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Was Cosette the first loli in literature ?
Let me explain. I don't mean "loli" as young girls seducing men (she doesn't) but a young girl character only to trigger protective instincts for the male reader and untold sexual attraction as she grows up into a beautiful (and still very young) lady the reader is supposed to desire.
Young girls are kinda rare in old literature. Greeks never talk seriously about female children younger than 15 (making them adult at the time), Medieval times only use them as character to teach actual young girls (and tell them to not go near "wolves") and modern times just don't use them in stories.
But suddenly, with the 19th centuries, kids and especially young girls become a subject, a bait for men to protect or even sacrifice for them. It's something we can still notice in recent movies, young girls characters are made from a MALE point of view. When reading les Miserables, you're supposed to hate the Thénardiers, kidnap Cosette from them and keep her for yourself. She's not a character in herself, she's just something you want to possess.
How do you explain the birth on this kind of character during that time ? How do you explain the success of it even today ? Are we all hephebophiled ? Are all writers ?
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>>8951710
Girls aren't real
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>>8951717
This, Les Miserables was just fiction OP.
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>>8951720
Who are you quoting?
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>>8951722
>>8951717
Yeah, so ? I'm talking about the use of young girls character for "baiting" men readers into reacting. They can be fictional or not.
Think about it, you read a newspaper saying: teenager commits suicide. Your first reaction will be probably "meh, happens all the time". Then you read it's a cute blond 11yo girl with perfect white skin". I bet my left nut you will read the whole article and probably rage about her abusive parents pushing her into suicide.
We are not neutral leaders, young girls became a convenient plot device. Like a certain lord burning his cute daughter to get victory, you can support him afterward. But when he previously burn a shiton of people, you couldn't give a fuck.
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>>8951744
I'm gay so fuck thots lol
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>>8951744
bruh hugo did not market his novel with cosette lmao
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>>8951758
I'm not really sure about that. She became a very emblematic character, even more famous than Valjean at some point. Maybe only later I admit.
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It's literally just you. Children characters are always either used to relate to kids their age or as a coming of age troupe.
It's only anime where they become sexualized, become 10,000 year old vampires or alchemists, and get used as love interests for the main character to 'protect' as family.
S.CRY.ED did that with their loli character, and the entire time she wanted the MC to see her as mature but she's only 14 and he's too busy punching people to care.
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>>8952005
>It's only anime
...
Are you really going to pretend Cosette is a character made for 8 years old kids to relate with les Misérables ?
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>>8951710
joan of arc
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>>8952035
She's not a character, she's a real person.
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>>8952059
And also not a child.
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>>8952118
Yes but it's true it was in fashion for young teenage girls to become self-declared prophets at the time. Joan of Arc was far from the only one, just the most successfull one.
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>>8952147
Interesting, didn't know that.
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>>8951710
>hasn't started with the greeks
>doesn't know iphigenia
>thinks everything literary under the sun was created yesterday
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>>8952164
>iphigenia
She's barely a character, she's a sacrifice and that's pretty much all you know about her. Also she wasn't a kid.
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The term you're looking for is ingenue OP. It's a pretty common character type, not sure what the original was but I doubt it was cossette.
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>>8952276
And I don't think Cosette is an ingenue, it supposed some kind of innocence and naivety attracting men. Cosette isn't naive, she's just a victim.
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>>8952276
Also the first ingenue would be RedHood
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People didn't give a shit about kids until Victorian sentimentalism kicked in.
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>>8952679
And that would be Hugo's time (approximatly)
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