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Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas

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Even if they're basically a walking corpse.

"They just keep knocking the crap out of me and waving a confession in my face. And I keep spitting blood all over it and laughing at how many fresh copies they come up with. Then along comes this worm assistant district attorney who turns the recorder off and says if I don't sign their confession, they'll kill my mom. I break his arm in three places and I sign it."
Marv, Sin City

Yep, even the biggest bad guy around can still have a soft spot for their parents. Sure, you've killed scores of innocent people and committed several acts of terrorism, but come on! They raised you and took care of you when you were sick!

A Sub-Trope of Pet the Dog and of Even Evil Has Loved Ones, this is when a villain or a Jerkass is made more endearing via a loving relationship with their parents. It is usually just used for a quick punchline, but occasionally the concept is a bit more fleshed-out, on which case it may overlap with Morality Pet.

While this trope usually focuses on mothers and their sons, it can just as easily focus on mothers and daughters, or fathers and their children.

This trope is why Your Mom is a universal insult; villains from the petty thief to the serial killer don't take kindly to abuse thrown at their mothers.

See Momma's Boy or Daddy's Girl for a similar (and usually more heroic) trope. Extremely Protective Child is when the child, regardless of morality, is very protective of their parent. The parent in question may or may not be a Mama Bear or Papa Wolf. If the parent is a villain themselves, the trope will always overlap with The Family That Slays Together. In this case, it could also be a case of a Villainous Mother-Son Duo.

The inverse is Villainous Parental Instinct, where a villainous character still feels parental instinct and will sacrifice something important when their kids are in danger. Compare Even Evil Can Be Loved.

When the villain/jerk tries to keep their family in the dark about being a bad man, then you have a case of Don't Tell Mama. If one of them finds out anyway, they (especially the mother) might react with Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal. Defying this can lead to Hates Their Parent; see Matricide, Abusive Offspring, and Self-Made Orphan for villains who really go out of their way to defy this.

The Complete Monster, on the other hand, as bad as they may be, could care less for their parents. Even if they did somehow care for them at some point, that care is all rendered moot upon realization that it's only for their own personal benefit. And if they legitimately care for them, in the end, it's either possessive obsession or perversion.

No Real Life Examples, Please!


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    Advertising 
  • An advert for a courier service had a hardcore tattooed criminal being mailed a hang glider by his mother so he could escape from prison.
  • This old commercial for 1-800-COLLECT revealed that Mr. T is a momma's boy.
    Mr. T: I pity the fool who ain't one!

    Asian Animation 

    Comic Strips 
  • Bloom County. Steve, crossed with an Oh, Crap! moment for Opus, from the October 14, 1985 strip. Opus tells Steve that a crazy woman is ransacking his room and bellowing like a "great, ugly, squat walrus." Steve asks, "Squat walrus?" Opus says, "Yeah." Steve yells upstairs, "MOM?" and Opus says, "Oh, but a very NICE squat walrus!" In future strips, while his mother nags him endlessly, she is one of the few people Steve is even polite to.
  • In Garfield's case, "bad" is subjective (it depends on the situation, really), but he does love his mother dearly. A very long series of strips had him run away from home, get lost, and end up in a touching reunion with her. (The later animated special Garfield on the Town was an expanded adaptation of this story.)

    Eastern Animation 
  • The Alien Sultan, the main villain in the Kapitan Bomba series, sincerely loves his mom and keeps her portrait in his private chamber.

    Fan Works 
  • Avenger of Steel: Discussed by Black Widow, who notes that a lot of evil men are still fully capable of loving their mothers.
  • In the Temeraire fanfic Black Wings, Black Sails, after William Laurence, the feared Gentleman Pirate, disgraces himself with the Tswana, he goes to bed unhappy and distressed, dreaming of his mother and being carried in her arms when he was a little boy, who he was certain he would never see again.
  • Ragna and Jin in BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant are both jerkasses (Jin especially so), but they both remember the caretaker they considered a mother figure during their time at the orphanage well and mourn her death. In Jin's case, he still loves his adoptive mother, Makaira Kisaragi, and misses her dearly.
  • Blood is Thicker than Bone: Kimimaro was deeply attached to his mother (Kushina's sister and Naruto's Aunt) who was the only person in the Kaguya clan who showed him kindness even when he was locked up she visited him often and forced him to flee at the Battle with Mist while the rest of the clan were killed off so that he would live.
  • In Frozen Hearts (Sakume) Prince Hans views his father as one of the few people he respects and is deeply moved by how his mother still cares for him after everything he's done.
  • In Hope Springs Eternal, Hades reveals early on that he genuinely loves his mother Rhea dearly; when detailing his backstory to Persephone, he mentions how she had tried her best to shield him and his brothers from Kronos' abuse and how much it pained him to have to see her take the brunt of it herself, as well as her horror-stricken reaction when she saw what became of Hades when he was disgorged from his father's stomach. At the end of the fic, Hades subconsciously calls for her help when Zeus and Demeter are about to smite him and separate him from Persephone forever, prompting her to arrive just in time to set everything straight. She even gives Hades a hug and tells him how happy she is that he was finally able to find love and happiness.
  • Played for laughs in I'm Sorry, a Durarara!! fanfic where Izaya humiliates Shizuo by bringing his mother to one of their fights. To the shock of everyone, even infamous badass Shizuo Heiwajima can't be so aggressive around his mother, and because Izaya tricked her into thinking he was a nice guy, she gets quite angry at him for "bullying" Izaya. Gets even better when Shizuo turns the tables on Izaya at the end and calls his sisters so they can bring Izaya's mother to join the fun. Izaya has pretty much the same horrified reaction Shizuo had earlier.
  • In the Frozen fic In Pain and Blood, Aksel is a power-hungry young man who kills his father and attempts to kill his older brother in order to take over the throne. Despite his malice and jealousy, Aksel genuinely cares for his mother Elsa. This is actually his undoing. One day, Elsa convinces him to go riding with her and kills him when his guard is down.
  • J-WITCH Series: When introduced in Season 2, Drago appears to have a genuinely loving relationship with his mother Nerissa, the two being shown to be actually caring for each other.
  • From the Professional Wrestling series The JWL: Cody Rhodes did not like Samoa Joe calling him "the son of a moron" in Episode 73.
  • In Kara of Rokyn, Lex Luthor hates a lot of things and a lot of people, especially those pesky heroes, but he never hated his mother, not even after becoming a criminal disowned by his family.
    Nasthalthia: I think Arlene might have come up to his room that night, and maybe had a talk with Lex. I'm not sure of that, but Lex told me that, no matter what, he never hated his mother. And he didn't think his mother ever hated him.
  • Mastermind: Strategist for Hire: Even despite being one of the most infamous Villains in Japan, with more than a dozen dead Pro Heroes to his name, Izuku Midoriya still deeply loves his mother, Inko Midoriya.
  • Scar in Nala: My Father's Madness was very attached to his mother. After she died, he changed for the worst and disowned his past self.
  • Pokemon fanfic Obsession shows Jirarudan (the delusional antagonist of Pokémon 2000) as idolizing his dead mother to the point of associating her with angels.
  • This is a central theme in Past Sins. Another central theme is the question of whether Nightmare Nyx is really bad...
  • Paul in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Jerkass as he is, apparently misses his late mother.
  • Pony POV Series:
    • Dark World Fluttercruel claims to still love her "mother" Fluttershy, despite having tortured her for five hundred years; due to her psychosis, she actually thinks that's how she was expressing her love.
    • Discord seemed to genuinely love his mortal mother Shady, and seems to still be haunted by her betrayal during his Final Battle with the Princesses.
  • Total Drama Legacy: Drew. One of the fic's two primary antagonists, and a huge Momma's Boy.
  • The Ultimate Evil:
    • Drago, Shendu's Kid from the Future, has a strained relationship with his father, but he apparently had a genuinely good relationship with his mother Valerie Payne who did what she could for him before she died when he was ten years old. Though the present version of his mother has sided with his enemies, he avoids hurting her as much as possible and even leaps to save her during fights, and she's one of the only people whom he'll actually hear out without any tension.
    • Shendu claims he doesn't care about his Missing Mom Tiamat who abandoned him and his siblings for doing what she birthed them for, but it becomes clear in the sequel that he isn't truly over it. He also disdains his Disappeared Dad Typhon who took advantage of the raw grief of Shendu's mother. When he's accidentally released by Valerie, he sets out to find his resurfacing mother to seek answers from her.
  • Ultimate Sleepwalker has a male example that shows even bad men love their fathers. The supervillain 8-Ball, a sociopath who's killed at least a dozen people during his armed robberies, and has also done such horrible things as firebombing a hospital for pay, uses some of the proceeds from his criminal activities to pay for the long-term hospital care of his father, whose drinking has nearly killed him.
  • Yi Ya Huan Ya was the result of the author disliking fics in which Japan of Hetalia: Axis Powers is portrayed as a monster towards his siblings while simultaneously not wanting to deny that the Japanese did very bad things to the Koreans and Chinese. Japan is technically not much less of a monster in it, but he does love his brothers. Possibly because they're just as bad.
  • Defied with the Shadow Queen's children in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Thousand Year Door, Redux. She's such an abusive parent, that her current six children (known collectively as the Shadow Spawn) despise her and obey mostly out of fear; their predecessors were worse, having been behind several attempts on her life. (At least she strongly suspects so.) The whole focus of Stan's "The Reason You Suck" Speech revolves around this specific Trope and how despicable the Queen must have been to make her own children hate her so, and it actually sends her into a brief Villainous Breakdown that is key to their victory in the Final Battle.

    Films — Animation 
  • A Bug's Life: Hopper may have loved (or at least respected) his mother enough to honor her dying wish that he never kill his younger (annoying) brother Molt.
    Hopper: I swear, if I hadn't promised Mother on her deathbed that I wouldn't kill you, I would kill you!
    Molt: And believe me, no one appreciates that more than I do.
    Hopper: SHUT UP! I don't want to hear another word out of you while we're on this island. Do you understand me? (Molt whimpers) I SAID, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!
    Molt: Well, how can I answer? You said I couldn't say another word! (Hopper growls with increasing rage and raises his fist) AAH! REMEMBER MA!
    (Hopper spins around and punches out another grasshopper who was standing behind him)
  • Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky: Mother lovin' hairy sky pirates. A whole band of them. And their mum is the most badass of all!
    "All good pirates listen to their Mom!"
  • Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz and eventually Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children won't stand for anyone insulting their mother.
  • Lilo & Stitch: Dr. Jumba Jookiba, a self-proclaimed Evil Genius, objects to Stitch (apparently) insulting his mother during one fight sequence.
    Stitch: [alien gibberish insult]
    Jumba: Oh! Leave my mother out of this!
  • A very cynical approach to the trope shows up in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Zira treated all her offspring cruelly, but especially Nuka; yet Kovu and Vitani were the ones who actively rebelled, while Nuka went out of his way for Zira, such as when Kovu first refused to take part in an attack on the Pride Lands, and Nuka tried to take charge to win Zira's attention, yet died in the process.
  • Titan from Megamind has no qualms about stealing, killing, robbery or burning down an entire city for fun, but he's genuinely upset when he figures that Megamind lied to his space stepmom.
  • Peter Pan: When Wendy is singing "Your Mother and Mine" to her brothers and The Lost Boys, Captain Hook and the other pirates overhear her. Anti-Villain Smee gets emotional, as he lifts up his shirt — and displays the "Mother" tattoo.
  • The Princess and the Goblin: Prince Froglip genuinely loves his mother.
  • Ratatouille: "Bad" may be a bit too strong of a word to describe him, but Rémy's ratatouille reminding Ego of the kind his mother used to cook kicks off the film's resolution and denouement.
  • Robin Hood (1973) has a Running Gag of the evil Prince John remembering his mother and sucking his thumb because he was The Un-Favourite, compared to his brother King Richard. He even does it while attacking his snake right-hand man. And remember, Prince John is voiced by Peter Ustinov. Also a Historical In-Joke, as Richard really was Eleanor of Aquitaine's favorite child.
  • Shrek 2 shows that Prince Charming is a complete and utter Momma's Boy. In fact, it's his desire to make her proud that leads him to hatch another villainous plan in Shrek the Third. And his last word, before he gets trapped under a tower, is "Mummy?"
  • The Bog King from Strange Magic who while frustrated by his mother's constant attempts to set him up with women, is also humanized by her badgering.
  • Big Baby in Toy Story 3, while Lotso's henchman, qualifies. Before turning, he called his previous owner "Mama". It makes sense seeing that he's a baby doll.
  • In Willy McBean and his Magic Machine by Rankin/Bass Productions, the Kid Hero is posing a tough outlaw, but arouses the suspicion of Mad Scientist Von Rotton because he won't drink hard liquor. 'Willy the Kid' claims it was a promise he made to his mother, whereupon Von Rotton gets all misty-eyed as they remove their hats (even demanding The Bartender remove his hat too) as they drink a toast to their dear departed mothers, giving the kid the opportunity to surreptitiously swap his hat with Von Rotton's Weaponized Headgear.
  • Played with in Wreck-It Ralph when Sgt. Calhoun yells at her squad to make their mothers proud and Ralph shouts back that he loves his mother. Averted in that he's only "officially" a Bad Guy, not a bad guy.

    Music 
  • Zig-Zagged by Eminem. His real life relationship with his mother was hostile as she abused him as a kid; at a time when their relationship was still functional, he mocked this by making a fictionalised version of her the Evil Matriarch of his Slim Shady character's Hilariously Abusive Childhood - but with subtext and adlibs saying he still loved her. In response, his mother attempted to sue him for $10m for defamation of character, while continuing to harass him through fabricated stories to the press confirming moral panic beliefs and, bizarrely, dropping a Diss Track against him. In response, Eminem made the Answer Song "Cleanin' Out My Closet", in which he said that he was dead to her and she would never get to see her grandchild. However, over a decade later, Eminem released "Headlights", in which he claimed he still loves her and sees her as beautiful, apologising for "Cleanin' Out My Closet" and acknowledging that, while she abused him, at least he wasn't his dad, who abandoned them both. Later Slim Shady Hilariously Abusive Childhood songs feature Slim's dad and stepdads as the villains, and mostly leave out Mom.
  • Insane Clown Posse, best known for excessively weird, violent lyrics and their constant swearing, gave us the surprisingly heartfelt "Mom Song".
  • Nas, a famous rapper who's made several very dark/violent songs, made a tribute song to his mother on his album God's Son named "Dance". May induce tears.
  • Ghostface Killah, a rapper from the Wu-Tang Clan (self-explanatory), made a song "All That I Got Is You" dedicated to his "mommy" on his first album.
  • The Decemberists' "Mariner's Revenge Song" tells the story of a young gentleman whose mother is seduced by a conman and left to die penniless. He spends the rest of his life haunted by visions of his mother imploring him to hunt down and slaughter the man. Even when he and his quarry are swallowed by a whale, doomed to certain death in its belly, he's almost giddy that he has the opportunity to tell the conman why he's about to torture him to death as his final act.
  • Lil Wayne:
    "And mama don't cry, ya son can handle his/ I got her out the hood and put her in the hills/ Yeah when I was fourteen I told my mom we will see better days/ And sure enough I got Miss Cita in a better place"
  • Merle Haggard:
    And I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole.
    No-one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried.
    Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied.
    That leaves only me to blame 'cos Mama tried.
    • ...and before that, "Sing Me Back Home," where a death-row inmate recalls — on the day of his execution — his winsome, carefree days, many of those memories including his mother, before he turned to a life of crime. A church choir had been visiting the prison that morning, and as they pass through the condemned prisoner's cell, they perform a hymn that he notes was one of his mother's favorites.
  • A fascinating version comes off of tool's 10,000 Days album. Though Tool certainly doesn't classify under "bad men," the song "Wings of Marie", is certainly a representation of something like this trope. A two-part, seventeen-minute long Epic Rocking tribute from Maynard James Keenan to his mother, who lived approximately ten thousand days while paralyzed and wheelchair-bound from a severe stroke, it's arguably the most loving and emotionally wrenching song Tool has ever done.
  • Angry (Feet) by Tim Minchin both plays with this trope.
    My mother was a stupid bitch... caring lady
    She taught me all I know
    Although I was a little slow, she never gave up
    She never let me slut—down
    Although she spent a lot of time at the neighbor's house
    When my dad was out of town...
  • Mr. T's "Treat Your Mother Right" vid.
  • Tupac gave us the song "Dear Mama". While Tupac didn't grow up in the best of backgrounds, his undying love for his mother bleeds through in the lyrics. Whether it's her supporting him through the best (and worst) of times, or vice versa, the mother-son bond never broke.
    • This is true for most Hip-Hop/R&B stars who came from rough neighbourhoods/single-parent homes: first thing they do after making it big is to buy a house for their mothers.
  • Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?" has the protagonist's Start of Darkness triggered by seeing his witch mother burned.
  • The Lonely Island's "Mama" parodies the tendency of otherwise "bad boy" type rappers to make sensitive shout-outs to their moms. They're in the middle of recording such a song when one of the guy's mothers enters the studio unannounced, and she repeatedly gets verbally abused by the guys for doing so.
  • Run the Jewels's Oh Mama is halfway between a Boastful Rap and this trope, the refrain lamenting the toll that their criminal acts take on the mother's psyche.
    My mama said that I'm not living right
    She said, "I'm crying on you"
    She said, "I waited up for you all night"
    I said, "I'm trying, mama"
  • The protagonist of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" has just shot someone. He feels bad about making his mother cry.
  • In the song Black Denim Trousers And Motorcycle Boots by The Cheers, (as well as the french version, L'homme à la moto by Édith Piaf) a biker is described as "the terror of Highway 101". And yet, "On the muscle of his arm was a red tattoo, A picture of a heart saying "Mother, I love you".
  • The Sly and the Family Stone song "Family Affair" describes two brothers, one who is "somebody who just loves to learn" and the other is "somebody you'd just love to burn". However, the song emphasizes that "Both kids are good to Mom / Blood's thicker than the mud."

    Myths & Religion 
  • Classical Mythology:
    • King Oedipus. (Not like that!) He left home at once when told he was going to kill his father and marry his mother, which he thought meant the people who'd raised him. It didn't work out, but he tried.
    • Stretching "bad" a bit (if you consider someone bad simply because he was a heavy drinker who liked to party all the time), but Dionysus loved his mother Semele enough to rescue her from the underworld once he reached adulthood. Plus the excessive revenge he took in Bacchae when his mortal family insulted her...
    • Cronus/Kronos, the father of Zeus had a rocky relationship with his kids to put it very lightly, but he had a relatively good relationship with his mother Gaia. He even had Gaia's help in overthrowing his father ... just like Zeus had his wife Rhea's help overthrowing him.
    • Ares, the brutal and bloodthirsty god of war who was basically the personification of War Is Hell, was very attached to his mother Hera. In fact, he once saved her from getting kidnapped by two giants, at the cost of getting kidnapped himself and sealed in a jar.
    • More amoral than "bad", but twin deities Apollo and Artemis loved their mother Leto. Particularly Apollo, who hunted down the dragon Python that terrorized his mother before he was born. One incident highlights this side of Apollo and Artemis; once, a mortal woman named Niobe boasted that she had more children than Leto. When Apollo and Artemis heard about this, they killed Niobe's children with poison arrows.
  • In The Story of the King, Hamed bin Bathara, and of the Fearless Girl, the titular king has instituted a literal No Woman's Land, exiling every female in his kingdom... except for his mom, who advises him about the traveler whom he suspects (correctly) of being a Sweet Polly Oliver.
  • Not bad, per se, but pretty bloodthirsty and violent, Huitzilopochtli, the War God from Aztec Mythology, was born a fully armed adult and proceeded to slay most of his 400 siblings. The reason? They were going to kill their mother Coatlicue because they thought her sudden pregnancy was a dishonor on her.

    Pro Wrestling 
  • The Undertaker. In 1998, during the introduction of Kane and the revelation of Paul Bearer being Kane's father, the Deadman received quite a few beatings and insults. But it wasn't until Paul Bearer called Taker's mom a whore live on TV that he sprung into action and gave his former ally the asskicking he deserved. Even the Lord of Darkness loves his mama.
  • Shane McMahon. Not quite as evil as his father, but harming Linda is a surefire way to set him off.
  • In Ivory's segment on the WWF Divas: Postcard from the Caribbean 2000 VHS release, she says that when she was growing up her grandmother would always refer to her as "her little SNOT! She'd say, 'There's my little snot, my little brat'. So when I'm being Ivory with her big mouth, cutting someone up on the mic, I think of my grandma. I'm thinking, 'Yeah grandma, here's your little snot, doing it again.'"
  • In "The Franchise" Shane Douglas' promo after winning and then throwing down the NWA World Heavyweight Title, at ECW's August 27, 1994 event, he said, "I stand before all of you here tonight with God and my father as witnesses."
  • "Sweet 'N' Sour" Larry Sweeney started his promo at CHIKARA Planet of the Grapes, June 19, 2005, by mentioning advice that "Mama Sweeney" gave him.
  • In this post from Taeler Hendrix' Instagram, she says that her body is all-natural due to genetics and that "Momma knows best" when it comes to dealing with bullies.
  • As if Eddie Kingston didn't treat everything as incredibly serious already, if he mentions his "beautiful mother's eyes" in his promo, then, as he said in his promo before CHIKARA High Noon, November 13, 2011, "get ready for a war."

    Tabletop Games 
  • Can even an Archdevil, a ruler of Hell who is, for all practical purposes, Made of Evil, show love for her mother? If the case of Glasya, the ruler of the sixth layer of Hell in Dungeons & Dragons cosmology, definitely. Her mother was the consort of Asmodeus, the Overlord of Hell (her father, naturally), who was murdered by Levistus, the ruler of the fifth layer of Hell centuries ago (a treasonous crime that caused Levistus to become both the ruler and a prisoner of his domain). It's no secret that Glasya utterly despises Levistus for the death of her mother, and one of her biggest goals since becoming ruler of her own layer is revenge, possibly by finding enough evidence of Levistus' treachery (or planting some) to convince her father to eradicate him completely.
    • Another extreme example from this cosmology is Bahgtru, the orcish god of strength and the son of Gruumsh, the chief god of the orcs. Bahgtru is known for being incredibly stupid, but he has Undying Loyalty towards his father; and one source claims he has even greater loyalty towards his mother, Luthic. (Given that orcs tend to be misogynistic as a species, and Luthic is willingly submissive to her husband, that's really saying something.)
    • Similarly, books have suggested that Luthic is the second-most revered deity of the orc pantheon since she's the goddess of motherhood and therefore the thing that keeps the orc hordes going.
  • Warhammer Fantasy: You can find bad guys loving their mommas. Malekith is the king of possibly the most evil race in Warhammer (which tells you something), but he is nothing if not absolutely devoted in loving his eternally young mom/concubine Morathi.
  • A milder and gender-flipped version with the Chaos Marines in Warhammer 40,000. Despite their treacherous, cutthroat, and backstabbing nature, some of the Chaos Marines do still hold some measure of reverence and loyalty to their Primarchs.

    Theatre 
  • In Dead End, gangster Baby-Face Martin returns after ten years to see his mother... and is genuinely hurt when she rejects him for being a killer.
  • Just like his film counterpart, J.D., the villain of Heathers, dislikes his father but loved his mother, even if he doesn't talk about her much. The reason he doesn't like to talk about her is that she committed suicide (implied to be because of her husband's abuse), and he still misses her terribly.
  • In the musical I Can Get It For You Wholesale, the Villain Protagonist has a whole song about how much he loves his Jewish Mother, albeit while bribing her with a silver fox wrap.
  • The indie play Murder's in the Heir features handsome Manipulative Bastard and Casanova Jordan Starkweather, a greedy, selfish, enormously cocky playboy who tries to con several people into killing his great-uncle Simon Starkweather for Simon's multibillion-dollar estate. He doesn't give a rat's ass about anyone but himself — and his mother, Fiona, the only person in the show he shows genuine affection and caring towards.

    Web Animation 
  • Alastor the Radio Demon from Hazbin Hotel may be a feared and loathed Overlord and a serial killer, but he speaks fondly of his mother (and her jambalaya). Word of God all but states that Al was a confirmed Mama's boy when he was alive.
  • Strong Bad from Homestar Runner is a bully who torments others, including his own family. But in an interview he is very protective of his unseen mom and threatens Kevin to not go anywhere near her.
  • Minilife TV: In "Happiness Is A Sparked Lake" the member of the X-Team that murdered Archie's love interest Zoey is revealed to carry a locket with a picture of his mother and he wishes to be with her again after he's been arrested.

    Webcomics 
  • Achewood: Ray Smuckles may at times be a bad dude with a rich elitist streak. But true to the trope, he loves his mama so much that when she tells him to back down from running for President, he backs down.
  • Apricot Cookie(s)!: The Director of Darkness buys flowers for his mom.
  • Female example: in Boy Meets Boy, Tabitha's mother is the Devil. Tabitha loves her and it appears the only thing she fears is her mother being disappointed in her.
  • The darker-haired Mystery Solving Teen from Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant "Fuckin' loves [his] grandma, so fuck off."
  • I'm the Grim Reaper: While calling Chase bad isn't quite accurate, he truly does love and care for his adopted mother, Veronica. His birth mom is another story…
    • While Scarlet, like Chase, muddies the line between anti-hero and anti-villain, this certainly applies to Ante/Yue. It’s revealed that her reason for releasing the Scarlet Rot to the world was the money she’d make that she’d use to save her dying mother.
  • Drip, the Sin of Lust in Jack, utterly perverts this in the form of his relationship with his grandmother. Her constant emotional and sexual abuse towards him as a child shaped him into becoming the sadistic rapist we met him as, so it's no surprise she ended up in Hell, too. She's now imprisoned in a wall of Drip's infernal lair, but that doesn't stop her from continuing the same abuse — all of it — right where she left off, nor does it make Drip any less cowed by her.
  • The Order of the Stick:
  • Slightly Damned: Iratu is a General for The Legions of Hell and is leading an invasion of the mortal world but he still loves his long dead (not really) angel father Darius and adoptive sister Sakido but in a subversion he hates his adopted brother Buwaro.

    Web Original 
  • Brian Goldstein, the Big Bad Pirate King in the Union Series exemplifies this. When the ship carrying his mother is seized by a Colonial frigate So they can use his mother as a bargaining chip. causes him to take a level in Badass just to rescue his mother, ultimately being shot for his trouble. His last words to his mother, as she cradles his broken and bleeding body. "Mama, it hurts." Heartbreaking, even for a Big Bad.

    Web Videos 
  • It's not being puked on by a possessed game cartridge of Super Mario Bros. 3 that results in The Angry Video Game Nerd bringing out the big guns. It's said possessed cartridge insulting his mother.
    Possessed Cart: Your mother sucks cocks in Hell!
    AVGN: The fuck did you just say?!
  • While he's not evil, Angry Joe is, well, angry often, as well as Trigger-Happy. However, when Spoony's subconscious implies that he has mommy issues in To Boldly Flee, Joe replies "Hey! I love my momma!" The actual Joe (the actor, not the character) has confirmed that he's a momma's boy himself, so there's a good chance it translated into the character. On the commentary for his Man of Steel crossover review, he got extremely pumped up when Superman (one of his idols) defended his mother with extreme force, saying he could empathize.
    Angry Joe: You don't mess with my momma!
  • Black Jack Justice: While being held prisoner by a crime boss, Jack taunts one of his goons as part of an escape plan. The boss manages to hold the goon in check until Jack brings his mother into it.
    Jack: Never fails with these big dumb types. If you can't get 'em with the manhood, get 'em with the mother.
  • Two Saiyans Play:
    • During Krillin's playthrough of Among the Sleep, he compares the nightmare-mother to Vegeta's mom. Vegeta eventually catches wind of this and is not happy.
    • Reinforced during Vegeta's playthrough of Undertale he says this after Toriel tells him to go to his room:
      Vegeta: [sarcastically] Yes, Mom... [sincerely] I miss my mom.
    • Later on, when he finds out he has to kill Toriel, who had been like a mother to him, in order to proceed with the game, he is visibly shaken, and after she dies, he quits the game out of sadness. Let me clarify that for you: VEGETA quit a game not out of rage, but out of shame.
    • Eventually carried over into Dragon Ball Z Abridged itself when Cell works a Your Mom joke into his Cell Games broadcast.
      Cell: And much like Vegeta's mother, I will accept all comers.
      Vegeta: HOW DARE...
  • In Vaguely Recalling JoJo, J. Geil doesn't care about Joseph when he got infected with the Lovers Stand. He cares about Enya Geil's welfare and takes her to the hospital with Dio after Steely Dan uses the Lovers Stand on her.
  • Jane, a murderous teenage girl and the villain of The Veronica Exclusive, obviously loves her mother. Or rather, loved.
    A genie offers you three wishes. What do you wish for?
    Jane: New trenchcoat, personal slushie machine, and... one more day with my mom.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas, Even Bad People Love Their Parents

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Gram-Gram

Lord Tirek talks to his grandma (who he refers to as "Gram-Gram") in his sleep. When Cozy Glow mockingly mentions this while the two are arguing, Tirek immediately becomes defensive.

How well does it match the trope?

4.05 (21 votes)

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