Ridley

Ridley (リドリー, Ridorii) is a high ranking Space Pirate and is one of the most common recurring characters in the Metroid series, appearing in almost every Metroid game, often encountered towards the end of the game. Ridley's appearance is considered similar to a skeletal pterodactyl with lifeless, cold eyes.

Despite his fearsome and bestial appearance, Ridley is known to be highly intelligent and is shown to even be capable of speaking in the manga. He is known to have a bloodthirsty personality and takes great personal enjoyment in destruction. Ridley is very defiant and persistent, and has always come back to fight again despite the large explosions, extreme heat, and enormous kinetic energy his body usually suffers following his battles with Samus. However, through scans found in the Metroid Prime sub-series, it can be inferred that Ridley is indeed the same being, from the manga to Corruption, despite all of his apparent "deaths". In every game he has appeared in he has been the second to last boss (or 3rd to last boss if there is multiple final bosses, like in Metroid Fusion) except for Zero Mission. However, if Mother Brain was the final boss he would have been the second to last boss and his robotic counterpart is the game's final boss. The manga also has revealed that Ridley is extremely adept at survival. Ridley was capable of nursing his heavily injured body back to health by devouring dead bodies as illustrated in the manga in a part where he stated that he survived the destruction of his flagship by consuming the bodies and cells of the dead humans in K-2L. However, this does not explain how he is able to continuously be resurrected each time he dies. He appears to explode or disintegrate in many appearances, thus it is impossible for him to ingest anything to nurse himself back to health.

Biography
Next to nothing is known of his pre-military background (if in fact he even had any), but it is safe to say that he made his way up the ranks until finally he was designated leader of the Space Pirates in battle. He also appears to have been held in considerable favor amongst members of High Command. Ridley's introduction took place on an Earth-established Colonial Planet (known simply as K-2L) where he conducted a massive raid in order to restock fuel and supplies and plunder; he also allowed his soldiers to cut loose and destroy whatever they wanted. It is also on K-2L that Samus Aran (as a 3-year old) first encounters him. Samus attempted to befriend Ridley; humiliated in front of his soldiers, he then attempted to kill Samus. However, Samus' mother pushed her out of the way of Ridley's attack at the cost of her own life. Meanwhile, Samus's father destroyed the supplies the pirates were after, but was himself killed in the blast. Ridley also appeared to be injured by the wreckage, but he survived. However, he never imagined that he had created his own nemesis in Samus.

Years later, Ridley returned to Zebes to establish a Central Command Center beneath the planet's surface. His forces annihilated the native Chozo Colony established on its surface before carrying out these orders. He also killed Grey Voice when the latter tried to shut down Mother Brain (he pretended to join the Space Pirates until he could get close enough to Mother Brain to shut her down, realizing her treachery). Up until this time, the Galactic Federation had disregarded Zebes as a low priority, class XIII Wanderer Planet. This changed when the Space Pirates stole a dangerous Metroid specimen and word came that the Pirates planned to clone an army of the creatures in their base of operations beneath the planet's surface. The Federation was quick to send its fleets into battle in order to remove the threat. Ridley personally led many battles against the Galactic Federation's forces over control of the planet and defeated everything the Federation Police Force had to attack with. Some time after these battles, he left Zebes with his personal flagship and the Space Pirate Mothership to fight the fleet under the command of Adam Malkovich; he later received a distress signal from Zebes after Kraid's defeat and returned to do battle with Samus Aran, a Bounty Hunter the Federation had sent to destroy Mother Brain.

Ridley eventually confronted Samus in the base on Planet Zebes. In Metroid, this battle took place in MiniBoss Hideout II, whilst in Zero Mission, it took place in Ridley, an area named after him. Both are the same area, just renamed for Zero Mission. In Metroid, Ridley is about Samus' height, if slightly taller, and merely hops around throwing zigzagging fireballs at her. Samus can fire almost anything at him and he gets hurt. Once Samus defeats him, 75 missiles are added to her maximum amount. In Zero Mission, however, he is much more difficult. Ridley flies around and tries to kill Samus with his "classic" attacks - tail swipes, plasma breath, fireballs, and claw slashes. After Samus defeats him, she is allowed to leave with the Unknown Item she had obtained just before the battle.

There is also a boss called the Ridley Robot who serves as the end boss of Zero Mission. After Samus explores the Space Pirate Mothership, the nearby Chozo ruins, and recovers her lost Power Suit, she eventually stumbles onto a mechanized version of Ridley which she must destroy in order to leave the ship. After its destruction, it activates its self-destruct mechanism, which obliterates the mothership in a massive explosion. Fortunately, Samus is able to escape just before the ship detonates.

Cybernetic Enhancements
Ridley, after sustaining severe injury, was wounded beyond fighting capability. However, a scan in the Space Station Orpheon, in the later Metroid Prime game, indicates that he in fact survived the attack.

Space Pirates, by order of High Command, recovered his crippled body and infused it with machinery, reconstructing Geoform 187 into "Meta Ridley". On Tallon IV, Meta Ridley apparently visits many of the Space Pirate bases, first going to Phendrana Drifts to see the Pirate research facility, then flying off towards the Phazon Mines, where he presumably remains until Samus arrives. They later engage each other in battle at the Artifact Temple. At the battle's conclusion (after which his life-bar is depleted), the Chozo Statues blast Meta Ridley and send him hurtling into the Phazon-infested Impact Crater.

Despite his fall, he somehow survived, possibly due to an initial Phazon mutation in the impact crater, or possibly due to the strength of his cyborg modifications. In any case, Meta Ridley reappeared on Norion during the Space Pirate attack on the Galactic Federation Marine Corps, where Samus fought him once again. He first tried to attack Samus while she was in vulnerable Morph Ball mode, but Samus managed to use her Morph Ball Bombs to escape. He then ambushed her in Generator C, sending both of them down a deep shaft with the intention of crushing Samus at the bottom. Despite the enclosed environment of the fight, Samus was able to defeat him once more and after delivering several shots directly into his throat, left him for dead before being saved by Rundas. Ridley, however, survived this battle and then went to the Pirate Homeworld and was attracted to the Leviathan (implied in the Infant Leviathan scan), where he was corrupted and made into "Omega Ridley". Samus later encountered the creature in the Leviathan and defeated him. It's interesting to note that Ridley's disintegration (unlike other Leviathan guardians) was never actually seen.

Resuscitation
Even after these devastating battles, though, Ridley manages to rise again, this time with a purely organic body (possibly due to the fact his previous defeats as a cyborg left him wary of robotic abilities). This time, he destroys the Ceres Space Colony and steals the last living Metroid from it. He and Samus have yet another skirmish, but just before Samus is mortally wounded, Ridley leaves as the space station's self destruct sequence begins. He flies off to the rebuilt Space Pirate base on Zebes, where they plan to clone Metroids and make an army of them for galactic domination.

Ridley is once again equipped with his "classic attacks" (as a matter of fact, Super Metroid was the first game to feature these attacks; as a result, the attacks are noticibly more chaotic) when Samus finds him in his lair in the deep, central part of Norfair. Samus must defeat him again as one of the bosses to unlock access to Tourian. With the loss of the armor plating from his previous form, he is now much more vulnerable to attack. His previous form demanded that he be shot in the chest or mouth, but he is now vulnerable to both Missile launchers and Charge Beams from any angle; however, Ridley has the ability to swat Missiles away with his whip-like tail. After Samus defeats Mother Brain, Zebes explodes, but apparently even that massive explosion is not powerful enough to destroy the entire great dragon.

The fact that Ridley is fully organic in this game is a call for theories from many fans of the games. After the events of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, a common theory claims that after the defeat of Omega Ridley in the core of the Leviathan, massive Phazon exposure from the explosion recreates his organic tissue. Of course, this is after planet Phaaze "dies" and all Phazon and the things it once corrupted are cured. His colour changes from Brown to Purple after corruption; according to the chronology, this is most likely a choice by the designers, but can be explained that the regrowth of his organic parts bleached him purple (he does appear Purple in the Smash Bros. games and the original Metroid). Another, much simpler theory is that the Pirate group that stayed on Zebes cloned him from DNA taken before or after his initial defeat on Zebes.

Metroid: Other M
During Nintendo's E3 Press Conference of 2009, the trailer for Metroid: Other M featured yet another return of Ridley, as he dragged Samus' body across a wall much like he did in Brawl and breathed fire as well. He still has an organic form similar to his appearance in Super Metroid, inferring that he still did not trust cyborg parts and had chosen to be resuscitated in another organic form.

Ridley-X
Ridley was somehow discovered in his original form by Biologic Space Laboratories. Being a unique organism, the Galactic Federation might have been able to salvage his remains and later given him to the BSL for study. He was found frozen on board the Biologic Space Laboratories research station's Main Deck in a sub-zero containment room, possibly to stop his remains from degrading. He is eventually infected with an X Parasite and is one of the last bosses Samus battles aboard the station. It is also possible that the Federation, after the battle on Norion, was able to get Ridley's DNA and clone him. If this is true, either the clone died of unknown causes, or was frozen after becoming an adult due to its dangerous capabilities.

Personality and Traits
While Ridley is commonly portrayed as a destructive beast in the games,the official Metroid manga delved a great deal deeper into the persona of the Space Pirate General. Ridley first appeared in chapter one, where his violent disposition and love of death and destruction is made apparent when he orders his entire legion of Space Pirates to annihilate the peaceful inhabitants of K2-L as he looked on. His ability for cruelity is further made concrete when he attempts to kill a small girl who tries to befriend him; killing her Mother trying to shield her child instead. He, like many of his Space Pirate brethren, also believes in the superiority of certain races over others, counting himself among the privileged elite species and the lower races seen as something only to exterminate. Despite these bloodthirsty tendencies, Ridley has shown to be an intelligent and competent battle tactician orchestrating a great many successful battles as well as proving a serious threat on his own. However his quick temper and his arrogant belief that nothing can defeat him, often undermines these qualities leading to a great many defeats for him as well. Ridley also seems to grudgingly show respect to those that are natural at commanding others, such as when Gray Bird is ordering the Pirate Troops to their battle stations; Ridley, taken aback, smirks at being told by Gray Bird to attend to his job and sarcastically addresses him as "Sir Military Commander" when he flies off.

He has shown to have a very sadistic sense of humor evidenced by his various comments against Samus upon their first meeting since K2-L. Ridley even goes so far as to taunt her by saying that he may have eaten and encorporated the cells of her mother's corpse into his body and sardonically wonders what part her cells reside in and proceeds to bring his foot down on Samus saying "At least pay your respects!", referring to her dead mother, showing just how much joy he takes in the suffering of others.

Metroid: Zero Mission interview
"Though there are many secrets in the Metroid series, my instant thought is why is Ridley preserved in the freezing chamber? What was the Galactic Federation planning to do with him?"
 * Yoshio Sakamoto: "For the time being, I don't know. Maybe it will be revealed in the near future?"

Metroid manual
"It's the head of Mini-Boss Hideout II. It jumps up into the air and breathes fire. It's the original life form of the planet Zebes and is controlled by Mother Brain. Destroy it and you win 75 missile blasts!!!"

Official Nintendo Player's Guide
"It attacks Samus by spewing fireballs. A missile attack is very effective, but if you have the wave beam, it would be a good idea to use the beam continuously while jumping through the lava."

Super Metroid manual
"Ridley headed the mission to the Space Colony and stole the Metroid Hatchling. It whips out at enemies with its long tail and spits fire while flying through the air."

Official Metroid: Zero Mission website


"Extremely dangerous! Enormous wing-span and long, whip-like tail. Moves very fast and attacks with alarming ferocity. Emits fireballs of gas from elongated beak. Will try to pick up enemies and crush them with razor-sharp talons. Vulnerable to Super Missiles. DANGER LEVEL: VERY HIGH."
 * "Powerful wings"
 * "Razor sharp talons"
 * "Elongated beak"

Cameo appearances

 * Ridley appeared in the Captain N: The Game Master comic stories Welcome to Videoland, Money Changes Everything (in name), Breakout, and When Friends Fall Out (as a flashback) based on his original concept art. In Breakout, he impersonated Judge Racklas, who is of his own species, after Mother Brain had all of her own crimes reattributed to Princess Lana. Packs of creatures similar to him attack the heroes on the asteroid called Metroid in the episodes Metroid, Sweet Metroid and GameBoy.
 * Ridley is on the box and cartridge art for Super Metroid, which also appears in WarioWare: Smooth Moves on the Wii, in the microgame Super Nostalgic Entertainment System.

Super Smash Bros.
In Super Smash Bros., Ridley appears occasionally in the background of Planet Zebes.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Ridley appears briefly fighting Samus in the opening cutscene. Ridley can be seen holding the Metroid Hatchling from Super Metroid in his talons.

Trophy
"The head of the Space Pirates on Zebes, Ridley soars through space on wicked wings. Ridley may look like a mindless monster, but he's actually quite intelligent. After the SR-388 incident, where Samus captured the infant Metroid, Ridley took the Space Academy by storm, annihilating the complex and taking the Metroid back."

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Ridley appears as a member of the subspace army and a boss during the Subspace Emissary, in which Samus and Pikachu must fight him. In the cutscene prior to the battle, Ridley ambushes and grabs Samus, flying upward and scraping her along the walls. Pikachu breaks Samus free from Ridley's grasp using Thunder. In the first battle, Ridley has higher health and uses moves ranging from claw swipes to a move similar to Rayquaza's Extremespeed to a tail swipe across the entire stage. The tail swipe can do major damage (The move can do around 70% damage if the other person is at 0% damage) on harder difficulties and the extreme speed move is a main killing move. He flies from one side to the other and is similar in style to Master Hand in the way of how it attacks and then pauses.

Ridley later attacks Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Captain Falcon, Olimar, Samus, Pikachu, and R.O.B. as they are all escaping on the Falcon Flyer. In this fight, he is in his "Meta Ridley" form from Metroid Prime as he pursues. His attacks include firing missiles and energy beams from his mouth, diving at the player, and pounding on the Falcon Flyer in an attempt to send the player off-screen. During this fight, the player has only two minutes to defeat Meta Ridley.

Ridley is later resurrected by Tabuu, the main villain of the game, to fight the player in the final level, The Great Maze (oddly, Ridley and Meta Ridley are both resurrected as separate beings).

Trophy
"The leader of the Space Pirates. He looks like a pterosaur but has high intelligence and a brutal nature. He plans to steal the baby Metroid from Samus for his own use. Ridley utilizes wings for a full range of flight and attacks with fireballs from his mouth and whips of his tail. As the culprit behind the murder of Samus's parents, the connections with Samus run deep."

Metroid (1989) Super Metroid (1994)

Meta Ridley: "The meta form of Ridley, revived using the Space Pirates' genetic engineering and cybernetic technologies. His thin chest plate--and weak point--is protected by a highly resistant membrane. Meta Ridley is highly mobile and features a multimissile system, a bomb launcher, and powerful wings. Ice attacks are particularly effective in dealing damage to him.

Metroid Prime (2002)

Stickers in Brawl

 * Ridley - Metroid [Darkness] Attack +30  (Ganondorf)
 * Ridley - Metroid: Zero Mission [Arm] Attack +25  (All)

Trivia

 * Ridley's name is likely derived from Ridley Scott, the director of the first film of the Alien film series, from which Metroid games are stated to have taken a lot of inspiration. His first appearance in Metroid also bears resemblance to the Xenomorph creatures from the same series.
 * In every non 3-D game he is involved in, Ridley's fireballs have an uncanny resemblance to Mario's fireballs. Whether or not this similarity is intentional is unknown.
 * Ridley is the only other character besides SA-X, Mother Brain and Dark Samus to best Samus in a fight by canon. In the Super Metroid intro, Ridley is able to incapacitate Samus long enough to steal the last Metroid and accomplish his mission, though if a player is skilled enough, Ridley can be somewhat defeated. The result is Ridley losing his grip on the Baby's canister and dropping it, but quickly grabs it again and flees.
 * Ridley is the most common reappearing villain in the Metroid series, as he has appeared in every Metroid game to date except for Metroid II: Return of Samus, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime Hunters. Ridley was intended to appear in Echoes, however.
 * Ridley is capable of being bipedal, shown in Metroid Prime 3, in the second phase of the battle between Samus and Omega Ridley, once she destroys the joints on his Phazite armor and his weak spot is exposed, he stands on two feet and clumsily walks around swiping at Samus as she blasts his chest with Phazon energy from Hypermode. Also, in Metroid Prime, he stumbles on two legs as the Chozo spirits blast at his exposed chest cavity. However, he also stands on his two feet during the battle when Samus fires a round into his mouth exposing his chest. While preparing his charge attack, he stands on his feet as well.
 * In all of his 2-D appearances, his wings are curiously smaller than his body size, logically making them unlikely to even lift Ridley off the ground, and yet he soars through the air with ease (even his X-Parasite mimic). This is so that during his fights, he doesn't take up too much of the screen, and so that his flapping wings don't damage Samus as they would if properly sized. His 3-D appearances and manga rectify this mystery by giving him wings that exceed his main body.
 * In the Pirate Command sector of the Pirate Homeworld, images of Ridley can be found on the glowing orange monitors.
 * A possible explanation for Ridley's color changes throughout the series may be due to an ablility to control the pigments in his skin in a way similar that some chameleons or an octopus use. When Samus first enters his arena in Super Metroid, Ridley is not visible at first. Ridley's eyes soon open in front of Samus, and he then becomes fully visible before soaring into the air to attack. Ridley also does the same thing in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption when Samus enters the generator room and on the Pirate Homeworld he was blue to match the leviathan but that pigmentation was probably due to corruption. This may indicate that Ridley can camouflage by changing his color similar to animals like the Octopus.
 * Ridley's signature music was originally used as a generic boss fight background music in Super Metroid, but in later games, it has been associated solely with Ridley. Although there have been variations of Ridley's theme in each game (different tempo, extra beats, etc), the music's rhythm and sound are consistent and used for every incarnation except for his very first boss fight in the original Metroid.
 * Meta Ridley can be seen on Nintendo Monopoly representing Tennessee Avenue for $180, though the property is simply referred to as "Ridley".
 * In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, partial in-game data exists for a Ridley Assist Trophy, but it is not in-game. It was likely scrapped in development.
 * Zero Mission concept art shows a new form of Ridley known as Ridley-2 (or perhaps Ridley-Z). This form has an extra clawed hand on the tip of his tail, and his arms and wings are merged together like a wyvern's.
 * Ridley is referred to as the "Cunning God of Death" in his Zero Mission official art.

Appearances

 * Metroid
 * Metroid (1986 manga)
 * Captain N: The Game Master
 * Super Metroid
 * Super Metroid (Manga)
 * Super Metroid (Nintendo Power comic)
 * Super Smash Bros.
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee
 * Metroid Fusion
 * Metroid Prime
 * Metroid Prime (Comic)
 * Metroid (2002 manga)
 * Metroid Zero Mission
 * Metroid Prime Pinball
 * WarioWare: Smooth Moves
 * Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * New Play Control! Metroid Prime
 * Metroid Prime Trilogy
 * Metroid: Other M