Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
That's enough flirting with Frey's sister, Young God!
"She's Ron's sister, Harry told himself firmly. Ron's sister. She's out of bounds. He would not risk his friendship with Ron for anything."
— Harry Potter, who, of course, ends up married to her anyway.
"I wanna put my tubesteak into your sister. What'll you take in trade?"
"You wanna fuck my sister?"
"Yes."
"You wanna fuck my sister!?"
"Yes."
"..."
"$26.50."
"Deal."
— Stephen Lynch, The Best Friends Song
Charlie is attracted to Alice, and she shares his feelings. Unfortunately, Alice is Bob's sister, and Bob and Charlie are the closest of friends. As such, Charlie feels it's wrong for him to date Alice, no matter how much he wants to.
A major Truth In Television trope, as most any guy can tell you. If you've known someone for more than 24 hours, his sister is off limits. Forever. Some reasons behind this are:
- Whenever Charlie sees Alice, he can only think of Bob.
- If Charlie and Alice do break up, his friendship with Bob may be over as well.
- Bob is actually okay with it, but has delivered an If You Ever Do Anything To Hurt Her speech, and Charlie doesn't want to take that risk.
- As the quotes above indicate, Charlie and Bob may have a history of being, shall we say, "less than respectful" of their... "conquests" and Bob doesn't want his sister getting the same treatment.
This may also be a symptom of a character having a Big Brother Complex or Big Brother Instinct, if Bob is angry at Charlie for dating Alice, but Bob and Alice aren't actually related, or are just friends.
Could lead to a Knight Templar Big Brother.
Note that while the title says 'sister', this includes mothers, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas and so forth. Except dads, because Overprotective Dad already covers that.
Not to be confused with Brother Sister Incest.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Comic Books
Film
- Scarface does this to a tragic level. Tony is protective of his sister Gina. When he finds out that his friend Manny had been seeing her, he shoots Manny dead without a word. Gina then reveals that the two of them had just been married.
- The brothers in Fools Rush In seem to be like this, at least that's what Alex fears.
- A minor example of this trope from Groundhog Day, when old classmate of cynical Phil Connors bumps into him in Punxsutawney, PA, and is trying to get him to remember him:
Ned: Ned... Ryerson! "Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? C'mon, buddy. Case Western High. Ned Ryerson: I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing! Ned Ryerson: got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Bing, again. Ned Ryerson: I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple times until you told me not to anymore? Well?
Phil: Ned Ryerson?
Ned: Bing!
Phil: Bing.
Live Action TV
- On Saved By The Bell, Slater gets mad at Zack for dating his younger sister, JB.
- Friends loved this. Chandler dated Ross' sister, Ross dated Rachel's sister, Joey went out with Phoebe's sister, Chandler got with Joey's sister at a party...
- ...and couldn't remember which one...
- Joey wasn't upset by the idea, indeed he was ecstatic, until he learnt about the above detail.
- With Chandler and Monica, Ross explodes at them when he first finds out, until they both say that they're in love and not just fooling around. He immediately becomes happy for them. Of course, he was taking anti-rage drugs at the time.
- Phoebe even thought about coming on to Ross & Rachel's cousin. Female cousin. Who was played by Denise Richards, so that's all right.
- On Growing Pains, a girl befriends Carol Seaver — just so she can get close to Carol's brother, Mike. Carol feels hurt about being used.
- Power Rangers In Space did this with the usually Ho Yay-tastic Andros and Zhane. Thing is, little sister Karone was the Big Bad Astronema at the time, nobody knew she was Andros' sister, and the episode where they'd dated was very crack-tastic. It was more of a humor-oriented callback to that episode than actual disapproval...
Andros: Let me get this straight. You went out on a date with my sister?
Zhane: I didn't know she was your sister!
- In Power Rangers RPM, Gem seems to disapprove of the potential relationship between his twin sister, Gemma, and Flynn. Of course, this has less to do with his opinion of Flynn, and more to do with the fact that, prior to Gemma's decision to help Flynn with his work, they had been Single Minded Twins; this romantic initiative on her part meant that he'd have to start forming independent thoughts and sentences.
- Sex And The City had a gender swapped My Brother Is Off Limits plot regarding Samantha and Charlotte's brother. Samantha of course blatantly disregarded this. What does that tell us?
- Gus on Psych has a Big Brother Complex for his older sister Joy.
- In How I Met Your Mother, Casanova Barney makes it clear that he finds Ted's little sister attractive, and Ted tries to prevent him from meeting her. It doesn't work, but they don't sleep together.
- Subverted in Full House. Danny isn't at all happy with his sister dating Joey, but finally tells Joey that it's not cause he's worried about his sister, but that he's being protective of Joey. As her job requires a lot of travel, he didn't want Joey's heart to get broken.
- Subverted exactly the same way in ER. Gallant clearly doesn't want his MS-afflicted sister becoming involved with Pratt, who is something of a player. However, when said sister gives Pratt the brush-off after their night of passion, it becomes obvious that Gallant was trying to protect Pratt from HER, not the other way around.
- In That '70s Show, Hyde is upset when Kelso sleeps with his half-sister. Eric, on the other hand, doesn't really care when Kelso and Fez sleep with his sister, since she's the town slut.
- Hermans Head. Herman doesn't like his best friend, Handsome Lech Jay, sleeping with his sister because he still thinks of her as young and innocent when she's definitely not. Lampshaded in another episode where the two are laughing over all the Wacky Hijinks Jay has gotten Herman involved in. "And (ha-ha) remember the time I slept with your sister?" Cue immediate Death Glare from Herman.
- Mentioned in Stargate SG-1. To verify Daniel's identity after a body-swap, Jack asked him what color Daniel's sister's dress was when he (Jack) took her out on a date the week before. Daniel replies that he doesn't actually have a sister, but wouldn't let Jack date her if he did.
- Coop's sister in Hannah Montana when she tries to date Jackson. Coop gives him the 'Don't make eyes at my sister' speech. Unfortunately since she's presented as a slut, it loses some of its effectiveness.
- In NCIS, Di Nozzo asks why McGee didn't tell him that he had a little sister and Ziva rolls her eyes. Naturally no one would tell Tony that they had a little sister...
Literature
- Harry Potter gives us an interesting inversion: Ron doesn't seem to want Ginny to date anyone but Harry.
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince does, however, provide us with the page quote.
- Ron's just plain uncomfortable with his sister dating anyone, a bit hypocritical once he hooks up with "Lav-Lav". Apparently, he eventually decided that if she had to date someone, he would rather it be his friend instead of some stranger.
- The whole ordeal led to a Ho Yay laden part of the book: "The argument raged in Harry's head: Ginny or Ron?"
- A lot of the Will They Or Wont They tension in the The Princess Diaries books has to do with the main character's crush being her best friend's brother. When they get together, everything's fine. But when they break up...
- In William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Quentin Compson massively fails to "protect" his sister from the many, many men she's having sex with, despite the fact that he is so desperate to keep her off limits. He loved "some concept of Compson honor precariously and (he knew well) only temporarily supported by the minute fragile membrane of her maidenhead as a miniature replica of all the whole vast globy earth may be poised on the nose of a trained seal. Who loved not the idea of the incest which he would not commit, but some presbyterian concept of its eternal punishment: he, not God, could by that means cast himself and his sister both into hell, where he could guard her forever and keep her forevermore intact amid the eternal fires."
Manga & Anime
- In the second episode of Kimagure Orange Road, Kyosuke and his pals (Those Two Guys) are ogling a leotard-clad aerobics class from a nearby restaurant. They soon see that Kyosuke's younger sisters are in the class, and sure enough, Kyosuke almost immediately covers the other boys' leering eyes.
- When Touta Matsuda shows intrest in Light's sister Sayu, who has grown into quite the cutie, no one is thrilled. Specially, Matsuda's boss Soichirou... her Overprotective Dad.
- In the manga, L once wonders if Sayu could be Kira. Light screams at that.
- But that's not the Big Brother Instinct, that's good old-fashioned Pride. Light is outraged that L would overlook him as a suspect and give Sayu credit for his work instead. For his own part, L is provoking Light to test his response - Sayu is never seriously considered as a suspect.
- Frey in Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok is like this when Freya is around Loki. What he doesn't realize is Freya is doing all the flirting.
- Komui Lee in D.Gray-Man has this bad regarding his little sister, exorcist Action Girl Lenalee Lee. At one point Inspector Link actually blackmails Allen by threatening to tell Komui that he is alone in a locked room with Lenalee. Allen immediately apologizes and opens the door. And when someone was ogling Lenalee, Komui's coworkers gave us this wonderful quote:
Music
- As the third page quote indicates, Stephen Lynch's "Best Friend's Song" subverts this. Mark Teich is fine with Lynch sleeping with his sister... he just has to pay first.
- Note that She's in junior high It's that kind of song...
- In the music video for the Black Eyed Peas song "Tagalog" Apl.de.Ap does this for his sister Jasmine.
Theatre
- In Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus, trying to find out who Troilus is in love with, promises to help him win her even if she were his sister.
- West Side Story, of course. "Get your hands OFF my sister, American scum!"
- The song "Don't Tamper With My Sister" from On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, though the complaint here is just that it's in public (and the character is only pretending to be her brother).
Video Games
Web Comics
Western Animation
- In All Grown Up, Chuckie takes offense when he thinks Tommy has romantic feelings for his sister, Kimi (It's later revealed that it was the other way around, and only for a few minutes, though at the very end it's implied that Tommy and Kimi may actually have a thing for each other after all).
- Subverted in another episode when Phil actually begs Tommy to ask Lil to dance so she'll leave him alone.
- The main character from Danny Phantom is absolutely livid when his older sister is dating a biker named Johnny and spends the entire episode splitting them apart. Of course, he's a ghost who plans to use her body to host his equally dead girlfriend, but still.
- Subverted on ReBoot, where Enzo Matrix's sister Dot is the one with the crush on Bob. Since Enzo idolizes Bob, he doesn't mind at all when they become a couple, and his only reaction is wry amusement when he learns that Dot uses the password "Guardian" for the Mainframe Archives:
Dot: Activate archival entry.
Security System: STATE NAME.
Dot: Dot Matrix. Password, "Guardian."
Security System: ACKNOWLEDGED.
Enzo: "Guardian"? Dot...
Real Life
- Real Life example: This is actually the story behind the band No Doubt. Gwen Stefani's brother, Eric, started the band and she liked fellow band member and friend of the family Tony Kanal. He thought she was of limits but they did end up dating for a while in secret. The relationship was less than successful as reflected in some of the group's songs like Don't Speak. Everything turned out okay in the end though and she is happily married now and he is also in a relationship. She sang about this in the song Cool indicating that they had closure.
- Maxim Magazine codified the 24-hour rule as a "Man Law."
- What 24-hour rule? Do you have to wait a full day after someone stops seeing their own sister before you can?
- It's up there, on the trope description.
- Another Real Life example: Zinedine Zidane's famous headbutting of Marco Materazzi in the World Cup Finals came after Materazzi said 'I'd rather have your sister' when Zidane offered to give Materazzi his shirt, which he'd been pulling on. Or something like that.
- Among some traditional people, like the Massai in East Africa, it is common that young men of the same age form a group of warriors. They consider the others in the group their brothers and hence, dating a "brother"'s sister is as unthinkable as dating your own.
|
|
