Frank and Wess
This afternoon, an interesting thought came to mind. It was something I considered while I was drawing Frank. Now I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed the similarities not only between Duster's hair and Wess's, but also Kumatoras. It doesn't mean much but I did find it curious. Mostly because certain relationship themes in this game present themselves through their hairdos. Lucas to Claus, Lighter to Fuel, and, as already mentioned, Wess to Duster.
Now naturally whatever I'm thinking has a pretty solid problem; there are many characters in Tazmily who carry similarities to people in Mother 2 (Abbott, Paul, Nana, Butch...), but Leder tells us a crucial point later in the game that helps dispel the idea that these people could be from Mother 2: The villagers kept their names from their old lives.
This doesn't stop certain characteristics presenting themselves between characters throughout the series. A good example of this is Andonuts, whose surname was given in Mother 2, and his hiding-in-trashcans tendency comes way back from Mother 1's Lloyd, as well as his father.
I'll stop beating round the bush now.
Mother didn't have many theives in the game, especially not any with wild hair. The closest we'd get on that is Teddy, but never was he sold as a thief, nor as someone who could use gadgets. Mother 2 has a very specific thief, in the name of Everdred, though he didn't have any particular thief skills to speak of, and his fate after Fourside is thrown well into question. Which leaves us with a former gang leader who was skilled with his hands, even building a robot before he was even old enough to drink! Plus he had pretty wild hair not too dissimilar from Wess's.
The biggest counterpoint to this is probably that Wess is, quite assuredly, not spelled 'frank'. However at the same time, 'Wess' is, much like Ninten, Duster, Pokey/Porky and Picky, not an actual name. One of the names could well be a surname, most likely Wess. It's not unusual for a person to be referred to by their surname for any reason, even with the honourifics dropped, in media. If you check out any movie over the past 20 years I can almost guarantee there'll be at least one person in it that isn't referred to by their first name (well, unless you choose to be petty and pick something like Bambi).
The next big counter would be that Frank didn't know any thief tricks. Though again it's not like Frank was an adult in EB, whereas Wess is pretty old. Frank did have a knack for gadgets as demonstrated by his building a rickety robot in the back of an arcade, and he wasn't especially weak either.
In fact something else I found curious was how Wess, though a thief, never turned his skills on the village. He taught Duster what he did for good, to collect the Hummingbird Egg which contained the memories of the Old World, not to take anything from the Tazmily inhabitants themselves. How far from possible would it have been for Frank to have picked up theif skills, in order to use them for such justice?
Whether you believe it or not, it's merely food for thought. At the very least it could give us a better idea of how long later Mother 3 really happened after EB.
~~Satsy outtt
references
[Mother 3: Leder's speech]
(from the section: "The White Ship")
Just before the end of the world, a
“White Ship” came to these islands.
On it were all the people of Tazmily Village.
Yes.
Aboard the White Ship were those few who
had managed to escape the “world”.
The people on the ship still went by their
names from the previous world.
[Mother 3: Wess and thief skills]
(Wess, beginning of Chapter 2)
"The time has come...
No, this is not something we have been looking forward to.
I had hoped the time WOULDN'T come, if at all possible.
But you and I have been constantly preparing for this day, in the event it did come."
(Leder's speech, from 'Those who lost everything')
"Wess and his son Duster, both playing the roles of thieves, were set to take action should a dangerous situation occur.
Remember when they went to Osohe Castle?
They went there to retrieve the secret of the “People of the White Ship”."
[EarthBound: Old enough to drink]
(Frank after you've defeated Giygas)
Hello sir, how may I help you? ...Uh... Aren't you Ness? After our battle I
became serious, and have been working very hard. I've even been doing some
training for... for... Well, a little bit of pro wrasslin'. It's the ring for
me, baby... So you made it back alive. You must have many stories to tell.
Let's get together for a drink, when you have a chance so I can hear your
stories. ...I'm talking about drinking mineral water. I'm still under age,
you know.
This afternoon, an interesting thought came to mind. It was something I considered while I was drawing Frank. Now I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed the similarities not only between Duster's hair and Wess's, but also Kumatoras. It doesn't mean much but I did find it curious. Mostly because certain relationship themes in this game present themselves through their hairdos. Lucas to Claus, Lighter to Fuel, and, as already mentioned, Wess to Duster.
Now naturally whatever I'm thinking has a pretty solid problem; there are many characters in Tazmily who carry similarities to people in Mother 2 (Abbott, Paul, Nana, Butch...), but Leder tells us a crucial point later in the game that helps dispel the idea that these people could be from Mother 2: The villagers kept their names from their old lives.
This doesn't stop certain characteristics presenting themselves between characters throughout the series. A good example of this is Andonuts, whose surname was given in Mother 2, and his hiding-in-trashcans tendency comes way back from Mother 1's Lloyd, as well as his father.
I'll stop beating round the bush now.
Mother didn't have many theives in the game, especially not any with wild hair. The closest we'd get on that is Teddy, but never was he sold as a thief, nor as someone who could use gadgets. Mother 2 has a very specific thief, in the name of Everdred, though he didn't have any particular thief skills to speak of, and his fate after Fourside is thrown well into question. Which leaves us with a former gang leader who was skilled with his hands, even building a robot before he was even old enough to drink! Plus he had pretty wild hair not too dissimilar from Wess's.
The biggest counterpoint to this is probably that Wess is, quite assuredly, not spelled 'frank'. However at the same time, 'Wess' is, much like Ninten, Duster, Pokey/Porky and Picky, not an actual name. One of the names could well be a surname, most likely Wess. It's not unusual for a person to be referred to by their surname for any reason, even with the honourifics dropped, in media. If you check out any movie over the past 20 years I can almost guarantee there'll be at least one person in it that isn't referred to by their first name (well, unless you choose to be petty and pick something like Bambi).
The next big counter would be that Frank didn't know any thief tricks. Though again it's not like Frank was an adult in EB, whereas Wess is pretty old. Frank did have a knack for gadgets as demonstrated by his building a rickety robot in the back of an arcade, and he wasn't especially weak either.
In fact something else I found curious was how Wess, though a thief, never turned his skills on the village. He taught Duster what he did for good, to collect the Hummingbird Egg which contained the memories of the Old World, not to take anything from the Tazmily inhabitants themselves. How far from possible would it have been for Frank to have picked up theif skills, in order to use them for such justice?
Whether you believe it or not, it's merely food for thought. At the very least it could give us a better idea of how long later Mother 3 really happened after EB.
~~Satsy outtt
references
[Mother 3: Leder's speech]
(from the section: "The White Ship")
Just before the end of the world, a
“White Ship” came to these islands.
On it were all the people of Tazmily Village.
Yes.
Aboard the White Ship were those few who
had managed to escape the “world”.
The people on the ship still went by their
names from the previous world.
[Mother 3: Wess and thief skills]
(Wess, beginning of Chapter 2)
"The time has come...
No, this is not something we have been looking forward to.
I had hoped the time WOULDN'T come, if at all possible.
But you and I have been constantly preparing for this day, in the event it did come."
(Leder's speech, from 'Those who lost everything')
"Wess and his son Duster, both playing the roles of thieves, were set to take action should a dangerous situation occur.
Remember when they went to Osohe Castle?
They went there to retrieve the secret of the “People of the White Ship”."
[EarthBound: Old enough to drink]
(Frank after you've defeated Giygas)
Hello sir, how may I help you? ...Uh... Aren't you Ness? After our battle I
became serious, and have been working very hard. I've even been doing some
training for... for... Well, a little bit of pro wrasslin'. It's the ring for
me, baby... So you made it back alive. You must have many stories to tell.
Let's get together for a drink, when you have a chance so I can hear your
stories. ...I'm talking about drinking mineral water. I'm still under age,
you know.
