Porky Minch (Mother Series)

"With my eternal life, I will see the world through to its end. Until everyone who won't like me is gone." (Mother 3)

Porky Minch is an antagonist from the Mother series. He features heavily in Earthbound, the second game in the series, but makes his most impactful appearance in Mother 3 as the main antagonist. He begins his story as the neighbour of Ness, the main hero of Earthbound. At the beginning, he simply begins as that annoying kid that one is friends with as a child, but only due t lack of better options. He's cowardly, selfish, envious, and an overall obnoxious presence. However, he slowly turns into more and more of a sinister threat, before finally turning into an evil time-travelling emperor in Mother 3.

Porky is somewhat of a reflection of Ness. Nowhere is this more visible than in the contrasting music tracks that represent their two households. While Ness's house's theme is comprised mainly of soothing melodic guitar that elicits feelings of comfort, Porky's house's theme is jarring, full of almost random noises and time signatures, and can give the listener feelings of anxiety and unease. Porky is heavily implied to be a victim of abuse from his father, Aloysius, and this is seemingly where his feelings of jealousy towards Ness evolved. As the game progresses, Porky becomes more and more twisted and evil, until he is engaged at the climax of the game. In an interesting turn of events, Ness and his friends are battling both Porky and Giygas, the latter being what essentially amounts to the incomprehensible embodiment of all evil. Yet, it is easy to feel just as threatened by Porky, a cowardly human child with no threatening abilities to speak of. It is hard to know if Giygas is manipulating Porky, or if it is the other way around.

Porky makes a turn for the worse in Mother 3, appearing late in the game to show that he was behind all of the game's events. At this point, his mind and body are so damaged by time travel and the use of his machines that he is simultaneously immortal and catatonic. Despite being unknowably old, Porky still has the mind and desperately insecure tendencies of a child, shown in the eclectic architecture of his capital city. A chaotic and random cluster of objects and colours crowd the screen as the player tries to explore, and as they climb Porky's skyscraper, his obsession with Ness is shown to be even worse. A section of the museum is shown to be dedicated entirely to Ness's adventures, and the player realises that Porky is, above all else, a desperate child who only wanted Ness to be his friend. When Porky finally faces his fate of being trapped in the Absolutely Safe Capsule, even though he still taunts the player from inside, it is hard not to see him as a result of an abusive household, and view him with some form of pity. Porky is an irredeemable monster, responsible for so many unforgivable events, and most importantly, he's a child we've likely all known throughout our lives.