Where is the Military? Discussion

[Zheyno]

One of the odd things in Earthbound series is that the military doesn’t play much of role in the series, apart from Mother 3. One would think they would play a similar role, as to the Onett Police in Earthbound, in deterring the player with bureaucratic red tape. Especially, since their territory is being invaded by aliens.

I suppose there are some theories for the lack of military action such as:

1. Hippie advocacy.
2. A lack of funding.
3. Their commanders are evil, and had been influenced by Giygas to stand down.
4. They have a mutual arrangement with the aliens.
5. They’re scared.
6. They‘re incompetent.
7. Porky stole them all.
8. Or they have better things to do.

What are some of your theories on why the Military in the Earthbound Series didn’t do much to oppose the aliens?


Based on back when Mother Forever had been online, there had been an interesting discussion on the Military absence in Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound.
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:z_G7AftjhK8J:https://forum.motherforever.net/threads/where-is-the-military.766/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

 

[Zheyno]

Refurbished and added a Poll

The Discussion from the Trenches of Anonymity:

Claim A: The Military Could Not Do Anything to Giygas, Therefore the Military is Expendable.
Reasoning 1: The Military didn't have access to the Eight Melodies Song, nor the Power of Prayer.
Reasoning 2: Military Artillery doesn't hurt Giygas.

Counter-Argument: Since the military is known for always having superior and new technologies, compared to the civilian population. I wonder if the military had already implemented PSI users into their ranks. Since if there was an above-the-law organization creating PSI users, it would be the military to assert their strategical dominance at all costs. As by the time of Mother 3, the Pigmasks already had anti-psi technology, as referenced in the Porky fight, so someone had to consider PSI and its effects on military hardware.

Counter-Counter-Argument: The lack of PSI users would not be enough to fill up an army.

Counter-Counter-Counter-Argument: They don’t really need that many psychics in the army, as each PSI user is equivalent to a hundred to even a thousand soldiers. As the power difference between PSI users and ordinary folk is massive.
For example, a PSI user’s lightning strike would instantly kill someone. Or other lore feats such as two physics, a talented cripple, and a dog completely dominating a trained modern army.

Counter-Counter-Counter-Counter-Argument: PSI is not Overpowered, generally the stronger a character's PSI, the weaker they physically tend to be. For example, Ana has the best psi in the series, but has very low durability. Meanwhile, Kumatora is a lot physically stronger, but has PSI that is less powerful, and still is physically weaker than Duster in comparison. Ninten's doesn't really have much Offensive PSI, though he's physically one of the strongest. A military might not use PSI users for the physical drawbacks.


Claim B: The Military Didn't Receive Orders to Confront Giygas.
Reasoning: The violent animals and humans had only begun behaving since the games' beginning, so there had been no time for information to reach the Military, and by the time the info got to them, the heroes already took care of the problem.


Claim C: The Military were Negligent of the Severity of the Situation.
Reasoning: The people treated the situation as a bunch of people and animals becoming more weird.


Claim D: Fate Dictated that the Military didn't interfere.
Reasoning: The Apple of Enlightenment forced an abnormal situation to occur.


Claim E: Military wasn't involved because they were not important to the Story.
Reasoning 1: The Military wasn't included because Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound are children games and adding the Military would be boring to kids.
Reasoning 2: The Military didn't matter in the grand scheme of the plot, would've made things too complicated.

Counter-Argument 1: Would it be unusual with its sci-fi theme to include some military involvement?
Counter-Argument 2: Hard to draw a line in Earthbound as what is important and what is not, as the games goes out of its way to incorporate a whole ton of random things to it.


Claim F: Evil Influence Corrupted the Military, Therefore they turned a Blind Eye to Giygas's Affairs

 

[Retroman]

Or maybe because the officers were too corrupt. Not by Giygas, but corrupted by themselves.

 

[Retroman]

They rather save their own skins from an alien attack than rather fighting like a man.