History Main / WickedStepmother

* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' subverts the trope in the Cinderella-themed "Happily Ever Aftermath". The [[VictimOfTheWeek murdered]] stepmom is brusque and favors her actual daughters over the pretty blonde stepdaughter... with good reason. The Cinderella of the story is a [[BitchInSheepsClothing manipulative]], {{spoiled| brat}} {{gold digger}} who abused her stepsisters for years. And yes, she's the [[MonsterOfTheWeek killer]], too.

* ''Manga/MyStepmotherAndStepsistersArentWicked'': Miya's stepmother Teru Kounomura ''looks'' the part of the wicked stepmother. She frequently shows up with a stern expression and her daughters, both biological and otherwise, fear incurring her wrath. When it comes to ''acting'' the part, however, she is frequently shown to be a strict but loving parent. When Miya works up the nerve to call Teru "Mother", Teru very firmly tells her to not do so, as Miya apologizes for offending her, Teru explains that Miya shouldn't call anyone else "mother" except her late biological mother. She then goes on to say she has no objection to being called "Mommy".

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'':
** Chuckie imagines that Kira will be evil, complete with a Cinderella-esque DreamSequence. Kira subverts the trope not only by being very nice but also by [[HappilyAdopted legally adopting Chuckie]] in the same episode.
** But ''almost'' played straight with Coco [[MeaningfulName LaBouche]]. Fortunately, Chuckie's dad noticed how "wicked" she was just in time to dump her at the altar. It took the babies escaping from being locked up in a storage room, piloting a Mecha-Reptar Stu had built, and Angelica spilling the beans as payback for a TheCakeIsALie incident that pressured Coco into confessing that she's only doing it to keep being a Reptar franchisee. It gets worse for her naturally; the creator of Reptar was discreetly attending the wedding.

* In one story of ''Manhwa/TheTarotCafe'', a young girl named Fey is implied to be the child of a prostitute and a wealthy man who had some brief relationship with her mother. When the mother dies, Fey is sent to live with her father, and his wife and son. The father is cold and dismissive of her, but dies pretty soon in and doesn't have much of a presence. The son eventually befriends Fey and enjoys her company. The stepmother, however, ''hates'' Fey and believes that the girl is cursing the family to die. [[spoiler:The stepmother has various people come in to beat and abuse Fey, and eventually dies while trying to whip Fey herself. It's also revealed that the stepmother threw Fey's music box (the last thing she had of her mother) down the well.]]

* ''Manga/MyStepmotherAndStepsistersArentWicked'': Miya's stepmother Teru Kozo ''looks'' the part of the wicked stepmother. She frequently shows up with a stern expression and her daughters, both biological and otherwise, fear incurring her wrath. When it comes to ''acting'' the part, however, she is frequently shown to be a strict but loving parent. When Miya works up the nerve to call Teru "Mother", Teru very firmly tells her to not do so, as Miya apologizes for offending her, Teru explains that Miya shouldn't call anyone else "mother" except her late biological mother. She then goes on to say she has no objection to being called "Mommy".

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': While not abusive, Catelyn Stark makes it pretty clear to Jon Snow, her husband's [[HeroicBastard son by another woman]], that she doesn't want him around. Ned Stark conceived Jon as the result of adultery and brought him home as a baby to raise alongside his trueborn children, resulting in Catelyn's unhappiness with this situation and prompting her resentment of the kid.[[labelnote:From the books...]]Catelyn is also least slightly worried that he might have sons who would eventually contest her own grandchildren for the right to Winterfell, and thus strongly supports Jon's desire to join the Night's Watch, which would prevent this from happening. She fears Ned might have loved Jon's mother more than her -- remembering how Ned was adamant that he raise Jon at Winterfell himself alongside the children she had with him -- and this might be part of the reason why Ned loves Jon so. When she tries to ask about Jon's mother, Ned's reaction actually frightened her so much that she decided to drop the subject and wouldn't take her unhappiness about it out on him. In the third book, when she reflects on how fiercely protective Ned was of Jon, she again wonders about Jon's mother, wondering if Jon's mother prays for him just as she prays for Robb but resigns herself to never knowing who Jon's mother was.[[/labelnote]] Catelyn comes to regret her dislike of Jon after all the tragedy that befalls her, believing that it was karmic retribution for betraying the promise she made to love him, a bargain she made with the gods so that Jon would live when he became very ill as a baby. In the Season 6 finale, it's revealed that Catelyn wasn't so much Jon's wicked stepmother as his [[spoiler:wicked aunt; Jon's mother was Ned's sister Lyanna Stark and his biological father was Rhaegar Targaryen. After Lyanna died following childbirth, Ned adopted his nephew Jon, raised and loved him as his own, and passed Jon off as his illegitimate child to protect Jon from the wrath of King Robert Baratheon, who had been Lyanna's fiancé before she eloped with Rhaegar. Catelyn may have acted very differently if she'd known Jon was her nephew instead of a child her husband conceived with another woman as a result of infidelity; unfortunately, by the time the truth is known, Catelyn has already been killed.]]

** ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': Queen Alicent Hightower channels the energy of this trope as an older adult but is also a more nuanced examination of it. On the surface, she is bitter, spiteful, paranoid and petty towards her stepdaughter, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. However, it is not so simple because her suspicions about Rhaenyra not telling her the truth are correct. Alicent is increasingly unhappy and lovelorn in her relationship with King Viserys, but is still devoted to him, fussing over him and bearing him four trueborn children. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra (her BestFriend before Alicent's marriage) has been lying to her, to her father, and to the realm constantly for ten years, bearing three obvious bastards and having the gall to insult everyone's intelligence by calling them legitimate Velaryons. When Alicent brings the matter to her husband, he tells her essentially to shut up, never speak of it again, and that to do so would be treason. By the time she confides in Larys Strong that she wants — no, needs - her father Lord Otto Hightower back in his old job as Hand of the King, it looks less like a Wicked Stepmother and more like a put-upon wife who [[CassandraTruth needs someone, anyone to believe her when she tells the truth]]. Even before that, her trust in Rhaenyra was shattered when they were both still young adults by discovering she had lied to her about trysts with Daemon Targaryen and Criston Cole, which makes Alicent less inclined to trust that Rhaenyra won't act to remove Alicent's children with Viserys (her half-siblings) as potential threats to her power if she ascends the throne. When one of Rhaenyra’s sons, Lucerys, fights one of Alicent’s sons, Aemond and accidentally cuts out an eye, [[KnightTemplarParent Alicent]] goes as far as to try to gouge out Lucerys’ eyes. [[MamaBear Rhaenyra]] puts a stop to it.

* ''Literature/GoldenTerrace'': Fu Shen’s stepmother, Madame Qin had been the one to start the rumor of Fu Shen being a “[[GayEuphemism cut-sleeve]]” in order to ensure that he would end up in a marriage that would not produce any heirs so that her son, Fu Ting, would be next in line for his title. [[spoiler:This plan ends up backfiring on her in a major way: once Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan are actually married, Yan Xiaohan confronts her at the wedding party for having made his new spouse's life hell since his mother died and has her dragged out in shame. This provokes Fu Ting into trying to attack Fu Shen with a broken teacup, which Yan Xiaohan intercepts and orders the Beiyan Cavalry to give him a suitable punishment, which as Fu Shen notes, likely means having him beaten to death.]]