History Main / OlderSidekick

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', TheCaptain Luffy is tied (with Usopp) as the second-''youngest'' crew member, with only Chopper being younger than them. The other six Straw Hats are older: Zoro, Nami, and Sanji only a year or two more so, but the three latest members--Robin, Franky, and Brook--so much so that they fall into IntergenerationalFriendship with the others.

* ''Series/{{Outlander}}'': As a final promise to the dying Ellen Fraser, Murtagh maintains UndyingLoyalty towards his godson Jamie, following him into multiple stints of exile that force Jamie from the safety of his home. He helps Jamie with any plan, no questions asked, and serves as Jamie's second set of eyes and ears, watching Jamie's back. Until the Crown forcibly [[IndenturedServitude separated them]], if you saw Jamie, there was a pretty good bet that Murtagh was somewhere nearby.

* ''Series/{{Outlander}}'': Murtagh maintains UndyingLoyalty towards his godson Jamie, following him into multiple stints of exile that forced Jamie from the safety of his home. Murtagh's final promise to Jamie's dying mother was to always protect her son and as such, he has been Jamie's constant companion since Jamie was eight years old. He helps Jamie with any plan, no questions asked, and serves as Jamie's second set of eyes and ears, watching Jamie's back. Until the Crown forcibly [[IndenturedServitude separated them]], if you saw Jamie, there was a pretty good bet that Murtagh was somewhere nearby.

* Phoenix's regular partner in the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' saga is his young assistant Maya Fey, but when he needs extra assistance he calls Maya's older sister Mia fey, who fits in this trope. Also, Mia's assistants were her mentors Marvin Grossberg and Diego Armando, both older than her. Then Apollo was assisted in his first case by his mentor Kristoph Gavin, and later Phoenix himself, and finally in the Spinoff ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'', Edgeworth is helped by the older Detective Gumshoe. In the ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'', Ryuunosuke is often aided in investigation by the older famed detective Herlock Sholmes. It is later revealed that Sholmes had an older partner in the form of [[spoiler:Yujin Mikotoba]] before the events of the game.

* Phoenix's regular partner in the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' saga is his young assistant Maya Fey, but when he needs extra assistance he calls Maya's older sister Mia fey, who fits in this trope. Also, Mia's assistants were her mentors Marvin Grossberg and Diego Armando, both older than her. Then Apollo was assisted in his first case by his mentor Kristoph Gavin, and later Phoenix himself, and finally in the Spinoff ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'', Edgeworth is helped by the older Detective Gumshoe.

** ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' has Cassidy. Though his character model lacks the detail to confirm it, he is firmly established to be in at least his late fifties. Marcus would also qualify; his Super Mutant status has made him stop aging, but her served in the Master's army during ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}''--eighty years previous.

Compare MoreSeniorSubordinate, where the characters operate within the framework of a larger organization.

* Renamon and Ruki in ''Anime/DigimonTamers''. Their relationship is more of being actual contemporaries rather than a pet or babysitter dynamic, although this is probably more conductive to Ruki's original cold professionalism.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Not only was Aang the youngest member of his trio in the first season ([[HumanPopsicle sort of]]), but the cheerful and experienced General Iroh is the foil to the bitter but complex teenage AntiVillain Prince Zuko.

* Cloud, the Hero, and Barret, the Lancer, from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. Barret is fourteen years older than Cloud. Interestingly, neither of them are particularly mature - Cloud spent his formative years in a [[PeopleJars People Jar]] and has the emotional maturity of a sixteen-year-old as a result, and Barret is emotionally driven to the point of completely neglecting to think his actions through. They seem to cancel each other out.

* Sazh Kaztroy in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is forty, while the rest of the party are in their teens or early twenties.

* DonaldDuck and Goofy to Sora in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series. While they're {{Funny Animal}}s who don't really have a set age, they're still pretty much adults.

* SmallAnnoyingCreature and borderline TeamPet Riki, from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1''. Although his cuteness makes his age difficult to ascertain and he talks like a small child, he's actually a forty-year-old father of ''[[MassiveNumberedSiblings nine]]''. [[spoiler: Technically speaking, Melia is older, but because she [[Really700YearsOld ages differently due to her race]], she's functionally the same age as the rest of the party.]]

* Alyssa and Miyu from ''Anime/MaiHime''. (Well, at least so it seems. Since [[spoiler:Miyu was an android built specifically to protect Alyssa, the latter was ''technically'' slightly older]].)
* Evangeline and Chachamaru in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', though only in appearance (hundred-year-old vampire and two-year-old Robot). [[KidHero Negi]] and [[OlderThanTheyLook Asuna]] (and his [[UnwantedHarem other partners]]) along with [[MentorMascot Chamo]] are definitely played straighter.

* Subverted with Post-Crisis Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}. She is fifteen years older than her cousin Franchise/{{Superman}}, but she was put in suspended animation for thirty years, so she looks younger than him.

%%* [[VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}} "Hop hop, Mr. Bubbles!"]]
* K' from ''The King of Fighters'' has Maxima, who has to keep his younger partner's temper in check at times.

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' has Cassidy. Though his character model lacks the detail to confirm it, he is firmly established to be in at least his late fifties. Marcus would also qualify; his Super Mutant status has made him stop aging, but her served in the Master's army during ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}''--eighty years previous.
** Since the player in VideoGame/Fallout3 is ''19 years old'', every companion except Dogmeat (a dog) and Butch (someone your character grew up with) qualifies. RL-3 and Charon technically qualify (Charon is a nuclear mutant who could be as old as 240, while RL-3 is a model of robot that hasn't been in production for 200 years), but it is more obvious with Star Paladin Cross. Cross mentions to the player that she carried you once, when you were a baby. Jericho, a recruitable former raider, is nearing 65 years old, according to source material.

* SmallAnnoyingCreature and borderline TeamPet Riki, from ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}.'' Although his cuteness makes his age difficult to ascertain and he talks like a small child, he's actually a forty-year-old father of ''[[MassiveNumberedSiblings nine]]''. [[spoiler: Technically speaking, Melia is older, but because she [[Really700YearsOld ages differently due to her race]], she's functionally the same age as the rest of the party.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the 1950s ''Series/{{Zorro|1957}}'' series, Gen Sheldon (Bernardo, Don Diego de la Vega's loyal manservant) was 16 years older than Creator/GuyWilliams (Diego de la Vega/Zorro).

->'''The Doctor:''' Bless. I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well, I say not bad...Anyway, lead on! Allons-y. But not too fast, her ankle's going.\\

-->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E12ArmyOfGhosts "Army of Ghosts"]]

[[folder:Film]]

** Captain Jack Harkness to the Doctor in the two-parter [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]]. [[spoiler:After being trapped under Cardiff for 2000 years]] in his spinoff show ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'', he's now [[spoiler:twice as old as the Doctor, who claimed to be 903 around that time]].
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E12ArmyOfGhosts "Army of Ghosts"]], the Doctor briefly pretends that Jackie Tyler, Rose's fortysomething mother, is in fact Rose, in order to fool the Torchwood Institute. Jackie was dragged along by accident.
** Though naturally much younger than the Doctor, Wilfred Mott in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] certainly looks the part, being the Doctor's oldest human companion. The Doctor outright says he'd be proud to have Wilf as a dad.
** In series 5, [[spoiler:Rory Williams]] became this, [[spoiler:being an Auton replicant with Rory's memories, standing by the Pandorica for 2,000 years.]] Though by the end of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang "The Big Bang"]], he's now [[spoiler:back in his twenties, with his millennia of memories locked away unless necessary.]]

* In the 1950s ''Series/{{Zorro}}'' series, Gen Sheldon (Bernardo, Don Diego de la Vega's loyal manservant) was 16 years older than Creator/GuyWilliams (Diego de la Vega/Zorro).

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]

* [[VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}} "Hop hop, Mr. Bubbles!"]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' has Cassidy. Though his character model lacks the detail to confirm it, he is firmly established to be in at least his late fifties. Marcus would also qualify; his Super Mutant status has made him stop aging, but her served in the Master's army during ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}''--eighty years previous.
** Since the player in VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}} is ''19 years old'', every companion except Dogmeat (a dog) and Butch (someone your character grew up with) qualifies. In particular:
*** RL-3 and Charon from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' technically qualify (Charon is a nuclear mutant who could be as old as 240, while RL-3 is a model of robot that hasn't been in production for 200 years), but it is more obvious with Star Paladin Cross. Cross mentions to the player that she carried you once, when you were a baby. Jericho, a recruitable former raider, is nearing 65 years old, according to source material.

* Sazh Kaztroy in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXIII'' is forty, while the rest of the party are in their teens or early twenties.

* Kumatora and Duster to Lucas in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}.'' Duster is explicitly in his thirties. Kumatora's age is [[VagueAge more vague]], but she could be anywhere from an older teen to a young twentysomething.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

** Likely Count Dooku to [[EvilChancellor Chancellor Palpatine]], considering Creator/ChristopherLee is over twenty years older than Ian [=McDiarmid=].

* Subverted by the team of Venus and Cupid in ''Big Bang Comics''. They're both immortal gods, but Venus looks like she's under 30 and Cupid looks like he's pushing 60. However, Venus is actually the older of the two, and is in fact Cupid's ''stepmother''.

->'''The Doctor:''' Bless. I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. [-Well, I say not bad-]– Anyway, lead on! Allons-y. But not too fast, her ankle's going.\\
'''Jackie:''' ''[sotto]'' I'll show ''you'' [[LiteralAssKicking where my ankle's going!]]

* One of Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling's bookers, long time {{tag team}} specialist, and general trouble maker Gedo, became the mouth piece of company ace and Chaos centerpiece Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada. He eventually betrayed him for the even younger Wrestler/JayWhite, becoming a villainous version of this trope.

* One of Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling's bookers, long time {{tag team}} specialist, and general trouble maker Gedo, became the mouth piece of company ace and Chaos centerpiece Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada.

* Pop from ''Manga/DaiNoDaibouken'' is a few years older than the protagonist Dai.

* The [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] {{Franchise/DCU}} had the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy, his adult sidekick. This was brought back in UsefulNotes/TheModernAgeOfComicBooks in ''Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E'' and also in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', although the potential squick is reduced because her sidekick (the original Stripesy) is her stepfather, tagging along to keep her out of trouble.