The argument of "If anyone else did x/y/z you'd also react this way" doesn't work for me because the whole point of Lara Croft is that she isn't just anyone. I understand the reboot tried to make her more grounded/relatable/boring, but they went too far imo. Lara Croft is supposed to be a power fantasy. Lara also caused a lot of **** in TR4 yet she still remained calm, collected and sorted it out herself.

You'd think with after all the trauma she'd been through in the first two games, that Lara would be emotionless to that stuff now. People died on Yamatai because of her leading them there, she caused that but she's somehow okay with that in Rise.

I think a more interesting way to write it would be her being dismissive and emotionless and have that be juxtaposed with Jonah being compassionate and resentful towards Lara. And this would be a source of conflict that she deals with throughout the game. That could've been the "morally grey" point too.

The whole point is that people dying wasn't her fault. They were looking for Yamatai which neither Richard not Whitman, both experienced archaeologists, were able to find yet Lara pinpointed its location and actually got them where they were going in the first place.

Grim chose to put up a fight, Roth chose to sacrifice himself for Lara and Alex chose to play the hero to impress Lara.

They all made their own choices and Lara literally led them were they all willingly set out to go to anyway.

I agree. Lara is fundamentally a larger-than-life cartoony power fantasy type of character, who is morally grey and actually a bit of selfish asshole, a glorified treasure hunter.

I do understand why they've tried to make her so grounded and realistic, that's just the direction the gaming industry has moved in and they're following trends to stay relevant. It does come at the cost of Tomb Raider's brand identity though.

The argument with CLara didn’t do this and CLara didn’t feel that type of way doesn’t work with me either. The two studios are writing from a completely different perspective.

Yes in Tomb Raider 4 Lara nearly caused an apocalypse and she had to stop it but the difference is core based the storyline on the apocalypse not Lara herself, Lara was more of an avatar that we used to go through the adventure. Sure, Lara had a little backstory with TR4 showing us her as a teen with Von Croy but that was it.

Fast forward to Shadow; the writing in the reboot era focuses more on Lara and her as a character. What she thinks, what she feels, how she reacts and that’s what the game(s) are based on. So yes, Lara goes through all these emotions and we’re witnessing it, we’re witnessing her breakdown but we’re also witnessing her overcoming these and pushing through.

Core focuses on Tomb Raiding and using Lara to do it; Crystal are focusing on Lara and using tombs/disasters to do that. I wish they would stop, I wish they would focus more on the raiding, myths and the artefacts but unfortunately they aren’t.

Jay Walker was too cocky with that tweet talking about how he's only been seeing positive things :x

I agree. Mostly I've been seeing negative comments and reactions so now what

I don't believe it's even about how she reacts per say, it's more about the fact the developers choose to put her in these situations. Some people talk about these things happening as if there's no choice - "oh, but there was a tsunami and people died, of course she'd be upset, wouldn't you?" - no, it's not real life and the developers literally created that tsunami with their hands. They chose to put her in that situation, they chose her to be the "cause" of it, just like they chose to make the story all about her parents, just like they chose to create Paititi. You name it, they did it. They're making a game and they're very deliberately making these scenarios for a distinct purpose.

How about it's not the end of the world? How about Lara doesn't need to save a civilisation and collect dice for them? How about Lara just goes on a treasure hunt because she wants to? That doesn't mean there can't be well written characters and depth in the writing, but not everything needs to be "DRAMATIC!". Don't they realize by putting Lara in these over the top setpieces that it does the opposite of what they set out to achieve? It's clear that no-one finds it relatable anymore, they just find it exhausting. Tone it down for the next game, that's all I'm asking for.

Let’s tag him in negative tweets to put him in his place

I think he's actually coming across them himself along with the team. Hopefully the learn something out of this.


He's a great dude but c'mon...who thought of a mobile game?