hHot on the heels of that Oasis reunion comes news of the return of another ’90s icon: Lara Croft. She returns to our screens with a new animated series, still sporting that sacred triumvirate of classic ponytail, backpack and combat boots. From the start, he’s performing seemingly impossible feats in the name of archaeology: he outswims a voracious crocodile and uses his trademark combination of parkour and gymnastics to avoid a pit of sharp spikes. But this is not the star of Tomb Raider. quite as you may remember it.
The eponymous star of Netflix’s Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, voiced by Agent Carter’s Hayley Atwell, looks different than how she appeared in the original games. Her thighs are now strong enough to realistically run, climb, stomp, swim, and do all the other things Lara has to do on a daily basis, while her waist has more realistic proportions. Her shoulders are broader, her arms are more defined (biceps, triceps, and flexors—OMG!), and those incredibly perky, highly pixelated breasts have deflated to a size that fits somewhere within the realm of reason.
Basically, it no longer looks like a strong wind would knock it over. It’s part of a reinvention that feels like a major feminist act, something many critics have been clamoring for since its first appearance in 1996.
The most influential female protagonist of her genre, Lara redefined what women can and cannot do in the world of video games. “Compared to the big men shooting guns, she had real appeal,” says her designer, Toby Gard, who originally intended her to be “a guy in some graves” before deciding to go in another direction. “She was mysterious and dangerous, and this really set her apart from other female characters in the game who were basically sex objects. I also really wanted to get Lara to animate properly, something no one else was doing at the time. This made her move slowly but look realistic, which helped players empathize with her.”
Realism, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. For her adrenaline-fueled exploits, Lara wore a tight tank top and skimpy shorts, all the better to accentuate those gravity-defying breasts, but also her slender waist, arms and legs. She moved with the grace of a ballerina, opting to do unnecessary handstands and diving dives whenever she could, and spoke with the clipped, confident cadence of a BBC newscaster, even if she was just saying a stern “no.” “to the players who were trying to force her. through a closed door. (Hey, she had agency!)
Theirs were puzzle games, of course, and not RPGs, so we didn’t know much of Lara’s backstory. However, what we did know was that she was incredibly wealthy and had a passion for ancient relics. She was probably also an enthusiastic gymnast. And, most importantly, she was elegant, relying on brainpower and survival skills, not just combat (aka shooting anything that stood between her and her prize) to complete each mission.
As time went by, the marketing around Lara changed, to such an extent that Gard felt forced to leave the games’ developer, Core Design, entirely. “It wasn’t about her breasts growing,” she later insisted, although the objectification of the character was undeniable; Ever-expanding breasts aside, consider Tomb Raider II’s unforgettable shower scene, Tomb Raider Legend’s ripped little black dress, the ever-prevailing promise of the “Nude Raider” cheat code (which has since proven be an urban myth).
Like Wonder Woman before her, Lara Croft was a strong woman created with a male gaze. Still, she managed to symbolize something bigger: she was a genuine adventurer in search of her own hero. A savior, not a damsel to be rescued. A woman with much more important things on her mind than romantic side quests. As time went on and ownership of the character changed hands, these key elements never changed. The designers focused more on her facial expressions than her breasts; his backstory developed. They even gave her friends (in fact, it was Lara’s relationship with Sam Nishimura in the 2013 video game reboot that allowed her to finally pass the Bechdel test with flying colors) and it’s this that draws attention in the new series.
From China to Istanbul, from the catacombs of Paris to the Kunlun Mountains, Netflix’s globe-trotting Lara has all the appeal of her previous incarnations. Her past is, she admits, “complicated,” which is why she’s a little more vulnerable and a lot more self-destructive than we’ve seen her before. He wears comfortable cargo pants and turtleneck tank tops when the occasion calls for it (with visible sweat stains, no less). He enjoys an unexpectedly ambiguous relationship with a person from his past. She is, to quote her friend Jonah, a “crazy bastard” in a backpack; so fearless and determined to not only assaulting graves, but also return treasures to their rightful homes.
This Lara is dealing with a complicated past. This Lara smells like a professional hiker, she is battered and bruised and carrying a lot of emotional baggage. TO batch of emotional baggage. This Lara drifts away from her friends, resulting in one questionable decision after another. This Lara brims with strength, but she needs to discover who she is before she can regain the serenity that is synonymous with the legendary Croft of yesteryear. And yes, it’s best to believe that his found family could be the key to that; After all, no woman is an island.
This Lara isn’t perfect by any means, but her imperfections seem revolutionary when you compare them to her original plans. Because, freed from her controller, she is allowed to move forward in her story on her own terms. She is finally the undisputed guardian of her complicated life, all thanks to her new television incarnation.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is now on Netflix.