Giygas (food for thought) « EarthBound (2024)

Have you ever stopped and really thought about Giygas and what he really is? I think that he/she at one point was some form of alien but he himself, much like Ness drew power from the earth to make his power grow. Pokey mentions something about how Giygas no long has a body and he is the embodyment of pure evil. I think about it like this, when Poo does his Mu training he has to sacrifice his body up to the Mu spirit guy to for his power to grow I believe that this isolates his mind and leaves his bodily limitations behind opening his mind to a new realm of power.

I think Giygas did something similiar to this, as we know he has no body so he's not so much a being anymore he is more of an entity of pure evil. I think the reason that the text "you could not grasp the true form of Giygus's attack" is because I don't think he physically reaches out and punches you in the face, I think he uses his evil influence to inflict damage upon you some how.

So to me it seems that Giygus like Poo sacrificed his body to leave bodily limitations behind so his power could grow beyond that of the most evil being, but actually evil itself.

Giygas, as described at the beginning of the game, is described as the 'Universal Cosmic Destroyer', which suggests he's destroyed planets, so he's probably alien in species. When you look at the games as a whole, this is correct, because Giygas was formerly Giegue, since I recall their Japanese names are actually the same.

When you look at EarthBound as a singular, separate game everything's up to you, but looking at the series as a whole, and seeing how they all relate, I've got this jive:

Giygas, even before you face him in EarthBound, has such powers that no human can comprehend, even the best of the psychics. His power is simply too much for our minds. No doubt this power has been the case since he was young, so his power's been growing for however long... over 80 years at least.

Why he suddenly lost his form and became, as Pokey put it, "The embodiment of evil itself" is unclear, but probably wasn't a conscious choice, but his overwhelming PSI and his cracking mind clashing. A mind, when it snaps, has little control, but when that mind is filled with so much capability it may as well already be pouring out his ears... His body couldn't take that strain.

A part of me, in some mild horriffic musing, wonders if perhaps within that life-machine that resembles organs so much, Giygas's body simply exploded, leaving the shower of blood and organs from which this twisted mind and its copious amounts of PSI could play with, creating forms and images as it so pleased with the dirty red its mind once relied on. Giegue, once before, would remain sheltered within that machine, probably unable to cope with the human atmosphere. So when the machine was turned off, something within that twisted mind probably noticed that it could go outside again now, since his body was no longer a hinderance.

Of course if the body's not there to get hit, the mind's already too broken to reason with, and what's left is a twist of PSI and rage, how else can you beat something like this?

With a little hope and happiness.

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http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa311/ohhyeahkinkos/1199338712508.jpg
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa311/ohhyeahkinkos/1199338915542.jpg

You got that from teh 4chons, didn't you?

They're normally obnoxious but their Giygas discussions are actually pleasant. Until Morphine is brought up, then all hell breaks loose typically.

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Steam handle: The Littlest Man

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Steam handle: The Littlest Man

You say he's not evil, EvilHero (I'll assume you made that, and you're not just obnoxiously pointing at something someone else made in an attempt to make a point you don't care to elaborate on yourself), but there's no guarantee of that. We don't know if Giygas came from the beginning of time, where you see him, or whether he was able to time-travel and went back there himself. The 'fetus' may not have been a symbol of birth, but instead a symbol of REbirth, the insanity and adapting formless being acting as a new entity separate to that of Giegue.

But then, in the end, he still may not have been evil, however his actions, both coherent and not, were not in the best interests of mankind, his desire being to wipe it out. And, as a cosmic destroyer, he's not exactly GOOD, either. As far as humanity would see it, Giygas is evil. In his own mind (coherent mind), he might have been working in the interests of his species, so he'd percieve himself as 'good'.

That's the thing about wars, though. Everyone thinks they're the good guy but everyone's wasting ammo.

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I'll start off by saying, no, I didn't make those images. As far as I know, they aren't from 4Chan either (a friend of mine showed me them, and he despises 4Chan.) I was almost sure that something like this would have been posted already, apparently I was wrong. I wasn't trying to come off as obnoxious either, so if it seemed that way, I apologize.

While I am a Mother fan and have went as far as purchasing Earthbound upon release and importing Mother 3; i'm not a big enough fan to discuss the series with others, I figured the images would prove to be interesting as they do somewhat make sense.

Honestly, I can't really elaborate too much on the topic, I didn't delve too deeply into the original Mother and the last time I played through Earthbound was years ago, so my knowledge on Giygas is limited at best.

What I can say is, that Giygas at the time was perceived as evil to Ninten/Ness and his companions. However, if they really did go back in time to the point where he was still a fetus, you can't really call him evil; thats like saying that Hitler was evil as a baby. Giygas, at the time had no perception of good and evil, his ego/super ego not yet fully developed, his id being the only part of the psyche. Of course, being attacked he'd still defend himself, good or not, somebody comes at you, your going to fight back. Naturally, even in his fetal stage, Giygas is still holds considerable power.

I've always believed that in the first game Giegue wasn't exactly evil or good, just angry in a way. George from earth had stolen his race's secrets of PSI and so he determined he must have revenge and additionally capture any person who might possess psychic powers to remove them. This can be seen in Earthbound as well at the Stonehenge base where Giegue's troops have captured seemingly random people instead of killing them or just influencing them with his mind (another theory could be that these people are too good to be influenced indirectly and need persuasion through other ways. A third theory, which just came to mind might be to Chimerize them into new, unthinkable horrors, which is where Pokey develops his Chimerization process from.)

After Giegue is driven off by the song which was sung to him as a child he becomes enraged, I mean, he's an all powerful being and he was beaten by a stupid little song. During this rage Giegue vows to become stronger and get his revenge. He determines that his body is weak and fleshy (as seen in Mother 1, where he has to sit in a capsule to fight) and chooses to shed it by...some means to unleash his true potential. He probably realises that he may not be able to control the power though so he has the Devil's Machine built to allow him a sort of body which he can enter and exit at will.

Giegue, still enraged and a bit unstable now missing his true body sits far in the past, deep in the planet where he was originally trounced so he may destroy it from within using the Devil's Machine to leech all the life away from the planet while influencing the civilians on the surface. I also believe he may have developed some sort of divination abilities similar to Paula in his infinite power and as such knows of the chosen four. For this reason he, first builds up his army made of anyone who will join and obliterating planets who refuse (which is why you can notice he carries quite a diverse troop from the first game).

At this point, Buzz buzz arrives from the future where Giegue has conquered Earth and leeched all of it's resources away, making the planet a mere empty shell...heck, possibly consuming the planet and becoming a planetary being himself. Hungry for power and possibly bat****insane he continues to destroy more and more planets (one being Buzz Buzz's).

At this point a fleet follows Buzz buzz through time, one being starman junior. Starman Jr's fate is known but the rest of the troop contact Giegue who has warned them this would happen, he probably just didn't know when. They let him know of the sighting of Ness and Giegue puts them in action, waking the eight guardians at the spots he has seen in his dreams, using the mani-mani statue to project his influence and pretty much setting the world at war with Ness. He works through Pokey, probably being able to see what he sees and recognises Paula and has her carried off immediately to be sacrificed.

All the way through the journey Giegue continues to project his influence by sending his commanders in Ness and company's path to raise the dead, kidnap Paula (although Giovanni is a good man, much better than Giegue had anticipated and is able to resist the temptation to actually kill her) and all sorts of other things.

If you notice all the things Giegue does usually relate to trying to stop Ness, he isn't just causing havoc for the sake of causing havoc. Threed is inhabited by Zombies with Ghosts in the tunnel in order to prevent Ness from passing and to eventually create an army of Zombies who would stand between Ness and the Sanctuary spot in Saturn Valley; after all, more dead people = more zombies.

At the end of the game Dr. Adonuts is able to find Giegue by following Pokey who has gone to the past to help him to originally build the Devil's Machine. Nobody realises he is below the surface even as they speak so they go to the past to destroy him.

This is probably best though, as his destruction undoes any drain the Devil's Machine has done to the earth over the years.

I have something to add. I think the reason Ness and everyone "could not grasp the true form of Giygus's attack" is becuase they're only kids. I think if they were much older they would've grasped Giygas' attack. Which would make sense considering where Itoi got the dialogue of Giygas from. Him walking into that violent graphic movie as a kid, he couldn't actually understand what he saw until later in his life.

I think I have the plot synopsis of that movie.

Quote:

I was talking with an acquaintance who also frequents the site, and he was saying how through the translation process us English-speaking folks missed out on some key dialog about Giygas and the Apple of Enlightenment. There's apparently some speculation that the jagged silver spire at the beginning of Giygas' lair is actually the Apple of Enlightenment, which allowed him (him, Giegue, whichever) to see into the future and also determine that Paula would be a threat to his plans (hence the kidnappage).

If anybody has any links (or er input?) to a discussion about this, I'd like to read them. It'd also be interesting to see a translated Japanese script to catch up on everything we didn't get in the English version.

I kind of like the idea of killing Giygas back before he was born. It seems to fit pretty well, and is suitably creepy. It's only a theory, of course But I personally like it.

Of course, even though the final area of Earthbound is extremely organic-looking (it kind of looks like intestines, honestly...really creepy), it's also mechanical, with rivets and things. It's really more like a mockery of human life -- a confused mess of tubes that don't go anywhere, all leading up to an aperture that opens up to show you your own face. That and the distorted face and the nonsense babbling always seemed to suggest to me that Giygas as he appeared in the ending of EB was really more an embodiment of madness than evil precisely. You were fighting an existence so alien and shattered that you couldn't possibly begin to understand it. The only thing he can say is your name and lines from a childhood nightmare that was scary precisely because you didn't understand what you were seeing. Nothing makes sense around him.

He always reminded me of Azathoth from the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, if anyone's ever read those -- the most powerful being in the universe, who is utterly, utterly mad and dances about blindly to the music of some lesser deity's flute playing. He's referred to as the "blind idiot god", which sounds a lot like Pokey's comment about Giygas being an "all-mighty idiot". But I'm a Lovecraft fan, so I would think that

Surely Giygas appears to be mad... those organic things, when I fisrt saw, it remembered me of a brain that was shattered because of his madness and his hard and obsessive thoughts on how to get a revenge/how could he destroy this planet... (I've never played Mother, but I know that he wanted a revenge)...

I don't seem to really comprehend what Giygas is... He ins't something solid, surely... anyway... it looks like he's a spirit: the spirit of all the evil in the world... but something is still strange: how could Ness bash him with his bat, if he is a spirit?

And one other thing that bugs me is: Giygas says things like: "I feel... g...o...o...d...", and "It hurts, Ness. It hurts.", or "I am... h...a...p...p...y...", or "I'm so sad, Ness", but how could a mad creature like that feel something?? Does he really have conscience of his feelings? That still confuses me... because Pokey says he isn't aware of anything anymore, not even of what he is doing, or what he is feeling... That's confusing...

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^ My own theory is something along the lines of Giegue finally finding a basic method of Time Travel, yet not knowing that organic beings cannot safely use it. Having traveled in any case, though, has stripped him of his body and mind, so all that's left is his hatred of the human race and mission to wipe the planet of life. (His armies being there are ok, though, as they're robotic and thus can withstand time travel)

However, Pokey found a different means of time travel, info perhaps found by Giegue himself and passed on through PSI, his army, or the Mani-Mani; a safer version that Buzz Buzz used as well that I assume would have emerged if the Mr. Saturns and Andonuts had more time and research to find.

CherrieGal wrote on Sun, 06 January 2008 00:21

I dunno if I buy the theory about attacking Giygas when he was still weak/a fetus, since Dr. Andonuts explains to you that Giygas is attacking from the past. So he may have been vulnerable at that point, but I don't think it was a case of going back and eliminating him before he became a threat, since he already was. But maybe there's something else that I'm forgetting.

My theory is that Gigyas went back in time knowing that he would regress into a fetal form (and would eventually develop into the form he is today.) Thats why he brought his army with him to do his bidding. He may be too small to attack humanity himself, but his henchmen could still do his work for him.

Talking about evil/good, I was thinking that there is only one villian in the series:

George.

It's a chain relation.
If George never studied PSI, Giegue would never had tried to destroy the human race (he did this to protect his world, which he thinked was in danger because of Humans ), and they would never had come back as Giygas and make Pokey join him, and they he would never had created the Pig Mask Army and blablabla.

Also, yes, Giygas obviously tells you to stop.

He's calling you to see if you're alright (NESS NESS, just like if he was asking if you were there), and then telling you 'IT HURTS' as if he wanted you to stop praying and to, obviously, stop fighting. Of course, you keep, and If you don't attack too much, it could be understood his 'I feel happy', since you didn't hurt him during a turn, but you'll rebegin,
and the 'WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO' at the end of the fight when he dies sounds to my some cry like he was terribly sad you didn't stopped and keeped up the war.
'The form of Giygas' attack was inexplicable'. Well, since the PSI comes from his species, they probably have higher than Omega or other PSI attacks.

Now, let's take the ad for Mother 1+2 in japan. Everytime, the characters showed changes, except one, ' An evil heart ' and is unnamed, and obviously is Giygas.

Why 'heart' ? Why not 'spirit' ? 'Alien' ?

Because they wanted to show Giygas was not evil, since the heart is the symbol of good.

He is simply scared of humans, and wants to be friends with them so both worlds could live in Peace.

His fear is so great, it makes him do insanely evil things.

Mmmmkay, I think I am done for this. I'll let you think about it.

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Action 52 wrote on Tue, 08 January 2008 14:25

hey Action 52 I would do an M3 spoiler in your post there

SaturnStorm wrote on Wed, 09 January 2008 06:54

EvilHero: Why would he regress to a foetal form though? Surely if he's travelling that far back, then he'd lose his form completely? He was still a baby when George and Maria were abducted, and that was only in the early 1900s.

Thats a pretty good point (this is where my lack of knowledge is exposed.) Really, thats entirely up to debate, Giygas IS an alien afterall, who knows how long the birth cycle can take?

This is a shaky theory at best. At this point, nearly anything is possible given the lack of information. I could think of dozens of different explanations, all of which could not be proven or denied.

Unless another Mother game is released, we'll probably never know.

Artemis251 wrote on Tue, 08 January 2008 08:50

However, Pokey found a different means of time travel, info perhaps found by Giegue himself and passed on through PSI, his army, or the Mani-Mani; a safer version that Buzz Buzz used as well that I assume would have emerged if the Mr. Saturns and Andonuts had more time and research to find.

But neither Pokey or Buzz Buzz kept their bodies intact. I think that Buzz Buzz deposited his soul, much like Ness and co. did, except into the body of a robotic insect. Also, if you remember,

As far as Giygas goes, I think that the idea of him trying to travel through time and failing is an accurate description. I think he is called the Universal Cosmic Destroyer because he goes to planets and studies them. I think that this study period would be followed by an abduction period and deposit people in zoos, especially if you take the Zoo in EB0 as a metaphor. The Zoo outside of Podunk was the first direct appearance of aliens (Starman Jr.) in the series, and there is obviously some significance in that.

Z.Mortimer wrote on Tue, 22 January 2008 11:50

I personally think that time travel has different effects on different people in the Earthbound universe.