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Made some Metroid Prime 4 textposts with the federation troopers! (the image previews seem to cut off a decent chunk of the textposts, so please please please click/tap on them to see the full thing)
My Metroid Prime 4 Textposts:
Part 1 (YOU ARE HERE)
Part 2
she will be using her new powers to give her bestfriend Anthony Higgs (of metroid other m fame) a psychic wedgie
it’s time
This is basically what happened in Great Mines right?
FINISHED THE GAME!!! I've stayed Very far away from actual gameplay discussion stuff thus far, so here are my miscellaneous MP4 thoughts before I see what others are pointing out
SPOILERS BELOW BIG TIME
More MP4 textposts, since you guys really seemed to like the last one! Like before, Tumblr cropped some of the images, so please click/tap on each textpost to see the full thing
My Metroid Prime 4 Textposts:
Part 1
Part 2 (YOU ARE HERE)
The Neurodivergency of Myles MacKenzie: An Analysis (of Sorts)
So, I think we can all agree that Myles MacKenzie's neurodivergent, right? I mean, he's written as the "quirky eccentric nerd" trope, which almost always has some elements of neurodivergency in it (specifically traits of Autism and ADHD). But I, a neurodivergent person myself, was wondering: what particular traits does Myles have specifically? Here's a list I compiled in a few hours:
Movement:
Myles moves a lot when compared to the other troopers, which extends beyond the standard idle animations and into certain cutscenes (like in the various shot upgrade cutscenes, or at the beginning of the cutscene where Samus returns from fighting Sylux). His scan log even brings up his "restless energy".
His "conversation" animations are very animated and over-the-top, especially when compared to the other troopers' "conversation" animations.
Myles also seems to have some degree of motor coordination issues. His introduction shows him as being a bit clumsy, particularly when he drops his gun. He also has a base camp conversation where he mentions struggling with doing push-ups, and also has a line where he says that he's "directionally challenged".
Special Interests/Hyperfixations:
Myles is very passionate about his mech in a way that's fairly extreme, even for someone assigned to work on it. He gives it a nickname ("Betsy") and calls it his "baby", and is incredibly distraught when it's destroyed again in the ending. He's also very skilled at repairing it, as it's possible for the mech to be fully repaired after finding the first mech part an hour or two beforehand (though it should be noted that 1. this is done more for the sake of gameplay, and 2. it's possible that the time passed in-game isn't the same as the time passed in real life).
He's also very interested in the Lamorn culture, coming to understand their language and technology very quickly with the help of Samus's logs. He also apparently talks about them a lot with the others, as evidenced by their comment on it (Armstrong says that she "heard a lot about the Lamorn from Myles", and Tokabi says that Myles told him "all about the Bio-labs in Ice Belt").
Speech and Communication:
Myles is incredibly polite with the others, and rarely (if ever) outright says "no" to their requests (the only exception being in an unused conversation where Armstrong tries to get him to remove something from the mech).
He's incredibly talkative, with his scan log outright saying that Myles is "known to be extremely talkative, even while alone". He has almost 500 lines used in the game (not including cutscenes), the most out of all the troopers, and these lines include him reacting to things that the others don't react to (such as being scanned - "Did you just scan me? What does it say?").
Some of his lines could be seen as being fairly immature or childish for an adult to say ("What is that thing? How does it work? Can I try it?", "Look how those robots are orbiting the statue... Think I could catch one and bring it home?", "Corporal Tokabi's rifle is very impressive. But he never lets me touch it."), which could suggest that he isn't aware of what is and isn't considered socially appropriate for an adult like him to say.
When Myles is talking over the comms, he's incredibly persistent and frequently repeats information to Samus. While this is more of a flaw from a gameplay perspective, it could also be interpreted as him being inflexible about Samus not completely sticking to their "plan" for leaving Viewros.
Several of his lines can come off as being uncharacteristically rude for him ("Missiles are effective against a creature with a hard shell, you know.", "Y'know, I'm directionally challenged too."), which could suggest that he has issues with tone and/or understanding what is and isn't considered "rude" phrasing.
Base Camp Conversations:
The base camp conversation where Duke says that he wants a game to pass the time seems to depict Myles as both needing specific details and also being somewhat literal-minded. Duke initially uses vague terms like "chits" and "knick-knacks", which Myles doesn't seem to understand and asks Duke to be specific. Duke clarifies that he wants something to do to pass the time and mentions cards as an example, which Myles seems to take literally when he says that he'll investigate Lamorn-style playing cards later (as opposed to thinking of another game that'd be quicker to figure out or set up).
Another one of Myles's base camp conversations with Duke depicts Myles as being a bit of a workaholic, with him not having had a break since before he ended up on Viewros. This could indicate that he doesn't seem to notice if/when he needs to take a break from his work, which could possibly be supported by his scan log mentioning his "strong work ethic".
Two unused conversations with Duke seem to suggest that Myles is usually disorganized. The first one has Duke chastise him for not knowing what the things he's working on are and having a workspace that isn't "neat and tidy", with Myles only explaining why he doesn't know what everything is (he's still doing research) and saying nothing about his workspace being a mess. The second one has Myles admit that he hasn't been tracking the repairs that he's been doing, and he tries to justify it by pointing out that they shouldn't be stuck on Viewros for too long.
Another unused conversation with Duke shows that Myles is fairly forgetful and somewhat-easily distracted, as he claims that he didn't warn the others about some very dangerous booby traps that he set up because he got sidetracked with repairs and forgot.
He also has an unused conversation with Armstrong where he's probably the angriest that he ever gets (though it's admittedly just brief irritation). The cause of this? Armstrong asks him to take the gun off the mech and turn it into something that she can use. I've already established that Myles cares a lot about the mech, and this (admittedly very stupid) request making him genuinely angry only adds to that.
Miscellaneous Things:
His scan log says he has a "strong moral compass", which could refer to the "firm beliefs" and "strong sense of justice" common in autistic people.
Some of the other characters have some… rather interesting lines about him. Armstrong has a line where she says "Myles is kind of a nerd, isn't he? But he can talk to people too, not just machines." This seems to suggest that he's better with machines than he is with people, which isn't really shown elsewhere in the game. Somewhat similarly, Tokabi has a line where he says that "Specialist MacKenzie is quite the character. But I suppose most of those R&D engineers are…" Not only is this line all but calling Myles weird (with some languages even translating it as him saying that Myles is a "strange guy"), but it also suggests that most of the other engineers in the Federation are similarly eccentric - and rather fittingly, a study found that engineers are the most likely out of any profession to exhibit symptoms of autism.
In general, Myles has a somewhat close connection with Tokabi. He's the only character to have any base camp conversations with Tokabi, and he's the character that Tokabi's lines mention the most (aside from Samus, of course). Tokabi is also a character that I headcanon as autistic, for reasons that I talk about in another post.
Myles is also shown to be very nervous, and while this could be somewhat explained as him being an office-bound worker thrown into a hostile environment, his scan log mentioning his "excessive caution" could indicate that his nervousness is mostly just part of Myles's disposition/personality.
Well, some of that got a bit messier than I wanted it to, but my main point here is that Myles MacKenzie seems to have Autism and/or ADHD (likely both), and in any case he's definitely neurodivergent. And honestly? I love him for that.
Blind Date
For the rest of the day, you couldn't stop thinking about Myles. His kindness lingered in your mind as you went home, and the brief brush of his hand against yours was all you could think about as you were getting ready for your blind date. Even when you arrived at the restaurant where your date was supposed to be waiting for you, you were hoping that it was Myles. And if the person sitting at the table you reserved was any indication, your hopes were about to come true. (BRIEF, 3 SENTENCE DESCRIPTION OF SEX NEAR THE END)
This has been rattling in my head for a few weeks, but I only just got around to writing it. I can't believe that the freaking nerd has me in a chokehold (not complaining, though). I'd really appreciate if you guys checked it out!
