Mother: The Original Story
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Mother: The Original Story (Japanese: to be added) is a novel released exclusively in Japan which is loosely based on the plot of EarthBound Beginnings. It was written by Saori Kumi and notably follows Ana's point of view, rather than Ninten's, covering the plot of the game from Snowman up until its ending. Though it largely follows the plot of the game, it takes a few other liberties such as adding characters, renaming characters, or focusing on portions of the game in greater detail.
Plot Summary
In the small town of Snowman, a young, devout 12-year-old Christian Snowman resident with black hair named Ana is the sole possessor of uncontrollable psychic powers in her town. When her mother travels to Youngtown for missionary business, she unexpectedly vanishes, leaving her and her father alone in the run-down church where they reside. During one week, her mind becomes bombarded with strange, unconsciousness mental images, which she eventually determines are the experiences of another PSI user in the world who trying to communicate to her through them: a young 12-year-old boy with blond hair and freckles named Ken, who is energetic, courageous and righteous yet has impulsive, impolite, aggressive and insensitive tendencies. His traveling companion is a young 11-year-old brown-haired boy named Lloyd, a bespectacled kid genius who is kind, sensitive and loving but is extremely weak and has no fighting skills in battle. The boys both exhibit traits indicative of being a mama's boy and being immature, which greatly aggravates Ana. While Lloyd's personal mission is to recover a Kannon flower to save his dying mother, he and Ken's current mission is to save all of mankind from a potentially world-ending event. While Ana is conscious of these events, her efforts to communicate with the seemingly psychic communications are prone to dismal failure.
One snowy night, Ana finds her father praying to God in the chapel and prays along with him for a righteous person to come and save God's people from the world's terrible troubles; rumors that aliens from [[Mt. Itoi have abducted all the adults from Youngtown have spread, while other tumultuous events have occurred in recent times from across the world, such as darkening skies, crazed animals, evil machinery, and undead zombies. While praying, Ana decides to find her mother despite her physical weakness and young age, being just shy of 13; she becomes resolute in her mission, however, believing it is a task set to her by the Lord. Immediately afterwards, Ken and Lloyd arrive at the chapel with Ana's missing hat, claiming they received it at the Reindeer train station after hearing about its owner and her PSI possessory with the intent of returning it to her; Ken immediately insults her while introducing themselves to her. Ana states that she is familiar with them, which astonishes both her father and the two boys--neither the father or the boys were privy to her psychic vision's of the boy's travels--and states her intention to journey with them to help save the world. When her father objects, stating that the trio are just children, Ken's internal dialogue of frustration suddenly bursts into Ana's mind, with Ken first stating the world should just fall apart if adults keep taking advantage of children while they belittle them. When his thoughts revert to how Ana "looks hot", especially in her nightgown, he receives a slap in the face, proving his unwitting "broadcast" of his internal thoughts and feelings. After persuading her sobbing father to go with them, and after the boys have washed themselves and eaten their fill of food, they leave for the Snowman train station, using a hidden mountainside shortcut along the way.
On the way to the station, Ken seemingly becomes aware of something, intermittently pausing before continuing. While Ana is aggravated by this, wanting to reach the station before dusk, Ken's suspicions are proven correct when the trio is suddenly attacked by a herd of white wolves. While Ken and Lloyd battle the creatures with ease, Ana curls up on the ground out of fright. When a wolf directly attacks her, her efforts to evade the wolf leave her with a sliced braid of hair until the wolf is knocked away by Ken's bat. Stating how she is just a "plain old sissy girl", he offers to coach her on "not tripping over herself when there is serious battle" as he and Lloyd easily finish the battle. Lloyd helps a near-paralyzed Ana up to her feet, asking if she needs anything. He also tells her that Ken often tells Lloyd that he's not doing anything at all to help, when the reality is that their skills balance the other out on their mission; while Ken is often cruel to Lloyd, Lloyd has to continually remind himself that "the only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing". He also speculates that Ken is happier with companions than he is without, but he is missing a part of his emotions so he can never really feel it; while Ana is "just a girl", Lloyd is happy that she has joined the "Global Defense Force" and hopes that they will all become good friends and well-adjusted people by the end of their adventure. After hearing this, Ana decides to try to get to know Ken better, as she knows his thoughts but "not his mind"; she also becomes resolute in making friends with the boys. After Ana and Lloyd share a moment, a furious Ken confronts them, urging them to move onward. Wordlessly communicating with the other, Lloyd assures Ana that Ken is a good kid, and the two hurry to catch up with Ken.
At the station in the afternoon, the trio finds out that the train will not go past a place called Spookane, who only makes Ken's mood worse. Upon boarding the train, Ana fails to read Ken's mind, and speculates with Lloyd on what he could be feeling. Lloyd discusses his hometown, Merrysville, with Ana, as she has never heard of it before; when Ana confirms the reality of her mental image receiving by accurately stating the location of Lloyd's first meeting with Ken, she begins to explain it before Ken interrupts and states that she has to go home. When she inquires at the reason, Ken states that something very strange is happening with the station keepers and people and speculates that devilish monsters have replaced them and that they are being dragged into a trap at Spookane. At the Spookane station, Ken angrily reacts when he finds out that no trains are heading back to Snowman, leaving Ana to remain in the party; a train worker states that an avalanche has caused the disruptions, a fact that Ken heavily disreputes afterwards, stating that everyone is "alien spies". When he complains about the situation, Ana disproves of it, internally thinking him childish for doing so; Lloyd suggests they stay at a Hotel for the night, while Ken states he probably has to call his father anyway. When Ana is amused, Ken angrily explains that his father works for a news network and that the only way he can obtain any real information about the world's affairs is to talk to him. Ana realizes that Ken is an extremely lucky kid, as she compares his relatively-easy living to her own poor life. When Ken roughly urges everyone to go, Ana is internally agitated by him shouting at everyone all the time, yet Ana obliges. Lloyd tries to help her, but Ana kindly rebukes his offer; when she asks about Lloyd's own home-life, he reveals his parents are divorced and expresses his agitation that while he is good at mechanical engineering, he cannot fix humans the same way he can computers. Ana wonders whether Lloyd is trying to compensate for his father's inability to help others, and tries to do so himself to avoid ending up like him. She also realizes that Lloyd is trying to give his mother what his father could never give him, wondering if he would even risk his own life for it.
When Lloyd stares at Ken with a hateful look in his eyes, Ana notices and tells him that while Ken went out to save the world, that they went out to save their mothers and asks if that is pathetic. She then reassures him that in a way, they are both heroes. Lloyd then kisses her hand, affirming that they are both "warriors of battle" and promises to protect her even if it costs him his own life, which greatly surprises Ana. When she reminds Lloyd of his mission to obtain a Kannon flower, she begins to reveal her ability to see Lloyd and Ken's events at Lloyd's astonishment when Ken furiously interjects on the false pretense that the two are romantically involved. Suddenly, all of Spookane's street lights go dark and the trio are surrounded by all the adults in the town, who appear to be possessed by an evil force. Ken extrapolates from their previous speech that a piano in a haunted house has a melody in it. After Ana returns the attacking adults to normal with Extra-Mocha Spray, Ken returns an unconscious Lloyd to normal with Psycho-Healing, and the trio journey to the haunted house with Ana realizing that she strangely enough doesn't mind Ken's complaining and moodiness, even if Ken neglected to completely heal her of her injuries. At the house, Ana refuses to journey inside, opting to find a place to rest; Lloyd and Ken are both agitated by this before Lloyd explains that the piano in the house contains one of the eight melodies that they have been searching for in order to save the world. Ken then explains his story; after ridding his house of a poltergeist and finding the first melody in his sister's doll, he had journeyed out into the world to protect his home, discover his abilities, and find out what the sources for the strange events befalling the world were coming from. After recovering a girl named Pippi from a graveyard, he had recovered the second and third melodies from the Canary Village and the Choucream Zoo, respectively. Afterwards, he had journeyed to Magicant, where a mysterious queen named Mary had tasked him with recovering eight important melodies to save the world, with Ken having already recovered three out of the eight. At Merrysville, he had found Lloyd, and together the two were trying to find the rest of the melodies in order to save the planet. After hearing this and the incomplete tune, Ana sets out to the haunted house, though Ken decides the group should eat first, with Ana and Lloyd hungrily conceding.
The trio then dine in the household of the owner of the haunted manor, Mr. Rosewater, who the next morning then blackmails a furious Ken (with Lloyd's agreement) by having him promise to be wed to Mr. Rosewater's shy daughter, Evangeline, in exchange for the haunted manor's door-key on the basis that only her bride-to-be would be allowed on the manor's grounds. Eventually, Ken begrudgingly agrees, and the trio enter the haunted house, where they encounter a naughty mouse that sends legions of attacking mice towards the quickly-overwhelmed trio.
Ana shares a romantic moment with Ken while Teddy is gravily wounded by the robot nearby.
When Ana uses her powers to inflict damage on the people crowding around her, her hair turns a pale white from the stress of her psychic exertion.
Ken then telepathically communicates with Ana.
Trivia
- Ana's hair turning white could be a possible reference to her in-game sprite, which has a pale-color hair the same color as her skin.
- The author of this novel has expressed interest in publishing a fully-translated version of her Mother novels, though she is unsure of the series' copyright in order to accomplish such a proposition.
Links
References
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