Petition to bring Lara Croft back to what she used to be

[Samz]

To sum up the whole thing anyway Mani.

Maybe we're trying to show there's a demand with the Petition we have right now on this very thread?

[SpaceChild]

Add me to the petition. I'm frankly disgusted with the way the Lara Croft character has been "uglied-down" - presumably out of membership in and/or fear of the "PC" cult, who are oddly reminiscent of the "Moral Majority" of the 1980s.

In physical appearance and personality alike, the Lara Croft of the "reboot" era - 2013 to the present - is a bland, generic stand-in with a completely different face and both a personality and general appearance that's self-consciously - and exaggeratedly - masculine. This comes from the weird political cult that's arisen in the last decade or so which believes that for a woman to possess inner strength, conviction, courage and toughness, she has to jettison every trace of femininity as a matter of course. Conversely, they apparently believe that any woman who shows femininity, beauty, and especially *gasp* sex appeal, must surely be weak, absurd, and almost certainly Offensive to The Cause. These gender-tribalist politicos cannot conceive of a woman who is both strong and intensely beautiful. Which is a good definition of the original Lara Croft concept.

I suppose it would be useless to refer these people to characters like Thandie Newton's Nyah Hall in "MI:II," Aya Ueto's title role in "Azumi" and Izumi in "Zettai Reido," Kate Beckinsale's Selene of "Underworld" I and II, Keiko Kitagawa's Rena in "Tantei no Tantei" and Ayami in "Akumu chan," Michelle Yeoh in... well everything she's been in from Supercop onward, and of course Angelina Jolie in pretty much everything she's been in. You get the picture. Lara Croft in her original conception belonged in this camp, not the Ripley / Conner / Janeway / Everdeen camp.

So basically the present-day LC is being held hostage to a fringe political clique that cares more about its moronic ideology than anything so silly as coherence with an original character concept throughout a game franchise run.

Again, the post-2013 "Lara Croft" character would not even be recognizable as Lara Croft if it weren't for the trappings of ancient tombs and artifacts. To repeat something I said back when the 2013 "reboot" happened: given the superfluous (and annoying) bow and arrow, the present "Lara Croft" looks more like a re-tread Katniss Everdeen than anything remotely similar to the iconic Lara Croft. But even Jennifer Lawrence's always-on angry scowl has more expression to it than the blank, bland face of this "new" Lara Croft.

Weirdly, Tomb Raider: Underworld has gotten a bunch of heavy disrespect here and elsewhere, but from where I sit Underworld was the last true Tomb Raider title released, and one of the best. Maybe the best. Definitely so in terms of character design.

So dear Eidos, or Crystal Dynamics, or whoever's in charge of this mess, my advice would be to go back and have a look at Tomb Raider Underworld's LC design, and shoot for that. And have some respect for the people who made this whole game franchise successful - most of all respect for the reasons they made it successful:

- An appealing character who is not only kick-arse tough and heroic but also unabashedly feminine and sexy,
- Simple but agile controls,
- Weapons that take care of themselves once they're selected (i.e., you don't have to go Full Caveman and build your weapons out of sticks and stones while dying of boredom in the process,)
- Solitary, almost meditative surroundings,
- Primarily non-human adversaries, rather than more tired FPS warfare against other people.

I'm posting this textwall with the realization I'm basically spitting into the wind, and that it will probably take a couple of decades before a more enlightened, relaxed and most of all apolitical group of people assumes control of the Tomb Raider franchise.

Because the people running it right now have turned it into something not-Tomb-Raider. It's got the TR name but very little else. So I suppose patience and the Tomb Raider back catalog are the only options for the near term.

[And just don't get me started on the inability to buy this on CD-ROM hardcopy for PC. I don't buy stuff I can't pick up and hold in my hands.]

/rant

[Costel]

I love it when people call reboot Lara bland and generic. Cause that is what a bland and generic girl does: travels the world in search for artefacts having to battle a fanatic military organization in the same time, no?

[charmedangelin]

Originally Posted by Costel

I love it when people call reboot Lara bland and generic. Cause that is what a bland and generic girl does: travels the world in search for artefacts having to battle a fanatic military organization in the same time, no?

You know what bland and generic means..................

[SnatchingEdges]

Originally Posted by SpaceChild

Add me to the petition. I'm frankly disgusted with the way the Lara Croft character has been "uglied-down" - presumably out of membership in and/or fear of the "PC" cult, who are oddly reminiscent of the "Moral Majority" of the 1980s.

In physical appearance and personality alike, the Lara Croft of the "reboot" era - 2013 to the present - is a bland, generic stand-in with a completely different face and both a personality and general appearance that's self-consciously - and exaggeratedly - masculine. This comes from the weird political cult that's arisen in the last decade or so which believes that for a woman to possess inner strength, conviction, courage and toughness, she has to jettison every trace of femininity as a matter of course. Conversely, they apparently believe that any woman who shows femininity, beauty, and especially *gasp* sex appeal, must surely be weak, absurd, and almost certainly Offensive to The Cause. These gender-tribalist politicos cannot conceive of a woman who is both strong and intensely beautiful. Which is a good definition of the original Lara Croft concept.

I suppose it would be useless to refer these people to characters like Thandie Newton's Nyah Hall in "MI:II," Aya Ueto's title role in "Azumi" and Izumi in "Zettai Reido," Kate Beckinsale's Selene of "Underworld" I and II, Keiko Kitagawa's Rena in "Tantei no Tantei" and Ayami in "Akumu chan," Michelle Yeoh in... well everything she's been in from Supercop onward, and of course Angelina Jolie in pretty much everything she's been in. You get the picture. Lara Croft in her original conception belonged in this camp, not the Ripley / Conner / Janeway / Everdeen camp.

So basically the present-day LC is being held hostage to a fringe political clique that cares more about its moronic ideology than anything so silly as coherence with an original character concept throughout a game franchise run.

Again, the post-2013 "Lara Croft" character would not even be recognizable as Lara Croft if it weren't for the trappings of ancient tombs and artifacts. To repeat something I said back when the 2013 "reboot" happened: given the superfluous (and annoying) bow and arrow, the present "Lara Croft" looks more like a re-tread Katniss Everdeen than anything remotely similar to the iconic Lara Croft. But even Jennifer Lawrence's always-on angry scowl has more expression to it than the blank, bland face of this "new" Lara Croft.

Weirdly, Tomb Raider: Underworld has gotten a bunch of heavy disrespect here and elsewhere, but from where I sit Underworld was the last true Tomb Raider title released, and one of the best. Maybe the best. Definitely so in terms of character design.

So dear Eidos, or Crystal Dynamics, or whoever's in charge of this mess, my advice would be to go back and have a look at Tomb Raider Underworld's LC design, and shoot for that. And have some respect for the people who made this whole game franchise successful - most of all respect for the reasons they made it successful:

- An appealing character who is not only kick-arse tough and heroic but also unabashedly feminine and sexy,
- Simple but agile controls,
- Weapons that take care of themselves once they're selected (i.e., you don't have to go Full Caveman and build your weapons out of sticks and stones while dying of boredom in the process,)
- Solitary, almost meditative surroundings,
- Primarily non-human adversaries, rather than more tired FPS warfare against other people.

I'm posting this textwall with the realization I'm basically spitting into the wind, and that it will probably take a couple of decades before a more enlightened, relaxed and most of all apolitical group of people assumes control of the Tomb Raider franchise.

Because the people running it right now have turned it into something not-Tomb-Raider. It's got the TR name but very little else. So I suppose patience and the Tomb Raider back catalog are the only options for the near term.

[And just don't get me started on the inability to buy this on CD-ROM hardcopy for PC. I don't buy stuff I can't pick up and hold in my hands.]

/rant

Can we take a shot everytime someone gets salty at politics in TR? Cuz omg Lara nowadays is so political, maybe in the next game she has a Jewish, comunist anti fascist brand and, who knows? Maybe we see in her PDA tweets against Brexit.

I wanna get drunk. I'll take the Smirnoff Ice.

[charmedangelin]

Originally Posted by SnatchingEdges

Can we take a shot everytime someone gets salty at politics in TR? Cuz omg Lara nowadays is so political, maybe in the next game she has a Jewish, comunist anti fascist brand and, who knows? Maybe we see in her PDA tweets against Brexit.

I wanna get drunk. I'll take the Smirnoff Ice.

She's pretty much already that with the way she is now.

[Nigel Cassidy]

Originally Posted by SpaceChild

/rant

Both true and eloquently put

[Mani_Man]

Originally Posted by Samz

To sum up the whole thing anyway Mani.

Maybe we're trying to show there's a demand with the Petition we have right now on this very thread?

How? How do you do that? By sitting in this thread surrounded by maybe less than 100 people and constantly talk about the same thing over and over again?

What is the endgame here? Do you think one day a higher up stumbles in here, sees your posts and goes: "Magical, the answer we were looking for...hire all those good, well mannered people to help us"

The petition is already a dead thing because the people rather continue the same nonsense ranting and circle jerking like in the other 344366 threads.
And that is the thing it really is.

People rant here and a few others go "I agree, well put, Thumbs up etc" patting each other on the shoulder while sitting around in a small box.

Like i said before, most petitions dont get any attention despite more than 1000 signs...how do you think this petition will do better when the one nigel had went nowhere because nobody did anything with the 100+ signs?

How do you think this petition right now helps? Who will see it? When? How?
Do you think a petition on a tomb raider forum with less than 100 signs gets any attention?

I know i annoy with it, but what about the twitter hashtag thing?
Let me ask directly Samz, have you taken it upon yourself to get something going there since you are so invested in the topic?
What about you Nigel, charmed, lance, larafan25, paulojr_mam...has anybody of you ran with the idea or a better one?

[noonbob]

SpaceChild I love your post, you said what needed to be said

[Kubsy]

Originally Posted by SpaceChild

/rant

I 100% agree with you on every aspect.