Something Amyss said:
WinterWyvern said:
I hate the new Lara for a series of reasons.
- She is MORE sexualized now that she is "realistic" than when she was a perfect hourglass-shaped woman with balloon boobs.
- "You will want to protect her". Cue sexy and pointless moanings of Lara during the game.
- She went from being her own character to simply being a female version of Nathan Drake (even including the sexy "goodlooking person in danger and dirt" thing).
Oldschool Lara was only slightly more of a character than the paddles in Pong.
Oldschool Lara wasn't in a game that was trying to be a character driven drama. (I'm not going to count American Lara, just the one in TR 1-5, because they're somewhat different characters)
New Laras character is....what exactly? "I'm scared" and "I can do this"? She's no more of a character than old school Lara croft, but oldschool Lara Croft wasn't pretending or trying to be anything else other than an action hero. New Lara just gets off on "dem feels" and because shes "vulnerable", she's not so much a character as a dramatic set piece for punishment. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed TR2013, but lets not pretend it told an amazing story because it didn't. Everyone is a stock character through and through.
To me, Old Lara was way better as a strong female character. She may not be a particularly complex or deep character, but her gender is never bought up, even her enemies respect her as an enemy and at what she does, heck, Sophia Leigh asks for her autograph. She isn't a strong "female", she's just strong. Yes, we don't go into her likes and dislikes, her inner demons, her struggles for survival, but not every story needs that. She's a superhero.
New Laras story isn't even told very well, she goes from being a timid, unsure and weak personality to uber capable action hero quite literally overnight. Yes, its a video game, all video game characters do impossible things for a living, but this is a game that's trying to tell a "grounded", character driven drama, and that doesn't work if you accelerate and compress time.
I don't like being beaten over the head with the notion that not only is she female, but she's SOOO CAPABLE. Because in my head I just say "So what? So was my Lara, and the game didn't feel the need to remind me of it every five seconds." It's almost the opposite of its own goal, because I was never under the impression that women can't be capable action heroes in the first place, in its attempt to be empowering, it faulters because it begins with the notion that she couldn't be powerful /because/ she is female and must overcome that, despite the fact that I'm playing fucking Tomb Raider, a series known for its badass action lead.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9893950/Lara-Croft-in-Tomb-Raider-I-dont-need-reminding-that-shes-a-woman.html
Is something I'm going to add as a supplementary piece to my thoughts.