Sibling Rivalry and Favoritism

What are the effects on The Unfavorite? And I don't just want the obvious stuff. In-depth, long term psychological effects, trauma, abuse etc.

I would think an inferiority complex would be part of it, for starters. The Unfavorite might also stop trying to achieve to do anything in life if they don't think anything they'll do will ever be recognized.

I've got a bit of sibling rivalry in a story of mine. The older sister's the unfavorite, and the younger is (in her mind) a spoiled princess. Off the top of my head, here are a few things that might happen:

• The unfavorite becomes extremely jealous of the favorite
• He/she becomes petty and eager to take any measure to undercut the darling brother/sister
• The unfavorite repeatedly compares his/her life to the sibling, which makes him/her think life is that much worse
• While he/she may perceive the world as sucky, any force that offers a glimmer of hope for the unfavorite — no matter how untrustworthy — might become a vital part of his/her life...maybe to the point of obsession, if you desire

I don't know how effective that'll be in your work (or if it even makes sense psychologically), but it's a start, at least. Hope that helps you out.

The basic premise is that two Persons Of Mass Destruction that are in their twenties but are only children mentally (stasis tanks) have recently been released form the lab after the project lost funding. The older brother (the first product of the experiment) wants to kill his sister (the second) because she was favored by the scientists (who they view as parents) due to her being a more successful test subject than he was. She was praised and raised with care, while he was neglected and left to reflect on the days when he was the apple of their eye.

It helps he's emotionally unstable, but is this plausible?

At a base level, it sounds plausible to me. Still, I can't help but wonder if these are the kind of scientists that deserve that love, or if they're...well, not so nice after all. As long as readers see what makes these scientists appealing — or alternatively, give the older brother some traceable reasoning behind his logic — then you should be fine.

I'm intrigued by the idea, and I wonder where exactly you're planning on going with the "only children mentally" and "emotionally unstable" angle. Is the older brother the type to seek attention, positive or negative? Throw a tantrum? Sulk by himself until an epic breakdown? Is he hopelessly obedient, or does he start to show flashes of rebellious impulses?

I'm just curious.

edited 1st Oct '11 9:36:52 PM by Voltech44

The scientists were actually quite nice for fiction. Even knowing their creations (who they even referred to as their children) were pretty much immortal, they made sure that their tests were as non-invasive and safe as possible. The children had psychiatrists, and were cared for by the scientists like they were their own kids.

The thing is, the first one, Adam, was the first. This sounds redundant, but it's important. They didn't perfect the method of the children's creation until the second, Lilith, came along. Adam came out of the process the first of a new breed, but his abilities were somewhat stifled, and he showed trace signs of emotional imbalance. He was treated as the wonder child for years, being coddled and doted on by his creators, and he got used to it. He loved their attention.

So you can imagine he didn't take it well when all the attention shifted to his newer, more refined sister. She was heralded as the project's zenith, and Adam was left to stew in his own juices. So, a few years later, when the project finally ran out of funding due to the costs involving Lilith's creation (their sponsors thought it much cheaper to have inexpensive but slightly more crude mass produced weapons than costly but effective soldiers), not only did Adam already hate her for making him The Unfavorite, he blamed her for the project's liquidation, and the disbanding of the group of researchers they'd loved like parents.

Long story short, the lab went boom, killing the government officials sent to supervise the project's shutdown as well as a few of the researchers (this part was unintentional). So now they're both free, and Adam is on a manhunt for his sister, eager to put an end to her and prove himself worthy of mummy and daddy's love.

edited 1st Oct '11 10:35:22 PM by KSPAM

Ah, I see. That sounds pretty cool.