MOTHER2

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOTHER 2! As August 27th, 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the cult classic video game known to us as Earthbound, and because I have my own fanimation devoted to it that is very close to being completed, today I will post about my “authentic” Mother 2 experience during my recent visit to Japan this summer. 

As some of you may know, Japan has many “Gashapon” (or Gachapon) capsule dispensers that are essentially gumball machines with toys instead of candy. There is a dense concentration of them in Akihabara, an area in Tokyo known for carrying a huge selection of anime, manga and game-related goods- everything from DVDs, toys and accessories to cosplay fashion and idol band merchandise.

Somewhere in all of this pop culture chaos exist a small number of Mother 2 Gashapon dispensers. The one I encountered was on the upper floor of a well-known retro game store called Super Potato (pictured above). I’ve heard there are one or two others, but this was the only one I ran into.

Like most Gashapons, each attempt at nabbing a toy costs 200 yen, about 2 US dollars. The selection is completely randomized, which means I spent the better part of 10 minutes just cramming money into the slot and feverishly opening each plastic ball to inspect the contents in mounting frustration. I have included a highly scientific illustration of this process below:

Countless 100 yen coins and extra Paulas later, I finally acquired the final figure and completed the entire set: Ness, Jeff, Paula, Poo, Master Barf, Master Belch, and of course the elusive Mr. Saturn! The pink monster is supposedly “rare” but I have two of him to Mr. Saturn’s one. Not a bad investment as the Mr. Saturn goes for about 5 times the Gachapon price on eBay and re-sell stores. (Technically I think these are phone straps which are hugely popular in Japan, but to me they’d be more amusing as Christmas tree ornaments.)

The Super Potato store also carries original copies of the Mother 2 Famicom game, and features a huge print-out of the Magicant map from Mother 1 in one of their many stairwells. Pretty cool!

The only evidence of Mother 3 that I saw were copies of the actual game in a glass display case going for $80 (?!), but it was probably good for my wallet that there wasn’t any merch of Lucas or the Magypsies. Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Tokyo, definitely check this place out and have a go at collecting your own Mother 2 souvenirs straight from the source!

Jane has a Mother2parallel

Earlier today, I said Jane might parallel a precursor to Li'l Ms. Marshmallow, and yes. She does.

@princess-adrienne reminded me I needed to look into Electra, Pokey Minch’s maid while he’s working as a consultant for Geldegarde Monotoli, and that’s in Mother2, aka EarthBound. Technically, she’s Monotoli’s maid, working in Monotoli Building, in Fourside, but she serves Pokey whenever he’s visiting.

Porky Minchi (Pokey Minch in the EarthBound localization) is “upgraded” to King Porky in Mother3, and Electra is the human precursor to Li'l Ms. Marshmallow. By the events of Mother3, Electra would have died, simply because so much time has passed. Porky doesn’t die when he becomes King Porky, simply because the prototype of Dr. Andonuts’ time machine keeps him alive, even though he’s aged considerably due to a fault in the prototype. While he’s “king”, King Porky keeps a robot as a maid, and she seems to be based on Electra, possibly as a reminder of her to him.

So, Jane is Electra’s parallel, as she’s working as a soldier/maid for Chris Heathfield at Heathfield Manor, in Yorkshire. Electra is the human precursor to Li'l Ms. Marshmallow (a machine), while Jane is like a (presumably) human precursor to Layla (an advanced bizarre doll). When Jane’s hair is down, you can see how she’s an older looking version of Layla but with a shorter braid. Forget age; the shorter braid makes Jane a precursor, as an adversary, and we encounter Jane first anyway, so she’s a precursor time-wise, too.

Annie (and to a lesser degree Ran-Mao) becomes the main parallel to Paula in this situation, even though I’ve already got other parallels to Paula in other Black Butlersituations.

I have to choose Annie over Ran-Mao for Paula because Ran-Mao’s drugs wear off quickly, whereas Annie has to be disconnected from the machinery and woken up.

According to the fandom wiki, Paula’s weakness is paralysis.

That leaves Mey-Rin and Ran-Mao as the parallels to Ness and Jeff here, since they are the ones infiltrating the joint to set the maids free, just like Ness and Jeff set Paula free. Ness is generally going to be a stand-in for Lucas when it’s a Mother2 parallel instead of Mother3, and whoever Ness is with is typically a stand-in for whoever is with Lucas at the time (which is usually Boney, the dog)… so Mey-Rin serves as a stand-in for our earl while Ran-Mao serves as a stand-in for Sebastian. Notice that Ran-Mao and Jeff Andonuts (Dr. Andonuts’ son) have the same short, straight, shiny, and very evenly-cut bangs. (His sprites in the game show his hair to be shiny.)

This makes Geldegarde Monotoli (new mayor of Fourside) the parallel to Chris Heathfield (baron of Heathfield Manor), which makes perfect sense, because Monotoli keeps Paula as a hostage, just like Heathfield essentially keeps all those maids (particularly Annie) as hostages in his basement.

Here’s Electra (for Jane), Monotoli (for Heathfield), and Paula (for Annie):

He’snot a strong enemy to begin with, but when Monotoli is released from Giygas’ influence, he’s very physically weak, and that reminds me of Ran-Mao beating Heathfield up before she’s added to the other maids plus all the released maids (minus Ran-Mao) beating him up again as soon as he shows up after their release.

Afterwards, Monotoli relinquishes the town of Fourside back to the previous mayor and becomes a low-level worker again. Heathfield is still a baron, of course, but Polaris reports that the guy was arrested.

Jane gets one last major parallel to Electra because, as @princess-adrienne pointed out, Electra specifically says she doesn’t really care about what Pokey Minch is doing – she’s not entirely swayed by his goals – but she will fight on behalf of whichever side seems stronger. And that’s very similar to Jane’s approach to working for Heathfield and the Aurora Society’s operations there, which she swears she doesn’t know much about. Neither Electra nor Jane is especially loyal to her respective employer/master.