Has Blizzard Taken Inspiration From Nintendo?

[AzraelBlack]

I've written a lore related article for the community to rage at me, whilst we are in the absence of good information from Blizzard.

Has Blizzard Taken Inspiration From Nintendo?
A comparison between Samus Aran and November Terra

November Annabella Terra, otherwise known to us eager Starcraft fans, as Nova, is a Terran Ghost currently affiliated to the Terran Dominion. We know and love her as an important character from a game which was never completed. Nevertheless she is one of our favourite heroes within the Starcraft universe.

However was she inspired by another of video gamings greatest heroines?

Are Samus Aran and Nova the same character at heart?

That I can't say for sure, but I definately would like to show you some of the similarities and these two characters share.

To begin I will start with brief bio's of both Characters.

[Note: These are just short summaries, please don't quote me on small mistakes, or leaving out small parts (i.e. names), as I am shortening the story, to better explain my later points.]

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Samus Aran


Name: Samus Aran
Born: Earth
Raised: Zebes
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue/Green mix

Back Story: Samus Aran is a Human bounty hunter. She was born on the planet Earth. Little is known about her parents, it is assumed they were not of high position. At the age of three aliens by the name of Chozo1, came to planet Earth to mine important minerals. Space Pirates2 came to planet Earth and wiped out the colony which Samus and her family inhabited. Ridley was the commander of the attack, and is Samus's arch rival.

She was left orphaned. The Chozo who had taken a liking to Samus took her under their wing, and she trained with them. At the age of 14 she was well past the physical capabilities of normal humans, because she had been infuesed with Chozo blood, and later given her famous Varia Suit, which is bio-mechanical and created entirely out of Chozo technology.

She had been noted to be extremely compassionate, something that they Chozo admired in her. She left and joined the Galactic Federation3. As a member of the police force. Here she was given cybernetic implants which drove her physical capabilities to nigh superhuman levels.

She then vanished from the GF and did not resurface till a few years later. By that time, rumours of a male cyborg bounty hunter single handedly hunting down and killing countless SP's had surfaced. This was of course all the doing of Samus Aran.

Samus is now a bounty hunter for hire affiliated to the GF. She has partaken in wars, as well as assassination type missions.

Personality: In terms of personality, Samus has not been expanded on. She is a silent character, fitting the title of "Byronic Hero" quite, and brooding, out for revenge against Ridley and his Space Pirates. Of course that is just fan speculation.

Physical Appearance: Samus Aran is a Human. She is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 198 pounds (when contained in her Power Suit). She has blue/green eyes. Blonde hair which he holds in a high ponytail.

Main Equipment: Chozo Varia Suit, and her Zero Suit. As well as a multitude of weapons and gadgets typical to a sci-fi hero.

1 The Chozo are an advanced race similar to the Xel'Naga in position within the lore. They are all dead by the time of the games.
2 Space Pirates are the antagonists of the series. They do not have any parallel imo to the Starcraft universe.
3 The Galactic Federation is the Human governing body within the milky way galaxy.

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Nova


Name: November Annabella (Nova) Terra, Aka Agent 12-862
Born: Tarsonis
Raised: Tarsonis
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Green

Back Story: Nova was born into the Terra family, which was high ranking and one of the "old families" within the Terran Confederacy. Her family hid her latent psionic abilities from her and everyone else in order to avoid her being drafted into the Ghost Program.

Her parents sent her to Tyrador IX, away from Tarsonis because of the recent uprisings and violence against the old families. She did not want to leave them. However as she left she felt her parents minds, as they were killed by anti confederate rebels.At which point she disembarked and returned. She witnesed her parents murderers still killing members of her family and staff, and at that point due to the huge mental and emotional stres, unleashed a powerful psionic attack, which killed all nearby and almost destroyed the Terra Skyscraper.

At which point wranglers were then ordered to capture Nova.

Before that however Nova fled to Tarsonis's underworld know as The Gutter. In which two men tried to rape her and she severly injured them with her psionic abilities. A crime lord by the name of Fagin, eventually caught her, learned of her identity and used her as a loyalty detector/assassin against her will.

After Fagins death (which she caused as revenge) she then joined the Ghost Program willingly. Partly because she wanted a memory wipe to forget all her memories. Nova sped through her training, in 2.5 years (the normal was 4 years).

Towards the end of her training, Acturus Mensgk himself gave Nova a personal mission. She was to fly to Tyrador VII and kill, Cliff Nadaner a former anti-Confederate terrorist turned anti-Dominion terrorist. He was the man who sent men to kill Nova and her family. She was instructed to kill him with her mental powers alone. She succeeded in achieving her revenge.

Upon completion of her training she was given a memory wipe and given her Ghost code of Agent 12-862. At which point she joined the Nova Squadron.

Physical Appearance: Nova is a tall woman, Who had Green eyes, white skin, and has Blonde hair which she ties in a top not.

Personality: Before her nueral resocialisation, Nova was compassionate, with a high degree of empathy, largely unsees amongst the old families. She believed strongly in the concept of fair play as well. She will deal death, but only to those who she deems worthy of death.

After the nueral-resoc she has changed radically. No traces of her previous moral code remain, and she has become rather cocky, snide and arrogant.

Equipment: Ghost suit, with cloaking device, as well as other weapons typical to ghosts. It should be noted that her use of Psionics would fit in this category.

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So with that said lets look at two Images of Samus Aran and Nova.

Samus in her Zero Suit: (So that you can see what she looks like undernieth her suit.


And Nova


The Similarities are obvious. Visually they are identical, with slight differences in eye colour, and hair style. Overall however they are identical heroines. Even the difference in hair style is minute, as Samus has also appeared in other images even more similar hair styles to Nova.

Now here are another two images:

This here is Nova in her Ghost suit/armour.


And Samus in her Varia Suit less her helmet:


Here the similarities aren't as obvious. It should be noted however how much emphasis both SC and Metroid put on their heroines suits/armour.

Of course Samus's suit is of greater importance than Nova's never the less the iconic depictions of both of these heroines, is of them in their specially made suits. A notable similarity.

If that is note enough for you, consider the fact that despite near identical phyical appearances, they also play similar roles within their affiliated organisations. Whilst Nova is an obvious spy, she is sent on only the most difficult of missions which no other members could possibly complete.

Samus being an independent bounty hunter is still feircely loyal to the GF, and is also the one sent on the most difficult of missions. Of course her missions are of a wider variety, and often also personal in nature.

Another point of similarity is their personality. They both fit into the Byronic, lone wolf heroine. Both orphans who have shown venegeful qualities to their nature. Both prefering to work alone than as part of a group.

Nova and Samus are truly extremely similar characters within the video game industry. Both have huge followings, and are loved by their respective franchises. Both have similar personalities, appearances, roles and backstories.

I did not write this to present an issue as much as to show people, the obvious similarities which occured to me earlier today. Now what do you think?

-Discuss!

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Reference 1 - Samus
Reference 2 - Nova

I know that there are likley many many spelling and grammar mistakes. I will correct these each time I read this over.

EDIT:Sorry about the formatting, it worked on SC2Armory's site.

[l33telboi]

There can be no doubt that they look very similar (though I dare point out that originally Samus was a readhead ), but apart from that I don't see many similarities. The backgrounds are quite different for each of them. And their missions are somewhat different. Samus is a super-soldier that smashes through stuff via brute force while Nova is more of an telepathic assassin sneaking around.

[deadlock]

samus is fucking cool, will nova be as cool? only time will tell

[AzraelBlack]

There can be no doubt that they look very similar (though I dare point out that originally Samus was a readhead ), but apart from that I don't see many similarities. The backgrounds are quite different for each of them. And their missions are somewhat different. Samus is a super-soldier that smashes through stuff via brute force while Nova is more of an telepathic assassin sneaking around.

Samus was green haired in super metroid as well. However it is canon and officially stated to be blonde.

To other readers, please accept my apology of my shocking spelling and grammar. I will fix it when I have the time.

[Equiliari]

(though I dare point out that originally Samus was a readhead )

You dare to point that out cause that also applies to Nova?

[n00bonicPlague]

I love how threads with such titles appear on the main forum index. Anyway, Blizzard has taken inspiration from all sorts of things. I'm sure they took a look at all sorts of heroines — real and fictional — in order to come up with Nova.

[EndlessSky]

The thing is with these type of things there is always something you can find that is similar or could be possibly based on for inspiration. This is especially true in works of fantasy and science fiction.

You can never know if they did or if it was a coincidence until you ask them. There is no way you can be sure if they took something from something else just because it looks similar in some ways.

You also got to remember Human Sarah Kerrigan had a similar design and was way before the whole zero suit Samus Aran thing etc.

[arsedestroyer]

samus and nova are hott!!!!!!

[Eligor]

I think Metzen DID joke about taking inspiration from Pokemon somewhere (that would explain the old Infestor model)...

[B~E]

They're both the result of shameless male nerd fantasies: smoking-hot ass-kicking super moms. Hence the ressemblance.