Thursday, 1 August 2019

Tomb Raider Community Celebrates Pride Month

Published on: August 01, 2019 - No comments
Back in June, the world celebrated Pride Month, with many countries (my hometown included) holding their march in July. For many people it was an opportunity to celebrate the achievements and victories the LGBTQ+ community has had, but for others its a way of vocalizing against how society and the government can do better. At its heart, it's a celebration of sexual diversity, identity, and community.

In addition to LGBTQ+ parades and events taking place across the globe, we've also seen several celebrations in our community by incredible fans which we wanted to spotlight today.
While it can be argued that Lara's origins (particularly marketing) may have sought that heterosexual male demographic in 1996, today the fandom is made up of a diverse spectrum of genders and sexuality. For many fans, Lara represents so many things, with her being described as both a feminist icon and a gay icon. Here are just some of the ways that community members celebrated in recent weeks:

Tomb Raider Level Editor Spotlight

Tomb Raider Level Editor (Twitter Channel) kick started the month of festivities with a shout out to Ranpyon's The Rainbow Eggs, a 2011 fan-made level. In the story, Lara is enjoying an Easter getaway, visiting a friend by her lakeside house. Adventure is close by when Lara arrives and discovers that two eggs, known to be part of a set of seven legendary artifacts, have been found close by, kindling her determination to find the remaining five. While not officially connected to the Tomb Raider Level Editor database, the Twitter channel is a wonderful resource celebrating the amazing fan creations there. You can check out the fan level, HERE! 


 Survivor Reborn's New Look

Jennifer and the Survivor Reborn team changed their site banner colours on social media with the rainbow flag overlaying their logo. They also called back to last year's celebrations which included a pride-themed podcast episode with special guests Jackie Wu and Fabi. It's always great to hear from the team and the special guests! If you haven't already, you can listen to episode five, HERE!


JarCup's Tomb Raider Pride Artwork

JarCup, the talented creator behind the Floof and Sport comic series was back with another new piece for Pride! The artwork features Lara Croft in a mix of the old and new; wearing a rainbow vest and sporting some impressive muscle definition. The image is also available to buy at JarCup's Redbubble store as a t-shirt, phone case, mug, travel cup, or as a sticker.


Tom Clement's LGBTQ+ Tomb Raider Analysis

For Pride, Tom Clement posted a throw back to an article he had written (and which remains one of his favourite pieces) in 2016 exploring the LGBTQ+ themes in Tomb Raider. For the piece, he also interviewed fellow Tomb Raider fan and webmaster, Stella of Stella's Tomb Raider walkthroughs:

Lara Croft is one of the world’s most recognisable video game characters, with 2016 being her twentieth birthday. She has the largest collection of Guinness World Records (six of them), transferred from the game screen to the big screen, and was hailed as an example of the British tech industry by Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords. Yes, the House of Lords, I’d like to see Mario or Sonic do that. She’s been promoted as a feminist icon and has been criticised as an unrealistic expectation of male fantasy. And if new reports are to be believed, she is gay as well. You can read Tom's full article, HERE! 


Miyah "Rainbow Trail" Semi-Throwback

Artist Miyah returned to an older comic for a semi-throwback too! In the comic, Lara discovers that by moving, she leaves a rainbow glow in her wake. The bright colours in the panels mirrors the pride flag, with the style of it mirroring the Rise of the Tomb Raider "rainbow trail" card. (Which was, without a doubt, one of the best cards to have in play!) There's a wonderful balance of colour in the piece with the minimalist design but then the sudden explosion of colour. It's a very cute comic to celebrate the month!



Chris' Tomb Raider-Themed Collage 

One of the earliest pieces that I stumbled across celebrating pride month was by Chris, also known as @illucifer on Twitter, who created this gorgeous flag out of promotional renders of the games. I love the creativity, the use of the colours, and how it represents each version of Lara in one collage. It's a really beautiful piece!


Lara's Diary's New Avatar

Last but not least, is Lara's Diary who changed their profile picture for Pride month to celebrate what they called "reflection, love and solidarity". The image they put up is gorgeous, with Lara's silhouette over the pride flag, but I particularly love how it's a small gesture to show inclusivity and celebrate with the community, but it helps so much to make the fandom more welcoming.

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