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The brothers, "ironing" out their differences.note 

"The LORD said to Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?' And he said, 'I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?'
Then He said, 'What have you done? Hark, your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground!'"

Sometimes Sibling Rivalry can get a little… intense. Maybe one who Missed the Call gets overly envious that the other has become The Chosen One, maybe grand powers or knighthood run in the family and one just happens to have been tempted to The Dark Side, maybe one of them betrayed their master or father and the other has to stop him, or maybe it's just Because Destiny Says So, dammit. Whatever the case may be, now one's the hero and one's the villain, and they must do battle. Commence the angst.

For whatever reason, the older sibling is almost always the villainous one. Probably because being younger and less experienced makes the younger sibling the underdog, whom we are supposed to root for. And because the Aloof Big Brother always looks eviler. The major exception is the case of The Evil Prince, who is usually the younger of two princes, and who will do anything to make sure he succeeds their monarch parent instead of his brother (or in the case of the older brother having already taken the throne, to take the throne for himself directly).

It's not always siblings — Childhood Friends get to experience all the same woes from beating up someone they grew up with — but there's a certain poetry when they're actually related. For similar reasons, the traditional setup is for the duo to be of the same sex: either brothers or sisters.

In cases where the Cain turns out to be The Un-Favourite, he's likely to be viewed from a more sympathetic angle. Of course, this would partially also depend on the sibling's attitude in all this. Sometimes the siblings will become The Only One Allowed to Defeat You. If the hero isn't aware of the relation until late in the series, it's also a Luke, I Am Your Father. We Used to Be Friends and Evil Former Friend also count if the siblings in question were former friends with each other. Contrast Sibling Team. Also contrast Bash Brothers, where the two people (who may or may not be brothers) beat up other people instead of each other. When Cain is gunning for mom and dad instead of Abel see Antagonistic Offspring.

The trope title, of course, comes from the biblical story of the first siblings to exist. Cain as character has his own trope. See also Name of Cain. When There Is Another, compare Cain and Abel and Seth. May overlap with Big Brother Bully if said bully is truly malignant. If such a situation turns lethal, it's Sibling Murder. If not a Good vs. Evil situation, see Sibling Rivalry.

Not to be confused with the two recurring Character Archetypes found in the Fire Emblem series.


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    Art 
  • Beast Fables: Wereamphibian mythology tells of two brothers, an older Mastodonsaurus and a younger Prionosuchus. The younger one fell in love with a mer-woman, which angered the older brother, so he killed the younger brother.
  • The Ghent Altarpiece: The trope namers appear on the back of one of the panels, with Cain attempting to murder his little brother.

    Asian Animation 
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The egg brothers. Jollie is the Cain in a loose sense, as while his "all-knowing prophet" qualities are more than questionable, he's ultimately helping the goats (or at least trying to). Darton, having taken over the Sixth Space and mind-controlling the bees to go against the goats when Great War in the Bizarre World starts, is the Abel.

    Fairy Tales 
  • In "Fair, Brown, and Trembling," the two older sisters refuse to let their sister out of the house for fear she would marry before them. When she succeeds in marrying anyway, her oldest sister pushes her into the sea and takes her place.
  • In "Finette Cendron," Finette's sisters force her to stay home from the ball.
  • In "The Golden Bird," the hero's envious brothers have him Thrown Down a Well and succeed in trapping him there.
  • In "The Golden Mermaid," the envious older brothers beat their younger brother to death. The talking fox and golden mermaid revive him, and when he reaches court, the king banishes his older brothers.
  • In The Grateful Beasts, Ferko's brothers put out his eyes and break his legs. Then they slander him to the king to persuade him to set Ferko to Impossible Tasks until, finally, Ferko has wolves eat the king, his own brothers, and all the court.
  • In "The Singing Bone," the younger brother is murdered by the envious older. His corpse rots, someone retrieves a bone from it and makes a flute, and the flute begins to sing of the murder. (Gustav Mahler adapted this tale for his early work Das klagende Lied.)
  • In "The Three Little Men in the Wood", the stepsister helps their mother kill her sister out of jealousy and greed.
  • In Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf, the envious older brothers kill the youngest, Prince Ivan. The talking wolf puts him back together and restores him to life, and they get word to his father, who turns his oldest sons into menial servants and make Ivan his heir.
  • The same sort of thing happens in a large percentage of Russian fairy tales. Either there will be three brothers or three sisters. If there are three brothers, then the two oldest will be greedy and ambitious, and the youngest will be lazy, considered a fool, and usually named Ivan. The youngest brother will compete with his older brothers for something, and will always win through kindness and wisdom. If there are three sisters, the oldest two will be lazy, greedy, and vain, and the youngest will be the only one who ever does any work. The youngest will always get to marry the prince.
  • In "The Unseen Bridegroom," Anima's sisters incite her to look at him at night, against his command, because they are envious.
  • In "The Wise Little Girl", the greedy rich brother blatantly tries to steal his poorer sibling.
  • Alexander Afanasyev's "Little Master Misery": Ivan Ilyitch's rich brother exploits his poor brother, making him work for him one whole week and then giving him a single bread loaf in payment, invites him to a party only to shame him, and tries to ruin him when Ivan finds a buried treasury and becomes rich.

    Fan Works 
  • In the Godzilla MonsterVerse fanfiction Abraxas (Hrodvitnon), San — who undergoes Character Development including a Heel–Face Turn after being severed from Ghidorah and merging with Vivienne Graham — becomes the Abel. His brothers, Ichi and Ni, are the Cain. San forms a Sibling Team bond with Vivienne that he never had with his brothers, who never gave him a shred of affection. It's also worth noting, whilst Ichi, Ni and San were originally born at roughly the same time, San is considered the youngest "brother" among the trio.
  • Mischief (MHA) has several examples of this:
    • Loki and Thor will inevitably become this when the God of Mischief's plans are revealed.
    • Tenko is the Abel to Hirona/Hana's Cain.
    • Izuku and Sleipinir are Abels to Fenrir's Cain.
    • Daken is the Cain to Laura's Abel.
  • All the Roofs of Uncertainty: Poor Tim's position as the Abel to both Damian and Jason is highlighted in the waiting room. He's protective of Damian despite his younger brother's viciousness and tries to be courteous to Jason while being on guard for Jason's potential to attack them both.
  • Angel of the Bat features its main antagonist The Seraphim, who is the Cain to his older brother Joshua's Abel.
  • Becoming a True Invader has Heboadian characters Pel and Tel, the former being a psychopathic cult leader who turns on her brother for not supporting her authoritarian plans for their planet.
  • The Better Bones AU has several examples besides the ones from canon Warrior Cats
    • Tangleburr and Runningnose are loyal supporters of Brokenstar and later Tigerstar, but Deerfoot heroically rebels against them.
    • Gorseclaw with his siblings Ripplestar and Spottedpelt, though it's a case where neither sibling is really evil; Ripplestar, with Spottedpelt's help, is attacking all the other Clans, even going as far so as doing so at a gathering, but only because he wants the territory they refused to give willingly to shelter SkyClan, and Gorseclaw betrays him because he thinks the bloodshed and attacking a gathering is going too far rather than not caring about SkyClan.
    • Hollyleaf and Jayfeather's relationship devolves into this as well, as Hollyleaf increasingly breaks down emotionally and becomes concerned with enacting justice and proving herself as a hero by punishing wrongdoers, leading to her coming into conflict with and eventually trying to kill Jayfeather for his defiance of StarClan.
    • Ferncloud confronts her brother Ashfur, the Big Bad of the arc, in the rewritten version of Warrior Cats: The Broken Code, fighting him as a Light in the Mist and taking Graystripe's role of being killed by him in the confrontation.
  • Kristoph and Klavier Gavin in Dirty Sympathy. While they have not hurt each other directly, there's a reason that Klavier is willing to frame his brother and he tells Apollo outright that he would have been in Apollo's position if he hadn't left. Notably, it's the Abel who struck first, by getting the Cain sent to jail before he could do anything.
  • Custody Battle, a My Hero Academia fanfiction, focuses on the feud between All for One and the First One for All user, carried to present day after the First time-travels.
  • In Getting Back on Your Hooves, it's revealed that the Big Bad Checker Monarch who's trying to ruin Trixie's life is actually her big sister.
  • Forgiveness is the Attribute of the Strong, a My Hero Academia fanfiction, explores the origins of the feud between All for One and his younger, including how their abusive childhood shaped them both.
  • In the beginning of Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfic Golden Threads Tie Us, Severa has a run-in with a Risen mage, and she has a glimpse at her face before the mage runs away. Severa doesn't want to believe it, but she knows her own little sister has joined the enemy and attempted to kill her.
    I think Morgan has joined the Grimleal.
    I think my little sister tried to kill me.
  • In The Good, the Bad, and the Demon April O'Neil gets into this with her older sister, Nemissa due to the tragedy caused by the latter out of jealousy of the former hanging out with Hitomi Tono.
  • Graduate Meeting of Mutual Killing has brothers Reiji and Yukio Ohmoto. The former was the Assistant, while the latter was the Master. After a blunder Yukio did was quickly (and unsuccessfully) concealed via Twin Switch, Reiji got a spot in the Administrative Council of Hope's Peak. The influence and position of that spot gave Reiji what he needed to usurp Yukio's title and past, ending with Reiji as the Master and Yukio as the Assistant.
  • Bataar and Unegan in Hachin. Notably, it's actually the younger brother who's the Cain is this case.
  • Back to the Beginning: Since Inko Midoriya is Nana Shimura's daughter here, that makes Izuku and Himiko the Abels to Tenko/Tomura and Hana/Homura Shigaraki.
  • In the Supergirl fanfic Hellsister Trilogy, Satan Girl is the Cain to her genetic template Supergirl's Abel. Neither of them likes each other, but Kara is willing to accept her copy's existence as long as she doesn't harm others, whereas Satan Girl only wants to kill her.
    Supergirl: You won't believe this, but I'm sorry. On my honor, I am. And if you will swear to stop this battle, I will help you search for your child. That is my promise.
    Satan Girl: [sneering] Ohhhhh, don't you wish, Lightsister. I can find my child. After our war, I will find him. Or her. There is nothing left to us now, except the fight. You would not tolerate my existence, nor I yours. I am not capable of your empathy, of your petty virtue. You are not capable of my ruthlessness and power. Come, sister. Let us destroy each other.
  • In the Shazam! story Here There Be Monsters, Thaddeus and Georgia Sivana do not get along with their older siblings. After Thaddeus kidnaps both Magnificus and Beautia at gunpoint, Georgia asks her father permission to kill her sister, getting actually upset when Doctor Sivana forbids it.
    "Have you heard from your brother?"
    "Not yet," she said. "When they bring Beautia here, Dad, can I kill her? Please?"
    "No. Don't you have any sense of family?"
    "Oh." Georgia, who always looked like a Basil Wolverton cartoon from Life magazine, looked a bit crestfallen.
  • In The Flash (2014) fanfic Ice cold deception, Nora West-Allen is the Cain to her half-sister Allison Dawn Allen's Abel. Allison was conceived when Barry had an affair with Caitlin while they were both under the influence of a metahuman with the power to remove a person's inhibitions. Barry and Iris' marriage fell apart as a result of the affair even though Barry and Caitlin weren't in their right minds at the time, leading to Barry and Caitlin becoming closer as they prepared to raise their future daughter together. Iris tried to kill Allison by poisoning Caitlin while she was pregnant out of jealousy, leading to Caitlin's death. Blaming Allison for her parents' relationship falling apart, Nora worked with the Reverse-Flash to prevent Barry and Caitlin from being affected by the metahuman that started this, knowing that doing so could erase Allison from existance. In the end, Nora is erased from existance as a result of abusing her powers to change the timeline and an author's note states that Allison will still be born.
  • Inner Demons: Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo join Queen!Twilight, turning on Rarity and Rainbow Dash, their respective sister and sister-figure. And of course, Queen!Twilight herself ends up in this relationship with Shining Armor (though that's not her original plan). In all three cases, it's the younger one who's evil.
  • Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, Kagoyasha and Inukyo in Inuyasha The Real World.
  • Mufasa and Scar in The Lion King Adventures. Although neither of them kills the other.
    • Hago and Bora, too. Hago slits his brother's throat after his first resurrection in The Return of Hago.
  • The main antagonist of Loved and Lost is Prince Jewelius, Princess Cadance's younger cousin. Though he's Cadance's favourite cousin to the point that she regards him as her younger brother, he has secretly hated her and their aunt Princess Celestia for years due to their superior popularity. He strikes a partnership with Queen Chrysalis to invade Equestria on Cadance's wedding day, double-crosses the former, and overthrows the princesses by scapegoating them as well as Shining Armor and Twilight's friends for the invasion. Though he sentences them all into exile, he soon lures them into a trap because his desire to personally murder Cadance overwrites his carefulness.
  • In the Once Upon a Time/Mr. Right fanfic Love at First Sight (Once Upon a Time), Jekyll wants to kill his older brother, Hyde, and take over the criminal empire.
  • The Masks We Wear (Teen Titans): Mary is Abel to Samantha Vanaver's Cain while Mary was alive, but as the story progresses, things go downhill.
  • Roll and Maylu are into this in Maylu's Revenge.
  • Ace Ray (whose "crime" is complaining about Starfleet) and his sister Skye from My Brave Pony: Starfleet Magic.
  • In Natural Selection, Ryuko is the Cain to Satsuki's Abel. Ryuko is a sadistic tyrant who wants to viciously murder her older sister. Satsuki, while willing to kill Ryuko if need be, still holds some hope that the sweet little girl she grew up with is still in there somewhere.
  • The Pony POV Series Dark World Series has a few examples. The backstory has two symbolic examples — Twilight Tragedy and Queen Cadence and Traitor Dash and Scootaloo — while the present has Angry Pie and Apple Pie as a more traditional blood relation (albeit distantly related).
    • In the Shining Armor Arc, it eventually turns out that Makarov and Dima are half-brothers, with the former being the Cain.
    • The former is also the Cain in a more symbolic relationship: when he starts warping reality to wipe out his enemies and make himself the grand hero of the world, he kills all the Changelings, including Chrysalis; both Makarov and Chrysalis were created by Pandora, making them siblings of sorts. Of course in this case Chrysalis is just as much of monster as her "brother".
    • On that note, it's revealed that Chrysalis was created from the Shadow of Existence of the original Cadenza, while Cadence was made from her Light. This makes them "twin sisters", as Chrysalis puts it, making her the Cain to Cadence's Abel.
  • In Pokémon Strangled Red, the eponymous hacked game's ending clearly implies that Steven kills his brother Mike.
  • The Power Rangers fanfic Hidden War gives Darkonda a brother, Dementian. As they're both card-carrying scumbags, they get along just fine...right up until Ecliptor has Dementian cornered, and he starts offering secrets about the Greater-Scope Villain in exchange for his life. Darkonda teleports in and kills Dementian on the spot, to the disbelief of both Ecliptor and Dementian himself. Even Darkonda can't bring himself to look Dementian in the face as he dies...but he gets over it pretty quickly.
  • Astelle from Princess Trixie Sparkle is Celestia and Luna's evil older sister. She loathes Celestia and wants to kill her, but she has a soft side for her youngest sister Luna (who she never got to know).
  • Queens of Mewni has quite a few examples, which isn't surprising since Game of Thrones was also a major influence of the series. Oddly enough, all the examples feature the younger siblings being the Cain:
    • Nixie resented her older sister Hemera for 'stealing' Nixie's crush Roman (what happened was Nixie was too shy to approach him herself, so pushed Hemera toward him, only for the two of them to fall in love instead) and throughout Hemera's reign, caused trouble throughout, poisoned Hemera into miscarrying three children, raised high hell when she found out her son Pyxar was in love with Hemera's daughter Cosmica, and finally poisoned Hemera, Roman, her own husband (for accepting Cosmica and Pyxar's relationship) and herself to death the night Cosmica and Pyxar got married. Nixie is forever remembered in history as The Queen Poisoner.
    • Umbra and Penumbra resented Celena for being the heir to the throne and the most beautiful of the siblings, and manipulated their brothers into tampering with Celena's potions, causing an explosion and putting Celena close to death. Antumbra, while not above bullying her older sister, found that Even Evil Has Standards and turned her triplet sisters in. Umbra was sent to another kingdom under the guise of being an ambassador and Penumbra was eventually disowned entirely. Ironically, Umbra's son would marry Celena's daughter.
    • Sky and Etheria had a sibling rivalry due to being too close in age to each other (Etheria was born the same year Sky was), and Etheria resented the attention Sky got both as heiress to the throne and because of her diminutive stature. Getting passed over for an Arranged Marriage because the mother of the groom would accept no less than the heiress for her son didn't help. Eventually the tension escalated enough that a drunk Etheria tried to stab Sky. She was sent to St. Olga's Reformatory School for Wayward Princesses in response (a response that even her harshest critics thought was too much). It's both this, and Etheria seizing the regency while Sky was on her honeymoon, that caused Sky to name their younger sister Comet regent and adoptive mother of Moon on her deathbed. That said, Etheria still cared enough about her sister to try to get her to (and sometimes force her to) eat when she was on the verge of Death by Despair, despite the fact that if Sky and the baby she carried died, Etheria would be queen.
  • Roar of the LION: Naomi becomes this to her brother Cyrus. While initially sent to Beacon Academy as The Mole, she comes to realize that not all humans are bad and defects. Sadly, Cyrus has been utterly corrupted by Adam and vows to kill his own sister for betraying the White Fang.
  • In Sonic the Hedgehog: Heroes of Mobius, Scourge the Hedgehog is Sonic's brother, and the Cain to his Abel, rather than his evil Alternate Self from a Mirror Universe.
  • Several examples in the Superman story Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation:
    • Adam and Alan, the sons of the former Superman. Adam claims he doesn't hate his brother and is no threat to him, but he can't stand the fact that his father thought Alan would be a better Superman and Kath chose Alan over him. He holds a huge grudge.
    • Klar -the former Superman- and his brother George. George also resented his older brother becoming Superman. Unlike Adam, he gets over it and makes amends with Klar.
  • In Tales of the Emperasque, Corvus and Roboute are Abel to Fulgrim's Cain, and Leman and Lion go for each other's throats the first moment they can, although which one is Cain and which is Abel is a complex and twisted case.
  • Way before A Triangle in the Stars begins, Bill was the Cain to Gabriel's Abel, though they initially got along excellently. The triangle just got fed up with how he was treated and how Gabe was so loved, and Gabriel in fact grew to be condescending towards his older brother. Instead of murder, the "Abel" was simply imprisoned. In the present, the school arc, the roles switch, for obviously different reasons. Interestingly, it's the Abel who kills the Cain.
  • In Peggy Sue fanfic Warp, Amy is the unintended Cain to her sister Vicky's Abel. Unintended because Amy actually loves Vicky... a bit too much, unfortunately. Her unrequited and obsessive crush led Amy to let Vicky's boyfriend die, abuse Vicky physically and mentally, and ultimately engage in acts of villainy. Vicky both hates and fears Amy, but she also considers her to be psychologically damaged because of their screwed-up family and other external circumstances; so that now she's landed in the past before her sister has done anything, Vicky arranges for Amy getting much-needed help (in a way which will keep her far away from her sister).
  • Yin-Yang:
    • Evilseed and Moss Man respectively, though Evilseed doesn't want to kill his brother, it's just in their nature to fight as the embodiments of the two halves of Eternia.
    • A non-biological case with Randor and Skeletor since they were raised as brothers. Skeletor wants to kill and torture not just Randor, but his entire family while Randor originally wanted to reason with him before he sent Adora to Despondos, at which point whatever love he had for his adoptive brother died.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh: Tilting the Balance has this with Gerald and Alexander. The latter actually muses about this trope in the intro to the chapter "Blood Feud".

    Film — Animation 
  • A Bug's Life: Hopper is the cold, stony Cain to his brother Molt's bumbling, somewhat friendly Abel. Hopper only seems to put up with Molt (and hasn't killed him yet) because of a promise he made to their mother. On her deathbed.
  • Frozen (2013): Inverted when Anna saves her sister Elsa from being killed by Hans. This act involves Anna forgoing a cure for, and thus being killed by, a deadly curse from her sister - a curse that had only been placed accidentally.
  • Zeus and Hades in Hercules. Hades jealously loathes his older brother, the benevolent Zeus, because the latter is loved by all of the other gods while Everybody Hates Hades, combined with being stuck as lord of the Underworld. Bitter and envious of his brother's success, he decides to overthrow Zeus and kill baby Hercules so he can install himself as Top God and king of Olympus. He's widely despised on Olympus, and it's done to show how estranged and out-of-touch he is with them. They aren't happy at his appearance at Hercules's birthday, and his lame pun is met with scowls. But when Zeus makes a similar lame joke about his workaholic nature, the pantheon bursts into laughter, while Hades storms out in anger.
  • The Lion King: Mufasa and Scar, with the unfortunate addendum that Mufasa had no idea Scar was plotting against him until it was too late. A rare case where the younger brother is the evil one.
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: The Super Adventure, Cha Cha and Dong Dong, who spend most of the film fighting each other during the war between the White Bull Kingdom and the Black Bull Kingdom, are revealed to be brothers.
  • In an interesting if debated adaptation choice, The Prince of Egypt made Moses the adopted brother of Rameses instead of his nephew, then played this trope to the hilt. The Biblical version had Moses found by Pharaoh's daughter, while The Prince of Egypt had his foster mother as Pharaoh's wife. Given marriage customs among Egyptian royalty of the time period, the same woman could easily be the daughter of Pharaoh X and the wife of his successor, Pharaoh Y. Thus, identifying her by her relationship to a Pharaoh depends on which Pharaoh is the point of reference.
  • Avatar and Blackwolf in Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. And how.
    "I'm glad you changed your name, you son of a bitch!"
  • Wreck-It Ralph: Subverted and then inverted. Ralph is clearly jealous of Felix being the favorite, but neither have ill feelings or are hostile towards one another. Felix eventually starts calling Ralph "brother" towards the end of the film but this is after they have become great friends.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • 6 Underground: Rochav Alimov is an evil dictator who massacres people trying to escape from his rule, and the aid workers treating them. His brother Murat hates this and wants to change things in their country. Rochav has him held under house arrest (although in a very nice penthouse) before the Ghosts spring him to take Rochav's place.
  • The vicious Red Queen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) jealously loathes her younger sister, the benevolent White Queen, because the latter is adored by the populace (and, to judge by a throwaway line toward the end of the film, was the favorite of their parents).
  • Ambulance: Danny and Will Sharp, respectively. The roles are reversed in the end when Will kills Danny to protect Cam.
  • A deleted scene for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy reveals that the eponymous character and Wes Mantooth are half-brothers.
    Wes Mantooth: I hate you Ron Burgundy! I hate you.
  • Aquaman (2018) is largely a story of the conflict between Aquaman and his half-brother Orm. What makes it interesting is that it is kind of difficult to tell who is the Cain; both men are paragons of their respective father's culture and neither is flawless or unsympathetic and no matter how you cut it, Aquaman's birthright claim to the throne of Atlantis is dodgy at best. The ending also hints that the two will eventually reconcile, which does indeed happen in the sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
  • In Avengement, Cain Burgress' main goal is to kill his brother, Lincoln. The sentiment goes both ways, as it's later revealed that Lincoln had put out a hit on Cain.
  • Beowulf (1999): While Cain was never mentioned (nor is there any confirmation of Grendel and his mother being his descendance), Grendel has this dynamic with Kyra when it is revealed that Hrothgar is Grendel's father, making Grendel, Kyra's half brother.
  • In The Black Room, Anton is a kindly, studious fellow. His brother, Gregor, is a psychopathic baron who murders women For the Evulz. And then Gregor murders Anton to assume his identity.
  • Angus and Henry Oldfield in Black Sheep (2007). Angus leaves Henry to be killed by man-eating sheep and is later turned into a weresheep, at which point Henry does try to kill him as well.
  • Played with in Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream. After Terry confides that he wants to turn himself in to the police for the murder, Ian and Howard agree there is no alternative but to get rid of Terry, so Ian plans to poison him, but at the last moment can't bring himself to kill his own brother, however, he nonetheless attacks him in a fit of rage. In the chaos, Terry knocks Ian down the steps into their boat's cabin, killing him.
  • In The Challenge, Toshiro Mifune plays a modern samurai master fighting his evil younger brother over ownership of "The Equals", a pair of sacred katana swords.
  • In the backstory of The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, Ra-Antef, the Mummy of the film, was a noble man who sought knowledge as the forthcoming Pharaoh and his brother Re was a scheming hedonist who was so jealous for his older brother's success that he organized him to be banished and later assassinated.
  • Dead in Tombstone: Red and Guerrero are half-brothers. Red has always been jealous of Guerrero, despite the fact that Guerrero has always looked out for him. Red talks the rest of the gang into betraying Guerrero and fires the first shot in the fusillade that kills him.
  • The wuxia movie Death Valley has the Chiu siblings, a pair of orphans raised by their uncle, a righteous clan leader and martial arts expert. The brother, Chiu Yu-Long, is a swordsman and a noble warrior, but the younger sister, Chiu Chien-ying, is cruel, bloodthirsty, and power-hungry. When their uncle decide to have the clan's leadership passed to Yu-long, the brother, Chien-ying decides to poison her uncle and arrange for her secret lover, an assassin, to kill him; before stabbing the nanny who raised her because She Knows Too Much (and also she doesn't need a nanny anymore), before orchestrating a massacre in the clans and trying to have Yu-long hunted down in an attempt to wipe out everyone in her path of obtaining leadership.
  • In Desperado, when the Mariachi and Bucho finally face off, it turns out that they are both brothers. The Mariachi is Cesar's Manito (little brother in Spanish), while his brother is Cesar. In fact, Desperado has a story very similar to Il Trouvatore, where the same thing happens.
  • Dracula Untold: Vlad and Mehmed are not related by blood, but they were raised under the same household and call each other "brother" at the start of the movie. Mehmed wants to take Vlad's boys and turn them into his Slave Mooks to launch an invasion into Europe, forcing Vlad to become a vampire to protect his people. Historically, Mehmed was much older than Vlad the Impaler and was made much younger in the movie possibly to combine him with Vlad's real-life brother Radu.
  • F9: One of the villains is Jakob Toretto, Dominic's forsaken younger brother, who was banished from home because Dom thought he deliberately killed their father (it was an accident), causing him to develop a vendetta against him.
  • Adam (Cain) and Fenton (Abel) Meiks in Frailty. Adam dutifully followed their deranged father's religious beliefs that he and his sons were hunting down demons on God's orders while they were actually murdering innocent people; Fenton always feared him and knew what they were doing was wrong. After they both left the home, Fenton has been hunting down his brother, who continued to be a serial killer. And then the twist comes...
  • In Gattaca, the main character Vincent was conceived without any of the advanced genetic screening that his younger brother Anton receives, and is thus subject to nearsightedness and a high likelihood of developing a heart condition. Their father clearly favors Anton throughout childhood (deciding at the last minute to not name the first-born son after himself when the potential heart condition is discovered at birth, saving that for his perfectly engineered second son). This favoritism coupled with the societal discrimination against naturally conceived "faithbirths" causes Vincent to hide his identity in order to pursue his dream of becoming an astronaut. Later, the police detective who discovers Vincent's deception is revealed to be Anton, who feels insecure about how successful Vincent is despite his "inferior" genetics (due to his determination).
  • Gladiator: Commodus as the Cain, Maximus as the Abel. They're not related by blood, but Marcus Aurelius considered Maximus the son he should have had instead of the ambitious Commodus and nominates him as regent. Commodus also considers Maximus his non-blood brother, as both try to win Aurelius' favor and Lucilla's love. However, Commodus resorts to murdering his father and arranging to rape his sister, while setting up Maximus' death several times. Discussed near the end:
    Commodus: That makes us brothers, doesn't it? Then smile for me, brother! [stabs Maximus through the chest]
  • In The Godfather Part II, Michael Corleone has his brother Fredo assassinated. Granted, Fredo betrayed him first.
  • Holocaust 2000: Angel murdered his twin brother with his own umbilical cord while they were still in the womb.
  • In The Hoodlum, there is a long-standing rivalry between Johnny Lubeck and his ne'er-do-well older brother Vincent. However, it only turns murderous when Vincent's actions cause the deaths of Johnny's sweetheart Rosa and their mother. When Mrs. Lubeck dies Johnny snaps, takes Vincent hostage, and drives him to the city dump: planning to execute him.
  • In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, if Gloss and Cashmere had survived to the end of the Quarter Quell, this would have been their fate. It's stated that the siblings share a close and loving relationship, so it's possible that they would've refused (like Katniss and Peeta) and preferred to die together instead of committing fratricide for a society that's already betrayed them. The Capitol citizens are at least somewhat horrified as well. Gloss and Cashmere are likely the first siblings to be pitted against each other in the same Games, and the pair visibly play this up for sympathy with hopes of the Quarter Quell being cancelled.
    Caesar: You became everyone's brother and sister. I don't know how we're going to let you go.
    Gloss: We aren't going by choice.
  • In Husk, The Un-Favourite Corey was so incensed by his father's favoritism towards his brother Alex that he murdered Alex and turned his corpse into a scarecrow before shooting himself. Alex eventually returns as a Scary Scarecrow. The movie makes a lot of references to the Biblical story.
  • Judge Dredd. Rico Dredd, cloned from the same source as Joe, but who became corrupt, forcing Joe to sentence him to the Aspen Penal Colony. Rico returned with murderous intent.
  • Kiss of the Damned: Djuna is a Vegetarian Vampire who's remorseful about feeding on the man she loves, turning him into a vampire. Maia, her sister, is unapologetically murderous, lethally feeding on numerous humans. They both dislike each other, and Maia tries to steal Djuna's man away.
  • Lockout: The two brother convicts Alex (Abel) and Hydell (Cain). Both are criminals, but Hydell consistently screws up his brother's attempts at Pragmatic Villainy by killing as much as he wants once the prisoners are in charge, even when it hurts their plans. Hydell eventually murders Alex, thereby dooming himself.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • The main antagonist of both Thor and The Avengers is Loki, Thor's adopted brother. And then in Ragnarok, it's revealed that Thor has an even more murderous and vindictive older sister, Hela, who is more than willing to kill either of her younger brothers.
    • In Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Gamora and Nebula have a relationship very similar to Thor and Loki's. Including being adopted siblings, the Cain having resentment issues because the Abel is the favorite of a father figure and Cain and Abel having very tangled love/hate relation.
  • In Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Raiden admits Shao Khan is his brother. (This is a non-canon event created specifically for the film.) This is also mentioned in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, but again, that game is non-canon.
  • Mr. Right has Von trying to get his older brother Richard killed so he can take control of their gang. So they're both evil, but Von is probably worse.
  • Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: The elder pharaoh, Kahmunrah, was utterly ruthless while the younger, Ahkmenrah, was kind and intelligent. Their parents gave the throne to Ahkmenrah, and it's implied that Kahmunrah murdered him out of jealousy.
  • None Shall Escape: Downplayed. Wilhelm has his brother Karl deported to a Nazi concentration camp.
  • Perfect Creature has the two vampire brothers Silus and Edgar in more than just the literal sense, since they also belong to a vampire organization known as the Brotherhood.
  • Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: Nizam kills his brother because he wants to be king. Then he tries to go back in time to kill him sooner, so he'll be king longer.
  • With the release of Prometheus, the relationship between the Humans and the Xenomorphs became something of this trope, as it was revealed that both species were created by ancient, humanoid creatures nicknamed Engineers, or Space Jockeys, in their bioengineering experiments. However, this trope is reinforced as the Engineers created the Xenomorphs in order to wipe out their former creation, the Humans, for reason unknown, and when it looks like the last Engineer died by the end of Prometheus, the deadly hatred the Humans and the Xenomorphs have to each other still remain active even centuries afterward.
  • In The Proposition, Charlie Burns is blackmailed into killing his evil older brother Arthur, using Mikey, the younger, "simple" brother, as leverage. Ironically, their names start with the initials C and A. Though Charlie is the Abel and Arthur the Cain. He eventually does, but by now Mikey's already dead, and it's just because Arthur deserves to die.
  • Luigi and Pavi Largo in Repo! The Genetic Opera. In this case, the hatred is definitely mutual. The existence of sister Amber is a slight complication, though… they don't dare actually try to kill each other for fear fabulously wealthy daddy Rotti will disinherit both of them.
  • At the end of Scanners, it's revealed that Vale and Revok are brothers.
  • The main hero and villain in Scanners III: The Takeover are each other's brother and sister, respectively. Said sister started out as a good person, but a Psycho Serum drove her into a Take Over the World-sort of villainy.
  • Scream 3: Roman Bridger, the Ghostface, is actually Sidney Prescott's half-brother, born when Maureen Roberts got gang raped during her time in Hollywood. He was driven to murder because Maureen not only gave him up for adoption but slammed the door in his face when he tried to reconnect with her.
  • In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, the Big Bad is ultimately reveled to be Sherlock's older brother Thorpe.
  • Slumdog Millionaire: Jamal and Salim's relationship eventually devolves into this in their teen years. Salim eventually makes up for it in the end.
  • Spectre: Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld was James Bond's foster brother, but despised Bond for being a "cuckoo chick in another bird's nest" by becoming his father's favorite. Franz murdered his father and orchestrated all the tragedies in Bond's life as revenge.
  • In Stahlnetz: PSI two brothers kidnap a little girl for ransom. When the elder brother, having a family of his own, gets second thoughts about the whole thing, the younger brother beats him up, locks him with the girl, and abandons both to die. They are rescued by the police shortly thereafter.
  • In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker is punctuated by Obi-Wan calling Anakin his brother. And but for a Retcon, that would have been literally the case — in the Novelization of Return of the Jedi, Obi-Wan calls Owen his brother.
  • The Subspecies series has the Big Bad Radu and his noble half-vampire brother Stefan. In the first movie, Stefan kills Radu in a swordfight to protect his love interest, but in the following movie, Radu is revived by his minions and, in return, kills his brother in his sleep.
  • Transformers Film Series: At the climax of Transformers (2007), Optimus calls Megatron "brother". Peter Cullen, who voices Optimus, publicly referenced the story of Cain and Abel when describing the revelation. How that works with giant robots was unexplained, at first. It turns out that Optimus Prime and Megatron were both raised by their adopted father Sentinel Prime. More explicitly in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, the Fallen is revealed to be one of the Prime family, the original leaders of the Transformers. Optimus is either his brother or his nephew.
  • Played with in Utu. Maori rebel Te Wheke clubs his little sister Kura to death for loving a white man. In turn, he is captured by the British army and executed by his big brother Wiremu.
  • War of the Gargantuas has Sanda and Gaira, Bigfoot-like creatures grown from remains of a giant Frankenstein's Monster, that battle to the death as a result of Sanda's opposition to Gaira's Kill All Humans attitude.
  • The Wind That Shakes the Barley: The first half of the story is the O'Donnell brothers (Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney) fighting in the Irish Revolution together, and making enormous sacrifices. The second half is them choosing different sides in the Irish Civil War, and making even bigger ones.
  • Victor is significantly more unhinged and murderous than his brother Logan in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
  • Wonder Woman (2017): Ares, the film's Big Bad, is Diana's half-brother by way of their father Zeus. Her last words before killing him are "Goodbye, brother."
  • In Year One, Cain and Abel are encountered early on by the main characters, who very nervously befriend Cain after the infamous act (which he violently denies) and ends up selling them into slavery. Later on, they meet Cain as a town guard of Sodom and he sells them out to the king to be sacrificed.
  • In The Tale of Zatoichi Continues, one of the early Zatoichi movies, the mysterious one-armed ronin Yoshiro is revealed to be Ichi's brother, who stole the woman Ichi loved and consequently lost his arm for it. Needless to say, there's little love lost between the two.

    Manhwa 
  • In Witch Hunter, the rivalry between the three princes of the Bairong Empire gets very intense, even though one of them doesn't actually want the throne… one guess what happens. In a heartbreaking twist, the only actual fatality so far was a Mercy Kill done by one brother to free the other from a Grand Theft Me inflicted on him by their father. The third sibling is furious at the killer brother for doing this, while the killer hates his surviving sibling for allowing this horrible situation to happen in the first place.

    Music 
  • Avenged Sevenfold (whose name was inspired by the passage of Cain and Abel) Have a song based on the passage, Titled Chapter 4.
    I've come here to kill you,
    won't leave until you've died
    Murder born of vengeance,
    I closed my brother's eyes tonight…
  • Craig by Stephen Lynch, which is about Jesus' brother Craig Christ who while not The Antichrist is a Jerk Jock party animal and the opposite of Incorruptible Pure Pureness.
  • The Finnish folk ballad Velisurmaaja (Brother Killer), where the mother inquires his son on what has happened, and the son confesses killing his brother: either for revenge from sleeping with his wife or slandering his mother.
  • The Puscifer song "Rapture" deals with a sense of hatred based on this.
    Rapture my ass
    You better hope he takes you
    Before I do
    About to drop you like Cain
    Like Cain dropped Abel
  • "Buenos Tardes Amigo", by Ween, is a Mexican style ballad about a man hunting the man who killed his brother, who was adored by the villagers, the local ladies, and their mother. It was these qualities that led him to kill his brother and pin it on the poor traveller.
  • "Should The Bible Be Banned" by Mccarthy, a man called Dave is directly inspired by the story of Cain and Abel to take a axe through his own brother's head, winding up in jail and triggering a debate to have the Bible censored.
  • "Cain's Blood" by 4 Runner is a variant, which uses Cain and Abel as symbolism for the narrator's struggle between good and evil ("Half of my blood is Cain's blood / Half of my blood is Abel's").
  • Child Ballad #10, "Twa Sisters" and its myriad variations:
    These sisters were walking on the bryn,
    And the elder pushed the younger in.
    "Oh sister, oh sister, oh lend me your hand,
    And I will give you both houses and land."
    "I'll neither give you my hand nor glove,
    Unless you give me your true love."
  • Child Ballad #13, "Edward": A mother questions her son about the blood on his shirt; though he tries to lie, he eventually admits to having killed his brother. (Or, in some versions, "a boy" not related to him.)
  • Child Ballad #49, "The Two Brothers": The brothers are wrestling, one of them stabs the other. In some versions it's an accident, in most it's a murder with very unclear motives.
  • The Megas portray the relationship between Mega Man and Proto Man this way.
    I had a name
    My father called me Blues
    He tore my heart from my chest
    To give to you
  • The music video "He's A Liar" of The Bee Gees - only via Real-Life Relative, but that still amused the fans to no end.

    Myths & Religion 
  • The Bible:
    • Book of Genesis: The Trope Namers are in chapter 4. Cain was a farmer, Abel was a shepherd. God wants a sacrifice, so Cain brings the produce of his farm and Abel brings some sheep. God preferred Abel's offering and rebuked Cain for being mad about it whereupon Cain lured Abel into a field and killed him.
    • Esau and Jacob, although they don't end up killing each other. And later, Jacob's son Joseph and his ten older brothers (mixing it with The Un-Favourite).
    • Joseph's 10 older brothers sell him into slavery. This later saves their lives when he (as second-in-command in Egypt) saves them all from a famine. Joseph's story is so heartwarming because, after Genesis featuring Sibling Rivalry as a major recurring theme, this trope finally ends up being subverted and the book ends with a family forgiving each other and coming together.
    • Book of Judges: Abimelech murdered all of his brothers, but he missed his youngest brother Jotham. Likewise, Jotham put a curse on him.
    • When Israel split in 2, Northern Israel is definitely Cain while Southern Judah is the Abel. Israel was wealthier and more influential but had the political stability of a game of Jenga while Judah was more spiritual and moderate. When these two fight, Israel is usually the aggressor.
    • Books of Samuel: The four sons of king David: Absalom, Amon, Solomon, and Adonijah. Absalom killed Amon to avenge the rape of their sister Tamar and Solomon sentenced Adonijah to death because the latter had the audacity to ask the hand of their father's widow.
  • The Book of Mormon: The rift between Lehi's oldest and (at the beginning of the record) youngest sons, Laman and Nephi, is so deep that it forms the basis of the political division between their descendants, with a thousand years of on-and-off war between the "Nephites" and "Lamanites". During the family's journey across Arabia to The Promised Land, Laman repeatedly gets fed up with Nephi exhorting him to be obedient to God and keep going, with responses ranging from beating Nephi with a stick, to tying him up to die in the desert, to an attempt to throw him off a cliff into the ocean. Nephi survives each attempt through divine intervention, but once they reach their destination, he takes those who will follow him and parts ways before Laman can finish the job — and Laman resents that too, teaching his children that Nephi robbed him of the opportunity to govern the people. There are wars and skirmishes for centuries afterward until there's any sign of peace — and even then, it never lasts more than a few generations at most before old grudges are stirred up again.
  • The Qur'an:
    • Cain and Abel also appear, but the story is even shorter than in The Bible and doesn't mention the two brothers' names. In this story, The Prophet was told to tell the early Muslims about 'the two sons of Adam'. After his sacrifice was not accepted, Cain told his brother that he would kill him. Abel replied that God would only accept the offerings of people that listened to Him and that a murderer would go to Hell burdened by his own sins and those of their victim (the victim would be forgiven as a result of his unjust death). This version of Abel also refused to "stretch out my hands to kill you, even if you stretch out yours to kill me", and said that he feared God and would rather his brother burn in the fire for murdering him than sin himself. Cain was prompted by his 'wicked soul' to kill his brother, and instantly became a lost person for that act. Since he had no clue what to do with the body, God sent a raven to dig up the ground and show Cain how to bury his brother. Cain was mortified and guilty because the raven (who had buried another raven) knew what to do, but he couldn't even give his brother a proper burial. Cain lived out the rest of his life tormented by regret and guilt. This story was meant to explain why Muslims shouldn't murder anyone.
    • Like the Christian and Jewish versions, the Muslim version of Cain and Abel has many different versions. In many of them, their names are different. They are also unnamed in some versions, have the same names as their Christian and Jewish counterparts in others, and in yet other versions they are given a variety of different names, with the most common ones being Habil and Qabil (or some other close variants). In the most commonly told rendering of the story, the brothers offered sacrifices to God; Abel was righteous and firmly believed in God, so his was accepted, but Cain was arrogant and prideful, so his was rejected. Cain was the wickeder of the two siblings and he subsequently cornered his brother and taunted him over how he would surely slay him. Like the Qur'an version, Abel told his brother that he was the cause of his own rejection and that a God-fearing person would never harm another, much less murder out of envy. Like in the original, Abel refuses to fight back and preaches to his brother about what the reward for murder will be. His brother's innocent pleading had no effect on Cain's evil heart, and he killed him anyway. After the murder, Cain felt guilt and remorse after a crow had to show him how to bury the body. He realized how horrible the murder of a human being really was and also acknowledged that the murder of his brother was even worse because his brother was innocent and righteous. Cain was condemned for his actions and lived out the rest of his life in deep regret for his crime.
    • Another one of the main variants is that Cain murdered Abel over a woman. When the brothers were born, they were each part of a set of twins and had a twin sister. Since intermarriage was unavoidable, but direct relations marrying seemed inappropriate, Adam decided that the brothers would each marry the other's twin. Cain was unhappy because his own twin was prettier and refused to allow Abel to marry her. Adam proposed that they offer a sacrifice to god and let him settle the matter. Abel had a better and more righteous nature than Cain, so his sacrifice was accepted. From there, the story follows the two above. In yet another version of the one involving their twin sisters, Cain blamed Adam for praying to god on Abel's behalf for his success and confronted his brother in the field with the intent to murder him. Abel rebuked him and told his brother that he should be more concerned about making his heart right and renewing his relationship with God than marriage. God had blessed Abel with a pure and compassionate heart, so he told Cain that he would let him kill him if it would make Cain feel better, but also begged his brother to not do it, as Abel feared for Cain's soul should he become a murderer. Cain attempted to kill his brother but found himself unable to do it. At a later time, Adam got worried when Abel was late coming home from his work, so he sent Cain to find him. Cain's anger was rekindled and he proceeded to confront Abel again. Abel repeated his initial warnings but, this time, Cain was intent upon killing his brother and attacked him. In one version of that version, Cain clubs his brother to death with an iron rod. In another version, Abel lays down on the ground and offers his neck to his brother and tells him "Do with me what you will." Cain proceeds to attempt to strangle his brother to death but fails. The Devil appears to Cain and asks him if he really wants to kill his brother. When Cain answers yes, the Devil instructs him to crush his brother's skull with a rock
  • Islam: There are dozens of Muslim and Arabic variations and explanations of the Cain and Abel story. Sometimes, they even overlap with Jewish traditions and legends; some renderings and retellings offered by religious scholars are nearly identical. In both religions, many of the more popular renderings state that Cain's motive was marrying his twin. The two religions also overlap on the idea that Cain was taught to murder by the Devil and that Eve is the reason that women are more likely to cry when they are sad then men. Usually in both, Cain is taught to bury the body by a raven or crow sent by god, but other times Cain runs away and the first funeral and burial is carried out by their parents and sisters when they find the body. There is also a version where Cain runs away with the sister who was the cause of the murder after he kills their brother. In another, Cain states his famous line "Am I my brother's keeper?" when their father can't find Abel and asks him if he has seen him; unfortunately, his remorseless response causes Adam to realize what happened. One Jewish retelling of the idea where the conflict is caused over marriage further explains why the men were matched up with each other's sisters and why God wanted Abel to be the one to marry the more desired sister. Beyond the twincest thing, Cain and Abel's twin sister were paired together because they were both more bitter and mean; Abel and his intended bride were both more physically attractive and good-natured than their twin's, so god paired each brother with the sister who was like him. The reason that Cain was not chosen had nothing to do with his sacrifice itself; he was wicked, unfaithful, and ungrateful towards God, and full of lust for his sister because she was beautiful. Abel was picked because of his righteousness and good heart, like always, only, in this version, it's more logical and practical; he would make a very faithful and loving husband and, seeing that the woman assigned to him was the female version of him, was the one who would be the better and more happy match for the contested sister. It is also brought up that, after their father told them how God intended for the siblings to be paired off for marriage, Abel was accepting and grateful, not because he got the more beautiful sister, but because he was willing to accept whatever God said. Abel and his future wife are implied to have grown to have genuine faithfulness and love between them after finding out they were meant to be married because they were both content with the arrangement; therefore, so it's also possible, according to this version, that Abel was picked due to having a proper and grateful reaction to God's decision. Some scholars believe that Cain was conceived when the either Devil or a fallen angel seduced (or raped) Eve and that he was therefore destined to be evil. Another idea among scholars is that, after being kicked out of the garden of Eden, Adam unintentionally and unknowingly raped Eve during a fight; They were still naked at this point and had yet to discover what sex was; Adam "grabbed her and held her body to his so that every part of them was touching", not knowing how babies were made; resulting in her becoming pregnant with Cain. The couple was unaware of the fact that their fight resulted in the creation of their son, however, because they learned about what sex was shortly thereafter when god explained it to them. The implication in this interpretation is that Cain was evil because he was created out anger and violence, but that Abel was the better-natured of the two as a result of being created out of love. Another short legend tells Cain repeatedly attempts to wash his brother's blood off his hands while on the run, but the blood refuses to come off. Eventually, Cain comes to a mountain spring and sits with his hands in the water until he dies, his hands still stained with the blood of his innocent brother and as red as the day of the murder. This one is more or less a moral fable/tale, though; the moral of the story is that you can't hide your sins.
  • In Mormonism, The Book of Moses clarifies more of the story: Cain loved Satan more than he did God, and Satan told him to make an offering to God, as he does so, only to be rejected because he had no respect for Him. The Lord warns him to be a good person. But Cain ignored this and calls himself Mahan, and made an oath to Satan. He also married one of his nieces and had children with her (we're not kidding), and then you know the rest. Cain then gains a Mark of Shame, given the name Perdition and is told whoever finds him and kills him, vengeance will be brought to him seven-fold.
  • Classical Mythology:
    • Romulus and Remus, the two founders of Rome in Roman mythology. Romulus was Cain to Remus's Abel.
    • Brother and sister war gods Ares and Athena would wrap entire nations up in their sibling rivalry.
    • ‘’The Thebaid’’: Polynices and Eteocles are driven to wage war and kill each other each other due to a curse put on them by their father, the intervention of Jupiter, and their hunger for the throne. Of the two, Eteocles is the more like Cain since he betrays the other first, by denying Polynices his promised year as king. That said, Polynices isn't as innocent as Abel despite all his brother's villainy. He manipulates the people of Argos to die on his behalf and although he's the protagonist, he's the protagonist of a tragedy, so that's actually points against him being some innocent Abel.
  • Older Than Dirt: Set and Osiris from Egyptian Mythology. Set murdered his brother Osiris and took over Egypt, and later when Osiris' wife Isis tried to resurrect him, Set tore Osiris' body apart. This later caused Osiris' son to seek vengeance against Set after he grew up.
  • Karna and Arjuna from The Mahabharata of Hindu Mythology are these, though they don't realize it till the end of the Mahabharata (sort of a Luke, I Am Your Father moment). By that time, it's too late and Karna is dead.
    • Actually, Karna knew it earlier than that; by this time Arjuna has insulted him and he has received nothing but kindness from Arjuna's enemies, besides he resents his mother for abandoning him at birth and taking Arjuna's side.
  • Norse Mythology:
    • Loki betrayed Odin, who was his sworn brother, even if they had different parents.
    • Hödr and Baldr, the level depends on the writer. The Prose Edda has Loki tricking Hödr, Saxo says it was because of a love triangle and the Poetic Edda does not state any reason.
    • In The Saga of Hervor and Heidrek, Heidrek kills his brother Angantyr (though whether it was accidentally or intentionally varies between the manuscripts)
  • The Shahnameh: The person who is finally able to bring down Rostam is none other than his younger half-brother Shoqad.
  • Kalervo and Untamo in The Kalevala. The story is laid out in cantos 31 through 36 of the Kalevala. Untamo is jealous of his brother Kalervo, and the strife between the brothers is fed by numerous petty disputes. Eventually Untamo's resentment turns into open warfare, and he kills all of Kalervo's tribe save for one pregnant girl called Untamala, whom Untamo enslaves as his maid. Shortly afterwards, Untamala gives birth to a baby boy she names Kullervo...
  • Aztec Mythology has moon goddess Coyolxauqui as the Cain and her brother Huitzilopochtli as the Abel. In this case, it's the Abel who kills the Cain (in defense of their mother).

    Pinball 

    Podcasts 
  • In The Fallen Gods, Missandere wants to kill her half-sister Delilah in order to inherit her claim to their mother's pirate title. Delilah is far less violent but will strike back if she needs to.
  • Pokémon World Tour: United: Rose Jenny's relationship with her eldest sister, Acantha, devolves into this at the end of Act Two, with Acantha as the Cain to Rose's Abel. They were always on the outs with one another, as Acantha is the oldest and most serious-minded of Rose's sisters, while Rose herself is the Black Sheep baby of the family who considers Acantha the "mean sister". When Rose pushes Acantha a step too far after confronting Acantha about her possibly being a Rocket, Acantha calls their mother and informs her that Rose stole her starter Pokemon, Bango the Growlithe, after he washed out of the Academy. It comes to a head when Acantha challenges Rose to a one-on-one battle using their Growlithes, with the stakes being whether Rose is arrested or pardoned for her actions. After Rose wins handily, she is warned by her mother and grandmother that Acantha will not take what happened lying down, and will almost certainly use any connections she has to make Rose's life miserable.
  • In Live From Mount Olympus, Dictys is the good brother who got all the positive traits, while Polydectes is the evil brother who got all the power.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • The feud between Bret and Owen Hart. An exception to the "older sibling is always the evil one" rule — younger brother Owen was the heel here. Several years later, Owen and his brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith almost had a similar feud — until Bret stepped in, kicking off the New Hart Foundation angle and stable.
  • Edge and Christian during late 2001 to early 2002. At first, they were brothers but they were announced as former partners after the feud was over.
  • Several times between more responsible Matt Hardy against free-spirited (and more popular) younger brother Jeff, with Matt almost always being the aggressor out of envy for Jeff success. Jeff was indirectly involved in angle to cut Matt's legs off though when they both wanted a shot at Rob Van Dam.
  • The Undertaker and Kane, who alternate between hating each other and teaming up as the "Brothers of Destruction". Again, Kane is the younger brother (despite being bigger than the Undertaker), and usually the heel when they feud. In fact, Undertaker's original name was Cain the Undertaker. Taker's more identified with death and lightning, Kane is identified with fire and which one set the house fire that killed their parent varies on which one is face and heel. Fridge Logic logic suggests Kane would be the more likely, given he is associated with fire and all.
  • When Eddie and Carlito Colón feuded, Eddie was the Abel, despite being the aggressor. This is because after Carly, as he was previously known, came to the United States and started wrestling in Kentucky, he disowned his family, insisting he had no brother when Eddie made a visit to see him.
  • When the two oldest Apache sisters feud, it's usually because the second oldest, Mari, has gone bad. During 2010 though, Fabi had convinced Mari to return to the tecnica path and they were only on opposite sides due to a wager lost to Las Gringas Locas that made Mari a maid of La Legion Extranjera.
  • During La Parka Jr's 2010-2011 AAA feud with Cibernético it was believed Cibernético had been attacking La Parka Jr's son, who was Cibernético's own godson. During a match between the two, Parka Jr's brother Taboo revealed it was him when he brought out La Parka's son to distract him.
  • During the same time period in AAA, Silver King put the mask he lost to Hijo del Santo years beforehand back on, now calling himself Silver Cain, arguing that he was more talented than his brother, then AAA Mega Champion Dr. Wagner Jr.
  • The Bella Twins. In 2012 Nikki was the Abel siding with WWE SmackDown GM Teddy Long and Brie was the Cain siding with WWE Raw GM John Laurinaitis. In 2014, Brie was the Abel and Nikki was the Cain after her Face–Heel Turn at SummerSlam.
  • After SummerSlam 2023, Jimmy Uso, having been taken out due to an injury, returned only to betray his brother Jey and help Roman Reigns retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, making him the Cain to the younger Uso's Abel. This becomes subverted as the following Friday on SmackDown, Jimmy explained that had Jey become the Tribal Chief, its power would corrupt him like it did Roman.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Chaotic has twin sisters Aivenna and Nivenna. They were both raised separately, under different factions that are mortal enemies of each other. Aivenna is obstensibly the "good" sister, being raised in the Overworld, fighting her "evil" Underworlder sister Nivennanote . Ironically, both of their cards gain bonuses from being on the same team.
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
    • Heironeous and Hextor, the gods of Lawful Good and Lawful Evil respectively, are brothers, and sworn enemies. Their appearances are radically different: Heironeous appears as a tall blonde human and Hextor, by contrast, is a six-armed ogreish monstrosity. Myths suggest that Hextor may have once been as handsome as his brother, and possibly even a force of Good, but was corrupted and degenerated into his current, ugly form.
    • Bahamut, the Lawful Good god of noble dragons, is bitter enemies with his sister Tiamat, the Lawful Evil goddess of evil dragons. They were both created by Io, True Neutral god of all dragonkind, but were not his first creations - his first child was named Vorel, a physically-perfect being with the friendly demeanor, and overall intelligence, of a puppy. Bahamut and Tiamat were closer to what Io was going for, but the two were instant rivals for Io's favor. Tiamat tried to get Bahamut banished by tricking Vorel into destroying some of Bahamut's treasures, claiming her brother flew into a rage, and then murdering Vorel and framing Bahamut for the deed. But Io was patient enough to investigate the matter fully, so it was Tiamat who got banished. Tiamat became the creator of all matter of evil draconic creatures, while Bahamut dedicated this existence to opposing his sibling. Despite this, Io still holds out hope that someday Bahamut and Tiamat will mate and produce the true breed of dragons he envisioned.
    • In the Forgotten Realms setting you have the twin goddesses Selûne and Shar. Having supposedly existed since the dawn of the universe and having been so close as to think of themselves as one being, they split apart on the issue of whether giving life to the barren universe would be a good idea. Selûne expresses her views on this matter by creating the Sun, which causes Shar to go Ax-Crazy on her and the entire universe, forcing Selûne to smack her with a Heroic Sacrifice bomb. Millenia later, Selûne's dogma urges you to trust in her radiance and know that all love alive under her light shall know her blessing, while the dogma of Shar features the promotion of misery for its own sake and the direct order to destroy anything Selûne might possibly be related to, in hopes of one day tearing apart the entire universe back into the sweet nothingness it was before this whole pesky 'life' thing. Evidently, they are now not so close as to think of themselves as one being, and the family reunions must be very awkward.
    • In the Ravenloft setting, this situation is what doomed Strahd von Zarovich, making him a vampire and the darklord of Barovia. When the beautiful maiden Tatyana rejected him in favor of his younger brother Sergei, Strahd developed jealousy of Sergei that eventually blossomed into hatred. He eventually made a pact with some dark entity (Strahd claims with death itself) and on the day of Sergei and Tatyana's wedding, he murdered his brother, and then tried to pursue Tatyana, only for her to flee from him and throw herself from the walls of Castle Ravenloft. This horrid act cursed Strahd forever, transforming him into a vampire, making Barovia the first recorded domain of Ravenloft with him as its lord, and tormented by images of Tatyana (or women who look just like her) ever since.
      • 5e also makes this the relationship of the three hags of Tepest. Lorinda is the Cain, having betrayed and imprisoned her sisters to use them as a power source.
  • Fu Lang, the Big Bad of Legend of the Five Rings, is the younger brother of the gods who founded the Empire of Rokugan. After Fu Lang was corrupted by Jigoku, he sought to kill his surviving siblings and either destroy or corrupt everything they had built.
  • Urza and Mishra from Magic: The Gathering. Not for nothing is their conflict called the Brothers' War.
    • In the more recent setting of Theros, Iroas (the red/white centaur-based god of victory) and Mogis (the red/black minotaur-based god of slaughter) are brothers, and are known to have monumental battles.
    • With Chronicle of Bolas: The Twins revealing that Nicol Bolas and Ugin are twins, they fulfill the Cain and Abel roles respectively.
  • Set's vendetta against Osiris led to the creation of the Old World of Darkness' mummies.
  • Pathfinder: In-universe lore claims that Asmodeus and his brother Ihys were the first two beings to form from the Primordial Chaos. They existed in harmony for ages but went to war after Ihys created mortals, an act Asmodeus couldn't stand; ultimately, Asmodeus murdered Ihys under a claim of truce and went on to become the Lord of the Nine Hells.
  • Warhammer 40,000 has the rivalries between the Primarchs, the Emperor's clone-sons and the leaders of his armies, which escalated into the galaxy-shaking bloodshed of the Horus Heresy. These struggles are continued by the Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines, entire armies of superhuman, genetically-engineered brothers trying to murder each other.
    • Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus had a shared obsession with perfection that forged them into good friends, which was why Fulgrim tried to talk Ferrus into going traitor along with him. When Ferrus refused and challenged his brother to battle, he became the first Primarch to die during the Horus Heresy.
    • Konrad Kurze ended up capturing and killing Vulkan, several times, as part of an attempt to break the loyalist Primarch.
    • Leman Russ of the Space Wolves and Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons were natural rivals since Russ was a barbarian warlord with a superstitious hatred of sorcery and Magnus was the most powerful psyker among the Primarchs, and the most clearly inhuman. So when Magnus broke the Emperor's ban on sorcery, it was all too easy for Horus to trick Russ into trying to kill Magnus, rather than apprehend him as the Emperor had actually ordered. The tragedy is that Magnus had used his powers to try to warn his father about Horus' betrayal, but being attacked by the Wolves drove the Thousand Sons into the traitors' camp.
    • Sanguinius and Horus were once close enough to confide their deepest fears to each other, and each assumed the other was the best choice for Warmaster. During the final battle of the Horus Heresy, Sanguinius still tried to talk his fallen brother down but was forced into battle and slain by Horus.
    • Perturabo of the Iron Warriors and Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists were rivals for a long time before the Heresy. Both Primarchs were siege experts and had incredible engineering skills, but Dorn received the privilege of building some of the greatest works of the Imperium, including the Imperial Palace on Terra, while Perturabo and his legion were pigeon-holed into digging trenches and garrisoning planets, with no glory and no thanks. Perturabo wasn't happy about this, especially when Dorn told their brothers that he could tear down any fortification with the proper resources, including anything Perturabo built. This lack of respect, especially from Dorn, was what helped pushed Perturabo into the traitor's camp and made him take great pleasure in destroying the Imperium's works. And during the "Iron Cage" incident, Perturabo did in fact build a massive fortress and dared Dorn to try and break it down. Dorn did...and nearly got himself and all his sons killed in the long siege and traps Perturabo set.
    • After the Heresy, Roboute Guilliman was mortally wounded by the now-daemon prince Fulgrim, but was placed in stasis for nine thousand years before being healed and returning to battle. Then when he headed for Terra, Magnus the Red nearly killed Guilliman on Luna.
    • The daemon sword Drach'nyen was supposedly born from the first willful murder of a human being by another, strongly implying it was the original Cain and Abel (the name supposedly comes from the firsts victim screaming in pain, then the name of his murderer).
    • The Emperor supposedly first awoke to his colossal psychic powers sometime around 8,000 B.C. when he had a vision of his uncle murdering his father as he was preparing his father's funeral pyre. He then found his uncle and stopped his heart with a single gesture.
  • There are two Yu-Gi-Oh! cards based off of these two, Numbers 13 and 31. Also, Master Guide 2 confirms that White Magician Pikeru and Ebon Magician Curran are sisters, making the situation on the Trap Card A Rival Appears suggest this Trope.

    Theatre 
  • In Arsenic and Old Lace, Mortimer Brewster is nearly killed by his Ax-Crazy Serial Killer brother Jonathan.
  • Children of Eden does this differently; Cain accidentally kills Abel when he and Adam get into a fight and Abel stands between them.
  • The Green Pastures: This Setting Update and Race Lift of the Old Testament to 1920s Louisiana with an all-black cast includes the original Cain and Abel story. Oddly, however, in this play, Cain kills Abel in a fit of rage after Abel insults him, as opposed to the original story where Cain was jealous over God's preference for Abel's sacrifice.
  • In Abraham's Bosom: The rivalry between Lonnie and Abe ends with Abe murdering Lonnie after the local KKK chapter puts an end to Abe's hopes of a school and Lonnie says he's confiscating Abe's cotton crop. (Abe, the illegitimate black son, has been reduced to sharecropping on white legitimate son Lonnie's land.)
    Abe: Oh Lawd God! I'm anuder Cain!
  • Golaud kills Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande (Maeterlinck's play; Debussy's opera)
  • Triton and Ursula are written as siblings in The Little Mermaid. Ursula’s main goal is to become ruler of the seas and she has no qualms over using her niece (Triton’s youngest daughter) to accomplish her goals.
  • Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen has some pretty messed-up brothers: Alberich enslaves Mime; the earth giant Fafner kills Fasolt over the ring Alberich created; and Hagen murders his half-brother Gunther over the ring.
  • In The Skin of Our Teeth, after Cain killed his unnamed older brother, his parents had his name changed to Henry in an attempt to protect his reputation.
  • Tamamo-no-Mae Asahi no Tamoto has a subverted The Evil Prince version in which Prince Usugumo is resentful because his younger brother has been made Emperor instead of him.
  • In a rarer example of the younger sibling being the murderous one, Thrill Me has a song entitled, "The Plan", which is almost entirely devoted to the variety of ways Richard has thought up to kill his brother John. He doesn't, but only because Nathan points out that this trope makes for a really obvious motive.
  • Verdi's Il trovatore takes this to extremes. Ok, it takes everything to extremes.
  • Referenced in Waiting for Godot.
  • There is a ridiculous number of examples in the works of William Shakespeare:
    • Hamlet: The King of Denmark was murdered by his younger brother, Claudius, who has seized the throne. But the old king returns as a ghost and commands his son, Hamlet, to take revenge on Claudius. Cue five acts of philosophy and reluctance while the audience screams for Hamlet to Kill Him Already!
    • In As You Like It, Sir Rowland de Boys has died, leaving his eldest son Oliver with instructions for the upbringing and allowance of his youngest son, Orlando,note  but Oliver has chosen to withhold Orlando's inheritance and bring him up like a servant. Their rivalry persists until Orlando saves Oliver's life and Oliver repents.
    • Also in As You Like It, Duke Frederick has deposed his older brother, Duke Senior — who embraces his exile, choosing to live with his entourage like merry men in the forest — but in the meantime, the rivalry drives Duke Fredrick to banish Senior's daughter, Rosalind, for fear that her presence at court will stir up sympathy for the old duke. Eventually, Duke Fredrick finds religion and returns his brother's dukedom.
    • In King Lear, Edmund the bastard manipulates his father into believing his half-brother, Edgar, is conspiring against them and gets Edgar banished so that he can inherit his lands instead. The plan ends up snowballing into a bid for the English throne, but in the final act, Edgar returns from exile and anonymously defeats Edmund in a duel, only revealing his true identity when his brother lies dying.
    • Also in King Lear, the rivalry between Lear's older daughters, Goneril and Regan, who are lying, manipulative bastards, and his youngest daughter, Cordelia, who is honest and virtuous. It doesn't end well for any of them.
    • Don Pedro and Don John in Much Ado About Nothing. Don Pedro is the prince of Aragon, and Don John is his younger, illegitimate brother. When the play opens, Pedro has just defeated an uprising led by John, so John takes it upon himself to be the villain of the piece and interfere with his brother's romantic machinations however he can—though he ends up just angsting for five acts while his minions do the evil stuff for him.
    • Richard, Edward, and George in Richard III. They stuck together during the revolution of the previous play, which saw Edward ascend the throne, but Richard has his heart set on the crown and won't let his older brothers stand in the way.
      • Since pretty much all the English kings have been part of one Big, Screwed-Up Family, most of the histories see some permutation of second cousins twice-removed competing for the throne or other.
    • Prospero of The Tempest is "the wronged duke of Milan," deposed by his evil brother Antonio. When Antonio's ship passes by the island Prospero has made his home, the magician sees an opportunity to right an old wrong . . .

    Toys 
  • BIONICLE: Mata Nui and the evil Makuta, who put the former to sleep, were presented as this in legends. Subversion: Turns out the legends were lies. While Mata Nui's really a Physical God, Makuta, who is only a Makuta named Teridax, was only one of the smaller beings living inside him. Double Subversion: Makuta always called him "brother" (partly because he originally served on his side, partly because he saw himself as equal), and eventually usurps him, taking over his body and forcing Mata Nui to fight him using his prototype body.
  • Action figure super-hero Stretch Armstrong has a villainous brother named Retch Armstrong.
  • SuperThings:
    • Emperorder and Moonarchaos are the original hero and villain of the world, and are also brothers. Emperorder is the younger of the two, with Moonarchaos the older villain.
    • Dr. Tropic and Captain Pine are both brothers on opposite sides of morality. Dr. Tropic is a villain, while Captain Pine is a hero. The two of them aren't directly rivals to each other, and have their own rivalries instead.
    • Puzz Left and Pierce Right are brothers and rivals to each other, each being opposite-sided puzzle pieces. Puzz Left is a villain, while Pierce Right is a hero.
    • Best Bite and Bad Bite are halves of the same sandwich, and are brothers on opposite sides, along with being each others' rivals. Best Bite is a hero, while Bad Bite is a villain. The two share the same sandwich fillings, but each have different abilities.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney:
    • An adopted example: Franziska von Karma from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney has some severe issues with her adopted "little brother" Miles Edgeworth. She's determined to outdo him in nearly everything, especially prosecuting, and is unhappy that she won't get to prosecute before he does (even though she's seven years younger than he is). Edgeworth doesn't seem to care very much, which only infuriates Franziska more.
    • As revealed in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All, younger sister Misty Fey was able to get the position as the Master of Kurain Village, due to surpassing her older sister Morgan in spiritual power. This left the latter extremely embittered and led her to conspirate to eliminate the main family's bloodline to instill her daughter Pearl as the new Master. It's also revealed that part of the reason Mia left the village was to avoid fighting her younger sister Maya for the position.
    • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations reveals that Morgan had two daughters before Pearl, the twins Dahlia Hawthorne and Iris. The former is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who committed one crime after another trying to cover her tracks (ending when she attempted it on Phoenix), while the latter is a sweet and gentle soul who, despite being accomplice to her sister multiple times, genuinely loved her and just wanted her to stop piling up more sins. It seems to run in the family.
    • In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Kristoph and Klavier Gavin are respectively Cain and Abel, with Kristoph being an Amoral Attorney who is responsible for Phoenix getting disbarred, and Klavier being a more moral prosecutor.
    • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, Ga'ran is the Cain to Amara's Abel. She framed her brother-in-law for a faked assassination to usurp control of the country from her sister, and outright had her sister shot when she was about to expose her crimes.
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc has Junko and Mukuro. Mukuro was going along with Junko's Twin Switch plan as ordered when Junko used Monokuma's spears to "execute" her on the pretense of her having a bad attitude. Mukuro was a villain in her own right, but murdering Mukuro simply to get off on her sister's despair marks Junko as the Eviler than Thou sister.
  • The Otonokoji twins of Super Danganronpa Another 2, with her bullying big sister Hibiki as the Cain, and the meek and submissive Kanade as the Abel. By Chapter 3, the roles reverse; Kanade turns out to be the capital C for emphasis Cain, making Hibiki look almost like a saintly Abel in comparison.
  • Shiki and SHIKI in Tsukihime. Best friends, adopted siblings. Then SHIKI goes crazy because Roa possessed him plus his inversion went off. Still, turns out if they're able to meet on friendly (Kagetsu Tohya) or semi-sane (Kohaku's route) terms they still actually get along quite well, and he's not really that bad a guy.
    • Also from the Nasuverse are the Aozaki sisters, Touko and Aoko, although the details aren't clear.
  • Umineko: When They Cry has four siblings in one Big, Screwed-Up Family. It also subverts the usual "brothers or sisters" rivalry. Krauss is largely resented by his younger siblings, particularly Eva, who actually takes her resentment out on Krauss's wife, Natsuhi. All four of them are pretty messed up, though, due to being raised by Kinzo, and at certain points, even Krauss and Rudolf admit that they wish they'd been better older brothers to Rosa.
  • Twin brothers Leni and Seizh of Under the Moon seem to get along fine at first, but Seizh's simmering inferiority complex regarding his more successful sibling is itching for an outlet.

    Web Animation 
  • Dreamscape: Betty despises her sister, Melinda. Melinda is a Wicked Witch after all. When they finally do fight in episode 7, she takes great pleasure in beating her up.
  • Lifty and Shifty from Happy Tree Friends, when Shifty decides that his brother has outlived his usefulness and tries to escape with the loot. It never ends well.
  • RWBY: Twin siblings Qrow and Raven Branwen have opposing ideologies; Qrow stands up for the greater good while Raven is willing to sacrifice innocents and her own family for her own survival. If it's any indication, four of the saner members of the Big Bad Ensemble are surprised when Raven tells them that she'll only accept an Enemy Mine if they kill her brother. While it is ultimately the set up for her plan, Raven notably doesn't care that Qrow is in the crossfire and fights him herself, while he in turn furiously disowns her for siding with Salem.

    Webcomics 
  • Akuma's Comics: Tails the Fox has an older brother, Kilo Prower, who soon reveals himself to be a criminal and pirate. He ends up working for the Ministry and kills an Alternate Universe version of him, though he at least had the decency not to intervene in Tails' second wedding.
  • In American Barbarian, Rick finds himself fighting his oldest brother. And realizes he was party to the deaths of their other five brothers.
  • In Bad Moon Rising, this is the dynamic between Chloe and most of her siblings, but most especially her brother Derek.
  • Beyond the End has Cain and Abel themselves. While their relationship is more amicable than the original iteration, Cain still killed Abel under the belief that it was for the greater good. They later meet again in Death's realm where they end up fighting.
  • Bob and George: Bob likes to burn things and George likes ice cream. Plus at the end, it is revealed that this was all a plot to ensure that the hero George would kill the villain Bob if he had to.
    • Since robots from the same creator are termed siblings, a good number of other fights.
  • In Cheating Men Must Die, Su Mingyue is deeply resentful of her older half-sister Ziyue due to their difference in status, as Ziyue's late mother was their father's first wife while Mingyue's mother remains a concubine. As Ziyue's status makes her a prime candidate for the next empress, Mingyue plots to get her out of the way by setting her up in a compromising position with a known sadist so that she'll be forced to marry him instead, and Mingyue makes it clear that she doesn't care if Ziyue is raped or killed in the process.
  • Ctrl+Alt+Del's Rory and Ethan.
  • Isaac Jenner and his brother Gabriel from Demonology 101 respectively, with a slight variation in that Issac is the younger brother whereas in most cases the older brother is portrayed as the villainous one. His hatred stems mainly from his status as The Un-Favourite, both in the eyes of his father and those of The Powers That Be. Isaac mellows out a bit after meeting Madeline, a demon whom he falls in love with, and eventually gives up on trying to kill Gabriel as part of a deal with The Hero to save her life.
  • Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire:
    • Sometimes pits Dominic and Gregory against their necromancer brother Jacob. Early on, there was an interesting twist: Dominic hated Jacob, but Gregory still wanted to believe the best of him. And eventually they do put aside their differences, but remain apart.
    • Luna's relationship with her sisters was also like this for a while, but the three surviving sisters eventually decided to try and at least tolerate each other after the rest of their family got themselves killed with their petty fighting.
  • In Drowtales, this tends to happen due to Royally Screwed Up families:
    • Vy'chriel and Yaeminira. Yae was an adopted "protector twin", and The Un-Favourite. She killed Vy'chriel for the crime of refusing to tow the family line and took her name.
    • The fandom now fears for Chrys and her "protector twin", Shinae. Chrys' mother actually warns them against betraying each other with a story about the first "protector twin", and what happened when the true daughter betrayed her.
    • To a much lesser extent, Ariel and her older "sister" Syphile. Syphile was forced to become Ariel's Governess, despite having never been trained in childcare. After years with a Babysitter from Hell, when asked what she would most like to do, the ten-year-old Ariel unsurprisingly replies "kill Syphile".
    • Another example with Ariel is with her half-sister Kalki, who goes so far as to stab Ariel in the hand and then chop off her arm they very first time they meet.
  • 8-Bit Theater's Black Mage once watched his own blind brother stumble around an uneven room laced with knives and tiger pits, even going so far as to push him when it seemed said brother would survive the ordeal. It would have been cruel to let him live after what he did to his eyes...
  • In El Goonish Shive, defining Grace's physical relationship with Damien is... complicated, but their dynamic closely resembles that of an older brother and younger sister, making him the Cain to her Abel. Ironically, Grace was initially created to kill Damien.
  • The Villain Protagonist of His Face All Red kills his older brother out of jealousy. When a week later the brother walks back into town as if nothing had happened, then things get really spooky.
  • In Homestuck, the Cherub Caliborn loathes his "sister" and split personality Calliope. He murdered her dreamself before he even started his session of Sburb. As Lord English, he is still hung up on his hatred of his sister. He destroys entire dream bubbles — tearing reality apart in the process — hunting his sister's ghost so he can finally make her Deader than Dead. Arguably, everything bad in the entire story can be traced back to Caliborn's desire to destroy his sister and everything his sister loved.
  • I Love Yoo: Kousuke and Yeong-Gi, their issues come to a climax in episode 212, when Kousuke follows and attacks Yeong-Gi, after previously punching him over a railing. This results in Yeong-Gi being hospitalized.
  • In It's Walky!, Walky and his separated-at-birth sister Sal have fought each other at least twice, and they get pretty rough. Also, Beef, who was believed to be Walky's twin brother, betrays SEMME in part because of being upstaged by his puny airhead adoptive brother.
  • Lin T: There's plenty of enmity between Sangwine and his brother Fang, who killed his family and tried to orchestrate Sangwine's death on his way to becoming an Evil Overlord.
  • The Order of the Stick:
    • Elan and Nale. Nale is confused when he finds out that Roy and Julia Greenhilt actually get along. He thinks this trope is normal. And so does his girlfriend.
      Sabine: Some families are just... different.
    • And Redcloak and Right-Eye, in a more heart-rending and sympathetic example. Redcloak didn't kill his brother over rivalry, it was because of his Fatal Flaw.
    • Elan created a situation like this between his puppet Banjo the Clown and another puppet Giggles the evil Clown god of slapstick. Since deities are powered by belief, the two of them are actually gods now that an orc tribe worships Giggles and Banjo is his equally powerful rival. Elan liked the orc high-priest of Giggles' suggestion that the two were brothers.
  • In Penny Arcade, Tycho once compared his relationship with his brother to this:
    Gabe: Is that bad? Aren't you guys brothers or something?
    Tycho: You might recall that Cain and Abel were brothers.
  • In Plume, the eldest princes of Auru had this dynamic, with the twist on the story being that it was the younger who ended up killing the older.
  • In Rebirth, Noah is the Abel to his older brother, Ian's, Cain. But interestingly enough, Noah is the one who kills Ian.
    • Also hinted at with Neo and his younger brother, Abel.
  • In Sandra and Woo, a nature documentary showing this among birds unnerves a little sister.
  • Cain and Abel from Serpamia Flare. A bit of a literal demonstration of this trope in the names; Cain has great trouble talking about his brother in Chapter Two and refers to him in the past tense, while Abel expresses extreme distaste/anger at the mere suggestion that Cain may be involved with a situation at hand at the end of Chapter Two. They seem to have some past issues, though a hint in Chapter Three suggests the two brothers weren't always on bad terms.
  • Slightly Damned has an adoptive variant with Buwaro and Sakido as different kinds of Abel and Iratu as the Cain. Buwaro is kind-hearted and tries to help others, Sakido wants to make-up for scaring and abandoning Buwaro when he was a toddler as well as the things she's done in Hell and ends up dying getting him and his friend Rhea out of Hell. Iratu, on the other hand, became a General for the army of hell and leads them in an attack to conquer Medius, he still loves Sakido but hates Buwaro and when he learns she died for him he tries to kill Buwaro himself.
    • Kieri and Kazai also veer into this route; while they love each other, Kazai has bought into the Angel-Supremacist cult ruled by the now-corrupt Heaven while Kieri was always doubtful about it. Kazai's inability to convince Kieri and the other angels that Heaven is unquestionably good (and that the Warrior Class is even gooder and the Angelic Council is equal to Gaia) and Hell is unquestionably evil leads him to (try to) beat her and her demon boyfriend until they admit his 'truth'. Her being better at combat through Dirty Fighting, despite his angelic teachers telling him he was always a better fighter than Kieri, just makes him angrier.
  • Oasis and Kusari in Sluggy Freelance. Oasis actually killed Kusari once, but she got better. Admittedly, it's unclear if they're siblings in the traditional sense of the word, or if it's some weird clone/other-half-of-a-supernatural-force thing or what-have-you.
  • Can we mention everyone's favorite Yaoi webcomic, Starfighter? They're not brothers or even friends, but Cain is the codename of the violent Seme and Abel is the much nicer Uke.
  • In Yokoka's Quest, Mao fights his twin sister Yokoka in chapter 2. During this his sclerae turn black and his red irises shine through, and he suggests he "should just do everyone a favour and get rid" of her.

    Web Original 
  • Some Jenny Everywhere media depict Jenny Nowhere as Jenny Everywhere's evil older sister, although in other versions they aren't related (to the point of depicting Nowhere as having a one-sided romantic interest in Everywhere.
  • In The Gamer's Alliance, both Refan and Zarnagon and Leraje and Ronove are this as they work for opposite sides in the war.
  • Cortez and Mendoza Cardinal from The Leet World. Cortez was the leader of the Ochos Muertos terrorist group, Mendoza his second-in-command. When Cortez rejects Mendoza's plans to gain power and wealth, a furious Mendoza betrays brother, taking control of the Muertos and leaving Cortez blind. Years later, he hires the Domination Guy to kill Cortez, and when that fails, he concocts an elaborate plan to enter the House and finish his brother off.
    • Played with when Team Dad Westheimer kills Mendoza in the final challenge, saving Cortez's life. However, Cortez (who had sworn to have his revenge on his brother for blinding him) is furious, and vows to avenge Mendoza's death.
      Westheimer: I don't care about this feud of theirs. Probably goes back to "who did Mommy love more?"
      Cortez and Mendoza: Me!
  • The AlternateHistory.com timeline A More Personal Union has a cousins example in the case of Henri III of France and Ferdinand of Uceda. They utterly despise each other, and eagerly lead their countries into battle in the hopes of facing one another on the battlefield.
  • In one Neopian Times multi-chapter story, The Price of Faith, Lyth the evil, bitter Light Faerie frames her kind, sweet sister Pandora the Dark Faerie for stealing the Faerie Crystal from Fyora's staff, breaking it into seven pieces, and scattering it across Neopia.
  • In New Vindicators, siblings are often at odds, its just that kind of series. Phobos and Deimos are twin brothers, and Deimos wants to be the one who kills Phobos, while Phobos' problems are less personal, and more because Deimos is a bad guy. In the European Academy, this pops up again, with the younger sibling being the evil one, wishing to make their older sibling suffer as much as possible, rather than outright killing them.
  • The SCP Foundation has two entities registered as SCP-073 and SCP-076, respectively "Cain" and "Abel" (along with a SCP-336 "Lilith" who refuses to confirm or deny any relationship with them) with semi-complementary powers (Cain is an otherwise pleasant man with metal limbs who destroys any plant-based matter on contact, and anyone who hurts him receives the same injuries; Able is an eternally resurrecting and extremely deadly Implacable Man who became a Psycho for Hire for the Foundation out of "boredom"). Able is still murderously angry at Cain (becoming violent at the sight of Cain's Oth, although he shouldn't be able to know what it is if God gave it to Cain after Able was killed...) They're both pretty much immortal. They've probably met again long before the SCP found them, and sometime after The Bible's story with them.
  • Jeremy and Bran from Shadow of the Templar. While Jeremy still cares for Bran and wants him to reconcile with their father, Bran despises Jeremy for being a better thief than him and having stolen his father's attention from him despite being "only" a foster son. Whenever the two meet, it's always highly uncertain whether Bran will listen to Jeremy or kill him out of spite. It's even all but said that they had sexual relations in the past, which really makes their current relationship a complicated one.

    Western Animation 
  • Not to the level of homicidal tendencies that we normally see on this trope (as is a show from The Disney Afternoon) but the relationship between Big Bad Duke Igthorn in Adventures of the Gummi Bears with his twin brother Victor is of total animosity as one is a vile traitor and the other is a heroic and loyal knight of the King.
  • Lemongrab and Lemongrab 2 in Adventure Time are technically clones of each other, but address each other as "brother" and have a sibling-like dynamic. However, the older Lemongrab grows more antagonistic, and increasingly responds to the younger sibling's attempt to resist his cruel whims with violence, including attempts to kill and eat Lemongrab 2.
  • In the episode "Gonna Getcha" of The Angry Beavers, the Beaver brothers watch a movie with a Cain and Abel plot. Daggett gets absolutely loaded with Paranoia Fuel.
  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the royal family of the Fire Nation exhibits this with two sets of siblings. As above, in both cases, the younger sibling is the outright sociopath of the two. On one occasion Azula outright attempts to kill Zuko her brother, as she shouts, "I'm about to celebrate becoming an only child!" Later comics have Zuko despise that their relationship is one of battle and tears; he is tired of fighting his own sister in near death scenarios. When Zuko irrevocably proves to Azula that he does care for her as a person, it actually triggers a genuine sense of sisterly care from Azula, although this did not necessarily prevent further conflict between the two. It remains to be seen whether the two ever truly reconciled or not. It can also be inferred that preventing this trope is the reason why Zuko has only one child. And it is unknown whether this trope is in effect among Izumi's two children.
    • In season 3, Sozin and Roku are revealed to have been as close as brothers in their youth. Then Roku went away to become the Avatar, and Sozin became Fire Lord and decided that what the world really needed was to be conquered by him. They'd grown apart rather, and Roku kept shutting Sozin down flat whenever he brought these ideas up. Eventually Roku violently halted an invasion of the Earth Kingdom, which Sozin interpreted as a permanent breach of their old friendship… and therefore betrayed Roku to his death during a volcanic eruption, leaving him free to launch his world conquest.
    • And in The Legend of Korra, we have Amon/Noatak and Tarrlok. Neither's exactly good, but the younger, Tarrlok, is much closer to the heroes' side by the end of things than Amon is.
    • Book 2 has Korra's father Tonraq and his brother Unalaq, the latter going to various lengths to eliminate the former and bring Korra to his side.
  • The Professor Amadeus Sharpe and his older brother Mad Scientist Wilmer Sharpe aka Dr. Scarab, from Bionic Six.
  • Bob's Burgers has the Fischoeder brothers—the criminal, borderline-sociopathic Big Brother Bully Calvin and the long-suffering, oft-belittled Butt-Monkey Felix. Looks can be deceiving, however—Calvin is Abel, while Felix is Cain. Felix is responsible for Calvin's missing left eye, and the Season 4 finale depicts Felix attempting to drown Calvin under the pier. Moreover, Calvin's nonchalance about the situation implies that even outside of the eye incident, this isn't the first time Felix has tried to murder his brother.
  • Boo Boom! The Long Way Home: Mario and his identical twin Giovanni are like this since Mario is a member of the Italian resistance while Giovanni is allied with the Germans. In episode 7, Giovanni shows up with 2 German soldiers at Rossellini’s school, where an injured Mario is being nursed to health, to arrest his brother. However, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn when he realizes the Germans want to execute Mario, rather than just arrest him.
  • Cree Lincoln and Numbuh 5 of Codename: Kids Next Door. Also, in Operation: Z.E.R.O., Numbuh Zero and Father.
  • Wayne and Lucien Cramp of ''The Cramp Twins'.
  • In "The Secret Origins of Darkwing Duck", Negaduck is said to be Darkwing's cousin, raised by Space Pirates.
  • Defenders of the Earth has the Phantom and his brother Kurt.
  • Parodied in the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Dollhouse Drama".
  • In the Di-Gata Defenders Backstory Nazmul was the Cain to Adar's Abel. Nazmul became corrupted by his power and created the megalith in order to seize all the power of the di-gata stones for himself.
  • Ed and Sarah from Ed, Edd n Eddy. While some viewers won't realize it, Ed will at times stand up to her aggression such as in "Sir Ed-a-Lot" and "Little Ed Blue". Sarah one time asked Rolf, "What am I? His keeper?" when Rolf asked her for Ed so that Ed can help him mash raspberries. In The Movie, it's revealed in that Eddy had a big brother who always beat him up.
  • Egyxos has Kefer and his brother Exaton. Kefer is the Big Good who is seeking to thwart Exaton from subjugating the people of Egyxos.
  • Elena of Avalor Season 3: We have cousins Elena as Abel and Esteban as Cain, since they consider each other their siblings in all but name. It's a little complicated, though; Esteban doesn't want to go against Elena, but he feels he has no choice because he fears her wrath and he eventually accepts that he has to get rid of Elena in order to feel safe. Elena doesn't want to fight him either, but unlike him, she knows where she stands and that Esteban did this to himself (since he never concretely takes responsibility for his actions), so she understands that she may need to kill him if things get too far (that, and some anger mixed in early on).
  • The Diabolical Mastermind and Big Bad Phaeton and the Proud Warrior Race Guy and Defector from Decadence Marsala from Exo Squad. Although both were created artificially, they were from the same brood (and one of the earliest surviving, at that), so by Terran standards, they would have been brothers. To add to the fun, it's implied that Phaeton's villainy is an attempt to compensate for having betrayed Marsala during the First Neosapien War fifty years ago.
  • A rather lighthearted example appears in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. The imaginary friends Imaginary Man and Nemesis (short for Nemesister) were created by a boy and his Bratty Half-Pint sister respectively — the sister created Nemesis just to bug her brother and Imaginary Man. Their feud continues after the now grown-up siblings adopt Imaginary Man and Nemesis for their children. Ironically enough, the brother adopts Nemesis thinking she would be the perfect friend for his daughter and the sister adopts Imaginary Man thinking he would be the perfect friend for her son.
    • Terrence and Mac can be viewed this way.
  • In Gargoyles:
    • The relationship between Goliath and his brother Coldstone, although Coldstone was resurrected by the villains Demona and Xanatos and manipulated into hating Goliath.
    • Goliath and Thailog is a more straightforward example, although the latter is an evil clone of the former rather than them truly being brothers.
      • Thailog himself eventually arranges for the rest of the Manhatten Clan to have clones created under his control, although most of them are redeemed.
  • Corey and Trina from Grojband, though most of the animosity comes from the latter. The episode "Dreamreaver" reveals that it wasn't always this way, as a quick Journey to the Center of the Mind reveals that Trina locked up the nicer part of herself a long time ago, with said nicer part acting as a Cool Big Sis to Corey. What triggered this change is unknown (though it's implied that it has something to do with Nick Mallory).
  • Ivanhoe: The King's Knight, as tradition dictates, features this between King Richard and Prince John.
  • In the Kim Possible episode "The Ron Factor", Global Justice chief Dr. Director and supervillain Gemini are (fraternal) twins, and the usual opposition between hero and villain clearly takes a back seat to their personal issues (particularly, Gemini's annoyance that Dr. Director won't defer to him as the older -- by four minutes -- sibling).
  • The title character from King Leonardo and His Short Subjects is the Abel to Itchy's Cain.
  • Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts has this between Long Lost Siblings Kipo and Scarlemagne in the second season, with the latter being the Cain. In an interesting variant, the Cain holds no ill will towards their Abel; all their hate is focused solely on the favoritism of their parents, namely for breaking their promise to escape with him from the Science Bunker, and failing to look for him after its destruction. At one point, Kipo even calls their father out for this when he attempts to justify himself.
  • Kong: King of the Apes has Kong's owner, Lukas, and his twin brother, Richard.
  • Twister often has this relationship with his older brother Lars in Rocket Power.
  • Ang, the Golden Dragon and his twin sister Ying, the Shadow Dragon (whose names sound suspiciously like Yang and Yin) in Legend Of The Dragon, at least until Ying's Heel–Face Turn.
  • Masters of the Universe: Big Bad Skeletor was supposed to secretly have once been Keldor, the brother of King Randor (and thus Prince Adam/He-Man's uncle). This was never officially revealed in any canon but has been confirmed as the intended outcome of the original minicomics that had already begun to anviliciouslly hint at it when the toyline was axed. Skeletor's past as Keldor was depicted in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002) and the backstory of he and Randor being half-brothers was discussed by the writers on a DVD commentary as being an additional reason for their more specific & personal animosity in that version.
  • Megaman and Protoman are this in the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Princess Luna and Celestia form a rather complicated example. Luna got corrupted by an outside influence and when that was gone, Celestia immediately offered to return her to power.
    • Also, in the episode "One Bad Apple", Babs Seed, who is the cousin of Apple Bloom, bullies the Cutie Mark Crusaders after she joins Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. However, when it turns out that she only did that out of fear of being bullied herself, she and the CMC make amends.
    • The season 4 finale backstory has Tirek and Scorpan (originally from the G1 pilot episode My Little Pony: Rescue at Midnight Castle) reimagined as two brothers. They aim to steal all the magic in Equestria until Scorpan makes friends with the ponies and turns against Tirek.
  • Sensei Wu and Lord Garmadon in Ninjago are the series' Abel and Cain respectively. The former is the younger brother who grows to become a wise Old Master who acts as the mentor to the ninja. The latter is the older brother who slowly turns evil involuntarily after getting bitten by the Great Devourer, to the extent of becoming an Evil Overlord. Garmadon gets cleansed of evil after being defeated by Lloyd and turns good again.
    • This dynamic is reversed temporarily in Season 3: Wu undergoes Unwilling Roboticisation into an evil cyborg controlled by the Overlord, while Sensei Garmadon serves as the strict Team Dad for the ninja.
  • Over the Garden Wall has Adelaide, the Good Woman of the Woods, and her sister, the child-enslaving, turtle-eating Auntie Whispers. Adelaide is Faux Affably Evil, Auntie Whispers is Creepy Good.
  • The Owl House:
    • The Clawthorne sisters have a pretty fierce rivalry during season 1, with Lilith trying to forcibly induct her younger sister Eda into the Emperor's Coven after Emperor Belos promised her he'd be able to heal Eda's curse. In the season 1 finale, it's revealed that Lilith was the one who cursed Eda in the first place to ensure she'd win a place in the Emperor's Coven, believing it would be a temporary thing, and not the debilitating illness Eda has been dealing with for decades now. When Belos reveals he never planned to heal Eda and tries to have her petrified, Lilith defects from the Emperor's Coven, saves Eda, shares her curse between the two of them, and tries to mend their broken relationship.
    • Perhaps the most intense sibling rivalry in the whole show is between Caleb and Philip Wittebane, a rare example where it's the younger sibling that becomes evil. Caleb raised Philip after the death of their parents, and the two moved to Gravesfield, a town of witch hunters. There, Caleb met an actual witch named Evelyn, and moved away to the Demon Realm to enter a romantic relationship with her. Philip, believing Caleb had been abducted by an evil witch, followed them, and upon finding them, became so enraged at his brother's perceived betrayal that he stabbed Caleb to death. He then stole Caleb's body and used it to make a very long line of Grimwalkers, in an attempt to make a "better version" of his brother that wouldn't betray him. Hunter, his latest Grimwalker, grew up completely isolated from the outside world, and was nearly murdered by his "uncle" after discovering the truth.
  • Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures: Betrayus is the evil, conniving brother to series Big Good, President Spheros.
  • Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars temporarily has this between Phineas and a Sithinatored Ferb.
    • In the main series, Doofenshmirtz hates his younger brother Roger for being the favorite of their mother while Doof was subjected to one of the most absurd Hilariously Abusive Childhoods in media. As such, when he's not trying to take over the Tri-State Area Doof is looking to publicly humiliate Roger in some petty attempt at revenge which ends up backfiring in some way or another.
  • The relationship between Mojo Jojo and the girls in The Powerpuff Girls could easily be seen this way, especially after it's revealed that it was Mojo who caused the accidental addition of Chemical X into the perfect girl mixture. Interestingly enough, it's he who has a Villainous Breakdown when the truth is revealed…
  • ReBoot's principal villains, Megabyte and Hexadecimal, are brother and sister, yet they are always trying to kill each other. When an incredulous Bob asks why, Hexadecimal casually explains that it's just "sibling rivalry."
    • Thanks to a Retcon, Megabyte and Matrix fit this too. Matrix's dad, Wellman Matrix, is responsible for the "birth" of Megabyte. Megabyte even calls the nullified Wellman "father" so this makes Megabyte and Matrix brothers. Good thing Matrix doesn't know this since he has a problem with viruses.
  • Robot and Monster has Robot and his Jerkass older brother Gart, who considers himself the Always Someone Better to Robot and will do anything to run afoul of him, such as buying the main duo's apartment and using his power to wildly lower and raise the temperature or creating a Pole-O team to go up against his, then using a blatantly false sob story to garner sympathy. Over the show's single season, Gart got hit by Laser-Guided Karma at least twice.
  • Rocket Power: Twister and his brother, Lars, are often at each other's throats, especially when it comes to their rivalry at street hockey.
  • In Shadow Raiders, Femur arranged for his brother to be locked away in the prison planet, a hellhole where the Cluster's worst war criminals were sent to, where he was subjected to horrific tortures and expected not to survive. Considering Femur had to bribe the soldiers that were dragging him away so he wouldn't be executed, Sternum had it coming for A: trying it and B: not using more loyal guards. And from what we later see, while Sternum is less Obviously Evil, he isn't actually any better.
  • South Park:
    • Eric Cartman and Scott Tenorman.
    • Lemmiwinks and Wikileaks in "Bass to Mouth". In this case, it's the good brother killing the evil brother.
  • In Superman: The Animated Series, Weather Wizard tries to kill his younger brother when he backs out of his mass-murdering plan.
  • In Tangled: The Series we have two characters who are related via adoption and spend most of the series not realizing their familial connection. Their relationship was actually a good one prior to discovering this connection — indeed, part of the reason it becomes antagonistic is because of this revelation. The characters are Rapunzel and Cassandra (who is revealed to be Gothel's biological daughter). When Rapunzel tries to convince Cassandra to stand down by pointing out that this effectively makes them sisters, Cassandra scoffs at the idea and claims that this simply reinforces how Rapunzel has overshadowed Cassandra her entire life (Gothel abandoned Cassandra so she could keep Rapunzel). This is occurring right when Cassandra has decided to pull a Face–Heel Turn by claiming the Moonstone. While Rapunzel still seems to want to fix things, the relationship between the adoptive sisters is now an antagonistic one.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
    • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) Shredder's younger brother, Lt. Kazuo Saki, is a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department; the two brothers despise each other, Kazuo rather embarrassed to have such a man as a sibling. (In most continuities, "Saki" is actually Shredder's given name, his family name being "Oroku"—placed before the given name, as is done in Japan—making this version something of an error compared to other continuities.)
    • In the 2003 series, adoptive brothers Hamato Yoshi and Yukio Mashimi become this when Mashimi, in a fit of jealousy, kills fellow adoptee and love triangle member Tang Shen. Afterwards, Yoshi kills Mashimi in revenge. (This is an adaptation of the story of Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Nagi from the original Turtles story, which led to quite the Cycle of Revenge when Nagi's younger brother Oroku Saki, who would later become the Shredder, murdered both Yoshi and Shen in vengeance for Yoshi killing Nagi.)
    • The 2003 series also has Hun and Karai, both view the Shredder as their adoptive father (in Hun's case, this is only implied, whereas, Karai explicitly refers to the Shredder as "father"). Yet Hun absolutely despises Karai, refusing to serve her, when the Shredder is believed to be dead. He even sabotages a mission where Karai is tasked to execute the Turtles, by freeing Leo, and making him fight Karai, saying he might spare Splinter if Leo succeeds in killing her and in a later episode, he is forced to go rescue Karai from Agent Bishop by the Shredder, which he only does out of loyalty for the Shredder, even briefly gloating to her face how he always wanted to see her dead but now he must rescue her.
    • The 2012 cartoon versions of Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki were raised as brothers and rivals before becoming Splinter and Shredder, which would be further complicated by their shared love of Tang Shen and Saki's discovery of his birth family having died to the Hamato clan. After Tang Shen dies in a final battle between the adopted brothers and Yoshi goes missing, Saki adopted Shen and Yoshi's daughter Miwa and raised her to be the show's version of Karai as revenge for having Tang Shen taken from him. When he finds out that Yoshi is still alive and in New York as Splinter, Saki reignited their rivalry as the Shredder. After Karai finds out the truth and defects to her father's side, Shredder's hatred becomes so intense that he doesn't care if the world ends as long as he is able to kill Splinter. This is literally what happens! After those events are undone by Time Travel, Shredder is once again able to kill Spinter, this time for good, only for Leonardo to return the favor.
      • This is defied and zigzagged between the Turtles and Karai when she's revealed to be the biological daughter of Splinter as she's an antagonistic until she finds out the truth
  • Starfire and Blackfire of Teen Titans (2003), who still look like a parallel of Queens Elizabeth and Mary Tudor, even though Glen Murakami admits that they watered down the much more intense rivalry of the original comics into a more kid-friendly, "I Dream of Jeannie/Bewitched kind of way." If you're even slightly familiar with the comics, you'll know what he's talking about.
  • In the Thunder Cats 2011 episode "Between Brothers," Big Bad Mumm-Ra hopes to invoke this trope when Sibling Rivals Lion-O and Tygra travel to the Astral Plane, where they witness a scene from their youth that drives them to Sword Fight, Tygra using an astral copy of Lion-O's own Sword of Omens.
  • Total Drama has its first sibling duo in Pahkitew Island with Amy (Cain) and Samey (Able).
  • Transformers has Planet-sized, Transforming Mecha (that turn into planets) Physical Gods Primus and Unicron. Unicron is the Big Bad God of Evil Omnicidal Maniac seeking to destroy everything that isn't him. Primus is the Big Good who is completely loaded with BFGs and Wave Motion Guns seeking to thwart his brother. However, his trump card isn't any of that weaponry — it's the Transformers themselves. Unfortunately, they'd rather spend their time fighting each other.
  • Kitty and her evil twin sister, Katty, from T.U.F.F. Puppy.
  • Urban Vermin's central conflict is driven by a rivalry between two raccoon brothers — Ken, the show's Big Bad, and Abe, leader of La Résistance against Ken's dictatorship. Notice the names while you're at it.
  • The Venture Bros.:
    • Played with where Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture eats his twin brother Jonas Venture, Jr while they were still fetuses. Jonas survives and later escapes, and attacks Thaddeus but gives up because he can't kill his own pathetic brother. Jonas finding his true calling as a heroic man of science quickly becomes a success financially, and with the ladies. It's implied that both would be successful if Thaddeus became a supervillain, and arched his good brother.
    • Another example is Dr. Killinger and the Investors, whom he refers to as his brothers. Given the things they do for people, Killinger is the Anti-Villain Abel to their Cains.
    • After the season 7 finale and The Reveal that Dr. Venture and The Monarch are half-brothers, it's safe to say they also have this dynamic. The Grand Finale reveals that they're actually both clones of the original Rusty, with the Monarch's DNA having been augmented with that of a baboon. He was already deep in denial about them being brothers, but the revelation that he's spent decades basically hating himself sends him into a Villainous BSoD before his wife convinces him to take it in stride and label himself Rusty's "better half".
  • In Villainous, Villain Protagonist Dr. Flug was the Arch-Enemy to his superhero brother Goldheart before going to work for Black Hat's Evil, Inc., but still wanted him dead long afterwards. The first season finale sees them renew their old rivalry.
  • Wakfu: Yugo has had to deal with being the Abel twice, the first time in Season 2 with his nihilistic and crazy Eliatrope brother Qilby, who is also the Cain to the rest of the Original Eliatropes and Dragons, and again in the OVA and Season 3 with his Dragon sibling Adamai having a falling out that leads him to joining with the villains of Season 3. The latter case he's able to patch up, while the former...doesn't.
  • The Miser Brothers, Snow Miser and Heat Miser from The Year Without a Santa Claus, might be one of the best examples of this trope.

    Real Life 
  • Baby sharks developing in the womb will fight and eat each other before they are born. Only two sharks end up being born, and that's only because there are two separate wombs.
  • Invoked by the crown inheritance of the Assyrian Empire. As often the case in polygamist cultures, the heir of the throne did not follow the primogeniture but rather every son of the king was a valid claimant. The usual way of arranging the inheritance was an all-out murder roulette where the sons murdered each other until only one was left. Although this practice was intended to guarantee that the ablest of the heirs would inherit the throne, it also meant that the Empire fell into anarchy and civil war until the new king had established himself. It eventually led to the collapse of the Empire.
  • Pagan Min, the ninth king of the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma. When his father Tharrawaddy died in 1846, he was in line for the throne but his brothers opposed him. To ensure his right to the throne had no detractors, Pagan had his brothers killed.
  • The Banquet of Nyköping 1317. The Swedish king Birger had invited his younger brothers, dukes Valdemar and Erik, to Castle Nyköping to feast at Christmas. After everyone had gotten drunk, king Birger imprisoned his brothers, put them in the oubliette of the castle, and (so tradition says) threw the key into the nearby river. The dukes died from starvation. A large medieval key was found near the castle in 1847.
  • The end of the Kingdom of Judah, as described in the Book of Kings and Chronicles in The Bible.
  • Though it will never be proven, it's extremely likely that Cesare Borgia (son of Pope Alexander VI and then-Cardinal of Valencia) murdered or ordered the murder of his younger brother, Giovanni (Juan) Borgia, the Duke of Gandia. Juan was a hopelessly inept military commander, favored by his father; Cesare hated him and wanted his position. Being a magnificent bastard in more ways than one Cesare actually excelled at the job until his father died and ran out of funds.
  • Similarly, chicks of several species birds of prey are known to murder their siblings while in nest. Not just birds of prey either; seabirds like pelicans have been known to do this. Usually, the older, stronger sibling attacks a smaller weaker one and often ends up shoving it out of the nest. See an example, in all its horrifying glory, here.
  • An interesting historical example is the murder of King Erik IV of Denmark by his brother, Abel. Chroniclers called the murderer "Abel by name, Cain by deeds."
  • In 16th century Sweden, king Erik XIV starts behaving like he is insane and is deposed and imprisoned by his younger brother Johan after an insurrection. Johan makes himself king, while Erik's son and heir to the throne Erik Jr disappears abroad. Later king Johan has Erik Sr poisoned to death.
  • Byzantine Emperor Isaakios II adored his brother Alexios and gave him many honors. Alexios repaid him by staging a coup, putting out his brother's eyes, imprisoning him, and crowning himself emperor as Alexios III. Isaakios' teenage son managed to escape his uncle's tyranny and showed back up on his doorstep with an army: The Fourth Crusade. Things went From Bad to Worse shortly thereafter, and Constantinople passed out of Byzantine hands for almost sixty years.
  • Following the death of John VI of Portugal, his oldest son Pedro (then Emperor of Brazil) briefly succeeded to the throne. After abdicating in favor of his infant daughter Maria, Pedro's younger brother Miguel declared himself King, which led to the Portuguese Civil War (alternatively known as the War of the Two Brothers.) Six years later, Maria was returned to the throne, Miguel and his family were forced into exile, and Pedro died shortly after achieving victory.
  • Invoked by Marie-Antoinette against her brother-in-law Comte de Provence and future Louis XVIII, who stood idle as his brother Louis XVI was being murdered. According to José Cabanis' biography of the third brother, Charles X, Marie-Antoinette actually referred to the Comte de Provence as Caïn.
  • The Minamoto brothers, Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, in feudal Japan.
  • The Mughal dynasty had a lot of these. A prominent example is the murder of Prince Dara Shikoh, the King's oldest and favorite by Aurangazeb, a younger son.
  • The Ptolemys of Egypt were great proponents of this. A rather famous one, Cleopatra, was a big fan. Her father and grandfather had also done it. Though Cleopatra had more reason than most: her brothers kept trying to take away her power. Ironically though, Ptolemy I is a notable aversion. Although he was Alexander the Great's elder half-brother (or at least claimed to be, which is how he became Pharaoh) he is not a suspect in Alexander's early death.
  • The death of a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire regularly resulted in his male sons eliminating each other until only one legitimate heir was left. This was a result of Muslim marriage customs and inheritance law, which established that any son who could claim patrilineal descent (regardless if the mother was one of the Sultan's wives, concubines or slaves) had a legitimate claim to the throne. The practice was eventually discredited, with exile or imprisonment (in luxury conditions) becoming the preferred option for dealing with rival claimants.
  • In an infamous incident known as the Xuánwǔmén zhī biàn (the Xuanwu Gate Incident), Emperor Taizong of Tang ambushed his older brother Li Jiancheng (the crown prince) and his younger brother Li Yuanji. He killed his older brother personally, forced his father to make him crown prince only to make it proper for his father to surrender his throne to him just two months later.
  • After Qin Shi Huang's death, his son Hu Hai forced his brother Fusu to commit suicide. He then murdered the rest of his Massive Numbered Siblings in gruesome ways.
  • Played definitely straight in the Wars of the Roses in 15th century England. It effectively meant the extinction of the Plantagenet dynasty and whole family line.
    • The most specific example is George, Duke of Clarence. He is largely overlooked, with Richard being seen as the treacherous brother of Edward IV. However, Clarence tried rebelling against Edward by claiming they were illegitimate meaning he was the rightful King, then helped a rebellion against Edward by the previous royal family, before George switched sides again. Considering this, it isn't surprising Edward didn't trust him. Clarence continued to cause trouble for Edward, apparently thinking he wasn't getting enough influence and was finally executed. Ironically enough, despite the Play "Richard III" having Richard be responsible for George's death, the earliest sources of this event claim one of the reasons Richard may have been opposed to the Woodvilles was because he blamed them for George's death. This was despite the fact that George and Richard had fought bitterly, if not to the death certainly with death threats, over their wives' fortune. George is even rumored to have kept Richard's eventual wife Anne locked up and dressed as a servant to keep her away from Richard, who found her and rescued her. Nevertheless, it does seem like Richard did not want to see George executed.
  • William the Conqueror's children. Henry, who may have (that is: almost certainly) had his other brother William Rufus murdered to gain the throne of England, staged a coup in Normandy against his eldest brother Robert, while the other was on crusade, and later imprisoned him.
  • The Roman Empire:
    • Nero had his adoptive/step-brother Britannicus, the previous emperor's biological son poisoned shortly into his reign due to perceiving him as a threat. His motive seems to have been his mother Agrippina blackmailing him with the threat of supplanting him as the emperor. Ironically, Agrippina is thought to have poisoned the previous emperor after he picks the older Nero as his heir and before he can change his mind and makes Britannicus his heir.
    • Roman Emperor Caracalla took this Up to Eleven. Simply having his younger brother and co-emperor Geta murdered was one thing, although having him die in their mother's armsnote  was a nice touch. However he followed that up by submitting his brother's memory to damnatio memoriae, and having anyone even loosely associated with him purged - and by 'loosely', up to twenty thousand people were killed. Even four years later, he sacked the city of Alexandria for days because some actors performed a satire about the murder. He also banned the name Geta, which Ancient Rome being what it was wasn't very uncommon, so any will leaving money to anyone called Geta was rendered legally void, and anyone who had a slave named Geta had to change it. Why exactly the two brothers got on so badly isn't clear.
  • Elliot Rodger, the 2014 Isla Vista shooter. He wanted to kill his own half-brother as part of his Murder-Suicide plan because he was much more popular and promised to a more successful life than him (the only thing that gave him this advantage was simply being sociable). It failed.
  • Serial killer Leonard Lake is strongly believed by investigators to have murdered his missing younger brother Donald. However, Donald's body was never found, and Leonard killed himself shortly after his arrest. Thus, the exact circumstances of Donald's death will likely never be known, but overwhelming circumstantial evidence points to Leonard killing him to steal his identity.
  • Alan Willett is an example that also combines with Offing the Offspring. In 1993, Willet assaulted his 3 children, 17 year old Ruby, 13 year old Eric, 8 year old John, and his intellectually disabled brother, 43 year old Roger, under his care with a window weight. Eric and Roger were killed in the attack, while Ruby managed to drag John and herself to the safety of a neighbor's house. Willett was sentenced to death for the murders of his son and brother by the state of Arkansas, and executed in 1999.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Abel And Cain, Evil Brother

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NFS Carbon: Own the City

After spending the entire game chasing down the racer responsible for the crash that killed your brother Mick, Sara reveals that the true culprit behind Mick's death was actually you, although the crash also caused you to not remember the truth behind it all. However, she also reveals that Mick was so despised by everyone in the city, besides you and Sara, that it is implied that they were also let in on the truth and allowed you to get away with murder.

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