xaq_the_aereon: I caught it...now what? (Submachine)
[personal profile] xaq_the_aereon
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.

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