Mother Brain

Mother Brain (マザーブレイン, Mazā Burein) is a recurring antagonist and boss in the Metroid series. She is a cold and ill-tempered artificial intelligence created by the Chozo, but turned against them when the Space Pirates and Ridley invaded Zebes. Mother Brain saw potential in the pirates and decided that with them helping, she could bring true order to the universe by "resetting everything back to zero". Mother Brain was seen as a main antagonist in Metroid, Super Metroid, and Metroid: Zero Mission. She is also seen in a flashback during Metroid: Other M, and her consciousness was responsible for the events of that game as well. In the Japanese website for Zero Mission, she is given the title Mad Overseer.

Physical appearance
Mother Brain resembles a human brain, though she is more spherical in shape. She has short metal spikes protruding from the top of her scalp, and a single large eyeball with an iris colored differently in each game she appears in. Her appearance differed slightly in the original NES version of Metroid, where she possessed tusks and a pair of eyes; coupled with a long cable extending out of a mouth-like orifice, her facial features resembled that of an elephant. The brain was also a bright red. Unlike the Federation's Aurora Units, which are neuron masses enclosed in metallic shells, Mother Brain's hide is strong enough that she remains completely exposed. Several power cables come off the bottom of her body, and she appears to be permanently attached to the floor of her tank, unlike the Federations' Aurora Units, which are free-floating. Her tank, called the Control Capsule in the Super Metroid comic, is protected by multiple Ring Beam Units, Rinka, and Zebetite barriers which serve as both protection and energy resources. She will pulse faster as she takes damage.

In Super Metroid, she has a number of changes. The artificial life-form now possesses an overall orange color and appears to be more mechanized. Her eye is now white and has no iris (although in Metroid: Other M she has a more detailed eyeball) and she has a metallic mouth, complete with tongue and spittle, from which she can roar. Her most notable addition, of course, is a new mechanized body, which connects to her immediately following a forced disconnection from her capsule's life-support systems. The body itself stands taller than Ridley and is capable of dozens of attacks, including red energy beams, bombs, blue ring lasers, beam shots via her eye, and her most powerful attack, the Laser Brain Attack. This mechanized body strongly resembles a Torizo, suggesting similar technology.

Metroid: Other M makes various changes to the depiction of Mother Brain in the beginning flashback. Firstly, she is much more skeletal than the Super Metroid version and less squat. The brain is now smaller in comparison to the body, which seems to lack the lumps present in the Super Metroid version. Her arms also seem to be longer, and her back growths appear to be slightly different.

Metroid Manga
In the Metroid Manga, Mother Brain begins as an ally of the Chozo and makes her first appearance as a small, flying monitor system. The Chozo use her to control several machinery, as well as keep track of data and reports. She meets Samus Aran for the first time when the recently orphaned child walks in on a conversation between Old Bird, Grey Voice and Mother Brain. After coldly staring at a frightened Samus, Mother Brain quickly disregards her as a weak, inferior creature that will not last for more than a few days on Zebes.

During the years that went by after Samus was infused with Chozo blood, Mother Brain monitors her training and gives advice on using her Power Suit efficiently, though with a hint of mockery towards the young girl. Later on, when Samus withholds herself from killing a number of disarmed Iona Faria that had been "corrupted", Mother Brain orders Work Robots to incinerate them instead; this seemed to be a deliberate act to purposely anger/taunt Samus.

The manga shows Mother Brain's frustration with the Chozo and with the many raids of the Space Pirates. At some point, she takes it upon herself to "dispose" of many of the Chozo, calculating that by taking command of the Space Pirates, she could bring true order to the universe. She designated herself as master, while giving Grey Voice, Ridley, and Samus Aran the role of Space Pirate commanders, though Samus refused to cooperate.

Mother Brain stated that she was the one who created Samus's Power Suit, and also claims that the Metroids as being her and the Chozo's children.

After it is revealed that Grey Voice was only pretending to be a Space Pirate commander in order to win Mother Brain's trust and get close to her, he begins his counterattack, claiming that even though he will allow the Pirates to have the planet, he will not permit a "defective" product to continue existing. Grey Voice soon destroys her Zebetite shield, but cannot continue his attacks when Mother Brain is rescued by Ridley, who comes and battles with Grey Voice.

Later on, it comes to light that Mother Brain is in fact using the Pirate forces to further her own goals. She plans on having them fight the Galactic Federation until both organizations become sufficiently crippled, at which point she will "cradle" the survivors to "sleep" and, after resetting the universe to zero, help them reach an intellectual level that she deems worthy of deserving life, thus giving order to the universe. She also plans on using an "evolved" form of the Metroid, an intelligent one, so that she may become the ruler of the universe. She seems to refer to all beings, from the Pirates to Ridley to the Federation, as simple beasts.

Metroid/Zero Mission''
In the NES Metroid, Mother Brain is the final boss in the second to last room of Tourian. She appears as a large, red brain within a glass stasis tank protected by the regenerating Zebetites, the infinitely spawned Rinkas and the randomly-shooting Ring Beam Units. The brain itself does not attack in any way after the tank is broken, unlike in the remake Metroid: Zero Mission. After Mother Brain has been destroyed, a self-destruct sequence begins, and Samus is forced to evacuate Zebes immediately. The manual for Metroid was the first to state that Mother Brain is the leader of the Space Pirates, which would mean Ridley is under her command.

In Metroid: Zero Mission, Samus's main objectives are to destroy all Metroid organisms on Zebes and defeat the biological super-computer, Mother Brain, as in the original Metroid. The re-rendered version of Mother Brain shares a slight resemblance to Super Metroid ' s take. She is located in the lowest area of Tourian and is protected by the classic Zebetites, Rinkas and Ring Beam Units. There have been some changes not only to Mother Brain's appearance but to her attacks and weaknesses as well. When her stasis tank is damaged and destroyed by Samus with several missiles (in the original NES game, it took but 1 missile to destroy it), Mother Brain starts countering by gathering energy into her brain and releasing it as a blast from her eye; this eye beam could be considered as a precursor/basis to the Laser Brain Attack Mother Brain would have in her resurrected Super Metroid form. Unlike the NES Metroid and Super Metroid appearances, Samus can only wound the boss by firing directly at her eyeball. Every time Samus hits the weak spot with either 5 missiles (3 on Hard difficulty), 1 Super Missile (two in Easy Mode), or drops into the lava in the room, Mother Brain closes her eye and resumes the beam attack as soon as Samus gets back up. Surprisingly, Mother Brain does not appear as the final boss of the game. After Mother Brain is defeated, Samus has a few minutes to evacuate Tourian before the facility self-destructs, but she is ambushed by Space Pirates as she flies in her ship outside of the planet's atmosphere. After crash-landing on Zebes, Samus ends up having to board the Space Pirate Mother Ship in her Zero Suit with only an emergency pistol to defend herself.

Unlike in Super Metroid, Mother Brain does not use a mechanical body and remains stationary. A revisit to Tourian (now in ruins) after acquiring the Fully Powered Suit reveals a hidden chamber underneath Mother Brain's capsule that was also present in Super Metroid. This may indicate that her body was planned but not fully implemented, or could have simply been a cache of life support systems connected underneath Mother Brain. The pools of lava have also been replaced by an extremely corrosive green chemical, the only substance in Zero Mission capable of harming Samus while she is wearing the Gravity Suit.

Metroid Prime
Mother Brain is briefly mentioned in the game's manual and an unused opening.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, it is revealed that the Galactic Federation uses organic super computers known as Aurora Units, brain-like neuron masses in tanks that closely resemble Mother Brain. Mother Brain was built by the Chozo, though the manga indicates that the Federation played some role in this as well, given the fact that she is capable of linking the Federation and Chozo information databases, similar to the function of the Auroras. Also, the Metroid Prime 3: Corruption trailer for Aurora Units shows a "future Aurora complex" which bears a near-identical resemblance to Mother Brain's room in Super Metroid. Also, the final boss of the game, Aurora Unit 313, features many references to Mother Brain, such as its cannons firing red spheres that look similar to Rinka, the purple laser that bears resemblance to Mother Brain's beam attacks, and the cable that supports 313 that is similar to Mother Brain's neck in Super Metroid. The Aurora Unit 313 theme is an arrangement of Darkness, Dark Samus' theme, arranged in a way that resembles Mother Brain's theme in Zero Mission.

This, along with the Federation's seemingly corrupt actions at the end of Metroid Fusion, might indicate a deeper and darker meaning with the Aurora Units. Currently, there is no official word on the connection(s) between Mother Brain and the Aurora Units.

In Metroid: Other M, it is believed that an advanced model of the Aurora Unit took place as MB's original infrastructure.

Super Metroid
In Super Metroid, Mother Brain is the final boss, living in the last room of the new Tourian base. The first part of the battle against her remains roughly the same as the NES game, consisting of shattering the glass (though now requiring several Missiles) and shooting the brain while dealing with her security systems. Once Samus defeats her, the actual brain itself falls to the ground and turns pale. After a short wait, she starts to rise up and is connected to a mechanical body that was seemingly hidden underground, possibly built by the Space Pirates, indicating that she had learned from her mistakes in her last encounter with Samus.

Mother Brain uses a new weapon known as the Laser Brain Attack against Samus, which not only depletes an enormous amount of Energy Tanks, but also depletes Samus' Missile, Super Missile and Power Bomb ammo, as well as giving an immobilization effect. Just as Mother Brain is about to finish her off, the Baby that Samus found on SR388 latches itself onto Mother Brain and absorbs both her life energy and the destructive energy from her Laser Brain Attack, seemingly causing her death. The Baby then latches onto Samus, transferring the energy it acquired from the Brain to Samus. However, the Pirate leader, using an unknown method, somehow reactivates and stands back up (though badly injured), and angrily attacks the Metroid as it's reviving Samus. As the Metroid lets go of her and lunges at Mother Brain once more, Mother Brain delivers a killing blow, and the remains of the Baby fall over Samus. At that moment, Samus activates the Hyper Beam that was seemingly forged from a combination of both the stolen energy and the Baby's remains. Afterwards, Mother Brain's body is destroyed, causing her head to fall for the last time. Mother Brain's head then weakly opens its mouth and finally turns to dust. Afterwards, a Countdown starts, this time to end in the obliteration of the entire planet. Samus evacuates Zebes once again before it explodes with her on it. As of Super Metroid, the super-computer originally created by the Chozo has been eradicated from the universe, and resurrection is unlikely.

In the Super Metroid Comic, Mother Brain tried to convince the Baby that she was its mother, not Samus, though failed horrifically. When Chief Hardy accidentally killed the Baby, Samus was enraged. Believing that Mother Brain was its killer, Samus killed her.

Metroid: Other M


A 3D version of Super Metroid ' s Mother Brain battle is featured in the Metroid: Other M intro cutscene, recreating the climax of Super Metroid. The Infant Metroid carries Samus (as if it were holding a corpse, though the hatchling is recharging her energy) in the air before being destroyed by the Laser Brain Attack. It then explodes over Samus into many small particles, resembling a rain of snow. Mother Brain then moves to destroy Samus, who whispers "Mother! Time to go..." and finishes her off with the Hyper Beam.

Later in the game, when Samus learns that Metroids were being propagated on the Bottle Ship, she questions if the scientists recreated Mother Brain. Melissa Bergman (who currently posed as Madeline Bergman) states they recreated her in the form of a large, featureless brain which contained a recreation of her artificial intelligence codenamed "MB".

Near the endgame point, the real Madeline states Melissa is actually MB; an infrastructure and an android created out of Mother Brain's AI. MB's first form (the mentioned brain) was originally used to control the Space Pirate Special Forces, while her second (more humanoid) form was necessary to perfectly control the Metroids. However, MB went rogue and seemingly generated the original Mother Brain's personality.

Leadership
Mother Brain's role in the Metroid series is vague. There is a debate as to whether she or Ridley is the leader of the Space Pirates (this question growing more confused with the addition of High Command from the Metroid Prime games).

According to Super Metroid ' s manual, Metroid: Zero Mission's manual, and the official manga, Ridley is the general of the Space Pirates while Mother Brain is the biological computer which controls Zebes' defenses. However, Metroid ' s manual, Metroid Fusion ' s manual, Metroid: Zero Mission ' s game box, the Super Metroid Nintendo Power comic, and Super Metroid ' s in-game introduction refer to Mother Brain as the leader of the Space Pirates, with Metroid ' s manual saying that Ridley is controlled by Mother Brain. The manga later retcons this to rectify any confusion by stating that Mother Brain took over as one of the pirates' leaders, while keeping Ridley in his former position. Also, her referring to Ridley and the other Space Pirates as "simple beasts" might help explain the previous statement of Mother Brain controlling Ridley.

The Space Pirate Data in Metroid Prime refers to a High Command that commands the Space Pirates, which included ordering Ridley to be reconstructed. Whether or not Ridley is part of High Command is unclear. He may be the Pirate general, answering to High Command and/or Mother Brain.

The recent Metroid: Other M official website states Mother Brain is the true leader, as well as the game and instruction manual themselves where it is mentioned several times.

Another possibility is that, while Mother Brain controls all of Zebes, she has assigned some of her more powerful minions to be the leaders of certain parts or weaker minions on Zebes, such as Draygon controls Maridia and the Evirs, Phantoon and all the ghosts on the Wrecked Ship, Kraid in Brinstar, and put Ridley in charge of the space pirates, meaning she controls the pirates through Ridley, making him the pirate leader and still a servant to Mother Brain.

Metroid manual
"Mother Brain lies in the central base of the fortress planet Zebes, the home of the space pirates. Its aim is to cultivate Metroid to multiply and conquer space. Zeebetite is its energy source. You have to discover Mother Brain's weak point before you can launch a missile attack. When hit, it makes a shrieking noise."

Official Nintendo Player's Guide
"This is the backbone of the fortress planet Zebes, and it is the one determined to multiply Metroid. It is Samus’ ultimate target. In order to destroy it, over 30 continuous missile shots are required."

Super Metroid interview
Interviewer: Huh? Made it dirty?

Mashita: Apparently, the characters I drew were fairly cute. Characters like Crocomire were so charming that when they were killed, the player would feel sad about them.

Osawa: He wanted to them to look like Fujiko Fujio's work! Then Yamane came into the picture.

Mashita: When that happened, the characters became harsher so that the player could defeat them.

Osawa: Fujiko Fujio became Hino Hideshi!* (Laughs)

Sakamoto: Like Mother Brain!

Osawa: At first, I drew her. Then, I made the character look like an old lady living in my apartment complex. (Laughs)

Mashita: I wanted to see a shopping bag hanging from her hands.

Osawa: Then Yamane-sensei appeared.

Mashita: After that, saliva dribbled down, she spit out foul breath, and she was filthy.

Sakamoto: Well it wasn't static as the rest was terrible, so we cut down on the amount of drool. Anyhow, in the final version, there was a moderate amount of drool. (Laughs)


 * Fujiko Fujio was the two-person manga team behind Doraemon. Hino Hideshi is a famous horror manga artist.

Metroid Fusion interview
"If the Chozo made Mother Brain, why is she so dangerous?" Yoshio Sakamoto: "Mother Brain was not originally dangerous, and was an indispensible artificial intelligence that served as the center of the advanced Chozo civilization. However, as an extremely superior standalone AI, Mother Brain sprouted dangerous thoughts and went berserk."

Brawl Sticker

 * Mother Brain Metroid: Zero Mission - Flinch Resistance +147 (All)

Mother Brain and the Baby Metroid
"A dream - I was reliving the tragic moments of my recent past. The Baby Metroid that had emerged from its egg in front of me so long ago was protecting me from the assault of Mother Brain. It would sacrifice its life to save me, and in doing so, give me the power of the Hyper Beam that would spell Mother Brain's doom."

Other appearances



 * In the TV show Captain N: The Game Master, Mother Brain is portrayed as a female supervillain with a human-like face, bearing little resemblance to her actual appearance ingame. Mother Brain's voice in the television series was provided by the late Levi Stubbs of the The Four Tops. This depiction of Mother Brain also appeared in the Nintendo Comics System and Captain N comic book series, as well as in an obscure German comic, where she was shown with larger, more grotesque lips.
 * One comic called Nervous Meltdown depicted her perception of herself within her consciousness. Here she is represented as a woman with blonde hair, blue eyes and what appears to be a combination of a red top and shorts. She is referred to as "Little Girl".
 * MB is also a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman wearing a sort of overclothing in red color. Also, similar to "Little Girl", at least one character wondered if MB was truly evil or if she was simply misunderstood.
 * A microgame called Metroid in WarioWare, Inc.: Mega MicroGame$! and WarioWare, Inc.: Mega PartyGame$! re-enacts the fight between Samus and Mother Brain from Metroid. It is slightly different than the original fight, but mostly the same. It also seemed to retain the siren system from the Famicom Disk System version.
 * Mother Brain is mentioned in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. If Mario returns to the Mushroom Kingdom castle before going off to Land's End, Samus will be sleeping in the palace's guest room bed, and if talked to, will say that she is resting up for Mother Brain.
 * In the Nintendo Comics System-published story Duh Stoopid Bomb! which contains characters from the Mario series, Mother Brain's name appears on a list of people who think King Toadstool is dumb.
 * Mother Brain appears in the background of level 12 in Marathon Mode in Tetris DS, which is Metroid-themed.
 * The Brinstar stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl features several references to Mother Brain. The flesh-stalk structures holding the two platforms up are very similar to Zebetite. The alien lifeform in the far background vaguely resembles Mother Brain herself, though it lacks several of Mother Brain's characteristic features, such as the single eye and the wrinkles. She lacks a trophy in either game, but is represented as a sticker based on Zero Mission art.

Themes
This is the theme of Mother Brain in Metroid:

This is the theme of Mother Brain in Super Metroid:

This is the theme of Mother Brain in Metroid: Zero Mission:

Appearances

 * Metroid
 * Metroid (1986 manga)
 * Captain N: The Game Master (Television show & comics)
 * Super Metroid
 * Super Metroid (Manga)
 * Super Metroid (Nintendo Power comic)
 * Blood of the Chozo (mentioned)
 * Samus and Joey
 * Metroid Prime (Manual)
 * Metroid (2002 manga)
 * Metroid Zero Mission
 * Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Bonus Disc {fact}
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl
 * New Play Control! Metroid Prime (Manual)
 * Another Side Story (mentioned)
 * Metroid: Other M (appears in flashback)
 * TV Commercial :60 Spot

Trivia

 * If the Metroid series was inspired by the Alien movies as speculated, Mother Brain's name may have derived from the main computer of the Nostromo, "Mother."
 * In a PC World article, Mother Brain was voted as #6 of the top 47 "most diabolical videogame villains of all time."
 * Several sources in past media, along with Metroid: Other M 's portrayal of MB's abilities, infer that Mother Brain can influence/control her forces and wildlife with telepathy. This may explain why a large portion of the native flora and fauna on Zebes are highly aggressive toward Samus, as the Pirate leader is directing them against her. The first mention of her psionic abilities in media appeared in the Nintendo Comic System story: The Coming of a Hero, in which she is shown to display mental control over the Metroids.
 * Samus states in Other M that Mother Brain's telepathy is the only thing that can control Metroids; however there is proof that she does not have complete dominance over them, making this method of control arguably far from perfect. Circumstantial evidence that supports this is the cutscene that plays in Zero Mission when Samus enters Tourian, which clearly show Metroids having broken free and killed all Pirate personnel despite being quite near Mother Brain, and in both Zero Mission and Super Metroid, Tourian was overrun with the species, although considering Mother Brain's rather cold and malevolent disposition, the Metroids might've been released intentionally at the pirates expense to eliminate Samus, however it still remains inclusive if that were the case.
 * Further evidence is that the scientists onboard the Bottle Ship turned to the creation of MB's humanoid form known as Melissa Bergman, so that the first propagated Metroid would obey her without question since it would believe MB, now resembling a true living organism, to be its actual mother, however this notion is conflected by MB leaving the first propagated Metroid's genes unaltered allowing it to develope into a Queen Metroid, in which case the newly spawned Metroids that were brooded by the Queen would imprint on her instead of MB.
 * Finally, in the Super Metroid comic, the Baby rejected Mother Brain as it believed Samus was its mother, further proof that she could not perfectly control a Metroid, though the comic may be deemed inadmissible as it is non canon to the game's events.


 * Why Zebes exploded following Mother Brain's death in Super Metroid and not in Metroid/Zero Mission was never explained. It is possible that as she was being repaired from her first defeat, she became symbolically linked to the planet, similar to how Aurora Unit 313 was linked to planet Phaaze, consequently starting a chain reaction when killed.
 * Mother Brain is one of the few beings in the entire Metroid series to officially best Samus in a battle. In Super Metroid, both her and Ridley (at the beginning) could outmatch Samus, while an SA-X and an Omega Metroid from Metroid Fusion were also capable of bringing her to the brink of death. Finally, Dark Samus succeeded in putting Samus in a month-long coma after their first encounter in Corruption.
 * In Super Metroid, when attacked by the baby, Mother Brain crouches in a pose similar to the Chozo Statues. This may hint that the Space Pirates may have used Chozo technology to build Mother Brain's mechanical body, or it may simply refer to the fact that Mother Brain is Chozo technology.
 * In Game Informer magazine, Mother Brain was rated #2 on their "Best Boss Fights Of All Time" list.
 * Super Metroid ' s Mother Brain theme has been remixed 11 times.
 * Curiously, the blueprints for a future Aurora Unit Complex featured in one of the preview trailers for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption resembles Mother Brain's chamber from Super Metroid 's Tourian. However, the reconstruction of the Pirate HQ was accomplished by Zebesians themselves, and the blueprints clearly are of Galactic Federation origin; the only known construction the Federation has ever built that resembles Tourian is Sector Zero, which also contains MB's original form, and Sector 1 on the Biologic Space Laboratories research station, though the latter was not known to contain any large, synthetic brain.
 * MB's original form, which is essential an enormous, feature-less brain (extremely similar to Mother Brain, but lacking her characteristic eye) created by Galactic Federation scientists, may in fact be a successor of Aurora Unit technology or possibly an advanced model of the AU. These theories would support the idea of the blueprints from Corruption being intended for Sector Zero.


 * The Eye security system in Brinstar foreshadows Mother Brain's Laser Brain Attack at the end of Super Metroid.
 * Characters named Mother Brain also appear in Chrono Trigger and Phantasy Star II.
 * For unknown reasons, Samus does not appear to possess the Gravity Suit in the Other M recreation of the final battle in Super Metroid. This is likely due to the fact that the Gravity Feature in the game merely gives Samus' suit a purple aura and pink accents to her suit when active, although the pink lights are not present in the flashback.
 * Levi Stubbs, the voice actor for Mother Brain in Captain N, played a similar character; Audrey II in the 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors. Like Audrey II, Mother Brain had a feisty and flamboyant personality. She was very power-hungry but also incompetent and easily frustrated by her slow-witted assistants, King Hippo and the Eggplant Wizard.
 * Mother Brain is the only creature known to survive having all her energy drained by a Metroid. She seemingly 'resurrects' herself using unknown means, though it may be related to her biomechanical nature. Samus has also survived numerous Metroid predation attempts on her.
 * In Metroid: Zero Mission, when Samus is first going down an elevator and Mother Brain telepathically watches from Tourian, her eye briefly developes a reptilian pupil that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Eye of Sauron.
 * Although Mother Brain put a lot of work into catching and multiplying the baby, a vital part to her plans, she appeared to have no qualms with killing it when it tried to help Samus, thus putting her plans to an end. This suggests that at that moment, she was more determined to killing Samus above all else.
 * Mother Brain appears to possess two small eyes and elephantine tusks in the original Metroid.
 * Mother Brain possesses many similarities to 343 Guilty Spark, an artificial intelligence featured in the Halo series. Halo is often speculated to share many elements and concepts with Metroid, although neither game's developers have officially acknowledged any connection.
 * Mother Brain might be a play on the part for computers, the Motherboard, as she is connected to a board-like structure.

Gallery
Mother Brain