Retro Critical Kate Willaert: Samus Aran Origins: Metroid's Influences Beyond Alien | Hardboiled History

[JazzPotatoes]

I saw this video get linked today, and after watching it, wanted to share it here. It's a thoroughly well researched look into the formative influences on Metroid that goes well beyond the usual Alien comparisons. Influences and potential influences on the series include:

• Lensman (specifically, how Lensman and its source material influenced the trope of giant space brains and brain bosses throughout the 80s)
• Space Cobra (and how it could have influenced the arm cannon, the zero suit, Ridley, the Chozo, and even Adam)
• Baraduke (and how it predated Metroid in having an ostensibly male armour wearing character exploring an alien planet shooting aliens, only to reveal at the end the character is actually a woman)

And much much more. There's also interesting tidbits on how the Stamper brothers may have influenced the design of The Legend of Zelda as well as the first Metroid.

While much of this is speculative rather than definitive, it's still an exceptionally well researched video that makes clear when to argue for a direct link between Metroid and another franchise, and when to suggest potential inspiration.

 

[E.Gadd]

This was a fun watch.

It's speculative but it's really well made!

I think it helps illustrate that things don't just happen in a vacuum. Whether directly or indirectly, Metroid had plenty of influences at the time to work off of to become what it is.

 

[boris_feinbrand]

Contemporary events don't necessarily mean that events are linked. A more apt read of this would be that women as badass action heroes was a more common story trope back then (and without resorting to cheap sex Doll aesthetics or warrior monk stereotypes)
Sarah Connor, La femme Nikita, Ellen Ripley, Samus Aran, Joanna Dark: My childhood and early teens were filled with action heroines that didn't just exist to titillate the male gaze. That over sexualisation really started in the early 2000s were bollocks like Bloodrayne, etc became the norm for female action protagonists.

As a retrospective of the time the video works quite well though. Especially highlighting how ubiquitous Moebius was in visual design at the time.

 

[Rainbow]

Incredible deep Research!!!

Also shows that new ideas don't wondrously appearing from a vacuum. They all build each up on another.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

Critical Kate is definitely one of the best historical youtubers out there, it always surprises me she still only has 2.94k subscribers currently.
She also wrote a related article on the origins of the "Justin Bailey" code in Metroid, and the possibility of it being named after a real person.