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If a character is beautiful, then that character is a good person, either publicly or secretly. If a character is good, then that character will either be beautiful or be treated as beautiful.
Or to put it another way, every hero worth his salt must be physically attractive, or at the very least, better-looking than half of other people his or her age. This standard is more relaxed for side characters who can be truly ordinary-looking or even literal aliens, but expect the lead character to be pleasing to look at, even if he is the alien.
It almost goes without saying that this is very old; an attempt was even made in the 19th Century to quantify this attitude into the "science" of physiognomy, which posited a direct correlation between appearance and moral character.
Red Right Hand exists because of this trope. Ugly Hero, Good-Looking Villain is a specific inversion. The failed subversion of Suetiful All Along is common. For the Inverted Trope, see Evil Is Sexy, although the two aren't mutually exclusive. For animals and more nonhuman characters, see What Measure Is a Non-Cute?. The trope Ugly Guy, Hot Wife both subverts this and plays it painfully straight- unattractive men are shown to be good husband material, yet it still works on the assumption that because the wife is hot, that he was lucky in love even if nothing else is known about her. Gorgeous Gorgon may play this trope straight or just plain play with it depending on the gorgon. May not apply in the case of The Beautiful Elite if they are so beautiful that they don't seem human. The opposite of this trope is Beauty Is Bad. See also Expecting Someone Taller. Contrast Evil Makes You Ugly and Hot Guys Are Bastards.
As this trope is ubiquitous, please only add egregious cases. Invoked and defied examples are the best ones. Historical Hero Upgrade often leads to Historical Beauty Update because of this trope.
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