Tomb Raider: A Survivor is Born is Basically The Tempest if Prospero was Evil
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 3:46 am
Obviously I've had the first Survivor Timeline of Tomb Raider on the brain lately but something I just noticed is that the overall plot of characters of the game is basically a dark reflection of William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Think about it, a group of people are trapped on a island after a storm created by a Sorcerer force them on the island. On the island those who have been shipped wrecked find themselves running into supernatural events that cannot be explained, with one of the people being chosen by those who created the storm for their own purposes.
There's also a point one one of those who have been ship wrecked plans to betray his allies for his own selfish gain and a bit of homoerotic subtext between two of the main characters.
And in terms of the characters, Mathias is Prospero, Himiko is Ariel, Sam as Miranda, Whitmen as Sebastian, the Solarii and the Storm Guard as Caliban, Stephano as Jonah and so on.
The obvious difference is that the characters who fill the roles of Prospero and Ariel are irredeemable monsters and those they've stranded are the heroes of the story.
I've no idea if this was the intention of Rhianna Pratchett but it's interesting never the less. Like noticing that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is basically an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, it might not be the intention of the writer that this was the case but it's hard to unsee it after you notice it.
There are, of course, other obvious differences like I really don't think that Lara has any sort of counterpart in The Tempest, Himiko is clearly the one calling the shots instead of Mathias and the Solarii and the Storm Guard have no real plan to overthrow and kill their masters.
But again it's just so fascinating to think about.
Think about it, a group of people are trapped on a island after a storm created by a Sorcerer force them on the island. On the island those who have been shipped wrecked find themselves running into supernatural events that cannot be explained, with one of the people being chosen by those who created the storm for their own purposes.
There's also a point one one of those who have been ship wrecked plans to betray his allies for his own selfish gain and a bit of homoerotic subtext between two of the main characters.
And in terms of the characters, Mathias is Prospero, Himiko is Ariel, Sam as Miranda, Whitmen as Sebastian, the Solarii and the Storm Guard as Caliban, Stephano as Jonah and so on.
The obvious difference is that the characters who fill the roles of Prospero and Ariel are irredeemable monsters and those they've stranded are the heroes of the story.
I've no idea if this was the intention of Rhianna Pratchett but it's interesting never the less. Like noticing that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is basically an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, it might not be the intention of the writer that this was the case but it's hard to unsee it after you notice it.
There are, of course, other obvious differences like I really don't think that Lara has any sort of counterpart in The Tempest, Himiko is clearly the one calling the shots instead of Mathias and the Solarii and the Storm Guard have no real plan to overthrow and kill their masters.
But again it's just so fascinating to think about.