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What I don't understand is there are quite a few Metroid gamers who have never heard of the Mother Brain, because they came on board with the series at Fusion or at the Prime sub-series.
At the beginning of Super Metroid, didn't it start to seem that the Mother Brain would be sort of like Ganon; how there's hardly a Zelda game without him? But then they did that to Ridley...I personally think that a gigantic brain in a jar is a lot scarier than a flying dragon...

As for who created Mother Brain, in a translation of a Japanese Super Metroid manga, it would seem as though the Chozo created her as a part of the planet's interface that they gathered information from. I know it's not official, but it seems like a reasonable explanation.

Actually, it was the OMEGA Metroid that was the final boss in Fusion. And the reason she wasn't in Metroid II was because it took place on SR-388 instead of Zebes.

Hmm...I really need to get a Wii, especially if you get to fight her in 3D. (Ha! That rhymed...) The thing is, I'm terrible at FPS, with the expection of Halo.

If you watch the video clip it says the GF created the Aurora. Any way when I saw that I was like "hurm that looks familar."

I just beat Metroid Prime 3 today, and if anyone's interested, they can read my short analysis of Ridley, and my lengthy explanation about Mother Brain and Aurora Unit 313. Keep in mind, there are SPOILERS ahead.

As for Ridley, you fight him after about one hour into the game. The battle takes place in a 16 kilometer long tunnel, where the both of you are free falling, and fighting at the same time. At this point, he is Meta Ridley. Closer to the end of the game, you fight him again, this time as Omega Ridley. His tail becomes surged with energy, and he has his own PED equipped, which then protects his usually vulnerable insides. Keep in mind, the Galactic Federation stole the PED technology from the Space Pirates, not the other way around, so Ridley's equipment is first-hand. It forces you to find his weak spots via the X-Ray visor. At the end of the fight, Ridley seems to completely die along with the Leviathan that he was guarding (a massive, organic source of Phazon originating from planet Phaaze, the source of all Phazon in the universe). However, even though Ridley was seemingly reduced to nothing, it is apparent that he did not really die, as he still makes an appearance in Super Metroid.





Mother Brain is a very tricky subject. There are endless amounts of speculation around it, as Prime 3 gives away almost no information. Here's what happens in Prime 3 regarding the supposed Mother Brain:

The Space Pirates invaded a Galactic Federation ship known as the Valhalla, and stole Aurora Unit 313. They brought this Aurora to a planet dubbed as Phaaze, by the Galactic Federation. It is the source of all Phazon, and the entire reason why Prime 1 and 2 took place. Phaaze is capable of generating the previously mentioned Leviathans, and sending them to various planets. The Leviathans inhabit planets, and gradually send Phazon throughout. If left alone for too long, they are capable of fully corrupting the planet they've landed on. In Prime 1, the Leviathan was in the Impact Crater, and in Prime 2, the Leviathan was the cause of the Dark Realm. I digress; back to Mother Brain. The final boss you face is Aurora Unit 313. It becomes morphed by means of Phazon corruption, and fuses itself with Dark Samus to become even more powerful. After finally defeating it, 313 appears to shrink while dying, and eventually amounts to nothing in a small explosion. After that, Dark Samus emerges from it, and is shown to be dying in a great amount of pain, and eventually explodes as well. Due to 313 being the central foundation of Phaaze, the planet becomes unstable, and explodes soon after. Obviously, Samus escapes the blast, after losing all Phazon in her body.

Mother Brain was first seen in Metroid. Due to updated information from Zero Mission (a retelling of Metroid), we know that the area where Mother Brain was located (on Zebes) blew up, suggesting that Mother Brain did not survive. However, this is not known for sure, and almost disproved by Super Metroid.

Then we have Prime 3. I believe that there actually isn't any form of Mother Brain in this game. No mention of Mother Brain is ever seen throughout Prime 3. Although the supposed Mother Brain was seen in a blueprint from a Prime 3 preview, it was still not revealed to be genuine. In this game, I believe many people mistook Aurora Unit 313 for Mother Brain. To back this up, I checked Wikipedia before Prime 3's release, and it said Mother Brain was included. Now many days after the game's release, I checked back on the 'Mother Brain' page, and under the list of appearances in games, Prime 3 was removed.

My theory is that Mother Brain from Metroid / Zero Mission and Super Metroid are the same, but Aurora Unit 313 has nothing to do with them. The main factor in this equation is the fact that 313 shriveled up and exploded. If that wasn't enough, the entire planet it was stationed on exploded afterwards, along with all Space Pirates in the area and the Leviathan (which was the only thing capable of creating a wormhole to planet Phaaze. It was stated that planet Phaaze is far too distant in the galaxy to be reached by conventional means, even for the Galactic Federation and Space Pirates). This means that even if 313 survived by some miracle, the Space Pirates wouldn't be able to find and rebuild it, because they would no longer have access to the Leviathans, which originated from Phaaze anyway.

Along with all of this, Mother Brain from Metroid / Zero Mission and Super Metroid have one thing in common: They are only found on planet Zebes. Aurora Unit 313 is the odd one out, as it originated from the Galactic Federation. There is a relatively high chance that Mother Brain from Metroid / Zero Mission survived the first time, due to the fact that it is seen in the exact same spot, with the exact same surroundings in Super Metroid. Only difference the second time is that it had been upgraded, which would make sense anyway.

I believe that Aurora Unit 313 is the 'acting' Mother Brain for Prime 3. After beating Zero Mission, Prime 3 and Super Metroid, and researching a great deal, I don't see many reasons to believe that Aurora Unit 313 is somehow Mother Brain.

We don't know for sure if that was Mother Brain in the preview blueprint. If you look carefully, it says on the page that the blueprint is the design for a future Aurora complex, meaning that it could have belonged to the Space Pirates. Using the knowledge they gained from Aurora Unit 313, those could have been plans for an upgraded Mother Brain in Super Metroid. This is also suggested by the verbatim surroundings of the blueprint, when compared to Mother Brain's surroundings in Super Metroid.

Canonically, the Auroras have nothing to do with Mother Brain from the original Metroid.

Nintendo denied on September 6, 2007 that they have any plans for making the supposed 'Metroid Dread', or any new 2-D platformer at the moment. However, this is quite odd, considering this situation right here, which I ran into myself while playing Prime 3:



Either Nintendo was planning the project and decided to cancel it, or this picture is just a coincidence.

The rumor may have been started due to speculation from this scene in the first place as well. But who knows. Maybe Nintendo is planning to surprise us. Then again, Retro Studios may have just been teasing us with this scene.

I have a few theories of my own. Before I mention them, I'm going to list points about previous Metroid games. Although some of it will be obvious, the idea of this is to understand the end theory better.

According to the official Metroid e-manga, the original Mother Brain belonged to the Chozo, and was used as a massive database. For some odd reason, Mother Brain eventually turned against the Chozo. After the Space Pirates invaded the Chozo home-world of Zebes, they killed all of its inhabitants and re-activated Mother Brain, setting up their own base on Zebes.

This follows perfectly with the NES Metroid storyline, as the same Mother Brain is found on Zebes. However, after the invasion by Samus, Mother Brain supposedly dies in a massive explosion; one large enough to be visible from space. Given what happened, there isn't any reason to believe that Mother Brain survived that explosion.

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Then we have Prime 3, with the oddly familiar Aurora units, which resemble Mother Brain in their appearance, and in their functions. I partially agree with your theory, Wii4Mii, however I have a few discrepancies.

I believe the blueprint belongs to the Space Pirates. My main reasoning for this is that the environment in the picture is completely identical to the Mother Brain environment in Super Metroid, and it is almost identical to the environment from the NES Metroid. Given that the Galactic Federation had nothing to do with Mother Brain from the NES Metroid, it wouldn't make sense for them to layout plans with that kind of environment.

While I'm not going to make predictions for Metroid Dread (which has been denied by Nintendo anyway), or the next Metroid game for that matter, I will say that those blueprints are probably the design for Mother Brain from Super Metroid, given it to be almost completely identical in design. Here's a side-by-side comparison. Thanks to Wii4Mii for providing the blueprint picture.



On the left you see the blueprint for the potential Mother Brain from Super Metroid. On the right, you see the actual Mother Brain from Super Metroid. And for argument's sake, below you see Mother Brain from the NES Metroid.

Given that the Super Metroid picture resembles the blueprint more than the NES Metroid picture does, I'd say that the blueprint is indeed plans for the Super Metroid Mother Brain. Keep in mind that in the blueprint is says "Cross section of future aurora complex".

My reason for saying that the blueprint doesn't show Mother Brain for a new Metroid game is because doing that would leave out an explanation for Super Metroid, which would canonically come before it.

Also notice how the Super Metroid Mother Brain features spikes around it's brain, along with it's shape being slightly different. Given that the blueprint is only part of a long plan, it would make sense for the Space Pirates to upgrade it as they went along.

The tricky part here is how the Space Pirates got a hold of Aurora Unit 242. The fact that it is technically unknown if they ever do get a hold of it leaves speculation open to the claim that the Mother Brain from Super Metroid is really 242.

One other note to point out: Aurora Unit 242 is the only Aurora shown in Prime 3 with a female persona. This suggests that 242 would be fitting to be the next Mother Brain in Super Metroid.

Another issue that is unclear is how the Galactic Federation developed Auroras in the first place. They seem like a sibling to Mother Brain, somewhat implying that the Super Metroid Mother Brain is an Aurora Unit, which it probably is. However, there are still a few unanswered questions:

1 - Which came first? The original Mother Brain from the Space Pirates, or the original Aurora Unit from the Galactic Federation?

My guess: Found below under the "Important Note" section.

2 - Did the Galactic Federation previously steal information from the Space Pirates on how to build their own version of Mother Brain, which would be the first Aurora Unit?

My Guess: This depends on the answer to question 1

3 - Did the Space Pirates previously steal information from the Galactic Federation on how to bulid their own version of the Aurora Units, which would be the original Mother Brain?

My guess: Same as the last guess.

4 - In the preview video, who's control is 242 under when she's talking? The Space Pirates', or the Galactic Federation's?

My guess: Most likely the Space Pirates', otherwise she would not show the blueprint for the future Aurora complex, which logically belongs to the Space Pirates.


Important Note:

According to the manga, the Chozo had Mother Brain before they ever knew Samus. After growing up with the Chozo, it is said that 14 years later, Samus left them to find a job with the Galactic Federation. This would mean that the original Mother Brain was at least 14 years old, however, the fact that the Chozo had Mother Brain before Samus came along suggests that it is much older than 14 years.

According to the Prime 3 preview video, the first Aurora Unit was built 20 years before the present day. Due to this, and the presumed long age of the original Mother Brain, I believe it is safe to say that Mother Brain came before the Auroras.

However, the question still remains as to how the Galactic Federation was able to develop such a similar creation, being the Auroras. Perhaps they stole information from the Space Pirates at one point. However, this is unknown at the moment. All we know at the moment is that the Aurora Units were most likely based on the original Mother Brain.

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That's all the Mother Brain issues I can think of for now. If anybody has more that they'd like to address, I'd be more than happy to hear them.

Well, in my absence this topic has flourished, and is filled to the brim with intelligent conversation. Anyway, my take after playing Corruption: Mother Brain = built/designed by Chozo, Aurora Unit = based on MB design. As you can see, there is a large difference between the Aurora's and MB, as MB is much more brain-like. I'm not sure about the MB in Super Metroid being different, but it's a possibility. What if, the Space Pirates used the Aurora they stole to rebuild the original MB? Using the design of the AU as a starting point, they restored the original. Sorry if nothing is making sense right now, I am in swimming (which is why I haven't been here) and can barely move my arms I'm so tired from a three weeks of swimming laps.