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You truly want to learn how to make the impossible possible?

This character is the hero's good friend. The hero can fool around with him, go to the bar with him for a drink and talk about some good old man-business with him. Additionally, the character, being older (though mental age matters more than physical age) and wiser than the hero, also acts as a mentor to the hero in times of need or advice.

However, just because the Big Brother Mentor cares about the hero doesn't mean that he can't suddenly break out of his buddy personality and sock him in the jaw if he thinks he deserves it. He only wants the best out of the hero, but won't hesitate to educate him the hard way if the hero shows reluctance to learn or has a tendency to run headlong into danger. And his punches are hard. In essence, he's the ideal big brother figure who knows when to get friendly or strict.

In anime, this kind of character is often addressed as "Aniki" instead of "Onii-san".

Often, this character is doomed to die — both to bring the Hero out of the character's shadow, and to give the character an emotional buildup.

This is a subtrope of The Obi Wan.

Differs from Aloof Big Brother in that the Big Brother Mentor doesn't have to be a literal big brother and actually gives a damn about his "little siblings" (Or shows it quite more often than a merely emotionally repressed Aloof Big Brother). Compare with the Stern Teacher, tough and strict but loved by everyone.


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