Something Needs to be said about the sexism in this game

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jrjones9933
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28 May 2017, 4:55 pm

You can find interesting literary criticism and gender studies papers on the subject of games and TV. That's become a reason for certain factions to attack those departments. Authors of popular articles on the subject have received very specific threats of a violent nature, been doxed and stalked, etc. It stifles debate, to an extent.


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28 May 2017, 5:08 pm

^But just doing nothing is just as stifling.


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28 May 2017, 5:42 pm

If I work out a method to stop the anti-egalitarian backlash, I'll share it.


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28 May 2017, 8:10 pm

^Thank you.


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30 May 2017, 1:21 am

Interestingly, I just watched an interesting video on Samus' PTSD, how it is set up before its depiction in Other M, and how it all makes her a stronger character.


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30 May 2017, 1:49 pm

^Is the manga even canon?

Does Samus ever act like she has PTSD in any of the other games?
If Samus actually defeated Ridley during Other M, that would be something. But she doesn't, and as result her character is continually stripped down to basically nothing by the end.

From the review:
"...From here, the discussion generally bogs down into the specific minutiae of PTSD and other fanwank. That's why the PTSD defense is so strong; it carefully sidesteps important issues like "story" and "appropriateness for the character." The discussion becomes derailed into talking about the arcana of a real-world psychological condition. And while that may be interesting, it ultimately misses the point.
...First, let's look at communicating the idea of PTSD. If the PTSD defense is true, if PTSD is the author's intended explanation, then it is poorly communicated by the writers. Why? Because the complexities and exact nature of PTSD are not well understood by the populace at large. It's mostly well understood by scientists and so forth. But the general public doesn't know all of the details of the condition.
When most people think of PTSD, they generally think of something that is consistent: when presented with the object of the trigger, the trigger happens. The reality may be more complex, but most people don't know that. For most people, when they see the inconsistency between Samus's prior behavior and her behavior here, they see this as evidence against PTSD. Regardless of whether they are correct or not, that is what most people think.
Look at it from the perspective of someone new to the Metroid series. They walk into this room, do some stuff, then a giant dragon appears. They see Samus go catatonic, then scream "Ridley" and turn into a crying, 3-year-old girl. Even if their first thought in response to this is "she's having a bout of PTSD," there is never any discussion in the game about where it comes from. The cause of the PTSD is never stated or implied, so for such a player, it comes right out of nowhere. Even if the player thinks it might be PTSD, the lack of an explanation for the trauma itself works against that idea.
If a story can't stand up without out-of-story research, either of the nature of a condition or the storyline source of it, then it fails as a story. Therefore, we again have the dichotomy. The story does not explain where the trauma came from. Therefore, either the writers suck at communicating PTSD, or the writers aren't trying to communicate PTSD.
And the possibility that the writers are simply bad is irrelevant. It's purely speculative (though unquestionably true in general): you cannot know that they intended PTSD and were simply incompetent, because such a case looks exactly like writers who were not intending PTSD at all. You can't tell one from the other, so there is no reason to prefer one explanation over the other.
Remember the most important point: people aren't hating this scene because of what they tried to communicate; it's about what they did communicate. This scene is basically "Samus Aran is Weak!" written in 72pt font, bold-face, and all-caps. You can try to add justifications like PTSD, but the story as presented by the game simply doesn't provide enough evidence to support those justification.
...So even if we accepted the statement, "the scene gives Samus added depth as a character," the simple fact is this: nothing is ever done with the "depth" created. There is no character development. Samus never overcomes her personal failures. Her character is actively damaged without any subsequent growth. The Ridley plot isn't even the main plotline of this story; it just comes out of nowhere and disappears just as quickly."


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30 May 2017, 2:18 pm

Also, on the opening to Other M:

It's supposed to be a remake of the ending of Super Metroid, but it fundamentally changes aspects of Super Metroid in the process. The metroid isn't big enough, and suspends Samus in the air for some reason, which is basically leaving her defenseless. The Hyper Beam appears out of thin air, because at the ending of Super, Mother Brain's hyper beam is transmited to Samus through the Metroid when it reverse-vacuums back her energy. In Other M, that doesn't happen.
Not once in Super Metroid does Samus ever refer to the Metroid as 'the baby', nor is there much to suggest that she considered it to be her 'child'.

From the review:

"...The Metroid is shown suspending Samus in air. Also, it's not huge. Both of these combine to mean that Mother Brain has direct line-of-sight on Samus. She could hit her, but she isn't. She's not even trying to. In Super Metroid, Mother Brain couldn't shoot Samus because the Metroid was protecting her. It was covering her entirely, using the floor for the part below it. That's why picking Samus up is bad; it leaves Samus exposed. By doing it this way, Other M doesn't seem like the Metroid is protecting Samus so much as Mother Brain is just shooting it while Samus happens to be caught in its mouth. It muddles what the scene is trying to say.
And that leads into the next problem: where the Hyper Beam comes from. Know where it comes from? It wasn't "the baby;" at least, not directly. The Hyper Beam comes from Mother Brain. It's the ultimate kill attack that Mother Brain was slamming Samus with all during that fight. There are two pieces of evidence for this. First, Mother Brain's attack is rainbow-colored, just like the Hyper Beam. Second, Mother Brain never uses it again after the Metroid drains her.
Except in Other M, where she clearly uses it on "the baby." Again, this is not some minor nit-pick; this is a fundamental alteration to how the scene works that Other M has created. The Hyper Beam now comes out of thin air; the reasoning that Super Metroid clearly provided for it is gone. But the biggest problem is the lack of context. We're only shown the very tail-end of the fight in Other M. We're shown nothing leading up to it. And this is very deliberate.
See, Other M wants us to believe that there is a deep, personal relationship between Samus Aran and "the baby." Other M is saying that Samus loved this Metroid like her child, and it's death was crushing to her, the equivalent of losing a child. The problem with this is that this is not what Super Metroid said!...In Super Metroid, the focus of the scene was on the fact that the Metroid still recognized Samus as its parent and was willing to fight for her...At no time in Super Metroid was there even the slightest idea that Samus felt that this Metroid was her child. The very opening sequence in fact suggests the opposite: Samus gave "the baby" away, with nary a second thought. This suggests that she felt less like a human mother and more like someone who picked up a stray. She didn't want to shoot the defenseless infant that imprinted on her, but she's not exactly in love with it either. She goes after Ridley because, well it's Ridley, and that he's going to use it to breed a Metroid army. Even Samus calling it a "baby" in Other M is a rewrite. Why? Because in Super Metroid, it is very clearly not a baby anymore; it's an adult Metroid, and a very large one at that. It used to be a baby, but it's all grown up now. That's why this game doesn't show it being huge like Super Metroid. By continuously referring to it as that (and Samus does insist on it; every single reference she makes to it will call it "the baby"), it drives home the point that Other M is trying to make, one that is not supported by Super Metroid."


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31 May 2017, 2:18 am

Kuraudo7777 wrote:
Also, on the opening to Other M:

It's supposed to be a remake of the ending of Super Metroid, but it fundamentally changes aspects of Super Metroid in the process. The metroid isn't big enough, and suspends Samus in the air for some reason, which is basically leaving her defenseless. The Hyper Beam appears out of thin air, because at the ending of Super, Mother Brain's hyper beam is transmited to Samus through the Metroid when it reverse-vacuums back her energy. In Other M, that doesn't happen.
Not once in Super Metroid does Samus ever refer to the Metroid as 'the baby', nor is there much to suggest that she considered it to be her 'child'.

And what characterisation did Samus get from Super Metroid, if I recall the only word narration is done in the beginning in referring to her calling the Metroid following her like a confused child, that she was largely all business, but despite business it is a fact she gave mercy to a Metroid "lava", and narratively she seems pissed that Metroid was killed while it is trying to protect her in thinking that she was its mother. The whole game is supposed to be her tracking down the Metroid, right? I can tell you it gave me strong emotions after I kind of bonded at the end of Metroid 2, which was kind of the point of why at the end of that game there are large segments of you doing nothing but the baby Metroid clearing the path.

I think it also fair to say that the segment in Other M is a dream of her remembering something, it is symbolic that Samus is dropped and reaching out to the Metroid as it is killed, and to an event that was SNES pixels. Samus was already defenceless in the scene, she was almost dead and could not move. According to the Other M cutscene the stress was not just an exertion that left her just standing there as Mother Brain shot her, but she was out of it in pretty much losing consciousness. Samus not being aware perhaps what the Metroid did to slow down Mother Brain's barrage of attacks, but coming too as Mother Brain's attacks somehow missing a slow moving Metroid before commencing attack again as if it lost some sort of energy itself and was just getting under control, and Samus say she somehow got it when she then absorbed the Metroid's power. Are we going to talk about the Metroid making bad strategic moves? It dies after flinging itself at something it logically should know is about to kill it, they have never really been shown to be that smart.

Other M is after Super Metroid, the fallout of a creature apparently sacrificing itself out of seeing Samus as its mother.

Sure the manga can be canon, if it does not contradict anything it should not be a problem, and I am quite sure it is official as that is what my research for looking at information shows. Without even fitting in the Ridley from Other M it does not explain how there can be a husk of him in Fusion because the other disintegrated and the planet blew up. Games have lore and not every game is going to explain what might have been important in another game/source, like how could the Master sword speak in Breath of the Wild. Samus freaks out because she suddenly has the devil jump into her face. In Super Metroid I don't think you can even damage Ridley until he has already taken the baby Metroid, that Samus is shocked by his appearance, menacingly from how he appears with the glowing eyes, I am pretty sure you are not supposed to feel confident for the fight, there is room that Ridley is more than just a foe. But the game was also very light on characterisation.

Perhaps the game was not incredibly good at portraying it to the uninitiated, but Samus is not any lesser of a badass for a weak moment. As having played the scene, although Ridley has all that scary stuff going for him, you kick his ass and own him. The build up of his character is in scavenging after the strong to make himself stronger, and then picking on the weak where he clearly sees that Samus will be this, but you kick his butt and send him running scared. People can pick out what makes their case, and perhaps get out what they want, but I played the game, had fun, and felt invested as I played, even though I was cautious when I started. I was even not thinking too well over the controls which was a single Wii remote you held sideways to move and forward for first person, but the controls actually went a way of making Samus feel versatile, agile, and strong.

People say her character is weak in the game because she speaks monotone, that it is like she has no emotions, but as an autistic person which are a group that often unfairly get criticised for lacking emotions, that is bs. My personal opinions that she practically can act as representation for groups that have trouble expressing themselves. Samus is weakened because she follows a man? Link almost always follows the direction of a woman, it does not weaken him. She previously followed the directions of computers, Fusion's being a man, it is hardly the first time Samus took directions from one, and she is far stronger than all of them. It is really not like Samus is running to them for protection.


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31 May 2017, 12:51 pm

I am truly sorry. After everything I have been through, and on behalf of all women, not just ones who have been abused, I cannot accept this game, or the blatant sexism and idealized abusive relationship, or the destructive blow it delivers to one of gaming's greatest heroines. I have wanted Samus to have a voice, to have a human side, for years. Not this. Never this.

Just think of how amazing a Metroid game could be, by taking elements from her backstory and combining them with the first game, but making her fully voiced [by someone who can actually act], but not overly talkative: Samus returns to her home planet and makes a memorial for her parents and the Chozo. Instead of making a bunch of cutscene flashbacks and exposition, you actually play during the flashback, as young Samus on Zebes, growing up and slowly learning how to use her Power Suit. You then later play as Samus deciding that the military isn't for her, taking matters into her own hands, and then once she gets into her ship, you get to choose where she goes next. The rest of the game is exploring the galaxy, until she goes to Zebes, defeats the space pirates, has a Ridley showdown, and confronts Mother Brain. [Adding in Zero Mission content would also be awesome.]

A big point to make is WHY Samus freaks out when she sees Ridley [who, by the way, just stands there politely roaring at her during her freak-out, and only attacks when Anthony tries to intervene]: she has been pushed around and belittled by Adam for half of the game, and he is currently yelling in her earpiece.
Also, why does Samus 'freak out' in the manga? She is emotionally caught off guard, for starters, and then for Ridley to appear and actually torment her with details about how her parents died, as well as revealing that he ate their corpses. She then proceeds to murder him outright while screaming n a psychotic rage. The manga at least gave justification for her breakdown. Other M did nothing.

In the first 'fight' with Ridley, Samus is helpless until Anthony shoots it off of her. Even though she battles him later, Samus does not defeat Ridley; he flies away and the Queen Metroid kills him. She does not defeat the Deleter--Melissa kills him. She does not stand up to Adam; he kills himself, mainly to wound her further. She does not defeat Melissa; the federation troops who appear out of nowhere kill her. Sure she defeats the Queen Metroid, Nightmare, and Phantoon, but they have nothing to do with the story, are never mentioned again afterwards, and the only real reason they are in the game at all is nostalgia [and the fact that the Queen Metroid is a mother]. On a side note, Samus hesitates a long time before shooting the Queen. No reason is ever given for this.

Some to consider: Samus is shorter in this game than she is usually, about 5 foot something instead of 6, and as a result all of the male characters tower over her.

From the review: "Adam is in control, at all times. He never gives Samus even the slightest opportunity to disobey him.
And another data point on their relationship. Samus gets shot by someone; she doesn't know who. When she wakes up next to Adam, she immediately assumes he did it. She doesn't even consider the possibility that the Deleter got to her and Adam simply made the save in the nick of time. I mean, that might have made Adam not a controlling jackass and made the Deleter plot worthwhile. And nothing is allowed to be worthwhile in this pile of crap.
The best part: Samus is 100% right about who shot her. That says something about their relationship that she knows him well enough that he'll attack her at the first excuse. Nothing particularly good, mind you, but something...Given the myriad of ways that Adam could have avoided shooting her, the number of reasons he had to not do it, we must assume that Adam wanted to shoot her..."

On the Ian flashback:
The whole scenario is designed to make Samus look weak. There is no chance whatsoever to save Ian, yet Samus insists on trying to rescue him. There is an entire ship between them.

from the review:
"One problem I have is how contrived the situation is made, all so that Samus can look as bad as possible...So why does she say that she can do it? Because it makes her look, as she says of her younger self, "childish." Which is exactly what the writers of this scene want us to think; that's why this scene exists: to show that Samus is a child, and Adam is the mature, responsible parental figure. Normally, when a scene like this happens in fiction, there's some idea that the person might have been saved, that there was a chance. But it was too great a risk, so they didn't. In the typical case, the audience is free to judge the commander's decision for themselves...The audience can't relate to her position; it was a clearly hopeless situation. This scene is focused on how incapable Samus is, how "childish" she is. That she couldn't even recognize a hopeless situation when she saw it. The circumstances of this situation are designed so that there is no other possible interpretation. "Adam was right," just as Samus said. Because God forbid that Adam could be wrong about anything. And note how she fixates on Adam's feelings, that all she did was "question his authority and make things more difficult."...All she cares about are Adam's feelings. Samus Aran has no life outside of Adam Malkovich. Her entire world centers around the man; everything she does or thinks about is for him...Also, let's not forget the lack of emotion from Adam. The closest thing to a feeling that Adam showed about his brother's impending death was Adam taking a moment to decide what to do. That's it. It could have been for anyone; indeed, until Samus says that Ian is Adam's brother, the audience doesn't know it's for a brother. Shouldn't there have been some clue or indication from Adam's reaction?"

By all rights, I can easily be called weak and frail. But of all the things that separate me from Other M's version of Samus, the biggest is that I do something about it. Samus takes the abuse, and the sexist attitudes from male characters in the game, and accepts it as if it is natural. She does nothing to change it; instead, she allows herself to be broken down and hands her agency over to the male characters, letting them order her around.


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31 May 2017, 2:43 pm

From the review:
"Discussions of sexism often encounter the following elements that destroy any attempt at a rational debate:
• People who don't believe sexism even exists at all. Discussing anything with someone who doesn't believe it exists and will not be swayed serves little purpose. I will not take the time to try to prove to anyone that sexism exists.
• People who claim that, "if you don't see it and I do, then you're wrong." While I certainly understand what inspires this claim (ie: attempts to talk to the above people), nobody in the history of the human race has ever been convinced of anything by such argument.
• People who try to derail the topic of sexism against women by bringing up some similar instance of sexism against men, or how the particular incident in question is also sexist against men. As though something else being wrong has any impact on this particular thing being wrong. This also includes the perspective that any discussion of sexism against women is by definition sexist against men.
• People who think that sexism must always be a conscious act that requires deliberate intent and malice. Thus, if intent cannot be proven, then sexism isn't present.
• People who feel that sexism must be blatant and obvious. Thus, if there is any doubt about whether a work is sexist (even if the only doubt comes from some of the above), then it isn't.
Discussions of sexism in this game are sometimes confronted with a "why bother" attitude. The story is crap. We all know it's crap; I've spent ~300KB of text detailing how crap it is. So why does there need to be a discussion of sexism on top of that? Isn't being crap "good" enough? Is it just because Samus is a Girl?
Um... yes it is. This isn't just any game franchise; this is Metroid. Samus Aran isn't just "a girl;" she is one of the oldest female videogame protagonists, and probably the oldest female protagonist who's actually a character (Ms. Pac-Man doesn't have character. She has a bow). Indeed, the ending to the first game was a giant slap to the very idea of sexism: that badass character who slaughtered her way through monsters and Metroids was a woman all along. And if that surprised you, that only showed your sexist idea of always thinking of faceless characters as men (or that you read the instructions where they blatantly lied to you)."

I’m not saying that it’s wrong for Samus to be under a man’s command [though I do prefer the games where she is entirely alone in her quest, such as Zero Mission, Super Metroid, and Prime], rather it its inherently wrong for Samus to be under a man’s command when that man in question is Adam.
One of the things I love about Samus, something that could even be considered beautiful or wonderful in a way, is that she wears this big, bulky armor but refuses to be defined by gender roles. However, her armor has been changed for Other M and even Super Smash Bros. 4 into being more ‘feminine’, apparently [translation: curvy].


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31 May 2017, 3:17 pm

If you want further proof of how Metroid Other M makes Samus weak, here it is:

“So let's list Samus Aran's accomplishments in the story:
Opening a door.
Fighting lots of random stuff. And yes, the Metroid Queen counts.
Bring Madeline back to the GF.
That's it. As for the things she didn't do that happened in the plot?
Confront and capture/kill Ridley, who killed Anthony due to her failure and has been theoretically established as her personal nemesis? No; the Metroid Queen kills him.
Prevent the Deleter from killing anyone? Nobody but herself. Adam saves himself with his Mary Sue powers. Anthony wasn't a target. Most everyone else the Deleter tried to kill are successfully killed.
At least confront and capture/kill Deleter, who killed a bunch of people Samus theoretically knew and cared about? No. MB straight up murders him, off screen.
Destroy Sector Zero? Hell no; Adam did that.
Stop the ship before it went... wherever MB was sending it? Nope; that was Anthony.
Defeat the main villain? Nope; Madeline and the GF grunts solved that problem.
Samus never actually does anything of significance. She doesn't drive the plot with her actions; the plot goes on and sometimes she happens to be nearby.
Indeed, it's interesting to note that one of the aspects of this, her inaction in the MB "fight," is another example of removing agency to make a character innocent. The game wants to paint MB sympathetically. But if Samus killed her, then she would be killing a theoretically sympathetic character. So instead, they strip her of any active agency in that fight so that she won't be responsible for killing the sympathetic villain; it's Colonel Smugsalot who does that. And again, removing responsibility to protect a character only serves to remove their ability to affect the plot. But it's rather worse than that. It isn't just that Samus is not strong; she's actively weak.This is best exemplified by the way the Ian scene is handled. As previous mentioned, she doesn't get character development or growth. She doesn't reflect on her past actions and change her ways. She does everything now exactly as she did then. Her weakness as a character is primarily shown in the way the conflict is resolved. It's not merely that Adam came up with the plan at the end. He forced her to follow it; she didn't have a choice. He didn't discuss it with her as equals, or otherwise have a rational exchange of ideas. He didn't convince her of something using logic or reason. He deliberately shot her and left her weak until he could carry out his plan. And she thanks him for doing this, for taking away her ability to make a decision. Samus is completely robbed of any genuine agency with regard to the plot. In this story, Samus Aran is nothing more than someone else's tool. That's all she's shown to be. She does what she does because Adam tells her to. And if she doesn't do it, then he makes her."


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31 May 2017, 3:33 pm

It is also important to discuss Samus' position while out of armor. In the first game, the fact that the only way they could show [admittedly, with 8 bit graphics] that Samus is a girl was by putting her into a bikini is rather uncomfortable to realize these days. In 2 and also Super Metroid, showing Samus in bikinis or skin-revealing outfits became mandatory, along with her two piece form-fitting outfits at the end of Zero Mission and Fusion. That all changed once the Prime games came out, wherein Samus was shown either simply helmet-less or in her Zero Suit, which is a rather interesting difference between Japanese and American culture [though you'd almost think that it would be the other way round].
Yet the difference between all of the other games and Other M when it comes to fanservice is that Samus' character is still intact by the end of the other games. In Zero Mission, she may be in her Zero Suit, but she has a stark life and death choice ahead of her: flee and survive or die.

from the review:
"Every single scene of Metroid: Other M where Samus is in the Zero Suit is one of two things. The first being the needless sexualization; she frequently poses for fanservice shots. Her entire introduction is this way, whether it's shaking her hips for the doctors in her medical room or whatever. And lets not forget the high heels they added onto her suit in this game for no purpose other than this. Sure, some of Brawl's camera angles were rather suspect, showing a bit more attention to her than was strictly necessary. But they were nothing on the level of Other M.
However, that I could live with. It's the second way that's far more infuriating. If Samus is in her Zero Suit and she's not being sexualized (and sometimes while she is), then she's being shown to be weak and frail. Contrary to every other Metroid game. Whether it's in flashbacks where Adam is being... Adam, or when Adam shoots her, or when Ridley shows up. When that damned Zero Suit appears, something is happening that is incredibly damaging to her character... Every single scene that isn't about showing off her assets is about showing off how pathetic she is."


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"A memory is something that has to be consciously recalled, right? But it's different from a memory locked deep within your heart. Words aren't the only way to tell someone how you feel...As long as I'm with you, as long as you're by my side, I won't give up even if I'm scared." Tifa Lockheart, Final Fantasy VII


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31 May 2017, 4:10 pm

Montage!
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01 Jun 2017, 3:01 am

If Samus is put in a sexist sort of position in terms of the Federation, it should also be brought up that Samus still chooses to leave it. That might seem small, but is a large part of who Samus was, that the Federation practically can act as if patriarchy, removing Samus' agency, having to listen to authority for everything does weaken her, and for Samus to get involved in the particular mission required she do so. The patriarchy under Adam even if not outright nasty to her, she even has some attachment because it reminds her of her younger years, it infantizes her, Adam underestimates her, and she then weakens herself. She gets shot by her authority figure because she was kind of about to do something stupid because how she has been effected of rejoining under the patriarchy, the last lesson from him though was kind of to actually rebel against it, to the end she never needed him to tell her what actually to do, the broken system he was a part of and represented were the people who cloned the metroids which could cause further trouble.

But despite all that, the game mechanics do nothing but make Samus feel strong, within those bounds Samus might have never felt as strong. Samus might not have been able to finish off the Ridley in that fight, but after starting with being scared of him, something his roar from earlier cutscenes that make the creatures act out, Samus is completely capable and the representation of her fears, a dragon, the sort of thing in stories that takes innocent maidens, is running scared. Ridley is killed by a separate female monster, the ultimate form of the dangerous Metroid, the Metroid queen, and Samus kills it. And MB is killed by the Federation, well I actually find that it is the final piece of tragedy. Melissa is treated horribly by the Federation and the like, the group I talked earlier about being patriarchal, she is treated like an object, especially after she shows interest in the Metroid in a sort of feminine way. It happens with Madeline first giving into it, and Melissa acts out of anger of them trying to take away her agency, but unlike say the healthy way Samus does by kind of leaving and building her independence, Melissa instead tries to get revenge and it just makes further tragedy. The story was pretty much a woman trying to fight against the man, even killing the one meant to really contain it all, "the Deleter", but in the end the extra aggressive path she takes gets her killed by the Federation, the man. And the tragedy is tragedy is that perhaps she was treated differently, that they would faith that she would not just turn evil, treated her with respect, things could have turned out differently

For a change of pace, lets look at the live action trailer:

How cool is that. It shows Samus' fear a child from Ridley, her rebellion when she joined the Federation army, her fight on Zebes, her connection with the baby Metroid on SR388 where she showed mercy, the loss of the baby Metroid to the aggressive Mother Brain after it saved her, and then her being a badass in Other M. It is kind of gives us what we need for this game, that Samus is facing her past, that there is the good and bad that helped her grow, that we could expect her to regress a bit, but in the end is a badass that is going it alone because she is a strong who in the end does not even need a man.

And just extra I will add in this video from Gaijin Goombah on Zero Suit for Smash Bros.


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Bradleigh
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01 Jun 2017, 4:30 am

And one of my main thoughts on sexism is on kind of why I am so fond of my avatar, that it asks if it would have been different if it was the other way around. Would it have been a problem if it was a group of women relying on a man running around and doing their job? Would it have been a problem that an experienced female CO was not having her orders questioned by her male ex-subordinate that he was strangely attached to? That it would have been a problem that a male AI was betrayed by his father who gave into the feminine power structure after he showed fatherly feelings towards a creature? Would it be a problem that we saw the muscles on the male lead? Yet he also showed weakness?

The difference is a bit of history of course, that if it is normal for a woman to be bossed around by a man, to follow instructions to their detriment. But it kind of fits into what I believe one of the best lines in the Deadpool movie, when he is fighting two women bad guys he questions if it would be sexist for him to hit them, or more so if he would not. That we are so adverse to the idea to not put women into a situation that facilitates sexist ideals, that we never the less treat them of kiddy gloves that is kind of not showing them respect that they could be in the same position of a male.

Lets look a the character that is Samus, and that if she joined the mostly male filled military, then she most likely dominated by a man. Without ever being pushed to the edge where they were a helpless person crawling on the floor in front of their drill sergeant, someone like Samus would have never been able to push past their limits to become the superhero she becomes. Does that make you uncomfortable? Well that is the ideals we put on women that such a scene is disgusting, likely because it represents the horrible cases of domestic abuse or similar, that it kind of feels like those things are making light of it. Samus cannot be shown weak because it makes her look lesser. She has to stay that expressionless and strong her that is known in her suit.

But that does a disservice, it turns her gender it a shield that says such a strong person cannot come from someone who was scared and alone. The type that from feeling that way would then latch onto a person as a support blanket, before being able to move past it before being able to become the strong and independent. The events within Other M for the character it sets up for Samus in it are not her new norm, it is her dipping into something she had left behind, even despite that Samus feels comfort, but not because it makes her as strong but because she perhaps does not have to be. She can simply follow what she has been told, but that relaxation leaves her open to weakness.

And a final comparison sexism, I might contrast with Metroid's sister series, Kid Icarus. Especially to compare with the latest game of the series, Uprising, where our male character pretty much spends the entire game following the instructions of female characters, ones who are not without their own abusive parts from them on him. Pit may be subservient to his mistress, the form of a child that even looks lesser the full bodied Palutena, but there is nothing hateful there. The gender does not need to play into there being something inferior. Both Pit and Palutena are awesome.


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01 Jun 2017, 3:12 pm

Again:

Quote:
’m not saying that it’s wrong for Samus to be under a man’s command [though I do prefer the games where she is entirely alone in her quest, such as Zero Mission, Super Metroid, and Prime], rather it is inherently wrong for Samus to be under a man’s command when that man in question is Adam.


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