Mother/Fridge

MOTHER / MOTHER 1

Fridge Brilliance

• And in the original Mother, I still feel that it's an example of The Power of Love. Most examples turn "love" into magic sparkles or beams made of hearts in a very cheesy way, but in this game you literally defeat your enemy with the actual feeling of love. You short-circuit Giegue's Kill All Humans programming by reminding him of the human who loved him as her own child. And in case you haven't noticed, that is also why the game is called Mother.
• Loid appears to be an albino. People with albinism tend to have poor eyesight - which explains why Loid is wearing glasses. --Silver Moon Dance
• Here's one that applies to the first two: Take a look at the names of the female leads. Now put them together. Paula-Ana. Pollyanna is the main theme of the series!
• I initially wondered why an earth served as the logo of the series, since it seemed rather dissimilar to the title of series (which may have been why it was called Earthbound else where). Then I realized it was very obvious-Mother Earth! What could possibly be a better symbol of nurturing, life, and maternal themes?-Blueflame724

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MOTHER 2 / Earthbound

Fridge Brilliance

• The only way that I can truly appreciate the Final Boss fight of Earthbound (at least in terms of plot) is as a partial Deconstruction. Essentially, Giygas has become a Cosmic Horror. Physical attacks don't work on him. While Paula's Pray command appears to be effective, not even the entirety of Eagleland's Power Of Love is enough to destroy him. Ultimately, there is only one reason that Ness and them are able to defeat him... He's the final boss of a video game. Giygas loses so that the player can win. --Falcon Pain
  • By extension, it could even be said that it takes divine intervention (which is to say, the will of the player - a being who exists outside of, and controls, the reality in which these events are occurring) to finally take Giygas down. --User:The Hero Hartmut
  • One better- the term Deus Ex Machina means something along the lines of "god from the machine," but here it's the other way around. The "god" or source of divine intervention is the player, who is outside the game machine. An interesting reversal. --Dominus Temporis
• Meanwhile, I wasn't able at all to appreciate the game the first time I played it. It felt like it was taking the "children saving the world" thing way too far. It wasn't until later that I realized that the game was thematically about Cassandra Truth, the loss of innocence, and the consequences of abandoning one's humanity. It's now one of my favorites. --32_Footsteps
• The first time you fight Master Belch, you can (and must) use "Fly Honey" to distract and defeat him. Later, he comes back for a rematch as the bright pink Master Barf, and "Fly Honey" no longer works on him. In the same area as the rematch, you can find Demonic Petunias, which both in and out of battle greatly resemble a Rafflesia, or corpse flower. These flowers smell like rotting flesh to attach flies in order to exchange their pollen amongst each other. They also happen to be a bright red color. That's why Master Barf is immune to "Fly Honey;" he's been gorging himself on the source of the stuff. --Tropers/Altimadark
  • Could be Fridge Logic as well though, since Master Belch is first fought in a factory where he forces Mr.Saturns to make Fly Honey, so he'd be just as near to a source of his addiction in both situations.
• When Porky gets hired by the Happy cult and Monotoli it dosent add up why would they hire a little kid? because they both were brainwashed by the statue that serves Giygas and Porky serves Giygas.
• I, like several others, was annoyed by the camera man and his apparent uselessness in the plot of the game. Then I realized that it's yet another of Nintendo's jabs at video game tradition. Earthbound is famous for these, like the bathrooms that are always full making fun of the lack of bathrooms in video games, or the characters who actually call our heroes out if they act like kleptomaniac heroes. In this case, the reference is to all those games where the end credits include several pictures or videos of what was going on during the adventure, with no explanation. Earthbound is showing us how those pictures came to be, and how annoying it was for the heroes to have to constantly pose for them just to make your end credits more enjoyable. Considering Ness doesn't seem to mind posing for the pictures, though it's hard to tell, and all the hate the camera man receives, maybe this game even reverses the roles.-- Gamer4
• In the Dusty Dunes Desert, you can encounter an enemy called the Criminal Caterpillar that gives a lot of exp. when defeated. I wondered why a silly caterpillar would give so much experience, especially since it's one of the easiest enemies in the area (although it runs away quickly, making it difficult to catch). Then I found out the enemy's name translates literally as "Wanted Bug". "Wanted", in an area that's basically an expy of the Wild West? The bug is on the lam and is wanted by the law, which is why it runs away from you and gives a big reward (it makes sense that the reward is in experience and not money, given that money is not really in short supply in the game).
• The Guardian Diggers all claim they're the third-strongest of the group. They're all exactly the same strength... so they're all the strongest... and the weakest... and all of the other positions in the group of five, so they are actually all the third-strongest!
• When the Onett Theme plays for the first time, it starts off with a sample of "Pollyanna" as the sun rises. "I believe the morning sun is always gonna shine again"!

Fridge Horror

• Earthbound - According to one theory the final boss Giygas looks vaguely like a fetus. As you defeat it, it starts dividing. That is, you're killing off a baby from ten years in the future.
• The fact that the Church of Happyology characters are named the "Happy Happyists" can be a bit less funny if you consider the fact that Scientology used to own a facility nicknamed "Happy Valley" near San Jacinto, which was used for their slave labour The Rehabilitation Project Force. (The site was sold in 2002 to the Soboba Band of of Luiseño Indians, whose reservation was nearby, and it's been converted into a casino).

Fridge Logic

• When Ness goes into his new robot body, he puts on his cap. But when he gets back, he has it back.
  • Triplicate on this page! Since the cap is an Iconic Item, who's to say Dr. Andonuts didn't make the robot's head in the shape of Ness's cap? The third one comes because things that are appropriate multiple times over usually create Fridge Brilliance. Well played.

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Mother 3

Fridge Brilliance

• At the end of Mother 3 you get another "The End?" before getting a definitive "The End". It strikes you then that the "The End" at the end of Mother and Earthbound wasn't referring to the game's end - but the franchise's end!
• In the same vein, it occured to me (in part thanks to comments on this wiki) that the plot of the sequel, Mother 3, concerns a villain who refuses to lose his childhood innocense and lets it become twisted into a self-absorbed fantasy that he forces on the rest of the world. In the end, he's forced back into an artificial womb where he stays forever. --Filby
  • And that leads to another realization: It's hinted that he is, in fact, happy about being trapped in that capsule for eternity, all by himself. He's so childish that he chose to become an unborn infant again. Technically, you only begin to grow up after you're born, which he didn't want. So, he stays as childish as possible, both mentally and metaphorically.
    • Not to discredit the previous troper, but given that Porky sounds uneasy during the event and that he doesn't exactly think things out in the long-term, it's pretty clear that he's locked himself in a horrid little hell.
      • I've been reading quite a bit about this situation with Porky (never played the game, sorry), and being locked in an indestructable and inescapable capsule sounds agonizingly boring, but for the longest time I thought that he could still keep contact and control of his army and/or servants. But then it occurred to me that for the Absolutely Safe Capsule to be absolutely safe, it must also be air and water tight. He can't even speak to anyone else, and can't hear anyone else. He will live in constant silence, and will see everything there is to see, and not be able to interact with it in any way. Forever. - Battery1320
        • The only person Porky actually tried to replace in his life was Lardna. Ness and company were enshrined, but there's an entire restaurant full of Lardnas-- which is in itself a testament to how screwed up Porky is, that he built a robot duplicate of his mother that only existed to take orders and serve food. But remember that Lardna was always self-absorbed and horribly, horribly negligent; the robot Lardnas were probably more motherly than the real one. Returning to the "womb" provided by the absolutely safe capsule may have made him happy just because it was the closest thing he's ever really had to a motherly influence.
• Another Porky one, but more related to gameplay. He constantly brags about his immortality during the battle with him. If you use cheats to fight him outside of when you're supposed to, he will never die, no matter how many times you use Pk Love Omega, Starstorm, or Ground. The Dev Team Thinks of Everything, perhaps?
  • No. The scene with Porky escaping into the Absolutely Safe Capsule is a special event in the game. If you fight Porky when you're not supposed to, this event isn't triggered properly and Porky can't be defeated. This also happens with the second Masked Man battle.
• Not much of a brilliant observation, but I realized Claus and Lucas were anagrams of each other several months ago. -Candy Entrails
• The film in Porky's theater became one for me when I realized that nobody was following Ness and his friends with a camera! And since nobody even remembers them anymore, Porky must have personally sat down and created the entire script. That's...a powerful image — Canonier.
  • Nobody following Ness with a camera??? Do the words "Fuzzy Pickles" mean anything to you?
  • That's a photo camera, though.
    • Did it look animated?
      • None of the images in the movie were where the Photo Man took pictures, though.
• After the final boss fight of Mother 3, Lucas talks to you, the player, and tells you that you can see him again whenever you like, which of course is meant to imply that you can see Lucas and company again whenever you feel like playing the game once more. However, this troper realized that this means pulling the final needle to destroy and recreate the world leads to a sort of reset on the entire universe of Mother 3. Claus and Hinawa and everyone else are all brought back to life and when you play through the game a second (or third or fourth, etc.) time, the events repeat themselves, eventually culminating in yet another reset of the world of Mother 3. Each time you decide to play again, Hinawa is killed and Claus dies and is reconstructed. Which, I suppose, could also qualify this as Fridge Horror. --Ethereal Zephyr
• In Mother 3 Duster's weapon list includes a Rope Snake, and Wall Staples. It's just a pun on the boardgame, snake's and ladders!
• The song "A Railway In Our Village" seems to sound like "Mom's Hometown", but doesn't really. "Mom's Hometown" is also the Love Theme, making it "false love", and, therefore, false happiness. "A Railway In Our Village" plays in the corrupted Tazmily, where the villagers are being showered with false happiness. --Silver Moon Dance
• Here's some Fridge Horror for ya: Earthbound is obviously a direct sequel to MOTHER, having similar themes and carrying on the story of Giygas. Earthbound takes place only a few years after MOTHER. However, MOTHER 3 seems to be in a very different universe with different themes and styles and the only recurring element is Porky. However, Doesn't MOTHER 3 take place After the End, when the world was reset and everyone's minds wiped?
• The Absolutely Safe Capsule that Porky hides in seems flawed at first, since it is inescapable. Then you realize how the name of the Capsule and think about how crazy Porky is, and realize. The Capsule isn't meant to protect Porky, it traps him inside, keeping everyone absolutely safe from HIM!
• Kumatora is a tomboy because she was raised by the Magypsies.

Fridge Horror

• In the end of Mother 3. When Claus dies, it is very emotional. Then it becomes a whole new level of disturbing when you realize it was child suicide....
• After the End, everyone seems alive and well, and they're all in the same place. All of them. Every NPC, every playable character (except the ones who were already dead), and, most likely, every one of the Chimeras. Every. One. Of. Them. The Pigtunias, the Cattlesnakes, the Kangasharks...and the Ultimate Chimera. Let me rephrase this: EVERYBODY IS IN THE SAME PLACE WITH THE ULTIMATE CHIMERA. Worrying about their safety yet?
  • Not really. I assume that the dragon "reset" all of the chimeras, breaking them down to their original beings. The only thing to be terrified of is whatever made the Ultimate Chimera that vicious in the first place, and even then, it may not even be mad after being separated.