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. The Metroid Manga also showed that he had a bloodthirsty personality and took 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 to his body that usually follow 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".

The manga also has revealed how Ridley gets resurrected over and over again. Apparently Ridley is capable of rebuilding his body by devouring dead bodies. This is confirmed by the manga in a part where Ridley states that he survived the destruction of his flagship by consuming the bodies and cells of the dead humans in K-2L. While he appears to explode or disintegrate in many appearances, the extent of his regenerative abilities (and possibly Space Pirate technology) is apparently sufficient to revive him anyway.

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 bestowed the designation as leader of the Space Pirates in battle. He also appears to have considerable favor amongst High Command. Ridley's introduction takes place on an Earth-established Colonial Planet, known simply as K-2L; where he conducts a massive raid in order to restock fuel and supplies and plunder, and also allows his soldiers to cut loose and destroy whatever they want. It is also on K-2L that Samus Aran (as a 3-year old) first encounters him. Samus attempts to befriend Ridley, but he then attempts to kill Samus. However, her mother pushes her out of the way of Ridley's attack at the cost of her life. Meanwhile, Samus's father destroys the supplies the pirates were after, and is also killed in the blast. Ridley also appears to be injured by the wreckage, but survives. However, he never imagined that he 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. Also, he killed Grey Voice when the latter tried to shut down Mother Brain (he pretended to join the Space Pirates so he would try and get close enough to Mother Brain to shut her down, realizing her treachery). Up until this time, the Galactic Federation disregarded Zebes as a low priority, class XIII Wanderer Planet. This changed when the Space Pirates stole a specimen of the dangerous Metroid and word came that the Pirates planned to clone an army of the creatures in their base of operations beneath its 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. However, some time after these battles, he left Zebes on his flag-ship as well as the Space Pirate Mothership, to fight the fleet of Adam Malkovich, only to later receive a distress signal from Zebes after Kraid's defeat and return to do battle with Samus Aran, a Bounty Hunter the Federation had sent to destroy Mother Brain.

Ridley eventually confronted Samus. 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 that had started the battle.

There is also a boss called Ridley Robot, who serves as the end boss of Zero Mission. After Samus explores the Space Pirate Mothership 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 fatally-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 the Phendrana Drifts to see the Pirate base, and 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 its 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 at 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.

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 to feature these attacks) when Samus finds him in his lair of 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, but Ridley has the ability to swat Missiles away with his whip-like tail. After Samus defeats Mother Brain, Zebes explodes, but apparently, the 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). Another, much simpler theory, is that the Pirate group that stayed on Zebes cloned him from DNA before or after his initial defeat on Zebes. This theory is in fact in Metroid Prime's instruction manual, where it states that after the destruction of the underground facility on Zebes, the pirates split into two groups. One to find a new energy source (phazon) and the other to revive Ridley Kraid and Mother Brain. So in fact there are two Ridleys: Meta Ridley, who would later become Omega Ridley and, for lack of a better term, organic Ridley, both of which are destroyed by the end of Super Metroid. Other M may or may not explain the origins of Ridley X, so the connection between these two Ridleys and his X form is still officially unknown.

Pragmatically, it should be noted that this problem simply arises because of the release order of the series. "Biological" Ridley had appeared in Super Metroid almost a decade before he became a cyborg in the Prime series, and the latter series did not provide an explanation to sort out the discrepancy. An official explanation or retcon may be provided in a later game or Manga.

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 similiar to his appearance in Super Metroid, inferring that he still did not trust cyborg parts and had chosen to be rescucitated in another organic form.

Ridley-X
Ridley was somehow found in his original form by Biologic Space Laboratories. Being a unique organism, the Galactic Federation might have been able to salvage his remains and give him to the BSL for study. He was found frozen onboard 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 cloned him. If this is true, either the clone died of unknown causes, or was frozen upon after the clone became a adult.

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?"

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.

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 information
"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 information
Ridley: "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 took a lot of inspiration.
 * Ridley is the only other character besides SA-X and Dark Samus to best Samus in a fight. 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 Metroid Hatchling'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 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.
 * 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 his color changes throughout the series may be due to the fact he is able to control the pigments in his skin in a way similar to a chameleon or an octopus. In Super Metroid, Samus first enters the arena without Ridley being there, then Ridley's eyes open in front of Samus and appears fully before soaring into the air to attack. This may indicate that Ridley can camouflage himself like a chameleon.
 * 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.
 * In the Metroid Manual, it is clearly stated that Ridley is the original life form of the Planet Zebes.