History Main / Heartwarmingorphan

* Sunny, in the ''MetalGear'' series, who lives up to her name so much that even perennial grouch Solid Snake loves her.

* The eskimo boy Kunac in ''BatmanAndMrFreezeSubZero''.

* Little Robin Starling is ''such'' a heartwarming orphan that ''TomAndJerryTheMovie'' abandons its lead characters and gives the movie over to her.

* The ''KungFuPanda'' franchise has Tai Lung, Tigress and Po. All were adorable kids and while Tai Lung later betrayed his foster father in his adulthood, Tigress and Po have done theirs proud.

They're the characters the audience is predisposed to root for, suffering as they do from ParentalAbandonment and a tragic childhood. They're the little orphan girls and boys who come into the story and proceed to melt the hearts of cranky old people and improve the lives of everyone around them just by being their [[CheerfulChild cheerful]], [[ChildrenAreInnocent innocent]] orphan selves. The girls may turn out to be [[PrincessClassic little princesses]], and the boys might end up as [[{{Tarzan}} Lords]].

See OrphansOrdeal, BakerStreetRegular.

* Tohru Honda from ''FruitsBasket'': a bit different from the others as she was orphaned while in high school, but it doesn't change the fact that her warmth helped heal the hearts of [[BigScrewedUpFamily an entire]] [[DysfunctionJunction dysfunctional]] [[BigScrewedUpFamily family]].

* Subverted big-time in ''YuGiOh''. Kaiba, the orphan with the horrible past (his parents die, ''none of his relatives want to take him in,'' he gets continually bullied during his time at the OrphanageOfFear, he finally gets adopted by [[spoiler:a megalomaniacal jackass who abuses him regularly and discarded his own son by blood for being too weak,]]) ends up being one of the series' biggest {{Jerk Ass}}es.
** AND played straight, in a way, in that it makes him the DracoInLeatherPants. Besides, can one really question why someone would be a jerk after all of that? Not that it makes it any better.

* [[{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] fits this trope to a T. Both [[{{Batman}} Bruce]] and Alfred have commented that he brought [[CheerfulChild joy]] and [[IncrediblyLamePun color]] back into their lives after he moved into Wayne Manor. Even as an adult, he's still pretty much [[TheHeart universally]] [[TheCharmer loved]] by everyone who meets him, and still the best at [[MoralityPet softening Batman's heart]].

* The ''KungFuPanda'' franchise has Tai Lung, Tigress and Po. All were adorable kids and while Tai Lung later betrayed his foster father in his adulthood, Tigress and Po have done theirs proud.

** In the third installment of the movie adaptation, which diverges horribly from the book series (it moves the series thirty years forward), Anne and Gilbert end up adopting Dominic, the son of a friend of Anne's who was killed helping her look for Gilbert, who was missing in action during WWI.

* Cheerily subverted in the MechWarrior Dark Age novels where the resident Omnicidal Maniac "adopts" (read: found while strolling through a city that was recently razed by her instructions) a young girl. And she's changed! Now instead of wanting to just burn the known universe to the ground, she's going to burn the universe down for her!
* Flute, in the DavidEddings ''{{Elenium}}'' trilogy, is not ''really'' an example of this trope, but the band of knights who informally 'adopt' her think she is. [[spoiler:Bit of a shock when they find out she's actually the Child-Goddess Aphrael.]]

* Mark Herron, from ''Then There Were Five'' by Elizabeth Enright. He's extremely knowledgeable about the natural world, and teaches others about it.
* Nello from ADogOfFlanders.

* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]], along with many common RomanceNovelTropes, in PGWodehouse's GenreSavvy short story "Honeysuckle Cottage".

* This was a main component of memorable ''{{Hoarders}}'' participant "[[http://beginning.anitawirawan.com/2010/09/the-troubling-history-of-sir-patrick-oshannahan-epic-hoarder-and-convicted-felon.html Sir Patrick]]"'s [[BlatantLies alleged]] backstory.
* ''BoyMeetsWorld'' had Tommy, a kid Eric befriends, though he eventually gets adopted by another family.

* Cereza from ''Bayonetta''.

* Leela from {{Futurama}} is an orphan for all practical purposes; sadly, she doesn't seem to get much sympathy from it, and bringing it up may cause groans. She must have some of that mystique, though - she is the most beautiful and most accepted of her kind...

* The eskimo boy Kunac in ''BatmanAndMrFreezeSubZero''.

* The unnamed little girl mistakenly named "Cancer" thanks to her medical bracelet by the inmates of {{Superjail}}. Naturally, this being Superjail, things turn out horrifically wrong. Also there's a subplot regarding her saccharine childhood innocence driving the warden mad because he's lost his. Then his inner child LITERALLY breaks out of his body and tries to kill her throughout the episode.

* ''{{InuYasha}}'': Rin was orphaned when bandits killed her family in front of her, leaving her mute and suffering nightmares. She lived as outcast in the village, being beaten whenever she was caught stealing food to survive. Then Kouga and his demon-wolves kill the entire village, including her. Then she's saved by Sesshoumaru was testing his HealingShiv to see if it worked. And then she follows him everywhere, regaining her zest for life, her ability to talk, while becoming his MoralityPet and melting hearts along the way: starting with his.

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* Dick Grayson, the first [[Characters/BatmanAndBatFamily Robin]] who later becomes {{Nightwing}}, fits this trope to a T. Both Bruce and Alfred have commented that he brought [[CheerfulChild joy]] and [[IncrediblyLamePun color]] back into their lives after he moved into Wayne Manor. Even as an adult, he's still pretty much [[TheHeart universally]] [[TheCharmer loved]] by everyone who meets him, and still the best at [[MoralityPet softening]] [[Main/Batman Batman's]] heart.

* Dick Grayson, the first [[Characters/BatmanAndBatFamily Robin]] who later becomes {{Nightwing}}, fits this trope to a T. Both Bruce and Alfred have commented that he brought [[CheerfulChild joy]] and [[IncrediblyLamePun color]] back into their lives after he moved into Wayne Manor. Even as an adult, he's still pretty much [[TheHeart universally]] [[TheCharmer loved]] by everyone who meets him, and still the best at softening Batman's heart.

* Dick Grayson, the first [[Characters/BatmanAndBatFamily Robin]] who later becomes {{Nightwing}}, fits this trope to a T. Both Bruce and Alfred have commented that he brought [[CheerfulChild joy]] and [[IncrediblyLamePun color]] back into their lives after he moved into Wayne Manor. Even as an adult, he's still pretty much universally loved by everyone who meets him, and still the best at softening Batman's heart.

* Dick Grayson, the first [[Characters/BatmanAndBatFamily Robin]], who later becomes {{Nightwing}} fits this trope to a T. Both Bruce and Alfred have commented that he brought joy and color back into their lives after he moved into Wayne Manor.

* {{Nightwing}} fits this trope to a T.

* {{Main/Nightwing Dick Grayson}} fits this trope to a T.

* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]], along with many common RomanceNovel tropes, in PGWodehouse's GenreSavvy short story "Honeysuckle Cottage".

* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]], along with many common RomanceNovel trope, in PGWodehouse's GenreSavvy short story "Honeysuckle Cottage".

* Freckles is older than normal in GeneStrattonPorter's ''Freckles'' but manages to pull off the role becoming McLean's son substitute.

* Also by Louisa May Alcott are ''Literature/EightCousins'' and its sequel ''Rose in Bloom.'' Protagonist Rose Campbell, in the first, is orphaned and comes to brighten the life of her adoring guardian, lifelong bachelor Uncle Alec, as well as her seven male cousins and various other relations. In the second, adult Rose opens an orphanage called the Rose Garden, and personally adopts an orphaned toddler whom she names Dulcinea (after DonQuixote's lady).

* Little Timmy from ''{{Lassie}}'' is an orphan who ends up adopted with the best dog in the world, ([[spoiler: at least until the New Lassie TV series, which revealed that when his adoptive parents moved to Australia, they hadn't properly adopted him after all and ''left him behind'']]).

[[folder:Opera]]
* In GilbertAndSullivan's ''ThePiratesOfPenzance'', the {{pirate}}s, who are themselves orphans, refuse to oppress any orphan. [[FlawExploitation Word got around]].

* ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'': LittleOrphanAnnie makes Daddy Warbucks' life much better through song and dance.

* The children from the Bassett orphanage in ''{{Solatorobo}}'', who have a tendency of getting in trouble and needing to be saved.