Dark Aspects of MOTHER: The Complete Series Analysis - Thane Gaming

Mother has always been a big influence in my life. While i never played Mother 1,or only very little,i did play a bit of Earthbound and got up to chapter 6 of Mother 3. Mother 2 and 3 were big in twrms of my impact even though i never truly played them until 2023. Theyre classics and i cant recommend Maternalbound Redux which has huge QOL changes and such

The English version pussified a lot.

I’m trying to figure out how you bought and downloaded the game on release from a cartridge to a Famicom six years before you were born…

Nah I had to stop at Mother 3 & you used your brothers name.

I do have a bit of a twisted theory on the "Forgotten man" in Magicant. Its porky. Or at least was him. He traveled through time so long he's forgotten whom he was, and nobody remembers him. He's become nothing. A fate worse than death. It could be possible this "Forgotten man" was a homeless porky minch after traveling so long and ended up in the late 1800s Eagleland hen Maria saw him as a little girl and he probably scared her away being bitter, old and forgotten.

Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, Boney, Claus, Wess, Salsa, Flint. That's already eight right there.
We already have eight playable characters in the game!
Well seven and a half because Wess is half-unused in terms of being a playable character.

"Mortified" means embarrassed. Not horrified

such a great 3 hours! Thanks for your work!

I'm glad you talked about your OCD. This is a weird comparison but in high school I got super sick and it developed into an autoimmune condition. I have a ton of food intolerances and a lot of neurological symptoms because of that. Its nice to be reminded that other people have stuff too and its ok for me to be the way that I am.

I loved this entire series. You did a wonderful job. I've never played any of these games but i definitely am going to look into it now.

i woke up to this last night at 3 am

I love how it’s basically “yeah, Mother 1 and 2 are kinda dark but Mother 3 will break you in half.”

The term's origins are indeed grim but its a very common old timey westernism to refer to a doctor as 'old sawbones'. Its why Dr. McCoy on Star Trek is Bones. They probably thought they were making the doctor more endearing.

The part about the teal flashes when Lucas sees the masked man representing the familiarity of a family member like in the hinawa flashback in the same color is blowing my freaking mind

Now that I've finished all the videos, I appreciate your analysis. I've been putting a lot of thought into making an autobiographical video game about my life. Despite being fiction, I'm kind of using Mother/Earthbound as a case study. By the way, my name isn't Bob.

If you put a bear shirt on a naked cybord robot lady, does that make the bear shirt a teddy?

I enjoyed the video, but you might want to know that sometimes the music you're playing over powers your voice, making you hard to hear - kind of like everything 20th Century Fox produces.

Y'know the lighting that happens to people who don't watch the happy boxes in Mother 3 seems very similar to the repentance seen in Iconoclasts. Maybe the creator of Iconoclasts took inspiration from Mother 3 for the idea of their story's repentance.

This video was absolutely incredible, I listened to the whole thing while drawing some really overcomplicated Mother 3 fanart and I loved every second of it. I think it's part of the reason why that turned out to be one of my best pieces, and why I had such a great time drawing it and really took my time with the picture.

One thing I'd like to mention that could perhaps be off topic to some extent is Porky's brother, Picky. I feel like the game and Earthbound community as a whole doesn't focus enough around him. He always left an impression on me, despite his relatively small role in the overall series. But I can't help but wonder what ever became of him? Growing up in the environment he did with the events that occurred over the course of the game must have been all sorts of traumatic, and yet, at least from what I remember, he was never anywhere near as bad as Porky or his parents despite having just as little friends or positive influences.

I'm always wondering what the overall purpose of his conclusion was. Sure, the most likely answer is that SOMEBODY had to ask Ness to look for Porky at the beginning of the game with him, and it couldn't be anyone else since Porky had no friends. However, I think his character serves as an interesting juxtaposition to Porky as a whole, how trauma has different effects on different people. Porky stopped at nothing-- murder, torture, destroying everything in his possession including himself-- as a result of the broken household he was raised in, while Picky only ever appeared to be timid and genuine. I'm probably reading into this way too much, but I can't help but find him curious as a stark contrast to everything else happening in the Minch household.

Sorry for the insane ramblings lol. Awesome video my dude, keep up the great work.

There's so much creepypastas that can be generated from the mother/earthbound series that its uncanny

Actually you'll catch you're death of cold is nothing to do with an obsession about death. It's actually a common phrase in the real world. I think it comes from the times of the plague, as one of the symptoms was sneezing.

MOTHER It's really a special experience the end of earthbound touched me and mother 3 even more so many emotions

There’s a very suggestive line in Earthbound that I’m surprised got past the censors.

After the Runaway Five performance in Towson, if you talk to the lady in the green dress facing the stage, she’ll say: “The Runaway Five are so sexy. My husband definitely is… in need of help in that area.”

Considering the unused “consider” command, “kindness” stat, and the collection of sprites of the Drago and Porky dying and “Happy End” text seems to not only suggest the ability to spare enemies but that it effected the ending. The ending we got being so vague and up to interpretation could have maybe had it that if you spared more enemies you would repair the world and if you killed everything it could have lead to the world’s destruction, fulfilling neither may have lead to the ending we got. I don’t claim to be a theorist here but this idea may have been the direct inspiration with how the endings in Undertale. The unused content of Mother 3 is incredibly wild and has so much potential for speculation.

I was today years old when I realized that Claus is an anagram of Lucas

That was amazing, thank you for doing that!

Hello i am 9 years old

I have OCD too

Fun fact: I use the pray ability a lot in Earthbound.. Seriously, I'm probably the only one who likes it

Wonderful breakdown. The mother games are some of my favorite games ever made and you did an excellent job walking through it and breaking it down. Awesome video

Deep analysis.

If you think I'm gonna watch 3 whole hours about series of children in striped shirts getting traumatized…

Just had to say this is my favorite Nintendo series by far to the extent that I hope there is a timeline where nintin/ness are the official mascots instead of Mario "would have made a much more satisfying children's movie" but I digress, I subbed cause damn this is something I've been wanting to see for a while and you did it! 😊

I did name almost all the characters after Family members, including myself

Hear me out, isn’t the absolute safety capsule very similar to what porky ultimately wanted to achieve? To destroy reality and be left completely alone with a unempathetic dragon doesn’t sound very different to his ending. Maybe he is happier this way, he could not even move anymore so in a sense not being surrounded by an out of reach everyday life is a way lesser torture than just being left to his own devices

🎉😍😍😍💷🤤💷💷💷💷💷

Im just thinking "what if porky needs to piss?"

im barely starting to watch the mother 3 part and im already tearing up 🥲 but yes thats how much this game broke me

I never played this game but it’s like a fever dream. How do you ever even know what you’re actually supposed to do

Ill be the first to point out the terrible caricature of a black person in this game. Its crazy to see the world moch your people to such a common degree that youre being made fun of even in a modern japanese role playing game.