Older Sibling Trope: in Defense of Yang Xiao Long

Coming back because I’m feeling this so hard going into v9…

Shared to r/cartoons

THANK YOU. Somebody finally sticks up for this sibling relationship with a well thought out and detailed video.

I am curious as to how well this holds up after Volume 9.

Facts. Yang could be better but at the end of the day she's still a kid with her own life and flaws. I don't see anyone getting on Ruby's case for intentionally abandoning YANG when she needed her the most after YEARS of taking care of her

Im not a chick, im an older brother to a younger sister and honestly

I taught her how to fight. I brought her on the road with me and gave her rules that I myself follow...

Going into a back story my sis and I grew up without dads in a matriach based house (It was mother and grandmother) and Im the eldest son in my generation...

Anyways, it sucks leaving your younger sister for the world to eat them alive but knowing that they can handle their own is superb...ive gone out on my own adventures and my sister has gone out on hers but ive always felt safer knowing that if my sister can take care of herself and I dont need to take care of her makes her more independant and that should be the basic for all of us "independance" the ability to watch out for ourselves.

Because if you cant watch out for yourself then someone can come by and take advantage of that.

Its okay to leave the family in fact its the best time to grow when you arnt sheltered by people and have to deal with the world yourself but if you make a few bad decsions out there you'll be living with the consequences for the rest of your life...

A lot of older siblings here, so I want to say, as the younger sibling in my family, if my older sibling treated me in the coddling way Yang apparently HAS to treat Ruby or she's a 'bad sister', then I would get fed up of it pretty quickly

Finally,a half-sibling relationship that doesn't involve trying to kill or fuck each other!
YES! EXACTLY!

"Until the end" - I know what you did there :D

Rwby has problems but I’ve never heard of this being one of them; and it isn’t. Yang good.

Yang comes off into the show as protective at times, but she seems to have faith in Ruby since she’s growing up and can take care of herself now in recent volumes. That’s how I see it; as a younger sibling myself, I love family/sibling relationships.

Yang will always be my favorite character. The blonde characters are always the fun ones. Yang and Ruby relationship I'll admit you made some pretty good points about Yang having her own character instead just being Ruby older sister. Yang and Ruby you can tell they're sisters despite them not even looking alike. Yang isn't portrayed to be Ruby wise older sister and Ruby isn't portray to be Yang, innocent little sister. Yang is a flippant and outgoing young girl and Ruby is a adorkable nerd who loves weapons and they just so happened to be related to each other. However, I will admit it would be nice to see in early volume, where we had small moments of Yang or Ruby mentions stuff from their childhood to make us remember they are sisters and they low key talk about each other from time to time. Like have Ruby said "I remember Yang saved me from the Grimm when I was training with her." Or have Yang said something embarrassing about Ruby when she was a kid.

This actually made a lot of sense to me, didn't expect that to be honest. I don't even like Yang and I still have to agree with a lot of what has been said.


And yea, how sibling relationships are shown is often weird and RWBY does a decent job with Winter/Weiss and Yang/Ruby in different ways.


It really annoys me how people both in fiction and real life act like being related means you have to put your family above everything and everyone, without considering the individuals or circumstances.


But to be fair, some people want Yang to be that weird portrayal of "the protective older sibling" because interviews and character books told us she is supposed to be Rubys overprotective older sister.


And I personally don't like their conflict in Vol8 episode 1 because it's so hypocritical from Yang to give Ruby that attitude, when her and Blake betraying Ironwood and trusting Robyn was as damaging, they apparently didn't even tell their team until it blew up in their faces.

As an older twin who is often expected to take care of the younger one, thank you so much!
Older and younger siblings have their own lives and older siblings don't have to be there for their younger sibling 24/7. It wouldn't be healthy and only foster dependency. I view my younger twin brother as my best friend who I will support when he needs it but who also has to take care of his own shit because I won't always be there to clean it up for him. Ruby in Volume 1 was old enough to be able to take care of herself and needed to make her own relationships and friendships without her sister in the way. Yang recognized that and left her to it which I respect a lot.

There's only a 2 year difference and both are hyper competent.

I'm very protective of my younger brother's but that because I have 4 and 8 years on them and they are still children.

So true bestie

I love how that Ruby and Yang are specifically half siblings. I'm really close with my half siblings and really love them. It's a unique kind of sibling-hood, and I don't really see it shown in shows that often. So I liked how RWBY explored that dynamic.

omg i love this video sm thank you

also, you should make videos for all the "faults" you mention in multiple analysis videos about a story's narratives. RWBY gets a lot of hate because too much of the fanbase are weirdos who like that there are fighting anime girls and say it's bad [without saying explicitly it's] because it has bigger political commentary and storytelling themes (like Trust vs Loyalty w/ Ironwood—Yang can challenge Ruby, but no one can seriously challenge Ironwood, he only reacts to his situations). I say this because the people who side with Ironwood have that energy, they're pro-military/imperialism ("following orders is the good and moral thing to do; legalism above honest righteousness"). So considering that I've found RWBY to be really excellent, especially when it comes to Interpersonal Relationships, I'm very interested in hearing your criticisms for the story.

half the comment section is just older siblings sharing their trauma 😭😭😭 lmao hang in there my dudes 😭

As the more mentally stable older sibling who often has to be there for my younger brother, it is exhausting

Yang doesn’t have to be there every step of the way for Ruby so she isn’t, and that’s okay

Sooo... I am an older sister and we are 7 years apart sooo I really should be that protective sis but we just don't work together... She fucking bites... I mean I can be really mean to her but if someone else is mean to her? They're dead... Soo I think even when they don't agree saying yang is a bad sis is wayy to much like it could be so much worse?! I know a lot of siblings who fucking hate each other xD a disagreement is nothing

Nick from All Saints Street is a weird mix of the Asshole Older Sibling and Protective Older Sibling. Generally Nick is a con man demon who torments his sweetheart younger half brother Neil 'Nini' but he's jealous of because his brother is the vessel for a super demon. They try to rush Nick's development into a caring/ish older brother, he's shown to be protective of Neil even in childhood but it feels rushed and like they're just now informing us of this.

I can’t tell if this aged well or not 😭

I’d LOVE to see more RWBY content from you

YES!!! Finally, someone defending my girl!!!! 🤩 Jokes aside, you’ve said it better than I can explaining when it comes to Ruby and Yang’s sibling relationship and.... inhales I do NOT appreciate the Yang hate when it comes to the fandom. Seriously, this video needs more likes and attention than it already has at the moment.

I do agree that this romanticized idea of older siblings is rather damaging, especially when people try to apply it in real life. I myself am the oldest of three siblings, yet my younger siblings seem to be much more mature and responsible than me. I do try to take care of them and protect them when I can, but most of the time it's the other way around for us. My brother is only 14 months younger than me, so there isn't that much of an age difference between us. He was always naturally much more mature and responsible than me even back when we were practically toddlers. I was born with autism and so my parents were VERY protective of me. They were also protective of my others siblings, but not to the degree they were with me. Because of this, I was sheltered much more than my siblings and so I gained experience and confidence a lot slower than my siblings and didn't have that much pressure put on me to be a "perfect role model". I still do feel that pressure and I feel like I have failed as the oldest siblings whenever my siblings display greater capabilities than me, but I also understand that I do have my limits and that I am still trying my best not only for them but also myself.
Another thing a lot of people seem to not take into consideration is that the older sibling is the one who will have to experience things without much guidance and don't have a lot of options in who to turn to for advice. There are just some things in life that you can't really go to your parents or some other adult for help on and you do need to seek help from a sibling instead. However, being the older sibling usually means that you're the first to experience it and thus your younger siblings have no means of providing aid to you when you need it. Yet, when it's your sibling's turn to experience what you did, they have the older sibling to turn to for help. This was another struggle of mine. It's really hard to be a great role model when you don't even know what you're supposed to do over half the time. It's a lot of trial and error for older siblings while younger siblings more easily have the option to just ask their older sibling for advice and stuff.

I mean yeah I agree with you.

idk I'm an older sibling and my younger sister is more mature i guess? So like sokka katara dynamic kinda but also she low-key bullied me my whole life and we don't really talk

Agreed with the first 30 seconds. Yang is also my favorite

Also I love how you point this out. Everyone tells me otherwise

YES!!!!! THIS NEEDS FOR LIKES! Like everything you said and covered is how I feel. The fandom is just so crazy atm. All the Yang hate I was soo shocked from episode one but yeh. I also loved the Sass nice one. Thank you for this. I have a hard time explaining how u feel or typeing it snd you just explained it exactly in this video

Technically Dipper isn't the older sibling but uhhhhhhhh.... I hated Mabel so much after he went through all of that stuff to help her only for her to be a huge brat about everything.

"Yang is my favorite character" Well, there's your problem right there. :-P (And I've never heard anyone say what you claim many say about Yang)

Good video, finally someone who unterstands that being an older sibling doesn't mean to particually protect them all time ... Yang is a good sister but she is also her own person and can make desicions, the same applies to Ruby.
Them having an argument at Volume 8 was completly normal and unterstable since both made good points and only want the best for the current situation

I think we can all agree that Japan has the weirdest most disturbing trend when it comes to sibling relationships.