#maria has more images for obvious reasons. the dads are always the problem image-wise

[smallearthboundfindings]

[Image Source]

Hello, backstory enthusiasts, and welcome to the ...

George and Maria Special! tm

As you might, remember, George and Maria are an integral part of Mother 1's plot, arguably the reason the entire trilogy takes place, and yet, we don't know much about them, do we?

Well lucky you, because the Mother Encyclopedia goes way more into detail than the game ever did and I'm going to summarize it so you don't have to!

Open up for the complete story of the two that started it all. I'll try to state it in chronological order.

As our original tale begins in the early 1900s, so does ours. Thus begins... the timeline.

George, orphaned young and then fresh out of high school, takes up a job as a letter-boy for a prominent paper in the "big city" (city unspecified), later being promoted to journalist.

After writing a large expose on the president, he rises to fame but also falls into conflict with the chief editor that leads him to break off on his own and move to Mother's Day/Podunk on the whim of a Help Wanted ad in its daily newspaper, The Mother's Day Times (presumably alternatively The Podunk Times), where he was hired as the editor-in-chief for a novelization of the town's history.

(Note: I will be using the EarthBound Beginnings location names from now on for simplicity.)

Upon his first arrival in Podunk, the first person he met was Maria as she sketched a carnation bed, her illustrations later being chosen to appear in George's piece. This would later lead into their marriage.

From there on out, they lived rather peacefully, with Maria often playing piano concerts to the town's children alongside George, until a dark cloud appeared around Mount Itoi's summit and people went missing en masse to later return with complete amnesia of whatever happened to them. (Not to mention the flying furniture ensuing as well.)

George, being the journalist that he was, however, saw this as a scoop and started an investigative report. While having no luck with any clues, he would publish what little he did find. And immediately fell missing alongside Maria as well. Ironic.

Two years, later, only George returned, visibly aged to become a recluse, dropping his work on the newspaper to focus on studying PSI.

... Maria never returned.

Thus, the events described in-game continue from here as another black cloud strikes back. Mother 1 has begun.