MOTHER Series: What Does "Pollyanna" Mean?

a major source of inspiration in my work and life in general is shigesato itoi's mother series I assume that anyone who would have thought to look at this video doesn't need an introduction I will note however that I'll be talking about spoilers and that I would hate to deny anyone the chance to play the mother series blind so please please don't watch this first if you have any plans to play through the series in the future the mother games are wonderful and not to be missed particularly mother 3 do not let the sin of denying you this experience be on my hands that's your warning [Music] [Applause] I want to address something that I've never seen discussed anywhere else I do not claim to be the first person to notice this only that I'm aware of no one else Polyana is probably the most well-known piece of music from the mother series as the original mother's music was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka in Keiichi Suzuki both I don't know who wrote it or if both of them did I also not sure who wrote the lyrics even so it is of great significance to the mother series it is named of course after Eleanor H Porter's 1913 children's novel whose protagonist Pollyanna plays the glad game for seeing the bright side of life and thereby improves the lives of some adults in her community Pollyanna has since become a word for someone who is naively optimistic even though that wasn't the novel's message despite its popularity with the fans the song Pollyanna plays only a few times in the mother series Pollyanna I believe in you is the first overworld theme in mother [Music] a small portion of it plays when Nestle's Porky's house and the Sun rises over one net and mother - marking the beginning of his adventure it also plays in neces house and the full melody returns again in mother 3 when the protagonists sail through Porky's hall of memories [Music] the original album release of mothers soundtrack featured Pollyanna with rather charming lyrics sung by Katherine Warwick [Music] it the singer talks about her optimism and how this compels her to believe in you we also see why the title is Pollyanna [Music] I used to think this song was so upbeat it was outright saccharine but then I considered the lyrics more carefully there is actually something rather dark hidden in here the singer cynically says that fairy tales are as far-fetched as people keeping promises and the title implies not just optimism but naive optimism further the singer believes in you because [Music] the point is whomever the lyrics are addressing has given reason in the past not to believe in them the singer believes in them against reason because she thinks that they have a silver lining and because she offers second chances as for how this might be relevant to the original mother nint encounters a number of instances of pointless corruption and cruelty Goodman the mayor of Nintendo mown is the first person to give ninten clear direction on his quest first to rescue hippie from the zombie gangsters and then to investigate the zoo but Goodman is a corrupt politician who as it turns out is exploiting ninten he only wants to do this to gain popularity with the public he takes credit for Nintendo DS doesn't repay him for his troubles and in fact laughs him out of his office [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] besides this Nintendo's with kids bullying Lloyd cop searching for criminals and failing to catch them [Music] the violent black blood gang etc of course the ultimate betrayal of trust in mother occurred long before an intense journey gig or gigas if you prefer seems to have viewed George as a father but George stole the technology of gigs people to gain PK in psi then escaped the star men apparently abandoning his wife and gig both but despite all this Nintendo pain a faith in friendship and love Anna doesn't really face much discrimination but Lloyd was bullied for years because of his genius level intelligence but remains positive and hopeful anyway they even weed this faith in human goodness from Teddy the violent gang leader who has become depressed and turned to alcohol after his parents deaths and whose henchmen are running wild without his supervision gig the calculating mastermind behind the alien invasion also secretly retains a faith in humanity despite his experiences with George nin 10 an ax and Lloyd defeat gig because they maintained their faith in humanity and each other and by performing the eight melodies even as gig attempts to kill them remind gig of his own faith of the love that his mother Maria gave to him [Music] in mother too a few notes of Pollyanna are featured as nest sets out on his journey probably just as a callback to the original it might also be intended to suggest a parallel between neces journey to stop gig and Nintendo Kuehl yer similarities between them I mentioned mayor Goodman earlier Goodman has an almost identical role in mother as Pirkle mayor of winnette as in mother too and that's just one similarity the full melody of Pollyanna under the title of home sweet home also plays inside mrs. house and in side Paula's although Paula's connection to her family doesn't come up with so much Nessa's connection to his family is emphasized throughout his adventure through this bizarre wacky and usually dirty corrupt world as his sister stores items for him his father saves his game and his mother prevents him from becoming homesick which is itself telling of his connection to them and of the power of familial love [Music] in mother3 Pollyanna titled a certain someone's memories in may toes translation appears again near the end of mother 3 as the protagonists travel through the bizarre empire porky building a room immediately preceding Porky's chamber features a boat ride past a selection of characters and items from mother to dungeon man Tessie Nessa's bicycle the sky runner etc notably when we consider Porky's backstory the gallery ends with the phase distorter and the organic machine porky piloted in the ending of mother - okay so these actually are not the last things they come right before the white and black poppy seeds who are in love and mother - the seeds are united now giving us a happy ending to their story carrying on the theme of love and ending the gallery with a minor joke as Bonnie Lucas kumatora and duster ride the boat through this room Pollyanna plays obviously this is a callback to the previous installments of the series especially given at the room before the Hall of Memories features mother earth the title theme for mother however none of the characters in the scene know the significance of any of the objects they're passing the certain someone referred to in the title of the song refers to porky but it also refers to the player and his or her own memories of their journey through the mother series the context of this scene though makes it pretty disturbing in his travels through time porky is stolen all of these items that were significant to Ness Paula Geoff and poo or kidnapped and perhaps killed them in the case of dungeon man and Tessie moreover Pollyanna now seems much too optimistic for a mother three mother three is the story of how humanity abandons community family nature love and everything important in exchange for the short-term gratification that inevitably leads to their deaths humanity is so inclined towards self annihilation that Earth has already been destroyed except for the islands on which mother three takes place porky has herded his entire army and the island's population the last humans into new parks what is essentially a death camp where he can finish the job the supposed utopia is only a bunch of carnival attractions on top of a pile of garbage in Newport City comes the culmination of the process that begun when the people of the nowhere islands began to buy into the pig masks ideas here the people become totally isolated from their community their families lost sight of everything important in life their individuality their love their friendship and finally of each other yet here we have a song about eternal hope and survival I believe in friends and laughter and the wonders love can do it seems that in this context Pollyanna is bitterly ironic I acknowledge that all this might be unintentional on the developers part but unplanned meaning is meaning all the same so who is the singer addressing who does she believe in despite having reason not to you may have already guessed humanity the original mother is about Nintendo marking into a cynical exploitative world which is doofy sure but still cynical and exploitative but not losing faith in his mission or his friends they defeat gig by reminding him of the good of humanity nintendo lloyd and teddy especially lloyd and teddy have ample reason to believe people are bad lloyd from his years of bullying and teddy from his gang life in his parents pointless deaths but the good is ultimately brought out in them all and even in the apparently cold and unfeeling alien leader gig mother to largely carries on the themes of the original mother mother 3 is about the corrupting influences of modern capitalist society on the community the family and the environment and takes the cynical themes of the previous games down a far darker path humans are powerless against death and the forces of change easily made to forget what's important in life for short-term material satisfaction and are perhaps inclined to naturally and cyclically destroy themselves as they destroyed the world before but Pollyanna isn't only cynical any more than mother is the reason that Lukas kumatora Duster and Boni are heroes is that in spite of overwhelming evidence that it is futile to try they never give up on their quest to stop the big masks they believe humanity can be saved pork is the villain because he doesn't and spends the whole story using his resources not to help people but only to demonstrate the vast potential and scale of human sin maybe he's right since the ending is pretty ambiguous yet I don't think so nin 10 yes Lucas and the rest of their allies are good people not everyone's bad after all brute force doesn't stop porky no matter how many victories the heroes score over the pig masks in battle the pig masks win the war it is a lack of love that turned porky into the monster he is because of his abusive selfish and materialistic parents and it is love not violence that finally stops gig and later the ruthless robot like masked man informatics since I'm considering the mother trilogy as a whole it is far more and fitting with mother and mother - her mother 3 - fiercely challenged the theme of human goodness but finally asked us to believe in friends and laughter and the wonders love can do some might say this theme is sort of naive and perhaps it is but I think that video games need more of these kinds of positive optimistic ideas this has been mackerel phones [Music]

Channel: Mackerel Phones

Views: 56,342

Keywords: mother, mother 2, mother 3, earthbound, pollyanna, pollyanna i believe in you, mother music, shigesato itoi, mother itoi, nintendo, mother nintendo, mackerel phones, mp, analysis, video essay, mother video essay, earthbound origins, earthbound origins video essay, mother analysis, earthbound origins analysis, mackerel phones analysis, mackerel phones mother, mackerel phones earthbound, mp mother, mp earthbound, ninten, ness, lucas

Id: BTEFBmGdrNE

Length: 15min 39sec (939 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 18 2018