Eat as much as you like, sweeties. There's plenty more where that came from. And remember: Mother loves you!
- ―Mother Mae-Eye[src]
This is the page concerning the character Mother Mae-Eye. For the Teen Titans episode, go to Mother Mae-Eye.
Mother Mae-Eye is a villainous emotional vampire witch and enemy of the Teen Titans.
Appearance
In her human form, Mae-Eye appears as a bald, plump, rosy-cheeked and stereotypical kindly old woman with blue eyes dressed in a red, white and pink Mrs. Claus-esque outfit (and if one looks closely, she also appears to wear white and pink polka-dotted underwear). In her true form, however, she is actually a three-eyed, ugly, wart-nosed, grey haired, green-skinned witch in gritty orange, purple, and black attire with white and black polka-dotted underwear who is capable of growing and shrinking in size.
Personality
Mother Mae-Eye in her illusionary disguise
Mother's personality is very sugary. When communicating with her victims, she usually treats them very childishly and speaks to them in motherease and baby talk, i.e. in a manner reminiscent of communicating with a newborn, infant, toddler, or four-year-old, frequently calling them "sweeties," "little ones," "children," and similar terms of endearment (regardless of how old her victims really are); they, likewise, frequently address her as "Mother".
However, Mae-Eye's intentions are anything but benign, and despite appearances, her exaggeratedly sweet, maternal attitude is actually a facade. She cares nothing about her "children"; she really wants to feed on their fabricated feelings of affection for her. Therefore she becomes angered when her victims either come out of the spell on their own or refuse to eat her pies, which deprives her of her nourishment.
Character history
Mother makes her appearance hidden inside a pie that Cyborg in his gluttony bought from a gypsy and brought to Titans Tower, where she was subsequently released. She put the Titans under a very powerful spell by feeding them enchanted pie, which caused them all to mentally regress to increasingly childlike behavior and come under hallucinations that she was (and has always been) their mother. The witch also used her powers at the beginning of the episode to redecorate Titans Tower, transforming it into a gigantic T-shaped gingerbread house and the rest of Titans Island into a veritable candyland.
Mother May-Eye being banished back into the pie
During a subsequent battle with the H.I.V.E. Five, Starfire was accidentally hit on the head, which broke Mae-Eye's spell and allowed her to see the witch for what she really was. After several unsuccessful attempts to fight Mother Mae-Eye and rousing her friends, Starfire saw no other way than to treat the other Titans with the same 'shock' treatment, freeing them from the magic control as well. Finding themselves outmatched by Mae-Eye's powerful magic, Robin decided to outsmart her by using her own magic to banish her back into the pie, in which they succeeded. In order to pay back the H.I.V.E. for the latest defeat, the Titans sent the pie to them, and all of the H.I.V.E. promptly fell under Mae-Eye's control themselves.
Mother Mae-Eye later appeared as a recruit of the Brotherhood of Evil and participated in the final battle against the assembled Titans. Near the end of the fight, Madame Rouge inadvertently slammed Hot Spot and Wildebeest into her, making her seemingly pop out of existence.
Powers and Abilities
The Titans Tower after having been altered by Mother Mae-Eye's power
Mother Mae-Eye has very powerful magical abilities that enable her to manipulate reality as she sees fit. Among her primarily used magical abilities are mind control (which uses her pies as a focus), the adoption of the illusionary appearance of a kind-looking old lady, and enchanting pastry with any desired magical effect, such as animating gingerbread men as her minions. Mother also has superhuman strength, as she easily defeated the H.I.V.E. Five with one blow each, using only her purse.
Mother Mae-Eye is essentially an emotional vampire who sustains herself by absorbing the feelings of affection from her victims, first gradually, then in one stroke as she bakes them up in pie under the guise of tucking them into bed. Her mind control powers are keyed solely toward that purpose.
Trivia
- She is named after the children's game "Mother, May I?".
- It is interesting to note that the gypsy that Cyborg buys the pie from and Mother both look and sound exactly alike, implying that they are actually one and the same. This can be verified by the booth that the gypsy uses, for it has one cat's eye on it exactly like the one on Mother's apron and cap.
- Mother is loosely based on Mother Grimm, a character featured in a Legends of the Dark Knight storyline. She also is based around the Looney Tunes character Witch Hazel, but only in her true witch form.
- She is known as Petite Mamounette in the Parisian French version of the episode. The Titans refer to her in the dub as "Maman".
- If you look closely at the flashback when Cyborg buys the pie, among her selections of "mystical items" you can see the Puppet King, Control Freak's remote, Beast Boy's dream moped Tidwell-3000, the Wicked Scary monster prop-up from Fear Itself, and the bottle city of Kandor, a possession of Superman's.