Motherly Scientist: Difference between revisions

The trope can contain [[X Meets Y|one or more of the following]] scenarios, depending on the scientist's personality and background. (And as evident within these scenarios, the role isn't limited to a scientific researcher, but also doctor, technician—and even farther flung, priest or ''magic-user''—as long as there is a strict set of rules, obligations, expectations or beliefs that the motherly figure turns her back to in order to treat the subject with care.)

'''"They're like my own children" scenario '''

There's also the other Doomsday scenario. She dies; and her charges [[Morality Chain|decide that there's nothing holding them back from taking revenge on everyone.]]

'''"[[Free Willy]]" scenario ([[Mad Scientist]] not required)'''

After researching a non-human subject for a while and giving it a name, the doctor's nurturing instincts finally kicks in, causing the doctor to form a mother/father-child bond with the [[Innocent Aliens|poor little thing]] until the eventual decision to free the subject. If she met the creature in the jungle, and there are more of them, she could become a [[Nature Hero]]. Can turn into "[[Tarzan]] And Jane" if the subject is biologically and age-compatible with her. If by contrast, the subject isn't biologically compatible and the scientist needs to separate, it ends up with a [[Tear Jerker]] goodbye.

'''[[The Adventures of Pinocchio|Pinocchio]] scenario'''

# If the doctor's an expert in genetics, [[Gadgeteer Genius|cybernetics]], arcane magic, or alchemy, the plot starts when she creates [[Frankenstein's Monster|a new life form]] or [[Artificial Intelligence]] with a [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|ridiculously human]] body. The young child then begins to [[What Is This Thing You Call Love?|develop emotions]] [[Heartwarming Orphan|in such a way]] that the doctor's heart's is moved into raising the child as her own. In this scenario, it's common that the doctor serves as parent, [[Pinocchio Syndrome|psychologist and physicist]] for the [[Robot Kid]] who wants to [[Become a Real Boy]].

The extremely rare inversion of this trope happens when the A.I. ''becomes'' the adoptive mother. Usually happens with a supercomputer storing [[Virtual Ghost|mommy's memories]].

* Professor Kisaragi, ''[[Cutey Honey]]'''s creator/dad.

* Lorelei from ''[[Saber Marionette J|Saber Marionette JtoX]]''—she is, [[The Three Faces of Eve|in more than a way]], the mother of all the marionettes.

* Kanami from ''[[Darker than Black]]'' cared a lot about [[media:DtB13 Kanami and Dolls 336x178 4178.png|catatonic Dolls]] [[People Jars|in jars]] and learned their individual quirks, which became evident in the episode when CY-463 trapped them. In her observatory they are more ''tools'' than ''subjects'', but it's not like she could do for them any more even if she had any real power.

** When in ''Shikkoku no Hana'' the Astronomy Bureau "doll system" was about to be closed, Kanami decided to quit. And go Hawaii, to "live as far away from things like the Gate and Contractors as possible"—an interesting statement, Dolls being an effect of the Gate as much as Contractors.

* Zigzagged in ''[[.hack//Sign]]'': Tsukasa finds a mother in the A.I. Morganna. Later he realizes she's not his real mother, but actually an [[Evil Matriarch]]. But then it turns out that {{spoiler|she ''was'' designed to have a mother role for the Key of Twilight, but as she wasn't programmed with [[Empty Nest Syndrome|any role afterwards]], she just went mad and decided that the Key should ''never'' awaken at all.}}

* Male example: Dr. Isaac Gilmore from ''[[Cyborg 009]]'' is the [[Team Dad]] of the Cyborg group. And in is case, he ''has'' to, since he used to be one one of the [[Mad Scientist]]s that cyborg-ized them in the first place.

* A sweet yet sad example in ''[[El Cazador de la Bruja]]'', with the Professor slowly becoming the [[Fatherly Scientist]] to Ellis {{spoiler|before his death, as shown through flashbacks}}.

* It's heavily implied that Dr. Kamiya acts as a male version of this towards {{spoiler|Shiro}} in ''[[Afterschool Charisma]]''.

* Important part of the alleged backstory to ''[[Akumetsu]]'', where a female scientist involved in the evil genius' attempts to clone himself a perfect new body winds up bonding with the Perfect Copy. They fall in love, kill the guy, and burn everything, but he dies...leaving her with about a hundred infant clones. Somehow she gets them adopted all over Japan, all with the first name 'Shou,' and keeps one to raise herself, dying before he turns eighteen but apparently training him to use all the tech she'd helped invent. Of course, we hear this via a Shou, and all of them are fundamentally [[Unreliable Narrator]]s.

** They are also [[Trope Overdosed]]; most of Akumetsu's shticks are pulled straight from Japanese TV, and the Shou telling the story is clearly very conscious of this trope as he tells it. He also cheerfully casts doubt on its accuracy ''himself''; they're all insane, after all. Doctor Shou appears to have been raised by the Motherly Scientist, though.

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Ariel Hanson from ''[[StarCraft]] II''—she does the research to save the lives of the infected colonists.

* Dr. Mizrahi from ''[[Xenosaga]]'' was [[Robot Girl|MOMO]]'s adoptive mother. Even Shion had her Motherly Scientist moments towards KOS-MOS, but that was quickly substituted by [[Les Yay]].

** Ciel in ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'' is motherly towards Alouette, {{spoiler|perhaps out of guilt for what she did to her own creation, who ended up the [[Big Bad]].}}

* Dr. Gustav Brackman from ''[[Supreme Commander]]'' sees all [[Hollywood Cyborg|Cybrans]] as his children.

* Lemon Browning of ''[[Super Robot Taisen]] [[Original Generation]] 2'' generally treats her androids as tools, albeit valuable ones. But when Lamia starts to develop human emotions and betrays her to save the protagonists, she starts to act like a proud mother, and even helps Lamia escape captivity. {{spoiler|This is because Lemon is an android herself, and was rejected by her own parents for not being a suitable [[Replacement Goldfish|replacement for their dead daughter]].}}