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[Nekofrog]

It isnt an issue...but it also shouldnt be a thing for no reason. There is nothing wrong with Samus a white woman...but it would be kickass if Nintendo could introduce new black characters down the line. "Killing" a established portrait of a charchters isnt necessary. Same for Link being a girl....when the series already has strong female characters that could be Heroes of their own games.

You seeing it as "for no reason" says a lot more about you than you might realize.

 

[BajiBoxer]

It's a franchise without continuity. Don't see a problem with the idea.

Edit: Though if they wanted to build up a Prime universe or something, a new character would be pretty cool.

 

[King_Moc]

I mean, it wouldn't matter too much, but it would just be weird that she changed skin colour. Wouldn't it make more sense to do a new ip?

 

[13ruce]

jesus christ. why did I even open this thread.
i don't usually do this, but...

fucking nintendo fans

Nice generalisation there since i also own other brand game consoles playstation, xbox and a pc. So i must be a Nintendo fan one and only lol.

Anyway i am not even against this idea if the original creator of a character or the devs want to change a character design be it skin colour hair colour or whatever i will always respect that and be fine with it since it's their creation.

I remember when Virtua Fighter 5 came out alot of people complained about a character being made less darker skinned. I doubt those got attacked like established character supporters.

Anyway my opinion on this whole changing design of old established characters is that they should atleast announce it and explain in short why. I would totally not mind if they changed Samus or another video game character to whatever skin colour or other features and said we thought this design change fit's better with our current vision. And a small sentence like that is enough imo to explain a big design change of a long established character. People will complain just like Virtua 5 but that's understandable imo because people are used or love the established look/design it does not make them racists/xenophobic or crazy.


Tl:dr not just a Nintendo fan lol and i don't mind video game character design changes if the creators support it/want to change it themselves with a small explanation if it is a old established character but if recent no need for it (5 or 10+ years old for established imo).

And one last thing where i agree with and have always been for is more non white Nintendo characters. Especially newly created ones but if they made a excisting one different with a small sentence of why well why the heck not.

 

[BRSxIgnition]

I mean, I'm all for representation, but there are better games to do it in than Metroid, where you see the protagonist for all of 30 seconds during the beginning and end of the Prime games, or when the visor shows her reflection.

 

[kunonabi]

Okay the idea is stupid...but i wouldnt go THAT far to drop the whole series because of it.

I pretty much dropped the series after prime until other m so it's not like i havent done it before.

 

[cw_sasuke]

There shouldn't have to be a reason for black Samus other than the creators chose to make her black. Same goes for any other established character in fiction.

Obv - just not a fan of it tbh. Doesnt mean i couldnt come around after a while, if its a kickass design.

You seeing it as "for no reason" says a lot more about you than you might realize.

Care to explain ?

 

[Synless]

Why limit it to just black? Why not Hispanic, middle eastern, or of Latin descent?

 

[Kreed]

Say a future Metroid game is marketed as a reboot, and at the end, Seamus Samus removes her helmet revealing she's a black woman. How would that make you feel?

What if she were a different character with Chico Chozo armor, and never outright named throughout the game?

EDIT: definition added because term is not universally understood the same way

I like the fact that you're asking posters to react to a hypothetical game that already exists after they finished it and got to the ending, whereas (not surprisingly) most people are responding as to whether they would want this game to exist or not.

Responding to your scenario, my reaction would probably be "Oh shit!" and I'd load up what ever Metroid Spoiler thread has been made on GAF to read the reactions along with a Twitter search.

Responding in line with how many people in the thread are, I would rather Nintendo introduce a new Black character to Metroid in the main character role with Samus still existing in the narrative (maybe also playable with a different ability set).

 

[RootCause]

samus aran is dead & was replaced by a look alike: a conspiracy theory thread

That's what I tell myself from now on.

 

[Tye The Czar]

Spoiler

...how much new Hentai are we talking here?

Personally I would have no problem but knowing gamers and the internet, it will be Gamersgate ep.2

Just to avoid confusion, Gamers Gate is a gaming store that existed years before GamerGate and has nothing to do with the said anti-tolerance movement.

 

[Indelible]

I would have no problem with it but why not just create a new black heroine instead of changing one that has been portrayed a certain way for decades.

 

[momshotdad]

First off, who cares.

Second off, why would Nintendo change the ethnicity of their character they've had since th 80's? Doesn't make sense.

 

[JusDoIt]

Ecstatic.

 

[Puru]

What if she removed her mask and it's revealed it was a man all along?
As for op question i wouldn't give a shit. Like really, it's completely pointless to me, it won't affect my experience with what really matters with the game, being fun. Also that would mean there was one more metroid game, hurray.

 

[Slayven]

Why is it called pandering when it isn't anything but white, male and straight?

And if it is pandering why is it a negative?

The media isn't going to leave white, male, and straight out

 

[mantidor]

Nintendo already ruined Samus outside armor with the nonsense fanservice of Zero Mission's design so a black Samus would be an improvement as long as they drop in the trash all the crappiness that zero suit Samus is.

Basically it's kind of irrelevant at this point, specially after the murder of her character in Other M.

 

[BajiBoxer]

Just to avoid confusion, Gamers Gate is a gaming store that existed years before GamerGate and has nothing to do with the said anti-tolerance movement.

I remember when this first happened thinking, "What the hell could Gamers Gate have possibly done to piss everyone off?" Such an unfortunate circumstance with a prolific hate group choosing the name they did.

 

[FunkyDealer]

As long as it's a reboot or successor to the name, I'd be all for it!

 

[L Thammy]

I never really cared for Metroid, so I'd default to disinterest unless the gameplay was different. I'd approve of the effort to diversify their characters but I'd have to see the character to know what I think of them. "Black Samus" doesn't tell me enough.

 

[Team Filler]

I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I'd prefer they instead make a new lead character for the player. That way they could expand the kinds of world-building and stories not possible within current canon for Samus while still allowing for the possibility connect to that world (i.e. Not-Samus wouldn't have to be an orphan raised by Chozos, stuff like that).

Either way would work just fine for me, but I think a new character gives more freedom to be creative with what they do.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Don't care as long as the game is good.

 

[Regiruler]

It's a franchise without continuity. Don't see a problem with the idea.

Edit: Though if they wanted to build up a Prime universe or something, a new character would be pretty cool.

There's a very distinct continuity, even discounting Prime. Fusion and Other M play into each other.

 

[mavo]

It's a franchise without continuity. Don't see a problem with the idea.

Edit: Though if they wanted to build up a Prime universe or something, a new character would be pretty cool.

Metroid is a franchise with continuity, thats why the OP clearly states black samus on a Metroid reboot.

 

[A Link to the Past]

Yeah, let's play semantics, again, you're being as obtuse as you can to dance around the absurdity of the idea. Diverse characters are perfectly fine, but changing an existing character just for the sake of diversity is not only lazy, but it's disrespectful to the original intent of the design of the character.

People like fictional characters...what's the harm in this? Who are you to judge that this is silly or wrong?

Were the designers disrespecting the original intent when they gave Samus a mole?

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Even though I much prefer the more muscular look: People can have changing physical condition (and Samus would probably still be considered athletic by most if she was real human being) and dye their hair all the time. Painting their skin black or white is something people seldomly do.

lol, sure, people turn from 6', heavily muscular people into super-skinny petite ladies all the time

Right

Disrespectful to the original intent of a character that was shown in underwear for performing well in a game.

Hahaha

Disrespectful to the design that they've tailored and worked over for 30 years.

Why do you keep ignoring the fact that the petite blonde doll design was not, in fact, her original design?

Don't the "reward" pics at the of the earlier metroid games sorta contradict this? I mean samus's design just plain hasn't been consistent across games until after Zero mission largely.

Yeah, that's kind of my point. Which is why a new Samus design could certainly change her race and I wouldn't be bothered at all.

 

[Yoshi]

Devil's advocate point:

Saying she is purple is just as arbitrary as wanting her to be black or asian or whatever else. I don't see why purple is not her color (like she was on the nes). Its not pinkish like white people. Why does she have to look like an earth human at all? I mean she lives in space. Race is a social construct as we all evolved from the same region. The idea that we don't continue to adapt to our surroundings in generations is absurd.

Race seems to be really important to some people. Perhaps when your parents are more than one race you tend to not give a shit about race as an identity. That's just my experience.

But on NES purple is also not her colour, it's her suit's colour.

 

[JusDoIt]

After this post, only Black Samus or Purple Skin/Green Hair Samus are canon.

 

[Lunafreya Nox Fleuret]

Why would anyone be against a black Samus? Dark Samus is awesome.

 

[Professor Renegade]

Wouldn't be bothered one way or the other. Though to make a change like that to a long established character would probably make a lot of diehard fans butthurt.

 

[mavo]

Were the designers disrespecting the original intent when they gave Samus a mole?

You said it jokingly but people that think the mole is an outrageous change do exist.

 

[HiiiLife]

Why would anyone be against a black Samus? Dark Samus is awesome.

It's disrespectful to the franchise ofc

 

[mentallyinept]

It would make sense in the story if she was a Samus descendant also named Samus, who inherited her armor...

Edit: Kinda like Green Lantern.

 

[george_us]

Nah man. I would only be comfortable if there were, like, a good story reason for Samus to be black. That's the only way minority characters can exist, you know.

 

[A Link to the Past]

Here in Holland "Afro Amerikaans" is a widely used term, as is the more generic "negroïde" when referring to color of skin in official papers and other media.



So quantity of a problem matters now?

...Yes?

Changing the race of a character from black to white is only a bad thing in a society that underrepresents black people in media.

Unless you think white people are underrepresented, there's no comparison.

You said it jokingly but people that think the mole is an outrageous change do exist.

I actually don't joke, I hate the mole. :v It's an addition meant to make her more sexually appealing. Ultimately, the point is that Samus' original designs is clearly not sacred, so a better argument than that is necessary.

 

[rackham]

it's dumb. changing established characters for the sake of diversity is dumb. Make new characters and new experiences. Samus is recognizable. Put the same effort into a new character.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Metroid is a franchise with continuity, thats why the OP clearly states black samus on a Metroid reboot.

I misread that....okay if its a Reboot it doesnt really matter they can go all out on a new design. Thought we were talking about a potential Prime 4 or something along the lines and they just changed her character for Headlines.

But still i would rather have new interesting charachters...Young Guns at Nintendo working on new IPs right now - lets hope the Zelda team or someone can deliver something new featuring some kickass new Heroines.

 

[Opa-Pa]

I'd love it. Just erase the zero suit from existence while you're at it. Last thing we need is a dark skinned female character that happens so be way more sexualized than lighter skinned ones...

Also why not just say dark skinned instead? Feels like making stuff unnecessarily confusing, but regardless, I'd like her just the same whether she's brown or "black black".

Come to think of it, having one of the most iconic examples of strong female characters in the medium be white and blonde is kinda disappointing, even if I like Samus a lot.

 

[Yoshi]

lol, sure, people turn from 6', heavily muscular people into super-skinny petite ladies all the time

Right


Hahaha.

I cannot judge her size in either game, but yes, she went from "heavily" muscular to toned-skinny. I certainly do not appreciate it (dark reason: I find her more attractive in her Super Metroid incarnation) but it's not like muscle mass is completely self-preservatory.

 

[true Gek]

For me, it's the same.

Black, White, Latino, Asian, Middle-east, Indian... I'm ok with everything until "Samus Aran" remain a woman.

 

[Lupin3]

I don't see the point? Samus is Samus, no?

 

[Olly88]

I'd find it a bit odd.

 

[Mango The Magician]

Were the designers disrespecting the original intent when they gave Samus a mole?

No, not really. A mole is slight addendum to the design done with a purpose, a change in race is a completely upending change reboot or not.

Why do you keep ignoring the fact that the petite blonde doll design was not, in fact, her original design?
.

I'm not, I'm just not oblivious to the fact that the petite blonde is the evolution of the original design to make it more "modern." Which if a far far far cry different then changing her race.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

Nice generalisation there since i also own other brand game consoles playstation, xbox and a pc. So i must be a Nintendo fan one and only lol.

Anyway i am not even against this idea if the original creator of a character or the devs want to change a character design be it skin colour hair colour or whatever i will always respect that and be fine with it since it's their creation.

I remember when Virtua Fighter 5 came out alot of people complained about a character being made less darker skinned. I doubt those got attacked like established character supporters.

Anyway my opinion on this whole changing design of old established characters is that they should atleast announce it and explain in short why. I would totally not mind if they changed Samus or another video game character to whatever skin colour or other features and said we thought this design change fit's better with our current vision. And a small sentence like that is enough imo to explain a big design change of a long established character. People will complain just like Virtua 5 but that's understandable imo because people are used or love the established look/design it does not make them racists/xenophobic or crazy.


Tl:dr not just a Nintendo fan lol and i don't mind video game character design changes if the creators support it/want to change it themselves with a small explanation if it is a old established character but if recent no need for it (5 or 10+ years old for established imo).

And one last thing where i agree with and have always been for is more non white Nintendo characters. Especially newly created ones but if they made a excisting one different with a small sentence of why well why the heck not.

Sorry for that. I feel ya, honestly.

I just took umbrage to that quote because in this case I saw it as someone taking Zelda's lore more seriously than Nintendo would in their place.

Zelda must be white because Hylia's white? Nevermind that Hylia is usually depicted through unpainted statues or illustrations that mostly shadow her out. Reincarnation is reincarnation, not cloning. It ain't like Ganondorf's got scales for skin like Demise.

A dark-skinned Zelda wouldn't be strange on its own merit. Very few people would sit there and say to themselves, "...but Hylia is white!"

but moreover, it's easy to disregard that because she can be a reincarnation of Hylia and still have a black mom or dark-skinned ancestors. Shit ain't mutually exclusive even if Hylia did choose white skin when she took mortal form like ten thousand years ago.

 

[freethoughtbubble]

I think I'm really open to the idea because I think the series should be rebooted anyway. The folks expecting a continuation of Metroid Fusion are crazy. It's never going to happen because nobody but hardcore Metroid fans (a population not large enough to justify catering exclusively to) are the only people who actually care about what happens next in the main continuity. Not that Nintendo is interested in pursuing that thread after they wrote themselves into such a bleak corner.

Metroid needs to be re-imagined and reintroduced to a modern audience. If the universe is getting rebooted anyway, why not a dramatically different Samus to go along with it? God knows Nintendo has enough blonde blue-eyed heroines in their roster...

 

[-Mutsukki-]

I'd rather have a new character honestly.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

Stopped right here. You do know this is horseshit right? That the movie was targeted from the get and even the media didn't know how to handle it?

There's a group that doesn't like change and they already represent the status quo.

The fact that people hated the idea from the get go clearly shows that a lot of people didn't want it in the first place. Throw in the fact that most people didn't think it was very good even without some past biases towards the franchise and it's not surprising that it didn't do well.

Why is it called pandering when it isn't anything but white, male and straight?

And if it is pandering why is it a negative?

The media isn't going to leave white, male, and straight out

Honestly, I don't see how you could see randomly changing a characters race as anything but pandering. It's the cheapest and most hollow way to try to diversify. It takes almost no thought or effort and comes off like a marketing ploy isntead of an ernest attempt to try and represent other groups of people.

It doesn't really matter to me either way because I'm not effected by the fact that there is a lack of people who look like me within any given medium. And the idea of a black Samus wouldn't put me off a new Metroid game at all. But it baffles me that POC don't see what is essentially a pallet swap as the cheapest most half hearted way to represent them.

 

[A Link to the Past]

No, not really. A mole is slight addendum to the design done with a purpose, a change in race is a completely upending change reboot or not.

I'm not, I'm just not oblivious to the fact that the petite blonde is the evolution of the original design to make it more "modern." Which if a far far far cry different then changing her race.

But a change of race doesn't really have to do anything of the sort. She could have the same origin story and same personality, black or white.

 

[Gnome Scat]

thanks for the definition you saved me a google search

 

[mavo]

...Yes?

Changing the race of a character from black to white is only a bad thing in a society that underrepresents black people in media.

Unless you think white people are underrepresented, there's no comparison.



I actually don't joke, I hate the mole. :v It's an addition meant to make her more sexually appealing. Ultimately, the point is that Samus' original designs is clearly not sacred, so a better argument than that is necessary.

Oh then idk what to tell you, i like the mole, Cindy Crawford-esque (obviously), and i do think is to make her more attractive - not necesarely sexualy - just like everyone makes attractive characters.

i mean they would make the hypothetical black samus super attractive and hot, 0 doubts about that.