“ | I love you, children. And I'm gonna make you love me...NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT HURTS! | „ |
~ Mother Mae-Eye to the Teen Titans |
Mother Mae-Eye is a villain who first appeared in the episode of the same name of the Teen Titans animated series that aired on Cartoon Network based on the DC Teen Titans comics. She is an evil witch and "love vampire" as she is called on the Teen Titans Season Four DVD "Know Your Foes" feature. Mother Mae-Eye is a powerful spellcaster who uses a magic wooden spoon to conjure mind controlling pies called "love pies", she used these pies to brainwash her victims into her "children" whom she kept to herself to grow off of their love.
She was voiced by the late Billie Hayes.
Appearance[]
In her human form, Mae-Eye takes on the characteristics of a stereotypically kind old lady with blue eyes who is bald, plump, rosy-cheeked, and wearing a pink frilly apron with a cute shiny eye. If one looks closely, she may also be wearing white and pink polka-dotted underwear. In reality, she is a three-eyed, ugly, wart-nosed, green-skinned witch with grey hair pulled back in pigtails, gritty orange, purple, and black clothing, and white and black polka-dotted underpants. She can also enlarge and contract in size. In both of her incarnations, she also uses a wooden spoon as a magic wand.
Personality[]
Mae-Eye presents a highly sweet and overly maternal exterior. She is occasionally quite stern and domineering (often because she believes that her "children" are disobeying her), but despite being one of the Titans' adversaries, she mainly comes off as very kind and maternal. She often treats her victims like immature children. She calls her victims "sweeties," "little ones," "children," and other terms of endearment (regardless of how old they actually are) as well as pet nicknames for each of them when speaking to them in motherese, that is, in a manner reminiscent of speaking to a child
Despite appearances, Mae-Eye's overtly pleasant, maternal demeanor is a façade; her aims are everything but soft, sweet, and benign. She doesn't give a damn about her "children"; all she wants is to capitalize on their feigned emotions of love for her. She therefore grows enraged when her victims either escape the spell on their own or decline to consume her pies, depriving her of sustenance, much as how a vampire will weaken if deprived of new blood to feed on.
First Appearance[]
Mother first appears sealed in a love pie at a gypsy's magic store called "mystical items at reasonable prices", Cyborg entered the store, and, after being given the choices of either buying the pie, a monkey's palm, (a reference to fairy tales where a monkey's palm can be used to grant wishes with bad side effects) and a brain in a jar, bought the pie. Cyborg took the pie back to Titan Tower, where, after the titans each ate a piece of it and fell under her spell, she was released and began feeding them more and more pies to feed off of their love for her. Once her victims start to eat her pie they see her as a tubby rose-cheeked red and white dressed blue-eyed woman with a very sweet and sugary voice, instead of her true fat ugly green skinned grey haired three eyed wart nosed haggish witch form. Starfire suffers a head trauma that snaps her out of the spell and she sees her true form. Mother Mae-Eye turns the Titans Tower into a gingerbread themed house with rainbows and cute animals. She tucks them into a pie in an oven as well as bake them alive. Starfire attacks the witch and Mother Mae-Eye punishes her by feeding her more pies. Starfire frees the other titans from the spell as well. The Teen Titans than defeated the evil witch and her mass-produced gingerbread man army and trapping her back into the pie. Knowing that eating the pie frees her, the Titans leave the pie at the base of the H.I.V.E Five who eat the pie and free her. They subsequently fall under her spell too,
Mayhem at First Sight[]
In the short special "Mayhem at First Sight" she and Mumbo Jumbo fight the Titans together and fall in love, so they have a wedding party with other villains as guests. The Titans get placed inside a giant wedding cake, but Raven can free Robin. Before Mumbo can say "Yes" to the question if he wants to marry Mae-Eye, he and she get knocked out by Robin, destroying the illusions.
Powers and abilities[]
Mother Mae-Eye is a witch who wields a wooden spoon like a wand and has strong magical talents. She can manipulate people's minds with pies, making them fall in love with her, seeing her as a kind-looking chubby woman, and putting them to sleep whenever she wants. Additionally, she has the ability to float, project energy, grow larger, teleport, manipulate items, conjure and disappear objects, turn Titans Tower into a realm of sweets, and summon and control animated gingerbread men to serve as her army of minions. Mother is also very strong—she defeated the H.I.V.E. Five with a single strike from her purse—and resilient enough to repel assaults.
In essence, Mother Mae-Eye is a mental vampire who survives on consuming the love and affection of her victims. When she bakes them in pie, pretending to snuggle them into bed and put them to sleep, it happens gradually at first and all at once. Her ability to influence people's minds is only set up for that.
Trivia[]
- She is based on the witch from Hansel and Gretel.
- Mother was an original character that was created of the TV series and did appear in the comics.
- The gypsy that Cyborg got the pie from looks very similar to Mother, it is unknown what the exact connection is between them.