It’s clearly before 9/11 given how easy it is for them to get into the flying limousine.

Obviously it takes place in the year 3. That’s why it’s called Mother 3 smh

I've always interpreted Mother 3 as taking place at the literal end of time because of how it's implied Porky ended up here. That he destroyed everything across time so thoroughly there was nowhere left for anyone to go. Nobody said anything about the white ship also being a time machine outright last I checked, but it always felt implied if not plausible to me. The dragon waking up would signify the death and rebirth of the universe.

1. Winter 2014
2. 2020

Wich answer do YOU wanna pick, huh??

I don't think Flint is Ness. For one, Flint doesn't know any PSI, and if Flint WAS Ness, I'm pretty sure Porky would have knew that, considering he has several places that glorify the Chosen Four's adventures.

I know it's the cop out, no fun allowed answer but "Some time after Earthbound" has always been a good enough answer for me.

I always liked to think that Alec was an older Ness because Alec is one of the Don’t Care name options in EarthBound

They are calling her Keymatora

I think of it much like how Trunks going back in time to save Goku didn't reverse the damage done to his own timeline. Porky fiddling with time travel isn't so much affecting Ness and Ninten's futures, as it is creating branching timelines.

The elements of Ness' legacy are only kept around due to Porky directly advertising them in NPCity, not so much because they canonically happened in Lucas's timeline.

Why didn't Flint just use PSI Rockin to kill the Drago

I definitely think EarthBound 64 was supposed to shed more light on this. Screenshots exist of a destroyed city with the Monotoli Building and Onett sign. Perhaps, because the game was originally longer, they cut a lot of this backstory out when they shortened the game.

I have always likes the idea of Alec being ness, and the game taking place ~60 - 80 years after

The events of mother 3 happened to me personally in the summer of 2002

I refuse to believe Mother 3 takes place anywhere near the time of Earthbound. The game always had the vibe of taking place far into the future or past, and the idea of it only taking place like 20 years after Earthbound is just not believable at all to me, and especially the idea of Flint being Ness

I think Ness being Alec makes more sense, Flint can't use PSI when we use him, while Alec remains ambiguous cus we dont play as him, although you'd think he'd use it to help if he was able to.

My read was that the Tazmily gang aren't necessarily from the Mother 1/2 world. Porky definitely brought artifacts from the Mother 2 world to decorate his house, and he himself and Dr. Andonuts are definitely from Mother 2, but the rest is up in the air. The Tazmily villagers only really start looking like EarthBound characters after Porky's influence started making them wear different clothes and makeup. They could be from some entirely unrelated other world/dimension, which would make Porky's "Thousand years" possible.

I do kind of like the idea of the games being like the never ending Ouroboros scenario. Like where Mother 3’s ending leads back to Mother 1 and it’s constantly resetting. It’s weirdly meta, in a way. Like finishing all 3 games and then replaying them from the beginning. I don’t really know where I’m going with this, I just thought it was cool. Like these games. 👍

I mean. Presumably Porky has been hopping from timeline to timeline so the time that has passed for him doesn't really make sense for the rest of the characters anyway

I think this is a really interesting interpretation that recontextualises both Earthbound and Mother 3 in a way I had never considered. However, there are a few things I’d question about it:

1: I find it hard to believe that Ness could be Flint. While Itoi leaves it up to interpretation, meaning it's not totally impossible, I think there’s more evidence in the game for it not being the case– mainly his lack of PSI. You could argue that he lost the ability to use it along with all his memories when they were put in the egg, but Ness’ PSI in particular is implied to be something he can use unconsciously, since he was able to use it as a newborn. I don’t think that kind of natural instinct is something that would be tied to his memories. As others have pointed out, he at the very least should have a PP stat like Lucas and Claus do at the start of the game before either of them learn to use PSI, if he is indeed Ness. Also, the Courage/Franklin badge that Flint owns is described as “incredibly old” and made unrecognisable by rust and dirt. If this is Ness’ franklin badge, I don’t see why it would earn this description when it was in use only a couple decades ago according to this theory. Multiple Franklin badges do exist, meaning this might not be the one Ness has in Earthbound and could be much older than his (since Benjamin Franklin invented them apparently lol), but even then– why would Flint have a different badge to Ness if they’re the same person? For me, the badge implies more so that Flint is a descendant of Ness who passed it on to his children, hence why it’s so old.

2: You’re correct that Porky is an unreliable narrator, but it’s important to consider in what contexts this is the case. In the example you provide– yeah, Porky’s thesis on “people” is delusional and can’t be taken at face value. It makes sense for him to behave this way when he’s confronted by the protagonists near the end of the game; his plan is failing, and he’s being petulant about it. In the case of him talking about his age, why he would lie about how large it might be is unclear, especially when the absurdity of his mysterious age seems like something he’s insecure about, as he accuses the party of laughing at him for it directly after. Him saying he’s “still the same kid at heart” despite his body and age is the more likely instance of him being an unreliable narrator here. Why would he be saying this if he’s really not that old at all?
And if he is really old, and has travelled through time as much as he claims, I’d be inclined to believe that a lot of his time travel shenanigans took place across time periods after Earthbound, since he seems a lot more interested in technology than he does in history (outside of collecting the items from Earthbound for the boat ride, but even then that’s just his personal nostalgia). If the world ended shortly after Earthbound, I can’t imagine he’d find much to do while time travelling.

3. The possibility of a world ending climate catastrophe happening in only ten years after Earthbound seems unlikely to me. I agree that it probably was something climatic, and based on Leder’s saying “In the back of their minds, everyone had an inkling that it would happen at some point” I’m lead to believe that (much like in the world today) the climate collapse was built up and ignored over a longer period of time than just ten years. Of course the bulk of the damage could’ve been done prior to Earthbound, but there aren’t really any huge signs of man-made climate change or collapse present or impending in Earthbound’s world. There are decently preserved areas of wildlife where animals and plants are seemingly abundant (albeit corrupted by Giygas) like grapefruit falls, deep darkness or peaceful rest valley– two of which are close to urbanised areas where you’d expect to see the most pollution. If the world is a decade away from a climate catastrophe, I can’t really imagine what that catastrophe could be.
Take this part with a pinch of salt because I’m going off google translate, but there’s also that interview in one of the Mother 2 strategy guides that says Ness hired the time travelling photographer 10 years after Earthbound, which (again, google translate, not very reliable) describes him as living a “peaceful life.” That would imply the world isn’t on the verge of ending, but I’m not sure how canon the material in this interview is because while Itoi supervised the book, he probably didn’t write those answers as the interviewee at one point refers to Itoi as a separate person. Just thought it was worth bringing up.

Even if I don’t entirely agree, I really enjoy this theory!

"Flint looks to be 38" me at 38 with a baby face still thinking flint looks so much older