I like that power girl redesign.
I do, too. Boob window is ridiculous.
I like that power girl redesign.
I like you.
She's, what, like a 6'3" demi-god at this point, right? I hate how her recent designs take away from how imposing she is. Shit, even in this old image, where you see her under her suit, she looks tough as fuck:
This kind of confused me. The way to empower a woman character is to give her masculine features? It doesn't really highlight what it is to be a strong woman. Maybe I'm off key and don't understand what a strong woman is supposed to be in a video game setting.Speaking of, Overwatch just debuted two new characters, one of them being Zarya:
Mix of unconventional body, pretty face, and boob armor...progress?
Here is your "reward" for beating zero mission under 200 hours...I think the whole idea, in the relatively short section of Zero Mission where you had to use her without armor, was literally the same as any other game where you're forced to sneak where your character is helpless and without their normal gear...in Samus' case that usually still has her in a highly powerful suit, but simply with her normal arm canon. They just decided to take it a step further. I being 100% honest and geuine in my belief that it had very little if anything to do with being fanservice and showing off Samus' body
In Other M, you probably have a point, but in Zero Mission it didn't come off that way at all
Here is your "reward" for beating zero mission under 200 hours...
Here is your "reward" for beating zero mission under 200 hours...
This kind of confused me. The way to empower a woman character is to give her masculine features? It doesn't really highlight what it is to be a strong woman. Maybe I'm off key and don't understand what a strong woman is supposed to be in a video game setting.
One out of 6 ending images, that one not even being for the highest completion.
http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Metroid_endings
Speaking of, Overwatch just debuted two new characters, one of them being Zarya:
Mix of unconventional body, pretty face, and boob armor...progress?
This kind of confused me. The way to empower a woman character is to give her masculine features? It doesn't really highlight what it is to be a strong woman. Maybe I'm off key and don't understand what a strong woman is supposed to be in a video game setting.
I guess I get caught up on what I generally think defines strong women. To me, it's a lot more nuanced than creating a masculine character. Want a man to be powerful? Make his muscles bigger. I like to use 300 as an example of this.I don't see it that way. If anything, it looks like function was a concern in the design. Rare, I know.
The character's femininity is clearly shown, just look at her face, and hair. She's ripped though, as judging by that image, she's a heavy gunner. It would look silly if someone with a skinny build was effortlessly holding a weapon that size. Character design shouldn't just be what looks pretty, but what suits the character.
I actually like it.
This kind of confused me. The way to empower a woman character is to give her masculine features? It doesn't really highlight what it is to be a strong woman. Maybe I'm off key and don't understand what a strong woman is supposed to be in a video game setting.
The way to empower women is to show a variety of body types and that having lots of muscles doesn't make you masculine or less of a woman. There are different types of strong women, and there's not only one way to be empowering. So show lots of different shaped women.
One out of 6 ending images, that one not even being for the highest completion.
http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Metroid_endings
Like I said, I get it. It doesn't have to be skin tight and I won't even argue that that's all about fanservice, but the idea Samus' physique is some sort of anomaly among built women or that the zero suit sections in the game were to show off Samus' body are not points I can agree with
I agree with this.The way to empower women is to show a variety of body types and that having lots of muscles doesn't make you masculine or less of a woman. There are different types of strong women, and there's not only one way to be empowering. So show lots of different shaped women.
I quite like the Samus / Zero Suit design in the OP, particularly as some have described - as if it were some sort of intermediary outfit or ZS with some extra plating / utility, or even just as a flight suit before changing into a full Chozo thing for planet exploration and the vacuum of space.
But the above kind of reasoning is neither here nor there. It's a futuristic, fantasy setting. Like W40k Space Marines, who're barely human and essentially wired naked into their armour to make it a second skin. Samus, in a (basically magical) suit given to her by ancient bird-people in space, can roll into balls and fart bombs. Of course, none of this requires her appearance within the suit to be some sexualised, fanservice-y thing, but to cite historical and contemporary armours and astronaut-wear as something that need be conformed to in some way within a series like Metroid is a fairly poor argument.
Looking through that link, it seems that Samus has always had skintight/shorts and a top out of armor. Which makes the hate for the ZSS even more weird, seeing as how she's ALWAYS represented like that when she's not wearing a top/bottom.
Edit-Also yesterday I was having a conversation with someone who thought it was stupid that The Boss went into war being pregnant, and this person proves that you can be pregnant and fit.
I see this excuse a lot for things in videogames and movies/tv (especially for scifi) and for me it just doesn't hold water. The way I see it is that the closer you get to presenting a logical true to the world (and ours) design the better the world the artists created will be. Basically, it's easier to get behind arm cannons, "fart" bombs, and a suit that can turn into a ball if the rest of it makes sense.
The Zss doesn't make sense as its functionally useless and Samus doesn't seem like the kind of character to bother with something that doesn't get the job done. All this leads me to the conclusion that it was thrown in as fan service and it does not feel true to even her world, not to mention ours.
Until you get to Red Sonja. Conan looks like this.
There is NO REASON why Red Sonja would be wearing a full set of armor in any Conan story. Everybody in Conan wears loincloths. Hell, even most of the women running around in Conan don't have tops on. So that makes no sense, and forcing modern designs on the franchise would be against the entire spirit.
The Zss doesn't make sense as its functionally useless and Samus doesn't seem like the kind of character to bother with something that doesn't get the job done. All this leads me to the conclusion that it was thrown in as fan service and it does not feel true to even her world, not to mention ours.
I notice in this thread that people are, mistakenly, thinking that there's any level of "focus" on her Zero suit, aside from her appearance being an end of game trophy for completing the game well. They think that because she is included in Smash as a character, despite the overwhelming focus that the game has on her armored self, that somehow just being included in an all start smashup makes Metroid about her Zero Suit now. Which is flat out false.
Which is itself a bit sexist, but at this point it's more for series tradition than anything.
EDIT:
Do you expect your underwear to do anything except provide a layer between you and your clothes?
Yeah, if only Samus had an alternative, much more functional suit that can carry ammo, povides armor against attacks, lava and other dangerous envionments, gives her additional strength, can morph into a ball for increased mobility, shoot rockets and laser beams, place bombs and all that jazz. Even has place for a hookshot!
I bet she'd wear that 99% of the time. Maybe even have it fused to her body.
I agree with this.
Samus's official design is being railed so hard against because on the list of body types, she falls on the far edges of the bell curve. Then it doesn't seem fair to me that Zarya is being praised as a breath of fresh air when she's way over on the opposite side of the bell curve. This is where my disconnect is coming from.
I see this excuse a lot for things in videogames and movies/tv (especially for scifi) and for me it just doesn't hold water. The way I see it is that the closer you get to presenting a logical true to the world (and ours) design the better the world the artists created will be. Basically, it's easier to get behind arm cannons, "fart" bombs, and a suit that can turn into a ball if the rest of it makes sense.
The Zss doesn't make sense as its functionally useless and Samus doesn't seem like the kind of character to bother with something that doesn't get the job done. All this leads me to the conclusion that it was thrown in as fan service and it does not feel true to even her world, not to mention ours.
As someone posted in this thread before, it's more comparable to what an astronauts wear under their suits.Last time I put on some armor I wore a uniform with ton of function underneath, then I wore my underwear. Guess what, so did the females soldiers I served with, none of them were wearing silly painted on tight "underwear" because they were there to do a job not title men watching the do said job.
Edit:
Seems like the kind of person that wouldn't get caught in a dangerous situation with nothing but her underwear huh.
Seems like the kind of person that wouldn't get caught in a dangerous situation with nothing but her underwear huh.
Last time I put on some armor I wore a uniform with ton of function underneath, then I wore my underwear. Guess what, so did the females soldiers I served with, none of them were wearing silly painted on tight "underwear" because they were there to do a job not title men watching the do said job.
Maybe the muscles aren't about empowerment?This kind of confused me. The way to empower a woman character is to give her masculine features? It doesn't really highlight what it is to be a strong woman. Maybe I'm off key and don't understand what a strong woman is supposed to be in a video game setting.
I notice in this thread that people are, mistakenly, thinking that there's any level of "focus" on her Zero suit, aside from her appearance being an end of game trophy for completing the game well. They think that because she is included in Smash as a character, despite the overwhelming focus that the game has on her armored self, that somehow just being included in an all start smashup makes Metroid about her Zero Suit now. Which is flat out false.
Which is itself a bit sexist, but at this point it's more for series tradition than anything.
This is how Gail Simone (the current Red Sonja writer) sees it:I mean, you look at Conan, that dude looks threatening. Sonja's clothes probably should exude threat too.
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/55266444606/gail-simone-talks-about-her-red-sonja-hitting-theThe costume, I go back and forth on, a bit. I get why it upsets some people, there’s a long tradition of sexist costumes and bullshit going back to the end of time in comics.
But, I don’t know, to me, it’s a bit like Canary’s fishnets, which I defend forever. To me, it makes some sense for Sonja. She wears what she damn well pleases and couldn’t care less what you think about it.
Conan wears less. The comics versions of Howard’s barbarian characters barely wear clothes at all. Their core concept is freedom, a hatred of being encumbered. They’re barbarians, not knights.
"Some endings may have been inspired by that of Alien and Aliens, films which heavily influenced Metroid. At the end of both films, the female protagonist, Ripley, is scantily clad as she prepares for hyper sleep."
Which is why she doesn't. You're getting hung up on 20 minutes of an emergency situation after her ship crashed in a 5h game, from a series of about 10 games.
And I'm sure you were wearing anything at all comparable to a Varia Suit.
Yeah like...it's only in Smash that her ZS has any sort of actual recognition outside of just being a result screen. And people are putting such a focus on it despite the fact that in Metroid games she's still just wearing her power suit.
When it was first included in Smash, I always saw it sort as a little bonus in terms of characters. Hell, the only way you can start as ZS in the last smash is by holding down a button on the Samus character. (I dunno how it works in the latest Smash). But even in the context of Brawl, it was a part of her character-Her Smash features her firing a HUGE laser that probably overheats her power suit and she has to get out of it, and they probably used one of the latest designs of her being outside the suit to accomplish this.
Putting SUCH focus on the ZS is just weird. It's not her default outfit, it never was.
That's disingenuous, there hasn't been a new metroid for a while, the last one not only had the ZSS in it but also destroyed the characters personality, and the most recent high profile game to have Samus her even more sexualised zero suit form is better than her power armor.
That's disingenuous, there hasn't been a new metroid for a while, the last one not only had the ZSS in it but also destroyed the characters personality, and the most recent high profile game to have Samus her even more sexualised zero suit form is better than her power armor.
She's a seperate selectable character in the new Smash with her own moveset. She's a pretty good character too:
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Zero_Suit_Samus_(SSB4)
Regarding her design the only dumb thing in Smash are the rocket heels. But we've been over the heels many times in this thread so I'm not gonna go into them.
It's kind of weird, they slit up Sheik and Zelda this time around as well. Not saying it's bad since I like all of those characters but they definitely deviated from Brawl in that regard.
It's kind of weird, they slit up Sheik and Zelda this time around as well. Not saying it's bad since I like all of those characters but they definitely deviated from Brawl in that regard.
Smash's fanbase is likely much bigger than Metroid's fanbase. Being a character there counts a lot for recognition. What game do you think justified the existence of the Zamus amiibo? Or was the primary inspiration for Zamus cosplayers?
Last time I put on some armor I wore a uniform with ton of function underneath, then I wore my underwear. Guess what, so did the females soldiers I served with, none of them were wearing silly painted on tight "underwear" because they were there to do a job not title men watching the do said job.
Edit:
Seems like the kind of person that wouldn't get caught in a dangerous situation with nothing but her underwear huh.
Looking through that link, it seems that Samus has always had skintight/shorts and a top out of armor. Which makes the hate for the ZSS even more weird, seeing as how she's ALWAYS represented like that when she's not wearing a top/bottom.
Edit-Also yesterday I was having a conversation with someone who thought it was stupid that The Boss went into war being pregnant, and this person proves that you can be pregnant and fit.
Yeah same here, but I didn't expect the underwear to do anything.
And the ACU's (or whatever you wear, I don't know your branch) are functional because it's the major part of the battle uniform -- it's designed to get you by in the event stuff goes down before you are ready. It's not your underwear, it's part of your combat outfit.
The Zero Suit is her underwear, not just "less" battle gear. It isn't battle gear at all.
Fun fact, in one game Samus had to have her suit surgically removed. It blasting off in Zero Mission was an excuse for a cool stealth segment, leading up to the "Super Metroid" power suit, as an explanation for why the suit changed appearance.
That feels a bit deceptive right there, because Power Suit Samus has always sucked in Smash. They used ZSS as an opportunity to radically alter Samus and make her not suck.
As someone posted in this thread before, it's more comparable to what an astronauts wear under their suits.
I agree that it doesn't have to be super latex tight, but this kind of undersuit makes sense.
Also, was the person actually arguing that you can't be fit and pregnant? I know women who still workout while they're pregnant and they're in great shape. It's entirely possible.
If the argument was "it's horrible for your body to be pregnant while in a combat scenario and would be a huge hindrance", I agree.
I don't myself. She's a character who absolutely could use a redesign, but the execution is bad. It removes the stupid boob window (thank goodness) but it also makes her completely devoid of any iconic look. There are a dozen better ways to redesign her character and still keep her recognizable.I like that power girl redesign.
That's the thing, ACUs are apart of our battle uniform, but it is not our armor, it is what goes underneath. When we take of our helmets and our IOTV we are not in less armor, we are in absolutely no armor, but we are still not in our underwear.
P.S. I love the idea of putting Samus in that position by taking her armor away, but you realize she doesn't need to be in a skin tight "underwear" to make that work, just anything but her armor would put her in the same situation.
Or they could make regular power suit Samus a good character and stop coming up with excuses to make her as naked as possible.
Or they could make regular power suit Samus a good character and stop coming up with excuses to make her as naked as possible.
In the context of Zero Mission, it made sense. It wasn't that she was just chilling in her zero suit and decided to take a stroll. She was attacked while in her suit and it was damaged.
Also I wouldn't call a skintight suit "naked" unless you feel Captain Falcon and Snake were also naked...their suits were as unrealistically tight as Samus'. And then you have a character like Shulk who is flat out in swimming trunks in Smash!
Again, there's a difference between being sexy and being sexualized. Sexy is more about a personal choice and agency versus sexualization, which is more about how OTHERS view you, or that the character was designed in ways to specifically please men.
Wearing workout clothes (sports bra and top) isn't the same as being sexualized. Seeing Samus with less clothes, as a reward, is objectification, if not sexualization. Same goes for the classic rearview "butt and ass" shot that Samus seems to find herself in nowadays with the Zero Suit.
Like I said, with a few tweaks, ZSS is perfectly acceptable to me. It can be a fine line, at times.
Also, was the person actually arguing that you can't be fit and pregnant? I know women who still workout while they're pregnant and they're in great shape. It's entirely possible.
If the argument was "it's horrible for your body to be pregnant while in a combat scenario and would be a huge hindrance", I agree.
First I think swimming trunks Shulk is pretty silly, but it is only a costume variant not a whole separate and better character selection. Second if the situations were reversed and 90% of male characters were cardboard cut out, sexualized objects and then they took snake one of the few great and fully realized male characters and put him in a latex suit perfectly outlining his junk (which btw while both falcon and snake have tight suits on, they are nothing like ZSS) then yes I'd be pissed about it. The reality of the situation, and the context of gaming as a whole points to the opposite being true.