High Heels and Hard Light: Sexism, Pandering, and the Fall of Samus Aran

Samus Aran. Badass bounty hunter. Galactic savior. Hero and protagonist of a videogame series that has endured for almost thirty years. Samus Aran is among the most iconic videogame characters of all time. As far as female protagonists go, Samus is the earliest surviving one. Aside, I guess, from Ms. Pac-Man, but can you really count an anthropomorphized yellow blob? Samus is — at the very least — the oldest surviving female protagonist we can identify with. You know, since she’s human. Or at least humanoid. Back in 1986, even if you owned the original Metroid, even if you’d beaten