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Basic Trope: A villainous character is portrayed as attractive.
- Straight: Empress Beth is sexy.
- Exaggerated: Beth is easily the sexiest woman in the world.
- Downplayed: Beth is just good-looking.
- Justified:
- She was an actress or singer before she turned evil.
- Beth uses her sexiness to trick or manipulate her foes.
- Inverted: Beth isn't that sexy.
- Subverted:
- It looks like Beth is sexy at first, but, later in the story, it turns out that a large portion of the hero's newly-gained allies are even more attractive - in comparison, the Beth is nothing special.
- Or she is beautiful until her go into her One-Winged Angel form.
- Double Subverted:
- She appears to be hot, but then we see a lot of good characters introduced that are, in fact, sexier, so the trope isn't in play - but wait, all those attractive so-called 'good guys' were actually evil all along!
- But it also turns out their One-Winged Angel form wasn't their strongest form, so they bring out the Bishounen Line.
- Parodied:
- Beth emits copious amounts of sparkles, and is followed everywhere by a horde of screaming Fan Boys, much to her frustration, as she tries to convince everyone she is terrifying and will someday rule the world...Stop Squeeing, you nattering fools! I'm trying to scheme here! I am the architect of your doom, not some common singer for you to fawn over! ...Hey, wait a minute! That sounds a lot like Alanis Morissette in real life, doesn't it? No wonder all those fanboys give her such a hard time.
- Part of a game's Karma Meter is determined by your wardrobe: Evil Is Sexy, while Good covers up more.
- The Dark Chick Alice is heavily sexualized.
- Several female villains work as strippers when they're not being evil.
- Deconstructed:
- Evil is sexy because the world is a plutocratic Dystopia ruled by The Beautiful Elite who pay for all the expensive cosmetics and modification...using the people's money.
- When you meet Beth, she is smoking hot, until it turns out she's a Complete Monster who then tortures you for kicks.
- The presence of beautiful people doing bad things causes a backlash against the concept of beauty and the glorification of ugliness. People with good looks are rebelled against or, worse, killed.
- The villain's Stripperific Impossibly Cool Clothes is Awesome but Impractical during the battle with the heroes, who wins by at least wearing some protection at the cost of beauty.
- Reconstructed:
- We think Evil Is Sexy is an awesome trope because it clearly illustrates the temptation and seductiveness of The Dark Side. Also, hot, evil chicks in leather. Let's bring all that back.
- Alternatively, reconstructed as an excuse for Fan Service that inverts Beauty Equals Goodness, thus killing two birds with one stone.
- Zig Zagged: An escalatingly sexier parade of new cast members, alternating between good and evil.
- Averted: Evil is, in fact, not sexy, or, at least, no more than good is.
- Enforced:
- Good in the story's plot is too 'pure' for the seductive type of characters, but the creators want to put in some Fan Service somehow, so they give that role to the villains.
- People who were good-looking were horrible to the plain-to-homely author during his/her school years. He/she begins to equate good looks with a rotten moral foundation and abusive personality.
- The author wants to show how evil can be manipulative, by making the forces of evil sexy.
- Lampshaded: "Naturally, I always end up fighting against sexy people. Somehow."
- Invoked:
- Beth: "Oh dear, I seem to be losing my looks. I better go brutally murder a few children."
- Defied:
- Beth always puts her hair up and wears glasses and conservative clothing, a la Dolores Umbridge.
- Of course, she might just be keeping with the trope after all.
- Discussed: The heroes have a conversation about how the villains they end up fighting always seem to be so attractive, and their frustration that their side doesn't get to have people like that fighting by their sides.
- Conversed: The heroes are watching television and wondering why all the villains are sexy and scantily clad in those shows.
- Played for Laughs: A character starts dressing sexier following a Face Heel Turn, but her idea of "sexy" is Lady Gaga. She shows up for battle wearing a garbage can lid for a hat, a dress made of Steak-Umms, and a pair of wellies covered in glitter glue. Hilarity Ensues.
- Played for Drama:
- See Deconstructed 4.
- See Parodied 4. Because Alice is heavily sexualized, she eventually becomes concerned with looking sexy. In an attempt to please the villainous males more, she starts wearing a very sexy outfit that reveals and enhances most of her figure. However, she's still concerned that the outfit doesn't reveal a lot. Things get worse for another reason: the males, heroic or villainous, all start ogling at her. She realizes this and starts wearing more, calling anybody who ogles at her a "sexist perv".
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