History MamaBear / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'': [[SamusIsAGirl Helena]] [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy G. Wells]]. When her daughter was murdered, she ''invented'' MentalTimeTravel to try and change the past. She failed, but put up a hell of a fight by her account. And when Claudia guesses that losing a child must be the worst pain imaginable, Wells refutes her; the worst pain possible is [[NothingIsScarier whatever it was that she caused to the men who killed her daughter]].

* ''Series/{{WentWorth}}'' Bea Smith is the ultimate Mother Bear towards teenage daughter Debbie. Protecting her and caring for her in every imaginable way possible even when behind bars. When [[spoiler:[[Brandon kills Debbie by injecting her with a lethal dose of drugs]] Bea takes this trope to a whole new level.

* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'':

** Yennefer in Episode 4 “Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials” becomes this for a baby after its mother whom Yennefer was protecting is killed by an assassin. Tragically though, as Yennefer carries the baby though a escape portal, the assassin throws a knife at them, it goes through her torso and kills the infant. Yennefer in despair tries reviving the baby [[TearJerker but to no avail]]. After this event, Yennefer spends most of the season trying to restore her womb, wanting a child of her own. Averted with the mother of the said baby, who tried offering her child over to the assassin to save her own skin.

* ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': Rhaenyra Targaryen, budding WarriorQueen and mother to ''five'' boys (and one stillborn girl) to whom she is absolutely devoted. She will literally go to war to keep them safe and ensure their legacies [[spoiler: and the death of her second son Lucerys is the spark that sets it off.]]

** Morgause. Just in Season 2, Episode 12 she smashes a door off it's hinges and gives up her entire plan just as it was about to succeed to save Morgana's life, and in Season 3, she captures Merlin and is very angry at him for hurting Morgana.
** Gwen is this to [[PlatonicLifePartners Merlin]]. When a Lamia attacks him, sweet, gentle Gwen proceeds to scream "GET AWAY FROM HIM!", run up to said EldritchAbomination, and stab it.
*** Betray her knights and she'll ''execute'' you.

** Rebekah and Freya both demonstrate this as well, to the point where Freya tells Klaus that she loves Hope the way she loved the child that she lost.
--> ''Hayley:'' Welcome to a twenty-first century custody battle. Moms win them now.

* ''Series/TheOriginals'': Hayley Marshall to her daughter Hope. Hayley had her werewolf side bound knowing that it would leave her defenseless against the sun because it would let her daughter escape. Rebekah and Freya to a lesser extant as well.

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': [[PlayedForLaughs Played for laughs]] in [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S04E15TheBeatniks The Beatniks]]" when [[TeamDad Joel]] takes advantage of the fact that both [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Crow and Servo]] have [[PoorPredictableRock inanimate arms and hands to constantly defeat them at Rock Paper Scissor]s]], [[TeamMom Gypsy]] [[BerserkButton retaliates by]] [[UseYourHead ramming the CRAP out of him]] and comforts Crow and Servo by saying "My babies!".

* In ''Series/TheWalkingDead'':
** Michonne is a [[OneManArmy One Woman Army]] who'll slash through a herd of walkers ''or'' humans to protect her surrogate children. She spends days tracking down Carl, places herself between him and a band of psychopathic marauders, actively slaughters the [[IAmAHumanitarian remaining Termites]] when they threaten Judith, and then impales Ron on her katana when he tries to shoot Carl and Rick.

--->'''Carol''': How do you think I do those things?
--->'''Tobin''': [[TeamMom You're a mom]]. It's not the cookies or the smiles. It's the hard stuff. The scary stuff. It's how you do it. It's a strength.

** [[LivingShip Moya]] herself is one when it comes to her son Talyn. After his death she's determined that he ''will'' be laid to rest in the [[SpaceWhale Leviathans']] sacred burial space, so much so that she breaks her usual pacifism and asks the crew to kill an insane rogue Leviathan that's trying to stop them.

* A particularly scary Mama Bear appears in ''Series/{{Elementary}}.'' In the episode "The Diabolical Kind", a little girl is kidnapped from her wealthy parents' home and held hostage by a gang of criminals that used to work with Moriarty. An EnemyMine situation begins, with Sherlock, Jane, and Moriarty working together to rescue the girl; as a safety precaution, Moriarty is forced to wear a set of powerful handcuffs that administer a shock if the person wearing them tries to escape. As it turns out, [[spoiler: the girl is actually Moriarty's daughter, who she left with the wealthy family rather than raise the child herself; she was kidnapped to taunt and extort the master criminal. When Moriarty finds out about this, she ''cuts open her wrists with glass to disable the handcuffs,'' escapes her prison cell, and brutally kills the men who took her daughter, saving a special, drawn-out torture for the leader of the scheme. That's right: one of the most brilliant, resourceful, and dangerous criminal minds in the world has a child. If you value your life, ''do not mess with that child.'']]

-->"Ordinary moms don't play when it comes to the safety of their children, let alone trained warrior alien robot moms."
** Earlier in the series, Roslin decides they'll have to forcibly terminate Athena's unborn child. A truly ''epic'' UnstoppableRage ensues when she finds out, to the point that she's headbutting bulletproof glass so hard it breaks, with no discernible effect on her beyond some bleeding. When the marines come to take her to sickbay for the procedure she tries to fight them off with a chair and actually knocks at least one of them down.
** There's also [[spoiler: Kara Thrace]]. She initially freaks out at the sight of the child because of her own MommyIssues, but goes MamaBear with a vengeance and stabs a Cylon dead to keep her safe. And then [[TearJerker it turns out]] that the kid [[spoiler: isn't really hers, after all -- Cylon #2 was just playing mind games with her using someone else's stolen toddler]].
** Laura Roslin could also be considered this for the entire human race, given her tendency for airlocking Cylons and [[spoiler: attempting to abort human/Cylon fetuses]] to protect the fleet.

* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'': Mrs. Torres. Overlaps with MyBelovedSmother - she's quite controlling of her football-jock older son and still coming to grips with her [[PronounTrouble younger son's]] UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} status, but if ''anyone else'' messes with them she ''will'' make their life miserable (and the school principal's as well, for good measure).

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': [[PlayedForLaughs Played for laughs]] in [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S04E15TheBeatniks The Beatniks]]" when [[TeamDad Joel]] takes advantage of the fact that both [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Crow and Servo]] have [[PoorPredictableRock inanimate arms and hands to constantly defeat them at Rock Paper Scissor]]s, [[TeamMom Gypsy]] [[BerserkButton retaliates by]] [[UseYourHead ramming the CRAP out of him]] and comforts Crow and Servo by saying "My babies!".

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': bronwyn refuses to leave Theo when a rogue orc breaks into their house, even when he insists she should run for help, and despite ostensibly being a non-combatant, her maternal outrage kicks in and the orc is beheaded.

* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', [[spoiler: Darla of all people has a HeroicSacrifice to save her son (Connor) in her womb. She knows she can't give birth to him normally (due being undead) so she stakes herself before Connor suffocates inside her. Later, Darla appears to Connor as a spirit to help him fight back against a BrainwashedAndCrazy Cordiela. ''It almost works'' but Connor is too far into the dark side to stop]].
** Fred's mother runs overs a giant cockroach to protect her daughter.

* ''Series/MayfairWitches'': Rowan petrifies Courtland after he tries to take her baby.

** In "Caged", an inmate at a women's prison murdered one of the prison guards because he raped her oldest daughter.

** Agent Lee [[spoiler:became TheMole to protect her little sister, whom she has raised as her own since their parents' deaths. The moment she finds out the kid in question is safe, she lets Gibbs SHOOT her to take the bad guy down!]]

** Mary Margaret kicks Jefferson out of a window as a result of her subconscious [[ActionMom Snow White]] persona coming out because Jefferson was about to shoot her daughter Emma.
** Once she regains her memories as Snow White at the end of Season 1, she becomes a full on "mama bear" with Emma, following her through a portal to the curse ravaged FTL, saving her from ogres and putting herself between Emma and any threat.

* ''Series/CobraKai'': Amanda shows her case often. Both her defense of Robby at the beach club and her TranquilFury when Sam gets hurt show a woman who is fiercely protective of her kids. She also goes marching into Cobra Kai to slap Kreese after Demetri's arm gets broken. And in the same fashion of this trope, she winds up having the courage to confront and slap Kreese at the dojo on behalf of Sam and Demetri. Earlier in the episode, she kicks Demetri and the rest of the Miyagi-Dos out (minus Sam) because she wanted her family to have nothing to do with karate or Miyagi-Do. Now, it seems like she really does care for the Miyagi-Do students as if they were her children.

* ''Series/Accused2023'': Clara's mother didn't realize that her stepfather was raping her. When she does, her mom instantly turns on him and physically places herself in front of Clara, saying he can never come near them ever again in a protectively hostile manner.

** Despite her "Ice Queen" persona earlier in the series, May becomes very protective of Skye, Fitz and Simmons as well as Coulson. Maybe the most remarkable example when she [[spoiler:beats up Ian Quinn for shooting Skye]]. And when the Mama Bear is a martial arts expert... run.

* In ''Series/{{Angel}}'' [[spoiler: Darla of all people has a HeroicSacrifice to save her son (Connor) in her womb, she knows she can't give birth to him normally (due being undead) so she stakes herself before Connor suffocates inside her. Later Darla appears to Connor as a spirit to help him fight back against a BrainwashedAndCrazy Cordiela, ''it almost works'' but Connor is too far into the dark side to stop]].

* Moira Queen from ''{{Series/Arrow}}'' plays with this. While she arranges to have her son kidnapped, it's because she's being forced to participate in [[BigBad Malcolm Merlyn]]'s plot or else he'll hurt her family; she's not perfect, but she's still fiercely protective of her son Oliver and her daughter, Thea. In fact, she dies [[spoiler: sacrificing herself to Deathstroke to save Thea, after Deathstroke tried to force Oliver to choose which one the former was going to kill.]]

** Buffy herself, who goes nuts at the Knights of Byzantium, {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who want to kill her younger sister in order to save the world.
*** [[PhysicalGod Glory]], for the same reason. Glory was strong enough to make their earlier fights {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s, but in the final one you get the feeling Buffy's getting a lot of catharsis slamming that magic hammer at her head over and over again.

** Has Maddie Westen, who seems like any regular kind, gentle elderly woman. However, threaten her sons and she will make you ''regret it''.

* Joyce Byers from ''Series/StrangerThings'', ''big time''. Sure due to being played by Creator/WinonaRyder she looks like a stiff breeze should knock her over and most people in Hawkins think she is a frail and hysterical mother, but when her youngest son Will goes missing she'll go above and beyond to find him. Not even an EldritchAbomination can stop Joyce from protecting her son as in the climax of season 2 she literally [[HealItwithFire burns]] the Mind Flayer out of Will showing she is willingly hurt her beloved son, so long as it saves him, which puts her above most Mama Bears. Joyce is so good at this trope she makes every other mother in Hawkins look abysmal in terms of parenting by comparison. [[PsychicChildren Eleven]] who have a bad case of ParentalAbandonment-issues certainly sees Joyce in this [[ParentalSubstitute light]], as Joyce can literally soothe Eleven while she's in [[EldritchLocation Upside Down]] [[MentalWorld mindscape]] something that is very difficult for Eleven herself do.
** Special mention to Eleven's biologic mother Terry Ives, who after her daughter got kidnapped by the villains at Hawkins National Laboratory decided to take her baby back by force. She nearly succeeds too, killing a security guard and getting to the room where Eleven is being held ''but'' then she's captured and lobotomized.

* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'': As mentioned above, expounds on the fierceness Sarah displayed in the movies. Her whole ''life'' is this trope, fighting to keep her son safe from the machines sent to Terminate him. Unstoppable, unrelenting, remorseless killing machines that have laid waste to entire armies of Resistance fighters and police officers, always single-handedly - and she has ''buried'' every one. In fact, she's destroyed more Terminators than any other human. No wonder her son said she was the greatest fighter he'd ever known.

* ''Series/WandaVision'' has [[ComicBook/ScarletWitch Wanda Maximoff]] herself who, like in the comics, treasures her twin sons Billy and Tommy and will deliver a Chaos Magic RealityWarper-filled world of hurt to any foe suicidal enough to hurt them. [[spoiler: WickedWitch Agatha learned this lesson the hard way, as she held Billy and Tommy hostage with bounds wrapped around their throats. In response, Wanda breaks them free, orders her sons to get inside, and smashes Agatha into a house with [[MindOverMatter a telekinetically thrown]] car. Made even more epic when PapaWolf [[ComicBook/TheVision Vision]] joins the fray. Played with cruelly though, as Wanda is faced with a SadisticChoice when she pulls down the Hex to free the people she’s trapped, and sees Vision and her sons start disintegrating due the Hex keeping them alive. Distraught, Wanda initially restores the Hex, unable to face losing her family, but ultimately lets them go in the end, getting to say goodbye. The series post-credits scene strongly implies that Wanda is searching for a way to bring the twins back.]]
** Monica Rambeau also counts, and she was technically Wanda's midwife. when Tyler Hayward turns a gun on Tommy and Billy in the final episode, she throws herself in front of them without a second thought. [[spoiler: Her new powers save her, but she had no way of knowing this at the time. She was fully prepared to die for those kids.]]

::: What's even more awesome is that this causes the underworld a collective OhCrap moment. Soon afterward, one of the upper-level demons, The Crone, writes a law that makes hurting Wyatt punishable by death, making as much known to Piper to prevent such retaliation again. [[spoiler:Of course, The Crone had her own agenda with Wyatt.]]

-->'''Phoebe''': What was that?\\
'''Paige''': I think we just saw a mother lift a car off her child.

----> '''Piper''' "I'm the mother!"

** Has a villainous example in Dina Araz. First she [[spoiler:goes rogue against a terrorist organization, including her husband, when they order her son Behrooz to be killed. Then she turns around and tells Jack Bauer she'll be happy to let every nuclear plant in America melt down if he doesn't rescue Behrooz from a hostage situation.]] Don't. Touch. Behrooz.
** Ahem, Jack's wife, Teri? She allows herself to '''''be raped''''' to spare her teenage daughter Kim, then we find out it's a ploy to steal his phone. Later, when the rapist goes to execute them, Teri shoots him, then fires a second shot to make the terrorists think she and her daughter were executed.

** When a young boy to whom she had grown attached was screaming in pain, Piper put every effort into her power of explosion and managed to break through an impenetrable fence. The act caused her sister to comment, "I think we just saw a mother lift a car off her child."

::: What's even more awesome is that this causes the underworld a collective OhCrap moment, and immediately afterward they send a representative to the sisters, swearing that no demon will be allowed to even ''think'' of touching Wyatt without being violently reprimanded, to prevent Piper from entering MamaBear mode again.

** Grams had shades of this as well. In "That 70's Episode" the sisters travel back and meet themselves as kids. When Grams walks in she mistakes them for Warlocks attacking the children and sends them flying out of the house with her telekinesis.

* ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'': [[SamusIsAGirl Helena]] [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy G. Wells]]. When her daughter was murdered, she ''invented'' MentalTimeTravel to try and change the past. She failed, but put up a hell of a fight by her account. Claudia tells her that losing a daughter must be the worst pain imaginable. Wells tells her otherwise; what she did to the people who killed her daughter is the worst pain imaginable. And considering the show's track record, that line may very well turn out to be a ChekhovsGun.