Samus Aran is one of most recognisable figures from gaming, what with her being one of the first female protagonists in gaming history and the fact she owns a ridiculously bitchin’ arm cannon. She also owes virtually her entire existence to one developer making a joke.
You see, during the development of Metroid, the first game Samus appeared in, it was always intended for the main character to be a man, because, well, people back then didn’t exactly give a shit about things like equal gender representation in media. Shit, people still get annoyed about that today.
As an example of how late in the game the decision to give the protagonist of Metroid a rockin’ set of tits instead of a schlong was, even the game’s own instruction manual referred to Samus as a “he”. In recent years the the game’s producers have said that was deliberate mistake made to mislead the player which sounds reasonable, but at the same time, also sounds exactly like someone trying to cover their own ass.
The weird part is, despite the decision to make Samus a woman and the subsequent reveal that the game’s protagonist is shock, a woman capable of getting shit done, being one of the single most iconic moments of the franchise’s history. Nobody involved with the production of the original game can apparently recall who first suggested the main character should be a woman. All we know is that one developer suggested it “as a joke” and everyone else just kind of rolled with. Yes, somewhere out there, there is a person who is almost single-handedly responsible for helping women spin-jump their way into modern gaming and shooting sexism right in the dick and we have no idea who the fuck they are.
