Scott Westerfeld’s popular Young Adult (YA) series Ugly features plenty of romantic opportunities for protagonist Tally Youngblood.
The Ugly the series consists of four novels (Ugly, beautiful, special and Extras), each follows Tally’s journey as she navigates a dystopian world where teenagers are surgically transformed at age 16 into perfect individuals called “Pretties”.
As with many young adult franchises, Tally doesn’t just have to deal with social issues Uglybut also heart problems.
A Netflix adaptation of the first novel was recently streamed, starring Joey King as Tally and Keith Powers as one of her love interests, David. Should you though Ugly movie franchise continues, viewers will also be introduced to the second point of the love triangle – Zane.
Who is Tally’s love interest in Ugly?
Team David
Introduced in Ugly is Tally’s first major love interest, David. David is from “The Smoke”, meaning he grew up outside the big cities and lived in opposition to their “beautiful” regimes. She has not been surgically altered, so she is still considered “ugly”.
in UglyDavid introduces Tally to her lifestyle where she finds herself interested in him and his cause.
The two form a romantic relationship that is tested at the end of the first Book when Tally agrees to become beautiful in order to try the Smokies cure and bring down the system from within.
David pops in for a moment Beautifulwhere he meets Tally after she undergoes Pretties surgery and receives a treatment that supposedly frees her from brainwashing. However, she finds herself conflicted about their relationship as she now has feelings for someone new, Zane.
In the end, Tally has to choose between David and Zane, and she chooses the latter. David believes that he prefers Zane because of his looks and that he can’t compete because he’s still ugly.
In the third novel, Tally and David have a tenuous relationship after Tally becomes Special. Despite Tally’s new personality, David believes she will survive the brain surgery and gives her some of the full treatment so she can make her own decision about her future.
Team Zane
Featured in another Ugly in the novel, Zane is a rival for Tally’s affections. He is a crime leader who is one of the Pretty’s most popular cliques.
They start dating after Tally passes a series of tests to become a criminal. As Tally recovers from the healing she had promised to test for the Smokies, she and Zane agree to each take one of the pills, not knowing that the pills were meant to be taken together as one dose.
This causes Zane brain damage, and Tally eventually decides to stay with him instead of David when the Specials hunt them down in the New Smoke.
As a result, Tally becomes Special in the third book, and her new awareness makes it difficult for her to accept Zane’s imperfections.
Who will Tally end up with?
Tally forms solid relationships with both David and Zane throughout Ugly at the end of the series, only one of them is left.
In the third novel Special offersZane’s brain has been damaged by the pills and he suffers from motor cognitive problems. Tally comes up with a plan to transform Zane into something special so he can heal.
They travel to Diego, where much of the population is from the Smokies and where the treatment has been largely effective. There, Zane asks the doctors to help heal him, but when the city is attacked, there is a problem with Zane’s surgery and he is left brain dead.
Tally is motivated to end the war that killed Zane, but he eventually drives her back to David, who promises to help her and wait for her when she returns to her hometown to finish Operation Pretty.
After succeeding, Tally agrees to go into the wilderness with David and create new special conditions that will protect the world from human destruction.
The fourth novel, Extrasconfirms the couple’s status after the events of the main trilogy.
Extras is taken from the perspective of the other main character, Aya, but the story still involves Tally. Set three years later, Aya finds that David and Tally are a couple and are still working together as part of new special circumstances to save the planet.
Uglies is now streaming on Netflix.
