#traod comic

Yes, of course, I’ve read all the TopCow series and I know Chase Carver well. As it happens with everything that are not the Core Design videogame series, I don’t consider the comics canon. They didn’t respect Lara’s biography and later, even the makers of the comic series, Andy Park (illustrator) and Dan Jurgens (writer) admitted they had never played a Tomb Raider, and they were never in contact with Core Design. Pretty much the same that Simon West when making the first TR movie.

So a product that has not the minimal contact with the source doesn’t deserve for me to be considered canon. That’s why I never took Chase Carver seriously. You know he was written to be Lara’s partner, also her ex-lover and potential love interest. But even if we consider the comics canon, I think I can’t take this character seriously in any way.

Your average blue prince: booze, porn and filth. Perfect for your home.

Chase Carver is a grave robber like Lara, American, the typical drunk, porn consumer and womanizer macho. In the moment when the series start, Lara is not anymore with him but holds a big grudge against him because, basically, he used her in the past. Later we find out that he was lover of her just to use her money to gamble and lose all of it in Montecarlo’s Casino, and while Lara was still with him, cheated with other women and finally, took advantage over her and stole her a precious artifact she was searching for.

Ironically, that’s what Lara can’t forgive. She states clearly she can forgive him for cheating on her, for stealing and losing her money in gambling, but what she can’t forgive him is that he stole an artefact from her. Also in that Chase Carver is pretty much similar to Nathan Drake, he doesn’t want artefacts for its rarity or historical interest, he wants them to sell them, get money (and glory and fame) and waste all of it in gambling and booze.

You think I can have any respect for this kind of character? I’m so sad this… individual was written to be Lara’s partner, since he’s clearly unworthy of her. Also I don’t think the real Lara Croft, the one we know from games, would tolerate a man to treat her like this. During all the arc of the series, Chase is constantly trying hard to make Lara to love him again. He appears as to be repentant on what he did and he expects Lara to forgive him, but she never does. Instead, she tolerates his presence next to him, him supporting her in some quests, and all his compliments and flatteries, but she doesn’t forgive him.

Chase kissing her against her will, but hey, Kurtis is the “rapist”, y’all.

He keeps sticking around her, kissing her without her consentment (lol) and he’s still alive to tell the tale. Also Lara’s all the time butthurt about the fact he cheated, he robbed her money and her artefact, but she never sets things right with him. She keeps tolerating his presence around her, which I think, is unbelievable.

At the end of Chase Carver’s arc, we know SPOILER!!! that he dies. Just as any other male partner written to be her boyfriend in the comics (except of Kurtis Trent, thanks God), he ends dying because apparently Lara can’t have a permament mate. After he tries without result to make her forgive him, Chase ends by sacrificing himself for Lara and he dies. In that moment Lara discovers she has always loved him and that he has always loved her, despite his flaws and his absolutely reprobable behaviour. *pukes*

When this asshole finally dies and she’s even sad about it, wtf?

To be honest, all this drama doesn’t suit Lara. Or at least, it wouldn’t suit her with this kind of character. Chase Carver is not much different of Larson Conway, the typical American shooter with more muscles than brain. He proved to be competent as partner since he can fire guns, he can raid tombs, he can drive choppers and all sorts of vehicles. He was useful as a sidekick. But as a love interest it would be the worst Lara could choose, since she was politer, more educated, loyal and had much more of an inner world than him.

Would Lara choose a man who has addiction to gambling, whoring and booze as a partner? That’s the kind of man that ends destroying you, wasting all your fortune and making you miserable for the rest of your life. Also I never swallowed that bullshit of “Yes I slept with another women while I was with you but I’ve always loved you!!!” Like, please. What the fuck.

Lara did right in never forgiving him and only allow his presence around her to be a sidekick, but then, all this flirting and push-me-pull-you around them after they broke their relationship is kinda contradicting, isn’t it? Like Lara, please, he robbed you, he cheated on you. Have some dignity.

Lara promising this motherfucker she will consider going back with him, lol.

In the end, I think Chase is more than a forgettable character. Not that I hate him, because, as I said, I don’t consider the comics canon, despite Andy Park has all my respects as the amazing illustrator he is. But Carver is not worthy of Lara, he’s the kind of rogue and scoundrel the real Lara wouldn’t bother to look twice, or at most, shoot to death. If we saw her totally despising someone as Larson in the games, why would she be interested in someone like Chase Carver? Another proof that Dan Jurgens didn’t know the real Lara, and wrote an idea he had of her.

Yes, I definitely not hate this character. At least there was some insight in their past relationship and Lara’s struggle between hating and loving him. There are other male partners in the comics that have a go with Lara with much less insight or reason. But in the end I was relieved to see him die because I was fearing Lara ended up by forgiving him. We know this kind of men rarely change and she would ended again in a hellhole, right?

I might not consider the comics canon, but I’m absolutely happy and relieved that the only male partner that ends up alive in the comics after having some kind of chemistry, and a consented kiss, was the same character that was planned to be her real and canon love interest in the games. For this, I forgive the comics for all their flaws, starting by Chase Carver himself.