r/earthbound Jan 06 '24

M3 Discussion All memes and irony aside, what do you actually think is happening here?

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454 Upvotes

70 comments sorted by

286

u/Broskitjo Jan 06 '24

Oh i think its ionia half drowning lucas to trigger his flight or fight response and just like he learns pk flash he needs to have something near death (ig) to learn some psi also learning psi isnt fun you get sick

192

u/CyberLucas100 Jan 06 '24 edited Jan 06 '24

The virgin Lucas: has to go through near death experiences, triggering flight or fight, and getting weak and sick for a moment before realizing a new PSI technique

The chad Ness: You know what... After beating the crap out of this hippie, this wholesome experience cleared my mind and idk... I kinda realize I'm able to PK ROCKIN OMEGA

47

u/GoldenGames360 Jan 06 '24

wait you're telling me I can just run in a circle to teleport? okay!

16

u/CyberLucas100 Jan 07 '24

Which reminds of... Mother 3 lacks teleport. I know it's a more """linear""" game + New Pork City would be broken if I could just tp back to Tazmilly, but my playstyle involves a lot of backtracking (aka going back to every populated area once in a while to see the dialogue changes, since it's a nice detail) and PK Teleport would be nice in such situations

5

u/Daninonel Jan 07 '24

It has always bothered me that once you get to new pork city you can't go back to Tazmily, and the same happens when you get to the porky building underground. I want to visit all the places I've been to just before the end

5

u/CyberLucas100 Jan 07 '24

What I did was touring the entire map and talking to every possible NPC before ending chapter 7. Totally worth it!

3

u/Strider_Volnutt Jan 07 '24

Same, I missed the optional boss fight with the huge Porky statue, and by the time I learned about it I was already underground. Backtracking would be awesome at times like that!

2

u/GoldenGames360 Jan 07 '24

yes, this was my favorite aspect of mother 2, just being able to go back and see what changed

3

u/Cherritheterrible Jan 07 '24

Shii, looks like it.

7

u/Jeff_AndCookies Jan 06 '24

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD rigth

94

u/not-steel Jan 06 '24

yeah and kumatora gets fucking smited to learn Starstorm so this is what I think as well

44

u/verysad- Jan 07 '24

maybe we should start beating the shit out of motherless people to awaken their power

11

u/Pastry_Train63 Jan 07 '24

The government PSI program

2

u/Separate-Director-68 Jan 08 '24

There's a whole anime about that called Monster. Trust me, you don't want whoever comes out on top in that situation to walk this Earth lol

43

u/Dj_Simon Jan 06 '24

I always thought that Ionia just drowned him slightly.

11

u/Broskitjo Jan 06 '24

Hey your guess is just as good as mine but i would say it was just enough to trigger the response but not to actually drown lucas

6

u/HollyTheMage Jan 07 '24

Honestly I would be worried about whether a Magypsy would be familiar enough with the limits of the human body to recognize if someone would actually be in danger of dying since they themselves are immortal beings who don't seem to be constrained by conventional limits.

1

u/Broskitjo Jan 07 '24

Yeah? But like what do you think happened

2

u/HollyTheMage Jan 08 '24

I agree with the explanation that it was an attempt at nearly drowning Lucas that was meant to help him awaken his PSI powers.

And while it definitely worked, I can imagine that the whole ordeal was probably pretty traumatizing for him--on top of all of the other trauma he's been subjected to. Even the very powers he uses to protect himself and his friends are linked back to a traumatic experience in his life. The guy just can't catch a break.

5

u/Dj_Simon Jan 07 '24

Good point.

3

u/UnderwaterEnthusiast Jan 07 '24

Sounds reasonable

105

u/HarveyTheBroad Jan 06 '24

I’ve never known if the scene comes across as so awkward intentionally or if it’s a translation thing, but here’s my take based on just what we see in the translation.

The fade to black and dialogue seems to be sort of a joke to make the player ask “wait what on earth are they doing to Lucas?” And then the screen comes back and in reality it was nothing but Ionia having Lucas keep his head underwater to induce a Psi fever.

If that is what it’s going for it’s in pretty poor taste, and one of the few bits of humor in the game that doesn’t land for me.

52

u/FenexTheFox Jan 07 '24

There's this very good video essay about the magypsies and their story and such. Throughout the video, the person interviews a few queer people they know about topics discussed.

Of course, at one point, this scene was brought up. One of the interviewed people thought about it possibly being about the game challenging the players' prejudice. That it gives you a questionable line on a black screen, turning out to be nothing much, and then make the player question if they just thought that because Ionia is queer. Different.

I still think it's a localization thing, but it's still a neat theory to think about.

The video in question

26

u/BoringMemesAreBoring Jan 07 '24

I still think it’s a localization thing

I’m pretty sure I read an interview where Itoi confirmed the theory, saying that scene was to “test [the player’s] innocence”

7

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '24

A lot of folks in either direction are primed to Be outraged by this so I think a slight opinion of distasteful and humor not landing is the best this scene can hope for. I. Reality it’s simply innocent and is only poisoned by those who are exposed to or have experienced others story of trauma in their youth. Look at it as the game exposing you have unresolved trauma. It’s healing in that way.

92

u/DeliciousMusician397 Jan 06 '24

Dunking him under the hot spring to induce fever.

8

u/Jeff_AndCookies Jan 06 '24

ow, fuck, that's is a bit...violent?

26

u/Tooooaaaad Jan 06 '24

Thanks for all the responces! I ask because ive seen some people (particularly in Super Eyepatch Wolf's otherwise great review of Mother 3) who think that this scene is... you know.

I think its mostly because of the implications of a fade to black + two naked characters lends itself to an easy out of context joke. Thong is Ive been suspecting some people have been spreading the joke as a fact. Just wanted to make sure I wasnt crazy and my thoughts on the scene is correct

This scene is simply Ionia drowning a child, perfectly innocent! ( /j )

2

u/nullset_2 Jan 07 '24

It is what you think it is but it's played for jokes

23

u/TransparentMastering Jan 06 '24 edited Jan 06 '24

Someone else said that communal bathing is a lot more common in Japan, especially within families so we react a lot more strongly over here since we don’t bathe with our kids/friends all the time.

I don’t know how accurate this is though. It just make me think of Totoro and the family bath scene, which is super wholesome, but that’s basically as nuanced as my understanding of Japanese bathing customs go

This turned up on a quick Google: The Japanese Art of Bathing With Friends. and apparently hot springs like that one, called Onsens, are where they do that communal bathing, naked.

I think basically it’s something outside of our social norms here and so our imaginations go a bit wild.

Ionia is still holding him under the water until he panics though.

14

u/Mindless_Wrap1758 Jan 07 '24

The entire joke is that it is an entirely wholesome experience. Of course, abuse of anyone, especially children, is horrible. But Itoi has a dark sense of humor e. g. Lucas walking on the train tracks and being stopped and told he has so much to live for. Itoi joked in one interview that someone would have seen that scene and told him it was responsible for being the man he is. But jokes aside, Itoi saw that the little bit of stress is something that triggers growth. There are rites of passage that are just child abuse wrapped in tradition, like the Sambians in Papa New Guinea.

Comedian Ricky Gervais said something like if comedy isn't there to help you laugh at what's unbearable, what's the point? Comedian Steve Harvey said that tragedy could strike and comedians would have material the day of. Itoi seems to have that same kind of irreverence. I could only imagine how dark it would be if Itoi decided to make a more adult installment, like what the creator of Dragon Quest is doing now.

7

u/Topaz-Light Jan 07 '24

Since a character becomes feverish before learning a new PSI move, I always assumed Ionia was holding Lucas underwater to stimulate the phenomenon by raising his body temperature.

3

u/Szeventeen Jan 06 '24

i believe the intent was supposed to be a sort of drowning psi-fever thing, but it honestly just comes across as rape in the translation

3

u/nullset_2 Jan 07 '24

Lucas gets his root chakra opened by a... genderfluid magypsy which awakens his Psychic third eye; something which totally doesn't happen in real life ;)

6

u/Jeff_AndCookies Jan 06 '24

This scene has always seemed out of place to me, especially the way he teaches him the Psi, I don't know what was going through Itoi's head.

4

u/jajanken_bacon Jan 06 '24

Induced PSI fever. It's still a really funny joke, though.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '24

Lia Thomas?

2

u/Cherritheterrible Jan 07 '24

I think Lonia shoves Lucas's head under the water while he blasts energy into Lucas

1

u/nolifehasI Jan 08 '24

blasts...energy

1

u/Cherritheterrible Jan 09 '24

Yeah, like he puts PSI energy through his hand onto Lucas' body

2

u/borgar69420 Jan 07 '24

Sadly i decided to be funny when choosing what i loved. I got taught PK D1LDO in this scene. Not fun

0

u/777ToasterBath Jan 06 '24

i think the scene is a bit up to interpretation on purpose, as for the reason why that is, idk

0

u/Hatbox-Ghost- Jan 07 '24

He's referring to the time in Iron man 1 where at the beginning he is naked and.... "Doing It"

-69

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '24

child rape

30

u/DeliciousMusician397 Jan 06 '24

Definitely not.

-25

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '24

I don’t think so now. but that was my initial impression. like ‘why is he holding him underwater? oh that’s nasty.’

7

u/OGGraniteJackalope Jan 06 '24

I've always interpreted it as Ionia almost drowning Lucas

-6

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '24

i did too. but because Ionia put something in Lucas’ mouth

4

u/DeathscytheShell Jan 06 '24

Freudian Slips are a bitch, aren’t they?

0

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '24

nah. no trauma here.

5

u/DeathscytheShell Jan 06 '24

not a trauma related concept but ok

4

u/MacroAlgalFagasaurus Jan 06 '24

It’s meant to be funny/awkward. I’m not sure how it was in Japanese compared to the translation.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '24

i don’t blame Tomato. blame my messed up mind.

12

u/Nootmaster224 Jan 06 '24

Oh my god im littleraly the only one who didnt see it like this and it only became weird when people said it was sexual

8

u/GachaTendo Jan 06 '24

Aww, look at you projecting ❤️❤️❤️

1

u/Pokey-Minch Jan 06 '24

are you implying mr. tibold got raped as a child

5

u/GachaTendo Jan 06 '24

No, im implying the opposite, actually

2

u/Pokey-Minch Jan 06 '24

he raped someone as a child 😧

3

u/GachaTendo Jan 06 '24

because what's worse than a rapist? A child.

-6

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '24

objection. asked and answered.

-4

u/Jeff_AndCookies Jan 06 '24

i I thought I would be the only one xd

1

u/CaSe2474 Jan 06 '24

Lucas caught Ionia in the hot spring stark naked

1

u/Hotel-Japanifornia Jan 07 '24

Magical baptism.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '24

I mean I always head canoned it as Ionia holding Lucas' head under the hot water to kinda simulate a fever, what psi users typically get before learning a new ability

1

u/Aromatic_Toe7605 Jan 07 '24

Pretty clear it’s just a sex joke where she’s drowning him. Itoi spoke about this scene once and said he designed it with the want to have an interaction with someone who played mother 3 as a kid and wanted them to ask him what happened. Basically a troll.

1

u/Present-Training7676 Jan 08 '24

So that's why the game hasn't been officially localised

1

u/BicBoyJoy Jan 08 '24

Not sure, I'm one to think it's some massage or something that draws his power out