History Main / Matricide

This is a DeathTrope, so '''beware of spoilers'''.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Arianna Dumbledore accidentally killed her mother Kendra due to her PowerIncontinence.

* ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'': [[spoiler:Nate]] killed his mother by sending her poisoned chocolate.

* As revealed in his origin comic ''ComicBook/ThanosRising'', after Thanos JumpedOffTheSlipperySlope killing his fellow Titans, he eventually killed his mother Sui-San as well. Though he actually apologises to her while doing so, saying he wished they hadn't stopped her from killing him as a baby. [[DeathIsCheap This being the]] Franchise/MarvelUniverse, Sui-San was brought back later and thanks to ResurrectiveImmortality in ''ComicBook/Eternals2021'' got killed by her son five more times. She declared to him while being tortured that while she doesn't believe in unconditional love, her hate for him was unconditional.

* ''Manga/AttackonTitan'': [[spoiler: One of the final reveals in the story exposes Eren as this. Using the power of the Founding Titan, he commanded the Smiling Titan to ignore a vulnerable Bertholdt and sent her directly to his home. This directly resulted in the death of his mother and the beginning of his descent into darkness.]]

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': If you take Magus onto the Black Omen he will take part in slaying Queen Zeal, they even have a unique exchange and the boss theme even changes to Magus' theme for the battle. The sad thing is, only Magus (Janus) himself is aware of the kinslaying going on, Zeal doesn't recognize her now adult son, unhooded, in front of her declaring he will kill her.

** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'': If you take Liara on the Noveria mission, she takes part in the death of her own mother, Benezia.

* ''ComicBook/BackToBrooklyn'': The gangster protagonist kills his mother after [[spoiler:she freely confesses he helped kill his friend and doesn't see his brother being a ''pedophile'' as that big a deal.]]
* ''ComicBook/LockeAndKey'': Ellie Whedon comes really, really close to pushing her horrible mother off a cliff after she [[MoralEventHorizon puts a cigarette out on her son's neck]], but can't go through with it. However, the evil spirit she unwittingly unleashes a few pages later has no such hesitation.
* ''ComicBook/{{X 23}}'': As the final act of his descent into evil, Dr. Zander Rice laced X-23's mother, Dr. Sarah Kinney, with the trigger scent. Laura was sent into an UnstoppableRage and killed her as a result, [[YankTheDogsChain just as Sarah was putting her plan to escape the Facility with her altogether in motion]]. However, Laura did eventually reconnect with her genetic father ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}.
* Played with in a ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' / ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' crossover where the head of a weapons company turns some of Batman's villains (including the Joker and Poison Ivy) into human/alien hybrids. She has the DNA injected into herself as well so they won't attack her, seeing her as the Queen. For whatever reason, it didn't take when Killer Croc was hybridized, and he messily devours her.

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'' villain Johnny Warren's first murder after gaining PowersViaPossession is his own mother, whom he had previously seemed rather fond of.
* ComicBook/{{Thanos}}, as revealed in his origin comic after he JumpedOffTheSlipperySlope killing his fellow Titans, he eventually killed his mother Sui-San as well. Though he actually apologises to her while doing so, saying he wished they hadn't stopped her from killing him as a baby. [[DeathIsCheap This being Marvel]], Sui-San was brought back later and thanks to ResurrectiveImmortality in ''ComicBook/Eternals2021'' got killed by her son five more times. She declared to him while being tortured that while she doesn't believe in unconditional love, her hate for him was unconditional.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateOrigins'': Magneto killed his mother in cold blood when he discovered that his parents have held Wolverine for years, while they experimented on him to try to find a cure for mutantkind (which, in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel continuity, is the result of a science experiment, not evolution)
* ''ComicBook/NewGods'': After [[CainAndAbel killing his brother]], ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} secured his position as [[EvilOverlord Lord of Apokolips]] by having [[TortureTechnician Desaad]] poison his mother Heggra. That, and revenge for her ordering Desaad to poison [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes the only woman he ever loved]] to make sure she can't function as a MoralityChain. [[GoneHorriblyRight It worked, all right]].

* ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'' villain Johnny Warren's first murder after gaining PowersViaPossession is his own mother, whom he had previously seemed rather fond of.

* ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'': The fifth movie starts with Tomoe killing his mother in self-defense after she murdered his father. Treated oddly sympathetically, despite the rather...strange circumstances that turn out to be surrounding it.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Wild West outlaw [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Starr Belle Starr]] is speculated to have been murdered by her daughter Pearl or her son Eddie.
* On December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother Nancy before embarking on a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, [[FromBadToWorse in which he murdered 20 children and 6 adults]] before killing himself.
* Similarly, Charles Whitman killed his wife and his mother before killing another 14 from a bell tower at the University of Texas in Austin.
* Michael Ryan would end up killing his mother over the course of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre Hungerford Massacre]], which left 17 people dead, Ryan included.
* The Roman Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Nero}} had his mother Agrippina killed. She in turn had probably poisoned her husband Claudius after convincing him to adopt Nero, [[EvilMatriarch hoping she could rule Rome through him.]] When his assassins met her, she bared her chest and told them to stab her where Nero came from. Another piece of evidence linking him to the Anti-Christ.
* The 19th-century British newspaper ''Police News'' had an article about two boys who murdered their mother while their father was at sea. The boys were convicted, then released, and the oldest served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne before emigrating to Australia. The investigation also shows that the likely motive was severe parental abuse.
* On August 19, 2005, [[https://murderpedia.org/female.T/t/tseng-esmie.htm Esmie Tseng]] murdered her EducationMama after years of high-pressure parenting (allegedly including punishments such as grounding for getting "only" a 96% on a test, or threatening to sell her piano if she didn't win a State-wide championship).
* On June 2015, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Dee_Dee_Blanchard Gypsy Rose Blanchard]] murdered her abusive mother Dee Dee Blanchard, who suffered from MunchausenSyndrome by proxy and made everyone (including Gypsy) believe Gypsy Rose was disabled, forcing her to use a wheelchair and underfeeding her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* In the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' fanfic ''Fanfic/OurBladesAreSharp'', it’s revealed that [[spoiler:Ramsay Snow murdered his mother in cold blood to fake his own death as part of his plan to usurp his trueborn half-brother.]]

* In ''Fanfic/BackToZero'', Giovanni hit his last straw and strangled his mother after she [[spoiler:sent his lover Miyamoto on a suicide mission]] and then sent [[spoiler:their daughter Jessie to an orphanage upon Miyamoto's disappearance]].
* ''Fanfic/QueensOfMewni'': After a spell to see the future goes wrong, and Queen Galaxia is in a comatose state, Venus is forced to smother her mother Galaxia with a pillow to allow the people and her siblings to move on. The incident traumatized her so much that her KaleidoscopeHair, [[KaleidoscopeEyes eyes,]] and cheek marks are black for an entire year.

* ''Film/{{Carrie}}'': The title character kills her mother Margaret in self-defense as her mother was [[OffingTheOffspring trying to kill her]].

Matricide, the killing of one's mother, is considered among the most heinous crimes throughout history. Killing either one of one's parents ([[SelfMadeOrphan or both]]) is obviously a traumatic experience that in usual circumstances only comes about as a result of great turmoil between parent and child. Whereas {{Patricide}} carries the connotations of killing one's clan leader (or an OedipusComplex when it's an addendum to earning the love of the mother figure), disposing of dear old mom is possibly '''even more extreme.''' After all, this is the woman who carried that person to term for nine months and then took care of them for years afterwards, so it takes [[UngratefulBastard an exceptionally heartless character]] to cross ''[[MoralEventHorizon that]]'' line.

Also, the trope's flavor is different depending on the age of the murderous child and the child's gender. Young children who kill their mothers are often seen as [[EnfantTerrible evil incarnated in the body of a child]] or the result of DemonicPossession. A grown woman killing her own mother can be an extreme result of the Electra Complex (the DistaffCounterpart to the OedipusComplex) or more often the deed of TheEvilPrincess or if the woman's mother's death [[OnlyInItForTheMoney is the condition for inheritance]]. A grown man killing his own mother with his own hands is ''very'' rare and almost always the mark of a CompleteMonster or the result of an AccidentalMurder.

* ''Film/{{Spider}}'': Clegg is horrified to discover that he murdered his mother during one of his hallucinations as a kid. It's the reason he's been institutionalized ever since.

* ''Manga/Bastard1988'': Kall Su had killed his mother in self defense before being taken in by Dark Schneider in a story that is incredibly similar to that of Haku from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''.
* ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'': The fifth movie starts with Tomoe killing his mother in self defense, after she murdered his father. Treated oddly sympathetically, despite the rather... strange circumstances that turn out to be surrounding it.

* ''ComicBook/WarlordOfMars'': [[TheSociopath Kajak Thoris]] poisoned his own mother Heru on belief he was given as hostage to a rival city-state when as a child, when in reality, he was kidnapped by their enemies and raised to think his family abandoned him.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateOrigins'': Magneto killed his mother in cold blood when he discovered that his parents have held Wolverine for years, while they experimented on him to try to find a cure for mutantkind (which, in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel continuity, is the result of a science experimente, not evolution)

* ''Film/AlienResurrection'': Played with. The Newborn, immediately after being born, inspects the Queen Alien and kills her. However, he then thinks of Ripley as his real mother, and acts affectionately towards her.

* ''Literature/SleepingBeauties'': After being fired from his job as prison guard, Don Peters goes home and kills (already sleeping and cocooned) mother. Then he sets the house on fire to cover his tracks.

** After a HopeSpot which saw Diana take power back from her evil child and declare an era of peace with humans, Anna then returned, claiming that she now understands human emotion like love and caring. However, she then sneeks up behind her mom and impales her with her tail to cement her status as queen.

** The Corpo-Seco (Dry Body) is said to be a man so cruel he humiliated, tortured and killed his mother. As punishment, neither Heaven nor Hell accepted his soul, and he was cursed to forever roam the Earth as a decrepit undead.

* In ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' the FinalBoss Isaac faces on the first playthrough is Mom, with the theme that plays during the fight in ''Rebirth'' is even titled "''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ipiroyqDu8 Matricide]]''". In this case it's slightly more justified because your Mom has [[UnreliableNarrator seemingly]] heard the voice of God telling her to kill you and [[AxCrazy decided to prove her faith by doing so]].

* Toward the end of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', Athena Cykes (much like Miles Edgeworth) believes that she killed her mother Metis when she was very young, even though Simon Blackquill [[TakingTheHeat was convicted and sentenced to death for it]]. Again like Edgeworth, this is not the case but she suffers of TraumaInducedAmnesia which messes up the deal even more- but ''unlike'' Edgeworth's case, [[spoiler: it's believed that [[MotherlyScientist Metis]] used Athena as a guinea pig in her experiments, and that's why [[SympatheticMurderer she]] [[TheDogBitesBack snapped on her mom]].]] If the game's played right, what truly happened is revealed: [[spoiler: Metis never mistreated Athena but was actually trying to help her; little Athena stepped on her mother's murder scene, tried and failed to attack the killer, then fell in an [[TheOphelia Ophelia-like]] HeroicBSOD and ''that'' is when Blackquill found her and decided to frame himself [[DeclarationOfProtection to protect her]]...]]
* In ''VisualNovel/ShiningSongStarnova'', [[spoiler:Nemu Akimoto]] becomes convinced that her mother is trying to destroy the Starnova [[IdolSinger idol group]], and attempts to kill her to prevent it from happening. She succeeds in her Bad Ending, but is prevented from doing so in her Good Ending.

* On December 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother Nancy before embarking on a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, [[FromBadToWorse in which he murdered 20 children and 6 adults]] before killing himself.

* The Roman Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Nero}} had his mother Agrippina killed. She in turn had probably poisoned her husband Claudius after convincing him to adopt Nero, [[EvilMatriarch hoping she could rule Rome through him.]] When his assassins met her, she bared her chest and told them to stab her where Nero came from. Another piece of evidence linking him to Anti-Christ.
* The 19th-century British newspaper ''Police News'' had an article about two boys who murdered their mother while their father was at sea. The boys were convicted, then released, and the oldest served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne before emigrating to Australia. Investigation also shows that the likely motive was severe parental abuse.

[[folder: Religion & Mythology]]

* ''ComicBook/{{X 23}}'': As the final act of his descent into evil, Dr. Zander Rice laced X-23 mother, Dr. Sarah Kinney, with the trigger scent. Laura was sent into an UnstoppableRage and killed her as a result, [[YankTheDogsChain just as Sarah was putting her plan to escape the Facility with her altogether in motion]]. However, Laura did eventually reconnect with her genetic father ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}'': Depending on the player's actions, Eleanor will either save or drown her mother.

* Lev kills his mother in self defense towards the end of ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII''.

* ''VideoGame/SystemShock'': The Many, that annelid BodyHorror, certainly want to do this to the "Machine Mother" who created them. Instead, the avatar of SHODAN kills them.

* ''Film/{{Joker 2019}}'': Arthur was initially very close to his mother Penny, but after learning that she has adopted him and allowed him to put with ''intense'' abuse, he [[VorpalPillow smothers her to death]] without any second thoughts.

* Toward the end of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', Athena Cykes (much like Miles Edgeworth) believes that she killed her mother Metis when she was very young, even though Simon Blackquill [[TakingTheHeat was convicted and sentenced to death for it]]. Again like Edgeworth, this is not the case but she suffers of TraumaInducedAmnesia which messes up the deal even more- but ''unlike'' Edgeworth's case, [[spoiler: it's believed that [[MotherlyScientist Metis]] used Athena as a guinea pig in her experiments, and that's why [[SympatheticMurderer she]] [[TheDogBitesBack snapped on her mom]].]] If the game's played right, what truly happened is revealed: [[spoiler: Metis never mistreated Athena but was actually trying to help her; little Athena stepped on her mother's murder scene, tried and failed to attack the killer, then fell in an [[TheOphelia Ophelia-like]] HeroicBSOD and ''that'' is when Blackquill found her and decided to frame himself [[IWillProtectHer to protect her]]...]]