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* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'': [[spoiler:Being TheUnfavorite of thirteen sons, this made [[TragicVillain Prince Hans of the Southern Isles]] feel less than his more prodigious brothers, who were regarded as apples in the eyes of their father, the king. His plan to seize control of Arendelle isn't motivated by mere greed. Instead, he wants to show them that they underestimated him by ascending to greatness and ruling a kingdom on his own. Ironically, the methods he used were unethical, and he's now in the same hellhole he wanted to escape in the first place. He also felt envious of his oldest brother Caleb, who is 1st in line, and often daydreamed of what it's like being the crown prince of his kingdom.]]
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* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'': [[spoiler:Being TheUnfavorite of thirteen sons, this made [[TragicVillain Prince Hans of the Southern Isles]] feel less than his more prodigious brothers, who were regarded as apples in the eyes of their father, the king.king, [[Literature/AFrozenHeart in the novelization]]. His plan to seize control of Arendelle isn't motivated by mere greed. Instead, he wants to show them that they underestimated him by ascending to greatness and ruling a kingdom on his own. Ironically, the methods he used were unethical, and he's now in the same hellhole he wanted to escape in the first place. He also felt envious of his oldest brother Caleb, who is 1st in line, and often daydreamed of what it's like being the crown prince of his kingdom.]]
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* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'': [[spoiler:Being TheUnfavorite of thirteen sons, this made [[TragicVillain Prince Hans of the Southern Isles]] feel less than his more prodigious brothers, who were regarded as apples in the eyes of their father, the king. His plan to seize control of Arendelle isn't motivated by mere greed. Instead, he wants to show them that they underestimated him by ascending to greatness and ruling a kingdom on his own. Ironically, the methods he used were unethical, and he's now in the same hellhole he wanted to escape in the first place. He also felt envious of his oldest brother Caleb, who is 1st in line, and often daydreamed of what it's like being the crown prince of his kingdom.]]
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->"I'm sure you all know my sister. Yes, Kamilah. Kamilah, of course, is the youngest person ever to graduate from Oxford University. She's a world-class painter, social activist, iconoclast, Olympic gold medalist for archery, a [=BAFTA=]-winner for her documentary on her Grammy-winning album, and the person voted "Most Likely to be Banksy." So without further ado, [[FreudianSlip take it away from me]]! Sorry, I mean 'take it away,' Kamilah."
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->"I'm sure you all know my sister. Yes, Kamilah. Kamilah, of course, is the youngest person ever to graduate from Oxford University. She's a world-class painter, social activist, iconoclast, Olympic gold medalist for archery, a [=BAFTA=]-winner for her documentary on her Grammy-winning album, and the person voted "Most Likely to be Banksy." So without further ado, [[FreudianSlip take it away from me]]! Sorry, I mean 'take it away,' Kamilah."
-->-- '''Tahani''', ''Series/TheGoodPlace''
-->-- '''Tahani''', ''Series/TheGoodPlace''
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[[AC:Newspaper Comics]]
* Jeremy from ''{{Zits}}'' has this for his older brother Chad, though mostly early in the strips run. Chad, who's away at college and was only ever shown from the jaw down, was smarter, more athletic, popular and good-looking, and Jeremy resented being compared to him immensley. It got to the point that after Chad had come home for a surprise visit, everyone in Jeremy's class wanted to know about it. This was eventually phased out.
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* ''EdEddAndEddy'' had this with Eddy and his unnamed older brother, whom everyone in the neighborhood still either idolizes or fears, years after he left home. Eddy constantly switches between fawning over his legend, and being frustrated over his inability to live up to it. [[spoiler: The movie reveals that most, if not all, the stories about the guy are made up, and he's little more than a bullying thug who made Eddys life a living hell]]
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* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Toph joined making him the only non-bender, eventually took up swordfighting so he could feel like he had something to contribute to the team.
** Zuko is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Toph joined making him the only non-bender, eventually took up swordfighting so he could feel like he had something to contribute to the team.
** Zuko is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
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* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has
''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Tophjoined joined, making him the only non-bender, eventually took up swordfighting sword-fighting so he could feel like he had something to contribute to the team.
** Zuko is thefirstborn, firstborn son of the Fire Nation Royal Family, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, Lord Ozai, gave favor to the younger firebending prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness was rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.her.
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Toph
** Zuko is the
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* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty or popular with her peers or family. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
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* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty or popular with her peers or family. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.axes, even when Olga is jealous of ''her'' because Helga can be whatever she wants to be while she's stuck as a StepfordSmiler.
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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': The [[TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry very complicated relationship]] between Daria and Quinn's mother Helen and her sisters, Rita and Amy, has some shades of this from Rita's part. She has said that, since Helen was the most academically inclined of the sisters and ultimately became a succesful and well-off lawyer, she and Amy were regarded as lazy and dumb in comparison.
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* The player character feels this way towards their brother in ''VideoGame/DepressionQuest'', as he has a better job and is more successful than them.
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* The Aki sisters in ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' are a pair of [[PhysicalGod autumnal goddesses]], with older sister Shizuha being the [[OddJobGods goddess of autumn leaves]] and younger sister Minoriko being a [[FoodGod harvest goddess.]] Since Shizuha is a far more niched goddess, she consequently also has [[GodNeedsPrayerBadly fewer worshippers]] than her little sister, making her envious of Minoriko and wishing that she did something more productive that the humans would appreciate. On the flip side, [[MutualEnvy Minoriko is also envious of her older sister]] and wishes that she did something less pragmatic and more artistic.
* The player character feels this way towards their brother in ''VideoGame/DepressionQuest'', as he has a better job and is more successful thanthem.
them.
* The player character feels this way towards their brother in ''VideoGame/DepressionQuest'', as he has a better job and is more successful than
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** In the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series, Luigi's name is often forgotten and he gets upset if he thinks he's being forgotten when he's, you know, trying to save the Mushroom Kingdom alongside Mario.
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** In the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series, Luigi's name is often forgotten and he gets upset if he thinks he's being forgotten when he's, you know, trying to save the Mushroom Kingdom alongside Mario. A running gag is that for much of the series Bowser can't even remembers who Luigi ''is.''
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* ''Webcomic/ILoveYoo'': Kousuke and Yeong-Gi have a somewhat strained relationship, which is hardly surprising considering they come from a home where this is the dinner conversation:
-->Dad: "How is school going for you? Top of the class like your brother I presume?"
-->Yeong-Gi: "... No."
-->Dad: "How is school going for you? Top of the class like your brother I presume?"
-->Yeong-Gi: "... No."
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** This is practically Luigi's defining character trait. When you've got Mario for a brother, your definitely going to feels overshadowed. Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]]. In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
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** This is practically Luigi's defining character trait. When you've got Mario for a brother, your definitely going to feels overshadowed. Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]]. In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
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* This is revealed in ''Literature/RedDwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'' as one of the many sources of Rimmer's neuroses. Another is that [[TheUnFavorite his parents agree]]:
-->'''Mrs Rimmer''': My boys. My clever, clever boys. Johnny the captain, Frankie the first officer, Howie the test pilot and Arnold... Arnold the chicken soup machine cleaner. If you could sue sperm, I'd sue the sperm that made you.
-->'''Mrs Rimmer''': My boys. My clever, clever boys. Johnny the captain, Frankie the first officer, Howie the test pilot and Arnold... Arnold the chicken soup machine cleaner. If you could sue sperm, I'd sue the sperm that made you.
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* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Trojan", following on from the description of Rimmer's brothers above under Literature, we meet "Howie the test pilot", and discover that [[spoiler: they're NotSoDifferent; Howard is ''also'' a vending machine repairman who lies about how well he's doing and resents his brothers (including Rimmer) for "actually" being successful]].
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** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery.
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** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery.chicanery after the family threw him out. This is arguably rendered even more tragic, as [[spoiler: Stan]] is shown throughout the series to be intelligent in his own way, having pulled off schemes such as [[spoiler: stealing several drums of nuclear waste single-handed]] that could easily qualify him as a borderline DiabolicalMastermind, but none of his family ever acknowledged this or cared enough to notice in the first place.
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* Wrestling/BretHart and Wrestling/OwenHart had an on-and-off feud over Owen resenting that Bret gets all the attention and championships while Owen, who believed himself the better wrestler, was stuck in the mid-card.
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* Wrestling/BretHart and Wrestling/OwenHart had an on-and-off feud over Owen resenting that Bret gets all the attention and championships while Owen, who believed himself the better wrestler, was stuck in the mid-card. \n\n
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* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. This trope is part of the issues Heinz Doofenshmirtz has with his brother -- Roger is more popular and also more successful in his career (politics) than Heinz is in his (being a mad scientist and taking over the world). The other part is of course that their parents always preferred Roger [[TheUnFavorite over him]].
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* This is the driving plot in the series ''The Grinder'', as Stewart, who is an actual lawyer, feels bitter about being overshadowed by his brother Dean, an actor who played a lawyer on a popular long-running television show. Stewart is shocked by how often people take Dean's word over his own, despite the fact that, in Stewart's opinion, Dean's show was not in any way an accurate portrayal of lawyers.
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* This is the driving plot in the series ''The Grinder'', ''Series/TheGrinder'', as Stewart, who is an actual lawyer, feels bitter about being overshadowed by his brother Dean, an actor who played a lawyer on a popular long-running television show. Stewart is shocked by how often people take Dean's word over his own, despite the fact that, in Stewart's opinion, Dean's show was not in any way an accurate portrayal of lawyers.
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** This is practically Luigi's defining character trait. When you've got Mario for a brother, your definitely going to feels overshadowed. Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]]. In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
to:
** This is practically Luigi's defining character trait. When you've got Mario for a brother, your definitely going to feels overshadowed. Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]]. In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
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** The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series offers up a fairly unique interpretation. Unlike most versions of Luigi, who are insecure but loyal, this series' Luigi is shown to be extremely envious of Mario's fame, to the point of being an obsessive attention-seeker and kind of a jerk too, although he is still very loyal. At one point he tries to assemble his own party of heroes to travel the world and save the "Waffle Kingdom". He hopes this will impress his brother and earn him fame and adoration. The player (as Mario) can meet him and he will tell tales of his glorious adventures and even has commissioned a book series about it. However, we find out that he kind of exaggerates those stories and the people he traveled with can't stand him and only came along because he owed them money.
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** The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series offers up a fairly unique interpretation. Unlike most versions of Luigi, who are insecure but loyal, this series' Luigi is shown to be extremely envious of Mario's fame, to the point of being an obsessive attention-seeker and kind of a jerk too, although he is still very loyal. Still, he's understandably annoyed that in ''VideoGame/PaperMario'', Mario is having an adventure with several partners and hasn't asked Luigi along with him. Even so, he just asks the partners to look after Mario.
** At one pointhe Luigi tries to assemble his own party of heroes to travel the world and save the [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor "Waffle Kingdom". Kingdom".]] He hopes this will impress his brother and earn him fame and adoration. The player (as Mario) can meet him and he will tell tales of his glorious adventures and even has commissioned a book series about it. However, we find out that he kind of exaggerates those stories and the people he traveled with can't stand him and only came along because he owed them money.
** In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', during Luigi's stint as [[spoiler: [[ItWasHisSled Mr. L]]]], his possible jealousy comes out much more clearly, particularly when, if you're fighting as Mario, [[spoiler:for the first Mr. L battle, Mr.L calls Mario ''Mr Jumps All The Time'' and then says "Just because you're in red, doesn't mean you're strong! Have at you!]]
** At one point
** In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', during Luigi's stint as [[spoiler: [[ItWasHisSled Mr. L]]]], his possible jealousy comes out much more clearly, particularly when, if you're fighting as Mario, [[spoiler:for the first Mr. L battle, Mr.L calls Mario ''Mr Jumps All The Time'' and then says "Just because you're in red, doesn't mean you're strong! Have at you!]]
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** In the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' series, Luigi's name is often forgotten and he gets upset if he thinks he's being forgotten when he's, you know, trying to save the Mushroom Kingdom alongside Mario.
** In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'', Luigi shows that whatever issues he might have with Mario, [[BigBrotherWorship his love and loyalty is far greater.]] When you go to Dream's Deep and temporarily lose Dreamy Luigi from your party, you can see his thoughts saying things like "take me with you!" and "let me help, bro!" In a near {{Tearjerker}} moment in Dream's Deep, his dream self directly talks to Mario and it's just so [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming heartwarming:]]
-->'''Luigi:''' Big bro... it's your choice... Luigi... will follow you... We're all here for you, bro. Always.
** In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'', Luigi shows that whatever issues he might have with Mario, [[BigBrotherWorship his love and loyalty is far greater.]] When you go to Dream's Deep and temporarily lose Dreamy Luigi from your party, you can see his thoughts saying things like "take me with you!" and "let me help, bro!" In a near {{Tearjerker}} moment in Dream's Deep, his dream self directly talks to Mario and it's just so [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming heartwarming:]]
-->'''Luigi:''' Big bro... it's your choice... Luigi... will follow you... We're all here for you, bro. Always.
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** Dipper and Mabel Pines play with the trope, because each of them feels like the other is the successful one in one way or another. Mabel feels like Dipper is better at her than everything and Dipper feels like Mabel is better with people stuff than he is.
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** Dipper and Mabel Pines play with the trope, because each of them feels like the other is the successful one in one way or another. Mabel feels desires to be smarter and wiser like her brother Dipper is while Dipper desires to better at her than everything and Dipper feels like Mabel is better with understand people stuff than he is. and socialize like Mabel.
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* This is the driving plot in the series ''The Grinder'', as Stewart, who is an actual lawyer, feels bitter about being overshadowed by his brother Dean, an actor who played a lawyer on a popular long-running television show. Stewart is shocked by how often people take Dean's word over his own, despite the fact that, in Stewart's opinion, Dean's show was not in any way an accurate portrayal of lawyers.
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For more generalized examples of this see: LesserStar, StuckInTheirShadow, OvershadowedByAwesome. Compare WellDoneSonGuy, which occurs when a famous character seeks the approval of a relative, rather than a less successful person seeking attention from the general public.
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For more generalized examples of this see: LesserStar, StuckInTheirShadow, OvershadowedByAwesome. Compare WellDoneSonGuy, which occurs when a famous character seeks the approval of a relative, rather than a less successful person seeking attention from the general public. \n Also compare StrongerSibling.
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* This is practically Luigi's defining character trait. When you've got Mario for a brother, your definitely going to feels overshadowed. Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]]. In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
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* Luigi from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' fits this to a T.
** Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]].
** In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
** Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]].
** In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
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* Luigi from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' fits this ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'':
* This is practically Luigi's defining character trait. When you've got Mario for a brother, your definitely going toa T.
**feels overshadowed. Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]]. \n** In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
* This is practically Luigi's defining character trait. When you've got Mario for a brother, your definitely going to
**
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** The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series takes this UpToEleven.
*** Unlike most versions of Luigi, who are insecure but loyal, this series' Luigi is shown to be extremely envious of Mario's fame, to the point of being an obsessive attention-seeker and kind of a jerk too, although he is still very loyal. At one point he tries to assemble his own party of heroes to travel the world and save the "Waffle Kingdom". He hopes this will impress his brother and earn him fame and adoration. The player (as Mario) can meet him and he will tell tales of his glorious adventures and even has commissioned a book series about it. However, we find out that he kind of exaggerates those stories and the people he traveled with can't stand him and only came along because he owed them money.
*** The third game in the series though has him much more courageous.
*** Unlike most versions of Luigi, who are insecure but loyal, this series' Luigi is shown to be extremely envious of Mario's fame, to the point of being an obsessive attention-seeker and kind of a jerk too, although he is still very loyal. At one point he tries to assemble his own party of heroes to travel the world and save the "Waffle Kingdom". He hopes this will impress his brother and earn him fame and adoration. The player (as Mario) can meet him and he will tell tales of his glorious adventures and even has commissioned a book series about it. However, we find out that he kind of exaggerates those stories and the people he traveled with can't stand him and only came along because he owed them money.
*** The third game in the series though has him much more courageous.
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** The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series takes this UpToEleven.
***offers up a fairly unique interpretation. Unlike most versions of Luigi, who are insecure but loyal, this series' Luigi is shown to be extremely envious of Mario's fame, to the point of being an obsessive attention-seeker and kind of a jerk too, although he is still very loyal. At one point he tries to assemble his own party of heroes to travel the world and save the "Waffle Kingdom". He hopes this will impress his brother and earn him fame and adoration. The player (as Mario) can meet him and he will tell tales of his glorious adventures and even has commissioned a book series about it. However, we find out that he kind of exaggerates those stories and the people he traveled with can't stand him and only came along because he owed them money. \n*** The third game in the series though has him much more courageous.
***
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BonusPoints if the parents have been in a similarly successful position, which will only add to the character's insecurity.
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* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty or well-liked. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
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* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty or well-liked.popular with her peers or family. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
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* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
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* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty.pretty or well-liked. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
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** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery. There's a third sibling but the third sibling's place with regard to the success or failure of the other two is as yet unrevealed.
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** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery. There's a third sibling but the third sibling's place with regard to the success or failure of the other two is as yet unrevealed.
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** Zuko, inverting the trope. He is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
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** Zuko, inverting the trope. He Zuko is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
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* ''Film/EagleEye'': Many characters on the film (including his parents and the SinisterSurveillance MasterComputer) compare main character Jerry Shaw to his twin brother Ethan, and keep banging on Jerry's (minor) BerserkButton of thinking of him as a dead-beat next to his over-achieving Air Force member of a brother (this comparison goes, if the info provided by the computer is right, probably as far back as them being babies). Because they keep expecting him to be a failure next to Ethan, Jerry simply decided to stop trying.
to:
* ''Film/EagleEye'': Many characters on in the film (including his parents and the SinisterSurveillance MasterComputer) compare main character Jerry Shaw to his twin brother Ethan, and keep banging on Jerry's (minor) BerserkButton of thinking of him as a dead-beat next to his over-achieving Air Force member of a brother (this comparison goes, if the info provided by the computer is right, probably as far back as them being babies). Because they keep expecting him to be a failure next to Ethan, Jerry simply decided to stop trying.
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* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Eustace has always hated his older brother Horst because, as Horst was quite the successful huntsman and explorer who always brought home big game, and was apparently more loved by their parents than he was. In flashback, we learn that Horst's cruel nickname for Eustace was "Useless."
to:
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Eustace has always hated his older brother Horst because, as Horst was quite the successful huntsman and explorer who always brought home big game, and was apparently more loved by their parents than he was. In flashback, flashbacks, we learn that Horst's cruel nickname for Eustace was "Useless."
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reply:
Serious questions for analysis: how does this differentiate from StuckInTheirShadow, OvershadowedByAwesome, and especially WellDoneSonGuy (which can apply to an AloofOlderBrother as well as a father).
If this is distinct, then you may say it could be prevalent when the younger sibling is a ReplacementGoldfish for one that died, because of course they can never live up to the perfection of his/her memory.
reply:
TropeNamerSyndrome.
Also, YesWeDoHaveThisOne: AlwaysSomeoneBetter pretty much counts as what you're proposing.
reply:
I actually researched these tropes ahead of time, and I believe it's different because A.) The person overshadowing you is part of your own family where as these others are for the most part generalized. B.) StuckInTheirShadow is a YMMV trope, this is not. C.) Unlike WellDoneSonGuy or the others, the character is mostly trying to gain attention from the general public, or at least their peers, not necessarily their parents, siblings, or relatives, That can often be a companion goal, but it mostly relates to how this character interacts with the outside world.
reply:
Fixed the TropeNamerSyndrome issue, sorry about that one. It is now known as SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome.
I also added the the tropes mentioned above as comparisons to better illustrate the difference.
reply:
* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'': Luigi's inferiority complex against his brother is explored in "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2011/11/11/378-fantasy/ Fantasy]]", where it turns he can't even fantasize about himself being the hero. [[spoiler:Luckily, he gets his chance at last come "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2012/12/21/457-luigis-holiday-vacation/ Luigi's Holiday Vacation]]".]]
reply:
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Leonard, who is an experimental physicist with a Ph. D., is the ''least'' successful person in his immediate family. His mother doesn't let him live it down, making it quite clear how disappointed she is in him.
* In ''Series/MadAboutYou'' Jamie's sister Lisa is much less successful than Jamie is and is insecure over it - all the more so because Jamie is the ''younger'' sister.
reply:
This situation often causes SiblingRivalry, and in worst case to a CainAndAbel situation (i.e. the less successful sibling murdering the successful one).
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', Prince Edmund is jealous of his more successful sibling, Prince Harry, who is also the heir to the throne. This leads to PrincelingRivalry.
reply:
* Inverted in ''Film/TheGame''; the main character is a wealthy and arrogant businessman, but he is miserable and unstable thanks to recurring nightmares about his father committing suicide when he was a child. In contrast, his brother (who he thinks of as a deadbeat) doesn't have much, and yet is happy as a clam, and just wants to help his brother learn to be happy.
reply:
[[AC:WebAnimation]]
* Averted in ''{{WebAmimation/RWBY}}''; Ruby is a fifteen year old prodigy student who has been accepted personally by the Headmaster of Beacon Academy two years sooner then she normally would have been accepted. At the same time her seventeen year old sister Yang has also been accepted. The two ended up being on the same team to which Ruby is named the team leader. Not only does Yang not mind that she has to follow her younger sister, but she is very proud of Ruby.
reply:
^ I think inverted would be when the successful sibling is jealous of the less-successful one. That sounds like an aversion, since it just doesn't happen.
reply:
^Agreed, I'll make the change.
reply:
[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Rev Runner of the ''WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'' couldn't stand taller in his father's eyes after building a popular interactive toy, despite getting oodles of help from Tech Coyote. Rev's younger brother, Rip, has only his father's disdain, to the point of not bothering to try. When Rip tries on an alien psionic headpiece, it amplifies his grudge against his family, transforming him into a supervillain.
reply:
* An episode of ''Series/HannahMontana'' has Miley jealous of her grandmother's constant doting of Jackson, and later it turns out that she was trying to make him feel important because he himself is jealous of Miley's success as Hannah.
reply:
Do you want to include WellDoneDadGuy alongside WellDoneSonGuy or a link to ParentalFavoritism anywhere?
reply:
* Ron Weasley from ''HarryPotter'' suffers from this. His resulting inferiority complex sometimes complicates his relationship with Harry, due to the latter's status as TheChosenOne.
-->'''Ron''': I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first.
reply:
^ Added to that example, wasn't Ron's vision in the Mirror of Erised him standing out among his family and friends, more successful than all of them, getting all of the attention? (Or maybe I'm imagining that.)
reply:
^ You're right.
reply:
^^^^That would be good Lythande. Of course it's important to remember that this trope doesn't always include parental favoritism, but in the times that it does overlap it certainly would add more negativity to the lesser-known sibling's feelings.
reply:
''TheLittleMermaid2'' introduces Ursula's sister Morgana as the BigBad. As TheUnfavorite, she despises her elder sister, and her plan to take the trident isn't motivated by mere revenge. Instead, she wants to rule the ocean as a proof she was better than Ursula in the first place.
reply:
''Film/EagleEye'': Many characters on the film (including his parents and the SinisterSurveillance MasterComputer) compare main character Jerry Shaw to his twin brother Ethan, and keep banging on Jerry's (minor) BerserkButton of thinking of him as a dead-beat next to his over-achieving Air Force member of a brother (this comparison goes, if the info provided by the computer is right, probably as far back as them being babies). Because they keep expecting him to be a failure next to Ethan, Jerry simply decided to stop trying.
reply:
* Downplayed in ''Series/HouseOfAnubis''. Piper Williamson is a polite, intelligent and talented musical prodigy. Patricia, her twin, is just a relatively untalented DeadpanSnarker, who admitted jealousy at her sister's talents and also seemed worried that Piper was intentionally trying to move in on her friends and make Anubis House ''her'' house, "Just like always". It's implied that Patricia herself gets no attention in the family thanks to a throwaway line in season one (where her mother accused her of making a "bid for attention" when she thought Joy was dead) and it's believed by fans that this is because of Piper being more talented. However, it then turned out that Piper herself saw ''Patricia'' as being the successful one, due to having friends and free time, and not being afraid to fail at anything. They made up, and it seems that neither feel inferior anymore.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'' has Ivypool, who felt invisible and useless compared to Dovewing, her sister, who was getting all the attention and doing all the heroic stuff. Her insecurities over this drove her to [[spoiler:join the Dark Forest and train with Hawkfrost]], and she took chances to criticize and insult her sister in order to make herself look superior. The two sisters did make up eventually, but not after a lot of SiblingRivalry and moral issues to overcome.
** Breezepelt seemed to be jealous of [[spoiler:Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf]], after learning they were his siblings.
** Also inverted in the case of Blossomfall being jealous of Briarlight...who was paralyzed and suffering, [[ParentalFavoritism because Briarlight was the one who got all of their mother's attention,]] and not because of her skills or talents.
reply:
* Examples section
** Added a line separating the Description and Examples sections.
** Administrivia/{{Namespace}}d work names.
** Corrected improper Administrivia/ExampleIndentation in the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' examples.
** Corrected spelling (exagerrates).
reply:
* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/TheBible'' includes the story of Cain and Abel, where Abel is preferred by God compared to his older brother, making Cain jealous. [[CainAndAbel We all know how it ends]].
reply:
* The player character feels this way towards their brother in ''VideoGame/DepressionQuest'', as he has a better job and is more successful than them.
reply:
Stu Redman feels this way to a point in ''Literature/TheStand''. His brother left home and by the time of the book's opening was a successful big city computer guy while Stu was still a small town blue collar guy. Inverted a bit too, as Stu thinks that Bryce might feel a bit of shame about him as well..
reply:
Robert Barone, the Unfavored in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''
reply:
Wrestling/BretHart and Wrestling/OwenHart had an on-and-off feud over Owen resenting that Bret gets all the attention and championships whiel Owen, who believed himself the better wrestler, was stuck in the mid-card.
reply:
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'', main character Jane, who's stuck working a dead-end job in a souvenir shop, greatly envies her older sister, who is a successful lawyer.
reply:
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Toph joined making him the only non-bender, eventually took up swordfighting so he could feel like he had something to contribute to the team.
** Zuko, inverting the trope. He is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''
** Dipper and Mabel Pines play with the trope, because each of them feels like the other is the successful one in one way or another. Mabel feels like Dipper is better at her than everything and Dipper feels like Mabel is better with people stuff than he is.
** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery. There's a third sibling but the third sibling's place with regard to the success or failure of the other two is as yet unrevealed.
reply:
Ideas for a page image?
reply:
^Me and my brother /jk
reply:
Question: Does this trope include situations when the character is/feels overshadowed by their ''parent''? Or would that be a sister trope to this one?
reply:
^That would be a sister trope. Overshadowing by parents is included here only if their siblings are successful too as a way of emphasizing the pressure on a character (as stated in the description, BonusPoints) but if it is just a parent without a sibling, then that would be something for a sister trope.
reply:
^^ I agree with sister trope. It's a slightly different dynamic, but it should be a trope if we don't have it yet.
reply:
^ & ^^ Thanks, guys! I'll look for examples and start a new YKTTW for it then -- if no one else wants to do it, that is
reply:
^Great idea, dude. Go right ahead.
And thanks for the hats everyone. I will try and launch this on Monday. That will give a little extra time for anyone who still wants to add an example (or possible page image) to do so.
Would also like Indexing suggestions.
reply:
Well, since apparently this is separate from AlwaysSomeoneBetter...
[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. Otis's brother Ralph was always held in such a high standard by their mother that Otis always felt he would never amount to anything like Ralph would, especially considering Otis ended up becoming Mayberry's town drunk. Otis, however, had convinced his family that he was one of Andy's deputies, and when they come for a visit, Andy actually lets him pose as one to impress them. When Otis learns that Ralph is actually his town's drunk, he feels ashamed of his brother.
[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Eustace has always hated his older brother Horst because, as Horst was quite the successful huntsman and explorer who always brought home big game, and was apparently more loved by their parents than he was. In flashback, we learn that Horst's cruel nickname for Eustace was "Useless."
reply:
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* Played with in ''Series/{{Complications}}'', where Ingrid envies her big sister Gretchen for being able to hold down a respectable job as a nurse while she herself is in and out of rehab. She is unaware that Gretchen is neck-deep in criminal activity.
reply:
* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' introduces us to Franziska von Karma. She is not upset at Phoenix for ending her father's winning streak (by proving him to be a murderer), but because he stole her chance to defeat Edgeworth. They may not be formal siblings, but they grew up together since Edgeworth was mentored by her father.
reply:
End of markup
Serious questions for analysis: how does this differentiate from StuckInTheirShadow, OvershadowedByAwesome, and especially WellDoneSonGuy (which can apply to an AloofOlderBrother as well as a father).
If this is distinct, then you may say it could be prevalent when the younger sibling is a ReplacementGoldfish for one that died, because of course they can never live up to the perfection of his/her memory.
reply:
TropeNamerSyndrome.
Also, YesWeDoHaveThisOne: AlwaysSomeoneBetter pretty much counts as what you're proposing.
reply:
I actually researched these tropes ahead of time, and I believe it's different because A.) The person overshadowing you is part of your own family where as these others are for the most part generalized. B.) StuckInTheirShadow is a YMMV trope, this is not. C.) Unlike WellDoneSonGuy or the others, the character is mostly trying to gain attention from the general public, or at least their peers, not necessarily their parents, siblings, or relatives, That can often be a companion goal, but it mostly relates to how this character interacts with the outside world.
reply:
Fixed the TropeNamerSyndrome issue, sorry about that one. It is now known as SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome.
I also added the the tropes mentioned above as comparisons to better illustrate the difference.
reply:
* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'': Luigi's inferiority complex against his brother is explored in "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2011/11/11/378-fantasy/ Fantasy]]", where it turns he can't even fantasize about himself being the hero. [[spoiler:Luckily, he gets his chance at last come "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2012/12/21/457-luigis-holiday-vacation/ Luigi's Holiday Vacation]]".]]
reply:
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Leonard, who is an experimental physicist with a Ph. D., is the ''least'' successful person in his immediate family. His mother doesn't let him live it down, making it quite clear how disappointed she is in him.
* In ''Series/MadAboutYou'' Jamie's sister Lisa is much less successful than Jamie is and is insecure over it - all the more so because Jamie is the ''younger'' sister.
reply:
This situation often causes SiblingRivalry, and in worst case to a CainAndAbel situation (i.e. the less successful sibling murdering the successful one).
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', Prince Edmund is jealous of his more successful sibling, Prince Harry, who is also the heir to the throne. This leads to PrincelingRivalry.
reply:
* Inverted in ''Film/TheGame''; the main character is a wealthy and arrogant businessman, but he is miserable and unstable thanks to recurring nightmares about his father committing suicide when he was a child. In contrast, his brother (who he thinks of as a deadbeat) doesn't have much, and yet is happy as a clam, and just wants to help his brother learn to be happy.
reply:
[[AC:WebAnimation]]
* Averted in ''{{WebAmimation/RWBY}}''; Ruby is a fifteen year old prodigy student who has been accepted personally by the Headmaster of Beacon Academy two years sooner then she normally would have been accepted. At the same time her seventeen year old sister Yang has also been accepted. The two ended up being on the same team to which Ruby is named the team leader. Not only does Yang not mind that she has to follow her younger sister, but she is very proud of Ruby.
reply:
^ I think inverted would be when the successful sibling is jealous of the less-successful one. That sounds like an aversion, since it just doesn't happen.
reply:
^Agreed, I'll make the change.
reply:
[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Rev Runner of the ''WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'' couldn't stand taller in his father's eyes after building a popular interactive toy, despite getting oodles of help from Tech Coyote. Rev's younger brother, Rip, has only his father's disdain, to the point of not bothering to try. When Rip tries on an alien psionic headpiece, it amplifies his grudge against his family, transforming him into a supervillain.
reply:
* An episode of ''Series/HannahMontana'' has Miley jealous of her grandmother's constant doting of Jackson, and later it turns out that she was trying to make him feel important because he himself is jealous of Miley's success as Hannah.
reply:
Do you want to include WellDoneDadGuy alongside WellDoneSonGuy or a link to ParentalFavoritism anywhere?
reply:
* Ron Weasley from ''HarryPotter'' suffers from this. His resulting inferiority complex sometimes complicates his relationship with Harry, due to the latter's status as TheChosenOne.
-->'''Ron''': I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first.
reply:
^ Added to that example, wasn't Ron's vision in the Mirror of Erised him standing out among his family and friends, more successful than all of them, getting all of the attention? (Or maybe I'm imagining that.)
reply:
^ You're right.
reply:
^^^^That would be good Lythande. Of course it's important to remember that this trope doesn't always include parental favoritism, but in the times that it does overlap it certainly would add more negativity to the lesser-known sibling's feelings.
reply:
''TheLittleMermaid2'' introduces Ursula's sister Morgana as the BigBad. As TheUnfavorite, she despises her elder sister, and her plan to take the trident isn't motivated by mere revenge. Instead, she wants to rule the ocean as a proof she was better than Ursula in the first place.
reply:
''Film/EagleEye'': Many characters on the film (including his parents and the SinisterSurveillance MasterComputer) compare main character Jerry Shaw to his twin brother Ethan, and keep banging on Jerry's (minor) BerserkButton of thinking of him as a dead-beat next to his over-achieving Air Force member of a brother (this comparison goes, if the info provided by the computer is right, probably as far back as them being babies). Because they keep expecting him to be a failure next to Ethan, Jerry simply decided to stop trying.
reply:
* Downplayed in ''Series/HouseOfAnubis''. Piper Williamson is a polite, intelligent and talented musical prodigy. Patricia, her twin, is just a relatively untalented DeadpanSnarker, who admitted jealousy at her sister's talents and also seemed worried that Piper was intentionally trying to move in on her friends and make Anubis House ''her'' house, "Just like always". It's implied that Patricia herself gets no attention in the family thanks to a throwaway line in season one (where her mother accused her of making a "bid for attention" when she thought Joy was dead) and it's believed by fans that this is because of Piper being more talented. However, it then turned out that Piper herself saw ''Patricia'' as being the successful one, due to having friends and free time, and not being afraid to fail at anything. They made up, and it seems that neither feel inferior anymore.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'' has Ivypool, who felt invisible and useless compared to Dovewing, her sister, who was getting all the attention and doing all the heroic stuff. Her insecurities over this drove her to [[spoiler:join the Dark Forest and train with Hawkfrost]], and she took chances to criticize and insult her sister in order to make herself look superior. The two sisters did make up eventually, but not after a lot of SiblingRivalry and moral issues to overcome.
** Breezepelt seemed to be jealous of [[spoiler:Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf]], after learning they were his siblings.
** Also inverted in the case of Blossomfall being jealous of Briarlight...who was paralyzed and suffering, [[ParentalFavoritism because Briarlight was the one who got all of their mother's attention,]] and not because of her skills or talents.
reply:
* Examples section
** Added a line separating the Description and Examples sections.
** Administrivia/{{Namespace}}d work names.
** Corrected improper Administrivia/ExampleIndentation in the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' examples.
** Corrected spelling (exagerrates).
reply:
* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/TheBible'' includes the story of Cain and Abel, where Abel is preferred by God compared to his older brother, making Cain jealous. [[CainAndAbel We all know how it ends]].
reply:
* The player character feels this way towards their brother in ''VideoGame/DepressionQuest'', as he has a better job and is more successful than them.
reply:
Stu Redman feels this way to a point in ''Literature/TheStand''. His brother left home and by the time of the book's opening was a successful big city computer guy while Stu was still a small town blue collar guy. Inverted a bit too, as Stu thinks that Bryce might feel a bit of shame about him as well..
reply:
Robert Barone, the Unfavored in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''
reply:
Wrestling/BretHart and Wrestling/OwenHart had an on-and-off feud over Owen resenting that Bret gets all the attention and championships whiel Owen, who believed himself the better wrestler, was stuck in the mid-card.
reply:
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'', main character Jane, who's stuck working a dead-end job in a souvenir shop, greatly envies her older sister, who is a successful lawyer.
reply:
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Toph joined making him the only non-bender, eventually took up swordfighting so he could feel like he had something to contribute to the team.
** Zuko, inverting the trope. He is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''
** Dipper and Mabel Pines play with the trope, because each of them feels like the other is the successful one in one way or another. Mabel feels like Dipper is better at her than everything and Dipper feels like Mabel is better with people stuff than he is.
** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery. There's a third sibling but the third sibling's place with regard to the success or failure of the other two is as yet unrevealed.
reply:
Ideas for a page image?
reply:
^Me and my brother /jk
reply:
Question: Does this trope include situations when the character is/feels overshadowed by their ''parent''? Or would that be a sister trope to this one?
reply:
^That would be a sister trope. Overshadowing by parents is included here only if their siblings are successful too as a way of emphasizing the pressure on a character (as stated in the description, BonusPoints) but if it is just a parent without a sibling, then that would be something for a sister trope.
reply:
^^ I agree with sister trope. It's a slightly different dynamic, but it should be a trope if we don't have it yet.
reply:
^ & ^^ Thanks, guys! I'll look for examples and start a new YKTTW for it then -- if no one else wants to do it, that is
reply:
^Great idea, dude. Go right ahead.
And thanks for the hats everyone. I will try and launch this on Monday. That will give a little extra time for anyone who still wants to add an example (or possible page image) to do so.
Would also like Indexing suggestions.
reply:
Well, since apparently this is separate from AlwaysSomeoneBetter...
[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. Otis's brother Ralph was always held in such a high standard by their mother that Otis always felt he would never amount to anything like Ralph would, especially considering Otis ended up becoming Mayberry's town drunk. Otis, however, had convinced his family that he was one of Andy's deputies, and when they come for a visit, Andy actually lets him pose as one to impress them. When Otis learns that Ralph is actually his town's drunk, he feels ashamed of his brother.
[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Eustace has always hated his older brother Horst because, as Horst was quite the successful huntsman and explorer who always brought home big game, and was apparently more loved by their parents than he was. In flashback, we learn that Horst's cruel nickname for Eustace was "Useless."
reply:
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* Played with in ''Series/{{Complications}}'', where Ingrid envies her big sister Gretchen for being able to hold down a respectable job as a nurse while she herself is in and out of rehab. She is unaware that Gretchen is neck-deep in criminal activity.
reply:
* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' introduces us to Franziska von Karma. She is not upset at Phoenix for ending her father's winning streak (by proving him to be a murderer), but because he stole her chance to defeat Edgeworth. They may not be formal siblings, but they grew up together since Edgeworth was mentored by her father.
reply:
End of markup
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Created from YKTTW
Added DiffLines:
Simply put, this is what happens when you have a famous or otherwise successful person with a sibling that feels overshadowed by his or her success.
The feelings may or may not be justified. It is possible that all siblings involved are equally popular, but one of them simply ''feels'' as if they are getting shafted. Even if they get all sorts of media attention, they could constantly complain about their perceived "more famous" relative.
And on the flip side there may be times where this is justified, because the character doesn't have the same amount of success or the army of adoring fans. They will either remain loyal to their brother or sister despite being insecure (it will help if they have a close relationship) or they may be overcome with intense jealousy and will plot to get themselves the same amount of attention, with varying degrees of success.
It could also be a simple case of a character who is expected by everyone to follow the same path as their (often, but not always older) sibling, whether they want to or not, and are under intense pressure to honor the "family legacy" as a result.
BonusPoints if the parents have been in a similarly successful position, which will only add to the character's insecurity.
This situation often causes SiblingRivalry, and in worst case to a CainAndAbel situation (i.e. the less successful sibling murdering the successful one).
For more generalized examples of this see: LesserStar, StuckInTheirShadow, OvershadowedByAwesome. Compare WellDoneSonGuy, which occurs when a famous character seeks the approval of a relative, rather than a less successful person seeking attention from the general public.
NeedsExamples.
----
!!Examples
[[AC:Film-Animated]]
* ''[[Disney/TheLittleMermaid The Little Mermaid 2]]'' introduces Ursula's sister Morgana as the BigBad. As TheUnfavorite, she despises her elder sister, and her plan to take the trident isn't motivated by mere revenge. Instead, she wants to rule the ocean as a proof she was better than Ursula in the first place.
[[AC:Film-Live Action]]
* Averted in ''Film/TheGame''; the main character is a wealthy and arrogant businessman, but he is miserable and unstable thanks to recurring nightmares about his father committing suicide when he was a child. In contrast, his brother (who he thinks of as a deadbeat) doesn't have much, and yet is happy as a clam, and just wants to help his brother learn to be happy.
* ''Film/EagleEye'': Many characters on the film (including his parents and the SinisterSurveillance MasterComputer) compare main character Jerry Shaw to his twin brother Ethan, and keep banging on Jerry's (minor) BerserkButton of thinking of him as a dead-beat next to his over-achieving Air Force member of a brother (this comparison goes, if the info provided by the computer is right, probably as far back as them being babies). Because they keep expecting him to be a failure next to Ethan, Jerry simply decided to stop trying.
[[AC:Literature]]
* Stu Redman feels this way to a point in ''Literature/TheStand''. His brother left home and by the time of the book's opening was a successful big city computer guy while Stu was still a small town blue collar guy. Inverted a bit too, as Stu thinks that Bryce might feel a bit of shame about him as well.
* Ron Weasley from ''HarryPotter'' suffers from this. His resulting inferiority complex sometimes complicates his relationship with Harry, due to the latter's status as TheChosenOne.
-->'''Ron''': I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'' has Ivypool, who felt invisible and useless compared to Dovewing, her sister, who was getting all the attention and doing all the heroic stuff. Her insecurities over this drove her to [[spoiler:join the Dark Forest and train with Hawkfrost]], and she took chances to criticize and insult her sister in order to make herself look superior. The two sisters did make up eventually, but not after a lot of SiblingRivalry and moral issues to overcome.
** Breezepelt seemed to be jealous of [[spoiler:Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf]], after learning they were his siblings.
** Also inverted in the case of Blossomfall being jealous of Briarlight...who was paralyzed and suffering, [[ParentalFavoritism because Briarlight was the one who got all of their mother's attention,]] and not because of her skills or talents.
[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/EvenStevens''. Revealed to be the case with Louis, the youngest child in the Stevens family. His father is a prominent attorney, his mother is a high-profile State Senator, his older brother Donny is a star high school athlete, and his older sister Ren is a highly intelligent over-achiever. His crazy antics in the show are his way of establishing his own identity.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Leonard, who is an experimental physicist with a Ph. D., is the ''least'' successful person in his immediate family. His mother doesn't let him live it down, making it quite clear how disappointed she is in him.
* In ''Series/MadAboutYou'' Jamie's sister Lisa is much less successful than Jamie is and is insecure over it - all the more so because Jamie is the ''younger'' sister.
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', Prince Edmund is jealous of his more successful sibling, Prince Harry, who is also the heir to the throne. This leads to PrincelingRivalry.
* An episode of ''Series/HannahMontana'' has Miley jealous of her grandmother's constant doting of Jackson, and later it turns out that she was trying to make him feel important because he himself is jealous of Miley's success as Hannah.
* In ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'', main character Jane, who's stuck working a dead-end job in a souvenir shop, greatly envies her older sister, who is a successful lawyer.
* Downplayed in ''Series/HouseOfAnubis''. Piper Williamson is a polite, intelligent and talented musical prodigy. Patricia, her twin, is just a relatively untalented DeadpanSnarker, who admitted jealousy at her sister's talents and also seemed worried that Piper was intentionally trying to move in on her friends and make Anubis House ''her'' house, "Just like always". It's implied that Patricia herself gets no attention in the family thanks to a throwaway line in season one (where her mother accused her of making a "bid for attention" when she thought Joy was dead) and it's believed by fans that this is because of Piper being more talented. However, it then turned out that Piper herself saw ''Patricia'' as being the successful one, due to having friends and free time, and not being afraid to fail at anything. They made up, and it seems that neither feel inferior anymore.
* Robert Barone, the Unfavored in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''.
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. Otis's brother Ralph was always held in such a high standard by their mother that Otis always felt he would never amount to anything like Ralph would, especially considering Otis ended up becoming Mayberry's town drunk. Otis, however, had convinced his family that he was one of Andy's deputies, and when they come for a visit, Andy actually lets him pose as one to impress them. When Otis learns that Ralph is actually his town's drunk, he feels ashamed of his brother.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Complications}}'', where Ingrid envies her big sister Gretchen for being able to hold down a respectable job as a nurse while she herself is in and out of rehab. She is unaware that Gretchen is neck-deep in criminal activity.
[[AC:Religion]]
* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/TheBible'' includes the story of Cain and Abel, where Abel is preferred by God compared to his older brother, making Cain jealous. [[CainAndAbel We all know how it ends]].
[[AC:Videogames]]
* Luigi from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' fits this to a T.
** Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]].
** In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG''. Although Luigi doesn't appear in-person except during the credits, one of the star wishes the player can find on Star Hill belongs to him. In it he wishes "to be a great plumber like my brother Mario". Of course, since Luigi isn't on hand to explain his wish, we don't know if this is code talk for his desire to be a great hero in his own right or if he's ''literally talking about being a great plumber''. When was the last time the brothers took a real plumbing job anyway?
** The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series takes this UpToEleven.
*** Unlike most versions of Luigi, who are insecure but loyal, this series' Luigi is shown to be extremely envious of Mario's fame, to the point of being an obsessive attention-seeker and kind of a jerk too, although he is still very loyal. At one point he tries to assemble his own party of heroes to travel the world and save the "Waffle Kingdom". He hopes this will impress his brother and earn him fame and adoration. The player (as Mario) can meet him and he will tell tales of his glorious adventures and even has commissioned a book series about it. However, we find out that he kind of exaggerates those stories and the people he traveled with can't stand him and only came along because he owed them money.
*** The third game in the series though has him much more courageous.
** In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', his Final Smash move, "the Negative Zone", is implied to have generated ''because'' he has lived in his brother's shadow for so long.
* The player character feels this way towards their brother in ''VideoGame/DepressionQuest'', as he has a better job and is more successful than them.
[[AC:WebComic]]
* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'': Luigi's inferiority complex against his brother is explored in "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2011/11/11/378-fantasy/ Fantasy]]", where it turns he can't even fantasize about himself being the hero. [[spoiler:Luckily, he gets his chance at last come "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2012/12/21/457-luigis-holiday-vacation/ Luigi's Holiday Vacation]]".]]
[[AC:Web Original]]
* {{Lampshaded}} in Episode 2 of the Youtube series ''WebSeries/StupidMarioBros''. Mario and Luigi are playing a game of Wii Tennis, with Mario mocking Luigi after he loses. Luigi then storms off with Mario yelling that it's Super ''Mario'' Bros. Luigi however, says that without him there is no Super Mario ''Brothers''. Luigi then surrenders himself to Wario (who is under orders from Bowser to bring the two back to the Mushroom Kingdom) saying he is tired of Mario always taking the glory for himself. Fortunately, Mario realizes his mistake and feels horrible, and Wario ends up letting Luigi go because Luigi wouldn't stop annoying him with his constant talking.
[[AC:Visual Novel]]
* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' introduces us to Franziska von Karma. She is not upset at Phoenix for ending her father's winning streak (by proving him to be a murderer), but because he stole her chance to defeat Edgeworth. They may not be formal siblings, but they grew up together since Edgeworth was mentored by her father.
[[AC:WebAnimation]]
* Averted in ''WebAmimation/{{RWBY}}''; Ruby is a fifteen year old prodigy student who has been accepted personally by the Headmaster of Beacon Academy two years sooner then she normally would have been accepted. At the same time her seventeen year old sister Yang has also been accepted. The two ended up being on the same team to which Ruby is named the team leader. Not only does Yang not mind that she has to follow her younger sister, but she is very proud of Ruby.
[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}''. Heavily implied to be the case with Chalky in one episode. Chalky is a popular, athletic, and smart over-achiever. However, when Doug discovers he was the one who cheated on an English test (he copied Doug's answers, thus making the papers exactly the same and raising suspicion from the school faculty) Chalky confesses by saying that he was under a lot of pressure. Then Chalky's dad reveals why by showing Doug a ''huge'' trophy room full of Chalky's awards. Mr. Studebaker then says that Chalky still has a "long way" to go to catch up to his older brother.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryInc'', Daphne has at least four (possibly five) older sisters who ''all'' graduated college by the time they turned 13, and who have all gone on to have highly successful careers. They are shown to be a model, doctor, race car driver, and Marine respectively. Poor Daphne feels inferior and is under enormous pressure from her parents to live up to her sisters reputation as she is in her senior year of high school. However, in the series finale, [[spoiler: the timeline is altered and now it's the complete reverse situation. Daphne is now considered the most successful sibling by everyone and her sisters are under-achievers who are no longer successful and live in ''her'' shadow. They are the only residents of Crystal Cove whose lives were ''not'' improved by the timeline reset]].
* ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo''. One episode had the kids take a case at an amusement park which was owned by the Jipner family, which has a ''lot'' of brothers and sisters. Their prime suspect is the oldest sibling, Bart, who is estranged from the rest of his family and has opened up a much less.....good..."amusement park" next door that consists solely of a set of rotating tire swings. After catching the MonsterClown, [[spoiler: they find out it is actually Joey Jipner, the sibling who served as the park's manager. He wanted to scare his siblings into giving up their shares so he could own the whole thing by himself]]. After his arrest, [[spoiler: the other siblings reconcile with Bart and welcome him back into the family, even making him the park's new manager]]. He thanks the kids by giving them free passes to enjoy the rides as much as they want.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Toph joined making him the only non-bender, eventually took up swordfighting so he could feel like he had something to contribute to the team.
** Zuko, inverting the trope. He is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
* Rev Runner of the ''WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'' couldn't stand taller in his father's eyes after building a popular interactive toy, despite getting oodles of help from Tech Coyote. Rev's younger brother, Rip, has only his father's disdain, to the point of not bothering to try. When Rip tries on an alien psionic headpiece, it amplifies his grudge against his family, transforming him into a supervillain.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''
** Dipper and Mabel Pines play with the trope, because each of them feels like the other is the successful one in one way or another. Mabel feels like Dipper is better at her than everything and Dipper feels like Mabel is better with people stuff than he is.
** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery. There's a third sibling but the third sibling's place with regard to the success or failure of the other two is as yet unrevealed.
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Eustace has always hated his older brother Horst because, as Horst was quite the successful huntsman and explorer who always brought home big game, and was apparently more loved by their parents than he was. In flashback, we learn that Horst's cruel nickname for Eustace was "Useless."
[[AC:Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/BretHart and Wrestling/OwenHart had an on-and-off feud over Owen resenting that Bret gets all the attention and championships while Owen, who believed himself the better wrestler, was stuck in the mid-card.
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Serious questions for analysis: how does this differentiate from StuckInTheirShadow, OvershadowedByAwesome, and especially WellDoneSonGuy (which can apply to an AloofOlderBrother as well as a father).
If this is distinct, then you may say it could be prevalent when the younger sibling is a ReplacementGoldfish for one that died, because of course they can never live up to the perfection of his/her memory.
reply:
TropeNamerSyndrome.
Also, YesWeDoHaveThisOne: AlwaysSomeoneBetter pretty much counts as what you're proposing.
reply:
I actually researched these tropes ahead of time, and I believe it's different because A.) The person overshadowing you is part of your own family where as these others are for the most part generalized. B.) StuckInTheirShadow is a YMMV trope, this is not. C.) Unlike WellDoneSonGuy or the others, the character is mostly trying to gain attention from the general public, or at least their peers, not necessarily their parents, siblings, or relatives, That can often be a companion goal, but it mostly relates to how this character interacts with the outside world.
reply:
Fixed the TropeNamerSyndrome issue, sorry about that one. It is now known as SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome.
I also added the the tropes mentioned above as comparisons to better illustrate the difference.
reply:
* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'': Luigi's inferiority complex against his brother is explored in "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2011/11/11/378-fantasy/ Fantasy]]", where it turns he can't even fantasize about himself being the hero. [[spoiler:Luckily, he gets his chance at last come "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2012/12/21/457-luigis-holiday-vacation/ Luigi's Holiday Vacation]]".]]
reply:
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Leonard, who is an experimental physicist with a Ph. D., is the ''least'' successful person in his immediate family. His mother doesn't let him live it down, making it quite clear how disappointed she is in him.
* In ''Series/MadAboutYou'' Jamie's sister Lisa is much less successful than Jamie is and is insecure over it - all the more so because Jamie is the ''younger'' sister.
reply:
This situation often causes SiblingRivalry, and in worst case to a CainAndAbel situation (i.e. the less successful sibling murdering the successful one).
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', Prince Edmund is jealous of his more successful sibling, Prince Harry, who is also the heir to the throne. This leads to PrincelingRivalry.
reply:
* Inverted in ''Film/TheGame''; the main character is a wealthy and arrogant businessman, but he is miserable and unstable thanks to recurring nightmares about his father committing suicide when he was a child. In contrast, his brother (who he thinks of as a deadbeat) doesn't have much, and yet is happy as a clam, and just wants to help his brother learn to be happy.
reply:
[[AC:WebAnimation]]
*Averted in ''{{WebAmimation/RWBY}}''; Ruby is a fifteen year old prodigy student who has been accepted personally by the Headmaster of Beacon Academy two years sooner then she normally would have been accepted. At the same time her seventeen year old sister Yang has also been accepted. The two ended up being on the same team to which Ruby is named the team leader. Not only does Yang not mind that she has to follow her younger sister, but she is very proud of Ruby.
reply:
^ I think inverted would be when the successful sibling is jealous of the less-successful one. That sounds like an aversion, since it just doesn't happen.
reply:
^Agreed, I'll make the change.
reply:
[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Rev Runner of the ''WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'' couldn't stand taller in his father's eyes after building a popular interactive toy, despite getting oodles of help from Tech Coyote. Rev's younger brother, Rip, has only his father's disdain, to the point of not bothering to try. When Rip tries on an alien psionic headpiece, it amplifies his grudge against his family, transforming him into a supervillain.
reply:
* An episode of ''Series/HannahMontana'' has Miley jealous of her grandmother's constant doting of Jackson, and later it turns out that she was trying to make him feel important because he himself is jealous of Miley's success as Hannah.
reply:
Do you want to include WellDoneDadGuy alongside WellDoneSonGuy or a link to ParentalFavoritism anywhere?
reply:
* Ron Weasley from ''HarryPotter'' suffers from this. His resulting inferiority complex sometimes complicates his relationship with Harry, due to the latter's status as TheChosenOne.
-->'''Ron''': I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first.
reply:
^ Added to that example, wasn't Ron's vision in the Mirror of Erised him standing out among his family and friends, more successful than all of them, getting all of the attention? (Or maybe I'm imagining that.)
reply:
^ You're right.
reply:
^^^^That would be good Lythande. Of course it's important to remember that this trope doesn't always include parental favoritism, but in the times that it does overlap it certainly would add more negativity to the lesser-known sibling's feelings.
reply:
''TheLittleMermaid2'' introduces Ursula's sister Morgana as the BigBad. As TheUnfavorite, she despises her elder sister, and her plan to take the trident isn't motivated by mere revenge. Instead, she wants to rule the ocean as a proof she was better than Ursula in the first place.
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''Film/EagleEye'': Many characters on the film (including his parents and the SinisterSurveillance MasterComputer) compare main character Jerry Shaw to his twin brother Ethan, and keep banging on Jerry's (minor) BerserkButton of thinking of him as a dead-beat next to his over-achieving Air Force member of a brother (this comparison goes, if the info provided by the computer is right, probably as far back as them being babies). Because they keep expecting him to be a failure next to Ethan, Jerry simply decided to stop trying.
reply:
* Downplayed in ''Series/HouseOfAnubis''. Piper Williamson is a polite, intelligent and talented musical prodigy. Patricia, her twin, is just a relatively untalented DeadpanSnarker, who admitted jealousy at her sister's talents and also seemed worried that Piper was intentionally trying to move in on her friends and make Anubis House ''her'' house, "Just like always". It's implied that Patricia herself gets no attention in the family thanks to a throwaway line in season one (where her mother accused her of making a "bid for attention" when she thought Joy was dead) and it's believed by fans that this is because of Piper being more talented. However, it then turned out that Piper herself saw ''Patricia'' as being the successful one, due to having friends and free time, and not being afraid to fail at anything. They made up, and it seems that neither feel inferior anymore.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'' has Ivypool, who felt invisible and useless compared to Dovewing, her sister, who was getting all the attention and doing all the heroic stuff. Her insecurities over this drove her to [[spoiler:join the Dark Forest and train with Hawkfrost]], and she took chances to criticize and insult her sister in order to make herself look superior. The two sisters did make up eventually, but not after a lot of SiblingRivalry and moral issues to overcome.
** Breezepelt seemed to be jealous of [[spoiler:Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf]], after learning they were his siblings.
** Also inverted in the case of Blossomfall being jealous of Briarlight...who was paralyzed and suffering, [[ParentalFavoritism because Briarlight was the one who got all of their mother's attention,]] and not because of her skills or talents.
reply:
* Examples section
** Added a line separating the Description and Examples sections.
** Administrivia/{{Namespace}}d work names.
** Corrected improper Administrivia/ExampleIndentation in the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' examples.
** Corrected spelling (exagerrates).
reply:
* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/TheBible'' includes the story of Cain and Abel, where Abel is preferred by God compared to his older brother, making Cain jealous. [[CainAndAbel We all know how it ends]].
reply:
* The player character feels this way towards their brother in ''VideoGame/DepressionQuest'', as he has a better job and is more successful than them.
reply:
Stu Redman feels this way to a point in ''Literature/TheStand''. His brother left home and by the time of the book's opening was a successful big city computer guy while Stu was still a small town blue collar guy. Inverted a bit too, as Stu thinks that Bryce might feel a bit of shame about him as well..
reply:
Robert Barone, the Unfavored in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''
reply:
Wrestling/BretHart and Wrestling/OwenHart had an on-and-off feud over Owen resenting that Bret gets all the attention and championships whiel Owen, who believed himself the better wrestler, was stuck in the mid-card.
reply:
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'', main character Jane, who's stuck working a dead-end job in a souvenir shop, greatly envies her older sister, who is a successful lawyer.
reply:
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Toph joined making him the only non-bender, eventually took up swordfighting so he could feel like he had something to contribute to the team.
** Zuko, inverting the trope. He is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''
** Dipper and Mabel Pines play with the trope, because each of them feels like the other is the successful one in one way or another. Mabel feels like Dipper is better at her than everything and Dipper feels like Mabel is better with people stuff than he is.
** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery. There's a third sibling but the third sibling's place with regard to the success or failure of the other two is as yet unrevealed.
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Ideas for a page image?
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^Me and my brother /jk
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Question: Does this trope include situations when the character is/feels overshadowed by their ''parent''? Or would that be a sister trope to this one?
reply:
^That would be a sister trope. Overshadowing by parents is included here only if their siblings are successful too as a way of emphasizing the pressure on a character (as stated in the description, BonusPoints) but if it is just a parent without a sibling, then that would be something for a sister trope.
reply:
^^ I agree with sister trope. It's a slightly different dynamic, but it should be a trope if we don't have it yet.
reply:
^ & ^^ Thanks, guys! I'll look for examples and start a new YKTTW for it then -- if no one else wants to do it, that is
reply:
^Great idea, dude. Go right ahead.
And thanks for the hats everyone. I will try and launch this on Monday. That will give a little extra time for anyone who still wants to add an example (or possible page image) to do so.
Would also like Indexing suggestions.
reply:
Well, since apparently this is separate from AlwaysSomeoneBetter...
[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. Otis's brother Ralph was always held in such a high standard by their mother that Otis always felt he would never amount to anything like Ralph would, especially considering Otis ended up becoming Mayberry's town drunk. Otis, however, had convinced his family that he was one of Andy's deputies, and when they come for a visit, Andy actually lets him pose as one to impress them. When Otis learns that Ralph is actually his town's drunk, he feels ashamed of his brother.
[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Eustace has always hated his older brother Horst because, as Horst was quite the successful huntsman and explorer who always brought home big game, and was apparently more loved by their parents than he was. In flashback, we learn that Horst's cruel nickname for Eustace was "Useless."
reply:
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* Played with in ''Series/{{Complications}}'', where Ingrid envies her big sister Gretchen for being able to hold down a respectable job as a nurse while she herself is in and out of rehab. She is unaware that Gretchen is neck-deep in criminal activity.
reply:
* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' introduces us to Franziska von Karma. She is not upset at Phoenix for ending her father's winning streak (by proving him to be a murderer), but because he stole her chance to defeat Edgeworth. They may not be formal siblings, but they grew up together since Edgeworth was mentored by her father.
reply:
End of markup
The feelings may or may not be justified. It is possible that all siblings involved are equally popular, but one of them simply ''feels'' as if they are getting shafted. Even if they get all sorts of media attention, they could constantly complain about their perceived "more famous" relative.
And on the flip side there may be times where this is justified, because the character doesn't have the same amount of success or the army of adoring fans. They will either remain loyal to their brother or sister despite being insecure (it will help if they have a close relationship) or they may be overcome with intense jealousy and will plot to get themselves the same amount of attention, with varying degrees of success.
It could also be a simple case of a character who is expected by everyone to follow the same path as their (often, but not always older) sibling, whether they want to or not, and are under intense pressure to honor the "family legacy" as a result.
BonusPoints if the parents have been in a similarly successful position, which will only add to the character's insecurity.
This situation often causes SiblingRivalry, and in worst case to a CainAndAbel situation (i.e. the less successful sibling murdering the successful one).
For more generalized examples of this see: LesserStar, StuckInTheirShadow, OvershadowedByAwesome. Compare WellDoneSonGuy, which occurs when a famous character seeks the approval of a relative, rather than a less successful person seeking attention from the general public.
NeedsExamples.
----
!!Examples
[[AC:Film-Animated]]
* ''[[Disney/TheLittleMermaid The Little Mermaid 2]]'' introduces Ursula's sister Morgana as the BigBad. As TheUnfavorite, she despises her elder sister, and her plan to take the trident isn't motivated by mere revenge. Instead, she wants to rule the ocean as a proof she was better than Ursula in the first place.
[[AC:Film-Live Action]]
* Averted in ''Film/TheGame''; the main character is a wealthy and arrogant businessman, but he is miserable and unstable thanks to recurring nightmares about his father committing suicide when he was a child. In contrast, his brother (who he thinks of as a deadbeat) doesn't have much, and yet is happy as a clam, and just wants to help his brother learn to be happy.
* ''Film/EagleEye'': Many characters on the film (including his parents and the SinisterSurveillance MasterComputer) compare main character Jerry Shaw to his twin brother Ethan, and keep banging on Jerry's (minor) BerserkButton of thinking of him as a dead-beat next to his over-achieving Air Force member of a brother (this comparison goes, if the info provided by the computer is right, probably as far back as them being babies). Because they keep expecting him to be a failure next to Ethan, Jerry simply decided to stop trying.
[[AC:Literature]]
* Stu Redman feels this way to a point in ''Literature/TheStand''. His brother left home and by the time of the book's opening was a successful big city computer guy while Stu was still a small town blue collar guy. Inverted a bit too, as Stu thinks that Bryce might feel a bit of shame about him as well.
* Ron Weasley from ''HarryPotter'' suffers from this. His resulting inferiority complex sometimes complicates his relationship with Harry, due to the latter's status as TheChosenOne.
-->'''Ron''': I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'' has Ivypool, who felt invisible and useless compared to Dovewing, her sister, who was getting all the attention and doing all the heroic stuff. Her insecurities over this drove her to [[spoiler:join the Dark Forest and train with Hawkfrost]], and she took chances to criticize and insult her sister in order to make herself look superior. The two sisters did make up eventually, but not after a lot of SiblingRivalry and moral issues to overcome.
** Breezepelt seemed to be jealous of [[spoiler:Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf]], after learning they were his siblings.
** Also inverted in the case of Blossomfall being jealous of Briarlight...who was paralyzed and suffering, [[ParentalFavoritism because Briarlight was the one who got all of their mother's attention,]] and not because of her skills or talents.
[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/EvenStevens''. Revealed to be the case with Louis, the youngest child in the Stevens family. His father is a prominent attorney, his mother is a high-profile State Senator, his older brother Donny is a star high school athlete, and his older sister Ren is a highly intelligent over-achiever. His crazy antics in the show are his way of establishing his own identity.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Leonard, who is an experimental physicist with a Ph. D., is the ''least'' successful person in his immediate family. His mother doesn't let him live it down, making it quite clear how disappointed she is in him.
* In ''Series/MadAboutYou'' Jamie's sister Lisa is much less successful than Jamie is and is insecure over it - all the more so because Jamie is the ''younger'' sister.
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', Prince Edmund is jealous of his more successful sibling, Prince Harry, who is also the heir to the throne. This leads to PrincelingRivalry.
* An episode of ''Series/HannahMontana'' has Miley jealous of her grandmother's constant doting of Jackson, and later it turns out that she was trying to make him feel important because he himself is jealous of Miley's success as Hannah.
* In ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'', main character Jane, who's stuck working a dead-end job in a souvenir shop, greatly envies her older sister, who is a successful lawyer.
* Downplayed in ''Series/HouseOfAnubis''. Piper Williamson is a polite, intelligent and talented musical prodigy. Patricia, her twin, is just a relatively untalented DeadpanSnarker, who admitted jealousy at her sister's talents and also seemed worried that Piper was intentionally trying to move in on her friends and make Anubis House ''her'' house, "Just like always". It's implied that Patricia herself gets no attention in the family thanks to a throwaway line in season one (where her mother accused her of making a "bid for attention" when she thought Joy was dead) and it's believed by fans that this is because of Piper being more talented. However, it then turned out that Piper herself saw ''Patricia'' as being the successful one, due to having friends and free time, and not being afraid to fail at anything. They made up, and it seems that neither feel inferior anymore.
* Robert Barone, the Unfavored in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''.
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. Otis's brother Ralph was always held in such a high standard by their mother that Otis always felt he would never amount to anything like Ralph would, especially considering Otis ended up becoming Mayberry's town drunk. Otis, however, had convinced his family that he was one of Andy's deputies, and when they come for a visit, Andy actually lets him pose as one to impress them. When Otis learns that Ralph is actually his town's drunk, he feels ashamed of his brother.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Complications}}'', where Ingrid envies her big sister Gretchen for being able to hold down a respectable job as a nurse while she herself is in and out of rehab. She is unaware that Gretchen is neck-deep in criminal activity.
[[AC:Religion]]
* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/TheBible'' includes the story of Cain and Abel, where Abel is preferred by God compared to his older brother, making Cain jealous. [[CainAndAbel We all know how it ends]].
[[AC:Videogames]]
* Luigi from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' fits this to a T.
** Some games will even make mention of his insecurity and LovableCoward personality. However, most versions of the character show the brothers being very close despite this. If anything, Mario's success only motivates Luigi to try harder. And causing harm to Mario is a good way to [[BerserkButton make Luigi mad]].
** In one case, he was shown to have an entire fan club devoted to him and was famous throughout the Mushroom Kingdom (but not the Beanbean Kingdom), yet Bowser and the Koopas still can't remember his name.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG''. Although Luigi doesn't appear in-person except during the credits, one of the star wishes the player can find on Star Hill belongs to him. In it he wishes "to be a great plumber like my brother Mario". Of course, since Luigi isn't on hand to explain his wish, we don't know if this is code talk for his desire to be a great hero in his own right or if he's ''literally talking about being a great plumber''. When was the last time the brothers took a real plumbing job anyway?
** The ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series takes this UpToEleven.
*** Unlike most versions of Luigi, who are insecure but loyal, this series' Luigi is shown to be extremely envious of Mario's fame, to the point of being an obsessive attention-seeker and kind of a jerk too, although he is still very loyal. At one point he tries to assemble his own party of heroes to travel the world and save the "Waffle Kingdom". He hopes this will impress his brother and earn him fame and adoration. The player (as Mario) can meet him and he will tell tales of his glorious adventures and even has commissioned a book series about it. However, we find out that he kind of exaggerates those stories and the people he traveled with can't stand him and only came along because he owed them money.
*** The third game in the series though has him much more courageous.
** In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', his Final Smash move, "the Negative Zone", is implied to have generated ''because'' he has lived in his brother's shadow for so long.
* The player character feels this way towards their brother in ''VideoGame/DepressionQuest'', as he has a better job and is more successful than them.
[[AC:WebComic]]
* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'': Luigi's inferiority complex against his brother is explored in "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2011/11/11/378-fantasy/ Fantasy]]", where it turns he can't even fantasize about himself being the hero. [[spoiler:Luckily, he gets his chance at last come "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2012/12/21/457-luigis-holiday-vacation/ Luigi's Holiday Vacation]]".]]
[[AC:Web Original]]
* {{Lampshaded}} in Episode 2 of the Youtube series ''WebSeries/StupidMarioBros''. Mario and Luigi are playing a game of Wii Tennis, with Mario mocking Luigi after he loses. Luigi then storms off with Mario yelling that it's Super ''Mario'' Bros. Luigi however, says that without him there is no Super Mario ''Brothers''. Luigi then surrenders himself to Wario (who is under orders from Bowser to bring the two back to the Mushroom Kingdom) saying he is tired of Mario always taking the glory for himself. Fortunately, Mario realizes his mistake and feels horrible, and Wario ends up letting Luigi go because Luigi wouldn't stop annoying him with his constant talking.
[[AC:Visual Novel]]
* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' introduces us to Franziska von Karma. She is not upset at Phoenix for ending her father's winning streak (by proving him to be a murderer), but because he stole her chance to defeat Edgeworth. They may not be formal siblings, but they grew up together since Edgeworth was mentored by her father.
[[AC:WebAnimation]]
* Averted in ''WebAmimation/{{RWBY}}''; Ruby is a fifteen year old prodigy student who has been accepted personally by the Headmaster of Beacon Academy two years sooner then she normally would have been accepted. At the same time her seventeen year old sister Yang has also been accepted. The two ended up being on the same team to which Ruby is named the team leader. Not only does Yang not mind that she has to follow her younger sister, but she is very proud of Ruby.
[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}''. Heavily implied to be the case with Chalky in one episode. Chalky is a popular, athletic, and smart over-achiever. However, when Doug discovers he was the one who cheated on an English test (he copied Doug's answers, thus making the papers exactly the same and raising suspicion from the school faculty) Chalky confesses by saying that he was under a lot of pressure. Then Chalky's dad reveals why by showing Doug a ''huge'' trophy room full of Chalky's awards. Mr. Studebaker then says that Chalky still has a "long way" to go to catch up to his older brother.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryInc'', Daphne has at least four (possibly five) older sisters who ''all'' graduated college by the time they turned 13, and who have all gone on to have highly successful careers. They are shown to be a model, doctor, race car driver, and Marine respectively. Poor Daphne feels inferior and is under enormous pressure from her parents to live up to her sisters reputation as she is in her senior year of high school. However, in the series finale, [[spoiler: the timeline is altered and now it's the complete reverse situation. Daphne is now considered the most successful sibling by everyone and her sisters are under-achievers who are no longer successful and live in ''her'' shadow. They are the only residents of Crystal Cove whose lives were ''not'' improved by the timeline reset]].
* ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo''. One episode had the kids take a case at an amusement park which was owned by the Jipner family, which has a ''lot'' of brothers and sisters. Their prime suspect is the oldest sibling, Bart, who is estranged from the rest of his family and has opened up a much less.....good..."amusement park" next door that consists solely of a set of rotating tire swings. After catching the MonsterClown, [[spoiler: they find out it is actually Joey Jipner, the sibling who served as the park's manager. He wanted to scare his siblings into giving up their shares so he could own the whole thing by himself]]. After his arrest, [[spoiler: the other siblings reconcile with Bart and welcome him back into the family, even making him the park's new manager]]. He thanks the kids by giving them free passes to enjoy the rides as much as they want.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Toph joined making him the only non-bender, eventually took up swordfighting so he could feel like he had something to contribute to the team.
** Zuko, inverting the trope. He is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
* Rev Runner of the ''WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'' couldn't stand taller in his father's eyes after building a popular interactive toy, despite getting oodles of help from Tech Coyote. Rev's younger brother, Rip, has only his father's disdain, to the point of not bothering to try. When Rip tries on an alien psionic headpiece, it amplifies his grudge against his family, transforming him into a supervillain.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''
** Dipper and Mabel Pines play with the trope, because each of them feels like the other is the successful one in one way or another. Mabel feels like Dipper is better at her than everything and Dipper feels like Mabel is better with people stuff than he is.
** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery. There's a third sibling but the third sibling's place with regard to the success or failure of the other two is as yet unrevealed.
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Eustace has always hated his older brother Horst because, as Horst was quite the successful huntsman and explorer who always brought home big game, and was apparently more loved by their parents than he was. In flashback, we learn that Horst's cruel nickname for Eustace was "Useless."
[[AC:Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/BretHart and Wrestling/OwenHart had an on-and-off feud over Owen resenting that Bret gets all the attention and championships while Owen, who believed himself the better wrestler, was stuck in the mid-card.
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Serious questions for analysis: how does this differentiate from StuckInTheirShadow, OvershadowedByAwesome, and especially WellDoneSonGuy (which can apply to an AloofOlderBrother as well as a father).
If this is distinct, then you may say it could be prevalent when the younger sibling is a ReplacementGoldfish for one that died, because of course they can never live up to the perfection of his/her memory.
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TropeNamerSyndrome.
Also, YesWeDoHaveThisOne: AlwaysSomeoneBetter pretty much counts as what you're proposing.
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I actually researched these tropes ahead of time, and I believe it's different because A.) The person overshadowing you is part of your own family where as these others are for the most part generalized. B.) StuckInTheirShadow is a YMMV trope, this is not. C.) Unlike WellDoneSonGuy or the others, the character is mostly trying to gain attention from the general public, or at least their peers, not necessarily their parents, siblings, or relatives, That can often be a companion goal, but it mostly relates to how this character interacts with the outside world.
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Fixed the TropeNamerSyndrome issue, sorry about that one. It is now known as SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome.
I also added the the tropes mentioned above as comparisons to better illustrate the difference.
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* ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'': Luigi's inferiority complex against his brother is explored in "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2011/11/11/378-fantasy/ Fantasy]]", where it turns he can't even fantasize about himself being the hero. [[spoiler:Luckily, he gets his chance at last come "[[http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2012/12/21/457-luigis-holiday-vacation/ Luigi's Holiday Vacation]]".]]
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* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': Leonard, who is an experimental physicist with a Ph. D., is the ''least'' successful person in his immediate family. His mother doesn't let him live it down, making it quite clear how disappointed she is in him.
* In ''Series/MadAboutYou'' Jamie's sister Lisa is much less successful than Jamie is and is insecure over it - all the more so because Jamie is the ''younger'' sister.
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This situation often causes SiblingRivalry, and in worst case to a CainAndAbel situation (i.e. the less successful sibling murdering the successful one).
* In the first season of ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', Prince Edmund is jealous of his more successful sibling, Prince Harry, who is also the heir to the throne. This leads to PrincelingRivalry.
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* Inverted in ''Film/TheGame''; the main character is a wealthy and arrogant businessman, but he is miserable and unstable thanks to recurring nightmares about his father committing suicide when he was a child. In contrast, his brother (who he thinks of as a deadbeat) doesn't have much, and yet is happy as a clam, and just wants to help his brother learn to be happy.
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[[AC:WebAnimation]]
*Averted in ''{{WebAmimation/RWBY}}''; Ruby is a fifteen year old prodigy student who has been accepted personally by the Headmaster of Beacon Academy two years sooner then she normally would have been accepted. At the same time her seventeen year old sister Yang has also been accepted. The two ended up being on the same team to which Ruby is named the team leader. Not only does Yang not mind that she has to follow her younger sister, but she is very proud of Ruby.
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^ I think inverted would be when the successful sibling is jealous of the less-successful one. That sounds like an aversion, since it just doesn't happen.
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^Agreed, I'll make the change.
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[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Rev Runner of the ''WesternAnimation/LoonaticsUnleashed'' couldn't stand taller in his father's eyes after building a popular interactive toy, despite getting oodles of help from Tech Coyote. Rev's younger brother, Rip, has only his father's disdain, to the point of not bothering to try. When Rip tries on an alien psionic headpiece, it amplifies his grudge against his family, transforming him into a supervillain.
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* An episode of ''Series/HannahMontana'' has Miley jealous of her grandmother's constant doting of Jackson, and later it turns out that she was trying to make him feel important because he himself is jealous of Miley's success as Hannah.
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Do you want to include WellDoneDadGuy alongside WellDoneSonGuy or a link to ParentalFavoritism anywhere?
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* Ron Weasley from ''HarryPotter'' suffers from this. His resulting inferiority complex sometimes complicates his relationship with Harry, due to the latter's status as TheChosenOne.
-->'''Ron''': I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first.
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^ Added to that example, wasn't Ron's vision in the Mirror of Erised him standing out among his family and friends, more successful than all of them, getting all of the attention? (Or maybe I'm imagining that.)
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^ You're right.
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^^^^That would be good Lythande. Of course it's important to remember that this trope doesn't always include parental favoritism, but in the times that it does overlap it certainly would add more negativity to the lesser-known sibling's feelings.
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''TheLittleMermaid2'' introduces Ursula's sister Morgana as the BigBad. As TheUnfavorite, she despises her elder sister, and her plan to take the trident isn't motivated by mere revenge. Instead, she wants to rule the ocean as a proof she was better than Ursula in the first place.
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''Film/EagleEye'': Many characters on the film (including his parents and the SinisterSurveillance MasterComputer) compare main character Jerry Shaw to his twin brother Ethan, and keep banging on Jerry's (minor) BerserkButton of thinking of him as a dead-beat next to his over-achieving Air Force member of a brother (this comparison goes, if the info provided by the computer is right, probably as far back as them being babies). Because they keep expecting him to be a failure next to Ethan, Jerry simply decided to stop trying.
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* Downplayed in ''Series/HouseOfAnubis''. Piper Williamson is a polite, intelligent and talented musical prodigy. Patricia, her twin, is just a relatively untalented DeadpanSnarker, who admitted jealousy at her sister's talents and also seemed worried that Piper was intentionally trying to move in on her friends and make Anubis House ''her'' house, "Just like always". It's implied that Patricia herself gets no attention in the family thanks to a throwaway line in season one (where her mother accused her of making a "bid for attention" when she thought Joy was dead) and it's believed by fans that this is because of Piper being more talented. However, it then turned out that Piper herself saw ''Patricia'' as being the successful one, due to having friends and free time, and not being afraid to fail at anything. They made up, and it seems that neither feel inferior anymore.
* ''Literature/WarriorCats'' has Ivypool, who felt invisible and useless compared to Dovewing, her sister, who was getting all the attention and doing all the heroic stuff. Her insecurities over this drove her to [[spoiler:join the Dark Forest and train with Hawkfrost]], and she took chances to criticize and insult her sister in order to make herself look superior. The two sisters did make up eventually, but not after a lot of SiblingRivalry and moral issues to overcome.
** Breezepelt seemed to be jealous of [[spoiler:Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf]], after learning they were his siblings.
** Also inverted in the case of Blossomfall being jealous of Briarlight...who was paralyzed and suffering, [[ParentalFavoritism because Briarlight was the one who got all of their mother's attention,]] and not because of her skills or talents.
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* Examples section
** Added a line separating the Description and Examples sections.
** Administrivia/{{Namespace}}d work names.
** Corrected improper Administrivia/ExampleIndentation in the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' examples.
** Corrected spelling (exagerrates).
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* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/TheBible'' includes the story of Cain and Abel, where Abel is preferred by God compared to his older brother, making Cain jealous. [[CainAndAbel We all know how it ends]].
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* The player character feels this way towards their brother in ''VideoGame/DepressionQuest'', as he has a better job and is more successful than them.
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Stu Redman feels this way to a point in ''Literature/TheStand''. His brother left home and by the time of the book's opening was a successful big city computer guy while Stu was still a small town blue collar guy. Inverted a bit too, as Stu thinks that Bryce might feel a bit of shame about him as well..
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Robert Barone, the Unfavored in ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''
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Wrestling/BretHart and Wrestling/OwenHart had an on-and-off feud over Owen resenting that Bret gets all the attention and championships whiel Owen, who believed himself the better wrestler, was stuck in the mid-card.
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[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''Series/{{Wonderfalls}}'', main character Jane, who's stuck working a dead-end job in a souvenir shop, greatly envies her older sister, who is a successful lawyer.
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* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' has Helga Pataki, who is just as smart as her older sister, but not as pretty. So she is jealous of her elder sister on two axes.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has
** Sokka, who started out having no respect for Katara's waterbending, but once Toph joined making him the only non-bender, eventually took up swordfighting so he could feel like he had something to contribute to the team.
** Zuko, inverting the trope. He is the firstborn, but only had his mother's favor. Their father, the Fire Lord, gave favor to younger prodigy Azula. Zuko's empathy was disdained while Azula's cruelty and ruthlessness rewarded. In the end, though, Zuko ends up the successful one, and Azula ends up mentally damaged when her world falls down around her ears.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''
** Dipper and Mabel Pines play with the trope, because each of them feels like the other is the successful one in one way or another. Mabel feels like Dipper is better at her than everything and Dipper feels like Mabel is better with people stuff than he is.
** [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford Pines]] Essentially they were BrainsAndBrawn, and the family doted on the brainy one, leaving the brawny one to his own devices. The brawny one only got by with the help of the brainy one, so when the brainy one turned his back, the brawny one was alone and had to make his way in the world through cunning, deceit and chicanery. There's a third sibling but the third sibling's place with regard to the success or failure of the other two is as yet unrevealed.
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Ideas for a page image?
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^Me and my brother /jk
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Question: Does this trope include situations when the character is/feels overshadowed by their ''parent''? Or would that be a sister trope to this one?
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^That would be a sister trope. Overshadowing by parents is included here only if their siblings are successful too as a way of emphasizing the pressure on a character (as stated in the description, BonusPoints) but if it is just a parent without a sibling, then that would be something for a sister trope.
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^^ I agree with sister trope. It's a slightly different dynamic, but it should be a trope if we don't have it yet.
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^ & ^^ Thanks, guys! I'll look for examples and start a new YKTTW for it then -- if no one else wants to do it, that is
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^Great idea, dude. Go right ahead.
And thanks for the hats everyone. I will try and launch this on Monday. That will give a little extra time for anyone who still wants to add an example (or possible page image) to do so.
Would also like Indexing suggestions.
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Well, since apparently this is separate from AlwaysSomeoneBetter...
[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/TheAndyGriffithShow''. Otis's brother Ralph was always held in such a high standard by their mother that Otis always felt he would never amount to anything like Ralph would, especially considering Otis ended up becoming Mayberry's town drunk. Otis, however, had convinced his family that he was one of Andy's deputies, and when they come for a visit, Andy actually lets him pose as one to impress them. When Otis learns that Ralph is actually his town's drunk, he feels ashamed of his brother.
[[AC: WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''. Eustace has always hated his older brother Horst because, as Horst was quite the successful huntsman and explorer who always brought home big game, and was apparently more loved by their parents than he was. In flashback, we learn that Horst's cruel nickname for Eustace was "Useless."
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[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* Played with in ''Series/{{Complications}}'', where Ingrid envies her big sister Gretchen for being able to hold down a respectable job as a nurse while she herself is in and out of rehab. She is unaware that Gretchen is neck-deep in criminal activity.
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* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' introduces us to Franziska von Karma. She is not upset at Phoenix for ending her father's winning streak (by proving him to be a murderer), but because he stole her chance to defeat Edgeworth. They may not be formal siblings, but they grew up together since Edgeworth was mentored by her father.
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