Talk:Samus Aran

Super Metroid Gravity Suit

The new pic of Samus from Palladian - is that the Super Metroid Gravity Suit? Juding by the games I have played, it looks like it... but I can't be positive. --Sparky the Seventh Chaos 23:21, Sep 13, 2004 (UTC)

The screenshot I added appears after the game credits when the player completes Super Metroid, it's not from the game play proper. I assume the character is depicted wearing the complete gear from all levels of the game and since the Gravity Suit is the last suit that you acquire that's probably the one shown here, but I'm not sure. I only picked up a copy of it recently, so I'm not that familiar with it; I happened to be playing the game and searching for information on the web and I noticed that Wikipedia didn't have an image for this article so I added it. - Palladian 03:17, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)

Cool, thanks for confirming that. I was just curious. ^_^ --Sparky the Seventh Chaos 23:31, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)

biography

Out of curiousity, does anyone know what the source for the biography information is?

I wonder too. Folks, please provide sources so we know this isn't someone's fan fiction. I'm going to remove the current biography in a few days (most of it, anyway) if no source can be provided. Fredrik (talk) 00:09, 4 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I do. The metroid e-manga (japanese, search it on google), the NP metroid comic and the old black nintendo player's guide (I have a copy at home, I don't remember the exact title) But it meshes with what I know about samus, it looks good to me.

CyberSkull 02:14, 2004 Oct 28 (UTC)

Good. Could you please add a references section with a list of these works? Fredrik | talk 06:30, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I've read a translation of the E-manga, but I question the validity of certain other points in the biography:

"The Space Pirates, lead by Meta Ridley, built a base above and below the surface of the planet, testing Phazon not only on their own, but also on Metroids. This testing gave birth to Metroid Prime"
- Nowhere in any of the versions of Metroid Prime does it say that the Space Pirates created the creature. Metroid Prime arrived in the meteor that crashed into Tallon IV well before the Space Pirates arrived, according to Chozo lore. According to the creature description, Metroid Prime is the source of Phazon.
"As she seached the colony, she found the hatchling...and Ridley, or more specifically, the seed of Ridley."
- What is "seed" supposed to mean? Ridley's son? I always understood the Super Metroid Ridley to be the true Ridley, repaired from his previous battle on Zebes. He appears to be organic in the game, at least. Then again, I'm not sure about his connection to Mecha Ridley in Zero Mission, or Meta Ridley in Metroid Prime. Anyway, if we don't have clear information on him, then we shouldn't make assumptions and include them in the article.
"Samus made a rapid recovery, but was left permanently infused with the cell structure of the Metroid, the very species she had hunted to extinction. To make up for what had happened, the Federation provided her with one of their newer, faster ships complete with a new AI system"
- The Federation did not provide Samus with a new ship out of pity; it was provided on the conditions that she would destroy the X Parasite and recover their station, and she would have to follow the orders of the Commanding Officer in order to keep the ship.

I haven't played Echoes, so I can't check the information there; could someone else who's familiar with the game check it? --Poiuyt Man ^talk 01:11, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Does anyone know why the chozo lore entries relating to Samus were removed in the PAL version of Metroid Prime?

I know that certain Pirate logs involving the capture of Metroid Prime were removed because they didn't make sense with how you actually find Metroid Prime, so it's likely that the Chozo entries were removed because they were inconsistent with other sources of Samus lore. I think the info gathered from the first North American version of Metroid Prime should be separated from the rest of the biography, with a note explaining its possible inconsistency. --Poiuyt Man ^talk 01:11, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Pronounciation?

I thought is was Sah-muhs Air-en. I heard that's how it was pronounced in the intro that was included in the PAL version of Metroid Prime. --Sparky the Seventh Chaos 01:04, Mar 12, 2005 (UTC)

The pronunciation according to the PAL version of Super Smash Brothers for the N64 and the PAL version of Super Smash Brothers Melee for the Gamecube is SAH-mus. Emphasis on the first syllable with the 'a' pronounced like in father; the 'u' pronounced like in tube. Her last name is still under discussion, but I assume the vowels are pronounced the same as her first with emphasis on the second syllable, Ah-RAHN. --ThatNateGuy 00:17, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The narrator in PAL version of Metroid Prime pronounces the full name as sa-mus @-r@n (in SAMPA) in the end of the game... Though I have heard the eI-r@n pronouncation somewhere as well (maybe it really was that way in the MP intro, as said before; can't check right now)... Though, I don't really care, basically, I think it's pronounced exactly as people would pronounce it. =) --Wwwwolf 17:14, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Height and Weight Question

Height: 1.90 m (6'2") in the suit according to the Metroid II instruction booklet

Weight: 90 kg (198 lbs, 6oz) in the suit according to the Metroid II instruction booklet

The phrase "in the suit" appears in the stats section and this is certainly a valid statement, but I'm not sure that it's necessarily correct. This is the context that that information is taken from.

CYBERNETIC SUIT TECHNICAL SPEC

Samus Aran with Full Equipment

» Helmet

» Oxygen Supply Equipment

» Weapons Hand - Shoots beam or missiles. When the missiles are active, the barrel will be open. The supply of missiles is limited, and it will be necessary to reload. There are many different kinds of beam weapons. The beam that will be fired will depend on which item was last found and equipped.

» High Jump Boots - This increases Samus' Jumping ability tremendously.

» Infrared ray scope - Allows Samus to see, even in the dark.

» Normal Suit

» Left Hand

» Barrier Suit - Becomes enabled when Samus finds the Varia.

Samus Aran - Height: 1m 90cm Weight: 90kg

Samus can wear up to 14 different kinds of items. Make sure to arm her efficiently and make good use of each item obtained.

As you can see, there appears to be a pretty straightforward interpretation of those stats as it's under that particular heading, but on closer inspection I'm not so certain. A 6 ft 2in, 198 lb woman is large and imposing to be sure, but healthy and certainly not unheard of. But if those figures are Samus in her suit, she must weight what, 135 lbs, minimum? So does that mean the entire suit weighs less than 63 pounds? Futuristic alien technology, sure, but that's still pretty light. Anyway, Metroid 2 notwithstanding, is there any other information that addresses this? I'd prefer to just have the statements "Height 1m 90cm" and "Weight: 90kg" with no qualifiers if we're just going from Metroid 2 but I may be the only one who feels this way and if I am, there's obviously no reason to change it.

Well, looking at the context, it sure seems to me like they switched from talking about the suit to talking about Samus herself. --Sparky the Seventh Chaos 01:17, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

I did some more digging that seems to confirm that Samus is just a very big lady. Nintendo may eventually retcon it, but from the Super Metroid strategy guide and Metroid 2 manual, she's over six foot and nearly 200 pounds. Also, even though some places say 6'3" rather than 6'2", I did the calculation from 190 cm on a conversion site and got 6.23 ft, which is why I rounded down. Insomniac By Choice 05:02, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

.23 feet isn't 2.3 inches, it's 2.76 inches. We're talking base 12 here. Thus, rounding up would be more appropriate. Andre (talk) 01:36, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

Ah, good thing one of us has a brain for conversions then. My apologies. Insomniac By Choice 20:48, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Based on the information on the top, I would assume she is wearing the suit. It mentions her arm cannon, and armor. In mp2:e, you can look more closely at all of the upgrades and armor Samus posseses. When you look at the armor, the boots she is wearing have a thick heel, so I would assume that adds a little to the height. Also, It's not like the top of her helmet is pressed to her head. I would guess that there is a gap about an inch or so between her head and the top of the helmet. In the ending movie after you beat MP, she takes off her helmet. Her hair is in a ponytail, which would require having some space for that. Based on this, I would assume she is closer to 6' or even 5'11". I also wonder about her weight. Is that with the power suit or the varia?

If the height and weight do indeed refer to Samus in suit, then it would be Varia. Notice that it says "Samus Aran with Full Equipment", and in Metroid 2 the Varia is the only suit item. --Poiuyt Man ^talk 02:57, 19 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

On the size issue:

Perhaps we shouldn't take the 90kg figure at face value. That guide was published a while ago, and probably was figuring in the suit as part of the weight. Perhaps using picture attained from endings and the definite height figure of 1.9m to estimate using the standard BMI scale by estimating about where she'd be on the scale from 15-40, and using the mathematical operation as indicated in the article to come about the weight, especially since Nintendo hasn't released anything (to my knowledge) that goes one way or another as to whether that figure factors in the suit. (Note: The current figures, assuming we're saying the suit isn't counted in the 90kg, is 24.9, which doesn't seem horribly bad.)

Digital Watches 23:50, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Size issue

Aren't the given stats about Samus on the Metroid II context just much too open for interpretation? The way I see it, it would be ludicrous to compute or estimate for anything just because of the reason that we don't have enough info(do you have any numbers on how heavy or large her suit is?); so I think that we should also entertain the most obvious possibility that she is wearing her suit and give it proper note. User:Virgofenix

Metroid song

Why did the link to that song get deleted? It wasn't a promotional ad, there's nothing to promote. If any promotion at all is going on, the whole article is a promotion of the videogame and Metroid movie. The song is just something that some guy wrote and put on his school website for fun. It's not on any commercial recordings or anything like that.

That's probably the problem, I think. It seems to be a fan song; while there's nothing wrong with fan songs, they're like fan art and fanfiction in that they are unofficial and thus probably should not be included in an article about the inspiration of the fan media. At least, that's my interpritation; that's probably why I'd have taken the song link off, but I can't speak for the person who did. --Sparky the Seventh Chaos 22:42, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

Cyborg?

Is there any evidence that Samus, is in fact a cyborg? Aside from the original instruction manual that was wrong on most other topics? (Samus is male, Mother Brain is the space pirates' leader, etc) If not, why does this artical have the "fictional cyborgs" category? Assuming that Samus is a cyborg just from that source seems to me like assuming that she is also a hermaphrodite because of the same source.User:dcomings

In the Scene 2 narration of Metroid Fusion, Samus mentions the following:

"It then came to light that the organic components of my Power Suit had become so integrated with my system that it could not be removed while I was unconscious. Large portions of my suit had to be surgically removed, dramatically altering my appearance."

According to this account, parts of Samus' suit have become integrated with her body. Under most definitions, this would qualify her as a cyborg. --Poiuyt Man ^talk 08:48, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I disagree. The components of the suit are integrated with her body, but there is no evidence, and, in fact, evidence against the assumption that they are actually a part of her, or that she is dependent on them. This disqualifies her from being a creature that is a mixture (note that the suit is no more a permanent part of her than an article of clothing) of organic and mechanical parts. Also: The parts of the suit said to be integrated to her system were said to be organic, which also discounts this definition. This definition is taken directly from the wikipedia article on cyborgs. Digital Watches 07:08, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Chozo Lore

Recently the entire collection of Chozo lore from Metroid Prime has been added to the article, and portions of it existed in this article before. I believe this may not fall under fair use, due to the amount being copied word-for-word from the game. For now, I've removed the section, and instead linked to a Chozo Lore FAQ in the References section. --Poiuyt Man ^talk 13:50, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Non-sexualized?

She wasn't to start with, but those pics indicate otherwise. Seriously, she is wearing just a bra and panties in the one!

Yes, but entire games aren't made to showcase Samus in revealing outfits (Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball style). In fact, the only time a player ever sees Samus without all or most of her Power Suit, are in still images, at the ends of games, and in these pictures, Samus is not shown in any sort of sexual position or situation. She is just portrayed as a woman, relaxing after a difficult mission.

Sure, shes not running around half naked for the whole game, but those pics are part of the game, and they're not exactly innocent. I'm not a prude by any means, but I think we're running into an issue of "Its nintendo, and they're kids games". Still, I don't mind the article claiming she is non-sexualized; for the most part, she isn't. Its just funny to see such explicit fan service.

I removed the statement that Nintendo made Samus female for sex appeal to help sell games. This obviously isn't true, as Samus is not revealed to be female until completion of the original Metroid. --Pagrashtak 19:11, 26 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Changed Samus' Age

I made a minor edit to Samus' age, which is 20 in the first game since it takes place in 2025 (the date of 20X5) since she was supposedly born in 2005 according to Konami. --Yahweh 4 July 2005 00:30 (UTC)

According to Konami? Please give a reference. How do you know 20X5 = 2025? The information you added is currently unsupported, so I'm reverting it for now. --Poiuyt Man ^talk 4 July 2005 16:51 (UTC)

It's also rather odd that Konami would state this information, considering that they weren't involved in the making of any of the Metroid games. --Poiuyt Man ^talk 4 July 2005 16:56 (UTC)

I suppose that's true. That's right, Nintendo did make the "Metroid" games. Anyhow, if the Galactic Federation was formed in their universe in the year 2000, then the events that followed should have happened within a reasonably quick amount of time one would assume, and the story says that it wasn't very long before the Space Pirates attacked and all of that. Still, 20X5 could be 2005, 2015, 2025...2095, though there are a couple of websites that I've read that believe the date to be 2025, such as www.metroid-eu.com and www.nesplayer.com, though we won't exactly know 100% for sure. One thing I have found interesting is that the 1st Mega Man game takes place only 3 years supposedly from this year...200X is what the games say, which is roughly 2008, since in "Mega Man 4" it says 20XX, which is "one year after the destruction of Gamma" ("Mega Man 3"), and MM3 takes place a few months after MM2, which is a few months after MM1. So by that 200X is only a couple years before 20XX, so 20XX must be 2010, leaving 200X to be about 2008. Just thought that was kind of interesting, and it does make sense though since "Mega Man X" is discovered on or about 21XX (2114, the date copywrited on Dr. Cain's computer in the original game), or 100 years after 2014. --Yahweh 5 July 2005 23:09 (UTC)

Ambiguous dates should be left ambiguous unless you have an official source that explicitly states the date. Fan-made dates based on calculations as such are merely fanon and shouldn't be considered truth; therefore, should not be listed. --Shadow Hog 16:56, 12 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see any reason why the XX in 20XX implies it must be 2010. XX could just as easily be 09, or any other number. If they wanted to imply a new decade had started they could have said 201X. --Mr. Encyclopedia

One External Link changed

The GameFAQs policy (I've been there a lot of times) forbids any direct linking to a particular FAQ File, so I had to change the link in order to avoid showing an error message (Broken Link). Therefore, I made a link to the Metroid Prime FAQ Page with a lot of FAQs pertinent to Metroid, since GameFAQs does not allow us to link directly to files.

Link Fixed. -- Vesther 4 July 2005 17:36 (UTC)

I changed the link to the copy located on IGN, as they allow direct-linking. --Poiuyt Man ^talk 4 July 2005 19:15 (UTC)

Placement and content of images

While I don't agree with the removal of the Fusion image because it's offensive, I do think that one one suitless gallery image is enough. The images obviously have some intention of being provocative, and having those all over the article doesn't really fit in the "non-sexualized" text. There are numerous depictions of Samus throughout the games, so maybe variety would be good. Why don't we use some of the Metroid Prime concept art, or some of her 3D renditions?

Also, the images should be somewhat related to the surrounding text. I placed the sprite lineup next to the list of games, since it applies to many of the Metroid games. The Fusion picture is just eye-candy, and that's probably why it was removed. It would go better next to the "Challenge of Gender roles section". However, there's already a suitless image there. --Poiuyt Man ^talk 03:16, 28 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think the fusion ending image that was there before is more important to use than the Zero Mission ending we currently have because it's a more up-to-date rendition. We should at least put it somewhere.

The article refers to how depictions of Samus have become more suggestive over time, and Zero Mission is a more recent release than Fusion. Her appearance under the suit hasn't changed much between the two games, and I think her pose in the ZM picture better illustrates the "sexualization" (is that even a word?) described in the text. --Poiuyt Man ^talk 03:48, 14 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Are you kidding? If you'll look at the two pictures, you'll notice a major difference. Please at least consider it. I'm not saying we should necessarily get rid of the current ZM image, I'm just saying that the fusion image needs to be there as a representation as the most canonically current Samus

Zero Mission?

Isn't Zero Mission chronologically seen her very first mission (considering the box at the end of the article were it says: "Chronological order: Metroid | Zero Mission | ... "), because if you read what she says in the beginning of the game: "... Now I shall finally tell the tale of my first battle here ... My so-called Zero Mission." It sounds like Zero Mission happened before Metroid (and not the other way round). Opinions on that? --Plumcouch 22:11, 3 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It's the same story, they overlap on the timeline. Andre (talk) 22:22, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

Zero Mission is merely a remake of the first Metroid, down to the actual level design.--Zxcvbnm 22:34, 3 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]