Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26006155-20190617222636/@comment-26006155-20190618140850

DISCOVERING HIDDEN EVIL NPCS

Buzz Buzz announces early in Earthbound that “From now on, you’ll be fighting enemies sent by Giygas, as well as *humans who have evil thoughts*”

I think I may have found early examples in the game of these humans.

--

APPLE KID.

The first thing fat Apple Kid does is bum $200 and some food from us in his pigsty of a house, not giving a great first impression. In return, his mouse assistant gives him The Receiver, a telephone that only lets him call Ness, not the other way around. It would be super-powerful if it was two-way, but no dice.

Ness then heads through a cave into Peaceful Rest Valley, one of the rougher, more dangerous areas of the game.

And, after a slog, finds a metal pencil statue is blocking his way, with no way around it.

Finding no other way forward, Ness eventually heads back out the way he came… … only to find that the *very instant* he leaves the cave and re-enters Twoson, leaving the dangerous areas, Apple Kid calls him on the Receiver to tell him he has a new invention to show him.

This new invention, which Apple Kid says he’s been working on all night, is The Pencil Eraser, which amazingly removes any pencil-shaped figured in ‘just one second’.

And sure enough.. When Ness takes The Pencil Eraser back to the metal pencil statue that was blocking his path, it vanishes, as if teleported away, Star Trek style. Something much too fancy for a $200 Radio Shack rig to do back in 199X.

Somehow, Apple Kid had access to PSI technology.

QUESTIONS:

If Apple Kid somehow knew *exactly* what sort of obstacle would be blocking Ness’s path in Peaceful Rest Valley, and has been working on a device to remove that obstacle all night… why didn’t Apple Kid call Ness on his Receiver and warn him not to go into Peaceful Rest Valley, an incredibly dangerous place, because he couldn’t possibly make headway until he had the Pencil Eraser that Apple Kid was currently working on?

If Apple Kid really wanted to help Ness, why did he let Ness blunder about in Peaceful Rest Valley, then call him the very moment he got back to safe land again? It’s almost like Apple Kid knew where Ness was all the time.. And hoped he’d be lost while wandering about?

Apple Kid presents himself as a friend, but does the bare minimum to help Ness, when a simple phone call would have been a huge help.

If I remember right, Apple Kid assists Doctor Andonuts later on. They may have both gotten their PSI tech from Giygas.

-

PAULA’S MOM

Paula gets abducted by the Happy Happy cult in Happy Happy village, whose leader seems to have PSI lightning technology from exposure to the evil Mani Mani statue.

Everdred, the miniboss who sprains his ankle after jumping off the roof (see also “Hell Yes Mexicans” guy in the Hack) and then turns helpful, has intel that Paula has been kidnapped for a human sacrifice!

Paula’s parents should be terrified! Are they? … No. Paula’s Mom looks very, very.. Happy. “Whistle, whistle anywhere. It makes me smile. All the while. I’m Paula’s mother. I’m busy taking care of these kids. You shouldn’t worry about Paula. She has a guardian angel, it seems.”

Paula’s Mom knows that Paula is out, and in trouble, but doesn’t seem worried.

PAULA, meanwhile, sends Ness two dream messages begging him desperately for help! So while her mother isn’t worried, Paula certainly is!

And Paula’s Father? HE DOESN’T KNOW SHE’S EVEN GONE! He looks around the house for Paula when Ness arrives, bewildered that she isn’t home.

Paula’s super-happy Mother didn’t even bother to tell her husband their daughter had been abducted!

And when Paula does return home, alive and intact, Paula’s Mother makes a big show of giving her the Hand-Aid. A single one-shot full-heal that sells at vendors for $19.

ANALYSIS: I think it’s very likely that Paula’s Mom was one of the cultists. She was happy even though she knew her daughter had been abducted, and didn’t even bother to tell her husband what had happened to Paula, preferring that he simply not know. Very un-motherlike behavior in a game with that word on the cartridge.