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, having appeared in all but three games.

Background

Zero Mission

Ridley leads the attack on K2-L

Ridley was a member of the Space Pirates and has been 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 in Metroid and Metroid Zero Mission, Ridley traveled there in a frigate in order to help secure the planet. Upon arriving, he took his place in the Ridley area (named after him) beneath Brinstar 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 battled and destroyed aboard the Space Pirates' spaceship before Samus escaped.

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 Metroid Prime.

Omega Ridley

In the two year interim, he was revived and kept his enhancements to do battle with Samus Aran again for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. 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 and failed to prevent his escape in the quick skirmish which ensued. 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 once more, and Ridley was presumed dead when Zebes exploded not long afterwards.

Ridley Clone

Not long afterwards, it was shown that the Galactic Federation had begun conducting secret experiments aboard the Bottle Ship. There, the Federation scientists created bioweapons based on the space pirates, hoping to make a special forces unit that mimicked the space pirates' organization. Part of this was the Metroid Militarization Plan, in which genetic samples of the last Metroid from Samus's suit was used to reproduce the Metroids. However, it appeared that some of Ridley's remains had gotten mixed in as well, which caused a new Ridley to be born.

Initially, the baby Ridley started as a harmless-looking furry creature that was playfully nicknamed Little Birdie. It was kept in a research room until it decided to play dead and then kill the scientist attending to it. It then roamed free throughout Sector 1. Samus spotted it when she arrived in the area, and both seemed to have some apprehensive feelings towards each other, but Samus had no idea that the mysterious creature was Ridley, although it is uncertain whether or not Ridley remembered anything from his past life. As Little Birdie, he was also shown to have a loud shriek which paralyzed most other creatures in the area, likely one of the ways in which Ridley established dominance. It used one howl to disrupt a swarm of Kihunters into attacking Samus while he ate their honey. Samus noticed Little Birdie feeding afterwards and noted that it was a disgusting beast.

RIdley evolved into its next stage soon afterwards, becoming a purple lizard-like mystery creature that walked on all furs and had a mane of long white fur. This creature attacked the Federation group outside the research center, killing Lyle Smithsonian and then attacking Samus until Anthony Higgs warded it off by blasting it with a large plasma cannon. This warded Ridley off for now, and he retreated into Sector 3. Samus did not encounter this creature again for a while. In the meantime it had shed its skin and truly became Ridley. Samus and Anthony confronted the creature, which immediately attacked Samus by shredding her against the wall, causing extensive damage to her suit. Samus was initially unable to fight back due to Ridley's mere presence giving her a panic attack, but Higgs then attacked Ridley once more.

Ridley proceeded to whip Anthony into the lava pit below. Samus was enraged by her friend's apparent death and finally put her trauma behind her to truly battle Ridley again. Ridley lost, but he then performed a swift retreat. He returned to the research center at Sector 1 to recuperate, but he was then attacked by the Queen Metroid, which seemed to suck him dry and left behind his shell. Ridley's remains arrived there until the Federation troops arrived, as they presumably took it.

The remains of this Ridley were then kept at the BioLogic Spacestation in a sub-zero environment for preservation. This environment was breached by the X Virus which infected Ridley's remains, causing them to crumble apart. Within the section called SRX, this X Parasite assumed the appearance of a stronger blue Ridley (which turned red as the battle progressed) known as Neo-Ridley. Samus was able to destroy it after yet another battle, which was her last known confrontation with Ridley.

Other Appearances

Other Games

• 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.
• Ridley also appears twice as a boss in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. First he appears in the Research Facility and violently attacks Samus, leading to a boss fight with Samus and Pikachu against Ridley. After being defeated, he is seen falling in the background in flames. He then reappears as Meta Ridley during the escape from the Subspace Bomb Factory, attacking Samus's group during their attempt to escape the factory aboard the Falcon Flyer. In a time limited battle, Meta Ridley attacks not only the player's fighters but the ship itself. Trophies for both Ridley and Meta Ridley appear in the game, which are only attainable by turning him into a trophy with a Trophy Stand and grabbing it in each boss battle. There are also two stickers of Ridley using artwork from Metroid and Metroid Zero Mission.
• Dead or Alive Dimensions features a Metroid-themed stage based on Other M in which Ridley appears in the background, spitting fire and occasionally grabbing a fighter to grind against the walls as he does to Samus during the Other M boss battle.

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 recurring villain in the Captain N: The Game Master comics.
• In the seemingly official Metroid manga, Ridley, depicted as capable of speaking, leads the attack on K-2L; despite feeling some sympathy for a young Samus, whom he briefly meets, Ridley incinerates her mother with his flame breath and also attempts to kill Samus. Years later, Ridley is shown leading the Space Pirates in occupation of Zebes, working in conjunction with the rogue Chozo computer Mother Brain, and helps to wipe out most of the Chozo, including Gray Voice. Ridley also has further confrontations with Samus, during her years working for the Federation. The manga ends with an adaptation of Zero Mission in which Ridley is shown commanding the Space Pirate forces in battle with Galactic Federation ships; after hearing of Samus's progress, he retreats to Zebes and battles Samus in person. This is the point at which Samus definitively defeats Ridley with a combination of her various beams and her Varia Suit's immunity to Ridley's plasma beams, and she leaves Ridley on fire.
• 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

• He seems to be named after Ridley Scott, director of the Alien movies (which Metroid is believed to be inspired by).
• 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. Other M finally confirms that there is at least one Ridley clone (although one created unintentionally), which is the Ridley seen in that game as well as Fusion.
• In the instructions for the original Metroid, Ridley is described as 'the original life form of planet Zebes'. Because of this, it is possible that Ridley's species was once the dominant species on planet Zebes before its occupation by the Chozo and the Space Pirates afterwards.