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Playing the Age Card

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Many people around the world believe in the importance of respecting one's elders; like any other social custom, many people try to exploit this by using their age to get younger people to follow their demands. Some common perpetrators of this act include relatives, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, Jerkass elderly people and middle aged people, and even enemies.

Some older people like to use their age to justify bossing around a younger person. A common example is a bossy older sibling who might use their age to justify making demands and giving orders to their younger siblings. Even if they are only older by mere seconds, some older siblings insist that their age means that their younger siblings should always obey the elder siblings and never question orders, even if said younger sibling is an adult.

Another way people use their age is to demand respect from someone younger than them. Even if the older person possesses zero respectable qualities, an older unpleasant person will have no problem demanding that younger people should never talk back or argue with them simply because of their greater age.

A somewhat less common variation of this trope involves a person believing that their greater age entitles them to special treatment or consideration. If a younger sibling inherits or becomes the heir to their parents, the older sibling(s) might insist that the oldest sibling should inherit or succeed their parents by default. In a workplace, some people might disrespect their younger co-workers, even if said co-workers outrank them or have more experience, simply because of age. In a group of friends, the oldest member of the friend group might insist that their friends defer to them because of their greater age.

Compare Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior! which this trope can overlap with if the one pulling this card is elderly. Overlaps with Because I Said So if an older person uses their age as a reason to force a younger person follow their orders. Compare When I Was Your Age... and While You Were in Diapers. Compare/Contrast Not Now, Kiddo and Just a Kid, where a person isn't taken seriously because they are younger. Can cause problems when it intersects with Older Than They Look or Younger Than They Look, when the seemingly older person is actually younger than the seemingly younger one.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You: Zig-zagged with Saki. "Respect your elders" is such a foundational pillar to her worldview that she effectively plays the card to and for everyone. Thus it is both played straight (and exaggerated) in how much she wants those younger than her to respect her but also inverted (in equal measure) with how much she will kiss the ground of anyone older than her. This reflects in her use of the "senpai" and "kouhai" honorifics: she insists on being addressed as "senpai", and she also uses "kouhai" explicitly, likely as a way of asserting her seniority.
  • Jujutsu Kaisen: Gojo tells Utahime that he's sure she isn't the traitor amidst their ranks because she's weak and doesn't have the guts. She throws her tea at him in response and berates him for not respecting her as his senior.
  • Record of Ragnarok: Adamas, (a made-up Greek god that was erased from history by Poseidon) insisted that Zeus wasn't worthy of being the ruler of the gods because he's the youngest sibling, even going so far as to raise an army to usurp him. Adamas tries to force his other younger brother Poseidon to join his army, which he declines. Adamas is infuriated at not being respected by his younger brother and attacks, which leads to Poseidon killing him in self-defense.

    Comic Books 
  • The Man: The title character is only six inches tall, but frequently bosses 12-year-old John around. It is implied that he is older than John, and says at one point "I'm older and wiser, of course".

    Fan Works 
  • Kaleidoscopic Katamari: Odeko and Velvet are twins, yet Odeko constantly emphasizes how he's the older of the pair, calling her his "baby sister". Their mother encourages this as part of her efforts to exploit his Big Brother Instinct to her own selfish ends.
  • Played for Laughs in Not Another Alicorn. When Spitfire tells her to grow up, Rainbow is annoyed and points out that with her current and Past-Life Memories combined, she's easily over a hundred years old. Spitfire just switches to teasing her for her crush on Twilight Sparkle and calls her a Dirty Old Woman.

    Literature 
  • The Famous Five: Julian frequently uses his position as "the eldest" to boss the others around, even though he is only one year older than Dick and George, and two years older than Anne.
  • Harry Potter:
    • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The dead former headmaster Phineas Nigellus appears to Harry in a picture, and passes on a message from Dumbledore, which is simply "stay where you are". In the face of Harry's fury that Dumbledore keeps refusing to tell him anything meaningful, Phineas has this to say.
      Phineas: You know, this is precisely why I loathed being a teacher! Young people are so infernally convinced that they are absolutely right about everything. Has it not occurred to you, my poor puffed-up popinjay, that there might be an excellent reason why the headmaster of Hogwarts is not confiding every tiny detail of his plans to you? Have you never paused, while feeling hard-done-by, to note that following Dumbledore’s orders has never yet led you into harm? No. No, like all young people, you are quite sure that you alone feel and think, you alone recognize danger, you alone are the only one clever enough to realize what the Dark Lord may be planning...
    • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Aunt Muriel brutally snatches the chair of a younger participant to Bill and Fleur's wedding, arguing that she's entitled to this seat because she is 107.
      You there! Give me your chair, I'm a hundred and seven!
  • I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew: The narrator mentions that the man in the "wubble" bossed him around "just because I was young".
  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Edmund has a lot of disdain for Lucy because she is younger than him, even though she's only a year younger. The oldest child Peter also takes it upon himself to boss Edmund about. In the BBC adaptation, he chooses Susan to be "it" for hide and seek, simply because he is the eldest, and he says so.
  • Amiably done in Matilda, by the older girl Hortensia, when she shamelessly tells the younger girls Lavender and Matilda about the terrifying headmistress Miss Trunchbull. This is shown by her eating crisps without offering them to the younger girls, and using phrases such as "you're only shrimps".
  • The Silver Chair: When discussing the inflexibility of Trumpkin the elderly dwarf, an owl quotes him as saying "You're a mere chick. I remember you when you were an egg. Don't come trying to teach me, sir."
  • The Story of the World: When explaining how not knowing the local laws is inconvenient, it uses the example of you, who they assume to be a kid, buying a LEGO set, only to be tricked into giving it up by a mean, older girl who claims that younger children are legally required to give their toys up to older children.

    Web Animation 

    Web Videos 
  • Happy Texts: This episode has an indirect example that overlaps with Parental Favoritism; when Chase's evil mother Tracy discovers that he's getting married before his older brother Tristan, who was always favored by Tracy, she demands that Chase give up his fiance and let Tristan marry her instead. Her justification for this demand is that Tristan is the older brother, and people would think lowly of him if his younger brother were to get married first.
  • Pear Texts: Keith demands that his successful sister Ariel, who was disowned by both him and their parents, financially support her family. He justifies making demands of her by stating that he's the older sibling, to which Ariel responds "by two minutes."
  • Peep Texts: Hillary is Esther's mean sister-in-law tries to force Esther to watch her son despite her protests. At one point Hillary insists that since Esther is younger than her, it means she has to do whatever Hillary says.

    Western Animation 
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: The episode "Operation: G.R.O.W.-U.P." has a rare case of this trope being used for good; when Numbuh One, who was transformed into an adult by the Delightful Children, demands that they hand over the age-changing device, they ask why should they. Numbuh One replies by saying that he's an adult and goody-two-shoes like Delightful Children have to obey adults, which causes them to concede in frustration.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: Briefly occurs in " Is There An Ed In The House" when Eddy, who's tired of Ed kowtowing to his spoiled younger sister Sarah, tells Ed that since he's the older brother it means that he's "the boss." This causes Ed to actually yell at Sarah, demand that she go to sleep and throws her friend Jimmy out the window to fetch the ball, the last of which causes her to cry, making Ed feel guilty. Unfortunately for Ed, the crying was just a ruse to trick him into letting his guard down so that Sarah can give him a beat down.
  • Kim Possible: Sheldon Director A.K.A. Gemini is older than his twin sister Betty by only four minutes but has been bitter about the fact that his sister never respected his status as the (technically) older sibling even as an adult.
  • The Loud House: Lori occasionally claims that she deserves privileges such as being first or getting something the siblings are fighting for because she's the oldest.
  • Rugrats: One of the ways three-year-old Angelica asserts her position over the babies is by doing this to ensure that she gets what she wants without them interfering. Specific examples include:
    • "Officer Chuckie" - Angelica has a new go-kart, which the babies want to try. She says that it is only for older children who don't wet their pants. Chuckie, the only baby no longer in diapers, responds, "But I don't wet my pants... hardly ever."
    • "Angelica For a Day" - Angelica designates a hill in the park "Big Kid Mountain" and claims it's only for children her age and up.
    • "No Naps" - Stu gives Angelica the Merry Magic Music Ball, a toy he invented, to play with and tells her to share it with the babies. Angelica tries to keep the ball for herself by telling the babies that it's only for big kids like her to play with. Chuckie calls her out for this, reminding her that Stu told her to share it with him and his friends, but Angelica retaliates by telling him that Stu forgot to tell her it's really only for big kids to play with. The babies want to prove to Angelica that they're old enough to play with the ball, so Angelica challenges them to stay up past their naptime.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Senior Discount", Old Man Jenkins bosses the employees around and has no regard for other customers. Whenever anyone has a problem with him, he just tells them, "Respect yer elders!" This leads Mr. Krabs to get his own father to kick Old Man Jenkins out, only for the two to summon increasingly older relatives to demand respect.

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