Family can be difficult sometimes. Blended families have even more possible points of contention. Somestepsiblingsget along perfectly, while others find they don’t have much in common, and sadly, some are outright hostile to each other. While a bad relationship between step-siblings is hardly the norm, authors often employ it for drama. It’s a trope that spans all forms of media.
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Video games are an incredibly unique from of storytelling, but creators still rely on the old standbys. Afterlooking at the list of worst stepbrothers, it’s time to dive into who are theworst video game stepsisters.
5Emma Emmerich: Metal Gear Solid 2
Emma was the stepsister of Hal “Otacon” Emmerich, the chief engineer ofMetal GearREX and friend of Solid Snake. She had a contentious relationship with him due to her anger over an incident when she was six. When Hal slept with his stepmother, his father drowned himself and tried to take Emma with him. She barely escaped and blamed Hal for not rescuing her since he could see the pool from his room, but he wasn’t in his room at the time because he was sleeping with his stepmother.
Consumed by guilt after the incident, he left home, which Emma believed was abandoning the family when they needed him most. They kept in touch via letters, but she still harbored a deep resentment. As an adult, she joined the NSA after they manipulated her anger at Hal. She leaked information about Metal Gear RAY, which may have been an intentional attempt to frame Hal for the Tanker Incident. She moved on to work with theMetal Gearseriesbig bads the Patriots, although she didn’t know the full scope of their plans.
4Gloria And Sophia: Cinders
The phrase “bad stepsisters” is going to make anyone think of Cinderella. While variations on the story can be found inall forms of media, indie gameCindersfocuses more on the relationships Cinders has with her family. The first choice of the game prompts the player to decide whether the stepsisters deserve a second chance.
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Their introductions include Gloria and Sophia insulting each other and Cinders, calling her lazy even if the player chooses to clean. Gloria is willing to step all over Sophia if it means earning praise from her mother. Sophia straight up tells Cinders that she doesn’t care about other people. Throughout the game, Cinders can learn more about her sisters and why they are the way they are and improve the relationship between them. Still, most of the impetus falls on Cinders, who even says, “If I decided to act earlier, maybe things wouldn’t be so broken between us.”
3Edelgard Von Hresvelg: Fire Emblem Series
InFire Emblem: Three Houses, Edelgard was the stepsister of Dimitri, crown prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. They met and became friends as children, although neither of them knew they were siblings at the time. Dimitri presented Edelgard witha dagger as a presentbefore she returned home to the Andrestian Empire, where her life became markedly worse.
Edelgard and her siblings were imprisoned and experimented on. She was the only survivor, the others going mad or dying of exhaustion. Due to the trauma, she seemed to have forgotten Dimitri, but she still had his dagger. Edelgard became willing to kill as many people as she needed to take down the Church of Seiros, an act she believed would save even more. Her goals were in direct opposition to Dimitri’s and their forces clashed several times. If Edelgard defeats Dimitri, she executes him. If Dimitri wins, he attempts to reconcile with her. He only kills her reflexively when she attacks him with the dagger he gave her.
2Athena: God Of War Series
Athena first encountered her stepbrother Kratos when she and Ares laid siege to Sparta to capture the “Marked Warrior” destined to destroy the Olympians. Believing it to be Kratos' brother Deimos, they kidnapped him. Ares took him to Thanatos, who tortured him for years. Deimos believed Kratos would come for him, but when Kratos never arrived, he grew to hate his brother. They eventually mended their relationship, but Deimos died soon after.
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Athena often spoke to Kratos on behalf of the gods while they guided him to kill Ares. Once he accomplished his mission, Athena told him that he was absolved of his sins, but the gods never agreed to take away his nightmares. These nightmares were bad enough that his first action upon learning he was stuck with them was to throw himself off a cliff. After Athena’s death, she encountered Kratos in the Underworld. Under her guidance, Kratos recovered Pandora’s Box and killed Zeus. Upon his return, she demanded the Box and Kratos revealed that it was empty. She realized the power of Hope, which she had sealed in there previously, was in Kratos, and wanted it back. Instead, Kratos impaled himself on the Blade of Olympus, so Hope would be released to mankind. Athena, horrified, took the Blade and left Kratos to die. InGod of War: Ragnarok, an image of her continues to haunt Kratos, mocking his efforts to better himself and calling him a monster. It’s unclear whether the apparition is really her or if she’s a figment of his imagination. Even if she’s not real, that means she’s had enough of an impact on Kratos to cause self-deprecating hallucinations.
1Ranni The Witch: Elden Ring
Elden Ringhas many parallels to Norse mythology, with Ranni being the equivalent of Loki. Both champion chaos over order and kick offtheir respective apocalypses. Ranni engineered the death of her stepbrother Godwyn the Golden in the same way that Loki engineered the death of his brother Baldr. After the death of her son, Queen Marika the Eternal broke the Elden Ring. Once the ring was destroyed, the Greater Will abandoned the Lands Between, causing war to break out between the demigods.
Godwyn was the demigod who defeated the dragon Fortissax and then befriended him. He brought peace between humans and dragons.Rannisent Black Knife Assassinswielding daggers imbued with the Rune of Death to kill him while she killed herself with her own Black Knife. By doing this, she halved the Cursemark of Death; Godwyn’s body survived while Ranni’s spirit survived, freeing her from serving the Greater Will. Ranni needed to kill another demigod for her plan to work, but it is unclear why she chose Godwyn, the most beloved of all. Godwyn, meanwhile, was condemned to a fate worse than death. Unable to truly die, his body transformed into a barely humanoid aberration, and he became known as the Prince of Death.
