Mother Brain

Mother Brain
Affiliation	Space Pirates
Base	Zebes
Debut	Metroid

The Mother Brain is a giant mechanical organism that coordinates operations on Zebes. The origins of this creature is unknown, but it seems to have preceded the Zebesian Space Pirates. It's 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 has the literal appearance of a giant brain. It is protected by a thick glass casing, but the casing is not impenetrable. The Mother Brain has a single eye which is capable of firing energy beams, but is presumably used for sight. It is capable of accessing security cameras on Zebes and monitoring the many locations on Zebes. The Mother Brain is kept in Tourian and is heavily protected, mostly by automatic turrets and other weaponry. The Mother Brain even has a self destruct system as well.

Mother Brain in Metroid: Other M

The Space Pirates on Zebes work closely with Mother Brain and go to great lengths to protect it. Although the Mother Brain is not their leader, it is one of the 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.

The second time (Super Metroid), Mother Brain was relocated to a more secure location. After Samus defeated Mother Brain in the same manner as the first time, 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 in the end was destroyed by Samus Aran. However, this time Mother Brain activated a self destruct that destroyed the entire planet.

AUs

In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, it is revealed that the Galactic Federation created a system of supercomputers known as Aurora Units to coordinate the efforts of the Federation's military. These Aurora Units are strikingly similar to Mother Brain in appearance, and special note is made that the AUs can be programmed with male, female, or gender neutral personalities. Plans seen at one point of the game for a future (or past?) location of an Aurora Unit show a clear map of Tourian, possibly providing Mother Brain's origins.

MB

In Metroid: Other M, an android named MB as 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, 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. Her appearance is accompanied by a normal trophy.

In Other Media

• In the seemingly 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 in 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.
• A sticker of Mother Brain from Zero Mission appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.