Discussion about Samus' "habit" of Blowing Up Planets/Stations
I'll just cut to the chase, I'm gonna try and like, go over every escape sequence (or even just cutscenes where Samus escapes) in timeline order and determine which of these are Samus' fault or someone else's.
Escape Sequence #1: Tourian
The first ever escape sequence in the Metroid timeline happens after Samus kills Mother Brain. In this instance, only Tourian was destroyed. While it was Samus' mission to destroy Mother Brain, it was the latter that ultimately caused it as she and the space pirates were the ones to leave a failsafe in case of Mother Brain's death. Samus had no intention of Tourian exploding, and as such does not deserve blame.
Escape Sequence #2: Pirate Mothership
Like with Mother Brain, the Mothership explodes due to a failsafe, this time set by Mecha Ridley. I'll chalk it up to also not being Samus' fault, however she SHOULD be a little more careful as she did encounter a foe who also had a failsafe. Ultimately, Samus just desired to escape from Zebes, though the Mothership blowing up IS in Samus' favor.
Escape Sequence #3: Frigate Orpheon
Unlike with the previous two, this one's Samus' fault. It's not that she intended to have the place blow up, but she should've known that killing the Parasite Queen Creature could have resulted in it falling in the reactor, thus causing the explosion to occur. There was no failsafe, Samus' own actions caused the Parasite Queen to fall.
Escape Sequence #4: Impact Crater
This one's just a cutscene but I will be counting it for this discussion. While it is Samus' fault that the Impact Crater blew up, she actually had no idea that "killing" Metroid Prime would cause a reaction like this. It was largely to Tallon IV's benefit however that the crater was destroyed, as now the planet can recover from Phazon. Regardless of if it was her fault or not, Samus was in the right to destroy the crater.
Escape Sequence #5: Oubliette
Oubliette was destroyed by Gorea after the fight against him. Samus is not at any fault here, she simply defeated Gorea, and then he caused the explosion. The Oubliette being destroyed sucks for preserving Alimbic lore, but it served its purpose in containing Gorea and doesn't need it anymore.
Escape Sequence #6: Dark Aether
Canonically, this is the first planet in the games that is actually destroyed. This one's completely on Samus, she fully intended on destroying dark aether as she knows that depriving it of the light will cause it to cease to exist. She is justified however, as Dark Aether was an unnatural, alternative dimensional planet born from a leviathan impact, meaning that its destruction ultimately benefitted the galaxy.
Escape Sequence #7: Leviathans and Phaaze
The whole narrative of Prime 3 revolves around Samus being tasked to destroy Phazon, through destroying Leviathans landed on planets, or Phaaze itself. Naturally, this means that Samus is completely at "fault" for destroying these. Notably, Phaaze is the second planet to be destroyed in the Metroid games. While Samus is completely responsible for the destruction of these planets, this was ultimately a good thing for the galaxy, as it meant that every trace of Phazon has now been erased. It does bear mentioning, Dark Samus, in her foolish attempt to spread Phazon more quickly, inadvertently made Samus' job on destroying the planet infinitely easier thanks to the fact that she connected the AU to the planet's core.
Escape Sequence #8: Ceres
Samus is not at fault here at all, Ridley + the Space Pirates set a bomb that was set to blow the station to smithereens. Samus just so happened to have arrived too late to save anyone. She was also unable to defeat Ridley as the latter was not interested in squabbling with her after a while. Though, maybe if Samus didn't bring the hatchling here, they wouldn't have attacked Ceres...
Escape Sequence #9: Zebes
Same exact situation as Samus' first visit to Zebes, except the failsafe affected the entire planet as opposed to just Tourian. This one I'll give Samus a pass, she went to the planet just so she could retrieved the Metroid hatchling, Mother Brain is the one that once again set the failsafe that caused Zebes to explode. Unfortunately, this is the first time that the destruction of a planet was not beneficial, as not only was this Samus' home, but there were also many harmless species on this planet. Luckily, Samus did save a few, but many more had perished...
Escape Sequence #10: BOTTLE Ship
Samus had barely any agency in this game, so it's no surprise that the Bottle Ship's destruction is not her fault in any capacity. The Federation decided to destroy it and ended up forgetting that Samus was there. Otherwise, she had no involvement in the destruction of the Bottle Ship.
Escape Sequence #11: Restricted Lab
First of all, I'm not counting the main boiler because the whole point of it was to STOP an explosion.
Second of all, this one's a bit of Samus' fault but also not completely. She disobeyed federation orders and ended up snooping around on the BSL Station, and ended up discovering the secret Metroid Lab. This invertedly lead the SA-X to wreck havoc and cause the lab to detach from the BSL. While the SA-X caused the eject to occur, it was Samus' snooping around that caused the situation to occur in the first place.
Escape Sequence #12: SR388 and BSL
This one, Samus was completely at fault for. She and ADAM deliberately concocted a plan to eradicate the X by sending the giant space station to crash on SR388, destroying all X in the vicinity. What makes this much more morally dubious compared to previous planet destructions, is that this was a solution to a problem Samus CAUSED, all the way back in Metroid 2. For you see, she destroyed all the Metroids (aside from one), leading to the rise of these infectious parasites. The Metroid genocide was already a morally dubious act, but the rise of the X parasites makes this one of Samus' greatest mistakes. In a sense, she destroyed SR388 before actually blowing it up, making this the first and only time Samus intentionally destroys a planet, and the only time where the planet that is being destroyed isn't inherently harmful to the universe (before the X anyhow). One thing to note, is that the Thoha Chozo actually intended on blowing up SR388 long before Samus had the idea to do so.
Escape Sequence #13: Thermal Artaria
Idk if this one counts but it functions pretty much like a Metroid escape sequence. I also wanted to point it out because Samus is completely at fault at this for no real reason. She just sticks her hand in a shiny hole and causes a huge thermal reaction for no apparent reason aside from the fact that she can. Very strange behavior...
Escape Sequence #14: ZDR
Same situation as Zebes, except the failsafe was Raven Beak. Samus is not at fault here. Even if Samus lost against Raven Beak, he still would've blown up the planet purely because of the X parasite infestation (that he CAUSED). ZDR is in a similar situation to SR388, but unlike the latter, it was Raven Beak who fucked up the planet to the point where it needed to be destroyed.
Conclusion
Out of these 14 instances, Samus is at fault for 6 of those instances. Out of those 6, three of them were planetary destructions. The other 8 instances (including the two planets) were caused by a failsafe.
Why did I make this post? Idk I'm bored and waiting for Prime 4 is booring I need it now. Also it's just fun to point out when Samus actually does blow things up, VS when she simply is caught in the crossfire.
Interestingly enough, when it comes to the Prime games, unless the planet itself straight up harms the galaxy, none of the planets Samus explores is destroyed. Tallon IV, Aether, and the 4 planets you explore are all still here even by the time of Dread!
Thank u for reading this far btw I just wanted to write some dumb thing lol