The point to this thread is to share your interpretation of Samus' character, with mine below. Pre Other-M, her character was entirely open to interpretation, and there is still a measure of breadth for interpretation, as the vociferous arguments about the game can attest

Though on that note, I will leave a note of warning, that I will not allow this thread to be derailed into an Other M hatefest. If you would rather hate Other M, simply ignore that portent of Samus' character, though we shall be able to debate the meaning of that character in context to her portrayals in other Metroid titles.

Certainly Nintendo fans and many gamers in general have been fascinated by a female character that does not (at least in her basic portrayal) flaunt superficial elements of her femininity, though that perhaps comes from the fact that her femininity was originally just a one-off joke of sorts (which raises other implications). However, her reactions to the tumultuous events that she was subjected to has shown Samus to be something more than a faceless ass-kicker either.

The Baby Metroid and its involvement in the end of Metroid II and Super, as well as the bonus mission of rescuing the Etecoons and Dachoras in Super and rescuing them again in Fusion portrayed a character of heroic compassion to a point, someone with pity and love for the small things caught up in the big galactic conflicts

Secondary elements of her characterization that i feel actually mesh with her Other M development came into play from the Metroid Prime series. Prime being 3D obviously gave Samus more opportunities to emote, even though they did retain her as the silent heroine. The stories in Prime were invariably tragic (or at least the backstories of the various places she moved through were,) and Retro showed Samus as awed or reflective of these events in a number of cases (postgame shot of Prime 1 comes to mind)

Last of all i would like to draw the inspiration for this thread, Major Motoko Kusanagi of Ghost in the Shell, who bears many similarities to Samus' portrayal as a whole (and i'm including Other M in this one, though in the narrower consideration this works as well). Motoko's only difference is that she was more overtly sexualized from the get-go, but that has never really had any bearing on the interpretation of her character, at least as far as the anime was concerned (but that discussion would derail this one)

Who do you think Samus is, and what other characters would you compare her to?

I always thought of Samus as your typical, distant stoic at times. She's not gung-ho like the modern space marine archetype (though oddly she was probably the original space marine), she's not quick to anger like boring Hollywood tough chick types, and is more than likely polite, curt and proffessional. Though in classic Byronic fashion she'd probably also be lonely.

I also imagined someone who, in all honesty, has severe issues due to what she had to go through when she was young. Having your entire family and everyone you knew murdered before you even hit puberty would mess anyone up. And then of course she has her surrogate family leave before attaching herself to Adam who puts up with her. Even before that she was expected to be some kind of galactic guardian despite her trauma and her relationship withAdam helped compound the matter

I didn't get a lot of this from the games though (with the exception of Fusion). Most of it was just stuff I personally projected onto her before Sakamoto fleshed out the now ex-Mary Sue Samus. Even the Prime I found failed in giving her any sort of significant characterization. Other M more or less gelled with what I saw. Samus is friendly, but not talkative. Proffessional, but not a doormat. Strong, but not a stand-offish bitch. Contemplative, but not whiny. Flawed, but not submissive. I would call her a far more human protagonist than a LOT of her contemporaries. I would probably compare her to Aya Brea (PE1 &2 , not 3rd Birthday -blech-) due to trying to be human more than anything.

Look above you: you see in the sky the shape of a cloud which blots out the sun with leathery wings, and then you realize that cloud is not a cloud but old death, a heaving dragon who hounds you through your life and demands a repetition of your ferocity, sated only by its own violent end. No one has to hunt this old death, but you see it, and you say, Ah. It is time to unsheathe my sword again.

That is who Samus is.

You see your goal, and it is far across a valley. Between you lies the entire world, and at the sight of you the world weeps, as many worlds have wept before - but too late, because you are already there, and standing between you and your goal is consignment to annihilation.

That is who Samus is.

The devils in the ocean, in their egocentrism and their arrogance, do not know you, but they learn. The devils in the ground are dragged up, screaming, into the air, made to burn alive in the unforgiving harshness of the sun. The men who consort with devils whisper of you by a name that isn't yours, seek to emulate your efficiency, your technique, and fail miserably. You are a hunter of devils, you act because it is impossible not to act, and no one can match you because no one else can say the same.

Samus is implacability without indestructibility, a whirlwind of annihilation whose success is made mroe amazing due to an inherent and human vulnerability. Death could come to her at any time - sometimes it does, always violently, always in screams and fire and the triumphant bugling of evil - but she walks through fields of the dead as if they aren't there. She is not unstoppable, but no one is up to the task of stopping her; entire worlds are compressed, burned, cast aside, and she marches on, always reaching her goal in a torrent of fire.

To me, Samus is a bounty Hunter with limited character development that many MANY fans have exaggerated to be a 'loner' or 'badass' with no justification besides 'she doesn't talk' and 'she kills things'.

Frankly, I'm kind of annoyed by everyone saying she was 'ruined' in Other M.  While the writing was indeed weak, nothing she did or said in that game made her out to be any different than she was in past games.  Heck, in all the actual dialogue scenes we have of her before Other M, she spends all her time talking about 1) The Baby 2) The Federation and 3) THE BABY.

So please PLEASE people, stop acting like her character is drastically different.  The majority of you threw the same tantrum with Metroid Fusion came out, and now you're doing it to Other M.  Just accept that Samus used to be a character with limited development, and now you don't like the game that brought out the creators vision of her 'character'.

Hot chick in super armour that goes to scary alien places and kicks ass.

Samus is a paranoid freak. She inspects every bit of ground for secrets, is obsessed with doing things perfectly and quickly, is terrified of the monsters she seeks after in fits of rage, capable of attaching to others but scared to do so, with no clear path in life other than continuing her suicidal march into nightmarish territory.

This is just based off of gameplay. I'm a bit clueless about the story nowadays.

She is a player avatar through which you can explore an alien planet. I therefore want her to have minimum personality, no voice acting, and just keep the in-game references to her being a fearsome bounty hunter with an unknown past because every player can slot themselves into that role easily.

When Other M showed her choosing not to activate weapons, it kills the immersion because that's not what the player would have chosen.

From that angle i can understand that argument, that it's bad from a suspension of disbelief standpoint. My perspective was that after two rather off-the-wall justifications from Prime 1 and Prime 2 about how she lost her powers (Prime 2's especially bugged me. The Ing or Dark Samus should have just killed her instead of stripping her and tossing her back into the real world), i just took the whole "Authorization" thing as just another contrived handwave (but one of 4) and took it in stride

Hot bad-ass warrior with the best possible battle suit in any universe.

Samus is my most beloved video game character ever.

She is strong, intelligent and brave; has a cool suit that lets her pull off some awsome moves, she fights gigantic alien beasts on her own and explores huge, lonely worlds. That is awsome.

What makes her even more awsome in my eyes though, is that inside the suit you have a mortal woman who sometimes shows fear and vulnerability, but that doesn't stop her from going on these extremely dangerous missions. She knows she could die, and it often scares her but that doesn't stop her.