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When you take away her armor, you show how much she STILL kicks ass.
Seriously, she was fine in Zero Mission and she was fine in Other M. They never changed her personality, and they never made her weak.
Seriously, she was fine in Zero Mission and she was fine in Other M. They never changed her personality, and they never made her weak.
I stopped reading when you mentioned the Zero Suit being the worst idea for her design. Do you not realize that, out of the armor, the zero suit is the most conservative outfit she has ever worn?
As Zambatch mentioned compared to her previous outfits this is covering up more. Also the ZeroSuit is practical if you were wearing armor you'd get into a thin full body suit as well. And finally her Zero Suit is not blatantly sexual, for instance a 1 piece swimsuit isn't immediately sexual, it only becomes sexual when someone starts posing & behaving sexually.
@long john - Can't she be hot and powerful as an armored individual? Not everyone's tastes are limited to the mere physical form of a woman.
@pedrovay2003 My argument is simply that taking away Samus's armor is an exercise in futility. You are justifying an arbitrary decision by Nintendo to strip a revered, brave, honored hero down to a goofy bright blue spandex body suit. It's juvenile. Through this they are skipping over the point of the series as stated with the original: players assume they are playing as a male when in fact (in the end), you are not. And don't try to tell me that Team Ninja didn't make Samus weak - she is a whiny, obedient dog of the military the entire game who can't even whip out her full power suit arsenal until dear ol' Daddy-figure Adam says it's okay (after being helplessly hit a couple times by enemies first of course).
@Zambatoh Conservative how? It is SKIN-TIGHT with obnoxiously-sized breasts and a super model's butt. The zero suit leaves nothing to the imagination and if you are referring to that bikini at the end of the original game... that bunching together of pixels can hardly be called eye candy.
@Scissors So Samus is wearing a skin-tight razor-thin body suit in the depths of hostile aliens planets because it's...practical? Yeah, nothing sexual about designing a character's breasts to hang out in the open air like they're waiting to be grabbed by the nearest sweaty geek. Nobody on Earth would wear something like the zero suit unless they wanted attention.
@pedrovay2003 My argument is simply that taking away Samus's armor is an exercise in futility. You are justifying an arbitrary decision by Nintendo to strip a revered, brave, honored hero down to a goofy bright blue spandex body suit. It's juvenile. Through this they are skipping over the point of the series as stated with the original: players assume they are playing as a male when in fact (in the end), you are not. And don't try to tell me that Team Ninja didn't make Samus weak - she is a whiny, obedient dog of the military the entire game who can't even whip out her full power suit arsenal until dear ol' Daddy-figure Adam says it's okay (after being helplessly hit a couple times by enemies first of course).
@Zambatoh Conservative how? It is SKIN-TIGHT with obnoxiously-sized breasts and a super model's butt. The zero suit leaves nothing to the imagination and if you are referring to that bikini at the end of the original game... that bunching together of pixels can hardly be called eye candy.
@Scissors So Samus is wearing a skin-tight razor-thin body suit in the depths of hostile aliens planets because it's...practical? Yeah, nothing sexual about designing a character's breasts to hang out in the open air like they're waiting to be grabbed by the nearest sweaty geek. Nobody on Earth would wear something like the zero suit unless they wanted attention.
I really don't see any problem with the Zero Suit, mostly because it seems like a fairly reasonable thing to wear under that Power Suit of hers (other than being blue, I guess). We've seen many instances in fiction in which people, both male and female I might add, wear skin-tight suits underneath some kind of armor. Mecha-animé almost always use it (Neon Genesis being a good example) and even Tony Stark tends to wear one under his Iron Man Suit. Especially with all of the circuits and machinery going on in there, it doesn't seem smart to wear a loose T-shirt or something, so I think the Zero Suit works. The fact that this just so happens so show off her curves doesn't change that at all for me.
Besides that, the Zero Suit has shown that Samus isn't weak without her Power Suit. Sure she can't take as much physical abuse, which seems fair, but in Zero Mission the entire point was that she could still use other weaponry and her wits to survive. (The fact that she used it out in the open, by the way, was because her Power Suit was damaged in a crash)
And I don't have any problems with Other M either. She's following orders because she has literally no authority to take part in that mission, whereas the actual authorities are already on the job. Even a very good freelancer wouldn't just get leave to do whatever he/she wants when there's already a military operation going on. They took it a step too far with "authorizing" use of the Varia Suit (because there was no real reason not to allow it) but other than that it works.
Besides that, the Zero Suit has shown that Samus isn't weak without her Power Suit. Sure she can't take as much physical abuse, which seems fair, but in Zero Mission the entire point was that she could still use other weaponry and her wits to survive. (The fact that she used it out in the open, by the way, was because her Power Suit was damaged in a crash)
And I don't have any problems with Other M either. She's following orders because she has literally no authority to take part in that mission, whereas the actual authorities are already on the job. Even a very good freelancer wouldn't just get leave to do whatever he/she wants when there's already a military operation going on. They took it a step too far with "authorizing" use of the Varia Suit (because there was no real reason not to allow it) but other than that it works.
Are we still in denial of the fact that people have bodies under their clothing (or armor)?
Is it somehow insulting to womanhood that they develop breasts, wide hips or adult genitalia?
Are they only respectable when there is no visible reference to their gender?
Are they only powerful when their appearance is interchangable with a man's?
Is sex an absence of power for women?
Does desiring a woman's body render her powerless or disrespected?
If so, is the natural human sex drive now a crime against women?
Do women give up power or the right to respect when they embrace their sexuality?
These are the questions raised in my mind by your blog post. Truthfully, I think the opinions expressed within it speak much more about your view of women and sex than it does Nintendo's or its fanbase. Just, y'know, stuff to think about.
Is it somehow insulting to womanhood that they develop breasts, wide hips or adult genitalia?
Are they only respectable when there is no visible reference to their gender?
Are they only powerful when their appearance is interchangable with a man's?
Is sex an absence of power for women?
Does desiring a woman's body render her powerless or disrespected?
If so, is the natural human sex drive now a crime against women?
Do women give up power or the right to respect when they embrace their sexuality?
These are the questions raised in my mind by your blog post. Truthfully, I think the opinions expressed within it speak much more about your view of women and sex than it does Nintendo's or its fanbase. Just, y'know, stuff to think about.
"Nobody on Earth would wear something like the zero suit unless they wanted attention."
Well, the same could be said for the Power Suit.
Well, the same could be said for the Power Suit.
@ShadeOfLight -The zero suit "makes sense" for something like the power suit yes, but it is the obsession, celebration, and decadence through which I think Samus is being disrespected. It is an excuse, nothing more. Maybe if she had been designed with a more realistic breast size or what I imagine the physique of an actual SPACE WARRIOR would be, then yeah, zero quit forever.
I must admit that Zero Mission did make excellent use of the loss of the power suit at the end of the game with the whole helpless/stealthy part, only to get mega powerful when it was over.
Samus may not have had any authority in her mission in Other M, but the nitwits on the job could barely handle their duties themselves, getting killed at every turn and relying on Samus for all of the important, dangerous stuff. Making the traditional loss of her equipment more "realistic" for the player just made it all that more demoralizing when you were granted full use of your own power suit.
@DynamoJoe - I am all for celebrating the human form, just not on one of the most respected, resilient, honorable space warriors in the cosmos.
Displaying the typical female form is not insulting to womanhood, but the proportions are insulting because they are in clear service to fap-happy fans and turn Samus into just another sex object and a joke.
When you can see Samus's clearly female face in her visor in the Metroid Prime series, when she takes off her helmet and when she yelps in pain...are these not clear enough indicators of her gender for you? Do you *really* need to see her ass cleavage and entire shape of her breasts for this to be confirmed? Don't you think that is a little overboard?
Women are at their most powerful when their physical appearance means next-to-nothing compared to their actions. The same goes for men and every gender in between.
Sex absolutely does not indicate an absence of power for women, as clearly shown off by the badass that is Bayonetta. It's just that in this particular venerable-space-heroine's case, I think her character is above and better than needing to ever resort to grabbing attention with her body. Her actions are enough. Just, y'know, slaying world-conquering space beasts 'n all.
Desiring a woman's body can totally help her become empowered, especially over dumb single-minded hetero men. BUT, again, I think Samus Aran is better than that. The natural human sex drive should have nothing to do with Samus Aran. Her heroics are sexy enough.
Samus isn't embracing her sexuality with the Zero Suit, whoever made the decision to inch her more and more towards the status of cookie cutter supermodel is. Again, there is a perfectly good reason for her to have been stripped down in Zero Mission.Here though, there isn't.
My blog post is 100% my opinion, of course. My opinion just so happens to include the not-so-far-fetched idea that Nintendo (a huge company with a waning fanbase) wanted to "update" one of their only women characters who isn't helpless or a princess in order to gain some new and fresh attention. Shameless, but makes sense from a scummy business standpoint, no?
@bbain - The zero suit is realistic in our world. People wear spandex-type bodysuits. They exist and it serves a purpose, whether it's practical (scuba diving, surfing) or just for attention (models, green man). The Varia Suit though? Hm, haven't really seen one of those lately.
I must admit that Zero Mission did make excellent use of the loss of the power suit at the end of the game with the whole helpless/stealthy part, only to get mega powerful when it was over.
Samus may not have had any authority in her mission in Other M, but the nitwits on the job could barely handle their duties themselves, getting killed at every turn and relying on Samus for all of the important, dangerous stuff. Making the traditional loss of her equipment more "realistic" for the player just made it all that more demoralizing when you were granted full use of your own power suit.
@DynamoJoe - I am all for celebrating the human form, just not on one of the most respected, resilient, honorable space warriors in the cosmos.
Displaying the typical female form is not insulting to womanhood, but the proportions are insulting because they are in clear service to fap-happy fans and turn Samus into just another sex object and a joke.
When you can see Samus's clearly female face in her visor in the Metroid Prime series, when she takes off her helmet and when she yelps in pain...are these not clear enough indicators of her gender for you? Do you *really* need to see her ass cleavage and entire shape of her breasts for this to be confirmed? Don't you think that is a little overboard?
Women are at their most powerful when their physical appearance means next-to-nothing compared to their actions. The same goes for men and every gender in between.
Sex absolutely does not indicate an absence of power for women, as clearly shown off by the badass that is Bayonetta. It's just that in this particular venerable-space-heroine's case, I think her character is above and better than needing to ever resort to grabbing attention with her body. Her actions are enough. Just, y'know, slaying world-conquering space beasts 'n all.
Desiring a woman's body can totally help her become empowered, especially over dumb single-minded hetero men. BUT, again, I think Samus Aran is better than that. The natural human sex drive should have nothing to do with Samus Aran. Her heroics are sexy enough.
Samus isn't embracing her sexuality with the Zero Suit, whoever made the decision to inch her more and more towards the status of cookie cutter supermodel is. Again, there is a perfectly good reason for her to have been stripped down in Zero Mission.Here though, there isn't.
My blog post is 100% my opinion, of course. My opinion just so happens to include the not-so-far-fetched idea that Nintendo (a huge company with a waning fanbase) wanted to "update" one of their only women characters who isn't helpless or a princess in order to gain some new and fresh attention. Shameless, but makes sense from a scummy business standpoint, no?
@bbain - The zero suit is realistic in our world. People wear spandex-type bodysuits. They exist and it serves a purpose, whether it's practical (scuba diving, surfing) or just for attention (models, green man). The Varia Suit though? Hm, haven't really seen one of those lately.
