see you next mission!

ˢᵉᵃˡᵍᵃᴵʳᵉ / 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘏𝘜𝘕𝘛𝘌𝘙 .

[warwaited]

@screwattack

The bounty hunter doesn't sit just yet, and Rakatak can hardly blame her. To be not only recognized but hailed in a place like this could spell danger just as easily as welcome, and free drinks aren't much of a sweetener for a lady who could probably get just the same if she clunked into a watering hole in her signature armour. One of her men raises a brow in return, but she puts a hand in front of him.

"Mind your manners, Kurakor. She has little reason to trust us... very well." The despot-to-be stands from the table herself, revealing her own garb to be rather more ostentatious than what Samus is wearing. If there were any question of her status as a pirate, it would be quickly dispelled by the fact that she's wearing a sword. And a pistol, granted - it looks to be some kind of ion blaster. Likely single-shot, since there's little room on the frame for a power cell large enough for the discharge those arms require, but there it is.

"You address Rakatak First-Among-All, Grand Admiral... and you, the knave of axe and gun, must be looking for work, else you would be in friendlier skies than this. Do I presume baselessly?"

[screwattack]

her eyes glide across each member of the crew, like a sheathed blade ready to slice should the admiral's demeanor be a smokescreen. they all stare back, they look upon this woman who is mere flesh & bone & she can see how they doubt her legend. the air is thick with hubris, the confidence of thieves strung together by the promise of glittering gold. it would only take a moment for her to trigger her ship's short range teleport & for her suit to form around her in a flash of white light, but like the sword & pistol beneath the captains ornate clothing, it hangs as a possibility, a promise & samus was only here for a job. she doesn't feel like barring teeth.

titles meant little to her, but rakatak's way of speaking does amuse her, as if drawn from a history even before interstellar travel. samus only grins at the insult & wonders what she would call herself to satisfy the first-among-all? the planet killer, the great devourer, the destroyer of worlds, some other nod to the dust & ash she's made of entire worlds in her pursuit of galactic peace. the irony of it always taste bitter. when it came to death without number samus outranks them all & if they had any connection to the space pirates she's fought for decades now, they would know.

they wouldn't offer her work, something that only builds her intrigue, & she nods in response, manages a brief mhmm-hmm as she settles onto the one open seat. her arm leaning over the back of the chair, foot tapping on the ground. they better make this worth it, the other patrons are getting pretty tense.

[warwaited]

an intergalactic bounty hunter & a warmongering space pirate walk into a bar,

“And there! Did I not say that this is where we would find her? Fools to the last, doubting me as you do.” The laugh that follows calls into question the seriousness of the insult, and across the low-lit floor of the not-quite-upscale establishment, a powerfully built, toothily grinning woman with brick red skin and almost luminous yellow eyes beckons for the bounty hunter to come closer, the similarly hued lackeys to her left and right suitably cowed by her admonition.

“Samus Aran, the great and terrible. I have awaited you - please, come. Sit. I have already informed the bar that your drinks tonight are covered by the Imperial Navy.”

[screwattack]

she thinks of it, always when she sets foot into another seedy bar, how the smell of rot & alcohol remind her of her early days as a bounty hunter. the federation police a fresh wound cauterized by the anger that drove her far away from civilized space, that clamped her armor to her skin & made samus aran into something great & terrible. she exhales through her nose, a hum that plays with a note of amusement. a thinly veiled insult, but the woman is right, in this part of the galaxy she is no savior, samus aran is just a hunter & this is where she finds her prey.

from her spot by the bar stool she approaches, a woman matching in height & muscle but unmistakably human, at least to the naked eye. there is a hint of surprise in her expression, rarely is she recognized outside her suit. wherever you turn in federation space, to newscasts & federation recruitment ads, samus aran is made of red & golden chrome, but to be seen as she is outside her second skin? these pirates are more than they seem & by appearance alone, they are not of the insectoid clone stock that litter the outer edges of the galaxy. she is intrigued & when she meets their leader eye to eye, a brow is raised & she hums again, this time curiously.

her way of asking what do you want?

[screwattack]

“ there is a war, and its name is existence. ”

marasenna sentence starters ,  accepting .

home is beneath a sky whose stars you recognize,  familiar dots glistening in the night that have charted your way here .  home is a person with whom you may share this moonlight together,  alone, with the rest of the universe sprawled in cold hues high above .  a painting on the inside of the tapestry which covers you in solitude .  she isn’t used to this loneliness,  this calm,  an unsettling,  alien feeling that burrows beneath her skin like an insect, turning to comfort whenever her breath steadies .  companionship that cracks against the aging stone, the feeling of freshly wet grass between her fingers, her nails digging into the earth itself . to feel the dirt on her skin, no chrome between her & the soil, between her & revan . very few may witness samus aran beneath her armor, this fragile humanity she clings onto, fewer still may glimpse how she lives when her heart is not a raging fire, a weapon of her inner war fed by her suit to maintain a steady rate, always fast, always beating, always alert & ready to burn the rest to cinders . now it slows down, enough to offer someone else the respite she finds among the ruins she has let house her .

they are both as ancient as all that surrounds them, they too are the scars of a centuries worth of strife & conflict given pause .

a world untouched by the ravages of a chaotic universe .  there was once a time decades back when even this tranquility was shattered, when a poisoned stinger plunged its way into the planet's core & tore her family away from her, those who did not transcend in time corrupted into shades of their darker legacy, what the chozo of talon iv had run away from, warriors of a dying empire clinging to their glory . she is the only shade that reside here now, flesh & blood & sinew but still a reminder of what once was, the last, lost sentinel trying to live as if the chozo are not a distant memory, forgotten by the galaxy they shaped . samus aran is their dying breath given form, what endures when all else is lost, persistence as a blur, the motion of a blade slicing the air . she will fight to preserve this light until she is a memory too & she has tended to these ruins whenever her flame need not scorch .

her existence is war, their existence is war, their life was earned on a battlefield that stretched itself across the cosmos . it is all they know, it is all they are, & maybe the serenity she has offered revan is a simple lie that old warriors tell each other . that there is an escape from conflict, an end to their strife, that this bloodshed is a sacrifice towards a greater peace . this was the promise that old bird had once made, that she will suffer now for something bigger than herself & when her last enemy is torn apart by her hand, she will rest, the ache is her soul will cease . her fingers tremble at the thought, stained as they are they reach for revan's through the swaying grass, as if she could pass some certainty onto them through touch alone .

“  n━  ” she stutters, even now words struggle themselves out from within her ribcage . her eyes motion them to the fields ahead, their dark greens & muted browns, a home she built out of rubble, the pride of her ancestors . life enduring in spite of all that wants it snuffed out . “  not always .  ”

[radical-eve]

[santiagogarcia]

Salvor Hardin. Hober Mallow. The Mule. I would learn these names one day. The heroes and villains fighting for the salvation of mankind. But to understand our future, we have to remember the past and the ones who caused it all. A mathematician. A martyr. A murderer. And the most important player of all, Hari Seldon. FOUNDATION 1.01 “The Emperor’s Peace”

[screwattack]

he just watches - observing with utmost care. she ... has gone through more than one person, let alone one mind should go through, and that is a lot coming from someone such as the Soldier. at first he thought to lend a hand out to the Bounty Hunter, but refrained. all there was to be done was a head tilt. " gonna be alright? "

unprompted ,  always  accepting .

such questions,  they might as well fade into background radiation .  a futile effort to reach out where no hand could touch,  invisible wounds for which there is no panacea,  ones a trained soldier is taught to ignore .  john knows it just as well,  they are trained dogs of war with more scars than they’re willing to show & even with their mutual understanding,  that comfortable silence between people who’ve fought the same demons,  he still tries to ask .  he is right too,  her gut feeling tells her as much,  but samus is awash with an anger that has yet to relent,  to be satiated,  since she felt herself slip in raven beak’s grasp .  a gnawing flame,  ever-burning & all consuming & fuelled by centuries of battle for the stability of the galaxy,  something she rarely taps into & for fear of what it might lead her to do .

samus aran is a destroyer,  an instrument of war,  the great devourer herself come to harvest another planet brimming with life & the metroid’s natural hunger for all forms of energy is a logical evolution .  she is a monster,  not a solider .  her days in the federation are long over .

john still has his honour,  she has long relinquished hers .  her fist clenches,  chrome brushing against chrome,  her fingers trembling,  a rage knowingly misplaced .  it was the danger of this fire,  this hunger,  this body of hers for whom the suit now fails to provide .  he had seen enough,  must have,  whatever her ship’s AI could scrape together from combat data collected by her scanners,  whatever connection to the facility’s neural network it had,  with or without raven beak’s interference .  there was enough to form a timeline,  the story of her survival beneath the crust of planet ZDR,  stripped bare of most of her power & finding herself forever changed,  growing into the very creature she once vowed to exterminate .  her silence has become a virtue,  she need not find words,  tirelessly explain the crawling sensation beneath her skin,  the brief few moments she wanted nothing but to consume...  consume everything .

her second skin shielded her from the worst of it,  its metal turning organic,  green hues turning red & teeth decorating its edges .  she felt it,  felt herself grow into an armour she would be unable to leave & if not for the benevolence of her tribe,  the universe would no longer see samus aran as an automaton;  a human ?  a machine ?  a beast that needs culling ?  what would they think of her,  would they have seen a space station drained of its power,  crashing onto ZDR’s surface ?  one of the chozo’s mightiest warriors who commanded the might of their conquest,  a creature yearning for battle who could not live with his species’ desire for peace,  turned to ash .  her fist remains shaking,  she is not starving anymore,  only guilt & rage poison her veins & she knows her humanity hangs by a thread .

the answer comes with her visor moving in his direction,  eyes visible beneath emerald light .  her head does not turn fully,  she should not face him like this,  he should not have to see the lines of her scowl & how they have contorted the few features her helmet do not hide .  just enough so that he knows,  he understands,  more then what a clenched fist can communicate .  there is a galaxy’s worth of bounties waiting to distract her from how she’s tarnished the legacy of her ancestors,  more fuel for the pyre & she will welcome falling back into a routine .

samus stops looking at john,  her eyes move towards the ground before her visor drowns her face in light & she turns her back .  a moments pause as her posture adjusts & then she just simply walks away .

[screwattack]

collection of thoughts about metroid dread, be ready for spoilers, obviously :

nintendo almost never truly considers or incorporates the true nature of bounty hunting as a profession so it is really refreshing for the game to open with her ship’s AI complaining about assumed risk vs. stated pay vis-à-vis the mission they are undertaking, going in solo after a deployment of seven highly advanced federation robots cut contact, presumably overwhelmed by whatever threat lays on ZDR .  the digitised adam has a tendency to reflect samus’ thoughts back at her & the real adam was one of the few people who learned to read her despite her dire communication skills, so i like to think he is echoing one of her guarded sentiments, it’s not worth it .  she’s loathe to be under galactic federation oversight once more, many of whom still do not trust her because of the destruction of the B.S.L. research station & SR388, going against direct orders & subverting a conspiracy against her so that the federation may capture the SA-X .  they’ve docked her pay & keep her on a short leash, but any surviving X must be eradicated either way & she doesn’t trust them to lead the effort, it’s a marriage of convenience .

fusion ends on the note that at least one of the higher-ups at the federation will understand the necessity of samus’ actions, that the universe would’ve been consumed by the X otherwise & samus stands alone as their sole surviving predator, & i think that’s about the only explanation where gonna get for why they’re employing samus once more .  though the nature of the E.M.M.I. as both highly formidable combatants that are resistant to samus’ base weaponry & their ability to extract specific genetic material from living specimens tells me they were sent to ZDR to bring bang samples of the X parasites should they encounter hosts, the federation never expected them to fail or be reprogrammed & when they ceased sending back data, well, who else in the galaxy could handle the X but samus aran ?

on the topic of adam it’s kind of tragic watching him be turned into the usual annoying nintendo tutorial character for basically all of metroid dread, he was a glorified objective marker provider for the majority of fusion until nearing the end when he gained story relevance & the twist of his nature as a digitised mind of one of samus’ former commanding officers is revealed, but here all he does is restate game mechanics & story beats to you after they’ve already been better explain in less words (& in some cases through gameplay/level design rather than a tutorial prompt), it sucks, i listened to all his dialog on the first go around because of course i was gonna but now i’m probably gonna skip it, & they still lock you in a room with him, they haven’t learned !  it’s also kind of strange to have him as a companion while you’re deep below ZDR’s crust, the tense atmosphere & biting survival against a harsh environment would work far better with samus being truly alone, confused after her encounter with the chozo & with no one to guide her but her own instincts .  i know there’s story relevance later, don’t worry .

adam does say ‘ treat our assets with care, lady. ‘ so he’s definitely the main negotiator that allowed samus not to face any charges after fusion (what better companion for a selectively mute, reclusive bounty hunter than a computer that talks too much).  plus, what could the federation to do samus, really, come on .  forget about the E.M.M.I. .

kraid is a very early boss & i love seeing my boy back, it’s really been too long & i’m glad he is this game’s sole returning boss, the little mother brain wannabes don’t count .  was worried we were gonna see ridley but thankfully he is 100% dead .  there isn’t a concrete explanation for his return, the two theories persist between cloning & capture, though the former explains his presence adequately given he went the way of ridley on zebes, his remains vaporised in the planet’s explosion, it’s also the explanation for ridley’s survival in other m so i’m going with his damaged carcass being hauled back to a space pirate homeworld in some form of fashion, given he is an early encounter in super metroid unless you’re speedrunning, there was plenty of time for him to lick his wounds & later be captured for interrogation by the chozo on ZDR .  he would be a valuable asset as a space pirate captain & have knowledge worth torturing for on one of the chozo’s most prominent enemies .  his struggle against his restraints & his clear hatred of samus is so nicely communicated i love all the cutscenes that feature a boss, from the counter to their deaths, it’s a visual feast .  insanely agile, nimble power suited samus isn’t really my cup of tea, especially her hanging a charged power beam at her side, but i’ve already posted about it .

it does sort of feel that with this new presentation of samus in action we’re somewhat overcompensating for her weak & subservient portrayal is some cutscenes in other m, what better opposite than have samus be unfazed by the threats she faces, circling them slowly with her arms at her side waiting for them to strike at her ?  the issue i think is that this creates a clear disconnect between cutscene samus & player samus, she performs feats that you are completely unable to do on your own/the game restricts you from doing so, she mounts each boss & presses her arm cannon against their head, unloading her arsenal into their skull, but when you play, touching these same enemies damages you .  no better example then when samus dashes up kraid’s belly to escape without being hurt, ducking to the side to avoid his belly button projectile when all you can do is jump over it or slide/morph ball under it .  i don’t know, i feel like there was good balance in prime (sorry the fucking metroid prime praise isn’t stopping any time soon), samus displayed a courteous professionalism in her encounters, not reckless self-confidence, she stood her ground, she was always alert, her weapon was trained on her enemies & she made use of her abilities much like the player would, she wasn’t flipping & zip-zooming all over the shop .  dread’s control scheme tries for a more agile character, the counter doubles as a melee attack that pushes samus forward, but it’s still metroid at it’s core .

okay no more complaining time for gushing,

the inherit sexiness of samus sole spoken line of dialog throughout the whole game being in her native chozodian is unparalleled, ascendant, truly a decision made squarely to please me directly & it worked, i’m eating this up, this is EXACTLY how you make samus into a voiced protagonist .  i’m so fucking happy they didn’t pussy out of giving her dialog after other m’s negative reception but the execution is in such a way that it creates a truly memorable, iconic moment that makes so much sense for the character of samus aran .  two sentences, nothing more, nothing less, her declaring her intent to end raven beak’s plans & spoken to the only character in dread who deserves to hear her voice, a fellow chozo of the thoha tribe, someone clearly meant to parallel old bird (like raven beak is meant to parallel grey voice, i’ll get into this later) .  it also falls very well in line with the view of samus as selectively mute, she would feel more comfortable expressing herself in her native tongue to a chozo than she would in english/galactic standard after having spent her childhood on zebes, her formative years among her adoptive species .  she struggled to transition over to humanity once she set off to train in the galactic federation, she could pick up their language with ease not only because the chozo were mutli-lingual (they had to be, having made contact with fellow space fairing races throughout their long history), but because she had started learning galactic standard as a young child on K2-L .  she was three years young upon her rescue, so at the very least, a base was formed that allowed her to push past her discomfort among fellow humans and learn to speak & live among them, even if she will always view the chozo as her ancestors, her mentors & her family .

a few plot elements don’t necessarily make sense, especially if you factor in how the original metroid 2 & super metroid presented SR388 & zebes respectively, but we are going off samus returns here & i think we will see a super metroid remake eventually, not sure how they could improve upon perfection, but it’s inevitable .

the ruins of SR388 are decrepit, ancient beyond reason, everything overgrown & fallen into such deep disrepair from centuries of the absence of sentient life that the metroids have overrun the cavern system entirely, with only a few species of native fauna surviving the onslaught .  the chozo lab rests at the heart of the planet while temples dedicated to their worship dot the caverns on the way to the surface .  whatever transpired on the planet, the creation of the metroids, it was so long ago they it had vanished from collective memory .  even zebes, once the pride of the chozo empire, had succumbed to age between samus’ first mission & her return in super, the space pirate flagship she had escaped from too eroded & decaying from decades of time past between games (i know sakomoto deconfirmed the wrecked ship being the same as the vessel we explore at the end of zero mission but c’mon now, they’re too close for it to be a coincidence) but dread makes it seem like raven beak’s slaughter of his fellow chozo was relatively recent (by metroid standards), he needed to deal with the X which had stowed away on his ship in the guise of a chozo soldier, which apparently took enough time for the events of samus returns, super, other m & fusion to happen, but the state we find ZDR in is otherwise pristine, especially the areas inhabited by chozo, i can’t really buy it .  it’s an issue i have with both samus returns & dread, i think, i don’t mind the setting of metroid being shifted from ancient worlds abandoned even by time itself to modern, futuristic & functional locales (fusion has an excellent atmosphere & it’s set on a fully operation research vessel which we see destroyed in real time), but the justification here is poor .  the chozo have been absent from the galaxy for centuries, the settlements they built on zebes, SR388, talon iv & elysia were erected millennia ago (skytown was founded 1,500 years before prime 3 took place), i wish their return to the universe carried some more fanfare & acknowledgement of their absence .  the dread reports speak of the chozo as being a rare sight & in the super metroid comics there is one suriving chozo that helps samus on her journey, but the intention originally was to have them extinct, either by their own hand or simply the inevitable passage of time .

i kind of feel like a prick now but listen the game is good i promise, but i wouldn’t be a life-long metroid fan if it wasn’t a nitpicking piece of shit loser .

the reintroduction of the X was something everyone saw coming a mile away but i really like the horror of what they’ve done to the surviving chozo soldiers, just the sight of these once great warriors giving into monstrous rage & turning into goop creatures .  originally i imagined the X being raven beak’s reasoning for eliminating the scientists on SR388, choosing to enhance his army with X & clone an infinite amount of soldiers for his conquest, & while he does display some control over the X, it is only those that have infected chozo whose memories are of his subservience to him .  kind of sad his plan is the formulaic usage of metroids for power, we’ve seen it done before far too many times, but now that samus is the sole surviving metroid, it adds a bit of flavour .

not sure how to feel about the intertribal conflict at the centre of metroid dread, the chozo where never a homogeneous whole & i’m glad the games are directly acknowledging this though .  the chozo of talon iv lived in peace with nature, limiting their use of technology as they took to worship & eventually transcended into the great beyond, those that settled on elysia had unique architecture & naming conventions, they brought sentience to machines & left them to rule themselves, though they kept a relationship with the collective chozo as a member of their tribe was a key part of the development of the power suit .  now different tribes of chozo have names, but the dichotomy between the thoha & the mawkin is deeply simplistic, one being scholarly & kind while the other is warrior-like & violent, i wishing for more nuance in their dynamic, honestly .  it echoes back between the conflict of samus’ upbringing, the paths she could’ve chosen between old bird & grey voice’s mentorship, whom were scholars & warriors in their prime .  ares brought this up in conversation but the chozo temple in phendrana drifts has statues that represent the different lifepaths a chozo could take, between shaman, philosopher, warrior & architect .  part of me wishes this was the nature of the conflict at play, instead of being parallels to her mentors, quiet robe & raven beak could’ve the chozo who raised her & now their conflict threatens the galaxy as the warriors overpower the scholars .

tying their genetics as an important part of the story is questionable too & partially nonsensical, as the thoha’s ability to control metroids isn’t or shouldn’t be imbued in their genes, they are the scientists that first bred metroids & even they couldn’t stop them from getting out of control & overtaking SR388 .  as well, the mawkin were the warriors brought to protect the thoha as they explored the planet, why are the metroids naturally hostile to them ?  why did meeting raven beak trigger samus’ latent metroid DNA because of their designed hostility to his tribe, but seeing the x, the creatures the metroids where engineered to eradicate, do no such thing ?  i honestly don’t know, this is an aspect of the story that feels rushed & it really needn’t be .

alright well, listen, i’ve been down on the story more or less up until now but samus definitely two insanely great moments of characterisation that are franchise defining, her line of dialog & her unleashing her full metroid powers on raven beak .  she displays anger visibly in her scowl throughout dread but never has samus been allowed to simply succumb to her repressed rage like this before & i adore it, of all the moments in the game this is the one i’ve rewatched the most & god, i can’t put it into words .  she hasn’t hated anything in this universe as much as she hated raven beak in that moment, calling her his daughter even though he could scarcely compare to her mentors on zebes, who taught her the value of peace above all else .  he might parallel her warrior nature, be her equal in combat, but he is another in a line of her dark reflections .  the slaughter of their fellow chozo, everything their civilisation had stood for for millennia crushed in his ruthless pursuit of power & galactic conquest .  he was a fool to make an adversary of samus & in the brief seconds of unconsciousness the decades of anger she rarely taps into bubble at the surface &, because of her metroid genetics, hunger .  just an endless hunger that sees her drain raven beak & his flying fortress of all energy there is, leaving just one drop so that she may look him in the eye one final time, make him know he failed before ending him .  it’s a great moment, i’m so happy for samus .

the metroid suit looks really cool but also kind of like cabbage, but i’m glad to see once more that the power suit is what shoulders the brunt of the physical trauma samus endures for any reason, including the altering of her genetics with foreign DNA .  they are one & the same, & the suit protects her from much, including any great deal of physical change upon the injection of the vaccine in fusion .  she retains her hominid appearance beneath while the suit shifts according to instructions written on her DNA, it’s just cool .

okay i’m done for now sorry i’ll make more posts eventually but please play metroid dread it’s everything i could’ve ever wanted even if i have a few issues with the end product, we’re in the golden age of metroid, samus is fucking back, where is prime 4

as for my blog’s canon, i’m probably still sticking to her being around after super metroid or during the prime trilogy, it’s not like there’s any other metroid writers around & that spot in her timeline is the most open dhskajdhkasjdhsjk

[screwattack]

while i don’t necessarily mind samus’ athleticism & gravity defying feats of bad-assery as displayed in the gameplay & cutscenes of both other m & samus returns ( + the upcoming metroid dread ), as they serve to showcase her skill as a combatant & i’m never one to turn down a chance to see samus aran in action, my portrayal of samus’ physicality & combat style does more closely resemble its depiction in the prime trilogy :

she is top-heavy, feet planted squarely on the ground as she fires her arm canon like a particularly accurate turret & mobility is an advantage brought forth by the chozo armour’s secondary equipment ( two back thrusters that aid in quick dodging & occasional fast movement between shots, speed booster for evasion & closing/making distance, space jump for air mobility & the morph ball ) .  her main form of engagement with hostiles is the power beam ( & derivatives ) & it’s always a direct, head-on confrontation until her enemy is laid to waste .  the power suit can sustain a great deal of damage to its external shielding but she does employ quick movements to the side to avoid it ( prime’s dodge mechanic ), if possible .  otherwise, the morph ball is her greatest asset, as proven in the battle with omega ridley, does she need to create space between herself & an opponent she will change form to temporarily confuse a target & roll away to a desired distance .  would she be thrown in combat, once more the morph ball finds use as its spherical shape helps in preserving momentum & minimising damage, allowing her to roll off curved surfaces & back into action .

outside the suit, the top-heavy style is retained & samus is akin to a bruiser, a professional kickboxer, if you will, though she prefers punching as primary method of engagement ( i’ve never been a fan of zero suit samus’ fighting style in the smash bros. series, it doesn’t quite fit & i don’t think there should be too great a shift between samus in & out of the suit ) .  her muscle mass is situated between a middleweight & a heavyweight mma fighter which, in combination with her height ( 6′3 ), makes her a very formidable opponent even outside power armour .  hand-to-hand combat was a skillset taught to her on zebes from a very young age, preparing her physically for the stress her body would endure from the chozodian imprimatur + ensuring peak physical health to shorten her adjustment period in her chozodian combat armour .

[thelvadams]

METROID DREAD (2021)

The figure who attacked Samus appears to be a Chozo. The Chozo were a highly intelligent and technologically advanced species who believed their purpose to be that of bringing peace throughout the galaxy. Eventually, the Chozo civilization reached a breaking point, and living Chozo are now rarely seen.

The Chozo are known to be peaceful and mild mannered, but Galactic Federation records indicate the existence of “Chozo warriors.”

[0euvr]

♡     starter  call.          @screwattack .

stoic  demeanor  that  shifts  with  the  slow  upturn  of  the  corner  or  her  mouth.     a  smile.     arms  crossed  over  her  chest     ,     hips  tilted  to  the  side     ,     a  rather  casual  position  given  the  justicar’s  duties.     but  while  she  may  be  strict  in  such  regards     /     the  way  she  must  live  her  life     ,     samara  was  not  always  a  justicar  and  the  habits  remain.     she  used  to  be  just  a  mercenary     ,     a  common  past  time  for  the  asari.     and  one  samara  had  enjoyed.

❛  i  am  sure  we  both  have  quite  the  stories  we  could  tell.  ❜          though  samara  is  not  one  to  brag  about  her  own  exploits     ,     she  still  has  memories  to  reminisce  on     ,     good  ones.     ( those  that  do  not  involve  the  death  of  her  daughters  of  the  galaxy.     the  struggle  to  survive )

[screwattack]

she is nothing if not a woman made of stories,  mythological was the tale of samus aran,  sung across the starts in a million different languages & each offering their own retelling .  she has been tempted to hear them all,  a lone wanderer outside her power armour that sits & listens to songs about her without others knowing she is the subject;  a pleasant,  human face & not the plated shielding that hides such features .  it was a simple fantasy,  an escape from death & destruction that is far more self-indulgent than she has ever been,  a dream of a different life without a weapon as her hand .

perhaps she will allow herself such respite,  a different variation without herself the focus,  taking note of the woman’s relaxed stance makes her own ease up,  leaning ever slightly to the side with her canon on her hip .  samus nods,  her lips producing a quiet hum that mirrors agreement & she tries for a few,  simple words,

“  ━━━would like to hear yours .  ”

[decoresca-archive-2021]

-ˏˋ @screwattack​   /     sc

❛ Miss Samus, do you ever take your helmet off ? ❜ Questioned the princess, head tilting to the left. ❛ Doesn’t it feel a little… impersonal to wear all that ? ❜

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all  that  is  offered  is  a  courteous  nod,  at least,  the suggestion of such,  what little movement her suit allows━  eyes usually covered by green light that blink once & hint at a smile where her mouth is covered by her helmet .  there is much left unsaid about samus aran & such was the unstated purpose of being encased in armour,  a persona hidden beneath shining chrome that is scant revealed .  to many,  she is nothing but a tool of war & through the years she has preferred this perception .  where blood is drawn from flesh there is a weakness perceived,  the spot where her enemies will strike would they know it exists,  her humanity that would otherwise forever remain unacknowledged .

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a lot of the imagery involving the chozo we see in dread seems to align with the notion that these are a splinter group that arose from the chozo that studied the x parasites on SR388 & developed metroids as their apex predators .  speculating that with the resurfacing of the x hinted at in dread’s marketing, perhaps it was because they sought to continue observing the x out of a desire to mimic their biology or potentially weaponize them .  i do hope that is the revelation at play (as opposed to the more tired revelation that the chozo have all been secretly imperialist all along) because, if i’m being honest, it would more interesting as a display of the chozo’s benevolence not being a homogeneous goal & samus’ alignment with the chozo’s legacy of galactic peace being closer to this faction & their more destructive nature .  

the chozo who raised her, the dying race that clung to zebes in the last years of their civilisation & others whose path she followed throughout the cosmos in the prime series, through talon iv, aether, bryyo & elysia .  they were engineers, architects who brought their advancements to similar civilisations who could realise the chozo’s potential, other starfaring species experiencing a failing golden age .  so powerful they could terraform a gas giant & for all that samus shadows in their legacy, walking through the ruins of their greatness, she will only ever be a weapon of chozodian design, incapable of anything but realising their peace through violence .  herself perhaps a more interesting critique of the real nature of the chozodian empire, their last gift to the universe a lone mercenary who has burned planets out of the sky in their name .

coming to face chozo who mirror her perfectly, make use of the same technology that has made her a legend for its stated purpose, so very different from the ancient, dying species who had no energy for war left, god i can’t wait .

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man .. this art, feels so nostalgic seeing fusion depicted with this much fidelity

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the closest i’ll ever get to the perfect metroid television show is (unironically) the first season of the mandalorian, it has all the necessary elements i’d imagine would be adapted from the franchise to the small screen :  a lonesome, well travelled bounty hunter with deep ties to an adoptive ancient culture which is all but extinguished from the universe forming an unlikely bond with an infant creature of untold power they were tasked with exterminating .  it’s really just this close with the only hangup being samus’ bond with the baby metroid being rather dissimilar to mando & baby yoda only because the parental aspect had always felt one sided (the baby metroid rescuing samus while she did not hesitate to deliver it to a federation research station first thing after it imprinted on her) until other m drilled the conceptions of motherhood into your skull with every available opportunity .

[cinno]

Fun Fact: I just think that Samus-

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the new netflix he-man cartoon is pretty alright but also-

samus aran energy

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“I have been the best thing I can think to be.”

marasenna sentence starters ,  accepting .

would the weight of the world be carried in words,  perhaps he alone would be the one strong enough to shoulder it all,  the one who could give the speeches & boost morale,  put a face & name to the deed of keeping the cosmos safe in its unstable peace .  she merely exists out of place,  adrift in a conflict not her own,  away from the authority of the galactic federation .  a chance encounter in citadel space that sees her as a far too well equipped mercenary,  an unknown variable,  safe from future oversight in the unfamiliar chrome of the normady .  her gunship stashed away on the landing deck,  a similar shade of green & orange covered by a tarp as to hide in a way she could not .

what they think of her is no mystery .  she towers above the crew,  a hulking suit of armour that does little else but kill & responds in silence stares,  a complacent glare beneath her visor whose light hides any human features .  there is little else to offer people who breathe for battle & efficient violence is a language samus aran speaks well .  no need to know who she is,  what she is,  merely a fortunate stranger willing to help,  another sword in their arsenal .  no questions asked,  just as long as credits are deposited in her account .

it was only when commander shepard steps away from the crowd,  a faint shadow following his presence,  that she considers the limitations of her approach .  perhaps he thinks he can confide in her because she will not speak a word of his doubt to the people who trust him most .  perhaps he sees past the cold steel of an automaton & into the human beneath,  a shred of vulnerability to show trust,  to bridge the gap & she obliges .  it was a heavy weight to carry indeed & even far from the worlds who view her as a hero .  a burning sun shining bright whose legend would singe generations of future soldiers,  her steps are heavy as she approaches,  placing her hand on his shoulder .  two brief pats that display a certain understanding,  an acknowledgement of similarity .