"The Legend of Lara Croft" Controversy / Muscular Lara Croft Controversy

Overview

The Legend of Lara Croft Controversy, also known as the Muscular Lara Croft Controversy, refers to a viral controversy surrounding the design of the Tomb Raider character Lara Croft in the 2024 animated series The Legend of Lara Croft produced by Netflix. The character's muscular and bulkier body design received criticism, discourse and attacks on social media in October 2024 from those who felt it was more masculine than earlier depictions, especially on X / Twitter, where some users posted redraws and memes of Lara Croft with larger breasts or hyper-feminine features to mock people who criticized her design.

Background

On October 10th, 2024, X^[1] user @LaraCrxft posted a still image from Netflix's The Legend of Lara Croft animated series showing the main character Lara Croft standing in front of a cave. The tweet (seen below) amassed over 12,000 likes and 2,600 reposts in six days.

Shortly after @LaraCrxft's tweet went viral, a few netizens started to comment on Lara Croft's muscular body and what they perceived as an over-masculine design, which prompted X^[2] user @larasbians to reply to the image criticizing people who commented that the character "looks like a man," amassing over 184,000 likes and 6,700 reposts since it was posted on October 12th.

Also on October 12th, X^[3] user @Skippy_Tielle uploaded a Red Circle Perpetrators version of Lara Croft's image (seen below), indicating the places in which they felt the character looks like a man or has masculine features. The post received over 23 million views and 5,800 reposts in four days.

Online Reactions

Criticism about Lara Croft's muscular body design in The Legend of Lara Croft TV series grew as a prevalent topic on X over the next few days of mid-October 2024, inspiring memes, jokes and redraws of the character with exaggerated feminine features to mock those who disliked the redesign.

For example, on October 13th, 2024, X^[4] user @PossumzBoy posted a photoshopped version of the still image in which Croft has larger breasts (seen below) as a reply to @Skippy_Tielle's tweet, captioning it, "you're so right actually! no one could ever love a masculine woman !! here's your ideal type❤️." The post amassed more than 6 million views and 175,000 likes in three days.

On October 14th, 2024, X^[5] user @TheNCSmaster also replied to @Skippy_Tielle's tweet, posting a meme about their love for muscular women, writing, "Muscular women are beautiful, you guys are just cowards." The tweet received over 8 million views and 217,000 likes in two days.

Numerous posts discussing Lara Croft's design and various elements of the animated series, such as Croft being a lesbian, also appeared on Reddit in mid-October 2024.

For example, a post to the /r/KotakuInAction^[6] subreddit on October 13th criticizing Croft's design and the people in charge of the Tomb Raider franchise received over 1,300 upvotes and 210 comments in three days. Also on October 13th, a post to the /r/Asmongold ^[7] subreddit titled "Another one bites the dust" in which the Redditor Svenl7 voiced their displeasure with the show's changes to the character received over 1,600 upvotes and 400 comments in a similar timeframe.

On October 14th, Redditor Zestyclose_Station65 then posted a Red Circle Perpetrators meme to the /r/Gamingcirclejerk^[8] subreddit saying, "I Investigated Lara Croft and the Results are Shocking," which mocked the critics of the design and garnered over 3,100 upvotes and 90 comments in two days (seen below).

On October 15th, 2024, YouTuber The Critical Drinker uploaded a video titled "Netflix Tomb Raider Is A Hilarious Nightmare" discussing The Legend of Lara Croft and the backlash, calling it, "It's Lara Croft for people who hate Lara Croft." The video (shown below), received over 991,200 views, 73,000 likes and 7,200 comments in 22 hours.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References