Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26006155-20190617222636/@comment-26006155-20190618140719

THE HIDDEN STORY OF THE HALLOWEEN HACK

My reading on the hidden story of the Halloween Hack is that Doctor Andonuts got his amazing powers through a pact with Giygas. And as part of the price, Giygas took the PSI powers of Andonut’s son Jeff as payment.

So when Jeff grew to the age that it was clear he didn’t have PSI, Dr.A felt tremendous guilt, referring to himself repeatedly as a monster, and couldn’t meet the eyes of his wife and son, becoming distant from them.

I disagree with most theorists on the meaning of the “NO” boss fight, which happens right after Andonut’s Wife appears as Buzz Buzz, and asks him if anything is wrong.

The Macho Thing would be to lie to her, and say “NO”, which is the name of the three demons that look like buff male body parts in the fight. “NO” is something bad we have to fight against. This battle isn’t about Doctor Andontus being a closet homosexual, he *used* to talk to his wife and son, had a son with his wife in the first place, and his wife is asking why his behavior towards them both has suddenly gone dark.

Andonuts is tormented over the decision about what to do: He can either lie and say “NO (nothing is wrong)” or tell his wife the truth--that he’s a traitor to mankind who made a deal with an alien, and that’s why their son has no PSI powers.

Regardless of how this fight ends, Andonut’s wife leaves him, implying that both choices lead to the same result. After the fight Andonuts, looking at what seems to be his wife’s grave, expresses his regret, and vows to never lie again.

After what Giygas did to Jeff, Dr.A tried something unusually courageous for him--he tried to use the power Giygas had gifted him to destroy Giygas himself, by helping the Four Heroes travel to the past.

Unfortunately, he realized after they left that the same method of traveling to the past would NOT for returning them to the future.

The timeline then split into two worlds: The World of Earthbound there the Four Heroes’ souls returned to their bodies for the Happy Ending.. And the World of the Hack, where the Four Heroes never returned from the past.

Doctor Andonuts of the Hack despaired that he’d sent his son and his friends to their deaths in a machine of his own making, and withdrew from the world, going slowly insane.

Worse still, in the Hack Universe Giygas was able to travel from timelines where he was victorious, to re-infect timelines where he had been defeated. So it was only a few months before Giygas returned to the Hack timeline, looking for revenge.

He did two things: First he used the connection he’d already established with Doctor Andonuts to slowly, progressively, take over his mind, forcing him to create an army of monsters dedicated to destroying humanity. Then Giygas tried the same track to influence a morally ambiguous bounty hunter to get revenge on Doctor Andonuts after his task was done. Our protagonist in the Hack: Varik.

This is why both Varik and Doctor Andonuts can hear The Evil Narrator in their minds. The Evil Narrator is Giygas, trying to manipulate both of them. Which is why Andonuts is able to recognize Giygas’ angry glare coming from Varik’s face, prompting him to try to flee to Magicant in his Memory Machine.

The Bad ending is if Varik choices to immediately kill Doctor Andonuts, where the Evil Narrator laughs and tears Varik apart too.

The Neutral ending is if Varik finds the second Second Option when Giygas tells him killing Doctor Andonuts is the only option, and enters the Magicant machine himself to enter the world inside Dr.A’s mind to either save or kill him. And ends up with “killing” Doctor Andonuts after he’s been infused with Giygas’ essence, turning into a ghost that yields Zero Experience because it isn’t dead.. Its story has only just begun.

I still believe there’s a hidden Good Ending that hasn’t been found yet, where Varik and the Courage of the Three Other Heroes (Ness is lending Varik his power directly) can return to Twoson, explore a deadly area early in the game, and perhaps find a way to actually save Doctor Andonuts from becoming the new Champion of Giygas known as Gaster.

-- My theory about the Hack is that the story is actually one of Tobyfox’s own theories about Earthbound itself. Where Doctor Andonuts really has collaborated with Giygas at points in the story, gaining his magical powers that defy science and medicine as we know them.

Which is why researching the Mother games is now a big issue.