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A long post about my previous anger about the TR fandom;
When I was 8 I fell in love with TR3. I lived and breathed every TR game, magazine, comic, film. I imagined her with me when times were tough, I imagined being her when I had to BE tough. When AOD was announced..
When I was 8 I fell in love with TR3. I lived and breathed every TR game, magazine, comic, film. I imagined her with me when times were tough, I imagined being her when I had to BE tough. When AOD was announced..
I was furious, devestated. This wasn't Lara. She was almost unrecognisable. We are all used to her now but at the time? No. I wrote to Eidos a letter in rage and fear about how they were changing my Lara. They wrote back and assured me that she would be the same old Lara, just..
Upgraded. With a twist. It was hard for me, at the time. I was 13 when it was released. It took a little while but I fell in love with it too. But going from classic to AOD was a big jump in the early naughties! People forget this, I think.
The fandom suffered such a blow at this time because the world hated AOD, and Crystal Dynamics Lara came along, and woah. Those changes were difficult to accept. The games were so much easier, shorter, her personality had changed, it was all about her mother, her father..
But it's all we had. And each game brought with it something different. Something to hate, and to love. New fans! New little 8 year olds falling in love with Underworld, or Legend Lara. And then, well, reboot was announced. The first demo I ever saw of it..
..Lara parachuting through trees, screaming in fear. I didn't see Lara. Not even AOD or Crystal Lara. I was furious. I disowned the franchise. I argued with people on the internet and called them fake fans for supporting it. I called them sexist. They weren't there in the 90's!..
But yall; I played it. It was pretty good. It wasn't Core Lara - but there, with a grenade gun, screaming "run you bastards, I'm coming for you all!" was Lara. Powerful and unstoppable and giving new generations strength. She'll never be my favourite, because as an adult..
I don't need to pull strength from fiction as often, and when I do? Core Lara is still there. They all are! AOD Lara tattoo on my arm to remind me of better days, to make me feel stronger now. Crystal and Reboot are all there too, for someone else. At the end of the day..
My fandom still exists, its given life every few years with new content. New fans are made, old fans connect and share stories new and old. I've learned to respect every version even if I don't like them (looking at you, Legend Lara!) and it's sad to see others dish out..
the same anger and disrespect that I did when I felt Core Lara was leaving me. We're lucky to have a character mean so much to us, as a fandom we need to do better to not tear each other down to the point where people don't want to participate.
I'm 30 years old. Did I think I'd still have to block people over TR issues? No. Am I delighted to still be a part of a fandom that could have died years ago? Yes. Whats important is what she means to each person, and not tearing down each other's meaningful versions of Lara.
