Behind The Mask

Intro

So, some clarifications before we start. I've posted this fix elsewhere but I wanted to share it here because damn it, there is not enough Earthbound/Mother Series Fanfiction out there. (Special thanks to TerraChaos83's Earthbound: React to Ships fic which got me to put this on here - which is definitely worth reading!).

I owe a lot to this franchise: Mother 1 taught me how to be happy. Earthbound taught me how to laugh. And Mother 3 taught me how to cry.

The last of those is my favourite in the Mother Trilogy (although I do think Earthbound does some things better than Mother 3) and upon beating it for the very first time last year, I was inspired to make my very first fanfic focussing on one of my favourite video game villains of all time - the Masked Man.

His design (the dude has a thunder sword!), his boss fights (both of them, although for different reasons), music (again all of them, Strong One (Masked Man), Battle Against The Masked Man and It Is Finished are all excellent, with the last of those being my favourite song in Mother 3 and the first time a video game genuinely caused me to cry) and of course, his story. I don't know why, but I just click with this guy and it's great.

Seriously, words can not describe how much I love this guy and if he gets in Smash, I will legit die a happy person. But this is just turning into a giant rant on why I love this trilogy (is that really a bad thing though?) so back to the point.

Firstly, spoilers for Mother 3 and Earthbound, so if you haven't finished/played those games yet, I highly urge you to do so because I will be spoiling almost everything about the Masked Man pretty much in the first chapter and there are going to be a fair few Earthbound references that serve as spoilers.

This fic is centred on said character and will detail how exactly he became the Commander, as well as his own thoughts and feelings during the events in the game. At the time I'm posting this, I have written the first nine chapters, and will post those up over time and then the others once I have written them. I did want to take a break from writing this, but I think I'm actually ready to continue so hopefully updates won't take long (hopefully). So please read, comment, critique (not too harsh, if you don't mind) and most of all, enjoy!