After a four-year hiatus, the galaxy’s greatest bounty hunter, Samus Aran, is back. Metroid Prime 4, the latest entry in the long running Metroid video game series, hit store shelves last week, exposing more players to a female character who made gaming history nearly four decades ago.
But the release of Prime 4 has also resurfaced an insidious attempt by LGBT activists to rewrite Samus, insisting that the franchise’s trailblazing woman is, in fact, a man.
The claim first appeared in 2015, when man in a dress Brianna Wu co-authored an article for The Mary Sue titled “Metroid’s Samus Aran is a Transgender Woman. Deal With It.” Activists kept the theory going, including lesbian outlet Autostraddle listing Samus on its 2023 list of top transgender video game characters.
Wu’s article returned with a vengeance with the release of Prime 4 as one of the game’s credited narrative writers reposted it and tweeted support of the transgender Samus theory. In a post that has since been deleted, writer Megan Fausti wrote “I honestly love the idea that Samus is a trans woman. In my mind, she is and always will be.”
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Approved ~ MJM
