History MamaBear / Literature

*** In a castle controlled by Death Eaters, she, despite being noted as old, continues to stand up to people who are known for their hobby of torturing and killing people they don't like, all for the sake of her students.

** Then there's [[spoiler:Mab]]. Now, she probably didn't give two shits about some two-bit players trying to cause trouble in her court, but trying to harm [[spoiler:Sarissa]] didn't exactly earn her favour.

* In ''Literature/TheSecretOfPlatform13,'' [[RichBitch Larina Trottle]] is a villainous example, using her vast resources to move heaven and earth to protect her son from kidnappers. (Despite having [[{{Hypocrite}} kidnapped a child herself]] to ''get'' a son.) She also plots to destroy the life of her servant boy, Ben, for the simple crime of being smarter and more generally likeable than her little darling. (For added hypocrisy, [[spoiler:Ben was the kid she kidnapped and planned to raise as her son, until she got pregnant and tossed him aside]].)

* Creator/StephenKing's ''Dolores Claiborne''. She puts up with years of physical and mental abuse from her husband, because her main focus is giving her kids the best life she can by saving for each of them to go to college. But when she finds out that [[spoiler:he's started molesting their teenaged daughter, and has cleaned out the kids' college savings]], ''he has to die''. She's very methodical about it, arranging to make it look like an accident and ensuring that none of her children are home at the time it happens.

* Many queens in ''WarriorCats'' behave like this whenever their kits are in danger or bullied. Several examples include [[spoiler:Yellowfang]], [[spoiler:Leafpool]], and Sandstorm.

** Averted with Rainflower, the mother of Crookedstar and Oakheart, who cruelly neglects Crookedstar all because he broke his jaw. Thus, it's Shellheart who brings out his PapaWolf role.

--> "But most of them perished in the attempt; for they were ill-armed, and the enemy had not left their homes undefended: their youths and old men were aided by the younger women, who in that people were also trained in arms and fought fiercely in defence of their homes and their children."

** Also, in the ''Literature/BookOfLostTales'' version of the Fall of Gondolin, Idril is described as fighting 'like a tigress' to protect her son Earendil from Maeglin. She fails, but when PapaWolf Tuor turns up...

* This happens in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''; when [[spoiler: resident DarkActionGirl Bellatrix Lestrange nearly kills [[CuteWitch Ginny Weasley]] Ginny's HouseWife mother Molly [[BewareTheNiceOnes goes ballistic kills her in a matter of seconds]] with a well-placed curse at the chest.]] "NOT MY DAUGHTER, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch YOU BITCH!]]" has quickly become the [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome most-quoted line from the book.]] This is a double example: [[spoiler: Bellatrix]] showed her "TooDumbToLive" credentials by [[spoiler: mocking Molly's recent loss of one of her sons, Fred, which only got the ActionMom ''even more pissed off'' than she already was]].
** In the movie, [[spoiler: Molly]] immediately fires off killing curses towards [[spoiler: Bellatrix]] before [[spoiler: [[TakenForGranite turning her to stone]]...and then obliterating the statue.]] It's also notable as the only recorded event of the killing curse used by a hero.
** According to WordOfGod, [[spoiler: Molly comes from a family of aurors, and her ''brothers'' Fabian and Gideon Prewett had been killed by Voldemort and his followers years earlier. Twin brothers F and G? not likely a coincidence. The reaction could have been skill or sheer instinct -- remember Molly's boggart, alias her biggest fear? ''[[ChekhovsGun Losing her family and friends]]''.]]

* Cordelia Vorkosigan, in LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', is an off-worlder who is mostly bored by the Byzantine politics of her husband's home planet Barrayar. Until a civil war puts her baby (in a high-tech incubator) in danger. Then she single-handedly defeats a usurping ruler and ends the war. And [[OffWithHisHead brings back the usurper's head in a shopping bag]] to make her point clear.

* This happens in ''HarryPotter and the Deathly Hallows''; when [[spoiler: resident DarkActionGirl Bellatrix Lestrange nearly kills [[CuteWitch Ginny Weasley]] Ginny's HouseWife mother Molly [[BewareTheNiceOnes goes ballistic kills her in a matter of seconds]] with a well-placed curse at the chest.]] "NOT MY DAUGHTER, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch YOU BITCH!]]" has quickly become the [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome most-quoted line from the book.]] This is a double example: [[spoiler: Bellatrix]] showed her "TooDumbToLive" credentials by [[spoiler: mocking Molly's recent loss of one of her sons, Fred, which only got the ActionMom ''even more pissed off'' than she already was]].

* Nita Callahan's mother in ''[[YoungWizards The Wizard's Dilemma]]'' turns into one of these when faced with the prospect of the Devil-equivalent taking Nita's soul. Her line is "She is still my daughter, and she ''does not have my permission!''"

* In Creator/CharlesDickens's ''ATaleOfTwoCities'', Miss Pross, although she is technically not Lucie Manette's mother, loves Lucie like a daughter. In order to protect Lucie and those she cares about (but mostly Lucie) she ends up killing Madame Defarge in a CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* A rarely discussed, but still notable, example would be Mara Jade Skywalker, from the ''StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse. Probably most notable in ''Sacrifice'', where her worry for her son (Ben) convinces her to go hunt and attempt to kill the two Sith Lords whom she thinks are plotting to kill him. [[spoiler:One of them, ironically (and the later target), was Mara's own nephew, Jacen Solo.]] She's partially right in that respect, [[spoiler:in that Jacen is still struggling with this choice,]] and this leads to a VERY nasty brawl where [[spoiler:Mara very nearly succeeds in killing Jacen, only to be stabbed by a fatal poison dart in a reversal of the DeusExMachina.]]
* ''WorldWarZ'' has a woman who goes into a blind rage when a zombie tries to get her daughter. Her children told her later that she had ripped its head off ''with her bare hands.''

* Having found the man she believed to have kidnapped her son, Ce'nedra in ''TheBelgariad'' went psycho in his direction. She had to be ''restrained''.
* No matter the supposed heroics of the main cast, the prisoners' escape from Pax Tharkas in the first ''{{Dragonlance}}'' novel (''Dragons of Autumn Twilight'') would have ended in utter disaster if a certain old, insane, and technically evil dragoness hadn't come through for 'her' (adopted) children in the end and taken on the ''other'' (younger and stronger) dragon present all by herself.
* In ''UnfinishedTales'', Christopher Tolkien describes a WorthyOpponent version of this trope. In the wars between Gondor and the Wainriders, a revolt is arranged among some of the Wainriders slaves while the men are away on campaign:

** Also, in the ''Lost Tales'' version of the Fall of Gondolin, Idril is described as fighting 'like a tigress' to protect her son Earendil from Maeglin. She fails, but when PapaWolf Tuor turns up...
* How about the Badger mothers in ''{{Redwall}}''?

* This is Cersei Lannister's main motivation in ''ASongOfIceAndFire'', and her only good trait. Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella are the world to her, and to protect them from a prophecy that says they'll be crowned and die before she kicks the bucket, she will do ''anything''.

* Keturah in ''CounselorsAndKings''.
* ''TheBelgariad'': do NOT threaten ANY of Beldaran's descendants or you will have a very pissed, very powerful sorceress making sure you have a VERY long time to regret it. Right [[BalefulPolymorph Salmissra]]?

* Extreme side character Trinny, leader of [[BewareTheNiceOnes touchy-feely Darling House]] (the story takes place at a boarding school) in Melina Marchetta's ''OnTheJellicoeRoad''.

* [[ActionGirl Yanaba Maddock]], the protagonist of the ''{{Petaybee}}'' books, becomes this in the spinoff series ''The Twins of Petaybee''.

* In the 4th {{Dexter}} novel, ''Dexter by Design'', a bound and gagged Rita manages to knock her kidnapper into a running table saw in response to his threats to her children and husband.

* ''TheDresdenFiles'' has Charity Carpenter, who is not only a badass with a sword, but fiercely protective of her kids, to the point where she scares even Harry. Most recently, there's [[spoiler: Susan Rodriguez, who performs a HeroicSacrifice for her daughter Maggie.]]

* In ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', Sally Jackson, the loving and nurturing mother of Percy, was shown [[spoiler: fighting in the last battle using a stolen shotgun from the police.]]
* TheHanSoloTrilogy details Han in his youth and early years as a smuggler, and the first book, ''Paradise Snare'', shows that Chewbacca wasn't the first Wookiee that he developed a close bond with. Serving as a cook aboard the outlaw [[TheFagin Garris Shrike's]] vessel, she came to see the orphan Han Solo as a son, and he reciprocated the feeling. At 16 years of age, Han attempted to strike out on his own, knowing that Shrike would use his abilities as a pilot and scam artist until Han either got caught or was no longer useful. After stealing some supplies, Han met with Dewlanna to say goodbye, but was met by Shrike and his men, and [[AbusiveParents past experience]] made it clear [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown what was coming]]. Dewlanna rose to Han's defense and beat up Shrike's men, viciously shattering his brother's arm, [[HeroicSacrifice before being gunned down by the outlaw]]. Her sacrifice allowed Han to escape and grow into the man that everyone knows him as.

* In the DearAmerica book ''A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska'' Americans were throwing rocks at Anetka and her family. She tried to ignor it until one hit her step-daughter at which point she says she became a mad woman like a mother cat.

* ''InDeath'': [[spoiler: Areena Mansfield]] murdered Richard Draco in ''Witness In Death''. Why? [[spoiler: Because he was having sex with their daughter Carley. She had told him that she was their daughter because she thought it would turn off his interest in her. Instead, he went and did it, knowing that he was committing incest. He bragged about it to her and wanted to have a threesome composed of him, Areena, and Carley]]. If you do not consider this a good enough reason for her to go MamaBear, then you clearly have no soul!

** In John Gardener's satire-novel ''Grendel'', told from Grendel's point of view, he recalls a time when he was separated from his 'mama' as a child (he actually calls her that sometimes!), [[spoiler: with his ankle trapped between two trees, unable to free himself. After a while of screaming for his mama - so loudly the ground rumbles - that a bull comes and attacks him. Why? Because Grendel was going after a newborn calf that he smelled, distracting him from getting home before dawn. After the bull gives up on trying to knock him out of the tree and gore him, Grendel encounters humans for the first time. Who eventually attack him. Just as Hrotgar's ax hits him across the shoulder, Mama comes in with such a fireball of fury, scaring off the humans...and maybe even Grendel himself. And she tears down the trees to make him fall out.]]

* ''MaximumRide''. Do not threaten the Flock. Ever. Especially Angel.

* Lady Svetlana in ''{{Tranquilium}}'' is very much this after (duh) giving birth in the beginning of Part Two. She goes out of her way to protect her little boy from revolutionary terror, war and a scarily ruthless conspiracy based in another dimension, though she got help along the way; for all her [[{{Wangst}} other]] [[YourCheatingHeart issues]] [[IWillWaitForYou and]] [[ParentalAbandonment whatnot]], the safety of her child clearly becomes an overriding concern for her for the rest of the book. This status of hers is also helped somewhat by the fact that she is actually pretty good at fist-fighting thanks to the training she underwent with her father's men (her father was a captain).

* In ''TheSecretOfPlatform13,'' [[RichBitch Larina Trottle]] is a villainous example, using her vast resources to move heaven and earth to protect her son from kidnappers. (Despite having [[{{Hypocrite}} kidnapped a child herself]] to ''get'' a son.) She also plots to destroy the life of her servant boy, Ben, for the simple crime of being smarter and more generally likeable than her little darling. (For added hypocrisy, [[spoiler:Ben was the kid she kidnapped and planned to raise as her son, until she got pregnant and tossed him aside]].)

** [[TrueVillainBoss Kthonia]] is TheJuggernaut powered by maternal fury.

** Narcissa Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's mother, proves that EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: in the seventh book she [[spoiler: lies to '''Voldemort''' that Harry is dead so she can reunite with her son Draco. She may be a pureblood supremacist with the mindset of ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney, but she is willing to cross the mightiest dark wizard of all time to ensure her son's safety.

** Narcissa Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's mother, proves that EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: in the seventh book she [[spoiler:lies to '''Voldemort''' that Harry is dead so she can reunite with her son Draco. She may be a pureblood supremacist with the mindset of ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney, but she is willing to cross the mightiest dark wizard of all time to ensure her son's safety.

* This happens in ''HarryPotter and the Deathly Hallows''; when [[spoiler: resident DarkActionGirl Bellatrix Lestrange nearly kills [[CuteWitch Ginny Weasley]], who was fighting her along with [[MagicalGirlWarrior Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood.]] Ginny's HouseWife mother Molly [[BewareTheNiceOnes goes ballistic, fights Bellatrix directly and kills her in a matter of seconds]] with a well-placed curse at the chest.]] "NOT MY DAUGHTER, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch YOU BITCH!]]" has quickly become the [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome most-quoted line from the book.]] It really, ''really'' didn't help that [[spoiler: Bellatrix]] showed her "TooDumbToLive" credentials by [[spoiler: mocking Molly's recent loss of one of her twin sons, Fred, which only got the ActionMom ''even more pissed off'' than she already was]].
** In the movie, [[spoiler: Molly]] immediately begins firing off killing curses towards [[spoiler: Bellatrix]] before [[spoiler: [[TakenForGranite turning her to stone]]...and then obliterating the statue.]] It's also notable as the only recorded event of the killing curse used by anyone but one of the bad guys.
** It probably also didn't help that according to WordOfGod, [[spoiler: Molly actually comes from a family of aurors, and her ''brothers'' Fabian and Gideon Prewett had been killed by Voldemort and his followers years earlier. Twin brothers F and G? not likely a coincidence. The reaction likely wasn't that far out there, whether it came from skill or from sheer instinct -- remember Molly's boggart, alias her biggest fear? It was shown to be ''[[ChekhovsGun the possibility of losing her family and friends]]''.]]

** This is actually the reason Harry survived his first encounter with Voldemort. His mother Lily was given the chance to flee but she chose to protect baby Harry with her life, which granted Harry magical protection. Notice that this was a young woman in her 20's without her only weapon aka her magical wand handy, and in front of one of the most powerful mages ''ever'' -- and she chose death over handing her baby to the Death Eaters. [[spoiler: Later, Harry protects all of Hogwarts from him the same way, except he got better.]]
** A semi-villainous example comes in the form of Narcissa Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's mother, who in the seventh book [[spoiler:lies to '''Voldemort''' that Harry is dead so she can reunite with her son Draco. She may be a pureblood supremacist with the mindset of ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney, but she is willing to risk crossing the mightiest dark wizard of all times to ensure her son's safety. It's very likely that this is the reason why Harry forgives the Malfoys after Voldemort's defeat.]]
*** She was shown doing this in the sixth book, actually, when she begged Snape to [[spoiler:save Draco from his fate -- if he failed in his assignment to kill Dumbledore, Draco himself would have been killed. Narcissa asked Snape to do it for him if he couldn't.]] Really, the fact that she loves her son is the ''only'' facet of Narcissa's personality the readers ever get to see.

*** In a castle controlled by Death Eaters, she, despite being noted as quite old, continues to stand up to people who are known for their hobby of torturing and killing people they don't like, all for the sake of her students.

*** In a castle controlled by Death Eaters, she, despite being noted as wuite old, continues to stand up to people who are known for their hobby of torturing and killing people they don't like, all for the sake of her students.

* Eleven-year-old Candy beats a grown man to death in ''Emergence'', by David Palmer, when he makes the fatal error in judgement of launching a potentially deadly attack with a frying pan on her lifelong pet/sibling Terry (a hyacinth macaw), who is referred to as her "child substitute". (She happens to be a black belt [[spoiler:and a member of a HumanSubspecies that is among other things much stronger and faster than an ordinary human]].)

* Eleven-year-old Candy beats a grown man to death in ''Emergence'' when he makes the fatal error in judgement of launching a potentially deadly attack with a frying pan on her lifelong pet/sibling Terry (a hyacinth macaw), who is referred to as her "child substitute". (She happens to be a black belt.)

* In Creator/JamesHSchmitz's ''TheWitchesOfKarres'', Toll is the mother of one of the main characters--and the resident GreatGazoo is afraid of tangling with her.

* HonorHarrington. Hurt anyone under her authority or protection, and your life is forfeit.

* The ''HankTheCowdog'' series brings us Sally May, mother of Little Alfred and Baby Molly. Unfortunately, Hank is quite often the target of her scorn for "corrupting" her children. Still, more than once she's stood up to some pretty serious dangers to keep her kids safe.

* In [[RafaelSabatini Sabatini's]] ''TheSeaHawk'', Fenzileh will do ANYTHING to advance her son's future.