gamerisms:

By the time I was twelve or so, I had only played Samus as a character in the N64 and Game Cube version of Super Smash Brothers, never in an actual Metroid game, Samus Aran was the #1 character choice of my brother whenever we would play together. One day, while we were playing - he as Samus and I as Kirby as we usually do - he referred to Samus as “she.” I thought he was mistaken, Samus was obviously a man. But really, it was just something I never thought about. Samus obviously had to be a man because Samus was pretty gender neutral, completely kick-ass, non-sexual, and powerful - qualities which most female characters in gaming had yet to display to me in an open way.

Learning about Samus changed my perspective on women in games because although it essentially changed nothing about Samus, it suddenly changed everything about my mindset because it was the first time I thought about how characters who were women were characters I could look at and immediately think that they were powerful.

- Aria