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There's quite an argument to be made for this trope being Older Than They Think; many of these character traits are actually found in 19th-Century Western literature (which was consumed voraciously once Japan opened trade with the world). The comparison isn't always exact (generally speaking, Victorian-era authors had rather different ideas about how to use this character type), but this character type actually shows up quite a bit more often than you might think.

Moe traits can also be found in Light Novels, since despite being literature they take heavy influence from anime and manga (and it helps that many of them have manga-style illustrations).


  • Jeeves and Wooster:
    • Bertie Wooster himself has this quality in-universe, which is why he's such a Chick Magnet.
      "I once consulted a knowledgeable pal," I said, "and his theory was that the sight of me hanging about like a loony sheep awoke the maternal instinct in Woman. There may be something in this."
    • So strong is this tendency that Bertie frequently gets this treatment in fanfiction, where he is entertainingly ditzy, goodhearted, and frequently in (temporary) distress due to the wacky Comedic Sociopathy-fueled schemes of his friends, and many female fans find him rather huggable.
    • Muriel Singer of "The Artistic Career of Corky" is a textbook example—she gets a whole paragraph describing her effect on Bertie.
      Muriel Singer was one of those very quiet, appealing girls who have a way at looking at you with their big eyes as if they thought you were the greatest thing on earth and wondered that you hadn't gotten on to it yourself. ...She gave a fellow a protective feeling, made him want to stroke her hand and say, 'There, there, little one!' or words to that effect. ...What I mean is, she made me feel alert and dashing, like a Knight Errant or something of that kind.

  • Charles Dickens also dipped into this territory on occasion:
    • Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol is an excellent example of this trope (and, in a rare case, applied to a male - even in the 19th century this was usually done to girls). In fact, part of the narrative purpose of Tiny Tim was to be moe in-universe to help Scrooge feel bad about the fact that he'd inevitably die unless Scrooge changed his ways.
    • Subverted in The Old Curiosity Shop with Little Nell Trent, who was moe turned up to eleven. The craze surrounding this girl is legendary; Dickens essentially made entire countries feel protective about Nell. In the end, she dies in the most ridiculous, overwrought manner imaginable, and Dickens did this deliberately in order to parody the overly-objectified young females of the day in fiction. Yes, that's right, Dickens essentially deconstructed moe a hundred and fifty years prior to Cardcaptor Sakura airing. How old do you think the trope is now?
    Oscar Wilde: One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.
    • An even better deconstruction was Dora from David Copperfield, a vulnerable Adult Child Manic Pixie Dream Girl barely able to take care of herself. David falls in love with her and marries her, but finds that she's completely useless at helping him around the house. It gets to the point where he's more of her caretaker than husband, and though he still loves her dearly, it takes an enormous mental toll on him.
  • O. Henry loved characters like this. Half his female characters match the trope almost exactly.
  • Paul Féval has some characters who might qualify, or at least have some shades of it.
  • Doctor Sleep: Bradley Trevor, a victim of the True Knot, inspires a lot of sympathy and protectiveness even before his horrific fate due to his description as a Farmboy who uses his psychic powers in a lot of cute, mundane ways.
  • Dragon Bones: Oreg is technically older than everyone else, but looks about seventeen. He was turned into the fuel for a Powered by a Forsaken Child castle at the age he seems to be, and has been a slave bound by magic ever since. His material body is described as being relatively small. He is a very powerful mage, but as he can only use his magic if his master approves, that doesn't change the fact that one just wants to give him a hug.
  • The first Dresden Files comic, Welcome to the Jungle features Willamena "Will" Rodgers. Bespectacled: check. Twin braids: check. Deer in the headlights look: check. Wants to be under the hero's protection: check.
    • Speaking of Dresden Files, there's the Archive; perfect memory of everything written since before ever, anywhere, and holds all the accumulated memories of the previous Archives, as it's passed down from mother to daughter when the mother dies, and Ivy, as the current Archive was named by Dresden, had the unfortunate luck of having it all pushed unto her when she was a child, and her powers rival those of the Fae Queens. And when Harry met her the first time, she was all business, until she met Mister, Dresden's cat, and she went into a full 7-year old mode. And in Small Favor, when she saw otters, she went into full 12-year old mode.
    • Harry's daughter, Maggie, is another example. The poor kid has been through a lot, what with being kidnapped and almost used for a ritual that would've annihilated her entire bloodline. Her dad also avoids her out of guilt. When Maggie finally does talk to Harry, her interactions with her dad are adorable and bring some much-needed heartwarming for the fans.
  • Fear Street: Phoebe Yamura from the Seniors series, given how, despite her status as the head cheerleader, she feels like The Ingenue at times and experiences little but misery despite just wanting to cheer and get along with people.
  • Harry Potter:
    • Luna Lovegood is certainly Adorkable and innocent, but there's much more to her than she lets on, and she does have an acute and realistic understanding of the world behind all that dreaminess, perhaps more acute than most people's. But she does get this treatment a lot from the fanbase, which unanimously adores her along with Neville.
    • Neville himself. Between his wimpy, bullied, but plucky Woobie-ness and ButtMonkey-ness, he's every ounce a "Male Moe"
  • Invoked in The Host (2008) by the choice of Wanda's final host, who is so petite and pretty that other people will naturally want to protect her and not suspect her of anything.
  • Victor Hugo really had a thing for this kind of character. Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame also fits this type, being an ingenue and woobie who goes through a horrendous Break the Cutie process until she dies.
  • The Hunger Games:
    • Prim. Her sweetness and innocence is a little exaggerated by the main character, who is her older sister and would do anything to protect her. She becomes less of a Moe during the events of the second book, when she takes up to helping their mother treat starving and injured patients, and thus has to grow up too quickly. However, the second book also lampshades the trope; during the Games after one Gamemaker trick tricks Katniss into believing Prim had tortured, Johanna points out that Panem loves Prim so much that if it were real, the Capitol citizens (who regularly enjoy seeing children of the Games slaughtered) would riot.
    • Katniss also sees her Hunger Games competitor Rue as this, as, aside from being black (whereas Prim has pale white skin) she reminds Katniss of Prim in every way, including being around the same age. Rue gets killed in front of Katniss and dies in her arms, but remains a driving force behind some of Katniss' motivations throughout the rest of the series to fight against the Capitol.
  • Les Misérables:
    • Cosette. The Animated Adaptations that have aired in Japan over the years seem like they might've cranked the "moe" meter for her up to 11... but, uh, nope, that's pretty much exactly how she was described and acted in the book. Especially once she starts getting abused by the Thenadiers, even the most stoic among us pretty much want to scoop her up and give her a big hug and tell her it'll all be okay. Valjean then does this, and you can't help but cheer. This fades a little when she gets older, but Victor Hugo still makes her seem quite vulnerable.
    • Cosette's mother, Fantine. She gets knocked up and abandoned, debases herself in every way to help her daughter, and ends up dying of several diseases at once. Or how about Eponine in the second half, who ends up destitute, uneducated, and in love with Marius but with no way to really express it, complete with Verbal Tics? (Not to mention shot dead pointlessly?) Really, the only major female character who doesn't have some of these elements is Madame Thenadier.
    • Also, you'll note something about the above: "Anime Adaptations". There have been four different adaptations of Les Mis produced in Japan, mostly from 1978-1979, and every single one featured a significant focus on Cosette (usually as a little girl, but sometimes going into the latter parts of the novel). The 1970s ones were widely watched, and a savvy reader can imagine how Cosette was portrayed in these shows (which is to say: close to her novel depiction). Even though it's easy to identify when the trope as described on the main page "coalesced", there is a very, very good argument to be made that Japanese moe trends all trace back to Cosette Fauchelevent, in a kind of century-spanning Germans Love David Hasselhoff situation.
  • Elizabeth "Beth" March from Little Women: a sweet, selfless but painfully shy and Prone to Tears and Kindhearted Cat Lover who eventually becomes Delicate and Sickly and dies. Sniff.
    • Even more so in the 1987 anime, where she is aged down from 12 to 10, which also makes her a bit of a Lonely Doll Girl too, as if she couldn't be more adorable.
  • Phenomena: Ilke is the most popular character in the series, being an Adorable Tomboy with Frost Powers and difficulties with staying focused while having problems of being completely honest of her own feelings caused many to love her. Her being blue (due to her powers) made a rise in how many had blue as their favorite color in Norway. And then she died.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire:
    • Specifically invoked this with Shae during Tyrion's trial for murdering Joffrey; when she tells a (totally untrue) story of how he horribly abused her, the text says, "As the tears rolled down that pretty face, no doubt every man in the hall wanted to take Shae in his arms and comfort her," which is practically the definition of Moe. The circumstances make it one of the most brutal subversions of this trope you're ever likely to encounter.
    • To the people that like her, Sansa Stark. She is so sweet and in such a bad situation you just can't help but want to take her away from King's Landing and bring her back home.
    • Tommen is the most adorable little boy in this side of the Narrow Sea. Too bad a maegi prophesied his death.
  • Tess, the eponymous protagonist of Tess of the D'Urbervilles is another example. Put through so much pain that you just want to give her a hug, not to mention being chaste and pure (at first, anyway). Like a lot of examples from this time period, though, the end result ends up a bit tragic.
  • Veesey-koosey from Corwainer Smith's short story "Think blue, count two" is a passenger in suspended animation aboard an interstellar vessel who as been selected to be part of the emergency crew not because she was good at anything but because she has a daughter potential of 999,999, meaning that anyone older than her would accept her as a daughter after a few minutes of relationship and because of that that person would be extremely motivated to save her life and hence the ship.
  • Twilight's Renee Dwyer, mother of Bella. She's described as helpless and childlike by her own daughter and if she hadn't met her baseball player boyfriend she'd be broke, starving, and wandering around Florida.
    • For that matter, Bella herself. No self-esteem, clumsy, likes being stalked, has no other purpose in life than to serve her husband and kid? American Moe to the max.
      • Some commentators have described Twilight as the Western, heterosexual equivalent of yaoi manga in its relationship dynamics, and it's fairly common to give the Uke moe qualities.
  • Unseen Academicals's Mister Nutt isn't classically cute, but he is a good example of the "adorably awkward" type of male moe character: shy, socially awkward in a polite, erudite sort of way, a real sweetheart but seriously lacking in self-esteem and generally in dire need of a hug. All this is rather incongruous, considering what he turns out to be. When Pratchett uses Our Orcs Are Different, he doesn't fool around. Also, despite the fact Nutt is gray-skinned and unattractive, Glenda sees something in him.
    • Walter Plinge from Maskerade as well. He's just so earnest in his gawky misfit-ness. Totally subverted by the end. You can call Ghost!Walter a lot of things, but Moe isn't one of them.
  • Bonnie McCullough from The Vampire Diaries book series is the absolute personification of this trope.
  • Redwall: Gingivere Greeneyes from Mossflower. Despite coming from a family of evil warlords and tyrants, he is just the sweetest thing. Although his father and sister look down on most goodbeasts, Gingivere is caring even towards a mouse, and an outsider, like Martin. No matter what cruel things Tsarmina does to him, he can't bring himself to seek revenge on his own sister. Did we mention that he's a cat? (Albeit a wildcat.) Gingivere's innocent nature makes it even sadder when he is falsely imprisoned for his father's murder, which was actually the work of his manipulative, tyrannic sister.
  • Jacuzzi from Baccano! fits this trope perfectly. He cries a lot, is super cute, and is completely nice to everyone. The Slash: Cloudy to Rainy lampshades this.
    His appeal didn't spring from any sort of trustiness, but instead from the feeling that if left to his own devices he'd probably end up walking off a cliff somehow — he evoked a strange sort of protective instinct in people.
  • A Certain Magical Index:
    • Komoe-sensei looks like a 10-year-old girl despite being a teacher. Even though she drinks and smokes heavily, her appearance and nicer traits can certainly qualify her.
    • All of the Misakasnote  in general.note 
    • Index herself is quite moe. She has a frequent Cat Smile, eats a lot, and speaks in such a way that tugs at your heart.
  • The Red Dragon named "Rose" from Dragon Crisis! is so incredibly moe. One simply cannot help but want to give her a huge hug every time she says something.
  • Mikado Ryuugamine from Durarara!! has several fan nicknames, one of which is Moekado. Others include Mootkado and Bosskado, but that doesn't stop him from being adorable.
  • Full Metal Panic!:
    • Tessa, who's a very sweet and softspoken girl in contrast to main heroine Kaname. She also happens to be an extremely intelligent Captain of an extremely powerful submarine and Special Forces badasses. Her orders are often phrased as suggestions.
    • Sousuke when he was a kid. Too cute!
  • Erio Touwa from Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl. She's obscenely cute and acts half her age.
  • Haruhi Suzumiya:
    • Mikuru Asahina is recruited for the S.O.S. Brigade specifically because Haruhi, besides liking this trope very much, decides that there needs to be a moe mascot character (specifically a short, babyfaced girl with huge boobs). She then tries to make Mikuru even more moe by forcing her into a maid outfit and glasses, and constantly molests her to get sympathy points. Some fans have coined the term "Moe-blob" for her (and characters like her), because to a casual fan, all she actually does in the series is stand around and be moe, and oh yeah, serve tea. Though it's gradually revealed in the novels that her future self is actually manipulating the plot via Time Travel. However, Mikuru could arguably be a deconstruction, since she is so obviously traumatized by being forced into the Moe-blob role that you feel like a total bastard to get turned on by it.
    • Arguably, by virtue of her being a Rei Ayanami Expy, Yuki Nagato, which is turned way up with her role in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, where she has a I Just Want to Be Normal moment, thus making her at least as moe as Mikuru, if not even more. (and The Woobie as well)

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