Basic Trope: Older siblings are bullies to their younger siblings.
- Straight: Mark insults, threatens, and abuses his younger brother, Max.
- Exaggerated:
- Mark horribly mistreats Max, even to the point of sexually abusing and/or murdering him.
- Max has twenty older siblings, and all of them are bullies to him.
- Mark is a Complete Monster, and he does nothing but torturing Max.
- Downplayed:
- Mark is a jerk to Max for the most part.
- Mark picks on Max a lot, but it's not worse than what most siblings do and he has a strong Big Brother Instinct.
- Mark is actually just Max's older half-brother, cousin, stepbrother, adopted brother, etc, but the situation still plays out.
- Justified:
- Mark is jealous of Max for getting all of the attention from their parents.
- Max had accidentally broken Mark's favorite toy; Mark holds this against him.
- Mark is just a bully in general, and being his younger brother means that Max is often the closest available target.
- Mark suffers from mental illnesses and lacks the ability to empathize with others.
- Max is a very bratty sibling; no wonder Mark has it against him.
- Inverted:
- Max abuses and terrorizes his older brother Mark.
- Annoying Younger Sibling
- Big Brother Instinct: Mark is basically a surrogate father to Max.
- Big Brother Mentor
- Mark is a bully to everyone, but spares Max his wrath.
- Aloof Big Brother: Mark is cold and distant, instead of being threatening, towards his younger brother Max.
- Subverted: Mark has shown to have a soft spot for Max.
- Double Subverted: That doesn't stop him from bullying him far worse than before, however.
- Parodied:
- Mark's bullying of Max often involves a lot of Poke the Poodle while acting like a Card-Carrying Villain, Large Ham and all. His bullying is hard to take seriously.
- Mark is both shorter then Max and more immature then him, so it looks like it's the other way around.
- Zig Zagged: Mark swings from an abusive brother to a caring one.
- Averted: Mark is a decent older brother to Max and the most he does is probably some smartass remark to his younger brother when he's being stupid.
- Enforced: "We need a reason why Max is so aloof." "Childhood suffering always works, but we already established his parents as amazing people!" "You know that older brother he had that didn't get character development? Make him evil."
- Lampshaded:
- "Mom and dad should've aborted you."
- "I don’t care if you’re my brother, you made my life Hell when we were growing up. Stay off my property or I’ll call the God-Damned police."
- Invoked: Their parents encourage this bullying because they think it will make Max stronger.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz discovers the bullying and the suffering that goes with it. One one hand, he uses Max's pain as a means of convincing him to join his side to get revenge on Mark. On the other hand, he convinces Mark to join him instead with the promise of being able to abuse many more people.
- Defied:
- Knowing what mistreating his brother can lead to, Mark decides to treat his brother well.
- Their father Malcolm makes it clear that he will not tolerate bullying in his own house. The first time he catches Mark bullying Max, he grounds him for a month and gives him a speech about how nobody likes bullies and how nobody will misses them when they die. This straightens Mark out.
- Discussed: "Why is it that older siblings have to be assholes?"
- Conversed: "I feel so bad for Max. His older brother Mark is always so mean to him!"
- Implied: Max refuses to talk about his older brother, except to mention that they aren’t on speaking terms.
- Deconstructed:
- The constant bullying and abuse causes Max to develop anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. In adulthood, he distrusts everyone, has trouble forming emotional connections, and is addicted to drugs.
- When the siblings grow up, Max wants nothing to do with his older brother. All of Mark’s attempts to reconnect are rebuffed, and to his horror, Mark realizes that he destroyed his relationship with the person who was closest to him.
- Bullying his sibling causes Mark to become a worse person over time. Eventually he starts bullying other people, too, and by the time he grows up, he is a short-tempered sadist. After he kills his girlfriend for getting pregnant, Mark is sentenced to death.
- If we follow Mark sexually abusing Max, then Max grows up to be a scared man who doesn't trust ANYONE at all.
- Reconstructed: Through therapy and through support from his friends and his wife, Max learns to heal from his suffering. This makes him extremely empathetic, and as a result he is kind to almost everyone and becomes the most well loved man in his community. When he has children of his own he makes sure they get along and that they love each other.
- Played For Laughs: Hilariously Abusive Childhood
- Played For Drama: Max suffers as a result of Mark's bullying towards him.
- Played For Horror:
- Mark's bullying involves extreme physical harm, if not sexual harassment. Max truly fears that one day Mark will kill him.
- Mark kills Max. Further horror points is he feels nothing afterwards.
- Max kills Mark as a result of his bullying (bonus horror points if it somehow is disproportionate, or at least very bloody).
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