#no 1 tazmily village defender right here but like!!! man!!! they have so much depth i feel gets ignored sometimes :[

[beauzos]

people always complain about the Tazmily villagers being massive cunts to Lucas during Mother 3 (understandably so, though i think it’s given the entire town a bad rap that isn’t totally deserved) but honestly i kinda. really like it? there’s just something interesting about how a lot of rpgs like this have your town or whatever town you go to supporting you. it’s a neat subversion to have the town you grow up in turn on you for trying to save them because they don’t know any better.

it’s extremely interesting seeing your town, people who have known you your whole life, fall victim to propaganda and lies to the point that they act in unrecognizable ways, but you choose to help them anyways because it’s in your nature.  when the world resets, it gives them a chance to start over.  i think that’s the implication of the ending, considering a lot of Mother 3 is about letting go and forgiving.  i think the villagers needed to be shitty to help drive home that theme (though a lot of them remained relatively kind, i’d say about 50/50 either way).

it also does a lot to say that cruelty can come from anywhere. you don’t have to be a bad person to do bad things like that, but also that it isn’t necessarily a permanent thing, or that there’s more to people than just the bad things they’ve done.  i feel like Mother 3 ends with the idea that the world is given another chance, and that’s huge.  even if the world was cruel, it still deserved kindness back in hopes of a better future.  the Tazmily villagers are still just people, after all.

Itoi gave the villagers a lot of depth to show how multi-faceted people can be, both kind and cruel, good and bad, and leaves the ending up in the air for people to decide what everyone will choose to do once the world begins anew.  one can only hope that they would do better.