Ridley, Cunning God of Death
"Our scanners have detected the remains of Dark Samus, who has revived herself within our Phazon storage. Surely, we are cursed. The fiendish shrew consumed all of the Phazon, then wiped out a third of the crew in a matter of minutes. Now she moves at will through the halls of Colossus, using her witchery to beguile the minds of my men. We are unable to call for aid, and only a few of us remain to stand against her. All is lost."
— Captain's Log, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Throughout her many adventures, primarily as a bounty hunter for the Galactic Federation, Samus Aran has confronted Space Pirates, Metroids, and countless other aliens of all shapes and sizes in order to keep the galaxy safe. A select few stand out as the worst.
Entries in each group are by release date.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Video Games
- The head of the Space Pirates and another of its top leaders have squared off against Samus Aran throughout multiple games:
- Mother Brain, a rogue AI created by the Chozo, is the leader of the Space Pirates who enslaves many of her followers to launch attacks all across the universe with the intent to dominate the galaxy. Killing countless beings, Mother Brain intends to harvest the Metroids as a new weapon and send them against entire populations and fleets. Upon facing Samus for the last time, Mother Brain heartlessly kills the baby Metroid who sees Samus as its mother for saving the bounty hunter.
- Ridley, the "Cunning God of Death", is a bestial Space Pirate and Samus's most recurring, hated foe. Far smarter than his appearance suggests and brimming with sadism, Ridley leads the Space Pirates alongside Mother Brain in regularly organizing devastating raids across the galaxy, one such raid resulting in him annihilating Samus's colony and personally killing her parents. Ridley works with Mother Brain to enslave the Metroid race as a bioweapon that can be used to wipe out entire planets, hoping to upheave galactic civilization and institute the Pirates as the reigning power, and he further oversees the Pirates' Phazon mining operation and the horrifying experiments it is used for. When Ridley learns that Samus has wiped out all but one baby Metroid, he kidnaps the baby after slaughtering the entire Ceres Colony and hands said baby over to Mother Brain to be experimented on and reproduced into a destructive army. Regularly defying death to return more powerful than ever, Ridley's apparent final death didn't stop him from returning in the form of a clone that has continued to plague Samus and harm her loved ones, his genetic code being so full of evil and hatred that his clone's number one objective is to make Samus suffer.
- Prime series:
- Dark Samus, psychopathic yet cunning, is the primary villain of the trilogy, as a recurring boss in the second game and the Big Bad in the third. Starting off as the titular Metroid Prime in the first game, a Metroid vastly mutated by the substance Phazon, it is defeated by Samus and apparently killed, but uses one of her suits and DNA to reconstruct itself in her form with sapience. Now known as Dark Samus, she travels to the planet Aether to consume the Phazon on the planet and physically stabilize herself. She raids a Space Pirate colony on the planet and kills those in her way, and when Samus arrives on the planet, Dark Samus tries to have her killed at every given opportunity. Defeated and left for dead in a collapsing dimension, Dark Samus still survives and reforms in a Space Pirate ship, killing a third of the crew and forcing the rest under her control. She raids the G.F.S. Valhalla, kills its entire crew, and steals Aurora Unit 313 to control Phazon and the planet Phaaze. Dark Samus infects three planets with Phazon and almost infects a fourth, only stopped by Samus and three other bounty hunters. Dark Samus takes the opportunity to plant Phazon seeds inside the four of them, leading to the corruption and deaths of the other three. Samus herself almost succumbs to corruption while trying to defeat Dark Samus.
- Hunters Gaiden Game: Gorea is a formless, ancient alien that millennia ago crashed on Alinos within the Alimbic Cluster. In the form of a perverse imitation of the Alimbics themselves, Gorea sets about massacring the entire race to drain their life energy and empower itself, scouring entire planets of life, turning the Alimbics' own weaponry against them, and devastating the Cluster. Fully intending on continuing its rampage to the rest of the galaxy for the sole sake of power, Gorea's actions wipe out the Alimbics before it's finally sealed away in the Oubliette. Craving freedom, Gorea initiates the entire plot of the game by tempting bounty hunters into the ruins of the Alimbic Cluster towards its seal—and, upon breaking out, drains the power out of all the other bounty hunters before turning its attention to Samus.
- Dread: Raven Beak is the Chozo leader of the Mawkin tribe, and the architect behind the entire franchise. Once a mighty warrior who fought alongside his Chozo brethren, Raven Beak began to desire the Metroids for their power, hoping to use them to conquer the entire galaxy. When the Thoha tribe sealed them away with plans to exterminate them all, Raven Beak had the entire Thoha tribe slaughtered, only sparing Quiet Robe to act as his pet scientist, which allowed the Space Pirates to gather information on them, and the X Parasites to roam free. As ruler of the planet ZDR, Raven Beak has Kraid imprisoned as an abused slave, and keeps his men in line by killing those who disobey him. Upon discovering his metaphorical daughter Samus is near, Raven Beak lures her to ZDR with hopes of obtaining her Metroid DNA to create an army of Metroids. Having Quiet Robe killed for giving away information to Samus, Raven Beak later decides to instead create an army of Samus clones after seeing no use in her anymore.
Manga
- Samus and Joey:
- Volume 1: Dragüd is an infamous Space Pirate out to enslave and conquer those in his path. He orders his men to raze Joey's village to bring back innocents for slave labor and kill those who refuse to serve, viewing the planet as theirs to control. After witnessing his men getting killed by a pack of Metroids, Dragüd decided to harvest the energy of a dead one to create the Megaroid, an ultra-powerful bioweapon for which he'll unleash upon the galaxy by his side, with Samus to serve as its first victim.
- Volume 3:
- Chapter 12—"Suspicious Dark Shadows, Different Interiors": Dangelo is a psychopathic escaped convict who wants revenge on Samus for locking him up. Given a blue Power Suit by the Dominion to test out its abilities, Dangelo uses it instead to go on a killing spree, murdering several people as he robs a bank as a way to pin the crime on Samus. Killing over 30 people over the span of a few days, Dangelo later kills several cops who swarm Samus to make her look worse. Dangelo afterwards blows up part of a hospital and takes the remaining patients hostage. Once Samus arrives, Dangelo gleefully threatens to kill the hostages should Samus not break her arm cannon, happy to see her powerless as he attempts to murder the hostages regardless.
- Chapter 13—"Demon Planet—A Dash for Hope": The Base Commander is a member of the Dominion placed in charge of weapons development and testing. Imprisoning those who come close to uncovering the Dominion, the Base Commander uses his prisoners of all ages as test subjects for his organization's deadly weapons, which are used to start wars across the galaxy. Kidnapping Joey and Diesel, the Base Commander has them and a whole group of prisoners unfairly chosen as guinea pigs, giving them an incredibly small running start before sending his tanks out to murder them. Killing a majority of them before Samus arrives to stop him, the Base Commander decides to use Samus as his ultimate test subject, hoping to use her suit to develop more powerful weapons.
- Chapter 17—"Lost Powers and a Determined Voyage" & EX: Greed is a draconic alien who seeks to become emperor of the galaxy by activating the Animus. Seeking revenge on Samus for damaging the status of his race after the death of Ridley, Greed has Joey kidnapped to lure Samus into a trap, forcing her into a torturous machine that plucks away her abilities. Forming the Greed Corps to spread chaos across the galaxy, Greed gives Samus's abilities to his Deadly Six Stars, allowing them to murder and enslave countless figures. Viewing those close to him as expendable, once Samus is in his grasp, Greed has her sacrificed to activate the Gates of Judgment. After entering the Gate, Greed activates the Animus and uses it to spawn several Unrealistic Black Holes across the galaxy, planning to swallow everything and remake the universe in his own image.
- Metroid (Monthly Magazine Z):
- Ridley, Arch-Enemy of Samus Aran, is the monstrous, dragon-like military commander and security chief of the Space Pirates, and is the most brutal, vicious and monstrous member of the organization. He is introduced attacking Samus's home colony, and immediately gave orders to his men to slaughter everything in sight and enjoy it to the fullest. When the three-year-old Samus tried to befriend him, Ridley attempted to murder her, killing her mother when she tried to save her daughter. After Samus's father sacrificed himself to destroy Ridley's ship, nearly killing him, Ridley survived by eating the corpse of Samus's mother to heal himself, a fact he later uses to mock Samus. A veteran raider, Ridley has slaughtered dozens of innocent colonies and was the one responsible for annihilating the last of the benevolent Chozo race who had rescued and raised the child Samus. Driven by a relentless and mutual hatred of Samus and his desire to destroy and kill whatever he can sink his claws into, Ridley is one of the most feared beings in the universe and a sadist of the highest order.
- Mother Brain was an advanced A.I. who was initially created with peaceful intentions by the dying race known as Chozo, but grew a god complex from her role. In order to take the universe for herself, she trained an orphan named Samus to become her own personal Tyke-Bomb and then allies herself with the vicious Space Pirates while letting them attack the Chozo planet, Zebes, as she felt that she already surpassed the Chozo in terms of intelligence. After Samus discovers Mother Brain's plans in horror, she attempts to manipulate her into joining her side, and when one of the Chozo rebelled against her, she uses the leader of the Space Pirates to kill him. After Samus returned to Planet Zebes during the "Zero Mission" incident, it was revealed that Mother Brain intends to use a dangerous substance known as Metroid and pit the Space Pirates and the Galactic Force members against each other in order to reshape the universe in her own vision.
- Prime: Episode of Aether: In this adaptation of Prime 2, "Boss", the unnamed Space Pirate leader, raids the space ship Crest and tries, alongside his crew, to hijack it, killing a civilian who happened to be there. When the Crest Captain begs "Boss" for mercy, the Space Pirate overhears a worried child calming his sister down, saying that help is on the way. "Boss" torments them as much as possible before trying to murder them, as well as everyone else on board the ship, laughing at the older child trying to protect his younger sibling. When Samus comes to the rescue, "Boss" holds one of the children and the Crest Captain hostage and when Samus aims at him, he throws the hostages, chasing after them with the intent to slice their heads off.
