Zero Suit Samus has a great character model

[Gearran]

You know, after looking over the screenshots posted on the Smash Bros. page, I'm kind of interested to see how the heels work. I'm not gonna talk about what's already been beaten to death here (sexualization of a woman dressed in a skin-tight suit, as if she needed any help, ahem) or how awkward heels are to move around in. I'm looking more on how they appear to be a piece of equipment. In one of the screenshots, they're clearly sporting jump jets (maybe a little support for the OP's thought on the heels serving as jet ports?), while in another she's doing a flying jump kick complete with some sort of energy impact flash (which, to be fair, may just be the game's impact graphic, but it almost looks like a rocket flare).

Now, why am I talking about this at all? Well, because the heels look more like equipment to me than fashion accessories. Yes, they're clearly open heels, but look a little closer. They look like they're crafted out of armor plates, a look that those glowing yellow lights amplify. The fastenings around the ankles look more like something you'd find on body armor than a fashion piece, and the heel itself appears to be significantly thicker than what you'd normally find on a pair of high heels (to me, at least; not being someone who wears such things, I can't be certain), which kind of makes me think more of platforms than plain high heels. The heels even look as if they may be able to pivot, which might suggest that they're intended to be worn "flat" when inside the Varia suit, then pivot down when out of it.

 

[otakon17]

Look, I haven't read everyone's comments but hear me please:

It's okay to like the design but PLEASE don't lie to defend you liking it. We all like shitty stuff now and then, just be honest about it.

If you like it because, hey she's hot to you, go for it.

Me, I prefer Samus when she was a purple haired 6 foot 3 inch amazon weighing in at near 200lbs.

Look at her there, she's good looking but not this effete little super model that Nintendo made her into.

Compared to this:

Then this:

What other reason would they have to redesign her, in my eyes, so RADICALLY different from her original looks other than sex appeal? Shorter, much more "feminine" curves and a visibly larger bust and the heels are just icing on the cake. Mario hasn't changed much since his inception, Link either. Sonic, Kirby and several others have for the most part remained looking the same as their original designs when they first appeared for the most part. Hell even Zelda hasn't changed that much.

But if you were to compared Samus' original design out of the suit to the one now, and showed them to people not familiar with the series; they'd think they were completely different characters.

Once again, it's alright to like the new design, just don't lie in you defense in saying it hasn't become sexualized. Because it has. Not only that, but the giant neon yellow heels clash like hell with the rest of her if you ask me.

Don't patronize me.

I like the design because it is, in fact, a good design, not because it is sexy. I like Rosalina's design, too, and that's probably the least sexual design out there. To me, it looks cool, and is definitely an improvement over the monochrome outfit she had in Brawl.

The fact of the matter is, character designs change a lot over the years. Originally, Peach had brown hair, Yoshi had a rounder back, and Link often changed appearance from game to game. And the newer designs are almost unilaterally better than the older ones.

Oh, and by the way, you can't simultaneously claim that the heels are both sexy and ugly. Those two are not compatible (with the exception of Mileena, and that character was clearly a joke.)

1. I wasn't attempting to patronize anyone, I apologize if it came off like that.
2. I wasn't claiming they were sexy /and/ ugly. I'm saying they made it that way to BE sexy but it looks ugly.
3. That wasn't Peach, that was Daisy you're thinking about. And I'm talking about MAJOR design changes over just fine-tuning/refining the character. Now, in this case Samus' suit has more or less been the same the entire time; it's the person INSIDE the suit that they've so radically changed over the years. And the thing was, it wasn't a gradual change either. It was rather rapid compared to like, Mario or Link.

As a quote from a friend who knows a bit about fashion in general:
makes their legs look longer, results in thinner silhouette, since they force the back to arch it pushes their breasts and butt outwards, which accentuates the wearer's feminimity, thus making them more traditionally attractive

So, there you go.

No, it WAS Peach. In Super Mario 1, 2, and 3, she had brown hair. She even had brown hair in the tv show, for crying out loud.

And the heels were obviously not made for sex appeal. If they were, don't you think they would've been made...sexier? Do you really think the designers considered them the sexiest they could make? No, they purposefully made them big, clunky, and industrial-looking. Kind of like the Power Suit.

Furthermore, the only rapid change that Samus' design made was from Metroid to Metroid 2, when they changed her hair color. Then the blond hair, ponytail, and Zero Suit followed. As changes go, it's pretty gradual.

Finally, your complaints about the sexualization of her character seem more suited to her depiction in Brawl. A noble goal, but seven years too late.

Fine; I concede on the point of Peaches HAIR changing color. However, beyond that they didn't suddenly make her thinner, make her hair longer, give her a bigger bust and stuck her in a pair of stripper heels.

And I'm saying this: high heels are ONLY for sex appeal. They literally have NO other purpose beyond sex appeal. They aren't functional; ask ANY woman and they'll tell you as much. They made them big and clunky to try and HIDE the fact that that is all high heels are good for. A bad job of it too.

Actually, when peach was made into a character in smash bros she was made given a significantly more "sexual" model, including a figure that actually had breasts. Seriously, go look at the models from sunshine, galaxy, and 3d world compared to the smash bros models. She is also wearing significantly taller heels. So yes, they did suddenly make her thinner, give her a bigger bust, and put her in stripper heels.

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please use spoilers when posting large images

Sunshine:

Galaxy 2:

3D World:

Now, compared to her Super Smash Bros. models.

They made her taller. As for the heels, they don't matter really in her case because of her large gown that hides her legs. As for the "larger bust" and "thinner", nah. I don't see it, she's moderately endowed at best from the looks of things. They suddenly didn't toss her into a skin tight outfit with 8 inch heels however.

 

[furthestshore]

Wait, wait, wait. This is sexualized? A full body combat suit?

With enlarged breasts, a beauty mark, and high heels? Yes. Absolutely. She's undergone a slow but progressive sexualization.

Have we really gotten to a point where high heels are now sexist?

We've been there for a couple hundred years. We have written records going back over 250 years ago of doctors urging the public to stop wearing high heels because they're unhealthy. Since then we've just built up more and more evidence that they're bad for you, while also getting plenty of evidence as to why they stick around - they are not just sexualized, they're one of the most commonly sexualized objects. So you've got something we know is bad for women's health, and which we know has stuck around because it's considered sexy, and they're constantly being put on fictional women, who never show any injuries resulting from them, feeding the public belief that high heels are perfectly normal and harmless. Yes, they're sexist.

What about Raiden?

What about him? Why do people keep bringing him up? What, precisely, do you think you prove when you go "what about Raiden"? Do you think nobody made fun of his high heels? If you missed that, you were lucky, because there was no shortage of bad insulting jokes about his heels and what some people thought they implied. But there's no widespread fashion trend of men wearing high heels, so he's not really feeding into a public health nuisance, and to be completely blunt Raiden's a relatively minor footnote in gaming history (and even "footnote" is exaggerating his importance). Samus is either the key female hero in gaming history, or at least in the top ten.

Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things?

Yes. I'm baffled by this attitude that a character's design isn't itself part of their characterization. Putting someone in ridiculous cartoony impractical unhealthy sexualized clothing absolutely influences how the character is perceived.

All right, just want to nip this in the bud:

Yes, it would be stupid for an actual fighter to wear high heels. It would also be stupid for an actual ape to wear a tie, and for an actual plumber to jump 30 feet in the air. It's a videogame. You can do that!

Yes, you can. And those things are not equal. Donkey Kong and Mario are less serious characters than Samus. You can drop an anvil on Bugs Bunny (who's running around naked) and have him turn into an accordion. You think people would be cool with that happening to Solid Snake? And you're saying it's okay for game developers to keep pushing a harmful trend because hey, the character they're using to push it is fictional, not like she'd get hurt. That's missing the point.

Wow there Tex. You can't use logic in an internet, feminism debate.

"Anyone who disagrees with me is just an illogical feminist," eh? Ad hominem attacks are never conductive for the healthy sharing of opinions.

When me and my friends used to play Tekken we used to remark on how badass it was that Nina could do all those crazy kicks in high heels.

Yeah, people said the same thing about cigarettes. Some still do.

Samus' high heels don't look very sexy

They're high heels, something research has shown to be one of the most commonly fetishized objects. If the design doesn't ring your bell, fine, but putting a woman in high heels is sexualizing her.

Designed to be functional

"High heels" are about as far from "designed to be functional" as it gets.

completely no-frills

High heels are a frill themselves.

I don't think accusations of sexualisation are warranted in this case.

Scientific research strongly suggests you are incorrect.

I really don't see how adding high heels = sexualisation. Is that how high heels work?

Yes. High heels throw off a woman's balance, causing exaggerated hip-swinging that appears to be more sexually arousing for men. That in term seems to have resulted in people subconsciously learning to associate high heels with sexuality.

To be honest, the Zero - Suit in and of itself always struck me as mild fanservice to begin with.

Agreed. It would be nice if we could get rid of it and go back to the days when Samus took off her armor at the end of the game and had a whole wardrobe of different things she might wear, but it's unlikely we can unring this bell. The best we can hope for is probably to get the suit shown less, and to get rid of the newest additions to her design.

They look to me like they'll function the same way Chell's Advanced Knee Replacements work in the Portal games and don't look any less practical.

Valve would cry if they heard you say that. They really would. Go look at what she wore in Portal. It was a couple of struts attached right below her knee, not her heel, while she was running around barefoot. They were bizarre braces, and they were put in as the clearest possible example of function leading to form - Valve wanted something to let her handle falls and jumping, and the struts were what they eventually came up with. But they were making every effort to avoid sexualizing Chell, wanting the player to view her as a "test subject," not a beautiful or sexy woman. In Portal 2 they tried to make the longfall boots look like the next logical step, with the struts STILL sticking out right under her knee, not her heel. Considering they made a specific effort to avoid sexual markers like high heels, they'd be pretty horrified to see Chell's design being used to justify Samus'. They couldn't be further apart in intent. Chell's legwear was added because Valve had a gameplay mechanic in mind and tried to invent fictional equipment to provide an in-game explanation. Samus had high heels slapped on because they're sexy, and for SB we were told "there's some rockets in there" to try to justify them.

The high heels in the most recent design are either a continuation of what the zero suit has always been about

Sure. They've been screwing her up a little at a time. That doesn't mean we shouldn't say "enough is enough" and try to push back against this nonsense.

Surely you know exactly why that's not a valid point.

It's an extremely valid point. Having Mario in high heels would not fit his depiction. For all the people going "what does it matter what she wears?" it's a simple fact that what a character is shown wearing influences how the character is viewed. Samus was initially portrayed as someone that wore her exceptionally practical armor while working, but was able to take it off and relax after work. It was nicely done, and she looked like a practical and pragmatic individual who was still human enough to be able to enjoy R&R. We've gone from her wearing (by sci-fi standards) extremely strong and sensible looking armor to her being increasingly portrayed in an extremely impractical latex catsuit with high heels, which are just about the height of frivolity and impracticality.

And to answer you more directly, if you remove her characterization in Other M, the only personality trait Samus has is being a woman.

You seem to be unfamiliar with the material, and have a vague notion that Samus was a generic silent protagonist whose personality wasn't elaborated upon in anything. That's incorrect. Metroid itself just gave us the basic idea that she was a bounty hunter, a lone wolf. Not much there, no. Metroid II added the first wrinkle by showing her sparing the hatchling. Itoh's comic (published in Nintendo Power to supplement Super Metroid) gave us a little backstory, establishing that she was an orphan raised by the Chozo, and she worked a bounty hunter not out of love of money but because it was the only way to fight the pirates while remaining independent of the incompetent Galactic Federation. Nintendo ended up embracing that in future material. Fusion characterized her heavily, driving home that she couldn't stand following orders. She listened to the AI Adam for a while because it was a stipulation for getting a new ship, but when she thought the computer's orders were stupid she ignored them. She felt fear (a deep dread, actually) but didn't let it slow her down. And she could be introspective, talking about how she kept being reborn. The manga elaborated her personality and background some more, detailing her upbringing with the Chozo and history with Mother Brain (her "step-sister") and the manga was at least loosely canon since it got scenes referencing it in Fusion and Zero Mission. The Prime games used excellent use of body language to portray her as someone that tried to keep her emotions from showing, with relatively subtle (but VERY clearly intentional) body language being what let us know she was feeling grief and rage. If you want to debate how much personality was there, or if it was good, fine. That's a matter of taste and opinion. Saying that she had no personality at though? That's just something we can prove is untrue.

If you wish to complain about Other M, you have come to the wrong thread.

No, this is the right thread all right. Sexualizing Samus by making her shorter, "prettier" (right down to a beauty mark), more frivolous and impractical (high heels) goes hand in hand with turning her into a damsel in distress. It was not a coincidence that Samus was written the worst she's ever been in the game that sexualized her more than ever and gave us the high heels and beauty mark.

Nintendo has done the proper thing when it comes to making the Zero Suit more commonly used

The proper thing would be to not make it more commonly used.

 

[Lilani]

If you wish to complain about Other M, you have come to the wrong thread. For most here, the main strategy is to ignore Other M, and I choose to do the same. (Although, to be fair, I can draw a few parallels between Fusion and Other M.)

I beg your pardon? If we're going to talk about Samus' agency as a character, I'm afraid we're going to have to talk about Other M. It happened, it exists, and Nintendo has only been building on its mistakes since then. You were just talking about Samus' character development in other games in your previous post, you can't just ignore the Other M because it's an example of negative character development.

I, too, was uncomfortable with the gratuitous Zero Suit when it was first introduced - in 2004 - but it made sense then, as it suggested vulnerability, and so fit with the narrative. And so far, Nintendo has done the proper thing when it comes to making the Zero Suit more commonly used - that is to say, make it look more like an actual garment.

But AGAIN, if they wanted to make Samus appear vulnerable there are a million ways they could have done so without making a catsuit. Look at what FemShep wears when she isn't in her space suit in Mass Effect. Yes it's skin tight in some areas, sometimes many, but there are other things built into it that make it more utilitarian than gratuitous. Her boobs aren't given needless individual cups, there are pockets and other such handy things, and it is looser in some spots to make it practical and not so uncomfortable. There's a fine line between "vulnerable" and "needlessly gratuitous," and the Zero Suit crossed that line for no reason at all and at the expense of Samus' previously established character traits.

Again, we all hate Other M, but if you want to come here and complain about it some more, you are barking up the wrong tree, missy.

And if you're going to opt to ignore Other M because it debunks everything you THINK has happened with Samus in her recent history, then I see no point in furthering this discussion. I don't know what sort of discussion you think you walked into, but I'll damned before I let you just shove under the rug the things you can't think of excuses for.

And to discuss something you wrote to someone else for a moment, no, Nintendo DIDN'T try to hide the "sexiness" of the high heels. If they didn't want Samus to appear to be wearing heels, they would have not stuck her in heels. They would have just given her rocket boots. But they did give her heels, because they're more interested in giving her "girly" accessories than giving her practical ones. Fuck's sake, just look at the position of her ankles in those things. They'll snap like a twig if she lands on those wrong. Samus was established as a bounty hunter who uses only practical weapons and tools which do not sacrifice utility or safety for elegance or aesthetics. All of that has gone out the window with those ridiculous heels.

 

[JediMB]

No, it WAS Peach. In Super Mario 1, 2, and 3, she had brown hair. She even had brown hair in the tv show, for crying out loud.

Well, in SMB1 she was a redhead. In SMB2 she used her Doki Doki Panic equivalent's palette, and then the American cartoons and SMB3 apparently used that as the basis for their designs.

That said, she was blonde in the 1986 anime, which predates SMB2 by two years and the Super Show by three.

EDIT: And apparently promotional material connected to SMB1 had her with her now-iconic pink dress and blonde hair, for what it's worth.

 

[JediMB]

In Metroid Zero mission some of the endings actually show her in non combat situations (walking through a city, hanging out in a bar, etc) and she is still wearing skin tight clothing, only now it is short shorts and a midriff exposing top. Apparently she just like dressing that way, at least according to Zero Mission.

I will agree that removing the armor was incredibly stupid, though I do give Zero Mission credit for having a mandatory stealth section in an action game that is actually entertaining.

To me, Zero Mission really was the game where the franchise started heading in the wrong direction. I'll admit I enjoyed the Zero Suit stealth section of the game (it was quite thrilling), but it didn't take long before I grew to resent the game. Everything from the way they designed the intentional sequence breaking to the extra story, the Zero Suit and the way Samus was portrayed in the game's unlockable artwork... it just rubbed me the wrong way.

 

[otakon17]

Although amusing to watch people try to justify Nintendo's tendency to create convoluted means to strip Samus of her armour and have her parade around in a leotard as anything but desperate pandering, I much prefer to bury my head in the sand and pretend anything outside of Super Metroid, Fusion and the Prime trilogy as non-canon.

For me Samus is a 6'3 muscular blonde amazon in power-armour.

You. I like you. You speak with sense.

 

[DrOswald]

Although amusing to watch people try to justify Nintendo's tendency to create convoluted means to strip Samus of her armour and have her parade around in a leotard as anything but desperate pandering, I much prefer to bury my head in the sand and pretend anything outside of Super Metroid, Fusion and the Prime trilogy as non-canon.

For me Samus is a 6'3 muscular blonde amazon in power-armour.

Well, you can believe that, I am all for headcanon if it makes the game more enjoyable for you, but Samus has never been depicted as a muscular blonde amazon. There is that one piece of concept art connected to Super Metroid (which doesn't even make her look very muscular) but in the actual game she is a stick figure. This is also true in the Prime series and Fusion. And Samus has retained her height throughout the changes made to her (the guys who made Other M messed it up, but they messed everything up. They made Ridley a pokemon, for example.) Thats why she was used to point out how small Little Mac is - she is the tallest humanoid character on the Smash Bros roster.

In Metroid Zero mission some of the endings actually show her in non combat situations (walking through a city, hanging out in a bar, etc) and she is still wearing skin tight clothing, only now it is short shorts and a midriff exposing top. Apparently she just like dressing that way, at least according to Zero Mission.

I will agree that removing the armor was incredibly stupid, though I do give Zero Mission credit for having a mandatory stealth section in an action game that is actually entertaining.

To me, Zero Mission really was the game where the franchise started heading in the wrong direction. I'll admit I enjoyed the Zero Suit stealth section of the game (it was quite thrilling), but it didn't take long before I grew to resent the game. Everything from the way they designed the intentional sequence breaking to the extra story, the Zero Suit and the way Samus was portrayed in the game's unlockable artwork... it just rubbed me the wrong way.

Fair enough.

 

[Lilani]

Or, for that matter, why not change Mario's character-design to look less cartoonish and more appealing for women and gay men? They could portray him as a hunky guy whose shirt disappears when he uses his firepowers or something.

Now there's an idea. Let's see...fire flower burns off his shirt and shoes, when he's small he's just a slim but still moderately toned guy, when he eats the mushroom to become big he becomes a muscular hunk with the pants a bit tighter around the ass and the first few buttons of his shirt pop open, the feather gives him a skin tight suit and cape, the leaf gives him a loincloth and racoon tail, the tanooki suit is the same idea but with pants and the top has a deep open V that goes from the top to well below the navel...oh and he strips down to a speedo when he goes underwater.

 

[Matthew Jabour]

Or, for that matter, why not change Mario's character-design to look less cartoonish and more appealing for women and gay men? They could portray him as a hunky guy whose shirt disappears when he uses his firepowers or something.

Now there's an idea. Let's see...fire flower burns off his shirt and shoes, when he's small he's just a slim but still moderately toned guy, when he eats the mushroom to become big he becomes a muscular hunk with the pants a bit tighter around the ass and the first few buttons of his shirt pop open, the feather gives him a skin tight suit and cape, the leaf gives him a loincloth and racoon tail, the tanooki suit is the same idea but with pants and the top has a deep open V that goes from the top to well below the navel...oh and he strips down to a speedo when he goes underwater.

Whoa, this thread is getting steamy.

 

[JediMB]

Well, you can believe that, I am all for headcanon if it makes the game more enjoyable for you, but Samus has never been depicted as a muscular blonde amazon.

To me, the sprite used at the end of Super Metroid looks quite toned, and I've always interpreted the pattern visible on her belly there as visible abs.

 

[DrOswald]

Well, you can believe that, I am all for headcanon if it makes the game more enjoyable for you, but Samus has never been depicted as a muscular blonde amazon.

To me, the sprite used at the end of Super Metroid looks quite toned, and I've always interpreted the pattern visible on her belly there as visible abs.

To me it looks like she works out, not like a buff amazon. Toned maybe, but hardly amazon muscled. And she is super thin, her waist is about the same thickness as her head. In that image she is about 109 pixels tall (I cut off some for hair and booth thickness) and her waist is 10 pixels across. If she is 6'3 that means her waist is less than 7 inches across, making her waist measurement about 20-22 inches or less. She is 6'3 with the ideal waist size of a woman 4'9. She's over 6 feet tall and wears a double extra small. She's a stick figure.

 

[Lilani]

Somebody should make fanart of what you just described for Mario.

I'm sure it probably already exists...I'm just afraid to go looking for it

Whoa, this thread is getting steamy.

Well if you aren't going to discuss things which are pertinent to your thread, we have no choice but to derail it ;-P

 

[ensouls]

Goddamn those heels are ugly. They could have gone with 'looks cool, is functional' or 'looks sexy, are high heels' and somehow ended up with neither.

 

[Comic Sans]

I really do enjoy how up in arms people are getting over this. What's wrong with a character being attractive and kicking ass? She isn't in skimpy clothes, her bust isn't over the top, she's not posing provocatively, so I don't see this whole hullabaloo about sexualization. The heels don't strike me as sexual, they seem more stylized. Why does being a strong woman mean not being feminine? They aren't mutually exclusive. Yes, companies often make hot skimpy women to entice men, but I'm not really getting that here, at least not enough to get up in arms about it.

I also don't understand all this "character ruining" accusations thing, like her character is being assassinated. She never really HAD a character. Outside of small snippets with the computer in Fusion and the awful Other M, she almost never actually had anything to say. You were just alone going through the motions of gameplay. Most people seem to ascribe her as some sort of strong solitary warrior woman because of this. This isn't something that's established by the games as far as I'm aware, it's stuff people have inferred. Given how little we actually know about Samus as a person, I don't see how her being an attractive woman who fights in high tech heels is somehow going against the character. It might be a little silly, but it's fucking SMASH BROTHERS. I don't play those for canon, I play them to watch Pikachu knock Bowser miles away with a giant hammer before being pildrived by Kirby. Complaining that any character is being abused is absolutely ridiculous and taking the premise way too seriously.