Mother Brain

Mother Brain
Affiliation	Space Pirates
Base	Zebes
Debut	Metroid

The Mother Brain is a recurring boss from the Metroid series which is known for acting as the final boss of Metrood and Super Metroid. It is a giant mechanical organism that coordinates operations on Zebes for the Space Pirates. The origins of this creature are unclear, but it seems to have preceded the Space Pirates. It originally served the Chozo according to the Metroid manga, and it was also implied to be an Aurora Unit in Metroid Prime 2: Corruption. Its primary purpose is to coordinate the traps and much of the operations found on Zebes. It receives energy through a sequence of Zeebetites which travel through tubes straight into the Mother Brain.

Background

The Mother Brain had the literal appearance of a giant brain and had a singular eye that was capable of firing energy beams. Its body was protected by a thick casing. It was capable of accessing security cameras on Zebes and monitoring the many locations on Zebes. The Mother Brain was kept in the Space Pirates' Zebesian base of Tourian and was heavily protected, mostly by automatic turrets and other weaponry. The Mother Brain was also equipped with a self-destruct function as a last resort.

Mother Brain in Metroid: Other M

The Space Pirates on Zebes worked closely with Mother Brain and went through great lengths for its protection, as even though it was not their leader, Mother Brain still acted as one keys to their operations on Zebes. Samus Aran's last foe on both of her missions to Zebes was Mother Brain. The first time (Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission), Samus simply had to eradicate Mother Brain with a barrage of missiles. Upon defeat, Mother Brain initiated a self-destruct sequence that destroyed Tourian.

During the second encounter (Super Metroid), Mother Brain was relocated to a more secure location located beyond the original Tourian's ruins. After Samus defeated Mother Brain in the same manner as their first battle, Mother Brain transported itself on top of a large organic beast. Samus Aran was nearly defeated by Mother Brain's stronger form, but was saved when the Metroid hatchling sucked away most of Mother Brain's energy and gave it to Samus. The Mother Brain destroyed the Metroid hatchling for this, but Samus Aran was then able to destroy Mother Brain with her newly empowered Hyper Beam. That time, her defeat triggered a self destruct that destroyed the entire planet of Zebes, marking the end of Mother Brain.

Related Beings

Aurora Units

In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, it was revealed that the Galactic Federation created a system of supercomputers known as Aurora Units to coordinate the efforts of the Federation's military. The Aurora Units were strikingly similar to Mother Brain in appearance, and special note was made that the units could be programmed with male, female, or gender neutral personalities. Plans were seen at one point of the game for a one Aurora Unit location that closely resembled a map of Tourian, implying that this was Mother Brain's origin.

MB

In Metroid: Other M, an android named MB was created with Mother Brain's brain patterns/consciousness in order to control the clones of the Space Pirates and Metroids which were being secretly created by a faction of the Galactic Federation. Although she wound up playing a villainous role, MB differed from Mother Brain in that she gained something resembling a soul while caring for a baby Metroid.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mother Brain appears as an Assist Trophy, based on her Zero Mission appearance. When summoned, she starts at a small size and quickly grows to her 'normal' large size. She fires lasers from her eye at opponents. Within the series, she has been represented in the form of a sticker (from Zero Mission) in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a trophy in the 3DS/Wii U game and two stages of a Primary Spirit in Ultimate. Mother Brain's initial Spirit was an Ace-rank one based on her appearance from Zero Mission. After advancing that Spirit to Level 99, it could be enhanced into a Legend-rank Spirit of Mother Brain's second form from Super Metroid, which came with the added effect of making the player fighter giant-sized. When fought in a Spirit battle, Mother Brain's Spirit would possess Dark Samus in a battle where she is aided by the Assist Trophy version of Mother Brain.

In Other Media

• In the official Metroid manga, Mother Brain was designed by the Chozo to make it possible to live on Zebes and coordinated their daily lives. It afterwards betrayed the Chozo, leading to the Space Pirate occupation. After its first defeat, it was shown that over the course of the following years, it manipulated Zebes's ecosystem to make it into its own personal fortress. Mother Brain worked with the Space Pirates in hope that they and the Federation would weaken each other enough that Mother Brain could take control with perfect lifeforms, and was also hinted at being jealous of Samus. The manga ends with Samus confronting Mother Brain in an adaptation of Zero Mission's ending.
• In the Captain N animated series, Mother Brain appeared as the primary antagonist and leader of a group of villains called the League of Darkness (despite Samus herself not appearing in the show). She was quite different from the games, to make her more like a typical cartoon villain, as she was an ambitious but ultimately incompetent conqueror, largely due to her bumbling minions. This version had a human-like face. She was voiced by Levi Stubbs, who was known for voicing the evil plant monster Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors.
• Mother Brain appeared in the companion comic series of Captain N, which had appearances by Samus. In the first issue, Captain N's team intercepted a shipment of "zeebetite", which is described as Mother Brain's power source, but Mother Brain hires Samus to capture the N-Team. Samus pretends to do the job but ultimately cons Mother Brain out of her money. One notable issue involved Mother Brain accidentally being infected with a computer virus by her henchmen. The N-Team ultimately entered her mind to save her, and they found Mother Brain's inner good (represented in the form of a young girl) which was hounded by monstrous versions of members of the N-Team and League of Darkness. Mother Brain was cured and the N-Team left with hope that Mother Brain's good would win the battle eventually.

Trivia

• In the original Metroid and Super Metroid, it is suggested that Mother Brain is the Zebesian leader, but it is later indicated that Ridley is. However, in the Metroid Prime series, even Ridley is superseded by the Space Pirate High Command.
• In Metroid Dread, Mother Brain appears in some of the bonus images found in the Chozo Archives, including her second form being included in a splash image depicting prominent Metroid characters.