Tomb Raider writer expressed an interest in making Lara gay?

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BloatedGuppy

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Moonlight Butterfly said:
I think in Fallout 3 it was more that women were flirty to you and the men treated you like you are chopped liver. Lesbians are pretty well catered to by a side effect of the lazy dev.
You could be right. The writing in that game was so appalling I paid scant attention to it at the best of times. I busied myself crawling around on dusty bluffs and digging in the rubble for stimpacks.

Good times.
 

Moonlight Butterfly

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BloatedGuppy said:
Moonlight Butterfly said:
I think in Fallout 3 it was more that women were flirty to you and the men treated you like you are chopped liver. Lesbians are pretty well catered to by a side effect of the lazy dev.
You could be right. The writing in that game was so appalling I paid scant attention to it at the best of times. I busied myself crawling around on dusty bluffs and digging in the rubble for stimpacks.

Good times.
Oh I loved the game. I just wish they had paid more attention to the writing. New Vegas was much better and has better dialogue options.
 

BloatedGuppy

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Moonlight Butterfly said:
Oh I loved the game. I just wish they had paid more attention to the writing. New Vegas was much better and has better dialogue options.
I did as well. When I say "good times" I'm only being half-sarcastic. I love survival games, and I love post-apocalyptic milieus. Digging around in the rubble actually DOES enthrall me.

New Vegas was the better written, more story driven game (Obsidian trumps Bethesda on writing and story presentation, quelle surprise), but I think I preferred the atmosphere of FO3. The capital wasteland was a blasted, haunting ruin. New Vegas was positively jocular by comparison. I guess it did capture more of Fallout's trademark black humor, I just never felt as immersed.

However I digress. We are veering badly off topic.
 

mrhateful

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I don't wanna seem like I am against gays, which I am not but making Lara gay just seem like a weak attempt at feeling modern. However if she desperately wanted Lara to be gay make her bisexual thus, showing Lara is not tied down by normal conventions and will sleep with whomever she pleases, which 1. doesn't ruin any previous knowledge of her and 2. doesn't make it feel like a desperate attempt at feeling edgy/modern.
 

Moonlight Butterfly

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BloatedGuppy said:
Moonlight Butterfly said:
Oh I loved the game. I just wish they had paid more attention to the writing. New Vegas was much better and has better dialogue options.
I did as well. When I say "good times" I'm only being half-sarcastic. I love survival games, and I love post-apocalyptic milieus. Digging around in the rubble actually DOES enthrall me.

New Vegas was the better written, more story driven game (Obsidian trumps Bethesda on writing and story presentation, quelle surprise), but I think I preferred the atmosphere of FO3. The capital wasteland was a blasted, haunting ruin. New Vegas was positively jocular by comparison. I guess it did capture more of Fallout's trademark black humor, I just never felt as immersed.

However I digress. We are veering badly off topic.
Indeed what I was going to say is how many games can you think of where the straight female protag has a relationship with a guy. And how many games are there where the female character can pick a romantic interest that is there for benefit of the guys. Look at Baldur's Gate what three female options (while since I played it) for both sexes and 1 incredibly annoying straight guy. hmm yeah.

The balance is really not skewed in favour of straight women.
 

Easton Dark

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Croft 'aint got time for a relationship.

All those phallic treasures she raids tombs for have to be quite a time sink.
 

BloatedGuppy

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Moonlight Butterfly said:
Indeed what I was going to say is how many games can you think of where the straight female protag has a relationship with a guy. And how many games are there where the female character can pick a romantic interest that is there for benefit of the guys. Look at Baldur's Gate what three female options (while since I played it) for both sexes and 1 incredibly annoying straight guy. hmm yeah.

The balance is really not skewed in favour of straight women.
Yes but girls got to romance ANOMEN!

Look at him! Look at that face!



Look! Look at him!

Yeah okay you've got a point. God I hated that guy. "What is it now?! What is it now!?" Shut the fuck up, Anomen. Worst romantic partner EVER.

Until Anders, of course.
 

Moonlight Butterfly

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BloatedGuppy said:
Look! Look at him!

Yeah okay you've got a point. God I hated that guy. "What is it now?! What is it now!?" Shut the fuck up, Anomen. Worst romantic partner EVER.
The last time I saw that incredibly punchable face he was being dragged off by vampires and not a single fuck was given that day.
 

Khanht Cope

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She was just responding to question without a serious implication attached. She just commented in a hypothetical context that part of her would have "loved to make Lara gay". A writer can think of that sort of thing all the time, because it's hypothetically just an interesting body of ideas that may seem appealing to work with. It doesn't necessarily mean it would be a serious ambition for the actual direction.
 

norashepard

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I always just assumed she was a lesbian and left it at that...

But for real I would have been fine if they had made her canonically gay in the game, so long as they treated whatever relationship there was with respect, which kind of applies to any game with romantic content. If they treated it like Far Cry 3 though? I would probably just shut down the computer and walk away, disillusioned with a world in which that qualifies as good writing.
 

JayElleBee

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I was shipping Lara and Sam pretty hard by the end of the game, so if it had been canon, I would have been thrilled.

But alas, gay main characters in ideas games are a thing of the very distant future.
 

Rickin10

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Surprised they didn't follow through from a simply cynical economic point of view. A significant percentage of your fanbase are male adolescents who fantasize about Lara. Having her hook up with a male would not go down well, but if she were to get it on with a woman....? Hmmmm... Maybe Lara could be washing her clothes under a waterfall.... Maybe Sam comes along to help out. 'Here let me help you out of that tight, dirty vest,' she says...

-Sorry! Damn you, internet porn!!!
 

TheLycanKing144

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I don't see why they would want to do that, it seems like it's the "cool" thing now to be gay or to support gays, hell if you simply state that you disagree with it then they attack you and label you a homophobic bigot for no reason.

I personally don't really care if Lara was a lesbian or not, but it doesn't make the slightest bit of sense, more like "we want to make her gay for the sake of being gay, we are really showing society here". I wish people (not just game developers) would stop pushing this onto everyone.
 

C117

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If it serves to make her into a more likeable character, I'm all for it. And even if not, I don't see why not. There is no reason for anyone to freak out over a character in a videogame turning out to be homosexual. In fact, we probably need more videogame characters who are homosexual.

Well characterized homosexuals, mind you. Otherwise it would just be insulting.
 

Zantos

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fix-the-spade said:
Calibanbutcher said:
This really shone through when she put the 35th flaming arrow through a poor sods skull after insulting him. Or when she was gunning down legions of henchmen, all the while swearing like a sailor.
Empathy, right?
Or that finishing move where she jams a shotgun under some mook's jaw and takes his head clean off.

Even Mr Marcus Fenix might consider that one a bit much.
Didn't one of the Gears of War games feature an execution that was literally ripping someone's arm off and beating them with the soggy end?

OT: Whether or not I have an issue with this depends on things which I am woefully underread on Tomb Raider backstory to make judgements on myself. Mostly on whether it's in direct conflict with previous canon. If she's already established as being straight then that's kinda pulling a 180, if it's not been mentioned before then yeah, you don't lose your sexuality just because you aren't dating at the time. The other is a straight up 'Will it be shit?'. If it's actually a well thought out and written piece of character development then it will make a nice addition to the story. If it's some tacked on bullshit to make you look edgy, leave it the fuck out.
 

m19

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Rickin10 said:
Surprised they didn't follow through from a simply cynical economic point of view. A significant percentage of your fanbase are male adolescents who fantasize about Lara. Having her hook up with a male would not go down well, but if she were to get it on with a woman....? Hmmmm... Maybe Lara could be washing her clothes under a waterfall.... Maybe Sam comes along to help out. 'Here let me help you out of that tight, dirty vest,' she says...

-Sorry! Damn you, internet porn!!!
Men like "lesbians" not lesbians. The utter lack of potential of getting in between slays that fantasy in its tracks.

LifeCharacter said:
Considering the only extra writing they would have to do to make her homosexual is throw in a line about an ex-girlfriend or how she was attracted to some woman, I don't see how that requires so much more effort on behalf of people who write for a living. Blatant fanservice isn't the only way to show a character's sexuality.
Except they've done this. In her origin story from a comic book they did she was betrothed to a man who died in a plane crash. So this whole thing would feel like a retcon for some kind of statement.
 

LiquidGrape

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m19 said:
Except they've done this. In her origin story from a comic book they did she was betrothed to a man who died in a plane crash. So this whole thing feel a retcon for some kind of statement.
A retcon of a spinoff comic continuity arguably separate from the original games as it were.
And this is a reboot of the franchise.

I don't think it's an issue.

And even if you do take that into account, it doesn't negate the possibility of Lara having a more malleable sexuality. Having a heterosexual relationship in your past doesn't preclude the possibility of homosexual relationships before or after that. We cannot presume on anyone's sexuality until it has been accounted for to a meaningful extent. Otherwise we're just entrenching the heteronormative.
 

m19

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LiquidGrape said:
A retcon of a spinoff comic continuity arguably separate from the original games as it were.
And this is a reboot of the franchise.

I don't think it's an issue.

And even if you do take that into account, it doesn't negate the possibility of Lara having a more malleable sexuality. Having a heterosexual relationship in your past doesn't preclude the possibility of homosexual relationships before or after that. We cannot presume on anyone's sexuality until it has been accounted for to a meaningful extent. Otherwise we're just entrenching the heteronormative.
To me that seems convoluted. They've done what they've done in the comics (and movies for that matter) because the answer is simple: Lara Croft as a base character across the whole franchise has always been simply straight with no indication to anything else. The only reason to confuse it all now is for the attention and the "edgyness".

Besides: fights like a man, bleeds like a man, tough like a man... has to be lesbian. Kind of a stereotype.