Metroid Dread - Spoilers Thread

Funny thing is there have been a bunch of semi-official sources for the timespan between Zero Mission and Prime, and they've gotten progressively shorter. "It has been 10 years since Samus's first... No wait, not that long, it has been 3 years... 2 years...? Okay fine the whole subseries takes place within less than a year."

10 is definitely way too long IMO unless you assume Samus ages slowly. I think the Prime series happening over a year makes sense but I would put it no more than a year after Zero Mission. If I had to guess I'd say Samus is 25 at the series start, 30 by Super's end, then 5ish years later Other M happens, then Fusion and Dread happen somewhat close together a year or two after Other M. So Samus is 36 or 37 in the "present" of the series.

Of course, there's the possibility that Samus just ages really well. Like, there are people in their 50s who look much younger.

To say nothing of her combo platter genetics. Who knows what effect it's having on her in terms of physical appearance.

Let's see... according to Wikitroid, Samus is born on Cosmic Calender 2000, is 3 years old during the K-2L massacre according to the manga, or 4-6 according to Other M concept art, and in her Galactic Federation military period is around 15-17 (which would actually be after the manga's main bulk). After that, the series starts in the year 20X5 CC, which at the absolute earliest would have to be 2025 CC, which would place her at the age of 25 years old during Metroid 1. In addition, the earliest game I know of (timeline wise) that bumps into 20X6 is

That being said, Wikitroid doesn't actually give a source for her date of birth, not to mention that it claims that the Galactic Federation was formed in 2003 CC, which clearly does not match with the wiki's assumption on Samus's age.

My source for the Prime series taking place in less than a year is a statement that Samus Returns takes place less than a year after Zero Mission. Given that Samus probably didn't stay at Ceres for that long, Super Metroid takes place at most a year after Zero Mission.

Yes, that's eight out eleven games taking place within a single year. More if you include remakes and pinball.

I could believe Samus ages slowly. The Chozo do and they jammed their genes into her

Including the conflicting friend to Metroids and deadly enemy to Metroids genes

She even has Ridley genes now; she ate the replica of his clone and that's now her Screw Attack.

So if she dies, she’ll just be back and even angrier?

(Personally in the great genetics mashup I think that the X parasites she eats just give her the power ups she gets. And considering she loses screw attack and has to regain it, she probably isn’t part Ridley anymore)

Edited by Bocaj on Oct 20th 2021 at 3:24:29 PM

I don't know why people claim Samus has the genetics of the X parasites she absorbs. Metroids don't become genetic amalgamations of every X parasite they've ever eaten, so by extension neither does Samus.

I could see it since the last parasite was Quiet Robe and he turned her back into just a human with Metroid genes instead of a full Metroid.

So it’s possible to mess with her genes like that and leave her fine.

I've seen some speculation that the X that absorbed Kraid/Raven Beak is also the Experiment X. It fell into the lava in the same area as Kraid, and Samus didn't absorb it at the time.

Quiet Robe deactivated the Metroid Suit, but Raven Beak called her a Metroid even before she grew the Metroid Suit, so I wouldn't take the regular suit as proof of un-Metroidness.

I assumed that QR-X gave her the instinctive knowledge needed to control her Metroid powers, rather than make them dormant again or remove them entirely.

Same. The genes and power still exist. She just got changed back for the moment. It's why I want a Metroid 6 to explore this more and maybe have her learn how to control the powers and enter the form at will.

I’m in the boat I was in at the end of Fusion

It’ll be boring if the last thing you absorbed just set Samus back to quo

And it turns out that wasn’t the case after Fusion so I’m hope thinking it’s not the case after Dread

I hope the Metroid powers stick around if only for the potential of having more Power Copying as a gameplay hook.

That's never going to stop being fun, no matter how many games do it.

Biggest issue with a "Cosmic Calendar" is that we don't know how long a single "year" takes place relative to our own year, and unless we're directly told we'll never know for sure. That being said, if we assume that it is the same as a real world year then that would make it so that most of the Metroid series took place over the course of a singular year, with a 6 month gap during Corruption.

(As an aside, imagine how fast Samus's ship must be if travelling to another galaxy was doable within less than half year).

I thought Samus was 17 when Zero Mission happened, or was that old info?

As for Samus's Metroid status, I just assumed Quiet Robe gave her the ability to control her Metroid DNA and powers so it's not done as a plotline yet.

Unless the X actually cured her of the Metroid DNA and that's what Sakamoto meant by Dread being the final game dealing with Samus's connection to the Metroids.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Oct 20th 2021 at 7:35:02 AM

The final cutscene shows Samus looking at her left palm, which still has the glowy green circle, in a similar manner to how to how she did at the end of the first cutscene. I'm pretty certain the takeaway is supposed to be that she still has draining powers, if not necessarily the OP suit

Could be cool if the next game was built around an absorb and release system.

So Samus would start with the ability to drain and redirect energy, but eventually obtain abilities that would let her solve puzzles without having to find a source first. But the Drain ability would still have some relevance for combat, or maybe some energy types that she doesn't get a source for.

Although it would be maybe a risky move to add such a central ability to the sixth game in the franchise.

One of the murals on ZDR depicts Chozo Warriors subjagating Space Pirates, and even has a little icon of Mother Brain

Fascinating, I've been suspecting that the staff might want to add in some connection between Mother Brain and Raven Beak.

It lends further credence to the idea that Raven Beak was at least an inspiration for Mother Brain's ambitions.

I hypothesize that the mural represents MB observing Mawkin warriors subjagating Space Pirates that had the gall to raid one of their old territories for resources and Artifacts.

Seeing them subjugate the Space Pirates like that may have been the seed of Mother Brain's own belief that power and conquest is how you bring about order.