So, a thought occurred to me while watching some Metroid Dread coverage. IDK if I’d call it a “theory” since I’m not taking it that seriously, but I think it would be a cool route for the story to go down.
So, we know that by the time Metroid Dread takes place, Metroids are completely extinct, there are none left that exist. This has been confirmed multiple times in relation to Metroid Dread, so from what we can tell, at the beginning of Dread, there are no Metroids left. What’s interesting about that however, is that Metroid Dread is supposed to be the end of the Metroid Saga, meaning the end of the overarching story between Samus and the Metroids ( though not the last Metroid game or the end of Samus’s story ), which seems interesting to me, since if the Metroids are extinct, the really Fusion should be considered the end of that arc, shouldn’t it? This makes me think that despite their extinction, they will appear in some form in Dread.
We also know that a living Chozo ( or at least an entity appearing as one, as some theorize it’s an X-Parasite mimicking a Chozo ) appears in the game. While there are many theories behind who this Chozo is, most people seem to be under the impression that the Chozo is taking an antagonistic role in this game.
Here’s my tinfoil hat “theory”. What if the Chozo, be it a singular Chozo or a still existing group of them, are seeking to create more Metroids? Also, what if the X-Parasites were simply decoys to lure Samus onto the planet? More than that, what if they are the ones controlling the EMMI’s, and the Galactic Federation sending them to the planet was just a convenient circumstance for them, so that they could use the EMMI’s to capture Samus. Because remember, Samus now has Metroid DNA, and is probably the Chozo’s last chance to make more Metroids.
I also think that might explain how she ends up inside the planet. Say for example, she was taken prisoner by the Chozo, and deliberately stripped of her upgrades, before escaping and making her way out of the planet.
Hmm, you know Metroid Prime likely wasn’t mutated from a metroid, but some sort of safer Mochtroid*-like creature one of the Chozo on Talon IV had as a pet. I’ve seen some people theorize multiple Chozo population settled there over time given the age of the ruins, and at least one eccentric could have had a weird genetically engineered offshoot of an ancient barely-remembered project from some obscure abandoned world.
(Listen, the idea of Zebes Chozo overseeing the population of Metroids in the manga was dumb. The Chozo had a freaking empire in the day, and the timeline fits better if some old projects fell throug hte cracks.
*Mochtroids were failed attempts to clone metroid by pirates. Something about epigenetics was off and they had developmental disorders that made them very weak.They are MUCH less dangerous.
M’kay, so with the fresh excitement in the air from the Direct news, now seems like a good time to tell people about my fun little maybe hot take of a headcanon for the Metroid timeline! So, a while back, I was on the Metroid Database reading all of the mangas and comics it has to offer, y’know, as you do! One of the comics I came across was a comic version of Metroid Prime, and well, let’s just say a couple o’ panels caught my attention…..
This implies that Super Metroid already happened, contradicting the primarily accepted headcanon that all Prime games happened in between Metroids 1 and 2, AND breaking the secondary theory that the 2d games and Prime games are alternate universes without ANY game overlap! I know this comic isn’t canon, but when I think about this with how Prime and Fusion were released on the EXACT SAME DAY, the coincidences are too overwhelming!
So my theory? There are two timelines/universes. In one universe, we have the Samus that went through the Zero Mission and Samus Returns versions of the first two games, as well as Other M, Fusion and Dread. This timeline has the X Parasite, Adam, Raven Beak, etc!
In the other, we have the Samus whose first two games were the original NES and Gameboy versions, as well as the Prime games! The first thing that seems to set this timeline apart is the lack of X Parasite, which means the origins of the Metroids are shrouded in more mystery. Speaking of shrouded in mystery, while we do know Prime!Samus went through relatively similar origins to Fusion!Samus based on this panel-
-much less is explicitly shown or stated. Furthermore, the deviation from Fusion and Prime implies that any lore introduced in Other M, Fusion, Dread, and any other game not tied to the Prime games post-Super straight up doesn’t exist in this timeline! In other words, there is no Adam, no Raven Beak, no Metroid DNA infusion!
Speaking of Super, while this is the game that has the most overlap between the two timelines/universes, there is one altercation between the two universes that is the final proof of their distinction: the Animals! In Fusion, the Etecoons and Dachoras are shown to be alive, while in Prime, they’re nowhere to be seen! Therefore, I theorize that the Fusion vs Prime timeline, in regards to Super, is the classic Save vs “Kill” the Animals!
DISCLAIMER: This is NOT saying that the Animals are X-Parasites, nor that they caused the X-Parasite! While that is a possible interpretation of the events, I personally am listing the X vs No X and Animals vs No Animals as separate points! I’m also not stupid enough to think that the existence of characters like Adam or Raven Beak all comes down to whether or not Samus walks into a specific room and blows up a wall in a single game! What I’m referring to is more of a Butterfly Effect situation than anything else!
Of course, this is just scratching the surface of my headcanons of the Metroid timeline! I haven’t even gotten to all my crack ideas for how other canon-adjacent content might fit into lore (i.e. Samus and Joey, Captain N, etc), but I already feel like a conspiracy nut with a murder board of strings as is! Now, is this really that deep? No. Do I think this is what Nintendo has intended? Absolutely not! So why am I thinking all of this?
I have a few reasons. One, I really love the additional comics and mangas, obviously! Two, as I mentioned before, the “Fusion-Prime release date” is too much of a coincidence to not hyperfixate on! Three, the Prime events have been going on so long that trying to fit them between the first two games would be a tighter fit than Samus in the Morph Ball! Four, throughout the 2D & OM games, Fusion!Samus monologues SO MUCH about her past that it looks awfully suspicious that she NEVER mentions the Prime game events!
But the real reason I’m grasping for this theory, the petty and childish motive that has driven this whole rabbit hole, is that it would NOT be fair if THIS-
-and THIS-
-were the SAME timeline! It just would not be fair! I don’t CARE if she loses the abilities by the end of the game, her lesbian energy would shatter the universe if these occurred in the same version of the character! So, for the sake my own sanity, and to appease my indulgent desires, I’m just going to cope by telling myself I have two cakes! Okay? Okay! Good talk!
Metroid Prime Remastered: Thoughts, Theories, and Differences from Previous Versions. (Massive Spoilers for Newcomers ahead)
So, I just finished Prime Remastered again, on hard mode this time. Old mysteries of things I asked myself as a kid when in the final area before the end of the game began to resurface. I've got some theorizing to let out. (BIG spoiler warning for newcomers still playing)
So, about the 'red phazon'. I subscribe to two potential ideas, one being that it's the result of concentrated phazon that's unable to spread. A radioactive decay from isolation, if you will, that makes it more actively dangerous. The other idea is that it's what's leftover when a phazon-hungry creature, such as Metroid Prime, feeds on phazon. Hence why there's still phazon in the phazon core at the end of the game despite the fact of Metroid Prime consuming it, and it's a red variant. For reasons explained further ahead, I subscribe to the former idea.
What makes the red phazon variant even more interesting is when you consider that the phazon suit you acquire in game is black and red, not blue, and the fact that later on in Prime 3, there is a stronger variant of phazite that's red. Maybe the rare higher concentrations of/more decayed phazon makes for naturally effective defenses against the substance for those vulnerable to it, hence the red Phazon Suit and phazite armor and the fact that the final boss on Phaaze in Prime 3 has red coloring instead of blue.
Getting back to the creature called Metroid Prime, we find it in the Phazon Infusion Chamber of the Impact Crater. Some interesting things to note, the first being that other than the few blobs of it in the second chamber of the Crater, this is the only area of the Impact Crater that has blue phazon in it. It looks like it might have been the last remaining blue phazon left for the creature to feed on, having been compelled to consume the core to keep it protected from threats like Samus. What's also interesting is that it looks like it's hibernating in an arachnid-like shell, which is what its first boss phase is fought in, and I swear it looks like it's surrounded by eggs. Which is odd considering that Tallon/Phazon based metroids seem to mostly reproduce out of phazon pools in-game. Perhaps it's able to lay Metroid eggs in its hibernating arachnid form.
Speaking of hibernation, why is it hibernating and feeding in its first form when we find it? Also, how can it be feeding from phazon, while also having become the source of it in consuming the phazon core? I think it's because it was trapped by the Chozo seal within the crater and was unable to move into the critical next phase which, in contrast to consuming phazon, is meant to generate it. I believe the 'instructions' of the phazon core to Metroid Prime were for it to leave its arachnid shell and use its pure essence form to scour the planet and spread sources of phazon one pool at a time, until the entire planet eventually would become a full offspring of the planet Phaaze. In this way, the phazon seed/core is a 'sperm' of Phaaze, the leviathans are carriers, a target planet is an 'egg', and a phazon-mutated creature like Metroid Prime is the active catalyst between the core and target planet that spreads phazon. The Emperor Ing (which, the Ing, in my opinion, are just Phaz-Ing but corrupted by dark energy from the Dark Aether dimension) would likely have eventually also consumed the Phazon core on Dark Aether, had the Ing successfully stolen Aether's energy and won their war against the Luminoth and their world. Luckily, Samus succeeded in her mission, and both Dark Aether and its phazon core were annihilated.
Damn, the lore runs deep, even when not explicitly told.
ALSO. I've been looking over the scan logs in Prime Remastered and comparing them to the differences in the NTSC and PAL releases of the original game. I've noticed an interesting compromise between the two versions in Remastered, specifically that the NTSC version of the 'Artifict Site' Pirate Scan Log was chosen, resulting in a plot more consistent with in-game findings concerning the Space Pirates and the Chozo Artifacts. It seems like a conscious choice by the Remastered staff to correct an inconsistency, which I appreciate.
There's also an interesting blending of Chozo lore entries from both NTSC and PAL versions of Prime in Remastered, as well as some partially and entirely rewritten entries, creating a compelling and unique version of the Chozo lore. It's worth a look to compare Remastered’s Chozo lore entries to those of the previous versions. Here’s a link to a page on The Cutting Room Floor that shows the differences between the NTSC and PAL versions of Prime, which I recommend comparing to with your copy of Prime Remastered once you collect all the lore logbook entries: https://tcrf.net/Metroid_Prime/Text_Differences
On a side note, it's a shame that the NTSC version of the lore has the most glaring plot holes in it, both in its own internal consistency and external consistency with the rest of the series, because it's genuinely interesting to me as an alternative version of Prime's backstory. I kinda wish they kept some of the elements of it, as it makes Phazon out to be a little more cosmically horrific, and I like how the Tallon Chozo foresee Samus specifically coming to deal with the Phazon threat in the future, giving the player a more heightened sense of purpose.
Unfortunately, as many fans probably know, the NTSC lore overall contradicts the fact of the Cipher keeping Metroid Prime inside of the Impact Crater and the Space Pirates out of it, and also implies that the Metroids came to being from Phazon itself, which contradicts the lore additions of Metroid Fusion that the Metroids were made by the Chozo. This is really ironic considering that Fusion and Prime released on the same day. Retro Studios and Nintendo R&D1 might not have been on the same page, but it's still weird to me that the PAL versions received the lore overall more internally and externally consistent.
Overall, while I do find the NTSC version of Prime's lore to be very interesting, the PAL version becoming the official canon was much better for the series in the end, and Prime Remastered's take is an even further improvement IMO.
i just realized something.
Ridley’s 8-bit sprite had comically small wings compared to the rest of his body size
Ridley in Metroid Prime (which i’m pretty sure is his next canonical appearance in the timeline) had extremely large wings.
now, we know that Ridley gave himself metal body parts and became a cyborg sometime before Prime, but i always thought the wings were just a natural part of his body, though the dramatic size increase and color change has lead me to believe...
Ridley gave himself new wings because he felt embarrassed over how small his old ones are.
