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Big brothers...you know why they're born first? To protect the little ones that come after them!
One very common way to establish that a male character is a nice guy (even if the niceness is hidden under a gruff exterior) is to give him an instinctive desire to be a big brother to smaller, younger, weaker or female characters. These other characters may be truly younger siblings, or they may be completely unrelated, or even older, and the tendency for males to act as their protector is the Big Brother Instinct. Female examples exist, though in a smaller proportion.
The Big Brother Instinct serves to explain why fan attraction to Moe tropes and devices can be an emotional, 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).
If both characters are male, the older (or in the case of twins, the physically stronger) brother will usually act as the younger/smaller brother's protector, to the point of treating him like a child, even when the younger brother is fully capable of protecting himself. This behavior can come across as loving and nurturing or as condescending and smothering. If the older brother goes to extreme, morally questionable lengths for the sake of the younger sibling, then they are a Knight Templar Big Brother. And while Good Feels Good, it could feel too good.
Compare Cool Big Sis, Mama Bear, Papa Wolf and Promotion To Parent. Contrast Big Brother Bully.
Has nothing to do with the TV show Big Brother. The 1984 meaning of "Big Brother" is covered under Big Brother Is Watching.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- Quicksilver is protective to the point of jealousy when it comes to his sister the Scarlet Witch. This is taken further in Ultimate Marvel.
- The Mighty Thor: Thor treated Loki this way in early flashbacks to their childhood; however, it only aggravated Loki's already raging inferiority complex, putting him on the path to villainy.
- However, after Loki accidentally (YMMV) brought about the near-total destruction of Asgard, was killed in a last-ditch heroic sacrfice 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 becuase 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 agrees to restore the Ragnarok Cycle all to save Thor from being killed by The Serpent.
- X-Men:
- 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.
- Batman: Between Nightwing and (adopted) little brother Tim Drake - one issue had Tim believed to have been murdered by the Joker when a mass Arkham escape was in progress. Nightwing takes it hard.
- Not to mention Dick and Batman's biological son Damian, who eventually softens up to Dick, though he probably wouldn't say it out loud to Dick.
- Occurs with (intentionally invoked) Unfortunate Implications in American Born Chinese: When the Chinese boy Jin starts to date his classmate Amelia Harris, an Anglo friend strongly urges Jin to stop, saying he wants her to "make good choices."
- In a Star Wars: Tales series, mercenary Darca Nyl comes across a mentally handicapped GIANT of a man and his petite sister fleeing from pursuers. One night, while camping, the girl is set upon by a huge and vicious predator. Darca knows that he can't reach them in time to save her, when the man leaps at the beast with a large rock in his hands. Several minutes later, the creature has long since stopped moving and he keeps smashing at it with the rock.
Fanfiction
- The Firefly fanfic Forward has a very plausible version of this develop between Jayne and River, after they end up relying on one another to survive and escape being tortured by Niska.
- Uriel Dolheb Sohryu in the Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfic Nobody Dies has this towards Asuka Langley Sohryu, given that she's his adopted sister and he feels compelled to protect her and make her happy, even if he has absolutely no idea how to do it beyond giving Shinji the If You Ever Do Anything To Hurt Her speech. His Big Brother Instinct also extends to Asuka's half-sister Mari Illustrious Makinami, to the point where her attempts to flirt with him fly completely over his head.
- Do not threaten Kanae in front of Kyon in Kyon: Big Damn Hero. Do not try and kill Kyon once he's done teaching you why you shouldn't attack Kanae. She may not be his little sister, but he treats her like one.
- In Axis Powers Hetalia's Fanon, it's a known fact that America is protective of his twin brother Canada. Sometimes, he's portrayed as an over-protective brother whenever another nation is interested in Canada.
- 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 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.
- In the Batman fic The Choice of Family, it was inverted when Tim and Damian angrily called out Jason for putting Dick in danger and having him end up at the hospital. But it was played straight in the sequel Antidote for the Poison where Jason was furious when he found out Tim was injected with a dangerous amount of heroin by some drug dealers. When he cornered said drug dealer, who knows what he might have done if Damian wasn't there.
"You took my little brother, tied him up, pumped him full of heroin, and left him to die in this shit hole. Now I ask you: do you think I have the slightest bit of remorse about cutting you open and letting your guts decorate the floor?"
- 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.
- Raonar, the Guile Hero dwarven prince in Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns develops some advanced protective tendencies towards the dwarven commoner, Faren, as evident when the former finds the latter trapped in his worst nightmare during the Broken Circle questline in the Fade. The resolution with the sloth demon can be seen as a partial subversion, however, because it's Faren himself who, ultimately, curbstomps the demon before the protagonist sends him over to Justice to be dealt with properly.
- A female example in 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 Buttons, which Cyros finds out the hard way when she performs a Break the Cutie on Ember and gets her kidnapped. Cynder reacts 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.
- In the Death Note fanfic Xanatos, Matt shows this toward Linda, most notably in chapter 3.
- In Harry's New Home, the normally law-abiding Percy snapped when he found out someone tried to Crucio Ron.
Literature
- John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men has a western example of this trope in which George Milton, a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, cares for Lenny Small, a mentally retarded Gentle Giant.
- In The Dresden Files:
- Harry becomes this to Molly when her magical talents manifest.
- He does it to his half-brother Thomas despite the fact that Thomas is the older brother.
- 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 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, Inari.
- Kincaid and The Archive have a similar relationship. He knew her grandmother, which explain his more-than-professional devotion to Ivy.
- Chronicles of Narnia: Peter, especially if it's about Edmund.
- The movie version of Prince Caspian portrays Susan falling in love with Caspian. Peter definitely seems to oppose Caspian in every matter, getting to the point where they almost battle each other. It's almost as if Peter is destined, from the beginning, to hate the guy and bash him, while his little sister is instantly swept off her feet by him.
- Edmund develops this for 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.
- Dragonlance Chronicles: Critical to Raistlin Majere's backstory. He spent his youth under the overprotective influence of his twin brother, Caramon. While Caramon grew up tall, handsome, muscular, and a bit dense, Raistlin was intelligent, but sickly and alienated, with no friends but his brother. Seeking to prove his worth to his smothering "big brother" and the world at large, Raistlin seeks the power to topple Gods, and gets it. Deprived of a little brother to protect, Caramon falls into alcoholic depression.
- Harry Potter: Ron Weasley reveals this in "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince", when he discovers Ginny and Dean's relationship. She is so annoyed by him, at one point, that she snaps and mocks him for never having been kissed by a girl.
- Actually, Ron's revealed this earlier, nearly trying to curse Malfoy (with a broken wand that has already backfired once on him) for being mean to Ginny. Basically, the two best ways to get Ron angry are to insult either Ginny or Hermione.
- Eclipse Hunter: Devon falls under this trope very easily, and fills many different archetypes. He's willing to shoot his own father if it means protecting Daren.
- In The Thief Lord, Prosper's protectiveness of Bo is the main motivation behind his character. He runs away from his aunt with Bo to prevent their separation, joins a gang of urchins and even steals to make sure his brother is well fed and sheltered, and goes into a major Heroic BSOD when Bo is finally taken away.
- The Darkest Powers series gives us Derek. He has a Big Brother Instinct that's Up to Eleven when it comes to his foster brother, Simon. Derek is also a werewolf. So on top of the fact that he is, personality-wise, very protective of Simon (and anyone else he cares about), he also has the wolf's "protect my pack" instinct to deal with. Assaulting one of his "pack" is his Berserk Button. Unfortunately for Derek, since he can't usually control his reaction when his brother is in danger no matter how much he's tried to coach himself, his supercharged Big Brother Instinct has led to at least one My God, What Have I Done? moment.
- In "Watership Down", Hazel is usually calm and collected, but god help you if you mistreat Fiver or Pipkin.
- Kaladin from The Stormlight Archive develops one of these for every relatively (around 14) young male he comes across in the course of the story. This stems from his feelings of guilt over failing to protect his actual younger brother in the course of a minor border dispute between rival lords of his nation. Every one of these individuals ends up dead.
- The CalLeandros 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 TheVampireDiaries 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 Song of the Lioness developed this for 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.
- Alan and Nick Ryves in The Demon's Lexicon.
- 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.
- And both Alec and Seregil are always and at any time rather protective towards Beka (in Seregil's case it is also a rather paternal feeling; he states himself she's as close for a daughter to him as it will ever get.) - including being suspicious about her lover, checking him up, threatening him not to harm her... Beka is not impressed.
- Tamir Triad: You better not insult Tobin when his squire/best friend Ki is around. (and in fact thanks to plot this brother-friendship later gets rather difficult)
- An even creepier example might be the ghost Brother. Tobin's older twin who died after birth and turned into an angry spirit. After Tobin learned how to keep him in check Brother actually got extremely protective - despite the claims of some characters this troper never could shake the feeling that Brother DOES feel affection and brotherly love towards his sibling. Albeit in a twisted way.
- In The Outsiders, everyone was this towards Johnny since his abusive parents could care less about him. Also, Ponyboy's two older brothers Sodapop and Darry, especially after their parents' death.
- Brandon Stark was this for his sister Lyanna in the backstory to A Song of Ice and Fire. When Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen abducted and raped her, Brandon rode off to King's Landing with a few companions to kill Rhaegar and rescue his sister. It didn't go well....
- In Ender's Game, the reason that Ender was willing to go to Battle School and join the International Fleet was to protect his sister Valentine, although he was actually her little brother.
- 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 to save a girl he liked, this is magnified a thousand fold, and helps to fuel his change into a badass angster.
Animated Film
- An American Tail: Fievel tries to ward off the Cossacks' cats for that reason.
- Brother Bear: Kenai hates bears, and finds 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, with Bonnie, who is a Shrinking Violet. He kneels down at eye-level to her and introduces all his toys to her and even played with all his toys one last time with Bonnie before he left.
- Fly in Help! I'm a Fish, who's pretty caring when it comes to Stella, his little sister. Case in point: When it seems like searching for her in starfish-form in the ocean via boat is hopless, he doesn't hesistate to drink a potentially dangerous potion and dive in, in order to continue searching.
Live-Action Film
- The Blind Side: With only a split second to act, Michael instinctively saved adoptive little brother SJ from being seriously injured or killed during their car accident.
- X-Men: For all Wolverine's (many many) flaws, Victor "Sabertooth" Creed really does love his little brother Jimmy, very very much.
- Also, from the same movie, Kayla appears to be willing to do just about anything to keep her sister safe.
- X-Men: First Class: Darwin develops this for the younger mutant recruits, especially when Shaw attacked the CIA base. Unfortunately, this only gets him killed by Shaw when he tries to protect Angel from him.
- 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.
- Arguably, Erik developed this for Charles. He went out of his way to protect Charles during the Cuban Missile Crisis, even stopping his attack on the American and Russian naval forces when Charles was shot.
- Push: Nick and Cassie.
- House of Wax: Nick posesses the instinct quite strongly, which makes his behavior towards his younger sister, Carly, look filled with Incest Subtext.
- 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 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 his sister. Suffice to say, he doesn't react well.
- The Godfather's Sonny Corleone, in spades. He launches into one of the most epic No Holds Barred Beatdowns in film history against his brother-in-law after he finds his sister with a black eye. The enemy family Barzini later uses this instinct against Sonny by paying Carlo to deliver a savage beating to his wife in order to easily set up an ambush for Sonny.
- 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.
- Eomer to Eowyn in The Lord of the Rings. He was furious that Wormtongue was following his sister. For that matter, Eowyn didn't want Wormtongue anywhere near her either.
- And let's not forget Tony Montana. Just a tad bit too protective of his little sister Gina, even going as far as murdering her husband the day after they were married.
- Peter Garret in Vertical Limit climbs up K2 to rescue his sister Annie
- 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, 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 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 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.
- Aussie horror flick Black Water is actually rather sweet in spots due to it's use of this trope. Initially, we have both Grace and her boyfriend Adam towards Grace's shyer, more panicked sister Lee. However, Lee turns out to have one hell of a Little Sister Instinct herself. You see it emerging slowly throughout the film, but once Grace is injured, Lee is literally willing to face down crocodiles if it means she can get her sister out of there and to a hospital. Turns out she's just much braver for her sister's sake than she is for her own.
Live Action TV
- iCarly Spencer in regards to Carly and Gibby to his little brother Guppy.
- The Colbert Report: Stephen Colbert has admitted he sees 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 Męlée ŕ Trois crossover with Conan O'Brien, which Stewart only got involved in because he was protecting Colbert.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike takes pains to keep Dawn from harm in a few episodes, when Buffy or the Scoobies are unavailable to do so.
- Face and Murdock show this for each other quite a bit. Murdock is older than Face, but they both have their share of 'big brother' moments when it comes to looking out for each other.
- 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: Played for laughs in an episode, when Angel and Doyle deliberately act in an over-protective fashion towards a prospective boyfriend of Cordelia's in order to mess with her.
- Angel actually is a big brother, and his evil alter ego Angelus killed his little sister.
- Everyone seems to get this really bad for Fred. Well, except for her love interests. They kinda got something worse...
- Firefly is a show that brothers and sisters over the world can watch together and feel happy, warm feelings for each other.
- 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 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.
- Inara is also very willing to play the Big Sister role. "Mei-mei" is most commonly used by her towards other (usually younger) female characters.
- 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.
- Jane Lynch's character in Glee: pure evil, except for her ill sister.
- Finn has developed this for Kurt, especially since their parents got married. The exchange between him and Burt when Kurt decides to come back to McKinley says it all:
Burt: Keep an eye on your brother.
Finn: Way ahead of you.
- Justin, from Wizards of Waverly Place, always fixes Alex's mistakes and saves her from impending doom. She even admits that she always expects him to do so.
- Brutally subverted in the Cold Case episode "Shuffle, Ball Change". The victim's brother was simultaneously protective and fond of his younger brother, yet he derided his ambitions to be a dancer and ultimately murdered him in a fit of jealous rage over his impending success (along with grief over his own failure as a wrestler).
- Dean and Sam Winchester, of Supernatural. This is a show that's actually about being brothers. (The bromance being fashionable this decade.)
- 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.
- And he overpowered Satan for Dean in the Season 5 finale. Sure it saved the world, but it wasn't the world he thought about. But he's actually four years younger, and Dean practically raised him.
- The angel Castiel gets adopted as an unofficial third Winchester brother some time in Season 5.*
This is codified in dialogue late in Season 6, when he's going darkside on them with the best intentions, like Sam did two seasons previous. Because he is young to the world and they are young to being and lack power, the 'big brother' role swaps back and forth a lot, and sometimes Dean and Cas are both big-brothering one another in the same scene. Though Dean never turns the Sam-level obsessiveness on Cas.
- The evil thing doing an overwrite of Dean's mind and body in 7.06 complained that he "doesn't have relationships, no, he has applications for sainthood," which is pretty much just that raging protectiveness and self-sacrifice is pretty much the only setting he has for people he cares about. Which isn't to say he can't be a raging dick to these same people, because he can, but Big Brother's Privilege.
- NUMB3RS: Don Eppes was always Charlie's protector and on the few occasions when criminals come after Charlie, Don becomes a Papa Wolf and decides that It's Personal . Don also shows concern that Charlie will be affected by the grim aspects of law enforcement and feels a little awkward accepting help that might conflict with Charlie's career as a professor.
- 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.
- In Criminal Minds Derek Morgan definitely acts like this towards Spencer Reid, especially if he's in danger/threatened with his life. "I'm gonna get this guy's head on a pike" says it all.
- 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:
- Heroes: Nathan Petrelli to his little (26-year-old) brother, Peter. Sometimes... When it comes down to it, it's clear that he loves his brother. (Of course: after Peter saved him from dying, Nathan tells him flat-out he wouldn't have done the same .)
- Some fans see the relationship between Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson this way. Others have a slightly different opinion.
- 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.
- One from Power Rangers. Vida, the Pink Mystic Force Ranger, is already a pretty aggressive character. But threaten (or otherwise belittle) her sister Madison, and it doesn't matter whether you're an enemy or a colleague. Vida will tear you in half.
- Barbara Havers is a cranky, foul-mouthed junk food addict who can't seem to work well with anyone in the police force except her partner Thomas Lynley. On the other hand, she is incredibly good with children and will go to any lengths to protect them.
- Bones: Booth and Brennan toward their psychologist, Sweets. His old mentor flat-out states in one episode that Sweets - raised in an abusive home, adopted by a loving older couple who then died when Sweets was in his late teens or early 20s - is subconsciously seeking to build a surrogate family with the pair.
- 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.
- ER: Many of the older staff toward Carter, but particularly Greene and Benton - the latter to the point of being a Papa Wolf.
- TheVampireDiaries: 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.
- In Wonderfalls, much though Jaye finds her family irritating, she has a very strong Little Sister Instinct. In one episode, after a guy punches her brother (played by the rather tall Lee Pace), Jaye (played by the decidedly smaller Caroline Dhavernas) manages to lay out the guy with a single punch.
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.
- Farscape: Crichton towards Chiana.
- 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. He also is this with Hardison, though they are quite hostile to each other
- Mycroft to Sherlock.
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.
- Damon has this for Stefan on The Vampire Diaries, in a way.
- In Merlin, Arthur and the rest of the knights seem to be developing this for Merlin during Season 4. All of them were horrified when Merlin nearly died saving Arthur from the Dorocha and then warmly welcomed him back when he recovered. Of course, this protectiveness is a little misplaced since he could easily take on all of them with his powers!
- In Blue Bloods, Danny is this with both Erin and Jamie, but especially with Jamie, since his gut instinct in crisis situations seems to be making sure his "kid" is safe.
- In Wishbone Sam see a team mate being picked on so she takes him under her wing and teaches him to play better.
Mythology and Religion
- Greek mythology: Apollo tricked his twin sister Artemis into killing Orion because he feared this was one guy she could give up her vow of chastity for.
- To the great suprise of those who watched the movie Troy, Agamemnon in the origial Classical Mythology has this in spades. Paris fucked with Menelaus, Agamemnon will make Troy burn
- More "little sister instinct" . St Angela Merici was grieved when her older sister died without rites. Then she received a vision telling her that her sister was in heaven. In gratitude she devoted the rest of her life to religion and service to the poor. Ah....
Professional Wrestling
- The Hardy brothers, Matt and Jeff. Matt as the older brother, both in story lines and Real Life, often plays this role. (When he's not this, he instead is the Jerkass.)
- A group of GLOW villains kidnapped Little Fiji to lure her older sister Mountain Fiji out of the arena to ensure Mountain Fiji wouldn't get another victory.
Video Games
- The Big Daddies and Little Sisters in Bioshock are based directly on this trope. The Big Daddies are massive cyborgs that have been programmed to always watch over the Little Sisters and protect them at all costs, while the Little Sisters are conditioned to always stay close to a Big Daddy and rely on them for protection. Neither Big Daddies nor Little Sisters are agressive and attack on their own, but unfortunately you need the ADAM the Little Sisters extract from corpses with huge syringes, which they don't give up willingly. And when somebody touches a Little Sister her Big Daddy will fight to the death.
- Bioshock 2 goes even further and puts you in the role of a Big Daddy whose Little Sister was taken away and who had been dead for 10 years. When he is revived, the Little Sister Eleanor calls for his help to rescue her from her mother's imprisonment. For most of the game you put half of Rapture upside down and tear through hordes of splicers to get back to her and save her.
- 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.
- The main character (whether male or female), Akihiko and Junpei serve as adopted big bros (and sis) to Ken in Persona 3. Akihiko's issues related to his Dead Little Sister mean that he also has some protective big brother impulses towards Fuuka and the female protagonist. Shinjiro is similarly protective towards Fuuka and constantly laments what happened in Ken's past. In Persona 4, the main character acts this way towards Nanako, whcih leads to many moments that make you go aaaww. In short, Persona loves this trope.
- Galaxy Angel gameverse: Noa, although she's got some plans of her own.
- Kana Little Sister: This trope is played to the max. The player assumes the role of a boy who cares for his terminally ill younger sister.
- Prototype: Mess with Dana Mercer, and your best bet is most likely being eaten alive by big brother Alex. Ironically, the character you play, Virus!Mercer, is a lot more caring about Dana than the real Alex Mercer, who was responsible for the virus to start with and is just a Complete Monster in general.
- Tales Of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World A skit has Emil acting this way towards Cute Bruiser Presea, much to the consternation of Clingy Jealous Girl Marta.
- 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. Your Mileage May Vary, however, since Leon's often very... emotional towards the plights of complete strangers, despite being a textbook example of The Stoic.
- 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.
- Phantom Brave: Ash is very protective of Marona, as she is young girl, hated by pretty much everyone for her ability to summon ghosts.
- Mega Man: Blues (Proto Man) can be very protective of Rock (Mega Man). He's gone out of his way many times to save his life instead, meaning he keeps an eye on him. Not to mention that he gives a lot of advice to him.
- 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!
- And now with 10 on it's way, it seems that Mega Man and Proto Man have teamed up to get the vaccine to cure Roll of Roboenza. Whoever created the virus needs to run away now.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: At least after Marche said he will take care of his brother Doned at the real world after they beat his group up at some cave.
- Axel of Kingdom Hearts, towards Roxas, after he started essentially raising the amnesiac Nobody. Sort of a 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 Birth by Sleep, Terra has this towards Ventus. Threaten a hair on that kid's head and it doesn't matter if you're Master Eraqus, he'll still beat you into the ground.
- Link acts like this towards the children of Ordon and his friend Ilia in Twilight Princess. He does have an actual little sister in The Wind Waker, who causes him to take this trope to the next level.
- 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.
- Less prominently, Big the Cat of all people seems to act this way to his Team Rose comrades in Sonic Heroes. He is shown comforting and defending Cream on several occasions in the story, Team Chaotix intimidating her marks one of the very few occasions he is genuinely pissed.
- Infinite Space has Yuri towards his little sister Kira (perhaps 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 Professor are protective of her.
- In Fate/Stay Night Visual Novel, Heaven's Feel route, Shirou states that he wants to save Ilya just because "older brother protects his younger sister". In the route's end, Ilya herself does a Heroic Sacrifice to save Shirou, who actually is her younger brother.
- In the School Days sequel of sorts Summer Days, Kotonoha's reaction to seeing her younger sister Kokoro in very... compromising situation with her prospect boyfriend Makoto is grabbing a golf club and hitting the culprit upside the head. Too bad Kokoro intercedes in Makoto's favor.
- Crash Bandicoot for the most part is a mellow Cloud Cuckoo Lander with a 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 outlived her usefulness for his current scheme is about the one point Crash takes the fearsome ancient god mask seriously.
- Bartz in Final Fantasy V shows this towards Krile, when she joins the party after her grandfather's death. He doesn't treat her as weaker or in need of protection, but he does keep an eye on her to make sure she's okay emotionally.
- Merrill, the ridiculously cute and adorably awkward blood mage of Dragon Age II seems to have the power to instill this in those around her. Half the party actively looks out for her, especially the amoral pirate captain and the dwarven spymaster, and even Anders starts to look out for her, in his own extremist blood magic-hating way. The only one who truly dislikes her is Fenris, and even then, he tries to get her to change her ways, albeit in the only way he knows how. Even Hawke can easily turn into this if s/he doesn't romance her.
- 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).
- In Baldur's Gate II, the Player Character gets to be this for Imoen who has been an actual half-sister of yours all along, as you discover. Granted, you can choose dialogue options that indicate you don't really care, but you still have to rescue her from Spellhold. If you play the game as a good character, though, you are this trope in spades.
- 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. Except he doesn't have a younger sister and is, in fact, a brutal subversion.
- Luigi might have a bit of a "Little Brother Instict" when it comes to Mario. By that, he plowed through a planet-scale army by himself, with his bare hands, and didn't get hit once because Bowser kidnapped Mario.
Web Comics
- El Goonish Shive: Elliot's Chronic Hero Syndrome appears to have given him a Big Brother Instinct with respect to Ellen despite the fact that his "little sister" is actually his Half Identical Twin / Opposite Sex Clone.
- 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, Hedge tried to subvert the orders concerning her as much as he could without being killed.
- Also, Grace herself is very protective of Tedd. Harming him when she's around is close to suicide.
- Ellen has shown she's just as willing to stand up for Elliot when he's threatened/hurt as viceversa. In her other life, this trope is more or less how she befriended Tedd.
- Dominic Deegan tends to act this way toward his cheerful, overly optimistic little brother Gregory.
- Which is kind of ironic, considering that Dominic is a cripple.
- Arthur from Wiglaf and Mordred has got a bad case of this for his little brother Mordred - so much so it tends to get in the way of his evil villainy. His staff often enjoy pointing out the brother complex he claims doesn't exist.
- Most of the cast, but particularly Jason, behaves this way toward their younger friend Anna in Something Positive.
- It would be unwise of you to mess with Bear's younger sister Patches.
- Clark from Gold Coin Comics really shows this side when Tonya, his sister, runs into trouble...
- Homestuck: Equius is extremely protective of his moirail, Nepeta. In fact, this is the first thing that shows us that maybe he's not that bad a guy.
- Also, the thought of his twin sister dying is one of the few things that manages to unnerve Dave.
- In Sakana, it's Taros personal Berserk Button whenever someone threatens or talks bad about his little brother Jiro, and is always there to care for him and cheer him up when he has a problem.
- Roy develops this for Elan, though it (understandably) takes a while, and he still denies it.
- Worth noting is that Roy actually did have a little brother, (key word here being ''did''), and Elan has a living 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 morality 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 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.
- Aiden in Winters In Lavelle has this towards his little sister, Kari. It's even been said by Keshii that the main reason why he dislikes Ashton is because he can tell that Ashton has a thing for his sister.
- Karate Bears are often bullies themselves but also hate bullies
Web Original
- 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.
- Decembersville: Nutty Jimmy is like this to his sister, Sarah. As illustrated here.
- Rob Walker will be the first to admit anything that didn't work out in a Critic-episode, but if you go too far and insult Doug instead, he will make you sorry.
- Quite a few ponies in Equestria Chronicles
Western Animation
Real Life
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