Tomb Raider writer expressed an interest in making Lara gay?

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Groan. I would hate it because it seems like a trope that there can't be any straight tough women.
I think I would be really annoyed.
It would feel like they were taking away the one relate-able female protagonist ><
If she made her gay I wouldn't kick up a fuss but I really hope she doesn't.
By making her gay I can't help but feel it would just be pandering to the guys again...

Real pandering would be if they brought Kurtis Trent back.
Lesbians would have been the next best thing IMHO.Go see how many remixes there are of these two on Youtube.

God that game was so awful.

Pointless extra protag is pointless.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Kind of just seems pointless to be honest, and if they did make her gay they would probably sexualize it too much. Shes never really been proven to be straight to my knowledge either? Like a lot of game characters there sexual preference is never mentioned and thus we assume they're straight.

 

[m19]

In her origin story she had a fiancée.

 

[fix-the-spade]

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.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

That's pretty meaningless IF things stay like they are, but what i'm afraid this change will bring is them pushing every 5 to 10 minutes that.
''omg she is gay look at how we push boundaries!!!!1!!''

Yeah, it's funny how so many games are changing things to include gays, whether to be "more inclusive" or to "push boundaries" yet they never intentionally plan to include gays from day one. At this point, gays are an "afterthought" market, only included after the game is proven to be successful so that they know the "gayness" won't jeopardize their sales. That, and games (like movies and still many books) seem to have that issue where every character in the game is white, male, and straight by default until the writers decide otherwise. Thus turning the cast development into less of an ensemble and more of a diversity checklist.

I can't figure out whether this is sarcasm. Making Lara gay would have been a token move, just like her getting raped. But actually this news is encouraging to me, because her sexuality wasn't relevant to the story at all. She could well be gay and it would be just like a modern writer to throw it in for no reason at all than to be edgy or different. I still think the game's story is boring.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

For me, Lara Croft falls firmly into the category of characters who don't need to have their sexuality made evident. She is an asexual character, she raids tombs and doesn't afraid of anything. To make a point of her sexuality would be superfluous.

 

[Fappy]

Just tweeted her about it and she got back to me with this.

Rhianna Pratchett &#8207;@rhipratchett 4m
@Bennjoon I was just musing on the subject/topic. The title of the piece was a bit misleading. It wasn't something I set out to do.

Yay.

Disclaimer (I would be upset not because she would lesbian but because Lara is like the single games character I relate too....so yes I'm super selfish )

She also stated she wanted to keep it "ambiguous".
http://www.tombraiderforums.com/showthread.php?p=6714752#post6714752

I guess no one's feelings would be hurt that way, people who root for it or against it.

Yeah, I would love to see Lara have a boyfriend mostly because it was stated back in the day they did it deliberately so lads could feel like 'she belonged to them' -.- (not even joking) but ambiguous is fine with me. As then people can have their own head canon.

That was the logic? Really? Damn, that's pretty sad. Now that I think of it I don't believe I know of any games where you play as a female in a relationship (besides Bioware RPGs). Wonder why that is >.>

 

[Kennetic]

I got the vibe that Lara and Sam were just best friends and that Lara felt guilty for bringing the crew to the island and that Sam kept getting kidnapped from right under her nose. Read one of Sam's journals, she says that they met a lot of cute dudes on some mountain or at a club or something so I don't think Sam is gay.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Just tweeted her about it and she got back to me with this.

Rhianna Pratchett &#8207;@rhipratchett 4m
@Bennjoon I was just musing on the subject/topic. The title of the piece was a bit misleading. It wasn't something I set out to do.

Yay.

Disclaimer (I would be upset not because she would lesbian but because Lara is like the single games character I relate too....so yes I'm super selfish )

She also stated she wanted to keep it "ambiguous".
http://www.tombraiderforums.com/showthread.php?p=6714752#post6714752

I guess no one's feelings would be hurt that way, people who root for it or against it.

Yeah, I would love to see Lara have a boyfriend mostly because it was stated back in the day they did it deliberately so lads could feel like 'she belonged to them' -.- (not even joking) but ambiguous is fine with me. As then people can have their own head canon.

That was the logic? Really? Damn, that's pretty sad. Now that I think of it I don't believe I know of any games where you play as a female in a relationship (besides Bioware RPGs). Wonder why that is >.>

I know right

It was in a playstation mag if I remember correctly, you have to remember this was like 12 years ago or so. Dev's weren't as subtle lol.

 

[Candidus]

I wouldn't mind, but I wouldn't be ecstatic either.

The main concern I have is that I can't think of a way to fit a romantic episode into a game like the new Tomb Raider without bloating it unnecessarily. As the author indicated, the ramp-up time for her emotional adaptation to violence is already super-condensed.

I mean, I'm confused by the comment that nobody can truly be good who kills 'a lot'... If the circumstances demand it once and your motives are good, you're no worse the thousandth time than you were the first. You are as good as you were before you killed anyone and just as empathetic as well IMO.

BUT I still think her adaptation to violence should be slower, especially thinking back on some of my own less extreme but still relatable experiences.

Inclusion of a romantic arc of any kind, hetero or homo-sexual, would just further squeeze an already squashed character narrative.

Spoiler

Edit: To be honest? I think they should have been brave and kept the increase in violence gradual. I think they should have put her character narrative above the action component of THIS, the "new first" game and perhaps switched it around later. That way, we could have had much bigger tombs and more puzzles this time around, and Lara's own arc wouldn't have jumped from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Don't get me wrong, I love the violence. I love its quantity and how stylish and fluid it is, it's a joy to do it. But I can have as much of it as I want from the tacked-on multiplayer. There was no need to deliver so much of it this time at the expense of other elements in the singleplayer.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I wouldn't mind, but I wouldn't be ecstatic either.

The main concern I have is that I can't think of a way to fit a romantic episode into a game like the new Tomb Raider without bloating it unnecessarily. As the author indicated, the ramp-up time for her emotional adaptation to violence is already super-condensed.

I mean, I'm confused by the comment that nobody can truly be good who kills 'a lot'... If the circumstances demand it once and your motives are good, you're no worse the thousandth time than you were the first. You are as good as you were before you killed anyone and just as empathetic as well IMO.

BUT I still think her adaptation to violence should be slower, especially thinking back on some of my own less extreme but still relatable experiences.

Inclusion of a romantic arc of any kind, hetero or homo-sexual, would just further squeeze an already squashed character narrative.

Spoiler

Edit: To be honest? I think they should have been brave and kept the increase in violence gradual. I think they should have put her character narrative above the action component of THIS, the "new first" game and perhaps switched it around later. That way, we could have had much bigger tombs and more puzzles this time around, and Lara's own arc wouldn't have jumped from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Don't get me wrong, I love the violence. I love its quantity and how stylish and fluid it is, it's a joy to do it. But I can have as much of it as I want from the tacked-on multiplayer. There was no need to deliver so much of it this time at the expense of other elements in the singleplayer.

To be fair on the writers they pushed to have her slowly introduced to the combat but the devs were against it. I think it would have made more sense that way.

 

[MagunBFP]

I haven't played any of the Tomb Raider games, they just never appealed to me but in regards making a Lesbian Lara Croft

This...

Ha!

Well, that probably would've tripled the sales right there.

Lesbian makes guys buy games...

And this

Groan. I would hate it because it seems like a trope that there can't be any straight tough women.
I think I would be really annoyed.
It would feel like they were taking away the one relate-able female protagonist ><
If she made her gay I wouldn't kick up a fuss but I really hope she doesn't.
By making her gay I can't help but feel it would just be pandering to the guys again...

A woman couldn't be that strong so they made the lesbian a man with boobs...
And again with the lesbian only to make the guys buy the game

And this

Now, everybody knows that guys like girl on girl action. So if they made Lara gay, it would have felt forced and immature no matter how they implemented it.

When people don't focus on sexualization, they just make their characters heterosexual because it's easy.

Also what Moonlight Butterfly is 100% true. Why can't we have a heterosexual female that is tougher than all of her male friends? Why would she have to be homosexual? To make guys feel less intimidated?

Homosexual characters can't be well written so their inclusion is only for the titillation of the guys...
Any character that doesn't have a sexuality defined explicitly is hetrosexual...
And lesbians for guys again

Special mention goes to...

Awww yiss.

Lesbians!

Really dude

I acknowledge that I'm taking a very basic view of what I've quoted, if she has to have a sexuality but doesn't make a deal of it (ie no sex, making out, etc) then what does it matter, throw in a couple of random lines here and there about a girlfriend or whatever and you establish a preference without actually making it an issue, though that would probably just be dismissed as tokenism. In a community where we have some in-depth "discussions" on gender, sexuality and representing minorities as protagonists just the suggestion that a major franchise protagonist might have been written as homosexual has no one supporting it and instead dismissing it as tokenism, or "impossible to write well, without obviously just being titillation for the guys" or as "suggesting that a straight female couldn't have filled that character role"

This is why we don't see change, because if its not perfect its not good enough. Next you'll be trying to tell me that the Master Chief is obviously straight because of the equally obvious romance between him and Cortana.

 

[Lilani]

That's pretty meaningless IF things stay like they are, but what i'm afraid this change will bring is them pushing every 5 to 10 minutes that.
''omg she is gay look at how we push boundaries!!!!1!!''

Yeah, it's funny how so many games are changing things to include gays, whether to be "more inclusive" or to "push boundaries" yet they never intentionally plan to include gays from day one. At this point, gays are an "afterthought" market, only included after the game is proven to be successful so that they know the "gayness" won't jeopardize their sales. That, and games (like movies and still many books) seem to have that issue where every character in the game is white, male, and straight by default until the writers decide otherwise. Thus turning the cast development into less of an ensemble and more of a diversity checklist.

I can't figure out whether this is sarcasm. Making Lara gay would have been a token move, just like her getting raped. But actually this news is encouraging to me, because her sexuality wasn't relevant to the story at all. She could well be gay and it would be just like a modern writer to throw it in for no reason at all than to be edgy or different. I still think the game's story is boring.

Oh no, I agree with you perfectly. Making her gay would have been a "Look at how edgy we are!" look, as King Aragorn pointed out.

But that's only because Lara is already an established character, and because they are revealing it after the game was already released. It's not that I mind characters in stories being gay, and like with straight characters I feel like you can have it be a known part of their character without "doing" a lot with it. Not every straight character in a story has to have an arc that has to do with them being straight, and nor should they. And there is no reason the same can't be done with gay characters.

 

[Candidus]

To be fair on the writers they pushed to have her slowly introduced to the combat but the devs were against it. I think it would have made more sense that way.

I wonder whether CD were against it because it clashed with their own ideas (in that case, why hire writers?) or because they anticipated being forced to adopt a combat-heavy structure by their publisher no matter what they really wanted. I don't blame the writers in any case. I think Pratchett did the best job possible considering the concessions she was forced to make.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

cute, Pratchett. I don't really see how this would be interesting when it seems like it was done solely for its own sake.

 

[King Aragorn]

To be fair on the writers they pushed to have her slowly introduced to the combat but the devs were against it. I think it would have made more sense that way.

I wonder whether CD were against it because it clashed with their own ideas (in that case, why hire writers?) or because they anticipated being forced to adopt a combat-heavy structure by their publisher no matter what they really wanted. I don't blame the writers in any case. I think Pratchett did the best job possible considering the concessions she was forced to make.

I honestly go with a bit of both. As for the ''Why hire writers?'' question, they can mold their creative vision into one, instead of having to choose on or the other.

 

[Candidus]

As for the ''Why hire writers?'' question, they can mold their creative vision into one, instead of having to choose on or the other.

Ah, the question was sardonic. The implication being like, "why do ministers consult with experts (at great cost) if they're just going to ignore facts and legislate in accordance with their own lay-person's prejudices and misconceptions anyway?"

Why hire a writer if you're just going to compromise their work with your own decisions?

I don't think the molding of disparate visions went all that well, looking at the net result. But Pratchett did a pretty good job in spite of CD's directives.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

What difference would it have made? She's just running around the island shooting people and pillaging little tombs. Whether she fancies ladies or gents really wouldn't have impacted the narrative, it just would've been a character note. The fact everyone is viewing it as annoying or outrageous or edgy indicates either A) you have absolutely no trust in the ability of video game writers to write a gay character without making it a Really Big Deal, or B) we still view gay characters as unicorns and their presence in our stories is automatically a point of contention and controversy. Which is pretty sad. If I were gay and reading this I'd be feeling pretty depressed. With all the guys and girls around here who simply cannot fathom playing a character of the opposite gender because they need to project themselves into the experience, I imagine there's a lot of homosexuals out there wondering when they're going to get that option outside of a Bioware title.

 

[King Aragorn]

As for the ''Why hire writers?'' question, they can mold their creative vision into one, instead of having to choose on or the other.

Ah, the question was sardonic. The implication being like, "why do ministers consult with experts (at great cost) if they're just going to ignore facts and legislate in accordance with their own lay-person's prejudices and misconceptions anyway?"

Why hire a writer if you're just going to compromise their work with your own decisions?

I don't think the molding of disparate visions went all that well, looking at the net result. But Pratchett did a pretty good job in spite of CD's directives.

Ah, I see your point. What I was thinking of is more along the lines of both agreeing on some sort of medium/solution, not just ignoring one side, which in that case....
Yeah, why hire writers?