Adam: bad character or not?

[KingBroly]

I think the article that discusses the psychology of it, and how she wants to follow orders so strictly because following orders in the past kinda came back to bite her in the butt makes the most sense out of it. Although it is sort of a stretch, but she does talk about how her not following orders led to some big problems.

[garbin]

Adam in Other M = Typical Military Knob head

...so basically Sakamoto got it spot on.


"who you calling a knob head? I did not authorise the use of personal insults."

[Smoking Spoon]

I like him. He Remind me of Red foreman (without the dumbass )

[Hawk's Eye]

You guys are kind of being jerks. Adam was, yes, a poorly developed character. Yes the story was poorly developed as well. Adam was a deeper character than youre making him. Yes he was also the skape-goat to "lose your updgrades." Every game has to have a challenge and it follows Metroid tradition. However, if you kind of look at it farther, Samus LET Adam command her out of RESPECT that she has ALWAYS had for him. Just as well, you are only looking at the asswipe-ness character type of Adam that is purposefully portrayed to make you NOT like him. If you watch somethings that he does, he's not actually being an ass. Take when Ridley was in front of her for example, he sounded rather desperate to make sure she was alright. He stood up, out of his chair, pushed it back and was yelling for Samus to stop being a deer caught in headlights. Not in a way that she didnt have a right to, just that she would get hurt if she didnt. And sure enough Ridley grabs Samus; dissolving her suit. Another example, watch his expression when he's leaving for Sector Zero. Watch it in her eyes and tell me he doesnt care. Tell me he wasnt just as upset to see her upset. I don't, however, know specifics on shooting her in the back. I think it was because the Metroid was gonna eat her and she wouldnt be able to kill it. I dunno exactly. BUT I do think that he did it because HE KNEW SHE WOULD TRY AND FOLLOW HIM TO SECTOR ZERO OR DO THE JOB FOR HIM. Of course Adam couldn't let that happen to her. Lastly, look at the reasons WHY Adam is a bit of an ass. ONe word: Ian.

[Trishbot]

Adam, I think, is a good character that was just shown in the most unflattering light possible.

Almost all of your problems and difficulties in the game are a result of his "military genius". All of Samus's emotional baggage is because of his coldness, cruelty, and callousness. Did he care? Yeah, sure, I don't doubt he did, but the way Samus spoke of him in Other M, and especially in Fusion, he was a man that EARNED her respect, and for a woman that single-handedly committed genocide against the Metroids, blew up a few planets, and saved the galaxy a few times over, he must have done something pretty amazing to earn HER respect.

... too bad we never see that in Other M. On the contrary, we see him distrust her, disrespect her, de-empower her, infantilize her, undermine her, backstab her, and endanger her life on multiple occasions. He made our lives miserable, not enriched, in the game and its story, and I felt bad when he died, not because he DID die, but because I myself was GRATEFUL to have him out of the game. With him gone, Samus was free to be awesome again rather than being a puppy on a short leash doing embarrassing tricks for his approval.

So, in summary, good character, insanely flawed execution.

Adam, I think, is a good character that was just shown in the most unflattering light possible.

Almost all of your problems and difficulties in the game are a result of his "military genius". All of Samus's emotional baggage is because of his coldness, cruelty, and callousness. Did he care? Yeah, sure, I don't doubt he did, but the way Samus spoke of him in Other M, and especially in Fusion, he was a man that EARNED her respect, and for a woman that single-handedly committed genocide against the Metroids, blew up a few planets, and saved the galaxy a few times over, he must have done something pretty amazing to earn HER respect.

... too bad we never see that in Other M. On the contrary, we see him distrust her, disrespect her, de-empower her, infantilize her, undermine her, backstab her, and endanger her life on multiple occasions. He made our lives miserable, not enriched, in the game and its story, and I felt bad when he died, not because he DID die, but because I myself was GRATEFUL to have him out of the game. With him gone, Samus was free to be awesome again rather than being a puppy on a short leash doing embarrassing tricks for his approval.

So, in summary, good character, insanely flawed execution.

I think what you mean is that it was a good idea for a character. We´ve never seen Adam actually live up to that potential, except for a bit at the end of Fusion. Until we´ve actually seen him recieve good characterization, he will not be a good character.

[Trishbot]

Yeah, good point. Nothing good was shown and that equates "a bad character".

I just realized something. I had always assumed Adam was a character from Samus's long-distant past, but I also assumed his DEATH was something that happened before she ever became a bounty hunter. Before Other M came out, I had assumed she was very close to him, but he gets killed and THAT is the catalyst for her to leave and become the independent bounty hunter we all know and love. If his heroism had been the trigger for her to become a hero herself, I would have liked that. Other M, however, shows their relationship long after Samus has established herself as a planet-saving savior of the galaxy... so why should SHE be inspired by HIS heroism? She was already the most heroic figure in space.

[Smoking Spoon]

Nop... I really don't perceive him this way. I'm not saying you're wrong, to the contrary, I just think there is no absolute answer to this. I'm sure I'm not the only one to differ though.

[KingBroly]

Yeah, good point. Nothing good was shown and that equates "a bad character".

I just realized something. I had always assumed Adam was a character from Samus's long-distant past, but I also assumed his DEATH was something that happened before she ever became a bounty hunter. Before Other M came out, I had assumed she was very close to him, but he gets killed and THAT is the catalyst for her to leave and become the independent bounty hunter we all know and love. If his heroism had been the trigger for her to become a hero herself, I would have liked that. Other M, however, shows their relationship long after Samus has established herself as a planet-saving savior of the galaxy... so why should SHE be inspired by HIS heroism? She was already the most heroic figure in space.

Well...him getting killed is the catalyst...so to speak. What Other M tells is that no, she wasn't really a hero before this, more like a rebel with a cause. We only assumed she thought of herself as a hero because we did. I'm sort of insulted that it's a slap in the face to the rest of the series, the Primes included, but by removing certain elements, he could only really put this in one of three places: In front of or behind Zero Mission and behind Fusion. If I had to guess, he probably couldn't get enough material to create a game involving Zero Mission, and that's why it's where it is, and why we have the motherhood theme. Plus if he put he put it in front of Zero Mission, it affects the Primes as well.

But given how Other M starts and where it ends for her, she starts low and ends high. She starts out with great loss and ends with great loss, which is actually a positive. If Samus defines herself by Adam and by his actions, then her being cold, cool and calculating in other games makes sense since that's what Adam looks like in Other M. Maybe we're supposed to think Adam is awesome because of that, but like many things in this game, it doesn't come across.

So if Other M was for Malkovich and not Mother or Mother Brain, then it's actually Metroid Samus.

[Hawk's Eye]

I still somewhat enjoyed Adam's character and I dont really have a problem with Other M either. IT added insight on Samus as a person which I didn't mind and on an off subject, I think the voice acting was appropriate as well.

[Doc Scratch]

I liked Adam, for some reason.

Probably because of nostalgia for Fusion, as it was my first 2D Metroid.

[Frozen Hunter]

I've never played Fusion so I don't know what Adam is supposed to act like, Since most of the problems in OM are the result of bad writing i'm going say that his unlikeable personality is the result of the writing as well. He COULD be a good charater but it's like Trishbot said, he was just shown in the most unflattering light possible.

[Arete]

Adam is a very complex character. His attitude towards Samus is torn between disapproval of past decisions and genuine respect. Unfortunately he doesn't get nearly enough characterization, perhaps as a result of the game being entirely from Samus' perspective. Though it'd be unusual, I thought it would have been interesting to play as Adam for a segment or two in the game; perhaps during the points that called for the over-the-shoulder RE4-styled walking segments (now with actual gameplay!)

Instead what little characterization he gets contradicts what we learned in Fusion.

Fusion: Samus never disagreed, so his catchphrase "Any objections, Lady?" comes off as charming and trustworthy rather than sarcastic.

Other M: Samus ALWAYS disagreed, so his catchphrase "Any objections, Lady?" comes off as sarcastic rather than charming. How the hell did they miss that?

The result is that Adam becomes Samus' "Well Done, Son" Guy, a father figure to be sure, but not a positive one. Small wonder Klyka's LP of Other M parodies the opening to Neon Genesis Evangelion at one point. (My favorite Other M LP, by the way. Though it might be grating to fans of the game.)

[kadosho]

If I remember, in the past interviews said that Adam was her father figure. But Other M made it her rebellion of standing alone, and coming to terms with running solo. Whereas Adam was her leader, until her past came back and took over instead. So in turn, Adam's personality changed with time. I understand that part. But translations don't always flow the same with everyone.
If Other M was meant to give clarity, I guess that is the best we can get for now.

[Mayan Mystery]

I've actually been pondering Adam's character for a while, and it occurs to me that there are some open ended questions and hinters to something entirely different that I think Sakamoto did not intend (or maybe he did I don't know.) But what I suspect is Adam is actually the bad guy of the series and probably didn't even like Samus from the start. For example, I'm still under the impression he lied about [spoiler]his position on the metroid breeding program[/spoiler], and my guess is that [spoiler]sector zero[/spoiler] was detachable in order to preserve the specimens if something were to happen to the bottle ship and never actually died. In fact, I'm thinking that he was intending to simply use Samus as a tool or maybe even try to kill her. Perhaps this is the reason for the annoying Varia suit thing. I know this is a huge jump, but it actually fits.