GameStop Proved They Don’t Know Video Games With Their Lara Croft Tweet
Since it’s become something of a ritual on the internet to dunk on live-action adaptations of video games, some might assume that the way to garner media engagement is to just raise a war cry of disapproval whenever a new project comes along.
Well, in the case of Prime Video’s new Tomb Raider series, that strategy might prove counterproductive, as GameStop so helpfully demonstrated recently.
Amazon has just unveiled a first look at Sophie Turner as Lara Croft in the upcoming live-action reboot of the franchise, and the response has been largely positive, if a little guarded. For one thing, they’re at least getting the look right. This new Lara is sporting her teal tank top, tactical harness, and even those iconic cargo pants. They even gave her the signature round glasses, so it’s comforting to know that Amazon is at least trying to rinse off the bad taste left by Alicia Vikander’s subpar Lara in the 2018 film.
But apparently, GameStop looked at this faithful rendition – now being by a British actress, no less – and decided that it’s time to educate the mases as to who Lara Croft is and what she should look like. They didn’t even elaborate on why they decided to die on the weirdest gatekeeping hill imaginable, just dropped a tweet saying “This is not Lara Croft” and let the internet take care of the rest.
Oh! Oh, I get it now. GameStop’s right—this isn’t Lara Croft. Lara Croft is a fictional character who lives inside video games and cannot hurt you. This is Sophie Turner, an actual human being who exists in our dimension, dressed up and pretending to be Lara Croft because that’s how television works. Apologies for the confusion. I know distinguishing between actors and the characters they play can be tricky, but most people figure this out around the time they learn Daniel Radcliffe isn’t actually a wizard.
As you can imagine, the people had thoughts, and not all of them were, uh, kind to the retailer. One user wrote: “Focus on not closing stores right now, bro.”
Maybe GameStop is just confused because Sophie Turner’s outfit doesn’t feature the iconic pyramid chest of the PS1 era.
One person thought this is ironic coming from GameStop, not just because of its apparent lack of gaming knowledge, but also all the controversies it has had to weather over the years. The company’s reputation is not exactly winning them any customer service awards right now.
And what do you know, some users are already talking about DEI, “which Amazon is so prominently known for.” A white British female actress playing Lara Croft gives literally zero excuses to the chronically online, loud minority who are always going after TV shows or movies that they presume to be pushing an agenda. Is the agenda a presupposition at this point? Have we reached levels of insanity that people will just say stuff on the internet just for the sake of saying them?
At this point, this is just purposeful sabotage. The very definition of “nobody asked.” All GameStop had to do, in this particular instance, was literally nothing. Better yet, they could’ve reminisced about Tomb Raider and the history of selling the franchise in their stores. But of course, that kind of content hardly generates any engagement on social media. It certainly doesn’t “rage-bait” people into responding to or sharing your tweet.
At any rate, if you’re reading this GameStop, the next time you want to chime in on a gaming conversation, maybe run it by someone who’s actually played the games first.
(featured image: Amazon Prime Video)
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