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Redheaded Hero

Revision as of 18:12, 30 January 2020 by GlitteringFlowers (Message Wall | contribs)
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Some Heroes Want Redheads. Some heroes are redheads.

Why Red? Consider how, of all hair colors, red is the least common. It’s not surprising that it’s used when writers want someone to stand out, at least in shows that don't give random extras unusual shades of hair.

While heroes tend to have bright-colored hair (almost reddish-blond), villains have darker-colored, almost brownish hair. Red is second only to blonde hair for a hero (see Law of Chromatic Superiority).

See Also: Evil Redhead, Fiery Redhead, Redheaded Stepchild

No Real Life Examples, Please

Examples of Redheaded Hero include:


Anime & Manga

Comic Books


Fan Fics


Film

  • Mary Katherine AKA MK from Epic


French Belgian Comic Books

  • Obelix from Asterix
  • Boule et Bill
  • Jeannette Pointu
  • Lanfeust
  • Mélusine
  • Soda
  • Spirou from Spirou and Fantasio.
  • Tintin was sometimes depicted with red hair. The animated series decided on an orange color, as did the 2011 CGI film (Haddock even refers to him as “ginger” at one point).


Legend And Mythology

  • Gilgamesh himself
  • In many retellings, Arthurian legend's Sir Gawain and occasionally, King Arthur himself.
  • Odysseus from The Iliad and The Odyssey had hair described as "crisping red-golden".
    • Menelaus had "red-haired king" among his epithets. Which is odd, because his name, Menelaus Xanthus, means "Menelaus the Blond". Apparently, scholars never met any blond Greeks (they do exist). But something strange was going on originally because "Xanthus" also referred to slaves (foreigners, mostly). There's something metatextual going on there.
  • The storm god Thor, before Marvel Comics made him blond.
  • In some versions of the Trojan War Achilles has red hair to denote his temper and badassery, matching his common epithet as "blazing Achilles".
    • Agamemnon may have had red hair too.
    • Neoptolemus was definitely a redhead. He was also known as Pyrrhos, which is Greek for "fiery red".
    • Achilles himself, when he hid out in king Lycomedes' palace disguised as a girl (and, in the process, fathered Pyrrhos with Lycomedes' daughter Deidameia), called himself Pyrrha. Some think that Neoptolemos' alternative name may have been derived from his father's alias (he only got his name Neoptolemos, "young warrior," when he joined the Greek army before Troy).


Literature

  • The eponymous character of The Adventures of Blue Avenger is, ironically, a redhead.
  • Anne of Green Gables
  • Cord from Douglas Hill's ColSec Trilogy
  • Most protagonists in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover universe, as redheads are special there.
  • Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson and Mort from Discworld
  • Brother Felix and Mildmay from the Doctrine of Labyrinths series. It’s a major plot point as, in the city they grew up in, no one else is.
  • Farmer Giles of Ham by J. R. R. Tolkien. The story subverts medieval hero tales; as the king and his knights are worse than useless, and the only person who can effectively deal with the dragon is a fat, red haired farmer who doesn't like trespassers, especially destructive ones.
  • Howard Roark from The Fountainhead
  • Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter
  • Tarl Cabot from the Gor series. While he has a Heroic BSOD and becomes Bosk, his hair becomes sandy. It turns red again when he goes back to being Tarl.
  • Several protagonists from Robert A. Heinlein's works
  • JK Rowling loves redheads and included several of them in the Harry Potter books:
    • The Weasley family
    • Dumbledore, before his turned white
    • Harry's mom Lily Evans
  • Bill Denbrough and Beverly Marsh, two of the original seven Losers from Stephen King's IT.
  • Jane from Jane and the Dragon
  • In Robert Graves' King Jesus, Jesus has this as one of the eight "signs of royalty".
  • In E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, red hair is the genetic mark of ancestry from Atlantis. Many humans in the Lensman breeding program are redheads, including Clarissa MacDougal.
  • Maria from The Little White Horse
  • Lord John Roxton from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. His many adventures in South America (like killing slavers) earned him the nickname "Red Chief" amongst the natives.
  • Madeline
  • Kvothe from The Name of the Wind. It’s good for attracting both women and unwanted attention.
  • Nancy Drew, in the later mysteries
  • Pippi Longstocking
  • Princess Eilonwy of the Prydain Chronicles
  • Pumuckl, the kobold protagonist of a German children's book series.
  • Sir Apropos of Nothing, a red haired Anti-Hero
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Robb Stark stands out as firmly heroic
    • His little sister Sansa
    • His mother Catelyn
  • John Tardy, from Gordon R. Dickson’s Spatial Delivery.
  • From the Star Wars Expanded Universe:
    • Mara Jade Skywalker (Luke's wife and reason there's redheads in the bloodline)
    • Ben Skywalker (Mara Jade’s son; this is Lampshaded at one point)
    • Kol Skywalker (Mara Jade’s great-grandson)
    • Tenel Ka (Jacen's wife and current ruler of Hapes)
    • Allana (Jacen and Tenel's daughter)
  • From the works of ‘’Tamora Pierce’’:
    • Alanna of Trebond. The text repeatedly points out that she isn't particularly good looking, yet she ends up with proposals from the Crown Prince and the King of the Rogue
    • Tris from the Circle of Magic series
  • Amy Cahill fromThe 39 Clues’s
  • Karen in The Three Worlds Cycle. She was instrumental to the main changes in Santhenar over the series.
  • Margo Smith from Time Scout
  • Cordelia from the Vorkosigan Saga. It's one of her character marks; whenever a woman with "roan-red" hair shows up, it's her, or reminds Miles of her. He comes to realize that one of the reasons Sgt. Beatrice's death affected him so much was that, as a tall redhead, she reminded him of his mother.
  • The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan:
    • Rand Al'Thor has reddish-blonde hair. This is because he's half Aiel.
    • Elaine has red-gold hair.
    • Aviendha as the regular redhead.
  • Twins Isabeau and Iseult from Kate Forsyth's The Witches of Eileanan series
  • Dairine Callahan from Young Wizards
  • Curtis "Captain Future" Newton from Captain Future. The anime based on the series kept it.


Live-Action TV


Music


Video Games

Visual Novels


Webcomics


Web Original

  • Ryana Taylor from Last Secret and other Kostemetsiverse arcs. She subverts other redhead tropes, being an intelligence operative with no public personality and no romantic involvements.
  • Obscurus Lupa
  • Fey, Team Kimba’s uber-mage from The Whateley Universe


Western Animation


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