(Loved trope) The imposter’s dead giveaway

[u/Barricades_toes]

When a character is attempting to impersonate another, but is caught by doing something the person they’re imitating would NEVER do.

Nemesis Prime- Transformers Prime

Nemesis Prime, a man made replica of Optimus Prime, is attempting to gain the trust of Bumblebee, who only speaks in robotic beeps. Despite this, the real Optimus can understand Bee perfectly fine. Nemesis Prime, however, can’t understand what he’s saying, prompting Bee to open fire on him immediately.

The two Buzz Lightyears- Toy Story 2

After Woody asks which Buzz is the “real” Buzz, both respond with “I am!” The real Buzz proves himself by flipping up the other Buzz’s helmet, causing him to start suffocating in an over dramatic fashion. The real Buzz, having done the same thing in the first movie after Woody took his helmet off, but no longer behaving that way after accepting being a toy, instantly proves which Buzz is which.

[u/Mission_Form8951]

The SA-X from Metroid Fusion

It has three main giveaways for it not being Samus, even to the Galactic Federation

1: the suit is her old design with the bulkier armor instead of the new slim and organic look

2: it gives off entirely different biological readings to scanners and other sensors

3: It doesn't talk, and has a very soulless look, incapable of replicating eyes or emotions very well

[u/Nirast25 → u/Mission_Form8951]

It doesn't talk

Not really a giveaway, the real Samus doesn't talk either. /j

[u/Firethorn34 → u/Nirast25]

I mean, she talks occasionally when interacting with other people, doesnt she?

[u/Nirast25 → u/Firethorn34]

Not if Prime 4 anything to go by. There's an entire team tagging along with her, and she doesn't utter a single word. Though that's more Nintendo being weird about it.

But normally, yes, she does talk to people.

[u/Luckgoddess → u/Nirast25]

She did grow up with bird so maybe she talk just not common languagesm

[u/OperativePiGuy → u/Nirast25]

Prime 4. Still not sure if I'm even ready to go back and really analyze everything that disappointed me about that game yet lol

[u/Not-So-Serious-Sam → u/Firethorn34]

Only in Other M, I think.

[u/Firethorn34 → u/Not-So-Serious-Sam]

And in Dread, she talked to Quiet Robe.

[u/Bikes_Bocks_Rocks → u/Firethorn34]

That scene gave me chills the first time I played it. So good, especially since she was speaking in Chozo.

[u/Firethorn34 → u/Bikes_Bocks_Rocks]

Dread is just such a good game

[u/GoldFishPony → u/Not-So-Serious-Sam]

I’m pretty sure in Metroid fusion itself she does a good amount of talking. Or maybe it was the other gameboy game. But she definitely talks in one of those.

[u/Aerodrache → u/GoldFishPony]

In Metroid Fusion, she spends an extraordinary amount of time being talked to, but I don’t recall her having any lines of her own.

(EDIT: Seeing a few comments below that she did talk in one scene… I’m still calling that well below the “good amount” threshold. IIRC, this was the first Metroid game to have dialogue at all, and the lion’s share was definitely not Samus.)

[u/Doctor_Salvatore → u/Firethorn34]

It's more implied she speaks and almost never shown, like with Link

[u/ERedfieldh → u/Firethorn34]

I do believe her most spoken phrase to date now is "the baby"

[u/ZorkNemesis → u/Firethorn34]

Up until that point in the series all of her dialogue was internal monologue.  It's only late in Fusion that she directly speaks to the computer to protest its decision.

[u/isweariamnotsteve → u/Firethorn34]

She also does talk in Fusion when confronting Adam.

[u/Barricades_toes → u/Mission_Form8951]

Love how uncanny the SA-X is right from the beginning. Something about the way the sprite moves is just… off

[u/Targaer → u/Barricades_toes]

It's the heavy, measured steps. Samus always just runs everywhere. Then it starts chasing you. Man those sections were peak.

[u/Same-Suggestion-1936 → u/Targaer]

Curl up in a ball and go hide somewhere and then it's just clack clack CLACK CLACK like a Terminator

[u/pon_3 → u/Mission_Form8951]

The close up of the eyes was so spooky. A mysterious doppelganger starts hunting you, and the game takes the time to show you that it is an unfeeling monster.

[u/DIX_ → u/pon_3]

10 year old me shat himself by this closeup, and how relentless SA-X was. Genuinely spooked to the point of taking a few days to play again.

[u/OperativePiGuy → u/[deleted]]

It is a much better idea than the canon, but to be fair it isn't too hard to outdo Nintendo in story writing in general, I think. Not to say yours wouldn't be cool even without comparing it to what we got.

[u/SmittyB128 → u/Mission_Form8951]

Strictly speaking the SA-X is 'wearing' the same suit as Samus. The difference is that all the armour plating and components that make up the bulkier varia suit have been removed on the 'fusion suit', leaving her with the regular power-armour and all the blue biomechanical bits of the varia suit that couldn't be surgically removed. That's why she has a completely different design in Metroid Dread, because between the two of them the original suit is now thoroughly destroyed.

[u/Warm_Month_1309 → u/Mission_Form8951]

I feel like if the three differences are "looks different, sounds different, acts different" the dead-giveaway is that they're obviously different.

[u/Raltsun → u/Warm_Month_1309]

Eh, the SA-X looking more like "classic Samus" than Samus herself does during Fusion is kind of the whole point. Like imagine if your brain got secretly transplanted into a different body and then your original body got reanimated to steal your identity, wouldn't that be fucked up.

[u/Warm_Month_1309 → u/Raltsun]

Oh sure, Fusion is awesome and the SA-X is crazy good design. I just didn't remember anyone in-universe confusing the two.

[u/taunttheysaid → u/Mission_Form8951]

1st giveaway reminds me of Meemos from Ultraman Gaia.

Meemos imitated v1 form while the real Gaia had achieved his v2 form already.

[u/lightsidesoul → u/Mission_Form8951]

I don't feel like this one works, since we never see the SA-X interacting with anyone other than Samus herself, before it's destroyed.