Changes: Metroid Prime (creature)

Revision as of 11:49, 20 April 2015

This is a featured article.

This article is about the creature Metroid Prime. For the game, see Metroid Prime.

For other uses, see Metroid Prime (disambiguation).

!	This is a rare creature/object. It may only be scanned in one or few encounters.

“	The prophecies tell of the coming of the Worm. Born from parasites, nurtured in a poisoned womb, the Worm grows, devouring from within, until the world begins to rot. The words of the seers have come to pass, for there, in the depths of the world, the ravenous Worm lurks and feeds. From the stars it came, blighting Tallon with its Great Poison. We can but watch as the Worm grows, watch and wait.	„
—Unknown Chozo

Metroid Prime was the main antagonist of the game of the same name, and is furthermore the main antagonist of the Metroid Prime Trilogy as a whole. A highly-mutated Metroid of unknown origin infused with huge quantities of Phazon, Metroid Prime was the guardian of Tallon IV's Leviathan.^[1]

History

A Chozo prophecy foretold that their adopted world of Tallon IV would become infested by a great evil. This evil, known to them as the Worm, would devour the planet from within by bringing a Great Poison, unless a great Defender delivered the planet from its evil.^[2] Some great time after the prophecy, the Chozo reached ascendance while living in the tranquility of their world; their bodies were cast away while their essences entered a new plane of reality.

Years after their ascendance, the prophecy came to fruition: a Leviathan from the planet Phaaze crashed onto Tallon IV and released Phazon, a highly poisonous and mutagenic substance. The Phazon seeped into the soil and life of Tallon IV, destroying the ecosystem and violently mutating the life that could endure the substance. The remains of the Chozo were also greatly affected, so much so that their consciousness was pulled back to the other side of reality.

Seeing the evil that was corrupting their former home, the returning Chozo created a temple, known to them as the Cradle, to contain the Leviathan and the continued spread of Phazon.^[3] In order to ensure a seal around the cradle, as well as provide their prophesized Defender access to the Leviathan's Impact Crater, they created and scattered twelve key-like Artifacts known as the Cipher.^[4]

Their efforts with the Cradle only stopped the brunt force of Phazon; Tallon IV now suffered the fate of a slow death as the exposed poison spread out. The returned Chozo concluded that Tallon IV was doomed unless saved by their prophesized Defender. As ethereal forms in a tangible world, their perception of time was now non-linear; past, present, and future wove in and out of view. With this perception of time, they could see their adopted Hatchling haunting, prowling, and lurking in the planet's corridors. They pondered if she was their Defender, and left behind Power Suit modules in hopes that one day she would fulfill the prophecy and deliver the planet from death.

Eventually, the Chozo who were brought back succumbed quickly to Phazon corruption. Known to the others as the Turned, they hated, destroyed, and rejected everything in sight, including their former peers; their ultimate goal was to undo the Cipher and let the Phazon spread.^[3]

Eventually, the Space Pirates landed on the planet, and tried to comprehend the purpose of the Cipher and Artifacts, without success. They then tried to destroy the Cradle, known to them as the Artifact Temple, but failed again. The Pirates eventually discovered Phazon, and as soon as Science Team identified its unique abilities, began mining operations to harvest it, beginning exploration of its mutagenic properties with flora and fauna, even going so far as to include Metroids and their own marauding species. As their ambition with the substance grew, they tried to use other alternatives to get past the Cipher, including drilling underneath the Artifact Temple lock. This proved futile, as this attempt revealed that the Cipher generated an encompassing force field. However, the Pirates did detect a powerful life form gestating and rapidly consuming the concentrated Phazon within the crater. This life form was none other than the Metroid Prime.

Space Pirate Data

"What's the matter? All I said was that Komaytos look like little Metr-"

Non-canon warning: This article or section contains information that may not be considered an official part of the Metroid series in the overall storyline by Nintendo.

Unused scan images of Metroid Prime's exoskeleton form, seen in concept art.

According to original North American GameCube version of the Space Pirate Data, Metroid Prime was discovered in a cavern by a mining crew. It quickly killed the miners, though was able to be contained by security units and drones. Studies were then conducted on the creature, codenamed Test subject Z-d which led to the discovery that it was genetically similar to a Metroid, though much more "evolved". It had a limitless capacity for Phazon and was not negatively affected by the substance whatsoever. It never stopped growing and had some psychotic behavior, likely due to the Phazon.^[5]

Metroid Prime was at one time kept in a stasis tank. There was a large batch of Phazon in the room it was in and, sensing it, the creature destroyed its tank and consumed all the Phazon. It also managed to assimilate several weapons and defense systems from fallen security units and began using its new weapons against the Space Pirates. They were able to contain it, but they were not able to remove the equipment, making them an integral part of Metroid Prime's body.^[6] This ability to assimilate weapons into its own body explains how Metroid Prime was able to become Dark Samus by absorbing the Phazon Suit from Samus.

Metroid Prime eventually managed to fully assimilate the equipment, granting it incredible armor plating and powerful defense screens.^[7]

Non-canon warning: Non-canonical information ends here.

In the PAL and Japanese versions of the game, the Space Pirates on Tallon IV were merely aware of the presence of some large Phazon-consuming creature within the containment field of the Cradle.^[8] This is now the accepted canon, since this version of events was retained in the Metroid Prime Trilogy. It is thought to have been impossible for the Pirates to penetrate the Cipher, but the NA release's data implied that the Pirates were able to breach it. The Wii editions use the revised data for all regions.

Official data

Logbook entries

Template:Infobox Multiple Logbooks

Scans

Genesis Chamber, Phaaze: "These husks are identical to the bioform you encountered within the crater on Tallon IV."

Samus's arrival

Prime Chamber — Samus encountering Metroid Prime within the Impact Crater.

When Samus arrived on Tallon IV, the planet was significantly corrupted by Phazon. She explored the planet, exterminating many of the corrupted creatures and destroying the Space Pirate base. She eventually collected the twelve Chozo Artifacts and gained access to the Impact Crater, though she had to fight off Meta Ridley beforehand.

Inside, instead of the normal blue Phazon seen throughout the planet, Red Phazon could be seen. This Phazon was 86% stronger than normal Phazon, strong enough to mutate Metroids into Fission Metroids, and to cause damage to Samus' suit, despite the protection given by the Phazon Suit. As she progressed through the Impact Crater, she encountered Metroid Prime.

Battle

Samus' battle with Metroid Prime is the last in the game. Metroid Prime has two forms. When scanning Metroid Prime, a close-up of a visor-like part at the top of its armored form reveals its Core form inside the exoskeleton, as it bears some resemblance to it and the fact that the face is missing from the exoskeleton in the second part of the battle.

Exoskeletal form

The first form of Metroid Prime is completely encased in a thick black carapace, save for its glowing red eyes. It uses a shielding system where the color of the (initially) grayish-white markings on its body indicate what beam is its weakness. The same can be said of the color and nature of the beam it fires from its massive maw (which spans the bottom of its entire carapace). Purple represents the Wave Beam, blue-white represents the Ice Beam, red represents the Plasma Beam, and yellow represents the Power Beam. Samus must switch to the beam (or beam combo) required and fire at Metroid Prime's human-like visage to damage it. After a set amount of damage, Metroid Prime will retaliate by closing the lid where its visage is exposed before attempting to ram Samus, which she can avoid by entering Morph Ball form and rolling into grooves in the ground under the creature. It will also attack with Ultrafrigid Breath, Multi-Missiles, Snare Beams, and Particle Wave Projectors. As Metroid Prime takes more damage, it retreats into deeper caverns, using stronger and stronger attacks as it goes. Its movements and attacks become progressively more erratic as well, as it will shift screens more frequently and its attacks become more unpredictable. Eventually, it crawls toward one final pit and falls, and Samus follows it.

Metroid Prime Core — Metroid Prime's Core Essence

Core form

When Samus lands, she finds Metroid Prime's exoskeleton open with its top missing and the armor plating oozing Phazon. Metroid Prime flies out of the cast-off body in its second form, the core essence of Metroid Prime. In its second form, Metroid Prime is only vulnerable to pure Phazon. This core form is a deep, translucent blue, with six tentacles attached to an elongated body shaped like that of a Hunter Metroid, with three overdeveloped nuclei, and a mouthless, gaunt, humanoid face with fiery eyes. It will use its tentacles to shoot waves of energy throughout the room which Samus must jump over to avoid, and it will spawn various species of Metroid. There are several ways for Samus to deal with the Metroids: she can use a Power Bomb to kill them, she can run past them and use the Phazon Beam to kill them, or she can resort to standard Metroid-killing tactics and use the Ice Beam to freeze them, then shatter them with a Missile. However, this last tactic only works the first two times Prime spawns Metroids; afterwards, it only creates Fission Metroids. Whenever it creates a Metroid, Metroid Prime will also create a small pool of Phazon. After Metroid Prime creates a pool of Phazon, it may disappear from the Combat Visor and must be tracked with either the Thermal Visor or X-Ray Visor. With the use of the Phazon Suit, Samus can stand on these pools and enter Hyper-Mode. She can then fire Phazon at Metroid Prime by the use of the Phazon Beam, greatly damaging it. Eventually, it will completely destabilize.

Metroid Prime face closeup — The creature's humanoid 'face'.

Once Samus has defeated Metroid Prime's second form, it morphs into an odd-looking blob, similar to a Metroid or a Core-X from Metroid Fusion. Tentacles will come out of it and grab Samus, pulling her towards it. Samus pulls back, and is eventually separated from her Phazon Suit, which is pulled into what remains of the Metroid Prime. This leaves her in her Gravity Suit. All other sources of Phazon in the general vicinity explodes, causing the entire cavern to collapse. She calls in her ship using the obscure controls on her arm cannon, and leaps from the collapsing structure onto her hovering gunship.

Dark Samus

Main article: Dark Samus

Despite Samus killing Metroid Prime and causing the cavern to collapse, the "Worm" was reborn. With the absorption of the Phazon Suit, and pieces of Samus' DNA, Metroid Prime was able to reconstruct itself into a body similar to Samus'. Because Dark Samus was once Metroid Prime, she is technically a Metroid. She could travel across the reaches of space and was more powerful than ever before. Following her rebirth, she also seemed to exhibit intelligence at an almost human level. This sentience also made her far deadlier than the simple beast she used to be. She was dubbed "Dark Samus" due to the dark color of her suit and her malevolent nature. Space Pirates called her the "Dark Hunter" because the Space Pirates mistook Dark Samus for the original Samus, whom they already called "The Hunter". Samus learns of this in a Space Pirate facility during the events of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Dark Samus is supposedly defeated for good in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Origin Theory

Metroid Prime Concept — Concept art of the exoskeleton

Despite the Prime subseries being over, Metroid Prime's origin was never fully explained. According to Page 3 of the Art Booklet packaged with Metroid Prime Trilogy, Metroid Prime was originally a Metroid that became corrupted by absorbing Phazon from the Phazon Core present inside the Leviathan that impacted Tallon IV. Based on this information, one may conclude that the Leviathan attracted a Metroid into its body after landing. However, there is no Chozo Lore on Tallon IV which states the existence of a single Metroid living among the peaceful race during their reign, leading to another conclusion: the Metroid that would become the Phazon Core's guardian was among the specimens brought to the planet by Space Pirates many years later. Evidence supporting this are the scans read on Pirate computer monitors detailing events of Metroids escaping captivity on several occasions. However, the reworked Pirate Data in later versions of the game firmly established the marauding race's inability to bypass the Cradle's impenetrable containment field, seemingly making it impossible for any outsider to enter the Impact Crater unless one had the 12 Artifacts to the Chozo Temple.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption introduced the existence of several Metroid mutants, all resulting from Tallon Metroids being heavily exposed to Phazon. Two of these, the Phazon Metroid and one of its branching stages of evolution, the Hopping Metroid, are directly reminiscent of Metroid Prime's Core Essence and exoskeleton, respectively. The Phazon Metroid can phase out of existence to become intangible in a similar fashion to Prime's core form, allowing it to traverse through both solid surfaces and weapons fire unhindered. The Hopping Metroid can no longer fly or phase in and out, but has gained an exoskeleton and legs, all akin to Prime's flightless armored form. Due to these similarities, it is largely believed that the Metroid on Tallon IV which became the Prime creature followed the same stages of evolutions/mutations witnessed in Corruption, and that the Phazon Metroid's defining characteristic of phasing through barriers is what allowed it to bypass the Cradle's force field. Additionally, the loss of abilities seen in the Hopping Metroid potentially explains Metroid Prime's imprisonment inside the Impact Crater. Further evidence is the remains of exoskeletons with an uncanny resemblance to Prime's inside the Genesis Chamber on Phaaze, prior to the final battle with Dark Samus. These seemingly molted husks imply that several Metroid Primes have indeed evolved from Metroid mutants also present on the planet. Interesting to note as well is the early concept art of Metroid Prime in the above right image, sharing features with both its final rendition and Hopping Metroids, with the surrounding environment resembling the inside of a Leviathan with its numerous optical organs.

In summary, Metroid Prime is theorized to have once been a Larval Metroid from either Zebes or SR388, converting into a Tallon Metroid when it was brought over to Tallon IV by Space Pirates for their Phazon experiments. It later escaped and exposed itself to heavy doses of radiation from the mutagen, transforming it into a Phazon Metroid. Instinctively, it sought out more sustenance to quench its relentless hunger, bringing it to the impact site of the Leviathan where concentrated Phazon was located. Using its unique ability, it phased through the Chozo Temple's otherwise impenetrable containment field, and continued feeding on the radioactive substance until it became a Hopping Metroid, trapping it within the Impact Crater in the process. Unable to phase through to the outside world anymore, the creature continued to feed and gestate, becoming the Metroid Prime which Samus encountered in the Phazon Infusion Chamber.

Inconsistencies

Despite this, there are several inconsistencies that exist with the theory above, along with in-game events related to the life form known as Metroid Prime that have not been explained in official canon:

The Impact Crater on Tallon IV seemingly lacks a Phazon Core, which is the life form that is tasked with the production of Phazon until the entire planet is corrupted. It is generally believed that the Metroid Prime's insatiable hunger, a trait commonly found in all Metroids, compelled it to eat the Phazon Core. The fact that Metroid Prime can create pools of Phazon at will, along with its own log entry describing it as the source of Phazon on Tallon IV, enforce this theory; the Big Metroid from Super Metroid has also demonstrated the capacity to rob the abilities of its devoured prey.

Metroid Prime 3 states that Leviathans die soon after they have impacted their target planet, requiring them to quickly call upon a local predator to protect the former's Phazon Core. If the Space Pirates brought the future Metroid Prime many years later, the Leviathan was undoubtedly dead by then, and should have been unable to secure a guardian into its body, unless the Metroid entered the Leviathan out of its own volition.

Although the first Metroid Prime game features Pirate computer monitors and data entries detailing events of Metroids escaping containment, they always conclude with the Metroids being recaptured and/or killed. There is no mention of any Metroid having successfully evaded recapture, or of any missing specimen. However, based on the disgruntled personalities and overall unhappiness read in personal Space Pirate logs, along with the harsh disciplinary actions reserved for bad performances, it is not unlikely that a Pirate may have intentionally refrained from reporting an escaped Metroid to his superiors.

The lack of any Phazon Metroids or Hopping Metroids on Tallon IV. The only mutated strains of the species Samus encountered on the planet were Hunter Metroids and Fission Metroids, none of which possess strong similarities or the abilities of either of Metroid Prime's two forms. It is possible that the Phazon Metroid stage was attained by the future Leviathan Core guardian through mere chance, given Phazon's highly unpredictable qualities.

The controversial, unexplained sheer magnitude of Metroid population on Phaaze, which insinuates that the species has existed on the living planet for a very long time. Coupled with the presence of husks resembling Prime's near the Leviathan Womb in the Genesis Chamber, as well as the nearby Metroid mutants, have led some fans to believe that the final boss of the first Metroid Prime game traveled from Phaaze to Tallon IV via the Leviathan that impacted the latter planet. Giving further credit to this idea is Dark Samus, Metroid Prime's later form, referring to Phaaze as 'her' homeworld in the Pirate Lore The Source Discovered. There is also an unused Space Pirate Data entry (Citadel) found in the game's files that is written in a manner suggesting Metroids are native to the planet, though it is important to note that unused scans/log entries are generally regarded as non-canon. Ultimately, since SR388 is stated in numerous games to be the only homeworld of the Metroids, it must be assumed that Space Pirates and Dark Samus were responsible for introducing the species to Phaaze some time before the events of Corruption. The expansion of their population can be attributed to the mutated strains capable of spawning their lesser kind, such as Metroid Hatchers and/or other Metroid Primes evolving on Phaaze.

Mike Sneath interview

"Metroid Prime shell was a lot of fun to model and the concept for this boss was very clearly layed out as Andrew did several different views for this design. The part that was actually more challenging was the core of the creature. The main reason the core was challenging was because there were limitations to what could do with multiple layers of transparent polygons. The core had a jelly like outer skin with a glowing brains and arteries underneath the skin. In the end I worked with the programmer who helped by giving me a couple of shaders that enabled me to work around the limitations I was running into with sorting transparent polygons."

Brawl Trophies

Metroid Prime (Exo)

Prime Exo Brawl — Four Images showing the Exoskeleton form of Metroid Prime in *Brawl*.

"The form of the Metroid Prime that Samus first encounters. It can become invulnerable to all but one of Samus's weapons at a time. The body color alternates between yellow, purple, white, and red, with the color indicating the weapon that can deal damage. After taking a certain amount of damage, the Metroid Prime exoskeleton reveals its core essence.

GCN Metroid Prime

Metroid Prime (Core)

Prime Core Brawl — Four Images showing the Core Essence form of Metroid Prime in *Brawl*.

"The core form of Metroid Prime after losing its exoskeleton. It can make itself invisible for a set time, which requires Samus to make a visor change. Normal hits do not have any effect on it--the Metroid Prime can eventually be defeated by using the Phazon Beam while standing in a Phazon puddle."