Isabella

Isabella (イザベラ), also known as Mama (ママ) by the children, is the Mama and caretaker who runs the Grace Field House. Although initially loved by all children, she is revealed as the main antagonist of The Promised Neverland in the Jailbreak arc.

History
Isabella was born in 2014 and she sent to Grace Field House a year later in 2015. Growing up as an orphan herself in one of the "orphanages", she met a child named Leslie who became her closest friend. She learned a song from him that instantly became her favorite song. Leslie was later shipped out and killed, and the grief caused by the absence of her closest friend made Isabella attempt to escape from Grace Field by crossing the huge wall. When she saw that there was a huge cliff on the other side, however, the sight crushed all her hopes and she was soon stopped by the Mama of her own orphanage.

When Isabella turned twelve and was shipped-out, she was given two choices: to be killed by the demons, or train to become a Mama. Isabella chose the latter, since she wanted to live longer than anybody else in order to honor Leslie's memory and become a Mama so she could give all the kids as much love as she could.

When Isabella was around 19 years old and still in training, she became pregnant through artificial insemination and she would always sing the same song for her unborn child that Leslie, years earlier, sang for her. Sometime later, the newborn was taken away from her and she was appointed as the new mama of Plantation 3, becoming the youngest ever chosen to become a Mama. After a few years being the mama of Grace Field House, she heard Ray singing the same song that Leslie once sang for her. She then came to the shocking truth that Ray is in fact, her biological son. Since Ray had figured out the truth behind the orphanage and the outside world, he proposed the idea of becoming her spy, which Isabella accepted.

Introduction Arc
Taking care of the 38 orphans living in Grace Field House, feeding them, washing them, playing with them – Isabella went through the same routine every day in Grace Field, an orphanage where she acts as a substitute as a mother to all children.

On October 12th, 2045, Conny leaves the orphanage for adoption. Isabella accompanies Conny while she sings her favorite lullaby. In fact, Isabella shipped Conny off to become food for the demons, and gave the demons the word that she would soon ship off the highest scoring children as well, unbeknown that Emma and Norman was witnessing and hearing it all. The two return to the house running while being unnoticed but they leave Conny's little bunny behind. Isabella then finds little bunny at the scene, understanding that some children were there.

Isabella is thereafter seen in her secret room, contacting the headquarters, however, she doesn't mention anything about children having found out the secret. Isabella gives the task of preparing a room for Emma, Norman, and Ray, but the real reason for it is so they can't mess up her plans.

Jailbreak Arc
Isabella informs to Ray that she had eliminated Krone and that she would also break her deal with him now, and she locks him up in a room and leaves since she had found out the children's plan to explore the wall. Isabella finds Norman and Emma by the wall, confronting them without her "Mama" facade, and she tells them to stop resisting, explaining that they have lived happy and carefree lives and will die quickly. They refuse to accept this fate and Emma grabs Isabella so Norman can climb the wall, but Isabella breaks Emma's leg. Isabella then discloses that they are the best quality meat she has raised, fit for "the One", and that Norman will be shipped out the next day.

On Norman's shipment day, he says goodbye to everyone in the House. Isabella tries to interfere with Emma and Norman's conversation as she urged Norman to prepare to depart from the orphanage, but gives in to not seem suspicious to the children. Later, Isabella accompanied Norman to the gates of Grace Field and he questioned her whether is she happy. Isabella was in shock and hesitated for a moment, before replying that she was indeed happy. At the gate, Isabella ushers Norman into a side-room to wait for the demons. After Norman's shipment, Isabella confronts a crying Emma in the infirmary, where she offers to sponsor her as a Mom candidate, saying if she completes her training she could return to the house as a Mother or Sister, but Emma refuses. Isabella is clearly upset and tries to discourage Emma by telling her that there was nothing except death that awaited them and that they would absolutely not be able to escape. However, Isabella appears to look saddened after leaving Emma's room.

For the following two months, Isabella kept a close eye on Emma and Ray so they would not plot anything new and plan for their escape. She also didn't suspect any other orphan doing something out of the ordinary.

On Ray's birthday and the night before his departure, Ray lights himself and the House on fire and as it spreads, the children evacuate. Isabella tries to extinguish the fire and save Ray, who she thinks is engulfed in flames, but the children had wrapped meat and hair in his clothes as a decoy. However, upon finding Emma's severed ear in a bucket, she realizes the children are alive and escaping, to which Isabella attempts to contact headquarters but finds the keyhole plugged. However, she manages to rescue the transmitter as the building burns. While reuniting with Phil and the other small children left behind, Isabella notifies headquarters of the fire and that 15 children have escaped. When there is no sign of the children at the bridge, Isabella runs along the wall and arrives in time to see Emma, the last child, cross into the forest before the lines are cut. Isabella accepts defeat and wishes the children nothing but luck before removing the ropes in order to cover up their escape. She then returns to the burning building where she tells Phil they successfully escaped and devotes herself to take care of the younger orphans as she sings her favorite song to them.

Appearance
Isabella is a tall woman with fair skin and deep purple eyes. Her dark brown hair is tied into a bun that hangs down onto the back of her head. She wears an attire which consists of a black dress with a white blouse underneath it and a white apron over it. She has the number "73584" tattooed on the right side of her neck.

During her childhood, Isabella wore standard orphanage clothing and her hair was tied in the form of a braid with two locks of hair framing her face.undefined

Personality
During her childhood, Isabella was shown to be an optimistic, gentle, free-spirited, comedic and fun-loving little girl, and was very attached to her childhood friend, Leslie. But ever since she lost Leslie and realized the true motive behind the orphanage's purpose of raising them; to raise them as livestock for the demons, Isabella's personality went through a drastic change. From there on, everything she did; including becoming a Mama, giving birth to Ray, and sending off the orphans to become demon food, was the sake of prolonging her own survival to spite the demons from eating her.

The present Isabella is a sharp-witted, ruthless, cold, manipulative, and deceiving woman. As a person highly trained as being a Mama, Isabella is astute as being one and, in her early twenties, was elected in being the caretaker of one of the top orphanages. In her Mama persona, Isabella is capable in putting on a motherly, selfless and kind-hearted facade whenever she is around the orphans in Grace Field House, and hence was able to earn the trust and love from her foster children, such as Don, who initially refused to believe that Isabella had actually been shipping off children to feed the demons.undefined Even Norman and Emma struggled to reconcile what she was capable of when they first found out, as to them, Isabella was their only parent. Isabella's behavior is very mercurial, capable of switching between seemingly true affection for the orphans to extreme loathing and threat of violence towards those who defy her. Isabella was unhesitant in taking down those who stand in her way and root out the children that knew of Conny's death, both emotionally, verbally and even physically. Another few of Isabella's prominent traits are her high cunning, dominance, and intelligence. As being one of the top Mamas, Isabella uses her intelligence in foiling and sabotaging the orphans' escape plan. She is always shown to be three steps ahead of the orphans' plan and was shown to be quite resourceful, as she depended on her transmitter to track down the orphans. Isabella was unafraid of using her intelligence and position as a Mama to threaten her enemies, as she openly threatens Emma despite knowing it as a reckless and risky move when she seeks to gather information on how Emma and the others are going to escape.

However, beneath everything, she genuinely does love the children of the house, in an extremely twisted way though. But in her mind, it was an authentic love, because due to her own experiences with being an orphan in one of the farms, she reached the conclusion that escape was impossible. So rather than fight what she deemed to be impossible, as in a future where everyone could survive; she instead opted to ensure that the children would at least be able to live happy lives until they were eventually shipped out. The extreme lengths she would go to in order "protect" them and prevent them from escaping is demonstrated when she nonchalantly and violently break Emma’s leg, and would then comfort her in her motherly facade as if nothing had just happened. She also tries to discourage the children in their escape by shipping off Norman. But when the children manage to escape, Isabella gracefully admits her loss and genuinely wishes Emma, Ray, and the other escapees nothing but the best, even covering for their escape while devoting herself to caring for Phil and the other children in the meantime. This shows that becoming a Mama was not solely a means of survival to her - she did genuinely love the time that she spent taking care of the orphans as their mother.

Intelligence
Isabella has shown that she is very intelligent and can notice the smallest of details. She quickly and easily discovered the children's plan to escape and has been able to keep all her children healthy and top of the line. She is also very adept at chess and has not once lost to her children, further proving her sharp intellect.

Enhanced Strength
From being able to lift Emma off the ground and break her leg with ease of lifting heavy objects, Isabella has proven herself to be physically strong.

Leslie
I must live for myself, and to give purpose to Leslie's life.undefinedLeslie is a childhood sweetheart of Isabella's, and the closest friend she had during her innocent years in the orphanage they were raised in.

Isabella was often shown to be free-spirited and chummy when she was with Leslie. When Leslie hummed a tune he composed, Isabella eavesdropped him and later encouraged him to share it with her. The boy was shy with her request at humming his tune to her at first but later decided to after blushing from seeing Isabella's charming smile. The two soon chanted the tune together. In the anime, Leslie did not chant the tune of his to Isabella, he used an instrument to play the tune out for her. Tragedy struck as Leslie was sent off to get killed by the demons – a painful revelation Isabella eventually knew after discovering the dark secrets and evil doings of her orphanage and her caretaker. After Isabella failed to escape the orphanage when she discovered a steep cliff which surrounds the outside of the walls, she was soon sent off by orders from Grandmother. Knowing how Leslie has passed gravely affected her, as she described his death to have unbelievably frustrated her, Isabella is now a shadow of her free-spirited and lively self. This evidently showed how strong her love for Leslie is, to the degree of losing the personality that once defined her.

On the flip side of the coin, though Leslie has passed, Isabella's memories of him and the tune they had between them invigorated her and gave her strength and the meaning to live on. Isabella's love for Leslie was also the reason why she chose to become a caretaker instead of getting killed. Leslie's tune, which Isabella still reminisced till this day, was sung during the time when she was pregnant as she shared the tune to her unborn baby as a tribute to Leslie.

Ray
When she first met him, Isabella believed Ray to be just another orphan for her to raise in Grace Field. But at some point, she overheard Ray whistling a tune she learned from her childhood sweetheart Leslie, and very quickly suspected that Ray was her son, the baby she was made to carry and give birth to as a part of her training to become a Mama.

Later on, Ray asked her why she gave birth to him, having somehow figure out their familial connection and Isabella was momentarily shocked to confirm that Ray was indeed her child but coldly responded so that she could live.

Indeed, Isabella has no true love for her son Ray, as she used him as her spy to monitor all the children in her care in exchange for giving Ray simple gifts every now and then, and eventually dismissed his service in lieu of his eventual shipping, showing no remorse or concern.

However, at the end, when Ray, Emma, and several of her children succeeded in escaping Grace Field after she herself had deemed the prospect impossible Isabella secretly hoped and prayed for them to survive, to live, to have the courage she never did.

Emma
Isabella served as Emma's Mama in Grace Field.

Norman
Isabella served as Norman's Mama in Grace Field before shipping him off.

Krone
Krone was sent to Isabella as sister to aid Isabella in supervising the Grace Field orphans. Krone and Isabella's relationship has been work-based, and Krone soon showed sign of defiance toward Isabella and a hatred for her. As Krone worked to throw Isabella off of the Mama position, Isabella was a step ahead of Krone. Sarah and Isabella tricked Krone into thinking that she would become a Mama at a different plant, only to be killed by Vida despite the fact that she had information that Emma, Norman, and Ray were devising a plan to escape the plant. Sarah tells Krone that Isabella is skilled enough and can handle that, but Krone is in the way of her, and that she must be killed as to not throw off Isabella.

Grandmother
Sarah was Isabella's Mama in Grace Field before being promoted to Grandmother. During her childhood, Sarah prevented from escaping and later recommended Isabella to become the next Mama of Grace Field. For the following years, Isabella followed in her footsteps and in the present day, seem to have a rather normal and respectful alliance. Sarah describes Isabella as one of her important pawns and will not let her title as a Mama be taken away. However, Sarah is seen being extremely disappointed in Isabella for letting the children escape, as she couldn't believe that Isabella, considering her abilities, allowed that to happen.

Grace Field Orphans
Isabella serves as the Mama of all of the Grace Field Orphans until the fire burnt down the orphanage and the older children escaped and the younger ones that were left behind moved to another orphanage and Mama.

Trivia

 * According to Kaiu Shirai, he made the main protagonist a female, because Isabella is the first antagonist, is a female too, hence thinking that the mother-daughter relationship between the two would make the story "more interesting".
 * In an interview, Posuka Demizu mentioned that he enjoys drawing Isabella, and thinks that she is a character that should be drawn beautifully.
 * Isabella is not only the youngest to ever reach the position of Mama, being appointed in her early twenties, but her farm has the best track record of shipping quality children.
 * Her name means "devoted to god" in Hebrew, which may relate to her being a servant to the demons.
 * The following are Isabella's rankings in some of The Promised Neverland's official popularity polls.
 * Isabella is ranked 4th in the Popularity Poll that was announced in Chapter 88 of the manga.
 * In Shounen Jump's 2nd popularity poll results announced in Chapter 102, Isabella is in 8th place with a total of 1151 votes.

Other Wikis

 * Isabella on VS Battles Wiki. (Manga spoilers ahead)
 * Isabella on Villains Wiki. (Manga spoilers ahead)

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