blarg

Ok, so after we've all had our fun dunking on this letter for 24h straight, I do think there's some benefit in giving constructive criticism on why it rubbed so many people the wrong way. I know us fans can be a dramatic bunch, but the optics of this lore are... not great.

First of, making Lara one in the line of many famous explorers just makes her less special. She's no longer a rebel but a conformist nepo-baby 😫 It makes adventure less her choice and more genetic determinism, which ho boy opens some uncomfortable topics.

Lara is not just anybody - she's a British aristocrat, and damn does that come with some implications. Constantly mentioning her special aristocratic bloodline really leans into the worst kind of classism and ideas on "good breading" the aristocrats always thought made them above everybody else (and the law). I'm not saying she now needs to be the people's champion or something (GOD PLEASE NO), but all this bloodline stuff is the British equivalent of "great grandpa had a plantation". Let's make her an aristocrat without constantly reminding people why we hate those twats in the first place.

And then we come to the Society of Raiders, which was always a goofy idea, but now is starting to look waaay worse. Oh so they were a secret club for rich archeologist back in the 1880s? Cool cool, I'm sure there's nothing questionable in their past whatsoever 🙄😂 Also we all love it when rich people form secret clubs that operate outside the law, it's worked out great for us as a society so far 🤣

I'm not generally opposed to the SoR as a way to expand the universe, but we really shouldn't go there. Just keep them as more of a National Geographic Society for paranormal archeology nerds, not a weird secret cult for nepo babys 😬

And lastly, bringing up her family again makes us think that the LoA storyline will no be very good. Instead of being about the dangers of Atlantian technology or Natla's hunger for power, it looks like we're again failing back on Croft Family Tree hijinks 😫 (I call it the "grandpa Palpatine" plot).

Even if Lara's family has a troublesome bloodline, includes a few famous figures, and was involved in certain crimes, making her family lineage narratively and thematically flexible would still let her keep her uniqueness. Lara is still connected to her family in some way (e.g. being an aristocrat), but when writing the Crofts, they should have enough separation that she stands out among her long bloodline. I've always viewed her as the defiant outlier among the Crofts. There's a possibility that other Crofts were also rebels, but applying the logic I've introduced in my lil' opinion piece, their reasons would be far more different from Lara's. Lara doesn't need to be tied to a secret society, family drama, and an ancestral drive for exploration because all of what's laid out in the letter written by T.E. Croft completely defeats the purpose of her character as a revolutionary, a fighter, an explorer, a thrill-seeker, and an autonomous woman not bound by the stifling expectations of high society.

Some bloodlines are marred by atrocity and simple unpleasantries, and I think it's okay to explore those serious implications. However, Lara shouldn't be so fiercely tied to her family like it's a fucking curse she can't escape from. She should be able to stand out from her family members and ancestors. She should be one of many Crofts who's still her own person, redefining what this unpredictable, hard-to-describe family can be.

Expectations and biological ancestry mean nothing to her regarding the Croft family. She chose to distance herself from the family name to be herself because she didn't wanna be the person her parents wanted her to be. She made plenty of friends who had immense respect for the crazy, badass lady she is! For crying out loud, many of her rivals and enemies also show some begrudging respect for the legacy she carved out by refusing to be a conformist and proving herself to be a capable explorer and fighter! For example, there's Winston, her forever faithful and humble butler; Jean-Yves, an Egyptologist friend who willingly helped her avert apocalyptic disaster back in Egypt; Mark Willard, a Doctor of Science that was astonished by her success in retrieving the Infada Stone and hired her for her competence to fulfill his misguided, obsession-fueled goal of advancing evolution on a global scale (It's important to note that in the manual for Tomb Raider: The Lost Artefact, it's implied that Willard was a fan of Lara and her pursuits!); and Eckhardt, an enemy of great alchemical and sorcerous power who goes out of his way to genuinely compliment her abilities, even though he and Karel were deliberately using her to obtain the Obsurca Paintings.

Let me explain:

Grotesque fascist grifter, Nigel Farage, is the leader of Reform, the racist far right party he created because UKIP got what it wanted (Brexit) and it sucked.

Having tried and failed to be an MP many times (but somehow getting more screentime than any Liberal Democrat or Green politician), he finally succeeded in the last election because people were so overwhelmingly pissed off with the Conservatives, and many right-wing people saw Reform as the new Conservative Party; partly because it's full of rejects from the Conservative Party.

Speculation: he doesn't really want to be an MP, he wants to be a fascist grifter. He's annoyed by suggestions he do things like Be In His Constituency and Serve His Constituents.

He's recently been caught having accepted a VERY large amount of money from some unsavory people that he insists was a totally legitimate 'donation' and not breaking any rules.

Only it did break the rules and it's very clear that it did and things are in motion to hold him to account.

To avoid this, he has resigned as an MP, saying this is a protest at his treatment by the 'establisment' (he is a rich fascist grifter, but he likes to cosplay as a Man of the People). This has triggered a by-election, in which he is standing, with the hope that the people of his constituency will either elect him in a resounding win, indicating they don't care that he's corrupt (having not heard everything the investigation is uncovering), or someone from Labour or the Conservatives will win and he can swan off to America, free to grift again because of what the 'establishment' did to him.

Only, all the major political parties have agreed not to stand, stating openly that this is an obvious stunt and they won't legitimise it. So if he doesn't win, he can't say it was because he was too much of a rebel and the Establishment went against him, he'll just be a loser, which doesn't play too well with the right-wingers he wants to grift. And if he does get back in the investigation will go forward without any kind of 'mandate' from his constituency buoying him up.

But. There is another option.

COUNT BINFACE IS RUNNING.

Count Binface is part of the grand British tradition of joke candidates who stand as a protest option. They usually don't get enough votes to get their deposit back (which is supposed to deter unserious people) but they don't care, because DEMOCRACY.

Of course, Count Binface has never won, but it is hilarious to see a completely serious pathetic fascist concede defeat while standing next to a man with a bin on his head to whom they are democratically equal.

But if nobody else is standing. And if enough people in Clacton-on-Sea are finally cheesed off enough with Farage not doing anything for them, there is just a chance that one of the funniest things to ever happen in politics will happen.

Imagine. Imagine for just a moment that the Grotesque Fascist not only loses, but loses to Count Binface.

On Earth there's a predator known as the wolf. It's a powerful creature. They hunt in packs. They're very loyal. The leader of the pack is the alpha. Known as the most dominant. The alpha isn't the wolf who kills the most. The alpha is actually the one who best protects the pack.

badlands wolfpack

-> Phonics For Adults <-