Posttraumatic stress disorder



Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (also known simply as PSTD) is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma.

Samus Aran of the Metroid series has had this disorder ever since the attack on her home of K-2L, where she witnessed Ridley kill her mother right in front of her, and threaten to do the same to her. It has been depicted somewhat recurrently throughout the series, but most notably in the Metroid Manga and in Metroid: Other M.

Metroid Manga
In volume 2 of the manga, Samus is tortured by Ridley when she, Mauk and Kreatz invade Zebes. Grey Voice even says that she seems to be exhibiting symptoms of PSTD, and that it appears Ridley has caused her to undergo emotional duress. She falls to the ground saying that she can't breathe, and her Power Suit disappears.

She is next seen on the ground making hacking noises, presumably coughing. Ridley, after this, recognizes Samus as the child from K-2L. He then tells her how he healed himself after her father destroyed his warship: by consuming the dead flesh of the colony's citizens, even going so far as to taunt her by saying that her mother may have been one of his meals.

The last thing Ridley does to her before leaving is calling her pitiful. As her friends come out of hiding to free the prisoners, Samus stands up, with blank eyes, and begs to be killed. The Chozo that were imprisoned realize that all the repressed memories of her colony's demise are coming back to her, and they comfort her, telling her that she can let out all the emotion that she had been holding in. Eventually, she is able to recover, and shoots Ridley away when he attempts to attack Grey Voice.

Near the end of the manga, Samus seemingly triumphs over her PTSD and manages to destroy Ridley once and for all.

In the actual game Metroid: Zero Mission, Samus' eyes are briefly seen through her visor before Ridley attacks. She seems to have a shocked expression, but is able to come to her senses and fight him.

Metroid Prime
When running into Meta Ridley while escaping the Frigate Orpheon, she aims her Arm Cannon up at him before he breaks free of his restraints and flees the exploding station. Samus throws her fist back and we can see her eyes in an angered expression, although this is normal and her eyes are always like this. This changes, however, and drastically alters the scene if the Fusion Suit extra is enabled, which calms her expression down slightly.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
It can be presumed that Samus did not have time to react when Meta Ridley suddenly appeared above her while she was repairing Generator C, because he flew down at her, unaffected by her weapons fire, and threw the both of them down into the shaft below. Ridley had previously flown toward the generator as Samus was approaching, and attempted to stop her several times, but Samus was never pictured reacting in shock, presumably because she did not know her obstacle was Ridley (she was in morph ball form at the time).

Later, in the cutscene shortly before Omega Ridley's battle, he flies down into the Pirate Homeworld Leviathan Core and approaches Samus. She appears to be in shock again, as she takes a few steps backward, but she still maintains her composure and rolls, in Morph Ball, away from his fire attack.

Super Metroid
Although no image of PTSD is ever seen in the game, the Nintendo Power comic pictured Samus being surprised by Ridley, although not in any fearful way. Her shock quickly turns to anger when she attempts to prevent him from stealing the baby, but she fails, and later kills him on Zebes. After the destruction of the planet, Samus knew that the original Ridley was truly dead.

Metroid: Other M
At the beginning of the game, Samus states that she killed Mother Brain, and that Zebes then exploded, taking Mother Brain, the Space Pirates, the baby, and Ridley with it, but this later proves to be untrue.

Samus, on her mission to the Bottle Ship, encounters Little birdie, a small, white creature that stalks her. She believes it to be of no harm. When she finds a facility of interest, she is attacked by the Mystery Creature, an evolution of Little birdie, as she finds out after nearly being killed by it. It flees, and Samus' main objective is to track it down. Commander Adam Malkovich later contacts Samus and tells her that the monster appears to be headed to the Geothermal Power Plant, where Anthony Higgs was said to be going to destroy the magma-eruption port.

After Samus completes the latter objective, the lava increases the light in the room, and Samus finds that the monster in the room is a reborn Ridley. Her PTSD triggered once again, even after she had seemingly triumphed over it, and she lost her suit's composure. Adam saw the events and attempted to contact Samus, but she was unable to speak. He frantically attempted over and over again to communicate with her until his comm. device was shot off, presumably by the Deleter. Ridley then dragged her across the wall until Anthony shot him, and she fell to the platform below, unable to stand up, until Anthony was seemingly killed. Samus regained her composure and destroyed Ridley in her rage. He managed to survive, as he always did, and escaped.

Before Adam walked off to Sector Zero, Samus was told to defeat Ridley as one of her several and final missions from him. She later found him as a mummy in the Bioweapon Research Center, having been killed by the Queen Metroid. The corpse stayed there until the Galactic Federation invaded the station.

Metroid Fusion
Samus is not pictured reacting in shock to seeing Ridley once again when she finds his frozen corpse in the Sub-Zero Containment, it being the same corpse from the Bottle Ship. It then shatters after an X Parasite infects it, creating the Neo Ridley that Samus fought later.

Trivia

 * The Metroid: Other M PTSD scene has been heavily criticized by gamers due to the fact that Samus, who is normally strong and emotionless, becomes quite scared of Ridley when she has fought and defeated him many times before. However, the reason for this criticism most likely stems from the fact that the criticizing gamers have only played the games and are unaware of the past connections between Samus and Ridley. Those who are aware of her past, however, believe that she had successfully learned to manage her condition.