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Lets look at gamings most ancient, epic revenge story.
- Thread starter Mama Robotnik
- Start date
Kontergurke
Member
I see. Well, the figurative nature of this one image is not really made clear by the accompanying text and it's also among lots of pretty accurate depictions of actual game scenes, so I thought readers unfamiliar with the games might be left a bit confused about that.
Ingueferroque
Banned
Fantastic art in the OP.
I'm going to guess you're being ironic since the OP made more fanfiction about the Prime saga to fit them in than the small amount info you have to add from the official manga to make Other M work better. Plus you keep ignoring the screenshot where she's the same size as the other soldiers.
Wishmaster92
Member
Mama Robotnik, I love the Metroid series and i love it when you do these types of threads.
Other M is officially considered non-canon.by Mama Robotnik and many other Metroid fans
The problem with Other M is, that it directly contradicts the previous games but it's also a disappointing game, so I guess many fans prefer a timeline in which a trilogy of great games can be considered canon over the (currently) official timeline.
Understandable, and in the light of the amazing Prime series, I guess it is indeed better to regard Other M as something separate from the rest of the series. I would love it if Nintendo would release an official artbook/history like they did with the Hyrule Historia. Game has an amazing amount of depth which really should be given more attention.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Honestly I kind of like the idea that Chozo prophecy is actually just a propensity for hallucinations in the species and by building their culture around it and believing in the "visions" they embark on crusades that result in the creation of their own worst enemies.
I didn't realize that Metroid's backstory was this complex. I certainly missed (or at the very least forgotten) about the living planet aspect of Phaaze.
Nintendo is really good about greating interesting lore for games and never expanding on it. Zelda and Metroid are full of rich backstory and lore.
Now I want to play some Metroid games.
Nintendo is really good about greating interesting lore for games and never expanding on it. Zelda and Metroid are full of rich backstory and lore.
Now I want to play some Metroid games.
C.Olimar788
Member
Great topic is great. I certainly hope we get some more Metroid games in the future - it's been quite a while since the last one, Prime 3, came out. An HD re-release of the Prime series would also be spectacular.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Honestly I'm replaying Prime 1 literally right now and about all it needs is the resolution bump, the texture work and geometry is still fantastic.
Nostremitus
Member
Great read, I really enjoyed it. The fall of Bryyo was an epic planetary civil war between religious zealots and those who accepted the Chozo technology. The end game of that war scorched the planet and the few survivors were relegated to caveman(lizard) status.
Incitemaybe
Member
Great read!
Other M's placement in the series messes a lot of things up. Most noticeably it messes with Fusion by eating its lunch and taking place before, retroactively making everyone look ridiculous in Fusion. But more than anything else, the more I think about it the more I realize that Other M wanted to be an origin story, but wasn't. Other M would have been much more better served as being a
If Other M was showing Samus' early days of freelance bounty hunting after recently leaving the Federation, than her adherence to Adam makes a lot more sense than for her to fall back in line under him after years of being independent. Then by the end where she no longer relies on Adam would be seen as character growth rather than the thing she should have been doing from the very start. The Ridley PTSD scene also would play much, much better for it being the very first time she see him since he murdered her family, rather than the fifth time she's had to kill him dead.
Of course much of the rest of the plot would have to be reworked, like the whole Metroid clone program and MB (though if that means it's no longer cribbing Fusion's story, that's yet another plus). Plus Other M still has its own internal problem to sort out, like the undercooked Deleter subplot, etc.
TheSpaceBetween
Member
Great thread, as are all of Mama's Metroid threads. Like many others have said, I now have the urge to replay the whole series for the billionth time.
It does make me sad though how many in this thread have admitted to never getting into the Metroid series. And then that got me thinking about sales, and how a single Call of Duty game has outsold the entire Metroid franchise. Such a travesty.
Ugh, we really need another great Metroid game. I liked Other M somewhat, but "like" is not good enough for me when it comes to Metroid. C'mon Nintendo, I know you have it in you. Make it happen!
It does make me sad though how many in this thread have admitted to never getting into the Metroid series. And then that got me thinking about sales, and how a single Call of Duty game has outsold the entire Metroid franchise. Such a travesty.
Ugh, we really need another great Metroid game. I liked Other M somewhat, but "like" is not good enough for me when it comes to Metroid. C'mon Nintendo, I know you have it in you. Make it happen!
Version 3.0
Member
Wow. That is fantastic. Your post has more depth, effort and care than all of Nintendo's Metroid games combined (Retro cares). Amazing work to pull all of their haphazard work into a coherant whole
Doctor Ninja
Sphincter Speaker
This thread further solidifies that Metroid is by far Nintendo's most interesting universe, you can really appreciate the amount of effort put into the backstory of the series over the years since it's inception.
Fimbulvetr
Member
This seems unlikely to me. I went back and looked, they're in the room just before the final battle, where you destroy an infant Leviathan. They're high up, on the walls of the chamber. Their scans just say that they're husks, implying that their essences have separated, and that they're identical to the original. I guess it's not a big stretch to say that other Metroids could have mutated the same way as Prime, it's just an unresolved detail. I'm imagining a bigger final battle with multiple Primes as well as Dark Samus now. Maybe they could have even fused and stuff.
Anyway, my main point is that the central plot hole the speculation plugs doesn't really exist. It's not outright explained in the game, but there's a better explanation than the one given in the OP.
Nocturnowl
Member
I'm glad I didn't miss this thread, it was an enjoyable read that pieces together the various bits of lore in a believable way, in turn i'm now thinking that I never paid enough attention to some of this stuff in Metroid.
Fan fiction is making stuff up usually involving Samus dressing up as a cat and joining Galactic Federation Spice Girls team. Mama Robotnic is organizing the original story in a more coheriant form.
I'm not ignoring the screen shot, I'm focusing on what the game is outright telling you about Samus in it's exposition. Do you not see how terribly misrepresented she is? The issue with her height is a symptom of a far larger issue of betrayal of character.
I'm going to assume you haven't played Metroid games to come to that conclusion.
I'll be honest, I've never like Ridley, he's such a dumb nemesis, a sentient dragon, that is evil? he's a terrible character.
On the other hand Mother Brain, the Chozo lore and Samus are quite amazing. You can completely remove Ridley from the Lore and just leave it as a "revenge against the space pirates" story and nothing of importance would be lost.
On the other hand Mother Brain, the Chozo lore and Samus are quite amazing. You can completely remove Ridley from the Lore and just leave it as a "revenge against the space pirates" story and nothing of importance would be lost.
Really? It's better when her run ins with metroids are pure co-incidence? Like Space Die Hard 7. How can the same shit happen to the same chick eleventeen times?
About Samus' altered humanity in the Fusion game, while Samus says she's no longer human, her body consisting of human, metroid and X DNA, when her armor explodes she still looks completely human in that game, and the post-credits reward pictures all make her look human.
So I always figured Samus' inhumanity was on like, a genetic level and not something visible to the naked eye?
So I always figured Samus' inhumanity was on like, a genetic level and not something visible to the naked eye?
Neff
Member
Games can totally get away with it, imo. You suspend disbelief because you want to go searching cool planets and ancient temples, not because you liked the plot of the last game in the series.
This is the same garbage Other M fans have been spewing since the game came out, and it's still wrong.
Many people don't seem to understand this, but dialogue (Or in Other M's case, monologue) is not the only form of characterization. Actions can speak louder than words.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
I agree with those saying Other M would have made much more sense as an origin story. How hard would it be to try and think up a slightly different continuity where Zero Mission, Metroid II, and Super all took place in a short amount of time, one right after the other? Say, within a couple months for the entire story arc of those 3 games.
Then, say a couple years pass, during which Samus goes on routine missions that haven't appeared in any of the games. And after that, Other M takes place, suddenly bringing up and forcing Samus to confront events from her repressed past, and directly leading to Fusion and her confrontation with the Galactic Republic?
Following this, Samus becomes an outlaw, operating on her own, in secrecy, only to eventually have her ties with the Republic renewed years later, when the Republic is facing an even greater threat, in the form of invasions of Leviathans from Phaaze?
Obviously this would require some changes, such as the opening log in Prime 1, but since I don't remember the extent to which external events were referenced in the Prime trilogy, could someone more knowledgeable chime in on how much would need to be changed for this to make sense?
Then, say a couple years pass, during which Samus goes on routine missions that haven't appeared in any of the games. And after that, Other M takes place, suddenly bringing up and forcing Samus to confront events from her repressed past, and directly leading to Fusion and her confrontation with the Galactic Republic?
Following this, Samus becomes an outlaw, operating on her own, in secrecy, only to eventually have her ties with the Republic renewed years later, when the Republic is facing an even greater threat, in the form of invasions of Leviathans from Phaaze?
Obviously this would require some changes, such as the opening log in Prime 1, but since I don't remember the extent to which external events were referenced in the Prime trilogy, could someone more knowledgeable chime in on how much would need to be changed for this to make sense?
Mama Robotnik
Member
Thanks again for all the positive feedback, and constructive comments too. The thread got a tweet from one of the Metroid Prime series designers, which was very nice too.
That's a really cool idea - a delusion of divinity that led to their own destruction. The real contradictions are the specificness of the Tallon IV prophecies, and the murals of Samus Aran made with a clarity of her appearance, possibly centuries or millennia before her birth.
You know, I forgot most of that. I'm tempted to go back into the OP at some point and - if the character limit allows - add the Bryo Wars, the Aether cataclysm, and the Albymic ascension. I really wanted to focus on events directly connected to the Chozo, but there is a lot to look at still.
That is my favourite interpretation! A race that can see its own doom, resists it at every turn. The resistance leads them directly to the doom they saw. Free will is nothing.
Themes of predestiny and the illusion of Free Will in Metroid. Wow!
That's a really cool idea - a delusion of divinity that led to their own destruction. The real contradictions are the specificness of the Tallon IV prophecies, and the murals of Samus Aran made with a clarity of her appearance, possibly centuries or millennia before her birth.
You know, I forgot most of that. I'm tempted to go back into the OP at some point and - if the character limit allows - add the Bryo Wars, the Aether cataclysm, and the Albymic ascension. I really wanted to focus on events directly connected to the Chozo, but there is a lot to look at still.
That is my favourite interpretation! A race that can see its own doom, resists it at every turn. The resistance leads them directly to the doom they saw. Free will is nothing.
Themes of predestiny and the illusion of Free Will in Metroid. Wow!
Those same themes repeat in Samus's character. She loses her family to the pirates, then is taken by the Chozo who see her as a savior figure and raise her from a very young age as a weapon. By the time she's an adult, her whole life has centered around prophecies made long before she was born and avenging a family that was taken from her before she even really knew them. Even assuming success, what then? Her first two families are long gone and she personally severed ties with her third(her surviving friends in the Federation).
Samus's story is an incredibly tragic one.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
robotnik you're a god
Pop-O-Matic
Banned
Amazing fucking thread. If they ever make another Metroid game, they need to this thread for story ideas.
I think you are reading too hard into Metroid's Alien connection. Could you show me the parallels between M2/Aliens and SM/A3?
In my personal canon, Other M is basically an in-universe movie "based on a true story" (Fusion) that takes horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE liberties with said story.
I think you are reading too hard into Metroid's Alien connection. Could you show me the parallels between M2/Aliens and SM/A3?
In my personal canon, Other M is basically an in-universe movie "based on a true story" (Fusion) that takes horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE liberties with said story.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
My first thought upon reading the thread title was Pacman, to be honest.
This has basically been my personal interpretation for why it makes sense for Samus to be so messed up emotionally, and so socially inept.
Did Metroid Fusion suddenly not come out eight years before Other M? 'Cuz I mean, game lays out Samus' character pretty clearly, so it should be no surprise why people would have a coherent idea of how she was supposed to be at the time Other M came out when the game that spelled her character out was 8 years old by the time it did.
Darkangel2001
Member
That was a great read. Thanks OP.
Time to play the series again.
Time to play the series again.
The OP got me thinking about Samus and how Nintendo has really wasted her character.
Think about it. She was groomed by the most advanced species in the universe, she wields their technology, and no other race has been able to replicate said technology... Who maintains it? Samus. She knows. She was taught. She is physically perfect and imposing, and probably at genius level in her intelligence... She's the mother fucking Batman IN SPAAAAAACE.
Think about it. She was groomed by the most advanced species in the universe, she wields their technology, and no other race has been able to replicate said technology... Who maintains it? Samus. She knows. She was taught. She is physically perfect and imposing, and probably at genius level in her intelligence... She's the mother fucking Batman IN SPAAAAAACE.
Other M Samus is bizarro derpy Samus.
Mama Robotnik
Member
Yes, Samus is a dark character. She is the lone survivor from the murders of her two families. She kills without hesitation, and often. She has little free will, and goes where the prophecies predicted she would.
She watched her parents die as a child. As a teenager, she had no human presence around her. As an adult, she dived into Zebes - her former home - and saw it desecrated. She survives a crash landing, is hunted across a planet with no armour, is blasted into a bulkhead aboard the Orpheon, jumps into the radioactive sludge beneath Tallon IV, has her identity stolen by Metroid Prime, just barely survives being eaten to death by the terrifying Ing, is forced into a duel at the end of a dying universe, and is poisoned with a Phazon infection and suffers a painful assault on her body and mind until her body is over half-consumed. Her Bounty Hunter friends are all poisoned and mentally controlled by the Metroid creature that she herself set free, and she is forced to euthanise them.
Samus survives the Phazon War and dives into SR388, a place that people should never, ever go. She returns to her childhood home Zebes, murders another army of Pirates, and blows the planet up. She then sustains a second deadly infection, the X, and is taken to the very edge of death. She comes back from this no longer human, and finds that her greatest ally - the Galactic Federation - has been lying to her, has used her, and cares little whether she lives or dies. She is hunted down by her own armour, destroys another world, and lives the rest of her life on the run.
The Zero suit design does her such a disservice. Before Sakamoto mandated his vision of her, Retro had her looking like this:
But my favourite is this incredibly cold, world-weary interpretation:
(I don't know the artist, I found it here).
I don't mind the current face of Samus. Just because she experiences hardship doesn't mean her face has to be hardened. She still enjoyed herself at a bar in Fusion after being hunted, disfigured, partially absorbed by parasites, fused with Metroid DNA, suffering betrayal, and finding
.
I'm still disappointed they didn't go with the Prime face, though; it has more character.
her respected mentor reduced to a computer
I'm still disappointed they didn't go with the Prime face, though; it has more character.
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