Samus is actually a trans woman according to canon.

#1

gotta go trans
2trans4u
all aboard the trans-portation
Autobots, roll out and and trans-form
The trans-action has been completed
It's a trans-continental experience

DarkZero · #2

How much you wanna bet Nintendo retconned this as soon as they could?

Random User · #3

The manga, which is typically considered canon, would contradict this claim if it were serious.

#4

Finally, a 5+ page thread in the Metroid forum.

#5

no no that's only if I were to claim Samus is a trans libertarian

Antisocial · #6

Can't wait for some hot opinions on this one.

#7

[QUOTE="Revenant User, post: 1544945, member: 35827"]The manga, which is typically considered canon, would contradict this claim if it were serious.[/QUOTE]
Not necessarily. When we first see Samus in the manga she is three years old and doesn't have any identifiable sexual characteristics. After the timeskip she's already a young woman; she certainly could have transitioned in that time.

Here is the translated interview btw; Matsuoka's responses are in the right-hand sidebar. Interestingly, this is the same interview where Sakamoto mentions Samus's beauty mark.

#8

I'm totally fine with that, it wouldn't really change anything about the character for me. I really feel sorry for the people who get upset about this kind of stuff. There have been plenty of transgender people in the military, who've risked their lives with the intent to better those of others. Samus was always an interesting outlier for Nintendo, and I feel like they keep trying to make her into some generic blonde waifu.

I REALLY HATE POKEMON! · #9

Wikipedia lists Makoto Kano, Gunpei Yokoi, Hiroji Kiyotake, and Yoshio Sakamoto as Metroid's creators. Anybody but them dictating canon would be like Naho Ooishi making canonical claims about Dragon Ball. This doesn't seem to count, but that would suck.

#10

^ Everything made after Yokoi's involvement is authorised fanfiction, Super Metroid was supposed to be the last game. Obviously the character designer knows more about the origins of the character than the lead programmer, that's just silly.

I REALLY HATE POKEMON! · #11

Al I know is that usually regarding canon people turn to the creators or at least the next equivalent, which probably wouldn't be a character designer.

http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Hirofumi_Matsuoka

In a post-development interview, Matsuoka claimed that Samus was a trans woman, though it is unlikely that Matsuoka serves as a canonical source.

The reason for this is probably similar to my reasoning.

#12

Somehow I doubt he was sincere in the first place...

#13

Matsuoka is literally the character creator. The others all had different responsibilities to the series such as world design, quality of product, etc. Sakamoto likes to father in waifu stuff. Kano is the perfectionist who made Super Metroid amazing. Gumpei Yokoi was the head producer who championed the series internally to the company and had say-so on who did what and what state the game was in, and kept the directors on task. This is not a difficult concept to grasp. If they have deviated from the character, they are creating derivative work. Matsuoka worked on the character up through Super Metroid, and wouldn't have gone on record in an official capacity saying so without the company's express approval. Whether or not Sakamoto considers it canon is not entirely relevant, Sakamoto has even historically waffled on whether or not Prime was canon because he did not work on it. He was a scenario designer and programmer, not the sole proprietor of the series.[DOUBLEPOST=1436957797,1436957754][/DOUBLEPOST][QUOTE="X-3, post: 1544961, member: 27765"]Somehow I doubt he was sincere in the first place...[/QUOTE]
That's fine with me, but trying to discredit the creator of the character is poor form.

I REALLY HATE POKEMON! · #14

][b]Hirofumi Matsuoka[/b] was one of the many people who designed [url='http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Samus_Aran']Samus Aran[/url] for[i][url='http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Metroid']Metroid[/url][/i]. He later worked on [i][url='http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Metroid']Super Metroid[/url][/i]'s graphics.[/quote] As far as I can tell wrote:http://www.gamnesia.com/images/uploads/ ... height.jpg[/IMG]

Mario's actual height varies from game to game and disproves this official height chart.

You can go ahead and believe what you want. Maybe some tester will say Mario is actually black and then we'll have everyone on Tumblr screaming about it being canon.

http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Samus_Aran

Samus Aran first appeared in the NES game Metroid, a title that was intended to be a mixture between two of Nintendo's biggest franchises: Mario and The Legend of Zelda. Makoto Kanō created the character while Hiroji Kiyotake designed her.

The more I research the less credible this trans nonsense becomes.

#15

*shrug* you can think what you want about the character designers and who gets to outrank who, it's fine to talk about who you prefer as the series 'father' in the sense of which set of canon you prefer. I believe wanting it to be one person or another is very silly, and trying to discredit a person who worked on the character design (yes of course among others) as equivalent to 'some tester' who had no creative input in the character direction is absolutely ridiculous. The least we can do if we want to ever have a consistent canon is ignore Sakamoto who can't make up his mind what he wants/captained Other M - and believe what we want to believe, based on the direction of the series or otherwise any contributing member of the team we identify with.

There are too many parents to the series, they will all have their own interpretation, none of them has worked on every single game featuring Samus. I do care about all of them, but very rarely one more than another. Years of many different lives have been dedicated to the Metroid series, and it's very admirable no matter from whom it comes.

I really don't care what you think out loud about the character in this forum as long as it's not NSFW and it isn't obviously flamebait, cool? Personally, I think it's very cool for trans gamers that they have one of the contributors to the series saying something about the game they worked on that may actually be inclusive. If another guy who worked on the character disagrees, that's going to be his version. There have been a lot of versions of Samus Aran.

One of the most interesting things about Metroid is how the series aesthetically evolves without sticking to one vision, most notably when it split between Prime and Fusion.

Random User · #16

[QUOTE="Valigarmander, post: 1544952, member: 30663"]Not necessarily. When we first see Samus in the manga she is three years old and doesn't have any identifiable sexual characteristics. After the timeskip she's already a young woman; she certainly could have transitioned in that time.

Here is the translated interview btw; Matsuoka's responses are in the right-hand sidebar. Interestingly, this is the same interview where Sakamoto mentions Samus's beauty mark.[/QUOTE]
She's referred to as a girl by her father. Unless she had gender dysphoria at three, which seems unlikely, I'm just not buying that she's a trans woman. Not that it matters. It doesn't add or detract anything from Samus' character either way.

But as X-3 said, it was probably just a joke by the designer.

#17

All female player characters are now transgender because Japan said so.

Bye.

I REALLY HATE POKEMON! · #18

[QUOTE="Hell Orb, post: 1544976, member: 25415"]*shrug* you can think what you want about the character designers and who gets to outrank who, it's fine to talk about who you prefer as the series 'father' in the sense of which set of canon you prefer. I believe wanting it to be one person or another is very silly, and trying to discredit a person who worked on the character design (yes of course among others) as equivalent to 'some tester' who had no creative input in the character direction is absolutely ridiculous. The least we can do if we want to ever have a consistent canon is ignore Sakamoto who can't make up his mind what he wants/captained Other M - and believe what we want to believe, based on the direction of the series or otherwise any contributing member of the team we identify with.[/quote]

Doesn't creating a character supersede designing it? I guess it's up for debate like anything else so I can't claim to be "right" or dictate what logic people use. And yeah, the tester comment was an exaggeration, I just meant the creator is on top (makes sense to me at least).

[quote="Hell Orb]There are too many parents to the series"]

I agree, it's admirable work across the board, and Super Metroid looks nice, I didn't mean to insult Matsuoka, he has done great work.

[quote="Hell Orb]I really don't care what you think out loud about the character in this forum as long as it's not NSFW and it isn't obviously flamebait"]

I don't think I've ever posted much NSFW material and I don't make flamebait (but the definition seems to be "a strong contrary opinion"), so yeah, cool. I won't do any of that.

Nobody is trying to take anything from the LGBT community, but simply retain what people like about the character. In fact, it's more the other way around, that LGBT try to steal characters: http://gamecola.net/tag/disregard-canon/

#19

[QUOTE="Revenant User, post: 1544999, member: 35827"]She's referred to as a girl by her father. Unless she had gender dysphoria at three, which seems unlikely ...[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I know, 3 year olds right.

I REALLY HATE POKEMON! · #20

[QUOTE="Saria Dragon of the Rain Wilds, post: 1545144, member: 17429"]Yeah, I know, 3 year olds right.[/QUOTE]

http://thoughtcatalog.com/charlie-shaw/ ... a-kid-say/