The Real Deal

            Dark Samus had to die, as did Phaaze because like Mother Brain it was a load-bearing component for an invasive life form. Similarly, a lot of the moral justification for killing Metroids was that they were an invasive species; It was not yet discovered that they were artificial bioweapons. Not only was it imperative to protect ecosystems from an invasive threat, but there was obviously a native population thriving where they originally evolved from, and in their true home, Metroids could always live on.

            But then the Federation rediscovered SR388’s location, after the Marina’s Deleter had destroyed that knowledge to keep the Space Pirates from using it. And now the cat was out of the bag, it was only a matter of time before the Space Pirates learned where the Metroid homeworld was, and took advantage of that. The galaxy had survived two Metroid crises, a third was unimaginable. But the Metroids surely deserved to live within their own natural environment, weren’t they entitled to this as living creatures?

            Ultimately, the Federation came to a hard moral conclusion; The wellbeing of the larger galaxy mattered more than one species on one planet, which could still bounce back from their eradication, so the Federation thought. As Adam Malkovich put it, for others to live, some must die; And the Metroids were sacrificed, despite never knowing the situation nor agreeing to it, and how could they as animals who instinctually want to survive? That choice was made for them by others.

            Samus started off pretty unsympathetic, understandably so; She’d experienced firsthand the devastation of the Metroid, barely surviving before coming back to avenge all they’d killed. But as her story continues, and she sees how the Metroids are fought over by others, including herself… Samus begins to develop a bit more pity for them, recognizing they didn’t ask for this and just want to live, which of course means eating as much as they can, whenever they can. But again, she’s someone who loves and appreciates nature, but is also aware of the more brutal, pragmatic reality to it.

            Again, we hearken back to Adam’s quote, because that is the rule of nature. Sometimes you need to kill an animal to feed yourself, and because others must do the same you must kill in self-defense, even if it’s a mother who is poised to recognize any outsider as a threat to her children. Samus doesn’t judge the creature any less for it, nor does she think it should be wiped out, but it’s just the frank material reality of the situation.

            So when she’s commissioned to exterminate the Metroids, a once-unsympathetic Samus has a moral dilemma, considering seriously what the Federation has said. I dunno where the U-Ton arc from Samus and Joey takes place within the larger timeline, but I can see the connections being made at some point; U-ton is not a malicious being and even loving, but when it begins to undergo nuclear meltdown due to its programming, Samus is left with no choice to euthanize U-ton in order to save many innocents from an impending explosion. U-ton itself even agrees!

            And later, Samus finds out on SR388 that the Metroids aren’t natural, but artificial bioweapons; They weren’t just used as bioweapons by the Space Pirates, they were always meant to be bioweapons. And there’s a relief in that, because good! Great! There’s no moral dilemma anymore, the Metroids are unnatural, and inherently invasive to whatever world they come across, including SR388. Samus is obligated to go through with it.

            But in the end, it’s not so simple; U-ton was also an artificial bioweapon, but he was a tragic figure who also wanted to live and grew beyond his programming. Samus would never condemn an artificial sapient being as needing to inherently die. And the Metroids also grew beyond their programming, due to all of the DNA from the various creatures used to create them. The Metroids’ creators DID intend to co-exist with them, they acknowledged that the Metroids did not ask to be created of course; The Thoha did not foresee the Metroids’ metamorphosis, which made them go out of control and start attacking a planet not evolved to withstand them.

            But by the end of the day, the Metroids did exactly what they were made for; But upon shedding their domesticated role by expressing the traits of the natural creatures used in their creation –in essence, the Metroids became more animalistic, more like natural creatures- the nature-loving Chozo chose to abandon them, even attempted to destroy them.

            Perhaps the Metroids are not much different than a pet that was adopted, only to be considered too much of a hassle, an inconvenience to deal with any longer, and abandoned on a street. Put down, even. For creatures so desired, the Metroids are always just not good enough for whoever’s handling them, there’s always some problem to contend with because people don’t unconditionally love Metroids, just what Metroids can do for them.

            Samus recognizes that the Metroids have become more ‘natural’ for lack of a better term, is their mutation not an argument for evolution, for going beyond artificial programming? They become more like the natural animals they came from, shedding programmed control from their creators. Is they any real, inherent difference between natural and unnatural, by the end of the day? The Metroids developed a doting queen, and hatchlings who fiercely love and devote themselves to their parent; That’s an argument for them becoming ‘natural’.

            Isn’t Samus herself technically unnatural? A hybrid, not created through natural means, and she wasn’t even a hybrid to begin with, having Chozo DNA implanted a few years after she was born human. Samus and the Metroids were both created by the Chozo to be destroyers, or the ‘Ultimate Warrior’. That’s what they’re good for, maybe that’s all they’re good for. Does Samus deserve to die for being unnatural? Or does that whole dichotomy have no bearing on that decision, instead it’s just a matter of whether they pose harm that cannot be reduced without killing them?

            Did she remember the Ing in deciding yes, and then when Samus hesitated? The Luminoth had to be chosen over the Ing because there simply isn’t enough energy, both will die if one doesn’t. And Dark Aether and the Ing are violent and considered unnatural, so it’s okay right? The Luminoth were there first and are far less of a threat to society. But the Ing still had a culture, had begun to make a civilization; People prioritize civilization as proof of sapience and sapient lives always matter more, but isn’t civilization also unnatural? So which is it, then? The more animalistic Ing or the industrial Luminoth? The Ing are so alike to the Metroids in tragedy, doomed to either starve or take, doomed to be demonized for wanting to live.

            On a meta level, there’s also something to consider: Many criticized Samus Returns for losing the environmental storytelling of the original when it came to the Metroids’ lair. In the original game, it became more barren the closer Samus got to the queen, implying and justifying the Metroids as an invasive species, even before the reveal in Fusion of their artificial nature. By contrast, Samus Returns kept the wildlife thriving within Metroid territory.

            But maybe this does work out, with an adaptation; The Metroids found a way to survive and co-exist with other species, technically, by fitting into the larger ecosystem. There’s a bit of a Jurassic Park “Life finds a way” element to the Metroids’ origins, how they manifest suppressed traits from the DNA used to create them. Fittingly, the Jurassic Park franchise also discussed the right for its dinosaurs to live, acknowledging them as unnaturally brought back, and themselves technically hybrids anyhow, an invasive species displaced from their natural time AND habitat.

            This led to the government agreeing to let them be wiped out in an imminent eruption, which the protagonists fight against, only to find themselves roped in with those who want the dinosaurs to survive so they can be exploited. The Federation gave the order for Samus to kill ALL Metroids, and the ones they bred for their own use came from the infant that Samus was supposed to destroy, per the Federation’s orders; The Federation is not a monolith, hence Sakamoto intending for the perpetrators of Sector Zero to be a rogue faction.

            But I digress; The point is that the Metroids could’ve found a way to survive, in fact the desolation from the original game could’ve merely suggested it as their territory, and not that Metroids threatened all of SR388 itself. The Federation could’ve found a way to keep the Metroids alive, is that not what Ceres ended up doing? And what it would’ve kept doing, had the Federation not succumbed to its own greed.

            Samus destroys all but one Metroid, and sees herself in it, but with Samus in Ridley’s place now. Of course she spares the Metroid… But in the end, the Space Pirates DO capture it, and do use it to begin breeding other Metroids hostile to Samus, that she ends up having to destroy. And Mother Brain kills the infant.

            But it doesn’t end there, because then Samus becomes part-Metroid through the infant’s own DNA herself, and it’s what allows her to destroy the X. Everyone clamored for the Metroids to die, but it was only when they were murdered, that suddenly people clamored for them to be brought back; Only when the Metroids are wanted and needed, it’s only when they’re convenient that they’re allowed to live. But Sector Zero is destroyed and Samus is the last Metroid.

            Is this her penance for her crime, or is this her reward for not committing to it? Unlike the Metroid, Samus is a sapient being who can understand and adhere to morality and the law, so she can temper her own appetite for the sake of others; She isn’t even cursed by it, unlike the pure Metroid. Maybe the Metroids could’ve been able to co-exist with at least the Federation, who could’ve found a way to control them like Mother Brain did; Metroids technically co-existed with the Space Pirates under her control. People have made preserves for artificial creatures and even bioweapons abandoned by their creators.

            But in the end, as seen with Mother Brain and the Space Pirates; If they can be tamed or at least controlled in some degree, then they can be weaponized. No power like the one the Metroids wield should exist; And alas, the only way to remove that power is to remove the Metroid entirely. There will always be bad actors, hence the phrase, “This is why we can’t have nice things.”

            And the Metroids didn’t even want to misuse this power, nor ask for it; It was just given to them by the Chozo, and then that power was taken from them and given to someone who could control it. Meaning the Metroids were abandoned again, after being asked for again, once the Federation and even Raven Beak realized Samus could perform the same purpose against the X.

            In the end, the Metroids’ existence was simply deemed too much of an inconvenience to tolerate; They did not choose to survive and evolve this power to do so. Everything about them has been in the hands of others. Even their one ‘savior’ in Dark Samus was an entity so far-removed from them. The actual Samus herself would become essentially Metroid Plus; All of the DNA that went into the Metroids, plus hers and Gray Voice and Raven Beak’s. Suddenly, the Metroid itself was eclipsed by someone else, and discarded for a newer, shinier toy.

            Maybe that’s what happened to Samus, too; The Chozo of Zebes raised her, then fled when Mother Brain betrayed them, and never came back for her. But then Raven Beak comes back, as someone who initially helped create Samus, and then left her behind; But suddenly he decides he wants to rule the galaxy, and that’s when he conveniently comes back into her life to use Samus against her will. She is often mistaken for Metroid on a meta sense, and then became a literal Metroid from an in-universe stance.

            But that might be more fitting, in the end; There’s not much of a distinction between Samus and the Metroid and it’s blurred first by a doppelganger called Dark Samus, and then by Samus herself. The name Metroid means Ultimate Warrior in Chozo, and that’s exactly what she was raised to be as a child; And can children really decide for themselves? Samus did not choose to lose her original family, nor did she choose to be found by the Chozo.

            Did she choose to stay on Zebes with them, instead of being taken to a human foster family? Could Samus really be said to have chosen being their champion, their sole warrior, or was she actually groomed into a weapon? Is what Raven Beak had planned for her much different than what the Chozo of Zebes intended; The only difference being the scope of what Samus was supposed to fight against? Gray Voice gave Samus DNA too, not just the Mawkin warlord.

            And when Samus proved an inconvenience to Raven Beak because she would not obey his commands, like an animal she was meant to be put down; Samus by the Mawkin, the Metroids by the Thoha. She would have clones replace her, domesticated ones, just as the Marina’s Metroid from SR388 was to be isolated, having already imprinted on the queen, while the Metroids created from it would be used to serve Mother Brain; History would repeat itself with the Infant, too.

            What choice was there for the Metroids; To be either destroyed, or live in servitude to others who would throw them against any obstacle, ready to be replaced should they somehow die. What chance did they have, discarded for doing too well what they had been expected to do? Maybe with the Chozo they could’ve lived had they failed their purpose, but the ones after them who would be made to rectify that? The X’s bane was destined to die with them.

            Maybe Dark Samus’ crusade was the Metroids’ revenge against the galaxy, for both what had been done to them and would later be committed; She would be their spite against all who defined them only by their usefulness within a society. A way for the Metroids to take down their enemies with them… So what about the X, who end up briefly ignored by a Metroid created by the Federation, from the DNA of the infant that Samus kidnapped; Instead, it will go after that very Samus.

            As Ishiro Honda put it: “Monsters are tragic beings, they are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy.” The Metroids just wanted to live, but the way they were designed made them incompatible with life, including against a parasite that could resemble any life, and thus needed to be destroyed in any of those forms. Fittingly, Honda’s quote was about Godzilla; A natural creature irradiated, mutated, aggravated by humanity’s need to create stronger weapons so they could control others.

            The natural creatures the Metroids came from were put to together to create the Ultimate Warrior, and many were left endangered with SR388’s destruction, necessitated only by the X who spread unchecked because the Metroids were wiped out. The Metroids were irradiated and transformed by Phazon, made addicted to it because it was the nearest food source, and of course they’d go for that.

            They were defined as weapons meant to be useful for others and that’s all they’d be recognized as, despite showing a capacity to be so much more than their creators intended, so much more loving and deserving of their own existence. And only one just like them would recognize this, yet be cursed with the inability to convince everyone else the same, as she bore a similar reputation before and especially after carrying on the Metroids’ life through her. Samus IS Metroid, and the real twist isn’t that she isn’t, or becomes that; It’s that she’s always been. It’s hard to trust that others want to know the real Samus beneath the armor weapon, and especially after the mutation.