"Aww!" Fluttershy squealed happily as she and everyone else stared at the picture Samus provided of the 'Little Birdie'. "Ridley was so cute as an infant!"
All faces around the table spun to her, most in confusion but four completely stunned. "How'd you know that was Ridley?" Samus demanded.
Fluttershy blinked in surprise. "You mean I was right?" she asked, shocked. "It's just, I used to play video games with Rainbow Dash when we were younger up in Cloudsdale, and thinking of it in terms of video games with what you said about how Ridley somehow got cloned from cells on your suit at the Bottleship and all that, I just thought about what Rainbow would call the worst, most obvious, most irritating twist that couldn't even be called that that could come out of bad writing..." She blushed. "Not that it's your fault this would qualify as that, you just lived through it after all...I'm sorry..." Meeping quietly, Fluttershy hid behind her mane.
"Wait..." Rainbow spoke up. "You mean that's really Ridley?" she demanded, pointing at the picture. When she got a confirming nod, she rolled her eyes. "Great. He seemed like a big bad before now, but now I've lost all respect for him."
"How can anything so evil be so...tiny?" Rarity demanded, stunned.
"Parasprites," Twilight reminded her.
Rarity thought about that, then shrugged. "Fair enough."
"How does he survive like that, anyway?" Scootaloo demanded. "Act super cute around anything bigger than him so they'll baby him until he's eaten enough to become a monster?"
"Basically, yeah," Spike agreed. "Not that uncommon a survival trait, actually."
Pinkie Pie suddenly burst out laughing. "You're telling me Ridley's a Gremlin?" she gasped out.
As everyone burst out laughing at that, revealing that some things show up no matter how the culture develops, Samus could only shrug, gasping out, "Basically!"
As laughter surrounded the table, Shining Armor spoke up through his gasps. "Don't get your Ridley wet!"
"And don't feed him after midnight!" Anthony agreed, extending his clenched fist to bump with Shining's hoof.
Even Adam managed a chuckle or two. "The Mogwai called, they want their schtick back."
"At that size, Ridley doesn't have one!" Spike gasped out, startling even more laughter.
Amidst the amusement, Luna - the only one not laughing - leaned towards her sister. "...I don't get it," she whispered.
Celestia stifled her own giggles. "I'll show you the film another time," she promised.
Once the laughter died down, Samus got back to the business at hand. "Yes, that was Ridley, though we didn't realize it at the time," she confirmed. "Even Spike didn't recognize him...though somehow, I think he recognized us. As soon as he caught sight of us watching him, he raced away into the bushes."
"Before we could go investigate, Adam managed to unlock another door for us and ordered us through to continue our investigation of the Biodome," Spike added. "But when we went to continue...he was watching us."
"It was...unsettling, to say the least," Samus admitted, "but Adam locked the hatch behind us, so we weren't too worried at the time." More relaxed, she continued the tale. "The next few areas seemed to be much more expansive, but we quickly discovered that much of it was holographic backdrops. That frustrated Spike more than me, I'll admit."
"You try flying into an expansive sky, only to bang your beak against a wall you couldn't see!" Spike snapped back, causing more stifled giggles, save from Rainbow, Celestia, and Luna, who all wrinkled their muzzles sympathetically.
"Despite those hurdles," Samus continued, "things were more or less smooth sailing for us until we reached the subterranean control room. At first, it seemed like we'd just have to fight some more cloaking lizards, but once we got past the navigation room..."
As the pair of Hunters entered the next chamber, two floating mechanical drones descended from the ceiling to confront them. At first it seemed they would be easy enough to deal with, but they were rather more heavily armored than they first appeared. Samus' beam weapons and missiles bounced right off the drones, as did Spike's beam focused breath weapons, and they moved too fast for Spike to get a good grip on. After a time, however, the drones pulled some of their armor back, revealing energy projection points. On an impulse, Samus tried firing there, and found that part could be damaged. With that discovery, the fight was quick and brutal, as they each took one drone.
When Spike dealt with his first one, a third one dropped down, which he dealt with in much the same way. When all three were destroyed, a strange device remained. Samus went to collect it...and found it absorbed into her suit, her Arm Cannon registering a new function.
Diffusion Beam acquired.
Charged Beam blast will scatter after impact.
"And here I was beginning to think you wouldn't get anything new this time around," Rainbow chuckled, rubbing her hooves together. "What with you coming in with a full arsenal."
Samus smirked at that. "Well, it was one of the few," she admitted. "Still quite useful against large groups. Nearly as effective as Spike spraying his different breath weapons." She frowned. "Of course, on our way out..."
As the pair moved to leave the Subterranean Control Room, a large worm with a mouth full of sharp teeth, which they'd encountered once in some underground tunnels, burst through the metal walls, roaring. Another worm head - whether another worm or its other end was difficult to determine - burst through nearby.
Samus and Spike both prepared for battle as the worm ends began firing electrical energy at them in concentrated spheres. While Spike drew their fire, Samus locked on and fired a missile after the energy was released, forcing each worm out of the walls. Spike then followed up by slamming into the worms to down them, allowing Samus to finish them off with a diffusion blast straight down their throats.
With both worms taken down the same way, the path was cleared for the pair to continue onward, returning to where the controls inside had opened a path at another Navigation Room.
Gizmo... KAKA!... Or in this case is... Ridley KAKA?
So when will Ridely show up in Ponyville, we all know by now it is bound to happen. I just imagined the surprise he will get when it happens.
Oh lord. Here comes the abject humiliation.
6984544
You don't see the mouth till much later, which is creepy.
Wait, is that thing really Ridley? How does a cat-rabbit-bird thing become a pterodactyl-dragon monster?
6984589 The same way a Cabbit becomes a Spaceship...
NanomachinesBio-Engineering Son6984589 Honestly, I don't know. I don't know if it's ever explained in the game, because I pretty much stopped playing when I reached the fire section.
6984642 It is. And they show you different stages of his evolution from helpless bunny thing to 'Flying Doom of Death'.
I know some of my comments have seemed to be in defense of Other M. That isn't to say that I didn't cringe at some of the more over-the-top scenes.
I did cringe. Most especially at the fight against Ridley. She goes through several adventures fighting him, then gets all locked up in a child-like manner?? Yeah, that really takes a lot of suspension of disbelief.
What I was trying to do was defend it from a storytelling perspective. Even then, that's difficult. My inner gamer cringes at a lot of these scenes to this day.
Still, overall I give the game a 6/10. It could have been a lot better.
knew it much to cute to be safe
6984720 That one was actually one of the least cringe worthy IMO. She thought the beast that ate her parents in front of her when she was 3 was finally dead with less than ashes remaining following her encounter with it on Zebes in the mission depicted in Metroid 3 (Super Metroid). Then it reappears on the Bottleship out of nowhere with zero warning. How would you feel if that happened?
6984882 This is Samus Aran, absolutely the most badass ANYTHING that exists in her universe. Her reaction SHOULD have been "I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU! AND THEN MURDER THE CORPSE! AND THEN MURDER THE ASHES! STAY FUCKING DEAD!!!" In all honestly shock and fear were the least likely reaction. By this point I actually expected Samus to go batshit crazy berserk, ignore Adam's previous orders and unleash the apocalypse that is her full arsenal to make absolutely certain there was nothing left of him. Her snapping DOES make sense, but she isn't a helpless little girl anymore, she is battle hardened warrior, who has faced nightmares that would terrify the entire galaxy, and walked away the sole survivor of them every time. This would be far more likely in all honesty. Samus DID freeze up the first time she faced Ridley, and it cost Grey Voice his life to save her. She has NEVER done it ever again, even when facing the VASTLY more horrifying Dark Samus. That single scene basically undoes the SINGLE BIGGEST CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT MOMENT SHE HAS EVER HAD, and set the character back to before the second of her origin comics, which predates ALL the games. But then... Other M's entire point seems to be making Samus into a whiny emo bitch rather than a strong female badass who could chew up Spartans for a light snack. So, par for the course I guess.
What really pisses me off, is mechanically I LOVED the game. Some things were a bitch, (Looking at you missles) but in general it was fun, and while playing you could really get the feeling that Samus really is this superhuman badass she's been referred to since the comics. And then story/exposition cutscenes happen and I want to feed the writers and voice actors their own intestines. The saddest part is that removing every voice from the game, as well as subtitles, would improve it from a 4/10 to a 8/10 EASILY.
How should I know?
It's, fine, it's fine.
Same.
They're not intentionally evil, they're animals. Angel Bunny is more fitting.
In a nutshell, yes.
I should really watch that movie.
Beak? You have a muzzle, really. Also, that sounds kinda funny.
Amazing how much one extra "player" makes all the fights so much easier.
That's a thing? Neat.
She's gonna need it for the next boss, isn't she'
Called it.
6984969 even in games before Other M, Samus has had a history of locking up when caught by surprise by Ridley, acting Irrationally, and just loosing her cool in general. Trying to force feed him missiles in Prime three, though it makes an awesome finisher, IS NOT HEALTHY BEHAVIOR.
6984589
img07.deviantart.net/ff62/i/2012/170/1/d/you_caught_a_ridley_by_m_thirteen-d396dz9.png
I really sympathize with Spike... when I was little I ran full speed into the patio door of my paternal grandparents' house. The next time we visited grandpa had hung a few decorations on suction cups at little kid eye level.
Nice verbal roasting of Ridley, I was surprised Fluttershy figured it out, but good going on her part.
6984589
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
6984605 Ryo-Ohki, though
6985255 I don't recall her freezing in fear in any of the previous games, (momentary shock, but not fear, and she gets over that and goes into the I'M A FUCKING KILL YOU pretty quick) though I agree she has a tendency to go for serious overkill when it came to Ridley, which is my point about the scene in Other M. Her snapping and going into a blind seething rage. It would just fit SO MUCH better.
6986255 In the other games she knew he was still alive and was able to mentally prepare herself. In Fusion, the only game set after Other M, she saw an X fly out of his frozen corpse just before it fell to pieces giving her time to prepare herself for a fight against a lookalike.
6986619 I'm going to call BS on that. She kills Ridley during her Zero Mission. She has no reason to suspect he survived that first battle. But as time proved he NEVER STAYS DEAD. So going by that logic, she actually SHOULD expect Ridley to still be alive, because NONE of his deaths have ever 'stuck'. His being in the Bottleship might be odd, but again, this is simply 'par for the course'. He has shown up on almost every single one of her missions so far. And by that point in Other M she has already seen artificial 'Space Pirates'. So seeing a 'Fake Ridley' makes even more sense. There is no logical reason she should have 'regressed into an 8 year old girl', at that point, other than "Because the writer thinks it will be dramatic." And given the writing for the rest of the game could have been done better by my 7 year old daughter who doesn't even play Metriod...
6986649
How about the fact that for the first time since she failed to fight him when Old Bird died, he looked exactly like he did in that confrontation, and when he killed her parents? He does look distinctly different in every game you fight him in, showing his age and modifications. In essence, each successive Ridley was her nemesis, but this was the first time he was once again 'the face of her nightmares'.
6986649
I'm going to let you finish but that's distinctly false. He's barely alive at the end of that encounter but he IS alive and she knows it. That encounter is why he has a bunch of mechanical/artificial body parts during their next encounter on Tallon IV. During that encounter he takes a beating before falling off the cliff but survives. Every encounter before the one during Metroid 3 leaves him barely alive but still kicking. The original Ridley has precisely one canon death.
6986669 I thought it was Grey Voice that died. Also, that's why I said a 'Fake Ridley'. She's already seen that the GF is basically trying to make copies of the Space Pirates for their own use, and Ridley is one of the biggest badasses in the SP forces, so making a clone of him would make senes. I could be wrong, but by that point she is also aware of the metroids too right? So as I said, Ridley showing up is still par for the course. Of course this game is also full of moments that deliberately 'weaken' Samus for sake of drama, even when it makes no damn sense. Like the scene where she is under attack by Geko Ridley. This woman is strong enough to punch through armor plating tough enough to withstand missile attacks, (origin comic has her punching through one of those tincan robots from the crashed ship in Super Metroid, which were invulnerable to EVERYTHING in the game) and she can't kick the fucker off of her? She has to be 'rescued' for some reason? The entire game seems like an attempt to make her more 'feminine' by making her seem weaker, and leaves a seriously bad taste in my mouth. Which again, is sad because I really loved the gameplay.
6986719 As far as I am aware, in the video game canon Ridley DID die during Zero mission, and was cloned by Mother Brain. The clone has all of his memories though. I did find some info stating that Other M is where the "Oh he survived every fight prior" thing comes for, saying that only Super Metroid is when he actually dies. Is there any other proof save from Other M itself?
6986885 In Metroid Prime there are Pirate Logs that mention using technology to aid in his recovery IIRC. There may or may not be similar lore entries in Prime 3 but common speculation among the community is that between being defeated at the Pirate Homeworld Leviathan and the destruction of Phaaze Ridley consumed large amounts of their Phazon stores to regenerate his lost body parts in order to return to his original fully organic form before the next encounter with The Hunter (the Space Pirate's nickname for Samus) on Ceres Station.
6986255 She does go rage mode, that's when the fight starts. Raging Samus always has her visor go opaque from outside.
Don't worry Luna, I didn't get it either...speaking of which, what is that from?
6987470
Gremlins.
6987443 Yes, AFTER fun black guy who's name I can't recall at this moment DIES (or at least seems to). Before then she panics and goes back to being an 8 year old girl scared of the big monster.
6986928 My point has been that Samus herself hasn't ever simply 'left him alive'. She's gone out of her way to try and murder the fuck out of him pretty much every single time. He just seems to survive absolutely everything no matter what. This, combined with the fact that the GF was clearly producing face Space Pirate Forces, would leave little reason for her to NOT assume that there would be signs of Ridley. I get the PTSD angle, even more than most having had to deal with it both from myself and from others who have seen serious shit as well. You even see signs of Samus' own PTSD in how she reacts to Ridley in other games, as well as Dark Samus. But her reaction has always been...
The ending of that video above. Samus DID have her BSOD moment, when she encountered Ridley during the space pirate takeover of Zebes. Even after being rescued she BEGGED for death, because of the utter and complete despair she felt. However it was Platinum Chest and the other Chozo who helped her recover from that. She's been in that deep dark hole where everything seemed hopeless already. She got better. Ever since then she's only had momentary shock, followed by TFS Vegeta levels of murderous rage. Indeed game canon Samus' own admissions reveal that the most terrifying foes she has ever faced were SA-X & Dark Samus, NOT Ridley. The space dragon is the Monster In the Closet/Under The Bed, the demon that tormented her as a child. But thanks to some parental help, she grew up, she faced down that monster and kicked the ever loving shit out of it every single time since. Indeed it's telling that her greatest fears are those who have HER powers. Samus Aran's biggest nightmare, is herself going rogue. Ridley is the thing that scared her as a child, and like most childhood terrors, once she grew up it lost it's ability to scare her.
And before someone goes "Oh but she was upset about The Baby still too and that's why-" I'm going to cut that off. Ridley is THE REASON The Baby is dead. Mother Brain may have done the killing, but it was Ridley that kidnapped it and brought it to Mother Brain. That's more reason for her to snap and try shoving powerbombs up Ridley's ass while goging out his eyeballs with her bare hands than curling up into a ball in terror. If you really want to factor trauma over The Baby into things, that just adds fuel to the "SCREW ADAMS ORDERS I'M GOING TO GO APOCALYPTIC ON YOUR ASS" response. A human mother trying to save her child can rip the door right off a car. A superhuman mother in power armor stronger than anything that doesn't outright nuke cities from orbit with an arsenal strong enough to vaporize entire armies trying to avenge the murder of her adopted child? That's the stuff of nightmares right there...
There's more black bars here than the SCP website.
M. Night. Shyamalamalamalamahahaha levels of twist, there. Seriously. None of us weren't expecting it.
Still, good job rolling with it.
I had to hold in my laughter so much at the Gremlin part, because I'm reading at work on my down time, but that shit was to damn funny!
Spike.
Angel.
In Equestria, dangerous things can come in small packages.
KILL IT WITH FIRE
7079675 don't run around like Firebrand did and set everything on fire!!!!!!
Laughs so hard passes out for 5 minutes I love you for that and I really needed that. I was having a crappy day and that was the pick-me-up I needed.
6987470
And here I was wondering if I was the only one who HADN'T seen that movie...
Still got the reference due to cultural osmosis though.
Yep
7562518
Tatsurou does a good job hiding little bits of comedic gold like that in most of his works. :) Anytime I've been down lately, I've just logged on and per used one of his PWNYverse fics for a worthwhile laughter-inducing read. So far, this is one of my favorites. XD And yes, I caught the reference, too. Wonder if real sunlight would've killed Ridley as the Little Birdie form?
6985255
1) i agree that she had some anger issues at that time but she was also semi-recently coming off of a nightmare of dark samus coming back from having died IN A DIFFERENT FUCKING PLANE OF EXISTENCE
2) i love that picture
8236201
I'm actually surprised to see one person who hasn't seen gremlins I mean it's as iconic as Beetlejuice.
6984969
Go read my review on chapter little bird as I gave a explanation on why Samus having PTSD is viable and for the record the story wasn't bad just poorly handled due to mistranslation like for example samus' stoicism is considered cool in Japan. Plus have you read the Manga I'm pretty sure you would be fucked up and have PTSD by having your parents killed in front of you at a very young age and Samus is not a 2D character she fails and gets back up and keeps on fighting as that's the point she is a tragic character that keeps on fighting no matter severe bumps on the road along the way on in fact if Samus didn't have PTSD during that scene I would be worried as having a character that doesn't have flaws like that is something I hate as I hate Mary sues plus it's boring to have a character like that it's not fun compared to say one punch man as that's a good show about a character that's too strong and is chronically bored in fact look you psychology of Samus and Saitama on YouTube channel lockstin and gnoggin as lockstin goes over on why samus' PTSD makes her a stronger character and why Saitama is always bored they are very good and worth watching.
11257906
Eh. Had to make one ex sit through the Breakfast Club, and another through the Back to the Future movies. It's weird, but it happens.