Youngest Child Wins: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A common [[Fairy Tale]] situation. Whenever multiple siblings are portrayed, the youngest is the hero; the older ones are either evil or just [[Muggle|boring]].

 

Often this carries undertones of underdog vindication, as in any setting in which inheritance occurs by primogeniture the youngest will naturally get the short end of the stick.

 

== [[Advertising]] ==

* This trope is rife in adverts for family games, such as board games and multiplayer platforms. The advert will typically display a family of four in which the youngest child (typically a girl, though not always) will win. On the boxes for older board games, the young child will be grinning with clenched fists whilst the father will have head in hands.

 

* Misty from ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' doesn't have the model-esque beauty of her older sisters, but she did get all the talent as a trainer. The other three are just content to give badges away.

* ''[[Lyrical Nanoha|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has eldest Kyouya, middle Miyuki, youngest Nanoha. Guess who gets mad magic skillz.

* There are three Tendo sisters in ''[[Ranma ½]]''. Guess which one gets to be the main character love interest of the titular martial artist? In the sense that the older two foisted the [[Arranged Marriage]] onto the youngest in milliseconds, at least...

** Also note despite all three of them growing up in a dojo, Akane seems to be the only one who knows martial arts...

** Kaioh, Raoh and Toki are siblings (in that order) and Toki is the most talented among them.

* Otori Kyouya from ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' is the youngest of his brothers (with a sister thrown in the middle somewhere), but his father fully expects him to take over the company over his two brothers after pulling a major [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment on the old man.

* In the series finale of ''[[Code Geass]]'' {{spoiler|the Britannian throne is inherited by [[Ill Girl|Nunnally]], the youngest of [[The Emperor|Charles]]' named children. Technically, [[Royal Brat|Carline]] is the same age, but she was ahead of Nunnally in line to the throne while Charles was alive.}}

** {{spoiler|Carline (along with Odysseus and Guinevere) most likely died when the not evacuated city of Pendragon was destroyed by a F.L.E.I.J.A nuke. She, Guinevere and the rest of the royals were explicitly last shown cleaning the palace there as servants. So Nunnally likely was the youngest left of Charles' named children.}}

 

== Ballads ==

* In the [[Child Ballad]] "[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch011.htm The Cruel Brother]", the knight wooes the youngest daughter. (On the other hand, her brother murders her at her wedding.)

{{quote|''The eldest was baith tall and fair,

But to the youngest he bent his knee.'' }}

 

* "[[Cinderella (novel)|Cinderella]]" is a classic example (though her older sisters are stepsisters rather than blood relatives).

* In the Grimm tale of "[[The Wolf and The Seven Young Kids]]", it's the youngest kid who manages not to get eaten by the wolf.

* In "Lord Kotura of the Winds", an Arctic village is being threatened by harsh winds, and a father with three daughters surmises that Lord Kotura of the Winds is angered and can only be appeased with a wife. He sends his eldest daughter to Lord Kotura's dwelling with very specific instructions. She ignores every single one, and then when she finally gets to Lord Kotura's dwelling, she also ignores ''his'' instructions; and in the end Lord Kotura angrily casts her out of his home to freeze to death in the snow. The winds grow stronger, and the father sends out his second daughter. Pretty much the exact same thing happens, and when the winds grow harsher once again, the father sends out his youngest daughter, who follows his and Lord Kotura's instructions to a T. Greatly pleased, Lord Kotura makes her his wife, the winds die down, and the village is saved.

* "[[Hop-o'-My-Thumb|Hop O My Thumb]]" is the youngest child in the family and manages to outwit a giant and rescue his siblings.

* In "[[East of the Sun and West of the Moon]]", the bear asks for the woodcutter's youngest daughter.

{{quote|''Never shall the younger be wed before the older ones!''}}

* Utterly inverted by the "[[Three Billy Goats Gruff]]". The troll ignores the younger brothers after being told that the next eldest is larger and more filling, and the eldest is the one who's strong enough to defeat him.

* Lampshaded and subverted in [[Diana Wynne Jones]]'s ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'', where Sophie, the heroine, is the eldest of three sisters and knows that it's her younger sister who is destined for greatness. {{spoiler|The twist is that Sophie is actually the most magically powerful of them, and the youngest just wants to live a peaceful, happy, and mundane life.}}

* In [[C. S. Lewis]]'s ''[[Narnia]]'' books, Lucy is the first to find Narnia, and the one who has the closest connection to Narnia and Aslan.

* In ''[[The Indian in the Cupboard]]'' series, Omri is the youngest of three, so he's naturally the one all the cool stuff happens to.

* Played with twice by [[Isaac Asimov]] in two separate stories. In the earlier one, a queen has triplets, causing the king a bit of consternation as to which one will have the adventures. (Things take care of themselves, however, as the last one out has the most success.) In the later, the protagonist prince is an only child, and again the king cites this trope (whereupon his wife points out ''he's'' not the one that had to give birth).

* In [[James Thurber]]'s ''[[The 13 Clocks]]'', the hero is a king's youngest son.

* Also Thurber: The [[Fairy Tale]] spoof "The White Deer" features three brothers, of which the older two are brawny insensitive types, and the youngest a gentle romantic. The book surprisingly gives all three a fair amount of attention but still makes it clear the youngest is meant to be the most admirable.

* Done with a twist in the ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'': Three brothers find a treasure, and send the youngest off to get wine to celebrate. The older two plot to beat him to death when he returns, while he poisons their wine bottles. He comes back, they kill him, drink the wine and die themselves.

* In ''[[Diary of a Wimpy Kid]]'', Manny has this with [[Parental Favoritism]].

* In the [[Pern]] books, Menolly is the youngest child of the Holder of Half-Circle Sea Hold, and [[The Unfavorite]] to boot. Despite parental abuse and general mistreatment, she escapes from her unpleasant surroundings and goes on to become the Master Composer of the planet. She even gets to keep in contact with the only one of her siblings who was ever kind to her, while managing to avoid everybody who wasn't.

* [[Conversational Troping|Conversed]] in [[David Gemmell]]'s ''White Wolf''. Rabalyn, reflecting on the stories told to him as a child, notes the [[Genre Blindness]] of the kings who would send their eldest sons to their death. He decides that if he were king he'd [[Genre Savvy|send the youngest boy first]].

** Cronus was also the youngest of Gaia and Ouranos' children. First they had all the other male Titans, then all the Titanides, then Cronus.

* In fact it goes all the way back to the story of Psyche and Eros, from Apuleius' ''The Golden Ass'', in which Psyche's sisters are jealous both of her beauty and her creepy ability to be happy with a husband who won't let her see him in daylight. (Although, mind you, Psyche is not good at following basic instructions.)

* ''[[The Bible]]'':

** Three times in a row with Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph and his brothers. Technically Joseph was the son of the beloved wife, and thus the favorite; true youngest Benjamin was kept at home to keep him away from danger and one of the older brothers had to basically call a curse on himself so the father would allow Benjamin to go to Egypt with him, and Joseph favors Benjamin there.

* In the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series:

** The series as a whole is an inversion. Solid Snake, the only one of the Les Enfant Terribles clones to have a decent ending, is actually the eldest of the clones, or at least the middle child (depending on whether Liquid, his twin was born first or not).

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Set in a fairy tale world, the webcomic ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest For The Wicked]]'' makes a bit of a running gag out of this.

{{quote|She's a youngest, if y'get my meanin'.}}

* In ''[[Narbonic]]'' Dave, the younger sibling, is constantly stressing over how much cooler, better looking, etc. his older brother was, despite the numerous things he'd done that made him unique, like going to the moon. His mind is almost put at ease when his friends meet his brother though.

{{quote|'''Artie''': We decided you're much cooler than Bill.

'''Zeta''': Oh we do like Bill better.

'''Artie''': We just think you're cool. }}

* In ''[[Tamuran]]'', [http://www.tamurancomic.com/?p=159 only the youngest son can inherit the throne]. In this case, distinctly bad.

* The younger brother of [[The Ace]] of ''[[Face All Red]]'' wants this to be the case.

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]

[[Category:Plots]]

[[Category:Son of Trope, Daughter of Index]]