Who do you think will win?
Molly Brown: Hey, uh, who thought of the name Titanic? Was it you, Bruce?
J. Bruce Ismay: Yes, actually. I want to convey sheer size; and size means stability, luxury and, above all, strength.
Frank the Pug: You humans! When will you learn size doesn't matter?
As part of a
Willing Suspension Of Disbelief, audiences tend to have a list of expectations. One of the most prevalent stereotypes is that characters with big muscles must be strong. In most media, this almost forces creators to make large characters seem strong (or at least stronger than smaller characters) and small characters seem less strong, or risk forcing the audience out of the story.
The
Trope Codifier is probably Superman, who, as part of his
Secret Identity of Clark Kent, would slouch as part of the identity, assuming that if he was a little shorter, he wouldn't be associated with the taller and stronger Superman, but even cave paintings suggest a certain awe of larger creatures (like wooly mammoths and horses), making this trope
Older Than Dirt.
Often, this carries the opposite meaning as well: small characters are usually elusive, quiet, agile, stealthy and quick, while large characters trying to do so will not be believable.
Subverted in anime, as the smallest character is often the strongest (
Sailor Moon, Yugi/Atem from
Yugioh,
Pokemon,
Conan Edogawa, etc.), but in live action, the trope is often supported as in
super-sentai/giant robot shows, or
Ultraman.
Lampshaded and subverted in
Men In Black when Frank the Pug states that "you humans" are always concerned with size, but something very small can be very powerful.
In comedies, a smaller person, usually a midget, dwarf, or martial arts chick,
beating up a bigger person is used for humor or comedy relief, as in
Elf or
Austin Powers 3.
In
Professional Wrestling, this is taken to extremes, as few fans will accept a smaller wrestler beating a larger wrestler except through cheating or DQ, and small or average sized wrestlers usually take years of development before becoming believable vs larger opponents (Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Rey Misterio, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, etc.)
Related to
Bishonen Line.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- This trope is almost the entire plot for the Hulk, as any character's superpower can be easily identified by which body part is the largest (The Leader, the Abomination, etc.)
- For a while, the Hulk himself would also get larger as he got angrier/stronger.
- This is also prevalent in many Rogue's Galleries.
- For Spider-Man, the "strong" villains were always large and muscular (e.g. the Rhino) while the villains who had other powers were slimmer (e.g. the Chameleon.)
- Carnage subverted this trend; he was at least as strong as Venom if not stronger (and thus stronger than Spider-Man) but was actually smaller and less muscular than Peter Parker without his symbiote.
- Batman had Bane, Clayface, Solomon Grundy, and other "melee" villains who were larger than Batman.
- Batman is an especially obvious example of this trope. In comics where he had to fight, he was drawn larger than average (The Dark Knight Returns). In comics where he used his detective skills, he was drawn slimmer and less muscular (Brave And The Bold).
- In films, Batman traditionally wore a padded Bat-suit, but appeared slim as Bruce Wayne.
- Superman's villains who fought with him were drawn larger (e.g. Doomsday.)
- However, the villains that outsmarted him were drawn smaller, e.g. Mr. Mxyzptlk, Luthor, etc.
Professional Wrestling
- In Professional Wrestling, "large" wrestlers (275 lbs or more) are usually given squash matches and power finishing moves. Smaller (200 lbs or less) are usually in matches that demonstrate acrobatic or high-flying moves.
- Chyna was the only woman allowed to wrestle men because she was bigger than many male wrestlers of her time.
- With the advent of the light heavyweight division of the WCW and WWF during the Monday Night Wars, smaller wrestlers doing power moves because more common, and larger wrestlers doing acrobatic moves like the kip-up
were also common.
- ECW averted this often, and even squeezed in a series of subversions with the "Little Spike Dudley: Giant Killer" gimmick, where the 150-pound-soaking-wet Spike would somehow, after having been beaten half-to-death by men 3 times his size, and with commentator Joey Styles begging for the ref to stop the match, find a way to prevail in the end.
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