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Who Is The Most Important Female Character In Video Game History?

Estimated Read Time:  1 Minute 53 Seconds


During 1996, arguably one of the best years in gaming history, many games and characters made their way to our television and computer screens.

The Sony Playstation PC gaming in 1996sega saturn 1996
Some of these games and characters carved out extraordinary legacies within the gaming world and one of them should be considered the most important female character of all time. 
Lara Croft Tomb Raider

Who Is The Most Important Female Character In Gaming History?

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, was a gaming and cultural phenomenon during the late 1990s and early 2000s. This kick-ass character encouraged many young female gamers to try the medium and a lot of these female gamers have stuck around for the long haul.

Check out the next comic or gaming convention near you and it can be guaranteed that there will be at least one Lara Croft in the crowd. No other female character in gaming has been as popular with females for longer.

Is Lara Croft Just A Sex Symbol?

Although many observers may argue that her appearance as a sex symbol disqualifies her as a feminist icon, this is simply untrue.

Due to technological limitations of the time, hair and other features were not as readily customizable within the characters we see today in video games. These limitations led the developers to emphasize some of the more 'feminine' features of Croft in order to portray their idea of femininity. The practice of adding features that stretch the norm is no different to the practice of adding muscles, chiselled jawlines, or other features to hyper-masculine characters within video games. The video game world of the original Tomb Raider in 1996 is nothing like the in-depth games that are full of customization that we see today.

The Legacy of Lara Croft And Tomb Raider

Lara Croft threw off the shackles of a damsel in distress waiting for a muscle-bound hero to save her. In turn, this character has created a legacy of 17 video games and two movies starring Angelina Jolie as well as a March 2018 reboot. 

Lara Croft
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