Lara Croft

Lara Croft is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Tomb Raider video game franchise. She is introduced as a highly intelligent and athletic English archaeologist who ventures into ancient tombs and dangerous ruins around the world. It was created by Toby Gard and the British developer team Core Design. The character Lara Croft first appeared in the Tomb Raider video game in 1996.

Core Design handled the initial development of the character and the series. Inspired by Neneh Cherry and the comic book character Tank Girl, Gard designed Lara Croft to counteract stereotypical female characters. The company modified the character for later titles, which included graphical enhancements and gameplay additions. American developer Crystal Dynamics took over the series after the 2003 sequel Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. The new developer rebooted the character along with the video game series. The company modified his physical proportions and gave him additional ways to interact with game environments. Croft has been portrayed by six actresses in the video game series: Shelley Blond (1996), Judith Gibbins (1997–98), Jonell Elliott (1999–2003), Keeley Hawes (2006–14), Camilla Luddington (2013–present) and Abigail Stahlschmidt (2015).

Lara Croft has also appeared in video game spin-offs, print adaptations, a series of animated shorts, feature films, and series-related merchandise. Promotion for the character includes a brand of clothing and accessories, action figures, and model renderings. She has been licensed for third-party promotion, including television and print ads, music-related appearances, and as a spokesperson.

Critics consider Lara Croft a significant video game character in popular culture. She holds six Guinness World Records, has a huge following, and is one of the first successful video game characters made into a movie. Lara Croft is also considered a sex symbol, one of the first in the industry to achieve mainstream attention.

Features

Cosplay by Tatiana DeKhtyar as Lara Croft at E3 2016

Lara Croft is depicted as an athletic woman, with brown eyes and auburn hair, often kept in a braid or ponytail. The character's classic costume is a turquoise tank top, light brown shorts, calf-high boots, and tall white socks. Her accessories include fingerless gloves, a backpack, a utility belt with holsters on each side, and two pistols. The sequels to the video games introduced new equipment, designed for different environments, such as cold weather or going underwater. In later games, Croft wears a crop top, camouflage pants, and either a black or tan shirt. When exploring, she often carries two pistols, but has used other weapons as well. Also, she is fluent in multiple languages.

Lara's backstory has changed significantly throughout the series. During the first era, game manuals describe the character as Wimbledon, London-born daughter of Lord Henshingly Croft (Lord Richard Croft in Legend and its sequels). She was raised as an aristocrat and betrothed to the fictional Earl of Farringdon. Lara attended Gordonstoun Scottish boarding school and a Swiss completion school. At the age of twenty-one, she survived a plane crash, which left her stranded in the Himalayas for two weeks. Her experience prompted her to shun her previous life from her and seek more adventures around the world. Croft published books and other written works based on her exploits as a mercenary, big game hunter, and master thief. This provided her with a replacement source of income after her father rejected her for her change in lifestyle.

During the second era, Lara's history introduced her as the daughter of archaeologist Lord Richard Croft, Earl of Abbingdon, and as a person who, while attending Abbingdon Girls' School, was quickly identified as highly talented. The date of the plane crash was changed to when Lara was nine years old; this time, with her mother, Amelia Croft. Lara and her mother take refuge in an old Nepali temple, where Lara witnesses her mother disappear after handling an ancient sword. Her father later disappears looking for his wife. This prompts Lara to look for the reason for the disappearance of her mother.

The third era deviates considerably from the original plot. When Lara was young, she traveled with her parents on many of her archaeological expeditions, which helped shape the woman she was becoming. It was on one of these expeditions that his mother disappeared and it was thought that she had died. When her father allegedly committed suicide a few years later, she was left in the care of Conrad Roth. Despite the fact that she inherited a large fortune, which gave her the means to attend Cambridge with ease, she Lara decided to study at University College London. Although this was a very difficult choice, she helped her become more grounded and level-headed than she ever could have been. She also ended up meeting her best friend, Samantha Nishimura, during her time at UCL. It was thanks to Sam's free spirit and wild streak that Ella Lara was able to experience much more of London than just the universities and museums, which she loved so much. After traveling the world, both Lara and Sam end up on an expedition to the Dragon's Triangle, off the Japanese coast, in search of the lost civilization of Yamatai. It is on this expedition that Lara is stranded on a remote island, full of natural, human and supernatural dangers, allowing her to evolve from a vulnerable child to a survivor. And after experiencing the supernatural powers of the ancient world, she realizes that her father was right about her theories and her hunger for adventure. Although Lara led an independent life, which included a lot of international work, she was able to maintain an active social life and a healthy relationship.

First biography

Her mother is Amelia Croft, Countess of Abingdon, and her father is Lord Henshingly Croft, Earl of Abingdon. Lara Croft grew up in the world of the British aristocracy, surrounded by butlers and luxury. During her school years, she attended a lecture by renowned archaeologist Werner Von Croy. This sparked her first interest in archaeology.

When she was 16, she found out that von Croy was preparing an expedition to Cambodia, and convinced her parents to let her join the expedition. This ended in disaster when Von Croy activated a trap and was entombed inside a tomb; to avoid this same fate Lara Croft had to leave him. Von Croy ultimately survived and the incident caused a grudge between him and Lara that lasted for years. Later, during his internship at a prestigious school in Switzerland, he studied extreme skiing. So he spent the holidays in the Himalayas in search of the most dangerous terrain to practice on. However, on the return trip, the plane crashed in the mountains, with Lara being the only survivor of her.

She spent two weeks wandering alone in the Himalayas before finding the remote Tibetan village of Tokakeriby. This experience had a profound effect on her, making her unable to endure the stifling atmosphere of British high society for long, preferring to travel the world, which made her feel truly free.

Despite these drastic life changes, he retained the essence of his upbringing, remarkably polite, and upper-class accent.

Her rejection of the high-society lifestyle led her parents to disinherit her, leading her to write about her travels in order to afford them. While she remains in England, she lives in a mansion in Surrey left to her by her aunt before she died. The mansion is also used as a training center and storage for various artifacts that Lara Croft has been acquiring on her travels. The manor is cared for by her butler Winston hers, who has been in Lara Croft's life since her childhood.

Lara Croft doesn't see treasure hunting as a job, but more as a way of life. To finance this radical lifestyle, she writes books about her travels.

In addition to his notable discoveries, including the Pyramid of Atlantis, the "Scion" and the "Dagger of Xian", he has also discovered the five fragments of a meteorite, The Iris, the Amulet of Horus, the Golden Mask, the Mask of Tutankhamun, the Spear of Destiny and some engravings of the Dark paintings.

• Hobbies: Any extreme sport. It has a particular interest to experiment with different forms, often extreme, of transport.
• Inspiration: All the powerful people of antiquity who designed their own graves.
• Education: Private tutela (from 3 to 11 years); Wimbledon Institute for Missing Persons (from 11 to 16 years); Gordonstoun boarding school (from 16 to 18 years); private school in Switzerland (from 18 to 21 years).

Second biography

According to another biography, which has some changes, Lara Croft was born in 1968 in England (Great Britain, United Kingdom) the daughter of Richard and Amelia Croft. In 1976, when she was just nine years old, she survived a plane crash in the Himalayas. In this episode of her life, she lost her mother and she had to walk for 10 days until she reached a bar in Kathmandu where she phoned her father to ask him to pick her up. For six years after the events, Croft made continuous trips with her father from one archaeological site to another and even so she received education from private teachers, although her father was practically her day-time tutor. full of her However, at the age of fifteen, Lara Croft's father disappears in Cambodia under mysterious circumstances and none of his remains have been found. With no corpse, Lara Croft was unable to inherit the Croft title, and she had serious problems with her uncle over control of her late father's estate. Eventually, Lara Croft legally gains the rights to all of her father's possessions, which causes her to have no further communication with her remaining living relatives.

Creation

Initially, designer Toby Gard planned to make the Tomb Raider protagonist a copy of Indiana Jones. When that idea was deemed unacceptable, Gard concentrated on creating another character. Another factor that helped him to use a female character is that he noticed that his coworkers preferred to cast female characters in Virtua Fighter. From there came a woman named "Laura Cruz". Over time, its creators interpreted that Laura Cruz did not sound very "of an English woman" and her name changed to "Lara Croft," easier to pronounce in American English. The surname "Croft" was taken from an English telephone directory, to "sound more friendly towards England".

Appearances

• Tomb Raider - 1996
• Tomb Raider II: Starring Lara Croft - 1997
• Tomb Raider III: Aventures of Lara Croft - 1998
• Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation - 1999
• Tomb Raider: Chronicles - 2000
• Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness - 2003
• Tomb Raider: Legend - 2006
• Tomb Raider: Anniversary - 2007
• Tomb Raider: Underworld - 2008
• Tomb Raider (Reboot) - 2013
• Rise of the Tomb Raider - 2015
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider - 2018

Other appearances

Comics

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider had her comic book debut in Witchblade, from the publisher Top Cow Productions, which later in 1999 would end up creating her own comic for her. Despite everything, he never abandoned his appearances in Witchblade.

Cinema

• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), film with Angelina Jolie. Directed by Simon West.
• Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The cradle of life (2003), film with Angelina Jolie. Directed by Jan de Bont.
• Tomb Raider (2018), film with Alicia Vikander. Directed by Roar Uthaug.

Webcomics

As in so many other cases of great heroines adopted, plagiarized, honored or imitated by the world of comics or webcomics, Lara Croft has been no exception. Especially taking into account her strong erotic character, her figure could not escape being reproduced in the pornographic world. The artist who signs himself as Mr. X has made several graphic novels with a woman named Sara Kraft who shares similar attributes with the video game heroine, except for the sunglasses.

Dubbing and personification

Cinema

Lara Croft was played by Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie in the films Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003). In 2018 a new film was released based on the second version of the life of Lara Croft played by the also winner of an Oscar Alicia Vikander.

Models

With each new title in the series, a model is chosen for advertising and public appearances:

• Nathalie Cook (1996 - 1997) (first model contracted before the Tomb Raider saga became famous)
• Rhona Mitra (1997-1998)
• Nell McAndrew (1998-1999)
• Lara Weller (1999 - 2000)
• Lucy Clarkson (2000 - 2002)
• Jill de Jong (2002 - 2004)
• Karima Adebibe (2006 - 2008)
• Alison Carroll (2008 - 2009)