Youngest Child Wins: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
<!-- If you think you have an example with only two siblings, think *very carefully* before you add it. -->
{{quote|''"The LORD said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger.'"''
|''[[The Bible]]''}}
▲{{quote|''"The LORD said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger.'"''|''[[The Bible]]''}}
A common [[Fairy Tale]] situation. Whenever multiple siblings are portrayed, the youngest is the hero; the older ones are either evil or just [[Muggle|boring]].
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Often this carries undertones of underdog vindication, as in any setting in which inheritance occurs by primogeniture the youngest will naturally get the short end of the stick.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* This trope is rife in adverts for family games, such as board games and multiplayer platforms. The advert will typically display a family of four in which the youngest child (typically a girl, though not always) will win. On the boxes for older board games, the young child will be grinning with clenched fists whilst the father will have head in hands.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Misty from ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' doesn't have the model-esque beauty of her older sisters, but she did get all the talent as a trainer. The other three are just content to give badges away.
* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has eldest Kyouya, middle Miyuki, youngest Nanoha. Guess who gets mad magic skillz.
** Inverted by ''[[Triangle Heart 3 ～sweet songs forever～]]'', in which Kyouya is the protagonist. He has more training and fewer reservations about fighting than Miyuki (who only started training after her father's death, and mostly to protect Fiasse) does, and Nanoha is useless in combat, her role here as a cute [[Token
* There are three Tendo sisters in ''[[Ranma ½]]''. Guess which one gets to be the main character love interest of the titular martial artist? In the sense that the older two foisted the [[Arranged Marriage]] onto the youngest in milliseconds, at least...
** Also note despite all three of them growing up in a dojo, Akane seems to be the only one who knows martial arts...
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* In "[[East of the Sun and West of the Moon]]", the bear asks for the woodcutter's youngest daughter.
* In "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140704200150/http://surlalunefairytales.com/authors/crane/dancingwater.html The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird]", it is the youngest daughter who promises to have marvelous children and marries the king. This is the usual form of this tale, but [[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|The Brothers Grimm]] "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140703172148/http://surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/96threelittlebirds.html The Three Little Birds]" features the oldest as the heroine.
* In "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131207045438/http://surlalunefairytales.com/bearskin/index.html Bearskin]", the youngest daughter agrees to marry the hero while he is filthy, hairy, and wearing a bearskin. Other variants of this type of fairy tale include "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140119234006/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/bearskin/stories/dongiovanni.html Don Giovanni de la Fortuna]", "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090319030931/http://www.gwu.edu/~folktale/GERM232/bearskin/web%20pages/SoldierandtheBadMan.html The Soldier and the Bad Man]", "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090319030926/http://www.gwu.edu/~folktale/GERM232/bearskin/web%20pages/RoadtoHell.html The Road to Hell]" (where she actively cleans him up), "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140117195302/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/bearskin/stories/rewardkindness.html The Reward of Kindness]", [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0361.html#sutermeister "The Devil As Partner" and "Never Wash"]. Some versions of the story, however, have it that it's the middle daughter who consents to be his bride.
* In "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131207044620/http://surlalunefairytales.com/diamondstoads/index.html Diamonds and Toads]", the younger daughter is polite to the fairy and wins a reward.
* In "[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/426.htm The White Dove]", a [[Wicked Witch]] gets two brothers to promise her their younger brother for their safety; then she kidnaps the younger brother and tries to destroy him with impossible tasks. When he survives and returns, the older brother confess and insist that he be their father's heir.
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* Lampshaded and subverted in [[Diana Wynne Jones]]'s ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'', where Sophie, the heroine, is the eldest of three sisters and knows that it's her younger sister who is destined for greatness. {{spoiler|The twist is that Sophie is actually the most magically powerful of them, and the youngest just wants to live a peaceful, happy, and mundane life.}}
* In [[C. S. Lewis]]'s ''[[Narnia]]'' books, Lucy is the first to find Narnia, and the one who has the closest connection to Narnia and Aslan.
* One story from
* In ''[[The Indian in the Cupboard]]'' series, Omri is the youngest of three, so he's naturally the one all the cool stuff happens to.
* Played with twice by [[Isaac Asimov]] in two separate stories. In the earlier one, a queen has triplets, causing the king a bit of consternation as to which one will have the adventures. (Things take care of themselves, however, as the last one out has the most success.) In the later, the protagonist prince is an only child, and again the king cites this trope (whereupon his wife points out ''he's'' not the one that had to give birth).
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* Set in a fairy tale world, the webcomic ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest For The Wicked]]'' makes a bit of a running gag out of this.
{{quote|She's a youngest, if y'get my meanin'.}}
* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', Belkar's [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0125.html sob story to gain experience] features himself as the youngest.
* In ''[[Narbonic]]'' Dave, the younger sibling, is constantly stressing over how much cooler, better looking, etc. his older brother was, despite the numerous things he'd done that made him unique, like going to the moon. His mind is almost put at ease when his friends meet his brother though.
{{quote|'''Artie''': We decided you're much cooler than Bill.
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