Rating EarthBound/MOTHER Series Theories 

While not a proponent of the "Ninten is Buzz Buzz" theory, I've always assumed that Buzz Buzz was once a person. Starman Jr. says that Buzz Buzz was once a hero but now is only a insect, and it would make sense as bookends; the game begins with a time-traveler from the future and the game ends with Ness and co. going back in time themselves to defeat Giygas. Springing off of that, and this is a bit of conjecture on my end but: Ness and co. have to have their brains imported to robots in order to travel back in time or otherwise their bodies wouldn't be able to handle it thus being from the future Buzz Buzz may have had a similar sacrifice to make but they were at least able to give him an organic body since they would have had more time to understand time travel.

Interesting note about the Photo Guy theory is that Ness’s mom actually mentions him bringing by a photo album at the end of the game. However, she refers to him as something like, “the Photographer Man” or something, I don’t remember exactly. She doesn’t call him “your dad” or anything like you would expect her to if this theory were true. That’d be like if my mom called me and said “the engineer’s birthday is next week” in reference to my own father. Also can’t say I’ve ever wished for the death of any meme more than “Ness is Sans”.

Sounds like you really hate the “Flint neglects Lucas” theory! While I do agree that calling him abusive is unwarranted & wrong, I did want to explain why I always interpreted him to unintentionally be a tad “neglectful” in the game (specifically in regard to his absence). For me, it comes from NPCs in Tazmily speaking for how he has been acting during the 3-year gap, not on the basis that he doesn’t join your party during chapters 4-8. At the very start of chapter 4, Brenda says this: “Oh, hey there, Lucas. I hear your dad’s STILL hiking up in the mountains, looking for Claus. You should really tell him yourself that it’s about time he gave up already.” Then there’s Nippolyte in chapter 7: “Lucas. Have you seen Flint? He was just here visiting Hinawa’s grave. He’s probably headed back into the mountains yet again to look for Claus. Look for Claus, visit Hinawa’s grave. Look for Claus, visit Hinawa’s grave. That’s all your old man does anymore.” Flint has definitely been looking for Claus in the time between chapters 4-7 (which, as you mention, isn’t very long), but according to Brenda’s dialogue, it’s been a habit for much longer. Nippolyte seems to indicate this as well, with that last line suggesting Flint’s been at it for more than just a couple of weeks. These statements make me think that he’s been obsessively looking for Claus ever since he first went missing, and I presumed that the interaction with him in chapter 4 upon checking Hinawa's grave (where he’s present one moment, then gone the next...disappearing suddenly) to be indicative of his behavior during the 3-year time gap. With that said, I don’t think Flint is a bad father! Nippolyte also says in chapter 7 that Lucas is Flint’s “salvation” and that he doesn’t need to worry since Lucas has grown so strong, then passes along a “good luck charm” (the Courage/Franklin badge). He even takes a “mortal” blow for Lucas during the climax! His actions are understandable & realistic too; he has hope his other son is alive so this is his way of dealing with such a traumatic experience. I also don’t believe he completely blocked Lucas out of his life or anything--of course, he's had to come home to take care of the sheep as you say, and would've invited Lucas to “drop by and take a load of sometimes” via that unused text--I just don’t think it’s such a stretch that he’s been habitually spending a good majority of his time away from home for years (and you could interpret that as a form of unintended neglect, however slight). Anyway, this is an awesome video. It’s nice to have a dissection of all the fan theories I’ve heard about over the years in one place, and this was a really fun way to handle it! Love your content 😊

"Or, at least, call your stuff _headcanons_ and not _theories."_ THANK YOU.

The point of the Ness is Sans theory was MatPat trying to get Undertale fans to take a look at EarthBound.

"How could Photo Guy be making money to deposit in Ness's savings?" By... being a photographer? He shows up in a lot of touristy areas so I imagine he does photoshoots for random passerby's too which could be a pretty lucrative income source in a pre-camera phone world.

6:15 Or even Porky’s brother Picky! He made the best out of a bad situation and he was actually the opposite of how Porky started out in Earthbound. Where Porky became a bully Picky seems to be a relatively kind kid for his age.

the reveal after "I wonder what the next theory could be like!" nearly made me choke on my pasta. 10/10

In Smash Ultimate, Ness dad spirit is represented by Solid Snake, Solid Snake has a brother called Solidus Snake who is also the former president of the United States, George Sears. With this evidence in mind I believe that confirms Ness is the son of Solid Snake who is actually Ninten

New theory: Buzz Buzz is the child of the black and white seasames in the Dusty Dunes Desert from the future.

I like to think Flint and Ness aren't the same, but that Flint is descended from Ness.

I always had a theory that Flint was supposed to be the protagonist. In the original trailers for Earthbound 64, Flint gets a whole lot more screentime than Lucas, and even has a lot more gameplay footage of him. That's pretty much my basis for this theory.

That sanity scale from sane boney to crackhead boney is amazing😂

While I don't think the Giygas Fetus Theory™️ is canon, I do think the Devil's Machine is oddly... uterine. From the entrance, to its' appearance, it sort of invokes that look to me. I like to imagine it as being a weird representation of Giygas having been reduced to the helplessness of that developmental stage. Sure, he has become the most powerful being alive, probably on par, if not moreso than Mother 3's dragon, but his mind has completely deteriorated. He's a subconscious, but literally nothing else. As Pokey put it, he's not even aware of what he's doing. It's all reflex and subconscious. Or it could just be because body horror is spooky and adds to the scene. I dunno, just my take. And I love the idea of Buzz Buzz being some weird, future Ninten. It's strange, but it works. Oh, and when I first saw Porky's trophy in Smash Wii U (having no concept of the series prior to playing the demo in that game) I thought the mech was "Porky" and that he was actually an innocent person trapped inside it that you were trying to save. OH HOW WRONG I WAS.

Sans is Ness is such a hilariously bad theory that literally anybody can and will bash, but if I have to give it some credit, it was certainly a unique take (though still completely wrong,) and it managed to become iconic enough for it to be referenced in Smash Ultimate. Still, it definitely isn't a high point for MatPat's career.

I remember hearing about the “ness is ninten’s son” theory as a kid. I knew that the time frame between the two characters wouldn’t really work even if you took the dates of 198X and 199X provided by the games to their logical extreme, but I still think the general concept of ness being related to ninten, even if it isn’t directly father and son, might explain why ness has psychic powers and why he’s the one to lead the party to defeat gygas in earthbound. ness being a descendant of george and maria like ninten is would link him to both things.

Thing that throws the flint is Ness theory out the window is that flint knows pk thunder and other attacks Ness couldn't learn

It's extremely obvious that the Giygas silhouette is supposed to be a baby. I think it's like that because of the series' name, MOTHER. Giygas was nursed by Maria and the way you defeat him in Mother is by singing Maria's lullaby.

You mentioning Ness having black hair and flint having brown hair reminded me of a weird observation. None of flint's kids have a hair color from their parents. Lucas is blonde, Claus has orange hair, and flint and hinawa seem to have different shades of brown hair.

i never got the "interview debunking the fetus theory". it does look like one, and the theory is more symbolic than literal. they are defeating evil before it is able to cause all the damage, so before it was born. just because gyigas is based on smthn doesnt mean it cant have multiple meanings. a game wasnt just some one man creation back then and as you said AVGN said, someone did put that in intentionally.

The second worst theory is "Porky is a robo by Giygas" or "Porky is made by Giygas" This honestly makes no sense

I mean, come on, the 3rd point of "Ness' Montague" theory isn't that far-fetched. While George is a common name, it is also very common for people to name their children after past relatives. Plus Ness' ability to use PSI goes pretty much unexplained throughout the entire game, unlike with Ninten, where it is explained that it's because his great-grandfather George brought the ability to Earth. So maybe Ness, George, Ninten and the Montague brothers are indeed all relatives. The 4th point though is just bonkers...

I felt like sharing a theory I had, too. A theory I made after first playing Earthbound and Mother 3 when I was 19; The photo guy works for Porky. My evidence is that the theater in Mother 3 plays what appears to be the events of Earthbound, most of which Porky wasn't there for. We know he can send people forward in time, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that he sent someone back in time to document Ness' adventure and share his findings. Given that the photo guy does just that and also literally appears and disappears out of nowhere every time he does, I figured this was a good explanation.

there is Mother 2 graphic novel (which probably isn't canon) in which at one point Ness learns through book about kid named Ninten that saved earth. This could mean that in games Ninten and Ness are in same universe. But here is a flaw, how do they learn PSI? I'd say that George learned it first and studied it, then escaped back to earth, then had children (more of them), and they had children... so maybe as he learned PSI it passed onto his kids and grandkids. So I'd say Ninten and Ness are somehow related, maybe cousins

Speaking more on the whole "Ness is Sans" thing, a major point in the theory is that, due to the Phase Distorter not being able to transport organic matter, that's why Sans is a skeleton... But, my thing has always been, "aren't bones organic matter?" Honestly though, that shit was the thing that turned me away from Game Theory entirely.

i always thought flint was never around during the 3 years. he slept there every other day, tended for the sheep, then left on his search again. i wouldnt say he neglected lucas, but didnt show up too much and figured lucas' understanded.

Ninten is supposed to personify the player, therefore, when you played EB0, Ninten is automatically an Australian citizen. This is canonical only to your playthough though.

Literally the only part about the “Ness is sans” theory is the items in that room being idræt specific

Porky constantly tried to humiliate Ness during the events of Eb/M2-it's pretty much his entire character. Beyond revenge and general desire for absolute power, painting Ness as a "loser" (and his quest for love, humanity, peace, justice, whatever as misguided and hopeless) is an obsession for Porky because it's fundamental to reinforcing his own diametrically opposed worldview ("Porky is awesome, but Porky is alone. People are bad, so Porky must be the baddest"). Since Ness is the closest thing to a genuine friendship Porky's ever had, he's also the greatest threat to his outlook on humanity. That's why it's not enough for Porky to succeed. For Porky to be right, Ness must also fail. He must lose everything. Become forgotten. A nobody. An easter egg/some hot dog guy in Porky's World, kept only as a trophy, a relic; just like all the other losers and monuments to Porky's absolute, unquestionable awesomeness. _This is my design_

i think the funniest part about the montague one is that montague has literally nothing to do with montag, it comes from the old french “mont aigu” or “sharp mountain” besides, i’ve always been partial to the old 2000s theory of ness franklin lol

I think the Ness is Sans theory is fun. People should stop taking this all so seriously. Nice video.

Ness and ninten could be the same person from alternate universes. Giegue discovered time travel (hence why he went back in time as opposed to foward) and could have tried to kill Ninten's ancestors, which caused a butterfly effect creating the world of Mother 2.

Ok your segment of "Ness is Sans" Earned you a sub. You deserve more subscribers. If only Mother 3 was more popular, it's seriously one of the best games of all time.

a note on the " Ness is Flint " theory. Facial hair can be a different color than head hair. I know this from personal experience. As we see in mother 3, his head hair color is indeterminate, since he is bald

a fun thing to note; flint was intended to be present in the party with lucas and boner until chapter 5 (iirc)

Since I have never played Mother 3, I see this as an absolute loss.

Never forget Sakurai made the background for the Sans mii costume Magicant

9:28 I don't feel like i shouldn't be laughing at this lmao

Sans being covered by the timestamp 💀

The Ness' last name is Montague theory made me want to laugh so hard 😂

Notorious M.A.T.P.A.T.

10:23 i love this part of the game, the prophecy text-scroll from the future waking up the boy who will change it’s fate. Earthbound is so amazing, i look forward to playing its predecessor and its sequel in the future.

4:39 “Since when could Ninten time-travel anyway?” What do you think 4th-D Slip means?

Ninten and Ness could still be related Cousins maybe or Step Siblings I'm making it my Head Canon

I'm a supporter of the Ninten is Buzz Buzz theory, even though it was likely never the intention. Buzz Buzz's body could have totally been a vessel used by Ninten for time travelling like the robots at the end of the game, that just so happens to look like a bee. Plus all the talk about once being a hero seems to support that he wasn't always in that form.

you made me rethink porky being more innocent than i thought he was

What if camel's bones from all three games are the same character?

порки стало грустно когда его единственный друг бросил поэтому он с ума сошел ему тоскливо он даже кинотеатр сделал где несса показзывают

"We know what Itoi envisioned the Giygas battle to be, and it's definitely not a Fetus." Yeah, what Itoi visioned was definitely a subject matter which has NOTHING to do with a Fetus, especially one that could be perceived as 'wicked'. Come on, man... think about it a lil'.

You’re saying Porkey being innocent is less insane than Ana dreaming about Ness? I know she doesn’t but I would change those two around

Maybe you genuinely didn't notice, so ignore if you already know and if it's your preference but... There is a setting somewhere in the Switch SNES app to turn off the buttons display at the bottom of the screen

WE ARE GOING BACK IN TIME TO THE PAST TO GET GIYGAS OFF THE UNIVERSE

I think I get the 4th Montague point. Basically, Montag is German for Monday, the first day of the week. Ness lives in Onett, named after the number one. It’s the first town Ness goes to at the beginning of his journey. I think the point is that there’s a theme of “firsts” if you apply this logic, essentially. While I agree that is incredibly loose, I do get what they were going for on that last point.

Oh gee I wonder what MY favorite mother game is

For Porky its pretty much canon considering how Ness do saw him as a frirend and the fact that Porky is the only Giygas minion who wernet free'd from his influence and escaped before so-

You know bros gonna go all out when the megalovania kicks in.

It wouldve been cool if flint joined you after chapter 6 to help look for duster and kumatora

If the fetus theory only gets a 3 on insanity, i'm scared

I'm kind of a believer that Ness and Ninten are the same person, just in different timelines. My theory from when I got into this series as a kid was that the time travel shenanigans that Buzz Buzz/Giygas did created an alternate timeline, being Mother 2's world, from Mother 1's world. Either the Mother 1 world was destroyed by Giygas, which would be really sad, or another timeline Giygas created was, and Buzz Buzz came to Ness' timeline when he traveled back in time. It seems like a reasonable explanation for why the worlds of each game are so similar and different at the same time. I'm not sure how the prophecy stuff surrounding Ness would fall into this, but it might be evidence that Buzz Buzz doesn't come from Mother 1's timeline since him knowing a prophecy of a group of kids who already saved the world would do it again would be strange.

thanks

My favorite theory (Not really a theory, but a headcanon) is the "Giygas is Female" theory, or rather, the "Multigender Giygas" theory. We don't know much about Giygas, and people have been debating what gender Giygas really is because we don't even know THAT! One thing is clear, however: Giygas can be referred to by any pronouns. Most commonly, people tend to call Giygas a male. Maria, Giygas's adoptive mother refers to Giygas as male, and so do lots of other characters. Giygas has also beared a resemblance to Ness, and even the WikiBound refers to Giygas as male. It is the most accepted by the Earthbound community to call Giygas "male". On the other hand, it has also been commonly accepted to call Giygas genderless, for Giygas isn't just a weird alien. Giygas has also become the physical embodiment of evil itself. We don't even know WHAT Giygas is! There's only one creature like Giygas, anyway, and they don't exactly operate by the same gender rules as us normies. Maria may be Giygas's adoptive mother, but she's still a human, and nobody knows Giygas better than themself. Very rarely do people refer to Giygas as female, as I believe I'm the only person to do this. The reason why I refer to Giygas as female is because in Threed when you find a man that claims to have worked for Master Belch, but later betrayed him. He brings up that there are rumors that Giygas might be female. It isn't exactly credible, but if not likely, why bring it up at all? More interestingly in the Japanese version, the con man mentions that the reason Giygas is able to influence so many people to become evil is because she is actually a beautiful woman. Not only is this funny, but it also explains why Giygas has to be defeated by FOUR KIDS, since kids aren't exactly into women. Might not be canon, but I like to refer to Giygas as female.

Lucas is a descendent of Ness and Paula.

problem with ninten being the same baby from beginnings ness had to learn teleport from a god damn monkey now maybe you could stretch since he got teleport b after visiting magicant but even then how did he lose his knowledge

I had a Bat shit crazy theory fueled by a mix of insanity and boredom, in which Ness dad's work is related to Drug trafficking, just think about, when you start the game he send you money per enemy defeated but the amount is not that crazy it would be around $100 not to much but as the game progressed he started sending you more and more money which makes me think what does this man do to make so much money, well let's consider that earthbound setting is the American suburbia of the late 80's and early 90's, a period were drug's were still a problem in america (still is), we can find hippies who were big consumers and even some "Psychedelic" instances that could be considered a "Trip" on other settings (mainly the coffe drinks, Moonside, the backgrounds of fights, lets not forget the "magic cake"). So for me it would not be insane to consider that ness dad could be working a la Walter White, and is using his own son Ness as a way to laundry the money he makes from his "business"

Ness’s dad is a phone guy. A phone guy is a guy whose head is a phone. He works a salary job specifically for phone guys, and phone guys are treated as lesser in society. #PhoneguyLivesMatter So yeah, Ness is half phone, and that’s where his black hair comes from

I just need to ask why this fandom treats Itoi's word as the word of god when everytime he speaks about theories in interviews he always says that he doesn't write in the word of god style? The quote you referenced as him "officially endorsing" Ness is Flint isn't an endorsement of that specific theory, it's him expressing that he respects theories that seek to 'fill in the gaps' so to speak because he doesn't have a defined secret lore in his head for what's off screen in the series. Or more simply, what's in the games is what he wrote, and any questions you may have outside of them are fine for you to believe your own interpretation of because there isn't a "true" answer hidden in a document in his desk somewhere, like there may be for Zelda lore or etc. I've read multiple quotes from this man that express this sentiment, usually when he's asked something like "what do you think of X theory" or "What happened between X and Y?" But it seems like the fanbase interprets this in the complete opposite way, trying to read "confirmation" or "deconfirmation" from it. I have a lot of my own theories but they're inferences, plausible things that, in my opinion are able to answer "gaps" in canon information with respect for occam's razor, but since those details are gaps anyway, it's just as fine to fill that gap in your mind canonically with a more wild interpretation like Ness is Flint, or to think of CogDis as canon for example, as long as your belief isn't overlapping with and contradicting what's established canon. This is why Itoi respects Ness is Flint. He has established Ness and Flint as characters in the story, but doesn't have a canon for Ness's adult life or Flint's childhood, so hey, you might as well believe what you want to believe about either of those things, including that they might be connected. I wish I knew a better terminology for this idea, "Word of Dante" comes close, but either way, I think you get what I mean.

20:43 holding out for a hero and it fucking rescued me

The Earthbound Beginnings novel hinted that Ninten (Ken) and Ana did........uhhhhh.....make out.....at some point in the novel O-O

MASK pig BOSS: YOU ARE HOT DOG: I AM YOU FRIEND OLD ‏‪17:40‬‏ ???

As someone who loves Earthbound for its theme, tropes and all and that ability to make any theory plausible because of that i through i was the only one to HATE most of those (not only because it makes no sense lmao but because it shits lots of time over Ness' character and lead to weird interpretation)

ᵈᵃᵈ ᶦ ᵐᶦˢˢ ᶜˡᵃᵘˢ🥺😢

Who up

i'm sympathetic towards porky for those reasons but i dont think make makes him innocent. like to me he collects all these things about ness because deep down he wanted to go on a journey and be a hero and be loved (not bc he actually wanted to do good necessarily) but instead he was born into an abusive household and was manipulated by evil alien powers and was exposed to all sorts of mind-melting existential shit. that doesnt make what he does okay ofc but i dont blame him for cracking that hard when he was just a kid when all this shit started. i would call this my own interpretation of the story tho and less a theory

16:31 wait what do you mean by "the names aren't even the same" here? They've both named George aren't they?

Itoi That part was the funnest to make. Porky didn't have any friends, you know. So perhaps he'd always just been playing with Ness that whole time. Porky probably just became the way he did because his parents were so bad.

sans is ness

well i mean there is more reasons about why ninten could be buzz buzz and im pretty sure teddy died in the japanese version in the hospital scene i must be the only one in the universe who likes the sans is ness theory also, yes having abusive parents IS an reason to be a jerk. P.S. i am sorry if this comment is viewed as disrespectful or rude. i do not mean it that way

Fetus theory is horrible.

2:49

Can’t share the link here because RU-vid doesn’t like it.

Itoi confirms in an interview that Porky is bad because of his parents. The link is on Porky’s page on the wiki.

Uh..

Porkey is a sympathetic villain, but he's not a justifiable one. He definately didn't deserve getting stuck in the absolutely safe safe though.

Flint did neglect Lucas he was constantly searching for Claus

I really dislike how much hate Matpat gets for Sans is Ness. Don't get me wrong, the theory itself is HOT GARBAGE. Definitely a 0/10 in terms of actual believability. However... I really do not think that it deserves to be hated, and it is NOT a good metric to compare 99% of all the other videos MatPat has made. I saw it more as a way to point out similarities, references, and gaming history. That is what most of the episode is after all. He even says in a response video that he didn't actually believe the theory himself, and that he is playing up the character of himself. What I am trying to say is; his channel is about theories. If he wants to make a video about the connections between Earthbound and Undertale, he basically has to make a theory out of it. So in an attempt to spread the word about those two great games to his audience and try and show the references Undertale has to Earthbound, he made a HORRIBLE theory, because there was really NO PROOF besides those references. Every bit of 'proof' is either a reference being blown way out of proportion, or something that is connected to the games own lore that JUST SO HAPPENS to line up with stuff in Earthbound.(Hard to read blueprints being attributed to Mr Saturn when they are probably Sans' horrible hand writing or the Wing Ding Font. And the broken machine in Sans' lab just... being a broken machine. And the Phase Distorter is also a Broken Machine, so, lol, thats a connection too.) TLDR: It is a bad theory that needs to die. It should have been a video about references between the two games and Toby Fox's history, but because of the kind of channel Game Theory is, they took a cool video idea and stretched it into an abomination.