Debunking Katt120's Other M defense blog Part 1

I hate Metroid: Other M. Really, I do. I find it to be a complete load of sexist dog-shit that completely takes a gargantuan dump all over a once-beloved gaming icon. And I also hate hearing people defend this depiction of Samus Aran and try to justify any of what goes on in the game. I truly despise hearing anybody claim that the game wasn’t sexist or wasn’t misogynistic or wasn’t depicting an abusive relationship. So it really pissed me off when I stumbled upon a blog called Metroid: Double Standards, written by someone on deviantart.com named Katt120. Who, I admit, tried to come up with solid defences for Other M, but I’m going to point out to you all why none of them hold up to any degree whatsoever.

Now, for this blog, my quotations will be in two categories. The quotes used from other sources to support my stance on Other M to counter Katt's statements will be in bold, while the ones from Katt's Metroid: Double Standards blog will not. Let's start with an example of the latter.

Note: These things need to be said.

One: I'm female. I've been abused. I see myself as a strong woman, not independent, cause frankly I care about and rely on my friends and loved ones. I see nothing wrong with this fact.

Two: My Father is ex military, so every time I bring up military protocol, I know what I am talking about.

That being said-enjoy.

Just because Katt’s dad was in the military doesn’t automatically make her an expert on military protocol. In fact, I’m willing to bet that her dad completely avoided talking about the military with her and I’ll explain why in a moment. And by the way, I don’t think I’ll be enjoying this at all.

Before Other M, Samus was not explored as a person, she was portrayed as a silent heroine. Hell she doesn't even react when she sees what is basically herself, TWICE. At this point, all she is, is a nearly faceless, emotionless, voiceless heroine and quite frankly...a flawless Mary Sue.

And we were so much better off back then.

In the Prime series we have very few reasons to find flaws in her. Even a GF Admiral salutes her when she is shown to have lived through Phaaze's explosion. She is given no characterization, and only shows a few moments of any kind of venerability.

One such is when she watches the Chozo temple burn, another is when she balls up her fist and looks away from Gandrayda as she dies.

I’m not even sure if Katt ever played the Prime games, because according to a video called Heavens to Bob, Samus does show some emotion, especially in the second and third games, but we’ll get to that later on. But I still think that Katt didn’t pay nearly as much attention to the cutscenes in the second and third Prime game as she should have.

But let’s say that Samus really did have no emotions and no character prior to Other M. Well, Extra Credits made a video on Other M and said this:

Often I hear the argument defending Other M’s portrayal of Samus saying ‘Samus was a blank slate before this. Everyone keeps saying that she was such a great character before but she was barely even a character. How’s that better? This Samus has personality. Emotions. Flaws. How can Other M not be true to Samus’s character when she was hardly a character to begin with?’ I have two problems with that line of reasoning. First, just because Samus hasn’t always had a voice or a detailed backstory doesn’t mean she was a completely blank slate. As we’ve said before, Actions Define a Character.

You see, Katt? This shows just how completely flawed your statements and logic are.

We don’t know much about Samus but we can make a few reasonable guesses just by looking at the meager story details and game events. Here’s what we know. We know that she has chosen a career in bounty hunting (dangerous work), and that she prefers to operate alone. We know that she’s got access to and working knowledge of enormous firepower. And whoever she is, she’s proven herself capable of single-handedly storming and toppling heavily defended bases and installations on multiple occasions. And we have also seen that she has a softer side through her interactions with a baby metroid. And Fusion even hinted at a close personal connection she once had. Yes, it’s all very vague and sparse, but there’s a character in there.

A character that you, Katt, have been sadly ignoring because it contradicts the narrative that you’ve been setting up.

But those arguments I quoted earlier also suggest something else: that any backstory or characterization is inherently better than none.

You hear that, Katt? That’s the argument that you just made.

And I don’t buy that. Let me ask you two questions. First, can you make a great story without giving a backstory to the main character? Hint: yes. Second: remember how interesting Anakin Skywalker and the Clone Wars used to be? Back when we only knew vague details about them? I mean, are you happier now that all the blanks have been filled in for you? Badly? Kinda makes you miss those days before we knew. Back when they had the potential to be something interesting and great. Or, heck, I’ve got a better example. Let’s focus our gaze just slightly to another popular Nintendo character. Silent protagonist hero just like Samus. We don’t know much about him, but we’ve spent enough time with him over the years to see that he’s a brave determined little guy and guided by destiny to defend the land of Hyrule time and again. Some games give him a bit more personality but never much. But, some of you might remember that there was that one time when Link was fleshed out. Characterized. Given loads of personality. Remember that?

Then, Extra Credits showed a montage of the Zelda cartoon with Link’s infamous quote of “Well, excuuuuuuuse me, princess!”

Well, we don’t like that guy, do we? That guy’s an idiot! Nothing like the Link we’ve pictured all these years. He’s not the Link we’ve come to know. More personality is not inherently superior to less. Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t ever try to add depth to characters like these, but a character fleshed out badly could be far worse than a character that’s barely been fleshed out at all.

And I think that’s a stance that Other M’s detractors stand by. Other M Samus made many of us want the “flawless Mary Sue” Samus back. Because no personality is actually better than a personality that doesn’t work for the character. She had better characterization in the manga, which I doubt Katt actually read. And some Metroid fans said they prefer that Samus over Other M’s.

Fusion came along, Ah bless Fusion. While Samus is still voiceless, we now have in game text so we know what she is saying. We get to see Samus in an emotional state when the AI of Adam tells her that the GF plans to capture the SA-X. This moment of rebellion, coupled with the widening of her eyes when the AI of Adam regains himself is the FIRST real time that we can say Samus has expressed emotions.

But why is it okay as opposed to Other M? Because Samus is being rebellious, tough and 'taking charge'

No, because it is pulled off in a way that actually fits in with everything established about Samus before then! This does not! And I can assure you, that Other M Samus acts in a way that even outright contradicts with that of Fusion Samus.

Allow me to draw in a long breath and sigh before I go on.

The problem with stating that Samus being rebellious makes Fusion alright is, prior to that...she is a drone. She goes where the GF tells her to go, without question. So using a rebellious nature as an excuse for Samus's emotions in Fusion, while saying her being emotional in Other M is sexist is not okay. It's contradicting.

No, Katt, her being emotional in Other M isn’t sexist. What she does with those emotions and how the game portrays them is sexist.

Also, you’re being contradictory yourself.  You’re claiming that Fusion Samus was a drone before her “rebellious” moment, but in Other M, Samus did what she was told without even bothering to question it, not speaking unless spoken to, and never standing up for herself to any degree whatsoever.  If that doesn’t qualify as being a drone, I don’t know what does. 

Remember when I said I would reference Heavens to Bob? Well now, I’m going to use a direct quote from it. And brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s a long one...

She has gone through many trials, strengthening her as a character. And in some of these trials, overcoming emotional hurdles for the benefit of her mission, making her a stronger person. And of course, as we all know from the first Metroid that Samus is in fact a woman. This means that she is a strong and independent woman and is presented as such in her games. It doesn’t mean that she is a pathological ice queen, especially considering how many times she has rescued animals, baby Metroids, or even a race of people like those on Aether. She has emotions like everyone does, but in all these past titles, they are either used for good, like rescuing something, or presented to her as an obstacle for her to overcome, or even just her own reflection on the events surrounding her. All of this is pretty much a good and typical way to treat emotions when dealing with almost any character, male or female, in any medium, but this is not the case in Other M. Instead, Samus is overtaken by her emotionally frail state, never overcoming her insecurities, and is instead held back as a woman by her emotional struggles. And this is where I feel most of the controversy over Metroid: Other M comes from.

You see? THAT is what makes Metroid Other M sexist! So stop saying that we’re calling the game sexist simply because Samus shows emotions in it. You’re missing the point.

And to disprove your point even further, let me tell you about one of my all time favorite characters in all of anime, heck, maybe even all of media itself: Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail. She is not only the strongest female member of the Fairy Tail guild and strongest female character in the Fairy Tail series, (which is saying more than you’d think because 99.9% of the women in Fairy Tail are incredibly strong) but also one of the strongest female characters in anime as a whole. And yet she gets emotional every so often, especially both during and after the Tower of Heaven arc. Do I consider Erza getting emotional to be sexist? Of course not! She remains a capital example of a female character being both strong and emotional, and not sacrificing one for the sake of the other. Example: in Volume 59 of the manga, a character who is important to the guild (I’m not gonna spoil who, read the manga) sacrifices himself/herself to protect the Fairy Tail guild. Erza bursts into tears immediately afterwards, and then she sees the two male leads, Natsu and Gray, being tricked into fighting to the death. The stereotypical weak, frail, damsel-in-distress type woman would just stand in the background and beg them to stop fighting. Did Erza do that? No! Instead, she actively intervened in their battle and blocked their attacks, even if it meant getting hurt by them in the process. Then the two stopped fighting each other and she gave them a speech about why they shouldn’t be fighting each other, and all the while doing that, she was crying profusely, but she was still being strong-willed and assertive. She didn’t sacrifice her strength as a character for emotions. She had her (strawberry) cake and ate it too (and she loves strawberry cake. Believe me). Her emotional struggles don’t hinder her from fighting for the people she cares about and making the right decisions for the sake of her guild. If anything, her emotional hurdles tend to fuel her fighting spirit and make her more determined to keep fighting. Same thing goes for Lucy. She’s always emotional, but she never cowers up or loses her will to keep going. If anything, she ramps it up. That’s the problem with Samus’s portrayal in this game: her emotions keep on preventing her from being strong or assertive. And the game portrays her emotions as a handicap to her, while the men have barely any emotions, and are portrayed as strong because of that. There. Now you’re seeing the real problem here.

And as if that’s not enough, a five-part video series analyzing why Metroid Other M is garbage devoted to the second part to talking about why the story in Other M is horrendous. In that video, the maker of the video, Eclipse Studios, brought up Ellen Ripley in the Alien film franchise which was an inspiration for the Metroid series, and he said this:

I have no problem with having an emotionally fragile Samus. You can have a strong female character who is also emotionally fragile. Take Ellen Ripley from the Alien films. She just watched her friends and crewmates get slaughtered by one of cinema’s scariest villains and then narrowly manages to evade it after it stalks her through an abandoned spaceship which is subsequently destroyed. Now, she’s plagued by nightmares of the creature and can’t even speak about the subject without becoming visually shaken. No-one believes her story, and aside from being considered mentally unstable, is stripped of her command. Furthermore, 57 years have passed while she was traveling through space in cryosleep, and in that time, her daughter has grown old and died, apparently because of cancer according to the script. The daughter was going to be turning eleven when Ripley was expected to return. So, yeah. She’s got issues. But she still goes back to the planet where it all began and faces her fears. When she actually comes face to face with the creatures, she does lock up momentarily, but she powers on and fights not only to defend herself, but also the innocents whom she wants to be spared from suffering from what she did. She’s able to do so, while pulling off a wide range of emotions, and clearly emerges from the story as a changed person. Samus has none of this. She portrays little to no emotion throughout the entire story and seems exactly the same at the end as she was at the beginning. She never stands up for herself, (making a snarky remark when your boss isn’t looking doesn’t count) and when she’s faced by the source of her fears, the monster, Ridley, who has faced six times already (once in Metroid and Metroid Prime, twice in Metroid Prime 3 and twice again in Super Metroid), she freaks out.

Oh, we’ll get to the Ridley freakout in a moment. And I agree with everything that he said in that video as well as the other four parts. Except for the manga sucking. I thought it was pretty decent.

And while we’re on the subject of a strong female character being emotionally fragile, let’s go back to Erza Scarlet for a moment. When she was a child, she lived in Rosemary village never knowing who her parents were or what they were like, making her feel alone. Then one day, a cult group, who worshipped the main villain, Zeref, as a god, attacked the village, and kidnapped the children, including Erza herself, and enslaved them into creating the Tower of Heaven. Erza befriended some of the other slaves including a young boy named Jellal, who gave her the surname “Scarlet” after the color of her hair, and Rob, an old man from the Fairy Tail guild who teaches her about magic. She tries to organize a way to escape, but was caught at it and tortured, even having one of her eyes gouged out. When the cultists decided to torture Jellal as well, Erza organized a slave revolt and battled her way through the cultists to save Jellal, but in the process, Rob sacrificed his own life to save her, and when she finally found Jellal, he was brainwashed by Zeref, murdering the cultists left and right, then warping Erza out of the tower, threatening to kill her friends if she told anyone about it. She grew up concealing her emotions in armor, and often uses her armor as a security blanket because to her, it represents how she has tried to avoid loving or being loved just so her heart wouldn’t break. And she was always willing to sacrifice her own life just to protect the guild. Her own life meant nothing to her, and that is a sign of being emotionally fragile. But as the other three main characters slowly started to awaken her true feelings, she learned that love doesn’t mean she’d always be burdened with pain. Then when she returns to the Tower of Heaven to confront Jellal, she fights Ikaruga along the way, who keeps tearing through her armors one by one, so Erza confronts her with a standard battle outfit. During that moment, she realizes that her armor was done to keep her heart from breaking, she finally embraces the compassion that she feels for her comrades and vice versa. She faces Ikaruga without her armor, and then faces Jellal. When she fights Jellal, yet another childhood friend of theirs, Simon, sacrifices himself to protect Erza, bringing her to tears and breaking her, enraging Natsu who then fights Jellal himself. But after that, Erza made yet another attempt at self-sacrificing to protect Fairy Tail, all the while telling Natsu about all the pain and suffering she has been hiding, and at that moment, she was shown a vision of how her friends would react to her death. She thought for a a good deal of her life that they would mourn her for a while but then get over it, but she was wrong. She saw Lucy, Grey, Happy, and especially Natsu feel like they had parts of their souls dying along with her. To her, it seemed like they were going through the exact same painful tunnel as her… And when it turned out that Natsu saved her in time, she then turned her back on the suicidal tendencies she once had, saying, “You don’t die for your friends… you live for them!” And while her survivor’s guilt hasn’t completely gone away, she still does what she could to stay alive for the sake of her guild. For example, when Kagura, Simon’s younger sister, confronts Erza, Erza tearfully blamed herself for Simon’s death, but blocked an attack from Kagura telling her that dying so easily would be an insult to him and Rob because of their sacrifices. There’s even a three part article talking about her emotionally fragile state and how she overcomes it. It’s some incredibly powerful stuff. The man who wrote that article relates to Erza due to his own battles against suicidal tendencies. You should read it some time. It’s incredibly powerful and deserves a lot more attention.

Also, you think we are being contradictory? What about the game itself? It contradicts everything in the Metroid series from top to bottom, including that short little manga that still remains stuck in Japan and has been for years.

By the time of Other M, Samus assumes she has defeated Ridley, the creature that murdered her family and caused her severe emotional trauma. She assumes she is free of Ridley because there is no way that he could of survived the planet she left him on exploding into space dust.

If I were Samus Aran, and I have already killed Ridley for the umpteenth time, I’d suspect that it would only be a matter of time before he shows up again. And remember when there was no Other M and Fusion was meant to be the sequel to Super Metroid? Why was there no freakout when she found out about Ridley’s resurrection in that game? More on that later.

She is also haunted and tormented by her inability to protect the creature that saw her as it's Mother. in short, when The Baby died, Samus's maternal instincts kicked in, she felt like she lost her child. She felt like she -failed- her child.

That’s not how it was depicted as Super Metroid. In Metroid 2: Return of Samus, Samus took in the baby metroid out of pity. And in the opening to Super Metroid, Samus just handed the baby Metroid over to the Federation with no second thought whatsoever. And most mothers don’t drop their children off at orphanages unless they were outright abandoning them.

No sane person is going to be able to witness the brutal murder of not only their parents, and everyone on the colony they lived on, but the murder of the closest thing they had to a child and be perfectly fine.

That doesn’t change the fact that Samus’s behavior around Ridley in this game is inconsistent compared to the rest of the series. And maybe Katt should play Metroid Fusion again, because in that game, Samus didn’t show any sign of thinking of the infant Metroid as anything close to having a child. Or even a pet. Case in point: in the Super Metroid intro, she referred to the infant metroid as a “larva” instead of a “baby.” And in Fusion’s intro, while she did mention the infant metroid and did indeed call it an “infant,” she only mentioned it once. And it was to mention how its DNA was used to save Samus from the X-Parasites. She also referred to the baby metroid as a “hatchling.” Not “baby.” “Hatchling.” In addition, Other M only tells us over and over again that Samus considers the baby Metroid to be anything close she might have to a child, but even that game does nothing does nothing to indicate that she felt that way aside from having her refer to the Metroid as a “baby.” Also, yes, watching friends and loved ones die before your very eyes can take a nasty toll on most people, but do you even remember the stuff I said about Erza earlier? That is a far more believable depiction of the behavior of these kinds of emotional hurdles than anything in this dung-heap of a story!

Heck, not even Other M itself makes it completely clear that Samus considers the baby Metroid anything like her child as Eclipse Studios demonstrates by saying,

Samus isn’t identifiable. We’re told that she’s sad because of the death of the baby Metroid but we never see her reflect on this. Punch one of the squad members for making a crack about the baby. Or tell Adam off for simplifying her relationship with it. Give us some understanding of her relationship with this thing. Don’t just expect us to feel sorry for you because you tell us to. Do something!

But wait! There’s more! The second chapter of a 18-part blog on TVtropes.org called “Mother, May I See Metroid: Other M?” talks about the opening cutscene to Other M and pointed out how Samus’s supposed motherly bond with the baby Metroid was shoehorned in:

See, Other M wants us to believe that there is a deep, personal relationship between Samus Aran and "the baby." Other M is saying that Samus loved this Metroid like her child, and it's death was crushing to her, the equivalent of losing a child. The problem with this is that this is not what Super Metroid said! That's why Other M's version of the scene takes liberties with what happens: because they want to change what actually happened.

In Super Metroid, the focus of the scene was on the fact that the Metroid still recognized Samus as its parent and was willing to fight for her. First, we had the scene where it scares the ever-loving shit out of you. You see an invincible creature, and then the biggest Metroid you've ever seen grabs it and reduces it to dust. It's ice-resistant (REMEMBER THIS!?) and you have nothing that can scratch it. After finishing a snack, it grabs onto you and almost kills you. But it stops. This is the game's way of saying that the big Metroid is the infant you rescued from Metroid II. It grew up.

Later, when you're about to be killed, it drained Mother Brain's life (that's where it picked up the Hyper Beam) and transfered life to Samus. It then covers Samus's body, protecting it from further attacks. And when it tries to go after Mother Brain again, it dies due in part to the damage it sustained protecting Samus.
At no time in Super Metroid was there even the slightest idea that Samus felt that this Metroid was her child. The very opening sequence in fact suggests the opposite: Samus gave "the baby" away, with nary a second thought. This suggests that she felt less like a human mother and more like someone who picked up a stray. She didn't want to shoot the defenseless infant that imprinted on her, but she's not exactly in love with it either. She goes after Ridley because, well it's Ridley, and that he's going to use it to breed a Metroid army.
Even Samus calling it a "baby" in Other M is a rewrite. Why? Because in Super Metroid, it is very clearly not a baby anymore; it's an adult Metroid, and a very large one at that. It used to be a baby, but it's all grown up now. That's why this game doesn't show it being huge like Super Metroid. By continuously referring to it as that (and Samus does insist on it; every single reference she makes to it will call it "the baby"), it drives home the point that Other M is trying to make, one that is not supported by Super Metroid.
See, Other M must take Super Metroid's ending scene out of context. If it put the actual context there, if it did the scene right, then the scene wouldn't work for what Other M wants. Because what Other M wants is wrong; it's not what Super Metroid was trying to say at all.
It's one thing to want to carve out your own little fortress of canon within a larger continuity. It's quite another to start radically altering what is almost universally seen to be not just the best game in the series, but also one of the best games of its kind, and has a frequent presence on top 100 and top 50 all-time game lists. That's shitting on video gaming history; that's saying that one of the best pieces of videogame storytelling didn't happen or happened differently, all to create this relationship that didn't exist before.
And the best part? It doesn't even really matter that much; not for Other M. All that Samus thinking of this Metroid as her child does is fit into the asinine motherhood motif (I refuse to call this horseshit something as coherent as a theme) that permeates every orifice of Other M. You could cut this scene and her constant "the baby" stuff without impacting the actual story that Other M wants to tell.

He then made a “Shitting on Metroid” counter pointing out all the various ways in which Other M completely disgraces the Metroid franchise and then he put up what counts as #1: “for having one of the most celebrated and storied endings in all of videogame history, and then taking a wild, ferocious dump on it. In the first 3 minutes of the game, no less.” In addition, a YouTuber named ViciousPhantom did a review of Other M and he addressed the argument about “the baby” by saying this:

I wouldn’t mind [Samus’s prattling about the baby Metroid] if she had any emotional attachment to the baby Metroid whatsoever. But she doesn’t. She almost immediately gave the baby Metroid to scientists on the space colony Serra so they could study it. Yes, she did go on that entire adventure in Super Metroid to rescue the baby Metroid, but that’s because Ridley kidnapped it and he was taking it back to the Space Pirates, where they would most likely use it as a biological weapon! There is no reason Samus should feel anything for the baby Metroid! Maybe a little bit of guilt since it sacrificed itself to save her, but not a motherly bond which Other M is obviously trying to show!

Finally, I’d say that if Samus really were able to witness the brutal murder of not only her parents, and everyone on the colony she lived on, but the murder of the closest thing she had to a child and be perfectly fine, it couldn’t be because she has a lot of emotional fortitude, no, no, no, no, no!  It’s because she’s insane. Blech! That is beyond insulting. You’re saying that anyone still stable after enduring traumatic events is a complete lunatic.  That is beyond insulting and dehumanizing

In events like this, a person develops what is called post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. for those of you who do not know the definition of such here it is:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat

And let me be clear. PTSD is not something that one just 'gets over'. It is a severe condition that may take years to even dampen, but it is never fully conquered. Remember what I said at the start of this. My Father was military. He still suffers from PTSD, to hear that Samus should 'get over it', to me, feels as though people believe their military vets, their rape victims, those who witnessed murder and the like should 'get over it', and frankly...that offends me.

And the sheer sloppiness of Other M’s portrayal of PTSD doesn’t!?  It never occurs to you that PSTD is portrayed in this dung-heap of a game as a cheap route in creating dramatic tension?  You don’t consider this to be disrespectful to PTSD patients?  If you don’t, then by defending Samus’s portrayal of PTSD, you are insulting your dad!

My Father can not watch war movies. For the longest time I would have to turn down my video games at night because the gunshots would make my Father wake up in bed, screaming. My Father fought in Vietnam. Think real hard about how long ago that was.. And he still suffers from PTSD. Do you believe my Father should just 'get over it'? No, then why should Samus?

While I am convinced that some Other M detractors really did say that Samus should “get over it,” I haven’t heard a single one of the ones that I’ve listened to actually say that. In fact, they know that someone with PTSD can’t just ‘get over it’ and use that argument to disprove the PTSD argument that Other M’s defenders like to make, sort of like what I’m about to do right now. So, basically, Katt120 just put words into the mouths of Other M’s detractors. Dick move, Kitty Katt. I’m sorry, but even if you do understand PTSD, you clearly don’t understand proper storytelling.

Oh, and by the way, remember when I said that I have a hard time believing that Katt’s dad was willing to talk to her about his military services? If he’s unable to watch a war movie and freaks out whenever he hears gunshots in a video game, why should I believe that he would be willing to talk to his dear daughter about what he went through in Vietnam!? But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

My Father's PTSD does not make him weak, in fact, he is the strongest man I know. So Samus's PTSD does not make her weak.

Wrong.  Samus's PTSD wouldn't have made her weak if it were portrayed in a way that wasn't so sloppy and ham-fisted. In fact, remember when I said that the “you can’t just ‘get over’ it” thing actually works against the PTSD argument that Other M’s defender’s like to use? Let’s go back to Eclipse Studios for a moment. I’d like to use yet another quote from him that would demonstrate this:

Some, including the manga have claimed that this is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. But there are a number of problems with this. For starters, this is the first time in the games that this has been addressed and the issue is just glazed over. There is no context given to this scene unless you already know Samus and Ridley’s history. You have no idea what’s going on. And even after reading the manga, it really does seem that the Post Traumatic Stress card is just played as a plot device. It never really seems to be a legitimate, re-occuring part of her character, and only crops up in moments which would provide the most dramatic tension. It’s just like in the movies when someone needs to start a car in a hurry and it never seems to start right away; it just feels like it’s being taken advantage of by people with no appreciation for the actual disorder. PTS isn’t something that just crops up whenever it’s dramatically convenient. It’s something that you have to live with. And again, something that a film like Aliens did a much better job of with less time.”

Also, there’s a reviewer on Youtube named Darklordjadow1 who said this in his Metroid: Other M review:

Some gamers who can’t accept that there exists a bad Metroid game like to argue that Samus’s massively out-of-character behavior in this scene is due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I’m not a doctor and I’m not even going to pretend to understand how PTSD works, but I don’t buy this explanation and I’ll tell you why: Other M takes place after the Metroid Prime games, which means that Samus got through being trapped on Dark Either with absolutely no escape as the planet explodes, being hunted by six bounty hunters at once, one of whom is an elite sniper who could kill her before she even knows he’s there, falling down a miles long shaft fighting a suped-up Ridley, with absolutely no means of surviving the landing, and getting an infection that slowly overtakes her entire body to the point where her gunship doesn’t even recognize her anymore, this woman went through all that, didn’t have PTSD in Super Metroid, got in in Metroid: Other M, and then got over it again in Metroid Fusion, because when you fight Ridley in Metroid Fusion, Samus doesn’t break down crying! SHE STARTS PUTTING MISSILES THROUGH HIS EYE!!! PTSD is not a 24 hour bug. Once you have it, you struggle with it for the rest of your life. So Samus has PTSD… I call bullshit!

So some of the detractors of Other M, or at least most of the ones that I have heard, don’t say that Samus should ‘get over it’, they say that Metroid Fusion takes place after Other M and by the time that game’s events roll around, Samus does ‘get over it’ and then they say the exact same thing Katt said, “You can’t get over it.” So, the detractors of Other M make the exact same argument that Katt made, but show that it works against the PTSD arguments that she and other Other M defenders like to bring up. So overall, Samus’s PTSD is just the defenders of Other M pulling any possible justification for Samus freaking out of Ridley out of their asses.

It does, however, make her seem more human.

And more pathetic.

One reviewer however has decided that Samus suffering from PTSD makes her a weak female character as evidenced by this quote here.

"Another major complaint many have had has to do with what has probably been the most controversial scene in the game (though I'm not sure it should have been). Samus, upon confronting her old archenemy Ridley, suffers a crippling nervous breakdown, apparently costing a comrade his life before she finally recovers the will to fight — and then loses the nerve to finish Ridley off.

There are several reasons why this scene is problematic. One is that the game fails to explain Samus' apparently crippling fear of Ridley. Some very hardcore Metroid fans (like me) knew beforehand that Samus is supposed to have been severely traumatized as a little girl when she witnessed Ridley killing — and possibly devouring — her parents. However, the only place this bit of background is actually related is in an obscure 2004 manga, which was never widely published or officially translated. Other M itself provides no context or explanation for Samus' episode, which naturally leaves the vast majority of players wondering just what the hell is going on in this scene. We aren't really given the opportunity to understand or empathize with Samus when she shuts down."

So basically, she just used a quote from the Elephant in the Room article and then decided to take a crap all over it. Also, did the quote you used even mention PTSD at all?

First off, research is not hard to do. And the series has been out for twenty years, if people do not know that Ridley is a reoccurring boss, and what his relation to Samus is by now, it's their fault. A game company simply can not take the time to explain everything in detail, the game would be delayed, over and over and it would just take it longer to get put out. And for all we know, there was an explanation, it got left on the cutting room floor.

You know what? Maybe the game spending way more time in development and getting delayed over and over again sounds like a great reason for the company to make sure that everything gets explained. Because we would have our Metroid Memories completely protected from this crap for an even longer amount of time. And yes, we know that Ridley is a re-occuring boss in the Metroid series. And if Samus never freaked out in front of Ridley in other instances of fighting him, she had no excuse here. Any explanation of any plot point should never be scrubbed from a game, because that would force players to scour around on the internet searching for answers to the questions that baffle them the most. And even then, the answers would still not be made 100% clear to them. There would be wide speculation on chat boards and fan forums, but unless the actual makers provide an actual, solid explanation that fits into the story of the game, you’ve got a problem here.

Also, has Katt been ignoring the fact that the game goes out of its way to explain almost every other major plot point!? That most of the cutscenes are long-winded info-dumps!? And yet they can’t afford to add that one specific explanation into the story?

Also, how does the game fail to explain? You see Samus flash back to being a child. Anyone with even a small about of brain power can tell that must mean that the huge dragon thing in front of her did something to her in her past to make her so scared. Also I fail to see how Samus lost the will to finish him off.

Anyone with even a small amount of brain power can also tell that the whole Samus being a child thing was way too vague to indicate what it was specifically that Ridley did to her as a kid. And you fail to see how Samus lost the will to finish him off? That’s because you don’t even try to see it! When the boss fight ended, Samus just hesitated, and then Ridley gets up and escapes! There! That’s Samus losing the will to finish Ridley off!

Not to mention she recovers from her PTSD -a lot- quicker than most people who suffer it would have. I've born witness to my Father sunk into a corner crying out the names of men I don't know, men he watched die...and him sit like that for hours. In short, the Ridley scene is not a problem. And we most likely would not be having this talk if she just shot at him herself instead of Anthony doing so to help her.

No, pall, the Ridley scene is a colossal problem that you’re making shit up just to completely dismiss. Also, Katt, you said it yourself: PTSD isn’t something you could just ‘get over.’ So, by all accounts, I think you of all people should find it very hard to believe that Samus even could recover from her PTSD as quickly as she did, because that portrays Samus’s supposed PTSD as a 5-minute bug. And PTSD doesn’t work that way at all! You said so yourself!

But there’s one thing I agree with her on one thing: “And we most likely would not be having this talk if she just shot at him herself instead of Anthony doing so to help her.” This, unlike every other comment that Katt has said in this entire blog is completely correct. In fact, here’s an idea that I have mentioned in some of my other blogs that I devoted to ripping apart Other M defence arguments: Why not have Samus’s PTSD be in the form of a violent murder frenzy instead of her breaking down crying? That would have also conveyed her having PTSD but would have also been more consistent with her character.

Now here are my reasons as to why she would suffer a breakdown.

And here are my reasons as to why Katt’s reasons as to why Samus would suffer a breakdown are complete bullshit.

As I mentioned before, she was sure that Ridley was dead, that she was freed from her old enemy. Now she sees him here, in perfect flesh, she is suddenly hit with the fact that no matter what she did to him in the past, he's back. And not as a cyborg, as himself.

If I were Samus, I would suspect that after killing Ridley over and over again, I would suspect that after killing him, he would just pop up again after a matter of time. In fact, that same reviewer I mentioned earlier, Darklordjadow1, said so himself: "After having killed him about six times, seeing him again is about as surprising as a Republican disagreeing with literally everything President Obama ever said.” He also said, “Yet another Ridley pops up in Metroid Fusion when the guy should be extra special dead, how come Samus doesn’t freak out then?” So, yeah, if Samus really did have PTSD, she would have freaked out in front of Ridley in Fusion as well. In fact, she even would have freaked out upon seeing him in suspended animation and unable to hurt anyone or even move! But she didn’t. Why? Because she didn’t have PTSD in that game. Why? Because the PTSD argument is a pile of ass-pulled bullshit, that’s why! You can’t make a bunch of games in a series where a character doesn’t have PTSD and then all of a sudden, in your latest game in your franchise, poof! She now has PTSD. Especially not if the latest game in your franchise takes place before one of the previous games. It doesn’t, never has, and never will work that way! If you want a character to have PTSD, you should make that consistent throughout the entire series, but it wasn’t. Actually, I take that back. There is a way for having a new installment in your franchise involve PTSD where several never have. And that’s if the cause of PTSD is recent within the franchise’s timeline. In the beginning of the first Alien movie, Ellen Ripley didn’t have PTSD, and in the second, she got it specifically due to the events of the first movie. That made sense. That was coherent. This PTSD on the other hand was caused by an incident that happened back when Samus was a child, and yet this game takes place near the end of the Metroid timeline. Not a good time to shoehorn in PTSD. A deviantart.com blogger named 345rv5 (before he was kicked off of deviantart) said, “As for the PTSD, it’s a bit sudden to have her develop this when she’s been doing this song and dance with Ridley for many games now.” So even if Katt really does know so much about PTSD and military protocol, she knows next to nothing about coherent storytelling!

And while we’re on that subject, Samus thought she killed Ridley after the first Metroid Prime game, and then he showed up in Prime 3’s intro mission. Did Samus freak out then? No! How about here: Samus thought she killed Ridley in the mineshaft battle I just mentioned in Prime 3, but later in the game, he shows up again. Did Samus freak out then? No! If she did have PTSD, she would have. Eclipse Studios also said this:

Some have argued that she thought she had killed him for good this time, which would make sense though one would think that she would have thought she killed him for good the first time, at this point, his seeming immortality shouldn’t be all that shocking. Even if you don’t count the Metroid Prime trilogy and I don’t know why any sane person wouldn’t include such a critically acclaimed series, she’s still faced this villain and killed him on several occasions. And for those people who have never played a Metroid game before, whom Nintendo had hoped to attract with this title, Nintendo did a pretty poor job of explaining why exactly Samus is freaking out over this creature.

In addition to all of that, Ridley was in his organic for in Super Metroid, which took place after the third Prime game where Samus defeated a cybernetically enhanced, phazon-imbuned Ridley. And Samus took him down without much issue. Argument invalid.

Also, after the events of Metroid II: The Return of Samus, Samus believes that the entire Metroid race became extinct save for the hatchling she picked up at the end of the game. So how come she didn’t freak out over the appearance of a Metroid Queen towards the end of the game!?

She has many things going through her mind. She will never be free of him, he will always come back, her only release from Ridley lies in her own death. She is thinking back to the dead Mother and Father, the fact that Ridley once taunted her about devouring her Mother's remains. She's shocked, she's afraid.

Well then maybe you should watch the pre-Ridley cutscenes in Prime 3 again, because they show Samus being shocked and afraid without turning her into a helpless weakling. First fight, we see Samus shooting at Ridley repeatedly before he tackles her and they fall down a mineshaft. Second fight, Samus has a brief moment of trying to keep her distance from Ridley for a bit after he pops up. And Prime 2 had such a moment that didn’t even involve Ridley at all. At the start of the game, when a bunch of Ing surrounded her and the protective force field waned, Samus panicked and shot up in the sky as if it would send a distress signal before jumping back into the portal and returning to Light Either. Let’s reference the Heavens To Bob video again and use another direct quote from it:

[Metroid Prime 2: Echoes] is the one Metroid game where I feel that Samus really is against some of her greatest fears and insecurities. The game starts off with her ship being disabled, stranding her on a planet that is essentially out to get her. The atmosphere of Dark Aether burns her armor, the Ing have eradicated the military soldiers and own more than half the planet, and a darker, more powerful Samus is out to get her. And when first confronted with all this, she gives up as Dark Samus breaks the light crystal protecting her, and the Ing begin their slow approach. Raising her arm cannon in the air, you could almost hear her silently screaming as she shoots upward in a vain attempt to call for help. It is only through luck that she falls back into Light Aether, granting her sanctuary and the ability to try again. You might think I’m reading into this a bit too much, but I really don’t think so for the game continues on. And in almost each cutscene, Samus can be seen as having expressions of worry, doubt, and fear. Even at the very end of the game, she is completely and utterly disgusted at the appearance of Dark Samus, and how does it all end? Well, with all of Dark Aether collapsing around her and the Ing blocking her only exit, but even when faced with these insurmountable odds, she is still able to pull herself together, overcome her fears and make one final dash for that exit. And it is through these trials that she becomes a stronger person with more confidence as can be seen by her final farewell wave to the people of Aether who applaud her exit. She even takes one final look back, proud of her accomplishments, and finally at peace with the mission’s end. It is a really great story depicting wonderful and strong character development of a silent protagonist just through her reactions to the trials that she had to face when dealing with all the evils of Dark Aether.

Yeah… So, Katt, about you saying this earlier...

“In the Prime series we have very few reasons to find flaws in her. Even a GF Admiral salutes her when she is shown to have lived through Phaaze's explosion. She is given no characterization, and only shows a few moments of any kind of venerability.”

Yeah… I call bullshit!

Back when Other M was non-existent (ah, the good old days…) Metroid Fusion was meant to take place after Super Metroid and I know I said this before but it bears repeating: If Samus was completely sure that Ridley died when Zebes blew up, shouldn’t seeing Ridley’s lifeless body in the cryostorage have been enough to cause her to lose her cool? After all, if Samus was completely certain that Ridley was gone for good, after Zebes blew up, then shouldn’t that include there being no Ridley corpse to retrieve? After all, if an entire planet were to blow up, wouldn’t everything on it be vaporized? If that were the case, then how can Ridley’s body still be around for scientists to retrieve and experiment upon?

Her actions are perfectly understandable.

No. Not even remotely. And the game does nothing to indicate that Ridley killed Samus’s parents and instead relies on the aforementioned manga and/or outside sources for such info. The game also did nothing to indicate that Samus even has PTSD at all.

Continued in Part 2