Samus Aran

Samus Aran is an intergalactic bounty hunter and the protagonist of the Metroid video game series. 
==Background==
==Fandom==
===Reception and Popularity===
Samus broke ground early in the gaming world with the debut of her first game in 1986. Originally players were under the impression that Samus was a man, as even the instruction booklet suggested this. However, completing Metroid in under an hour revealed Samus to be a young athletic woman wearing a pink bikini beneath her Power Suit.
Samus' popularity grew significantly after her appearance in the first Smash Brothers game; she has since appeared in every iteration of the Smash series' ever-growing roster.
In 2009, she was one of four semifinalists in GameSpot's fan poll of the "All-Time Greatest Game Hero"."All Time Greatest Game Hero - The Standings". GameSpot. Archived 6 October 2009. In 2011, readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition voted Samus as 14th of the top video game characters of all time.Marchiafava, Jeff. "Guinness Names Top 50 Video Game Characters Of All Time", published to Game Informer on 16 Feb 2011.
Like the Metroid series in general, Samus may be more popular among Western audiences than within Japan.Robinson, Andy. "The History of Metroid", published to GamesRadar on 15 October 2007. (Archived from the original on 25 May 2015.)
====Zero Suit====
Samus' Zero Suit has a mixed reaction within the fandom; while some feel it's great at showing off her looks, some argue that it undermines her character and that Zero Suit Samus' stereotypically "sexy" features would be impractical given the her occupation. Not helping matters is that its appearance in Smash Bros. brought a whole new fanbase to the character purely based on her looks, with said fanbase downplaying her "badass" aspects even further. Fans frequently argue over which design for unarmored/helmetless/Zero Suit Samus is the best, with designs ranging from the anime-stylized designs of Zero Mission and Other M, to the more realistic design of the Metroid Prime Trilogy. 
Fan art of Samus in her Zero Suit may be more frequently produced and circulated than art in which she wears her usual Power Suits.
====Other M====
Samus' portrayal in Other M has been widely reviled among the broader Metroid fandom.IHad360K_KarmaDammit. [Metroid Fandom Nintendo releases a new Metroid game in 2010, everyone hates it] posted to r/HobbyDrama on 27 Jan 2020. (Accessed December 2020.) Following Other M, many of its detractors have claimed that Samus has been tarnished as a lead due to the increased sexualization and infantilization of the character. Examining the series as a whole, though, Samus was sexualized as early as the first game, was placed into a "motherly" role in the second and third games, and was further sexualized in Zero Mission and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. What makes Other M different, according to some critics, is that these other games only had maybe one or two of these problems and they were downplayed tropes for the most part; Other M had them all at once and many of them were front-and-center and treated as vital to Samus's identity and character in ways that they never had been before.
===Fanon and Tropes===
Though Samus is constantly referred to as a bounty hunter in official materials, many fans agree that she has never actually been shown to properly work as one and thus would be more aptly classified as a mercenary, contractor, or special agent in the service of the Federation.IceKrabby. [Metroid Series Samus is not a bounty hunter.] posted to r/FanTheories on 30 May 2012. (Accessed December 2020.)Shonendo. For Samus being such a badass bounty hunter, do we ever get to see actual bounties? posted to r/Metroid on 28 Sep 2017. (Accessed December 2020.) In fact, according to an IGN interview of the Metroid Prime Trilogy developers, Nintendo has opposed the depiction of Samus collecting bounties,Casamassina, Matt. "A Space Bounty Hunter in Texas: The inside story of Echoes, Corruption and Trilogy.", published to IGN on 10 May 2012. (Accessed December 2020.) perhaps to emphasize that her heroism isn't financially motivated.
In fan works, Samus may be portrayed with a cold, introverted, even bad-tempered personality that may clash with the more sunnier personalities of her fellow Smash fighters. Otherwise, she is sometimes portrayed with a tender, motherly personality (AKA "Space Mom"), especially toward the Baby Metroid and Pikachu; this may be humorously juxtaposed with her otherwise cold, tough reputation.
According to a sample of 11,900 Super Smash Bros. fics published to FanFiction.Net (FFN) between 2001 and 28 February 2019, Samus was the fifth most frequently selected character within the fandom's character filters.phantomstatistician. Most Popular Characters in Super Smash Brothers FanFiction 2001-Present, posted to Tumblr on 28 February 2019.
Some fans believe Samus to be transgender, thanks to "Metroid’s Samus Aran is a Transgender Woman. Deal With It.", a 2015 article posted to The Mary Sue, which cites a 1994 interview including background designer and graphics developer Matsuoka Hirofumi, who apparently stated: "Samus isn't a woman. As a matter of fact, she's actually a newhalf"https://web.archive.org/web/20170809172053/http://www.metroid-database.com/sm/interview.php (a Japanese term referring to male-to-female cross-dressers or to transgender women who have not undergone genitoplasty surgery; the term is related to pornography subcultures, may be considered the equivalent to the English-language term "shemale", and may be considered derogatory). Other fans dispute the canonicity of this claim, many citing official statements as well as comments by director Sakamoto Yoshio.Wikipedia. (Accessed 1 December 2020.) The matter even generated some heated discussion on the talk page of Samus' Wikipedia article; the Gamergate "culture war" was frequently referenced.
===Shipping===
Most of shipping concerning Samus comes from the Smash Brothers community due to her own series focused on the mission of a solitary bounty hunter, with little to no social interaction among a limited number of characters. Samus is quite popular and versatile within Smash shipping, likely because she is one of the relatively few female characters to consistently appear in the male-majority roster, and also because she lacks a love interest in her home series (e.g. as opposed to Zelda, who is often paired with Link).
In a sample of 122 fics published to FFN between 13 October 2013 and 7 January 2019, Samus was most often listed in the pairing filter with Zelda/Shiek (27%); followed by Link and Marth (12% each); Solid Snake and Ike (10% each); Captain Falcon and Pit (6% each); Little Mac (5%); Peach (4%); Dark Pit (3%); Palutena, Fox, and Sonic (2% each).phantomstatistician. Samus' FanFiction Shipping Chart 2013*-Present, posted to Tumblr on 7 Jan 2019. (Accessed December 2020.)
====Notable Pairings====
* Samus Aran/Princess Zelda
* Samus Aran/Princess Peach (SamuPichi)
* Samus Aran/Solid Snake (Snakus)
* Samus Aran/Captain Falcon (FalSam)
* Samus Aran/Little Mac
==Fan Works==
===Fan Art===
* Samus Aran Open Hatch by torokun
* .:SAMUS ARAN:. by sundragon83
* Samus Aran by joe-roberts
* Samus Aran by Trevor Carr
* Samus Aran by Julien Desroy
* Finally selling out and drawing some hot bikini Samus by cryophase
* Landsknecht Samus by JasonKim
* The Mandalorian reference fan artArchived by rariatoo (2020)
* bikini artArchived by OtakuAP (2021)
* Samus!Archived by homriette (2022)
===Fan Fiction===
===Fan Comics===
*THE BABY by guilherme-rm (Fullmetal Alchemist reference)
*Give me a post-Fusion mini-story where Samus has to deal with another infant of Ridley’s species and is torn between the ideas of blowing its brains out to save everyone some trouble, or trying really hard to raise it with some understanding of right and wrong. by morbart
*i had something different planned for today but this was more important by funny-that-its-blue
===Memes===
*Zero Suit
*THE BABY
*y cant metroid crawl?
*Sad Samus
*Snake and Zero Suit Samus Ultimate Redesigns
===Meta===
* 30 years of Samus Aran: a feminist icon? at BBC Three
* There is a world of difference between “tee hee Samus took off her spacesuit” at the end of a game and putting Samus in a skintight bodysuit from the start. by feitclub
* [Metroid Fandom] Nintendo releases a new Metroid game in 2010, everyone hates it by IHad360K_KarmaDammit
* Metroid’s Samus Aran is a Transgender Woman. Deal With It. at The Mary Sue (2015)
===Music===
* ANOTHER M by SΔMMUS
==Gallery==
File:Samus by Sabtastic.png|Samus pin-up by Sabtastic (2016).
==Links==
===Archives and Communities===
*Metroid Database
*FanFiction.Net (FFN)
**Metroid stories and crossovers featuring Samus A.
**Super Smash Brothers stories and crossovers featuring Samus A.
*Archive of Our Own: Samus Aran tag
*Pixiv: #サムス and #サムス・アラン
===Resources===
*Wikipedia
*Metroid Wiki
*Smash Wiki
*TV Tropes
*Know Your Meme
==References==
Category:Metroid
Category:Super Smash Bros.