Giygas

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Giygas/Giegue (ギーグ, Gīgu Gyiyg^?) is the villain in the Famicom RPG game Mother, and the Super Famicom RPG Mother 2 (EarthBound in the U.S.). Known as both the "Embodiment of Evil" and the "Universal Cosmic Destroyer," Giygas is an evil alien that intends to sentence all of reality to the horror of infinite darkness. With an army of Starmen, UFOs, and other deadly war machines, Giygas also used his immense power to influence the evil parts of the Earth's beings to assist him.

The name "ギーグ" has received a variety of Romanizations from the original Japanese, where it is roughly pronounced "Geeg." In the Japanese version of Mother 2, the game's subtitle is "Gyiyg Strikes Back!," which was removed prior to its release in the U.S.. In an official unreleased English translated copy of Mother, his name is spelt "Giegue", and in the English version of Mother 2 (EarthBound), he's renamed "Giygas". Nintendo of America even renamed "Gyiyg" to "Geek" in certain issues of Nintendo Power magazine before changing it again to "Giygas".

1 Mother
2 Mother 2 / EarthBound
3 Trivia
4 References

[edit] Mother

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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In Mother, Giegue (renamed "Giygas" in EarthBound)is raised by Maria, a human female abducted along with her husband George by Giegue's alien race from an early 1900's Earth, who is also Ninten's great-grandmother. George, however, studied the aliens' PSI powers without permission, and escapes back to Earth. Giegue is tasked by his people to make sure that PSI never spreads onto Earth, but he doesn't want to betray those who have raised him, especially Maria. In the end, he forced himself to detach from Maria, and began to get ready for the aliens' invasion. Maria used her own formidable psychic abilities to create an imaginary realm called Magicant, where she lives and becomes known as "Queen Mary."

Eighty years later, strange things start to happen on Earth. It seems as though nature itself has turned back on humans. Ninten, encouraged by his family (and great-grandparents from whom Ninten recessively inherited PSI), investigates the disturbances with a new group of friends consisting of PSI-null but inventive Loid, and shy but powerful psychic Ana. His neighbor Pippi, teenage gang leader Teddy, and the robot EVE (created by George to protect his descendants) also help. They find things like a town full of children with missing parents. The adults are later found in Mt. Itoi, encased within glass capsules, observed by a certain alien that is pulling the strings. During their adventures, Ninten learns eight melodies comprising a song that Queen Mary of Magicant has forgotten. Upon returning to Magicant with all eight melodies, Queen Mary requests to hear them sing the completed song. She breaks down after remembering the tune, revealing herself as Ninten's ancestor, explaining her connection to the mysterious alien threat, and destroying Magicant by allowing her consciousness - her purpose now achieved - to go to the afterlife with her husband George.

The children race to the peak of Mt. Itoi, confronting Giegue. He explains his motives to Ninten while attacking him with an "inexplicable" PSI power. Just as things seem hopeless Ninten hears Maria's voice, telling him to sing. He does so, weakening Giegue with the memories he had tried so hard to suppress. Ninten, Ana, and Loid unite and Sing together, stronger than ever. Giegue eventually gives up on them, declaring revenge upon Ninten someday, and flies away in his UFO.

[edit] Mother 2 / EarthBound

In EarthBound, Giygas (previously known as "Giegue", spelled as "Gyiyg" according to Mother 2's intro) is hardly ever seen, and only referred to. His evil power possesses the minds of many other characters who do his bidding. According to Buzz Buzz, ten years in the future Giygas had already conquered Earth and may very well have destroyed the universe, just after Buzz Buzz's departure to warn the past (which is, of course, the present during gameplay) of the coming onslaught. At least one Starman from the future made it to the past to try to stop Buzz Buzz, but it was destroyed in combat.

A stilled image of Giygas's inexplicable final form, which appears in the game as an undulating background.

The final conflict between the 'Chosen Four' (Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo) and Giygas occurs innumerable years in the past. The only way the group can get to Giygas's time period to defeat it is to use a device called the Phase Distorter that will take them back in time. This is the point of no return for the game, as the Phase Distorter cannot return to the future.

When the group finally reaches the now-unrecognizeable Giygas, Pokey (the "rival" character that constantly looks for ways to slow Ness down in his quest) reveals himself. During the first phase of the final confrontation, Giygas appears like an eye with an image of Ness's head in the middle. This is the Devil's Machine. In addition, any and all attacks against Giygas are turned back on the attacker, and Giygas is even able to use Ness's unique PSI attack. Only attacks on Pokey are effective. Once Pokey has had enough, he reveals Giygas's true form by turning off the Devil's Machine, and explains it was a device used to contain Giygas's incredible evil power. With it turned off, all of Giygas's horrible power was released outward, and his form became unstable. In this form it is revealed that Giygas's power is so unbelievably immense that it destroyed his mind and body, and that he is at this point incapable of rational thought (in Pokey's own words, an "all-mighty idiot"). Evidence for this is shown in Giygas's tendency to babble cryptic nonsense during the final two stages of the fight. Pokey appears again and explains that Giygas became so powerful in evil that he turned into the literal definition of evil; "he is THE evil power."

In the final stage of the final battle, Giygas becomes invulnerable against common attacks. In this form, Giygas can only be destroyed by using Paula's Pray command nine times in a row, which influences the various people of the EarthBound world to pray for Ness and his friends' safety, finally ending with the player ("You, the one holding the controller") praying for Giygas's defeat. The final blow from the player deals over 45,000 HP damage to Giygas. When he is finally defeated, Giygas dissolves into television noise—alluding to the opening cutscene's glimpse of the bad future—and vanishes.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

Shigesato Itoi has revealed in interviews that Giygas' dialogue in Mother 2/EarthBound was inspired by a traumatic childhood experience where he mistakenly walked into an adult movie theatre and caught a glimpse of a sex/rape scene in the 1957 movie Kenpei and the Dismembered Beauty (憲兵とバラバラ死美人, Kenpei to Barabara Shibijin^?).^[1]