Since the new rebooted Tomb Raider (2013) was released, I’ve been reading a lot of comments concerning on how awesome and meaningful is that at last Lara Croft looked like a human being (literal words) by looking more realistic and proportionate, which refers not only to her arms, legs or waist, but also, yeah, those big pair of male-attention-catchers who made her -unfortunately- iconic, apart from all those other thousands of reasons which actually are the ones who made her unforgettable.

As it’s more than usual to feast on Core Design’s corpse every time the TR franchise has a twist, it was also time to ramble on how they, who created her and developed her games, who made her truly iconic and unforgettable, actually sexualized her by making her look more attractive to male customers, particularly by giving her those features a man usually find desirable in a woman: slender figure, long legs, narrow waist, wide hips and, of course, big, BIG breasts.

“Wow, that one has really big boobs” - my grandpa first comment on Lara Croft, after looking at Tomb Raider II main menu.

So, here’s the established duality between good and evil: good for Square Enix for having made Lara, at last, look like a human being and not having her sexualized, with no provocative, nor sexy outfits, and not overly sensual female features on her body; evil for Core Design, who exploited her sexy looks and sexualized her in a very sexist way. But, it’s that simple?

The limits of Core’s sexualization on Lara

First of all, yeah, we can admit that Core Design actually sexualized Lara Croft. Back in 1996, Toby Gard designed the one who was meant to be one of the main videogame icons of all times. Before the first Tomb Raider was released, he left Core Design because he strongly disagreed with the path the character was going to take. And indeed, they made her very, very sexy. Her tight clothes and her sensual features caught the eyes of male gamers from the first moment. Well, that was expectable. What maybe was not as expected was that she managed to catch also the eyes of female gamers.

Because she was -she has ALWAYS been- more than a pretty face and big tits. Core Design made her more than a sex symbol. They made her clever, witty, brave, fierce, brutal, ruthless and relentless. They made her powerful and independent. She was not a victim, she was a heroine. She was able to boss men around. She ruled her destiny, she made her own way. And she responded to no one. She used none of her physical attributes to do that: she had enough with her brilliant mind and her instinct. Also with brute force, which she used too without any kind of remorse.

“That was gunfire. I think it was them who got taken away by it” - Lara Croft, Tomb Raider II, Diving Area cutscene.



Yeah, Core Design sexualized her, but also empowered her by making her a woman who took no shit from anyone and who didn’t need to use her “charms” to achieve her goals. She just took what she wanted, where she wanted, and when she wanted. And woe to the fool who tried to stop her.

While Lara’s empowerment had no limits and became more and more fascinating and intense as the franchise went on and a game was released after another, her sexualization obviously had its limits. The erotic side of Lara is only exploited at promotional renders who have nothing to do with the in-game reality. Lara is NEVER shown naked at the games. Lara NEVER wears too many revealing outfits in-game. She has NO sexual interaction with any character in-game. She NEVER uses her body as a mean to achieve her goals (apart from punching and kicking arses, of course). She is an explorer who fights her way on without using nothing more than her wits and her firearms. Her erotic, sexual side starts and ends just in promotional renders, made only to catch attention from male gamers, not as a reflection on what the game itself offers.



She’s sexy, she knows it and it’s perfectly OK

So, we all saw her in those erotic and sensual poses in those promotional renders, without showing actually nothing of those charms, and just for mere fanservice. Many people who doesn’t know her, nor the games, may think this is sexist, an exploitaiton of a female character based on her sex appeal, which turns her into an instrument, a sexual object.

But as far as you get to know her, this controversial use of Lara Croft’s sex appeal is not that sexist, if you consider how she is actually at the games. As previously told, she doesn’t use her charms to achieve her goals. She is clever and braver than that. Her badass attitude and her powerful way of dealing with everything makes you enjoy, in fact, her sensual side. She’s sexy, she knows it and it’s perfectly ok. She doesn’t need to use that. She just gives a fuck about what anyone may think. She’s proud of what she is. She even changes clothes before a Tibetan monk in a scene in Tomb Raider II, because she has nothing to be ashamed of. Of course, we can’t see her changing clothes, as we can’t see her having a shower at the end of that game.

Maybe Core Design did those erotic renders for fanservice, but in fact, being sexy and almost-revealing does not make a victim or an object of her. It actually empowers her, less than her other qualities, but still does it. That’s why I, as a female, heterosexual fan, never felt upset at this. Yeah, maybe her legs were too long and her breasts were too big, but I grew up with her and I was used to that. She was Lara Croft, what else? I could live with that and I’ve no problem with this erotic side of her. I guess I’m not the only fan who was OK with her boobs -not in a male, fanservice way, I mean- as they were another part of her which I understood natural and didn’t want to judge.

MOM: “Do you really need to have that bikini girl on your desktop, Ana?” ME: “Hey, it’s Lara Croft. Respect her, OK?”

When the tasteful became distasteful

I’m aware that probably I’m not gonna be popular for saying this, but in my humble opinion, among the so many other disasters which fell over Lara when the franchise passed from Core Design to Crystal, there was also the way in which Crystal managed Lara’s sex appeal. For me, it was like a great jump from tasteful (Core Design) to distasteful (Crystal Dynamics). Sorry for the Manichaean duality, I can’t express it otherwise.

I’ve already said I have NOTHING against Lara being hot and sexy. But when I was playing Legend and I saw Lara entering a Japanese attic to deal with some Yakuza people about an artefact dressed… with… THAT dress… I could only scream to the screen: “WHAT THE ACTUAL F-????”

I found that Tokyo night dress totally unnecessary. I’m sorry, I don’t like it. It was too revealing to consider it good for Lara’s style. She is supposed to be sexy and hot, but also to have some class. That night gown showed almost the totality of her breasts, and to make things better, a short time after she rips it off until the waist and she walks around dressed with those rags, to the point of showing her panties (which I think were Louis Vuitton, according to the fabric decoration, haha).

Someone may think I am saying that it’s not OK for a woman to dress in a sexy way. Well, that’s not what I’m saying. We’ve already seen Lara in a similar dress at the Opera intro in Rome (Tomb Raider Chronicles). And I really love that sequence. It is probably one of the best scenes in the entire series. That night opera dress is not only sexy, but she wears it in a majestic way. She looks sexy but also classy. That’s good taste.

And once more, this is not an in-game feature. It’s just an intro to a further scenario in which she doesn’t wear this dress anymore. That’s just a moment of contextualization, to show how graceful and elegant is this sexy woman who knows how to wear a night dress and still fight her way out like a total boss.

Surely Crystal Dynamics tried to copy this at the Tokyo sequence, but again, imho, they failed totally at it. In Legend, Lara looks cheap in that dress. She just shows too much of herself to result classy or elegant. And worse than that, it was meaningless. She is there to make a deal with Yakuza mafia concerning one artefact and she dresses like that… why? To distract Takamoto for asking a fair price? No, she is just like that for fanservice. Mere fanservice. Tasteless fanservice, as the dialogue delivered in this scene is totally floppy and lacks all the charm she used to have.

At least, when Core Design used those erotic fanservice renders, it was not in-game. It was never an outfit to wear during a battle, or a mission. The opera dress in Chronicles gives me another sensation. The Tokyo dress is just ugh. We may think Lara is showing all that to use for… what? For fanservice.

And I think it’s so unfair that Core Design has been stigmatized as the studio “who sexualized Lara Croft” when, in fact, Crystal Dynamics did worse in this aspect. To put another example, look at those outfits featuring the same horrible rags in other colours and all those bikinis. BIKINIS. To be used in-game. For a woman who is an explorer and archaeologist. Wow. Is that making any sense?

So, Toby Gard left Core Design because he didn’t like the idea of a sexualized Lara Croft, but came back just in Legend, to see her dressed in rags and also with all the entire bikini season. That’s what I call coherence, lol.

At least, bikini in Core Design was just promotional fanservice, not story, in-game fanservice. And anyway, it was far more tasteful than Crystal Dynamic’s use of Lara’s sex appeal. A bikini render in Tomb Raider II is far more erotic and sensual than any stuff we can see at Legend or even at Underworld. Ironic, isn’t it?

I think this is because what was really attractive in Classic Lara was, in the end, her attitude, her spirit, which insufflated all the charm in her woman features, rather than the body itself.

So, you take a powerful, yet feminine videogame character and misunderstand her by making her just a Hollywood thug shooter who exhibites her sexuality without no reason, in-game and just for fanservice. But yet, you also want her to become something human, maybe realistic… so you insert on her a daddy-mommy trauma, making her scream and yell about where the fuck is her mother, and then you think you did a good work. Congrats, Crystal Dynamics. You just twisted and destroyed Lara Croft.

Then you reboot her again and do with her what we know they’ve done… erasing all of these sexy, exuberant features of her. She is not more the woman with long lengs and big breasts. She’s just a girl like you or me. She doesn’t seem an Alpha female anymore. She could be anyone. Even your neighbour next door.

Honestly, this seems more acceptable to me that the in-game exploitation of her sexual side in Legend and Underworld (yeah, I’m referring to that wetsuit who showed almost completely her buttocks). But then again, why to say that this is the correct way of doing things. Why to say “waaaa Core Design totally sexualized Lara Croft and now things are finally well done and she has no more those gigantic tits, so we can respect her as a woman”. Excuse me? You didn’t respect her before? Just because they did some sexy renders with her? “Now she dresses properly not anymore those tight clothes totally sexualizing her”. Excuse me? As far as I know, Lara and TR are still in Crystal Dynamic’s hands, the same ones who put her in that horrible Tokyo bunch-of-rags, and included the bikini season as a choice for outfits.

Why is this always going against Core Design? I’m just tired of all this. Really, really tired. Every absurd reason is used as a missil against Core.

Well, AT LEAST Core did a powerful, self-confident female character. Yep, sexualized, but one to be proud of. As one fan said, Classic Lara takes no shit. She has big tits, but her spirit is far more bigger. She has narrow waist, but narrow is also her patience with thugs and minions, whom she owns like the boss she is. She has long legs, to kick all baddies’ arses. She was an icon, and I love the way she was, with her big boobs and her magnificent spirit.

And you know what? For me, the sexiest outfit Lara Croft has ever worn was the jeans outfit in TRAOD, which ironically is one who doesn’t show much of her skin. Also, she looks hot as hell in TRAODs wetsuit, with a really nice décolletée. But again, it’s NOT what she shows, it’s the way she shows it.

Yep, wish Kurtis could have seen her like this. Whoa. So fucking hot, m’lady.



In the end, I guess one of the clues that made Lara Croft an icon and a success both among male and female characters was, together with her intense sex appeal, her attitude, her empowerment, her strong spirit, her dark sense of humor and her independence. She was an inspiring character, and that made the sexualization issue a secondary matter, at least for me. It didn’t bother me. She made me feel alive. She make me feel free. She gave me a reason to deal with my life issues. And she never twisted me in a way I wanted to be like her physically, nor gave me a wrong idea about how a woman should be. She inspired me the correct way: to have more self-esteem and self-confidence, and that had nothing to do with her body features.



But since Crystal stripped her first from her dignity, making her a meaningless shooter with mommy issues, and then from all her charm, making her just a random scared girl with daddy issues; she is no more a reference to me. Well, not that version of Lara. I’ll keep for myself the old version, the Classic and TRAOD Lara, the one who truly was my heroine.

Anyway, this is just my long, personal opinion. Considering the actual panorama, I prefer a thousand of times a sexualized, but strong-spirited Lara Croft, than a non-sexualized, but weak in spirit Lara Croft.

Really, you never know what you have until you lose it.