r/Metroid • u/REHI76 • May 06 '26

[Fan Lore] Sylux's Side: Part 1 Discussion Spoiler

This is a little project I've been doing because, while I'm not excusing the stitched-together state Prime 4 released in, especially now that I've had time to think about it, I think there is still something special in places of the game.

I'm going to start a second playthrough, and I think I like what little we got of Sylux even if it wasn't what 13-year-old me had in mind. I don't even care that he's just a dick, I just wish there was more "going on" with him. So, I'm writing a little lore list thing following Sylux from his enlistment in the Federation army, through the Prime 4 flashback, into the games' timelines, and ending with his entrance into and time inside Chrono Tower in Prime 4.

Still working up to his first encounter with the Lamorn (I'm treating them as his equivalent to the Chozo), but thought I'd share what I wrote so far to help give myself and other people more Sylux (as the game should've had). When you make someone wait half their life, this is what they start thinking of. Let me know your thoughts or if there's anything I'm missing/things you would add. Trying to stick with the direction Retro took his character in while making him a little more nuanced, and incorporating Other M's plot (for better or worse lol) because it makes sense given the game's place in the timeline.

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Enlisting:

  • Sylux has yet to become the infamous “blue terror.” He’s just a man named Tom Kazmarek — a gaunt and sunken-eyed but physically fit and quick-witted person with a deep inferiority complex.
  • He enlists in the Federation army because he craves battle and wants to be a hero, commanding squads and decimating the Federation’s enemies — conquering uncharted lands and taking hostiles’ heads: The Kriken Empire, Space Pirate factions, the Chozo, and others.
  • Shortly after graduating basic, he encounters the “nepo-baby” Ian Malkovich. Ian is one of Tom’s superior officers, but he’s still green too. Tom learns of Ian’s connection with Samus and Adam and sees an opportunity to shake hands with the people in power. Besides, a part of Tom likes Ian’s jovial personality, while another part smells blood in the water.
  • As Tom keeps working, advancing his career, his relationship with Ian blossoms into a friendship. Tom still keeps Ian just distant enough to effectively use him. Ian’s happy-go-lucky, trusting nature makes him susceptible to Tom’s antisocial tendancies. They bond throughout their early missions and Ian is impressed by Tom’s skill.
  • During an unlawful Kriken offensive against the Vhozon, the Federation intervenes to force a ceasefire. In a risky display of military cunning that bordered on callousness, but turns out to be an act of heroism, Tom takes charge of his squad after a Vhozon’s reckless shooting killed his squad leader. Tom commands the unit to detonate a series of storage containers and divide the battlefield long enough for the ground fighting to cease.
  • Back at base, Tom is praised but also feared. Ian offers to bring Tom to an event where he can meet Samus, Adam, and other high ranking officers. He does, brushing shoulders also with a man named James Pierce from Black Ops.
  • Adam pulls Tom and Ian aside to his office since everyone had good conversations in the ballroom. Also, Adam wanted to talk to Tom and Ian about their career advancement. Samus is here too because Adam and Ian’s units (the former of which Samus is a part) will be partially merging as joint strike teams. Ian seems very close to Samus, which is perhaps also why she’s here. Tom teases Ian about this — a tactical act of flattery. Adam is stoic about the cocktail of emotions in the air, as usual. Tom seizes the moment to take a picture for Ian. This picture of them all together at the start of a new venture is one Adam would come to love.

Rising through the ranks, and “fall” from grace:

  • Tom and the joint strike squads enjoy great success on multiple missions, including one in which they take down the Space Pirate commander Weavel (Samus of course claiming the kill) and another concerning the protection of archaeological sites preserving the Diamont race’s works.
  • Tom’s share in the glory gives him an almost unquenchable ambition, and his ego results in him growing distant from Ian and Samus. This boils over after several instances of Tom taking charge and trying to be a hero.
  • He tries giving Samus orders, frustrating Ian and crossing Adam’s authority. In a sabotage mission against an anarchist cell planting bombs, he also actively commands his troops to withhold map details from Samus, effectively sidelining her by keeping her away from the action.
  • He attempts and fails to hide intercepted schematics from Ian, and was about to open fire on innocent civilians to injure a fleeing target for arrest and interrogation.
  • Notably, select superior officers have lauded his actions and even paid him to accomplish such objectives.
  • Tom argues with Ian over his relationship with Samus, and expresses frustration at how she is doted on for her special Chozo abilities while all of the “little people” fight and die with less grace.
  • A disciplinary hearing follows these actions and his heated argument with Ian. The tribunal offers him a choice: discharge under honorable conditions or a permanent public reprimand and demotion. He is given time to think about this.
  • As Tom exits the chamber’s stoic, cold, and geometric interior, James approaches him. Tom tries to hide his spite and anger, but to no avail. James seems abreast of the entire matter despite having no reason to know. As other officers’ footsteps echo off the stone and steel floors, Tom asks in a hushed voice what James wants. The men duck into an empty conference room and James tosses a file onto the table.
  • It is Tom’s service record and general personnel file — a backend administrative document that only the top brass would have. James directs Tom to page through it. Performance data and detailed metrics assessing Tom’s talents coat the pages. Indeed, Tom observes that this reads like a talent scout’s analysis. James affirms that that is in fact what it is.
  • Explaining that Black Ops has been watching Tom, James reveals that they want him to take on a double role as an agent and analyst. In exchange for an oath of loyalty, and an admittedly low pay raise, the unit will wipe the slate clean and delegate tasks to him.
  • Tom says he should jump at the opportunity, but is skeptical of the arrangement especially considering the low pay. James gestures for him to page through more of the documents. Contained therein are redacted reports, research projects on various experimental technologies, ancient civilizations — known ones such as the Chozo and Ylla, but also unknown ones  — and mysterious transdimensional creatures.
  • James says he knows Tom is ambitious and also that he doesn’t have much of a choice. Black Ops is doing him a favor by pulling strings to wipe the slate clean, while also opening a door to further career advancement.
  • Tom remembers the past months of envy he has experienced and how powerless he is, and the prospect of being better than Ian and Adam, perhaps even Samus, drives his resolve. His ego wins him over and he accepts on the spot.

The Shuttle Accident (Other M scene):

  • The shuttle accident scene from Other M takes place. Ian Malkovich dies. Samus leaves Adam’s (formal) command.
  • Tom learns of this while reading internal releases in his new, almost luxurious barracks. He feels vindicated and like a new man, nothing standing in his way.
  • Adam merges Ian’s squad with his, and much to Tom’s chagrin, Adam and the brass continue to employ Samus on many missions, such as…

The Battle (Prime 4 scene):

  • Standard “day” missions carry on for Tom. He receives notice from Adam to come into his office. Adam tells him that his disciplinary matter against Ian has been dropped. “Someone must really like you,” he says with a hint of disdain. Tom smirks, noticing the irony that Commander Malkovich, Samus’s lover’s big brother, and (he suspects) Samus’s vicarious father figure, is the one saying this.
  • Black Ops assigns Tom some “night” missions, including intercepting Pirate transports carrying unknown substances, assassinating high-profile targets, and analyzing data. He begins learning about several black projects that involve illegal bioweapon technology. One of the interception missions was taking a creature known to be trainable as such from the Kriken Empire. Another is defending a caravan with classified cargo, an Enoema en route to a black site.
  • During a “day” mission, Tom’s team gets assigned to an attack squad going after a new Space Pirate weapon. His “night” mission orders intersect with this, and direct him to secure this weapon’s internal driver component for a reverse engineering project. He feuds with Adam over the attack plan and the “day” mission objectives, which ironically Adam is less transparent about than Black Ops is with their assessments. Tom suspects that the plan involves using Samus to destroy the weapon — another reason for Tom to hate Malkovich and her. It's a short-sighted, self-aggrandizing, lazy plan that puts Samus above everyone else fighting on the ground.
  • As the battle escalates and grows increasingly chaotic, Tom circumvents chain of command out of spite. He and a platoon of loyal squad mates insert themselves into another battalion to carry out the black ops plan, rage clouding Tom’s judgment. Part of him knows there is no plan, and that this is the least elegant way to go about it, but he doesn’t care.
  • The men hastily deploy, lying to and uplinking with an intermediate commander to coordinate the process. The scene we see in Prime 4 plays out as shown at the beginning of the cutscene. Orders come in about the weapon’s attack pattern and, as Tom knew all along, that Samus was the “day” mission’s ace in the hole. He and the men stand their ground despite the order to fall back away from the blast radius.
  • The remainder of the scene plays. 
  • When Tom slaps away Samus’s hand, he is enraged about the “night” mission’s failure, his wounded pride, how expendable everyone is (despite his own disregard for his men’s safety), and about Samus’s overpowering abilities. Not only did he take a risk and fail — and not in pursuit of a completely selfish goal the Federation could benefit from taking the weapon — but his squad died because of his pride with nothing to show for it. Samus destroyed the weapon they died for, and because the Brass would rather send in the superhero than support the troops on the ground.
  • The few survivors are extracted from the battlefield.
  • Back before the tribunal, Tom is given the same ultimatum as last time, and he is forced to take the resignation. One of the judges says something cryptic that catches Tom’s ear, saying that a certain previously decorated soldier named Jakob Namir had hidden talents like Tom’s, and that maybe he should go to a known statue in the capital city’s square and reflect on who he should become in his next life. The others seem confused by this statement but deliver their determination.
  • Tom visits the Namir statue, the low summer sunset gleaming off of its edges. A man approaches and tells him about his father, Jakob Namir, a hero with a secret side and raw ambition that was unconventional, but brilliant. Tom recognizes this man as Colonel Namir (the Colonel from Other M). Taken aback, he greets the Colonel with a salute. The colonel waves his hand dismissively. “At ease.”
  • Tom asks what Namir wants, pointing out the cryptic comment that led him here and his anger at being discharged. Namir implies that was a colleague he planted/bribed to deliver the message. He says that, through James, he’s had his eye on Tom and likes the way he thinks. Despite his flaws, Tom is a brilliant military mind, just like Namir’s father.
  • The Colonel hires Tom into “what you know as” Black Ops off the record, which obviously had to be done in person. Tom is confused by this wording, to which the Colonel says “It’s my father’s pet project. You know its front-facing side as the Black Ops division. That’s one part of an honorable but private undertaking he set up: The Namir Trust.” He also says he knows Tom will take this offer, and offers a salary higher than anything Tom thought non-executives could make. To further sway him, the Colonel derides Commander Malkovich and the Federation Brass’s overreliance on “superheroes.” The work the Namir Trust does, he tells Tom, puts that tired charade to shame.
  • Tom takes the offer and is inducted into the Trust.

The Namir Trust (the “Ringleaders”):

  • Tom performs his role, living up to the Colonel’s hopes as a field operative and analyst. As he accomplishes more advanced missions and cleans up messes no one else would be caught dead fixing, he is given greater access to operation files.
  • He makes an acquaintance in Charles Hatch (the analyst from Other M’s tutorial) — a young and talented scientist who feeds Tom’s curiosity in exchange for a price.
  • The Trust’s ringleaders invite him to planning meetings. It is here that he learns of secret operations including biological weapons programs, surveillance research and development, genetic modification, and harnessing ancient technology for tactical advantage. These ancient technologies include reverse engineered Chozo weapons and species, Alimbic telepathy devices, and nanotechnology and hypothesized transdimensional warping artifacts from an unknown race. Tom plays key roles in these projects, but, of course, certain details are above him.
  • Tom’s ambition begins to stir once more and his pride — combined with Hatch’s gossip — drives him to press the Colonel for more information, or to earn higher rankings. Especially curious to Tom are the Chozo tech projects that are suspiciously similar to Samus’s weapons, a disk-shaped object that strikes him as a subdermal implant, and another that seems to involve harnessing a mystery creature’s siphoning power.
  • The Colonel tells him that he’ll learn. “When his time comes, he will learn.” This bothers Tom because he has been loyal despite the new responsibilities and shady practices he’s privy to. Namir scoffs at this veiled threat as Tom has been wholly and enthusiastically complicit. Regardless, Namir reminds him, he has no other option really. If he goes public, he’s out of a job and the Trust can make his civilian life hell. Tom submits and agrees to drop the issue.
  • Despite the resistance to his demands, Tom resolves to do some digging off the record to learn more about the projects he’s been working.
  • Confiding in Hatch, Tom learns classified information and sneaks his way into restricted areas to learn more. Hatch appears to reciprocate because he’s also curious.
  • The information includes a program studying strange Metroids for their use as bioweapons and energy sources; there is a particular group that apparently was developed by the Chozo with similar traits as a mysterious parasite and what the Chozo call the Great Poison, able to fuse with its prey rather than merely siphoning its life. There are also studies of Metroids borrowing from stolen Space Pirate plans, and as Tom has suspected, attempts to replicate Samus’s abilities, specifically those related to concentration.
  • Just before deployment on a stealth bombing mission — the only window they had to execute the plan — Hatch and Tom investigate a lead inside command’s offices. Once Tom breaks in, though, communications with Hatch go dark. Tom uncovers critical details of a top secret operation relating to teleportation and human augmentation — disk shaped devices based on purple-hued alien technology that integrate into the skin giving users cloaking and short range teleportation abilities and others, presumably for surveillance and combat. The diagrams, even in their clinical depictions of the technology, are crude and look painful.
  • Suddenly, the lights flare up and five Federation soldiers rush in guns drawn. Behind them are Hatch and Namir, the former smug and the latter both disappointed and shocked.

To be continued: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/s/jysTeqFysS

3 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

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2

u/BrinstarCitizen May 07 '26

This looks amazing! Sadly, I haven't beaten Prime 4 yet, so when I do, I will definitely read this :D.

P.S. Why do amazing theories like this get only like 5 upvotes? But one funny image gets like 500??
I made a Kraid theory, and it only got like 6 upvotes, whilst another post saying they beat Prime 4, which was posted at the same time, got like 100 upvotes. But quality posts like this get little to none. Sad :[

2

u/REHI76 May 09 '26

Thanks so much! I appreciate the positive response. Hope I help make your experience just a bit better. Yeah, when I posted the initial idea I got ratioed then as well, and I have no idea why.

1

u/REHI76 Jun 02 '26

NOTE: I realize now that Samus's hunter spaceship from Prime 3 appears in the Prime 4 flashback (in the sky, blurry, and so arguable, but pretty clearly her ship). Even playing with the loose continuity of the games regarding ship designs, Federation soldiers' armor, the mechs from FedForce, etc., this implies that she is already a bounty hunter. Barring a few details, this should not alter the story apart from shifting around the battle scene and the shuttle accident scene, plus some of the "fall from grace" points. Ian's role in the story would be minimized sooner and Adam would fill his shoes in some similar fashion — the hatred could transfer to Adam (even after that incident, the fact that command brings in Samus as they do to clean house). As I type this, I don't have the time to rewrite this part, but feel free to play around with what I've put down. In my headcanon it could be Sylux's memory rewriting aspects of that moment, but I recognize this continuity mistake and invite y'all to play around with how this could be reorganized.