Seven Needles

The Seven Needles are a key part of the plotline in Mother 3. They are the only things keeping a Dark Dragon sealed under the Nowhere Islands. The Needles are scattered throughout the Islands, each protected by one of the seven Magypsies. They, as well as their importance, are revealed in the beginning of Chapter 7.
A Needle can only be pulled by someone who can use PK Love, and the person who pulls the majority of the needles has their heart's ideals transferred to the Dark Dragon. If someone with an evil heart pulls them all, or at least more than half of them, then the Dark Dragon will respond to evil wishes. However, if someone with a good heart pulls more than half of them, then the Dark Dragon will respond to the good wishes within the puller's heart. If the puller does not appear to have a heart, then the world would simply cease to exist.
Upon being pulled, a bright light flashes and the islands shake, possibly meaning that the Dark Dragon is trying to move or is becoming restless, and the Magypsy protecting it will disappear after a short time. 
== History ==
The Pigmask Army uses the Masked Man to pull the Needles for them. The Pigmask Army almost succeeds in pulling most of the Needles, having already pulled the one in Osohe Castle, the one on Snowcap Mountain, and the one on Tanetane Island, and Lucas already pulling the one in the pool near the Chimera Laboratory, the one in Fire Mountain, and the one in Chupichupyoi Temple.
The final one is discovered by the Pigmask Army to be in a cave beneath the Empire Porky Building. Lucas and the Masked Man have a final battle in front of the final needle, where the Masked Man is defeated. Lucas then pulls the final needle, which awakens the Dark Dragon. In the final cinematic, it appears that the Dark Dragon destroys all evidence of the Pigmask Army ever existing, as well as everything else on the island. Afterwards, it is revealed that the residents of the Nowhere Islands survived the destruction.
==Locations==
*Aeolia's Needle
Aeolia's Needle is in Osohe Castle's courtyard. In-game, it can be seen during Chapter 2, once Duster and Wess have reached the garbage room, though its purpose is not yet revealed. It is the first needle to be pulled, thus, Aeolia is the first Magypsy to disappear. It is located at the Dark Dragon's navel, and is pulled by the Masked Man.
*Doria's Needle
Doria's Needle is in front of her house, near the Chimera Laboratory in Murasaki Forest. The entire house and the area around it is protected by a door, similar to the ones in Osohe Castle, that needs to be danced in front of to open. The needle is in the westernmost pond of the two in front of his house, which can only be reached by draining the pond's water into the easternmost pond. It is located at the Dark Dragon's heart, and Lucas learns PK Love β when he pulls this needle.
*Lydia's Needle
Lydia's Needle is on Snowcap Mountain, behind his house. Before Lucas and co. can get to it, the Masked Man pulls the needle and ambushes them with the Steel Mechorilla. It is on the Dark Dragon's left hand.
*Phrygia's Needle
Phrygia's Needle is located in Fire Mountain, near Saturn Valley. To pull this needle, Lucas must first face New Fassad in battle. Lucas learns PK Love γ here when he pulls the needle binding the Dark Dragon's right hand.
*Mixolydia's Needle
Mixolydia's Needle is located on Tanetane Island. Lucas and friends defeat the Barrier Trio guarding this needle, but they pause when the Masked Man and Pigmask Army arrive and shoot them with lightning, knocking them out while the Masked Man pulls the needle and flies away. This needle is in the Dark Dragon's right foot.
*Ionia's Needle
Ionia's Needle is in Chupichupyoi Temple, beyond Argilla Pass. It is the second-to-last needle pulled, as the ants that should not be stepped on are in the way until five needles have been pulled. This needle is guarded by the Pigmask Army and the Masked Man, but Lucas' new Franklin Badge deflects the lightning that the Masked Man shoots, forcing the two sides to battle. When Lucas pulls this needle, he learns PK Love Ω. This needle is in the Dragon's left foot.
*Locria's Needle
The location of Locria's Needle is unknown (Phrygia's notebook even states that Locria himself lost sight of his needle) until Lucas and friends are meeting Porky Minch in the top floor of Empire Porky Building, when both sides discover that the needle is beneath New Pork City itself. This needle is guarded by both Porky Minch and the Masked Man, and is the final needle to be pulled. It is on the head of the Dark Dragon, and Lucas pulling the needle finally awakens the Dark Dragon.
==Trivia==
*It can be seen that the Masked Man pulled out all the needles in open areas, while Lucas pulled out all the needles in covered areas.
*Lydia's needle is the only of the Seven Needles to never be seen before it is pulled, as it is pulled as Lucas and co. walk out the back of Lydia's house.
*It is notable that the needles pulled by the Masked Man belonged to Magypsies who wore primary colors (Aeolia, Lydia and Mixolydia) while the needles pulled by Lucas aside from Locria's belonged to Magypsies who wore secondary colors (Doria, Phrygia and Ionia).
*Perhaps another thing of note is the symbolic location of the needles located on the body of the Dark Dragon which the Masked Man and Lucas pulled out, and their locations which they are found. The Masked Man's locations (navel, left arm, right foot) are believed to be within ancient physiology and mysticism to be related with aspects of power, forbidden latency, and conquest, respectively, while Lucas' locations (heart, right arm, left foot) are more positively correlated with the heart, including harmony, life, and benevolence. Specifically:
**The Navel, as located in Osohe Castle, is cited within East Asian thought to be where qi stems from, and is emphasized in martial arts to be the place to originate one's actions with by core strength. As Osohe Castle goes to show however, time eventually comes to weaken and claim all in its grasp, akin to how men can grow old and all glories eventually fade into memory.
**The Heart, as located in Murasaki Forest, is naturally the universally reoccurring place which is believed to hold the soul and is the origin of what animates all beings to life. Of course, much like how all things have two sides of themselves, the heart has its complexities as much as its direct nature, and how the Chimera Laboratory exists in the same area juxtaposes how good and evil can clash deep within.
**The Left Arm, as located at Snowcap Mountain, has long been representative of "darkness"; the term left hand path in Western occultism often refers to ways of black magic and forbidden ways, while within East Asian schools of thought and the martial arts, the left hand is said to be associated with the aspect of yin and latency, which is stressed to be presented more humbly than yang aspects lest evil and unwarranted things can manifest. Snowcap Mountain, while representing mighty aspects of nature, does not within its heights show entirely hospitable qualities, from how peaks can go into the atmospheric area known as the Death Zone, and is an extreme place where life can barely thrive without outside help.
**The Right Arm, as located at Fire Mountain, in turn juxtaposes its left counterpart, being representative of yang and active qualities, white magic, and is said to be connected with the heart. Though volcanoes bring to mind of natural disasters and destruction, it is sometimes believed that as life also bears warmth, so can the earth itself with its constant flow of magma and lava through the world as its own organism, and to how volcanic areas are sometimes praised as bringing new life with its activity by renewing the earth with nutrients and bringing bounties capable by their existence.
**The Right Foot, as located on Tanetane Island, is said to be representative of the opposite of the Right Arm due to its position; in ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman thought, the right foot was believed to invite evil spirits and beheld an offending influence not unlike the Left Arm, being a more domineering and imposing foothold by position, while also being representative of how one interacts with the past and the material world. With Tantetane being an inhospitable place of dearth and illusion, being the place significant with showing the demons of the past through hallucinatory experiences and has no sustenance to sustain human life as both a fruitless desert island and waste dump with getting off on the "wrong foot", such a place shows a very harsh time for its ill equipped visitors. 
**The Left Foot, as located at Chupchupyoi Temple, is opposite to the Right Foot due to its position, as like the Right Arm, the Left Foot is said to be connected with the heart and was the foot to enter into places with for its beneficial influences as one would clear evil out with its step, said to be the foothold for a more receptive and welcoming position, while representing how one lives in the present and their intrinsic state of being. With Chupchupyoi being the evidence of Nowhere Island's predecessors and those who possibly existed with the Dragon before even those of Osohe Castle, such a place is welcoming to Lucas and the group, who are able to respect its presence and perform the right actions to gain access to its greatest possession, before making way to the right path of the situation. 
**The Head, as located in New Pork City, is widely held as the seat of consciousness, knowledge, and creativity. Being the seat of determinate power for all beings, so does its position showcase how the world throughout can pollute and trick the mind, and it is only within that one can choose how to change their world. 
*In the Super Smash Bros. series, one of Lucas' victory poses involves him pulling a needle.
Category:Items
Category:Mother 3 Items