Samus Aran (Metroid)
Samus Aran (サムス・アラン Samusu Aran?) is an intergalactic bounty hunter and the main protagonist of the Metroid series.The daughter of Rodney Aran and Virginia Aran, she lost her parents during a Space Pirate raid on her home of K-2L. Later, Samus was adopted by the mysterious Chozo and taken to Zebes, where she was infused with their DNA and raised to become a warrior. Once she reached adulthood, Samus joined the Federation Police and served under the Commanding Officer Adam Malkovich. Though she ultimately left to become a Bounty Hunter, she was nonetheless hired by the Galactic Federation on many occasions. Equipped with her cybernetic Power Suit, Samus has become famous for accomplishing missions previously thought impossible. Her most renowned achievements are the destruction of the Space Pirate base on Zebes, her role in ending the Galactic Phazon crisis, her extermination of the Metroid species, and her disobedience of orders at the Biologic Space Laboratories research station where she chose to destroy the deadly X Parasites rather than turn them over to the Galactic Federation.
Samus broke ground early in the gaming world when she debuted in the 1986 game Metroid. Originally players were under the impression that Samus was a male, as even the instruction booklet suggested this. However, completing Metroid in under five hours revealed Samus to be a young woman.[3] Although Samus wears the Power Suit throughout most of the Metroid series, she traditionally removes it at the end of most games, often as a result of satisfying certain conditions such as completing the game quickly or with a high percentage of the game's items collected or even both
Samus' personality has rarely been explored in-depth within the context of the games, a conscious decision by Nintendo to help the player imagine themselves better as the in-game character. However, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Metroid: Other M are perhaps the most notable games in the series to give insight into Samus' personality, as well as other media formats such as comics and manga. Prior to Metroid: Other M, her voice would only be represented by text in beginning narration, as well as throughout Metroid Fusion.
Typically, Samus is depicted as a melancholic, heroic loner of few words. She dislikes taking too many orders, and will only do so from those she respects.[4] She remains lonely and brooding in spite of her great accomplishments, and seeks revenge against the Space Pirates - especially Ridley, who was personally responsible for the death of her mother. Despite her tragic origins, Samus has been shown to have unparalleled willpower and resourcefulness, succeeding where thousands failed and stopping at nothing to save the galaxy from any threat that may arise. Such is Samus' determination that she was even willing to sacrifice herself to prevent the spread of the body-snatching X Parasites.[5]
Despite her reputation for destroying even the deadliest of foes, Samus is also known for her compassion, and has consistently stood up to secure the helpless and downtrodden. Two notable instances of this were when she volunteered to single-handedly save the Luminoth race from the brink of extinction, and when she helped innocent Etecoons and a Dachora escape a self-destructing Zebes. In Metroid II, Samus also bonded with a Metroid who was born in front of her eyes, and decided to spare it, possibly recalling her three-year-old self during the attack on K-2L. It later sacrificed itself at the end of Super Metroid to save Samus, leaving her heartbroken and emotionally scarred for some time, as shown in Metroid: Other M.
Witnessing her mother's death at Ridley's hands left Samus with posttraumatic stress disorder, which manifested as a severe panic attack upon her first encounter with Ridley in adolescence. She appears to have since learned to cope with this trauma, as she has rarely hesitated to do battle with her most opposed nemesis since then. Upon learning that he had survived their first battle on Zebes, Samus expressed only silent anger and wasted no time rushing to her Gunship to chase Ridley down to the planet Tallon IV.
Metroid Fusion's artwork gave various brief insights into Samus' early life
During the events of Metroid: Other M, Samus was in an especially vulnerable state following the death of the Metroid hatchling, the destruction of her childhood home Zebes, and an unexpected reunion with her former CO Adam Malkovich. Her behavior was more passive and less self-reliant, uncharacteristically dependent on Adam Malkovich while joining him and the platoon in investigating the BOTTLE SHIP. Desperate to prove she had overcome her old insecurities of feeling weak and delicate, Samus willingly placed herself back under Adam's command in an attempt to regain his trust.[6] During an encounter with a cloned Ridley she was faced with the facts: she was not over her old insecurities after all, causing her to enter a state of shock (likely a relapsed PTSD attack). After this she briefly relapsed into her headstrong rebellion of Adam, even believing MB's lie that he endorsed the BOTTLE SHIP's bioweapons program, but upon gaining her final orders from Adam outside Sector Zero she completely regained her composure.[7] Other M's depiction of Samus has garnered significant criticism for being perceived as inconsistent with her depictions in all other games, as well as the questionable implications of her submissive behavior and interactions with Adam throughout the game. Other M is the only time these traits have been observed; by the time of the events of Metroid Fusion, Samus is once again portrayed as self-reliant and strong-willed, if somewhat more introspective.
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Originally Posted by Eudaimonia
