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 a female bounty hunter who stars as the main character of the the Metroid series. She is notable as being one of the early female characters to be a star of a game.

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, whom she admired and saw as a surrogate father figure. He would often refer to her by saying "Any objections, lady?" which Samus thought of as respectful coming from him. When it came time for the officers to give a thumbs-up for their orders, Samus would always sarcastically give a thumbs-down in return. Another of her colleagues was Anthony Higgs, who always called her Princess.

However, tension eventually grew between Samus and Adam. There was one particular incident in which, in order to save 300 lives, Adam was forced to eject a drive unit containing his own younger brother Ian, sending him to his death. Samus objected to the order until it was carried out, desperate to find another way, but Adam remained adamant in his stance. This was probably at last part of the reason that she eventually 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.

Other M

Samus and Anthony Higgs fighting back-to-back.

Samus spent some time recuperating at a Federation facility after the battle with Mother Brain. They even went as far as to clean Samus's suit, although she had no idea at the time that this was actually so that they could obtain DNA samples found on her armor. Shortly after returning to space, Samus intercepted a Baby's Cry distress signal coming from the mysterious Bottle Ship. She arrived there to find that a Federation task force was already there. Anthony was there and greeted her warmly, but so was Adam, who acted cold and bitter towards Samus, initially rejecting her help. Being referred to as an outsider "pierced [Samus]'s heart". Samus insisted on following, and eventually all communications were disrupted except for communications with Samus's suit.

So Adam reluctantly allowed Samus to help with the mission but under Federation protocol. She had to follow all of his orders exactly and could only use her various weapons and armors when he gave permission. Samus adhered to his rules as she explored the Bottle Ship, taking down several threats while looking for survivors. She eventually met a mysterious scientist who called herself Madeline Bergman, who was apparently the one who sent out the distress signal. Samus slowly learned the truth about the secret Federation experiments that were performed within the Bottle Ship, as the Federation was breeding bioweapons based on the Space Pirates and Metroids, with an android that had Mother Brain's brainwaves, known as MB, to control them.

Because the experiment had gone out of hand, Samus also learned that the Federation had sent a Deleter whose purpose was to act as a mole among Samus's group to kill all survivors among the Bottle Ship as well as all traces of the experiment. Samus briefly fought the Deleter in a research lab when he manned construction equipment, but he then escaped. Samus never figured out his identity (although it can be inferred from most of the evidence that it was James Pierce), but this planted the seeds of suspicion towards her colleagues, especially after Bergman later claimed that Adam was the one whom had approved of the Metroid Militarization Plan. Samus faced another surprise when she found that a mysterious creature that she had been stalking was actually a clone of Ridley that had accidentally been created from the material on her armor.

Upon encountering Ridley, Samus initially froze up and had a panic attack, while Ridley took advantage of to brutally attack Samus by slamming her against the wall. However, Higgs was present and attacked Ridley to call his attention. Ridley then tossed Higgs into a lava pit, which enraged Samus and caused her to snap out of her fear. She proceeded to defeat Ridley, but Ridley then fled. At this point, Samus lost contact with Adam and began trying to seek him out. It was at this time that Bergman told her about Sector Zero, where the Metroids were contained. Samus headed there, starting to reactivate her weapons herself as she proceeded, and just as she encountered her first Metroid there, she was attacked from behind by Adam, who shot her in a specific way that temporarily drained her power. Adam informed her that he was not directly involved in the project and in fact had only written a report detailing the flaws of the project. He also warned her that Bergman was not to be trusted.

Samus during her Federation days

Adam informed Samus that the Bottle Ship had been sent on a collision course to Federation headquarters, and that only Samus could defeat Ridley and reroute the ship. Adam decided to stay behind and sacrifice himself to destroy the new Metroids, whom had been genetically manipulated to be resistant to the cold. Samus objected to these orders but was still unable to move until after Adam had sealed himself off from her and given his last, "Any objections, lady?". All Samus could do to respond was give him a thumbs-down as he ejected Sector Zero from the Bottle Ship with himself aboard, making it self-destruct. Samus then activated her Gravity Suit and made her way towards Sector 1 in search of Ridley.

She returned to the research center, only to find that Ridley was nothing more than a dried husk; something else had gotten to him. Samus found a mysterious red-haired scientist, but she was frightened and fled from Samus. Instead Samus wound up encountered what had killed Ridley: a Queen Metroid that had grown from the first of the Metroid clones. Samus was able to destroy it in a similar manner as the Queen Metroid she had faced long ago, but she also found during the battle that the Bottle Ship's collision course with the Federation headquarters was halted. Samus then continued to follow the scientist and managed to earn her trust, but was shocked to learn that this red-haired woman was the real Madeline Bergman. The blonde scientist whom Samus had met earlier was actually the android MB; MB (also called Melissa Bergman) had started to grow a soul, and when the Federation officers tried to take her away to reprogram her, she felt betrayed and rebelled against the Bottle Ship, which set the game's disasters into motion.

MB then showed up to confront Samus and Bergman, bringing several monsters to life in order to attack Samus, Bergman and the recently arrived Federation troops. This ended after Samus scanned MB and the Federation officers wound up shooting her up, destroying MB. Samus was initially distraught and felt somewhat sympathetic for MB. The Federation colonel then arrived and congratulated her for her work but refused to let her talk to the witness because she was an outsider, disapproving of her past actions such as carrying "illegal cargo like infant Metroids". But then Anthony arrived, revealing that he had survived and stopped the Bottle Ship's crash course, claiming he had orders from higher up to escort Bergman. Samus took the trip with them, while reminiscing about Adam and MB. At the Federation headquarters, she continued to question Adam's orders, but she heard his voice in her head and knew that he had made the right choice just like many years ago. Samus then gave a thumbs-up to the sky, at which point Anthony showed up and messed with her by giving her a thumbs-down.

The Bottle Ship was set for destruction soon. Samus decided to return there on her own business in order to retrieve Adam's helmet as a keepsake of him. She only found it after destroying Phantoon and then escaped from the Bottle Ship as it was 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 Appearances

Video Games

• Samus Aran makes a small cameo appearance in Famicom Wars as an enemy CO.
• In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Samus makes a cameo appearance sleeping in a bed in a guest room at the Mushroom Kingdom's palace after obtaining the fifth Star Piece. She wears her full armor in the bed, and when spoken to, she simply mentions that she's resting up for Mother Brain. A toy of Samus is also seen at Booster's Tower.
• Samus Aran appears as a playable fighter in every game of the Super Smash Bros. series, making appearances in Super Smash Bros., Melee, Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Brawl introduced another form for Samus, Zero Suit Samus, based on Samus's out-of-costume appearance from the games. Initially, the player could choose which form of Samus to start the match as, and Samus could switch between her armored self and Zero Suit Samus through her Final Smash. However, the following games no longer used transformations, and Zero Suit Samus was made into a separate character slot. Zero Suit Samus also received a number of tweaks to her gameplay, such as the addition of jet boots and a new Final Smash which involved using the Gunship to shoot at opponents.
  • In Melee, she has three unlockable trophies, and another Samus trophy (one of her unmasked) was given only through special promotional events in Japan. In Brawl, Samus and Zero Suit Samus each have two trophies, one normal trophy and one of her Final Smash, as well as four other trophies depicting 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. In the 3DS/Wii U games, she has two standard unlockable trophies for each of her forms. The 3DS version also has trophies for Samus in her Varia Suit and Gravity Suit, and the Wii U version has trophies for each of her forms' Final Smashes.
  • 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. In the 3DS/Wii U games, transformations were eliminated, so Zero Suit Samus was given her own separate character slot. Zero Suit Samus has two standard trophies in these games, and the Wii U version also has a trophy for 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 has made appearances in several microgames throughout the WarioWare series, which mostly involve playing out scenarios from existing games.
• Samus also makes a cameo appearance in a Metroid: Other M-themed stage of Dead or Alive Dimensions, in which she drops down in Morph Ball mode and releases a Power Bomb at the end of battles.
• In Nintendo Land, Samus does not directly appear, but Miis wear her armor and use her gunship while playing the "Metroid Blast" game.
• In Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Samus's armor is available as clothing for Mii characters, and it can be unlocked by scanning any amiibo of Samus.
• In Super Mario Maker, Samus's form can be unlocked as one of the costumes that Mario can turn into when using a Mystery Mushroom. It can be unlocked by scanning amiibos or at random from completing a 100 Mario Challenge.

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

• Character designer Hiroji Kiyote named Samus Aran after the real name of famous soccer player Pelé, which is Edison Arantes do Nascimento. He mistakenly believed that the Pelé's first name was Samus instead of Edison, and "Aran" was derived from "Arantes".
• During Metroid Prime 2, it is seen 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 video games predominantly starred male heroes, Samus revealing herself as a female was intended to surprise players.
• Throughout the series, the only game in which Samus is not playable is Metroid Prime: Federation Force. She does, however, make a non-playable appearance within the story.