History Main / Heartwarmingorphan

* In ''Manga/LoveSoLife'', Shiharu Nakamura's father dies before her birth and her mother dies when she's five. At the orphanage, she becomes the OneeSama to the other children thanks to her mother's upbringing. As a result of working with kids, her life dream is to [[SelfMadeOrphan open a daycare center]], and to that end she works multiple part time jobs leading up to her working as a babysitter.

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' has one of these, a cute little boy whose father is killed on-screen, who is taken in by Morgana and Merlin, has large blue eyes and a timid expression, and who is eventually smuggled out of Camelot by Arthur. Then it's {{subverted}} when it turns out the cute little orphan that they've been risking their lives to protect is [[spoiler:Mordred]]. Oops.

* Both subverted and played straight in Conn Iggulden's ''{{Emperor}}'' series. Marcus is effectively an orphan; his mother is alive, but she abandoned him in order to focus on her career as a prostitute. (Nice lady.) Marcus, however, is not the usual "heartwarming orphan"; his past affects his personality and gets in the way. Octavian also has a living mother but is an unruly street urchin until he is sent off to be raised by family. In his case, things turn out good, to say the least, seeing as he is adopted by [[spoiler:Julius Caesar, and later in life becomes the first emperor of Rome.]]

** As for Liechtenstein, history suggests a relation to Austria, which fans have already considered. Then again, WW1 forced him to abandon her...

* {{Naruto}} is an orphan who has the tendency to make friends out of his enemies. Normally by spilling his life story out while beating them up.

* ShirleyTemple often (but not always) played this role in her movies.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' starts out as an orphan living in a closet under the stairs and ends up not only making Hermione's, Ron's and Hagrid's lives a little brighter, but also saving the world from [[BigBad You-Know-Who]], [[spoiler:who is himself a total inversion of this trope, as told in his backstory in ''Half-Blood Prince'']].

* [[TowerOfGod 25th Baam]] has never met his parents, the closest thing to a mother figure to him would be his only friend/love interest Rachel.

* In ''DespicableMe'', we have the three girls Margo, Edith and Agnes being adopted by Gru.

* A few of Jo's pupils at Plumfield, in ''[[LittleWomen Little Men]]'', qualify for this trope.

* The title character of ''Literature/JamesandtheGiantPeach'', abused and neglected by his creepy aunts, is something of an IronWoobie, nicely adapted in the movie version with the "My Name is James" song. Though miserable in his circumstances, he maintains inner strength, and acts as the leader of all his giant bug friends during their emigration to America.

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

* Somewhat subverted in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', where orphan protagonist Edward Elric is a hot-tempered MeasuringTheMarigolds [[AlchemyIsMagic alchemist]] with a wild talent for frustrating other people, being as stubborn as he is. Though Edward's [[Determinator determination]] and [[BigBrotherInstinct love for his little brother]] tend to win even the most cold-hearted characters over in the long run, it is his personality, not his orphaned state, that make people put up with his less-than-pleasant tendencies.

* Somewhat subverted in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', where orphan protagonist Edward Elric is a hot-tempered MeasuringTheMarigolds [[AlchemyIsMagic alchemist]] with a wild talent for frustrating other people, being as stubborn as he is. Though Edward's [[TheUnfettered determination]] and [[BigBrotherInstinct love for his little brother]] tend to win even the most cold-hearted characters over in the long run, it is his personality, not his orphaned state, that make people put up with his less-than-pleasant tendencies.

* Somewhat subverted in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', where orphan protagonist Edward Elric is

* ShirleyTemple often (but not always) played this role in many of her movies.

* 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]].

* [[{{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 other [[{{Robin}} Robins]] also fit this trope to varying degrees. With the exception of Jason, every Robin after Dick has had at least one living parent, but there's usually some form of ParentalAbandonment at play.

* Lewis from ''{{Meet the Robinsons}}'' manages to win the hearts of the titular family, and even gets invited to join them, within a few scant hours of meeting them by...having low self-esteem and wearing funny hats?

* Pretty much all the primary characters in ''Literature/LesMiserables'' are orphans. Or else raised by the Thenardiers, which probably counts anyway.

* In ''The Little White Horse'', the orphaned heroine transforms her uncle, and even reconciles him with his true love.
* 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!

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'' has one of these, a cute little boy whose father is killed on-screen, who is taken in by Morgana and Merlin, has large blue eyes and a timid expression, and who is eventually smuggled out of Camelot by Arthur. Then it's {{subverted}} straight to hell when it turns out the cute little orphan that they've been risking their lives to protect is [[spoiler:Mordred]]. Oops.

* Although Bob was present literally from the moment of her birth, Molly from ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' still qualifies on account of having no biological parents. She's okay with it, and will cheerfully say, "I'm adopted! It makes me special!" but she can still get very upset if a bully taunts her for having no real parents.

* The unnamed little girl mistakenly named "Cancer" thanks to her medical bracelet by the inmates of ''WesternAnimation/{{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.
* Patches and Poor Violet, who appear to have been transferred to [[TheSimpsons Springfield]] from Dickensian London.
* Anne-Marie from ''AllDogsGoToHeaven''.

* Poor little Literature/JaneEyre is tormented by her cruel Aunt Reed and her three nasty children. Then she meets [[ByronicHero Mr. Rochester]]...

* Literature/{{Tarzan}} is a grown-up example.

* Susan Warner's 1850 bestseller ''The Wide, Wide World'' makes this one considerably OlderThanRadio, and probably the UrExample of the trope.
** ''Oliver Twist'', published in 1838, is more likely to be the UrExample

* The title character of ''JamesandtheGiantPeach'', abused and neglected by his creepy aunts, is something of an IronWoobie, nicely adapted in the movie version with the "My Name is James" song. Though miserable in his circumstances, he maintains inner strength, and acts as the leader of all his giant bug friends during their emigration to America.

* Pollyanna, who is so unrelentingly cheerful that she earned [[{{Pollyanna}} a place in the dictionary]].

* Michael from TheBlindSide.

* Mary from ''TheSecretGarden'' makes the garden grow and improves her cousin's health.

* OliverTwist, who just wants a little more gruel.
* ''HarryPotter'' starts out as an orphan living in a closet under the stairs and ends up not only making Hermione's, Ron's and Hagrid's lives a little brighter, but also saving the world from [[BigBad You-Know-Who]], [[spoiler:who is himself a total inversion of this trope, as told in his backstory in ''Half-Blood Prince'']].

* Cat of the Canals, aka [[spoiler:Arya Stark]], from ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' is an aversion, or maybe a subversion. She ends up joining [[spoiler:an assassin's guild/death cult]] at the age of nine.