Ridley (Metroid)
Ridley's status within the ranks of the Space Pirates is unclear, with some sources stating that he is the leader of the entire Space Pirate race, whereas others portray him as simply the Pirates' military commander or even a mere enforcer within the Pirate military ranks, subservient to Mother Brain or Space Pirate High Command. Regardless, he is consistently depicted as a ruthless and cunning tactician who never passes up an opportunity to bring his considerable ferocity to bear on the battlefield, opting to overwhelm his opponents with an unwavering onslaught of attacks from his mouth, claws, and tail. He is also incredibly cruel, actively taking pleasure in the killing and torment of others; at one point in the official manga he taunts Samus by claiming he may have devoured her mother's corpse after killing her, and a Space Pirate log entry in "Metroid Prime" notes that being the mainstay of the Pirate security force is "a job he will certainly relish."
Metroid
"Metroid" was designed to be a shooting game that combined the platform jumping of "Super Mario Bros." with the non-linear exploration of "The Legend of Zelda" and a distinctly darker aesthetic. The name of the game is a portmanteau of the words "metro" (as in rapid transit) and android, and was meant to allude to the mainly underground setting of the first game as well as its robot-like protagonist. Halfway through development of the original "Metroid", one of the staff said to his fellow developers "Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?", and the idea was accepted. Ridley Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror film "Alien" was described by Sakamoto as a "huge influence" after the world of the first "Metroid" had been created. The development staff was affected by the work of the film's creature designer H. R. Giger, and found his creations to be fitting for the "Metroid" universe. In recognition of this, a character was given the name Ridley, after director Scott.