ZERO SUIT SAMUS

author=Corfaisus
Video game characters, as Sailerius put it, lack agency - they are designed a certain way for a certain purpose - and therefore lack that intimacy. They're a poster on the wall for the viewer's pleasure. They are an empty shell that serves as a representation of what society strives for. Women feeling the need to walk around in their underwear everywhere they go just so that men can acknowledge them as women (or people, for that matter) isn't a culture we should aspire to.

Thank you for developing your thoughts here. This is a much more useful kind of comment in my opinion, and I can see where you're coming from.

Yes, many visual depictions can be solely motivated by rather lowly intents, and those can be considered sensible or inappropriate especially if they were to become the norm. Even I, as an artist, were paid to draw stuff that I don't always condone because I need the money and the customers.

I think that in the case of such a well-known and iconic character as Samus, it's just unfair to her legacy to direct our hate at the controversial versions of her, because we reduce her to her sex-appeal in our minds by doing so, blinding us from everything else that she is. At least, from my point of view.

Samus is much more than her actual tight suit and now very fake-looking boobs. She is a strong, smart, brave and compassionate woman we've been following for nearly 30 years now. We've watched this side of her personality grow and play out. And this sexy version still has all those qualities. You might think that they are overshadowed by her sex-appeal, but they're still there. I don't think it's a big deal that we now have this different take on the character as the current alternative.

The version of Samus you favor is still available in previous games. You can choose to ignore the newer versions. The best way to show your support for the original Samus is to spread the words about how she was, keep that version of her alive. Hating the alternative will only increase this sexy version's fame (or infamy). Just as encouraging real people to be strong and follow their beliefs and aspirations is much more helpful than fighting their misrepresentations in the media and advising women not to dress and act like sluts because men are equally stupid and just want to be titillated yada yada.
Positive behavior leads to positive results. Negative behavior spawns only harm.

Who knows if in 10 years we won't get yet another take on her, one that is less controversial and truer to the original design? We sure didn't see that zero suit coming when we first played Zero Mission.

author=Link_2112
RL girls are sexy.

And that is one aspect among many others that define them as women. It's okay and natural to find women sexy and desirable.
There's no shame in it. (And of course that is true of anyone regardless of your gender, ethnicity, orientation and stuff :) )

EDIT:

author=Sviel
Are you saying that game girls look like RL girls?

Haha we can only hope that someday they will. We've been saying they're getting close for years now but there is still a LOT of work to do to achieve that.

I'm pretty much with Corfaisus here.
And just as a little side comment from one of the girls .. sure, I like being sexy. I don't like being intentionally sexy to every guy and everyone. Sexuality is more than dressing up. It includes playfulness among other things, which is something reserved for people you are interested in. That doesn't mean that you can't be sexy or desireable even when you don't try to, of course, but there is a clear difference. It also isn't the first or only thing you'd like to be identified as or recognized by.
Striking these very unnatural poses would clearly fall under the category "intentional".



What we're going to do about it is another story, and Avee does have a valid point. Yet I don't think anyone here would choose to ignore the past portrayel of Samus and think all would be ruined. Or go on a hate storm of how modern times are the baaaad baddy. She hasn't lost her strength, but I still find it disappointing and would've loved her to stay portrayed as a strong character first and foremost.
We should voice that, at least.

author=unity
While you have a point, do you know how rare it is to get a female character who's not created around sex-appeal? Now, it's been mentioned that Samus has always had an element of sex-appeal, given her bikini reveal at the end of the first game. But that's one moment, in a game full of her running around in her power suit, kicking ass.

.. I think in that case you also needed a special condition (under a time-limit I think?) to get this scene .. so it's not something the majority of players will have seen.

Granted, I haven't played a Metroid game since the Prime trilogy. But my understanding of Samus as a character hasn't been "I'm a WOMAN! Look how much of a WOMAN I am!" But neither was it, "I'm a strong independent woman who don't need no man" It was always, "I'm a woman. Deal with it." and left you to explore and shoot things.

And that's the way I liked it. Samus was there as a conduit for a player to explore the world. Her character was defined by YOU, the player. She felt what you felt: Excitement from surviving an encounter with a huge monster, wonder at exploring an unknown world, and even loneliness when standing in a barren wasteland. Samus didn't need any DEFINED character traits because each and every gamer defined her in their own unique way.

What 90% of Metroid fans can agree on with Samus, however, is that she is NOT a sex object. She was a practical person who didn't care about making a fashion statement. She was a bounty hunter, and dressed appropriately.

Avee, THIS is why the heels are so jarring to us. Not because they that look silly; There are plenty of female game characters that do that. Not because they're impractical; Most JRPGs not only accept that, but embrace it! But because they're so contradictory to Samus' character that you can't help but question why they were needed in the first place.

EDIT:

To give a different example:


Imagine this scenario if you would: I am redesigning Megaman X for the next game. I want him to appeal more to the S&M crowd, so I decided that he's now going to run around with a ball gag.

Let's all pause for a second to let that image sink in... Done? Good.

Anyone with half a functioning brain cell can tell you that the ball gag would be a monumentally STUPID idea. But the S&M crowd will love it! To them, Megaman X will look cool (Or sexy, depending on your point of view). But to the rest of us, it's so different from what kind of robot X is that we would hate it.



Now, my thoughts on the new Zero Suit design (to make an attempt to steer the topic back on track...)

My thoughts on the new Smash Bros Zero Suit:

The Zero Suit itself is fine, in my opinion. I mean, it looks exactly like what she would wear underneath her armor. I'd have a lot more of a problem if it was a revealing, colorful, Final Fantasy style outfit. I mean, who's gonna see that? Hell, the Zero Suit first showed up in Metroid: Zero Mission (hence the name) and it was worn only because Samus' ship was shot down and she had to survive on her own in the new epilogue.

Her new footwear, though, is stupid. High heels? Really? And they don't even look natural compared to the rest of her outfit. They just look tacked on (I'm no fashion designer, but even I think it's silly).

The good news is that Zero Suit Samus is now a whole new character. So everyone that didn't like that Samus' armor popped off in Brawl can now go back to the armor clad, ass kicking bounty hunter we all played as in Melee.

Either gravity doesn't affect boobs here (as usual), in which case they will still jiggle like crazy, or the suit is so hard around the area that it's impossible for them to move anywhere.

Edit: Checking some vids, it appears to be the latter.

Yeah, the handling of boobs is a whole different story. She got a lift ... to accantuate how badass she is, obviously.

author=Dudesoft
I have no other complaints about the suit. If she were designed by an american comic artist, there'd be so much exposed flesh and a bikini top.

trollface.jpg

author=Miracle

author=Dudesoft
I have no other complaints about the suit. If she were designed by an american comic artist, there'd be so much exposed flesh and a bikini top.

trollface.jpg

OK, WTF. -tableflip.gif-

I would be more vulnerable and weaker if my powered spacesuit armor fell off.

Samus has no agency because Adam never authorized it

author=unity
and your stance comes up very much as hating on us, and that's not cool.

And for that I apologize. I'm human, I tend to become emotionally reactive when it comes to certain subjects, but I wanted to take the opportunity of this thread to share my concerns.
I do like the direction this topic had taken since my last comment.

author=Red_Nova
Imagine this scenario if you would: I am redesigning Megaman X for the next game. I want him to appeal more to the S&M crowd, so I decided that he's now going to run around with a ball gag.

That would be both hilarious and shocking, yes. I'd probably choose not to care about it and keep playing the older games.

What they did with the Valis franchise is one example that I have a hard time ignoring. The first 4 games are great to decent action platformers and while there always was a bit of risqué tension and art style (especially in Valis 2), I never saw it coming that the fifth official game in the series would be a tentacle rape hentai title. They drowned the series' legacy in distaste and shame and effectively killed the franchise.
So you could say that what may happen to Samus in the future could always be worse, and that the current zero suit design is not that shocking. It is highly unlikely considering that Nintendo mainly aims to be family-friendly, but you never know.