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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Mobile Suit
** It is in fact lampshaded upon in [[Super Robot Wars Z]], after being taken out of his berserker streak by Stellar Louissier if they saved her earlier. When back at base, Shinn's girlfriend Lunamaria Hawke is concerned that Stellar is going to be a contender for Shinn's heart, but Shinn tells her that he sees Stellar as a platonic brother-sister relationship. Making up for your mistake theres huh Shinn?
*** Hey, it kills two birds with one stone, enabling Shinn to save Stella and keep his [[Official Couple|relationship with Luna]].
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* Female version: Himiko Kudo from ''[[GetBackers]]''. Backstory is that Ban killed her brother, Yamato, while they were all theives together.
* Kanae from ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' is a dead little sister, but a non-example, as while Kouta remembers her fondly, he's gotten (sorta) over her death. Lucy's [[Kill All Humans]] mentality, however, began because of the loss of {{spoiler|her puppy}} at the hands of some [[Kids Are Cruel|very cruel kids]]. Her [[Start of Darkness]] was a lethal [[Unstoppable Rage]] at [[All of the Other Reindeer]] [[Kick the Son of a Bitch|you could almost root for]].
** For the record, he got over it by ''{{spoiler|[[Trauma-Induced Amnesia|blocking out the entire event]]''. When his memories return, he
*** And Lucy {{spoiler|is the one who killed Kanae and Kouta's father right in front of him!}}
* Dias's motivation in ''[[Star Ocean]] EX'' was literally his dead sister.
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** Many other dead little/older siblings appear in too many cases to list here. The most spectacular case is {{spoiler|[[Ill Girl]] Karin Torakuro, the victim of a really cruel trap from her brother's boss.}}.
* In ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'' the brothers Guiseppe and Jean are both seeking revenge for the death of their sister Enrica at the hands of terrorists. The names of their chosen weapons, the cyborgs 'Henrietta' and 'Rico', reflect this. The difference is that Jean is cold-blooded towards Rico ([[Jerkass Facade|deliberately]]), whereas Guiseppe has created a [[Replacement Goldfish|surrogate]] in Henrietta, even (in the manga chapter "Fantasma") making her wear one of Enrica's dresses. Though Jean is visibly shocked by this act, he is unable to find the strength to reprimand his brother.
* ''[[Ef:
* In ''[[Fairy Tail]]'', Mirajane and Elfman's Dead Little Sister Lisanna had the opposite effect from usual: though it was pretty much literally Elfman's fault that she died (she tried to stop him from going on a bloodthirsty rampage when he was [[Not Himself]]), her death changed him from kind-hearted, shy, and wimpy to kind-hearted but loud and confrontational with a [[Big Brother Instinct]] toward Mirajane, who herself was an aggressive [[Badass]] and became very loving and sweet. Lisana's death also served to bring her siblings closer, rather than driving them apart.
** She doubles as a Dead Childhood Friend/Crush for Protagonist Natsu, although his personality didn't really change much, when he thinks of his happy childhood with the guild he always thinks of Lisanna first, and has nightmares about her. He also [[Never Got to Say Goodbye]], since their last interaction before she left for the mission that would kill her, was her promising to visit him when she got back.
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* In ''[[Saiyuki]]'', Hakkai's Dead Sister Kanan is also {{spoiler|[[I Let Gwen Stacy Die]], because they [[Brother-Sister Incest|became lovers]].}}
* Ayaka Yukihiro of ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' had a little brother who was the same age as Negi, but he died shortly after birth. This is probably the root of her [[Shotacon|attraction to Negi]].
* ''[[Pokémon: The
* All the [[Claymore]] share more or less the same [[Dark and Troubled Past]] : family murdered by Youma, exiled from their village, and then are forced to become [[Half-Human Hybrid]]. That means that each Claymore has her Dead Little Sister complex. A significant part of the story is about the various way each of them react with that (starting a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]], feeling guilty of being the only survivor, going [[Knight Templar]]...).
* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|Leon]] [[Magnificent Bastard|Oswald]] from ''[[Kaleido Star]]'' has an actual dead little sister. {{spoiler|Her name was Sophie, she was his partner as well, and [[Tear Jerker|was killed in a car accident before a big competition]], ''in front of Leon himself''. He [[My Greatest Failure|still blames himself]], and is always [[Replacement Goldfish|looking for someone like Sophie]] ([[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|to a pretty destructive extreme]]), which leads him to main girl Sora Naegino.}}
* ''[[Trigun]]'' plays it oh-so-very-straight with {{spoiler|Rem}}. Meryl Stryfe is the familiar [[Morality Pet]] because she looks a ''lot'' like her.
* Played straight in ''[[Dr.
* In the manga and anime ''[[Project ARMS]]'', Ryo Takatsuki goes on a brief downward spiral after believing he caused the death of his childhood friend (and girl he loved) Katsumi. {{spoiler|When it turns out she was really alive}}, he spends most of the series traveling from Japan to America with his friends to rescue her, only to {{spoiler|watch her be killed again by his own hands by accident (the bad guy threw her in front of himself as Ryo attacked)}}, which causes Ryo to nearly bring about the end of the world out of his guilt and sadness. ''Then'', when it turns out {{spoiler|she's not dead again but is implanted with ARMS of her own and kidnapped by the evil organization Ryo's been fighting}} he must again battle his sadness while setting off to rescue her. Wow.
* ''[[Naruto]]''. As far as {{spoiler|the Raikage}}'s concerned, {{spoiler|Killer Bee}} is this for him. This leads to {{spoiler|the raikage's pwning of Sasuke.}} {{spoiler|Subverted: Killer Bee managed to escape from Sasuke's team}}
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** In the first ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]'' OAV, [[Broken Bird|Kazumi Asou]] has a dead older brother, murdered by his co-worker [[Smug Snake|Shinji]] [[Winds of Destiny Change|Nagumo]]. In the second, {{spoiler|the [[Serial Killer]]'s [[Start of Darkness]] happens when ''he'' accidentally kills his little sister as a child, strangling her while they were playing.}}
* ''[[Cross Game]]'' has {{spoiler|Wakaba}} as {{spoiler|Aoba}}'s dead older sister.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! (manga)|Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'': Ryou Bakura
** Alister joined doom to get revenge on Kaiba for the death of his little brother {{spoiler|later revealed to have been killed on Dartz's orders as part of massive xanthos roulette}}
* In ''[[Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles]]'', Marcus Rush has a Dead Big Sister - namely (original) Marlene who was killed by the Invid at beginning of Mospeada, which is the reason he hates Invids so much. This results in quite a few rage attacks.
* In ''[[Zetsuen no Tempest]]'', Mahiro doesn't care about saving the world and just wants to kill his sister's killer - not to get revenge or because she'd want him to or anything, but because it wasn't fair. (He doesn't seem to care much that his parents were also killed, though.) Interestingly, it turns out the sister was also Yoshino's girlfriend, which is the reason he ends up joining Mahiro.
* In ''[[Paranoia Agent]]'', Lil' Slugger comes about {{spoiler|and ends up destroying Tokyo because Tsukiko felt guilty about her puppy dying when she was a child.}} Seriously.
* Edward Elric from ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' has two major Dead Little Sister events: the failed attempt to revive his mother through human transmutation that resulted in him losing an arm and a leg and his younger brother Alphonse being reduced to a soul attached to a walking suit of armor, and the [[Fate Worse Than Death|horrible]] [[Mercy Kill|fate]] of {{spoiler|Nina Tucker.}}
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* The occurrence of this trope is what starts off ''[[ARAGO]]''.
* Kind of downplayed in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': Touji Suzuhara's little sister was critically wounded in the first battle. Leads to tension with Shinji.
** More shocking: in the anime, after being recruited, he asks as a favor having his sister transferred to Nerv's hospital. In the manga, the
* In ''[[Mawaru Penguindrum]]'', Momoka Oginome is the dead older sister to Ringo.
* Aside from being Chihaya's dead little Brother this trope is played straight as it gets in the anime version of ''[[The Idolmaster (anime)|THE iDOLM@STER]]''.
== Comic Books ==
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* The most recent version of [[Shazam|Black Adam's]] origin story features the deaths of his wife and children sending him over the edge.
** In [[52]] {{spoiler|History repeats itself.}}
* ''[[The Flash|Flash]]'' villain Captain Cold has always been, as the name implies, a cold-hearted, merciless SOB. He's become even more so since his younger sister, the Golden Glider, was murdered. In one issue, {{spoiler|he tracks down, tortures, and murders her killer. A few panels later, he's at home, tears running down his face, saying, "Much as I hate it, my heart's not always cold."}}
* Various retellings of [[Doctor Strange]]'s origin story give him one to explain how he became [[Dr. Jerk]]. (In the first version he didn't have any real excuse; he was just an ass.)
== Films -- Live-Action ==
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** Subverted in ''[[Stargate: Continuum]]''. Daniel Jackson assumes that the O'Neill of the altered timeline also lost his son to a gun accident many years ago but it turns out that he's alive and well. This only serves to disgust alternate O'Neill that Daniel would suggest something so horrible, and enhances his refusal to believe their story.
* In ''[[Million Dollar Baby]]'', Frankie Dunn is enstranged from his daughter which leads to him first going to church on a regular basis (though he often irritates the minister by asking questions like "was Jesus a demi-god?") and later seeing Maggie Fitzgerald as a surrogate daughter.
* In ''[[Lady in the Water]]'', after reading Cleveland Heep's diary, Story learns that he became depressed and withdrawn from society after a
* In ''A Short Film About Killing'' directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, the young man on death row espoused a life of crime because he was so haunted by his dead little sister's memory.
* In ''[[Top Gun]]'', Maverick's angst during the second half of the movie comes from his feeling of responsibility over his RIO Goose's death.
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* In both versions of ''[[Footloose]]'', Reverend Shaw's son getting killed in a car accident led to him leading a town-wide campaign against dancing and secular music.
* In ''[[Face Off]]'', Castor Troy's accidental murder of Sean Archer's son is a key event in the backstory of the two characters.
== Literature ==
* The book and movie ''Hannibal Rising'' give [[The Silence of the Lambs|Hannibal Lecter]] one of these, elaborating on allusions in the prior book and movie, ''Hannibal''.
* In one of [[J. R. R.
* [[Stephen King]]:
** ''[[IT]]'': little brother Georgie's murder by [[Monster Clown|Pennywise the Clown]] launches Bill into the leadership role of the Losers Club.
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* ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'': Fan Scrooge, who is said to have [[Death by Childbirth|died in childbirth]] in some film adaptations. This event triggered/hastened Ebenezer's downward spiral into miserdom, and he especially hates his nephew/her son Fred for it.
** Fan was named after Dickens' older sister Fanny, who, ironically, died of tuberculosis five years after the book was published, and had a crippled son who was the inspiration for Tiny Tim.
* In ''[[Haunted (
* ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'': {{spoiler|Although the Dead Little Sister occurs at the very end of the book, it could be speculated that George Milton fits this trope this after losing his [[American Dream]], and being forced to shoot his own little sister equivalent.}}
* ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]''{{'}}s Holden Caulfield is angry, depressed and prone to failing out of school {{spoiler|largely because of his little brother Allie, who died of Leukemia.}}
* In ''[[Tales of MU]]'', it's implied that Coach Callahan has a Dead Little Sister in Theona. Callahan honors Theona by [[Sink or Swim Mentor|Sink Or Swim Mentoring]] the Theona-ness out of college students.
* The ''[[Warcraft]]'' novel ''[[Warcraft: Lord of the Clans]]'' gives Thrall a Dead Big Sister of sorts: Taretha Foxton, the daughter of the woman who nursed Thrall as an infant, and later helps him escape his captivity, eventually at the cost of her life. Her influence is one of the main reasons that Thrall is willing to work with Humans in Warcraft III and afterwards.
* There's an example in the [[King Arthur]] myth. The [[I Didn't Mean to Kill Him|accidental slaughter]] of ''three'' of Gawain's younger brothers turns his long rivalry with Lancelot into a [[It's Personal|vendetta]]. This fight between the two chief knights leaves the [[Too Good to Last|Round Table]] open to attack, letting [[The Dragon|Mordred]] worm his way in and destroy everything. (The theme of revenge in this slightly subverted in that {{spoiler|Gawain is the one who ends up dead.}})
** Of course, Arthur doesn't attack Lancelot until he rescues Guinevere from being burned alive for adultery, and takes her to Joyous Gard, his realm. Sources debate on whether Arthur was counting on Lancelot rescuing the Queen or not.
* ''[[The English Patient]]'' has at least two: Hana's father and Kip's mentor, Lord Suffolk. Possibly Katharine Clifton as well, in the Patient's backstory; it's hard to tell, since those sequences are recounted by the Patient, and [[Unreliable Narrator|heavily tinted]] by his own worldview.
** In the film version
* This is the humanizing element of "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone, [[Affably Evil]] [[Anti-Villain]] mob boss of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'': {{spoiler|a young girl was caught in a crossfire during an attempted assassination, and took a bullet meant for Marcone. She's now in a coma as an anonymous Jane Doe, her parents think she's dead, and Marcone has done everything from pour billions of dollars down the drain to stealing the freaking ''Shroud of Turin'' to attempt to heal her.}}
* From the books of [[Dale Brown]], Patrick McLanahan's little brother almost getting killed is what gets him started on a vigilante quest using the titular [[Powered Armor]] of ''The Tin Man''. Eventually, {{spoiler|both his wife and brother get killed.}}
* Elizabeth March aka Beth of ''[[Little Women]]'' actually ''becomes'' this, based on [[Creator Breakdown|the author's own Dead Little Sister]].
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', Sandor Clegane's little sister's death {{spoiler|at the hands of ''their own older brother'', [[Complete Monster]] Gregor}} is part of the scarring childhood that created the cynical persona the reader meets. Also, Eddard "Ned" Stark has a good dose of this; while he never became a cynic after Lyanna's death, the man does know how to angst.
** Don't forget Oberyn and Doran Martell, who want revenge on the Lannisters for the brutal rape and murder of their sister Elia. It's clear that Elia's death had a big effect on both of them, but particularly Oberyn, since he matured quite a bit afterward.
* In ''[[The Hunger Games]]'', {{spoiler|at first,}} averted, in that Katniss, whose sister was just picked to be a Tribute, volunteers to go instead. {{spoiler|Played straight in Mockingjay.}}
* The death of her sister Estelle was the defining moment of the life of ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' character Eloise Pritchart.
* In ''[[The Stormlight Archive]]'', Kaladin's long, [[The Woobie|woobifying]] disillusionment peaks with his younger brother being killed after being used as [[Cannon Fodder]] in a war.
* A biographical example would be Laura Ingalls Wilder's younger brother Charles Frederick Ingalls—Freddy. He died of an unknown ailment at
* This is common in ''[[Time Scout]]'', what with the global devastation following The Accident. Margo lost a twin, Malcolm lost a younger brother.
* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Barbara Rutledge is this for Myra Rutledge and Nikki Quinn, who both witnessed her death at the hands of a drunk hit-and-run driver who used [[Diplomatic Impunity]]. However, Barbara returns as a ghost from the afterlife from time to time. Alan, Kathryn Lucas's dead husband, is this for Kathryn.
* The infestation of Jake's parents and his failed attempt to rescue them at the end of ''[[Animorphs]]'' probably fits this trope.
* Jeff Winston's lost daughter in ''[[Replay]]''
* In ''[[The Purple Widow]]'', Glen O'Brian, a servant at the palace of Tommikia, reveals that his two younger sisters (along with his mother) were burned at the stake for trying to escape imprisonment for false charges. Why, ''why'' is it always [[Break the Cutie|Glen?]]
* Asher has a dead ''older'' sister in ''[[Someone Else's
== Live-Action TV ==
* The original ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'' has {{spoiler|Sarah Collins}} as the motivation for at least some of {{spoiler|Barnabas'}} angst.
* ''[[The X-Files]]'' does this, with Mulder's little sister's disappearance providing probably the biggest motive for a large portion of his adult life and career.
* Sgt Maritza Cruz from ''[[Third Watch]]'' had a younger, drug-addicted sister named Lettie, who died of an overdose—which caused Maritza to bend the rules even more than she usually did in order to find the dealer.
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* In ''[[NCIS]]'' Ziva says that she was revenge-driven and cold for a long time after her little sister Tali was killed in a Hamas suicide bombing. However, she denies Tony's allegation that this is why she joined Mossad.
* In ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' engineer 'Trip' Tucker's sister was killed in the Xindi attack on Earth. This affects his behaviour throughout the season three 'war arc', most notably in "The Forgotten".
* A flashback scene in ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* On ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', a Dead Little Sister is revealed to be the motive behind Angela Petrelli and The Company, and all the dickishness they've caused throughout the show.
** Turns out [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|she's not dead]]. Hover the cursor over the end of the previous sentence to find out what ''really'' became of her.
* The motive for ''[[ER
* Josh Lyman from ''[[The West Wing]]'' has a dead ''older'' sister named Joanie, who died in a fire while she was babysitting him. Josh feels unspeakably guilty about the fact that he ran out of the house and left her behind, even though he was only six or seven at the time.
* ''[[Torchwood]]'''s Jack Harkness had a tortured little brother. He thought he was responsible for this, having let go of his brother's hand while running way from the creatures who tortured him; and (or so we were told) angsted over it ever since.
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