If not, then the Rule 34 point is a canard put out in bad faith. Nobody is arguing that something can’t be turned into fap fuel. There IS a debate about the level of objectification going on in this iteration of Tomb Raider. If one wants to argue it isn’t sexually objectifying the protagonist, the question becomes one of how you know when it happens. The evidence has been put forward that many people believe that it DOES, in fact, do that - those people in those videos, for some. My point is that it’s not “cherry picking” to consider that objectification - many other people consider 2013’s Lara Croft to be a sexual object. The open question is how the game encourages its audience to do that.
For that, I’d turn any legitimately curious minds to the Male Gaze, and visual design in general, including film and art studies. What does the composer of this scene WANT us to look at? What’s well lit? What’s in motion? What’s in the middle of the screen, or right along the angle of eyesight?
For instance, if you follow the line of sunlight on the title screen on the last video, it illuminates Lara’s waistline. She’s standing with her body swaying to the right, so that her ass (and the elbow, to some degree) is the final thing your eyes rest on. The visual language here says “this is important: her butt.”
