\n\t\t\t\t\tkikoru became a project so big, I do believe it is my best work yet! And it took months to do. ^^; So much experimentation, but so much learned! And what a perfect subject for such! I am proud to use a character I think deserves so much more love and fanfare as the subject for a project such as this. =) I know most other artists crank out five pieces like this in an hour as a morning warm-up, but to me, this is a breakthrough. ^^ Let me have my moment!If you’re wondering about the title, in the original Metroid for NES, there is a password system that consists of 24 letters and numbers in bulks of six. People have found all kinds of weird occurrences when you input certain strings because of the way the game deciphers passwords. One of the more famous ones is:
ENGAGE RIDLEY
MOTHER FUCKER
If you input this password, it references an invalid starting location, so in some instances it takes you back to the title screen, but in others it begins a game so riddled with graphical glitches that the screen is prevented from scrolling, rendering it unbeatable. Odder still, it calculates game time to 2861643271, equivalent to 314.5 years. But the most interesting effect is inputting this password on virtual console versions of the game. Using it on the 3DS version results in a black screen crash requiring a hard console reset. Other versions cause the emulation software to close abruptly. Ironically, despite the wording of the password, the game state it creates is one where Ridley is already defeated.
But when I look at this picture, I think of the Smash Bros. representative who had to brave the depths of non-scream-hearing space to confront the only fighter whose propensity for evil can be comparable to Ganondorf’s! But unlike Ganondorf, Ridley is just as monstrous in his appearance as is in his black heart. Just looking at him, you can tell nothing but wickedness fills his mind geared for destruction and domination.
But there lies the nature of the beast. All that exists must serve him in one of those two ways: anything which is not useful to him in some manner must be obliterated. It is for that reason that few who have borne witness to the horrific monster survived, but there are those who proved that they could be useful to the dreaded draconian space pirate and his self-gratifying whims in “other” ways! It could be argued that those suffered a worse fate, however, as they often return in a state of crippling shock. Though most of their accounts are sealed in Federation records, those close to them mention utterances of “the way [Ridley] liked to make them bounce.” What those poor souls are referring to with “them” can only be conjectured in combination with other scant recollections of brushes with the horrific brute. “He would crouch down above me and… slam them in my face… grinding and thrusting… they were so wet, and slimy… the smell… rotten… stinking sweat… and just... so much...”
More survivor reports include having been kept just to be made to repeatedly, as one phrased it, “delve into some of the most foul, slimiest places”, though what or where those places may be have not yet been determined. When asked what would be done while delving in those places, only vague actions such as “pushing,” “picking,” “ramming,” “grabbing”, “tugging,” or “scratching” were mentioned-- all of which brought Ridley tremendous satisfaction as he would respond with “excitement,” “heavy breathing,” and “triumphant shrieks”. It has been suggested that these exercises were part of some scavenging routine, because more than one of Ridley’s prisoners reported there being some sort of substance retrieval/harvesting from these activities, and being forced to subsist entirely on those substances for extended periods of time. Some reported being forced to collect these substances directly from the source using only their mouths. Considering the malnourished state in which they were found, these substances were probably not meant for Earthling consumption.
One survivor returned barely able to walk. His physical therapy is frequently interrupted with debilitating fits in which he’d clutch his abdomen and shout “I can still feel it inside of me! So… so much of it! He’s part of me now!” Any form of vehicle is not recommended as part of his rehabilitation, as his stay with Ridley instilled in him a form of kinetoptohobia in which any rocking or up-and-down motion causes him great amounts of stress.
A more coherent survivor who was kept as a sort of janitor recounts some of his experiences with Ridley:
“Ones who displeased Ridley or failed to provide sufficient entertainment for him were eaten. I never thought his narrow, bony neck could swallow a human whole, but I should have known better than to make assumptions about alien beasts. […] I watched all four of my crew members disappear down his gullet on separate days. Forcing us to listen to our comrades’ muffled screams through his abdomen was one of Ridley’s methods of coercing us into obedience. […] Once I was the only one of my team left, Ridley would toy with me by threatening to eat me, wrapping his jaws around my head and slithering his tongue around my neck to pull it back toward his throat. It was like using an infected eel for a scarf. His saliva smelled like a beached whale, and his breath was as rotten as the garbage chute of a sausage factory, and Ridley knew it. He wanted me to know what my crewmembers’ last sight and scent was. Forcing me to gaze down the pit of his throat was Ridley’s way of saying ‘down there is death, and it waits for you.’
[…] I was tasked mostly with the aftermath of Ridley’s heinous acts. When he ate his victims, there would be little to nothing left, and many of them were unknown species of aliens, so there wasn’t any viscera I could really identify. Much of the biomatter left behind had to have been produced by Ridley himself. If I had to guess what his favorite forms of torture involved, it would be forcing his victims to clean any dirtiness or fluids produced by his own body using only what God gave them. It would make sense, because I believe it to be the closest thing to a bath Ridley’s ever had in his life.”
Considering the vileness of this monstrosity from beyond the stars, it raises the question of how his addition to the Smash Bros. roster is appropriate. After the inclusion of Ganondorf, a tyrant who would brainwash friends and family of any would-be hero and make them into minions as a deterrent, fans thought he could provide enough evil for everyone. The answer may lie with the envoy who successfully negotiated Ridley’s inclusion to Smash Bros.-- the only one man to return from the space pirate mothership without any harm to his body or psyche whatsoever. When asked how such a feat was possible, this was his response:
“I dunno, we just fucked a lot.”
----------
Like to support me on Patreon? You can do so here at https://www.patreon.com/Dracovar!