Good Stepmother

Hey I might not really be your mother
That don't mean that I don't really love ya
And even though I married your father
That's not the only reason I'm here for ya

— Alicia Keys: "Blended Family (What You Do For Love)"

The trope that stepmothers are prone to loathe and mistreat their stepchildren can be found in fairy tales and folklore all over the world. So common are Wicked Stepmothers that inverting that trope will make things interesting.

Cue the Good Stepmother, a woman who ends up making the life of her stepchildren better. Far from plotting to get her stepchildren out of the way to secure the family fortune for herself, she instead acts as a mentor or protector to her stepchildren and shows genuine affection for them. Plots usually feature Good Stepmothers as supporting characters who help their fosterlings (the protagonists) succeed in life and "make their fortune".

To fill this role, the Good Stepmother is exceptionally clever and resourceful. Often there is even something supernatural about her, making her somewhat similar to a Fairy Godmother. This tale type also likes to take elements of the well-known Wicked Stepmother stereotype and turn it on its head—for example, the Good Stepmother is quite frequently an actual witch, but one who uses her powers for the benefit of her stepchildren.

The stepchildren do not have to be actual children. More typically, they are teenagers or young adults. Because of that, the Good Stepmother is not always a Parental Substitute. If the stepmother has children of her own, they will get along well with the children of the first wife, and may form a Sibling Team. Good Stepmothers are also the norm in dom coms which feature a blended family. Often, there will be an episode dealing with how the stepchildren fear their stepmother or expect her to be wicked, and are then proven wrong.

It wouldn't be rare for the Good Stepmother to want to secure a portion of the fortune for herself. In such a case, the fortune might actually be better maintained, and she'll spend her share wisely, not necessarily perfectly.

May overlap with Happily Adopted, which involves an adoptive family, not just a stepmother. May be invoked by the parent deciding to Marry the Nanny or some other person who already has a good relationship with the child. Often Truth in Television. Sounds like but has nothing to do with My Real Daddy.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Dad, the Beard Gorilla and I has Tsukasa, who watches the same show as Michiru, and often gives her Sgt. Ruckus merchandise, to the latter's delight. In fact, Tsukasa's bond with Michiru is what brought her closer to Souichi, and the romance between the two adults comes later.
• In Death Parade, Yousuke's mother was very abusive and neglectful to him and when she eventually abandoned him and his father, his father remarried and Yousuke's stepmother was a very kind and loving parent in contrast with his real mother. Sadly, Yousuke never accepted her and became depressed to the point of suicide. In fact, in the afterlife, his biggest regret was that he never got the chance to call his loving stepmother "Mom".
• Digimon Frontier: Kouji's cold, distant and introverted personality makes it difficult for him to accept his stepmother. We do see him wishing to try to get better and accept her as his new mother and being nice to her, showing that she's not the problem in their relationship, but Kouji is.
• Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom has Abigail Friedkin. Before the start of the story, she was indeed very model of a Wicked Stepmother, but after seemingly dying and recovering to assassination attempt her entire attitude changes and she becomes a doting stepmother to her adopted children. It helps that she is actually someone else, who was reincarnated into Abigails body after Abigail died to poisonic cosmetics.
• Bellemere from One Piece is a Mama Bear who sacrificed her life to protect her adopted daughters Nami and Nojiko. Her name is French for "stepmother".
• Queen Hiling from Ranking of Kings at first comes off as a Wicked Stepmother to her stepson Prince Bojji, being extremely adamant about his inability to become a king in comparison to her biological son Prince Daida. However, she's eventually shown to actually be very caring and loving of Bojji, with her unwillingness to see him become king being not out of hatred, but rather a genuine concern for him and the kingdom as a mother and as a queen. After all, no insane and cruel stepmother would study sign language in order to communicate with her stepson.
• Red River (1995): Kail's mother Queen Henti loves her own sons but was also a good stepmother to the son of the king's previous wife as well as Kail's other stepbrothers (one is the son of a concubine, another was the child of a royal maid).^note Likely because in real history, said sons were actually hers instead of other women's, but this was changed for plot reasons.
• SPY×FAMILY: Yor Briar is a contract killer who marries Loid as a cover for her job. Nevertheless, she loves Loid's little daughter Anya dearly and will go berserk when anyone threatens or upsets her. What she doesn't know is that Anya is Loid's adopted child.
• In Tenchi Muyo! Tenchi and Rhea already had an extremely good relationship before she married Nobuyuki, to the point Tenchi eventually realizes his memories of his deceased mother Kiyone are composites of her and Rhea because she took care of him so well.
• The series My Stepmother And Stepsisters Are Not Wicked is based entirely on this trope. After Miya Nakamura's mother dies and she has to go live with her father and stepfamily, she is sure that her stepmother Teru Kounomura and older stepsisters Marika and Arisa are going to be cruel to her since she's an illegitimate child. At first their seemingly haughty attitudes when they start talking makes it look like she's correct... only to be hilariously subverted when they complete their sentences to reveal that they actually care deeply for her and are committed to making her feel comfortable and loved in her new home. Teru, the stepmother, corrects Miya not to call her mother... because she doesn't want her to replace her biological mother to the girl's life, telling the girl address her differently. It even gets to the point where the stepsisters register dismay that her father could let his illegitimate daughter live in squalor, not allowing Miya's maternal grandmother to take her away from their house, and the stepmother takes a more active role in raising the protagonist than her actual father and is always defer to her whenever she makes decisions directly related to her. This is quite a big deal, judging by the setting, this series happens around late-19th century or early 20th-century which marked the westernization of Japan, since at that it would be a big scandal if Miya is to be introduced to the high society.
• A Wicked Tale of Cinderella's Stepmom has the main protagonist reincarnate into role of stepmother for Cinderella. She is a lot less wicked than the traditional telling of the story and leans more on pragmatist side, with all three of her daughters getting along thanks to her taking up the reins of the plot.

Comic Books

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Gender inverted, but Zuko and Azula's stepfather Noren from the post-series comics is much nicer than their evil, megalomaniac, abusive father Ozai.
• The DCU:
  • Batwoman: Colonel Jacob Kane remarries when his daughter(s) are adults. His second wife, Catherine, is really invested in being a part of her stepchild's/niece's life and goes out of her way to be helpful. She can be somewhat stuffy and clueless, and doesn't seem completely comfortable with her stepdaughter Kate being a lesbian, but isn't genuinely mean.
  • Robin: When Tim Drake's father marries Dana Winters, she helps Tim and Jack to resolve disputes by going out of her way to get Tim's side of the story when his father refuses to allow him to speak for himself and jumps to conclusions, and reminds Jack that he said he was going to spend more time with Tim. Dana and Tim get along great and she regularly acts as a voice of reason for him with his father. However, Dana never grows very close to Tim due to his age when she became a part of the family and her untimely death.
• Cable: Nathan Summers' stepmother, Jean Grey, cares for Cable as if he was her own. It was his biological mother Madelyne 'Maddie' Pryor who tried to kill her son in Inferno (1988), but before she suffered her breakdown she truly loved her son, and even after, once she got most of her marbles back. Complicating this situation somewhat is the fact that Maddie is a clone of Jean, meaning that he could be seen as either her nephew or son by surrogacy (the latter was certainly what Sinister, Maddie's creator, intended and it was part of what drove her mad).
• Maus: Art was already an adult when his father Vladek remarried, but he gets along better with his stepmother Mala than he does with his father. Unlike Vladek, Mala has a fairly mellow personality and her Holocaust trauma under control, and is generally far more open about her thoughts and emotions. Vladek, meanwhile, clearly has never got over the family he lost to the Holocaust, and will unfavorably compare both Mala and Art to his first wife and son. Mala and Art bond over their misery.
• Meg Jo Beth And Amy (a modern graphic novel adaptation of Little Women): The March family is blended. In this retelling, Mrs. March is a white single mother of Jo who then meets and marries Mr. March, an African-American widower who is raising his daughter, Meg. They have two more daughters together, Beth and Amy. Like Phineas and Ferb, it's hard to tell they're a blended family since all four refer to both parents as Mom and Dad.
• Rogue Sun has Juliette Bell, the second wife and widow of Marcus Bell, the recently deceased Disappeared Dad of protagonist Dylan Siegel. Marcus abandoned Dylan and his mother, Gwen, when Dylan was 2. While Dylan is openly hostile to the Bell family when he meets them, Juliette is welcoming to Dylan and Gwen. Marcus' spirit is mostly concerned with the Rogue Sun legacy, while Gwen's hate of Marcus leads her to being mistrusting and overprotective of Dylan. Juliette eventually takes Dylan in because she knows what it's like to have disappointing parents. This is also after he sends the spirit of her deceased husband away and tells her he did so. Juliette proceeds to be the best parental figure in the series, being the best of both Marcus and Gwen. Because she was married to Marcus and helped him with his superhero duties, she's able to teach Dylan how to be a better hero and provide occult aid. Because she doesn't have any baggage with the Rogue Sun identity, she gives Dylan more patience and emotional support than Gwen did. It's telling that Dylan, a Jerkass protagonist, isn't rude or disrespectful to Juliette and grows fond of her.
• Spider-Man: Though related through a different marriage, Peter Parker's Aunt May ends up filling this role. Depending on the Writer, she is sometimes the sister of Peter's mother, but more often than not she is only his aunt by marriage. Despite this, she is Peter's most consistent confidant, caretaker, and Living Emotional Crutch.
• Star Wars: Invasion: Queen Nina Galfridian is a genuinely loving and supportive mother for her stepchildren Finn and Kaye, and they typically drop the "step" part of their relationship when discussing each other.
• The Walking Dead: Andrea becomes this to her stepson Carl over time. After the Time Skip the two are fairly affectionate and call each other "mom" and "son" without any problems or issues. Even on her literal death bed, Andrea spends part of what little time she has left to give Carl some good advice.
• W.I.T.C.H. has Irma's stepmother Anna, as they have a very good relationship and Anna doesn't favor her son Chris (Irma's younger half-brother) over Irma. Indeed, the only reason we know she's not Irma's biological mother is that Irma mentioned it during a fight (and was horrified immediately after). They made up soon after.

Fairy Tales

• This seems to be popular in Icelandic fairy tales:
  • "The Horse Gullfaxi and the Sword Gunnfoder" takes a premise that is typical for Wicked Stepmother stories and completely subverts it: A widowed king marries a new wife who is actually a half-troll. Eventually, the new queen's full-troll sister lays a curse on the king's son, Sigurd, which he then succeeds in lifting with the help and advice of his stepmother. In the end, Sigurd rescues his stepmother from being burned at the stake under false accusations of murdering her stepson.
  • In "Hild the Good Stepmother and Princess Ingibjorg", Ingibjorg's (real) mother puts a Dying Curse on her own daughter. Her father's new wife, Hild, befriends Ingibjorg until she reveals the cause of her despondency, and with Hild's resourcefulness, the two eventually lift the curse.

Fan Works

• Subverted in Aki-chan's Life. Asuka's stepmother wanted to be this, but the fact that she only became Asuka's stepmother because of an affair on top of Asuka's own mess of issues made any possibiltiy of a healthy relationship between the two of them more or less impossible until Asuka was (mentally) an adult.
• Batman/Catwoman fics where Bruce and Selina tie the knot will typically make Selina, who is a Friend to All Children in canon, one to Bruce's adopted children and biological son Damian.
• Child of the Storm is based on the premise that James Potter was Thor in mortal form in a first tilt at the 'humility' thing (it worked until the trauma of being murdered necessitated a mindwipe to keep him sane), so this comes up with a 13 year old Harry and Jane - who isn't married to Thor, but it's generally seen as a matter of time. They step a bit uneasily around each other at first, given that she's barely more than twice his age and not sure how to deal with a child let alone a teenager (let alone one so blatantly traumatised), and he's just adjusting to the whole situation. However, they develop a very strong relationship, with Jane becoming more of a Cool Aunt to him (it helps that his godmother, Wanda, covers the Parental Substitute aspect) and Harry is a very firm Shipper on Deck.
• "Daughter of the Beast" is a Beauty and the Beast one-shot fic that serves as a spin-off to "Kissed by a Rose", where Gaston raped and impregnated Belle before she came to the castle. After the curse is broken, Belle's daughter, Gwen, is raised believing the former Beast to be her father until she realises when she's thirteen that the timing doesn't work for her to have been conceived after the curse was lifted. However, the Prince assures her that he has always considered her his daughter rather than Gaston's, and Gwen and her parents agree that they won't bother telling Gwen's siblings the truth (Gwen also notes that it doesn't impact hereditary issues as the first male heir inherits anyway).
• In Dear Old Dad the Phantom Thieves who had a present father replaced by Shido as their biological parent have this: despite their horrible conception the (step)fathers that Ann and Makoto raised them as their own child and love/loved them, and are the ones that they refer to as their father.
• The Lucifer (2016) fic "The Devil and his Urchin" starts with Chloe having a brief fling with Lucifer while her marriage to Dan is in a rough place, which results in Chloe becoming pregnant with Trixie. She and Dan come together during the pregnancy when Chloe can't be sure of the father's identity, but even after a paternity test confirms that Dan's not the father, he assures Chloe that he'll be there for Trixie. Even after they divorce, Dan is committed to being Trixie's father, and even Lucifer ultimately accepts that Dan has just as good a claim to Trixie as he does.
• Disney High School follows Classical Mythology by making Hera into Hercules' stepmom instead of his mom, but bases her personality on the movie.
• Not only Selina Kyle, in Earth-27 Lois Lane and Epiphany Graves are also this, making no distinction between their biological and adopted children.
• In Eight Pieces for Piano, Violet gets on wonderfully with her stepdaughter (previously her pupil) Sarah, so much that the latter quickly begins calling her "Mommy" and that Violet's first concern, when her marriage is on the rocks, is how the situation would affect Sarah.
• In For the Glory of Irk, Moira is Dib and Gaz's stepmother and is very caring towards them, not being affected even by the fact that Dib spent a lot of time convinced that she was evil and kept giving her the cold shoulder.
• The Friends fic "A Leap of Faith" starts with Carol and Susan being killed in a car accident, requiring Ross to take full custody of Ben. As well as the obvious issues of Ross adjusting to being a full-time parent and Ben getting used to living with Ross and Emma, Rachel and Ross also resume their own relationship, which naturally leads to Rachel becoming Ben's official stepmother.
• A key part of the Castle fic "Of Finding Innocence" is Kate establishing herself as a good stepmother to the four-year-old Alexis Castle when Kate Beckett and Richard Castle meet while Kate is still just a uniformed officer. Once Rick and Kate start dating, Kate soon settles into a role as Alexis's maternal figure, and by the time Alexis is eight she has taken to calling Kate 'Momma' to distinguish her from her biological mother Meredith, feeling that Kate is more emotionally invested in her life than Meredith.
• The King Nobody Wanted: Alysanne Whent develops a fast bond with Tyrion Lannister after becoming betrothed to his father. Multiple characters think that, given her fiancé's unpleasant nature and their difference in ages, her relationship with him will be a lot less idyllic.
• RWBY:
  • In at least it was here, Pyrrha's stepmother is a little bit cold to her friends but dotes on Pyrrha and tells her how proud she is of her accomplishments. Sadly, her wife, Pyrrha's biological mother, is cold to everyone, including Pyrrha. Ruby initially mistakes Pyrrha's step-mother for her biological mother, since they're more alike than Pyrrha and her biological mother.
  • Linked in Life and Love: Subverted. Yang is the biological daughter of Raven and Taiyang, and was raised by Summer (who also had a daughter with Tai, Ruby). Yang always loved Summer and even believed she was her biological mother until Summer disappeared, but later revelations change the dynamic a bit. Taiyang was never in a relationship with either Raven or Summer. Raven and Summer were together, and when they wanted a child Taiyang volunteered to be their donor; this produced Yang. Later scientific advancements made Homosexual Reproduction more viable, which produced Ruby. In the middle of all these reveals, Yang mentions she's not Summer's real daughter, but Summer's brother Roman refuses to hear a word of it.
    Roman: I watched her fawn all over Raven during her pregnancy, and turn into a sobbing mess when she first held you the day you were born. Summer loved you more than life itself, and if you start thinking of her as anything less than your mother, then you and I are going to have problems.
  • RWBY: Scars:
    • Summer was Yang's doting step-mom who died when she was ten. Yang didn't even know she was her step-mom until after her death. In contrast, Yang hates her biological mother Raven after meeting her at age seventeen and tells Raven that Summer is her mother, not her.
    • Unbeknownst to Ruby and her sister Yang, Taiyang is actually Ruby's stepfather. Her biological father is Yang's uncle Qrow (who Ruby thinks is her Honorary Uncle too). Nevertheless, Taiyang is a loving father to both his kids, but is especially sweet towards his youngest Ruby.
  • White Sheep (RWBY): As in canon, Yang views her stepmother Summer Rose as her real mother, even though she's been dead for years. She still tells stories about how Summer taught her to ride a bike. She absolutely refuses to acknowledge her birth mother Raven as her mother.
• In the Stargate Atlantis fic "The Second Failsafe", the main divergence from canon is Elizabeth Weir's daughter, Everleigh Weiland, conceived when Elizabeth was a teenager; her father is the Ascended Ancient Janus seeking to change history. When John Sheppard becomes involved with Elizabeth, although Evy is an adult who doesn't need a father figure, she explicitly calls John "Dad" before she is ultimately forced to Ascend to save herself, and even Janus agrees that John has played a more positive role in his daughter's life than he ever did.
• In The Smeet Series, Lena is a loving and adoring stepmother to Ilk, treating her like her own daughter.
• Robert Queen from To Hell and Back (Arrowverse) is very much this. When his wife cheated on him with his friend Malcolm Merlyn and fell pregnant, Robert immediately knew the baby wasn't his but decided he didn't care and raised Oliver with nothing but love. When he believed Oliver lost at sea, Robert mourned his loss for ten years and was overjoyed when the young man revealed he was alive and came home. After learning the truth of his parentage, Oliver makes very clear he doesn't care about being related to Malcolm and considers Robert the only father he wants to have.
• The Victors Project: Spindella zigzags this. She has a fairly cold relationship with her stepchildren and doesn't have much visible warmth towards them, but this is partially to limit any harm that might come to them if her resistance activities are exposed and does what she can to save Cecelia's life after she's reaped.
• In the Star Wars Rebels fanfic A Sword to Pass, Sabine isn't aware that Alrich isn't her biological father, but he has been a great one for her, inspiring her love of art.

Films — Live-Action

• In Bonjour Tristesse, the stepmother Anne is a good person if quite severe sometimes, and tries to put some order in the very hedonistic lives of Cécile and Raymond. Cécile likes her at first, but soon is so scared about the changes that she'll bring into her life (especially when Anne attempts playing Team Mom), that she manipulates the people around her (Raymond, his old mistress Elsa, and her own Dogged Nice Guy Phillipe) into making Anne's life hard so she'll leave. Little does Cécile know that Anne will end up so broken that she'll be Spurned into Suicide instead.
• A Gender-Inverted Played With version in Bumblebee. Ron, the new boyfriend of the widowed Sally Watson and stepfather to her children Charlie and Otis, is a very nice man who gets along with Sally and Otis. But nice as he is, he's not perfect, duly noted when he's just as Innocently Insensitive as Sally about Charlie's grieving over her late father.
• The Cellar 1989: Emily is nothing but caring towards her stepson Willy. In the climax, when her husband Mance tries to punish Willy for his "lies" about the monster living in their cellar by locking him in it, Emily springs into action. She knocks Mance out with the butt of a shotgun, and breaks down the cellar door to free Willy.
• The Craft: Although they don't interact much on-screen, Jenny and her teenage stepdaughter Sarah are apparently amicable. The fact that Sarah shows concern for Jenny when she and her father disappear in the climax (and has a breakdown when she thinks they've been killed) and that Jenny was absent from the house, indicating she'd gone with her husband to look for Sarah when they believed she'd run off, implies that they care about each other.
• In The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), Helen's love for her 8-year-old stepson Jacob convinces the alien Klatuu that humanity is redeemable after all, which is why he desists from destroying humanity.
• Damsel: Although their relationship is somewhat difficult early on in the film, Elodie's stepmother Lady Bayford tries to warn her of the Aurean royal family's true intentions of sacrificing her to a dragon. When Elodie escapes the sacrificial ritual, the Aurean Queen tries to settle for Elodie's younger sister as an alternative offering, and Lady Bayford is stabbed by the royal guards while fighting to protect her.
• Discussed in Enchanted: Morgan is fretful about the prospect of getting a stepmother because her only knowledge of them comes from fairy tales like "Snow White" and "Cinderella." However, both her father's initial girlfriend, Nancy, and his new love interest, Giselle, are very friendly and supportive of her. Giselle tells her that she's known plenty of stepmothers who are lovely to their stepchildren - which carries extra weight because she's specifically from a fairy tale world like the ones from Morgan's stories.
  • The sequel, Disenchanted, is all about this trope, as while she buries it under a mountain of teenage snark and angst, and is too embarrassed to show it in public, Morgan absolutely adores Giselle and all the magical fairy tale whimsy she represents, simply calling Giselle "Mom" throughout. In fact, the entire conflict of the film stems from Morgan's insecurities being Giselle's stepdaughter rather than her biological daughter, especially since Giselle recently had a baby.
• In Elf, Buddy's stepmother Emily is a rare happy version of this trope. When Emily learns that her husband Walter has another son in Buddy the elf (albeit out of wedlock from a high school romance that resulted in a unplanned pregnancy which Walter didn't know about), she doesn't get mad or hold a grudge against him or Buddy; she's actually thrilled at the news, welcoming Buddy in her family with open arms no questions asked.
• Juno: Juno and her stepmother Brenda clearly care about one another. They do bicker but no more than a normal mother/daughter relationship — with Juno's biological mother being absent from her life, it's pretty clear that Brenda is effectively Juno's mother. Brenda supports Juno through the pregnancy, stays by her side in the delivery room all throughout her labor, and refers to her emphatically as "my kid" when yelling at the doctors to help her.
• The Kingdom of Little Wounds: Ava gets on well with her stepmother Sabine.
• In Love Hard, Josh's parents divorced when he was three years old, and he gets along very well with his stepmother Barbara.
• Marry Me (2022): While Kat Valdez takes a while to be directly introduced to Lou, the daughter of Kat's new husband Charlie Gilbert, Kat immediately makes a genuine effort to bond with the girl. Recognising Lou's trouble with stage fright, Kat shares an embarrassing moment from her own past to help Lou feel less ashamed of that old mistake, offering some tips on how to deal with such moments in future based on Kat's own experience.
• Man of the House (1995) is about a good stepfather who goes out of his way to gain his stepchild's trust and acceptance. In the film, lawyer Jack proposes to Ben's mother, who has been a single parent ever since her first husband ran off with his secretary; this incident disillusioned Ben and made him distrustful of male figures in his life. But through joining the Indian Guides (a Boy Scout knockoff) which they initially both find to be dumb and stupid, as well as fighting off a pair of goons who are after Jack's head because he's prosecuting their boss, the two bond as a stepfather and stepson and Jack is allowed to marry Ben's mother.
• In Nanny McPhee, Evangeline is the Brown family's scullery maid who settles fights between the children (and is in love with their father). The children and Evangeline talk about why they're acting out and she tries to help. Their father, Cedric Brown, hasn't paid attention to them since their mother died, but they don't want a stepmother because of the fairy tales. By the end of the movie, Cedric and Evangeline marry.
• Salvation Boulevard provides a male example, where protagonist Carl seems to be a better parent to his stepdaughter Angie than her mother Gwen (or at least Angie likes him better than her mom).
• The Sound of Music: Maria is hired as a governess who develops a dear fondness for the Von Trapp kids. After falling in love with Baron Von Trapp, she is set to become this trope; when they marry, the children are the entire wedding party, and after the newlyweds return from their honeymoon, the children call her "Mother."
• Stepmom is all about a woman trying to bond with her boyfriend's leery children and to make peace with his former wife. It's extra complicated because the former wife has terminal cancer, with the result being that they all end up living together in the same house.
• Ultraman Cosmos: The First Contact has another Gender Flipped example with Sergeant Yujiro Haruno, the stepfather to the protagonist, 10-year-old Musashi Haruno, whose biological father died in a space mission years prior to the story. For most of the film, Musashi only pines for his deceased father, despite Yujiro's best efforts to prove himself to be a good father, encouraging Haruno not to give up on his dreams and being supportive over his stepson's ambitions. Towards the end of the film, after both father and son thwarted the launch of a city-destroying nuke, Musashi finally accepts Yujiro as a father and embraces his stepdad.
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: Pepa is thrilled to learn that Ivan has a son and is very affectionate to him when she unexpectedly has the chance to know him. After all, she almost was his stepmother and is pregnant with Carlos' half-brother.

Literature

• Animorphs: Marco is determined to not like his dad's new girlfriend, who is also his math teacher. Thing is, Nora is kind, understanding, and respects that Marco doesn't see her as a new mother. The only real negative aspect to her is her annoying pet poodle. Unfortunately for Nora, Marco's mother isn't dead, Marco is dead set on reuniting his parents, and she happens to be in the way. Marco does feel some guilt for knowingly sacrificing her to the Yeerks and implying to his father that Nora was a Controller all along, but soon brushes it off.
• In L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables: Rainbow Valley, the minister's motherless children are told by another child that all stepmothers are wicked, it comes with the role. Nevertheless, the youngest goes to persuade a woman to marry her father because her father is so miserable since she rejected him, and in Rilla of Ingleside, it is clear that she is a perfectly lovely stepmother.
• While not married yet, Cady from the Arcadia Bell series by Jenn Bennet has a great relationship with her boyfriend Lon's teenage son, Jupe, who sees her like a Cool Big Sis.
• Jane Austen used this trope a few times. (It's worth noting that the actual stories never use the word stepmother, which was not in common verbiage at the time; the stepchild tends to refer to the stepmother as their "mother-in-law," which can be confusing to a modern reader.)
  • In Emma, the story begins with Emma's childhood governess marrying their neighbor, Captain Weston, who has a grown son from his first marriage. The son, Frank, writes to his stepmother often, and when he visits they are shown to quickly develop a very friendly relationship; they clearly love each other long before the end of the book.
  • While he fails to live up to his promise to Take Care of the Kids, John Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility has an otherwise perfectly amiable relationship with his father's second wife, the mother of his three half-sisters. The narrative notes that she has always treated him kindly and he in turn is very respectful toward her.
• In The Babysitters Club:
  • Mary Anne's widowed father Richard and Dawn's divorced mother Sharon were High-School Sweethearts. They reconnect when Sharon moves back to Stoneybrook with her children after her divorce, and later in the series they marry. Although the stepfamily takes a little time to settle in together, Sharon is a very good stepmother to Mary Anne, who loves her dearly, and Richard is a kindly stepfather to Dawn and Jeff.
  • Not much is shown of Kristy's Disappeared Dad in the series until the book in which he remarries, and he doesn't appear much afterward either. However, the woman he marries is very kind to Kristy and her brothers, who all like her a lot - in fact, it's all but stated that they like her more than they like their dad, who abandoned the family before the books began. They also have an excellent stepfather in Watson, their mother's second husband.
  • In the Little Sister spin-off series, Watson's daughter Karen (the protagonist of that series) seems to be close with her stepfather Seth (her mother's second husband), even confiding in him over her biological parents on occasion. It takes her a little longer to come around on Elizabeth (Kristy's mother), but she eventually does.
• The Blandings Castle / Psmith crossover deals with a Good Stepfather and a Good-turned-Kind of-Wicked Stepmother. To wit: Phyllis has a good relationship with her former stepfather, Joe, even now that he's remarried to Constance. Constance initially got on well with Phyllis and tried to arrange for her to marry a rich man; however, Phyllis eloped with Mike, and Constance was so insulted that she insisted they cut her off. The whole plot kicks off because Joe wants to help Phyllis with her financial problems without letting Constance know.
• In Blue Willow by Doris Gates, protagonist Janey calls her father's wife "Mom." The book's title comes from Janey's prized possession, a blue willow china plate which belonged to her dead mother, and if not for the existence of the plate it would be easy to think that Mom was Janey's own mother. She loves, teaches, and nurtures the girl throughout the story, and Janey loves her fiercely.
• While Baz in Carry On was very close to his mother, he doesn't mind it when his father calls his stepmother by the same term and has a good relationship with her and all his half-siblings.
• In Children of Dune, Irulan is for all intents and purposes Leto and Ghanima's stepmother, being married to their biological father Paul Atreides, and she loves them as if they are her own children. Unfortunately for her, her Stupid Evil sister Wensicia tries to kill the twins, souring her relationship with them.
• In the Farseer trilogy, FitzChivalry has an interesting relationship with his father's legal wife Prudence. While she's not exactly happy to have proof that her husband was unfaithful to her — not least because she's unable to have any children herself — after Chivalry's death, she comes to court to take Fitz under her wing, and insists on calling him "Tom" rather than Fitz. Tom is what she wanted to name her own son, if she had ever had one. For Fitz's part, he refers to Prudence as his mother once when he's drunk.
• Mary Higgins Clark includes a few examples her books:
  • In I Heard That Song Before, Elaine comes across as one to Peter; although part of it is likely because she wants to stay in his good books to mooch off the Carrington fortune, they get along alright and it's later revealed that Elaine has been trying to protect Peter for decades by hiding his bloody dress shirt, which could tie him to Susan's murder. Then it's revealed that Elaine actually helped cover for Susan's real murderer, her son Richard, and was complicit in Jonathan Lansing's murder, and would’ve let Peter go down for both to protect herself and Richard, making her a Wicked Stepmother instead.
  • In Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Wayne Stevens was a gender-flip of this trope to Suzanne. He adopted her after marrying her mother and did his best to be a good father to her. Unfortunately, Suzanne was never that appreciative and cut him off after her mother died, going to live with her biological father. Wayne always hoped she'd return someday and is deeply shocked and saddened when he learns Suzanne was murdered over a decade ago.
  • In Moonlight Becomes You, Nuala is this to Maggie, though she's technically Maggie's ex-stepmother. They love each other like mother and daughter (especially as Maggie's biological mother died before she could remember her), and even though Nuala divorced Maggie's father and they didn't see each other for twenty-two years (not through lack of trying on Nuala's part) their bond remains strong. Maggie recalls that Nuala always stood up for her to her controlling father and encouraged her creativity. Nuala also ends up bequeathing almost everything she owns, including her house, to Maggie in her new will.
• In Dirge for Prester John, when Anglitora comes to meet John, Hagia practically adopts the girl as her own.
• Earth's Children:
  • Willomar is a good stepfather. He has a loving relationship with his stepsons, Joharran and Jondalar, though his relationship with Joharran is more one of friendship, due to the fact he was already an adult when Willomar mated their mother, Marthona.
  • Jerika is kind and supportive towards her stepson Jondalar, and he in turn respects her.
  • Jondalar tries to be this to Darvalo, the son of his lover Serenio, in The Valley of Horses. Darvalo views Jondalar as a Parental Substitute due to his father having died when he was very young. Although Jondalar loves Darvalo and tells him he'll always view him as his child in some form, he's not really the best candidate to be a stepfather to him, due to his inability to commit to Serenio and discontentment living amongst the Sharamudoi (not to mention the implication he's closer to Darvalo's age than Serenio's). When Jondalar decides to leave after breaking up with Serenio, Darvalo takes it extremely hard, although they manage to reconcile somewhat when they meet again in The Plains of Passage.
  • Grod is another gender-flipped example towards Ona; she's not his biological child but he comes to love her as if she were his own and he's extremely grateful to Ayla for saving Ona's life.
• Esther Diamond: Dolly from the first book is Duke's girlfriend and not his wife, but is shown to be caring towards and protective of his daughter during the little page-time they have together, and promises not to tell her father that she isn't a virgin anymore.
• Fire & Blood establishes that, for all of Daemon and Rhaenyra's many faults, they both fit this trope towards each other's children by previous partners. When Daemon's stepson Lucerys is killed, Daemon is absolutely enraged and vows to avenge him (saying "A son for a son"). Rhaenyra gives her stepdaughter Rhaena a dragon egg from her own dragon and arranges for both of her stepdaughters to be betrothed to her sons, which, had their family won the civil war, would have allowed for the elder, Baela, to eventually become queen.
• In book 5 of Gesta Danorum, the sorceress Kraka, second wife to a Norwegian lord, cooks a meal for both her stepson Erik and her own son Roller but prepares Roller's share with the slaver of a magical snake, which will make him smarter and luckier. But Erik and Roller swap plates and the spell is upon Erik instead. Rather than being angry at Erik, Kraka decides that from now on, Erik should be the leader of the brothers. She also promises that her magic will aid Erik whenever he calls her name, and helps him in outwitting King Gotar of Norway. When Gotar's assassins attack Erik in his bed, he calls out his stepmother's name, whereupon a shield happens to fall from the rafters, covering his body and saving his life.
• Lisa of The Hate U Give dotes on Seven, treating him just the same as she does her biological children. It's especially impressive since Seven is the result of Lisa's husband cheating on her. While she does loathe Seven's mother, and occasionally takes shots at her, she never does it when he's within earshot and doesn't hold it against him at all. He refers to her as "Ma" and doesn't correct strangers who assume she's his mother, as he bitterly points out to his biological mother.
• Howl's Moving Castle: Living in a world filled with fairy tale tropes and their lampshades and aversions, Sophie's stepmother Fanny displays some antagonistic shades before the revelation of her best intentions toward both her own daughter Martha and her stepdaughters Sophie and Lettie. The thing is, she loves her daughters equally, but her judgement is flawed.
  • More specifically: Fanny sends Martha to study magic under a famous teacher but sends Lettie to work in a bakery and Sophie to work in the family-owned hat store. It first appears to be favoritism, but it turns out that she actually believed these to be the best life choices for her daughters: Martha is the youngest child, so she is already destined to have the luckiest and most exciting life, and having magical skills could help her even more; Lettie is popular among guys, so working in a bakery will help her find a husband quickly; and meek, eldest Sophie can have a secure income in the hat store.
  • That said, Martha and Lettie disagree with Fanny, causing them to quietly trade places using transformation spells and making her decisions look more antagonistic. Martha is especially eager to call her mom out for trying to decide what is best for each daughter, and also further badmouths her by revealing the issue below.
  • More antagonistic-looking is the revelation that Sophie's hats are extremely popular in the town, and Fanny lives a rich socialite life on Sophie's earnings. But as it turns out, this also was not due to malicious intentions; she genuinely thought that Sophie was happy working in the hat store.
  • And she is also ready to stab Howl with her parasol when she thinks he caused Sophie to turn into an old woman!
• The Ray Bradbury short story "I Sing the Body Electric": A robot nanny is brought in as a therapist to help children complete the grieving process for their dead mother.
• John Putnam Thatcher: In "By Hook or by Crook,'' Harriet Parajian helped her husband seek for the missing children from his first marriage and was very kind and welcoming to them afterward. Decades later, she's still on good terms with all three kids and can talk sense into them when things are going badly. Although it turns out her husband is actually their uncle and not their father.
• Mercy Thompson: The title character is beloved by Jesse, the daughter of her hot werewolf neighbor Adam. Jesse looks up to Mercy like a Cool Big Sis and likes Mercy even more when Adam and Mercy end up dating and then marrying. This is a sharp contrast to Jesse's biological mother, who's shallow and self-centered to the point of being neglectful.
• The Mermaid's Mirror: Lena's father remarried when she was nine. Her stepmother, Allie, did such a good job of raising her that Lena thinks of her as her mom and almost never thinks about her biological mother.
• In The Orphan's Tales, one of the characters in the nested stories, a young woman named Magadin who has been experimented on by an evil wizard, has a good stepmother but wicked stepsisters. Magadin is initially afraid her father's new wife will treat her poorly, but they actually get along great and the stepmother takes Magadin under her wing as an apprentice. Unfortunately, this makes the stepsisters jealous, and when the wizard shows up demanding a girl, they rat Magadin out.
• The first book in the Peabody series is called "Derwood, Inc.", which is how Mr. Derwood refers to his family since all of the kids are at most half-related to most of their siblings — he, a widower with two children, married a widow with a daughter, and they have three children together. Mr. and Mrs. Derwood are good parents to all of their children, step or blood, and the kids in turn love both of them as their parents.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians
  • Percy's second stepfather, Paul Blofis, is a major improvement over the Wicked Stepfather he had in the first book.
  • When Percy first meets Poseidon's wife, Amphitrite, he gets the impression that she doesn't like him, and can't really blame her, given that he was born from an affair. She seems to warm up to him pretty quickly, however, and Percy cracks that she's turning out to be a much better stepmother than Hera.
  • Played with in the character of Mrs. Chase, Annabeth's stepmother. Annabeth ran away partially because of her stepmother and grew up insisting that she was a Wicked Stepmother. However, when we actually meet her, we find that, while a bit strict, Mrs. Chase appears to care deeply about her stepdaughter, telling Percy that no matter what, Annabeth has a home with her family. Their relationship is implied to have improved as Annabeth grew older and matured, and there is a theory going around that Annabeth, having been a small child at the time, simply misread fear and worry for her safety as her stepmother being cruel to her.
• In the original novel of The Princess Bride, Prince Humperdinck has a stepmother, Queen Bella. He always calls her "Evil Stepmother" (or simply "E.S." for short) because all fairy tale stepmothers are, and he was still a little boy when she married his father, but it's actually an Insult of Endearment. In reality, she's very nice, with the narrative describing her as "the most beloved person in the kingdom," and she and Humperdinck are quite fond of one another. She seems to be one of the only people he trusts, although she disappears from the bulk of the narrative after his engagement to Buttercup.
• Played with in Tanith Lee's Red as Blood, a retelling of "Snow White". In this version, the stepdaughter is evil and the stepmother is trying to protect the kingdom.
• In the Old Icelandic Saga of Bosi and Herraud, the brothers Bosi and Smid are, after their mother's death, raised by their father's magically skilled concubine, Busla. When Bosi incurs King Hring's wrath and awaits his execution, Busla persuades the king to let Bosi live by demonstrating her magic powers and threatening to lay a terrible curse on the king. Later, when Bosi and Smid are hard-pressed in battle against the sorcerous King Harek of Bjarmaland, Busla comes to their aid in the shape of a giant bird, saving her stepsons again at the cost of her own life.
• When her stepsons Erik and Agnar are killed by king Eystein Beli, Aslaug of The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok weeps a single tear of blood for them (which is a lot, as she never cries). Afterwards, she persuades her biological sons to avenge their stepbrothers and even personally leads an army against Eystein, eventually defeating and killing him.
• The title character of the children's book Sarah, Plain and Tall is a 19th century Mail-Order Bride, whose husband specifically selects her to be one of these. He has a young son and daughter by his late first wife, and doesn't want them to grow up motherless; they communicate with her by letter for some time before she travels (with her cat, Seal) to live with them and marry their father. By the time they actually become a family they're all quite attached to each other, and it's heavily implied that Sarah will be this for the children.
• In The School for Good Mothers, Frida's ex and her girlfriend Susanna take full custody of Harriet while Frida is at the school. Frida only gets very limited contact with her daughter, while Susanna is able to be a hands-on parent. Harriet eventually refers to her as "Mommy Sue-Sue", horrifying Frida.
• An interesting version is seen in The Silmarillion: Fëanor's stepmother Indis is very decent to him, and his father still seems to favour him over his younger children. Fëanor is still insanely jealous, though. His feelings were arguably justified, if not when they were directed towards Indis: Fëanor's mother suffered Death by Childbirth, but elves can come back to life after spending a certain amount of time in the afterlife. Notably, Fëanor's father is the only elf we ever hear of remarrying.
• In the horror novel Smoke by the late Ruby Jean Jensen, Faye finds herself struggling to act as a good mother figure to her stepchildren after their biological mother is murdered. It's shown that she already wanted to be a part of their lives, but their bio mother was against it as she viewed the behavior as patronizing charity from ex-husband. Even as the children are basically followed by a murderous apparition, Faye does her hardest to treat the children as her own. It's not helped that the people around her, including her own sister, believe she's better off without her stepchildren after their father is killed too, because she's already pregnant. Faye nevertheless returns to take full custody after her sister has the kids shipped off to a boarding school, and tries to help them defeat the monster that's imprinted upon them.
• Snow, Glass, Apples is a short story by Neil Gaiman which retells "Snow White" from the stepmother's point of view. In this iteration, she initially tries to be a good stepmother to the little girl, even telling her that "I'm your new mother" when they meet and trying to bond with her over a snack of apples. Over time, however, she becomes horrified to learn that her stepdaughter is actually a vampire, and when she orders the girl's destruction, it's intended for the good of the kingdom. It ends badly for the stepmother.
• Invoked in Stepson Mityushka by Ilya Litvak. Mityushka's Innocently Insensitive neighbors warn him he can expect nothing but cruelty from his new stepmother, and the woman herself isn't too enthusiastic about marrying a widower with a child. To escape mistreatment, Mityushka decides to be as kind and respectful as possible towards her, and eventually the stepmother comes to genuinely care for him and he for her.
• Winnamine is this to Sarai and Dove in Tamora Pierce's Trickster's Duet. Even if they don't always agree, she genuinely has her stepdaughters' best interests in mind.
• A Tale of...
  • The Wicked Queen is a Perspective Flip prequel to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It's shown that the Evil Queen (known as "Grimhilde" in future books) started out as a kind and loving stepmother who adored her stepdaughter like she was her biological child. She precisely wanted to avoid being a bad stepmother because she had an abusive father who blamed her for her mother's Death by Childbirth. Eventually, she warped into the evil stepmother. This change was due to a combination of grief after her husband died in war, her craving recognition from her abusive father whose soul is trapped in the Magic Mirror, and a Psycho Serum created by the Odd Sisters. After her death (which is technically a suicide), the Evil Queen returns to her previous doting personality as her soul becomes trapped in the Magic Mirror.
  • The Wicked Stepmother turns Cinderella into an Hourglass Plot. Lady Tremaine began as loving and accepting of Cinderella as her own child, despite her Innocently Insensitive parroting of her father, Sir Richard, saying that Lady Tremaine cannot be called Mama, or that the house will always be her mother’s no matter whom Richard marries. But Cinderella’s Fatal Flaw is that she is loyal to her father, to the point where she cannot recognize that he is an abusive husband and Wicked Stepfather who forces Lady Tremaine and her daughters to do the household chores and blatantly favors his own child over his stepchildren. When Lady Tremaine plans to leave and take her daughters away, Cinderella tells her father as The Dutiful Daughter of his that she believes she is, and Sir Richard locks Lady Tremaine in her room and refuses to let her leave. Desperate to end her own suffering, Lady Tremaine makes a Deal with the Devil to kill Richard. Afterwards, her abuse of Cinderella in the original story is revenge for tattling to her father, as Lady Tremaine believes Cinderella told him out of deliberate maliciousness and not out of innocent loyalty to her father.
• In XL by Scott Brown, Laura Tannenger is just as kind, generous, and caring to her stepson, Will, as she is to her biological son, Drew.

Live-Action TV

• Kelly, Rick's second wife on American Restoration, is shown to have a good relationship with Tyler, his son from his first marriage.
• Arrow:
  • Walter Steele cares for Moira Queen's children, Oliver and Thea, and gets along with them. Even after divorcing Moira, he is still willing to help them, as shown when Oliver asked Walter to help prevent Queen Consolidated from being absorbed by Isabel Rochev at the beginning of Season 2.
  • Felicity Smoak is arguably a better parent to William than his father, Oliver (partially because William has less baggage with her than he does with his father, whom he both worries is going to get himself killed and also blames for the death of his mother). They also bond over being a lot alike, both of them geeky and technologically gifted; the flashforwards in Arrow's final seasons show William as the Generation Xerox to Felicity while her biological daughter with Oliver, Mia, is the one to Oliver.
• On The Brady Bunch, Carol does such a good job raising the boys, the fact that she is their stepmother is never even mentioned beyond the pilot - except in one episode (season 1, #10) when Bobby, after watching Cinderella on TV, and being told to clean out the fireplace, convinces himself that Carol is a Wicked Stepmother. His use of the word "stepmother" eventually provokes this reply:
  Carol: The only steps in this house are those (points to staircase), which go right up to your bedroom.
  • Similarly, Mike is an excellent stepfather to the girls, who adore him. The reunion movies show that Marcia even names her own son after him.
• Bridgerton: Lady Mary Sheffield Sharma is this to her stepdaughter, Kate. She considers Kate her own daughter and states as much when her parents say they only have one grandchild (Edwina) from her; she immediately corrects them by saying that she has two daughters. Upon hearing Kate's confession to owe so much to her for taking the former in, she reassures Kate that the latter never had to earn her love, because the moment they met, she immediately considered Kate as her own.
• Charité at War has Margot Sauerbruch, who's closer in age to her stepson Peter than to her husband Ferdinand, but still has a warm relationship with Peter, acting very motherly about him and worrying when he has to return to the front.
• Charmed (1998): Victor Bennett technically isn't Paige's stepfather because he was already divorced with Patty by the time Paige was born. Despite Patty's affair with her Whitelighter Sam being the reason why he divorced his wife, Victor has never blamed Paige for the affair (and he is already over with it) and treats her like one of his own daughters.
• Audrey Parker is this to Josh in Drake & Josh. Walter is a Gender Flipped version of this to Drake and Megan. However, they do act accordingly given that the kids are troublemakers. (Megan usually gets away scot-free, but in "Tree House," even she gets punished.)
• In Forever (2014), the episode "The King of Columbus Circle" concludes with Lydia, the illegitimate daughter of the deposed King of Urkesh, meeting her father's wife after his death. Based on available information, the king and his wife couldn't have children, and his wife was unaware of her husband's illegitimate offspring until recently, but when Lydia meets her 'step-mother' in the hospital, the woman expresses joy at the chance to meet her husband's grandchild despite the circumstances, as it allows the Urkesh bloodline to continue.
• In The Fosters, though generally given a relatively secondary role, Lena fully intends to and does play a positive parental role in her stepson Brandon's life.
• House of the Dragon: While Alicent Hightower tries to be this at first to Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (her former best friend, who is practically the same age) after marrying King Viserys, various events cause their relationship to sour and a deep mistrust to develop between them for both women. Rhaenyra and her husband Daemon, on the other hand, have a much more positive relationship with each other's children from previous marriages (Rhaenyra's sons Jace, Luke and Joffrey and Daemon's daughters Baela and Rhaena) and are shown to care about their well being, with Daemon even lethally silencing Vaemond Velaryon for impuning the boys' legitimacy. Given that the supposed death of Rhaenyra's first husband Laenor and her marriage to Daemon happened soon after Joffrey was born, in his case Daemon would in fact be the only father figure he's ever known.
• Invoked in I Married Dora, a short-lived Dom Com in The '80s, in which a widowed father marries his immigrant housekeeper. This keeps her from being deported and allows her to continue taking care of his two children, who love her dearly.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Marigold is kind and protective of Nori and Dilly, despite them not being her biological children.
• Invoked and Played With in the 1981 Chilean Telenovela La Madrastra^note The Stepmother (as well as remakes like the Mexican one), in which a rich woman is falsely accused of a crime and imprisoned in jail for 20 years, and the father of her 3 children told them their mother was dead to avoid the shame. After those years, she was freed and comes back to the house to get revenge on the people who accused her, as well as 'adopt' her children (now adults who don't remember the image of their mother) and marry her husband once again under another name, becoming the "stepmother".
• In Moesha, Dee, who is Frank's second wife, acts like a mother figure to Moesha and Myles.
• In The Nanny, Fran becomes the beloved stepmom of the Sheffield children, having gained their love and trust ages before her Relationship Upgrade with their father. In one episode leading up to the wedding, he presents her with adoption papers so she can become their mother legally, and it's shown that they call her "Mom" at least some of the time. Fran's mother and grandmother are also shown to regard the Sheffield kids as their own grandchildren/great-grandchildren.
• In Once Upon a Time Season 7, after Anastasia and Drizella's mother Rapunzel is held captive by Mother Gothel and presumed dead, her husband's second wife Cecelia is a good stepmother to the girls. Unfortunately, when Rapunzel returns, she's pushed by Gothel into cursing Cecelia into exile in order to reunite with her family, and is not a good stepmother to Cecelia's daughter Ella.
  • Captain Hook has a good relationship with Henry before and after marrying his mother Emma.
• In the last season of Pretty Little Liars, Spencer learns that her mother is actually Mary Drake, meaning Veronica's her stepmother. The two always had a good relationship, and once Spencer gets over the shock, that doesn't change.
• Parks and Recreation: Ron may be a gruff, dour man, but he loves his two stepdaughters Zoëy and Ivy fiercely. He does his best to be a good father and positive figure in their life and mostly succeeds, though his... general Ron-ness... sometimes gets in the way.
• Raising Hope: Once Jimmy and Sabrina marry, she is this to Jimmy's daughter Hope, whom she eventually formally adopts, and she's over the moon when Hope calls her "mommy". She even showed maternal instincts for Hope way before she became Jimmy's girlfriend/wife when she saved Hope from a gun-toting Barbara-June. Sabrina also tries very hard to make sure Hope has a good childhood.
• Reboot (2022): Male example; the premise of the in-universe show Step Right Up is that Lawrence is a great stepdad to Cody, even if there are growing pains. Hannah, the showrunner's daughter who got left behind when said showrunner left her family for a second one, is disgruntled at this idealistic portrayal. When given the greenlight for a reboot she makes Lawrence a slightly less perfect stepdad by introducing an estranged daughter from his previous relationship.
• Stargirl gives us Barbara and Pat, stepparents to Courtney (Barbara's daughter) and Mike (Pat's son). Both of them are kind and loving, but not lax, parents; they each work to bond with the other's child, and support them in their school science projects and desperate battles with terrifying villains. We're also shown that both Courtney and Mike are starting to appreciate all the effort. For example, Mike initially tells Pat and Barbara not to show up to his science fair, claiming that no other parent will be there. Then it turns out that everyone else's parents did show up, leaving Mike as the odd kid out - until Barbara shows up, even though she said earlier that she had a meeting at work. Mike is clearly appreciative, and they end up bonding over eating his chocolate volcano. Meanwhile, after Pat tells Courtney how much she has disappointed him by going behind his back and stealing the JSA gear, Courtney clearly doesn't know how to behave with him in front of Barbara and Mike, feeling shame for breaking his trust.
• Genderflipped in Ted Lasso where Simon, Jamie Tartt's stepdad, is a cheerful, kindly, soft-spoken man who is clearly not even slightly jealous of the close mother and son relationship. When Jamie returns home unexpectedly (with friends in tow), Simon greets him enthusiastically and later distracts the other visitors to give mother and son time alone to talk. This is a stark contrast to his loud, violent and abusive birth father.

Religion and Mythology

• Jesus' stepfather, St. Joseph, is also the patron saint of fathers and stepfathers. Traditions differ about whether or not he had any biological children himself, so this might be on the basis of stepparenting alone.
• Classical Mythology:
  • In one legend, Theseus, a son of Poseidon, dives down into the water to retrieve Minos' ring and meets with Amphitrite, who gives him a golden crown. Compared to the way Hera treats her stepkids, that would definitely qualify for this trope.
  • Mythology actually has several men who were fine raising their wives' half-divine children: Amphitryon (Heracles), Tyndareus (Helen and Polydeuces), and Aloeus (Otis and Ephialtes). The latter actually continued raising the kids after their mother's death, and later killed his second wife for causing their deaths.^note Random side note: In this case, his stepsons were also his half-brothers, all three being fathered by Poseidon.

Theatre

• Implied in Jasper in Deadland. Though she is only mentioned briefly, Jasper clearly has a positive opinion of Agnes's stepmother (unlike his opinion of his own mother, who abandoned him and her husband). This gets subverted when Agnes reveals that her parents are secretly worse than Jasper's.
• Spider's Web: Clarissa's husband has a young daughter, Pippa, from his failed first marriage. Clarissa is a much better mother to Pippa than Pippa's biological mother ever was, with several characters who have seen the before and after remarking how much better Pippa is doing now. The plot is driven by Clarissa's willingness to go to remarkable lengths to protect her stepdaughter.

Video Games

• Castlevania 64 flips the usual formula by having Carrie reflect on her own loving stepmother, who even gave her life to save Carrie's, in order to call out Actrise for how pathetic and worthless she is for having sacrificed her own biological daughter to attain immortality. This, and Actrise having sicced Carrie's vampire cousin on her before, make the utter beat-down of the witch that ensues all the more satisfying.
• In Cursed Fables: White as Snow from Elephant Games, the player character is Queen Margaret, stepmother of Snow White. But she's very much this trope; she loves Snow White, who was still fairly young when Margaret married King Philip. Snow's own diary notes that she likes Margaret, who is very nice to her, and she's pleased that her father is Happily Married. Unfortunately for the unwitting Margaret (and the rest of the kingdom), Snow happens to be a vampire.
• In Ballad of Rapunzel, the seventh installment of the Dark Parables series, Rapunzel is the daughter of the King of Floralia by his first wife Violante; diary entries are found written by his second wife, Melanie, expressing her desire to be a good stepmother to the child. Unfortunately, Melanie died relatively young and could only be in Rapunzel's life for a few short years.
• In the backstory of the major religion of Dragon Age, the resident Crystal Dragon Jesus Andraste was a Deity of Human Origin. During her mortal life, she was married to an Alamarri warlord, Maferath, by whom she eventually had two daughters; however, he also had three sons by his concubine. After the concubine's death when the boys were quite young, Andraste raised them, and as far as they (and history) were concerned, she was their mother.
• The player character can actually be a good stepparent in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, depending on which NPC they choose for a spouse. Marrying Balimund (the blacksmith in Riften) or Octieve San (an elderly Breton in Solitude) gives the Dragonborn an adult stepchild (Asbjorn or Evette) with whom they can have a cordial, albeit somewhat minimal, relationship.
• In Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Fernand is said to have had a good relationship with his father's second wife as well as the two children she bore. Their deaths in the revolt by the commoners left him devastated and turned him into the bitter man he is at the start of the story.
• Fire Emblem Fates features a Big, Screwed-Up Family on both sides due to Corrin and Azura having ties to both yet surprisingly not actually being related by blood to anyone except each other. Among these is Mikoto, who is a good stepmother to the Hoshidan Royal family, since she loves Ryoma, Hinoka, Takumi, and Sakura as if they are her own children. (This also includes Azura, though Azura is her niece.) Sumeragi also played a male role to Corrin, since he is not Corrin's actual father, and when Corrin learns the truth, Corrin may say that Sumeragi really was his/her father. The stepfather on the Nohrian side of things, on the other hand...
• In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Dimitri fondly recalls his stepmother, who is also Edelgard's mother, who raised him alongside his father until he lost his parents in the Tragedy of Duscur. In reality, Dimitri's stepmother is revealed to be the person who actually caused the Tragedy.
• In Hades, Nyx was forbidden by Hades to speak of Zagreus' true parentage and as a result treats him as one of her children. Even after the latter learns the truth, he admits that Nyx has been nothing but a good mother to him for all his life.
• Life Is Strange: Before the Storm:
  • The major twist of episode 2 turns out to be that Rose is actually this to Rachel Amber. Sera, the woman she and Chloe saw kissing her father, James, is Rachel's biological mother, whom James divorced and cut out of his and Rachel's life because of her drug habit. James argues that Rose might as well be Rachel's mother, although Rachel herself is more conflicted on the matter.
  • David, Chloe's future stepfather, tries to be this trope (if only for Joyce's sake), but is Doomed by Canon to have a very strained relationship with her by the time of the original game, where he fits much better into the other trope (although not without his redeeming qualities).
• In Persona 4, Eri Minami, the Temperance Social Link, eventually becomes this to her stepson Yuuta over the course of her Social Link. She admits that she rushed into marrying Yuuta's father, and initially believes that she can't bond with him, but later tries to connect with him. Eventually, after Yuuta knocks the protagonist to the ground for supposedly insulting his mom, Eri starts to see Yuuta for the person he is. At the end of the game, if her Social Link is completed, Eri remarks that the first thing she felt upon the killer being caught is relief that her son is safe now.
• Twisted Wonderland: Lilia is the foster father to Malleus, Silver and Sebek, and all regard him fondly. The same cannot be said for his cooking.
• In The Walking Dead Season 3, Kate is this towards Mariana and Gabriel. Right in the beginning, she tells Javi how much she loves them and they will also often refer to her as Mom. She also survived 5 years protecting them from zombie hordes.

Visual Novels

• In Triangle Heart 3 (which gave rise to the Lyrical Nanoha Spin-Off series), Nanoha is Momoko Takamachi's only biological daughter: Kyouya Takamachi is Momoko's husband's illegitimate son from an earlier relationship, while Miyuki Takamachi is, in fact, Kyouya's cousin, who has been given a new identity to protect her from assassins who wiped out her own family. Nonetheless, Momoko cares equally about all three of her children and is shown to be a loving and understanding mother to them. Her loving nature carries over to Lyrical Nanoha, although the only indication that Miyuki and Kyouya aren't siblings is that she calls him "Kyou-chan" instead of using Japanese Sibling Terminology on him.
• Umineko: When They Cry: Despite having left the family for six years following his father's remarriage, Battler Ushiromiya doesn't hold a grudge against his stepmother Kyrie, with whom he gets along fairly well even if they don't really view each other as family. Subverted when we learn that Kyrie had a bitter rivalry with Battler's mother, Asumu, which has festered in envy for years. In private, Kyrie admits that she actually does resent Battler and is only forcing herself to be nice to him, and Episode 7 reveals that she wouldn't have any trouble getting rid of him if he got in the way of her and Rudolf running away with the money. As you might guess, the revelation in Episode 8 that Battler was her son all along isn't one that she takes very well. This in turn means that if Asumu knew the truth, then she also qualifies for this.

Webcomics

• Min-Seong from The Friendly Winter is a boy who lives with his stepmother Seo-Ha. He thinks she's the sweetest and most beautiful woman on the planet.
• Veronica Carter from I'm the Grim Reaper. From what we learn from their dialogue, Chase's real mother was very abusive. Veronica is much kinder and more caring towards him. She even pays for his rent and expensive medicine since he doesn't have a job.
• In Kevin & Kell, Kell is a loving mother to her stepdaughter Lindesfarne, who accepts her fairly easily, partly because Kell is a vast improvement over Lindesfarne's adoptive mother Angelique. Kevin also loves and cares for his stepson Rudy, even though Rudy initially tries to challenge Kevin for the position of alpha male.
• In Punderworld, while Hera was obviously pissed when she found out about Artemis, it is implied that the two eventually reconciled in some manner, even allowing Artemis to join the Olympians without complaint. Then again, it was Zeus who explained it, so it probably isn't so simple.
• In Something*Positive, Rory is not Davan's biological son. Rory's mother Donna is a friend of Davan's with whom he was involved briefly in the past, leading to a period when it was thought that Rory might be his. Genetic testing confirmed the identity of the bio dad, who wants nothing to do with the kid, so Davan stepped up to help; Rory actually calls him "Dad" (and calls Davan's father "Grandpa"), and Davan does things like attending parent-teacher conferences. The trope applies to Davan's wife, Vanessa, who is extremely understanding of the situation and treats Rory very kindly.
• In A Stepmother's Marchen, after her husband's death Shuli tries very, very hard to be this to her stepchildren, despite her being a teenager the same age of her eldest stepson. In her first life, her desperate attempts to protect her children from having their inheritance robbed and their family name sullied only left her with a terrible fame and with the children not particularly (or openly) liking her, only after her death realizing how much she did for them and having belated Love Epiphanies on diverse flavors of romantic and familial. In her second life she is way more effective protecting her stepchildren, and as such they end warming up to her much earlier.

Web Original

• In Mommy Sleeps in the Basement, Betty seems to at least care for her stepdaughter Paisley and Paisley's older full brother Tommy, and made a cake for Paisley's last birthday. It's one of the few wholesome things in the Creeypasta considering how messed up the rest of the family's situation is.
• This story from Not Always Legal features one heck of a Mama Bear stepmother. When a drug-addicted acquaintance of her stepson's biological mother decides to break into the house in order to kidnap him, the stepmother responds by breaking both of his arms to protect the boy. His mother, who was completely innocent and horrified by the news, sends her a letter thanking her for being such a good example of this trope.
• RWBY: Yang reveals to Blake in Volume 2 that Summer Rose was her step-mother, who was a "super-mom" that baked cookies and slayed monsters. She had no idea that she wasn't Summer's biological daughter until after Summer's death; while the news made her temporarily obsessive about trying to discover why her biological mother Raven abandoned her, it did not change how she felt about Summer. In Volume 8, she tells Ruby that even if Summer's last mission didn't turn out the way she hoped, it doesn't change the fact that she's still Yang's hero; Yang is even willing to challenge Salem to her face over the fact that Salem deprived Yang of her mother... Summer, that is, not Raven.

Western Animation

• Delilah in 101 Dalmatian Street already has a litter of puppies from a previous marriage, before she met Doug and his own litter of puppies, but both of them love each and every pup dearly. The only regular hints that they are a blended family are that Dawkins refers to Doug by name rather than as "Dad," and Dolly mentions to Fergus that she and Dylan are not actually related. The stepmother example for Delilah, however, is specifically shown in "Girls' Day Out", where Delilah quickly steps in to defend Dolly when others, such as Clarissa, Portia, and Spencer, make fun of her at the Animal Spa.
• Halfway into As Told by Ginger, Lois begins dating a doctor. Carl gets quite attached to Dave easily. His older sister Ginger is a bit more apprehensive at first. She at one point has a fairy-tale Imagine Spot where he is a wicked stepfather, and later Miranda tries to instill worries in her about Dave being her new father. Eventually Ginger does warm up to Dave too, especially when he's the one who saves her life when she needs an appendectomy. Lois and Dave end up engaged and the finale is about their wedding.
• The fact that Delia is Lydia's stepmother is never mentioned in Beetlejuice (although it does come up in the spinoff comic book series). Lydia calls her "Mom" and, although they clash over aesthetics from time to time, they clearly care about each other and generally get along well.
• In Daria, Brittany's dad married a Trophy Wife only ten years older than Brittany herself. The two enjoy a happy relationship, though Brittany's stepmother is more like a Cool Big Sis to her than a parental figure.
• Gender inverted in Darkwing Duck: after defending young orphan Gosalyn Waddlemeyer from Taurus Bulba, Darkwing decides to give up being a full-time superhero and takes on the civilian identity of Drake Mallard so he can formally take Gosalyn in. Throughout the rest of the series, despite having normal family disagreements, it's clear that Darkwing and Gosalyn's bond is incredibly close, to the point where it's hard to remember that they're not actually related. It also helps that their relationship is mutually beneficial; Darkwing is able to give Gosalyn a happy, (relatively) normal life, while having Gosalyn (and Launchpad) around helps keep Darkwing's ego in check.
• Disenchantment: Since Oona is a parody of a Wicked Stepmother, she comes back around and becomes a good one. Despite being an amphibious fish-person who was forced to marry the king in an Arranged Marriage to keep him from destroying her home, she does her best to be a good mother to her stepdaughter Bean. On Bean's wedding night she gives her some sex advice (even though it doesn't help), she often counsels her husband not to bother her too much, she forgives Bean quickly for betraying her for her birth mother (who turned out to be evil), and invites her to come be a pirate with her when she leaves.
• In Phineas and Ferb, if it weren't for the hyphenated names and mixed accents, you wouldn't even be able to tell that this is a blended family. The phrases "stepchildren" and "stepsiblings" are virtually never used. Neither parent shows any preferences between biological and stepchildren, and that extends to even the shown grandparents treating all the kids equally.
• In Rugrats (1991), Chuckie initially worries that Kira will be like the stepmother from Cinderella. She's actually quite nice and caring. One episode even has her adopting him legally (and likewise, Chas adopts her daughter Kimi).
• In Sofia the First, Sofia's mother, Miranda, marries King Roland II and is a kind and loving stepmother to his children, Amber and James. She acknowledges there aren't many stories with good stepmothers, so it drives her to be as good as she can. Roland, meanwhile, is also a kind and loving stepfather to Sofia.

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