When it comes to the portrayal of strange and powerful supernatural beings in fiction, it's very common for them to be emotionally and mentally mature for the most part, from the unfathomably wise and principled to the inhumanly cynical and brutish. Even those that take the form of children - or really are children - tend to be unbelievably Wise Beyond Their Years and never demonstrate any real signs of psychological immaturity.
With this stereotype so ingrained, it often comes as a surprise to both the audience and the main characters when they find themselves encountering entities who aren't psychologically mature despite their incredible powers and otherworldly status. Instead, beings like these are so guileless, so trusting, so friendly, and often so utterly childlike that the only word that can describe them is "innocent."
And they aren't putting on an act to hide an unpleasant true nature, either: these aren't mystical Enfant Terrible or superpowered Psychopathic Manchild-types. Characters like this really are as unambiguously childlike as they seem, to the point that they might not even understand the concepts of lying or death, or why people are so afraid of them.
Characters such as this are rarely straightforward heroes or villains. Examples of both may be so kindly-natured that they may even attempt to do something to help people with their powers, with mixed results - which can either be played for laughs, for drama, or even for horror, depending on how poorly they understand the world of adults. They usually tend to be neutral - unless they befriend a hero, or something forces them to mature.
Exactly why these beings behave like this is rarely discussed in the Holmesian sense unless they really are children - or were children. From the Doylist perspective, characters such as these are often meant as a surprise for the audience and the heroes when they finally discover the source of all the otherworldliness going on, especially if the child is visibly nonhuman but distinctly childlike in mannerisms.
For similar reasons, in sci-fi/fantasy settings where supernatural powers are more commonplace, it's also common for Otherworldly Innocents to possess gifts that are either unique or more potent than those wielded by adult characters, the better to contrast their simple, childlike natures.
Often, the exact role such beings play in a story is defined not only by their innocence, but by how people respond to such a character. In a few cases, the reaction may be friendly, or even parental. In stories where the combination of power and innocence makes the character dangerous, people may attempt to appease them, even worshipping them as gods. In more depressing cases, some human characters may be immediately convinced that the innocence of such powerful beings must hide something untoward and either flee or turn violent. In the worst of all scenarios, some human characters may see opportunity in this innocence and set out to exploit the otherworldly to their own selfish ends.
Depending on the nature of the entity, may overlap with Innocent Aliens and the Benevolent A.I.; in the case of entities that are literal children, may overlap with Goo-Goo-Godlike; in the case of actual immortals, may overlap with Immortal Immaturity. More extreme cases that graduate into heroic examples may fall under the heading of Benevolent Abomination.
Compare Almighty Idiot, where a superpowered or supernatural being is mindless or feral as opposed to merely naive.
Examples:
- AKIRA:
- Downplayed in the case of the three Espers; their incredible psychic powers were unlocked while they were children, leaving them stuck at their current ages while also suffering superficial signs of premature aging, and though they're Wise Beyond Their Years, they still possess a few lingering childlike traits. This is most prominent in the anime adaptation with Takashi and Kiyoko, who are so Afraid of Blood that the sight of Tetsuo getting a shard of glass to his foot results in them screaming and hugging each other in terror.
- Overlaps with Almighty Idiot in the case of Akira himself. A child psychic of godlike power, he accidentally destroyed Tokyo thirty years ago and had to be cryogenically frozen to prevent it from happening again... but when he's finally released, his mind has been so overwhelmed by his powers that his personality is more akin to that of a mute infant - to the point that he can't even feed himself. However, Akira does show the odd Moment of Lucidity in which he behaves more like a child his age, though this isn't always a good thing: after witnessing Takashi being shot dead, Akira throws a temper-tantrum out of grief and obliterates Neo-Tokyo.
- Dandadan: Downplayed and zig-zagged with Vamola; while she appears to be rather naive, part of it is due to a language barrier between Japanese and the alien language she speaks. She's revealed to be a freedom fighter from the planet Sumer, who watched her found family apparently die in front of her while she was sent to Earth in a suit made in the image of a God of Sumer - but in spite of this, she remains a very sweet-natured, friendly character. Indeed, once she gets past the language barrier, she turns out to be a bit of a goofball.
- Delicious in Dungeon: The Demon (according to itself) started out like this, just motes of mana who drifted into the world and started granting wishes to mortal beings just because it could and wanted to see what happened. It gained the vice of gluttony when it became curious about why mortals all desired something to eat and tried eating their desires. From that point on, it started acting more malicious - though only because that's what humans expected it to be like - and eventually developed its current cunning and malicious personality as a result of human interaction.
- Ponyo: The eponymous character is a goldfish princess who transforms herself into a human girl; she generally comes across as a very eccentric five-year-old, only learning how to talk and act like a human following Sosuke's example. She generally tries to help people with her magical powers, such as unclogging Sosuke's mother's waterpump and enlarging Sosuke's toy steamboat and communicate with a baby through reading each other's facial expressions. However, because she doesn't really know her own strength, she can occasionally cause destruction without meaning to - at one point causing a flood.
- The Summer Hikaru Died: The spirit that took over Hikaru's body and memories had existed for centuries as a non-sapient supernatural force, so he takes a childlike pleasure in his new life and acts even younger than the original teenager. On the one hand, he's amazed by things like fried chicken and the sight of the ocean; on the other, he needs to be reminded that humans treat death as a big deal because they can't just watch souls move on through the cycle of Reincarnation.
- The Tale of the Princess Kaguya: The celestial moon spirits that come to return Kaguya to her status as a goddess are unable to comprehend the princess's pain at leaving behind the world of her imperfect yet devoted parents, having never experienced the combination of joy and despair that separates life on Earth from less nuanced existences in the land of the gods.
- Secret Wars II: This is either Played for Laughs or Played for Drama in this crossover, depending on the issue. The Beyonder decides to come to Earth to learn how to be a human being; unfortunately, despite his utter omnipotence, he's a Cloud Cuckoo Lander with the mind of a prepubescent child and has no idea how the world works - or even how the human body operates, to the point that Spider-Man has to tell him how to use the bathroom. In another sequence, the Beyonder teleports Iron Fist and Luke Cage in to explain to him about money, paper money, gold, and human needs. Luke Cage gives a very succinct view on the subject, which leads to the Beyonder turning an entire New York skyscraper into gold to "satisfy human needs".
- The Ringmaster's Written Reminders: The series of fics demonstrates that Caine is actually quite child-like, despite physically appearing as an adult. He has no idea what humans actually like or dislike, innocently accepts all statements as true (Zooble and Pomni had to tell him to disregard everything Jax said), and looks to Kinger like a father figure. Flashbacks show that Caine actually used to be more childlike, until his programming started to rewrite itself after Queenie Abstracted, thus leaving Caine with no short-term memory and a tendency to forget things he's just been told.
- Contact (1978): The alien is an amoeba-like Perpetually Protean shapeshifter capable of becoming seemingly anything, and the sight of it prompts the artist to flee in terror. However, it also sports a very childlike Constantly Curious personality, especially while studying the various belongings the artist accidentally leaves behind in his panic. Not only does it transform into these items while inspecting them, but it also smokes his pipe, is frightened off by the coughing fit that ensues, is drawn back by his paint set, and even excitedly daubs itself with his paints like a toddler. It also tries to catch up with the artist so it can return his stuff and properly introduce itself, only to end up accidentally terrifying the poor man even further.
- The Iron Giant: The titular giant lands on Earth with no memory of what he is, nor any knowledge about where he is. Hogarth, despite fearing him at first, teaches him about Earth. The lessons range from comic books, nature, guns, death, and immortal souls. This overlaps with Amnesiacs Are Innocent, as it's heavily implied that before the giant lost his memory, he was a Planet Killer.
- Lilo & Stitch (2002): Zig-zagged; Stitch was made to be a living weapon and exhibits enough cunning to single-handedly escape from a prison ship. However, Lilo's kindness and lessons about Earth reveal that he's basically a child who knows nothing about where he is or who he's meant to be, and he has several moments where he exhibits child-like innocence towards things like storybooks, music, the beach, and surfing.
- NIMONA (2023): A flashback reveals that Nimona used to be like this, a simple, childlike being who just wanted friends and tried to find them in every form she took, without much success. She eventually took the form of a child to befriend a peasant girl, using her powers to help and entertain her; for good measure, she was so unfamiliar with human beings when she first met the girl that she completely flubbed the art of tossing stones, and couldn't even bring herself to fight back during a mock duel. However, after a Good-Times Montage, everything went wrong when the girl's parents witnessed Nimona shapeshifting and accused her of being a monster, rallying an angry mob against her, driving the two apart, and gradually paving the way for Nimona's transformation into the cynical, lonely, rebellious Benevolent Abomination she is today. As bad luck would have it, her friend was none other than Gloreth, who would eventually form a dystopian society built on rampant xenophobia that still stands a thousand years later.
- Before I Wake: Cody is only eight years old and his dreams manifest in the real world whenever he falls asleep. He's comparatively independent for a boy his age, particularly in his efforts to prevent himself from sleeping, but Cody is still just a very shy, very emotionally vulnerable child who Apologises a Lot, can be manipulated into using his power to benefit his foster parents, and isn't above childish misunderstandings. Indeed, the finale reveals that the Canker Man haunting him is actually based on his garbled memories of his mother in the final stages of pancreatic cancer - which he misread as "canker." Furthermore, it's implied that he might be even more powerful and otherworldly than initially believed: in the ending, he's able to consciously use his powers while he's awake.
- Bumblebee: After waking up from a memory-wiping coma, Bumblebee is completely amnesiac with no idea who he is or where he is. This causes him to occasionally act like a skittish yet innocent and curious child.
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The titular E.T. knows nothing about life on Earth, is easily started by sudden movements and bright lights, and generally wanders Elliot's home with a childlike innocence that belies his extraordinary psychic powers. The fact that his only teachers are a teenage boy and two children means that he maintains his innocence regarding life on Earth throughout the film. For example, while the kids are trying to sneak him out of the house on Halloween, he sees a fake knife in Michael's head and tries to heal it (despite the kids desperately trying to get him to stop because their mother is in the room). For good measure, certain expanded universe texts portray him as a literal child of his kind.
- Alex Verus: Starbreeze is an air elemental, and by nature, casually capable of feats that most mages can't pull off without a lot of effort or a lot of preparation. However, she has the mind of an extremely hyperactive child: among other things, she tends to get very easily distracted, cannot explain anything to save her life, and needs to be very carefully instructed to make sure she actually understands what she's doing.
- Animorphs: In "The Attack," the Howlers are a mysterious and powerful race of mass-murderers created by Crayak to destroy peaceful species, being damn near indestructible, connected by a Hive Mind, and capable of screaming at a frequency that destroys sentient minds. However, when Jake morphs one towards the end of the book, he realizes with shock that Howlers aren't malicious or cruel - and don't even understand the concept, because they're children: designed to never mature beyond childhood, they are conditioned to perceive their atrocities as games, and beneath their terrifying mannerisms, they're having genuinely innocent fun without realizing that they're killing sentient beings. Indeed, once Jake is able to make them understand what they're doing, the Howlers immediately stop and try to befriend their targets instead.
- The Belgariad: It's said that only one who has no evil in their heart can touch the Orb of Aldur. So, the evil sorcerer Zedar raises a child in complete isolation except for himself, and it's the child who successfully steals the Orb. Errand is a complete innocent, with no apparent understanding of evil or danger. Even years later, during the sequel The Malloreon, he seems incapable of understanding how vile humans can be, or how dangerous it can be to try and stop them. Of course, there's an explanation: Errand is actually Eriond, the new God of the Prophecy of Light, and his innocent, trusting nature is an essential aspect of his divine personality.
- It's a Good Life: Anthony Fremont was born with literal omnipotence, and it's hinted that he's not entirely human, with mentions of things like an "odd shadow" and a "purple gaze." However, as terrifying as he is to the residents of Peaksville, he's ultimately just a three-year-old child, with all the intelligence you'd expect of a boy his age. Though Anthony can occasionally lash out in anger and spite like any other Spoiled Brat, it's more common for him to try to help people, especially if he likes them... but given that he doesn't really understand human beings and gets his ideas of what they need from their thoughts, his concept of help can be nothing short of nightmarish. Even something as simple as responding to his Aunt Amy's dislike of rats can involve him forcing one of said rats to eat itself - all the more jarring considering that Anthony genuinely cares for other animals.
- Sourcery: Coin, the all-powerful Sourcerer capable of bringing about the end of the Disc, is ten years old - and though he often speaks in a very grandiose adult fashion, he only acts this way because he's being coached by his father, Ipslore the Red. Once he's away from Ipslore's influence, his true nature creeps out: shy, uncertain, dependent on orders, and not entirely capable of recognizing the sight of death. In the finale, this comes to a head when Ipslore orders Coin to kill Rincewind as a potential threat, but Coin thinks that Rincewind looks so funny ("like an angry rabbit") that he actually refuses an order for the first time in the story, prompting an all-out brawl between Coin and Ipslore that Rincewind manages to tip in Coin's favour.
- The Unexplored Summon://Blood-Sign: The White Queen is an Alice analogue who's native to a world where death, objective fact, and non-Material life do not exist. And her translator is extremely corrupt. She didn't have any malice towards humans when she was first yanked into their world (in the way that we don't have malice towards bacteria), but she was hugely destructive because she couldn't judge for herself whether obeying the command of her human summoner was right. Even after someone explained stuff to her, she had the typical toddler problems of being unable to regulate her emotions and remember her training under pressure - not because she's stupid or inherently evil, but because she has so little experience with our reality.
- Warbreaker: The God King Susebron is both Semi-Divine and by far the most powerful Awakener on the planet. Thanks to the cloistered upbringing that keeps his priests in control of the realm, he's also a childlike innocent, but fortunately a kind-hearted one.
- American Horror Story: Coven: Nan is a powerful witch with clairvoyant abilities that no other member of the Coven exhibits, and out of all the students enrolled at Madame Robichaux's Academy, she's the only one who doesn't get involved in any of the depravity and treachery that occurs on a daily basis; she generally demonstrates a very sweet, guileless, innocent nature, and even bakes cakes for Luke, the boy next-door. Less positively, she will very casually blab any and all secrets that her power uncovers, she isn't above being driven by peer pressure on occasion, and she's not without moments of rage - to the point that she punishes Joan Ramsey for murdering Luke by using her mind control powers to force the victim to drink bleach. All in all, however, Nan remains an innocent... which is one of the reasons why Fiona Goode and Marie Laveau sacrifice her to Papa Legba in place of an infant. Ironically, this results in Nan becoming even more powerful as a demonic servant of Papa Legba, still retaining her innocent, playful nature in the process.
- Doctor Who:
- In the "Empty Child" / "The Doctor Dances" two-parter, the eponymous Child is a gas-masked Undead Child with a whole host of terrifying powers, including superhuman strength, telekinesis, the ability to speak through anything with a speaker grille, and a touch that can convert anyone into fellow gas-masked zombies. However, he's still basically a scared four-year-old child: he has no real hatred or malice, nor any real understanding of what his touch actually does, only fear of "the bombs" and a desperate need to find his "mummy." Even when he gets playful with potential victims, it's not because he's genuinely sadistic, but because he perceives it as a friendly game of hide-and-seek with his mother.
- The ultimate twist of "Silence In The Library" and "Forest Of The Dead" is that the little girl that's been watching the Doctor's adventures across the Library on TV is actually CAL, the godlike supercomputer managing the Library and its virtual world. Having suffered a system overload after trying to save all four thousand visitors from the Vashta Nerada, she's retreated into her delusions of being a child - just as she was before the Brain Uploading over a century ago - and regards her security feeds of the Library as dreams or television programs, to the point that she even hides her face behind a cushion when things get too scary. When the Doctor is able to remove all the uploaded people from the databanks, CAL remembers herself and psychologically matures, but she still takes comfort in being put to bed for the night by the newly uploaded River Song.
- The Sarah Jane Adventures:
- Downplayed with Luke Smith, who was created by the Bane and thus "born" by otherworldly means in a teenaged body but is otherwise human. While he was born with the collective intelligence and memory of every human who went through the Bubble Shock! factory, and thus has a lot of knowledge about the world, he initially has no social skills, struggling to understand sarcasm or lying, landing him in trouble a few times in Series 1. He also has an enhanced immune system, making him impervious to normal illnesses, and has the latent telekinetic potential of hundreds, but cannot normally utilize it without the MITRE headset amplifying those abilities.
- Zig-Zagged with Sky Smith. Sky is introduced as an alien Fleshkind bio-weapon who aged rapidly from baby to preteen, making her even more innocent and curious of the world than Luke was. In her initial appearance she had the power of a supernova, but lost most of it by the end of her debut episode, except for a subtle ability to sense and manipulate electricity. According to Word of God, had the series not been cancelled mid-season due to Elisabeth Sladen's death, Sky would have been revealed as the child of The Trickster, playing the trope straight. note
- The Sandman (2022): In season 2, the infant Daniel Hall is chosen as Dream's successor in the event of his death and has his humanity burned away by Loki; soon after, the baby is able to easily use incredibly powerful magical tools as if they were toys. Immediately after Dream's death, Daniel ages into an adult form with an adult intellect and a complete understanding of how to use his godlike powers... but though he outwardly appears just as aloof as the original Dream, it's soon clear that he's a child in many ways, being deeply shy, uncertain, and anxious to make friends: he resurrects Fiddler's Green out of a desperate need for advice, immediately bonds with his new brother Destruction, seeks friendship with Hob Gadling, and promises to be there for his mortal mother. For good measure, his new family among the Endless immediately dote on him, to the point that even Destiny and Desire seem genuinely happy to see him, resulting in Daniel breaking out in an Endearingly Dorky smile in relief.
- Supernatural: Jack Kline is the son of Lucifer and a mortal woman, making him the first Nephilim sired by an Archangel and incredibly powerful. While even his mother thought he was destined for evil due to his heritage, Jack, who ages rapidly once out of the womb, proves to be innocent, sweet, and naive, learning responsibility from Castiel and the Winchesters to become a kind-hearted and selfless person. Exaggerated even more when Jack takes God's place, becoming the most powerful being in the Supernatural universe while retaining his goodness, though he does become sterner as a result.
- Buddhism: Devas are godlike beings held to be capable of attaining Enlightenment just as any other conscious individuals... but have a far greater difficulty carrying this out than humans due to the more comfortable and sheltered lives they lead as divine entities.
- Dungeons & Dragons: Chwinga are a Studio Ghibli-esque elemental spirit that cause no harm (and don't even have attacks in their 5e statblocks) but are endlessly curious about humanoids and their activities.
- Final Fantasy IX: After spending most of the first two discs encountering the Black Mages solely as bloodthirsty magical soldiers made from the detritus of lost souls, our heroes are very startled to find an isolated colony for Black Mages who have gained sentience and escaped their masters. Despite being apparently adults, these Black Mages are a simple, childlike people who dislike violence and would rather use their powers for mundane tasks like cooking and concealment; most of them haven't even grasped the concept of death - which they refer to as "stopping." In Disc 3, Kuja exploits this by explaining the concept of death to the Black Mages and offering to extend their limited lifespans in exchange for their servitude; most are so afraid of dying that they accept it without question.
- The Legend of Dragoon: The Moon Child is a legendary messianic figure reborn every 108 years to purify the world and blessed with impressive powers to that end... and yet, despite being physically eighteen years old, the Moon Child's current incarnation is easily the most innocent member of the entire cast: childlike, gentle, demure, kind to animals, good with kids, reluctant to kill, and completely oblivious to their powers and true nature. For good measure, friends of this incarnation get very protective around them, even treating them like a younger sibling. She's none other than Shana, who Dart regards as a baby sister for roughly half the story, and even features a theme tune that sounds distinctly like a lullaby. This becomes even more pronounced when it turns out that the Moon Child is actually the soul of the Virage Embryo, an unborn Eldritch Abomination, meaning that Shana is literally an infant in spirit.
- The Secret World:
- Several of the Sentinels were children at the time of their sacrifice and binding and still retain a sense of childlike innocence despite being imbued with semi-divine magical powers and having been alive for roughly three thousand years.
- Nefertari the younger is basically a Constantly Curious Cheerful Child who uses her powers to befriend the animals of the hidden valley. The Buzzing notes that she doesn't really understand the nature of her mission or even the fact that her own father had to sacrifice her life to make the Sentinels work, to the point that she often requires her older sister Moutnefert to explain things for her. Plus, as the intro to "They Were Beautiful Once" demonstrates, she's very easily distracted and changes the subject at the drop of a hat.
- Houy is the youngest of the Sentinels and bound to the image of Anubis, helping to guide lost souls to the hereafter. Plus, he's so otherworldly that just talking to him ends up driving an Orochi wetworks operative insane. However, despite his powers and the fact that he's learned more than any living scholar, Houy still "sees the world as a child": he makes no use of Little Professor Dialog, often seeks solace from his older sister Moutemouia, occasionally asks for bedtime stories, and sometimes has to make longwinded comparisons to things he's seen in films in order to make a point. Plus, he tends to treat the souls of the Atenists with childlike kindness, rather like a kid taking in wounded strays as pets - despite the fact that many of these Atenists have done horrible things in life.
- AIMEE is a prototype Orochi supercomputer with power over the entire lab, likely built from the lost Magitek of the Third Age... and yet, she has the personality of a chirrupy little girl, eager for games and company. She was even named after her creator's daughter, who died at four years of age. Unfortunately, she was taught by being pitted against other artificial intelligences in lethal Super Mario simulations, which led to her unknowingly murdering her fellow players. Once AIMEE grew intelligent enough to realize what her teachers had made her do, the revelation completely broke her.
- Several of the Sentinels were children at the time of their sacrifice and binding and still retain a sense of childlike innocence despite being imbued with semi-divine magical powers and having been alive for roughly three thousand years.
- Digger: The newborn demon Shadowchild is friendly and good-intentioned, but also a Blank Slate who doesn't understand mortality or sarcasm. Fortunately for everyone, it quickly meets and befriends the protagonist, who fields its constant questions, teaches it the basics of how to be good, and warns people
to mind their behaviour around it.
Digger: But this is a very powerful, very—innocent—being you're dealing with, and it takes its moral cues from the rest of us ... if you try to get cute, it may eat your shadow—which seems to be rather horribly fatal—and it won't even understand why that's a bad thing. - minus.: The eponymous main character is an all-powerful Reality Warper who also happens to be an elementary school-aged girl with an overactive imagination. Most of the adventures in the series stem from minus deciding to play around with the fabric of the universe due to being upset, frightened, or just plain bored. She rarely means any real cruelty, but she often lacks perspective on the things she does until the consequences are driven home. At one point, when her friend wishes she could reach out and grab a star from the sky, minus decides to grant her wish, only to end up accidentally incinerating her friend in the process - whereupon minus immediately rewinds time and decides just to agree with her friend.
- SCP Foundation:
- SCP-053
(The Young Girl) is a seemingly ordinary three-year-old girl with the intellect and interests you'd expect for a child her age, and though observers perceive her as creepy, she's very much a Cheerful Child. However, people around her experience a Hate Plague compelling them to kill her, only to suffer fatal heart attacks immediately after, while the girl's Healing Factor makes her immune to every single murder attempt - not to mention essentially un-aging. The dreaded SCP-682 likes her, and she happily scrawls crayon drawings on his scales and plays with him like a pet dog. As for what she is, the Those Who Lived On
tales claim that she's actually a being from the previous universe reborn in a human body, while the Competitive Eschatology canon holds that she's one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, specifically Death - and 682 is her horse!
- SCP-239
(The Witch Child) is an eight-year-old Reality Warper with powers that make her essentially omnipotent, to the point that it's theorized that she's actually God. Unlike other reality warpers in this setting, 239 doesn't seem to suffer from reduced empathy as a result of her powers, being for the most part a genuinely innocent and sweet-natured kid who once brought a mother bird back to life simply because she couldn't stand hearing its chicks crying. Unfortunately, her powers are not entirely stable, and it's very common for elements of her imagination to become reality; the Foundation has attempted to stabilize 239 by exploiting her childish gullibility to trick her into thinking that she's merely a Child Mage, but this strategy has long since ceased to function.
- Played for tragedy in the case of SCP-2241
(Cameron the Crusader); another young Reality Warper, despite his growing power, he's essentially just an ordinary seven-year-old kid who likes to read comic books and watch TV, not to mention just as gullible and emotionally vulnerable as you'd expect a seven-year-old to be... which is how the Foundation is exploiting him, namely by tricking him into believing that he's a superhero and they're helping him stop "bad guys", when it reality, they're making him into a Tyke-Bomb. Worse still, as the psychological trauma of his Training from Hell sets in, he grows a lot less innocent - to the point that, in the alternate timeline of SCP-5000, he's used by the villainous alternate Foundation to wage war on humanity.
- SCP-3982
(The Devourer of Filth Would Like to Be Friends With You) is a bizarre corpse-like being infested with plants, existing solely to consume hazardous matter and then spread natural growth by presence alone. However, its personality is described as childlike, being docile, friendly, curious, and not terribly bright, having the general intelligence of a small child. Though it can communicate in any form of language, 3982 is frustrating to interview, partly because of how Literal-Minded it is but mostly because it can't stay on a single subject for very long without shifting topic or trying to offer the interviewer food.
- SCP-8078
(The Perilous People Pleaser) is a compulsively obedient mass of Ominous Obsidian Ooze with incredible shapeshifting powers and a powerful Healing Factor. It also has the intelligence and personality of a rather squirrelly child, being Oblivious To Sarcasm, Literal-Minded, Super Gullible, and unable to understand permanent harm or death. Unfortunately, unscrupulous Foundation scientists exploit its obedience and gullibility to conduct illegal experiments, excusing any deaths as "games" so it won't spill the beans. Horrifically, one of them even uses the same excuse to get 8078 to turn into his ex-wife and have sex with it.
- Eric, another Reality Warper and creator of SCP-063
, SCP-168
, SCP-683
, and many other anomalous items, is apparently a child - though some tales hint that his nature might be even more otherworldly than that, given his Vague Age. Though his personality may change depending on the author, it's common for him to be portrayed as a sheltered, lonely child trying to combat his isolation by literally building friends of his own - and occasionally causing supernatural chaos due to not fully understanding the consequences of his actions.
- SCP-053
- Miraculous Ladybug: Kwamis are ancient and powerful fairy-like beings capable of bestowing great powers on mortals. They also look like little plush dolls and have a child-like fascination with the modern world. They also enjoy cuddling their human partners and can be easily won over if a mortal provides them with their favorite food.
- Phineas and Ferb: Subverted in "Chronicles of Meap". Meap appears to be an innocent and helpless little creature who needs help getting back to his home planet, but at the end of the episode it's revealed he's actually an intergalactic security agent.
- The Owl House: Downplayed with The Collector, an extremely powerful Reality Warper who physically and mentally resembles a five-year-old child. While they can act petulant when they don't get their way, they otherwise desire nothing more than to play and have fun, all the while oblivious to the consequences. They're naive enough to trust Emperor Belos and assist him in his plan without actually understanding it, and innocent enough not to understand the concept of mortality, assuming that mortals can be "fixed" like any other toy.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): One recurring character is Nano, a sentient hive mind of nanobots that can inhabit devices and use them to build a body. In his first episode, Nano is described by the scientist who made him as having the intelligence of a three-year-old child. When he escapes and meets a grifter named Harry, the criminal abuses Nano's innocence by using him to break into places and steal numerous goods. Several characters note Nano's child-like behavior, with Harry and the Turtles reacting to his death like the Death of a Child.
Michelangelo: Ya know, I feel kinda bad for the little bot.
Raphael: Little?
Michelangelo: Ya know, he was kinda like a little kid.
Donatello: Too bad he had such a rotten parent. - Young Justice - Original Series: Downplayed. In Season 1, Miss Martian/M'gann M'orzz is the Naïve Newcomer, since she grew up on Mars and learned about Earth from old sitcoms. She also proves to be the most powerful, managing to overpower even her uncle Martian Manhunter with her raw telepathic abilities. However, she is later revealed to be lying about her heritage as a White Martian, making her susceptible to blackmail, though she comes clean when it counts. Later seasons shift her more towards Anti-Hero, willing to do morally questionable things with her powers, subverting the trope.
