History Main / DontSplitUsUp

* One late '80s ComicBook/{{Batman}} story featured this as part of a VignetteStory, with Batman finding two orphan children living out on the streets because they refused to let social services split them up into sex-segregated foster homes.

* In the backstory of ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'', [[TheHero Rosette]] constantly dragged her brother, [[IllGirl Joshua]], out to play in the forest near the orphanage where they lived because she was afraid that Father Remington would split them up by taking Joshua to the Magdalene Order and leave her behind. Joshua himself wasn't quite as bothered by the idea of having to split up with Rosette, because he wanted to learn how to control his healing powers. Additionally, his powers didn't heal himself--he was often sickly and was afraid of Rosette having to put her life on hold to take care of him.
* In the backstory to ''{{Manga/Monster}}'', the Lieberts only wanted to adopt Johan, but he insisted that they take his twin sister as well. [[spoiler: They picked the wrong one.]]
* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Mokuba Kaiba recounts how everyone wanted to adopt his brother Seto Kaiba since he was a genius, but he refused to go without him. Katsuya Jonouchi / Joey Wheeler and Shizuka Kawai / Serenity Wheeler also attempt this in their backstory but are unsuccessful.
* The siblings from ''Anime/MazeMegaburstSpace'' who takes their desire '''not''' to be split up to quite a... unique solution

* Seiya and his sister Seika in ''Manga/SaintSeiya'', they were separated after Seiya was chosen to train to become a Saint. His main motivation after becoming one was to reunite with his sister who had gone missing afterwards.

* The reason Mii from ''Popotan'' doesn't want to [[spoiler: stop time travelling when given the chance is because she wouldn't be able to live with her sisters that way. In the end, they still end up separating, but eventually reunite]].

[[folder:Fanworks]]
* ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU'' has a variant in that Soichiro didn't want to do this because of what had happened six years before that comic and Nui stated if Ryuuko was going to be sent Honnoji Academy, then they all may as well go. In the same comic, Ryuuko didn't take the news well either.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/CaptainUnderpants'' film, the threat of being split up and placed in separate classes at school drives desperate best friends George and Harold to hypnotize their principal, Mr. Krupp.

* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'': The last wish of the Nakanos' late mother was that they always should stick together no matter what. [[spoiler: Shortly after their mother died, the quintuplets dreaded this trope. They didn't have confidence that their grandfather could take care of them due of his age. Fortunately, one of their mother's former students sympathized with them and decided to take them all in to provide them shelter and an opportunity to avert this trope. The second instance was during their first year at high school prior to the start of the series Yotsuba flunked her exams and was on the verge of expulsion, the others pretended to have cheated in their own exams despite having passed, to ensure that they'd all transfer schools so Yotsuba wouldn't be alone.]]

* In the ''Literature/{{American Girl|sCollection}}'' Samantha books, when Nellie's parents die, Samantha helps her and her siblings run away from the orphanage and smuggles them into her (Samantha's) attic so that they'll be able to stay together. The problem is solved when [[spoiler:Samantha's aunt and uncle adopt them]]. Also happens with Addy's family in her first book, since they're slaves and don't have a say in their own fate. Sadly, this one doesn't end as well; though the family makes a plan to escape, Addy's father and brother are sold off before they can put it into action. Furthermore, because Addy and her mother are now escaping alone, they have to leave Addy's baby sister behind with elderly family members because they no longer have enough people to share the burden of carrying her. Incredibly, they all survive the war, but the family isn't fully reunited until the final book.

* ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' had Scottish twins Donald and Douglas. They worked together for many years before coming to Sodor. Only Donald was bought for the NWR, and Douglas was bound for the scrapheap. Dialogue implies the former smuggled the latter to Sodor to save him. The episode, "[[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS2E17TheDeputation The Deputation]]" from the AnimatedAdaptation, ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' provides the page image.

* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/24175855/chapters/58225285 these ruined hands of mine (they seek out you, always you)]]'', a young Savage Opress was so traumatized when his baby sibling Maul was taken away to be sold he decided to grab his other baby brother Feral to flee their home planet. A Jedi stumbles upon them and, seeing their huge potential in the Force, brings them to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in which a well-meaning caretaker accidentally freaks the older boy by telling him to let go of his attachment to Feral. He almost abducted his sibling to run again when Feemor surprised them and decided to become their go-to ParentalSubstitute.

** This led to the Army creating the Sole Survivor Policy, designed to protect members of a family from the draft or from combat duty if they have already lost family members in military service, passed in 1948. But during the closing years of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, there would be instances where sole survivors were excused from active service. Most notably with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niland_brothers Fritz Niland]], the character whom the eponymous James Francis Ryan is based on.

* ''Film/{{Conviction}}'' (based on a true story) had one of these events between the main characters during a flashback.

* ''Gracie's Choice'' features a young Creator/KristinBell as a teenager trying to raise her four younger half-siblings after their mother is sent to jail. When the authorities finally catch on, there is a heart-wrenching scene where the boys and girls are split up and sent to different homes. Fortunately, Gracie later gets custody and keeps the family together.

* In ''Fanfic/PercyTakesTheWheel,'' this is the main reason why Percy has been PromotedToParent--Bill and Charlie need to financially help the family with their jobs overseas, and no relative is willing to take in all five of the younger siblings. {{Downplayed|Trope}} compared to some examples, as it's acknowledged that they'd all still be in one family and able to visit each other, but everyone's so traumatized by the loss of their parents that Percy still thinks being split up is a bad idea.

* In the ''Literature/{{American Girl|sCollection}}'' Samantha books, when Nellie's parents die, Samantha helps her and her siblings run away from the orphanage and smuggles them into her (Samantha's) attic so that they'll be able to stay together. The problem is solved when [[spoiler:Samantha's aunt and uncle adopt them]].
** Also happens with Addy's family in her first book, since they're slaves and don't have a say in their own fate. Sadly, this one doesn't end as well; though the family makes a plan to escape, Addy's father and brother are sold off before they can put it into action. Furthermore, because Addy and her mother are now escaping alone, they have to leave Addy's baby sister behind with elderly family members because they no longer have enough people to share the burden of carrying her. Incredibly, they all survive the war, but the family isn't fully reunited until the final book.

** Later quoth Arthur: "We've got to avoid getting sent to an orphanage at all costs. Especially one that's set in the 1800s."

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds" the family decide to get rid of the 25 puppies. When Lisa sees how they don't like to be broken up, Marge points out that she can't see anyone buying all of them. [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Burns]] is willing and plans to make a tuxedo out of them. He eventually decides not to kill them and raises 25 champions at the dog track.
-->'''Announcer''': 25 dogs, 25 world champions which so far have earned their owner over ten million dollars. I'll bet whoever gave him those dogs is kicking themselves now.

* In his history of Nile exploration, Alan Moorehead says that some Arab slavers in the region would go out of their way to avoid doing this. If so then EvenEvilHasStandards.
** Averted, of course, in American slavery. Families were split up all the time, often deliberately since uprisings became less common if individual slaves cared more about themselves than their fellow slaves. In fact, "'Til death or distance do you part" was common in marriage vows at the time.

* In the ''Literature/Mahabharata'', this is how Draupadi ends up agreeing to [[MarryThemAll marry all five of the Pandavas]]. Arjuna won her hand in an EngagementChallenge, and was told by his mother to share what he'd brought home. Krishna explains that it's because Draupadi wished in her past life for a practically-perfect man, and all the qualities she wanted were ''really'' difficult to squeeze into just one person. She consults with the sage [[AuthorAvatar Vyasa]], and asks him what to do. Vyasa tells her she basically has three options: she can marry only Arjuna, but he'll eventually come to resent her for separating him from his family. She can reject the marriage, but end up being viewed as DefiledForever and DyingAlone. Or, she can TakeAThirdOption and marry them all. (Which was unusual, and kind of scandalous, but not forbidden, and she is not the first or only woman in the narrative to have multiple husbands.) Krishna suggests that the best course of action is to marry all five of them, and she agrees to do so.

* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'': The last wish of the Nakanos' late mother was that they always should stick together no matter what. [[spoiler:So when prior to the start of the series Yotsuba flunked her exams and was on the verge of expulsion, the others pretended to have cheated in their own exams despite having passed, to ensure that they'd all transfer schools so Yotsuba wouldn't be alone]].

* The main character of ''[[LightNovel/PapaNoIukotoOKikinasai Papa no Iukoto o Kikinisai!]]'' adopts the three sisters because he doesn't want to see them split up.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': After Myne reforms the temple's orphanage, plans are made to export its model to other towns. In the first town that gets an expansion of the temple orphanage, local orphans are offered the choice between moving to the new orphanage or stayin in the current set-up for them. The four who accept to move from the get-go are two pairs of siblings in which one half was about to be sold off by their caretaker.

A group of siblings is threatened with separation by adoption, [[SolomonDivorce divorce]], death, accident, [[OneTwinMustDie popular beliefs]] or what not. Depending on the show, one can sometimes expect them to go to [[KnightTemplarBigBrother extreme lengths]] to prevent this.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Mokuba Kaiba recounts how everyone wanted to adopt his brother Seto Kaiba since he was a genius, but he refused to go without him. Katsuya Jonouchi / Joey Wheeler and Shizuka Kawai / Serenity Wheeler also attempt this in their backstory, but are unsuccessful.

* The ''Manga/BlackJack'' story ''The Two Jans'' is all about this. This being ''Manga/BlackJack'', of course, they happen to be conjoined twins who share not only an entire body, but also most of their ''head''.

* This happpens twice in ''Fanfic/TheOutside''. In chapter 7, Satsuki clings to Ryuuko to keep social services form taking her and, twenty-two chapters later, because she grew attached to them, Ryuuko refuses to leave the foster home without Shiro and Nui, so Ragyo signs paperwork to take them in.

* In silent film ''Film/{{Sparrows}}'', a baby from a rich household is kidnapped for ransom and stashed in an OrphanageOfFear. When the baby is found, his rich father invites the oldest kid from the orphanage, teenaged Molly (Creator/MaryPickford) to work for him as the boy's nanny. She insists that all ten of the kids from the orphanage live with them, and the father agrees.

* In both ''Film/TheParentTrap1961'' and ''Film/TheParentTrap1998'' the girls don't want to be separated once they've found each other. This is a variation, since the girls had already been split up before the movie began, and now they're trying to make sure they don't get separated again.

* The two protagonists of ''Film/EnterTheVoid'' are being separated in childhood, after their parents died in a car crash and the grandparents grew too old for caretaking. There is a tearjerker scene when Linda cries as her foster parents usher her away from her brother.

* One of ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'' mystery specials was based around the girls undertaking work experience at a local shopping mall. They eventually discover that mysterious thefts from the mall were committed by three children, who have been secretly living there since their mother went into hospital--they are afraid of being separated by the local authorities.

* Henri and Clementa Tod in ''Literature/TheStoryOfHenriTod''. They were Jewish children in World War II and the resistance told them that they had to be sheltered separately. In this case they ''were'' split up. This gives Henri Tod a FailureKnight mentality that drives the plot.

* This kicks off one of the subplots in ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'', when the slaveowner's wife is forced to sell the child of her maid. The maid, upon catching wind of this plan, promptly takes her baby and flees to Canada.

** In the sixth series, ''A Vision of Shadows'', Alderpaw and Needlepaw find two orphaned/abandoned kits that they name Violetkit and Twigkit. When they return to the Clans, the kits foster in [=ThunderClan=] for a while, but ultimately it is decided that Violetkit will be raised in Needlepaw's Clan, [=ShadowClan=], since she had an equal share in finding them and the kits are believed to be important, part of a proophecy. Alderpaw considers it cruel to split them up and the kits are heartbroken, meeting in secret on occasion as they grow.

** "Remember Me," a two parter from midway through the second season. The Sanderson children are faced with separation when a family wants to adopt the boys as farmhands, while Harriet's wealthy cousin wishes to adopt little Alicia. At the last minute, Mr. Edwards and Grace Snider marry, and adopt all three.

* After both of Yozakura's parents died in ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'', she tried to convince her relatives that she can look after her eleven siblings. Unfortunately, being only nine at the time, no one took her seriously and they were separated. The reason why she became a shinobi was to proof that she is strong enough to support her whole family.

* The Newson family that come with ''VideoGame/TheSims2 Apartment Life'' are a group of six minors (two teenagers, two children and two toddlers) who, with the exception of the toddlers, are not genetic relatives but were all adopted into the same family. When their adoptive parents died they chose to stick together rather than be separated and re-adopted. The family is particularly notable as it's the only pre-made household in the [[VideoGame/TheSims entire game series]] to feature no Sims older than teenagers. The games usually require at least one Young Adult or older sim be part of any player-made families making the Newsons even more notable.

* ''WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies2010'': "Quintuplets". A group of pups are determined to stay together and want to be adopted all together. When the Pound Puppies have a tough time trying to find them an owner and discuss splitting up the siblings, the puppies decide to run away from the pound to stay together. In the end Lucky convinces them to return to the pound but works to find an owner for them. [[spoiler:Eventually the puppies end up getting adopted by a family who has a set of quintuplets of their own.]]

** It's called the ''devshirme'', and it wasn't so much about 'conquered' countries as the fact that it was against shari'a to enslave Muslims, so they gathered their military slaves from the populous Christian provinces, and then converted them. Lots of people who made it up the ranks knew perfectly well who their families were and did things to help them out, but the system didn't really break down until the devshirme stopped being collected and the Janissaries became hereditary and, promptly, corrupt as hell.
*** The Ottoman elites were Turks, which in those days still evoked 'having their origin in the steppes of Eurasia,' and there was an ethos against 'awlad al-Arab' being involved in military ventures. Fighting--especially ''command''--was a ethnically defined employment. Caucasians, Georgians, Circassians, Kipchaks--but not Arabs.

** Additionally, sometimes children's other needs can be best met by adopters if they are split up. For example if an older child has been used to stepping into the role of parent for their younger siblings sometimes the only way to ensure they have a childhood is for them to be adopted seperately.

* ''Film/AmericanHistoryX'': ImpliedTrope. When Derek is arrested after the curb-stomping murder, he and Danny are forcefully separated by police officers as Derek is dragged off to jail. They both look heartbroken; Derek is the only father figure Danny had left at this point.

A group of siblings is threatened with separation by a [[SolomonDivorce divorce]], death, accident, [[OneTwinMustDie popular beliefs]] or what not. Depending on the show, one can sometimes expect them to go to [[KnightTemplarBigBrother extreme lengths]] to prevent this.

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1597456938075699500
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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_deputation.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"He'll send uz back for sure."]]

** Also played for laughs in “A Test Before Trying”, where Sherri and Terri are told they’ll be sent to separate schools. They bemoan how they’ve never been separated and immediately begin to wither as they step away from each other.

* ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'', where Social Services threatens to take Lilo away from older sister and guardian Nani.

* ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' had Scottish twins Donald and Douglas. They worked together for many years before coming to Sodor. Only Donald was bought for the NWR, and Douglas was bond for the scrapheap. Dialogue implies the former smuggled the latter to Sodor to save him. The episode, "[[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS2E17TheDeputation The Deputation]]" from the AnimatedAdaptation, ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' provides the page image.

* In 1943 German WVHA (Concentration Camp Directorate) personnel began handling large numbers of Gypsies for the first time, whereupon they discovered that Gypsy families reacted violently to the separation of the members useful as slaves (for rental to German companies) from those who were not. Consequently, they wrote off those potential slaves and [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust dispatched the entire families to the Auschwitz-II/Birkenau subcamp for extermination.]]

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_brothers Sullivan brothers]], during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Unfortunately, there wasn't a happy ending.
** Which is why they now discourage close relatives from serving together.