(pt2) I'm used to tr2&3 ver of Lara where she's more human. She fumbles eventhough we were to believe she was a perfectionist but Toby Gard didn't want to continue developing her because of marketing(which I doubt). He was pleased with how Lara was portrayed in Legends, isn't he being a bit hypocritical? It's clear he wanted Lara to be sort of a flawless comic book/hollywood superhero. But we both know Lara is not just that. Sorry for the rant, but Legends got me curious about how tr started.
It is directly false that Toby Gard left Core Design because of the marketing of the character, and when he stated it was because of it during Legend times, he was utterly lying. As we know per ex-Core Design’s members statements like Richard Morton, the reason Toby Gard left Core Design was because he had plans to expand his career by working for other studios and he wanted to grab the chance, which the rest of Core members respected despite asking him not to leave the studio.
The sexualization marketing had NOTHING to do with this and it’s an utter lie Core Design had anything to do with it, as it’s proven by the statements of several ex-Core members during the years and information you can find picked up, contrasted and collected in Serel’s book. It was Eidos the ones marketing Lara as a sexy icon, not Core, as it’s proven by several statements against it coming from the level designers which even designed the last cutscene of Tomb Raider II, in Home Sweet Home, to remind the player “you’ve seen enough” and has no right to look through Lara’s bathing robe.
Another proof of Toby Gard not caring at all about the sexualization of his character was that in his sketches of Lara - or even when she still was Laura Cruz - depicts obviously a sexualized character with big breasts and partially revealing clothing, as it was typical in the 90s:
Then, as you say, he came back with Legend, and he had no qualms in lying about the reasons with which he left Core Design, a place were he was given plenty of creativity freedom and the team stuck with him when refusing Lara’s nude patch.
He says it’s about the sexualization of the character and then goes with working on a game, Legend, in which Lara gets sorts of bikinis to be used as outfits, uses a more than revealing night dress in the Tokyo sequences that ends up ragged until uncovering her panties, and has also some curious renders like this one
(there’s a version without the torn cloth, revealing all her back) which hardly has anything to do with characterization and the inside game’s plot. But surely, Core Design had to be shot dead for some TR3 marketing renders EIDOS made - not them! - and of course no one blinked an eye - Gard and the fandom included - when these things were showed in Legend and even were encouraged and praised because it was “fun” and “badass”. A typical Hollywood-esque cliché and attitude, as you well say.
It is unfair and upsetting to find still so many lies and misinformation about the origins of the era. I remember Toby Gard being praised like a god when he returned in 2006, but turns out his contribution to the game was far less determinant and impressive than it was back in 1996, and after this he just vanishes into thin air and never goes back again. Well.
Yes, he’s a textbook hypocrite and a liar, and I don’t get why he had to damage the team with which he worked by saying lies and slanders about the reasons why he left Core Design. We must insist that it was Eidos, not Core, who was in charge of the marketing campaign. And that seeing what was done later with Legend, the TR3 sexy renders fall flat and unimportant since they had nothing to do with what you could find IN the game. While in Legend, you get to use bikinis, rags and behold Lara’s deep cleavage, almost totally exposed tits and exposed panties. But yeah, let’s burn Core at the stake for no goddamm reason.
In any case, after the scarce sympathy I had for Gard left vanished long ago, it’s important to remark it makes no sense to worship him like a god, since yeah, he created Lara, he worked at TR1, and later, at Legend. But that’s all. What about the rest of the saga we love and cherish? He wasn’t the one behind ALL of it, right?
A team work. With two women working in level design and storyboard from the first. Let’s never forget it.
