I originally had a different topic in mind for this week, but last week I attended my mother’s graduation as she received her master’s degree. It was a really good day and I was very proud of her for all the work she put into it.

Thusly, I felt since this column covers our favorite pop culture icons, I’ve scoured various media I consume to try and find my own top ten fictional mothers, and so here is the list.

10. Kitty Foreman (That 70’s Show)

Played excellently by Debra Jo Rupp, Kitty is hilarious and cheery. She comes off as everyone’s mom, loving Eric’s friends. She is passionate, but does have flaws, which only serve make her feel more realistic.

9. Marge Simpson (The Simpsons)

Marge Simpson is the perfect example a character that feels realistic. Often there is a tendency in fiction to have mothers be either saintly or plain evil, but Marge has flaws. Marge often gives just as much bad advise as she does good. She is loving, caring and always ready to forgive.

8. Sarah Connor (Terminator)

Now Sarah is interesting. She’s only so low on this list due to her “interesting” approach to parenting. Granted, you can’t hold it against her, not every mom is told their child will be the future savior of humanity… well at least not one involving time travel.

Sarah is the fierce mama bear type that would stab you in the leg if you so much as look at her son funny. Her knowledge of the future and trauma after facing the Terminator really influenced her approach to parenting. The films don’t have too much time to show the dynamics between her and John, but the tv series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, provides some better insight into it.

7. Mothra (Godzilla and Mothra films)

Now the gender of giant monsters can be debated (especially since they are all referred to as “it” in the Japanese versions of the films), but Mothra lays eggs so I’m going on a limb here and saying she counts.

Of the three films where both a mother Mothra and her egg are present, Mothra has sacrificed herself to save her larval offspring, usually followed by the larva avenging the loss of its mother.

Mothra’s inclusion on this list is mostly due to wanting to have one of the few positive portrayals of a monster mother in fiction whereas most are usually bizarre and alien brood mothers, Mothra is caring to not only her offspring, but to the natives of her home: Infant Island, where she serves as their goddess of peace.

6. Rosie Betzler (Jojo Rabbit)

Jojo Rabbit is a movie I watched very recently with a group of friends via streaming. I was really impressed with the film, but what really stuck out was Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of the titular character’s mother: Rosie.

Rosie is a single mom raising her young son toward the end of the World War II in Nazi Germany. She is lighthearted and compassionate, caring for her son and trying to make the world a better place as it is clear she is anti-Nazi and is also harboring a Jewish girl in her late daughter’s bedroom.

Ultimately, Rosie serves as one of the reasons that Jojo turns away from the propaganda of Naziism.

5. Helen Parr/Elastigirl (The Incredibles)

A literal super-mom, Helen Parr is nothing if not “flexible” as a mom. Helen is a great and dedicated mother and definitely has a more realistic edge to her in the way she interacts with her children and their various personalities/squabbles/etc., all the while being an awesome superhero that clearly still has it.

4. Izumi Curtis (Fullmetal Alchemist)

If tough love was a person. Izumi Curtis is the alchemy teacher of the main characters Edward and Alphonse Elric. Though very short tempered and putting the boys through a harsh training regiment, Izumi is caring, sees the boys as her own, a feeling that is clearly mutual after boys lost their mother. Izumi much like Ed and Al also learned the hard way the price of using human transmutation, a forbidden art in alchemy, and so relates to them in that regard.

3. Morticia Adams (The Addams Family)

The matriarch of the Addams family, Morticia Addams loves her children and allows them to explore and discover themselves.

Morticia Addams, despite her eccentricities, is just like any modern woman trying to have it all, a loving husband and a fam ily while longing for more time to seek out the dark forces.

2. May Parker (Spider-Man)

While May Parker was never a bio-mom, she was a mother to her nephew Peter. Aunt May has had many portrayals over the years, but the one thing that remains constant across all mediums is the woman’s warmth and strength of character that helped to influence her nephew. Though May has sometimes been the source of stress for Peter as he worries about her health or how she’ll keep her house, ultimately, Aunt May is always in Peter’s corner ready to lend some kind words of wisdom that Peter needs in his own life and as Spider-Man (and in most version there are strong implications that May has always known he was Spider-Man).

1. Ellen Ripley (Aliens)

And here is number one. Ripley was introduced to us in the 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien as a no-nonsense and level headed survivor that faced the nightmare of the Alien head-on. The sequel Aliens, particularly the 1990 special edition, shows us another side of her character as a mother. As explained in the special edition of the film, after waking up from hypersleep for 57 years Ripley comes to learn that her daughter Amanda has grown old and passed away two years prior.

The scene is excellently played by Sigourney Weaver that shows the heartbreak of losing her daughter. It also reinforces her relationship later in the film with Newt, the lone survivor of the Hadley’s Hope colony.

Ripley and Newt bond over the course of the film and provide for the other a piece they were missing. Ripley a daughterless mother and Newt a motherless daughter. Ripley also shows tenacity in returning to rescue Newt from the clutches of the Alien hive and faces off with another mother: the Alien Queen. So that’s the list, and with that, I wish you all a happy Mother’s Day.

Next week: something beastly.