Biography of Ridley

Ridley was an infamous high-ranking Space Pirate. After orphaning Samus Aran and creating his own nemesis, he had many battles with her, and survived each and every one until his true death in the explosion of Zebes. Below is a full account of his history.

Biography

Backstory

Ridley on a Space Pirate ship, in the Metroid E-manga.

Nothing is known of Ridley's pre-Space Pirate background, if he had any. No other members of his species have appeared in canon media, though they do appear in the manga Metroid EX where they are described as rulers of the Space Pirates. The game manual for Metroid refers to Ridley as "the original lifeform of Zebes", claiming that he is native to Zebes. However, this connection has never been brought up again in any subsequent material, leaving its canon status up for debate.

Nevertheless, Ridley was one of the most powerful and respected Space Pirates, often leading the troops during battles and other excursions. Ridley was outfitted with at least one cybernetic implant prior to becoming Meta Ridley: a transmitter located at the base of his skull, which allowed fellow Space Pirates to remotely communicate with him. He also appears to have been held in considerable favor by High Command.

Meeting Samus Aran

In Cosmic Year 2000, Ridley tracked a Chozo craft to Star Colony K-2L and discovered the planet's large quantities of Afloraltite. He led a Space Pirate raid to steal the mined Afloraltite, allowing his soldiers to plunder and kill as many humans as they wanted as long as they avoided damaging the Afloralite reserves in the process. Amidst the chaos, he met a three-year old girl - Samus Aran - who approached Ridley and bravely asked to befriend him.

Samus and her past with Ridley, in one of Metroid Fusion's endings; this was the first time their past together was ever depicted.

Ridley was amused by her naivete, deciding to quickly kill her with his plasma breath. However, Samus' mother pushed her out of the way at the cost of her own life. Ridley was largely unfazed and continued to sadistically burn down the facilities due to knowing full well that there was no chance of any blowback due to their having secured the Afloraltite. In one of the Space Pirate cargo ships above, Samus' father detonated the Afloraltite, sacrificing himself to sabotage the Pirates. Ridley noticed the ship burst into flames before the wreckage rained down on top of him, gravely injuring him.

Miraculously, Ridley survived the hellfire. In order to regain his strength, he fed on the flesh of the deceased humans to regrow his body's cells, and eventually escaped K-2L to reconvene with the Space Pirate forces. This defeat was a huge blow to his ego, and he fostered a grudge over the failed excursion, albeit unaware that Samus had survived.

Reunion on Zebes

Over a decade later, Ridley was part of the Space Pirate force that invaded the Chozo colony on Zebes to establish a Central Command Center with the rogue Mother Brain and Gray Voice. Gray Voice claimed that he corrected Ridley's "genetic flaws" with Chozo technology, though the extent of this modification is unknown and possibly refers to the Body Adaptation process.

When the teenage Samus confronted Mother Brain and Gray Voice, Ridley attacked her. This triggered Samus' post-traumatic stress disorder regarding the raid on K-2L, and when she removed her Power Suit's helmet for more air, Ridley slowly recognized her as the little girl from that fateful day. However, Gray Voice ordered Ridley to let her live so she could be convinced to join the Space Pirates, which he begrudgingly obeyed. Ridley then moved to kill Platinum Chest, but was interrupted by explosions caused by Kreatz and Mauk that disrupted the Body Adaptation Machine's operations on his troops. Gray Voice then ordered Ridley to find the cause of the disruption. He flew around Zebes, but could only hear the chaos forming in his ranks as Samus' friends fought the Pirates and freed the prisoners.

Ridley saves Mother Brain from Gray Voice, in Metroid: Volume 2.

When Gray Voice betrayed Mother Brain, Ridley arrived to defend her. Ridley was happy to fight the traitor, impaling Gray Voice with his tail to mortally wound him. The dying Chozo activated a defense system to destroy the Space Pirates pursuing Samus and the survivors, before Ridley finally killed him with his plasma breath. The survivors escaped Zebes thanks to the intervention of Adam Malkovich and the Galactic Federation Army, who forced the Space Pirates to retreat underground.

Zero Mission

Ridley held a grudge against Samus Aran and Adam Malkovich for their insolence, but he also held pride in Mother Brain's plan to use Metroids as bioweapons. His flagship, the Space Pirate Mother Ship, led a space battle against Adam Malkovich and the Galactic Federation Army above Zebes.

Ridley fighting Samus, in Metroid: Zero Mission.

However, Ridley quickly returned the Mother Ship to Zebes following the defeat of his comrade Kraid at the hands of Samus. He reached his personal lair just in time to ambush her, screeching from above. Samus was surprised, but quickly overcame her emotions and defeated him in combat, engulfing him in flames. Ridley's defeat opened the second of the Stone Statues, granting access to Tourian.

At the end of Samus' Zero Mission, she encountered an incomplete robotic replica constructed by Ridley himself, Mecha Ridley, inside the Mother Ship. She destroyed the robot, but in doing so triggered a self-destruct sequence set to obliterate the ship in five minutes. Samus escaped the explosion and departed Zebes in a hijacked Escape Ship.

Cybernetic Revival

Meta Ridley at the Artifact Temple, in Metroid Prime.

Though wounded beyond fighting capability, Ridley survived his supposed death on Zebes. After the destruction of Tourian, three Space Pirate research ships from Zebes' orbit escaped to regroup elsewhere; the crippled Ridley was brought onto one of them, the Frigate Orpheon. By order of High Command, the Pirates reconstructed Ridley's body with bionic implants, turning him into the cyborg "Meta Ridley". His transformation reached its final stages by the time the Orpheon arrived in planet Tallon IV's orbit. The crew intended for him to act as the head of Tallon IV's Pirate security force upon his completion, banking on his notoriously brutal disposition.

By the time the Parasite Queens went berserk on the Frigate Orpheon, Meta Ridley's body was still incomplete, and he remained in Biotech Research Area 2. When the Orpheon began exploding thanks to Samus unintentionally plunging a Parasite Queen into the Reactor Core, Ridley awoke. Samus entered his chamber just in time to see him break free from his restraints and escape the frigate, descending to the Pirate bases on Tallon IV. Samus raced to the Exterior Docking Hangar and pursued him to the planet below.

Meta Ridley shook Samus' pursuit, forcing her to search for him via ground-based recon. She only briefly spotted him flying over the Phendrana Shorelines in the Phendrana Drifts, possibly towards the Glacier One facility or the Phazon Mines to alert the Pirates there of the Hunter's arrival.

Samus wreaked havoc on the Space Pirates' Phazon experiments and collected the twelve Chozo Artifacts to access the Impact Crater. When Samus was about to open the Artifact Temple, Meta Ridley arrived to destroy the Chozo Totems, preventing her from entering the crater to cut off the Phazon supply. Ridley fought Samus once again, but was rendered vulnerable by his incomplete chest armor, and ultimately took so much damage that his plasma wings shorted out and forced him to battle grounded. Once Samus had thoroughly weakened Ridley, the temple's Chozo Statues activated and blasted him with lasers. Ridley fell into the abyss around the crater, disappearing in an explosion in the mist.

Phazon Crisis

Meta Ridley attacking Samus on Norion, in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Despite his fall, Meta Ridley somehow survived and returned to the Space Pirates yet again, this time joining the Pirates of the homeworld on Urtraghus. At some point, Dark Samus infiltrated the Pirate Homeworld and corrupted all the Pirates there with Phazon, including Meta Ridley. This bent the entire faction to her will, and they began serving her to spread Phazon throughout the galaxy.

Meta Ridley participated in the Pirate invasion of Norion. He was first seen by Samus from afar on Cargo Dock A, when he flew overhead and caused a PED Marine to exclaim. He later attacked Samus while she was vulnerable traversing a Morph Ball tunnel at Cargo Dock C, but she evaded his grip using her Bombs, and he retreated. Ridley then ambushed her in Generator C just as she was about to activate it, descending with the intention of crushing Samus, but instead breaking through the glass floor, sending both of them hurtling down the Generator Shaft. Samus was forced to battle him as they fell thousands of meters underground, and since Ridley was not fully healed from his fight on Tallon IV, she defeated him with little struggle. At the battle's conclusion, Samus delivered several shots directly into Ridley's throat, leaving him to fall the rest of the way down the Generator Shaft as she was rescued by Rundas.

Despite this long fall, Ridley survived the duel and somehow returned to Urtraghus. There he became the Pirate Seed's guardian; the massive quantities of raw Phazon given to him directly by the Phazon Core healed his injuries and turned him into "Omega Ridley". Whether he willingly entered the Leviathan or was forced by Dark Samus is unknown. Nevertheless, Samus fought him again in order to destroy the Leviathan and stop the corruption of Urtraghus. He curled up and appeared to explode into Phazon, but Samus being blinded by light and subsequently overloaded by the Phazon shockwave left his fate up for debate.

Metroid Extermination

Proteus Ridley on SR388, in Metroid: Samus Returns.

Ridley somehow survived his defeat as Omega Ridley, and with the destruction of Phaaze at the hands of Samus, his body was cleansed of all Phazon. Though he retained some cybernetic implants from his time as Meta Ridley, he had regenerated enough flesh to shed roughly half of his armor, now called "Proteus Ridley". With Phazon only a memory, the Space Pirates returned their attention to the Metroids.

Proteus Ridley traveled alone to SR388, where he discovered Samus had already exterminated all but one of the Metroids on the planet. He intercepted Samus and the baby Metroid's departure, abducting the helpless specimen in one claw and goading Samus into a battle. After taking some damage, Ridley attempted to escape with his prize, but Samus gave chase, shooting him in the chest at point-blank range until he let go of the Metroid. Samus retook the hatchling and blasted Ridley's wing before he could close the distance, slamming him into a nearby cliffside and pinning him under debris.

However, Ridley cast the boulders aside and redoubled his offensive. He threw Samus against a wall and pinned her to the ground, about to finish her off until the infant Metroid latched onto his head to save her. Ridley was able to break free from the creature, but had let go of Samus, letting the Metroid heal Samus with the energy it had absorbed. Samus and the Metroid fought Ridley until he could take no more, and he collapsed.

Shortly after Samus and the baby Metroid's departure, a Hornoad gnawed at one of Ridley's mechanical claws before being consumed by an X Parasite. This revealed that Ridley had discarded some or all of his mechanical parts, implying that he had at last regenerated all organic components of his body.

Final Battle

Ridley with the last Metroid on the Ceres Space Colony, in Super Metroid.

After shedding his remaining cybernetics and departing SR388, the fully-organic Ridley presumably followed Samus to the Ceres Space Colony, where she had delivered the last Metroid for Galactic Federation research. Samus had left the station when Ridley arrived, and he mercilessly killed all the station's inhabitants.

A distress call was intercepted by Samus, who quickly returned to Ceres. Ridley hid in the shadows until Samus came upon the baby's containment capsule, ambushing her before she could take it. Samus returned fire, leading Ridley to activate the colony's self-destruct sequence and flee with the Metroid. Samus escaped the colony and pursued Ridley.

Ridley returned to Zebes, where the Zebesian Space Pirates had rebuilt their underground fortress since its destruction long ago, again seeking to propagate Metroids. Samus began a rampage across Zebes, hunting the four Space Pirate leaders to unlock the Golden Statues and enter the new Tourian. Ridley was the last of the four to fall, hiding in his lair deep within Norfair. He again attempted to ambush her from the shadows, but this time was soundly defeated, his body exploding into pieces at the end of the battle. However, he had successfully delivered the infant Metroid to Tourian, leaving its shattered capsule in the following room.

Following Ridley's defeat, the infant Metroid perished in the climactic battle between Samus and Mother Brain. This battle also led to the self-destruction of the entire planet Zebes, a last-ditch attempt to destroy Samus which failed. With the Zebesian Space Pirates annihilated and Ridley's remains consumed in a planet-destroying explosion, it seemed Ridley had finally met his end. This event marked his first true death.

Rebirth

While recovering from the final battle on Zebes, Samus believed that Zebes' destruction took with it Mother Brain, the Zebesians, the baby Metroid, and Ridley. However, this was later proved to be only a half-truth.

Ridley's infant form "Little Birdie", in Metroid: Other M.

Unbeknownst to Samus, DNA samples of Ridley and the Metroids lingered on the surface of her Power Suit when she returned to the Galactic Federation. These samples were collected and brought to the BOTTLE SHIP, where a pro-bioweapons faction of the Federation used them to clone Metroids. However, they failed to recognize Ridley's DNA, and he was unintentionally cloned in the process as well. This resulted in the birth of an infant of his species, which the scientists nicknamed "Little Birdie". With no potential for use as a bioweapon, Little Birdie was raised as a pet.

At some point, Little Birdie played dead to lure an unarmed Lab Worker into its containment area. Once its cage was open, the creature killed him and escaped into the BOTTLE SHIP. MB witnessed the aftermath of this incident shortly before she was arrested, leading to her rebellion and massacre of the station's personnel.

While investigating the derelict space station, Samus came across the remains of the unfortunate worker in the cage, and she felt a chill as if a "dark intelligence" were present. Shortly afterwards, Samus met Little Birdie in a simulated rainforest. She deemed the creature no threat, as it comically failed to open a piece of fruit and fled into the bushes, but felt disturbed as it silently watched her leave. In subsequent rooms, such as the Observation Room, Little Birdie was heard screaming to provoke wildlife such as a Dragotix into attacking Samus, though she did not recognize it. This culminated in the Biological Experiment Floor, where Little Birdie's scream provoked Zeros, and subsequently Kihunters and a King Kihunter to attack Samus. After Samus emptied their hive, Little Birdie began to ravenously devour the honey, growling aggressively at her. She felt manipulated by the creature, but left it alone and followed Adam's orders to head for the Exam Center.

Ridley's adolescent form "Mystery Creature", in Metroid: Other M.

After discovering Cyborg Zebesians in the Exam Center, Samus looked out a window to find the 07th Platoon engaged in battle with a "Mystery Creature". As she exited the building, the creature specifically targeted Samus, pinning her to the ground and screeching to call other lifeforms to keep the 07th Platoon occupied. This targeted attack implies that the Mystery Creature had inherited Ridley's disdain for Samus to some degree. Samus repelled the creature with the help of Anthony Higgs, who shot it with his Plasma Gun and forced it to retreat through a wall.

Recuperating, the group discovered the mutilated body of Lyle Smithsonian, and Samus followed a trail of green blood to find the empty corpse of Little Birdie ripped open, indicating it was only the juvenile form of the Mystery Creature and had recently evolved thanks to the nutrients it had consumed (possibly including from Lyle's body). Adam ordered Samus to follow the creature to the Pyrosphere. With no success finding it, Adam instead told Samus to search for survivors in the Cryosphere.

After Samus unknowingly met MB, Adam noticed that the wavelength frequencies of the Mystery Creature were growing more aggressive, and thus ordered Samus to return to hunting it in the Pyrosphere. He preemptively authorized use of the Plasma Beam if she encountered it. Samus eventually found the lizard-creature's husk bound to a wall, again with its back torn open from within, indicating another evolution. She continued until the Geothermal Power Plant, discovering Anthony in a face-off with the Mystery Creature's new form in the darkness. It destroyed the bridge to the exit, stranding Samus and Anthony on a wide platform.

The cloned Ridley fights Samus, in Metroid: Other M.

Once Samus opened the magma-eruption port, lava flooded the room and illuminated it to reveal the beast's final evolution: Ridley. Samus was shocked by his reappearance (possibly relapsed PTSD), having believed she would never see him again, and felt her world come down as she realized how quickly her victory on Zebes was undone. Ridley took this opportunity to grab her, tormenting her further to make her shed her Power Suit. Anthony came to the rescue, forcing him to drop Samus with his Plasma Gun, so Ridley turned his attention to the soldier. Ridley quickly overcame Anthony, knocking him off the platform and towards the lava below using his tail. This brought Samus back to her senses, and she composed herself enough to use the Plasma Beam to fight Ridley once more.

After Ridley's body was sufficiently ravaged by Samus in her rage, he fell to the platform, bloodied and seemingly unconscious. Samus, after peering over the edge to see if Anthony had survived, was suddenly attacked again by an awake Ridley. The two briefly scuffled, until Ridley used his plasma breath to soften part of the wall and ram through it, again escaping into the BOTTLE SHIP. Afterwards, Samus turned her attention to pursuing the Deleter and discovering MB rather than finishing off Ridley, avoiding him entirely.

When the disguised MB alluded to a "presence" that made the bioweapons go berserk, Samus first assumed she meant Ridley, before being corrected that it was MB. Later, before Adam detached Sector Zero, he gave Samus several final orders, one of which was to kill Ridley. Adam compared his threat to that of the Metroids, and stated that only Samus was capable of defeating him. However, this turned out not to be entirely true.

Ridley's husk, in Metroid: Other M.

The injured Ridley had retreated to a room in the Bioweapon Research Center, struggling with his wounds. Suddenly, the door to Room MW opened (likely thanks to Madeline Bergman), allowing a Queen Metroid to emerge. Though Ridley roared defiantly, he was quickly killed when the Queen Metroid sucked the energy from his body, leaving him a lifeless husk. Samus later discovered this husk, shocked at what could have killed him.

During Samus' return to the BOTTLE SHIP to retrieve Adam's helmet, Ridley's husk is no longer present. It is assumed that the Galactic Federation extracted the husk and transferred it to the Biologic Space Laboratories research station, where it was frozen to be preserved.

X infection

Neo-Ridley, in Metroid Fusion.

The husk of Ridley's clone was collected from the BOTTLE SHIP and stored on the Biologic Space Laboratories research station, in Sub-Zero Containment. His frozen husk can be seen in the Main Deck as early as the beginning of the game, though Samus takes damage from the extreme cold.

When the main silo of the Central Reactor Core went offline, Samus was stranded in an elevator and forced to find another way to the Main Deck. This led her to stumble inside the Sub-Zero Containment chamber, witnessing the Ridley husk's eyes glow before crumbling as a Core-X appeared from within. This X Parasite traveled to Sector 1 (SRX) and used the DNA of Ridley's clone to perfectly imitate the thawed husk.

After Samus sabotaged the Metroid research and was ordered to leave the BSL station, she exfiltrated via a Tourian-like area that led her to the imitation husk. The X proceeded to heavily mutate it, resulting in a far more menacing creature called "Neo-Ridley". This duplicate was much louder and more feral than the Ridley that Samus knew, but she was still able to best him and defeat the Core-X. Samus absorbed the X, obtaining the Screw Attack ability and permanently eliminating Ridley at last.