It should have also included a running subtitle underneath the cutscene to ask the player to please ignore the events of Metroid, Metroid 2, Super Metroid and even the ending of the original manga fans kept falling back on to justify Other M's 'unique' narrative because they all directly contradict what's happening on screen.
I'm not a fan of Other M. I just think people misinterpret certain elements of the plot and blow them way out of proportion. The plot is more mediocre and poorly written than terrible.
People with PTSD don't have flashbacks every time or all the time. You could have an episode over something that happened decades ago if you get triggered. Metroid 2 doesn't even have Ridley in it, and just because Samus overcomes her PTSD episode in the manga doesn't make her cured. In the manga she thought Ridley was dead because he got blown up by her dad and she didn't know he could regenerate, so in Metroid and Super Metroid she should have expected that he wasn't permanently dead. In Other M she states that she thinks she will never see him again. They could have fixed things easily by having her say she dropped her mental guard after the cutscene.
Problem is, the game never once even begins to suggest that Samus has PTSD. The scene is not about Samus having PTSD, as if it was the game would suggest it somewhere. Instead, it's about systematically weakening her character, the apparent purpose of that entire awful game.
I'd advise giving
this document a read, but be warned that it's a tad blunt and long.
The game suggests that Samus has PTSD with the cutscene that we are discussing. Like I said, they should have shown the flashback she was having to clear up confusion, or maybe included a flashback about it elsewhere in the game. But she's clearly having a PTSD episode in that scene; She loses touch with reality and remembers herself as a 3 year old getting attacked by Ridley, basically reliving the traumatic event. It doesn't weaken her character because it exists outside of her character that she can't fully control and only applies to Ridley. If it was normal fear I'd agree. She snaps out of it and gives Ridley one hell of an ass kicking.
OK let's pretend the Prime series never happened, even then Samus encountered Ridley:
1: As a child
2: In the manga
3: In the original Metroid
4: Mecha Ridley in Zero Mission
5: Ridley at the beginning of Super
6: Fighting Ridley in Norfair in Super
That's still a hell of a lot of encounters with him.
1: That's the traumatic event that she relived.
2: She thought he was dead. Freaks the fuck out. Wants to die.
3: She expected him to still be alive.
4: Not really Ridley... some weird robot that looks like him for some reason.
5: She probably expected him to still be alive, but he is supposed to kick her ass in this fight.
6: She definitely expected him in this fight. Kicked his ass.
It's not like you're going to have a flashback every time and you can condition yourself. But even then people have relapses. Samus had a relapse.
