#metroid prime 3

[hoshizoralone]

samus the protector of space pride

the girlfriend in question:

[bfoxanimation]

Dark Samus

[rescuedrop]

Daily drawing practice day 823 (6/30/24)

[coldgoldlazarus]

Something I love about Hunters and Corruption is like

Up to this point, across five 2D games and two 3D ones, we knew that Samus was a bounty hunter. And if you actually read the NES manual, it specifically called bounty hunters out as being A Big Deal, the best way the Federation had to fight back against the space pirates before their own military was established, and still important enough to call on for the most serious cases now. But Samus still kinda existed in a vaccuum.

(Technically the Super Metroid comic had one, but he was just a big guy who had a blue chozo powersuit of his own for some reason, to my understanding.)

So it's really cool to see what kind of people are the closest things Samus has to peers now, and I like how varied they are. I've already gone on my big ramble about how the Hunters cast feel like toonami show action figures, and how much I sincerely love that about them. But I also wanna give some love to the Corruption trio too, who really embody that variety, and that idea of these like, Big Name powerhouses who operate outside of typical factional structures and don't fit any existing molds. They aren't Samus, but they are still people who you'd wince at seeing hired by the other side and be relieved to see on yours, people who take their briefings directly from fleet admirals.

Also something I appreciate about all of them? All aliens. I wish we'd see more of the Federation as the multi-species coalition the NES manual painted it as, but at least that spirit is still kept in an indirect sense with all nine of the other Hunters introduced so far. (I guess technically Sylux is an unknown, but still.) Wish I could sneak back in time and get @kosmonauttihai hired at Retro Studios circa 2005ish to implement that great Gandrayda redesign, though. But still!

[razables]

based off me saying the phrase “the darker samus” over and over again while drawing this

[eromancery]

Metroid Prime 3 has a shapeshifting female bounty hunter who flirts with Samus and we've seen NO ONE talk about her EVER we are so disappointed in you all

[video-game-jams]

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Dark Samus Battle

[spaceyhibiscus]

Cool story, Sammy.

Been meaning to do some fanart for the metroid prime 3 hunters! I have the headcanon that samus isn't all that much of a lone wolf as the federation tends to think...but rather prefers the company of fellow bounty hunters.

[tallon-underworld]

I love the Urtragian Pirates from Metroid Prime 3, because they’re such a bizarre and alien deviation from every other Pirate design we’ve seen in the series:

2D games: Lobster people

Metroid Prime: Lizard people

Metroid Prime 2: Lobster people again

Metroid Prime 3: Multi-eyed eels with robot limbs and biotech, baybeeee

[postal-ech]

Fellas, I have been listening to a shit ton of remixes on the Prime Trilogy and once more I need to let loose my autism unto this hellsite

I fucking love Dark Samus

I really fucking love Dark Samus

I don't know if any of you know this, but I FUCKING LOVE Dark Samus, like she is my top Metroid Antagonists, topping even the SA-X or Raven Beak (Raven Beak is genuinely on top but I'll get to him in another post) or Ridley and others.

Why?

Well that's what this post is about

So who the fuck is Dark Samus? Or really, WHAT IS Dark Samus??

(Source is from the Metroid Wiki channel on Youtube. I use the original version instead of the remastered because the lighting in the remastered version of this cutscene is a bit fucked despite the better-detailed models. You can see the eye on the palm much more clearly as its pupil dilates to adjust to the lighting of the room. look I'm an autist for these details, I want you all to see them in all their glory as much as I have growing up)

DARK SAMUS My beloved

Dark Samus is more or less part of the "dark doppelganger" troupe in nintendo games, with the important caveat that unlike other such doppelgangers like Dark Link or Dark Kirby from the Magical Mirror games, Dark Samus' originated from the destroyed remains of the METROID PRIME, the final boss of the first game in the Prime Trilogy.

After Samus murders the shit out of the Metroid Prime, it manages to steal the Phazon Suit she used to get into the Impact Crater, which by extension also contained the DNA of Samus. With this, this ressurection of the Metroid Prime, reconstructed using this Phazon Suit and the DNA it acquired became what we know today: Dark Samus, a Metroid Hybrid - the first of its kind, long before Samus would eventually have Metroid DNA spliced into her during the opening events of Fusion.

(Dark Samus' final concept art, found in the Metroid Prime 2 concept gallary)

Dark Samus' design in prime 2 is something I adore to the utmost extreme. Its this wholly-organic Varia-adjacent suit with exposed, dark blue musculature. She has a clawed hand, feett, and an arm cannon too and its visor isn't just a visor but is entirely integrated into her body. In essence, She isn't just a living suit, She has used the Varia Suit as a basis to reconstruct her ENTIRE god damn body, right down to the arm cannon and the pauldrons and the visor too. THIS IS HER ZERO SUIT! So if anyone comes up to you and shows you a picture of Emo Zero Suit Samus and calling it Zero Suit Dark Samus, know that that is FAKE and WRONG and ENTIRELY INACCURATE to the ELDRITCH HORROR MADE REALITY.

Its a shame that the Gamecube wasn't really that powerful enough to truly show off just how organic this Dark Samus design was, especially given the pauldrons have these scrolling phazon textures poking out of the holes in her pauldrons that could really do well with an up-ressing of her model. Hopefully the remaster does this justice. Her morphball form, too, deserves an equal amount of justice given the concept art that exists of it

(Source is again from the concept art of MP2. VERY SPOOKY.)

Anyways, Dark Samus comes equipped with her own arsenal too, uniquely her own with a few exceptions, such as a Phazon Scatterbeam, a thin phazon laser thats almost akin to a more focused hyper beam that Raven Beak uses, an energy shield much akin to the phazon suit she used to reconstruct herself, alongside a ramming attack that's kinda akin to her own shinespark or screw attack (prime style of course), and the obvious Super Missiles and Boost Ball that she has in her first and second encounter. Eventually she'll even gain a Cloaking Field that can only be detected via the Dark Visor or the Echo Visor, and eventually super charging herself to even throw out pure phazon at Samus in her third and final fight.

There was a cut bad ending to Dark Samus' fight where she would have stolen the Light Suit from Samus (to reflect the time she had stolen the Phazon Suit in MP1) and gone off to let Aether get destroyed and

Jesus Christ, I love it.

You can see how it takes direct inspiration from the Metroid Prime as well, given her head and pauldrons have those spikes alongside the red and orange highlights on her armor, but it ALSO has a sort of luminoth inspiration to it too. It has a metallic, shelled sheen to it with two-pronged feet, a sort of completed hand and her arm cannon looking less round and more reminiscent of her Prime 3 design. It would EVENTUALLY see the light of day as inspiration for her overall Metroid Prime 3 design, but I still wish I could model it and bring it to life for other Metroid Fans to use.

In Prime 3, her design is switched again to something more akin to a shelled crab. ...now the Wii's graphics aren't... ENTIRELY REPRESENTATIVE of her design...

It's...not BAD, but you can't really tell if its organic or metallic in nature.

Smash Ultimate does this design justice at the very least. You can tell its more chitinous in nature compared to Prime 3's low-res renders

This has her having a more traditional suit design compared to Prime 2, and while the latter's design will always be my all-time favorite, this one is great too.

In Prime 3 her arsenal is expanded too, as she can control the Phazon on Phaaze to create pillars of the stuff for cover, split herself into multiple copies that act semi-independently of her (dubbed Echoes, funnily enough), She is by all means and purposes - a fucking POWERHOUSE of a creature in her own right.

Eventually she is "permanently" killed off in Prime 3, as confirmed by the director Kensuke Tanabe, but I still have hope that maybe one day she could return later on in the metroid timeline, because god dammit. She was THE ONLY other metroid hybrid in the franchise, right there with Samus as of now. Samus is honestly more closely related to Dark Samus now than she ever has been in the franchise, save for the Phazon mutagen Dark Samus had consisted of.

Hell, there's even a bit of a character arc with her where she started off as the Metroid Prime - this solely monstrous, instinctual creature mindlessly consuming Phazon and assimilating weaponry onto itself, before reconstructing itself as Dark Samus proper - still instinctual in a sense, but with a growing intelligence that really shines in the climax of the trilogy with Prime 3 - leading entire raids against the Federation with Space Pirates and showing a sense of companionship with the other metroids/phastroids she interacted with whiles showing how cruel she could be towards the surviving feddies of the Valhalla.

It's so much so that ever since Dread dropped its been a dream of mine to realize a climatic battle between Metroids.

THE LAST METROID VS THE PRIME METROID

If you will.

GOD, I fucking love Dark Samus. She honestly stacks so high up even against the X as my other favorite metroid antagonist that I wish more was done with her before the eventual climatic ending with Prime 3. I hope this was enough to also gain your interest in this fascinating mutant metroid made humanoid.

Next up on the list, the Chozo - including Grey Voice, Old Bird, Raven Beak and Quiet Robe of course.

[nerdy-the-artist]

Nerdy the Artist’s Metroid Fanfic Spotlight part 2!

This is something I’ve been needing to do for a hot minute now. As I said last time, there are so many talented writers, artists, and musicians in the Metroid fanbase. The level of creativity and passion for the series is just astounding. Today we will be taking a look at some of the many fanfictions out there. I’ve read these stories myself and can personally attest that they are well worth your time to read. From the cute and fluffy to the grotesque and violent, these stories have earned their place on my recommendations. Without further adue, let’s start this thing.

1. Mostly Just a Power Suit

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17637701

This story, written by Planet_Bryyo, is short and sweet, diving into a fan favorite but rarely explored character of Weavel from Metroid Prime Hunters. In spite of his fan favorite status among the hunters, up there even with Sylux, you’ll be hard pressed to find many fics featuring him. This story shows off his reaction to being transformed into a Non-Zebesian form during his cybernetic reconstruction. The story also spends a great deal of time focusing on the reactions of other Space Pirates seeing this fallen commander, now a lone wolf who is more machine than… man? Alien terminology, ugh. In any case you can see their reactions to this loose cannon in a bar setting. Side tangent, the idea of a Space Pirate bar is actually really unique. We don’t see much of Space Pirates at rest anywhere, so this is actually a welcome touch.

2. Fallen from the Nest

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53675155/chapters/135874063

Going all in on Bounty Hunters this spotlight, I suppose. This story, written by PuriKuma, is much longer than Mostly Just a Power Suit, though still digestible. This is part of a larger series that I do recommend, but I’ll stick to talking about this entry for now. Keeping with the Hunters appreciation, this story depicts a shared mission between Samus and Noxus, the Vhozon Bounty Hunter from the same game as Weavel and Sylux. The mission brief is simple; a criminal organization called the Ashlings, lead by the physically imposing Andron, have taken hostages, including a Federation Senator, to barter in exchange for a precious and expensive ore. Samus is to go after the Ashling secret base while Noxus intercepts the hostages so that the criminals are not rewarded for their efforts. However, what gives Samus pause is the identity of one of their members. From there, the story takes plenty of intriguing twists and turns. The ways in which Samus and Noxus play off each other in this story are extremely entertaining and interesting to watch. It also adds a fair bit to the latter’s character which I have yet to see anywhere else, a sarcastic playfulness in his attitude that bounces well off of Samus’s stoicism. He’s able to taunt and poke fun at the emotional core behind the front that Samus puts on. Their interactions alone would be worth a read, but the plots twists and mysteries involved really take this story to the next level. This story, and the series it’s a part of, are an instant classic for me.

3. A Win

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48254998/chapters/121695439

Sometimes, we all just need a reminder that we’re doing good, that we aren’t a burden, that we are worthy, that our actions have helped people. This story, written by orphan_account, is that for Samus Aran. Taking place after the events of Metroid Dread, Samus is in a bit of a slump after feeling like she’s only seen as a threat or a tool for higher powers. To attempt some soul searching, she journeys to one of the few game settings that is left better than when she arrived; Aether. She wanders through a reinvigorated and rehabilitated world, free from the influence of Dark Aether and Space Pirates, seeing how the world has healed in her time away. Granted, I am not too familiar with Metroid Prime 2, so much of the reader’s catharsis is likely lost on me. Still, even as someone who has little prior knowledge of the past of Aether, this story still is a nice, sentimental journey, with an appearance from some old friends.

4. Hatchling

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29039376/chapters/71275923

Now, back to where it all began. This story, written by MetroidReploid, is a retelling of an old tale we all know, the story of Samus Aran losing everything. This retelling focuses more on Samus’s life as a child, going into detail about the life she lives, so that when the Space Pirates take it all away, we understand what exactly she’s losing. There’s also some further fleshing out of Adam here as well. He shows up as a young, bright Federation Officer with a preexisting connection to Virginia Aran, Samus’s mother, a connection which has strained her relationship with Rodney Aran. Unlike the simple housewife we see in the manga, Virginia is portrayed as a working mom, leading a security firm tasked with guarding K2-L. Rodney, by contrast, is a bitter, angry man who takes his public image, and that of his company, very seriously. It’s a story full of a lot of angst, but it does its job fairly well in terms of adding some reason to why things happen and when.

5. “Sammy”

Link:

Now, if you need a break from all the angst and dreariness, SeleneLawfulGood has you covered! This story is a short and sweet fluff story, featuring a young woman named Thae’Lia finding a tired but very attractive woman at a bar named Sammy. I think we all know the twist so I won’t beat around the bush. It’s really cute (and with some mild lemon toward the end but you didn’t hear that from me) and displays a rarely seen aspect of the series; how do the citizens of the Galactic Federation view Samus Aran? We rarely, if ever, see non-combatant intelligent life in any Metroid game, so we don’t really get much of that. It also gives a view into what the life of a Bounty Hunter is like. It’s a very lonely, tiring existence that, while it pays well when you save the Galaxy, like, 5 times, needs an extra aspect to be fulfilling. For Samus, it’s the moral obligation she feels. It’s a very cute read, and if you need something sweet, this’ll do the job. Also, trans Samus solidarity.

6. Let Me Tell You How Much I’ve Come To Hate You

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45854323

Getting back to Space Pirates, doorstopQuiet has delved into an aspect of the series that even Metroid Prime itself largely glosses over; Ridley’s reconstruction into Meta Ridley. In truth, it was largely not his idea. As the highest ranking survivor of Samus’s rampage on Zebes, Ridley got lobbed with the blame for the cataclysm. The only reason he had survived was a great shame for the Cunning God of Death. He played dead. He let himself sink into Norfair’s magma, slowly burning away his flesh, but at least he had some chance to survive. He was crippled, mangled, burnt to a crisp, but at least she would not kill him. Still, High Command’s punishment, their loathing of the failed god, was almost worse. He would not command armies, he would not have the same autonomy he once did. He would become a machine for their empire, reconstructed as a tool. It’s a great short story, filled with colorful language and allusions to his past to hammer home the gravity of how far he’s sunk. There are also plenty of references and quotations from Man on The Internet’s Ridley theme vocal cover, which I do find entertaining. I find this to be an excellent read, and really reimagines Meta Ridley in Metroid Prime as a fallen god, stripped of his authority, and sent after the one who felled him.

7. Independent Contractors

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40993332?view_adult=true

This story, written by ifThen_doWhile, shows off Samus in a post Fusion Federation, one that has grown far more wary of her. They still have need of her, however, and so an agent of the Federation is sent to hire a Samus who has not been returning digital requests for her services. The agent, named Aiden, is sent in with top of the line weaponry in case things go south, alongside surveillance of the Hunter’s activities. Upon finding her, Aiden is in for a big surprise. This story really hammers home how heart poundingly nerve racking it is to approach the Hunter who has destroyed 3 planets, especially when tensions are running hot. Samus is portrayed as pragmatic but quiet, her demeanor easily misinterpreted as callous indifference, a guise she leans into at times. It’s a very good, suspenseful story that I highly recommend.

8. Metroid: No Other

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59261113

This story, written by @dappercritter , is actually my most recent read. What’s this? An actual Tumblr link? For once, yes. I saw the announcement post on Tumblr that it was out and jumped at the opportunity to read it. It’s quite good, but quite long. Don’t let the 1 chapter limit fool you, you might not finish it in 1 sitting. In any case, No Other starts off with something of a trope among fanfictions; Other M as an in-universe film. I still find it amusing. However, as this story follows on after Dread, Adam comments on Samus not taking care of herself properly, not addressing any of the trauma from ZDR, avoiding social events, and generally withdrawing from the world around her, prompted by an increasing distrust of the Federation, and the Galaxy as a whole. We also see that Samus does not seem to trust Adam, both due to his origin as an AI made to spy on her, and increased by Raven Beak’s mimicry of him. It’s an angle I haven’t seen anywhere else and is a welcome change of pace. In any case, Samus further withdraws from Adam and into what she does best; Bounty Hunting. However, shortly after her arrival to planet Ohma-984, a new threat emerges, intent on bringing out her dark side. Without going into spoilers, the antagonist’s design is absolutely badass, and I might actually draw him some time. The action sequences in this story, likewise, are absolutely brutal and well thought out. There’s a lot of noticeable influences from other franchises like Godzilla, Metal Gear Rising, and Doom that feel well at home in this story and don’t take away from it at all though that may be me simply being a fan of those series. DapperCritter mentioned specifically Shin Kamen Rider, though I’m not a fan of that series, so I can’t attest to how prominent the influence is. Regardless, it’s a thought provoking story with plenty of brutal action packed in as well, plus I love the original character designs, which take from canon while tagging on further additions.

Honorable Mention: Kanden Story Pitch

Link: https://www.tumblr.com/sepublic/759167079922417664/kanden-debut-pitch

I’m putting this as an honorable mention as it is meant as an outline for a story, so it may not scratch the same itch for some people as a fully written out story. This outline, by @sepublic is meant for a hypothetical Metroid animated series, similar to the original Clone Wars series (not THE Clone Wars!) by Genndy Tartakovsky. This one off features another under appreciated Bounty Hunter, Kanden, facing off against Samus over a Metroid which could give him true power unrivaled. It’s an excellent read, though, once again, if you’re looking for something more completed/traditional, I can understand if this doesn’t suck you in as well. However, I am currently working on a storyboard of this story. I won’t be animating it in full, but there will be sound effects, music, and voice acting. So uh… stay tuned for that!

As I said at that start, these stories are great, and really show off the passion these writers have for the series. However, there are plenty more out there. In the comments, share some of your favorite Metroid Fanfictions you’ve read. I can always do with expanding my Metroid reading list and I’m sure some of you feel the same way.

[hoshizoralone]

bite sized sammies

[it-seemo]

@yamcans00's Skulltober Day 29 - "Rainbow"

<- Day 28 | Day 29 | Day 30 ->

[rescuedrop]

Daily drawing practice day 824 (7/1/24)

[coldgoldlazarus]

Too lazy to type all this back out properly right now, but discussion of Phazon led me to some interesting tangential thoughts.

[razables]

just finished the metroid prime trilogy. i am feeling so normal about it all.