@LANthus honestly the whole thing with "The Baby" is a little confusing for me.

I mean it's played like she's got these motherly instincts which A) is kinda bs biological essentialism tbqh so it's never really struck well with me, B) also seems really weird when after the baby metroid bonded to her in Metroid 2, she quite happily just gave it to the researchers and left, until Ridley fucked shit up there and kidnapped it.

@LANthus Though I will admit there is some merit to her being very kind to aliens, non-human species and animals. I think honestly she probably relates to them, and endangered species, a lot because she was socialised with the Chozo rather than with humans for much of her life, so they were more like her family than human beings. she probably doesn't "get" a lot of human societal norms really. She genuinely feels like "the last of her kind" in a way, with the Chozo's extermination.

@LANthus oh shit the events of Metroid Fusion actually bring that into sharp relief too because...

...oh wow there's a message there almost about her literally becoming a unique, non-human entity after she was cured of the Parasite X shit.

and her having to kill SA-X is like her coming to terms with the loss of her "humanity" and letting go of it, accepting that she is no longer human, she's just Samus and feeling no sadness in that

@LANthus fuck i am headcanoning the shit outta metroid so much you could stick me on the prow of a starship and call me the main battery.