Ten thousand years old
Way back when, upon reaching the Cave of the Past, I assumed, for no real reason, that they had gone hundreds of years back or more. There's nothing in the game to hint this, there's nobody that gives you a specific time frame, but in my head this seemed 'right' and so I ran with it. Until later, that is, when I started second-guessing everything I had initially thought five to ten times over.
Of course this always made me curious. Ness and the others went back to the past, left their robot bodies there, and somehow returned to their time. I doubt that was an instantaneous thing, it's not like they went back using the Phase Distorter, so who knows how long their souls (brain patterns and such) were floating about? Were they watching everything again the whole time, to come back to their bodies successful in their mission? It's a question that will probably never truly be answered.
However, a thought occurs to me, that perhaps the answer to what happened is in Porky.
Throughout EarthBound, while Ness is on his quest to stop Giygas, Porky is always a step ahead on his own quest to one-up Ness. He gloats at you whenever you see him. He uses your name when staying in certain hotels. He leaves his mark and takes what you need when he can get at it. Him and Ness's journeys are running parallel, eventually leading to the same 'final destination'. Ness to confront Giygas, Porky at the alien's side. Then the journey ends and both depart.
I bring this up because I considered how many throwbacks Mother 3 gives us regarding Ness's adventures, and even his own. I always figured that when Porky boasts that he may have lived for 10,000 years, that it told us just how far he had travelled. Having been human, and alive, his body no doubt couldn't take it. Andonuts does warn us life can't travel through time. But when he starts travelling, it's from that point in the past, when he was beside Giygas, the Cave of the Past.
Which leads to my point in a wonderfully messy way. What if much of that 10,000 years was how far back that cave was from Ness's own timeline? What if, through their own means of passage, that's how far they all had to travel to return to where they'd started? Of course Porky would never actually have 'lived' that amount of time. His body did, by the looks of it, but his mind certainly didn't. Whereas Ness and his friends would have been free-flowing through that time before getting back to their bodies, so their minds would have lived if but their bodies didn't. Another interesting little parallel there.
Which to me, makes a little more sense than Mother 3 being 10,000 years after Mother 2.
~~SS
References:
1: Porky's quote
"I've gone through time and space so many times that I haven't aged like a normal person.
"Who knows, I might be 1000 years old, or even 10,000 years old.
"But, despite that, I'm still the same kid at heart!
"Is that funny?
"It is, isn't it?"
2: Dr.Andonuts' time travel quote
"This is very hard for me to tell you, but... In order to defeat Giygas, who is attacking from the past, you must warp to the past.
"This can be done by way of the "Phase Distorter 3."
"However, the machine cannot warp living things, I mean lifeforms. Life is demolished in the process of warping.
"The only way to accomplish the time travel is to transfer your brain "program" into a robot, and send the robot to the past.
"...The transfer means that your spirit will go with the robot while your body is left behind...
"I cannot promise that your spirit will come back after the battle in the past. Yet, you must understand that the four of you are the chosen ones."
Way back when, upon reaching the Cave of the Past, I assumed, for no real reason, that they had gone hundreds of years back or more. There's nothing in the game to hint this, there's nobody that gives you a specific time frame, but in my head this seemed 'right' and so I ran with it. Until later, that is, when I started second-guessing everything I had initially thought five to ten times over.
Of course this always made me curious. Ness and the others went back to the past, left their robot bodies there, and somehow returned to their time. I doubt that was an instantaneous thing, it's not like they went back using the Phase Distorter, so who knows how long their souls (brain patterns and such) were floating about? Were they watching everything again the whole time, to come back to their bodies successful in their mission? It's a question that will probably never truly be answered.
However, a thought occurs to me, that perhaps the answer to what happened is in Porky.
Throughout EarthBound, while Ness is on his quest to stop Giygas, Porky is always a step ahead on his own quest to one-up Ness. He gloats at you whenever you see him. He uses your name when staying in certain hotels. He leaves his mark and takes what you need when he can get at it. Him and Ness's journeys are running parallel, eventually leading to the same 'final destination'. Ness to confront Giygas, Porky at the alien's side. Then the journey ends and both depart.
I bring this up because I considered how many throwbacks Mother 3 gives us regarding Ness's adventures, and even his own. I always figured that when Porky boasts that he may have lived for 10,000 years, that it told us just how far he had travelled. Having been human, and alive, his body no doubt couldn't take it. Andonuts does warn us life can't travel through time. But when he starts travelling, it's from that point in the past, when he was beside Giygas, the Cave of the Past.
Which leads to my point in a wonderfully messy way. What if much of that 10,000 years was how far back that cave was from Ness's own timeline? What if, through their own means of passage, that's how far they all had to travel to return to where they'd started? Of course Porky would never actually have 'lived' that amount of time. His body did, by the looks of it, but his mind certainly didn't. Whereas Ness and his friends would have been free-flowing through that time before getting back to their bodies, so their minds would have lived if but their bodies didn't. Another interesting little parallel there.
Which to me, makes a little more sense than Mother 3 being 10,000 years after Mother 2.
~~SS
References:
1: Porky's quote
"I've gone through time and space so many times that I haven't aged like a normal person.
"Who knows, I might be 1000 years old, or even 10,000 years old.
"But, despite that, I'm still the same kid at heart!
"Is that funny?
"It is, isn't it?"
2: Dr.Andonuts' time travel quote
"This is very hard for me to tell you, but... In order to defeat Giygas, who is attacking from the past, you must warp to the past.
"This can be done by way of the "Phase Distorter 3."
"However, the machine cannot warp living things, I mean lifeforms. Life is demolished in the process of warping.
"The only way to accomplish the time travel is to transfer your brain "program" into a robot, and send the robot to the past.
"...The transfer means that your spirit will go with the robot while your body is left behind...
"I cannot promise that your spirit will come back after the battle in the past. Yet, you must understand that the four of you are the chosen ones."
