Should Natla be a Vampire?

[Winter]

With Halloween just around the corner and my recent obsession with TR thanks to Sam FINALLY returning to the series (only took them 11 years) I want to talk about something a little weird as a result of my odd ball thinking. Something I noticed was the hint of who the main antagonist of the second season of The Legend of Lara Croft might, that being Lara's long time adversary Natla.

The villain of the series is described, briefly, as A Dangerous and enigmatic billionaire who is seeking the MacGuffin of the week (a number of African Orisha Masks with divine power). Now to explain the reason for the title and this odd thought I have to explain how I arrived to this thought. As many if not all of you are aware, I'm kind of obsessed with the character of Sam Nishimura and have been one of the most vocal fans of wanting her return (don't worry I've always been civil and polite about it). So naturally when the ending of the first season of the show made it clear that Sam would be returning I over analyzed the shit out of the ending of the first season.

And one thing that I noticed was the name of on the piece of paper that Lara takes off of Sam's investigation board of someone tied to or the head of the Crime Family/Syndicate that Sam was investigating. The name was Vladimir, which of course made me think of Vlad the Impaler which in turn made me think of Dracula and before I knew it I wanted a story where Lara and Sam fight Vampires.

Now when I saw the summery of the new season which might be hinting at Lara's oldest adversary I looked up the character again. As I mentioned in my post on which characters I think will always likely go on to be a major part of Tomb Raider's lore and mythos I don't see Natla as all that interesting. The Legend continuity tried to do more with her by having be the one who killed Lara's father and turned Lara's mother into a thrall (I think it's been a while since I watched the game) but I'm sorry I didn't find her all that interesting I find her boring.

But what is most notable about Natla is that she's actually an Atlantean, yeah in both continuities she's from Atlantis, one of its rulers in fact. Now as you all know Atlantis is a kingdom that often gets screwed over by the hubris of those ruling it and while the exact details of it are changed story to story the ultimate faith of Atlantis is the same, in a single day and night of misfortune the Island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea.

Now given that this is the second reboot of the series changes to the lore are unavoidable so here's a idea of the sill variety what if Natla was a Vampire and that played a major in the downfall of Atlantis. So picture this, at some point Natla came into contract with a Vampire who turned her into a Vamp which granted her enteral life, enhanced strength, speed, transformation you get the gist of it.

Now if I was writing this I would make this more like the Vampires of Witcher just nerfed to a degree. They're not vulnerable to sunlight, garlic, don't need permission to enter someone's home but are mostly nocturnal and do drink blood but they have fewer weaknesses to draw upon. They can die it just takes a great deal of effort to put one down.

Natla would be the TR equivalent of a Higher Vampire and like Dettlaff from Witcher 3 Blood and Wine she has a certain level of control over lower vampires.

But yeah, that's my silly idea, turn Lara's oldest adversary into an Atlantean Vampire. It's not the weirdest thing this series has done.

[CharlesPhipps]

I mean she should be a demon alien thing that's unexplained, IMHO. Some sort of supernatural thing that needs to be put down.

[Winter]

I mean she should be a demon alien thing that's unexplained, IMHO. Some sort of supernatural thing that needs to be put down.

Hm, still I like the idea of her being a vampire because I don't think Lara's ever fought a vampire before. I mean she's fought alongside a vampire but never fought against one.