Cain And Abel - Television Tropes & Idioms

Naruto: Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha. To some degree, Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuga.
- This can also describe the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke
- Temari and Kankuro felt this way about Gaara at first as well. Though in their case they weren't 'enemies' to Gaara so much as 'filled with mind-numbing terror' by him.
- While they are cousins rather than siblings (although Hinata thinks of Neji as a brother) Neji is quite bitter toward Hinata and initially sees her as almost completely worthless until he loses to Naruto and rethinks his worldview. Some fan interpretations of Hanabi's relationship with her older sister Hinata apply this trope, typically making Hanabi the Cain.
- It's recently come out that, the history of the Uchiha clan and Konoha is based on this. Essentially the Uchiha and Senju clans are descended from the elder and younger sons of the first ninja. The elder Uchiha brother was the Cain.
Inu Yasha: Inu Yasha and Sesshoumaru.
Trigun: Vash and Knives.
Code Geass: Lelouch and Suzaku, in the childhood friends variety, although for a while they aren't even aware they're on opposite sides. It kicks into high gear after the Wham Episode, though, when one of them kills someone they both loved. Not only that, but the whole driving force behind the plot is Lelouch's revenge-fueled crusade to slaughter his entire family aside from his little sister.
- AS well as destroy and recreate the world so that his sister never suffers again.
- And again when said little sister finds out and tries to stop him.
X1999: Kamui and "Gemini", in another friendship variety.
- The sisters Hinoto and Kanoe count as well. The younger one, Kanoe, is the evil one here though.
Another childhood friends one: Miaka Yuuki and Yui Hongo in Fushigi Yuugi.
Astro Boy has Astro and Atlas.
Gundam SEED gets Kira and Athrun, who're the childhood friends version. Unusual in that neither is really a villain, and both end up in a third faction after both sides they worked with turn out to be villainous. Though not before a climactic and nearly fatal final duel halfway through the series, naturally.
Soukou No Strain: Sara is happy, bright, and has an enormous Big Brother Complex. Then Ralph, said big brother, turns out to be a psycho that wants to kill all humans, starting with the entire population of Sara's school. It all goes downhill from there.
Trinity Blood: The battling twins at the center of the story are literally named, "Cain and Abel." Care to guess which of these is the villain and which is the hero? (And to REALLY beat the biblical reference over your head, their little Crusnik "sister" is, of course, named Seth. And their common maternal figure is named Lilith. Right.)
It's hard to avoid in Rozen Maiden, where There Can Be Only One of seven sisters that survives (unless that cryptic statement at the end of season two has anything to say about it). Suigintou and Shinku in particular have exactly this relationship, although who is the betrayer and who is the good underdog switches around in different points of the timeline.
Tekkaman Blade. The English dub (Teknoman) actually names one of the brothers Cain, and Tekkaman Blade II includes the biblical Cain and Abel story in its title crawl. This is also slightly reversed: the elder brother (Takaya/Blade aka Tekkaman Blade) is good, the younger brother (Shinya/Cain aka Evil/Sabre) is evil.
- It should also be mentioned that, in the original, The Big Bad, Kengo/Conrad aka Tekaman Omega, was also Blade and Evil's older brother. And their youngest sister, Miyuki/Shana aka Tekaman Rapier, is the gentle Sacrificial Lamb who chooses to die through Heroic Sacrifice rather than through her fatal illness.
Zatch Bell: Zatch and Zeno (Gash and Zeon in the original). Zeno hates Zatch because the latter received the powerful "Bao" spells. In the manga, they end up reconciling, but Zeno hates Zatch to the end in the anime.
Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni involves this with the twin Sonozaki sisters, Mion and Shion, as one of the two is the only one (besides those who already knew the whole story) who doesn't get infected with the Hate Plague, while the other, when infected, throws her conscience out the window even before she loses her mind and racks up the highest body count in the series besides the instigator herself. Yes, the elder is the "evil" one — the murderer was Shion pretending to be Mion most of the time, but because of a mix-up in their childhoods, the elder girl, originally named Mion, ended up living as Shion due to a Twin Switch, so Mion was pretending to be Shion pretending to be Mion.
Saya and Diva in Blood Plus.
In Saint Seiya, Kanon (younger) and Saga (older). In the beginning, Kanon was evil and Saga was good, but Saga went insane for having a Superpowered Evil Side (coms with being the *Gemini* Saint, of all Gold Saints) and turned evil. Kanon *knew* his brother would become evil and used it to his advantage, staging an epic Xanatos Roulette that covers several arcs of the story (two in the manga, three in the anime), where Saga was the first Big Bad and Kanon was the Man Behind The Man from both him and his boss. However, later Kanon pulls a Heel Face Turn and joins the good guys, while Saga turns evil... apparently..
- Let's bot forget Phenix Ikki (older) and Andromeda Shun (younger), who were at first like this. Still, Ikki pulls a Heel Face Turn early in the story and joins the Five Man Band.
Kagura and Kamui of Gintama, estranged siblings who would probably have gotten along were Kamui not such a jerkass (trying to kill your dad then disappearing for years is not the way to forge strong family bonds). As it is, Kagura considers all their bonds severed and Kamui seems to want little to do with her.
Prince Kaito from Murder Princess is of The Evil Prince variety. Though the actual Princess Alita (his younger sister) doesn't really fight him, as she previously switched bodies with the Action Girl Falis who handles the fighting part for her.
Tsubasa and Souma Ohgami from Kannazuki No Miko, though Tsubasa isn't really a bad guy and undergoes a rather spectacular Heel Face Turn late in the series. What's more, technically, they are both Necks of Orochi, only that Souma has a good reason to fight against his "heritage".
Kazuya and Kyoshiro from Kyoshiro To Towa No Sora a.k.a. Shattered Angels. No, Kazuya doesn't commit any redeeming acts like Tsubasa.
The sisters Harulu and Karala from Space Runaway Ideon are an archetypal example: the older, more socially awkward but decisive Harulu grows jealous of the dreamy, honest but romantically successful Karala and shoots her to death (during the Kill Em All), only realizing her true reasons afterwards. And What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic that Karala just happens to be the mother of The Messiah?
Col. Dewey and Holland Novak in Eureka Seven.
Aion and Chrono from Chrono Crusade would probably qualify, as they often seem to be even more that brothers...
- To clarify, in the manga Aion and Chrono were close friends and described as "like brothers"—demons in the series are Bee People and don't exactly have the concept of family. Except Chrono and Aion were turned into demons when their (human) mother was pregnant with them—they're twins. Aion is rather obsessed with getting Chrono back on his side, although when he refuses Aion gleefully tortures him for it. The anime version makes the pair have a more distant relationship, but also implies that they're two sides of the same coin. (Not to mention giving the pair their fair share of Ho Yay.)
Prince Forsis and Pacifica in Scrapped Princess. You know...
Folken Lacour de Fanel (Cain) and Van Slanzar de Fanel (Abel) from Vision Of Escaflowne, though Folken goes for a Heel Face Turn mid-series. After all he had done, though, it still takes a lot for Van to forgive him.
In Transformers Robots In Disguise, Optimus Prime's brother Ultra Magnus shows up on Earth with a serious grudge over the Matrix of Leadership having gone to Optimus instead of him:
Optimus: He's grown a little bitter over the years.
Side Burn: Bitter? Bitter is not sending you postcards, but this wacko... He knocked you off a cliff!
Kyouji Kasshu and his little brother Domon from G Gundam. Or so we think.
Monster Rancher actually has a case where the younger sibling is the corrupt one, with Tiger and Gray Wolf (though he's andCrazy,.)
In Sailor Moon, although Usagi is actually Chibi-Usa's mother, the two bicker like siblings when Chibi Usa visits the past (and Usagi is only a few years older than Chibi-Usa).
- That's just the mundane version of sibling rivalry. However, it becomes Cain And Abel when Chibi-Usa is brainwashed into becoming Black Lady, The Dragon for Death Phantom.
Gao Gai Gar has the champion of the G-Stone, Gai, and the champion of the J-Jewel, Soldato-J. Bonus points because the respective developers of the G-Stone and J-Jewel were actually named Cain and Abel.
Subaru and the Numbers Cyborg Nove in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, a case where the good one is the older sibling by virtue of being an earlier Quint clone. Of course, this being Nanoha, this stops being the case by the end of the season.
Belphegor and Rasiel from Katekyo Hitman Reborn, possibly subverted in the fact that Rasiel isn't dead.
Glass Fleet: Vetti and Cleo. Though they don't know they're related until the very end of the series, combining this with the Separated at Birth trope.
Ao No Exorcist: The tragic aspect of this almost happens to Rin (Hot Blooded Anti Anti Christ) and Yukio {genius exorcist) when the former discovers he's the son of Satan and then learns that the latter knew it all along and now wants to kill him (they get better). They're Half Identical Twins to boot.
- Secondary case with the other two sons of Satan Mephistopheles (AKA Johann Faust V) and Amaymon: Mephisto is outgoing and clownish (similar to The Millennium Earl, complete with umbrella) while Amaymon seems to be quieter and darker.
Ogami and his brother from Code:Breaker. They're even color coded!
Hana and Ageha from Papillon - Hana to Chou: Hana is a popular city girl and a little manipulative while Ageha is plain country girl and walked all over. When Hana steals Ageha's potential love interest, Ageha is nearly Driven To Suicide. Their mom is a Well Done Daughter Gal to boot: Ageha was sent to the country because her constant crying aggravated her post-partum depression. As Ageha gains confidence she and her mom's relationship improves while Hana's behavior gets worse: Her latest scheme to ruin her sister's life caused Ageha's current boyfriend to break up with her, although they shouldn't have been together in the first place(eh, if he couldn't tell them apart he's probably not worth it anyway)
No mention of Princess Resurrection which embodies this trope? All the royal siblings virtually are fighting to the death for the throne except for the main character Hime who has no interest in it.
Raoh and Toki/Kenshiro. How Did We Miss This One, guys?
Let's see, you've got a Big Screwed Up Family trapped in a mansion possibly murdering each other... Given the context, it would've been astounding if Umineko No Naku Koro Ni could have gone without invoking this trope. It's been invoked at a bare minimum, three times.
Pops up in the second season of Princess Tutu, when Mytho becomes tainted with Raven's blood and performs a Face Heel Turn. Fakir is constantly forced to fight against him, even though they were practically raised as brothers.
In Axis Powers Hetalia, the characters of Yao/China and Kiku/Japan enact this trope in their Back Story, with China as the Abel (fespite being the elder) and Japan as the Cain. Japan was raised by China yet never really considered himself his brother, and in the end he injures China with hios katana and abandons him.
- The character of Im Yonsoo/Korea represents only South Korea, due to the obvious Real Life issues surrounding the two countries in the peninsule. When fanworkers create an Original Character representing North Korea (sometimes male, sometimes female), they and Yonsoo end up recreating this trope as well.
Asakura Yoh and his older twin brother Hao in Shaman King
In Spiral, Ayumu is struggling with the shadow of his elder brother Kiyotaka, although they don't actually fight until the end of the manga. Also Kanone and the other Blade Children, as they were childhood friends (and, again only in the manga, actually also all step-siblings.
In Witch Hunter, the rivalry between the three princes of the Bairong Empire gets very intense, even though one of them doesn't actually want the throne... one guess what happens.
The relationship of Takeru with his brother Marg, which fate would have it, pitted the two against each other in the war.

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X-Men has a number of examples.
- Although they're both heroes, Cyclops and Havok frequently find themselves fighting against each other.
- Cable and his brother/clone Stryfe.
- Juggernaut Cain Marko and step-brother Charles Xavier.
- And in a metaphorical vein, Charles "Professor X" Xavier and Erik Magnus "Magneto" Lensherr — once the closest of friends, now on opposite sides of an ideological gulf on mutant/human relations.
- Also Professor X and Cassandra Nova, making him a triple header on this one.
- Banshee's cousin Black Tom is his brother in the Animated Adaptation.
- Wolverine and Sabretooth aren't brothers per se, but they were both products of the Weapon X project, and at one point it was (wrongly) believed Sabretooth was Wolverine's father.
  - Though Chris Claremont has suggested that Sabertooth being Wolverine's father was the original plan.
  - And in the first arc of Joe Quesada's Origin, Wolverine and Sabretooth are fairly strongly implied to be half-brothers.
- Emma Frost and her sisters, especially Adrienne whom she shot to death after Adrienne's actions lead to Synch's death.
- There's also the human Graydon Creed and his mutant half-brother Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler.
The Sandman and associated titles feature Dreaming versions of the original Cain and Abel. Abel is harmless, but Cain feels driven to repeatedly murder him. Furthermore, Cain won't stand for anyone else harming Abel. These versions of the characters are originally from DC's 70s horror titles.
- In a less literal example, Desire has sworn to set the Kindly Ones on his/her brother Dream. In this case, Desire is the younger sibling.
Rose and her sister, from the epic adventure Bone by Jeff Smith.
Tambi and Bambi Baker from Strangers in Paradise.
Spider-Man had Ben Reilly and Kaine, who were sort of brothers.
Lightning Lad/Live Wire and Lightning Lord in Legion Of Superheroes.
During a brief Dork Age, that was thankfully swept away by Infinite Crisis, Supergirl's father Zor-El hated his brother Jor, and sent Kara to Earth to kill Jor-El's infant son. Or he just didn't get on with his brother, and knew that Kal-El would "infect" Earth with evil spirits from the Phantom Zone. Or... look never mind, it's gone!
Heroic trucker Ulysses Solomon Archer and his villainous brother the Highwayman from Marvel's shortlived toy tie-in comic U.S. 1 (and now officially part of the Marvel Universe).
The Marvel versions of Hercules and Ares are bitter rivals throughout their comics histories. In The Incredible Hercules, Ares' primary reason for despising Hercules was said to be his anger that mortals favoured Hercules over him, despite all the benefits (fame, power, empire) that war brings.
Tomoe and her Evil Counterpart Noriko from Usagi Yojimbo.
Aquaman frequently faces off against his evil brother Orm, The Ocean Master
J'onn J'onnz, The Martian Manhunter, also had his share of troubles with his evil sibling Malefic, who was responsible for wiping out the entire remainder of their species, before J'onn tossed him into the sun.

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In The Singing Bone, the younger brother is murdered by the envious older. His corpse rots, someone retrieves a bone from it and makes a flute, and the flute begins to sing of the murder.
In The Grateful Beasts, Ferko's brothers put out his eyes and break his legs. Then they slander him to the king to persuade him to set Ferko to Impossible Tasks until, finally, Ferko has wolves eat the king, his own brothers, and all the court.
In The Golden Mermaid, the envious older brothers beat their younger brother to death. The talking fox and golden mermaid revive him, and when he reaches court, the king banishes his older brothers.
In Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf, the envious older brothers kill the youngest, Prince Ivan. The talking wolf puts him back together and restores him to life, and they get word to his father, who turns his oldest sons into menial servants and make Ivan his heir.
In The Golden Bird, the hero's envious brothers shove him down a well to kill him, and succeed in trapping him there.
- Similarly, the brothers in The Bird Grip throw the hero into a lions' den, and in The Golden Blackbird, into a lake.
In Fair, Brown, And Trembling, the two older sisters refuse to let their sister out of the house for fear she would marry before them. When she succeeds in marrying anyway, her oldest sister pushes her into the sea and takes her place.
In Finette Cendron, Finette's sisters force her to stay home from the ball.
In The Unseen Bridegroom, Anima's sisters incite her to look at him at night, against his command, because they are envious.

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In The Godfather Part 2, Michael Corleone has his brother Fredo assassinated.
Lucas Strong and Kid Shaleen in the musical western Cat Ballou.
See Michael Myers and his sisters from the Halloween movies for the slasher flick take on this.
Transformers: At the climax of the 2007 film, Optimus calls Megatron "brother". Peter Cullen, who voices Optimus, publicly referenced the story of Cain and Abel when describing the revelation.
- How that works with giant robots was unexplained.
- More explicitly in the sequel, the Fallen is revealed to be one of the Prime family, the original leaders of the Transformers. Optimus is either his brother or his nephew.
In Desperado, when the Mariachi and Bucho finally face off, it turns out that they are both brothers. The Mariachi's real name is Manito, while his brother is Cesar.
- In fact, Desperado has a story very similiar to Il Trouvatore, where the same thing happens.
In The Proposition, Charlie is blackmailed into killing his evil older brother Arthur, using Mikey, the younger, "simple" brother, as leverage. He eventually does, but by now Mikey's already dead, and it's just because Arthur deserves to die.
The first half of The Wind That Shakes The Barley is the O'Donnell brothers (Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney) fighting in the Irish Revolution together, and making enormous sacrifices. The second half is them choosing different sides in the Irish Civil War, and making even bigger ones.
At the end of Scanners, it's revealed that Vale and Revok are brothers.
The Kaiju film War of the Gargantuas has Sanda and Gaira, Bigfoot-like creatures grown from remains of a giant Frankenstein's Monster, that battle to the death as a result of Sanda's opposition to Gaira's Kill All Humans attitude.
Mortimer Brewster and his Ax Crazy Serial Killer brother Jonathan, from Arsenic And Old Lace. The third brother, Teddy, is harmlessly insane, but convinced that he is Theodore Roosevelt. Mortimer is relieved to discover he was adopted, since insanity seems to run in the Brewster family. In fact, it practically gallops.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin is punctuated by Obi-Wan calling Anakin his brother.
The two pharaohs in Night At The Museum - Battle Of The Smithsonian: The elder (Hank Azariah) was utterly ruthless while the younger one was wise, and for that "mother and father" gave the younger one Egypt.

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The Trope Namer from The Bible (Genesis, chapter 4). Cain was a farmer, Abel was a shepherd. God wants a sacrifice, so Cain brings the produce of his farm and Abel brings some sheep. Abel gave the best he had in an earnest desire to please God. Cain just gave whatever was lying around, in order not to be shown up by his younger brother. More to the point, "Without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin." Cain was mad because Abel doing it right showed Cain wasn't paying attention. Not to mention God cursed the soil earlier on. Cain giving God something born out of something that He cursed isn't exactly a good way to please God. As You Know, Cain kills Abel.
- Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem which claims that Abel provoked Cain by wrecking Cain's irrigation project to give the water to his cattle. (He also let them eat Cain's vegetables.) The last two lines of the poem explicitly state that the narrator thinks God's judgment on Cain was unfair.
The Bible also gives us Esau and Jacob, although they don't end up killing each other. And later, Jacob's son Joseph and his ten older brothers (mixing it with The Unfavorite).
- Jacob's wives Rachel & Leah were this. Leah loved Jacob and bore him more sons but he favored Rachel. Also Jacob chose Judah, his fourth-born, to become leader of his brothers. David was chosen to become King though he was the youngest.
Another Biblical example, Joseph's 10 older brothers sell him into slavery. In an odd twist, this later saves their lives when he (as second-in-command in Egypt) saves them all from a famine.
Lucasfilm's Alien Chronicles had a pair of childhood friends in a pet or slave/master relationship that later grew into a deeper friendship. One grew up to be Empress of The Empire, while the other became the leader of La Resistance.
In Stardust, the customary method of royal succession is that the last prince to survive Free For All fratricide among his brothers becomes the heir.
In William King's Warhammer 40000 Space Wolf novel Wolfblade, Ragnar is warned that the brother of one House's lord died very suddenly and suspiciously.
Dean Koontz plays with this trope in:
- By the Light of the Moon: the protagonists encounter Kenny of the many knives, and fear he will do a bad thing involving his knife collection and his younger brother Travis.
- The Vision: two brothers-in-law (her elder brother and her husband, respectively) are rivals for Mary's attention; her husband as of the beginning of the story has supplanted her brother and taken over the management of her business affairs.
- Watchers: Einstein and the Outsider are considered the two children of the Francis Project - one beloved, the other hated and feared (and aware of both facts, which is why the Outsider seeks to kill Einstein).
- The Bad Place: Frank (older, co-protagonist) wants a much more normal life than his mother's mental problems and the odd abilities in the family really allow, while psychopathic brother "Candy" (real name James) is determined to kill Frank for killing their mother.
A Song Of Ice And Fire has several cases of this. Ser Gregor Clegane badly burned his younger brother Sandor as punishment for playing with his toys when they were children (worth noting Gregor was 11, already the size of a man, and a squire with no interest in the toy in question), and Sandor now lives only for revenge on him. Then there's Lord Stannis Baratheon and Lord Renly Baratheon, but it's difficult to determine which of them is the bad guy there. Stannis is over a decade older and is the rightful heir to their older brother's throne, but Renly attempts to usurp his place. However since Stannis is the one who had a sorceress assassinate his brother, he looks like the bad guy. Also, Queen Cersei Lannister lives in fear of a prophecy predicting she will be strangled by her younger brother, an act Tyrion certainly has plenty of motivation for (things started looking really bad for Cersei when Tyrion Took A Level In Badass and escaped from death row, strangling his treacherous ex-lover and fatally shooting his father on his way out, as well as planting the seeds of resentment in her twin Jaime—who, as he was born moments after Cerseo was, could also easily fulfil this prophecy if said resentment continues to bloom.
In Graham Mc Neill's Warhammer 40000 Horus Heresy novel False Gods, Horus truthfully tells Russ that Magnus has engaged in sorcery forbidden by the Emperor — his actual motive was that Magnus's loyalty to the Emperor would interfere with his own plans — and eggs him on until Russ does not think it necessary to capture Magnus alive. Since all three of them are, in a manner of speaking, brothers, it's a little complex.
- And then there's Galaxy in Flames, Flight of the Eisenstein, and Fulgrim, which are absolutely rife with this; each Legion is a brotherhood, and no less than four of them - the World Eaters, Sons of Horus, Death Guard and Emperor's Children - are ripped in half by Horus' ambition, leading directly to brother vs. brother combat on a gargantuan scale.
- It looks very much like this is going to happen with Remiel and Zahariel in the Dark Angels books in the series.
In Graham Mc Neill's Warhammer 40000 Ultramarines novel Nightbringer, Barzano is warned as soon as he arrives on planet that Talhoun is suspected of having murdered his brother in order to become the family patriarch.
Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Trilogy: This trope fits Eragon and Murtagh respectively, despite what the author might want you to believe.
In Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad, Granny Weatherwax reveals a deep-set resentment of her older sister - not because she's evil, but because her choice forced Granny to be the good one. Lily, a Knight Templar who believes she's the fairy godmother battling the wicked witch, is totally shocked at this interpretation.
John Steinbeck's East of Eden practically plagiarizes the Book of Genesis in its portrayal of two generations of brothers in the Salinas Valley of California. The story of the first pair of brothers, Adam and Charles Trask, follows the Biblical story of Cain and Abel very closely, and it is mirrored by the relationship of Adam Trask's two sons, Aaron and Caleb. Excellent book. Made into a 1955 film starring James Dean.
In James Swallow's Warhammer 40000 Blood Angels novel Deus Sanguinius, Rafen realizes that Arkio, not only a fellow Blood Angel but his actual brother, must fight with him, and only one will live. Inquisitor Stele convinces him — using sorcery — that he is overshadowing Arkio out of jealousy and kill himself to free Arkio. Only a literal divine vision saves Rafen. At the climax, he insists on fighting the single combat with him, and kills him. Dying As Yourself, Arkio is deeply moved by Rafen's Manly Tears, declaims all the extenuations Rafen offers, says that he foresaw this fight too, and begs Rafen's forgiveness that the acts that drove Rafen to it.
In JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion, all evil is brought into the world by Melkor, one of the Valar, very powerful angel-like beings Eru created to prepare Arda (Earth) for Elves and Men. While he interferes with Eru's plans and destroys everything the other Valar create, his brother Manwe is appointed king of Arda because of his faithfulness to Eru.
- Not to mention Fëanor and his younger half-brother Fingolfin: Fëanor resents his father's remarriage and dislikes his father's second wife and children (even though his father still seems to favour him.) Morgoth spreads lies to worsen things, until Fëanor raises a sword against Fingolfin. Although they briefly reconcile afterwards, Fëanor eventually abandons his brother, leaving him either to go sue for mercy the God-like Valar after having committed some fairly questionable acts, or to cross a Bering-strait-like desert of ice.
Smeagol and Deagol from JRR Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings. Smeagol murders his friend Deagol for possession of the One Ring belonging to Sauron, which slowly turns him into the wretched creature Gollum. Not quite brothers, but as close as.
- Averted by Boromir and Faramir. They are very different in personality, but they love each other.
  - It's especially notable considering Denethor's obvious favoritism.
Raistlin and Caramon Majere, fraternal twin-brothers from the Dragonlance fantasy novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. (Dragonlance is also one of the older Dungeons And Dragons world settings). Raistlin, the smart but sickly ambitious one, grew up to be a wizard (something he had considerable talent for), while the warrior Caramon was big, muscular and good-natured but somewhat dense.
- Actually, they're an aversion of this trope. Although they're very different, and Genre Savvy fantasy fans would expect them to be enemies (of the Black Magic vs Knight Templar variety), they're actually quite close. Caramon is fiercely protective of Raistlin.
Roger Zelazny's Book Of Amber make an artform of this trope, but let's especially mention Corwin and Eric, and Merlin and Jurt in the second series.
Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy has Regal, the younger half-brother of Chivalry and Verity, and last in line for the throne. After Chivalry abdicates, this puts Verity into a dangerous position, and later his pregnant wife, as well, not to mention the protagonist, Chivalry's illegitimate son.
Gravitys Rainbow: Russian mercenary Tchitcherine spends the novel trying to hunt down and kill his black half-brother.
In the Chivalric Romance Gamelyn, the plot revolves about how Gamelyn is oppressed by his older brother while his ward. He takes his Revenge and hides as an outlaw in the woods until he wins the king's pardon. (A source for As You Like It and Robin Hood ballads both)
In The Knight's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, Palamon and Arcite quarrel over Emelye. Granted, they are cousins, but until they saw Emelye they were as close as brothers. Subverted in the end when Arcite ends up defeating, but not killing, Palamon in a fight, gloating about his victory, and being struck down by the gods for his pride.
Bekter and Temujin in Wolf of the Plains, brought to a head when Bekter steals a marmot Temujin had caught and passes it off as his own kill. Temujin and Kachiun kill him soon after.
In the final book of the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series, twins Jaina Solo (Sword of the Jedi) and Jacen Solo (Darth Caedus) fight two brutal lightsaber duels. At the end of the second duel, Jaina kills Jacen. In contrast to the Cain and Abel original archetype, it is the one doing the killing who is the protagonist and the slain who is the villain...even though it was the antagonist Jacen who tried to get out of the fight to save his loved ones but was denied any escape or surrender by his sister, supposedly the heroine of the series.
- Little known fact: You lose your right to Time-Outs when you kill your aunt in order to turn the galaxy into a Police State.
  - The point was that the twins weren't as far apart morally as they (or just Jaina) might have thought. At any rate, Vader was worse than Caedus, and yet he was given the chance to be redeemed at the end.
Eve and Alexandra Blackwell in Sidney Sheldon's Master of the Game are twins born into one of the most powerful business dynasties in the world; Eve arrived first, and her ambition makes her the obvious one to take it over once matriarch Kate retires...but Eve is insanely resentful of Alexandra simply because she keeps people from devoting themselves to Eve entirely. The night before their fifth birthday, Eve tries to kill her, and from there she devotes her life not only to becoming the inheritor of Kruger-Brent, Ltd., but crushing Alexandra as well.

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In Beetleborgs, at the start of the Metallix season, the kids contact Arthur "Art" Fortune, the Stan Lee-like creator of the comic book, to revamp their superhero alter-egos. Meanwhile, the villains hook up with Lester "Les" Fortune, his jealous and psychotic brother who is serving a prison sentence, to draw new minions for them. Working for opposite sides only propels the brothers' long-time hatred for each other.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Caleb, The Dragon to the final Big Bad, identifies Faith as 'the Cain to Buffy's Abel' in his first appearance. Faith later concedes that jealousy over not being the Chosen One probably contributes to her tendency to be at Buffy's throat and to her going rogue in earlier seasons.
Rohan and his half-demon half-brother Lugad in The Mystic Knights Of Tir Na Nog; one of those also of the Luke I Am Your Father variety — for both sides!
Jack and Graem from 24, though it wasn't done nearly as well as it could have been, (but season six had bigger problems).
In an interesting variation, Nathan and Peter Petrelli from Heroes spend the entire first season being set up as this—with Nathan, the older one, being loyal to their crazy Utopia Justifies The Means mother and a bit of a jerk to boot, and Peter, the younger one, representing all that is good and pure and idealistic—but the climax of the first season finale has Nathan ultimately rejecting his mother's side and dramatically sacrificing himself to help Peter save the world. Even if he didn't actually die. Of course, many of the fans believed something like that would happen all along, and were made very happy by the mutual declarations of love that came with it...
- In Season 3, the Peter vs. Sylar plot arc becomes this with the Luke I Am Your Father revelation that Sylar is a Petrelli brother.
  - Or not
- After the events of Volume 3's finale, it looks like Peter and Nathan are heading into this direction after all.
In season 7 of Smallville, Lex ends up creating his own Cain And Abel, when it's revealed he made Grant Gabriel as a clone of his dead baby brother. When Grant discovers this, he becomes very angry and hateful of Lex. Grant tries to form a familial relationship with their father Lionel against Lex's wishes. So Lex hires a hitman to gun him down. Then Lex goes outside to scream in the rain.
- Smallville also has a version of Zor-El, Supergirl's father, who is antagonistic towards his brother Jor-El because of his love for Jor-El's wife, Lara.
- Lex and Clark have been billed as being in a Cain and Abel relationship since the very first episode it seems.
Torchwood has Captain Jack and his (in this case younger) brother Gray. Gray is evil because he wants vengeance on Jack for accidentally letting go of him when fleeing from evil torturous creatures when he was little and letting him grow up being constantly tortured by them.
KITT and KARR from Knight Rider could arguably be considered an A.I. version of this, with older prototype KARR the Cain to KITT's Abel.
Dexter Season 1 focused on Dexter and Brian/The Ice Truck Killer, who was Dexter's biological brother. He served partly as an example of what Dexter would be without the Code of Harry and cleared up heaps of backstory. In a twist on the usual story Dexter killed Brian. I'm not sure which one was Cain and which was Abel...
Power Rangers Ninja Storm had Kanoi and Kiya Watanabe, otherwise known as the team's Sensei and The Smart Guy Sixth Ranger's father, and Lothor, the Genre Savvy Big Bad. Doubled as a Luke I Am Your Father for Cam, as he was unaware of the relation. It ends up saving Marah & Kapri in the end, because Cam is a hell of a lot more merciful than Uncle Lothor!
- And it comes up again in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, this time between villains. The season has multiple Big Bads competing with each other as well as the Rangers, and the two most prominent are brothers Moltor and Flurious.
Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger has Burai's opposition to his brother Geki as much of the focus of the story- eventually however, the two are reconciled and Burai becomes the original Sixth Ranger.
Kamen Rider Black has adoptive siblings Minami Kotaro and Akizuki Nobuhiko kidnapped by the Gorgom cult to become their competing Century Kings.
Battlestar Galactica: John and Daniel.
- Boomer and Athena.
- Not really related to the trope, but a hardline-to-the-point-of-psychosis Admiral named Cain shows up halfway through season two in command of the battlestar Pegasus. Our hero being Adama. Note that Cain showed up in the original too, but he was more of a Magnificent Bastard.

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Romulus and Remus, the two founders of Rome in Roman mythology. Romulus was Cain to Remus's Abel.
Brother and sister war gods Ares and Athena would wrap entire nations up in their sibling rivalry.
Loki betrayed Odin, who was his sworn brother, even if they had different parents.
Karna and Arjuna in the Mahabharata Hindu Mythology are these, though they don't realize it till the end of the Mahabharata, sort of a (Luke Iamyour Father) moment. By the time its too late and Karna is dead.

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The feud between Bret and Owen Hart. An exception to the "older sibling is always the evil one" rule - younger brother Owen was the heel here.
The Undertaker and Kane, who alternate between hating each other and teaming up as the "Brothers of Destruction". Again, Kane is the younger brother (despite being bigger than the Undertaker), and usually the heel when they feud.
- Similar to Icehawk and Phoenix, above, this troper always liked the additional undercurrent of "ice and fire" the two have going.
  - Taker's more identified with death and lightning than ice (unless you're referring to "the icy grip of death", of course). Hey, wait a minute, maybe Glacier's the long-lost Brother of Destruction!
It was short lived (only lasting nearly three months until Wrestlemania 25), but the intense feud between straight edged Matt Hardy and free spirited (and more popular) younger brother Jeff (a rare example of the older brother being the heel here).

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Who can forget Urza and Mishra, the brothers who started it all in Magic The Gathering?
Prevalent in Warhammer 40000's backstory, especially the primarchs: Fulgrim killing Ferrus Manus and mortally wounding Roboute Guilliman, Leman Russ coming within a hair of killing Magnus the Red, Roboute Guilliman killing Alpharius (maybe)...
- Warhammer 40,000 provides an extreme example of this trope (as it does in so many things...) is that entire armies of superhuman, genetically-engineered brothers are trying to kill each other (the Space Marines and the Chaos Space Marines).
- The Leman Russ/Magnus the Red example above is a pretty interesting example. Leman Russ and his Space Wolves were tricked by Horus into attacking the chapter, which in turn would lead to Magnus becoming the evil of the two brothers. In short, they unwittingly caused a betrayal because they were manipulated into believing it had already occured. Leman Russ himself was simply following orders, which soon turned out to have been made by the main traitor himself.
Nobody can forget Vampire The Masquerade's 15 year long epic plot arc involving almost a hundred books devoted to the Cain(e) and Abel. Caine is turned into the first vampire for his crime, and thus begins so much purple prose, wangst and vampires gone to the extreme that an entire retread, Vampire The Requiem, was required just to put an end to Caine and his fanbase. Undeterred, entire fan cultures and anti-fan cultures have sprung up around resurrecting Caine's importance to the series.
- The best part was the anticlimactic "endgame" scenario where Caine rallies all of the thousands of vampires on Earth to destroy his rebellious children, the Antediluvians. Abel's ghost appears, says he forgives him, and Caine blows it off like so much dishwater. Caine is a jerk.
Playing out this trope to its bloody end, and incurring the consequences, made Ravenloft's Strahd von Zarovich into the most legendary Big Bad in Dungeons & Dragons history, appearing in every edition from 1st to 4th, and inspiring one of the game's most innovative and popular settings. Even the Demon Queen of Spiders never had an entire campaign-world named after her house.
In the Forgotten Realms setting you have the twin goddesses Selûne and Shar. Having supposedly existed since the dawn of the universe and having been so close as to think of themselves as one being, they split apart on the issue of whether giving life to the barren universe would be a good idea. Selûne expresses her views on this matter by creating the Sun, which causes Shar to go Ax Crazy on her and the entire universe, forcing Selûne to smack her with a Heroic Sacrifice bomb. Millenia later, Selûne's dogma urges you to trust in her radiance and know that all love alive under her light shall know her blessing, while the dogma of Shar features the promotion of misery for its own sake and the direct order to destroy anything Selûne might possibly be related to, in hopes of one day tearing apart the entire universe back into the sweet nothingness it was before this whole pesky 'life' thing. Evidently, they are now not so close as to think of themselves as one being, and the family reunions must be very awkward.

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There is a ridiculous number of Shakespearean examples for this trope:
- Hamlet's father was murdered by his younger brother Claudius — and now Hamlet wants revenge. (The Kill Him Already element actually makes it Better Than It Sounds.) Shakespeare allegedly wrote his version of Hamlet because he wanted to improve on a previous botched stage version called the ur-Hamlet. We'll never know just how bad or good the ur-Hamlet was, because no copies are known to exist.
- Orlando and Oliver in As You Like It (older is evil)
- Duke Frederick and Duke Senior in As You Like It (younger is evil)
- Edmund and Edgar in King Lear (younger is evil)
- Goneril/Regan and Cordelia in King Lear (older are evil)
- Bianca and Katherine in The Taming Of The Shrew
- Bassianus and Saturninus in Titus Andronicus (older is worse, neither are prizes)
- Don Pedro and Don John in Much Ado About Nothing (younger is worse, for no good reason)
- Prospero and Antonio in The Tempest

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Baldurs Gate plays this trope straight in the first game, then takes it to its logical extreme in Throne of Bhaal, wherein five of the six required bosses are siblings of the player and of Imoen, who may or may not be in the party.
Blaz Blue gives the example of Ragna and Jin, where Jin not only burnt down their home, but also presumably killed their sister, Saya, and to top things off, he cut off Ragna's arm. Though in Jin's defense, he was possibly possessed by the Big Bad.
In Boktai, Django later finds out he has an evil, half-vampire brother.
- Well, technically, that character isn't half-vampire. He was just shoved full of Dark Matter by the Big Bad. But Django himself turns into a half-vampire in the second game.
In Clive Barker's Undying, all the Convenant children fell to the curse of the Undying King, only to be resurrected as monstrous forms of their previous selves. They're out to kill Jeremiah, the last surviving son, to complete the curse.
- There are also Bethany and Aaron, twins who utterly despised one another and were in constant rivalry. Bethany won, by chaining up her brother in a dungeon accessed through her room to be eaten by rats, and removing his jaw so he couldn't scream.
Literal example in the Command And Conquer series: Kane is hinted to be the (immortal) Biblical Cain, and Renegade even has his Temple in Sarajevo being built around the tomb of his murdered brother Abel.
Kasumi and her evil — or at least very AntiHeroic — half-sister Ayane, from Dead Or Alive.
Dante and Vergil of Devil May Cry.
The main character and his older cousin Naoya in Devil Survivor. Although Naoya is pretty helpful toward his "brother". They're actually reincanate of original Cain and Abel. Naoya's true goal is to make his brother king of demon and turn him against God.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind gives us Vedam Dren, the noble duke of Vvardenfell, and Orvas Dren, the leader of the xenophobic criminal organization, The Camonna Tong.
In FEAR, it is heavily implied that The Dragon is the Player Character's brother, the homicidal Japanese ghost (think along the lines of The Ring) is their mother and the scientist who created the three of them is their maternal grandfather (as in their mother's father). All in all they're a Big Screwed Up Family.
- Implied, nothing — it's explicitly canon that Alma (the homicidal female ghost) is the Point Man's mother, Paxton Fettel (The Dragon) is the Point Man's brother, and the Mad Scientist responsible for the creation and birth of both the Point Man and Fettel was Alma's father Harlan Wade, who ruthlessly exploited his naturally born daughter's psychic abilities in an attempt to create Super Soldiers.
This happened to no end to Cecil in Final Fantasy IV. His best friend and comrade in arms who betrays him is actually 'named" Cain. (Kain in the original North American release, because I guess it was too obvious otherwise?). The second time it was revealed that Big Bad Golbez was his actual brother. Of course, it was revealed in the end that both were actually just being mind-controlled by the Man Behind The Man.
- In the DS version, it is revealed that Golbez, known way back as Theodor, was compelled by Zemus to abandon his baby brother in the woods outside Baron. If you're wondering why Cecil thinks the king as his own father up until The Reveal, now you know.
- To be fair to Golbez, he pretty much makes up for being the Cain in the Sequel when he performs a Heroic Sacrifice. Even in the Crisis Cross Over Dissidia: Final Fantasy he ends up being the game's Stealth Mentor
In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, Princess Yuria when she is not brainwashed is good and has the gamebreaking Narga light magic, while her twin brother Prince Yuris is the inbred vassal of Loputousu who (barring Cherry Tapping) needs to be killed with Narga and wields dark magic. There's tons of more examples that would take up the page. Yes, genealogy of the Holy War IS creepy.
- In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade there's Nietzsche Wannabe King Zephiel and his much gentler half-sister, Princess Guinevere...
- Let's not forget the twins Eirika and Ephraim and their friend Lyon in The Sacred Stones, whose repressed jealousy towards them is one of the reasons leading him to become the main antagonist. That, and both his Well Done Son Guy tendences and a Sealed Evil In A Can
- Path of Radiance's Mad King Ashnard probably fits. What with killing all of his other siblings and all.
- Subverted in the first game, in which the token red and green cavaliers were actually named Cain and Abel, despite not actually being involved in any such feud.
Roland and Archibald of Heroes Of Might And Magic.
In the Mega Man series, Megaman and Protoman often clashed with each other, despite having the same goals in the end. The US animated series turned Protoman outright evil.
While not a literal example of this trope, Mega Man X remake Maverick Hunter X was set in Abel city, which was attacked with missiles by evil reploids. The creator of reploids? Doctor Cain. What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic?
The Snake Brothers (okay, "Les Enfants Terribles", strictly) in the Metal Gear Solid series. Liquid seems to enjoy the rivalry immensely. Perhaps a little too much.
- Big Boss and Ocelot are another example, but in a more lighthearted and friendly way.
In Mother 3, Lucas must fight his brother Claus, who was killed, reanimated, and brainwashed into being the Pig King's loyal minion. When Claus snaps out of it, it's too late.
In StarSiege, two mech pilot brothers are codenamed...Icehawk (the older, a cold-blooded by-the-book pilot who is loyal to the Emperor) and Phoenix (the younger, a prodigy pilot who has a knack for escaping from impossible situations and joins the Mars Rebellion). They are and are not actually related: Icehawk's real brother was critically injured in an accident and the Emperor secretly had his brain replaced by the organi-mechanical brain of his own son, as a way to continue his son's existence. Indeed, a hidden sect of people in the game world do this with their brains all the time, choosing children with life-threatening injuries and swapping brains with them while they're hospitalized.
Street Fighter IV. It's a definite shout out to the bible, a hero being named Abel, only the Cain is named Seth. It's made very obvious that Abel is a product of S.I.N. experiments like Seth, in both his Ultra Combo(Where his eyes change color to resemble Seth's), Abel's ending, and both of their win quotes against each other in Arcade Mode.
- This also works for Akuma and Gouken.
The obscure PC game Sanity: Aiken's artifact feature such storyline with someone named Cain as the protagonist and the so-called foster brother Abel as the final boss.
In Grandia II the main character must fight his older, more skilled, possessed brother.
In Saga Frontier, there are Blue and Rouge, twins who're told to kill the other after mastering as much magic as possible. Who wins is irrelevant, since they turn out to be the same person, Split At Birth.
In the fashion of the Tekkaman Blade example, Super Robot Wars Compact 3 gives us sworn brothers Folka Albark (the elder, main protagonist) and Fernando Albark (the younger rival). Then there's their older brother Altis Tarl, also in the enemy's side. Subverted because Fernando and Altis are not outright evil, they're just Folka's enemies on circumstances.
- The first Original Generation game has brothers Raideisse and Elzam Branstien fighting for the first half of the story. Mostly because they happen to be on opposite sides of a war, but it also brings out a measure of animosity, mostly on Rai's part, over the death of Elzam's wife (Long Story), whom it's suggested Rai was in love with.
Shiki and SHIKI in Tsukihime. Best friends, adopted siblings. Then SHIKI goes crazy because Roa possessed him plus his inversion went off. Still, turns out if they're able to meet on friendly (Kagetsu Tohya) or semi sane (Kohaku's route) terms they still actually get along quite well, and he's not really that bad a guy.
Jacky and Sarah Bryant from Virtua Fighter had to go through this. In the first two tournaments, J6 brainwashed her and had her try to kill her brother. After she was freed from their control, her motivation for joining recent tournaments was to fight and defeat her brother, not knowing this is all part of J6's plot.
Near-literal case with Kuja and Zidane of Final Fantasy IX.
The ridiculously gory and difficult adventure game Waxworks was built around this concept. Your family was cursed so that one of every set of twins becomes evil, and you have to go back in time using the titular waxworks building to kill the worst of them and break the curse. Your own brother is incapacitated before and throughout the game, and part of your goal is to save him, but other than this, the "evil twin" aspect isn't played up much: the evil brothers of the past include Jack the Ripper, a necromancer who looks far older than his good twin, and a human/fungus mutant who doesn't even resemble a human anymore.
In the Warcraft universe, night elf twin brothers Illidan and Malfurion Stormrage are Cain & Abel respectively. Illidan became a demon literally due to his consuming the power of the Skull of Gul'Dan and figuratively due to his addiction to magic.
- His jealousy over priestess Tyrande Whisperwind choosing his brother over him was actually the plot point that fixed their 10,000-year-old-feud. Events spanning throughout the third game and its expansion culminate in the brothers teaming up to save Tyrande and making up before Illidan leaves Ashenvale (for reasons not revolving around the Night Elves).
- In the Back Story, Darion (Abel) and Renault (Cain) Mograine become this, fueled by their father's perceived Parental Favoritism toward Darion. Though Renault turned his ire on Dad first.
In Backyard Sports, Angela and Tony Delvecchio, siblings, play better on opposite teams in many games. This makes it tough to defeat one sibling using the other on a team.
Aku Aku and Uka Uka in the Crash Bandicoot series.
Umineko No Naku Koro Ni has four siblings in one Big Screwed Up Family. It also subverts the usual "brothers or sisters" rivalry. Krauss is largely resented by his younger siblings, particularly Eva, who actually takes her resentment out on Krauss's wife, Natsuhi. All four of them are pretty messed up, though, due to being raised by Kinzo, and at certain points, even Krauss and Rudolf admit that they wish they'd been better older brothers to Rosa.
Tekken has Nina and Anna Williams.
Last Scenario has Castor and Ethan, respectively, including the age rule. However, it's pointed out that the younger of the two plays the role of an older sibling in many respects, which may make this a slight variation on the usual set-up.
Exit Fate also contains two such siblings (in this case, twins of opposite genders): Brunhild and Daniel. Clearly, SCF likes putting siblings at odds with each other...

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Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire sometimes pits Dominic and Gregory against their necromancer brother Jacob. Early on, there was an interesting twist: Dominic hated Jacob, but Gregory still wanted to believe the best of him.
- ~~And more recently, what appears to be Dominic's sister has shown up, and she happens to be an Oracle Hunter.~~
  - False alarm, everybody. The Oracle Hunter is actually Luna's sister.
In It's Walky, Walky and his separated-at-birth sister Sal have fought each other at least twice, and they get pretty rough. Also, Beef, who was believed to be Walky's twin brother, betrays SEMME in part because of being upstaged by his puny airhead adoptive brother.
Elan and Nale from Order Of The Stick.
In Penny Arcade, Tycho once compared his relationship with his brother to this:
Gabe: Is that bad? Aren't you guys brothers or something?
Tycho: You might recall that Cain and Abel were brothers.
LinT: Fang and Sangwine.
Isaac Jenner and his brother Gabriel from Demonology 101 respectively, with a slight variation in that Issac is the younger brother whereas in most cases the older brother is portrayed as the villainous one. His hatred stems mainly from his status as the The Un Favorite, both in the eyes of his father and those of The Powers That Be. Isaac mellows out a bit after meeting Madeline, a demon whom he falls in love with, and eventually gives up on trying to kill Gabriel as part of a deal with The Hero to save her life.
Haru-Sari Noel and Leon.
Bob And George: Bob likes to burn things and George likes ice cream.
Ctrl Alt Del's Rory and Ethan.

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Anthony and Lyn Laeil Burbank from Survival Of The Fittest (although the gender tradition is bucked here)
Cortez and Mendoza Cardinal from The Leet World. Cortez was the leader of the Ochos Muertos terrorist group, Mendoza his second-in-command. When Cortez rejects Mendoza's plans to gain power and wealth, a furious Mendoza betrays brother, taking control of the Muertos and leaving Cortez blind. Years later, he hires the Domination Guy to kill Cortez, and when that fails, he concocts an elaborate plan to enter the House and finish his brother off.
- Played with when Team Dad Westheimer kills Mendoza in the final challenge, saving Cortez's life. However, Cortez (who had sworn to have his revenge on his brother for blinding him) is furious, and vows to avenge Mendoza's death.
Westheimer: I don't care about this feud of theirs. Probably goes back to "who did Mommy love more?"
Cortez and Mendoza: Me!
The SCP Foundation has two subjects named Cain and Able (along with a Lilith who refuses confirm or deny any relationship with them) with semi-complementary powers (Cain is an otherwise pleasant man with metal limbs who destroys any plant-based matter on contact, and anyone who hurts him receives the same injuries; Able is an eternally resurrecting and extremely deadly Implacable Man who became a Psycho For Hire for the SCP out of "boredom"). Able is still murderously angry at Cain (becoming violent at the sight of Cain's Oth, although he shouldn't be able to know what it is if God gave it to Cain after Able was killed...
Jeremy and Bran from Shadow Of The Templar. While Jeremy still cares for Bran and wants him to reconcile with their father, Bran despises Jeremy for being a better thief than him and having stolen his father's attention from him despite being "only" a foster son. Whenever the two meet, it's always highly uncertain whether Bran will listen to Jeremy or kill him out of spite. It's even all but said that they had sexual relations in the past, which really makes their current relationship a helluva complicated one.

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In an interesting if debated adaptation choice, the film The Prince of Egypt made Moses the adopted brother of Rameses instead of his nephew, then played this trope to the hilt.
- The Biblical version had Moses found by Pharaoh's daughter, while The Prince of Egypt had his foster mother as Pharaoh's wife. Given marriage customs among Egyptian royalty of the time period, the same woman could easily be the daughter of Pharaoh X and the wife of his successor, Pharaoh Y. Thus, identifying her by her relationship to a Pharaoh depends on which Pharaoh is the point of reference.
In the various versions of Masters of the Universe: Big Bad Skeletor was supposed to secretly have once been Keldor, the brother of King Randor (and thus Prince Adam/He-Man's uncle). This was never officially revealed in any canon but has been confirmed as the intended outcome of the original minicomics that had already begun to anviliciouslly hint at it when the toyline was axed. Skeletor's past as Keldor was depicted in the 2002 rebooted cartoon and the backstory of he and Randor being half-brothers was discussed by the writers on a DVD commentary as being an additional reason for their more specific & personal animosity in that version.
Mufasa and Scar in The Lion King, with the unfortunate addendum that Mufasa had no idea Scar was plotting against him until it was too late. A rare case where the younger brother is the evil one.
- Judging by the title of the product and type of government the animal kingdom in the story was based on, this would fall under The Evil Prince variety.
In Avatar The Last Airbender, the royal family of the Fire Nation exhibits this with two sets of siblings. As above, in both cases the younger sib is the outright sociopath of the two. On one of the occasions where Azula outright attempts to kill her brother, she shouts, "I'm about to celebrate becoming an only child!"
Starfire and Blackfire of Teen Titans, who still look like a parallel of Queens Elizabeth and Mary Tudor, even though Glen Murakami admits that they watered down the much more intense rivalry of the original comics into a more kid-friendly, "I Dream Of Jeannie/Bewitched kind of way." If you're even slightly familiar with the comics, you'll know what he's talking about◊.
Cree and Numbuh 5 of Kids Next Door. Also Numbuh 1's dad and Father
ReBoot's principal villains, Megabyte and Hexadecimal, are brother and sister, yet they are always trying to kill each other. When an incredulous Bob asks why, Hexadecimal casually explains that it's just "sibling rivalry."
Played with by The Venture Brothers where Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture eats his twin brother Jonas Venture, Jr while they were still fetuses. Jonas survives and later escapes, and attacks Thaddeus but gives up because he can't kill his own pathetic brother. Jonas finding his true calling as a heroic man of science quickly becomes a success financially, and with the ladies. Its basically implied that both would be successful if Thaddeus became a super villain, and arched his good brother.
- As the series progresses it's hard to say who is Cain and who is Abel - Jonas Jr. is certainly living up to their father's legend, but we start to see that Jonas Sr. had a pretty sleazy side.
In Shadow Raiders, Femur arranged for his brother to be locked away in the prison planet, a hellhole where the Cluster's worst war criminals were sent to, where he was subjected to horrific tortures and expected not to survive. Considering Femur had to bribe the soldiers that were dragging him away so he wouldn't be executed, Sternum had it coming for A: trying it and B: not using more loyal guards.
The Diabolical Mastermind and Big Bad Phaeton and the Proud Warrior Race Guy and Defector From Decadence Marsala from Exosquad. Although both were created artificially, they were from the same brood (and one of the earliest surviving, at that), so by Terran standards, they would have been brothers.
- To add to the fun, it's implied that Phaeton's villainy is an attempt to compensate for having betrayed Marsala during the First Neosapien War fifty years ago.
The Professor Amadeus Sharpe and his older brother Mad Scientist Wilbur Sharpe aka Dr. Scarab, from Bionic Six
Honestly, how could anyone have not mentioned the Miser Brothers, Snow Miser and Heat Miser, from Year Without A Santa Claus? They might be one of the best examples of this trope.
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 cartoon), adoptive brothers Hamato Yoshi and Yukio Mashimi become this when Mashimi, in a fit of jealousy, kills fellow adoptee and love triangle member Tang Shen. Afterwards, Yoshi kills Mashimi in revenge.
- This is an adaptation of the story of Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Nagi from the original Turtles story, which led to quite the Cycle Of Revenge when Nagi's younger brother Oroku Saki, who would later become the Shredder, murdered both Yoshi and Shen in vengeance for Yoshi killing Nagi.
Ang, the Golden Dragon and his twin sister Ying, the Shadow Dragon (whose names sound suspiciously like Yang and Yin) in Legend Of The Dragon, at least until Ying's Heel Face Turn.

Close Western Animation

An interesting historical example is the murder of King Erik IV of Denmark by his brother, Abel. Chroniclers called the murderer "Abel by name, Cain by deeds."
The Mughal dynasty had a lot of these. A prominent example is the murder of Prince Dara Shikoh, the King's oldest and favorite by Aurangazeb, a younger son.
In the 16th century, king Erik XIV starts behaving like he is insane and is deposed and imprisoned by his younger brother Johan after an insurrection. Johan makes himself king, while Erik's son and heir to the throne Erik Jr disappears abroad. Later king Johan has Erik Sr poisoned to death. About two decades later, Johan's son king Sigismund is deposed by his uncle Karl (Johan's youngest half-brother) in another insurrection, but escapes to Poland. These decades of political turmoil makes king Karl institute constitutional reforms that deprive the royal princes of the economic resources needed for insurrections.

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