irfaga) Freakiness Shame: All her life, people have treated her with scorn for the fact that scales manifest on her body when she enters any body of water, even a bath-tub. Nagi's the first person she's met who called her scales "cool" and meant it. Even her loyal maid, Matilda, treated them with indifference, and that was the best treatment she got.
  • Characters.Blaz Blue Continuum Shift Additional Characters: (Makoto Nanaya) Freakiness Shame: She is secretly insecure about her squirrel ears and tail, but her best friend Noel Vermillion finds her tail extremely attractive, and often asks to fondle it. For the record, this character is a Squirrel Beastkin - "A half-human hybrid with the ears and tail of a squirrel."
  • Characters.Darling In The Franxx Pilots Of Strelizia: (Zero Two) Freakiness Shame: Zero Two is hyper-sensitive to anyone making a comment about her non-human status and bringing it up is a very good way to tick her off. This is especially true when it comes to her horns. But despite that, Hiro considers her horns an attractive feature since he did call them "alluring" in his mind. The character is part-alien.
  • Characters.Gargoyles Allies: (Maggie the Cat) Freakiness Shame: Brooklyn and Talon/Derek both try to tell her that she is beautiful even as a mutate, but she was deeply distressed with her new form. The example per se is PCE; but the character writeup already mentions by "mutate," she's a human female being turned into a human-sized Cat Folk.
  • Characters.One Piece Charlotte Pudding: Freakiness Shame: She apparently keeps her Third Eye hidden at all times, something that she finds shameful to everyone. Because of her Third Eye, she was horribly mocked about it by little kids and her own siblings; even her mom called it "weird" and told her to hide it under her bangs. She eventually came to believe she was a monster too and started acting like one. Part of the plan to assassinate the Vinsmokes was to take advantage of Sanji's expected shock and disgust when he first sees her third eye after lifting her veil to shoot him in the face. Sanji calling her third eye "beautiful" after seeing it up close for the first time causes her to break down in sincere tears. This page also has a wick on the example for Because You Were Nice to Me for the same thing. As a result, I don't count that as a separate example.
  • Characters.Rondo Of Swords: (Alhambra) Freakiness Shame: Some other characters' comments on Alhambra's body (to start with, she does NOT like her animal features and wish them removed). But when she heard Serdic compliment on them (as he was the first out of many later), she was so touched and amused (laughing that it was the first time someone said her ears were cute) that she decided to join him. Writeup needs work, but it fits all requirements.
  • ComicBook.Death Vigil: Freaky Is Cool: In a supplemental comic, Mia expresses Freakiness Shame to James after not being able to fully revert her hair to normal after feeding. James thinks it looks cool. I suspect the editor thought Freakiness Shame doesn't need Character B's action to count, but in this case they accidentally wrote a correct example.
  • ElGoonishShive.Tropes F To L: Freakiness Shame: Grace worried about her "monstrousness," until she discovered that the only reaction Sarah and Elliot ever show is blaming Tedd (due to specific experience), while Tedd ogles her in hybrid form even more eagerly than in human form. Even after the remark about "furry fetish and a half-cat girlfriend" she had a fit of concern about her three-tailed omega form. As if there could be any problem.
    Grace: I didn't scare you, did I?
    Tedd: [visibly spaced out] so... hot...
  • Our Angels Are Different: The Lay of Paul Twister: Once the ice between them begins to thaw a little, they both begin to talk a bit more freely to each other. She seems to be rather sensitive about her wings, because physics aren't on her side and the local ambient magic isn't strong enough for her to fly without a great deal of difficulty, and they make her feel clumsy and unbalanced. When she complains that they're more of a bother than they're worth at times, Paul responds predictably, followed immediately by a classic Did I Just Say That Out Loud? moment. I'm being charitable here—"predictably" should have been not enough context, but it was added when the trope was called "But Your Wings Are Beautiful", so I take it means the response is the kind expected of this trope.
  • Villains Never Lie, description: As an example, perhaps the hero is told, in an effort to convert him to the villain's side, that they are in fact the Tomato in the Mirror (which given the nature of the story is actually true), and that their girlfriend will never love them (which is not true, since the girlfriend in question has already found out about his status as a Tomato in the Mirror, and perhaps for any other person this would be true, but the girlfriend loves this about him).

    Misuse: Character A feels ugly due to a mundane feature, but Character B thinks it's beautiful. (1, plus 7 listed under Multiple Misuse: 8/ 53 ~ 15.09%) 
  • Characters.A Brothers Price: (Halley) Doesn't like the scars she's collected from the theater bombing even confessing her belief that she's repulsive thanks to said scars. Her female lover refused to touch her after she was scarred. Jerin says different and actually believes it as he thought the scars gave her otherwise plain face character when she first saw her. Scars are by far the most common mundane deformity used in this trope. "Give... face character" isn't quite the same as "attractive," but I will let it pass.

    Misuse: Lacking Character B's attractiveness statement (14, plus 9 listed under Multiple Misuse: 23/ 53 ~ 43.40%) 
  • Characters.A Clash Of NEE Ts: (Lean Baratheon) Freakiness Shame: She dislikes her raccoon tail because she thinks it's a sign of her being cursed. No other character mentioned.
  • Characters.Marvel Comics Species: (Dire Wraiths) Freakiness Shame: Male Dire Wraiths don't like their default appearance, and use their shapeshifting to hide it. Just about feeling ashamed of their appearance, don't even mention how.
  • Characters.Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub Zero: (Sareena) I Am a Monster: Loathes her demon form and is briefly manipulated into believing that she can't be good because of her status as such. Younger Sub-Zero doesn't seem to agree. While the trope appears in a pothole, it already fulfills the "freakiness" requirement.
  • Characters.Naruto Anime Only Characters From Naruto: (Arashi Fūma) Freakiness Shame: During his true persona's first emergence, he declines Sasame's offer to return home due to his appearance and his horrible actions as the puppet. As it sadly turns out, he really can't go back with her due to not being human anymore and the remnants of Kamikiri and Jigumo holding him in place.
  • The Great Divorce: (The Ghost with the unicorns) Ashamed of the near-intangible form that comes with being a denizen of Hell, the Unicorn Ghost can't bear to look upon (let alone journey with) the Bright Ones. Even though they don't hate anyone, least of all for looks; having only the Ghosts' true best interest at heart.
  • Characters.Tokyo Afterschool Summoners Event: (Asterius) Freakiness Shame: Despite being entirely unremarkable by Transient standards, he believes himself to be a hideous monster and constantly tries to isolate himself in his belief that others will hate and fear him for his appearance. This is marked as plagiarism. Even if we discount that, it's unclear whether this counts as a fantastical trait: "Transients" are transmigratees to Earth, which is in rather large numbers in this universe.
  • Characters.Touhou Kishinjou Double Dealing Character: (Kagerou Imaizumi) Freakiness Shame: She seems rather insecure about how hairy she becomes during a full moon. While you can't see exactly how hairy she becomes, since most of her body is covered by her dress, you can still see that she has hair on her wrists.
  • ComicBook.The Incredible Hulk 1962: Freakiness Shame: The Gargoyle would much rather die than continue to live as a hideously deformed mutate.
  • Fanfic.Le Commencement Du Diable Blanc: Freakiness Shame: Because of his early neglected childhood, Remy cannot help but feel sore about his eyes and powers, seeing them as a curse.
  • Hoshin Engi Main Characters (Seigen Myodo Shinkun Yozen) Freakiness Shame: He never showed his real form to the other Sennin, fearing ostracism. Subverted when they accept him nonetheless. The "real form" is a youkai, which is fine. However, "accepting" is not "finds them attractive".
  • Characters.The Legend Of Zelda Majoras Mask: (Anju and Kafei) Freakiness Shame: While it would make sense given Kafei's current state, it's actually averted; he's not hiding from Anju because of his age regression, he's hiding because he lost his Sun's Mask. If you help him get the mask back, he proves it when he meets Anju again on the third day. Played straight in the manga, to the point that Link even demands that the Skull Kid restore Kafei's adult body during the final confrontation on top of the clock tower. Even if we just count the straight case in the second part of the example, it's still misuse. Nowhere in the example state any character like Kafei's age regression.
  • Fanfic.Webwork: Freakiness Shame: Jade starts out distressed by her transformations but switches to Freaky Is Cool after she develops her exoskeleton on the way to becoming a Fully-Embraced Fiend. "Her transformations" refers to a Jorōgumo, so the feature is indeed fantastical.
  • Recap.Steven Universe S 2 E 25 The Answer: Freakiness Shame: The Homeworld Gems do not react well to Ruby and Sapphire's accidental fusing.
  • TearJerker.Gold Digger: Britanny confessing to her daughter the reason for her former shopaholic habits - She was ashamed of being a werecheetah. After all, who could possibly be a freak or geek in Prada?

    Misuse? Non-physical feature (2, plus 2 listed under Multiple Misuse: 4 / 53 ~ 7.55% ) 
  • Fanfic.The Child Of Love: Freakiness Shame: in “Gifts” Teri does not like her Psychic Powers and is afraid that other people will think she is a freak if they discover her abilities. When her friends find out, though, they think her powers are cool and are supportive.The only problem is Psychic Powers aren't a physical feature (thus nothing to feel ugly about.
  • Recap.Gunnerkrigg Court Chapter 22 Ties: Freakiness Shame: Anja doesn't want Donald, her crush, to find out about her magical powers. As Surma predicted, he's not bothered when he does find out, in fact finding them "cool". If not for "magical powers" being non-physical, it's firmly in the correct-use category.

    Multiple types of misuse (9) 

Both Mundane features and Lack of Character B's attractiveness statement (7)

  • Characters.Is My Reality A Love Game: (Kusora Yurea) Freakiness Shame: Is ashamed of the burn on her arm. When Ryou saw it and didn't either run away in disgust nor pity her, she became fascinated with him. Did not say Ryou finds it attractive. Burn marks are not fantastical.
  • Characters.MTNO Japan: (I Kyonje) Freakiness Shame: Subverted: Kyonje grew up being ashamed of his Korean identity in a Japanese-dominated society, so he started presenting himself to be more "Japanese" when he was young in an attempt to mask his Korean heritage but to no avail. Seeing pandering to the Japanese to no use, he will instead embrace his Japanese-Korean identity and establish the Mintohren to help the suppressed and disenfranchised minority. No other person was discussed. Korean identity is not a fantastic trait.
  • The Logia Brothers: Freakiness Shame: Played for Laughs. When Luffy, Ace and Sabo meets Aokiji as their new Logia trainer, they comment on how tall he is. Aokiji comically tells them that beautiful women won't date with him because of that if they don't knock it off.This is merely an example of Self-Deprecation humor. Height is not a fantastical trait; and there's no Character B here.
  • Characters.The Advent Of Deaths Daughter (Blink) Freakiness Shame: His parents spurned him due to his speech impediment. He's touched by the rest of his party, and especially Naoko, because they speak to him normally, without judgement. Speech Impediment is too mundane to be "fantastical. "Without judgment" is not "founds it attractive."
  • Literature.The Lunar Chronicles: Freakiness Shame: Wolf ends up further mutilated by Levana and is heavy with self-loathing, but fortunately for him Scarlet doesn't mind. "Mutilated" looks mundane, and "doesn't mind" doesn't mean "attractive."
  • Literature.The Way You Are: Freakiness Shame: Applies to Robert's weight and sexual identity. The troper who wrote this apparently didn't know what Weight Woe and Gayngst are.
  • Manga.Nozomu Nozomi: Freakiness Shame: Nozomu hides his Gender Bender for a full year—even from his sister, who knows he's a crossdresser—afraid of what everyone might think. The troper who wrote it has no idea what Gender Bender Angst is.

Both Non-physical feature and Lack of Character B's Attractiveness Statement (2)

    Other misuse ( 5 / 53 ~ 9.43%) 
  • Characters.Genesis Of Aquarion: (Silvia de Alisia) Freakiness Shame: After discovering Silvia is a Shadow Angel/Human hybrid, Pierre says her wings look good. Did not say the character was ashamed of it.
  • Characters.Naruto Anime Only Characters From Naruto: (Isaribi) I Am a Monster: She feels her scales make her a monster, but desperately wants to be returned to human form. It takes Naruto giving her a Freakiness Shame to snap her out of it, but she still wants to be returned to human form. What the heck is giving somebody a Freakiness Shame...?
  • Film.X Men The Last Stand: Freakiness Shame: When Mystique is de-mutant-ed against her will and left looking like a naked Rebecca Romijn, Magneto sighs regretfully as he leaves her behind, "She used to be so beautiful…" The reverse of the common "No Character B" misuse, in that we only have Character B's comment.
  • PlayingWith.Screw Yourself: Played for Drama: Alice has serious self-esteem issues, and is a huge jerk to boot. One thing and another lead to her meeting her alternate-dimension counterpart, which is the only one in the entire multiverse who will say "But Your Wings Are Beautiful" (and vice versa). They eventually get over their self-esteem issues together, and the story ends with their marriage. The whole thing plays like a cliched romance novel. Nothing in the entire Playing-with page discusses what the "self-esteem issues" are.
  • What Have I Become?, description: Their friends may disagree with them, telling them to drop the Freakiness Shame. The troper who added this must have took the trope's name too literally.

    ZCE ( 5 / 53 ~ 9.43%) 

    Indices, Sinkholes, etc ( 6 / 53 ~ 11.32%) 
Pantheon Portfolio entry, so it's a sinkhole. The character-sheet entry is also wick-checked here and is considered correct use.
  • VideoGame.Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer: "Blind Idiot" Translation: It's an old Neo Geo game that comes with all the SNK-style Engrish that just makes no sense or omitted certain parts of the Japanese relations, removing some depths. For instance, let's compare Brider's win quote against Karin:
    (English version): What unique costume!
    (Japanese non-direct translation): What an embarrassing costume. Nah, I'm on the same boat...note The sinkhole is hidden in the note. It can also be classified as a "Without B" case, but since it's so aside to the entry....
  • WMG.Please Dont Tell My Parents Im A Supervillain: Given he's described in the first book as one of the supervillains who always tends to succeed/win he probably used some of that money to hire her private tutors so she didn't have to go to public school and end up suffering Freakiness Shame. For context, Mirabelle is a Cat Girl whose body is made out of glass.
  • YMMV.Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest: Shocking Moments: We can argue that the HSQ steadily began to rise when Inugami got stabbed by Ryuuko but commenced asskicking his way to Haguro's hideout despite not having the a full moon to power him - but he broke all the damn rules in the friggin' book. The HSQ has reached its maximum in chapter 109-110 when Inugami is getting practically dismembered by Haguro, but not only manages to transform into his wolf form, but into a pure white wolf that was pretty much powered by love, in which he finally kills Haguro, but not before making his psyche totally crumble when he has a quasi- "Freakiness Shame" moment when he sees Inugami in his white wolf form. Phew. It's unclear what the troper is trying to mean here.

Summary and Recommendations

The results of this wick check were far worse than what I had expected, with correct use constituting only 20.75% of the sampled examples. More alarmingly, one specific type of misuse—that of only listing Character A feeling ashamed but not anything about Character B saying A's "shameful" features attractive—comes up more frequently than the correct use, with 43.40% of sample examples containing this kind of misuse. I blame that on the trope name, which was changed from "But Your Wings Are Beautiful" by Fast Eddie's fiat in 2013, probably owing to the name being too dialogue-sounding. The trope name only discussed a "shame" without the other element of another person finding such "shameful" features attractive, which caused a large number of tropers to take it as an indication of the latter element is optional, even when it's not.

As to the issue I raised in Trope Talk in the first place, a visible number of examples involve a character feeling ashamed about a mundane feature, only comes up at about 15% of the sampled examples. ZCE is less than 10%.

I suggest the following, none of them are mutually exclusive:

  1. The trope should be renamed. I have no suggestion in relation to what should it be, though— reverting to But Your Wings Are Beautiful is an option, but I don't think it's the best option.
  2. The boundaries of the trope need to be discussed, especially as to whether mundane features should be included in the trope definition. While the mundane-fantasy dichotomy is useful in many cases, I doubt it's important for this trope, since the main idea is acceptance.

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