Maaaan, bless Angelina Jolie. She really got that character. Say what you want about the films, but Angelina was perfect for that role in more ways than just her uncanny resemblance.
Man, I'm glad you made this video. It is so well-made, and you did a great service to the (often misunderstood) legacy of Lara Croft. Great video Seth!
Very good video. You brought up all the points which bothered me abot these stereotypes/myths/whatever about Lara. And yes, I think Angelina nailed Lara's character in that interview.
It's quite ironic, but when Tomb Raider began during the nineties, not only Lara was considered a feminist icon, she was also quite hated by puritan and conservatives, so mostly the far right of the political spectrum. During the next years, she was suddenly turned into an anti-feminist icon because of her sexiness, and became hated by some far leftists, but that never turned her into an icon for the same rightists she bothered before. Lara represent something not many seems to realize, but when someone make a heroine inside a movie, a video game, a book or whatever, there will always be someone berating her as an insult to women's image. A female MC will always be too sexy, too ugly, too thin, too thick, too frail, too muscular, too strong, too weak, to represent whatever a woman should be. That's the problem with misogyny, be it all parts of the political spectrum, some people can't accept there are differents girls, with Lara being only one possible feminine icon, and will always reduce girls as some stupid category they should all try to fit in, and worse of it, misogynists will pretty much always think they are actually defending girls by doing that.
There's no Lara Croft like classic Lara Croft. ;) (Although I will say that Legend Lara Croft was a cool character as well.) Thank you for making this video. It was both enjoyable and eye-opening. I have all faith that Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered is going to do wonders for the series.
This is one of the most thoughtful takes on a protagonist . Growing up as a kid , I always found her very warm , inspiring and the way her butler was there gave me a feeling of utter joy. I like that we saw growth in her character from a simple treasure seeker to someone who becomes more then a hero.
Great video. The irony of crystal dynamics saying core sexualized her really boiled my blood when I first saw that sign from the live experience. The original Lara had so much depth and was so much more interesting that either of the CD interpretations
Crystal Dynamics were the ones who over sexualized Lara more than any old retro advertising ever did while she was under CORE's lead, then they peddled it back to the point she's a cry baby wreck, who's is obsessed with her mom and dad, looks tomboyish. Crystal Dynamics even commissioned a commemorative statue of her in the UK that looks way more like Nathan Drake in a cosplay than it does Lara Croft. Can you select bikinis, dinner dresses etc as her playable outfits in CORE Lara games? NOPE. You can with CRYSTAL DYNAMICS Lara. Lara started out as an independent female who loved exploring for the fun of it. She was disowned by her parents and led her life in the way she wanted to lead it. She was and still is a great role model for women who want to be independent and carve out their own life despite what random people or family think or tell them to do. I don't get the narrative from these game companies in which they think all the female leads need to look more like a man in a cosplay.
ReinMixTape: if im not mistaken didn't they go through a company change, they just laid some people off recently, but yes whoever was involved on the Legends timeline they certainly wanted Lara to show more sex appeal. but when the reboot survival timeline started, they had to be some changes somewhere, because Square came in and the series was radically different from 2013 on. but now Square sold it to some other people, so it won't be Crystal who does the next Tomb Raider.
@@Jeymez Crystal will still be the studio doing the next Tomb Raider games. Square didn't just sell off Tomb Raider, they sold Crystal Dynamics entirely. My understanding is that Embracer Group (the new owners) want to be fairly hands off though? So I guess we're going to find out how much of the questionable writing was Crystal and how much was direction and pressure from the higher ups.
@@rainraven9881 well based on what played out in the Legends timeline, the central story centered around Lara's mother. in the survival timeline it got changed to her father, so im gonna lean that it was Crystal. because Square wasn't there when they did Legends and Underworld, so obviously the back and forth was probably between the two. Shadow from a gameplay perspective felt more like a Tomb Raider game at times, mainly because the shift in focus to exploration. but the story was a continuation if you will on Trinity, and also getting more backstory about not just her father, but her mother also. just not anything like we saw in Legends and Underworld. so if Crystal is still doing it, then i don't know what direction they'll go in, but atleast without Square, there won't be rpg elements. part of the reason the series got so heavy on the action, is because of the upgrading system. that wasn't something in Legends or Underworld, so depending on what they decide to do, they may come back to their familiar roots. Anniversary wasn't bad, but atleast it felt more like a Tomb Raider game.
Real fans of the *classic* *Tombraider* games already know the message you conveyed here. Regardless, thanks for setting the record straight for the rest of us 💃
"moves away from sexist tropes" removes all her agency in the story, makes her a crying wreck most of the time and includes a moIestation scene. Sure. Her having style and not being constantly smeared in filth is not a sexist depiction. Classic Lara wasn't perfect but she had her dignity, she was a hero, not a victim.
Iv been waiting for someone to make a video like this for so so long. Thank you thank you so much. Iv had all these things on my mind for so long. This video represents the Lara I love so much and finally puts things right and into the proper perspective. All these aspects of Lara need to come back for the next game. I’m so glad you made this video. Thank you Seth! Keep ‘em coming!
I hate they changed her story so that she's just following her father's steps instead of the original story where she was disowned by her family because they did not approve of her life choices and had to struggle to be where she was when we first meet her, to me it makes her more interesting of a character instead of dealing with her daddy issues in the Legends and 2013 trilogies.
She was an object to most people. People pretending she wasn’t are being wilfully blind. She isn’t a good representation of women now. She did her job in the 90’s of breaking into a male dominated pool of game characters but that version of her has its time.
Ian - She was fine the way she was - Its only whimp and soy-raised types like Kjhtm4-tggpllbbh who have been raised to hate women that act this way = femcells with no real future. +
i never looked at her in a sexual way growing up and neither did my friends. Mainly because we were all young and puberty hadn't kicked in yet. Looked at her with more of an admiration. It's all the retrospective deconstructionism and presentism that often sees issues where they didn't exist that causes a lot of heated discourse and I'm just sat here thinking "Well. What's so wrong with an attractive woman kicking ass anyway?"
I've always viewed her in a sexual way, but tbh she inspired me so much to hit the gym and be just like her haha. One of the first role-models for me in terms of healthy and juicy figure, and not looking borderline anorexic, which was insanely popular at some point in my teen years. So it's all good in the end
Its also important to note that, while she is physically strong, she's not super strong to ridiculous levels. The fact that she still got captured on occasions shows that. Great video! It was bold and admirable how Core Design brought a female protagonist to the centre at a time when the medium was male protagonist heavy. And Classic Lara will always be my favourite portrayal of the character! Beautiful, sassy, smart, flirtatious and, if you mess with her, its a major death sentence. lol Tomb Raider 2, in my opinion, is where her character truly shone the most!
Well she could push perfectly cubed 4 ton boulders :D I think that was more of a design/hardware limitation though since the world is mapped on cubistic geometry.
I love this video soooo much! I miss classic Lara dearly, and when I try to discuss her with some of my acquaintances, they think of her and myself as being sexist. However, your video sums up all the things I've been trying to say to these people! I think one really needs to play the games before passing judgement about her (which goes for everything in life as well!)
I LOVE THIS VIDEO I had so many moments were I internally screamed "yes, YES, exactly this!" during this, you really _get_ what classic Lara was about and it saddens me so much that these "myths", as we here call them, are the reason behind changing so many things about her to please more people. When in reality, there were already plenty of people who GOT her and what she was about and adored her exactly for that, and surely there would have been plenty of new fans to enjoy that as well. If some people are just dumb and misunderstand a great character completely, it's not the character's fault or a reason to change. And spot on about women existing in all shapes and sizes, but apparently nowadays it's "better" to be small chested and not that curvy because..? I don't even know what this ridiculous logic is, I was never jealous or compared myself to Lara growing up despite being flat lol. I simply admired her.
Thank you for making this. I hope that people at Crystal Dynamics / Amazon see it. It's a real shame that the custodians of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider once misunderstood and misrepresented her so severely. I hope those days are over.
If I'm not mistaken, Lara's original creator was actually _super_ pissed at the marketing team because of how much the marketing sexualized her. Meanwhile the closest the games got to anything was the end of TR2 where she's preparing to get in the shower, but instead of taking her bathrobe off she tells you off and then literally shoots the camera. And let's not forget that the programmers' reaction to the fake "Nude Raider" cheat code was to make Lara explode if you tried it. Honestly I think the most questionably thing I encountered in the classic games was how easy it was to make the camera do a zoomed in pan across Lara's butt in the first game.
Thank you! Finally someone got it right. I'm tired of people misinterpreting this character so much. Especially when the "modern" substitute is boring, generic, bland vessel.
Learn a lesson from Doom 2016. Don’t be afraid of the ridiculousness and finding the core of the original’s charm. I want the over-the-top badass anti-hero with red sunglass and dual automatic pistols. Give us back ridiculous enemies like dinosaurs and supernatural monsters, and not scripted events, but rather AI enemies that have their own behavior and respond to the player. And of course, puzzling and non-linear areas that are dangerous to platform around. Though, the platforming has more to do with character control than anything. Jumps should be scary to make.
You make some really valid points here. I forgot how clumsy she can be and that you presented all of those clips - yeah she is. But it makes her beliveable. More human like. And for the sexualization. Yeah, its all marketing. In the game they exaggerated her boobs and ass and got her shoulders smaller but thats just it. But those who wanted to play Tomb Raider hardly even cared about her looks. They just wanted a god, fun game
I think when people said she would used her sexuality to her advantage it isn't like she uses her body, more her flirtatious feminine charm. She has this wit about her when interacting with other characters in many of the scenes, even at the very start of Last Revelation in the tutorial we see this.
Keeley Hawes pictured Lara in the best way possible. Educated, emotional, intelligent, calm, collected, resourceful, playful, invested in things and people... except in Anniversary when wolves killed her mexican mule boy just before she entered the mointain entry. There she had a Jeremy Clarckson moment like "Oh dear, well, shit happens" and went on to go about her way :D but other than that it was perfect.
Honestly I feel like the detail of her being clumsy makes her a lot more relatable (to me at least) than what they were going for in the reboot, especially since I'm pretty clumsy myself sometimes
I've never understood why people consider classic Lara as a sociopath or psychopath for killing the helecopter pilot. To me it always seemed that the pilot was a member of the mercs who'd just been trying to kill her. He wasn't there for her at all, and thats why he gives her such a confused look. And her coy smile is kinda a 'Not who you were expecting?' Of course it's arguable if the guy was armed or anything, but given how much she'd shown unless you directly cross her, she's not necessarily going to kill you, I figure it's a pretty reasonable bet he wasn't just some innocent helecopter pilot well out of his depth.
@@gilgamesh310 but why is Lara supposed to be so nice?? Seriously, look at the first drawings of Lara, she looks a bit scary. I think they did it like that at that moment because it looked "cool" and it was "just" a video game. I think all of us know that the main focus on these games was put on gameplay at the time
I want to add that I liked the first TR Lara specially because she looked fierce and... A bit crazy. That was the point at the beginning and it is clear when you see how it all started, but it got lost when both the marketing and the fans saw Lara as another "hot dangerous girl". She even says things in that tone in Last Revelation and Chronicles. It still puts me off :/
I honestly don't care if classic Lara is borderline psychopathic, she was lovely that way, and she's boring now that she's powerless, bland and usual "relatable" normal woman. I am saying this as a woman, I liked playing as a power fantasy, and dislike playing a constantly victimized and wounded sufferer.
Both clarifying and entertaining, yes! I loved this video. Such a thoughtful and comprehensive read. I really miss that personality. I think she was such a unique character, the likes of which we haven't seen since then. I remember back then media calling her the female Indiana Jones or the female James Bond, which never made sense to me because I have never seen her as having any similar traits to these characters, or any other character for that matter. I wish Crystal would have realised that there was no need to reinvent or ""reboot"" that character but develop and expand on. Which would work greatly with more developed antagonists as well. Now that you put it this way, I so wish we could see that Lara with all the modern tools available for facial animations and performance.
Classic Lara was the best Lara. As a girl I found her sexy outfits cool. Modern Lara isn’t the Lara I loved as a kid. Legend & Underworld had her still in character but the other TR games not so much
Same!! I’ve looked up to the classic Lara meanwhile Legend Lara was cute too especially with her commentaries with Alister and Zip. However she didn’t inspired me like classic Lara did. I don’t even wanna talk about reboot Lara who sounds like a fake Brit.
Great video. I tend to have a very selective memory, so for years I believed the stereotypes said about her, although I adore the classic games and have known them well since I was a kid. So this video has been very helpful to refresh my perception of Lara, be aware of her great personality, and love her even more! Thank you💞
Incredible video👏🏻👏🏻 also it is kind of funny that some people criticise og Lara because she is considered as emotionless, cold hearted little ms perfect. This is a game character, not your neighbour. She doesn’t have to be “realistic” or “relatable” at all. This is exactly why I love her so much.
Even in reloaded I noticed each time you beat a level she does some cool super hero move and I’m thinking to myself she messes up sometimes or trips. Lol
2013 Lara is a waste. Classic Lara is badass and sassy. And you're right. I have big boobs, brown hair and brown eyes, and we're not considered beautiful, compared with blond and blue eyed women. I felt represented by Lara and wanted to be like her.
Thank you for making this video! So much misinfo about Lara. People have even laughed at me for saying I like Tomb raider games. Classic Lara is not just there for looks! She's her own character. Even though you could say Legend and Underworld sexualize her. I still like those games as well. I always found characters who dress up sexy etc. just as empowering as someone who defiantly doesn't, but that could just be my thing. I think many don't realise lots of video game men could also be viewed as sexualised, with revealing outfits and camera angles. (Maybe if you're not into men you never see it?) But somehow when a curvy woman does anything, that's automatically sexual?
This video is golden, from now on it will be my go-to place to explain my points about that matter. Apart from the helicopter guy, museum guards from Lud's gate (and sometimes even Area 51 personnel) or police/guards from AoD are often seen as "innocent victims" of her. While I think sometimes even Core Design went a bit hoverboard, those where the '90s and early 2000s... anyway, in every single one of those cases either they are instantly hostile to you (and probably corrupt), or as a player you have the choice of non-lethal approaches/stealth. So, should we say that canonically Lara enjoyed shooting monks just because you could decide to do that? xD In my opinion her VCI escapade is more controversial than all of that, but even then the same points apply + it's a corrupt, unethical corporation full of illegal crap.
I played tomb raider back in the 1990s and never saw her as a sex object. She was a silent protagonist like gordon freeman and took you to adventure with full accountability, if you slipped up she died, so every movement was accountable.
Likewise. To the point where I was surprised at some people’s reactions when I told them that she was one of my favourite video game characters (non gamers probably).
Great video. The most ironic thing in all this is that Angelina Jolie actually portrayed her really well, so you'd think that wluld open people's eyes but instead it almost had the opposite effect, where the games got rebooted with elements from the movies and started a downward spiral.
Very good video, my compliments for presenting it this way (short but complete; honest, well-balanced, and fair). It's useful to point people to if they have some of these misconceptions, often a conflation between 'Marketing Lara' and 'In-Game Lara' (or something that has naturally grown over time, depending on where/how much they encountered the character). Luckily (?), I have never been exposed much to the marketing side to her but primarily to her true in-game self, so personally I did not believe any of them, but I've encountered a lot of people who (still) do. It would be nice if more people would have a better understanding of who Classic Lara Croft truly was (and why she was designed that way - limitations of 90s video games and time constraints are factors that need to be mentioned here), so that we get a fair(er) assessment and more appreciation for this version of the character (mainly outside of the fandom itself), which she totally deserves imo.
Lara's creator was actually really displeased by the sexualised marketing of her, and he never intended or wanted for her to ever be a sex symbol. Also Angelina Jolie studied Judith Gibbons performance as Lara in TR2 for the film and the fact that she was able to see all of that depth that haters couldn't see says a lot.
"It was the style at time" Abe Simpson Today there would be a parliamentary enquiry but in the 90s attitudes were very different, do you know why? Because the people who complained the most was conservative media, the dirty right wingers, the poor souls "on the wrong side of history". So what are young trendy left wingers going to do? Agree with Mary Whitehouse?
Hi @SethMackenzie. I keep loving how well you narrate your opinion and how strongly (but politely) you keep expressing your love for classic Lara Croft. The first game I played of her (apart from a GBA one) was Legends and I still love it today but your videos make me discover a Lara that got lost for me in the way. I am still trying to find a way to play all of the classics on console. If anyone knows how, please let me know. PLEASE, Seth keep uploading content. I smile when I see that your video is at least 40min long! 😊
"Or they watched the cutscenes with their eyes closed"... bold of you to assume thee people have ever played a video game, much less a Tomb Raider game...
heh yeah he really have a great voice. So many great UA-cam channels with amazing content I cant watch just because creator have a unflattering voice. And for Seth even if his videos were not of high quality as they are I think I would still watch his channel just because of his voice, it has such a therapeutic effect on me after long working day.
Lara was always a solitary heroine. They even joke about sexuality, when she catches you the player watching her in her bathroom. Lara takes her shotgun, and shoots you.😂
I don't get people saying she has no depth or personality when she showcase a lot of it in the beginning at the very beginning of TR 1. I guess in order to be a good character you need to have traumatic experience or sad backstory nowadays. Being compassionate, clever, or just being capable means bad character.
The ironic thing is that classic Lara's backstory is honestly pretty traumatic. It just doesn't come up a lot because she grew from it rather than letting it define her entire life, so I guess that makes it not count to a lot of people.
People says that because most never played the old games, look at how many complained about how hard it is despite the point of the old games is too explore and try again😂😂, they will never admit it cause they know their points will come across as ignorant, false and lazy
I never understood the oversexualized lara thing... even regular young fit women could easely look like lara in real life... in fact, a trip to a gym could reveal to you some even hotter women than lara... physically speaking of course... NO ONE matches our beloved lara croft in the kickassery department... xD Cheers!
I think that if most people look at the early drawings she was based on, they get an idea that Lara wasn't meant to be a femme fatale or any other sexist trope. However, it is true that the marketing protrayal was not good for her, or the big anti-gravity bust. I agree on the bust size can be very big for some, but it wouldn't look so high and as it was the 90s, this was easily seen as a way to sexualise her. I think these first drawings of Lara didn't have those neither. Look at Joanna Dark, for example, she had a feminine figure without having those big (sorry, ridiculous) boobs. When I was a child, of course I didn't pay attention to that part of Lara, but the boys my age certainly did. What I want to say is that apart from that detail, Lara was an amazing character and I don't think the following TRs were TRs at all. And not only because of Lara, they are reeeeally weak/average games. LAU was incredibly sexualised, she runs in a ridiculous sexist way and she's moving her hips constantly (exept Underworld, I believe, it took a more serious tone). One of the things that helped seeing how awesome classic Lara is was her backstory as you mentioned, too. She was such an example! I think there were a few characters in the 90s that were surprisingly feminist but not a lot remember: Ellie Satler in Jurassic Park, Xena the warrior princess or Scally from X-files are examples of this, but people put Lara in the sexualised ones by just looking at her figure. It makes me sad that people (specially the fans) don't want to see all there is behind that. Edit: sorry about my English
@@SethMcKenzieTV I forgot to mention that one thing I hate about the fandom is how much a lot of them like to portray her in sexy poses or like to see her sexualised (that's why I won't ever understand Legend fans.) They love to imagine Lara like that and I find it really sad. I like her looking strong, determined. I think she deserves better :(
So your definition of ''strong'' is really just boyish. There's nothing wrong with portraying Lara as sexually attractive and feminine because like it or not it's part of her identity. And I don't see how it's bad either that the boys around you noticed her sex appeal.
They really balanced her feminity and “tomboy appeal” well. Playing classic you never feel like her sex appeal was used in distasteful way (usually involve Pierre and Larson). The remastered classic Lara’s image seem almost Barbie like, which I find cringey
I think it was more the CGI than the bikini, she looks like she is missing some ribs xD I love old Lara but you cant say she wasnt being sexulised in that beach scene , no human being could have that look without a little help from surgery or photoshop and the only reason she has that look was the marketing choose to use sex to sell the game. It is what it is man.
@@aprioriontoast704 she's not a human being tho. Let people have some escapism, not everything has to be a painstaking ultra-realistic recreation of reality. I already live in it and it sucks more often than not so
@@Li_Tobler My point is she is pretty sexuilasied in that scene beyond just wearing a bathing suit, I did not take a position on how that effects female body image issues (I honestly do not know about that issue), just that denying Laras body type is very unrealestic and sexaulised is delusional. If you support that at least be honest about what it is; Laras body typed is meant to be a sexualised fantasy (at least in the CGI ) that could only be achieved in the real world with surgery , you gotta own that to defend it. It is kind of lame to strawman people for being angry at her bathing suit when they are angry about something else regardless if they are still in the wrong.
Is funny how amazing this video is and how sad that is necessary, like, lmao a bought all the games in a Steam promotion and decide play in chronological order, and instantaneous fall in love with the character (btw fuck TR3)
Sexualization existed in the games long before LAU (where it got creepy) - look at the crawling and climbing animations from TR2-on. Lara's boobs kept growing with every game. And in AoD they were huge melons with carefully-animated physics. You can't deny this is in-game sexualization. The topic of sexualization in TR often tries to dismiss the quality of the actual games which really bothers us, fans - it's unfair, it's cheesy, it's dumb. But I wouldn't go as far as to outright deny its presence inside the actual games. Camera angles, tit physics...it's all part of the legacy.
I agree with those observations on the classics but I think the difference between them and marketing Lara are obviously huge, and LAU Lara compared to classic also made a significant step forward with her outfits
.. We had the comics, We had the games, We had the crossover-comics, We had the merchandise and how-much better a character Lara when shared with the world she made it into just by being in the spotlight, Than without her. Who cares what a small amount of unliked baseless and falsely-assuming npcs say or think who dont like anything. They dont matter. +
Hey donno how I missed this for so long! 😅 awesome video my friend. I think there’s a lot more myths that you can add to this video so I’ll be waiting for Part2 - I STRONGLY agree with everything mentioned here. On the emotionless myth tho, IDT if it is a technology issue tbh… yeah sure it didn’t help the pixelated graphics and stuff but I honestly think general public thought Lara was an ice queen because of the dev team’s writing being so bad compared to other games on the PS1 era.. but then again the enjoyment in TR games were definitely not because of the script or story of the games so it was all good. But yeah Lara’s a badass women but also a decent and emotional human being ❤
I was paranoid you didn't comment because you hated me 😢 I'm joking 😜 I couldn't think of other myths/misconceptions about her that I've seen frequently enough to put on this video tbh. (You could do a follow up if you wish bro 👀)
I HATE when they always say she was sexualised yet in the Awful god forsaken reboot 2013 we had a scene of her getting forced on right before her first kill, this wouldn't have been done if it was a male , and Wow i always thought that was shorts right under her 'Evening ripped' Outfit from Japan level..
Fantastic video. Thank you. Imo, the only oversexualized thing in the retro games, was TR4. Her shorts are see-through and you can see her thong through the shorts. Now, i don't have a problem with this, but i think people who say lara was oversexualized in the ps1 games because they remember her see-through thong, and then they group her big boobs, big butt and big lips into the mix, thus they get the impression she is oversexualized. I love TR1 through 4, and i grew up playing them as a kid. As a female myself, i never thought as a kid that she was oversexualized or that she was looking slutty or anything like that, and i still dont think she looks oversexualized. I love lara because she is an adventurer, an archeologist, and raids tombs for precious artifacts, all while being a female. I thought she was so cool, and i still think retro lara is cool to this day. ✌️🤝
I recently played through The Last Revelation and I wonder what the heck they were thinking when they made the cutscene where young Lara who was 14 according to a video I watched "tease" the player with her going to take her top off before the priest comes into the room before she does. Why did they choose young child Lara to have that cutscene instead of adult Lara?
@Gamesta100 you're thinking of TR chronicles, not the last revelation. I forgot about that though in chronicles!! I never played chronicles as a kid, but when I played it as a late teen, I'm like...uhh..isn't she a child here?? She was just gonna show us boob?! Yikes. 😬 I think they did that because chronicles was just a cash grab cause core got sponsored from timex to make another TR game. Maybe timex wanted the tease? Idk. Definitely weird. ✌️🤝
@@LunalovaniaGaming that's right. I got the games mixed up because immediately after beating Chronicles I played and beat The Last Revelation. Plus young Lara was also in TLR. I had played every TR game but I only ever finished 1 and 2 on the PS1.
![[HD] Lara Croft - TV Commercials Compilation (SEAT, Lucozade, Pepsi...)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/H_JUu-WXZ8E/mqdefault.jpg)
Maaaan, bless Angelina Jolie. She really got that character. Say what you want about the films, but Angelina was perfect for that role in more ways than just her uncanny resemblance.
She was perfect but both films were so weak. The first one was sort of ok, the second pretty bad.
Finally a content creator who understands Lara Croft for who she really was meant to be all along.
Nicely done! The ice queen myth is such a downer, as the depths her character had were all there, as you well pointed out 👏
Thanks, man 😇
Man, I'm glad you made this video. It is so well-made, and you did a great service to the (often misunderstood) legacy of Lara Croft. Great video Seth!
Thanks :D
Very good video. You brought up all the points which bothered me abot these stereotypes/myths/whatever about Lara. And yes, I think Angelina nailed Lara's character in that interview.
LOVED to hear Angelina nail Lara so perfectly!!
great vid, can't wait to show it to Literally Everyone
It's quite ironic, but when Tomb Raider began during the nineties, not only Lara was considered a feminist icon, she was also quite hated by puritan and conservatives, so mostly the far right of the political spectrum. During the next years, she was suddenly turned into an anti-feminist icon because of her sexiness, and became hated by some far leftists, but that never turned her into an icon for the same rightists she bothered before. Lara represent something not many seems to realize, but when someone make a heroine inside a movie, a video game, a book or whatever, there will always be someone berating her as an insult to women's image. A female MC will always be too sexy, too ugly, too thin, too thick, too frail, too muscular, too strong, too weak, to represent whatever a woman should be. That's the problem with misogyny, be it all parts of the political spectrum, some people can't accept there are differents girls, with Lara being only one possible feminine icon, and will always reduce girls as some stupid category they should all try to fit in, and worse of it, misogynists will pretty much always think they are actually defending girls by doing that.
There's no Lara Croft like classic Lara Croft. ;) (Although I will say that Legend Lara Croft was a cool character as well.) Thank you for making this video. It was both enjoyable and eye-opening. I have all faith that Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered is going to do wonders for the series.
This is one of the most thoughtful takes on a protagonist . Growing up as a kid , I always found her very warm , inspiring and the way her butler was there gave me a feeling of utter joy. I like that we saw growth in her character from a simple treasure seeker to someone who becomes more then a hero.
The clips of Lara stumbling are hilarious, I never realised she moved like a sack of potatoes
Great video. The irony of crystal dynamics saying core sexualized her really boiled my blood when I first saw that sign from the live experience. The original Lara had so much depth and was so much more interesting that either of the CD interpretations
Crystal Dynamics were the ones who over sexualized Lara more than any old retro advertising ever did while she was under CORE's lead, then they peddled it back to the point she's a cry baby wreck, who's is obsessed with her mom and dad, looks tomboyish. Crystal Dynamics even commissioned a commemorative statue of her in the UK that looks way more like Nathan Drake in a cosplay than it does Lara Croft.
Can you select bikinis, dinner dresses etc as her playable outfits in CORE Lara games? NOPE. You can with CRYSTAL DYNAMICS Lara.
Lara started out as an independent female who loved exploring for the fun of it. She was disowned by her parents and led her life in the way she wanted to lead it. She was and still is a great role model for women who want to be independent and carve out their own life despite what random people or family think or tell them to do.
I don't get the narrative from these game companies in which they think all the female leads need to look more like a man in a cosplay.
ReinMixTape: if im not mistaken didn't they go through a company change, they just laid some people off recently, but yes whoever was involved on the Legends timeline they certainly wanted Lara to show more sex appeal. but when the reboot survival timeline started, they had to be some changes somewhere, because Square came in and the series was radically different from 2013 on. but now Square sold it to some other people, so it won't be Crystal who does the next Tomb Raider.
@@Jeymez Crystal will still be the studio doing the next Tomb Raider games. Square didn't just sell off Tomb Raider, they sold Crystal Dynamics entirely. My understanding is that Embracer Group (the new owners) want to be fairly hands off though? So I guess we're going to find out how much of the questionable writing was Crystal and how much was direction and pressure from the higher ups.
@@rainraven9881 well based on what played out in the Legends timeline, the central story centered around Lara's mother. in the survival timeline it got changed to her father, so im gonna lean that it was Crystal. because Square wasn't there when they did Legends and Underworld, so obviously the back and forth was probably between the two.
Shadow from a gameplay perspective felt more like a Tomb Raider game at times,
mainly because the shift in focus to exploration.
but the story was a continuation if you will on Trinity, and also getting more backstory about not just her father, but her mother also.
just not anything like we saw in Legends and Underworld.
so if Crystal is still doing it, then i don't know what direction they'll go in, but atleast without Square, there won't be rpg elements.
part of the reason the series got so heavy on the action, is because of the upgrading system. that wasn't something in Legends or Underworld, so depending on what they decide to do, they may come back to their familiar roots. Anniversary wasn't bad, but atleast it felt more like a Tomb Raider game.
You are so right! I still hope they’ll bring Lara back 🥹
Real fans of the *classic* *Tombraider* games already know the message you conveyed here. Regardless, thanks for setting the record straight for the rest of us 💃
"moves away from sexist tropes" removes all her agency in the story, makes her a crying wreck most of the time and includes a moIestation scene.
Sure.
Her having style and not being constantly smeared in filth is not a sexist depiction. Classic Lara wasn't perfect but she had her dignity, she was a hero, not a victim.
stupid ass comment, very disrespectful for r*pe victims. keep it for yourself.
What do rape victim have to do with this?@@vaggelisroussis3656
I wouldn't call Lara an ice Queen but she's not sweet and overly friendly. She has a goal and that's her focus..she's not there to bake cookies
I believe she’s just serious, with a very subtle humour.
This video should be mandatory daily viewing for the developers of any future Tomb Raider game.
There is something refreshing about knowing there are groups of people who appreciated these classic games which still hold value today.
Angelina knows what it’s about 👌🏻
Great video, always enjoy Tomb Raider/Lara Croft content 😊
Honestly, old Lara is a better character than the overly melodramatic Legend Lara (and Survivor Lara is basically re-flavored Legend Lara).
Totally
Legend Lara was perfect tf u mean. She was a blend of both OG and Survivor.
Original Lara was perfect, Legend Lara was already a step in the wrong direction. Just compare TR1 to Anniversary. Changed for the worse.
Oy! Legends Lara was still awesome!
@@you-5-iver804nobody wants survivor
Iv been waiting for someone to make a video like this for so so long. Thank you thank you so much. Iv had all these things on my mind for so long. This video represents the Lara I love so much and finally puts things right and into the proper perspective. All these aspects of Lara need to come back for the next game. I’m so glad you made this video. Thank you Seth! Keep ‘em coming!
Thanks, aww 😁
I hate they changed her story so that she's just following her father's steps instead of the original story where she was disowned by her family because they did not approve of her life choices and had to struggle to be where she was when we first meet her, to me it makes her more interesting of a character instead of dealing with her daddy issues in the Legends and 2013 trilogies.
Whats wrong with being attractive?!! Loosers hate on winners. Its as simple as that. Lara is a winner.
She was an object to most people. People pretending she wasn’t are being wilfully blind.
She isn’t a good representation of women now. She did her job in the 90’s of breaking into a male dominated pool of game characters but that version of her has its time.
@@kjh4496 Today's women expect to be rewarded for doing nothing, so I fully agree, classic Lara absolutely does not represent them.
@@Mephitinae You sound like either an incel or a jealous bitch. Whichever boot fits best.
Ian - She was fine the way she was - Its only whimp and soy-raised types like Kjhtm4-tggpllbbh who have been raised to hate women that act this way = femcells with no real future. +
@@kjh4496''She isn't a good representation of women now". Lol what? Have you seen what the actual women wear outside?
i never looked at her in a sexual way growing up and neither did my friends. Mainly because we were all young and puberty hadn't kicked in yet. Looked at her with more of an admiration. It's all the retrospective deconstructionism and presentism that often sees issues where they didn't exist that causes a lot of heated discourse and I'm just sat here thinking "Well. What's so wrong with an attractive woman kicking ass anyway?"
I've always viewed her in a sexual way, but tbh she inspired me so much to hit the gym and be just like her haha. One of the first role-models for me in terms of healthy and juicy figure, and not looking borderline anorexic, which was insanely popular at some point in my teen years. So it's all good in the end
Its also important to note that, while she is physically strong, she's not super strong to ridiculous levels. The fact that she still got captured on occasions shows that.
Great video! It was bold and admirable how Core Design brought a female protagonist to the centre at a time when the medium was male protagonist heavy. And Classic Lara will always be my favourite portrayal of the character! Beautiful, sassy, smart, flirtatious and, if you mess with her, its a major death sentence. lol Tomb Raider 2, in my opinion, is where her character truly shone the most!
Well she could push perfectly cubed 4 ton boulders :D I think that was more of a design/hardware limitation though since the world is mapped on cubistic geometry.
@@JamesCarmichael True lol Though she merely just pushed them and not lifted them up or something. haha
I love this video soooo much! I miss classic Lara dearly, and when I try to discuss her with some of my acquaintances, they think of her and myself as being sexist. However, your video sums up all the things I've been trying to say to these people! I think one really needs to play the games before passing judgement about her (which goes for everything in life as well!)
I LOVE THIS VIDEO
I had so many moments were I internally screamed "yes, YES, exactly this!" during this, you really _get_ what classic Lara was about and it saddens me so much that these "myths", as we here call them, are the reason behind changing so many things about her to please more people. When in reality, there were already plenty of people who GOT her and what she was about and adored her exactly for that, and surely there would have been plenty of new fans to enjoy that as well.
If some people are just dumb and misunderstand a great character completely, it's not the character's fault or a reason to change. And spot on about women existing in all shapes and sizes, but apparently nowadays it's "better" to be small chested and not that curvy because..? I don't even know what this ridiculous logic is, I was never jealous or compared myself to Lara growing up despite being flat lol. I simply admired her.
Workers at crystal dynamics needs to see this
Even as a kid I never thought she was sexualized in game. I love that I was right all along, haha. Great video mate
Thank you for making this. I hope that people at Crystal Dynamics / Amazon see it. It's a real shame that the custodians of Lara Croft and Tomb Raider once misunderstood and misrepresented her so severely. I hope those days are over.
If I'm not mistaken, Lara's original creator was actually _super_ pissed at the marketing team because of how much the marketing sexualized her. Meanwhile the closest the games got to anything was the end of TR2 where she's preparing to get in the shower, but instead of taking her bathrobe off she tells you off and then literally shoots the camera. And let's not forget that the programmers' reaction to the fake "Nude Raider" cheat code was to make Lara explode if you tried it. Honestly I think the most questionably thing I encountered in the classic games was how easy it was to make the camera do a zoomed in pan across Lara's butt in the first game.
Good points!
Thank you! Finally someone got it right. I'm tired of people misinterpreting this character so much. Especially when the "modern" substitute is boring, generic, bland vessel.
She's complicated to public opinion but she had full acknowledgment of herself with a stumble here and there.
What a protagonist!!!
Learn a lesson from Doom 2016. Don’t be afraid of the ridiculousness and finding the core of the original’s charm.
I want the over-the-top badass anti-hero with red sunglass and dual automatic pistols. Give us back ridiculous enemies like dinosaurs and supernatural monsters, and not scripted events, but rather AI enemies that have their own behavior and respond to the player.
And of course, puzzling and non-linear areas that are dangerous to platform around. Though, the platforming has more to do with character control than anything. Jumps should be scary to make.
Yes I agree with everything (except the red sunglasses which she almost never wore in the games) 😁
You make some really valid points here. I forgot how clumsy she can be and that you presented all of those clips - yeah she is. But it makes her beliveable. More human like. And for the sexualization. Yeah, its all marketing. In the game they exaggerated her boobs and ass and got her shoulders smaller but thats just it. But those who wanted to play Tomb Raider hardly even cared about her looks. They just wanted a god, fun game
Really cool video, very nice to watch. Totally on point and a nice short in-depth insight of Lara's character and perception :)
I think when people said she would used her sexuality to her advantage it isn't like she uses her body, more her flirtatious feminine charm. She has this wit about her when interacting with other characters in many of the scenes, even at the very start of Last Revelation in the tutorial we see this.
One of your best videos
Keeley Hawes pictured Lara in the best way possible. Educated, emotional, intelligent, calm, collected, resourceful, playful, invested in things and people... except in Anniversary when wolves killed her mexican mule boy just before she entered the mointain entry. There she had a Jeremy Clarckson moment like "Oh dear, well, shit happens" and went on to go about her way :D but other than that it was perfect.
The thought of Lara having a "Clarkson" moment tickles me pink.
Honestly I feel like the detail of her being clumsy makes her a lot more relatable (to me at least) than what they were going for in the reboot, especially since I'm pretty clumsy myself sometimes
I've never understood why people consider classic Lara as a sociopath or psychopath for killing the helecopter pilot. To me it always seemed that the pilot was a member of the mercs who'd just been trying to kill her. He wasn't there for her at all, and thats why he gives her such a confused look. And her coy smile is kinda a 'Not who you were expecting?'
Of course it's arguable if the guy was armed or anything, but given how much she'd shown unless you directly cross her, she's not necessarily going to kill you, I figure it's a pretty reasonable bet he wasn't just some innocent helecopter pilot well out of his depth.
Definitely!
And we need to remember these games were not meant to be very deep or realistic. It was a bit cartooney and there is nothing wrong with that!
She still killed him in cold blood, though. She could have held him at gunpoint and frisked him for weapons.
@@gilgamesh310 but why is Lara supposed to be so nice?? Seriously, look at the first drawings of Lara, she looks a bit scary. I think they did it like that at that moment because it looked "cool" and it was "just" a video game. I think all of us know that the main focus on these games was put on gameplay at the time
I want to add that I liked the first TR Lara specially because she looked fierce and... A bit crazy. That was the point at the beginning and it is clear when you see how it all started, but it got lost when both the marketing and the fans saw Lara as another "hot dangerous girl". She even says things in that tone in Last Revelation and Chronicles. It still puts me off :/
Thank You For Representing Classic Lara Croft. We The Fans, All Need To Come Together To Protect Classic Lara Croft.
I honestly don't care if classic Lara is borderline psychopathic, she was lovely that way, and she's boring now that she's powerless, bland and usual "relatable" normal woman. I am saying this as a woman, I liked playing as a power fantasy, and dislike playing a constantly victimized and wounded sufferer.
Both clarifying and entertaining, yes! I loved this video. Such a thoughtful and comprehensive read. I really miss that personality. I think she was such a unique character, the likes of which we haven't seen since then. I remember back then media calling her the female Indiana Jones or the female James Bond, which never made sense to me because I have never seen her as having any similar traits to these characters, or any other character for that matter. I wish Crystal would have realised that there was no need to reinvent or ""reboot"" that character but develop and expand on. Which would work greatly with more developed antagonists as well. Now that you put it this way, I so wish we could see that Lara with all the modern tools available for facial animations and performance.
Classic Lara was the best Lara. As a girl I found her sexy outfits cool. Modern Lara isn’t the Lara I loved as a kid. Legend & Underworld had her still in character but the other TR games not so much
Same!! I’ve looked up to the classic Lara meanwhile Legend Lara was cute too especially with her commentaries with Alister and Zip. However she didn’t inspired me like classic Lara did. I don’t even wanna talk about reboot Lara who sounds like a fake Brit.
Quality Tomb raider video as always. Who ever wrote Ice Queen doesn't know what an ice queen is, or didn't do their research.
Great video. I tend to have a very selective memory, so for years I believed the stereotypes said about her, although I adore the classic games and have known them well since I was a kid. So this video has been very helpful to refresh my perception of Lara, be aware of her great personality, and love her even more! Thank you💞
Great video Seth! Also, very necessary!
thanks :D
Incredible video👏🏻👏🏻 also it is kind of funny that some people criticise og Lara because she is considered as emotionless, cold hearted little ms perfect. This is a game character, not your neighbour. She doesn’t have to be “realistic” or “relatable” at all. This is exactly why I love her so much.
Well said.
Even in reloaded I noticed each time you beat a level she does some cool super hero move and I’m thinking to myself she messes up sometimes or trips. Lol
Great stuff as always, Seth! I agree with every point you made 👏
Thanks man! Keep up the good work with your videos, man 😁
2013 Lara is a waste. Classic Lara is badass and sassy. And you're right. I have big boobs, brown hair and brown eyes, and we're not considered beautiful, compared with blond and blue eyed women. I felt represented by Lara and wanted to be like her.
Most men prefer brunettes. You've been brainwashed by anti-German propaganda masquerading as history.
@@lucasgrey9794it depends on the person.
I don’t think we should generalise here. But i’m glad you feel represented ❤
Thank you for making this video! So much misinfo about Lara. People have even laughed at me for saying I like Tomb raider games. Classic Lara is not just there for looks! She's her own character.
Even though you could say Legend and Underworld sexualize her. I still like those games as well. I always found characters who dress up sexy etc. just as empowering as someone who defiantly doesn't, but that could just be my thing.
I think many don't realise lots of video game men could also be viewed as sexualised, with revealing outfits and camera angles. (Maybe if you're not into men you never see it?) But somehow when a curvy woman does anything, that's automatically sexual?
This video is golden, from now on it will be my go-to place to explain my points about that matter. Apart from the helicopter guy, museum guards from Lud's gate (and sometimes even Area 51 personnel) or police/guards from AoD are often seen as "innocent victims" of her. While I think sometimes even Core Design went a bit hoverboard, those where the '90s and early 2000s... anyway, in every single one of those cases either they are instantly hostile to you (and probably corrupt), or as a player you have the choice of non-lethal approaches/stealth. So, should we say that canonically Lara enjoyed shooting monks just because you could decide to do that? xD In my opinion her VCI escapade is more controversial than all of that, but even then the same points apply + it's a corrupt, unethical corporation full of illegal crap.
I wish they'd port the original tomb raider games to ps5 and Xbox series x I'd have a blast
I played tomb raider back in the 1990s and never saw her as a sex object. She was a silent protagonist like gordon freeman and took you to adventure with full accountability, if you slipped up she died, so every movement was accountable.
Likewise. To the point where I was surprised at some people’s reactions when I told them that she was one of my favourite video game characters (non gamers probably).
This makes me see how similar classic and reboot lara are. Biggest difference is survivour lara is less humourous and cocky
Great video.
The most ironic thing in all this is that Angelina Jolie actually portrayed her really well, so you'd think that wluld open people's eyes but instead it almost had the opposite effect, where the games got rebooted with elements from the movies and started a downward spiral.
Very good video, my compliments for presenting it this way (short but complete; honest, well-balanced, and fair). It's useful to point people to if they have some of these misconceptions, often a conflation between 'Marketing Lara' and 'In-Game Lara' (or something that has naturally grown over time, depending on where/how much they encountered the character). Luckily (?), I have never been exposed much to the marketing side to her but primarily to her true in-game self, so personally I did not believe any of them, but I've encountered a lot of people who (still) do. It would be nice if more people would have a better understanding of who Classic Lara Croft truly was (and why she was designed that way - limitations of 90s video games and time constraints are factors that need to be mentioned here), so that we get a fair(er) assessment and more appreciation for this version of the character (mainly outside of the fandom itself), which she totally deserves imo.
Lara's creator was actually really displeased by the sexualised marketing of her, and he never intended or wanted for her to ever be a sex symbol.
Also Angelina Jolie studied Judith Gibbons performance as Lara in TR2 for the film and the fact that she was able to see all of that depth that haters couldn't see says a lot.
I love it, and I hate feminism
"It was the style at time" Abe Simpson
Today there would be a parliamentary enquiry but in the 90s attitudes were very different, do you know why? Because the people who complained the most was conservative media, the dirty right wingers, the poor souls "on the wrong side of history".
So what are young trendy left wingers going to do? Agree with Mary Whitehouse?
@@Treblaine ok grandpa
Great video as always. Love your videos!
I can’t agree more with this video!!! 100% accurate and true. Very well done 👍 I miss this Lara so much :(
Hi @SethMackenzie. I keep loving how well you narrate your opinion and how strongly (but politely) you keep expressing your love for classic Lara Croft. The first game I played of her (apart from a GBA one) was Legends and I still love it today but your videos make me discover a Lara that got lost for me in the way. I am still trying to find a way to play all of the classics on console. If anyone knows how, please let me know. PLEASE, Seth keep uploading content. I smile when I see that your video is at least 40min long! 😊
Thanks ☺ can't you play the PC versions? Otherwise the classics are playable on PS1/2/3. But AoD won't work on most PS3 's
I loved the animation in the old games when Lara would run into a wall. It always makes me laugh lol
Miss the old Lara
one woman disaster exintion event.thats my lara,she messes up, but steps to fix things when guilty
I miss the classic sassy badass Lady Croft
great video and great voice i can listen your videos for days
Playing tomb raider 1 for the first time on an emulator on my android. having a blast
Do TR 2 next those two games especially just wow!
Agree with all of this 👏 except I loved LAU trilogy. Still, classic is best and hella misunderstood
man, that was beautiful
Thank you from one fan to another for your defense. This video should be reference to the argument.
"Or they watched the cutscenes with their eyes closed"... bold of you to assume thee people have ever played a video game, much less a Tomb Raider game...
Another amazing video! I agree with every single word you said!
In hindsight, 90s ads really did a number on the public image of gaming as a whole.
Late 90s and early 00s were the tryhard era lol
Thank you. I cannot share this enough❤
Petition to see you in a video, to put a face to that divine voice
heh yeah he really have a great voice. So many great UA-cam channels with amazing content I cant watch just because creator have a unflattering voice. And for Seth even if his videos were not of high quality as they are I think I would still watch his channel just because of his voice, it has such a therapeutic effect on me after long working day.
@@markospas haha thanks so much. Hopefully my voice makes up for the crappy mic acoustics
@@SethMcKenzieTV you have the perfect voice for ASMR
Lara was always a solitary heroine. They even joke about sexuality, when she catches you the player watching her in her bathroom. Lara takes her shotgun, and shoots you.😂
she was brilliantly portrayed in the 50 issue comic book from 1997, i think they fleshed out her character beautifully from the first game in it
I don't get people saying she has no depth or personality when she showcase a lot of it in the beginning at the very beginning of TR 1.
I guess in order to be a good character you need to have traumatic experience or sad backstory nowadays. Being compassionate, clever, or just being capable means bad character.
The ironic thing is that classic Lara's backstory is honestly pretty traumatic. It just doesn't come up a lot because she grew from it rather than letting it define her entire life, so I guess that makes it not count to a lot of people.
People says that because most never played the old games, look at how many complained about how hard it is despite the point of the old games is too explore and try again😂😂, they will never admit it cause they know their points will come across as ignorant, false and lazy
I never understood the oversexualized lara thing... even regular young fit women could easely look like lara in real life... in fact, a trip to a gym could reveal to you some even hotter women than lara... physically speaking of course... NO ONE matches our beloved lara croft in the kickassery department... xD Cheers!
I think that if most people look at the early drawings she was based on, they get an idea that Lara wasn't meant to be a femme fatale or any other sexist trope. However, it is true that the marketing protrayal was not good for her, or the big anti-gravity bust. I agree on the bust size can be very big for some, but it wouldn't look so high and as it was the 90s, this was easily seen as a way to sexualise her. I think these first drawings of Lara didn't have those neither. Look at Joanna Dark, for example, she had a feminine figure without having those big (sorry, ridiculous) boobs. When I was a child, of course I didn't pay attention to that part of Lara, but the boys my age certainly did.
What I want to say is that apart from that detail, Lara was an amazing character and I don't think the following TRs were TRs at all. And not only because of Lara, they are reeeeally weak/average games. LAU was incredibly sexualised, she runs in a ridiculous sexist way and she's moving her hips constantly (exept Underworld, I believe, it took a more serious tone). One of the things that helped seeing how awesome classic Lara is was her backstory as you mentioned, too. She was such an example!
I think there were a few characters in the 90s that were surprisingly feminist but not a lot remember: Ellie Satler in Jurassic Park, Xena the warrior princess or Scally from X-files are examples of this, but people put Lara in the sexualised ones by just looking at her figure. It makes me sad that people (specially the fans) don't want to see all there is behind that.
Edit: sorry about my English
I totally understand, and your English was perfect!
@@SethMcKenzieTV I forgot to mention that one thing I hate about the fandom is how much a lot of them like to portray her in sexy poses or like to see her sexualised (that's why I won't ever understand Legend fans.) They love to imagine Lara like that and I find it really sad. I like her looking strong, determined. I think she deserves better :(
So your definition of ''strong'' is really just boyish. There's nothing wrong with portraying Lara as sexually attractive and feminine because like it or not it's part of her identity. And I don't see how it's bad either that the boys around you noticed her sex appeal.
They really balanced her feminity and “tomboy appeal” well. Playing classic you never feel like her sex appeal was used in distasteful way (usually involve Pierre and Larson). The remastered classic Lara’s image seem almost Barbie like, which I find cringey
Thank you 👏 You really know who Lara is ❤
Love low poly Lara.
Good video!
Yes, yes and yes.
Very well done, Seth 😙
Lol, feminists raging against Lara in bikini on the beach. What she was supposed to wear? Her Antarctica outfit? 😂
Yes.
I think it was more the CGI than the bikini, she looks like she is missing some ribs xD I love old Lara but you cant say she wasnt being sexulised in that beach scene , no human being could have that look without a little help from surgery or photoshop and the only reason she has that look was the marketing choose to use sex to sell the game. It is what it is man.
@@aprioriontoast704 she's not a human being tho. Let people have some escapism, not everything has to be a painstaking ultra-realistic recreation of reality. I already live in it and it sucks more often than not so
@@Li_Tobler My point is she is pretty sexuilasied in that scene beyond just wearing a bathing suit, I did not take a position on how that effects female body image issues (I honestly do not know about that issue), just that denying Laras body type is very unrealestic and sexaulised is delusional. If you support that at least be honest about what it is; Laras body typed is meant to be a sexualised fantasy (at least in the CGI ) that could only be achieved in the real world with surgery , you gotta own that to defend it.
It is kind of lame to strawman people for being angry at her bathing suit when they are angry about something else regardless if they are still in the wrong.
@aprioriontoast704 oh I'm very honest about what it is, I admitted it under the other guy's comments here. I just don't see a problem with it 🤷
The words "...Legend onwards is irrelevant" need to be carved in stone, framed, and enshrined somewhere.
Honestly, yeah 🤣
I wish I could like this comment a million times
Is funny how amazing this video is and how sad that is necessary, like, lmao a bought all the games in a Steam promotion and decide play in chronological order, and instantaneous fall in love with the character (btw fuck TR3)
Sexualization existed in the games long before LAU (where it got creepy) - look at the crawling and climbing animations from TR2-on. Lara's boobs kept growing with every game. And in AoD they were huge melons with carefully-animated physics. You can't deny this is in-game sexualization.
The topic of sexualization in TR often tries to dismiss the quality of the actual games which really bothers us, fans - it's unfair, it's cheesy, it's dumb. But I wouldn't go as far as to outright deny its presence inside the actual games. Camera angles, tit physics...it's all part of the legacy.
I agree with those observations on the classics but I think the difference between them and marketing Lara are obviously huge, and LAU Lara compared to classic also made a significant step forward with her outfits
Lara is a Super Klutz, She has died all over the place.
I think this is a player created separation. We the players died dozens of times, but Lara would never fall for those traps.
I think they're being playful 😉
.. We had the comics, We had the games, We had the crossover-comics, We had the merchandise and how-much better a character Lara when shared with the world she made it into just by being in the spotlight, Than without her. Who cares what a small amount of unliked baseless and falsely-assuming npcs say or think who dont like anything. They dont matter. +
Hey donno how I missed this for so long! 😅 awesome video my friend. I think there’s a lot more myths that you can add to this video so I’ll be waiting for Part2 - I STRONGLY agree with everything mentioned here. On the emotionless myth tho, IDT if it is a technology issue tbh… yeah sure it didn’t help the pixelated graphics and stuff but I honestly think general public thought Lara was an ice queen because of the dev team’s writing being so bad compared to other games on the PS1 era.. but then again the enjoyment in TR games were definitely not because of the script or story of the games so it was all good. But yeah Lara’s a badass women but also a decent and emotional human being ❤
I was paranoid you didn't comment because you hated me 😢 I'm joking 😜
I couldn't think of other myths/misconceptions about her that I've seen frequently enough to put on this video tbh. (You could do a follow up if you wish bro 👀)
I came to Lara from Modesty Blaise. Both are the definitive "strong female". Feminine. Beautiful. Brave. Intelligent. Witty. Imperfect. Yes, and sexy.
I HATE when they always say she was sexualised yet in the Awful god forsaken reboot 2013 we had a scene of her getting forced on right before her first kill, this wouldn't have been done if it was a male , and Wow i always thought that was shorts right under her 'Evening ripped' Outfit from Japan level..
I miss classic Lara!
Well, without her or the main voice actress for the game, I personally don't think we would ever see another Tomb Raider game like it!
Very good video.
Such a good video! A true decryption of Lara ❤
Yes lara croft is more than a sexualised emotionless character from video games..
Well done.. Another Great video about our beloved lara 💖
Fantastic video. Thank you. Imo, the only oversexualized thing in the retro games, was TR4. Her shorts are see-through and you can see her thong through the shorts. Now, i don't have a problem with this, but i think people who say lara was oversexualized in the ps1 games because they remember her see-through thong, and then they group her big boobs, big butt and big lips into the mix, thus they get the impression she is oversexualized.
I love TR1 through 4, and i grew up playing them as a kid. As a female myself, i never thought as a kid that she was oversexualized or that she was looking slutty or anything like that, and i still dont think she looks oversexualized. I love lara because she is an adventurer, an archeologist, and raids tombs for precious artifacts, all while being a female. I thought she was so cool, and i still think retro lara is cool to this day. ✌️🤝
I recently played through The Last Revelation and I wonder what the heck they were thinking when they made the cutscene where young Lara who was 14 according to a video I watched "tease" the player with her going to take her top off before the priest comes into the room before she does.
Why did they choose young child Lara to have that cutscene instead of adult Lara?
@Gamesta100 you're thinking of TR chronicles, not the last revelation. I forgot about that though in chronicles!! I never played chronicles as a kid, but when I played it as a late teen, I'm like...uhh..isn't she a child here?? She was just gonna show us boob?! Yikes. 😬 I think they did that because chronicles was just a cash grab cause core got sponsored from timex to make another TR game. Maybe timex wanted the tease? Idk. Definitely weird.
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@@LunalovaniaGaming that's right. I got the games mixed up because immediately after beating Chronicles I played and beat The Last Revelation. Plus young Lara was also in TLR.
I had played every TR game but I only ever finished 1 and 2 on the PS1.