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Long-Lost Relative

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Robin Hood: Did I wrong you in another life, Will Scarlett? Where does this intolerable hatred for me come from?
Will Scarlett: From knowing that... that our father loved you more than me.
Robin: Our father?
Will: We are brothers, Robin of Locksley. I am the son of the woman who replaced your dead mother for a time.

Our hero or heroine meets someone with whom they seem to share a number of traits. The story progresses, and they find themselves working together, at cross-purposes, or drawing together romantically.

And then — The Reveal. The reason our hero has found that other person uncannily familiar or compellingly attractive is that the new person is a Long Lost Relative they may never have known they had, or had believed gone forever. Variations include blood siblings, half-siblings, parents, children, aunts, uncles, cousins once removed, and so forth. This trope is an integral part of the plot in stories where Everyone Is Related.

Often this is hinted before it happens — thanks to Super Powerful Genetics members of the same family usually share a number of trademark traits and habits by which you can easily spot them.

Once reunited, the relatives may form a Brother–Sister Team or join up with the rest of their Badass Family, since blood is Thicker Than Water. Or they may turn out to be a Coattail-Riding Relative instead.

Compare Unknown Relative. Also, see Refused Reunion where the Long Lost Relative wants to stay lost. If someone was actively searching for the lost relative then see Searching for the Lost Relative. Subtrope of Connected All Along. See Family Twists Index for more subtropes.

Fair warning. Since this trope involves finding out about long lost relatives, it's rife with spoilers!


Example subpages:

Other examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Attack on Titan has several of these:
    • A Justified case with Eren and Zeke Yeager, half-brothers that only learn about each other after crossing paths on opposing sides. After escaping execution, Grisha started over and never told Eren about his original family.
    • Krista Lenz/Historia Reiss and her father, Rod Reiss. It was almost a decade before she met her father for the first time.
    • Mikasa and Levi learn that they are distant relatives, both members of the near-extinct Ackerman Clan. Kenny also eventually reveals that he was Levi's maternal uncle, and that was the reason for taking him in as a child.
  • Birdie Wing: Eve and Aoi are revealed to be half sisters, although not by blood. Eve's father, the legendary golfer Kazuhiko Hodaka, is believed to be Aoi's father, but he actually only married her mother because of the demands of the family's patriarch, after another man got her pregnant.
  • Black Clover:
    • Liebe, the devil in Asta's grimoire, is actually this to Asta, being his adoptive brother. Asta's mother Licita abandoned him due to her body stealing magic and life from living things near her, and adopted Liebe as her child.
    • Ichika, is the younger sister of Yami Sukehiro, who has not seen her brother since he was 13 after getting shipwrecked in the Clover Kingdom
  • Bleach: Ichigo is eventually revealed to be the cousin of Kaien, Kuukaku and Ganju through his father (their uncle), explaining why Ichigo and Kaien look so alike. Ichigo is also eventually revealed to be related to Ishida, as his mother was the cousin of Ishida's father.
  • In Brave10, although it takes a lot to jog her memory given how greatly he's changed over the years, it turns out Seikai really is Isanami's adoptive elder brother.
  • In Chance Pop Session, Akari, Yuki and Nozomi all meet at Kisaragi's music school, not only becoming friends, but harmonizing together well enough to become a successful pop trio, only to learn they are all long-lost sisters, and that the woman who trained them is their mother!
  • In D.I.C.E. (2005), Jet Seigel's brother Zack carbon-copies Racer X perfectly - he fakes his own death, then returns under the guise of Phantom Knight, with only his driving skills clueing Jet (and the audience) in on who he is.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • Dragon Ball Z kicks off with the dual revelations that Goku A) is an alien and B) has a much stronger evil older brother.
    • More than a decade later, the new Dragon Ball Z special gives Vegeta a brother as well. His brother, however, is younger and much weaker, and apparently Vegeta knew of his existence already.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • During the Edolas Arc Happy unknowingly runs into his parents while escaping from the Exceed.
    • Later on, it turns out Natsu is Zeref's younger brother, or rather his resurrected younger brother.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • In Fullmetal Alchemist, it turns out that the Big Bad is kind of Ed and Al's elder brother, since he recognized their father as his father, back before he pulled From Nobody to Nightmare, and turned Hohenheim into a monster, too. Complicated by the fact that this 'son' was also kind of his mentor, giving him a name instead of a number and teaching him to read.
    • This relationship means that the homunculi are all technically Ed's nieces and nephews. But no one makes anything of this within the series.
      • Even when Ed and Al first meet Father, he fixes them up since they're his precious human sacrifices and is fascinated to discover that they're Van Hohenheim's sons and Hohenheim is still alive after all these years, but doesn't therefore think of them in even vaguely familial terms. He seems to restrict those completely to his children; he also doesn't address Hohenheim as his father. Ed and Al return this lack of regard, though since they don't view the flashbacks they may never actually see it put in these terms.
      • Genetically, since Hohenheim was his only parent, once he gets a body Father is Hohenheim's Evil Twin, making him also arguably the brothers' uncle. When he crosses the Bishounen Line during the finale, he gets described as 'the one who looks like Fullmetal without the automail', although he's actually prettier and has somewhat different hair.
      • The relationship between the brothers and the homonculi was referenced at one point near the end when Pride, his philosophers stone exhausted and body crumbling, attempted to take Ed's body as the reason it was possible was due to that relationship. They're a very creepy family.
      • Played for laughs in the 4Koma Theater gags—Ed reveals to Al that the two of them aren't really two brothers...
    Al: So you mean, this blood seal isn't even real!? And I'm not your younger brother!?
    Ed: No, that is a genuine blood seal and you're definitely my younger brother...but your helmet is actually our younger sister.
    Al's Helmet: HI BIG BROTHER AL!
    Al: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!
    • Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): During the climactic final battle, it's revealed that Envy is the resurrection-attempt of the son of Dante and Hohenheim, making him sort of Ed and Al's half-brother. Exactly why he looks like Hohenheim's current body (just younger looking), given that Hohenheim is a Body Surfer, despite being centuries old is anyone's guess.
  • In Future GPX Cyber Formula, Osamu is Asuka's older brother, who ran away from home 5 years before the original series takes place to be a racer in England, and he uses a disguise to protect the team that she's in.
  • In Kill la Kill, it's revealed later on that Ryuko Matoi is Satsuki Kiryuin's younger sister, who was used in experiments with Life Fibers as an infant and tossed away when her mother Ragyo believed her to be dead.
  • During Kinnikuman's Survivor Tournament Arc, it is revealed that the "Kinnikuman Soldier" who was chosen by the Evil God of Brutality was actually killed and the one who entered the tournament was an imposter. During his match against Kinnikuman Super Phoenix, the imposter's identity is revealed to be Kinniku Ataru, Suguru's older brother. Ataru ran away from home before Suguru was born because he couldn't take the spartan training his parents put him through, but returned to teach his younger brother the completed version of the Muscle Spark as well as True Friendship Power.
  • Char Aznable and Sayla Mass from Mobile Suit Gundam are brother and sister; though they've been separated for years, they instantly recognize each other when they accidentally cross paths in the second episode. Thus, "Long Lost Little Sister" is often considered one of the defining traits of a Char Clone, as seen with Zechs Merquise.
  • In My Bride is a Mermaid, it's revealed that Masa is Akeno's older brother.
  • In Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, it's revealed that Emperor Neo is Nadia's older brother, Venusis, brought back to life as a cyborg.
  • In Naruto, the Uzumaki clan were scattered to the four winds after their village was destroyed, so their descendants popped up in quite a few unexpected places. The titular character, who is an Uzumaki through his mother's side, is related to Tsunade (whose grandmother Mito is an Uzumaki, though she mostly identifies as a Senju), Nagato, and Karin. Mito, Nagato, and Karin all share the same red hair as Naruto's mother, Kushina, a Foreshadowing to their shared lineage. The fact that Naruto and Nagato are related makes them even more of a Foil as potential "child of the prophecy" (the former being the Messianic Archetype and the latter being a Dark Messiah). It also makes Naruto's habit of calling Tsunade "Granny Tsunade" Hilarious in Hindsight, since they are cousins of some variety.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi: If the source is reliable, it has been confirmed that Asuna and Negi have a common ancestor in the Lifemaker.
  • Rave Master has main villain Lucia recruiting a number of demons and high profile criminals to beef up his army. Among the new recruits are, unbeknownst to him, his step-brother and grandfather. The grandfather elects not to mention this. Whether or not Deep Snow ever approaches Lucia about their semi-siblinghood is both unknown and unlikely.
  • Sailor Moon: ChibiUsa/Rini arrives and stays with the Tsukinos pretending to be a distant cousin. Everyone constantly compares her and Usagi/Serena. From their hair styles, their childish behavior, their love for Mamoru/Darien. It's eventually revealed that she's their daughter from the future and Really 700 Years Old.
  • Sket Dance dropped a shocking yet somehow logical bombshell when it was revealed that Bossun and Tsubaki are twins tragically separated at birth. Before The Reveal, several characters commented on the similarities between the two. Creepily, because of their constant bickering (read as Belligerent Sexual Tension) and amusing degree of being similar-yet-opposite, they had a whole contingent of shippers. Not all of them gave up when the truth came out.
  • Slayers plays with this; Word of God confirmed that Lina's first traveling companion, the flaky Naga the Serpent, is in fact Gracia Ul Naga Seyruun, the first princess of Seyruun and the long-lost sister of one of Lina's later companions, Amelia. They sort of meet three times in continuity: the Slayers Evolution-R anime had Naga's soul trapped in a suit of armor and became an ally for the group for five episodes, ''Slayers Premium'' had Amelia be blasted away before Naga appeared, and the radio drama following the movie had them briefly meet, but Naga simply told Amelia (who didn't recognize her) that she was a friend of Lina's.
  • A subversion in Speed Racer. Racer X knows he's the long lost brother, but no one else does. This is also true in The Movie, wherein they made a plausible explanation for it because movie Speed wasn't quite as stupid innocent as his anime counterpart.
  • In The Story of Saiunkoku, it is revealed that Shi Seiran, the retainer (but practically an adoptive brother) of the protagonist Shuurei's family, is the exiled prince Seien, the much admired and missed second eldest brother of Emperor Ryuuki.
  • In Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation Ryu meets a boy named Shun who says he's his younger brother.
  • An early chapter in Superior Cross has Angelica meeting her paternal grandfather for the first time, figuring out his identity when she sees a painting of his wife that looks near-identical to her.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul, Renji Yomo turns out to be the maternal uncle of Touka and Ayato Kirishima. The siblings were still toddlers when he parted ways with their newly-widowed father, and he didn't see them again until they were teenagers. He's avoided telling them who he really is, partially out of guilt for how he feels his actions contributed to their father's eventual death.
  • In Tokyo Godfathers: first Hana and her "mother" (though she's not a blood relation), then Gin and his daughter.
  • To Love Ru has Kurosaki Mea who claims to be Yami's little sister. Considering they have similar traits (Shapeshifting abilities, assassins, from outer space and being expies from Suou and Eve respectively) the claim has a little backup.
  • Tweeny Witches: "Lennon's True Identity" reveals that Lennon is the long-lost son of Jidan and Atelia, making him the older paternal half-brother of Arusu.

    Comic Books 
  • In Adèle Blanc-Sec: Le Mystère des profondeurs, Adèle's little sister Mireille, who not only looks like her but dresses very similarly, with the same taste for ugly hats.
  • Aquaman: In some continuities, Aquaman has a long-lost brother in Orm, aka Ocean Master.
  • Batwoman: During the "Elegy" story arc of Detective Comics, it's revealed that Batwoman's nemesis Alice is actually her twin sister Beth, who had been kidnapped as a child and believed dead. This revelation is not taken well.
  • Cable: Mr. Tolliver reveals himself as Tyler Dayspring, Cable's son.
  • Captain Marvel: After dying, Captain Mar-Vell has acquired a few offspring. Hulkling was born from a fling he had with the Skrull princess Anelle. Genis-Vell was born from Mar-Vell's lover Elysius using his genetic material after his death to impregnate herself, then having him rapidly aged to adulthood. When Genis rebooted the universe, the timeline changed so that Elysius did the same thing a second time and had a daughter named Phyla-Vell.
  • Cloak and Dagger: Cloak had a twin sister named Anna. We were never given much detail on why she wasn't raised with Cloak and his other siblings and if Cloak even knows he has a twin sister.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: The 19th issue of Cartoon Network Action Pack had a story titled "Operation: H.I.S.T.O.R.I.E.", which revealed that Numbuh Four's father Sydney Beetles and the Toiletnator were twin brothers who were separated from each other years ago.
  • Deadpool: In Deadpool 2013, Deadpool discovers he has a daughter he didn't know about from earlier events. He tagged along with other heroes on a mission, hired by a woman to avenge her husband's death. Deadpool meets Carmelita, the woman's daughter, and there's an instant attraction. They get locked in a game-room together to be killed later, and Carmelita decides she wants to spend her last min of life "loving", so she and Deadpool get it on. The relationship comes to an end when she sees Deadpool's face for the first time, and runs away in disgust. However, she shows up later, having finally tracked down Deadpool, who hasn't responded to any of her letters about their baby, or child support. She quickly puts the child in Deadpool's arms, and he seems smitten, but quickly pushes them both away, saying the child is too beautiful to be his. After she and the baby are kidnapped, Deadpool goes to save them. Unfortunately, he finds Carmelita's corpse, along with all the others who were killed, and grieves about how it's his fault. His daughter isn't there — her whereabouts unknown, and Deadpool would not meet her again for another 8 years.
  • Diabolik: In the earliest stories Diabolik had a Secret Identity as Walter Dorian, and when it was revealed that there was an actual Walter Dorian that Diabolik had replaced because they looked identical it was theorized, in and out of universe, that they were indeed related. Eventually Eva, after being captured by a journalist with "flexible etics", bartered her freedom with the fact they were indeed twins... And then provided evidence they weren't to said journalist's competition.
  • Fantastic Four: Reed Richard's father Nathan supposedly has at least three other kids thanks to his time-traveling adventures. He went to an alternate earth, married a woman named Cassandra and had an unnamed son with her; that son is supposed to be Kang's ancestor. Nathan tells his daughter-in-law Susan that he once fathered a child with a Latverian woman. A horrified Sue jumps to the conclusion that Reed's arch-nemesis is also his half-brother, but it turns out Nathan was referring to Doom's adopted son Kristoff. Huntarra was raised in alternate timeline with her half-nephew Franklin Richards/Psi-Lord; she later tells him she is Nathan's daughter and thus his aunt.
  • The Flash:
    • Bart Allen and Owen Mercer, aka Captain Boomerang II, are half-siblings on their mother's side. They never met, however, due to Bart dying not long after Owen was introduced, and Owen himself dying shortly after Bart's resurrection.
    • Barry Allen, however, did get a chance to meet his long lost twin, who was stolen by a recently miscarred woman of the Thawne family and became the supervillain Cobalt Blue.
  • Green Lantern: In a story published in Comic Cavalcade, the rail magnate John Cashmere is reunited with his long lost son Dick after his son is fully grown with no knowledge of his birth father, with a very distinct birth mark enabling their reunion.
  • Iron Fist: Danny Rand's father Wendell Rand married a K'un Lun woman named Shakari and had a daughter with her named Miranda. Miranda's mother was killed by the H'ylthri and a distraught Wendell returned to earth, where he eventually married Heather Duncan and shortly thereafter they had Daniel. Miranda would later take on the identity Death Sting.
  • Iron Man: In Iron Man 2013, after the events of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark learned he secretly had an older brother named Arno Stark.
  • Johan and Peewit: Played with the Bauforts who wants to claim the now fertile land say they are distant cousins, it's not clear if they are telling the truth either. The proper Baufort's emissary shows up with the family's sigil and an actual direct bloodline.
    Peewit: Of course he is the third degree cousin of the stepson of Aldebert.
    Emissary: No, Aldebert is his grand-grandfather.
  • Ka-Zar: Ka-Zar, Lord of the Jungle, is the long lost brother of deadly pirate the Plunderer, a fact initially only known to the Plunderer himself.
  • Green Arrow: In the New 52 reboot, Oliver Queen discovers that he has a younger Japanese half-sister named Emiko Queen.
  • New Warriors: Dwayne Taylor, the first Night Thrasher, finds out that Donyell aka Bandit is his half-brother. What makes this really odd is that there had been a previous story where Dwayne and Donyell's father Daryl had been commanded to marry and mate with one of the Daughters of the Dragon's Breath Cult by Tai, but he refused on the grounds that he was already happily married to Dwayne's mother.
  • One cartoon Charles Addams did for The New Yorker shows two identical men, with identical inventions, sitting side by side in a patent attorney's waiting room. The caption: "Separated at birth, the Mallifert twins meet accidentally."
  • The Mighty Thor: During the Original Sin tie-in of Loki: Agent of Asgard, Angela from the Spawn universe is revealed to be the older sister of Thor and Loki.
  • Power Pack: In issue #58, there is a homeless man with the power to flame on named Mr. Raymond. It is never fully confirmed who he is but it's strongly hinted that he is the Golden Age superhero Toro (who was presumed dead) and the father of Nova (Frankie Raye) who was a herald of Galactus. In the meantime a past version of Toro has come to the present and Frankie was thought dead, before she returned.
  • Robin (1993): After Jack Drake's death his long lost brother Eddie has to be tracked down since his will states he's Tim's godfather, the only problem is Tim made up this uncle to get out of ending up in foster care so it's actually just an actor Tim paid so that he could basically live independently. Unsurprisingly Batman does figure this out.
  • Son Of Satan: Satana Hellstrom may count, though when her brother Daimon (Son of Satan) Hellstrom finally met her again, she was kinda sorta mistaken for being on the other side. (And weirdly, even though they hadn't met since being separated as young children, he'd previously had hallucinations about her with her correct current appearance and costume.)
  • Shazam!: Billy Batson has a twin sister, Mary, who was Happily Adopted by a wealthy couple after their parents died. Finding her results in him joining their family and her becoming his Distaff Counterpart, Mary Marvel.
  • Silver Surfer: Norrin Radd discovered that his father Jartran Radd fathered an illegitimate child named Fennan Radd after the death of Norrin's mother Elmar. It's unclear if this is actually true as Zenn-La was retconned as being destroyed by the Other and recreated as an illusion by Galactus to comfort the Silver Surfer.
  • Spider-Girl: Mayday Parker, last we saw her, still was not aware that Darkdevil is her cousin (son of her father's clone).
  • Spider-Man: Amazing Spider-Man: Family Business introduces Peter Parker's sister, Teresa Parker.
  • Star Trek (IDW): George Kirk Jr., who James encounters in the "Operation: Annihilate!" arc. Unlike his Prime Universe counterpart (who died offscreen and was only mourned by Kirk after the fact), George and his wife survive the events of the story and go on to live a happy life. The brothers even patch up their differences before parting.
  • Sub-Mariner: Llyra originally passes Llyron off as her son with Namor. This is later found out to be a lie but Llyron's true father turns out to be Namor's half-nephew Leon. Turns out Namor's father Leonard had a son with a human woman named Lawrence McKenzie who fathered Leon (Black Moray) who fathered Llyron.
  • Superman:
    • A constant in most of Supergirl's origin stories (some examples: The Supergirl From Krypton (1959), The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Last Daughter of Krypton...) Clark Kent/Kal-El grows up believing he is his biological family's only survivor until another Kryptonian rocketship crashes on Earth, and Clark meets his long-lost first cousin Kara Zor-El, who -depending on the version- was launched into space later and/or took longer to arrive.
    • In Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen (2019), Lex Luthor discovered compelling evidence that he and Jimmy Olsen are actually distant cousins by way of a star-crossed romantic tryst between his ancestor Hannah Alexandria Luthor and Jimmy's ancestor Jimberly Jimmington Olsen, and it's from this relationship that Lex's former red hair originates.
  • Teen Titans: Raven she is not the only living child of the demon Trigon. She discovers her father Trigon mated with six other women giving her the younger half-brothers Greed, Gluttony, Wrath, Lust, Envy and Sloth (Raven represents Pride). Post-Flashpoint Raven has three older half-brothers via Trigon named Belial, Ruskoff and Suge. When Trigon was first introduced it was implied that over the ages he has had hundreds of children but they had been killed by his enemies.
  • Ultimate Marvel: The teenager Jimmy Hudson was revealed as the son of Wolverine and Magda (who is also the mother of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, with Magneto). It was late for him to meet his biological father or his sister, who were already dead by then, but he met his brother Quicksilver in Ultimate Wolverine. He also saw his biological mother briefly, but she escaped after it, and as he was Happily Adopted he had no major interest to seek her anyway.
  • Wolverine: Dog Logan is revealed as Logan's forgotten half-brother. Eventually, the two meet in modern day.
  • Wonder Woman:
    • Wonder Woman (1942): Wonder Woman's a twin sister Nubia was stolen by their grandfather Ares after creation and believed dead by the rest of her family until she and Diana met as adults.
    • In DC Rebirth, Wonder Woman had a long-lost twin brother named "Jason".
  • X-Men:
    • Charles Xavier has an Evil Twin sister he didn't know about, who says he tried to kill her in the womb.
    • Orphan twins Northstar and Aurora did not know they were twins until they were recruited into Alpha Flight. After their parents' death Northstar went to live with distant relatives who adopted him, while Aurora was raised at an all-girls school.
    • Polaris is un-retconned and re-revealed to be the daughter of Magneto; thus she is the half-sister of the Scarlet Witch and her former X-Factor teammate Quicksilver (and their dead sister Anya). As of the events of Axis, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver may no longer be related to Magneto until another retcon.
    • Cyclops's father Christopher Summers (Corsair) met Scott in Uncanny X-Men #104, and didn't reveal his identity to Scott until Uncanny X-Men #154.
    • Professor X also hid the existence of Cyclops and Havok's younger brother, Vulcan.
    • Since his introduction in the 1960s is full of weirdness (if Cyclops had been visiting Havok all along, what was the point of: A) keeping his existence a secret from all of his friends, and B) not telling Havok that they were mutants?) Alex Summers is usually introduced as Cyclops's long-lost sibling in newer adaptations (X-Men: Evolution, for example). In some continuities, Gambit is the third Summers brother. The intended third Summers brother was supposed to be X-Force character Adam-X — which is finally getting resolved in the opening arc of X-Men Legends (2021).
    • Storm has no siblings, but she does have a long-lost branch of her family on her mother's side that was Retconned into existence to help justify her going back to Africa so she could marry the Black Panther.
    • Played fairly straight with Nightcrawler's half-brother Graydon Creed (the non-mutant son of Mystique and Sabretooth). Rogue also has a few "adoptive" relatives on the side of her other mother, Destiny, including young X-Man Blindfold.

    Fan Works 
  • These were as common as grains of sand in the early days of the Sailor Moon fandom. They'd almost universally be either Usagi or Mamoru's long-lost sister, though once in a great while Usagi would have a brother (since apparently she doesn't get enough grief from Shingo) or one of the other senshi would suddenly sprout a sibling or two. What was particularly odd with Usagi's many sisters was how often they were her older sibling, but were still usually banished (and thus forgotten by everyone until after the canon series) for breaking the "one heir" rule. note  Because it makes perfect sense to banish the ''firstborn'' for being an extra child.
  • Justified example in the Case Closed fandom. This is a popular fan theory for lead character Kudo Shinichi and his foil and Worthy Opponent the Kaitou Kid (who had his own very brief manga series before Aoyama started Conan and folded Kid into it). Generally they're either twins and don't know it, or first or second cousins, but there have been considerable variations. This is all based on the fact that they canonically look ridiculously similar, to the point that Ran mistook Kaito as Shinichi when she met him at the streets.
  • Subverted In-Universe in The Desert Storm. People eventually start to notice that Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi bears a strong resemblance to his master, Ben Naasade, and the leading theory is that they're secretly father and son. Ben assures him that they're not. Obi-Wan eventually finds out that Ben is actually another version of himself, having travelled back in time.
  • The Doctor Who/Legends of Tomorrow crossover "Mistaken Identity" makes Rip Hunter the long-lost twin brother of Rory Williams.
  • The big reveal in the Rise of the Guardians fanfic Guardian of Light: Pitch is the biological father of the main character, Helen, who was taken into the future by Bunny on the day of her birth in order to protect her. Oh, and her biological sister is Mother Nature.
  • Hivefled; Gamzee and Feferi turn out to be siblings Separated at Birth, and Gamzee is hanging around with the ghost of Sollux's centuries-dead half-sister who is also his and Feferi's half-sister on the other side of the family.
  • When Elden meets Mrs. Bones in A Far Green Country, Elden learns that Mrs. Bones is really Elden's lost sister Beorna.
  • In Chlorine Grown Roses, the main character, Azusa Tachibana, is Makoto's long lost cousin from America.
  • The prototypical version of Brittany from Alvin and the Chipmunks was a one-shot character named Charlene. In fan works she sometimes appears as a long lost sister or cousin to The Chipettes.
  • In Custody Battle, a My Hero Academia fanfiction, Izuku is All for One's son and gets adopted by the First One for All user.
  • The Big Bad of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fic Princess Trixie Sparkle Astelle is revealed to be Celestia and Luna's long lost older sister, that the former had been keeping a secret. Luna has never even heard of her oldest sister because she left before her birth.
  • This My Little Pony fic centers around Rainbow Dash and Trixie being long lost sisters.
    • While we're on this subject, it is also somewhat popular to have Trixie revealed to be Twilight's lost sister, due partially to Trixie's cutie mark looking similar to Twilight's father's from a distance.
  • MGLN Crisis: After taking a DNA test and doing some investigating, Fate finds out that her biological father was an aged up clone of Clyde Harlaown, meaning that Lindy is her step-mother and Chrono is her half-brother. Of course, Lindy had already been her adoptive mother for over a decade at this point, so it didn't change anything between them.
  • In Child of the Storm, this happens a lot - the central premise is that Thor was incarnated as James Potter, then had his memories of that blocked, because being murdered is detrimental to one's sanity, and the plot is triggered by those memories being triggered. And it's looking more and more like Doctor Strange arranged it as part of his grand plan.
    • In the sequel Ghosts of the Past, it's eventually revealed that Maddie Pryor is not Jean Grey's clone, as in the comics, but rather Jean's twin sister Rachel, whom Sinister abducted as an infant after faking her death.
  • In Forgiveness is the Attribute of the Strong, a My Hero Academia fanfiction, Izuku is mistaken for a distant descandant of All for One, but he's actually All for One's son.
  • Scootaloo's Sunrise Surprise: After her friends, Rainbow Dash and Twilight learn the truth about Scootaloo's parents (who are a noble family and very much love her), Scootaloo's father privately confesses to Twilight and Rainbow Dash that Scootaloo also has a long-lost older sister, a unicorn who had to live in Canterlot instead of Cloudsdale and lost touch with her family before Scootaloo was born. Twilight subsequently helps Scootaloo and her father (and Rainbow Dash, who tags along) reunite with said sister: Sunset Shimmer.
  • In Second Bite of the Cherry, the Zhou family is nothing short of stunned to learn that the famed Twin Jades of Lan are their lost daughter's children.
  • Features in Strange Scales; after Bella is turned into a mermaid (who, in this continuity, are immortal, able to drink blood or eat fish, and can regain their legs on land while only able to speak Mermish), once she returns to the Cullens, she is accompanied by Kali, an apparently seven-year-old mermaid, who she swiftly learns is actually the daughter of Rosalie's brother, having been frozen at her current age since she was turned in 1940, prompting Rosalie to immediately 'adopt' her newfound niece.
  • The 100 fic “The Skaion Walks Tonight” adds the OC of Kent Griffin, Clarke’s younger brother, who was sent to the ground by their parents to protect him from the Ark’s one-child policy. By the time the 100 arrive on Earth, Kent has been raised as essentially Lexa’s foster brother, but while he is hostile towards Abby after learning about her role in their father’s death he has no problem getting to know Clarke as his biological sister.
  • Blood Sisters features Bella Swan (The Twilight Saga) learning that she’s actually a fae who was left with the Swans after the death of their own child, followed by Bo Dennis (Lost Girl) learning that she has a younger sister called Isabella. When Edward contacts Bo for help based on her experience of a similar situation, the two swiftly realise that Bo and Bella are sisters, the fic focusing on them meeting as Bo teaches Bella about their abilities as succubi
  • "The Curse of Jumanji" opens with Mildred Hubble and Ethel Hallow (The Worst Witch) being sucked into the Jumanji board game (Jumanji). Thirty years later, the game is discovered by new Cackles students Miranda Viraso and Bella Hallow, who is the daughter of Ethel's sister Esmerelda. When Miranda and Bella are pulled into Jumanji themselves, after the now-adult Mildred and Ethel rescue them, Bella swiftly identifies Ethel as "Auntie Ethel" and introduces herself as Esmerelda's daughter, the two sharing a tearful hug at this reunion. Once the game is completed and Mildred and Ethel return to the moment they first played the game, after they share their experience with the rest of the school Esmerelda expresses hope that Bella will still be born in this new timeline.
  • Essentially applies in the Stargate SG-1/Battlestar Galactica (2003) crossover "Seven", which reveals that Daniel Jackson is the last of the Model Seven humanoid Cylons, shot off into space by Cavil after he tortured and killed all other bodies and suppressed Daniel's memories. When Daniel returns to the Colonies and makes contact with the would-be Caprica Six, with her memories of him restored she immediately greets Daniel as her brother, a sentiment shared by the Twos, Threes, Fours and Eights (the Final Five see Daniel as one of their children, the Ones resent him, and the Fives are relatively indifferent).
  • The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) fic "The Girl Next Door" sees April make friends with her new neighbour, Satou Atsuko, only for her and the Turtles to later learn that Atsuko's real name is Tang Mei, sister to Splinter's lost wife Tang Shen. Once Mei and the Turtles have established their real history, the turtles all swiftly accept her as their aunt,
  • Pokémon Reset Bloodlines took the Identical Strangers from the original series and turned them into Ash's half-siblings, making it clear that their physical resemblance is not a coincidence, but a result of sharing the same father. On top of that, there's the implication that there are more siblings out there in the hundreds spread across all regions in the Pokémon world.
  • The OMG most Original fanfic Idea EVER:
    • Parodied with Shadow's long-lost brother named Death. How an artificial being from 50 years ago has a brother, and where he was the entire time, is never clarified. Sonic tries to ask but gets cut off.
    • Parodied along with Remember the New Guy? when it comes to Sonic's triplets with Pinky. She claims they're from a drunken one-night stand six months ago, but Sonic has just met her.
  • The oneshot The End of the Day depicts Luna and Celestia as half-siblings from different social classes. Celestia comes from an Earth pony farming family, while Luna is an upper class pegasus. Their father fell in love with Celestia's mother but quickly moved on and had Luna with another mare. The two sisters didn't meet until only a few years prior to the story.
  • In Danny Phantom fanfic Resurrected Memories: As stated above the substitute teacher A.J. Murray is actually Ember’s little sister Amy.
  • In Back to Zero, Giovanni is not only Jessie's father, but also Ash's father through a short fling with Delia. Neither Jessie's mother Miyamoto or Giovanni knew about Ash until Ash was already on his journey, while Delia hadn't heard of Giovanni since their last date. Jessie doesn't remember her mother and doesn't know that Giovanni is her dad. Giovanni decides to take advantage of the situation and have Jessie unknowingly chase around her younger half-brother, so that he can keep an eye on both of his kids.
  • The Masks we Wear (JiggleWigs): When Ozai reunites with his son Zuko after fifteen years apart, neither one recognizes one another. Zuko was only a toddler when they were separated.
  • Everything Changes (Milkyway Scribbles) depicts the gym leader Drake as both Ash and Gary's uncle. Ash and Gary don't know that they're related to him (and presumably he doesn't either).
  • Yamujiburo: While out on a journey, Jules accidentally comes across her mother Jessie's mother Miyamoto. Miyamoto lost track of Jessie forty years ago and has been unable to find her, while Jessie thinks her mother died.
  • Jimmy Two-Shoes the Movie: Misery Loves Company features Beezy's Missing Mom/Lucius' wife Maggie very prominently, as well as Beezy's twin brother/Lucius' other son, Belphy, who has been living with Maggie while Beezy was Separated at Birth to be raised by Lucius.
  • Misshapen Sparks starts with eighteen year old Ruby learning she has a half-sister two years her senior.
  • The Line Is Not Broken:
    • Jiraya never knew that Minato was his son and that Naruto was his grandson.
    • Minato didn't know about his relationship to Tsunade or Jiraya.
    • Naruto doesn't know that Tsunade is his grandmother and that Jiraya is his grandfather.
  • Harvest Moon: Meadow of Dreams: Akari and Tiesha are long-lost cousins. Akari had been sealed in a cave for a long time.
  • In The Pride That Never Was, Simba hadn't known that Zira was pregnant when he exiled her. He doesn't meet his younger cousin Kovu until he's already several months old.
  • A Moon and World Apart: In chapter 14, when a small group of Equestrians visit the Lunar Republic, it's revealed that Steady Notes, Director of Recordkeeping, is leading a project to reunite their ponies with their family members back in Equestria, which will lead to several cases of this. Applejack in particular is startled to learn there are Apple Clan members on the moon, and thrilled to meet them, starting with Braeburn, the cousin she never knew.
  • Played for Drama in Infinity Train: Boiling Point: Act 2 reveals that Alador raped Skara's mother, Persephone, in order to give birth to her so Odalia could use her to gain connections to the Underworld. The drama comes from the fact that Amity and Skara learn about this not only after their relationship hit rock bottom due to their fight at Hexside, but while they're both in quite possibly the worst moment to learn about this: Skara's currently trapped in the Boiling Underworld alongside her mother, while Amity's being bombarded with Awful Truth after Awful Truth regarding everything she thought she knew, while she's being kidnapped by Amirani.
  • In journey of no envies, Wen Qing finds her missing Aunt Yan, who gives Wen Qing a job running her apothecary shop.

    Films — Animated 
  • Coco: Héctor turns out to be Miguel's actual great-great grandfather.
  • One of the Disney Fairies films, Secert of the Wings, involves Tinker Bell finding out she had a twin sister she never knew of named Periwinkle, who is a frost fairy. Both were born from the same laugh, but Tinker was the one who reached the Pixie Dust Tree in Pixie Hollow while Periwinkle got lost by the wind and reached the Pixie Dust Tree's branch in the Winter Woods instead.
  • Marnie from When Marnie Was There is Anna's grandmother. In a twist on the norm, Marnie is the already deceased grandmother, who died when Anna was very young, as a ghost child. Anna doesn't recognize this until the climax of the film, and it's implied Marnie didn't know either.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Addams Family is kind of an inversion. Fester is returned to the family by a con woman who thinks he's not the real long-lost Fester, brother of Gomez. But he is, just with Trauma-Induced Amnesia.
  • Penny Priddy was the unknowing long lost twin sister of Buckaroo Banzai's wife, Peggy. Tragically, the sisters never had the opportunity to meet.
  • Austin Powers in Goldmember reveals that Austin's recurring nemesis Doctor Evil is actually his long lost twin brother Douglas "Dougie" Powers. They were separated as babies in a car crash and their father Nigel gave up on Dougie when he saw him being picked up by a pair of passing Belgians which immediately turned Dougie evil. Belgium is apparently a wellspring of evil in this setting because they share a border with the Dutch. Austin and Douglas are both shocked when Nigel reveals the truth, though Douglas only takes a second or two to immediately embrace his lost family.
  • Black Panther (2018): About halfway through the film, African-American mercenary Eric 'Killmonger' Stevens is revealed to be the son of Wakandan Royal Prince turned deep cover operative N'Jobu, the nephew of the late King T'Chaka and first cousin of the incumbent T'Challa.
  • The kung fu film Brothers Five has the five titular characters. The sons of a once-proud martial arts clan, their family was massacred by their enemies with the five infants separated and brought to different parts of the country by faithful servants. In order, they become a soldier, blacksmith, scholar, valet and thief, each having their own kung-fu styles, until a heroic swordswoman unites all five of them to seek their revenge.
  • Cookie's Fortune: Emma finds out Willis is actually her relative, which no one suspected as he's black while she's white. He was left Cookie's entire estate, being the nephew of her late husband.
  • In Daylight (2013), a woman learns that she has an autistic half-brother she never knew about, who has spent the last three decades incarcerated for two murders she doesn't think he committed.
  • In Desperado, El Mariachi and Bucho are brothers.
  • The very plot of Duel of Fists, a Shaw Brothers kung-fu film set in Thailand. The main character is an engineer and kung-fu student in Hong Kong, whose father, at his deathbed, confesses that he had an affair with a Thai woman 23 years ago, with a secret son living somewhere in Bangkok which the hero needs to seek. To fulfill the dying father's wish, the hero then travels to Bangkok to seek his brother with the only clue being that his brother has a butterfly tattoo.
  • Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: Yusuf Kama and Leta Lestrange are half-siblings. Credence's birth name is supposedly Aurelius Dumbledore, though the specifics of his relationship or potential lack thereof with the others remains unknown.
  • In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Star-Lord finally meets his father, Ego, whom he has never met in his entire life. Ego reveals that he has sired many children throughout the years. And while Star-Lord seemingly doesn't meet any of his siblings in the film (as Ego appeared to have killed them all), in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, it's revealed that Mantis was Ego's daughter, making her Star-Lord's half sister.
  • Just like Star Wars, Halloween II (1981) used it as a major plot point. In the previous movie, Michael Myers, the homicidal maniac, remained an unknown menace: no face and no real motivation behind his crimes. But as his very first victim happened to be his elder sister, when an explanation was needed about the murders, the former storyline changed totally: Laurie Strode, the final girl, is not just any stalked babysitter. She is Michael's younger sister, born only two years before he stabbed the other one, and who was adopted after her parents' deaths in a car crash. Since then, movie after movie, it's quite clear that Myers only dreams of one thing: murdering each and every member of his family (and their friends, as there wouldn't be enough blood if he didn't slice and dice a dozen idiotic teenagers every year).
  • In the Shadow of the Moon: Rya is mixed race, with a Black father and White mother. This allows the reveal of her being Lockhart's granddaughter to be a surprise, since he's White (his daughter was her mother).
  • The Invitation (2022): Evie learns of her cousin, Oliver Alexander, on taking a DNA test from a company she catered for. He's a white Englishman and from a wealthy family, while she's a working class New Yorker. He invites her to a wedding in England after revealing she descends from Emmaline Alexander, who had a baby with a black footman who worked for them in the 1920s. Evie accepts, which sets the plot in motion.
  • The Jade Faced Assassin combines this with Grooming the Enemy. The backstroy revolves around a pair of twins born as result of an affair between a swordsman and an heiress of two warring clans, causing an uproar in the martial world. When both parents are killed, their two babies - a boy and a girl - are taken by the heiress' elder sister, a leader of the clans herself, to be raised in different families, where seventeen years later, the elder sister will manipulate the twins Separated at Birth to kill each other. The winner will then be given ruling authority to restore honor to the family name.
  • The Mighty One, a wuxia, opens with a lawful martial artist and his family getting massacred by his enemies who covets a scripture for a forbidden martial art in his posession. The martial artist's young son escapes and was taken by another noble clan, becoming a righteous swordsman, and in adulthood his botched quest for revenge have him reascued by a swordswoman - who, to his surprise, is his elder sister who also escaped death as a child.
  • In The Parent Trap, Susan and Sharon meet at summer camp and notice they look very similar, realizing that they are twins who were Separated at Birth.
    • In the 1998 remake, Annie and Hallie meet at summer camp and notice they look very similar (and have other similarities, such as the same strawberry allergy), realizing that they are twins who were Separated at Birth.
  • Raymond from Rain Man is this to his younger brother Charlie. Charlie, who was a toddler when Raymond was institutionalized, does not remember that he has a brother, and his parents were careful not to remind him. He just has vague memories of an Imaginary Friend called the Rain Man, who would sing to him when he was afraid. When their father dies, Raymond inherits the bulk of his estate, at which point it's finally revealed to Charlie that he has a brother, although it's still a while before he realizes that Raymond is the Rain Man.
  • In the Robin Hood retelling Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Will Scarlett turns out to be Robin's half brother, related through their father.
  • Cameron Vale and Darryl Revok in Scanners. Revok is trying to get Cameron to join him, but when the reunion comes, they kill each other with Psychic Powers. Probably.
  • In Scaramouche, the hero Andre and the villain De Maynes are clever, passionate, somewhat flippant charmers who are extremely loyal to their friends and family. Over the course of the film, Andre becomes more and more like De Maynes, becoming a master swordsman who repeatedly incapacitates political enemies in duels and has complicated relationships with two different women. This foreshadows The Reveal that they're half-brothers, Andre being the unacknowledged bastard son of De Maynes pére.
  • In the Scream trilogy, Sydney Prescott's mother Maureen is killed by the original Ghostface killer before the events of the first movie. The Ghostface killer in the 3rd movie turns out to be Roman Bridger the son Maureen gave up for adoption. He was conceived when his mother Maureen was gang raped at a party and his father is presumed to be John Milton who was the producer of the Stab movies which were based on Gale Weather's book about the original Ghostface killings.
  • Shaolin Prince begins with the massacre of a Manchurian Emperor's palace by the servants of an usurping traitor, with the emperor's baby sons brought away by two faithful servants. While the younger son was taken to a nobleman loyal to the emperor and was raised in luxury, the older son was delivered to the Shaolin Temple and brought up by the monks; the two brothers unites 20 years later, eventually discovers their royal lineage, and sets out to reclaim the throne.
  • A Simple Favor: Stephanie first met her half-brother when he came to their dad's funeral, as he'd been the result of an affair. Prior to that she didn't know he existed.
  • In Soapdish, soap opera costars Lori and Jeffery nearly kiss before Celeste breaks them up to reveal that Lori is his daughter. Ew.
  • Spock's touchy-feely half-brother Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. As well as Kirk's son David from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
  • For Star Wars this is almost Once per Episode:
    • Luke and Leia are twins, and meet when one (farmboy from a backwater planet) rescues the other (political prisoner on the Death Star) with neither being aware of who they are, though it's implied that they recognized each other on an instinctual level due to their Force-sensitivity.
    • Obi Wan Kenobi was mentioned to have a brother, the original idea being that Owen "Luke's uncle" Lars was Obi-Wan's brother, not Anakin's.
    • Of course, we can't forget Darth Vader, revealed to be Luke's father in The Empire Strikes Back, and who in turn learns that Leia is his daughter in Return of the Jedi.
    • Luke and Leia are also this to their mother's family back on Naboo, as they were all led to believe that Padme was still pregnant when she died. For a long time Leia had no idea that one of her friends from the Imperial Senate was actually her first cousin.
    • Rey's parentage was the subject of Wild Mass Guessing until The Last Jedi subverted this by revealing her parents were nothing more than drunken losers. The Rise of Skywalker retcons this by revealing Rey to be the granddaughter of Palpatine. Rey's parents being "nobody" is "true from a certain point of view" as her father was Palpatine's estranged son who tried to live anonymously. This is further clarified in subsequent tie-ins that the "son" was actually created as part of the attempts to resurrect Palpatine by cloning, resulting in the imperfect clone who acts as the villain in Rise.
    • Gunn Yage is Cade Skywalker's half-sister in the comics, making this trope In the Blood. The Fels of the Fel Empire are also heavily implied to be his distant cousins, descendants of Jaina Solo and Jagged Fel.
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito portray the titular long-lost brothers in the comedy film Twins (1988). In an unusual departure from the twin trope, they are fraternal twins.
  • In Twitches, Cam and Alex are twins who were Separated at Birth.
  • The Hong Kong action film The Viral Factor stars Jay Chou and Nicolas Tse as long-lost brothers. Chou is a former special forces officer who retired after getting shot, and have a few weeks left to live before learning from his mother that he had a secret brother (played by Tse) somewhere in Malaysia, which he decides to seek before his death.
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past: Screenwriter Simon Kinberg confirms that Magneto is Quicksilver's father, so the trope is played with in this case because although Erik suspects that Peter is his son after the teen mentions that his mother once knew a guy who could control metal, the older mutant doesn't try to seek out the truth or inform anyone else about the potential blood relation.
  • Zorro, the Gay Blade has a Separated at Birth sitch with Bunny Wigglesworth. Bunny knows they're brothers. Diego knows he has a brother, but he hasn't seen his brother in years since Bunny had been in the Navy. Also, Bunny's birth name was Ramone and Diego wasn't aware that he had changed his name.

    Myths & Religion 
  • Classical Mythology: Oedipus, long-lost son of Laios (whom he kills) and Iocaste (whom he marries). A pattern repeated with Telegonos, son of Odysseus and Circe. He winds up accidentally killing his long-lost father, and in a creative instance of Pair the Spares, he marries Odysseus' widow Penelope, while Penelope's son Telemachus marries Circe.
  • Arthurian Legend, Arthur was raised by Sir Ector without knowledge of his birth family. He only meets his biological mother and sisters after becoming king...and, in many versions, after conceiving a kid with his half-sister Morgause.
  • Mahabharata:
    • Much to their dismay, Arjuna and his brothers come to find that their scheming cousin's right hand man Karna is actually their older brother, whom their mother abandoned after giving birth to him out of wedlock, leaving him to be brought up by low-ranking commoners and receive much mockery for his supposedly "low birth" despite his prowess as a warrior. They only find out after they've killed him in a bloody, costly war of succession.
    • Yudhishthira and his uncle, Vidura, are both avatars of Yama, but the former only realizes this after the latter dies, and his spirit joins his body.
  • The Bible: Due to his Parental Favoritism, Joseph was sold to slavers by his brothers. He ends up in Egypt, where he eventually becomes the Pharaoh's vizier. Years later, he sees his brothers, and without revealing his identity, invites them to dinner before framing them for theft. He agrees to let them go on the condition that they leave the youngest of the brothers as his slave. The brothers beg for him not to do so, as it would break their father's heart. Then Joseph reveals who he is.

    Pro Wrestling 

    Radio 
  • In Adventures in Odyssey, Eugene Meltsner's Tell Me About My Father quest results in the discovery that he and local window-washer Bernard Walton are cousins. This fact is the catalyst for multiple episodes, often involving Bernard grudgingly agreeing to help Eugene.
    Bernard: After all, you are... (hesitates) family.
  • The Adventure Zone: In "Reunion Tour - Part 2", Taako learns that he had a twin sister named Lup, who went missing nearly a decade ago, and who he completely forgot when Lucretia fed the information about her existence to the Voidfish. It then turns out Lup has been trapped in Taako's Umbrastaff that entire time, and the two are reunited when Taako realizes she's in there and snaps it in half over his knee.

    Theatre 
  • Played for laughs in Cox and Box, where the absence of a strawberry mark on his left shoulder proved that Box was Cox's long-lost brother.
  • Siegmund and Sieglinde find this out at the end of the first act of Die Walküre. This does nothing to avert Brother–Sister Incest.
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Miles Gloriosus and Philia turn out to be the long lost son and daughter of Erroneous. Thankfully this is revealed before their arranged marriage can take place, let alone be consummated.
  • Into the Woods
    • An interesting aversion of sorts, where the baker and Rapunzel are these, but neither realizes and nor does their being related have any effect on the plot.
    • The Mysterious Man also counts since he hasn't seen The Baker since he was a baby/toddler. However, he does affect the First Act unlike his daughter.
  • At the end of the opera Il trovatore an old gypsy reveals to the villain that he has just killed his long-lost brother. Since this is the last line of the libretto (and there are just 2 bars of music left to go), the baritone is reduced to making a face at the audience to express his dismay as the curtain comes down.

    Video Games 
  • The inciting villain of Avencast: Rise of the Mage and the player character spend so much time opposing each other, the reveal that they're siblings is hardly a surprise.
  • In Baldur's Gate, the protagonist and the Big Bad turn out to be half-siblings on their father's side. The sequel reveals that Imoen is also part of the family. Then we find out in Throne of Bhaal that there are dozens more. The Lord of Murder Really Gets Around.
  • Cute Knight series:
    • The first game, Cute Knight has a doozy, which is only revealed in the 'true' ending. The player character and Prince Kirelan were Switched at Birth, with the player character ending up dumped off in an orphanage. The king and queen kept the truth from the kingdom, instead letting them believe that the queen had given birth to a boy. Later, she also had Princess Alexandra, who grew up to be a Rebellious Princess and ran away. In the true ending, the player character persuades Alexandra to go home to the family who has been missing her for years, at which point her own true parentage is revealed; she is then married to Prince Kirelan in order to restore her to her rightful place as heir to the throne without shocking the kingdom.
    • The second game, Cute Knight Kingdom, has this in its 'true' ending. The player character turns out to be an alien princess who is reunited with her birth family, including her six mothers.
  • Disgaea Dimension 2 introduces Laharl's younger sister Sicily and Etna's older brother Xenolith.
    • Sicily is introduced by retconning Laharl's mother death - she still died after giving her mana to cure Laharl's illness, but she was pregnant with Sicily and had the choice to become an angel, but Sicily wouldn't survive, or pass the angel bliss to Sicily, but dying in the process.
    • Xenolith is introduced revealing that Etna was actually born with an immense magic power inside her that would lead to her death, but her older brother decided to merge himself with a magic-absorbing artifact to take most of Etna's own magic, so she could survive. He then left Etna to Krichevskoy's care.
  • Double Dragon III The Rosetta Stone introduces the previously unseen Lee brother Sonny as the third playable character, with no explanation ever given for his absence in prior games. He would not be seen again for almost 27 years before returning as a hidden character in Double Dragon IV, and his appearance in River City Girls 2 lampshades his obscurity compared to his far more famous siblings.
  • In the third act of Dragon Age II, Hawke discovers a note in their uncle Gamlen's house regarding a gem he had been obsessed with years ago. After some run around, Hawke learns that the person who sent the note was Gamlen's daughter Charade, whose mother left over Gamlen's obsession with the jewel without ever telling anyone she was pregnant, so literally no one on the Amell side knew she existed before that moment.
    Charade: I should have expected he would send you, cousin.
    Party Member: You have a cousin?
    Hawke: I have a cousin?
  • Final Fantasy:
    • In Final Fantasy IV, Golbez is Cecil's long-lost brother.
    • In Final Fantasy V, Faris is Lenna's long-lost sister.
    • In Final Fantasy IX, Kuja, the game's main antagonist, turns out to be the long lost brother of our intrepid hero, Zidane. This drives a great deal of the game's plot. They also have a sister, Mikoto, who mainly just provides exposition.
  • Almost everybody with a sibling in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade seems to have been separated, but Rebecca and Dan/Dart are the ones who fit this trope best. Nino is suggested to be Canas' niece, by way of her mother and Canas' sister's wife sharing the same name.
    • Also, Arthur and Tinny in Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. And Leif and Altenna in the same game. In both cases, the latter has to be convinced by their brother to do a Heel–Face Turn. Finally, we have a particularly sad case with Leen and Corple, who don't even know they're brother and sister.
    • In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Micaiah is the long-lost older sister to Sanaki, and is thus also lost to their grandmother Misaha, and thus, lost to the PROGENITOR of their line Lehran AKA Sephiran, since he thought Micaiah had died. This example is unusual in that the revelation doesn't impact the story at all; by the time it comes out, the game is over and both sisters have accepted that the other has their own country to protect, but promise to work together as friends and allies. Other examples in the same world include: Leanne to Reyson in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, then Rafiel to both in Radiant Dawn, Rajaion and his nephew Soren to the Dragon Laguz Royalty in Radiant Dawn, and Ena to her grandfather Nasir in Path Of Radiance, as the sequel makes it clear it's been a while since they last saw each other.
    • Fire Emblem Engage has an extremely plot-relevant example: Alear to Veyle. The two are both children of Sombron, the Fell Dragon, but due to Sombron's cruelty, Alear pulled a Heel–Face Turn a thousand years before the game's events and became imbued with the essence of the Divine Dragon Lumera, such that when Veyle first meets Alear again, she doesn't recognize them. It isn't until Alear's death at the hands of Sombron that Veyle is finally clued into the fact that Alear is their long-lost sibling.
  • Subverted (!) with Ivan in Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. In the first game, he makes the acquaintance of spiritual leader and martial-arts master Hama, who acts as a mysterious mentor figure and refuses to bond closely any more than is needed to teach him to Reveal illusions. In the second game, Hama is revealed to be Ivan's sister... but neither one was lost to begin with: Ivan was sent away to be raised by non-Adepts so he would be in the right place at the right time to join Isaac's quest, and Hama has been discreetly keeping tabs on him the whole time, while pushing him away to keep her emotions from causing trouble. He's annoyed at this point, because she's the only blood relative he has, he wants to learn more about his past/family/etc., and she's still pushing him away because his destiny isn't done yet.
  • In Granblue Fantasy, Drang is the grandnephew of Ferry, who due to being a ghost no longer ages. Yet he keeps their connection a secret from her.
  • The Hanged Man has William Morton, who is the cousin of previous protagonist David Hoover. They are actually not cousins, they are half-brothers. David's father had an affair with Will's mother and, when she got pregnant with his child, he decided to leave David and his mother.
  • In the second Hero of the Kingdom game, it turns out that the eponymous hero is the younger brother of the pirate leader. The older brother went away to sea so long ago that his brother and sister, who were very little at the time, forgot he existed. Only when the pirates kidnap the sister does their leader remember his siblings.
  • In Homeworld the Kadeshi are this to the Kushan on a species-wide level...which is discovered after their fleet and habitat ships are decimated.
  • K' and Sarah/Whip in The King of Fighters.
  • Knight Bewitched: Gwen turns out to be Alduin's long lost sister, who he falsely believed was kidnapped by their mother.
  • The Masked Man in Mother 3. Though, really, if you didn't see it coming...
  • In Onmyoji Kagura is Hiromasa's long-lost sister.
  • Towards the end of Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, it's revealed that Jean Descole is actually Professor Layton's older brother.
  • Non-protagonist example: In Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches, it turns out that the guy you exchange e-mails with is the long-lost son of a previous victim of the curse, who is reunited with his sister (off-screen) if you succeed.
  • Heavily implied in the first Rune Factory game. Ivan is operating under the impression that you're his long lost brother, but doesn't act on his suspicions so that you can be happy.
  • In Shadow Hearts: Covenant, this happens more than once.
    • Yuri and Kurando learn they are cousins, after several adventures together. It doesn't come as too much of a surprise, since both share Fusion powers and the same red eyes.
    • Kallen turns out to be Yuri's mother, as a result of a Stable Time Loop.
    • Nicolai and Anatasia are half-siblings, though she never learns about their relationship.
  • In Sid Meier's Pirates!, you can purchase maps that lead to where your long lost sister is hidden on a plantation. Once you have rescued her, you can also find your long lost father, mother, brother, cousin, etc. They might give you a map that leads to lost Aztec treasure!
  • Soulcalibur:
    • Xianghua unknowingly had a twin sister, Xianglian, who was taken away by their father and ended up in the care of the same temple where Kilik grew up. Kilik was very close to her, but was forced to kill her when she became consumed by the madness of Soul Edge. Later, he met and became romantically attached to Xianghua. Although neither Kilik nor Xianghua ever knew the latter's relationship to Xianglian, it's thought of that Kilik was projecting Xianglian on Xianghua.
    • In Soulcalibur V, Xiba and Leixia are half-siblings. Xiba is the result of an affair between Xianghua and Kilik, while Leixia is the daughter of a Ming General; Xianghua married the latter per her family's request after finding out of her affair with Kilik. As of right now, neither of them know their relationship.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, Kratos is Lloyd's father. Until Lloyd was seventeen Kratos basically thought he was dead.
  • Team Fortress 2 has Gray Mann, long lost brother of Redmond and Blutarch Mann and third son of Zepheniah Mann. When he was born, he was supernaturally intelligent and ugly; practically crippled in manliness compared to his brothers, yet somehow perfectly fluent in English (and discovered mathematical breakthroughs in the womb). This disgusted Zepheniah, and he wanted the prodigy killed, but Gray was abducted and raised by an eagle (what it actually was is unknown). After learning the ways of the eagles, he betrayed his adopted family, killed his stepmother and stepsiblings, and ate them all before going back to civilization to build his empire. 150 years later, he murdered his brothers and plotted to take over Mann Co. with his robot army, leading to the "Mann Vs. Machine" game mode.
  • Tekken: Lars Alexandersson is the result of Heihachi Mishima's affair with a Swedish woman decades ago. Lars very much knows his relationship to the Mishimas, but the Mishimas (including Heihachi) are pretty much in the dark until the events of the sixth game. Interestingly, the one Mishima relative Lars actually becomes close with after The Reveal is Lee Chaolan, who was adopted by Heihachi and as a result is not biologically related to Lars at all.
  • A mix of Luke, I Am Your Father and dead big brother happens with Valkyria Chronicles II, when Avan and co. was desperately trying to defend the school from Rebel forces, a Heroic Sacrifice by Juliana reveals that Leon is Dirk Gessernel, one of the three Gessernel siblings.
  • Yakuza has Mizuki Sawamura, Haruka's mother and Yumi's long-lost sister. Kiryu, Nishiki, and Reina all had no idea Yumi even had a sister, despite Kiryu and Nishiki being Childhood Friends with her and Reina being her boss before Kiryu's arrest. This turns out to be because she doesn't actually exist. "Mizuki" is a Secret Identity for Yumi, created by Shintaro Kazama, to protect her from both the Tojo Clan and Kyohei Jingu.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney:
    • Apollo and Trucy in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney are half-siblings on their mother's side, though neither of them are aware of it. They also meet their long-lost mother, Thalassa Gramarye in the same game, but because Thalassa has amnesia and is under the identity of the singer Lamiror, Apollo was orphaned at a young age and raised overseas, and Trucy was raised by her biological father (Zak Gramarye) and then her adoptive father (Phoenix Wright), nobody involved is aware that they're all related to each other. Thalassa does regain her memory after the end of the game, and Phoenix had learned everything years ago and was aware the entire time, but both choose to keep it a secret from Apollo and Trucy.
    • In the last case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations, not only do we find out that victim Elise Deauxnim was Mia and Maya Fey's long-lost mother (and Pearl's aunt), but serial killer Dahlia Hawthorne is Morgan Fey's long-lost daughter and Pearl's half-sister... as is Dahlia's twin sister Iris.
  • In Daughter for Dessert, Cecilia shows up at the diner to offer Lainie’s inheritance to Amanda. The protagonist swears that she looks familiar when he first meets her, and she eventually announces herself as Amanda’s aunt.
  • Hoo boy, Ever17. Of the people on LeMU, Sara and the Kid are fraternal twins. And they're the children of Tsugumi, on LeMU at the same time, and Takeshi, who's the other main character.
  • In Fate/stay night, the protagonist Shirou Emiya learns that Illyasviel von Einzbern is the biological daughter of his adopted father, Kiritsugu, making the two siblings. Though it is downplayed and Played for Drama from Illya's side, as she knew about Shirou but believed that Kiritsugu let her mother died in the last Holy Grail War and abandoned Illya to raise Shirou. However, she latter learns that her grandfather Acht had lied about the situation, as Kiritsugu didn't use the grail due to its corruption and spent years trying to get Illya back only to be stopped by the Einzbern every time before his death.
  • In Sable's Grimoire, the dark elf who serves as the antagonist of Lisha's route turns out to be her maternal half-sister. In the sequel game Man and Elf, Lisha further learns that she has both a maternal dark elf half-brother, and a paternal half-brother in Victor the half-elf, who has kids of his own.

    Web Animation 
  • PRIVATE DIARY: Cherry saw a similar looking girl named Rachel at her new school. It's later revealed that they are twins but Cherry's real parents couldn't afford to raise both children so they decided to have her rich foster mother adopt her.
  • Story Time Animated: Jessica's parents adopted Rebecca so that she won't feel loney. It's revealed that Rebecca is Jessica's biological sister and her parents aren't her real parents and are actually her uncle and aunt who are after her trust fund.

    Webcomics 
  • In El Goonish Shive, hints are increasingly being dropped that Susan and Diane are this, since they're physically identicalnote  and were born 20 minutes apart on the same day. Later confirmed, and even later revealed that Diane is aware of their relationship, though Susan seems to have no idea whatsoever.
    • When Susan is told, this gets subverted. Ultimately the real truth is revealed: they're indeed related but in an unusual way Susan is a distant descendant of Raven and Diane is his daughter making them simultaneously of the same generation in one sense and many many generations removed in another sense.
  • Trudy and Sharon in General Protection Fault.
  • Girl Genius has Zola la Sirène Dorée who was heavily implied (good resemblance) to be a relative of Lucrezia and thus Agatha. And eventually was revealed to be Lucrezia's niece.
    • Zeetha was implied to be Klaus' daughter, and by extension Gil's sister.
    • Theo and Agatha found out early on that they are cousins. Theo was very happy about the revelation, since he has no other living relatives.
  • In Glorianna, Hope is Glorianna's daughter, abandoned as a baby and Raised by Orcs to be a fanatical cultist.
  • Homestuck: John and Jade are Half-Identical Twins, as are Rose and Dave, and they were split up via the Reckoning. This reveal had the side effect of sinking two of the biggest ships in the fandom.
  • Kevin & Kell's Corrie was eventually revealed to be the long-lost daughter of Ralph Dewclaw.
  • Double subverted with Anaak Jahad and Endorsi Jahad from Tower of God. At first they seem like adoptive sisters, but then it turns out that Anaak is not a real Princess of Jahad. She is the daughter of Endorsi's adoptive sister. Meaning that Anaak is Endorsi's niece even though Anaak is older.
  • Blue and Isaac in Namir Deiter — Blue was four years old when their mother kicked his father out. Issac didn't know about his other sister, Roxanne (who had already left home when the elder Deiter met his father). They've since all gotten to know each other.
  • Done twice with Elan in The Order of the Stick. Very early on the group encounters Nale, Elan's long-lost Evil Twin who proceeds to betray the group and become one of the comic's major recurring antagonists. The second instance, much later in the story, is when they meet Elan's (and Nale's) father Tarquin, who is puppeteering the leadership of the various Empires of the Western Continent along with his old adventuring buddies. He turns out to be just as evil, and far more dangerous, than Nale, and is in fact kills his son after Nale insists on wanting nothing to do with him.

    Western Animation 
  • From the standpoint of every other toon on The Warner Lot, Animaniacs Yakko, Wakko and Dot are Long Lost Siblings. But the truth is that they were locked in the water tower because they're completely nuts.
  • For much of Seasons 3 and 4 of Detentionaire, Lee is menaced by the Serpent, an assassin working for MWF that seems to have his own agenda in addition to carrying out their orders. Come "Mummy Ping and the Snake Man of Evil" and we find out that the Serpent is actually Lee's older brother, who was taken from his parents in order to serve MWF's needs. His own agenda? Stalking Lee's family in order to confirm this.
  • In Donkey Kong Country, the Christmas Episode reveals that Klump's long-lost brother is Captain Skurvy, who was exiled from their family home when Klump created a firework accident and Skurvy took the fall.
  • In the third season of Dragons: Riders of Berk, it turns out that Heather is actually the long-lost sister of Dagur the Deranged. This causes a bit of awkwardness, since Dagur is not only responsible for the death of their biological father, but also burned down Heather's village and killed her adoptive parents. Also, he's a completely Ax-Crazy lunatic.
  • In a post-Poof episode of The Fairly OddParents!, it turns out that Cosmo and Jorgen von Strangle are cousins, and that fact was kept a secret for obvious reasons. Bonus points if you throw in Acting for Two, since both characters are voiced by Daran Norris.
  • In Family Guy, Lois has a long lost brother Patrick who was put in a mental hospital.
  • Gravity Falls: Season 2's mid-season finale "Not What He Seems" introduces Grunkle Stan's twin brother, Stanford Pines, who it turns out is the author of the Journals.
  • He-Man happens to have a twin sister from whom he was Separated at Birth. Hordak attempted to kidnap them both due to a prophecy but was only able to get Adora. This backfires when Adora, learns her true heritage, does a Heel–Face Turn and becomes She-Ra: Princess of Power.
  • The Christmas Episode of Hey Arnold! features the reunion of Mr. Hyunh and his long-lost daughter.
  • Hank of King of the Hill was revealed to have a Japanese half-brother.
  • Mickey Mouse: Remember Oswald the Lucky Rabbit? You probably don't. He's Mickey's long-lost older half-brother. Walt Disney created him before Mickey, and he laid the groundwork for Mickey's rise to stardom. Disney ultimately addressed Oswald's return in Epic Mickey.
  • In Mysticons Arkayna learns that she had a sister that was taken away from her. She later finds out that it's her friend and fellow mysticon Zarya, which also means that she's Queen Goodfey's long-lost daughter.
  • Phineas and Ferb:
    • The episode "Run, Candace, Run" has Candace have a run-in with a woman who wants to buy Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc.; upon arrival at Jeremy's family picnic, Hildegard immediately recognizes the woman as their long-lost relative Annabelle.
    • In the Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars special, Phineas is a young rebel while Candace is a stormtrooper. Before the Death Star explodes, Phineas regrets not being reunited with his big sister who had left Tatooine when he was a baby. Only then does Candace realize that the young rebel is her brother, Phineas, and they embrace each other.
  • In the Multi-Part Episode "Power of Four" from The Powerpuff Girls (2016), the girls learn that they have an older sister who was thought to have died in an explosion she created through Power Incontinence, but in truth she just exiled herself from Townsville for ten years.
  • Punky Brewster: Punky finds out she has an aunt and an uncle in the episode "Punky the Heiress". They're actually servants for the Chester Henderson mansion. They disguise Punky as Chester's granddaughter and use her to embezzle the granddaughter's inheritance from the missing Henderson patriarch.
  • In a Robot Chicken soap opera parody, Barbie learns that she has at least five estranged "twin" sisters, including two who make out with Ken behind her back. Ken also meets his long-lost twin brother, mere seconds before dying of a brain tumor.
  • Samurai Jack: In the fifth season, Aku discovers he has a long lost daughter. Ashi, born of the High Priestess of the Daughters of Aku cult, who drank Aku's essence and apparently bore six daughters from doing so. They're raised to hate Jack and when sent to kill him, only Ashi survives. When Aku finds out, he promptly possesses her and uses her to attack Jack.
  • The Secret Saturdays: Drew yoinks off the helmet from VanRook's apprentice, gets a look at his face, and has a flashback which makes her realize he's her brother, which leads to his Heel–Face Turn.
  • The Simpsons:
    • Homer's half-brother Herb and a long-lost half-sister in England.
    • Herb was raised in an orphanage run by Dr. Hibbert's long-lost brother. In "Round Springfield" it was then revealed that Bleeding Gums Murphy was the long-lost third Hibbert brother.
    • "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase": "And did someone say, 'long-lost triplets?'"
  • Eric Cartman from South Park finds out his old ginger nemesis Scott Tenorman is his half-brother in the episode "201". Eric had previously orchestrated the murder of Scott's parents (and thus Eric's own father) and tricked Scott into eating their remains at the Chili Con Carnival. When Eric finds out he becomes depressed...at the thought of being half-ginger, though he does cheer up when he realizes he's also half-Denver Bronco.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • The episode "Big Sister Sam" reveals that Patrick has a long lost older sister named Sam as Patrick mentions to SpongeBob that they were lost in the surf when they were kids.
    • In "Scavenger Pants", after Sponge and Pat succeed at finding every nearly-impossible thing Squidward sent for them to bring back, they are tasked with the most difficult task at finding his long lost brother, which he knows does not exist. After spending six months and finding no sign of the brother, they go and ask Mrs. Tentacles, who tells them she only had Squidward and he doesn't have one, because one is enough. Rather than realize the brother was fake, SpongeBob feels bad for Squidward and decides to give him the brother he never thought he had by asking Mrs. Tentacles to adopt him and Patrick.
  • Steven Universe:
    • In "Gem Harvest", we get to meet the first member of Greg's family: Cousin Andy, who has not been around because he's been flying his antique plane all over the world.
    • Gems don't have families but the Diamonds have a close family-like bond. The Reveal that Rose was originally Pink Diamond comes along with the reveal that Blue Diamond, Yellow Diamond, and White Diamond are essentially her son Steven's kin.
  • Played for laughs in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), when Krang watches a soap opera. Marcia reveals to her lover, John, that they can't marry because she's his twin sister. "We were Separated at Birth during a hospital blackout!" John assures her that they're not really siblings, because "when I was born, an insane nurse switched me with another baby!" Krang, who is weeping, declares, "It's so true to life!"
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): It turns out that Miwa, Splinter's long lost daughter whom he believed was murdered by The Shredder when the latter murdered Splinter's wife, is not only still alive, but is actually Karai.
  • The Venture Bros.:
    • Hank Venture finds out that his best friend Dermott Fictel is the illegitimate son of his father Rusty Venture and Nikki Fictel. Nikki Fictel was a teenager when Dermott was born and Dermott was raised to believe Nikki was his sister and his grandmother was his mother. Hank finds this out shortly AFTER losing his virginity to Nikki but has his memory wiped.
    • Later on, it's revealed that Doctor Venture and The Monarch are half-brothers; Jonas Venture slept with the Monarch's mother under the pretense of fertility treatments. Needless to say The Monarch was less than amused to discover this.
  • 4Kids editing of Winx Club provides an example of this trope being undermined by editing: The Trix exposit about the Dragonfire to Bloom. Of their ancestors' attempt to take it, they say, "Your sister ruined everything by saving your life." This prompts Bloom to say, "Daphne?" But in the dub, the Trix never mention this, instead referring to Daphne as "the guardian of the flame", with Bloom saying "Daphne?" being cut out. It's rather awkward, since the first time it's indicated that they're sibs in the dub is when she's looking at her family tree in S2.

Alternative Title(s): Long Lost Sibling

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