Here is a list of characters from the Mother fan sequel, Cognitive Dissonance.
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Alinivar
That Guy
A Mook from Saturn, Alinivar is an outcast due to his lack of PSI powers (which spared him from participation in the war against Earth) and his odd blue coloration. After a fateful night during which a meteor strikes his home and winds up at death's door during a nasty encounter with Giegue, the Apple of Enlightenment revives him to find its pieces.- All of the Other Reindeer: Heavily implied to be a social outcast before the start of the game.
- Came Back Strong: After a Hopeless Boss Fight with Giegue at the start of the game, the Apple of Enlightenment revives him while giving him PSI.
- Chekhov's Skill: PK Harmony, which is used to bring Giegue to the side of sanity, if only for a moment.
- Combat Medic: Alinivar has the best healing spells, and packs a punch with his offensive spells and tentacles.
- Combat Tentacles: He has an entire subset of fighting that grants him empowered tentacle moves. These can be upgraded to be even more powerful at the cost of PSI if a player chooses to chimerize Alinivar.
- Deal with the Devil: Inverted. The Apple Of Enlightenment, a benevolent sentient being created by the people of Eris, revives him with PSI in return for Alinivar collecting its pieces and hearing its prophecy.
- Fantastic Racism: He is implied to have been a social outcast among Mooks due to his blue skin and lack of PSI.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Sanguine.
- From Beyond the Fourth Wall: In the Good end, Niiue expresses that he sensed the player help Alinivar know when to use PK Harmony.
- The Hero: The first one chosen by the Apple and given the PSI to go and collect its pieces.
- Heroic Mime: The only member of the cast with no direct dialogue. His speech can only be inferred from how others respond to him.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: His Magicant self expresses that he'd rather stop his adventures; his band with his new friends is his desired life.
- An Ice Person: Learns the PK Freeze line of attacks.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: One of his tentacle abilities is described as piercing the target like a knife.
- Kid Hero: If his Earth disguise is anything to go by, he is about the same age as Ness.
- Kidnapped by the Call: He starts as an artist and aspiring musician, living an ordinary life with no PSI. Then Giegue kills him, and the Apple of Enlightenment offers to return him to life in exchange for taking up its quest. Saying no leaves Alinivar to rot in a grayscale limbo until he eventually agrees, at which point the Apple revives him and bestows PSI on him to help him on his journey.
- Leitmotif: Associated with the track Guitar for Tentacles.
- Muggles: Was the only Mook with no PSI until given it by the Apple of Enlightenment.
- Musical Assassin: Attacks with his guitar by Chapter 3.
- Octopoid Aliens: Obviously, given that he is a Mook.
- Psychic Powers: Oddly enough, unlike other MOTHER protagonists, he actually has an offensive elemental PSI along with his healing and defensive PSI, but all of the others are scattered between his team. Although he does share a pure energy PSI with Ness and Lucas through PK Shockwave, which he also shares with Niiue.
- The Quiet One: While he can speak, and party members are shown reacting to his dialogue in-universe, he only very rarely has dialogue boxes.
- The Red Mage: Has the best healing and defense PSI, along with the whole PK Freeze line of attacks.
- Took a Level in Badass: To quote a Mook at the endgame:"It just figures. You used to be the loser with no PSI. Now you have more than me."
- Unwilling Roboticization: You can choose to put Alinivar into a chimerization machine, turning him into a cyborg.
Colonel Saturn
Military Man
A Mr. Saturn who claims to have fought in Rock War II who spends his free time watching war movies. After Alinvar proves that he has what it takes to fight back the Mr. Sickos plaguing Saturn, he becomes the first companion to join him.- Badass Adorable: Like all Mr. Saturns, he's cute in his own quirky way. Though being a Colonel, he's armed to the... nose.
- BFG: His shotguns work as these, hitting every enemy at once.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Comes with the territory of being a Mr. Saturn.
- Blackbead Eyes: Like all Mr. Saturns, he has black beady eyes with no pupils.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Although he speaks a bit more eloquently than most Saturns.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Can learn PK Ground from a Knowledge Stone.
- Fragile Speedster: One of the fastest party members, but really squishy compared to others.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Choleric.
- Gag Nose: Like all Mr. Saturns, he has a huge nose.
- Glass Cannon: His guns can pack a punch, from pistols to shotguns with various status effects, but is weak on the HP front.
- Guns Akimbo: He can use two pistols at the same time to attack twice in one turn.
- Hat of Authority: Wears a nice tophat, showing off that he's the mayor of Satralia.
- Innocent Aliens: Though he is a warman, he still acts very kindly.
- Interface Screw: Like all Mr. Saturns, he speaks in visibly squiggly speech.
- Jumped at the Call: When he found out that Alinivar's quest would be bigger than the Rock War, he resolved to help him through it to its end.
- Psychic Powers: He gains his own powers from the Misplaced Treetrunk, and continues to get more. Most all of them, besides PK Ground, are status effects.
- Random Effect Spell: He also learns PK Flash, which is further supported by one of his many guns being given its effects.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Mr. Saturns are rather quirky and adorable alien creatures, so Colonel Saturn is no exception. In his case, he also counts as a Badass Adorable due to being a war veteran who fights with dual pistols and Psychic Powers.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: His trek through Magicant shows the Rock War affected him greatly.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The Obligatory Shotgun found in the canyons early in the game will basically allow you to breeze through the early chapters. It has huge damage for early on and can attack multiple enemies at once.
- Status Buff: Most of his PSI spells involve increasing the stats of his party members and decreasing those of his enemies.
- Verbal Tic: Sometimes he has "zoom"s, "boing"s, and "ding"s like other Mr. Saturns.
- Waddling Head
- Wingdinglish: Like all Mr. Saturns, his odd speech is displayed in a loopy font.
Larice
Escapee
Once a Starman who works under Giegue, Larice was designated to be scrapped for having free will and questioning Giegue's orders. He ultimately escaped Giegue's base and, under the orders of Niiue, joined up with Alinivar.- Barrier Warrior: One of his skills is to put a protective field over the party to protect them from harm.
- Big Damn Heroes: Saves Alinivar and the gang from fighting the Greyface alone, who is armed with a powerful mecha-spider.
- The Big Guy: He's taller than the whole party, and has the highest defense and attack capabilities.
- Came Back Strong: After he is lethally damaged, Niiue repairs him as the most powerful version of a Starman.
- Dark Is Not Evil: After being rebuilt after the incident on Mars, Larice gets a body that has the dark red and black colors of the Ghost of Starman and the spikes of the Final Starman / Starman Deluxe, but he's still the same heroic Starman.
- Determinator: Manages to throw off the Greyface's reprogramming through sheer willpower.
- Do Androids Dream?: Whether or not his free will is due to a glitch or his organic parts and spirit not falling under Giegue's programming is left in the air for the audience to decide. This is even brought up by a writer on Pluto if you picked Larice to be the basis of the author's character.
- Drives Like Crazy: Not unlike Jeff and the Sky Runner, Larice wound up crash-landing the UFO onto Saturn during his escape from Giegue's ship. After it's fixed, he happily relinquished the driver's seat to Zarbol.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic.
- Mana Drain: Knows PSI Magnet right from the start of his Chapter.
- Mighty Glacier: He's the slowest of the group, but has excellent attack and defense stats as well as the most crowd hitting effects.
- Playing with Fire: Learns the PK Fire line of attacks via collectible discs and can equip the Flamethrower.
- Psychic Powers: As stated, he learns the PK Fire line of attacks through discs and knows PK Beam when you first get him, learning the others the same way. After his reprogramming by Greyface and his repairs by Niiue, he learns PK Starstorm.
- Punch-Clock Villain: While he was evil, he and the other Starmen aboard Giegue's ship got along amicably off duty and played video games together in their barracks. Many of these Starmen remain friendly towards Larice even after he's slated for termination and don't turn him in.
- Ray Gun: He and Zarbol share use of these, from firing a multi-target beam to powerful, status-effect inducing single-target beams.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: His upgraded form never appears in the official trailer, even in scenes where that should be.
- Stable Time Loop: His current mind traveled back into the past through Magicant, allowing him to rebel against Giegue's orders at the beginning of the game. This leads to him being decommissioned and allows him to join the party in the first place.
- Token Heroic Orc: As one of the Starmen, foot soldiers for Giegue, fighting against him and his forces.
- Took a Level in Badass: Starts the game as a decommissioned basic Starman. Ends it as a custom model force of destruction.
- Unwilling Roboticization: He was once a Martian, but his people were conquered and forcibly turned into Starmen.
- Was Once a Man: Or rather, was once a Martian, before Giegue's race destroyed their civilization.
Zarbol
UFO Sidekick
An insect-like alien who drives a small UFO as a delivery boy on Saturn. One of his deliveries for Niiue led him to bump into Alinivar, and after playing in a band with him, Zarbol joined Alinivar's search for the Apple of Enlightenment.- Barrier Warrior: His PSI specializes in shields.
- Canon Character All Along: Near the end of the game, the alien piloting the UFO is revealed to be Buzz Buzz before he travels back in time to warn Ness about Giygas and start his adventure.
- Doomed by Canon: He is Buzz Buzz, who, after letting Ness know that his presence negated the future, is squashed by Lardna Minch in EarthBound.
- Enemy Scan: One of his abilities.
- Fantastic Racism: At the beginning of the game, is implied to have been the target of racism from Elmadan's Mooks.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Phlegmatic.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He knows how to dismantle robots and repair things, such as the Phase Distorter.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Suffers from this as his Magicant-self claims that he isn't a hero. His Duel Boss in Magicant represents his self-doubt.
- Insectoid Alien: He is just piloting a UFO for protection, and to lift items. Unfortunately, without his UFO, he's easily squished...
- Irony: The teammate who has the most self-doubt wound up being the key player to the quest's success of warning Ness.
- Item Caddy: Similar to Jeff, he can use exclusive items such as Balloon Grenades, Gas Canisters, and Bottle Rockets to attack.
- Mr. Fixit: Manages to repair the UFO that Larice crashed on Saturn.
- Playing with Fire: He can get the Napalm Launch attachment to deal a fire attack that also slows down enemies.
- Ray Gun: He and Larice share use of these, from firing a multi-target beam to powerful, status-effect inducing single-target beams.
- Shock and Awe: Some of his skills are electric attacks.
- Stone Wall: Zarbol has the second best defense of the team and decent speed, but can't leave a mark compared to the others unless he spends what little PP he has, or uses an offensive item.
- Walking Spoiler: Not as bad as Niiue, but he still has a reveal of who he is towards the end of the game.
Niiue
Commander
After Giegue left his base of operations, his post of commander of the mothership was taken up by Niiue, a mysterious alien of the same species as Giegue. He helps the Applechasers form into a group and aids them in several ways, but there is certainly more to Niiue than he lets on…- Bad Powers, Good People: He uses the same kind of Eldritch attacks as Giegue, but is altogether a lot nicer.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: In Hard Mode, Niiue is attacked by Giegue's insanity in his Magicant. In order to complete the Giegue's ship sidequest and get the Severance ending, Niiue must run through Giegue's madness attacking him on the ship alone.
- Big Damn Heroes: Gets two. He helps Larice with helping Alinivar's group against the Greyface, and when the group goes into Giegue's mind, he and a future Niiue come to help them against the Universal Cosmic Destroyer.
- Body Motifs: His tail. See the Arc Words: Who has lost his tail?
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite being called a "Whackjob" by one of the Starmen on board the Mother Ship in Chapter 2, he is very capable at what he does despite his quirks, getting the Starmen on board to safety and knowing how to repair Larice.
- Clothing Reflects Personality: He wears clothes that would easily fit a human child, and acts quirky and childish to the point of nearly being a Cloudcuckoolander.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He has shades of this, and is even described as such In-Universe by a Starman. When he talks during Larice's escape, he talks to the high-ranking Starmen, he goes on about how they have a set amount of time to escape... most of which has been spent on his speech about how their ship got hit.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite acting and appearing quirky and off, once he's in your party a few times you get a scope of how powerful he truly is. And how much he knows…
- Enemy Without: Inverted, he is Giegue's good side taken physical form to combat him.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Leukine.
- From Beyond the Fourth Wall: Niiue is aware of the wall, and in the Good and Bad endings will speak to the player about the help the player gave in the final battle.
- Gadgeteer Genius: After Larice is reprogrammed, he's the one who instructs a pair of Starmen how to repair him to get him back on his feet.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: His eyes are blue to contrast with Giegue's evil red.
- The Greys: He follows the base template of one, but he has unusual traits such as human hair and his human outfit.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Whenever Larice gets hijacked and malfunctions, he takes over his spot until you get to Earth, and then takes Zarbol's spot in the final battle with Giegue.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: If you turn Alinivar into a chimera on Mars, Niiue will question who in their right minds would make such a decision.
- Literal Split Personality: He is Giegue's conscience in corporeal form.
- Meaningful Appearance: His clothes may look silly on an alien, but they are a symbol of how Giegue perceived himself; as George and Maria's child. His hat resembles Ninten and Ness's hats. In one of the endings, his future self drops it as he fades away for Alinivar to pick up while in Giegue's mind.
- In the Severance ending, he almost loses it as he and Giegue attempt to escape Magicant, after which Giegue catches it and puts it on himself for the rest of the escape. The credits for this ending also show Giegue keeping the hat on.
- The Power of Love: He is the literal personification of Giegue's positive emotions, but primarily his love for his mother, Maria.
- The Red Mage: Both a powerful healer and fighter.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Giegue's red.
- Smarter Than You Look: Looks rather silly being a dressed-up alien of Giegue's species. He's pretty intelligent, knowing where to go to find a baby born with PSI, how to repair Larice when he breaks down, and knowing a lot more than he lets on about Giegue.
- Stepford Smiler: His Magicant is slowly corrupting due to Geigue's descent into insanity. but he keeps a pleasant and nonchalant demeanor.
- A Taste of Power: Niiue is very powerful when he joins your party, only really ending up on your level about halfway into the game.
- Walking Spoiler: Being the Anthropomorphic Personification of Giegue's positive emotions and feelings, it's kind of hard to talk about him without giving away the overarching plot of the game.
- You Cannot Grasp the True Form: He uses these kind of attacks when he isn't healing, which seems to be the power of the whole species. Or so it appears...
- Your Mind Makes It Real: He can get in fights with bits of Giegue's madness and takes damage from those "enemies".
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Implied with Nightmare Empower's flavour text, which says Niiue steals a piece of the enemy to power himself up. This power can be used to rip Giegue's core out from Giygas' insanity.
Giegue
UCD
The Universal Cosmic Destroyer himself. After a failed invasion of Earth, Giegue sets his sights on the Apple of Enlightenment for its knowledge. However, his pursuit of more power isn't doing any favors for his sanity, and may become his unraveling in more ways than one.- And I Must Scream: To even reach his sane portion, you have to use a Magicant Shell and go through catastrophic emotions.
- And Your Reward Is Infancy: In the Golden Ending, Giegue is given a second chance at life after escaping the insanity of Giygas, turning back into a baby of his species once he returns to the physical world.
- Bad Boss: His treatment of Larice (and possibly many other Starmen judging by the number of deactivated Starmen in the scrapping room) shows just how callous he is towards his own forces. Though it's justified seeing as he psychically forced out all his positive emotions, including his empathy for others, so he wouldn't deal with the pain they caused him.
- Body Horror: When you reach the center of his mind and Niiue joins the fray, you can see his body being horribly stretched and deformed as he starts transforming into Giygas. Giegue's anguished face during the process shows just how painful it is!
- Book Ends: If you obtain the Severance ending, he will be the first and last character in POV.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: As he tears himself apart, he barely recognizes the group in his mind."... Niiue...?"
- Color Motif: He is heavily associated with crimson red, which symbolizes violence and aggression. He is a ruthless alien commander who intended to invade Earth, and in his efforts to spread complete logic and rationality, he ends up slipping further into insanity. The Final Battle against him is predominantly red and black — fittingly, this is the part where he becomes completely insane and ends up turning himself into Giygas.
- The Corrupter: Double subverted. Canonically, Giegue has a habit of causing widespread poltergeist activity and influencing other life forms to grow more violent. In this game, a log entry in the prologue reveals that his psychic influence on Earth had originally been intended to make the minds of its life forms more logical. He considered it a failure that his influence consistently evoked aggression, as he had been hoping to find a way to rid Earth of its "terrible curse" of emotionality, and he lamented not being given sufficient time to perfect his method. Even so, by Chapter 1, he seems to have embraced using that same imperfect influence to cause mayhem on Saturn while he seeks the Apple.
- Despair Event Horizon: His mindscape has several tombstones describing how different Flying Men failed him and are useless and he has only two Flying Men alive. As they are the personification of one's courage, Giegue appears to have given up on life.
- Doomed by Canon: Everyone who's played EarthBound knows what happens to him. This game is about how that happened. Subverted in the Severance ending, where his core personality gets extracted from Giygas and later reincarnated in the real world as a baby version of himself.
- Eldritch Abomination: He becomes one due to his enhanced psychic powers tearing his physical form apart. His emotions themselves begin manifesting as miniature Abominations of their own as early as Chapter 4.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: Giegue's goal was to strip humanity of their emotions and cause them to behave completely logically. However, going back to Earth only had the effect of bringing his own suppressed emotions to the surface. His refusal to deal with those emotions constructively ends up destroying him in all but one of the endings.
- Evil Makes You Monstrous: The game is a long explanation how Giegue's anger and hunger for power led to him becoming Giygas.
- Final Boss: You've been after him this whole time, Niiue guiding you towards him this whole time to buy time for the Messenger. He is horrifying to look at once you reach him.
- A God Am I: While he prefers the term "Universal Cosmic Destroyer" when describing himself, his followers develop a habit of shouting, "All hail the Transcending Lord!" as the game goes on, and he makes no objections to that. Niiue seems to find it ridiculous, however.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His self-doubt and conflicted emotions turn his psychic power on himself and shred apart his body and mind, leaving only Giygas behind.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Unfortunately, his heart of gold is severed from him into a Literal Split Personality.
- Karmic Death: At the beginning of the game, he was trying to make humans more logical and remove their emotions, even using deplorable methods to achieve this. By the end. his refusal to deal with his own guilt and love for his human adoptive parents destroys him in both body and mind.
- Love Makes You Evil: His memories of Maria and George are what's driving him over the edge. Even forcing them out into a physical being doesn't stop the feelings from plaguing him.
- Mexican Standoff: Gets into one with Niiue after the Greyface flees into the future. At that point, neither Niiue or Giegue can hurt each other, so both of them simply go on their way.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: As has been stated: The Universal Cosmic Destroyer.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Even if you damage him in physical form, he can easily heal himself as he accepts the insanity. You can't even hurt him at all as he rips himself apart. PK Harmony just stuns him to temporarily make him regain his sanity. This is averted if Niiue knows Nightmare Empower or sings Maria's song to him, which allows him to be damaged.
- Power Born of Madness: His PSI stems from his turbulent emotions of anger and grief. He can even heal himself by slipping into madness at will. This is later deconstructed when his insanity is what started his transformation into Giygas, his own immense PSI tearing his body apart and merging him with the fabric of Magicant.
- The Power of Hate: He forces Niiue out of him to get rid of the positive feelings of love and his memories of Maria, running full stop on hatred. He even notes that he is free to kill Niiue once he makes it known that they are separated, so he can't just make him go away.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Giegue's simplistic goal of laying waste to Earth, and possibly the rest of the galaxy, is essentially a temper tantrum caused by his anger and grief over the loss of the only loving family he had.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to Niiue's blue.
- Self-Made Orphan: He killed Maria under the orders of the other members of his species when George and Maria try to escape their alien prison. The guilt and anger he felt over this tormented him so much that he eventually forced it out of himself, creating Niiue.
- Tortured Monster: Despite all the horrible things he does to achieve his goals, he is a tormented being who is dealing with both his loss of his human adoptive parents and his own tumultuous emotions in a rather unhealthy way. Eventually, his internal conflict destroys him, figuratively and literally. His transformation into Giygas emphasizes how much pain he was in despite his previous attempts to repress it."I'm... So sad..."
- Tragic Villain:
- Turns Red: Survive long enough in the final battle, and his physical form dissipates into darkness... and returns as the large Eldritch Abomination we all know.
- Villainous BSoD: Singing Maria's song to him in his Magicant seems to drive him even further into his damaged mind, leaving only his core being guarded by manifestations of his greatest enemies.
- Villainous Breakdown: You know that his mental state isn't his finest when one of his skills is slipping into madness at will to regain PP.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Despite knowing Giegue is a constant threat, everything is still fairly lighthearted as you travel the solar system. Then you reach where Giegue is in the center of his mind and it's nothing but scattered physical emotions, red pathways, and womb-like paths.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His original intention for the planet was to make humans more logical so they could join his race without being burdened by emotion. Ironically, his encounter with the humans in Earthbound Beginnings just results in his own emotions becoming more turbulent, and every attempt to snuff those emotions out drives him further into madness and despair.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He forces his memories out through sheer willpower and PSI, but that manifestation won't leave him alone. And at the end, you can see whatever shred of sanity he has left being torn apart.
- You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Naturally, he uses these kinds of attacks in various forms. He also shared this power with Niiue.
