Basic Trope: A woman who goes out of her way to protect her children from threats.
- Straight: When Alice's children are threatened, she leaps to their defense.
- Exaggerated: Alice threatens bodily harm on anyone who does so much as tease her children.
- Downplayed: Alice gives a verbal threat against someone who treats her children coldly.
- Justified:
- Alice's protective nature is her way of showing how much she cares for her children.
- Alice is a bear who protects her cubs from harm.
- Inverted:
- Alice goes out of her way to protect anyone but her children whom she leaves aside when they are threatened.
- Alice is an Abusive Parent and couldn't care less if they are harmed by her or anyone else.
- Alice has an Extremely Protective Child.
- Offing the Offspring
- Alice isn’t a mother herself, but wouldn’t hesitate to leap to any child’s defense should they be in danger.
- Gender Inverted: Papa Wolf.
- Subverted:
- Alice sees someone threatening her kids. She goes to intervene, but she's the one who gets her ass handed to her.
- Alice discovers that her children don't need her help after all.
- Alice faces a group of kidnappers and while she appears to stand for her children, she turns on them and joins the kidnappers instead.
- Double Subverted:
- But then her kids turn on the attacker, and Alice joins in when she gets her strength back.
- The threat turns out to be more dangerous, and Alice stands up for her kids.
- Turns out Alice is The Kindnapper and uses the kidnapping as a ruse to fight the real kidnappers herself.
- Parodied: Everyone is out to get Alice's children, so she spends the whole story protecting them from threats.
- Zig Zagged:
- Alice is aware of what can threaten her children and what can't.
- Alice and her children go out of their ways to protect each other.
- Averted:
- Missing Mom
- Alice is too cowardly to save her kids from harm.
- Alice's children don't need any protection.
- Enforced: "We need to show that mothers love their children. Why not have Alice rush in and save the day by throwing her family into the mix?"
- Lampshaded: "See Alice with her kids? I wouldn't mess with them if I were you."
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz sees that Alice is a mother and decides to test her by threatening to kidnap one of her own.
- Exploited: Alice's kids decide to tease someone bigger than them just to see if she throws a fit if they get threatened.
- Defied: Alice knows that her children are fine on their own and can stand up for themselves when threatened.
- Discussed: "Alice would do anything for her children, and anything to protect them."
- Conversed: "Alice needs to be tested as a mother. What would she do if one of them came crying to her?"
- Deconstructed:
- Alice's ass-kicking of someone who wronged her children lands her in prison.
- Alice's overprotective nature leads to her children getting scarred for life by her outbursts.
- Alice's husband becomes frightened at her repeated outbursts, so he tries to claim custody of their children.
- Despite Alice's efforts to protect her children, without any valid strength or power to do so she fails completely.
- (Combined with Exploited) Emperor Evulz knows that Alice is more powerful when her kids are threatened. So, he waits until her kids are not in any danger, then he subdues Alice, who's less powerful when she's not being driven by her desire to save her kids.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice promises to readjust to society by undergoing counseling and anger management in preparation for her release from prison.
- While the law is the law, extenuating circumstances as pointed out by Alice's lawyer ("admit it, if it was your kids, you would have done the same") and the overall feeling that it was a Miscarriage of Justice ("she was only protecting her children, you heartless bastard!") lead to Alice getting the mildest sentence allowed by the law, which becomes even milder with good behavior.
- Alice reassures her children that she is only trying to protecting them and promises not to be so brash in case it happens in the future.
- Alice and her husband have a heart-to-heart talk, and he promises to be there for her and their children.
- Emperor Evulz then grabs the Villain Ball and tries to harm Alice's kids as a collateral damage of his rampage. Alice loses her shit and kicks Emperor Evulz's ass as a result.
- Alternatively, Alice's kids have been inspired by Alice's rescue of them. When they realize their mom has been kidnapped, they take a level in badass, save their mom and together they kick Emperor Evulz's ass.
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice roars before confronting her kids' attacker.
- Badassery aside, Alice is such a mom and she continuously badgers her children before, after and during her rampages about things like wearing sweaters, drinking enough fluids, and that lovely baker on the local shop she thinks is perfect girlfriend material for her son.
- The fourth wall is broken and the characters point out that if you're going to cast Sigourney Weaver as Alice, of course the plot is going to go out of the way to set up a moment where Alice will roar out a "get away from her, you bitch!".
- Played For Drama: Alice winds up injuring or killing one of her own children trying to protect them.
- The person Alice has to fight is another family member such as an Evil Former Friend or Evil Sibling. This forces Alice to choose between her children and her family/friends, and Alice doesn't give the latter even a moment consideration before protecting her children.
- Played For Horror:
- "Alice" is a literal mama bear and the cast is in a Trapped-with-Monster Plot.
- Alice is a Knight Templar Parent and people she considers a threat to her children (be it for actual reasons or, worse yet, reasons she imagined in her derangement) often die screaming.
If you want to go back to Mama Bear, stay away from her cubs!
