WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Metroid Dread, available now.
The Metroid series has had quite a few major villains, both recurring and those that only lasted a single game despite making a major impact. From the titular Metroids and Ridley to the evil AI Mother Brain and the monstrous X Parasites, Metroid has no shortage of villains who have given Samus Aran a tough fight.
Out of all of Metroid's major villains, there are only two who have the legitimate claim of being Samus' most powerful and dangerous foes: the Chozo Warrior Raven Beak from the latest game, Metroid Dread, and the Phazon Clone Dark Samus, the main antagonist of the Metroid Prime Trilogy. But which of the two was ultimately the most dangerous, and which one was the most successful?
Raven Beak, as Dread revealed, is indirectly responsible for basically all the major conflicts in the Metroid franchise. Specifically, he prevented the Thoha Tribe from destroying SR388, as he wanted the Metroids to form his new army, which allowed the Metroids to be discovered by the Space Pirates and Galactic Federation. Some of his DNA was also donated to Samus when she was a child, enhancing her further and helping her grow into the powerful warrior she became. On a personal level, there's no denying that Raven Beak is undoubtedly the most powerful warrior in the galaxy. Even Samus, someone who is widely regarded as the most dangerous being in the galaxy, was unable to actually beat him in either of their battles. It took Samus' burgeoning Metroid powers activating to actually defeat and kill Raven Beak for good.
By contrast, Dark Samus represents what Samus could potentially become without any morals or restrictions. Dark Samus was born as a result of a random mutation when Metroid Prime absorbed Samus' Phazon Suit, so there isn't quite as much of an emotional connection between them. The worst thing Dark Samus did to hurt Samus emotionally was force her to fight a trio of bounty hunters she was on decent terms with, which, while tragic, isn't nearly as awful as what Ridley or Raven Beak did. As a threat, Dark Samus was defeated by Samus several times over, and it was only due to Dark Samus' ability to regenerate herself that she didn't die the first few times. She gradually became more dangerous and even managed to beat Samus a couple of times, but the win-loss ratio between them is firmly in Samus' favor.
On a grander scale, however, things become more complicated. Both Dark Samus and Raven Beak had the same goals of creating a powerful army to conquer the galaxy. However, out of all the major foes Samus has faced, only Dark Samus made it to the "conquest of the galaxy" phase of that plan after converting the Space Pirates (Ridley included), an army of Phazon enhanced Metroids and even the sentient planet Phaaze, the source of all Phazon, in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. She launched Phazon seeds at several Federation planets, corrupted the aforementioned bounty hunters and nearly succeeded in corrupting Samus herself with Phazon, to the point that Samus' own ship no longer recognized her. She came the closest to achieving galactic domination in open war before she was ultimately brought down.
Whereas the Space Pirates and the Federation conspiracy were able to at least get access to some Metroids before Samus inevitably blew up their plans, Raven Beak never even got that far. An X Parasite infected one of his soldiers and spread rapidly across his homeworld of ZDR, infecting the entire Mawkin Warrior Tribe except for him. By the time Raven Beak was able to successfully contain the X Parasite outbreak, Samus had already succeeded in wiping out the entire Metroid species on SR388, as well as the BOTTLE Ship and the BSL Station in subsequent adventures.
It was only due to the Metroid Vaccine that Samus had been given at the beginning of Metroid Fusion that Raven Beak's plan was even still viable, as he initially intended to extract the Metroid DNA from her body before ultimately deciding to clone Samus herself as the ultimate Metroid. This, of course, became his downfall, as Samus overpowered him, draining his life force before he became consumed by an X Parasite and was subsequently vaporized by Samus completely. Raven Beak may have been Samus' most dangerous opponent on a directly personal level, but Dark Samus is easily the most powerful and most successful villain in the entire Metroid franchise to date.
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