Paula is a girl from Twoson, and is one of the main playable characters in EarthBound. She has advanced psychic powers, mainly wielding elemental PSI, and is shown to use telepathy as well. Paula is well-known throughout Twoson for her abilities, and helping out at Polestar Preschool.
She can also use the pray command in battle, which has a large amount of random effects. Among these effects include restoring HP to party members, making both enemies and the party cry, and reviving both unconscious party members and enemies.
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In EarthBound, Ness first receives a telepathic message from her in his sleep after defeating the Titanic Ant. She has been kidnapped, and needs his assistance to break out. He travels through Peaceful Rest Valley and to a cabin, where she is being held. Mr. Carpainter had kidnapped her, in hopes to use her as the "high priestess" for Happy Happyism. Paula tells Ness that Mr. Carpainter holds the key to her prison, and gives him the Franklin Badge for protection from his otherwise-deadly lightning attacks. After he retrieves the key, Paula joins his party, and accompanies him for the rest of the game. When the two of them get imprisoned in Threed by zombies, she sends a telepathic message to Jeff, urging him to go south from Winters to rescue them.
Later, in Fourside, she is kidnapped in the department store by the Dept. Store Spook, working for Mr. Monotoli. Ness and Jeff defeat the Dept. Store Spook, although by the time they do so, it is too late, and Paula is trapped in the Monotoli Building. The two of them go through Moonside, and destroy the Mani-Mani Statue that was possessing Mr. Monotoli. They then ascend the Monotoli Building, and upon reaching the 50th floor, Mr. Monotoli gives Paula back, and apologizes for the ordeal. Paula uses her gnostic abilities to sense that they must go back to Threed to reach Summers, where they find the now-repaired Sky Runner to fly.
In the final battle against Giygas, Paula uses her praying abilities to contact various characters they met on their journey, including the player. With everyone's powers combined, they all manage to defeat Giygas. At the end of the game, Paula receives a letter from the children at the Polestar Preschool, and Ness escorts her back home to Twoson.
Paula is a PSI master who used her incredible psychic abilities to call Ness from afar. Ness rescued Paula from the blue-stained clutches of the Happy Happyistcult, and she became integral to his EarthBound adventure. Originally, Ness didn't know either PK Thunder or PK Fire, so Paula probably taught him these techniques.
Paula is the only party member who does not have a party of their own for a short time.
The clay models for Ness and Paula for the US release of EarthBound are different from the original Japanese Mother 2 models, and early magazines use an entirely separate model for Paula.
Two of her default names, Nancy and Jane, may come from the Mother enemies of the same names.