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This article is about a statue. For the bosses in Super Metroid, see Torizo.
Mfusionguide b 01o

Samus approaching the fake Chozo Statue in Metroid Fusion.

The Elephant Bird (as named in Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion: Prima's Official Strategy Guide) is an X Parasite mimicking a Chozo Statue that Samus Aran encounters in Sector 1 of the Biologic Space Laboratories research station. Its similarity to an actual Chozo Statue is spot-on, and it even appears to hold an Item Sphere containing the Morph Ball upgrade. However, the shielded ball hurts Samus if she touches it, and once Samus shoots the Item Sphere with her beam (thus revealing the fake Morph Ball), it transforms into a special Core-X shooting Charge Beam shots. Samus already had the Morph Ball anyway, also giving away the ruse. Once Samus defeats this X Parasite, she obtains the true item it had in its possession: the Charge Beam. This should not be confused with a Torizo, a live Chozo Statue.

File:HardcoreX.png

The Core-X that the fake statue turns into.

How the X Parasite managed to "absorb" the form of an inanimate statue is unknown, and a bit strange. It is possible that the parasite mimicked the form of a Torizo (which is known to contain organic matter), and then had trouble animating the body, so as a result it changed immediately to a Core-X to gain combat capabilities; it might also be possible that Chozo Statues, like Samus's Power Suit, are partially organic. The Metroid Prime Chozo Lore describes the statues as sentinels and heavily hint at them being partially alive and aware of their surroundings. This is further supported by their ability to "bowl" Samus in her Morph Ball form in Metroid Prime and their ability to walk and change from standing to sitting positions in Super Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission. Putting aside all theories, this certainly seems to be an in-game reminder of the first Torizo battle in Super Metroid, or simply an homage to the famous item-holding statuary that have appeared throughout Metroid history, especially since the X-mimicked statue is the only Chozo Statue to be seen in Fusion.

The name "Elephant Bird" is the result of a mistranslation, similar to Varia Suit. The Japanese name for this creature is simply 鳥人像 "Chōjin-zō", meaning "Birdman Image" or, as commonly translated, Chozo Statue. However, "Zō" also means "elephant" in Japanese, with a similar kanji, 象.

Trivia

Fusion chozo

Unused sprites of the beam weapons suggest they may have been obtained normally from Chozo Statues instead of fighting special Core X in beta versions.

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