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luvkirby4ever · 6 years

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Of birds and morons: a look into Mother 3′s most intricate unspoken running joke/motif

Shoutout to @amphibizzy for convincing me to talk about this. There’s so much Mother 3 meta that I want to talk about- maybe next time I’ll make a video essay to spare you all from reading so much >o<

Tldr; Duster and Wess have bird motifs that don’t quite translate over well, making Wess’s mannerisms slightly less harsh in context but outs him as surprisingly superstitious. May be a nod to Japanese mythology, too.

So, a starting point. Did you know that at beginning of chapter 7 after Ionia joins you (still tied up at this point) that if you go back and talk to Wess he says something rather strange?

For clarity, the entire original conversation reads "Washi no inemuri uranai ni yoreba kyou wa TRIPLE LUCKY da yo. Jishin o motte daikatsuyaku shinasai." which translates as “According to my sleep divinations, today is triple lucky. Go forth with great confidence.”

Weird, right? Since when has Wess believed in something like fortune telling through dreams? Is that why he believed Alec’s dream of Hinawa? And what does this have to do with birds?

Be sure to remember this.

Part 1: Cleaning crew bird boys

So now let’s take a step back and look at the easiest part of all this. In all of Mother 3, there’s only 1 bandana that Flint can equip (the manly bandana that Lighter gave him), otherwise the only characters than can equip bandanas are Duster and Salsa. The bandanas (except the manly one) all have a bird names, with the types being the chick, sparrow, rail (the kana used refers to the water rail, a type of bird), swallow (also a bird), crow, kite (also a bird), and Horus (the Egyptian god whose head resembles a falcon).

Now that’s all well and good, but let’s say that’s not good enough. Wess and Duster’s connection with watching over the Hummingbird Egg seems pretty solid with Duster’s bird bandanas but let’s go deeper.

When Wess snaps, he consistently refers to Duster as “aho” (moron) and “anoaho” (that moron). Which is needlessly cruel, but... also a pun. Yes, that’s right. The game totters around the joke that Duster is bird-brained, through which Wess is the main spark and Duster is the conduit. And for the record’s sake this isn’t me excusing Wess’s actions- I’m making an intricate webcomic about his relationship with Duster and him learning how to be a better person for a reason, after all- but I’ve literally heard nobody else talk about this so I honestly think people don’t know about it.

In Japan, “aho” means “moron”, but it is also the onomatopoeia for a crow’s cawing. There’s a trope known as the “idiot crow” in Japanese media based on this. What will happen is that something dumb will happen and a crow will fly by and caw “aho aho!”. Which means “caw caw” but also means “moron moron”. Thus the joke. So Wess’s “aho aho!”-ing and using “anoaho” makes him sound like an old crow, commentating on Duster’s mistakes.

Will I get banned from the fandom for making a Homestuck “caw caw motherfucker joke with Wess or-?”

This also feeds into Duster being a bird- “aho” (”moron”) is also used in the word “ahoudori” (”albatross”). Which is a bird, of course. And it’s no coincidence either- albatross are known as “idiot birds” in Japan- that’s what “ahoudori” literally translates to.

One more thing that I’ll add to the “Duster’s a bird” pool aside from making a “HEY GUYS LOOK HE’S A FEATHER DUSTER” joke is that his “aho” bird-ness lends him to more “you are ____ type of bird” jokes, which is actually extrapolated by Lighter in game.

In the Japanese version Lighter says “Sugoshi CONDOR? Iya sakatta. Sugoshi hagetaka? Gaahaahaaha.” This translates as “[You’re] a bit condor-ish? No, that’s not it. [You’re] a bit vulture-ish? Gahaha.”

A bit “vulture-ish”? Why does he say that? And why did Mato translate it as going bald? Because it’s another wordplay pun! Much like how “ahoudori” (”albatross”) is literally “idiot-bird”, “hagetaka” (”vulture”) is literally “bald-hawk”. But even more than that, “hagetaka” (a noun) is similar to “hageru”, the verb for “to bald”. Since “hageru” is an ichidan verb, you can conjugate it as “hageta” to say “balded”. And then you tack on “ka” at the end to make the statement a question. So, in short:

Hagetaka=vulture

Hage=bald

Taka=hawk

Hageru=to bald

Hageta=balded

“Hagetaka?”=“Have you balded?”

Hagetaakaa=the “balding eagle” enemy on Mr. Oriander

Damn, Lighter! That’s a choice pun. Now, whether or not he was mostly doing it to make a bird joke, to note that Duster looks balder without an afro, or genuinely comment on Duster’s hairline is anyone’s guess. But hey thanks for the bird fodder Lighter!

Part 2: Idiots don’t catch colds

If there’s one Japanese idiom you’ve heard, it’s probably that one. It’s a funny little superstition- the idea that you’re so dumb that your brain lacks to capacity to get a cold- but surprisingly it may be a belief by which Wess operates. And yes, this still has to do with birds! In a roundabout way!

Wess being the type of person to believe in magical dreaming and superstition was a very hard concept for me to process at first after I read that “triple lucky” bit during a Mother 3 playthrough. With the exception of Duster-related things, Wess seems like a fairly understanding and reasonable person: he tells Flint to be careful and consider his family before rushing off to confront the Mecha-Drago, he wants to help search for Hinawa, he’s adamantly opposed to Fassad’s BS and is one of the only villagers to actively oppose him, and he even tells Duster (upon inputting “no” during a dialogue tree in early chapter 2) that Duster can target any hatred or resentment he may have towards him, since by Wess’s logic that doesn’t matter as long as their mission succeeds.

So if anything he’s a bit crass and willing to sacrifice his own pride/comfort/personal relationships for the greater good, but his convictions are strong and seemingly grounded in his own sense of justice and logic. Which is why I always took him as someone who wouldn’t believe in PSI, magic, or anything supernatural like that. But since he *does* seem to believe in that sort of thing, let’s break down what we know:

Wess refers to Duster as a moron

Duster’s IQ is often tied with Boney’s for lowest party member IQ

Wess tells Kumatora in chapter 3 that “morons like that don’t get hurt or sick”

Duster canonically doesn’t catch fevers while Kumatora and Lucas do

In Japan, there’s the idiom “idiots don’t catch colds”

Wess claims to have dreams with fortune telling powers

Says Lucas will have a “triple lucky” day

Lucas proceeds to successfully pull 3 out of the 7 needles before the chapter is over

It’s almost as if Wess wants Duster to be a moron, because superstitiously Duster would be safer that way. Hm. It’s also strange that Wess almost seems magical, which may have legitimately been viable at some point since Wess was planned as a playable character for a long while (Therefore he could have been a PSI user with thunder attacks to replace his bombs). There’s an Earthbound 64 screenshot of Wess being alive while Duster is fainted and even all the way up through Mother 3 you can still access data suggesting Wess was a normal party member from the debug room (I could make a whole post on that- you can use a glitch to pull up all of his stats except HP and PP).

So Duster may be a bird and Wess an old, superstitious crow with maybe some sort of ambiguous connection to magic... but so what? Well,

Part 3: It’s Yo-kai time! (Yatagarasu, Kotengu, and Karasutengu)

This is a much more speculative section, though I try to be reasonable.

You know, I skimmed over the fact that Duster’s final and best bandana is the Horus Bandana, named after the Egyptian deity with a falcon head. Horus’s right and left eyes represent the sun and moon, respectively. His left eye (the moon one) was injured in a fight, explaining the moon’s phases. Funny, considering that Duster also has a left side injury.

But perhaps Horus isn’t the only ancient deity that we can talk about. I propose the most compelling case, Yatagarasu:

(He’s the bird sitting atop the bow)

Yatagarasu is the Japanese name of a myth that originated in China. He’s a 3-legged crow that is representative of the sun. Specifically in Japan, he represents the will of heaven and divine intervention. He symbolizes guidance, as well as rebirth after tragic stuff like battle/war.

Yatagarasu is prominent enough that there’s a Yu-gi-oh card and a Persona based on him too, which is pretty cool. But even cooler is that he sounds a lot like what the Egg of Light, Wess, and Duster were responsible for. The Egg was responsible for the rebirth of their lives for the citizens of Tazmily. And Wess and Duster’s task to protect the Egg for reasons they don’t understand for the sake of a village that doesn’t appreciate their work seems like they’re doing god’s work, so to speak.

An important thing about Yatagarasu too is that it defies the normal Japanese superstition that crows are bad luck. Yatagarasu is a harbinger of good. I’m not sure if any of this was intentional or not, but I think comparing Duster, Wess, and the Egg of Light to it is a pretty solid theory.

So let’s briefly skim over Kotengu and Karasutengu, which are lesser Tengu with bird-like faces. (For my own reference there’s really good write ups here and here about them.) For the most part the important thing is that they are bird/crow yokai, but one intriguing thing I found is that Kotengu is that they tend to live like hermits (like Wess and Duster), carry items/weapons stolen from humans (the thief aspect), and collect magical items (the thief tools).

Conclusion:

So do I think Wess and Duster are supposed to represent bird tengu? I don’t know! Maybe not completely deliberately, but I definitely believe in the strength of the bird motifs (especially crow Wess). I had drawn a silly little picture about it 2 years ago for Inktober, in fact...

Whatever the case, I hope someone out there appreciates the info dump. There’s a lot of Mother 3 stuff I’ve examined meticulously so that my Mother 3 webcomic, DutyBound, can be the best it can be. Sometimes there’s so much info I want to share but nobody who will listen, though!

So if anyone ever wants to hear some more crazy in-depth Mother 3 meta, I’m your guy >.<

#mother 3 #wess #duster #meta #long post #egg of light

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picnokinesis · 7 years

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Inktober Day 27

you would do that for me? or, rather - you would do that with me?

well, with worldwide destruction a certain alternative... do I really have a choice?

#pacific rim #newton geiszler #hermann gottlieb #newmann #inktober #inktober 2017 #hHHHH #taka does inktober #taka draws #taka inks #I LOVE THESE NERDS #SO DARN MUCH AHHH #I LOVE THEM AHHHHHH #in case it wasn't obvious #the line thing represents their drift bond #the fact that they are drift compatible makes me so happy you have no idea #if they IGNORE THAT IN PAC RIM 2 I WILL BE SLIGHTLY MAD #based on those two shots from the trailer though I think it'll be ok though

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picnokinesis · 7 years

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Inktober Day 26

I know it’s not inked yet!! I was only able to get the sketch down after 11pm (rip) but I’m reaaaaally happy with how it turned out, and I’m hoping the inking goes well!! I was annoyed that I didn’t do an inktober yesterday so figured I’d post the sketch so you could see a bit more of my process?? for interest?? idk haha

#wip #taka draws #taka does inktober #taka is tired #pacific rim #inktober 2017 #inktober #newton geiszler #hermann gottlieb #i have soooo many feelings hh #for those who don't know #me and a bunch of other rad people watched pac rim in a rabbit room earlier #and it was awesome #i haven't drawn these kids since late 2014/early 2015 wahh #oh man #so. pumped. for. pac. rim. 2

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picnokinesis · 7 years

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Follow me through The city of frost-covered angels I swear I have nothing to prove I just want to dance in your tangles To give me some reason to move

Inktober Day 4

IT’S FINISHED AHHHH (see below for an actual explanation of EVERYTHING)

Ok, so this is my tribute to Force Over Distance by @cleanwhiteroom (with podfic by @elementals-ao3). I’ve actually kinda wanted to draw this for AGES. There’s a ton of imagery and recurring themes in the fic related to Rush and Young that I tried to put in here, so I’ll try and explain all the different little things, but the main idea here is JUXTAPOSITION and how, despite being complete opposites, Rush and Young become so entangled and interconnected that they end up being considered as not-separate beings.

In Force Over Distance, Rush and Young become mentally linked due to circumstances beyond their control, and one of the first things they notice about each other is how the way they think is completely different - so different that despite being able to hear and feel each other’s thoughts, they can’t actually understand each other. Rush’s thoughts are described as ‘rapid, nonlinear, nonverbal swirl’ and a ‘flare and spiral’, whereas Young’s are the exact opposite - structured, linear and logical. And thus Rush gets spirals behind his head and Young gets boxes. But then, of course, their thoughts gradually blend and become more entangled, and so I made the patterns connect in the middle.

The patterns around the edges also have meanings - on Rush’s side we have water and on Young’s side smoke and bits of an explosion. The water, for anyone who has read FoD, is kinda obvious because the Rush + water connection is littered through every Rush fic cleanwhiteroom wrote. But for those who haven’t read it - Rush has a lot of bad experiences with water/drowning and it definitely has an impact on the way his brain works (hence the water connects to his whirls). Young is less obvious, I guess, but beside wanting to put him as ‘fire’ to oppose Rush’s water, the explosion references Young’s military background, the explosion of the Icarus base which almost killed him and, of course, his rather explosive temper which is often triggered by a certain Nicholas Rush.

Then the rest is mainly locations of importance - the gate spans between them because other than it looked good composition-wise, the gate is one of the things that has connected them for a long time too, as well as frequently being the cause of disagreement between them regarding the attempts to dial back home. (also can I just say I’m REALLY proud of how the gate turned out?? I’m really happy with it. The Destiny gate is just so pretty ahHHH ok ok). Then underneath the banner are places that are important to each of them - for Young, it’s six miles north of the south platte river, where he grew up; for Rush, it’s Destiny’s bridge whilst at FTL. Then above them is the first obelisk planet, which is kinda the first clue to a larger story arc in FoD that basically influences everything. Basically - the obelisks are really important in the story and I liked this one more than the FoD one on the desert planet xD

LAST THING TO EXPLAIN - the words. They’re from the song Gardenhead by Neutral Milk Hotel (see link at the top), and the title of my favourite story arc in FoD called At All Angles comes from the line of lyrics just after the one quoted. I have kind of fallen in love with this song. It’s just…agh oh geez I just really love it a lot? So much.

SO YEAH! If you read through all of that CONGRATS! Now you probably have a vague idea of just how much the fic means to me. I just love it so much. SO MUCH (but I still kinda love Ad Noctum by the same author a teeny bit more because it’s freaking genius guys, it’s actually my favourite thing BUT FOD IS STILL AMAZING AHH) ok BYE

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picnokinesis · 7 years

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Inktober Day 22 (in my time zone anyway) MORE OCs!! Here we have Namiwa (top), Ash (left) and Eric (right) along with Avalon the robotic bird and Bartok the robotic lizard. They're all from my 3rd book in my series (although Eric does appear in the first book!). I would write so much more about them but I'm posting this on mobile since my Wi-Fi has died a death for some reason, and typing on mobile is the worst so...ask me questions if you want to know more?? xD I love them a whole lot!

#inktober #inktober2017 #taka does inktober #taka inks #taka draws #the enderrian chronicles #my children #ash #eric #nami #bartok #avalon

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picnokinesis · 7 years

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Inktober Day 8

IT’S DONE!! This is a pretend comic book cover for me and @archervale‘s ocs Archie and Taka!

For clarity - yes, Archie and Taka our me and Vale’s nicknames. The ocs were created very soon after we came up with the nicknames. We’re gonna confuse so many people pfff xD So - uh...if I’m talking about the ocs it’ll be in italics? Yeah! Ok:

So this is kinda a celebration of me and Archie’s friendship - we met in 2012 after Archie read my slightly terrible but appropriately angsty Avengers fanfic (called Sorry About The Post-Its haaaaa it’s so bad but has a special place in my heart) over on dA, and since then we’ve been near inseparable (well...as inseparable as two people who live on opposites sides of the world can be....). ANYHOW. Archie’s the one who dragged me over to Tumblr after getting me into GF and enticing me with fandom shenanigans. I said I’d try it for a week pff and I’m still here ahahah. Anyway it’s been a beautiful 5 years of friendship. But we’re awful parents and neglect our ocs ahahahah

Archie and Taka are the results of genetic experiments in a sort of apocalyptic scenario, where the government was trying to create super soldiers - only the situation calmed down and the soldiers weren’t needed anymore. Archie and Taka escape being ‘decommissioned’, but lose their memories and so don’t know where they came from or why they have powers. They run into each other in a city and after a lot of being generally mistrustful of each other they become an awesome superhero duo! In my original series, I intend to have Archie and Taka be a popular comic book series - hence comic book cover. The writing is all in my symbol cipher Takadian, because I decided that’s the script of the language used in my stories.

#inktober #inktober 2017.#taka inks #archie and taka #taka does inktober #taka draws #my children #archie's children #return of the fluff king #nOOT nOOT #I love these two #I don't draw them nearly enough hhhhhh

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picnokinesis · 7 years

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Inktober Day 15

Inspired by @literallygold‘s absolutely excellent post over here, I decided to do a slightly smaller inktober today!

(I’m not sure I’m completely happy with how his hair came out, but I was just having an experiment ahah xD I might redraw him at some point - but now I have a smol Rush!)

#inktober #sgu #stargate universe #nicholas rush #inktober 2017 #taka inks #taka draws #taka does inktober #i kinda wish i had colours hhh #nevermind #the stargate tag

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picnokinesis · 7 years

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Inktober Day 7 Some people asked for a sort of inking tutorial but tumblr was being a butt so I can't show my progress pics :/

#I'm actually looking forward to do the background of this thing #I think that's gonna make it look good #I feel kinda eh about it at the moment #inktober #inktober2017 #taka does inktober #taka draws #taka inks #taka is tired and wants to sleep but also wants to watch episode 8 of John Doe #taka also wants to write #hhhhhh #save me

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picnokinesis · 7 years

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Inktober Day One! Last year I did a new picture each day, but that killed me slightly so this year I’m gonna try a do a few more complex pieces over several days, posting my progress as I go. This one is inspired by @cleanwhiteroom ’s incredible fic Force Over Distance, and spans TWO PAGES of my notebook…rip me

The piece is split in two, with Rush on the left and Young on the right. Underneath the banner are two places that I’ve associated with each character - Destiny’s bridge for Rush, and the intermountain west for Young, where he grew up.

#inktober #inktober day 1 #cleanwhiteroom #force over distance #wip #progress #taka draws #taka inks #taka screams about fod after reading it again #aughhh #taka does inktober

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picnokinesis · 7 years

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Inktober Day 14

IT’S DONE!! This one I had to battle with a lot so I’m glad it’s finished.

This is art for my SGU fanfic Retrograde and it’s currently unwritten sequel, Anterograde. I don’t wanna spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read it yet but would like to? So I’m gonna put the explanation under the cut. Whether you read on or not, I hope you like it!

[trigger warning for blood/torture/whump]

So on the left hand side we have Retrograde, which is written from Rush’s point of view (hence, we have Rush). In the fic, Rush and Scott get captured by aliens who intended to board Destiny to salvage her parts, and to get intel on the ship they torture Scott and Rush using simulation technology which gives them both varying degrees of retrograde amnesia, so they forget they’re situation. The technology is represented by the wires/tubes connecting to Rush, since the tech is pretty invasive.

The aliens then decide to implant a device in Rush’s stomach and then allow him and Scott to be rescued, basically making Rush a living trojan horse (hence his bleeding stomach and the general blood everywhere - Rush does not have a good time in this fic). The device floating above his head attached to the cable near his stomach is in the second chapter of Retrograde (which I’m currently writing) - the device inside Rush transmits a frequency which freezes all of Destiny’s systems. The second device the aliens attach later, and it can control the radius of the transmission or create an inner circumference - essentially allowing them to control which parts of Destiny are affected. However, Rush uses this to his advantage and makes it so only the consoles near him can work and then escapes. Hence the squares behind him and Young are light near Rush and dark near Young.

Anterograde is going to be written from Young’s pov. There’s not much really left to talk about here, other than the shattered glass and the city. The city is just an advanced civilisation they find on a planet about a week after the incursion takes place, whilst the shattered glass represents both the damage done to the ship by the aliens as well as the damage done between Rush and Young (Young does something in the second chapter of Retrograde which causes more problems for Rush and makes him believe he can’t trust him again, since he believes Young did it on purpose. He did not).

The fic titles, by the way, do have meaning - I thought about them quite a lot. Retrograde, other than the obvious amnesia, refers to how whilst the characters don’t know what’s come before, they actually have a pretty good idea of what’s coming next (particularly due to the looping simulation in the first chapter). Whilst in Anterograde, the characters know exactly what has happened beforehand, and their current situation is directly related to what has just occurred, but the future is incredibly uncertain. Retrograde keeps looping back, whereas Anterograde moves ever forwards.

#sgu #stargate universe #nicholas rush #everett young #inktober #inktober 2017 #aGHH #this was actually kinda a pain to draw #funnily enough it's difficult to draw fanart for a fic that hasn't been written yet!#I complained to many people even though it was entirely my fault ahahha #glad it's done though #I'm very happy with the retrograde side and kinda eh about the anterograde side #but oh well #taka draws #taka inks #taka does inktober

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