I feel as it’s like you mentioned earlier, to have both sides represented; a common trend for shows aimed at boys/ girls they usually have a younger/ older sibling that’s the opposite sex to make fun of the other sex by portraying them as annoying to be more relatable to the viewers at home that might have that same problem.
0:07 I personally think that might be because they are more willing to get extreme with the sibling rivalry which results in more humor than girls, tv shows have always been hesitant to show girls getting hit on tv rather than boys due to it possibly sending a bad message, tv has been able to let boys get nasty with no problem. I think my reasoning is more of a side contribution though, i mean in all the tv shows I’ve watched with two female siblings they usually get along with a few mishaps, yell at each other a ton with slight references when they might’ve fighten before but not on screen, or do actually fight on camera but is left with miniscure bruises and is stopped usually very fast, it’s also even rarer with two opposite sex siblings who usually only yell and rarely fight on screen unless it’s like the fights I just mentioned.
Yeah, exactly. A lot of kids family cartoons in general follow this. Bluey is an exception with the two daughters and the lack of gendered stereotypes, but Bluey clones such as Chipchilla and Fire Spike regress on this and also make the boy the main character for most episodes.
@@LeisireRubi0it’s funny that the general perception is that sisters would get along better than brothers, or at least be more gentle when fighting, because sister relationships (especially in the case where they’re decently close in age) can get up to some absolutely deranged psychological warfare alongside the physical fighting 😅
Yeah, but twins are really cool. I bet a lot of people agree with me. It's a shame that usually they are just the same character twice. We need more shows like Gravity Falls. Also more fraternal twins.
At one point in high school my grade had roughly 50 people and 6 of them were 3 sets of twins… all of them identical twins at that I’ve since given up on twin statistics. forget media, their statistically disproportionate presence has infiltrated my actual life, literally what is happening
@@H0PEisaL1E agreed! really frustrates me, cause twins are cool but we so often just get the “oh they’re the same haha” trope and it gets pretty old pretty fast Gravity Falls treated its twins well!
The twins are always either the exact same character or complete opposites in every way, there's very very rarely a middle ground (Gravity Falls is the only one I can name off the top of my head, and that's probably because they're based on real people)
That is, to me, because twins are an easy way to hook someone on a character(s). A lot of the time it allows the writers to create a unique and interesting dynamic for the pair, sacrificing or risking very little in the way of relatability, because everyone has met a pair of twins before.
I think particularly in all these shows for little-little kids, it's simply a matter of expanding the appeal to both genders, especially where merch is involved. Peppa Pig wants to sell lunch boxes to little boys too, so she has to have a brother whose face will serve as the "Yes dear parents, you can buy this for BOYS!" signifier. If Peppa is on a lunchbox alone, the item will get marked as "For girls", so a lot of the "general appeal" and even the "For boys" Peppa Pig lunchboxes tend to show both Peppa and George.
Not a sibling necessarily, but Boots from Dora The Explorer is probably meant to fill that same quota, since he's a co-star of the show, basically. Despite this, he seems to be left off a lot of merchandise, marking said merchandise as "for girls" anyway, rectifying his own importance. Even when he *is* included sometimes, it's still marked as "for girls" though, so I'm pretty sure 99% of people familiar with Dora on the marketing team just don't care.
When I was a kid I liked watching He-Man, and then She-Ra. Years later I remember reading about how She-Ra was introduced when surveys showed that there were enough girls watching the Masters of the Universe cartoons for the producers to decide it would be profitable to market the toys to us. It worked on me.
Shows where the main protagonist is an only child also have a tendency to give the lead an opposite sex cousin who acts in the role of a supporting/opposing sibling character. These include... The Magic School Bus - Arnold Perlstein is more or less the main character of the series. He has an opposite sex clone in the form of his cousin Janet (the kids' mothers are identical twins, so that's why the kids look so much alike; they're genetically half siblings). Her personality is the opposite of his, making her a source of sibling-like conflict. Liberty's Kids - Sarah Phillips is the main protagonist and has a cousin named Tom. Subverted; he only appears in one episode and is killed in that episode. However, it's pretty significant as his is the only dead body actually shown in the entire series. And he died in Sarah's arms. The Legend of Korra - Korra's twin cousins are opposite sexes, but are single minded, and the female twin doesn't act particularly girly. But then the male twin doesn't act particularly masculine either. They do act as rivals to Korra in the second season, though. Ben 10 - Ben's cousin Gwen is his sidekick. Molly of Denali - Molly's older cousin Randall lives 600 miles away, but they keep in touch over the internet and are as close as siblings.
Less competition. When siblings are different sexes they don't get compared to each other as often as they would if they were the same sex. That said, brothers and sisters probably don't fight as often as same-sex siblings, but not sure if they're necessarily closer because of it. This may be anecdotal, but I've seen more close sister-sister or brother-brother bonds than sister-brother combo, so while it causes more fighting and competence, it can also create a greater bond by having something intrinsical (such as gender) in common.
Idk, every single girl with an older brother I've met (specifically when it's just 1 brother tho, 2 siblings: younger girl, older boy) fight very often and don't get along at all. This includes me as well. The exception is if the age gap is big, like bigger than 6 or 7 years.
I have an older sister, older brother, and two younger sisters, but I lived in the same house with my brother and one younger sister. Not sure how it is for everyone else, but I argued with my younger sister more because we actually talked and played together, whereas my older brother only ever talked to me when he was “pranking” or making fun of me. If same-sex siblings fight more, it could be because opposite sex siblings aren’t pushed to play and talk as much, so it’s less interaction between them overall? That’s in my case though.
I long to see more siblings who get along and have high (non-romantic of course) intimacy! Arguing and sibling rivalries are overused, I would love to see siblings simply get along and be affectionate with each other (while fighting only sometimes). Mirabel and Luisa from Encanto are a great example of what I want to see more of
Facts! They’re family, why not present the characters as family! Theres plenty of siblings in real life that don’t argue or fight so I can’t see why not!
I honestly want to see the opposite, I want to see more siblings that just never get along unless it’s rare moments, I want at least one sibling relationship that’s actually relatable
Bob's burgers has a wonderful sibling as well as sister dynamic! (With the exception of the first season. ) Oh and rise of the tmnt and we bare bears are both examples of affectionate (physically and emotionally) brother relationships that I think are criminally underrated
craig of the creek breaks this trope a bit i think. craig has two siblings: an older brother and younger sister, and often times he argues more with his brother (bernard) than he does with jessica (his sister). he still disagrees with jessica sometimes, but there's more episodes focusing around his and bernard's competing personalities (craig doesn't have any plans for his future while bernard is constantly planning for it, but both siblings experience gifted kid burnout in their own unique way), but it remains a side plot rather than being the main conflict of the show. it's genuinely fascinating imo and a great representation of siblings, then again that's just one facet of the show. definitely recommend checking it out bc there's a lot that this show has to offer
This video made me realize that it's also more common for a show to have a single male sibling with multiple sisters (The Loud House) than having a female sibling with multiple brothers (the only example I could think of is Kim Possible, but like you said, the twins are so similar to each other they might as well be one character).
Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn comes to mind, also The Amazing World of Gumball, Phineas and Ferb, in MHA the Todoroki family has one girl and more boys and I'm sure there's plenty more. I just think that it's more rare to have a main cast with 3+ siblings. But for the shows that have it, there are examples of m/m/m, f/f/f, f/m/m and m/f/f. But it is pretty common to give a baby sister to a brother/sister pair. I feel like most babies in shows are girls.
Dude, I've been dying trying to find a video like this! I've always been frustrated by how sibling stories are so under represented. Nowadays, it's forced shipping and romance, but not really about family and friendship. I've always been a sucker for brother/sister stories because they're never really done justice. It's always animosity, and stereotypes. I feel like the best brother/sister dynamics we've seen are Central Park, Milo Murphy's Law, Hamster and Gretel, Gravity Falls, and even Shadow and Maria, despite not being blood related. Bottom of the barrel.
The Dragon Prince on Netflix has a number of different sibling pairs - brother duos (Callum and Ezran) who are also step/half siblings and love each other deeply; Soren and Claudia (who get the most focus), Kosmo and Astrid, and Karim and Janai for brother-sister duos, and there are also a couple of sister bonds (Amaya and Sarai, Janai and Khessa) we see pieces of
@@wordswithdragons9599, I love the Dragon Prince, but I'm referring to shows that have a brother/sister as central focus or relevance. But as you said, they are relegated to a side role.
@@Reiiven, I agree, I love Gravity Falls and Dipper (or Mason) and Mabel are really well written as siblings. They do bicker and butt heads, but there's always love and care between them no matter what.
Bob’s Burgers is a really good show if you want to see a focus on familial relationships, and the kids (Tina, Gene, and Louise) are great and there’s plenty of episodes focused on them. The dynamics throughout the whole family strike a nice balance between being somewhat exaggerated for comedy yet feeling believable and very loving. With how a lot of families in adult animation seem to hate each other, they’re a breath of fresh air.
There are quite a few, actually. Hey Arnold, Jimmy Neutron, Fairly Odd Parents, to name a few. I haven't tried to see whether or not it's more common for characters to have one sibling or none
Timmy Turner is an only child until he wishes for an older brother Tommy who moves to Tebequador at the end of the episode. Jimmy Neutron is an only child so he builds a brother robot called Brobot.
Not all of the siblings pictured are listed as brother/sister pairs! In fact, the next two pairs pictured after Bluey and Bingo (around 4:30, for reference) are brother/brother pairs :)
Bluey has the advantage of its characters being pretty neutral-looking dogs, so they remain marketable towards little boys because they don't look "too girly". That is I'd say the biggest reason Bluey starts pushing Peppa Pig out of our UK store shelves, which I'm all here for.
Actually I think that the creator at that moment was actually pairing the bluey sisters with the sentence a few seconds after that which says something like, "the same sex sibling pairs also have fights." (paraphrasing)
This made me remember that they only ever used her on adventure episodes with Pal because of the show established lore that babies and dogs spoke the same language 😭
As someone who grew up as the middle sibling, I feel like there's lost potential for exploring the role as the kid who's not the first born, or the family baby. There's an inherit expectation that things are meant to go smoother with your upbringing (that sometimes is and sometimes is not met). There's a period where you have the most responsibility thrust upon you, because you're not the youngest and the oldest one isn't around the house as often because they're busy exploring their new freedoms that come with coming of age. You can often get sidelined of forgotten about or thrust into the middle of situations you don't really want to be apart of.
First of all, underrated video. But this is actually an interesting analysis! I feel like the reason the opposite gender siblings are more common for rivalries is that they seemingly add a more contrast to both characters (as there are also a lot of boy vs. girl things going on). An the same goes same gender plus bond types as they serve a more similarity to them. I feel like writers overuse this trope because it's a logical conclusion to go to of "if they're similar they should be sisters/brothers" and "if they're different they should be sister and brother" to set contrast (whether it's none or as much). And with the younger sibling/older sibling thing, it's usually a trope of "I have to care for this person like a parent" or "Ew my annoying little sibling" for a younger sibling and a "Ew my annoying older sibling" or a "They bully me" dynamic. I feel like this is an interesting dynamic that is unexplored and overused so it's important to keep it in mind.
Interestingly, while its far more common to have an older brother as the choice for an abusive sibling role, when it's a sister who's the main aggressor they actually tend to be the younger sibling. Some examples: Zuko and Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Arthur and D.W. in the latter's worst cases (Arthur), Ed and Sarah (Ed, Edd, and Eddy), Dib and Gaz (Invader Zim)
@bridgetgrant2776 Daria and Quinn both being girls does help contrast their reaaaally different teenage experience. Quinn is the magazine perfect type of girl Daria rebel against. And her being her sister is way more close and personal that Britanny, for example. So I think all depends on what the show is trying to say.
Also the older being the parents "sidekick" aka always trying to tell them what the little one did so it gets in trouble Never happened with my brother, but in my old job it did, if i don't tell the boss what you did then *i* get punished for what *you* did
Outside of any real story or marketing reasoning (which I think you’re 100% right on) I think a factor that might play into this comes from an art perspective. When you’re designing two sibling characters who aren’t twins, aren’t step siblings, and are of the same sex, it can be mildly difficult to make them look different enough from each other to be distinct, but not so different that they look unrelated. It’s obviously not an impossible task, but just making the other sibling a different gender is a very easy shortcut, and accomplishes about the same end result.
Girls would be easier for the extra hair styles. But I'd think clothing would help with that. Even some basics of accessories that always show up even if the regular clothes look similar would help.
To be fair… pepper Ann has a little sister. She just sounds like a guy Mean while… Bobs burgers has a good example of sibling Bond that not part of a triplet/ twin set And Bluey… that show has a very healthy Sisterly bond ( plus little cousins)
@@andocoolxd5158 yes. My husband and I enjoyed bobs burgers and the idea behind it “ hey what if this guy actually loves his family “ Bobs burgers is what it is because someone decided to not make the family man not miserable with his family
4:18, I know I’m talking about an exception here but I’m thinking about the Lilo and Stitch television show where Lilo’s older sister Nani is her legal guardian and she and Lilo also often don’t get along. (I know it’s following the movie from which it was adapted.)
@@matityaloran9157 Because their parents aren’t around anymore. But of course, my four-year-old brain couldn’t figure that out, especially since I didn’t have the context.
Same thing with children’s books (that end up turning into shows) like Arthur, as shown in the video, but also Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious. Even the Berenstain Bears got the Arthur treatment where the brother is older and at some point, there’s a baby girl as newest sibling.
Gravity falls doesn't follow the trend of the same sex sibling best friends because it was based on Alex and his Sister Ariel. So the siblings are opposite sex best friends
Actually Gravity Falls doesn't break any ground in this regard. According to my numbers, there's about a 50/50 chance of co-starring siblings being the same or opposite sex. Brother-sister pairs in shows like this are pretty common.
@@PrincessLionessWould the Crystal Gems count as cousins to Rose Quartz? Steven is also the only male gem in the series, so is kind of notable that way.
I think media struggles to show positive different sex relationships without an implied romantic angle, and people want to avoid that suggestion among siblings.
Not sure my opinion on if that's the case for the siblings thing, but in general hell yeah, there's so mucn emphasis on romantic relationships and like, even if it isnt outright stated theres often weird sexual/romantic tension between opposite sex characters
I think part of the reason that people infer romantic angles to opposite-sex siblings in media is BECAUSE of Hollywood's tendency to only portray opposite-sex relationships as romantic relationships. There's also the issue of modern society having elevated eros as the most important/only kind of love. The issue isn't strictly limited to opposite-sex characters either. There are many examples of same-sex duos with strong bonds of friendship (the love of philia) where people try to suggest that the characters are "coded gay" because it's unfathomable to them that two people could care about each other that much without being romantically involved. Frodo and Sam, Batman and Robin (some even say Batman and Joker...), Achilles and Patroclus, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, the list goes on.
Well our culture in general doesn't seem to accept the fact a man and a woman can be just friends without being simply the previous step towards dating, and now with couples of the same gender it seems no one can even have a single friendship without someone else implying romantic feelings 😅
@@reubenoakley5887people have been reading characters as queer since long before now. You just see it more because of the internet. The reason a queer person can call something queer could be because it resonates with their experiences as an LGBT person. And other times it could be that someone just thought these characters were cute together and paired them up. It really doesn't matter because it doesn't have to cancel out your own view of them. Media is there to be interpreted in different ways, and that's all that queer people are doing, they're not masses of the population turning all the "strong male friendships" gay. It really isn't that big a deal.
I find it interesting that a lot of only children shows tend to have a lot of cousins or friends who act as a proxy to having a sibling or a parental figure (Ben 10, Jonny Quest, and Fairly Oddparents are a few that come to mind)
@JuriAmari honestly yeah. And inversely speaking, theres not a lot of shows that i can think of wherein any of the adult leads have siblings within the main cast. Usually the most i see is the occasional creepy twins trope.
Spike is also her sibling I guess but also kind of her son? The dynamic between them is pretty muddy and I’d fault the show on that if that dynamic didn’t exist in real life too. Cadence is also her sister in law and she refers to her as a sister several times throughout the series.
Marketability is probably part of it, as others have said. Knowing artists though, I bet it also has to do with readability. They want the characters to be obviously distinct and not overlap too much in what archetype they embody. If you make a character the opposite sex, it immediately changes their visual identity and their archetype, making them more distinct at a glance. Look at Phineas and Ferb for example. They’re two same gender siblings of the same age and similar interests. The show takes pains to make sure they’re distinct. Tall and short, triangle and rectangle, green and orange, talkative and quiet, British and American. Boy and girl is an obvious and quick way to distinguish characters and evoke different tropes.
i rarely subscribe, even to channels i love & repeatedly come back to, because i just forget or don’t need to because the algorithm brings them to me anyways. but you posting these with literally no expectation or goals was funny & lowkey inspiring so i had to describe. this was a cool video.
I'd be really interested to see someone run the numbers for anime, but I have a feeling it'd be a lot harder. Only 34% of the anime I've seen have a protagonist with any siblings at all. But just based on cultural stuff, I'd have to guess that age would be more important in writing anime siblings than gender. You're either the older sibling that has to take care of everyone or you're the younger sibling that has to prove themself. This conflict seems much more prominent than girl vs boy so I bet the gender numbers would be more even
I think if a character has a male sibling, than it's an older brother and a female sibling is a younger sister. I watch a lot of shounen and I feel like same sex siblings (especially brother/brother) are more common there. But idk when it comes to anime as a whole.
Don't mention anime, it really feels odd those sibings relationships, they are usually portrayed as the younger sister is jealous of the MCs girlfriend because she wants her brother for herself... And that's just the tip of that messed up iceberg... Like seriously, I end up hating the word "Oni-chan" because of that.
Mario is interesting since we didn't really get a game showing what the relationship between the brothers was until the 00's- Paper Mario and Luigi's Mansion were the first to really show them interacting to any meaningful extent and Mario & Luigi was the first to emphasize them working together. They interacted in gameplay in some games, but that left their relationship up to the player- You could either work together or try to screw each other over in Mario Bros for example. But in other media their relationship was mostly consistent. Usually you would see Mario be the courageous, headstrong, one and Luigi be more reserved and cautious. The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, an anime OVA, was probably the first to do this, with Mario being portrayed as a romantic that would do anything to rescue Peach and Luigi being portrayed as less headstrong but along for the ride because he wants treasure (a trait that would later be associated more with Wario). The DIC-made Mario cartoons like the Super Show didn't have the greed but virtually had the same dynamic. And then the Super Mario Adventures comic ramped up the dynamic to the extent that it's virtually identical to how they're portrayed in Mario & Luigi. But then there's the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie, which decided to reverse the roles from everything else and made Mario the reserved and cautious one while Luigi was barging into dangerous situations without thinking. It's so weird how this is the opposite of what everything else established.
1:24 He said and just a few seconds later Peppa Pig appears. That show is so British, that there have been cases of American Children speaking with a British Accent after watching the show
For everything. Theories on sibling relationships? Malcolm in the Middle defies them. Theories on TV parenting? Malcolm in the Middle defies them. It is the TV show where they said, "Let's break every trope we can."
Drake and Josh has have both tropes. Same sex sibling who get along really well, and a younger opposite sex sibling who often acts as a foil or antagonist. The Amazing World of Gumball also has this, though Gumball and Darwin tend to get along with Anais pretty well that I won't call her antagonistic towards them. Still, it focuses on the bond of the brothers, and their little sister is a supporting character.
There was some part of the later series I remember as kid born in the 2000’s that revolved around Kate being able to communicate with pal and having her own adventures. Like as she grew up she began forgetting how to talk to pal and her and pal befriended other pets during a couple episode arc about the stock market. (The sock market as it was rebranded to be) anyway. I’m definitely on the older side of gen z but hey even I remember this show.
This is really interesting! You don’t really think much about siblings in media, but given that you’ve pointed it out, two-child families do feel like they’re a lot more common in TV shows! In one particular anime I watch, Pretty Cure, the cast is rotated out every season, and it’s very common for one of the main characters in that year’s group to have a singular sibling. It varies on the gender, but I’ve noticed that it’s usually the case that the sibling is younger than them. It’s very rare for one of the girls to have multiple or even older siblings (And considering we’re approaching the 100 main Cure Milestone, yes, older siblings are fairly rare. I can name maybe three examples off the top of my head). My guess is that with Pretty Cure, which is aimed at young girls, the characters are meant to be role models, so the affection someone can have for their sibling, especially younger siblings, is something that the writers would want to reflect.
Ah, a fellow Precure fan. Something else to note is that siblings in pretty cure are rarely an integral part of the plot. For the most part, they show up once or twice and only serve that particular episode. One example of a sibling that is important is Momoka, Erika's older sister in Heart catch. She doesn't show up as much, but for Precure standards she in a lot, thanks to her relationship with Yuri.
I remember how-especially in older cartoons-had a trend of "boys vs girls" episodes. Now that I think about it, it was a theme I saw often in cartoons from pre-2010s(?)
Yeah this is a really bad trope that hopefully gets retired. As reviewers have pointed out the boys were never allowed to win and the lesson was always girls are better. Never that both sexes have their highs and lows and in general we're all just people. It would have been nice if one of these ended with the groups putting aside their differences and working together to resolve a conflict. Closest I've seen to this being done well is SpongeBob.
@@darksideofevil13maybe it had to do with "men = strong, women = weak" mentality trying to show David beating Goliath? I don't know, just thinking out loud
Now that i think about it Not only shows had episodes with that conflict *A Lot* of shows used the concept, mostly for competitions, like we have team blue vs red, but now both will get separated into boys vs girls
@@GarkKahn Interesting perspective actually. I figured it was more so a trying to elevate young girls now due to history not being super great for women. Like it's well intentioned. But I feel like it had some negative connotations. Really it's better to send a message of equality. Still I hadn't considered this perspective. I think for competition shows that's more so playing on the idea that it's fun to see a battle of the sexes. That's not as bad since it's real people competing. So it's more up to talent who wins as opposed to a story where they'll just make the boys lose. Unless the judges are bias or something.
I remember really liking the sibling relationship that Carmen and Juni have in Spy Kids. They felt like real siblings to me that genuinely came to work together for each other.
Wow. This was really interesting. I'm curious to know more examples of older sibling, younger sibling (particularly teen sibling, kid sibling) dynamics in which they either generally get along or are actually close with each other. I know you didn't include anime in your research but I gotta shout out Sango and Kohaku from Inuyasha as one of the extremely rare examples (in my experience) of an older sibling (Sango) having a close bond with their younger sibling (Kohaku) and I love them for it as they were probably the first example I'd seen.
Hamster and Gretel is the only example that readily comes to mind. Most shows I can think of write the siblings very close in age if they want them to be close.
Big Time Rush is a good example of two siblings actually being close. Kendall is one of the main protagonists and he has a little sister, Katie, who usually is part of the B plot. Rarely do they even seem to get annoyed by the other and they often help out one another during the series. It’s honestly one of my favorite sibling relationship dynamics because it’s a relatively realistic depiction of an older brother and younger sister that have a close bond. I think part of the success of it is that Katie is her own person even though she’s a side character. Her character doesn’t revolve around being Kendall’s younger sister therefore she can have her own obstacles that doesn’t involve her clashing with Kendall.
I love how you included some of my favorite shows as a kid! One of them includes Mike the Knight, which actually caught me off guard when I saw you have it on the list!
I have always noticed the show always have siblings. As an only child it can feel unrelatable sometimes. I do have step siblings but I rarely visit them. Same in real life, when people talk about sibling rivalry I just listen to them but not really contribute to the conversation. I’ve been able to enjoy some peace and quiet moments like art, reading books, etc. I take good care of my stuff. I stay in touch with my family. Addicted to tech, lol. Makes me wish I see more shows or movies with only child as the main character. I know many people have multiple kids in households, but I have noticed more families are just having one child (could be reasons like raising a child is expensive, wants to put all resources in one child, etc.).
I think the main reason why there are a lot of shows with the main protagonists having a sibling or bff of the opposite sex is to attract a diverse audience. It was believed that by including a sibling, friend or love interest of the opposite sex, it would attract an audience of that sex. That’s why you have shows like She-Ra where He-Man has a sister, Supergirl, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, DW episodes in Arthur, Piggy from the Muppets and much more. Creating more conflict has little to do with it, especially since there are much heated conflicts when the siblings are the opposite sex than the same. Look at the Bat Family with Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian as examples, who have more conflict than each had with Cassandra Caine. But yeah, the inclusion of siblings, friends or anyone of the opposite sex is to attract a diverse audience. The big heads saw that there was a more diverse audience with shows like Mickey Mouse and Seseme Street than there were in shows like Smurfs, the Care Bears and early shows of My Little Pony and even those shows did eventually include a female character for that very reason. That’s also why G4 My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. They included male pony characters in the form of siblings, friends and love interests to gain more male audiences. Not to say I think this method works, but I do think there is some truth to it. You’re likely to gain a male audience if there’s male characters and female audience if there are female characters.
i think its funny to hear that in shows characters being the opposite sex is meant to be a reason for them to fight more, and though this is just one experience, it has always been my brothers fighting more than i ever have with either of them. its more complicated than it just being what we were born as, but its still funny. and if you wanna know what theyve fought about the most... its literally been the women in their lives. not even them competing for the same woman. its them having their own women and being judgy about the other ones choice in partner. its so dumb lol
Wow, that's a fascinating observation! Guess it makes sense by the intended dynamic each show is trying to portray, like for some reason comedies love this trope (probably inspired by either Charlie Brown or The Simpsons) and is therefore overutilized for the industry by the variety of comic situations it can derive into; meanwhile when the show (ideally) utilizes siblings of the same sex (which is sorta rarer), either the show presents it as a nuisance or with negative effect on the protagonist or the show has an introspective nature where they show a much more realistic portrayal of the relationship. Of course there are exceptions, and there are fascinating to tackle individually but I believe this trope and dynamics are based majorly on inspiration from other properties, although the 'balanced' gender representation is definitely there as well. Also dude, your OC's are lit, I'd love to hear more from them and it's impressive how many you've made!!! LOVELY VIDEO, LOVELY CHANNEL, SUSCRIBED IMMEDIATELY. 💖💖💖
There’s also the the two brother/one(or two)sister sibling dynamic I’ve seen a lot in kidcoms from Wizards of Waverly Place to Good Luck Charlie to The Thundermans to The Villains of Valley View. I love how people accuse The Villains of Valley View of copying The Thundermans when it seems like all of the latter three shows seem to be taking inspiration from Wizards.
I almost included an analysis of 3-child families, but then I for frustrated because there's 9 or 12 variations to count instead of just the 4 with 2-child households. But now that you mention it, there might be a similar pattern there, at least in Disney Channel shows.
Most shows with siblings: occasionally have a rivalry, but ultimately love each other Grojband: The protagonist’s sister is a psychopath who abuses her best friend, regularly attempts to crush her brother’s dreams and has tried to destroy her home town on multiple occasions
My main story right now is focused on the middle of three sisters who mostly get along, their only-child cousin, and their fathers, who have a third sibling, and honestly none of the brothers from that generation have salvageable relationships with each other. I think part of why I've been writing about them (or at least rotating the concept in my brain) is because I only have one opposite-sex sibling, but I grew up with some books about groups of sisters. The idea's always fascinated me, but most people in my life only have brothers. Part of what I want to come across in what I'm writing now is this idea that you can have chosen family within blood family. The oldest brother in the prior generation isn't on amazing terms with any of his daughters, his younger brother wants to actually end him, and his youngest brother is just straight-up missing. The middle brother is initially antagonistic to his nieces and hot-and-cold with his daughter, but the girls accept him into the fold because they're more concerned with their _present_ relationship with him than his _past_ relationship with their father. And when the sisters find out their cousin is their cousin, it's not as important to why they consider her family as the fact that the four had been good friends to each other for months. Another thing I want to explore is birth order dynamics. The eldest sister definitely has that Eldest Daughter CEN thing going on, while her father is very much the Eldest Son Who Thinks He's Always Right. The middle son is kind of a sad extreme version of middle child neglect, while the middle daughter refuses to let herself get lost in the shuffle, being melodramatic but always gregarious. The youngest son is more entitled and messy, and just generally has a lot wrong, but the youngest sister is the one who's benefited most from the fact that her father's belittling isn't around, so she tends to be the one with the most backbone and often uses it to encourage her family not to accept injustice.
Technically, we don't actually know if Aang is an "only child" in the literal sense, as he never met his parents and was raised by monks. For all he knows, he could have had numerous siblings.
Notice that in most tv shows the paternal grandmother is usually killed off, Family Guy, Simpsons, Modern Family, Big Bang Theory (Howard), and Young Sheldon.
I don't know if this was on purpose but you saying that a couple of European shows probably snuck their way in, and then peppa pig immediately crawled onto the screen was pretty funny.
I appreciate that you included Wimzie's House on your list! I was just thinking about that show the other day and wondering if anyone else remembered it! :D
I think it would be valuable to consider the idea that a lot of cartoons are mimicking the "nuclear family"; of a two parent household with 2.5 kids, and a family pet. Taking your example of Arthur: he has both parents in the home, as well as a sister relatively close in age, a sister who is a baby, and a family pet. All of these elements of the family dynamic are plot points at some point or another throughout the show. It is worth keeping in mind that all media we consume is connected to ideals, or societal expectations, so often times these themes are worked into the shows, movies, and other media we consume. Sometimes it's just mirroring or mimicking these ideas, other times they are mocking or challenging these stereotypical family set ups. Love it or hate it, I believe that Family Guy does both, the main cast is structured like the typical nuclear family, and at times it mocks that dynamic, and other times it just plays into it. Just adds another point of interest to that way sibling relationships are portrayed, and why the creators of the media choose which sex to make each character.
I need to say that even though I know what you meant, '2.5 kids and a family pet' made me laugh Like, counting a baby as only .5 of a kid is really funny to me for some reason
@@pikminman13traditional ideas of men role in society and the real life trend of wanting to help ur younger siblings combined with shonen action or a wish filament main character Makes it so that trope is very common I imagine Both boys and girls love their lil. Sibling. Boys love being seen as heroes in western less traditional media Japan is more traditional And it's a good way to show the hero being good or having a soft spot No wonder it pops up a lot😅
If you are looking at harem anime that's definitely the trend, because that's just another female character to add to the pool, even if there's no romantic relationship with the MC. But outside of that you can see several examples of same sex siblings. For example Full Metal Alchemist, Blue Exorcist, Mob Psycho 100, where the dynamic between two brothers is a very relevant part of the story. Then there's the whole "cute girls doing cute stuff" genre where all relevant characters are female and therefore if someone has a sibling it's inevitably female. You can see that in K-on, Yuruyuri, Minami-ke and so on. I think that there's a lot more variety in the anime landscape, because well the anime landscape is extremely diverse to begin with and various shows can be aimed at very different demographics.
@@JannPoo good points but I definitely worded my comment wrong- I mean it more as characters tend to have a older brother or a younger sister- even in same gender sets - especially in shows with some family themes , I assume it’s just to add some diversity to the cast as since the main characters also often have mostly same gender friends
3:59: A Little Clarification here since you mentioned friends. Kevin and Fred are more than just friends, they're cousins. Just letting you know if you didn't happen to know that.
Yeah, that probably wasn't the best clip for me to choose. I thought it was appropriate just because Fred is the kid Kevin's age that he's shown interacting with the most.
IMO this is best represented in Duncanville, especially in the episode "Sibling Revelry". That episode (and really the show as a whole) is extremely underrated and underappreciated.
tbh, my completely uninformed, outsider take is that writers are just min-maxing their characters when given the opportunity. If it seems feasible that their character can have a sibling, they will probably do it. And there are a number of ways a writer might default their creativity. I can think of two obvious ones: 1. They want to experiment with a gender-bent version of their main character. 2. They want to incorporate a polar opposite version of their main character (ex: Dexter and Dee Dee).
This might or might be on your list. Zach and Ivy from two Where on Earth is / Carmen Sandiego cartoons. Just as mentioned in your video, the newer show depicts Carmen as the main character with a brotherly male best friend, as seen with Crackle in an older brother or Player in an older sister way.
Should clarified. Crackle - Carmen are older brother, younger sister type of best friends. Player - Carmen are younger brother, older sister type of best friends.
Since you did mention the "opposite sex best friend", they will always exist to add sexual tension (will they or won't they?) to the plot, either with the protagonist, or between e/o. This is also because the protagonist and their group MUST be heterosexuals...
Not always. I can think of several cases where the protag is in love someone outside their friend group. Raven Baxter and Jake Long for example. Personally, I always found it weird that one would spend more time with her platonic male friend than she does with the guy she wants to date. But I never dated in school, so maybe I lack the frame of reference to understand it.
@@DuneStone6816 I never dated in school either and turns out I'm ace so since I never had a crush all my female classmates confided in me (also a girl) when they did. None of them ever spent any significant amount of time with the guys they wanted to date, they barely talked and pined after the boy for about 2 months before confessing and asking for a date. I must clarify that I'm talking about elementary and middle school tho, when I began high school I became a loner and wasn't privy to how dating worked anymore.
6:40 I’m subbed to plenty of inactive channels, if i like the things being posted i want to be updated if there is more it doesn’t matter if that’s the next day the next year the next decade 🤷 good video is good video
@@jadacampbell9331 Co-starring siblings can be different from each other. Dipper and Mabel, Zack and Cody, and Liv and Maddie are all opposites of each other.
@@DuneStone6816 I think it’s in reference to how same gender siblings on tv are usually portrayed as getting along well rather than rivalries or constantly complaining. So in a way the OG poster was right - Huey and Riley would be an exception because they disagree a lot. There might be an intersectional exception to this trope too because Gerald (from Hey Arnold) doesn’t get along with his brother either (and then there’s Helga with Olga). Then again, he is part of a trio (a middle child to an older brother and a younger sister- very rare that a middle child gets covered), there’s a generational divide, and the siblings are not centralized outside of one offs.
Great video, I just wish there were more! I wanted to hear about conflict between age groups and possible perceived or real sexual tension between siblings like in Even Steven’s, but maybe that’s just me.
I guess, it just felt natural to give my sloth character a sibling to understand the dynamic of how different he is to other sloths. I have not written much anything with him yet, I can't finish anything, besides a high school. He's supposed to be more energetic because he loves to dance. She not so different just more relaxed.
Also, matpat's channel messed up a major point in scientific communication: Theory does NOT mean incomplete. In science, a theory is the most proof you can possibly have given the infinite possibility of the universe. This would be a film HYPOTHESIS not a theory. Dang it matpat
Despite all the factoids involved in such speculations, most TH-camrs are using "theory" colloquially in which case the definition is closer to an idea or hunch. Very few people use theory in the scientific sense when speaking in layman's terms and that well predated MatPat's career.
@@BonaparteBardithion correct, I'll give Mat that. But I'll also not give it to anyone colloquially if I can help it - which includes Mat aside from his intro/outro
One advantage to showing opposite sex siblings and younger siblings is that the main character not only learns to navigate differing age and gender in various situations, but they have this consistent example of the opposite sex who has hopefully SOME kind of constructive ongoing relationship to them that is not the very uncommon usual mixed gender friendship, not the equally uncommon mixed age friendship, but potentially like both of those things. Also a since a sibling character in never a love interest, it can be nice to see shows that are for kids not focus too much or at all on romance and love relationship. Girls especially tend to get served those themes early and often in narratives geared to them for better AND worse. Since this continues right through their lives, it might take mentioning that the idea that there CAN, maybe even SHOULD be relationships to people of the opposite sex that will never be romantic is probably an important reminder that writers gravitate toward when choosing friend and sibling gender.
This is jaw-droppingly fascinating, actually! I love seeing videos with observations I never would've made myself! It really makes you think! And even though the topic wasn't about books (or anything else other than shows and the mention of movies), I purposely altered my three sibling dynamic of my book because I didn't want to have two boys and a girl. So for uniqueness' sake (and also for representation, most importantly), I instead had one of the male-presenting siblings intersex nonbinary (specifically demi-male). I don't think I've ever seen that done before, so I had to do it. And on the topic of twins, I actually put in my notes that in future chapters, that very same character has identical twins with their partner (who, by the way, happens to be intersex too - demi-female). And, actually, on that note, the brother of the three siblings (one of two protagonists) and the love interest (the female protagonist) eventually have three siblings as well, one kid (another intersex baby - agender this time) and another pair of twins - fraternal this time. So yeah, I wanted to break ALL of the steretypes with my book😂sorry for the randomness, I just find this fascinating.
I'll admit, the distinction is more intuitive than logical. My mind just doesn't make a clear distinction between shows from different English speaking countries. But it does make a clear distinction between Japanese and Western media. Bluey FEELS like part of the American media landscape so I never even thought about the fact that it's a wholly Australian creation.
Its called the Anglosphere for a reason. The Anglosphere basically treats each other as like other states of America. I strongly suggest he would treat French or German media as foreign. Its not Western media its the anglosphere
I noticed you had Disney’s Recess on your list of shows with the main character having an older sibling of the opposite sex. Yet that show has six main characters, all with different families who are little more than supporting characters, as the show focuses on their lives at school, not at home. However, if you’re counting TJ as the main character, his older sister was only featured in the movie, not in the series.
@@goodboy02network90 I honestly don't remember. Was she never shown in the series at all? Was she ever mentioned? And yes, I was reasoning that TJ is the primary protagonist
I can’t think many shows that have sister co leads like Adventure Time, We Bare Bears, Phineas and Ferb, The Amazing World of Gumball etc., beside the Powerpuff Girls.
@@DuneStone6816I did not realize it was by the same folks that made Veggie Tales, nor that it was a Christian show! Man, it's been a while since I last saw it on Qubo.
Oh no, I gave my female OC a younger brother aaaaaaaaaaaa it is inescapable. Also, before you showed Kim Possible's twin brothers, I was certain she only had one younger brother so you were on point with that.
Yes, I did think of that, but it's the only one I can think of. With brothers, you've got DuckTales, Phineas and Ferb, Adventure Time, Gumball, We Bear Bares and more.
@@sweets_Cat88 I never actually watched Bluey until I was collecting clips for this video. Is Bingo just as prominent on that show as Darwin is in Gumball?
@@DuneStone6816 the entire Heeler family are the main characters. Not just Bluey herself. But the show is definitely a fresh of breath air to the sibling dynamics and a healthy sisterly like relationship
You certainly put a lot of thoughts in my head here, and two distinctly come to mind. 1: its very likely that this alleged trend of same sex siblings getting along while different sex siblings not doing so is probably a deeply rooted, subconscious trend in the writters' minds that the same sex are more likely to get along because there will be more shared common interests as opposed the other, because our society is still somewhat ingrained in the idea of "boy interests" vs "girl interests", like how boys are expected to not like certain shows because "its a girl show". Not sure why friend groups wouldn't follow this trend, like you said the need for representation probably comes first. 2: when you pointed out not looking if anime follows this trend or not, I had to pause the video and reflect for myself, and I realized something: far too many anime protagonists are either literal orphans, or otherwise significantly more detached from their family than protagonists of western media (which might say something about the type of people that prefer anime but I'm not touching that here). Either way, they are most often only-childs, or have siblings as nothing more than background characters. The focus is instead generally on their friends, often ones they make on screen rather than already having them prior to the pilot.
If the story's premise isn't specifically about how wacky big families are, there will almost never be more than three children without a set of twins or triplets in the mix. Writers are evidently really squeamish about the idea of a woman being pregnant more than three times in her entire life, even when the story is set in communities and time eras (ie most communities in most time eras) in which this was the norm. This is interesting to me because it's a line that's _not_ drawn out of respect for time restraints or a viewer's limited memory for character names the way just generally limiting the number of siblings a protag has is; once you decide to include a character, it makes no difference to this end weather he or she is a twin.
Actually, I think this is mostly due to time or memory constraints. If the story doesn't call for the protag to have a lot of siblings, then there's no reason to write in those extra characters to keep track of. Also, I've heard there's a general standard on television of having no more than 7 main characters. Exceptions exist, but they're harder to sell. As one of 5 children myself, I would like to see more big families on TV, but I understand why they're rare.
Can't talk for Cartoons, but in anime it's rather common that past the introductory episode 1, each main character gets one episode focused on them. With only 12 episodes per season, your getting less and less time to introduce the actual conflict/plot/story if you spend half of the season introducing your quintuplets.
![I Survived 1000 Days in Minecraft Hardcore [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TjKcgBxLnQY/mqdefault.jpg)
I feel as it’s like you mentioned earlier, to have both sides represented; a common trend for shows aimed at boys/ girls they usually have a younger/ older sibling that’s the opposite sex to make fun of the other sex by portraying them as annoying to be more relatable to the viewers at home that might have that same problem.
0:07 I personally think that might be because they are more willing to get extreme with the sibling rivalry which results in more humor than girls, tv shows have always been hesitant to show girls getting hit on tv rather than boys due to it possibly sending a bad message, tv has been able to let boys get nasty with no problem. I think my reasoning is more of a side contribution though, i mean in all the tv shows I’ve watched with two female siblings they usually get along with a few mishaps, yell at each other a ton with slight references when they might’ve fighten before but not on screen, or do actually fight on camera but is left with miniscure bruises and is stopped usually very fast, it’s also even rarer with two opposite sex siblings who usually only yell and rarely fight on screen unless it’s like the fights I just mentioned.
Yeah, exactly. A lot of kids family cartoons in general follow this. Bluey is an exception with the two daughters and the lack of gendered stereotypes, but Bluey clones such as Chipchilla and Fire Spike regress on this and also make the boy the main character for most episodes.
@@LeisireRubi0it’s funny that the general perception is that sisters would get along better than brothers, or at least be more gentle when fighting, because sister relationships (especially in the case where they’re decently close in age) can get up to some absolutely deranged psychological warfare alongside the physical fighting 😅
_"...problem"_ 😅
And as shown thru some memes, brothers while being aggressive tend to be more calm toward their brother, at least compared to sister relationships 😅
I feel like it's worth mentioning the absurd amount of twins in media, It feels like so many shows have them. (this video was really interesting btw)
Yeah, but twins are really cool. I bet a lot of people agree with me. It's a shame that usually they are just the same character twice. We need more shows like Gravity Falls. Also more fraternal twins.
At one point in high school my grade had roughly 50 people and 6 of them were 3 sets of twins… all of them identical twins at that
I’ve since given up on twin statistics. forget media, their statistically disproportionate presence has infiltrated my actual life, literally what is happening
@@H0PEisaL1E agreed! really frustrates me, cause twins are cool but we so often just get the “oh they’re the same haha” trope and it gets pretty old pretty fast
Gravity Falls treated its twins well!
The twins are always either the exact same character or complete opposites in every way, there's very very rarely a middle ground (Gravity Falls is the only one I can name off the top of my head, and that's probably because they're based on real people)
That is, to me, because twins are an easy way to hook someone on a character(s). A lot of the time it allows the writers to create a unique and interesting dynamic for the pair, sacrificing or risking very little in the way of relatability, because everyone has met a pair of twins before.
I think particularly in all these shows for little-little kids, it's simply a matter of expanding the appeal to both genders, especially where merch is involved. Peppa Pig wants to sell lunch boxes to little boys too, so she has to have a brother whose face will serve as the "Yes dear parents, you can buy this for BOYS!" signifier. If Peppa is on a lunchbox alone, the item will get marked as "For girls", so a lot of the "general appeal" and even the "For boys" Peppa Pig lunchboxes tend to show both Peppa and George.
Not a sibling necessarily, but Boots from Dora The Explorer is probably meant to fill that same quota, since he's a co-star of the show, basically. Despite this, he seems to be left off a lot of merchandise, marking said merchandise as "for girls" anyway, rectifying his own importance.
Even when he *is* included sometimes, it's still marked as "for girls" though, so I'm pretty sure 99% of people familiar with Dora on the marketing team just don't care.
@@ethnictendoThat's what Diego was created for
This is the most logical explanation.
When I was a kid I liked watching He-Man, and then She-Ra. Years later I remember reading about how She-Ra was introduced when surveys showed that there were enough girls watching the Masters of the Universe cartoons for the producers to decide it would be profitable to market the toys to us. It worked on me.
Shows where the main protagonist is an only child also have a tendency to give the lead an opposite sex cousin who acts in the role of a supporting/opposing sibling character. These include...
The Magic School Bus - Arnold Perlstein is more or less the main character of the series. He has an opposite sex clone in the form of his cousin Janet (the kids' mothers are identical twins, so that's why the kids look so much alike; they're genetically half siblings). Her personality is the opposite of his, making her a source of sibling-like conflict.
Liberty's Kids - Sarah Phillips is the main protagonist and has a cousin named Tom. Subverted; he only appears in one episode and is killed in that episode. However, it's pretty significant as his is the only dead body actually shown in the entire series. And he died in Sarah's arms.
The Legend of Korra - Korra's twin cousins are opposite sexes, but are single minded, and the female twin doesn't act particularly girly. But then the male twin doesn't act particularly masculine either. They do act as rivals to Korra in the second season, though.
Ben 10 - Ben's cousin Gwen is his sidekick.
Molly of Denali - Molly's older cousin Randall lives 600 miles away, but they keep in touch over the internet and are as close as siblings.
Or they have an opposite/same sex best friend.
Didn’t even mention Dora and Diego.
Gwen was originally going to be a classmate,
but they couldn't find a reason for her to be on a family trip
I agree with everything you said, except that Arnold is the main character 😂
WOAH. i forgot how dark liberty kids was 😭😭
irl I think it’s usually the exact opposite, generally brothers and sisters get along better than two brothers or two sisters (at least as children)
I did briefly look it up later and the first result said that same-sex siblings bicker more because they compete with each other more.
The truth is we all bicker and quarrel at some point
Less competition. When siblings are different sexes they don't get compared to each other as often as they would if they were the same sex.
That said, brothers and sisters probably don't fight as often as same-sex siblings, but not sure if they're necessarily closer because of it. This may be anecdotal, but I've seen more close sister-sister or brother-brother bonds than sister-brother combo, so while it causes more fighting and competence, it can also create a greater bond by having something intrinsical (such as gender) in common.
Idk, every single girl with an older brother I've met (specifically when it's just 1 brother tho, 2 siblings: younger girl, older boy) fight very often and don't get along at all. This includes me as well.
The exception is if the age gap is big, like bigger than 6 or 7 years.
I have an older sister, older brother, and two younger sisters, but I lived in the same house with my brother and one younger sister. Not sure how it is for everyone else, but I argued with my younger sister more because we actually talked and played together, whereas my older brother only ever talked to me when he was “pranking” or making fun of me.
If same-sex siblings fight more, it could be because opposite sex siblings aren’t pushed to play and talk as much, so it’s less interaction between them overall? That’s in my case though.
I long to see more siblings who get along and have high (non-romantic of course) intimacy! Arguing and sibling rivalries are overused, I would love to see siblings simply get along and be affectionate with each other (while fighting only sometimes). Mirabel and Luisa from Encanto are a great example of what I want to see more of
Facts! They’re family, why not present the characters as family! Theres plenty of siblings in real life that don’t argue or fight so I can’t see why not!
The fact that you have to state non romantic 😬😬...
I honestly want to see the opposite, I want to see more siblings that just never get along unless it’s rare moments, I want at least one sibling relationship that’s actually relatable
@@girlpower_gacha that’s already half of them in tv history! 😒
Bob's burgers has a wonderful sibling as well as sister dynamic! (With the exception of the first season. ) Oh and rise of the tmnt and we bare bears are both examples of affectionate (physically and emotionally) brother relationships that I think are criminally underrated
craig of the creek breaks this trope a bit i think. craig has two siblings: an older brother and younger sister, and often times he argues more with his brother (bernard) than he does with jessica (his sister). he still disagrees with jessica sometimes, but there's more episodes focusing around his and bernard's competing personalities (craig doesn't have any plans for his future while bernard is constantly planning for it, but both siblings experience gifted kid burnout in their own unique way), but it remains a side plot rather than being the main conflict of the show. it's genuinely fascinating imo and a great representation of siblings, then again that's just one facet of the show. definitely recommend checking it out bc there's a lot that this show has to offer
This video made me realize that it's also more common for a show to have a single male sibling with multiple sisters (The Loud House) than having a female sibling with multiple brothers (the only example I could think of is Kim Possible, but like you said, the twins are so similar to each other they might as well be one character).
The Cassagrandes has a female protagonist with many brothers, but the series is super forgettable.
Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn comes to mind, also The Amazing World of Gumball, Phineas and Ferb, in MHA the Todoroki family has one girl and more boys and I'm sure there's plenty more. I just think that it's more rare to have a main cast with 3+ siblings. But for the shows that have it, there are examples of m/m/m, f/f/f, f/m/m and m/f/f. But it is pretty common to give a baby sister to a brother/sister pair. I feel like most babies in shows are girls.
Wizards of Waverly place
Lor and her army of brothers in The Weekenders
@@MaizeSnallygasterWrong. the protagonist has only one older brother. The other ones are cousins. And it's not forgettable.
Dude, I've been dying trying to find a video like this! I've always been frustrated by how sibling stories are so under represented. Nowadays, it's forced shipping and romance, but not really about family and friendship. I've always been a sucker for brother/sister stories because they're never really done justice. It's always animosity, and stereotypes. I feel like the best brother/sister dynamics we've seen are Central Park, Milo Murphy's Law, Hamster and Gretel, Gravity Falls, and even Shadow and Maria, despite not being blood related. Bottom of the barrel.
The Dragon Prince on Netflix has a number of different sibling pairs - brother duos (Callum and Ezran) who are also step/half siblings and love each other deeply; Soren and Claudia (who get the most focus), Kosmo and Astrid, and Karim and Janai for brother-sister duos, and there are also a couple of sister bonds (Amaya and Sarai, Janai and Khessa) we see pieces of
@@wordswithdragons9599, I love the Dragon Prince, but I'm referring to shows that have a brother/sister as central focus or relevance. But as you said, they are relegated to a side role.
The Pines twins are a great example of good cartoon siblings, they remind me a lot of me and my sister
@@Reiiven, I agree, I love Gravity Falls and Dipper (or Mason) and Mabel are really well written as siblings. They do bicker and butt heads, but there's always love and care between them no matter what.
Bob’s Burgers is a really good show if you want to see a focus on familial relationships, and the kids (Tina, Gene, and Louise) are great and there’s plenty of episodes focused on them. The dynamics throughout the whole family strike a nice balance between being somewhat exaggerated for comedy yet feeling believable and very loving. With how a lot of families in adult animation seem to hate each other, they’re a breath of fresh air.
Now that I think about it, I can’t name any cartoons or shows with characters who are the only child, great video!
There are quite a few, actually. Hey Arnold, Jimmy Neutron, Fairly Odd Parents, to name a few. I haven't tried to see whether or not it's more common for characters to have one sibling or none
The Owl House and Steven Universe immediately come to my mind.
Timmy Turner is an only child until he wishes for an older brother Tommy who moves to Tebequador at the end of the episode. Jimmy Neutron is an only child so he builds a brother robot called Brobot.
Spongebob is an only child I think
@@matityaloran9157 this comment gave me deja vu
Bluey and Bingo are both girls.
Came here for this!
they're put in the same gender category - if you look at 00:38 you can see bluey is in "younger sibling, same sex" column
Not all of the siblings pictured are listed as brother/sister pairs! In fact, the next two pairs pictured after Bluey and Bingo (around 4:30, for reference) are brother/brother pairs :)
Bluey has the advantage of its characters being pretty neutral-looking dogs, so they remain marketable towards little boys because they don't look "too girly". That is I'd say the biggest reason Bluey starts pushing Peppa Pig out of our UK store shelves, which I'm all here for.
Actually I think that the creator at that moment was actually pairing the bluey sisters with the sentence a few seconds after that which says something like, "the same sex sibling pairs also have fights." (paraphrasing)
I forgot Arthur and DW had a baby sister
big time same, that actually shocked me for a second 😅
I only remember Kate because she had a book about her birth (Arthur’s New Baby)
This made me remember that they only ever used her on adventure episodes with Pal because of the show established lore that babies and dogs spoke the same language 😭
As someone who grew up as the middle sibling, I feel like there's lost potential for exploring the role as the kid who's not the first born, or the family baby.
There's an inherit expectation that things are meant to go smoother with your upbringing (that sometimes is and sometimes is not met). There's a period where you have the most responsibility thrust upon you, because you're not the youngest and the oldest one isn't around the house as often because they're busy exploring their new freedoms that come with coming of age. You can often get sidelined of forgotten about or thrust into the middle of situations you don't really want to be apart of.
Malcolm in the middle
Braceface.
Lisa is middle too
Diary of a wimpy kid
Stuck in the middle is a Disney channel show where the main character is the middle child of a 5 sibling family
First of all, underrated video. But this is actually an interesting analysis! I feel like the reason the opposite gender siblings are more common for rivalries is that they seemingly add a more contrast to both characters (as there are also a lot of boy vs. girl things going on). An the same goes same gender plus bond types as they serve a more similarity to them. I feel like writers overuse this trope because it's a logical conclusion to go to of "if they're similar they should be sisters/brothers" and "if they're different they should be sister and brother" to set contrast (whether it's none or as much). And with the younger sibling/older sibling thing, it's usually a trope of "I have to care for this person like a parent" or "Ew my annoying little sibling" for a younger sibling and a "Ew my annoying older sibling" or a "They bully me" dynamic. I feel like this is an interesting dynamic that is unexplored and overused so it's important to keep it in mind.
What about Daria and Quinn?
Interestingly, while its far more common to have an older brother as the choice for an abusive sibling role, when it's a sister who's the main aggressor they actually tend to be the younger sibling. Some examples: Zuko and Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Arthur and D.W. in the latter's worst cases (Arthur), Ed and Sarah (Ed, Edd, and Eddy), Dib and Gaz (Invader Zim)
@bridgetgrant2776 Daria and Quinn both being girls does help contrast their reaaaally different teenage experience. Quinn is the magazine perfect type of girl Daria rebel against. And her being her sister is way more close and personal that Britanny, for example. So I think all depends on what the show is trying to say.
Also the older being the parents "sidekick" aka always trying to tell them what the little one did so it gets in trouble
Never happened with my brother, but in my old job it did, if i don't tell the boss what you did then *i* get punished for what *you* did
@@TheStarsTwilightAzula is older than Zuko tho
Outside of any real story or marketing reasoning (which I think you’re 100% right on) I think a factor that might play into this comes from an art perspective. When you’re designing two sibling characters who aren’t twins, aren’t step siblings, and are of the same sex, it can be mildly difficult to make them look different enough from each other to be distinct, but not so different that they look unrelated. It’s obviously not an impossible task, but just making the other sibling a different gender is a very easy shortcut, and accomplishes about the same end result.
I hadn't considered this.
Girls would be easier for the extra hair styles. But I'd think clothing would help with that. Even some basics of accessories that always show up even if the regular clothes look similar would help.
To be fair… pepper Ann has a little sister. She just sounds like a guy
Mean while… Bobs burgers has a good example of sibling Bond that not part of a triplet/ twin set
And Bluey… that show has a very healthy Sisterly bond ( plus little cousins)
moose is voiced by a girl pamela aldeon
@@kelsey1467 Bobby hill?
@@sweets_Cat88 yep
Those are some lovely examples of healthy relationships indeed! 💖💖💖
@@andocoolxd5158 yes. My husband and I enjoyed bobs burgers and the idea behind it “ hey what if this guy actually loves his family “
Bobs burgers is what it is because someone decided to not make the family man not miserable with his family
4:18, I know I’m talking about an exception here but I’m thinking about the Lilo and Stitch television show where Lilo’s older sister Nani is her legal guardian and she and Lilo also often don’t get along. (I know it’s following the movie from which it was adapted.)
When I first watched Lilo & Stitch, I thought Nani was her mother, not her sister.
@@goodboy02network90 She has legal custody of her
@@matityaloran9157 Because their parents aren’t around anymore. But of course, my four-year-old brain couldn’t figure that out, especially since I didn’t have the context.
Even her name also rhymes with mommy, my five or six year old deaf ears thought she called her mommy. 😂 @@goodboy02network90
For the same reason Lion Guard probably shouldn't be on this list
Same thing with children’s books (that end up turning into shows) like Arthur, as shown in the video, but also Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious. Even the Berenstain Bears got the Arthur treatment where the brother is older and at some point, there’s a baby girl as newest sibling.
Gravity falls doesn't follow the trend of the same sex sibling best friends because it was based on Alex and his Sister Ariel. So the siblings are opposite sex best friends
Actually Gravity Falls doesn't break any ground in this regard. According to my numbers, there's about a 50/50 chance of co-starring siblings being the same or opposite sex. Brother-sister pairs in shows like this are pretty common.
@@DuneStone6816What are your thoughts about Steven Universe as an only child who doesn’t have a cousin (like Ben 10) filling that role?
@@PrincessLioness
Ben 10 does have a cousin, she’s literally his side kick 😭
@@PrincessLionessWould the Crystal Gems count as cousins to Rose Quartz? Steven is also the only male gem in the series, so is kind of notable that way.
@@Bunni_Rxses no you read the comment wrong, they meant Steven doesn't have a co-starring cousin CONTRARY to Ben 10
I think media struggles to show positive different sex relationships without an implied romantic angle, and people want to avoid that suggestion among siblings.
I had this thought too. Alabama is only one state after all.
Not sure my opinion on if that's the case for the siblings thing, but in general hell yeah, there's so mucn emphasis on romantic relationships and like, even if it isnt outright stated theres often weird sexual/romantic tension between opposite sex characters
I think part of the reason that people infer romantic angles to opposite-sex siblings in media is BECAUSE of Hollywood's tendency to only portray opposite-sex relationships as romantic relationships. There's also the issue of modern society having elevated eros as the most important/only kind of love. The issue isn't strictly limited to opposite-sex characters either. There are many examples of same-sex duos with strong bonds of friendship (the love of philia) where people try to suggest that the characters are "coded gay" because it's unfathomable to them that two people could care about each other that much without being romantically involved. Frodo and Sam, Batman and Robin (some even say Batman and Joker...), Achilles and Patroclus, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, the list goes on.
Well our culture in general doesn't seem to accept the fact a man and a woman can be just friends without being simply the previous step towards dating, and now with couples of the same gender it seems no one can even have a single friendship without someone else implying romantic feelings 😅
@@reubenoakley5887people have been reading characters as queer since long before now. You just see it more because of the internet.
The reason a queer person can call something queer could be because it resonates with their experiences as an LGBT person.
And other times it could be that someone just thought these characters were cute together and paired them up. It really doesn't matter because it doesn't have to cancel out your own view of them.
Media is there to be interpreted in different ways, and that's all that queer people are doing, they're not masses of the population turning all the "strong male friendships" gay. It really isn't that big a deal.
Its because of these shows that i hated being an only child. There should be more shows about only children because that envy is REAL
I find it interesting that a lot of only children shows tend to have a lot of cousins or friends who act as a proxy to having a sibling or a parental figure (Ben 10, Jonny Quest, and Fairly Oddparents are a few that come to mind)
@JuriAmari honestly yeah. And inversely speaking, theres not a lot of shows that i can think of wherein any of the adult leads have siblings within the main cast.
Usually the most i see is the occasional creepy twins trope.
@@JuriAmarijonny quest had two older twin sisters though right? The secret lab was theirs
@@JuriAmariSteven Universe doesn’t.
@@CozyGhostThere’s Steven Universe.
I just want to say that I appreciate hearing "sex" and not "gender" in this context!
Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor 😭
Like Shining wants nothing but for her little sister to be safe, and can't help but cry for how much she has grown.
Spike is also her sibling I guess but also kind of her son? The dynamic between them is pretty muddy and I’d fault the show on that if that dynamic didn’t exist in real life too. Cadence is also her sister in law and she refers to her as a sister several times throughout the series.
@@MaizeSnallygaster Spike is pretty clearly a younger brother relationship. Shining Armour is barely present as a character.
Some shows honestly make having siblings either better or worse. At the end of the day, I get it. It’s so have both side represented like you said
This is how I found out Arthur had another sibling
Marketability is probably part of it, as others have said. Knowing artists though, I bet it also has to do with readability. They want the characters to be obviously distinct and not overlap too much in what archetype they embody. If you make a character the opposite sex, it immediately changes their visual identity and their archetype, making them more distinct at a glance.
Look at Phineas and Ferb for example. They’re two same gender siblings of the same age and similar interests. The show takes pains to make sure they’re distinct. Tall and short, triangle and rectangle, green and orange, talkative and quiet, British and American. Boy and girl is an obvious and quick way to distinguish characters and evoke different tropes.
i rarely subscribe, even to channels i love & repeatedly come back to, because i just forget or don’t need to because the algorithm brings them to me anyways. but you posting these with literally no expectation or goals was funny & lowkey inspiring so i had to describe. this was a cool video.
I'm so glad bro put Film theory gag in there made my day XD
I'd be really interested to see someone run the numbers for anime, but I have a feeling it'd be a lot harder. Only 34% of the anime I've seen have a protagonist with any siblings at all. But just based on cultural stuff, I'd have to guess that age would be more important in writing anime siblings than gender. You're either the older sibling that has to take care of everyone or you're the younger sibling that has to prove themself. This conflict seems much more prominent than girl vs boy so I bet the gender numbers would be more even
It's definitely due to culture norms
anime seems biased towards younger sisters with them being treated as cutesy and overly dependent
I think if a character has a male sibling, than it's an older brother and a female sibling is a younger sister. I watch a lot of shounen and I feel like same sex siblings (especially brother/brother) are more common there. But idk when it comes to anime as a whole.
Don't mention anime, it really feels odd those sibings relationships, they are usually portrayed as the younger sister is jealous of the MCs girlfriend because she wants her brother for herself... And that's just the tip of that messed up iceberg... Like seriously, I end up hating the word "Oni-chan" because of that.
either that or its incest
I'd like to mention The Super Mario Bros Super Show probably set the precedent for Mario & Luigi's brotherly bond over the years.
Mario is interesting since we didn't really get a game showing what the relationship between the brothers was until the 00's- Paper Mario and Luigi's Mansion were the first to really show them interacting to any meaningful extent and Mario & Luigi was the first to emphasize them working together. They interacted in gameplay in some games, but that left their relationship up to the player- You could either work together or try to screw each other over in Mario Bros for example.
But in other media their relationship was mostly consistent. Usually you would see Mario be the courageous, headstrong, one and Luigi be more reserved and cautious. The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, an anime OVA, was probably the first to do this, with Mario being portrayed as a romantic that would do anything to rescue Peach and Luigi being portrayed as less headstrong but along for the ride because he wants treasure (a trait that would later be associated more with Wario). The DIC-made Mario cartoons like the Super Show didn't have the greed but virtually had the same dynamic. And then the Super Mario Adventures comic ramped up the dynamic to the extent that it's virtually identical to how they're portrayed in Mario & Luigi.
But then there's the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie, which decided to reverse the roles from everything else and made Mario the reserved and cautious one while Luigi was barging into dangerous situations without thinking. It's so weird how this is the opposite of what everything else established.
@DylanYoshi Still waiting for the sequel to that movie that was teased at the end. 😅
1:24 He said and just a few seconds later Peppa Pig appears. That show is so British, that there have been cases of American Children speaking with a British Accent after watching the show
And Bluey is Australian
I noticed that too.😆
Malcolm in the Middle laughs in the face of all convention
For everything. Theories on sibling relationships? Malcolm in the Middle defies them. Theories on TV parenting? Malcolm in the Middle defies them. It is the TV show where they said, "Let's break every trope we can."
@psycho01cb
No it isn't,.dumbass. Malcom has a crap ton of Tropes used.
Nah Kate in Arthur had the best plots with her adventures with the dog.
Drake and Josh has have both tropes. Same sex sibling who get along really well, and a younger opposite sex sibling who often acts as a foil or antagonist.
The Amazing World of Gumball also has this, though Gumball and Darwin tend to get along with Anais pretty well that I won't call her antagonistic towards them. Still, it focuses on the bond of the brothers, and their little sister is a supporting character.
2:40 what can I say about Arhtur and Kate's relationship? Simple: I forgot Kate existed. I didn't remember there was a 3rd child in that family
Yeah, did she come later? I don't think she was a part of the show when I watched it.
There was some part of the later series I remember as kid born in the 2000’s that revolved around Kate being able to communicate with pal and having her own adventures. Like as she grew up she began forgetting how to talk to pal and her and pal befriended other pets during a couple episode arc about the stock market. (The sock market as it was rebranded to be) anyway. I’m definitely on the older side of gen z but hey even I remember this show.
Arthur fans are vomiting now, but I do hate Kate and Pal episodes
A lot of those get the Maggie Simpson treatment 😂
This is really interesting! You don’t really think much about siblings in media, but given that you’ve pointed it out, two-child families do feel like they’re a lot more common in TV shows! In one particular anime I watch, Pretty Cure, the cast is rotated out every season, and it’s very common for one of the main characters in that year’s group to have a singular sibling. It varies on the gender, but I’ve noticed that it’s usually the case that the sibling is younger than them. It’s very rare for one of the girls to have multiple or even older siblings (And considering we’re approaching the 100 main Cure Milestone, yes, older siblings are fairly rare. I can name maybe three examples off the top of my head). My guess is that with Pretty Cure, which is aimed at young girls, the characters are meant to be role models, so the affection someone can have for their sibling, especially younger siblings, is something that the writers would want to reflect.
Ah, a fellow Precure fan.
Something else to note is that siblings in pretty cure are rarely an integral part of the plot. For the most part, they show up once or twice and only serve that particular episode.
One example of a sibling that is important is Momoka, Erika's older sister in Heart catch. She doesn't show up as much, but for Precure standards she in a lot, thanks to her relationship with Yuri.
I remember how-especially in older cartoons-had a trend of "boys vs girls" episodes.
Now that I think about it, it was a theme I saw often in cartoons from pre-2010s(?)
Yeah this is a really bad trope that hopefully gets retired. As reviewers have pointed out the boys were never allowed to win and the lesson was always girls are better. Never that both sexes have their highs and lows and in general we're all just people.
It would have been nice if one of these ended with the groups putting aside their differences and working together to resolve a conflict.
Closest I've seen to this being done well is SpongeBob.
@@darksideofevil13maybe it had to do with "men = strong, women = weak" mentality trying to show David beating Goliath?
I don't know, just thinking out loud
Now that i think about it
Not only shows had episodes with that conflict
*A Lot* of shows used the concept, mostly for competitions, like we have team blue vs red, but now both will get separated into boys vs girls
@@GarkKahn Interesting perspective actually. I figured it was more so a trying to elevate young girls now due to history not being super great for women. Like it's well intentioned. But I feel like it had some negative connotations. Really it's better to send a message of equality.
Still I hadn't considered this perspective.
I think for competition shows that's more so playing on the idea that it's fun to see a battle of the sexes. That's not as bad since it's real people competing. So it's more up to talent who wins as opposed to a story where they'll just make the boys lose. Unless the judges are bias or something.
I remember really liking the sibling relationship that Carmen and Juni have in Spy Kids. They felt like real siblings to me that genuinely came to work together for each other.
Wow. This was really interesting. I'm curious to know more examples of older sibling, younger sibling (particularly teen sibling, kid sibling) dynamics in which they either generally get along or are actually close with each other. I know you didn't include anime in your research but I gotta shout out Sango and Kohaku from Inuyasha as one of the extremely rare examples (in my experience) of an older sibling (Sango) having a close bond with their younger sibling (Kohaku) and I love them for it as they were probably the first example I'd seen.
Hamster and Gretel is the only example that readily comes to mind. Most shows I can think of write the siblings very close in age if they want them to be close.
Big Time Rush is a good example of two siblings actually being close. Kendall is one of the main protagonists and he has a little sister, Katie, who usually is part of the B plot. Rarely do they even seem to get annoyed by the other and they often help out one another during the series. It’s honestly one of my favorite sibling relationship dynamics because it’s a relatively realistic depiction of an older brother and younger sister that have a close bond. I think part of the success of it is that Katie is her own person even though she’s a side character. Her character doesn’t revolve around being Kendall’s younger sister therefore she can have her own obstacles that doesn’t involve her clashing with Kendall.
I love how you included some of my favorite shows as a kid! One of them includes Mike the Knight, which actually caught me off guard when I saw you have it on the list!
I have always noticed the show always have siblings. As an only child it can feel unrelatable sometimes. I do have step siblings but I rarely visit them. Same in real life, when people talk about sibling rivalry I just listen to them but not really contribute to the conversation. I’ve been able to enjoy some peace and quiet moments like art, reading books, etc. I take good care of my stuff. I stay in touch with my family. Addicted to tech, lol. Makes me wish I see more shows or movies with only child as the main character. I know many people have multiple kids in households, but I have noticed more families are just having one child (could be reasons like raising a child is expensive, wants to put all resources in one child, etc.).
I think the main reason why there are a lot of shows with the main protagonists having a sibling or bff of the opposite sex is to attract a diverse audience. It was believed that by including a sibling, friend or love interest of the opposite sex, it would attract an audience of that sex. That’s why you have shows like She-Ra where He-Man has a sister, Supergirl, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, DW episodes in Arthur, Piggy from the Muppets and much more. Creating more conflict has little to do with it, especially since there are much heated conflicts when the siblings are the opposite sex than the same. Look at the Bat Family with Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian as examples, who have more conflict than each had with Cassandra Caine. But yeah, the inclusion of siblings, friends or anyone of the opposite sex is to attract a diverse audience. The big heads saw that there was a more diverse audience with shows like Mickey Mouse and Seseme Street than there were in shows like Smurfs, the Care Bears and early shows of My Little Pony and even those shows did eventually include a female character for that very reason. That’s also why G4 My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. They included male pony characters in the form of siblings, friends and love interests to gain more male audiences.
Not to say I think this method works, but I do think there is some truth to it. You’re likely to gain a male audience if there’s male characters and female audience if there are female characters.
i think its funny to hear that in shows characters being the opposite sex is meant to be a reason for them to fight more, and though this is just one experience, it has always been my brothers fighting more than i ever have with either of them. its more complicated than it just being what we were born as, but its still funny. and if you wanna know what theyve fought about the most... its literally been the women in their lives. not even them competing for the same woman. its them having their own women and being judgy about the other ones choice in partner. its so dumb lol
😂😂
Wow, that's a fascinating observation! Guess it makes sense by the intended dynamic each show is trying to portray, like for some reason comedies love this trope (probably inspired by either Charlie Brown or The Simpsons) and is therefore overutilized for the industry by the variety of comic situations it can derive into; meanwhile when the show (ideally) utilizes siblings of the same sex (which is sorta rarer), either the show presents it as a nuisance or with negative effect on the protagonist or the show has an introspective nature where they show a much more realistic portrayal of the relationship. Of course there are exceptions, and there are fascinating to tackle individually but I believe this trope and dynamics are based majorly on inspiration from other properties, although the 'balanced' gender representation is definitely there as well.
Also dude, your OC's are lit, I'd love to hear more from them and it's impressive how many you've made!!! LOVELY VIDEO, LOVELY CHANNEL, SUSCRIBED IMMEDIATELY. 💖💖💖
The Edna and Harvey song at the beginning gave me a whiplash lmao, take your like
There’s also the the two brother/one(or two)sister sibling dynamic I’ve seen a lot in kidcoms from Wizards of Waverly Place to Good Luck Charlie to The Thundermans to The Villains of Valley View. I love how people accuse The Villains of Valley View of copying The Thundermans when it seems like all of the latter three shows seem to be taking inspiration from Wizards.
I almost included an analysis of 3-child families, but then I for frustrated because there's 9 or 12 variations to count instead of just the 4 with 2-child households. But now that you mention it, there might be a similar pattern there, at least in Disney Channel shows.
Almost any time someone criticizes something for lack of originality it’s unfair
@@DuneStone6816and Bob's Burgers
“No cartoons with sisters.”
_Bluey and Bingo over here…!_
So true
wow this video is underrated
Most shows with siblings: occasionally have a rivalry, but ultimately love each other
Grojband: The protagonist’s sister is a psychopath who abuses her best friend, regularly attempts to crush her brother’s dreams and has tried to destroy her home town on multiple occasions
I've always seen Grojband as a very cynical version of Phineas and Ferb.
My main story right now is focused on the middle of three sisters who mostly get along, their only-child cousin, and their fathers, who have a third sibling, and honestly none of the brothers from that generation have salvageable relationships with each other. I think part of why I've been writing about them (or at least rotating the concept in my brain) is because I only have one opposite-sex sibling, but I grew up with some books about groups of sisters. The idea's always fascinated me, but most people in my life only have brothers. Part of what I want to come across in what I'm writing now is this idea that you can have chosen family within blood family. The oldest brother in the prior generation isn't on amazing terms with any of his daughters, his younger brother wants to actually end him, and his youngest brother is just straight-up missing. The middle brother is initially antagonistic to his nieces and hot-and-cold with his daughter, but the girls accept him into the fold because they're more concerned with their _present_ relationship with him than his _past_ relationship with their father. And when the sisters find out their cousin is their cousin, it's not as important to why they consider her family as the fact that the four had been good friends to each other for months.
Another thing I want to explore is birth order dynamics. The eldest sister definitely has that Eldest Daughter CEN thing going on, while her father is very much the Eldest Son Who Thinks He's Always Right. The middle son is kind of a sad extreme version of middle child neglect, while the middle daughter refuses to let herself get lost in the shuffle, being melodramatic but always gregarious. The youngest son is more entitled and messy, and just generally has a lot wrong, but the youngest sister is the one who's benefited most from the fact that her father's belittling isn't around, so she tends to be the one with the most backbone and often uses it to encourage her family not to accept injustice.
Aang is an only child, as is Toph, and maybe Suki too, far as AtLA is concerned
Technically, we don't actually know if Aang is an "only child" in the literal sense, as he never met his parents and was raised by monks. For all he knows, he could have had numerous siblings.
Notice that in most tv shows the paternal grandmother is usually killed off, Family Guy, Simpsons, Modern Family, Big Bang Theory (Howard), and Young Sheldon.
that's not most though
I don't know if this was on purpose but you saying that a couple of European shows probably snuck their way in, and then peppa pig immediately crawled onto the screen was pretty funny.
I appreciate that you included Wimzie's House on your list! I was just thinking about that show the other day and wondering if anyone else remembered it! :D
I think it would be valuable to consider the idea that a lot of cartoons are mimicking the "nuclear family"; of a two parent household with 2.5 kids, and a family pet.
Taking your example of Arthur: he has both parents in the home, as well as a sister relatively close in age, a sister who is a baby, and a family pet. All of these elements of the family dynamic are plot points at some point or another throughout the show.
It is worth keeping in mind that all media we consume is connected to ideals, or societal expectations, so often times these themes are worked into the shows, movies, and other media we consume. Sometimes it's just mirroring or mimicking these ideas, other times they are mocking or challenging these stereotypical family set ups.
Love it or hate it, I believe that Family Guy does both, the main cast is structured like the typical nuclear family, and at times it mocks that dynamic, and other times it just plays into it.
Just adds another point of interest to that way sibling relationships are portrayed, and why the creators of the media choose which sex to make each character.
I need to say that even though I know what you meant, '2.5 kids and a family pet' made me laugh
Like, counting a baby as only .5 of a kid is really funny to me for some reason
Appeal to a wider demographic and creates a long list of relatable conflicts to build story line on.
I mean in anime i believe the trend is an older brother or a younger sister - depending on on the main characters gender.
and that older brother will usually do just about anything for his younger sister. sometimes as far as going to war with the entire world.
@@pikminman13traditional ideas of men role in society and the real life trend of wanting to help ur younger siblings combined with shonen action or a wish filament main character
Makes it so that trope is very common I imagine
Both boys and girls love their lil. Sibling.
Boys love being seen as heroes in western less traditional media
Japan is more traditional
And it's a good way to show the hero being good or having a soft spot
No wonder it pops up a lot😅
If you are looking at harem anime that's definitely the trend, because that's just another female character to add to the pool, even if there's no romantic relationship with the MC. But outside of that you can see several examples of same sex siblings. For example Full Metal Alchemist, Blue Exorcist, Mob Psycho 100, where the dynamic between two brothers is a very relevant part of the story. Then there's the whole "cute girls doing cute stuff" genre where all relevant characters are female and therefore if someone has a sibling it's inevitably female. You can see that in K-on, Yuruyuri, Minami-ke and so on.
I think that there's a lot more variety in the anime landscape, because well the anime landscape is extremely diverse to begin with and various shows can be aimed at very different demographics.
@@JannPoo good points but I definitely worded my comment wrong- I mean it more as characters tend to have a older brother or a younger sister- even in same gender sets - especially in shows with some family themes , I assume it’s just to add some diversity to the cast as since the main characters also often have mostly same gender friends
Neat! I’ve never thought critically about this before, but you make some good points.
0:11 can anyone remember what this show is called
Victor and Valentino
@@DuneStone6816 ty
No, never seen it
Thank you for being honest@@FlowerMagicGaming-iz9gf
“I’m never uploading again” boom instant sub, see you at 100k
3:59: A Little Clarification here since you mentioned friends. Kevin and Fred are more than just friends, they're cousins. Just letting you know if you didn't happen to know that.
Yeah, that probably wasn't the best clip for me to choose. I thought it was appropriate just because Fred is the kid Kevin's age that he's shown interacting with the most.
"Kevin and Fred are more than just friends" the words sounds like they're dating
IMO this is best represented in Duncanville, especially in the episode "Sibling Revelry". That episode (and really the show as a whole) is extremely underrated and underappreciated.
My favorite cartoon siblings, easy one! Yakko, Wakko and Dot from Animaniacs!
Yeah! Love them!
Subscribing, idc if you say you aren’t uploading anymore, I want mooorrree. Good analysis
tbh, my completely uninformed, outsider take is that writers are just min-maxing their characters when given the opportunity. If it seems feasible that their character can have a sibling, they will probably do it. And there are a number of ways a writer might default their creativity. I can think of two obvious ones:
1. They want to experiment with a gender-bent version of their main character.
2. They want to incorporate a polar opposite version of their main character (ex: Dexter and Dee Dee).
I was so caught off guard to hear the Edna and Harvey soundtrack that I didn't hear what you said for a good 2 mins. Great choice in song!
This might or might be on your list. Zach and Ivy from two Where on Earth is / Carmen Sandiego cartoons. Just as mentioned in your video, the newer show depicts Carmen as the main character with a brotherly male best friend, as seen with Crackle in an older brother or Player in an older sister way.
Should clarified. Crackle - Carmen are older brother, younger sister type of best friends. Player - Carmen are younger brother, older sister type of best friends.
I love the music pick!!! from Edna & Harvey: The Breakout!
Since you did mention the "opposite sex best friend", they will always exist to add sexual tension (will they or won't they?) to the plot, either with the protagonist, or between e/o. This is also because the protagonist and their group MUST be heterosexuals...
Not always. I can think of several cases where the protag is in love someone outside their friend group. Raven Baxter and Jake Long for example. Personally, I always found it weird that one would spend more time with her platonic male friend than she does with the guy she wants to date. But I never dated in school, so maybe I lack the frame of reference to understand it.
@@DuneStone6816 I never dated in school either and turns out I'm ace so since I never had a crush all my female classmates confided in me (also a girl) when they did. None of them ever spent any significant amount of time with the guys they wanted to date, they barely talked and pined after the boy for about 2 months before confessing and asking for a date. I must clarify that I'm talking about elementary and middle school tho, when I began high school I became a loner and wasn't privy to how dating worked anymore.
Tbf, almost all romantic relationships are heterosexual
Well we can't have a friend from the other gender without having at least someone saying "they'll end up dating" 😅
I love how thorough this is 🙏
6:40 I’m subbed to plenty of inactive channels, if i like the things being posted i want to be updated if there is more it doesn’t matter if that’s the next day the next year the next decade 🤷 good video is good video
Legend
3:54 I'm a guy but when I was a child most of my friends were girls. When I became a teenager most of my friends were guys, same as me
Victoria and Hector “High Five” Nieves from Glitch Techs has a great chemistry for it!!
Riley and Huey break the trope!
Wouldn't they fall into the category of co-starring siblings, like Zack and Cody or Phineas and Ferb?
@@DuneStone6816 the two couldn't be more different from one another, so no
@@jadacampbell9331 Co-starring siblings can be different from each other. Dipper and Mabel, Zack and Cody, and Liv and Maddie are all opposites of each other.
@@DuneStone6816 I think it’s in reference to how same gender siblings on tv are usually portrayed as getting along well rather than rivalries or constantly complaining. So in a way the OG poster was right - Huey and Riley would be an exception because they disagree a lot.
There might be an intersectional exception to this trope too because Gerald (from Hey Arnold) doesn’t get along with his brother either (and then there’s Helga with Olga). Then again, he is part of a trio (a middle child to an older brother and a younger sister- very rare that a middle child gets covered), there’s a generational divide, and the siblings are not centralized outside of one offs.
Great video, I just wish there were more! I wanted to hear about conflict between age groups and possible perceived or real sexual tension between siblings like in Even Steven’s, but maybe that’s just me.
I guess, it just felt natural to give my sloth character a sibling to understand the dynamic of how different he is to other sloths. I have not written much anything with him yet, I can't finish anything, besides a high school. He's supposed to be more energetic because he loves to dance. She not so different just more relaxed.
I did not see your first video, but the meme is so ingrained on YT users, that my mind went there before you (almost) did the thing.
Also, matpat's channel messed up a major point in scientific communication: Theory does NOT mean incomplete. In science, a theory is the most proof you can possibly have given the infinite possibility of the universe. This would be a film HYPOTHESIS not a theory. Dang it matpat
Too many syllables for a good catchphrase, his channel would never have caught on if did that.
Despite all the factoids involved in such speculations, most TH-camrs are using "theory" colloquially in which case the definition is closer to an idea or hunch. Very few people use theory in the scientific sense when speaking in layman's terms and that well predated MatPat's career.
@@BonaparteBardithion correct, I'll give Mat that. But I'll also not give it to anyone colloquially if I can help it - which includes Mat aside from his intro/outro
One advantage to showing opposite sex siblings and younger siblings is that the main character not only learns to navigate differing age and gender in various situations, but they have this consistent example of the opposite sex who has hopefully SOME kind of constructive ongoing relationship to them that is not the very uncommon usual mixed gender friendship, not the equally uncommon mixed age friendship, but potentially like both of those things. Also a since a sibling character in never a love interest, it can be nice to see shows that are for kids not focus too much or at all on romance and love relationship. Girls especially tend to get served those themes early and often in narratives geared to them for better AND worse. Since this continues right through their lives, it might take mentioning that the idea that there CAN, maybe even SHOULD be relationships to people of the opposite sex that will never be romantic is probably an important reminder that writers gravitate toward when choosing friend and sibling gender.
Loved seeing the Christian cartoons from childhood featured ☺️ the siblings in 1,2,3 Penguins were the cheekiest😫
This is jaw-droppingly fascinating, actually! I love seeing videos with observations I never would've made myself! It really makes you think! And even though the topic wasn't about books (or anything else other than shows and the mention of movies), I purposely altered my three sibling dynamic of my book because I didn't want to have two boys and a girl. So for uniqueness' sake (and also for representation, most importantly), I instead had one of the male-presenting siblings intersex nonbinary (specifically demi-male). I don't think I've ever seen that done before, so I had to do it. And on the topic of twins, I actually put in my notes that in future chapters, that very same character has identical twins with their partner (who, by the way, happens to be intersex too - demi-female). And, actually, on that note, the brother of the three siblings (one of two protagonists) and the love interest (the female protagonist) eventually have three siblings as well, one kid (another intersex baby - agender this time) and another pair of twins - fraternal this time. So yeah, I wanted to break ALL of the steretypes with my book😂sorry for the randomness, I just find this fascinating.
As an Australian- how come Bluey doesn't count as a 'foreign show'?
I'll admit, the distinction is more intuitive than logical. My mind just doesn't make a clear distinction between shows from different English speaking countries. But it does make a clear distinction between Japanese and Western media. Bluey FEELS like part of the American media landscape so I never even thought about the fact that it's a wholly Australian creation.
Its called the Anglosphere for a reason. The Anglosphere basically treats each other as like other states of America.
I strongly suggest he would treat French or German media as foreign. Its not Western media its the anglosphere
I like how serious you sound.
I noticed you had Disney’s Recess on your list of shows with the main character having an older sibling of the opposite sex. Yet that show has six main characters, all with different families who are little more than supporting characters, as the show focuses on their lives at school, not at home. However, if you’re counting TJ as the main character, his older sister was only featured in the movie, not in the series.
@@goodboy02network90 I honestly don't remember. Was she never shown in the series at all? Was she ever mentioned? And yes, I was reasoning that TJ is the primary protagonist
Kate has a good relationship with all the pets
Underrated af
This is some very interesting data analysis. Very cool.
Are there shows with sisters?, Arcane comes to mind, but that's about it.
I can’t think many shows that have sister co leads like Adventure Time, We Bare Bears, Phineas and Ferb, The Amazing World of Gumball etc., beside the Powerpuff Girls.
Full House was about 3 sisters, dad,uncle and friend.
Daria has her sister Quinn. A nice foil to her accentuating their different approaches to femininity, popularity, and socializing.
The video names blue and lilo and stitch, and there are several twins in shows of cause. Sisters are definitely very underrepresented.
I was really vibing to the background music
What is playing at 6:20 also epic video
3-2-1 Penguins
@@DuneStone6816I did not realize it was by the same folks that made Veggie Tales, nor that it was a Christian show! Man, it's been a while since I last saw it on Qubo.
Darkwing Duck. Tailspin. Loony toon adventures. Johnny Bravo. Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy.
1:58, like Kim Possible
great video! i hope to see more. but if not, i'm glad i saw this one.
Almost the entire loud house fandom would be in prison 😂😂
Wdym by that?
@@meadowsproductions981Have you never stared into the abyss?
@@olasdorosdiliusimilius2174 which type of abyss we talking about?
@@meadowsproductions981 DeviantArt
@@meadowsproductions981 your too innocent to know unless you really want to know…
Oh no, I gave my female OC a younger brother aaaaaaaaaaaa it is inescapable. Also, before you showed Kim Possible's twin brothers, I was certain she only had one younger brother so you were on point with that.
Non staring sisters? Uhhhh Powerpuff girls anyone?
Yes, I did think of that, but it's the only one I can think of. With brothers, you've got DuckTales, Phineas and Ferb, Adventure Time, Gumball, We Bear Bares and more.
Bluey?
@@sweets_Cat88 I never actually watched Bluey until I was collecting clips for this video. Is Bingo just as prominent on that show as Darwin is in Gumball?
@@DuneStone6816 the entire Heeler family are the main characters. Not just Bluey herself. But the show is definitely a fresh of breath air to the sibling dynamics and a healthy sisterly like relationship
@@DuneStone6816You are right there aren’t many shows with sisters where they are co leads like the examples you gave.
I was very suprised to hear someone use music from "Edna & Harvey: The Breakout" in the background of their video.
0:56 ICARLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You certainly put a lot of thoughts in my head here, and two distinctly come to mind.
1: its very likely that this alleged trend of same sex siblings getting along while different sex siblings not doing so is probably a deeply rooted, subconscious trend in the writters' minds that the same sex are more likely to get along because there will be more shared common interests as opposed the other, because our society is still somewhat ingrained in the idea of "boy interests" vs "girl interests", like how boys are expected to not like certain shows because "its a girl show". Not sure why friend groups wouldn't follow this trend, like you said the need for representation probably comes first.
2: when you pointed out not looking if anime follows this trend or not, I had to pause the video and reflect for myself, and I realized something: far too many anime protagonists are either literal orphans, or otherwise significantly more detached from their family than protagonists of western media (which might say something about the type of people that prefer anime but I'm not touching that here). Either way, they are most often only-childs, or have siblings as nothing more than background characters. The focus is instead generally on their friends, often ones they make on screen rather than already having them prior to the pilot.
If the story's premise isn't specifically about how wacky big families are, there will almost never be more than three children without a set of twins or triplets in the mix. Writers are evidently really squeamish about the idea of a woman being pregnant more than three times in her entire life, even when the story is set in communities and time eras (ie most communities in most time eras) in which this was the norm.
This is interesting to me because it's a line that's _not_ drawn out of respect for time restraints or a viewer's limited memory for character names the way just generally limiting the number of siblings a protag has is; once you decide to include a character, it makes no difference to this end weather he or she is a twin.
Actually, I think this is mostly due to time or memory constraints. If the story doesn't call for the protag to have a lot of siblings, then there's no reason to write in those extra characters to keep track of. Also, I've heard there's a general standard on television of having no more than 7 main characters. Exceptions exist, but they're harder to sell. As one of 5 children myself, I would like to see more big families on TV, but I understand why they're rare.
Can't talk for Cartoons, but in anime it's rather common that past the introductory episode 1, each main character gets one episode focused on them.
With only 12 episodes per season, your getting less and less time to introduce the actual conflict/plot/story if you spend half of the season introducing your quintuplets.