I feel bad for fictional moms. Half of them are dead. Of the half that remain, most of them are evil, single, poor, or simply Not Good Moms. Now, to be fair, I’ve written my fair share of moms that are either dead, widowed, or kidnapped by Vikings. But somehow, all three of the main characters in my fantasy book have living, decent, and happily married moms.
Rosyth is the most important mom in my book. She’s a good parent to Maywin, a good nurse to Gregor when he falls ill with the Fae Plague, and a good wife to Nikolai. She’s handled Milo’s death better than either Maywin or Nikolai and is the voice of comfort and reason in the midst of their struggles. Even though she’s not in the main story very much, Rosyth is one of the most important characters in my fantasy book.
Originally, Rosyth was going to be the one who fell ill with the Fae Plague instead of Gregor. In changing who fell ill, I changed Maywin’s motivation for going on his quest. Instead of wanting to save his only decent parent, Maywin now wants to redeem himself from his percieved failures over Milo’s death. (To be completely honest, I only invented Gregor because I was introduced to the concept of “fridging.” Fridging usually happens to female characters and is the term used for one character’s being killed, injured, or otherwise incapacitated so that another character is motivated to do something. I usually don’t care for tropes, but I wanted to avoid this one.)
Cory’s mom is Merinda Northplain. Tough as nails and sweet as sugar, she’s a farmer’s wife and the mother of thirteen children. She’s also a fantastic cook. Her butterbread cookies are widely believed to be the best dessert in Thrycia. Even though she’s only in a couple of scenes, I love Merinda–and especially her interactions with her slow-witted husband Haliadoc.
Vataris actually has two maternal figures. Obviously she has her mom Aneris, but she was primarily raised by her nurse Solara. Aneris, the sister of Commander Anai, is a very important political figure in her own right. As a diplomat, she travels to distand lands and spends long amounts of time gone from home. Both Aneris and Solara are only in one scene and not fleshed out well, but the dynamic between them and Vataris is an integral part of Vataris’s backstory. (You know what, though? I don’t like the way Aneris is spelled. I was going to go with Anerys, but I want the ending to match Vataris’s name. What else should I do? Anaris? Aneiris? Anaeris? Maybe I should just call her Amaris which is an actual name.)
Moms are honestly some of my favorite characters to write, just because of all the different directions you can go with them. You can have moms that embrace the crazy of motherhood, or calm moms, or moms that show their love by worrying about others. And all of them are capable of the deepest affection, the most selfless acts of sacrifice, and (depending on the age of their children) some of the funniest lines of dialogue in existence.
Who’s your favorite fictional mom? And how would you change the spelling of Aneris? Let me know in the comments below! God bless you, dear reader, and don’t forget to review us on Amazon!
Hullo. I wrote and self-published a fantasy novella which explicitly defied this trope. In my novella “The Magic Scroll,” the main characters’ parents are both alive, with the caveat that one of them is something of a reluctant villain. (Spoiler?)
In my general opinion, young adult literature tends to do this a lot out of a desire to place the teenage heroes at the forefront, but at he expense of a logical narrative where the adults in their lives should be more competent and experienced than they are. One sees this show up in The Hunger Games and, I think, Harry Potter.
I think the best way to negotiate the conflict between 1.) Wanting a hero who is a kid, teenager, young adult, etc. and 2.) Wanting a positive depiction of a parent or parental figure(s), is to have your kid hero accompanied by a strong mentor figure who might be a parent. You see this done nicely in the dynamic between Qui-Gon Jinn and young Obi-Wan Kenobi in Jude Watson’s “Jedi Apprentice” series from way back when. This sets up stories with themes about trust, friendship, forgiveness, coping with jealousy and resentment, and more, all while throwing in epic duels and thrilling cat-and-mouse games. 😉
Just my two cents.
That’s a great way of handling it! I do have Maywin’s “uncle” (technically his mother’s cousin but close enough) accompany him for part of the journey.