Queen Promethium

"Maetel, you would betray me as well? The mother who gave you the most beautiful body in the whole universe? And the one who gave you eternal life..."

- Promethium to Maetel.

"To see you live out the rest of your life and sorrow is my most precious wish."

- Queen Promethean to her daughter, Maetel.

La Andromeda Promethium II, also known as Queen Promethean, is a major antagonist in the Galaxy Express 99 series, including its anime and manga. She is the mother of the heroine of the series, Maetel, and the founder and ruler of the Machine Empire. She is the main antagonist of the of the 1979 film, the manga, the final main antagonist of the television series and a posthumous antagonist in Adieu Galaxy Express 999 and Maetel Legend.

Promethium was once a gentle woman, but after the artificial sun was failing, she created the machine empire, believing it would be good for humanity, Unfortunately, this would lead her to become an evil ruler she is now, running the empire as a horrific dystopia, having people of La Metal abducted and turning them into living machines to serve her and perpetual agony as the power source of La Metal.

She was voiced by Ryōko Kinomiya in the japanese versions and Kathleen Barr in the English version of the film.

Appearance
In her human body, she had long blonde hair, a willowy body, long eyelashes and brown eyes. However, in other times, her hair was green and black eyes. She wore a black dress and red crown, it had heart-shaped ornaments on the crown that would appear as a gear.

In the film, her machine body, she has a pale face with black eyes resembling a noh mask. She wears a black silhouetted veil with tendrils dangling from her head, covering her body and has a red central module on her forehead.

In the TV version, she gives a more human-like appearance with blue hair and wears a black cloak that down her sleeves. In the manga, she appears differently, having a large head with two faces, one of them resembling Maetel and her noh mask face.

Personality
Promethium was driven for eternal life. She originally using the mechanization to save the lives of La Metal from the eternal freeze. But after fusing with the machinery she became a cold-hearted, arrogant and ruthless to even her own family. She thinks highly of machines, seeing them as pinnacle and success of civilization. After becoming an artificial machine herself, she began to look down on the human race, seeing them as nothing but animals that was interfere to the Machine Empire and sees mechanization as the superior race of life and those that reject the machinery are nothing but fools, even to her.

Because of her lust for control, Promethium had every one of her citizens, including tried to have Maetel to become part of the slight hive mind that shares thoughts and feelings, which prevents the people of La Metal from rebellion and forcing them into labor.

Past
When the artificial sun was starting to fading, Promethium had her husband, Dr. Ban, to start the experimental process of converting to Machine Bodies. Her daughters Maetel and Emeraldas were against this, even their father was against this, but Promethium was dead set on the course. Ban tried to use a more mental link with his wife and use his consciousness uploaded into nanomachines for Promethium's mechanization to convince her of other ways besides just mechanization. But as the process went wrong due to another scientist Hardgear interfered, Promethium became a cold-hearted machine and using her last of her free will to sent her daughters away on the Galaxy Express train 999.

When Hardgear tried to have Promethium integrated into him, the artificial queen was working against him and had Hardgear assimilated into her, becoming a evil tyrant forcibly promoting mechanization under the illusion of choice. When her daughters and a few other of their companions proved to be obstacles, Promethium tried to get Maetel on her side through a clone. But at that point, Promethium's ruthless persona had overtaken her previous personality to Maetel's anguish when she was captured. As Promethium about to had Maetel to be mechanized until the human citizens of La Metal rebel against her.

Maetel escapes from her mother with dangerous information unknown to Promethium. By the time then, Promethium came into conflict with her daughters, Captain Harlock, Tochiro Oyama, and a few other rebels. While Promethium was occupied, Maetel used the received data to cut off power from La Metal's core to the Machine Men, causing Promethium's body to turn to dust. All the while leaving the capsule containing Dr. Ban's consciousness behind.

However, Promethium created herself on a new artificial planet, Planet Promethium. The artificial tyrant continued her goal of conquest until the sacrifice of a boy named, Nazca, to offset the living screws. Unfortunately this only powered Promethium down and did not stop her from rebooting years later.

Present
By this time, Maetel seemed to have joined Promethium's plan and to assist her by bringing the boy named Tetsuro Hoshino as the next living screw. However, Tetsuro broken free from his imprisonment and Maetel tricked her mother and used the capsule of her father along with the energy fallout to destroy her mother's planet along with all of the systems that would have brought back Promethium, ending the tyrantess' reign once and for all.