Samus Overview
Character Information
Character Name: Samus Aran
Fandom: Metroid
Source: In the future, the universe has been almost completely united under the Galactic Federation. The main threat in existence is the Space Pirates, a highly intelligent group of beings that use cruelty and immorality to create new weapons to destroy the Federation. They're reasons are unknown, except perhaps to take over the Federation themselves. Countless battles have been waged against the Space Pirates, with middling results. It is because of this that the Federation employs Bounty Hunters. These Bounty Hunters go through space undertaking dangerous, often one-man missions to infiltrate and destroy the Space Pirates, or investigate dangerous planets.
Character History (to date): Samus Aran was born on the fuel mining planet K-2L to Rod and Virginia Aran, both fuel miners. At just 5 years of age, the Space Pirates, lead by her eventual arch-nemesis Ridley, raided the planet looking to steal the fuel. The dragon killed her parents, and completely destroyed the planet leaving only her alive. The Chozo, a bird-like sentient race discovered her and took her back to their home planet Zebes. There, although knowing it was a highly dangerous procedure, they fused some of their own DNA with hers to try save her from the harsh atmosphere. She survived the operation, and became their adoptive child, although the ones that took the most care of her were Grandpa Bird and Grey Voice. They trained her to become a fighting machine, teaching her old Chozo techniques and ideas, so that she could eventually fulfill their prophecy of becoming a savior of the galaxy. They gave her a Power Suit enhanced by their surpassing technologies, increasing her strength and speed to unimaginable levels, as well as a vast arsenal of weapons at her use. However, at the age of 15 she left, unsure of the destiny she was supposed to have, and wanting to be able to lead her own life. She joined Galactic Federation army and Academy, and quickly rose up the ranks, proving her worth, perhaps a bit too hard, and attracting the attention of General Adam Malkovich. He began to mentor her like a father, and despite the derision of the others in her platoon, she became a valued member of the Galactic Federation Marines. However, one mission where Adam had to make the choice to kill his own brother to save the others was too much for Samus, and she blatantly disregarded his orders. She realized she couldn't live under Adam's command with what happened and left the Marines to become a freelance bounty hunter. A few years after that, she had her first mission to go back to her home planet, Zebes, and destroy the space pirate base that had formed there since Samus' departure. Mother Brain, the organic computer once built by the Chozo to survey and keep their planet and work in like, corrupted her original programming in order to overtake the Federation with the help of the Space Pirates. Samus confronted Mother Brain, as well as Ridley who taunted her with her parents' death. They planned to create an army of Chozo-created creatures called 'Metroids' to suck the life out of all of their foes. Samus, after facing a serious bout of post traumatic stress disorder, and realizing what she must do, finished her mission and destroyed Mother Brain and Ridley with the help of new Chozo technology embedded into her suit and creating the "Varia" persona it now has. With this she became the Federation's leading hunter. Everything was thought to be well until the discovery of a destroyed Space Pirate frigate off of Tallon IV that she decided to investigate. From there, it was clear that the universe was not well and good, as she discovered the Space Pirates using a new highly corrosive and radioactive substance to try and strengthen their army, and the dreaded Metroids she had encountered on Zebes before. She followed traces that the Chozo left behind on the planet, as well as notes and wreckage left by the Space Pirates, to find out that they were creating a super Metroid called "Metroid Prime," which fused with Phazon to become a near-unstoppable force. Samus went to fight it, only to first encounter Ridley once again, reanimated and built with Pirate technology. She defeated him and moved onto the Metroid Prime, killing it and saving the planet.
A few years after the incident on Tallon IV, Samus got a distress call from a Federation Ship that landed on a remote planet called Aether. There she discovered all captain and crew of the ship dead, killed by some unknown species. Nearby the wreckage she found a black swirling void, and in an attempt to understand it, got sucked into it. The void was a dimensional rip in the planet, caused by a large impact hundreds of years prior. In the dimension she found, to her surprise, someone who looked much like her with similar armor and manner. She tried to attack the doppelganger, but was ambushed to the native race of this Dark Aether called the Ing. She returned back to the planet Aether, and found the true native species called the Luminoth. They told her that the impact created the dimensional flux and the Ing, and the only way to destroy it was to destroy their three dark temples. She did so, continuing to encounter the doppelganger known to the local Space Pirates as 'Dark Samus.' Samus found and destroyed all the temples, and while leaving the dark dimension had a final battle with Dark Samus. She defeated it, and escaped narrowly in time. The Luminoth thanked her, and she left back into space.
About a year after this, Samus was commissioned for a job with multiple other hunters to investigate a Space Pirate attack on their organic computer network called Aurora. It seemed as though a virus was uploaded to them all. More concerning, the training ship, the G.F.S. Valhalla with an organic computer of its own, was reported missing. In the middle of their briefing, an emergency call was sent out as the Space Pirates were beginning to attack the Federation Outpost on planet Norion below. Samus joined the hunters in protecting the planet, when a wormhole suddenly opened above the planet and a large Phazon comet, called a Leviathan, headed to impact the planet. Samus and the other hunters quickly got the planetary defense system back online, but before they were able to fire it, a shape appeared: Dark Samus. It fired a blast of pure Phazon at the hunters, and left them all for dead. However, a weak Samus started the defense system seconds before the Leviathan's impact and blew it up. She fell back to the floor, going into a coma for one month. When she awoke, she found that somehow her body was self-generating Phazon with no negative effects. The other hunters had experienced the same effect as well. The Federation modified all their armor and weapons systems so they could use the Phazon to their advantage, able to tap into the resource in their own bodies. Samus learned that the other hunters had gone to try and destroy Leviathans that had managed to impact on two other nearby planets, and to try and destroy the Space Pirate Homeworld. However, they had not replied back since they left. Samus agreed to continue their work, and try to find what had happened to the other hunters. She discovered on each of the planets that the hunters had succumbed to the Phazon inside them and turned corrupted, used as soldiers of Dark Samus against the Federation. Samus was able to delay the corruption inside her body, but knew it would soon overtake her unless she could find a way to get it out. She finally found the Space Pirate Homeworld, and alerted the Federation. The Homeworld also had a Leviathan in it, but the Pirates wanted it to take over their planet and willingly accepted the changes it made to them. The Federation swept across the planet, annihilating the Pirates. There they took take a rogue Leviathan and used its wormhole-creating powers to find the planet where it originated. They found the planet Phaaze, the true source of all Phazon. It was a sentient planet, and knew that the Federation wanted to destroy it. While Space Pirates fought against the Federation ships, Samus landed on the planet's surface and found Dark Samus with the Aurora Unit stolen from G.F.S. Valhalla being controlled by Dark Samus. Once again she fought Dark Samus and defeated it, as the Federation was winning against the Space Pirates above. The defeat of Dark Samus caused the Phazon in Samus' body to disappear, and the planet to self destruct. She and the Federation made it through the wormhole safely, and the rest of the Phazon in existence was ordered to be destroyed.
Considering the trouble they had all gone through, the Federation decided to also destroy every Metroid in existence. After much research, they discovered that the home planet of the Metroids was a small outlier planet called SR388. They sent a research crew to dispose of them, but the crew was lost. They employed Samus yet again to try and rescue these researchers and destroy all the Metroids. Considering the luck she had before, she took this mission quickly and hoped to be done with it easily. Through her mission, she realized that the Metroid were in fact evolving, and at an alarming rate. She decided that to stop this for good, there had to be a source: that being the Metroid Queen. She destroyed the Metroid Queen and all of the eggs and turned to leave, only to notice one egg left. Before being able to destroy it, it hatched, and the Metroid inside bonded to Samus thinking that she was its mother. Not able to bring herself to kill it, Samus took the baby as the planet crumbled around her, thinking that maybe the researchers back at the Galactic Federation could make some good of it, even knowing that bioengineering on creatures was illegal.
Feeling perhaps a bit guilty she left the baby, after much deliberation in space she returned to the research station. There she found it destroyed, the bodies of dead scientists everywhere. Quickly she rushed to the baby, finding Ridley, once again alive, taking it away. She rushed to her ship as the station exploded and tracked Ridley back to Zebes, where everything had begun. There she realized the Space Pirates had once again taken over, and that Mother Brain was still alive. Rushing through the planet, now with even worse creatures than before, she fought to find the baby, Ridley, and Mother brain. Almost reaching the end, a giant Metroid suddenly came out of nowhere and nearly sucked all of Samus' life force. However, it stopped at the last second and restored it all, turning out to be the baby Metroid. Happy that this creature she turned out to care for was all right, she continued on the last leg to defeat Ridley. Once he was out of the way, all that was left was Mother Brain. She fought her, and when she thought she had almost succeeded, Mother Brain revealed that she had finally acquired a body, a massive one at that, and rose to kill Samus. Right before the final blow was struck, the Baby came from nowhere protecting Samus and taking Mother Brain's blows. Somehow it healed her completely, and gave her a massive super beam. However, right after it finished, Mother Brain shot it with a beam and killed it. Full of rage, Samus used the super beam the Baby had given her and laid Mother Brain to waste. Quickly she got out of Zebes as it started a self destruct cycle and zoomed off to safety, but not without getting partially hit by the blast. She stayed in recovery for some time, but waited eagerly for her next mission.
A manga that goes over Samus' history, as well as her first mission, can be found here.
(Chronologically the games Samus has been through: Metroid/Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime Hunters, Metroid Prime 2: Echos, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Metroid II, and Super Metroid.)
Character Personality: Samus is more or less a loner. She's used to doing her job alone, living alone, and enjoying being in that solace. She doesn't mind giving small talk, but in the end she likes to keep her relationships small. Big relationships carry baggage she doesn't like to take the responsibility of handling, and in the end that relationship will end. She also hates those who are seeming to be stupid or avoiding to be straight-to-the-point. Samus never beats around the bush, if something needs to be done or said to better the situation it will be done. Therefore, if it's not her way, she will rarely take it. Samus has never really been a team player, often passing up massive jobs from the Federation if it involves working with others. If she has to work with others, she can lose her temper quickly with them. Generally she'll tell them just to "shut up and listen," or to do exactly what she says so they won't get killed. However, if she knows she's with a competent team she'll trust them fully.
Every situation is very srs bzns with Samus. Due to the horrors she experienced in early life, as well as the way she was raised by the Chozo and later in the army, it's not easy for her to have a sense of humor. The focus must be on what's happening now, and wisecracking is a distraction she will not tolerate. However, outside of the workforce (and also thanks to Nautilus) she's managed to slowly develop a small funny bone. Still, her default emotion will always be serious. As well, although on the outside Samus tries to be tough and intimidating, inside she still hurts and feels sorrow. She will never let herself show these feelings, but they still affect her and the way she does things. Either she will seclude herself even more than usual, cutting herself off from all others, or she will focus even more on her work, and have a short fuse in temper. Because of this, her Bounties are often her outlet.
In the end, Samus is a bright and tough girl, but she has issues inside that she needs to work out. Of course, she never will, but hey there's hope somewhere.
Powers: Samus has her Varia suit which allows her different abilities. Most of all it gives her added strength and reflexes. It also collapses into a ball, which allows her to maneuver through tight spaces. It has a beam gun and a rocket launcher attached to it for missile attacks. The suit is also her connection to the worlds and the universe, allowing her to call her ship, conduct research, and pick up and send messages and signals. Without her suit, though, she still has her combat training and firearms use to fall back on.