I consider myself a Tomb Raider fan since I was first deemed old enough by my parents to play videogames. Tomb Raider exercised my brain as I solved puzzles, uncovered ancient magical artifacts, and battled monsters and those who wanted to take over the world, or some other trite villain storyline.
The game has a soft spot in my heart though, because to me Lara Croft always represented female strength and courage. However, I was too young to realize that this female equivalent to Indiana Jones was also a male-created sex symbol. This made me think about how the heroes of many videogames are usually never represented to their full potential, and only the most marketable qualities are displayed (like toughness or sexiness), so what really makes a hero, heroic?
The famous franchise, which has released many games since 1996 and spawned two movies, was rebooted on March 5 with an origin story, spearheaded by female writer Rhianna Pratchett. This newest game presents a younger Lara, showing humanization and the blurred lines of morality. Pratchett flushed out the character’s depth, a trait that wasn’t really explored in previous games.
Often in video games, the protagonists end up becoming archetypal bad asses or sex symbols, and in Lara’s case, both. She isn’t the only fictional character to be stereotyped. Consider Uncharted’s one-liner-spouting Nathan Drake, who Lara is inevitably compared to because they are both considered sexy archaeological action-adventure heroes by their fan bases. The Tomb Raider fan in me must point out that Lara was here first. Both characters are relatable to the gamers playing them, and while I do enjoy playing male characters in videogames too, as a woman I have sentimental attachment to Lara Croft. In past games, both characters have been quick with wit and sarcasm, but in this latest Tomb Raider installment, Lara doesn’t lightheartedly take lives and raid tombs. She takes things seriously, and contemplates the moral choices she witnesses and makes.
This origin story shows her first archaeological trip, where she ends up shipwrecked on an island, and Lara must step up to save herself and her friends. Without spoiling too much, I will say that there is an evil magical force that causes ships and planes to crash on the island and Lara encounters a cult of other survivors whose leader wants to sacrifice Lara’s best friend, as part of a one-for-all sort of philosophy. You as the player get to navigate Lara around the island to solve the archaeological and magical mysteries. In one scene she even says, “I hate tombs.” Contradictory for a game about a tomb raider, right? Well this is the story of Lara before she became Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. I guess she learned to love them, and so we players can live vicariously as adventurers, archaeologists, and ultimately, heroes.
The new reimagining of her is more realistic in many ways, beyond just aesthetics. Her sex appeal is downplayed in favor of trading the booty shorts for modest cargo pants, and her exaggerated curves (bye-bye overly big boobies) are more realistic, but what stands out most to me is the depth of her characterization in this latest game. She isn’t some fearless, trigger-happy, sex-pot with a sense of hubris anymore. This new game shows a more humanized, vulnerable woman who earns her strength, and has a moral conscience that she questions as she faces the challenges on the island.
Lara’s moral conscience is apparent when she has to kill, and in one of her first kills, she tries to avoid conflict and states: “You don’t have to do this,” to the men who were trying to kill her just for being on the island. In another scene, after an explosion one of the men who had moments earlier been taunting her and attempting to shoot her, asks to be euthanized when he is trapped under debris. You, as the player, can decide to leave him to suffer or you can do as he wishes. In a scene near the end of the game, the cult leader explains to Lara that the things he has done, he’s done to survive. “Do you really think that you’re the hero? There are no heroes here. Only survivors,” he tells her. In fact the main promotional tagline for the game is: “A survivor is born.”
The reboot of the franchise is like a rebirth of the character, and the game deconstructs the common ideals of what makes protagonists heroes, bad-asses, and sex symbols. Tomb Raider seems to aim to showcase Lara as a symbol of female empowerment, but also as human because she is faced with fears and challenges and even has to kill to survive, but she overcomes her obstacles. Players can relate to her as a character and ask themselves: What would I do if this were really happening to me? I liked the humanization of Lara, rather than the idealized sexy badass of past versions. I think Lara as a strong woman takes precedence over Lara as a sex symbol in this game, but I do agree she is still pretty hot.
Charlotte is majoring in Journalism + Design at Eugene Lang College and graduated high school in Bamberg, Germany. Her father is a soldier so she grew up moving around a lot. Outside of her interest in journalism, she is an aspiring novelist & screenplay writer who dabbles in acting. Charlotte loves reading, writing, road trips, red wine, videogames, music, sketch comedy and tennis.
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