"Pretty countryside, ain't it? The grass and the light... there's a lot of ugly in this world, but there sure as hell is a lot of beauty. You'll see it better when you get older. It's tough at your age. Just... land and light, but to me? It's life. I can't explain it."
— John Marston to his son Jack, Red Dead Redemption II
This is about those who love the great outdoors and all that dwell therein. They may be a forest dweller themselves, or live in the countryside along with flocks of sheep where they commune with nature. It's also a safe bet that they'll either have a close bond with the local fauna, or at least have extensive knowledge of them. In their view, The World Is Just Awesome, so they want to spend as much time with it as possible and share it with others. Whereas ones who live in the city may often spend time at the park, or just Watching the Sunset. If they aren't satisfied with living in the city and would prefer living in one of the aforementioned locations, they suffer from Big Town Boredom.
Usually a sign of goodness, indicating a wholesome character uncorrupted by secularism. May also be exemplfied by a preference for going barefoot. Mostly a modern trope, found where most members of the audience live in cities and do not have to wrestle with nature's dangers and inconveniences regularly.
Characters of this nature are also fond of outdoor activities such as nature walks and camping, though they may be equally content with tending a flower garden. Hunting is also possible, though not as likely, given their respect for nature. They'll only hunt what they need, never for sport. The Forest Ranger and Nature Hero are prime examples because they live In Harmony with Nature and have an intrinsic understanding of its delicate balance. The Mountain Man who only hunts to survive may qualify.note In modern settings, they'll usually be the only one to not dislike a camping trip.
Friend to All Living Things is a subtrope having more to do with their altruism, usually in regard to nature. May overlap with Nature Hero, which is another subtrope, about those who fight to protect and preserve the wild. See also Nature-Loving Robot when the character in question is a robot. Often overlaps with Animal Lover because animals are a part of nature. Contrast with the Ecocidal Antagonist, who instead opposes and attempts to pollute and destroy nature, signifying themselves as malicious, destructive, or selfish.
Their Patron God is usually a Nature Spirit or Fertility God. Also see and may overlap with the Outdoorsy Gal. May occur in Science Fiction in the Pastoral Science Fiction subgenre.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Yamame not only cares about plants and animals, she cares about weeds.
- Heidi, Girl of the Alps: As mentioned down below in the Literature section, Heidi manages to live in harmony with animals and feels most comfortable out in nature. She's also the current page image.
- Finland of Hetalia: Axis Powers is one of these, as a startled Iceland finds out when going on a camping trip with him. His World☆Stars character profile mentions that he "sometimes hides in his forests to daydream, study, or get covered in grass."
Finland: [suddenly popping out of a bush] Nature is amazing, right?
- Kars from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure seems to have a stunning respect for natural life, animals and the beauty of the world, to the point of having skewed priorities when it comes to humans. At one point he knocks a car aside to save a wild dog's life even though it (likely) resulted in the death of the driver, and sustains significantly worse wounds after falling off a cliff by knocking himself off the edges because if he had dead dropped, he would have crushed a patch of flowers. After becoming an Ultimate Life Form, Kars' first show of his new power is to mutate his hand into a squirrel... which then gorily murders and devours another squirrel, showing that he's on such a high from his new godlike power that he doesn't care, because the world's his playground now.
- The Secret Garden: Dickon loves animals and is knowledgable on all sorts of fauna. He teaches Mary how to tend to the titular Neglected Garden and bring it back to life.
- In the manga version of Mega Man X4, Colonel of the Repliforce has this trait. In a heartwarming flashback, he waxes poetic to Zero about how majestic the tree they are standing under is, and how, in his mind, it "embraces the nature of humanity". He says in times of despair and sorrow, as well as in times of happiness, he remembers the beauty of the tree to keep himself going and mentally sound.
Colonel: It feels as though humans and nature are reconciled together.
Fan Works
- In Abraxas (Hrodvitnon), Vivienne's mother Susan Graham apparently shares her daughter's love for nature. Vivienne reveals that before the events of the Godzilla: King of the Monsters movie kicked off, Susan wanted to see hammehead sharks at Yonaguni.
- In Three to Triumph
Luna stated that she was able to talk to trees and sense their needs and that she believed her magic had an affinity with anything green.
Film — Animated
- Epic (2013): Queen Tara mentions getting a special feeling from the pods and the leaves, and she chooses an heir by determining who looks after a pod the best.
- Princess Mononoke's San was literally Raised by Wolves after her parents threw her at Moro's feet, to save themselves, when they were caught trespassing in Moro's forest. She's even the poster child for the Nature Hero trope.
- In Tangled, Rapunzel is in ecstasies everything she finds in nature. To be fair, that's part being out of the tower.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Zigzagged for Snow White, who's an Animal Lover and picks a bunch of goldenrods, but is afraid of the trees at night.
Film — Live-Action
- Dora and the Lost City of Gold: Dora is one, though in a little more academic way than most nature lovers in fiction. She enjoys doing outdoor activities and knows lots of trivia about survival tactics and things like the mating habits of scorpions.
- Julie Baker in Flipped is very attached to the sycamore tree at her bus stop. Ever since Juli retrieved a kite at the uppermost branches, she has loved the view. She tries to stop the workers from cutting it down and once they do she isn't the same for weeks but Juli's spirits are lightened when her father paints her a picture of her sycamore tree.
- Eggsy from Kingsman: The Secret Service has a fondness for animals, which twice gets him in trouble. First when he gets arrested after swerving out of hitting a fox and later when he refuses to shoot his dog as part of Kingsman's final test.
- MonsterVerse:
- Kong: Skull Island: Mason Weaver had a rural upbringing, which gives her an affinity for nature and has convinced her that humanity should be trying to coexist with nature instead of dominate it. Kong seems to form a particular bond with her, going out of his way to secure her safety during his fight against Ramarak, and she stands up to Packard's insane quest to kill Kong and prove "that man is king".
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): All three members of the Russell family (Madison, Mark and Emma) have an affinity for nature. Madison enjoys studying insect ecosystems outdoors, and she realizes what the Eco-Terrorists are doing is wrong and takes it upon herself to help stop King Ghidorah. Mark has a lifelong interest in animal communication, and (in a cynical take on this trope) he's isolated himself in the Colorado mountains as a wildlife photographer specifically to escape being faced with his problems, but he also (when he doesn't have his head shoved up his ass from raging grief) recognizes the unbridled power of the Titans (living forces of nature) and is often one step ahead of Monarch at tracking Godzilla's activities. Emma studies Mothra in the Yunnan rainforest, she has a history of environmentalism, and she recognizes how ecologically-essential Titans are to the world's continued survival to the point that she's willing to turn to radical eco-terrorism and join Jonah's eco-terrorists if she thinks it'll stop mankind from engineering their own extinction event.
- Wild America has three wildlife-obsessed brothers who decorate their room with animal posters and go on a road trip to film rare animals. It's easy to see where they got it - their mother fosters animals, both tame and wild, so the house is always full of wildlife.
Literature
- Angela Nicely:
- Both of the Nicely parents are often seen gardening, especially Mrs. Nicely, who complains about her garden getting messed up.
- Mr. Weakly is revealed to like foraging in the woods in “Nature Detectives!”.
- Cassie in Animorphs was always the animal person and nature saver, what with her parents being vets running a wildlife rescue service. She has to remind her friends that she doesn't go as far as an Animal Wrongs Group when they're stranded in the Arctic and debating eating a seal that was recently killed by a polar bear.
- L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables is familiar with every inch of the woods about Green Gables. At the end of House of Dreams, Gilbert, describing a new home to her, carefully cites all the trees about it.
- In L. M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle, Valancy loves rambles in the woods.
- Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: Seattle speaks of his people as being taught to see themselves and their ancestors reflected in nature, to be grateful for the bounties provided by nature and to preserve the grasslands and forests, keep the waters clean and appreciate the sweet air.
- In Andre Norton's Catseye, the Rangers. They carefully cultivate Tikil as a luxury port for the rich because it helps them protect the wild.
- Both Ivy Carson and Martha Abbott rescue animals throughout Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Changeling. When they think there's a Loch Ness Monster in the swamp, they take to hiding in the reeds with a camera. Ivy is this trope; she is an Earthy Barefoot Character, almost a Friend to All Living Things, at peace only in forests and rural settings; one of Snyder's most jarring Esoteric Happy Endings comes when we learn that Ivy has gone to study ballet in New York City.
- In The Changeover, it's implied that all witches have a closer relationship with nature. As a child, it was one of the things that set Sorry apart from his foster parents, and later on was an excuse for the abuse he suffered.
- Dirty Bertie has Eugene Clark and his father. As shown in the story "Twitter", they have an affinity for birdwatching and love spending time in the woods.
- Amadahy Love in Dying Embers by Betty Adams. She is actually an ecologist by trade. Her brothers Drake McCarty and Donnigan McCarty are both nature lovers as well and their cousin Em is a rabid environmentalist (or rather thinks he is).
- In C. S. Lewis's The Four Loves, he analyzes it as part of treating subhuman affection before human.
- Freckles in Gene Stratton-Porter's Freckles once he gets over his fear of the swamp, comes to love it and insist on learning.
- Rafael from Gives Light, who lives on an Indian reservation. He loves nature to such a degree that he knows everything there is to know about the wildlife and hates being indoors for too long (even in his own house).
- Heidi: The title character actually becomes literally homesick to the point of sleepwalking while living in the city.
- Dan in Louisa May Alcott's Little Men shows a love of wilderness despite his rough manner.
- Radagast the Brown in The Lord of the Rings was certainly this trope, constantly described as being close to nature and caring for the plants and animals.
- In Jane Austen's Love and Freindship, how Laura came to meet Augusta and the others with her.
She told me that having a considerable taste for the Beauties of Nature, her curiosity to behold the delightful scenes it exhibited in that part of the World had been so much raised by Gilpin's Tour to the Highlands, that she had prevailed on her Father to undertake a Tour to Scotland and had persuaded Lady Dorothea to accompany them.
- In Devon Monk's Magic Without Mercy, Allie quips about the "great outdoors" when they have to hike somewhere.
- Mansfield Park: Miss Fanny Price loves nature and often gushes how gorgeous plants or trees are. She also loves star-gazing. She was somewhat sickly as a child, and other characters often advise her to go outside for a walk or to go horse-back riding because it's beneficial to her health and well-being. When Fanny stays with her family in Portsmouth, she is sorry to "lose all the pleasures of spring" as she spends the time in a confined, noisy house with bad air.
"She had not known before what pleasures she had to lose in passing March and April in a town. She had not known before how much the beginnings and progress of vegetation had delighted her. What animation, both of body and mind, she had derived from watching the advance of that season which cannot, in spite of its capriciousness, be unlovely, and seeing its increasing beauties from the earliest flowers in the warmest divisions of her aunt's garden, to the opening of leaves of her uncle's plantations, and the glory of his woods."
- Milly, Molly: Both of the eponymous girls seem to be Nature Lovers. They love spending time with animals, enjoy going to the forest, and one book has them worrying about the environment.
- In Poul Anderson's "The Pirate", Trevelyn finds the alien ruins a bit odd, because they had no gardens or parks, even though they obviously loved and had a care for landscapes, and used floral motifs extensively. He reminds himself that they were, after all, aliens.
- In John Varley's Steel Beach, humanity has been kicked off of Earth, and nature is only available in small, artificial "disneylands". David Earth, the leader of the Earthists, loves nature so much that he has bio-engineered grasses growing on his head; has giant breast implants to represent Mother Earth, with more plants growing on them; has animal skin cells that grow fur implanted on his arms and legs; and has several varieties of insect, and even a few rodents living (and going to the bathroom) on him at all times. He brings nature (or as close as one can get) with him wherever he goes.
- Shallan Davar in The Stormlight Archive loves to get out of the house and sketch animals, and seems to be the first person to notice the principle of symbiosis (or at least she'd never heard of the concept before, though the repeated extinction of 90+% of humanity has resulted in a certain loss of knowledge).
- Swindle: After working in a coal mine for decades, Eli Mulrooney loves to sit outside and take in the sky and fresh air, only going back inside for long enough to sleep, use the bathroom, or microwave meals.
- In Robin McKinley's Sunshine, Constantine's stated reason for living near New Arcadia was the natural beauty about it.
- In Piers Anthony's With a Tangled Skein, Niobe is quite eloquent about it.
- The Dresden Files has Ebenezar McCoy, an old farmer who is described as having taught Harry woodcraft, navigation, and other similar skills, and gone on several hikes with him.
Live-Action TV
- The Addams Family: Zigzagged for Morticia Addams. She owns a carnivorous plant and is heard enthusing about ravens, bats, and other such animals, but there are some animals, such as robins, that she dislikes, and while she does pick flowers, she cuts the blooms off.
- Oliver Wendell Douglas from Green Acres. Before moving to the country, he tried growing crops in his New York apartment.
- Subverted in a sketch on Monty Python's Flying Circus about mosquito hunters.
I've been a hunter all my life. I love animals, that's why I like to kill 'em.
- This is one of Sadie's major personality traits in Naturally, Sadie. Her ambition is to become a famous naturalist.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Keiko O'Brien is a botanist, and she owns many houseplants. She likes her job so much that she became cranky when she didn't have the chance to do it, and was sent on a six-month business trip to cheer her up.
- Star Trek: Enterprise: Captain Archer loves doing outdoor activities, such as camping and hiking.
- Star Trek: Voyager:
- One of Kes's jobs is to grow plants, and she's shown working in a garden as a child.
- Neelix self identifies as a nature lover in "Tuvix" and enjoys appreciating the different plants and animals on the planets the crew visits. Some of the plants he adds to his recipes.
- Tuvok stated in "Tuvix" that he appreciates nature, and he is seen growing orchids in several episodes.
- While Janeway has never been into gardening, she grew up on a farm and feels nostalgic for it. She mentions having climbed a tree as a kid, and in one episode she bonds with a monkey-like alien.
- Supernatural: In Season 7, Castiel absorbs all Sam's memories from Hell and has a nervous breakdown. He emerges from his catatonia as a Cloud Cuckoolander obsessed with nature and evolution, especially bees. This annoys his allies, especially Dean, who need him for the fight against the Leviathans.
- Arushka from Thunderstone loves nature as a whole and adores animals, to the point of obsession. The rest of her group seem to believe that she cares about animals more than them, and they might be right. The fact that she lives in a barren wasteland that was utterly void of any animal life until Noah brought it to her hasn$t stopped her in the slightest. Once she does get to see real animals, she instantly shows an almost supernatural ability to understand and calm them. In fact, one of her first displays of this was to calm an enraged circus lion.
Music
- The song "I'm on Top of the World Looking Down on Creation" seems to be sung by a nature lover, if the lyric "In the leaves on the trees and the touch of the breeze, there's a pleasing sense of happiness for me" is anything to go by.
Newspaper Comics
- In Frazz, Frazz loves his running and biking in the great outdoors, and deplores the kids who stay inside all the time.
- In Rose is Rose, Pasquale and his grandmother go for a nature walk — and Pasquale assures the Woodland Creatures they can come.
Poetry
- A Signature Trope of the Romantic Movement was writing poetry in this vein
- John Keats
The poetry of the earth is never dead.
- Lord Byron
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
- John Keats
- Gerald Manley Hopkins
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
Puppet Shows
- Fraggle Rock: One reason Mokey loves her job of gathering radishes is that she delights in being among the plants and trees of the Gorgs' garden. She even has a secret place there, under a tree, some distance away from the Gorgs' castle and vegetable patch, where she likes to write in her diary.
Tabletop Games
- Princess: The Hopeful: This is a near-universal trait among the Court of Clubs (whose ruling value is living in harmony with each other and the world around you), and is far from rare among other Courts.
Theater
- In William Shakespeare's As You Like It, the exiled duke professes this in the Forest of Arden. To be sure, everyone except one goes back to the Standard Royal Court the first chance they get.
And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.
Video Games
- Nature loving is the Automaton's job in Endless Space; originally built as simple clockwork robots by a dying race to restore their polluted world after their death, when the Automatons were enhanced by contact with Dust, they used their enhanced intelligence to restore the planet. Automatons reside on flying cities to lessen their impact on the planets ecosystem.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: According to official supplemental material, Ilia spends much of her time at the spring, just outside the village, where she bathes Epona. She also pitches in at the ranch, on occasion.
- In Pokémon Masters, Ethan is described this way.
- In Potion Permit, forest rangers Forrest and Bubble are in-tune with nature and ensure that Moonbury's environment is being taken care of. Bubble also tends to her garden and gives you seeds for your Grow Box.
- Shining Resonance: According to Lestin, he and the other elves of Wellant share a natural inclination to preserve nature, each in their own way. He explains that it's likely the reason that Rinna gathers flower seeds and runs a flower shop. Whereas he keeps track of rare butterfly species to help preserve their numbers.
- In Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, two factions turn their affinity for nature into a powerful strategy, since the ecosystem is sentient and the most common life form is a swarm of psychic mind-eating worms.
- "Loves the Outdoors" is among the traits a Sim can have in The Sims 3 and The Sims 4. Unsurprisingly, said Sim receives a mood boost for being outdoors.
- Suikoden II has Kinnison and Ayda, a pair of archers who defend their native woodlands. The former inhabits the forest surrounding Ryukei Village, while the latter hails from the Forest Village. Needless to say, they have strong ties to nature.
- Amber Rose, driver of Flower Power, from the third Twisted Metal game. She wants the world to be covered in flowers.
- Unpacking: When the protagonist's girlfriend moves in for the 2015 level, she has a fair amount of potted plants and gardening equipment amongst her possessions.
- In Valkyria Chronicles, there are two types: the Nature Lover, like Welkin (or Country Bred, like Alicia), who can get a temporary boost from being in a natural setting, and the Child of Nature, like Largo, who can temporarily lose effectiveness when not in a natural setting.
- Yandere Simulator: Members of the Gardening Club are nature lovers by default. The leader Uekiya Engeika sees beauty in flowers, to which she sometimes refers as 'children'.
Visual Novels
- Lily from Daughter for Dessert is perfectly capable of surviving in the wild, even in the desert.
- Downplayed with Becca in Melody. While she likes hiking, she seems to be comfortable spending most of her time indoors.
- The character Misa in Sickness definitely seems her happiest when Suoh takes her into nature settings.
Webcomics
- In Freefall, Sam enjoys the limited subset of nature that terraforming's brought about -- and then subverts it with the reveal that he can't stomach any more of it.
- In Our Little Adventure the dryad comments on the lack of this -- so why are they in the forest?
- Interest in nature appears to be a good sign in Sinfest. In particular, Pooch loves the outdoors -- sights, smells, etc. -- he has everything!
- In Squid Row, Beebs has her wedding in the forest. At a stump.
Web Original
- Breaking Trail: Coyote Peterson. There is no animal out there that he doesn't love or is really, really fascinated by. Even the ones that have inflicted some terrible pain on him. As an example, during a video with a snapping turtle, it clamped down on his hand to the point of actual tearing and refused to let go, getting so bad the cameramen needed to pour rubbing alcohol on its mouth to get it to let go. Coyote's reaction (while still yelling in pain) was to gently return his "little buddy" back to water with his non-mauled hand so it could wash the alcohol off.
- DSBT InsaniT: Autmn. What do you expect with a name like a season?
- Neopets has Illusen. She lives in a glade, is often seen playing with rabbit-like creatures, and gives out prises related to leaves and flowers. Being a nature lover comes in handy when your superpower is making plants grow.
- Instantly Deconstructed with Randomness FTW on Scratch.
Charlie: I sure love nature. (giant bee lands on his head) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-
Western Animation
- Kaeloo: Kaeloo absolutely loves nature, especially plants. The easiest way to piss her off is to crush a flower.
- The Loud House: Lana. She loves animals, is often playing outside, and likes to go to the park.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Fluttershy, to the point of being a Friend to All Living Things. Her special talent is the ability to commune with animals and she spends most of her time outdoors - even her house is a beautiful cottage covered with flowers in the middle of nowhere.
- Nature Cat: The titular character loves to explore nature and have outdoor adventures with his friends. Despite the obstacles that he regularly has to face, such as his fear of water, he still has his instincts and sticks up to others around him.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: The title character in the episode "Nature Pants", where he decides to leave his "cold, industrial life" and live among the jellyfish. After one disastrous night in the wild, he returns to civilization and the subject was never mentioned again.
- Thomas & Friends: One of Henry's favorite places on Sodor is a forest along the main line. Most notably, in "Henry's Forest," Henry is devastated when the forest is ravaged during a storm. Thomas and Toby take pity on him, and they convince The Controller to help replant them.
- Vanilla Why Why, mother of Baby Victor in Saban Entertainment's The Why Why Family, Speaks Fluent Bird with her feathered friends, Kwik and Kwak, and is an expert on nature, plant and animal biology, and agriculture.
- Winx Club: Flora, the fairy of nature. She can literally hear and speak to nature. note
Real Life
- John Muir was definitely this as were Enos Mills and Emily Shore.
- Theodore Roosevelt started out as this. He was known for being something of an Egomaniac Hunter, but even then, most hunters (including him) are generally fervent conservationists, and Roosevelt was certainly that trope, establishing a number of national parks.
- Opal Whiteley was a born naturalist. Her Diary, begun around age five, describes her observations of the fields and woods around her home in Oregon. At fourteen, she was giving lectures about the Wonders of Nature in churches and schools. By 18, she was Oregon state superintendent of Junior Christian Endeavor, which embraced all denominations. Opal also planned a film career and had publicity shots taken in "child of nature" poses, of which this is probably the most famous◊. Here's the memorial wall painting in her home town, Cottage Grove, Oregon, done by Connie Huston. There is a statue of Opal, created by Ellen Tykeson, in the Cottage Grove Library, and another at the Knight Library at the University of Oregon, which she attended for two years.
- Nemophilists are those fond of forest and forest scenery, and are most likely a majority of this trope.
