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21st May '13 4:12:37 AM SubbyP

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20th May '13 3:01:53 AM LordGro

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Please, no Linking A Page To Itself.

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The WickedStepmother, the woman hostile to her stepchildren, is a perennial trope. OlderThanFeudalism, she appears constantly in legends and folklore around the world. She seldom appears played straight in modern works, except when they are retelling {{Fairy Tale}}s, but the number of retold fairy tales (especially "Literature/{{Cinderella}}", "Literature/SnowWhite", and "Literature/HanselAndGretel") gives her a number of straight appearances. Many psychologists hypothesize that she is an ArchetypalCharacter, devised by children to contain all they hate in their mothers so they can continue to regard Mother as perfect. Sadly enough, TruthInTelevision; children are vastly more likely to abused by stepparents (and people cohabiting with the parent are even worse). For any or all of these reasons, even decades (centuries?) of [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] have not transformed her even into a DiscreditedTrope; she can still be played straight or subverted. {{Shout Out}}s are commonplace whenever dealing with a stepfamily.

She generally favors her own children -- whether from a previous marriage or this one -- over her stepchildren. Sometimes her [[{{Greed}} economic motives]] are made clear: there is only so much to go around, and she wants it for herself or her own children. An equivalent male figure is the EvilUncle -- because inheritance is generally through the male line, the uncle can inherit his brother's children's estate. [[GreenEyedMonster Envy]] is another common cause; the WickedStepmother either wants to be FairestOfThemAll or to have her daughters be so. A special subtrope deals with those with grown stepsons; she may wish to marry him off to her own daughter, and thus make a victim of her step-daughter-in-law, or she may attempt to seduce him and then [[WomanScorned accuse him of rape]] when she fails.

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The Wicked Stepmother, the woman hostile to her stepchildren, is a perennial trope. OlderThanFeudalism, she appears constantly in legends and folklore around the world. She seldom appears played straight in modern works, except when they are retelling {{Fairy Tale}}s, but the number of retold fairy tales (especially "Literature/{{Cinderella}}", "Literature/SnowWhite", and "Literature/HanselAndGretel") gives her a number of straight appearances. Many psychologists hypothesize that she is an ArchetypalCharacter, devised by children to contain all they hate in their mothers so they can continue to regard Mother as perfect. Sadly enough, TruthInTelevision; children are vastly more likely to abused by stepparents (and people cohabiting with the parent are even worse). For any or all of these reasons, even decades (centuries?) of [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] have not transformed her even into a DiscreditedTrope; she can still be played straight or subverted. {{Shout Out}}s are commonplace whenever dealing with a stepfamily.

She generally favors her own children -- whether from a previous marriage or this one -- over her stepchildren. Sometimes her [[{{Greed}} economic motives]] are made clear: there is only so much to go around, and she wants it for herself or her own children. An equivalent male figure is the EvilUncle -- because inheritance is generally through the male line, the uncle can inherit his brother's children's estate. [[GreenEyedMonster Envy]] is another common cause; the Wicked Stepmother either wants to be FairestOfThemAll or to have her daughters be so. A special subtrope deals with those with grown stepsons; she may wish to marry him off to her own daughter, and thus make a victim of her step-daughter-in-law, or she may attempt to seduce him and then [[WomanScorned accuse him of rape]] when she fails.

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20th May '13 2:57:35 AM LordGro

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She is not his foster mother. He is a slave, and she is his mistress.

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17th May '13 4:06:47 PM cookingwriter12

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13th May '13 10:07:41 PM missmoon

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8th May '13 7:39:59 AM karategal

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* Averted in ''TheSilmarillion'': Feanor's stepmother Indis is very decent and his father still seems to favour him over his younger children. Feanor is still insanely jealous though.
** His feelings were arguably [[JustifiedTrope justified]], if not when they were directed towards Indis: Feanor's mother suffered DeathByChildbirth, but elves can come back to life after spending a certain amount of time in the afterlife. Notably, Feanor's father is the only elf we ever hear of remarrying.
** Feanor's feelings aren't really justified ... Feanor's mother is explicitly stated to be beyond bringing back - her body didn't even die, actually, it went to sleep and is still breathing but the soul left it. I'm not certain how soon Finwe remarried, but it was after he had tried to bring back and grieved for his first wife. Feanor is simply shown throughout the story to be irrational and hateful at times, particularly when things dear to him are involved. It kind of kick-starts the plot.
** Feanor's mother Miriel refused Finwe's repeated requests to come back to her perfectly usable body, and later admitted that she had abandoned Finwe and didn't blame him for marrying Indis. However, Finwe's second marriage made Miriel's death irrevocable.
*** Though Tolkien toyed with the notion that, after Finwe's death, ''he'' chose to stay dead and allowed Miriel to come back as a kind of Elven nun in the gardens of the gods; the only really ''unbreakable'' rule was that the "pure" Elves couldn't have two living spouses. (Two ''widows'' might possibly be fair game, though.)

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* Averted in ''TheSilmarillion'': Fëanor's stepmother Indis is very decent and his father still seems to favour him over his younger children. Fëanor is still insanely jealous, though.
** His feelings were arguably [[JustifiedTrope justified]], if not when they were directed towards Indis: Fëanor's mother suffered DeathByChildbirth, but elves can come back to life after spending a certain amount of time in the afterlife. Notably, Fëanor's father is the only elf we ever hear of remarrying.
** Fëanor's feelings aren't really justified ... Fëanor's mother is explicitly stated to be beyond bringing back - her body didn't even die, actually, it went to sleep and is still breathing but the soul left it. I'm not certain how soon Finwë remarried, but it was after he had tried to bring back and grieved for his first wife. Fëanor is simply shown throughout the story to be irrational and hateful at times, particularly when things dear to him are involved. It kind of kick-starts the plot.
** Fëanor's mother Míriel refused Finwë's repeated requests to come back to her perfectly usable body, and later admitted that she had abandoned Finwë and didn't blame him for marrying Indis. However, Finwë's second marriage made Míriel's death irrevocable.
*** Though Tolkien toyed with the notion that, after Finwë's death, ''he'' chose to stay dead and allowed Míriel to come back as a kind of Elven nun in the gardens of the gods; the only really ''unbreakable'' rule was that the "pure" Elves couldn't have two living spouses. (Two ''widows'' might possibly be fair game, though.)

3rd May '13 5:28:14 AM DancingNinian

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* In ''AnatoliaStory'', Kail's stepmother Queen Nakia is ''very'' wicked, to the point of being the BigBad of the series. Notably, Nakia has pretty much no love for ''any'' of her family, biological or otherwise. It's revealed from the start that she wants to use black magic to kill off her stepchildren so that her own son Juda can take the throne, but it's also hinted that her love for Juda is centered around her desire to have her bloodline rule Hattusa in revenge for her having to be forced as the king's new bride. She shows no affection for her husband and, when her brother is horrified to learn the various things she's done, she coolly threatens to kill him if he reveals her plans. [[spoiler:She also ''kills her own niece'', just to try to frame Yuri.]]
** This trope is averted by Kail's mother Queen Henti, who besides loving her own sons was also a good stepmother to the son of the king's previous wife) as well as Kail's other stepbrothers (one is the son of a concubine, another was the child of a royal maid).[[note]]Likely because in real history, said sons were actually ''hers'' instead of other women's, but this was changed for plot reasons.[[/note]]

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26th Apr '13 2:21:21 AM PaulA

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