| 1 | [[WMG: Samus is on behavior altering drugs given to her by the Federation.]] |
| 2 | While the Federation "treated" Samus after the events of Super Metroid, they took the opportunity to give her behavior-altering drugs to make her more docile. This explains all of her weird actions in other M. By the end of the game, her distrust for the Federation makes it so refuses to report to them directly, the drugs finally wear off and she returns to normal by Fusion. |
| 3 | |
| 4 | [[WMG: The title ''Other M'' has nothing to do with another Metroid.]] |
| 5 | Rather, it's related to the overarching topic of the game. Let's consider some of the stuff we know so far: A little girl is a "major character" (though she's not related to Samus). The openining harkens back to ''Super Metroid,'' and captures both the hatred and destruction of a certain Brain and Samus' horror at the death of the baby Metroid. In a recent gameplay trailer, the opening shots show something that can only be described as a fetus. As for the title? [[spoiler: Reverse it. What does "Other M" become? "M Other." ''Mother.'' Mothers and motherly feelings will be one of the most important themes of the game.]] |
| 6 | ** Reading [[http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/107/1071925p2.html this preview]], [[spoiler: with Samus contemplating the baby Metroid: "Not even a fragment. None of the baby remained on me. I knew it to be true but still couldn't help looking at my palm for a sign. Never again would I encounter the baby. Never. The finality of it stuck me once again."]] I'd say that you're right. |
| 7 | ** A space ActionGirl extremely badass kicks asses and has a sweet spot for children? [[Film/{{Aliens}} Never heard that one before...]] |
| 8 | ** Mostly confirmed within the finished game: [[spoiler:while other Metroids, in the form of those bred by the Federation bioweapon project, do come into play late in the game,]] maternal themes are still very important, both in terms of Samus' connection with the Baby and [[spoiler:Madeline Bergman's motherly feelings toward MB.]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | [[WMG: Things don't add up here because in-universe, this is a movie]] |
| 11 | I mean, when you look at the more cinematic presentation, the fact that Samus has a birthmark on her chin (because she'd be played by an actor), the fact that several parts of the story (the Chozo raising her, for instance) were changed or omitted outright, the fact that Samus is a lot more emotional here, the design changes (Samus's Gravity Suit is indicated by the suit glowing because they thought the purple design looked silly)– Doesn't that seem like the kind of stuff that happens in video game movies? |
| 12 | * I can just imagine Samus screaming into her phone at her agent over this... |
| 13 | |
| 14 | [[WMG: The Samus in Other M isn't actually Samus]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | So a lot has been discussed about the inconsistencies presented with Other M- the timeline, the way the suit works, the completely bonkers ways that Samus acts. |
| 17 | However... |
| 18 | There are periods of time that take place in between Prime 1, Prime 2, Prime 3... |
| 19 | Dark Samus is going to be around in those periods of time. |
| 20 | So you're a Samus Clone. You have only the most fragmented, rudimentary memories- the ones that stick out the most, but you're still, in your mind, Samus. You get in your Samus ship (take note that Dark Samus does have a spaceship) and you hear a distress call... |
| 21 | So now you've got Other M. She acts that way not because she's the real Samus, but because it's Dark Samus reacting to having these memories now jumping out that she is just being exposed to. She's not the real bounty hunter, she's less than two years old. The real Samus is out there having other adventures while Dark Samus is busy going crazy on a Bottle Ship. |
| 22 | * Problem is that, canonically, Metroid Prime takes place right after the original/Zero Mission, and Prime 3 takes place before Metroid II. |
| 23 | ** And making the Samus in Other M a clone thus removes that big continuity problem Nintendo created. |
| 24 | * Wow you fanboys need to chill out, lol. Just accept the story. |
| 25 | * The Samus in Other M is an experimental attempt at cloning Samus by the Mawkin Chozo to evaluate if a clone army of Samus Arans was viable, but she was considered a failure by Raven Beak - until he saw her Metroid powers manifesting during Dread. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[WMG: Samus is doing a SelfImposedChallenge by working under Adam]] |
| 28 | Even in the beginning Samus is equipped with '''far''' less than her usual arsenal, maybe she just wants to give herself more of a challenge? when Adam shows up she decides that she will put the decision on him because she can't trust herself not to get pissed and equip everything and break her run? |
| 29 | * Somewhat confirmed, since Samus could have easily disobeyed Adam at any point. She even starts authorizing her own equipment later into the game. The reason she was listening to Adam in the first place was because she wanted to prove a point to herself - see the Analysis page for more info. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[WMG: The Concentration ability converts adrenaline into power]] |
| 32 | * Let's face it: Samus' Concentration ability makes no sense. I mean, she just waits for a minute, and suddenly her energy is refilled? It actually makes more sense than you'd think. Let's step back for a moment, and consider what has to happen before it can be used: Samus' energy has to be at critically low levels. So here's the question: at the point where the recharge becomes accessible, what is the ''player'' thinking? Odds are, they're freaking out. One more hit is all it's going to take to cause a GameOver. Now think about Samus' thoughts on the matter. Her adrenaline is probably spiking like crazy. Now let's look at what she actually ''does'' during Concentration. All she appears to do is bring her Arm Cannon up to her head, but if you pay attention, there's a subtle air of focus as she does it. And that's precisely what's happening: When the player activates Concentration, Samus takes a moment to gather her thoughts so she can focus on the task at hand. How her energy is restored is simple: once her mind is cleared, she has a ton of excess adrenaline that's going to make it hard to stay focused. So what does her suit do? ''It converts the adrenaline into energy, then pours it into the shields!'' -@/{{phazonfarmer}} |
| 33 | ** [[VoodooShark ...converts... the... adrenaline... into...?]] |
| 34 | ** [[AWizardDidIt It's the future. Don't worry about it.]] |
| 35 | ** Alternate theory: Concentration is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Concentration]]. The game shows that the Power Suit is maintained by force of will. After being hammered on for a while, she needs to step back and restore her focus. |
| 36 | *** I thought it was manipulation of the Charge Beam ability to draw in energy and use it to fuel the suit. as for why you can't fully recharge in that style, well, the Charge Beam essentially creates a big ball of really painful, explosive energy. It could be that only one or two of Samus's many energy shield tanks can support that type of energy. |
| 37 | *** I figured that was the case as well. And the part about concentration restoring missiles as well? The diverted energy powers a micro-fabricator. |
| 38 | ** Another option is that her Concentration is an upgrade of her Crystal Flash from Super; she might just be taking energy from a Power Bomb and converting it to her suit systems and physical stamina. Just cause she isn't authorized to use them doesn't mean she can't use their non-lethal abilities. |
| 39 | *** Except for the fact that Adam refuses to authorize non-lethal suit functions, such as the Varia feature and the Grapple Beam, until absolutely necessary. |
| 40 | ** Other M was all just a bad dream after Samus ate way too many Baconators the night before. When her dream becomes a nightmare (read: low health), she has to stop and reassert the dream's lucidity. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[WMG: Samus is on her period during Other M]] |
| 43 | She's obviously been having a less-than stellar couple of weeks, what's one more humiliation on the pile. (this also has the effect that that while her characterization is her own, it's a bit [[CharacterExaggeration exaggerated]] for the plot. |
| 44 | * It's not really exaggerated, you (by which I mean everyone who has a problem with the Other M side of Samus) just figured she was a hardened, unfeeling person. |
| 45 | ** [[UnfortunateImplications Because we all know the only personalities a woman can have are "submissive emotional/psychological trainwreck" or "hardened and unfeeling."]] |
| 46 | * This is kind of a misogynistic idea. However, it does play into the theme of motherhood... |
| 47 | |
| 48 | [[WMG: Samus didn't suffer from character derailment in Other M]] |
| 49 | Samus has always been a delicate flower who wants a big strong man to protect her, but she wants to make sure that man will be up to the job. Proof? She only gets out of her suit and shows some fanservice if you beat the game really fast or get all the power ups, thus you have proven you are capable to be with her! Adam is simply the only non player who has accomplished such a feat. This of course assumes Samus can ignore the fourth wall, but FanDumb people like me just really need a good excuse to stomach how she was portrayed in that game... |
| 50 | * So Samus is a BestHerToBedHer type? That's... actually not so difficult to stomach. |
| 51 | * At the possible risk of encouraging some fanfic author with an overheated imagination to write really bad slashfic which I will thankfully never see, I wish to point out that between that one cutscene where Ridley temporarily disables Samus's suit by poking her with his, uh, tail, and that ''other'' cutscene where Adam temporarily disables Samus's suit by ''shooting her in the back'', the idea presented above ''really'' doesn't seem like it was thought all the way through. |
| 52 | ** Somewhat supporting the theory that she is a BestHerToBedHer type is that canonically, we never see Samus actually ''lose'' to anyone who theoretically would be interested in her as a romantic partner - even in the odd chance that Ridley does have feelings for her, she never loses to him. However, I was always under the impression that the reason she suited down was the same that someone would kick off their shoes after a long day of work - she's tired and just wants to relax. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | [[WMG: Samus is a [[FantasticRacism Fantastic Racist]]]] |
| 55 | She states that naturally the space pirates are just a bunch of dumb feral creatures without something smarter than them leading them. |
| 56 | * Of course, the fact that they destroyed everything she knows and loves when she was a little girl probably colored this perception. |
| 57 | ** If this game is any indication, she's probably right. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | [[WMG: ''Other M'' was supposed to be the first to have a plot that is not self-contained]] |
| 60 | This game did leave a lot of us LeftHanging, it seems. Might have caught a few people off guard. |
| 61 | * A Metroid game usually has self containing plotlines that wrap up neatly by the end of the game. ''Other M'' might have gotten backlash due to parts of the story that were never explained fully, if at all. This could have been because of this being a "Project M" game, which might have meant that the story for ''Other M'' could have been one that was meant to continue across multiple games. |
| 62 | ** Also, no game in the series before ''Other M'' depended on the player to have an understanding of plot points and backstory from other Metroid media (in this case, the Metroid Manga) to fully understand why what happened during Samus' encounter with Ridley happened the way it did. Perhaps they had plans to further develop on this in another game, and to actually question "why now". The part of the scene when Adam freaks out over Samus' freezing in place might have been the indication that this was supposed to be the question they wanted us to have, and for us to theorycraft as to why she did. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | [[WMG: MB is actually [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} GLaDOS]].]] |
| 65 | [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Because I don't see why the hell not.]] |
| 66 | * She never offers you [[TheCakeIsALie cake]]. |
| 67 | ** Look at Mother Brain in the Manga! It's TRUE! |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[WMG: Concentration works on the same principle as [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Spiral Energy]].]] |
| 70 | It's so obvious! Why would she have multiple ships if they didn't combine? (HYPER... WAVE... BUSTERRRRRRR!) |
| 71 | |
| 72 | [[WMG: Ridley has been secretly putting his own DNA into the other creatures at the BOTTLE SHIP.]] |
| 73 | This is evidenced by the shapes of a number of the enemies' heads. He planned on using the army to dominate the universe. |
| 74 | |
| 75 | [[WMG: During the development stages of Other M, Anthony was originally supposed to be Adam]] |
| 76 | This explains why Anthony calls her princess; the nickname was a substitute after he was demoted to a lesser role. During a flashback, Samus mentions how she was offended by most people calling her out for a woman except for Adam but she takes Anthony's remarks playfully as well. Consideirng his friendly nature, the nickname was satirical so Samus didn't mind. Overall, she seems to have a much closer relationship to Anthony than she does to Adam. This explains why there is very little to cement the relationship to the current Adam and Samus. Anthony was meant to be the original Adam. Thus, when he was replaced with the current Adam, the team was forced to insert excessive narration to reveal Adam and Samus's relationship, demoting the development between Anthony and Samus. |
| 77 | * Except that concept art shows otherwise. Samus is described as socially inept or awkward as her parents were killed when she was only three and her childhood was largely spent being trained as a warrior among non-humans of which she was only close to one, whom she thought of as a grandfather figure. She didn't begin to live with humans again until she turned 14 when she would join the Galactic Federation and befriend Ian Malkovich, Anthony Higgs and Adam Malkovich. |
| 78 | |
| 79 | [[WMG: By the next game Samus' new characterization will all go out the window.]] |
| 80 | They change everything else each game, so why not that? |
| 81 | * Confirmed. The next two ''Metroid'' games, ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', return Samus to her pre-''Other M'' characterization as a silent stoic badass who leaves the Galactic Federation in awe of her prowess. |
| 82 | |
| 83 | [[WMG: The Wii hardware, and Nintendo's so-called morality based decisions, was too aged to allow for what the developers wanted to do]] |
| 84 | Some have blamed the Wii's aging hardware, and some of Nintendo's restrictions, for some of the game's shortcomings, and thus, think that it could've been the developers holding back on what they really wanted to do with the game. Had they had more freedom (or maybe the clearance to make a second game to continue the story), this could all be cleared up: |
| 85 | ** Let's face it, the Wii wasn't that powerful, and for a time when we had the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 doing well by comparison. ''Other M'' had full FMV cut scenes that seemed to have some artifacting going on. The game might have been demanding way too much of the hardware it was using (and this was made pretty late into its lifespan, as it was around this time that word of what would become the Wii U became known). |
| 86 | ** This might have been why things might not have been explained: not enough time or space or power to really do it all in one go (see LeftHanging above). They might have planned to add more to the Ridley scene, but could not because they just didn't have the resources to add the additional scenes. One might wonder what this game could have been had it been run on the hardware the Wii's competition had at the time. |
| 87 | ** The rating seemed to have a hand in this, too. For years, Metroid had gotten a Teen rating (or the regional equivalent). But one could argue that, if things like flashbacks were added, given that we were delving into Samus' backstory as a young girl, it could've easily been enough to cross into Mature rating territory, something that Nintendo has not really had much of a willingness to create (''Eternal Darkness'' was the last M rated game Nintendo had a hand in developing). Given that Nintendo edited out the "Damn" expression from the commander in Prime 3 for the Trilogy rerelease, this theory might have some truth to it. Some have said that it could have been time for a M rated Metroid game. If there's one franchise that could benefit from some more graphic content, after all, it would be Metroid. |
| 88 | |
| 89 | [[WMG: Samus is genuinely terrified of Ridley.]] |
| 90 | She saw him kill both her parents when she was a child. He continues to come back over and over again. Samus is terrified that she will be forced to fight him for the rest of her life. This makes every battle with Ridley a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome as she is able to overcome her fears to kick the shit out of him (which is the real definition of courage). |
| 91 | * Its like spiders. No matter how many times you squish one, they still freak you out. |
| 92 | * This isn't a guess so much as "really freaking obvious"...for this game anyway. Considering how controversial that particular scene is, whether it will carry over to future installments is anyone's guess. |
| 93 | ** I meant through out the entire series |
| 94 | * It's possible she was always afraid, but this time was worse because he appeared with no warning and started bearing down on her while on other occasions she figured out he was about and was able to mentally prepare. Zero Mission she knew he was alive, Prime 1 she followed him to Tallon, Corruption she saw him trashing Norion and Super, well the link between them wasn't even written in yet so of course no fear could be displayed. This time was the first he apparently survived the detonation of a planet, so Samus was certain he was gone. |
| 95 | * Hey, we never hear her talk. During all the cutscenes of all the games with Ridley, Samus could be freaking out, we just can't hear her. |
| 96 | * This troper believes that it wasn't necessarily just Ridley being... Ridley... that terrified her. I think Samus's issue was that, after so long, she was used to fighting the big guy when he had cybernetics. The knowledge that she weakened him to such a point of forcing the Pirates to remake him as a cyborg likely gave her a confidence boost. Seeing the murderer of her parents being 'whole' again after so long, with those glowing blue-green eyes glaring at her... well, we saw the result of that. |
| 97 | * Holy shit I had the same theory! |
| 98 | ** The only problem with this is the fact that he was back in his original body in Super. |
| 99 | *** Not quite, his original body was green with red eyes (Zero Mission artwork), in Super, he's purple with yellow eyes. Seems the Pirates made some genetic modifications that the GF scientists furthered. |
| 100 | ** Another reason for the freak out is that this time Samus has actually killed ridley in the last game, unlike any other encounter - he'd always survived before, if injured, but this time he was actually dead. Seeing him alive, rising from what looks like hell and nearly killing a close friend of Samus (again...) - might be enough to freak her out. because, just think about it, it might as well be saying she'll never be free of him |
| 101 | *** That doesn't work because this one was a clone, and not the first clone encountered that day either. |
| 102 | * Except every single bit of material shows she's long since gotten over it. Even the argument of "He came back from the dead" doesn't hold water. It's honestly far more plausible that the game was just very poorly written. Except for Anthony, Anthony is perfect. |
| 103 | |
| 104 | [[WMG: [[NotSoStoic Samus' BSOD in ''Other M'' wasn't the first]], [[SanitySlippage it was the worst]]]] |
| 105 | According to Sakamoto, the ''Other M'' Samus is canon. That would imply that she has a meltdown every time she sees Ridley, we're just too far removed to see it (kinda like ''Literature/CiaphasCain''; everyone thinks that noise he's making is a BattleCry, when it's actually him doing a really good job of disguising a GirlyScream). ''Other M'' was the first time she has a voice actor. How do we know she isn't hissing obcenities through her teeth whenever she's fighting him? Her freezeup wasn't "Oh God, it's ''him!''", it was "Oh, God, He's never going to stay dead!" She's fought him almost twice per game so far (give or take a game or so). She's probably had nightmares about him for weeks afterwards, each and every time. These little cracks finally spilt out when she met him yet again on Bottle Ship. She failed her SAN check due to being so emotionally vulneable and stressed out. She didn't lose it in ''Fusion'' because she knew that Ridley was a clone/zombie, and by absorbing the Core X mimicking him, it would be like taking a big fat bite out of his heart so she's finally rid of the fucker. Sort of a "last hurrah!" deal. |
| 106 | * This actually makes some sense since - in every game past ''Super'', when they started to get enough room for some characterization - she's at least hesitated or frozen for a few seconds when encountering Ridley (or, in the case of ''Corruption'', she went berserk - the way she finished off Meta Ridley in that game was not the act of someone thinking rationally, but looked to this troper more like her screaming at him to just stay dead). |
| 107 | ** I can ''sort of'' buy that. On the other hand, when she first found herself about to face Ridley, she broke down badly enough to beg Gray Voice, the Chozo who'd raised her, to kill her before Ridley got to her, so... |
| 108 | * The original Japanese version of the game makes the reason for her [=BSOD=] a lot more clear, it kinda got muddled by Sakamoto's [[ControlFreak meddling]] in the English translation. Basically, Samus' character arc in this game is about her learning to deal with her problems in a more mature way, and realizing that firepower can't solve all her problems. This comes to a head with Ridley, who puts the final nail in the coffin that Samus ''can't be rid of him''. After blowing up Zebes in ''Super'', she was sure that he was gone for good. But here he is, as dangerous as ever. She feels utterly powerless in this moment, like a child (she literally turns into one in the flashback), and can't process her frustration, trauma, and sadness all coming back at once. So yes, in a way this was just the culmination of every fight Samus has had with Ridley, and resulted in her coming to terms with her inability to fully erase the past and realizing she just needs to accept her weaknesses. |
| 109 | |
| 110 | [[WMG: Samus's Heroic [=BSoD=] in Other M is justified, because Ridley was only ever vaporized once.]] |
| 111 | The justification is based on a number of sub-[=WMG=]s. First of all, integrating mechanical components into dead bodies to return them to life is a common occurrence in the Metroid universe, or at least the Space Pirate empire and Samus knows it. It's already been done at least once with Mother Brain. Second, despite Ridley's body apparently vaporizing when Samus defeats it in the original ''Metroid'' game, that is not the case, only doing so due to graphical capabilities. Ridley's body survived, and was eventually recovered by Space Pirates following the conclusion of the first game, eventually integrating the mechanical parts that would turn it into Meta Ridley. Notice that whenever the games had the graphical abilities, Ridley was never shown completely blowing up. In ''Metroid Prime'' and ''Metroid Prime 3'', your victory caused parts of it to start bursting, but the last we see of Ridley each time you beat it is the dragon falling off screen. |
| 112 | |
| 113 | These allow for two things. First of all, every time Ridley was defeated between ''Metroid'' and ''Metroid Prime 3'', its body was never fully destroyed, and Samus knew it would eventually be rebuilt, not being surprised upon facing Ridley in the next game. Second of all, that means Ridley only ever truly died once: when his body was vaporized in the Zebes destruction at the end of ''Super Metroid'', the only time Ridley is ever caught in a massive explosion that vaporizes all it touches. This is why Samus went crazy upon seeing a revived Ridley in ''Other M''. While every other time she killed Ridley, she knew he'd come back, his death in ''Super Metroid'' was the first time she truly believed he could never come back, since the planetary destruction vaporized his body. Thus, when he appeared in the Bottle Ship, she freaked out, believing there was no possible way he could come back to life after what happened following their last face-off. |
| 114 | |
| 115 | [[WMG: Samus's CharacterDerailment in ''Other M'' was an extended high-functioning HeroicBSOD.]] |
| 116 | * Samus isn't a fragile flower or dependent on others most of the time, but Other M picks up right after Samus has taken a real emotional sledgehammer blow when the baby Metroid sacrificed itself for her. The reason Samus seems to lack her independent spirit and stoicism implied by the other games is that she's hit an emotional nadir from losing the only "family" she had for the ''third time in a row'', only now she's not only lost her biological parents and the Chozo, but the closest thing she's ever likely to have to a child. Under that level of depression, she's still able to function but everything about her is just phoning it in; she's lost the ability to muster initiative and operate alone and unsupported like normal, and she tries to deal with it by trying to surround herself with people, like Adam, and to get along with the one remaining parental figure she has left even though Adam's orders restrict her ability to get things done. The depression only deepens when Ridley revives; Samus had been ''sure'' this time she was finally rid of him forever, but now she sees that she can't seem to keep anyone she cares about from dying while the monster that ate her parents ''won't stay dead'' no matter what she does. Hence, freezing up and needing help. In the next Metroid game, she will be able to overcome the depression and undergo CharacterRerailment. |
| 117 | ** This is certainly plausible, seeing as Samus does show a number of textbook signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the game. She may have this CharacterRerailment in Metroid Fusion, during which she shows signs of being a DeathSeeker and slightly unhinged before rising to the occasion and completing her rogue mission at the end with renewed resolve to stay alive. |
| 118 | ** Dissenting opinion: She sure didn't seem to have any trouble handing the Metroid neonate over to the Federation for an extended and probably not too pleasant spell as a subject of renewable energy research, and there's no suggestion that, had Ridley's visit to Ceres Station not necessitated her hasty return, she intended to see the neonate again ''ever''. While it seems to have regarded Samus as its mother, that's no reason to assume Samus necessarily regarded it as her child. |
| 119 | *** Perhaps Samus didn't start to view it as a surrogate child until after it gave its life for her, making her realize that its affection for her was genuine and throwing her into a form of survivor's guilt. |
| 120 | ** And this is something like, what, the twelfth time Samus has fought Ridley in whatever form? And she had a major PTSD breakdown the ''first'' time, and overcame it with Chozo help, and went on to deliver to Ridley the first of many near-death experiences he received at her hands. If she were going to have trouble with the way he kept on not quite all the way dying, why would it take so long to sink in? |
| 121 | *** Because Ridley [[KilledOffForReal truly died]] in Super Metroid, which resulted in [[NoKillLikeOverkill him being blown up into bit, later accompanied by an interplanetary explosion that vaporish what's left of him.]] After losing the Baby Metroid and her adopted home planet, as well as nearly jeopardizing the entire safety of the galaxy, Samus would at least take comfort that at least her arch-enemy is gone for good until she encounters the Ridley's clone in the Pyrosphere, who seems to have the exact same sadistic personality as the original. Not to mention it's hard to lose fear and anxiety permanently, even when you've overcome it several times. |
| 122 | |
| 123 | [[WMG: Anthony was the Deleter]] |
| 124 | Notice how he's the only member of the squad to come out alive? And his first action upon revealing himself is insisting he 'escort' the only two living witnesses. he also displays better combat prowess than any other member of the squad, and has the training and clearance to use the very dangerous plasma cannon. Most likely he used Samus' trust in him to convince her that revealing what the Federation did would only make her some very powerful enemies and solve nothing. As for a certain distraught scientist...it would be all too easy to fake a suicide. |
| 125 | * Jossed for reasons noted below under the "James was the Deleter" entry. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | [[WMG: Adam was the Deleter]] |
| 128 | Slight FanWank here, but it would explain a lot without having to change too much. Adam was in the command center (or whatever they called the place with all the cameras) during the game... supposedly. While there he would know where everyone would be, and how to ambush them, and it wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume he was outfitted with some cool equipment to help him get around faster since he was TheMole. This also makes a lot of sense in regards to how he interacts with Samus; she's an outside element that could potentially mess up the plan to wipe out the traces of what happened on the ship, and yet he still has paternal feelings towards her. So during the game his duty to kill her and the rest of the squad is clashing with his feelings towards Samus! (explains why he waited so long to let her turn on the Varia suit, and why he shot her) If this had been intentionally stated in game by the end, it would have done wonders to screw with the player as well, since most of us got annoyed at the guy for the whole "authorization system" thing, it would have made sense to set him up as the Corrupt Military antagonist. Of course, his feelings for Samus ultimately win out, and he sacrifices himself to save her.... Except in Metroid Fusion the AI was a flash clone of Adam, and the Federation still has Metroids. Could Adam have faked the destruction of Section Zero and ended up assuming Samus and everyone else that needed to be "taken care of" was dealt with when the Bottle Ship blew up? In fact, HE might have detonated it once he was some distance away! And since Samus ended up surviving the events, they then had to figure out how to indirectly kill her to completely cover up what happened, which lead to her getting infected by the X parasite in Metroid Fusion, only they backed out of letting her die at the last minuet so they could test the new vaccine on her. That way, if she lived they could keep using her, and if she didn't then she was out of their hair. Like I said, lot of Fan Wank in this theory, but it does fix a lot of issues [[BrokenBase some players had]] about this games plot... |
| 129 | * Actually, this makes perfect sense. The part with the Metroid report being written by him was brushed off far too quickly, really. It should be noted that the demolition of the Bottle Ship was scheduled; Samus just had really bad timing at the end. I haven't checked the timeline of the radio silences, but I recall they were common and often very long; odds are they fit in well with the murders of the team. Even then, he might have carried a radio around with him. The only question is why he would kill the team. I forget what the original motivation was assumed to be, but I'm guessing that either he was acting alone, the team was considered expendable and was used as a cover story, he didn't have enough people he could trust to bring along or Samus showing up meant he had to improvise a cover. |
| 130 | * This could explain why we don't see who the Deleter really was; There was more than one of them, but they might not have been working together, either. A different way to look at all of this is that Adam's plan was to destroy the project because his Metroid report was supposed to be about why they ''shoudn't'' do it, and this was his way at getting back at them for doing something so dangerous. The real Deleter was still the one killing the team, [[FramingTheGuiltyParty but Adam could use him as a cover for everything else]]. Tying back to Samus being an outside element, he never planned on having her getting involved and was trying to keep her safe by whatever means necessary, and his sacrifice could have been a ThanatosGambit where not only does he save Samus, but also even gets rid of himself for the whole mess. |
| 131 | |
| 132 | [[WMG: James was the Deleter]] |
| 133 | Notice how, when they get to the tower in sector 1, James is the first one there and is doing ''something'' under the desk (and that the tower later explodes), or that when a body is dumped in sector 3's magma Misawa is nowhere to be seen afterwards AND, when the Deleter confronts MB it's in the same room James' freshly Metroided corpse is found, with his freeze gun missing. (MB got a Freeze Gun didn't she?...) |
| 134 | * He HAS to be, him and KG are the only ones Samus hasn't seen dead at this point and having seen James' body that means KG cannot be the deleter as he has to have been the one thrown into the lava. Major evidence is that the Deleter has the lower half of his helmet's 07 logo faded away and James is the only one with said faded numbers. |
| 135 | * Don't forget he's a CIA agent. No, really. His service record during the briefing cutscene near the beginning of the game flat-out states his training was under the Federation Central Information Agency. It would certainly explain how a guy whose specialty is "Communications" is also a computer hacker and demolitions expert, considering what happened at the Sector 1 building. |
| 136 | ** [[Film/TheDarkKnightRises So his master plan was crashing the operation with no survivors?]] |
| 137 | * A bit of minor evidence, but in the body dumping scene the deleter never had a massive gun on his back so it points away from Anthony. |
| 138 | * As the communications expert, he could easily have sabotaged the group's communications. |
| 139 | * This is all but confirmed with a note on his concept art. |
| 140 | * [[WebVideo/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee suspected it just because of]] [[DastardlyWhiplash his mustache]]. |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[WMG: There was NO Deleter]] |
| 143 | [[spoiler: Melissa]] was lying. She made up the story about the Deleter so Samus would become more suspicious of the squad. The scenes of Maurice and KG getting killed were just Samus's imagination based off of the lie. The Power Suit that was piloting the loader machine was [[spoiler: an empty shell that was being controlled telepathically by Melissa]]. Maurice died because his suit probably sustained damage during the fight in the field, and he ended up freezing to death in the Cryosphere. KG is simply missing in action as stated: who knows what happened to him. As for James? He was running from Samus because he probably couldn't see it was her, and thought he was being pursued by some monster, which explains why he shot out the bridge. When Samus met up with [[spoiler: Melissa]] again, James was listening to all the lies that were being told. After Samus left the room, he intended to interrogate [[spoiler: Melissa]] himself but had no idea what he was really up against... |
| 144 | |
| 145 | [[WMG: The BSL Lab is a continuation of the Bottle Ship's experiments, with plausible deniability]] |
| 146 | The rogue faction in the Federation subcontracted their experiments out to the BSL corporation to avoid the kind of political fallout that the Bottle Ship incident caused with HQ, so if anything went wrong, the BSL corp. would be the fall guy. Alternatively, BSL is just a dummy company for the rogue faction and doesn't really exist as a private corporation. |
| 147 | |
| 148 | [[WMG: Samus didn't like being restricted to authorization, either]] |
| 149 | "Any objections, Adam?" was what she said right before activating the Space Jump feature herself upon being faced by a chasm she could only clear with the Space Jump when the bridge collapses. She was just as frustrated at being restricted, but perhaps she was trying to respect the chain of command, and not create something that would never end well for anyone investigating the Bottle Ship. |
| 150 | |
| 151 | [[WMG: Metroid Fusion explains the "Hell Run"]] |
| 152 | One scene in Fusion, when Samus is locked in one of the rooms talking to the AI, the AI asks Samus if this "Adam" she called the AI would send her off to die. Seeing what the AI was in Fusion, it's not out of left field to believe that this was the AI expressing regret for not authorizing the Varia Suit during the Hell Run, and also perhaps scolding Samus for being too obedient. The Hell Run was probably put in to validate the Fusion scene. |
| 153 | |
| 154 | [[WMG: Ridley ''loathes'' being in his [[KillerRabbit larval form]]]] |
| 155 | Seriously. He's a badass uber-space dragon, and then whenever he gets fragged by Samus, he has to spend who knows how long as a RidiculouslyCuteCritter that is even less threatening then the "monsters" from ''Film/NightOfTheLepus''. No wonder he hates her. |
| 156 | * Assuming that this is the exact same Ridley, that is. |
| 157 | |
| 158 | [[WMG: The game actually incorporates all the mechanics of Prime]] |
| 159 | The auto-target is Samus' lock-on system from Prime, those horrible pixel hunt sections are the scan visor. Why her scan visor doesn't automatically highlight things of interest anymore is because... Adam didn't authorize it? |
| 160 | * There's a perfectly reasonable explanation of this that has nothing to do with the storyline. Remember what this game comes right after, and what system it's on. See, Nintendo has this condition where if they make a game for the Wii, they are required to incorporate all of the features of it. Therefore, the similarities have nothing to do with the storyline and more to do with how it was chronologically released. Sorry for shooting this WMG down. |
| 161 | |
| 162 | [[WMG: Samus [[HeroicBSOD BSOD'd]] against Ridley, because she killed him in Super Metroid]] |
| 163 | Now tell me, why would we fight a [[spoiler: clone]] of Ridley rather than the real deal? Because, canonically, Samus actually KILLED him in Super Metroid! Other M takes place between super Metroid and Fusion, and we see Ridley-X in Fusion, we hear nothing about the REAL Ridley. Since Samus killed him in Super, she thought she had finally killed the beast that she'd been hunting all her life. Then comes the boss fight in Other M, and she sees him again, it's no wonder she BSOD's! |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[WMG: Samus [[HeroicBSOD BSOD'd]] against Ridley due to other triggers that happened more recently]] |
| 166 | Remember how many times she referred to "The Baby"? There could have been a reason to it: it scarred her. She did make mention that it did make her think about the past...and then the past returns on the Bottle Ship. Not only is her old CO and squad that she ran with there that makes her remember her past, but also the recent death of a Metroid that treated Samus as its mother, saved her life, and Samus looked after with just as much affection, who she saw get killed right before her eyes (just as she saw her parents die) might have been enough for her to remember a bit too much. |
| 167 | * Remember that we don't know too much about Post Traumatic Stress, either. There are times in which the human body can react very differently when encountered with a potential trigger twice over. They might not feel anything one encounter with it, then be frozen the next, and then enraged at a third encounter (who's to say fear was Samus' only emotion when finding out that Ridley was still alive in Super Metroid?). Being surrounded by other factors can also heighten risk of an episode, which those additional factors DID exist on the Bottle Ship, whereas it never did for her before. |
| 168 | |
| 169 | [[WMG: Samus is writing a tell-all book about her exploits...]] |
| 170 | The cheesy, [[{{Narm}} narmy]] narration is due to the fact that she isn't a very good writer. |
| 171 | * [[WordOfGod According to an interview with Samus' English voice actress for Other M]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZeapJn9z8 you're on the right track.]] (Long story short: Samus is a badass but she sucks at analyzing other peoples' feelings, which in InnerMonologue terms translated to a monotonous delivery, while her actual voice in action cutscenes is very emotional and engaging) |
| 172 | *** Considering her childhood was spent mostly in training to become a Chozo Warrior (at least, what was seen of it in the canon mangas) with few actual friends a normal kid would have, she might indeed have some trouble relating to other people. Or writing books. |
| 173 | |
| 174 | [[WMG: Samus is an UnreliableNarrator.]] |
| 175 | Related to above. Could be she's trying to make Adam sound better than he actually was, amongst other inconsistencies with the plot. |
| 176 | * For both this and the above, it seems more like her narration is so awful in most of the game because she's suppressing the pain of the Bottle Ship incident while revisiting it "for the record." Notice how she's much more lifelike and emotional when she's speaking in real time (call is suit recordings) and much more robotic while doing after-action narration. Given what she's remembering and what she lost there, is it any wonder she can't even ''try'' to act? |
| 177 | * Another possibility would be if the events of the game were being seen from her PTSD-affected memory, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou and it's not as accurate as it looks]]. Maybe Adam's behavior was a little different than what we saw, or her showdown with Ridley didn't exactly start the way it did. |
| 178 | |
| 179 | [[WMG: Anthony was originally going to die, like all the other soldiers.]] |
| 180 | However, due his unexpected popularity (Mysterious Black Dude meme), they decided to keep him alive. |
| 181 | |
| 182 | [[WMG: The Galactic Federation is a bloated and slowly collapsing bureaucracy.]] |
| 183 | Why else would so much weight be put on proper authorization of life-saving equipment in dangerous situations? It also explains why Samus, as a bounty hunter, does jobs more suited for a soldier or spec-ops team: using an independant contractor really cuts through the paperwork back at the office. |
| 184 | * Corruption and too much paperwork for good to be accomplished would also go a very, very long way towards explaining the BSL debacle. |
| 185 | ** Not only that, but given the Bottle Ship's similarities to the BSL station in Fusion (similar layout, existance of [[spoiler: Nightmare]]), it could be presumed that BSL is in control of a good chunk of the Federation government, because they managed to violate numerous sentient rights laws and superweapon non-proliferation treaties ''twice'', and get away with it, as far as the audience knows. |
| 186 | |
| 187 | [[WMG: Samus and Ian were more than friends.]] |
| 188 | Either a one-way crush or a full-on fling. It explains the picture where the two of them seem a little close. |
| 189 | * I too was under that impression. She went as far as leaving the Federation and her supposed father figure after that incident, must've been a pretty hard hit. |
| 190 | * Wouldn't it be interesting if you were right, but also Adam was jealous of their relationship? He let Ian die by forbidding Samus to rescue him, which she probably could have done, since she outruns self-destruct sequences all the time; with Ian out of the way, Adam's plan was to take Samus for himself. Adam knew that she saw him as a father figure, but he didn't care; he may even have seen her as a sort of daughter-figure for him, but decided to go after her anyway. That's just one reason why Adam was not and probably never will be ready for parenthood. |
| 191 | |
| 192 | [[WMG: The Reason for the [[spoiler: Ship Exploding]]]] |
| 193 | Okay, so you manage to defeat the [[spoiler: Queen Metroid]], then return to collect more items, kill some weird monsters, fight [[spoiler: Phantoon]] and retrieve Samus' precious thing: [[spoiler: Adam's helmet.]] But at that moment the ship finally does what it's supposed to do and [[spoiler: self-destructs.]] The question is why now? Why after having done so much and right when things quiet down does this happen?? Because the BOTTLE SHIP [[spoiler: loved Adam!]] |
| 194 | Apparently all that time [[spoiler: Adam]] spent in the control room made the ship infatuated but when a [[spoiler: stripped-down]] hussie walks in to take away [[spoiler: its last lingering possession of Adam's]] it gives in to jealousy and [[spoiler: tries to blow up a bitch.]] What better explanation for the suddenness of that moment then due to freaky jealous ship rage? |
| 195 | * ROFL. For a more serious explanation, it was probably the Federation [[spoiler: or the rogue faction]] transmitting a self-destruct signal, which is a lot easier than mobilizing a fleet and/or firing off some nukes. The story had already explained that it was going to happen in a day or two; apparently the timetable was moved up a bit. They probably didn't even know Samus was there, since she went back in secret. |
| 196 | ** Or they did know, and the signal was sent by the same rogue faction that had begun the Metroid program in the first place. |
| 197 | ** I assumed that it was because [[spoiler:Phantoon]] absolutely wrecked the ship during your battle with him. Notice how they prevent you from exploring the rest of the ship after that battle (and, also, prevent you from getting to the control room before that point). The delay is just the computer needing to take some time to figure out how extensive the damages are. Or something. |
| 198 | *** [[spoiler: Remember how the power on the [[VideoGame/SuperMetroid Wrecked Ship]] doesn't go on until you beat Phantoon? It's quite possible that the ship was set to blow up but that its self-destruct signal requires power.]] |
| 199 | ** Quick question: If the federation was able to blow the whole ship with a self-destruct signal, why couldn't they have done the same to sector zero? I'll be the first to admit that I never got accepted into Spaceship Design School, but it seems like a good idea to make something containing what could be the end of the galaxy able to self-destruct from somewhere other than inside it. You know, standing around with all the end of the galaxy bringers. |
| 200 | ** Or given what Phantoon is suggested to be in Super Metroid, the one we fight in Other M is the Bottle Ship created by Melissa Bergman. |
| 201 | ** ... OR, you know, they ''DID'' say the GF was going to actually blow it up in some days, maybe THEY activated the self-destruct feature. |
| 202 | |
| 203 | [[WMG: Samus was trying to commit [[SuicideByCop Suicide by Ridley]]]] |
| 204 | Samus watched Ridley kill her parents, and a common psychological symptom in such orphanings is a great degree of guilt and self-blaming in the psyche of the victim. After years of trauma, being raised by neglectful caretakers (The manga shows that while the Chozo are nice, they were also very busy, and usually left Samus with their homicidal computer nanny.) who trained her to kill, joining the military as a teenager, forming a bond with a Father figure only to leave him behind, (and if the above WMG regarding Ian is correct, losing a boyfriend,) |
| 205 | and spending years alternatively killing or being mutated only to culminate in the WORST WEEK EVER as she hunted down all but one of the energy monsters the Chozo created (when they should have been raising her,) having dozens of innocent people killed when her Arch-Nemisis attacked Ceres, and it was HER FAULT for not killing that baby Metroid when she had the chance, finally killing her long-time enemies, only to watch as the infant she'd saved against orders, transported illegally and left behind dieing to save her, that when seeing Ridley, alive and well, and knowing that her fight to avenge her parents, and all the people that had died for her had all been for nothing, she decided to just end it all and let him get it over with.[[BerserkButton And then he hurt Anthony]]. |
| 206 | * In addition, in the manga, when Samus has another encounter with Ridley, she freezes up, then starts ''[[HeroicBSOD screaming for someone to kill her.]]'' This breakdown is less drastic by comparison. |
| 207 | * This just completely redeemed that scene for me. [[RedemptionEqualsDeath Hopefully it won't get Jossed now.]] |
| 208 | |
| 209 | [[WMG: Ridley's mind influenced the Queen Metroid in ''Other M'']] |
| 210 | The Queen kills and sucks him dry, taking his "soul." This allows him to do a form of DemonicPossession - one could say that Ridley ''is'' the Queen Samus is fighting, a possible hint being she has his ability of fire breath. Until she power-bombs him/her to death, after which his cells are scattered... does this mean that he's gone forever? See my final theory below. |
| 211 | |
| 212 | [[WMG: Phantoon appeared because Samus succeeded.]] |
| 213 | The first (and last) time we ever met Phantoon was on the Wrecked Ship in Super Metroid. The next time we meet it is on the Bottle Ship, after MB and Ridley have been killed and everything's been shut down. The ship is essentially adrift in space, with no major guiding intelligence or purpose, and is slated for destruction soon... but hasn't yet been destroyed. At that point, it's effectively a ''ghost ship''. |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[WMG: Ridley doesn't have GeneticMemory.]] |
| 216 | Much as it's hard to accept, the real Ridley most likely is DeaderThanDead after Zebes blew up. All the behavior of the Little Birdie doesn't point to GeneticMemory at all. In fact, it seems like typical animal behavior. Why was it glaring at Samus like that? Well, how would you react if someone wearing a bright orange and red armorsuit walked by? Not to mention that bright colors are a sign of "don't mess with me" in the animal kingdom. El Pollo Loco Ridley probably went after Samus because she stood out so much, not because he has a personal grudge against her. |
| 217 | |
| 218 | [[WMG: The lava creature that Anthony froze was K.G.]] |
| 219 | After being kicked into the lava by the Deleter, instead of dying, K.G. became a lava creature. When Anthony is knocked into the lava by Ridley, K.G. pops up under him, and he freezes K.G., allowing him to survive. Anthony will never know that it was K.G. that saved his life. |
| 220 | |
| 221 | [[WMG: A possible explanation for the "Authorization" system of upgrading]] |
| 222 | Okay, so we all know how Samus gets her major upgrades...she already has all of them, but doesn't use them until Adam authorizes it. Many see this as strange, but most of it makes sense, depending on how you look at it. First of all, the system itself. It's Galactic Federation SOP. This is evidenced by the scene during the Brug Mass fight, in which Adam authorizes his team to use their ice guns in the same way that he authorizes all of Samus' equipment. Also, since Adam beat Samus to the Bottle Ship, she pretty much had no right to be there. However, he allowed her to stick around and help out, so long as she played by his rules...in other words, adhering to GF protocol. Samus probably saw this coming, which was why she deactivated her Bombs and Missiles even before she was officially allowed to help out. Then there's her equipment. For all her weapons, as well as the Speed Boost, Adam pretty much stated that he didn't want her blazing through the ship at full power, in case there are any survivors hiding out. Thus, he only authorizes their use when it becomes ''absolutely'' necessary. As for the things like her Varia Suit, Space Jump and Grapple Beam, it's possible that Samus didn't activate them in the beginning because she didn't think she'd need to. By the time she discovered otherwise, she was already following orders from Adam, so she probably didn't want to risk disrupting the mission by activating them without his say. And, as for the whole Varia Suit thing, one thing that people tend to overlook is that there are only a few areas of the Pyrosphere where the intense heat would become an issue. Granted, one room is extremely large, but different parts of it are visited in different sections which are more than possible to get through without the suit. As such, it's possible that neither Adam nor Samus herself expected that she would have to be in these areas for an overly long period of time, and thus saw no reason to activate the suit. But, it became clear that this wasn't the case when Goyagma attacked Samus, so he went ahead and okayed it. The same could be said about the Gravity Feature, the only difference being that Samus activated it on her own [[spoiler: since Adam had just died a moment ago]]. Either way, it might not be the best explanation, but it least it makes ''a little'' sense. |
| 223 | * This makes perfect sense, except for the Varia Suit. Unlike the rest of her ridiculously destructive equipment, the Varia Suit is purely defensive and poses absolutely no threat of accidental friendly fire to her squadmates or any innocents she might come across. It shouldn't have needed to be authorized because there was no reason to ever turn it off in the first place. And Samus would have to be pretty stupid to turn it off just because "she didn't think she'd need it." Most every planet and space station she's ever visited up to that point contained superheated areas where she needed the Varia suit, why would she think this one would be any different? |
| 224 | ** It's true that most of the ''planets'' she'd been on had super-heated areas, but, chronologically, this is the first time in-game she's spent more than a few minutes on a space station. It's not unreasonable to believe she didn't know that there was an ''active volcano'' on the Bottle Ship, thus she saw no reason to activate it. Again, not the best explanation, but it's the best I can come up with. |
| 225 | ** There was a scene in VideoGame/MetroidFusion in which the AI actually asks Samus if the "Adam" she's naming the AI after would "lead her into a dangerous area to die" when she tells it of her loyalty to him. The "hell run" is more or less there in order to give some sort of continuity. In order for the AI to question the loyalty from something such as that, the actual event needs to take place. Since Other M takes place before Fusion, it's only fitting that that event would happen before Fusion. |
| 226 | * The only problem is that in roughly five minutes it should be pretty damn obvious that nobody is still alive on this ship. If there are any survivors, they're probably in on it. Also, its not like your weapons can ever do any damage to the ship, so who cares? |
| 227 | ** Considering how massively huge the Bottle Ship is and that their main priority was to locate and secure the safety of survivors, Adam's squad would have pretty much sucked at their job if they decided that, since nobody was in the ''first few rooms'', everyone must be dead. They probably came to the conclusion that everyone had locked themselves up and were hiding somewhere. As it turned out, Madeline was the only one who was smart enough and/or able to do so, but they had no way of knowing that at the time. And, as far as the whole "not like your weapons can damage the ship" argument, I'm fairly certain that's a case of GameplayStorySegregation. |
| 228 | * Has anyone thought about Samus being a bounty hunter and the Federation is requiring her services that she could be billing them for the stuff she has to use? |
| 229 | ** If that were the case, then he wouldn't have needed to authorize ''his own team'' to use their ice guns |
| 230 | * In addition to the Varia Suit point, not only does it protect Samus from heat, it also reduces the damage she takes by half. The latter point is especially useful, and since the Varia suit has absolutely no chance of harming or otherwise even affecting anyone else, it can't really be defended for not being authorised sooner. |
| 231 | [[WMG: The Varia and Gravity Suits were somehow altered in/after ''Super Metroid'' and now give off low-level radiation.]] |
| 232 | Adam didn't authorize them until "''absolutely necessary''" because he knew the radiation might have ill effects on his squad. This also could explain why the Gravity Suit is now a purple energy aura. |
| 233 | |
| 234 | [[WMG: Adam's weapon isn't as powerful as previously thought]] |
| 235 | We all know that Adam is weilding a weapon seemingly capable of [[OneHitKO oneshotting]] Samus, but does not seem otherwise very powerful. We also know that the Power Suit is primarily held together by concentration, and, as demonstrated by Ridley, can be partially to fully deactivated if that concentration is lost. Now, in the scene in question, Samus has just stumbled upon a baby Metroid out of nowhere, and one that is acting quite similarly to The Baby, at that, giving no indication that it was hostile. And then, just as Samus prepares to kill the infant, Adan shoots her in the back, which disables Samus' suit. The most likely explanation is that Samus' concentration wavered when she was confronted with another chance to kill an infant Metroid, which were thought to be extinct, and Adam's sneak attack came while Samus was still in flashback mode |
| 236 | * Makes sense. afterall, since it is held together by concentration, getting aparantly betreyed by the person she sees as a father ill probably be enough to bring said concentration down. |
| 237 | |
| 238 | [[WMG: Ridley has a wall fetish]] |
| 239 | In his second form, Ridley ambushes Samus by sticking himself to a wall. After he gets blasted by Anthony, Ridley retreats by ramming himself through a wall. The next time we see his is second form is when it's stuck to a wall. He constantly rams Samus into a wall (and drags her along a wall in [[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros The Subspace Emissary]]), and when he's finally defeated by Samus, he escapes by fire-breathing on a wall and crashing into it. |
| 240 | * So... he's a [[IncrediblyLamePun Wall Banger]]? |
| 241 | |
| 242 | [[WMG: Adam sucks as a commander]] |
| 243 | Notice that his entire team gets wiped out in a matter of ten minutes and he does fuck-all to warn them or Samus? Notice that he doesn't tell Samus to use her weapons until roughly two minutes after she needs them? What is this guy doing, fapping on his control panel? Its a wonder any of his troops have survived this long. |
| 244 | ** Except for the fact that communication with his squad is down and the only way he can talk to them is via Navigation Booths. Not to mention the fact that one of his men was a traitor who was going around killing everyone else, and he had no way of knowing about it until Samus discovered this. Even then, this didn't become apparent until after the ''second'' death, as the first one was caught off-guard by Ridley. As for the occasions where he gave her authority to activate her Ice and Wave Beams mid-battle, one thing we have to remember is that he can only see what Samus sees. During those battles, she's doing a lot of jumping and flipping around to avoid getting shot in the face, so it most likely took him a moment to figure out what was going on and what needed to be done. |
| 245 | |
| 246 | [[WMG: Adam is an AuthorAvatar]] |
| 247 | This is a relatively new fan theory, but think about it. In RealLife, co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto thinks of himself as Samus's father. In game, Samus considers Adam her father figure. Samus also practically worships the ground he walks on, even going as far a risking her life to get his helmet. Notice the blatant MartyStu traits, like being the only one besides possibly Ridley to nearly kill Samus, and Samus thinks he's always right. [[FridgeHorror Let that sink in for a awhile.]] |
| 248 | ** Samus in no way thinks he's always right. She outright disagrees with him on some extremely important points, most notably his entire sacrifice. Samus outright says she thinks he is wrong and that they should take the chance. |
| 249 | ** Yet the games story proves Adam to be right each time, or at least has Samus later admit to herself he was, so those points of disagreement really don't matter in the grand scheme. |
| 250 | |
| 251 | [[WMG: Samus and Adam's relationship is a metaphor for Sakamoto's relationship with the Metroid franchise]] |
| 252 | To expand on the previous entry: Samus left Adam's command and became a successful bounty hunter, with Adam resenting her for leaving. When Adam reunites with her and decides to let her investigate the ship, he quickly reasserts himself as her commander, making it clear that he has complete control of her actions. The Metroid Prime games were made by another developer (Retro Studios) without Sakamoto's input and achieved critical acclaim, something he must be resentful of on some level as the series' co-creator. Other M was the first Metroid game Sakamoto had worked on since ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' and he reportedly had complete control of the game's development. Adam's relationship with Samus is a metaphor for Sakamoto's relationship with the franchise; namely how he effectively lost control of the franchise to the Prime games and then reasserted that control with this game years later. |
| 253 | |
| 254 | [[WMG: Adam's armor is the means of his BrainUploading]] |
| 255 | Let's assume that GF suits are linked up into the nervous systems of soldiers, much like Samus' own Power Suit is. That would mean that, whenever a soldier dies, his mind can be uploaded into the suit. When Adam dies in Sector Zero, his mind is therefore uploaded into his armor. The uploaded mind can be accessed through any part of the armor whether it is attached or not. Thus, his mind was specifically accessible from his helmet as well. Him leaving behind his helmet was a major stroke of fortune for his continued existence; since his body and main armor were destroyed along with Sector Zero, Samus' retrieval of the helmet in the epilogue just barely saved Adam's mind from oblivion. So, little did she know, but Samus' quest to save Adam's helmet was not merely a sentimental escapade, but also an action that would ultimately save her life come ''Fusion''. |
| 256 | |
| 257 | [[WMG: Sector Zero never got destroyed]] |
| 258 | Adam was killed by the Metroids before he got the chance. Instead, Sector Zero drifted off into space until the Galactic Federation retrieved it. With the Metroids inside still alive, they "renovated" the complex so that it could secretly fit into the BSL Station as the Restricted Lab. Thus, Sector Zero never really got destroyed until ''Metroid Fusion''. Indeed, the reason the last area of Sector 1 in ''Fusion'' bears a striking resemblance to Tourian is because, being Sector Zero, it is a replica of Mother Brain's old hideout. |
| 259 | |
| 260 | [[WMG: Sector Zero never got destroyed, and Adam is a Manipulative Bastard]] |
| 261 | Adam, who wants Metroids to take over the Galaxy, lied to Samus, and upon entering Sector Zero, he simply detached it and flew it off into space, Metroids in tow. The explosion heard could have just been fake (perhaps he set off a bomb), and he probably lied to Samus about everything. |
| 262 | |
| 263 | [[WMG: Space Pirates have infiltrated the Federation]] |
| 264 | The Bottle Ship was really just one of there many reseach ships, it was all just testing out there newest stuff without Samus blowing up there base. |
| 265 | |
| 266 | [[WMG: Melissa Bergman is a [[{{UnreliableNarrator}}damned liar.]]]] |
| 267 | Exposition that originates with Melissa is not to be trusted. |
| 268 | * [[spoiler:Ridley was not cloned by accident,]] that would be impossible for a multitude of reasons. Far more likely, it was done intentionally by MB. This would explain how [[spoiler:a creature could be cloned]] without the scientists being aware of what it was; they aren't the ones who did it. The one thing that they were afraid of was that the [[spoiler:Mother Brain personality would take over MB]] and [[spoiler:Ridley's]] presence seems too much of a coincidence, especially with the mystery surrounding him. |
| 269 | * Why was the [[spoiler:metroid outside of Sector Zero]] vulnerable to [[spoiler:Adam's freeze gun]]? There were never any [[spoiler:freeze-proof metroids]]. The epilogue shows that Adam learning that [[spoiler:the Sector Zero metroids]] were invulnerable to [[spoiler:cold]] from Melissa and the reason she told Adam but not Samus was very specifically to get Adam to sacrifice himself. They were supposedly foreshadowed by a monster's drained husk in the arctic sector but, as you enter it for the first time, the automated announcements refer to a recent climate-control malfunction; the indoor areas were not frozen until very recently. |
| 270 | |
| 271 | [[WMG: Adam didn't need to sacrifice himself.]] |
| 272 | After shooting Samus in the back without even being 100% certain that he'd be able to kill the Metroid that was about to feed on her, Adam offers a great deal of conjecture about Sector Zero and his plan to destroy it. Unfortunately, his plan shows just as poor judgement as when he gambled on that Metroid not eating Samus and then him. To destroy Sector Zero, all you need to do is cause enough superficial damage to the structure to force an auto-eject sequence. Now if only there was someone with super-intense explosives and super-enhanced running speed. Oh wait, the girl he just shot in the back! Samus could've entered Sector Zero (she wouldn't even have needed to go far judging by how little time it took Adam to start the destruct sequence), dropped a Power Bomb, Speedboosted and Shinesparked back to the exit, and escaped through the door by either not sealing it on the way in or letting Adam keep the locks open at the entrance. Furthermore, with Power Bombs in effect and sense move to stay alive while it recharges, there's no gameplay reason why Samus couldn't have defeated all the unfreezable Metroids all by herself with little risk of failure. But with so much CutsceneIncompetence in effect in Other M, the first plan would probably be safest. Either way, Adam's sacrifice was entirely pointless. |
| 273 | * Power bombs do hurt SR 388 strain metroids, BUT it takes 3 power bombs to kill even 1. Combining that with the way Other M does power bombs, what with a slow charge up to use, and a very slow cool down afterward, she would have been trying (and failing) to destroy metroids LONG after all hope for her survival is lost. Besides, once Adam went in, Samus '''still''' had to escape the corridor leading to Sector Zero before '''it''' fell off, trying her damnedest not to get sucked into the vacuum of space, before reaching blast doors which were already about to close. Granted, Samus still could have died while Sector Zero was detaching, which would have made Adam's sacrifice pointless, but she would've had been doomed if she actually went in. |
| 274 | ** The point was not for the power bomb to kill the Metroids directly, just damage the sector enough for it to detach while she speed boosts/shine sparks away using sense move to avoid flying parasites. Dodging and dislodging them long enough for three power bombs to go off probably would be an [[NintendoHard interesting sequence]] though. Wonder if it would have been as controversial as what we currently have? |
| 275 | |
| 276 | [[WMG: Adam is a [[Film/TheDarkKnight Dark Knight]]]] |
| 277 | |
| 278 | He is the hero that Metroid deserves, but not the one it needs right now. And so we'll hate him, because he can take it, because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A Dark Knight. |
| 279 | * No, he isn't. |
| 280 | |
| 281 | [[WMG: The reason Ridley's larval form is so radically different from his final form is because the clone is genetically impure.]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | Like the Metroids and many of the other organisms on the Bottle Ship, their DNA was taken from Samus' suit. Also, as noted elsewhere, a couple of the regular {{Mook}} creatures likely have some of Ridley's genetic code in their own. So who's to say that the reverse didn't happen to Ridley? In fact, the sequences showing Ridley's metamorphosis seem to indicate that his own DNA was gradually reasserting itself amid the other genomes in his body. That would explain why his larval rabbit form has the chicken legs, as if the clone started off as a plain rabbit-like creature but was having the rabbity DNA shoved out in favor of the dragony DNA. It also explains why Ridley's metamorphosis cycle as depicted in the game involves the cocoon-like molting process; while the normal Ridley is a reptile, this process, normally only seen with insect(oid)s, was implemented into his genome when it got mixed in there accidentally by the scientists. |
| 284 | |
| 285 | [[WMG: The next game will review what went right and what went wrong in Other M and makes changes accordingly.]] |
| 286 | |
| 287 | Such a strategy is certainly not foreign to the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series. Recall back to the time of ''Echoes'' and ''Hunters''. Like ''Other M'', neither of these games broke the million units sold barrier thanks to certain aspects that alienated customers. So when ''Corruption'' came around, Creator/RetroStudios took out or de-emphasized the parts that critics didn't like (limited ammo for all non-Power Beam weapons, excessive linearity, multiplayer, unbalanced difficulty, etc.) while retaining and expanding on the bits that critics ''did'' like (emphasis on other hunters besides Samus, flying around in the gunship, free aiming, etc.). The same is bound to happen with the next game; the disliked bits (Samus' characterization and narration, the linearity, the length of cutscenes, the "authorization" mechanic, etc.) will be expunged or altered, while the well-liked bits (the smooth controls, the refocusing on advanced platforming, the faster pace, the concept of a more complex plot, etc.) will be improved upon. |
| 288 | * Small corrections. Echoes did break 1 million in sales, though not by much. Also, Retro didn't have anything to do with Hunters, so they mostly just ignored it (well, except for the 100% cameo at the end). It should also be noted that Fusion was the most linear Metroid game of its day, and following it came Zero Mission, the only Metroid game so non-linear that it actively encourages sequence breaking. So we'll see. |
| 289 | |
| 290 | [[WMG:Other M was AllJustADream.]] |
| 291 | Specifically, it was a dream Samus had while she was in a coma during the ''Fusion'' introduction. It's an amalgam of her final mission with Adam's squad, paranoia about the Federation's dirty laundry, her childhood encounter with Ridley, angst over the baby Metroid, and so on. This explains the disjointed nature of the narrative and the peculiarities of everyone's personalities. None of it ever happened exactly as presented - we're getting maybe a smidge of actual history filtered through a brain delirious from X Parasite infection. |
| 292 | |
| 293 | [[WMG:The entire game is a Space Pirate propaganda piece designed to portray Samus and the Federation as weak.]] |
| 294 | The overall plot of the game is canonically factually accurate, but certain details have been greatly embellished in order to give the impression that Samus is weak and submissive and the Federation is reckless and incompetent. The game/film is presented to Space Pirate troops as a historical account created from Samus's journals and Federation logs, but events were altered in order to raise the morale of the troops by minimizing the threat of their enemies. |
| 295 | |
| 296 | [[WMG:The entire game is Federation propaganda designed to portray Samus as weak and Adam as an evil idiot.]] |
| 297 | After the whole BSL debacle, the corrupt part of the Feds released Other M's story with their own twists on it to turn the people against Samus and Adam. |
| 298 | |
| 299 | [[WMG:The Samus in Other M is a clone born on the BOTTLE SHIP.]] |
| 300 | * All of Samus's memories are placed into the clone by the GF, but the GF do not know about her upbringing with the Chozo. |
| 301 | |
| 302 | [[WMG:[[spoiler: Phantoon will be replacing Ridley if he survived.]]]] |
| 303 | * [[spoiler: Ridley is Doomed by Canon thanks to ''Fusion''. The only two possible reasons for Phantoon's appearance is either a Continuity Nod or to set him up as a Ridley replacement.]] |
| 304 | ** Jossed. Ridley is back ''Metroid: Samus Returns'' thank to his JokerImmunity. |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[WMG:Samus planned to finish Ridley off with Anthony's weapon]] |
| 307 | After the boss battle with him, Ridley is just lying on the ground. By this stage Samus is more than savvy enough to know he is not dead yet. She does however believe she has enough time to walk over to Anthony's gun, spend a second morning his gun before picking it up and finishing the space dragon off once and for all with her friends weapon. Unfortunately Ridley wasn't quite as injured as she thought and was able to attempt a sneak attack on her (which she was prepared for leading further to the theory that she knew he wasn't finished yet). |
| 308 | |
| 309 | [[WMG: The entire game is actually, within the Metroid universe, a bad self-insert fan-fiction]] |
| 310 | I mean, Samus is attractive and has destroyed enough planets to become famous; surely some loser fantasizes about her enough to do what many other losers do in not-Metroid universe (this one that we're in right now, if I wasn't clear): write bad fanfiction. That way we can all pretend that none of this ''ever happened.'' I suggest that the next Metroid game will have a secret easter egg scanny thing that's an excerpt of it, preferably with a note by a reader about how sucky it is. |
| 311 | |
| 312 | [[WMG:Nintendo is going to go for a {{Reconstruction}} of FeaturelessProtagonist.]] |
| 313 | Note that Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto has said that the reason [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]] is a HeroicMime so that [[AudienceSurrogate the fans could project themselves into him.]] Most Nintendo heroes that have a FeaturelessProtagonist status are also [[MemeticBadass very well-received among fans]]. The real reason ''Other M'' was made is to take one these protagonists and give her a personality that is exact opposite of what fans thought. That way, they would be disliked by fans. |
| 314 | The next ''Metroid'' game turns Samus back into HeroicMime again. Now, people will see her again as [[ActionGirl the ultimate awesome gal]]. [[TemptingFate And nobody will complain about Nintendo's characterization politics ever again.]] |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[WMG:Samus truly ''is'' as badass as everyone assumed she would be.]] |
| 317 | Despite the multiple complaints about her characterization in this game, Samus is still the uber-badass bounty hunter that the fans feel she should be. However, when you look at the events of Super Metroid and Other M, it becomes clear why she seems so vulnerable in this game. She's merely having a '''''very''''' bad day, and was suffering from an emotional equivalent to WorfHadTheFlu. I mean think about it. At the end of Super Metroid, the infant Metroid performed a HeroicSacrifice when Samus was literally seconds away from death. This ''had'' to have left a pretty deep impression. Then, to top it all off, Zebes, the planet she grew up on, was completely vaporized after her final battle with Mother Brain. Even if it was a hollow shell of its former self, seeing her former home go up like that couldn't have been easy to watch. |
| 318 | |
| 319 | So then Other M happens, while Samus is still reeling from the events of Super Metroid. By sheer chance, Samus comes face to face with Adam Malkovich, a man whom she viewed as a father figure during her time in the Galactic Federation. However, due to the death of Ian, Adam's younger brother who was also heavily implied to be in a relationship with Samus, she ended up ragequitting the GF, and the two of them parted on, at best, incredibly rocky terms. So, as one can imagine, it was probably rather awkward running into him like this. However, this would also explain why she was so quick to adhere to his command, despite being an independent bounty hunter. She was able to acknowledge how immature she had been all those years ago, and she was hoping to make amends with the man who, in her mind, was still like a father to her. |
| 320 | |
| 321 | '''Then''', there was the whole thing with Ridley. Out of everything that happened during Super Metroid, the one thing she could take solace in was the fact that her most feared and hated enemy, Ridley, was ''finally'' gone for good. This was the monster who destroyed her human home and quite literally ate her parents in front of her when she was only three years old, so she was understandably relieved to have finally avenged her friends and family. After all, not only did she defeat him a second time, but this time, the planet itself was vaporized, meaning there was (seemingly) nothing else to clone him from. As it turned out, that ended not being the case, and he was cloned purely by accident. However, she had no way of knowing this, so when he literally showed up from out of nowhere in front of her, the stress of everything that had been happening to her finally caused her to snap, resulting in the rather epic HeroicBSOD that the game is understandably infamous for. |
| 322 | |
| 323 | And yet, in spite of all of this, when Samus was actually fighting monsters, she was ''still'' a complete and total badass, doing things like grappling a large chameleon-like enemy, pinning it to the floor by its neck and shooting it point-blank in the face. When she finally snapped out of the aforementioned HeroicBSOD, she proceeded to give Ridley and asskicking so epic that the battle ended with him ''fleeing from her in terror''. So yes. Emotionally, she was a wreck in this game. Everything just kept piling up, and it left her far more vulnerable than she would have been otherwise. Yet, when she was actually able to focus on what she was supposed to be doing (i.e. during gameplay), she was still every bit as badass as she was in the other games. As far as I'm concerned, that's all that matters. |
| 324 | |
| 325 | [[WMG: Samus has Social Anxiety Disorder]] |
| 326 | |
| 327 | In most of the other Metroid games, we never see her interacting with other people. She's clearly a badass in battle, but she's a lone wolf bounty hunter instead of a soldier or law enforcement officer because, to her, other people are scarier than Metroids and space pirates, and her behavior in this game reflects this. [[http://videodame.com/quiet-objections-on-other-m-anxiety/ (As related by a person with an anxiety disorder)]] |
| 328 | |
| 329 | [[WMG: The Samus in Other M is the [[VideoGame/MetroidFusion SA-X]]]] |
| 330 | It's going through Samus' memories and is jumbling them up. |
| 331 | * Beyond the jumbled or changed to the point of being unidentifiable flashbacks, the rest of the game is ThroughTheEyesOfMadness, hence stuff like the Deleter subplot. It oversaw Samus' journey through Zebes in ''Super'' and recreated Samus' appearance, just out of its own memory, and just went with it. Why?...Because [[ForTheEvulz it felt like it, apparently.]] The only plot points in the game that are 100% real are four things: Adam's existence, the whole Metroid cloning process, Nightmare, and Ridley. That's it. The rest is basically SA-X screwing around and misinterpretating almost everything in different ways. Melissa Bergman? Just a harmless scientist. [[spoiler:SA-X just randomly assumes the "[[BrainUploading truth]]" about MB.]] [[spoiler:Phantoon?]] Actually a GF ship trying to gun SA-X down because of [[spoiler:it murdering MB.]] Plus, it probably didn't know much about Samus nor humans in general anyway, therefore, it [[CharacterDerailment gets her character all wrong.]] The redesign of the Gravity Suit also helps, since it probably didn't even know how her ''suit'' works, too. It's only after trying to infect Samus and obtaining the infected portions of Samus' Power Suit parts that it knows what it's doing. Regardless, the battle with the SA-X in ''Fusion'' probably had it saying [[MemeticMutation "the baby the baby the baby the baby"]] non-stop. |
| 332 | |
| 333 | |
| 334 | [[WMG: Other M Isn't Canon ]] |
| 335 | Or rather, it is canon but solely within its own universe consisting of exactly 1 game. That explains why the game's story contradicts basically every single game in the franchise, plus the manga. Samus's characterisation is so wildly different because she literally isn't the woman from the other games of the franchise, and she gets so little respect from the Federation because in this universe the Phazon crisis never happened. Adam is Samus's father figure because in this universe the Chozo apparently don't exist, and Samus feels no worries about losing the planet she was raised on because she wasn't raised there. The Power Suit disappears when she loses willpower or consciousness, because it's not the suit from Prime 3 or Fusion. She's terrified of Ridley because in this universe she hasn't defeated him four times with no emotional setbacks whatsoever. Metroids are super-invincible monsters who can threaten the universe if their weakness to ice is removed because in this universe they're not vulnerable to Missiles like in Metroid 2, or Power Bombs like in every other game in the franchise. Zebesians are mindless creatures desperately needing a leader to be coordinated because in this universe the intelligent Space Pirates of the Prime series never existed. |
| 336 | |
| 337 | It is unlikely that this self-contained Metroid universe will ever see a second game. |
| 338 | |
| 339 | [[WMG: Ridley's screech is a sonic weapon]] |
| 340 | As his larval stage, Samus observes him use his cry to rile up the other creatures. This is because his cry is designed to trigger the fight, flight, or freeze reaction. As a general, this would allow him to force his soldiers into a violent bloodlust, while reducing his enemies to panicked wrecks. Samus is normally immune to this because her armor filters out the sonic influence, but the damage inflicted by Mother Brain disabled these countermeasures. |
| 341 | |
| 342 | [[WMG: There are many Deleters]] |
| 343 | Not necessarily in the game, but this Deleter isn't the only one. There are many of them out there, planted throughout the ranks of the military, just in case anyone ever stumbles across the conspiracy. If they do, there's always a Deleter nearby to resolve the matter. |
| 344 | |
| 345 | [[WMG: Ridley [[FaceDeathWithDignity faced death with dignity.]]]] |
| 346 | Upon [[spoiler:seeing the Queen Metroid approach him,]] his roar wasn't out of fear, but it essentially translates into "[[BringIt come here and show me how weak you are!!]]", and died off fighting [[spoiler:the queen]]. After all, this ''is'' [[BloodKnight Ridley]] this WMG speaks of, so he would hardly feel something as uncharacteristic of him as terror for his life; he has JokerImmunity after all! |
| 347 | |
| 348 | [[WMG: It took Adam so long to authorise the Varia suit because he didn't realise he needed to ]] |
| 349 | Adam assumed Samus was already using her suit's defensive upgrades so he never bothered to authorise them until he noticed otherwise. |
| 350 | |
| 351 | [[WMG: The Ridley clone is actually the same old Ridley BackFromTheDead]] |
| 352 | The conspiracy may have cloned Ridley's body, but Phantoon is also capable of controlling the souls of the dead. It may have collected Ridley's soul after his death and put the soul in a new body as part of a Space Pirate remnant inside job. |
| 353 | * Phantoon has always been on Zebes. Maybe he's been responsible for all of Ridley's resurrections, not just that one. The pirates always have a spare Ridley clone in stasis somewhere, and when he dies Phantoon just rounds up his soul and transfers it to the next one. That could also be how Mother Brain and Kraid returned for Super Metroid. |
| 354 | |
| 355 | [[WMG: Ridley was the mastermind.]] |
| 356 | '''Spoilers unmarked.''' |
| 357 | |
| 358 | As an extension to the Samus is SA-X theory, I had thought about it a bit more and had come to a decision - Ridley may have been the BigBad the whole time, or at least had a much, much bigger impact on the story than originally thought. |
| 359 | |
| 360 | Having schemed the thought of doing a FrameUp on Samus during the events of ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', Ridley had perished before he got the chance, seemingly having this plot go nowhere. However, during his raid on the Ceres space facility, he had located schematics of the rogue offshoot of the Federation's Metroid cloning process, banking on the Corrupt!Federation's antics and figuring that they would carelessly clone ''him'' too through blood samples on Samus' suit. |
| 361 | |
| 362 | And they did, but let's dig into his larger role some more. |
| 363 | |
| 364 | As a posthumous KickTheDog, Ridley pulled one last trick to get at Samus and doom the Bottle Ship - somehow managing to trap an X Parasite in a special capsule, which eventually made contact with and destroyed her gunship. It had left her in emergency care due to the X Parasite attacking her body. During her recovery process, the X that infected her traversed aimlessly - wielding a less efficient Power Suit that it doesn't know how to fully utilize, constantly swimming in Samus' memories (the whole "authorization" process is just it learning Samus' powers, while hallucinating Adam's presence, while also believing random mercenaries to all be Adam being a jackass, if there were any mercs at all), still developing itself to attempt to muster an adequate replica of Samus' suit (hence the Gravity Suit changes and such). It slaughtered any monsters it found (including a pre-infected Nightmare and Phantoon) and searched through Samus' memories, falsely seeing numerous soldiers and personnel in a clearly abandoned ghost ship (Anthony, the Colonel and his group who kills MB being the only real ones, ''everyone else'' is either long dead or fake). The SA-X develops from an instinctual predator into a murderous being that was deluded into thinking that a "Deleter" was nearby, and must be killed (eventually concluding that one corpse on the ship was him). It also thought that Sector Zero was full of Metroids as it could sense them everywhere. Both of these came to be because it was dwelling on Samus' hate for Ridley, believing that is all she truly is, just a murderous maniac. However, what it didn't know was the Metroids were already extinguished, with only a few actually being cloned! Sector Zero was full of ''innocent humans'', which [=GF=] soldiers quarantined from the monsters and helped escape during the game's events, before destroying the sector to ensure the SA-X can't reach them. |
| 365 | |
| 366 | ...All while this is going on, the newly cloned Ridley had been blackmailing Madeline Bergman to create many beasts in his image (which is why so many have a head shaped like his) for him to command, and a human android based off of Mother Brain to rebuild the Space Pirate army and kill anyone else on the ship to fulfill his sadistic desires. He also forced her to vilify the Galactic Federation as a cover-up story if anything gets exposed, lest she runs the risk of losing her life and his plan flying off the rails. The Little Birdie and the Mystery Creature were both isolated creatures that the [=GF=] sought to domesticate, [[AlwaysABiggerFish prior to the latter killing the former, and Ridley killing the latter.]] |
| 367 | |
| 368 | Aware that Samus is the SA-X, Ridley's clone (which had been deformed due to Metroid DNA seeping into his own) toyed with it sadistically, basking into the apparent newly rekindled fear in the otherwise imperfect "bounty hunter", and eager to destroy it for rebelling against the creatures he made rather than lead them. In his last moments, he had allowed himself to die by the Queen Metroid's hand, [[BloodKnight challenging her to kill him brutally]] and thereby abandoning [=MB=] to her own machinations, who the SA-X wrongfully mistook her as sympathetic. |
| 369 | |
| 370 | Once the [=GF=] execute MB for good, and thereby eradicate Mother Brain, the SA-X escapes the Federation, Madeline is jailed for obscuring the truth of the matter and Phantoon took over the remains of the ship and triggered it to explode, dooming it thanks to the real Samus' inability to help; just as Ridley planned. Ever since, the SA-X kept developing its own form, finishing before the events of ''Fusion'', and through being absorbed does Samus gain its memories of ''Other M'', for better or worse. As for the rogue faction of the [=GFeds=] that cloned a handful of Metroids and Ridley, they were long shut down by the main division by the time of ''Dread''. |
| 371 | |
| 372 | [=TLDR=]: SA-X is a complete idiot, the few people actually on the ship are trying to kill it, Adam was never there[[note]]he likely got killed in Ridley's Ceres station massacre[[/note]], and it's all Ridley's fault. |
| 373 | |
| 374 | [[WMG: Phantoon [[spoiler:was another bioweapon on the Bottle Ship.]]]] |
| 375 | In [[spoiler:Other M we learn that several creatures were cloned using DNA from Samus's suit. Phantoon was among these creatures. We don't encounter him within the game because MB was ensuring he didn't attack using her psychic link. Once she's killed, he starts running the show, but is content to just leech the ship's power.]] |
| 376 | * This is supported by the fact that the series of minibosses that you fight before entering [[spoiler:Phantoon]]'s chamber are all warped in via portals identical to the ones he uses to summon his Rage Hands during the battle. Clearly, he had taken over in the time between Samus' departure and return. As for his physical absence during the main conflict on the Bottle Ship, it seems like his ability to warp in and out of local timespace makes it quite likely that he simply disappeared for a while, probably under MB's aforementioned orders to back off. |
| 377 | |
| 378 | [[WMG: Lyle's face was modeled after basketball player Andrei Kirilenko]] |
| 379 | |
| 380 | Seriously, the [[https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/k/kirilan01.html resemblance]] is [[https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/File:Lyle_Smithsonian_CA.jpg uncanny]]. |
| 381 | * Speaking of which, [[https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/File:Anthony_without_helmet.PNG Anthony]] looks an awful lot like [[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004875/ Taye Diggs]] too. |
| 382 | |
| 383 | [[WMG: Adam ''was'' responsible for the BOTTLE SHIP programs, regretted it, and lied to keep Samus' trust.]] |
| 384 | |
| 385 | MB shows Samus that Adam wrote a report on Metroids that led to the Metroid cloning project on the BOTTLE SHIP. Did Adam condone the bioweapons on the BOTTLE SHIP? This shakes Samus' trust in Adam for a while, until he tells her that his report was ''against'' the Metroid project and got co-opted by the wrong crowd. But what if that was only the official story? What if Adam was lying, and he was actually in on the Metroid conspiracy the entire time? It fits his "ends justify the means" style, such as sacrificing Ian. |
| 386 | |
| 387 | Adam's team just happened to investigate the BOTTLE SHIP, armed with Freeze Guns even, because he ''knew'' something bad had gone down with the Metroids, and upon seeing the deadly results of his machinations, was completely horrified and regretted having ever signed the report. To make matters worse, the Deleter (James) is there to stop Adam from destroying what they've built, at whatever cost (which is why he sabotages his comms but leaves him alive). But Samus is the one who truly compounds his regret; now one of his most treasured comrades is endangered by his creations too. This is why he acts so coldly towards her at first, clearly wishing she'd never gotten involved. |
| 388 | |
| 389 | This reframes Adam's sacrifice in Sector Zero as repentance for his hubris - however, he couldn't tell Samus this. Not only would it forever sully her perception of him, but she was in the midst of an emotional episode and desperately seeking Adam's trust. He couldn't break her heart at this moment, not with so much on the line, so he told her what she needed to hear to get back in the game and finish the mission. He took this secret to the grave with him. |
| 390 | |
| 391 | This is also in line with his computer replica in ''Fusion'', who is utterly fascinated by the X and complicit with the Federation conspiracy to weaponize them, up until Samus reminds him of what he truly held dear. The computer let slip Adam's true interest in bioweapons, which he hoped Samus would never see. |
| 392 | |
| 393 | [[WMG: Anthony was given all the praise for the BOTTLE SHIP incident.]] |
| 394 | |
| 395 | The Galactic Federation will twist the events of ''Other M'' into making Anthony out to be the true hero, downplaying Adam's and completely ignoring Samus' involvement. He'll be given a higher rank, and will play an important role in a future ''Metroid'' game as an ally or even employer of Samus. |
| 396 |
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