You want to talk about this @raidstombs? Let’s talk about this, and forgive me if my English is not perfect, I’m not a native speaker, but I’m a Tomb Raider fan like you.
You know that what you just read in that highlighted paragraph is a beta concept, right? A prototype? An unused, discarded idea? That’s the year 1995, not even 1996, the game is still in development, everything is not definitive yet and proof of that is the fact that even the main character is still surnamed “Cruz”, not Croft.
I mean, this is not the canon that definitely made it into the game. From this very point, your further reasoning sinks itself like a house of cards. It’s the same when people claims that TRAOD Lara is alcoholic or set Croft Manor on fire: that never happened because those ideas were never implented into the game. This is the same, fellow fan: an idea which was never implemented into the game.
Accusing Lara Croft of being racist and xenophobic just because in a protoype, beta idea, when she even has not her final name, mentions the word “xenophobic” is so farfetched I can’t believe I’m reading a person who claims to be a fan since 1996. Like, nothing that you said about Classic Lara is true. You seem not to know her.
Lara was never racist or xenophobic - not more than Indiana Jones or Nathan Drake. Because, remember, she was created taking inspiration on the figure of Indy. Yes, we can see some questionable features in classic Indiana Jones’ movies - jokes about ethnic groups and local tribes which - surprise! are inexistent at Tomb Raider. Just because she kills some Polinesian/Chinese/Tibetan/Arab people to defend her life or acts sassy with a cannibal who has just threatened to eat her flesh, doesn’t mean she is racist or xenophobic. Please tell me where Classic Lara acts xenophobic in the rest of all freakin’ series - because I don’t see it.
Ah yes, she steals artefacts from their original cultures, but hey, the game’s named Tomb Raider and not World Citizen Archaeologist, what did you expect? At least the title of the game is honest and doesn’t try to sell us a fraud, as it happens with the reboot: since Laraboot is not a Tomb Raider, yet the game uses that title. To exploit the success of Classic Lara, by the way.
As a Historian and teacher of History myself, I’d never approve Lara’s behaviour and attitude in real life - but hey! Guess what?? It’s a game and she’s a fictional character!!! We are supposed to enjoy a game and remember, it’s a 90′s era game! Back in those times, these fever of doing realistic games and relatable characters was not fancy!! Just because she kills people from different countries in self-defense - she doesn’t mind to kill, but she DOESN’T enjoy it, doesn’t mean she is racist. Just because she steals artefacts from other cultures, can you blame her and say she is xenophobic - then the managers and curators from British Museum or Berlin’s museums ARE xenophobic, since hey! Guess what again??? Those museums are full of stuff solen from foreign countries during centuries!
Now, Laraboot is supposed “to have respect for other people and cultures?” I remember her killing Japanese warriors in the reboot - isn’t that racist, or just because they are demonic warriors she’s absolved? Also, she steals and plunders several optional tombs both in the reboot and ROTTR - isn’t she xenophobic for that? Huh-oh.
Let’s leave this at this point. Of course all those attitudes are questionable, but remember, she’s not more nor less xenophobic than Indiana Jones and every archaelogist, grave robber or adventurer who took something from a distant place and brought it home - so, honey, please!! Let’s make a Wall of Shame with Howard Charter, Heinrich Schliemann and every fella who took a jar of Egyptian sand from Abu Simbel to Britain! Messing with a fictional character inspired in another fictional character who were created for fun feels less productive than this, for sure.
Even TRAOD Lara, which you claimed you don’t like, had a Bedouin shaman who helped her to recover and whom she befriended - and her name’s Putai. Shame TRAOD developers didn’t have enough time to include this character in the game. But here she is - an African Bedouin shaman who’s the main helper and support of Lara Croft. She just owes her her fucking life - surely, what on earth was Core thinking when including such an important character for Lara’s rebirth? Wow, how racist. How xenophobic.
Concerning Lara Croft sexualization, if you really care about what you just said and really, really want to talk about this as you stated, please, I ask you to read my article about it (it’s linked above). Not because I think I’m cool, but because in that article I’ve syntethized all I have to say about the matter, and you’ll really honor me if you took the time to read it.
Just telling you that when I read you stating that Classic Lara was
a piece of fuckmeat just for male consumption
a part of me died. I can’t understand for the life of me why on earth someone who claims to be a fan of the game since 1996 can say such thing of Lara Croft.
She was never “a piece of fuckmeat” - no man ever used her, she never allowed a man to touch her, she never used her physical charms, her body, or her sexuality, as weapons. Her weapons are firearms, not her body. Your statement describes some kind of prostitute or a woman who achieves her goals using sex - respectable as it is!!! But that, my dear, that’s not Lara Croft.
And I’ll serve two examples: first, Larson Conway, who tries to touch her in two occasions - TR1 and TR5, and she beats the shit outta him for trying it. Second, Kurtis Trent: he manages to do it since he’s far more clever than Larson and later, she takes revenge on it in her own way - but that’s not using sex to get her goals, again. Besides, as you’ll probably know, Kurtis was created to be her match, so that’s another different story - he never used her.
Saying that Lara was marketed just for male consumption might be partially true at the beginning, but soon, we, the female gamers, made Lara ours. I’m a female gamer who liked and loved her from the first and she’s been an inspiration to me… I never cared for her boobs, of her looks, I cared for what she did and how charming, witty, independent and powerful she was. She never let anyone to step on her, much less male characters. How can you say she’s a piece of fuckmeat??? She was probably the first videogame character who attracted both male and female gamers!!!
And why you wrapped all this rant against Classic Lara with a “some people can’t be critical with Core” argument? I can be critical with Core, I also don’t like how teen Lara was rendered, I can tell about the bad decisions taken during the development of TR5 and TRAOD, but I can’t identify myself with your reasoning, nor I recognize my dear heroine in your description, sorry.
There are several points which you don’t mention, by the way:
1. You don’t mention that Crystal Dynamics put a ver, very questionable wardrobe in Tomb Raider Legend. Why didn’t you say a word about that Tokyo night dress or that collection of bikinis available in-game? Do you remember Core Design putting such sexy stuff on her outfits in ANY of the classic games? Not to mention one thing: those sexy renders of Classic Lara stopped at TRAOD: there’s no render with TRAOD Lara - the only Lara you claim to dislike, with sexualized and nude stuff: just saying. Even the wetsuit she was gonna use in TRAOD was replaced with a more covering version - yet, in Underworld Crystal Dynamics put on her a wetsuit who bared her buttocks. But nope, Core’s the sexualizer!
2. You don’t mention that in 1995 Toby Gard was still in charge of the character’s development and probably, that bit of prototype “xenophobic” bit was written, if not by him, surely with him still in Core Design. Yet Crystal era fans consider him some kind of god and they were so happy when he returned to develop TR Legend - and all that sexualized wardrobe was put on her without him uttering a word, he who allegedly left Core because he was displeased with the management of the character. Oh dear Toby, the hypocresy! And yet you said nothing about that. But you know - that doesn’t even matter!!! Because as I said, it’s a PROTOTYPE, a BETA, meaning it is not part of the character’s final canon.
Finally, I find funny how you threaten Classic and Core fans not to “dare to say Classic Lara was perfect and Core couldn’t do wrong”, yet you praise Laraboot as the perfect incarnation of Lara Croft, a kind of Classic Lara with the flaws removed. I can’t disagree more with this, of course, but this is not the place to rant about it, since my answer is already long enough. Just saying, your opinion is as biased as mine, and when in the beginning of your rant you sate that
the fandom has become an ugly place with fans of the classic games pitted against those who enjoy the rebooted canon
you forgot to mention that Core and TRAOD fans have endured the same kind of shit during 13 freakin’ years, so please, be fair and give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Crystal and reboot fans are not innocent, particularly when it comes about hating Core Design and TRAOD.
I’m as fan of the classic as you, I’ve been playing the games since 1998 - when I discovered them, and honestly, I can’t disagree more with you. You’re right when you say people must be critical also about things they like, but the way you trashed on Lara in this rant has nothing to do with constructive criticism - since you forgot to give Crystal and Toby Gard their part of guilt on Lara’s sexualization, and you biased your rant blaming of making this fandom unpleasant just to classic fans - when in fact, everyone is to blame here. He who is without sin, cast the first stone.
Finally, you thank a woman for the reboot’s storyline - but sorry, just because a woman is writing now TR’s storyline doesn’t make the main character more empowered and inspiring. I think she’s rather the opposite - I find a thousand of times more empowered and inspiring every line written for Lara by a man named Murti Schofield, than all the gasps, moans and swearings written for Laraboot by a woman named Rhianna Pratchett. But that’s a matter of taste, of course.
I can be critical with Core Design and their games - but sorry, concerning Classic Lara, there’s no way I can see her being racist or xenophobic - that was a beta idea, for God’s sake!! And her sexualization wasn’t part of the game themselves - being just a matter of a few renders, so please… at least, be fair with the heroine who inspired us female gamers for years and the company who brought her to us, and give everyone what she deserves - and I’m sure as hell Lara doesn’t deserve anything you said about her.
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