When Other M came along, I was apprehensive because part of what made Samus so unique was about to be turned on its head, and I didn’t know if it was going to work. I personally felt Nintendo’s refusal to treat her any differently than its male characters was a huge nod of respect to Samus and female protagonists in general. Like Mario and Link, whose gender never factored into any of their adventures, Samus was free to be a hero that both women and men could admire without reservations. The reason it felt off to me was that Nintendo had seemingly intentionally made a point of never qualifying Samus’s heroics as those of a woman. That’s a topic rich with potential from a narrative standpoint, and certainly something that doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves in the mainstream gaming market. Now, I’m not suggesting that Nintendo was doing anything wrong by choosing to explore Samus’s identity as a woman. At the same time, what made her even more special was that Nintendo was never heavy-handed or preachy about Samus being a woman her gender was a matter of trivia, and the games always put gameplay and her bravery front and center. Samus was a woman who was every bit the equal of any man. What was more, she was strong, stoic, and brave, never pandering to the stereotypes of women characters in numerous other forms of media.
Nintendo was riding high with NES and could easily have chosen to play it safe with Sam Aran, but ever the trailblazers, decided to make this new hero female instead. Considering that in 2014 the video game industry is still dominated by male protagonists, Samus’s reveal as a woman twenty-seven years ago was very daring. When players reached the end of Metroid in 1987, they were surprised by the revelation that the little dude in armor they’d been guiding through the whole adventure was not a dude at all, but rather a woman. The problem was that suddenly and inexplicably, Nintendo decided it was time to flip the script and focus on Samus’s femininity. Yet there she was, speaking in an odd monotone and endlessly braying about the death of the hatchling Metroid that saved her life in Super Metroid. Samus made the Master Chief look like a boy scout. This was a character who singlehandedly took on legions of foes in her games, laying waste to some of the most vile and frightening enemies imaginable. The objection for me, and many other fans, instead was to the words themselves, their tone, and the attitude of the person speaking them. Though the voice could perhaps have been a little throatier and intimidating, it got the job done. It wasn’t that I objected to hearing Samus Aran speak for the first time in that opening cinematic for Metroid: Other M.
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