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While I'm still in rant mode here and all...
People seem to be getting hung up over this whole "Samus doesn't use her weapons unless Adam authorizes them" thing. They make this out to be like Samus is being all subservient and a boot lick to Adam, as if she needs a big strong man to tell her when she can play with her toys or whatever other complete BS as that.
No, Samus is in essence saying, "Nah, I don't sweat this. Sure, I could use all my super powered gear from the get go if I wanted to, but I don't really need it. I can still kick ass and take names without it. I'm going to let Adam call the shots just to show him that I'm not the same stupid teenager I was when I last saw him."
It's like an exercise to herself. She wants to see if she can work together with a team and take orders precisely because she's been working mostly solo missions up to this point.
Also, compare this to a real life military exercise.
Private Grunt: "The bad guys are over there!"
Commander: "Good, let's go in and take them out."
Private Grunt: "But... but we got nukes, sir! Why can't we use ourpower bombsnukes on them?"
Commander: "I'm in charge here and we will use our nukes when I authorize it, and not before. Besides, if I let you use your power bombs, you risk blowing us all to kingdom come." (Not that a military commander generally has to justify his orders to subordinates, mind you.)
Except that Samus isn't being all whiny about it like Private Grunt there. She says "Yes, sir. I won't use my power bombs. I chose to accept your authority as a commander, and I will abide by that." She's not licking his boots or anything. She's just being a good soldier.
One may wonder why she's allowing herself to take orders from this guy. Well, apparently a lot of people who played the game seem to have missed it (or else, on the other extreme, they are fixating on it to the near exclusion of anything else), but this guy is established as being an important person to her. He is a father figure to her, and she respects him, even though they last parted on less than ideal terms. She's not going all Electra Complex on the guy or anything, she's simply being respectful of him and wants him to think well of her as well. Why people have such a problem with this is beyond me.
And, most importantly of all... she still kicks ass. She doesn't need her plasma beams and super missiles and all that stuff to do so. Sure, when a situation comes up where she needs them, Adam usually says* "Hmm, this looks like a situation where you can use those things, so I will authorize them." And having that stuff afterward just makes it easier for her to be badass, but it's not like she somehow wasn't a badass before she got them. In fact, she was even more of a badass because she willingly chose to refrain from using them.
Yeah, sure, this is just a handwave. But at least I'm not treating the whole thing as though it were some crucial plot point that ruins the entire story and by extension the entire game and by extension the entire Metroid series forever and ever.
* - With the exception of not authorizing the Varia suit the instant she entered the volcanic area, which was pretty stupid. But even still, she made it through there just fine without it. That was done purely for gameplay reasons, similar to why Samus herself didn't immediately activate the Gravity suit later on, after losing contact with Adam, when she first encountered those weird gravity rooms.
People seem to be getting hung up over this whole "Samus doesn't use her weapons unless Adam authorizes them" thing. They make this out to be like Samus is being all subservient and a boot lick to Adam, as if she needs a big strong man to tell her when she can play with her toys or whatever other complete BS as that.
No, Samus is in essence saying, "Nah, I don't sweat this. Sure, I could use all my super powered gear from the get go if I wanted to, but I don't really need it. I can still kick ass and take names without it. I'm going to let Adam call the shots just to show him that I'm not the same stupid teenager I was when I last saw him."
It's like an exercise to herself. She wants to see if she can work together with a team and take orders precisely because she's been working mostly solo missions up to this point.
Also, compare this to a real life military exercise.
Private Grunt: "The bad guys are over there!"
Commander: "Good, let's go in and take them out."
Private Grunt: "But... but we got nukes, sir! Why can't we use our
Commander: "I'm in charge here and we will use our nukes when I authorize it, and not before. Besides, if I let you use your power bombs, you risk blowing us all to kingdom come." (Not that a military commander generally has to justify his orders to subordinates, mind you.)
Except that Samus isn't being all whiny about it like Private Grunt there. She says "Yes, sir. I won't use my power bombs. I chose to accept your authority as a commander, and I will abide by that." She's not licking his boots or anything. She's just being a good soldier.
One may wonder why she's allowing herself to take orders from this guy. Well, apparently a lot of people who played the game seem to have missed it (or else, on the other extreme, they are fixating on it to the near exclusion of anything else), but this guy is established as being an important person to her. He is a father figure to her, and she respects him, even though they last parted on less than ideal terms. She's not going all Electra Complex on the guy or anything, she's simply being respectful of him and wants him to think well of her as well. Why people have such a problem with this is beyond me.
And, most importantly of all... she still kicks ass. She doesn't need her plasma beams and super missiles and all that stuff to do so. Sure, when a situation comes up where she needs them, Adam usually says* "Hmm, this looks like a situation where you can use those things, so I will authorize them." And having that stuff afterward just makes it easier for her to be badass, but it's not like she somehow wasn't a badass before she got them. In fact, she was even more of a badass because she willingly chose to refrain from using them.
Yeah, sure, this is just a handwave. But at least I'm not treating the whole thing as though it were some crucial plot point that ruins the entire story and by extension the entire game and by extension the entire Metroid series forever and ever.
* - With the exception of not authorizing the Varia suit the instant she entered the volcanic area, which was pretty stupid. But even still, she made it through there just fine without it. That was done purely for gameplay reasons, similar to why Samus herself didn't immediately activate the Gravity suit later on, after losing contact with Adam, when she first encountered those weird gravity rooms.
