Top 10 Mothers in Science Fiction and Fantasy

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It used to be difficult to find genuinely good female characters in science fiction and fantasy. And even today, with plenty of excellent female characters to pick from, there still aren’t that many that are also mothers. In honor of Mother’s Day tomorrow, here are our picks for the ten best mother characters from science fiction and fantasy. (Note: There are possible spoilers ahead, if you haven’t read/seen the stories from which the characters are taken.

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10. Carol Marcus



Raising Jim Kirk’s son as a single mom couldn’t be easy: you hope your genes carry through instead of Kirk’s, but then the boy starts climbing the tallest trees he can find, chasing anything female with a pulse, and freely ignoring the Prime Directive. But she not only managed to bring up a smart and fairly well-adjusted (if a bit whiny) son, but also be a brilliant and prominent scientist — if that doesn’t make her an awesome mom, what could?

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9. Lady Jessica Atreides



OK, so she may not be the most successful mother ever, but her son does turn out to be the Kwisatz Haderach, so that has to be worth something, right? Her influence in the Dune universe is hard to overstate, with both of her children and her grandson ruling the Empire for periods of time (in the case of her grandson Leto II, a really long time). Her ultimate legacy is tarnished a bit by her name being used by the Sisterhood as a warning to practice restraint, but at least she was remembered, right?

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8. Martha Kent



You think it’s tough to deal with your kids’ temper tantrums? Imagine having to worry they’ll register on the Richter scale! And imagine his birthday parties: “OK, Clark, blow out the candles… CAREFULLY!” It’s a miracle she had any hair, gray or not, left by the time she was getting old.

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7. Padme Amidala



Yes, we know, she never actually had the opportunity to be a mother to Luke and Leia. And she did spend most of Episode III sitting at home being pregnant and spouting mind-numbingly bad dialogue. But she was pretty badass in Episodes I and II, and she did produce her twins, who did eventually help bring about the downfall of the Empire.