The Worst Mothers in Final Fantasy

When I played Final Fantasy XVI, I wrote in my review that Anabella may be the worst mother in the history of the Final Fantasy series. However, this made me think: who got stuck with some unfortunate maternal care in each game? Admittedly, this was a challenge. After all, these are Final Fantasy games, so you'll either find yourself with a terrible mother, no mother, or, in the case of Tidus, a pretty awful father. As an aside, for equality's sake, I will make another article that focuses on the worst fathers.

Now, let's work on finding out who has the worst mother. I don't think this needs to be said, but there will be spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.

6. Final Fantasy I: Queen Jayne

To kickstart this list, we'll be starting with Queen Jayne, the mother of Princess Sarah in FINAL FANTASY. It's a lot more difficult to judge the characters from the earlier games, but Queen Jayne isn't exactly a good mother. While she loves her daughter dearly, she just wallows in a depression and locks herself in her room when Garland kidnaps Princess Sarah. While relatable, she doesn't do much to save her - although she gets a pass. After all, it was the first of all the games, and most of the mums were relegated to having died in childbirth.

5. Final Fantasy VIII: Edea

While not directly a mother, I want to add Edea here for the simple fact that she is the matronly figure to most of the orphans in the game. I can't say anything bad about Edea because, honestly, she was possessed. She raises these kids; however, when she is possessed, she is a compelling antagonist. The only reason she's here is because you'll have to fight her. You can't ignore that, but she does return to her kindly, matronly way after returning to normal.

4. Final Fantasy IX: Brahne

You know, outside of Final Fantasy XVI, most of the mothers who turn to evil are pretty compelling. While Brahne wasn't always a power-hungry tyrant, she did lose herself over the years, which would lead to her daughter, Garnet, choosing to run away from her. Overall, it's more difficult to judge Brahne as she, like Edea, just got a really bad hand from the actual antagonists.

3. Final Fantasy X: Tidus's Mother

Okay, I know I said about Jecht, but you know what? We need to talk about Tidus's mother. Like, we can't say that Jecht is the only problem Tidus has, but at least we know that he loved his son. He would have to tell his wife to go to Tidus when he was crying. She would ignore her son when Jecht was around, and then when Jecht vanished, she gave up on living. Like, she doesn't even consider living on for Tidus. Honestly, Tidus has a really bad time when it comes to having good parents.

2. Final Fantasy VII: Lucrecia

Look, you could say that Jenova is the worst mother in FINAL FANTASY VII, but let's be honest: It's Lucrecia. Lucrecia Crescent is the worst mother because 1) she and her husband decide to experiment on their baby son while he's still in the womb. 2) She married Hojo, which should have already been a recipe for disaster. 3) She could have just not agreed to the experiment on her son, and a lot of the stuff Cloud and the others had to deal with could have just been avoided. And don't get me started on her relationship with Vincent.

1. Final Fantasy XVI: Anabella

It's Anabella. I'm not gonna lie; I thought there may have been a worse mother somewhere, but there wasn't. After all, Anabella betrays her family, which leads to the death of her husband and the presumed death of her youngest son. Then, seeing her eldest has survived, she gets him branded and makes him a slave for the Imperial Army, and her youngest son is just fully Akashic. So, you know what? Anabella is absolutely the worst.

As you can see, there aren't that many bad mothers in Final Fantasy. Overall, the main issue is that they're either not developed enough or dead. There's not an in-between here. You likely won't see many great mothers in the series, but these are definitely the ones who leave an impression.