Headscratchers / Super Metroid

• How did the Etecoons and Dachoras (the animal friends who teach you techniques) escaped from the exploding Zebes?
  • Same way they escaped the station in Fusion: stowing away on Samus' ship.
    • That's not possible, because when you rescue them, in the explosion scene you can see the single pixel flying off to the side. I think the real question is how they can drive spaceships in the first place?
    • It is implied that they are more than just animals.
  • There are two possibilities. Either A: They managed to get the Wrecked Ship spaceworthy (Not a stretch, considering they can assist in operating a ship in Fusion, and most of the ship's functions actually come back to life once Phantoon is defeated), or B: They hitched a ride on Dachora, who shinesparked off of the planet (how they did this without the shinespark harming them or Dachora's egg isn't clear, however it is at least implied that Ridley can travel in the vacuum without a ship, so maybe they can as well.)
  • Perhaps they stole a Pirate ship.
• Why is the eye guardian in Tourian several rooms before Mother Brain's hallway, instead of directly before it, like the rest of the boss doors?
  • It may be there to heighten the tension for a very vile purpose- to get the player to use the Save Room that locks them into Tourian forever. Those types of doors usually hint that a boss is coming up immediately; however, in Tourian's case, it comes right after a tense moment of nearly dying. To a new player, they may see that door, give a curious peek inside after defeating it, and then realize they don't know -what- is coming up next (especially after a certain scare), but, hey, there's a conveniently placed Save Room according to the map! It's easy to assume, that, with such a door in place, and a Save Room right after, this is the game's way of telling you that something serious is coming up.... and who would think twice about using a Save Room in that case? It's a brief sense of comfort that hides the fact that nowhere in the game, does anything tell you that Save Room is the point of no return.
  • So what do you mean by using "vile" as a descriptor there?
• Seriously, what is that thing slumped over right outside of Kraid's room, before the Gadora? It appears to be a corpse wearing a power suit, only slightly different from Samus's. It is motionless, covered in some kind of orangish substance (possibly the Gadora's projectile), and has bugs that scatter away upon approach, leading to the 'corpse' speculation. But if this is a new hideout (the old one blew up in the first game, after all), then this 'thing' couldn't have been here terribly long. Did somebody visit Zebes during the events of the second game?
  • Someone who died while traversing a dangerous area. That someone has no story to tell and no one to tell it for them, just like Samus if she should happen to die in the caverns.
• How did Samus know to return to Zebes? There was no indication that Ridley intended to take the Metroid there, and she hadn't been to Zebes for years since the first game. Plus, the Space Pirates had established multiple bases over the years, as the Prime series had shown. So how did she know the Space Pirates had reset up shop there?
  • Federation Force helps make more sense of this. In that game, Samus is investigating Pirate activity and reporting her findings to the Federation Marine Corps, which consists of a ton of data on their movements, and the GFMC uses this to track down and destroy many Pirate bases throughout the region. With this game taking place relatively shortly before Super, she has a treasure trove of actionable intelligence concerning Space Pirate hideouts and recent activity, and Zebes probably jumped to the top of the list especially considering how much raw material and labour would be needed to reconstruct and expand the Pirates's underground bases in the planet.
  • Easier explanation: she simply followed Ridley. He went to Zebes, therefore Samus went to Zebes.
• Ok, so your mission was to rescue the captured Metroid from Ridley. You fail, as the Metroid sacrifices itself to save your life and give you the power to destroy Mother Brain. Why is it that, having left the planet sans Metroid, it still says "The mission was completed successfully"?
  • Missions like that usually go along the lines of, "Retrieve resource or prevent opposition from using it". Samus got the second objective, and royally screwed over the pirates in the process. Basically a success.
  • Alternately, it was a continuation of her mission from Metroid II: exterminate all Metroids. That mission was not complete, as the infant Metroid still lived. Metroid: Other M makes it clear that Samus keeping the thing alive and giving it to researchers was a serious breach in protocol (though apparently not actually illegal). When she's giving her report to the Federation in the beginning of Other M (right after Super), she specifically cites the "Exterminate all Metroids" objective as being completed successfully.
  • In the first Metroid, Samus's mission is to destroy the Pirate leadership. Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain all get better after seemingly dying. In Metroid 2, she's sent to annihilate the Metroids, and brings one back for study. Super sends her to recover the infant Metroid, which is destroyed (ironically, Mother Brain completes Samus's second mission for her by doing this). Fusion has her helping an investigation team on SR388, which directly results in the infestation of the X parasite on the station, riding in on her armour. Other M, she investigates a distress signal on a mission to rescue survivors, and winds up destroying the entire station, as well as recovering only 50% of the survivors in question. Can we just say that Samus sucks at the jobs she’s hired to do?
  • Her mission in the first Metroid was to destroy all Metroids on Planet Zebes and Mother Brain. She did that quite handily; nearly eliminating Pirate activity on Zebes for at least the period of the Prime Trilogy and perhaps even Metroid II with both destroying Tourian and destroying the Pirate Ship in Zero Mission. Also, if every job she did resolved simply and cleanly, that wouldn't be very entertaining.
  • Also also, 50% of the survivors is suboptimal, but still better than 0%.
• How can Crocomire swim through acid and tear down the wall OF SPIKES when he's just well... BONES?
  • I'd assume he wasn't completely skeletonised while he was swimming there, but by the time he jumps out all of his flesh had dissolved. Doesn't quite explain how he managed to jump out, tho.
    • Sheer Hatred.