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.}}

** Mustang's birth parents died when he was a young child.

** The homunculi in the manga have a father, but no mother. This is first addressed by Pride, when he mentions that he never knew what it was like to have a mother until he was adopted by Mrs. Bradley.

** Jessie's mom Miyamoto went missing on an expedition to find Mew.

* Quint, the mother of Subaru and Ginga Nakajima in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', was an [[Action Mom]] who was killed during a secret mission. Her death didn't seem to affect them in a negative way, and they remember her quite fondly. ''Nanoha'' is much more notable for ''[[Fundamentally Female Cast|missing men]]'', though, Nanoha herself has a father that her ''[[Triangle Heart 3 ～sweet songs forever～]]'' counterpart didn't (he was killed while in his bodyguard work while his wife Momoko was still pregnant with Nanoha).

* Nadeshiko in ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' died when Sakura was three years old. Like in the ''Nanoha'' example, there doesn't seem to be any negative repercussions and her presence can still be felt in the series... sometimes literally, since she visits her family every so often as a ghost.

* In ''[[Lucky Star]]'', Konata's [[Ill Girl]] mother Kanata died when Konata was very young, forcing her [[Otaku]] father to raise her on his own. An episode has her visiting her family as a ghost... which causes much terror for Konata and her father when she secretly joins in on a picture. [[Hilarity Ensues]], in a genuine way.

** In After Story, {{spoiler|the main character works to keep it from repeating with Ushio after getting a wake-up-call. That's because Nagisa, Ushio's mother, [[Death by Childbirth|died in childbirth]].}}

* ''[[Ranma ½]]'' has a boatload of missing mothers:

** 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.

** Kuzco from ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]'' lacks in the parental department as well.

** The female eponymous character from ''[[Lilo and Stitch (Disney film)|Liloand Stitch]]'' lives with her older sister. Apparently their parents died recently, as she remembers things they used to say. Given her explanation ("It was raining, and they went for a drive"), we can assume they died in a car accident.

** ''[[Dinosaur]]'': Aladar is separated from his mother when his egg is unexpectedly taken away from her nest by a hungry Oviraptor while his mother was trying to protect said nest from [[Big Bad|the Carnotaurus]]. The Oviraptor then takes the egg into a nearby forest where it proceeds to crack it open and eat the fetus inside, but loses the egg to another Oviraptor. While the two Oviraptors begin to fight over the egg, Aladar's egg rolls off a ledge and into a nearby river where it is then picked up by a passing Pterodactyl. The Pterodactyl then flies the egg all the way to Lemur Island (home to Aladar's eventual foster family of lemurs) and leaves it there, where he will eventually hatch and be adopted. It's implied that his biological mother was either killed by [[Big Bad|the Carnotaurus]] (who also smashed her other eggs) or was among the many dinosaurs that was killed by the meteorite.

*** Inverted with [[Last of Her Kind|Baylene]] however. She, despite being one of the oldest dinosaurs in the film, actually lost her spouse, as well of all of her siblings and her descendants to the meteorite, therefore making her the last surviving Brachiosaurus on Earth. Also, Plio, the lemur girl that adopts Aladar, despite her father being the chief of the lemur clan, actually doesn't have a mother as well. Inverted with Plio herself, where even though she already has a daughter named Suri, she actually doesn't have a husband.

* ''Fly Away Home'' begins with the heroine's mother dying in car crash.

* This is the plot of ''Grace Is Gone''. The mother died in Iraq, and the father tries to explain this to kids.

* In ''[[Spaceballs]]'', princess Vespa has (naturally) no mother.

* The heroine of ''[[Whale Rider]]'' has no mother.

* In the ''[[Alice, Girl from the Future|Alisa Selezneva]]'' series by K. Bulychev, Alisa nominally has both parents, but only her father is actually present.

* In [[Diana Wynne Jones]]' [[Chrestomanci]] story ''Charmed Life'', Cat and Gwendolyn's parents are killed.

* ''[[The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time]]'': Christopher, an eccentric boy, is raised by his father because his mother has died. {{spoiler|Or so he's been told, and the fact she hadn't}} is a major plot point.

* ''[[The City of Ember]]'' by Jeanne DuPrau is a double load. Lina Mayfleet has a missing mom that died when her younger sister Poppy was born ''and'' a [[Disappeared Dad]] that died shortly after the mother. But her friend Doon Harrow has a missing mom that has no explanation whatsoever. Many fans' favorite excuse is that she died when Doon was young.

* ''[[Smart Guy (TV series)|Smart Guy]]'': Ditto with the above examples.

* ''[[Sanford and Son]]'': Lamont's deceased mother Elizabeth, who Fred is always claiming he's "coming to join" during his fake heart attacks.

* ''Make Room For Daddy'': The 1956-1957 season fits this trope, as Danny Thomas' original co-star Jean Hagen, left the show after the end of the third season and her character was [[McLeaned]].

* ''[[Step by Step]]'': Frank Lambert's wife abandoned him and their three children (J.T., Al, and Brendan). Although it is implied that she is still very much alive, she disappeared to parts unknown and has no contact with her children, leaving step-mother Carol Foster to fill the void.

* 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:

* In ''[[Castle]]'', Meredith—Richard's ex-wife and Alexis' mother—lives in Los Angeles to further her acting career, meaning she's not around. Played with, in that as much as Richard and Alexis care for her they're kind of ''glad'' she's missing—she's flighty, irresponsible (even more so than Richard) and [[The Ditz|ditzy]], with the kind of obnoxiously shallow personality that grates after a while.

* In ''[[China Beach]]'', [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold|KC Koloski]] is a missing mom for most of the time as far as her daughter Karen is concerned. There are references to a few visits in infancy, but Karen was mostly raised by a Vietnamese nanny until her mother got her onto one of the last choppers out of Saigon and sent her to the U.S. to live with KC's old friend (and former john) Boonie.

* The main characters' mother in ''[[Charmed]]'' was drowned by a Warlock when they were very young. Prue saw her die, Phoebe was too young to remember her at all, and Paige never knew her since she was raised by [[Muggle Foster Parents]]. They meet her in the past and some episodes feature her as a [[Spirit Advisor]], though.

* On ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]'', it's eventually established that Hawkeye's mother died when he was ten (although, in one of several [[Series Continuity Error|continuity error]]s on the show, an early episode has him mention her as if she were alive).

** April and Bianca's mother lives in Italy.

** In an odd twist, some of the fan favourites are parents who outlasted their kids' stay on the show. Miles may or may not qualify, given that Rabbit was actually a ghost.

* The premise of ''[[My Two Dads]]''.

* [[Frasier]] Crane's mother was dead at the start of the series but had appeared on ''[[Cheers]]''.

* Elaine's mother on ''[[Seinfeld]]'' is never mentioned and presumably dead.

* Carrie's mother on ''[[The King of Queens]]''.

* Sean's mother on ''[[Grounded for Life]]''.

* Tessa from ''[[Suburgatory]]''.

* ''[[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.

* In ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'', Spike the bulldog has a son but his mate is nowhere to be seen.

* Pretty much everyone in ''[[Defenders of the Earth]]''—King Features' answer to the JLA that teams up [[Flash Gordon (comic strip)|Flash Gordon]], [[The Phantom (comic strip)|The Phantom]], [[Mandrake the Magician]] and his sidekick Lothar along with their children Rick, Jedda, K'Shin & Lothar Jr—suffered from this. Rick is orphaned in the very first episode {{spoiler|when his mother, assumed to be but never named as Dale Arden, dies resisting Ming's mind probes. Though they somehow manage to rescue her essence to power the Defenders' super computer, she is never mentioned again nor are Flash or Rick ever shown interacting with the computer as though it held emotional value for them}}. Jedda's mother is never mentioned at all, nor is LJ's (though one might presume that the absent women were Diana and Karma, their father's respective lovers from the source comics), while K'Shin was an orphan adopted by Mandrake.

* The mother of the protagonists of ''[[Street Sharks]]'' is never seen and her absence is hardly mentioned at all. All that is known is that she gave their father a watch for his birthday, which he valued greatly (implying that she was dead).

* ''[[Kid vs. Kat]]'': Coop & Molly Burtonburger's Mother is never seen or heard of, it is most likely that she is dead or divorced

* Mr. Chan in ''[[The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan]]'' appears to be a single father, as no mention is ever made of the childrens' mother. Popular fan theory is that he's a widower. (Not that farfetched, actually: [[Charlie Chan]] actually ''is'' a widower in the original books.)

* Sylvester the Cat and his son in the Robert McKimson-directed [[Looney Tunes|WB cartoons]] where Sylvester mistakes Hippety Hopper the kangaroo as a giant mouse. No mom seen, none mentioned.

* [[Only Sane Man|Jeera]] and [[The Ditz|Zariah]] from ''[[Tak and the Power of Juju]]'' just only lived with their [[Fat Bastard]] of a father.

* Keo from ''[[Yakkity Yak]]'' only lived with his dad.

[[Category:Always Female]]

[[Category:Orphaned Index]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]