You’d have to have been living under a rock not to notice that, for a while now, video games really, really love to include a dad/son relationship at the core of their stories. You wouldn’t be the only one to notice either because Tomb Raider writer, Rhianna Pratchett, has realized it too.
Rhianna Pratchett is an accomplished writer in the video game industry, having worked on Mirror’s Edge, the Overlord series and Heavenly Sword. Her most notable work, however, is that of Tomb Raider, a game series that she has every right to be proud of. Her work on the series has depicted Lara Croft in an arguably more realistic take on the video game protagonist we love, allowing us to see her grow from a young, naive woman into the tomb raider we know she becomes.
Pratchett is so fond of Lara, she mentioned during an interview with GameSpot that she would love the possibility of seeing her become a mother in the future. She believes it would be an interesting take on Lara, as well as showing a depiction of not just a maternal woman, but someone much older than the young woman we’ve already played as.
“We’ve had a lot of what gets called the ‘dad-ification’ of games. You don’t really see moms in games, especially not kick-ass moms in games.” Pratchett told GameSpot. “[Lara Croft as a mom is] one of the things that I thought could be one interesting avenue to explore.”
Regardless of whether you agree with Pratchett or not, it cannot be denied that playing an older woman who also kicks ass would be a lot of fun. And while some may feel as though Pratchett is ‘talking down’ to God of War, Yakuza and many other games that have a dad/son relationship, it doesn’t truly seem to be the case.
Pratchett only conveys a wish to see more moms, as well as older ladies in general, in video games. We don’t see much wrong in wanting that. Click here to see the full interview for yourself.
