Melissa Bergman

Melissa Bergman
Series	Metroid
First Appearance	Metroid: Other M
Year Created	2010
Created by	Team Ninja
Voiced by (English)	Sarah Naid
Voiced by (Japanese)	Shizuka Itō

Melissa Bergman (Also known as MB) is the main antagonist of Metroid: Other M. She is a human android who was created with Mother Brain's intellectual data, and consequently developed Mother Brain's persona.

History

Melissa was created for the purpose of controlling Space Pirate special forces. Her infrastructure was modeled after Mother Brain so she could control the special forces telepathically, as well as develop a bond with Metroids, similar to the bond Samus Aran had with the baby Metroid that she took from SR388.

However, she soon developed emotions as well as Mother Brain's malevolent demeanor. This led to arguments with the other scientists on the BOTTLE SHIP. Madeline and the others attempted to reprogram her, without success. After that, Melissa went rampant, and set the special forces on all the researchers.

The BOTTLE SHIP incident

Samus Aran first sees MB watching her from a window overlooking the Experiment Floor in the Cryosphere, and she runs away to the Materials Storehouse after realizing she had been seen. Samus gives chase, and tries to convince her that she is here to rescue her, much to MB's denial. They are separated after Samus is attacked by a soldier using the RB176 Ferrocrusher.

Samus later encounters MB again in the Bioweapon Research Center in the Biosphere. Samus manages to convince her that she doesn't intend to hurt her. MB softens and introduces herself as Dr. Madeline Bergman.

MB reveals that the Federation was attempting to recreate a special forces unit of bioweapons, based on the hierarchy of the Space Pirates. To that end, the Federation had captured many Space Pirates and created cybernetically enhanced Zebesians to form the core of the force. She explains that "a certain presence" caused the creatures to become ferocious and uncontrollable. Samus assumes that by a "certain presence", she was referring to Ridley. She then goes on to say that she sent out a distress signal because she feared the ship's Zebesians would rise as authentic Space Pirates if left unchecked. Samus finds her statement somewhat questionable, as she doubts feral Zebesians would gain the same sentience as Space Pirates of previous years and theorizes that without the controlling powers of Mother Brain, the Zebesians would become a mere race of creatures acting on instinct.

MB then reveals that the scientists took remnants of DNA found on Samus' Power Suit, which were used to create clones of Metroids and Ridley. Samus, in shock, asks whether the scientists also created a Mother Brain clone, in order to control the Metroids. "Madeline" responds that an artificial intelligence called "MB" was created instead, which evolved and became self-aware. She then tells Samus that the Metroids are in a hidden area called Sector Zero, a recreation of Tourian where Metroids are raised, and also reveals that Adam Malkovich initially authorized the program. Samus runs off to destroy the Metroids and MB in the sector, telling MB to stay hidden. A figure then approaches MB, and she turns to face him before the sound of a gunshot is heard.

In Sector Zero, right before Adam detaches the area, he informs Samus that the individual posing as Madeline is "no ally".

Samus heads to Room MW after Sector Zero has been destroyed, where she encounters another survivor, as well as a Queen Metroid, which was responsible for spawning the Metroids in Sector Zero. This person claims to be Madeline Bergman. Shocked at the strange turn of events, Samus tells her that she already met someone with that name. After Madeline shows Samus her ID, she reveals that the blonde woman from earlier was, in fact, MB in an android body. She originally had an infrastructure after Mother Brain (subsequently resembling Aurora Units as well) with her AI, constructed to help regenerate and control the Space Pirate special forces. But when the scientists began creating Metroids, she was given a human form to help create a maternal connection to the creatures, thus forming an ideal relationship that is not based on dominance, inspired by Samus' bond with the baby. She was dubbed "Melissa Bergman" by Madeline, to help make her feel more human. Madeline also says she felt that Melissa was like a daughter to her.

Madeline explains that MB began showing signs of rebellion after manifesting emotions and criticizing the work of the scientists. In the eyes of the higher-ups, using MB as a mere tool as originally intended was starting to prove problematic and viewed her as a threat that could jeopardize the operations carried out on the BOTTLE SHIP. They eventually decided to reprogram her AI, which only made the situation worse. Madeline's presence as well as her failure to aid the android during MB's restraint may have caused the coming personality turn. Insisting that all humans should be "judged" for their actions, she kills her persecutors and takes control of the station. Using her intense brainwaves, she leads all of the bioforms on the ship (excluding Metroids) into killing all the scientists except Madeline, who goes into hiding. MB eventually decided that she would attack the Federation capital by bringing the BOTTLE SHIP and its entire cargo of bioweapons to the planet.

Both Madeline and Samus sympathize with MB, yet she still hunts them. After this conversation, MB appears, wielding a Freeze Gun (that she presumably took from James Pierce when she killed him), prepared to attack Madeline and Samus. After Madeline begs her to recall her human side, stating "I'll never fail you again," MB lowers her weapon. She then rushes at Madeline, seemingly pushing her out of the path of an incoming projectile that freezes her. The freeze shot was fired by Galactic Federation soldiers, who run into the room. MB thaws herself, throws the Freeze Gun towards Madeline and becomes enraged, summoning several Desbrachians to fight off the Galactic Federation soldiers as well as Samus when she tries to intervene, while calling several nearby Ghalmanians and Mighty Griptians for additional reinforcements (these are not seen in the ensuing battle however).

Finally, Madeline stops the battle by shooting MB with a Freeze Gun. The soldiers, led by The Colonel, take the opportunity to immediately gun MB down, killing her, much to Madeline's dismay. Soon afterward, Samus leaves the ship along with Madeline and Anthony Higgs, who miraculously escaped falling into the lava in the Geothermal Power Plant. As they leave the BOTTLE SHIP, images of MB can be seen formed out of space gas while Samus is in deep thought about MB's unfortunate fate; the mentioned images disperse when Samus' gunship passes through them.

The last time MB is seen in the game is when Samus returns to the Bottle Ship Control Room to retrieve an irreplaceable object (Adam's helmet); a flashback reveals Adam witnessing the conversation between the two in the Bioweapon Research Center on the Control Room's communication screen and rushing off to Sector Zero to stop Samus.

Physical Appearance

MB, in her human android form, resembles a young woman. She has shoulder-length blonde hair with bangs that curl to the left, and she has blue eyes. As she was meant to create a motherly bond with the Metroids on board, it may be that her appearance was slightly modelled after Samus Aran to further duplicate the latter's pairing with her Baby, as her hair color is the same as MB. However, Samus' hair style is vastly different from MB's, as MB's bangs curl to the right and are all together, while Samus has a single bang curled to the left, and her hair color is much yellower than MB. Samus' eyes are green in Other M as well, though they were blue in previous games. As far as clothing goes, she wears her own personal outfit.

Powers and Abilities

As an android created to replicate Mother Brain's AI, MB possesses powerful telepathic abilities. Her intense brainwaves allow her to control any life form, as demonstrated when she commanded the Special Forces to massacre all the scientists, save Madeline, who went into hiding. Also, being an android gives MB superior strength and speed to that of ordinary humans, seen once when she overpowers the guards restraining her, and again when she pushes Madeline out of the path of an incoming freeze bullet.

Personality

Despite being an android created with for the sole purpose to control Metroids, she developed a maternal relationship with Madeline Bergman. Madeline began calling MB Melissa, as though she were her daughter, helping her manifest a kind and caring personality. Madeline also gave MB a hairclip, which seems to have some suppressing effect upon her abilities. However, as MB interacted with the Metroids, she began to evolve and develop emotions, similar to the growth of Mother Brain's personality.

Like Mother Brain, she is shown to have a nascent sense of herself, believing that humans were foolish and should be judged for their evil actions. She also has the Pirate leader's quick temper. When blinded with anger, she lets go of all reason and focuses solely on venting said anger, seen once where she attacks the guards restraining her in a fit of rage, and again when she summons the BOTTLE SHIP's most dangerous creatures to attack the scientists, and later the Federation Marines. Madeline also said that MB's hatred was entirely focused on herself and Samus after the Queen Metroid was destroyed.

Being an android, MB has a high degree of intelligence. She is noted by Madeline as a quick learner with unwavering confidence. She is also shown to be extremely cunning. A prominent example is when she re-encounters Samus and tells her everything about the Metroid project while intentionally leaving out the crucial fact that the Metroids were genetically altered to be invulnerable to the Ice Beam. As Samus posed a major threat to her schemes, MB intended to have her rush into Sector Zero unprepared and killed by the Metroids. She also possesses sadistic tendencies, as seen by the amused look on her face as she watched the bioweapons slaughter the scientists, even laughing as they were killed.

Despite this obvious malevolence, it should be noted that her actions resulted mainly from the realization that she was not only betrayed by the people she worked for, but also abandoned by Madeline when she failed to help her against the attempted reprogramming of her artificial intelligence. The anger and resentment she held from that point on likely caused Mother Brain's personality to surface, causing the android to lose any sense of compassion for others. Nevertheless, part of MB's kind personality remained, as demonstrated by the fact that she spared and saved Madeline's life on a few occasions, proving that she still loved her "mother".

Both Madeline and Samus questioned whether MB was truly evil or misunderstood. Given her origins, MB can be seen as somewhat of a tragic villain who turned out the way she did due to the corrupt factions of the Galactic Federation.

Battle

MB summons six Desbrachians to kill Samus, Madeline, and the Federation Marines. Whilst defending Madeline and therefore locked in Search View, Samus repels several of the Desbrachians in order to get a clear shot at MB. However, before she can fire, Madeline picks up the Freeze Gun MB dropped and fires it at her instead. The Federation Marines take this as their opportunity, and are given the order to fire by The Colonel, killing the frozen MB and disabling all the Desbrachians in the room.

Trivia

• MB is the first human android character in the Metroid series. As such, her personality is likely inspired by that of Ash in the film Alien, as both have a condescending view of humans and attempt to ensure the survival of the titular species on board the space station setting.
• MB is the first main antagonist of a Metroid game who is not fought in a traditional battle. The Doomseye in Metroid Prime: Federation Force is the second, which has a mission taking place inside the ship that results in its destruction.
• Interestingly, the start of MB's rampage took place mere moments after Little Birdie's murder of a scientist and subsequent escape. Whether the two incidents are somehow related is unknown.
• Her character log marks her name as "Identity Unknown" with her data file as "Details Unknown" prior to the RB176 Ferrocrusher encounter. This changes to "Madeline Bergman" and "Development Director," respectively, after meeting her in the Bioweapon Research Center. Finally, it becomes "Melissa Bergman" and "BOTTLE SHIP Researcher" after her death.
• It would seem MB's brainwaves as a means of controlling the Metroids were arguably far from perfect. Evidence supporting this is the scientists on board the BOTTLE SHIP creating the humanoid form of MB in order to test their theory on newborn Metroids imprinting onto an individual that resembled an authentic living organism, thus taming the specimens.
  • In Metroid: Zero Mission and Super Metroid, Metroids had broken loose in Tourian and killed all the Pirate personnel (in Zero Mission) and other species (in Super Metroid), proving that Mother Brain could not control them. The Super Metroid comic depicts the baby rejecting Mother Brain as it saw Samus being its true mother.
  • It is worthy to note that Other M never provided details on the degree of success of controlling Metroids after exposing them in their infancy to the humanoid MB. There is little evidence to support positive results: throughout the entirety of Samus' presence on the BOTTLE SHIP, not only was MB never shown controlling Metroids in any way, the creatures (with the exception of an Infant Metroid) were also kept in enclosed areas and within containers. It would thus imply that, at the very least, the level of confidence and control the Chozo had over their Metroid creations long ago, was never reached within the BOTTLE SHIP.
• There are rooms in the Materials Storehouse and the Bioweapon Research Center that MB had accessed or tried to access in cutscenes, but in gameplay, both doors are inaccessible and lack colored lights.
• MB's original form, which is a giant, featureless brain floating in a container built by Galactic Federation scientists, shares quite a few similarities with Aurora Units, although when both constructs are compared with Mother Brain, the AUs only share a similar physiology, while MB not only resembles the Pirate leader (to a closer extent, since MB is more organic), but was also programmed to think like her.