‘Daddy Issues’ by Demi Lovato might be Lara Croft’s favourite song of all time. Of course, when Lovato sings it, they are explaining why their daddy issues make them such a passionate yet complex lover, so perhaps it doesn’t fit at all, given that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tomb Raider’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Survivor Trilogy attempted to move her away from the oversexualised image we have o🥂f her (eve🗹n if such sexualisation was rare in the games themselves). The point is, as has been in the headlines recently, Lara Croft’s got all these daddy issues. Whether or not she got my name on her wrist after our first kiss is as yet undetermined.
It’s baffling really that Lara has had these issues for so long. Rhianna Pratchett, whose comments on said daddy issues are what’s landed them back in the head♈lines, has spoken on the issue before. Pratchett was a writer for Rise of the Tomb Raider (generally agreed to be the best of the Survivor Tril🐻ogy), and has explained that she did not want the looming spectre of Daddy Croft to influence the game, but was ordered from on-high ꧑to include them. The question then, is why? Whose favourite character in the Tomb Raider games is the man who dies in the first scene? How did he, despite achieving nothing in the story, become so crucial that executives order his inclusion?
It’s not just in the games, either. The most recent Tomb Raider movie starring Alicia Vikander revolves around Daddy Croft too. Though the movie loosely follows the 2013 Tomb Raider game, it offers a twist by having Daddy Croft be alive, but that only detracts 𝕴further from the story itself. In the game, Lara is shipwrecked on a ritualistic island and must survive, slowly finding other members of her crew. In the movie, this adventure happens to her father and Lara just kinda turns up at some point. It’s over an hour in before Lara is any kind of Tomb Raider at all, and all of the set up goes into her searching for her father. At this point, who cares about this angle anymore?
It’s not even particularly unique to Lara, and it’s a dull trope that serves no purpose. Pratchett’s comics largely avoided daddy issue arcs, and were all the better for them. D𓄧an Jurgens, who wrote the original Tomb Raider comics, also avoided the daddy issues by having Lara's fiancé die in the plane crash, not her father. You could point out that this is still Lara being defined by a man, but how many action heroes are motivated by a need to save or avenge their wives? It puts Lara in the classic action star mould, and it’s better than the same old, same old. Follow up question: how many action heroes are still just little boys who want to make their mommies proud?
None of the fans care much about Daddy Croft, and it’s not even like the games (or movies) try to make him interesting. He’s just a genius deus ex machina, who has always figured out exactly what Lara needs to know, ready for her to discover it exactly when she needs to. He has no character development, never says or does anything of interest, just dies and leaves a shad♔ow Lara can never escape from, and an envelope with clues to her next adventure. Nothing of value ever happens with, to, or through him. He just nudges the plot along, and there are several d♐ozen ways you could do that of Lara’s own accord, without him.
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I enjoy a lot of the Croft Manor sequences, especially in Legend, but I’d happily never set foot in the mansion again if it meant no more daddy issues. Lara’s family wealth and legacy is a major part of her character, but that doesn’t mean that her 👍late father needs to be pleased and appeased in every outing.
Lara is one of the most iconic characters in gaming history, and has come too far to still be built on the shaky foundations of a dull, played out trope that fictional women everywhere are often defined by. If we’re going to copy a Demi Lovato song, make it Cool For the Summer and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:give Lara a girlfriend.
