Feminism and Metroid

 In the video game Metroid the protagonist is Samus Aran, a person in a red and orange futuristic Power Suit. At the end of the original 1986 Metroid game, it is revealed that Samus is a woman. To keep the reveal of her gender a surprise she is referred to by he/him pronouns and masculine descriptors. 


Metroid was heavily inspired by the 1979 movie Alien by Ridley Scott. Alien is a horror and science fiction movie set in space on a commercial spacecraft called the Nostromo. The movie stars Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley. A lot of the visuals in Metroid are heavily inspired by the movie and Samus herself is inspired by Sigourney Weaver as Ripley. 


Metroid is a great example of why representation matters. There was not as much representation of women in action and sci-fi media, but partially due to the movie Alien the team behind Metroid was inspired to have a grand reveal at the end of the game. That reveal being that Samus is a woman. Representation of women and people who are gender nonconforming is important because the more they are shown in media the easier it is for those people to imagine themselves in positions of power. This can inspire people to try new things, 


Through a LGBTQ+ lens, it shows a woman with strength that does not prescribe to gender norms. On the website Den of Geek, they talk about how people reacted to the reveal that Samus is a woman in the original 1986 game. Quite a few of the published reactions to the reveal speculate that the cheat code, "Justin Bailey" would, "turn," Samus into a woman. With the use of a queer lens some could view Samus as being trans. 










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