- Makes sense. Lucas grieving over Claus' death, passes on his heart's ideals onto the almighty dragon. Lucas wants all evil in the world washed away, for there to be a paradise recreated with no wars, bloodshed or conflict anymore. The Dragon decides that this is impossible. Humans already had an idyllic paradise... Earth, which they squandered, ruined and would do so again and again. The Dragon absorbs everyone into its very being, and in its belly, their life-force tethered to its own untold and incredible power. Just as it once preserved the Nowhere Islands, it now preserves an immortal humanity. Meaning, its impossible for anyone to now die at anyone's else hands, thus fulfilling Luca's wishes in the only possible way. Ironic... as the Dragon once lived in harmony with humans, but as time passed and as mankind grew advanced, they grew distant and indifferent. With its reawakening... the bond is now inseparable and it and everyone are all indistinct from each other.
- Even the end of the game does not resolve this issue.
- If the Dark Dragon recreated Tazmily village as it was, wiping memories once more, this will still eventually happen even without the Pigmask army. Early concepts of currency already existed like the Rotten Eclair in the castle, and the advancements created by the Pigmask army looked advantageous to the village at first. Any inventions created by the villagers will be treated similarly until they themselves create the problem that they were trying to avoid.
- Wasn't the idea that the Dark Dragon would recreate the entire world, not just Tazmily?
- Even if the Dark Dragon does revive the whole world, that just recreates the situation that is believed to cause the apocalypse in the first place. If it is filled with people who held their beliefs as before, then nothing will change, the apocalypse will still occur. If it attempts the solution that was created for Tazmily, then all of the previously criticisms still apply; given that the beliefs of those on White Ship about its source were correct, the world is doomed to begin with, as avoiding the progress of the past by forgetting it just dooms society to repeat them. Tazmily, and Lucas, know no solution to the issue at hand even if it exists.
- Except the fact that since Lucas was the one pull the final needle with the intentions of reviving the world and a pure heart, rather than Claus, according to the Magypsies, the world would be reborn with no evil left present in the world in any form, and that life would shine brightly in this new existence. Given that Greed is basically what led to the destruction of the previous world, it probably could be associated with evil, therefore, feelings like Greed that could be associated with evil were probably eradicated after the world was reborn (heck, even Porky seemed to be happy and bubbly when you as the player encounter him in the epilogue/ending). So, i think its safe to say, the fact that the ending doesn't solve this problem of the reborn world possibly being re-introduced to the very thing that destroyed the old one is jossed. Unless the Magypsies were dead wrong.
- It seems to me that the Dark Dragon's purpose for existing is to destroy and recreate the world whenever the old world gets too screwed up. The new world probably won't be perfect, since even if Lucas is perfectly pure of heart and can pass this to the dragon (unlikely, some dark feelings related to the traumatic events he's been through would probably seep in), Lucas only pulled four of the needles. But the new world will probably still have the Dragon, waiting to reset things all over again in the event that people or something else manage to break it again.
- He possibly saw or at least heard his own mother get torn to shreds by a horrible monster THAT HE WAS PLAYING GAMES WITH JUST A FEW HOURS AGO,
- Years later, he has to fight an entire army, as well as hordes of horrifically modified animals,
- THEEEEEEEN he has to fight his own also horrifically modified brother to the death!!
I'd say that's Grade A trauma material right there. Not much of a theory, more of an observation, but still interesting. And frankly really adds to the whole "Woobie" thing he has going on.
- Ness didn't go back in time with the intent of defeating a much younger Giygas. It specifically said Giygas, the Giygas of the PRESENT, was hiding in the past, therefore he is still a product of the present time, meaning his death wouldn't erase things that had previously happened to him. Also, Ness cannot be Ninten's son, as the time gap is too small.
- Why do people keep believing that Ness is Ninten and Ana's son? There even are some who theorise that Flint is Ness! I want you guys to point exactly the source, or Word of God, that proves this. Not Game Theory logic. Concrete, reliable, official sources.
- According to Word of God, Porky is going to be immortal inside the Absolutely Safe Capsule, in perfect stasis, forever, exactly as he wished....
- On the one hand, you'd think that him being stuck inside the Absolutely Safe Capsule wouldn't keep him alive because he'd run out of air/food, but on the other hand, if the Absolutely Safe Capsule does work as intended, then Porky might as well be dead, since he effectively cannot interact at all with the outside world or be interacted with (aside from rolling him around).
- Due to his reality-warping/time-traveling, Porky no longer needs air nor food. Also, there is a significant difference between a Porky that is simply unable to interact with the world and one that is dead. The former is still conscious.
- Out of curiosity, who is the girl you mentioned that Porky supposedly has a crush on? I don't remember any reference to this in the games.
- Given how much else in New Pork city is fake (99.9% of the buildings are plywood billboards), that actually makes a lot of sense. Most of the tower's height may well be only for show. Technically I think it's still more than 20 stories tall, but it may only have very few actual floors.
"A dark distant town,with sadness set out.No matter where I am I'llstill be your life.
I want to show youwarm moments and dreams.I can see the small child smile,when I close my eyes.
If I call out,he'll turn around.Give light to the small one whowalks his path alone."
She's singing it in reference to Lucas and Claus. The first verse is speaking of how she died, but is still watching over Lucas as he begins his quest for the Needles ("With sadness set out"). The second verse could be speaking about Claus or Lucas — or both. Hinawa didn't have the chance to be there for the boys as they grew because she was killed. "I can see the small child smile" is likely in reference to Lucas, as Hinawa can only imagine him being happy, after the poor boy lost his mother and twin. The final verse is definitely about Claus. This is Hinawa trying to break Claus out of Porky's hold. ("If I call out, he'll turn around" and the last two lines are Hinawa wishing for Claus to be able pass on in peace. (This is reflected in the final battle when she says, "Come to your mother, Claus. You must be so exhausted.")
Makes sense, hey?
- I always assumed this. I'd just like to elaborate. First of all, it refers to both of the twins at the same time (which I am about to go into detail about). Second of all, there are more details about than that. The first line, "A dark and distant town", refers to Tazmily. "With sadness set out" refers to both twins. What I mean by that is Claus set out to avenge his mother, and 3 years later, Lucas began his quest. Arguably, that last verse could technically be about both of them, if you were to consider Chapter 6.
- Why does this webpage know my name?
- All the more proof that you're the Dragon. We all know who you are.
- This actually makes some sense, considering how the Mother franchise likes to outline the player/characters relationship. Think about it: the fate of the world after the Dragon is awakened is said to be up to the Dragon itself. Those players that want the world to survive eventually stumble upon the extra conversations, and those heartless people who aren't moved by the game by that point probably just turn the game off, resulting in the world ending there. The journey and the pulling of the needles really is passing Lucas' heart on to the dragon. That's why this game has so many Tear Jerkers.
- Maybe the player-dragon's lightness or darkness depends on whether they see the "real" ending or not.
- This also fits well with the "The Player is the Doorknob" theory, as the doorknob falls into the depths of the final cave in Chapter 8.
- This is also supported by Flint's comment during the ending urging Lucas to pull the last needle so that everyone can befriend the dragon, and after the "END?" sequence, everyone who survived is constantly thanking you (and you specifically) and wanting to be your friend.
- It's implied that the White/Dark dragon thing is entirely fictional; remember the people got there via the White Ship, so in a way, the White ship is the missing white dragon.
- Porky has collected numerous items from his home dimension, including the Runaway Five tour bus, Tessie, Dungeon Man, the Sky Runner, the Phase Distorter, and most importantly, Dr. Andonuts.
- This would also explain why, strangely, Dr. Andonuts makes no mention of his son at all in specific. He could have died long ago. I do sketchily recall a line that implied that Lucas and his friends reminded Andonuts of "them" (as in, the previous protagonists), but I could just be imagining that.
- Porky has apparently been making sport of tearing apart entire planes of existence for untold decades.
- In New Pork City, there's a man nearby the Pork King statue who says a "bunch of brats" once attempted to attack Porky.
- Not Porky himself. Porky's statue. The one with 99,999,999 HP.
- Midway through the game, Lucas finds the "Friend's Yo-Yo" in one of Porky's playrooms.
- And the "Real Bat" in the caverns beneath the Empire Porky Building.
- The New Pork City theater shows an unsettlingly positive tribute to the four kids who ruined Porky's original plans. From all of this, it's apparent that Ness and company traveled through time to take down Porky once and for all — and obviously didn't succeed.
- It could just be that Ness and co. weren't aware of the "white ship" and so died in the End of the World. Porky couldn't save them without screwing with continuity too much or meeting them after they trashed the Big Bad of Earthbound. He doesn't have to stop them, he just needs to not save them. Also, where did we get the Pokey as destroyer of worlds? I thought he only did time travel.
- Porky did time travel and space (or dimensional) travel. And it's really not known how long the end of the world took place after the second game. Ness and his friends could have just died naturally.
- It could just be that Ness and co. weren't aware of the "white ship" and so died in the End of the World. Porky couldn't save them without screwing with continuity too much or meeting them after they trashed the Big Bad of Earthbound. He doesn't have to stop them, he just needs to not save them. Also, where did we get the Pokey as destroyer of worlds? I thought he only did time travel.
- They were killed at the end of the Giygas battle. The rest of the ending is just a dream of Ness.
- No, they stopped Giygas, otherwise the whole world would be EVEN WORSE off, just a red sky and darkness and corruption everywhere. "Shiver".
- All the more reason. The world was destroyed by something, after all.
- Humans destroyed it, according to Leder, at least.
- Alternatively, Ness never made it to Giygas at all. The surgery to convert Ness and the gang into robots was an utter failure, and the rest of the game was their collective Dying Dream (possible since it's not very long). This makes more sense than them dying after Giygas since it would explain why Giygas could've gone on to destroy the world. Though, if this were true, that would mean Dr. Andonuts killed his own son, and probably would be messed up in the head when you see him in Mother 3. Unless he is.
- No, they stopped Giygas, otherwise the whole world would be EVEN WORSE off, just a red sky and darkness and corruption everywhere. "Shiver".
- But that said this sure makes a... Oh God. OHHHHHHHGODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
- Actually, the film is a tribute to Ness, who, in a sorta messed up way, was one of the three people who ever showed Porky any kindness. Despite the japanese mother 2 translation (although given his jackass actions, Ness had every right to turn his back on Porky,) Ness was one of the few people who played with/tolerated Porky and would have happily let him come if he wanted to. He actually wanted to be Ness. Plus Pokey's a Dirty Coward: He would never admit it but he's afraid of Ness. And plus, Ness never would have went forward in time: the robots were who knows where and Andronuts was kidnapped, there was no way for them to do anything. Makes my big noooooo feel a bit excessive, but stil....
- Andonuts, gone insane? *coughHalloweenHackcough*
- So you mean that M3 takes place RIGHT after EB? (As in continuity of characters)
- It is worth it to note that in Mother 1, there were 2 Franklin Badges. Franklin Badges are meaningless, either way.
- Well of course. Look at Giygas' sprite in Mother 1. He's inside some strange capsule. And what is he inside of in Earthbound? Another strange capsule. He does all of this from inside the Absolutely Safe Capsule as it is modified by the aliens over the years.
- And how do you explain Giygas's thin, chalk-white, tailed alien form from Earthbound Zero? And are you saying that Maria's time with "Giygas" happened entirely while he was inside the capsule?
- This does make sense the more you think about it. After all, Porky is the only boss in the game that uses an indescribable attack.
- Unfortunately, this wouldn't work. A film in Mother 3 specifically documents the adventures of Ness and his friends.
- What if Lucas' wish was to send Porky as far away from Lucas' time and place as possible? Porky may have ended up sent into the distant past.
- He -is- a time traveler, though.
- Didn't stop Lavos.
- Didn't help him, you mean.
- Didn't stop Lavos.
- Problem is, the island doesn't as much 'vanish' as 'explode in a fiery inferno of horrible doom', which I don't recall happening to Magicant in Earthbound. Maybe in the Japanese version.
- That's because there was a overlapping reality to revert to in the first two games. By giving their wills up to the universe, they'll be reborn; whether via Reincarnation or simply incarnation; who knows? Very Shinto/Buddhist. See: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. ...or The Never Ending Story....or Mario Galaxy ....hmm...I smell a trope.
- Could be explained that before we didn't remain in Magicant as it fell apart. We vanish/leave as there is a white light or such, and assumed it just ended there. In reality, there was still a nightmarish end of the world for the citizens to go through.
- So, wait, you're saying that the Dragon is the Wind Fish?
- This troper agrees, and would like to add that she thinks the Dragon is actually Lucas, and the whole game was his "Magicant Dream" in the middle of a bigger adventure.
- Actually, in Chapter 2 (as soon as it turns to daytime) you can find the little blonde girl Nana in the west edge of Tazmily Village's center screen. Talk to her, and she'll say "I'm Nana. I'm not sure why, but none of the family members in this village really look alike." It's quite possible that barely any entire families made it onto the White Ship, and that some — say Flint and Hinawa — decided that their new lives would be as parents.
- ... but he Came Back Wrong... very very wrong. Resulting in the removed boss fight.
- While this is a plausible way to look at the ending, I never liked to think of it that way. I always imagine that Lucas, having come so far from being the weak boy he was in the start of the tale, is now capable of coping with death. It also goes against the whole point of Hinawa telling Claus to come to her in the final battle, and the idea that Claus SHOULD have died ages ago. If Lucas revived Claus, he'd be no better than Porky, keeping Claus alive for selfish reasons, and also focusing too much on his past. Claus died long ago, and I think Lucas would have wanted him to rest in peace.
- Unfortunately, the "removed boss fight" was much more likely the removed backgrounds for the Masked Man fight, as demonstrated here.
- I always imagined Fassad was afraid of death and Pokey promised his needle would not be pulled if he aided him in his schemes, while, of course, still intending to pull his needle anyway. His life ended up not being consequential to Pokey's plans, though. Fassad was also sort of a jerkass himself, so that could also be his reasons for joining up. He sort of filled the role Pokey filled in Earthbound as "annoying recurring antagonist". Had he not died himself, I could easily see him filling the role as the main villain of a Mother 4 or something, much like Pokey's transition from lackey to head honcho.
- Two possibilities I thought of...
- 1) Fassad was something like the comic book Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?. The other Magypsies took up primping and cross-dressing just so they'd have something to do. Fassad may have simply gotten tired of it and decided to do something else.
- 2) It's also possible that he was a Token Evil Teammate all along. (Music Jargon warning) Did you know that the Locrian mode is the only mode that has a tritone rather than a perfect fifth as the mid-interval? And that the tritone was historically associated with evil, and called the Devil's Chord?
- Two possibilities I thought of...
- You mean during the Shroom Trip on Tanetane Island? I was thinking that too. ESPECIALLY after how they saw "Claus" in that forest. The unused "boss" does seem more like something those mushrooms would cause than the "Eerie Smile".
- This seems to be the most plausible theory, as Itoi already explained that he cut a considerable bit of mindscrew off from the already disturbing Tanetane trip, including dialogs so disturbing that he himself was afraid of reading them.
- And then there's the Franklin Badge, which may or may not mean anything; Flint did have it as a kid, after all.
- This, at least the bit about the Islanders being from Eagleland, was originally explicit. Screenshots of a ruined version of Onett were amongst the first circulated for Mother 3 when it was developed for the 64DD. This was cut from the GBA version along with other material Itoi deemed too dark.
- This fits with the theory that the heroes are all related.
- One possibility is that it was intended that Nowhere Island is the Dragon's Magicant, only there was going to be a reveal the dragon was actually Giygas similar to what happened to Queen Mary. The Claus section of the fight is the prayer section, a test of character or resolve with a mental attack against Lucas using his brother Claus. Dung Beetle and Tent Person being Giygas himself.
- This may have been removed as it was felt the final Masked Man fight sufficed dramatically, and having another battle afterward as being overkill.
- Tent Person = Boogie Tent perhaps? After all, why would the game show the battle of Ness, Paula, and Jeff against Boogie Tent in the theater in New Pork City? Besides, it was a weird thing set up by zombies in Threed back in EarthBound, so it could have continued on to meet and fight with Lucas and crew.
- Who would have sex with a Mr. Saturn?
- Wess, clearly.
- Like said, since Mr. Saturns are so weird, he had no idea he had reproduced with a Mr. Saturn until presented with Duster.
- Duster and Wess' "relation" is part of the Tazmily Village fabrication, as explained by Leder. Still, someone ELSE could have done it... some... how.
- Being how completely odd they are, it is entirely possible that a Mr. Saturn can reproduce on the sheer basis of a strong emotional connection. That would mean that whoever Duster's "father" is was simply just incredibly good friends with a Mr. Saturn, and that, in turn, caused it to be able to bring Duster into being.
- There's also the fact that many of the pigmasks use items such as ray guns, bazookas, and shield killers, items that Jeff built and used himself.
- On the other hand, Jeff was present in the final battle against Porky in Mother 2 — what exactly would make him want to switch sides and help the psycho kid who fought alongside Giygas?
- He Face Heel Turned against his will. Fridge Brilliance, Jeff's last name would be Andonuts!
- Andonuts DOES say that he 'refuses' to continue helping Porky before the boss fight with him. That word implies unwilling servitude. Jeff wouldn't want to help Porky, but he can't really fight back against Porky and his army. His mannerisms are also slightly different from Earthbound's Dr. Andonuts, which is more evidence toward this idea.
- I hear this theory in the form of Pokey/Porky's manipulations. Basically, Ness lost and is forced into this job as a sign of his ultimate defeat by Pokey/Porky.
- Actually, originally Ness was supposed to be one of Porky's puppets, brainwashed into being his best friend, forever. He was a boss fight in New Pork City. He later was changed to a robot version of the four Earthbound protagonists, and then deleted entirely and replaced with the porky bots.
- The musician for a lot of songs on Earthbound made a song called "The Knit Cap Man". This character is the same guy - even referred to as being "The knit cap man" in the dialogue.
- Read through this post. http://forum.starmen.net/forum/Games/Mother3/Ness-in-mother-3/page/1/
- Lucas and Claus are both Ness's heart, and Claus being corrupted was Ness's Nightmare.
- Kumatora represents Ness's brash, violent side — she's female because he distances himself from those traits.
- Duster is both Ness's logic and creativity, whose handicap is from someone — probably Pokey — constantly insulting and ignoring Ness's ideas, leaving him short on confidence in those areas (which is why Duster is frequently insulted and berated by his father).
- Boney is Ness's sense of loyalty and duty, and Boney is always by Lucas's side through thick and thin.
- Flint is Ness's courage, determination, and paternal instincts.
- Salsa is Ness's sensitivity — his trust, love, and capacity for friendship. It's the part of him that was willing to remain friends with an ass like Pokey, and the part that can be manipulated most easily.
- Hinawa, while not a playable character, is Ness's conscience and embodies everything he considers good and sacred.
- Porky is Ness's image of the Ultimate Evil — a monster in the form of his (former) best friend, Pokey, who has no regard for life or sense of value for friendship.
- The race to pull the seven needles and make sure the Dragon takes on Lucas' heart represents Ness fighting the evil that lurks inside, and not let himself be corrupted by the influence of Giygas. The final moments of the game, the world isn't destroyed — it's reabsorbed into Ness's mind and adds to his power. The characters are all alive inside of him.
- The doorknob, which has been considered to be a metaphor for happiness by some other fans, could also represent Ness's happiness or it represents the mission he is taking, especially since it keeps popping up wherever the protagonist of the chapter is. In addition, it would explain why there is no world of the subconscious in this game, although that idea has always been an important theme in the Mother series. The melodies still exist despite the seeming destruction of the world, because the world is all in Ness's mind and he learned the melodies. The islands can be explained as a test for Ness, which works with Tanetane Island and if the doorknob represents Ness's development, it does flow better, especially since it can be found at the castle, which Itoi said was meant to represent the flow of time. However, the problem is that is that Itoi explained that the logo was intended to show the earth going back to its natural state, but it can be resolved if it is assumed that he means Ness returning the world to normal after going through Magicant, time traveling, and defeating Giygas.
- Also, the "end of the world" as it is described in Mother 3 could be in Mother 1 when that game's Magicant disappeared, and all that remained was the part of Magicant contained in the only other individual able to go there: Ness.
You.
He knows about the last, unknown person who prayed for the Chosen Four back in EarthBound — and he knows it was you. He suspected you would return to guide Lucas through his journey and made a point to flaunt the fact that he went back and warped the timeline to make it all meaningless. That was the reason behind the Memory Boat Ride. Hey, look, player — he has the Sky Runner, the Phase Distorter, the Helicopter, the Submarine... all unscathed. He has the Pencil Eraser — an unique item that only Ness had. He has Ness's yo-yo. He has pretty much every plot-relevant item that Ness needed on his journey to defeat Giygas... meaning that he robbed Ness of the opportunity to use them.All your hard work twelve years ago amounted to nothing.
Ness still failed. And Porky made damn well sure he got the message across.
- It's more likely that they were all replicas made for the sake of nostalgia. Remember how he enshrined the "Friend's Yoyo"? They could even be new originals; he had Professor Andonuts (who had worked with Apple Kid, the maker of the Pencil Eraser), and the Mr. Saturns under his thumb. Why couldn't he make another Sky Runner, Phase Distorter, et al.?
- Prior to the White Ship, Gallifrey was the home planet of Tazmily's villagers and the end of the world that Leder spoke of late in the game was the Time War with the Daleks. The White Ship carried the last few survivors to a new world. The catastrophic deaths of the Time War put life into perspective for the Time Lords, and they collectively decided to implant fake memories and live a peaceful, simple life to prevent another war and ensure their survival.
- And the Fob Watches...
In the original timeline, Claus pulled the last needle. The power of merging his own heart with the Dragon's drove his already damaged mind to insanity. Dragon-Claus began blindly calling out to Lucas, but being unable to think clearly, the pronunciation became garbled. Those that heard him thought he was screaming Giygas, and that became their name for him.
Porky then manipulated Giygas into attacking Eagleland 10 years after Giygas' defeat in Mother 2, to catch Ness off guard and flaunt his inevitable victory. Porky was successful in this attack. But Lucas managed to follow Porky to Ness' home planet and place in the timeline, and aid in the battle against Porky and Giygas. When Lucas & the Chosen Four are defeated, Porky turns Lucas into a bug. Lucas manages to escape to 10 years in the past as Buzz Buzz, and is the catalyst for the events in Mother 2.
However, when the player is there to aid Lucas during Mother 3, it all changes. Lucas pulls the last needle and merges with the Dragon, and Porky is locked away for eternity, meaning Giygas never came to exist — at least not the Giygas in Mother 2.
Let me say here that even though Lucas is comparatively less corrupt than Claus, after the events of Tanetane Island, you can't deny that Lucas has issues. And when Lucas merged with the Dragon, the troubles in his heart were magnified a hundredfold. Lucas craved the love of a stable family. He kidnapped George and Maria (leaving behind their son, Ninten's father) and regenerated himself as baby Giegue so they could raise him. But, of course, George learned the power of PSI and tried to escape with Maria. Giegue went nuts and stole Maria back, trapping her in Magicant. He then used the reality-warping powers the Dragon gave him to threaten the Earth with an alien invasion in retaliation. It took years to manipulate the Universe in such a way, though, which is why the invasion doesn't become apparent until Ninten starts off his adventure.
- This actually does do a very good job explaining why Ninten, Ana and Lloyd are so similar to Ness, Paula, and Jeff, and why the two parties never meet despite existing in roughly the same time period. They are alternate reality versions of each other! With the Butterfly Effect explaining the differences between the 2 parties and the worlds they lived in.
- Sorry, but there is an enemy monkey, although the enemy in question does seem to be robotic. It's called the mystery metal monkey. I see where you are going, but there is no clear supporting evidence.
- What? This Troper thought that it was pretty sound. The mystery metal monkeys are just chimeras.
- Sorry, but there is an enemy monkey, although the enemy in question does seem to be robotic. It's called the mystery metal monkey. I see where you are going, but there is no clear supporting evidence.
Alternative theory: Heaven and Earth were merged because Lucas was alive and Claus was dead. The Dragon had to grant the wishes of two people, one in Heaven and one on Earth, therefore it merged Heaven and Earth so it could grant both wishes.
Think about it: The world was destroyed at the end, even though Lucas (who was supposedly good) pulled most of the needles. We then see that everyone is "fine", and then we see a cast roll in which all of the characters of the game, dead or alive, appear.
Simply stated, Giygas and Love are the two recurring themes of the Mother series. As evil, destructive, and devastating as Giygas is, he's the being that implies that even going beyond the Moral Event Horizon isn't completely permanent. That there is Moral Hawking Radiation, and in this series it is love. Love that burns Giygas in the first two games. The first two games revolved around the idea of a mother's love and its impact on the adopted son, Giygas, as a side story.
The unused sprites may be pulled from random files, but the sprites of Giygas like beings exist. One golden and angelic. One with a large X scar like a lobotomy. Good, evil. A loving Giygas and the anthromorphing of the Earthbound Giygas who effectively removed part of himself to avoid "love".
My hypothesis is two fold. 1) Either Giygas was meant to have a big/stated role, but either time/theme change nipped that in the bud. 2) All the elements are still there, but it was decided not to expand upon it.
1) means the Dragon usurped Giygas' role entirely.2) All of Nowhere Islands is a battle between the Giygas who loved Maria as a mother and the evil Giygas. The good and the dark dragon.
- Going further, one could say that The Seven Needles & The Magypsies were created by all of the prayers made by Paula and everyone on Earth. I wouldn't be too surprised if Locria was the Magypsy created by the prayer that was absorbed by the darkness.
- Chances are, the people who decided to give her to the Magypsies wouldn't have made that mistake. And anyway, the Magypsies are all men who dress and act like women despite being obviously physically male; Kumatora is tough, and rough-spoken, and generally has the personality of a punk, despite her being a girl. (And I always sort of interpreted her outfit as being a rain slicker more than a dress, anyway.)
- "Magypsies are all men"? Um, no they aren't. It's explicitly stated in-game (by Alec if I recall correctly) that they are neither man nor woman (despite their appearances). There's absolutely nothing in-game that says that they're just men who dress as women — you're just seeing something that isn't there.
- But it's impossible! He died a couple of times in my playthrough! Are you suggesting that Chuck Norris could be defeated by a freakin' mouse?
Ness, a boy from Onett capable of using PSI like Ninten, goes on to beat Giygas, but fails to defeat Porky, whom he gets the letter from in the end of Earthbound and chases after again. Porky, realizing the chase will never end and that he can't beat Ness and his friends, somehow brainwashes them, and in sadistic glee, throw them in the reality he plans to settle in so they can suffer when his plans come into being. Without Ness and the others to protect their original reality, Porky raids it and collects souvenirs from it.
Ness goes on in his new partly brainwashed self, and fathers Lucas and Claus. All of this insane babble would explain a few things such as:
- In the final battle against Giygas in Earthbound, Giygas both wishes to be with Ness AND to destroy him. Claus wanted to join his family more than anything after Porky kidnapped and brainwashed him, and he was probably resentful of his father for not finding him and saving him, allowing him to get kidnapped and brainwashed, loving and hating Flint at the same time. Plus he was quite insane by the time he became the masked man, probably even worse later.
- Pokey talks during the final battle against Giygas about how he absorbed too much power and went completely insane, unable to control himself or grasp his original mind and shape again. The massive power surge of being united with the Dragon while being deranged by Pokey's brainwashing probably only worsened his condition and could most likely cause him to lose himself completely. This would explain the unused creepy backgrounds, which could have been originally used to represent Claus's complete corruption after the fight, joining up with the dragon.
- As said above, Giygas lost his mind due to absorbing so much power and evil that he does not know who and what he is anymore. Claus went through this after being brainwashed, not being able to recognize himself until the fight with Lucas, when he died instead of being saved.
- Giygas can also apparently travel through time at will without any technology. This makes this theory at least marginally possible, since if Claus really became Giygas after joining with the dragon, he would be able to travel way back in time by himself. Alternatively, Porky kept a Phase Distorter.
- The reason to why he went back in time instead of just acting on the present is dubious at best though. Maybe he realized how corrupt he was after the endgame events, saw that everyone was happy, and decided to seek solace in a place his insanity could not harm any of his family and friends? His plan backfired spectacularly if he did that, though.
- Flint is said to have the Franklin badge with him since he was a boy, plus, not much else is mentioned about his childhood.
- Going even further, deep in Flint'/Ness's unconscious he may have realized the true nature of Giygas following the events in his new life, which may have partially awakened his lost memories, which would be translated in wandering for years in the mountains searching fervorously for Claus. Considering this theory, saving Claus would stop Giygas from ever existing, effectively saving both universes and causing Porky to never become the childish overlord of evil he is.
- Claus's words in his fight are very similar to Giygas during the final battle in Earthbound.
- The "Pokey raid on Ness's universe" part can explain the original screenies for Mother 3, which included a devastated Onett.
- That was New Pork City. You can see Fourside ruins there too, which suggests that originally New Pork City had a lot more replicas of past places.
- Hey, let's not forget that Itoi's original plot for Mother 3 was changed because it was way darker, and he felt it would be a bit too much. But enough WMG for me, my tinfoil hat is losing its shape.
We can assume that Porky's forces went to Winters to take Dr. Andonuts, so it's entirely possible that the Bubble Monkey was taken. Salsa doesn't seem to have any original home on the Nowhere Islands, so it's likely that he was brought in from another time period by the Pigmasks.
- Please Elaborate
- The events preceding Mother take place right after the needles have been pulled, so Porky (now calling himself Giygas/Giegue) has become very young. He needs a mother figure, and so latches on to Maria. Ninten and Company beat him at the end, and he leaves (still in his capsule) maybe to return later. His time away from everyone drives him insane, so when he returns to Earth, he's a very angry god with a lot of telepathic influence, presumably because his muscular atrophy would leave all parts of his brain used for motor functions up for grabs for other abilities. The next iteration of Porky finds him, and the finale of Earthbound happens, he is happy to see Ness because of his resemblance to Ninten of the current timeline, and because he recognizes his childhood friend from a full iteration of the timeline ago. Fast forward to the beginning of Mother 3. Giygas/Giegue has been defeated, but the new iteration of Porky has already set the events in motion to become Giygas/Giegue, by granting himself immunity to death by aging. Then he gets locked in the Incredibly Safe Capsule, but doesn't really realize the implications of what has happened until after the events of Mother. The Dragon restarts the world, and Porky notices that he has gotten younger, but can't understand what has happened, either because his mind has regressed or because he's just oblivious to it. He needs a mother figure. 30 goto 10.
- One line of dialogue Josses this one: at the funeral, she refers to Alec as "Hinawa's father" not "my/our father".
- Said memories make them unable to act because they are too powerful, which in turn is influenced by their own power. That would explain why Lucas and The Masked Man are always staring at each other when they meet, and also explains Lucas' major Cutscene Incompetence at Tanetane Island. At that point, the Masked Man is getting stronger so he doesn't get affected, or it already happened to him aboard the ship. Why don't they have a reunion, you ask? The Masked Man has been programmed to not act out on impulse, or had as much of his memory erased as possible, and Lucas is so traumatized he refuses to believe that he's seeing Claus.
- This would also explain the oooOOOOooo ooooOOOOOOOooo and glowy monochrome flashes. In modern animation, monochrome usually signifies something to do with the past. Memories do indeed have to do with the past.
Sorta out of Fridge Logic from my part. I was thinking about how usually the name of a series has something to do with what or who it is about. But the name "Mother" doesn't seem like it has anything to do with the game.
That's when it hit me.
Hinawa is Lucas and Claus' mother. She plays an important part in the story and the final boss. Likewise, the "Mother" part in the other games are possibly referring to Maria as she is Giegue/Giygas' "mother".
-
Okay, but how do you explain the first two games?Wait, you explained the first one. How do you explain the second? It has nothing to do with Maria.- ...we see Ness's mother in the the second?
- I like to think that it's meant to tie in with the themes of childhood and homesickness.
- Ness's mother was the first to attack Giygas through the Pray command.
- ...we see Ness's mother in the the second?
- Word of God says that "Mother" is a reference to a Beatles song that is a favorite of Itoi.
- He also says that he used that title because he wanted the player to feel the same emotion playing the game as he did when he heard the song.
Bear with me, okay? In the first Mother game, there were two Franklin badges that both were given to Ninten. In the second game, Ness has one of the two. I'm assuming that Ninten is Ness' father, and that PSI runs in the family. But my next theory is that Flint was born after Earthbound, and he got the other Franklin badge, which became the Courage Badge. Frankly, it's the only way to explain why he has a Franklin badge.
- Flint can equip the Mystical Stick.
- Flint gets to the top anyway.
- The DCMC get to the top anyway, so maybe Duster was supposed to assist in beating up Pokey Bots.
- The "Lucas's Nightmare" track that wasn't in the final game, sped up, is DCMC. This would be the sound of the DCMC playing in the concert room after you left to go up the elevator, since Porky never stopped the concert.
Obviously, Itoi changed his mind because of:
- Inventory complications
- Flint being severely underleveled
- Needing a whole ton of Made-You-Looks to get the backsprites of the native enemies.
Porky quickly rose near the top of the corporation after he used his intimate knowledge of the ASC and space-time altering technology to invent the modern Pokéball. When the CEO of Sylph Co retired, Porky quietly filled his position. The current culture of forcibly capturing and battling Pokémon is his latest attempt at destroying a world, a plot that contains his usual MO of animal abuse, consumerism, and subtle cultural transformation.
Porky also harbored the spirit of the destroyed Giygas. In an attempt to make a familiar vessel for Giygas to reclaim, Mewtwo was created. Giygas attempted to possess Mewtwo's body, but was ultimately denied access due to his atrophied state. Without a vessel, but stable enough to exist outside of a body now, Giygas settled down in the waters east of Cinnabar Island for a while, but has since disappeared.
- That actually sounds pretty plausible, since Giegue and Mewtwo look similar.
The next time you meet the Ultimate Chimera, it has become a valuable member of society and applied for a job at the Empire Pork Building (note how there is no damage caused by the chimera anywhere). However, you run into it in the most unfortunate moment, while it is using the bathroom. Deeply embarrassed by that encounter (it blushes, but you can't see it because it's red), the Ultimate Chimera impulsively runs after you to talk to you about what just happened. When it catches up with you and starts apologizing, though, it involuntarily bites your head off (it's hard to not injure people when talking with such big and uncontrollable jaws).
So yeah, it's all just a big misunderstanding and you call the Ultimate Chimera a scary monster! You Bastard!!
- That first dragon was the dark dragon after reforming the world and ressurecting all those who had died in vain. Claus wanted the country to be more military oriented, and Lucas wanted the country to stay peaceful; the Chimeras and animals were changed into the Pokémon we know today by the Dark Dragon.
- If you look closely in the area of the Forest Shrine in Mother 3 where someone asks for your name, you'll notice a black dragon and a white dragon pictured on the wall, circling each other. Hmmm...
- Looks like the Dark Dragon did one heck of a lazy job rebuilding, there's still chimeras roaming loose in Isshu...
Moved this from "Grand Unifying Guesses" since only two games are involved. Get ready for a Wall of Text.
Let's start from the beginning. In Mother 3, Porky corrupts the Nowhere Islands and creates a capitalist dictatorship (monarchy?) metropolis for giggles, and screws around with genetic engineering to create biological (see page image/quote) and mechanical chimeras. At some point, the needles are pulled, and the Dragon destroys the entire world in a fiery apocalypse.
...Or does it?
Seeing how deliberately ambiguous the ending is about the fate of the people of Nowhere, it's even more ambiguous as to what happened to the planet that was "destroyed" (though it's obvious that at the very least, the landscape was annihilated). Let's say for the purpose of this theory that the characters have all either a) died and are conversing in the afterlife at the end of the game, or b) been rescued by the Dragon/another "White Ship" to start anew on yet another world/planet/plane of existence/whatever.
So what's left of the wreckage? Perhaps some ruins, some inconsequential artifacts, and some creatures with cockroach-like endurance. Nature makes do with what's left, and a whole new ecosystem forms from the wreckage. New species evolve, and everything is more or less in a state of balance- albeit with undertones of what havoc that Porky has wreaked on nature.
Now let's look at some defining factors of Pikmin. Many have speculated that, due to the familiar human artifacts but foreign animals, Pikmin takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth. (See the Pikmin WMG page for more details, I don't want to waste too much time on that.) Among these strange creatures are bizarre fusions of existing species (Snagrets, Skitterleaves, the Pikmin themselves) and even cyborg-like things that should have no reason to exist in nature (Man-At-Legs, the Gatling Groink). What's more, when these creatures are killed (and this is what lead me to actually think at length about this), you see the big pink ghostly thing in this image◊ (my apologies, this was the best picture I could find). If this image looks familiar, that's◊ probably◊ because◊ it◊ is.◊
Of course, maybe I'm just pondering too much about the fact that Mother 3 and Pikmin both have bird-snake enemies.
Porky committed some serious crimes in Earthbound and is probably wanted by the national law enforcement agency in Eagleland. The only problem is that he's in the future on a distant island. So what do they do? Turn said island into a trap.
They took a nuclear warhead, miles of cable, and some sort of power source to convert Nowhere Island into a doomsday device. Of course, they needed a way to stop it from being detonated prematurely. So they took seven crystals and started a rumor about the world ending soon...
- Why would Lucas go out in his own to avenge his mother? That conflicts with his personality.
- YES.
- The way I see it, the world was so filled with evil at that point, the world had to be destroyed in order to cleanse it. But everybody was allowed to live on in the new world created.
- I second that "YES," because frankly, I want and need to believe that everything turned out okay for everyone at the end of it all. And yes, I mean everyone.
- Alternatively, it's based in part on North Korea. Porky's childish whims resemble the odd habits of the Kims, the Pigmasks and their high status represent the "military-first" policy, and New Pork City's status as a Potemkin Village is like Pyongyang. The Empire Pork Building, in particular, is like the Ryugyong Hotel, which really is an "empty shell: building in a state of incompletion, built mainly to look impressive. Even [[spoiler: Porky's "immortality" is like the "Eternal President" idea, and the idea of kidnapping and brainwashing people from different times and places is a like the Kims' habit of kidnapping citizens of other countries for various purposes.
- Jossed. Shigesato Itoi clarified in an interview that Lucas & Claus are named after the characters of the same names from Agota Kristof's The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie. Itoi stated that he chose the name because both the book trilogy and MOTHER 3 explored the bond between a pair of twin brothers.
- Perhaps this is the reason why Giygas and his people wanted to stop humanity from attaining psychic powers so badly, they knew the human race would misuse them. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero.
- Interestingly this fits well with the "Flint is Ness" theory, because it explains why Flint can't use PSI. Probably if this was the problem, then maybe making people forget about it was a big part of why everyone was brainwashed at Tazmily's founding, perhaps the Hummingbird Egg even locked their PSI away. The only humans in Mother 3 that use PSI are Lucas, Kumatora, and Claus. Lucas only unlocked his abilities because of a Magypsy's intervention, and it's quite likely this is also true of Kumatora, since they raised her. Along these lines, Claus probably had his unlocked by Locria. Those mysterious fevers could be the mental locks on PSI weakening and giving way one by one.
- This is brilliant. Plus it may explain a few things in the Gainax Ending, like why you don't see the new world (it's whatever you imagine!) and why the characters thank you (you didn't just help Lucas and company, you created their new world!).
- The map is shaped like a dragon.
- In the ancient myth told by the Magypsies, it's claimed that they put the needles into the dragon. The needles are actually stuck in the islands.
- The ancient myth also claims the dragon is the size of all the islands put together. All the islands put together are, of course, also the size of all the islands put together.
- It's also said that the dragon sleeps underground. You know what else sleeps underground? ... The ground.
- When the dragon awakens, it reshapes the world to the desires of the one who awakened it. If the dragon so happens to be the world, that would make it a fairly trivial matter for it to reshape the world.
- There's a temple of worship dedicated to the dragon. Generally, if something has temples of worship dedicated to it, it's a thing of epic proportions one way or another.
- The people came to the Nowhere Islands on a white ship. It's implied that they were searching for somewhere to escape the lingering dystopia created by Giygas, when suddenly a bunch of islands just cropped up out of the blue. If the dragon is the islands, this can be explained by saying that the dragon found the people and decided to let them live on its back.
- There are a few ancient religions which describe the world as existing on the back of a turtle, who exists in a bigger world which exists on the back of another turtle. I believe that's where the saying "turtles all the way down" comes from. In any case, it's easy to see how it could just as well be "dragons all the way down."
- Giygas's race abducts George and Maria. They raise him, but George steals PSI.
- Giygas decides to betray his adopted parents and join his people in the war against Earth.
- The events of Earthbound Zero occur. After hearing the Eight Melodies again, Giygas is deeply touched, and his attacks on Earth start to become weaker and more infrequent.
- The events of Earthbound occur. Present Giygas is unaware of them as he continues to idly plot against the Earth and occasionally consider just stopping and living at peace with everyone. Future Giygas, however, is very involved in the events. However, he is defeated.
- The obvious path of industrialization the world is following in Earthbound culminates with the destruction of the world at the hands of some sort of nuclear or some-odd event.
- Seeing this, present Giygas - now fully grown into the adult form of his race, a humongous dragon - loses any feeling of hatred or malevolence he harbored toward humans, and simply pities them, having realized that they lack awareness of the effects of their actions on the well-being of their own planet. As such, he allows them to take shelter on his back, at least for the time being.
- Remembering Giygas, and fearing his power, the humans call upon the Magypsies, members of a benevolent sister race to Giygas's race, who use their PSI to create the seven needles. The needles are manifestations of the Eight Melodies, which is why they're able to lull Giygas to sleep, and also why the Magypsies take up names shared with musical modes.
- When someone pulls the needles, they are infusing their own voice into the melodies, which is why their heart is passed on to Giygas.
- The events of MOTHER 3 occur. The timeline branches here.
- The Masked Man pulls the last needle. Since he has no heart, the melodies are replaced not by a voice, but by nothing. They are destroyed. This is a rather rude and sudden awakening for Giygas, so when he wakes up, he's not in a particularly good mood in the first place. What truly drives him to madness is when he realizes that these people, who begged with tears in their eyes to live on his back, and to whom he was so very charitable, have betrayed his trust in the most repulsive way possible. With his only memories of Maria having been horribly defaced, and his opinion of humanity at an all-time low, he wants nothing more than to cause woe and suffering. This marks his return to a career of evil, and instigates his transformation into evil itself. After causing the apocalypse in the era of MOTHER 3, he goes back in time and causes the events of Earthbound. Someone from the era of MOTHER 3, possibly Lucas or Leder, follows him in secret, in the form of Buzz Buzz.
- Earthbound-era Porky then seals Giygas in the Devil's Machine and takes him even farther back in time, where he attempts to use Giygas to trick his own people into going to war against Earth, thus causing the events of Earthbound Zero. In this sense, Porky is ensuring that the very events that made him so powerful ever happened in the first place. He is defeated by Ness and his friends, but that happens after he's already had a chance to trick Giygas's people into going to war. This is why Porky runs off in the middle of the battle against Giygas. He's done all he needed to do. Now it's time to enjoy his newfound power, drag Dr. Andonuts with him into the Phase Distorter, and run around everywhen messing things up. After being sealed out of all other times and spaces, he winds up on the Dark Dragon's back during the MOTHER 3 era, as we know.
- Alternate timeline: Lucas pulls the last needle. Lucas has something profound in common with Giygas: they both have unfinished business with their deceased mothers. In Lucas's case, it's because his mother died too early; in Giygas's, it's because he was a real jerk, and chose war against Earth over Maria's maternal love. Giygas feels this connection. In Hinawa he feels a glimpse of Maria. Even though he was never able to make up with her, he feels that he can do so symbolically, by reuniting Lucas with his mother. Giygas does so, by using his wealth of PSI to create a perfect world where everything is nice and all the dead people are alive, and then he is finally at peace with himself.
- The Masked Man pulls the last needle. Since he has no heart, the melodies are replaced not by a voice, but by nothing. They are destroyed. This is a rather rude and sudden awakening for Giygas, so when he wakes up, he's not in a particularly good mood in the first place. What truly drives him to madness is when he realizes that these people, who begged with tears in their eyes to live on his back, and to whom he was so very charitable, have betrayed his trust in the most repulsive way possible. With his only memories of Maria having been horribly defaced, and his opinion of humanity at an all-time low, he wants nothing more than to cause woe and suffering. This marks his return to a career of evil, and instigates his transformation into evil itself. After causing the apocalypse in the era of MOTHER 3, he goes back in time and causes the events of Earthbound. Someone from the era of MOTHER 3, possibly Lucas or Leder, follows him in secret, in the form of Buzz Buzz.
One problem here is that of the Eight Melodies, the Magypsies would only account for seven. Perhaps there was another Magypsy at some point, but s/he did something terrible, like Locria did, and it was decreed his/her needle should permanently cease to exist.
- Complicated and unlikely though it may be, I'm seriously impressed at how much thought you put into this.
- Well, there's still some sort of religion, and based on the character's dialogue, several of them (some say "forest gods", others just refer to "God"). However, we can assume that the existence of religion doesn't drive a wedge between any of them, and they simply agree to disagree, so the idea is still valid.
- Alternatively, what if Lucas, unable to bring himself to attack his brother over the fate of the world, dies during the final battle and the Masked Man pulls the last needle. Maybe while he's doing it, he finally comes to his senses and realizes what he's done, but it's too late. He had already murdered his brother and doomed the earth in the process. Thanks, Porky.
- Disregard for right and wrong.
- Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others.
- Using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or for sheer personal pleasure.
- Intense egocentrism, sense of superiority and exhibitionism.
- Repeatedly violating the rights of others by the use of intimidation, dishonesty and misrepresentation.
- Sexual deviance or promiscuity.
- Hostility, significant irritability, agitation, impulsiveness, aggression or violence.
- Lack of empathy for others and lack of remorse about harming others.
- Unnecessary risk-taking or dangerous behaviors.
- Poor or abusive relationships.
- Failure to learn from the negative consequences of behavior.
- Inability to place value on human or animal life.
In addition, sociopathy can often stem from an abusive childhood, and we all know that Porky went through that.
- That and there's a direct parody of an AC/DC song, the fact that it was released near the end of the Game Boy Advance's lifespan and Earthbound not doing well (at the time) that probably killed an official English release. Also, "everybody here considering it one of the greatest games of all time"? That's subjective, especially since the MOTHER series, as good as it is, is STILL a Cult Classic among gamers.
- It's only a Cult Classic amongst American gamers. Amongst the Japanese, the series was always mainstream, and mainstream things aren't held in the same awe as a Cult Classic since there are a lot more people aware of it besides die-hard fans, and it's necessarily going to be more common to hear criticisms of it, particularly of the "They Changed It, Now It Sucks!" variety. The presence of vocal criticisms don't represent it being universally panned, but are simply an unavoidable side effect of it being a major change to a very popular series; and the vocal Hate Dom doesn't necessarily represent the most common opinion amongst Japanese gamers. It actually sold quite well in Japan, even if after the fact there was a vocal faction that didn't like the changes relative to previous entries in the series. A more likely explanation for why it didn't get localized is not due to Mother 3 doing poorly in Japan, but due to Earthbound having originally done very poorly in America (only gaining some measure popularity as a Cult Classic years after release), and Nintendo of America didn't want to spend the money localizing it when the series had such a poor sales track record in America.
- Even though you can't see what's going on, the dialogue implies that even though you can't see them, they can see each other. Bizarrely, awakening the dragon seems not only to have created a new world for the characters to live in, but also to somehow make them aware of the player's influence throughout the preceding events, and create an avatar for the player that can walk among the characters, which they all recognize as such, though unfortunately this avatar is blind, and can only exist for a short time before vanishing. Interestingly enough, it was already established in Mother 2 that the player has some sort of distant god-like influence in the Mother universe. This would make the Fourth Wall itself some sort of actual cosmic entity that exists in-universe, that is not fully impenetrable... Perhaps the huge release of energy from the Dragon's awakening could briefly disrupt it, causing the player's presence to be strong enough to manifest a strange apparition in the world? It's not really that much stranger than the player's prayers defeating Giygas...
- You start out in a False Utopia. An anarcho-communist's pipe dream, in this society there is no concept of money, apparently no concept of private ownership of property (everyone shares everything), pretty much no explicit authority figures, and everyone gets along. Unfortunately, however, this social order is not a product of them being wise and selfless people who understand how to run a perfect society. This social order only works because these people brainwashed themselves into being completely naive about everything bad in life. They put themselves in a state where not only is it absurdly easy for external forces to corrupt them, but also their reaction to Hinawa's death shows they don't even know how to deal with the ordinary problems of life. Because of this, it seems probable that even if left alone it probably would have, at the very least, decayed to the point that it would no longer look like a perfect utopia within a few generations of just ordinary problems taking their toll on everyone.
- Then, the pigmasks wage a campaign, spearheaded by Fassad, who is himself an embodiment of falsity, to "modernize" Tazmily into something resembling a corrupt, distorted, fake version of Eagleland in Porky's original time period. The Happy Boxes that are distributed at this time can be seen as fake televisions, as according to Word of God (here), they don't actually display anything (Which makes the fact that Abbot spends all day staring at his even creepier, but I digress).
- The limousine that takes you to new pork city is filled with inedible fake booze, fake pool tables, and other fake items:(upon examining row of liquor) "Grownup drinks are lined up here. It's spicy, bitter, yucky poison, so kids can't drink it. Oh wait. Grownups can't drink it, either."(upon examining tabletop game) "A tabletop game. It looks like you can play it, but you can't.(upon examining billiards table) "A 9-foot billiard table. The pockets have been designed to be quite large. It looks like you can play it, but you can't."(upon examining blackjack table "A blackjack table. It's not a playable blackjack table, though."(upon examining tower of champagne glasses) "This is one of those famous champagne towers. Actually, upon closer inspection, it's only a painting."
- When you actually get to New Pork City itself, you find that the whole city is more or less fake. An overwhelming majority of the buildings an attractions are obviously fake plywood billboards. They only real buildings are the Empire Porky Building itself (which, despite the height of its facade, seems to have relatively few actual floors), a restaurant staffed by fake Lardna Minches, a crappy little video arcade with a fake claw machine covering up the entrance to the sewers, a movie theater that does nothing but show a clip show of Ness and friends' adventure from the original game and sell fake replicas of their weapons, and a run-down abandoned apartment building (maybe formerly to be used to house pigmasks?)As much as it tries to look like a real metropolis, it can only resemble a real big city because of all the fake filler buildings. Lampshaded by one transplanted Tazmily villager:Tessie: This is the big city life! Or is it? It somehow doesn't seem like it.
- Porky himself can be seen as a fake evil emperor. For all he was built up to be over the course of the story, at the end he turns out to be nothing more than a little boy throwing a petty tantrum.
- When you finally pull the last needle, you are treated to a fake apocalypse, followed by a fake ending screen. Even the "real" ending you get when you walk around on the fake ending screen can be considered a certain kind of fake ending since it creates more questions than it answers and leaves the player confused and uncertain.
- Then what's real? It seems like throughout, a recurring theme is that the only thing that's real is people. Everyone is portrayed with very realistic and relatable personalities. No one feels one dimensional, everyone has their own real motivations and lives in this fake world. Maybe that's part of what's so disturbing about the Masked Man battle: this persistent theme of fakeness slowly advances and corrupts everything, until it's revealed that it's finally managed to permeate the realm of people. The Masked Man, seemingly having been grimly reduced to the minimal state of hardly being sentient at all, is the game's first person to truly be falsified inside and out.
After replaying the game and noticing one of Nana's lines, where she says she doesn't actually resemble her family, one can guess that something happened to her parents when it was time to escape through the White Ship, and then she was adopted.
That's where something bugged on me. Namely, in Lucas and Claus - a blonde and a redhead, when neither Flint nor Hinawa have that kind of hair colour (Let's disregard Alec because we don't know which colour his hair was before getting old). If I remember correctly, it was once stated that Kumatora was not much older than Lucas, and we know she was part of the crew that escaped through the White Ship, that she lost her parents and that she was adopted by the Magypsies. Since Lucas and Claus are undeniably related to each other, the same cannot be said to Flint and Hinawa. The chances of them being adopted like Kumatora and Nana are not very farfetched.
The Egg of Light is a powerful artifact that takes and gives back people's memories. Such powerful artifact could be used for many things... like, say, brainwashing someone. The Pigmasks were after the Egg of Light for unspecified reasons as well. Maybe Porky used it or something similar to brainwash Claus, and the Pigmasks were trying to retrieve it so that no one could bring Claus' memories back?
Sadly, the Egg of Light still is ultimately an artifact that takes away memories. One of the weirdest things in the game is that it was never actually used for anything, despite its implied importance. Almost if everyone, y'know, forgot about it.
- It does get used for one thing: To restore the amnesiac Duster's memories (which raises the question of how much he remembered when it was used on him, but it's likely he was too young when the White Ship arrived for the memories he got back from the egg to contain anything meaningful about the world's true history.) It's not something anywhere near as significant as the Egg of Light's importance would suggest, but it does happen.
Despite Shigesato Itoi's words about Porky's fate, consider that often times, the creator of fictional stories can make less desirable choices in the stories they make that fans choose to ignore (like the full ending of How I Met Your Mother and J.J. Abram's Lost). Additionally, one can see a story for all that is presented within the context of the story, and ignore the supplementary material provided from outside sources (like how everything presented within the Star Wars movies is canon, but the old Star Wars Expanded Universe AKA "Star Wars Legends" is not. Similarly, we are never explicitly shown what happens to Porky in the years/centuries following his imprisonment outside of Itoi's words in an interview, so unless canon material is presented showing otherwise, one can assume that Porky eventually gets released)
Alternatively, if we try to Take a Third Option by using Itoi's words, Porky lives forever but - as one can interpret from the Fix Fic above - falls into a happy dream/coma from which he never wakes up. Thus, Porky has a happy epilogue while still technically being biologically "alive", aligning with Itoi's words.
- I like to think something like this happened. I just can't except what supposedly happened at the end of it all, mostly because I can't see anyone in this series as a Complete Monster. Plus I could just be a sucker for happy endings...
- The only known source of PSI in Earthbound 3 is the Magypsies. It's possible she learned it from them but there's no real indication of that.
- A problem with this premise is that it's explicitly stated that Porky has been using his time travel technology he stole from Giygas to steal people away from many different time periods, with most of the pigmasks and pretty much every NPC that isn't already in Tazmily at the beginning of the game not being native to the game's time period but stolen by Porky to populate his twisted little nation. So, Andonuts being around doesn't really prove a short timespan between Earthbound and Mother 3.
- Kumatora also seems to recognize him instantly ("Is that..."), so there's that as well.
- The problem with this is that there's no evidence Kumatora ever met Claus prior to him becoming the Masked Man. It's possible they met, and it's also possible she recognized him from Lucas' offscreen descriptions, but Kumatora doesn't seem to have interacted much with most of the villagers, so it's more likely she recognized him as the infamous Pigmask general and her "Is that..." was related to that instead.
Porky's pale skin and hair is symptomatic of his vampirism, as is his unnatural ageing and ability to live forever. When in combat, he can perform many vague attacks, including one 'sucking' in nature that I believe also drains HP: this is him paranormally or physically devouring the life force/blood from his opponents. The huge amount of people that he accumulates in tanks to brainwash into liking him may not just be to fuel his ego but also to have a reserve of victims to feed upon.
Porky's love of burgers and meat may not only be out of favouritism but out of a biological need for flesh and/or the blood inside meat to keep him alive and satiated. Porky is also almost never witnessed in person, and is kept expressly hidden. The only two environments he is encountered in lack sun or natural light, likely because sunlight will cause severe harm to him.
His unexplained, sickly bluish-grey skin tone towards the finale of Mother 2 could be indicative of his vampiric disease beginning to gestate.