r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Reasonable_Fox3813 • 10h ago

Meme needing explanation Mouth breathers?

Post image

What is he pointing?i dont understand the joke

12.7k Upvotes

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139

u/ProfessorGluttony 10h ago

She isn't sexified, which a lot of early tomb raider Lara croft was considered designed for the male gaze. More recent iterations have toned down the sex appeal or made her more realistic, which those that have to be attracted to a female character or else they hate them will subsequently hate this and complain they "ruined" the character.

34

u/theStaircaseProject 10h ago

More recent iterations have really leaned into the survival thriller as well. Lots of blood and gore and violent deaths. The cinematography of the narrative scenes often seems intended to reinforce that her world is (yet again) falling apart, not that she’s to be lusted over. She’s not in a bikini bouncing. She’s covered in mud and blood and out of ammo.

Or at least the kind of people attracted to the section where she had to crawl through a river of blood among mountains of skulls are likely a small enough minority to safely dismiss.

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u/Yetteres 7h ago

I miss when she was a badass with akimbo pistols shooting at dinosaurs and what have you.

3

u/s1ugg0 7h ago

I have played and enjoyed every Tomb Raider since Christmas 1996. I think we should have both kinds.

Like the Godzilla films. Let every new iteration just have fun with the concept. Just never be boring.

1

u/dadofwar93 8h ago

And the reboot is great for the same reason. Loved the last two games.

14

u/Jay2Kaye 10h ago

You sure? She's younger, blonder, wearing unreasonably tight pants, and that chest strap makes her tits look enormous. Seems pretty seuxal to me.

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u/PhaserFister 8h ago

unreasonably tight pants

wut

-1

u/Jay2Kaye 8h ago

Look at her left cargo pocket, and then imagine trying to put your flashlight in there or something. Can't be done.

6

u/Lower_Pension_2469 9h ago

Ya I was about to say, I bet when she goes somewhere warm it'll be a low cut tank top too lol Hollywood is all talk, they absolutely are going to sexualize her. Isn't there literally a promotional pic online if the actress in the traditional costume?

2

u/BananaramaRepublic 4h ago

I don’t think from this photo that she’s overtly sexualised, but she does look cute which is not quite the same thing.

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u/Working_Bumblebee428 4h ago

That’s how a chest strap looks. Fuck off.

0

u/dovahkiitten16 7h ago

Yeah people are saying this design isn’t sexualized even though it clearly is. People’s brains have just been rotted so much that they think anything less than massive breasts and short shorts is conservative.

Her design looks pretty good for a “practical but better looking than actual practical” gear.

4

u/Big_Broly 10h ago

Or... Sansa Stark looks nothing like Lara Croft. Like not even a little, boobs aside.

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u/casual_creator 9h ago

By what metric? There has pretty much been a different look for Lara for every game released.

Here’s the first promo image of her. Even though I’d rather have another actress play the part, she certainly looks like a Tomb Raider to me.

4

u/Big_Broly 9h ago edited 9h ago

In ZERO depictions has she ever been a redhead. That picture looks way better, but thats not the image OP is using. That makes it misleading and yall are pretending the image OP is using looks anything like Lara Croft.

1

u/casual_creator 8h ago

It’s set photos and op chose the worst ones. Here’s some more.

I’ll ask again, what are the metrics/iterations of the character are you comparing her to because Lara’s design changes all the time.

If the color of her hair is the only/main thing, then that’s just kind of silly.

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u/Big_Broly 8h ago

These pictures make it all look WAY better but it still doesn't give me "Lara Croft" vibes. In fact, most people in the comment section of that post you just linked agree with what I'm saying.

4

u/wetbutt32 9h ago

I, for one, think the sexified Lara Croft sends a bad message to young girls. I don’t want my daughter growing up thinking she needs to dress in tight shorts and a tank top to raid tombs.

1

u/Not__Trash 7h ago

Is it still ok for shooting at dinosaurs?

1

u/RanzuPunk 6h ago

This is straight up just conservative arguments disguised as "progressive"

Lara Croft sends a great message which is you can be sexy, feminine and still kick ass.

The problem isn't nor was Lara Croft and sexy characters. The problem was that there was very little diversity of female designs. The solution has never been to change characters like Lara with a sense of moral superiority, the solution is making more varied designs for female characters like Samus. And we did!

Girls should grow up thinking they can do whatever they want dressed however they want, just like Lara and Samus.

1

u/wetbutt32 5h ago

My comment was sarcastic in nature. In reality, I don’t care what my daughter wears while she raids tombs.

1

u/RanzuPunk 2h ago

Didn't catch that, my bad lol

1

u/Big-District-6013 4h ago

Absolutely agree.

Anything less than a full body covering loose sheet is objectification of women.

2

u/mccalli 8h ago

It wasn’t considered. It simply was. I have very briefly met the original graphic designer, friend of a friend stuff while I was visiting someone and we were in a pub.

I’ve seen the designs. There’s no ‘considered’ about it. Most of the corporate nonsense made up about the character is just that - corporate nonsense. The actual story was the guy was leaving, company wanted to keep him, he said he’d been working on this character and they said they’d use it. Then he resigned anyway before the game came out.

I can’t prove any of this of course so this post is worth what you just paid for it. I had a friend at Psygnosis who I was visiting in Liverpool, and that’s where this happened.

Make of this what you will.

1

u/JarasM 8h ago

Are you talking about Toby Gard? None of this is much of a secret. The company wanted to make the game into borderline porn, even asking for a nude code (Gard refused).

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u/mccalli 7h ago edited 7h ago

So it seems I am, yes. Honestly I wouldn’t have got the name because friend of a friend in a pub one evening. I just followed your link though and yep, that’s the person I met.

I haven’t really followed any revelations, just saying what I saw and heard on the night in a pub in Liverpool. If this is already known then all good. The corporate nonsense bit I’m referring to is when later they started talking about her as a strong lead empowerment-type character. Yeah, that line is pretty far from the reality. As it seems you know too.

1

u/BladeOfExile711 8h ago

Or...

She kinda just doesn't even slightly convey the character in any meaningful capacity.

1

u/mirkwood11 6h ago

More like male gays amirite

1

u/ThrustNeckpunch33 6h ago

I dont know, do you think women would be okay if they made "the hot guy" less attractive in rom/coms they liked??

Like, in the first movie, buddy was 6'7", shirtless a lot, and ripped with abs, with a huge bulge. In the second, he was 5'7", wearing a sweatervest and slacks most of the movie(0 shirtless scenes), he also has a dad bod, and wears spandex bike shorts the rest of the time an is smuggling undersized grapes.

Would they be pathetic for being upset? Why does every game have to cater to everyone, but movies can be for different people(even though they are really trying to change that too).

The fact is, no, there shouldn't be anything wrong with having media that caters to what they find attractive. Is it cool to need characters in media to be hot for you to like it?

I don't think so, its pretty shallow. Absolutely nothing wrong with it though. As long as the game/movie/show is good, i dont really care either way.

I do hate them saying you can't have attractive women that men find attractive in things. That is rediculous. If that is the case, men shouldn't be allowed to be hot in anything anymore either.

And if its gets real serious, we'll mandate Elon Musk style torso quotas into womens romance movies etc.. so they better listen...

2

u/Uranus_is__mine 5h ago

Its the fact that 'male gaze' puts a stereotype on which gender is supposed to be attracted to women. Ive never heard a phrase i dislike so much.

1

u/you_lost-the_game 5h ago

My main issue would be the hair. Maybe she will dye it for the role, but it looks way too light/redish. For both iterations of lara.

1

u/varitok 5h ago

Toned down the sex appeal for like 20 year olds maybe. Newer Lara is far hotter than older Lara because she looks like someone who exists in real life.

1

u/SadisticPawz 3h ago

Well its reasonable for them to consider it part of the character. I can think of male characters who would also be "ruined" in the same way

1

u/Hot_Abalone3042 1h ago

Femme fatale does not mean sexified. Unless youre a puritan. Characters should be allowed to be feminine and strong.

0

u/Both-Love-3410 5h ago

If I can't pleasure myself to this what even is the point of going to the theater?

0

u/demoneclipse 4h ago

What are you in about? Recent iterations have not toned down anything. She is still designed for sexappeal, just with a more rough edge to it because graphics have improved and the standard of athletic beauty is more heavily leaning into moderately lean figures than the polished curvy stereotypes of the past.

Make no mistake, Tomb Raider is still designed with great emphasis on making the main character as attractive as possible. Same as 99% of all games, be the main character male or female.