Layla has a Mother3parallel

Oh my word, I think I just found Layla’s parallel in Mother3.

It’s this cute little enemy called Ms. Marshmallow or Li'l Ms. Marshmallow, a robotic maid for King Porky. Lucas and pals encounter her at Thunder Tower, which has a spiral staircase. A battle with her is completely optional, but she gets angry if you inspect and try to touch something called “Friend’s Yo-Yo”, which belongs to King Porky and is kept in a glass case. She yells:

“IF YOU TAKE MASTER KING P’S VERY PRECIOUS "FRIEND’S YO-YO” I WILL BE MAD. MAD! MAD! VERY MAD MAD MAD MAD!!!!!!“ (Before battle)

Once she’s been injured, she goes into a higher/stronger attack mode that can damage multiple enemies, called Ultra Ticked-Off System. Because she’s a machine, she’s effectively injured by Saltwater Gun. When she’s defeated, she talks complete gibberish until she finally stops functioning.

"YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW SO SEW SO-SO GREETINGS CHEESE POPSICLE THE NUMBER YOU HAVE DIALED IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PORK CHOPS FROM EAST TO WEST IT GOES GOES BROKEN BROKEN OH SO SOW SEW BROKEN *whir* *clank* *clunk*” (After battle)

The fandom wiki says “Once she is defeated, she slumps, sways, and falls to the ground before yelling nonsensical phrases and exploding.”

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With Layla, we have this cutesied-up little girl dressed as a nurse (instead of maid), and she’s working for Lord Ciel (instead of King Porky). She’s encountered at Athena Sanatorium, where blood is collected in a tower with a spiral staircase. She doesn’t give Baldo or Lau a hard time until they are obviously messing with Lord Ciel’s blood supply.

When she’s injured, she says it’s not hurting her and she goes into a higher attack mode. Her eyes look kind of crazy now, and she starts talking about Baldo and Lau as being food to her.

When you injure her enough, which can be done with a gunshot to the heart, she sways, slumps onto the desk, then falls to the floor and starts talking to “Al”, who isn’t there. She might be talking nonsense, but it’s hard to tell because we don’t know whether Al exists.

If this parallel holds up damn near 100%, she might completely bleed out while running through the woods and just keep talking to herself (or this “Al” who still hasn’t shown up) until she stops functioning. Or she gets her brains scrambled by someone in pursuit, like a reaper. If that’s the case, another battle could be held against “Al”, if that person exists (which I suspect they do). We don’t see Ronald in ch188, so it’s possible he’s fighting this “Al” person while Lau and Baldo are fighting Layla.

Even if it’s not a near 100% parallel, Layla (and also likely Al) should eventually be defeated… after a more intense battle??… and she (or both of them) might start talking absolute nonsense as she’s (they’re) “dying”.

If Layla (and whoever Al is supposed to be) makes up Lord Vega, their echoing sort of speech reminds me a bit of how Li'l Ms. Marshmallow’s speech can be sort of repetitive.

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Now… there’s also the issue of Jane, who is dressed as a maid at Heathfield Manor, where more blood was also being collected. However, the parallels aren’t nearly as strong:

• Jane is a hired soldier dressed as a maid, but she’s not this adorable little kid-looking sort of person, and she talks quite normally.
• She’s working at Heathfield Manor, where there’s a blood collection facility for Lord Ciel, but it’s collected underground, not in a tower with a spiral staircase.
• She doesn’t cause much of an issue until Ran-Mao is chosen to become a “donor”. Then she’s even more of an adversary once Mey-Rin is snooping around looking for Ran-Mao and finds the collection facility. But she doesn’t get severely injured in the fight.
• She gives up once the operation’s cover is completely blown, so she gets to just walk away, and she’s never talked nonsense.

So, I don’t really see Jane as a parallel to Li'l Ms. Marshmallow, though she might be seen as a precursor. There might be a more direct parallel to Jane elsewhere in the game, possibly also in chapter 5, “Tower of Thunder”. ‍♀️