Tomb Raider writer expressed an interest in making Lara gay?

[King Aragorn]

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.

To be honest, I actually still don't trust most media in writing gay characters. Because alot of times it turns out to be made a big deal, which is seriously irritating. I wouldn't mind a note or two at best, but what I can see this turning into is A:
Them mentioning it heavily, basically a edgy stunt.
Or they'd exploit with lesbian scenes and what not.

 

[go-10]

at what part in the game was there any hints of romance?
I remember a lot of groaning and awesome action, but no romance... so yeah I don't see how that would affect the game in any way shape or form

 

[ItsNotRudy]

IT would just be the nteenth attempt at making it appear as if next Tomb Raider game would truly stand out from other games. Which it wouldn't, once again.

 

[XMark]

Heh, funny thing... despite her character previously being over-sexualized, she has always seemed strangely asexual in character. Like, all she does is just raid tombs and shoot wildlife.

But yeah, going into Lara's love life in any way would have been silly in the game, since it's supposed to be a survival situation where they don't have time for any of that stuff, regardless of sexual orientation.

 

[redmoretrout]

If this were to happen would she be the first game protagonist who was gay? I certainly can not think of any. (Not counting games where the player decides the protagonist's sexuality.)

 

[generals3]

Instead of doing some stupid stunts like making lara gay (which wouldn't add anything to her character to begin with since sexuality has always been quite irrelevant in the games) they should start making puzzles which require a brain to be solved again.

 

[Beliyal]

Honestly, I couldn't care less about Lara's sexuality, but I can't shake the feeling that making her a lesbian would serve only to titillate male players. I'd like to apologize in advance to any lesbian person who might want a fellow lesbian as a protagonist of an iconic game, but I don't think it's a good idea to turn Lara into one. She's very well known, she was extremely sexualized before and we don't need to sexualize her more (sadly, "lesbian action" is popular for all the wrong reasons). I always perceived her as asexual or simply not interested enough at the time. And since the game is about her being a hero and saving the world by somersaulting over a T-rex and decoding ancient still-somehow-working contraptions, I see no valid point in the game where we should be informed about whether she likes men or women.

Lara's love life was never important and I was extremely happy for that; since female characters rarely get to be heroes and are mostly protagonists in media revolving around romance, Lara was a refreshing change and still is. I don't need to know whether she likes men or women or both or neither. That is absolutely irrelevant and I am not interested in playing romance storylines in Tomb Raider games. I want to raid tombs. Be a hero. Save the world. Demolish priceless artifacts. Fight mythological beings. Romance doesn't fit, and I don't care who Lara wants in her bed. If she ever gets in the bed anyway.

What is it with people and seeing any affection as automatically sexual/romantic? Lara and Sam don't act any different than multitudes of modern girl friends I've seen.

I wondered the same thing. Showing affection for your best friend is immediately romantic in nature? Nope. Some people need to read/write less fan fiction. It gets annoying when two characters can't be friends or even siblings (!) without some crazy people making them romantically involved.

 

[MagunBFP]

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.

It IS tokenism. We barely have good heterosexual female characters. Making an ICONIC character like Lara Croft gay would be forced. Lara's sexuality is irrelevant. And writing a gay character takes more effort than writing a default heterosexual character or ignoring the issue altogether. Focusing on her sexuality instead of her other more important personality traits would oversexualize the character AGAIN. They already rebooted the series keeping in mind that the old Lara was overly sexualized. They really shouldn't go back to that.

Yes you're said that writing a homosexual character is harder then writing a straight one... I can agree with that but just because its harder doesn't mean that it shouldn't be done. Also who said anything about focusing on her sexuality? I'm not suggesting that they write in big lesbian love scenes or have her declaring her love for a woman and every in earshot going "dafuq?".

If you can take away from the game that she's hetrosexual and the game doesn't focus on that, then why can't it be written that she's lesbian without focusing on that? Or is this a case of she's gay so we need to make a big song and dance about it pointing out how gay she is? If that is the case then yeah it'd be forced and annoying, but why make a big song and dance about it in the first place?

 

[CriticalMiss]

I went through the whole game imagining her as a lesbian because that's what I decided was best and most engaging to me. If guys want to see her as heterosexual fine, they can do so. I'd rather her sexuality remained unconfirmed in this canon because it has nothing to do with crypt stealing (sort of like the rest of the game). She might have had a fianceé before but isn't this a reboot? So things could have changed/not happened yet.

I don't see why it should become a major factor in the story unless it becomes her motivation to do something. If she wasn't a lesbian does that mean she wouldn't give two shits about Sam?

 

[Full]

who died in a plane crush.

I like the prospect of a "plane crush" more than I do a "plane crash".

I don't actually have anything to add to the topic.

I guess for the sake of not being annihilated I will steal the opinion of adding romance in a series that didn't have much would've been annoying.

 

[m19]

who died in a plane crush.

I like the prospect of a "plane crush" more than I do a "plane crash".

I don't actually have anything to add to the topic.

I guess for the sake of not being annihilated I will steal the opinion of adding romance in a series that didn't have much would've been annoying.

Haha. Maybe I like it that way better too on some level.

 

[Risingblade]

Wait she's not gay? Could of fooled me, screaming Sam's name like that...

 

[jcfrommars9]

Wait she's not gay? Could of fooled me, screaming Sam's name like that...

Lara is basically a lone wolf. The kind of person who doesn't have many friends but the few she does, she holds in the highest regard and Sam is her best friend.

 

[JediMB]

I'd be fine either way, but it is explained fairly well in the in-game "documents" why Sam and Lara are such besties, and why Lara's primarily concerned about Sam throughout the game.

Straight, gay, bi, pan, or asexual doesn't matter to me as long as they keep up the good writing.

 

[ItsNotRudy]

Yes you're said that writing a homosexual character is harder then writing a straight one... I can agree with that

Why would that be? Just because someone's gay doesn't make them overly complex, lol.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

There are one too many gay or bi action-oriented women in fiction. There's been nothing in her character that suggests lesbianism up to this point, so why even rock that particular boat?

Either avoid the subject of sex/relationships or make her straight. Just don't make her "Other M" straight.

More succinctly; It's a tomb raider game. Raid tombs, not wombs.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Why would that be? Just because someone's gay doesn't make them overly complex, lol.

True, we can just have her as a "blink and you miss" kind. Like Sir Hammerlock, Borderlands 2.

 

[TrulyBritish]

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, I'm all for having more homosexuality in video games (preferably not the slightly disconcerting, way thank you Skyfall) but I don't like the idea of just shoehorning it in as a way to change a character or almost fill some kind of criteria. Especially if other canon sources have had Lara as being straight.

By the way Aragorn, have you just turned up recently? I'm sure I keep seeing a lot of you in threads these past few days...

 

[Treblaine]

Regardless of how positive this might be it's irrelevant to the non-gamers who will use this element as something to beat developers and gamers with.

As soon as you drop the word "lesbian" they will of course not consider it a serious gay relationship but constantly insinuate that it's nothing but for titillation of cis-gendered males. It's easy to make "lesbian" sound dirty with the right innuendo, the argument makes itself:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/9113-LESBIANS

I think there are a bit too many self-proclaimed "pop-culture critics" earning $150'000 a year from attacking games for every trivial detail in the most transparently disingenuous ways. Not to mention what fodder this is for legislators and judges voting and ruling on whether games should even be relevant to such freedom of expression.

It's just far safer to have all characters in games be dark haired white males who have no relationship with anyone nor opinions on anything.

Just an army of Nathan Drakes.