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Mother Brain

Metroid character

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ2738109
Source-derived summary

Mother Brain (Japanese: マザーブレイン, Hepburn: Mazā Burein) is a character in the Metroid video game series by Nintendo. She is the main antagonist of Metroid (1986) and Super Metroid (1994).

Mother Brain has been killed multiple times by the protagonist, Samus Aran. Her Super Metroid design was originally milder than its final version, resembling an "old lady living in an apartment complex" when designed by Toru Osawa. This design was altered by Tomomi Yamane, who gave her an overall more monstrous appearance. She takes the form of a large brain that sits within a jar, from which she controls the Space Pirates on the fictional planet Zebes. Since Super Metroid (1994), she has had a single large eye.

Mother Brain has made several appearances in other media, including the animated series Captain N: The Game Master. Mother Brain was named the 9th-best video game villain by IGN and the 36th-best by the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.

Concept and characteristics

Mother Brain is depicted as a large brain with cybernetic spikes, usually contained in a glass tube which Samus must break to attack it, but in the Super NES video game Super Metroid, she is seen in a bipedal form.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Mother Brain” as metroid character. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mother, Brain and Metroid.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1986, 1994—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Mother, Brain and Metroid providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Mother Brain”, the useful work is to connect “metroid character” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2738109. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1986 and 1994.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mother Brain”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mother Brain primary sources, Mother Brain archive and Mother research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mother Brain”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Mother Brain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.