Ah metroid one of the better series nintendo has produced, But with so many games multiple
different developers what is the true story and what isn't. or at least what is canon
and what is an alternate time line.
There has been a lot of controversy about whether or not metroid prime is canon or if
other M is.
And with a new Prime having been announced I decided to take a look at the time line
and where they a supposedly exist.
First we have Metroid (and the Remake Zero Mission), and then Metroid Prime, Hunters,
Echoes ,Corruption, Federation Force, Return of Samus, Super Metroid, Other M, Fusion.
So...
Wait, wait what is "canon" in this scenario…
I'm glad you asked well Canon in normal terms means what is "officially" part of the
story and what isn't, like that weird fanfic you wrote about Samus going on a crossover
adventure with Thomas the Tank engine… is not canon.
Its a made up story that doesn't effect the actually canon story..
Normally, canon is the part of the story that is made by the original creators, or people
the creators have entrusted with the story.
So Wait... why are we even arguing about this? they are all "Official games published by
nintendo" right?
well this conflict stems from one really big thing called Fans.
Fans of the metroid series seem to be mixed whether prime is canon, part of the same universe,
and the same goes for Other M.
And there are a number of reasons for this.
For example, what if the Official story contradicts itself or what if they sourced a different
company to write the story.
Would it still be canon?
Thats what we will be discussing today.
So what do I mean when I say the Prime series?
So we have Metroid Prime, Echoes, Hunters, Corruption, Federation Force, 4… and pinball
as the Prime series… lets scratch pinball off of there, its a spinoff.
Two of the Prime games, Hunters and Federation Force, are written and developed by different
parties than the other three.
As such, some people say that Hunters and Federation Force may not be part of the 'Prime'
Story line due to how little they interact and fit in, and the fact that they were made
by different studios.
Though There are' some' instances that their stories do intertwine to help tie them
into the same universe, but it's mainly in tiny tidbits and textlogs.
Metroid Prime: Hunters is a self encompassing game, that starts and ends within its own
duration.
But we can see that the stories do intertwine as seen in the end of Prime 3.
Which was Made by the development team Retro Studios.
During the special ending you can see a mysterious ship that resembles the character Sylux's
Ship.who is A character that is first introduced in Metroid Prime: Hunters.
It was theorized for quite some time by fans, That it was his ship the Delano 7 or some
variation of his ship, but that was not confirmed until E3 2015 when
Kensuke Tanabe, one of the producers of the Prime series, Stated that it was in fact Sylux
the bounty hunter That may integrate Hunters into the continuity
but what about Federation Force?
Well that character Sylux is theorized to have appearance at the end of Federation Force
during a special ending where you are able to see what many believe to be his Shoulder
pad while stealing a metroid while it is hatching.
Other than those, There really isn't much in terms of continuity or connections between
the trilogy and the Prime subtitles by way of story elements.
So Now we know that the Prime series is at least in the same universe and the way samus
acts in each is at least similar.
So we ask the question: Is metroid prime canon Let's start off with the biggest Issue with
Primes canon status.
The games weren't created by R&D1 or directed by Sakamoto, Samus' Daddy, so that is a
major ding.
A game not written by the original creators well boom there ya go it's not canon… right?
Well if we go based off of that then the only games that are true canon would be ones made
by R&D1 so we have Metroid Metroid II Super metroid and Metroid fusion.
Sakamoto may have been one of the directors of Other M but the game itself was made by
Team ninja a completely different team than R&D1.
The next biggest issue is that Sakamoto has never been firm on whether or not the Prime
series is canon. even saying that they are almost an alternative or a gaiden to the primeless
metroids.
meaning a side story or a tale.
In 2010, nintendo published a magazine for Mario's 25th anniversary, and it included
an article interviewing Sakamoto, where, when asked about the prime trilogy's canon status,
he stated"
We wanted to explore Metroid's possibilities as a subjective (first person) action game.
A member of Nintendo mentioned Retro, a studio that had great experience in this field.
I didn't participate a lot in these games: I supervised that they maintained the essence
of the franchise, but we gave them a lot of liberty with the plot.
In fact, I have always seen the story of the Primes as alternative, and not integrated
in the story of the other Metroids, that's the reason they had total liberty when creating
it.
And Samus was different, tougher."
He is clearly distancing himself and the mainline metroid IP away from these games, stating
that he let the developer, Retro, have almost full reign of the direction and plot of the
games to create their own story with samus.
The creator, saying that a game was seen as an alternative or non integrated into the
rest of the series is the final nail in the coffin for Primes canon, Generally speaking
the 'word of god' rule goes, where the original story creator has total say over
the stories canon, including retconning previous things, so that current plot points make sense.
So really there should be no more debate on this right?
Well...
Not exactly, you see the Prime series was very well received by the western audiences
and is seen as almost superior to the other releases.
Also, There really isnt anything in the Prime series that would totally contradict Samus'
character or her motivations, even the lore and plot details all fit snugly into MEtroid
overall.
I dont see Prime as being strictly non-canon, but if the creator said that it's more of
an alternative story, then perhaps it is canon, at least for now, but not in the Latest Metroid
Story Line.
(other M)
Some even say that Prime is the true canon and that Other M is the Non canon one.
Well Is metroid other M canon?
In Other M we see Sakamoto's disdain, there are almost no mentions of Prime or any of
the events of Prime.
Almost as if the storylines are separate! or at least someone didn't like the prime
series.(Glares at sakamoto picture) Other M at some points even contradicts primes story
line, or simply ignores Primes events.
Some fans state that Other M is so out of character for samus, that it simply can't
be true canon.
We see her go from the solo, silent, alien murdering machine that answers to no-one like
a tough bounty hunter would, to a warm overly sympathetic person that follows orders to
the point of not using certain weapons unless authorized...by someone she doesnt exactly
HAVE to listen too anyway…
This is obviously a game play restriction unlike every other Metroid where she loses
all her abilities at the beginning.
This has been defended by some who state that she is following protocol and regulations
out of respect for her old acting commanding officer.
We also see a Samus that has a less powerful emotional wall, she gives into her PTSD as
shown in my other video.
Though, this makes her a stronger character, details in that video.
But the game does give us a lot of the backstory of Samus through flashbacks, which helps reaffirm
its canon by showing flashbacks to previous elements of her story found in previous Metroids!
Notably though, none of these flashbacks are to any of the Prime games, despite all of
them taking place before.
In fact, Other M's story goes as far as to directly contradict Metroid Prime 3's
story! after Samus defeats the Grub Mass she says: "It was the first joint mission I'd
been a part of since becoming a freelance bounty hunter.
And, of course, it was the first time since my Federation days that I was following the
orders of a commanding officer."
Samus as a bounty hunter was working for the Federation during the events of Prime 3.
They hired her to clear a computer virus from their Aurora Units.
Then again in the more recent title Federation Force, she is hired by the federation to find
the Doomseye.
And all this happens before the events of Other M.
We have another problem during Metroid Fusion when it introduces the bio weapons plot point,
which causes two problems:
One: Samus is shown working for or with the Federation in Fusion, despite her negative
experiences with them in Other M. This is not explained, creating a large plot hole.
Counterpoint: Although She's shown working for BSL specifically, which appears to be
a privately-run company Not run by the Federation.
Counter Counter point: Then again there are many data points where it states the Weapon
X program is Federation property.
But this is found out after you embark on your mission with samus's ultimate decision
to blow the station up which would go with her character of hating the use and development
of bioweapons.
The second problem is that Samus does not mention or hint at any experiences from Other
M in Fusion, nor is there anything explaining why she wouldn't.
The only connection point that fusion does have to Other M is the ship's AI is renamed
by samus to adam, a previous commander she had, the same one in Other M. This could have
been the Other M developers using this as a chance to try and link the story into the
other Games.
Unfortunately this was most likely caused by the fact that Fusion was made in 2002 and
Other M was made in 2010.
So the developers were forced to use what was available to them from Fusion.
Making adam was the only real point they could really expand upon, Using the ship's AI as
a base of his personality.
Notably, This showcases one of many plot holes that exist because they made the games out
of sync.
Super Metroid a game that came out in 1994 is the third to last entry to the timeline
with the only events taking place after are that are seen in Fusion, produced in 2002,
and Other M made in 2010.
The latest game made was Metroid Federation Force, published in 2016, with its location
in the Timeline being the middle.
This may be the main cause of issues regarding continuity.
One other small incongruity that other m made was the statement that the federation had
to use genetic manipulation to take out vulnerability to the cold in metroids.
But This trait is actually explained in metroid 2 as they already lose this through their
metamorphosis.
Some fans also point out how strange it is that the space pirates from Other M are Able
to recreate mother brain despite it being insanely advanced yet lost chozo organic computer
technology.
Another plot hole fans use to make the game non canon: Why does samus Freak out at ridley
even tho she's killed him like a bazillion times.
Well we've gone over this in my other video, It does make a bit of overall narrative sense,
but still.
And there are plenty other problems that Other M causes that messes with canon and continuity,
but listing them all would take too long.
And by now you get the idea.
there are quite a few big holes but the real question is where the events that transpired
within Her Character.
What is samus's character then
Well we should start by getting baseline of classic non prime and other M games so that
includes Metriod Metoird II Super Metroid.
But these are quite old and really the surface plot of those games was shoot metroids! your
a bounty hunter!
Unless you digged into the lore through text logs and the manual, they lacked a lot of
story elements.
And considering alot of people dont do that… its easy to just say that other M samus isn't
the same samus.
The same can go for Prime samus.
Plus in games where you play a silent protagonist it's hard to keep the continuity smooth
when you start to add in backstory and self motive like they started in Fusion, with samus
actually stating opinions and such, and they built upon this character they created in
Other M. They gave a voice to an otherwise silent character.
That's like if Link started to boast his opinion on pots or talked about how he hated dodongos.
It just wouldn't be the same…
It'd be miserable even…. … … … *the baby the babey the baaabeeeee*
Lets look at the games in order of release date, and look at the character of samus.
First we have Metroid 1986 In this rendition we get a samus that takes no prisoners and
wipes out the metroid threat after being hired by the Federation.
There really isnt much in terms of personality development as the character was still new
and games were different back then.
It wasnt even until finishing the game that you realised Samus was a woman even.
Metroid II Return of samus was released in 1992.
Here we get a samus that has bested the pirates once, and now is on a mission to finish off
the last of the metroids on a new planet after many federation teams were lost.
She finds a lone baby metroid that she is unable to bring to an end, showing that she
has compassion or a maternal instinct to some extent.
In Super Metroid from 1994, we get an intro narrative that explains that she left the
baby metroid with science officers, only later to find out that ridley kidnapped the metroid
and destroyed the science station.
She confronts the pirate bosses once again.
During her adventure she finds the baby metorid but it has grown, the metroid attacks but
stops just short of killing her.
This shows that she isn't all powerfull and has limits.
She then faces mother Brain, almost losing until the baby(adult now)metroid returns and
drains power from MB and grants Samus the Power.
in doing this the Baby(adult) is destroyed by MB.
Samus then uses all the power she has gained to destroy MB and the entire Planet.
This shows that samus feels for the loss of the Metroid that had imprinted on her, and
shows that she is prone to Fury and Rage.
After some time, Fusion comes out in 2002 where she is sent to a research facility by
the Federation to explore a distress signal.
she then gets attacked by the X parasites, and winds up being fused with what little
metroid dna the federation had at the time.
This lets her explore the space station.
During which she talks-or, rather writes log entries about her new ship AI, which she later
names Adam as the computer reminds her of one of her previous Commanding officers from
when she worked as a Federation soldier.
This gives us a glimpse at her backstory explaining that she was once part of the Federation,
and what kind of character this Adam was.
The Beginning of the Metroid Manga was released the same year, and this also goes deep into
Samus' origin story, including more about Adam.
At the very end of fusion, samus finds out that they are going to use the last of the
metroid dna of her baby metroid she had lost in the previous game as a bio weapon! so she,
along with her ships AI, decide to go directly against Federation orders, and detonates the
space station, eliminating all life on it and the planet it collides with, thus ending
the x parasite and metroid species, except for herself as she now contains Human Chozo
X and Metroid DNA.
From the base games that most fans agree are canon, we have a efficient killing machine
that has wiped out ecosystems and uses all the tools as they are gifted to her by her
Chozo mentors.
Yet at the same time we see that she is human and can love or has a maternal instinct and
emotions, just doesnt show them most of the time.
We also see that she can channel her anger and rage to do monstrous things like destroy
planets.
And as a Side note, these games all follow one story, the story about the metroids, wiping
them out completely, save 1, and then that 1 dies too.
It's dubbed The Last Metroid story.
and Now that we have a base line of her we can compare her to the other games.
So how do the supposedly non canon games change her character? and are they plausible enough?
In Prime the Storyline is rather contained in each game with a small overarching story.
We are samus, a strong silent type that Destroys Meta Ridley with little hesitation like the
previous games.
During the events of Prime she is out for her own vengeance and personal missions.
In Prime Echos she is a caring person that attempts to help a race in need of urgent
help against a dark advisory.
There is not much in terms of character deviation than what we've established.
As for it being referenced the game itself, this game is self closing except for a few
details such as dark samus still surviving.
After echos is Corruption where we see samus fall victim to phazon corruption.
We see in this story that she can feel emotion shown seen when she heads to Elysia where
she mourns the loss of the hunters.
We see a weaker samus, but one that eventually overcomes her weaknesses.
When Retro Studios made The Prime series, they made sure to never step on any toes,
they are safe games.
It doesn't make samus anything more or anything less than what she already was.
She stayed a power bounty hunter that always gets the job done.
In fact it's so safe that really… even if it wasn't canon, the only thing that
makes it non canon IS Other M, and the possible feelings of one of Metroids directors.
So if Other M is the only big reason Prime cant be canon, then how about Other M?
Here we are shown a Samus that is not an emotionless killing machine.
We see her softer side almost to a fault during every event of the game, and flashbacks.
We find a Samus that follows orders from someone who no longer has authority over her, almost
to a fault, not utilizing key weapons and abilities to ensure the safety of her team,
that she only occasionally interacts with.
Also as a gameplay mechanic, but still.
It is also shows samus working with others and not solo.
The Father figure she looks up to, Adam, is further built upon in this game.
This game was very big in terms of character change.
It also added a lot of backstory, but interestingly, while this backstory has multiple inconsistencies
with Prime primarily, it also doesnt work out too well with other Metroid titles continuity
either, BUT remember that manga I mentioned that came out at the same time as Fusion?
That manga goes even further into Samus' backstory, and explores Adam and the federation
even more too.
But the manga also adapted and changed multiple things about her previous adventures in Metroid
and Metroid 2.
Interestingly, These adaptations wind up working with Other M.
So what is the true canon?
well, The fact is both are canon ya nerds! calm down! just because the creator said or
because the game is not as good doesn't make them less canon.
I mean this happens all the time, Take Sir Conan arthur doyle's character sherlock holmes.
Doyle was so tired of this character after so many books, that he planned for Sherlock
to come to an end during his final battle with moriarty, and he does, he falls off a
cliff and dies, thus ending the sherlock holmes story... but…
The fans hated this so much! to the point that doyle was receiving death threats!
And after so much fan backlash and disdain he, albeit reluctantly, brought his character
back in a book that just continues the story, and never mentions sherlocks death or the
final battle at all.
so whats canon? did he die or is he still alive?
well that's up to you the reader to decide, if it is within your suspension of disbelief.
Its up to you the fan to decide what is canon and what isn't.
The argument normally stems from one fan saying that the game they like is better so the others
should be disregarded.
But can't we all just like the story ignoring plot holes and incongruities…..mistakes
like that just happen.
And also, a lot of this stems from a particular narrative theme.
I believe that they are both canon, but are separate stories.
The prime series is just that, the Prime series, or the prime arc, it is an enclosed story
or stories made by the same developers (until now) with an end goal.
Its not to say that they aren't canon to the non prime games, they are just their own story,
separate from "the Last metroid" story that the other games follow.
They both have different adventures, different stories to tell, just like how we all have
"chapters" in our lives, and some chapters, like middleschool, encompass others, our childhood.
So what do you think?
Let me know down below, and check out these other awesome Metroid videos!
This one explains how Samus having PTSD actually makes her a much stronger charcter, and this
one explains the science of the X Parasite!
So until next time, please remember to never stop using your gnoggin!
For more infomation >> Chelsea police officers talk about opioid dangers - Duration: 1:40. 
For more infomation >> [EXPOS.ON50] Remember: About Friendship Video - Duration: 4:15. 
For more infomation >> 170805 에프엑스 루나 f(x) LUNA talking about F(x) (With Eng Sub) - SMTOWN in HK - Duration: 1:17. 
For more infomation >> 5 Keys to stop thinking about the man you like - Duration: 2:25. 
For more infomation >> India should hear what Vietnam is saying about China - Duration: 4:35. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét