History Main / EvilMatriarch

* Tamaki's grandmother Shizune in ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' looks down on him because he can't live up to her restrictively high standards for her family, and forbids him from seeing his mother. Oh, and Tamaki [[spoiler:is the heir because his grandmother bought him, as Tamaki's IllGirl mother Anne Sophie would quickly die in a life of poverty]].

* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse has Ta'a Chume, the queen of the Hapes Cluster, who arranges her eldest son's murder so that Isolder (the youngest) would take the throne. When her son found a fiancé who was pacifistic Ta'a Chume had her murdered had made it look like a suicide. Then she plans to seduce her future daughter-in-law's [[Creator/MarkHamill brother]] and kill him. ''Then'' after her son finds another woman and [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready Leia marries Han]], she tries to kill granddaughter and great-granddaughter because the former and her boyfriend (a.k.a. the latter's father) are Jedi. [[note]]An aside: Technically, Tenel Ka lets Jacen use her fleet in exchange for an heir. But male prostitution for females is common in myth, and these are [[AuthorAppeal Troy Denning]] books.[[/note]] Jacen {{Mind Rape}}s her, ending her tyranny. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Guess who becomes a Sith in a few years?]]

* ''Manga/{{Ooku}}: The Inner Chambers'':

* The jealously possessive villain mother Madame Sebastian in ''Film/{{Notorious}}''.

* Beatrice Horseman from ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', mother of the eponymous protagonist, blames her son's birth for ruining her life and leaving her stranded in a horrible loveless marriage, which led her to becoming a horrible abusive mother and heavily contributing towards Bojack ecoming an extremely messed up individual with deep emotional scars. Season 4 goes into great detail explaining her backstory and humanizing her, but the show still makes it clear that regardless of what happened to her, the way she treated her son was not acceptable simply because she had a difficult life.

* Mayu's mother from ''Manga/ElfenLied''. She [[LackOfEmpathy shows no empathy]] towards Mayu when she tells her that her stepfather is molesting her and belittles her because she is [[ForTheEvulz jealous of the "attention" her stepfather was giving her]], and tells her that she wouldn't care if she vanished.

* ''Anne-Marthe dubut from ''Innocent'' by ShinichiSakamoto is a good exemple. She manipulates both her sons, Charles-Jean-Baptiste and Nicolas-Charles Gabriel Sanson. She manipulated Jean-Baptiste so much that he allows her to run his life even if he is an adult with a stable job, married with children. Nicolas-Gabriel was neglected as a child by his mother, only to have her praise him in adulthood so he can be a "good little helper". To her grand-children, he isn't any better. She grooms her grandson Charles-Henri into become an executioner with a mixture of heavy CorporalPunishment and flattery and she litterally used a hot iron on the six year old Marie-Josephe. On top of it, she is quite dismissive of Jeanne, her daughter-in-law.

* Also from Marvel, the mother of Patsy Walker, aka Comicbook/{{Hellcat}}, Dorothy, had the slightly bad thing of [[Comicbook/PatsyWalker making comics based on her daughter]], who hated the notoriety those books brought her... and the outright unforgiving fact that she tried to bargain away Patsy's life in exchange for her own in a DealWithTheDevil (well, A Devil), though thankfully, [[ComicBook/TheDefenders Hellcat's superhero teammates]] thwarted the demonic possession.

* ''FanFic/Flashpoint2AdventSolaris'' has Lady Mairghread, Elise's corrupt & abusive aunt - as well as Granny Goodness ''and'' Talia al Ghul.

* The ''FanFic/PonyPOVSeries'' has Discord's mother [[EldritchAbomination Entropy]], the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Heat Death. As such, she's an OmnicidalManiac by job description, and therefore has no care for ''anything'', least of all her children. Hell, she ''[[RetGone erased one of her children from existence]]'' because [[UnPerson ___]] talked back to her.

* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock 2}}'' has [[ManipulativeBastard Sofia]] [[AssimilationPlot Lamb]]. A staunch collectivist that contrasts with Rapture's founder, Andrew Ryan, Sofia Lamb firmly believes in TallPoppySyndrome where any modicum of well-being above the common collective must be stamped out of existence. She uses her daughter Eleanor as a symbolic, and possibly literal figurehead for this cause, something that Eleanor is extremely uncomfortable with. Eleanor ends up fighting back incognito using the player character Subject Delta and the newer generation of Little Sisters, [[spoiler:and then at the endgame does so in a literal sense. How Delta addresses both the Little Sisters he encounters as well as three other characters that have their own motivations for their backstory and how they treated Delta determines the fate of Sofia Lamb, at her own daughter's hands]].

** Maven Black-Briar in ''[[Videogame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]''. She has had employees killed simply because they don't do their job well enough, and actively seeks to blackmail or murder her business rivals. She is grooming her son Hemming to take over the family's business empire, and her connections enable her to have her grandson Sibbi set up with a LuxuryPrisonSuite and a shorter sentence despite him having commited murder. Maven is essentially TheDon, and controls much of her home city of Riften through the ThievesGuild and [[MurderInc The Dark Brotherhood]].

* Hilda from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War]]''. Tortures her sister-in-law [[GenkiGirl Tiltyu]] '''''and''''' her daughter Tinny for good measure ([[spoiler:and if Tiltyu dies childless, she tortures her ''other'' sister in law [[TheOjou Ethnia]] and her daughter Linda]]), and while she keeps saying it's to punish traitors, deep down, she just enjoys torturing. The result becomes obvious. [[spoiler:Tiltyu (or Ethnia) becomes [[BreakTheCutie extremely broken and cries everyday until she dies from sickness]], and Tinny (or Linda) ends up as a ShrinkingViolet]]. And then, Hilda keeps pressuring her blood daughter and local DarkMagicalGirl Ishtar to marry her boyfriend Julius, the Imperial Prince of Grandbell, just so she can get more links and power from the Emperor. And in ''Thracia 776'', [[spoiler:it's revealed that even her husband Blume does not support child hunts... but she supports it wholeheartedly]]. But she makes the fatal mistake of underestimating [[YouKilledMyFather Arthur]] ([[spoiler:or Amid]])... and [[BewareTheNiceOnes Tinny]] herself ([[spoiler:or Linda]]).
** Succeeding Hilda would be Sonia from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade Blazing Sword]]''. Not only is she sadistic and manipulative, but she constantly verbally abuses her adopted daughter Nino, and when she isn't doing that, she's neglecting her instead. It eventually comes to the point where she secretly plots to have Nino killed ''just after promising to hug her if she completes her mission''. To hammer the point home, [[spoiler:when Nino confronts her later, she freely admits to having slain Nino's real family when Nino was just a baby, and even says she would have killed Nino too had [[BigBad Nergal]] not told her to raise her.]]

* Various FinalBoss characters from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' have shades of this, since the setting has an ImprobablyFemaleCast. Eirin treats her disciple Reisen like dirt (mostly PlayedForLaughs); Yuyuko is quite eccentric much to Youmu's woe. Yukari uses Reimu and Kanako uses Sanae, respectively, in their proxy conflict for supremacy over Gensokyo.

* Mother from ''VideoGame/WildArms1'' definitely qualifies. She's an [[OmnicidalManiac Omnicidal Maniac]] who gives birth to a group of children specifically for the purpose of destroying the worlds she visits, and then leaving them to burn with the planet when she's done. [[spoiler: It gets worse. She [[DevourTheDragon devours her own son]] for the purpose of [[DemonicPossession possessing him to turn him into a destructive monster like herself.]]]]

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* Kageyama Hiroko (the Countess Werdenberg) from the anime ''Anime/{{Gilgamesh}}'', despite that she is apparently intended as a tragic and sympathetic character.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' has [[spoiler:Aether President Lusamine, who not only conducted amoral experiments ranging from [[HumanPopsicle cryogencally freezing Pokemon to keep them "beautiful"]] to almost killing poor Nebby when using its power to open up a portal to another dimension, but also was an [[AbusiveParents abusive mother]] to her children Gladion and Lillie, micromanaging every aspect of their day to day life and [[IHaveNoSon disowning them]] when they start to turn against her. Though in this case, she was also stated to be under the effects of [[PsychoSerum Nihilego's neurotoxins]], and Lillie says she ''was'' [[GoodParents a genuinely good and caring mother]] before she researched too much into the Ultra Beasts.]]
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' has the drow Matron Mother Ardulace, the political and religious leader of Ust Natha. As a part of her plan, she planned to use the eggs of the silver dragon to bribe a lesser demon lord to aid them in an attack on the elven capital Suldanessellar. She ruled with the usual drow cruelty – for example, when her own daughter appeared to be genuinely in love with a man instead of just using him and ditching right afterwards, she had her tortured until there was nothing left of her other than her ambition.
* ''VisualNovel/SablesGrimoire'' has [[spoiler:Meave, the mother of Lisha and a manipulative, power-hungry dark elf who treats all of her children as pawns. In the base game she [[OffingTheOffSpring murders her daughter Lim]] for [[YouHaveFailedMe failing her]]. In the sequel ''Man and Elf'', she forces her son Hagan—a child—to obey her commands through MindControl, and plans to enslave Lisha after breaking her spirit through psychological torture.]]

** [[spoiler:Rumplestiltskin]]'s mother is shaping up to be this. She is a legendary dark magical being mentioned several times throughout the show before her appearance. Thus far, her crimes include [[spoiler:[[InvasionOfTheBabySnatchers stealing babies]] on a regular basis, [[ParentalAbandonment abandoning her child as an infant]], laughing in his face and throwing him to the ground when he confronts her as an adult, [[AdultFear stealing his and Belle's infant son]], raising him away from his parents to be evil and kill Emma, and hospitalizing the [[BigGood Blue Fairy]].]] And that's in the span of ''two episodes''. It's likely [[GreaterScopeVillain season 6B will make the list even longer.]] She's a very literal matriarch too as she is [[spoiler:also Neal's grandmother and Henry's great-grandmother, thereby making her indirectly related to the entire cast]].

* Kaede Domyoji from ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'' puts the family corporate behemoth before everything, including her children's potential happiness ("There is no place for ridiculous emotions like [love] in the Domyoji Group.") She neglects her son for years (which is implied to be the source of his [[FreudianExcuse semi-sociopathic fits of violence]]) until he gets involved with the PluckyGirl heroine, after which she devotes herself wholeheartedly to sabotaging the relationship [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney by using her massive wealth and connections to blackmail and destroy everyone the heroine holds dear]], an exercise she has already previously done with Tsukasa's older sister Tsubaki. When Tsukasa ends up in the hospital with amnesia, she doesn't even display any concern and merely exults in the fact that this will harm his relationship with his girlfriend.

** There's also Yuki and Ayame's mother, who had no qualms about abandoning/selling and ignoring them respectively. In a flashback, it was revealed that she and her husband were off "living it up" with the money and status they got from Yuki being Akito's companion -- while Yuki was ''[[IllBoy deathly ill]]''. [[spoiler:Unlike others of her ilk, she's hinted in the manga to have started to get better, after Ayame completely owns her at the parent conference]].

* Literature/BooksOfKings:

* Lily van der Woodsen in ''Series/GossipGirl'' shows this only in shades. However, Lily's mother, Serena's and Eric's grandmother, "Ce Ce Rhodes", definitely leans straight toward this trope.

** Hagravens, a species of flightless [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies harpy]] who were [[WasOnceAMan once mortal women]] that performed a ritual in which they trade their humanity for [[WitchSpecies access to powerful magic]], are viewed as this by the [[BarbarianTribe Reachmen]]. Referred to specifically as "matriarchs," Reachmen groups are often found led by a Hagraven.

* Damian Wayne's mother Talia al Ghul has fallen here lately, taking control of her son's nervous system to kill his older brother/mentor [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick Grayson]] and then revealing to Damian that she had begun cloning him when it became clear to her that he was no longer doing what she wanted him to do in ''Franchise/{{Batman}} & Robin'' # 12. When Damian asked why she couldn't love him for who he was (showing a [[SpoiledBrat rare]] hint of Woobie-ism), Talia replied "No. I'm too much of a perfectionist" and declared him an enemy of the House of al Ghul, where he spent at least the first three quarters of his life. Oh, and he's ten. [[spoiler:Culminates in OffingTheOffspring when she allows the clone, Heretic, [[AlasPoorScrappy to brutally kill Damian]].]] Of course she already had hints of this as she raised Damian to think he needed to kill [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]] to replace him in his father's household.

* Cheshire of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' was responsible for giving birth to [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Roy Harper's]] daughter Lian. Over the years it's been up for debate as to whether or not Cheshire has been capable of genuine love for her daughter. Roy has made it clear he's raising Lian because he does not believe Cheshire can be trusted, and any possibility of getting in contact with her has been shot down. ComicBook/BlackCanary once told one of Lian's babysitters that if her mom showed up, to lock the door and scream for ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' or any other hero in the vicinity. Finally, in ''Villains United'', Cheshire conceived a replacement child by Catman, when Lian's welfare was held over her head to ensure her cooperation with the ComicBook/SecretSix. It's now entirely debatable as to whether or not any love Cheshire has for any of her children is just as a means to keep hold over their fathers, a superhero with connections to the ComicBook/TeenTitans and the ComicBook/JusticeLeague, and a supervillain who is considered once of the deadliest trackers in the world. It's also likely the emotional and sexual trauma Cheshire suffered from a childhood in slavery is the reason why her maternal love is so hindered by her more psychotic behavior, as the love she feels for her children isn't enough to override her fear of being trapped again.

* Virtually every fairytale with a stepmother fits this. If the child's biological father isn't dead already, the stepmother is usually able to either hide everything from him or cow him into submission.
** In fact, the Grimms rewrote folk tales in which the mother was the villain into stepmothers just to distance them a bit.
* ''Both'' of the mothers in ''The Drowned Lovers'' (traditional, but most recently arranged and performed by Kate Rusby) fit this trope, and both succeed in killing their children by their malice.

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/diamondstoads/index.html Diamonds and Toads]]'', the evil mother favors the daughter who's like her, and hates the one who's like her father.
* ''Literature/HanselAndGretel'' also had a Evil Matriarch rather than Wicked Stepmother in the first edition.
* In "Literature/SnowWhite" as Creator/TheBrothersGrimm collected it, the queen actively abandoned the princess in the forest -- telling her to get out of the carriage to gather roses and then driving on. In their first edition, they introduced the huntsman to tone it down. After that, they turned to the WickedStepmother.
* The reverse is also true; the aforementioned "Diamonds and Toads" originally explained that the younger daughter was mistreated because she was the stepdaughter. Charles Perrault changed it to have an evil mother to make the story less similar to Cinderella.
* ''Nourie Hadig'' and ''Literature/GoldTreeAndSilverTree'' also feature an evil mother.
* Belle-Etoile's paternal grandmother in ''[[https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=36&tale=893]]'' conspires to get rid of her grandchildren because she does not approve of her sons' wives. Averted with Belle-Etoile's maternal grandmother, who is accepting of her daughters' husbands and is happy to be reunited with her grandchildren.
* Paperarello's mother in ''[[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/247.htm Paperarello]]'' conspires to get rid of her own son.
* A particularly extreme fairy tale example occurs in ''[[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fairy_Tales_by_the_Countess_d%27Aulnoy/The_Pigeon_and_the_Dove The Pigeon and the Dove]]''. Constancio's mother is described as "the most wicked and vindictive princess in the world" and very much lives up to it. She threatens to kill her son's beloved Constancia in front of him, sends scorpions, toads, and snakes after her, sells Constancia into slavery, and even ''holds a mock funeral for her'' when Constancio believes that she is dead.

* Hydia from ''[[MyLittlePony My Little Pony the Movie]]''. She does nothing but mistreat her daughters, going so far as to even punish them for calling her "mama". Since Reeka and Draggle get quite the CharacterDevelopment and ''especially'' since they seem to be [[PunchClockVillain punch clock villains]] rather than actually evil, it's actually hard not to feel bad for them. (''Specially'' Draggle since she's the one who gets treated worse.)

* Combine this with possessiveness reminiscent of a {{Yandere}} but without any of the affection and OneWingedAngel and you get the Other Mother from ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}''.

* In ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'', Rebecca Bunch has such a dismal relationship with her mother that when they look like they are starting to bond her primary thought is "Maybe She's Not Such a Heinous Bitch After All".