[Omniverse Audio Brand]

 

[90s phone ring and pick up]

 

CAT

Hey, this is Cat!

 

JESS

And Jess

 

CAT

You know, “MOTHER,” She Wrote is free to listen to, but it’s not free to make.

​

JESS

So please consider supporting our work on Patreon.

 

CAT

You’ll get early, ad-free episodes of this show and all the storytelling podcasts we create. 

 

JESS

Head to Patreon.com/OmniverseMedia to chip in and join our community of world-saving wunderkind.

 

CAT

Oh and - heads up: this episode contains mention of drug use.

 

JESS

Please use your best judgment when listening… and take care of yourself. 

 

CAT & JESS

Love youuuu.

​

[phone disconnect sound]

 

[spacey sounds]

 

NINTEN:

Dear Mom,

 

I know I’ve written you some unbelievable things, but… just when I think I understand what I’m doing. Just when I think I understand… reality? It’s like I walked off the top of a staircase without realizing it, and and and fell and fell - all the way into another world! Mom, before you read the rest of this: I promise I’m not on drugs. 

 

[walking noises, outdoor ambience]

 

NINTEN

After the aliens left the zoo, all the animals went back to normal. The cops, who’d been keeping their distance, came back to check things out. 

 

[Peanuts-like nonsense noises of adult talking]

 

NINTEN

One of them mentioned that there was something weird in a cave east of the zoo, out in a canyon, so I figured that was the best place to start looking. Things were peaceful again, and as I was leaving, I heard a voice like a choir boy’s echoing out across the zoo. 

 

[musical notes echo through the outdoor ambience]

 

NINTEN

I guess our famous singing monkey was so happy that he burst into song. I started humming it as I went. It fit really well with the tune that songbird Laura sang to her baby. Do all animals know this song? I was still humming when I got to the cave. 

 

[Subterranean ambience]

 

NINTEN

Down a winding passage, there was this… pink glow. A swirling shape was growing out of the ground like a stalagmite but smooth and twisted like soft-serve ice cream. As I got close to it, I heard a voice.

 

[indistinct whispering]

 

NINTEN

Hello?

No one was there… but then I reached out with my mind…

 

WHISPERING VOICE

Who has lost his tail?

 

NINTEN

Was it a riddle? 

 

I remembered something I’d read in Great Grandpa’s dairy - a password.  And so I read aloud from the book: “Where is God's tail? The forgotten one of the ship that sailed the cosmos.”

Instantly the light was as bright as day and when I opened my eyes again, I was surrounded by sky. 

 

[the sound of running water and outdoor ambience]

 

NINTEN

The world above me was like looking at a bubble from the inside. I was so dizzy I stumbled backward.

 

[musical note expressing tension]

 

NINTEN

-Onto soft clouds-

 

[musical note expressing tension]

 

NINTEN

-That I was walking on. 

 

[musical note expressing tension]

 

NINTEN

The air smelled like… that smell when it’s about to rain. 

 

[whimsical music starts]

 

NINTEN

And then!

 

SWIMMING CATAre you lost?

 

NINTEN

You’re a- a-

 

SWIMMING CAT

Oh, I’m a swimming cat.

 

NINTEN

Wha- WHA!?

 

SWIMMING CAT

You’re strange, but I like you. Mrow!

 

[the cat splashes and submerges itself]

 

NINTEN

I was in the middle of a town made of shiny houses that looked like big seashells and there were people with pointy hats like witches. They asked really weird questions that didn’t have answers and seemed as confused by me as I was by them. They’d never heard of Podunk… or Earth!

 

They called this place “Magicant”. In the distance was a massive castle with spires swirling up into the sky, where their ruler, Queen Mary, lives. I didn’t know where to go, or what to do. I was certain I was dreaming or hallucinating but… When I tripped on the slime left by giant snails with peppermint shells and got beaten up by a gang of smiling, walking trees it sure as heck felt real! I’m okay though! The people in Magicant are really nice. 

 

[an electric guitar solo joins the musical backing]

 

NINTEN

They patched me up free of charge, and I met this person called The Mysterious Mimicker who does a spot-on impression of dad - It’s really weird.  

 

[the electric guitar solo builds]

 

NINTEN

Then there’s this dude who’s out in a forest shredding on a guitar and he’s so in the zone he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it! One person gave me a sick ocarina and this other person gave me this big bag of magic herbs. They taste kinda funky but gosh they pick me up when I get winded. You see, there’s red weed in the fields that they harvest and then they wash it in this magic fountain and - you know what - don’t worry about it. 

 

[the music ends]

 

NINTEN

It’s really fun and cool but - the big problem is: no one in Magicant understands what I mean when I ask about finding a way home. 

 

[energetic music builds]

 

NINTEN

But I bet this queen of theirs does. That’s my next stop: Queen Mary’s Castle. Meeting the town mayor is one thing but a queen of a magical land…? I’m a little nervous but everyone around town loves her and they say she has a beautiful singing voice - so she’s probably nice but… I think, at this point, I shouldn’t have any expectations about anything that’s going to happen literally ever. 

 

[Ninten sighs]

 

NINTEN

I- I wish you could see this place, mom. It’s… like living in a dream. The things out in the wilds, when I see them it feels like… nightmares creeping into something beautiful. But I can handle them. Mostly it’s just beautiful. Confusing, a little scary… but beautiful. 

 

Hopefully I don’t run out of postcards before I get outta here.

Say “hi” to Mimmie and Minnie for me!

 

Love, 

Ninten

 

[the “MOTHER,” She Wrote theme kicks in]

 

CAT

Welcome to “MOTHER,” She Wrote - a travelog diary through the strangest, most thought-provoking, most heart-rending video games ever made: Mother as it’s called in Japan, and Earthbound - as it’s called everywhere else. 

 

This is the story of the first game in that series: Earthbound Beginnings.

I’m Cat Blackard, the cat who swims in your podcasts. And with me is my dreamy co-host…

 

JESS

Jessica Mudd. I’m EarthBound and down with nothing but a song in my heart and a Magi-can-do attitude. 

 

[the “MOTHER,” She Wrote theme ends]

    

CAT    

So first there were poltergeists, and then there were zombies, and then there were aliens. And now?

    

JESS    

Now we travel to a magical realm.

    

CAT    

Yeah, we're in the dreamlands!

    

JESS    

Is that what this is? Is this a dreamland? I thought I went to another planet or something.

    

CAT    

I mean… Maybe? I mean, great! Elaborate.

    

JESS    

Okay, so as the letter to Mom stated: you go to the cave, the mysterious cave with this strange pink thing in it. And it's what I can only describe as, like, a squat, but like, large unicorn horn. It's almost kind of like a little pink spire that has, like, little swirls going around a kind of like a children's slide at the amusement park or something? Do you know what I'm talking about?

    

CAT    

Okay. Specifically, No. 

 

JESS

[laughs]

 

CAT

When it comes to, like, a slide that looks like this thing, I'm like, “what magical playground did you go to?”

    

JESS

The helter skelter. In Britain- the ride, the little slide…

    

CAT    

Oh! You are right! 

    

JESS    

Go Google one of those things. It's like a pink helter skelter. And you go up and it starts talking to you, like talking in your mind. And when I was playing through this session, I had a couple of things that I had to take care of before I could progress onto the rest of the game. I had to go back and return Singing Laura's chick to her, and I had to pick up the Franklin Badge that I missed the first time, but that didn't take very long. And then after that, what did take a very long time is for me to figure out how I was supposed to get to the next area of the game.

    

I went to the mysterious cave and I saw this weird little pink helter skelter, and I knew that it was the key to getting to where I was trying to get to, but I had no idea what to do. And of course, the answer lied in Great Grandfather's Diary, which I had put into storage a long time ago, because this game gives, you know, inventory space at all. And I'm going to have to just like, control myself a little bit because-

    

CAT    

No, no, no. This is great.

    

JESS    

This is probably the biggest rant that I have about this series as a whole is the inventory space. You get, I think eight inventory slots.

    

CAT    

Yeah. It's not good. You get eight inventory slots and a bunch of items, including some that intentionally do nothing.

    

JESS   

Yes. Yeah. They'll just throw items that don't do anything for you into your inventory to take up space and you have no idea if this is something that is going to be critically important down the line or if you're just going to be, you know, sabotaging yourself if you get rid of it. So you have no idea what to hold on to, and I'm constantly trying to manage my inventory. And so I put Great Grandfather's Diary into storage and thought, “oh, if I ever need this for anything, surely it won't be some, you know, obtuse clue and I'll know to come back and get it, and I'll be able to solve the puzzle.” Oh no, it's not like that at all.

    

CAT    

And this is one of the many reasons that, you know, EarthBound Beginnings, though it is very charming and very interesting, is technically flawed, and EarthBound is a massive improvement over all these things. Because giving you items that don't particularly do anything is whimsical and interesting… If the rest of the game isn't punishing you with not enough item slots and too many enemy encounters - so it doesn't really work here.

 

JESS

Right.

    

CAT    

It does later on. I have a question: were you in the habit of using or checking items when you didn't know what they were when you first got Great Grandfather's Diary? Like, had you ever seen the texts inside Great Grandfather's Diary when you used it?

    

JESS    

Yes. I've gotten into a habit of regularly checking new items whenever I get them, because that offers clues as to how the item is used. And I remember checking Great Grandfather's Diary and I saw the text that was inside of it. So, you know, I was confronted with this helter skelter - didn't know what to do, and I had been playing for about an hour and I finally decided I was going to look up a walk-through and see what to do because I play games to have fun, not to just stumble my way around blindly until I happened upon the answer. And I figured anybody that was following along was probably to get really bored with this quickly so…

    

CAT    

There's no shame in that, especially with this game. That's just a fact.

    

JESS    

Okay. I'm glad to know that you're not going be judging me if I have to look something up.

    

CAT    

No! What kind of monster do you think I am? 

 

JESS

[laughs]

 

CAT

What kind of lies are you spreading about me to the-

 

JESS

Well, like the game - you didn’t make it clear to me that that was okay. I thought I was going to be judged. 

    

CAT    

When have I ever been judgy?

    

JESS    

No, you haven't been. But I'm trying to get the authentic experience of what it was like to play this game for the first time. 

 

CAT

[giggles]

 

[transitional music starts]

 

JESS

But you know what? That's not a good experience. So I'm just going to use the walk-through occasionally. Probably.

    

CAT    

Yeah. That’s totally-  that's that's legit. This game is cruel and stupid sometimes. 

 

JESS

[laughs]

 

CAT

It is intellectually brilliant and mechanically rough around the edges. 

 

[transition ends]

 

CAT

In the area, the little sort of canyony area where you're going to the cave, there is a weird enemy. You’ve been fighting centipedes as a common enemy up to this point, but all of a sudden you're fighting bionic centipedes in addition to lil’ UFOs.

    

JESS

Right. Yeah. What's up with that?

    

CAT    

Yeah - a bionic centipede. Isn't that weird? It's not just a palate-swapped enemy that's harder. The tartar. The Encyclopedia describes them as “a centipede created by aliens for their invasion of Earth.” So it is a centipede that has been engineered by extraterrestrials as a way to kind of, like, infiltrate the animal life of this planet.

    

JESS    

Okay, that checks out.

    

CAT    

And that is a recurring theme in these games. It's going to become really important later, but not in this game.

    

JESS    

Bionic insects?

    

CAT    

Transforming natural things with technology. 

 

JESS

Yeah.

 

CAT

That's going to be real important later. Listeners should remember that. 

 

JESS

[laughs]

 

CAT

Now the cave is described by the Encyclopedia in this way: “all who enter therein, wonder at the tranquility they experience as though they've entered their mother's womb.”

    

JESS    

It was a very tranquil place. It had some very smooth, easygoing music inside of it, and I did feel safe..

    

CAT    

Kind of one ponderous melody that repeats. “Duh-da-duh-da-duh.”

 

JESS

Mm hmm. Once I looked up in a walk-through that I was supposed to use Great Grandfather's Diary, or have it in my inventory, I went and picked it up out of storage. I went back to that helter skelter and I tried talking to it, I tried examining it, I tried walking around, I tried using the Diary. Eventually I figured out I had to cast telepathy on it, and then once I cast telepathy, and I had the diary in my inventory, then it gave me the answer to the riddle and it teleported me to Magicant.

    

CAT    

It's weird how specific it is. Like, you have to have read Great Grandfather's Diary - so you've seen that message and remember that;  because now it's been hours of gameplay and only now does it become relevant - but you got Great Grandfather's Diary immediately, so there's plenty of time to forget it. And then you find the thing, and then you see the thing and you don't really know how to interface the thing, but it's talking in your mind. So you have to remember to use telepathy, which at that point you've barely had to use before. And the policeman kind of talks about it, who's guarding the way there, but only vaguely - like it's done in a confusing way, at least in the translation. Once you've done that, it asks a riddle and then you have to have Great Grandfather's Diary. Just like there's all kinds of ways that you could miss picking up a melody. There's all kinds of ways you could miss this. And that's an interesting puzzle - in some ways - if the game was not so punishing otherwise.

 

An interesting translationy thing that happens is: we get in Great Grandfather's Diary, it says, “Password: Who has lost his tale? The forgotten one of the ship that sails the cosmos.”

 

JESS

Right.

 

CAT

And that's the thing you have to telepath to this object. Well, the Japanese question is: “where is god's tale? The forgotten one of the ship that crosses the heavens.”

    

JESS    

Hmm. Okay, “where is god's tale?”

    

CAT    

So this is a classic instance of Nintendo of America removing a mention of a deity, or at least removing Christianity anyway. Like, the general practice.

    

JESS    

I'm just trying to figure out if that would have helped lead me to the answer more easily.

    

CAT    

Well, no - because you were very adorably interacting with every nonhuman creature, who moves about the world, and then also every thing that has a tail - you were trying to check out - instead of find this item. And you know what? That's a very logical thing you did.

 

JESS

[snickers]

 

CAT

And I'm very sorry that you did it.

    

JESS    

I was looking for the creature that was missing its tail. [laughs]

    

CAT    

So, yeah, “where is god's tail?” That's a weird, weird, weird question.

    

JESS    

I'm thinking about the translation of “god's tail,” and I'm thinking specifically about Kantaro the Sweet-Toothed Salaryman. What he always says, “sore wa kanmi nomi zo shiru.” Which literally translates to, something like, “only the ancestors” - “only the sweet taste ancestors would know,” or something like that. And when that is translated into the English version, the subtitles say, “only sweet heaven knows.” And I'm wondering if maybe there's some kind of like, translation there where like, “god” could mean “ancestors” in some way - so it’s like… your grandfather's lost tail.

    

CAT    

So I guess the question is: what god? How does one actually understand that word in this context? What does it mean? Of course we have, “the forgotten one of the ship that sails the cosmos.” And I feel like that might be more important.

    

JESS    

And if you're asking what it all means, I mean, you're likely to go crazy asking that question.

    

CAT    

Fair enough.

 

[musical transition]

    

JESS    

So Magicant is… a strange place. It's like you're walking on clouds and there are a bunch of little helter skelters that are around and they form the fences, the buildings, the big castle that is there  - that the queen lives in - and all the inhabitants of Magicant, walking around, they look like they're dressed with, like, witch hats. 

 

CAT

Yeah.

    

JESS    

So I presume they're all, you know, magic users of some kind. But they're definitely all very strange.

    

CAT    

We've got some facts about Magicant. One that I think is particularly revealing, which is: the main industry of the town, per the Encyclopedia, is philosophy. The Encyclopedia refers to them as philosophical people. And that's not necessarily how I ever interpreted the behavior of these folks here. They're all very strange, but that actually does explain why they ask you so many questions and the answers that you give don't necessarily matter - they're just pondering things. 

 

JESS

Yeah.

 

They're just asking questions because they're all ponderous, strange people.

    

JESS    

The people who are there seem to ask questions from different angles than people would normally ask. Like if I were to ask you, “where do you come from?” Somebody in Magicant might ask it like, “hy did you come from your home this way?”

    

CAT    

The Encyclopedia has a bit of a narrative for when you step into Magicant that gives a little bit of context: “When you awaken from your dream, you find yourself dropped into a world you've never seen before. A world like a sea of clouds - clouds of unbroken pink. Is this land the very country of god mentioned in the mysterious words, ‘where is the god's tale?’ as recorded in your Great Grandfather's Diary? Well, then the God's tale had to have been the pink rock. The likes of this world have never been depicted in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, or Through the Looking Glass, or even in Ende’s Momo. And yet you're becoming aware, aren't you - of that confusing sense of nostalgia at the bottom of your heart? As you hear in the utmost depths of your memory something with the mysterious timbre, high as the cloud tops, deep as the ocean floor. You can't shake the hunch a warm voice is calling you. To a boy who's fortified his resolve to fight unseen enemies, this unexpected peace of mind is a mighty source of comfort, isn't it? You get the feeling you've stumbled into somebody's dream. Going inside another person's slumberland shouldn't be possible. Yet this country is like a reproduction of a dream. But, feeling relief is forbidden. After all, even dreams vary from terrors that cause night sweats to things so overwhelmingly joyous they make you shout and wake up.”

    

JESS    

Well, that seems to allude about what is happening with Queen Mary.

    

CAT    

It certainly might, mightn't it?

    

JESS    

Mm hmm. But! Let's look at the head of ourselves.

    

CAT    

No, let's not.

    

JESS    

There are a lot of interesting folks in Magicant to discuss.

    

CAT    

And also some interesting pop culture references that act as a touchstone here. Obviously, it says, like: “the likes of this world have never been depicted in The Wizard of Oz, Through the Looking Glass..”. And then they mentioned one I'd never heard of: Ende’s Momo. And what they're talking about… there is a book called Momo, or in its original German: “Momo, or The Strange Story of the Time Thieves and the Child Who Brought the Stolen Time Back to the People.”

    

JESS   

Hmm!

    

CAT    

The author in question, Ende, is Michael Ende who's better known…

    

JESS    

Aaah! Of Neverending Story!

    

CAT    

That's right! Now, I looked up Momo. I read all about it. It sounds very fascinating and I think it's an influence to the MOTHER series, but I think it's actually a typo. I think they meant to say Ende's Neverending Story 

 

JESS

Wowwww.

 

CAT

Because Momo has nothing to do with this and Neverending Story has everything to do with this.

    

JESS    

Yeah. That's very interesting.

    

CAT    

Momo is more of an influence over MOTHER 3.

 

JESS

Okay.

 

CAT

And I think that's very clear, and I look forward to exploring that little clue a bit more in the months to come.

    

JESS    

But with Neverending Story, it'sa, you know, a child that goes on an adventure to save the world and has lots of strange adventures.

    

CAT    

Yeah, in a place called “Fantastica,” a name that's not too far a cry from “Magicant.” Fantastica, a place of wonder ruled by the benevolent and mysterious Childlike Empress.

    

JESS    

And a big spire that kind of looks like a helter skelter.

    

CAT    

So… yeah. That seems important. 

 

JESS

[laughs]

 

CAT

And the other pop culture touchstone that isn't mentioned, but I think may be really important, especially with the context of Queen Mary, is Little Nemo In Slumberland, the newspaper strip drawn by Winsor McCay from 1905 to 1911.

    

JESS    

Last time I was visiting you, I was thumbing through your collection of Little Nemo comics.

    

CAT    

Yeah, fancy that.

    

JESS    

And it was very interesting. I could definitely see the influence of Little Nemo on MOTHER.

    

CAT    

Yeah. And it's also like a historical context thing, because even if Itoi wasn't particularly familiar with Little Nemo other than like, you know, the general knowledge of it from anybody his age or interfacing with art and pop culture - Queen Mary or let's say, [coughs intentionally] “Maria” might be very familiar with this newspaper strip that was extremely popular in 1908 when she was abducted. And her husband happened to work at a newspaper where it was probably in circulation. So isn't that interesting?

    

JESS    

Little Ninten in Dreamland.

    

CAT    

Yep. 

 

JESS

[laughs]

 

CAT

So there's a lot going on here. If you look at Magicant in terms of what's happening in the game, it's very surreal, it's very disorienting and it has a really unique kind of game mechanic for the entire of EarthBound Beginnings itself. But, when we sort of peel back the layers and think about what's becoming my favorite word in the show: the “impressionistic” qualities of EarthBound Beginnings - there's a lot that's suggesting to us that the world of Magicant can be put into context, in terms of like how it would be adapted if it was a, let's say, a flashier game. It would be a Slumberland. It would be like H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands. It would be The Neverending Story. That's what we're looking at here.

    

JESS    

So the first thing that I noticed also is just how many NPCs there are walking around this place, and how many buildings you can go into. After leaving Podunk, which only had a handful of structures that you could enter, this was a whole new level. Literally every building in this place you can go into, and every building has NPCs inside of it. And there's a bunch of people outside, so it takes a while to go around and talk to everybody. 

 

CAT

Yeah.

 

JESS

And like you said, they all have very strange and interesting things to say. There's some strange stores, there's a hospital, but most of the buildings are not labeled in any particular way. Inside one of the houses there is a person named The Mysterious Mimicker, and what he does is basically acts as a telephone like he says the same dialog that your Dad does when you call, and he lets you save the game there. But there's no sign on the outside that says like, “this is where you come to save your game,” or anything.

    

CAT    

Just have to kind of remember that that's the one. And I imagine it’s kind of is like, [speaking in a warbly voice] “I’m The Mysterious Mimicker!” [then suddenly a deep voice] “Hey Ninten, it’s your dad.” 

 

JESS

[laughs]

 

CAT

[Then back to her normal voice] Like, boom, all of a sudden, like he's doing he's doing a full impression.

 

JESS

Very strange. Just jump right into it. Yeah. 

 

CAT

There's also a girl that the Encyclopedia refers to as “The Baggage Check Girl”, who holds your items for you, but gives you access to the same pool of items that your sister Mimi holds on to.

    

JESS    

She indicates that she teleports them back home.

    

CAT    

Yeah. All the Encyclopedia says is “maybe there's a connection between Mimi and this girl.”

    

JESS    

Could be. Who knows? Similarly, there's no sign on the outside of it. So it's like this is where you go to store your items. You just kind of have to remember where this is in this place.

    

CAT    

It's sprawling, I think, because you can come back to Magicant any time you want. Once you exit it, you have the Onyx Hook and you can just go back. It's like having a free hospital in your pocket.

    

JESS    

And I'm curious if you leave without the Onyx Hook, are you just forever not able to get back?

    

CAT    

Well, no. I forgot how things went down. The reason I told you when you were playing this game like, “I want you to exit the magic cave - but don't do it without the Onyx Hook!” - is because this time around, I accidentally did that. And what that means is, once it dumps you out in Marysville, you have to walk back through Podunk and get up to that cave and use the Diary to get back in the thing-a-ma-bob and then get back in there, and then get the Onyx Hook.

    

JESS    

Okay. Thank you for telling me to do that beforehand.

    

CAT    

If only I told you to get Great Grandfather's Diary out of storage. I'm sorry.

    

JESS    

Yeah well, you can't tell me everything.

    

CAT    

I mean, I want you to have, you know, the real experience. But I also don't want to make you suffer.

    

JESS    

I know. I know. It's okay. It's okay. There was also a house that had a person in it that offered me a “big bag”.

    

CAT    

Yeah, That's misleading, isn't it?

    

JESS    

As trade for giving me the big bag, he asked me if he could have my ATM card and I didn't know for how long. So at first I was like, “I don't know about this.” And then I couldn't find an ATM in town. So I was like, “this isn’t doing me any good.” So I was like, “sure, take it!” And he looks at it and he's like, “okay, that's cool. I just want to see it. You can have it back. You want this bag now?” And “Sure! Okay! I'll take it!” …”You don't have enough inventory space.” Oh, my gosh! You’ve got to be kidding me. That's why I need the big bag! But that doesn't work like that, does it?

    

CAT    

No, it's not a big bag for you to carry things in. It's a big bag of magic herbs. Magic herbs, which… this psychedelic place is a great place for magic herb, but they're just a healing item. No resemblance to other leaves. And, yeah, really, really deeply profoundly misleading there, but it is, however, a handy storage item in some ways because, you know, normally a magic herb would take up an entire inventory slot, but the big bag holds, I don't know, like 30-something herbs and and it occupies one slot.

    

JESS    

So there is a finite number. Eventually you do run out if you keep using it.

    

CAT    

Yeah, I forget how many, but yeah there's a lot in there.

    

JESS    

Okay good. Because I threw mine away.

    

CAT    

You- you threw it away?

    

JESS    

Yes.

    

CAT    

You threw away that big bag.

    

JESS    

I did. 

 

CAT

[confused noises]

 

JESS

Because I have no inventory space and I knew that the big bag only provided me with herbs healing me - something I can do myself with my own PSI powers - and I didn't know how much of the other crap I was picking up was going to come back to bite me if I got rid of it. So I threw away the big bag.

    

CAT    

How did you throw it away?

    

JESS    

I just dropped it.

    

CAT    

Oh, I forgot you could do that. That's weird. Wow. Okay.

    

JESS    

I also threw away the PSI stone.

    

CAT    

Whoa! Wild.

 

JESS

[laughs]

    

CAT

This game is… This game is…

    

JESS    

I'm hoping I didn't shoot myself in the foot with some of these choices.

    

CAT    

It's just, a it's just, the PSI stone is a really useful item lets you recover PSI.

    

JESS    

I’m sure it is. But, you know, I don't know if the sword that I picked up might be useful for somebody or something. I figured I couldn't throw away the ocarina because it seemed like it was important - like I had to play the melodies on it. You know, I couldn't throw away Great Grandfather's Diary, and who knows when I was going to need that again. And, you know, I had my ATM card with me. I was going to need some money and stuff. And then it's like, you know, well, that's all the room that you have.

    

CAT    

Yeah, no, it's true. I mean, that's why The Bag Check girl is there. That's a lot. Yeah. It's frustrating. The thing about Magicant is that Magicant is overwhelming. Magicant will give you too much stuff because, again, Magicant is someplace you can go to throughout the whole game. But is there any way for you to know that? No. There's no way for you to know that. So naturally, when you enter Magicant, not knowing how this game works, then you enter it with a scarcity mindset. And that's just how it goes.

    

JESS    

Yeah. It's a land of plenty. You can have as much as you want, but you got to be able to carry it away.

    

CAT    

Yeah. One of the reasons that we're making this show, is in part - not just for the overall, you know, thesis that we presented in episode zero - but I think it's also because EarthBound Beginnings is a very interesting game, but it is not necessarily fun to play. I can attest that it does get more fun once you know how to play it. Then you can play it a second time and enjoy it a great deal - but that's a lot to ask for a lot of reasons. So we're not going to ask you to do that. That's why you're listening to the show.

    

JESS    

Yeah.

    

CAT    

So you mentioned the ocarina - that you just kind of get from a guy who says, “yeah, I'll give it to you. You're pretty straight looking dude.” And then you've got this ocarina, which was supposed to be made for an instrument shop, and then you can't return it. But you definitely would think, “oh, this is a fetch quest.” 

    

JESS    

Yeah, I tried to go give the ocarina to the person at the music store and I don't remember what they said, but it was something like, “nah, well, I guess I'm just not going to open a music store now.”

    

CAT    

But - if you use it, you can play all the melodies that you've collected so far. 

    

JESS    

When you use the ocarina, you start playing what you know of the melodies, and then for the pieces you don't know, there's just like a boop, boop, boop kind of like that for each one.

    

CAT    

Yeah, like a metronome sort of thing. 

 

JESS

Yeah. 

 

CAT

So, “here's an ocarina - I'm going to give it to you.” If you maybe, like, want to conserve inventory space, you could just not talk to that guy - but you wouldn't know that. 

    

JESS    

And it’s not just any ocarina, it's the Ocarina of Hope.

    

CAT   

That's true. The first ocarina or “Ocarina of something” in a Nintendo game as far as I know, predating Ocarina of Time by quite a bit.

    

JESS    

One of the Magicant citizens asks you if you've talked to the person who tells you, “if we have not yet met, then we cannot part.” 

 

CAT

Yes.

 

JESS

Which, I guess, is like one of the citizens is like the philosopher - so the citizen that studies philosophy… But apparently they all study philosophy.

    

CAT    

Yeah, they're all pondering stuff.

    

JESS    

Yeah, they're all pondering all the time. And then if you do go talk to that person, and then you come back and you say, “I did talk to them,” then you can get a nickname because this NPC is the one that gives nicknames to people - the philosopher.

    

CAT    

Did you got a nickname?

    

JESS    

Yeah, I did.

    

CAT    

What was it?

    

JESS    

The nickname that I received was “Noodlenoggin”. 

 

CAT

[laughs]

 

JESS

Did you get a different one?

    

CAT   

Actually, because it's so sprawling, I totally missed playing around with that. I was writing down a lot of text for Magicant. Like the half the NPCs I wrote down what they were saying, because it's all pretty interesting, but like, I totally missed that exchange. I'm sure I've done it before, but not this time.

    

JESS    

Yeah, you can get a nickname and it's “Noodlenoggin”.

    

CAT    

I love that for you. 

 

JESS

Cool! 

[laughs]

 

[ad break]

 

CAT

We've talked about Shigesato Itoi as a copywriter and how there's a lot of powerful, potent short sentences - like his work writing the copy for the Studio Ghibli posters. There's a lot of that kind of work here, where he's writing phrases that are personal, emotional, disarming, and though very simple - people just weren't used to seeing that in a video game.

    

For example, there's a house with two people in it. There's one person in a blue cloak that says, “My what strange clothing you wear. Surely monsters will come after those clothes.” Which is a very strange thing to say. I mean, monsters attack you when monsters attack you, it doesn’t really have anything to do with your clothes. Or maybe it does? There's a person in a pink outfit in there and they say, “I'm so embarrassed. I wish I could crawl into a hole.” And I don't know why they say that, but that sentiment in isolation is really interesting. It really makes you think.

    

JESS    

Yeah, there is, in Magicant, a field of holes. 

 

CAT

Yes. A Sea of Holes, if you will.

    

JESS   

Yeah, a “sea of holes”, and there's probably, what, like 30 or 40 or 50 holes here.

    

CAT    

According to the encyclopedia. There's 38.

    

JESS    

38. Okay. And one of them you can go down. I don't think there's anything you can do with the rest of them. 

 

CAT

No.

 

JESS

But somebody in either the castle or near the fountain maybe mentions the sea of holes and says that if you listen closely, you can hear the sounds of another world coming from them.

    

CAT    

Specifically, the Encyclopedia says about that - what's called “The East Well System”. I'm calling it the “Sea of Holes” as a reference to Yellow Submarine, and I cannot imagine that these Beatle-infused games would have that huge collection of holes for any reason other than to be another Beatles reference in the EarthBound series. The Encyclopedia says “it wasn't dug so the people could draw water from them. All the water that they need to keep up their way of life is provided by Queen Mary's Fountain. So then what are wells doing here? There seems to be some understanding between the townsfolk that they're there for the sake of being there. What the townspeople find mysterious are the sounds coming from one of the wells. You, though? It's something you're used to hearing all the time. It's town noise.”

    

JESS    

Town noise, the sounds of town.

    

CAT    

There's somebody who says, “there's no exit from a place like Magicant,” and starts laughing at you. But the people of Magicant don't seem to realize that your world exists, just like you're not really sure what to make of their world at all. And there's some interesting dialog that happens that expresses bits of that dichotomy. My Mother She Quote, for example: you talk to this one person in the far side of town who says, “in a bad dream, Magicant vanished into thin air. My heart is still pounding so hard.” That's a really stunning moment of storytelling for me. This is a person in a dream being very afraid of whoever is dreaming the dream, waking up.

    

JESS    

That is really chilling. And it is not the only chilling piece of dialog in this area of the game. Not by far. There's many, many. And kind of going back to the sea of holes for a second and the person who says that they want to crawl into a hole, I kind of wonder if the sea of holes and like the desire to go into the hole is like maybe a metaphor for depression?

    

CAT    

Wow! That's extraordinarily astute of you, Jess.

    

JESS    

And when you are depressed, you want to go crawl into a hole. And if we’re inside somebody's dream, and there's just like all these holes that have been formed here because they get depressed so quickly and easily - that's just what it's a metaphor for.

    

CAT    

We're jumping all around Magicant, but let's follow this thread.

 

JESS

Okay

 

CAT

In a space that is called in the Encyclopedia, not a name, but referred to as “the utmost depths of the dream”: 

 

“In the space between this life and the next, there is a deep, dark river. A great river of darkness. Nobody knows where it runs from or where it's running. At its heart, there, upon the surface, is an enormous labyrinthine stronghold with strange apparitions flying all about. If there were ever such a thing as the bottom of the world, it would, without a doubt, look like this desolation of immeasurable loneliness. You can't help but think to yourself, ‘is this really how lonely Queen Mary’s sorrow is?’”

    

JESS    

Wow.

    

CAT    

You intuited that perfectly, I'd say.

    

JESS    

Great! I do pick up a thing or two. Too many things ‘cause I don't have the inventory for it all!

 

CAT

[laughs]

Gosh!

 

JESS

The fact that there is a character down in the labyrinth hole called the Forgotten Man.

 

CAT

Yeah.

 

JESS

He's mentioned by one of the other characters walking around Magicant, and they just allude to him and say, “there's somebody who everybody forgot about and I can't remember anything about them.” But they remember that there was a person that did that.

    

CAT    

And we will talk a lot more about this in a little bit. 

 

JESS

Yes. Yes! Mm-hmm.

 

CAT

This is something that I never knew until I read the Encyclopedia. And again, I will always give gracious and overwhelming thanks to kenisu for all of the insights of this Encyclopedia. It is invaluable and you can read it for yourself. We'll link to it in the episode’s page to kenisu’s translation of the Encyclopedia. “There are other people in Magicant from Earth.” 

 

JESS

Whaaaaaat?

 

CAT

And they they stick out, but there's nothing indicating that they are what you think they are. And this might be kind of where a little bit of Momo comes in, but it's hard to say. There are some folks in the village that don't look like the other folks in the village, and that's the folks who are running the three stores.

        

JESS    

Oh, yeah.

    

CAT    

They say, “this works just like it does where you come from,” or I forget how they word it, but like, “just leave me some cash. Then, with the goods, you can dash.” 

 

JESS

Yeah.

 

CAT

And those people are from Earth.

 

JESS   

And they say, “Why are you staring at me?” when you first walk in.

    

CAT    

Right. Calling attention to themselves, but not in a way that you, the gamer, would ever have a reason to wonder - to know why.

 

JESS    

Interesting. Okay.

    

CAT    

And they are the only people who are dealing in capitalism. No one else deals with capitalism - but those are people who are accepting cold hard cash in that world. As it says in the Encyclopedia, “three opportunists yearning for earnings who came from the same world you did, have unashamedly set up shop on the north side of town, doing business on the sly.”

    

JESS    

Very strange.

    

CAT    

And then as a funny little note: “there are a selection of mysterious coins here which are said to have the same effect as armor in that one home console game you were obsessed with just before your adventure. ‘Dragon’ something or other.” These stores are really, really weird because they carry high-end items and if you've got the money for it, you can buy some stuff to protect you that'll make all the enemies hits take like one damage off you, if you can afford it. And you can just get it now. I mean, it's there to be a store to you, you know, throughout the rest of the game. But you could just do it if you wanted to. And in my case, I could afford to do it.

    

JESS    

I did. Yeah. I bought a gold ring, I think.

    

CAT    

You can get coins and you can get rings. You can wear both of them. And you can also get pendants, which you can also wear. With the coins and the rings, it's clear that there's one that's better than all the other ones - but with the pendants, they're all elemental. And so you have to like, make a choice out of like, what do I want my character to be invulnerable against?

    

JESS    

Right. There was also an interesting item called the Repel Ring.

    

CAT    

Yeah. I don't recall how that works specifically. It might be one of those items that has a special feature.

    

JESS    

It does. So, I purchased one and I checked it, of course, and what the description says is that it “repels weak creatures”. And I think maybe what it does is it decreases the encounter rate that you have when you are in areas that you are kind of like higher level against.

    

CAT    

Oh my gosh.

    

JESS    

But it wears out. 

 

CAT

Ooh.

 

JESS

It only lasts like 10 minutes or something like that.

    

CAT  

Oh. I've never used that item and that is super weird.

    

JESS    

Well, it's not expensive. So, you know, you would think, “well, these other things are probably better and I should get one of those.” Like I said, I got a gold ring also, but because I had some extra money, I went ahead and got a repel ring as well, and I was reading the scripts and I was like, “This is incredible! They got an item in here that's going to cut down on some of the random encounters that you have!” And then it, you know, it wore off pretty quickly, but it also was cheap.

 

CAT

Yeah. So points of interest in Magicant: 

 

[transitional music begins to play]

 

CAT

There's of course the castle, which we'll get to, and then there's the forest, and the fountain, and the Flying Man house.

 

[Transitional music ends]

    

JESS    

So the forest: there was a character there that mentioned the Forgotten Man. We already talked about that. As soon as you walk into Magicant, as you arrived, there was a cat that was swimming around in the water and they called themselves “The Cat That Swims in Water”. Now, when you're going through the forest, you see another cat that's kind of like swimming around. And if you go talk to that cat, it says, “I'm the Cat That Swims in Land.”

    

CAT    

Yeah, the Encyclopedia mentions that cat and says, like the land is of course clouds. So it is a cat that's swimming in the clouds. 

    

JESS    

But the Cat That Swims in the Ground I think is what it called itself.

    

CAT    

Yeah.

    

JESS    

There's also another character that tells Ninten that they look like Queen Mary.

    

CAT    

Yeah. A monkey.

    

JESS    

Oh, it's the monkey! Yeah. The monkey tells you that you look like Queen Mary, but it's a non-singing monkey.

    

CAT    

Mm-hmm

    

JESS    

And it says it doesn't like you to ask questions.

    

CAT    

Questions are so ridiculous.

    

JESS    

Yeah, questions are ridiculous - according to the non-singing monkey.

    

CAT    

A lot of interesting clues around about this Queen Mary character.

    

JESS    

Yeah, it's got to be your Great Grandmother, Maria. Or a descendant of Maria.

    

CAT    

It's got to be.

    

JESS    

It's got to be.

    

CAT    

There's also a handsome guitar player.

    

JESS    

Oh, yeah. Yeah. There was a little house that had the handsome guitar player. And first of all, you walk in and he doesn't notice you right away because there's so much noise from playing the guitar. But then when he finally does recognize that you're there, he says something about, “I have a secret story to tell you, but come back when you're stronger and don't forget about it. Make sure to write it down because I forget things if I don't write them down.”

    

CAT    

Yeah. So one would assume that maybe there's a melody coming from this person who's musical in nature, unlocked when you reach a certain level. That seems to be what's going on here. And the Encyclopedia says, “we don't care if you vandalize this book. So you should underline those words of his. It seems pretty important.”

    

JESS    

Yeah, well, I'm not super worried if we can always come back to Magicant  whenever we want, so I wish I had a hint like that to tell me about the canary.

    

CAT    

Yeah. If there was something early on in the game like that, that basically said, “hey, so we need you to play this game like, I don't know, Myst or Riven or something, and have like a journal to put all the clues down - and that's how you're going to play this game.” They'd be like, “okay, I guess it's what I'm doing.”

 

JESS

Sure.

    

CAT    

But yeah, you think, “Ah, this is just a role playing game. I've done this before!” Nope.

    

JESS    

Ninten remembers the melodies, but you should remember this.

    

CAT    

Fun fact about that Cat in the Ground. They say, “guess what's in my hand?” And if you use telepathy on them, they're like, “ah, that's right, it's a ribbon. This magic ribbon will give you strength. I only give this to girls.”

    

JESS    

And a ribbon is a recurring item in a lot of Japanese RPGs.

    

CAT    

Mm-hmm. Including EarthBound. 

    

JESS    

And it very commonly provides advantages to female characters that wear them.

    

CAT    

Yeah.

    

JESS    

It's interesting to see a Japanese RPG that diverts so much from the norm have a staple of Japanese RPGs like that in it.

    

CAT    

Yeah, I think in a lot of ways it's really just a staple of gender. 

 

CAT

Yeah

 

JESS

Ultimately what it boils down to. So another interesting trait of Magicant is there's a big field of grass and some of the grass is red. And that red weed, the people of Magicant gather it, place it in the magic fountain that they're all super into, and they become magic herbs.

    

JESS    

Yeah. So if you need even more magic herbs, you can still get more.

    

CAT    

And some folks were talking about a “benevolent old man”.

    

JESS    

Yeah, the old man in the fountain.

    

CAT    

They say “he will hear your soulful cry and come for help. Soulful cry. Remember: soulful cry.”

 

JESS

Soulful cry. I got it. Thank you.

    

CAT    

And you figured it out.

    

JESS    

I did. I mean, all I did was just go and, like, use telepathy. And there it was.

    

CAT    

Yeah, well, this girl never figured that out.

 

JESS

Ohhh.

 

CAT

I never did. But I did this time!

 

JESS

Okay.

 

CAT

And there I was thinking I thought I came to Magicant and I couldn't access any Earth money, but then this old man shows up.

    

JESS    

Yeah. You use telepathy at the fountain. This kindly old man shows up and asks if you need money. And if you say “yes,” he basically just lets you access your funds that you have just like an ATM.

    

CAT    

Interesting thing about this old man, though: he didn't always used to be an ATM. In the original version of MOTHER, instead of asking, “you need money, don't you?” He said, “what do you need?” And the choices were “cure”, “poison”, or “soften”. He became an ATM in the American translation that has stayed on in all future Japanese versions.

    

JESS    

Really? So there was just never an ATM in Magicant before that. 

 

CAT

Yup.

    

JESS

Wow. Now, do you actually need the ATM card to exchange with the man?

    

CAT    

Great question. I do not know. [laughs]

    

JESS    

I wouldn't think so, but I don't know. Who knows. Somebody knows. Let us know if you know. 

 

CAT

Yeah.

 

JESS

There were also a couple of guards at the fountain. I think one of them mentioned the sea of holes and talked about hearing another world through it, but I don't think the other one really said anything of super importance.

    

CAT    

No.

 

[a phone starts to ring]

    

JESS    

Oh, uh. Sorry Cat, I thought my phone was on silent. Uh. One sec.

 

[she picks up]

    

CAT    

It's cool.

    

JESS    

Hello?

    

DAD    

Uh, Jess, Cat - it’s Dad.

    

JESS    

[whispering]

This isn't my dad, is it your dad?

    

CAT    

[whispering]

It's not my dad. Who the heck is this?!

    

DAD    

Hey, it's none of my business. I know you two  know how to read a podcast, but this episode is starting to get a little long, don't you think? Maybe you should take a break for a while and come back later? Do a little save-iola. A little save-a-rino?

    

CAT    

Huh. That… is a good point.

    

JESS    

Yeah. We could break up the Magicant discussion. That sounds re-son-able.

    

DAD    

Okay, great. Glad we're on the same page. [yawns] Anyhow, your old man is going to hit the hay. Try not to stay up too late doing your hair. Bringing down to the patriarchy or whatever you kids are into these days.

    

CAT    

Uh huh. …We’ll… Take it under advisement.

    

JESS    

Thanks, “Dad”. Bye

 

DAD

Goodb-

 

[the call is ended]

 

JESS

…And caller blocked.

    

CAT    

Very strange.

    

JESS    

Extremely strange.

    

CAT    

Decent suggestion, though.

    

JESS    

Uhhh… So I guess we'll just stop here and pick up next time 

    

CAT    

For sure! Sounds good! Well! Until then! I'm Cat!

    

JESS    

I'm Jess!

    

CAT    

And that's all she wrote.

    

JESS    

So everything just stops and you pick it up later?

    

CAT    

Yeah, You just turn off the con-

 

[click]

 

[Silence, then upbeat music plays]

 

CAT

“Mother,” She Wrote is made possible thanks to the generous support of our Patreon Producers:

Becky Scott Fairley, Bob Hogan, C B, Joe “Tank” Ricciardelli, Josh King, McDibble Deluxe, MjolnirMK86, Patrick Webster, Sean Hutchinson, Sean T. Redd…

 

And our Super-Deluxe Executive Patreon Producers:

BigBadShadowMan, Marcus Larsson, and Jaimeson LaLone

 

JESS

You can join the team at Patreon.com/OmniverseMedia! And if you think “Mother,” She Wrote is simply smashing, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser  - and be sure to subscribe via your favorite podcast player.

 

CAT

This series is recorded and produced in Orlando, Florida and Louisville, Kentucky on lands stolen from their Indigenous people: the Timucua and Seminole, and Shawnee, Cherokee, Osage, Seneca-Iroquois, Miami, Hopewell and Adena.

 

JESS

Acknowledgement of the first peoples of these lands, and the lasting repercussions of colonization is just the beginning of the restorative work that is necessary. Through awareness, we can prompt allyship, action, and ultimately decolonization. 

 

CAT

For links to aid Indigenous efforts and to learn more about the first nations of the land where you live: visit omniverse.media/landback

 

JESS

“Mother,” She Wrote is written, produced, and performed by me: Jessica Mudd.

 

CAT

And me: Cat Blackard. Our original score is composed and performed by Jess and this episode features the voice of John Sebastian La Valle as “Dad”.

 

JESS

Special thanks to Kenisu for his invaluable work translating the Mother Encyclopedia. Find a link to his translation, other media we’ve referenced, and full episode transcripts at mothershewrote.earth

 

CAT

“Mother,” She Wrote is not affiliated with Nintendo, Shigesato Itoi, or any rights holders of the MOTHER and EarthBound intellectual properties. Please play the games' official Nintendo releases.

 

[Omniverse Audio Brand]