Zebesian

For other uses, see Zebesian (Disambiguation).

Zebesians (ゼーベス星人) are a sub-group of Space Pirates that hail from planet Zebes. They comprise the vast majority of their species' forces in the 2D games of the Metroid series, including Metroid: Other M; Zebesians are often seen as the face of the Space Pirates in media associated with those games.

Despite the term "Zebesian", Zebes is in fact not their birthplace, but has been occupied as one of their main headquarters after they wiped out the planet's previous civilization. Series director Yoshio Sakamoto has said that the Pirates that invaded Zebes took "Zebesian" as a general name for themselves after the conquest of the planet, comparing it to most "Americans" actually being descended from Europeans and only calling themselves Americans after conquering the true Native American tribes. The true planet from which not only Zebesians, but the entirety of Space Pirates originate from is currently unknown; presumably, they are not from the Space Pirate Homeworld as the Metroid Prime Trilogy art booklet states that it is merely one of several homeworlds, akin to how Zebes was regarded.

Ridley is said to have been the "original Zebesian" according to the information in the first game's instruction manual. The Virtual Console re-translation of the manual says that he is "an indigenous life-form of Zebes". This fact has not been mentioned elsewhere and may not be canon; however, this may be similar to how ancient Roman generals took the titles of places they conquered, such as Germanicus.

Intelligence
The intelligence of the Zebesians and their capacity for higher thought is under question; there is conflicting evidence concerning whether or not they could function with or without a leader to control them.

In Metroid: Other M, Samus states that Zebesians, even if led by Ridley's clone, would be unable to work as an intelligent group and would eventually become feral unless led by Mother Brain. However, the Metroid manga features the race led by Ridley alone actively and strategically attacking Galactic Federation-controlled planets long before they met Mother Brain.

The Metroid Prime series also contradict Other M by portraying Space Pirates working mostly independently (although the Space Pirates in the Prime games were not Zebesians). The same behavior occurs in Metroid: Zero Mission, when the Pirates are able to operate onboard the Mother Ship after Ridley and Mother Brain's defeat. However, it is possible that Robot Ridley was to some degree able to control them or they were simply not aware of Mother Brain and Ridley's defeat and were just following predesignated orders such as guarding the ship.

However, it is also possible that in Other M Samus was referring to the Cyborg and Super Zebesians, which seem to be more feral than normal Pirates, since they have not formed any sort of coherent society or manipulate the BOTTLE SHIP's equipment in any way even though there has been a significant amount of time between their release and discovery by Samus.

Black
Black Space Pirates appear throughout the Space Pirate Mother Ship in Metroid: Zero Mission. They are most notably found just before the escape-ship bay with the Escape Ship. This version attacks like any ordinary Space Pirate, but is considerably faster and more durable, requiring a great many shots to defeat. On Hard Mode, they can quickly kill Samus and force a re-do of the Ridley Robot battle. They are vulnerable to Beam attacks only.

Teal
Teal Space Pirates appear in Super Metroid and can only be found in Crateria in the ruins of old Tourian's escape shaft and Mother Brain's chamber. They are the weakest Space Pirate colour, a single uncharged Power Beam shot will kill them.

They may also appear in Tourian during the escape sequence.

Green


Green Space Pirates appear in Super Metroid and can be found in Crateria a few rooms before the entrance to the rebuilt Tourian. They also appear in Kraid's Lair where they, along with green Kihunters, serve as guards for Kraid. The first time they are encountered, Samus can only use Missiles and Bombs to destroy them. Once she acquires more powerful Beams or other weaponry, she can destroy them without using either Bombs or Missiles. According to the Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide, they have a 20% chance of leaving a small Energy Capsule after death, a 12% chance of leaving a large capsule, 39% Missile Ammo, 8% Super Missile Ammo and 4% Power Bomb Ammo.
 * "You'll encounter these quite a lot as they patrol horizontal platforms. They vary considerably in strength; the further you progress the tougher they are. Use missiles if possible to destroy them."

Pink
Pink Space Pirates are located in Super Metroid in certain areas of Maridia, one of the areas being the room which the Plasma Beam is obtained in. Once the beam is obtained, all Pirates must be killed to open the locked door. They wear Gravity Suit-like technology that allows them to move freely in water. They are invulnerable to all of Samus's weaponry, except for normal Plasma Beam shots, the Speed Booster, and the Screw Attack. This may be because their armor is stronger than most other Space Pirates. However, they may also be killed quite easily by the Spin Jump Attack, even before the Plasma Beam is obtained. Hitting them with a Spin Jump Attack with the Ice Beam equipped may also allow Samus to freeze them. A charged Plasma Beam blast is incapable of penetrating the pink Pirate's armor; only uncharged shots can damage them. This is because charge shots, Special Charge Beam Attacks, and the Hyper Beam all share one vulnerability bit in the enemy's code. If they were to be weak to charged Plasma Beam shots, they would also be weak to charged Power Beam shots, negating the need for the Plasma Beam to defeat them. They seem to jump much faster off walls than other Space Pirates.

It is possible that this Pirate is a continuation of Aqua Pirate technology in Metroid Prime, which also have suits based on the Gravity Suit. Aquatic Zebesians in Metroid Fusion are also underwear Space Pirates, albeit with mutations caused by X Parasites.

Curiously, a wall-climbing pink Pirate is stronger than a wall-climbing yellow Zebesian.

Red
Red Space Pirates are a variety of Zebesian which appear in Super Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission. In Zero Mission, every Zebesian Samus encounters (with the exception of a few black Zebesians) is red. They are very dangerous while Samus is still in her Zero Suit, but once she obtains the fully powered suit, they are barely a threat. In Super Metroid, they can be found in certain areas of Norfair. It is likely that they are outfitted with Varia Suit-like technology to withstand the intense heat of the area. In Super Metroid, when a red Zebesian is shot with the Ice Beam and jumped on, Samus will not stand on its head but on an invisible platform above its head. Super Zebesians, a form of cybernetically enhanced Zebesian encountered on the BOTTLE SHIP in Metroid: Other M, are also red.

Yellow


Yellow Space Pirates are a class of Space Pirate in Super Metroid]]. Samus encounters them deep in Ridley's Lair. They are the second-strongest type of Pirate ingame, as it takes a direct hit with a fully charged Plasma Beam shot (uncharged Plasma Beam shots are reflected), nine Missiles or three Power Bombs to destroy them. They can be killed instantly with the Screw Attack, however. They jump from wall to wall very fast, often damaging Samus if she is in the way. Mysteriously, the Silver Space Pirates that lurk several rooms away from Ridley himself will turn yellow on occasion; this is the only time that they are vulnerable. This species is not to be confused with Gold Space Pirates encountered by Samus in Metroid Fusion, which also guarded Neo-Ridley.

Curiously, a wall-climbing yellow Pirate is weaker than a wall-climbing pink Zebesian.

Metroid: Zero Mission
The Zebesians in Metroid: Zero Mission are chronologically the first basic Space Pirate forces encountered in the Metroid series of games, though their leaders, Kraid and Ridley, are actually battled earlier in the game. When Samus first entered Tourian, a cutscene showed the first Zebesian in the game being fed on by several Metroids; as she explored further, a high number of withered, colorless Zebesian corpses were scattered about in nearly every room prior to the Mother Brain's chamber. This served to clarify on why the original Metroid game featured no Zebesians within their own HQ, which are now shown to have all died as a result of a Metroid outbreak.

Living Zebesian individuals are finally and exclusively encountered within Chozodia, specifically the Space Pirate Mothership and Chozo temple sections of the area. Their main form of attack involved opening their clawed weapons and shooting beams in the direction of Samus Aran. If she were to be spotted by their Searchlights, Floating-eye sensors, Pirate Alarm Systems or by a Zebesian during her explorations, the Pirates would be more than capable of giving chase by crawling through tunnels, jumping, wall climbing and wall jumping, as well as running at a slightly higher speed than Samus when she is not using her Speed Booster.

Zero Mission features only two variants of Zebesians: a common red type and the rare Silver Space Pirates. The latter were much more resilient, faster, and could inflict devastating damage. They were only seen within the Mother Ship, most notably during the final Countdown when Samus was required to battle two simultaneously before escaping.

Metroid Prime
The game's instruction manual depicts the artwork of a Zebesian on the pages retelling the Space Pirates' recent history, most of which is focused on Zebes. The Pirate, seen on right, is drawn in the more realistic art style of the Prime series, exhibiting far more detail than the designs seen in the 2-D games. The Zebesian's eyes are covered with mechanical lenses with wires that stretch to its head's temple and further onto the back of its neck. Its lobster-like claws possess a great deal of machinery not only in the form of a gun-barrel protruding from the inside, but also metal plating and structures on the back of the claws with cables that reach all the way to an unseen section of the Zebesian's backside. Metal tubes are shown sticking out from under its back and several straps are seen on the Pirate's body, including a belt carrying unknown tools and gadgets. Instead of its 2-D counterparts' sabaton-like feet, this Zebesian design possesses three sharp toes on the front and a fourth one on the back.

Although this Space Pirate type is never encountered in the final game, it was originally intended to appear as an enemy. On the right is a model and several animations created by Martin L'Heureux for a Pirate based on the manual's artwork. It was ultimately scrapped along with another design resembling a hulking Zebesian. The only in-game representation vaguely resembling the 2-D design is a corpse of what appears to be a heavily mutated Zebesian within a containment tube in the Phendrana Drifts laboratories. Both the hulking and mutated Zebesian were likely planned as being the result of Phazon experiments.

Metroid: Samus Returns
Zebesian Pirates are absent for the entire game except in a single image depicted in the introduction sequence to explain the events that led to Zero Mission. They are glimpsed in the form of shadows cast onto a floor as they approach a Metroid specimen contained within the Research Vessel Marina.

Super Metroid
The Zebesian variants were far more diverse during Samus' second mission to Zebes and were present in every area on the planet with the exception of the Wrecked Ship, which still featured pirate activity in the form of other organisms. The different types of Zebesian, from the weakest to the strongest class, are as follows: normal blue color, green, red, pink, yellow and Silver. With each new class encountered, Samus required stronger weaponry to deal with them; for example, the basic Blue Pirates fall to a single Power Beam shot, but the later seen Green Pirates are only vulnerable to a Missile or several Bombs. When hit by a weapon, regardless of whether it damaged them or not, the Zebesians mostly took a defensive stance and covered their heads with their claws.

Super Metroid ' s Zebesians, as well as their beam shots, are noticeably sluggish when compared to those found in Zero Mission. In the latter game, Zebesians were capable of shooting both horizontally and diagonally while the Super Metroid Zebesians were restricted to shooting only what was in front of them. Also, the Zebesians in Super Metroid never chased after Samus, even if she entered their line of sight. With the exception of the Silver Space Pirates, the overall lack of agility and poor aim of Super Metroid ' s Zebesian Space Pirates made them an easy challenge. The only advantage these Pirates had over their Zero Mission counterparts was their ability to fire three beams in a single attack, as the former could only shoot two each time.

Curiously, Zebesian Pirates can be seen shooting beams from not only their claws, but from their eyes as well. This is especially noticeable with any wall-climbing variant. So far, Super Metroid is the only game where the Zebesians illustrate this ability.

Metroid: Other M
In Metroid: Other M, feral Zebesians have been gathered and cybernetically enhanced as part of a bioweapon program in the BOTTLE SHIP; this program was intended to create a Special Forces Unit with a similar structure to the Space Pirates for the Galactic Federation. Due to these Zebesians' animal-like behavior and lack of any signs of intelligence, they were likely born in the ship's labs via cloning (thus prevented from receiving any educational upbringing their Pirate society might offer), and/or were survivors from Zebes that were captured by the Federation and made feral through the process that turned them into obedient cyborgs. They were ultimately put aside when the Federation saw more value in Project Metroid Warriors.

Their original, unenhanced bodies are mostly purple in color with green accents. They feature beak-like segments for mouths with protrusions on the back of their heads resembling quills or feathers, giving them a somewhat bird-like appearance. Nearly all Zebesians seen in the game possess newly-added prosthetic limbs and metal-covered heads and chestpieces; these Federation-based implants seem quite crude in comparison to those made by Pirates from the Prime series. Controlled and presumably stimulated by MB and Ridley's clone respectively, all Zebesians are capable of wall-clinging, firing beams, jumping ground-pound attacks and claw slashes. When hit with the Ice Beam, only their claws are frozen rather than their whole body.

Three variants appear in Other M:

Zebesian Hologram appear in the game's tutorial. Controlled by the Head Quarantine Officer, the holographic Pirate was used for the Sense Move, Missile and regular combat training segments. Interesting to note is that this hologram represents an unenhanced Zebesian, a variant which is never encountered in the entire game despite the first trailer of Other M, along with concept and promotional art, initially portraying Samus fighting such normal Pirates in the BOTTLE SHIP.

Cyborg Zebesians are the weakest of the two cybernetically-enhanced types inhabiting the BOTTLE SHIP. They are either partially or entirely covered in metal. Regardless, their claws are completely replaced with prosthetic ones capable of firing Missiles as well as beams. Their armor and fins begin to break off as they take damage, revealing arm cannons under the prosthetic claws.

Super Zebesians are red-armored Zebesians that can fire a red and green charged version of their basic laser out of a large cannon that has replaced one of their claws. This charged shot has the properties of a Wave Beam. Super Zebesians will sometimes raise their claws upward and can fire a barrage of multiple projectiles in a single attack as well; both patterns reference their counterparts from Super Metroid

Metroid Fusion
This game's basic Zebesians have the same design that made its first chronological appearance in Other M, however Fusion 's earlier release makes it the first game to have featured this look. This design reappears in the Metroid Manga and in the aforementioned prequel.

All Zebesians in Fusion are either infected by the X Parasites or mimics formed by the latter. They led to the creation of four variants:

Zebesian-X have improved natural armor that makes them more resilient than the majority of the classes seen in Super Metroid and cannot be frozen. They retain the thin cannons within their claws that open up when firing. This variant, which are always seen walking back and forth, is the most commonly encountered.

Wall-crawling Zebesian-X retain the jumping and beam-shooting behavior of normal Zebesians from prior titles, but are only present in the BSL Station's Sector 1. Curiously, these Zebesian-X are weaker than the previous variant. They are defeated with a single Missile shot and can be frozen.

Mermen Pirates result from X Parasites combining Skultera DNA with a Zebesian-X, creating an unnatural being designed specifically for underwater combat.

Gold Space Pirates are very rare and are the strongest variant of Zebesian-X. They are somewhat akin to the Silver Space Pirates featured in Super Metroid.

Nintendo Land
Zebesians make a cameo appearance as robots, appearing with the following variations:


 * Normal Zebesian: A normal walking Zebesian capable of melee attacks and firing beams from their claws; some are equipped with an Ice Beam weapon. They can jump across large distances to close-in on players. They are notably present during Kraid's boss fight, where they are constantly released on platforms from his heavily-armed, fortress-like body.
 * Flying Zebesian: Like the Aerotrooper and Flying Pirates they can fly, as with the ground Zebesians they have a beam weapon and an Ice Beam with a wide shot.
 * Super Zebesian: These Zebesians have an extra switch on their backs making them twice as strong.
 * Sniper Zebesian: A very weak Zebesian with a sniper rifle. When the laser sight locks on, it will start beeping as warning, and if the player doesn't dash away quick enough they will be shot.

Super Metroid manual
"These feared aliens are known as the scourge of the Galaxy. They are known for stealing galactic trading ships and leaving the crews stranded in space."

Super Metroid Players' Guide

 * Wall Pirates:"They may not pose much of a threat on the face of things, but they are particularly agile, leaping from one side of the screen to the other, and have a stinging laser beam. A quick and accurate shot should deal with them."

Official Metroid Fusion website
"Using their advanced technology, these galactic marauders are bent on becoming the dominant force in the galaxy. Their presence on the research vessel orbiting SR388 is cause for alarm."

Metroid Fusion manual
"These feared aliens once tried to use Metroids to further their schemes. They cling to walls and attack."

Brawl sticker

 * Zebes Inhabitant Metroid Fusion - [Arm] Attack + 5 (All)

Metroid: Other M Art Folio: Close Combat
"I prefer to use my Arm Cannon, as it allows me to take out most threats from a safe distance. When circumstances call for it, however, I'm happy to engage the enemy hand-to-hand. The augmented power of my suit lends me extra power in combat-sometimes a well-placed kick is the only way to deal with a grappling Zebesian."

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U trophy
"This race forms the backbone of the evil Space Pirates, an organization plotting to take over the galaxy. Metroid: Other M features Cyborg Zebesians, bioweapons created through cloning and genetic manipulation of Zebesian DNA. These emotionless soldiers have none of the intelligence of the natural Zebesian race."

Trivia

 * In Super Metroid, Mother Brain can fire two different beams from her single eyeball; one of them is identical to the beams fired by Zebesian Pirates in the same game.
 * In the first few trailers and released screenshots of Metroid: Zero Mission, Zebesian Pirates have a slightly different head structure from those seen in the final version of the game. They were originally going to have a more bird-like design, similar to those seen in Fusion.