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|'''[[Meaningful Name|Princess Ursa]]''', ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''}}
Bears usually won't attack humans - but get between a mother bear and her cub, and she'll tear straight through you. Apparently, the same rule applies to human parents. Threaten their [[Protectorate|husband/wife, child, boyfriend/girlfriend, friends, cat, etc.]], and you are in for a world of hurt. Never harm someone's loved one—whatever the goal, it's not worth the consequences. Losing their loved one may cause a drastic [[Start of Darkness]] into villainy or [[Anti-Hero]]-dom... anything if it will [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|get their revenge]]. And not just on their own enemy but on anyone who would inflict this same pain on others. Of course, it's not always
Oftentimes, when a previously perceived meek mother goes into this mode, it's her [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]. Heaven help you if an [[Action Mom]] invokes this trope. And if you think a normal '''Mama Bear''' is fucking scary, hell hath no fury like a [[Motherly Scientist]] with access to [[One-Man Army]] levels of weaponry/technology/money/superpowers to protect her children. It can lead to a [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]] moment.
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Men who exhibit Mama Bear tendencies are referred to as [[Papa Wolf|"Papa Wolves"]] rather than "Papa Bears"- Disney aside, male bears are notoriously poor parents in the animal kingdom, in fact, infanticide among bears is the main reason why mama bears are so protective in the first place, whereas male (and female) wolves will react to their offspring being threatened in a very similar manner to mother bears. Due to the [[Double Standard]], there are some differences however.
While Mama Bear moments are usually treated as awesome, they're also... well, ''scary''. Even the children Mama Bear is protecting are often scared by it. Sometimes this is even highlighted by the children starting to cry after the moment is over and the danger gone—which of course turns Mama Bear back into the [[Apron Matron]]. [[Papa Wolf]] incidents on the other hand receive standing ovation from the kids, and comments like: "You were so cool Dad!" Notice how most Mama Bears are mothers of main characters, while Papa Wolves tend to be main characters themselves.
When invoked by a woman, this trope is occasionally criticized as [[Most Writers Are Male|sexist]] against both sexes. This trope is also known as the Uterus of Justice, because it often seems that only a child in danger can turn a woman into a [[Badass]] (other than [[Woman Scorned|being scorned, and revealing fury like which hell hath none]]), and only a woman (and ''never'' a man, the dick) can care enough about a child to be driven all the way from mild-mannered to [[Badass]] just by seeing them threatened.
Sometimes overlaps with [[Apron Matron]], and is a natural overlap for a [[Team Mom]]. Can be a cause of [[Let's Get Dangerous]], showing that the sweet and caring mother figure is [[Not So Harmless]]. May be a [[Knight Templar Parent]]. Provides both simple and believable way to switch someone between "[[Badass]]" and [[Moe Moe|more "cute"]] modes without compromising character as either. After all, if [[It's Personal]]...
If an older sibling is the one who takes up the role,
Related to [[Beware the Nice Ones]] and [[Berserk Button]]. See also the non-human counterpart, [[Monster Is a Mommy]]. Not to be confused with [[Everything's Worse with Bears]] (unless you're dealing with a ''literal'' '''Mama Bear'''). The [[Violently Protective Girlfriend]] is a much younger form of this trope that applies when the mate is in danger. Evil characters can use this too; after all, [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]. A particular Subtrope is the [[Badass and Child Duo]] which can take the form of a female badass protecting an orphaned, unrelated young child, [[Papa Wolf|though male badasses]] are more common.
Remember when adding examples that this is a female only trope. The male equivalent is [[Papa Wolf
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* Rosie the Riveter. [[Those Wacky Nazis]] had better not rile up America's mothers!
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Chizuru slaps a high-ranking ''Demon'' when he breaks into their house and attacks Kotaro, whom she has decided to adopt. Although it wasn't really all that effective in the end, the fact that she managed to stop his attack cold is rather impressive for one who is supposed to be an [[Ordinary High School Student]]...
** Once they get to the Magic World, there's a literal Mama Bear. As in, a [[Petting Zoo People|bear-woman]] that the characters call "Mama". And she ''will'' wreck you if you abuse the slave girls {{spoiler|(Ako, Natsume and Akira)}} she's watching over.
* The villains of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS]]'' make the mistake of letting their [[MacGuffin Girl]], a little tyke named Vivio, [[Has Two Mommies|get adopted by the heroines]] and then stealing her back. One of these is the same lady who has the [[Fan Nickname]] of "The White Devil" by fans for beating the crap out of the people she ''likes.'' The other is a [[Dark Magical Girl]] who is no less dangerous, if a bit less confrontational. They... [[Understatement|don't take it well]]. The resulting [[Oh Crap|shock and awe]] has at least one cyborg screaming at one of them that [[You Monster!|she isn't human]] (especially ironic as Nanoha is one of the ''very'' few mages in this series who, in fact, is).
* Very cruelly subverted in (of all series) ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z''. Goku's wife [[Education Mama|ChiChi]] is odd in that she's both [[Took a Level in Badass|taken a level in badass]] ''and'' suffered re-[[Chickification]] after her marriage, so she has her limits, but then again, ''[[Tsundere|she has her limits]].'' Her childhood friend and husband has been dead for seven years, she's been led to believe that her older son has followed, and ChiChi is absolutely out of her mind with grief. While her father is able to hold her back the first time she tries to attack him, eventually she ''does'' walk right up to Super Buu, [[Armor-Piercing Slap|slaps him]] and demands he bring Gohan back. Buu stares at her, turns her into an egg, and promptly crushes her. Worst of all, her ''seven-year-old son'' was [[Harmful to Minors|watching the entire time]].
** In an episode just before the Trunks saga, however, ChiChi gets to play the trope straight. She hires a private tutor for Gohan by the name of Mr. Shu, unaware that he's a cruel [[Sadist Teacher]] who repeatedly [[Kick the Dog|kicks the dog]] by calling Goku worthless as a father and makes the poor kid ''bleed''. Then she finds out. It does not end well for Shu.
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{{quote|'''Youtube comment:''' Shinji ain't happy, so mama ain't happy. We're all not happy if mama ain't happy.
'''Youtube comment:''' This is why you don't fuck with Yui-sama. }}
{{quote|'''Asuka''': Idonwannadie, idonwannadie, '''I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!'''...Mama, you've been here all along?! MAMA!
''(giant cross of light erupts from the lake)''
'''Soldier:''' What the hell is that?!
''(Unit 02 rises from the lake, [[This Is Gonna Suck|holding a NERV battleship]])'' }}
* ''[[One Piece]]'' gives us Bellmere, who when given the choice to buy her life or those of her daughters, offered hers in [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to ensure Nami and Nojiko weren't killed by Arlong. Even more when you realize that it wasn't until after this proclamation that the bad guys even knew about her daughters {{spoiler|who aren't actually her blood. She adopted both a no-older-than-2 Nojiko and a baby Nami after the three survive a battle.}}
** Most recently we have Portgas D. Rouge, the mother of Ace. {{spoiler|To escape detection by Marines searching for children being born at that time in an attempt to find the child of Gold Roger, Rouge withheld giving birth and bore her baby in her womb for ''twenty months'' before finally having him. [[Death by Childbirth|The act ultimately killed Rouge]], but allowed Ace (who would take up her surname instead of his father's) to grow up in relative safety under the care of Garp and alongside his grandson, Luffy.}}
** Despite having been an [[Ill Girl]], Kaya is this towards Usopp's pirates.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': Izumi is practically Ed and Al's second mother. She barges into Greed's hideout to rescue Al after taking down one of the homunculus' cronies. Add to that her furious introduction and, well...
** The manga and the ''Brotherhood'' anime series bring us Olivier Mila Armstrong, who may be a [[Jerkass]] [[Social Darwinist]], [[Hidden Heart of Gold|but one of her]] [[Berserk Button]]s [[A Father to His Men|is to see her subordinates in danger.]] [[media:OMA-MamaBear.jpg|Lampshaded in this screenshot!]]
* And then there's Misae Nohara from ''[[Crayon Shin-chan]]''. Poor Shinnosuke, poor Hiroshi!
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* ''[[Armitage III]], Dual Matrix''. The ''entire movie'' is Naomi Armitage having one giant Mama Bear moment (And [[Battle Couple|her partner and lover]] Ross Sylibus makes an impressive [[Papa Wolf]] to back her up). To really drive home just how far Armitage goes with this: she gets hammered up and down by various 'bots and things unto being torn apart multiple times, her daughter Yoko discovers her mother is a robot {{spoiler|by seeing her metal skeleton through a cut-wide-open shoulder}} and reacts with the prejudicial horror any child in that universe would feel, jerking away from Armitage and hiding behind Ross {{spoiler|after Armitage has been badly injured by two clones of her with razor blades on murder-skates.}} Armitage swallows her tears, turns and goes to fight {{spoiler|the clones}} again, ''knowing'' it's a fight she almost certainly can't win. At the end of the film, one of {{spoiler|the clones}} is holding Yoko by the throat. Armitage, beaten and weary unto near unconsciousness, staggers up behind the thing and manages to grip its shoulder, and utters a line that exemplifies this trope.
{{quote|"Let...Let go of my daughter, you bitch!"}}
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'': Woe betide anyone who hurts someone Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon cares for. Whether it's her boyfriend, her [[Kid From the Future]], her fellow scouts or her [[Muggle]] friends/family. ''Especially'' in the case of manga!Moon, who is quite more ruthless in her defense of her loved ones. One of the most beautiful examples is the end of ''Super S'', where the defeated Nehelenia exacts "revenge" on Moon for her loss by throwing an unconscious Chibi Moon off the edge of the floating battlefield...and after (quite understandably) BSOD-ing a little, Moon says "You...you won't defeat me," ''and jumps off the same field to rescue Chibiusa'', even transforming into Princess Serenity to save her [[Kid From the Future]]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dij3tWDtcX8 And it ultimately works.]{{broken link}}
** Also Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter. Her title of ''Senshi of Protection'' isn't just for shit and giggles, you know. When she's feeling dizzy after donating blood in one episode, she immediately goes outside to fight, and when Sailor Moon is pinned down by the [[Monster of the Week]], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrrlfTxAKKg Jupiter goes BATSHIT, ''forces herself to stand up'', keeps attacking and singlehandedly kills the monster.]{{broken link}}
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* [[Mawaru Penguindrum|Chiemi Takakura]], like her husband [[Papa Wolf|Kenzan]], loves and cares for her kids. In episode 9 she's seen shielding {{spoiler|her daughter Himari}} without hesitation when {{spoiler|a mirror falls on her.}} For that, Chiemi {{spoiler|sustained severe cuts in her face and arms and had to be hospitalized}}.
* Marie Mjolnir in ''[[Soul Eater]]'' is a perky Team Mom to her students. When {{spoiler|traitor Justin Law}} comes to Death City to kill one of them, she also fits this trope nicely.
* ''[[Spirited Away]]'':
** Yubaba's son B'oh is the only thing she cares about more than money, going full [[One-Winged Angel]] on Haku and ''breathing fire'' when she discovers B'oh is missing.
** Also, Lin acts this way towards Chihiro, the reason Haku trusts her as Chihiro's mentor.
* Mamako Oosuki from ''[[Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?]]'' is a woman who has taken the idea of a doting mom to extremes, becoming a player in her son's fantasy-themed online game and quickly becoming this to him and to the other regulars as a [[Team Mom]].
* Triagonist [[Dark Action Girl| Yor Forger]] in ''[[SPY x FAMILY]]'' is someone who [[Professional Killer|gets a paycheck from the government for killing people]], but should anyone threaten or harm her adoptive daughter Anya, she will gladly do it for free. Ironically, her marriage to protagonist Loid (also a government agent) is ''supposed'' to be a ruse for their mission and Anya was adopted to support the ruse, but Yor quickly developed a maternal bond with her.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Even Aunt May Parker has demonstrated this line of abilities when somebody messes with her dear nephew and adopted son, Peter Parker, AKA [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]]. When the Chameleon, a ruthless assassin and skilled infiltrator, tries to take Peter's place, she not only manages to subdue him in an undeniably classy fashion, she also scares the bejeezus outta him in the process.
** Her [[Ultimate Universe]] version (admittedly, rather ''feistier'' than the original), responded to J. Jonah Jameson merely ''firing'' Peter Parker by
*** More recently, when Ultimate Eddie Brock/Ultimate Venom showed up at the Parkers' home, attempted to talk his way inside (reminiscent of a scene that occurred in the mid-90s animated series where the beefier inspired-by-616 Brock does the same to a quite-different Aunt May.) The conversation does not go well for Ultimate Brock. She pulls a hand cannon on him and threatens to blow him away, knowing what he is.
* Mary Jane Watson-Parker had a similar one in ''[[Spider-Girl]]'': She's attacked by the new Green Goblin (Harry's son, Normie), who intends to kidnap and use her as bait for her daughter, the titular heroine. MJ just refuses to play along, and beats him with a lamp while [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|lecturing him about how childish he was being]] (Paraphrased from memory: "I used to change your diaper, what makes you think I'm going to be scared of you!?"); Normie is completely thrown off, and tries to apologize before Spider-Girl then swings in to the rescue. Which one she's rescuing is a bit unclear by this point.
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** Werewolf mom Jetta when her son Pojo is abducted. Then again, not only is she a rather traumatized individual of a species ''bred'' to be violent killers, she is also the ''only'' female capable of her species capable of having children, and Pojo is her newborn, first child. All things considered, her reaction was one of thoughtful consideration, really.
* The female Dr. Light proved her Mama Bear status in print, in an alternate timeline in a recent issue of ''[[Booster Gold]]'', by killing the evil Max Lord for killing her kids. And thus, [[Fanon]] becomes semi-[[Canon]]: ''Don't mess with Kimiyo Hoshi's children!!'' In the main timeline, when the [[Blackest Night|superpowered zombie]] Dr Arthur Light threatened her children, Dr Light was able to {{spoiler|create a bright and powerful enough light to ''completely atomize him''}}.
* One issue of ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'' had Reed and Susan's daughter Valeria caught in the middle of a rampage created by Thundra, the Absorbing Man, and a mind-controlled Ben Grimm and She-Hulk. She's about to be squished when Sue shows up, already in a bad mood. Cue the resulting stomping of four of the most powerful superhumans on Earth. Made even better when Reed and Johnny show up...and Reed restrains Johnny from trying to help Sue, because he knows that she's not going to need any.
** Sue could practically be the goddess of this trope. In the ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]] Vs. the [[X-Men]]'' miniseries, the team is nearly torn apart when an old diary of Reed's seems to imply that he caused the accident that transformed them into the FF on purpose. It's Sue that deduces the diary is a trap laid by Dr. Doom years before. She warns Doom that a lioness is "never as dangerous as when protecting cub, and den, and mate." She then asks Doom if he's ever considered just what would happen if she decided to project an invisible force-field ''inside'' his body...and then expand it.
* In ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'', Adeline Wilson takes this to a pretty scary level. After her husband, [[Career Killer|Slade]] lands their son Jericho in a hostage situation (that ends with their child being rendered permanently mute due to his throat being slit), Adeline shoots Slade in the head. Another, even more extreme example (Though it may not count since [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|she had just gained super powers that made her so psycho]]) occurred when she tried to destroy every super powered person in the '''world''' to {{spoiler|avenge Jericho's death.}}
* Threatening/killing their children/adopted children is one of the few things that can tempt a DCU hero, either [[Papa Wolf|male]] or female, that normally follows [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] to, well, kill. When [[Black Canary]]'s adopted daughter Sin {{spoiler|apparently}} died during a kidnapping attempt by the League of Assassins, Dinah went ''berserk'' and nearly killed Merlyn, the mastermind of the scheme.
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* Sure, her son's one of the most powerful non-god beings on the planet, but do NOT mess with [[Superman]] when Ma Kent is around. She probably won't be of much use, but damn if she won't try. Pa Kent'll provides backup as a [[Papa Wolf]] - and ''he's'' got military experience.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In the ''[[The Lord of the Rings|Lord of the Rings]]'' fanfic ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3871735/1/Ancient_Prophecy_fullfilled Ancient Prophecy fullfilled]'', one of the Valar (the gods without Capital G) slew the children of their Guardians. Understandably the Guardians in question weren't so thrilled. They battled the Fourteen Valar, destroyed the city they dwelled in and still
* Karofsky's mom in the ''[[Glee]]'' fanfic ''[[The Kurtofsky I Ms]]''. There's a reason she demands to be called Mrs. Badass {{spoiler|and the reason is that she beat up Azimio with a golf club when he tried to destroy Karofsky's car.}}
* ''[[Past Sins
* Mary Jane Watson in ''[[Ultimate SpiderWoman
* In the ''[[Pony POV Series]]'', {{spoiler|Ditzy Doo (better known as Derpy Hooves) grabs a mop and proceeds to beat the living tar out of [[Big Bad|Princess Gaia's]] birds who have come to carry her daughter away. She actually ''scares the crap'' out of the [[Big Bad]] doing this!}}
** {{spoiler|Rarity goes Mama Bear when her baby sister Sweetie Belle is threatened. She even fights Princess Gaia's [[Dragon]], Cheerilee, one-on-one and her zeal is enough to put them on equal hooves. Her rage was great enough that she almost ''killed'' Cheerilee if the others hadn't reminded her that Cheerilee was [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] at the time and they had to be careful.}}
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** Derpy has another prominent moment of this is ''[[The Party Never Ended]]'', where she uses thoughts about Dinky to motivate herself to help fend off the storm.
== [[Film
* ''[[Bolt]]'': {{spoiler|Penny's mother decks her agent (knocking him clean out of the ambulance) for daring to suggest ways they could exploit Penny's near death in a fire. (The fact that one of the supposed benefits was executive producer credit ''for himself'' was probably what set her off.)}}
* Norma Jean from ''[[Happy Feet]]'', despite her calm, loving demeanor, shows flashes of this. She is the first and only emperor penguin, in their extremely conformist and conservative society, to try to oppose the Elders, verbally lashing out at them when they force her son Mumble into exile. She also expresses great disdain for them during the graduation ceremony, as Mumble had not been permitted to graduate.
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** Please consider the fact that this is a Mama Bear 70 feet long weighing '''approximately 30 TONS.'''
* Mrs. Jumbo in ''[[Dumbo]]'' is branded a "mad elephant" and caged after she goes berserk trying to protect her son from some teasing kids.
* Evelyn in ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy Returns]]'': Don't kidnap her son, or she'll even {{spoiler|come back from the dead}} to kick your ass.
* ''[[The Blind Side]]'': "You threaten my son, you threaten me. You so much as cross into downtown, you will be sorry. I'm in a prayer group with the D.A., I'm a member of the NRA, and I'm always packin'."
* Getting her entire wedding party ambushed and blown away by Bill and his assassins was bad enough. Getting the ever-loving crap beaten out of her by the assassins, followed by a bullet in the head from Bill himself, was bad enough. But when the Bride finally gets out of her coma after four years and discovers that the child that she was carrying is gone (and apparently dead), she decides to...well...''[[Kill Bill]]''.
** Also, The Bride may be a [[Dark Action Girl]], but she does ''not'' like it when children {{spoiler|(like Nikki and the ultimately alive BB)}} or teenagers {{spoiler|(like Gogo or the young yakuza she spares)}} are caught in violent affairs. And she won't hesitate to say it.
*
** Doubles as an example of [[The Hecate Sisters]]. And considering that Ripley had killed a number of the Queen's offspring as well, it qualifies as a ''Mama Bear Showdown''.
** Subverted in ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien 4]]'', where the [[Half-Human Hybrid]] Queen orders her offspring to kill one of their own to have its acidic blood dissolve a way out of the cell. The [[Nightmare Fetishist]] scientist is dismayed to see the Xenomorphs show such [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|human behavior]]. Also, Ripley {{spoiler|abuses her newfound [[Half-Human Hybrid]] status, killing Xenomorphs that are downright affectionate towards her.}}
** The
* ''[[The Terminator]]'': Sarah Connor. Saving the world ''from nuclear annihilation'' is considered an incidental bonus to saving her son from the machine sent back to kill him. This gets cranked up to eleven in [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles|The Series]].
* This was the point of ''[[The Long Kiss Goodnight]]'', where Geena Davis plays an ordinary, suburban homemaker/schoolteacher...until an escaped convict threatens her husband and child. Then it suddenly turns out that she's a former assassin with [[Easy Amnesia]], and she proceeds to kick his ass seven ways to Sunday. Towards the end of the movie, she's taking on a terrorist-organization-backed-by-CIA single-handedly to save her daughter.
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* Eco-horror film ''[[Prophecy (film)|Prophecy]]'' (from 1979) centers around [[Everything's Worse with Bears|giant, pissed off,]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|mutated]] Mama Bear [[Too Dumb to Live|whose cubs were stolen by humans]].
* Jasmine, the aging lioness in ''[[Secondhand Lions]]'', might be getting old and a little bit sickly. She might not be too much to look at any more. But put one hand on her human "cub" Walter, and you are in for a world of pain, {{spoiler|even if the strain is too much for her heart}}.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjLCJKoot4U&feature=player_embedded L'Ours has a pretty literal example.]{{context}}
* In ''[[Salt]]'', the reason why Evelyn Salt {{spoiler|abandoned her mission and faked the Russian Prime Minister's death}} was so she could [[Love Redeems|save her husband]]. But once {{spoiler|Orlov had her husband killed, she decides to go on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] to hunt down every other Russian agent who was involved.}}
* Crosses into [[Becoming the Mask]] in ''[[Big Momma's House]] 2'', where FBI agent Malcolm ends up going against orders because of his promises to the Fuller children he made as Big Momma.
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* In ''[[Serenity]]'', River Tam gets her chance to pay her brother Simon back for all the times [[Papa Wolf|he protected her]].
{{quote|"[[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner|My turn.]]"}}
* In [[Mothra]]'s first appearance, she turned Tokyo upside-down to rescue her kidnapped handmaidens.
* ''[[Jurassic Park]]'':
** ''[[The Lost World: Jurassic Park]]'' combines this with [[Papa Wolf]], showing that the mated T. Rex couple are fiercely protective of their hatchlings; the human protagonists quickly note in a frightened tone that this completely debunks a widely-held theory that the species would abandon their young quickly after they were hatched.
** In the third movie, the alpha velociraptor orders her entire pack to hunt the protagonists down after one of them steals one of her eggs.
== [[Literature]] ==
* An ''extreme'' example is found in Toni Morrison's ''[[Beloved]]'', where Sethe, the main character {{spoiler|attempts to kill her children in order to protect them from having to go back into slavery. She only succeeds with the titular Beloved.}}
* Cordelia Vorkosigan, in [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Vorkosigan Saga]]'', 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 [[Off with His Head|brings back the usurper's head in a shopping bag]] to make her point clear.
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** McGonagall has shades of this when it comes to her students, as shown when she defends Harry from Snape {{spoiler|unaware that he's really a good guy.}}
* This trope sees many uses in Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld]]'':
** Magrat in ''[[
** {{spoiler|Sergeant Jackrum}} in ''[[
*** The trope name's especially appropriate when you consider that
** Also invoked and deconstructed by Granny Aching in ''[[
*** Likewise, in ''[[
** It's mentioned in one of the books that one of the only creature Greebo ever backed down from was a vixen with pups (this is the Greebo who will chase '''bears''' up trees).
* Nita Callahan's mother in ''[[Young Wizards|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!''"
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** Tate, when she finds out her neighbor left her daughter with a child molester.
* In the [[Dale Brown]] book ''Rogue Forces'', former Kurdish separatist Zilar Azzawi retakes her sword after a Turkish airstrike kills her husband and children.
* [[Stephen King]]'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.
* Sidney Sheldon's ''Rage of Angels'' reveals lawyer Jennifer Parker to be a version of this, though she has to work indirectly. When her son is kidnapped by a [[Complete Monster]], she knows time is of the essence, so she {{spoiler|calls on the '''Mafia prince''' who's been lusting after her -- whom she knows to be very bad news from personal experience -- and asks him to do whatever he can to bring the child back alive, and when asked what to do with the kidnapper, she says "''Kill him!''" He mobilizes his forces to track them down, the child is rescued, and he kills the man himself. The two adults become lovers after this, setting up the remainder of the book.}}
* [[Action Girl|Yanaba Maddock]], the protagonist of the ''[[Petaybee]]'' books, becomes this in the spinoff series ''The Twins of Petaybee''.
* In [[James H. Schmitz]]'s ''[[The Witches of Karres]]'', Toll is the mother of one of the main characters—and the resident [[Great Gazoo]] is afraid of tangling with her.
* In the
* A big, quite literal example can be found in Sherrilyn Kenyon's ''Dark-Hunter'' series. Particularly in any of the books that mention the Peltiers- A family of Katagari (animals who can turn into humans) bears. You do not mess with Nicolette 'Mama Lo' Peltier or her family. She will beat ten types of crap out of you before you have time to rethink your decision or write out your will.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' 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 [[Heroic Sacrifice]] for her daughter Maggie.}}
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* [[The Han Solo Trilogy]] 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 [[The Fagin|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 [[Abusive Parents|past experience]] made it clear [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|what was coming]]. Dewlanna rose to Han's defense and beat up Shrike's men, viciously shattering his brother's arm, [[Heroic Sacrifice|before being gunned down by the outlaw]]. Her sacrifice allowed Han to escape and grow into the man that everyone knows him as.
** Leia is also quite the Mama Bear. She does not look kindly on things like kidnapping her children, attempted assassination of her children, or anyone else important to her. Doing any of these things is asking to get your ass kicked at the very least. She gets it from her father.
* In the'' [[Dear America]]'' 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.
* In ''[[Divergent]]'', the mother of {{spoiler|Tris and Caleb}}.
* ''[[In Death]]'': {{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 Mama Bear, then you clearly have no soul!
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* Rachel O'Neal, in ''Teetoncey'' by Theodore Taylor, is this to a young shipwreck victim whom she nicknames "Teetoncey". Do not start with Rachel O'Neal. You will not win. That includes you, Atlantic Ocean.
* ''[[Beowulf]]'' has among the earliest Mama Bears of literature. When the creature Grendel is killed by the hero, his mother attacks and makes her anger known.
** In John Gardener's satire-novel ''[[Grendel (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!),
* In ''[[The Secret of Platform 13]],'' [[Rich Bitch|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.
* ''[[Maximum Ride]]''. Do not threaten the Flock. Ever. Especially Angel.
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** Queen Cerys's, Jenna's mother, job is to keep her daughter safe from harm, as she does by throwing Queen Etheldredda out of the Queen's Room in ''Physik''.
* Elizabeth Bathory toward her young daughter Orsolya in ''[[Count and Countess]]''.
* A fourteen-year-old Ruth in ''[[Someone Else's
* [[Amelia Peabody]] Emerson went berserk when she thought her then-small son had been injured by a criminal. She retained no memory of what she did, and expressed skepticism about her husband's account of the incident, but noticed both he and the little boy were wide-eyed with shock, and two [[Mook]]s were cowering in absolute terror of her.
* In ''[[The Best Christmas Pageant Ever]]'', Imogene decides to go off-script and portray Mary this way, showing her as someone who is well-prepared to clobber anyone who even ''thinks'' of hurting the infant Jesus. This is, of course, one reason it turns out to be [[Title Drop|the best Christmas Pageant Ever]].
* Exploited in ''[[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]''. The First Task of the Triwizard Tournament requires each contestant to take a Golden Egg (a magical device that plays a role in the Second Task) which is the general size and shape of a dragon's egg, and is placed among a clutch of actual dragon eggs - which are guarded by their mothers. In effect, the dragons are deceived into believing someone is trying to steal their young, and act accordingly.
* ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'': River toward the later episodes and the movie: "My turn"; "no power in the 'verse can stop me".▼
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* ''[[Firefly]]'': River toward the later episodes and the movie: "My turn"; "no power in the 'verse can stop me".
** In "Objects in Space", the Tams are Mama Bear and [[Papa Wolf]] - to each other.
** Every female on Serenity is a Mama Bear to Kaylee - Zoe rips Mal a new one for hurting her feelings, River takes out three Alliance soldiers with her eyes closed after Kaylee is too scared to do so herself...the only exception is Inara, who seems happier to baby Kaylee and brush her hair. Moral - don't. mess. with. Kaylee. It will NOT end well.
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** Inverted: Sylar's mother had [[Why Couldn't You Be Different?|built him up as the perfect child, but she freaked out and denounced him when she found out what he could do.]]
** Angela Petrelli also proved to be quite the Mama Bear for Nathan Petrelli. She wanted him to succeed in being the mayor of New York City and ultimately the Presidency (although she did not anticipate that Sylar would actually take his place), and she even killed her husband when it became too apparent that he was perfectly willing to murder her son before he digs deep enough to find out some of his evil deeds, and she even goes as far to brainwash Sylar into thinking he's Nathan via [[Fake Memories]] (and essentially forcing Matt Parkman into doing so) when the real Nathan died.
* ''[[The X-
** Doggett gives her a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] moment over it, and she ''still'' doesn't want to back down. Mama Bear indeed.
* Athena in [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the rebooted ''Battlestar Galactica'']] goes murderous on Natalie, a Six model Athena believes wants to kidnap her daughter Hera. To quote a reviewer:
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** Also notable was the episode in which a male Majungotholus attempted to kill a baby to entice the mother to mate. While the male succeeds, the female breaks his neck, preventing him from moving as she ''eats him alive''.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'': Buffy's mom Joyce, who goes after Spike with an axe when he threatens Buffy.
** Buffy herself, who goes nuts at the Knights of Byzantium, [[Well-Intentioned Extremist
*** [[Physical God|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.
** It's a Summers thing. See Dawn's response to Spike in season 7.
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** In the second season, despite all of the emotional and mental distress her daughter Danielle put her through, Bree goes full-out Mama Bear when Danielle is revealed to be on the run with a murderer - one of the new neighbors and her boyfriend no less!
** In a recent episode, Susan punishes Gaby's daughter, Juanita, for pushing and bullying her own son, MJ. Gaby, for all of her insecurities over Juanita's weight, gets fiercely protective of her daughter and starts calling MJ a little girl, to put it nicely. Cue the Mama Bear catfight.
* ''[[Stargate SG-
** Nirrti was still unwilling to help at first, even with the gun to her head. Then Hammond informed her that Frasier was Cassandra's mother. Nirrti got a lot more cooperative after that.
* Brought up in an episode of ''[[CSI: Crime Scene Investigation]]'', when the team is discussing a recent case where a man was killed on a plane by the passengers when he went berserk and tried to open the plane door.
{{quote|'''Nick:''' Do you think you could ever take a life in that situation?
'''Catherine:''' ''*answering instantly*'' I could.
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** Then there's the episode where Catherine's ex is murdered and Catherine has to fish Lindsay out of a car that's rapidly filling with water in a flood channel. When a suspect (her ex's main squeeze) starts referring to Lindsay as a "little brat" and reveals she left her in the car, Catherine storms in and nearly takes her head off.
** When she came home to find a suspect in the driveway talking with her mother and daughter, she very calmly tells her mother to take her daughter inside, then she punches the guy in the face and pulls a gun on him. "You came to my house." Don't ''ever'' mess with Catherine's kid.
* The Horta in the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek]]'' episode
* In the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "The Dauphin", the shapeshifting guardian of a young girl destined to rule a planet {{spoiler|(who is later revealed to be of the same species)}} takes this to absolutely insane levels of paranoia, up to and including ordering Dr. Pulaski to kill a patient with a mildly infectious disease because it just might ''possibly'' effect her surrogate daughter, who was not even allowed outside her quarters anyway.
** Dr. Beverly Crusher can be a Mama Bear too. She came after Lore with a phaser when he threatened her son. He may be a [[Creator's Pet]], but his mama loves him.
* The female protagonist in ''[[Jekyll]]'' is asked when she first knew she could kill someone. She replies that it was after her children were born. The answer is the key to the nature of Mr. Hyde {{spoiler|in that he is a ruthless psychopath created not by the dark side of humanity, but by pure love}}.
* Teyla in ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]''. When [[Big Bad]] Michael threatens to kidnap her infant son for use in his experiments, Teyla responds by shoving him off the top a very, ''very'' tall tower.
* On ''[[Charmed]]'', when a young boy she had grown attached to was screaming in pain, Piper put every effort she could into her power of explosion and managed to break through an impenetrable fence. An act which caused her sister to reply "I think we just saw a mother lift a car off her child".
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* Mrs. Torres from ''[[Degrassi]]''. Overlaps with [[My Beloved Smother]] - she's quite controlling of her football-jock older son and still coming to grips with her <s> daughter</s> [[Pronoun Trouble|younger son's]] [[transgender]]ism, but if ''anyone else'' messes with them she ''will'' make their life miserable (and the school principal's as well, for good measure).
* Of all people, Pam Fields from the TV series ''[[Pretty Little Liars]]'' (adapted from the book series). Sure, she's trying to come to grips with her daughter's being a [[Schoolgirl Lesbian]], but when Paige's father says that Emily became the captain of the swim team ''because'' she's a lesbian, she lets him have it. Arguably her [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]. (Especially considering her earlier behavior towards her daughter's sexuality.)
* Shal in ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' episode
* The 1981 made-for-tv chiller ''[[Dark Night Of The Scarecrow]]'' has Jocelyn Brando (yep, Marlon's sister) as [[Gentle Giant]] Bubba's mother - loving, protective, and lots more badass than his tormentors.
* ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'': If you value your teeth, don't even think about saying an unkind word about
* Claire from ''[[Lost]]'', especially in season six when she learns that Kate was raising Aaron. And Kate herself qualifies as well in regards to Aaron.
* Delenn during the secession of ''[[Babylon 5]]''. Also to merchant shipping in the episode ''lines of communication.'' And to Dukhat. Watching her in a Mama Bear rage is as beautiful as watching a volcano.
* Jackie Tyler from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' WILL carry a
** And when she failed...
{{quote|'''Lady Kovarian:''' [While her eye-patch give her a direct link between herself and her bosses that uses said link to torture her] Amy...Help me.
'''Amy:''' [Rips off her eye-patch] You took my baby from me. And hurt her. And now she is all grown up and she is ''fine.'' I'll never see my baby again.
'''Lady Kovarian:''' ...But you still save me though. Because ''he would.'' You would never do anything to
'''Amy:''' ...The Doctor is very precious to me, you are right. But do you known what else he is, Lady Kovarian? ''Not here.'' [pushes her eyepach into her eye while she screams] {{spoiler|River Song}} didn't get it all from you... Sweetie. }}
** Madge Arwell, from the 2011 Christmas special, definitely fits. She's a recently widowed woman from 1941 lost in a forest on an alien world at some point in the future with three soldiers pointing giant guns at her. Naturally, she starts crying and, seeing how upset she is, the soldiers drop their weapons so she can compose herself enough to answer their questions. She then pulls out a gun on them.
{{quote|'''Head Soldier''': We're from Androzani Major. The year is 5345, and we mean you no harm. Where are you from?
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* Played for laughs in ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]''. Amy met with one of Teddy's teachers to try to talk him into changing her grade on a test (he had marked an answer wrong on a minor technicality). When he brushed her off, Amy calmly knocked everything off of his desk. "Mama Bear just cleared your schedule." The next day, the principal called Teddy in to discuss the security camera footage of Amy chasing the teacher through the halls with a janitor's broom.
* Lindsay on ''[[CSI: NY]]'' goes full-on Mama Bear when she wakes up in the middle of the night to find that Shane Casey, the serial killer who has been stalking Danny not only has him at gunpoint, but is also holding their daughter, Lucy. {{spoiler|He threatens to kill the baby if Lindsay doesn't drop her gun, but Lindsay responds by shooting him dead.}}
* Brooke Davis on ''[[One Tree Hill]]'' is
* The documentary ''[[Dinosaur Revolution]]'' has a Mosasaur giving birth discovering her babies are being picked off by a group of sharks and proceeds to kill the entire group to protect the last one.
* ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'': Nagging, overbearing, and irritating though she may be, do not ''ever'' mess with Marie Barone's sons if you want to keep your dignity intact. Robert's first wife Joanne found that out the hard way.
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* ''[[Smallville]]'': Clark Kent might be Superman, but if you try to hurt him, his adopted mother Martha Kent will retaliate. She even once held [[Dark Action Girl|Tess Mercer]] at gunpoint- and got away with it unscathed!
* The ABC show ''Missing'' has Becca Winstone, who retired from the CIA after her husband was killed. When her son is kidnapped, she goes nuts. " I am not CIA, I am a ''mother looking for her son''!"
* The [[BBC 3]] Program ''[[Being Human (UK)|Being Human]]'': {{spoiler|when Annie entered the warehouse full of old, and powerful vampires and screamed "GIVE ME BACK MY FUCKING BABY" and defeated the old ones and then to save the world actually BLEW UP the child in question.}} Now that is motherhood.
* [[Action Mom|JJ]] in ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' beautifully demonstrated in the season seven finale that you don't ''ever'' threaten Henry or Will. That UnSub had it coming.
* Deconstructed in ''[[Beautiful World (TV series)|Beautiful World]]'', where the mothers of the bullies do some ugly, ugly things in defense of their sweet darling boys.
== [[Music]] ==
* Diss Reba McEntire, I dare you; [http://www.facebook.com/TerriClark/posts/144819435568883 Terri Clark will take your face off].
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* ''[[Rose Is Rose]]'' played this trope completely straight with a Sunday strip, featuring Rose transformed into a "Mama Bear" to symbolize her overprotective nature before she meets Pasquale's new babysitter. However, Rose relaxes when she opens the door she finds that the prospective sitter is apparently a Mama Bear as well.▼
* In one old ''[[Garfield]]'' strip, the protagonist is on Jon's family farm, where he spies a baby chicken - he chases it, only to chase it straight to its mother and ''many'' other adult chickens. [[This Is Gonna Suck|"This isn't good,"]] he mutters, right before they beat him up.
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* King Agamemnon's wife, Queen Clytemnestra, killed him because he had sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to the gods. The fact that Agamemnon was [[Your Cheating Heart|bringing his new mistress Cassandra home from the Trojan War]] probably [[Woman Scorned|did not help his case either]].
** However, it's worth noting that Clytemnestra and her lover also tried to kill her son (by Agamemnon) Orestes when he was a small child, and treated the remaining daughter Electra poorly (and in some versions, tried to get her killed as well). [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|So she's not the best example of this trope]].
* Durga from [[Hindu Mythology]]. She is a nurturing mother goddess, but she is also a ''very'' [[Action Mom|powerful warrior]]. As [[The Berserker]] Kali, she takes this to a dangerous extreme.
* Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire. According to legend, she regards all the volcanic rocks on the shores of the Big Island to be her children, and will inflict a horrible curse on any tourist who dares to take one of the rocks home with them as a souvenir
* The old Bloody Mary ritual (and modern parlor game) sometimes portrays [[Our Ghosts Are Different| Mary herself]] as this. Usually, the participant is supposed to stand in front of a mirror in a dark room and say “Bloody Mary” three times, which supposedly will cause Mary to appear behind the participant and do anything from scaring her, to killing her, to dragging her to Hell. (The game is usually done as a dare.) One version, however, says that after saying her name three times you have to add, “I have your child.”<ref>Possibly, this is a reference to Queen Mary I of England, who was a cruel woman often called Bloody Mary; her mother, Catherine of Aragon, suffered four miscarriages before Mary’s birth.</ref> Naturally, Mary would react as any mother would towards someone who calls her to confess to kidnapping her child...
==
▲* ''[[Rose Is Rose]]'' played this trope completely straight with a Sunday strip, featuring Rose transformed into a "Mama Bear" to symbolize her overprotective nature before she meets Pasquale's new babysitter. However, Rose relaxes when she opens the door she finds that the prospective sitter is apparently a Mama Bear as well.
* ''[[Unknown Armies]]'' has the Mother archetype. High-level Avatars of the Mother get huge bonuses in combat when they're either defending a child, or pregnant. The phrase "mama bear" even shows up in the rulebook description of their second Avatar channel.
* ''[[Munchkin]]'' invokes this with the "Mommy" card. When someone is in combat with a weaker monster or one that's been turned into a Baby, you can play this card to summon the monster's mother, who is ten levels higher. And woe is you if the Baby+ Mommy combo is applied on a Lv. 20 Plutonium Dragon...
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'':
** The [http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG138.jpg Grey Render] is a huge monstrosity with a penchant for "adopting" small creatures of other species, to whom it will thereafter bring food and protection. And if you dare so much as look at them funny, ''it will tear you down'' like the squishy little piece of meat you are and share your body with its
** [[Riddling Sphinx| Gynosphinxes]], the sole female subrace of sphinx, prefers an androsphinx mate, disliking the dimwitted criosphinxes who try to woo them by bribery, and avoiding the [[Always Chaotic Evil| vile hieracosphinx]] who doesn't [[Child by Rape| bother with any pleasantries]]. Nonetheless, a gynosphinx will defend her cubs to the death, regardless of who the father was.
** Gargantua are gigantic reptilian (usually) beasts (think [[Kaiju]]/[[Godzilla]]) found on tropical islands in the [[Forgotten Realms| Kara-Tur]] setting. Normally, they [[Gentle Giant| shy away from humans]], but threaten their offspring and you won't live to regret it. Angry gargantua have been known to travel ''thousands'' of miles and swim entire oceans to find and crush humans who have harmed their young.
** The 3rd Edition Splat book ''Tyrants of the Nine Hells'' gives a strange example; [[Horny Devil| erinyes and their evolved form, brachina]], the only devils who can bear children (other than unique female devils) are said to be fiercely protective of their offspring, raising them in hidden and well-guarded enclaves in parts of Hell that are the most hostile to beings other than devils.
* In ''[[GURPS
{{quote|Mothers protecting their young are the fiercest foes on Earth, and probably anywhere else for that matter. Mother animals know no fear, are quick to feel threatened, take offense easily, and will attack viciously, giving no quarter.}}
== [[Theatre]] ==
* Kim from ''[[Miss Saigon]]'' {{spoiler|shoots her own cousin who tries to kill her illegitimate son by an American GI}}, yelling "I have no other choice, what I must do I will!" as she does so. A lot of people remember the part as a defining moment for Kim, especially with her screaming "YOU WILL NOT TAKE MY CHILD!"
* Umbridge in a [[A Very Potter Sequel]]...in a very different sense of this trope...
** "It's your Mama Umbridge's job to keep her baby bears safe!"
==
* The Small Woman in Grey is an old story about a woman trying to protect her newborn child at all costs. It usually starts at a convenience store in Midwest United States. Two guys run the small store. One night, a woman comes in, dressed all in grey, takes a glass container of milk from the dairy case, and leaves without paying for it. The two guys are frozen for a moment at the audacity of such a shoplifter, and when they run out the door after her, she's gone. Two days later, it happens again, the woman comes in, takes a bottle of milk, and leaves without paying. The third time this happens, they're ready, chasing after her, down the street, until they eventually lose her. But then they find a small cemetery they had never noticed before, and hear a baby crying. Following the cries, they come upon a fresh grave, where the headstone indicates that it holds a woman and her baby, who died together, possibly via miscarriage. And the crying is coming from it. Not knowing what else to do, they find shovels, and did up the coffin. Inside, they find the woman's dead body, holding a very living infant, along with three empty milk bottles. Whoever had interred the two had incorrectly declared the baby dead, [[Buried Alive| burying it alive]], and its mother had defied death to feed it until this was discovered.▼
== Video Games ==▼
* The [[Pokémon]] Kangaskhan is extremely protective of it's child. If you so much as threaten it, you'll have to deal with a 7 foot tall kangaroo-dinosaur hybrid.
** This trait can extend to other Pokémon as well, such as Gardevoir, who is this towards its trainer.
* What spurs Samus Aran to action in ''Super [[Metroid]]'' is the Space Pirates stealing the baby Metroid that thinks she is its mother. Here, though, it's less motherly affection and more that letting the Space Pirates get their hands on a Metroid is an ''unspeakably'' bad idea.
** Said Metroid {{spoiler|[[Androcles' Lion|sacrifices itself at the end of the game]] to save Samus. This is where the ''real'' Mama Bear reaction takes place, as the Metroid's death also gives Samus her [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower|final weapon]] with which to utterly obliterate Mother Brain. The phrase "[[Curb Stomp Battle]]" doesn't even BEGIN to describe it}}.
*** ''[[Metroid: Samus Returns]]'' (a remake of the original story) expands the Trope further, with Samus defending the Baby Metroid from none other than [[Arch Enemy| her arch-foe, Ridley]].
** The Queen Metroid's reason for attacking Samus in ''Metroid II: Return of Samus'' was also implied to be of this trope, as an egg was seen behind the Queen, and she also spawned several metroids to take care of Samus in case she intended to kill the remaining hatchling. Other M also reinforces this theory, as evidenced by her attempt to shatter ice surrounding the various Metroids if frozen to reawaken them.
* Morgan Fey from ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' will do anything to take care of her daughter Pearl. {{spoiler|More specifically, to make sure Pearl becomes the Kurain master rather than being shunted to the side while Maya takes the position. Not only did she aid a murder and frame Maya for it, she then tried to make Pearl channel the spirit of [[Complete Monster]] Dahlia (Pearl had no idea that Dahlia was her dead older half-sister) so Dahlia could murder Maya.}} We didn't say she was ''nice''.
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** Unfortunately, she {{spoiler|dies mere moments later}}. But it's the thought that counts.
** Lightning gets a [[Promotion to Parent]] for her younger sister, who gets kidnapped and [[Fate Worse Than Death|turned into a L'Cie.]] Lightning is a [[Super Soldier]] military woman who blows up a train, decimates a military unit, hijacks equipment to break into an ancient temple, and takes on a god-like being to rescue her ''in the first hour of the game''.
* ''[[Street Fighter]]'':
** Crimson Viper in ''[[Street Fighter IV]]'', likely the only female fighter to actually be a mother, supporting her daughter is pretty much her entire motivation for fighting M. Bison's evil organization.
** Also, series regular Chun Li acts like this towards her adoptive children (and children in general), and in ''Alpha'', nearly ''murders'' Bison (as in, ''with a gun'') after discovering what he's doing to the Dolls.
* Jade, the heroine of ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' (no relation to [[Mortal Kombat| this one]]), operates a friendly shelter for war orphans, whom she views as her "children." In the opening sequence of the game, a band of [[Alien Invasion|evil aliens]] attempt to kidnap the children from the shelter. Naturally, very bad things happen to said aliens. {{spoiler|Also, near the end of the game, all of the children get kidnapped. After working her way through a [[Heroic BSOD]], her resolve goes [[Up to Eleven]], and not a force in the galaxy will stop her from fighting to get her kids back.}}
* [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold|Lauren Winter]] from ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' couldn't save her son from the Origami Killer, but swears on her son's grave to kill the man who did. {{spoiler|And in one ending, she does just that.}}
* Juno in ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' is ''very'' devoted to her adopted son Penn—considerably moreso than the child's biological parent. In {{spoiler|the Demon Path}} this devotion takes on a whole new level of fanaticism when {{spoiler|Juno demands Penn's return after he joins team evil, upon which Revya states that they didn't really want him in the first place}}.
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* Mary Barrows (or Burroughs) from ''[[Clock Tower]]'' is a villainous example: She is the mother of two extremely disturbed children, Bobby and Dan (their conception is heavily implied to be the result of occult work), and is very protective of them, to the extent that she is perfectly willing of killing Jennifer and three other orphans she adopted just to prevent them from killing them, and also intended to murder Jennifer in one of the endings specifically because the latter killed Bobby and Dan, but ended up being killed herself.
* Palutena in [[Kid Icarus: Uprising]] has shown signs of being one toward Pit especially in later chapters of the game. {{spoiler|By the end of chapter 21, when Pit saved Dark Pit from Chaos Kin, he had his wings burned as a result. Palutena is in a state of shock of [[My God, What Have I Done?|what happened]] given that Pit might die. What does she do? Have Dark Pit go to the spring of time and dip Pit's wings into the water and bring him back to life. In Viridi's own words, Palutena is willing to go down into the Underworld and ''cheat death'' just to save her precious Captain (who she might see as a son depending on interpretation.}}
* Felicia in ''[[Darkstalkers]]'', towards children in general; she even uses her tournament winnings in one game to open an [[Orphanage of Love]].
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Thespiphobia]]'', Gwyneth could never be considered as a super sweet girl. Mikayla is even worse. However - if you mess with the theatre's techies, or Mikayla's inventions, be prepared to burn more mightily than fuse in Hell. Not that Gwyn is oblivious to her techies' shortcomings - she's just the only one allowed to deal repercussions.
* Charon McKay from ''[[Shadowgirls]]'', especially when {{spoiler|she pulls the so-called [[Hunter of His Own Kind|Slayer]] of the [[Eldritch Abomination|Elder Gods]] that was [[Demonic Possession|manipulating]] her daughter out of her mind, with just her bare hands and [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|kicks it]] in the face}}. Also Christmas Snow when she {{spoiler|stabs the guy who's responsible for turning her daughter into an Elder God Avatar through the heart. And this guy was making fricking scary sea monsters afraid of him!}}
* [[Dominic Deegan|Miranda Deegan]] is one of the most powerful mages in the world most of the time. When her family or students are threatened, however, she is completely unstoppable. The necromancer Rilian once took advantage of this - he betrayed the Deegans' location to his age-old enemy, Helixa, knowing that Miranda would never let her lay a finger on them. He was right; Miranda killed Helixa (with ''her bare hands''), and although [[Death Is Cheap|it didn't take]], she made a point of finishing her off the next time they met.
** She took an infernomancer who tormented a ''friend'' of her son (the title character) and opened his mind to a world of arcane torture. And then she banished him to approximately the other side of the universe. This infernomancer had just attacked a classrom full of her students (she's the headmistress of the local Hogwarts) and killed three of them, though, so it's still valid.
* The trope is referenced in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130518131827/http://www.beaverandsteve.com/index.php?comic=229 this] ''[[Beaver and Steve]]''.
* Von Pinn from ''[[Girl Genius]]''. Unusually for Momma Bears, her charges are genuinely and justifiably ''terrified'' of her- largely because they understand how prone she is to violence and overkill.
** She is introduced trying to encourage safe behaviour in a young woman whom she is [[Neck Lift|holding off the ground by the neck]].
** Also unusual when she reveals that she's supposed to keep Agatha "safe" primarily in the sense of "preventing her from posing a danger to others."
*** Castle Heterodyne has also been showing a warped version of Mama Bearness in recent strips. Or maybe Papa Wolfness, I'm not sure which gender a castle can really count as.
* ''[[The
** An example of this and minor aversion of [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]] occurs later when {{spoiler|Vaarsuvius}} has to deal with the enraged mother of {{spoiler|an adolescent black dragon}} that the party killed.
** Vaarsuvius also counts, making a [[Deal with the Devil]] to have the power to save her own children from {{spoiler|the dragon}}. (S)he not only kills {{spoiler|the dragon}}, but reanimates her head and uses a high-level Necromancy spell to [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|KILL HER WHOLE EXTENDED FAMILY]] -- [[Disproportionate Retribution|including eggs]]. According to V, that's nearly a quarter of all {{spoiler|black dragons}} on the planet. This will ensure that no one in her family will come after V's mate and children again. Unfortunately, now V has pissed off Tiamat, the [[Cycle of Revenge|goddess of evil dragons.]] What's more, V {{spoiler|inadvertently caused the death of many ''humans'' whose only crime was that they bore the child of a dragon (or hybrid thereof), or were related by blood to such a person, etc., etc. Vaarsuvius suffered a Villainous BSOD over that.}}
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* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' has [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=274 a good one].
* Hala River, the alien mom from ''[[Irregular Elis]]'' save the day (and Elis, her daughter) in the end of first chapter.
* [[Motherly Scientist|Tabitha]] from ''[[Far Out There]]'' will gladly [https://web.archive.org/web/20170923083413/http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1090299/bridget-and-alphonses-horrifying-christmas-page-11/ shoot] [https://web.archive.org/web/20160908202643/http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1090302/bridget-and-alphonses-horrifying-christmas-page-12/ Santa] [[Boom! Headshot!|in the face]] to protect Bridget and Alphonse.
* In ''[[Endstone]]'', [http://endstone.net/2010/04/15/issue-3-webpage-25/ Kyri has killed gods to protect her daughter.] The [[Powder Keg Crowd]] [http://endstone.net/2011/05/23/5-37/ that attacked her daughter]...[http://endstone.net/2011/05/26/5-38/ didn't stand a chance]. Kryi handed the '''''ENTIRE angry mob''''' their asses.
* In ''[[The Bean]]'', [http://www.beanleafpress.com/?p=2540 Mama shows a new side when Bean is threatened] (not her child, but an injured boy she took in).
* The actual animal variant appears in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''. She will not, however, protect her cub from the local [[Killer Rabbit]], and does as it says. Which happens to be letting said rabbit disguise itself as a cub, and then going around doing flagrantly criminal things, while people refuse to stop him for fear of angering what they thing is a protective mother bear.
** But subverted when it turns out that bear was a male, the cub was his girlfriend's, and she was rather ticked when she found out.
* The ''[[
* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209155604/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4233 Lil' E's mother stands down] [[Satan]] for upsetting her baby.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Tuck's mother in ''[[The Saga of Tuck]]'', when {{spoiler|Tuck is in that [[Convenient Coma]], scares everyone except possibly her husband}}.
* ''[[Whateley Universe]]'': In ''Whately Academy'', during the Halloween invasion, we get at least two or three. Deathlist, a monstrous cyborg of superman-level power and the most horrifying villain in the Whatelyverse, makes the mistake of attacking the school and threatening the children. By the time Dean Carson (aka Lady Astarte) gets through with him, the only thing left of him to escape is his ''head.'' Jimmy T, a generally peacable shapeshifter, finds out his house of misfits, Hawthorne, is being raided by troopers looking to take "samples" from the helpless students, turns into fricking GODZILLA and stomps a mudhole in the forces there. All over the campus were mother hens ripping bad guys a new one....
* Hey, at least ''kiwi'' aren't that nasty. Right? [http://asuka111.deviantart.com/art/Stealing-kiwi-s-eggs-109260278 Right?..]
* Do not threaten ''[[Strange Little Band]]'''s Addison Harris's children. Not unless you are prepared for a world of pain anyway.
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** And since they're [[Hermaphrodite]]s they can also qualify as [[Papa Wolf]].
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' gives us the above quote; said character knows what she's talking about, having {{spoiler|killed Fire Lord Azulon for ordering her son Zuko's death}}. There is [[Alternative Character Interpretation|some]] [[Internet Backdraft|debate]] as to whether this Mama Bear attitude applied to Azula as well; we didn't see enough of Ursa to really know what was up with her.
** Also, Katara's mother Kya, who pulled a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to keep the Fire Nation from finding out her daughter was a Waterbender.
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** When she was treating Nelson all nice, and giving him money. Nelson's own mother came by and yelled at Marge. Her reply? "Go home, Mrs. Muntz...AND TRY NOT TO HAVE INTERCOURSE ON THE WAY!" The reaction of her family was priceless.
** This is the sweet-tempered [[Housewife]] who saved her daughter ''from an erupting volcano''. After the [[Straw Feminist|"feminist"]] [[Intrepid Reporter]] that Lisa admired [[Kick the Dog|abandoned little Lisa to her luck.]]
** In "The Great Wife Hope", Marge ends up fighting the guy in charge of a shallow pastiche of Ultimate Fighting. She gets one-punched to the floor, Bart comes to her aid, and when her opponent picks up Bart and threatens to hit him, she growls, [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|"That's... my... SON!"]] and proceeds to beat up the guy. Do ''' NOT F***''' with Marge.
** ''Especially'' in the non-canon "Treehouse of Horror" shorts where she is free to kill in order to do so. In XXXIV, when Bart is accidentally [[Trapped in TV Land| turned into an NFT]] - and quickly becomes the most sought after one on the internet - Marge turns ''herself'' into one in order to save him. She quickly learns that the block chain is actually a block ''train'' and that she has to make herself just as a valuable in order to access the car where Bart is, and to do that she has to fight her way past other NFTs.<ref>For those who like to keep track of the kill-count for a character, the episode conveniently has an onscreen counter here, giving Marge a kill-count of ''727 by the end of the skit!''</ref> This quickly turns into a [[Take That]] to the whole NFT industry, as she has to kill some of the most notorious NFTs, with some [[Self Deprecating Humor]] of the show thrown in, as she also defeats Itchy, Scratchy, and Poochie.
* On ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'', Wanda will get violent if either Timmy or [[Cousin Oliver|Poof]] are threatened.
** Mrs. Turner has her moments of Mama Bear, too, in spite of her usual condition of [[Parental Neglect|neglectful parent]].
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* Eve from Alpha And Omega. Put one paw on her daughter and you're in for a world of pain. This quote says it all:
{{quote|'''Eve''': [[Stepford Smiler|If any of you wolves have hurt my daughter, I will personally]] RIP out your eyes, and SHOVE them down your throat ''so you can see my claws'' '''TEAR YOUR CARCASS OPEN!'''}}
* ''[[The
* Somewhat off-screen in ''[[Winx Club]]'' and crossing with [[Papa Wolf]] is Miriam (Bloom's Mom). After both she and her husband think both their daughters to be death, they according to one account went completly berserk at the ones responsible; the Ancient Coven. Considering how high they are in among other's Faragonda's and Baltor's regard, that says something about the power which was unleashed. Ouch...
* ''[[The Smurfs]]'',
** Smurfette is like this with Baby Smurf, especially in
** In one episode, a [[Fairy Godmother]] proves a ''ferocious'' Mama Bear, willing to hunt down and use violence against anyone who tries to harm or kidnap her godson, turning people into mice if they won't cooperate in her quest to do so.
* Fluttershy of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' is like this to her friends. Although normally painfully shy and quiet, when her friends are in danger, she not only is able to rise to the occasion, she will get ''so'' mad she can glare down a dragon and make it cry. Or glare down a cockatrice ''while being turned into stone.''
** Even if you are a towering, fire-breathing, smoke-snoring dragon, you do not...I REPEAT...''[[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|YOU DO NOT! HURT! HER! FRIENDS!]]'' You ''got'' that?
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* ''[[Cybersix]]'' is this to Lucas, but also very much to Julian. In Julian's introductory episode, we see that this is because he reminds Cybersix of her [[Dead Little Sister|dead brother]] who she failed to save when he fell off of a cliff right next to her.
* Rebecca Cunningham of ''[[Tale Spin]]'' is a literal example, while usually not much for the teams' action packed heroics, she [[Action Girl|really steps up a mile]] whenever Molly is threatened. The others tend to suffer quite an earful whenever they inadvertantly put her in danger as well.
* Anne's mother on ''[[Amphibia (TV series)|Amphibia]]''. Android assassin or otherwise, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoBdn_BJhEU you do ''not'' want to mess with ''her''.]
* ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'':
** The adults in this series are either useless or evil, and the same goes for the parents of the main cast. ''Most'' of the time. In "Operation: T.O.M.M.Y.", the Common Cold's victory over the team is crushed by Numbuh Two's mom, who shoots down his [[Humongous Mecha]] with a giant cannon loaded with chicken soup.
** Numbuh Three is like this towards Bradley, a skunk that she finds in "Operation: C.A.M.P." and assumes to be an orphan, showing maternal instincts towards him and being fiercely protective towards him. Bradley's ''actual'' mother - and [[Papa Wolf|his father]] - who show up at the end of the episode, are the same.
* Eda is a surrogate Mama Bear towards Luz in ''[[The Owl House]]'', Luz's actual mother is a real one, and not just towards Luz. Eda's own mother Gwendolyn qualifies too; after spending decades trying to find a cure for her daughter's condition, [[Unstoppable Rage|she was ''not'' happy]] to discover that the guy selling her "cures" [[Snake Oil Salesman|was, in fact, peddling snake oil...]]
* A Goodfeathers story in ''[[Animaniacs]]'' starts with Pesto egg-sitting for his sister, then losing the egg, then he, Bobby, and Squit searching the entire city for it. They eventually find it, but his sister finds out and, well, this is where it is revealed that Pesto's [[Hair-Trigger Temper]] runs in his family.
== [[Other
▲* "The Small Woman in Grey" is an
* The [[Trope Namer]]: [[media:Grizzly Bear sow and cub in Shoshone National Forest.jpg|Mother bears (''real'' bears)]] will harm, and occasionally kill animals and humans who threaten their cubs. They'll even harm other, often male bears who may harm (not caring that the males are generally bigger than them) the cub so their young will have better chances at surviving.
** There's a video of a mother Grizzly Bear attacking a male Grizzly Bear that got too close to her cubs for her liking, that's been on several TV shows. Considering that male Grizzlies will kill Grizzly cubs so that their now-childless mother will go into heat, this isn't surprising.
** As noted above, Mama Wolves do indeed often act like Mama Bears.
* Elephants, though not limited to a calf's mother. Taking things further, there have been instances of when some of their calves have been killed by lions, the herd would attack the lion pride and kill their cubs.
* Queen cats and Bitch dogs are also naturals at this due to their maternal instincts as they don’t take kindly to attempts at their young. Bitch dogs are also known to treat their human handlers as their young and are often used for personal safety.
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* [https://web.archive.org/web/20141114002201/http://www.littleabout.com/Odd/chinese-woman-catches-falling-baby/98823/ A 2-year-old Chinese girl falls off a 10-store window. A young woman rushes to her and manages to catch her. Sorta.]
* On July 26, 2011, a miniature horse ran away from a mother hen in hot pursuit. Apparently the horse had a nosy tendency that didn't sit well with the Mama Bear hen.
* Cherilyn Sarkisian aka [[Cher]], too. Mama Cher does ''not'' like it when her female-to-male [[transgender]] son Chaz Bono is harassed, [http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/09/01/cher-defends-son-chaz-bono-against-stupid-bigots/ and
* Anna Timofeevna Gagarina, mother of [[Yuri Gagarin]]. Getting between her and her children was [[Berserk Button|not a good idea]]. During [[World War II]], she verbally and [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse|almost physically bested]] an armed and considerably larger [[Nazi Germany|German soldier]] who [[Would Hurt a Child|attempted to hang the youngest son Boris from a tree]]—needless to say he was quickly released to her. Apparently, before Yuri's funeral, she demanded the casket [[Brain Bleach|be opened]].
* [http://abcnews.go.com/US/okla-woman-shoots-kills-intruder911-operators-shoot/story?id=15285605 This Oklahoma woman].
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