History Main / MonsterIsAMommy

* {{Subverted}} in episode "The Egg" of ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder''. Wander thinks a big, mean monster on a rampage is upset because its egg has fallen out of its nest. [[spoiler: The egg belongs to an entirely different species, and it is just a big, mean monster. The egg's ''actual'' mother, however, [[AlwaysABiggerFish is bigger, meaner]], and ''very'' grateful to Wander and Sylvia for helping its baby.]]

* {{Subverted}} In episode "The Egg" of ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'', Wander thinks a big, mean monster on a rampage is upset because its egg has fallen out of its nest. [[spoiler: The egg belongs to an entirely different species, and it is just a big, mean monster. The egg's ''actual'' mother, however, [[AlwaysABiggerFish is bigger, meaner]], and ''very'' grateful to Wander and Sylvia for helping its baby.]]

* In episode "The Egg" of ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'', Wander thinks a big, mean monster on a rampage is upset because its egg has fallen out of its nest. [[spoiler: The egg belongs to an entirely different species, and it is just a big, mean monster. The egg's ''actual'' mother, however, [[AlwaysABiggerFish is bigger, meaner]], and ''very'' grateful to Wander and Sylvia for helping its baby.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Boast Busters" [[spoiler:inverts the trope]]: That [[EldritchAbomination big, scary]] [[CelestialBody star]]-{{bear|sAreBadNews}} [[spoiler:is really just a very young cub in need of a bottle of milk and a nap. We see Mama only in an AnswerCut; it's a good thing she ''[[RentAzilla didn't]]'' [[MamaBear show up]]]].

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'', the MonsterOfTheWeek [[RentAZilla Choocrocca]] turns out to be a mother protecting her baby. They use the baby's body proportions to figure out how tall the mother is from her footprint, and use that to narrow down which cave she's hiding in.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDeep'': In "The Fossil", a baby dinosaur hatches out of its egg and immediately [[{{Imprinting}} imprints on Ant as the only moving thing in sight]]. Unfortunately, the baby's massive mother later shows up in search of her baby, and as Snappy (the name Ant gave to the baby) won't leave Ant's side, she starts pusuing him in an effort to retrieve her baby.

** The original Japanese Godzilla is a daddy (though Mrs. Godzilla is out there somewhere). Harming Godzilla's son is [[PapaWolf a very bad idea]].

** ''Bruce Coville's Book of Spine Tinglers'': [[spoiler: The giant creature at the end of ''Grendel'', who arrives after its child, the title monster of the story, has been killed.]]
* ''Literature/CodexAlera'': ''Cursor's Fury'' centers on the Alerans resisting an invasion by the [[WolfMan monstrous]] Canim. After various hints that the Canim aren’t there willingly, what cements them as InvadingRefugees comes at the end, after their main force has been beaten back. Aleran soldiers corner a Canim straggler, but instead of facing another savage warrior they discover it desperately protecting a litter of newborn pups. This being the first time anyone’s ever seen a female Cane, Tavi’s shocked into [[ItIsDehumanizing no longer calling Canim “it”]], and after allowing her to flee, he can only wonder at how dire things must be in the Canim homeland that they’d consider their women and children safer here, in a warzone.
* Brian Lumley applies this trope to some Eldritch Abominations in the short story "Concrete Surroundings".
* During ''{{Literature/Dinoverse}}'' two characters encounter an [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile immense crocodile]] who's more than a match for them even working together. They're incapable of doing her much damage, but she lets them go when they make it clear that they'll back away from her and the baby crocodiles crawling all over her.
* The ending of Dav Pilkey's ''Dogzilla'' has the titular monster now accompanied by her puppies.
* A different subversion seems in order in the short story "Honor is All" -- set in the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' RolePlayingGameVerse, it follows a noble knight who tracks and slays a dragon, and discovers that it has a hatchling. Just as he is about to do away with the infant dragon, however, he discovers that the creature he just killed was not a ferocious [[AlwaysChaoticEvil white dragon]], but an albino [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience silver dragon]]--one of the most powerful servants of Good, branded as a monster because of a tragic mutation.
** This is a case of artistic license, because not only are white and silver dragons very different physically, but albinism would not change the reflectiveness of its scales.
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'': {{Invoked|Trope}} in the Triwizard Tournament, where one of the tasks is to retrieve a particular item from beneath a nesting dragon, which is violently protective of its eggs. One player is heavily penalized for doing so in a way that destroys some of the eggs.
* In Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{IT}}'', the titular monster turns out to be a female, but that actually makes things worse rather than better.
* This was how ''Literature/IAmLegend'' ended: Turns out some of the vampires were trying to live their lives, and the last surviving human was the "real" monster.
* Subverted in both the novel and film versions of Michael Crichton's ''Literature/TheLostWorld1995'' (one of the few plot points they have in common). The team takes an infant tyrannosaur back to the trailer to fix its broken leg; unfortunately, neither Mommy nor Daddy is very grateful for their saving the baby's life.
* In ''Literature/PhoenixRising'', the heroine Kyri visits a village that's under attack from giant centipede creatures; it turns out that they're only trying to retrieve their eggs, which one of the villagers gathered up thinking they were interesting rocks. Fortunately for all concerned, Kyri works it out in time to settle the matter before there's major bloodshed.
* The old picture book ''Pickle Chiffon Pie'' involves three (naturally) princes sent on a quest. The geeky-but-nice prince nearly brings back a thoroughly unthreatening monster to make the titular pie for a king ([[ItMakesSenseInContext It Makes (More) Sense In Context]]) until he notices its children, which are even more UglyCute than the parent, peeking sadly from behind trees, whereupon he of course lets it go (and gets the king's daughter anyway). Causes some rather dramatic FridgeLogic--''why'' didn't he just bring the kids too?--but still a good story.

* In Terry Goodkind's ''Literature/TheSwordOfTruth'' series, the hero makes an ally of an exs, whereupon he of course lets it go (and gets the king's daughter anyway). Causes some rather dramatic FridgeLogic--''why'' didn't he just bring the kids too?--but still a good story.
* Played straight in ''Literature/ReapersGale'', book seven of the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', without the bonus points for cuteness. Onrack tracks an emlava, the story's equivalent of a steroid-using saber-tooth tiger, and kills it, only to realize after the fact that its behavior was not typical of a hunting emlava. It had several cubs and his party takes over stewardship of them. Said cubs are less than cute, requiring that the characters regularly check to ensure no limbs are in range of them.
* In "[[Literature/TheJungleBook Rikki-Tikki-Tavi]]", the titular mongoose defends an Anglo-Indian family from a vicious cobra. Upon finding out that she had laid a clutch of eggs, he finds them, kills all the eggs but one, uses the last one to lure the cobra away from his owners and then kills the cobra and, apparently, the last egg as well.
* In ''Literature/{{Sinbad}}'', the shipwrecked title character finds a roc's nest. Leaving the egg alone, he is able to tie himself to the roc and get off the inhospitable isle. Later, he's part of a ship that finds another egg; ignoring Sinbad, the crew chop it open and eat the chick. Back at the ship, Mommy (and Daddy) show their displeasure. With dropped boulders.

** In another ''Alien Force'' episode, the massive dragon that's escaped a thousand years of imprisonment by the Forever Knights is revealed to be an intelligent alien that has a family (making this an uncommon case of "Monster is a ''Daddy''"), and during his ranting about how he's been misFriends'' In "Cubtron Z", there's a fish-like {{kaiju}} monster that acts motherly towards Cubtron upon meeting him. Later in the end of the episode, it makes cookies for both him and Pop.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Discussed in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', when Stan speculates that this may be going on with a recently killed bear, elaborating right up until the moment that he spots testicles. "There's no room for you in our stories!"
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', Mrs. Woods’s dog, Perky, is known for being aggressive. She's apparently so scary that the mailman calls her "Jaws". It turns out that Perky was only angry because [[spoiler:she was pregnant. Arthur takes home one of the puppies, who turns out to be his beloved pet, Pal]]. In a later episode, Sue Ellen thinks there is a monster in the woods. It takes some investigating by her and her friends to find out that it’s just a runaway Perky, who has become significantly less vicious.
* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', Sokka adopts a cute little critter called "[[FluffyTheTerrible Foo Foo Cuddlypoops]]", who turns out to be a baby [[http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Saber-tooth_moose_lion Saber-Toothed Moose lion]]. ''He'' is harmless -- [[MamaBear his mother isn't]].
* ''WesternAnimation/Ben10'':
** In the original series episode "The Krakken", the monster was protecting its eggs. Milked a bit when, after the eggs are recovered, the hero prevents the monster from finishing off the poacher that had stolen them, and she relents and leaves peacefully.
** In an ''Alien Force'' episode, the monster mommy is BEN HIMSELF via a mix of his alien transformations with that species's asexual reproduction.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' In "Cubtron Z", there's a fish-like {{kaiju}} monster that acts motherly towards Cubtron upon meeting him. Later in the end of the episode, it makes cookies for both him and Pop.

* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Primal|2019}}'' has Spear the caveman stalking Fang the ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'' due to [[FantasticRacism her being somewhat similar to a tyrannosaur that ate his family]] (difference being that they are red and horned while she is blue and not horned). He realizes that she has children of her own and, although willing to kill all three of them at first, his heart warms up to them. When her hatchlings are threatened by the rival tyrannosaurs, she turns vicious and fights with every ounce of her strength, Spear joining her.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatNorth'' episode "[[Recap/TheGreatNorthS2E04WantedDelmerAliveAdventure Wanted: Delmer Alive Adventure]]", the sea monster in Beef's story is actually trying to get to its baby on the other side of the cove. Delmer, however, points out that it's actually a daddy

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatNorth'' episode "[[Recap/TheGreatNorthS2E04"Wanted:DelmerAliveAdventure" Wanted: Delmer Alive Adventure]]", the sea monster in Beef's story is actually trying to get to its baby on the other side of the cove. Delmer, however, points out that it's actually a daddy

* In several of Fredrik K. T. Andersson's (often NotSafeForWork) artworks, a human adventurer is surprised to see the unholy child of some (still alive) creature. With the added twist that [[spoiler:[[AnythingThatMoves he's the father]]]]. Links [[http://andersson.elfwood.com/Family-Gathering.2524339.html here]] and [[http://andersson.elfwood.com/DragonLayer.2524328.html here]].

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'': The hero earns a terrible reputation for seemingly CryingWolf about aliens...only for them to return and begin laying waste to the town. Luckily, Chicken Little manages to communicate with an alien child who was left behind and realizes that the invading aliens are just panicking parents who want their kid back. Once he returns the alien child to the ship and the kid tells his parents the truth, they're deeply apologetic for all the havoc and set about fixing the damage.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{How to Train Your Dragon|2010}}'' has dragons continually raiding the Viking village of Berk, but Hiccup and Astrid discover [[spoiler:that the dragons are trying to feed a huge Queen Dragon who otherwise would have eaten them]]. Thus in the climax, it is only when [[spoiler:dragons and humans work together]] that they are able to end that threat and a new alliance of the species is born.

* Used to provide the [[EmotionalTorque sucker]] [[YankTheDogsChain punch]] in the free (as in money and as in beer) movie ''WesternAnimation/{{Sintel}}'' by the Blender Foundation.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

** The original Japanese Godzilla is a daddy (Though, Mrs. Godzilla is out there somewhere). Harming Godzilla's son is a [[PapaWolf VERY bad idea]].
** The 1998 ''Film/{{Godzilla|1998}}'' remake. [[spoiler:About halfway through the film, Nick finds out Godzilla is a parthenogenic female and laid eggs. If any one of them get out, they'll start a new disaster. It turns out one DID survive, setting up the plot of ''WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries''.]]
** The female Muto from ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'' has hundreds of glowing orange eggs in her belly, [[spoiler:and lays them when she meets up with the male. Their destruction distracts from their double-teaming of Godzilla]].

* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' has dragons continually raiding the Viking village of Berk, but Hiccup and Astrid discover [[spoiler:that the dragons are trying to feed a huge Queen Dragon who otherwise would have eaten them]]. Thus in the climax, it is only when [[spoiler:dragons and humans work together]] that they are able to end that threat and a new alliance of the species is born.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'': The Team Rocket scientist Dr. Namba tried to capture Lugia by kidnapping its child in one multi-part episode; after Ash -- as well as James, Jesse, and Meowth, [[EnemyMine who sided with them]] - helped recover the young one, Lugia became an AndroclesLion towards all of them.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'':
** The Team Rocket scientist Dr. Namba tried to capture Lugia by kidnapping its child in one multi-part episode; after Ash -- as well as James, Jesse, and Meowth, [[EnemyMine who sided with them]] - helped recover the young one, Lugia became an AndroclesLion towards all of them.
** ''The 13th movie'' has a mother Zoroark and her child, a Zorua.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' has a literal example. In "Cubtron Z", there's a kaiju fish-like monster but when it meets Cubtron it acts parental towards him. Later at the end of the episode, it makes cookies for both Pop and Cub.

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': In "Six Lessons", it turns out that the wolf that the Freelance Good Guys have been hired to kill has cubs, which leads to the crew deciding to transport them far away instead.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' has a literal example. In "Cubtron Z", there's a kaiju fish-like monster but when it meets Cubtron it acts motherly towards him. Later in the end of the episode, it makes cookies for both Pop and Cub.

* ''HappyTreeFriends'' has a literal example. In "Cubtron Z", there's a kaiju fish-like monster but when it meets Cubtron it acts motherly towards him. Later in the end of the episode, it makes cookies for Pop and Cub.

* ''Web Animation/HappyTreeFriends'' has a literal example. In "Cubtron Z", there's a kaiju fish-like monster but when it meets Cubtron it acts motherly towards him. Later in the end of the episode, it makes cookies for Pop and Cub.

* Kat and Ana's chapter in ''VideoGame/WarioWare: Smooth Moves'' basically plays this straight, where the giant rampaging oni [[PapaWolf was trying to get his son back]].