The Negative Man-Why so glum?
Mother 3 has its fair share of oddballs, such as the mole cricket, ramblin’ evil mushroom, and of course the various bizarre chimeras. But the one that stood out to me most was the negative man. Yes, that’s right, the painfully hard to find, yellow, depressing… thing. He’s tucked away in a cave deep inside Orishimo Mountain and spends his days crying about his own worthlessness. If one does take the trouble to find him, they might consider the venture a waste of time. He attacks rarely and when he does, he does 1 single hit point of damage. The rest of the time he complains about how weak he is and urges you to hurry up and defeat him. When defeated he has a 2% chance of yielding a meteotite, but with an increasingly small amount shops (With the game coming to a close) and items of negligible use, what’s the point? He has a 10% of dropping a baked yam, which may have been invaluable five chapters ago, but at this point is simply paltry. So why is he even there at all? Perhaps to prove his own worthlessness. He hid himself away in a cave to shield himself from ridicule about how ‘worthless’ he is (Not unlike the man in Magicant from Mother 1 who becomes a hermit, a “Nowhere Man”) And when he is found, he is determined to live up to this standard he has created for himself. He may be rather strong in reality, but acts weak. Perhaps he purposely attacks in a weak manner and carries intentionally worthless items for a reason. That is because, simply, he is self-loathing. Like many others who fall under the category of ‘emo,’ he tries to hide his depression, perhaps by withdrawing into oneself (Or into a box), yet at the same time, he wants to make it known how much he loathes himself. Perhaps, like others, this is to attract pity. And this brings up another point: Why even attack him? He makes no aggressive moves toward you. Why not just leave him be? And this is true for most other Mother 3 foes. Why fight an innocent mole which may only be defending its home? Why try and kill a yeti that only wants to snowboard, and you just happen to be in the way? Or why attack the Walking L’il bush, which literally makes no moves against you, but only heals you and is friendly? Why is it that you must simply kill whatever’s in your way? In Mother 1 or EarthBound, they were being controlled by an unearthly force. And when they were defeated, they were ‘tamed.’ I know I must sound rather hypocritical, but this is just something to think about the next time you go to beat up the Negative man. Remember: We all have a little feeling of worthlessness, in a cave inside our mind. Show some care for this one.
Mother 3 has its fair share of oddballs, such as the mole cricket, ramblin’ evil mushroom, and of course the various bizarre chimeras. But the one that stood out to me most was the negative man. Yes, that’s right, the painfully hard to find, yellow, depressing… thing. He’s tucked away in a cave deep inside Orishimo Mountain and spends his days crying about his own worthlessness. If one does take the trouble to find him, they might consider the venture a waste of time. He attacks rarely and when he does, he does 1 single hit point of damage. The rest of the time he complains about how weak he is and urges you to hurry up and defeat him. When defeated he has a 2% chance of yielding a meteotite, but with an increasingly small amount shops (With the game coming to a close) and items of negligible use, what’s the point? He has a 10% of dropping a baked yam, which may have been invaluable five chapters ago, but at this point is simply paltry. So why is he even there at all? Perhaps to prove his own worthlessness. He hid himself away in a cave to shield himself from ridicule about how ‘worthless’ he is (Not unlike the man in Magicant from Mother 1 who becomes a hermit, a “Nowhere Man”) And when he is found, he is determined to live up to this standard he has created for himself. He may be rather strong in reality, but acts weak. Perhaps he purposely attacks in a weak manner and carries intentionally worthless items for a reason. That is because, simply, he is self-loathing. Like many others who fall under the category of ‘emo,’ he tries to hide his depression, perhaps by withdrawing into oneself (Or into a box), yet at the same time, he wants to make it known how much he loathes himself. Perhaps, like others, this is to attract pity. And this brings up another point: Why even attack him? He makes no aggressive moves toward you. Why not just leave him be? And this is true for most other Mother 3 foes. Why fight an innocent mole which may only be defending its home? Why try and kill a yeti that only wants to snowboard, and you just happen to be in the way? Or why attack the Walking L’il bush, which literally makes no moves against you, but only heals you and is friendly? Why is it that you must simply kill whatever’s in your way? In Mother 1 or EarthBound, they were being controlled by an unearthly force. And when they were defeated, they were ‘tamed.’ I know I must sound rather hypocritical, but this is just something to think about the next time you go to beat up the Negative man. Remember: We all have a little feeling of worthlessness, in a cave inside our mind. Show some care for this one.
