| rdfs:comment | - As the power of an evil creature increases, they become more of a large, disfigured abomination -- until they cross the Bishonen Line, beyond which as they gain more power, they (re)gain humanoid form. On some cases, this could also be viewed as the creature being Functional Genre Savvy. For example, a huge monstrous abomination cannot physically participate in the impressive martial arts stuff that a Fighting Series is built around, so if it's in one of those, it gains an advantage by reverting to a humanoid form that will fare better Kung Fu Fighting. Examples of Bishonen Line include:
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| abstract | - As the power of an evil creature increases, they become more of a large, disfigured abomination -- until they cross the Bishonen Line, beyond which as they gain more power, they (re)gain humanoid form. A possible In-Universe justification for this is that what's increasing is not only the creature's power, but also how much they control that power -- the monstrous, oft-visceral features are the result of power pouring out without restraint. Once the creature manages to get a grip on their abilities, they can suppress the giant-scary-monster aspect of their abilities while freely accessing the kick-ass part. In some cases, this concept will be alluded to via the creature starting to revert to its monstrous form as it is harmed and loses control over itself. On some cases, this could also be viewed as the creature being Functional Genre Savvy. For example, a huge monstrous abomination cannot physically participate in the impressive martial arts stuff that a Fighting Series is built around, so if it's in one of those, it gains an advantage by reverting to a humanoid form that will fare better Kung Fu Fighting. This trope is also fueled by several out-of-universe factors. One, for example, is the Rule of Perception: You can only add so much horrid detail to a monstrous creature before the design becomes busy and adding extra eyes, putrid tentacles, etc. just does not make that much of a visual impact any more. The only possible way left to get the audience's attention and signal "major change" is, paradoxically, to take all the monstrous features away. Also, drawing or rendering an ever-expanding monster is taxing in terms of resources; this is a particularly important consideration in animation or sequential art, where the same thing must be drawn over and over again -- so much so that in those mediums, you can probably expect the humanoid form to appear in more episodes than the monstrous form. See also Monstrosity Equals Weakness, a Super-Trope of this, where more monstrous characters will be inherently weaker / less important than humanoid ones; Sculpted Physique, which may be applied to "cosmetically" or grotesquely; Monster Lord, where this trope divides leaders and mooks inside a race of monsters; and Humanoid Abomination. Compare The Man Behind the Monsters for an exogenous demonstration of this, and Crystal Spires and Togas, which is more or less this trope applied to entire civilizations. Not to be confused with Bishounen Train Lines. Examples of Bishonen Line include:
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