History Main / ExpectingSomeoneTaller

--->'''Durka:''' I am very disappointed in you. Somehow I expected the Dominar of Hyneria to be more... dominating. ''(rips off Rygel's badge of office and punches him with it)''
** In "I Do, I Think", John Crichton is captured by Lieutenant Braca, minion of the BigBad Scorpius who has been hunting Crichton since they first met.
--->'''Braca:''' Oh, how disappointing you are in the flesh.
--->'''John:''' I get that all the time.
--->'''Braca:''' To think of all the energy Scorpius expended on you.
--->'''John:''' Yeah. I'm not crazy about it either.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'' Barry Allen/The Flash finally gets to meet [[BigBad Savitar]] outside his PoweredArmor. [[spoiler:Upon seeing that he's a twisted and evil future version of himself, all Barry can say is "You're not so scary without your armor."]]
* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. Though he's not tall by any means, [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior Olenna Redwyne]] expresses disappointment that Tyrion Lannister is a "cowed bookkeeper" (his father has roped him into running the kingdom's finances) instead of the DepravedDwarf and DeadpanSnarker he's supposed to be. Inverted when Tyrion's father, Lord Tywin, outmaneuvers her during a private political negotiation; Olenna says it's a pleasure to meet a man who [[MagnificentBastard finally lives up to his reputation]].

* On ''Series/{{Medium}}'',when Joe first meets Captain Push, his first comment to Allison is that he thought the great Captain Push would be taller. He later admits that he got taller as the night went on.

-->"It's exactly like I always imagined, only much shorter."

** Series opening:

** In "Ascension", Orlin is a man who once was an ascended being who fell in love with Carter and she eventually had intimate feelings for him as well. Five years later, Orlin comes back in the two part episode "The Fourth Horseman", now in the form of a twelve-year-old boy. Carter had to explain the situation.

* An odd example happens in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Haven". Troi's fiancé (it's an ArrangedMarriage) was clearly expecting her to look differently when he first sees her. [[spoiler: (Later, the explanation makes things clear; he has been getting telepathic messages from a woman and, because Troi is telepathic, he had assumed they were from her. They were actually from someone else entirely.)]]
* Senator Vreenak in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "In The Pale Moonlight", when he meets Sisko.
-->'''Vreenak''': So you're the commander of Deep Space Nine. And the Emissary of the Prophets. Decorated combat officer, widower, father, mentor and... oh, yes, the man who started the war with the Dominion. Somehow I thought you'd be taller.\\
'''Sisko''': Sorry to disappoint you.\\
'''Vreenak''': [[DeadpanSnarker To be honest, my opinion of Starfleet officers is so low, you'd have to work very hard indeed to disappoint me]].
* An episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' called "Live Fast and Prosper" featured a group of aliens who were masquerading as members of the ''Voyager'' crew. Janeway got this line from the woman, Dala, who was impersonating her:
-->'''Janeway''': I have to admit I'm impressed.\\
'''Dala''': I wish I could say the same. The great Captain Janeway. Somehow I expected you to be taller. I make a better you than you.\\
'''Janeway''': Oh, I don't know, I'd say we're very much alike. Resourceful, intelligent, ambitious, but with just one tiny difference.\\
'''Dala''': And what is that?\\
'''Janeway''': I'm not a liar and a thief.
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. A variation in "Bound". Captain Archer is invited to DinnerAndAShow (as in scantily-clad dancing girls) by an Orion captain Harrad-Sar, who says that for someone wanted by the Klingons and the Orions, he was expecting Archer to have a more robust appetite.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.

* The bonus boss of ''VideoGame/TouhouShinreibyouTenDesires'' is the youkai's trump card against the resurrected saint who served as the FinalBoss. The four heroines of the game expected youkai such as the [[{{Kaiju}} giant]] [[DemBones skeleton]] known as a Gashadokuro. Instead, they got Mamizou, a {{Tanuki}}. Granted, she's one of the strongest examples of her species and is as powerful as one would expect from a BonusBoss, but well, as [[DeadpanSnarker Marisa]] put it...

* Inverted in ''LightNovel/FateZero'', where Waver Velvet was expecting his Servant, Rider (true name [[spoiler:UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat]]), to be a lot shorter, as he was in reality. It's handwaved as historiographical garbling of the fact that he was short in comparison to his archrival, [[spoiler:Darius III]], who in the ''Fate'' franchise was a literal giant.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'': [[IdiotHero Gourry Gabriev]] says something to this effect in the first episode when he first meets Lina.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'', a couple of [[TheMafia Russo-affiliated thugs]] are given the task of hunting down a man who managed to single-handedly destroy and rob ''eighteen'' of their speakeasies in a single night. And just who is that implacable, OneManArmy of badassery, you might ask? [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/Dragynstorm/Baccano_9.jpg This guy]]. No, not the one with a gun. The guy in the vest who's bawling his eyes out.

* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', this happens to Sōsuke during one of his missions where he had to work with another group of soldiers to kill Gauron. When they first see him, many of them ask why there's a kid here. They find it extremely hard to believe that he's the one assigned to assist them, and find it an insult that Mithril would send a "child" to help.

* When Shuji from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' set out to interview the most fearsome man in Ikebukuro, he was expecting to find a large, over-muscled monster of a man covered in scars and tattoos. What he got was Shizuo, a slim, quiet young man who insisted that he hated violence. Of course, nobody told Shuji that Shizuo had both a HairTriggerTemper and SuperStrength, and thus Shuji found himself tossed around like a baseball after asking exactly one too many questions. Ironically, Shuji notes that the only thing that ''did'' match his mental image of Shizuo was that he was just about as tall as he expected.

** Rygel, the deposed Dominar of Hyneria, is a two-foot high {{muppet}} so the trope line wouldn't be appropriate, but a variation is shown when Rygel is the prisoner of Captain Durka.

-->'''John:''' I get that all the time.

-->'''John:''' Yeah. I'm not crazy about it either.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. Rygel, the deposed Dominar of Hyneria, is a two-foot high {{muppet}} so the trope line wouldn't be appropriate, but a variation is shown when Rygel is the prisoner of Captain Durka.
-->'''Durka:''' I am very disappointed in you. Somehow I expected the Dominar of Hyneria to be more... dominating. ''(rips off Rygel's badge of office and punches him with it)''

* ''Fanfic/AlternateTailSeries'': Inverted in the Edolas arc, where the heroes are shock to see that Edolas Levy, rather than being short and petite like Earthland Levy, is six-feet tall... [[GenderFlip and also a guy]]. Played straight when he meets his Earthland self, as while he was already told she was a girl, he expected her [[BuxomIsBetter to have a bigger chest]] and says so to her face, [[ACupAngst much to her frustration]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'': When the kids learn that ''Eoraptor'' was one of the first dinosaurs, they assume it's really big, so they're surprised to see that the fully-grown Erma ''Eoraptor'' is barely taller than them.

* ''Literature/WatershipDown'': Happens in reverse order, when the Efrafans assume the Watership warren's chief rabbit must be ''enormous'', if the formidable Bigwig follows his orders. They'd actually met Hazel-rah face to face, but took it for granted that he was just a messenger, as he's only average-sized. Justified because most rabbit chieftains attain their position [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority through physical strength]], not cunning and charisma as in Hazel's case.

* In the manga adaptation of ''[[Manga/TheLegendOfZelda The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'', a band of soldiers hear of this great swordsman who has the Ocarina of Time and are hoping to beat him, but instead get the child Link. Their leader does warn them about appearances, accepts Link and allows him to train with them, whereupon he trumps them all.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Amity is less than impressed when she meets [[TheDragon the Golden Guard]] for the first time, as she most likely wasn't expecting him to be a scrawny teenager. Her older siblings have a similar reaction when they meet him several episodes later.

* In ''Fanfic/FakingIt'', Dipper wonders what Bill really looks like, aware that he's a very powerful mind demon and that he doesn't qualify as an animal (while creatures such as giant centipedes and [[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]] do). When he finally sees Bill in his true form, Dipper thinks to himself that he was expecting something less...comprehensible.

* ''Fanfic/{{Ageless}}'': A RunningGag has Ryou introducing himself, only for people to comment that they expected him to look older.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Assimilation}}'', Jacob feels weirded out when he meets the Justice League because they're much smaller than he always saw them represented. Then he realises they actually ''are'' tall, but Jacob himself grew bigger due to his emergency transformation so his appreciation was skewed.

-->'''Tony:''' Wow. Thor, [[Literature/HarryPotter your sprog]] is short.
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker Harry:]]''' So are you. I'm thirteen. I'm still growing. What's your excuse, Mister Stark?

* In ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'' Lelith insults [[spoiler:Slaanesh]] to her face by saying she seems kind of weak for the [[spoiler:Doom of the Eldar]].

* ''Fanfic/AlternateTailSeries'': Inverted in the Edolas arc, where the heroes are shock to see that Edolas Levy, rather than being short and petite like Earthland Levy, is six-feet tall... [[GenderFlip and also a guy]]. Played straight when he meets his Earthland self, as while he was already told she was a girl, he expected her [[BuxomIsBetter to have a bigger chest]] and says so to her face, [[ACupAngst much to her frustration]].

* Dragon, the star of the eponymous [[ComicBook/SavageDragon]], is superstrong, super-durable, and has arms larger than most people's torso. His teamate turned girlfriend was surprised that, if you discount the fin on his head, he's 5'10'', completely average for an American male.

* An odd example happens in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Homage". Troi's fiancé (it's an ArrangedMarriage) was clearly expecting her to look differently when he first sees her. [[spoiler: (Later, the explanation makes things clear; he has been getting telepathic messages from a woman and, because Troi is telepathic, he had assumed they were from her. They were actually from someone else entirely.)]]

** In the sequel ''Ghosts of the Past'', you get this snark gem of Harry's Cousin Joshua - who ''actually'' looks more or less as if a TV series would cast a young ''Creator/DannyDevito'' for the part - commenting on Renaissance paintings of himself:
--> while superb pieces of art [they] seem to be of the firm belief that I was about six feet tall [and had] enviably manageable hair. Not so much.

* In ''Film/{{Willow}}'', the group first encounters Finn Raziel, one of the world's most powerful witches, [[BalefulPolymorph after she's been transformed into a possum]] by the BigBad. The two Brownies name a whole bunch of things they were expecting instead, with taller being just one of them.

* [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk The Hulk's]] son, Skaar, said this when he first met his father on Earth.

-->'''Possessed Elera:'''Ah, Dennis Griffin, the boy who has caused so much trouble for my followers. I expected you to be taller.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}'', Heather a.k.a. Spinnerette is starting her career as a super-heroine and poses for a newspaper photographer. On the next day, she's very annoyed to discover that they actually photoshopped her ''taller'', because a 5'1 feet tall heroine apparently doesn't strike fear in the hearts of evildoers.