Everything is in the exact same location as in the original Metroid
All of the changes between the two incarnations of Planet Zebes simply represent Samus moving in an unseen third dimension as old paths are closed and new ones are open. This would help explain why Kraid's Hideout appears to be in a different location, and why the original Metroid's path to Norfair now appears to be a one-way exit from upper Maridia to the elevator between Crateria and Red Brinstar.- It was previously believed that Zebes changed dramatically due to an explosion in Tourian at the end of the original game. However, the remake (Zero Mission) shows that the bomb ultimately did very little damage to the planet, only really destroying Tourian.
- A statement by Yoshio Sakamoto in regards to Zero Mission confirms that something like this at least somewhat happens in regards to Zero Mission and Super Metroid. Although Ridley's ship in Zero Mission appears to be in the same spot as the Wrecked Ship in Super Metroid, they are completely different entities, and the Wrecked Ship was off in another unseen direction.
Ridley didn't die.
Though many people assume he's dead after the destruction of the planet, he could have survived his fight with Samus and escaped on a ship. Though his clone was destroyed by the encounters with Metroids and X-Parasites, the original is still out there. And after all he's survived, would anyone really be surprised?- He pretty clearly explodes after Samus defeats him. Although the same could be said for his appearances in Zero Mission, Prime, and Corruption... never mind lol.
- The big difference in that his explosion death in Super also features him breaking apart into small chunks, which seems to be an indicator Samus is definitely making sure he's dead this time. His defeat in Zero Mission simply had his sprite fade away but stay in one piece as it exploded, in Prime Samus only sees a large explosion after he falls into a thick fog that obscures his body and thus she never confirms the kill, and in Corruption the camera cuts away just before he supposedly blows up and he has somehow disappeared afterward; more importantly, at this moment Samus's Phazon infection is going out of control and she's not looking at him to see where he went. Then in Samus Returns, Ridley is laying right in front of her after his defeat, but Samus foolishly just gives his supposed corpse a brief glance, then jumps in her ship and flies off... once again failing to confirm the kill.
Kraid didn't die.
You only see Kraid sink into the floor covered in explosions. It's possible he just fell through and landed in a cave somewhere. Then he managed to escape, culminating in his reappearance in Metroid Dread.- Possibly confirmed. A "beast resembling Kraid" (official quote) appears in Dread captured by the Mawkin Chozo, but it's unclear if this is the same Kraid or another member of his species. Chronologically, it's hard to believe that the Mawkin would swoop in and kidnap Kraid while dealing with the X pandemic on ZDR. It's unlikely this will ever be clarified.
Phantoon didn't die.
You only see it disappear. It probably left the Space Pirates and went to recover from its injuries, where it eventually grew to a massive size and decided to hunt down Samus. It tracked her to the Bottle Ship and waited for her at the end of Other M. The entire Mother Brain battle was a hallucination.
After being attacked by the Super Metroid, Samus was put in a high-adrenaline near-death experience and her mind didn't understand was what going on. After defeating the Mother Brain in the jar(the only real form of mother brain), the Super Metroid returns and consumes the rest of the Mother Brain's energy and evolves in an Omega Metroid that Samus believed was Mother Brain. The "dinosaur" Mother Brain isn't very different from the shape of the Metroid. The Mother Brain of Super Metroid isn't the original, but rather a stolen Aurora Unit.
The original Mother Brain was toast at the end of Metroid/Metroid: Zero Mission. Samus blew her to hell, and the self-destruct system finished whatever that 80-odd missiles didn't. Moreover, at the beginning of Super Metroid, you travel through the original Tourian, which is still trashed from Samus' previous trip down there. Of note, Mother Brain's broken jar remains in place, which pretty much puts paid to the notion of her surviving.However, Mother Brain had a backup plan — literally. Since Mother Brain and the Aurora Units are near-identical in terms of capabilities, space and power requirements, and operating platform (see above), it would have been trivially easy for the Pirates to steal another AU (or build their own copy, since they had plenty of time to study how AU 313 worked), install it in the rebuilt Tourian and load it with a Mother Brain "disk image." The Pirates also would have known from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption that Auroras can be mounted to all kinds of combat-capable vehicles, which inspired them to slap their "repurposed" AU onto that cybernetic body Mother Brain sports in the final fight of Super Metroid.
The armored corpse before Kraid's boss room is...
- A Galactic Federation trooper who was killed by Pirates long ago.
- Armstrong Houston from the comics.
- Weavel, having been somehow paralyzed just before Samus' arrival (maybe by the Gadora) but recognizing her just afterwards. This explains his backstory that she wounded him in Brinstar.
- Fun idea, but Prime Hunters occurs way before Super. If this is Weavel (still possible), it's more likely the end of his story rather than his backstory.
- A Mawkin Chozo soldier who scouted out Kraid, resulting in the Pirate's later capture on ZDR.
- A random adventurer; the game manual states many adventurers have disappeared on Zebes.
All Chozo statues are Torizo.
It's a security measure to keep non-Chozo from getting power suit technology. The Torizo (usually) don't attack Samus because they sense her Chozo DNA and/or the power suit, but they do beat the snot out of any space pirates who try to get their claws on a Plasma Beam. That's why they never manage to harness power suit tech, even though it's sitting right under their noses there on Zebes. It's also why the best they can do to keep Samus away from her upgrades is conceal the entrance and maybe park a boss in front of it. The Bomb and Gold Torizo only attacked Samus because they were defective or had been hacked by the pirates.