I am going to be talking more about Ridley, yayaayaya!!!
I am discussing my little theory on how his regenerative abilities may work, and a lot of it is based on actual biology to try and justify reasoning. But he is also an alien, quite literally anything is possible.
It is fun to gather evidence though, and form something clear.
So, regeneration can naturally be found in many vertebrae animals... like lizards :]
It actually works very similar to how Ridley's does (of what we know anyway), who also resembles a reptile, so this works very well! Deadass, for the most part they do not form scar tissue from injury cause they can regenerate new cartilage. You know how geckos break off their tail, and can form a new one?
Regeneration is already probable for being a natural ability, if Nintendo knew this when designing the character, who knows...
Regardless, they went and made it cooler by having him eat living organisms to speed up the process.
Making Ridley eat people is what I mean when I say he is an alien, and can do whatever the hell. Cause they probably could have just left it to the fact he resembles a reptile, who are known for those abilities. But that's no fun yeah?
It could be a natural process for his species, and eating living cells just makes it go quicker, it is possible he does not even need to eat. AND THE PHAZON??? He blew up lol. Just assuming he did not eat anything living during that time, it looks like he healed just fine.
(The phazon is a whole another can of worms tbh lol)
Regeneration is very complex and an active process. So, at most it will cause some discomfort, and should not be painful. If he eats people, then its super fast, and he won't feel much of anything. (maybe some tingles...like when your leg falls asleep. Rapidly regrowing cells must feel like something)
Epimorphic Regeneration(regrowing lost limbs): Before regeneration begins, cells at the wound site(s) are reverted into unspecialized progenitor cells, then proliferate to create a mass called the blastema. This mass of cells eventually multiply rapidly to create the exact tissue needed to replace a completely functional, scar free limb, once blood vessels and nerves grow into it. Its highly coordinated, and meant to replicate the limb as it once was.
**These cells, in their reverted state, can be guided by cells from another organism. They basically just provide the molecular signals needed to stimulate the growth. (They don't replace his cells).
This goes back to Ridley eating people, a more fucked up way for cells to communicate I guess lol
Living cells contribute to healing his body
Even after someone or something dies, cells can still live for hours, maybe days before proteins start degrading. However, when cooked, they die, like a piece of chicken you prepare. That's why food softens when you cook cause the cells bonds are broken.
Dead cells contribute to provide energy to his body.
Plants are a bit complicated...he doesn't really have the teeth for it anyway, he has teeth of a carnivore.
Like I said with cells can still be living for a long while, the pirates could resuscitate his body (like with the Meta enhancements), and he'll be just fine. (why he didn't eat, could be he didn't have anyone around to, or maybe he's a lil stupid. **most definitely more focused on getting revenge).
I can't explain the phazon blowing him up, and him being fine apparently. That's just some weird, but fun, Sci-fi shit.
It's truly fascinating I manage to find minor villians that I think are more interesting than the actual main villians of the story, that's not to say the main villain is particularly bad (even if that is the case in No More Heroes 2) but I guess that shows how much they go hard in smaller areas than the actual grand scheme of the story
