Expecting Someone Taller: Difference between revisions

So it's been a while since you answered the [[Call to Adventure]], and you've had some successes. ''Spectacular'' successes, even. Everyone has [[Famed in Story|heard of what you've done]] and everyone knows your name. . . but they don't know what you look like, and you don't exactly [[Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance|look the part]]. Maybe you're the [[Kid Hero]], [[Little Miss Badass]], [[Cute Bruiser]], [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]], a [[Lady of War]] with a [[Tomboyish Name]], or maybe you just [[Hollywood Homely|lack the movie-star looks]] everyone associates with a heroic role.

 

 

Alternatively, maybe you're just a [[Dirty Coward]] with an [[Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance]] who happened to be [[Fake Ultimate Hero|in the vicinity of great events]].

See also [[Beauty Equals Goodness]], [[Mistaken Age]], [[Recognition Failure]], [[Badass On Paper]].

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' gets "he's shorter than I thought" when living in Tokyo.

* ''[[Black Cat (Manga)|Black Cat]]'': This happens occasionally to Train Heartnet -- mostly in the manga. Having been the strongest member of [[Nebulous Evil Organization|Chronos]] and a legendary and feared assassin, many people are shocked when they find out how young he is. Of course, an extreme example of this occurs when Train gets transformed into a child after getting hit with the Lucifer bullet. Chronos assassins who want to kill him are rather shocked when he claims to be the Black Cat.

* ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'': This tends to happen to Tsuna. He's supposed to be the 10th Generation Vongola Boss (against his will, of course), but he's only 14, and is very scrawny and rather [[Butt Monkey|pathetic looking]]. A lot of people say variations of this phrase, and find it generally hard to believe. Interestingly enough, this phrase isn't explicitly said by Spanner, but implied when he gets Tsuna some prisoner clothes, and remarks in surprise and exasperation that even size small is too big for him.

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic]]'', this happens to Sōsuke during one of his missions where he had to work with another group of soldiers to kill Gauron. When they first see him, many of them ask why there's a kid here. They find it extremely hard to believe that he's the one assigned to assist them, and find it an insult that Mithril would send a "child" to help.

** In at least the anime version, Milly and Meryl are unable to recognize Vash the Stampede at first because pretty much nothing about him appears anything like the infamously destructive gunslinger they expected. Admittedly, he is tall and his hair is too, but he's far from the tallest person on Gunsmoke (and his hair isn't the biggest, either), and, more importantly, he's a staunchly pacifistic goofball who tends to run around screaming in terror, tripping over his own feet on occasion, flirting with girls and wolfing down doughnuts.

** The only things known about Vash is that he's tall, has blonde hair, and a red coat. Some other details occasionally pop up, but those are as often wrong as right (such as him using a boomerang) from seeing people mistaken for Vash.<br /><br />The first episode of the anime focuses on several bounty hunters who become suspicious of each other as they try to figure out who the real Vash is. Conversely, in the manga, the cities are festooned with wanted ads featuring his ''picture'', so this isn't an issue.

* In manga adaption of ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Manga)|The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask]]'' a band of soliders heard of this great swordsman that has the Ocarina of Time and are hoping to beat him but get the child Link. Their leader does warn them about appearances and accepts Link and is allowed to train with them whereupon, he trumps them all.

* ''[[Vampire Game]]'': The reincarnation of the Vampire Lord Duzell is... a kitten. Ishtar does ''not'' know what to think at first.

* In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia (Manga)|Axis Powers Hetalia]]'', Germany expects Italy to be very sly and powerful as Italy is a descendant of the Roman Empire. Instead, he gets [[Lovable Coward]] hiding in a tomato box, who believes that during wars, the best course of action is to surrender.

* [[Patalliro]] had this effect on Bancoran when they first met, since the photo Bancoran was given to identify the prince had been touched up to make him look more like a [[Bishounen]] and less like the [[Chibi]] he actually is.

{{quote| '''Fubuki:''' Oh, are you disappointed after seeing the real thing? Everyone who hears about those rumors assumes I'm a big guy or something...}}

* Used frequently in [[Ghost Hunt (Manga)|Ghost Hunt]], when people are surprised that Naru is president of SPR at only 17. This is later subverted when they attempt to disguise Naru's identity; Yasuhara (who is really a year or so older) poses as the president, and the client comments, "Yes, I heard you were very young."

* In ''[[King of Bandit Jing]]'' people are often surprised that the titular character is a) the bandit king and b) a rather scrawny looking kid. More so in the anime, for some reason...

* Arthur from [[Garth Nix]]'s ''[[Keys to The Kingdom]]'' books is an asthmatic 12-year-old. By the third book, someone has taken to writing fictionalised versions of his already fairly impressive accomplishments that portray him as seven feet tall and looking akin to a Greek God. People tend to be somewhat disappointed upon meeting him in person.<br /><br />His [[Sidekick]] Suzy Turquoise Blue is similarly transformed from a 16th-century English street urchin with [[The Dung Ages|historically accurate hygiene]] to a Ninja assassin killing machine. Dame Primus, the incarnation of the last will and testament of the universe's creator, becomes a were-bear-frog. Ironically, this makes it ''much less terrifying'' than it is. Arthur subverts this trope as his constant usage of the Keys causes him to get taller.

* ''Expecting Someone Taller'' is the title of a Tom Holt book, where people say that to the protagonist a lot.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]''

** In ''Grave Peril'', when Harry and the [[Church Militant|Knight of the Cross]] Michael meet the dragon Ferrovax at a Red Court ball and Michael reveals that he killed the dragon Siriothrax, all Ferrovax deigns to say is "I thought you would be taller".

* ''[[Discworld]]''

** ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Light Fantastic|The Light Fantastic]]'': When Rincewind meets Cohen the Barbarian for the first time, he doesn't expect Cohen to be a [[Badass Grandpa|senior citizen]].

* ''[[Corum]]'': Michael Moorcock's Corum is a member of a race called the Vadhagh, who are more advanced culturally than humans but, on the scale of the [[Five Races]], fall well within the range of "High Men." He still finds that Vadhagh in general, and Corum personally in particular, are very [[Shrouded in Myth]] and are believed to be as powerful as demigods. King Mannach even tells Corum that "I had expected to meet a being at least nine feet tall!"

** Also inverted when Corum meets the Sidhe known as Goffanon the Dwarf, who he is expecting to be, well, dwarf-sized, but who turns out to be about eight feet tall. Which makes him a dwarf by Sidhe standards (Goffanon's brother Ilbrec is 16ft tall).

* Inverted in ''[[Nightside|Agents of Light and Darkness]]'', where a character asks {{spoiler|Judas Iscariot}} what Jesus was really like. "Taller than you'd think" is the reply.

* ''[[Watership Down]]'': Happens in reverse order, when the Efrafans assume the Watership warren's chief rabbit must be ''enormous'', if the formidable Bigwig follows his orders. They'd actually met Hazel-rah face to face, but took it for granted that he was just a messenger, as he's only average-sized. Justified because most rabbit chieftains attain their position through physical strength, not cunning and charisma as in Hazel's case.

 

== Video Games ==

** In the first game, after finishing Chapter 2, people will start mentioning 20-foot-tall heroes in response to the events of that chapter.

** In the final chapter, one of the assassins sent after you is an ogre called Larze, who has seen a picture of your face but is otherwise unaware of how you look and act. The player character can use his/hers at that point rather embellished reputation to claim that you're not yourself, since you're not eight feet tall with glowing eyes and a voice that booms as the heavens, causing the ogre to leave to get a better look at the picture.

{{quote| '''Jesus''': Okay, everybody, uh, I know you were expecting something else, but as science will tell you, people were a lot shorter 2,000 years ago.}}

* In a ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'' Christmas special, Pooh fears he has made it impossible for the letter he and his friends wrote for Santa Claus to reach him, so he disguises himself as Santa in an attempt to rectify his mistake and get his friends the presents they wished for. Unlike Santa, Pooh isn't very stealthy, Tigger, Rabbit and Eeyore each notice him coming into their houses and each comment on how they thought Santa would be taller. Of course, this is Justified as Pooh is obviously not the real Santa and, being a teddy bear, can't be more than a foot or so tall.

{{quote| '''Mike''': [[Oh Crap|You're... Daemon, aren't you?]]<br />

'''Daemon''': (gently) Yes. Did you expect something else?<br />

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:Expecting Someone Taller]]