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Basic Trope: Male character doesn't let anyone get romantically involved with his sister.

  • Straight: Bob won't let his friend Charlie date Bob's sister Alice.
  • Exaggerated:
    • Bob won't let anyone date Alice, even to the point of threatening them with physical violence, challenging them to a duel or outright murdering them.
    • Charlie jokes to Bob about dating his sister, only to enrage Bob. When Charlie points out that Bob is an only child, Bob states he still can't stand the idea.
  • Downplayed:
    • Bob is annoyed at Charlie for dating Alice, but grudgingly accepts it.
    • If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...
    • Bob does put anoyne wanting to date through a tough "vetting process", but after judging them to be fine, he acquiesces.
  • Justified:
    • Bob knows Charlie's history with women is less than ideal and doesn't want his sister's heart being broken.
    • Bob thinks his friend dating his sister would make things seem very weird between the three of them.
    • Bob and Alice spend a lot of time together and doesn't want Charlie to get in the way of that.
    • Bob is in love with Charlie (whether unrequited or not).
    • Bob is in love with Alice himself (whether unrequited or not).
    • The setting is one in which Arranged Marriage is the norm and an unmarried girl's male relatives have a say in whom she will marry — the relationship might put a slight on the Family Honor.
    • Some other cultural reason pertaining to the setting exists — e.g. dating a friend's sister is like dating your own.
  • Inverted:
  • Gender-Inverted:
    • Alice tells her friend Dana to stay away from Bob.
    • Alice and Dana are sisters and Alice is telling Bob to stay away.
    • Dana is Bob's sister and is telling Alice to stay away from Bob
  • Subverted: "How dare you go out with Alice ... nah, just kidding man, it's perfectly all right!"
  • Double Subverted: Bob then recites several strict—perhaps even contradictory—conditions on which the rightness thereof hangs.
  • Parodied: Bob whales on anyone who so much as looks at Alice.
  • Zig-Zagged:
    • Bob is OK with Charlie dating Alice as long as he doesn't commit crimes. However, because All Girls Want Bad Boys no matter what, they become involved. But then Charlie crosses a line and Alice leaves him.
    • Alice has had several boyfriends. Bob didn't give Charlie, Dave or Mike this treatment, but did give it to George, Jim and Tom.
    • Bob has several sisters. He is violently protective of Alice and would challenge any guy who dares to approach her to a duel. With Carol, he's less caring, and would only give her prospective boyfriends an "If you ever dare hurt her..." speech before letting them do their thing. With Elise, he actively encourage his friends to date her. With Francine, a legendary maneater, it is his friends who he actively protects from her.
  • Averted: Bob is totally fine with Charlie going out with Alice.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: "I'm not thrilled with the thought of my sister being abused by some jerkass."
  • Invoked: Alice's first boyfriend was a horrible excuse for a human being, Bob was The Cassandra about that, and consequently, he's become nervous about her.
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: When Bob tries to stop Charlie from dating Alice, she gets in Bob's face and yells at him to lay off.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Implied: Both Alice and Bob are The Ghost, but Charlie goes home and tells his roommate Dave that Bob told him not to date his sister.
  • Deconstructed: Alice ends up single the rest of her life because no guy is willing to deal with her brother's attitude. Alice also ends up bitter at her brother Bob for scaring off potential suitors.
  • Reconstructed: Charlie has enough of a backbone not to cave in to Bob's behavior. The fact that Charlie can deal with Bob shows Alice that they can work through any other troubles that occur in their relationship, so they get married.
  • Played for Laughs: Bob offers a laughably bad reason for Charlie not to date Alice.
  • Played for Drama: Bob is sexually abusing his sister Alice, and is willing to kill any guy she might be interested in who could take her away from him.


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