http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MamaBear

Get away from her, you BITCH!" note Ripley is not Newt's mother. She's still very deadly when a small child is in danger.

Max: What did you do?

Mary Jo Miller: I... I'm not totally sure. When I try to remember, everything goes by too fast. I had it by the neck. It pulled Jenna toward its open mouth. I squeezed hard... pulled... The kids say I tore the thing's head off, just ripped it right out with all the flesh and muscle and whatever else hanging in tatters. World War Z What did you do?I... I'm not totally sure. When I try to remember, everything goes by too fast. I had it by the neck. It pulled Jenna toward its open mouth. I squeezed hard... pulled... The kids say I tore the thing's head off, just ripped it right out with all the flesh and muscle and whatever else hanging in tatters.

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Like many other mammals depicted throughout history as predators, bears are actually passive animals, and won't attack humans unless provoked. Despite this, if you even think about getting between a mother bear and her cub she'll tear straight through you. Threaten her children, and you are in for a world of hurt. Righteous awesomeness will ensue, and the heroine reclaims her child with a tearful embrace.

Heaven help you if an Action Mom or even a Team Mom invokes this trope. If you think a normal Mama Bear is 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.

Losing her child may cause a Start of Darkness into villainy or Anti-Hero-dom... anything if it will get her revenge, and not just on her own enemy but on anyone who would inflict this same pain on others.

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The Spear Counterpart is referred to as Papa Wolf rather than "Papa Bear". Disneyfication aside, male bears are notoriously poor parents in the animal kingdom (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.

Sometimes overlaps with Apron Matron and Pregnant Badass. It can be a cause of Let's Get Dangerous!, showing that the sweet and caring mother figure is dangerous. They may be a Knight Templar Parent. Provides a simultaneously simple and believable way to switch someone between dangerous and more "cute" modes without compromising the character as either. After all, if It's Personal then the claws come out.

If an older sibling is the one who takes up the role, s/he is a case of Big Brother Instinct / Big Sister Instinct. For a teacher who behaves like a Mama Bear if their students are threatened, see Badass Teacher. When it's the child who shows extreme feats of bravery or strength, and/or is very protective of their mother, it's Extremely Protective Child.

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Related to Beware the Nice Ones and Berserk Button. See also the non-human counterpart, Monster Is a Mommy. Not to be confused with Bears Are Bad News (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, though male badasses are also common. Also compare Cub Cues Protective Parent for examples from the animal kingdom.

Remember when adding examples that this is a female-only trope. The male equivalent is "Papa Wolves" so all Spear Counterparts should be placed there. When Mama Bear and Papa Wolf team up, it's a Battle Couple and all pairs should be placed there. Parents in Distress is the inversion, when Mama needs to be bailed out by the kids. If she has a Mama Bear of her own, it's a good idea to Never Mess with Granny.

Also, remember that this this trope is mama bear, so it is not about being protective of one's friends, unless of course it is something like an Intergenerational Friendship or Team Mom. In that case, it is okay. Otherwise, don't do it. Tropes about helping friends should go to A Friend in Need, The Power of Friendship etc.

This trope is Truth in Television, and universal.

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Comic Strips

Dilbert: The Dilmom frequently gives her son a hard time, but she does take exception to MIBs making noises about executing him.

to MIBs making noises about executing him. The Far Side: "Tragedy struck when Conroy, his mind preoccupied with work, stepped into the elevator — directly between a female grizzly and her cub." In another example, two of Larson's typical "dumb kid" types are playing catch with a live grizzly bear cub unaware that the mother is coming up right behind them. The caption sums it up: "And no one ever heard from the Anderson brothers again."

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.

Manhwa

In Ciel The Last Autumn Story Teresa is very concerned about her daughter Yvienne's well-being, and she's got the intimidating physique to back it up.

Music

Diss Reba McEntire, I dare you; Terri Clark will take your face off

A literal Mama Bear appears in mothy's "Moonlit Bear" , in which the protagonist, Eve (portrayed by Miku), steals two "apples" from a bear, which then proceeds to chase her through the forest. Turns out that the Mama Bear is a human mother after all, and the two "apples" are actually her twin children, whom she is desperate to retrieve. Out of fear as well as her desire to have children of her own since hers are deceased, Eve ends up murdering the "bear" .

Mythology & Religion

Persephone's mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest, refuses to allow any growth of crops until her daughter is returned to her from the Underworld, resulting in many mortal deaths. Made more interesting in that Persephone's kidnapper/husband is also her uncle, Demeter's younger brother Hades, and that in several versions Perephone was not kidnapped, but actually eloped with him to put herself beyond her mom's reach. Invoked quite literally in one story by Zeus. One of his numerous paramours was turned into a bear by Hera (or Artemis, depending who you ask), with one of the added benefits if it was Hera being that either the woman or her son would kill the other. So how does Zeus save both of them? By turning the son into a bearcub.

Durga from Hindu Mythology. She is a nurturing mother goddess, but she is also a very 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.

Primordial Greek goddess of darkness Nyx, according to Homer, to the extent that Zeus was afraid of incurring her wrath by harming her son, Hypnos.

In 2 Samuel 17:8, when Ahithophel plans to attack King David, Hushai warns against it, noting that David and his mighty men will turn fierce like a bear robbed of her cubs. According to Proverbs 17:12, it is "better to meet a mother bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly." [N.I.V.] A literal example occurs in 2 Kings 2:23-24, as the prophet Elisha is going from Jericho to Bethel after Elijah ascends to heaven in a fiery chariot, some young men mock him for his baldness and tell him to go up; Elisha calls for a curse, and two female bears attack forty-two of the youths immediately afterwards. Since Proverbs was written during the reign of King Solomon, and the 2 Kings example occurred some time after Solomon's era during the reigns of King Jehoram of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah, these examples are Older Than Dirt. In Hosea 13:8, God plans to meet the proudhearted with the fury of a bear robbed of her cubs, tearing their rib cages open and devouring them like a lion.



Roleplaying Games

Dino Attack RPG has Sarah Bishop. She even got a moment homaging the climax of Aliens. At the same time, however, Sarah Bishop is partially a deconstruction. She is (understandably) concerned about her daughter being in a war zone, but her own Adult Fear made her completely psychotic to the point that many players expressed genuine fear of her. This same thing also broke her psychologically once the war was finally over and she'd realized what she had done.

Tabletop Games

Theatre

Kim from Miss Saigon 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!"

, 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!" The interpretation of Umbridge in A Very Potter Sequel likes to consider herself a mama bear In-Universe — ""It's your Mama Umbridge's job to keep her baby bears safe!" However, she doesn't actually fulfill this role and just embarrasses the girls.

Invoked in a Dream Sequence in Dream Girl to prove that Georgina's killing of Clark Redfield in cold-blood was a justified act of self-defense: "For what was this novel of hers that Clark Redfield sought to annihilate with the cruel strokes of his sharp-edged tongue and stabbing wit? It was her baby, ladies and gentlemen, the child of her spirit, as real to her and as dear to her as though it had been, indeed, the flesh-and-blood creation of her body. For it was conceived in the beautiful ecstasy of spiritual passion, nurtured for long months in the dark, secret recesses of her soul, brought forth in an agony of travail. And as it lay nestling in her bosom, so to speak, Clark Redfield struck at it with his lethal weapon! And with the noble, unerring instinct of outraged maternity, she struck back—struck back at the would-be assassin of her baby. Could any mother, could any woman do less?"

Urban Legends

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 a 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 the 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, burying it alive, and its mother had defied death to feed it until this was discovered.

Visual Novels