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EarthBound has certainly reached cult-classic levels of appreciation in the past few decades, and it's not difficult to see why. The game takes a wacky approach to RPGs and has a certain brand of humor and style that hasn't been replicated since, though you can feel its inspiration in plenty of newer games.

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Something that remains largely unknown to the fanbase is that the game's central villain, Giygas (also known as Giegue), has his roots in the first game of the series, EarthBound Beginnings (also known as Mother). In this game, you learn of the alien's origin and his extremely woeful tale.

Before EarthBound Beginnings

EarthBound Beginnings Podunk
The party in Podunk, in EarthBound Beginnings

The story of Giygas begins with two humans, Maria and George. They are a married couple living in the town of Podunk that gets abducted by an alien race. This all happened many years before the events of EarthBound Beginnings.

While living with the aliens, George studied them and their strange powers, known as PSI, short for Psionics. It is unknown whether PSI was created or learned only by the race of aliens who abducted the married couple, but it is thanks to George that PSI came to Earth.

With the powers of PSI, Maria and George were able to return to Earth. Along with them came an infant alien, Giygas, that they had grown fond of while in captivity. They raised the alien as their son, and Giygas became especially close to Maria, who became his surrogate mother. It is also implied that George's return to Earth makes PSI a widespread phenomenon across the globe — this evokes the story of Prometheus, the Greek hero who stole the knowledge of fire from the gods.

When he came of age, Giygas was given a task by his people. They felt that George learning about the powers of PSI constituted a betrayal and a theft, so they'd use Giygas as a pawn against them. His task was simple: conduct an invasion of Earth and take back the powers of PSI.

The Events Of EarthBound Beginnings

EarthBound Beginnings Giygas Ship
The end of EarthBound Beginnings, with Giygas' ship

EarthBound Beginnings takes place 80 years after Giygas is given his orders to invade Earth, and he spent those years becoming stronger in preparation. He was supposed to wait 100 years, but a powerful device known as the Apple of Enlightenment showed Giygas his eventual defeat at the hands of Ness. To avoid this outcome, he made his first attack 20 years early.

The game is seen through the eyes of Ninten, a young boy and the great-grandson of George and Maria. Thanks to his family, he has a link to Giygas. EarthBound Beginnings follows Ninten's journey to investigate the odd happenings, escalating to fighting back against Giygas and his invading force.

EarthBound Beginnings Giygas Boss Fight

When the two meet face to face, Giygas finally shows some semblance of human emotion. He recognizes the familial connection between Ninten and his mother, Maria. The complex emotions he feels prompt him to offer Ninten safety on the alien Mother Ship and a life away from Earth, but the offer is refused.

The fight against Giygas would be hopeless. The alien is an incredibly powerful being with masses of PSI energy at his control, making him almost impossible to defeat. In actual fact, the key to beating the game is to play the song of the Eight Melodies, a composition that you have been collecting and completing throughout the entire game. When Giygas hears this melody (which turns out to be a lullaby from his childhood), he is reminded of happier days with George and, more importantly, Maria — days without concepts of ancestral revenge being drilled into his head.

Thanks to this overabundance of emotion, Giygas becomes unable to fight. He calls off the invasion and leaves Earth, but not before promising to return with malign intent once he is able.

Between EarthBound Beginnings And EarthBound

Giygas Warped EarthBound
Giygas' first battle form from EarthBound

With Giygas' long-term plans being made explicit at the end of the first game, it should be no surprise that he ends up being the villain of the second game, too. However, his form in this game is far different — he becomes an abstract, amorphous being known as the Universal Cosmic Destroyer.

"Giygas cannot think rationally anymore, and he isn't even aware of what he is doing now. His own mind was destroyed by his incredible power."

- Porky, EarthBound

Some theories suggest this transformation happened due to Giygas' supreme power and an inability to control it thanks to his human upbringing. Regardless, Giygas can use his phenomenal yet out-of-control powers to conquer the Earth and reduce it to nothingness. It would seem that the Apple of Enlightenment's prophecy wouldn't come to pass after all.

It is only when Buzz Buzz, a beetle-like insect from the future, returns to the past to warn Ness of the alien threat that EarthBound's story actually gets set in motion.

The Events Of EarthBound

Earthbound: Ness, Paula, Jeff, And Poo Walk Down A Busy Street

Having identified the architect of his undoing, Giygas travels into the past in order to defeat the young boy before he can grow strong. He does this by turning Ness' neighbor, Porky, into his pawn. Mere contact with the alien is enough to terrify the boy, but he is driven by jealousy and hatred of Ness to do Giygas' bidding.

In his EarthBound form, Giygas is unable to think rationally, and it is only when Porky seals him inside the Devil's Machine that his power can be directed. The Devil's Machine is a gigantic, fleshy device located within The Cave of the Past, Giygas' base of operations from which he affects events across time. However, this machine does not heal his fractured mind, which is now driven by hatred, vengeance, and an obsession with Ness. With Porky now in control of Giygas' power, the entire universe is under threat of obliteration — not just the planet that drew the ire of the alien race after the theft of PSI.

EarthBound Giygas Boss Fight Ness
Giygas calling Ness' name in the final fight of EarthBound

Again, Giygas serves as the game's final boss along with Porky in his own monstrous machine. The Devil Machine is turned off, and the surrounding area is transformed into a constantly shifting, otherworldly plane of existence.

Notably, Giygas' attacks have a strong propensity to inflict your party members with the Crying status effect. This is indicative of Giygas' state of mind — fractured, likely scared and confused, and most of all, terrified — and he is able to spread these emotions forcefully through his attacks.

It's another non-standard battle where you must deal with Porky and his spider-mech first before tackling Giygas with the only thing that works: prayer. Paula's prayers calm Giygas, evoking human emotions within him and eventually causing him to collapse in on himself.

You are led to believe that Giygas is gone for good at the end of EarthBound, but the events of Mother 3 make it clear that Porky was able to absorb some of his magnificent powers. With these, he utilized time travel to the extent that he became immortal and spent his life toying with different people's lives.

EarthBound Giygas Banner
Giygas' final form as a banner - from EarthBound

Conclusion

The story of Giygas gets more complicated the longer he exists in the narrative. What begins as a simple case of conflicted feelings over his adopted parents becomes a question of time travel and cosmic powers. EarthBound Beginnings was released in 1989, and there are still some questions about this iconic villain.

We don't know, for example, how long Giygas was able to keep his mind from breaking. We know that by the end of EarthBound, his mind has shattered and he's an unstoppable, powerful force of evil. But how many of his actions were driven by evil? His plan to go into the past to avoid his defeat at the hands of Ness sounds methodical and driven by self-preservation. When did he lose control of his powers? And when was Porky able to put him into the Devil's Machine?

A lot of these questions are up for interpretation and may never be answered, but this is one of the beauties of the Mother series. The overarching narrative is highly complex and deep, belying the colorful, humorous, and overall light tone that the games present themselves with. In the end, it makes Giygas one of the most tragic and memorable villains in RPG history.

EarthBound Giygas Banner
Giygas' final form as a banner - from EarthBound

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