When Metroid Dread launched in 2021, it revealed more lore about the mysterious Chozo than ever before. Dread gave us new information about the different tribes of Chozo, what makes them unique, and the roles they played in Samus’s early life. It even brought us face to face with living Chozo for the first time in franchise history! But if you read between the lines, I think it hinted at a whole lot more. Let’s take a deep and somewhat speculative dive into the history of Chozo and Metroids.
The Origin and Purpose of Metroids
During the final transmission from “Adam” (Raven Beak in disguise), we’re hit with a series of shocking twists. Samus has been following a fake Adam, she’s infused with the DNA of the warlike Mawkin tribe, and she’s transforming into a Metroid. It’s a lot to take in. But there’s another important revelation in this monologue that’s easy to miss. While explaining Samus’s ongoing metamorphosis, Raven Beak says:
Metroids are programmed to identify Mawkin as enemies. This suggests one thing to me. It is very probable that your metamorphosis occurred as a result of Raven Beak’s attack. His presence awakened the Metroid’s killer instinct.
Excuse me, what? Metroids are specifically programmed to attack the Mawkin tribe of Chozo. And this programming is so strong that when Samus fought a Mawkin, her Metroid DNA came roaring to the surface and began to take over. This intriguing plot thread isn’t pulled on any further in the game itself, but we can speculate based on the clues we’ve been given.
We know from Samus Returns and Fusion that Metroids were originally created by Chozo scientists who were exploring planet SR388. During their colonization of the planet, they discovered the X parasites and feared they would become unstoppable and overrun the galaxy. In response, they created the first Metroids in a lab as the antithesis to the X. However, they later lost control of the Metroids when exposure to Aeion energy mutated them into stronger forms.
Thanks to Dread, we now know that these Chozo were from the Thoha tribe and that their ability to control Metroids is genetic. Presumably, they genetically engineered their new guard dogs to follow the orders of those with Thoha genes. At the same time, it seems the Thoha also engineered the Metroids to react violently to Mawkin genes. This gives us a whole new perspective on the SR388 operation, and it begs further inspection. Why did the Thoha program Metroids to attack their Mawkin kinsmen?
The SR388 incident
This all seems like pretty crucial information for Quiet Robe to leave out. Then again, his monologue to Samus is vague at best and misleading at worst. Here’s how he describes the Thoha mission on SR388:
Aided by the Mawkin, a fellow tribe of the Chozo, we managed to contain the Metroids that were running rampant on SR388. Our intention was to eradicate these Metroids, which had become more dangerous than ever before, by destroying the planet.
Although Quiet Robe later notes that Thoha can control Metroids, he never clarifies why. He takes no responsibility for creating Metroids. His framing of the incident makes it sound like Metroids had existed on SR388 for a long time and the Chozo heroically showed up to eradicate them when they became a threat to the galaxy. We know that’s not how it happened. He also criticizes Raven Beak for wanting to use Metroids as weapons without ever admitting to Samus that the Thoha were also using Metroids as weapons.
Thoha and Mawkin
All of this suggests that Quiet Robe is hiding a dark truth about SR388, but does that make him evil? Almost certainly not. Secrecy and hypocrisy aside, he’s a loyal ally to Samus. And although the Thoha are clearly not above using biological weapons, their motives were vastly different from the Mawkin. Both tribes sought to bring peace and order to the galaxy. To the Thoha, that meant working with the Galactic Federation to spread diplomacy, but it also meant using Metroids (as well as Samus) to destroy perceived threats to galactic peace. To Raven Beak and the Mawkin, order could only be accomplished through absolute tyrannical domination.
It seems inevitable that these differing worldviews would lead to conflict. Raven Beak is exactly the kind of galactic threat that the Thoha would want to eliminate in the name of galactic peace. But the Thoha are renowned for their scientific advancements, not their military prowess. They are weak in comparison to the Mawkin and wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight, nor would they want to fight. But using SR388 as a base of operations, they could secretly create, control, and weaponize an army of the ultimate biological warriors: Metroids.
We even have an explanation for how they managed to “program” Metroids to kill Mawkin. We’ve long since known that Samus was infused with Chozo DNA as a child in order to survive on Zebes. But in Dread, Raven Beak reveals that she was infused with two different strains: Thoha and Mawkin. In other words, the Thoha scientists on Zebes were in possession of Mawkin DNA.
The two tribes were clearly working closely together at some point in the past and during that time, Raven Beak’s megalomaniacal tendencies likely gave Quiet Robe cause for concern. Later, he and the other Thoha scientists created Metroids to combat the X, which they saw as the biggest threat in the galaxy. If they could engineer Metroids to be subservient to the Thoha, they could certainly make them hostile towards the Mawkin.
They just couldn’t anticipate that the Metroids would transform and rebel against their control, leaving them helpless. And when they turned to Raven Beak and the Mawkin tribe as a last resort, their fears became a reality. When the Thoha tribe lost control of the Metroids and called the Mawkin tribe for help, Raven Beak ordered their genocide.
The Exelion Star Corporation
Drifting further into speculation territory, there’s one other aspect of Dread’s plot that could play into this Chozo drama. Who created the EMMI? The terrifying robots that roam the halls of planet ZDR take no damage from any of Samus’s weapons. In other words, they are sporting Chozo-proof armor. That seems significant.
A pair of blink-and-miss-it moments in Dread reveal that the EMMI bots were created by an entity known as the Exelion Star Corporation. Unfortunately, we’re given little to no info about this company, but we can glean some details from context. Clearly they have a close relationship to the Galactic Federation. They designed the EMMIs to extract DNA from suspected X parasite hosts. And they’re capable of creating armor that is impervious to Chozo weaponry.
All of this makes perfect sense if we assume that the Chozo themselves were involved in the production of the EMMI. While many fans assume the Chozo are now extinct, this is not the case. The official Metroid manga (yes, it counts, and yes I will get into that some day) shows that there are still Chozo out there, and some of the ones who lived on planet Zebes survived the space pirate invasion. The last time we saw those survivors, they were being evacuated in Galactic Federation ships. That was three years before the events of Zero Mission, and right around the same time the Chozo colony on SR388 was collapsing.
The Chozo evacuees of Zebes knew about the X parasites and considered them the greatest threat to galactic peace. I don’t believe they would simply stop making plans to deal with the X after the fall of Zebes. Similarly, I don’t think they would abandon their fears about the Mawkin tribe, especially when it became clear the Chozo on SR388 had lost control of the Metroids. Working under the Galactic Federation’s watchful eye, I believe the Chozo evacuees created the EMMIs as a trump card against both threats.
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