Archaeology of Tomb Raider: In the Spotlight: Lodair Junior
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Archaeology of Tomb Raider: In the Spotlight: Lodair Junior |
| Interviewer: | Kelly M |
| Interviewee: | Lodair Junior |
| Date(s): | February 20, 2014 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Tomb Raider |
| External Links: | In the Spotlight: Lodair Junior – The Archaeology of Tomb Raider, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Archaeology of Tomb Raider: In the Spotlight: Lodair Junior was conducted in 2014.
Some Excerpts
When and how did you learn about the Tomb Raider series?
This may seem a little odd but my first contact with the Tomb Raider series was watching the second live-action film, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, in 2003. Up to that point in my life, for some indiscernible reason, I’d never heard of the video game series or Lara Croft. However, after I watched the film, I was so thrilled about it that the first thing I did come morning was buy a Tomb Raider game, namely The Last Revelation, following a recommendation from a guy I studied with (who was also a fan). From the moment I turned my console on, it was love at first sight (or rather, at first play-through). All those scenarios, the extremely well-recreated real-life monuments, the story, and mostly, the way Lara interacted with all of those things, simply blew me away. I’d never been so attracted by a game before and since then, I caught up with the entire series and became pretty much a die-hard fan.
Do you run a Tomb Raider fansite or blog? If so, what would you say was your biggest achievement to date?
I currently own and moderate a Brazilian Tomb Raider Group on Facebook called “Tomb Raider Brasil”. I founded it along with some other guys as a Facebook equivalent of another group with the same name that we have in a social network called Orkut (which was really popular in Brazil until 2009/2010). It’s a closed group but welcomes anyone who might be interested in joining it and speaks Portuguese. Also, as I mentioned earlier, I like to work with translation as a hobby and that has always involved Tomb Raider to some degree. I normally translate articles and news and share them on Brazilian fansites.
In addition to all of that, I’m also responsible for the Portuguese version of the English-language blog Perusing Pixels, originally written by blogger and Tomb Raider fan Twin Pistols, which I have been translating into Portuguese since the beginning of 2012. It’s called Examinando Pixels, in case anyone might be interested in reading it.
As for my biggest achievement to date, I’m not sure if that counts, but I guess it was having the opportunity to visit Square Enix Europe studios in London. Being where the Tomb Raider games and other titles I love were produced was sure mind-blowing! And I was presented with a lot of really cool official material from those games!
What are your thoughts on Lara’s image? Is she simply the product of a sexist gaming industry or can she be seen as a positive role model?
Although I believe it would be naive to deny that Lara’s image was created to appeal to a heterosexual male audience judging by their decision to keep her breasts large (even though what lead them to be so large was an “accident”), her sultry look and poses, etc, I’ve never believed that had a bad effect because Lara was never shown, not even once, to rely on her looks to get what she wanted. She always kicked ass and was super athletic, cool and intelligent, regardless of her appearance. And if their purpose in making Lara sexy was appealing to a heterosexual male audience, I’ve gotta say they’ve kind of failed, because a large part of the Tomb Raider fandom is comprised of heterosexual females and gay males, who like Lara because of what she represents, not because she has big bouncing boobs.