Samus' Power Suit was designed based on the X-Parasites.
- This game finally gives us an explanation as to why Samus's suit has near universal compatibility with alien tech, able to absorb them and turn them into suit modules: The suit is based on the X-Parasite! It is able to process data organically like the X-parasites do. This is also why SA-X was able to reform itself out of the PIECES of Samus's old suit and why the SA-X was able to multiply. Even the colors are the same. The 3 main colors of X-parasite are orange, red, and green....the same as Samus's old suit. Orange body, red helmet, green visor (and often Tron Lines.)
- Jossed. In the manga her first suit was designed by Mother Brain, while her updated Varia Suit was actually an ancient war armor earned in the Chozo Temple in Zero Mission, likely created years before the Chozo ever encountered the X-Parasite. So, much of the narrative regarding the armor fell apart once the origins of the iconic suit were established in Zero Mission.
The Galactic Federation was withholding the Ice Beam from Samus on purpose
- The Galactic Federation used Samus' weakness to cold as an excuse to not give her the Ice Beam. Adam already tells you they withheld the Plasma Beam and almost didn't send the Diffusion Missiles because they didn't want Samus to get too strong. This is because they knew the BSL station still had Metroids on board and didn't want her to destroy them. Samus later handles the Ice Beam no problem, contrary to what the Federation told her (though it is possible without the SA-X's data on her old suit, she would've died).
- That would make sense if it weren't for the fact that they give her Ice Missiles. I highly doubt that Metroids are so resilient to explosions and concussive weapons that it would make them immune to an Ice Missile.
- But Samus' Ice Missiles are useless against the Omega Metroid at the end of the game. She can't hurt it until she gets the Ice Beam.
- In Prime 3 we see that Phazon Metroids are indeed susceptible to Ice Missiles. However, those ones were evolved from Tallon Metroids, which were in turn susceptible to the regular Power Beam too, so they were clearly weaker than an SR-388 Metroid.
- It is possible that the Federation deliberately engineered a flaw into the Ice Missile upgrade, such that the rounds wouldn't detonate when they contacted Metroids, and the Diffusion effect was unable to freeze them. That would explain why all the Metroids we see in Fusion are immune to Ice Missiles, and why the Federation felt comfortable sending that upgrade along.
- That would make sense if it weren't for the fact that they give her Ice Missiles. I highly doubt that Metroids are so resilient to explosions and concussive weapons that it would make them immune to an Ice Missile.
The B.O.X. Security Robot wasn't rampaging; it was under Federation control at first.
After Samus is ambushed by the B.O.X. in PYR for the first time, Adam plays dumb and says it must be malfunctioning. In reality, it was very intentionally playing a "Deleter" role by sabotaging Data Rooms and eventually attacking Samus. Someone at the Federation was controlling it. However, Samus cracked its shell and exposed its biomechanical parts, allowing the X to take it from the Federation and use it against Samus later in NOC.
Samus's original suit was totally restored at the end of the game.
When Samus absorbs the Core X of the SA-X in the end, her Fusion Suit takes on an orange palette similar to her old armor, and she regains the Ice Beam ability. The game's staff wanted to show her actually regaining her old appearance, but technical limitations prevented them from swapping her sprites with that of an SA-X. After all, the implications that Samus has somehow "conquered" this alternate appearance are pretty strong: Fusion Suit has similar colors to her old armor, and she can use the ice beam. In the end, they just went with the palette swap and re-used a colorswappable image of her in the ending cutscene, for consistency's sake. However, if the theory was true, it would put quite a different spin on the final battle.- Jossed. In Metroid Dread it's still slowly reverting back to normal via self-repair, making it look like a cross between the Fusion Suit and the usual Power Suit.
The SA-X fought at the end of Fusion is half-Metroid
The SA-X at the end of the game is a mutant hybrid between an Omega Metroid and an X Parasite that attached itself to Samus's Power Suit. It's final form is it's true appearance, the freakish result of an X taking over the Omega Metroid's body.- The Metroids are the main predators of the X. Any X would be absorbed just by touching it. It is impossible for X to infect a Metroid. The final form looks more like a mash up of all the forms the X have taken rather than an Omega, anyway.
- This troper always thought that SA-X's One-Winged Angel-esque form kinda looked like a Biological Mash Up between the Power Suit and a Hornoad—which is consistent with the fact that when Samus is infected at the very beginning of the game, the X Parasite that did it came out of Hornoad that Samus shot with a missile.
The X-Parasite picked up Ridley's "soul" as well
Ridley's soul cells may be able to travel through thin air - or they may have remained in his "corpse" the whole time after the Queen killed him in Other M. This may explain how he returns almost every game with absolute ease. After the Queen's death, his cells returned to his body with nowhere else to go and he was moved off to a new Space Station in Fusion - until the X parasite absorbed his remaining cells and merged with him, creating Neo-Ridley, who is absorbed into Samus' armor once again. And even then, that may not be the end of him, given how the scientists may have brought him back in Other M. Eventually I believe that, as a result of this, he will fuse with the cells of the other creatures that have been showered all over Samus and become the ultimate Big Bad. There, that's the end of my insane theories, and yeah it may be a long shot, but how would Ridley have such a sadistic hate for Samus in the games where he is supposed to be a copy without memories? Please criticize if necessary, this may be full of nonsense but I for one like to believe that Ridley (the original) is not Deader than Dead and the clone (both from Other M and Neo-Ridley from Fusion) is not just a "clone", as that would imply that he is not actually Ridley.- the X created multiple Sa-X from Samus, whos to say they couldent have done the same with Neo-Ridley, perhaps only one of the copys contained his "soul" that one did the smart thing and pissed off into space to rocover and reformulate his plan to account for his new strengths and weaknessess as an X, this would be thematiclly appropriate, as Samus is now part metroid it makes sense her arch rival would become the metroids natural enemy, it would also give him a mockery of Samuses own capabilitys, her suit is modular capable of absorbing and utalising various technology, and as an x-parasite ridley would now be able to do the same to organic life.
Neo Ridley/Ridley-X was another member of Ridley's species, not Ridley himself.
Ridley isn't the only member of his species - just one of the more infamous. The corpse seen in Fusion was a researcher-dragon who died some time before the start of Fusion, and his body was iced in preparation to send back to his homeworld. This also explains Samus' complete non-reaction to him.
- This was probably Jossed by Other M.
Adam!Computer genuinely did believe that Adam's sacrifice was foolish.
- When Samus let slips Adam's name to the computer, the following exchange takes place.Adam: Did this "Adam" care for you? Would he sit in a safe Command Room and order you to die?Samus: He would understand that some must live and some must die... He knew what it meant. He made that sacrifice once.Adam: So he chose life for you? Our fair warrior, Samus Aran... Your Adam gave his life so that you might keep yours... For the sake of the universe...Samus: .........Adam: How foolish.Samus: How dare you! How could you hope to understand, machine?
- It seems a little harsh when you consider Adam's actual fate, but consider that it's likely that Adam's brain was uploaded before his death. Adam!Computer has absolutely no idea how his original self was killed, and when presented with the truth, he considered that sacrificing oneself for another is an idiotic idea. He has no idea about the circumstances of his death, and his reaction is mainly one of "God, was the meatbag version of myself that dumb?"
Computer!Adam is attempting to make amends for his behavior on the Bottle Ship.
"Did this 'Adam' care for you? Would he sit in a safe Command Room and order you to die?" Yes. Yes he did. He also treated her like something stuck to the bottom of his shoe. And he's sorry. By helping Samus screw the rules, he's asking her forgiveness.- It's likely that Adam's mind was uploaded long before his death on the BOTTLE SHIP. Unless he looked back at reports of Adam's involvement in the incident - unlikely, since the GF didn't seem too keen on preserving details of the embarrassment - the computer would have no idea how Adam treated Samus.
BSL stands for Bioweapon Space Labs
The station is supposed to be a research facility to study the lifeforms of SR388, but how come it also contains a lot of Zebesian creatures? And how come they have a GIANT COMBAT CYBORG locked away in one sector? And then there's the whole Metroid breeding program. And would a research station really have a self-destruct system powerful enough to cause an Earth-Shattering Kaboom when the station is rammed at a planet? It's clear that the "research facility"-thing is just a front and the real purpose of the BSL is to act as a secret laboratory to develop new bio-weapons for the Federation. They obviously were studying lifeforms there, but not from just SR388. Instead, they had collected various dangerous species from different planets so they could study them to see if they could be used as weapons. Nightmare was most certainly one of their finished products.- BSL certainly appears to be a rather unscrupulous military industrial company, but I also wonder if the Federation isn't their only customer. There are other governments in the series (the first examples that come to the top of my head are Egenion from Prime and the Kriken Empire from Hunters), and surely they would want weapons as good as the Federation's, if for no other purpose than to defend themselves if the Feds start encroaching on their territory. So, the Feds "own" the metroid and the X projects, but the Nightmare and the security robot might have been technology demonstrations aimed at selling those products to a larger market.
- Nightmare's status as a BSL creation has been Jossed by Other M, although the truth isn't too far off; apparently, he's actually a Federation-made bioweapon that was originally stored aboard the Bottle Ship, alongside the rest of their horrific creations, and was apparently reconstructed and moved to the BSL station after his defeat by Samus. Considering the large level of overlap between the stuff found on the Bottle Ship and the BSL satellite, it seems entirely possible that the latter was actually built to continue the experiments begun on the former, only under the guise of an innocuous "civilian" project, so that it wouldn't draw anyone's (especially Samus') attention.
The researchers on BSL were already well on their way to replicating a Chozo Power Suit.
The Chozo, well known for being extremely advance in biological science, likely created the Power Suit using the DNA of several species. This troper doesn't see it as a coincidence that all abilities gained from the X, aside from beam abilities and the Varia suit, were displayed as natural abilities from an X mimicked creature. The BSL were likely collecting these species for the sole purpose of eventually creating their own Power Suit from their DNA.- Maybe they knew about the SA-X and wanted to see if they could use it to replicate a Power Suit. Dangerous idea...
- You know how they tried controlling Metroids with MB in Other M? Maybe they thought they could control X in the same way. Imagine a Federation with an army of countless SA-Xs, bent to the will of a Federation AI. (Of course, due to the intelligence of the X this would never work; the animalistic and emotional nature of the Metroids made them manipulable, but the X were much too proud and self-preserving to ever listen to another Mother Brain).
This was not humanity's first encounter with the X-Parasite...
Before the Chozo had created the Metroids, the X had managed to hitch a ride on a saucer-shaped spacecraft, which crash-landed on Earth, in Antarctica. Thousands of years later, in 1982, this strain of X would awaken. The only reason it didn't consume the biosphere of Earth in mere weeks was that the scientists at U.S. Outpost 31 had the courage to Face Death with Dignity and take the X with them. The X warped the appearance of the game's bosses and enemies.
- Given how the SA-X shifted into a horror form, the differences of X-Ridley, even with the corpse, and the zombie Researchers, I believe the X may tend towards changing it's victims into combat forms. The mimicry is an early invasion strategy, and later, it mutates it into some kinda of out and out offense form, or else simply does it for infection site defense.
- Samus Returns shows that a Hornoad indeed mutates upon X infection. On the other hand, most of the X enemies in Dread (save for the hybrids) are exact replicas. The only enemies explicitly mutated seem to be the Experiment and the Chozo Soldiers at half health.
The scientist that tried to make the BSL station explode did so to kill the X, not Samus.
- Consider what happened in Metroid Dread with Quiet Robe X being able to willingly sacrifice himself so Samus could control her Metroid powers, it is possible that the scientist either had enough will power, or was desperate enough, to keep control of his mind and body despite the X invading his body and decided that the best way to kill the X was to cause the boiler room to meltdown and destroy the entire station.
The Federation only made a copy of Adam's mind so that they can control Samus.
Samus believes it's not uncommon for the minds of Federation officers to be digitally duplicated, but what if Adam was an extraordinary case? He's one of the only people capable of giving Samus orders. The Federation couldn't lose such a precious asset.
- Then why would they hide that the computer was Adam at first?
