"once upon a time in Morocco, aliens came out of the sky"
"(Other dogs haven't figured
it out yet, but I know that
you guys saved the world!)"
(King, at home)
. the devil's machine
The pulsating, growling...gut/brain path literally gives me the shivers. Like computer circuits. And guts. Intestines. Brain matter. Just...pulsating. And there's no music, only...a snore-growl sound. It's really freaking me out, actually...
When Giygas' brain-eye opens, it reveals...Ness. It's...freaky and disconcerting. Like all Giygas can see now is Ness, so obsessed and consumed by the one the Apple of Enlightenment foretold would destroy him. A certain pig-child probably doesn't help...
But according to Scary Womanizing Pig Mask's Blog, which also explains one of the more controversial yet convincing theories about Giygas, this brain-eye thing with Ness on it is actually the Apple of Enlightenment. But it's because of mistranslation that this never got across to US players. However, I personally don't have any definite proof on it so you can take it or leave it. I think I'll take it, though, and run with it.
After a good chase around the world, the pig-child appears in his spider vehicle at last.
Ness! Are you surprised?
It's me, Pokey.
I assist only the strong and
able!
That's Pokey.
You guys look pathetic!
The Apple of Enlightenment
has already made a
prediction.
...But I won't let what the
Apple of Enlightenment
predicted take place.
You guys will be beaten by
Giygas.
Giygas will be stronger, a
more powerful entity than
any other!
Why?
'Cause of me.
I was led by Giygas, and now
I'm here.
The Apple of Enlightenment
couldn't predict this.
Master Giygas. No, Giygas is
no longer the wielder of Evil.
He has become the
embodiment of Evil itself...
which he cannot control on
his own.
He is the Evil Power.
Because he was not as talented or brave as Ness, because he bailed on Ness, because he was ultimately...jealous of Ness, Pokey, this kid is at the end --of time (for the moment), really. Fighting against his next-door neighbor, his former friend...the kid I think he always wanted to be.
I wonder if Pokey really realizes at this point what he's doing. If he realizes the concept of death. Of a world consumed by evil. I suppose with Ness being a robot now, he doesn't have to stare at his friend in the human flesh, and it might make what he's doing easier.
It's rather interesting to me that Giygas' main method of attack in the first stage of the battle is to use PSI Rockin' which is named after Ness' favorite thing since it is Ness' unique attack. Especially made intriguing by the fact that the devil's machine which keeps Giygas inside...is an eyeball with Ness as the pupil.
It makes less sense if that eyeball is really the Apple of Enlightenment. But then again, it makes more sense...
And then, once enough damage is dealt to Pokey's spider vehicle...
I understand you guys are
already claiming to be heroes.
Well, it is a gazillion years too
early for you to oppose
Giygas!
You must feel pretty stupid
to keep fighting without even
knowing
what Giygas looks like!
If you were to ever see
Giygas, you'd be so petrified
with fear,
you'd never be able to run
away!
...That's how scary it is!
So, do you want me to turn
off the "Devil's Machine?"
Well, prepare to be amazed!
So, isn't this terrifying?
I'm terrified, too.
Giygas cannot think rationally
any more,
and he isn't even aware of
what he is doing now.
His own mind was destroyed
by his incredible power.
What an all-mighty idiot!
Yep, that's what he is!
I think this is where it starts to become apparent that...Pokey has lost it in a sense. An absolute sense of fear of what he has gotten himself into by working behind the scenes to further the cause of evil. Because he knows this incredible, mind-blowing evil...he can't turn back. It's just too late. I don't think Pokey...is a bad guy at this point - perhaps in Mother 3 NO SPOILERS PLS, but not now. Pokey is an incredibly weak person. I just don't think he can do anything else but serve Giygas at this point - simply for the fact that Giygas exists and he has seen his power.
It was Pokey who was the one who was "so petrified with fear" he couldn't run. Not for Ness. Not for salvation. Not even for himself.
"....Ness..."
Giygas...there are so many theories about him, one of which is incredibly fascinating, disturbing, and somewhat convincing. But regardless of if you believe that particular theory or not, Giygas is a formless infantile full of negative energy at this point. Simply highly emotionally and psychically reactive. For some reason, though, I just cannot see Giygas as evil. When you fight him, especially in the third stage, it's almost like he's angry and bewildered, but he relies on Ness and wants him to like him - to stop hurting him.
This...existence. Method of attack. It's very unusual. It's like Giygas isn't even a real BOSS, a BAD GUY of sorts. And, according to that theory, he's not: Giygas is a fetus. You can read all that (actually, that page is an excellent source of some of the music from this area that I've mentioned), and I've read all that, but it doesn't make much sense in context. Cervix, check. Fetus, check. Motive? Reason? no check. Like why is Giygas, the embodiment of evil, a fetus.
You ever have those moments when thoughts just come to you in a flash? And it sends such a creepy shiver down your spine? Because you wish you could just revert to your state of being before thinking that? Yeah, yeah. It was like that. I'm going to put out a theory on Giygas and the Apple of Enlightenment that might help to give the fetus-abortion theory some weight. Bear with me because it's been like hell to put this into a sensical order.
This "I" who has shown up in the game, with the monologue that followed after beating Ness' Nightmare in Magicant, could reasonably be assumed to be Ness. Surprisingly enough, Ness is fractured. We found that out when he, well, talked to himself back then and gave himself all kinds of crazy HP and PP points, effectively making him into the powerhouse of the group. Why, though? That part of the game didn't make much sense to me at first until, well, I described that moment already.
I may or may not have mentioned it in previous entries about this game, but after reclaiming each Your Sanctuary, a memory from Ness' childhood pops up. He catches a whiff of Steak (his favorite food), etc. He even has the sensation of being watched as a baby in Lumine Hall. Following the reclamation of Fire Spring and before Magicant, Ness takes us through a black and white world to his house. Then he disappears and instead the screen takes us through his living room, up the stairs and into the hall, and then it deposits us into his room where we see dialogue from his parents on what to name him, how that red cap is big but looks good on him, and finally we realize that Ness was born with telekinetic abilities.
And we also realize from Magicant, from Everdred's words and appearance, from Ness' Nightmare, that Ness had an evil and violent side. I had the supposition that in the thread of time which led to the apocalypse ten years into the future, that Ness had turned out somewhat like Everdred. And of course, before Ness was able to fully realize the power of all the Your Sanctuaries, he had to expel his evil side from his mind. Once the Nightmare was shattered, Ness talked to himself, whole and free, as the power of those spots flowed through him, and told him things from the future - of where to go.
It was very soon after that point that Giygas started attacking -- from the past. Why the hell from the past if his evil influence extended from the future? An apocalypse is just that, though, an apocalypse: the end of the world. We don't know how or why Giygas brought this on - just that it happened, and Buzz-Buzz came from ten years into the future on a meteorite to recruit Ness to stop it.
It's at that point after Buzz-Buzz arrives that things start attacking: first the Starman, then later the crows, dogs, snakes, people, etc. Other people are aware of the increase in monsters, but, aside from the zombies in Threed who were working directly under Belch instead of Giygas, the attacks have only been against Ness and his friends. It's obvious that Giygas knows what Ness is trying to do from the Apple of Enlightenment's prophecy. But as long as Ness had an incomplete Sound Stone, the future of ruin still existed.
The point where Ness realizes his true abilities with the power spots of the earth is the point in time where that future stops existing. And Giygas cannot exist in the present because Ness destroyed that line of destruction with the defeat of his Nightmare. So the only option is to go to the past...
What does Ness' Nightmare have to do with Giygas existing in the present? I know at this point that some of y'all may be confused as hell (while others of you may be realizing what I'm getting at). I've kind of worked backwards with this thing, after all. Still, bear with me.
Let's touch upon the Giygas-is-a-fetus theory now. If you haven't read it, go do it now (I've linked it twice already). ...Whether or not you agree with it is irrelevant, but do you understand it? Good.
Because Giygas, at the time we see him, is a metaphysical fetus. He wasn't always that way, though.
I have no doubt that the Giygas who brought on the apocalypse ten years into the future was a nasty creature. However, I think it's safe to say that Giygas himself...is as metaphysical as the fetus form we see him in (though not a fetus!). In order for Giygas to propagate himself and influence our world, he has to have a...host, if you will. Someone to influence and act in this world for him - just as Pokey needs someone to influence. The two, Giygas and Pokey, are a perfect parallel, actually.
Giygas' host, the person whom he influenced to eventually bring about cosmic destruction, was Ness.
Why Ness? Ness had psychic powers as even a baby, so why the hell not Ness!
...Actually, in the original Mother, Giygas was an alien who was raised by a human couple abducted by his race: George and Maria. So Giygas flies off and declares revenge someday at the end of Mother.
And he does: by attaching himself to Ness, who was, as Ninten was, a baby who displayed PSI powers like the ones George had studied without permission. George was Ninten's grandfather, and perhaps there's a relationship between Ness and Ninten, perhaps there's not. It doesn't matter that much because Ness is not the only child in the world to know PSI. The point being is that it was because of this display of power (and his immense potential) as a baby that we saw before we scooted off to Magicant that Giygas chose Ness to influence.
Perhaps Giygas had obtained his tremendous power before he met Ness, but more than likely he obtained it while living in Ness. It's safe to say, though, that Ness was not an evil child, but as his psychic powers progressed the further he went into late teens and adulthood (Ness would have been 23? 24? at the time of the apocalypse), Giygas would have shown more and more influence. Eventually culminating to...whatever it was that happened.
In any case, as one of the only survivors from the future, Buzz-Buzz went to the present to warn and get Ness' help. The Apple of Enlightenment foretold that Ness would be the one to stop Giygas' plans because the only one who can stop the evil in Ness...is Ness himself (more on that later). And once he defeats his Nightmare (the evil part within his mind that allows Giygas to take hold and use him), that future misuse of himself is erased. Which, as I mentioned earlier, is why Giygas has no choice to retreat into the past (the future is no longer and the present Ness has cut him off).
But how far into the past? The presumed moment that Giygas was in contact with Ness was at a baby when he displayed his first telekinetic abilities - that moment in time alluded to by each of the Your Sanctuaries and the moment we looked in on upon the reclamation of the Fire Springs.
Before Ness was born, perhaps when he had been conceived or was developing. But even though Giygas is in a time where Ness barely exists, he's still tied to him...because he's locked within the Devil's Machine -- and the Apple of Enlightenment (simply a shell). So Giygas is, like Ness at that point in history, a fetus. He is incapable of rational thought, so consumed by reaction and negativity.
And so Ness is the one who must abort...himself, really.
...But without a mind and reason, I don't think evil, which is what Giygas was when he was the Universal Cosmic Destroyer, can really be...evil. Giygas at this point can be harmful but in essence it seems to be just a...frightened reaction. A defense mechanism, how animals attack sometimes out of fear instead of true malice. ...Though the form of Giygas' attacks in the final battle are incomprehensible, they still have the same result as Ness' attacks. And they're both just fighting to stay alive.
Anyway, back to "I", the point in which we started this whole, theoretical, and crazy mess. It's a part of Ness that seemed to be fractured and cut off from him with the Nightmare in the way. Or perhaps it was in the Nightmare, obscured from Ness' dominant part - yet it seemed to know the things that Ness didn't (like to go to Saturn Valley where the Phase Distorter was). It's also the point in which Giygas begins his attack from the past. As mentioned before, it's because the future, where Giygas was, no longer existed - but there was something else in that future, I believe: the Apple of Enlightenment.
Giygas even brought it with him when he went to the past, but at that point it was just an empty shell, a symbol and cage for Giygas. Because the Apple of Enlightenment was the part of Ness obscured by the Nightmare - and when that was defeated, it was free to return to Ness in the present. It was the part of Ness that Giygas could respect and heed but not control. The Apple of Enlightenment shell (the egg) that contained Giygas had not Ness' face on it because he was the target of Giygas and the prophecy but because that was him. And the Apple of Enlightenment, who laced our coffee and tea and gave us the recipe for preparing beef jerky, was the one who famously foretold to Giygas - himself yet not - that HE at thirteen going on fourteen (an age where Giygas' influence was simply dormant) would be the one to ultimately stop him.
Before Pokey subtly clues the player in to pray for help through taunts, he says this telling bit:
Heh heh heh heh.
You must really be
at the end of your rope.
In this bizarre dimension,
you four are the only force
fighting for justice...
And here you stand,
waiting to be burned up with
all the rest of the garbage of
this universe...
Haaaaah!
That's so sad. I can't help
but shed a tear.
You know, my heart is
beating incredibly fast,
...I must be experiencing
absolute terror!
All of Pokey's dialogue, I think, really references himself and his own state of mind. He's terrified of Giygas. For Giygas. For Ness. For himself. But he cannot repent for the same reason as he could not run away. Some things, once "marked", cannot ever be the same.
He's bitter ("all the rest of the garbage of this universe"?). Over what, I can't say. It could be the situation, the fact that he has to destroy his friend, the fact that a thing like Giygas could even be allowed to exist, his own weakness that would allow this to happen. It isn't justice if it's turned against him.
I do like to think that the tear part wasn't just a sentence he blurted in sarcasm, that he actually was crying in fear.
"It hurts, Ness..."
"...Please give us strength," Paula prays, "if it is possible... Please... Somebody......help us..."
The first ones to respond to Paula's Pray Command are the gold-digger, Mr. Saturn, Dr. Andonuts, and Apple Kid in Saturn Valley. They're the primary ones who know of this...endeavor, at least. Mr. Saturn alerts the other Mr. Saturn, and in prayer, they turn to the screen.
(All of the Mr. Saturns felt a new, startling feeling they had never experienced before, and they all started praying for the safety of Ness and his friends...)
It destabilizes Giygas' defenses.
"...Ah, Grrr, Ohhh.......friends......I'm h...a...p...p...y..."
"...Please give us strength!" Paula prays again. "Anyone who can hear our plea... Help us..."
The call reaches the Runaway Five in Summers who really just always kind of liked Ness and try to help him and Paula out. And in prayer, they turn to the screen.
(Suddenly, one of the Runaway Five felt something stop him, and he prayed fervently for the safety of Ness and his friends.)
It hurts him. Minutely, but he still hurts.
"...Please give us strength!" she prays. "Speed this prayer to all the people of the earth."
It's Mr. Polestar and all the children at the preschool who hear their beloved Paula's call. In prayer, they all turn to the screen.
(Paula's father thought he somehow heard his daughter's voice, and prayed sincerely for the safety of Paula and her friends.)
Still, the damage is small.
"....Ness...It hurts, Ness......Ah, Grrr, Ohhh......I'm h...a...p...p...y......I'm h...a...p...p...y.......Ness..."
Again, Paula prays: "...Please give us strength! Anyone who can hear our plea... Help us..."
This time it's Jeff's friend Tony who hears the prayer and alerts all the boys in the Snow Wood Boarding School. And in prayer, they turn to the screen.
(Suddenly, Tony felt anxious about Jeff, and he prayed strongly for the safety of Jeff and his friends.)
slightly ironic note: Jeff had just died on me then, heh!
Their prayer doubles the damage to Giygas.
"Ness! ...friends......It hurts, it hurts..."
"Please grant us power!" she requests. "Anyone who can hear our plea... Help us..."
The prayer reaches Poo's friends. A trio of girls who really liked Poo gather, and in prayer, they turn to the screen.
(A young woman in Dalaam woke from a dream in which Prince Poo died, and she began to pray for the well-being of Poo and his friends.)
The damage to Giygas is substantial.
"Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness......Ness......Ness..."
"...Please grant us strength! Anyone who can hear our plea... We ask for this..."
Frank, the boss of the former juvenile Shark gang and whom Ness beat straight at the very beginning of the adventure, hears Paula's request. He turns to the screen in prayer.
(Suddenly, Frank recalled Ness' shining young face, and began to pray diligently for the safety of Ness and his friends.)
Again, the damage is substantial.
"...I'm h...a...p...p...y... It hurts, Ness... It hurts, Ness..."
Another prayer: "Please grant us power! Speed this prayer to all the people of the earth..."
This time, it's back to the beginning, to where everything began - to Ness' house at night. His mother, his sister Tracy, and his dog King gather together and turn to the screen in prayer.
(Suddenly, Ness's mother felt terribly uneasy, and she began to pray for the safety of her son and his friends.)
The prayer hurts Giygas greatly. And so the fight goes into...crazy-mode.
"It's not right...not right...not right......Ah, Grrr, Ohhh......I'm h...a...p...p...y..."
"I can't think of anyone else..." Paula prays, but tries anyway. "...Someone, anyone......please help us."
The darkness absorbs her prayer.
"...go...b...a...c...k... I feel...g...o...o...d......go...b...a...c...k..."
"Someone...can you hear me?!" she tries again, desperately. "Please, give us strength!"
Paula and her friends' call touched the heart of ----t-e. ------- prayed for the kids, having never even met them before.
This unknown prayer deals a large amount of damage to Giygas.
---e-te kept praying.
Even greater damage.
Su-e-te kept praying.
An incredible amount this time.
Suzette kept praying.
It's the final blow to Giygas, who breaks down.
...suporma had an incredibly fascinating comment on this part of the battle that really influenced my thoughts about all of this. All the people who prayed for the children turned to the screen - to YOU, the player. Like they're praying to you - and all you're doing is telling Paula to pray. For what and to whom her call is reached is up to her; but you're the one who tells her to do it. She is guided, even scripted, but for all intents and purposes she has free will. You're not God; you didn't create anything in this world, but you are that outside force, that higher power, that can help.
The game tells you that you were praying. But really, I think every player was doing it all along, especially if you're playing for the first time. Please let them be okay! Please let this work! Who you pray to is up to you, but your very existence turned the battle. Things can happen fictionally or not that we're not aware of. There's no way that we can possibly know everything. We don't know about the apocalypse or the Apple of Enlightenment, but we just happened to come in at a time when Buzz-Buzz rode a meteor to Onett with only the words of the Apple, trying for help of some kind.
It wasn't Ness exactly he was looking for, because Ness on his own, while still Ness, may not have been able to change the future; who he was looking for, who the Apple of Enlightenment sent him to find, was you. The game (the Apple) constructed itself so you could use Ness and save...Giygas and Ness himself, really.
Apple Kid implies that there are different points in time in a state of potential existence all at once. You just happened to come across theirs and send it into a state of limited reality (for you, anyway). This game isn't real by your standards, but Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo existed - not in this world's history but in your memory, your heart. We used the game creator's created children to save a created world. And I think in return he just wanted to let us know that - that you didn't save everyone by fulfilling the Apple of Enlightenment's prophecy and playing the game but that you did it by playing the game.
I don't normally like people telling me, the gamer, what I feel, but Paula and her friends' call really did touch my heart; and as a kid, staring at the screen, scared and confused, I really did pray for their safety.
"Ness! Now, I...well... It's going to seem like I'm running away," Pokey admits (and for the first time he can because he is no longer paralyzed by Giygas' power), "but perhaps I'll just sneak away to another era to think about my next plan. It's a good bet that we'll see each other again..."
Now that it's obvious that I (no seriously, it was me) defeated Giygas, Pokey sly shifts off as he has done throughout the game when it was apparent that Ness foiled him. ...But he expresses desire to see Ness again, even if he is not trying to repent, and even revealing his true feelings about Ness (and the root of their entire relationship: "So now which one do you think is the cool guy?!").
It's at this point that Pokey transforms from simply being weak to being a bad guy in his own right, even if he doesn't attack or do anything negative to Ness in parting. In this newly formed reality, it's not Ness who becomes an Everdred, a crime boss with a soft spot for Ness, but Pokey.
In the future in which the apocalypse occurred, I wonder how Pokey turned out.
. the war against giygas is over...
It's an unnerving moment after Pokey disappears and the screen goes into a red static to eventually pop into nothing. And staring at Ness and his friends' crumpled robot bodies before one by one their spirits return.
I read Tony's letter and showed it to Jeff. "Ah," he said, "that Tony has a heart of gold." So maybe he isn't so dismissive of Tony... Yet he isn't making any effort to go back and see him (and I read the letter in the first place).
It read:
Dear Jeff,
Everything's really going
great here.
I wish I could have gone with
you on your adventure, even
just part of the way,
but instead I'm sitting here,
waiting for you in Winters.
I want to see you again as
soon as possible. I can't wait
to see your cheerful face.
I bet your glasses are dirty...
If you come back, I'll clean
them for you!
Like I said, I"m waiting for
you.
Yours truly,
Tony
P.S. Don't show this letter to anyone!
I took Paula to Dalaam. We wanted to see Poo one last time, and he was impressed with us, as was everyone else. Then we went to Winters to see Tony and Maxwell and found out that while Jeff called Maxwell, he doesn't call Tony. In Fourside we found that Mr. Monotoli was now working as an elevator man for Mr. Enrich Flavor; so instead we saw a Venus show again. I don't know if Ness held Paula's hand, but I like to think that he did.
We rode the bus to Twoson, stopping at the desert (to try our luck with the Sanchez Brothers; we were unlucky) and Threed (still zombie-free) on the way. We went to Burglin Park before taking Paula home because I wanted to see if Everdred was there; he wasn't.
She told me there was something she wanted to say...but had forgotten what it was. I followed her inside and talked to her father. He told Ness: "My opinion of you has changed. Perhaps you should continue dating Paula. Just treat her right..." It made me smile more than releasing baby chicks and seeing them scamper off (I did that, too).
I went home eventually, after buying a house and seeing Frank, and found out that Mr. Minch is missing. Lardna Minch has a new man now: Mr. Prettyman. She thinks Pokey's just out for a walk. Mom approved of our successes, and King knows that we saved the world, even if other dogs don't.
I smiled when the photographer took my picture (I hope Ness sees and knows it's me).
.
it out yet, but I know that
you guys saved the world!)"
(King, at home)
. the devil's machine
The pulsating, growling...gut/brain path literally gives me the shivers. Like computer circuits. And guts. Intestines. Brain matter. Just...pulsating. And there's no music, only...a snore-growl sound. It's really freaking me out, actually...
When Giygas' brain-eye opens, it reveals...Ness. It's...freaky and disconcerting. Like all Giygas can see now is Ness, so obsessed and consumed by the one the Apple of Enlightenment foretold would destroy him. A certain pig-child probably doesn't help...
But according to Scary Womanizing Pig Mask's Blog, which also explains one of the more controversial yet convincing theories about Giygas, this brain-eye thing with Ness on it is actually the Apple of Enlightenment. But it's because of mistranslation that this never got across to US players. However, I personally don't have any definite proof on it so you can take it or leave it. I think I'll take it, though, and run with it.
After a good chase around the world, the pig-child appears in his spider vehicle at last.
Ness! Are you surprised?
It's me, Pokey.
I assist only the strong and
able!
That's Pokey.
You guys look pathetic!
The Apple of Enlightenment
has already made a
prediction.
...But I won't let what the
Apple of Enlightenment
predicted take place.
You guys will be beaten by
Giygas.
Giygas will be stronger, a
more powerful entity than
any other!
Why?
'Cause of me.
I was led by Giygas, and now
I'm here.
The Apple of Enlightenment
couldn't predict this.
Master Giygas. No, Giygas is
no longer the wielder of Evil.
He has become the
embodiment of Evil itself...
which he cannot control on
his own.
He is the Evil Power.
Because he was not as talented or brave as Ness, because he bailed on Ness, because he was ultimately...jealous of Ness, Pokey, this kid is at the end --of time (for the moment), really. Fighting against his next-door neighbor, his former friend...the kid I think he always wanted to be.
I wonder if Pokey really realizes at this point what he's doing. If he realizes the concept of death. Of a world consumed by evil. I suppose with Ness being a robot now, he doesn't have to stare at his friend in the human flesh, and it might make what he's doing easier.
It's rather interesting to me that Giygas' main method of attack in the first stage of the battle is to use PSI Rockin' which is named after Ness' favorite thing since it is Ness' unique attack. Especially made intriguing by the fact that the devil's machine which keeps Giygas inside...is an eyeball with Ness as the pupil.
It makes less sense if that eyeball is really the Apple of Enlightenment. But then again, it makes more sense...
And then, once enough damage is dealt to Pokey's spider vehicle...
I understand you guys are
already claiming to be heroes.
Well, it is a gazillion years too
early for you to oppose
Giygas!
You must feel pretty stupid
to keep fighting without even
knowing
what Giygas looks like!
If you were to ever see
Giygas, you'd be so petrified
with fear,
you'd never be able to run
away!
...That's how scary it is!
So, do you want me to turn
off the "Devil's Machine?"
Well, prepare to be amazed!
So, isn't this terrifying?
I'm terrified, too.
Giygas cannot think rationally
any more,
and he isn't even aware of
what he is doing now.
His own mind was destroyed
by his incredible power.
What an all-mighty idiot!
Yep, that's what he is!
I think this is where it starts to become apparent that...Pokey has lost it in a sense. An absolute sense of fear of what he has gotten himself into by working behind the scenes to further the cause of evil. Because he knows this incredible, mind-blowing evil...he can't turn back. It's just too late. I don't think Pokey...is a bad guy at this point - perhaps in Mother 3 NO SPOILERS PLS, but not now. Pokey is an incredibly weak person. I just don't think he can do anything else but serve Giygas at this point - simply for the fact that Giygas exists and he has seen his power.
It was Pokey who was the one who was "so petrified with fear" he couldn't run. Not for Ness. Not for salvation. Not even for himself.
"....Ness..."
Giygas...there are so many theories about him, one of which is incredibly fascinating, disturbing, and somewhat convincing. But regardless of if you believe that particular theory or not, Giygas is a formless infantile full of negative energy at this point. Simply highly emotionally and psychically reactive. For some reason, though, I just cannot see Giygas as evil. When you fight him, especially in the third stage, it's almost like he's angry and bewildered, but he relies on Ness and wants him to like him - to stop hurting him.
This...existence. Method of attack. It's very unusual. It's like Giygas isn't even a real BOSS, a BAD GUY of sorts. And, according to that theory, he's not: Giygas is a fetus. You can read all that (actually, that page is an excellent source of some of the music from this area that I've mentioned), and I've read all that, but it doesn't make much sense in context. Cervix, check. Fetus, check. Motive? Reason? no check. Like why is Giygas, the embodiment of evil, a fetus.
You ever have those moments when thoughts just come to you in a flash? And it sends such a creepy shiver down your spine? Because you wish you could just revert to your state of being before thinking that? Yeah, yeah. It was like that. I'm going to put out a theory on Giygas and the Apple of Enlightenment that might help to give the fetus-abortion theory some weight. Bear with me because it's been like hell to put this into a sensical order.
This "I" who has shown up in the game, with the monologue that followed after beating Ness' Nightmare in Magicant, could reasonably be assumed to be Ness. Surprisingly enough, Ness is fractured. We found that out when he, well, talked to himself back then and gave himself all kinds of crazy HP and PP points, effectively making him into the powerhouse of the group. Why, though? That part of the game didn't make much sense to me at first until, well, I described that moment already.
I may or may not have mentioned it in previous entries about this game, but after reclaiming each Your Sanctuary, a memory from Ness' childhood pops up. He catches a whiff of Steak (his favorite food), etc. He even has the sensation of being watched as a baby in Lumine Hall. Following the reclamation of Fire Spring and before Magicant, Ness takes us through a black and white world to his house. Then he disappears and instead the screen takes us through his living room, up the stairs and into the hall, and then it deposits us into his room where we see dialogue from his parents on what to name him, how that red cap is big but looks good on him, and finally we realize that Ness was born with telekinetic abilities.
And we also realize from Magicant, from Everdred's words and appearance, from Ness' Nightmare, that Ness had an evil and violent side. I had the supposition that in the thread of time which led to the apocalypse ten years into the future, that Ness had turned out somewhat like Everdred. And of course, before Ness was able to fully realize the power of all the Your Sanctuaries, he had to expel his evil side from his mind. Once the Nightmare was shattered, Ness talked to himself, whole and free, as the power of those spots flowed through him, and told him things from the future - of where to go.
It was very soon after that point that Giygas started attacking -- from the past. Why the hell from the past if his evil influence extended from the future? An apocalypse is just that, though, an apocalypse: the end of the world. We don't know how or why Giygas brought this on - just that it happened, and Buzz-Buzz came from ten years into the future on a meteorite to recruit Ness to stop it.
It's at that point after Buzz-Buzz arrives that things start attacking: first the Starman, then later the crows, dogs, snakes, people, etc. Other people are aware of the increase in monsters, but, aside from the zombies in Threed who were working directly under Belch instead of Giygas, the attacks have only been against Ness and his friends. It's obvious that Giygas knows what Ness is trying to do from the Apple of Enlightenment's prophecy. But as long as Ness had an incomplete Sound Stone, the future of ruin still existed.
The point where Ness realizes his true abilities with the power spots of the earth is the point in time where that future stops existing. And Giygas cannot exist in the present because Ness destroyed that line of destruction with the defeat of his Nightmare. So the only option is to go to the past...
What does Ness' Nightmare have to do with Giygas existing in the present? I know at this point that some of y'all may be confused as hell (while others of you may be realizing what I'm getting at). I've kind of worked backwards with this thing, after all. Still, bear with me.
Let's touch upon the Giygas-is-a-fetus theory now. If you haven't read it, go do it now (I've linked it twice already). ...Whether or not you agree with it is irrelevant, but do you understand it? Good.
Because Giygas, at the time we see him, is a metaphysical fetus. He wasn't always that way, though.
I have no doubt that the Giygas who brought on the apocalypse ten years into the future was a nasty creature. However, I think it's safe to say that Giygas himself...is as metaphysical as the fetus form we see him in (though not a fetus!). In order for Giygas to propagate himself and influence our world, he has to have a...host, if you will. Someone to influence and act in this world for him - just as Pokey needs someone to influence. The two, Giygas and Pokey, are a perfect parallel, actually.
Giygas' host, the person whom he influenced to eventually bring about cosmic destruction, was Ness.
Why Ness? Ness had psychic powers as even a baby, so why the hell not Ness!
...Actually, in the original Mother, Giygas was an alien who was raised by a human couple abducted by his race: George and Maria. So Giygas flies off and declares revenge someday at the end of Mother.
And he does: by attaching himself to Ness, who was, as Ninten was, a baby who displayed PSI powers like the ones George had studied without permission. George was Ninten's grandfather, and perhaps there's a relationship between Ness and Ninten, perhaps there's not. It doesn't matter that much because Ness is not the only child in the world to know PSI. The point being is that it was because of this display of power (and his immense potential) as a baby that we saw before we scooted off to Magicant that Giygas chose Ness to influence.
Perhaps Giygas had obtained his tremendous power before he met Ness, but more than likely he obtained it while living in Ness. It's safe to say, though, that Ness was not an evil child, but as his psychic powers progressed the further he went into late teens and adulthood (Ness would have been 23? 24? at the time of the apocalypse), Giygas would have shown more and more influence. Eventually culminating to...whatever it was that happened.
In any case, as one of the only survivors from the future, Buzz-Buzz went to the present to warn and get Ness' help. The Apple of Enlightenment foretold that Ness would be the one to stop Giygas' plans because the only one who can stop the evil in Ness...is Ness himself (more on that later). And once he defeats his Nightmare (the evil part within his mind that allows Giygas to take hold and use him), that future misuse of himself is erased. Which, as I mentioned earlier, is why Giygas has no choice to retreat into the past (the future is no longer and the present Ness has cut him off).
But how far into the past? The presumed moment that Giygas was in contact with Ness was at a baby when he displayed his first telekinetic abilities - that moment in time alluded to by each of the Your Sanctuaries and the moment we looked in on upon the reclamation of the Fire Springs.
Before Ness was born, perhaps when he had been conceived or was developing. But even though Giygas is in a time where Ness barely exists, he's still tied to him...because he's locked within the Devil's Machine -- and the Apple of Enlightenment (simply a shell). So Giygas is, like Ness at that point in history, a fetus. He is incapable of rational thought, so consumed by reaction and negativity.
And so Ness is the one who must abort...himself, really.
...But without a mind and reason, I don't think evil, which is what Giygas was when he was the Universal Cosmic Destroyer, can really be...evil. Giygas at this point can be harmful but in essence it seems to be just a...frightened reaction. A defense mechanism, how animals attack sometimes out of fear instead of true malice. ...Though the form of Giygas' attacks in the final battle are incomprehensible, they still have the same result as Ness' attacks. And they're both just fighting to stay alive.
Anyway, back to "I", the point in which we started this whole, theoretical, and crazy mess. It's a part of Ness that seemed to be fractured and cut off from him with the Nightmare in the way. Or perhaps it was in the Nightmare, obscured from Ness' dominant part - yet it seemed to know the things that Ness didn't (like to go to Saturn Valley where the Phase Distorter was). It's also the point in which Giygas begins his attack from the past. As mentioned before, it's because the future, where Giygas was, no longer existed - but there was something else in that future, I believe: the Apple of Enlightenment.
Giygas even brought it with him when he went to the past, but at that point it was just an empty shell, a symbol and cage for Giygas. Because the Apple of Enlightenment was the part of Ness obscured by the Nightmare - and when that was defeated, it was free to return to Ness in the present. It was the part of Ness that Giygas could respect and heed but not control. The Apple of Enlightenment shell (the egg) that contained Giygas had not Ness' face on it because he was the target of Giygas and the prophecy but because that was him. And the Apple of Enlightenment, who laced our coffee and tea and gave us the recipe for preparing beef jerky, was the one who famously foretold to Giygas - himself yet not - that HE at thirteen going on fourteen (an age where Giygas' influence was simply dormant) would be the one to ultimately stop him.
Before Pokey subtly clues the player in to pray for help through taunts, he says this telling bit:
Heh heh heh heh.
You must really be
at the end of your rope.
In this bizarre dimension,
you four are the only force
fighting for justice...
And here you stand,
waiting to be burned up with
all the rest of the garbage of
this universe...
Haaaaah!
That's so sad. I can't help
but shed a tear.
You know, my heart is
beating incredibly fast,
...I must be experiencing
absolute terror!
All of Pokey's dialogue, I think, really references himself and his own state of mind. He's terrified of Giygas. For Giygas. For Ness. For himself. But he cannot repent for the same reason as he could not run away. Some things, once "marked", cannot ever be the same.
He's bitter ("all the rest of the garbage of this universe"?). Over what, I can't say. It could be the situation, the fact that he has to destroy his friend, the fact that a thing like Giygas could even be allowed to exist, his own weakness that would allow this to happen. It isn't justice if it's turned against him.
I do like to think that the tear part wasn't just a sentence he blurted in sarcasm, that he actually was crying in fear.
"It hurts, Ness..."
"...Please give us strength," Paula prays, "if it is possible... Please... Somebody......help us..."
The first ones to respond to Paula's Pray Command are the gold-digger, Mr. Saturn, Dr. Andonuts, and Apple Kid in Saturn Valley. They're the primary ones who know of this...endeavor, at least. Mr. Saturn alerts the other Mr. Saturn, and in prayer, they turn to the screen.
(All of the Mr. Saturns felt a new, startling feeling they had never experienced before, and they all started praying for the safety of Ness and his friends...)
It destabilizes Giygas' defenses.
"...Ah, Grrr, Ohhh.......friends......I'm h...a...p...p...y..."
"...Please give us strength!" Paula prays again. "Anyone who can hear our plea... Help us..."
The call reaches the Runaway Five in Summers who really just always kind of liked Ness and try to help him and Paula out. And in prayer, they turn to the screen.
(Suddenly, one of the Runaway Five felt something stop him, and he prayed fervently for the safety of Ness and his friends.)
It hurts him. Minutely, but he still hurts.
"...Please give us strength!" she prays. "Speed this prayer to all the people of the earth."
It's Mr. Polestar and all the children at the preschool who hear their beloved Paula's call. In prayer, they all turn to the screen.
(Paula's father thought he somehow heard his daughter's voice, and prayed sincerely for the safety of Paula and her friends.)
Still, the damage is small.
"....Ness...It hurts, Ness......Ah, Grrr, Ohhh......I'm h...a...p...p...y......I'm h...a...p...p...y.......Ness..."
Again, Paula prays: "...Please give us strength! Anyone who can hear our plea... Help us..."
This time it's Jeff's friend Tony who hears the prayer and alerts all the boys in the Snow Wood Boarding School. And in prayer, they turn to the screen.
(Suddenly, Tony felt anxious about Jeff, and he prayed strongly for the safety of Jeff and his friends.)
slightly ironic note: Jeff had just died on me then, heh!
Their prayer doubles the damage to Giygas.
"Ness! ...friends......It hurts, it hurts..."
"Please grant us power!" she requests. "Anyone who can hear our plea... Help us..."
The prayer reaches Poo's friends. A trio of girls who really liked Poo gather, and in prayer, they turn to the screen.
(A young woman in Dalaam woke from a dream in which Prince Poo died, and she began to pray for the well-being of Poo and his friends.)
The damage to Giygas is substantial.
"Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness......Ness......Ness..."
"...Please grant us strength! Anyone who can hear our plea... We ask for this..."
Frank, the boss of the former juvenile Shark gang and whom Ness beat straight at the very beginning of the adventure, hears Paula's request. He turns to the screen in prayer.
(Suddenly, Frank recalled Ness' shining young face, and began to pray diligently for the safety of Ness and his friends.)
Again, the damage is substantial.
"...I'm h...a...p...p...y... It hurts, Ness... It hurts, Ness..."
Another prayer: "Please grant us power! Speed this prayer to all the people of the earth..."
This time, it's back to the beginning, to where everything began - to Ness' house at night. His mother, his sister Tracy, and his dog King gather together and turn to the screen in prayer.
(Suddenly, Ness's mother felt terribly uneasy, and she began to pray for the safety of her son and his friends.)
The prayer hurts Giygas greatly. And so the fight goes into...crazy-mode.
"It's not right...not right...not right......Ah, Grrr, Ohhh......I'm h...a...p...p...y..."
"I can't think of anyone else..." Paula prays, but tries anyway. "...Someone, anyone......please help us."
The darkness absorbs her prayer.
"...go...b...a...c...k... I feel...g...o...o...d......go...b...a...c...k..."
"Someone...can you hear me?!" she tries again, desperately. "Please, give us strength!"
Paula and her friends' call touched the heart of ----t-e. ------- prayed for the kids, having never even met them before.
This unknown prayer deals a large amount of damage to Giygas.
---e-te kept praying.
Even greater damage.
Su-e-te kept praying.
An incredible amount this time.
Suzette kept praying.
It's the final blow to Giygas, who breaks down.
...suporma had an incredibly fascinating comment on this part of the battle that really influenced my thoughts about all of this. All the people who prayed for the children turned to the screen - to YOU, the player. Like they're praying to you - and all you're doing is telling Paula to pray. For what and to whom her call is reached is up to her; but you're the one who tells her to do it. She is guided, even scripted, but for all intents and purposes she has free will. You're not God; you didn't create anything in this world, but you are that outside force, that higher power, that can help.
The game tells you that you were praying. But really, I think every player was doing it all along, especially if you're playing for the first time. Please let them be okay! Please let this work! Who you pray to is up to you, but your very existence turned the battle. Things can happen fictionally or not that we're not aware of. There's no way that we can possibly know everything. We don't know about the apocalypse or the Apple of Enlightenment, but we just happened to come in at a time when Buzz-Buzz rode a meteor to Onett with only the words of the Apple, trying for help of some kind.
It wasn't Ness exactly he was looking for, because Ness on his own, while still Ness, may not have been able to change the future; who he was looking for, who the Apple of Enlightenment sent him to find, was you. The game (the Apple) constructed itself so you could use Ness and save...Giygas and Ness himself, really.
Apple Kid implies that there are different points in time in a state of potential existence all at once. You just happened to come across theirs and send it into a state of limited reality (for you, anyway). This game isn't real by your standards, but Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo existed - not in this world's history but in your memory, your heart. We used the game creator's created children to save a created world. And I think in return he just wanted to let us know that - that you didn't save everyone by fulfilling the Apple of Enlightenment's prophecy and playing the game but that you did it by playing the game.
I don't normally like people telling me, the gamer, what I feel, but Paula and her friends' call really did touch my heart; and as a kid, staring at the screen, scared and confused, I really did pray for their safety.
"Ness! Now, I...well... It's going to seem like I'm running away," Pokey admits (and for the first time he can because he is no longer paralyzed by Giygas' power), "but perhaps I'll just sneak away to another era to think about my next plan. It's a good bet that we'll see each other again..."
Now that it's obvious that I (no seriously, it was me) defeated Giygas, Pokey sly shifts off as he has done throughout the game when it was apparent that Ness foiled him. ...But he expresses desire to see Ness again, even if he is not trying to repent, and even revealing his true feelings about Ness (and the root of their entire relationship: "So now which one do you think is the cool guy?!").
It's at this point that Pokey transforms from simply being weak to being a bad guy in his own right, even if he doesn't attack or do anything negative to Ness in parting. In this newly formed reality, it's not Ness who becomes an Everdred, a crime boss with a soft spot for Ness, but Pokey.
In the future in which the apocalypse occurred, I wonder how Pokey turned out.
. the war against giygas is over...
It's an unnerving moment after Pokey disappears and the screen goes into a red static to eventually pop into nothing. And staring at Ness and his friends' crumpled robot bodies before one by one their spirits return.
I read Tony's letter and showed it to Jeff. "Ah," he said, "that Tony has a heart of gold." So maybe he isn't so dismissive of Tony... Yet he isn't making any effort to go back and see him (and I read the letter in the first place).
It read:
Dear Jeff,
Everything's really going
great here.
I wish I could have gone with
you on your adventure, even
just part of the way,
but instead I'm sitting here,
waiting for you in Winters.
I want to see you again as
soon as possible. I can't wait
to see your cheerful face.
I bet your glasses are dirty...
If you come back, I'll clean
them for you!
Like I said, I"m waiting for
you.
Yours truly,
Tony
P.S. Don't show this letter to anyone!
I took Paula to Dalaam. We wanted to see Poo one last time, and he was impressed with us, as was everyone else. Then we went to Winters to see Tony and Maxwell and found out that while Jeff called Maxwell, he doesn't call Tony. In Fourside we found that Mr. Monotoli was now working as an elevator man for Mr. Enrich Flavor; so instead we saw a Venus show again. I don't know if Ness held Paula's hand, but I like to think that he did.
We rode the bus to Twoson, stopping at the desert (to try our luck with the Sanchez Brothers; we were unlucky) and Threed (still zombie-free) on the way. We went to Burglin Park before taking Paula home because I wanted to see if Everdred was there; he wasn't.
She told me there was something she wanted to say...but had forgotten what it was. I followed her inside and talked to her father. He told Ness: "My opinion of you has changed. Perhaps you should continue dating Paula. Just treat her right..." It made me smile more than releasing baby chicks and seeing them scamper off (I did that, too).
I went home eventually, after buying a house and seeing Frank, and found out that Mr. Minch is missing. Lardna Minch has a new man now: Mr. Prettyman. She thinks Pokey's just out for a walk. Mom approved of our successes, and King knows that we saved the world, even if other dogs don't.
I smiled when the photographer took my picture (I hope Ness sees and knows it's me).
.