Was Sophia the true main villain of Tomb Raider 3? Fan Theory

[The13thElysium]

Hello everyone!

This is my very first post on this forum so please forgive me if it's in the wrong place!

I go by The13thElysium on Youtube and Twitter, and have been a huge Tomb Raider fan for many years! Tomb Raider 3 is my favourite and I have been working on this little theory for a while and wanted to share with the TR community!

Was Sophia Leigh the true main villain of Tomb Raider 3?

I have linked the theory to my tumblr (under Vampire-Moon) if anyone is interested! Please share your thoughts with me on this thread! I can post the entire theory on here too if people like!

https://vampire-moon.tumblr.com/post...illain-of-tomb

[Frceghst8]

The Sophia character was a support role only. The main villian is Willard who turns into a spider beast with a human head.

[Topixtor]

Well that was a surprisingly interesting read. While It's probably more of a stretch than an actual thing the developers intended, it comes out as full headcanon for me, from now on

[The13thElysium]

Originally Posted by Topixtor

Well that was a surprisingly interesting read. While It's probably more of a stretch than an actual thing the developers intended, it comes out as full headcanon for me, from now on

Ah thank you! Yes I was definitely reading between the lines and reaching a bit, but it does make some sort of sense! XD

[Kirishima]

Originally Posted by Frceghst8

The Sophia character was a support role only. The main villian is Willard who turns into a spider beast with a human head.

This. Even if you take into account TLA, Sophia and her faction were presented as only a competing side faction at the end of the day. As for her awareness of Lara during the London episode, too many things could be said about that but it would all end up being nothing more than speculation. My own headcannon is that she simply that she had planted confidants in Willard's company (and him the same)... Or another could be Lara is a clone of Sophia, with whom she has a one-way psychic connection allowing for mind reading and that her later resurrection is by the grace of some evil god. Totally not a silly reference I just tossed in for fun, oh no.

[laracroftswest]

Really cool interpretation. While I’m not sure Core thought this in-depth, I liked how you theorized how she likely didn’t succumb to the power of the artifact compared to the others, certainly made the prolonged immortality argument compelling. My only question is, where does this fit in with how we see Element 115? Since it was still somewhat near people for all extended period of time, how come nobody tried to abuse its power?

[HarleyCroft]

That fan theory is a thing of beauty Clicks together perfectly and I loved reading it
Thanks for sharing

[The13thElysium]

Originally Posted by laracroftswest

Really cool interpretation. While I’m not sure Core thought this in-depth, I liked how you theorized how she likely didn’t succumb to the power of the artifact compared to the others, certainly made the prolonged immortality argument compelling. My only question is, where does this fit in with how we see Element 115? Since it was still somewhat near people for all extended period of time, how come nobody tried to abuse its power?

Thank you! Yes I'm unsure about Element 115 too! Perhaps because it was contained in the space ship? Maybe Area 51 didn't even know what was inside it? :O

[Kirishima]

I don't know if it was still the idea for the final game, but an early script stated that the artifact was being used for gravity manipulation experiments that would've probably had an affect ingame. That obviously didn't make it into the final as well as where it was initially supposed to be collected from.

[.snake.]

I think this is a really brilliant fan-theory The13thEylsium, and I'm surprised it doesn't have more traction, or more people interested.

I would say Sophia is the true main villain of TR3, perhaps not by intention but more so by accident - in the way that she has the last laugh and survives longer than Willard does.

The Lost Artifact's story is of course a bit of a 'retcon-ing' of TR3's ending, since both Sophia and Willard blow up in TR3 when Lara kills them (just like Tony and Puna). TLA's story intro text tells us that the human Willard crawls up out of the crater after Lara, which allows her to find his wallet (so he didn't really explode) and then of course, Sophia makes her return as well, so we know that her explosion at the end of London also meant nothing.

This of course begs the question: did Tony's and Puna's explosions also mean nothing? But for the sake of argument let's just ignore those two).

Perhaps they explode, but then somehow rematerialize again? Maybe they only die due to Lara's gunfire, and Sophia is the only one not shot-to-death by Lara in TR3, but electrocuted. Sophia only get's shot to death later on in TLA's Reunion, meaning this must be her real demise.

Either way, Sophia must've somehow worked out a better and more stable formula of the meteorite's powers than Willard did (even though he used all 4 in a fancy ritual chamber at that) since he still died, even after reverting back to human form, but Sophia somehow continued on. It must be due to her age, as you mentioned. She's been around since the 1800s we can assume, and so probably had more time to work with the meteorite artefact she got in London, as opposed to Willard who started his work in the 90s.

Another interesting piece of information that is often overlooked is: People tend to see Willard as the one in charge of RX-Tech, and that all the guys there are working for him. Yes, maybe he is the lead-scientist on the team. But he's definitely not the boss at the top. The clue for that is given in the opening FMV (text transcript taken from Tomb Raider Traveler's Guide)

Doctor Willard's Scottish accent grows thicker as he shouts into the radio, "I've been yellin' myself hoarse into this radio everyday. It's just the weather dumps on us frequently here." He attempts to block out the noise of the drilling with his free hand and steps into a shelter. "An' maybe my transmission doesn't get through. I don't know," he gripes.

A voice with an American accent harps back through the radio's heavy static, "I can't understand one word of what you say, Willard."

Willard sighs with annoyed resignation. Loudly and snidely, he carefully pronounces, "It's all going swell, sir!" Just then, a loud boom can be heard coming from outside. Willard cuts off his transmission.

The 'sir' clearly implies that Willard is working for someone - but who? Clearly there is some sort of shadowy presence bigger than Willard and behind the entire RX-Tech operation. Willard obviously went rouge at one point and started doing the experiments for his own purposes, but it's clear he isn't the one funding all this. So perhaps SLinc is actually the enterprise behind RX-Tech? Or perhaps there is someone bigger than both Sophia and Willard behind all this?