if you have or haven't listened to the lyrics to the song from the Mother vocal album, here it is: http://www.animelyrics.com/game/mother/flyingman.htm
if you learned anything, what did you learn from the Flying Men?

personally, it reminded me to cherish every moment with those you love and care about deeply...because life can be frail and unpredictable. and you only get so many chances. if you notice in Earthbound, all of the temporary party members in the game are immune to attacks...except Flying Man. and i think Itoi did this on purpose..for us to not take his existence for granted. but the Flying Man's calling in life is to serve Ness and to die for him. and as much as you like to keep Flying Man till the end, you know it's not meant to be and he will die before you get there. so you leave him behind so that his life and existence is spared. but to deny the Flying Man the chance to join you and die for you is to deny him the chance to fulfill his destiny and it would be as if he never lived, never existed. had a discussion with Kyoo and we both agreed on the similarities between the Flying Man and the Forgotten Man in Mother 1. it's sad. your thoughts?

I love the Flying Man. You're definitely right in my opinion. The first time I played EB, I tried to keep Flying Man with me until the end. I even reset the game several times to keep him from dying, but eventually gave up I never really learned anything until I heard the song though.

To be reeeaaalllly honest, the "cherish every moment"/"don't take anything for granted"/"live every day as if it were your last" moral is one that is somewhat cliché.. But I do love Itoi's take on it. He can take a beaten, dead horse and turn it into a rodeo.

wow, someone actually gave it enough thought and replied. i agree that the moral of the story is somewhat cliche', but Itoi's use of it is really neat

Courageous birds end up dead in the end.

That's what I learned.

this is a shortented version of what I've already expressed to you in personal email Jeffy05,

through listening and understanding the meaning of the lyrics behind the song. I realized the reason for both the forgotten man and the flying men is. to be destroyed. so that you may survive. their entire purpose and reason for existing is meant only to be your tool. your own personal tool that helps you survive. they're reason for existing is to die. but not to die for no reason. their reason for existing is to die for you. so that you can still be healthy. to rob them of their death is to rob them of their existence. for them, not dying for you, is the same as already being dead. as you robbed them from the meaning of their life.

proving to me again, there is no real Identity of right and wrong. as when I was younger. I knew that no matter what if I had them on my team. they would die. so I never used them. I always ventured out alone. and I had them survive. it was to overly overbearing for me to deal with the fact that one of them might have died. so I selfishly robbed their meaning of existense from them. by making it so they couldn't help me until they died. so they couldn't die for me in passion. instead I gave them a life without meaning. a life without meaning that is equal to death. it wasn't till I heard the lyrics of the song. that I realized how horrible I was. for forcing them to live. while their entire reason for existing is to be my tool. it is for them to die for me. and when they die. they'll die happy, happy knowing they tried their absolute hardest to save me life.

before hearing this song. I couldn't understand why in Samurai stories why they were seemingly suicidal. and didn't want to be left alive. but after hearing the lyrics of that song. I realized. that to them. their meaning of life. their reason to live. is to die in battle. to die for those they love. to die, for what they believe in, to die. so those that they love. may live a better life. much like. all those who die and suffer in war. they don't want to die from catching a cold. they'd rather die with a bullet in their body, or having their limbs blown off. to die for a cause.

but what have I learned from the flying men?

that some people exist and live lives for reasons that I could never understand. that their life and identity of what life is could be so dynamically different from my own identification of what lifes all about.



as all things that are cliche. they are all true, but since they are cliche. we are numb to the trueness behind the meaning. in other words. the message lacks sustenance. it's like eating candy that looks like broccoli. the phrases have become so synthetic. it's like taking that healthy broccoli and turning it into a sugary snack the looks and feels like broccoli.... but when you eat it. you aren't digesting the nutrients that consist of broccoli.

the lyrics of the song, took away the syntheticness of it away, allowing me to get the proper nutrients that my body ultimately truly desires.

that's why I believe that it's sometimes okay to beat a dead dog with a stick. because, sometimes people need to see that dead dog get beat, to realize the meaning of what it is to beat a dog.

That's, surprisingly, a very interesting and well put analogy.

And wow, I love this line you wrote.

I don't normally put quotes in my sig, but since we don't use images here, this is going in my sig.