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Mommy Issues: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''Mother? May I call you mother? ''My'' mother was a person with no self-respect of her own, so she tried to take mine. Ten years old, she had the scissors, you wouldn't believe what she did with those...(chuckling) She's dead to me now. Mostly 'cause [[I'm a Humanitarian|I killed and ate her.]]''|'''Kralik''', ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' }}
This is a much darker take on the usual [[
The villain is a [[Villain By Default|basement-dwelling, creepy, perverted sociopath]] with nothing but contempt for his chosen target villain group ([[Women in Refrigerators|almost always women]]). Rather than give the character just any [[Freudian Excuse]], the creators have decided to give the character a mother who is unstable, cruel, [[My Beloved Smother|demanding, possessive, controlling]], and sometimes outright insane. She isn't the [[Evil Matriarch]]... she isn't a true villain in her own right. But she's twisted her son's psyche from birth through years and years of psychological and physical abuse. Bonus points if [[Parental Incest|the relationship is incestuous]].
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Sadly, this is sometimes [[Truth in Television]]. A subtrope of [[Freudian Excuse]], almost always reserved for characters who are sexual deviants of one stripe or another, or else [[Serial Killer|Serial Killers]].
Compare [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]. For the other type of Mommy or Daddy Issues, see [["Well Done, Son" Guy]].
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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* Although not his actual mother, [[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Athena]] inflicted this training on young Hayate, shown in a flashback which included kicking him in the stomach while teaching him that he had to be financially able to care for a girl before he could have a girlfriend. Those lessons have still stuck with him to present (10 years later) and considering he's currently carrying a 150 million yen debt, he doesn't think he can be anyone's boyfriend. Ignoring, of course, that most of his [[Unwanted Harem]] could sit on their hands and make more in a day than he could if he spent the rest of his life working.
** Hayate's actual mother and father are responsible for the 150 million yen debt and tried to sell him to the yakuza to pay it off. Hayate never seems bitter about this despite spending most of his life paying off his parent's debts and consistently getting stolen from (Hayate is only 16!).
*** His current debt is his own and self incurred. [[Paper
* Oskar von Reuentahl from ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' is an interesting subversion in that he lacks the typical traits associated with the trope - he's not even a villain but a sort of [[Tragic Hero]]. He is, however, a bitter misogynist who never refuses women's advances but inevitably ends up breaking their heart when he gets bored of them. Later on he becomes involved in an unhealthy and abusive relationship with a woman whom he indirectly compares to his mother. The reason is his mother thinking his [[Mismatched Eyes|brown eye]] an omen about her brown-eyed lover and trying to gouge it out with a knife when he was just a baby. When she didn't succeed she went insane and eventually killed herself, driving Reuentahl's father to alcohol and emotional abuse.
* The entirety of ''[[Brain Powerd]]''. Every episode of it. In particular, Yuu and Johnathan.
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* The [[Serial Killer|Red Rose Killer]] in Robert B. Parker's ''Crimson Joy'', who killed women and left red roses at each scene, was abused by his mother, Rose Black.
* John Dread, from Tad Williams's ''[[Otherland]]'' series, is a monster because his mother abused him while he was growing up. She specifically ''wanted'' her son to grow up to be a monster, and it worked. None of this makes him any less horrifying.
* Ben Ladradun of ''[[Circle of Magic|Cold Fire]]'' was berated and abused by his mother for basically his entire life; he got respect and attention for the first time when he became a firefighting expert. And then promptly devolved into a [[Pyromaniac]] [[Serial Killer]] by way of a [[Well
* ''[[In Death]]'': Well, this trope has popped up a number of times! Just check out ''Glory In Death'', ''Vengeance In Death'', ''Visions In Death'', ''Born In Death'', and ''New York To Dallas''.
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== Videogames ==
* Curtis, the protagonist of ''[[Phantasmagoria a Puzzle of Flesh|Phantasmagoria 2]]''. As a 6-year old kid, he endured extremely [[Cold
** Some things to clarify here. Curtis's mother did not hang herself in front of the boy. She hanged herself, and he found her afterwards. There is the possibility that {{spoiler|the Hecatomb committed [[Mind Rape]] on Curtis' mother - the same way it did to Curtis, and that the Hecatomb was acting through her and eventually had her kill herself to traumatize Curtis}}. Another detail to point out her is that {{spoiler|Paul Allen Warner and the Hecatomb were not working together. Paul Allen Warner had Curtis' father murdered}}.
* Sephiroth from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. Oh so very much. You have to be "quite" messed up to want to try a smash a Meteor into the Planet so you could eat up all the Lifestream to become a God. Apparently, it's cause Mommy did that thousands of years before, and now he wants to be a good son and make her proud by doing the same!
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{{quote| '''Raven:''' Let's just say I have some issues with my father.}}
* Azula in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Interpretations]] of [[Mama Bear|Ursa]] vary: the only time she appears, it's from Zuko's perspective of past events and, therefore, likely idealized and slightly unreliable. Azula, with her mind twisted by [[Freudian Excuse|Ozai's]] emotionally abusive and violent tendencies, could only fixate on her belief that 'Mother loved Zuko best' and that 'my own mother thought I was a monster'. [[Lampshade Hanging|She points it out herself]], but it's very clear she was always yearning for her mother's approval and love -- and just as clear that Ursa was concerned for her. Fortunately, none of this is pertinent because the only thing you really need for Mommy Issues is the perception of an uncaring mother.
** As for Zuko, he has his own paternal issues, what with the [["Well Done, Son" Guy|need for retribution in his father's eyes]] and all.
* See [[Nineties Anti Hero]] for [[The Tick]] parody
* Gazpacho from ''[[Chowder]]''
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