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In Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Big Mama is a major organized crime figure in the Hidden City. She is a recurring adversary of the Mad Dogs.

Appearance[]

True form[]

Big Mama is a huge spider Yōkai who's entire body is colored in a deep-indigo with spikes on the abdomen, while her rather long face is colored in teal. She sports messily-styled, mane-inspired hair which is colored in a light mint-green with white streaks, six red eyes, jagged teeth protruding inside of her mouth, and four black spider legs.

Her four arms that protrudes sharp peach claws are differently-designed and colored - her larger arms are black in color with spikes on the forearms and shoulders, while her smaller arms are the same color as her face. Her only choice of clothing she wears is that of purple jabot around her neck, supporting her half-red and half-black amulet with a golden frame, and red-orange pauldrons on her shoulders.

Human disguise[]

In her human disguise, Big Mama takes the appearance of a fairly attractive, middle-aged light purple-skinned woman with a petite hourglass figure and long, wavy, silver-white hair styled into an updo with her bangs that covers her right eye.

Her eyes themselves (as seen from up close) are a light pastel-purple with light yellow sclera and fairly long eyelashes protruding from them. Her upper lips are black while the lower part is red, and she wears Prussian-blue eyeshadow on her upper-eyelids for makeup.

Big Mama's attire consists of a set of small, teal-framed glasses with blue lenses over her eyes. She wears a dark indigo tailcoat with pointed shoulder-pads and light mint-green fur trim (reminiscent of her hair in her true form, minus the white streaks), with her jabot and amulet accessorizing the front. Her coat is worn over a long-sleeved, purple bodycon dress with frilled ends. For footwear, she wore thigh-high high-heeled boots which are colored in a somewhat darker shade than her coat.

Personality[]

Big Mama is, upon first impression, extremely friendly, cheerful, and polite, even towards her enemies, and often whimsically sprinkles her dialogue with nonce words. She is very excitable as evidenced by her obvious delight in her plans to add mutants to her Battle Nexus, whether as fighters or as rodeo clowns. With her self-assurance and natural charm, undiminished even in frightful spider form, Big Mama can often persuade others into doing things for her by having them think they are also helping themselves, such as when she talks the Turtles into bringing her the Oozesquitoes in "Bug Busters". She is inclined to a degree of professionalism when it comes to her businesses, stating she rarely socializes with her personnel in "Bullhop" though it might stem from a sense of superiority instead.

But despite her bubbly persona, Big Mama is a deceitful and conniving person whose only enduring loyalty is to herself. Her ruthless attitude is connected to her avarice, seeking to amass as much wealth as she can, such as when she chooses to sell a statue she openly adores instead of keeping it the instant she is offered money in exchange in "The Hidden City Job". She loathes her possessions being stolen from her ("The Hidden City Job") regardless of if they rightly belong to her or not and while she does form lasting personal attachments to others, she always subordinates them to her own desires.

Big Mama remembers details about others well as shown in how she is able to deduce the reason for her employee's mutation into a bull due to recalling his liking for beef jerky ("Bug Busters") and accurately debunks something out of character for Heinous Green ("Raph's Ride-Along"), contributing to her social prowess. She is highly intelligent, often running mental circles around others and devising complex plans. However, occasionally she can underestimate her victims' capabilities to her detriment. Big Mama also has a sadistic streak, shown in how she conducts her Battle Nexus by routinely showcasing intense violence and expressing gaiety for said suffering, such as in "Battle Nexus: New York".

History[]

More than a decade prior to the start of the series, Big Mama posed as a truck driver tasked with hauling Lou Jitsu's filming trailer. She met Lou Jitsu on the set of Crouching Shrimp Hidden Tiger Prawn one day and the two shared a mutual attraction towards one another and eventually began dating. After being proposed to by him at Dinner on the Green in the mid-1990s[1], Big Mama revealed her true Yōkai nature to Lou Jitsu by dropping her human disguise and stole him away to the Hidden City. Observing his great skill in combat motivated Big Mama to force him to become a competitor in her Battle Nexus, hoping the matches she arranged for him would generate large profits from spectators. Lou Jitsu was massively successful in her Battle Nexus and retains the status to this day as the greatest Champion her Battle Nexus has ever had. However, as time passed, Lou Jitsu refused to engage in her fights and Big Mama held him in a cell within the Battle Nexus, unable to prompt him to continue and refusing to kill or otherwise discard him despite his defiance. Sometime later, Baron Draxum covertly helped Lou Jitsu permanently escape her service in exchange for agreeing to be Draxum's laboratory subject.

Big Mama debuted in "Bug Busters" during the Turtles' mission to stop the Oozesquito infestation in the Grand Nexus Hotel. After observing one of her bellhops' mutation from outside of the lobby, Big Mama introduced herself to the Turtles as the hotel's owner, also revealing that she and much of her staff were Yōkai, beings of a similar nature as the Turtles. The Turtles were unfamiliar with the term "Yōkai", only understanding them as all being mutants. Big Mama found the label "mutant" odd and claimed to have no knowledge of Draxum or his mutation-related activities when she was asked about him. She gave the Turtles a tour of the secret Yōkai section of her hotel and a brief crash course on Yōkai society and her Battle Nexus business and then offered to help capture the Oozesquitoes, which they ultimately succeeded in doing. But once the insects were in her possession, Big Mama betrayed the Turtles, intending to force them into service in the Battle Nexus as rodeo clowns. They resisted and avoided forcible transport to the Battle Nexus. Later, Draxum made his own separate raid on the Grand Nexus Hotel and took back his Oozesquitoes to be rereleased in New York City, making it clear that Draxum and Big Mama did, in fact, already know each other. Big Mama fought Draxum and tried to prevent Michelangelo and Donatello from escaping her hotel, but was unsucceul.

Big Mama reappeared in "Bullhop" while hosting a box social in the Grand Nexus Hotel where she encountered her former employee Bullhop, but was unable to recognize him. Attracted to his now-mutated appearance, she danced with him in front of her guests. However, Big Mama soon realized that Bullhop had merely infiltrated her staff and intended to steal her silk for the Turtles whose presences at her hotel she quickly became aware of after they fell into the building. She and her hotel staff initiated a violent confrontation with them, but Bullhop and the Turtles managed to flee from her, having stolen one pitcher of her silk. Big Mama didn't continue to pursue them and instead mourned her loss of Bullhop.

Big Mama participated alongside owl bellhop, fox bellhop, and otter bellhop in her Doom Dome in "Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man" after noticing Mikey and Donnie had entered with the intention of destroying their Turtle Tank. In the midst of her vehicular pursuit of their tank, she was distracted by Splinter who mounted one of the Shell Hogs and threw shuriken at her seat. She directed her driver owl bellhop to follow Splinter, falling for his and the Turtles' trap and lost the derby once Donnie used the Turtle Tank's boom cannons to destroy her vehicle.

In "The Ancient Art of Ninja Hide and Seek", Big Mama ordered her Grand Nexus Hotel staff to manicure and massage her.

Big Mama watched the Foot Clan's recruits load the concealed Kuroi Yōroi onto her train beside Draxum in "Insane in the Mama Train". She attempted to intimidate Draxum into revealing the cargo he was transporting with her train by threatening to withdraw her aid, but her curiosity was pacified after receiving a mystic orb from him.

Big Mama was approached by Leonardo and Splinter at the Grand Nexus Hotel in "Many Unhappy Returns" asking to see her. She initially declined their request as Leo was her enemy, but after Splinter mentioned one of the nicknames Big Mama gave him while they were dating, she agreed to see them at the Battle Nexus, suspicious about how this apparent stranger had such private information. She came to understand that Splinter was Lou Jitsu in a different form. Big Mama welcomed his return and was informed that he and Leo wished for her help in defeating the Shredder who was currently rampaging throughout New York after being revived. She offered to give them a mystic collar she owned with the power to subdue the Shredder, but only if she received something in return. Leo then struck a deal that in exchange Splinter would make a comeback as Rat Jitsu in her Battle Nexus, competing against her current competitors Kraken Tom and the armored Evil Six without the use of weapons. Big Mama agreed, but when the time came for the match to begin, she forced Leo to also enter as a contestant to make the battle even more thrilling. Although Leo snuck in his mystic ōdachi to the no-weapons match, she allowed it, confident they couldn't best the Yōkai. Impressed by the subversion her expectations with their victory, she gave them her mystic collar and once Splinter and the Mad Dogs managed to put it on Shredder, Big Mama teleported to New York and had her assistant capture him with a mystic device.

Big Mama was depicted in "Goyles, Goyles, Goyles" as Draxum explained to Huginn and Muninn how she has been keeping Lou Jitsu to herself despite his lack of appearances in her Battle Nexus.

Big Mama hosted an auction at her auction house in "The Hidden City Job" and sold Señor Hueso's pizza cutter, unaware that him, Capitán Piel, and Leo were trying to steal it. In order to retrieve the pizza cutter from her vault, Leo posed as a gold statue which Big Mama was initially fond of, but eventually sold it to Piel who was in the auction's audience. Her guards answered the alarm that was set off inside the vault and Big Mama managed to corner all three trespassers after they fled. She and her guards were then incapacitated by Hueso and Piel's mystic fusion Don Suave and they escaped with Hueso's pizza cutter.

Big Mama gave her assistant the mystic orb in "Raph's Ride-Along" to guard before being approached by the Mud Dogs and Raphael in her Battle Nexus luxury box. She accepted the money from their Hidden City Police Station heist and unveiled Raph's true identity to the Mud Dogs after understanding they had mistaken him for fellow criminal Heinous Green. Big Mama then ordered the Mud Dogs to kill Raph, but was accidentally hit by them after Raph evaded their attack.

In "Battle Nexus: New York", Big Mama used her mystic orb to capture the New York City population and trap them inside it to use the empty city as a Battle Nexus arena. She informed the Turtles remotely from her Grand Nexus Hotel office about her Battle Nexus Wizbang event, separating the brothers and mystically binding them each to one of their enemies, forcing them to work together to defeat one of her Battle Nexus Champions. The conditions being that if they won, she would release the New York City citizens. Later, she announced Battle Nexus Wizbang partners Raph and Ghostbear's apparent defeat by the troll they opposed and one by one the Turtles and their partners triumphed over their adversaries. Big Mama emerged from her hotel once the remaining teams arrived as promised, but stated that she now wished to keep control of New York City and use its people in her Battle Nexus as she was displeased with how the teams defeated their foes. To her shock, Raph appeared behind her, using his mystic tonfā to capture Big Mama in Ghostbear's Hibernator technique and she consequently lost her grip on her orb. In an attempt to regain control of the situation, she summoned her Battle Nexus Champion Shadow Fiend to her aid using her mystic ring. The orb was then in his grasp, but Splinter, April, Draxum, and Foot Recruit managed to escape its prison. A fight between them and Big Mama and Shadow Fiend to secure the orb then broke out. When Draxum fled to her hotel to unlock it undisturbed by Shadow Fiend, she ordered him to target Draxum and she followed him to her hotel's sporting lounge after he was launched there by Shadow Fiend. Big Mama tried to reclaim her orb from Draxum herself, but he struck her with a pillar and unbeknownst to her, her mystic ring fell from her hand. After the Mad Dogs and Splinter ejected Shadow Fiend from the hotel, Big Mama realized in her attempt to summon him that her ring had fallen and she was distraught to see that Foot Recruit wielded it. Big Mama tried to escape with Draxum, Splinter, and the Mad Dogs via Leo's portal once Foot Recruit ordered the now-revealed Shredder to kill everyone else, but the Shredder prevented her from entering it. The Grand Nexus Hotel was then demolished by the Shredder and Big Mama was severely injured in the process.

In "Finale Part 4: Rise", Big Mama, now receiving treatment for her injuries at her Battle Nexus, was asked by the Mad Dogs to share information about where to find the Empyrean Shredder and the Foot sought and she told them that it was located at the Crying Titan.

Abilities[]

  • Business intuition: Big Mama operates and owns several enterprises in the Hidden City and New York, all of which seem to flourish under her administration. She has an aptitude for creating unique, exhilarating entertainment and understanding and catering to her patrons' desires. Big Mama's numerous ventures have granted her influence and eminence in the Hidden City.[2][3]
  • Deception intuition: Big Mama is exceedingly skilled at manipulation, typically offsetting her malice with her bubbly, familiar nature. She often makes seemingly fair deals with others, giving them a clear means to overcome a situation she placed them in thus forcing them to trust her, but she often has ulterior motives and moves her goalposts at a whim. She possesses the patience to orchestrate schemes over a long period of time and the status of "enemy" and "ally" are flexible to Big Mama, she isn't hesitant to collaborate with her enemies or betray her allies if it grants her an advantage or fulfills her own goals. She managed to deceive Lou Jitsu throughout their entire romance, making him enamored with her until the point he proposed to her before forcing him into her Battle Nexus. Another testament to Big Mama's cunning is when she was able to discreetly obtain major facets of her Battle Nexus Wizbang from her enemies by getting Draxum to relinquish a mystic orb to her in "Insane in the Mama Train", in exchange allowing Draxum to preserve his and the Foot's confidentiality surrounding their agenda and use her train, and by gaining custody of the Shredder in service of the Mad Dogs in "Many Unhappy Returns" only to later weaponize both components against them in "Battle Nexus: New York".
  • Shapeshifting: Big Mama can transform her true form as a Yōkai into a human-like form at will, allowing her to navigate the surface as a human.
  • Web generation: Big Mama can create webs from her spinnerets and palms. Her silk's adhesive nature allows it to immobilize opponents caught in it and it is strong enough to allow her to suspend herself from it.
    • Web spitting: Big Mama has the capability to shoot webs from her mouth at a high velocity and is able to project several webs from her mouth with notable swiftness as shown in "Bug Busters" and "Bullhop".
  • Strength: Big Mama possesses a remarkable amount of strength regardless of the form she takes, shown when she easily threw Bullhop while dancing with him in "Bullhop".
  • Agility: Despite her size, Big Mama is quite agile, able to easily evade Draxum's mystic vines and climb the walls of her office during their fight in "Bug Busters".
  • Durability: Big Mama's body can experience a high threshold of physical trauma without lasting repercussions and her large black forearms can act as shields to absorb blows from opponents.
  • Wallcrawling: Big Mama can scale vertical surfaces as if walking on the ground as shown in "Bug Busters".
  • Dancing: Big Mama is quite a proficient dancer and deeply enjoys it.

Relationships[]

Friends and allies[]

  • Otter bellhop: Otter bellhop is one of Big Mama's employees at the Grand Nexus Hotel and works closely with her.
  • Fox bellhop: Fox bellhop is one of Big Mama's employees at the Grand Nexus Hotel and works closely with her. Big Mama ordered him to rally the other bellhops to manicure and massage her in "The Ancient Art of Ninja Hide and Seek".
  • Owl bellhop: Owl bellhop is one of Big Mama's employees at the Grand Nexus Hotel and works closely with her.
  • Operator: One of Big Mama's staff at her New York businesses the Grand Nexus Hotel and the Doom Dome. Big Mama entered him in a Battle Nexus match against Stewart in "Bug Busters".
  • Gus: Gus is one of Big Mama's guards at the Grand Nexus Hotel. In "Bug Busters", she ordered him to hunt down Leo when he ran away from her and his brothers.
  • Kraken Tom: Kraken Tom is a competitor in Big Mama's Battle Nexus. He was defeated by Rat Jitsu and Leo in "Many Unhappy Returns".
  • Assistant: An assistant of Big Mama's. In "Raph's Ride-Along", Big Mama instructed her to vigilantly guard a box holding a mystic orb.
  • The Evil Six: The Evil Six are competitors in Big Mama's Battle Nexus. They were defeated by Rat Jitsu and Leo in "Many Unhappy Returns".
  • The Mud Dogs: As significantly less influential criminals, the Mud Dogs deduct portions of whatever money they obtain from their crimes and offer it to Big Mama. She seems to feel warmly towards them.
    • Dastardly Danny: Big Mama was impressed by Danny's police station robbing feat in "Raph's Ride-Along". Once Raph's true identity was revealed, she ordered Danny to kill him.
    • Loathsome Leonard: Big Mama was impressed by Leonard's police station robbing feat in "Raph's Ride-Along". Once Raph's true identity was revealed, she ordered Leonard to kill him.
    • Malicious Mickey: Big Mama was impressed by Mickey's police station robbing feat in "Raph's Ride-Along". Once Raph's true identity was revealed, she ordered Mickey to kill him.
  • Heinous Green: Big Mama is quite familiar with Heinous Green as she knows that his character is less of a sly mastermind and much more of a brute and disbelieved that he successfully executed out a high-risk plan of his own creation.
  • Troll: Troll is one of Big Mama's Battle Nexus Champions.
  • Amphisbaena: Amphisbaena is one of Big Mama's Battle Nexus Champions.
  • Sprite: Sprite is one of Big Mama's Battle Nexus Champions.
  • Cortex: Cortex is one of Big Mama's Battle Nexus Champions.

Enemies[]

  • Baron Draxum: Little is known about Big Mama's history with Draxum, but she does not regard him as an ally of hers, although that doesn't stop her from being amiable towards him in the same vein of how she treats everyone else. Big Mama pretended to not know who Draxum was when Raph inquired about him in "Bug Busters" and later stole his Oozesquitoes and attempted to use them to bolster her Battle Nexus' success. However, she allowed Draxum to ship the Kuroi Yōroi on her train despite their past disagreements in order to obtain a mystic orb from him.
  • Hamato Yoshi / Lou Jitsu / Splinter: Lou Jitsu is Big Mama's ex-boyfriend. She first encountered Lou Jitsu on his movie set as his trailer driver and eventually began dating him, allowing him to believe she was a human all the while. Although the two never moved in together,[4] Big Mama often spent time with him dancing at various nightclubs and was partial to giving him saccharine nicknames like "Snuggle Muffin Beefcake". During a dinner date, Big Mama was proposed to by Lou Jitsu and she seized the opportunity to force him to be a contestant in her Battle Nexus by capturing him, ending their romance. Following her confinement of Lou Jitsu for his refusal to fight after having him as a competitor for years, she lost contact with him once he was taken from the Battle Nexus by Draxum. She later battled against Splinter at her Doom Dome in "Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man" after noticing that Mikey and Donnie were competing, but lost to him and his sons. Once Big Mama understood that Splinter is mutated Lou Jitsu in "Many Unhappy Returns", she was affectionate towards him, finding him even more attractive in his current form. It was only after she realized Splinter's life was in jeopardy that Big Mama later chose to assist the Mad Dogs in "Rise" by telling them where to find the source of Empyrean. Though she doesn't seem to be remorseful of her past treatment of Splinter, Big Mama still holds warm feelings towards him despite them being enemies.
  • Huginn & Muninn: Huginn and Muninn secretly stole Lou Jitsu from Big Mama's custody when she was holding him in the Battle Nexus. They later helped Draxum take back his Oozesquitoes from Big Mama's possession in "Bug Busters".
  • The Mad Dogs: Big Mama regularly catches the Mad Dogs infiltrating her properties and her and her staff usually try to seize or kill them on sight after "Bug Busters". She doesn't consider the Turtles to be proficient fighters, seeking to make them arena clowns instead of combatants in her Battle Nexus, the only Turtle she placed in a fighting match during her Battle Nexus Wizbang being Raph. Big Mama often refers to the Turtles as "turtle-boos" or "turtley-boos".
    • Raphael: Raph easily accepted Big Mama's help claiming she was nice despite her true form. His attitude changed once she tricked them and openly admitted that Leo was right.
    • Donatello: Although Big Mama betrayed Donnie in the end, she genuinely acknowledges his immense creativity and intellect, able to get into his good graces in "Bug Busters" by complimenting him on this aspect. She even tried to steal his Bug Slapper for herself due to how innovative she considered it to be.
    • Leonardo: Out of all the Turtles, Leo was the first to suspect Big Mama's ulterior motives when she offered her assistance in catching the Oozesquitoes. This is proven when she deceives his brothers and sends Gus on Leo after he left the others.
    • Michelangelo: Big Mama chased Mikey around her Grand Nexus Hotel office as he fled from her on the Bug Slapper and tried to reel him back into the building once he escaped, but was unsuccessful.
    • April O'Neil: Big Mama has fought against April in "Battle Nexus: New York" as April tried to keep her Mystic Orb from her possession and free the New York City citizens.
  • Stanley / Bullhop: Stanley was one of Big Mama's Grand Nexus Hotel bellhops before his mutation. Though she did not recognize him when he infiltrated her box social in "Bullhop". Big Mama was attracted to him (referring to him as "cutie noodle") and requested a dance. She found herself easily charmed by his dancing skills until she discovered his alliance with the Turtles. While she was angered by his betrayal, Big Mama may still have feelings for Bullhop as she mournfully clutched the shoe he left behind while fleeing from her hotel.
  • Señor Hueso: Big Mama sold Hueso's stolen pizza cutter at her auction house in "The Hidden City Job" and caught him trying to escape after retrieving it from her vault with Leo.
  • Capitán Piel: Big Mama unknowingly sold Piel Hueso's pizza cutter in her auction, falling for his plan, but caught him trying to escape after Hueso and Leo retrieved it from her vault.
  • Don Suave: Big Mama was beguiled by Don Suave's mystic power and promptly incapacitated by him in "The Hidden City Job", allowing him to escape from her and her guards.
  • Cassandra Jones / Foot Recruit: Although Big Mama helped the Foot Clan and, by extension, Foot Recruit in "Insane in the Mama Train" by providing her train to travel to the Shredder's shrine, Big Mama made a vehement enemy out of Foot Recruit in "Battle Nexus: New York" after enslaving the Shredder for her agenda and the Grand Nexus Hotel was destroyed by Foot Recruit in retaliation.
  • Oroku Saki / The Shredder: The Shredder is one of Big Mama's Battle Nexus Champions. She imprisoned the Shredder before turning him into Shadow Fiend as her new Champion because she wanted new one after Leo and Splinter left her Battle Nexus in "Many Unhappy Returns". Big Mama had the Shredder completely under her influence due to her mystic ring, but was lost and obtained by Foot Recruit.

Quotes[]

  • "I love it! I had no idea we had an item this scrumulent. Take it to my private gallery." ("The Hidden City Job")
  • "Big Mama doesn't normally fraternize with staff, but do you cut a rug? Jum and jeevy? Trip the light splendiferous?" ("Bullhop")
  • "Ooh, the arena has never been this woozy-faddled." ("Many Unhappy Returns")

Trivia[]

  • Big Mama's character is based on the Japanese jorōgumo (kanji: 新婦, "entangling newlywed woman").[5]
  • Big Mama's eyes in her true form have nictitating membranes as shown in "Bug Busters", an attribute she shares with Cortex.
  • It was stated in September 2020 by Rise of the TMNT staff writer Russ Carney concerning Big Mama having a name besides "Big Mama" in a Tweet, "I don't remember us considering her having a different name."[6][7]
  • As seen in "Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man" and "Insane in the Mama Train", Big Mama operates a demolition derby (only on Fridays) and a train station.
  • Big Mama is the all-time champion of her Doom Dome demolition derby.
  • Big Mama regularly speaks in the third person.
  • Based on Big Mama's interactions with Bullhop and Splinter, as well as her own passion for it, dancers are likely part of her type.
  • It was revealed in December 2020 by Rise of the TMNT executive producer Andy Suriano in a Tweet that Big Mama's brooch is just jewelry, not a cloaking brooch, meaning that Big Mama's ability to alter her form is an inherent mystic power of hers.[8]
  • It was stated in July 2022 by Rise of the TMNT staff writer Ron Corcillo in a Tweet that Big Mama is likely "a very ancient creature"[9] and that "she is probably thousands of years old."[7]
  • It was revealed in July 2023 by Rise of the TMNT staff writer Carney in a Tweet that, "Big Mama was kind of a mix between [Lena Headey]'s role as Ma-Ma in the film Dredd, and Mary Poppins. That's sort of why she says weird things like, 'My darling binglebeets'."[10][11]

Gallery[]

References[]

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