While Dread may be the darkest game in the Metroid series thus far, there are quite a few moments of humor that help provide some much needed levity.
Moments subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
- The intro has Samus flying to ZDR, with ADAM repeatedly trying to dissuade Samus from the mission. She presses on anyways and enters the planet's atmosphere — cut to Samus lying on the ground with all of her items gone.
- In that same intro, ADAM quips that the bounty the Galactic Federation is paying Samus for this mission doesn’t appear to be worth the risks attached. Seems ADAM feels that Samus isn’t getting compensated near enough for all the times she's pulled the Federation’s collective asses out of the fire.
- Samus seems to give ADAM a glance as she begins her descent into ZDR, as if telling him: “You always say that on these types of missions. Now quit griping, we’ve got a job to do.”
- "Treat our lost assets with care, Lady." In ADAM's defense, he hasn't been informed that the E.M.M.I. have been reprogrammed into killing machines yet, but jury's out on how much he really expects Samus to consider that piece of advice.
- When Samus is trying to recall how she ended up above, she's sitting on the ground casually, giving her confused vibes.
- Samus' reaction to seeing Kraid is to give him an unimpressed stare, charge her arm cannon while it still hangs at her side, and casually blast him clean in the mouth while he's roaring at her. Before then, she was set in battle pose ready for anything, like she was expecting to fight some scary unknown monster, only to be disappointed/relieved to find out that it was just Kraid. Basically she said without words, "Oh, it's just him again."
- It's even more humorous when you consider how she reacted towards Ridley in Other M after his supposed final death on Zebes in Super Metroid. It's as if that experience had taught her to just expect her old adversaries to somehow survive the impossible odds so that she'll never be caught in that compromising situation again. Either that, or she just doesn't take him as seriously in general. Think about it: Ridley killed her birth parents and was consistently one of her toughest opponents for years, Mother Brain was a traitor to her adoptive family and played mind games with her as a teenager, and Kraid is just a big lizard who throws fingernails that she's met only twice.
- It's even funnier if you take that zap in the mouth as 1) a warning that she still remembers how to kick his ass and will do so, and/or 2) her basically giving an annoyed "Oh, SHUT UP..."
- At one point during his roaring and trying to lunge at Samus, Kraid suddenly stops and narrows his eyes at her, as if he just noticed and realized that Samus isn't very intimidated by his presence or efforts.
- As demonstrated
, if you get the bombs early, you can deal with Kraid in a way that's equal parts funny and Squick. - And during the cutscene where she finishes him off, Kraid launches one of his spikes at Samus in a last-ditch effort to take her out, but she just casually turns her body to dodge it, not even bothering to adopt a battle stance or even move from where she's standing. A final insult to Kraid, a demonstration that he is simply not a threat to her.
- It's almost like the universe is laughing at Kraid; when the X create a copy of him and merge with Raven Beak, you might expect a climactic final boss against the new horrific creation. Samus melts it in ten seconds to show off her new abilities. Then kills the X with its DNA for good measure, like he's not even worth being absorbed. Even Ridley's clone had his X absorbed, and Samus doesn't afford the same honor to Kraid.
- One of◊ the Chozo Archive gallery images shows a squad of Mawkin Tribe Chozo capture, restrain, and torture Kraid. It's a horrifying scene that displays the might and cruelty of the Chozo warriors, but a bit of it is undermined by one Mawkin Tribe Chozo falling off Kraid.
- Back to the casual zap in the mouth, it's actually super funny to see just how zero fucks Samus gives about anything she's seeing on ZDR, as if saying to herself "Yeah yeah, been there, done that...."
- Missing your counters during cinematic moments (i.e. before getting caught by an E.M.M.I. or finishing an X-infected Chozo warrior) is almost darkly hilarious, as Samus just swipes her cannon uselessly before being pinned down or sent flying. In the former case, it's effectively giving the robot a useless slap.
- The introduction to E.M.M.I.-06WB, specifically the moment when Quiet Robe steps in. Samus is saved from the purple E.M.M.I. because Quiet Robe deactivates it, and serenely approaches Samus. Much like when Samus met U-Mos, her first reaction is to have her gun constantly trained on the entity. The silly thing is she's doing this while sitting casually on the ground. She doesn't get up — she just continues to shift her body to get increasingly comfortable, all while keeping her aim on the Chozo, not taking any chances, even when the guy bows to her.
- Samus's non-verbal cue immediately after this is to rest her elbow on her knee and splay one leg like she's sitting at a picnic. It's the body-language alternative to a relieved sigh.
- If you are a Chinese player, you'll snicker when Quite Robe introduced the Mawkin leader's name... 'Cause in Chinese slang, "raven beak"(烏鴉嘴) means "mouth from which inauspicious remarks are uttered"!
- After sending Z-57 into the lava pit, Samus executes a very necessary one-handed backwards handstand flip to the platform. Then you can feel her aggravation as she lackadaisically shoots the fan control panels that gave her so much trouble in said boss fight.
- When Samus' rampant Metroid genes have been calmed by the infusion of QR-X, she ponders the situation for all of four seconds... Then remembers she has to outrace a countdown, abruptly spins round, and vaults into the pilot's chair.
- Quiet Robe explains to Samus that the Thoha Chozo’s proposed solution to dealing with the quarantined Metroids on SR388 was to destroy the planet itself. Given that Samus received Thoha genes during her Chozo blood transfusion, this may partly explain her habit of inadvertently destroying entire planets during her missions; it's literally in her blood.
- The final E.M.M.I. encounter. You walk into a room, notice the telltale sights and sounds indicating an E.M.M.I. is aware of you... and then the entire room explodes, courtesy of E.M.M.I.-07PB having laid a Power Bomb.
- Another moment can come from the player if they follow the pattern of the E.M.M.I. droids. By the time you get to this area, it's very likely that you'll realize that the Power Bombs are the only item you have left to unlock... and you are now in the only active E.M.M.I. zone left, with no Chozo Statues to be found. Have fun with that!
- The Reveal that Raven Beak was impersonating ADAM for most of the game is a properly creepy moment, but it gets pretty hilarious when you pay attention to the clues on a second playthrough. It feels like every other briefing, "ADAM" just so happens to mention how strong Raven Beak is and how Samus has no chance of beating him. It seems that even ruthless warlords aren't immune to invoking …But He Sounds Handsome. Or rather, a ruthless warlord is exactly the kind of man who would have such an inflated opinion of himself.
- It's also darkly hilarious given how Adam's hitherto most recent portrayal was very divisive and irked many a player, given how much he micromanaged Samus' adventure and took a lot of the spotlight from her while giving her some pretty terrible advice. He finally gets a chance to return to the good graces of those who liked his portrayal in Fusion and the manga... and Raven Beak steals the carpet right out from under him, making ADAM a bit character in Raven Beak's story, unable to do anything to manage Samus at all.
- Samus jacking Raven Beak's personal (egg-shaped) shuttle, while kicking back and relaxing in his big ol' throne seat during the ride up to Itorash. Because yes, even Raven Beak's escape pod must have an ego-sized resplendent throne as a monument to his vanity.
- On the flip side, consider that Raven Beak is twice as tall as Samus. Now picture him crammed into that undersized (for him) shuttle with his face squashed against the glass.
- A Meta example: As the boss fight with Raven Beak transitions into the third stage, Samus blasts off one of Raven Beak's wings. This leaves him with a single right wing, making him resemble the infamous Trope Namer... only to casually rip it off and continue fighting Samus on foot.
- In an otherwise harrowing scene of Raven Beak throttling Samus to death, our heroine loses any sense of tactics and starts wailing pitifully on her elder's forearm with her cannon. It's less two ultimate warriors going at it with anime flash-steps and physics-busting tech but more a toddler trying to fruitlessly battle an adult.
- Even funnier, those two hammer taps seem to hurt more than all the beam and missile fire she threw at him beforehand, as Beaky-boy readjusts his grip and starts choking her harder!
- There's something hilarious about the fact that Raven Beak has Samus by the neck and despite being in perfect position to shoot him in the face with her cannon or try her new Vampiric Draining on the arm he's holding her with, she instead decides to melee smack his arm with her cannon and reach for his head with her draining hand despite his arms probably being about twice as long as hers, as if she came up with both ideas and got them backwards.
- Despite the absolute badassery as Samus taps into her fury and growing Metroid powers to drain Raven Beak, it's hilarious to see him flailing about, blasting his beam, and trying anything just to get her to let go, almost like she's a stubborn pet that just bit him and refuses to release.
- The fact that she drains not only Raven Beak, but his entire ship enough to drop it out of the sky. If Samus is involved, it's gonna get smashed one way or another, nuff said.
- Samus in her Metroid form obliterates not only Raven Beak’s monstrous X-infected physical form with the Hyper Beam, but also the X Parasite containing his genetic material and memories that it assimilated, rather than absorbing it. Given her past experiences with her old enemies coming back from the dead to haunt her, and all the trouble Raven Beak caused her in this game, Samus likely wanted to make doubly sure that this particular enemy would stay dead for good.
- Speaking of Metroid-Form Samus, this is the point in the franchise where the old joke of Samus being called Metroid has come full circle. Now she IS Metroid.
- It's funny to imagine the game from ADAM's perspective. Raven Beak has been impersonating him for the entire game, meaning ADAM asked Samus to please keep in touch, only to not hear from her for whatever amount of time the game's events take place. Then, as he ponders her current status, the entire planet starts exploding after a random sky fortress falls from the stratosphere, Samus is running towards him wearing the Metroid Suit and shooting Hyper Beams at everything, and an X-possessed Chozo is silently following her. All of this insanity within the space of five minutes that he has very little context for.
- The fact that Adam doesn't even mention any of the above when Samus finally gets back to her ship is hilarious even outside of all that. The only reason he pipes up is to warn her from accidentally draining the ship batteries. Samus now being a full Metroid is apparently nothing worth commenting further upon because to him, this was just another mission.
- The Boss Rush mode includes eleven bosses that all pose at least some threat... and the Ferenia Central Unit, the final Central Unit Samus fights properly. By the point of the rush it appears in, you have almost all of Samus's arsenal and six energy tanks, meaning it only exists to have its shell quickly blasted apart followed by one Screw Attack to fry it. It's even placed slightly out of order (after the Elite Chozo Soldier rather than before) just to make it a funny breather before Raven Beak.
- It's possible for skilled players who exploit a certain glitch to SKIP the first E.M.M.I. entirely. There is a hazard here: Getting squished by the collapsing rocks results in an instant death.
- Skipping the first E.M.M.I. and returning to the room used to have an issue that would cause a Klaida to spawn in the room (which normally spawns after the E.M.M.I. is defeated), while still triggering the E.M.M.I. cutscene. The Klaida still remains during the cutscene without moving at all, obscuring the characters from various perspectives, making an otherwise tense moment turn into hilarity.
- With how influential Ridley is to the franchise, one may notice something glaring; he is completely absent in any capacity, a feat only seen previously in Echoes and a few spin offs. Even the recap of Fusion, with art of all the major bosses and his most recent chronological appearance, leaves out Ridley-X. Its as if Samus doesn't even consider him worth mentioning anymore because either his presence is naturally assumed given his tenacity, or he's just become background radiation in her life that she's trying to tune out.
