Line #5 Fridge/Metroid


1	For specific ''Metroid'' Fridge pages see:
2
3	* ''Fridge/SuperMetroid''
4	* ''Fridge/MetroidFusion''
5	* ''Fridge/MetroidPrimeTrilogy''
6	** ''Fridge/MetroidPrime''
7	** ''Fridge/MetroidPrime2Echoes''
8	** ''Fridge/MetroidPrime3Corruption''
9	* ''Fridge/MetroidOtherM''
10	* ''Fridge/MetroidPrimeFederationForce''
11	* ''Fridge/MetroidSamusReturns''
12	* ''Fridge/MetroidDread''
13
14	----
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16	! Fridge Pages are Administrivia/SpoilersOff, all spoilers below are unmarked!
17
18	!!FridgeBrilliance
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20	* Why are Metroids vulnerable to cold? The live by absorbing energy, and extreme cold is the absence of energy! However the Ice Beam actually works, it has to force a huge amount of heat out of its target, which must cause them especially intense pain and maybe even hunger.
21	** Building on that, every other weapon in Samus's arsenal is energy-based, except for the missiles (depending on which game.) That's why most of her weapons don't work on them.
22	** This also becomes a metaphor as to how Metroids interact with other creatures. They require a "warm" motherly presence such as Samus, Mother Brain, a Thoha, or a Queen Metroid to lead them. They will never follow "cold" professional presences such as the Galactic Federation executives or Space Pirate militants.
23	** The cold likely renders them vulnerable for multiple reasons, in fact. They're clearly protoplasmic in nature, so being frozen outright not only renders them unable to function, it also makes them more brittle, hence why missiles shatter them. If their energy manipulation also applies to kinetic energy too, which could also play a part in why they're immune to missiles when not frozen, assuming that having thermal stores of energy driven out of them and having biological processes halted by freezing also hinders any ability that'd provide additional protection from kinetic impacts.
24	** Considering Metroids were created by the Chozo, it's also clear that this was a failsafe to keep them from being misused (though Raven Beak made sure to ruin that plan).
25	* Energy is a type of psychic power. We already know that Chozo have mental powers, in Metroid Prime they foresaw the Phazon coming. We also know that Samus has some Chozo DNA. She uses the psychic powers to power her suit. The tanks are just to store her energy. She would also make her weapons out of psychic energy, clearly there is not enough room for her to have 255 missiles in her suit. This helps her 'Crystal Flash' and 'Concentration' abilities make sense. Also the different types of ammo that she uses in the Prime games also makes sense. She is not used to using those weapons and has a limited amount to use, but can concentrate to fire off some. Also, this is what makes metroids so dangerous, they actually feed on this 'energy'. The manga also mentions a type of energy that the metroid were created to feed off of. That is why they are the only things capable of destroying the X, they actually eat the X. This also explains why Samus is able to replenish her energy by absorbing X, she is eating. -{{Krazycrismore}}
26	** Assuming raw mental energy ''is'' what a lot of the Chozo science we've seen is built around, it could explain why they seem to incorporate a lot of brain-like design elements into some of their supercomputers (specifically Mother Brain and the Central Units on ZDR), since their semi-organic structures would be needed for them to generate said energy as a result. Likewise, it would explain why Metroids prefer going for the heads of their prey before completely sucking the life out of them-- it's quite clearly the juiciest part.
27	* [[BirdPeople Chozo]] art and architecture seem to take cues from, among other things, both [[BuildLikeAnEgyptian ancient Egypt]] and [[{{Mayincatec}} Mesoamerica]], and of course they would: Both the Egyptian and Mesoamerican gods of wisdom (Thoth and Quetzalcoatl/Kukulkan respectively) are birdlike. Hmm, wise, birdlike beings from beyond the Earth...
28	* One has to wonder, why is Space Pirate tech so easily used or hacked by Samus? Their leader is Mother Brain, a ''Chozo'' AI. Samus uses a Chozo battlesuit, so it makes perfect sense she'd be able to readily manipulate tech Mother Brain likely had a hand in.
29	* This troper used to cringe every time Metroids were called "parasites" when they're obviously not, but a quote from Metroid Prime used parasite as a derogatory term, and I realized something. They're called "parasites" because they get under everyone's skin.
30	** From Wikipedia, "parasitism is a non-mutual relationship between organisms where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host." A Metroid is as much a parasite as a tick. Except they don't suck blood, they suck life force.
31	*** In that case, a Metroid isn't a very ''good'' parasite; a parasite which too quickly kills its host gives itself little time in which to benefit from the parasitic relationship. (In real life, this is a limiting factor in the spread of diseases, such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, which are both extremely virulent and extremely deadly; the latter trait reduces the effect of the former, by killing those it infects so rapidly that they have little opportunity to spread the disease.) In general, the observed behavior of Metroids isn't consistent with parasitism; while they're happy to kill anything they can get hold of, they seem able to go an extended period without feeding at all (e.g. Tourian in the original game, where there are many quite lively Metroids despite there being no evidence of anything on which they might feed), and a true parasite ''requires'' a host to provide the environment in which it can survive.
32	*** On the other hand, an ability to survive long periods without feeding would be extremely beneficial to an organism engineered to serve as a long-term biological weapon against a target which can be expected both to be absent for long periods, and to turn up without warning when it finally does; such a weapon could be "seeded" in many locations, and left dormant and unmaintained until its target arrived. All of this is consistent with the canon statements regarding why the Chozo created the Metroids. Further, it's stated early in canon that Metroids reproduce parthenogenetically in an environment rich in energy, which makes sense; given that capability, the Chozo would need only seed a few of them in each location, and they'd be able to proliferate as necessary to meet an X threat on any scale. The indiscriminate feeding behavior which makes Metroids such a threat to the galaxy at large could easily have resulted from a mutation during reproduction; such a mutation would be highly adaptive, in that it would enable affected Metroids to access a much broader range of energy sources and therefore reproduce much more rapidly, and the Space Pirates would therefore be more likely to happen upon such a mutant than upon an original-strain Metroid only capable of feeding on X parasites. Presumably there are planets on which remain Chozo-seeded caches of pure-strain Metroids which are harmless to anything that isn't X-infested; that they haven't turned up in canon anywhere is easily explained by the fact that harmless Metroids wouldn't serve Samus very well as adversaries.
33	*** It's interesting to consider whether the Metroids in ''Fusion'' could've been cloned from pure-strain stock; it's a better explanation for their lack of interest in Samus than the fact that she's been hybridized with Metroid DNA -- humans and chimpanzees have much more of their genome in common than Fusion Samus and Metroids do, but that doesn't stop humans and chimpanzees from preying on one another; Samus not being X-infested, on the other hand, would render her both inoffensive to pure-strain Metroids and immune to their X-specific predation, thus neatly explaining why they ignore her in a way that the genetic-commonality hypothesis doesn't.
34	*** Chimpanzees and humans prey on individuals of their own species. Metroids don't, from what we've seen. Genetic commonality makes perfect sense when that's accounted for.
35	*** The word you are looking for is Parasitoid. It is a creature who behaves much like a parasite, the difference being that it inevitably kills its host.
36	* Comments have been made regarding the titular Metroids and their decreasing relevance giving the series an ArtifactTitle and how [[IAmNotShazam Samus is confused with the creatures.]] But the Metroids were created by the Chozo, and in their language, Metroid means "ultimate warrior". The title ''does'' refer to Samus, the most powerful warrior in the galaxy, who repeatedly slaughters the Metroids. This is made apparent in ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'', the GrandFinale of the Metroid arc. [[BreakingOldTrends For the first time, the titular Metroids do not physically appear in a main Metroid game]], yet the title remains relevant because it now refers to ''Samus Aran'' herself, who has been metamorphizing into a humanoid Metroid thanks to her infused Metroid DNA, and is considered by [[BigBad Raven Beak]] to be the "most powerful Metroid of all'' by the story's climax.
37	* Starting with ''Fusion'', ''Zero Mission'' and ''Other M'' pointed towards the psychic link the Power Suit had with Samus. First we have how the suit had to be surgically removed, even when running out of energy shows the suit comes off. One Fridge Horror in ''Fusion'' we have the possibility of her subconscious fighting the X-Parasites off her system, and that "fighting spirit" keeping the suit on. In ''Zero Mission'' we get Unknown Artifacts, that somehow remained unknown until AFTER you regain your suit in the very end and, since the Power Suit had absorbed the artifacts, it means it was with Samus all along, even while she had nothing but a Stun Gun to defend herself with. And ''Other M'' shows yet another one with the Concentration system and her PTSD moment affecting her suit's functions.
38	* How is it that the Power Suit lose HP from poison (not just the corrosive kinds)? ''Fusion'' states it has organic components and ''Other M'' it's HardLight that logically would need energy (HP) to counter anything harmful.
39	* Given the events in the first ''Prime'', there was way too little time for the Pirates to truly reverse-engineer Samus' beam weapons realistically. Then ''Zero Mission'' came out, and the sealed beam weapon turns out to be the Plasma Beam. The Pirates were working off the weapons she used during her assault on their Zebes base!
40	* If one takes the manga into continuity, then the Chozo helped found and lead the Galactic Federation as well as supplying technology far greater than the rest of the galaxy's. Then the Chozo were wiped out, Space Pirates became more prominent than ever within the system, Chozo technology outflow halted completely with only ruins and temples to salvage, and the last remnant of their legacy was [[TheHero Samus,]] who just so happened to drop out of their military. And then blows up the Space Pirates in multiple excursions singlehandedly, saves the galaxy multiple times in a row, and became more of a renowned hero and icon than the Federation themselves. Combine this with the GF before ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' (and especially in the ''Prime'' games) seeming far more affable than compared to ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', and is it any wonder that they began going ForScience and had their conspiracy almost explicitly ''spiteful'' of Samus when the Chozo couldn't keep them in check and a former member turned bounty hunter essentially rendered their military efforts moot?
41	** With the fact that ''Fusion'' had mistranslations come to light, forgetting to detail that the Galactic Federation is actually splintered and those responsible for this game and ''Other M'' were an older, more twisted sub-faction, it makes even more sense; who else but a bunch of officers and scientist in charge of illegal activity would be cloning Ridley, Mother Brain, and dealing with things revolving around the legacy of the Chozo and Samus? They see nothing but potential, untapped power, and are willing to take whatever means necessary to dive into the secrets of Samus Aran.
42	* The series getting [[VideoGame/MetroidPrime4 a big]] [[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns resurrection]] on its 31st anniversary can seem one year late for a MilestoneCelebration. However, 2017 marks the series' 30th anniversary for the ''North American release'' of the original ''VideoGame/Metroid1'', and the series has been consistently [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff more popular in North America than its home country]].
43	* Despite the somewhat common occurrence of IAmNotShazam, it's ironically somewhat fitting if one wanted to call Samus "Metroid", considering that she has Metroid DNA in her as of ''Fusion''. Also, "Metroid" is apparently the Chozo word for "Ultimate Warrior" (or something along those lines). Which is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin pretty much what Samus is]].
44	** And with ''Dread'', Samus is biologically a Metroid, which makes calling her by the series title infinitely more accurate.
45	* For ''Super'', ''Fusion'', and ''Zero Mission'', water slows Samus down until she gets the Gravity Suit to counteract it. Makes sense since water has resistance to your movements and water is more dense than air; ever tried running in a wading pool? Meanwhile, moving through lava also slows Samus down unless she has the Gravity Suit. Lava in real life is ''extremely'' dense since it is literally molten stone, which would very likely make Samus's movement in the stuff very difficult.
46	* When starting up ''VideoGame/Metroid1'', if you try moving to the right you'll find that you can't get very far and you must go to the left for the Morph Ball first. BUT Samus is looking directly at the player in the beginning, so... the game is making you move to HER right.
47	** ''Super Metroid'' does the same thing. It's also a very subtle way of saying "Ah-ah-ah, player. This isn't going to be one of those games like ''Mario'' or ''Sonic'' [[WhenAllElseFailsGoRight where you always go to the right.]] For this game, you'll need to go in all kinds of directions."
48	* In ''Super Metroid,'' you eventually make it into Ridley's lair, which you quickly notice is built into the ruins of a Chozo temple, with several rooms demolished and a number of Chozo statues either buried under rubble or destroyed. You might chalk this up to damage from the original game... except the main entrance to Ridley's lair is adorned with an image of Ridley's head, and later you find a secret area with a giant underground statue of Ridley carved into the cavern wall. Thinking back along the ''Metroid'' timeline, it finally occurs to you: the Chozo have played a major part in Ridley's multiple near-deaths up to this point in the series canon. Ridley destroyed whatever sacred portions of that temple survived the original game, and then bastardized whatever was left into a shrine to himself as a giant middle finger to the Chozo because they never succeeded in actually killing him... [[KarmicDeath and then Samus killed him with her Chozo weapons.]]
49	** Also consider that chronologically, ''Super Metroid'' happens after ''Metroid Prime'', where Ridley found himself on the wrong end of a WaveMotionGun courtesy of the Chozo statues at the Artifact Temple. In light of that, destroying or repurposing the statues in Norfair is a totally reasonable precaution.
50	* As pointed out in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MvRTseHzHk this video]], ''Super Metroid''[='=]s "Bad Ending" is actually a lot worse than it appears. The only difference between the "Good Ending" and "Bad Ending" is that the former shows the Etecoons and Dachora escaping the explosion of Zebes while the latter does not, implying they did not survive the explosion. At first, this may only seem like a cute little bonus for players who took the time to rescue the Etecoons and Dachora after defeating Mother Brain... but then, ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' comes along, and the survival of these friendly aliens becomes an important plot point: they pilot Samus's gunship and rescue her from the self-destructing BSL Station. Samus's own survival in ''Fusion'' is a result of the "Good Ending" of ''Super''. Which means, in ''Super''[='=]s "Bad Ending" where the Etecoons and Dachora do not survive, [[TheHeroDies Samus will ultimately die aboard the BSL Station]].
51	* The Space Pirates being gone from the series after ''Super Metroid'' (minus the artificial clones in ''Other M'' and ''Fusion'') makes perfect sense after the events of ''Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.'' The Pirates were foolish enough (and manipulated by Dark Samus) to challenge the Galactic Federation in a straight-up, full-on slugfest of a conventional war. This is not how they typically operate: prior to this, they relied on HitAndRunTactics by preying on remote colony worlds and hijacking lone ships. While the Pirates do have a powerful interstellar navy, it still pales in comparison to the full might of the Federation. They sealed their doom once they attacked the 7th Fleet and attempted to drop a Leviathan Seed on Norion. This would be the equivalent of the Pearl Harbor attack in World War II, or in more contemporary terms, like North Korea launching a nuclear missile at an American base in the Pacific. The Pirates may have given the GF a bloody nose in that initial engagement, but there was no way they could win a drawn-out conventional war with them after that, and no way the GF would stop at nothing but their complete destruction after they attempted to use what was essentially a WMD on a Federation base. Even with Phazon powers, they were already being beaten back and their homeworld ended up under full Federation occupation, capped off with the assault on Phaaze and Samus destroying the planet. After this, the surviving remnants were able to retreat to the Bermuda System and pool their resources together to try one last major strike using the ''Doomseye'' in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'' but they were destroyed during Operation Golem. The last remaining Pirate survivors escaped and went to ground on Zebes and tried to salvage whatever they could while laying low, but the events of ''Super Metroid'' finished them off after that. Hence, why Samus's narration in ''Other M's'' intro states the threat once posed by the Space Pirates has faded into a hazy memory for most of galactic society.
52	* Is the subtitle ''Metroid II: "Return of Samus"'' about Samus returning for a second installment? Or is it referring to the game's ending, where Samus ''returns'' to her senses, ''returns'' to her past, and chooses to spare the baby Metroid at the last minute?
53	** In a more Doylist view, alongside the second Zelda game being called "The Adventure of Link", was Nintendo trying to undo the IAmNotShazam caused by the titles of the first games in each series?
54	* One may question if Ridley truly is gone because shouldn't the Federation's pro-bioweapons faction have a genetic sample of him to clone? Until you remember something important: Ridley being cloned on the Bottle Ship in ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' was [[GoneHorriblyWrong completely unintentional]]. The bioweapons program was haphazardly cloning whatever they could scrape off of Samus's suit, and didn't know what drop of blood would create what creature (with the sole exception of Metroids, as the Baby seemed to leave a distinctive non-blood fluid). In addition, Ridley was initially recreated as the [[KillerRabbit Little Birdie]], which had no resemblance at all to his adult form, so even the scientists supervising him didn't know what he was. By the time all was said and done, even if the program had the genetic data recorded somewhere, it's a meaningless jumbled mess because they don't know the exact gene sequence(s) for Ridley, and they couldn't extract anything useful from the clone's corpse to confirm it because it was drained dry by a Queen Metroid and would crumble to ash if it was touched. The clone's body was likely put in cold storage on the BSL Station because they were trying to figure out a way to extract a DNA sample without destroying the corpse, but the X Parasites got to it first. And with Samus killing the copy and absorbing the Core X, there truly is no way to recreate him and he is DeaderThanDead. Ridley's total absence from ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' is pretty much the confirmation that the beast is gone for good.
55	* Quiet Robe greets Samus by bowing with his hand on his chest, the same gesture that the Luminoth use for Samus in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes''. This implies that the Luminoth appropriated this gesture from their interactions with the Chozo, or that they simply recognized Samus as a Chozo warrior and remembered to give her a culturally appropriate salutation.
56	* Mother Brain's name may sound corny, but it actually follows traditional Chozo nomenclature, being two seemingly banal words put together (like "Old Bird" or "Raven Beak"). This also explains why the Chozo in ''Dread'' all address Samus as "Samus Aran", using both words of her name. It's what they know.
57	* Samus [[TwentyFourHourArmor always keeps her Power Suit on while piloting her ship]] because of ''Zero Mission'': she was a bit too eager to get out of the suit after destroying Tourian but Space Pirates shot her down and her first suit got destroyed in the crash, and she no longer takes chances when flying. The only times she's been out of her suit while in her ship were in the beginning of ''Prime 3: Corruption'' because she was asleep (and if someone tried to destroy her ship in that situation, she'd be screwed regardless of whether the suit was on or off, so may as well sleep comfortably), and the ending of ''Other M'' when she escapes the BOTTLE SHIP right before its self-destruct sequence (since she needed both hands available to carry Adam's helmet and climb ledges).
58	* Chozo Statues like the ones in ''Super Metroid'' and ''Metroid Prime'' are impressively large, but in real life statues of humans are normally much larger than the people they are based on, so it would be safe to assume they've also been scaled up. Upon finally meeting live Chozo such as Quiet Robe and Raven Beak in ''Dread'', however, it's revealed that most Chozo ''really do'' easily tower over humans.
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60	!!FridgeHorror
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62	* The original Metroid Prime takes place on Tallon IV, which happens to be in the same star system as Zebes. That's all well and good, until you remember that Zebes was destroyed at the end of Super Metroid. And as seen in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', if one planet in a system gets destroyed, the orbits of the other planets get knocked out of whack. So...just what happened to the indigenous lifeforms of Tallon IV?
63	* In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', Samus sees her deceased CO, Adam Malkovich, as a mentor to her, and even compares her ship's AI to it. Then ''Other M'' rolls around, we meet Adam when he was alive, and he seems a lot more like an uncaring jerk. Some have even theorized that he's a sadist, and compared their relationship to that of an abuser and his victim. This retroactively changes one's interpretation of events in ''Fusion'' as well. [[spoiler: And since that Adam ''was'' Adam's brain]], all those times it locks her in the Navigation room and refuses to let her out until she listens to him are somewhat chilling. In ''Other M'', Adam nearly lets Samus die in a fiery area before authorizing her Varia suit. The quote below is from ''Fusion''.
64	-->'''"Adam":''' [[HarsherInHindsight Did this "Adam" care for you? Would he sit in a safe Command Room and order you to die?]]
65	** This also has [[TheAtoner another, less-horrific implication as well]].
66	** The ending of Metroid Fusion. As the player we know that the BSL and [=SR388=] had to be destroyed, but the Galactic Federation did not. Samus destroyed a research facility and a planet, then fled the scene. In modern day times that would be like blowing up a research lab and a large amount of a park or such. Samus would be seen as some sort of terrorist, and a very dangerous one too. So, if the Metroidverse has any sort of threat come to it, Samus would be on the run from the GF with a large amount of forces after her. So she ends up either on the run for the rest of her life, likely killing lots of GF troopers along the way, turns herself in to be incarcerated and likely executed, or dies fighting against the GF.
67	*** Also, there has been no evidence to suggest anything besides Metroid or Samus can defeat X, there is evidence showing that they are the only currently known being that can kill them. This means that the destruction of the BSL and [=SR388=] didn't actually destroy the X, but just left them stranded in space. The GF will investigate the previous site of [=SR388=] and the BSL, and we know that X can go through walls, so once the GF arrives to investigate/search for Samus' path the X will easily be able to board GF ships and become a legitimate threat to the universe. Where will the only person able to stop them be? She will be chased by the GF for what she did at the end of Metroid Fusion. By the time that the GF realizes Samus was correct, it will be far too late as the X will have already become to widespread to stop. Bit of a DownerEnding huh?
68	*** Guess you missed the whole scene about the finale in the first place. The self-destruct mechanisms in that laboratory were set to literally vaporize everything within a set radius, and by crashing the station into [=SR388=], that included the planet itself. X may be resilient, but I didn't see or hear any canonical technobabble stating that it could reconstruct itself from its constituent atoms and/or molecules. Think of it like the MD device from Ender's Game- what's left is just pure matter and energy, completely devoid of life. Samus had just absorbed the final remaining X-core of any significant power (Making the assumption that Adam was lying about multiple SA-X isn't a stretch considering we never saw any other duplicate X-cores.) meaning all that was left were X-based reproductions of the natural fauna of [=SR388=], none of which could survive the vacuum of space, or could reasonably withstand the sort of force that Adam calculated would vaporize the entire planet of [=SR388=]. Perhaps if they'd had a suitable host to use as a defense against the shock they might have had a chance, but as it stands it's pretty safe to say the only X left in the galaxy is that within Samus' own body. Well that and wherever else they might have come from to begin with (Metroids as a species were created by the Chozo specifically to combat the X parasites, who had either evolved or arrived on the planet and were quickly destroying the planet's ecosystem).
69	*** But it wasn't just the life of [=SR388=], as seen with the presence of Ridley, Samus's suit can survive in space so it wouldn't be out of the question for another SA-X to just fire itself out of an airlock to escape the blast, or for there to be other space faring life like Ridley, or maybe there were multiple Neo-Ridleys considering they could make multiple SA-X from a single source, or there might even be some remains of Phantoon since they moved some creatures from the Bottle Ship, in which case they could simply phase out of existence and fly off into space.
70	* One background theme of the series has been the technological advance of the Federation. In ''Prime 1'', Space Pirate scan data showed that a major reason why the Federation considered them such a major threat was because they avert CreativeSterility: Pirate technology advances rapidly by leaps and bounds (which is best demonstrated by looking at their troops in ''Prime 1'' vs. ''Prime 2'': by the second game, even the average grunt has gotten significant upgrades to its weapons and armor). It's no surprise by ''Prime 3'', the Feds are on war footing and are pouring resources into researching Phazon-based weapons. This continues into ''Federation Force'' with Project Golem, which is a clear attempt to try to replicate the capabilities of Samus's Power Suit. By ''Other M'', Federation weaponry has advanced to the point that Ice Guns are now standard issue sidearms for soldiers, and Anthony's plasma gun is clearly an inferior version of Samus's Plasma Beam. Fed technology shows another big leap in ''Fusion'' when they demonstrate they have now perfected the Plasma Beam (it was just withheld from Samus) along with other weapons like Morph Ball Bombs, Ice Missiles, and Power Bombs. And then ''Dread'' shows an even bigger leap with the E.M.M.I. robots being MadeOfIndestructium and possessing all kinds of extremely advanced technology including the Speed Booster and most alarmingly of all, the Wave Beam, probably the most advanced Chozo beam weapon there is. If Samus ever ends up clashing with the Federation in the future, it could easily be her toughest battle yet.

Context Fridge / Metroid