Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26006155-20181229180615/@comment-26006155-20190114094511

(continued)

- Chapter 10: Secrets of the Earthbound Halloween Hack -

Swankybox pointed out an interesting coincidence in DeltaRune, when Kris finds a picture of characters wearing Halloween costumes eight years earlier. Which just happens to be when Tobyfox launched his now-infamous Halloween rom hack of the classic game Earthbound. As if, rather than just a fan project, it marked the beginning of a greater story.

There are certainly enough coincidences between the games to be notable. Earthbound’s PSI Points, it’s equivalent of Mana, are commonly called “PP”, in what could be a veiled attempt at toilet humor. DeltaRune doubles down on this by using “Tension Points” for mana, which one NPC jokingly calls “Toilet Paper”.

Earthbound is famous for its bizarre, often non-lethal combats, as people and inanimate objects that are infected with Giygas’s corrupting power turn back to normal when you defeat them. This focus on non-lethal encounters, very different from most RPGs where slaughtering monsters is so commonplace it’s never questioned, was a literal game-changer in the gaming industry, and a clear influence on Undertale’s construction.

But while Undertale and Deltarune both encourage, then force the player not to kill enemies, The Halloween Hack sticks out as the black sheep of the family, in a world where something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Right from Character Creation you notice something different. While Paula, Jeff Andonuts and Prince Poo are all the same, Ness has been replaced by a new, completely different looking protagonist named Varik. And the game doubles down on the point that Varik isn’t psychic, making you pick a favorite PSI attack for him that he can’t actually use, having him start the game with no PSI abilities, and having a dog in town turn up its nose and tell Varik that it refuses to talk to him because he isn’t psychic. Multiple people in town also remember a boy hanging out with Paula, and say this to Varik as a third person account. Which hammers home that Varik isn’t Ness, and this paid killer wielding a knife isn’t our good-hearted psychic chum wielding a baseball bat.

Varik wakes up from a noise outside just like Ness does, but once he leaves his room another narrator takes control, claiming to pull Varik out of his dream while he’s laying down in a pile of puke. There’s a white flash.. And Varik finds himself in front of the Manager’s office, who *demands* he goes on a mission.

A monster recently attacked the town, and a girl watched the long, gorey process of her parents being slowly and painfully torn to pieces in their own bedroom.. Never once thinking of running to get help. Despite the carnage, the town is still relatively upbeat, having locked all the manhole covers in the hopes of preventing another attack. But Varik’s mission is clear: Find where the monster came from, and deal with it.

The town outside is bizarre. Girls are sunbathing in winter. The bike store has a ton of bikes, but won’t sell you one because they’re all for show. Mr. T loves eating halloween candy with metal inside. Pigpen from Peanuts gives a long talk about how dinosaurs walked the Earth millions of years ago. The manhole to the sewers is marked with a sign someone left in the middle of the street, and despite getting the key from the Manager Varik discovers the manhole was already conveniently unlocked before he got there, threatening the lives of everyone in town! Trippy Halloween mutants roam the town, as well as a kid-eating dinosaur that changes back into a regular dinosaur when you defeat it. This entire town is one huge pixelated drug trip, not even counting the guy with the sombrero!

And then something even weirder starts to happen. As Varik fights colorful freaks and gains levels around Twoson, he gains something else. PSI abilities. Powers that he shouldn’t be able to have. And whenever Varik dies, something that happens a LOT in this game, he seems an image of Ness, which assures him he’s having a bad dream, then wishes him good luck as he fades away, as if from some impossibly long distance..

The first big story twist comes when Varik meets Paula’s Dad, who talks about how she and the other 3 boys went back in time defeat Giygas.. But never returned, a change from the original game where their souls left the robots and found their way back to their bodies in the future. Paula’s Dad knows what they did was right, but still partly blames “that stupid Doctor” who send them to the past, the first time Doctor Andonuts is mentioned in the game.

Apple Kid says Doctor Andonuts has been missing even since the bad news that Ness and his friends weren’t coming back from the past, and is curious what happened to him. So after leveling, Varik heads into the sewers, searching for both the monster.. And Andonuts.

And this is where the game starts to get dark. REALLY dark.

Each level of the sewers is like descending into another layer of hell. At first, the monsters are simply stronger, and grosser than normal. But soon Varik finds himself literally wading through a river of blood, and creatures that explode in gory detail, very clearly actually dead..

There isn’t just one monster, there’s a WORLD of them. They must be coming from somewhere. And the closer Varik gets, the worse everything becomes. Yet the mysterious narrator is still there, revealing these horrors to Varik, and saying that some unknown force keeps forcing his legs onward, and onward, not letting him go back.

And then, the Mysterious Narrator tells Varik that he senses the greatest monster of all... just before he opens the door to Doctor Andonuts’ lab.

What follows is the strangest conversation I have ever seen.

At first Andonuts seems to recognize Vark, and believes Mr. Brickroad the dungeon maker referred him as a helper. But when Varik mentions his son Jeff, Andonuts has a breakdown, and says that not only Jeff, but every being in Winters, every being in Earth and the Universe, is dead, because he sent Jeff and his friends back in time.. To perish. Andonuts says his life is now meaningless.. So he made the monsters to destroy the world.

Then Doctor Andonuts sees something in Varik’s eyes.. A looked he recognizes belonging to someone else.. The Mysterious Narrator. “Oh those EYES you’re it’s NO, those eyes came back! So you came back, WELL…”

Then Andonuts says he’s invented a machine to send himself to Magicant, the realm of his own mind. “The world is dead and.. I’ve become senile with guilt and rage. Please.. Please let an old man rest in peace. Leave.. Me…” and teleports into the machine in front of your eyes.

The Mysterious Narrator will not let Varik leave this lab, white-warping him back inside if he tries to use the door, or the stairs. Your only option is to go to the machine, and then face the greatest choice in the game, whether to kill Doctor Andonuts right then and there.

The Mysterious Narrator clearly wants you to kill him. It only presents you with one option, the option to strike, and it’s only by experimenting that you discover a section, blank option, which prompts the Narrator to scold Varik and tell him to make a REAL choice. “What do you Varik, devil killer, Giygas destroyer.. What do you do!?”

If choose to strike, there’s a gale of laughter as the Narrator describes the blood pouring from the machine and Andonuts’ pitiful cries for help, before he falls out of the Magicant Machine, dead. Then it takes away Varik’s legs, arms, and mind, before gleefully informing Varik he made the right choice “You did the right thing Varik. It was really brave of you to make that choice. We need people like you to make decisions like that. You’re a true hero! THE END. Ha,Ha,Ha.”

It’s very clear that the Mysterious Narrator is NOT your friend, and is actually a far greater monster.

And if Varik does discover how to press B when over the second choice, the Narrator, horrified, will scream at Varik to stop “YOU WANT TO KILL THE MONSTER, WHY ARE YOU OPENING THE DOOR TO HIM? Your legs aren’t lying to you! That knife doesn’t lie to you! Varik, if you open that door, time and space will collapse! DON’T OPEN THAT! WAKE UP! THIS IS ALL JUST A DREAM, ISN”T IT!?” But Varik ignores The Mysterious Narrator, and enters the machine, warping himself into the world of Doctor Andonuts’ own mind, into Magicant.

Andonuts’ mind is full of fractures memories, recollections of being bullied as a child for being a nerd, as well as numerous fears and regrets. Apple Kid says Andonuts hides deep in The Sea of Eve, afraid of even his own mind, and that you’ll have to recover his Courage, which is buried under his fear, to find him, and hopefully save him.

Varik has many adventure in Magicant. He meets a series of Flowey-like flowers with bad attitudes “H-hey! You used me in a science experiment! How would you like it if I dissected YOU!?” And then begins to fight Doctor Andonuts’ personal demons, figuratively, and literally.

While on the quest to find Doctor Andonuts’ Courage, Varik reaches the Zexonyte meteor, and sees a grown woman appear and fly around his head like Buzz Buzz. “Honey, I need to talk to you about something. Lately, you’ve been acting kind of.. Disinterested in me. Is there something wrong? Is there something wrong with me? Honey.. Is there something you’re not telling me? Honey please.. You’re not hiding something from me, are you?..”

And then a boss fight starts, as three demons, each part of a buff manly man, a crotch, an powerful arm covered in blood, and a manly chest attack, all three named “NO”

A popular theory is that Doctor Andonuts was a close homosexual, which might explain a lack of interest in his wife. But I want to propose a different idea.

In a later cutscene we learn something about Andonuts changed, and he became distant to both his wife, and his son Jeff, barely talking to them at all. Andonuts was once interested in his wife, and did love both here and Jeff, but something changed. After his wife tearfully announces she’s leaving, Andonuts tells Varik “If I can’t live with myself, why should anybody else?” Even before sending Jeff back in time to die, even before his wife left, Doctor Andonuts had already done something so terrible that he considered himself to be a monster.

The “NO” fight isn’t about liking men, it’s about Lying.

Here’s his wife, wondering what is happening to their relationship, and asking Andonuts if there’s anything he’s hiding from her. Which puts Andonuts in a terrible bind.. Does he act cold to his wife, and answer “NO”, the Manly Answer, and lie to her by pretending everything is fine? Or does he reveal to her a truth so terrible that she might hate him forever, and leave him anyway?

“NO” is one of the few bosses you can actually run away from, which is probably what Doctor Andonuts actually did, keeping his wife in the dark and ultimately forcing her out of his life by doing so, an outcome Andonuts deeply regrets.

But it is also possible to defeat the “NO” demons by a tactical battle putting them to sleep, or scoring a devastating critical hit. And if one falls, they all fall together.

So ever if Doctor Andonuts DID confess what he did to his wife.. She still ended up leaving him.

What could he have done that was so horrible?

One clue might be in a scene that always gives me goosebumps. After Dr. A’s wife asks if he loves her, and Jeff, you find a room where a a boy is kneeling down. At first you think has psychokinetic powers when he says “I CAN FEEL THEM IN MY HEAD.” but when he continues to say “I CAN FEEL THEM WITH MY TONGUE. THEY’RE HARD. I USED THEM TO CHEW FOOD.” it’s clear that he isn’t psychic. Which is the point this scene is trying to make.

One thing that’s never explain in Earthbound is, why doesn’t Doctor Andonuts’ son Jeff have psychic powers? Dr. A clearly does, as do Ness, Paula and Poo. Jeff is a certified genius, able to defeat monsters with rocket science and strange devices like his HP sucker that’s sometimes the best weapon against certain foes. And yet despite his lineage, Jeff has no psychic powers to speak of.

After meeting Jeff, and fighting Dearkheart, Doctor Andonuts reveals that he does love Jeff, and did what he thought was best for him. “When Jeff came to me for help, it made me so happy. Happy… I know I wouldn’t be able to raise him by myself. I wouldn’t want him to turn into a shameful monsters like me. So I sent him away to boarding school. Now he’s not a monster. He’s almost a hero. I feel that if I help him do what he wants most, even if it’s something ridiculous.. If he accomplishes that, I’ll turn back into a normal person. I won’t be a monster anymore.”

So again, Doctor Andonuts did something before sending the kids back in time that he feels ashamed of, and something his wife agreed was shameful, to make himself believe that he is a monster. And by helping Jeff he feels he could undo what was done, so something about what happened to Jeff, and potentially his lack of psychic powers?.. Relates to why Doctor Andonuts has such a negative view of himself.

The REALLY creepy thing about Teeth In Head Kid? He might have Jeff’s green clothing, and it would certainly make sense for Jeff to be in this scene. But Teeth In Head Kid also has VARIK’S distinctive black and red hair. And like Jeff, Varik isn’t psychic either.

Or at least, Varik shouldn’t be. And yet, as the game progresses, Varik develops powers like barrier shields and PSI Magnet that can’t just be advanced combat techniques, they are actualy psychic ability that only someone with Psychokinesis should be able to wield. And yet.. Varik does.

Or does he?

Or is it him?

Remember when The Mysterious Evil Narrator called Varik “devil slayer, Giygas destroyer?” This title could only belong to Ness and his friends, and certainly doesn’t belong to Varik.

When you die, Ness is there, encouraging you to summon all the courage you have. Before he warps out into the distance again. It’s like here’s actually there, talking to us.

And it isn’t just him.

Whenever you defeat a boss in the Hack, something special happens. A voice appears, calling themselves Courage. And whenever you return to the start of Magicant afterwards, you find you’re not alone. One of Ness’s friends is also there to help you.

Paula appears after you defeat or run from “NO”. “I am Courage. I’ve been called to help you fight the demons plaguing this old man’s mind.” she asks you to seek out two of her friends, then “I wonder if, Dr. Andonuts.. Are you just a self-concious old fool?”

When you talk to Jeff on the neon throne, he thinks you’re Dr. Andonuts, and talks about seeing Paula in his dreams, and how he must join her and the others. “Will you help me? …! Yes Thank You! I knew I could count on you..” then says aside “(I’ll see you again in another 10 years, what’s that supposed to mean? Am I just supposed to say goodbye like this!? In that case.. Goodbye)”

And then you fight Dearkhart, a shadowy figure with glowing, broken heart. It opens with “Dearkhart is your own fault” featuring original music. Dearkhart pierces your soul, scrambles your heart into pieces, and when you defeat it, its core shatters, and is body fractures into bits. Which reminds me so much about Undertale that it hurts.

And then you get another message from “Courage”, who makes it clear it’s Jeff talking. He says he loves his dad, who has never been good with communication, and is sad to see him lock himself in his own mind. He tells Varik they could go find Poo (confirming that Paula was the first Courage) and save his dad! “Just one question though.. How can someone make a time machine if they don’t understand time travel?”

The third journey involves navigating a museum dedicated to all the people Dr. Andonuts has killed, with Jeff and his friends first and foremost. There’s a broken robot for Ness, and an empty pedestal for Varik. Doctor Andonuts sounds increasingly insane, seeming both proud and injured beyond words as he asks “How DO we kill so many people? Well, it’s easy! Come back here, behind the scenes! WE’VE got all kinds of things to show you!” Talking almost as if someone ELSE is in his head besides just him.

Could it be The Mysterious Evil Narrator he recognized in Varik’s eyes earlier?

When Varik, Paula and Jeff find The Phase Distorter, the machine Doctor Andonuts used to send the Earthbound heros to the past as robots, Doctor Andonuts talks about how he had such high hopes for the machine, how it would be the first he made something that not only worked but was actually helpful!

But Jeff’s question about how someone who doesn’t understand Time Travel could make a Time Machine lingers. And when Doctor Andonuts gets the idea in his head that organic life could not be sent back in time.. An idea disproven in Earthbound itself as fleshy Pokey shows up in a Time Machine before the final battle with Giygas, he talks about how he operated on the four children to put their souls into robots. Even though he isn’t even a real doctor, and didn’t truly know what he was doing. It simply WORKED.

And then, he realizes The Phase Distorter was a deathtrap, right as the machine turns into the third boss, and tries to devour Varik and his friends whole.

After the battle Doctor Andonuts mentions how Giygas’s henchmen stopped showing up hours after the robot children left in the Phase Distorter, but never came back. Andonuts realizes the method he used to send them to the past wouldn’t work to send them back to the future. “I killed them. I killed my own son. I killed my son’s friends. There’s no enough Zexonyte left for another time machine”, so no rescue was possible.

Andonuts recalls himself becoming overcome with grief, then creating the army of monsters attacking Varik’s world. Then he looks around, at the Giygas brain they’re all standing in, which should be a reflection of something in his own mind, and says “I’m becoming warped. Look around. What is this!? I don’t remember this. It’s… I’m scared. I’m scared of it!”

And then Prince Poo’s Courage appears, who finally explains exactly what’s happening. “When we defeated Giygas, the future split in twain. In one future, Giygas has always been defeated, because we defeated him in the past. (the original Earthbound story) In the other future (the future of The Hack) Giygas’ defeat is new. Giygas’s technology allowed him to invade every time and space simultaneously. This includes even the ones he was already defeated in.”

Two very important things have just been revealed.

The first is that, somehow, people in different timelines can speak to each other and influence each other’s world. Varik is accompanied by Paula’s Courage, Jeff’s Courage, and Poo’s Courage. And reason Varik can use Psychic abilities is that Ness is channeling his own courage through Varik to help him.

So if Gaster and Alphys both created the controllable vessel Flowey in two different timelines, it still might be possible for Gaster to control Alphy’s creation by reaching across space and time. The same way Frisk and Chara might share a timeline connection. Varik is certainly weilding a knife like Chara loves to do.

But the second, far less fortunate reveal, is that Giygas isn’t gone after all. He’s re-invaded this world, and is trying to destroy it all over again.

Giygas.. Is The Mysterious Evil Narrator. And he’s trying to manipulate Varik into killing Doctor Andonuts. Just as he invaded Doctor Andonuts’ mind to compel him to create an army of monsters to destroy the world.

Varik is a mercenary, who kills people for money, a human with great darkness in his soul. And even if the incorruptible Ness is trying to help him, like an angel sitting on his shoulder, the darkness in Varik’s heart gives Giygas a way into Varik’s mind, to act as the devil sitting on the other shoulder.

And the reason Doctor Andonuts can build a time travel machine even if he doesn’t understand time travel, or put children’s souls into robots even if he doesn’t understand medicine.. Is because he’s using Giygas’ technology. The reason Andonuts recognizes Giygas’s murderous glare staring out of Varik’s eyes is because he’s seen that gaze before, and knows why its angry.

Years earlier, Doctor Andonuts gained the power to do incredible things by making a pact with Giygas, much like Doctor Faustus made a pact with the Devil. This is why Andonuts can do so many incredible things, even if he doesn’t understand how. And this is also why everything he tries to make with this power seems to go wrong.

It’s very possible that Giygas took the psychic powers of his son Jeff as payment for this service, a terrible price that Andonuts didn’t anticipate. This is why  Andonuts believed himself to be a monster, and withdrew from his wife and child. And why he sent Jeff to boarding school instead of trying to raise Jeff himself, not wanting Jeff to become “a monster like me”. And why Andonuts thought, if he could somehow make Jeff’s life better despite this injury, he could start to like himself again.

Doctor Andonuts let Giygas into his soul, and Andonuts tried to use this very power to destroy Giygas. But when Giygas re-invaded this world, he also returned to take what was his, and found his touch on Andonuts still lingered there. Which is why Giygas’s thoughts are appearing in Andonuts version of Magicant. And why Doctor Andonuts has sealed himself away, literally afraid of his own mind now, and what other horrors he might be forced to do if Giygas takes control again.

Which his why Giygas is sending Varik out to kill Andonuts. And why Ness is trying to fight Giygas in this world, just like in the other one.

When you talk to Angel Ness in Magicant, he says “Hey me! I found my cap that you lost. What? Who am I? Who are you? Aren’t you me? No, you’re… hahahahhahah AHAHAHAH!” which may have been Giygas interrupting the conversation at the end. Whenever someone does hahahhaha in the Hack, it does seem to be Giygas speaking.

So, with all the pieces in place, it’s time for the last part of the journey. Into The Sea of Eve, to find the real mind of Doctor Andonuts. And, if possible, save him.

The trip to the Sea of Eve is the trippiest. Varik follows in Ness’s footsteps as his friends turn into robots as he descends deeper into horror and madness. You also meet an  Amalgamate, a type of monster fusion made famous in Undertale, who somehow has Ness’ special PSI attack that you choose for Varik at the beginning of the game that he couldn’t use, and still can’t.

Then, we meet Andonut’s wife, who gives us a kiss, and teleports us out of the horror, and into a sunny field right before the final confrontation. And many NPCs here try to both talk Varik out of continuing his quest, and urge him on. They suggest that despite how it looks, Varik DOES have a choice about how to move forward. And they even offer him a teleporter back to Twoson, as well as a bus stop to return to the hub of Magicant.

A portal back to Twoson makes sense, because there was a super-difficult mushroom area to the NW at the beginning of the game that was near-instant death to Varik if he fought anything in it. Returning with friends and advanced powers would make navigating this forest possible, to see what other secrets it might hold. However, both the portal and bus stop don’t seem to be working, returning “Nothing” when you try to use, so many have interpreted this as another illusionary choice.

I think it’s very likely that there is a way to use this portal, if someone uses the right object on it. There are unsolved mysteries in the game, like what the Toothbrush is used for, and if it acts anything like the Mystery Key in Undertale, you have to be standing in the right place when you use the object. There was a monster with bad dental hygiene in Magicant, and I wonder what would happen if the toothbrush was used on him.

But now, it’s time to fight Doctor Andonuts.

We get more creepy narration from Giygas as you enter the cave. “The ground is made of vile intestines. You are inside the monster.” Varik gets the feeling that his body is becoming a robot, his legs pulled forward as if by magnets. “You are inside the monster. The monster. YOU ARE THE MONSTER”. Giygas seems to think he can control Varik now, completely.

And then the four sprites from Mother 1 appear inside the final cave leading to Giygas. And for some reason, Ninten can’t look backwards.

You reach the final showdown spot from Mother 2, and the hole opens. But instead of showing Ness’s face this time, the hole is empty.

And then, right when Pokey would appear in his own time machine in the original game, we instead get a hacked version of the Uboa sprite descending in front of us, altered to look more masculine. And the voice of Doctor Andonuts rings out, speaking Pokey’s line “Varik! Are you surprised?”

Andonuts stares in horror at his own form “Look at what this world has done to me. LOOK AT ME!” then berates Varik “YOU’RE NOT A HERO.. You kill people for money. Where’s the heroism in that? YOU WENT INTO AN OLD MAN’S MIND SO YOU COULD KILL HIM!” Which isn’t entirely correct, since we choose not to kill him, and went into his mind as an alternative. Andonuts is filled with fear, and doesn’t want to die. “PUT THE KNIFE AWAY! You and your puny bodies.. STAY BACK. You are making this old.. This old horrible monster.. Cry.”

And then stage one of the fight begins, with a monster called “Id”. Which would normally be the dark part of a person that enjoys causing pain to others, except the Id of Doctor Andonuts makes no attempt at defending itself, and instead pleads with Varik and his friends to leave it alone. It almost seems like a cocoon, that something horrible might hatch from. “Look at my giant, ugly body. Isn’t this punishment enough? Why, why do you have to hunt me down. Please just go away.”

But there’s no way to flee from the fight. And as Varik’s attacks continue, Doctor Andonuts confirms a few theories.

“Varik, I know that even if you didn’t attack me, you would break down eventually. Your eyes.. HIS EYES.. they are so full of bloodlust. When you look at me, I want to scream!”

Andonuts does indeed see Giygas inside Varik’s eyes. And Giygas will not allow Varik to stop.

Every time Varik attacks the Id, it’s a critical SMASH attack. The battle is becoming something very, very personal. Giygas wants revenge on Doctor Andonuts for aiding in his earlier demise. And Giygas also has plans for how to best use Doctor Andonuts.. After he dies.

Then the last attack breaks the cocoon, and while the fight with Doctor Andonuts himself ends.. The battle only new begins.

The screen fades out, then back in again, and Giygas’s trademark screaming baby face is now floating in the background, while all that remains of Doctor Andonuts is a ball of darkness, seeming to absorb the Giygas energy around it.

“WHAT IS THIS FEELING. ...hahaha, I know what this feeling is…. It’s hatred. For the person who came so far. Just to destroy an old man. My mind is gone. All that is left is pure hatred. g-GUHhmyNOhahahhahaha. People says I can’t take what I dish out. Wl…”

And then the ultimate human intellect fuses with the ultimately powerful mindless evil of Giygas. And then we fight a being who looks like Doctor Andonuts..but clearly isn’t.

“YOU SEE THIS BURNING, BLOODY UNIVERSE? YOU SEE THIS ULTIMATE, UNLIMITED POWER?” Then Not-Doctor Andonuts opens up with a swearing tirate, as the power of raw hatred consumed him, and MEGALOVANIA begins to play!

What follows is the most awesome and hardcore multi-stage fight sequence in the game. Not-Andonuts tries rude jabs, fire, ice, then the World’s Most Powerful Psychic attack, while swearing a blue streak and doing everything possible to make Varik and his friends pay.

If you lose this fight, you’ll have to manually restart the game, because you’ll get the message “Oh, Varik, it’s all just a dream! Just kidding, YOU’RE DEAD FOREVER. HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH..” with the hahahhas literally repeating forever, in a style very, VERY similar to what happens to you in Undertale if you die during the Omega Flowey fight. The very same cascade of HAs, breaking the game, delivered by an adversary of incredible power. A situation that doesn’t seem random at all to me, but very, very deliberate.

Especially if my theory about who is controlling Flowey is correct.

But here and now at least, Doctor Andonuts seems like a real human. You can freeze him, and make him numb, stunlocking him as a potential way of winning the fight if you don’t want to try reflecting his Ultimate PSI attack back at him.

Until, finally, Varik scores the final hit. And after a pause, the music goes dark.

“Varik! You see how pathetic I am? Even when I’m in my own mind. Even when I’m fighting for my life. I guess.. I guess I’m better off Dead. … You remind me a lot of my Son’s friend. Hahaha. I’m.. I’m going to go now. I feel really exhausted. So.. Varik! If we ever meet again… You’re going to.. Get the.. Shhh.. i… “

And then Dr. Andonuts flashes, and disappears, defeated. And YOU WON! Appears, along with the battle victory music.

And for this ultimate fight in the game, Varik and his friends gain ZERO experience.

There’s a flash back to the Uboa sprite for a moment, with the lines going up and down from its eyes, in a familiar fashion.

And then Varik is standing back in Andonuts’ lab, alone

And Giygas continues his narration.

“When you opened the door, Dr. Andonuts was staring upward, eyes empty. He’s dead. … not really feelin’ that much about it. You feel a little like this situation could have been avoided. Oh, well. You really did have a choice.. You could have stopped altogether.. Or kept going. He’s lying there, still looking up. He’s probably in heaven now, or something. Oh well, mission accomplished.”

And Varik finds he can finally walk out of the Lab again.

A swat team gives Varik a ride home, and everything seems fairly nice in Twoson. “It’s Halloween today, I guess. That’s pretty cute.”

Giygas reflects on Varik’s life, and its lack of meaning. “What’s up with all this moral crap? Let’s just go to sleep now, really… Your eyes are normal, you have a working head. Nothing’ on fire or made of concrete or something stupid..”

But Varik can’t sleep. Something is still wrong.

And then.. It HAPPENS.

“ALL OF A SUDDEN A GHOAST JUMPED INTO THE ROOM AND POOTED ON YOU! AND YOU SCREAMED WITH FRIAGHT!!!! OH NO!!! !!!!!!!” “Then you just kinda laughed, ‘cuz it was dumb.” “You slept pretty well after that.” “And that’s the end.”

At least, it’s the end according to Giygas.

Because in Tobyfox’s Earthbound Halloween Hack, we say goodbye to Doctor Andonuts.

And hello to the ghostly amalgamation of Doctor Andonuts, the ultimate mad scientist, and Giygas, the ultimately powerful mindless evil. As together, they become the one of the most mysterious and threatening adversaries in all of video game history.

The ghostly creature we know as Wingding Gaster.

--- Final Chapter  -- “Finding Frisk” --

(to be concluded)