Ridley

Ridley in Metroid Zero Mission.
Ridley
Base	Zebes
Debut	Metroid

Ridley is the primary enforcer of the Space Pirates and of their most powerful warriors. He is one of the most recurring enemies in the Metroid series.

Background

Zero Mission

Ridley is a member of the Space Pirates and is frequently alluded to as the leader of their forces. His appearance is like a dragon of human mythology, but with notable differences. He has been involved with the Space Pirates for many years. He led the force on K-2L that slaughtered the space colony Samus Aran was from. His species is unknown, but he is apparently the last of the native inhabitants of Zebes. He is capable of flight (even in space), his spear-shaped tail makes a deadly weapon, and he is capable of breathing out dangerous plasma.

When a now grown Samus Aran started her attack on Zebes, Ridley traveled in a frigate to the planet to help secure the planet. Upon arriving, he took his place in the Ridley area (named after him) and did battle with Samus Aran. In their first battle, Ridley was defeated, thus allowing Samus Aran to encounter Mother Brain. However, the Space Pirates had constructed a mechanical version of Ridley which Samus Aran did battle with.

Meta Ridley

Due to Ridley's defeat on Zebes, Ridley was taken on board the Orpheus frigate and put in orbit around Tallon IV. While there he was given several mechanical upgrades as well as armor. With these powerful upgrades he was given the name 'Meta Ridley'. These operations were performed in cycles and were reportedly aggressive and painful. However, given the upgrades Meta Ridley became a mainstay of Tallon IV's security force, a position he much enjoyed. Several weapons were fused to his body, such as a Multi-Missile system, a Kinetic Breath Weapon, a Meson Bomb Launcher, and an Ultrathermal Flamestrike Projector. Despite these many enhancements, he was inevitably defeated by Samus Aran.

In the two year interim, he was revived and kept his enhancements to do battle with Samus Aran again. During the assault on Norion led by Dark Samus, Ridley flew around the station hampering progress for the Federation Troopers trying to activate the generators. While Samus was in Morph Ball mode, Ridley managed to trap her inside a pipe, but she was able to use her Morph Balls to get past him. They later fought in one of the Generator shafts as both Ridley and Samus Aran fells thousands of feet down, all the time battling one another. The battle went poorly for Ridley, but before he could be killed, Rundas arrived and rescued Samus from hitting the bottom.

Ridley was taken to the Pirate Homeworld where he was treated to and given more enhancements. He was made into the guardian of the planet's Leviathan and received many Phazon enhancements as a result. However by the time Samus confronted the newly named Omega Ridley, his injuries were not yet fully healed. She was able to exploit this and remove his chestplate to damage his weakened torso. When Ridley developed Phazite Armor to guard the weakpoint, Samus resorted to her X-Ray visor to shoot through the armor, bringing an end to Omega Ridley.

Return to Zebes

Samus met Ridley once again some time later, this time without his metagenic enhancements. After delivering the Metroid hatchling to Ceres, she received a distress signal from the researchers. Upon arriving, she found Ridley stealing the Metroid hatchling. Samus tracked Ridley down to Zebes afterwards. She had to travel through most of Zebes before being able to reach his lair. She even had to deal with his two elite Space Pirates that guarded his chamber. Eventually Samus Aran defeated Ridley.

Although Ridley was presumed dead when Zebes exploded, his remains somehow made its way to the BioLogic Spacestation. He was, however, seemingly dead and being kept in a sub-zero environment for preservation. This environment was breached by theX Virus and Ridley's remains were stolen. Soon after Samus Aran had to do battle with the X-infested Ridley. Ridley has not yet been seen again.

Other media

• In Captain N: The Game Master, an early video game centered animated series, Ridley, instead of a single character, was depicted as a race of creatures that appeared in three episodes ("Kevin in Videoland", "Metroid, Sweet Metroid" and "Gameboy").
• Ridley, his appearance based upon early artwork from the Metroid manual, also appeared as a minor reccuring villain in the Captain N: The Game Master comics.
• In the Metroid e-Manga, Ridley, depicted as capable of speaking, leads the attack K-2L; despite feeling some sympathy for a young Samus, who he briefly meets, Ridley incinerates her mother with his flame breath and also attempts to kill her.
• In the Nintendo Power comic adaptation of Metroid Prime, Meta-Ridley makes only a brief appearance, appearing to attack Samus with his flame breath.

Trivia

• It's a subject of debate whether all the Ridleys are one in the same or are all clones of the original Ridley from Metroid.
• Ridley appears in one of the stages in Super Smash Bros. In Super Smash Bros. Melee he is seen fighting Samus in the intro and has his own trophy.