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*Glen Maverick from ''[[Surf's Up]]''
 
*Glen Maverick from ''[[Surf's Up]]''
 
*Mabel Pines from [[Gravity Falls|''Gravity Falls'']] has no compunctions in selling out her own little brother for her own personal gain and when Dipper is about to leave her to pursue his goals, she is fully willing to hand over the rift to Bill fully aware it's going to cause an apocalypse just so that Dipper will not end up leaving with her. [[Karma Houdini|She absolutely never gets called out on this]].
 
*Mabel Pines from [[Gravity Falls|''Gravity Falls'']] has no compunctions in selling out her own little brother for her own personal gain and when Dipper is about to leave her to pursue his goals, she is fully willing to hand over the rift to Bill fully aware it's going to cause an apocalypse just so that Dipper will not end up leaving with her. [[Karma Houdini|She absolutely never gets called out on this]].
  +
**In contrast to Stanley or the Pines twins who showed a [[Big Brother Instinct]], Stanford Pines himself is both physical and emotional example of this trope, in that he doesn't hesitate to disown Stanley just for a single mistake and doesn't give a damn about any of his problems, hardships or even maternal feelings from him best shown when he only called ten years later just for a menial task and later one when after his younger brother has spent thirty years just to save him, he "[[Ungrateful Bastard|thanked]]" him by demanding that he move out of the Shack immediately once summer ends, despite the fact that he is fully aware that Stanley Pines is dead to the public and will leave him as a homeless criminal. As a result, it is hardly surprising that Stanley point blank tell Ford that twins are the only family left to his face and the latter doesn't care about it. Also whenever he and Stanley engage in physical violence, it is always Ford the one to initiate it, whether by provoking him or simply just attacked him first.
 
{{reflist}}
 
{{reflist}}
 
[[Category:The Bully]]
 
[[Category:The Bully]]

Revision as of 06:23, 16 July 2018

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Older siblings as bullies towards their younger siblings as well as others.

Related tropes: Kids Are Cruel, Teens Are Monsters (because the big brother/sister is often a teenager as compared to the younger more sympathetic protagonist).

Compare Aloof Big Brother, Sibling Rivalry. Contrast Big Brother Instinct; oftens mixes with it in the "The only one allowed to bully my little brother is me!" sense.

Unfortunately, very Truth in Television ... and sometimes even a big sister.

Examples of Big Brother Bully include:


Anime and Manga


Film - Live Action


Literature

  • Ender's Game: Peter to Ender and Valentine.
  • Harry Potter's cousin/adopted brother Dudley Dursley. He improves too.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire has many examples.
    • Gregor Clegane, towards Sandor and their unnamed baby sister. He kills the little girl and almost does the same to the little boy, leaving him badly scarred.
    • Viserys Targaryen towards his younger sister Daenerys.
    • Also, Joffrey Baratheon to Tommen and Myrcella. It's strongly implied that he actually raped them.
    • Theon Greyjoy's memory of his brothers Rodrik and Maron are cheifly of "Rodrik's drucken cuff and Maron's cruel japes.
      • It seems to run in the Greyjoy family. Theon's uncle Aeron still has nightmares about his older brother Euron Crow's Eye. As with Joff above, it's strongly implied Euron raped Aeron.
  • Edmund Pevensie is this to Lucy in the beginning of The Chronicles of Narnia, despite not being the oldest. In fact, Peter harshly calls him out on it when he pretends to side with her and then humiliates her.
  • Played for Drama in When She Was Good by Norma Fox Mazer. Em's older sister Pamela brutally abuses her, physically and emotionally. In fact, she is suspected by psychologists to have some sort of mental illness. Em and Pamela end up moving out, and Em works while Pamela stays at home and forces her to have a very strict routine, cooking for her and cleaning for her. The book deals with what happens after Pamela unexpectedly dies of a stroke.
  • In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick. Just like in the movies, he's a complete Jerkass who just abuses Greg and his friends gets away with it. Greg has his moments and had intended to become this to Manny, but he's much less of a jerk than his brother and a couple times when he's done stuff to Manny it was usually good-natured. (Likely because he can't get away with a thing with Manny.)
  • Fisk claims that his older sister Judith in the Knight and Rogue Series was and perhaps still is one of these (he expresses a desire repeatedly for her to turn out to be the criminal they're tracking). While some of the past actions he claims sound rude at best, she does nothing worse than one-up him in arguments while present in the story.
  • Amelia Peabody got this from pretty much all her brothers, but especially her oldest brother James:
Cquote1

 "Dear Amelia. You haven't changed since you were a little girl. Do you remember the time..."

There he stuck, probably because he couldn't recall any fond memories of our childhood. I certainly had none that included him.

Cquote2
  • Charlie Angelfield in The Thirteenth Tale intends to make a victim of his much younger sister. This doesn't work as planned, and they instead become more like partners in crime.


Live Action TV

  • Ian and Paul Branagh to Robin in Young Dracula.
  • The Wonder Years: Kevin's big brother Wayne.
  • Malcolm in the Middle plays this quite well. The real oldest brother, Francis, is away from the family nearly the entire series, and he's more of a Big Brother Mentor during the series, but still has moments that fall under this trope. The next eldest brother, Reese fills this role for Malcolm & Dewey for the majority of the series, although Malcolm gives as much as he he receives and joins in with bullying Dewey; and after the birth of Jamie, neither one bullies him & both assume similar roles to what they share with Francis. Dewey, being the youngest for most the series, doesn't fall under this but gets a few The Dog Bites Back episodes; and after Jamie's born, complains that it's not fair that Reese & Malcolm got the Cool Big Brother Francis when they were kids, but Francis left for military school before Dewey form any memories of having a cool big brother - Francis then reveals that he treated Malcolm & Reese the same way they treat Dewey when he was younger.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation: Robert Picard to Jean-Luc, as shown in "Family".
    • Also Lore to Data.
  • That 70s Show: Female example, with older sister Laurie being this to Eric. No wonder he and his friends call her "the witch".
  • Brad and Randy to Mark on Home Improvement, especially in the earlier episodes, when they were too young to really know better.
  • Frasier: Crane has elements of this towards his little brother Niles. However, Niles is far from a poor helpless victim of his brother's torment, and can usually give as good as he gets.


Video Games


Web Comics

  • Mike to Angel in The Good Witch, but only in their original history; his memory of that has been erased.


Web Original

  • The Other Guy to The Nostalgia Critic. Of course this is only in-character, Rob and Doug play around but could easily be classed as Heterosexual Life Partners.
  • It is heavily implied that Marie Swanson of Erikas New Perfume was this to the title character before getting turned into a three-year-old. The sequel had her get turned back into a 16-year-old and strike fear into Erika every chance she got.


Western Animation

  • In The Simpsons, Bart is sometimes like this toward Lisa.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: Eddy's brother
    • Inverted with little sister Sarah bullying big brother Ed.
  • Mac's terrible older brother named Terrence from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
  • Kick Buttowski's older brother Brad.
    • In one episode, Kick gets wrestling lessons from a former wrestler, whose wrestling school was taken over by his own Big Brother Bully, who in turn is teaching Brad as well.
  • Raphael in the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon was shown to bully Michelangelo when they were little, although he is a bit nicer to him when they're older he does smack him when he says something stupid.
  • South Park: Stan's older sister Shelly
  • Tommy Turnbull's older brother, Donnie, from Robotboy.
  • Duncan Douglas, the older brother of Dexter Douglas.
  • Inverted in Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the little sister, Azula, bullies her big brother Zuko.
  • Bobby's World: Bobby's older brother Derek
  • Hey Arnold: Gerald's older brother Jamieo
  • In the Mega Man cartoon, Proto Man was this.
  • Recess: Averted with Vince's older brother Chad, subverted with T.J.'s older sister Becky, since she's nicer to him at the end of Recess: School's Out, but mostly just a Bratty Teenage Daughter, and as for Spinelli's older brother Joey, not much is known about him...except that he's in prison.
  • In Rugrats, Drew was like this to Stu when they were kids and doesn't quite seem to have grown out of it.
  • Vicky is this to her little sister Tootie in The Fairly Odd Parents.
  • The first few episodes of Stanley depicted Lionel as this; He turned into a Cool Big Brother after that.
  • Scowler from Walking with Dinosaurs
  • Glen Maverick from Surf's Up
  • Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls has no compunctions in selling out her own little brother for her own personal gain and when Dipper is about to leave her to pursue his goals, she is fully willing to hand over the rift to Bill fully aware it's going to cause an apocalypse just so that Dipper will not end up leaving with her. She absolutely never gets called out on this.
    • In contrast to Stanley or the Pines twins who showed a Big Brother Instinct, Stanford Pines himself is both physical and emotional example of this trope, in that he doesn't hesitate to disown Stanley just for a single mistake and doesn't give a damn about any of his problems, hardships or even maternal feelings from him best shown when he only called ten years later just for a menial task and later one when after his younger brother has spent thirty years just to save him, he "thanked" him by demanding that he move out of the Shack immediately once summer ends, despite the fact that he is fully aware that Stanley Pines is dead to the public and will leave him as a homeless criminal. As a result, it is hardly surprising that Stanley point blank tell Ford that twins are the only family left to his face and the latter doesn't care about it. Also whenever he and Stanley engage in physical violence, it is always Ford the one to initiate it, whether by provoking him or simply just attacked him first.