Ridley (Metroid)

"SAMUS! Such a miserable and helpless little girl! Your existence is like a bad dream! I WILL ERASE YOU FROM THIS AND EVERY WORLD!"

- Ridley. "Heh, humans are always so weak to the death of their own kind!"

- Ridley mocking a young Samus.

Ridley, also known as Geoform 187, is one of the main antagonists of the Metroid series. He is a large, dragon-like alien and one of the leaders of the Space Pirates, as well as Samus Aran's arch-nemesis, having murdered her parents when she was just a toddler. Samus' hatred of Ridley is as strong as he is for her.

Ridley is a miniboss in the original Metroid game, a major antagonist in the Metroid Prime series and the secondary antagonist of Super Metroid and Metroid: Other M (the latter a clone), as well as a major boss in Metroid Fusion in the form of the X-Parasite-enhanced Neo-Ridley.

Early Years
While his species' true name is currently unknown, he is often regarded as a "space dragon" (a name taken from the Nintendo Comics System). Next to nothing is known of his pre-military background (if in fact he even had any), but it is safe to say that he made his way up the ranks until finally he was bestowed the designation as leader of the Space Pirates in battle.

He also appears to have considerable favor among High Command. Ridley's introduction takes place on an Earth-established Colonial Planet, known simply as K-2L; where he conducts a massive raid in order to restock fuel and supplies and plunder, and also allows his soldiers to cut loose and destroy whatever they want. It is also on K-2L that Samus Aran (as a 3-year-old) first encounters him. Samus attempts to befriend Ridley, but being the sadistic monster he was, he tried to kill Samus.

However, her mother pushes her out of the way of Ridley's attack at the cost of her life. Meanwhile, Samus's father destroys the supplies the pirates were after and is also killed in the blast. Ridley also appears to be injured by the wreckage but survives. However, he never imagined that he created his own nemesis in Samus.

Battling Samus
Years later, Ridley returned to Zebes, to establish a Central Command Center beneath the planet's surface. His forces annihilated the native Chozo Colony established on its surface before carrying out these orders. Also, he killed Grey Voice when the latter tried to shut down Mother Brain (he pretended to join the Space Pirates so he would try and get close enough to Mother Brain to shut her down, realizing her treachery). Up until this time, the Galactic Federation disregarded Zebes as a low priority, class XIII Wanderer Planet.

This changed when the Space Pirates stole a specimen of the dangerous Metroid and word came that the Pirates planned to clone an army of the creatures in their base of operations beneath its surface. The Federation was quick to send its fleets into battle, in order to remove the threat. Ridley personally led many battles against the Galactic Federation's forces, over control of the planet, and defeated everything the Federation Police Force had to attack with.

However, sometime after these battles, he left Zebes on his flag-ship as well as the Space Pirate Mothership, to fight the fleet of Adam Malkovich, only to later receive a distress signal from Zebes after Kraid's defeat and return to do battle with Samus Aran, a Bounty Hunter the Federation had sent to destroy Mother Brain. While the great Space Dragon threw everything he had at his old-yet-new nemesis, he did not come out the victor, and instead found himself nearly destroyed.

Ridley eventually confronted Samus in the depths of Norfair. In Metroid, this battle took place in MiniBoss Hideout II, whilst in Zero Mission, it took place in Ridley, an area named after him. Both are the same area, just renamed for Zero Mission. In Metroid, Ridley is about Samus' height, if slightly taller, and merely hops around throwing zigzagging fireballs at her. Samus can fire almost anything at him and he gets hurt. Once Samus defeats him, 75 missiles are added to her maximum amount. In Zero Mission, however, he is much more difficult. Ridley flies around and tries to kill Samus with his "classic" attacks - tail swipes, plasma breath, fireballs, and claw slashes. After Samus defeats him, she is allowed to leave with the Unknown Item (Gravity Suit) that had started the battle.

After Samus explores the Space Pirate Mothership and recovers her lost Power Suit, she eventually stumbles onto the Ridley Robot, a mechanical construct inspired by Ridley that she must destroy in order to leave the ship. After its destruction, it activates its self-destruct mechanism, which obliterates the mothership in a massive explosion. Fortunately, Samus is able to escape just before the ship detonates.

Cybernetic Enhancements
Ridley, after sustaining severe injury, was wounded beyond fighting capability. However, a scan in the Space Pirate Frigate Orpheon, in the later Metroid Prime game, indicates that he, in fact, survived the attack.

Space Pirates, by order of High Command, recovered his fatally-crippled body and infused it with machinery, reconstructing Geoform 187 into "Meta Ridley". On Tallon IV, Meta Ridley apparently visits many of the Space Pirate bases, first going to the Phendrana Drifts to see the Pirate base, and then flying off towards the Phazon Mines, where he presumably remains until Samus arrives. They later engage each other in battle at the Artifact Temple. At its conclusion (after which his life-bar is depleted), the Chozo Statues blast Meta Ridley and send him hurtling to his death in a fiery explosion.

Despite his fall, he somehow survived, possibly due to the Space Pirates salvaging him, or possibly due to the strength of his cyborg modifications. In any case, Meta Ridley reappeared on Norion during the Space Pirate attack on the Galactic Federation Marine Corps, where Samus fought him once again. He first tried to attack Samus while she was invulnerable Morph Ball mode, but Samus managed to use her Morph Ball Bombs to escape. He then ambushed her at Generator C, sending both of them down a deep shaft, with the intention of crushing Samus at the bottom.

Despite the enclosed environment of the fight, Samus was able to defeat him once more and after delivering several shots directly into his throat, left him for dead before being saved by Rundas. Ridley, however, survived this battle and then went to the Pirate Homeworld and was attracted to the Leviathan (implied in the Infant Leviathan scan), where he was corrupted and transformed into Omega Ridley. Samus later encountered the creature in the Leviathan and defeated him. Interestingly, unlike the other Leviathan guardians, Ridley is never seen disintegrating.

Return
By the time of Samus's mission on SR-388, Ridley had regenerated most of his organic body and shed half of his cybernetic enhancements. Known as Proteus Ridley, he ambushes Samus and the last infant Metroid on SR-388, intending on capturing the Metroid. He and Samus duel once again, with Samus being aided by the Metroid. She eventually triumphs, blasting him in the chest multiple times and leaving him unconscious.

Ridley would survive this encounter, shedding the last remains of his cybernetic enhancements and regaining his organic body. He destroys the Ceres Space Colony and steals the last Metroid. He and Samus have yet another skirmish, but just before Samus is mortally wounded Ridley leaves as the space station's self-destruct sequence begins. He flies off to the rebuilt Space Pirate base on Zebes, where they plan to clone Metroids and make an army of them for galactic domination.

Ridley is once again equipped with his "classic attacks" (as a matter of fact, Super Metroid was the first game to feature these attacks) when Samus finds him in his lair in the deep, central part of Norfair. Samus must defeat him again as one of the bosses to unlock access to Tourian. With the loss of the armor plating from his previous form, he is now much more vulnerable to attack. His previous form demanded that he be shot in the chest or mouth, but he is now vulnerable to both Missile launchers and Charge Beams from any angle; however, Ridley has the ability to swat Missiles away with his whip-like tail.

After Samus defeats Mother Brain, Zebes explodes. This event marks the death of the original Ridley, with his subsequent appearances being clones or imitators.

Little Birdie
After Samus had defeated the Space Pirates and destroyed Zebes, a corrupt Galactic Federation science team collected samples of alien DNA from Samus's suit and cloned them in their labs on the Bottle Ship. Unknown to them, one of the samples was Ridley's DNA.

Ridley's clone was born as a small, bird-like creature, which the science team dubbed "Little Birdie" and kept as a pet. One day, the clone played dead to lure in a scientist into its cage and proceeded to eat him.

Samus first encountered Ridley's clone in his "little birdie" form in the Biosphere, witnessing him attempt to eat a large fruit. Though she dismisses him as harmless, she hears his cries disturb the Kihunter nest, causing the nest's denizens to attack Samus. After she destroys the Kihunter hive, she sees Ridley's clone again, ravenously devouring Kihunter honey. She muses to herself that the creature had manipulated her.

Mystery Creature
The clone's metamorphosis, hastened by his endless appetite, transformed him into a form known as the Mystery Creature. The Mystery Creature was more reptilian in looks, bearing a long tail ending in a sharp spearhead and a coat of white fur, a vestige of the "little birdie." The Mystery Creature ambushed Samus, holding her in place while his bioform minions attacked the troops. She eventually warded him off, but he retreated to the Pyrosphere.

Ridley Reborn
The clone's final encounter with Samus on the Bottle Ship was in the depths of the Pyrosphere. He attacks Samus's compatriot Anthony Higgs near a lava vent, but after she destroys the vent, he finally reveals himself as Ridley, much to Samus's horror. However, when he knocks Higgs into the lava below, she battles him once again and triumphs. The clone survives, however, and flees to another part of the ship. He is last seen as a withered husk near the Queen Metroid's containment area, his life force sucked dry by the Queen Metroid. After the end of the incident on the Bottle Ship, BSL recovers his body and takes it to their base near SR-388.

Neo-Ridley
Like some recurring nightmare, Samus found the clone's frozen husk located within a frozen stasis chamber upon the Biologic Space Laboratories research station's main deck. To her relief, he was frozen successfully and could not move or provide any kind of terror in this state. Unfortunately, his inability to move led to his eventual infection by an X-Parasite. This parasite cracked the ice open and shattered the clone. However, the parasite absorbed Ridley's DNA and assumed Ridley's appearance, regenerating his body through itself and making him even stronger than before. Known as Neo-Ridley, the parasite attacked Samus, only for her to subdue him and absorb his parasite form into her gun, reacquiring the Screw Attack. With the parasite's destruction, Ridley is presumably gone for good, unless his DNA still exists within Samus' suit after absorption.

Super Smash Bros. series
Ridley has appeared in all Super Smash Bros. games to date, barring the 3DS game. He has been a highly suggested playable character despite never being playable due to how big he is. Masahiro Sakurai has mentioned that he thought about including him, but would have to shrink his size in the game, later coming to the conclusion that it wouldn't be Ridley if they shrunk him, and that it would just look weird, which led into multiple people making mods on the game where they could play as Ridley.

Super Smash Bros.
This is no doubt his most minor role in the entire franchise, he is seen in the background as a pixel art during the level Planet Zebes and does nothing more.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
In the opening scene of Melee, he can be seen fighting Samus, he breaks through a wall in order to reach Samus and confronts her in the corridor. This is based on the Ceres Base Colony fight at the beginning of Super Metroid.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In this game, Ridley has his biggest role in the Super Smash Bros. series yet, as a major antagonist in the Subspace Emissary.

He first ambushes Samus when Pikachu and Samus walk around in the Research Facility. He tortures Samus by dragging her onto the walls, but Pikachu manages to electrocute Ridley with a thunderbolt and temporarily manages to paralyze him. The three then engage in battle.

As a boss, he uses very agile and fast moves. His arguably worst moves are his claw attacks, and a simple backflip, which slashes and throws the player up. He also possesses an attack where he flies off the screen and proceeds to plummet toward the ground in a smash attack that rarely hits, but delivers decent damage if it does, and can follow it up with a more unexpected second fly-crash that has a wider range and greater damage.

He has another what looks almost like Rayquaza's extreme speed attack where he charges from one of the corners and knocks the player away if it hits. It can unexpectedly hit, because of how fast it is.

Another of his attacks is when he scraps his sharp tail against the player and scraps them along. It can do some large damage and long knockout depending on the difficulty.

But his killer move is when he flies away for a while, and then unexpectedly comes back and knocks out the player if it hits, this is the most dangerous for sure, considering it can be hard to track because of how fast it comes and does a large amount of damage and knockback.

He later appears in the game as Meta Ridley, where he pursues the Falcon Flyer to seek revenge on Samus and Pikachu. In general, Meta Ridley has more devastating attacks, and the more damage he suffers, the farther he flies from the Falcon Flyer, making the battle harder. The battle is also timed at two minutes. Meta Ridley takes advantage of the Falcon Flyer as well, either crashing on the Falcon Flyer to instantly drag it from the blast line or send it gradually dropping as he shoots fireballs before sending it back up.

Ridley is later resurrected, both in his organic and Meta Ridley incarnations, by Tabuu as bosses in the Great Maze.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Ridley appears as the stage boss of the Pyrosphere. He is aggressive and will fight against anyone on the stage, the player that defeats him, gets an extra point, but the players can also use him as a powerful minion, by hitting him multiple times, when that has happened, he won't try to kill the leader, but if someone else makes him their minion, he will try to defeat the others again, his moves are quite similar to the moves he had before, but the design on them may be a bit different. But this time he has a move where he breathes big flames of fire, and another one where he does some close-up combat.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
For the first time ever, Ridley is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and is the second new fighter (following the Inklings) introduced for the game. As for his current design in the game, he is the largest character to date, and the first character to be larger than Bowser.

Ridley's fighting style is incredibly vicious, with savage moves such as claw swipes, tail attacks, grabs, and fiery breath. For his Final Smash, he knocks his enemy into Samus's ship, then fires a stream of plasma breath, destroying Samus's ship and the victim.

His alternate costumes reflect his various designs across the Metroid series, including one based upon Meta Ridley.

Trophy Descriptions
"The head of the Space Pirates on Zebes, Ridley soars through space on wicked wings. Ridley may look like a mindless monster, but he's actually quite intelligent. After the SR-388 incident, where Samus captured the infant Metroid, Ridley took the Space Academy by storm, annihilating the complex and taking the Metroid back."

- Melee.

"The leader of the Space Pirates. He looks like a pterosaur but has high intelligence and brutal nature. He plans to steal the baby Metroid from Samus for his own use. Ridley utilizes wings for a full range of flight and attacks with fireballs from his mouth and whips of his tail. As the culprit behind the murder of Samus's parents, the connections with Samus run deep."

- Brawl (Regular Ridley).

"The meta form of Ridley, revived using the Space Pirates' genetic engineering and cybernetic technologies. His thin chest plate--and weak point--is protected by a highly resistant membrane. Meta Ridley is highly mobile and features a multi-missile system, a bomb launcher, and powerful wings. Ice attacks are particularly effective in dealing damage to him."

- Brawl (Meta Ridley).

"Samus's long-standing rival in battle. In this game, he's a common foe to all the fighters in the Pyrosphere stage. However, if you manage to launch him or knock him over, he'll become an ally to whoever dealt the last blow. Defeating him in a timed battle net you +1 KO."

- Wii U.

"It may be hard to believe, but this is a younger version of the infamous Space Pirate Ridley. No matter how cute he is, don't think that you can love him and take him home-his next form is lizard-like with a sharp tail, and he has no problem turning his caring owner into a tasty snack!"

- Wii U (Little Birdie).

"What once was a cute little bird has changed into a lizard-like creature. It still has some white feathers from its previous form, but that's where the similarities end. Is there something in its blood that drives it to confront Samus whenever possible? Her parents were Ridley's victims, after all."

- Wii U (Mystery Creature).

Ridley Robot


The Ridley Robot is an incomplete robot based on Ridley, made by Ridley, as it is clearly incomplete, its cables are coming out of its torso, and therefore doesn't have the same moving capability as Ridley, and is only able to move with its arms. Though it is apparently connected to an unseen interface, giving it some sort of power. It has a grey, metallic appearance with very sharp, light green eyes and a red core on its chest.

In its boss battle, it is the final boss of Metroid: Zero Mission, but is its only appearance too (Other than Nintendo Land), it can fire missiles, lasers, and fireballs, but ironically, its main weakness is also missiles, and if Samus manages to shoot it in its core, it will take damage, it also uses its claws to do damage.

Meta Ridley
After Ridley was defeated and presumably deceased, he still wouldn't give up, he picked up his remains and made himself again, and this time, a genetically enhanced version, he had to go through a very painful metamorphosis so that he could become Meta Ridley and fulfill his goal to kill Samus once and for all, it is likely that the people who repaired him could have used parts of the Ridley Robot.

Once he was recreated as Meta Ridley, his attacks were also upgraded, his speed was highly boosted with new wings, his new armor is extremely durable. One of his weapons are missiles, he can shoot multiple missiles at once, but can also shoot one at a time. A tactic he uses at times is hiding behind something and later popping up and shooting missiles, but at times also goes all in. He can also use powerful beams and lasers, at times when he flies and fires missiles, he might fire lasers and/or beams too.

Apparently, the designer of Meta Ridley, Mike Sneath, mentioned that it took 20-25 days to complete his character design him, the wings took some time to make, trying to make them look more modern and holographic. His first concept was rejected, but then later the second one was the one used. Mike didn't get involved in the boss battle design, however, which was up to the designers and scenario planners.

Omega Ridley
Following his loss against Samus during his attempt at invading Norion, Meta Ridley managed to escape, but got exposed to Phazon, After getting exposed to the Phazon, his armor got upgraded and made it much more durable, however, despite being upgraded in such a huge way, he did get an injury from when he fell from Norion that didn't fully heal, which is his only weak spot during this form. During battles, he will try to protect this injury as good as he can, requiring Samus to shoot and paralyze him in order to leave the injury open for other attacks that can defeat him. Samus confronts him on the Pirate Homeworld guarding the planet's Leviathan. After a long battle, Samus finally manages to defeat Omega Ridley, which makes Ridley explode before disappearing.

While this form is dominant in terms of battle and fighting, compared to Meta Ridley, the Omega Form doesn't seem to have much mechanical modification at all, the reasoning for this is most likely that the exposing to Phazon made the mechanical modification slowly fall out of his body, and while Ridley isn't portrayed as tragic, it is possible that Ridley could have been suffering drastically during this process.

Proteus Ridley
Despite his defeat as Omega Ridley, Ridley would later re-emerge as Proteus Ridley, a more organic body with cybernetic traces. During his battle, his organic parts are his weak areas. He retains his classic attacks, as well as violet fireballs that he fires in spreads.

For every phase that passes, Ridley becomes more and more desperate to get rid of Samus, in the final phase, he starts desperately shooting constant fireballs, a reason for him being desperate here is obviously because he wants to kill Samus, but also because the Baby Metroid keeps on sucking a bunch of energy from him.

Neo Ridley
(Note: As mentioned before, this is the last time we see Ridley chronologically.)

When Samus first sees the frozen corpse of Ridley, she merely walked near the frozen corpse and it collapsed, but not long after, Ridley's eyes started to glow again and his clone recalled Samus. Instead of attacking as he usually would, he flew away.

As Samus continues exploring the station, she sees Ridley's clone again but this time dry and rotting. As she comes closer to see what it is, the clone's eyes start to glow again. An X-Parasite had entered his body, and Ridley turned to his new and final form, Neo Ridley. This new infected form of Ridley has a different look, it has more talons, it is bigger than usual and while Ridley didn't get any sort of further attributes, he becomes even more vicious and dangerous, and while Ridley is extremely intelligent, during this form, he most likely had lost all control of himself and was controlled by the X-Parasite.

During the battle, because of being infected by a parasite and therefore becoming even more barbaric, his attacks will be less thought out and more all in. Ridley will ram into Samus, try grabbing her with his claws and talons, spin and whip using his tail, and as usual shoot fireballs, but this time, it all seems more desperate than usual. Despite being less thought out, Neo Ridley has no real weaknesses, though because of the horrible state he is in, using a charge beam will continually damage him, it might even stun him for a while. His huge size during this battle makes it hard for Samus to dodge him. After he gets defeated, the Core-X will come out, Samus absorbs the Core-X and obtains the classic Screw Attack.

Larva Ridley/Little Birdie
The Little Birdie is, effectively, the first and juvenile form of Ridley, and even before he was grown up, he would be as intelligent yet animalistic during this age.

After being genetically cloned by finding DNA on Samus Aran's armor while the scientists had no idea that the DNA was spawned by Ridley, this creature was underestimated because of its cute appearance, the scientists instantly used it as a pet because of its small size and cute fur and gave it an adorable nickname, but not long after, the small little creature brutally murdered one of the other scientists who happened to confront it while playing dead.

The first time Samus encounters it, it is seemingly scared of her as it tries to catch its favorite fruit by jumping, but fails. When it sees Samus it runs away, but when Samus confronts it a bit more, it starts staring at her.

In terms of personality, this creature is definitely ruder than Ridley himself, who could even be sophisticated at times, it is also greedy, as seen when it steals a lot of honey and eats it all up.

Adolescent Ridley/Mystery Creature
The Mystery Creature is the second and adolescent form of Ridley. It is now growing into a more lizard-like creature, along with slowly turning into the full Ridley form, it has a pair of unfinished incomplete wings, different from the first age form of Ridley, which was more of a chicken-like creature, though it still keeps the white feathers, which it loses when it grows into Ridley's fully grown state, it has muscular and strong legs that make it very fast, it has sharp talons, a purple and green color scheme, a long tail, which it uses for combat but also so that it can balance itself. It has a very tough and hard skin, which can trouble Samus when shooting it, deflecting weapons. While it does have a tough and powerful body, like every other Ridley form, it has some very specific weaknesses, its mouth, the tip of the tail, under the body, and the growing incomplete wings.

As most predators would, it has extremely sharp and dangerous teeth that it uses to kill, eat, and battle prey, it has bright orange eyes placed on the slim and long skull, to go along with being a predator, its tongue is big and it often has the tongue out.

It is also very flexible and has a specially good vision for predatory uses, it can see things from a different vision than other creatures can't, and even when it blinks, it will be able to look, this makes it very good at battling, considering it can outsmart the opponent and see it even when it isn't technically looking.

The first time Samus sees the creature, it is attacking the federation army 07th Platoon in the Biosphere Test Area, she runs in an attempt to save them from the vicious predator, but the Mystery Creature instead waits for Samus and when she confronts it, it ambushes and attacks her, it attacks Samus with its tail and manages to pin her down, it summons other enemies, and the soldiers try to help Samus but gets overpowered by all the summoned enemies, the Mystery Creature goes for Samus's head, but this time Samus gets the upper hand and shoots its tail.

While Samus is getting the hang of defeating the creature, Anthony Higgs shoots the creature, which stuns it and gives Samus time to run away from it, Anthony tries shooting it once more, which would probably cause the death of the creature, or at the very least mutilated it to the point that it wouldn't be able to do much, but stressed as the creature was, it runs away from them and manages to get away safe, Samus and the others stalk it to make sure that it gets caught once and for all, however, The 07 Platoon finds Lyle Smithsonian's body ripped and killed on the floor, Samus sees a green blood stain along the way, that she follows, she later finds Lyle's body, and finds out that the creature had killed Lyle, and being an adolescent version of Ridley himself, it had eaten her body to grow larger.

Samus gets sent to find and chase the creature once again, but she doesn't find it instantly, but instead only finds a bit of blood, Adam Malkovich orders her to go to Pyrosphere, Sector 3, but it is later redirected to hunt in Cryosphere instead of Pyrosphere, while she was hunting, the creature had made battle cries, which made the other enemies even more aggressive, after a while, Samus goes to Pyrosphere again, she sees the creature deceased and its remains, its back is ripped open, and it is overall just dead, she continues, and expects to see the creature's next age form, she meets Anthony once again, while he is fighting an unseen creature that is flying, after a while, Samus sees and notices that the purple creature, and its little birdie form, were both Ridley's younger forms all along.

Appearance
He is a large alien creature with some draconian traits (physiology) and is considered to be the leader of the Space Pirates stationed on Zebes, as well as being the supreme commander of the Space Pirate confederation. Highly intelligent, Ridley seems to have a great amount of hatred for the bounty hunter Samus Aran, due to his numerous confrontations and battles with her.

Throughout the main games, he is able to be brought back to life after his presumed death, either through technological enhancements, genetic mutations, and even cloning. It is his strong defiance and persistence that allows Ridley to fight again despite being defeated countless times by Samus.

Personality
Considering his lack of voice in the games and little-known backstory about him, and always being a boss in the games, Ridley is mistaken as a brain-dead and feral animal that can't control his actions and has to eat, however, this is proven wrong at least in the official Metroid manga. Here, Ridley is shown to be an intelligent yet bloodthirsty creature that kills a young girl's mother, which just so happens to be Samus, who tries to befriend him; Ridley simply laughs at the request and attacks her, another goal of his is to destroy the peaceful planet K2-L. Considering he is the warlord that he is, he follows his leader very unwillingly. This most likely is because his love for war is only because of the feeling for murder and death of people. Even though this, he is shown to be very intelligent as well, as seen in The Battle of Norion, he makes sure that even if he dies, Samus will die too.

His main trait of personality other than being a warlord though is his sarcastic and overly sadistic humor, he makes jokes about Samus's mother being dead at times very casually, and toys with Samus at times before trying to kill her, he even sarcastically calls his leader once Sir Military Commander, in which he obviously just flies away in arrogance after.

Even though never speaking human speech in the games, people have assumed that the reason we see him speaking English in the manga is that it's a translation from his "Space Pirate Language".

Powers and Abilities
Ridley's fighting skills are very advanced, as seen multiple times in the series, an example of this is in the Battle of Norion, he took advantage of Samus being unable to transform during the battle while she was in the Morph Ball form, he then checked and made sure that Samus would fall down the Generator C shaft, this would make it so that whether he dies or not, Samus would die too, with him.

One of the reasons he is good at fighting is because of all his weapons and his ability to fly, a lot of creatures in Metroid can't fly which gives Ridley the upper hand in almost every battle.

Some of his weapons and attacks are beams, lasers, and fireballs. He also has the strength that he uses at times to break battleships in order to make his enemies fall down.

Quotes
"Kill as much as you want! Have fun!"

- Ridley

"Mhmm~You're so cute. I'm sorry miss, but... That's impossible!! Because... YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE!"

- Ridley, to a very young Samus when she tries to befriend him.

"Thanks to you, the afloraltite exploded and I was also engulfed in flames! Can you imagine how I managed to survive?! Shall I tell you what I had to feed my injured body, hmm?! Flesh!! I somehow survived by consuming the bodies of your kind, tossed every which way. Foul, foul human flesh."

- Ridley reveals to Samus how he survived his near-death experience on K-2L.

"You don't know, maybe I even ate your "mama" so that my cells can live, hm? Is she here? Or here? AT LEAST PAY YOUR RESPECTS!"

- Ridley, mocking Samus over her mother's death.

Guide and Manual Descriptions
"It's the head of Mini-Boss Hideout II. It jumps up into the air and breathes fire. It's the original life form of the planet Zebes and is controlled by Mother Brain. Destroy it and you win 75 missile blasts!"

- Metroid.

"Ridley headed the mission to the Space Colony and stole the Metroid Hatchling. It whips out at enemies with its long tail and spits fire while flying through the air."

- Super Metroid.

"It attacks Samus by spewing fireballs. A missile attack is very effective, but if you have the wave beam, it would be a good idea to use the beam continuously while jumping through the lava."

"Extremely dangerous! Enormous wing-span and a long, whip-like tail. Moves very fast and attacks with alarming ferocity. Emits fireballs of gas from the elongated beak. Will try to pick up enemies and crush them with razor-sharp talons. Vulnerable to Super Missiles. DANGER LEVEL: VERY HIGH."

- Zero Mission Website.

"Bump into this enemy to trigger a battle. If a player manages to defeat Ridley, he or she is rewarded with a massive boost to all stats. Stat boosts can also be earned if a player wins the battle by scoring KOs against his or her opponents. If Ridley is not defeated in time, he will retain his remaining stamina and move to another space on the board."

- SSB4 Smash Tour.

Metroid Videogames

 * Metroid
 * Super Metroid
 * Metroid Fusion
 * Metroid Prime
 * Metroid: Zero Mission
 * Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Bonus Disc
 * Metroid Prime Pinball
 * Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
 * Metroid Prime Trilogy
 * Metroid: Other M
 * Metroid: Samus Returns

Commercials

 * Super Metroid Commercial
 * TV Commercial: 60 Spot

Manga, Comics, & Books

 * Metroid (1986 manga)
 * Metroid: Zebes Invasion Order
 * Metroid (2002 manga)
 * Samus & Joey: Volume 1
 * Super Metroid (Nintendo Power comic)
 * Metroid EX
 * Famiken Ryu: Metroid and Super Xevious - The Riddle of Gamp
 * Metroid Prime (Comic)
 * Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
 * Metroid Prime Official Strategy Guide (Brady)
 * Metroid Prime: The Official Nintendo Player's Guide
 * Super Metroid (Manga)
 * Super Metroid Nintendo Player's Guide

Super Smash Bros. Video Games

 * Super Smash Bros.(Cameo only)
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee(Cameo only)
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl(as a level boss/3D Trophy)
 * Super Smash Bros. Wii U(as a stage boss/3D Trophy)
 * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate(as a playable character)

Captain N: The Game Master

 * Money Changes Everything
 * Breakout
 * When Friends Fall Out

Wario

 * Warioware: Smooth Moves

Dead or Alive

 * Dead or Alive: Dimensions

Misc

 * NES Remix 2
 * Nintendo Land
 * New Play Control!

Trivia

 * The fact that Ridley is fully organic in Super Metroid was a call for theories from many fans of the games. After the events of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, a common theory claims that after the defeat of Omega Ridley in the core of the Leviathan, massive Phazon exposure from the explosion recreates his organic tissue since it is known that Phazon, despite it's destructive potential, also has regenerative properties. To support this theory, in Corruption Omega Ridley has some parts of his body fully regenerated while this isn't shown on Meta Ridley in the same game.
 * Metroid: Samus Returns eventually provided a missing link between the fully organic Ridley and Proteus Ridley, but it still does not explain how he regained parts of his organic body to become Proteus Ridley, at least not officially.
 * Ridley's name is likely derived from Ridley Scott, the director of the first film of the Alien film series and its prequel trilogy, from which Metroid games are stated to have taken a lot of inspiration. Ridley has a remarkable similarity to the Xenomorphs.
 * Ridley is the only other character besides SA-X and Dark Samus to best Samus in a fight. In the Super Metroid intro, Ridley is able to incapacitate Samus long enough to steal the last Metroid and accomplish his mission, though if a player is skilled enough, Ridley can be somewhat defeated. The result is Ridley losing his grip on the Metroid Hatchling's canister and dropping it, but quickly grabs it again and flees.
 * Ridley is the most common reappearing villain in the Metroid series, as he has appeared in every Metroid game to date except for Metroid II: Return of Samus (although he did appear in its remake), Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime Hunters.
 * Ridley is capable of being bipedal, shown in Metroid Prime 3, in the second phase of the battle between Samus and Omega Ridley, once she destroys the joints on his Phazite armor and his weak spot is exposed, he stands on two feet and clumsily walks around swiping at Samus as she blasts his chest with Phazon energy from Hypermode. Also, in Metroid Prime, he stumbles on two legs as the Chozo spirits blast at his exposed chest cavity. However, he also stands on his two feet during the battle when Samus fires a round into his mouth exposing his chest. While preparing his charge attack, he stands on his feet as well.
 * In all of his 2-D appearances, his wings are curiously smaller than his body size, logically making them unlikely to even lift Ridley off the ground, and yet he soars through the air with ease (even his X-Parasite mimic). This is so that during his fights, he doesn't take up too much of the screen, and so that his flapping wings don't damage Samus as they would if properly sized. His 3-D appearances and manga rectify this mystery by giving him wings that exceed his main body.
 * In the Pirate Command sector of the Pirate Homeworld, images of Ridley can be found on the glowing orange monitors.
 * A possible explanation for Ridley's color changes throughout the series may be due to an ability to control the pigments in his skin in a way similar to a chameleon or an octopus. When Samus first enters his arena in Super Metroid, Ridley is not visible at first. Ridley's eyes soon open in front of Samus, and he then becomes fully visible before soaring into the air to attack. This may indicate that Ridley can camouflage himself like a chameleon.
 * Ridley's signature music was originally used as a generic boss fight background music in Super Metroid, sharing it with the Bomb Torizo, Draygon, and the Golden Torizo; but in later games, it has been associated solely with Ridley. Although there have been variations of Ridley's theme in each game (different tempo, extra beats, etc), the music's rhythm and sound are consistent and used for every incarnation except for his very first boss fight in the original Metroid.
 * Meta Ridley can be seen on Nintendo Monopoly representing Tennessee Avenue for $180, though the property is simply referred to as "Ridley".
 * In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, partial in-game data exists for a Ridley Assist Trophy, but it is not in-game. It was likely scrapped in development.
 * Ridley's theme is one of the three most remixed theme in the Metroid series, having a total of ten official remixes.
 * Because Ridley was captured by BSL between Other M and Fusion, it is possible that Ridley's DNA is still in their possession.
 * In Metroid: Other M, Ridley has an attack in which he scrapes Samus against the wall. The same attack was seen in a cutscene in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
 * From a piece of concept art, Ridley was planned to be a boss in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, as a Darkling.
 * It is unknown if his clone in Other M has the memories of the original Ridley. Throughout the clone's life cycle, it seems to specifically target Samus, but it is unknown if it did so because it has the original's memories of her or if he instinctively saw her as the greater threat. The latter theory does not explain why the clone sadistically toyed with her in the Pyrosphere rather than attack Anthony.
 * Interestingly, Ridley's blood in Corruption is red, but his clone's blood in Other M is green, which is a color that is common in science fiction to put in aliens.
 * As the Mystery Creature, his tail is his biggest weak spot, which is interesting, because in every other form his tail is highly invulnerable, the reason for this is most likely because it was still growing during the adolescent form, and later during the full form, it got complete.
 * Even during his younger forms, Ridley was highly intelligent, an example of showing intelligence during his younger self was when Adam first shot him and stunned him, and the second time he was about to ambush Adam, he instead ran away because he knew that he would get shot again.
 * It is unknown if Ridley's old age forms have the same rivalry mindset about Samus as his full form has, though it is likely that is the case, considering they were equally as aggressive as he was against Samus.
 * Fans have longed for an inclusion for Ridley in Super Smash Bros., however, unlike other large Nintendo characters that have been scaled down to be playable (for example, Bowser has had a lot of different sizes in-game, but was scaled down to match most of the cast in Super Smash Bros.,) Sakurai has stated that he prefers to keep Ridley as a threatening large size, and will only put him in Smash as a boss, as he did in For 3DS/WiiU and Brawl. However, Ridley has been confirmed for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch.
 * Although Ridley'size is reduce to a humaroid,he is still the biggest fighter in entire game,this can be seen when the players use the down taunt,even Sakurai himself clam that this is his favorite taunt for it can show how big Ridley truly is
 * Also,his fighter tagline(Ridley hit the big time!) is likely references size debacle.
 * Proteus Ridley's name is derived from Proteus, an early Greek god of the sea and known for adapting himself throughout history. This name is appropriate, as Ridley himself is prone for constantly changing throughout his own lifespan.