Samus Aran

Samus in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
Samus Aran
Species	Human
Hair color	Blonde
Eye color	Blue
Voiced by	Jennifer Hale (2002-2007) Alesia Glidewell (2008) Jessica Martin (2010)
Debut	Metroid

Samus Aran is the female bounty hunter who stars in the Metroid series. She is notable as being one of the early female characters to be a star of a game. Since her debut in Metroid, she has starred in ten titles and made cameos in various other games.

Background

Early Life

Samus meeting the Chozo

Samus was only an infant on the planet of K-2L when it was attacked by Space Pirates. As the sole survivor of the tragedy, she was left orphaned and alone. A group of Chozo found her and took her as their own. They raised her on the planet Zebes where these particular Chozo lived. During this time she was infused with Chozo blood. After she had grown to adulthood, the Chozo fashioned for her a Chozo Power Suit to defend her. Not only that, but it possessed the ability to assimilate other technologies (Chozo or otherwise) into the suit.

For a time she served in the Galactic Federation, likely as a Federation Trooper (although she was originally described as being in the Galactic Police). During this time her Commanding Officer was Adam Malkovich (who presumably died at some point). For reasons unknown she left the Federation and became a Bounty Hunter. Although her career as a bounty hunter is only lightly touched upon, she soon after became an enemy of the pirates.

Bounty Hunter Years

Her first mission (or 'zero mission' as she refers to it) was to track down and destroy the Metroids that the Space Pirates had stolen from Federation hands. During her excursion into the heart of Zebes she battled many creatures, some of which she would soon face again, such as Ridley and Mother Brain. With the Metroids destroyed, she managed to escape the planet before the structure of the Pirate caverns collapsed. Before she could completely escape her ship was downed and her Power Suit destroyed. There she proved her worth and merit by infiltrating a Pirate frigate with little more than a gun that only stunned the pirates. She was able to get a new suit (or have her original repaired) at a Chozo Shrine. She was then able to defeat the Mecha Ridley creature inside and escape from Zebes.

Samus in her flight suit

After the defeat at Zebes, the pirates branched out their operations in order to rebuild. While some stayed on Zebes to rebuild, another group went to Tallon IV. Samus was able to track the pirate frigate in orbit around the planet. Upon infiltrating the ship, she discovered the pirates had discovered something important on the planet. She then proceeded to land on the planet and wipe out the Pirate bases. In the process she learned of the presence of Chozo ruins on the planet. She was able to defeat the strange Metroid Prime creature and put to rest the ghosts of Chozo warriors.

With the Space Pirates defeated yet again, the Galactic Federation received a telepathic message from the Alimbic Cluster that spoke of a great power. Knowing that others would go seeking it, the Federation sent Samus Aran to go find this power and make sure it did not fall into enemy hands. As it turned out, she faces fierce competition from Sylux, Weavel, Trace, Noxus, Spire, and Kanden. All had their own reasons for gaining the power, some for noble purposes - others for more sinister reasons. That Samus Aran and the others instead found was Gorea who had deceived them into freeing him from his prison. Although he defeated the other hunters readily enough, he was ultimately defeated by Samus Aran. The Oubliette containing him then destructed, just as Samus Aran and the other hunters made their escape.

Her next mission was not to destroy, but to aid Federation Troopers who had gone MIA near Planet Aether during a conflict with Space Pirates. On the planet she discovered the Federation Troopers had been wiped out, but not by pirates. Instead they had been slaughtered by the Ing, creatures created by an unfortunate incident involving the Luminoth who lived on the planet. With the guidance of U-Mos, the only remaining Luminoth, she was able to restore Aether to light, defeat the Ing, and the strange Dark Samus that had come into existence.

Phazon Crisis

The battle with Dark Samus was not yet over though. Following the events on Aether, the Space Pirates had come across Dark Samus while bringing what Phazon they could from the planet. Their minds were enslaved and formed an alliance. After the Aurora Units were corrupted by Phazon, Samus Aran was hired by Admiral Dane to investigate. She was to work alongside fellow hunters, Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda. During their briefing, the ship was attacked and Samus Aran was forced to make way to the planet Norion.

Samus Aran battles Dark Samus

On the planet she worked with the hunters to enable the power generators to power the cannon that could destroy the Leviathan, an incoming meteor filled with Phazon. During this process she came across Ridley and the two fell down a massive shaft. As they fell hundreds of feet, Samus Aran battled her for. Before they reached the bottom, Rundas pulled Samus Aran from harms way. The four bounty hunters then went to the operation tower to activate the cannon. Their efforts were hampered by Dark Samus who fired a powerful beam of Phazon energy that corrupted them. Samus Aran was just barely able to activate the cannon before passing out.

She awoke two weeks later. She learned that she had been corrupted with Phazon and that the Federation had installed a special suit upgrade to allow her to enter into Hyper Mode. The other three bounty hunters had went to investigate the other planets hit by the Leviathans, but had since lost contact. Samus Aran was sent first to Bryyo where she found a corrupted Rundas and was forced to defeat him. On Elysia, she repaired Aurora Unit 217 and they worked to construct a bomb to destroy the Leviathan's shielding. Her efforts were hampered by a corrupted Ghor, who managed to deal critical damage to her gunship before he was defeated.

Following this she traveled to the Pirate Homeworld. Here she encountered a lone Federation trooper who knew the location of a suit upgrade that could withstand the acidic rain of the planet. However upon meeting him, she discovered it to be a corrupted Gandrayda. After defeating Gandrayda, Samus was able to disable the planet's defenses and allow the Federation to land a strike team that worked with Samus to wipe out the pirates and open up access to the Leviathan core. There Samus fought with Ridley once again before destroying the Leviathan.

The last branch of her mission took her to Phaaze, the origin of all Phazon. Upon stepping on the planet, her PED Suit took her into permanent Hyper Mode that threatened to easily corrupt her. She was able to offset this corruption and defeat Dark Samus and a corrupted Aurora Unit 313. She then escaped the planet before it exploded and made a brief rendezvous with the Galactic Fleet to inform Admiral Dane of her success. Following this she spent some time on a planet reminiscing about her fallen comrades, the other three bounty hunters. Afterwards, she continued on into space, unknowingly pursued by the Delano 7.

Metroid Extinction

After repeated encounters with the Metroids, it became all too apparent that they were far too much of a threat to keep alive. Samus Aran's next mission was therefor to destroy every Metroid on their homeworld of SR388. She traveled deep into the planet, exterminating the creatures. She at last encountered the Metroid Queen that was the source of the Metroids. After defeating the Metroid Queen, she witnessed the birth of one remaining Metroid. The creature followed her to her ship. She proceeded to hand the Metroid over to Ceres Space Station for research.

Before Samus was too far away from the sector, she received a distress signal that the space station had been attacked. The Space Pirate, Ridley, had invaded and stolen the Metroid Larva. Samus followed him back to Planet Zebes, there discovering that the Zebesians had rebuilt their underground operations. She again defeated Kraid, Ridley, and other beasts that guarded the caverns. She was narrowly defeated by Mother Brain, but was saved at the last minute by the Metroid Larva (which was soon after destroyed by Mother Brain). After the defeat of Mother Brain, the planet began breaking up. Samus was able to escape the planet before it was destroyed. With that mission, she believed the last of the Metroids to be destroyed.

The X Parasite

Samus wearing the Fusion Suit

Her next mission was to escort a group of researchers on SR388. During that time she was attacked infected with the X Parasite. She was quickly rushed off to be operated on by the researchers. The X had quickly infected her Power Suit, which had to be surgically removed. In order to save her life, she was injected with Metroid DNA in order to combat the virus. Though effective, it left her behind in a strange version of her original suit and the ability to absorb the X Parasite like Metroids. In the meantime her damaged suit had been sent to B.S.L (BioLogic Space Labs) for research. When she went to the lab, it was discovered the X Virus had spread from the researchers and infected the entire space station.

With the aid of the AI (which she named Adam) installed on her replacement ship, she traveled through the space lab trying to defeat the virus. To complicate things, the X Virus had managed to infiltrate her suit and use her DNA to create 'SA-X', a clone of Samus with all of her original powers. After powering herself up substantially, she was able to defeat SA-X and many other colossal creatures the X parasite had infected, including the remains of Ridley. She soon discovered Metroids had been cloned on the ship from the same sample that saved her. With the advice of Adam, she decided to destroy the space station and destroy the X Virus for good. Before she could return to her ship, she had to defeat an Omega Metroid. After the destruction of SR388 and B.S.L., she returned back to the Federation, presumably to await trial for disobeying orders to leave the X Virus alive for research. What happened afterwards remains unknown.

Other Major Roles

Video Games

• Samus Aran is a playable character in Super Smash Bros., Melee, and Brawl. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, she has three unlockable trophies, and another Samus trophy (one of her unmasked) was given only through special promotion events in Japan. In Brawl, Samus has two trophies - one normal trophy and one of her Final Smash - as well as four other trophies about her in her Fusion Suit, Power Suit, Varia Suit, Gravity Suit and Dark Suit. There are also stickers of her from Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, in her Gravity Suit from Super Metroid and in her Dark Suit from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, as well as two stickers of her in her Zero Suit from Metroid Zero Mission.
  • Samus also appears without her suit in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, shedding her armor whenever she performs her Final Smash (which involves releasing a highly-charged beam of energy). This form is referred to as Zero Suit Samus. Zero Suit Samus has two trophies - one normal trophy and one of her Final Smash.
  • Within "The Subspace Emissary" of Brawl, Samus is first seen infiltrating the Subspace Army's Research Facility on the Island of the Ancients in just her Zero Suit, as it seems her Power Suit had been taken by the Subspace Army and was being held within the facility. After exploring the facility, Samus found and rescued Pikachu, and together they explored the facility further until finding the power suit. Samus retrieved it after defeating two shadow clones of her suit. Back in her suit again, Samus proceeded to fight through Subspace enemies but was then attacked by Ridley. Pikachu was able to save her from Ridley's grasp, at which point they fought him. Afterwards, Samus and Pikachu proceeded to attack the Subspace Bomb Factory, where they meet with Donkey Kong, Captain Falcon, Diddy Kong, Olimar and R.O.B.. They joined up with the group and proceeded to escape from the exploding factory, battling Meta Ridley along the way. After this Samus joined with the main party for the final battles in Subspace.
• Samus Aran makes a small cameo appearance in Famicom Wars as an enemy CO.

Other Media

• Samus Aran was absent from the Captain N cartoon series (despite one of her enemies, Mother Brain, being in it) but she appeared regularly in the comics based on the show and acted as a rival with Princess Lana for the affections of Kevin/Captain N. Due to her nature as a bounty hunter, she was not easily trusted by the others. This led to a falling-out in the fifth issue (which was the last to be published) after evidence arose that Samus was the one who captured Lana's father for the League of Darkness, but unbenownst to the N-Team she was innocent.
• Multiple comics have been created featuring Samus Aran. One was released through Nintendo Power to coincide with the release of Super Metroid. The game goes into her background and follows the events of the game.
• To coincide with the release of Metroid Fusion, a two-volume manga was published in Japan (with the first two chapters also being adapted into E-Manga format). The story follows Samus Aran as an infant, to being found by the Chozo, to her life being raised on Zebes. It also shows her first encounters with Ridley and Mother Brain during her time in the Galactic Federation, then shows her early life as a bounty hunter and a compressed adaptation of Zero Mission ending with Samus confronting Mother Brain. Although the e-Manga was created in Flash and featured sound, an english translation was made in image form. The translated e-manga chapters can be found here, and a translation of the entire manga is here.
  • The manga appears to be close to canon, as it is believed to have been written by Yoshi Sakamoto, and the Japanese version of Fusion has several ending scenes that show Samus growing up which resemble scenes from the manga. The series also shows Adam Malkovich in person for the first time, and his physical appearance in Other M matches his manga appearance.

Canceled Appearances

• According to unused text from the game, Samus was originally going to make a cameo appearance at the Starbucks Cafe in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga that was removed in the final version for unknown reasons. She would appear to taste the Hoolumbian drink when it was first brewed and give the Energy Tank, which was changed to the Power Grip in the final version. She has no dialogue in this appearance.

Trivia

• During Metroid Prime 2, we discover that most Federation Troopers think of Samus as more legend than reality. However in later (chronological) games, she seems to be in close contact with the Federation.
• In the original Metroid manual, Samus is referred to as a 'he'. Combined with the fact that games predominantly starred male heroes, Samus revealing herself as a female was a shock for gamers.
• The fact that the Chozo still lived on Zebes is rather odd, considering that it seems implied that the Zebesians wiped them out.