Big Brother Instinct: Difference between revisions

[[File:parallelgeass2.jpg|link=Code Geass|frame|[[Brother-Sister Incest|Don't get any funny ideas]].]]

 

 

 

The [[Big Brother Instinct]] serves to explain why fan attraction to [[Moe]] tropes and devices can be an ''emotional'', [[Perverse Sexual Lust|rather than sexual]], response. There seems to be something inherently comforting to an awkward male about being looked up to by a younger girl for support. Therefore [[Moe]] can be wish fulfillment about taking a "big brother role" instead of about being a [[Love Interest]] (although that version is common too).

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* [[Hokuto no Ken|Kenshiro IS this trope]]. While usually brooding and serious, one of the few things that makes him genuinely crack a smile is being around Bat and Lin. ''Hurt or threaten'' Bat and Lin and, well, [[You Are Already Dead]].

* Narumi of [[Karakuri Circus]], in spades. Masaru begins to mimic him.

* ''[[Code Geass]]'' gives us the trope picture and HUGE examples.

** Lelouch is the king of this trope. Has anyone else on this page ''[[Knight Templar Big Brother|started a war]]'' for their little sister? Then there's his reaction to her possibly falling in love with Rai, the main character in the [[Dating Sim]] ''Lost Colors'', though that one is [[Played for Laughs]].

** In the 7th book, Mikuru is kidnapped. Kyon flies into a rage (for the second time in the novels), and immediately calls up Haruhi for help, forgetting she still doesn't know she's a [[Reality Warper]]. He claims it was a failed practical joke to cover up.

** In the 10th novel after {{spoiler|Yuki is incapacitated by the Sky Canopy Domain}} Kyon completely loses it and runs out to track down Kuyo Suou and personally make her fix it. To reiterate, he actually went out of his way to get into a confrontation with an alien interface who he ''knows'' has god-like powers. Naturally, he's totally out-classed but it's the thought that counts.

* ''[[Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora|Shattered Angels]]'': Kyoshiro and Kazuya. It's a bad one too; people die. Quite a few people, actually.

** A much straighter example would be Tsubasa and Souma in ''[[Kannazuki no Miko]]'': the entire conflict between them stems from Tsubasa's desire to protect Souma as effectively as possible, which unfortunately involves pulling him to [[The Dark Side]] and killing his love interest. {{spoiler|Towards the end, however, Tsubasa recognizes that Souma has wishes, too, and helps him to reach ''his'' goals.}} Also, Tsubasa killed their father who beaten up Souma when were very young, which is why they were separated.

** Kaon for [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl|Tarlotte]].

** [[Mad Scientist]] Komui Lee is fiercely overprotective of his younger sister and only relative, Lenalee. The only way to wake the fiercely lazy Komui up is by saying "Your sister's getting married!" Since [[Action Girl|SHE is the one of the duo with the monster-killing super powers]], he's got a lot to worry about. {{spoiler|The reason he joined the [[Church Militant|Black Order]] was to be with Lenalee, who was basically kidnapped by them after she was found to be compatible with [[Empathic Weapon|Innocence]], and kept trying to escape to find her brother. Thus, the two keep each other in the Order.}} His obsession with his sister is mildly creepy.

** Link even weaponizes this at one point, threatening Allen with telling Komui that he's alone in a sealed room with Lenalee if he doesn't unlock a door that's shutting the good inspector out.

** Possibly played straight or inverted (depending on whether he is oldest or not) Syaoran acts as this towards his cousin Meiling in the anime adaption. His treatment of Sakura arguably evolves somewhat into this at first (even if it ultimately becomes [[One True Pairing|a somewhat different relation]] by the end of the series).

* Subverted brutally in [[Saint Seiya]], when Ikki beats the stuffing out of his younger brother. He eventually turns around, un-subverting the trope.

* ''[[Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu|Haré+ Guu]]'': Haré has a big brother instinct towards his frequently irresponsible ''mother''. Guu teases him about his "Mazacon" (mother complex) from time to time.

* Averted and subverted ([[Mind Screw|naturally]]) in ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' with Nanami and her brother Touga. Whereas Nanami's big brother complex is extreme to the point that she is [[Brother-Sister Incest|in love with him]], Touga couldn't care less about her well being. Enter Mitsuru, a fourth grader, who she uses as a whipping boy after he saves her. She sees him as her servant, and he is fond of her-in fact, Utena and the others suspect that Mitsuru has a crush on Nanami, but he reveals that he wants to protect her like a brother would, unlike Touga. During his [[Day in The Limelight|Black Rose duel episode]], this is mentioned in the form of him being sexually and emotionally confused. It's shown that his interactions with the teenage Nanami piqued his curiosity about being grown-up, so he reads books about "adult"-related topics.

* Played straight in ''[[Mawaru Penguindrum]]'' with the Takakura sublings. The whole plot is based on Shouma and Kanba trying to save Himari's life. {{spoiler|Even if she is not related to them by blood and just got taken in by the family.}}

** {{spoiler|Kanba deserves special mention since he not only has protective (and romantic) impulses towards Himari, but also sacrificed his position in the Natsume clan and later his life for his real sister, Masako (and Himari).}}

** Ayaka claims to have an overdone big sister instinct which her friends and the viewer apparently [[Shotacon|grossly misunderstand]]. Asuna has a more genuine version, that occasionally threatens to misunderstand itself.

** Kaede also feels this way towards both Negi and Kotaro: A [[Love Chart]] produced in-universe shows that her romantic feelings for Negi are fairly low, but her maternal score is off the scale, surpassing the quite motherly Chizuru (10), matching ''Evangeline'' (12) <ref>May be due to being still in love with Negi's "late" father, wishing ''she'' was the one who bore the man's child(ren), et cetera et cetera.</ref>, and topped ''only'' by Asuna (15). This doesn't always show mostly because of her laid-back personality.

** Seto Kaiba is a total jerk to the main characters but will go to outrageous lengths to save his brother Mokuba. Mokuba is kidnapped a ''lot'', though. Probably because Kaiba is such a jerk.

** Jounouchi Katsuya is very protective of his little sister Shizuka. When she sends him a video message telling him about how she is slowly going blind, he sneaks into the Duelist Kingdom tournament that Yuugi was invited to so he could win the prize money and pay for an operation to save her eyesight. He also becomes extremely protective over her when Honda and Otogi begin flirting with her and competing openly for her attention.

** Sesshoumaru has a complex, evolving relationship with his brother [[The Hero|Inuyasha]] {{spoiler|due to feeling like the [[The Unfavourite|victim]] of [[Parental Favouritism]]}}. Prior to the story's start, it appears Sesshoumaru [[Big Brother Bully|bullied]] and [[Aloof Big Brother|ignored]] Inuyasha for not being [[Half-Human Hybrid|pure-blooded]] [[Youkai]], and his first few story arcs revolve around Sesshoumaru's efforts to obtain the [[Cool Sword]] that their father left for Inuyasha - by [[Cain and Abel|murdering Inuyasha]] if necessary. As the story progresses and Sesshoumaru's [[Character Development|character develops]], however, Sesshoumaru's motives become more ambiguous, taking on more of a flavor of "[[I Was Just Passing Through]]" and "[[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|Nobody kills my brother but me]]." The conflict between them is eventually resolved {{spoiler|when Sesshoumaru finally understands what their [[Sink or Swim Mentor|father]] was [[Tough Love|trying]] to [[Cruel to Be Kind|teach]] him: no matter how strong Tessaiga makes Inuyasha, his half-human nature means he'll always need Sesshoumaru's [[Big Brother Instinct|strength]] and [[Big Brother Mentor|support]].}}

*** Although the exact nature of Sesshoumaru's protective instincts can be debated in one-or-two cases (notably Jaken {{spoiler|and Kagura}}), his instinct to protect expands throughout the series more-or-less as follows: [[The Igor|Jaken]] (who really doesn't [[Bumbling Sidekick|feel the love]] most of the time), [[Morality Pet|Rin]], [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You|Inuyasha]], [[I Was Just Passing Through|Kagome]], {{spoiler|[[Implied Love Interest|Kagura]], [[Designated Victim|Kohaku]], until he's eventually openly [[Big Brother Instinct|protecting]] [[Protectorate|both his group and Inuyasha's group together]].}} Sesshoumaru's development is finally [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the final chapter {{spoiler|when Kagome openly calls him ''onii-san'' (using the kanji for 'brother-in-law') and notices the [[Not So Different|disturbed expressions on both brothers' faces are identical]].}}

** Taichi is overly protective of Hikari before ''02'' though. The best example, episode 48, when Hikari falls ill and Taichi borders on hysterics the entire time. Then we find out why he's so over-protective (Taichi took Hikari outside to play while she had pneumonia, and she almost died.)

*** The twist of the knife is that Hikari never blamed Taichi for it. Quite the opposite: Hikari apologized to Taichi for not being able to kick the ball straight, which only made him feel worse and want to protect her "kind heart" even more!

** Jyou/Joe shows a bit of this towards Iori/Cody in ''02''. Though he ''did'' have some inklings of this to Takeru/TK already in the first series.

*** Kouji and Kouichi, of course. It went both ways, but especially Kouji towards Kouichi.

** Daisuke/Davis seemed to behave like this towards his Digimon partner, Veemon.

*** Ikuto/Keenan and his Digimon partner, Falcomon, were raised to believe they were brothers, and treat each other accordingly.

*** Then there's Touma/Thomas, who has a little sister whom he acts quite the same towards as Tai.

* ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'': Due to their conditioning, the titular girls are very focused on their grownup "handlers" - who all happen to be male. On occasion this even turns into a form of puppy love, with the difference that [[Small Girl, Big Gun|the "puppies" know how to handle dangerous weapons]]... And, in the case of {{spoiler|Elsa}}, blow your brains out as well as theirs in a murder/suicide if you [[Woman Scorned|ignore them too much]].

* In ''[[The Prince of Tennis]]'', if you mistreat Yuuta Fuji in almost ''any'' way, get ready to face his older brother Shuusuke's rage. Just watch and compare Fuji's matches with [[Genius Ditz|Jiroh Akutagawa]] and [[Troubled but Cute|Ryoma Echizen]] ( {{spoiler|both of them defeated Yuuta but did so ''fairly'', so Fuji holds no grudges and even considers Echizen a friend}}) with the one against [[Always Camp|Hajime Mizuki]] ( {{spoiler|who tricked Yuuta into using a [[Deadly Upgrade|very dangerous tennis move]] without telling him the consequences, so Fuji let Mizuki lead the game for a while and then absolutely trashed and traumatized him in-game}}). No wonder Fujicest is [[Yaoi Guys|among the most popular yaoi pairings]] in the fandom. Also, lampshaded in the anime when Fuji aids a girl with similar problems towards her older sister.

** Gwendal is very protective of Wolfram, and at times Conrad, though it is hard to see at first due to his stern nature. Conrad is very protective of Wolfram and Yuuri. Though Yuuri is the king, so he should be protective, he is Yuuri's godfather, and thus often acts like an older brother/father figure.

*** Conrad seems to have had a genuine 'Big Brother Complex' over Wolfram when he was small. The transformative episode when, at a guess, Conrad was about forty (looked twelve) and Wolfram was about fifteen (looked three) in which Gwendal sorted out his relationship with Dan Hiri, Conrad lost his father, and Wolfram found out his favorite awesome brother was half human appears to have started the trend that terminated in his behavior at the beginning of the show: calling Gwendal as 'Aniue' and Conrad as 'Weller,' his surname. And once Wolfram rejected him, Conrad eventually moved on to obsess over someone else. With a period of cynicism in the middle, out of which ''Gunter'' knocked him by kicking his ass.

** The first anime and one of the novels also feature the Tringham brothers Russell and Fletcher. Russell is very protective of his brother, though it takes him a while to realize that otherwise he's been neglecting him. He gets better.

** Scar's older brother. {{spoiler|When Kimblee attacked, he jumped in front of Scar even though the effort was... well, fruitless. Afterwards, as Scar lay dying with one arm gone, his brother sacrifices his own arm and bleeds to death in his place.}}

** Though he's still nothing compared to Orihime's brother, Sora. He's ''really'' possessive of his sister, ''even after death''. He is shown to have become extremely jealous that Orihime likes Ichigo, and to put it in his words, "I wanted you to pray for me, because only during the time you were praying for me your heart was mine."

*** And in his back story, he ran away with a three year old Orihime from their abusive parents as soon as he turned eighteen, and proceeded to raise her on his own before being killed in an accident.

** And in the Hueco Mundo arc, Ichigo comes across [[Plucky Girl|Nel]], and they seem to form kind of a [[Badass and Child Duo]].

** And although it took a while, previously very-[[Aloof Big Brother]] Byakuya Kuchiki has now demonstrated a willingness to kick huge amounts of ass in defense of his sister Rukia.

** Mix this with [[Subordinate Excuse]] and [[Extreme Doormat]], and you have {{spoiler|Hong Long.}}

** Youhei Sunohara is the series' [[Butt Monkey]] most of the time, but mess with his sister Mei and he'll do an [[Offscreen Teleportation]] to kick your ass.

** Tomoya also seems to have this going for him, despite not having any siblings. Whenever Mei calls him Onii-chan, he becomes overly excited and is willing to do whatever she wishes from him.

** [[Moe Anthropomorphism|Switzerland]] is like this with his [[Token Mini-Moe]] sister Liechtenstein.

** South Italy hates his younger brother North Italy's [[Ho Yay|ally]] Germany because he thinks he's not good for his sibling (and since both Germany ''and'' Romano are male [[Tsundere|Tsunderes]].)

** England also acted as an older brother figure to America, in his own way. The Revolutionary War thus broke his heart, and he still seems to have a soft spot for him ([[Tsundere|not that he'd ever show it, of course]]).

* ''Challengers'': Souichi is fiercely protective of his younger brother Tomoe (as well as homophobic) and will not hesitate to pummel Kurokawa when he shows an overt romantic interest in Tomoe.

** Incidentally, they're ''twins'', and no one was there to see them born. When Vash explains who Knives is in the anime, at least, he uses the absolutely-ambiguous word 'kyoudai,' 'sibling,' which carries neither gender nor age, because Japanese doesn't have a birth-order-ambiguous version of 'brother.' (The same word is applied to all their 'sister' bulb-plants in the manga. Confusingly, it's supposed to be an English-speaking planet.) Knives basically appointed himself big brother after becoming evil and deciding Vash was a wimp.

** Anime Knives always had Big Brother tendencies, but in the manga back when they were still cute ''Knives'' was the sensitive one, and Vash actually looked after him slightly more than the reverse.

* In ''[[Fruits Basket]]'', Momiji's little sister, [[Dramatic Irony|unaware of their relationship]], solicits this, asking Momiji if he will be like a big brother to her.

** Haru acts this way towards Kisa, including running through the rain to find her after she runs away and giving her the strawberries from his cake.

* ''[[Vocaloid]]''- although technically all the canon Vocaloids are supposed to be siblings- has Len Kagamine, who in vids is protective or over-protective of his sister, Rin, although Rin is supposed to be the older one.

* In ''[[Getter Robo]]: Armageddon'', Go immediately adopts this attitude towards Kei upon encountering her. It's eventually revealed that the reason for this is that {{spoiler|he ''is'' her older brother -- or rather a ([[Opposite Sex Clone|male]]) memory-retaining clone of her older ''sister'', Michiru, who died when Kei was a little girl... known as Genki Saotome. Sort of}}. It's complicated.

** Early on, he suggests that he'd have to kill her if she found out about him being Kira.

** Actually, according to the story we're told, his goal was to make Sasuke a hero of Konoha. The only way he'd be allowed to continue to live there after {{spoiler|the entire Uchiha Clan planned a rebellion. Itachi was supposed to kill all of them, but he couldn't make himself kill Sasuke. That's one for the "Nice Job Breaking Your Little Brother, Hero" category.}}

** Kankuro is a more positive example. Although he and Gaara have a poor relationship at first, the brothers become much closer after Gaara's [[Heel Face Turn]], and Kankuro willingly risks his life to go after Gaara when the latter is kidnapped by Sasori and Deidara - although it doesn't end well for either of them - and stands up for Gaara when an elder badmouths him. Considering how terrified he was of Gaara in Part 1 (and with good reason!) this is quite a change and shows just how much Gaara's change in circumstances has affected the family dynamic.

* Of the few redeeming traits of Ryo Narushima in ''Shamo'' is his protectiveness towards his younger sister.

* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'' has Tamahome (towards his siblings, and [[Relationship Upgrade|initially, Miaka]], after she told him she missed her actual brother Keisuke) and Tasuki (towards Chiriko).

** Hayate sees himself as Nagi's protector/big brother and it's possible that he tries to exemplify it for all of the girls around him, possibly because of his own big brother's influence.

*** It even extends to Wataru and possibly Kazuki. There's only one other character he ''won't'' protect, even going so far as to try and kill. Continually.

** The Katsura sisters have a warped version. Yukiji protected her sister when their parents left them with a large debt, taking care of it herself and shielding Hinagiku from the 'evil' side of society. Now she looks up to Hinagiku as the more capable one, having dealt with their abandonment and still having a loving outlook on life, while Hinagiku herself protects Yukiji and is hinted to help her with funding issues from time-to-time, while still punishing her for 'get-rich-quick' schemes she attempts.

* ''[[Game X Rush]]'' has this for his younger brother Memori, particularly when Memori was a younger crybaby.

* Seto from ''Heavens Will'' has one of the weirdest Big Brother Complexes ever. {{spoiler|Basically, his younger twin sister died protecting him from a malicious spirit and her soul was sealed in a fan which Seto now uses to perform exorcisms himself. He then grew out his hair, [[Wholesome Crossdresser|began wearing woman's clothing]], and is saving his money to ''get a sex change operation''. After he gets it, he plans to kill himself so his sister's soul to inhabit his body and live again, and he does it all because he believes that he should have died instead of her. 'Seto' isn't even his real name, it's his sister's.}}

* Baskerville has this towards Mingchao in ''Et Cetera.'' Partially because he's dealing with {{spoiler|his own little sister's death.}}

** Also Zoro to Chopper, who keep an eye out for the little guy and becomes upset when anyone hurts Chopper.

* In [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]], Cinque of the Numbers is quite protective of her younger sisters, staying behind to fight Subaru and getting badly injured in the process to allow Nove and Wendi to escape. Even though her crimes are more severe than the other Numbers and she does not expect to ever be completely free, she decides to atone for them and cooperate with the investigation so she can help her younger sisters.

* In ''[[Yakitate!! Japan]]'' Kawachi does this to Azuma, due to Azuma having to worry about Kawachi. When Kawachi lost the battle with Kanmuri in the Pantasia Newcomer's Battle

* [[Durarara]]'s Shizuo Heiwajima is rather protective of his little brother Kasuka (aka [[Teen Idol]] Yuuhei Hanejima). The mere act of namedropping Kasuka is enough to make him suspicious of your intentions, while insulting him or attempting to poke into his personal life results in an instant [[Unstoppable Rage]]. In the [[Light Novels]], he eventually goes on to develop another Big Brother Instinct towards a young [[The Runaway|runaway]] [[Mafia Princess|Yakuza Princess]].

* In ''[[Binbou Shimai Monogatari]]'', Kyou has this toward her younger sister Asu, which is justified since [[Parental Abandonment|they live by themselves]] and she has taken on a parental role. Since Kyou is still very much a child herself this doesn't always come easy for her, but luckily Asu compensates by often acting very mature for her age.

* Toki from [[Code Breaker]] is part of the Code Breaker group in order to keep his sister Nenene safe (though she's apparently older than him, and doesn't remember who he is).

* Ozma Lee from ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' is '''extremely''' protective of his little sister Ranka, even though she's adopted. He even manages to break the [[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|pineapple cake curse]] because he promised not to die so long as Ranka still needed him. Also played straight with {{spoiler|Brera Stern, Ranka's real brother}}.

* ''[[Soukou no Strain]]''. After Ralph Werec has his [[Freak-Out]] in the backstory (brought about by {{spoiler|unknowingly brutally killing a bunch of aliens who look and act like little girls}}) he views the only survivor of the aliens as a substitute little sister, and is more than willing [[Knight Templar|to do anything to avenge her race]], and I mean ''[[Kill All Humans|anything]]'', to the point of wanting to kill his actual younger sister when she stands in his way.

* In the ''[[Wild Series]]'', Kiri has a strong caring instinct for his little brother, Mao. Granted, it doesn't stop him from immediately trying to kill Mao when Mao [[Shapeshifter Identity Crisis|loses control of his beast side]], but he probably considered that a favour.

* Guache of [[Tegami Bachi]] has this for his little sister, Sylvette. {{spoiler|Until he looses all of his memories, anyway.}}

* Maho from ''[[Wandering Son]]'' may be a bully to her little brother, but don't you dare mess with him.

* [[Ouran High School Host Club]] plays with this with a few of its members, most notably in the episode where Nekozawa's little sister Kirimi wanders up to the high school, putting both Nekozawa and Tamaki in the big-brother spotlight in turn.

** In addition, Hunny and Mori have this relationship with their brothers Yasuchika and Satoshi (manga-only), though Hunny's way of showing it is admittedly...weird, to the point that the anime completely overlooked it.

** However, after Loki accidentally (YMMV) brought about the near-total destruction of Asgard, was killed in a last-ditch heroic sacrifice to save what was left(that may have been part [[Xanatos Gambit]]) and reincarnated as a kid with only his childhood memories, he appareciates this protection a lot, since the only reason most people in Asgard haven't killed him yet is because they know Thor would go on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] on them and the city if Loki is harmed.

*** Kid Loki seems to be similarly protective of Thor. During the "Fear Itself" event, he engages in dark dealings and {{spoiler|agrees to restore the Ragnarok Cycle}} all to save Thor from being killed by The Serpent.

** Has this with Wolverine being a [[Big Brother Mentor]] to the younger heroines, including Kitty Pryde, Jubilee and his [[Opposite Sex Clone]] X-23.

** Though they can find it hard to get along, Cyclops still tends to treat Havok this way, insisting on carrying his coma-ridden brother into the X-Mansion despite the presence of a wheelchair and being so protective and interfering that they're mistaken for a couple in an issue of X-Factor.

 

== Fanfiction ==

** There was this one story (based on [[Vocaloid]]'s "Servant of Evil" series), where Russia had killed Canada, mistaking him for America. Bad move, as America promptly declares war on Russia.

** It goes the same way with Russia and his two sisters Ukraine and Belarus. There was this one story where Ukraine had mysteriously vanished, Russia believing that America was the one doing it {{spoiler|He didn't}} grabbed him by the throat and for all measures, was perfectly willing to rip America's head if it would bring his sister back.

** Jason also openly acknowledges Tim and Damian as his younger brothers and brings Damian safely home after he and Damian go out to get the drug dealers.

* An odd goblin example of this trope (though with the sister being the protective one) can be found in [[Travels Through Azeroth and Outland (Fanfic)|Travels through Azeroth and Outland]].

* A female example in ''[[The Legend of Spyro a New Dawn (Fanfic)|The Legend of Spyro a New Dawn]]'' is Cynder towards Ember. Ember is ''slightly'' younger than her, but is very childish and naive. Despite the fact Ember has her characteristic crush on Spyro (though in this case, it's due to being to socially naive to realize Cynder and Spyro are mates), Cynder ends up having this mentality towards her, even describing her as being like "an annoying little sister" at one point. This makes hurting Ember in front of Cynder one of her [[Berserk Button|Berserk Buttons]], which [[Evil Diva|Cyros]] finds out the hard way when she {{spoiler|performs a [[Break the Cutie]] on Ember and gets her kidnapped.}} Cynder [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|reacts]] [[Super-Powered Evil Side|violently]].

* Fanon often have Gaara and Kankuro of Naruto threatening Shikamaru in Shika/Tema Fanfics or any other Fics that involve Temari getting hooked up with someone. They're technically little brothers as Temari is the Eldest Sibling.

** It also doesn't help that Gaara is in fact the Kazekage, which means he has ''some'' authority over Temari. To which he abuses or at least attempts to abuse said authority.

 

 

== Literature ==

* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'':

** Harry becomes this to Molly when {{spoiler|her magical talents manifest.}}

** He does it to his half-brother {{spoiler|Thomas}} despite the fact that {{spoiler|Thomas}} is the older brother.

** {{spoiler|Thomas}} also has a brother instinct. He has followed Harry around town without Harry's knowledge, and in the past few books the only time {{spoiler|Thomas}} hasn't come to Harry's aid was when the White Council was directly involved. And he is very protective of his little sister, {{spoiler|Inari.}}

* ''[[Chronicles of Narnia]]'': Peter, especially if it's about Edmund.

** [[Deadpan Snarker|Edmund]] develops this for [[Plucky Girl|Lucy]], after his [[Heel Face Turn]].

** Peter has this pretty strongly toward Lucy as well. He vehemently rebukes Edmund for humiliating her in the beginning of the series, up to the point that he looks like he's about to deck his younger brother in the movie.

* [[Chalet School|Len Maynard]]. Oh, ''Len Maynard''. Practically ever since she is a baby, she is pigeonholed as the 'responsible one' and as the oldest Maynard child, she is often put in charge of the other Maynard children. She has a major one where Margot is concerned, protecting her from Jack's wrath and even ''lying'' to cover up for her in ''Triplets of the Chalet School'' after the bookend incident. Miss Annersley even calls her on it.

* In "[[Watership Down]]", [[Beware the Nice Ones|Hazel is usually calm and collected]], but god help you if you mistreat Fiver or Pipkin.

* The [[Cal Leandros]] series gives us Niko, who loses his characteristic cool when someone so much as implies that his brother is a monster, and literally goes berserk with rage when he thinks Cal is dead. Cal is no better, going to extreme lengths to protect his brother.

* Although Damon Salvatore of [[The Vampire Diaries]] likes to make his brother's life hell, he does go out of his way to save or protect Stefan.

* Katniss Everdeen of [[The Hunger Games]] will go to any lengths to protect her younger sister Primrose, including volunteering for the titular [[Deadly Game]] in her sister's place, a seemingly suicidal gesture.

* Prince Jonathan and his group of friends in ''[[Tortall Universe|Song of the Lioness]]'' developed this for [[Wholesome Crossdresser|the new page Alan]]. Even before Ralon started bullying Alanna, they regularly helped and kept an eye out for her. And when Ralon first beat up Alanna, Raoul pulled him aside and roughed him up as a warning. When Ralon later broke Alanna's arm in retaliation, they all thrashed him thoroughly. Despite continuing to harrass Alanna, Ralon didn't lay a hand on her again.

* [[Nightrunner|Lynn Flewelling]] is fond of this:

** Before their [[Relationship Upgrade]] to the [[Official Couple]] level Seregil had this to Alec, though there had been subtones early on.

* In the [[In Death]] series, Roarke tends to harbor protective instincts toward Eve's female colleagues, though they're not particularly weak. This is probably due to his [[Dead Little Sister]].

* In ''[[The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara]]'', Quentin Leah already has a pretty serious big brother complex towards his cousin Bek. Following his [[Failure Knight|failure]] to save a girl he liked, this is magnified a thousand fold, and helps to fuel his change into a badass.

* Mr Darcy towards his younger sister Georgiana in ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''.

 

* ''[[Brother Bear]]'': Kenai hates bears, and finds [[Ridiculously Cute Critter|Koda]] REALLY annoying, but would still go through anything to protect him.

* In ''[[Toy Story]] 3'', Andy is this to his sister, Molly, despite their light bickerings. When she had trouble lifting a box, he immediately went to help her. And at the end, {{spoiler|with Bonnie, who is a [[Shrinking Violet]]. He kneels down at eye-level to her and introduces all his toys to her and even [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|played with all his toys one last time]] with Bonnie before he left.}}

* In ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'', Ramesses' first reaction to his little brother killing a man in front of multiple witnesses is to declare him innocent. When Moses returns after years of being gone he is ready to give his brother a high position and wipe away the crime. That didn't turn out.

** From the same movie Arron tries to protect Miriam when she approaches Moses before Moses' knows of their relationship.

* ''[[The Blind Side]]'': {{spoiler|With only a split second to act, Michael instinctively saved adoptive little brother SJ from being seriously injured or killed during their car accident.}}

** He also will '''not''' tolerate anyone saying something derogatory about his adoptive little sister, Collins.

** Also, from the same movie, Kayla appears to be willing to do just about anything to keep her sister safe.

** Also Charles had this for Raven, being very concerned for hiding her appearance in public and telling her to her face that he didn't want anything to happen to her. However, his relationship to her [[Deconstruction|Deconstructs]] this phenomenon as it caused him to become [[My Beloved Smother|overprotective]] to the point where he denied her the chance to embrace her true appearance and be proud of what she was, as well as caused him [[Oblivious to Love|ignore her very obvious crush on him]]. This in turn made Raven turn to Erik Lehnsherr as a mentor/love interest and eventually join him in his cause against humanity.

** [[Alternative Character Interpretation|Arguably]], Erik developed this for Charles. He went out of his way to protect Charles during the Cuban Missile Crisis, even {{spoiler|stopping his attack on the American and Russian naval forces when Charles was shot.}}

* ''[[The City of Lost Children]]'': One for Denree and Miette.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': He's only the big brother by about six or seven minutes, tops, but Luke Skywalker definitely qualifies. He's all [[The Messiah|redeeming]] and peaceful and unflappable in the face of evil despite a million reasons not to be, but all bets are off when the [[Big Bad]] makes a totally impotent, ''hinted'' threat towards [[Berserk Button|his sister]]. Suffice to say, he [[Unstoppable Rage|doesn't react well]].

* Seen in ''[[West Side Story]]'' when Bernardo interferes in his sister Maria's budding romance with Tony. [[Double Subverted]] in that Tony is the only decent member of the Jets, genuinely in love with Maria and with good intentions... but then he ends up killing Bernardo in a fit of rage over the death of his friend.

* And let's not forget [[Scarface|Tony Montana]]. Just a ''tad'' bit too protective of his little sister Gina, even going as far as {{spoiler|murdering her husband the day after they were married}}.

* The titular character of ''[[Ginger Snaps]]'' is an interesting example - her protectiveness towards her younger sister is essentially, a snarky sense of humour aside, her ''only'' redeeming quality, and even that's pretty messed up. They have a suicide pact ("Out by sixteen or dead on the scene,") and her gradual case of lycanthropy worsens, {{spoiler|she starts killing people if she thinks they even looked at Brigitte the wrong way. She's enjoying killing more and more, so this trope becomes more of an excuse in the end.}} However, Sam could be seen to have a genuinely alturistic [[Big Brother Instinct]] towards Brigitte, as he gives her an awful lot of help, carrying a fair amount of risk, with no benefit whatsoever to himself. Although some people interpret it as him having a romantic interest in her.

* Becca from ''[[The Descent (Film)|The Descent]]'' is very caring and protective towards her sweet little sister Sam, and to a lesser extent, the rest of the less-experienced caving group. Also, it's fairly subtle, but Beth displays [[Big Brother Instinct|Big Sister Instincts]] towards anyone in the group who needs it - she's constantly looking after the emotionally fragile (due to the death of her husband and child) Sarah, she gives her jacket to Holly after she breaks her leg and helps her stand and walk (along with Sam, [[The Medic]]) and she goes back to help Juno in the crawler fight, even though she doesn't like Juno much.

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Simon and Simon]]'': Brothers Rick and A.J. both exhibit this trope. Although Rick is older, he and A.J. are both protective of each other, as shown in almost any episode.

* ''[[The Colbert Report]]'': Stephen Colbert has admitted he sees [[The Daily Show|Jon Stewart]] as something of an older brother figure in [[Real Life]]. It's one of the few [[Real Life]] traits that bleed through into the characters' lives, most recently in the [[Melee a Trois]] crossover with Conan O'Brien, which Stewart only got involved in because he was protecting Colbert.

** Also, B.A., towards both of them. He's allowed to verbally abuse them and threaten them with physical violence on a regular basis, but if anyone else tries it...

*** A little odd in his case, seeing as, when you do some figuring, B.A. may actually be younger than Murdock, and possibly younger than/the same age as Face. He's still protective of them. But he'll never admit that he likes either of them, especially not Murdock.

** Angel actually is a big brother, and his evil alter ego Angelus killed his little sister.

** Simon rescued his little sister River from a bad place, and is very protective of her. Very much so. The Tams have an [[Undying Loyalty]] to each other, they provide a lot of the best [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] scenes and a number of [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moments of Awesome]].

** Captain Mal Reynolds extends something like this to his entire crew, but particularly Kaylee, whom he even refers to as ''mei-mei'' or "little sister" a couple of times.

* ''Everwood'' has a lot of that: Bright starts off being a bully in the pilot, but later on in the same episode it's revealed he cares a lot about his younger sister and her comatose boyfriend. That's also expanded throughout the first season, to the point that his friendship with Ephram stems from his desire to keep her sister happy (in real life, Bright's and Amy's actors actually dated). It could also be mentioned that Ephram was protective of Delia, and Dr Abbott also became sort of a father figure to his sister after their father died (even though they were both already adults).

* ''[[Gossip Girl]]'': Chuck and Serena with Eric (or is it Erick?), Dan with Jenny (especially on the pilot). Lily's siter also counts.

** Finn has developed this for Kurt, especially since their parents got married. The exchange between him and Burt when {{spoiler|1=Kurt decides to come back to McKinley}} says it all:

{{quote| '''Burt''': Keep an eye on your brother.<br />

** Or perhaps just a case of [[Relationship Writing Fumble]] and [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]].

*** And a serious one due to the fact that the fans have started asking the producers if Justin and Alex are going to end up together. It's [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|Disney]] [[Disney Channel|Channel]], ''after all''.

** Dean Winchester is absolutely insane on this point. 'Take care of Sammy' has been his entire life motto. He dies for him, he sells his soul to Hell for him, he keeps going back for him no matter how screwed up things get between them and what Sam gets dragged into, he takes him back no matter what...and honestly the way the show is written, the latter two there seem to cost him more than the first. Especially seasons four and six, when Sam was slipping darkside and walking around without his soul, respectively.

** Sam turns it back on Dean pretty hard, himself. Even in Season One he completely flew off the handle when Dean looked to die, and season three was all about saving Dean to him, and he pretty much lost his shit once Dean went to Hell.

* ''[[Burn Notice]]'': Michael Weston has this towards his little brother.

* Bill Scully Jr. of [[The X-Files]] has a Big Brother Instinct for his youngest sister Dana, though he can be a jerk about it and doesn't always bother to get all the facts before lashing out at people he sees have "wronged" her...like Mulder. Poor Mulder.

** Derek's just the most obvious. All of the characters have this towards Reid. Emily in particular joins Morgan in this, with her Older Sister-like relationship with Reid. For evidence, just look at her taking a beating in "Minimal Loss" to save Reid from getting shot, and this line from "Amplification":

{{quote| '''Emily''': [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right|Screw protocol; Reid's in trouble]].}}

** Peter towards Claire. [[Incest Subtext|Usually]]

* In ''[[Can You Hear My Heart]]'', Joon Ha goes so far as to abandon his biological family to take care of a boy with a hearing disability.

* We could be sure that Hassan from ''[[Over There]]'' was like this when Colonel Roye threatened him about his sister so he could tell him where the stingers are.

** There's also Booth and his younger brother Jared. Booth was willing to give up a massive RICO case which would have given him a promotion, a raise and a trip to Hawaii just to get Jared off on a drunk driving charge. He was also very dubious of Jared's love interest and actually did a background check on her.

* ''[[Lois and Clark]]'': The titular couple to Jimmy Olsen.

* ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'': When the tomb vampires kidnap and torture Stefan, his brother Damon literally massacres every vampire in the house.

* [[Prison Break]]: Linc toward Michael, and Michael - though the younger brother - to Linc.

{{quote| '''Jaye''': ''You don't screw with my family''.}}

* ''Warehouse13'': Both Pete and Myka, towards Claudia. Just try watching "Breakdown," and not awwwing a little. For her part, in Claudia's introductory episode, she breaks right into the freaking Warehouse and kidnaps one of the main characters in order to force him to help her rescue her brother Joshua, who was zapped into an interdimensional space (and not, as initially thought, killed) twelve years prior.

* ''[[Leverage]]'': Eliot is clearly starting to feel this way about Parker, although he doesn't like it and would never admit it. When a fake psychic caused her to break down in tears and run away, Elliot had to be restrained from killing the man. [[Vitriolic Best Buds|He also is this with Hardison, though they are quite hostile to each other]]

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Mycroft:'''}} Because I worry about him. Constantly.}}

* On ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' Eric shows this toward Cory intermittently, such as when he protect Cory from a bully.

 

== Video Games ==

** As a Big Daddy you also have the ability to adopt other Little Sisters and have them harvest ADAM for you. This leaves them vulnerable to attacks from splicers for about a minute during which you crush the skull of anyone who is trying to attack her.

* ''[[Resident Evil]]'' : Leon sure does go to a lot of trouble for Ashley and seems genuinely compassionate towards her, even if it IS part of his job.

** Oh, he's a very straight example of [[Big Brother Instinct]]. Note that Leon is only [[The Stoic]] when ''he's'' the one in danger, but he'll risk himself without hesitation to protect anyone who needs his help.

** Chris Redfield is another example. Not only does he go to Antarctica to rescue his sister in Resident Evil: Code Veronica, but in Resident Evil he watches out for the youngest STARS member Rebecca and saves her from a Hunter.

** Rock himself is the same way. When Wily reprogrammed his brothers, he became Mega Man, took them down, sent them back to the lab to be reprogramed back to normal, and Then defeated Wily with a BIG LOUD CRUNCH!

* Axel of [[Kingdom Hearts]], towards Roxas, after he started essentially [[Promotion to Parent|raising]] the amnesiac Nobody. Sort of a [[Knight Templar Parent|knight templar big brother]], given how much of a [[Poisonous Friend]] he is. Often misinterpreted as [[Ho Yay]] since the whole "raising Roxas" wasn't shown until a sequel released several years after the game where the [[Big Brother Instinct]] was initially shown.

** In the prequel game [[Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep|Birth by Sleep]], Terra has this towards Ventus. Threaten a hair on that kid's head and it doesn't matter if you're {{spoiler|Master Eraqus}}, he'll still beat you into the ground.

** Also in ''Twilight Princess'', he receives the same sort of treatment from Rusl, one of the villagers, who [[Word of God]] specifically states considers Link to be his younger brother.

* [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] treats Tails like a little brother. He will also protect him just like a big brother would, as Dr. Robotnik/Eggman learned ''the hard way'' in the 8-bit version of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]''.

** Sonic sometimes take this role for Cream The Rabbit in several official media's and fanfiction's.

* ''[[Infinite Space]]'' has [[The Hero|Yuri]] towards his little sister Kira (perhaps [[Brother-Sister Incest|a bit too much]]). There is also Teodoro, who is very protective to his brother, Adolfo.

* Luke, in the ''[[Professor Layton]]'' games, has a bit of a big brother complex toward Flora, despite being very obviously younger. [[It Makes Sense in Context]] -- Luke's known the Professor for a long time and has assisted in a number of investigations, while Flora is a [[Fish Out of Water]] in pretty much ''every'' situation due to her sheltered background, so both Luke and the [[Papa Wolf|Professor]] are protective of her.

* ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' for the most part is a mellow [[Cloudcuckoolander]] with a [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|pitiful attention span]]. However he will go through Cortex and every single one of his mooks should they mess with his little sister, Coco. Uka Uka boasting his intention to destroy her once she has [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|outlived her usefulness]] for his current scheme is about the one point [[Berserk Button|Crash takes the fearsome ancient god mask seriously]].

** Bethany Hawke as well. The first thing Hawke does when they meet Wesley is give the Templar a [[Death Glare]], ''before'' he makes clear his intentions. This is the reason her relationship meter is heavily tilted toward "friend." That, and her baaad case of [[Big Brother Worship]] (not that the two are unconnected).

* ''[[Corpse Party]]'' has Satoshi Mochida, who has this for his younger sister Yuka. Yuuya Kizami, who Yuka meets after she and Satoshi are separated, is also looking for his younger sister. {{spoiler|Except he doesn't ''have'' a younger sister and is, in fact, a brutal subversion.}}

** For added humor, Ducio turns up years later in ''Brotherhood'', still talking trash about Claudia, and Ezio gets to beat him up again.

* [[Final Fantasy XIII]]: Lightning Farron - [[Knight in Sour Armour|soldier]], [[Badass Abnormal|all around badass]] and (most importantly) [[Mama Bear|big sister]]. Her protective relationship with [[Squishy Wizard|Hope]] also serves as the plot device that sets up her [[Defrosting Ice Queen|defrosting]] [[Character Development|process]].

** Arguably {{spoiler|[[Tall Dark and Bishojo|Fang's]] overwhelming desire to save Vanille from [[And Then John Was a Zombie|turning into]] a [[Body Horror|Cie'th]] can be interpreted this way; bonus points for Vanille being visibly much younger and weaker in addition to being the [[Token Mini-Moe|cheeriest]], [[The Cutie|cutest]], and [[The Woobie|most tragic]] character of the cast.}}

{{quote| {{spoiler|"I'll tear down the sky if it'll save her."}}}}

 

 

== Visual Novels ==

{{quote| '''Ilya''': "You said an older brother protects his younger sister, right?... {{spoiler|[[Meaningful Echo|Yeah. I'm the older sister. So I have to protect my younger brother.]]}}"}}

 

 

== Web Comics ==

***** Occasionally Elliot has this towards Tedd, like [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2008-06-13 here] and [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-04-29 here].

** Grace's brothers also have some of this in them, though they don't show it nearly as much as Elliot does towards Ellen. Even though Damien scared them shitless, {{spoiler|Hedge}} tried to subvert the orders concerning her as much as he could without being killed.

* It would be unwise of you to mess with [[Catena|Bear]]'s younger sister Patches.

* Clark from Gold Coin Comics really shows this side when Tonya, his sister, [http://www.goldcoincomics.com/?id=127 runs into trouble]...

** Also, the thought of his twin sister dying is one of the few things that manages to unnerve {{spoiler|[[The Stoic|Dave]]}}.

** Worth noting is that Roy actually did have a little brother, ([[Dead Little Sister|key word here being ''did'']]), and Elan has a living [[Evil Twin|twin brother]] but has been shown explicitly thinking of Roy as his brother instead.

** And, of course, Roy has a literal little sister, for whom he feels the same protective need (despite crazy [[Lawful Good|morality]] [[True Neutral|differences]].) Proof? He went to rescue her from villains, knowing fully well that it was a trap all along].

* In [[Lackadaisy]], Viktor is violently protective of [[The Flapper|Ivy]]. To the extent that pretty much every boyfriend she wrangles is pounded to the point of a full body cast. This is particularly noticeable when you contrast it with how he reacts to others, which usually tops off at Vague Irritation at best.

 

 

* ''[[Broken Saints]]'': [[Heartwarming Orphan]] Shandala, the heroine, is looked after by her adopted parents' son as if she were his own flesh and blood.

* ''[[Dimension Heroes]]'': Rob displays this trope towards his fellow Dimensional Guardians, reasoning that as leader, he's responsible for their safety.

* Quite a few ponies in [[Equestria Chronicles]]

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'': Danny does this with his [[Opposite Sex Clone]]. Interestingly, he develops this instinct even with his ''older'' sister, becoming overprotective when she's in trouble or in the rare moments when she does something irrational.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'': Bart Simpson usually couldn't give a damn what happens to Lisa on a mundane basis, and the two have an intense sibling rivalry, but his instinct does kick in every time something serious happens.

* Perry the platypus from ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' seems to be like this to the title characters, judging by how much more viciously he attacks his [[Friendly Enemies|nemesis]] Doofenshmirtz when his current scheme would put Phineas and Ferb into danger. Possibly to Candace as well, but it's hard to tell.

{{quote| '''Candace-2:''' [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|I'll do anything to protect the ones I love.]]}}

** Sarah herself is this to Jimmy, she maybe is a [[Spoiled Brat]] but this is arguably one of her redeeming qualities.

** {{spoiler|'''''BRUTALLY''''' subverted with Eddy and his brother.}}

* Skipper and Kowalski of ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'' display this toward Private occasionally, covering his eyes or ears to protect him from "inappropriate" content.

* [[Franklin]] Turtle, without a doubt, seen in the third season in "Big Brother Franklin" when Franklin took to looking after a little kid named Squirrel. He also became a "best friend big brother" to Bear's little sister, Beatrice. Eventually, Paulette Bourgeois finally made him a big brother for real in the book "Franklin's Baby Sister" and the film ''Franklin and the Green Knight'' soon followed.

* [[Wild Kratts]] has the Kratt Brothers, who both play it straight and invert it. Most obvious in episode 20 when, even though Martin's been turned into a tree, he's still worried for little bro Chris and how his current small size makes him a target for many, many predators.

* Kenny McCormick from ''[[South Park]]'' cares a great deal about his younger sister, Karen. So much so that {{spoiler|he dresses up as his superhero persona, Mysterion, and acts as her [[Guardian Angel]].}} [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Awww.]]

** Alternatively and less immediate, Kyle and Ike's relationship has varied throughout the course of the show; originally, Ike was more of an [[Annoying Younger Sibling]] who idolized Kyle, following him to school and copying his mannerisms, while Kyle held a more superficial malice towards his brother (when he learned Ike was adopted, he completely shunned him for a while). Nowadays, Kyle goes to great lengths to keep his little brother safe, from stopping him from running off to Somalia, to dragging his friends to Canada on Christmas Eve to get Ike back from his biological parents. Ike has now become one of Kyle's greatest drives (seconded only to Kyle's antagonism towards Cartman.)

* ''[[The Clone Wars|Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'': Obi-Wan to Anakin, who in turn is to Ahsoka.