A twelve-year-old American boy, who lives with his parents and twin younger sisters outside the town of Podunk (Mother's Day). He sets out to find the Eight Melodies and possibly uncover secrets about his mysterious great-grandparents. Not much information is given about his personality, but he seems to be a kind, brave kid, if with a bit of a temper. He loves prime ribs, penguins, and baseball, and occasionally suffers from asthma.
Berserk Button: Lying about his mother calling him is not a smart move, hippies.
Combat Medic: He has a very powerful physical attack, but all of his PSI is assist and healing. He doesn't even get a signature move like Ness's PSI Rockin or Lucas's PK Love. Even so, he is the strongest permanent party member.
Fountain of Expies: His appearance (especially his trademark striped shirt) set the standard for MOTHER series protagonists.
Ness is the most obvious example, as he is almost an exact copy of him. As Ness is more well-known, this sometimes leads to confusion, as they share the same outfit. Fans often draw Ninten wearing a red neckerchief and with a slightly different shirt stripe pattern to differentiate them, based on a live-action Japanese commercial for MOTHER.
The eleven-year-old boy genius from Merrysville (Thanksgiving). Loid is brilliant, but is often bullied by his classmates for being a nerd and a weakling. He developed a tendency to hide in trash cans to avoid confrontation. Despite this, he has a great deal of determination, even when it comes to the dreaded gym class. Bullying has left him very shy and cowardly when he joins Ninten, but over time he becomes stronger and more confident in himself. He likes rockets, science, computers, and Superman.
Big Damn Heroes: He saves Ninten, Ana, and Teddy from being slaughtered by the R7038, but he is too late to save the critically-wounded Teddy. He still manages to destroy the R7038, however.
Butt Monkey: He gets bullied a lot at school, and everyone calls him a weakling.
Meaningful Name: Loid's name comes from his Japanese name, "Roido," coming from the word "roidomegane", meaning "round glasses with thick plastic rims".
The only permanent female member of the group, Ana is a twelve-year-old from Snowman. A sweet, but timid girl, Ana has never ventured out of Snowman alone. She is described as kind at heart, with a great sense of direction. Before the start of the adventure, Ana was unable to sleep due to odd dreams, and sets out with Ninten in hopes of finding her abducted mother. She is deeply religious (one of her favorite possessions being a Bible), is a skilled piano player, and also collects stamps and envelopes.
Badass Adorable: This adorable little girl in pink and pigtails has some powerful PSI.
Unlike the other members of the party, Teddy is not a kid; rather, he is a young man in his late teens to twenties. Leader of the B.B. (Black Blood Gang), he is the kingpin of the town of Ellay (Valentine) until some kids came in and started messing with his crew. After he is beaten by Ninten, he joins the party as to avenge the death of his parents. He likes smoking, leather jackets, and rock and roll.
Killed Off for Real: Only in the original Japanese version. In the translated prototype and the MOTHER 1 + 2 GBA port, he is shown recovering in a hospital.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: A NPC will tell you that, before his parents' deaths, he was very nice boy.
You Killed My Father: His parents were supposedly killed by wild animals, and he joined Ninten in order to avenge them. The MOTHER Encyclopedia says that it was actually a car accident, but he refused to pay attention to this finding.
Pippi
A pigtailed young girl whom Ninten must save from zombies.
Cute Bruiser: You wouldn't expect her to have the exact same stat growths as Teddy.
The ethereal, beautiful queen of the mysterious land of Magicant. She has fallen gravely ill, and the only thing that will restore her to her former self are the Eight Melodies. She is Ninten's great-grandmother, and was the deeply-beloved foster mother of Giygas.
The grim leader of the invading alien forces. He leads the invasion to take revenge for the human theft of his race's PSI technology, but his resolve crumbles when confronted with the memory of his beloved foster mother, and swears to come back to finish the job later.
Anti-Villain: If you pay attention to his backstory and see what happens to him in the second game, he arguably can be interpreted as eventually becoming one of these.
Tragic Monster: Especially once you learn what happens to him later...
We Can Rule Together: Though not exactly, but why else does he want to spare Ninten's life?
You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Even before his trope-naming sequel appearance, the form of Giegue's attack happened to be inexplicable.
MOTHER 2/EarthΒound
Ness
Don't get homesick!
A perfectly average boy living in Onett, Eagleland. Sets out to find the eight "My Sanctuary" locations and to locate the other three heroes. Little is said about his personality in-game, but his appearances in Super Smash Bros. describe him as being courageous and good-natured.
Light 'Em Up: PSI Flash, which creates a bright flash of light that may One-Hit KO enemies.
Magic Knight: He's the party's tank, physical powerhouse, and medic. This is even without the Magicant boosts, which tone down his speed weakness.
Mighty Glacier: Has extremely high offense and hit points, but is the slowest party member by far. Once he overcomes the evil in his heart and gains the power of the Sanctuaries, his HP and PP increase to truly ludicrous levels and his speed improves; though he is still somewhat slow.
Nice Guy: One of few traits known from Ness's personality.
"Even if he had telepathic powers, I don't think he'd use them to mess with you like that. I hear he's a good kid.", from Solid Snake's Codec call on him.
Heck, it's the one sole piece of clothing he keeps on in the Japanese version of Magicant where he's running around nude. He must really be attached to it a lot if it's the one thing he didn't lose and kept on even at that point of the game after losing the rest of his articles of clothing.
Out-of-Clothes Experience: In the Japanese version, Ness is naked in Magicant, complete with Barbie Doll Anatomy. (Remember that, in Japan, nudity is used as a symbol of purity.) This was changed in the US version, where he's in the pajamas he was wearing at the start of the game.
A young girl who lives in Twoson and who possesses powerful psychic abilities. Ness must come to her rescue after she is kidnapped by the Happy Happyist cult.
Alliterative Name: Not official (the guide says that her last name is 'Jones') but most people think her last name is Polestar, the name of the preschool she and her parents work at.
Badass Adorable: Cute little girl dressed all in pink. Can set you on fire with her mind.
Black Mage: She's the primary offensive magic user, later sharing this spot with Poo.
Chekhov's Skill: Her unique ability, 'Pray', is generally useless in battle, as its effects are completely random — a full-party heal is nice, but do you really want to risk reviving all your defeated enemies or having everyone start feeling strange? You use it to call out to the whole world for help in the final battle against Giygas.
Distressed Damsel: Happens three times. Getting her back the third time is one of the hardest parts of the game; you will not take her for granted afterward.
Squishy Wizard: Easily two-shotted due to her low level at first, and then two-shotted at later levels due to her mediocre defense and terrible HP growths. She has around 250HP at LV60-LV70, and that's if the game was generous with RNG and if you're not (ab)using the game breaking rock candy + sugar packet trick. The other party members' HP will be double (or triple in Ness' case) that. She has the best offensive spells (and a couple good defensive spells too), and is fast enough to get them off before her foes can act, but she'll always trail behind the other party members in terms of HP and defense.
A child prodigy attending a boarding school in Winters. Comes to Ness and Paula's rescue after they are captured by zombies, after receiving a telekinetic message from Paula.
Badass Normal: Is the only character in the main party with no psychic powers, but has a variety of self-made weapons and is frequently the team's pilot.
BFG: His bazookas are just as destructive as you would imagine.
Drives Like Crazy: Has a body count of two Sky Runners, both of which crashed under his piloting. (Though he can usually repair them.) The submarine somehow remained unscathed.
Gadgeteer Genius: Jeff lacks the psychic powers of his friends, but he can take things you'd find in most typical junkyards, such as broken harmonicas, irons, pipes, and antennas, and somehow retrofit them into highly advanced laser guns, psychic shield destroyers, and slime blasters.
The Sleepless / Plot Powered Stamina: When staying at inns, he'll stay up all night fixing that broken junk you've accumulated, and his battle prowess doesn't suffer a bit for it.
The Smart Guy: A scientific prodigy and son of the famous Dr. Andonuts, he boasts the highest IQ and IQ growths in the game.
The prince of Dalaam who comes to Ness's aid to fulfill a prophecy dictated by his mentor. He arrives after Ness and company accidentally trip out on some Magic Cake.
Bare Fisted Monk: At least if you don't pick up the notoriously rare Sword of Kings. Even then, the command isn't changed to slash. Either he equips it because he becomes stronger just having it, or only uses the hilt. (Or the "Sword" part was symbolic.)
Dynamic Entry: Seems fond of this — he drops out of the sky in his first appearance to Ness and company, and it is also a big part of his Big Damn Heroes moment against Master Belch.
Heroes Prefer Swords: The Sword of Kings, one of those infamous rare item drops.
Informed Attractiveness: When playing as him, you get a lot of attention from the ladies in Dalaam.
Spoony Bard: Oh, boy...his PP is low, but he can restore it by drinking cheap bottles of water. He isn't used to Western food and gains minimal HP restoration from it. He can only use certain pieces of equipment, and any others will lower his stats — he has exactly ONE weapon, and it's an incredibly rare drop from an enemy in a one-time-only area. It's also extremely difficult for him to catch up level-wise because he requires the most EXP for each individual level up.
Training from Hell: His Mu training, at the end of which he is ritually, symbolically killed by the spirits of his ancestors.
Unfortunate Name: It isn't as unfortunate in Japan, as his name is read as "Puu" there. It's intended to be Asian-sounding, but the North American release Romanized it differently... and unfortunately. Prerelease images indicate it was almost Romanized as "Pu"; you have to wonder whether the change had anything to do with the game's unfortunate advertising campaign.
Ness's lovely little pet dog. He's a Guest Star Party Member early on in the game, and does substantial damage. He chickens out and runs away when Buzz Buzz appears, because the party limit is four.BUT! It was meant to be five! That's right, King was meant to be a permanent party member. This model does however return in Boney.
Ness's next-door neighbor. A selfish, spoiled brat who loves to cause trouble and is Giygas's right-hand man, pulling strings behind the scenes.
Abusive Parents: In the Japanese version of Mother 2, Pokey glumly says that if his parents find out he and Picky were out late, he gets spanked 100 times; this had to be changed because of Nintendo's rules of content. Thus, in the American version of EarthBound, he gets no dessert for the rest of the decade.
The Drag Along: "Three boys, he said? ...Uhhh...I'm not one of those three, am I?...'Cause... I'm not into this kind of thing at all..."
Dragon-in-Chief: With Giygas in EarthBound, as by the time you fight them Giygas is barely sentient and clearly incapable of acting of his own accord. This could make Porky The Dragon, part a Big Bad Duumvirate, or the outright Big Bad; it's very open to interpretation, like most things in MOTHER.
Dumb Is Good: As he becomes more and more evil, his speech is more erudite, as well.
Laughing Mad: During the final boss battle, even though he admits Giygas terrifies him as much as Ness.
The Load: Although he's only with you at the very beginning of the game, all he does is alternately whine, beg for mercy, hide behind Ness, play dead, and otherwise do nothing to contribute.
He manages to keep being the load thereafter by associating himself intimately with whoever happens to be standing in your way at the moment and making it very clear that, now that he has powerful new friends, he's far too good for the likes of you. When you inevitably prevail, he begs for forgiveness just long enough to make a getaway.
The Man Behind the Man: To Carpainter and Mayor Monotoli. Also one interpretation of his relation with Giygas.
Mobile Menace: Steals the chopper Ness is intending to use to fly to Scaraba. Jeff later finds its crashed wreckage in the swamp; Porky somehow managed to navigate it on foot. The kicker, though, is when he pops up in the Cave of the Past after a long absence.
More than Mind Control: As demonstrated when he 'snaps out of' the Happy Happyism Cult brainwashing.
Mouth of Sauron: Who better to be the herald of Giygas than Ness' annoying neighbor?
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Taunts Ness to cry out and PRAY to his friends ("I know you have telepathy, or something") for help. Guess what Giygas' one weakness is?
We Used To Be Friends: Is implied to have been friends with Ness at some point. Though why Ness didn't hang out with Picky instead is anyone's guess.
We Will Meet Again: Once Giygas is destroyed, Pokey uses time travel to escape into another era, but not before taunting Ness one last time.
Yin Yang Clash: The Minches are a bizarro reflection Ness' family. Porky does not like steak, which is Ness' canon favorite food.
Giygas
Ness... Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness.
The Universal Cosmic Destroyer who once again menaces Earth, and according to Buzz Buzz, successfully obliterates it in the future. Things are... differentthis time.
Doppelgänger Attack: Smacking him around causes Giygas to split into these, until there's literally a sea of undulating, screaming faces. Y'know, for kids.
The Dreaded: Giygas: a physical manifestation of people's fear.
Eldritch Abomination: He doesn't have a form, he exists in the future and the past, and his only dialog is inspired by the trauma of viewing a violent murder scene misinterpreted by Itoi as a rape scene in a movie that scarred him when he was a kid.
Eldritch Location: It's very easy to interpret him as being this as well, as it's implied that he's just that big and distorted.
Evil Is Visceral: He looks like this when the Devil Machine is active. After that... it's a little hard to classify what he looks like, other than Nightmare Fuel personified. Giygas' first form provides one of the page images.
Love Makes You Evil: It's suggested that his highly conflicted feelings of love for Mary and hate for mankind, his weakness in MOTHER, are what pushed him over the edge to turn him into his present form.
Actually a case of Spell My Name with an S. In Japan, its pronounced "geeg" and the EarthBound Zero prototype calls him the more directly-translated Giegue.
Apparently, the most literal translation equals "Gyiyg" (as seen in the Japanese version's opening), pronounced, again, "geeg".
Omnicidal Maniac: They call him the Universal Cosmic Destroyer for a reason.
A race of cute, innocent creatures that live in the secluded Saturn Valley. Actually highly intelligent in spite of their goofy personalities, they help Dr. Andonuts create the time machine necessary to reach Giygas.
Expy: Themed after the Blues Brothers. The English version reduced this by recolouring their black suits into brighter colours.
Work Off The Debt: They're not too great with contract negotiations. The party has to bail them out twice. Though they do repay the favor by giving them rides in their tour bus, and by bailing Ness and Jeff out of a boss fight.
Dr. Andonuts
Would you like a donut?
A brilliant scientist from Winters. He is Jeff's father, and helps the party on numerous occasions with his inventions; from the flying Sky Runner to the time machine necessary to reach Giygas. He reappears in MOTHER 3, having been kidnapped by Porky to work on his machines, most notably, The Absolutely Safe Machine.
Cloudcuckoolander: Upon seeing his son for the first time in ten years, he asks him whether he would like a doughnut. If Jeff answers in the affirmative, Dr. Andonuts wistfully comments that he'd like one, too.
Parental Abandonment: Hasn't seen his son, Jeff, in ten years; despite living a short walk away from his boarding school.
Tony
Jeff's best friend and roommate at his boarding school. He frets over Jeff during his friend's long and dangerous adventure and worries about his health and safety; even going so far as to try to get to know the mysterious person guiding them.
An aspiring inventor that Ness & Co. inadvertently start funding. His odd (and oddly-specific) inventions come in handy throughout the game. He proves himself capable by helping Dr. Andonuts and the Mr. Saturns create the time machine necessary to reach Giygas.
Fat Bastard: Played with and averted nicely. He's perceived as one by the people of Twoson owing to his bulk, lack of self-hygiene and poor social skills... but he proves himself to be anything but and is critical in Ness's success.
Big Damn Heroes and Moment Of Awesome: Comes out of nowhere when Salsa, Kumatora, and Wess are cornered by Pigmasks and calls the mother Drago to completely destroy the Pigmasks surrounding them.
Combat Medic: Continues the series' trend of the main protagonist being the game's primary healer. Lucas has the largest arsenal of healing abilities of the four party members as well as the strongest physical attack.
Cosmic Plaything: His mother dies, his brother goes missing and turns up as an evil cyborg, and his father goes nearly insane with grief. Even the dog is upset about it.
Parental Abandonment: His mother is killed by the Mecha Drago. Angst ensues. Later, his father spends years looking for his "missing" son out in the mountains, and it's implied he hasn't spoken to Lucas much in that time.
Unlikely Hero: Claus' shirt is blue and yellow—the same color as Ness's and Ninten's before him. He also acts like a Hot Blooded hero, capable of ridiculously selfless and suicidal actions on behalf of the people he cares about. Everything about him is deliberately engineered to scream "hero!"... but it's timid Lucas who gets saddled with the position instead.
Back from the Dead: As the Masked Man, your main opposition in pulling the seven needles.
Badass Normal: Attempts to take on the Mecha Drago with a knife.
Be Careful What You Wish For: "I'm gonna get stronger. ...I'm gonna get so strong even Dragos won't stand a chance against me!"
Brainwashed and Crazy: Porky states at the end of the game that the Masked Man is nothing but a puppet, and there isn't a shred of humanity left in him. This is supported earlier in the game when Phrygia can sense Lucas' heart after he pulls his share of Needles, but not the heart of Claus, even though he's been pulling Needles as well. It isn't until the end of the game that Claus regains his humanity, after his mother's voice pleads with him.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: And how! He goes from a hyperactive, cheery kid to a silent, emotionless Pigmask Army Commander.
Mismatched Eyes: The Masked Man is often depicted with these in fanart, even though it isn't actually in the game. This probably is based off the end of Chapter Seven when he leaps at you to engage in combat. The eye under the lens on his helmet glows red.
Never Found the Body: Well, Flint never did despite his greatest efforts. The Pigmasks, though...
Badass Longcoat: His design in the scrapped N64 version. This was most likely removed to make animations clearer.
Badass Normal: In a world where the mooks wield rayguns and the heroes wield psychic powers, he's still more than capable of making his way on his quest with nothing more than a good block of wood.
Deus Angst Machina: Chapter 1. The forest gets set on fire, a friend of his is injured, his wife Hinawa is killed, he has a freakout that leads to him getting thrown in jail, and one of his sons tries to avenge Hinawa and is (presumably) killed. All of this within the space of a day or so.
Iron Woobie: Much of what applies to Lucas also applies to him.
Heroic BSOD: After the news of Hinawa's Death is relayed to him.
Nice Hat: Flint wouldn't be Flint without his signature cowboy hat.
Papa Wolf: A deconstruction; he gets so torn up about Claus' disappearance that he spends most of the game neglecting his other son in his rampant search for him.
During the final battle between Lucas and the Masked Man (who in reality is a brainwashed Claus) Flint will try and protect Lucas, taking two rounds of heavy damage for him.
Back from the Dead: As a ghost, seen once in the beginning of chapter 6, and again at the end to bring Claus back to his senses. Implied to be helping Lucas and friends out several more times during the story.
Sunny Sunflower Disposition: Sunflowers are associated with her presence throughout the game. In Chapter 6, Lucas even sees her ghost in a sunflower field.
Boney
Woof woof! (I can take you for a walk if you'd like, Lucas.)
Enemy Scan: His sniff ability. Some enemies either have no scent or one that Boney can't handle.
Evil Detecting Dog: During the Mushroom Samba on Tanehineri/Tanetane Island, Boney's the only one that won't follow you into the hot spring. And for good reason...
Heavy Sleeper: He's even asleep on his naming screen! Boney has to drag him by the neck through the rain during most of his introduction scene. It's implied that he's a night owl, but still, it takes about three quarters of the cutscene for him to finally wake up.
Improbable Weapon User: His Thief Tools (wall staples, a scary mask, a siren beetle, a tickle stick, smoke bombs, and a hypno-pendulum) are all things he can use in fights.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: In chapter 4, the bassist of the DCMC, Lucky, is revealed to be Duster with amnesia.
Master of None: He's a member of your party most of the game, and aside from his status effects, he's mostly just around to bash things.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: After the mission in Osohe Castle that Wess sends him on, he's never shown stealing anything, despite being classed as a thief.
Badass Grandpa: He's in his 60's (or thereabouts), and he's so tough, the game nerfs him by making him attack rarely during the short time he's in your party. One of his rarer attacks is enough to one-shot anything you can encounter at the time.
Happily Adopted: As she lost both her parents as a baby before being taken away on the "white ship"; the Magypsies agreed to raise her as their own.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Kumatora is universally described as strong, tough, and masculine, and off-screen, is capable of single-handedly smacking down two bodyguards that Lucas isn't even allowed to approach because they're too dangerous. Yet in actual combat she's a Squishy Wizard who has the overall lowest physical damage ratio, even compared to a dog.
She Cleans Up Nicely: In her normal attire, a little girl mistakes her for a guy. In Chapter 4, however, she has to disguise as a waitress to get behind-the-scenes at Club Titiboo in order to convince an amnesiac Duster who he really is. Suddenly, many of the men find her attractive. She even tells Lucas to stop changing his expression!
Ambiguous Gender: They are neither man nor woman, nor even human. They usually refer to themselves as female, but Kumatora refers to them as male. Locria seems pretty clearly male.
It's also worth noting that 'Fassad' is an Arabic word that means 'corruption'. It's also a pun on Façade (no, not the game.). And it's not even official.
Back from the Dead and Killed Off for Real: After falling from Thunder Tower, he's brought back to life with two musical horns attached. Much later, after the third encounter, he plummets into the sewers and either dies from drowning or disappearing when his Needle is pulled.
Bad Boss: He will make you want to choke him to death before Salsa's chapter is over.
Fate Worse than Death: After you defeat Miracle Fassad for the last time, he falls into a sewer, too wounded to so much as move. Since he's later revealed to be a magypsy, this means that he's stuck, drowning, immobile, and alive, until the needle is pulled at the end of the game.
Guest Star Party Member: A notable one, as it's likely that he'll be the one doing all the damage while Salsa is taking all the hits (and doing his best to disable enemies so he doesn't get hit).
Make an Example of Them: Anyone who doesn't play ball and purchase a high quality Happy Box gets their house torched by lightning.
Meaningful Name: Fassad's name in the Japanese version was "Yokuba", which comes from the Japanese word for "greed". His name in the fan translation comes from the Arabic word for "corruption" and coincidentally, it sounds like the word "façade". Fassad could also be something of a reference to Lier X. Agerate, a minor character from EarthBound.
Musical Spoiler: His horns the second and third time around play a somewhat messy version of the Magypsy's theme whenever he talks.
Prophetic Name: The Locrian mode, the scale that Locria is named after, is also known as the 'Diabolus in Musica', a Latin phrase meaning 'Devil in Music', in reference to its dissonant tone. This is likely the reason why the name "Locria" was chosen for the traitorous Magypsy.
The Reveal: While you're heading through the Empire Porky Building, you come across a Magypsy's shell home. Inside you find several banana peels, a pair of musical horns, and Fassad's clothing.
Stockholm Syndrome: Fassad may be a chode, but he's an effective teammate (a lot more than Porky or Thomas), and a lot stronger than Salsa. Itoi intentionally wanted to provoke this feeling in players themselves.
Trademark Favorite Food: Luxury Bananas. They even heal him for more than they heal your party members.
Villainous Crossdresser: Inverted — the rest of the Magypsies are all psychic crossdressing guardians for good, except the comparatively conservatively-dressed Locria/Fassad.
And I Must Scream: Porky's fate at the end... though (as someone says in-game) it may be exactly what he wanted. Notice that he's still sticking his tongue out at you even after it's revealed that he's trapped forever.
Continuity Nod: His playroom is full of small nods to EarthBound, and his first battle theme is an 8-bit throwback, just like in the previous game. This hints that he was Ness's friend.
Dragon Ascendant: The Dragon to Giygas in the previous game until he's taken out, he then eventually makes it to the Nowhere Islands where the events of the game take place, and becomes the Big Bad there.
