The Mother Connection
A common topic of debate I have come across among the members of the EarthBound Community is the plot connections between EarthBound and it's prequel EarthBound Zero. One major factor of this dispute is the chronology. As far as I know, the story of EarthBound Zero begins in 1900, and the gameplay begins in the late 1980s. EarthBound, like it's predecessor set the time period at the beginning of the adventure, at some time in the 1990s. Of course due to the appearance of the heroes in both games, we are led to believe that they are the same character, Ness. At first glance, their similarity in appearance is the only collective aspect of both heroes. However, observe your early environment in both games. The EarthBound Zero Ness lives in a solitary house with his mother and two sisters. When you exit the house, notice it is upon a narrow hill, with no other homes visible. Fast forward to EarthBound.
You have a next door neighbor. The hills you are settled on are complex, and vast. Not narrow and solitary. So how could this be the same character?? There is no indication made that Ness's family moved from their home in Podunk Town in EarthBound Zero. In fact, early in EarthBound, Aloysius Minch complains to Ness that his family has lived there too long. But then again, this is all at first glance, as I had mentioned before. Now, in EarthBound, remember the many memories of Ness when he reaches his sanctuary location. When he completes the Sound Stone, there is a scene that is in black and white, without color. It depicts a much smaller Ness climbing a very familiar narrow, solitary hill, to a small, solitary house. Walla! Ness is having memories of his house when he was much younger in the 1980s. He must have been about seven or eight then considering his age in EarthBound (13). He is remembering his adventures in EarthBound Zero.
In my ever so humble opinion, that is solid proof that the Ness in EarthBound Zero, and the Ness in EarthBound are one in the same. Moonsider's recent fanfic "Ness meets Dad" also led me to a new theory. In this fanfic, Ness discovers that Giegue, the final boss of EarthBound Zero, is his father. After intense thought and analysis, I realized that this makes perfect sense. Remember how much Ness's grandmother, Maria cared for Giygas's child Giegue in EarthBound Zero. Almost more than her son that she had with Ness's grandfather, George. I'm not trying to get all explicit here or anything, in fact the following idea is something I've come to expect from Japanese writers; theoretically, it's a definite possibility that Maria had an affair with Giygas and spawned Giegue, who went on to become Ness's father. This perfectly explains Ness's natural PSI powers. After all, George was in the first place learning about the powers of PSI from Giygas and his alien race. How ironic that would be that Giygas was destroyed by a hybrid of his own kind. Then again, another constantly debated topic is the true fate of Giygas, but I'll save my theories on that for another article.
A common topic of debate I have come across among the members of the EarthBound Community is the plot connections between EarthBound and it's prequel EarthBound Zero. One major factor of this dispute is the chronology. As far as I know, the story of EarthBound Zero begins in 1900, and the gameplay begins in the late 1980s. EarthBound, like it's predecessor set the time period at the beginning of the adventure, at some time in the 1990s. Of course due to the appearance of the heroes in both games, we are led to believe that they are the same character, Ness. At first glance, their similarity in appearance is the only collective aspect of both heroes. However, observe your early environment in both games. The EarthBound Zero Ness lives in a solitary house with his mother and two sisters. When you exit the house, notice it is upon a narrow hill, with no other homes visible. Fast forward to EarthBound.
You have a next door neighbor. The hills you are settled on are complex, and vast. Not narrow and solitary. So how could this be the same character?? There is no indication made that Ness's family moved from their home in Podunk Town in EarthBound Zero. In fact, early in EarthBound, Aloysius Minch complains to Ness that his family has lived there too long. But then again, this is all at first glance, as I had mentioned before. Now, in EarthBound, remember the many memories of Ness when he reaches his sanctuary location. When he completes the Sound Stone, there is a scene that is in black and white, without color. It depicts a much smaller Ness climbing a very familiar narrow, solitary hill, to a small, solitary house. Walla! Ness is having memories of his house when he was much younger in the 1980s. He must have been about seven or eight then considering his age in EarthBound (13). He is remembering his adventures in EarthBound Zero.
In my ever so humble opinion, that is solid proof that the Ness in EarthBound Zero, and the Ness in EarthBound are one in the same. Moonsider's recent fanfic "Ness meets Dad" also led me to a new theory. In this fanfic, Ness discovers that Giegue, the final boss of EarthBound Zero, is his father. After intense thought and analysis, I realized that this makes perfect sense. Remember how much Ness's grandmother, Maria cared for Giygas's child Giegue in EarthBound Zero. Almost more than her son that she had with Ness's grandfather, George. I'm not trying to get all explicit here or anything, in fact the following idea is something I've come to expect from Japanese writers; theoretically, it's a definite possibility that Maria had an affair with Giygas and spawned Giegue, who went on to become Ness's father. This perfectly explains Ness's natural PSI powers. After all, George was in the first place learning about the powers of PSI from Giygas and his alien race. How ironic that would be that Giygas was destroyed by a hybrid of his own kind. Then again, another constantly debated topic is the true fate of Giygas, but I'll save my theories on that for another article.
