The plot of the Tomb Raider trilogy might have been different if its writers had had their way.
In a tweet, Rhianna Pratchett - lead writer on both Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider - claimed she wasn't a fan of the focus Rise of the Tomb Raider places on Lara Croft's father. Pratchett explains that the decision to make Lara's dad the driving force for the character's adventure was beyond her control. Despite not agreeing that that was the right direction for Lara, Pratchett says she "Had to make peace with it" in order to do her job.
Pratchett's reason for not wanting this particular plotline for the iconic character is seemingly a personal one as, in the tweet, she describes herself as "Someone that often gets defined by her dad". With more creative control over Lara's adventures in the Dark Horse comic book series, Pratchett strove to keep the focus firmly on the series' main character.
Speaking as someone that often gets defined by her dad, I’ve spoken in interviews about not being a fan of the dad plot line in Rise, but it was dictated from above & I had to make peace with it to do my job. It’s a big reason why the comics I worked on were very non-dad focused. https://t.co/sj3neTWzCTFebruary 23, 2022
The tweet was written in response to a post by fellow writer Gail Simone offering some "free advice" to writers of the Tomb Raider games, telling them to stop making every game about Lara's dad as this is not what fans of the series are interested in.
Far from the independent explorer that we saw in the early PS1 era games, Lara's more recent motivations have been driven by a desire to follow in her father's footsteps. This trend continues in the reboot trilogy's conclusion, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Pratchett parted ways with developer Crystal Dynamics before Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but in the replies to Pratchett's tweets, Jill Murray - lead writer on Shadow - also said that she was not "personally interested" in Mr Croft.
The Tomb Raider series has seen a lot of entries in its 25-year history. Take a look at our feature on the best Tomb Raider games of all time to see where your favourite ranks.
