MB



MB, or Melissa Bergman, is a new character featured in Metroid: Other M. She is the major antagonist within the game.

Samus Aran spotted her looking at her from a facility in Cryosphere, and she ran away. Samus gave pursuit, and tried to convince the woman that she was here to rescue her. They were separated after Samus was attacked by a soldier in a galactic federation power suit.

Later, she enters the Bioweapon Research Center in Biosphere, and the woman is startled by Samus' presence. She runs behind a door and closes it. Samus once again tries to convince her that she means no harm. The woman opens the door, introduces herself and informs Samus of what has happened. She initially identifies herself as Madeline Bergman. The woman has long blonde hair with a hairclip on the left side of her head.

It is later revealed that she is an android containing Mother Brain's AI. She was constructed to help regenerate and control the Space Pirate special forces. She originally had an infrastructure after Mother Brain (subsequently resembling Aurora Units as well), but when the scientists got to the point of Metroids, she was given a human artificial body to help create a motherly connection to the creatures, inspired by Samus' connection to the Baby. She was dubbed Melissa Bergman at this point, to help make her feel more human. Madeline also says she felt that Melissa was like a daughter to her.

She eventually became corrupt and her personality changed to Mother Brain's as well, and she started to go rogue after manifesting emotions, beginning to criticize the work of the scientists. They eventually decided to reprogram her AI, but only worsened the situation on that day, as Madeline states her appearance during that day may have caused the corruption. She takes control of the station, insisting that all humans should be "judged" for their actions, and kills all the scientists except for Madeline. Both Madeline and Samus have sympathy towards MB, yet she still hunts them.

After battling the Queen Metroid, Madeline explains the entire plot within MB to Samus. After this conversation, MB appears, prepared to attack Madeline and Samus. After Madeline begs her to recall her human side, promising "I'll never fail you again," MB lowers her weapon. She then rushes at Madeline, seemingly pushing her out of the path of an incoming bullet that freezes her. The freeze shot was fired by Galactic Federation soldiers, who run into the room. MB thaws herself and, becoming enraged, uses several Desbrachians to fight off the Galactic Federation soldiers as well as Samus when she tries to intervene, all the while calling several nearby Ghalmanians and Mighty Griptians for additional reinforcements. Finally, Madeline stops the battle by shooting MB with a Freeze Gun. The soldiers, led by The Colonel, take the opportunity and immediately gun MB down. Melissa is killed and soon afterward Samus is escorted off the ship by Anthony Higgs. As she leaves the Bottle Ship with Madeline and Anthony, images of MB can be seen formed out of space gas while Samus is in deep thought about MB's unfortunate fate; the mentioned images disperse when Samus' gunship passes through it.

Battle
During the battle with MB and her four Desbrachians, Melissa must be targeted in order to end the scenario. To do that, the Desbrachians must be shot aside as Samus is defending Madeline in first person view. The Desbrachians must be shot with whatever tool Samus has, in order to stun them.

Trivia

 * MB is the first human android character in the Metroid series. As such, her personality is likely inspired by that of Ash in the film Alien.
 * It would seem Metroids are unaffected by MB's brainwaves, unlike the other creatures onboard the Bottle Ship. In fact, in Zero Mission, the cutscene that plays when Samus enters Tourian for the first time clearly show that Mother Brain was unable to control and prevent the Metroid outbreak in the facility.
 * MB's original form, which is a giant, featureless brain floating in a container built by Galactic Federation scientists, shares quite a few similarities with Aurora Units. Though when both constructs are compared with Mother Brain, the AUs only share a similar physiology, while MB not only resembles the Pirate leader (to a closer extent, since MB is more organic), but was also programmed to think like her.
 * MB's first form may be an advanced form of Aurora Unit.


 * This is not the first portrayal of Mother Brain in human form. In the Captain N: The Game Master comic Nervous Meltdown, Mother Brain's subconscious manifestation of herself was also a blonde woman.
 * She first appeared in the E3 2009 trailer, towards the end. Before the game's release, fans speculated she may have been another Samus. Yoshio Sakamoto addressed this issue, saying that she is not another Samus but is a "very, very important character."
 * Her hair clip vaguely resembles Metroid nuclei, foreshadowing her connection to the Metroids onboard.
 * The hair clip is also the symbol used on the file select menu to show which file has completed the game.


 * It is unknown what the fate of the hair clip was, as it fell off of MB's hair during her final moments, and was crushed by The Colonel as he stepped on it. It is absent during subsequent visits to the room, so it may have been that Madeline took it with her.
 * It is unknown how MB got the Freeze Gun, but it is likely she took it from James Pierce after she or a Desbrachian killed him.
 * It is possible that MB 'planned' her own demise, as she clearly throws her Freeze Gun in a manner that allows it to slide between the squad of Federation soldiers and stop next to Madeline Bergman. This allowed Madeline to stop MB's rampage and likely prevented the latter from falling into corrupt Federation hands.
 * She also may have given it to Bergman out of a desperate hope that the scientist would protect her against the Federation.


 * The first initials in her name were also the same as the initials for Mother Brain, acting as an early hint at what she truly was.
 * Her role in Metroid: Other M is a classic example of an AI going rogue shortly after becoming self-aware, a little like HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but MB bears more similar characteristics to Skynet (and the titular robots in a similar vein by extension) from the Terminator series, particularly in the sense that she controls the creatures on board the Bottle Ship to be used against humans, and that she herself is an android in a human guise.