Heroes Want Redheads - Television Tropes & Idioms

A Hero and his beautiful Red Headed Hero.

"How about the next question... Why do so many of the characters in most anime have red or reddish hair? ...Is it fashionable? Sexy? Stylish? Et cetera?"
— Anime Nano Podcast

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 But today, the passive Distressed Damsel and Shallow Love Interest have been replaced by the sassy, bold, brash, sharp-tongued Action Girl and Well Excuse Me Princess — easily compatible with the "spunky Fiery Redhead" stereotype.

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), 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 Veronica Love 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 surpisingly, 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.

It's entirely possible that sometimes the red hair is symbolic of love and romantic desire, making the identification of the hero's love interest at least sub-conscious.

There are some cases where the redhead actually is the hero. This is the result of an Evolving Trope. (Maybe. Red-headed male heroes are as old as Thor.) Contrast the Evil Redhead.

Compare and contrast Red Headed Hero and Red Headed Stepchild.

Please do not add examples of anti-heroic or Villain Protagonist characters (e.g. Deadpool) having a redheaded love interest, as per the trope title. Most of the time, a character's anti-heroicness is pointed out by the author, so consider statements such as these.