One Head Taller



Most men are taller than most women in Real Life; in fiction, it's practically codified that every such couple will have the man One Head Taller than the woman. (And if this is reversed, expect seeing Marshmallow Hells and Funbag Airbags). As transplanting traditional gender roles into same-sex couples is popular in fiction, the character who could be considered "dominant" (often more serious or reserved) in the relationship is often similarly taller than their significant other. Either way, being One Head Taller naturally allows you to tuck someone under your chin when surprising them with a hug. This rarely works the other way around, although the 'cutesy' partner being taller is usually a deliberate humorous device for the audience to notice. In that case, the grouchier counterpart is hugged the way one would a puppy. Usually, if the shorter partner is doing the hugging from behind, the arms will come around at about elbow-height, and the hugger will either rest their cheek against the huggee's back, or tuck their chin around an arm.

With some skill, this trope can give the illusion of characters being much older (or younger) than they actually are.

A noticeable exception are (arguably "dominant") Tsunderes, who are short. On the other hand, the act of cuddling is designed to show off their cute side.

This is an extremely pervasive trope in BL work, to the point where shippers drawing Doujinshi will occasionally modify the heights of characters to make the taller Seme/shorter Uke stereotype work. An Onee Sama is also very likely to be taller than her relevant object of attention. Bara however, usually has the Seme "shorter and cute" while Uke "tall and handsome" instead.

Taking this to extremes gives you Huge Guy Tiny Girl and Tiny Guy Huge Girl.

Anime & Manga

 * Ryuuji and Taiga from Toradora.
 * Sachiko in Maria-sama ga Miteru is quite a bit taller than Yumi, leading to the impression that their age difference is actually larger than it is.
 * Gravitation goes in the reverse, and simply makes Shuicihi much shorter than everyone. Granted, he's also the "bottom" of the relationship.
 * All of the canon love interests of Usagi--bubbly, cheerful, and easy-to-anger--in Sailor Moon are at least a head taller than her. The one who she ends up with is over a foot taller than her, and they play out the hugging tropes several times.
 * The Yaoi version of this is played quite straight with Seishirou and Subaru of CLAMP's Tokyo Babylon and X 1999. Dom's Dom Seishirou is MUCH taller than submissive Subaru in Tokyo Babylon, when the former is at full (and considerable) adult height and the latter is only 16 and very slightly built. In X, 9 years have narrowed the difference, but adult Subaru is still almost a head shorter than Seishirou.
 * The Boys Love manga Love Mode has multiple same-sex couples where the Uke barely reaches the shoulder of the Seme.
 * Light Yagami from Death Note is quite a bit taller than Misa and Takada -- both of which he manipulates so thoroughly he might as well have a remote for them.
 * Éclair from Kiddy Grade is the taller one out of her team and is quick to act, but Lumière always manages to keep a cool head.
 * Although Negi Springfield from Mahou Sensei Negima is usually shorter than 90% of his class (being 9½-year-old boy teaching 15-year-old girls), when he magically turns 15 while he and Asuna go on Not a Date (as she constantly reminds him and probably also herself ) in chapter 77, he is very much one head taller. On the other hand, when Negi is in his normal 10-year-old form he is two heads shorter than when in teen form which means Asuna is one head taller than him.
 * Every two of the three girls in Haruhi Suzumiya is one head smaller than Kyon (Haruhi only being half a head shorter).
 * In Fate Stay Night, Shirou is at least a head taller than Saber, who's the shortest Servant by far.
 * The height difference between Rin and Archer tends to vary in illustrations. Some of them only put him at One Head Taller, while others border on Huge Guy Tiny Girl. Officially, he's just about 11 inches (28 cm) taller than her.
 * Caster and make an excellent example.
 * Inverted in Casshern Sins. Leda is much taller than her lover Dio (and Casshern himself, and pretty much everyone in the series who isn't one of the Mecha Mooks).
 * Inverted in Kanokon. Chizuru is one head taller than Kouta. She loved to give Funbag Airbag and Marshmallow Hell to him.
 * It seems that every Male character in Vampire Knight is about a Head taller than the protagonist Yuuki.
 * Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle's bringers of Ho Yay, Kurogane and Fai, are differentiated in height like this. Both are quite tall, but Kurogane is a full head taller than Fai.
 * Kurogane towers everyone. He's humongous and taller than most other characters, even when bending down or slouching.
 * It's difficult to get solid numbers out of CLAMP, but one height chart finally released puts Kurogane at about six foot six. And he's supposed to be Japanese.
 * Umi and Ascott in Magic Knight Rayearth. There are other such couples with a large height disparity, but they fall more under Huge Guy Tiny Girl.
 * Asada seems to be about one head taller than most of the female cast in Team Medical Dragon.
 * In Axis Powers Hetalia, the 2 cm height difference between America and England tends to be exaggerated by both fanartists and the author himself. In fact, England is usually drawn much shorter than he actually is -- according to the height info, he's the same height as France. (This is possibly because he is a Tsundere who's very reminiscent of The Napoleon.) This is sometimes justified by how much larger geographically the US is compared to the UK.
 * Spain and Romano also fit this, as do Greece and Japan. Like America and England, they aren't Official Couples (interestingly, the most official ones have even * more* pronounced height differences), but there's definitely Ho Yay there.
 * This trope is also evident with Germany and Italy, and is lampshaded.
 * Bean Bandit and Rally Vincent from Gunsmith Cats (platonic example). That it doesn't go into Huge Guy Tiny Girl territory is testament to the fact that Rally is pretty tall herself.
 * Kaze to Ki no Uta plays this rather interestingly. At the start of the manga Serge and Gilbert are about the same height and size. However, a conveniently timed growth spurt ensures that by the time they actually get together Serge is noticably taller and larger built.
 * Allen from D Gray Man is only slightly taller than his probable love interest Lenalee (him being 169 cm, and her being 166 cm). But in line with this trope he is the youngest and shortest of the main male cast (with the next closest in height being Kanda at 177 cm), much to the delight of Yaoi shippers.
 * Almost everyone is One Head Taller than Tsuna in Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It so happens that Tsuna is a LOATS in a series in which over 75% of the characters are male, and 95% of those male characters are Estrogen Brigade Bishounen.
 * After Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Erio got smacked with a huge growth spurt that allowed him to achieve this trope with Caro as of ViVid. See.
 * Even more so in Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha Force.
 * Tail of the Moon and anything else by Rinko Ueda feature female leads who are just tall enough to sniff their lovers' armpits. This author routinely changes her character's height by several inches -- or even feet -- in order to facilitate a romantic pose.
 * This is in no small part the reason that Hiyori of Lucky Star ships Minami/Yutaka. Minami is 25 cm taller than Yutaka.
 * Inverted and then played straight in the various incarnations of Fullmetal Alchemist. In the first series, Ed is notably about a half-head shorter than Winry and Rose (see Betty and Veronica). In the second series, Winry seems only a tad bit taller than Ed, but this may be because she wears boots with slight heels for most of the first portion of the series. In the manga, it seems like they're basically the same height, until chapter 84 that is. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he is getting taller... sorta. Ed finally manages the trope in the epilogue, when he.
 * Inverted in the fujoshi fandom of Eyeshield 21 where one of the most popular pairings is Seijurou Shin and Haruto Sakuraba, which Sakuraba is very noticeably taller than Shin. However it's played straight with BL pairings with Sena Kobayakawa, who is pretty short compared to most football players in the series.
 * Haruhi of Ouran High School Host Club is considerably shorter than most of the cast (excluding Honey). Standing at a mere 5'1" (155 cm), her potential love interest Tamaki stands about a whole foot taller than her at 6' (183 cm; he's also the second tallest of the Hosts, Mori only a little taller at 6'4", or 192 cm). Even the twins Hikaru and Kaoru who are quite a bit shorter than Tamaki, Kyouya, and Mori are still about One Head Taller than Haruhi (and both stand at 178cm, or about 5'10").
 * For the record, Haruhi is only a few inches taller than Honey, who stands at 148 cm, or about 4'9".
 * Applies to Sora and Sunao, Yoru and Ran, and Shinichirou and Nanami in Sukisho.
 * Aoshi and Misao from Rurouni Kenshin practically define this trope. I mean, Misao barely reaches Aoshi's chest...
 * One Piece has no shipping * cough*, but Franky is one head taller than Robin (herself towering at 6'5") and Boa Hancock pursues Luffy despite being two heads taller than him and his complete obliviousness.
 * Robin is also one head taller than Nami, and Luffy and Usopp, when wearing high heels.
 * Ran from Strawberry Shake Sweet is quite a bit taller than the girl who chases after her, Julia.
 * In Digimon Adventure 02, while Arukenimon is quite tall in her human form, her (non-romantic, though he sure would like to be) partner Mummymon significantly towers over her. The height different shrinks somewhat when they're in Digimon form, although Mummymon still has at least a head over her.
 * Durarara has an interesting variation of this: Shinra has just about one head over Celty -- not because Celty is particularly short or Shinra is particularly tall, but because Celty is literally missing a head.
 * In addition Kida and Mikado are both a head taller then Anri, as can be seen here, incidentally, Shizuo appears to be one head taller then Izaya.
 * Touya & Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura.
 * Shizuma and Nagisa, from Strawberry Panic.
 * Maya and Reina from Maya's Funeral Procession.
 * from Tenshi Na Konamaiki. Really evident during their kiss in the last chapter, where she had to stand on a large piece of brick.
 * Ichigo from Bleach is a good head taller than Orihime, and Rukia doesn't even reach his shoulders.
 * The height difference reaches epic levels between Rukia and Renji: Rukia is considered short even among the female characters, while Renji is among the tallest men around.
 * Inverted with Rangiku Matsumoto and Toshiro Hitsugaya: he's a lot younger than she is, so he's shorter.
 * In the main cast of Soul Eater, Liz, Patty, and Tsubaki are taller than their respective meisters (though this is possibly because they are older than them), with Maka being about the same height as Soul. Though, this is averted later in the manga when it is shown that Soul and Black*Star have gone through a growth spurt, and possibly Kid too.
 * Soul now appears to be a couple inches taller than Maka, but Black*Star isn't even Tsubaki's height yet.
 * Usui and Misaki from Kaichou wa Maid Sama
 * The relative height of Simon and Kamina in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann helps to fuel Ho Yay speculation from fans. Most dramatically demonstrated in the first episode when Kamina hugs Simon and tenderly cradles Simon's head against his chest.
 * It never gets mentioned, but Lawrence and Holo from Spice and Wolf fit this trope perfectly. This is partially because, as the source material consistently states, Holo has the body of a biological fifteen year old.
 * Mizuki from Ai Ore Love Me is considerably taller than her boyfriend, Akira.
 * Yui, a boy, is considerably shorter than Kei, a girl, in Houou Gakuen Misoragumi.
 * Hanaukyo Maid Tai: Inverted: Mariel is this much taller than Taro, despite being the girl.
 * In Loveless, Yuiko rejects Yayoi's advances because she doesn't date short boys, which doesn't seem to stop her from having feelings for Ritsuka (who is even shorter than Yayoi)
 * Though it is implied that the height thing was a spur of the moment excuse and Yuiko just wasn't ready for a relationship, since she does freak out somewhat, which makes perfect sense given that she's twelve years old.
 * In Iketeru Futari Saji is about normal height for a boy his age, but he towers over his petite love interest, Akira Koizumi. Nicely demonstrated here.
 * In Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica, Pharon is one head taller than Corti..
 * In Himitsu Kichi, Kana and her boyfriend. The funny part (or disturbing part for some) is that she is 18 while her boyfriend is a 6th grader. She's so short her boyfriend thought she was in elementary school too.

Comics -- Books

 * The Joker and Harley Quinn -- he's tall and lanky, while she's a petite (although not tiny) former gymnast. She barely reaches his shoulder, but that doesn't seem to be a problem because she's happy to climb all over him for a kiss should the opportunity arise.
 * Inverted with Nightwing. Both his two main pairings, Starfire and Barbara Gordon, are taller than him (Starfire almost by more than one head). Especially his DCNU version.
 * Also with Mister Miracle and Big Barda, a married couple. He's average height. Superman has to hover a bit to look her in the eye.
 * And usually Wonder Woman and most of her love interests. DC apparently likes inverting this trope.
 * Lenore and Ragamuffin (in his vampire form), from Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl.
 * The Wookiee Groznik and his life partner Elscol Loro. When Elscol's husband saved Groznik from Stormtroopers, the Wookiee pledged a life debt to him. When he was killed in combat, after getting revenge by taking down the Imperial shuttle responsible with a rock, Groznik switched the debt to Elscol, and almost never left her side.

Literature

 * The Dresden Files: Harry Dresden, at somewhere around 6'9", fits with most of his actual or potential love interests, although Murphy at "5 feet and small change" is particularly notable.
 * Septimus and Octavia, slave crewmembers and eventual lovers aboard The Covenant of Blood
 * An Earthly Knight by Janet Mc Naughton explicitly mentions that Jeanette is a head shorter than Tam Lin.
 * Mentally invoked by Menelaus in Count to a Trillion after Princess Rania's growth spurt: "He hated the fact that the top of her head no longer fit nicely under his chin when they hugged...It seemed obscurely unnatural, as if someone had made a mistake when putting the universe together."
 * In Dragonseye, Zulaya is described as being taller than average for a woman, and has told her current mate, K'vin, she likes that he's a head taller (her previous mate was her own height).

Films -- Animation

 * Jack and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack is taller then Sally, though Sally's pretty tall too. Jack is just really, really tall.
 * Tangled Flynn Rider is one head taller than Rapunzel.
 * In The Incredibles, Bob Parr is just over one head taller than his wife. But in one brief fight between them, Helen grew taller than Bob without realizing it.

Films -- Live-Action

 * Inverted and lampshaded in The Alibi, where the hero, after kissing his love interest at the end, notes "Actually, I've just realized; you're quite a bit taller than me, aren't you?"
 * In Back to The Future, the part of Jennifer was recast one of several times because the actress was taller than Michael J Fox. Interestingly, it was the female crew which insisted Marty should be taller than his girlfriend.
 * Although in the Harry Potter books, Harry was supposed to be about a head taller than Ginny, Daniel Radcliffe manages to be just about the same height as if not a bit shorter than Bonnie Wright, as of Half Blood Prince. Unfortunate they had no sure way of knowing it'd turn out like that when they were both first cast a decade earlier.
 * Obliquely referenced in Oceans Eleven, when Saul objects to Tess's relationship with Terry Benedict on the grounds that "she's too tall for him".
 * Star Wars: Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala aren't that far apart -- Hayden Christiansen is 6'1" (185 cm), Natalie Portman 5'3" (160 cm). However, had Padme survived episode III, she might not have believed Darth Vader was her husband -- because his transformation to a cyborg was accompanied by a jump in height of about six inches, as the original Vader, David Prowse, was 6'7" (200 cm). For an idea of what a reunion would have been like, consider Princess Leia's (who took very well after her mother) and Vader's scenes together. The in-universe reason is that Anakin's new legs were bigger than his real ones, increasing his height (probably to make his look more menacing to his enemies).
 * For that matter, Leia and Han, given that Harrison Ford is about 6'1" (185 cm) and Carrie Fisher is about 5'1" (155 cm).
 * She has to look up for him to kiss her forehead!
 * Another more recent example with Natalie Portman is Thor. Chris Hemsworth is a exactly foot taller than her.
 * In ''Porkys, during a Prom sequence, Meat (who appears to be about 6'6) is dancing with a tall woman while his short buddy is dancing with a short woman. Another friend interrupts the two couples and forces them to trade partners: "There, that satisfies my sense of proportion."
 * Juno with Michael Cera ten inches taller than Ellen Page who's only five feet tall.
 * During the filming of The Year of Living Dangerously, the director used nearly every trick in the book to not only hide the fact that female lead Sigourney Weaver was three inches taller than male lead Mel Gibson, but make it look as if he was, in fact, One Head Taller than she was.
 * The DVD extras for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World had some fun with this, with overdubbed lines indicating that Jason Schwartzman's (5'5") character was actually turned on by being shorter than Mary Elizabeth Winstead (5'9" plus shoes)
 * Whenever Rocky Balboa and Adrian are standing next to each other, the height difference is pretty noticeable. The top of her head comes up just over his chin, which makes her really short, as Sylvester Stallone is only 5'8".

Live-Action TV

 * Supernatural had Sam and Ruby. He's 6'4" and she's 5'4".
 * On the original Get Smart, Barbara Feldon was actually taller than Don Adams, which could have highlighted the comic nature of the couple, but the producers insisted their heights be "fixed". Most scenes of Max and 99 talking to each other were staged with Don standing on boxes while Barbara slouched. Their heights sometimes visibly change when they cut to a walking scene.
 * At one point she mentioned that she was the only actress in Hollywood with calluses on her ankles, as she would roll her ankles, throw out her hip, and bow her head to look as short as possible.
 * The X-Files. Agent Mulder noticeably towers over Agent Scully.
 * This was the reason the Scully Box was invented, as David Duchovny is 6' tall, whereas Gillian Anderson is 5'3", meaning they couldn't be shot in a closeup frame unless she was standing on a box. Often if they were shot walking down the street, she was on the sidewalk while he was walking on the street itself, closing their height gap by a few inches.
 * Their height difference is especially noticeable in scenes like on in "Ghost in the Machine," in which a suspect asks the agents to remove their shoes and there are a few shots without the aid of anything to make up for it. Gillian Anderson looks positively tiny; she barely comes up to David Duchovny's shoulder.
 * Wizards of Waverly Place. This applies to Justin and Alex Russo in the first and the second seasons. Later, Selena Gomez gets taller and she occasionally wears high heels, but David Henrie is still a whole lot taller than her, standing at 6' (180 cm).
 * Kang Hyuk from Flower Boy Ramyun Shop is over a head taller than Eun Bi, but he's nearly a head taller than everybody because he's an absolute giant.
 * I Carly inverted the general gender idea of the trope, then played it straight, with the same characters. Of course, this was because of the wonders of puberty. Freddie was very short in the first season, as he was barely 13 years old and might not have even hit puberty when they started filming. They ended up using Scully Box and/or giant platform shoes. Carly was the tallest in the early episodes, so any scenes where Freddie and Carly hugged or stood next to each other had Carly towering over Freddie. By Season Two Freddie had hit puberty, and by season three he towered over the girls. Cue the Dance of Romance, with Carly snuggled into Freddie's chest and neck.
 * Taken to the extreme, unintentionally, on The Big Bang Theory -- Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) towers over the entire main cast.
 * John Krasinski is 6 foot 3, so Jim from The Office is quite a bit taller than Pam. Dwight used to tower over Angela as well, although that had more to do with her being so small she had to buy children's size clothes.
 * Marshall and Lily on How I Met Your Mother fit this rather well.
 * Best part? Marshall is the runt of the family! His mom says something about him and his brothers being not much smaller than Thanksgiving turkeys when born!!
 * Any pairing with Jason Segel sort of falls into this, as he's 6'4" (193 cm). It was particularly obvious in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, since Kristen Bell is 5'1" (154 cm) and Mila Kunis is 5'3" (160 cm).
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy and Angel. Actress Sarah Michelle Geller is only 5'2" (157cm), actor David Boreanaz is 6'1" (185cm). They often put Buffy in ridiculous heels or made her stand on crates to get them in the same shot together.
 * As Buffy is supposed to be a sixteen year old who falls in love with the older Angel, it comes in handy.
 * The height difference between Buffy and Riley was at least as big if not bigger.
 * Kelso and Jackie in That 70s Show.
 * Dollhouse, Echo and Paul.
 * Finn and Rachel from Glee fall right into it.
 * Kurt and Blaine, on the other hand, do not. Camera angles make Blaine seem taller to play up on his mentor role, but Darren Criss is actually several inches shorter than Chris Colfer. Of course, this is assuming they ever become an actual couple... They Do.
 * At some point, Sookie and Eric from True Blood can fit in this trope.
 * As do Hoyt who is 6"5" and Jessica,who is very tall at 5"10". Far more noticeable when Hoyt dates Summer who,at 5"0",is nearly a foot and a half shorter.
 * In The Mentalist, Robin Tunney (Lisbon) is pretty much a head shorter than everyone. This makes her unquestioned (well, except by Jane) authority over them all even more impressive.
 * In Lost in Austen The actress playing Amanda is exactly one foot shorter than the actor playing Darcy.
 * Penn and Teller, in a rare, non-ship, two-man example.
 * Another two-man example: Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson (6'5") and Richard Hammond (5'7"). Often becomes an issue whenever Jeremy has to adjust the seats of a car that Richard had previously driven.
 * Community has 6"4" Jeff and the 5"3" Annie. Britta's in the same boat but is always wearing tall-heeled boots of some sort so it's less noticeable.
 * The West Wing: Lampshaded in a scene where C.J. Cregg and Annabeth Schott are doing one of the show's "walk-and-talks" together. Cregg (played by 6'0" Allison Janney) asks Schott (played by 4'11" Kristin Chenoweth) how tall she is and then comments it's hard to believe they're the same species.
 * Deconstructed on Lizzie Mcguire when a girl turns Gordo down for a school dance because he's short and "I don't want to go out with a short guy." Gordo takes it very hard.
 * Inspector Lynley is almost exactly one head taller than his partner Sergeant Havers. They're not romantically involved. Really.
 * Stargate SG 1: Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter.
 * Gender-inverted with Jack and Rachel on Boy Meets World. She is quite a bit taller than him, something he was insecure about when they first got together.
 * Babylon 5: John Sheridan and Delenn. Mira Furlan is actually 5'6", but looks quite petite next to 6'2" Bruce Boxleitner.
 * Inverted in Phil of the Future, in which Phil is actually a few inches shorter than Keely. This is never acknowledged in universe.
 * Same-sex example from Sherlock: the height difference between Tall Dark and Snarky Sherlock Holmes and Badass Adorable John Watson is [[media:one_head_taller_crop_6549.jpg|rather dramatic in some shots]].
 * Matty and Jenna on MTV's Awkward

Theater
"Jaques: What stature is she of?
 * Arguably, Orlando and Rosalind in As You Like It:

Orlando: Just as high as my heart."

Video Games

 * Team Fortress 2: The Spy and the Scout's mom.
 * Heavy and Medic straddle the line between this and Huge Guy Tiny Girl ...er...guy.
 * In To Heart, Lemmy Miyauchi is the only female in the cast that is taller than Hiroyuki.
 * Grune of Tales of Legendia is one of the tallest characters in the cast at 5'11", and loves to subject the other characters to Marshmallow Hell (at least while she's affected by her Laser Guided Amnesia; she's not quite so huggy when she has her memories).
 * Cierra from Riviera the Promised Land, who sometimes acts as an affectionate Onee Sama, appears to be slightly taller than the game's hero and thus half a head to a full head taller than the other female characters. The fan artists have noticed. Les Yay has ensued.
 * Played straight in all Resident Evil titles, but most noticeable in Part 2, where Leon is a head taller than Claire, and male zombies are a head taller than him.
 * Played with infuriatingly with Yggdra Union's Gulcasa and Nessiah, the darlings of the Yaoi Fangirls. A few height charts have been released by Sting, and while Gulcasa's height is shown to be between 180-185 cm, Nessiah's height has varied every time -- one official account set him at 170 cm (half a head shorter), another at roughly 160 cm (one head shorter, and the same height as Yggdra, the main character), and yet another at 155 cm (quite short indeed for a male character, and just barely reaching Gulcasa's shoulders).
 * Perhaps due to the works of a certain troper, the third account of Nessiah's height seems to be accepted as Fanon. She usually gives him a bit of a height complex to go along with it, and coincidentally or not, he displays a few Tsundere qualities when another character brings it up.
 * Rival Schools' known pairings fall into this category for the most part. This includes Batsu and Hinata; Roy and Tiffany; and Hideo and Kyoko.
 * In Atelier Rorona and Atelier Totori, this applies for Sterk/Rorona Shipping.
 * In The Movies, any actor or actress can play any role. In a romantic scene featuring a man putting the moves on a woman, the man will be noticeably taller. However, switching the roles so that a woman is seducing a man, or making it a same sex couple, will preserve the original height difference so that the seducer is always taller than the seducee.
 * Manticore and Sister Psyche from City of Heroes. His headdress-helmet thingy adds to the effect.
 * This trope is inverted with Calvin Scott and Aurora Borealis. He's a normal 6-foot-tall citizen, while she is a power psychic who stands nearly six inches taller than him. Their Praetorian counterparts would be this trope, had Praetor Tilman, aka Mother Mayhem, not stolen Aurora's body.
 * Averted with same-race couples in Dragon Age: Origins, where gender differences barely affect height. Mixed-race couples are subject to this trope, however, due to how much shorter elves and dwarves are than humans.
 * Inverted in a case of some human/elf couples; a female elf can quite clearly take the lead with both Alistair and Leliana, despite being at least a head shorter.
 * In Final Fantasy VII (Dirge of Cerberus in particular), Vincent is notably very tall, at about 6'. Yuffie clocks in at about 5'2, and the height difference is very obvious in their scenes together. It's enough to make one wonder just how much trouble she had hauling him to safety after Rosso knocked him out...
 * Final Fantasy VIII's Irvine and Selfie.
 * Final Fantasy XIII's Snow and Serah.
 * Also Fang and Vanille.
 * Final Fantasy IX inverts it with Beatrix and Rusty... Steiner. She's definitely taller.
 * Left 4 Dead: Francis is half a head taller and Zoey is half a head shorter than Bill and Louis (and most of infected), who are of average height.
 * In Katawa Shoujo, Hisao and the shortest girl, Emi, are this. At one point while hugging her during her arc he mentions that he has to resist the urge to rest his head on top of hers.

Web Comics
"Tom: He better carry a footstool around."
 * Gunnerkrigg Court has Zimmy and Gamma, a fine example of the Tsundere being shorter. Gamma still seems like the dominant one however, just a little more subtle about it than most.
 * Gender flipped with Parley and Smitty. Tom lampshades it in this page.


 * Mik of Boy Meets Boy is both taller and more built than his slighter, younger lover Harley. Especially noticeable when Harley gets down on one knee to propose to Mik.
 * Played with in Khaos Komix in the case of Mark and Steve. Mark, assumes this position (no snickering!) as he is shorter, but in the end they decide to take turns.
 * Played straight with Steve and Charlie in this piece of side art.
 * Played straight and subverted in El Goonish Shive: Shapeshifter Grace's default form is actually slightly taller than Tedd, and no-one (least of all Tedd) has suggested that she adjust it. Played straight with Elliot and Sarah, and when Nanase, Susan and Justin's genders were reversed.
 * Mr. Mighty and his wife Jane in Everyday Heroes.
 * A partial subversion involves Summer and Carrie; Carrie is the much more outgoing of the girls, and would normally be about half a head shorter than Summer ... except for her enormous head of hair, which brings her up to about the same height. Uma is taller than both, but tries not to be noticed (because she's an alien hiding on Earth).
 * Dong-whi over Yun-lee in Nineteen Twenty One.

Western Animation

 * Three romantic examples in Jimmy Two-Shoes include Jimmy being taller than Heloise although it's one-sided from the latter since Jimmy's not aware, and Beezy who is taller than Saffi. Also Jez being two heads taller than Lucius
 * On Danny Phantom, Danny is a bit taller than Sam, and Jack towers over his petite wife Maddie. Skulker is also bigger than Ember, though their relationship happens off screen.
 * Technically Skulker's robotic body is taller. His real form is much smaller than Ember.
 * On Chowder, Mung Daal is noticably taller than Truffles.
 * One episode of Totally Spies has the Villain of the Week attempting to bust her husband out of jail, who was half her height. When this trope was pointed out to her, she responded "Love knows no boundaries."
 * In Total Drama Island we have Izzy and Owen, Bridgette and Geoff, and Beth and her outside-the-game boyfriend Brady. Ex-couple Courtney and Duncan averted the trope by being the exact same height, and one-way relationship Sierra and Cody invert it, resulting in Marshmallow Hell as well.
 * On Adventure Time, the two girls Finn's most likely to end up with are both One Head Taller than him.

Real Life

 * Jared Padalecki and Genevieve Cortese- he's 6'4" and she's 5'4".
 * Natalie Wood (5') and Robert Wagner (5'11").
 * Another inversion: Dudley Moore (5'3") and Susan Anton (5'11").
 * Mick Fleetwood (6'6") and Sam Fox (5'1") presenting the BRIT Awards in 1989.
 * In figure skating and ballroom dancing, it's usually recommended that the man have some height on the woman.
 * This doesn't mean Man's height > Woman's height. This means Man's height > Woman's height + 3ins heels.
 * 2"-3" heels (though in Latin dancing, the man is usually wearing 1"-1.5" heels himself) in ballroom, but in skating both are standing on blades about the same height. Also in pairs skating in particular, what the Russians termed "gorilla and flea" pairs (this trope in extremis) grow out of one partner, almost always the man, needing to lift the other partner, almost always the woman, straight over his head. This is easier with a wide size disparity-many partnerships formed when the pair were tweens or teens end when the girl has a growth spurt and the boy fails to grow enough to match.
 * Sacha Baron Cohen (6'3") and Isla Fisher (5'3").
 * Truth in Television: Really short women tend to have a thing for really tall men.
 * Inverted by Prince Charles and Princess Diana: they were within half an inch of the same height, and in high heels she was noticeably taller than he (but the inversion was itself inverted on the wedding-commemorative postage stamp, which showed her just about eye-level with his chin).