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After 30 long years, finally, the two of us meet. The brother of light...and the brother of dark.
In real life, siblings hardly ever act the same. Fiction sometimes takes this to an extreme.
Enter Sibling Yin Yang, the occurrence of siblings that are nearly polar opposites. If he's cool and reckless, she's responsible and thoughtful. If she's a spiky-haired hooligan, he's the nerdy wimpy one. If he's an immature brat, she's... well, you get the picture.
The even more extreme form leads to Different As Night And Day, or even Evil Twin. When this leads to complete antagonism, it becomes Cain And Abel. See also The Glorious War Of Sisterly Rivalry .
Examples
Anime
Comic Books
- Charles Xavier and Cain Marko in X-Men. And that's before you get into how they are, respectively, the most mentally powerful and the most physically powerful people in the world...
- Xavier also has Cassandra Nova, who literally exists to be his polar opposite in absolutely everything.
- Suntop and Ember in ElfQuest.
- Hawk and Dove from Justice League, who are also as different as Red and Blue.
- Batman's two sons, Tim "Robin" Drake (adopted) and Damian al Ghul (biological), in recent comics. Tim is logical, cool-headed, and always follows Batman's example by never killing, while Damian is rash, violent, and thinks nothing of killing his enemies. They slug it out pretty much every time they meet.
- You could extend that to Tim Drake and Nightwing (Dick Grayson). Nightwing can be logical, but he's more hot-tempered and his creation of 'Nightwing' directly extended from him rebelling against Batman. Tim and Dick act like actual brothers though, unlike Damian.
Film
- Dash and Violet in The Incredibles.
- Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in their movies.
- Jamal and Salim of Slumdog Millionaire.
- According to thier Tech Specs Skids and Mudflap are this... with the caveat that they're both quite stupid. Skids merely believes he's the smart one.
Literature
- Connor and Grace of Vampirates
- Every sibling pair in The Moomins
- Jake and Tom in Animorphs. One (Jake) is fighting to save the world and one (Tom) is a Controller whose Yeerk is trying to take over the world, though the real Tom is probably more Jake-like.
- Sansa and Arya Stark in "A Song Of Ice And Fire". They even look completely different (Sansa is a beautiful redhead like her mother, Arya is longfaced and darkhaired like her father.)
- Also, the vicious Joffrey Baratheon and his gentler little brother Tommen.
- Similarly, princes James and Thomas in Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King (James is fit and raven-haired like their mother while Thomas is chubby and sandy-haired like their father).
- Elinor and Marianne in Sense And Sensibility.
- Thom and Alanna in Song of the Lioness. Thom likes to do magic but hates swordplay. Alanna, his twin sister, likes swordplay but initially fears and detests her magic.
- Jory and Nia from Cold Fire surely count as well.
- Lady Envy and Anomander Rake from The Malazan Book Of The Fallen: She's The Vamp, he's a stoic Blood Knight.
Live Action TV
- Claire and Lyle, as well as Nathan and Peter, from Heroes.
- Hiro and his older sister Kimiko, with Hiro being idealistic, child-like, and bored by the prospect of being a businessman like his father; Kimiko is intelligent, motivated, and ambitious in regards to taking a place within the family's company.
- Chuck and Ellie in Chuck.
- Betty and Hilda and of Ugly Betty.
- J.D. and Dan in Scrubs.
- Sam and Dean in Supernatural.
- Aunts Lily and Vivian in Pushing Daisies are both eccentric shut-ins, but the similarities end there.
- The Booth brothers from Bones - Booth the elder likes his comfort zone while Booth the younger is flashy and much more upwardly mobile.
- The Girls and the Boys from Jon And Kate Plus Eight (the somewhat bossy Girls take after their mother while the more laid-back Boys take after their father)
Video Games
- Rin and Len Kagamine from the Vocaloid (and Hatsune Mix) series.
- Mario and Luigi of Super Mario Bros, thanks to Luigi's increased Luigification as a coward over the last 10 years.
- Crash and Coco of Crash Bandicoot
- Starfy and Starpy of The Legendary Starfy.
- Palom and Porom from Final Fantasy IV.
- Edgar and Mash/Sabin from Final Fantasy VI.
- Edgar and Sabin are hardly polar opposites... they are both supremely confident extroverts, for one thing. The only difference is how devoted to duty they are.
- Maybe in their presentations, though - Sabin's a brawny bare-handed fighter-type, Edgar's a flirty inventor who moonlights as a king.
- March and Salsa from Eternal Sonata, due to the game's light/shadow mechanic in battles, they are quite literally Different As Night And Day.
- Lucas and Claus from Mother 3
- Yun and Yang from Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Yun is loud and outgoing, while Yang is quiet and introverted. Also, Yun focuses on the strength of his attacks, while Yang focuses on the number of hits.
- Twin example: Hisui and Kohaku from Tsukihime. Hisui is an introverted maid who is skilled at cleaning, but lousy at cooking. Kohaku is an extroverted maid who is skilled at gardening and cooking, but terrible at cleaning.
- Also from the Nasuverse, Shinji and Sakura in Fate Stay Night. Subverted in that they're not blood siblings. Sakura and Rin are, though, and also fit this trope. Sakura's powers match her side nicely, to boot.
- Hector and Uther in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword. Though this can probably be chalked up to the fact that Uther's functioned as Hector's father figure since their parents died.
- The three Pegasus sisters are a rare trio example. Quiet, serious Fiora butts heads with boisterous Farina, who in turn gets a kick out of teasing both her and shy, sensitive Florina.
- In Fire Emblem 6 we have another sibling trio... also of Pegasus sisters. Yuuno is a sweet Action Mom, Thite is a stoic Defrosting Ice Queen and Thany is a hyper Genki Girl. And there's also a set of twins: the cheerful mage Lugh and the snarky shaman Rai.
- Unusual triplet variant, from Metal Gear Solid - Solid and Liquid Snakes are extremely diametrically opposed; reserved, guilty Solid lacks his brother's ambitious, manipulative nature, and passionate, vengeful Liquid lacks his brother's wisdom and emotional clarity. This is complicated by the arrival of the third triplet, the calculating, focused Solidus, who considers himself a 'perfect balance' of his brothers' traits - he's wise and manipulative at once.
- The Scarlet Sisters: Remilia carries herself with class, which Flandre is a bit too, uh, energetic when "playing."
- Netto (Lan) and Saito (Hub) Hikari AKA Mega Man from Rockman EXE / Mega Man Battle Network, especially in the Japanese version. Netto is outgoing, brash, and rather hot-headed; Saito is more calm and collected.
- The Kirishima siblings from Project Justice - elder sister Yurika is a quiet, timid Lady Of War, while younger brother Kurow is a borderline-psychotic, megalomaniac assassin complete with a Slasher Smile.
- Hisui and Kohak in Tales of Hearts. The elder is Hot Blooded and impulsive and rude, and even his speech is crass; his sister is soft-spoken and polite. There's also Croaseraph, who is an aggressive Dual Wielding Glass Cannon who wants to Destroy All Humans, and his brother Crinoseraph, a stoic, defensive spellcaster with two shields who's maintained his loyalty to his master.
- Dante and Vergil embody this trope, and just about every other antagonistic sibling relationship ever created.
- Literally yin and yang in Final Fantasy IV with Cecil and Golbez The two exhibit a good deal of emotional yin yang in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
Web Comics
Web Original
Western Animation
Real Life
- Christopher and Peter Hitchens. Christopher is a very outspoken atheist/anti-theist and holds predominantly (but by no means exclusively) liberal political views. Peter is a lifelong member of the Church of England and holds predominantly conservative political views. Granted, both are relatively high-profile journalists, but beyond similar vocations and genetics, the similarities generally end there.
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