Characters in the Metroid series
is a series of nonlinear science fiction action games published by Nintendo, featuring both side-scrolling and first-person shooter elements. The player character and protagonist of the series is Samus Aran, a spacefaring bounty hunter that battles [|Space Pirates] and an extraterrestrial species called Metroids.
Overview
Key:= Does Not Appear
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- A dark grey cell indicates that the character was not in the property or that the character's presence in the property has yet to be announced.
- A Main indicates a character had a starring role in the property.
- A Recurring indicates the character appeared in two or more times within the property.
- A Guest indicates the character appeared once in the property.
Protagonists
Samus Aran
Samus Aran is the bounty hunter protagonist of the series.Chozo
The Chozo are a mysterious and sage-like species featured throughout the Metroid series. The origins and age of the Chozo race and civilization are unknown, but they were once spread across several planets in the Metroid universe. Lore entries in Metroid Prime suggest that the race may have traveled to a higher plane of being as opposed to dying out. The Chozo were extremely advanced in technology, some say they could not be more advanced, but the chozo took pride in their elaborate statuary. They also exchanged knowledge with other species, including the Luminoth of Aether, the Reptilicus of Bryyo, and the Elysians of Elysia. Lore found in Metroid Prime 3 specifically mentions a fellowship of enlightened species that once existed between the Chozo, the Luminoth, the Reptilicus, and another race called the Ylla. While the former three have been expounded on in the series, the Ylla are only mentioned in this piece of lore and have yet to be seen. The Chozo were also responsible for the creation and breeding of Metroids. While in the Japanese versions of the games, the beings are only ever identified by the generic term chōjin-zoku, a misunderstanding during the localization process led to the mistaken adoption of the descriptor chōzō, rendered "Chozo," in the English versions instead. In Super Metroid, some of the Chozo statues would rise up and attack Samus; these bosses are called Torizo, substituting the native Japanese word tori "bird" for the usual, Chinese-derived chō. In Metroid Prime, in later areas in game play, Chozo ghosts appear and attack Samus. Although originally allies, they have been maddened by the Phazon corruption of their planet, and can no longer distinguish friend from foe. In Metroid Zero Mission Samus can enter the Chozo Ruins.Galactic Federation
The Galactic Federation is the governing body of the galaxy formed by an alliance of alien species and often contracts Samus with difficult missions to complete, with the aim of eradicating the Space Pirates. Samus trained in the Federation's military before becoming a bounty hunter, leaving some time after a disagreement with her commanding officer, Adam Malkovich. The Galactic Federation's troopers also use powered armor, and their technology usually bears multiple versions of their symbol, a stylized cross-shape. Troopers are also given a basic repeating assault weapon, and in Metroid Prime 3, some are equipped with the Phazon Enhancement Device.Baby Metroid
The Metroid larva is chronologically the last Metroid of its race following the events of ' and '. Samus describes how a Metroid larva hatched from an egg and immediately imprinted upon her, believing her to be its mother. She brought the larva to Ceres Space Colony, where scientists learned that they could harness its power. Just after she left the colony, she received a distress call and returned to find the scientists dead and the larva stolen. The Baby Metroid is used as the driving theme of the game as Samus tirelessly searches through Zebes and eventually the Space Pirate's base on Tourian for her Metroid hatchling. Once encountering the enlarged Baby Metroid in Space Pirate clutches, it attacks Samus and nearly drains all her energy. During the final battle against Mother Brain, the Baby Metroid comes to aid of Samus by recharging her energy, but Mother Brain destroys it in retaliation. Samus avenges its death by destroying Mother Brain with an extremely powerful weapon given to her by the Metroid. After a planet-wide self-destruction, Samus for once mourns the death of a Metroid.In , the Baby Metroid is mentioned in the opening cutscene as it serves as a reminder for Samus' loss of loved ones in her life. Later in the game, on Bottle Ship's Sector Zero, she encounters a Metroid that resembles something similar to the Baby Metroid, but immediately attacks her only to be saved by Adam Malkovich.
Antagonists
Metroids
The Metroids are floating, parasitic jellyfish-like organisms with tripartite nuclei. They are capable of siphoning an undetectable life energy from any life form, generally causing the death of the victim in the process. Created by the Chozo as a type of bioweapon in order to combat the more dangerous X Parasites, they are one of the primary plot points in the Metroid games as Samus either fights them or tries to prevent the Space Pirates or Galactic Federation from harnessing their powers for evil.Galactic Federation Bio-Weapons Research Projects
A small group within the Federation government was responsible for the events in and were a behind-the-scenes antagonist in Metroid Fusion. Secretly, this unnamed group within the Federation planned to breed Metroids and other creatures, like the Zebesians, to be used as bio-weapons, employing various methods to keep their activities a secret from the rest of galactic society. In Other M, they are revealed to have used genetic remnants of the baby Metroid obtained off Samus' powersuit after her mission on Zebes to genetically engineer a new breed of Metroid immune to the effect of cold temperatures.However, this project was foiled by the accidental cloning of Ridley and the rebellion of MB, the Mother Brain-like android created to control the Metroids. This leads to the interference of Adam Malkovich's team of soldiers and Samus. However, one of their operatives called "The Deleter" by Samus, infiltrates Adam's squad to remove any evidence of the project. While it is not explicitly stated, the Deleter was in fact James Pierce, the squad's communications expert. The presence of Samus derails James' mission, though he does manage to kill several members of Adam's squad before he himself was found dead in the Bioweapons Research Center: it can be surmised that he tried to eliminate MB, but failed. An unnamed scientist who cleans the Metroid and Ridley's DNA off Samus is implied to be a member or operative for the group. Additionally an unnamed GF colonel who orders MB's destruction and attempts to force Samus to handover Madeline Bergman using the fact she is an outsider to force her to comply is implied to either work for or a top ranking member of the group and may have been the one responsible for sending the Deleter to eliminate Adam and his team before they could uncover and expose their bio-weapons research as he is a member of the Galactic Federation military. The actions of Samus and Adam's heroic sacrifice put an end to their bio-weapons research on the Bottle Ship, but their secret bio-weapons research and Metroid breeding program continues on the B.S.L. research station until it is overrun by the X parasites. In Fusion, Samus discovers the continued bio-weapons research and learns that they foolishly plan to capture the X parasites and the SA-X for the bio-weapons research, and crashes the station into the planet SR388 with the help of her ship's AI, which was based on Adam Malkovich.
It is also believed that they are also responsible for the creation the power suit, weapons, and ship stolen by the Federation-hating bounty hunter Sylux from Metroid Prime Hunters.
Metroid Prime / Dark Samus
Metroid Prime and its alternate form Dark Samus is the main antagonist of the Prime subseries. It is a strange, black-carapaced, red-eyed creature with a humanoid face within its shell and the ability to control and horribly mutate anything it attaches to. Metroid Prime appears in Metroid Prime as the final boss, and after its defeat, reforms itself by stealing Samus' Phazon Suit to become Dark Samus, a black-colored doppelgänger of Samus.Metroid Prime appeared in Tallon IV shortly after the impact of the Leviathan, a living Phazon meteor, fused with a Metroid unfortunate enough to cross its path. It caused severe damage to the Chozo colony before the Artifact Temple was built to contain Metroid Prime inside the impact crater of the Leviathan. According to the NTSC version of Metroid Prime, Space Pirate miners eventually discovered the creature, eventually dubbing it "Metroid Prime" after containing it with security units and drones brought to their laboratories to perform experiments. Metroid Prime eventually broke free, and managed to assimilate several weapons and defense systems from fallen security units before going back to the impact crater However, the PAL and versions deny this, with the Pirate Logs only stating the Pirates picked up life signals coming from within the Artifact Temple. After Samus gets all of the artifacts, she is able to enter the impact crater and fight Metroid Prime. After its defeat, the creature takes Samus' Phazon Suit to reconstruct itself into a body similar to hers, resulting in the being referred to as "Dark Samus".
In Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Dark Samus arrives in Aether while chasing the planet's Phazon. Shortly after, Samus arrives and encounters Dark Samus many times, eventually defeating her as Dark Aether was destroyed - but a post-credits scene shows Dark Samus reforming herself in deep space. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption shows a team of Space Pirates returned to Aether to pick up Phazon, and eventually found Dark Samus, who killed a third of the Pirates and brainwashed the rest to be their leader. After discovering Phaaze, Dark Samus begins her mission to spread Phazon across the universe - one of the planets hit was the Pirate Homeworld, in order to turn the rest of the Space Pirates into followers of Dark Samus. In an attack to the Galactic Federation vessel G.F.S. Valhalla, Dark Samus steals a supercomputer, the Aurora Unit 313, which is used to implant a computer virus into the Galactic Federation's network of Aurora Units, crippling it. Shortly after, Dark Samus leads an attack on the planet Norion and corrupts Samus and other bounty hunters with Phazon. After Samus destroys the Leviathans of four planets, she goes to Phaaze, where she finally defeats Dark Samus, who then merges itself with the Aurora Unit 313 in a last-ditch effort to defeat Samus. After the Aurora Unit is destroyed, Phaaze explodes, and all Phazon in the galaxy is rendered inert.
Dark Samus appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as an Assist Trophy and an alternate costume for Samus. She was later announced in an August 8, 2018 Nintendo Direct to be a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an Echo Fighter of Samus.
IGN listed Dark Samus as the 88th best video game villain.
Ing Horde
The Ing horde is a race of powerful and intelligent dark creatures that appears primarily in . They are capable of possessing anything mechanical, organic, artificial, dead, or alive, and originated when a Leviathan from Phaaze impacted the planet Aether and created Dark Aether, a trans-dimensional duplicate of the planet. The Luminoth, the inhabitants of Aether, fight against the Ing over the Light of Aether, the planet's power source, for decades, in spite of disadvantages, and the Ing appear to be on the verge of victory, until Samus Aran enters the picture when she comes to Aether, looking for a missing Galactic Federation squad. Samus assists the Luminoth in their war, recovering the lost energy, and ultimately enters the Sky Temple, where she confronts the Emperor Ing, the Ing horde's leader and the main antagonist of the game. Despite the Emperor Ing being very powerful thanks to the last of Dark Aether's planetary energy and great amounts of Phazon, Samus defeats the creature and takes the remaining planetary energy, putting an end to Dark Aether and the Ing horde for good. During her escape from the destabilizing Dark Aether, Samus is confronted by Dark Samus, who she barely defeats, and then a group of Ing attempting to stop her from escaping, which she narrowly escapes from using a light portal previously hidden behind a wall of Phazon. The Ing then perish along with Dark Aether.Mother Brain
Mother Brain is a recurring game boss and a major antagonist in the series. The Chozo created it as a councilor, and as a means to "accelerate their plan to link the galaxy into one unified society." During the Space Pirate invasion of Zebes, it saw the Space Pirates as a "perfect force capable of restoring true order to the universe," and successfully established itself as one of their leaders. At the same time, Mother Brain attempted to persuade Samus to be an ally in order to "build a new age for the universe" by claiming that because it built the power suit that Samus wears, she is indebted to Mother Brain. Mother Brain is depicted as a very large brain with cybernetic spikes and a single eye; usually contained in a glass tube which Samus must break to attack it. In Super Metroid, Mother Brain also rises from the floor with a grotesque body after her tank is destroyed. Samus seemingly destroys Mother Brain in the original Metroid, but again confronts it in Super Metroid; in this game, Samus is defeated and almost killed, but the baby Metroid intervenes, and Samus once again defeats Mother Brain. It was revealed in Metroid Prime 3 that the Galactic Federation had constructed biomechanical supercomputers called Auroras, and that there were plans for a "Future Aurora Complex", which appears to be the Mother Brain depicted in Super Metroid. In the first cutscene for Metroid: Other M, the scene of Mother Brain destroying the baby Metroid is reenacted in an FMV cutscene, and one of the antagonists, MB, is an android housing an AI based on Mother Brain.Ridley
Ridley is the archenemy of Samus Aran, an intelligent and sadistic dragon-like extraterrestrial that despite being killed multiple times by her, is always revived by the Space Pirates using cloning or robotics. Other than Samus and the titular Metroids, Ridley is the only character that has appeared consistently throughout most of the games in the series. He is directly responsible for the invasion of Samus' home planet, and the death of her parents, and is the franchise's primary villain, despite not typically acting as the main antagonist in an individual game.Kraid
Kraid is a gigantic dinosaur-like beast and a member of the Space Pirate's High Command. His most prominent feature is his grotesquely oversized belly. First appearing in the original Metroid, he is the first part of the mini-boss duo along with Ridley. In Super Metroid he appears in his giant form, two screens tall and almost a screen wide. Metroid: Zero Mission retconned his size and appearance, showing he did not grow between games. He was also slated to appear in Metroid Prime as a boss in the Phazon Mines, with a metal dome covering his head and blue Phazon veins on his belly, but was removed due to time constraints. Kraid also makes an appearance in the background of the Brinstar Depths stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where he periodically slashes and rotates the stage.Space Pirates
A hostile group known as Space Pirates, or Zebesians, serve as the antagonists of the Metroid series. They are a group of "interstellar nomads" resembling humanoid reptiles, insects or crustaceans, who plunder colonies and ships and exist in an insect-like hive society. Considering their appearance throughout the series, especially the Prime series, they could be considered arthropod-like reptiles. A single Pirate may have many biological differences between individuals of their own species, most likely because of their willingness to perform self-experimentation and mutation. Important leaders include Ridley, the Space Pirate commander, Mother Brain, the biomechanical defense of Zebes controlled by the Space Pirates, and Kraid, a recurring boss. The organization also includes a winged, mantis-like species, the Ki Hunters. The Space Pirates are interested in Metroid research, especially in using Metroids for energy generation, as soldiers, and for experimentation – their Phazon experiments produced all the Metroid variants seen in the Prime games with the exception of Metroid Prime itself. The organization is destroyed during the climax of Super Metroid, however a group within the Galactic Federation itself resurrects the Space Pirates, along with Ridley and the Metroids, to be used as bio-weapons explaining their continued presence in Other M and Fusion.Series director Yoshio Sakamoto stated that the Space Pirates that invaded Zebes took "Zebesian" as a general name for themselves after the conquest of the planet, comparing it to people who referred themselves as "Americans" when they emigrated to the United States.
Nightmare
The Nightmare is a gravity-controlling, monster cyborg originally created by the Galactic Federation's secret bio-weapons project. In Fusion, an X parasite infects Nightmare contained in Sector 5-ARC. It escapes and destroys ARC's data room. Samus confronts Nightmare-X, defeating and absorbing its Core-X, obtaining the Gravity Suit upgrade. In Other M, Samus encountered the Nightmare while on her journey to Sector Zero on the Bottle Ship. The creature fights Samus twice; once when she tries to enter Sector Zero, and again when she tries to exit the same sector.MB
MB, nicknamed Melissa Bergman by her adoptive mother Dr Madeline Bergman, was created by the scientists of the Bottle Ship as a copy of the original Mother Brain in order to control the Metroids and the Zebesians, an offshoot form of Space Pirates, that were being mass-produced in Sector Zero of said starship.Originally, MB was only a computer software, but due to its inability to interact personally with the Metroids, the scientists decided to give her an artificial human body, so as to have her bond in a more organic way with the Metroids, mimicking Samus' mother-son-like relationship with the "baby". As MB gained emotions of her own just like the original Mother Brain once did, the scientists decided to reprogram her AI; something Madeline initially opposed to but ultimately accepted when faced with the dangers of keeping her active.
The heavy trauma of having Madeline rejecting her safety and finding out that the Galactic Federation actually created her for military purposes caused a meltdown in her mind and she decided to take judgement on humanity for their misdeeds, forcing the Bottle Ship in a collision course. Melissa was confronted by both Samus and Madeline after her Queen Metroid had been killed. Although both of them tried to persuade her, she did not listen and tried to kill Madeline, only to get shot down by the Marines under the Federation colonel's orders.
Gorea
Gorea is a powerful, malevolent being that crashed in the Alimbic Cluster a millennia ago. In Metroid Prime Hunters, the lore mentions that it came by a comet and struck the planet Alinos, thus shattering the Alimbic Utopia. The creature copied the cellular structure of the Alimbics, physically mimicking them and their weapons, and destroyed their civilization. In a final attempt to stop Gorea's rampage, the last of their race focused their telepathic energy to confine Gorea into a "Seal Sphere", which they placed in a starship called the Oubliette. The ship was launched into a dimensional rift called the Infinity Void, to be released only when eight keys called "Octoliths" were assembled. During battle, it is revealed that Gorea's formless matter comes from a shapeless gas, and can therefore undergo several different forms in battle.X Parasites
The X Parasite is a unique parasite witnessed in Metroid Fusion, and the Metroid manga. They are the main antagonists of Fusion.The appearance of an X Parasite is simple: a basketball-sized, floating gelatinous life form. The structure of their bodies allow them to slip through the tiniest crevices of any organism or synthetic surface; their soft form also allows projectiles to harmlessly pass through them. Additionally, they have the ability to split into smaller colonies via asexual reproduction.
X are capable of infecting other organisms and mimicking their prey's DNA and memories. They do this by infecting the organism's nervous system where they then start reproducing at an exponential rate, killing the host creature in the process. Once that is accomplished, the X absorb the DNA of their host and are then able to use it to mimic their prey perfectly.
X can also mimic biomechanical technology such as the Security Robot B.O.X. and Samus' Power Suit. After being infected by the X, Samus' infected Power Suit components were surgically removed and sent to B.S.L. station. Unfortunately, this allowed the X to mimic Samus and her Power Suit creating another doppelgänger of Samus called SA-X. SA-X is implied to have used a Power Bomb to escape the infected Power Suit components containment unit allowing the X to spread throughout B.S.L. and infect countless creatures living in the B.S.L. station with the exception of the Etecoons and Dachora. SA-X mimicked Samus at her most powerful, proving to be a dangerous foe to the weakened Samus and passed on some of Samus' Power Suit abilities to Core-X. SA-X also gained Samus' Ice Beam and Metroid hunting knowledge, making SA-X the only X capable of taking on the X parasites natural predator, the Metroid which was being secretly breed on the B.S.L. station. SA-X attacks Sector 0 to destroy the Metroid which initiates the Sector's self-destruct, which Samus herself escapes. However Adam reveals that due to their ability to asexually reproduce, there are more SA-X onboard the station. Eventually Adam reveals the Federation plans to send a team to capture SA-X and the X parasites for study, though Samus restores the computer's original personality of Adam Malkovich while trying to convince him of the insanity of the Federation's plan, causing him to advise Samus on how to destroy the station and the X by crashing it into SR388, leading Samus to confront SA-X which after being weakened transforms into a misshaped monster that is apparently an amalgamation of Samus' power suit and Hornoad before it is defeated by Samus, however its Core-X escapes preventing Samus from absorbing it. However when Samus is injured by a surviving Metroid in its Omega state while trying to escape the station, SA-X reappears and ironically ends up saving Samus when it attempts to destroy the Omega Metroid only SA-X to be defeated, allowing Samus to absorb SA-X's Core-X which Samus' Ice Beam and gives the Fusion Suit the same coloration as Samus' Power Suit, allowing Samus to defeat the Omega Metroid and escape the B.S.L. which crashes into SR388 destroying both, killing the X parasites on both the station and the planet, presumably ending the threat posed by the X Parasites.
In addition to SA-X, the X mimicked countless other species on the B.S.L. lab from Hornoad, Arachnus, Nightmare, Ki Hunters, Zebesian Space Pirates, and Clone Ridley.
Sylux
Sylux is one of the bounty hunters in Metroid Prime Hunters. He is Samus' rival and is the most personal one with her out of all the other hunters, due to association with the Galactic Federation, which he harbors a great hatred towards for unexplained reasons. Though he is rescued by Samus at the end of the game, it appears he still seeks her death, as the ending of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption showed his ship following her. Sylux also appear in a post-credits scene of .According to Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe, a planned storyline for a potential Metroid Prime 4 would focus on Sylux and Samus.