Missing Mom: Difference between revisions

[[File:WoodenRoseMissingMother 4718.jpg|link=Wooden Rose|frame]]

 

 

A subtrope of [[Parental Abandonment]]: The mother of a character or characters is missing or absent.

Missing Moms are often considered more unusual than a missing father, and may be more likely to have their absence explicitly explained. This might be because a man can technically leave his babymamma at any time after knocking her up (or she can leave him), but a woman carrying a child to term and giving birth, then disappearing, is rarer, especially if it was by her own choice, since it contradicts the [[Closer to Earth]] image most cultures have of women. If it was [[Death by Childbirth]] that disposed of the mother, this is usually mentioned because it adds an extra touch of tragedy to the character's life.

 

 

Missing Moms are almost always remembered in a positive light, unlike Disappeared Dads. Expect the father to wax poetic about the times they shared, and to tell a female hero "You look so much like your mother." [[Death by Childbirth]] can be a cause of this. The exception to this sympathetic view is the rare cases where the '''Missing Mom''' is both alive and ''willingly'' abandoned her child, in which case she will probably been portrayed as worse than a mere deadbeat dad. Combine with [[Disappeared Dad]], and you get [[Parental Abandonment]]. This can also lead the way to a [[Wicked Stepmother]] if the father remarries, or a child's [[Tell Me About My Mother]]. If the mother is [[Really Dead Montage|dead]], the surviving spouse is almost obligated to have a [[Happier Home Movie]] about her, such as a wedding video or one with the hero as a baby.

 

* ''[[Slayers]]'': The queen of Seyruun and the mother of [[Genki Girl|Amelia]] and her older sister Gracia was murdered by an assassin that was after the latter princess. {{spoiler|Gracia killed said assassin ''[[Bloody Murder|very messily]]'', [[Break the Cutie|was extremely traumatised due to that]], and left to learn of the world the next day under a ''nom de guerre,'' "Naga the Serpent," and would eventually meet [[Redheaded Hero|Lina]] among other things.}} From the scant amount of times this is mentioned, Amelia is still rather sensitive about it.

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'': Radical Edward/Françoise has no mother. She's nearly a case of [[Parental Abandonment]] as well, because her father ''forgot'' her in an orphanage for several years, and seems not entirely sure his child is a girl, or what her name is. {{spoiler|Which is why it's so sad when she leaves the Bebop, because Jet was a far better father for her than her real dad.}}

** Shampoo's father was seen a time or two in the manga, but never her mother, and she is otherwise raised by her great-grandmother.

** Both of Ryoga Hibiki's parents are never around due to an [[No Sense of Direction|improbably bad sense of direction]] and we never meet them. Different from the ''[[Ranma ½]]'' norm because they're all alive and aware of the others' existence and would spend more time together under better circumstances.

** The Kuno siblings' mother and Ukyo's mother are never seen or even mentioned.

* ''[[Inuyasha]]'' has three as well:

* The death of Flit Asuno's mother happens right at the start of [[Mobile Suit Gundam AGE]], and it's ''vital'' to the plot: Mrs. Asuno, in her last moments, handed young Flit the design for a mobile suit... the Gundam that he would later build.

* In the [[Ace Attorney]] manga's "Turnabout From Heaven" case, the defendant, Diana Wheatley, says she was visited by the spirit of her mother, who was killed in an auto accident 16 years ago and promised to give her a necklace when she turned 20. {{spoiler|It turns out that her dead supposed birth mother was actually her stepmother, because the birth certificates were altered, and that her actual mother was working for her father in disguise}}.

 

* [[Batwoman]] lost her mother in a hostage situation when she was a kid. {{spoiler|She also lost her twin sister...or so she thought.}}

* Matt Murdock, aka [[Daredevil]], was raised entirely by his father (this turned into [[Parental Abandonment]] when the guy was murdered in the first issue of Matt's series). His mother went completely unmentioned for over twenty years before finally showing up out of the blue; turns out that she abandoned her child to become a nun.

* In ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'', this is rather masterfully pulled off. {{spoiler|Virginia finds out her mother is alive, and is actually pretty much the person responsible for her and her father getting pulled into the plot. She already knew that her mother had left, but she didn't know that she'd wound up as a wicked step-mother in a parallel fairy-tale world.}} This leads to a rather realistic rant after she finds out.

* One important motive for [[The Adventures of Shirley Holmes|Shirley Holmes]] is to solve the mystery of her Mother's disappearance. {{spoiler|And she does, eventually.}}

** Likewise, Kara Thrace's mother was so abusive that she {{spoiler|once broke all of Kara's fingers by slamming her hand repeatedly in a door. She later refused to congratulate Kara's graduation, focusing on her mistakes instead.}} This made Kara so angry that {{spoiler|she never went to see her mother as she was dying of lung cancer.}}

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' loves this:

* ''[[World of Mana]] 2'', the hero has a Missing Mom and a [[Disappeared Dad]] {{spoiler|She become a tree and die short after meeting the hero and his dad was dead already}}

* Mia and Maya's mother, Misty Fey, in the ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney|Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney]]'' games. Disappeared after the [[Arc Words|DL-6]] incident, leaving Maya and Mia alone. [[spoiler: She was ultimately killed in the last case of ''Trials&Tribulations'', while trying to protect poor Maya from [[The Plan|a trap prepared by Misty's sister, Morgan.]].

*** From the same series, although their respective fathers are key characters to the plot and [[Backstory]], neither Franziska's nor Edgeworth's mothers are ever even mentioned. [[Fanon|The fandom's explanation for this]] is that they're either dead or were not connected to law.

*** Kay Faraday has a similar problem. After {{spoiler|her father is murdered}} she says she "went to live with her mom's family" in another town, which indicates either a death or a divorce. Someone on the writing staff had serious mom issues.

* Requisite ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' example: Tedd's Mother left when he was little and is presently "somewhere in Europe", leaving poor Tedd with some serious abandonment issues.

** [http://egscomics.com/?date=2007-11-24 Serious] [http://egscomics.com/?date=2004-09-15 issues].

* Sam(antha) from ''[[Cheer]]'', implied to be [[Death by Childbirth]].

** And both of Alex's parents are pretty distant with her.

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', the identity of Gilgamesh Wulfenbach's mother is unknown, although hinted at.

** Similarly, we've never met Tarvek's mother and don't know much about her beyond her connection to an illustrious family.

* In ''[[Seekers (webcomic)|Seekers]]'' Giselda's mother died when she was rather young. The reason hasn't been explained yet, just that Takchi took care of her like a brother through it.

* Sandra's mother Julie of ''[[Sandra and Woo]]'' died of an yet unknown cause several years ago.

* ''[[Wooden Rose]]'': The sisters live with only their dying father. [http://www.woodenrosecomic.com/comic/chapter2/40.html Their mother died when Nessa was only four.]

* In ''[[Endstone]]'', both [http://endstone.net/2010/07/15/4-06/ Kyri] and [http://endstone.net/2010/05/24/issue-3-webpage-36/ Jon] lost their mothers.

* In ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'', Halley's mother died. Trying to live up to her injunction to be better than the [[Vice City]] they lived in has been a driving force in Halley's life.

* In ''[[Exiern]]'' Princess Peonie's mother is described as ...[http://www.exiern.com/?p=1830 significant pause]... "disappeared". The King is on the hunt for a replacement mother figure for her.

* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0248.html Julie and Angelika's]. Angelika doesn't even remember her, and the family fell apart soon after her death.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' could practically have its own entry!

** Aang had Monk Gyatso as father figure (and has the spirit of Roku, plus King Bumi as current day father figures), but there was no indication of a mother in his [[Backstory]] to date.

** Katara and Sokka begin with a Missing Mom, but end up as a [[Parental Abandonment]] case as their father leaves to fight the Fire Nation, leaving Gran-Gran Kanna to raise them instead.

** Toph is a forced inversion. Her parents were both present, but emotionally and supportively absent. They were overprotective to the point of the outside world not knowing that Toph existed. And they left her caretaking to servants, so they never realized until the Avatar showed up that she was a master earthbender. Upon finding this out, seeing that their child was not only ''[[Cute Bruiser|not]]'' [[Cute Bruiser|helpless]] but able to hold her own against much bigger, older and seemingly stronger opponents, Mr. Bei Fong reacted by tightening the yoke of overprotectiveness. His wife did nothing but go along with it, which resulted in Toph abandoning them and running away.

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