Your average fairytale contains all of the above three elements! Beauty and the Beast has Beauty as the good, the bad would be the witch who cursed the prince and of course Beast would count as the ugly element. Though what I do love about this tale is the very strong message that (a) beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and (b) what you look like should not be the be all and end all in any case. Still a very pertinent message.
So what would count as the good, the bad and the ugly in your stories? Yes, they can be direct representations. Beauty and the Beast isn't subtle. Even its title isn't! But how about showing the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of attitudes your characters have. The physically beautiful one is actually the ugly one because their attitudes are so horrid and that kind of thing. What could you subvert here? (Fairytales are great for that. I think it is why Shrek worked so well). And yes you could still have the ugly one being ugly, not because they happen to look that way, but again their attitude is decidedly "off".
So what would count as the good, the bad and the ugly in your stories? Yes, they can be direct representations. Beauty and the Beast isn't subtle. Even its title isn't! But how about showing the good, the bad and the ugly in terms of attitudes your characters have. The physically beautiful one is actually the ugly one because their attitudes are so horrid and that kind of thing. What could you subvert here? (Fairytales are great for that. I think it is why Shrek worked so well). And yes you could still have the ugly one being ugly, not because they happen to look that way, but again their attitude is decidedly "off".
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