Lara Croft Used To Be Awesome

Posted on Tuesday, September 4 @ 15:30:00 Eastern by sara_gunn

I have a confession to make: I’m kind of a hardcore Tomb Raider fan. I played a super glitchy CD ROM of Tomb Raider 2—back when they used to come in comically large boxes—when I was fourteen, and was instantly in love. Not with Croft herself (that came later) but with the game itself, of the experience of being a professional adventurer, of the freedom of exploring the world.

Now, I understand that, to a modern gamer, this seems like an everyday thing. We have everything from Uncharted to Call of Duty, from the Cabela franchise to Endless Ocean, where every corner of the world can be yours to explore. But as a poor, suburban gamer in the ’90s who only had a Super Nintendo and a family PC running Windows 95, I had never played anything like Tomb Raider before. It opened my mind to a whole new universe of gaming diversity.

To this day, I still play Tomb Raider. I mean, I replayed Legend like six months ago. Yes, the modern TR games are kind of crap, especially compared to the originality of the older ones, but I still love them. They’re fun, and playable, and don’t take themselves overly seriously. Yes, Croft herself is blatantly sexualized, but I sort of don’t notice that, because she’s just so badass and independent. She doesn’t raid tombs because she has complex daddy issues or a vendetta against society or any of that other overused dribble. She does it because it’s fun as hell. Oh, and the money. That’s also nice.

See, that’s what makes her so bloody amazing. Her actions are just that—active—something I see so rarely in female characters in any medium. Remember that one time when she thought that chick killed her mom and, instead of crying about it and going on about her boring feelings, Croft started shooting at her head and then pistol whipped the sh*t out of her? Yeah, that was freaking awesome. This scene is also an example of how Tomb Raider, of all things, passes the Bechdel Test, something that happens in no video game ever.

Sorry for sneaking that feminism up on you, there. I wanted to ease you all into my point: Old-school Tomb Raider, despite Croft’s blatant sexualization—is actually kind of feminist. To me, feminism means a woman can live, essentially, as a man does: independent, and free of the influence of other genders. That’s what Lara Croft did. She was completely independent, both financially and emotionally, from any man or even any other person; she was motivated only by herself and what she wanted to do, not by what anyone had done to her; and, most important of all, she was active—she participated in her own story, and was always in control of her environment.

So this Tomb Raider reboot? I’m not really about it. Initially, I was stoked to see the redesigns of Croft’s appearance, as she no longer looked like a mutated, comic-book human approximation. Turns out the surface really is just that, though, as we suddenly have this rape subplot. Now I *might* have been okay with that, except producer Ron Rosenberg said, of the new Lara, “[Gamers] don't really project themselves into the character. They're more like 'I want to protect her.' There's this sort of dynamic of 'I'm going to this adventure with her and trying to protect her.'"

Producer Ron Rosenberg, I just want to tell you, from lady gamers everywhere... NO. Stop examining everything from a male perspective. Lara Croft is not awesome because, as you so tragically put it, we “want to protect her.” She’s awesome because she kicks a ton of ass, and some of us actually do project ourselves into her, not just onto her. I feel like, if someone tried to get rape-y with Croft, she would kick him in the face and ride away on her motorcycle, laughing hysterically because she’s going to go home and take a swim in her Scrooge McDuck vault. Then she would promptly forget about it, because NO ONE F*CKS WITH CROFT. And no one tells her what to do.

Tags: Tomb Raider

Comments

Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 3:27 pm
I played a hunting demo of Tomb Raider at PAX, and I was fairly impressed. It's true that she isn't the pistol-whipping badass of yore, but it's being told as an origins story. Still, the point is that the story needs to communicate that she transforms less because she's forced to from some kind of psychological trauma by a man and more because she wants to as a woman who doesn't take bullshit.

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Lien
Joined: Feb 2008

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 4:49 am
Yes... Somehow it gives this weird, dare i say that name, "Other M" vibe. I mean sure we found out WHY she became bad-ass, but it gives this weird taste in your throat. I'll wait for the review before i am giving out my opinion on this.

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moretokes
Joined: Apr 2011

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 4:00 pm
I'd rape Lara croft into becoming a stronger woman! Figuratively speaking of course. Just joking I understand where you are coming from. I remember playing tomb raider as a kid having fun being a badass! It wasn't until puberty I was attracted to Lara( another joke, please don't hate me women). Honestly though I don't remember too many action. Games where you performed acrobats , tons of killing and exploration, plus wasn't even a platformer in any way

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moretokes
Joined: Apr 2011

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 4:01 pm
It kinda set. A path for games like Assassins creed and splinter cell, it kinda created the genre

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NecroWolf
Joined: Oct 2005

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Oh, look, another complaint about the new Lara Croft, with another mentioning of the now legendary 'rape subplot'. Is this really a thing? Do you honestly think this is going to be a plot arc? It'll likely be one scene, one little moment in a game that spans around 15 hours or so. Also, it'll likely be boring, unemotional and little more than excuse for Lara to kick someone in the face.

Do you -actually- think she's going to be raped? Seriously, you think that? A trailer has a few seconds of a dude putting his hand on Lara's thigh, and suddenly its a rape game? I don't know how people reached this conclusion, this is like when it was announced that Mass Effect 1 would let female characters sleep with an alien, then suddenly there are blogs, news posts, even comics by Penny Arcade, making the assumption that it was a pornographic alien game. Remember when Fox News reported it was an sex game based purely on on little tidbit of information? Yeah, this is stupid.

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Lien
Joined: Feb 2008

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 4:50 am
...So you saying that fox news just repeated what every gamer was thinking...?

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NecroWolf
Joined: Oct 2005

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 6:58 am
The thing with Fox News happened about two weeks after the games release, from an 'expert' who played the game. They went on how you can use a 'sex-gun' to make other NPCs horny, adjust breast size and bunch of stuff. I'm sure you can dig up the segment on youtube. It's hilarious.

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elmoreoocyte
Joined: Apr 2012

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 4:24 pm
"To me, feminism means a woman can live, essentially, as a man does: independent, and free of the influence of other genders."

Independent and free of the influence of other genders? As a man who is college educated, married, and works in a professional environment that free of influence statement is hilarious. Thanks to the p*ssification of American men; I would wager it is easier to be free of the influence of other genders as a woman in today's western society.

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NecroWolf
Joined: Oct 2005

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 4:29 pm
I don't like feminists, at all. There is inequality in some places, but they rarely ever want to talk about the real issues. They want to ***** and moan about the stupid **** that doesn't matter, like reducing breast size in video game characters... or discussing sexual equality IN A VIDEO GAME.

This is coming from a female.

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elmoreoocyte
Joined: Apr 2012

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
Yeah I saw your comment after I posted mine. Was hoping someone lacking a Y chromosome would also think this whole "article" was backwards.

The Laura Croft rape angle is so rote I'm not even going to start on it.

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Sourdeez
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Wait people cant respect a strong woman for standing up for herself in face of some kind of unwanted sexual advance?

I mean. Im not for crazy feminism but I can respect seeing that. It doesn't shock me as a "OMG she almost got raped" moment.

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Bras
Joined: Jul 2008

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 9:35 pm
All this time NecroWolf, All this years...

And I thought you were a guy.

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Chunibrow
Joined: Mar 2010

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 12:31 am
Well her typing is pretty manly

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Lien
Joined: Feb 2008

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 4:46 am
....or is he?

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NecroWolf
Joined: Oct 2005

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 7:14 am
Tragic, isn't it? I'm sorry to disappoint.

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Lien
Joined: Feb 2008

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 4:47 am
Doesn't matter if you are female or not... you still comment like a 15 years old... *cough*

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NecroWolf
Joined: Oct 2005

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 7:12 am
I know right?

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wildmario
Joined: Jan 2007

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Maybe the producer was looking at the rape and protect thing from a male point of view because he knows the majority of the gamers that will buy the game are male? I'm pretty sure most of the Tomb Raider fan base are guys. Not saying girls aren't into the series, but the way Lara was presented for years was a pretty much dead giveaway on who she was appealing to.

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ShadeTail
Joined: Nov 2006

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
So male gamers always have that kind of mindset? And therefore game developers should cater to that mindset rather than make their work more egalitarian? You don't need to be a woman to understand what's wrong with both of those assumptions.

Whenever someone points out how obviously misogynistic video games tend to be, the reactions always range from dismissive to hateful. Why do so many people have a problem with letting female characters be equals to male characters?

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NecroWolf
Joined: Oct 2005

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 5:56 pm
Because it doesn't matter, that's why. It really doesn't, there are so many things to rebel against in the video-game world, from the prices, to the publishers being dicks, to Day-One DLC, and host of other problems. When stacked against those issues, gender equality in video games is unimportant. There won't ever be gender equality in video games, it will not happen. Ever. It hasn't happened in Hollywood in close to a century, and it won't happen in video games. Sex sells, the video game industry is a for-profit industry. When sex stops selling video-games, when big tits and Kim Kardashian asses stop earning them money, they'll put the brakes on it... until then, we're going to get Lollipop Chainsaw and Extreme Beach Volleyball, deal with it.

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ShadeTail
Joined: Nov 2006

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 6:09 pm
So because basic human rights and dignity "doesn't matter" to *you*, you expect everyone else to "deal with it". Could you possibly be any more self-centered and smug?

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NecroWolf
Joined: Oct 2005

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 6:16 pm
It's not being self-centered and smug, it's being realistic. Human rights, and dignity has nothing to do with video games. Being a luxury item, you can't use excuses like that. If it was people getting hurt because of it, then yeah, it'd be an issue. Right now, it's as harmless as Hollywood still using actresses as Megan Fox. It may suck, but it isn't worth the effort to stamp out when there are much larger issues at stake. Nobody's basic human rights are being threatened by video games, that's horseshit, it's also kind of insulting that you would say that when there are honest violations of human rights happening worldwide, and you choose to apply that term to video games, that makes you rather self-centered and smug.
So, yes, deal with it.

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Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
Elaine: "I'm speaking at a women's rights conference."
Peterman: "You will be missed."
George: "I have to leave too, I...I'm speaking at a men's rights conference."
Peterman: "George I don't believe that for a minute."

(Just popped into my head reading the comments.)

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NecroWolf
Joined: Oct 2005

Posted: Sep 4th, 2012 at 6:57 pm
Behold the master at work. You need to do another Most Interesting Gamer in the World, I love those. ^.^ I promise not to use another emoticon like that if you do.

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drazze
Joined: Aug 2006

Posted: Sep 6th, 2012 at 5:20 am
A female?! Here!? Time to be more active in these forums!!! :O

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