The Metroid series has been going on for years, and has earned a special place in the hearts of many gamers. I myself have played many of them, and enjoyed them quite a bit. However, something has always bothered me about the series for years. There is an inherent problem with the Metroid series, and I have only just now realized what it is; the Metroid games represent everything wrong about our society's attitude towards the environment.
You may be wondering how I came to such a conclusion. After all, what does a bounty hunter blowing up space pirates have to do with our treatment of the environment? Far more than you might think. Consider this; how many animals does Samus regularly slaughter during her various campaigns? She single-handedly eradicates entire colonies of animals. She uses her various weapons to destroy their homes. She completley alters her surroundings to accomplish her current task, not even once thinking about the long term impacts of her actions. Detonating a thermonuclear device to breach a shield? Sure that's fine, couldn't possibly cause any problems down the road. Samus has done massive damage to countless numbers of species and planets, and may have even wiped out some rare ones completely. Samus shows no concern over the potential impact this could have on numerous fragile ecosystems.
And this is only looking at the little picture; consider for a moment what the objective of many of Samus's missions entail. Often times her goal is to wipe out an entire species. Why? Because these species pose a "threat" to humanity, even when they are incapable of space travel. Or she needs one species to fix her ship, so she commits genocide in their name (Metroid Prime: Echoes). The game doesn't even attempt to address the moral issues surrounding the extinction of an entire species in the name progress, let alone because her ship is busted. Suddenly the actions of Samus are a lot more horrifying. For every planet she "saves", she usually wipes out a whole species and does irreparable damage to the planets ecosystem in the process.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the games even suggest that this careless and unwarranted destruction is a good thing. The climax of Metroid: Fusion involves Samus throwing a space station out of orbit and into the planet below. Why? To wipe out the unique species that has evolved on the station, of course. Genocide seems to be her strong suit. Not only is she killing off yet another species, but she is destroying all of the environmental research and progress that the station has accomplished in the process. On top of all this, the impact of the station when it crashes into the planet below will no doubt cause massive destruction. This is an environmental nightmare, so the Galactic Federation rightly attempts to arrest Samus for her crimes. But the game suggests that her insane actions are somehow justified. That she is doing the right thing, even though she is causing destruction on an immense scale.
I'm not trying to suggest that Nintendo and Retro are run by Saturday morning cartoon villains that burn down trees for the sake of being evil, but they clearly didn't consider the message their games are sending. Samus's complete disregard for the preservation of the environment shows just how little our own society cares about our own environment. The Metroid series actively promotes the destruction of countless species and ecosystems for any reason, no matter how poorly justified it is, because most people don't consider this to be an issue. These games reflect a dark, undeniable truth about the current state of our society. There is no doubt that soon we shall be traveling through space, discovering new worlds and species. But Metroid is influencing us to greet these new species with a missile launcher to the face.
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If you're reading this, then that means you have actually bothered to read the 5 paragraphs listed above. Or you just skipped to the end. I wouldn't blame you for doing so, since everything above this is nothing but vapid drivel. Anyone who has played the Metroid games noticed that I am clearly over-analyzing it, searching for hidden messages in places were none exist. And by carefully omitting important details about the series, I was able to better support the ridiculous claims I made.
The point of this was to show that you can claim there is a hidden meaning behind anything when you over-analyze it and omit the details that would ruin your assertion. It's quite easy to make any game, book, or movie look bad when you examine them in such a fashion. Obviously I'm taking a jab at the subject of Movie Bob's new series, in which he did the exact same thing with the Halo series and hidden racism. The difference being that I made this as a joke, while he was being dead serious. However, both are just as meaningless when you stop selectively excluding various details.
Try it for yourself; over-analyze one of your favorite games and try and make a convincing argument about some ridiculous message it supposedly promotes. See what hilariously wrong statements you can come up with. Also, this thread might serve another purpose; pointing out how many Escapists don't bother to read an entire topic before commenting.
You may be wondering how I came to such a conclusion. After all, what does a bounty hunter blowing up space pirates have to do with our treatment of the environment? Far more than you might think. Consider this; how many animals does Samus regularly slaughter during her various campaigns? She single-handedly eradicates entire colonies of animals. She uses her various weapons to destroy their homes. She completley alters her surroundings to accomplish her current task, not even once thinking about the long term impacts of her actions. Detonating a thermonuclear device to breach a shield? Sure that's fine, couldn't possibly cause any problems down the road. Samus has done massive damage to countless numbers of species and planets, and may have even wiped out some rare ones completely. Samus shows no concern over the potential impact this could have on numerous fragile ecosystems.
And this is only looking at the little picture; consider for a moment what the objective of many of Samus's missions entail. Often times her goal is to wipe out an entire species. Why? Because these species pose a "threat" to humanity, even when they are incapable of space travel. Or she needs one species to fix her ship, so she commits genocide in their name (Metroid Prime: Echoes). The game doesn't even attempt to address the moral issues surrounding the extinction of an entire species in the name progress, let alone because her ship is busted. Suddenly the actions of Samus are a lot more horrifying. For every planet she "saves", she usually wipes out a whole species and does irreparable damage to the planets ecosystem in the process.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the games even suggest that this careless and unwarranted destruction is a good thing. The climax of Metroid: Fusion involves Samus throwing a space station out of orbit and into the planet below. Why? To wipe out the unique species that has evolved on the station, of course. Genocide seems to be her strong suit. Not only is she killing off yet another species, but she is destroying all of the environmental research and progress that the station has accomplished in the process. On top of all this, the impact of the station when it crashes into the planet below will no doubt cause massive destruction. This is an environmental nightmare, so the Galactic Federation rightly attempts to arrest Samus for her crimes. But the game suggests that her insane actions are somehow justified. That she is doing the right thing, even though she is causing destruction on an immense scale.
I'm not trying to suggest that Nintendo and Retro are run by Saturday morning cartoon villains that burn down trees for the sake of being evil, but they clearly didn't consider the message their games are sending. Samus's complete disregard for the preservation of the environment shows just how little our own society cares about our own environment. The Metroid series actively promotes the destruction of countless species and ecosystems for any reason, no matter how poorly justified it is, because most people don't consider this to be an issue. These games reflect a dark, undeniable truth about the current state of our society. There is no doubt that soon we shall be traveling through space, discovering new worlds and species. But Metroid is influencing us to greet these new species with a missile launcher to the face.
_________________________________________________________________________________
If you're reading this, then that means you have actually bothered to read the 5 paragraphs listed above. Or you just skipped to the end. I wouldn't blame you for doing so, since everything above this is nothing but vapid drivel. Anyone who has played the Metroid games noticed that I am clearly over-analyzing it, searching for hidden messages in places were none exist. And by carefully omitting important details about the series, I was able to better support the ridiculous claims I made.
The point of this was to show that you can claim there is a hidden meaning behind anything when you over-analyze it and omit the details that would ruin your assertion. It's quite easy to make any game, book, or movie look bad when you examine them in such a fashion. Obviously I'm taking a jab at the subject of Movie Bob's new series, in which he did the exact same thing with the Halo series and hidden racism. The difference being that I made this as a joke, while he was being dead serious. However, both are just as meaningless when you stop selectively excluding various details.
Try it for yourself; over-analyze one of your favorite games and try and make a convincing argument about some ridiculous message it supposedly promotes. See what hilariously wrong statements you can come up with. Also, this thread might serve another purpose; pointing out how many Escapists don't bother to read an entire topic before commenting.
