#1996-2003

Como siempre Crystal Dinamics echando a perder su propia versión de Lara Croft, porque ésa que presentan ahí no es Lara, es una "actriz" que ellos mismos crean como un fanfic que no tiene fin más que seguir haciendo creer (claro, para los que aceptan lo que está haciendo CD) que Lara ha vuelto. Vi unas imágenes que han compartido aquí y no me sorprende que me haya decepcionado: es fea, tiene un cuerpo horrible y siguen dependiendo de un icono que no pueden alcanzar, por más que lo intenten. Lara Croft sólo una: de 1996 hasta 2003, todo lo demás es basura, pero como estamos en la época de que las emociones imperan antes que el análisis, pues todo está bien para la mayoría, ¿cierto?

Además, haciendo una remasterización de la remasterización y una re imaginación de esa remasterización... ¡Por Dios!

And for years nobody cared about her outfits. Lara was simply wearing, as you well said, what was more comfortable and functional to her. The only time she didn’t make much sense was in TR1 when using the same outfit for every place and climate. But apart from that she always made sense and honestly, what’s sexualizing about tank top and shorts? Even someone so little appealing as myself has used tank top and shorts to go the mountain, dig in an archaeology ruins, take a walk through the meadows… and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

The catsuit and wetsuits have to be tight to be functional in sneaky/underwater missions. The shorts and top were used in hot climates. She used long pants in many missions as well as camouflage or snow outfits when the temperatures were dropping. Finally, in TRAOD she uses the most functional and discrete outfits ever, because it was what the environment required. 

And she never made any other use of this clothing than her own personal goals and purposes, none of them remotely related with sexuality.

I can think of many videogames/female characters where the purpose of their design and clothing remains obscure to me but it was never the case with Lara Croft. At this point this discussion is getting old and nowadays only ignorants can keep holding this bullshit of the sexualizing stuff against Classic Lara. It was a very low, absurd move by Crystal/Eidos to throw the fandom at Lara’s throat with this ridiculous argument, to justify the butchering of the character, simply because it was non-existent and in any case, the only ones who did what they accused Core of, were themselves.

And that’s honestly all I want to say at this point. I’ll leave to others, more skilled and willful, to do the rest of the analysis.

It is nothing exclusive of the north hemisphere at all, though. It is neither a matter of  a sole culture or nation. I am Spanish and my country is in the north hemisphere, same as many Arab, Asian and African countries where the temperatures raise in summer - admittedly, during most of the year. 

The answer is in the Western culture mass media and the male guy nerd types - something you can find in every place of this world -  who during many years owned the videogame press media, which are the sources that have sexualized women’s bodies in nonsenxual context. Videogame magazines in the 90s were horrid and I remember as a girl reading them and thinking, “Why the hell they are always talking about her boobs? As if there’s not anything else in these games!” It revolted me to disgust, and anyone that still keeps those magazines stored - I destroyed them all, lol - or collects old scans can confirm this pattern. Actually I’ve reblogged and criticized a bunch of them in this blog.

Unfortunately the comics and movies endorsed this sexist view of Lara and Tomb Raider who had absolutely nothing to do with what’s offered in the games. So actually it’s everyone, but Core Design and the games, who sexualized Lara: comics, movies, videogame press. When the franchise was butchered at Crystal’s hand this studio, having the chance to break this tendency and make justice to the character, fell into the commercial, abusive trope and endorsed the sexualization of the character including very unnecessary outfits and sequences of obscure purposes than can be widely noted in LAU trilogy. Only later to supposedly having amnesia over this and blame Core Design and the classics of something that they never did: selling Lara as a sex icon. And become “woke” and “progressive” with the rebooting of Lara and Tomb Raider, creating a new character who, despite her “decent” looks, is anything but woke and progressive.

As I said in my previous answer I am not willing to rant much more over this, since I’ve discussed this to death. Fortunately I have friends and followers that will do this much better than me.

I’ve been asked this before: do I care about how Lara looks? The answer is: no, I don’t. I don’t care if she’s tall or short, if she’s thin or fat, if she’s blonde or brunette, if her skin is white or darker.

I like her for plenty other reasons: because she’s fierce, because she’s clever, because she’s independent and resourceful, because she’s brave, because she has moral restrains, because she cares about others, because she has a sense of humor, because she’s wild, because she’s polite, because she’s strong, and because she follows her goals and dreams.

Reducing Lara to her “character looks” - translation: her physical appearance - is the last thing on my mind. It was in the 90s when I fell in love with her, and it’s still like that.

Of course, I don’t like to see her changed - remodeled, rebooted - I don’t like her to look different than she used to, because that’s the character I remember and love. But the physical aspect is remarkably irrelevant. It’s her spirit what I adore about her. She’s a power force, a source of inspiration, and that’s the best of her.

It should be the only thing to care about.

Happy 20th anniversay Nintendo 64!

Ahh the Great memoirs I have at a friends house back in 98/99