Question Which Sister Type is actually worse: The Crazy White Lotus or Innocent Ignorant Dumb Sister?

The White Lotus Bitch is a very common overused two dimensional archetype in the RoFan/Fantasy Romance (Light) Novel Genre and she serves the purpose to make the life of her sister the FL/Heroine miserable, so we the audience can easily root for the FMC getting the most elite powerful desirable man in the fantasy world + becoming a textbook happy Fairy Tale Duchess or Queen.

And when the White Lotus is family, she often turns out to be a fake, cousin, stepsister, half-sister or twin who is very two-faced, manipulative, entitled, petty, narcisstic, insane and not very smart at the end.
I mean, is there a scheming female antagonist that realizes that the FMC actually wants to be left alone and doesn't want the OG ML?????
There is often the plot twist that she is the true illegitimate child from a lower social background, an artificial human/homunculi, a demon or a witch with brainwashing charm magic or love potions/drugs
It's quite convenient for the conservative narrative to blame the evil girl for everything instead of condamning everyone especially the male assholes who harmed the Heroine.

Notable Examples:

• Woman's Best Friend
• I Fell into a Reverse Harem Game!
• Even Though I’m a Former Noble and a Single Mother, My Daughters Are Too Cute and Working as an Adventurer Isn’t Too Much of a Hassle
• Insanely Radiant
• Wendy The Florist
• The 13th Night
• Daisy - How to Become the Duke's Fiancée (Ch.136 - Rose's Redemption)
• I Don’t Trust My Twin Sister (Plot Twist: The True Evil Sister is...)
• Surviving as Twin Sisters
• There's No Use Hanging On
• The Princess' Spaceship
• The Empire's Sacrifice
• The Princess Imprints a Traitor
• To Those Who Wish For My Destruction
• The Revenge of the Duke's Daughter Theresia
• The Escape of Layla, the Duke's Heartbroken Daughter.
• Never Going Home Again! ~ Since I Was Persecuted, I Should Repay the Favor, or Else I’ll Be Unreasonable ~
• Actually, I Was the Real One
• A Saint Who Was Adopted by the Grand Duke
• The Villainess Reverses The Hourglass
• The Villainess Wears an Idiot’s Mask
• The Villainess's Road to Revenge
• The Villain is Being Suspiciously Kind
• It’s Time To Stop Looking For A New Family
• Please Don’t Come To The Villainess’ Stationery Store!
• I Won’t Go Back To My Family Who Abandoned Me
• I Raised A Beast
• Charming And The Beast
• Fakes Don’t Want To Be Real
• I Don't Want To Be Loved
• Once Wicked, Always Wicked
• I Became the Wife of a Tragedy's Main Lead
• I Wouldn’t Date a Prince Even If You Asked! The Banished Villainess Will Start Over With the Power
• I Used to be a Disqualified Daughter of the Duke
• I Was Cheated On by My Husband
• The World Without My Sister Who Everyone Loved
• The Kind Older Sister Is No More
• Extras Are The First To Be Abandoned
• Daisy - How to Become the Duke's Fiancée (Redeemable Older Sister)
• How the Masked Earl Fell in Love
• I'm Engaged to an Obsessive Male Lead
• I Was Proposed to by an Unknown Duke After My Sister Stole My Fiancé
• I Was Told To Relinquish My Fiancé To My Little Sister, And The Greatest Dragon Took A Liking To Me
• My Engagement Was Annulled Because of My Younger Sister Was a Saint, but I'm the Fairies' Beloved Child.
• I Abandoned My Engagement Because of My Tragic Sister, but for Some Reason I Became Entangled With a Prince Who Has a Strong Sense of Justice.
• The Girl Who Was Forced by Her Stepsister to Marry the Cursed Duke
• Even Though I’m a Former Noble and a Single Mother, My Daughters Are Too Cute and Working as an Adventurer Isn’t Too Much of a Hassle
• In Another World, My Sister Stole My Name
• When the Count's Illegitimate Daughter Gets Married
• Why Are You Obsessed With Your Fake Wife?
• My In-laws are Obsessed With Me
• Into the Light, Once Again
• Helena Master of the Guardian Stone
• Kidnapped by a Crazy Duke/The Psycho Duke and I
• Sister, I'm the Queen in This Life
• Marriage B: Wed to the Enemy
• I Refuse to Be Executed a Second Time
• How the Masked Earl Fell in Love
• My Husband is an Antisocial Count (Plot Twist: Beatrice's true motivation)
• The Three Are Living a Married Life
• Former Assassin Was Reborn as a Blue-Hooded Daughter.
• When The Count’s Illegitimate Daughter Gets Married
• I Became the Wife of a Tragedy's Main Lead
• Flowers Are Flowers, Leaves Are Leaves
• Duchess's Lo-Fi Coffeehouse
• The Return of Princess Amy
• 王爵的私有宝贝/Master's Secret Baby
• 王爵的私有宝贝/The Prince's Private Baby
• 豪门太太不好当/Arranged Marriage With A Billionaire
• 穿成炮灰女配该怎么办/How to Disguise as a Failure
• It’s Too Hard to Chase the Tsundere Prince
• Love in Murder
• The Seamstress Girl
• The Essence of a Happy Mariage
• My Happy Marriage
• Baby Pharmacist Princess
• From Duty To Devotion Ch28
• I Reincarnated as a Faint Hearted Countess
• I'm Happily Married to a Lord with the Worst Reputation
• Beloved by the Older Prince and Her First Love: A Substitute Daughter Whose Engagement Was Broken
• The Oblivious Holy Maiden Unknowingly Spills Her Power: The Daughter of a Ducal House Finds Happiness in Her Marriage
• The Wicked Sacrifice's Happy Marriage - Waking up After 8 Years, She's Not Used to the Duke's, Her Former Guard's, Doting!
• The Condemned Villainess Goes Back in Time and Aims to Become the Ultimate Villain
• House Garnet's Archvillain / The Lady's Dark Secret
• Vengeful Weapon, Tears of Poison
• The Rebellion of the Cursed Lady
• Teaching the Royal Brat a Lesson
• Angel of the Golden Aura
• Things I Learned After Death
• The Goddess of Healing
• Julietta's Dress-Up
• Ungracefully Grace
• The Twin Sister Goes on Strike
• The Precious Girl Does Not Shed Tears
• Rejected Lady Enjoying a Modest Life/Antagonized Bachelorette Enjoying a Simple Life
• The Unaware Genius Magical Tool Artisan Just Wants to Live a Quiet Life
• A Timid Lady was Turned into an Ugly Cat, but on the Verge of Fainting is Picked up by the Most Fearsome Military Duke
• A Golden Fate That Transcends Time

https://www.mangago.me/tag/evil+sister/
https://www.mangago.me/tag/Bitch+Sister/
https://www.novelupdates.com/?s=Sister&post_type=seriesplans


And Here are some examples of the annoying so innocent clueless sister with almost no evil intention but still causes trouble for the struggling mistreated FL:

• Maryjun/MaryJune - I Swear I Won't Bother You Again!
• Sylvia - My Fiancé is in Love with My Little Sister
• Fiiru - I'll Live My Second Live
• Alice - My Twin Sister Was Taken As a Miko And I Was Thrown Away But I'm Probably The Miko.
• Emilia - The Heavily Armoured Noble Girl Monette: How To Break a Curse You Don’t Remember Casting
• Marietta - The Dull Princess and the Black Cat’s Amicable Engagement Annulment
• Jennette - Suddenly Became a Princess One Day
• Lillian - The Evil Lady Will Change
• Lily - I, a Commoner, was Actually Reincarnated
• Anastasia - Betrothed To My Sister's Ex/Loved by Her Sister's Former Fiancé
• Roseriel - He Loved My Sister
• Avelia - Limited Extra Time/The Time of the Terminally Ill Extra
• Hyllian - The Real Daughter Has Returned/Revenge on the Real One
• Maria - Born as the Daughter of the Wicked Woman
• Nanellia - The End of this Fairy Tale is a Soap Opera
• Rosalie Bettina - The Person I Loved Asked Me to Die in My Younger Sister's Place

If the sister isn't evil jealous or envious, then she is the helpless damsel in distress/the one you need to rescue/save/protect.

Plot Device/Macguffin Damsel Sisters:

• I Raised Cinderella Preciously/A Wicked Tale of Cinderella's Stepmom
• Don't Call Javotte an Evil Stepsister
• Cinderella’s Older Sister Reluctantly Marries the Prince ~The Substitute Princess’ Peaceful Life in the Detached Palace~
• I Thought I Reincarnated as a Villainess, but It Turned Out to Be Cinderella's Step-Sister
• Anyone Can Become a Villainess
• When The Villainess Loves
• Return of the Female Knight
• The Hero/Male Lead Proposed To Me
• My Sister Picked Up The Male Lead
• Is It a Fortune or Is It a Woe
• Seduce the Villain's Father_Flirting With the Villain's Dad
• I Tried To Be Her Loyal Sword
• A Perfect Ending Plan of the Villain in a Fairy Tale
• The Exhausting Reality of Novel Transmigration
• My Father The Possesive Demi-God
• My Sisters are Strange
• I Became the Younger Sister of a Dying Woman
• I am the Older Sister of the Possessed Female Lead
• My Sister the Heroine, and I the Villainess
• I Need to Raise My Sister Right
• An Unseemly Lady
• I Became the Ugly Lady
• Masters, Are You Going To Imprison My Sister
• My Sister’s Man
• I'm Sure It's My Baby
• A Dyad of Revenge
• One Day, My Dad Showed Up/My Father, the Possessive Demi-God
• Monster Princess
• I'll Do That Marriage
• My Sister the Heroine, and I the Villainess
• The Villainess Wants To Punish The Sadistic Prince
• I Raised My Younger Sister Beautifully
• The Emperor's Companion
• Charlotte's wheel
• How to Survive as the Villainous Younger Sister
• How to Change a Tragedy Novel into a Healing One
• The Male Lead Is Mine! (Lujin)
• The Lady and The Beast
• Laura, the Princess of Revenge ~ I No Longer Need This Country After They Sacrificed My Sister

I must say, it is really hard to find RoFan stories featuring healthy sister relationships where both sisters are equal to each other or where the sister of the FL has agency + can exist on her own.....
Some rare examples I found:

• Addis - The Young Lady Who Broke Her Engagement Is Only Obsessed With The Ending (Once neglectful strict older sister becomes very self-reflective and apologetic.)
• Alloy - Everything Was A Mistake (Sneaky smart protective older sister, bold enough to threaten the ML if anything happens to the FL.)
• Chalotte & Kara - Cheerful Countess Sisters (Badass mercernary younger half-sister Kara gets quickly sidelined once the typical tortured royal Duke ML appears and also becomes easily pregnant by her Mr Right.)
• Elisa - The Villain's Saviour (She is far more stronger than the whiny crying FL)
• Diana - I Became the Wife of the Monstrous Crown Prince (Loves FL and became a loyal capable knight)
• Leona - The Princess in the Dumpster (Non-hostile engaging older half sister for FL)
• Lydia - I Want To Quit Being MC's Extra Sister (Turns out she is capable of rescuing the FL)
• Edith - The Stereotypical Life Of A Reincarnated Lady (She is basically a normal teen who can learn and grow)
• Iris & Lily - I Raised Cinderella Preciously/A Wicked Tale of Cinderella's Stepmom (They are the best wholesome sister duo I've ever read)
• Callena - The Duke of Ashleyan’s Contractual Marriage (That girl is really sth....)
• Mia - The Saint Whose Engagement Was Broken When She Became Too Perfect is Sold Off to a Neighboring Kingdom (Siscon loves Siscon.)
• Miya, Ari & Mari - My mother-in-law and sister-in-law who don't bully me./My Stepmother and Stepsisters Do Not Pick On Me (It's just heartwarming cute)
• Nadie - Blind Girl Isekai (Great Strong Protective Loving Older Half Sister)
• Arabella - I Hated It Even More (Self-Reflective Kind Adoptive Sister)
• Tuuli - Ascendance of a Bookworm
• Brillyn Berhi - Sister is a Monster
• Laurencia/Lara - It’s My First Time Being Loved (Doting older sister without any jealousy)
• Tatiana, Anesia, Regina, Katarina & Viviana - Royal Marriage
• Momoka/Momo - My Favorable Rating Does Not Rise/It's Virtually Impossible to Make This Boy Like Me (Two reincarnated sister caring for each other)
• Chloe - Reborn Girl Starting a New Life in Another World as a Seventh Daughter (Wonderful Caring Bright Older Sister)
• Rosetta - Under The Oak Tree (Cold Distant Cynical Younger Half Sister but Not an Enemy + Secretly cares for Max)
• Isabella - The Merit of the Villain / Perks of Being a Villain (Great Real Daughter being kind towards her Adoptive Sister FL)
• Gwen, Lorena & Maria - Cursed Princess Club (Best loving loyal sisters)

TV Shows about strong complex sisters:

• Prue, Piper, Phoebe & Page - Charmed
• Tia & Tamara - Sister, Sister
• Mona & Dee Dee - Half & Half
• FLEABAG & Claire
• Bad Sisters

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Television_series_about_sisters


Please recommend me (Fantasy) Plots where I can see interesting sister dynamics where nobody gets really outshined by the other.

 

The jealous sister is the worst by far. I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with the archetype in general but she's used far too often for cheap drama. Cheap drama is okay is very small doses, but it's a very poor fit for a character who should be important to the protagonist.

I don't come across the innocent girl sister archetype much but it sounds like the protagonist is the annoying one in this case!

One of the saddest aspects about Romance novels is that they seem to hate women. Aside from the protagonist's one friend, it's common to see all the other female characters in the story exist to act as antagonists. And they usually aren't even good antagonist; they usually just just act out of petty jealously. Also, it's common to see the male love interest be so misogynistic that they hate being in the presence of women; and somehow this is treated as a positive character trait. It's stuff like this that puts me off the genre.

 

A quote by Susan J. Douglas - Enlightened Sexism (2010)
"True power here has nothing to do with economic independence or professional achievement: It has has to do with getting men to lust after you and other women envy you."

 

woah you read a lot of them similar trope, i've only read a few that been made into manhwa and yes there are too much of those evil over jealous for no reason sister that it made the plotline boring as time goes...like why

 

I assume many dramatic epic stories need villains to make the protagonists look very good.
And if there is no villain, there is no hero.

 

that's true but there are just too much of this trope....like fr

 

Well, it's always been easier, cheaper and safer to rely on clichés, tropes and archetypes to sell a story, instead of making the effort of actually creating a more refreshing nuanced bold plot with complex characters with depth.

 

that's true, that's why there are only a few golden ones, the rest just plastic with golden color..sigh

 

There is always a safe low risk formular for any storytellers/producers to make fast big money and a specific target audience demographic that would eat anything up....

Famous mainstream example:

Riverdale - How to make every Teen Drama

Every possible trope you could think of is here in this show. The character archetypes, the plot twists, the melodrama. Ahh.. to be 16 again amirite? So I thought I would compare it to other shows and find exactly what it is that makes something a "teen drama". 1: Hot guy who has a totally benign secret and is totally stoic around everyone except for YOU 2: A bunch of girls who act cartoonishly 2D 3: Someone has a long lost sibling. Not sure why, but this is a thing for some reason.

Every teen drama ever:
- Good girl with a dark side.
- Bad girl who wants to be good.
- Hot football jock with deep secret.
- Emo kid who finds it hard to express himself.
- Gay best friend getting himself into scandalous relationships.
- Dead person/scandal or drama that involves every character in the show with revelations that appear periodically adding more mystery to the....well, mystery.

 

wow....i see so it's all marketing

 

Correct.
And we see all the same toxic beauty standards and conservative social norms all over again.

 

sighhh, society is just societing....nothing new i guess

 

Let's not forget that many companies and studios are still owned by conservative old sexist patriarchal men who like to keep the status quo.
Instead of giving the people/consumers what they actually want, they rather brainwash and gaslight them + throw them some crumbs.
That also implies to Hollywood and Disney.
(Race Swapping instead of original non-white diverse characters + Queer Erasure + Bad or No Marketing for LGTBQ Content like The Owl House + Strange World.)

Here is an interesting article about the creator of Sailor Moon Naoko Takeuchi where she explains how difficult it was to tell her unconvential story.

https://missdream.org/2013/08/interview-translations-rola-magazine-and-god-of-backstage-show/

• Aya: To me it’s fascinating that all the girls in the show are so beautiful.
• Takeuchi: Yes. But that’s how girl’s comics are. It’s important, right? But back then, the old men at Nakayoshi (like Osano-san) didn’t really get that. From the onset, I said “I want to make a comic series about a squadron of five beautiful fighting girls”, and they said, “Hold up. In a fighting squadron, there’s always like one comically obese character, and another nerdy one that wears glasses. How are you going to make all five of them beautiful?” and the complaints went on and on. Oh, those old men… I think they didn’t understand girls comics at all.
• Osano: It really was like that… I might be a little wrong on all the details with what I’m about to say, but… I think at the time, the only fighting squadron shows were like, “Gatchaman”, and shows that were made in its same image, where the characters were all typecast.
• Takeuchi: Back then, I thought, “I’m going to show these old grandpas that beautiful girl characters can be good for business, and I’m not leaving my concept in the hands of old men.” So I had to work hard to develop a sense of beauty and elegance in my characters, no matter what their type was. Back then, the old :man editors at “Nakayoshi” magazine thought I was being stubborn, and they didn’t much care for the opinions of us lady authors, it was a difficult time.
• Aya: So you think the old men didn’t understand the sensitivity or nuance to your idea.
• Takeuchi: Definitely. It was also a challenge when it came to deciding on a color scheme. At first I had proposed using a pastel color palette, and the old hat, old timer editor grandpas said, “You need to use bolder colors”, “If you want the magazine to sell you need to use lots of blues and greens, or bright yellows”, “If you’re going to use pink, use a dark pink”, and they made all kinds of demands about it. Actually, when I first decided on the color of Sailor Moon’s hair, I wanted it to be silver, but the old grandpa editors didn’t like that decision either, and they really got upset, and said that the magazine would never sell if I used such a dull color. When I first said that I thought blonde hair would be a more Princess-like choice for the main character, someone chuckled and said “At least it’s not grandma-style like last time”.

 

wow, im learning new things here and that sounds disgusting

 

Publishing under a big coperation can be very very exhausting and nerve wrecking.
Especially if you want to break new grounds.

REAL Emails Alex Hirsch got sent from Disney S&P about Gravity Falls and his REAL Replies!

Ever curious about the fights Alex Hirsch had with the censors on Gravity Falls? He probably shouldn't share this buttttt here are some REAL NOTES from DISNEY S&P and his REAL REPLIES. You are not prepared!!
• ZeraReota •
I love how Disney is just like “Hey, no gays” and Hirsch is just like “They’re TOTALLY just buds”

Or how nickelodeon/Pedo Dan Schneider commodified, saturated & whitewashed a progressive grounded innovative latina show.
The Cultural Significance of Taina

Victorious Analysis: Victorious vs Taina


At the end of the day it always have to be about dumb melodramatic straight rich whitish people getting married and making pretty cute babies.

 

damn....i guess you are right about that..feeling like entertainment is much more disgusting than it seems

 

I was troubled every time I read a story about a white lotus sister, to the point I began to hate the fl because she's just acting like a pushover to the core. It may sound weird but with sisters there's definitely going to be someone who sets order and that's the parent's job, so if I'm the older it doesn't mean I can do whatever I want, she can fight me and we do, but in some stories, you just gotta hate the fl, how can you not beat the shit out of that X, and what if she acts so innocent, grab her in the shade, break her leg and then play it like you tried to help her.

I've seen this happen in our household once and I swear if I wasn't there I wouldn't have believed it, yet the parties were evenly punished. Some fls are just there to talk about strong/independent the whole novel while they can't fight one white lotus XX.

If you have true siblings, and I have 6, believe me we grab each other's throats and put knives at our knecks but when we need each other, we'll always respond.

Only with your sister will you realize the saying 'survival is for the fittest' I have an old sister and a young one so I'm the middle one, and you have to grab hairs and raise your voice, sometimes even play white lotus to save your ass from mom and dad but we know by the end of the day that all we have is each other. Sometimes God can put an enemy disguised as your brother, and all you do is fight, never a nice word, but when I need him for some work he'll get it done and when he calls me for a job, I'll do it.

Relationships between siblings are complicated, It's rare when a writer portrays a relationship the way it really is. Instead of just putting a generic plot and tossing some of the already overused sentences just to fill up a scene.

I agree. I'm safe to say that the closer I got to any Disney/Hollywood show was 3 years ago, If you dig enough about these companies, not just their marketing or their owner's biasing but into what they support or what agenda they have going on, you will be disgusted to the core. That's why I don't support them anymore, nor do I watch their shows.

I think it's hard for people to actually do that, or even boycott the actors and producers who have been confirmed committing heinous acts against humanity.

 

oh my.....

 

I wonder how you guys know 'white Lotus' and if you guys know the meaning. Did you hear it from novel?

 

I saw it a very long time ago but I'm pretty sure it was in an online discussion about characters in a TV show. I find it to not be a particularly good term because people tend to misuse it. I prefer "傻白甜" because the meaning is a lot more clear, and I love how silly this term looks.