History Main / EvilOrphanageLady

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/Annie1982 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evil_lady1.png]]]]

* "Mama"/Isabella, the StarterVillain from ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland'' is a kind woman who acts nothing like this... Until it turns out that [[FirstEpisodeTwist she is selling the children under her care to be eaten by demons to protect herself]], and using psychological mind games to root out anyone who could try to escape. She tries to subvert this by trying to be kind and caring so that they can at least live a happy life before they die, but she does have a streak of cruelty if she knows you're aware of what's up.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Mother Carmel only pretends to love the children under her care as their ParentalSubstitute; her real reason for taking them in is so that she can later sell them as slaves or child soldiers to the government. Charlotte Linlin, who would eventually grow up to become one of the Emperors of the Sea, never found out about the true nature of Carmel and still revered her as her "foster mother figure" despite the fact that Carmel never cared about her as a person at all and only saw her at her last MealTicket.

* Miss Pritchard's orphanage in a ''[[ComicBook/TheFlash Max Mercury]]'' story set in 1910s New York. Mrs P hates children, but gets money from the city to raise them. She ''also'' gets a cut from child-hating toymaker Archimedes Schott, for supplying him with cheap labour. And then she takes the kids' wages as well. When Schott tells her he's going to burn down his factory, because Max has pressurized him into giving the kids more rights, she decides to send them to work that day anyway. (And yes, Archimedes looks a lot like his presumed descendant, Winslow.)

* ''ComicBook/TheGoon'' has Mrs. [=McGreg=], a surly, drunken old hag who runs the [=McGreg=] Home For Illegitimate, Wayward and Possibly Homicidal Youth. She routinely abuses the kids under her care, calling them "little unholy bastards" (which they [[AppropriatedAppellation adopt as the name of their gang]]) and they poison her every chance they get.

* Briefly mentioned in ''Fanfic/ANewProblem'' where the orphanage lady kicked out Horace and Roba as soon as they turned eighteen and also kicked out Alfe for being annoying.

* ''Fanfic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse:'' Lemonhearts. [[spoiler:She runs her orphanage as a Discordian farming operation. When any of her charges start showing signs of being a Discordian, she removes the chaos magic from them to feed herself, leaving the victim as an EmptyShell.]] Eventually gets her comeuppance at the end of the one story she appears in.
* [[Fanfic/BloodSexSugarMagic IllMa]][[Fanfic/SoonIShallBeIndestructible deKnight]] has a recurring character in their ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fanfics called "Ms. Ikari" who is infamous across the author's personal [[TheMultiverse Multiverse]]. One such version is [[TheStarscream The Dragon]] in a {{Crossover}} between BSSM, SISBI, and various others.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* Ms. Mavilda from ''WesternAnimation/TheChristmasTree'' is a corrupt orphanage owner who spends all the funding she gets from the mayor on gambling rather than to help the orphans.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''{{Film/Pan}}'' gives Peter Pan a backstory of being an orphan in 1940s England. His orphanage is run by a nun who's ugly, fat, greedy and child-hating.

* ''Literature/ThursdaysChild'', by Creator/NoelStreatfeild. St. Luke's Orphanage is run by "Matron" who steals from the children to enrich herself, and is physically abusive. After she leaves, it becomes an Orphanage of Love, due to the influence of Lady Corkberry.
* Miss Minchin from ''Literature/ALittlePrincess'' is all right at first, but as soon as it is revealed that Sara is an orphan, she turns her into a scullery maid with hardly any pay and shuts her up into a tiny attic, separated from all the other girls except one servant.
* In the ''Literature/{{American Girl|sCollection}}'' book ''Changes for Samantha'', Samantha's best friend Nellie and her two younger sisters are sent to an orphanage called Coldrock House after their parents die and their uncle abandons them. Miss Frouchy, the woman who runs Coldrock House, is harsh and cruel to the girls, to the point where it's stated that Samantha's Uncle Gard has to pretend to be quizzing the younger girls on math in order to talk with them, and Nellie and Samantha have to meet in secret. It comes to a head when she tries to send Nellie on the Orphan Train without her sisters, leading to Samantha helping the girls run away and hiding them in the attic until she is caught.

* The Stump in ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' is a subversion. Most of her children were abandoned by their parents due to injury, and she's quick to accuse them of faking. [[spoiler:They're not. [[ObliviouslySuperpowered She's a latent Knight Radiant]] and has been subconsciously {{healing|Hands}} them. Many of these children were quickly scooped up by their parents once they recovered, which led her to believe that they were taking advantage of her kindness for free food]]. It's pointed out that she can't feed every orphan in the city, so she has to turn away children who don't seriously need her help.
* ''Literature/TheHouseOfSilk'' has [[spoiler:a male example with Rev. Fitzsimmons]], who uses the orphanage to supply [[spoiler:pedophiles]].
* Agnes Adderstone from the first book of the ''Literature/MollyMoon'' series, the wiry, joyless headmistress of [[OrphanageOfFear Hardwick House]] in Briersville. All of the children are afraid of her and she loathes all children in kind, but ''especially'' Molly, who she constantly singles out for punishments. Naturally, one of Molly's first orders of business after learning how to hypnotize people is dealing with Ms. Adderstone by turning her into a FriendToAllChildren instead. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, however, this is revealed to have [[GoneHorriblyRight backfired terribly]] by the book's second act.]]

* In an episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the frat house that Reily lives in is haunted by the spirits (not ghosts) of the kids who lived there when it was an orphanage; their caretaker, Mrs. Holt, abused them and punished them severely for doing anything even remotely sexual (like preening in front of a mirror to look nice).

* Ms. Mary of ''VideoGame/ClockTower'' arranges for the protagonist Jennifer and her friends to be adopted by Simon Barrows with seemingly no ill intent. [[spoiler:Then the whole thing is revealed to be a group sacrifice for her satanic sons, Dan and Bobby.]]

* ''[[VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations Ace Attorney Investigations 2]]'' has an interesting example. [[spoiler: Patricia Roland has all the hallmarks of this trope, but she's actually a prison warden. It's not until the 5th case that you find out she ''used'' to be one: she ran an OrphanageOfFear and was an accomplice to the assassination of a foreign president. The "abuses a specific child" part of the trope is played straight towards Simon Keyes, but for a very specific reason: he witnessed the murder.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' reveals that the apparent BigBad, Sorceress Edea, used to be the orphanage matron for all the protagonists in their childhood. It's then subverted when we discover that Edea was only acting evil in the present day because she was possessed by another evil sorceress, and that she was a kind matron to the children. Although there is her questionable decision to turn her orphanage into a military academy and many of the orphans into ChildSoldiers.

* ''WesternAnimation/BooBoomTheLongWayHome'': The OrphanageOfFear featured in episode 20 is run by a military version of this character named Hilda. She also appears in episode 22, in which she tries to get revenge on Boo-Boom and his animals for destroying her orphanage.

* Ms. Stout, the BigBad of ''[[Film/AirBuddies The Search for Santa Paws']]'' is one of these.

* "Mama"/Isabella, the StarterVillain from ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland'' is a kind woman who acts nothing like this... Until it turns out that [[FirstEpisodeTwist she is selling the children under her care to be eaten by demons to protect herself]], and using psychological mind games to root out anyone who could try to escape. She tries to subvert this by trying to be kind and caring so that they can at least live a happy life before they die, but she does have a streak of cruelty if she knows you know what's up.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', Honorhall Orphanage in Riften is run by a terrible old woman called Grelod [[IronicNickname the Kind]]. She constantly gives speeches to the kids about how worthless they are and that they won't be adopted, ever. The kids themselves tell you that beatings are frequent and snooping around the building reveals that there is a cell with shackles on the wall. The kind normally seen in prisons. Grelod also starves the children by giving them only ''one'' meal a day in the afternoon. ''She even keeps them from being adopted'' -- she's that much of a power-hungry ControlFreak. It's so bad, that one of the kids escaped and tried to recruit [[MurderInc The Dark Brotherhood]] to kill Grelod. [[spoiler:You can pretend to be from the Brotherhood and kill Grelod yourself. (Notably, [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing you can do this openly and suffer no consequences for it]]. Also, [[SequenceBreaking You can kill Grelod completely of your own accord, and when you encounter the orphan later, you can tell him that you already took care of it.]]) The children will ''cheer'' and praise the Dark Brotherhood. Needless to say, the Dark Brotherhood is not happy about this.]]

* The Stump in ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' is a subversion. Most of her children were abandoned by their parents due to injury, and she's quick to accuse them of faking. [[spoiler:They're not. She's a latent Knight Radiant, and she's unconsciously been using her Truthwatcher abilities to heal the children. Many of these children were quickly scooped up by their parents once they recovered, which led her to believe that they were taking advantage of her kindness for free food]]. It's pointed out that she can't feed every orphan in the city, so she has to turn away children who don't seriously need her help.

* Miss Hattie from ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'', who runs a miserable orphanage where the children are forced to sell cookies but she keeps all the profits. If they don't sell enough they have to sit in a "box of shame".

* The orphanage owner in the manga version of ''Manga/RainbowNishaRokubouNoShichinin'' is a ghastly older woman who not only uses the orhphage for child trafficking but also rapes one of the heroes, Joe, when he was staying there. The anime changes her into a man, subverting this.

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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/DespicableMe https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_despicableme_mrshattie.png]]]]

* In an episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' the frat house that Reily lives in is haunted by the spirits (not ghosts) of the kids who lived there when it was an orphanage; their caretaker, Mrs. Holt, abused them and punished them severely for doing anything even remotely sexual (like preening in front of a mirror to look nice).

* The vile old woman from Film/PrimeCut subjected Poppy to a childhood of fear and abuse, before selling her into prostitution as soon as she reached puberty.

* ''{{Film/Pan}}'' gives Peter Pan a backstory of being an orphan in 1940s England. His orphanage is run by a nun who's ugly, fat, greedy and child hating.

* The page image provider is Miss Hattie from ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'', who runs a miserable orphanage where the children are forced to sell cookies but she keeps all the profits. If they don't sell enough they have to sit in a "box of shame".

* ''Manga/TheLegendOfMotherSarah'' features a servicewoman from one of the dueling factions of Earth who also serves as the commander of the City of Children. She finds pleasure in pitting the kids under her wing against each other, using them as {{Child Soldier}}s for her own benefit, enslaving random travellers who have the misfortune of stopping by and all kinds of other sordid activities. She delights in perverting them and works in tandem with [[TeensAreMonsters an evil teenage boy named Zach]] who uses his HypnoticEyes and PsychicPowers to manipulate her and anyone he interacts with. And if that wasn't enough, all the children she takes care of are male... [[{{Ephebophile}} because she a certain "fondness" for male teenagers]] and even [[{{Shotacon}} young boys]].

* [[Fanfic/BloodSexSugarMagic IllMa]][[Fanfic/SoonIShallBeIndestructible deKnight]] has a recurring character in their ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' fanfics called "Ms. Ikari" who is infamous across the author's personal [[TheMultiverse Multiverse]] as this trope UpToEleven. One such version is [[TheStarscream The Dragon]] in a {{Crossover}} between BSSM, SISBI, and various others.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' reveals that the apparent BigBad - Sorceress Edea - used to be the orphanage matron for all the protagonists in their childhood. It's then subverted when we discover that Edea was possessed by another evil sorceress - and she was a kind matron to the children. Although there is her questionable decision to turn her orphanage into a military academy and many of the orphans into ChildSoldiers.

* Miss Hannigan from ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'' runs the orphanage where Annie lives. She drinks and mistreats the girls under her charge, telling them not to sing, making them work like servants, and even having a whole song about how she hates little girls. Later she [[spoiler:helps organize a plot to kidnap Annie for money. (Though in two of the three film versions, she eventually has a HeelFaceTurn when Annie's life is in danger.)]]

Among the various children in the orphanage, she may or may not have a particular target for her oppression. She is marked by her cold demeanor and lack of feeling. She often seems to have no concept of the fact that she is there to serve the children under her, and may insist that they serve her instead.

* ''Manga/TheLegendOfMotherSarah'' features a servicewoman from one of the dueling factions of Earth who also serves as the commander of the City of Children. She finds pleasure in pitting the kids under her wing against each other, using them as {{Child Soldier}}s for her own benefit, enslaving random travellers who have the misfortune of stopping by and all kinds of other sordid activities. She delights in perverting them and works in tandem with [[TeensAreMonsters an evil teenage boy named Zach]] who uses his HypnoticEyes and PsychicPowers to manipulate her and anyone he interacts with. And if that wasn't enough, all the children she takes care of are male... [[MrsRobinson because she a certain "fondness" for younger men]] and even [[{{Shotacon}} young boys]].