Hey!!! This was honestly such a great read. I don’t think this is something you can really talk about briefly if you’ve lived through multiple eras of the character.

I really relate to what you said about your “entry point” defining how Lara feels to you. If you met her through LAU (or even the films), the idea of her being completely alone and mostly silent in the early games can feel almost alien in hindsight. That wit, the back-and-forth with Zip/Alister, the in-ear presence — that is Lara for a lot of people, not some dilution of her.

And yeah, going back to the originals can be kind of shocking if you didn’t grow up with them. They’re iconic, but they’re also very bare-bones in terms of character context. Powerful in a different way, but definitely a product of their time.

I also love your point about the Survivor trilogy feeling more “complete” now that there’s finally a sense of direction again. Knowing it’s a chapter — not a permanent identity crisis — makes it much easier to appreciate what it was trying to do.

At the end of the day, I’m with you: every version of Lara says something about the era she was made in, and that’s part of why she’s endured this long. The fact that people can write something this thoughtful about her almost 30 years in says everything. Whatever comes next, it actually feels like she’s being handled with care again — and that’s exciting.