Big Mama is a major organized crime figure within the Hidden City and owns the Battle Nexus. She is a major antagonist in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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 natural charm, undiminished even in frightful spider form, Big Mama can often persuade others into doing things for her by making them think they are also helping themselves such as when she talks the Turtles into bringing her the Oozesquitoes.
But despite her bubbly persona, Big Mama is a deceitful and conniving person whose only enduring loyalty is to herself. She does form lasting personal attachments to others, but she always subordinates them to her own desires.
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 sometime later, 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 to force them into service in the Battle Nexus - considering their fighting abilities inferior, her intent was to employ them as adorable '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 unsuccessful.
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 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, Baron 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.
- 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.
- Shapeshifting: Big Mama can transform her natural 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.
- 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.
- Agility: Despite her size, Big Mama is quite agile, able to easily evade Baron Draxum's mystic vines and climb the walls of her office during their fight.
- 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.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Otter Bellhop - Employee
- Fox Bellhop - Employee
- Owl Bellhop - Employee
- Operator - Employee
- Gus - Guard
- Assistant - Assistant
- Evil Six - Battle Nexus competitors
- Mud Dogs - Partners
- Heinous Green
- Troll - Battle Nexus Champion
- Amphisbaena - Battle Nexus Champion
- Sprite - Battle Nexus Champion
- Cortex - Battle Nexus Champion
Enemies[]
- Baron Draxum
- Hamato Yoshi - Former Lover, Battle Nexus Champion, Situational Enemies
- Huginn & Muninn
- The Mad Dogs
- Leonardo - Battle Nexus Champion, Situational Enemies
- Raphael - Situational Enemies
- Donatello - Situational Enemies
- Michelangelo - Situational Enemies
- April O'Neil - Situational Enemies
- Bullhop - Former Employee
- Señor Hueso
- Capitán Piel
- Cassandra Jones
- Shadow Fiend - Battle Nexus Champion (The Shredder)
Trivia[]
- In Japanese culture there is a Yokai specifically known as the Jorogumo. It appears as a beautiful woman but is really a shapeshifter, its true form being a giant spider-lady, and it uses its beauty and charms to seduce young men into doing its will.