Samus Aran vs. Darth Vader

[Shroom Man 777]

How direct were those lightsaber blows? They looked like glancing hits, like the ones that injured Obi-Wan in AOTC I think, not amputating hits, and either way they probably wouldn't hurt Vader that much even if they penetrated his armor since his limbs are all artificial (and unless the saber struck vital bits, wouldn't impede their function either). Saber blows chopped his wrist off just fine.

So far, all we've seen of Samus is that she's an armored person with a big gun. C'mon Metroidoids, what other feats can she do? How fast can she move? Someone said that the Pterodactyl she fought could shoot out kiloton-level whatevers, in that Space Pirate Metroids versus Haloids thing, where their starships shot black holes at people's faces. Is that true?

[avatarxprime]

Fine, Luke contacts Leia through the shields and armor of the Millenium Falcon along with an unknown amount of atmospheric space when he calls out to her from the Cloud City antenna in TESB.

They're both receptive Force sensitives, though, and just because Force communication can go through XYZ distances and go through ABC objects, doesn't mean Force attacks can have that same range or penetration. Cellphones can communicate through walls and shit with their signals, yet microwave ovens can't penetrate tinfoil, even though both use microwave radiation to communicate and/or cook. Luke was being a cellphone when he was calling Leia. Whereas Darth Vader is being a microwave oven when using Force powers to choke whoever.

Well Havok already said really anything I might want to in response to this, there is no penetration, the Force just is. The only violation of that we've ever seen has been ysalamiri induced Force null zones where all Force effects stop at the boundary of the field and that's because there is no Force inside the field. I'm not counting the Vong in this since they literally have no presence in the Force. Also, if we want to go with non-Force user examples of communicating (the Vader Force choking Xizor already shows distance use of Force offensive powers) then there was C'Baoth using the Force to coordinate turbolaser fire between the gunners of 2 ships (both with shields) through a planetary shield with no problem. It takes place after TESB but it's based on a Jedi that existed prior to TESB.

How direct were those lightsaber blows? They looked like glancing hits, like the ones that injured Obi-Wan in AOTC I think, not amputating hits, and either way they probably wouldn't hurt Vader that much even if they penetrated his armor since his limbs are all artificial (and unless the saber struck vital bits, wouldn't impede their function either). Saber blows chopped his wrist off just fine.

The attack Luke gave looked pretty direct to me. He swung the blade like a baseball bat and hit Vader in the shoulder but failed to penetrate. Compare to the hits Obi Wan took where Dooku barely touched him. Dooku thrusts his saber forward for the shoulder wound and then lightly hits Obi Wan's leg with the tip of his lightsaber for the thigh wound.

So far, all we've seen of Samus is that she's an armored person with a big gun. C'mon Metroidoids, what other feats can she do? How fast can she move?

With the Speed Booster Samus can move at super sonic speeds, but she's essentially only going in straight lines or following a pre-set path at that point. If she wants to turn around or maneuver any more than the trail she's on allows she needs to stop and then start back up again. However, she is largely invulnerable during this maneuver while she's in motion.

[Darth Yoshi]

That was an energy transfer, the massive amount of energy the Baby had absorbed (I mean seriously, look at the size of the thing) got transferred into Samus. Then when it gets killed the last of its energy in the form or its own gelatinous matter ends up being absorbed by Samus' suit, just like it absorbs the energy left over from defeated enemies. Of course the issue then comes up as to how does a metroid gain mass if its only absorbing "life energy" from the target but I try not to think about metroids. Beside, even though it's stated that they don't steal bodily fluids or anything like that, this can't be right given that targets drained by the Baby crumbled when touched, obviously the Baby had desiccated them through its feeding implying some degree of absorption of nutrients.

To nitpick, the transferred energy was more what it drained from Mother Brain and less what it had before. As for the desiccation effect, remember that inert objects like Federation armor also crumbles after a Metroid finishes feeding. So whatever it's doing is more than absorbing nutrients. But yes, Metroids are weird.

You could also say her body used whatever reserves it already had in it to facilitate the healing process. Samus might be lean and muscular but everyone keeps reserve nutrients in their body provided they maintain a healthy diet. Or, during the course of her treatment by Old Bird before she used the Crystal Flash she could have been given the nutrients she'd need to sustain the rapid cell regeneration she'd be undergoing upon using the Crystal Flash. There are a ton of options here.

Utilizing her own reserves is unlikely, since she immediately returned to Zebes afterward, and the trip out was quick enough that her condition didn't really noticeably change. Fighting on an empty stomach is never a good idea, and even if she grabbed a bite on the trip back, without time to digest that's still not a good idea. And generally speaking, when someone is immersed in a fluid for healing it's because that fluid contains everything necessary to facilitate healing, so that's the most likely place for nutrients to be found. As Old Bird certainly didn't plan on Samus using the Crystal Flash, he wouldn't have had a reason to provide nutrients except for what would be in the fluid.

[rant]Samus's power suit honestly makes no sense. It's word of God, and also shown in the ending sequences of Zero-Super, and Other M hits you over the head with the fact that, Samus can essentially "dispel" her armor and then magically summon it again. Even if that was matter to energy conversion I'd ask why does she all of a sudden get lighter? Matter and energy are interchangeable and a sufficient quantity of energy will still cause a warping of space to induce gravity just like the equivalent matter. Samus shouldn't get lighter (provided I'm interpreting the rules of accurately) if the mass equivalent energy of her suit is still being stored within her Zero Suit when she makes it fade away. I hate that this is established canon. [/rant]

Magic, duh. But seriously, the Bryyonian lore entry "The Hunted" in Corruption explicitly states that the Primals used magic in their war against the Lords of Science. Also, the last Lord of Science claims to have used science and magic to construct the Mogenar golems. As the Chozo were once peers of the Bryyonian civilization, and even advised them "to seek balance between the old and new ways," I have no problem with the Chozo being technomancers of some sort.

Of course, saying magic isn't really an explanation, so perhaps the armor is converted into neutrinos or something and radiated away when it dispels, and it's reassembled from scratch every time by using the local environment. *shrugs*

Also, I did a bit of testing in Zero Mission. The Red Space Pirates at the end of the game in Chozodia require 2 missiles to kill, while 1 non-charged shot of the arm cannon will kill them. So, the arm cannon at the end of Zero Mission needs to be putting out at least 2 missiles worth of energy (~0.50 kilotons) and likely some more than that considering the blast will penetrate one Pirate and continue on to others.

The Plasma Beam is weird, though. It can't be much more of an energy hog than the other weapons, since her suit doesn't suffer if you run around shooting Plasma Beams constantly. Yet it's supposed to have piercethrough. Truthfully, the Plasma Beam is why I think Samus' weapons are rely on exotic reactions, since then it can get away with imparting only a tiny fraction a shot into the target and still continue on to other targets.

With the Speed Booster Samus can move at super sonic speeds, but she's essentially only going in straight lines or following a pre-set path at that point. If she wants to turn around or maneuver any more than the trail she's on allows she needs to stop and then start back up again. However, she is largely invulnerable during this maneuver while she's in motion.

There's no way she's actually moving at supersonic speeds. Other M indicates that the bulk of her speed comes from the thrusters on her back, but her feet still say in contact with the ground long enough to leave at least friction marks if she really were supersonic.

[avatarxprime]

To nitpick, the transferred energy was more what it drained from Mother Brain and less what it had before. As for the desiccation effect, remember that inert objects like Federation armor also crumbles after a Metroid finishes feeding. So whatever it's doing is more than absorbing nutrients. But yes, Metroids are weird.

Your nitpick is correct, although since Samus does end up absorbing the Baby's remains you could think of it that the Baby ended up giving her all of it's energy, but yeah Metroids be crazy yo .

You could also say her body used whatever reserves it already had in it to facilitate the healing process. Samus might be lean and muscular but everyone keeps reserve nutrients in their body provided they maintain a healthy diet. Or, during the course of her treatment by Old Bird before she used the Crystal Flash she could have been given the nutrients she'd need to sustain the rapid cell regeneration she'd be undergoing upon using the Crystal Flash. There are a ton of options here.

Utilizing her own reserves is unlikely, since she immediately returned to Zebes afterward, and the trip out was quick enough that her condition didn't really noticeably change. Fighting on an empty stomach is never a good idea, and even if she grabbed a bite on the trip back, without time to digest that's still not a good idea. And generally speaking, when someone is immersed in a fluid for healing it's because that fluid contains everything necessary to facilitate healing, so that's the most likely place for nutrients to be found. As Old Bird certainly didn't plan on Samus using the Crystal Flash, he wouldn't have had a reason to provide nutrients except for what would be in the fluid.

That would honestly depend on the amount of physical damage that actually needed repairing, Samus received a puncture wound and it did not appear in any of the subsequent scenes that she was missing any particularly large chunks of her arm or shoulder. It's entirely possible that she could have healed given the fuel that's already present in her body and could have been absorbed from the medical treatments being administered to her by Old Bird. Like any athelete Samus likely loads up on the calories/nutrients before going on a mission considering she'll be burning through them.

Honestly though, I wonder just what the heck happened to her, the damage didn't look that bad yet she's clearly falling apart post injury. I would wager either the hunter trap contained some kind of toxin that infected Samus or being made of Zebes material it contained some heavy metals/elements that are toxic to the body.

snip my own rant

Magic, duh. But seriously, the Bryyonian lore entry "The Hunted" in Corruption explicitly states that the Primals used magic in their war against the Lords of Science. Also, the last Lord of Science claims to have used science and magic to construct the Mogenar golems. As the Chozo were once peers of the Bryyonian civilization, and even advised them "to seek balance between the old and new ways," I have no problem with the Chozo being technomancers of some sort.

Of course, saying magic isn't really an explanation, so perhaps the armor is converted into neutrinos or something and radiated away when it dispels, and it's reassembled from scratch every time by using the local environment. *shrugs*

Yeah, magic sounds better. I'm just gonna try and not think about any of that.

Also, I did a bit of testing in Zero Mission. The Red Space Pirates at the end of the game in Chozodia require 2 missiles to kill, while 1 non-charged shot of the arm cannon will kill them. So, the arm cannon at the end of Zero Mission needs to be putting out at least 2 missiles worth of energy (~0.50 kilotons) and likely some more than that considering the blast will penetrate one Pirate and continue on to others.

The Plasma Beam is weird, though. It can't be much more of an energy hog than the other weapons, since her suit doesn't suffer if you run around shooting Plasma Beams constantly. Yet it's supposed to have pierce through. Truthfully, the Plasma Beam is why I think Samus' weapons are rely on exotic reactions, since then it can get away with imparting only a tiny fraction a shot into the target and still continue on to other targets.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too, except that stops being likely once you face off against the Black Space Pirates in the same area. They take 3 fully charged or 12 regular arm cannon shots (apparently charge shot = 4*regular shot in Zero Mission) to kill and none of the shots pass through the body. Unfortunately missiles don't affect them, any missile used against them *thunks* against their armor and falls away so can't do a quick comparison of damage there. However, since they eat all that damage it's likely that the Plasma Beam piercing is based on punching through armor/shields and not some kind of exotic reaction.

Consider Zero Suit Samus, she takes 100 damage from the Red Pirates and 50 post power suit upgrade meaning their damage is in line with Super Missile damage from Super Metroid. That means that Samus is eating 1.244 kilotons of power from each attack. Said attack also one hits their fellow Red Pirates (they are stunned for a second and then explode), however so will 2 Missiles or about 40% of the energy of a Super Missile, yet none of that energy bleeds through anywhere. I find it likely that Pirate shields/armor function like such that when they fail they absorb/disperse/make-go-away the remaining energy in a shield pop so that none of it passes through, kinda like MC's shield in Halo. The Plasma beam probably has some way to power through the shields around the target and deposit it's energy squarely inside of the target, allowing a Plasma beam shot to pass through multiple enemies and kill them all without needing a ton of extra energy. This likely only works against shields though since armor (Black Space Pirates, Meta-Ridley's weak point) seems to require being defeated through straight up damage. Also, the beam seems to lose energy as it travels through enemies, so it depositing only a portion of it's power in a given enemy is likely. In my testing I'd find parts where I shot 2 pirates and then farther down the line I'd find 1 frozen, since the beam passes through all of them it's likely that the beam loses power over time.

With the Speed Booster Samus can move at super sonic speeds, but she's essentially only going in straight lines or following a pre-set path at that point. If she wants to turn around or maneuver any more than the trail she's on allows she needs to stop and then start back up again. However, she is largely invulnerable during this maneuver while she's in motion.

There's no way she's actually moving at supersonic speeds. Other M indicates that the bulk of her speed comes from the thrusters on her back, but her feet still say in contact with the ground long enough to leave at least friction marks if she really were supersonic.

I haven't seen the way Speed Booster is implemented in Other M (it's one of the few Metroids I haven't played), but the Super manual describes it as super sonic and Samus does move quick enough to leave after images. Although I'm of the mind that the after images are a property of the Speed Booster itself rather than Samus' raw speed when using the ability. It should be possible to calculate her speed based on taking frames of the game, but I really don't feel like doing that.

[Molyneux]

How direct were those lightsaber blows? They looked like glancing hits, like the ones that injured Obi-Wan in AOTC I think, not amputating hits, and either way they probably wouldn't hurt Vader that much even if they penetrated his armor since his limbs are all artificial (and unless the saber struck vital bits, wouldn't impede their function either). Saber blows chopped his wrist off just fine.

So far, all we've seen of Samus is that she's an armored person with a big gun. C'mon Metroidoids, what other feats can she do? How fast can she move? Someone said that the Pterodactyl she fought could shoot out kiloton-level whatevers, in that Space Pirate Metroids versus Haloids thing, where their starships shot black holes at people's faces. Is that true?

I'm afraid I don't have much to contribute in terms of actual numbers. I would move, though, that we disregard Other M completely, given how little it has in common with the other games in the series - much like we shouldn't view Haloid as an accurate view of Samus' abilities.

[avatarxprime]

Molyneux, Shroom isn't referring to the Monty Oum's Haloid short, he's just being Shroom ("metroidoids") and massacring the English language for fun (and occasionally making a razor sharp point, but not in this case), while actually referring to an earlier thread here that was trying to look at Covenant vs Space Pirates.

[Darth Yoshi]

That would honestly depend on the amount of physical damage that actually needed repairing, Samus received a puncture wound and it did not appear in any of the subsequent scenes that she was missing any particularly large chunks of her arm or shoulder. It's entirely possible that she could have healed given the fuel that's already present in her body and could have been absorbed from the medical treatments being administered to her by Old Bird. Like any athelete Samus likely loads up on the calories/nutrients before going on a mission considering she'll be burning through them.

Point, but there are physical limitations in how quickly those nutrients can be brought into play. Even if her bloodflow increases to ludicrous speeds, it would still take more time than actually transpired.

Honestly though, I wonder just what the heck happened to her, the damage didn't look that bad yet she's clearly falling apart post injury. I would wager either the hunter trap contained some kind of toxin that infected Samus or being made of Zebes material it contained some heavy metals/elements that are toxic to the body.

Well, the artwork is a bit difficult to judge, but the portion of the spike that was inside her seemed on average to be about the width of her wrist, and it looks like she was impaled near the armpit. Since there's a major artery right there, the spike might have hit it. If so, then the fact that Samus doesn't bleed out when Houston removes the spike suggests that her suit might have sealed around the injury, but internal bleeding would still be a concern.

Toxic materials would need to be either flushed out or broken down. Now, as I understand it flushing out waste depends heavily on osmosis and other physical processes, so upping her metabolism shouldn't affect that. And if the body can't break down something, I doubt an increased metabolism would help with that either.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too, except that stops being likely once you face off against the Black Space Pirates in the same area. They take 3 fully charged or 12 regular arm cannon shots (apparently charge shot = 4*regular shot in Zero Mission) to kill and none of the shots pass through the body. Unfortunately missiles don't affect them, any missile used against them *thunks* against their armor and falls away so can't do a quick comparison of damage there. However, since they eat all that damage it's likely that the Plasma Beam piercing is based on punching through armor/shields and not some kind of exotic reaction.

That's inconclusive. If they're resistant to whatever hypothetical reaction the Plasma Beam causes, then presumably they'd have to absorb more of the beam to achieve the same effect. In that case, the shot would expend itself before exiting, and we wouldn't see any piercethrough.

Consider Zero Suit Samus, she takes 100 damage from the Red Pirates and 50 post power suit upgrade meaning their damage is in line with Super Missile damage from Super Metroid. That means that Samus is eating 1.244 kilotons of power from each attack. Said attack also one hits their fellow Red Pirates (they are stunned for a second and then explode), however so will 2 Missiles or about 40% of the energy of a Super Missile, yet none of that energy bleeds through anywhere. I find it likely that Pirate shields/armor function like such that when they fail they absorb/disperse/make-go-away the remaining energy in a shield pop so that none of it passes through, kinda like MC's shield in Halo. The Plasma beam probably has some way to power through the shields around the target and deposit it's energy squarely inside of the target, allowing a Plasma beam shot to pass through multiple enemies and kill them all without needing a ton of extra energy. This likely only works against shields though since armor (Black Space Pirates, Meta-Ridley's weak point) seems to require being defeated through straight up damage. Also, the beam seems to lose energy as it travels through enemies, so it depositing only a portion of it's power in a given enemy is likely. In my testing I'd find parts where I shot 2 pirates and then farther down the line I'd find 1 frozen, since the beam passes through all of them it's likely that the beam loses power over time.

No, that wouldn't work, since Samus only has shields for a while. If the Plasma Beam bypassed shields, then the Pirates should be getting one-shot kills too, since I doubt the Pirates would have their weapons on anything less than lethal settings. If anything, it'd be the other way around.

I haven't seen the way Speed Booster is implemented in Other M (it's one of the few Metroids I haven't played), but the Super manual describes it as super sonic and Samus does move quick enough to leave after images. Although I'm of the mind that the after images are a property of the Speed Booster itself rather than Samus' raw speed when using the ability. It should be possible to calculate her speed based on taking frames of the game, but I really don't feel like doing that.

Video of Other M Speed Booster/Shinespark.
Samus' thrusters light up shortly before the Speed Booster activates, and once it does she starts glowing. There's also a visible shockwave effect, but I'm not sure if that's from Samus or from the thrusters.

[avatarxprime]

*snip discussion of Samus' injury and subsequent healing from Super Metroid comic*

You have a point about the physical limits it would take to utilize any nutrients she would have absorbed, but that falls into the same line of reasoning as the physical limits for the speed of cellular repair and metabolism that Samus would have needed to close up the injury and deal with an secondary problems that would have arisen from it. The Crystal Flash technique clearly doesn't care about physical limits and seems more concerned with whether or not enough "stuff" (energy, matter, whatever) is there for use during the technique itself than anything else given the speed of Samus' recovery.

I like your interpretation of her injury. If she had massive internal bleeding and possibly lots of her musculature in that area torn up it would help with why she passed out so quick, yet looked OK after some of Old Bird's treatment while still certainly not being in any condition to fight. For the toxic material, I mostly brought it up because it's Zebes and we're told that everything in that place is deadly.You are correct that something like that (depending on what exactly it is) either needs to be flushed or have an antidote applied. However, there are toxic materials that can be broken down, it's just that your body can't usually do it fast enough when compared to how quickly they take effect. In a case like that a metabolism boost would actually help so long as there is something around to keep her alive during the boost phase. Your body actually does something like that with certain infections, running hotter to kill the infection off before it gets you. The dangerous thing is that your body can only run hotter than normal for a short period of time before you are doing more harm than good.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too, except that stops being likely once you face off against the Black Space Pirates in the same area. They take 3 fully charged or 12 regular arm cannon shots (apparently charge shot = 4*regular shot in Zero Mission) to kill and none of the shots pass through the body. Unfortunately missiles don't affect them, any missile used against them *thunks* against their armor and falls away so can't do a quick comparison of damage there. However, since they eat all that damage it's likely that the Plasma Beam piercing is based on punching through armor/shields and not some kind of exotic reaction.

That's inconclusive. If they're resistant to whatever hypothetical reaction the Plasma Beam causes, then presumably they'd have to absorb more of the beam to achieve the same effect. In that case, the shot would expend itself before exiting, and we wouldn't see any piercethrough.

True, but they are rather unique in their resistance to beam attacks combined with immunity to missiles, which is why I bring them up. The security orbs in on the mothership are also resistant to Samus' beams. In fact so far as I can see in testing they refuse to die to her beams, but 2 missiles or the screw attack will kill them just fine. The Black Pirates on the other hand don't fear the screw attack either. Their observed resistances to Samus' attacks lead me to think that its more about the BSP armor than anything particularly special, like possibly the Security Orbs and their beam resistance.

Consider Zero Suit Samus, she takes 100 damage from the Red Pirates and 50 post power suit upgrade meaning their damage is in line with Super Missile damage from Super Metroid. That means that Samus is eating 1.244 kilotons of power from each attack. Said attack also one hits their fellow Red Pirates (they are stunned for a second and then explode), however so will 2 Missiles or about 40% of the energy of a Super Missile, yet none of that energy bleeds through anywhere. I find it likely that Pirate shields/armor function like such that when they fail they absorb/disperse/make-go-away the remaining energy in a shield pop so that none of it passes through, kinda like MC's shield in Halo. The Plasma beam probably has some way to power through the shields around the target and deposit it's energy squarely inside of the target, allowing a Plasma beam shot to pass through multiple enemies and kill them all without needing a ton of extra energy. This likely only works against shields though since armor (Black Space Pirates, Meta-Ridley's weak point) seems to require being defeated through straight up damage. Also, the beam seems to lose energy as it travels through enemies, so it depositing only a portion of it's power in a given enemy is likely. In my testing I'd find parts where I shot 2 pirates and then farther down the line I'd find 1 frozen, since the beam passes through all of them it's likely that the beam loses power over time.

No, that wouldn't work, since Samus only has shields for a while. If the Plasma Beam bypassed shields, then the Pirates should be getting one-shot kills too, since I doubt the Pirates would have their weapons on anything less than lethal settings. If anything, it'd be the other way around.

Wait what? I'm not entirely sure what you're saying. Are you saying that Pirate beams should be piercing through each other too, because they already one-hit kill each other. That's why I brought up the fact that the amount of energy contained in those beams (based on damage to Samus) is higher than the amount of damage needed to actually kill them (based on damage a missile does) yet the extra energy doesn't actually result in pass through. That's why I inferred that Pirate shields work like Halo shields and "pop" when they fail taking the rest of the energy of an attack with them. Since the Plasma beam can pierce those shields it's energy get to keep going and not suffer being reduced by the "pop."

Video of Other M Speed Booster/Shinespark.
Samus' thrusters light up shortly before the Speed Booster activates, and once it does she starts glowing. There's also a visible shockwave effect, but I'm not sure if that's from Samus or from the thrusters.

Ah, thanks. Honestly the Speed Booster feels a little lame in its implementation in Other M, the Shinespark I saw (I didn't watch the entire video admittedly) also looked far less impressive vs the 2D versions.

Also, I decided to go back into Zero Mission and try to calc speed for Samus. The Speed Booster actually has a nice little effect that made it pretty easy to do so. When Samus runs with the speed booster she leaves a doppleganger behind in her last position, this is reset with each foot fall. I measured the distance between foot falls and got Samus covering 69 pixels (based on drawing lines in MSPaint) in 4 frames. Pixel to meter was determined using Samus's height, which was 36 pixels in the game with her knees bent. Accounting for her bent knees got her to 40 pixels tall. The Metroid II manual states Samus is 1.90 meters in her armor, so 1 pixel = 0.0475 meters. Since the game runs at 60 frames/sec time was easy to get. In the end it translates to 49.1625 m/s or ~=110 mph for the Speed Booster. Her standard running speed is 4.68 m/s or ~=10.5 mph, so Speed Booster makes her about 10.5 times faster. These numbers are likely + or - 10% for any measurement inaccuracies or anything similar.

[Darth Yoshi]

You have a point about the physical limits it would take to utilize any nutrients she would have absorbed, but that falls into the same line of reasoning as the physical limits for the speed of cellular repair and metabolism that Samus would have needed to close up the injury and deal with an secondary problems that would have arisen from it. The Crystal Flash technique clearly doesn't care about physical limits and seems more concerned with whether or not enough "stuff" (energy, matter, whatever) is there for use during the technique itself than anything else given the speed of Samus' recovery.

As long as the material remains physically dispersed throughout her body, the limitations of osmosis apply. The only way that could possibly work is if the Crystal Flash teleported the material from Samus' body, concentrated it, and then delivered it to the injury, bypassing the need for osmosis completely, but I doubt that sort of selective targeting is easier to pull off than matter conversion.

I like your interpretation of her injury. If she had massive internal bleeding and possibly lots of her musculature in that area torn up it would help with why she passed out so quick, yet looked OK after some of Old Bird's treatment while still certainly not being in any condition to fight. For the toxic material, I mostly brought it up because it's Zebes and we're told that everything in that place is deadly.You are correct that something like that (depending on what exactly it is) either needs to be flushed or have an antidote applied. However, there are toxic materials that can be broken down, it's just that your body can't usually do it fast enough when compared to how quickly they take effect. In a case like that a metabolism boost would actually help so long as there is something around to keep her alive during the boost phase. Your body actually does something like that with certain infections, running hotter to kill the infection off before it gets you. The dangerous thing is that your body can only run hotter than normal for a short period of time before you are doing more harm than good.

It depends of the specific toxin and how the toxin works. For instance, increased metabolism won't help with carbon monoxide poisoning, and in fact will make it worse.

True, but they are rather unique in their resistance to beam attacks combined with immunity to missiles, which is why I bring them up. The security orbs in on the mothership are also resistant to Samus' beams. In fact so far as I can see in testing they refuse to die to her beams, but 2 missiles or the screw attack will kill them just fine. The Black Pirates on the other hand don't fear the screw attack either. Their observed resistances to Samus' attacks lead me to think that its more about the BSP armor than anything particularly special, like possibly the Security Orbs and their beam resistance.

[...]

Wait what? I'm not entirely sure what you're saying. Are you saying that Pirate beams should be piercing through each other too, because they already one-hit kill each other. That's why I brought up the fact that the amount of energy contained in those beams (based on damage to Samus) is higher than the amount of damage needed to actually kill them (based on damage a missile does) yet the extra energy doesn't actually result in pass through. That's why I inferred that Pirate shields work like Halo shields and "pop" when they fail taking the rest of the energy of an attack with them. Since the Plasma beam can pierce those shields it's energy get to keep going and not suffer being reduced by the "pop."

No, I'm saying that if the red Pirates have shields and are vulnerable to the Plasma Beam because it can bypass those shields, then Samus, who is also relying entirely on shields until she gets the full armor, should also be vulnerable. Further, Space Pirates aren't the type of folks to use stun settings, so if their Plasma Beams were capable of bypassing shields they should be one-shotting Samus. But we see that even with just shields, the Pirate shots are fully expended upon contact with her. And after Samus gets the full armor, her Plasma shots are capable of piercing red Pirates, even if it doesn't kill the Pirate. Thus, it's more likely that shields impede the Plasma Beam, meaning that the black Pirates (who are resistant to the Plasma Beam) have shields, while red Pirates (who do not have such resistance) only have armor.

Ah, thanks. Honestly the Speed Booster feels a little lame in its implementation in Other M, the Shinespark I saw (I didn't watch the entire video admittedly) also looked far less impressive vs the 2D versions.

Well, that's a matter of taste. I liked that the Other M Shinespark petered out after a while, since once she launches gravity and air resistance should be pulling her back down anyway.