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Old 29-04-20, 17:21   #11
CheshireBitch
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Can't see the OG post but it would have been great if it was obvious that they hate each other but still has to work together. And maybe have some drama like they help each other and then Lara knock him out to get the prize. Like obviously not that cartoony but something like that
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Old 29-04-20, 19:17   #12
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I mean...he groped her a bit in the Louvre and then got stabbed by a mutated plastic surgeon. Not the best relationship out there, but hey.
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Old 29-04-20, 21:25   #13
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whats with that random drama in the OP lmao
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Old 29-04-20, 21:27   #14
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Originally Posted by UroshUchiha View Post
I didn't get to read the OG post before it was removed. But still. Kurtis, ew. Never liked him xD
Agreed. Kurtis is the worst thing that ever happened to TR. He acts like a freak in the Louvre scene...
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Wait what? Do I need a better reason than "because I can and I wanted to leave my opinion about Kurtis"?
Ikr?
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Originally Posted by Caesum View Post
whats with that random drama in the OP lmao
Agreed too...

Last edited by Tomb Raidering; 29-04-20 at 21:29.
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Old 29-04-20, 23:01   #15
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Let's be honest, Kurtis got such a small amount of screentime that it's kind of difficult to judge his character based on what we got. And some of us were more interested in telekinetic powers than his personality. 2003 was a different era for gaming.

He has only 3 scenes with Lara, The initial meeting at the Louvre, the Bio-dome, and the Boaz boss battle. Their scenes work well in fan music videos and such, but there is nothing to indicate that there is a relationship in AOD. They are both quite judgmental towards one another. "Name's Kurtis" "Lara, and this is business!"| "So you seek vengeance" triggered Kurtis:" JUSTICE!"
Even during the Boaz boss battle, the emasculated Kurtis pushes Lara away when she tried to help.

Kurtis pretty much served the same purpose as Janice, Carvier or Bouchard. He revealed the plot, and how the Nephilim can be killed, then disappeared.
I don't mind him.
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Old 29-04-20, 23:33   #16
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@LateRaider willing to put back the original OP? Some of us do enjoy genuine discussion, although it can be easy to forget around here!
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Old 30-04-20, 09:02   #17
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thanks for the interest i guess. sorry i freaked out, im just so tired of everything i try to do to encourage conversation on this forum ending up **** on

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***BIG EDIT*** - OK, so I feel like I need to make something clear here. I do not ship Lara x Kurtis, I've never shipped Lara x Kurtis, and I don't think that they have any chemistry. That's why I made this thread. Supposedly there was going to be a romantic aspect, but there's so little evidence in-game.

I feel like 90% of the responses to my thread are reactionary "Oh ew, another Lartis shipper!" types of replies who didn't even read the post (Those of you who weren't able to read it after I deleted it when I was upset are forgiven, of course), when I'm trying to generate conversation on how their relationship could be improved to be less antagonistic. Maybe I just "don't understand Lara," but I see absolutely no chemistry in a relationship where a man feels up a woman and steals from her, and then a woman feels up a man and threatens to kill him.

I guess the purpose of this thread is:

1. What do you think of this suggestion? Is it better than what's in game? I know it's very long but I'd appreciate if you skimmed it, at least.

2. What would your thoughts be on how to improve Kurtis, other than removing him? (I'm personally a big fan of the "gay best friend" angle. Surely there's some grunge-loving punk out there who'd fall for Kurtis' baby blues! )

Please note that it's absolutely fine if you personally ship Lartis and love Kurtis as he is now. Your views are valid and this thread isn't intended to disrespect them. However, I feel like Core didn't give him a good treatment, hence the post.

------

So, according to some stuff Murti Schofield (Lead writer for TR:AoD) once said, Kurtis and Lara were maybe gonna have a romantic aspect to them. The ship is even pretty popular, and it seems to be canon in at least one arc of the Top Cow comics.

But honestly, in-game I don't see it. Kurtis gropes Lara in the Louvre, he locks her in the Bio-Dome, she grabs his ass in the Strahov. It's honestly antagonistic. The most "romantic" thing that happens is lara goes off looking for him because the Chirugai springs to life, implying Kurtis isn't dead because he summoned it back to him, and Lara smiles. That's really it: "I'm glad you weren't made up by Karel and that you're still alive." It seems they'd be more like business partners than romantic partners.

So, I had some ideas to try and increase chemistry while reducing the creep factor. Just in some simple or subtle ways.


- Lara would encounter Kurtis in Paris whether you choose Bernard's route or Pierre's.


- Meeting Kurtis on Bernard's route: Kurtis bumps into lara as she's leaving the park. He'd say, "Hey gorgeous, watch where you're going." Lara would snipe back, "Mind your manners, or you'll find my looks don't match my attitude." The argument would go on for another line or two before Lara scoffs that she doesn't have time for this and leaves.


- Meeting Kurtis on Pierre's route: Instead of entering to find Kurtis already a customer of Café Metro, he would push past Lara to the counter and ask for a coffee with cream. (Just to give him a subtle quirk beyond "stereotypical bad boy.") Lara gets huffy and tosses a sarcastic jab. But Kurtis smirks and says, "Sorry, but it's paying customers only. Unless you're buying, get to the back of the line." Lara furrows her brow and leaves.


- Either way, outside of the area Lara would find 2 custom magazines for the Boran X with the Lux Veritatis symbol on them; these fell out of Kurtis' pouch, but we don't need to be shown this. She realizes there's something special about them, since the symbol has Roman influence, and it doesn't look like any gun manufacturer symbol she's ever seen. She stores them away (And they become a key item.) and the game continues as usual.


- At Galleries Under Siege: Kurtis would reach out from the shadows and put Lara in a firm but painless headlock. We wouldn't see who grabbed her and the camera would be angled to assume it's a soldier. He still shushes her, because they'd both end up dead if the Cabal's men found them, and Lara is disarmed. Then Kurtis unlatches her backpack. In a swift move, he pushes her forward while yanking free the Obscura Painting. Lara turns to face him in a melee fighting stance, and is shocked that it's the man from earlier; what role does he have to play in this? The scene resumes as normal with the chase and Lara being knocked out by Karel.


- At the Bio-Dome: This would have the biggest changes. Rather than Kurtis locking Lara in, he'd free her and step in. Kurtis would say, "Fancy seeing you here. Name's Kurtis." Lara, realizing she's cornered, would respond, "Lara," then pull her pistols on him and continue, "Now toss down that disc and put your hands in the air." He complies. The following in-game lines would play:


Lara: You owe me a Painting.

Kurtis: Sorry. That went AWOL at the Louvre.


Here, there would an altered/abbreviated version of the "weapons drawn, walk round and round" part of their information exchange, still allowing us to see the Chirugai spring to life via Kurtis' powers. The cutscene would continue.


Lara: What brings you here from Paris?

Kurtis: Eckhardt! We have business that only one of us will walk away from. You?

Lara: Personal reasons.


In addition to her last line, lara would ask "Just who is Eckhardt? I've heard so much yet know so little." The in-game lines would resume:


Kurtis: Eckhardt plans to use all five Obscura Paintings to revive an ancient evil called the Sleeper, and rebreed the Nephilim race. To do that, he collects alchemically transmuted elements from his murder victims' bodies.

Lara: I've seen him at work as the Monstrum - ugh, with that Glove.


Here she holsters her pistols, and Kurtis calls back the Chirugai. At this point, Lara would ask him how he found this place. Kurtis would reply, "I'd been tracking Eckhardt's movements, trying to gather whatever info I could. I'd finally I pinned the Strahov as his stronghold. So I made my way in through a service shaft, only to find that the power was off--Ms. Croft."

At this point it would segue into the Sanitarium and Maximum Containment Area levels, played as flashbacks.

In the present, the conversation would resume. (Perhaps by this point, they've stepped out of the doorway and into the next room.) A slight tweak to Kurtis' line: "Eckhardt is the original Black Alchemist. The Proto-Nephilim nearly got the best of me and it wasn't even made with the power of the Obscura Paintings. Now he's close to finding the last one."


Lara: Does he know where it is?

Kurtis: Yes. It's hidden in a Lux Veritatis vault beneath the Strahov. That Paintings must be destroyed.


Another tweak to one of Kurtis' lines. At the end of that previous sentence, he would add, "But there's a problem; to do that, I need an artifact that's gone missing on me." Lara would then reveal the Periapt Shard she picked up at the Louvre, and ask, "This?" A few lines that were cut earlier would go here.


Kurtis: My Periapt Shard! You...

Lara: ...picked it up in the Louvre, yes. After you stole MY Painting.


Adding onto lara's line, she'd go on to say, "But this is one of three."


The scene, at this point, would resume as usual, starting from Kurtis' line, "Eckhardt has the last one. If all three Shards are united, [...]". The only addition from here would be that I would add Kurtis gently touching the small of Lara's back after she grabs his chin, causing her to cock her head and give a small smile in return. This would contrast to the harsh ways he grabbed her earlier.


- Before Boaz Returns, after Kurtis tosses the Periapt Shards to Lara, she tosses back the missing Boran X magazines at him (12 bullets total). This would firmly establish their bond of trust, setting foundation for a potential larger relationship. Loading the Boran X with these destroys each of Plant Boaz's pods in one shot, and paralyzes Insect Boaz to be finished off with a melee combo.


- The rest of the story plays as normal.

Last edited by LateRaider; 03-05-20 at 06:15.
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Old 03-05-20, 05:38   #18
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Kurtis felt as much a romantic intrest to Lara as Larson, Jean Yves, Zip or Jonah ever did; none at all.

I think he was meant to represent the average 00s gamer that would die to get close to Lara.

They don't even have as much chemistry as people claim, she has much more chemistry with Larson in Anniversary for example.

I'm not sure I'd care for a deeper romantic connection between them to be explored but I would sure have liked for them to have some more interactions in the game though. Maybe then he wouldn't feel like "that random dude that felt up Lara and then you play as him for a minute for some reason" type of character.
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Old 03-05-20, 05:51   #19
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Kurtis felt as much a romantic intrest to Lara as Larson, Jean Yves, Zip or Jonah ever did; none at all.

I think he was meant to represent the average 00s gamer that would die to get close to Lara.

They don't even have as much chemistry as people claim, she has much more chemistry with Larson in Anniversary for example.

I'm not sure I'd care for a deeper romantic connection between them to be explored but I would sure have liked for them to have some more interactions in the game though. Maybe then he wouldn't feel like "that random dude that felt up Lara and then you play as him for a minute for some reason" type of character.
i have almost the exact same thoughts. i also hate the two grabby scenes involving him and lara. he feels up her midriff and hips disarming her pistols, she feels up his lower back and ass disarming his chirugai. they're both creepy/disgusting and not romantic. that's why in my proposition for making them have a little bit of chemistry, i removed those scenes.
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Old 03-05-20, 06:01   #20
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i have almost the exact same thoughts. i also hate the two grabby scenes involving him and lara. he feels up her midriff and hips disarming her pistols, she feels up his lower back and ass disarming his chirugai. they're both creepy/disgusting and not romantic. that's why in my proposition for making them have a little bit of chemistry, i removed those scenes.
Yes exactly, removing those is the first step.

I like how they did Carter Bell in Temple of Osiris. He's kind of a rival too Lara but they begrudgingly decide to work together. Kurtis and Lara are something similar in my head but the groping scenes make it too confusing (and creepy) xD
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