Gadora

A Gadora is a Bio-Barrier that lives on Zebes, but an X mimic is also present on the BSL. They are easily recognizable by their single eye and are generally found blocking entrances to boss rooms. Samus can destroy them by firing three Missiles or one Super Missile at the creature's eye when its eyelid opens. They will sometimes defend themselves by covering their eye with a strong shield which they immediately launch as a wave of plasma from their eye; in other appearances, they shoot three consecutive spheres of plasma which home-in on their target. On the Biologic Space Laboratories research station, destroying a Bio-Door will always produce a Red X, replenishing a large amount of Samus's ammunition and energy. In Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion, these creatures can be destroyed with the Charge Beam; this is not possible in Super Metroid however.

Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion: Prima's Official Strategy Guide refers to these as "giant eyes".

Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide
"Three Missiles (or one Super Missile) shot into the eye on the door will allow you to access Phantoon's chamber. This is the same technique you should use for entering the lair of each boss in the game."

Metroid Fusion manual
HATCH-BLOCKING ENEMIES "Destroy hatch-blocking enemies with Missiles."

Trivia

 * The Gadora has strong similarity to the final boss from Kid Icarus: Medusa, who was also a giant eye that fired energy waves and also leaping serpents. Pit could only harm Medusa by firing the Sacred Arrows into her eye.
 * ULF 36 is a creature in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption sharing many similarities with Gadora; it is likely that the former was modeled as an homage to the latter.
 * The fact that the only Gadoras encountered on Zebes were always found guarding the Pirate leaders' chambers suggests that they are intentionally placed there by Space Pirates as a line of defense; this would also suggest that they are artificially cultivated life-forms and cannot be found naturally in the wild.
 * It is interesting to note that the Gadora-X in Fusion are X Parasites who have taken the role of guarding the rooms in which their superiors, the Core-Xs and Hard Core-Xs, reside in.


 * In Super Metroid, the Gadora's texture appears on walls and floors nearby the creature itself, suggesting that it "makes a home" out of its location or that the creature itself can spread and grow like a plant/fungus. Worthy of note is that in Tourian, it only appears in the organic area, blocking the shaft before Mother Brain's lair.
 * The Gadora seems capable of living indefinitely in Water, as the Gadora guarding Draygon in Super Metroid was seen submerged. Also, an X Parasite mimic or X-infected Gadora is found submerged in a pool of water in Sector 4 guarding the Serris mimic in Metroid Fusion.
 * The 'eye' security system, one of the many Pirate Alarm Systems seen on Chozodia in Zero Mission, shares similarities with the Gadora (as it is an eyeball on a wall that shoots projectiles quite similar to the latter's).
 * It is likely that the Gadora blocking Kraid in Super Metroid was responsible for the death of UMS 8.

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