Religious Symbolism in EarthBound 

Hey! Mistake in the video, please read the description for the correction.

Porky's second coming

The Coil Snake isn't the "first" enemy in Mother 2. At the start you can also encounter the Runaway Dog and the Spiteful Crow. But well, the very first enemy of Mother 2 would actually be Starman Jr. since you fight him along Buzz-Buzz in the very first battle.

According to the manual, they also killed Giygas on Sunday. Christian Mother fans (including me) keep taking Ws

I can't believe they nailed Ness to a cross

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 :]

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.

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.

I've personally thought that the Happy Happiest Cult is more of a critique of cults rather than religion itself.

As a Christian and a mother fan, I see this as an absolute win! Great video :)

Does that mean porky is judas

Game theory is ness actually THE SON

My two fav things: Christianity and Earthbound. Weird...

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.

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!

Christ is King

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.

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.

Uploaded on the sabbath as well, respect

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

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!”

as someone who isn't religious, amazing video

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!

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".

7 sanctuaries? Did bro play the game

wow I love the video! Ness = Jesus

Neon Genesis EarthBound

0:51 Her? nah jk i agree giygas is an absolute QUEEN

1:56 which is probably the invisible man from moonside

The biggest blunder in this video by a LANDSLIDE for me is the Mani Mani Statue. Simply brushing over the thing as "golden statue with horns like the bull in Exodus" feels like it doesn't recieve the full media literacy I've seen you dish out in your other amazing videos. Maybe something about how the Mani Mani Statue is a literal golden statue that brings out the sinful nature of those who listen to it's call, those who "idolize" it. It's interesting because among the commandments, one prohibits the idolatry of anything but god, and worshipping the Mani Mani Statue is literally straying from that command. What does that make of Happy Happyism, who worship Carpainter, who is worshipping the Mani Mani Statue? We hear from Monotoli that Giygas can also communicate to the worshipper. What does that make of Giygas? Just felt like a lot of major opportunities for talking points that got brushed over.

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

This is why i find it so hard to explain to my firends why I love the mother series so much... it takes a mirror to the world and says thats you!

Nice Video ! Sub & Big Like ! And love retro EarthBound games !

Uh…9 prayers to best giygas and 8 sanctuary locations. Have you played it?

You can never unsee the devil in the entrance the devil's machine

wait does this also mean that sans is a Christ like figure?

I quite like this video, many thanks.

Good video 👍

Amen 🙏

Thought the most obvious thing is Mother could be meant to mean Mother Earth, a goddess found in many different faiths.

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.

This is so cool to see a video on this. Keep up the good work

Hey, at 0:52 you refer to giygas as a her. Why? Love your vids btw

Ness became a robot for our sins

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 always thought of the Mani Statue as some interpretation of Mollock for some reason

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?

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.

Why does her Bible have desert rocks or city buildings at sunset/sunrise? That's a really weird cover.

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?

Did you pray today?

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.

Case and point: you can defeat entire eldritch horrors with the power of god (love, and potentially anime?)

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.

Do you know of any other games where you have to beat the bad guy by praying?

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.

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.

I need a signed copy of the Bible

Now I see where that apple came from. It was such a throw away line meant to mean something.

buzz buzz died for our sins

Great video!. but alot of these moments can be taken out of context lol

You are giving Game Theory a run for their money.

Keep the like button at 666 lol

Onoh

As someone in a Christian school but is atheist (kinda) I approve with this video.

This guys talking crazy talk

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