Let's Discuss: Is Metroid's Samus Aran Transgender?

Back in September, 2015 an article on The Mary Sue caused some controversy in the gaming community. The article is by Brianna Wu and Ellen McGrody and the title is: “Metroid’s Samus Aran is a Transgender Woman. Deal With It.” Let’s just say that some in the gaming community did not respond well to this.

Article for reference: http://www.themarysue.com/metroids-samus-aran-transgender-woman/

Disclaimer: I am going to share my personal views on this, and I in no way represent Nintendo, Hirofumi Matsuoka, or the gaming community as a whole. I also happen to be a white cisgender male, which from what I have been told by default makes me king of the privileged people, and/or the worst of the worst depending on your point of view.

I want to start off by saying that Brianna and Ellen have brought up some interesting points. They have made true and factual claims about the representation of the trans community in video games, as well as minority women in video games. I absolutely agree there should be more female and non-white main characters in video games.

Of course, we need to bring up gender and sexual identity. Right now I feel pretty confident in saying there is a level of fear when it comes to the LGBT community and in general how sex is viewed in video games, especially in the United States. The young white male seems to have a fear that in by accepting or identifying with a LGBT character, or heck even a cisgender female character they have somehow reduced their own masculinity and/or will begin to question their own identity.

That is an issue that I think will only be sorted out over time though. I think it is important that parents and peers educate their children, friends, co-workers, etc. that there is in fact nothing wrong with playing a female character in a video game. Liking a LGBT character in a video game will not make you “da ghey” nor will it force you to start wearing a dress and wanting to put on blue eyeshadow. I think if done properly though, it may help show that we have far more in common with each other than we have differences.

Allow me talk about the article now, and how I think the authors overstepped a bit and missed a great opportunity to start a discussion rather than the flame war it had created.

Let me start with the title. It comes across as very definitive and gives the impression that any discussion on this issue is now closed. I also think it is purposefully written that way as click-baiting. It is also coming from people who I don’t identify as an authority on the character or franchise. That doesn’t mean they don’t know about gaming, social issues, etc. I am simply saying had either or both been a writer/developer/producer on a Metroid game or published work, that would carry more weight with me.

Had the article been called: “Could Metroid’s Samus Aran be a Transgender Woman?” or “Let’s discuss sexual identity in video game characters.” I think that could have been the beginning of a very much needed discussion.

The main point that Brianna and Ellen have referred to is a strategy guide that was written for Super Metroid, in which Hirofumi Matsuoka stated that Samus was a “newhalf”. I won’t pretend to know anything about Japanese language or culture here. I do trust in what the Authors have stated in that the term was/is used to describe someone of mixed-origin, and/or someone who is transitioning from one gender to another. The issue I have is how they are interpreting the use of a word that has changed meanings over time from another culture about 30 years ago.

This is where I begin to take issue with how the Authors are presenting this information. From my point of view they are saying “Here is this one soundbite of information from someone who was involved in the creation so that has to be 100% factual and in the context we have decided it should be in. Also, we understand there is no other mention of this anywhere else, just forget all the canon and trust us.”

Here is where the authors could have pointed to that statement and said: “Isn’t this interesting. We found this piece of information in the Japanese strategy guide. Let’s discuss what this could mean.” For instance, since we know Samus isn’t 100% human, is it possible that “newhalf” could be referring not just to someone who is mixed-origin, but what if it meant mixed-species? Samus has Chozo DNA combined with her own after all. Could that be the context that Hirofumi meant? The author’s didn’t explore that. They simply inferred that it had to mean transgendered.

For full disclosure here, I have not played all of the Metroid games. For instance I have not played “Metroid: Other M”, mainly due to how I heard Samus was portrayed as a weak woman needing permission to basically save her own life. I haven’t played all of the handheld system games either. I have not read any books or comics regarding Metroid. To me since I saw Samus take her helmet off in the original NES title I have always thought of her as a strong independant kick-ass woman. Personally I don’t think I even considered her sexual orientation. Probably because it doesn’t really matter, until “Other M” her relationships weren’t really part of the games.

Ahh, now we get to the bile of this discussion. . .

In gaming culture, and even geek culture in general. We like consistency. We like the status-quo. We don’t mind new ideas, new stories, new characters, but if you want to change the preconceived notion of what was, then gamers are going to take issue with it. If you want to publish a new game where the main character is a transgender male for instance. I would like to believe that the community will go along with that idea. On the other hand, if later in a series the idea is introduced that now the transgender male is actually a cisgender female, when there is no reference to it earlier, our community doesn’t take kindly to that.

I am going to use a few examples from Brianna and Ellen’s follow-up article posted the next day. They were trying to equate previous uproar’s to this one and at least from my perspective make it look like the gaming community is just a bunch of whiners. I will be the first to agree with them in that people in our community don’t handle things well and aren’t always the best at communicating in an efficient manner.

http://www.themarysue.com/a-samus-metroid-followup/

Brianna and Ellen make mention to the uproar caused in Mass Effect 3 when Commander Shepard could now have homosexual relations with certain characters. When you cleaned away the bile that was spewing from people's mouths about this, what they took issue with was that this wasn’t an option in previous games, why was it important then in the third game in the series? Why is this option being added now when it was not a concern before?

Let’s take a minute to discuss Dragon Age, another game from developer BioWare. In the first game, you can roleplay your character as straight, gay, or bi-sexual. That’s how it started. That is how it has continued. Now, some still took issue to this, but at least to my recollection, not in the same way. Now I would bet if in the next Dragon Age game they took away the ability to have various romantic relationships, gamers would be foaming at the mouth about it.

They brought up in the Star Wars trailers, there is a black Stormtrooper! I think that example has to do with story context. The prequels showed how the Empire’s army was made of genetic clones of a white-ish male. In the original trilogy I think all of the Empire were white people. Now in this trailer we see a black man in a stormtrooper outfit. Was this another case where movie producers were adding the “Token black person”, what direction were they going in? Now that more information has come out, now that there is context, at least I don’t know of anyone who still takes issue that a black man was in Stormtrooper armor. It’s because Finn isn’t a clone.

I don’t think this is about homo or transphobia, but the authors seem to have painted it that way. Don’t get me wrong, those things are still alive and well much to my dismay. I’m not saying that those phobias don’t exist in the gaming and geek community. I think it’s about not wanting certain things to change. Making absolutist statements about a character that has been around for almost 30 years that may change the way people view that established character doesn’t help address the social issues we all have to face today. There is very little net gain in changing the gender identity of Samus Aran or any other established character.

Instead, let’s focus on creating new characters and stories that reflect the social issues of today. I think that is how we begin to gain acceptance. Not by changing the old, I think there is more to gain by creating something new. Rather than Retcon the established character, introduce a new Transgendered character (who isn’t the antagonist!) and show the established character working along side with them in a positive way.

Let’s work to convince AAA publishers that they should invest millions to have a game where say the main character is a transgender half-asian / half-black girl who wears combat boots and a trench-coat, likes race cars and uses a glitter wand to destroy the evil nightmare teddy bear airships in a steampunk world. If it was done right I would absolutely play that!