User blog:BigBadSquid/PE Proposal: Gorea

What's the Work?
Metroid Prime: Hunters is a DS spinoff to the Metroid Prime trilogy (and upcoming tetralogy). In this game, Samus and other bounty hunters across the galaxy are sent to investigate SOS calls from the Alimbic Cluster, a solar system in ruins once home to the Alimbics. The one responsible for the destruction of the Alimbic race is an ancient enigmatic entity called Gorea.

Who is Gorea? What has it done?
The origins of the entity known as Gorea are unclear, as it just suddenly crashed onto the planet of Alinos a millennium ago. In the form of vapor, Gorea announced its name to those who heard it and took the form of an Alimbic. From there, Gorea began a bloody genocide against the Alimbic race to steal everything from it for power: technology, weapons, life energy, you name it. Any attempt to fight back ended in failure, as Gorea had the power to turn the Alimbic's weapons against them. Within three months, Gorea succeeded in almost completely annihilating the Alimbics.

But there was still some hope in store. The eight Alimbic elders came together and planned to get seal away Gorea, as they feared its true goal was to consume all sources in the universe for its own power-hungry needs. Banishing the entity in the Oubliette in the Infinity Void comprised of antimatter, the spirits of the Elders transformed into the eight Octolith keys and scattered across the ruined planets of the Alimbic Cluster to prevent Gorea from ever seeing the light of day again; thus the Alimbics went extinct.

But Gorea wasn't done just yet, as it had the ability to send telepathic messages across the galaxy, manipulating those to unlock the Oubliette for "ultimate power". The waves take eons to reach the Galactic Federation, who send Samus Aran and six other bounty hunters to the Alimbic Cluster. The gameplay then takes place, where Samus navigates through the planets in search of the Octolith keys, battling the hostile creatures and mechanical systems corrupted by Gorea. Throughout her mission, she finds multiple datafiles left behind by the Alimbics that detail past events.

Once the final key is obtained, Samus unlocks the Infinity Void and the Oubliette, finding the other bounty hunters have beaten her there as they fire at Gorea's seal. Before Samus can warn them that it was a trap, Gorea breaks free and awards its "rescuers" by impaling them with its tendrils to sap their energy to restore itself. It throws their bodies aside and engages Samus for a final battle. Ultimately, Samus uses the power of the Omega Cannon, the Alimbic's strongest weapon, to completely destroy Gorea for good.

Mitigating Factors
Moral agency is a definite clear, as it shows itself to be a sadistic monster that kills off an entire alien race just for their resources, and manipulative through how it tricks the bounty hunters to freeing it and rewarding them by sucking out their energy to replenish itself. It's also not given a redeeming factor behind its attacks other than "for fun", so check that off the list too.

The only concern I can point out about Gorea's character is the Offscreen Villainy. Other than the final battle, NOTHING is shown onscreen, all relying on those datafiles Samus can optionally pick up to read. However, I think they can be excused behind two key factors - not only are the files well detailed about Gorea's genocide on the Alimbics, but the entire game can be seen as the aftermath of the assault. The depopulated ruins, destroyed cities, multiple skeletal Alimbic corpses, and the destroyed space station that orbits Alinos are all at fault from Gorea.

Heinous Standards
Like Dark Samus, Gorea never says a word, but at the same time, it stands out from the other Metroid Prime villains as unlike Dark Samus, it SUCCEEDED in destroying an ENTIRE alien race for its own benefits without a speck of sympathy. And worse, it had intentions to commit genocide on every other race in the entire universe for its own sadism. And unlike the Ing who also have universal terrorism in mind, Gorea's crimes are far more explicit.

Final Verdict
A genocidal alien that slaughtered an entire race and attempted universal conquest for sport. Yeah, I say Gorea is up there with Ridley, Mother Brain, and Dark Samus as another Metroid PE contender.