Mother longneck

mother longneck is an apatosaurus and littlefoot's desceased mother who was killed by sharptooth the Tyrannosaurus Rex and now resides with the great spirits in the afterlife

## character

### Personality

She is one of the wisest and most enlightened of all the dinosaurs (although not quite to the extent of her son); however she tends to accept the fact that a lot of the dinosaur herds tend to be segregated. Even she does not understand why this is so; all she can tell her son is that "it's always been that way." When the only other child around at that time - Cera - is not allowed to play with Littlefoot because he is a longneck and Cera a Threehorn, Littlefoot's mother comforts him by telling him that in the Great Valley "there will be many, many longnecks for you to play with". However, the fact that she saves both Littlefoot and Cera from Sharptooth shows that she is willing to abandon racial taboos.

At the time of her son's birth, the land suffers geologic and ecologic upheavals that include drought, flooding, famine, predation, and earthquakes. Determined not to let her son grow up in such an environment, she leads her herd in search of the Great Valley. She describes it to her son as "a wonderful, beautiful place" with green food, "more than you could ever eat, and fresh, cool water, more than you could ever drink." She has no proof that the Great Valley even exists, but is guided by her belief that "some things you see with your eyes, while others you see with your heart".

She is also a gentle soul who bears neither resentment nor fear of dying, choosing instead to pass calmly and peacefully while saying a final goodbye to her son.

### family

Littlefoot is the only son of Mama Longneck. As shown in the beginning of the movie, she had laid several eggs, but all except the one Littlefoot hatched from were broken. She is shown to be a very loving mother to her only son. When Littlefoot's egg is snatched by an Egg Stealer, Littlefoot's Mother attacks the Egg Stealer, causing him to drop the egg into the river. When the egg rolls down onto dry land, and hatches, she and Grandma and Grandpa Longneck come down to where it has landed. Mama Longneck then licks her son lovingly, and when he shows fear of several small creatures who are congratulating his family, she lifts him up and put him on her back.

When Littlefoot grows older, she tells him all she had heard about the Great Valley, and how she plans to take him there, as it will be safe from predators and abundant in food and water. She also warns Littlefoot, after Cera's father tells Littlefoot to stay away from his daughter, that the species tend to be segregated.

Her husband was Bron, a brown-colored longneck who first appears in the tenth film. The two loved each other very much, and Mama Longneck named their son after Bron's childhood nickname. Littlefoot's mother is the daughter of Grandpa and Grandma Longneck, as Bron refers to Grandpa Longneck as "Papa Longneck" instead of "Father," and she was revealed to be their daughter in a book of the first movie. She also has the same under markings as her mother.

### death

The canonical death of the parent occurs late one night near dawn when she dies protecting Littlefoot and Cera from Sharptooth. She puts up a tremendous fight and casts him into the "big underground," the bottom of a Grand Canyon-like gorge that has just been torn open by a tremendous earthquake. However, Sharptooth is not dead, and even this fleeting victory costs Littlefoot's mother her life as Sharptooth has bitten a large chunk of flesh out of her back during a time when she was off her guard, and gashed her back in their fight (implying that she may have died from blood loss). However, the earthquake may have contributed to her death, or even outright caused it instead.

    With her last breath and her last words, she tells her son to search for the Great Valley and that she will be with him, even if he can't see her. Later, her spirit would appear to her son in times of need and aids him in the quest for the Great Valley. Her death would later be avenged when Littlefoot and his new-found friends (after several encounters) killed Sharptooth once and for all. Her last appearance is at the end of the first film when Littlefoot despairs of ever finding the Great Valley; she takes to the form of a longneck-shaped cloud to guide him into the Great Valley, whereupon a beam of light comes from her heart. The light shines on Littlefoot and spreads to illuminate the Great Valley below, there Littlefoot would be reunited with his Grandparents. With the Sharptooth dead and her son back in the care of his remaining family (her parents) in a new safe home, Littlefoot's mother finally achieved all she wanted for her son and thus was free to rest in peace.

## influence

Though long since dead, she is periodically mentioned through littlefoot's life after her passing. when stranded on an island after all the herds left the great valley after all vegetation devoured by a swarm of locus, Littlefoot remembers his mother and looks at a star shining brighter than the others during the song *Always There.* after the great valley experience days of rain and all his friends were busy at home, Littlefoot wishes that his mother had given him a brother, and looks at a cloud which forms the shape of a Longneck, which could possibly be her, as she appears as a cloud in the first film. She also makes an appearance in a flashback after first meeting his long lost father, bron, explained by bron that he had left to search for a new home for them and their unborn children. after the earthquakes seperating them, bron explains he met someone who told him about her battle with sharptooth, indicating he felt sorrow for the loss of his mate. after entering equestria and living there, its clear he still misses her, even explaining why his new friends never met her when first arriving. even after meeting arachnia and becoming his new mother, they both know she'd never replace his biological mother, but they both still honor her memory knowing she'd still be watching over them