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Big Brother Worship

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She just can't resist.

"Always dignified, calm, and strong... He's the perfect human. That's our big brother, Katakuri!!!"
Charlotte Brulee, One Piece

My big brother is the best, and I refuse to believe he has any flaws!

Sometimes a younger sibling just adores their elder sibling. After all they are more mature, and usually physically taller too, and able to do a lot of cool things like adults, but are also closer to your age and willing to do fun things with you and play with you. They protect you too. Why wouldn't you just agree with everything they tell you? Often will also happen when said older sibling takes the place of the parent.

Most commonly occurs with siblings of the same gender, but it can happen the other way around too. In addition, in anime, this attitude can often be emphasized by the appeal of Onee-sama or Onii-sama, since such a form is very formal and old-fashioned, which only emphasizes the degree of respect.

Has always been related to Cool Big Sis. Has never been related to God-Emperor. Thank god this has nothing to do with that Big Brother.

Compare with Big Brother Attraction. Contrast Aloof Big Brother and Disappointing Older Sibling. The "Well Done, Son" Guy is similar, wherein a parent is the object of worship. Compare Hero-Worshipper wherein someone, who could just as easily be a big brother, is seen (maybe with childlike naivete) as a hero.

Though rare, it can turn up in Real Life as well.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Mai Meido, the second Hanazono maid to fall in love with Rentarou, is deeply devoted to her older coworker Mei Meido. She's actually invoking this trope, as their last names are spelled with different kanji and they are not related by blood, though Mai claims that maids who serve the same master can be considered sisters.
  • In Ah! My Goddess, Skuld worships Belldandy and holds her up to be the ideal goddess, but is noticeably less enthused with her other older sister, Urd; however, they do have some moments of their own.
  • In Ashita no Nadja, TJ Livingstone has this towards his older brother and caretaker Harvey. When Kennosuke insults Harvey in the middle of an until-then more or less Played for Laughs verbal slapfight, TJ gets very angry and says that he will NOT tolerate any insults towards his beloved brother.
  • Bakemonogatari is an interesting example: upon meeting Koyomi, Nadeko asks him if she can address him as an older brother, and goes on to develop a complex over him.
  • Banished from the Hero's Party:
    • Ruti adores her big brother Gideon, aka Red, and is even more miserable in her lot as The Hero than she already was when he leaves (actually is forced out). Not that her Blessing allows her to show it. This trope is strong enough in her that the second she slightly slips her Blessing’s leash, she immediately abandons her main quest to go look for Gideon.
  • Bleach:
    • Yuzu possesses a strong admiration for Ichigo. She becomes upset if he doesn't acknowledge her or becomes distant towards his family. This can irritate her twin sister, Karin, who always feels like she has to chase Ichigo down to mend things. When she finally tells Yuzu she needs to stop idolising Ichigo, Yuzu storms away from the dinner table in tears.
    • Rukia spent decades feeling she couldn't do anything but disappoint her adopted older brother, Byakuya. She once tells Renji that she knows exactly how little Byakuya thinks of her because he's never looked her in the eye. The day he first does so is the day he takes a killing blow that's meant for her and almost dies; it's revealed that he's been living with two conflicting vows that were only resolved when Ichigo intervened. After that, Rukia's worship and protectiveness of Byakuya become very visible, as does the overprotective reality of his own personality. When the Vandenreich invasion leads Byakuya to directly acknowledge how strong she's become, Rukia is almost reduced to tears of joy. The anime plays with this relationship, making her into a fangirl for anything he says or does; even his incredibly bad artwork thrills her.
    • Yuushirou deeply admires Yoruichi. He expressed great sadness when Yoruichi went ahead of him in his first appearance, and later expressed great joy when he reunited with her. He abandons the group of Soul Reapers he's with to rush to her side and is willing to fight the Sternritter just for insulting her.
  • Played With in Blue Exorcist. In the backstory Yukio had this towards Rin. Unfortunately, at this point he's got into his head a very negative view of Rin and needs to be better than his brother, which results in jealousy and resentment. It's suggested that deep down he still is this trope, which just contributes to his self-loathing and mental breakdown.
    • Another interesting twist, Juzo seems to have this to Takezo... who is long dead. The fact he has this trope towards him adds to Renzo's problems with "worshipping" someone he's never known.
  • In Code Geass, Nunnally Lamperouge seems to hold this opinion in regards to her Onii-sama Lelouch, who was her only family after being attacked and exiled. She does not take it well when she discovers his role in the Rebellion and what he did (initially) in her name. Notable in that he also holds her on a sort of pedestal, along with his mother, and seems to regain his former status in her heart in the most tragic way possible.
  • Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! has Yumoto Hakone, who pretty much worships the ground that his big brother and caretaker Gora walks on and aims to be as good of a man as he is.
  • Death Note: Sayu Yagami has a bit of this with her older brother, Light. Though she does tease him about eating potato chips right after dinner, claiming he'll get fat, all in all she really looks up to her big brother.
  • The Demon Girl Next Door: In spite of Ryoko's being well aware of her sister Yuko's hopelessness, Ryoko greatly respects Yuko and sees amazing potential in her. Her baseless faith became stronger after learning that Yuko "defeated" Momo, which got exacerbated even further after it was "confirmed" that Yuko "recruited" Momo and Mikan into her "army".
  • Kari in Digimon Adventure, to the point that she hospitalizes herself twice not wanting to make Tai worry about her. In the Digimon Adventure 02 episode "Iron Vegiemon", she's disgusted when Davis starts trash-talking his older sister because she just can't comprehend not idolizing your sibling like that.
  • Dragon Ball Z: Ask Son Goten who his hero is and the answer will always be his Super-Cool Big Bro Gohan.
  • Food Wars!: Subverted by Isami Aldini. While Isami respects and looks up to his brother Takumi, he is also a calm, practical and down-to-earth counterpart to the artistic, sensitive, and highly-strung Takumi, and doesn't hesitate to give him a kick up the arse (metaphorically or literally) when it's been earned.
  • Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist readily admits that his older brother Edward has faults (and outright states he's taller than him, and a better fighter) but despite all that, no one has more confidence in him.
  • Gakuen Babysitters: Kotaro and Taka both positively adore their respective big brothers, Ryuuichi and Hayato. Somewhat downplayed with Taka as he frequently comes to blows with Hayato due to Hayato's aloofness and Taka's brattiness, but he still thinks his brother is cool and strong and is genuinely upset whenever Hayato ignores him. Kotaro takes the cake though, as he so thoroughly believes Ryuuichi is the greatest human being alive that he has a mini Heroic BSoD whenever anyone gets mad at Ryuuichi or implies that they don't like him or think him any less than perfect. This is justified in that Ryuu was his de facto primary caretaker even when their parents were still alive. The other daycare children similarly adore Ryuu as a surrogate big brother.
  • In Girls und Panzer, it's revealed in the Little Army manga that Miho looks up to her older sister Maho, and got into tankery because of her. The events of the manga result in Miho realizing that she can't follow the same Nishizumi style as Maho (since Maho is heiress so that Miho will not have to be), and following her own path.
  • GTO: The Early Years: Fumiya Shindoji had this for his brother, Ayumi's boyfriend who died in a road accident. After he died, Fumiya twisted it into taking revenge on Ayumi for "betraying" his brother by falling in love with Ryuji.
  • Gundam Build Divers shows this in a negative light with Do-ji. As part of Hyakki, Do-ji's already assumed to be strong. However, Do-ji's brother, Ogre, is a massive Blood Knight, only caring for the strongest to fight. This leads to him having a massive case of inferiority and he wishes to win Ogre's attention. When Riku starts getting Ogre's attention, Do-ji ends up freaking out and buys a Break Decal from Tsukasa Shiba to increase his power. When Do-ji can't defeat Riku using a brand new Gunpla and Ogre starts fighting him, Do-ji ends up activating the Break Decal.
  • Kei Tsukishima from Haikyuu!!, until he finds out his brother has been lying about his position on his school's team, which ruins their relationship for years.
  • Prince Rumaty from Hanasakeru Seishounen adores his brother Somand. Unfortunately, Somand is terrified of Rumaty and believes that he is out to kill him for the throne.
  • Hatsukoi Limited, being something that explores all kinds of first loves, does this with Koyoi Bessho, so much so that her brother Yoshihiko is literally a glomp on-site target.
  • Chaos from Heaven's Lost Property adores Tomoki as her Oni-chan. This is because she's a Tyke-Bomb and Tomoki was the first person to be kind to her. He ended up becoming her Morality Chain due to being the only person she loves. When he dies, she crosses the Despair Event Horizon and becomes an Omnicidal Maniac.
  • Liechtenstein feels this way about her adoptive Big Brother Switzerland in Hetalia: Axis Powers. He found and rescued her in the aftermath of World War I when she went through a horrible recession that almost killed her. Since then, she shares a customs union with him and he protects, teaches, and generally dotes on her. Another notable example is Belgium, who is often seen hanging around and praising her big brother, Netherlands. Depending on fanon opinion, Monaco might also be included for her relationship with France.
  • Asami from High School Debut has a huge Big Brother Attraction to her brother Yoh that really becomes apparent in the last few chapters. She says he's her ideal guy and tells his girlfriend she loves him more and actually cries when it's pointed out she can't be his girlfriend because she's his sister. She does all of this despite having a boyfriend (who she started going out with because her brother wasn't paying enough attention to her).
  • Infinite Stratos: Even if he gets punched in the head as many as three times, and gets scared of her, Ichika highly respects his big sister Chifuyu. Fanon plays this up with Incest Subtext. The manga takes it a step further, and puts subtle hints and "arbitrary" blushing (for Chifuyu), here and there.
  • Miyuki from The Irregular at Magic High School looks up to her brother and main character Tatsuya, and thinks very highly of him. She's always ready to speak in his defence and looks to him as a source of comfort. And that isn't including all of the Brother–Sister Incest subtext that's so obvious that it's just plain text.
  • Isabelle of Paris: Isabelle is overjoyed when Andréa comes home and runs towards him, chanting his name. She embraces him in a Bear Hug. She then thumps his chest and yells at him for making her worried while he was fighting off in the war.
  • Double Subverted in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. Kei greatly admires her older brother, but she deliberately hides it due to a combination of being in her rebel phase and not wanting people to think she has a brother complex. Even then, her pride for him still pours through in a Tsundere manner, enough so that her best friend Moeha falls in love with him based solely on her stories.
  • Magi: Labyrinth of Magic
    • All of Kouen's younger siblings hold him in very high regard and think of the world of him. In turn, despite his stoic personality, Kouen cares deeply for his siblings and treats them kindly, and even extends it to his cousins/step-siblings Hakuei and Hakuryuu.
    • Hakuryuu is also extremely attached to his older brothers, although they died in backstory.
  • The Misfit of Demon King Academy: Emilia Ludowell loves her big brother and saw him as one of the greatest examples of pureblood supremacy. When Anos beat him in the sword tournament, her regular level of hatred towards Anos skyrocketed, which resulted in her deciding to attack his mother Izabella to steal his sword and disqualify him. However, Anos knocks her down a peg by killing her; cursing her to be a half-demon everytime she ressurects; and leaving her clothless.
  • Moriarty the Patriot has Louis James Moriarty, who adores both of his older brothers, but especially believes William James Moriarty, his biological older brother, can do no wrong.
  • Tenya Iida from My Hero Academia idolizes his older brother Tensei, having decided to enroll at UA and become a Pro Hero because of how much Tensei inspired him. He also decides to take Tensei's Hero name, Ingenium, after Tensei is permanently paralyzed by the villain Stain.
  • My-HiME franchise:
    • My-HiME anime: Takumi Tokiha appears to Big Sister Worship his older sister Mai, and she goes out of her way to protect him. On the other hand, Shiho likes to address her childhood friend Yuuichi as her "big brother", even though they're not related (Mai points this out to Takumi when they introduce themselves).
    • In the manga version, Alyssa displays Big Sister Worship towards Natsuki, desperately wanting her attention from basically the moment they meet. Unfortunately, her Mother Complex is even bigger, and when Natsuki turns on their shared mom, Alyssa goes berserk.
    • Taken further in the My-Otome manga, where Alyssa tries to replace the Otome system with copies of Miyu, which would dramatically alter the military and political landscape of the entire world... so her beloved big sis Natsuki can quit her job as Headmistress of the Otome academy and thus have more free time to spend with her.
  • Naruto:
    • Uchiha Sasuke and Itachi had this relationship until Itachi killed the entire Uchiha Clan. After Sasuke killed Itachi, Obito revealed that Itachi loved Sasuke more than everything all along, and the real reason why the clan was killed; consequently, Sasuke turned to Post-mortem Big Brother Worship.
    • Hanabi has this sort of view towards Hinata according to the anime. Hanabi admired Hinata and her strength from a young age, though her views get tarnished when Hinata is deemed a failure due to being perceived as weaker than her, who is several years her junior. By the time Hinata is in her teens, after the Invasion of Pain arc, Hanabi's feelings have returned as Hinata has become far stronger and is a Determinator.
  • One Piece:
    • While not very explicit, it's shown that Luffy did have some degree of worship for his older adopted brother Ace when they were younger. Granted, Luffy was never blind to Ace's faults, and they did have a bit of sibling rivalry. Nonetheless, he did idolize his older brother, and it can be argued that Ace was probably the most important person in Luffy's life, protecting him, caring for him, and helping shape Luffy into the happy and carefree person he is today. The only people in the world who could ever supersede the love he had for his brother would be his crew and his other older brother, the long-thought dead Sabo. Even then, this is largely in part due to the fact that Ace has been dead for two years.
    • Speaking of Sabo, Luffy had similar worship for him when they were younger, prior to Sabo's supposed death. In the earlier years after that particular event, he would often remark that Sabo was a kinder older brother than Ace (who fit the Aloof Older Brother archetype to a T before circumstances caused him to soften towards Luffy). When Sabo revealed that he was alive, this worship returned, especially in lieu of Ace's death.
    • Charlotte Katakuri is the third of 85 children and apparently all of his 82 younger siblings look up to him and idolize him due to his personality, strength, position, and invincibility. According to Flampe, all of his 38 younger sisters selected him as their favorite brother. Brulee in particular looks up to him, to the point that she would claim that he never even laid himself down once. After she tells everyone, with tears running down her face, that Luffy defeated Katakuri, Oven reacts with utter disbelief, the very thought of Katakuri losing in a fair fight being tantamount to heresy, and swears to kill Luffy before he can escape, since obviously Luffy must have cheated somehow. In the end, despite knowing what Katakuri is like behind closed doors through her mirrors, Brulee still loves and worships him unconditionally; this is because he went above and beyond to defend her honor after she was horribly scarred in the face by bullies as part of their Revenge by Proxy.
  • In the Ouran High School Host Club manga, Satoshi Morinozuka adores his older brother Takashi.
    • 3rd-grader Kirimi Nekozawa treats Tamaki this way at one point because she confuses him for her actual brother, Black Magic Club president Umehito (Tamaki and Umehito are both blonde, blue-eyed, and very handsome). An entire episode is focused on Tamaki helping Umehito earn Kirimi's worship because his obsessions with cats and darkness have alienated her since she's afraid of cats and the dark.
  • In Planzet, Koyomi thinks highly of her brother, though she also realizes how obsessed he is, to the point that she won't leave his side even when is effectively going on a suicide mission.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena: Poor Nanami honestly believes that her older brother is the most awesome, amazing, handsome guy in the entire world! Unfortunately, he's actually kind of a jerk deep down.
  • The main reason why Servant × Service's Touko always hanging around at the Ward Office is because she wants to spend more time with her brother, Taishi, although he's rather clueless about it — and her abusive attitude does nothing to help.
  • Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry has Sara, who idolizes her older brother Ralph and joins the military to see him. By the end of the first episode, he's gone evil and killed her friends, and she has to come to terms with her Big Brother Attraction before she can defeat him. The same goes for the living Emily, in some respects Ralph's replacement sister, who ends up choosing Sara over her "onii-chan" when she sees what he has done.
  • Played straight and also inverted in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. While not biologically brothers, Simon has a great deal of respect and love for his bro, the 'invincible' Kamina. Having lost his parents in a horrible earthquake, he relies on his bro for moral support. The same is with Kamina, who always goes to protect Simon and be by his side. We also see that Kamina's inspiration is Simon's own drive and hidden potential. While they have an occasional argument, these two soul-brothers adore and respect one another a great deal.
  • Ren Uesugi, from They Are My Noble Masters, thinks his sister Mihato is the best there is.
  • Mikey in Tokyo Revengers looked up to his older brother Shinichiro as a child and still holds him in very high regard, with his memory inspiring Mikey's dream of creating a new age of delinquents.
  • Vampire Knight: Vampire Yuuki with Kaname. Even though he's technically not her brother, they were raised as siblings and she refers to him as "oniisama" (big brother) during the second arc.
    • Also, Ichiru with Zero. Despite his inferiority complex and rather disturbing acts, he genuinely loved Zero.
  • We Never Learn: Mafuyu is the object of admiration by her own younger sister, Miharu, who believes Mafuyu is perfect in every way (not knowing about Mafuyu's many flaws, like being an absolute slob in private). She ends up jealous of her and Nariyuki's close relationship, to the point of interpreting it as something else.
  • Elsie of The World God Only Knows is mocked in-universe for this, in regards to her adopted big brother Keima. She also looks up to her big sister Rimyuel and seeks to follow in her footsteps.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Mokuba has a serious case of hero worship over his older brother Seto. It makes sense, given that Seto basically raised him since they were five and ten years old. Even though Mokuba still gets kidnapped all the time, he can always rely on his older brother to rip his way through the transgressors' ranks to get him back.

    Comic Books 
  • All-New Ghost Rider has Gabe, who sings his brother's praises after the latter fights off a few bullies.
  • In a case of Big Sister Worship, Wolverine's younger clone Gabby in All-New Wolverine has this for her, citing her as her inspiration for becoming a good person, and even calling her "that perfect woman".
  • Batman: The oldest Bat-boy, Dick Grayson, is also the best-regarded by both Tim Drake and Damian Wayne—in the latter case, Dick proved to be the only one who would rein in his Tyke Bomb tendencies. Jason's relationship with any of his siblings is a bit more complicated, though.
  • Cosmic Boy's little brother Pol looks up to and idolizes him. When Pol grew old enough and skilled enough to join the Legion of Super-Heroes as Magnetic Kid he did so in a costume almost identical to the one Rokk wore when he started out.
  • Gender Queer: A Memoir: Maia includes a whole page on how cool eir little sister Phoebe is at one point, praising her effusively.
  • Loki's hatred towards his brother The Mighty Thor is matched only by his love for him. It's complicated.
    • It was justified after Loki was turned into a kid. Thor was the only one nice to him and is the main reason why none of Asgard had attacked him in retribution for his crimes as an adult, knowing full well that Thor would go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge as a result and most likely level the entire city in retaliation.
    • When Loki redefined their purpose and burnt everything unnecessary in Loki: Agent of Asgard one of the very few thingsnote  they held unto was that they have a brother they love.

    Fan Works 
  • Alternate Tail Series: Both Elfman and Lisanna Strauss, Elfman especially, have this for their older sister Mirajane Strauss. This also applies for Kagura Mikazuchi's admiration for Mira after she joins Fairy Tail.
  • Bequeathed from Pale Estates: Renly Baratheon has it for his (now-deceased) older brother Stannis, after going through Character Development during The Plague. Notably, he does not have this for his living older brother Robert, which is another indication of how bad Robert's character has gotten over the years since the rebellion.
  • Empathy has two examples:
    • Hiro, as in canon, deeply loves his brother Tadashi, who's been raising him as much as Cass his whole life.
    • Riley begins to idolize Go-Go the second she meets her. It doesn't take long for the biker to start acting like an older sister to the twelve-year-old, who's an only child.
  • Blank Slate: Amelia Andrews — daughter of the amnesic James and Lily Potter, who have lived as Jacob and Eva Andrews for the last fourteen years — at least wants to have this relationship with Harry, even if it's delayed because Harry initially isn't sure how to feel about her in turn when she got to grow up with their parents despite him acknowledging that it isn't her 'fault'.
  • Blind to Love: Shiori Maizono is this to her older half-sister, Sayaka, up to the point of leaving her school and sneaking into Hope's Peak to bring the Valentine chocolate Sayaka mixed up for the younger girl's lunch. Makoto notes that Shiori's admiration for Sayaka seems even stronger than his younger sister Komaru's for him. Sayaka later explains that while Makoto and Komaru knew each other for most of their life so the younger girl has a more complete understanding of him, Sayaka and Shiori had only knew each other for a little under two years, making the younger girl's worship to Sayaka more childlike. It does help that Shiori can easily get along with others and Sayaka does her best to play a reliable big sister.
  • Boldores And Boomsticks: Whisper adores Weiss and a few minutes after she hatches decides to be just like her 'big sister'.
  • Everyday Life with Ultimate Girls: While not related by blood, the Warriors of Hope do call Makoto Naegi "Mako-nii" and give him the nickname of Legendary Hero. While they were untrusting of him at first as he met them as a substitute teacher in the uncaring Hope's Peak Elementary, because of his kind nature, hard work to help them in their studies, attempts to deal with their bad home lives, and eventually him saving them from committing suicide and helping them find new homes (with Monaca even getting formally adopted by Makoto's family), they greatly all admire him.
    • In addition, Komaru Naegi (as mentioned below) also looks up to her big brother due to his kind heart, which leads her to pull a gender-flipped version of My Sister Is Off-Limits to see if any of Makoto's dormmates are worthy of dating him.
    • Akane Owari's siblings all look up to her due to her Promotion to Parent, and even start to see Makoto in a similar light when he comes over and not only cooks them fresh gyudon but also teaches them to cook the aforementioned meal. This leads to them becoming Shippers On Deck for Akane and Makoto, as they realize that Makoto knows of Akane's kind side, and they also want someone to look after her like she does with them.
  • Forgiveness is the Attribute of the Strong: The younger version of Yoichi Shigaraki adores his older brother. This disgusts the vestige of First living inside One for All.
  • Homecoming: Jules and Verne "follow [Marty] around like ducks" and are described as being like "his own fan club."
  • I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again!: Hanabi had always admired her sister, although her faith had started to wane in recent years. Bearing witness to "The Hinata Massacre" has caused her to become outright starry-eyed when seeing her sister, with the slightest hint of shame for ever doubting her power.
  • Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail:
    • Parker worships his older sister Chloe and finds her love of horror to be amazing. Unfortunately, this is deconstructed because his love of her blinds him to the fact that she was facing a lot of flaws and ultimately has him unleash an Unown attack in Arc 2.
    • Hop idolizes his older brother Leon, but he feels like he's never going to be as good a trainer as he will be. Then when he gets on the train, he becomes brainwashed by Walter and Henry to see Alex Shephard as his big brother.
  • Limpet AU: Piett mentions that his younger sister Carilla used to hero-worship him, and was very proud of his status as a naval officer. After his disappearance and presumed death, she named her youngest child after him.
  • one day at a time (Nyame): All of Dick's siblings have this towards him, including the main protagonist Jason, decades after the original Dick's death. Dick was ultimately the one to pull Jason out of the rut he was in the wake of Bruce's death in the original timeline, and had the most faith in him and his potential to be a hero again. While he does acknowledge his older brother's faults, in the end Jason holds Dick's regard higher than anyone else's in the family, including their sister Cass (his Living Emotional Crutch) and their adoptive father Bruce.
  • Pokémon Reset Bloodlines: Yellow has this kind of relationship with Red, having nothing but respect and admiration for his trainer skills. It turns out that it's a literal example with the revelation they're actually half-siblings.
  • Skyhold Academy Yearbook: Bethany is very different from her big sister Marian but nevertheless idolizes her. "Bethy" is her Cool Big Sis's living soft spot and they adore one another.
  • TRON: Endgame Scenario: Jet Bradley has a raging case of this for both Tron and Yori. Yes, he finds out about "Rinzler." No, he doesn't care.
  • Walk on the Moon: Ino has a serious case of this towards her older sister Rei. When Rei is presumed dead after trying to get a summoning contract, Ino is inconsolable for almost a week.
  • We All Need A Hero: Sayu Yagami idolizes her brother Light and thinks his brilliance would be wasted working as a detective. When she comes across the Death Note, this belief leads her to try stamping out crime to make sure Light won't throw his life away on a police career like she feels their father has.

    Films — Animation 
  • Anna in Frozen absolutely idolizes her big sister, to the point that it takes two whole movies and Elsa's (temporary) death for her to finally step out of Elsa's orbit and start living her own life.
  • The Incredibles: Jack-Jack Parr looks up to and absolutely adores his big sister Violet. Shown when he looks affectionately at Violet after she saves him in the Incredicoaster pre-ride show.
  • Brave: The triplets admire their big sister, and the Disney Wikia site describes their relationship with Merida as "strong, loving, and trusting".
  • Migration: Downplayed; despite constantly getting on each others' nerves, there are signs that Gwen does actually look up to Dax, with a handful of scenes showing her emulating his actions for herself.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Played with in American History X.
    • Danny plays this perfectly straight. Derek is his idol and Danny will follow in Derek's footsteps. Period. When Derek goes neo-Nazi, Danny goes neo-Nazi. When Derek comes home and says, "No. This is not the way.", Danny gives it up and eschews Nazism in all its forms.
    • Davina, the elder sister, is more complex. She adores Derek in the present and thinks he's wonderful. She's willing to follow his lead and, indeed, is very nearly silent except for criticizing Derek's former and Danny's present neo-Nazi friends. In the past, she was willing to go after Derek with a baseball bat (though not without some fairly heavy provocation). Clearly, she loves the man her brother is now much more than the boy he was.
    • Henry, the kid at the end who murders Danny did it because his big brother told him to.
  • In the Japanese film Good Morning, worshipful little brother Namsu follows his pre-teen big brother Minoru around everywhere, and even copies his gestures.
  • Lars and the Real Girl: Although it's more wishful thinking by the older brother.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • While there's also a healthy dose of Sibling Rivalry and occasionally Cain and Abel going on, Loki still loves and admires his older brother Thor to a great extent. In Thor, he clearly looks up to him for the first part until he finds out that he is adopted and the son of Asgard's enemy, which he doesn't take well. During his beginning Heel–Face Turn in Thor: Ragnarok, the possibility that Thor might be indifferent towards him visibly distresses Loki, and he has the proudest smile on his face when Thor unleashes "the biggest lightning bolt in the history of lightning" in the climax.
    • Inverted Trope: Thor himself tells Loki in Thor: Ragnarok that he used to do this when Loki asks him "Do you truly think so little of me?"
      Thor: Loki, I thought the world of you.
    • Black Widow establishes that Yelena Belova adored her adopted older sister Natasha Romanoff when they were kids. When Yelena is freed from her Red Room brainwashing as an adult, she reaches out to Natasha for help, referring to her sister as "the only superhero I know". The Stinger shows Yelena visiting Natasha's grave following her sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame, and she's clearly devastated by the loss. This spurs her to go on a misguided Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Clint Barton, whom Yelena is manipulated into believing was responsible for Natasha's death.
    • Black Panther makes it clear that while she enjoys being an Annoying Younger Sibling towards T'Challa, Shuri absolutely adores her big brother and loves him immensely. This makes her grief over his death in Wakanda Forever all the more palpable.
  • The Princess: Violet, the princess' younger sister, is clearly impressed by her fighting prowess, wanting to fight along with her. The princess has to gently tell her not this time, but promises she'll be trained as a warrior herself later.
  • Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with the younger siblings and Adam (Gideon explicitly states this).
  • Although in the original novella they weren't all that close, Stand by Me gives this relationship to Gordie and his big brother Denny. Denny was the miracle baby who was born after their parents had resigned themselves to being childless, while Gordie was a surprise baby who came along when they were old enough to be his grandparents, and was The Unfavorite. Denny, however, was always good to Gordie, praising him and encouraging him in his writing. His death in a car accident a few months prior to the film's events is stated to have all but pulled the family apart.
  • In White Frog, Nick idolized his smart, outgoing deceased older brother Chaz, whom their parents saw as the perfect son.

    Literature 
  • In The Amy Virus, Cyan is in awe of her oldest sister Annabeth, a brilliant, charming medical resident almost a decade her senior.
  • Animorphs:
    • Jake grew up near-worshipping his older brother Tom, and the realization that Tom has been infested by the Yeerks is what fully brings him into the war. Played for maximum cruelty — not only does Jake never get to save Tom, the war ends with him ordering Tom's death at the hands of Rachel, their cousin.
    • Ax is similar to Jake in his hero-worship of his older brother Elfangor, who was already in the Andalite military before Ax was born. He gradually learns that Elfangor was a much more complicated person than he initially believed, though it never gets to the point of a Broken Pedestal.
  • In A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Daenerys Targaryen shows shades of this towards Rhaegar, the older brother she's never met, as she's only ever heard him described as a gallant, accomplished, handsome man who would have been an excellent king. note  Viserys, who is actually old enough to remember Rhaegar, may have possibly also had this.
    • Sansa, Bran, and Arya have some of this towards Robb, too. Sansa's is particularly justified as Robb's forces are her best hope of getting out of King's Landing.
    • Arya's worship of Robb is nothing compared to her worship of Jon Snow, their other older (bastard) brother. Bran has a healthy amount of worship for Jon as well, while Sansa grows shades of this after being separated from him, and as she poses as Littlefinger's bastard, she bases her behavior on Jon's, and longs to see him again.
    • Kevan Lannister spent his whole life in the service of his older brother Tywin. At first it's hinted that he may just be a Yes-Man, kissing up to the guy in charge, but we later learn that he truly loved and respected Tywin and he actually thought he was right most of the time.
    • Genna Lannister may not have approved of the man Tywin became later in life, but she loved him all the same.
    • Most important plotwise is Tyrion's affection for Jaime Lannister, who is everything Tyrion is not — handsome, a great soldier and adored by their father and sister, and the only one who treated Tyrion like a member of the family instead of despised dwarf. This leads to Tyrion's Start of Darkness when Jaime admits to lying to him about Tysha, a common girl who married Tyrion that Jaime had claimed was a prostitute he'd hired to help Tyrion lose his virginity. This comes at the end of a Humiliation Conga of events orchestrated by his father and sister; Tyrion swears vengeance against his entire family and starts by murdering their father.
  • The titular heroine of the Enola Holmes mysteries practically gushes over how smart, handsome, and brave her big brother is on more than one occasion.
  • Everest (2002): Dominic idolizes his older brother Chris (who has already climbed with Living Legend Ethan Zaph before) and is determined to climb Mount Everest alongside of Chris.
  • In Harry Potter, the oldest two Weasley siblings, Bill and Charlie, seem to be admired by all their younger siblings, as they're friendly, cool and did very well in school. (Admittedly, only Percy cares about the latter.)
  • The Lord of the Rings: Faramir, while not unaware of his older brother's flaws, still adored Boromir and greatly looked up to him. In his own words: "It seemed in the mind of Faramir that no one could rival Boromir". This makes sense considering Boromir often defended his little brother from those who would ridicule him.
  • Early on in The Mark of the Lion, Julia adores Marcus and wants to emulate him in almost every way possible. This is complemented by his strong Big Brother Instinct towards her.
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Tyson adored and idolized his older half-brother Percy before he even found out they were related. Once he did, Percy describes him as being "in heaven."
  • Georgiana Darcy has this in Pride and Prejudice.
    • For that matter, Elizabeth herself. Jane is probably the person she loves and admires the most because she's such a good person, yet still undeniably has her head screwed on straight. Elizabeth says at one point that there aren't very many people she truly loves and even fewer whom she actually likes, but Jane is both.
  • The Proudest Blue: Faizah has a lot of admiration for her older suster Asiya. She even hopes to get a hijab the same colour as hers when she's old enough to get one.
  • Sherlock Holmes never has anything but respect and admiration for his big brother Mycroft, whom he insists is far more intelligent and observant than even he himself (although he does gently critcise Mycroft's disinterest in using these talents). He's only too pleased to introduce Mycroft to John Watson and let his best friend see for himself what kind of titanic genius his brother is. Mycroft is seven years older than Sherlock, likely had at least a small hand in helping to raise his younger brother, and in Sherlock's own words, has been of immeasurable assistance in riddling out some of the Great Detective's toughest cases. During the three years of the Great Hiatus, Mycroft is the only person in the world who knows what's really happened to Sherlock, and nothing under the sun will persuade him to break his little brother's confidence.
  • Shtum: As a child in pre-Holocaust Budapest, Georg worshipped his brother Jonatan, who was three years older than himself, even though he was an "imbecile."
  • The Sunne in Splendour: Richard of Gloucester's early life is defined by his adoration and admiration for his older brother, King Edward IV, despite the two brothers having radically different personalities and Richard coming to disapprove of Edward's hedonism. Richard is so loyal, he even sticks by Edward when the smart money is on Lancaster.
  • In the novella A Taste of Honey, Aqib still looks up to his brother, largely because his older brother once saved him from drowning when he was little, despite the Corporal being a Big Brother Bully.
  • Roo of Winnie the Pooh comes to idolise Tigger due to their mutual fondness for bouncing and other horseplay after Kanga adopts the latter into their house. The Disney adaptations expectedly play this up to even greater levels. In The Tigger Movie Roo flat out states he wants Tigger as his big brother.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Arrow:
    • Thea, for Oliver, before he disappeared. After his return, that worship transforms into an equally-powerful mass of bitterness and anger with him, because of how badly his apparent death hurt her. It's worth considering that a large part of the reason Thea became a parental disappointment, wild party girl and drug user, beside her stated reasons, is because that's how she remembered her brother, and she wanted very badly to grow up to be just like him.
    • Sin feels the same way about Sara, despite not actually being her sister.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dawn Summers both resents and idolizes her superhero sister.
  • In Engine Sentai Go-onger Miu Suto does this. Oh, boy, does she do it. Plain shirts are not worthy to clothe him. After all, he's "cool, righteous, and impressive...the shiniest Ani in the world..." (This might very well be true; he certainly has one of the shiniest suits in the Super Sentai series thus far.)
  • Firefly: River Tam shows this in "Ariel" when Simon rescues the patient, which is natural as that was a Moment of Awesome.
    • There is an inversion at the beginning when Simon essentially makes a Badass Boast about how smart he is, then says "She makes me look like an idiot child."
    • In The River Tam Sessions, we see River being interviewed by someone at the Academy before all the brain-cutting starts, and they talk about how her brother's a trauma surgeon. With utter fondness and affection, River smiles and says, "Simon's a genius. I could never do what he does." Coming from a girl to whom everything from dancing to painting to theoretical science comes as easy as breathing, that's saying something. The Academy official's reply to that is, "Actually, I believe that if you put your mind to it, you could do whatever you wanted."
      • The Academy finally breaks her by claiming that her beloved brother is too busy to visit her.
    • Simon risks his career just to keep his little sis safe.
    • In Serenity River says "No, Simon. You've taken care of me. You've always taken care of me. My turn." and kicks Reaver ass.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • Arya seems to be closest to Jon Snow out of all her siblings. The big hug she gives him when he gives Needle to her is absolutely adorable.
    • Both Viserys and Daenerys revere Rhaegar's memory. Viserys saw him as a great warrior who died in battle. Daenerys names her son and one of her dragons after him and seeks to live by his memory. Jorah and Barristan later tell her that he was The Ace and after Viserys's death, Dany is happy to learn from Ser Barristan that Rhaegar was much nicer than Viserys led her to believe, especially after he had told her that her father really was The Caligula.
    • Tyrion adores Jaime, the one close kin who has always been protective and kind to him since childhood. Unlike in the books, Jaime remains an unbroken pedestal. In the books, Jaime reveals that Tyrion's first wife Tysha really was a commoner who did like Tyrion, not a whore participating in a staged Rescue Romance. Tywin made Jaime lie about all that. Out of spite, Tyrion untruthfully tells Jaime that he killed Joffrey and that Cersei has been sleeping around behind Jaime's back, which is painfully true.
  • On Malcolm in the Middle, Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey all look up to their older brother Francis because he dared to rebel and stand up to their sadistic, domineering mother Lois, while the rest of them are still at home under her control. Though Francis is baffled by this with Malcolm and Reese since he acknowledges he was a horrible bully towards them. As the series progressed and Francis showed up less often (and asking for money in season 3), the boys started to see him on more equal grounds, not taking him any more seriously than each other.
  • Sherlock:
    • If Mycroft's appearances in the mind palace are anything to go by, Sherlock definitely looks up to Mycroft intellectually, although the way Mental Mycroft belittles his brother indicates that this coexists with a great deal of resentment.
    • Even though they're not related to each other, they could qualify for this trope. John admires Sherlock for his intelligence and was genuinely shocked when Sherlock was thought to be dead. Also, Sherlock admires John for his intelligence and was flustered when John was offering his life for his and it gets lampshaded in that hilariously bad best man's speech. Well, the fact that John's brave and tons more.
  • In the TV series, Skins, Effy shows shades of this for her older brother Tony.
    Pandora: Your brother's really nice.
    Effy: He's not nice. He's amazing.
  • Stranger Things: While Dustin and Steve technically aren’t brothers, they do have a brotherly bond in which Dustin looks up to Steve as a mentor and thinks he’s awesome, and Steve is told by Eddie in Season 4 that Dustin “worships” Steve to the point that it’s “kind of annoying.”
  • Supernatural:
    • In "Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester", the ghost of the demon Meg's original host, the real Meg Masters, mentions she had a little sister who worshipped her, but she "got lost" after Meg disappeared and ultimately killed herself in response to her sister's death.
    • Invoked in the "Fan Fiction" episode. The high school musical production of the books based on the boys' lives has a song sung by Sam about Dean, basically stating that Dean is an amazing human being who doesn't appreciate himself nearly as much as he should, and not as much Sam does. There are shades of this in the show proper since Sam consistently has to manage Dean's Chronic Hero Syndrome and crippling self-image issues to remind him that he is, in fact, worthwhile outside of being a soldier.

    Manhua 
  • Star Dream Idol Project: Yulissa idolizes her brother so much she imitates his dancing style. This becomes a major source of her problem later on, when she has to separate her image from her brother's.
  • Zui Wu Dao: Lei Lei, the granddaughter of the Lei Jia head, utterly adores Wu Di, who is essentially an adopted member of the clan. This actually causes Wu Di some problems with her actual brother Lei Feng who wants to kill him for it.

    Manhwa 
  • Angel Diary: Bi-Wal is younger than Ryung by three hours, and thinks it's horribly unfair that the throne's going to him instead of Ryung. He outright states that Ryung means more to him than the kingship.

    Music 
  • There is a song about "My cousin Joe" with the Twist Ending that Joe is a girl.
  • The classic kid's boasting song about My great big brother Sylvest, with a row of forty medals on his chest.

    Theater 
  • Electra adores and idolizes Orestes in Electra, but doesn't quite play the trope straight because her love is entirely contingent on the fact that she thinks he will kill Clytemnestra one day and avenge their father. If he chose to stay happily in exile for the rest of his life she'd probably disown him; but as her only ally and potential savior, he is the recipient of all her love.

    Video Games 
  • Crash Bandicoot's little sister, Coco, has a subtle but visible case of this. Despite being a Teen Genius while her older brother is The Ditz, Coco rarely speaks to Crash in anything but cheerful enthusiasm. The series from the N. Sane Trilogy forward goes even further by having her regularly copy his goofy antics and follow him into danger even when she knows that it's a bad idea. Knowing that he'll stop at nothing to save her if things go wrong probably helps.
  • In Deltarune, events around Hometown suggest that Kris really looks up to their older brother Asriel, who is off attending college. Just the taste of hot chocolate is enough to make Kris start choking up thinking about Asriel, and Toriel mentions how the two of them were practically inseparable when they were younger.
  • Demon Hunter: The Return of the Wings: Perna looks up to her brother Elen, who is considered The Ace among all hunters, even better than Emil.
  • Sicily from Disgaea Dimension 2 adores her big brother Laharl. One of her voice clips after performing an attack is "Did you see that, Big Brother?" She's even willing to sacrifice her life for him in one of the bad endings.
  • Dragon Age:
    • Bethany of Dragon Age II starts off the game with her relationship meter heavily tilted to "friendship" to her older sibling Hawke. Her Codex entry states that she nearly idolizes her eldest sibling either for their skill with magic or protective attitude towards her.
    • Cassandra Pentaghast had an elder brother named Anthony whom she positively adored, and he secretly taught her to fight and promised that one day they would hunt dragons together. He likely would have made good on the promise, too, except that he was killed by blood mages when Cass was twelve. In the present day of Dragon Age: Inquisition, she treasures a locket that contains his portrait, and if the player befriends her to the extent that she's willing to share her backstory, it's clear from her commentary that she reveres his memory.
  • Elden Ring: Malenia's Undying Loyalty to her twin brother is implied to have its roots in this; in the flavor text of her helmet, she praises him as being the mightiest and closest to godhood of all the Empyreans (a class of being that includes herself, the game's Superboss).
  • In Fatal Frame, Miku's primary motivation for entering the Haunted House is due to the bond she has with her older brother Mafuyu, who is the latest to disappear into the old house.
    Miku: When I saw Mafuyu in that dream... I just wanted to be with him again.
  • Isaaru, Maroda, and Pacce (a recurring trio of minor characters) in Final Fantasy X are a Summoner and his two younger brothers. Even though Maroda is old enough to know what would be in store for Isaaru after the Pilgrimage to Zanarkand (Pacce is still a small kid), they're proud of their brother and happy to guard him as he makes the pilgrimage.
  • While the Fire Emblem series is pretty rife with Brother–Sister Incest, the one who takes the ultimate cake is probably Princess Lachesis of Nordion. She started the trend of 'princess worshipping her big brother way too much' with her extreme infatuation with her brother Eldigan. She is this so much that she declared that she'll never marry unless she finds someone as high-caliber as Eldigan (granted, her wannabe suitor Elliot is a complete loser), and the mercenary Beowolf needed to mention that he knew Eldigan in order to even get close to Lachesis. And when she appeared in Fire Emblem: Awakening as a Spotpass character, her quotes were filled with mentions about her brother. The Mitsuki Oosawa manga then proceeded to crank this worship up, although it was Played for Drama.
    • Fire Emblem Heroes continues this trend with Freyja, a villainess who is so jealous of her brother's attention that she threatens the entire world just so she can pull him away from his interest in humanity. And then it does it again with Otr, who is so fearful of his older brother Fafnir leaving him that he tries to forcibly keep him in Nidavellir against his will, seemingly unbothered even as his brother transforms into a feral beast as long as they can be together.
  • In I Wasa Teenage Exocolonist, Anemone looks up to her big brother Kom and wants to be good in sports just like him.
  • Ventus in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has a massive case of this going on for Team Dad/Big Brother Mentor Terra. Edges into tragic as it blinds Ven to the fact Terra is starting to fall to the Darkness. Eventually Terra ends up slipping into Knight Templar Big Brother territory.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is the only game in the series where Link isn't an only child and unsurprisingly has this in the form of his little sister Aryll who clearly adores him and even lets him borrow her most prized possession as a birthday present.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, pretty much all the younger kids in Ordon Village look up to Link, with the exception of Malo (who likes Link, but doesn't admire him the same way the others do). This is especially true for Colin, as Link is basically an honorary member of his family and his older brother in all but name. When the children hide from the shadow beasts in Kakariko Village, Colin raises everyone's morale slightly by expressing his confidence that Link will come to rescue them.
    • Sidon from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild practically worships his late older sister, Mipha, becoming fast friends with Link partly because of Link's shared history with her. Also, the only time he drops his otherwise unflinchingly positive nature is when he's angsting about living up to her memory as the heir to the Zora throne.
    • In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it's mentioned that Link visited Rito village multiple times in the years since Breath of the Wild, mentored Tulin in archery, and became somthing of an older brother to him. Rather tellingly, Tulin starts off the Rito storyline as an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who's determined to solve the current crisis without assistance, but the second Link offers his help he accepts without hesitation.
  • Yonaka for her brother in Mogeko Castle. At first, it seems natural and almost heartwarming. However, towards the end, it reaches a dangerous level when he is revealed to be a sadistic murderer.
  • Seishi Bosatsu in Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA- loves his older brother Kannon a lot, and becomes extra cuddly and sweet whenever his "nī-chan" is concerned.
    Seishi: Big bro can cook and keep tabs on the money and is cute as hell; man, you really are awesome~.
  • Nanako Dojima of Persona 4 absolutely adores her "big bro", the protagonist. He may not actually be her big bro (he's actually her cousin), but she makes things for him when he does well on tests, hangs out with him and his friends, confides with him about everything, and is just generally the perfect little sister. The vast majority of the fanbase love her back, to the point where it's rare to find anyone who didn't save her from the TV on the first day they could. To quote a Let's Play: "I don't care (...) I am not leaving Little Sis in there!"
  • In [PROTOTYPE], Dana Mercer drops everything to help her big brother despite not seeing him in years, and continues to do so, even though she is rightly terrified of what he is when the game begins. Supplementary materials say that Alex was the closest thing she had to a father figure growing up. As it turns out, Alex himself cared nothing for her, but the player character (which is to say, the plague that reanimated his corpse and mistook itself for Alex) certainly seems to.
  • In Roots of Pacha, Ibon used to follow her big brother Jelrod around when she was a young child because she wanted to be strong and confident just like him.
  • Suikoden V: Lymsleia Falenas has this towards her elder brother, the main character, if they have a good relationship value. Her introduction is glomping him.
  • Luigi looks up to his big bro, as revealed in his wish in Super Mario RPG: "I wanna be a great plumber like my brother Mario."
    Luigi: "Big bro... it's your choice... Luigi... will follow you... We're all here for you, bro. Always."
  • This trait is what defines Sleigh Presty from Super Robot Wars: her older brother Filio Presty is a genius scientist who designed a space-faring Humongous Mecha that can take to the stars, and his qualities make Sleigh believe he has no flaws. This becomes Deconstructed after Filio dies - he favored his protegé Ibis Douglas as the successor to the Mecha; unfortunately, Sleigh deemed Ibis an unworthy pilot when she's the klutz compared to the Ace Pilot Sleigh. Being passed over by her brother, alongside his sudden death, reaches a climax of Sleigh's irritation towards Ibis that she forcibly pulls a Face–Heel Turn until Ibis finally knocks some sense into her.
  • Downplayed with Komaru Naegi from Ultra Despair Girls. She does care about her big brother Makoto, but no more than how the average person would respect their own older sibling. Toko Fukawa, however, takes any amount of praise Komaru gives Makoto as proof of a full-on "brother complex".
  • Inverted (or maybe Played Straightnote ) in Undertale, where the laid-back and popular Sans thinks his immature, overly-nice and incredibly dorky brother Papyrus is the coolest guy he knows. He never wastes an opportunity to tell other people about it, will be mildly offended if you disagree with him on the subject and puts just as much effort into keeping him happy as he does teasing him half to death. Reading between the lines of the game's ridiculously extensive Story Branching reveals that he actually has a pretty justified reason for this: Papyrus was the only thing he was able to keep after a vague but clearly catastrophic event or series of events took away everything else he cared about. After spending what is implied to be a very long time trying to get them back, Sans eventually just gave up and Papyrus has been his Living Emotional Crutch ever since.
  • Clementine and Luke can have a brother-sister relationship in The Walking Dead: Season Two if the player appeals to Luke; in that case, Clementine can express admiring him and thinking he's "cool".
  • Emilia of Yggdra Union feels this way towards her big brother Gulcasa; Blaze Union goes to show that she'd already started to adore him like this before they knew that they were related. (Granted, this may just be because Gulcasa is Gulcasa.) In one of the alternate routes of Blaze Union, Yggdra manages to develop a complex over her Long-Lost Relative Aegina in record time.

    Visual Novels 
  • Ace Attorney: As Phoenix puts it, as much as Ema claims that she and Lana don't get along, Ema really idolizes her big sister.
  • In Court Of Darkness Aquia admires his older brother Guy. Teto admires his older brother Rio. Sherry admires her older brother Roy.
  • Galaxy Angel II has this between Apricot "Rico" Sakuraba and her older sister Milfeulle "Milfie", one of the heroines from the original Galaxy Angel trilogy. Rico absolutely adores Milfie, this being the main reason (though not the only one) she joined the Rune Angel Troupe, and accepts Kazuya into the team just on the fact that it was her sister who chose him. While she starts out with this as nearly a defining trait, she grows to become more independent while still loving her sister just as much.
  • Satoko of Higurashi: When They Cry feels this way towards Satoshi, her older brother. This is because he protected Satoko from their abusive aunt for years — often taking violent blows from her so that Satoko could sleep — at great emotional and physical cost to himself. It was also because they were orphans living in a village that hated and ostracized them, and so for most of her childhood, Satoshi was literally the only person in the world who cared about her.
  • In Spirit Hunter: NG, Ami adores her cousin Akira as if he were her own brother, and loves to spend time with him while her mother is working. Near the end of the game this takes a very dark turn when she's possessed by Kakuya, whose love for Akira is much more violent.

    Webcomics 
  • In Beyond the End, End has a bit of this for Gabe. He looks up to Gabe a lot, having had him as his mentor for 800 years. He refuses to believe Gabe cast him out of Heaven without good reason because why would someone as good as Gabe make a mistake? How could he be pressured to do something he didn't want to?
  • In Homestuck, Dave Strider thinks his Bro is cool. He refuses to admit there is anything wrong with Bro, who produces puppet pornography, confides in a Demonic Dummy, and traffics in humor that is Dude, Not Ironic.
    • Subverted as Dave later recognizes that he only pretended to worship Bro. His stubborn defense of Bro was denial about how badly Bro treated him.
    • Defied and deconstructed in the Post-Scratch world by Dirk Strider. Alpha Dave truly is The Ace and for a time Dirk put him on a pedestal. However, he never meets the man — due to Weird Time Shit, they live over a century apart. Dirk is self-aware enough to realize this is an unhealthy attitude toward someone who cannot return his love.
  • While most little brothers would likely find Mob of Mob Psycho 100 to be a Disappointing Older Sibling, Ritsu absolutely adores him, going as far as to declare him the center of his universe. It's revealed that a lot of this apparent brother worship is done out of fear, as he's acutely aware that Mob is a dangerous Angst Nuke.
  • Unordinary: Remi really respects her older brother, Rei, for trying to make Wellston, and the world in general, a better place. In chapter 151, she gave up trying to convince John to stop his Joker rampage the moment he started to badmouth Rei.

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • The Adventures of Chuck & Friends: Chuck looks up to his older brother Rally and aspires to follow in his footsteps and become a racing truck just like him. He even has a badge with Rally's picture and often quotes him.
  • The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan: Scooter Chan has this for his brother Flip; Flip is the only one he'll take orders from and he's constantly trying to emulate him.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Downplayed; while Ma-Ti doesn't think Wheeler is flawless, he's one of the members of the group most likely to express admiration when he shows off his skills or has a good idea.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door: In the first three seasons, Tommy wants to become a Kids Next Door operative like his older brother Hoagie so the two of them can hang out and go on missions, much to Hoagie's annoyance.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy:
    • Eddy talks up his absent older brother a lot, although this is generally a feeble attempt to make himself look better that shows him to be rather envious. When we finally meet him, Eddy's brother turns out to be a loser with a crappy job and a very cruel Big Brother Bully. Eddy admits everything he said about his brother was wishful thinking.
    • This sort of relationship gets mentioned when Sarah leaves Ed to look after Jimmy. Edd notices that Ed and Jimmy seem to have developed a bit of a brotherly bond, with Jimmy, being younger and more naïve, looking up to, and mimicking Ed's behavior. Eddy, naturally, tries to exploit this, but makes Jimmy too much like himself, causing him to betray them.
  • In an episode of The Fairly OddParents!, Cosmo talks about how much he admires his older brother Schnozmo, who happens to be a con artist who later tricks his brother into giving him his wand.
    • Cosmo’s son, Poof, adores Timmy (his godbrother) so much the former’s second word was Timmy’s name and even refused to stop crying until Timmy’s likeness was in front of him. This somewhat parallels Cosmo’s admiration of Schnozmo, but more realistically and genuine.
  • Final Space: When Quinn was a child, after her bratty and immature sister was hospitalized as a direct result of her attempt to beat Quinn at a swimming exercise, a medical bot suggested that her sister's brainlessness which would later lead her to her death was a symptom of her looking up to Quinn (and evidently going about matching her sister in the wrong way) rather than a sign of hatred.
  • Kaeloo: Stumpy is adored by his little sister Violasse, who often praises him for being "cool".
  • The Loud House: Lincoln feels a lot of respect towards Luna while Lucy is often shown with similar respect towards him. Lana also has this to a lesser extent than Lucy.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
    • Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle adore their big sisters. So much so, that when Scootaloo suggests finding the coolest pony they know, they respond with "Applejack" and "Rarity" respectively.
    • Scootaloo herself has always idolized Rainbow Dash, to the point of hosting a fan club for the flyer and hoping that Dash would eventually become "like her big sister" In "Sleepless in Ponyville," Princess Luna diagnoses the fear of disappointing Rainbow Dash by admitting she's afraid of the campfire stories as the deeper fear behind her nightmares of the Old Pony. Scootaloo ultimately gains the courage to tell Dash about her feelings (both her fear and her desire for Dash to look at her like a younger sister)...and gets her wish.
    • Twilight Sparkle has a very high opinion of her brother Shining Armor; she admits that when they were growing up, he was pretty much her only friend, and she's worried about them growing apart.
    • The Season 4 episode "Maud Pie" introduces Pinkie Pie's older sister, the titular Maud. Pinkie Pie absolutely idolizes Maud. Maud, in turn, although she doesn't show it most of the time, adores her younger sister.
  • Strange case in ReBoot, as both brothers involved are the same person (Time Skip + System Restore = Clones). Little Enzo is obsessed with Big Enzo (Matrix)'s life and thinks Matrix is the best person to become when he grows up (he even asks to be called Little Matrix). However, Little Enzo realizes just how terrible Matrix's life was when he's asked to repeat what happened to Matrix in order to deal with Daemon. After that point, Little Enzo stops being obsessed with Matrix.
  • Recess had an episode where Lovable Jock Vince went on about how incredibly cool his older brother Chad was, only for his friends to meet him and discover that he's actually a stereotypical nerd. Vince is shocked that anyone would think that, and even more shocked when his brother openly acknowledges it. This crushes Vince until the end of the episode, where Chad actually stands up for Vince to someone else's more physically intimidating older brother and gets him to back off.
  • While not siblings (or even arguably the same zoological kingdom), this is pretty much the relationship between Miko and Bulkhead in Transformers: Prime. While avoiding the same quasi-romantic pitfall the writers stumbled into with Jack and Arcee (mostly through Miko's childishness), Miko definitely acts like Bulkhead is the greatest thing since Heavy Metal (which, coincidentally (and literally), Bulkhead is), and goes straight to him whenever she arrives at Autobot headquarters. In the episode "Metal Attraction", she even gets jealously upset when people tease Bulkhead and Arcee as if their present magnetic attraction problem were an emotional one.

Alternative Title(s): Big Sister Worship, Big Sibling Worship, Older Sibling Worship

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