What do you think about a mother protagonist in the fantasy world?

[Eldoria]

Mother Protagonists
​

I love mother protagonists, because besides being rarely mentioned, mother protagonists are also relatable to real life and provide authentic family drama. So the focus of the story is not only on the outside world but also the inner world (family). Two mother protagonists that I like are Mama Cayna (Leadale) and Mama Azusa (Slime Taoshite 300nen).

The questions are:

1. What do you think about a mother protagonist in the fantasy world?
2. Do you like a mother protagonist in the fantasy world?
3. Why aren't there many (not none) fictions that make a mother protagonist, not just as a backdrop but as the center of the narrative?

Critical Note:
I'm referring to wholesome or heartwarming family-based fantasy stories. This thread is not intended to discuss fiction that exploits mother protagonists in any way (I hate mothers being physically, mentally, economically, or even sexually abused, even if it's just fiction).

I deeply respect mothers, as I love my mother in real life. Therefore, I only want to discuss family fantasies with mother protagonists that emphasize the mother-children bond (without the addition of romantic elements that weaken the mother-children bond, if possible).

We might become mothers. So please respect the mothers, even if it's fictional. Because respecting the mothers is the same as respecting your future (female) version.

 

[Author_Riceball]

Mother Protagonists
​

I love mother protagonists, because besides being rarely mentioned, mother protagonists are also relatable to real life and provide authentic family drama. So the focus of the story is not only on the outside world but also the inner world (family). Two mother protagonists that I like are Mama Cayna (Leadale) and Mama Azusa (Slime Taoshite 300nen).

The questions are:

1. What do you think about a mother protagonist in the fantasy world?
2. Do you like a mother protagonist in the fantasy world?
3. Why aren't there many (not none) fictions that make a mother protagonist, not just as a backdrop but as the center of the narrative?

Critical Note:
I'm referring to wholesome or heartwarming family-based fantasy stories. This thread is not intended to discuss fiction that exploits mother protagonists in any way (I hate mothers being physically, mentally, economically, or even sexually abused, even if it's just fiction).

I deeply respect mothers, as I love my mother in real life. Therefore, I only want to discuss family fantasies with mother protagonists that emphasize the mother-children bond (without the addition of romantic elements that weaken the mother-children bond, if possible).

We might become mothers. So please respect the mothers, even if it's fictional. Because respecting the mothers is the same as respecting your future (female) version.

I have literally never read anything with a mother as the MC

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I've rarely encountered it by choice, but my wife has listened to quite a few audio novels with this as an element. The only title I know was "Saving Nora" - though it had a common theme in the "stories focused on mothers:" the mother had a multiple birth in her past and did not know of one (or more) of the children until she encounters that child either in the possession of her eventual love interest or in the thrall of the main antagonist.
Some of those stories did a better job portraying the kids than the parents (and some were quite the opposite).
As an aside, in Saving Nora, she had a TRIPLE birth in her past and only knew about the daughter, not the two boys - one of which went to the biological father, her eventual husband, the other to one of the early villains. IIRC it was an artificial insemination that neither party was informed of in advance.

In most of the other stories, the woman was in trouble, helped by a stranger who turns out to be a weird billionaire who demands one child as payment for saving her after taking advantage of her in the past. The trope was kind of interesting the first time but an immediate "skip that story" after I saw how common it was. Only one of those was fantasy though AFAICT (unless "rich guy inseminating, abusing, and eventually falling in love with heroine, who may or may not appreciate it" counts as "fantasy" somehow)... Saving Nora should count though - though it tries to stay in the realm of "near future science fiction," it feels more like a modern version of a pulp "weird science" tale with quasi mystical crap meandering through!

 

[Deleted member 167438]

We might become mothers. So please respect the mothers, even if it's fictional. Because respecting the mothers is the same as respecting your future (female) version.

I respect the hell out of my mother and my wife who is a mother. Neither of those things influence how I write fiction.

Why not respect all fathers too? Can't have anything bad happen to them. What about all people? We are all persons. /s

I'd put it forward that treating mothers as a sacred protected class in fiction is the opposite to respecting them.

But I am an NTR smut writer so what do I know? ?

Anyway mother MCs are underutilized.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Some reason I get 'Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?' Vibes when I hear this question. An Anime on CR...

Anyways, If done well, it could be quite the wholesome story. Otherwise, well.. they have a whole Step-whatever genre on the Hub that covers what might end up happening.

Edit: Probably should answer the questions

1. What do you think about a mother protagonist in the fantasy world?
   
   - Depending on implementation, Great. Retired adventure coming out of retirement to save her childs party? A bitch of a mother who just got cursed by a god with a system that give bonuses to her and her children if she acts like a proper mother, but slowly kills her if she does bad things again? Plenty of options on the mother angle.
   
   
2. Do you like a mother protagonist in the fantasy world?
   
   -It has potential, though as a someone who enjoys a bit of smut, I would find it difficult to not be a bit weird about it at times.
   
   
3. Why aren't there many (not none) fictions that make a mother protagonist, not just as a backdrop but as the center of the narrative
   
   -Lack of an audience for something like that, at least on the wholesome angle. I am not sure if I could write a FMC/Protag mother, and know how she should be thinking, how her thoughts would differentiate from my own. Hard to write if you can't self insert a little. /shrug

 

[Eldoria]

I respect the hell out of my mother and my wife who is a mother. Neither of those things influence how I write fiction.

Why not respect all fathers too? Can't have anything bad happen to them. What about all people? We are all persons. /s

I'd put it forward that treating mothers as a sacred protected class in fiction is the opposite to respecting them.

But I am an NTR smut writer so what do I know? ?

Anyway mother MCs are underutilized.

I don't want to argue with you. Everyone has their own preferences. You can write whatever you like. However, this thread is clearly about a wholesome family, with the mother and children as the central narrative. You can create another thread if you want to discuss other things. Regards.

Some reason I get 'Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?' Vibes when I hear this question. An Anime on CR...

Anyways, If done well, it could be quite the wholesome story. Otherwise, well.. they have a whole Step-whatever genre on the Hub that covers what might end up happening.

Read Leadale and Slime Taoshite 300 nen novels! You will find out how beautiful this genre is (if you like it).

 

[Deleted member 167438]

I don't want to argue with you. Everyone has their own preferences. You can write whatever you like. However, this thread is clearly about a wholesome family, with the mother and children as the central narrative. You can create another thread if you want to discuss other things. Regards.

Read Leadale and Slime Taoshite 300 nen novels! You will find out how beautiful this genre is (if you like it).

All I am saying is that you'd get way more good mother MC stories (even more wholesome ones) if you don't act like you need to walk on eggshells around them.

 

[LightHikari]

I think these stories can be okay or good. Motherhood is a completion of a story more often than a focus. A lot of readers want to read romance, so that's probably why there are less of them. If such a thing was popular, there would be more.

I've read the two you've spoken of, and they were fun to read.

Yeah, I just think that a mother protagonist is not as popular. I think they have a place in fantasy, but people will be skewed towards what gets views. If you want the genre to get popular, it's better to produce a story that gets attention. Use some of the popular tropes we have now but with a mother.

Imagine a mother is isekaid with her family. You could have that be a thing. Or imagine a fantasy mother who gets motherly skills in a LitRPG.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Only for slice of life, any sort of adventuring makes zero sense.

 

[Hoshino]

You know... most of things I read/watched make it look weird you can take "Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de Ni-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki desu ka?"as an example. So can't really say much. Besides it can be wholesome sometimes, though...

 

[C.Details]

I enjoy mother figures, characters and MCs because they're often super supportive and always try to knock their children out of funks.

Personally a mother mc in fantasy can be interesting because you get to see how their kids react and treat her. Plus often in anime to a comedic effect the mother is often op and sometimes even putting down an antagonist like a bad kid. Then if you make her part of a long lived race and you can see how her adult children are thriving.

Canya is who opened my eyes to such a possible story. Read all the released light novels because I loved how her kids reacted and showed their love in different ways. Hopefully it gets another season too.

As for the last question I don't really know why. Maybe it's because fantasy is about exploration, lore, unique races and growing up. Even in some female oriented fantasies I've read, it's about saving a kingdom/world and romancing characters on purpose or by accident. I guess because fantasy is for the young adventurer, or young lover.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

I take it back, if it's a mother to grown up children, and she's a mil---- millionaire it might be interesting.

 

[Sabruness]

Two mother protagonists that I like are Mama Cayna (Leadale) and Mama Azusa (Slime Taoshite 300nen).

ah, i see you are a reader of culture.

 

[Sylver]

Mother Protagonists
​

I love mother protagonists, because besides being rarely mentioned, mother protagonists are also relatable to real life and provide authentic family drama. So the focus of the story is not only on the outside world but also the inner world (family). Two mother protagonists that I like are Mama Cayna (Leadale) and Mama Azusa (Slime Taoshite 300nen).

The questions are:

1. What do you think about a mother protagonist in the fantasy world?
2. Do you like a mother protagonist in the fantasy world?
3. Why aren't there many (not none) fictions that make a mother protagonist, not just as a backdrop but as the center of the narrative?

Critical Note:
I'm referring to wholesome or heartwarming family-based fantasy stories. This thread is not intended to discuss fiction that exploits mother protagonists in any way (I hate mothers being physically, mentally, economically, or even sexually abused, even if it's just fiction).

I deeply respect mothers, as I love my mother in real life. Therefore, I only want to discuss family fantasies with mother protagonists that emphasize the mother-children bond (without the addition of romantic elements that weaken the mother-children bond, if possible).

We might become mothers. So please respect the mothers, even if it's fictional. Because respecting the mothers is the same as respecting your future (female) version.

I don't have a good relationship with my mother. I don't have it in my heart to say I hate her, thought she's made it abundantly clear of her dislike for me.
Still, I have a deep respect for good mothers out there, fictional and real. I hope one day I get to take that role if I find the right person. One of my childhood movies I watched is The Secret of Nimh, it's a fantasy setting Disney-esque animated movie. It's about a mother who goes on an adventure to seek treatment for her sick son. I love the world-building it has and the way magic and science seem to blend together. It's an amazing animated film, I would highly recommend watching it. And I would suggest watching it if you want a good role model for mother protagonists in a fantasy setting :)

 

[expentio]

What makes the whole genre idea a little bit difficult is how there's the trope that children are in stories usually supposed to be better than theor parents. They are thought as the beings who will continue the legacy of the parents. Yet if they do, if they become better, you got the issue that the mother is going to play the second fiddle.
It's a problematic dynamic, if the children will remain unassuming in comparison, which might reduce interest in them, and on the other other side, not make them overshadow the mother MC.

 

[AliceMoonvale]

Think the closest I've come to, from reading and my own writing, is female protagonists that become mothers or are just motherly in general. Things I see a lot in stories involving child-care in some capacity. I find those kinds of stories to be pretty cute and enjoyable. But yeah, I don't think I've ever read or seen web comics that feature a fully mother character at the get-go. Maybe one day there'll be more popular stories like that which make it slightly more common~

 

[Zagaroth]

Almost everything is about the execution. Secret of NIMH is a great example, though the book version might be an even stronger example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Frisby_and_the_Rats_of_NIMH

I would say that in that story, her being a mother was a critical part of her character and story. So it was *about* her being a mother, even if it wasn't *just* about her being mother. It wasn't an examination of what it means to be a mother or anything like that.

In another story, being a mother could play an even smaller role to the story. My three MCs end up being adoptive parents, so 1 father and 2 mothers. Now, the circumstances around the pair of adoptions are complicated, but by the current arc of the story, they just simply say things like "my/our daughter", and have matching levels of emotional responses to circumstances.

Well, for the teen adoptee at least. Things are a bit more complicated with the other one, given that A) she's an adult, if not a particularly mature one, and B) magic stuff happened, this wasn't a proper decision, and it is not something readily undone.

Anyway: For the last several volumes, they simply have been mothers, but the story didn't hinge around them being mothers, and a variant AU where there are no adoptions involved comes out looking very similarly plot wise. So, by your question, it is a story with a mother for an MC, but it is not a story about them being mothers, and I don't think it entirely fits what you had in mind.

So there is a lot of range in a story that can be describes as having a mother protagonist. And as those two examples indicate, I generally feel positive about the idea, but I also grow wary when the title of a story starts to lean on the MC being a mother, or the plot is too focused around it.

What makes the whole genre idea a little bit difficult is how there's the trope that children are in stories usually supposed to be better than theor parents. They are thought as the beings who will continue the legacy of the parents. Yet if they do, if they become better, you got the issue that the mother is going to play the second fiddle.
It's a problematic dynamic, if the children will remain unassuming in comparison, which might reduce interest in them, and on the other other side, not make them overshadow the mother MC.

You can have both, if you shift the focus away from strictly being 'better' to growing beyond in some other way.

Say, if you have a story where the adult MCs are or become immortal in some way, they might reach a point where they do not make interesting protagonists any more because too much of their time is occupied in high-level stuff that is also low stakes.

You can shift the story to start following the teen child of such people, and watch as they grow in power while traveling beyond the purview of their parents. They come back to find their parents have still grown in power, because the training and such has never stopped, it's just become more routine. So the growth is steady and stable.

By the time the child grows in power enough that they are only slightly behind their parents, it's probably time to wrap the story up (or, *maybe*, switch to the next generation). You do not need to have them exceed their parents at any point, but they can be capable of doing different sorts of powerful things, so they still stand out without anyone overshadowing anyone else.

This is of course somewhat tricky to do right, but it can be done.

 

[Naravelt]

I rarely see this kind of protagonist. I think it's not bad at all, as long as it's truly the mother and not just a gimmick. One of my story's important characters isn’t a mother but has motherly traits. Others tease her and call her 'mom,' even though she's young, and her character design doesn’t fit the typical 'mom' archetype.

What makes the whole genre idea a little bit difficult is how there's the trope that children are in stories usually supposed to be better than theor parents

I think this can be solved by giving them clear roles. For example, the isekai'd mother and son could have the mother possess god-like cooking skills that grant a strong buff to her son, the hero. Without her cooking, the hero would be much weaker.

 

[DaelyxLenAuphydas]

Relationships that a character has little volition over tend to be intrinsically less interesting. If you were in a society where unconditional love wasn't expected from parents, it might work better, but in the situation where it is expected, it just kinda makes it a foregone conclusion. Of course it isn't necessarily about their relationships but in that case whats even the point of focusing on that aspect?

That's just in abstract. If I was to talk about my own personal feelings, I'd have to say that I almost universally loathe all parents, though there are a handful of exceptions those are very much in spite of their being parents. I don't really feel that contributing even further to planetary overpopulation is in any way shape or form praiseworthy, much the opposite in fact. So you can certainly miss me with that. They can work okay as support characters, but focusing on them just... Eh. I'm intensely disinterested in becoming emotionally engaged in anyone who has decided to subordinate their existence to another.

I think I'm gonna have to go out on a limb and say I don't have any particular need to respect parental figures as they could be 'me' in the future, given that is quite literally physiologically impossible. But even failing that; I don't care for elderly protagonists, honestly I find some difficulty being emotionally invested in characters that are destined for death in the first place, which is a big part of why when it comes to non-fantasy and non-sci-fi I mostly just care for action and not characters. Whats even the point, they're just going to deteriorate soon as the story is over, they might as well just die now.

What I will go out of my way to say, though, is the conception of a child being a 'continuation' of the parents is a vile and reprehensible one in my eyes. A child is their own person and not beholden to the parent in any way, so far as I am concerned they do not owe them anything for making decisions on their own that would dictate the course of their life. The other way doesn't really go the same though, as a parent (assuming a willing parent but lets not get into that can of worms) does have a moral responsibility to fulfill the purpose they have taken upon themselves. I guess that's kinda what it boils down to; A parent should, morally speaking, put their child before themselves, since they were the one who felt the need to bring them into reality in the first place, and all of their prospects are based upon the parents actions generally, with the child rarely having much say at all.

So the only real options are either the parent is deliberately subordinating themself (in which case they are not the most interesting or engaging character, since they're just playing second fiddle to their own child), or they have decided to prioritize their personal ambitions and well-being in spite of everything I just said (in which case I loathe them.), neither circumstance being particularly interesting to me.

The only real love is strictly conditional. 'Love' just born out of your own selfish actions and desire to have some kind of legacy is repellent to me, and therefore something I'm only really interested in seeing in antagonists or at the very least minor supporting characters.

This all goes predominantly for willing, biological parents, of course. The equation might be very different if it was an adoptive relationship, since then there would be some actual volition to it, and the bond would be based on the individuals attachment more than just whatever they socially represent to oneself.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I don't have a good relationship with my mother. I don't have it in my heart to say I hate her, thought she's made it abundantly clear of her dislike for me.
Still, I have a deep respect for good mothers out there, fictional and real. I hope one day I get to take that role if I find the right person. One of my childhood movies I watched is The Secret of Nimh, it's a fantasy setting Disney-esque animated movie. It's about a mother who goes on an adventure to seek treatment for her sick son. I love the world-building it has and the way magic and science seem to blend together. It's an amazing animated film, I would highly recommend watching it. And I would suggest watching it if you want a good role model for mother protagonists in a fantasy setting :)

As an aside, that was based on a novel, Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of Nimh - and the author was allegedly forced to change the names of some characters before it went to print, because the villains were all based blatantly on (rat) versions of people he worked with at The National Institute of Mental Health.