Lara Croft

Lara Croft is the protagonist of Tomb Raider video game series. She is usually seen as a sex symbol and is generally recognized as the most successful video game heroine. Lara is usually compared to Indiana Jones, due to her archaological adventures. She is of noble birth, a archaelogist and she frequently ventures into ancient places; tombs, ruins and hazardous places. Lara always encounters enemies, rivals, gangsters, supernatural beings, creatures of legends and such that always try to stop her; she sometimes encounters fierce animals. She is usually seen as the counterpart of Indiana Jones, but of opposite gender. Up to this day she and the Tomb Raider series celebrate their ten-year anniversary of success.

BackStory
Lara Croft in fact has two backstories, the first is between the first six games of Lara, while the second one was introducted for the "reinvention" of Tomb Raider: Legend. The first continuity presents that Lara Croft was raised as an aristocrat; rich and luxurious.back at the age of 16, Lara accompained a famous archaelogist Werner Von Croy on an expedition to Cambodia. These events fostered Lara's interests in ancient civilizations and artifacts. At age 21 she was the only one that managed to survive an air plane crash that landed in the Himalayas. She had only her wits to rely on, in order to survive the jungle. It was after this that Lara was inspired to change her life of comformity to a life of adventures and traveling alone around the world; Lara's family disagreed and disowned her for that.

In her second backstory, which is quite different; Lara bearly nine years old survived a plane crash in the Himalayas that led to the disappearance of Amelia Croft (Lara's mother). Amelia was presumed dead, but Lara somehow managed to survive a ten day journer to Kathmandu a place where she was able to contact her father, Richard Croft. After being reunited with her father Lara spent her remaining childhood under her father's strict care. Richard Croft was a archelogist and always allowed Lara to accompany him of his archaological expeditions; the expeditions were conducted to discover what really happened to Amelia Croft. Unfortunately her father died when she was eighteen years old; Lara inherited the estates and became the Countess of Abbingdon. Lara is torn apart and decides to venture out in order to learn the truth about her parents' deaths.

Personality
Lara Croft is depicted as a very confident, headstrong, and independent woman. She is very brave; she rarely ever shows any sigs of fear in perilious situations. Yet there are a few significant differences between both of her backstories. In the first one she is portrayed as a coldblooded, enigmatic, and sardonic woman. When she killed her enemies she never showed any emotional remorse. However in her second backstory she is a respectful person, shows more emotion, and is lighthearted. In the Anniversary game, in her first human kill, Lara is very disturbed of how far her obsession took her. She also expresses sadness during flashbacks in which she witnesses deaths of friends. These drastic changes are due to her higher interaction with people of her past and her assistants, as well as some complaints that she is too coldblooded and bloodthirsty, her killing of wildlife animals also lead to a big controversy.

Other
Lara Croft has been made into a movie series in which the actress Angelina Jolie plays as Lara Croft. Interstingly Lara Croft also has her own animated series; Minnie Driver is Lara's voice actress. There have also been many models portrayed as Lara Croft for public appearances and promotions. Another fact is that Lara Croft has had several voice actresses for her video games. These are:


 * Shelley Blond (Tomb Raider)
 * Judith Gibbins (Tomb Raider 2, 3)
 * Jonell Elliott (Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Chronicles, The Angel of Darkness)
 * Keeley Hawes (Tomb Raider: Legend, Anniversary, Underworld)