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Some Heroes Want Redheads. Some heroes are redheads.
Considering that of all hair color, red is the least common color, it isn't surprising that it is shown when writers want someone to stand out, at least in shows that don't give random extras blue and green hair.
One distinction between red-haired heroes and villainous redheads this troper has noticed is that where heroes tend to have bright-colored hair (almost reddish-blond), villains have darker-colored, almost brownish hair.
Contrast Evil Redhead, Redheaded Stepchild.
Examples:
Video Games
- Crono from Chrono Trigger.
- Joanna from Perfect Dark.
- Nariko from Heavenly Sword.
- Adell from Disgaea 2.
- Roy and Eliwood of Fire Emblem 6 and 7, respectively, which is a notable exception for the series, given that nearly every other main protagonist in the series traditionally had blue hair.
- To make up for it, Eliwood's best friend Hector from FE7 did have blue hair. And the same goes to his daughter and Roy's potential girlfriend, the mage Lilina.
- Adol Christin from Ys, also called "Adol the Red". They don't mean blood.
- Silly Axel Almer in Super Robot Wars Advance. If he's not silly, he's no hero (either a villain or... a neutral force).
- Joe from Viewtiful Joe.
- Shirou Emiya of Fate Stay Night. His Future Badass is a Dark Skinned White Haired Pretty Boy whom *every* 4channer (guys included) lust after.
- Though he gradually turned into more of a wheat blond, Link was depicted as having either brown or reddish-brown hair in the official artwork for the first three games in The Legend Of Zelda series, and was an outright redhead in the Valiant comic book series. (Interestingly, so was Zelda.)
- Sarah Kerrigan from Star Craft, until she gets infested.
- Tanya in Command And Conquer: Red Alert. In the second game, it's more of a brown-red, and the third game has a blonde actress for her... nice attention to detail, EA.
- Possibly because of this trope, Ritz from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance dyes her hair red (it's white normally), and in the dream-Ivalice, it *is* red. However, she stops dyeing it after the events of the game, accepting her appearance.
- If the player chooses the standard look for a female Shepard in Mass Effect, she turns out to be a redhead.
- No mention of Sieg Wahrheit yet? For shame!
- Agent J from Elite Beat Agents.
Western Animation
Anime and Manga
- The Japanese definitely like using redheads and the color red in general. Take the Mobile Suit Gundam series, for example: Amuro Ray is a redhead, while Char pilots red mecha (that are three times faster).
- Kenshin Himura.
- Ichigo from Bleach, though it's actually orange. Arguably Orihime as well, considering Ichigo himself once stated her hair to be brown at the beginning, while official colour images have her hair pretty much the same colour as his.
- Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime only; in the manga, she has strawberry blond hair).
- Possibly Tres Iqus from Trinity Blood. His hair is actually towards the brown end of the red head spectrum, but most fans consider him to be a redhead and refer to him as such. He's also not the main character, although he is very awesome.
- Subverted with Hanamichi Sakuragi from Slam Dunk, who dyes his hair red.
- Gene Starwind from Outlaw Star.
- Yoko of The Twelve Kingdoms.
- Hikaru Shidou in Magic Knight Rayearth.
- Mai Tokiha from Mai-HiME has orange reddish hair. Her mischievous opposite, Nao Yuuki, has bright crimson hair.
- Half of the time, the hero is a redhead in Ranma 1/2. And everybody wants her, unless they want him.
- The Slayers neatly reverses this by having the protagonist Lina be a spunky redhead and her love interest be the dumb as a post and blonde to boot Gourry.
- While Kinomoto Sakura (Cardcaptor Sakura) is mostly considered a brunette in the anime, she is more of a redhead in the few colour pictures of her in the manga. Same goes for her princess alter ego in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, but she goes under Heroes Want Redheads.
- Momomiya Ichigo of Tokyo Mew Mew twists this: her human form has red hair, but post-Transformation Sequence, when she's actually doing heroic things instead of complaining, her hair is pink.
- Motomiya Daisuke from Digimon Adventure 02.
- Ruki from Digimon Tamers.
- Himeno Awayuki from Pretear, nicknamed "Tulip Head" by Hayate (though he stops calling her this after a while).
- Ahiru from Princess Tutu—which, incidentally, has the same director as Pretear.
- Negi Springfield and his partner Asuna from Mahou Sensei Negima.
- Subverted in Slam Dunk, where Sakuragi's physical trademark is his red hair... which he dyes red to look tougher and cooler.
- Hot Blooded Kallen Kouzuki, Lelouch Lamperouge's Lancer and bodyguard from Code Geass.
Comic Books
- Red Sonja.
- Brenda Starr, from the film and comic book of the same name.
- Jean Grey, of the X-Men.
- Wally West.
- Rorschach, although he's more of an Anti Hero.
- Obelix from Asterix.
- Spirou from Spirou And Fantasio.
- Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil.
- Barbara Gordon a.k.a. Batgirl a.k.a. Oracle
- Kate Kane, the new Batwoman
- Black Widow, Caitlin Fairchild, Dawn, Hawkwoman/Hawkgirl, Hellcat, Julie Power/Lightspeed, Maxima, Madame Medusa, Mystique (in her blue-skinned form), Siryn, the second Spider Woman, Tigra, Mera, Speedy, Looker, et cetera and so on.
- Lightning Lad/Live Wire and Lightning Lass/Spark/Light Lass, twins from The Legion Of Super Heroes.
- Mariah from The Warlord.
- Tintin.
Film
Literature
- Pippi Longstocking.
- Several Robert A Heinlein protagonists, most notably Lazarus Long (ne Woodrow Wilson Smith) (biggest role was in Time Enough for Love, he did appear in later Heinlein works) and his mother Maureen Johnson Smith (most prominent in To Sail Beyond the Sunset, she plays a minor role in several earlier Heinlein novels).
- And many were redheaded twins; The Rolling Stones, Time For The Stars, Laz and Lor from Time Enough For Love. Other adventurous or heroic redheads include Podkayne of Mars, one of his more popular Juvenile characters, "Slipstick" Libby, Hazel Stone, and a long list of others.
- Sir Apropos of Nothing, though he'd be more of a Red-Headed Anti Hero...
- Ben Skywalker (Star Wars Expanded Universe) - yes, I'm aware that three of the five (?) canonical pictures we have of him show him with blond hair, but the books themselves consistently state that he has red hair, or some variant thereof. It's even a (admittedly minor) plot point in Sacrifice, and lampshaded in the same novel.
- Another from the SW galaxy is Ben's mother and Luke's wife, Mara Jade Skywalker (where do you think he got that fire-red hair from?). Red hair seems to be almost a staple in the bloodline, as those who read the Legacy comic series know by now...
- Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson in Discworld... probably. (The text only says the name "Carrot" has nothing to do with his hair colour. But every Discworld illustrator seems to have inferred "even though it might have done" at the end of that sentence, and coloured him accordingly.)
- Actually he was identified as defintely a redhead in 'Jingo' by Angua as one of several reasons he is spectacularly unsuited at going undercover, along with his general size, ears, and expression of muscular good naturedness.
- Speaking of Angua, she is generally described as a strawberry blonde... all over...
- Mort, on the other hand, is definitely a redhead.
- Anne of Green Gables
- Howard Roark from The Fountainhead
- Alanna of Trebond, from the Tamora Pierce universe, combines red hair with purple technicolour eyes. Arguably also a case of Heroes Want Redheads: despite the fact that the text repeatedly points out that she isn't particularly good looking, she does end up with proposals from the Crown Prince and the King of the Rogue.
- Cordelia Vorkosigan is a redhead. In fact, it's one of her character markers; whenever a woman with "roan-red" hair shows up, it's her. Justified, though, since no one else in the books has red hair.
- The entire Weasley family from the Harry Potter books!
Webcomics
Religion and Mythology
- This editor has heard it claimed that the Apostle Peter was a redhead.
- Even if not, Odysseus of The Odyssey was.
- Odysseus? Really? None of the versions of the story I read ever mentioned that.
- In the Middle East and Ancient Greece, respectively? Oh well, I guess if you can have Scylla and the Miracle of Loaves and Fishes...
- Peter? This troper heard Judas was often depicted as a redhead.
- Thor, before Marvel Comics turned him blond. So this is Older Than Dirt.
- This troper guesses that many heroes from Celtic Mythology will count, but is no expert.
Live Action TV
Real Life
- Everybody loved Cyrus the Great. Can you dig it?
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