Ridley (Metroid)
Ridley appears a few times in the "" comics from 1990. In these comics, he looks almost exactly as he appears in the NES version manual and is depicted as an individual of a full-fledged species of identical creatures, an attribute he employs to impersonate a judge of the same species as him. "Nintendo Power" featured two "Metroid" adaptations. The "Super Metroid" comic follows the plot of the video game of the same name over the course of sixty pages, while the "Metroid Prime" comic does the same across eighteen pages. In the "Metroid" e-manga created by Yoshio Sakamoto, Samus first meets Ridley as a child as he leads the attack on her home colony of K-2L. As Ridley observes the destruction of the colony, Samus approaches him. Her young mind overwhelmed by the carnage but having recently been taught by the Chozo elder Old Bird that even unsightly creatures can be decent, she tries to befriend him, desperate for assurance that everything will be all right. Ridley appears to display a moment's pity toward her before abruptly revealing his true nature by preparing to annihilate her, out of either bloodlust or mercy. Samus' mother Virginia, however, arrives in the nick of time amidst the confusion of the Pirate raid and pushes her daughter out of the way of Ridley's fiery breath, dying instantly in the process. This memory scars Samus for life, and she summarily vows to avenge her parents and destroy Ridley and all the Space Pirates.
Ridley (Metroid)
Throughout the series, Ridley has undergone a variety of changes in appearance. In the original "Metroid" title, he was roughly the same size as protagonist Samus Aran and sported a more alien appearance (particularly in official artwork, which depicted him with eight eyes running down the length of his head and a small, lamprey-like mouth). In "Super Metroid", he is larger than in the original title several times over, sporting purplish-brown skin, glowing yellow eyes, chameleonic abilities (possibly explaining his inconsistent skin tone across different games and even within different parts of "Super Metroid"), and an overall body shape that heavily resembles a European dragon. Later games depict him as larger still, and "Other M" departs from previous depictions by giving him a bulky, muscular form in contrast with his skeletal appearance in previous games, along with completely purple skin and flattened jaws resembling a pointed duck bill with a noticeable underbite. Ridley's vocalizations were first depicted in "Super Metroid" and took the form of a predatory screech; later 2D titles instead gave him piercing, high-pitched wails, while 3D installments such as the "Prime" games and "Other M" had him perform monstrous roars. His cybernetic form during the events of the "Prime" series is referred to as Meta Ridley and incorporates various ballistic weapon systems, while a robotic duplicate, Ridley Robot, appears as the final boss in "Zero Mission". While he did not originally appear in "", in the 3DS remake "", Ridley returns as the game's final boss in a new cybernetic form called Proteus Ridley in an attempt to steal the last living Metroid before Samus can deliver it to the Galactic Federation, though he is defeated once more. In the new title of the "Super Smash Bros." series, "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate", he is shown as he was in "Super Metroid", with a darker, purplish tone to his skin and with a size scaled to his original appearance in the first Metroid title, although he has an alternate costume resembling Meta Ridley.