Metroid Footware

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

That's what I thought...seems like of...weird to me.

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please use spoilers when posting large images

If I'm not mistaken Chell's boots aren't exactly High Heels's and nobody likes Raiden anyway. And neither of those look as ridiculous as Samus' new footwear.

Except Chell's heels ARE high heels, merely stylized, and Raiden doesn't get a pass just because of apathy. There is no squirming out of obvious evidence by trying to add arbitrary evidence that doesn't change anything.

 

[Requia]

That's what I thought...seems like of...weird to me.

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please use spoilers when posting large images

If I'm not mistaken Chell's boots aren't exactly High Heels's and nobody likes Raiden anyway. And neither of those look as ridiculous as Samus' new footwear.

Except Chell's heels ARE high heels, merely stylized, and Raiden doesn't get a pass just because of apathy. There is no squirming out of obvious evidence by trying to add arbitrary evidence that doesn't change anything.

Chells heels lets her land from long falls.

But Samus's new heels are freaking rockets so it's kind comparable.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Chells heels lets her land from long falls.

But Samus's new heels are freaking rockets so it's kind comparable.

Yeah, because they're a stylization of an ordinary fashion. They're merely for flair, nothing more. But it's amazing at how Samus' have people throwing hissy fits while Chell's get a free pass for an arbitrary reason.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Chell's heeled longfall boots boots, honestly I didn't even notice the high-heel-like design until just now, and they look good and make sense in the context of the universe and the character. Raiden's rubberised grip heels, I thought they were cool and original and let him pull off some awesome moves, and again it fits with the universe and the character. Plus Raiden's a boy, so it's a different dynamic.

Samus' rocket heels don't work like that. Just by themselves in-universe, they look ugly and they don't make much sense. In one move she kicks someone and they get blasted back, but in another she kicks upwards and... goes upwards. So, these heels can change the direction of their blast? How does that work? Another thing, why would she wear anything with heels into a fight? Samus is an experienced warrior, she wouldn't wear anything that would impede her movement like that, especially since agility is her biggest advantage in Zero Suit form. And on that note, does she wear them all the time? How does she wearing heels under her amour? If she just puts them on in ZS form, where does she keep them when she's not using them? They don't make much sense out of universe either. I know they've added new abilities to her in Brawl before, like the laser whip, but that fit and made sense. The rocket heels don't. If they wanted to give her the rocket boots, they could have just left the legs of the Varia Suit on like in Haloid, because we know her Suit can work in different segments as well as a whole. And taken into context with Samus and the rest of the Metroid verse, they don't fit. As far as I'm aware, we've never seen this kind of technology or Samus wearing heels before, apart from in Other M when they were built into the Zero Suit. But that's inconsistent with the rest of the series. Hell, the concept art for Zero Mission explicitly said NOT to give the Zero Suit high heels.

Spoiler: Look.

I think the biggest reason why people are against the heels is because of their... well... girliness. Outside of the original Game Over scenes and some bonuses for getting %100 completion or typing in a cheat code, Samus' gender wasn't really mentioned or used as a focal point. Sure, the Zero Suit was kinda fanservicey before, but it was rarely seen and it was at least plausible. Prime barely mentioned her gender at all, and it was never really core to her character through most of the series. But with Other M and this version of Smash, Samus' entire design suddenly revolves around the fact she's a she, with the slimmed-down Varia Suit and the obsession with the baby Metroid and her abusive CO/boyfriend/dad figure/whatever he is Adam. The rocket heels are just the latest part of that. I'm not one of those "real women never wear dresses" types who think any femininity is weakness. Characters like Bayonetta or Katara are proof positive that womanly doesn't mean weak. The problem is Samus, a character who's gender was never really important outside of the original "That's a girl in that armour?!" surprise back at the end of the first game, is suddenly being defined by her gender and having large parts of her design badly revamped to that end.

 

[Major_Tom]

They look retarded as fuck. And they don't match her purse.

And if Chell's boots are somehow high heels, then her bare feet in Portal 1 are also high heels.

 

[lord.jeff]

The problem with heels is that it is part of a growing problem with this character, Samus started as one of the few female characters in gaming and didn't have to show off being a women. The heels are only adding to the problems of Other M and the skin tight Zero Suit it, it's a betrayal to what makes Samus Samus.

 

[Riverwolf]

Except Chell's heels ARE high heels, merely stylized, and Raiden doesn't get a pass just because of apathy. There is no squirming out of obvious evidence by trying to add arbitrary evidence that doesn't change anything.

There are other factors involved with both those characters (whenever you see this kind of behavior, you can always bet on there being other factors that you haven't seen/properly considered, yet; it's a mistake to call them arbitrary just because you, personally, may not understand their importance).

Chell's Long Fall Boots aren't merely stylized, but also serve a practical function, and we can assume that their primary function of allowing her to fall from great heights without any injury carries with it the ability to walk perfectly balanced, which is why they get a pass (the Long Fall Boots don't raise her heels more than a few inches, anyway; the Advanced Knee Replacement from Portal 1 was far worse, raising her heels almost a full half-foot).

The reason Raiden's are "acceptable" is because Raiden himself is all the way unacceptable in the first place, rendering his heels just one small thing in front of all the rest of him; IOW, they're not acceptable at all, but they get lost in the crowd of his general unacceptability.

With all of that said, here's using Chell's equipment as an example of why Samus's new footgear might actually be GOOD: they are high-tech gear rather than just part of the suit, and so in addition to being rocked-powered (I keep forgetting about that) they might serve a similar purpose to Chell's AKR/LFBs. The Varia Suit normally takes care of that, but without it, Samus would need some kind of backup to serve the same purpose, especially in a combat situation like in SSB where falls from great heights are commonplace. The design of the boots appears to be capable of serving that function based on my non-mathematical understanding of physics, since the bottom of the boot covers a large surface area and appears to have what might be shock-absorbing pads. Perhaps they're heeled like that to help reduce shock (using the same kind of science-justification as the Long Fall Boots.)

And with all of that said, my earlier opinion of the design remains unchanged: stupid, but nowhere NEAR as stupid as the perfectly accepted idea of both Zelda and Peach (both of whom have previous combat experience, by the way) fighting in long dresses.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

That's what I thought...seems like of...weird to me.

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please use spoilers when posting large images

If I'm not mistaken Chell's boots aren't exactly High Heels's and nobody likes Raiden anyway. And neither of those look as ridiculous as Samus' new footwear.

Except Chell's heels ARE high heels, merely stylized, and Raiden doesn't get a pass just because of apathy. There is no squirming out of obvious evidence by trying to add arbitrary evidence that doesn't change anything.

Well there's also the fact that Raiden's heels are the least ridiculous part of that game. Also if I'm not mistaken Chell's footwear actually serves a practical purpose.

 

[wulf3n]

I'm not sure if people realize this but Samus has always been sexified to a degree. Even before the zero suit. The end of the first game ever she posed in a bikini if you were fast enough. The game over screen for Super Metroid, the third game, shows her busting out of her suit and she's in a black two piece and fairly curvy.

This is one phenomena I've never understood. Whenever the topic comes up around strong female characters Samus is always one of the few championed as being a good example of a female character done right, but given the context of her origin I've always felt her to be one of the worst.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Ok, then.

They look like someone threw a Nerf gun out of a thirty story window. Burned to cinders. Like they've been put between the North American and Pacific plates, and only now just recovered by paleontologists looking for dead lizards. Used by Andy Dick to stab a pharmacist, Seth Macfarlane and a people of a race he isn't, all in 5 seconds.

They are stupid. They look stupid. Unlike Chell's braces, they don't serve a purpose. Unlike Raiden's boots, they aren't parodical or FABUUULOOUUUUS~, and unlike Bayonetta's boots, they can't shoot bullets while playing awesome J-Pop.

They are tacky and stupid and gross.

 

[Fsyco]

I'm not sure if people realize this but Samus has always been sexified to a degree. Even before the zero suit. The end of the first game ever she posed in a bikini if you were fast enough. The game over screen for Super Metroid, the third game, shows her busting out of her suit and she's in a black two piece and fairly curvy.

This is one phenomena I've never understood. Whenever the topic comes up around strong female characters Samus is always one of the few championed as being a good example of a female character done right, but given the context of her origin I've always felt her to be one of the worst.

It reminds me of that one Critical Miss strip where they said that people project good parts of things they like to other parts, which is why Mario, Master Chief, and Gordon Freeman turn up on alot of "Best Characters" lists without actually having any real character. People like Metroid games, some of which have good writing, and they project that 'goodness' onto Samus. I haven't played many Metroid games, but Samus definately has no character. She's a blank slate. And in her medium, that's fine. They've just never really made anything out of the fact she's a woman (with the obvious exception of Other M) except as a reference to Aliens.

OT: I don't really mind Samus getting heels, I just wish they went with better ones. Those looks clunky and weird, like if Asic decided to make high heels. I guess that's the problem with trying to make purely aesthetically cool things somewhat practical. I honestly just wish they'd kept her as is from Brawl and had Bayonetta. I don't mind fanservice (especially heels >.>; but this isn't particularly well done fanservice.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I wouldn't call it sexualisation, they're just stupid looking and not in keeping with the power armour style. Give her the boots from the suit. How fucking hard is it. Then she looks cool at the same time.

As far as being a good female character, while she is definitely designed to attractive (which is fine), the main strength of that argument is in that it's arbitrary to the game. She's a person in the suit and does action things. What she looks like is incidental. Whether the revealing-a-powerful-unrevealed-character-to-be-a-woman-as-a-surprise trope is sexist or not I don't really care.

Basically they look stupid and good luck to be feminists if they can get it changed. I'm not buying the game, so I really don't have any vested interest.

 

[Quazimofo]

That's what I thought...seems like of...weird to me.

Spoiler: Mod edit: Please use spoilers when posting large images

I disagree with the Chell example because those are hardly heels. As for raiden, I honestly didn't notice until I'd beaten the game twice; almost no attention is drawn to them at all and I was too distracted by my own childish squees of glee at slicing cyborgs and bigass robots to the consistency of a roughly grated cheese.

As for the samus thing: I'm not one of those frothing with rage over the change, but frankly it is a bit annoying. As said before, it's just a somewhat impractical addition meant to accentuate the sexuality of a character whose sexuality was never really important. It'd be somewhat like (please note the somewhat) if Chell was suddenly wearing short shorts and a bikini top in her next video game appearance: jarring, unfitting, and probably a bit insulting to any existing fans of the game that a respected protagonist was made "sexier", as if every single person who played any of the games was only interested in the character as something to be ogled.

I don't mean to say all female characters should dress in the most prudish, purely pragmatic way possible for a given situation, but damn would it be nice for developers to act as if every male is a slave to sexual desires and/or so unobservant that they wouldn't notice a character is female unless their breasts are larger than their head and in full view at all times.


TLDR: This whole thing is basically just an extension of the overarching complaint about videogames' tendency to make 90+% of all females featured sexy. Not attractive mind you (as, not unlike movies, most characters male or female are attractive anyway), but deliberately sexy. The souls games seems to be one of the few that largely avoid this. The only other example that comes to mind off the top of my head is Warhammer 40k: Space marine with it's imperial guardswoman.

 

[SD-Fiend]

Give her the boots from the suit. How fucking hard is it. Then she looks cool at the same time.

But then she wouldn't be zero suit samus, It'd be more like 30 percent suit samus. She probably cant use sections of the suit all by themselves and even if she could she'd only have access to the space jump wich wouldn't help her much.

 

[SD-Fiend]

They are stupid. They look stupid. Unlike Chell's braces, they don't serve a purpose. Unlike Raiden's boots, they aren't parodical or FABUUULOOUUUUS~, and unlike Bayonetta's boots, they can't shoot bullets while playing awesome J-Pop.

They are tacky and stupid and gross.

but they do serve a purpose. They help mitigate the nerf she gets without the suit by helping with her jumps and certain attacks.

 

[Grimh]

I just can't figure out where the rocket part is supposed to be.
Is it the heel? That space in-between there?
If it is the heel then why is it curved like that? If it isn't the heel then why is it still curved like that?
Is it the front of the foot? Then why does she have the heels?

Other than that I just think they look bad, they could have designed way more awesome looking rocket-heels(?) than those things.

Also Raiden has those heels to hold his sword so that he can use the strength of his legs to perform more powerful swings, Chell has those braces to absorb the force of impact and keep it from crushing her legs in a somewhat semi-plausible way.
Samus has rocket-boots, except they're heels, because reasons.

 

[furthestshore]

I just can't figure out where the rocket part is supposed to be.
Is it the heel? That space in-between there?
If it is the heel then why is it curved like that? If it isn't the heel then why is it still curved like that?
Is it the front of the foot? Then why does she have the heels?

Other than that I just think they look bad, they could have designed way more awesome looking rocket-heels(?) than those things.

Also Raiden has those heels to hold his sword so that he can use the strength of his legs to perform more powerful swings, Chell has those braces to absorb the force of impact and keep it from crushing her legs in a somewhat semi-plausible way.
Samus has rocket-boots, except they're heels, because reasons.

Yeah, except those braces looked nothing like high heels in the first game. She was barefoot. It's still a serious stretch to call them high heels seeing as how the strut is almost knee-high. I get why people keep pointing to them, because they were well accepted as semi-plausible sensible sci-fi gear... but when you cut the bullcrap, they're nothing like Samus' high heels, which were definitely, undeniably, cut-the-crap put in to sexify her.

The worst part? It's that because these rockets were in high heel form, almost nobody is talking about the fact that Nintendo's doing a disservice to Samus by giving her rocket boots period. It'd previously been established that Samus had been infused with the Chozo aliens' DNA, turning her into a superhuman. In Zero Mission, with no suit, her jumping was so insane she would've had no problem scaling up the sheer side of a skyscraper by jumping a story high then immediately jumping that high again, over and over. Not only are the high heels stupid, but the idea that Samus Aran needs any help with JUMPING is absolutely ludicrous. They're damaging her on multiple levels at once at this point.

 

[Luminous_Umbra]

The worst part? It's that because these rockets were in high heel form, almost nobody is talking about the fact that Nintendo's doing a disservice to Samus by giving her rocket boots period. It'd previously been established that Samus had been infused with the Chozo aliens' DNA, turning her into a superhuman. In Zero Mission, with no suit, her jumping was so insane she would've had no problem scaling up the sheer side of a skyscraper by jumping a story high then immediately jumping that high again, over and over. Not only are the high heels stupid, but the idea that Samus Aran needs any help with JUMPING is absolutely ludicrous. They're damaging her on multiple levels at once at this point.

Except for the fact they are used for more than jumping. Like giving a burst of midair recovery and kick foes in the face with rocket bursts. Pretty sure she would need these heels for that.

As a side note: I really hate how they look, but function over form I suppose.

 

[Riverwolf]

It reminds me of that one Critical Miss strip where they said that people project good parts of things they like to other parts, which is why Mario, Master Chief, and Gordon Freeman turn up on alot of "Best Characters" lists without actually having any real character. People like Metroid games, some of which have good writing, and they project that 'goodness' onto Samus. I haven't played many Metroid games, but Samus definately has no character. She's a blank slate. And in her medium, that's fine. They've just never really made anything out of the fact she's a woman (with the obvious exception of Other M) except as a reference to Aliens.

She's got plenty of character. That character is expressed primarily through the gameplay itself, and the small bits of story we do get. It's subtle, yes, but it's there. The same is true of Mario and Gorden Freeman.

Words aren't necessary for characterization; actions are what primarily define a character.

We know that Samus is a bounty hunter, which means she's very likely to have good self-confidence.
Most of her assignments involve stopping the Space Pirates (as a bounty hunter, she typically gets to choose her assignments), which means she's got some history with them.
Heck, that ability to choose her own assignments indicates a free spirit.
She took an assignment to eradicate the metroids after dealing with them four times. At that point at least, she was perfectly willing to cause a species' extinction.
But seeing a baby metroid hatch in front of her and follow her "like a confused child" stayed her hand from killing it, indicating a strong (probably just awakened) motherly instinct. This is further supported by the fact that when Ceres station came under attack, she immediately went to look for the baby, and when Ridly took it, she followed him back to Zebes with the sole goal of getting it back.
She often gets her gear from Chozo statues, indicating some affiliation with them.
She's highly trained and right at the beginning demonstrates high levels of acrobatic and combat skills.
And as I said earlier, the bikini shots at the ends to me indicate an extroverted, somewhat flirty disposition, and despite the NES manual referring to Samus as a "he", that extroversion likely means she's not interested in hiding her gender. That means her Varia Suit is practical, indicating that she is very pragmatic, herself.
She also doesn't talk much on her solo missions, indicating a strong ability to focus on the task at hand.

This is hardly a blank slate. I'm sure I could come up with more if I thought long enough about it or replayed the games for more specifics.

In addition, the interactive nature of games makes player actions a part of that characterization, which is a big part of why there's so many different interpretations of these characters. That's quite distinct from simple projection of characterizations on, say, a static portrait of a random person with few or no characterizing elements.

 

[Fsyco]

As a side note: I really hate how they look, but function over form I suppose.

Actual heels are entirely form over function. They're unwieldy, difficult to walk in, and can lead to health problems. I once heard that airplanes could be notably lighter and cheaper if nobody wore high heels, because they wouldn't have to design the floors to support the intense pressure.

It reminds me of that one Critical Miss strip where they said that people project good parts of things they like to other parts, which is why Mario, Master Chief, and Gordon Freeman turn up on alot of "Best Characters" lists without actually having any real character. People like Metroid games, some of which have good writing, and they project that 'goodness' onto Samus. I haven't played many Metroid games, but Samus definately has no character. She's a blank slate. And in her medium, that's fine. They've just never really made anything out of the fact she's a woman (with the obvious exception of Other M) except as a reference to Aliens.

She's got plenty of character. That character is expressed primarily through the gameplay itself, and the small bits of story we do get. It's subtle, yes, but it's there. The same is true of Mario and Gorden Freeman.

Words aren't necessary for characterization; actions are what primarily define a character.

We know that Samus is a bounty hunter, which means she's very likely to have good self-confidence.
Most of her assignments involve stopping the Space Pirates (as a bounty hunter, she typically gets to choose her assignments), which means she's got some history with them.
Heck, that ability to choose her own assignments indicates a free spirit.
She took an assignment to eradicate the metroids after dealing with them four times. At that point at least, she was perfectly willing to cause a species' extinction.
But seeing a baby metroid hatch in front of her and follow her "like a confused child" stayed her hand from killing it, indicating a strong (probably just awakened) motherly instinct. This is further supported by the fact that when Ceres station came under attack, she immediately went to look for the baby, and when Ridly took it, she followed him back to Zebes with the sole goal of getting it back.
She often gets her gear from Chozo statues, indicating some affiliation with them.
She's highly trained and right at the beginning demonstrates high levels of acrobatic and combat skills.
And as I said earlier, the bikini shots at the ends to me indicate an extroverted, somewhat flirty disposition, and despite the NES manual referring to Samus as a "he", that extroversion likely means she's not interested in hiding her gender. That means her Varia Suit is practical, indicating that she is very pragmatic, herself.
She also doesn't talk much on her solo missions, indicating a strong ability to focus on the task at hand.

This is hardly a blank slate. I'm sure I could come up with more if I thought long enough about it or replayed the games for more specifics.

In addition, the interactive nature of games makes player actions a part of that characterization, which is a big part of why there's so many different interpretations of these characters. That's quite distinct from simple projection of characterizations on, say, a static portrait of a random person with few or no characterizing elements.

Alot of that sounds....graspy. Granted, I've only actually played Metroid Prime 3 to completion, and saw the Game Grumps playthrough of Super Metroid, but alot of this seems like you're grasping at straws or overanalyzing this. And besides, the 'extroverted flirty' thing and the free spirit goes completely in the face of the character she has in Other M or the comics. From what I understand from those, Ridley killed her parents in front of her and she was raised by the Chozo, and she's subserviant to her male commanding officer because that's what she's supposed to do according to traditional Japanese values. That's why she A) Hates Ridley and the space pirates B) is cool with the Chozo and C) has daddy issues with ADAM. But that's in supplementary materials so I wouldn't really count it. In the (good) games, she's silent and never speaks. I'm not complaining about it, since silent blank-slate protagonists work fine in video games, but I don't see how she's one of the all-time great characters. Same for Mario or Freeman; they never really say anything, we're just told they're amazing heroic people. How do we know Samus isn't just a sadist who likes to kill the underprivileged Space Pirates to get her rocks off?