TOMB RAIDER 1st and 2nd Era LARA CROFT

Name: Lara Croft Current Title: Countess of Abbingdon Previous Title: Duchess of Saint Bridget Nationality: British Original Date of Birth: February 14th 1968 Place of Birth: Wimbledon, London (original version) / Surrey's Parkside hospital (revised version) Current Residence: Croft Manor, Surrey, England Marital Status: Single (once engaged to the, now deceased, Earl of Farringdon) Current Family (deceased): Richard Croft, 10th Earl of Abbingdon (father); Amelia Croft, Countess of Abbingdon (mother). A grandfather, Richard (Underworld) and an aunt who owns Corgis - have been mentioned in the past, as well as possibly a niece, Melissa (TRLE). Blood Type: ABHeight: 5ft 9inch / 1.75 m Weight: 9st. 4lb / 59 kilo Vital Stats: 34D-24-35 / 86-60-89 Dress Size: 8 Hair Colour: Brunette/Auburn Eye Colour: Brown Favourite Weapon: 9-mm Twin Colt 45s Favourite Movies: Deliverance, Aguirre, Wrath of God Favourite Music: classical, U2, Nine Inch Nails Favourite Food: Beans on toast Favourite Transport: Norton Streetfighter Motorbike Distinguishing Features: Dual 9 mm pistols/ .357 Desert Eagles/ .45 Heckler & Koch USPs (Match Variant) Sports: Freeclimbing, Shooting, Riding, Canoeing Education: Private Tutoring (Age 3-11) Wimbledon High School for Girls (Age 11-16) Gordonstoun Boarding School (Age 16-18) Swiss Finishing School (Age 18-21)

The character's classic costume is a turquoise sleeveless bodysuit, light brown shorts, calf-high boots, long white socks, fingerless gloves, a backpack, a utility belt with holsters on either side and two pistols, an outfit appearing in nearly every Tomb Raider game to date. In the later games, she wears a crop top. Variations on this theme, such as camouflage pants and black or light brown shirts, have appeared in some games and she has worn a wet suit for a watery environment or trousers and a jacket for a colder area.

Lara is consistently depicted as a highly confident, independent, and headstrong person. She is also very brave, rarely showing any sign of fear in very dangerous or lethal situations. Beyond this, there are a number of significant personality differences between the continuities. In the first continuity, Lara is shown as dark, enigmatic, sardonic, and even cold-blooded at times. In Legend, she is shown as a more light-hearted and respectful person who is more open emotionally, and is also portrayed as more feminine than the first continuity Lara. This is due in part to her higher level of interaction with people, such as her assistants, Zip and Alister, as well as people from her past. In Legend, she is also shown to have a love for dizzying heights and dangerous ancient traps, much to the dismay of Zip and Alister. DEVELOPMENT HISTORY Lead graphic artist Toby Gard went through about five designs before arriving at the Lara's final appearance. He initially envisioned a male lead character with a whip and a hat. Core Design co-founder Jeremy Smith characterized the design as derivative of Indiana Jones, and asked for more originality. Gard decided that a female character would work better from a design standpoint. One factor that influenced Gard to use a female character was that he noticed his male co-workers often preferred using female characters in Virtua Fighter. He also claimed a desire to counter stereotypical female characters, which he has characterized as "bimbos" or "dominatrix" types. Initially, Smith was skeptical of a female lead because few games at the time featured them. However, he felt a female lead would to be a great hook, and decided to put faith in Gard's idea.

Inspired by pop artist Neneh Cherry and comic book character Tank Girl, Gard experimented with different designs, including a muscular woman and a Nazi-like militant. He settled on a tough South American woman with a braid named Laura Cruz. Eidos managementthe series' publisherpreferred a more "UK friendly" name, and selected Lara Croft from similar-sounding British names found in an English telephone directory. Along with the name change, the character's back-story was altered to incorporate a British origin. In the first Tomb Raider, Lara Croft's character model is made of around 230 polygons. While adjusting the character model, Gard accidentally increased the breasts' dimensions by 150 percent. After seeing the increase, however, the rest of the creative team argued the change should remain. Core Design improved and modified the character with each installment. The developers increased the number of polygons and added curves and more realistic details. The PlayStation 2 hardware allowed for a more detailed character model and more manoeuvres. More attention was paid to the character's lip syncing and facial expressions to allow for emotional responses to in-game events. When redesigning the character's appearance, Crystal Dynamics updated Lara Croft's hairstyle, wardrobe, and accessories. The shirt was changed to a V-neck shirt, Lara Croft features more muscle tone, and the braid was switched to a pony tail. The seventh generation console PS3 allowed for more realism: Laras body shape size was increased and breast size reduced to portray more realistic proportions. UnderWorld introduced motion captured-based animation to portray more fluid, realistic movement and facial expressions. Stuntwoman and Olympic Gold medalist Heidi Moneymaker was the motion capture actor, and also advised the designers what movements were practical. When Underworld's sales figures failed to meet Eidos's expectations, the publisher reportedly considered altering the character's appearance to appeal more to female fans. CULTURAL IMPACT The character's debut in 1996 is often cited as a catalyst that spurred the appearance of more female leads in video games. Kaiser Hwang of PlayStation Magazine commented that Lara Croft "brought girl power" to video games. IGN commented that the character helped redefined gender in video games by providing a different interpretation of what women could do. Jeremy Smith credits the Lara Croft with helping to expose the Tomb Raider games and video games in general to a wider audience. Computer and Video Games commented that Lara Croft's appearance on the cover of The Face signaled a change in the perception of video games from "geeky" to mainstream. IGN's Jesse Schedeen described Lara Croft as one of few characters to receive a decent videogameto-movie adaptation. Yahoo! Movies and IGN credit Jolie's role in the first Tomb Raider film with significantly raising her profile and propelling her to international super-stardom respectively. Jolie commented that young children would ask her to sign objects as Lara Croft. By 2008, the first Tomb Raider movie was the highest-grossing video game movie and the largest opening ever for a movie headlined by a woman. The character is honoured in the British city Derby, previous home to Core Design. In 2007, Radleigh Homes placed a blue plaque for Lara Croft at the site of Core Design's former offices, now a block of flats. The Derby City Council opened a public vote in 2009 to name its new ring road. The winning choice, with 89% of over 27,000 votes, was "Lara Croft Way".

Lara in Tomb Raider (2013) 3rd Era Fresh from education and in search of lost relics, a 21-year-old Lara Croft journeys to an island off the coast of Japan aboard the Endurance, a salvage vessel helmed by Captain Conrad Roth. When Lara was young she traveled with her parents on many of their archaeological expeditions. These expeditions and the mysteries they uncovered helped her shape the woman she was becoming. It was on one of these expeditions where her parents vanished and were presumed dead. Even though Lara's family left her with a vast fortune, giving her the means to attend Cambridge with ease, she decided that she wanted to earn her own way and would instead apply to the University College of London (UCL). This decision required her to pay her tuition and rent by working multiple jobs. Although this was a much tougher choice, it helped Lara become more grounded, down to earth and level headed than she might otherwise have been. Becoming a student at UCL also kept her with Sam, Lara's friend since boarding school. It was because of Sam's free spirit and wild streak that Lara was able to experience much more of London than just the universities and museums that she loved so much. Their desire for adventure drew them both toward the expedition aboard the Endurance. When Lara was 21 years old, she set out on her first expedition aboard the ship Endurance to find the lost Japanese kingdom of Yamatai, home to the legendary shaman queen Himiko, dubbed the "Sun Queen", and said to hold mystical power. Traveling with Lara are Conrad Roth, Joslin Reyes, Alex Weiss, Jonah Maiava, Grim Grimaldi, Samantha Nishimura, and Dr. James Whitman. By Lara's suggestion, and against Whitman's advice, the group begin searching in the Dragon's Triangle, an area infamous for missing ships and violent storms. Compared to the original Lara, this new Lara is much more timid and unsure about herself. While it is implied that Lara has been through some rough things before (like climbing a mountain, mentioned by Conrad Roth), Lara had never needed to kill to survive prior to Yamatai. However, Lara displays perseverance, and while she shows fear at certain points, she never gives up. After her first kill, Lara is emotionally shaken, but quickly adapts to killing, understanding that it is a necessity to survive the island. Lara is also inquisitive and extremely interested in ancient history. Lara can be serious, but smiles a lot, most shown when around Conrad Roth, who she has a daughter/mentor relationship with, and Sam, who is her best friend. Lara wears a gray tank-top, with a white one underneath, cargo pants, and boots. She has brown hair and eyes and tan/white skin. As the game progresses, her clothes began to get soiled and show tears and rips, the upper part of her body is also decorated with scars. She is 5'4(162 cm) tall. Just like her original counterpart, Lara is quite acrobatic, performing wall scrambles to reach higher levels or swinging on cloth banners as if it were a trapeze. As she hardens into a survivor, she can combine her scramble move to attack enemies in their weak spots. Lara also shows resourcefulness, using salvage found around various parts of Yamatai to improve her weapons. Lara has some knowledge of East Asian history and culture, as shown when she could read the scroll inside the hilt of the katana, which is used by the storm guard general to commit seppuku. She could also identify Chinese antiquities from many different dynasties.