User:Eighty5cacao/misc/WMG dump/Momoko 120%

Main proposal
The barrels in the even-numbered bonus levels of Momoko 120% are thrown by Donkey Kong, who (for whatever reason) turns a blind eye to the structure fire. Donkey Kong captures Momoko (a.k.a. Lady or Pauline) and takes her to the site of a burnt building (where some of the original girders are still standing and/or reconstruction is in progress).[when? See below.] Donkey Kong uses her as bait to lure Jumpman, asking her to feign distress[disambiguation needed]...

Cause and spread of fires

 * Who/what is starting the fires? Is someone trying to cover up evidence of extraterrestrial life? If so, why are there creatures made of fire in both games?
 * Perhaps some of the bombs from Butasan ended up in the basements of the buildings and hastened the spread of the fires? Maybe a pig that was brought to school for a 4-H activity snuck the bombs in? If so, how did the pig throw or carry the bombs into the basement? (Cf. bombs in the Tiger Electronics handheld game King Kong.)
 * Which of the fires was/were accidental, and which was/were set by a serial arsonist? (My best guess: the first fire was probably an accident, and the subsequent ones were "copycat" crimes.)
 * Is Momoko starting the fires herself? Heisanevilgenius mentions something about this [specify], and one commenter on the blog makes a comparison to Disaster Girl (knowyourmeme.com). See also "you burned my feelings" (passiveaggressivenotes.com)
 * More specifically, is Momoko starting the fires using her psychic powers? (Compare Carrie.)
 * Realistically, Momoko should have died of smoke inhalation at some point. This gives me some ideas for a crossover sequel with Avenging Spirit, as well as for puns involving smoke on the water and smoke in the water, but those are beyond the scope of this discussion. Is there some personal protective equipment e.g. face mask (specify) that isn't visible in the game? Why else might the smoke not have been a problem? (For one idea, see Liquids other than water below.)
 * Why don't we see any firefighters? Are they all on the "back" sides of the buildings? (Do the buildings even have back sides, given that they are topologically cylindrical?) Did somebody forget to pay their fire-protection fee, as seen in NBC and Cracked? Contemporary fire-protection fees seem to be concentrated in the United States, while historical examples exist in the United Kingdom; what about Japan?
 * Perhaps the city has robotic fire engines, which refuse to operate because a computer glitch is interfering with payment processing? Perhaps a bank's computer is in one of the burning buildings?
 * Could Jumpman or one of his family relations have started some of the fires, as shown in Cracked (see #4)?
 * Does Ben Bero Beh take place in the same universe? If so, is (are) the same serial arsonist(s) involved? (The fires in Ben Bero Beh are small enough for normal firefighting tools to be effective, though each building's top floor does sometimes fill with smoke. We see chunks falling out of the floors as they are weakened by the fire. That game's damsel in distress makes no attempt to escape despite not being visibly restrained.)

Relationships between characters
According to the English Wikipedia, the plot of the Famicom counterpart Urusei Yatsura: Lum no Wedding Bell is closest to (b) and doesn't derive exactly from other Urusei Yatsura media. However, I have not yet found official promotional material that specifies plot details for the arcade game. Heisanevilgenius seems to assume (a).
 * Which of the following is correct? (a) Momoko is aging normally, and the game is cutting between scenes; (b) some magical substance or device is affecting the passage of time and/or Momoko's aging; (c) the events of the game take place over at most a few days of unperturbed real time, but a simulation (either digital or magical) convinces Momoko that several years elapse between each fire.
 * (c) was hastily thrown in and doesn't have much going for it yet. For example, how would the wedding at the end of the game be justified by (c) if Momoko were not really aging? Is Momoko really 4 years old at the beginning? Also, one needs to explain how the simulation creates the impression of "several years passing." (Manipulation of memories and/or dreams? Computer graphics of a wormhole? See [//xkcd.com/1100/ xkcd #1100] for one rough idea.)
 * Subset of (b) or (c) or a new item? Perhaps Momoko is physically unable to age, but her brain continues to learn, and she is otherwise in good health; she is imagining what she would expect to happen if she were growing normally.
 * Not mutually exclusive with the above: Perhaps not all of the buildings were actually on fire, and some curse/insanity caused Momoko to see fire where none actually existed.
 * How do Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong 3 fit into this?
 * What exactly is Donkey Kong's evil plan here? Is Momoko a willing party to this, and if so, does she have a grudge against Jumpman?
 * How is Momoko's husband related to Jumpman, if at all?
 * Comment on Heisanevilgenius's hypothesis that Momoko from loop n is the mother of Momoko from loop n+1. (The intention of Momoko and her husband to have children is mentioned in the game's ending, but Heisanevilgenius's description of intercourse[?] "right at the wedding" is a bit misleading.)

Scenery design

 * What is the figure on the wall of the church, directly behind the large cross? It looks like it could be one of the amphibious people from the Selkie webcomic. See the topmost picture on the third page of the Gaming Hell writeup. (But what does this have to do with Donkey Kong? I've gotta figure something out...)
 * Do(es) the blimp(s) really have "(heart symbol)MOMOKO" printed visibly on the side? Or is it printed in an IR and/or UV ink that requires special equipment to be seen? If so, why don't we see said special equipment on screen?

Unsorted
(Caveat #2: This isn't quite about neuroplasticity so much as about behavioral neoteny.)
 * Make a pun on burn notices &mdash; is Momoko being trained (from infancy) by an intelligence agency?
 * Why aren't there any other people in the buildings? Any psychic abilities involved? My best guess, barring the "liquids other than water" hypothesis below: In each case, Momoko was at school for an after-school or weekend activity, when the building would have been occupied by less than the full student body. Either she sent a telepathic message to the other occupants ordering them to evacuate, or the vibrations from Donkey Kong pounding on the ground (where?) warned them. See also the item below.
 * Speaking of psychic abilities, I'm thinking that Momoko in her full-adult form would have trouble controlling her powers due to the adult nervous system being neither fast nor adaptable enough to process all the psychic information. This could lead to the Carrie plot mentioned above. See also an existing mention on this wiki of nerve conduction time, and some relevant tropes: Children Are Special, Psychic Children. (Caveat: "Normal 'adult' values for conduction velocities are typically reached by age 4. Conduction velocities in newborns and toddlers tend to be about half the adult values." We should just barely be in the clear here, remembering to multiply by height.)
 * And speaking of body size, what about a side plot in which Momoko has to infiltrate a building by crawling through an air duct? (Cf. "Occupations" box in Nander; what could coal mines have to do with this?) This might require a de-aging machine if it happens in a sequel. Or might it be happening off screen in the original game?
 * Why do the floors have holes in them? (Earthquake? Secret government seismic tests? Previous failed attempt at demolition? Donkey Kong running wild?) If the buildings are condemned, it could explain why there are no other occupants.

Parallel proposal: Liquids other than water
Speaking about "water"...perhaps Momoko 120% and Donkey Kong take place in a liquid-filled test chamber? It would explain why no humans other than Momoko are present in the burning buildings, which would have been deliberately set up that way by the experimenters. Also, it would explain why Donkey Kong isn't gravely injured by his fall after Jumpman removes the rivets from the 100m section.

TODO: Who are the experimenters, and what is the purpose of the experiment? Make comparisons to snow globes and Portal. How might combustion be sustained under a fluorocarbon liquid &mdash; or are the fires synthesized by something like a Star Trek holodeck? Mention something about physics/control issues in these two games (e.g., you have to repeatedly tap up on the joystick to climb up ladders in Momoko 120%).

TODO: Maybe this section applies only to the first loop (or odd-numbered loops) of Momoko 120%, and the later loops (or even-numbered loops) take place in actual burning buildings. The even/odd case would require a modification to a statement above: Momoko from loop n would be the mother of Momoko from loop n+2. Compare the plots of various shoot 'em up video games in which the pilot is trained in a simulator before being sent to real combat (Image Fight, Raiden Fighters Jet).

Dying dream
Perhaps Momoko really was trapped in a burning building at 4 years old, but she dreamed the events of the later levels as she was dying of smoke inhalation. (I don't think this dying dream idea is worth pursuing further. Although it also inspires connections to Avenging Spirit, it is too clichéd, and it doesn't explain where Donkey Kong fits into the story.)

Mention something about Nationwide's 2015 Super Bowl ad...

Chase H.Q.
The events of Momoko 120% inspire Momoko to exact revenge upon the crime ring who has been committing serial arson; consequently, she gets a job as a police dispatcher. (Yes, Nancy is her official English name.)

Umihara Kawase
The "Jesus" figure on the church wall is designed to look like a standard depiction of Jesus when lit from one angle and an aquatic humanoid (Selkie-like?) when lit from another. It was designed this way because the church's construction (or renovation?) was funded by Douglas Moldavia of the Rushing Beat franchise.

A grappling hook might or might not have helped Momoko escape from each building faster, depending on how (un)stable the floors were. The materials needed to make such a grappling hook would probably exist in this universe; perhaps a closely-related polymer is used for fire-resistant clothing?

Unsorted
It is sometimes claimed that Lady/Pauline is Princess Daisy rather than Peach. (Mariowiki mentions nothing because Pauline is not officially the same person as either princess.) Momoko's hair color looks more like that of Daisy than Peach.

For factual information, see Gaming Hell and Hardcore Gaming 101.

meta: Do these need spoiler boxes at all?