"I wanna live with a cinnamon girl I could be happy the rest of my life With a cinnamon girl." — Neil Young, "Cinnamon Girl"
Love Interests have always been Colour-Coded for Your Convenience. Traditionally, the hero's significant other would usually be a blonde, to contrast with the brunette Vamp or Femme Fatale. But today, the passive Distressed Damsel and Shallow Love Interest have been replaced by the sassy, bold, brash, sharp-tongued Action Girl and Well, Excuse Me, Princess! — easily compatible with the "spunky Fiery Redhead" stereotype.
A good part of the time the hero's redhead is actually calm, at least most of the time. When she is fiery she will probably be making him work to win her over for a long time or he won't realize that she's the one for him until the end.
Considering that less than 1% of the world's population have red hair (largely confined to the Anglo-Irish sphere, and even there only tops at Scotland's 13% of the population, and oddly enough also found in many Jews), there is a disproportionate number of red-haired female characters out there, and an inordinate number of them are The Hero's winning Love Interest. (On top of that, she is also inordinately likely to have green eyes to go with it.)
Naturally, it's quite common for the Veronica in a Betty and VeronicaLove Triangle to be a redhead; the Betty will be a blonde.
One possible source is Robert A. Heinlein's fondness for hypercapable redhaired heroines (he had a red-haired wife).
In European comics, the high proportion of redheads among the main protagonists has been explained by some authors by the simple fact that, since redheads are rare, they're easier to spot in the panels — especially true for crowd scenes.
Look out for the large number of Dark Skinned Redheads in Anime.
Perhaps surprisingly, given the (relatively) high proportion of Irish redheads, this trope does not seem to exist in Ireland. Redheaded female leads do appear of course, but they are heavily outnumbered by blondes and brunettes. This may be that unlike almost everywhere else red hair is not really seen as especially 'exotic' in Ireland.
There isn't always a reason for this, if there is, sometimes the red hair is symbolic of love and romantic desire, or the author just finds girls that look like that appealing.
There are some cases where the redhead actually isThe Hero. Please note that not every romance involving a red-head falls under this trope. A Red-Headed Hero will probably end up with someone. Only when he is heroic, perhaps a superhero or her personal hero from something, and ends up with a girl with red hair, he has multiple Love Interests to chose from but the redhead fits best with him, or and/or the blonde or brunette express an extra attraction to their partner's red hair is the trope in effect.
Oh, and this can apply with Evil Redhead, overlapping with Dating Catwoman.
Compare Everyone Loves Blondes, Red-Headed Hero
Contrast Red-Headed Stepchild.
Examples
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Anime
Issei from High School D×D, while he has no shame in admitting he wants to have his own, harem, it's also rather blatantly obvious the one girl who has the biggest hold over his feelings is, Rias Gremory the very one who brought him back to life as a devil and made said dream possible in the first place.
Shakugan no Shana wins points by having fiery red hair, with an emphasis on the fire. Her hair color is actually part of her name.
Actually, her hair and eye color WERE her name until she met Yuji.
Asuka Langley Soryuu, of Neon Genesis Evangelion, has a very interesting relationship with Shinji Ikari. The two share similar backgrounds, are clearly attracted to, and want to get closer to one another, but their very different ways of handling their social shortcomings (Asuka in an aggressive and head-on manner, Shinji in a passive and withdrawn fashion) leads to numerous misunderstandings and resentment, especially on Asuka's part, between them. The very end of End of Evangelion implies that they have reached some kind of understanding, but where it goes from there is all up in the air.
This trope is completely meta in Evangelion. Manga!Asuka's hair color after Adaptation Dye Job? Blond. Love interest from Shinji? None.
Mayla from Mega Man NT Warrior develops a crush on Lan Hikari throughout the series (and they eventually get married in the Mega Man Battle Network games).
In Ranma ½, Tatewaki is a Don Quixote whose Dulcinea is Ranma's sexy redheaded female form. And his fangirls still chase after him too, even in this form.
Originally, Kuno calls female Ranma "The Pigtailed Girl". In the Latin American dub, however, he calls her "Flame-Haired Girl".
Princess Sakura in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, who has red-tinted hair in the manga, but is something between a brunette and a bleached blonde in the anime.
In the Tsubasa OVA entitled The Magician's Message, Princess Sakura is a pure redhead. However, the OVA animators were not the same animators who did the previously mentioned Tsubasa anime.
Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mother and her husband the Fourth Hokage. To a slightly lesser extent, Naruto's pink-haired friend and potential love interest Sakura Haruno.
Lucy/Nyu/Kaede from Elfen Lied, though her hair is technically hot pink...
Not to mention the straighter subversion of this trope. Miaka is a brunette, but some people think she's a redhead.
Actually, in the second arc of the manga, her name is said to be written with the kanji for "beautiful red". In the OVA, which spans over the second arc of the manga, her hair is turned into an auburn color.
Yoko of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann garnered interest from at least three heroic men. Though the true protagonist, Simon, ends up seeing her as more of an older sister/good friend character and pairs up with Nia, whose hair is...well, Anime Hair.
It was played straight between her and Kamina, who seemed to be the protagonist right up until the moment he died and apparent sidekick Simon was elevated to the role of hero.
Could be played straight since Simon had an obvious huge crush on Yoko. He practically had an emotional breakdown when he saw her and Kamina kissing.
Maruko from Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is arguably a subversion of this trope, as she's somewhat off-putting towards some of the characters (including the main character) and it may be partially the author's intention to convey that to the audience. Quite a bit of the audience isn't listening though, and as far as they're concerned she's a straight-up trope example.
Mobile Suit Gundam has a few examples. Amuro's Unlucky Childhood Friend Frau Bow has reddish-brown hair and Lt. Matilda is a full-on redhead who is lusted after by every male member of the White Base crew. Then there's Margaret Blair, Char's love interest in the 3rd volume of the novelization. The fact that she's a chubby, Girl Next Door type secretary who manages to bed an Ace Pilot whose other love interests have all been mysterious, waifish girls with tragic pasts is a testament to the awesome power of the trope.
Jump forward about sixty years and you get Cecily Fairchild, who has an entire movie centered around the hero's quest for her.
Flay Allster of Gundam SEED may have been the Scrappy, but Kira had a crush on her at the beginning of the series, and it grew in something more. They have sex, even if she was manipulating him, and it's clear he still cares greatly for her at the end of the series. Also, she did come to care for him after her Character Developmentbut ends up dead.
And to a greater extent, Lacus Clyne (although she has pink hair rather than red).
In fact, by the end of Destiny, all three main heroes end up paired with redheads: Kira, with Lacus, Athrun, with Meyrin, and Shinn, with Lunamaria.
Mikuru Asahina, the Moe-blob in Suzumiya Haruhi has reddish brown hair (or brownish red hair? orange? we may never know) and might be Haruhi's closest competition for Kyon's heart. Not 100% love interest, but Kyon is still very fond of her and she triggered Haruhi's second unconscious universe warping when she thought Mikuru and Kyon were too close.
Not to forget,Haruhi definitely has a thing for Mikuru too.
In fact, both of the other major Les Yay pairings (not that there's a shortage), Nanoha/Fate and Hayate/Vita, involve a redhead of some shade. Whether this is coincidence or not, though, is entirely a matter of speculation.
Lead character Izumi Noa of Patlabor becomes a redhead about three seconds into the OVA opening animation. Apparently they'd already started animating, then decided that she needed to be more visually distinctive.
Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin is also a redhead- despite his Japanese origins. He's pursued by both Kaoru and Megumi. The first wins.
Keitaro Urashima of Love Hina has the red-headed Naru Narusegawa (among others), although he's not much of a hero. Initially.
Of course this is subverted in the anime, where Naru's hair is less red/orange and straight brown.
Asuna of Mahou Sensei Negima! is Negi's main love interest. No points for guessing her hair color. Bonus points for being the first girl he met. The series also features a subversion in Anya, Negi's Unlucky Childhood Friend of who's affection he is completely unaware
But then again, she and every other heroic member of Negi's Unwanted Harem fall prey to this, as Negi is also a redhead.
Kotarou's one female love interest right now? Natsumi. Haircolor? Red.
Kenshiro's fiancee, Yuria in the Fist of the North Star anime, was the unrequited love interests of other characters as well (namely Shin, Toki, Raoh, and even her half-brother Juza), while her look-alike Mamiya attracted the attention of Rei and Yuda. It should be noted that both women were originally dark-haired brunettes in the manga.
Kyo has orange hair and he most likely have black hair naturally. His orange hair comes from the fact that he harbors the spirit of the orange cat. All of the Sohma family probably have black hair but it changes due to the animal spirits (Yuki = white mouse, Kisa = orange tiger, etc).
Ayashi No Ceres heroine Aya Mikage had the choice between the sandy brown-haired Yuuhi Aogiri or maroon-haired (honestly. Just live with it, okay?) Tooya. Not only does she get the redhead, they also fall into Babies Ever After.
Katerose von Kreutzer in Legendof Galactic Heroes, as prior to her introduction, the only romantic interest introduced for Julian Minci is the older of Alex Czellenu's daughters.
Ennis in Baccano!! has realistic dark rust colored hair, and even though she's an Artificial Human, Firo has enough of a thing for her to wait fifty years to marry her.
GaoGaiGar has this trope in spades. If Gai and Mikoto and Mamoru and Hana wasn't enough, FINAL strongly hints that Soldat J and Renais had become Battle Couple or are on their way to. Does red and pink hair remand them of their hearts burning with courage or something??
Although he hasn't made his fondness for her known vocally in Hayate the Combat Butler, pink-haired Hinagiku Katsura clearly holds his interest.
Sanji from OnePiece is enamored with the flame-haired Nami, though he's enamored with anything female that isn't a complete Gonk.
Okarin ... Kyouma, spends a Mind Screw-worthy amount of time trying to save his Childhood Friend Mayuri. He decides all his effort should be thrown away, when the choice comes to save either her...or the redhead.
Except, in the game, Kyouma can give up for whatever reason before then for the sake of one of the other girls' happiness, though the route the anime took certainly is the true ending. There's also the fact that she's only a redhead in the anime: in the game, she has brown hair.
Mary Jane Parker (still married to Peter in the Stan Lee approved newspaper strip where some say that it's better than canon), love interest of Spider-man.
In the actual comics, the current (and highly unpopular) love interest for Peter, Carlie Cooper, is subject to a severe case of Depending on the Artist for almost every subsequent appearance she's made. She's been depicted as a redhead twice now (to the point where, in the second occurrence, certain fans weren't sure if Peter had gotten back together with Mary Jane or not, until Carlie's name came up in the text).
Cyclops' One True Love is Jean Grey, who's even nicknamed "Red". the first time he thought she was dead he and married her (obviously redhead) clone Madelyne Pryor. After she went crazy from that and committed suicide, he dated Jean for a number of years before she proposed to him and they married.
Meanwhile, Wolverine's fixation on Jean Grey is apparently the latest in a long line of redheads going back to his childhood, where his first love Rose was a dead-ringer for Jean.
All of Tony Stark's most significant romantic relationships: Pepper Potts, Bethany Cabe, Natalia Romanoff. Redheads.
King Mob of The Invisibles ends up in a relationship with the red-haired Ragged Robin.
Becky Burdock, Vampire Reporter, is the potential love interest for Jack Staff. She's clearly stated to be a redhead, even though the comic is in black and white.
In addition to the characters named above, there's Batgirl/Oracle, the new Batwoman, Black Widow, Dawn, Hawkwoman/Hawkgirl, Hellcat, Lana Lang, Julie Power/Lightspeed, Maxima, Lady Medusa, Siryn, Firestar, et cetera and so on.
When Yvonne Craig portrayed Batgirl on the old Adam West live-action series, Barbara Gordon had short-cropped brunette hair. Batgirl's long red tresses were part of her cowl, part of her identity-concealing costume, and the same technique is currently used for the new Batwoman, whose extraordinarily long flaming red hair (So long that Batman actually advised her to cut it, since any mook could grab it in a fight) is actually a wig over her much shorter, darker, real hair.
Aquaman's on-again, off-again wife, Mera. (Note that white-haired Dolphin didn't last too long as his beau, and was eventually paired off with Tempest, formerly Aqualad.)
E-Man has Nova Kane. (Eventually, she gained energy powers like his own.)
Looker of the '80s and '90s Outsiders was portrayed as highly attractive and desirable, even when she didn't literally hypnotize bad guys into doing her bidding.
Another male example, Green Arrow's sidekick, Roy Harper (formerly known as "Speedy" and "Red Arrow", known now for the second time as "Arsenal"), has always been a ladies' man.
Parodied in Powers; when a philandering superhero is found dead in bed as a result of bedroom-related complications, the police find a little black book with all of the women he tried it on with, and have to go and interview all of them. Every single one of them is a redhead.
Despite having a great many "sweethearts", Conan the Barbarian seemed to always hold a special place in his heart for Red Sonja, to the point of being ready to abandon his wife, children and throne to go adventuring with her in Conan The King #28.
And if that counts, Girl of the Week Cheyenne was a red-head.Nightwing has even stated himself that he has a thing for red-heads when first meeting the new Batwomen.
In the Static comics, Frieda Goren is Virgil's first love interest. She's also caught the eye of Hotstreak - so much so that he really goes out of his way to capture her - and she has a boyfriend named Larry Wade, who is one of Virgil's friends. In the cartoon, she's still Virgil's first love interest and Hotstreak still has the hots for her AND two boys named Jimmy and Nick really like her, too; Jimmy's and Nick's attraction to Frieda fuels Nick's bullying of Jimmy and Jimmy's feeling like no one really cares about him, which leads to the climax of the episode when Jimmy brings a gun to school. In the first episode, she's listing off how many boys have asked her to the dance as Virgil is trying to ask her out.
X Factor's Rictor has exclusively dated Rahne and Shatterstar, two very violent redheads.
Lana Lang, Superman's high school sweet heart is traditionally a red head.
Which inverts the trope when Superman chooses the brunette Lois over Lana.
Sally, from the Sonic comics published by Archie, is a redhead. Fiona, too.
Scott Pilgrim's romantic life consists of Kim (redhead), Natalie a.k.a. "Envy" (redhead), Knives (temporarily had red highlights), and Ramona (her hair was red for a time, but it changes often). More obvious in the Game where his ending involves him dating Kim, Envy, and Knives all at once, and all three are pictured with him, and they all have red hair.
Princess Sorsha (Val Kilmer's required love interest) in Willow was auburn haired. Rather too scary to be generally desirable, but very pretty and obviously Madmartigan wants her.
James Bond has slept with four redheads, and only killed one of them! Connery's Bond stated in Diamonds Are Forever that he did really like redheads. Other Bonds' opinions on the matter are unknown.
Elastigirl/Helen Parr of The Incredibles, at least when she was younger.
And while we're on the topic of Pixar films, Buzz from Toy Story seems to hold a torch for Jessie.
Not just a torch anymore after their relationship upgrade in the third movie.
In Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst dyed her blonde hair to play the redheaded love interest Mary Jane. Ironically, in Spider-Man 3, Bryce Dallas Howard dyed her red hair to play the blonde rival love interest Gwen Stacy.
Gwyneth Paltrow dyed her hair red to play Pepper in the film Iron Man.
In the sequel, Scarlett Johannsson dyed her hair red to play Black Widow.
The redheaded Lucy in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula is pursued by three suitors who all turn heroic by the end of the film. In the original novel, the character is a brunette.
Sadie Frost (who played Lucy) dyed her natural brown hair red because she and Winona Ryder looked too similar.
Taylor Swift's character Audrey◊ in The Lorax. She's not in the book, she's an inserted love interest for Zac Efron's character, who is presumably the guy who finds the Once-ler.
Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley of Harry Potter. Harry, of course, follows in the footsteps of his father James, who loved Lily Evans. Dumbledore also had red hair when younger. J. K. Rowling has stated she likes redheads.
Funnily, the other two main characters end up together; brunette Hermione ends up with redhead Ron, brother of Ginny.
Clarissa MacDougal Kinnison, of E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman saga, is not merely a redhead — she's the Penultimate Human Woman, the unknowing culmination of millennia of a secret alien breeding program, and being a redhead is a distinguishing feature of that line going back to the Fall of Atlantis. She's destined to be the hero's One True Love — since he's the male Penultimate.
Shira Brie and Mara Jade from Star Wars were both Luke Skywalker's love interests, and the latter became his wife. And remained with him until her death in Sacrifice...thought to have been at the hands of the other, interestingly, until it was revealed to have been Jacen who killed her.
Don't forget Dani! The Bantam era preferred brown hair, but he ultimately got a redhead. As well, as a Zeltron, she had red skin...
Another Star Wars example: Jacen Solo and Tenel Ka (latter is a QUEEN, to boot).
Apparently, Skywalkers have a thing for redheads (this next comment applies to the Legacy comic series); Cade (one of the two remaining descendants of Luke and Mara) has a new love interest in the form of a former childhood friend, Azlyn Rae. It's far too early for confirmation, but it does seem to be going somewhere...
Except Anakin Skywalker, it seems.
Why limit the "red things growing out of the girl's head" to hair? Cade also hooks up with a Darth Talon.
As if to drive the point home, red twi'lek are rare because their red skin is the result of a mutated gene. Likewise, red hair is rare and results from a mutated blonde hair gene. She's as close to a redhead as a hairless alien babe can get.
Ygritte, a wildling woman who becomes Jon Snow's Temporary Love Interest in A Song of Ice and Fire. Wildling society as a whole favors redheads, believing them to be "kissed by fire." Jon also thinks of Melisandre (another woman with red hair *
along with red eyes and always red clothing
) as very beautiful, if a little cold. And he's not the only POV character to take interest in redheads. At the beginning of the series, Ned Stark is happily married to auburn-haired Catelyn Tully and their daughter Sansa (who took after her mother) ends up being married to Tyrion Lannister who admits that he is very attracted to her. Jaime Lannister, another POV, found Catelyn's sister (that has the typical Tully coloring) rather pretty and Catelyn herself interesting as a teenager. There's also Rohanne Webber with whom Duncan, the protagonist of the Dunk&Egg tales, is infatuated.
Red hair is one of the most common colors among the Aiel in the Wheel of Time, so one of Rand's three is a redhead, as is Chiad (though that relationship is very minor and very complicated).
Actually, two of Rand's "three" are redheaded - the other one is strawberry blonde.
Dr. Isis Proserpina McDonald of the Babylon Rising series. (And she's Scottish, to boot!)
Garion, of the Belgariad, has Ce'Nedra...and their partnership is an exciting one, given her temper.
Again from Eddings, Dweia in the Redemption of Althalus is a redhead.
Many many characters in the Darkover series, not surprisingly; although toward the end of the timeline we do get a Spunky Blonde.
It may be worth noting that in the Darkover series, red hair is very specifically linked with psychic ability.
Also, the original colonists of Darkover were from the Scottish highlands, Ireland and the Basque country, so this is really just an attention to detail.
Many, many heroes (and many, though fewer, heroines) from the Scottish-set breed of historical romance novel. Getting distinct vibes of Outlander and Diana Gabaldon here...
The complete works of Robert Anson Heinlein. This is to be laid at the feet of Virginia Gerstenfeld Heinlein (and, some have said, at those of Leslyn MacDonald Heinlein).
In Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins both the "hero" and his love interest have red hair.
Anne from Anne of Green Gables is an example, though it may not be immediately obvious because she complains so much about having red hair. She is proposed to five times in Anne of the Island, twice by Gilbert Blythe, whom she eventually marries.
Her hair is actually described as "reddish gold", but yeah, it's the same idea.
Inverted in the Falco series by Lindsey Davis set in Ancient Rome. Informer (private eye) Marcus Falco has a strong dislike of redheads, either stemming from his much-loathed military service in Britain or the fact that his father ran off with one.
Almost all members of the ruling class of the planet Darkover have red hair because all characters with red hair in Marion Zimmer Bradley's series have psychic powers. Since every single offworlder hero or heroine who arrives on Darkover ends up hooking up with a member of the ruling class...
Then there are the averting blond Ridenow clan. Of course, they get their ladies the old-fashioned way...they STEAL them!
Starting with The Titan's Curse, the titular character of the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians has two main love interests: blonde Annabeth and redhead Rachel. Eventually subverted in the final book, as Rachel dumps him (when they weren't going out in the first place, no less) in favor of becoming the new Oracle of Delphi. He gets Annabeth in the end.
Nearly every hero in Terry Brooks' Shannara series fits this trope. Menion Leah and Shirl Ravenlock in The Sword of Shannara; Wil Ohmsford and Amberle Elessedil in The Elfstones of Shannara (but this is subverted when following Amberle's transformation into the Ellcrys tree, Wil marries the black-haired Eretria); Par Ohmsford and Damson Rhee in the Heritage of Shannara quadrilogy; Bek Ohmsford and Rue Meridian in the Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy, and Panterra Qu with Prue Liss in the Legends of Shannara duology.
Male example: Edward Cullen from Twilight has reddish-brown hair, as does his infamous daughter.
Male/male example: Ash Trine is the primary love interest of Kieran Trevarde in The God Eaters.
Another male example: Marcus Flutie from Sloppy Firsts.
In Kristin Cashore's Fire, there are certain beings called "monsters" with brightly colored hair in unusual shades, who are extraordinarily attractive and entrance people with their appearance. The titular heroine is one of these monsters, and has shimmering hair in multiple shades of red, with occasional strands of pink and orange that make it look like a sunset. Like all other monsters, she is seen by everyone around her as incredibly beautiful. Her father, also a monster, had gleaming silver hair with hints of blue, making him a White-Haired Pretty Boythe evil kind.
In the The Lies Of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies, the main character, Locke, is hopelessly in love with a woman named Sabetha. One of the only traits revealed about her is that she is a redhead.
Somewhat subverted with Karen in the Three Worlds Cycle. Karen, a redhead, is technically a hero, but her love interest Llian is something of a bumbling klutz. He does turn out to be a bit of a hero in the end though, so I guess it's alright eventually...
Alanna in Alanna: Song of the Lioness, being a hero herself, was romantically pursued by the three greatest heroes in the story, namely, her Warrior Prince (Jonathan), The King of Thieves (George) and The Shang Dragon (Liam).
Over the course of the first Time Scout book, Malcolm Moore falls for Margo Smith. Hard.
Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: Bert Navarro wants Kathryn Lucas, who has red hair. Weekend Warriors had Jack Emery hanging out with a redhead, who turned out to be his sister-in-law, and he did that just to make his blonde girlfriend Nikki Quinn jealous. Ted Robinson really likes redheads, if his relationship with Maggie Spritzer is anything to go by.
Live-Action TV
All four of Gibbs' ex-wives from NCIS are redheads. Then again, they are ex-wives (except for the one who was killed while they were married). He's also had an affair with his current (redheaded) boss and is dating a redheaded Army investigator. Jethro is da man.
And everyone else recognizes it. When he first met said investigator, the other team members noted the growing attraction and pointed out the red hair as proof it was inevitable.
Not hereditary- his father had Betty Grable painted on the nose of his P-51.
Fans of Lost are counting down the episodes until the redheaded Hot Scientist Charlotte hooks up with Daniel. Come on, you know it's going to happen!
Not to mention the Tenth Doctor's...relations with Queen Elizabeth I.
Amy Pond's fiancé Rory, since spent two thousand years, without so much as a magazine to read, guarding her while she was in kinda-stasis, kinda-death so that the Doctor could use the powers of the Timey Wimey Ball to bring her back to life after he was reincarnated as a killer robot.
In a subversion, Lucy freely admitted that she was not a natural red head on the show and in real life.
Scully of The X-Files. Scully's redhair became a tradmark for the show, as did the UST between Mulder and Scully.
A flashback episode of Angel had a character bringing this up, mentioning the trope.
Though it seems that Angel and The Doctor share tastes. After all, his romantic interests have almost all been blonde (Kate, the Werewolf chick from S5, Buffy, Darla) and it was said that he and Spike slept together once (offhand comment by Spike in S5, implied it was ONLY once).
The American version of The Office has Pam, who not only is part of the Official Couple with Jim but early on was part of a Love Triangle with her in between two guys. She is also considered the office hottie with several of the other guys attracted to her. The show also has Meredith who is widely considered to be a gross Lady Drunk yet somehow also Really Gets Around.
Someone behind the scenes of The West Wing, probably Aaron Sorkin, has a thing for redheads. CJ, Zoey, Margaret, Mallory, Andy, Abby, Joey, Ginger and Jenny are all some shade of red.
Notably avoided in Mad Men; the hero dates brunettes, married a blonde, and is the only (straight) man on Earth who's apparently oblivious to Joan Holloway (played by the...voluptuous Christina Hendricks), one of the greater redheads of this or any time.
Avoided by Don. Roger Sterling and Paul Kinsey certainly agree with the trope.
In an episode of The Bill, DC Banks and DC Webb have a tough interview with a suspect, who is aided by a red-haired solicitor. Webb comments he'd like to sleep with her. It's established that Banks does sleep with her- she's his wife, using her maiden name for work.
Red of Fraggle Rock would be a case of "redheads want heroes."
President Laura Roslin from Battlestar Galactica is a redhead and has no shortage of male admirers in spite of her age, health, and position. She is also a change for partner Bill Adama, whose previous interests in flashbacks have been blondes.
Robin of Sherwood seems to have firmly established Maid Marian (or Marion, if you will) in the collective unconscious as a feisty redhead.
He's not exactly a hero, but That '70s Show had main character Eric Forman's love interest be the red haired Donna. Forget the last few seasons where she was blonde. We all try to.
After winning over Donna, Eric Foreman became my hero.
Would Willow Rosenberg be a case of Werewolves and Lesbian Witches want Redheads?
Also, annoying potential slayers and occasionally Xander. And a demon/robot.
Star Trek: The Next Generation had the gorgeous Dr. Beverly Crusher, who Picard has been in love with for years; DS9 had Major Kira Nerys, who Odo had been after for six years before finally getting her in "His Way"; and then, of course, there's Chakotay's blatantly obvious feelings for Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager.
Dr. Crusher certainly had red hair, until she became blonde for the films, but didn't Kira and Janeway both have brown hair? Seven of Nine, on the other hand, was more of a strawberry blonde.
Nope, Kira and Janeway were most definitely redheads; however their hair was a much darker shade of red than Crusher's. The red tones in Janeway's hair, especially, usually only showed up outside or under lights - the proof of her red hair is in Admiral Janeway's snowy-white bun (usually, only redheads go that pure white). Seven of Nine was all but a platinum blonde.
Almost every important woman in Richard Castle's life is a redhead, from the 'one who got away' to his first ex-wife, even his mother and his daughter. Seemingly averted by Kate Beckett, his Love Interest in the show — until you realize that her brown hair is a curiously red shade of brown.
Lie to Me: Almost every important woman in Cal Lightman's life is redheaded, too. His daughter Emily has long red hair, his mother (in flashbacks) is shown to have had an auburn shade, and his partner Gillian is a strawberry-blonde (though it's not natural, unless her dark hair in the "Sweet Sixteen" flashbacks was dyed).
Beautiful redhead Jayma Mays has all kinds of this about her parts. She was wanted by the Hiro on Heroes, Will on Glee, and an episode of Pushing Daisies. Even Paul Blart: Mall Cop wanted her. Inverted on Ugly Betty where she was an Evil Redhead.
Firefly has Saffron, which is subverted by Mal not showing any initial interest in her. Flipped on it's head when she appears to seduce him and then flipped right back into subversion again when she knocks him out and turns out to be a conwoman, then almost flips back into played straight when she reappears and after a successful heist they seem to have a "moment" and then bounces right back to subverted when she double crosses him.
Don't forget Nandi.
Saffron was of course played by Christina Hendricks mentioned above for Mad Men.
Desperate Housewives' Orson Hodge had a wife, a mistress, and a second wife, all red heads. Even lampshaded when wife #1 (who'd vanished before he met and married Bree, the second wife) reappeared.
Alma: So what is it with you and red heads?
Averted in Todd And The Book Of Pure Evil. The main character, Todd, continually spurns the advances of the redheaded science geek who has a massive crush on him, focusing all his energy on Jenny, his would-be Love Interest.
Mamori Anezaki of Eyeshield 21 was a brunette for the first manga volume, but the author quickly changed her hair to an orangey-red color to make her stand out more. Deuteragonist, Hiruma Yoichi, ends up being her (sorta) love interest.
Bruce Springsteen's "Red-Headed Woman". Dedicated to/inspired by Patti Scalfa no doubt.
In Dolly Parton's "Jolene", the eponymous temptress is described as a incomparable beauty, with "flamin' locks of auburn hair", who has bewitched the hapless speaker's husband. She's got green eyes to boot.
Brenda Starr, who's older then The Little red-Haired Girl but younger than Princess Aura.
In the FoxTrot arc where Roger writes His Codename Wasthe Fox, his (blond) wife gets particularly upset over the fact that "Agent Fox" has a fling with a redhead.
Professional Wrestling
Hmm the list of redheaded Lita's suitors - Dean Malenko, Matt Hardy, Kane and Edge. Two of these were in real life as well.
Maria Kanellis really got around as a redhead - Santino Marella, Dolph Ziggler, The Great Khali, Matt Hardy and um Candice Michelle.
Eugene to red-haired Christy Hemme.
Theater
While brunette Sarah is the one desire of vampire lord Count von Krolock in the Austrian musical Tanz der Vampire, it's the redheaded serving wench Magda who has all of the village wanting her.
Subverted in Dragon Age II: in Act I, Hawke can attempt to initiate romance with another Orlesian redhead, Aveline Vallen, but she ultimately rejects him/her for Captain Donnic in Act II.
In the Mark of the Assassin DLC, however, the red-haired Tallis can be romanced, although this is more of a short-term fling instead of a serious romantic engagement, and nothing happens if Hawke is already in a romance with another party member.
Adventure Quest Worlds has interesting inversion. Many players have decide to join evil side because they like Gravelynsdesing. Try to guess color her hair is.
The orange-haired redhead Princess Daisy is said to be Luigi's answer to Mario's Peach, and various indications in sports games have been shown to support this.
Leena from Chrono Cross is a seeming subversion as she had the misfortune of being Serge's Unlucky Childhood Friend, and thus loses out to the blond girl. However, the Good Ending pushes a reset button that erases Serge's memories of the blonde, and puts her back to the top of the list, until the credits roll and we learn that Serge ended up with the blond anyways.
As is the default female Shepard, to further float your boat.
Marin from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and possibly Malon from Ocarina of Time and Cremia from Majora's Mask as well.
Not surprising because they're all pretty much the same person. It's a well-known fact that the cast of Majora's Mask is almost completely comprised of Ocarina of Time expies, and the creators acknowledged that Talon and Malon were expies of Tarin and Marin from Link's Awakening.
As well as Midna from Twilight Princess.
Also, though frequently forgotten thanks to her gradual blondification, Princess Zelda herself was red-haired in the original NES games. (Or should we say both Princess Zeldas, since the one in the second game was a Sleeping Beauty relative of the one from the first.)
This might be more be because of the limited palette of the NES — Note that even Princess Peach was a redhead in the first Super Mario Bros. game.
The Sleeping Zelda has red hair in her artwork, so it's intentional. The first Zelda however had blond hair◊, as evident in her Japanese artwork and her sprite; but in the west she has two different artworks, one with her being blond◊ and the other where she's a brunette◊.
Kairi of the Kingdom Hearts series. Sora (and possibly Riku) falls for her.
In Fire Emblem 6: Sword of Seals: the redheaded male lord Roy can have six different possible brides (and one of them, the dancer Lalam, is a redhead as well). In the prequel, Fire Emblem 7: Blazing Swords, his also redheaded father Eliwood can have three possible girlfriends (but no redheads this time).
In Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, one of Princess Eirika's four suitors is a redhead male, Seththe Silver Knight. This support/ending is also ridiculously easy and fast to get.
For a traditional female version, look no further than Staff Chick / Magic KnightPriscilla, who has three official love interests (though she only gets to keep one of them, the others have to go) and arguably has chemistry with other two guys.
Another male subversion: Natasha of Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones can support and have a happy ending with two redheads. Interestingly they form a Betty and Veronica dynamic, with Joshua being a gambling addict and Seth being Seth, though the triangle never comes up.
Not exactly a hero but the main character in the Harvest Moon games has almost always a redhead as one of the potential brides to choose from.
To be precise : Ann from SNES, her descedant also named Ann from 64. Ann appears again in Back To Nature, Friends of Mineral Town, and DS (FOMT Ann's descendant). Katie in Save the Homeland (and Lyla who has pink hair). Nami from A Wonderful Life, A Wonderful Life Special Edition and DS (AWL Nami's desendant). SNES Ann appears in Magical Melody (though that may be her descendant), and Katie apparently moved to Flower-Bud. Melody, Lynette and Lara have pink hair (well, Lara's is almost violet), from Rune Factory 1. Chelsea, Julia and Natalie from Island Of Happiness, and Shining Sun and Friends. Cecilia from Rune Factory 2. Maya and Selena from Tree of Tranquility, and Wakuwaku Animal March.
Don't forget the invert with "Claire", and "Jill"/"Pony". Both females have red headed love interests in Cute, Rick, Grey and Cliff(though, he's more of a brownish-red). Also, Basil and Blue in Magical Melody, for Tina.
Elly from Xenogears is a redhead, and the love interest of the hero.
Her hair is a slightly different color in each incarnation, but it still always is some shade of red.
Though she originally had purple/black hair but you could argue that that is not really Elly.
Though the main heroine is a blond, most of the heroines of Tsukihime, and a few non-heroines as well, are redheads. Since the hero can score with any of the heroines, their overwhelming majority would make that game fit this troupe.
Akiha, Hisui, Kohaku, Aoko; that's half of them. More, if you don't count Sion.
Akiha's kind of a subversion. She only has red hair when her demonic blood is expressing itself, something that makes Shiki (and everyone else, for that matter) extremely nervous.
Planescape: Torment has two "romance" options (in quotation marks because the game doesn't really consummate the relationships). The one you can get farthest with, giving a deep and passionate kiss to, is the redhead Annah.
Both the heroine and her love interest are redheads in Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra.
In Bully, Jimmy and Zoe end up together at the end of the game.
The Witcher positively overflows with red haired "love" interests to the point where you can safely assume it's possible to sleep with a woman if she has red hair. The game even features a Betty and Veronica triangle where both women are red-heads.
Coh Cott in The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble.
Inverted, Ritz, the literal red head (who actually has white hair) from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, has some feelings for Marche. So it's the red head who wanted the hero.
In Vampire:The Masquerade - Bloodlines, the vampiric player character has the option to acquire a red-headed, green-eyed love interest pretty early on by saving her life and turning her into his or her devoted 'ghoul' (vampires mostly don't have sexual relations, but the 'blood bond' that arises between a vampire and his ghoul is described in-game as one of the most intense emotional sensations it is possible to experience), who will then provide perks, money, blood, conversation and generally keep house while he or she is away on missions.
Mitsuru Kirijo from Persona3 is one of several love interests. Yukari Takeba's hair color is an auburn that's closer to brown than red, but there's definitely some red in there. The latter is also the closest the game has to a default romantic interest.
Rise Kujikawa from Persona4. She's only one of several romantic options, but she's the only one who falls for the protagonist whether you choose to date her or not. Redheads Want Heroes?
Of the more ginger variety(though given that this is Japan, probably everyone is dyeing) Ai Ebihara of the Moon Arcana.
It depends on your video card, and your Player Character, but Carth Onasi appears to be auburn-haired under high-end graphics cards. Oddly enough, none of the Player Character options are gingers.
Jim Raynor wanted Sarah Kerrigan, who was a redhead pre-infestation.
In MARDEK Chapter 3, Emela and Deugan play this pretty straight. Actually, nearly everyone in the royal guard wants Emela. Gloria, for her part apparently attracts the lust of the entire male population of Canonia. Averted in that she only has eyes for a certain stammering Technical Pacifist inventor, who reciprocates her affections.
Both Haru and Yuzu in Devil Survivor, both of whom show interest in the protagonist.
Tycho's wife from Penny Arcade, though Tucho isn't exactly heroic...
Given that the wives are just their real-life wives in comic form, this is more of a Real Life example than a webcomic example.
Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire: The minor characters' love interests have red hair (Pam for Gregory, Jayden for Milov/Siegfried), while the main character's girlfriend, Luna, is the traditional blonde. However, it's interesting to note the shifts in the artist's coloring from the early days, when color strips were rarer; Early pictures of Luna had redder hair (and Gregory, now a solid redhead, was fairer-haired).
Nanase, from El Goonish Shive, is an odd example. She briefly dated the hero, before dumping him. He's dating a blonde now... And Nanase? Well, she's in a relationship with the hero's Opposite Sex Clone.
Though Ellen now has drifted from Opposite Sex Clone to a different person entirely due to magical intervention which aged her soul. El Goonish Shive is really complex. And weird.
Anne Onymous, protagonist of The Wotch is a red head, as are a few side characters. The (blond) Jason has a huge red head fetish... so much so that he has a "Red Head Sense", also whenever he is turned into a girl (which is fairly often) he's red haired (and calls himself Sonja). Ironically, his one true love is a brunette.
Wouldn't that, by definition, be a subversion? Torg's girl of choice is the black-haired Zoë, who seems to have been killed. Played straight when he was together with an alt-world Zoë, though.
Irregular Webcomic! has Ginny Smith. Nothing did come out of it for a long time, but after a Time Skip, she is now married to Erwin.
Though not apparent, both Erika Hayasaka and Largo of MegaTokyo have red hair.
Princess Voluptua in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!. Granted that her human form is an illusion and she is actually a giant alien butterfly -which Bob knows, and which prevents any possible relationship between them- but even her butterfly form has those same long flowing locks of (presumably red) hair.
Chel, from Alien Dice is the heroine of the story, and Lexx's love interest. True to the trope, Chel is fiery and independent, and it's her stubborn nature which brings them together and prompts Lexx to fall in love with her. He finds her hair color strange (but pretty).
Lexx is a Rishan and Rishan have skin and hair of bluish hues.
And no matter how you interpret the story, yes the hero wants the redhead.
Although they are never seen in the series without their helmets, this may be the case with Church and Tex from Red vs. Blue. Virtually every piece of fanart that shows them without helmets depicts Tex as a redhead. It helps that Luke McKay, who originally put forth the concept in his artwork, has now become an Ascended Fanboy, working for Rooster Teeth officially, making the idea Fanon in a way.
Come to think if it, it's difficult to find a red head (or former redhead) that hasn't got some on that show. The Question (redhead! Surprise!) has something with Huntress; Lex (but how do you tell what color his hair...ahhh...) was doing Mercy and Tala, and as for the Flash...well, let's just say there's truth behind the "Wally's a pimp" meme.
On Clone High, Abe spent most of his time in love with black-haired Cleopatra, but in the last episode realized he was in love with magenta-haired Joan of Arc.
In an episode of The Venture Brothers, Phantom Limb freezes a courtroom and gives Dr. Orpheus a hypnotic suggestion to testify against the Monarch, then he'll get an archvillain like he always wanted. When the room unfreezes, Dr. Orpheus is wistfully muttering "I hope they'll get me a girl villain. A redhead..."
In Daria, Daria's little sister Quinn Morgendorffer is the teen queen of this trope, as almost every guy who sees her is immediately hypnotized by her bouncy carrot-top (and tiny, cute pores!). In fact, the only guys who see her and AREN'T interested are those who see her as a Well, Excuse Me, Princess! type (Trent Lane, David Sorenson), are part of an Official Couple (Kevin) or where First Girl Wins (Young Master Thomas Sloane aka Tom, who also beautifully subverts that trope by ending up with Daria, the star of the show, after coming aboard as part of a Beta Couple with Jane).
Actually, Word Of God has Daria as auburn-haired (red-brown hair), so the trope isn't subverted with her. In fact, look at the guys interested in her - Tom, Ted Dewitt-Clinton and (of course) Trent Lane. Daria fits the trope, too.
It can be argued that Tom is not a perfect hero...
In the 80's G.I. Joe cartoon, redheaded intelligence officer Scarlett was vaguely presented as a love interest for the heroic male lead, Duke. In the comics, she was the main squeeze of primary character Snake-Eyes.
April O'Neil, yellow-jumpsuited friend of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was an object of the boys' affection in both the cartoon and the movies (especially for Mikey) and for Casey Jones.
Especially in the 2003 series. There she was far more of a redhead than she's ever been in any other media series up until then.
Bollocks! There was stacks of sexual tension between Adam and Teela, by chaste '80s kids animation standards.
In a planned but never made sequel series starring He-Man's adopted son Adam and Teela were actually married and ruling Eternia together.
Queen Castaspella, another redhead, definitely wanted Prince Adam on the spin-off show, She Ra Princess Of Power. An inversion, I guess.
Though Family Guy's Peter Griffin might not qualify as much of a hero, his wife, Lois, could be considered an example.
In Futurama, when Bender becomes a woman, shkle calls herself Coilette and has red hair (or whatever robots have).
Fry is the main character, but Leela is a hero, and likes him. In her Adventures In Comaland, she imagines loads of crying women at his funeral.
Also, when they encounter versions of themselves from an alternate universe (who are basically just Palette Swap versions of them), the alternate Leela and Fry are married, and the alternate Leela is a redhead.
On the animated show Huntik there are two female heroines: the sultry, raven-haired Asian beauty Zhalia, and the fiery redhead British hottie Sophie. Guess which one is the main character's love interest?
The main character's childhood crush, Scarlet, is also redheaded. Meanwhile, Sophie spends the first half of the series much more interested in the main character's mentor, Dante Vale, who also has red hair.
In the Legion Of Superheroes, Alexis is a one time love-interest of Superman's, although somewhat ruined by her Heel Face Turn. Not to mention the Princess of the Amazons in an issue of the spinoff comic. Plus, if people with orange hair count, Triplicate Girl is this to Bouncing Boy, or so is implied.
Considering that Firestar (who originally created exclusively for the show) is actually based off of Mary Jane Watson, to the point where she is practically a clone of the original John Romita design but with superpowers.
Parodied in Megas XLR. The gang is picked up by a Captain HarlockExpy (but is really more of a Jerkass than a hero) who immediately starts hitting on Kiva. We don't know though that the guy has a thing for redheads until Kiva finds a portrait gallery filled with paintings of all his old, strictly redheaded girlfriends...and one redheaded dude. Played straight when in the Bad Future, Jamie and Kiva get together.
Undergrads: Kimmy, object of Nitz's affections, is a red head.
One episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends features Mac, Bloo, a Prince Charming friend, and a pizza boy all fall for the red-headed Frankie in addition to her own date. Another episode featured two nerdy guys falling for her as well. Mac continued to have a long time crush on her throughout the series.
He's not a hero per se, but Xanatos from Gargoyles is so magnificent, he gets a red head anyway. Subverted when The Hero, Goliath has a red head as a mate for a while, but breaks up with her when it's revealed she's become a little less moral over the past couple of centuries, and then gets a Hopi/African American woman as his main love interest.
This biblical cartoon, actually makes Eve (of Adam and Eve) herself into a redhead. Although really, it depends greatly on whether you would call Adam a "hero".
A canine example occurs in Balto where the wolf-dog's love interest is Jenna, a husky with red fur.
The Spectacular Spider Man is a subversion/aversion, as while Mary Jane does appear & originally built up as if she's going to be his love interest... She makes it clear the next time they see each other that they're just friends & then refuses to date anyone seriously, until Mark Allen/Molten Man shows up anyway. Word Of God has stated that they try to draw mostly from the roots of the franchise, so MJ was relegated to her original role as a Foil for Gwen, the primary Love Interest.
The short lived Fish Police includes a fish-themed variant, with Gill's main Love Interest, the diner waitress Pearl, who has red scales and fins.
Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers: Shane was attracted to his teammate Niko, but it was implied that he also shagged the crime boss Daisy O'Mega during "Renegade Rangers". And Shane wasn't the only one with a thing for redheads. Zach's wife, Eliza, was auburn-haired - making this trope one of the few things The Hero and The Lancer had in common!
A good deal of UST and out-and-out flirting existed between Linka and the red-haired Wheeler on Captain Planet and the Planeteers, though this is a gender inversion.
A sort of inversion in Kim Possible, where the titular hero is the redhead and her main Love Interest in her best friend/sidekick.
Redhead Kid Flash/Wally in Young Justice has a crush on the equally redhead Miss Martian. Who is interested in Superboy. Aqualad has a crush on his friend Tula, but she is already in a relationship with his other friend Garth.
Starchaser The Legend Of Orin. Orin and red-headed governor's daughter, Aviana, end up together at the end of the film.
Transformers Prime. Jack Darby's main crush is the redheaded Sierra, a schoolmate of his and captain of the cheerleading squad.
The Sword in the Stone: Subverted and averted with the girl squirrel, who, according to Merlin, is a redhead, who falls for squirrel-Wart.
