Greyah said:
Because it's Lara Croft, and Tomb Raider we're talking about. People expect Lara Croft to be a serious yet fun-loving English lady, richer than the world, who travels the world in search of powerful artifacts for shits and giggles. She also shoots stuff.
So far, what I've read about the new game is going to break that. I wouldn't mind or care much if they called it any other character and game, but once again, it's Lara Croft and Tomb Raider.
What is also weird is that this is supposed to take place before she became the badass, treasure hunting, tomb raiding, gun toting lady she is right now. I recall there being both Tomb Raider 4 as well as Legend and Underworld, that both had bits about Lara's past. In the TR4 bit, she was very young, probably not even an adult yet. She was already hunting treasures by then, I recall. So did the new Tomb Raider happen before that? How old is she supposed to be in the new game anyway? If it's supposed to have happened before the TR4 bit, she'd be in puberty in the new game, if not before that. That makes it a lot creepier all of a sudden.
Someone already answered this, but once more; it's a reboot. As far as I understand it, most, if not all, of what happened in all the earlier games is currently questionable as to whether it happened or not (or
will happen). Lara in the newest TR is definitely older than the Lara in TR4 bit (and a section of TR5 as well). I suppose those bits are being ignored for the sake of the reboot because Lara is clearly a newbie in the new game (seeing creepy things in the night shouldn't bother her much if the TR5 Ireland levels happened). So yeah, it's being rebooted as a whole, I guess.
To the OP; I think you're overreacting a little bit, yes. I am a massive Tomb Raider fan since I was 11 (that's almost 13 years now); I'm also a woman (and an archaeology student at that) and this new Lara definitely didn't invoke sexist feels in me. She is young and inexperienced and she is forced to face things that would make most of us wet our pants and weep for our mother. Hopefully, we will see her grow from a scared girl into a hardcore woman we know her as, and I can't be more excited to see that. Lara was always a character that I admired, but I couldn't connect with her because she's basically a robot that can't be killed, can't be threatened, can't be intimidated. It's fun to play like that, but after so many games and so many years spent with that character, it is nice that someone has decided to give those pixels something we can have feelings for. To me, games are infinitely more enjoyable if there are actual stakes and if I develop feelings for the protagonist that I move around and shoot with.
cynicalandbored said:
To aspire to be new Lara would be the pinnacle of insanity. Here is a young woman who is portrayed as being totally helpless and vulnerable. Yes, she learns to fend for herself. Yes, by the end of the game we can assume she'll be strong and independent with a badass attitude. But what does it take for her to achieve this? This wilting violet of a girl has to be subjected to more hideous torture and brutality than any of us are ever likely to experience. The implication of this is that the only way for a woman to develop an attitude and be able to look after herself is for her to undergo unspeakable hardship. And of course to have the big male ego of the gamer caring for her at every step. The fact that this hardship has to be rape as opposed to anything else is truly despicable.
Well, (almost) rape isn't the only hardship she endures in the game. So far from the trailers, I saw many different hardships that are still more relatable and mature than the prospect of running into a t-rex in a Peruvian jungle and killing it with pistols. As a matter of fact, enduring all these hardships at the beginning of her adventurous life kinda explains her attitude towards most of what she faces in the later games (whether it's canon or not). Why is that if the character is at one point "vulnerable", it immediately means that he/she is a weakling who needs protection and can never be redeemed? To be an actual character, you need strength as well as weakness, and Lara at the beginning of the game is weak, yes, but she overcomes it. That makes her more badass than the RobotLara who somersaults over a t-rex. The player "helps" her along the way, and it feels like helping only if you can actually relate with the character. Otherwise, it seems like you're just in the way. As for the "big male ego of a gamer caring for her"; men are not the only ones who play games. My female ego will aid Lara in her hardships, with pleasure. I do not think of it as protecting, I think of it as helping her on the way. There is nothing wrong with that, and you are not suddenly a weak damsel in distress; you are a human being. Something Lara never really was. I look forward to seeing how that will go.
