Metroid

Do the games ever give any indication of where Ridley is in the pirate hierarchy? Mother Brain is clearly in charge in Zero Mission and Super but when she's not around in Prime Ridley seems to take charge until Dark Samus comes and mind controls all the Space Pirates. They mention High Command several times which implies there's some kind of ruling council. Is Ridley on this council or is he just a field commander? On a related note the same applies to Kraid, Phantoon, and Draygon.

edit: I always imagined Ridley as a sadistic monster that takes pleasure in ruining worlds and killing innocents. He doesn't help the Pirates because he likes them. He does it because it gives him the opportunity to kill and eat more people. He also views Samus as Worthy Opponent.

edited 29th Jun '15 7:42:16 PM by Kostya

I think we aren't meant to take the graphics of Ridley exploding in the 2D games completely literally.

...Draygon seems just like a big animal. It's the parent of the Evirs in Maridia.

Mind, Mother Brain can apparently mind control the wildlife of Zebes. That's a plotpoint. It's even what she was designed for. Her job was to monitor and control the planet Zebes and its ecology in order to keep it safe for the Chozo to live. The problem is that what she can make safe she can also make very very unsafe.

Phantoon is a ghost and can do what it wants.

Also, Ridley might not have exploded in the first Prime game. He gets blasted with lasers and falls off the Artifact Temple, but we don't see a body.

There's some sort of explosion and dust cloud, but that could just be from the force of something his size hitting the ground, or all the heavy artillery he's carrying going off.

He was probably mostly fine though.

edited 29th Jun '15 7:43:54 PM by unnoun

Yeah, I don't think Phantoon is even associated with the pirates, statuary aside.

He probably has some connection to them if they built a statue with him on it. It wouldn't surprise me if he has a hidden agenda though.

edited 29th Jun '15 7:43:47 PM by Kostya

I don't even know if that's a requirement.

Or who even built those statues.

I think he just likes broken-down haunted ships a lot.

If Samus had waited a week he'd have moved into the Orpheon.

Or he was already in the Wrecked Ship on Zebes at the time.

edited 29th Jun '15 7:46:00 PM by unnoun

My pet theory is that they found Phantoon and said "You know what would be hilarious? If the Hunter couldn't unlock the statue without killing that ghost over in that wrecked ship."

They didn't expect her to actually do it.

This is the scan that made me wonder if he's really the one in charge. Doesn't sound like he actually is.

Are the statues much more than a game mechanic?

The official manga adaptation didn't mention them.

Although my personal hope is yes. I want to believe that Mother Brain can build doors POWERED BY SOULS

I think Samus and Luigi should talk about ghostbusting sometime.

I like to imagine Ridley is a scientist who believes in the Space Pirate mantra of research and experimentation. He loves tinkering with machines and messing with weird organics. But that's just what he does in his down time, as he's too busy in his other hobby of eating all who oppose him. The Pirates give him a lot of duties. Such is the fate of being a commander.

I'm vaguely curious what he was doing in the Phendrana Drifts.

Probably hunting for food.

Do they not feed him?

What, can they not afford his rations?

He might prefer to hunt?

Like Rexie before she got too old for this shit

He'd probably do it for fun even if they gave him food.

"But I want to go hunt"

"You're still missing half your body. Your skeleton won't be able to support your own weight for the next 3 weeks."

"That's it, somebody execute that guy."

"Sir, i'm the second highest ranking pirate here."

"I can still order someone to execute you."

Deadpan Snarker space pirate for the actual game.

Well, high ranking officer flew down to the planet from orbit, so, going to the main post of your force would be a quite sensible action.

Manga!Ridley was an utter asshole; going by that characterization, he'd keep fighting Samus out of revenge for being set on fire.

And, in any case, Clone!Ridley seemed to be aware of who Samus really was. I wouldn't rule out some sort of genetic memory mumbo-jumbo.

And IIRC Phantoon was an echo of Mother Brain's consciousness or something like that.

Ridley was flying away from the Space Pirate base on Phendrana. He was evidently already there and was leaving for some reason.

edited 29th Jun '15 8:05:38 PM by Kostya

He seems to be heading to Tallon Overworld.

Either going to the Mines, or just napping by the Artifact Temple.

The pirates must be really bad at searching for things if they couldn't spot Samus's ship in the Tallon Overworld.

I mean, they have Ridley and also Aerotroopers.

Last time they messed with Samus' ship, she messed with their ship.

Its just not worth it.

At this point, I'm willing to say that the Space Pirates would be amazing cast for a sitcom.

...I still feel really bad for those poor Metroids in Echoes.