A potential video game revelation I just had.

For pretty much as long as I can remember, I've wondered why the giant-shouldered, heat-resistant form of Samus Aran's armor was called the Varia Suit. I'd also wondered why the original game called the Morph Ball the "Maru Mari," until I learned that was simply the Japanese for "Rounding" or "Curl," which was a fairly accurate description of what the Morph Ball does.

But that got me thinking: the term "Varia Suit" came from the original game as well, so perhaps that was simply a translation error that had been kept out of player preference? If so, what did it mean?

A moment ago, a completely different game, Yu-Gi-Oh!, gave me a flash of inspiration. In the current season of the anime, the villains are creatures known as "Barians." However, the correct translation appears to be "Varians," as quite a few cards related to and used by them have "V" in their name. In addition, the letter V is pronounced "Bui" ("bwee"), giving it a distinct B sound.

That got me thinking: in combination with the V/B distinction, there's another case of Japanese-English dialect I've known for a while: to make an "er" sound at the end of a word, they use a soft A, an "ah" sound. "Pliers," for example, is pronounced "Puraias" (Poo-RYE-ahs), as evidenced by the Dimension Pliers in GaoGaiGar.

Taking the V/B and Ah/Er concepts mentioned above and applying them to the Varia Suit, it's name becomes something more normal and completely accurate:

Barrier Suit.


...

A fact which, if I'd bothered to simply check Page 14 of the Metroid II instruction manual, I'd have known years ago.

For the record: I HATE BEES.

Not allergic to them or anything, just scared of them.

So you can just imagine how thrilled I was earlier to find one inside my home. How it got in here, I don't know, but it was trying desperately to get outside through the window...as in right through the glass.

I tried to be peaceful about it, opening up the front door and doing my damnedest to shoo it out...it refused. So mote it be.

The moment it was away from the window and resting on the door I just tried getting it to go through, my Math A107 (College Algebra) textbook became the Goldion Hammer.

Goodbye and good riddance, home invader.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go relax for a while...that thing genuinely scared the hell out of me. X_x