The art for my intro, this video's thumbnail and title card was done by artist Azuma Yasuo. The music in this video is from Lara's Home & Lara's Home GOLD, made by thatnorskchick2. You can find Azuma's Patreon and all respective links for both creators in the description!
I think we need to acknowledge as a society that there was nothing wrong with Laras old personality. If anything we want that Lara back with no rewrites needed.
And a lot of us didn't play the Tomb Raider games to watch her die in increasingly gory ways. The most recent releases based a lot of their marketing on that, which raised questions...
i think we need to acknowledge that our society has become weaker and whinny and underachieving and this is why lara was nerfed in every way possible, level design, difficulty, epicness of adventures, or lack there off, realism, boob size, agility, weapons and strength of character. Lara is no longer a superhero female version of indian jones but a "realistic" stealth archer with rpg upgrades.
its funny because the daniel craig movies ditched gadgets for fist fights the same way modern lara ditched dual pistols and acrobatics for bows and pick axes and stealth.
She's pretty much like Harley Quinn, at this stage. A pulp icon so fractured there is no consensus about what is the canon anymore. To me: Lara Croft is the romantic archetype of the British archaeology pioneers of the early 20th century: charismatic, adventurous, assertive, wealthy, valuing athleticism, addicted to adrenaline, conscious of her appeal but mostly emancipated from sentimental needs. She has too much of a casual/practical fashion sense to be a femme fatale unlike say, Ada Wong in RE. She is all the more prone to flirt with danger as she has one foot on the crime underworld. She is much less attached to any official institution, on the contrary of Indiana Jones who is an university professor.
I disagree about the femme fatale. I feel like people that don't want to acknowledge her as the first videogame sex icon simply refuse to believe the truth. If you were playing her games between Tomb Raider 1-3 it was very in your face. I still have the official Lara Croft book filled with pictures of her in lingerie, bikinis, posed seductively in water etc etc. She was quite aware of the way she looked and she leaned into it. She was essentially Stellar Blade of her time except the game was more puzzles and less action.
@@Shifft-This Stellar Blade is a horrendous example when the character of Eve absolutely did not embrace her sexuality. In fact there was just nothing about her character that was compelling to begin with, which is a shame.
@@Kingdom850 Kinda agree. She's kinda like a child on her way to become a woman. I love Eve, but I can't lie that her personality is kinda lacking. But then again, her mind is probably is only on her teenage year in the game. Maybe that's why Lilith sees her as a big sister figure. I hope she would mature better in the next game, somehow... if there ever will be Stellar Blade 2.
Thank god the remasters of iv v and vi are coming. Saber interactive are doing these with a team of hand picked tomb raider super fans who are also modders. They are the reason the remasters of 1. 2 & 3 were so good. They actually care about the franchise.
The idea is on point, but the quality and execution aren't. The I-III collection has been flawed enough to basically question their existence, when you could have had a more polished and smooth experience just replaying the original versions.
@@windy3935 what are you talking about? They are great and the recent patches fixed most of the launch problems. And the 60fps is far better than the original games.
@@Punisher6791 No offense, but asking that question is either disingenuous or extremely ignorant....... The patch notes from the first to current have blatantly shown how unpolished the collection has been. Additionally, the community has been vocal about the plentiful of issues since pre-release. There are also still multiple issues in the remaster that don't exist in the originals (all remasters have their new issues, but TR has had a ton comparatively). It certainly was not "great" at launch, and probably still isn't now. Just because it's been playable and fun (and in SOME ways improved over the og) =/= being great. They still haven't fully fixed the water effects, some mechanics, some technical stuff, etc. Every patch also tends to break a few things elsewhere, with some having been really bad. Fortunately some of the original new issues have been addressed throughout the patches, especially the latest ones - if not for those, the collection would be super pathetically flawed. There's still plenty to be fixed even currently. Don't think I can concur with that last point either. 60fps generally looks better on HD+ tvs/games regardless, so off that you can't make the argument. Whichever maintains the 60fps longer is the one with . I mean, just about any decent remaster seems to do better with fr, but still.
@@windy3935 They are nowhere near that bad, they are not even bad period. I think your standards are way too high, or you have rose tinted glasses of the og versions and i have played and grew up with them.
They took an iconic larger than life character and turned her into something mundane. Getting rid of her sex appeal is also part of that. Lara was created to be a bombshell who defies traditional expectations.
@ no bodys fucking lying lmao her the CREATORS of her character never wanted her to be sexualized yall are js weird and want her to be that way at this point please move on
Ever play Legends to UnderWorld, and the reboot? In times like this when heroines are frowned-upon like Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, & Rey, we're gonna need heroines who are overemotional, yet hardened by their experience. Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, Aya of The 3rd BirthDay, Samus from Other M, and the titular-character herself from The Legend of Chun-Li left an impression on me...on how to depict a heroine. There is also Selene of UnderWorld & Alice from Resident Evil.
I love the classics more than anything, but they also almost killed the franchise, so, Tomb Raider needed some changes, or the franchise would be dead by now.
@@atilamachado7379 I think studios need other IPs to make in between games, so games from the same franchise can be far apart from each other to not run out of crative ideas and get bad.
@raulzilla Yeah, if only CD have other IPs that many gamers would love to see back. In an unrelated note are you guys excited for the Soul Revere remaster 🤭
Not a fan how they made her into a complete sociopath and took away all sense of playfulness and sass she had in the originals. She's just a blank slate of a character now and that's sad considering how iconic she is.
@DXFromYT ah good point. It's more like how the new ones especially in shadow where throughout the game has scens in which the game portrays her as this monster who brings nothing but misery to everyone around her. I mean that scene where she comes out of the river and goes on a massacre is a pretty big one.
I think the original Lara was far crazier She gave zero fucks about how much damage or destruction she was causing basically for fun. When she saved to the world it was almost inadvertently But that was part of what made the character fun. Now she has a basic reluctant hero through trauma trope attached to her
They have to change the character up every so often otherwise it would just be dull and boring and more of the same. People would be pissed if she stayed the same every new generation. People are gonna complain every single time a new version of Lara Croft comes out.
I feel like they are trying to make Lara Croft more relatable for women and/or queers. But in doing so, they made the complete opposite of what the intended audience liked as well. I haven't met any women or queer liking survivor Lara Croft so much. I agree that in the 90s and 2000s, Lara was insanely sexualized. I remember men simping for her polygonal shape for gods sake lol. But according to some gaming magazine I've read many years ago, with Lara's appearance in the gaming scene, a lot of women started playing video games because there was a female protagonist. I am a 30 year old woman, and ever since I was a kid, I idolized Lara to bits. Every time we would play in the playground with friends, I would pretend to be like Lara Croft. Even today, the reason I speak and try to learn so many languages and studied archeology and tourism was mainly because of Lara's effect on my life. Boys had their Supermans, Batmans I had Lara Croft. So reducing someone I idolized into this kinda hurts.
You should send this letter to crystal dynamics make them realized how they butchered one of the greatest gaming icons and make her this relatable sad insecure mediocre woman. than making her intelligent sassy ruthless optimistic femme fatal woman
There's an interview with Alicia Vikander where she mentions exactly that. She started playing it when she was a young teenager (when before she felt videogames were mainly for boys), because there it was.. a game where the main character was a woman.
Well said. Developers (or at least executives) don't understand that Classic Lara was a power-fantasy figure just like Batman. We didn't relate to her as much as we *aspired* to be *like* her. Making a character "relatable" does NOT mean "make this confident, resourceful, intelligent character more like me, Jane Public". It DOES mean "help me connect with this character through their struggles and how they choose to overcome them". Lara's sexualisation in the 90s was 100% down to the marketing, NOT the content of the games, but the solution (if that's the word) is not to pretend Lara isn't sexy or give her love interests (of any gender), for the simple reason that's not what the games - or Lara's passion in life - are supposed to be about! She's driven by curiosity, not by relationships (parental or romantic). Whenever the official writers try to shoehorn that aspect in, it starts to sound like the worst kind of self-indulgent fanfiction. Lara today feels like a pale shadow of who she was; her motivation/drive and core strengths have been neutered or changed to stem from male parental role models and internalised guilt over losing those close to her. The joy, the sense of true discovery and achievement, that owes nothing to anyone else, has gone. Now, she's just another generic adventurer who's part of a gang of like minded pals... not the groundbreaking self-sufficient and self-pleasing power fantasy that made this whole franchise iconic in the first place.
Ada wong from RE4 Remake is proof that we need more femme fatales in gaming more than ever. I would love to see Lara comeback with that characteristic.
I donno why everyone says Core Lara is cold, it seems to be one of those things where the commonly said description (she was colder than LAU Lara and Reboot Lara) has corrupted cultural memory. Core Lara WAS playful, she was often non-lethal and even heroic with other characters, and she was friendly with other characters (Winston, her friends from Chronicles, random characters in cut scenes, even Pierre and Larson...). People need to refresh their memories (or learn their assumptions are wrong) tbh.
It's as if whoever wrote the netflix series didn't even play through the Shadow game. She literally FINALLY made peace with her past/recent events in the ending. She walked away from her parents, saying goodbye to them. She was at finally able to let go and move on and yet they've recycled all the plot pieces of shadow into the series. Jonah fake dying? Check. Her blaming herself/having nightmares of the people that blames their deaths on her? Multiple Checks within Rise AND SHADOW. A literal BOX and trinket for the artifact. CHECK. An Old Man as the main antagonist trying to oh wait, reset the world? TRIPLE CHECK. Catastrophes starting when the trinkets were activated? Oh sounds familiar! And don't get me started on the continuity of the graphic novels between the survivor trilogy games. At one point Jonah and Alex's sister got together but she just suddenly vanished from the plot and now we have Abi in Shadow. Whoever is in charge of this franchise nows jacksht about unification and continuity. And thank god somebody mentioned that goofy chucks with the dress. They were trying so hard from the very start to appeal to these snowflake hipster I'm not like the other girls community and it feels so unnatural for the character, it just leaves classic fans in disbelief. And Zip's overhaul? This dude gave out the impression that he was this guy from the hood who's tech smart AND street smart. Literally a hoodie, jeans hang low type of guy and now they're making him out to be this fashionista wearing loud clothing with fur like some instagram influencer? 🥴 Shadow's ending already paved the way for a confident, grounded Lara, ready to take on the world, having closure with all that happened in her childhood and in the survivor trilogy. The netflix series ultimately felt like a scrapped version of Shadow that just got turned into an animation. And now we're getting a Sam story line for season 2. Let me guess, more crying then? The old lara can't come to the phone right now. Cause she's dead. 😪
i hate survivor Lara as a person, for the reasons you explained. The games themselves are...fine, though i much more prefer the globe trotting adventures than the "stuck on a single island" in every game in the survivor trilogy. Gameplay wise, i much more prefer the LAU style gameplay than the survivor type, and the classic gameplay still holds up really well to this day.
I gave the Tomb Raider reboot a chance and thought it was okay as a game, just a bad TR game. In hindsight its creators' contempt for classic Lara was obvious. I still recall the Game Informer article hyping it up, talking about how they tried to make Lara's facial geometry more realistic yet still recognizable, they did a fine job but then the remaster changed her face to look more "average". And then Rhianna Pratchett's admission that 1) she wasn't a fan of classic Lara Croft, and 2) she wrote the reboot _"not really knowing what Lara's character was going to be",_ which flies in the face of the idea that it was a prequel and Lara would evolve into the character we recognized.
I actually prefer the Definitive Edition version of 2013 Lara. It tried to get closer to how she looked in the CGI trailer, where Lara actually looked really beautiful and somewhat resembling classic/LAU Lara, minus the blue eyes. Then they completely abandoned that direction and made her mundane looking in Rise where she lost pretty much all resemblence to classic/LAU Lara.
@@charmingpeasant9834 If it tried, then it failed. There's a mod that actually makes Lara look like that Turning Point CGI trailer and it's beautiful. Even includes her actual OG outfits as a bonus.
*My mind looking at the Netflix animation footage:* THAT'S NOT ANIME! THAT'S NOT ANIME! *THAT'S NOT ANIME!!!* *calms down* *Ahem...* ...that's standard Netflix animation. ...If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
They've been doing that with castlevania for years and it bothered me then and it bothers me now. Like there's nothing wrong with calling them cartoons.
@@Alecup06 Anime has a cultural context behind it and is made primarily for a Japanese audience. Reducing it down to a vague art style and a collection of tropes is ignorant at best.
I got introduced to Lara with Jolie's movie, and I really loved the character because you can understand that it took her so much to be the Tomb Raider she's now, yes, she inherited the manor and fortune from her father, but also studied all the knowledged he left, she's also a highly trained gymnast and markswoman, and yet, she can be vulnerable, but instead of being angsty she stands up and has a lively, bold and cheeky attitude, and I also loved the idea that she's got a crew working under her, even her butler is on the action, that's why LAU Lara is my favorite version of the character growing up, and up to a point still is. And with survivor Lara, I really loved TR 2013, and when I played Rise, I really enjoyed it gameplay wise, but when you play a game called "Rise of the Tomb Raider" and you still see the wary girl that Lara still was from her first outing, and we never get to see The Tomb Raider as we know her to Rise, well it disappointed me, so much that when I knew Shadow was still old wary Lara fighting against Trinity and that the Tomb Raider we know still wasn't close, I didn't played the game, despite owning it on several platforms because I think either Squenix or Crystal Dynamics were putting that game for sale or for free several times during these past years, yet despite knowing gameplaywise might be the best in the reboot trology, I am not playing it since the portrayal of the protagonist is not interesting to me anymore.
It's so bizarre that games, movies and shows now are so adamant on having their star female character be like what original Lara Croft was being strong, confident and not needing help though minus the sexiness but they don't want to make Lara Croft like that again. It's so weird they seem to want to make Lara anything except Lara.
Your last sentence truly Crystalised the core of what Lara's Dynamic is. She is indeed the One you meet Once, and Never Forget. Excellent closing line.
The Remasters should be a HUGE wake up call to what the fans actually want from Tomb Raider. I've never seen the TR community so hyped for a release in ages.
I actually like the first Tomb Raider reboot but hated the last two games especially Rise. She lacks the sassy attitude of OG and Legends Lara. She's way too serious and overemotional. Every time she cries, I just cringe and see someone different. To me ara is a loner who gets her kicks through tomb raiding and discovering ancient artifacts, very much like Indy. She has friends but for the most part she doesn't socialize much. I think Jolie's version portrayed Lara's attitude perfectly. We need OG Lara back! The most recent game that portrayed classic Lara right is Chloe from Uncharted: Lost Legacy. Go play that game and tell me if you don't see classic Lara in her. Claudia Black plays Chloe with enough sass and confidence to rival Lara.
The only reason AoD Lara felt different to her previous titles was because her prior adventures were one-shot and her arc was completely flat. AoD, on the other hand, was a direct continuation from the events of TR4. Lara was suddenly faced with true internal obstacles - her ghost from her near-death and betrayal by Von Croy - and had to deal with the consequences on screen; she had a positive arc instead of a flat one.
Honestly I would rather have survivor Lara as og Lara's daughter or something. It would work so much better both thematically and would leave the room for coming back to the og Lara every now and than. It wouldn't be kinda cool to see them interact and having conflicts, representing different gens of take on the characters and living in the shadow of the predecessor
I really like the classic lara she's more ruthless because she doesn't give zero f@#$ to anyone which makes her anti-heroine but to me i also love legend lara which makes her optimistic sassy playful femme fatal badass lara that in my mind the most canon lara for me
Laura croft is an intelligent, confident, classy, and witty woman who would never be caught dead in a dress and trainers combo. What made lara so amazing was that no matter the situation she was put in, she could keep her head and conquer it. She also, in my opinion, was quite feminine and never tried to act more masculine or less feminine in order to achieve her goals. There was never a time when being feminine was seen as weak or a complcation, and she had to 'man up'. I only say this as the whole trainers and dress situation makes me feel like there is some type of tomboy, 'shes not like other girls' agenda, which just doesn't sit right with me. Laura was the type of person to me that would get things done while looking good doing it and knowing she looked good doing it and it didnt matter if other people agree with her she was doing it for herself.
I’m glad you made it clear how AoD Lara is different to the earlier classic versions. Most people lump them in as the same, but there’s fairly significant differences between them. I’d also argue there’s even multiple different Top Cow versions, including one with a no kill rule. But they’re more in smaller editions that don’t get acknowledged much.
I would argue that they’re all the same, from TR1 to AoD. It’s just that it’s more of a character development rather than being a completely different character like the legends and Survivor trilogies’s Laras
@Megatron-xs2qe I wouldn't call that development. It's straight-up rewriting. She blamed Von Croy for leaving her to die when he put out his hand and tried to help her at the end of The Last Revelation.
@ that’s true but it’s more of a continuity mistake, given the fact that there were different developers working on AoD than your usual Core developers since they were working on Chronicles
Being a fan of this beautiful franchise is exhausting, to say the least. Personally I feel that the survivor trilogy should've been an original IP instead of Tomb Raider simply because it doesn't feel like a TR game, don't get me wrong, these games from that era are good (personal favorite being Rise) but I feel like what Crystal Dynamics is doing is very disingenuous to the franchise blatantly smudging out what made her great and replacing it with something that'll appeal to "modern audiences" and other nonsense is trurly heartbreaking. Safe to say I have no hope for my childhood game at this point. But I hope one day it'll return to form and people today will realize that classic/LAU Lara was really an amazing character that gamers should celebrate. 🩵
Best lara croft interpretation for me was the one in legend, anniversary and underworld. She was still this cocky boss girl but we also got the explore her vulnerable side with her parents death and stuff. Made for an interesting plot that sadly didnt get explored in depth enough. I always imagine what that trilogy could have been if it got that survivor trilogy treatment in terms of length, budget etc.
I wouldn’t say that in Tomb Raider 2013 Lara got involuntarelly on the island. They were searching for that island. However the whole “ Find Yamatai and explore it” turned into “Escape from Yamatai” once a cult group starting hunting them.
Incredible summarization of how fans are feeling about Tomb Raider!! This video needs to be seen by Crystal Dynamics and I utterly hope, they won’t flush down their chance to make Tomb Raider great again down the toilet🙏
The only thing I truly hate about Survivor reboot (besides progressive misogyny) is the audacity to erase an established and iconic character for no good reason. And the funniest thing is, Survivor trilogy could've been a fully original project and it would sell just as well if not better, that's a fact. I assure you most of its casual players have never even touched older Tomb Raider games and don't ever plan to. And now we have to deal with their new delusional attempts to create a Frankenstein's Lara. The unification concept is a crazy thing considering they didn't even bother to progress her new character for 10 whole years, held back by her legacy, continuing with empty promises made to TR fans. Lara's dying with a whimper while they still rave about "bringing her to former glory" WHY DID YOU TAKE IT AWAY FROM HER IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Not me, I prefer classic Lara from Core Design even though I grew up on LAU Lara and Survivor Lara but after playing the remasters of 1-3 well I like this version of the character the best personally.
From what I played of Legend, it does have the best portrayal of the character. Classic Lara was often superficial, particularly in the sequels where the gameplay disregarded the story enough to characterise her as ruthlessly immoral.
i played TR2 in the PS1 when i was a kid, then 20 years later played the survival (did not like) and finally played LAU, and Underworld is the best TR game for me.
I am aware of the classic Lara, but I only played Anniversary, Underworld and 2013 reboot so PERSONALLY, I prefer LAU Lara. Reboot missed the mark so much for me I never bothered playing the following games
i think there are characters that can in fact get a way with massive, "reconciliation"-defying gaps in characterization. Roger Moore and Daniel Craig took starkly different approaches to James Bond, for instance, and yet they're both essential contributions to the history of the character. but i think James Bond has the benefit of existing to most people as a series of movies (obv adapted from books) with recurring tropes and a roughly continuous overall vibe (accounting for shifts in cultural norms, of course). it also helps that even with those variations in characterization, we're still only really talking about six actors over a span of 60+ years. Lara Croft, on the other hand, is first split across different technical generations in the context of video games, then also across media when you consider the movies, and then even further split into live-action vs animation. and THEN split across creator stints and cultural shifts. this makes her something more like Batman, i suppose? but Batman and other superhero stuff are far more heavily thematic and character-driven than something like Tomb Raider; it's just easier to accept the idea that Batman has a few essential characteristics but is otherwise adaptable to the tone and themes of whatever stories you might want to use him and his supporting characters to tell. i don't know that anyone really thinks of Lara Croft that way, as a character strong enough to adapt to lots of competing creative outlooks while remaining essentially herself. so the natural alternative is to cull the competing creative outlooks. identify her "true" element, and commit.
In the end, all this proves is that video games are a business and that developers and publishers will keep re-inventing character IPs and story arcs to try and attract more players: regardless of how inconsistent the timeline is for a given game franchise.
Hasn't seemed to ever work with TR. Square was perpetually disappointed with their TR games' sales numbers. Probably one of the reasons they were willing to part with the franchise and studio for such a small asking price.
I love classic Lara, I grew up with her. I even like LAU Lara, for me it is still Lara, little diff cause technology and aproach, but still she is Lara. But the survivor one is completely someone else. And After all those years I feel really scammed by CD, since they said: "She is gonna become the Lara from Tr1..." well that didn´t happened. I hate CDs aproach and behaving. They should be happy, that Remasters of classic games are making money, maybe more than their reboot trilogy, but no, they still throwing some BS on it and on us fans, without us there wouldn´t be any lara after TR1. We have power, and that is why Anime flopped. I didn´t watch it and after this video, I am 100% sure it is gonna stay that way...
It was the main thing I liked about the Netflix show. Lara's personality reminded me of LAU Lara, which was my favorite version. And I've been playing the TR games since the Sega Saturn version!
@@Gold26502 Personality and performance =/= story elements and bad writing. The crying thing got old, but the way the character interacted with others reminded me of LAU and I liked it.
@@yonderboygames Nah, she was too dependant- LAU was more like Angelina where she enjoyed their company and support to aid her adventures but she didn’t need them in the field- She needs those people in the anime present in the field like Jonah which is pointed out in the narrative several times when she nearly dies. I feel like Buffy the Vampire slayer was a much bigger influence on the anime without the good character that went with it.
The acrobatics were a key part of Tomb Raider for me, so the 2013 reboot was way off base from what I enjoyed about previous entries. The collectables in LAU were great, and exploring Croft Manor. The collectables in 2013 and Rise were so dull, I'd rather read a National Geographic to learn about cultures and archaeology, I play Tomb Raider to do cool flips and activate fascinating contraptions. She's Indiana Jones by way of Prince of Persia.
What the world needs is the continuation of the franchise using the game engine of the remasters. Players are clearly clamoring for more of the classic heroine and queen of adventure. Aspyr is a blessing to us as well as the beloved Tomb Raider series.
I've always loved the classic Lara and the old Tomb Raider games. The silent environment, the puzzles, some random enemies here and there, some jump scares, Lara with her two pistols and etc... But after all they done with her, I'm just tired of trying to be positive and have hope that things are going to come back to what they were. I've reach a point that I just don't care anymore, they can have the emotional modern Lara since the Tomb Raider I knew and love doesn't exist anymore.
Great comment. I see many people complaining (rightfully so) about Lara's character over the years, but I don't see many people praising the atmosphere of the first 5 games. There was little to no HUD, mostly silent and made you figure out things by yourself. The combat could be a little better, though.
*From what you’ve told me, it seems to all come down to what compels Lara to explore:* Isolation from her family structure compelled the Classic Laras to seek out their own fortunes. Family structure compelled LAU Lara to carry on their legacy and find “family” of her own. Desperation in the harshest of circumstances compelled Survivor Lara to embrace cold, hard reality in her occupation as an archaeologist. Modern writers compelled Netflix Lara to be a big ball of stress and emotions, and ultimately a subpar character.
Man I just want a new game that takes as much inspiration from the classics as does Doom2016/Eternal from Doom1/2. Playing cool Lara in the remakes was such a good time. Another point of inspiration could come from Metroid Dread where they, as in Doom, really nailed the mannerism of the Character.
The very fact that "PTSD" and "her trauma" enter into this conversation means they've completely lost the plot. She had one job: raiding tombs. It was elegant in its simplicity and FUN. All this other psychological stuff is just noise from pretentious jerks.
Im born in 1990 and as I grew found of video games and their characters I was like every little boys back then in complet 😮 as I first seen Lara Croft in Tomb Raider 1 (one kid was playing the game on a pc at school ) But my first real contact with that legend was in Tomb Raider 3 or aniversary at first I was playing for the gameplay not the story but as I grew older I started to enjoy the stories of my games and the most important the personality of my characters no one in video games was the bad ass athlete that was Miss Croft and her attitude was fenomenaly fun to see her go BAD ASS Lady with more prowess than Indiana Johns liked the saga until I quit it at 15 years old but one day as I seen all the new versions of her I was like , is that even still The same character she feel as an all new character inspired of the original after that I thought "OK another got rebooted " but when I discovered the show I thought who is that that's not LARA CROFT
"Lara Croft is supposed to be a person you meet once and never forget." Such an accurate way to describe the whole appeal of her character. Thank you for the video and your appreciation for Lara Croft. And a special thank you for slamming down incel takes and distinguishing the actual problem of the 'anime' Lara, including how creators deny her femininity in favour of some tired labels. "Adding muscles to the char doesn't take away from her womanhood", WORD. I would like nothing more than Lara with pronounced physique if she has her distinct personality and charm. Which is a pipe dream at this point.
Getting rid of her more classic feminine body proportions and claiming that busty, curvy women cant be adventurous even in fiction is also denying her femininity. She could have those pre-2013 bombshell proportions with added muscularity to highlight her athleticism, but instead her prior bombshell aesthetics get demonized as being ''problematic'' even by people involved with the Netflix show.
People mistake being a built bodybuilder and being toned. Lara was always toned, not jacked. She had a six pack in the first game, ffs, but that's it. She still had a feminine figure. That's literally why she has dual pistols, to make up for the fact the animals and men/people she encountered and fought would be bigger and stronger than her. She fought smarter, not harder
And furthermore, I just want to put it out there that it wouldn't make sense for Lara to be ripped. Having a lot of over-excessive muscles can cut down on your stamina, especially if you spend all day climbing. Climbing is about core strength, not muscle mass. One of the world's best free/sport climber is a small, thin as a rail, Japanese woman.
@@jase276 idk if you refer to my comment or overall muscle discourse, but yeah, having muscle definition doesn't mean being a beefcake, although frankly I couldn't care less about the "realism" factor here, she can be ripped and defy gravity itself, this is Lara Croft we're talking about. She's literally the 90s action hero type, it's her thing. Though while I do like more bulky Lara variants in cosplay or fan renders for aesthetic reasons, when it comes to complaints about her "proper body type" I usually compare Lara's physique to real life rock climbers, lean, toned like you said.
@@charmingpeasant9834 people have demonised women's bodies since the dawn of time, the sad thing is this Lara discourse comes from women who were probably shamed for their bodies as well, so much so they've come to hate any more or less conforming aspect of feminine features or any semblance of sexuality as a whole (whether it's style or behaviour). I get where they come from, but also this doesn't serve as an absolution for their endless policing an established character, condemning their body type or questioning their hypothetical autonomy. I only wish they would just shut up and create their own character of their preferred style and narrative instead of butchering already existing ones. Lara was a victim of sex marketing yes, but in games she's so self-sufficient I can imagine her just not caring and owning her sexuality. She was a great role model for me as an insecure teen, a woman who is cool and capable and couldn't. care. less.
Survival Tilogy is not a prequel to Lara Croft 1. It simply cannot be. These are two different alternative timelines. Even two Lara's birth years are different.
I agree on a lot of points regarding the characterization of Lara in Netflix show, but I dont consider it to be part of the Unified Lara timeline as this show relies too heavily on the Survivor timeline. Moreover this show was contractually signed with Netflix while the franchise was still owned by Square Enix, Unified Lara was only officially announced after Square Enix sold the franchise off. I find the anime to be "supplemental" materiel for Survivor timeline which has no bearings on the franchise as a whole and should not be considered what Unified Lara will necessarily will be. I also believe that Unified Lara is intended to be a more representative mascot for the franchise and that in the next actual game she will sport a different look and maybe even personality altogether.
From a claissic TR fan since the 1990's, you summed this up PERFECTLY. Just give us back our bad bitch archeologist who will stop at nothing to get what she wants and we can all live happily.
My friend and I are basically opposite. He likes classic Lara while I like the Survivor version. The anime doesn't do her justice on both versions. IMO stick with the games and media that are good with gameplay and story.
Top Cow Lara is the ultimate Lara for me. Those comics were so cool. Nothing can replicate the vibe and the new anime is nothing in comparison. I completely agree with your points. Tasha Huo is a hack who didn't even know women also worked on Classic Lara and she keeps retweeting the BS articles about how her Lara is modernized, recognizing her white privilege. These people just don't learn their lesson. It always amazes me how no amount of financial failures get through their thick skull.
Lots of complicated feelings on my end, honestly. I actually had a very fun time with the new series, and some of the elements here didn't really bother me, like Lara being kind of antisocial in favor of tomb raiding and the like. I do agree though that she probably cried too much and this series really needs to move on from her parental issues. In general I'm one of the fans who just didn't vibe with reboot Lara all that much, and in general it felt like the reboot trilogy suffered from taking itself too seriously. Something fun to me about Tomb Raider is how off the fucking rails it can get. Like in the first few games alone Lara fights through a Clive Barker meat dimension to kill Atlantean gods, she slays a dragon, she breaks into Area 51 and finds aliens, the list goes on. New Tomb Raider's unwillingness to get suitably wacky just kind of feels like a buzzkill a lot of the time, and so to see some of that more brazen, batshit craziness in the series was very refreshing for me, honestly. I do really wish people working on the series didn't always feel the need to treat the old games like a shameful thing to be moved beyond, though. They had their faults, certainly, and a lot of the marketing surrounding them was pretty gross, but Lara herself was never anything other than a cool badass, and in retrospect to hyperfixate on her appearance as hyperfeminine feels a little silly and reductive to me. I tend to joke with my friends that these days you can just deflect these criticisms by saying she's serving cunt, because quite frankly she is. I will say, though, that as much as nobody wants to have this conversation, and believe me I absolutely don't either, I do think that the topic of colonialism and theft of cultural artifacts is kind of unavoidable. Lara Croft is a wealthy white British woman who goes to foreign countries, often historically colonized ones, to raid tombs and take the artifacts inside, and she's often been depicted as either keeping them for herself or donating them to British museums. Now personally, I think the best solution would be to just kind of handwaive it and move on. Have her just give the artifact to the respective nation or peoples or what have you because she only needs the thrill of the adventure or something like that. There. Done. Moving on. Personally I think the series needs to kind of find its solution for the issue promptly and move on because the absolute last thing I would ever want for this series is for it to feel like a lecture on the topic. Like that press release for the tabletop game was kind of mortifying. Lara should absolutely not become a leading voice in the topic of colonialism or try to reform the raider community or anything like that, no, no, God no. Tomb Raider is at its best when it's having a good time, and the need to make it some didactic examination on the topic is a terrible impulse that should be stamped out promptly. I think the series needs to address it in some way going forward, I think that's unavoidable for its future, but it needs a simple solution it can just stick with so we can all move on and enjoy Lara going pew pew with her guns. I will say that the series definitely delivered in terms of action. Lara's agility is absolutely phenomenal, and I'm honestly looking forward to season two.
it's honestly hilarious to me how crystal dynamics is whining ab how they don't condone racism and colonialism while perpetuating both in their beloved survivor reboot. reyes was a stereotypical angry/jealous black woman. lara literally takes away an important cultural moment from the paititians for her own closure. the series even made zip, the only black character, gay when he wasn't in legend, as if letting him exist as he was is wrong. like....who is crystal preaching to here bc anyone with more than two braincells can see right through their crap. they're trying so hard to copy the success of uncharted, they even gave lara a necklace she never takes off and a tag-along companion with multiple fake-outs after killing most of their cast in 2013. now they're trying to be far cry with the open-world, hang-gliding stuff when fans have been begging for them to bring back precision-based platforming, best tombs not being paywalled dlc like some ea scam, the manor, and globetrotting. so who is this new game even for when it's ripping right from uncharted, again, by being focused in india? i already played lost legacy! chloe frazer feels more like lara croft at this point anyway, so what is the point? i agree with this video. lara croft isn't lara croft anymore. there's no reconciliation for this era. she's someone you meet once and forget for being so bland and boring. i may sound harsh and i'm sorry for that but i am just so disappointed with the direction of this franchise. the bow isn't even all that iconic when it ends up being more impractical compared to a pistol or two.
Couldn't agree more in the reboot being boring. It annoyed beyond belief that literally every reboot game took 75% of the playtime building up something "possibly" supernatural just to kinda undersell it at the last 20 minutes of the game as you mow them down. And they were all just humanoid beings. The "Oni" samurai in TR13, the greek soldiers in Rise, the ghoulish people in Shadow. So boring. Within the first hour of TR1 we fight and kill a mfing T-Rex!
@@jase276 Yeah exactly. Like I hate the kinda sorta wink wink nudge nudge. It feels like it's done just to put on airs about the series being 'respectable" and "serious" so it can join the prestige of stuff like The Last of Us. That's BORING.
@jase276 the dinosaurs are just the start too! that's the beautiful thing ab the older games. i see so many people complain that lara wasn't much of a character and the games didn't have much of a story and it's like.....clearly ya'll weren't paying attention lol who is lara croft now but a katniss everdeen knockoff? the most fascinating thing ab her is that she's a killing machine and that's so one-dimensional and weak when paired with the rest of her personality consisting of being an awkward, wet sock perpetually stuck in "origin story" mode. at least the classics and lau knew who she was and let her, and us, have fun. everything ab the reboot felt like a chore with no worthwhile payoff, especially after 2013 teased the pistols just to never use them again until the very last episode of some saturday morning cartoon quality netflix show. i have too many feelings lol i'm gonna stop here.
That Netflix Tomb Raider series is not an anime. It was produced by Powerhouse Animation Studios which is an American animation studio. And from what I can tell, it doesn't seem to use any tropes you would see in an anime either. Also, the Netflix Lara Croft does look more like a man than a woman, and it's not because of her muscles, it's just the design of her face and her build.
Absolutely fantastic analysis of Lara Croft's history. I kept asking my friends one sole question when a new Tomb Raider game came out, and it was "Does she dual wield pistols yet?" and the answer was No. I haven't purchased a single Tomb Raider game since the initial 2013 reboot because it simply does not connect back to Classic Lara.
it’s’ crazy how many franchises used to be an “instant buy” but are now “wait for game reviews”, such as final fantasy, horizon zero dawn, and now tomb raider
2013 reboot was PERFECT, but then they continued the trend of "relatability" and lost the OC and IP. Lara in her "relatability" phase is just not that interesting a character when compared to her original counterpart. We need old Lara's cool "I'm always in control" bit, but with the new Lara's depth of character development and storytelling. Lara just needs to lose the "relatability" "every-girl" thing, so she can resume the unflappable badass icon, but while having a deeper narrative that is presented to the audience while keeping it hidden from the other characters. Like, the new Lara sucks, cuz she looks weak in front of other characters. She has to ALWAYS appear strong in front of other characters; but can be feeling unbelievably weak and unsure on the inside. This preserves the original's untouchable mystique while humanizing our favourite Tomb Raider.
It's complicated because although I like the TR trilogy of games, I never got a sense of Lara's "deal". Does she explore ancient tombs for the danger? For money? For curiosity? She has a team, cool. She is very capable, both physically and mentally. She speaks like five languages, amazing. But... what's her deal? We know it's not fame she's after. She's not given missions by corporations or bounty hunters. So, more than where is Lara Croft I think the real question, specially compared to other modern adventuring counterparts, WHO is Lara Croft?
In the opening cinematic of the very first game, Lara climbs above a massive door to trigger a button that opens the door. Wolves come out and kill the Peruvian tour guide that had led her there. She kills the wolves. Then, she lifts the hand of the guide to learn that he is indeed dead. Then she just absolutely stands up and turns away, enters the tomb and the game begins. We never see or hear another thing about this guide. And what does she care? She's here to raid a tomb.. THAT'S Lara Croft.
The reality is it’s incompetent writers who, on some level, don’t care for, or outright loathe the source material (usually because of pre-convinced notions, something which they supposedly rail against… the irony). I just hope that Unification Lara (and the IP as a whole) come out great and prove me wrong, otherwise you’ll get the “culture war” dogs chomping at the bit to get their scrap from the corpse of the franchise and character.
The only thing I disagree with is open world, just because I feel like, if done right, with a return to the more complex puzzles and platforming, it could be a gem, and the right way to innovate. Other than that, as a person who grew up with classic Lara, and the Angelina movies, this video is so on point. Great work.
I recently acknowledged that I stick to the image of a person or character that has influenced me, made me fall in love with, admire, or elicits something worth remembering. For instance, I still have the Spice Girls in my mind as they looked back in the 90's, even though it's been over 20 years. That's the image I hold dearly in my mind and my heart. Same goes for Lara. I keep her FMV look from IV. Also, her looks and attitude from Underworld (my favorite Tomb Raider of all time). And Angelina Jolie's Cradle of Life Lara Croft. To me, they all are Lara Croft as I find them stong, stupidly smart, beautiful, confident, badass and capable. But, hearing your explanation, I do understand the point of having a fractured character that lacks, in most of her iterations, the main traits that made her unique and famous in the first place. And I believe the root of the problem is the need to change people's perception of what's right and wrong, what's inclusive and what's not, and have those thoughts forced on you is a bit annoying to me (I shrug them off, but I understand the people who can't stand it, and I respect that opinion, too). We need a story and a character arc not solely focused on "doing what's morally correct, looking as inclusive as they can or being as polite, delicate, and insecure (but capable of overcoming her fears) as humanly possible." We do need a character that jumps into adventure, beyond her looks, her likes, her fears, her backstory. That's the reason I loved Underworld so much, because they dared to jump into mythology as they did in the original Tomb Raider and give us many unnatural sightings of monsters and places that we cannot find in the real world. I can only hope that the new iteration of Lara is more similar to her original self. To me, Lara Croft will always be a source of inspiration, no matter how fierce and lone wolf, or sad and broken she is portrayed as. I just love her that much, and keep in my thoughts the bits that made her iconic.
If CD had made the survivor games the "Adventures of Maria de Lourdes" or any other name that fit that character better, I bet the survivor trilogy would be way more loved. A new game, with a new character, instead of deconstructing an established icon.
Another great and informative video from DX. I didn't know much about this franchise, so thanks for explaining issues that the fans legitimately have with the character's depiction without chirping like a Twitter idiot.
Been playing Tomb Raider games since day 1, LAU LARA has always been my favorite, followed by Classic. I always loved it when other versions of Lara become like classic or LAU since they are peak for me. Survivor Lara is cool and fun to play but its 3rd on my rankings.
Totally agree with your video. Even if I find that Lara’s physique has changed badly in the netflix series (wide shoulders), Lara’s personality and attitude is the most important thing, she is unknowable now. She’s not Lara Croft anymore.
Yeah, I didn't mind the first two survivor Lara games, but they honestly should have just made it their own series. LAU Lara is my personal favorite. Though I LOVED the original Tomb Raider, she was a bit too cold for my tastes. I have a feeling the next phase of Lara isn't going to be good, but hopefully I'm wrong.
The art for my intro, this video's thumbnail and title card was done by artist Azuma Yasuo. The music in this video is from Lara's Home & Lara's Home GOLD, made by thatnorskchick2. You can find Azuma's Patreon and all respective links for both creators in the description!
you should have called lau lara "Laura" in this vid ;)
oh and survivor lara should be sara xD
Laura Gyatt
I think we need to acknowledge as a society that there was nothing wrong with Laras old personality. If anything we want that Lara back with no rewrites needed.
Agreed
And a lot of us didn't play the Tomb Raider games to watch her die in increasingly gory ways.
The most recent releases based a lot of their marketing on that, which raised questions...
@@josedorsaith5261 Yeah those just felt gratuitous!
@claytonrios1 especially the first two games of the reboot trilogy. Lots of impalement
i think we need to acknowledge that our society has become weaker and whinny and underachieving and this is why lara was nerfed in every way possible, level design, difficulty, epicness of adventures, or lack there off, realism, boob size, agility, weapons and strength of character. Lara is no longer a superhero female version of indian jones but a "realistic" stealth archer with rpg upgrades.
This isn't hard. She's female James Bond, but instead of doing spy stuff and laying pipe, she does Indiana Jones' job.
Also doesn't have the horn.
its funny because the daniel craig movies ditched gadgets for fist fights the same way modern lara ditched dual pistols and acrobatics for bows and pick axes and stealth.
@@arkgaharandan5881 The 2000s did a number on IPs going gritty & serious, which was the case for Legend to UnderWorld, and finally the reboot.
Rich orphan living alone in a mansion with her butler and at the peak of mental and physical training, she's more like a female Batman.
Or reading books
She's pretty much like Harley Quinn, at this stage. A pulp icon so fractured there is no consensus about what is the canon anymore.
To me: Lara Croft is the romantic archetype of the British archaeology pioneers of the early 20th century: charismatic, adventurous, assertive, wealthy, valuing athleticism, addicted to adrenaline, conscious of her appeal but mostly emancipated from sentimental needs. She has too much of a casual/practical fashion sense to be a femme fatale unlike say, Ada Wong in RE. She is all the more prone to flirt with danger as she has one foot on the crime underworld. She is much less attached to any official institution, on the contrary of Indiana Jones who is an university professor.
games to legend are proper lara
everything else is trash
I disagree about the femme fatale. I feel like people that don't want to acknowledge her as the first videogame sex icon simply refuse to believe the truth. If you were playing her games between Tomb Raider 1-3 it was very in your face.
I still have the official Lara Croft book filled with pictures of her in lingerie, bikinis, posed seductively in water etc etc. She was quite aware of the way she looked and she leaned into it.
She was essentially Stellar Blade of her time except the game was more puzzles and less action.
@@Shifft-This Stellar Blade is a horrendous example when the character of Eve absolutely did not embrace her sexuality. In fact there was just nothing about her character that was compelling to begin with, which is a shame.
She did have a degree of femme fatale in her though.
@@Kingdom850 Kinda agree. She's kinda like a child on her way to become a woman.
I love Eve, but I can't lie that her personality is kinda lacking. But then again, her mind is probably is only on her teenage year in the game. Maybe that's why Lilith sees her as a big sister figure. I hope she would mature better in the next game, somehow... if there ever will be Stellar Blade 2.
Thank god the remasters of iv v and vi are coming. Saber interactive are doing these with a team of hand picked tomb raider super fans who are also modders. They are the reason the remasters of 1. 2 & 3 were so good. They actually care about the franchise.
The idea is on point, but the quality and execution aren't. The I-III collection has been flawed enough to basically question their existence, when you could have had a more polished and smooth experience just replaying the original versions.
Yeah that's the only hope for this series.
@@windy3935 what are you talking about? They are great and the recent patches fixed most of the launch problems. And the 60fps is far better than the original games.
@@Punisher6791 No offense, but asking that question is either disingenuous or extremely ignorant....... The patch notes from the first to current have blatantly shown how unpolished the collection has been. Additionally, the community has been vocal about the plentiful of issues since pre-release. There are also still multiple issues in the remaster that don't exist in the originals (all remasters have their new issues, but TR has had a ton comparatively).
It certainly was not "great" at launch, and probably still isn't now. Just because it's been playable and fun (and in SOME ways improved over the og) =/= being great. They still haven't fully fixed the water effects, some mechanics, some technical stuff, etc. Every patch also tends to break a few things elsewhere, with some having been really bad. Fortunately some of the original new issues have been addressed throughout the patches, especially the latest ones - if not for those, the collection would be super pathetically flawed. There's still plenty to be fixed even currently.
Don't think I can concur with that last point either. 60fps generally looks better on HD+ tvs/games regardless, so off that you can't make the argument. Whichever maintains the 60fps longer is the one with . I mean, just about any decent remaster seems to do better with fr, but still.
@@windy3935 They are nowhere near that bad, they are not even bad period. I think your standards are way too high, or you have rose tinted glasses of the og versions and i have played and grew up with them.
How about a Metal Gear Solid anime where Snake breaks down crying every 5 seconds
I've only played mgs1 (didn't complete it yet) but seeing this would genuinely make me mad
I'd pay to see that
"I don't have any more tears to shed."
Imagine Rob Zombie & Len Wiseman working together to helm Stranger of Paradise...or Devil May Cry.
so Metal gear Solid, but it's just Otacon.
They took an iconic larger than life character and turned her into something mundane. Getting rid of her sex appeal is also part of that. Lara was created to be a bombshell who defies traditional expectations.
There's more to the character than being a sex appeal
@@animezilla4486 Of course but sex appeal was meant to be part of it aswell.
she was not made for sex appeal lmao the fans being horny is what made the studio add the sex appeal to her character
@@kqquri Bro, look at her earliest concept art, before the marketing department got their hands on her. No need to lie. She was meant to be knockout.
@ no bodys fucking lying lmao her the CREATORS of her character never wanted her to be sexualized yall are js weird and want her to be that way at this point please move on
Dang, the animation gave Lara the Other M treatment.
It really did
-The Baby-
Ever play Legends to UnderWorld, and the reboot?
In times like this when heroines are frowned-upon like Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, & Rey, we're gonna need heroines who are overemotional, yet hardened by their experience.
Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, Aya of The 3rd BirthDay, Samus from Other M, and the titular-character herself from The Legend of Chun-Li left an impression on me...on how to depict a heroine.
There is also Selene of UnderWorld & Alice from Resident Evil.
@@fernie-fernandezAlita from Battle Angel is my favorite heroine of the modern age. More people needed to see that movie.
Trilogy Lara is the best in appearance super beautiful ... whereas LAU lara is the best in personality .... I hope they combine the two.
@@AmarBasrawi LAU Lara appearance is best actually.
Old Lara was the best and the games are still amazing. If it ain't broke don't need fixing.
I think he is so good at game chronicles!
I love the classics more than anything, but they also almost killed the franchise, so, Tomb Raider needed some changes, or the franchise would be dead by now.
@@atilamachado7379 I think studios need other IPs to make in between games, so games from the same franchise can be far apart from each other to not run out of crative ideas and get bad.
@raulzilla Yeah, if only CD have other IPs that many gamers would love to see back. In an unrelated note are you guys excited for the Soul Revere remaster 🤭
Not a fan how they made her into a complete sociopath and took away all sense of playfulness and sass she had in the originals. She's just a blank slate of a character now and that's sad considering how iconic she is.
I agree with the playfulness and sass but she's always been a bit sociopathic. The assault on Area 51 in Tomb Raider 3 would point to that.
@DXFromYT ah good point. It's more like how the new ones especially in shadow where throughout the game has scens in which the game portrays her as this monster who brings nothing but misery to everyone around her. I mean that scene where she comes out of the river and goes on a massacre is a pretty big one.
@@DXFromYT
Lara in TR3 was indeed ruthless (killing people in Nevada and London who were just doing their jobs or engaging in self-defence). XD
I think the original Lara was far crazier
She gave zero fucks about how much damage or destruction she was causing basically for fun. When she saved to the world it was almost inadvertently
But that was part of what made the character fun. Now she has a basic reluctant hero through trauma trope attached to her
They have to change the character up every so often otherwise it would just be dull and boring and more of the same. People would be pissed if she stayed the same every new generation. People are gonna complain every single time a new version of Lara Croft comes out.
I feel like they are trying to make Lara Croft more relatable for women and/or queers. But in doing so, they made the complete opposite of what the intended audience liked as well. I haven't met any women or queer liking survivor Lara Croft so much. I agree that in the 90s and 2000s, Lara was insanely sexualized. I remember men simping for her polygonal shape for gods sake lol. But according to some gaming magazine I've read many years ago, with Lara's appearance in the gaming scene, a lot of women started playing video games because there was a female protagonist. I am a 30 year old woman, and ever since I was a kid, I idolized Lara to bits. Every time we would play in the playground with friends, I would pretend to be like Lara Croft. Even today, the reason I speak and try to learn so many languages and studied archeology and tourism was mainly because of Lara's effect on my life. Boys had their Supermans, Batmans I had Lara Croft. So reducing someone I idolized into this kinda hurts.
Peak comment❤
You should send this letter to crystal dynamics make them realized how they butchered one of the greatest gaming icons and make her this relatable sad insecure mediocre woman. than making her intelligent sassy ruthless optimistic femme fatal woman
I aint gonna read all of this paragraph....get a life bud
There's an interview with Alicia Vikander where she mentions exactly that. She started playing it when she was a young teenager (when before she felt videogames were mainly for boys), because there it was.. a game where the main character was a woman.
Well said. Developers (or at least executives) don't understand that Classic Lara was a power-fantasy figure just like Batman. We didn't relate to her as much as we *aspired* to be *like* her. Making a character "relatable" does NOT mean "make this confident, resourceful, intelligent character more like me, Jane Public". It DOES mean "help me connect with this character through their struggles and how they choose to overcome them". Lara's sexualisation in the 90s was 100% down to the marketing, NOT the content of the games, but the solution (if that's the word) is not to pretend Lara isn't sexy or give her love interests (of any gender), for the simple reason that's not what the games - or Lara's passion in life - are supposed to be about! She's driven by curiosity, not by relationships (parental or romantic). Whenever the official writers try to shoehorn that aspect in, it starts to sound like the worst kind of self-indulgent fanfiction. Lara today feels like a pale shadow of who she was; her motivation/drive and core strengths have been neutered or changed to stem from male parental role models and internalised guilt over losing those close to her. The joy, the sense of true discovery and achievement, that owes nothing to anyone else, has gone. Now, she's just another generic adventurer who's part of a gang of like minded pals... not the groundbreaking self-sufficient and self-pleasing power fantasy that made this whole franchise iconic in the first place.
Ada wong from RE4 Remake is proof that we need more femme fatales in gaming more than ever. I would love to see Lara comeback with that characteristic.
I donno why everyone says Core Lara is cold, it seems to be one of those things where the commonly said description (she was colder than LAU Lara and Reboot Lara) has corrupted cultural memory. Core Lara WAS playful, she was often non-lethal and even heroic with other characters, and she was friendly with other characters (Winston, her friends from Chronicles, random characters in cut scenes, even Pierre and Larson...). People need to refresh their memories (or learn their assumptions are wrong) tbh.
It's as if whoever wrote the netflix series didn't even play through the Shadow game. She literally FINALLY made peace with her past/recent events in the ending. She walked away from her parents, saying goodbye to them. She was at finally able to let go and move on and yet they've recycled all the plot pieces of shadow into the series. Jonah fake dying? Check. Her blaming herself/having nightmares of the people that blames their deaths on her? Multiple Checks within Rise AND SHADOW. A literal BOX and trinket for the artifact. CHECK. An Old Man as the main antagonist trying to oh wait, reset the world? TRIPLE CHECK. Catastrophes starting when the trinkets were activated? Oh sounds familiar! And don't get me started on the continuity of the graphic novels between the survivor trilogy games. At one point Jonah and Alex's sister got together but she just suddenly vanished from the plot and now we have Abi in Shadow. Whoever is in charge of this franchise nows jacksht about unification and continuity.
And thank god somebody mentioned that goofy chucks with the dress. They were trying so hard from the very start to appeal to these snowflake hipster I'm not like the other girls community and it feels so unnatural for the character, it just leaves classic fans in disbelief.
And Zip's overhaul? This dude gave out the impression that he was this guy from the hood who's tech smart AND street smart. Literally a hoodie, jeans hang low type of guy and now they're making him out to be this fashionista wearing loud clothing with fur like some instagram influencer? 🥴
Shadow's ending already paved the way for a confident, grounded Lara, ready to take on the world, having closure with all that happened in her childhood and in the survivor trilogy. The netflix series ultimately felt like a scrapped version of Shadow that just got turned into an animation. And now we're getting a Sam story line for season 2. Let me guess, more crying then?
The old lara can't come to the phone right now. Cause she's dead. 😪
I like the Netflix version
@animezilla4486 of course! People are allowed to like what they like even if some don't like them! 👍🏻
I miss the original badass Lara Croft of the 90s and Angelina Jolie's live action adaptation. It was peak Lara Croft fr.
The key thing here is reconciliation, you nailed it. These latest iteration of Lara just make it impossible to do so. Great vid 💯
i hate survivor Lara as a person, for the reasons you explained. The games themselves are...fine, though i much more prefer the globe trotting adventures than the "stuck on a single island" in every game in the survivor trilogy. Gameplay wise, i much more prefer the LAU style gameplay than the survivor type, and the classic gameplay still holds up really well to this day.
2013 survivor Lara was acceptable bc she was YOUNG. Games after this should’ve been classic Lara.
yes I dont understand the hate they should continue on her with her voice and beautiful face.in shadow she became a badass.
I gave the Tomb Raider reboot a chance and thought it was okay as a game, just a bad TR game. In hindsight its creators' contempt for classic Lara was obvious. I still recall the Game Informer article hyping it up, talking about how they tried to make Lara's facial geometry more realistic yet still recognizable, they did a fine job but then the remaster changed her face to look more "average". And then Rhianna Pratchett's admission that 1) she wasn't a fan of classic Lara Croft, and 2) she wrote the reboot _"not really knowing what Lara's character was going to be",_ which flies in the face of the idea that it was a prequel and Lara would evolve into the character we recognized.
Nah new ones are miles better than og poopoo
I actually prefer the Definitive Edition version of 2013 Lara. It tried to get closer to how she looked in the CGI trailer, where Lara actually looked really beautiful and somewhat resembling classic/LAU Lara, minus the blue eyes. Then they completely abandoned that direction and made her mundane looking in Rise where she lost pretty much all resemblence to classic/LAU Lara.
@@charmingpeasant9834 If it tried, then it failed. There's a mod that actually makes Lara look like that Turning Point CGI trailer and it's beautiful. Even includes her actual OG outfits as a bonus.
"Old" Lara was just a straight up and a pure badass.
A loner who wanted to die
*My mind looking at the Netflix animation footage:* THAT'S NOT ANIME! THAT'S NOT ANIME! *THAT'S NOT ANIME!!!* *calms down* *Ahem...* ...that's standard Netflix animation.
...If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
They've been doing that with castlevania for years and it bothered me then and it bothers me now. Like there's nothing wrong with calling them cartoons.
@@shawklan27 or even just adult animation. It doesn't have to have the anime title
For something to be anime it has to be made in japan
@@blondeboi2132 no anime= animation any animation that has the specific japanese animation style
@@Alecup06 Anime has a cultural context behind it and is made primarily for a Japanese audience. Reducing it down to a vague art style and a collection of tropes is ignorant at best.
LAU LARA IS THE GOAT!
I got introduced to Lara with Jolie's movie, and I really loved the character because you can understand that it took her so much to be the Tomb Raider she's now, yes, she inherited the manor and fortune from her father, but also studied all the knowledged he left, she's also a highly trained gymnast and markswoman, and yet, she can be vulnerable, but instead of being angsty she stands up and has a lively, bold and cheeky attitude, and I also loved the idea that she's got a crew working under her, even her butler is on the action, that's why LAU Lara is my favorite version of the character growing up, and up to a point still is.
And with survivor Lara, I really loved TR 2013, and when I played Rise, I really enjoyed it gameplay wise, but when you play a game called "Rise of the Tomb Raider" and you still see the wary girl that Lara still was from her first outing, and we never get to see The Tomb Raider as we know her to Rise, well it disappointed me, so much that when I knew Shadow was still old wary Lara fighting against Trinity and that the Tomb Raider we know still wasn't close, I didn't played the game, despite owning it on several platforms because I think either Squenix or Crystal Dynamics were putting that game for sale or for free several times during these past years, yet despite knowing gameplaywise might be the best in the reboot trology, I am not playing it since the portrayal of the protagonist is not interesting to me anymore.
It's so bizarre that games, movies and shows now are so adamant on having their star female character be like what original Lara Croft was being strong, confident and not needing help though minus the sexiness but they don't want to make Lara Croft like that again. It's so weird they seem to want to make Lara anything except Lara.
Thats because the strong female lead is a smokescreen. What they want is to destroy the strong ,and also beautiful, female lead.
Its so peak DX is making a comeback.
More like “Who is Lara Croft?”
This was actually the alternate video title!
Why is Lara croft
@@peterwoods8299 How is Lara?
When is Lara Croft?
Which is Lara croft?
Your last sentence truly Crystalised the core of what Lara's Dynamic is. She is indeed the One you meet Once, and Never Forget.
Excellent closing line.
The Remasters should be a HUGE wake up call to what the fans actually want from Tomb Raider. I've never seen the TR community so hyped for a release in ages.
I actually like the first Tomb Raider reboot but hated the last two games especially Rise. She lacks the sassy attitude of OG and Legends Lara. She's way too serious and overemotional. Every time she cries, I just cringe and see someone different. To me ara is a loner who gets her kicks through tomb raiding and discovering ancient artifacts, very much like Indy. She has friends but for the most part she doesn't socialize much. I think Jolie's version portrayed Lara's attitude perfectly. We need OG Lara back! The most recent game that portrayed classic Lara right is Chloe from Uncharted: Lost Legacy. Go play that game and tell me if you don't see classic Lara in her. Claudia Black plays Chloe with enough sass and confidence to rival Lara.
The only reason AoD Lara felt different to her previous titles was because her prior adventures were one-shot and her arc was completely flat. AoD, on the other hand, was a direct continuation from the events of TR4. Lara was suddenly faced with true internal obstacles - her ghost from her near-death and betrayal by Von Croy - and had to deal with the consequences on screen; she had a positive arc instead of a flat one.
Or it's because she acts completely out of character.
Honestly I would rather have survivor Lara as og Lara's daughter or something. It would work so much better both thematically and would leave the room for coming back to the og Lara every now and than.
It wouldn't be kinda cool to see them interact and having conflicts, representing different gens of take on the characters and living in the shadow of the predecessor
Oh interesting
I really like the classic lara she's more ruthless because she doesn't give zero f@#$ to anyone which makes her anti-heroine but to me i also love legend lara which makes her optimistic sassy playful femme fatal badass lara that in my mind the most canon lara for me
Laura croft is an intelligent, confident, classy, and witty woman who would never be caught dead in a dress and trainers combo. What made lara so amazing was that no matter the situation she was put in, she could keep her head and conquer it. She also, in my opinion, was quite feminine and never tried to act more masculine or less feminine in order to achieve her goals. There was never a time when being feminine was seen as weak or a complcation, and she had to 'man up'. I only say this as the whole trainers and dress situation makes me feel like there is some type of tomboy, 'shes not like other girls' agenda, which just doesn't sit right with me. Laura was the type of person to me that would get things done while looking good doing it and knowing she looked good doing it and it didnt matter if other people agree with her she was doing it for herself.
I’m glad you made it clear how AoD Lara is different to the earlier classic versions. Most people lump them in as the same, but there’s fairly significant differences between them. I’d also argue there’s even multiple different Top Cow versions, including one with a no kill rule. But they’re more in smaller editions that don’t get acknowledged much.
I would argue that they’re all the same, from TR1 to AoD. It’s just that it’s more of a character development rather than being a completely different character like the legends and Survivor trilogies’s Laras
@Megatron-xs2qe I wouldn't call that development. It's straight-up rewriting. She blamed Von Croy for leaving her to die when he put out his hand and tried to help her at the end of The Last Revelation.
@ that’s true but it’s more of a continuity mistake, given the fact that there were different developers working on AoD than your usual Core developers since they were working on Chronicles
@@Megatron-xs2qe
Continuity mistake is still bad writing.
@ I never said it was good
Being a fan of this beautiful franchise is exhausting, to say the least. Personally I feel that the survivor trilogy should've been an original IP instead of Tomb Raider simply because it doesn't feel like a TR game, don't get me wrong, these games from that era are good (personal favorite being Rise) but I feel like what Crystal Dynamics is doing is very disingenuous to the franchise blatantly smudging out what made her great and replacing it with something that'll appeal to "modern audiences" and other nonsense is trurly heartbreaking. Safe to say I have no hope for my childhood game at this point. But I hope one day it'll return to form and people today will realize that classic/LAU Lara was really an amazing character that gamers should celebrate. 🩵
Best lara croft interpretation for me was the one in legend, anniversary and underworld. She was still this cocky boss girl but we also got the explore her vulnerable side with her parents death and stuff. Made for an interesting plot that sadly didnt get explored in depth enough. I always imagine what that trilogy could have been if it got that survivor trilogy treatment in terms of length, budget etc.
I gave the reboot a try when it first came out, and since then I haven't given any Tomb Raider entry a chance. I'll stick to the classics, thanks.
I wouldn’t say that in Tomb Raider 2013 Lara got involuntarelly on the island. They were searching for that island. However the whole “ Find Yamatai and explore it” turned into “Escape from Yamatai” once a cult group starting hunting them.
Incredible summarization of how fans are feeling about Tomb Raider!!
This video needs to be seen by Crystal Dynamics and I utterly hope, they won’t flush down their chance to make Tomb Raider great again down the toilet🙏
1:10 This is NOT "anime". This is animation. Anime is made ONLY in Japan.
The only thing I truly hate about Survivor reboot (besides progressive misogyny) is the audacity to erase an established and iconic character for no good reason.
And the funniest thing is, Survivor trilogy could've been a fully original project and it would sell just as well if not better, that's a fact. I assure you most of its casual players have never even touched older Tomb Raider games and don't ever plan to.
And now we have to deal with their new delusional attempts to create a Frankenstein's Lara. The unification concept is a crazy thing considering they didn't even bother to progress her new character for 10 whole years, held back by her legacy, continuing with empty promises made to TR fans. Lara's dying with a whimper while they still rave about "bringing her to former glory" WHY DID YOU TAKE IT AWAY FROM HER IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Who else likes LAU Lara the most
Not me, I prefer classic Lara from Core Design even though I grew up on LAU Lara and Survivor Lara but after playing the remasters of 1-3 well I like this version of the character the best personally.
From what I played of Legend, it does have the best portrayal of the character. Classic Lara was often superficial, particularly in the sequels where the gameplay disregarded the story enough to characterise her as ruthlessly immoral.
i played TR2 in the PS1 when i was a kid, then 20 years later played the survival (did not like) and finally played LAU, and Underworld is the best TR game for me.
@@SomeSillyGoosy I can respect that
I am aware of the classic Lara, but I only played Anniversary, Underworld and 2013 reboot so PERSONALLY, I prefer LAU Lara. Reboot missed the mark so much for me I never bothered playing the following games
i think there are characters that can in fact get a way with massive, "reconciliation"-defying gaps in characterization. Roger Moore and Daniel Craig took starkly different approaches to James Bond, for instance, and yet they're both essential contributions to the history of the character. but i think James Bond has the benefit of existing to most people as a series of movies (obv adapted from books) with recurring tropes and a roughly continuous overall vibe (accounting for shifts in cultural norms, of course). it also helps that even with those variations in characterization, we're still only really talking about six actors over a span of 60+ years.
Lara Croft, on the other hand, is first split across different technical generations in the context of video games, then also across media when you consider the movies, and then even further split into live-action vs animation. and THEN split across creator stints and cultural shifts. this makes her something more like Batman, i suppose? but Batman and other superhero stuff are far more heavily thematic and character-driven than something like Tomb Raider; it's just easier to accept the idea that Batman has a few essential characteristics but is otherwise adaptable to the tone and themes of whatever stories you might want to use him and his supporting characters to tell. i don't know that anyone really thinks of Lara Croft that way, as a character strong enough to adapt to lots of competing creative outlooks while remaining essentially herself.
so the natural alternative is to cull the competing creative outlooks. identify her "true" element, and commit.
In the end, all this proves is that video games are a business and that developers and publishers will keep re-inventing character IPs and story arcs to try and attract more players: regardless of how inconsistent the timeline is for a given game franchise.
Hasn't seemed to ever work with TR. Square was perpetually disappointed with their TR games' sales numbers. Probably one of the reasons they were willing to part with the franchise and studio for such a small asking price.
It was that or let the series die twice.
I love classic Lara, I grew up with her. I even like LAU Lara, for me it is still Lara, little diff cause technology and aproach, but still she is Lara. But the survivor one is completely someone else. And After all those years I feel really scammed by CD, since they said: "She is gonna become the Lara from Tr1..." well that didn´t happened. I hate CDs aproach and behaving. They should be happy, that Remasters of classic games are making money, maybe more than their reboot trilogy, but no, they still throwing some BS on it and on us fans, without us there wouldn´t be any lara after TR1. We have power, and that is why Anime flopped. I didn´t watch it and after this video, I am 100% sure it is gonna stay that way...
It's not anime and did it really flop
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: LAU Lara will be the quintessential “canon” Lara
It was the main thing I liked about the Netflix show. Lara's personality reminded me of LAU Lara, which was my favorite version. And I've been playing the TR games since the Sega Saturn version!
@@yonderboygames LAU lara didn't cry every 20 minutes
@@Gold26502 Personality and performance =/= story elements and bad writing. The crying thing got old, but the way the character interacted with others reminded me of LAU and I liked it.
@@yonderboygames Nah, she was too dependant- LAU was more like Angelina where she enjoyed their company and support to aid her adventures but she didn’t need them in the field- She needs those people in the anime present in the field like Jonah which is pointed out in the narrative several times when she nearly dies. I feel like Buffy the Vampire slayer was a much bigger influence on the anime without the good character that went with it.
A bit. It only reminded me of Underworld a bit when they showed the boots they are the same ones from Underworld.
“Stop making clickbait thumbnails”
Stop clicking on them they’re clearly working 😂
The acrobatics were a key part of Tomb Raider for me, so the 2013 reboot was way off base from what I enjoyed about previous entries. The collectables in LAU were great, and exploring Croft Manor. The collectables in 2013 and Rise were so dull, I'd rather read a National Geographic to learn about cultures and archaeology, I play Tomb Raider to do cool flips and activate fascinating contraptions. She's Indiana Jones by way of Prince of Persia.
We need a Witchblade x Tomb Raider crossover again
i watched the tv show and the actress got addicted to drugs so they canceled it.
@@arkgaharandan5881 it was alcohol.
survival Lara had the appeal of a wet tissue, in terms of design and personality. Ive seen receptionists with more charisma and character.
For me, Legend Lara is THE Lara. She is still cool but actually human this time around.
What the world needs is the continuation of the franchise using the game engine of the remasters. Players are clearly clamoring for more of the classic heroine and queen of adventure. Aspyr is a blessing to us as well as the beloved Tomb Raider series.
I've always loved the classic Lara and the old Tomb Raider games. The silent environment, the puzzles, some random enemies here and there, some jump scares, Lara with her two pistols and etc... But after all they done with her, I'm just tired of trying to be positive and have hope that things are going to come back to what they were. I've reach a point that I just don't care anymore, they can have the emotional modern Lara since the Tomb Raider I knew and love doesn't exist anymore.
Great comment. I see many people complaining (rightfully so) about Lara's character over the years, but I don't see many people praising the atmosphere of the first 5 games. There was little to no HUD, mostly silent and made you figure out things by yourself. The combat could be a little better, though.
*From what you’ve told me, it seems to all come down to what compels Lara to explore:*
Isolation from her family structure compelled the Classic Laras to seek out their own fortunes.
Family structure compelled LAU Lara to carry on their legacy and find “family” of her own.
Desperation in the harshest of circumstances compelled Survivor Lara to embrace cold, hard reality in her occupation as an archaeologist.
Modern writers compelled Netflix Lara to be a big ball of stress and emotions, and ultimately a subpar character.
Awesome thumbnail
it's bad, she's got comically huge tits and porn star lips. i know lara should be hot but this is overdoing it.
Man I just want a new game that takes as much inspiration from the classics as does Doom2016/Eternal from Doom1/2. Playing cool Lara in the remakes was such a good time.
Another point of inspiration could come from Metroid Dread where they, as in Doom, really nailed the mannerism of the Character.
The very fact that "PTSD" and "her trauma" enter into this conversation means they've completely lost the plot. She had one job: raiding tombs. It was elegant in its simplicity and FUN. All this other psychological stuff is just noise from pretentious jerks.
Im born in 1990 and as I grew found of video games and their characters I was like every little boys back then in complet 😮 as I first seen Lara Croft in Tomb Raider 1 (one kid was playing the game on a pc at school )
But my first real contact with that legend was in Tomb Raider 3 or aniversary at first I was playing for the gameplay not the story but as I grew older I started to enjoy the stories of my games and the most important the personality of my characters no one in video games was the bad ass athlete that was Miss Croft and her attitude was fenomenaly fun to see her go BAD ASS Lady with more prowess than Indiana Johns liked the saga until I quit it at 15 years old but one day as I seen all the new versions of her I was like , is that even still The same character she feel as an all new character inspired of the original after that I thought "OK another got rebooted " but when I discovered the show I thought who is that that's not LARA CROFT
"Lara Croft is supposed to be a person you meet once and never forget." Such an accurate way to describe the whole appeal of her character. Thank you for the video and your appreciation for Lara Croft.
And a special thank you for slamming down incel takes and distinguishing the actual problem of the 'anime' Lara, including how creators deny her femininity in favour of some tired labels.
"Adding muscles to the char doesn't take away from her womanhood", WORD. I would like nothing more than Lara with pronounced physique if she has her distinct personality and charm. Which is a pipe dream at this point.
Getting rid of her more classic feminine body proportions and claiming that busty, curvy women cant be adventurous even in fiction is also denying her femininity. She could have those pre-2013 bombshell proportions with added muscularity to highlight her athleticism, but instead her prior bombshell aesthetics get demonized as being ''problematic'' even by people involved with the Netflix show.
People mistake being a built bodybuilder and being toned. Lara was always toned, not jacked. She had a six pack in the first game, ffs, but that's it. She still had a feminine figure. That's literally why she has dual pistols, to make up for the fact the animals and men/people she encountered and fought would be bigger and stronger than her. She fought smarter, not harder
And furthermore, I just want to put it out there that it wouldn't make sense for Lara to be ripped. Having a lot of over-excessive muscles can cut down on your stamina, especially if you spend all day climbing. Climbing is about core strength, not muscle mass. One of the world's best free/sport climber is a small, thin as a rail, Japanese woman.
@@jase276 idk if you refer to my comment or overall muscle discourse, but yeah, having muscle definition doesn't mean being a beefcake, although frankly I couldn't care less about the "realism" factor here, she can be ripped and defy gravity itself, this is Lara Croft we're talking about. She's literally the 90s action hero type, it's her thing.
Though while I do like more bulky Lara variants in cosplay or fan renders for aesthetic reasons, when it comes to complaints about her "proper body type" I usually compare Lara's physique to real life rock climbers, lean, toned like you said.
@@charmingpeasant9834 people have demonised women's bodies since the dawn of time, the sad thing is this Lara discourse comes from women who were probably shamed for their bodies as well, so much so they've come to hate any more or less conforming aspect of feminine features or any semblance of sexuality as a whole (whether it's style or behaviour).
I get where they come from, but also this doesn't serve as an absolution for their endless policing an established character, condemning their body type or questioning their hypothetical autonomy. I only wish they would just shut up and create their own character of their preferred style and narrative instead of butchering already existing ones.
Lara was a victim of sex marketing yes, but in games she's so self-sufficient I can imagine her just not caring and owning her sexuality. She was a great role model for me as an insecure teen, a woman who is cool and capable and couldn't. care. less.
Love this ♥️ I miss old Lara
Perfect closing statement.
Survival Tilogy is not a prequel to Lara Croft 1. It simply cannot be. These are two different alternative timelines. Even two Lara's birth years are different.
I agree on a lot of points regarding the characterization of Lara in Netflix show, but I dont consider it to be part of the Unified Lara timeline as this show relies too heavily on the Survivor timeline. Moreover this show was contractually signed with Netflix while the franchise was still owned by Square Enix, Unified Lara was only officially announced after Square Enix sold the franchise off. I find the anime to be "supplemental" materiel for Survivor timeline which has no bearings on the franchise as a whole and should not be considered what Unified Lara will necessarily will be.
I also believe that Unified Lara is intended to be a more representative mascot for the franchise and that in the next actual game she will sport a different look and maybe even personality altogether.
Unified Lara was announced in 2021, when the IP was still under Square Enix ownership.
From a claissic TR fan since the 1990's, you summed this up PERFECTLY. Just give us back our bad bitch archeologist who will stop at nothing to get what she wants and we can all live happily.
No, you will eat your soy and you will like it!
My friend and I are basically opposite. He likes classic Lara while I like the Survivor version. The anime doesn't do her justice on both versions.
IMO stick with the games and media that are good with gameplay and story.
It's simple, Netflix Lara doesn't exist.
Absolutely spot on!! Well said! Perfect!! Thank you thank you thank you!!! ❤
Top Cow Lara is the ultimate Lara for me. Those comics were so cool. Nothing can replicate the vibe and the new anime is nothing in comparison. I completely agree with your points. Tasha Huo is a hack who didn't even know women also worked on Classic Lara and she keeps retweeting the BS articles about how her Lara is modernized, recognizing her white privilege. These people just don't learn their lesson. It always amazes me how no amount of financial failures get through their thick skull.
Lots of complicated feelings on my end, honestly. I actually had a very fun time with the new series, and some of the elements here didn't really bother me, like Lara being kind of antisocial in favor of tomb raiding and the like. I do agree though that she probably cried too much and this series really needs to move on from her parental issues. In general I'm one of the fans who just didn't vibe with reboot Lara all that much, and in general it felt like the reboot trilogy suffered from taking itself too seriously. Something fun to me about Tomb Raider is how off the fucking rails it can get. Like in the first few games alone Lara fights through a Clive Barker meat dimension to kill Atlantean gods, she slays a dragon, she breaks into Area 51 and finds aliens, the list goes on. New Tomb Raider's unwillingness to get suitably wacky just kind of feels like a buzzkill a lot of the time, and so to see some of that more brazen, batshit craziness in the series was very refreshing for me, honestly.
I do really wish people working on the series didn't always feel the need to treat the old games like a shameful thing to be moved beyond, though. They had their faults, certainly, and a lot of the marketing surrounding them was pretty gross, but Lara herself was never anything other than a cool badass, and in retrospect to hyperfixate on her appearance as hyperfeminine feels a little silly and reductive to me. I tend to joke with my friends that these days you can just deflect these criticisms by saying she's serving cunt, because quite frankly she is.
I will say, though, that as much as nobody wants to have this conversation, and believe me I absolutely don't either, I do think that the topic of colonialism and theft of cultural artifacts is kind of unavoidable. Lara Croft is a wealthy white British woman who goes to foreign countries, often historically colonized ones, to raid tombs and take the artifacts inside, and she's often been depicted as either keeping them for herself or donating them to British museums. Now personally, I think the best solution would be to just kind of handwaive it and move on. Have her just give the artifact to the respective nation or peoples or what have you because she only needs the thrill of the adventure or something like that. There. Done. Moving on. Personally I think the series needs to kind of find its solution for the issue promptly and move on because the absolute last thing I would ever want for this series is for it to feel like a lecture on the topic. Like that press release for the tabletop game was kind of mortifying. Lara should absolutely not become a leading voice in the topic of colonialism or try to reform the raider community or anything like that, no, no, God no. Tomb Raider is at its best when it's having a good time, and the need to make it some didactic examination on the topic is a terrible impulse that should be stamped out promptly. I think the series needs to address it in some way going forward, I think that's unavoidable for its future, but it needs a simple solution it can just stick with so we can all move on and enjoy Lara going pew pew with her guns.
I will say that the series definitely delivered in terms of action. Lara's agility is absolutely phenomenal, and I'm honestly looking forward to season two.
it's honestly hilarious to me how crystal dynamics is whining ab how they don't condone racism and colonialism while perpetuating both in their beloved survivor reboot. reyes was a stereotypical angry/jealous black woman. lara literally takes away an important cultural moment from the paititians for her own closure. the series even made zip, the only black character, gay when he wasn't in legend, as if letting him exist as he was is wrong. like....who is crystal preaching to here bc anyone with more than two braincells can see right through their crap. they're trying so hard to copy the success of uncharted, they even gave lara a necklace she never takes off and a tag-along companion with multiple fake-outs after killing most of their cast in 2013. now they're trying to be far cry with the open-world, hang-gliding stuff when fans have been begging for them to bring back precision-based platforming, best tombs not being paywalled dlc like some ea scam, the manor, and globetrotting. so who is this new game even for when it's ripping right from uncharted, again, by being focused in india? i already played lost legacy! chloe frazer feels more like lara croft at this point anyway, so what is the point?
i agree with this video. lara croft isn't lara croft anymore. there's no reconciliation for this era. she's someone you meet once and forget for being so bland and boring. i may sound harsh and i'm sorry for that but i am just so disappointed with the direction of this franchise. the bow isn't even all that iconic when it ends up being more impractical compared to a pistol or two.
Couldn't agree more in the reboot being boring. It annoyed beyond belief that literally every reboot game took 75% of the playtime building up something "possibly" supernatural just to kinda undersell it at the last 20 minutes of the game as you mow them down. And they were all just humanoid beings. The "Oni" samurai in TR13, the greek soldiers in Rise, the ghoulish people in Shadow. So boring. Within the first hour of TR1 we fight and kill a mfing T-Rex!
@@jase276 Yeah exactly. Like I hate the kinda sorta wink wink nudge nudge. It feels like it's done just to put on airs about the series being 'respectable" and "serious" so it can join the prestige of stuff like The Last of Us. That's BORING.
@jase276 the dinosaurs are just the start too! that's the beautiful thing ab the older games. i see so many people complain that lara wasn't much of a character and the games didn't have much of a story and it's like.....clearly ya'll weren't paying attention lol who is lara croft now but a katniss everdeen knockoff? the most fascinating thing ab her is that she's a killing machine and that's so one-dimensional and weak when paired with the rest of her personality consisting of being an awkward, wet sock perpetually stuck in "origin story" mode. at least the classics and lau knew who she was and let her, and us, have fun. everything ab the reboot felt like a chore with no worthwhile payoff, especially after 2013 teased the pistols just to never use them again until the very last episode of some saturday morning cartoon quality netflix show. i have too many feelings lol i'm gonna stop here.
That Netflix Tomb Raider series is not an anime. It was produced by Powerhouse Animation Studios which is an American animation studio. And from what I can tell, it doesn't seem to use any tropes you would see in an anime either.
Also, the Netflix Lara Croft does look more like a man than a woman, and it's not because of her muscles, it's just the design of her face and her build.
hoooly...
your thumbnails never disappoint
Absolutely fantastic analysis of Lara Croft's history. I kept asking my friends one sole question when a new Tomb Raider game came out, and it was "Does she dual wield pistols yet?" and the answer was No. I haven't purchased a single Tomb Raider game since the initial 2013 reboot because it simply does not connect back to Classic Lara.
it’s’ crazy how many franchises used to be an “instant buy” but are now “wait for game reviews”, such as final fantasy, horizon zero dawn, and now tomb raider
Thanks for showing that there’s something to like in every period. I’ve always stayed away from anything after classic, but now they look interesting.
Such a good point in the last sentence of this video. "Lara is supposed to be a person you meet once and never forget"
2013 reboot was PERFECT, but then they continued the trend of "relatability" and lost the OC and IP.
Lara in her "relatability" phase is just not that interesting a character when compared to her original counterpart. We need old Lara's cool "I'm always in control" bit, but with the new Lara's depth of character development and storytelling. Lara just needs to lose the "relatability" "every-girl" thing, so she can resume the unflappable badass icon, but while having a deeper narrative that is presented to the audience while keeping it hidden from the other characters.
Like, the new Lara sucks, cuz she looks weak in front of other characters. She has to ALWAYS appear strong in front of other characters; but can be feeling unbelievably weak and unsure on the inside. This preserves the original's untouchable mystique while humanizing our favourite Tomb Raider.
Finally a video that put into words the difference between classic lara (including AOD) being "cold" compared to LAU.
It's complicated because although I like the TR trilogy of games, I never got a sense of Lara's "deal".
Does she explore ancient tombs for the danger? For money? For curiosity?
She has a team, cool. She is very capable, both physically and mentally. She speaks like five languages, amazing.
But... what's her deal? We know it's not fame she's after. She's not given missions by corporations or bounty hunters.
So, more than where is Lara Croft I think the real question, specially compared to other modern adventuring counterparts, WHO is Lara Croft?
Classic- explicitly stated she does it for sport
Legend-Truth seeker
Survivor- prove herself to her family
Great video!
I've always thought from all of Crystal Dynamics games, Underworld Lara was the most like classic Lara. I've always liked that version.
LAU Lara is the best Lara, period.
Great video! Echoes my sentiments
In the opening cinematic of the very first game, Lara climbs above a massive door to trigger a button that opens the door. Wolves come out and kill the Peruvian tour guide that had led her there. She kills the wolves. Then, she lifts the hand of the guide to learn that he is indeed dead. Then she just absolutely stands up and turns away, enters the tomb and the game begins. We never see or hear another thing about this guide. And what does she care? She's here to raid a tomb.. THAT'S Lara Croft.
Need to watch to the end b4 i post. Great vid :}
Fantastic video, absolutely agree with everything you said. Crystal Dynamics need to just give the franchise to Saber.
The reality is it’s incompetent writers who, on some level, don’t care for, or outright loathe the source material (usually because of pre-convinced notions, something which they supposedly rail against… the irony).
I just hope that Unification Lara (and the IP as a whole) come out great and prove me wrong, otherwise you’ll get the “culture war” dogs chomping at the bit to get their scrap from the corpse of the franchise and character.
Thank you for making this video ❤
The only thing I disagree with is open world, just because I feel like, if done right, with a return to the more complex puzzles and platforming, it could be a gem, and the right way to innovate. Other than that, as a person who grew up with classic Lara, and the Angelina movies, this video is so on point. Great work.
Love your videos
Survivor Lara guilty from killing one death goes on to kill more people in one encounter then og Lara did in all 3 original games
I recently acknowledged that I stick to the image of a person or character that has influenced me, made me fall in love with, admire, or elicits something worth remembering. For instance, I still have the Spice Girls in my mind as they looked back in the 90's, even though it's been over 20 years. That's the image I hold dearly in my mind and my heart.
Same goes for Lara. I keep her FMV look from IV. Also, her looks and attitude from Underworld (my favorite Tomb Raider of all time). And Angelina Jolie's Cradle of Life Lara Croft. To me, they all are Lara Croft as I find them stong, stupidly smart, beautiful, confident, badass and capable.
But, hearing your explanation, I do understand the point of having a fractured character that lacks, in most of her iterations, the main traits that made her unique and famous in the first place. And I believe the root of the problem is the need to change people's perception of what's right and wrong, what's inclusive and what's not, and have those thoughts forced on you is a bit annoying to me (I shrug them off, but I understand the people who can't stand it, and I respect that opinion, too).
We need a story and a character arc not solely focused on "doing what's morally correct, looking as inclusive as they can or being as polite, delicate, and insecure (but capable of overcoming her fears) as humanly possible." We do need a character that jumps into adventure, beyond her looks, her likes, her fears, her backstory. That's the reason I loved Underworld so much, because they dared to jump into mythology as they did in the original Tomb Raider and give us many unnatural sightings of monsters and places that we cannot find in the real world.
I can only hope that the new iteration of Lara is more similar to her original self. To me, Lara Croft will always be a source of inspiration, no matter how fierce and lone wolf, or sad and broken she is portrayed as. I just love her that much, and keep in my thoughts the bits that made her iconic.
If CD had made the survivor games the "Adventures of Maria de Lourdes" or any other name that fit that character better, I bet the survivor trilogy would be way more loved. A new game, with a new character, instead of deconstructing an established icon.
Lara in underworld looks the best to me
Another great and informative video from DX. I didn't know much about this franchise, so thanks for explaining issues that the fans legitimately have with the character's depiction without chirping like a Twitter idiot.
Very, very accurate and well thought out points!
Where in the world is Lara Croft?!
Lara croft is a force of nature. She recovers dangerous artifacts and keeps them away from megolomaniacs.
Been playing Tomb Raider games since day 1, LAU LARA has always been my favorite, followed by Classic. I always loved it when other versions of Lara become like classic or LAU since they are peak for me. Survivor Lara is cool and fun to play but its 3rd on my rankings.
FINALLY SOMEONE ADDRESSES THIS
Totally agree with your video.
Even if I find that Lara’s physique has changed badly in the netflix series (wide shoulders), Lara’s personality and attitude is the most important thing, she is unknowable now.
She’s not Lara Croft anymore.
Disagree with that entirely the character was likeable and she wasn't a man hating witch
Yeah, I didn't mind the first two survivor Lara games, but they honestly should have just made it their own series. LAU Lara is my personal favorite. Though I LOVED the original Tomb Raider, she was a bit too cold for my tastes. I have a feeling the next phase of Lara isn't going to be good, but hopefully I'm wrong.