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* Some of the fetishes the creatures laid across the island were constructed with lever-action rifles. Weapons too advanced for 16th century pirates and too antiquated for Germans in the 30s and 40s. Either the devs didn't consider this historical factor or there was another group of explorers on the island in the Victorian era.

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* Some of the fetishes the creatures descendants laid across the island were constructed with lever-action rifles. Weapons too advanced for 16th century pirates and too antiquated for Germans in the 30s and 40s. Either the devs didn't consider this historical factor or there was another group of explorers on the island in the Victorian era.
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** The Spaniards did. It was a colony before Sir Drake sank it.

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** The Spaniards did. It was a colony before Sir Drake sank it.it.

*Some of the fetishes the creatures laid across the island were constructed with lever-action rifles. Weapons too advanced for 16th century pirates and too antiquated for Germans in the 30s and 40s. Either the devs didn't consider this historical factor or there was another group of explorers on the island in the Victorian era.
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Must HAVE, not must of.


* So the Nazis built this huge elaborate base on the Island, yet no one ever found any records back in Europe of them being there? That base must of taken years to build, hundreds (if not thousands) of skilled workers, and tons of material. Surely there would be records of these things going to the Island for the Allies to find after they defeated Germany.

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* So the Nazis built this huge elaborate base on the Island, yet no one ever found any records back in Europe of them being there? That base must of have taken years to build, hundreds (if not thousands) of skilled workers, and tons of material. Surely there would be records of these things going to the Island for the Allies to find after they defeated Germany.
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** My best guess would be that the mission was top secret, so the only documentation would be both limited and probably stored in Berlin. Considering how the Russians were out for the blood of basically every German they could get their hands on and more or less burned Berlin to the ground, it makes sense that the documentation would be lost, especially if the mission was considered a failure.
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* How exactly are the Descendants ... ''descendants''? Did the Spaniards or the Nazis bring women with them in their units? Because I'm pretty sure those sorts of expedition crews were usually all men during both of those time periods. It doesn't help that all of the so called "Descendants" in-game appear to be universally male...

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* How exactly are the Descendants ... ''descendants''? Did the Spaniards or the Nazis bring women with them in their units? Because I'm pretty sure those sorts of expedition crews were usually all men during both of those time periods. It doesn't help that all of the so called "Descendants" in-game appear to be universally male...male...
** The Spaniards did. It was a colony before Sir Drake sank it.
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!! Navigation: Drake's Fortune | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted2AmongThieves Among Thieves]] | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted3DrakesDeception Drake's Deception]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedGoldenAbyss Golden Abyss]] | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd A Thief's End]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedTheLostLegacy The Lost Legacy]] | [[Headscratchers/{{Uncharted}} Main Page]]

Changed: 17085

Removed: 17503

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!! Navigation: [[Headscratchers/UnchartedDrakesFortune Drake's Fortune]] | Among Thieves | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted3DrakesDeception Drake's Deception]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedGoldenAbyss Golden Abyss]] | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd A Thief's End]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedTheLostLegacy The Lost Legacy]] | [[Headscratchers/{{Uncharted}} Main Page]]

* Elena at the end of the game doesn't believe the "curse" of the cintimani stone, however this is the same lady who saw what the stone does to people, but more importantly the events of the first game!!! She forgot what she lived through or what?
** ArbitrarySkepticism at its finest - while she saw for herself what the El Dorado "statue" did, it could be that she's still dismissing that as a one-off and refuses to believe that on her next big adventure, she will once again encounter something supernatural (after all, in reality what would the chances be?). Also she had no chance to be skeptical about El Dorado - she didn't even know what it really was until ''after'' they'd encountered the mutant Spaniards - whereas she's known about the "curse" for a while and dismisses it as an urban myth.
** Exactly. You'd have to be touched in the head to think everything supernatural is true just because of ''one'' instance of seeing something like a zombie plague.
*** Also, Elena saw exactly how El Dorado's "curse" worked, whereas she had no idea about the details of the Cintimani stone's own curse or even any evidence that the stone itself existed. On the other hand, she has plenty of evidence to think Lazarevic is insane. The main reason a curse exists at all is because it's a story, and it would be a little anticlimactic if it turned out to be nothing special.

* Why, oh ''why'' did Flynn try to kamikaze Nathan's group? Yes, he's still pissed at Nathan... for... ''something''... but he appeared to be trying to spare Chloe, and didn't like Lazarevic one bit. Yes, Lazarevic most likely took his only gun, but at that point, he was separated from the group, due to the guardians, and could have snapped up a pistol from one of the dead goons.
** In fact, I still can't remember why Flynn hates Drake. Besides getting snarked at all the time.
*** I don't think it's so much Flynn ''hating'' Drake so much as it is him not caring about him. And caring about the money more. And possibly being terribly jealous of Drake's mad skills.
*** Flynn wouldn't have jihaded Nathan if he didn't care.
*** He was already bleeding to death from a gunshot wound. He just wanted to take as many people as possible with him. As for him hating Nate: remember that he was trying to spare Chloe. That means he wanted her for himself. He might have known about their relationship from the beginning and just played dumb like he did with the ships.
*** Given Chloe's "mostly professional" line and the fact that he specifically asked for her to be spared, it's possible he worked out that she and Nate used to be an item and got homicidally jealous.
*** Oh, Flynn knew, and he hated Nate's guts for it. If he didn't figure it out earlier, he almost certainly guessed when Chloe gave Nate the dagger in the monastery, which would have been a severe blow to the ego (the hot woman liked Nate enough to ''give him'' the key to Shambhala, and to top it off he swiftly worked out how to use it to open the door). Also, it was kinda because of Nate that Lazarevic shot Flynn. After thinking about it, I suspect Flynn's explodicide was aimed at both Drake and Elena - because killing Elena would take her away from Drake as Drake took Chloe from Flynn, one last great big "Screw You".
*** When Drake and Flynn are forced to work together near the end, Drake calls him a "backstabbing son-of-a-bitch", to which Flynn replies "Yeah, well you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?", so presumably Flynn feels that Drake betrayed him in some way. YMMV as to whether this refers to him screwing Chloe or some NoodleIncident in the past. If it was the latter, Drake apparently didn't think it was a major friendship-ending event, since he was happy to see Flynn at the start, and trusted him without question during the museum job.

* Nate's attitude toward Chloe in the second half of the game makes no sense. She pretends to be on Lazarevic's side to cover them, but when Lazarevic and Flynn walk in on her ''holding a gun on Nate's group'' (to cover for them, but the bad guys don't know that) and take her to the train, Nate thinks from some reason that she's being held prisoner and immediately risks ''everything'' to try to save her. Even a moron could tell that she was just playing along! Then, at the monastery, he runs into her again, still playing along. She claims that she didn't know they were there and is just trying to save herself (pretty obvious), and yet Nate still treats her like crap until she gives him the dagger. This is the dagger she ''needs'' to find the secret door with to live, so Nate's possibly sending her to her death without it. Pretty nice and observant guy, ain't he?
** When she's taken on the train, it's implied pretty heavily that Flynn has figured out she's betrayed him and is working with Nathan. IIRC this is confirmed when you find her on the train and she is being treated significantly worse by Flynn than she was during the opening portions of the game.
*** Flynn sure didn't act like he knew Chloe had betrayed him, and if so, it didn't look like he told Lazarevic. But if he did know, then why did a) she want to stay on the train, or b), he keep her alive? If someone sold me out, I'd kill them or keep them within sight at all times. If I was being held captive by someone who I sold out and they knew about it, I'd want to leave [=ASAP=]. If Flynn knows Chloe's not loyal to Lazarevic, she's nothing but a liability. I mean, when when Flynn comes after her on the train, just before Nathan blows it up, she's just killed one of his men, and she tries to defend Nate as he's running away on the train. Think of this from Flynn's perspective: he comes upon Nate and Chloe arguing. He shoots Nate, but Nate runs away, and Chloe attempts to defend him. And he still lets her roam fairly free without telling Lazarevic about it ''at all''. Double IdiotBall, maybe? And Nate ''still'' has no reason to treat her like he did in the monastery.
*** I think Nate was mad at Chloe mostly because of who she is. She has made it clear from past actions that at the end of the day she will always look at for number 1 - herself. While she'll try to help those she cares about, ultimately when she is backed into a wall, she put herself above others, which is the opposite of Nate. This becomes her turning point in character when she refuses to leave [[spoiler:Elena]] behind. Chloe defiantly has the most character development in this game.
*** Well, that makes sense. I guess it was just weird to see Nate swing from well-meaning on the train to jerk in the monastery. [[GrammarNazi And it's "definitely", not "defiantly".]]
*** [[OverlyLongGag Chloe has the most character development against all instructions to the contrary. She was specifically told to be a stagnating character but she just had to go ahead and grow a conscience.]]
* So, Elena apparently caught up with the train by "following the tracks to the wreckage". But at the end of the first train level, the helicopter blasts a car so that it winds up blocking the tunnel, rendering the tunnel unusable. Furthermore, how could Elena know where Nate went when she got to the wreckage? The falling snow would cover up most of his tracks.
** The road didn't follow the tracks exactly for most of the route anyway, so she probably saw roughly where the tracks were headed and took the nearest alterative route. We don't know how far Tamzin's village is from the wreck site, but it is connected to the road network - Elena likely saw that there was no trace of Drake at the wreck and headed for the nearest settlement to see if they knew anything.
* Late in the game, [[spoiler:Flynn]] conveniently runs off to talk to Lazarevic, thus getting out of the player's way. That is to say, he stopped his work to talk to his hair-triggered psychopath of a boss, after said boss furiously stated his displeasure with [[spoiler:Flynn's]] lack of progress in his work. He couldn't possibly be charming enough to survive ''that''.
** And nobody is good enough to survive getting in Nathan Drake's way. Doesn't mean they KNOW that, though. The same explanation goes for the Lazarevic one.
** Lazarevic knows that Drake is the more adept treasure hunter than Flynn - I think he even says that he wishes he'd hired Drake. Flynn himself probably realises this on some level so his plan may have been to stay out of the way and let Drake find the path to Shambhala for him - which is exactly what ended up happening. If Flynn stuck around, Drake was not going to search and knowingly lead Lazarevic there.
** Sully points out early on that Flynn has been leading Lazarevic's expedition for months without result. It's possible Flynn is capable of sweet-talking his way out of trouble, as he'd have to if he could get away with being ''that'' incompetent for so long. He even seems to have enough clout to talk Lazarevic out of killing Chloe, despite Lazarevic's obvious hatred for traitors. Flynn may simply have reached the limit of his charm by the time the game nears its end, when Lazarevic effectively kills him.

* During the train level, Nate crosses a flatbed car with a tank and comments, "What do they need a tank for?" Later, the tank is [[{{Foreshadowing}} a major boss]]. However, the tank was on the section of train that got blown off when the helicopter first shows up during the train level... so they shouldn't've had the tank later in the game. While the bad guys could've had two tanks, what do they need ''two'' tanks for ''in the Himalayas''?
** For the same reason Mao's Chinese Army needed nearly 200 of them during the invasion of Tibet: because while it is POSSIBLE to make do without them, it sure is a [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch HELL]] of a lot easier with them. That, and they were in the middle of an effing civil war of their own making, one which might get a lot larger depending on the intervention of the West (ESPECIALLY India) and/or China, both of whom would certainly be bringing heavy firepower. So it makes sense that Lararevic would want as much firepower as possible to carve their way through the civil war and possibly ward off any attempt by anybody to disrupt the expedition.
*** Lazarevic wasn't taking those tanks into the city. He was taking them into the ''mountains''. You know, the exact terrain where tanks are at their least effective? How was he even able to get his other tank up to the Tibetan village when it was seated at the top of a high mountain with a sharp incline on all sides, anyway?
*** You are forgetting that "Least effective" does not mean "not effective," particularly since those in the mountains and other areas where tanks are unlikely to pop up tend to be prepared for them the least. And he might be taking them because it's better to do so than to abandon them and thus have them get picked up by one of the sides in the civil war and thus lost to his arsenal. As for how they get the tank up there, well I believe it would involve extremely complicated and low-tech pullies, amongst other things.
*** Complicated = a long time to assemble. No good. And mountains are craggy and steep enough that "least effective" ''could'' mean "not effective" for tanks.
*** Drake himself mentions this several times, including during the tank battle. But honestly? It's TankGoodness, or perhaps Everything's Better With Tanks?
*** He's taking on ''Nathan Friggin' Drake''. Why didn't he bring a dozen more tanks?
** Lazarevic has a sizeable air force. It's possible he had the tank air-lifted into the village, where it does plenty of damage. He's just the sort to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

* Lazarevic attempts to pull a NotSoDifferent on Drake, despite killing goons who tore apart civilians, rebels, and some more civilians for, as far as they're concerned, a stone that's just really fucking expensive. [[spoiler:Drake hesitates, though that's arguably due to the Guardians about to beat the living shit out of Lazarevic.]]
** [[spoiler:This becomes FridgeBrilliance when you realize that by refusing to kill him himself, Drake completely invalidates Lazarevic's worldview regarding compassion and completely denies the BigBad any type of moral victory he thought he still had.]]
*** [[spoiler:That, or because he was carrying an M4, which we know does piss-shit damage to guys like him, while Guardians mauling the shit out of others who have drank from the Tree of Life might be more effective.]]

* Gamesradar has already done an article that points out that Drake destroyed [[spoiler:a peaceful paradise full of enlightened folk who only were defending their own home. Besides, he DID destroy the Tree of Life, which, while yes, could have been abused, research on it could have had all sort of medical breakthroughs. Drake destroyed priceless historical ruins, exterminated a miraculous tree which was the only one of its kind, and single-handedly wiped out a whole sub-culture, effectively commiting genocide.]] [[SarcasmMode Way to go, Drake.]]
** Link, please?
** Enlightened? ''That's'' what you call people who shoot first, ask later, never try to be calm and rational, and drink the sap that works like a mix of Forced Evolutionary Virus and crack?
*** They were defending their home from invaders - the first invaders in hundreds of years. When colonists first arrived in the United States and tried to take resources and land from the Native Americans, the natives were seen as "primitive" and barbaric because they fought back - it's the same principle. Shambhala has only remained safe because of its isolation - when foreigners enter their city, clearly heavily armed, how would you expect them to react? Really, the best option would've been to leave well alone, possibly taking back some of the sap for medical studies.
*** Unfortunately, Lazarevic would ''not'' have left well enough alone, and if he escaped, we have a damn near invincible nutcase with a damn near invincible army on our hands. And it may be my imagination, but it didn't seem as if the Guardians were really living in Shambhala - the place was crumbling before the characters arrived. So they don't maintain it, they just drink the sap and attack whoever enters without trying to negotiate (which should be easy enough, since they're almost immune to bullets. But they don't even try). Hardly sounds peaceful or 'enlightened' (and I'd like a definition of that one, please). Don't get me wrong, I wish the city hadn't been destroyed, I wish the Tree could have been preserved, but ultimately there weren't many options.
** "A peaceful paradise full of enlightened folk who only were defending their own home" is not how one would describe a near-unintelligible and AxCrazy people whose "scarecrows" dress up as monsters, roar like predators, and try their hardest to beat you to death on sight, especially when they have enough advantages to make negotiation safe (immunity from bullets, for instance). Watching the finale, I think it's apparent that Shambala's destruction was a side-effect of offing Lazarevic, unintentional and regrettable, not a case of deliberate vandalism as implied here.
** Shambala's Guardians appear to have devolved or degenerated over the centuries, probably as a side effect of abusing the sap from the Tree of Life. Whatever Shambala once was, its not any longer, it probably wasnt even by Marco Polos day since he hid the path there, and Nathan destroying the place is probably for the best. The sap would just have brought even more destruction to the world.

* Why didn't Nate shoot the sap ''before'' Lazarevic drank it, and save himself (and the player) [[ThatOneBoss a truly frustrating experience]]?
** As mentioned above, the sap could mean miracles for the medical industry - maybe a part of Drake hoped to take down Lazarevic without endangering the Tree of Life so that he could claim some of the sap for himself (he is a treasure hunter, after all) and take it back for study.
*** So shoot Lazarevic.
*** [[IdiotHero Because Mr. Drake is the Hero, and according to the Rules of Heroes, you're not supposed to shoot the bad guy until he's done powering himself up. After all, you need to give this]] bastard [[IdiotHero a fair chance of battle, no?]]
*** Not even ''that'' completely fits - Drake's an AntiHero, not a straight-laced hero, and several levels earlier, he had [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway taken a man hostage]], one of the Things a Hero (Generally) Does Not Do.
*** Perhaps he was just honestly curious whether it work. That's what I chalked it up to. His curiosity overcame his rational impulse for a moment. At the wrong moment.
*** That makes sense given his habit of examining whatever artifact he's just found there and then, no matter how dangerous a place he might be in, and ignoring other characters when they tell him to hurry up and keep moving. I think he's just prone to thinking irrationally whenever he's confronted with something he finds interesting.
*** There's one other thing to remember: Lazarevic ''wasn't alone''. He had several mooks there with him. Oh, sure, Nate's gunned down hundreds of bad guys, but he did that (mostly) out of necessity, such as when he was cornered, or when there were bad guys between him and where he needed to go, and when he had the chance to sneak up on people, he had a) the benefit of backup, and b) a minute or two to think things over. In this situation, he's got the drop on the bad guys, but Lazarevic is ''seconds'' away from drinking the sap, Nate's tired, beat up, and not feeling too good, and the tactical situation is not in his favor. He stops to catch his breath, maybe not necessarily believing in the healing power of the sap (or at least not believing that it would be nearly instantaneous), or more like because he just ''doesn't know'' about the healing power of the sap. It's never been shown to do such in the game before, and the resin is just violently explosive. So, all things considered, Nate takes a moment to catch his breath in preparation of taking on bad odds, Lazarevic drinks the sap, and then he realizes he should've acted first, too late to do anything about it.

* Between the events of Drake's Fortune and Among Theives. As we know at the end of Drakes Fortune Nate makes off with several crates worth of Spanish colonial gold and othersuch treasure; so, with all that money why did he not buy himself a bulletproof vest? Or at least a flak jacket? Instead opting to rush into a gunfight unarmored? (Side note: I will not accept the answer that it would hinder agility, the Mooks seem to do fine in that aspect.)
** Nate really doesn't expect to get into gunfights. He's a treasure hunter; technically the places he's exploring shouldn't have any guards that aren't hundreds of years dead. Most of the time he doesn't even seem to carry a ''gun''. He should probably know better by now, but could we have a scene with SexySoakedShirt with a flak jacketed Nate? No, we could not. And what a waste that would be.
*** Except he initiates the conflict between him and Lazarevic by strolling into the latter's camp, blowing stuff up, and killing guards. Then he goes to a city that he ''knows'' Lazarevic has filled with people who want to kill him. Both times, he had plenty of time to go and buy a bulletproof vest at a store or order one online. And it's not like vests are hyper-expensive; the vast majority of them cost less than $1000, and you can easily find some for less than $500. Even if he was strapped for cash, a vest would be a valuable investment.
*** The first thing: Chloe was directing them through that, and it was on her orders they started shooting up the camp. The second thing: I don't think Nate expected Lazarevic to start a civil war just to cover him finding the right temple. But you have a point - maybe Nate was seriously strapped for cash after getting out of that jail?
*** Sully and Chloe, however, ''aren't'' poor. Right before they go into Lazarevic's camp, Nate could say to Chloe, "Oh, hey, do you think I could borrow some money to buy some protection just in case everything goes to hell? I'll pay you back ten times once we find the Cintimani Stone."
*** Actually, ''they are poor''. Sully specifically states when he busts Nate out of the Turkish prison that he "had to blow through [Nate's] entire stash, and a good part of [his] own" to do so. And Chloe is, prior to the opening of the game, working with Lazarevic, implying that she needs money enough to work with a psychopath.
*** I would not trust Nathan Drake as far as I could throw him with a promise like that, even if I was certain he'd find the Stone (which they aren't). Would you?
** Even if he was strapped for cash, he surely could have looted one off a guard he had killed by headshot or stealth attack at some point. He's got about the most generic body frame one could imagine. That said, he probably didn't want it because it would interfere with his parkour.
** Sully states in the scene after the failed heist that he had to use the last of Drake's loot to bail him out of that Turkish prison, so no more treasure after that point.
** Plus, Nate doesn't think that far ahead. For all he knows, at the beginning of every adventure, he's just going somewhere remote and quiet and making off with some previously-hidden treasure.

* How did Lazarevic just stroll into Kathmandu (the city) and cause a civil war in it without any form of retaliation from the Nepalese Army? Kathmandu ''is'' politically unstable in real life, but what's basically happening is a mercenary group waltzing into Nepal's capital city and largest metropolitan center and not only destroying it but ransacking its temples, some of which are over five hundred years old, and thereby destroying a large part of its cultural heritage. And it's not like Nathan and Lazarevic got there at the same time, and Nepal simply hasn't responded yet; it's heavily implied that Lazarevic has been there for at least days by the time Nathan arrives. Additionally, the Nepalese Army is headquartered in Kathmandu, and so should have lots of troops there already. Did Naughty Dog simply forget that Nepal has an army?
** I think they did. I mean, I'm pretty sure Nepal would not just stand there while some mercenary punk ran around hurting its people and culture. I think they forgot either by accident or because they didn't want to bother including another sub-plot where the Nepalese Army comes in.
*** Perhaps Lazarevic hired his private army out to one side or another as a cover. Possibly to the Nepalese government to put down the rebels.
*** Imagine the government's reaction in that situation; it's not like he can brush off everything as collateral damage:
---->'''Nepal:''' "Hey, thanks for offering to fight the rebels with us, that's a big- '''''WHY ARE YOU DESTROYING OUR CAPITAL?!'''''"\\
'''Lazarevic:''' "Um... I want shiny?"
*** The Nepalese military *REEEAAAALLLY* is not the world's finest, to put it generously. They were stalemated and arguably *lost* a ten year war against Maoist guerrillas who were largely operating off of table scraps and what they could seize (and the occasional aid from RedChina and India's [[DirtyCommunists Naxalites]] that nobody wants to acknowledge) when they themselves were equipped with aid from the better chunk of the Western world for starters. In addition, as far as armed forces go, they're rather small even for the country's size, at less than 100,00, of which 40,000 aren't regulars, all of whom are of uneven quality from battle-hardened veterans of said 10-year civil war to "very green" to "worse than very green". Lazarevic's army doesn't have to be *large*, all it has to be is comparatively high quality in personnel and equipment and with the proper preparation. If Lazarevic restarts the old civil war and forces the government to commit most of its' troops out to the outlying countryside *like they did during the war with the Maoists*, he can probably waltz in fairly easily and occupy a large section of the capital and resist any attempts to dislodge him by either side unless they were willing to take punishing if not crippling losses to do it (and thus open themselves up to exploitation by their native enemy). If he guards his territory fairly well and acts relatively unambitiously (basically, what he is: a looter looking for goodies rather than some filibuster trying to take the country over), it's quite possible the government and their enemies (be they Maoist or otherwise) would judge that they have bigger fish to fry and assume they can deal with him once the situation's stabilized enough that they can free up enough men to evict an elite mercenary army from their capital. TL;DR: Lazarevic doesn't have to destroy the Nepalese military or government. All he has to do is beat them up enough until they are forced to fully commit themselves to the civil war and leave him alone, something he can *probably* do. Add *that* to potential covers like signing on officially with one sides (and remember: they only can't prove it's collateral damage if somebody witnesses it, which given Lazarevic is... [[LeaveNoSurvivors unlikely.]]
*** The thing is, Nepal's army isn't even ''mentioned''. The developers could've just handwaved it with, "Now that the guerrillas have been pushed out of this section of the city, the army isn't interested in it anymore, so Lazarevic can search unimpeded. It's just you and him now." Additionally (I could be wrong here, correct me if so), restarting a civil war takes time. I'm assuming Nathan headed for Kathmandu as soon as possible, which I'm guessing is about a week. However, Lazarevic gets there first ''and'' tears enough of the city apart to make it seem like he got the war started up in a few days, which doesn't sound like enough time to me. Furthermore, the party behind the guerrillas was the ruling party of Nepal when the game was made (and still is). Finally, leaving absolutely ''no'' survivors is incredibly difficult, especially in urban warfare. A few soldiers and armed policemen are likely to be left behind to hold down the fort, so to speak, and if even ''one'' of them sees Lazarevic's brutality and escapes to warn Nepal, the army is likely to focus on fighting a defensive war against the guerrillas and try to oust Lazarevic instead; what's the point of winning a war if the thing you won is ravaged? And Lazarevic can't have too many of his men in the city, or he'll draw attention to himself and the destruction he's causing.
*** The army is fighting against the rebels. The civil war isn't one in which Lazarevic is directly involved, he just formented it so he could sweep in and take advantage of the chaos to turn the city upside-down without raising too many eyebrows (since the city ''was already a warzone'').

* Why would Lazarevic have a helicopter following the train? It makes little to no sense to deploy a helicopter to scour a train just in case some guy jumps on, and the pilot, quite frankly, is a moron, firing missiles at his own train just to kill one guy. When he starts blowing cars off the train, you'd think someone would radio Lazarevic and go, "Uh, sir, Dominic is being a douche; he's destroying the train." And what's up with that turret in the middle of a passenger car? If it was on a flatcar, I could understand, but sticking it in a passenger car restricts its effective firing area to a relatively tiny margin and provides a very easy way to get around it.
** Lazarevic is supposed to be both aggressively insane and unsubtle in his approach to hunting for artefacts. Having a chopper follow the train (and scout the city) is an extra measure he's taken, but then he's already carting around his own private militia on a treasure hunt before he even knows there's going to be any resistance. By then, he already knows Drake is hard to kill, so having a chopper patrol the train just in case anybody hitches an easy ride is consistent with his character.
** The reason to have a helicopter is obvious: It's scouting the tracks ahead of the train. He's just triggered a civil war, so he obviously can't rely on the typical radio network to have people report stopped trains or obstructions, so he sends one of his attack helos to do it.

* In the train level, was the level moving around the train, or the train moving through the level? From a rendering standpoint, I mean.
** I believe Naughty Dog stated that the level is the train moving through the scenery, instead of the other way around. I don't believe it actually makes a difference in terms of rendering, though.

* You find two expeditions related to the Cintimani stone that end up with people getting too powerful and ending up killing each other. First, there's the massacred bodies in the temple in Borneo, where Drake first finds skeletons with black teeth, and second, there's Schafer's expedition, the members of which Schafer had to kill. Presumably, in both cases, the victims had drunk the tree sap and become intoxicated. So how could they be killed? The sap makes one effectively bulletproof and invulnerable.
** Not invulnerable ''or'' bulletproof. Just tough. They could be killed.

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!! Navigation: [[Headscratchers/UnchartedDrakesFortune Drake's Fortune]] Fortune | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted2AmongThieves Among Thieves Thieves]] | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted3DrakesDeception Drake's Deception]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedGoldenAbyss Golden Abyss]] | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd A Thief's End]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedTheLostLegacy The Lost Legacy]] | [[Headscratchers/{{Uncharted}} Main Page]]

* Elena at So the end of Nazis built this huge elaborate base on the game Island, yet no one ever found any records back in Europe of them being there? That base must of taken years to build, hundreds (if not thousands) of skilled workers, and tons of material. Surely there would be records of these things going to the Island for the Allies to find after they defeated Germany.
* Was it so imperative that Nate solve all the puzzles? They only led to places which had already been explored and which were already swarming with enemies.
** Nate was following the treasure map. He was following an ancient path, discovered or established hundreds of years before. The puzzle were in the way to deter people way back when, and he's solving them because he
doesn't believe want to lose the "curse" trail. As for his enemies, see below.
** The enemy placement was perplexing at times. As an example, Sully said he sent his cohorts on a red herring on the other side
of the cintimani stone, however this monastery yet not only do we still find enemies patrolling nearby but they're in areas that were supposedly unknown to anyone but Nate's party.
*** As mentioned above, Nate is following the path set out by the map. His enemies, however, don't have the benefit of the map, and therefore are tearing the island apart trying to find El Dorado. It makes sense that while Nate is doggedly determined to following the trail of the map for fear of getting lost, his opponents would be more interested in scouring every square mile of that dinky little island. As a result, they're ''avoiding'' the obstacles; just navigating past walls and doors and such where they can. The game is actually pretty good about not having normal enemies in areas they haven't found yet.

* How did Drake not see the giant Nazi radio tower? It
is the same lady who saw what tallest thing on the stone does to people, but more importantly island and would be clearly visible. When playing the events of game, it is usually off screen and you'd have to move the screen up to see it so the player is unlikely to notice it on the first game!!! She forgot what she lived through or what?
run through, but in game there is no excuse.
** ArbitrarySkepticism at its finest - while she saw for herself what People have a tendency to edit out things they don't expect. There's an experiment where people are asked to watch a video of a ball being passed from one hand to another, and count the El Dorado "statue" did, it could be that she's still dismissing that as passes to people in white shirt. After they're done, the experimenter asks them how many times the person in the gorilla suit crosses the screen. The subject often doesn't recall seeing them in the first place.
*** There's
a one-off difference between "not expecting something" and refuses "paying close attention to believe that on her next big adventure, she will once again encounter something supernatural (after all, in reality what would else". The argument you gave is the chances be?). Also she had no chance to be skeptical latter, the OP's question is the former. The mast should also stick out above trees, so just about El Dorado - she didn't every time Drake looks up, he should go, "Hey, what's that?" and not "edit it out", as you say.
*** Okay. Maybe he just thought it was built by the government for cell phones boat radios or something. I can't find any screenshots with the tower. Could someone post a link to a 'shot, or a video of a playthrough with a timecode? Also, for what it's worth, I watched a whole playthrough and somehow missed the tower. Then again, I occasionally miss things in real life that I've passed dozens of times,
even know what it really was until ''after'' they'd encountered when ''not'' distracted by folks trying to ventilate me.
*** The tower could be easily missed in a playthrough, and
the mutant Spaniards - whereas she's known about camera might not even move enough for you to see it; the "curse" for a while and dismisses it as an urban myth.
** Exactly. You'd have to be touched in the head to
OP's got no problem with that. I think everything supernatural is true just because of ''one'' instance of seeing he's trying to get at something like a zombie plague.
*** Also,
"Drake sees radio tower, realizes there's buildings here more recent than the 17th century". Remember, Nate and Elena saw exactly how El Dorado's "curse" worked, whereas she had no idea about there was a Nazi base on the details island before they were forced in there by the zombies.
*** I missed the tower on every playthrough
of the Cintimani stone's own curse or even any evidence that the stone itself existed. On the other hand, she has plenty of evidence to think Lazarevic is insane. The main reason a curse exists at all is because it's a story, game, and it would be consider myself a little anticlimactic if it turned out to be nothing special.

* Why, oh ''why'' did Flynn try to kamikaze Nathan's group? Yes, he's still pissed at Nathan... for... ''something''... but he appeared to be trying to spare Chloe, and didn't like Lazarevic one bit. Yes, Lazarevic most likely took his only gun, but at that point, he was separated from the group, due to the guardians, and could have snapped up a pistol from one of the dead goons.
** In fact, I still can't remember why Flynn hates Drake. Besides getting snarked at all the time.
*** I don't think it's so much Flynn ''hating''
pretty observant player - Drake so much as it is him not caring about him. And caring about probably missed the money more. And possibly being terribly jealous of Drake's mad skills.
*** Flynn wouldn't have jihaded Nathan if he didn't care.
*** He was already bleeding to death from a gunshot wound. He just wanted to take as many people as possible with him. As
tower for him hating Nate: remember the same reasons, i.e. that he was trying to spare Chloe. That means he wanted her almost always being shot at or facing some other perilous danger. There wasn't any time for himself. He might have known about their relationship from sightseeing and when there were moments of peace, he was in ruined cities or forests where there were plenty of other, more obvious, things to grab his attention.
*** Yes, because
the beginning and just played dumb like he did with camera is fixed in the ships.
*** Given Chloe's "mostly professional" line and
third person. It points at Drake constantly. You ''can'' see the tower if you move the camera at the right time, but the fact that he specifically asked for her to be spared, it's possible he worked out that she and Nate used to be an item and got homicidally jealous.
*** Oh, Flynn knew, and he hated Nate's guts for it. If he didn't figure it out earlier, he almost certainly guessed when Chloe gave Nate
the dagger in the monastery, which would ''player'' isn't going to notice it doesn't excuse why Drake doesn't. It should have been a severe blow to the ego (the hot woman liked Nate enough to ''give him'' the key to Shambhala, and to top it off he swiftly worked out how to use it to open the door). Also, it was kinda because right in his line of Nate that Lazarevic shot Flynn. After thinking about it, I suspect Flynn's explodicide was aimed at both Drake and Elena - because killing Elena would take her away from Drake as Drake took Chloe from Flynn, one last great big "Screw You".vision.
*** When So what? He has a lot more to look at. And the guy had no inkling at all that there may have been a Nazi base on the island, and we often miss what we don't expect to be there. I never saw the tower, and I made a habit of stopping to look at all the gorgeous scenery. If anything, Drake is more blind than the player because his viewpoint is closer to the ground, restricted to how far he can turn his head and Flynn are forced to work together near the end, Drake calls him a "backstabbing son-of-a-bitch", to which Flynn replies "Yeah, well you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?", so presumably Flynn feels can't be panned or zoomed.

* Seriously, how did
that Drake betrayed him in some way. YMMV as to whether this refers to him screwing Chloe or some NoodleIncident in sub get up the past. If waterfall. Wasn't the Nazi base at sea level? The seas would've have to have risen, what, something like a hundred feet for it to make it up there?
** I might be forgetting something, but isn't it said in-game that
it was carried there by a tsunami? At the latter, Drake apparently didn't least, I think it Sully theorises as such...
** This doesn't specifically answer the question, but a slight correction: the Nazi base
was on a major friendship-ending event, since he was happy to see Flynn at completely different island (for that matter, it's never stated that the start, and trusted him without question during the museum job.

* Nate's attitude toward Chloe in the second half
first part of the game makes no sense. She pretends to takes place on an island at all - it could just be on Lazarevic's side to cover them, but when Lazarevic and Flynn walk in on her ''holding a gun on Nate's group'' (to cover for them, but some remote part of the bad guys don't know that) and take her Amazonian rainforest). Drake heads to the train, island ''after'' finding the map in the U-boat.
** I'm willing to bet that it got scuttled there, and a freak-of-nature earthquake pushed it up a hundred feet.
**
Nate thinks from some reason that she's being held prisoner and immediately risks ''everything'' explicitly suggests it got stuck during flood season, when it would be possible for such a large boat to try to save her. Even a moron travel upriver. The crew must have been wiped out before they could tell that she was just playing along! Then, leave at the monastery, next flood.

* Who was building the traps made out of the plane parts on the island? It wasn't Raja's men because
he runs into her again, still playing along. She claims that she wanted to know, it wasn't Roman's men because he didn't know they either, and the Descendants were there and is just trying too far gone to save herself (pretty obvious), and yet Nate still treats her like crap until she gives him the dagger. This is the dagger she ''needs'' to find the secret door with to live, so Nate's possibly sending her to her death without it. Pretty nice and observant guy, ain't he?
** When she's taken on the train, it's implied pretty heavily
make anything that Flynn has figured out she's betrayed him and is working with Nathan. IIRC this is confirmed when you find her on the train and she is being treated significantly worse by Flynn than she was during the opening portions of the game.
*** Flynn sure didn't act like he knew Chloe had betrayed him, and if so, it didn't look like he told Lazarevic. But if he did know, then why did a) she want to stay on the train, or b), he keep her alive? If someone sold me out, I'd kill them or keep them within sight at all times. If I was being held captive by someone who I sold out and they knew about it, I'd want to leave [=ASAP=]. If Flynn knows Chloe's not loyal to Lazarevic, she's nothing but a liability. I mean, when when Flynn comes after her on the train, just before Nathan blows it up, she's just killed one of his men, and she tries to defend Nate as he's running away on the train. Think of this
sophisticated.
** Judging
from Flynn's perspective: he comes upon Nate and Chloe arguing. He shoots Nate, but Nate runs away, and Chloe attempts to defend him. And he still lets her roam fairly free without telling Lazarevic about it ''at all''. Double IdiotBall, maybe? And Nate ''still'' has no reason to treat her like he did in the monastery.
*** I think Nate was mad at Chloe mostly because of who she is. She has
footprints around the traps (at least the one made of airplane scraps) it clear from past actions that at the end of the day she will always look at for number 1 - herself. While she'll try to help those she cares about, ultimately when she is backed into a wall, she put herself above others, which is the opposite of Nate. This becomes her turning point in character when she refuses to leave [[spoiler:Elena]] behind. Chloe defiantly has the most character development in this game.
*** Well, that makes sense. I guess it was just weird to see Nate swing from well-meaning on the train to jerk in the monastery. [[GrammarNazi And it's "definitely", not "defiantly".]]
*** [[OverlyLongGag Chloe has the most character development against all instructions to the contrary. She was specifically told to be a stagnating character but she just had to go ahead and grow a conscience.]]
* So, Elena apparently caught up with the train by "following the tracks to the wreckage". But at the end of the first train level, the helicopter blasts a car so that it winds up blocking the tunnel, rendering the tunnel unusable. Furthermore, how could Elena know where Nate went when she got to the wreckage? The falling snow would cover up most of his tracks.
** The road didn't follow the tracks exactly for most of the route anyway, so she
probably saw roughly where was the tracks were headed and took the nearest alterative route. We don't know how far Tamzin's village is from the wreck site, but it is connected to the road network - Elena likely saw that there was no trace of Drake at the wreck and headed for the nearest settlement to see if they knew anything.
* Late in the game, [[spoiler:Flynn]] conveniently runs off to talk to Lazarevic, thus getting out of the player's way. That is to say, he stopped his work to talk to his hair-triggered psychopath of a boss, after said boss furiously stated his displeasure with [[spoiler:Flynn's]] lack of progress in his work. He couldn't possibly be charming enough to survive ''that''.
** And nobody is good enough to survive getting in Nathan Drake's way. Doesn't mean they KNOW that, though. The same explanation goes for the Lazarevic one.
** Lazarevic knows that Drake is the more adept treasure hunter than Flynn - I think he even says that he wishes he'd hired Drake. Flynn himself probably realises this on some level so his plan may have been to stay out of the way and let Drake find the path to Shambhala for him - which is exactly what ended up happening. If Flynn stuck around, Drake was not going to search and knowingly lead Lazarevic there.
** Sully points out early on that Flynn has been leading Lazarevic's expedition for months without result. It's possible Flynn is capable of sweet-talking his way out of trouble, as he'd have to if he could get away with being ''that'' incompetent for so long. He even seems to have enough clout to talk Lazarevic out of killing Chloe, despite Lazarevic's obvious hatred for traitors. Flynn may simply have reached the limit of his charm by the time the game nears its end, when Lazarevic effectively kills him.

* During the train level, Nate crosses a flatbed car with a tank and comments, "What do they need a tank for?" Later, the tank is [[{{Foreshadowing}} a major boss]]. However, the tank was on the section of train that got blown off when the helicopter first shows up during the train level... so they shouldn't've had the tank later in the game. While the bad guys could've had two tanks, what do they need ''two'' tanks for ''in the Himalayas''?
** For the same reason Mao's Chinese Army needed nearly 200 of them during the invasion of Tibet: because while it is POSSIBLE to make do without them, it sure is a [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch HELL]] of a lot easier with them. That, and they were in the middle of an effing civil war of their own making, one which might get a lot larger depending on the intervention of the West (ESPECIALLY India) and/or China, both of whom would certainly be bringing heavy firepower. So it makes sense that Lararevic would want as much firepower as possible to carve their way through the civil war and possibly ward off any attempt by anybody to disrupt the expedition.
*** Lazarevic wasn't taking those tanks into the city. He was taking them into the ''mountains''. You know, the exact terrain where tanks are at their least effective? How was he even able to get his other tank up to the Tibetan village when it was seated at the top of a high mountain with a sharp incline on all sides, anyway?
*** You are forgetting that "Least effective" does not mean "not effective," particularly since those in the mountains and other areas where tanks are unlikely to pop up tend to be prepared for them the least. And he might be taking them because it's better to do so than to abandon them and thus have them get picked up by one of the sides in the civil war and thus lost to his arsenal. As for how they get the tank up there, well I believe it would involve extremely complicated and low-tech pullies, amongst other things.
*** Complicated = a long time to assemble. No good. And mountains are craggy and steep enough that "least effective" ''could'' mean "not effective" for tanks.
*** Drake himself mentions this several times, including during the tank battle. But honestly? It's TankGoodness, or perhaps Everything's Better With Tanks?
*** He's taking on ''Nathan Friggin' Drake''. Why didn't he bring a dozen more tanks?
** Lazarevic has a sizeable air force. It's possible he had the tank air-lifted into the village, where it does plenty of damage. He's just the sort to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

* Lazarevic attempts to pull a NotSoDifferent on Drake, despite killing goons who tore apart civilians, rebels, and some more civilians for, as far as
Descendants. Maybe they're concerned, a stone that's just really fucking expensive. [[spoiler:Drake hesitates, though that's arguably due to the Guardians about to beat the living shit out of Lazarevic.]]
** [[spoiler:This becomes FridgeBrilliance when you realize that by refusing to kill him himself, Drake completely invalidates Lazarevic's worldview regarding compassion and completely denies the BigBad any type of moral victory he thought he still had.]]
*** [[spoiler:That, or because he was carrying an M4, which we know does piss-shit damage to guys like him, while Guardians mauling the shit out of others who have drank from the Tree of Life might be more effective.]]

* Gamesradar has already done an article that points out that Drake destroyed [[spoiler:a peaceful paradise full of enlightened folk who only were defending their own home. Besides, he DID destroy the Tree of Life, which, while yes, could have been abused, research on it could have had all sort of medical breakthroughs. Drake destroyed priceless historical ruins, exterminated a miraculous tree which was the only one of its kind, and single-handedly wiped out a whole sub-culture, effectively commiting genocide.]] [[SarcasmMode Way to go, Drake.]]
** Link, please?
** Enlightened? ''That's'' what you call people who shoot first, ask later, never try to be calm and rational, and drink the sap that works like a mix of Forced Evolutionary Virus and crack?
*** They were defending their home from invaders - the first invaders in hundreds of years. When colonists first arrived
smarter than they show us in the United States game.
** Notice that the Descendants do actually wear loincloths
and tried to take resources and land from the Native Americans, the natives were seen as "primitive" and barbaric because necklaces. Plus they fought back - it's appear to have stalked Drake for a while; after they encounter the same principle. Shambhala has only remained safe because of its isolation - when foreigners enter their city, clearly heavily armed, how would trap Drake says "we're being watched", and you expect can hear them to react? Really, the best option would've been to leave well alone, possibly taking back some of the sap for medical studies.
*** Unfortunately, Lazarevic would ''not'' have left well enough alone, and if he escaped, we have a damn near invincible nutcase with a damn near invincible army on our hands. And it may be my imagination, but it didn't seem as if the Guardians were really living
moving in Shambhala - the place was crumbling a temple long before the characters arrived. So they don't maintain it, they just drink the sap and attack whoever enters without trying to negotiate (which should be easy enough, since they're almost immune to bullets. But they don't even try). Hardly sounds peaceful or 'enlightened' (and I'd like a definition of that one, please). Don't get me wrong, I wish the city hadn't been destroyed, I wish the Tree could have been preserved, but ultimately there weren't many options.
** "A peaceful paradise full of enlightened folk who only were defending their own home" is not how one would describe a near-unintelligible and AxCrazy people whose "scarecrows" dress up as monsters, roar like predators, and try their hardest to beat
you to death on sight, especially when they have enough advantages to make negotiation safe (immunity from bullets, for instance). Watching the finale, actually see them. I think it's apparent possible that Shambala's destruction was a side-effect of offing Lazarevic, unintentional and regrettable, not a case of deliberate vandalism as implied here.
** Shambala's Guardians
the Descendants are actually sentient, but have an overpowering urge to protect El Dorado (or just really bad tempers) which makes them appear to have devolved or degenerated over be just animals.
** Since
the centuries, probably as a side effect of abusing the sap from the Tree of Life. Whatever Shambala once was, its not Descendants spend all their screen time trying to kill somebody, it's anybody's guess what they get up to when no one is around. Their most obvious trait is that they are suicidally determined to kill any longer, it probably wasnt even by Marco Polos day since he hid the path there, and non-infected human they come across. Setting traps seems to be another means of doing that.

* If
Nathan destroying the place is probably for the best. The sap would just have brought even more destruction to the world.

* Why didn't Nate shoot the sap ''before'' Lazarevic drank it, and save himself (and the player) [[ThatOneBoss a truly frustrating experience]]?
** As mentioned above, the sap could mean miracles for the medical industry - maybe a part of
Drake hoped has any doubt about not being a biological heir of Sir Francis Drake then why doesn't he go back to take down Lazarevic without endangering the Tree of Life so that he could claim some of the sap for himself (he is a treasure hunter, after all) cursed island and take it back for study.
*** So shoot Lazarevic.
*** [[IdiotHero Because Mr. Drake is the Hero, and according to the Rules of Heroes, you're not supposed to shoot the bad guy until he's done powering himself up. After all, you need to give this]] bastard [[IdiotHero a fair chance of battle, no?]]
*** Not even ''that'' completely fits -
Drake's an AntiHero, not a straight-laced hero, and several levels earlier, he had [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway taken a man hostage]], one of the Things a Hero (Generally) Does Not Do.
*** Perhaps he was just honestly curious whether it work. That's what I chalked it up to. His curiosity overcame his rational impulse for a moment. At the wrong moment.
*** That makes sense given his habit of examining whatever artifact he's just found there and then, no matter how dangerous a place he might be in, and ignoring other characters when they tell him
dead body back to hurry up and keep moving. I think he's just prone to thinking irrationally whenever he's confronted with something he finds interesting.
*** There's one other thing to remember: Lazarevic ''wasn't alone''. He had several mooks there with him. Oh, sure, Nate's gunned down hundreds of bad guys, but he did that (mostly) out of necessity, such as when he was cornered, or when there were bad guys between him and where he needed to go, and when he had the chance to sneak up on people, he had a) the benefit of backup, and b)
civilization? They can run a minute or two to think things over. In this situation, he's got the drop DNA test on the bad guys, but Lazarevic is ''seconds'' away from drinking the sap, Nate's tired, beat up, body and not feeling too good, and the tactical situation is not in his favor. He stops to catch his breath, maybe not necessarily believing in the healing power of the sap (or at least not believing that see if it matches with his; or would be nearly instantaneous), or more like because he just ''doesn't know'' about the healing power of the sap. It's never been shown to do such finding DNA in the game before, and the resin is just violently explosive. So, all things considered, Nate takes a moment to catch his breath in preparation of taking on bad odds, Lazarevic drinks the sap, and then he realizes he should've acted first, too late to do anything about it.

* Between the events of Drake's Fortune and Among Theives. As we know at the end of Drakes Fortune Nate makes off with several crates worth of Spanish colonial gold and othersuch treasure; so, with all that money why did he not buy himself a bulletproof vest? Or at least a flak jacket? Instead opting to rush into a gunfight unarmored? (Side note: I will not accept the answer that it would hinder agility, the Mooks seem to do fine in that aspect.)
** Nate really doesn't expect to get into gunfights. He's a treasure hunter; technically the places he's exploring shouldn't have any guards that aren't
corpse hundreds of years dead. Most of the time he doesn't even seem to carry a ''gun''. He should probably know better by now, but could we have a scene with SexySoakedShirt with a flak jacketed Nate? No, we could not. And what a waste that would be.
*** Except he initiates the conflict between him and Lazarevic by strolling into the latter's camp, blowing stuff up, and killing guards. Then he goes to a city that he ''knows'' Lazarevic has filled with people who want to kill him. Both times, he had plenty of time to go and buy a bulletproof vest at a store or order one online. And it's not like vests are hyper-expensive; the vast majority of them cost less than $1000, and you can easily find some for less than $500. Even if he was strapped for cash, a vest would
old be a valuable investment.
*** The first thing: Chloe was directing them through that, and it was on her orders they started shooting up the camp. The second thing: I don't think Nate expected Lazarevic to start a civil war just to cover him finding the right temple. But you have a point - maybe Nate was seriously strapped for cash after getting out of that jail?
*** Sully and Chloe, however, ''aren't'' poor. Right before they go into Lazarevic's camp, Nate could say to Chloe, "Oh, hey, do you think I could borrow some money to buy some protection just in case everything goes to hell? I'll pay you back ten times once we find the Cintimani Stone."
*** Actually, ''they are poor''. Sully specifically states when he busts Nate out of the Turkish prison that he "had to blow through [Nate's] entire stash, and a good part of [his] own" to do so. And Chloe is, prior to the opening of the game, working with Lazarevic, implying that she needs money enough to work with a psychopath.
*** I would not trust Nathan Drake as far as I could throw him with a promise like that, even if I was certain he'd find the Stone (which they aren't). Would you?
too difficult?
** Even if he was strapped for cash, he surely could have looted one off a guard he had killed by headshot or stealth attack at some point. He's got about the most generic body frame one could imagine. That said, he probably didn't want it because it would interfere with his parkour.
** Sully states in the scene after the failed heist that he had to use the last of
If there's water where Drake's loot to bail him out corpse is, it might make it exceedingly difficult. The theory of that Turkish prison, so no more treasure after that point.
** Plus, Nate doesn't think that far ahead. For all he knows, at the beginning of every adventure, he's just going somewhere remote and quiet and making off with some previously-hidden treasure.

* How did Lazarevic just stroll into Kathmandu (the city) and cause a civil war
ancient DNA testing is split in it without any form of retaliation from the Nepalese Army? Kathmandu ''is'' politically unstable in real life, but what's basically happening is a mercenary group waltzing into Nepal's capital city and largest metropolitan center and not only destroying it but ransacking its temples, some of which are over five hundred years old, and thereby destroying a large part of its cultural heritage. And half, one side saying it's not like Nathan and Lazarevic got there at possible, the same time, and Nepal simply hasn't responded yet; other saying that it's heavily implied impossible. There's been general infighting among the Egyptian Archaeological scene over the ability to test mummified remains, and Drake's corpse looks like it isn't a traditional, manufactured mummy.
** Plus, Drake would have to convince so many people to do a DNA test on him and Francis to see if they matched. Plus, there's a good chance Nate isn't descended from Francis, so why ruin the fun and mystery of it?
** The main reason is because a DNA test wouldn't have proven anything. Sir Francis lived several centuries ago, there's no way Nate and him share the same DNA. Tens of generations will have ensured
that Lazarevic Nate and Sir Francis are as genetically identical as two random strangers on the street.
** ''Uncharted 3''
has been there for made this moot since Nate is really [[spoiler:some orphaned kid with no verifiable connection to Francis Drake at least days by the time Nathan arrives. Additionally, the Nepalese Army all]].

* There
is headquartered in Kathmandu, and so should a door where you have lots of troops there already. to ShootOutTheLock. Nate can kick the locked door all day and not have it budge an inch, but after shooting the lock, he kicks the door and it falls off its hinges. How did the lock keep the door secured to the wall?

* How exactly are the Descendants ... ''descendants''?
Did Naughty Dog simply forget that Nepal has an army?
** I think they did. I mean,
the Spaniards or the Nazis bring women with them in their units? Because I'm pretty sure Nepal would not just stand there while some mercenary punk ran around hurting its people and culture. I think they forgot either by accident or because they didn't want to bother including another sub-plot where the Nepalese Army comes in.
*** Perhaps Lazarevic hired his private army out to one side or another as a cover. Possibly to the Nepalese government to put down the rebels.
*** Imagine the government's reaction in that situation; it's not like he can brush off everything as collateral damage:
---->'''Nepal:''' "Hey, thanks for offering to fight the rebels with us, that's a big- '''''WHY ARE YOU DESTROYING OUR CAPITAL?!'''''"\\
'''Lazarevic:''' "Um... I want shiny?"
*** The Nepalese military *REEEAAAALLLY* is not the world's finest, to put it generously. They
those sorts of expedition crews were stalemated and arguably *lost* a ten year war against Maoist guerrillas who were largely operating off of table scraps and what they could seize (and the occasional aid from RedChina and India's [[DirtyCommunists Naxalites]] that nobody wants to acknowledge) when they themselves were equipped with aid from the better chunk of the Western world for starters. In addition, as far as armed forces go, they're rather small even for the country's size, at less than 100,00, of which 40,000 aren't regulars, usually all men during both of whom are of uneven quality from battle-hardened veterans of said 10-year civil war to "very green" to "worse than very green". Lazarevic's army those time periods. It doesn't have to be *large*, help that all it has to be is comparatively high quality in personnel and equipment and with the proper preparation. If Lazarevic restarts the old civil war and forces the government to commit most of its' troops out to the outlying countryside *like they did during the war with the Maoists*, he can probably waltz in fairly easily and occupy a large section of the capital and resist any attempts to dislodge him by either side unless they were willing to take punishing if not crippling losses to do it (and thus open themselves up to exploitation by their native enemy). If he guards his territory fairly well and acts relatively unambitiously (basically, what he is: a looter looking for goodies rather than some filibuster trying to take the country over), it's quite possible the government and their enemies (be they Maoist or otherwise) would judge that they have bigger fish to fry and assume they can deal with him once the situation's stabilized enough that they can free up enough men to evict an elite mercenary army from their capital. TL;DR: Lazarevic doesn't have to destroy the Nepalese military or government. All he has to do is beat them up enough until they are forced to fully commit themselves to the civil war and leave him alone, something he can *probably* do. Add *that* to potential covers like signing on officially with one sides (and remember: they only can't prove it's collateral damage if somebody witnesses it, which given Lazarevic is... [[LeaveNoSurvivors unlikely.]]
*** The thing is, Nepal's army isn't even ''mentioned''. The developers could've just handwaved it with, "Now that the guerrillas have been pushed out of this section of the city, the army isn't interested in it anymore,
so Lazarevic can search unimpeded. It's just you and him now." Additionally (I could be wrong here, correct me if so), restarting a civil war takes time. I'm assuming Nathan headed for Kathmandu as soon as possible, which I'm guessing is about a week. However, Lazarevic gets there first ''and'' tears enough of the city apart to make it seem like he got the war started up in a few days, which doesn't sound like enough time to me. Furthermore, the party behind the guerrillas was the ruling party of Nepal when the game was made (and still is). Finally, leaving absolutely ''no'' survivors is incredibly difficult, especially in urban warfare. A few soldiers and armed policemen are likely called "Descendants" in-game appear to be left behind to hold down the fort, so to speak, and if even ''one'' of them sees Lazarevic's brutality and escapes to warn Nepal, the army is likely to focus on fighting a defensive war against the guerrillas and try to oust Lazarevic instead; what's the point of winning a war if the thing you won is ravaged? And Lazarevic can't have too many of his men in the city, or he'll draw attention to himself and the destruction he's causing.
*** The army is fighting against the rebels. The civil war isn't one in which Lazarevic is directly involved, he just formented it so he could sweep in and take advantage of the chaos to turn the city upside-down without raising too many eyebrows (since the city ''was already a warzone'').

* Why would Lazarevic have a helicopter following the train? It makes little to no sense to deploy a helicopter to scour a train just in case some guy jumps on, and the pilot, quite frankly, is a moron, firing missiles at his own train just to kill one guy. When he starts blowing cars off the train, you'd think someone would radio Lazarevic and go, "Uh, sir, Dominic is being a douche; he's destroying the train." And what's up with that turret in the middle of a passenger car? If it was on a flatcar, I could understand, but sticking it in a passenger car restricts its effective firing area to a relatively tiny margin and provides a very easy way to get around it.
** Lazarevic is supposed to be both aggressively insane and unsubtle in his approach to hunting for artefacts. Having a chopper follow the train (and scout the city) is an extra measure he's taken, but then he's already carting around his own private militia on a treasure hunt before he even knows there's going to be any resistance. By then, he already knows Drake is hard to kill, so having a chopper patrol the train just in case anybody hitches an easy ride is consistent with his character.
** The reason to have a helicopter is obvious: It's scouting the tracks ahead of the train. He's just triggered a civil war, so he obviously can't rely on the typical radio network to have people report stopped trains or obstructions, so he sends one of his attack helos to do it.

* In the train level, was the level moving around the train, or the train moving through the level? From a rendering standpoint, I mean.
** I believe Naughty Dog stated that the level is the train moving through the scenery, instead of the other way around. I don't believe it actually makes a difference in terms of rendering, though.

* You find two expeditions related to the Cintimani stone that end up with people getting too powerful and ending up killing each other. First, there's the massacred bodies in the temple in Borneo, where Drake first finds skeletons with black teeth, and second, there's Schafer's expedition, the members of which Schafer had to kill. Presumably, in both cases, the victims had drunk the tree sap and become intoxicated. So how could they be killed? The sap makes one effectively bulletproof and invulnerable.
** Not invulnerable ''or'' bulletproof. Just tough. They could be killed.
universally male...
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!! Navigation: [[Headscratchers/UnchartedDrakesFortune Drake's Fortune]] | Among Thieves | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted3DrakesDeception Drake's Deception]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedGoldenAbyss Golden Abyss]] | [[Headscratchers/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd A Thief's End]] | [[Headscratchers/UnchartedTheLostLegacy The Lost Legacy]] | [[Headscratchers/{{Uncharted}} Main Page]]

* Elena at the end of the game doesn't believe the "curse" of the cintimani stone, however this is the same lady who saw what the stone does to people, but more importantly the events of the first game!!! She forgot what she lived through or what?
** ArbitrarySkepticism at its finest - while she saw for herself what the El Dorado "statue" did, it could be that she's still dismissing that as a one-off and refuses to believe that on her next big adventure, she will once again encounter something supernatural (after all, in reality what would the chances be?). Also she had no chance to be skeptical about El Dorado - she didn't even know what it really was until ''after'' they'd encountered the mutant Spaniards - whereas she's known about the "curse" for a while and dismisses it as an urban myth.
** Exactly. You'd have to be touched in the head to think everything supernatural is true just because of ''one'' instance of seeing something like a zombie plague.
*** Also, Elena saw exactly how El Dorado's "curse" worked, whereas she had no idea about the details of the Cintimani stone's own curse or even any evidence that the stone itself existed. On the other hand, she has plenty of evidence to think Lazarevic is insane. The main reason a curse exists at all is because it's a story, and it would be a little anticlimactic if it turned out to be nothing special.

* Why, oh ''why'' did Flynn try to kamikaze Nathan's group? Yes, he's still pissed at Nathan... for... ''something''... but he appeared to be trying to spare Chloe, and didn't like Lazarevic one bit. Yes, Lazarevic most likely took his only gun, but at that point, he was separated from the group, due to the guardians, and could have snapped up a pistol from one of the dead goons.
** In fact, I still can't remember why Flynn hates Drake. Besides getting snarked at all the time.
*** I don't think it's so much Flynn ''hating'' Drake so much as it is him not caring about him. And caring about the money more. And possibly being terribly jealous of Drake's mad skills.
*** Flynn wouldn't have jihaded Nathan if he didn't care.
*** He was already bleeding to death from a gunshot wound. He just wanted to take as many people as possible with him. As for him hating Nate: remember that he was trying to spare Chloe. That means he wanted her for himself. He might have known about their relationship from the beginning and just played dumb like he did with the ships.
*** Given Chloe's "mostly professional" line and the fact that he specifically asked for her to be spared, it's possible he worked out that she and Nate used to be an item and got homicidally jealous.
*** Oh, Flynn knew, and he hated Nate's guts for it. If he didn't figure it out earlier, he almost certainly guessed when Chloe gave Nate the dagger in the monastery, which would have been a severe blow to the ego (the hot woman liked Nate enough to ''give him'' the key to Shambhala, and to top it off he swiftly worked out how to use it to open the door). Also, it was kinda because of Nate that Lazarevic shot Flynn. After thinking about it, I suspect Flynn's explodicide was aimed at both Drake and Elena - because killing Elena would take her away from Drake as Drake took Chloe from Flynn, one last great big "Screw You".
*** When Drake and Flynn are forced to work together near the end, Drake calls him a "backstabbing son-of-a-bitch", to which Flynn replies "Yeah, well you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?", so presumably Flynn feels that Drake betrayed him in some way. YMMV as to whether this refers to him screwing Chloe or some NoodleIncident in the past. If it was the latter, Drake apparently didn't think it was a major friendship-ending event, since he was happy to see Flynn at the start, and trusted him without question during the museum job.

* Nate's attitude toward Chloe in the second half of the game makes no sense. She pretends to be on Lazarevic's side to cover them, but when Lazarevic and Flynn walk in on her ''holding a gun on Nate's group'' (to cover for them, but the bad guys don't know that) and take her to the train, Nate thinks from some reason that she's being held prisoner and immediately risks ''everything'' to try to save her. Even a moron could tell that she was just playing along! Then, at the monastery, he runs into her again, still playing along. She claims that she didn't know they were there and is just trying to save herself (pretty obvious), and yet Nate still treats her like crap until she gives him the dagger. This is the dagger she ''needs'' to find the secret door with to live, so Nate's possibly sending her to her death without it. Pretty nice and observant guy, ain't he?
** When she's taken on the train, it's implied pretty heavily that Flynn has figured out she's betrayed him and is working with Nathan. IIRC this is confirmed when you find her on the train and she is being treated significantly worse by Flynn than she was during the opening portions of the game.
*** Flynn sure didn't act like he knew Chloe had betrayed him, and if so, it didn't look like he told Lazarevic. But if he did know, then why did a) she want to stay on the train, or b), he keep her alive? If someone sold me out, I'd kill them or keep them within sight at all times. If I was being held captive by someone who I sold out and they knew about it, I'd want to leave [=ASAP=]. If Flynn knows Chloe's not loyal to Lazarevic, she's nothing but a liability. I mean, when when Flynn comes after her on the train, just before Nathan blows it up, she's just killed one of his men, and she tries to defend Nate as he's running away on the train. Think of this from Flynn's perspective: he comes upon Nate and Chloe arguing. He shoots Nate, but Nate runs away, and Chloe attempts to defend him. And he still lets her roam fairly free without telling Lazarevic about it ''at all''. Double IdiotBall, maybe? And Nate ''still'' has no reason to treat her like he did in the monastery.
*** I think Nate was mad at Chloe mostly because of who she is. She has made it clear from past actions that at the end of the day she will always look at for number 1 - herself. While she'll try to help those she cares about, ultimately when she is backed into a wall, she put herself above others, which is the opposite of Nate. This becomes her turning point in character when she refuses to leave [[spoiler:Elena]] behind. Chloe defiantly has the most character development in this game.
*** Well, that makes sense. I guess it was just weird to see Nate swing from well-meaning on the train to jerk in the monastery. [[GrammarNazi And it's "definitely", not "defiantly".]]
*** [[OverlyLongGag Chloe has the most character development against all instructions to the contrary. She was specifically told to be a stagnating character but she just had to go ahead and grow a conscience.]]
* So, Elena apparently caught up with the train by "following the tracks to the wreckage". But at the end of the first train level, the helicopter blasts a car so that it winds up blocking the tunnel, rendering the tunnel unusable. Furthermore, how could Elena know where Nate went when she got to the wreckage? The falling snow would cover up most of his tracks.
** The road didn't follow the tracks exactly for most of the route anyway, so she probably saw roughly where the tracks were headed and took the nearest alterative route. We don't know how far Tamzin's village is from the wreck site, but it is connected to the road network - Elena likely saw that there was no trace of Drake at the wreck and headed for the nearest settlement to see if they knew anything.
* Late in the game, [[spoiler:Flynn]] conveniently runs off to talk to Lazarevic, thus getting out of the player's way. That is to say, he stopped his work to talk to his hair-triggered psychopath of a boss, after said boss furiously stated his displeasure with [[spoiler:Flynn's]] lack of progress in his work. He couldn't possibly be charming enough to survive ''that''.
** And nobody is good enough to survive getting in Nathan Drake's way. Doesn't mean they KNOW that, though. The same explanation goes for the Lazarevic one.
** Lazarevic knows that Drake is the more adept treasure hunter than Flynn - I think he even says that he wishes he'd hired Drake. Flynn himself probably realises this on some level so his plan may have been to stay out of the way and let Drake find the path to Shambhala for him - which is exactly what ended up happening. If Flynn stuck around, Drake was not going to search and knowingly lead Lazarevic there.
** Sully points out early on that Flynn has been leading Lazarevic's expedition for months without result. It's possible Flynn is capable of sweet-talking his way out of trouble, as he'd have to if he could get away with being ''that'' incompetent for so long. He even seems to have enough clout to talk Lazarevic out of killing Chloe, despite Lazarevic's obvious hatred for traitors. Flynn may simply have reached the limit of his charm by the time the game nears its end, when Lazarevic effectively kills him.

* During the train level, Nate crosses a flatbed car with a tank and comments, "What do they need a tank for?" Later, the tank is [[{{Foreshadowing}} a major boss]]. However, the tank was on the section of train that got blown off when the helicopter first shows up during the train level... so they shouldn't've had the tank later in the game. While the bad guys could've had two tanks, what do they need ''two'' tanks for ''in the Himalayas''?
** For the same reason Mao's Chinese Army needed nearly 200 of them during the invasion of Tibet: because while it is POSSIBLE to make do without them, it sure is a [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch HELL]] of a lot easier with them. That, and they were in the middle of an effing civil war of their own making, one which might get a lot larger depending on the intervention of the West (ESPECIALLY India) and/or China, both of whom would certainly be bringing heavy firepower. So it makes sense that Lararevic would want as much firepower as possible to carve their way through the civil war and possibly ward off any attempt by anybody to disrupt the expedition.
*** Lazarevic wasn't taking those tanks into the city. He was taking them into the ''mountains''. You know, the exact terrain where tanks are at their least effective? How was he even able to get his other tank up to the Tibetan village when it was seated at the top of a high mountain with a sharp incline on all sides, anyway?
*** You are forgetting that "Least effective" does not mean "not effective," particularly since those in the mountains and other areas where tanks are unlikely to pop up tend to be prepared for them the least. And he might be taking them because it's better to do so than to abandon them and thus have them get picked up by one of the sides in the civil war and thus lost to his arsenal. As for how they get the tank up there, well I believe it would involve extremely complicated and low-tech pullies, amongst other things.
*** Complicated = a long time to assemble. No good. And mountains are craggy and steep enough that "least effective" ''could'' mean "not effective" for tanks.
*** Drake himself mentions this several times, including during the tank battle. But honestly? It's TankGoodness, or perhaps Everything's Better With Tanks?
*** He's taking on ''Nathan Friggin' Drake''. Why didn't he bring a dozen more tanks?
** Lazarevic has a sizeable air force. It's possible he had the tank air-lifted into the village, where it does plenty of damage. He's just the sort to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

* Lazarevic attempts to pull a NotSoDifferent on Drake, despite killing goons who tore apart civilians, rebels, and some more civilians for, as far as they're concerned, a stone that's just really fucking expensive. [[spoiler:Drake hesitates, though that's arguably due to the Guardians about to beat the living shit out of Lazarevic.]]
** [[spoiler:This becomes FridgeBrilliance when you realize that by refusing to kill him himself, Drake completely invalidates Lazarevic's worldview regarding compassion and completely denies the BigBad any type of moral victory he thought he still had.]]
*** [[spoiler:That, or because he was carrying an M4, which we know does piss-shit damage to guys like him, while Guardians mauling the shit out of others who have drank from the Tree of Life might be more effective.]]

* Gamesradar has already done an article that points out that Drake destroyed [[spoiler:a peaceful paradise full of enlightened folk who only were defending their own home. Besides, he DID destroy the Tree of Life, which, while yes, could have been abused, research on it could have had all sort of medical breakthroughs. Drake destroyed priceless historical ruins, exterminated a miraculous tree which was the only one of its kind, and single-handedly wiped out a whole sub-culture, effectively commiting genocide.]] [[SarcasmMode Way to go, Drake.]]
** Link, please?
** Enlightened? ''That's'' what you call people who shoot first, ask later, never try to be calm and rational, and drink the sap that works like a mix of Forced Evolutionary Virus and crack?
*** They were defending their home from invaders - the first invaders in hundreds of years. When colonists first arrived in the United States and tried to take resources and land from the Native Americans, the natives were seen as "primitive" and barbaric because they fought back - it's the same principle. Shambhala has only remained safe because of its isolation - when foreigners enter their city, clearly heavily armed, how would you expect them to react? Really, the best option would've been to leave well alone, possibly taking back some of the sap for medical studies.
*** Unfortunately, Lazarevic would ''not'' have left well enough alone, and if he escaped, we have a damn near invincible nutcase with a damn near invincible army on our hands. And it may be my imagination, but it didn't seem as if the Guardians were really living in Shambhala - the place was crumbling before the characters arrived. So they don't maintain it, they just drink the sap and attack whoever enters without trying to negotiate (which should be easy enough, since they're almost immune to bullets. But they don't even try). Hardly sounds peaceful or 'enlightened' (and I'd like a definition of that one, please). Don't get me wrong, I wish the city hadn't been destroyed, I wish the Tree could have been preserved, but ultimately there weren't many options.
** "A peaceful paradise full of enlightened folk who only were defending their own home" is not how one would describe a near-unintelligible and AxCrazy people whose "scarecrows" dress up as monsters, roar like predators, and try their hardest to beat you to death on sight, especially when they have enough advantages to make negotiation safe (immunity from bullets, for instance). Watching the finale, I think it's apparent that Shambala's destruction was a side-effect of offing Lazarevic, unintentional and regrettable, not a case of deliberate vandalism as implied here.
** Shambala's Guardians appear to have devolved or degenerated over the centuries, probably as a side effect of abusing the sap from the Tree of Life. Whatever Shambala once was, its not any longer, it probably wasnt even by Marco Polos day since he hid the path there, and Nathan destroying the place is probably for the best. The sap would just have brought even more destruction to the world.

* Why didn't Nate shoot the sap ''before'' Lazarevic drank it, and save himself (and the player) [[ThatOneBoss a truly frustrating experience]]?
** As mentioned above, the sap could mean miracles for the medical industry - maybe a part of Drake hoped to take down Lazarevic without endangering the Tree of Life so that he could claim some of the sap for himself (he is a treasure hunter, after all) and take it back for study.
*** So shoot Lazarevic.
*** [[IdiotHero Because Mr. Drake is the Hero, and according to the Rules of Heroes, you're not supposed to shoot the bad guy until he's done powering himself up. After all, you need to give this]] bastard [[IdiotHero a fair chance of battle, no?]]
*** Not even ''that'' completely fits - Drake's an AntiHero, not a straight-laced hero, and several levels earlier, he had [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway taken a man hostage]], one of the Things a Hero (Generally) Does Not Do.
*** Perhaps he was just honestly curious whether it work. That's what I chalked it up to. His curiosity overcame his rational impulse for a moment. At the wrong moment.
*** That makes sense given his habit of examining whatever artifact he's just found there and then, no matter how dangerous a place he might be in, and ignoring other characters when they tell him to hurry up and keep moving. I think he's just prone to thinking irrationally whenever he's confronted with something he finds interesting.
*** There's one other thing to remember: Lazarevic ''wasn't alone''. He had several mooks there with him. Oh, sure, Nate's gunned down hundreds of bad guys, but he did that (mostly) out of necessity, such as when he was cornered, or when there were bad guys between him and where he needed to go, and when he had the chance to sneak up on people, he had a) the benefit of backup, and b) a minute or two to think things over. In this situation, he's got the drop on the bad guys, but Lazarevic is ''seconds'' away from drinking the sap, Nate's tired, beat up, and not feeling too good, and the tactical situation is not in his favor. He stops to catch his breath, maybe not necessarily believing in the healing power of the sap (or at least not believing that it would be nearly instantaneous), or more like because he just ''doesn't know'' about the healing power of the sap. It's never been shown to do such in the game before, and the resin is just violently explosive. So, all things considered, Nate takes a moment to catch his breath in preparation of taking on bad odds, Lazarevic drinks the sap, and then he realizes he should've acted first, too late to do anything about it.

* Between the events of Drake's Fortune and Among Theives. As we know at the end of Drakes Fortune Nate makes off with several crates worth of Spanish colonial gold and othersuch treasure; so, with all that money why did he not buy himself a bulletproof vest? Or at least a flak jacket? Instead opting to rush into a gunfight unarmored? (Side note: I will not accept the answer that it would hinder agility, the Mooks seem to do fine in that aspect.)
** Nate really doesn't expect to get into gunfights. He's a treasure hunter; technically the places he's exploring shouldn't have any guards that aren't hundreds of years dead. Most of the time he doesn't even seem to carry a ''gun''. He should probably know better by now, but could we have a scene with SexySoakedShirt with a flak jacketed Nate? No, we could not. And what a waste that would be.
*** Except he initiates the conflict between him and Lazarevic by strolling into the latter's camp, blowing stuff up, and killing guards. Then he goes to a city that he ''knows'' Lazarevic has filled with people who want to kill him. Both times, he had plenty of time to go and buy a bulletproof vest at a store or order one online. And it's not like vests are hyper-expensive; the vast majority of them cost less than $1000, and you can easily find some for less than $500. Even if he was strapped for cash, a vest would be a valuable investment.
*** The first thing: Chloe was directing them through that, and it was on her orders they started shooting up the camp. The second thing: I don't think Nate expected Lazarevic to start a civil war just to cover him finding the right temple. But you have a point - maybe Nate was seriously strapped for cash after getting out of that jail?
*** Sully and Chloe, however, ''aren't'' poor. Right before they go into Lazarevic's camp, Nate could say to Chloe, "Oh, hey, do you think I could borrow some money to buy some protection just in case everything goes to hell? I'll pay you back ten times once we find the Cintimani Stone."
*** Actually, ''they are poor''. Sully specifically states when he busts Nate out of the Turkish prison that he "had to blow through [Nate's] entire stash, and a good part of [his] own" to do so. And Chloe is, prior to the opening of the game, working with Lazarevic, implying that she needs money enough to work with a psychopath.
*** I would not trust Nathan Drake as far as I could throw him with a promise like that, even if I was certain he'd find the Stone (which they aren't). Would you?
** Even if he was strapped for cash, he surely could have looted one off a guard he had killed by headshot or stealth attack at some point. He's got about the most generic body frame one could imagine. That said, he probably didn't want it because it would interfere with his parkour.
** Sully states in the scene after the failed heist that he had to use the last of Drake's loot to bail him out of that Turkish prison, so no more treasure after that point.
** Plus, Nate doesn't think that far ahead. For all he knows, at the beginning of every adventure, he's just going somewhere remote and quiet and making off with some previously-hidden treasure.

* How did Lazarevic just stroll into Kathmandu (the city) and cause a civil war in it without any form of retaliation from the Nepalese Army? Kathmandu ''is'' politically unstable in real life, but what's basically happening is a mercenary group waltzing into Nepal's capital city and largest metropolitan center and not only destroying it but ransacking its temples, some of which are over five hundred years old, and thereby destroying a large part of its cultural heritage. And it's not like Nathan and Lazarevic got there at the same time, and Nepal simply hasn't responded yet; it's heavily implied that Lazarevic has been there for at least days by the time Nathan arrives. Additionally, the Nepalese Army is headquartered in Kathmandu, and so should have lots of troops there already. Did Naughty Dog simply forget that Nepal has an army?
** I think they did. I mean, I'm pretty sure Nepal would not just stand there while some mercenary punk ran around hurting its people and culture. I think they forgot either by accident or because they didn't want to bother including another sub-plot where the Nepalese Army comes in.
*** Perhaps Lazarevic hired his private army out to one side or another as a cover. Possibly to the Nepalese government to put down the rebels.
*** Imagine the government's reaction in that situation; it's not like he can brush off everything as collateral damage:
---->'''Nepal:''' "Hey, thanks for offering to fight the rebels with us, that's a big- '''''WHY ARE YOU DESTROYING OUR CAPITAL?!'''''"\\
'''Lazarevic:''' "Um... I want shiny?"
*** The Nepalese military *REEEAAAALLLY* is not the world's finest, to put it generously. They were stalemated and arguably *lost* a ten year war against Maoist guerrillas who were largely operating off of table scraps and what they could seize (and the occasional aid from RedChina and India's [[DirtyCommunists Naxalites]] that nobody wants to acknowledge) when they themselves were equipped with aid from the better chunk of the Western world for starters. In addition, as far as armed forces go, they're rather small even for the country's size, at less than 100,00, of which 40,000 aren't regulars, all of whom are of uneven quality from battle-hardened veterans of said 10-year civil war to "very green" to "worse than very green". Lazarevic's army doesn't have to be *large*, all it has to be is comparatively high quality in personnel and equipment and with the proper preparation. If Lazarevic restarts the old civil war and forces the government to commit most of its' troops out to the outlying countryside *like they did during the war with the Maoists*, he can probably waltz in fairly easily and occupy a large section of the capital and resist any attempts to dislodge him by either side unless they were willing to take punishing if not crippling losses to do it (and thus open themselves up to exploitation by their native enemy). If he guards his territory fairly well and acts relatively unambitiously (basically, what he is: a looter looking for goodies rather than some filibuster trying to take the country over), it's quite possible the government and their enemies (be they Maoist or otherwise) would judge that they have bigger fish to fry and assume they can deal with him once the situation's stabilized enough that they can free up enough men to evict an elite mercenary army from their capital. TL;DR: Lazarevic doesn't have to destroy the Nepalese military or government. All he has to do is beat them up enough until they are forced to fully commit themselves to the civil war and leave him alone, something he can *probably* do. Add *that* to potential covers like signing on officially with one sides (and remember: they only can't prove it's collateral damage if somebody witnesses it, which given Lazarevic is... [[LeaveNoSurvivors unlikely.]]
*** The thing is, Nepal's army isn't even ''mentioned''. The developers could've just handwaved it with, "Now that the guerrillas have been pushed out of this section of the city, the army isn't interested in it anymore, so Lazarevic can search unimpeded. It's just you and him now." Additionally (I could be wrong here, correct me if so), restarting a civil war takes time. I'm assuming Nathan headed for Kathmandu as soon as possible, which I'm guessing is about a week. However, Lazarevic gets there first ''and'' tears enough of the city apart to make it seem like he got the war started up in a few days, which doesn't sound like enough time to me. Furthermore, the party behind the guerrillas was the ruling party of Nepal when the game was made (and still is). Finally, leaving absolutely ''no'' survivors is incredibly difficult, especially in urban warfare. A few soldiers and armed policemen are likely to be left behind to hold down the fort, so to speak, and if even ''one'' of them sees Lazarevic's brutality and escapes to warn Nepal, the army is likely to focus on fighting a defensive war against the guerrillas and try to oust Lazarevic instead; what's the point of winning a war if the thing you won is ravaged? And Lazarevic can't have too many of his men in the city, or he'll draw attention to himself and the destruction he's causing.
*** The army is fighting against the rebels. The civil war isn't one in which Lazarevic is directly involved, he just formented it so he could sweep in and take advantage of the chaos to turn the city upside-down without raising too many eyebrows (since the city ''was already a warzone'').

* Why would Lazarevic have a helicopter following the train? It makes little to no sense to deploy a helicopter to scour a train just in case some guy jumps on, and the pilot, quite frankly, is a moron, firing missiles at his own train just to kill one guy. When he starts blowing cars off the train, you'd think someone would radio Lazarevic and go, "Uh, sir, Dominic is being a douche; he's destroying the train." And what's up with that turret in the middle of a passenger car? If it was on a flatcar, I could understand, but sticking it in a passenger car restricts its effective firing area to a relatively tiny margin and provides a very easy way to get around it.
** Lazarevic is supposed to be both aggressively insane and unsubtle in his approach to hunting for artefacts. Having a chopper follow the train (and scout the city) is an extra measure he's taken, but then he's already carting around his own private militia on a treasure hunt before he even knows there's going to be any resistance. By then, he already knows Drake is hard to kill, so having a chopper patrol the train just in case anybody hitches an easy ride is consistent with his character.
** The reason to have a helicopter is obvious: It's scouting the tracks ahead of the train. He's just triggered a civil war, so he obviously can't rely on the typical radio network to have people report stopped trains or obstructions, so he sends one of his attack helos to do it.

* In the train level, was the level moving around the train, or the train moving through the level? From a rendering standpoint, I mean.
** I believe Naughty Dog stated that the level is the train moving through the scenery, instead of the other way around. I don't believe it actually makes a difference in terms of rendering, though.

* You find two expeditions related to the Cintimani stone that end up with people getting too powerful and ending up killing each other. First, there's the massacred bodies in the temple in Borneo, where Drake first finds skeletons with black teeth, and second, there's Schafer's expedition, the members of which Schafer had to kill. Presumably, in both cases, the victims had drunk the tree sap and become intoxicated. So how could they be killed? The sap makes one effectively bulletproof and invulnerable.
** Not invulnerable ''or'' bulletproof. Just tough. They could be killed.

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