#(cuz yaknow it was made on very limited hardware

[nanaten]

I love the idea that Ninten is like, a super paranoid person. I think both Mother 2 and 3 have a very good sense of finality in that it really feels like the overarching threat has been stopped, and people are safe, whereas in Mother 1, it is made evident that the threat hasn’t been stopped as per se, rather delayed.

Ninten— As a product of this lack of finality, never feels safe. He knows there is a lurking threat to his and the rest of the worlds’ lives and he lives in constant fear of it. He knows he cannot defeat Giegue, and Giegue knows his trump card (the eight melodies) and is likely working on a solution to stop that from working. And, perhaps selfishly, he knows his window out of the destruction, the offer to be saved by Giegue, is no longer available to him.

Even in moments where he should feel safe, there’s this subconscious terror— this feeling lodged in the depths of his soul that created a permanent pit in his stomach, a gut feeling that something is there, that something wants to hurt him. That he is a target.

He’d flinch at movements and know how to walk without making a sound, he’d immediately go on the defense if he feels like something or someone’s walking behind him or he’s in an open space. And the worst of it, to him, is the nightmares. Simple, short nightmares of Ninten hanging out with his friends, only to feel a cold, non-human presence behind him— and very soon after that, a presence around his neck. Hot breath, sharp teeth… And with a quick snap, he wakes up. It never lasts long, but it never fails to make him scream as he wakes. He’s haunted by the idea of Giegue, and the unknowingness of when and what he’s going to do.