Fassad

Fassad, known as Yokuba (ヨクバ ) in the original Japanese version, is the tertiary antagonist of Mother 3.
Fassad is a high-ranking commander of the Pigmask Army. Though he puts on a benevolent act to the people of Tazmily Village, Fassad is in truth cruel, manipulative, short-tempered, and gluttonous. He is primarily responsible for transforming the peaceful hamlet of Tazmily into an urbanized, self-indulgent society. 
== History ==
=== Main ===
Fassad is first seen in Chapter 1, making a rather small cameo. After Flint is released from jail, the player can go to Butch's farm, and witness Fassad making a deal with Butch to buy his pigs from him. He later bumps into Duster in Chapter 2 while on the way to steal the money he gave to Butch as part of their deal.
Fassad takes a larger role starting in Chapter 3, appearing in Death Desert along with Salsa the monkey. He is there under the orders of the Pigmask Army to peddle Happy Boxes to the people of Tazmily Village. Fassad constantly tortures Salsa with the Punishizer shock collar around his neck for failing at his tasks, and even for succeeding at them. After making Salsa hand-deliver Happy Boxes to the townsfolk, he goes to Osohe Castle to provide support to an infiltration mission. Discovering that the Egg of Light was taken by Duster, Wess, and Kumatora, Fassad chases after the party, and commands Salsa to pull a lever that, instead of getting him closer to the party, ends up saving them.
As Fassad and Salsa return to Tazmily, Salsa establishes a psychic connection with Kumatora. That night, she and Wess free the monkey, but Fassad responds by cornering the group with heavy artillery and soldiers. Lucas arrives with a Drago at that moment, trampling the army. As Fassad pleads for mercy, he then got rammed by Drago, having him flying.
Three years later, however, Fassad is shown to be alive and well, having succeeded at his objective to introduce commercialism to Tazmily. He remains in the village, proselytizing to the villagers on the value of happiness. He holds a grudge against Lucas for the events that took place three years ago, telling him to stop snooping around him while looking forward to the day where Lucas has a Happy Box in his home.
He reappears later at Thunder Tower after the Pork Trooper reveals that Lucas isn't really the Masked Man. Fassad, along with some other Pigmasks, chases the party to the top of the tower. After walking about while talking to the party, his habit of carelessly discarding the peels of his Luxury Bananas leads to his downfall, when he slips over a tossed banana peel and plummets from Thunder Tower's summit.
Although it seems that he is dead, this is disproved when Lucas's party is about to pull the fourth of the Seven Needles at Fire Mountain, and Fassad reemerges, resurrected as a cyborg by the Pigmask Army. Since he now has horns implanted where his mouth was, he now requires an Interpreter to communicate. The party defeats him and he retreats. He returns for the last time in the sewers of New Pork City as Miracle Fassad, with even more horns (including two that function similar to his jetpack as New Fassad). After being defeated once again, he goes on to say that not only he detest Lucas and co. but also got sick of fighting, revealing that this is all just Porky's game (while reminding the four that they are still in the game but he's removed from it). He admits that the flames of his life are in danger now, won't think that he and Lucas and co. will ever meet again. And shortly afterwards he explodes and falls into the sewers, never to rise again. His Interpreter then tells Lucas and co. not to follow it since it is not needed anymore, and flies away.
When Lucas and co. manage to reach the 100th floor of the Pork Tower they find the house of the traitorous Locria. All nature removed of its exterior, bananas, musical horns and a memento inside it, with Fassad's clothing over the Magypsy's beloved bed.
=== Background ===
 
Although it is never explicitly stated, the game contains substantial evidence proving beyond reasonable doubt that Fassad is the lost Magypsy, Locria. When the mother Drago approaches him at the ending of Chapter 3 in the Japanese version, he briefly uses more feminine language while panicking, which foreshadowed his true nature (the English version does not make this apparent due to there not being any distinct gender-specific phraseology in that language). The earliest example, at least in the English version, is in Fire Mountain during Chapter 7, where the newly rebuilt cyborg ambushes Lucas and friends; the trumpets that sound in place of his own voice play a distorted version of the leitmotif of the Magypsies. Later, when he is fought in the New Pork City sewers as the even further redesigned "Miracle Fassad", he uses PSI abilities (including the elusive PK Starstorm) which, in the age of Mother 3, are generally limited to use by Magypsies and their disciples.
When Lucas and his party reach Leder in New Pork City, he states that Locria had betrayed the Magypsies and joined the Pigmask Army. Fassad would fit under this description, as he does affiliate with them and is of high authority to the army. Leder also states that Locria even told Porky the secret of the White Ship and the Dark Dragon.
In addition, Fassad is the only NPC in the entire game that can actually tell something about Leder and also knows his real name, this is seen in Chapter 3, and it might serve as foreshadowing that the two are aware of each other, as Chapter 8 confirms.
The biggest cache of evidence is found in Locria's house, which is on one of the highest floors of the Empire Porky Building in New Pork City. The house contains a turban and vest worn by Fassad, numerous crates of Luxury Bananas, and a pair of New Fassad's horns. On the same floor is a lone mouse counting on Locria to return to the house, as it was apparently taken care of by Locria. The mouse also reinforces Fassad's identity as a Magypsy by attesting that Locria had a distinct "Nwehehehehe" laugh and that he was hardly seen as a good person by most. His memento, simply referred to as the "Razor and Lipstick", can be found on the floor.
Fassad's status as a Magypsy was eventually directly confirmed by Shigesato Itoi.
== Special Attacks as a Party Member ==
Fassad appears as a guest character in Chapter 3. Although he is not controllable, he has an array of powerful attacks at his disposal. Since Salsa is at level 1 in Chapter 3 when he is first playable, his attacks are significantly weaker than those of Fassad, leaving the peddler to effectively pull the party's combined weight.
Fassad can use a standard attack, bum rush foes for at least moderate damage, and rarely throw bombs that deal massive damage. If Salsa has any status ailments, he will cure them by activating the Punishizer, which restores Salsa to normal at the cost of 1 HP.
On occasion, Fassad will waste his turn by performing various (and often comedic) actions; some of the more cowardly ones are borrowed from Pokey's first appearance in EarthBound. The full list includes:
* switching the Punishizer 'on';
* placing his finger on the Punishizer button
* peeling or talking to a banana;
* hiding in Salsa's shadow;
* thinking wicked thoughts or thinking about Western-style clothing;
* twirling his moustache;
* pushing Salsa out in front of him;
* laying down and resting;
* feeling cheered up, thanks to his banana;
* try to run away by himself;
* feeling irritated; and
* feigning ignorance or pretending to be someone else.
== As an Enemy (New/Miracle Fassad) ==
After his preservation as a mechanical chimera, Fassad battles Lucas and co. on two occasions in the game. In both battles, his abilities are largely the same: he can charge a single party member, attack three at once with an off-key music attack, or throw a whole bunch of bombs at everyone. He can also emit a dazzling light to make everyone cry, and he can even emit an intense light that causes one party member to faint instantly. He can use an awful smell, Forgetfulness Gas, and flea bombs to inflict nausea, forgetfulness, and fleas, respectively. He can defend himself with a Shield device, and he can scarf down a Luxury Banana to heal 500-600 HP (far more than Lucas and co. can heal from the same item). He smiles boldly on occasion. He becomes vulnerable to Salt Waterguns after his makeover, however.
As Miracle Fassad, he remains largely the same, but after he loses a significant amount of HP, some of his horns will break off, reverting him to his New Fassad sprite. When this happens, his heart fills with hatred, and he reveals his true power: a deadly array of PSI attacks, including PK Freeze Ω, PK Thunder Ω, Brainshock Ω, Offense Down Ω, PSI Shield α and Defense Up α. But his most dangerous attack by far is the rare and destructive PK Starstorm. After enough turns, he runs out of PP. When this happens, he cannot use any of his PSI attacks, and he stops scarfing down Luxury Bananas.
Fassad has two different sets of Battle Sounds for each battle. As New Fassad, he uses Battle Sound 53, which falls under Code Numbers 918 for regular attack, 919 for Smaaaash! and 920 for Miss. As Miracle Fassad, he uses Battle Sound 31, which falls under Code Numbers 852 for regular attack, 853 for Smaaaash! and 854 for Miss.
== Trivia ==
* His localized name is a pun in two different languages. The first uses the Arabic word fasād (فساد) which can mean "corruption," rottenness", " or "depravity", and can also mean "spreading corruption on Earth" (the latter usually in an Islamic context). The second uses the French word façade, the literal translation of which is "front," though it is used in both English and French to refer to a superficial appearance or manner. The original Japanese name "Yokuba" is itself a pun on the word 'yokubari' (欲張り), a word describing avarice or greediness.
* The Locrian mode, the scale that Locria is named after, has a tritone in its tonic chord rather than a perfect fifth like the other modes. The tritone is also known as the 'Diabolus in Musica', a Latin phrase meaning 'Devil in Music', in reference to its dissonant tone. This is likely the reason that the name Locria was chosen for the 'dissonant' Magypsy.
* There is a possibility that Fassad knew how to do the Osohe Dance that Salsa had to do, as he seemed reluctant to zap Salsa when Salsa begins to dance correctly. Further evidence supporting this theory is that when they reach the door and Salsa dances wrong he will seem reluctant at first, spin, then shock Salsa while saying "You sure you're doing the dance right?".
* When Fassad first appears as New Fassad, his nose, left eye and both of his legs were replaced by cybernetics. After becoming Miracle Fassad, he seems to have both of his arms being replaced by some mechanical device, seemingly gained a second pair of legs and gained nine more trumpets in addition to the two he gained from his first appearance (though these additions are ephemeral and break off after he takes enough damage.
* In Tanetane Island, the sludge that appears to be a Hot Spring under the influence of Hallucination Mushrooms will occasionally have the Old Man relaxing in it; because of the effects of the mushrooms, he appears as Fassad. 
* In EarthBound 64, Fassad's hat and coat are green and his shirt is yellow, he has a feather on his hat, and he even has a different face. 
* Wario's role as Lucas' main rival in The Subspace Emissary was most likely an indirect reference to Fassad, due to their similar roles in the overall storyline (in particular, Wario capturing Ness and being allied with the titular Subspace Army, similar to how Fassad was aligned with the Pigmask Army as well as indirectly responsible for Claus's conversion into the Masked Man and the death of Lucas's mother).
* Fassad is the most prominent antagonist in the game, appearing at least once in each chapter excluding Chapter 6.
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