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Hadar... sen olmen. ("Power... is everything.")

—Raven Beak[2]

Raven Beak (Ashkar Behek in the Chozo language[note 1]) was the Chozo leader of the Mawkin tribe. He was first introduced in Chozo Memories unlockable in Metroid: Samus Returns, and appears as the main antagonist of Metroid Dread.

Biography[]

Pre-series[]

Raven Beak is a high-ranking leader of the Mawkin tribe. When Samus Aran was adopted by the Chozo on Zebes, he alongside a Thoha Chozo (thought to be Gray Voice) voluntarily contributed his DNA to infuse into Samus. His special Mawkin heritage greatly enhanced Samus' fighting prowess and instincts.

Metroid: Samus Returns[]

Raven Beak appears in the tenth and eleventh Chozo Memories in the game. The eleventh Memory only unlocks if all items have been acquired on the save file, at which point it will appear when the tenth Memory is selected.

MSR Chozo Memory 11

Raven Beak orders the slaughter of the Thoha.

The Chozo Memories depict Raven Beak's interactions with the Thoha Chozo on SR388. The Mawkin assisted the Thoha in excavating SR388, but after the Metroids went out of control, the tribes were forced to seal away the Metroids. However, Raven Beak still saw use in the Metroids and believed they symbolized a power great enough to bring order to the galaxy. Upon hearing the Thoha wanted to detonate SR388 along with every Metroid on it, Raven Beak traveled to the planet and ordered a massacre, sparing only Quiet Robe for his bioengineering skills and ability to control Metroids. Raven Beak's forces then retreated to ZDR with Quiet Robe, planning to return to SR388 for Metroid samples a later date.

Metroid Dread[]

MD Chozo Archives 06 - Infection

Raven Beak discovers the X have infiltrated ZDR.

Upon returning to ZDR, Raven Beak learned that one of his soldiers had been assimilated and mimicked by a dangerous X Parasite while on SR388. The resulting pandemic forced Raven Beak to put his Metroid plot on hold as he fought to contain the X. Eventually every Chozo on ZDR except Raven Beak and Quiet Robe were assimilated by the X, forcing Raven Beak to quarantine them within Elun and rely on Robot Chozo Soldiers instead. By the time the X were contained, Raven Beak learned that Samus Aran had already exterminated every Metroid on SR388. It seemed his Metroid army would never come to fruition.

However, Raven Beak developed an alternative method to achieve his goal. Realizing Samus possessed the last sample of Metroid DNA in the galaxy, he sought a way to steal it from her body. The answer came in the form of the Galactic Federation's E.M.M.I., which he lured to ZDR using footage of an X Parasite to prompt investigation. As shown in the Chozo Archives, he was responsible for the damaged state of E.M.M.I.-01P. He captured the seven units, working with Quiet Robe to reprogram them to hunt Samus and extract her Metroid DNA.

Metroid Dread Vol

Samus's first confrontation with Raven Beak.

Samus Aran was hired by the Galactic Federation soon after to investigate the disappearance of the E.M.M.I. units. Raven Beak personally attacks her upon her arrival in Artaria. She gets a defiant Super Missile shot on his helmet, cracking the eye. Furious, Raven Beak grabs her by the neck and prepares to finish her off, proclaiming the Chozo words "Hadar Sen Olmen"[2] ("Power is Everything"). However, Samus suddenly awakens her Metroid powers for the first time before going unconscious, which is exactly what Raven Beak wanted. He then retreats, sparing her on the ground.

Raven Beak is later depicted in a mural found by Samus in Ferenia, in which he is shown commanding his soldiers to kill the Thoha on SR388. Shortly after this discovery, Samus meets Quiet Robe, who disables the remaining E.M.M.I. and informs her of Raven Beak's past and plans before being killed by a Robot Chozo Soldier.

When the X Parasites are released from Elun, ADAM speculates it was Raven Beak's doing. The X Parasites spread chaos throughout ZDR, including reactivating the E.M.M.I. units via Quiet Robe's remains.

Through the successive battles against the X and the remaining E.M.M.I., Samus finally unlocks her dormant Metroid powers. ADAM declares this "tremendous power is the last thing [she] required to confront Raven Beak" and detects the flying fortress Itorash. He directs Samus to confront Raven Beak there.

MetroidDread RavenBeak ThroneRoom Itorash

Raven Beak in his throne room on Itorash.

On Itorash, Raven Beak reveals his plans to Samus through the guise of ADAM. He explains that their encounter in Artaria must have awoken her Metroid side's aggression towards Mawkin, and she has since been evolving into a complete Metroid. Pleased with Samus and declaring that he was right to have spared her in their first meeting, Raven Beak commands Samus to kneel before him so they may "bring order to the galaxy", revealing he posed as ADAM during the entirety of her journey through ZDR.[3] Samus defiantly destroys his ADAM projection, and Raven Beak is found sitting in his throne room. He refers to Samus as his "daughter," revealing that his DNA was among the Chozo DNA infused within her when she was first adopted. Raven Beak expresses his disappointment in her disobedience before he and Samus engage in a final showdown.

Raven Beak overwhelms Samus a second time despite her new powers, once again holding her by the neck. He gloats that even without her cooperation, he can clone her to create an army of Samus Aran, the most powerful Metroid in existence. However, Samus reawakens and becomes enraged as she remembers the eradication of the Thoha tribe from Raven Beak's hands. Samus's anger activates the full potential of her Metroid powers, allowing her to destroy Raven Beak's helmet through the crack in his eye and begin draining his life energy. Wailing and writhing in pain, Raven Beak fails to break Samus's grip as her rampant power begins draining Itorash itself, causing the fortress to crash into Hanubia.

Raven Beak face

Raven Beak's final stand.

Raven Beak survives the crash, but he is greatly wounded and with his armor damaged. As he prepares to face Samus once more, he is suddenly infected by a purple X Parasite, violently transforming into Raven Beak X. Using her latent power, Samus unleashes the devastating Hyper Beam to completely eradicate both Raven Beak and the X Parasite possessing him, ensuring that Raven Beak will never come back. Samus is then able to escape the explosive destruction of ZDR, leaving Raven Beak and all his work utterly annihilated.

Physical appearance[]

Raven Beak has red eyes and wears a decorative metal headpiece similar to that of a kabuto, a red draping cloak, and a metal plating-covered arm. He has this appearance in both Samus Returns and Dread, although a primary difference is that in Samus Returns, he wore a gold set of armor with blue robes, while in Dread he wore primarily silver armor with a red fabric with gold accents resembling ceremonial scarves. The gold colored Chozo lettering on his scarves spell out "Hadar sen Olmen", which translates to "Power is Everything," a phrase he utters several times in the course of Dread and serve as the backbone of his philosophy of bringing order to the galaxy through power and dominance.

The armor, particularly the torso, strongly resembles that of the Varia Suit, and it also utilizes an Arm Cannon similar to that of Samus. As a result of Raven Beak's first battle with Samus, his faceplate has a crack on its right eye, which Samus caused with a Super Missile hit. He is also extremely tall, being two times Samus's height without his helmet; the hieroglyphs, the Dread version of Chozo Memory 10/11, and some of the Chozo Archives imply that his height was exceptional even by Chozo standards.

As befitting his name, his head is shown to resemble a raven when he is unmasked near the end of the game; however, he seems to have light gray skin instead of black feathers on his face. During his final battle with Samus, Raven Beak generates large, feathery brown-black wings. He is the only modern Chozo seen with an ability to fly, with it being elaborated in the manga that the Chozo otherwise lost their wings long ago. It is unknown whether these wings had some mechanical aspect or were wholly biological, as Raven Beak was shown to be able to remove at least one of them with relatively minimal effort or apparent pain.

Personality[]

Raven Beak, at his core, valued power above all else, to the extent that he often declared that "power is everything" and had it printed in the Chozo language on his robes; even when taken over by an X Parasite, he still clings onto this mantra. Quiet Robe stated that Raven Beak worshipped at the altar of power. This worship of power was ultimately what drove him to wipe out the Thoha tribe, due to their wish to destroy the Metroids they'd created on SR388, Metroids he needed for his galactic conquest. He also has little tolerance for any defiance towards his orders, opting to fight Samus again when she refused to aid him in Itorash, as well as executing any Chozo who would not follow him (including his massacre of the Thoha tribe on SR388, feeding Chozo prisoners to an underwater beast, and ordering a Robot Chozo Soldier to slay Quiet Robe), leaving only the loyal ones left.

He was also shown to be intelligent, manipulative, and pragmatic. After fighting Samus for the first time in Artaria, he realized the Mawkin genes he'd provided her earlier in life could be leveraged to bring out her Metroid DNA's full potential, as Metroids were originally programmed to react hostilly towards his tribe. Based on this, he altered his initial plan of killing her and taking her Metroid DNA, instead handicapping her and forcing the resulting fight for survival to overpower the Thoha genes that were suppressing her Metroid DNA. He even went as far as to consider cloning Samus herself. He was very arrogant as well, subtly boasting that Samus would always be inferior to him while posing as ADAM for a large portion of the game. This arrogance ultimately acted as his downfall.

Despite his traits, he may have had some elements of compassion, as demonstrated in the flashback to Samus being infused with the Chozo's DNA where he was revealed to have provided his own DNA to allow Samus an ability to fight. He also initially aided the Thoha with containing the Metroids before deciding that he wanted the titular creatures for their power, and finally attempted (albeit in an arrogant manner) to offer for Samus to aid him in his attempts at galactic conquest despite ultimately not even needing Samus alive by that point.

Abilities[]

Raven Beak wears a Chozo Power Suit similar to Samus's, complete with a powerful Arm Cannon. This Arm Cannon is capable of a variety of shots including giant laser beams, projections of harmful aura, explosive balls of darkness, or radiant balls of light. His armor also possesses sharp claws on the hand and feet, enhancing his hand-to-hand combat. Raven Beak displays an affinity for Aeion abilities, most notably the Flash Shift, Beam Burst, and two forms of Lightning Armor: a blue variant that absorbs damage before being released in a wave of red energy, and a golden variant that totally nullifies damage. Both Lightning Armors can be interrupted by Samus's Melee Counter. Raven Beak also utilizes the Shinespark, and can generate a pair of large, feathered wings that grant him flight.

Even without his Power Suit or Aeion abilities, Raven Beak was noted by Samus to be much faster and more agile than his tall physique would imply.[2] In addition, his battle prowess is seen in his victory over the E.M.M.I-01P with little apparent effort, while Samus could not even scratch the machines without extensive upgrades. He also had high enough endurance that not even Samus striking his arm could break his grasp on her neck. In the end, his power was so overwhelming that even a fully upgraded Samus was helpless to defeat him without fully harnessing her Metroid powers.

Battle[]

First phase[]

RavenBeak Battle1

Raven Beak with Lightning Armor

Raven Beak attacks with up to three consecutive swipes; a black homing sphere that can be destroyed by four Missiles for pickups; an upward laser sweep that spans the entire room except the space next to him; and a dash punch that can be Melee Countered to trigger a Grab Sequence. He can also Flash Shift to one of the sides of the room to increase his distance from Samus.

Raven Beak's armor is shrouded by a blue aura similar to the Lightning Armor, which is only disabled during Grab Sequences. The protective blue aura must be shot enough times until it turns red, after which he will release a massive wave that can be crouched, slid, or Morph Balled under. After dodging the wave, a Grab Sequence automatically occurs where he must be Melee Countered; Raven Beak charges a massive laser identical to the Hyper Beam and sweeps it, letting Samus damage him during the laser's wind-up before she backflips away.

If Samus has not dealt enough damage via countering Grab Sequences, during this phase of the battle, Raven Beak's armor will turn gold after releasing the red wave, nullifying all damage. Samus must wait until he taunts her to approach him and Melee Counter twice in succession, triggering another Grab Sequence; Samus sidesteps his wide laser, jumps over a punch, slides under his stomp, and backflips over another laser. She can also Melee Counter his dash punch to the same effect.

After dealing enough damage through Grab Sequences, Raven Beak releases some pickups as Samus lunges and fires a contact-point Charge Shot into his abdomen, destroying his cape and scarves. He then unfurls his wings and takes flight for the second phase.

Second phase[]

RavenBeak Battle2

Raven Beak with wings

Raven Beak's aerial attacks consists of an aimed stream of small shots similar to the Beam Burst; a charged, wide laser aimed diagonally downward; a horizontal dash slam into a wall that can be evaded by sliding or Morph Ball; and a downward slam into the floor.

Once he has taken more damage, Raven Beak releases more pickups as he fires a laser that is dodged by Samus and she retaliates in kind, blasting off one of his wings. Now grounded, Raven Beak rips off his other functional wing and tosses it aside before the third phase.

Third phase[]

RavenBeak Battle3

Raven Beak is grounded again

Raven Beak largely uses the same attacks as his first phase, although he does not perform the red wave or the taunt. He does add some new moves to the battle: summoning a sun-like orb that flies to the top of the arena and shoots wave projectiles, although the orb can be destroyed with a Power Bomb to release several pickups; hovering slightly off the ground while engulfed in a blue aura to Shinespark horizontally, and may pause briefly to move vertically should Samus jump over him; and standing his ground to aim at Samus while charging up a massive laser.

Upon receiving even more damage, a Finish Counter will be triggered: Raven Beak towers over Samus as he swipes his claw at her, which must be Melee Countered twice. Failure to successfully counter this will continue the fight until Samus does enough damage again to initiate the Finish Counter. Successfully countering the Finish Counter triggers a cutscene where Samus prepares to use her Metroid powers against Raven Beak, but he counters, Flash Shifts to her, and holds her up by the throat, rendering her powerless. Samus's suit morphs into the Metroid Suit and she drains his life energy and Itorash's power by grabbing his head, causing it to crash onto the surface. A wounded Raven Beak is then ambushed by an X Parasite, transforming him into Raven Beak X.

The Finish Counter differs slightly depending on when Samus triggers it. If she depletes his health during gameplay, Raven Beak will stagger a bit before moving to strike Samus. If the final hit occurs during a Grab Sequence, Raven Beak will not stagger. If Samus hits him while he is in midair, Raven Beak will land before triggering the Finish Counter.[4]

Official data[]

Nintendo tweets[]

Nintendo of America
"A mysterious figure has got a fierce bone to pick with Samus. What appears to be a Chozo, a species said to be peaceful but now rarely seen, doesn’t appear so peaceful here. The reason they’re attacking Samus remains a mystery… #MetroidDread"[5]
"Still thinking of Samus’ encounter with this Chozo warrior… #MetroidDread"[6]
Nintendo UK
"As Samus reaches the depths of planet ZDR, a mysterious figure attacks. It looks like a Chozo, but the rarely-seen race are supposedly peaceful…so why are they after Samus? #MetroidDread"[7]
Nintendo of Europe
"The mysterious Chozo that attacks Samus as #MetroidDread begins is far bigger and stronger than her, and also wears a similar Arm Cannon. How will Samus overcome this powerful foe?"[8]

Metroid Dread Report[]

A Mysterious Opponent (Volume 7)
"A powerful and mysterious Chozo warrior suddenly attacks Samus. Its right arm is equipped with an Arm Cannon, just like Samus. This figure is much larger than Samus and other Chozo Soldiers, and it easily overpowers Samus in combat .[sic]"

Development notes[]

The key art for Raven Beak (pictured at the top of this article) was created by Minoru Uenaka.[9]

Trivia[]

MSR Surface Scan Pulse Statue

Chozo Statue resembling Raven Beak in Metroid: Samus Returns.

  • The Chozo Statues in the background before each Aeion Ability Artifact in Metroid: Samus Returns have a helmet and wings highly resembling Raven Beak's.
  • Raven Beak 's head without his helmet resembles the skull of a raven.
  • Raven Beak's massacre of the Thoha tribe in order to prevent them from destroying planet SR388 had rippling effects throughout the series starting with Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission, as leaving the planet intact resulted in the prolonged survival of the X Parasites and Metroids, the latter of which eventually became the target of the Space Pirates among other organizations and antagonists, and thus forming the basis of conflict in every game with the exception of Metroid Prime Hunters.
  • The intentions of Raven Beak for sparing Quiet Robe's life on SR388 and bringing him to ZDR presents a glaring flaw in the antagonist's plan. He wished to use the last survivor of the Thoha Tribe to control Metroids, yet the incident back on SR388 provided more than enough evidence that the Thoha could no longer control the very creatures they had created. Although a Thoha may still be capable of controlling Metroid larvae, Raven Beak was captivated specifically by the power of the uncontrollable, evolved Metroids which brought ruin to the Chozo civilization.
  • The wide laser Raven Beak shoots during his boss battle is visually indistinguishable from the Hyper Beam that Samus obtains alongside her Metroid Suit. This gives the implication that she took his weapon when she absorbed his life energy, a process previously demonstrated by other individuals related to the Metroid species such as the Baby and Dark Samus. However, the Samus Screen instead states that her Hyper Beam is the result of her unleashed power combining all her Arm Cannon abilities.
  • Raven Beak is notable as being one of a few characters to canonically survive being drained by a Metroid attack (in this case, Samus herself after she underwent a metamorphosis via her Metroid DNA going unstable), after Samus herself, Proteus Ridley, and Mother Brain.
  • Largely because of Raven Beak's role in Samus having Mawkin DNA, he is technically the third surrogate father for Samus, after Gray Voice and Commander Adam Malkovich. However, she is not particularly close to him at any point prior to this game, rendering him merely another genetic donor.
    • His Mawkin DNA donation could also retroactively explain why nearly all Metroid larvae attacked Samus despite having Thoha tribe genetics: a genetic and instinctual hatred to any Chozo of the Mawkin tribe, canceling out the Thoha tribe pacification instincts.
  • Raven Beak can be considered the first main antagonist of a Metroid game to be a Chozo acting on his own free will. The first instance of antagonistic Chozo was the True Chozo in the non-canon story Blood of the Chozo. The Chozo Ghosts in Metroid Prime were driven mad by Phazon corruption, while the other Mawkin in Dread were infected by X Parasites.
  • During his battle, Raven Beak shoots massive orbs of either burning energy or black purple energy which are reminiscent of Samus' Sunburst and Darkburst weapons from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.
  • In the promotional render shown in Dread Report Volume 7, Raven Beak's robes display the text "Hadar sen olsimen" in Chozo symbols. This differs from the version seen in-game, which reads "Hadar sen olmen". Presumably, the language was altered during development.
  • Raven Beak's appearance captures several real-world elements. His helmet is similar to that of a kabuto worn by samurai, which seems to have a kashiradate, maedate, and ushirodate. On the Chozo hieroglyphs, Raven Beak is depicted wearing a nemes like that of a pharaoh. His red cloak is also reminiscent of a paludamentum worn by a legatus. Red was associated with Mars, the god of war. The color of his cuirass also maintains the Roman army motif with its silver, metallic color.
  • Raven Beak is the only known Chozo to wield an Arm Cannon. With the exception of Robot Chozo Soldiers, the Chozo are typically seen unarmed or wielding a pole weapon. In the flashback to Samus' DNA transplant, there are matching red glows on the right arms of Raven Beak and Samus, indicating that Samus may have inherited her use of an Arm Cannon from him.
  • The fissure Raven Beak sustains to his right eye on the helmet in his first battle with Samus mirrors the crack in the "Artaria entrance's" Chozo monument (caused by his laser destroying it), which is also over its right eye. Samus later destroys Raven Beak's helmet by smashing the same crack.[10]
  • Owing to various similarities between the Metroid and Alien franchises, Raven Beak has some similarities to the antagonists from the spinoff prequel film Prometheus. Much like the Engineer, he is the first depiction of a living specimen of the mysterious precursor race that created series' the titular species; he speaks an alien language that is translated for the audience through an artificial intelligence; his strength is demonstrated by grabbing a major character by the neck and easily lifting them off the ground; while his intentions are ambiguous at first, he is revealed to be a villain who must be stopped before he uses a deadly bioweapon; and he is ultimately killed by a creature related to the titular species after his vessel crash-lands. To a lesser extent, he also resembles the android David (who also appears in Alien: Covenant), since both characters attempt to recreate the eponymous threat in the series for their own malevolent ends, and Raven Beak even poses as a friendly artificial intelligence before revealing his true plans.
    • Elements of his backstory also resemble that of the Engineer, in that he was a member of a malevolent group of aliens who sought to try and use a bioweapon for evil ends, only for him to end up the sole survivor due to his species being wiped out by a plague under unexpected circumstances (the Engineers ended up losing control of their pathogen, heavily implied to be the basis for the Xenomorphs in the Alien franchise proper and ultimately dying out until only one remained, while the Mawkin, and more specifically Raven Beak intended to use the Metroids to conquer the universe via warfare, only for the Mawkin to end up undergoing a plague caused by X Parasites thanks to one of their own being infected earlier, ultimately forcing Raven Beak to quarantine his entire race and ending up the sole survivor), as well as intending to continue the plan before ultimately being stopped.
  • The sixth image of the Ending Rewards depicts the scene where Samus drains Raven Beak of his energy. Raven Beak is drawn without his Arm Cannon here, even though he still has it and futilely fires it during the scene in-game.

Gallery[]

Artwork and renders[]

Screenshots[]

Artaria[]

Itorash and Hanubia[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ This is an approximate transcription; the Chozo translation of Raven Beak's name is spoken aloud, but never appears in writing.

References[]

  1. ^ https://imgur.com/gallery/4iQ4Pb0
  2. ^ a b c https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/ayl8a/introduction/index.html
  3. ^ The internal audio file for the first Network Station cutscene is labelled "0003firstcomunicationfakeadam.dspadpcm", confirming that Raven Beak impersonated ADAM since Samus' very first Network Station on ZDR.
  4. ^ Looygi Bros. "10 Cool Details in Metroid Dread (Part 8)". YouTube. January 27, 2022. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  5. ^ Nintendo of America (NintendoAmerica). 27 August 2021 1:28 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1431307620632174597
  6. ^ Nintendo of America (NintendoAmerica). 15 September 2021 1:00 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1438185885871349767
  7. ^ Nintendo UK (NintendoUK). 30 August 2021 3:05 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/NintendoUK/status/1432419187440357383
  8. ^ Nintendo of Europe (NintendoEurope). 15 September 2021 10:00 a.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/NintendoEurope/status/1438140706065944576
  9. ^ Minoru Uenaka. より細部にこだわった3DCGを作りあげる (Creating detail with 3DCG). Nintendo. January 14, 2024. Retrieved January 27, 2024. https://www.nintendo.co.jp/jobs/keyword/117.html
  10. ^ Looygi Bros. "12 Cool Details in Metroid Dread (Part 9)". YouTube. February 1, 2022. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  11. ^ Nintendo of America (NintendoAmerica). "#MetroidDread" 27 August 2021 1:00 p.m. Tweet. https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1431300710331781122


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