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Tomb Raider had an impressive showing at E3 this year. We got to see Lara get out of traps, fight, and almost get raped. Let me rephrase my first sentence: Tomb Raider had a seriously upsetting showing at E3 this year. But, the issue isn't as cut and dry as a previously viewed as tough as nails female hero being sexually assaulted as it seems. The issue goes deeper than is it necessary. It goes to "Is she the right character" territory.
Rape in the media isn't a new thing. It is, however, fairly new to the video game community. The first time I remember it being placed in a game was Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain. We meet our female protagonist, Madison, fighting off several attackers. One tosses her on a bed, and attempts to grab her legs. Throughout the fight, she is in her underwear, having just woken up. (Warning: The video is not suitable for all audiences). She wakes up, realizing that it was a dream. But, further interaction with the character shows that it may have been a memory as well. She cannot sleep in her apartment after having the dream. When kidnapped by a psychotic doctor, she's more panicked about being tied up than she is fighting her way out. She even is visibly uncomfortable when fully stripping for an informant in order to get information. If you made her fully strip... shame on you (I went for the lamp as soon as I could).
It molds her character and personality, but it doesn't mean she's weak. In fact, it helps the player understand her motivations, and makes her human. She is no longer just a video game character, but a person with a history. She even fights her attackers in a panicked, realistic way for someone with no training at all, attempting to strike the face, and using home objects as weapons.
Lara Croft doesn't have that much of a history from the first game. She is an explorer, and raids... well... tombs. She fights with her guns and acrobatic abilities. She is a hero in her old right, who didn't have to worry about guys trying to assault her, other than kill her. If anything, she had more to worry about from the development team than the bad guys in the game when it came to sex crimes.
New Lara Croft looks like a teenaged girl (17-18). She is constantly being bloodied in one way or another, whether it's the environment or baddies. She's supposedly human and vulnerable. She isn't the Lara Croft we know.
Does that mean the attack is needed? No. In fact, to me, it makes absolutely no sense at all. A guy tries to help her, then turns around and tries to rape her. There isn't any sort of anger, it's just him trying to rape her. The most important thing to understand about rape is that it's not the victim's fault The other thing is that it's not about sex, it's about control and violence. New Lara wasn't designed with sex in mind, at least not as much as the Old Lara.
Here's the clincher, though. Not only is New Lara not trained in any form of combat, and is faced with this horrifying event, her reaction is ridiculous. She kicks him in the groin, bites off his ear, shoots him repeatedly, in the groin, of course, and runs away as he chases her. Yes, rape is the most atrocious crime people can commit, some say worse than murder (which I'm inclined to agree with). Yes, kicking a guy in the groin has been suggested as a defense (though the knee joint works better).
But, even considering the event, this seems over the top. One, Lara is not thew character you want to reboot with this gritty of an event. Can you imagine if Mario had a reboot where Bowser was a serial killer and wore Peach's skin like a body suit? No, because that's not the audience Mario is aimed towards.
What makes it worse is that American audiences are okay with this, but we have yet to have a positive character who is homosexual. When Japan had a positive homosexual male character in a game (Persona 3), the character was changed to a straight bully in the American version, because a gay character would not be accepted. Rape and castration are fine, but a positive reinforcement that not all gay men are effeminate is not. This is the message we're sending our future generation.
The more footage I see of Tomb Raider, the more I know I'll pass. It's turning out to be less of a Tomb Raider game and more of Manhunt aka, the Happy Violent Murder Simulator. Heavy Rain did the character development right, by keeping it in grounds with both reality, and how the character acts. This comes off as an attention grabbing technique with a "quick fix" in order to keep the extreme rights groups in check. Which, when you think of it, is offensive in itself, as they see all feminists being angry and violent against men. I guess the moral of the story is, "Why stop at rape when we can offend everyone?"
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