Religious Symbolism in EarthBound
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2023
- Cheese and crackers, Itoi.
Note: Okay, HUGE oversight on my part. Definitely say “7 sanctuaries” when talking about the number 7 when I was thinking of the 7 needles from Mother 3. My reasoning still applies, was just referring to the wrong thing. Hope someone gets fired for that blunder.
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Hey! Mistake in the video, please read the description for the correction.
Porky's second coming
i s a w t h a t
@@PorkyMinch hi porky
Praise be to our one true savior, the roughest, toughest, cleverest, most troublemaking boy ever, Master Porky Minch
Church of Porky 🛐🙏🙏🧎
I can't believe they nailed Ness to a cross
Smash bros fans saw PK fire as heresy.
How else was he supposed to become sans
According to the manual, they also killed Giygas on Sunday. Christian Mother fans (including me) keep taking Ws
Same
MF really died by the power.of prayers 😂
I like to think of New Pork City as a sort of antithesis of the Garden of Eden; where at the beginning of the world, the only location humans resided on was dedicated to nature, peace, and prosperity, whereas at the end of the world, the venue is dedicated to sublunary, violence, and ecocide.
This Ned Flanders ending reminds me that when I was a kid, as the Catholic that I am, I went to church as I would any other Sunday. And I saw that the priest we had that day, legit no joke, looked like Ned Flanders from The Simpsons.
Neat thing you didn't mention is how Ness' Nightmare is called "Ness's demon" in the japanese version, so Ness basically exorcizes himself from the inside of his mind to be free of his evil, "sinful" side! very fun vid and we could probably even find even more parallels, for example with how important faith (not necessarily in god, but simply the concept of pure trust without proof) is throughout the entire game :]
Game theory is ness actually THE SON
As a Christian and a mother fan, I see this as an absolute win! Great video :)
fr fr
Fr fr fr fr fr
fr fr fr fr fr
fr fr fr fr
W God
Thank you for being someone who can provide an unbiased yet informative view on religion. As a Christian who's against organized religion, I found this video to be fascinating. Please keep on doing what you're doing.
Yeah, even for someone unreligious such as myself, it's really informative and brings a pretty interesting new perspective to some of the game I love so much.
Uploaded on the sabbath as well, respect
I've personally thought that the Happy Happiest Cult is more of a critique of cults rather than religion itself.
I think Ness is more akin to the pilgrim figure then Messiah. He goes a quest of betterment externally and internally, while Christ figures are generally written as already perfect.
His journey is really a cross between a Christ figure and the classic "Hero" of the hero's journey archetype.
Does that mean porky is judas
😂😂😂😂
He was with you at the beginning.
Honestly its not a super hard stretch.
no because judas regretted betraying jesus
@@timjohnathanKind of debatable weather Porky regretted betraying Ness or not. He must atleast still think Ness is a decent person from how he shows adventures about him in the theater, or how he hangs on to Ness's yoyo so desperately. Also in the Japanese version it is shown that after overthrowing the happy happy cult, Porky asks Ness to be friends again, but Ness just doesn't say anything, causing Porky to run away probably in fear/regret. There is definitely an argument for both sides. Seeing how all of what I just said could also be interpreted differently.
Great vid. The whole ending sequence of Earthbound is so great, probably the main reason Earthbound is my favourite game. The once Upbeat and Lively soundtrack stripped away by these Cold and empty sounds in the Cave of the past. And the sheer Lovecraftian Terror of the Giygas music + visuals.
The Organs coming in when you pray hits so much harder because of that.
Can't think of another game that has conveyed the feeling of being Saved by some higher power in a moment of desperation like that.
It’s the Pokémon guy
the number seven is generally a common theme in video games. seven star spirits, seven chaos emeralds... there's probably more examples but that's off the top of my head
Hi Tempest :)
Ana is my favorite character for she is the only one who is explicitly stated to be christian. other then that very cool and interesting video, makes you think. 😀
P.S love to see this channel growing!
as someone who isn't religious, amazing video
Something that always Stood out to me:
PSI = Spiritual Gifts
Happy Happyism Cult: Sins that you desire thinking they will make you happier
New Pork City: Praising the evil and being manipulated
And Generally Mother having an overall value towards connection and family and friends, to never give up. to believe in one another,
When Hinawa’s spirit said “You’re not Porky’s robot, you’re our son!”
I think Pork city is more about dismeassured consumerism and a critique to that type of lifestyle. Also is emphazised to be the twisted toybox of a child-minded dictator. Psi I think is morea bout the power of mind, you know... Cuz of the psychic aspects... I don't think religion is involved at all.
My two fav things: Christianity and Earthbound. Weird...
1:56 which is probably the invisible man from moonside
I feel like this ones obvious hence why it wasnt in the video. but is Queen Mary meant to be an allusion Virgin Mary? Shes the queen of a heavenly like place and a maternal figure to the cast.
This is so cool to see a video on this. Keep up the good work
7 sanctuaries? Did bro play the game
How on earth did I make this mistake. Genuinely a huge oversight on my part. Definitely conflated it with the 7 needles from Mother 3, which still works with what I was saying despite being applied incorrectly.
Edit: Corrected this in the description. Thanks for pointing it out to me!
Hey! I noticed that you said it takes 7 prayers to defeat Giygas, but it actually takes 9 prayers to defeat him. Just thought I'd point that out!
The input as far as I know is only 7 times, with a total of 9 prayer cutscenes for the additional ones from the player.
I quite like this video, many thanks.
That Pollyanna song hits different after this video. When I first listened to it, I was like "this seems like a really Catholic-y song... but it's Japan, so it's probably just talking about believing in general" (that album also brought in a famous Catholic choir to sing the melody song, but I shrugged it off).
....So imagine my surprise when I found out that Ness is a Christ-Figure. I was like "I KNEW IT".
Good video 👍
Watching all your videos really make me more and more convinced to the artistic merrit of Earthbound and the Mother series. For a game so humble and down to earth it really does have a story of biblical proportions. You could even say Mother is a religion?
Neon Genesis EarthBound
0:51 Her? nah jk i agree giygas is an absolute QUEEN
Found some text in the game recently suggesting Giygas is female!
Wait, really? I'd be interested in seeing
@@steel7399 said by a guy in a hat in a house in west-Threed!
@@MonkeyNess I feel like giygas had a gender before but since his/her body and mind were destroyed I have a feeling that the gender was also lost to
@@MonkeyNessI wouldn't trust that guy in all honesty. He has nothing to do with Giygas so there's no wau he's know.
I only noticed this during my most recent replay of Mother 3 but, in addition to the vague religion of the Light and Dark Dragons, at some point during the search for Hinawa and the twins if you talk to Jackie he'll drop a capital G mention of a singular God. I don't remember the line exactly but it's something like "I know God must be watching over them." I don't know what the original Japanese line was like but it caught me by surprise.
You should also listen to the first few verses of “Wisdom of the World”. I picture someone going to a place of worship when I hear it.
Nesses Nightmare being at the center of the sea of eden and magicant as a whole may be based on lucifers placement in a frozen lake in hell and the divine comedy as a whole
Thanks for not actually being biased.
Ness became a robot for our sins
wow I love the video!
Ness = Jesus
Amen 🙏
5:40 a theory or maybe not. just a cool connection i found. (spoilers for mother 3)
"jesus going back in time" and "ness traveling to that nowhere place" are connected.
that place is also connected to (or is even the same place as) the final area in mother 3. where the world gets an end of time type of situation and is possibly being reborn. humanity is probably no more by that point and that's pretty much what happens at the end of time according to different religions.
Now I see where that apple came from. It was such a throw away line meant to mean something.
The Apple of Enlightenment is such a mysterious element of the game. Need to take a deep dive into it sometime!
As a Pagan animist myself heres how i interpret it this
The intro where you see flying saucers the lazer having an intentional aspect of a vein, a root, a thunder at the sametime you see the title: "giygas strikes back" in jaoanese
The saucer represents sperm cells, as if Gyigas is coming back to reincarnation again
Gyigas represents the all seeing eye Odin/Horus/God/skyfather
In the Final Boss is the symbol of the Book of genesis but in reverse in backwards, but the book of genesis in the bible is inspired from a Pagan mythology.
The garden of eden represents the womans womb
Adam and eve represents the baby
The snake represents the umbilical cord
The life tree represents the placenta
The baby obtains knowledge from the Odin/horus/God/skyfather before reincarnating and born again, when in the book of genesis God expulse them from the garden, it means they are entered the real world now they need to wear clothes and fight life by yourself that is the Pagan religion where the bible was inspired from its a reincarnation story
In the Game Mother 2 giygas is portraid as both a Odin/horus/God like deity and attempting of being reincarnated and you need to prevent it and stop it.
Just like the name of the game Mother and the logo of the planet earth in the portrait it represents earth as Mothernature and fertility, the intro where you see flying saucers striking a lazer to the city, the Lazer having an appearance of a Root a Vein from the sky to the earth a reference of thunder (Thor) it represents the sperm cells with the tittle "giygas strikes back" is interpreted in my point of view as representing the end of a sexual intercourse, the flying saucers represents the sperm cells invading yes Motherearth attempting to make God himself reincarnate in mother.
That as a Pagan myself thats what i interpret it
Uh…9 prayers to best giygas and 8 sanctuary locations. Have you played it?
Read description.
I always thought of the Mani Statue as some interpretation of Mollock for some reason
Can absolutely see that!
Pretty sure that the Clintons have their own Mani Mani statue on the island.
This was weird
As a Christian, i disagreed with a lot of stuff (of course XD)
But i found a lot of what you said interesting
I had no idea Paula actually prayed to God in the Japanese version
Or the changed sprite work
And although the supposed implications feel farfetched, I could still find some connections in the story telling
Very fun video
Case and point: you can defeat entire eldritch horrors with the power of god (love, and potentially anime?)
Nice Video ! Sub & Big Like ! And love retro EarthBound games !
I need a signed copy of the Bible
They also forgot to remove the crosses on the casket sprites in EarthBound. The localization team wasn't really that observernt as they also forgot the red cross in Dungeon Man.
“Wasn’t that observant” doesn’t seem fair, it was a really small team with a lot of game to scrub.
@@MonkeyNess well sure, but I don't mean that in a bad way. Everyone is prone to mistakes. I was more of just pointing it out.
buzz buzz died for our sins
Hey, at 0:52 you refer to giygas as a her. Why?
Love your vids btw
Found some in-game text recently that suggests Giygas is female!
@@MonkeyNess really? Where?
@@RCK_Gaming42069 In Threed! Search for a hearted comment on this video by Thane Gaming, there he posts the full text!
@@MonkeyNessI just read it, that’s really cool! Thanks for enlightening me on this subject.
I dont see happism as being a critique of religion, because even with a statue it doesnt worship an actual god, but just an idea, and while there are religions focused more on ideas than gods, they arent the ones that are usually refered to when it comes to "critiquing religion"
Very unexpected but cool video.
Onoh
Thought the most obvious thing is Mother could be meant to mean Mother Earth, a goddess found in many different faiths.
There is no “mother”, only The Father and The Son.
I said many religions have an Earth Mother goddess. Never said that was true of the religion of anyone in this discussion.
I said the truth, that there is only The Father and The Son. I never said that you said that it was “true of the religion of anyone in this discussion”.
wait does this also mean that sans is a Christ like figure?
One of the biggest enemies you have is a statue made of gold that corrupts people wherever its' influence is allowed to grow, just like the golden calf of the erev rav in Moses' time. Is Mother an abrahamic masterpiece or what?
Why does her Bible have desert rocks or city buildings at sunset/sunrise? That's a really weird cover.
Do you know of any other games where you have to beat the bad guy by praying?
Though not *quite* praying, Paper Mario 2 comes to mind as a similar kind of final boss.
@@MonkeyNess of course but I don't remember that in Paper Mario 2 the game asks the player to pray too
why talk about mother 3 in a mother 2 video knowing half the fanbase hasnt played mother 3 and is now forced to skip an otherwise good source of background noise
I’m not perfect, I’m still working at making better videos. Sorry if that was disappointing to you. I am also not under the impression "half the fanbase" hasn't played Mother 3, that's not remotely true.
@@MonkeyNesslike sorry if my comment hurt u lowkey forgot anyone interacts w these. tuff video very well made lack of perfection aside. also gang sorry if this is how u found out but novody is playing mother 3 until it gets localized. it could be the greatest game made ever n im still not gonna touch a fan translation & i dont think im the only one to feel like that
Great video!. but alot of these moments can be taken out of context lol
Not saying all these things are intentional references to religions, but explaining the series’ use of archetypal storytelling to appeal to more people due to their cultural resonance.
You are giving Game Theory a run for their money.
>Isn't even a theory
Did you pray today?
Christ is King
What you said about the pun in Latin is inaccurate. Latin makes a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels, and this is often overlooked when modern people teach Latin poorly. With them restored, evil is malum, and apple is mālum. It's still a pun, but they're not homophones like you say.
As someone in a Christian school but is atheist (kinda) I approve with this video.
i concur
As someone in an atheist world but is Christian (very) I also approve of this video. Except the Mother Mary part (darn Catholics)
Dedede, I think that is called agnostic
@@lilythebluespheresfan2897 ah thank you I’ve been needing a word for it. Thank you.
@@artemis_studios6555 Don't forget, Mary is not only Our Blessed Mother, but the Mother of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Send your prayers to Mary and she will speak to Jesus on your behalf. 🙏
This guys talking crazy talk
Stop impersonating me please, as everyone knows I am the TRUE Mr. EarthBound.
That's just what Mother fans are like man
Keep the like button at 666 lol
Lawful Evil behavior