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Father, I Want to Marry My Brother
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"Then she puts her head upon your shoulder
Says she'll marry you when she gets older"
— Peter Cetera, "Daddy's Girl"
Children have a bit of a strange understanding as regards sexual relationships between adults. If you don't know about the intricacies of all that kind of stuff, it just seems like the husband-wife relationship is between two people who love each other a lot. Never mind what kind of love it is. Obviously, since we're talking about little kids here, the effect is usually sweet and endearing rather than creepy.
This trope is the observation of that childhood fantasy, usually but not always made in reflection on past events, as from an adult (or at least teenage) woman's perspective. Usually the character in question looks back on this attitude and laughs on it- a boatload of Squick and concern elicited from viewers if they still have this attitude and mean every word of it.
Bear in mind that a lot of the time fans take things a little too literally. The usage of this trope is more common in Japanese-themed works than in Western ones, although it does appear in the West from time to time.
Related to Brother-Sister Incest, Big Brother Worship, Big Brother Attraction, Like Parent, Like Spouse, Precocious Crush, and Wife Husbandry.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Angel Sanctuary's Setsuna and his sister Sara. Carried a bit further because they actually got together.
- Code Geass: Euphemia and Nunally talk about how they fought over who would marry their brother Lelouch when they were little girls and laugh about it. Incidentally, in the entire series, those two are the only characters Lelouch explicitly admitted loving... thoug in regards to the "incident" itself, by the next day both Euphemia and Nunnally had basically forgotten about it and thought Lelouch sitting up worrying who to pick was very amusing.
- Incidentally, since this is the royal family we're talking about, it's not unlikely that such a marriage could actually be expected to happen.
- A flashback Shirley has about her father Joseph also sees her saying that she'll marry him when she grows up, which leads to a good-natured lecture on how Shirley will eventually meet someone she loves differently from him. She was a toddler at the time, so it's all innocent. Of course, she's reflecting on this after learning that the boy she "loves differently" is the terrorist who unknowingly killed her father with a weaponized mudslide.
- Paranoia Agent: One flashback shows how a young daughter told her dad that she wanted to marry him when she grew up. Incidentally, when this girl became a teenager, this father would install hidden cameras in her room so he can watch her undress.
- What makes the whole thing even more crazy and horrible is how the man is no twisted monster, but genuinely loves his daughter and wants best for her, and finds his more physical feelings just as repulsive as anybody else, yet can't entirely resist them. Their phone conversation after she finds out is one of the most messed up, heartwrenching things in the whole messed up, heartwrenching series.
- As a child, Yuna Akashi in Mahou Sensei Negima! once told her mother that she wanted to marry her daddy when she grew up. Her mother later died, and she's been looking after the household chores for her dad ever since. She has outright stated that she probably wouldn't mind deep-kissing her father
 Naturally, this admission elicits a squicked "No. Just... No" Reaction from Ako. She even carries a picture of her kissing her father around in her cleavage, even while trapped in an alternate universe for several weeks.
- In Aishiteruze Baby, Yuzuyu declares that she is going to marry Kippei when she grows up (a variation in that Kippei is an older cousin that was assigned to be her caretaker).
- In Papa To Kiss In The Dark the main character Mira says when he was a kid that his dream was to marry his 'Papa' who ends up being Mira's uncle Kyousuke.
- In Girls Saurus, Shingo's little sister wants to live as a married couple with him. They already share the same surname, after all, they'd just have to move far away and keep up the charade.
- During a quick flashback splash page in Great Teacher Onizuka, class 3-4's resident troublemaker Miyabi remembers a moment where she declared a wish to marry her father.
- A more serious version of this happens in Chobits when Freya, a robot, decides that her "father" (the man who built her) is her "one special person", and decides to have her memory erased rather than deal with her feelings.
- Liz in Kamen No Maid Guy hates large-breasted women because, as a child, she wanted to marry her older brother, who humored her until she turned out to be flat chested.
- This is treated as a central plot point in Kagihime Monogatari: Kiraha wants to love her brother...in that way. However, she recognizes the repugnance of this desire and nearly allows a villain to take her story simply because it would remove her memories of this. The other main characters are naturally a wee bit bothered to discover Kiraha is a Clingy Jealous Girl instead of a clingy jealous sister.
- In Princess Princess, Yuujirou's family comes to visit while the princesses have to perform. Because his toddler half-brother barely knows Yuujirou and is surprised to see him in girls' clothing, he's initially terrified by him, but accepts Yuujirou at the end by calling him 'Sister'. He then announces his intention to marry 'Sister', which everyone finds awkwardly funny and cute.
- In Sailor Moon, especially in the manga second arc, Chibiusa is in love with her father, Mamoru, up to the point where She brainwashes him as Black Lady and remains with the Black Moon simply because this way she will have Mamoru forever.
- Technically she's in love (sorta) with her father's past self, who she seems to regard as a different person (much like how she treats Usagi differently than her mother). Also, she has the looks and the mindset of a girl no older than 8 save for the time as Black Lady and a brief time in Super S where she and Usagi "exchanged" ages, so let's cut Chibi-Usa some slack. She sorta gets a boyfriend in Helios and has a Romantic Two-Girl Friendship with Hotaru later, so whatever.
- The entire premise of the Sister Princess series. More explanation: An Unlucky Every Dude finds out he's related to 12 different sisters that are quite young and all wanting to marry him.
- In Hayate the Combat Butler, there's the case of Izumi's Dad. He doesn't approve of her liking Hayate, because he took his little girl's words too seriously, it seems.
- The same seems to be able to be said about Hayate saying this to Athena, with her acting both the mother and the crush.
- Wataru also made the same declaration to his mom when he was about Izumi's age. He grew out of it rather quickly, mostly thanks to Parental Abandonment.
- And given how Hayate's looks are shared between Nagi's mother and father, her crush on him falls into this trope just as well.
- And using the 'child-not-understanding-what-marriage-is' side of the issue, Nagi 'marries' Isumi in one of the title pages. This is another that seems to have fallen to the wayside with age.
- A variation occurs in the manga of X/1999 when a flashback shows Kamui announce to Kotori that he will become her bride when they grow up. Meanwhile, Kotori's actual brother Fuma thinks to himself that he's pretty sure it doesn't work like that.
- Boku Wa Imouto Ni Koi O Suru (I'm In Love With My Little Sister) has a flashback scene where young Yori makes a ring of flowers for his twin sister Iku. The parents call it a lovely crown, but he insists that it is a wedding wreath and that he will marry Iku one day. The parents think it's cute and simply smile. This being Exactly What It Says on the Tin when they're older the siblings sneak into the church where their parents were married and exchange rings which is as close as they can get to fulfilling their childhood promise to marry each other.
- The OAV adaptation of the bishoujo game Ko-ko-ro... plays host to a fairly squick-filled and near-literal example of this trope; Asuka Kuonji, deeply in love with her brother, Souji, and who regularly initiates sex with him, becomes upset when Souji begins a relationship with his teacher, Mizuki. Fearing losing Souji both physically and emotionally, Asuka nudges him into revisiting the traumatic event that numbed him to the world around him and precipitated the start of their incestuous relationship, so that she can take him back from Mizuki. The plot works, and after Souji has fallen catatonic, Asuka fantasizes about raping his unresponsive body on top of a church altar, crowing and giggling that she and he are together forever.
Fan Fiction
- An Animorphs story involves Rachel and Jake falling in love with each other, but acknowledging that it probably can't work out with any sort of permanence. Rachel invokes this trope in her narration. "When you're seven, people think it's cute when you say you want to marry your cousin. When you're seventeen, they call you a redneck."
- In some Girls Und Panzer comics, Maho, who cares more for her younger sister Miho than she lets on, is Flanderized into being in love with Miho in some comics, such as this one (beware of canon spoilers).
Maho: Together with Mother, I am a member of the Nishizumi school, but Miho... is too kind and too cute.
Shiho: ...? Very well, I shall go and watch the semifinal match. That girl should be informed of her disinheritance.
Maho: (excited) Does that mean I can marry Miho!?
Film
Literature
- It happens in The Forsyte Saga, with Irene's son. Admittedly, it's a little weird that he actually says he wants to be her lover, but he's plainly just picked up the word as meaning romance and love and nothing more.
- Used in a joke in Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe, where when describing how Egypt was merciful towards their conquered foes by educating them in Egyptian ways, a son asks his father to marry his sister (since Egyptian Royalty is decided by marriage to the royal woman). The father promptly thinks "You call this mercy?"
- In The Bagthorpe Saga, Daisy is convinced that since her uncle Mr Bagthorpe is by far the wickedest man she knows, he must be responsible for 'putting the baby in Mummy's tummy'. Her grandma is alarmed and instantly sets the record straight.
- In the book For Your Eyes Only by Joanne Rocklin, Lucy's mother is depressed because a man she thought was romantically interested in her ends up dating someone else. Lucy's twin younger brothers try to cheer their mother up by joking that they can marry her when they're older.
- In The Locked Room in The New York Trilogy, the narrator reminisces that as a child he'd wanted to marry Fanshawe, so they could always live together.
- In The Sound And The Fury, Quentin tells his father he had sex with Caddie. His father doesn't believe him.
- Partially motivated by her fear of abandonment Ulyssandra from The Night Angel Trilogy proposes to her twenty year old adoptive father who she has a crush on days before her twelfth birthday.
- The younger brother in The Scarlet Ibis you know, the one that dies tells his older brother that they'll each marry one of their parents. The older brother brushes it off as "stupid things kids say."
- In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus tells Scout about some people who were "double first cousins," resulting when "two sisters married two brothers." This is too much for Scout to wrap her mind around, and the closest she comes is guessing that if she married her brother Jem and their friend Dill married his sister, their children would be double first cousins.
- In The Secret Garden, Colin insists that he will wed his cousin Mary when they grow up. He even tries to force her to promise him this. When she laughs and says they can't, he reveals that he thinks it is the only way to keep her from abandoning him someday. Of course marrying a first cousin was completely acceptable socially at that time in Britain.
- There is a late dynasty Ancient Egyptian tale in which Pharoah's son and daughter fall in love and want to marry. This being Ancient Egypt their father's only hesitation is over whether it wouldn't be politically wiser to make marriage alliances with other distinguished families.
- The Ursula K. Le Guin short story "The Birthday of the World", from the collection of the same name, has a royal family (actually they're referred to as God) in which the eldest boy and girl siblings marry each other, in the manner of many royal dynasties of the ancient world. Ze, the only daughter, knows she is slated to marry her brother Tazu, but when she is little, she isn't overly pleased about this and expresses a desire to instead marry another of her brothers, Omimo.
- In A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, the other little girls in Francie's neighborhood play a game where they have to whisper the name of the boy they want to marry, and the only person she can think of to say if she's ever asked is her father.
- In the Jacqueline Wilson book Midnight, Violet remembers how as a little girl she wanted to marry her brother Will. She borders on Big Brother Attraction when she admits that she still (at age fourteen) harbours dreams of them living together.
Live-Action TV
Music
- Combined with Dual Meaning Chorus in Steve Wariner's "I'm Already Taken". In the first two verses, the narrator tries to ask out a little blonde-haired girl and gets the title response. By the third verse, she's now the mother of their boy, who asks innocently, "mommy, will you marry me?"
- Adam Sandler sang a song on Saturday Night Live where he (as a child) plans to 'go out' with his mother. In the second verse, he's entered school and wants to go out with his gym teacher. By the third verse, he's grown up and decides he'd like to try for his mother again.
Mythology and Religion
- In The Bible, King David's son Amnon lusts after his sister Tamar, and eventually rapes her. In that society, being an unmarried non-virgin generally meant being considered Defiled Forever, even for princesses. Tamar pleads with Amnon to marry her and "take away her shame," saying that their father would allow it, but Amnon pushes her aside, blaming her for his actions. It bites Amnon BADLY in the ass later — as Tamar's other older brother Absalom soon learns about this and "recovers" Tamar's dignity via murdering him.
Newspaper Comics
- The Family Circus had a comic where one of the little boys said something like, "When I grow taller than Mommy, I'm gonna marry her!"
Video Games
- In The Legend Of Dragoon, "Oh, my dear daughter, I miss those days when you used to say, "I'll marry you, papa.""
- In Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, this shows up with Priscilla and her long lost brother Raymond, now known as Raven. The ambiguous context of their support conversation makes it unclear whether she is just observing their Childhood Marriage Promise or actually expecting Raven to deliver on it. Considering the franchise, it's probably the latter.
- Comes up in both Persona 3 and 4. In the former, Maiko, a girl that the Main Character can Social Link with will declare her intent to marry the protagonist if he maxes her out (in the Expansion Pack her father will accuse you of pulling Wife Husbandry on purpose). In the latter, the protagonist's seven-year-old cousin will state how she wishes to marry him at the end of the game before he goes back to the city, with her father laughing it off but also not-so subtly stating that he's against such a union (Unless the player also managed to max his social link, in which case her father's objection is that she's too young. He has no problem with them getting married when she's an adult).
Visual Novels
- Hatsukoi the half translated visual novel Anzu fills out a marriage license and has her brother sign it when they're kids. This is the start of her route when he finds it and realizes she's treasured it for years.
- Akiha in Tsukihime would very much like to marry her brother, the adopted one. In her own route, he reciprocates her feelings, while the blood-related one seems to very much want to marry her, or at least has plenty of subtext to that effect. Unfortunately he's some kind of killer demon vampire thing, and also a complete lunatic, and she makes it very clear that she does not return his feelings.
Western Animation
Other
- There's a joke in which a young boy announces to his father that when he grows up, he wants to marry Grandma. The father, aghast, replies, "You can't marry my mother!", to which the boy asks, "Then why did you marry my mother?"
- The well-mannered and charming boy in this Not Always Right story takes his mother on dates, apparently to practice his etiquette.
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