Shanoa from Castlevania is hotter.

I find a lot of other characters, not from video games per se, that I find more sexually attractive than Samus. Not that I'm saying she isn't, but there are others I prefer.

Word. Although, I do want to bleach my eyes when I run across such things.



She's so pretty!! I once had a dream that I had her hair...it was both silly and awesome.

This is something I disagree with, Samus having a sexual relationship seems like just the sort of thing she needs to do before she can feel human, not Chozo. So the presence of such relationships in fanfics is often justified...

on the other hand, more often, it's not.

I agree. There are a few fics out there that are really awesome in portraying Samus' feminine and sexual side. The better ones that I've read usually involve a deep romantic relationship or a one night stand, and they were good. They portrayed that Samus is indeed still a human, with human emotions, who needs that physical contact. She may have Chozo blood, but she still has a human brain/body.

There is a difference between Samus being sexually symbolized(?) and her having a sexual relationship. It's a fine line, but it is there.

I don't have a problem with that sort of thing. I often will work out details like that for my own characters (since I don't write fanfics anymore) even if the subject never comes up in-story. What you describe sounds like character development to me, not sexualization. Personally, I don't feel that it needs to be focused on in a story since her adventures killing space pirates is far more exciting, but someone else may want to explore the concept more, as a way to build her character.

What I do find that bothers me as per my last post is the fanfictions and fanart that deliberately take her out of character to fulfill the writer/artist's fantasies and/or excite their viewers as something to fap to, instead of build a character and tell a legitimate story.

The biggest difference is in the way it is written, the word choice, and what details come into play when it is being written. I won't give examples because it makes me feel dirty.





I wholly agree.

Oh, there's no doubt that Samus is sexy. But a sex symbol? That's more ambiguous. Until the reveal of the "Zero Suit" in MZM and the bodyhugger outfits in Fusion's endgame-screens, Samus was only really known as an imposing armored figure. Sure, everyone knew she stripped down to her skivvies if you grabbed everything and hauled ass, but she wasn't really known well for those images quite as much as the armor.

By comparison, characters like Lara Croft, BloodRayne, and countless tournament-fighter girls such as Chun-Li and Sonya Blade flaunted their feminine figures every step of the way, rather than conceal them under some form of obscuring bulk like Samus did with her armor. Thus they became gaming's "sex symbols" by way of such "showiness".

Since the Zero Suit and the "Fusion hotpants", as I like to call them, it seems Samus has been thrust into the spotlight as well - indeed, there is little need in denying that most erotic and even merely suggestive art of Ms. Aran has her in some form of these latter costumes rather than somehow trying to tweak her famed Power Suit to fit the scene the artist wants to show.

Whether this sudden wave of attention and popularity is a good thing or not remains to be seen.

You do make a good point. While Samus is a rather attractive video game character, when I think "Samus" I don't instantly think of her in the Zero Suit, I think of her in her power armor with the arm cannon, but when I think of another video game character, like Street Fighter's Cammy, the first thing I think of is her in her skin tight bathing suit showing off her ass.

Look at it this way--are you offended by the notion that Indiana Jones is a sex symbol? James Bond? Male protagonists, particularly in the action genres, are very often fine-tuned to flick any bic that glances their way. Why should a female protagonist in a given action setting be any different, yet the other way around. As such, the notion of Samus Aran being a bomb-shell, and having a healthy (hell, even unhealthy--it worked for Bond) sexuality is totally acceptable to me. I think, as humans, we root for people who are not only attractive physically, but psychologically as well. What better way to appeal to both needs than to make your protagonist not only sexy, but sexual? You can whine and complain that Samus being pouty and smoldering objectifies or dehumanizes her, but ask yourself if you'd find her so easily engaging if she were totally chaste and innocent. My guess is that it would be more difficult.

Now, you might argue that Samus was at least chaste from the beginning, and her sexuality has only recently been explored, primarily by fans. You could then ask me to explain how she still manages to be interesting as a person despite this. In answer, I'd say you already have the answer. She's interesting because we simply don't know. And since we, as human beings, have an insatiable urge to know, because we are hard-wired for sex, we speculate and contemplate and ship and hope. I think most people at least harbor a hope that Samus has done the deed in canon, not out of perversion, but because it makes her more easily accessible as a person.

Given that we are bound to make the link, both as a result of cultural conditioning and evolutionary directive, between Samus's role as protagonist and her extant and robust sex life, I don't see how a depiction of her scantily clad or even nude is particularly different than pictures of Harrison Ford wearing a fedora, a pair of pants and no shirt, whip in hand. That said, there are some considerations for taste, and... realism. Make no mistake, there are depictions of Samus out there that are either tasteless (commonly in the form of the Hustler Complex), or unattractively unrealistic (seriously, boobs do not do that, people). For the most part, I think these drawings are made ironically, because it's actually kind of funny that there are people who would take them seriously. Those that do take such ideas seriously, though, are in the minority. Thank God.

Personally, I find Samus attractive, and were she real, and available and willing, I hit it in an instant. But she's not a real human being, and maybe it makes me unadventurous, but I have a lot of difficulty mustering anything more than admiration for a character that is literally just an idea--a concept. As a result, I prefer to fantasize about real people. I know people who would criticize me as prudish for thinking this way, if you can believe it.

Yeah, I never got why there was a male sex symbol. I mean, James Bond bangs chicks left and right every movie, and I know quite a few women whom I know that find him (Depending on the actor) attractive.

Me personally, while I agree with ph00tbag that it only makes sense that Samus would have had some sexual experience if only for the fact that it help make her seem more "human" in our eyes, as well as the fact that imagery of her scantly-clad/nude is perfectly acceptable, when I see most artwork done of her, I don't find myself very easily being attracted to her as I would someone else.

Not saying I don't find her attractive at all, mind you; I find her as sexually appealing as anyone else would, I'm sure. But considering how ingrained the idea of her as the stoic and badass armored "superhero" is, it's hard, in a way, to match that up with the Zero-suited, bedroom-eyed, "take me now" lust-kitten so much erotic fanart portrays her as... It'd be like a woman meeting up with James Bond only to find he really sounds like Steve Urkel instead of Sean Connery. Physically, nothing's really changed, but the presentation is a jarring dischord.

Granted, I'm aware of the inherent difficulties that exist in getting the "kickass chick in powered armor" and "hot blonde with nice tits" concepts to go together without ending up sacrificing one for the other or having both fall flat... but most stuff I find... well, it's like looking at someone else entirely. I guess it's because I, like I sure most of us have, have an "ideal Samus" in our heads - how we think she acts, sounds, etc. - and finding anything to equate the mental pedestal my perceptions have put her on is damn hard.

Then again, considering how much fanart I've seen of her lately that is more-or-less "generic suck-n-fuck anime whore-toy with a Samus-colored paintjob", I suspect finding something to even approach that ideal will be even harder as time goes on...

This. I'm down with Samus being an attractive woman, but attractive and "sexy" in this sense are actually kind of mutually exclusive.

I think that first paragraph I quoted does more to illustrate a difference between male sexuality and female sexuality in Western culture. James Bond doesn't really have to change much in bed, because the Type A personality is sexy both in and out of the bedroom, for women. Female sexuality, on the other hand, is passive. In our culture, a woman is expected to be passive and inviting, as opposed to aggressive and acquisitive. While I think aggressive women are sexy, personally, most people have trouble with the concept, and I think more people find it easier to accept a woman who is bad-ass in her daily life, but a standard "feminine" woman in bed, than would be tolerant of a woman who is just Type A through and through.

I'm not saying that's right. More than anything, I think it perplexes me as much as it perplexes you. I don't think it necessarily detracts from all of the erotic fanart of her--indeed, I find some of it to be very pretty and tasteful, even if she is in a passive pose.

I do agree on that last paragraph, though. Some of the fanart doesn't even seem to be trying to be Samus fanart as much as it is just trying to be porn with a Zero Suit on. That stuff is ironic and hilarious at best, and offensive at worst. Most of the time it's just boring and stupid.