History Characters / TombRaider2013

* RaceLift: According to the earliest Chinese sources, the historical Himiko was of the Wa people, who inhabited an area that is now parts of the Shan States in Burma, and Pu'er Prefecture in Yunnan Province, China. The island she ruled was located in the ocean southeast of Tai-fang (North Korea). Himiko is not explicitly mentioned by Japanese sources until much later, and even then remains obscure among Japanese histories (to the point her name is omitted form Japanese translations of the 3rd Century Chinese histories). However the game establishes her as a ''Japanese'' queen, with an honor guard of what may as well be Edo-period samurai.[[note]]Although "Wa" was an old Chinese reference to Japan, the Chinese histories specifically associate her with the unrelated Wa people of Burma.[[/note]]

-> See [[Characters/TombRaiderLaraCroft here page]].

* BrokenBird: Hoo Boy, where do we ever start. She gets shipwrecked on an island, is kidnapped by crazy cultists who try to burn her alive to see if she is the chosen one. Sees several of her friends die which she likely blames herself for since she helped financed the voyage to Yamatai which would never have happened had she never told Lara about her heritage which likely adds to her survivor's guilt. Sees her best friend turn into a killing machine just to protect her and the rest of the crew of the Endurance. Is captured yet again and is nearly possessed by an evil demigod. Has nightmares about said possession for several months and soon learns that said demigod succeeded in getting a piece of her soul inside her, causing her to have violent outbursts which results in her getting sent to jail for assaulting a random bystander, which then leads to her getting sent to a mental hospital as Himiko's possession of her makes it seems like she has suffered a mental breakdown. Said mental hospital is then taken over by Trinity in an attempt to strengthen Himiko's connection to the Divine Source which results in Himiko gaining full control over Sam. Lara is able to find an ancient mirror that could free Sam of Himiko by removing her soul and is able to capture the two and takes Sam to it. However, as Himiko tries to escape with the intent of killing Lara Sam is able to briefly regain enough control to stab herself in order to protect Lara. Thankfully the mirror removes Himiko's soul from Sam, and Sam is then treated for her stab wound. Thankfully Sam has a good chance of being cleared of all charges thanks to Trinity's interference and her and Lara's relationship seems to have been somewhat mended. But Sam is still suffering a great deal of trauma and her relationship with Lara has yet to be fully mended.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:During her Battle of Wills with Himiko Sam stabs herself in the stomach in an attempt to destroy Himiko once and for all. Thankfully, after Himiko is removed, Sam is taken to a local hospital and is treated for her injury.]]

* SadClown: After Yamatai, much like Lara, Sam began having nightmares about what happened and tried avoiding it by acting like she used to before the island by using her sense humor as a defense mechanism.

* TookALevelinBadass: In the tie-in comics Sam goes from Damsel in Distress to Badass Action Girl not unlike Lara as she mocks her captors, beats up a thug while armed only with a cupcake, [[spoiler:stabbed a Bull Shark in the eye with her necklace and, with Lara's help, managed to force Himiko's soul out of her body!]]

* BigDamnHero: [[spoiler:Saves Lara's life at least twice, the first of which happens when she kills the leader of the Solarii Worshipers at the end of the Season of the Witch arc and the second time from a Bull Shark during the second issue in the Queen of Serpents arc.]]

* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Of all the people in her life Sam is the one person Lara fears losing the most. This is likely the main reason why she has insisted on keeping Sam out of her conflict with Trinity and seemed to be on the verge of the DespairEventHorizon when [[spoiler:Sam almost died during their final confrontation with Himiko]]. [[DeconstructedTrope However, this has caused a great deal of stress on the two women's relationship as while Sam is always willing to be there for Lara she feels that Lara has become over protective of her which has caused them a few arguments that has really hurt their friendship.]] However, as shown in a hidden bit of dialogue in ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheTombRaider'', despite everything that has happened Sam is still willing to be there for Lara as she called her to see if she was okay.

* OnlyKnownbyTheirNickname: Her full name is Samantha but the only people to use her full name are her parents and her enemies while all her closest friends call her Sam. Lara even gets annoyed [[spoiler:at Dr. Taffy for calling Sam by her full name during the Choice and Sacrifice arc]].

* GamerChick: Implied in the comics as we see a UsefulNotes/PlayStation in her and Lara's flat and we never see Lara playing any games at any point during the series so it's most likely Sam's.

'''Sam:''' You know you don't. Now wipe your mouth, Brando. And shut up. I'm saying brilliant stuff. You see the person who made the thing. You see their hands mastering their art, and the family they do it for, and the community where they live. And this play, Lara Croft, this story. It's my favorite. Have I ever told you that? The Book's two hundred years old. People today, who know nothing about the period, they just read it out of obligation, Lara. They love it. There's no other word to describe it. It lets us, it lets everyone, see the time the way you would. It's about class, love, and obligation. About knowing yourself, being who you are. And those things should never turn to dust.\\
--->''Tomb Raider: Secrets and Lies''

->'''Voiced by:''' Cooper Thornton (English), Dmitry Tarnover (Russian)

* ActionGirl: By the end of the game, Lara has grown into a badass heroine that is capable of taking out entire squads of heavily armed enemies by herself, braving everything the island throws at her to save her friends.
* ActionSurvivor: She's just a college graduate trapped on an island. This version doesn't even seem to be as much of a DeadpanSnarker to compensate for her terror.
* AdaptationalModesty: While Lara in the past has worn conservative clothing, she's always had a tank top and shorts, which get skimpier in some games. In the reboot series the {{fanservice}} is downplayed, and her clothing choices are much more practical and always conservative.
* AdaptationalWeaponSwap: To match the [[StealthBasedGame Stealth-based]] turn this iteration of the series takes, this version of Lara trades her dual pistols for a bow and arrow.
* AntiHero: Lara grows through a few different types of anti-heroes over the course of her CharacterDevelopment.
* ArcherArchetype: Has a hunting bow as one of her most-associated weapons, and she ''can'' be quite stealthy (when the player wants her to be).
* BadassAdorable: Lara has always been cute, but the reboot puts emphasis on her youth, innocence, and overall inexperience.
* BadassBookworm: Can both take on hundreds of battle-hardened thugs and [[spoiler:centuries old undead Samurai]] as well as being a consummate expert on East Asian history, culture and languages despite barely being out of college. Sam's journals hint that Lara had at least a passing familiarity with many other regions and periods of history, too.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Downplayed. Throughout the game, she gets all manner of cuts and bruises, and her clothes get completely shredded. Furthermore, she spends quite a bit of time covered in blood and/or dirt. Her face remains largely untouched however. Strangely, no amount of flowing water or rain is capable of washing all that out.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: If you piss Lara off, then run as fast as you can in the direction opposite to the one she is in... and hope that she does ''not'' have a weapon.
* BloodIsTheNewBlack: Happens to her quite a bit.
* BloodKnight: The tie-in comics raise the question whether Lara might be enjoying violence a bit too much. When she and another woman are [[MuggingTheMonster mugged]], her acquaintance notes afterwards that she was not so much scared of the robbers but of how Lara fought them off with a smile on her face.
** Lara even references this in-game. When telling Roth that she had been forced to kill in order to escape, he comments that it must have been hard for her. Her reply? "It's frightening just how easy it was." And then there's that part where she gets her hands on a grenade launcher...
* BoringButPractical: This reboot version of Lara eschews the more stylish, acrobatic GunsAkimbo GunFu combat style of the previous versions, for a much more practical and realistic combat style focusing on cover-based shooting, sniping from concealment, and the occasional [=MMA=]-style hand-to-hand.
* BrainyBrunette
* BreakTheCutie:
-->'''Ship Captain:''' Don't really know what happened to you on that island. An' judging from those wounds and [[ThousandYardStare that look in your eyes]], I'm guessin' I don't wanna know.
* BrokenBird: Pretty much the end result of her time on the island. She's survived and found a new purpose, but she's been left a very psychologically battered woman by her experiences on the island. There's a reason [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] dubbed it ''[[Film/ISpitOnYourGrave I Spit On Your]] Tomb''.
* BrokenPedestal: A comment she makes on one of Dr. Whitman's documents states she's disgusted with herself for once admiring him. It's also implied she has sour feelings towards her father for going off and getting himself and her mother presumed dead [[spoiler:though she rebuilds that particular pedestal by the end of the game when the experiences of the island give her a new outlook on her father's ambitions]].
* CatchPhrase: "I can do this."
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: She is fully prepared to risk her life to save the captain of a plane that was struck down by lightning in spite of Roth's insistence that they focus on their own. Sadly, she fails to reach him before the Solarii do.
* ClassicalAntiHero: Starts out as a scared 21-year-old ActionSurvivor.
* ClothingDamage: Lara's outfit gets more and more damaged as the game goes on. By the time she makes it back to the beach, it's beyond all hope of repair.
* CombatPragmatist: Strangling or stabbing unaware enemies, throwing dirt in their eyes, stabbing them in the knees or the neck with arrows, caving in downed enemies' heads with rocks, tripping them and shooting them in the back with a shotgun... Lara's trying to ''survive'', not fight fair. Interestingly, [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration her combat pragmatism rises over the game - although she acquires her climbing axe relatively early, it takes her quite a while until she can unlock the skill to use it on enemies.]]
* ComicBookFantasyCasting: This Lara's face was based off model Megan Farquhar and voiced by Creator/CamillaLuddington, though others have noted a striking resemblance to Creator/OdetteAnnable.
* CoveredInGunge: If she's not covered in blood, it's this.
* CoveredInMud: In ''Shadow'', she can smear herself in mud to use as camouflage for stealth options.
* CoveredWithScars: Each game she goes through, she ends up having a new collection of scars to add to future stories.
* DeadpanSnarker: Not as much as her previous incarnations, but it's there, such as her response to Reyes's DoomMagnet accusation.
* DeliberateInjuryGambit: A variation of this trope; to escape her very first predicament, Lara sets the sack she's tied up in on ''fire''.
* DentedIron: At times, though she does recover, her wounds hinder her to the point of [[LeParkour traversal]] being very difficult, if not impossible, until she can patch herself up in some way. Her final model in the last quarter of the game is littered with scars, and that hole from the beginning of the game never quite goes away. She also shows quite a bit of physical damage from her ordeal, and often holds a hand to her wounded side when things are quiet. Take note of any cut-scenes where she falls from a height and lands safely, her hands go straight to her wounded side every time. Furthermore, as the game progresses and she gets more banged up, you can regularly hear her hissing through clenched teeth and gasping in pain as the accumulated injuries she's suffered through the game cause her constant discomfort, even when she's just standing still.
* DeskSweepOfRage: In ''Rise'', when Jonah refuses to support her obsession with finding the city of Kitezh.
* DestructiveSaviour: Wherever Lara goes, devastation follows in her wake. Be it natural formations that took aeons to form, Japanese WW-II-bunkers, Soviet installations or ancient ruins that have weathered the passage of countless centuries, ancient Mayan ruins, almost all of them will inevitably crumble into smoldering piles of rubble within minutes of her arrival on site. The amounts of infrastructure and irrecoverable historical legacy Lara routinely destroys on her adventures are staggering. Granted, much of it is caused by her enemies in their attempts to kill her, but another large chunk is definitely her own fault.
* {{Determinator}}: She is put through absolute hell, both physically and mentally, but she just keeps going. Lara may be a mere mortal, but she turns into a near [[ImplacableMan Implacable Woman]] by the end of the game. [[spoiler:A hail of gunfire, arrows, dynamite, hurricane winds, lightning storms, mad cultists, supernatural undead samurai, and a soul-stealing ritual ''all fail to stop her'' as she inexorably pushes forward]].
* DisappearedDad: Her father, Lord Richard Croft, committed suicide when she was but a child after being disgraced for his obsession with immortality. [[spoiler:In reality, Trinity had him killed and staged it to look like a suicide]].
* DoomMagnet: Gets called this by Reyes after [[spoiler:Lara failed to save Alex aboard the ''Endurance'']].
-->'''Reyes:''' Seems anyone caught with you has a pretty low survival rate.\\
'''Lara:''' Better keep your distance then.
* TheDreaded:
** Ironically, Lara herself becomes this to the mooks once she begins fighting back against them. Over time, enemy chatter both in and out of combat reveals that the mercs are actually scared shitless of her and hope they don't run in to her. They don't even know her name, but they start uniformly referring to her as "The Outsider". Not ''an'' outsider. ''[[SpellMyNameWithAThe The]]'' Outsider. Leads to an amusing moment later in the game, where one mook starts [[OhCrap freaking out]] when his comrade wonders aloud where "she" has gotten too, only to reveal that he was ''actually'' talking about [[BaitAndSwitchComparison his pet pig]] which he'd let out of its pen.
** As of ''Shadow'', she's become this to Trinity; even seasoned Trinity veterans go OhCrap upon being told that Lara was last seen in their vicinity, and even the ones that sound more confident seem more than a bit nervous about the prospect of facing Lara and their odds of making it out alive.
* DualWielding: Gets a brief moment of her trademark pistols GunsAkimbo at the very end of the first game - see the respective entry below. From ''Rise'' onwards, she begins to wield two climbing axes instead of just one, although the change doesn't have any noticeable impact on gameplay.
* EurekaMoment: Cauterizing her wound with a heated arrowhead gives her the idea to create FlamingArrows. Most of the times she acquires a new ability or piece of equipment are also presented as one, especially in ''Rise''.
* ExposedToTheElements: The top doesn't really do much in protecting her against obstacles, gale-force winds and the freezing cold.
* FragileSpeedster: Lara cannot take much damage. To compensate, she's very light on her feet, with dodges and counterattacks against off-balance enemies encompassing a large part of her melee skills.
* GadgeteerGenius: She certainly has shades of this, considering all the awesome stuff she can build from junk and scrap. See MacGyvering below for details.
* GameBreakingInjury: The puncture side wound she gets at the beginning of the game. The wound getting irritated or worse impedes her progress more than once over the course of the game until she finds a way to patch it. In the second game, this same wound is apparently still giving her trouble, as she can often be seen holding this particular side after large tumbles or firefights.
* GlassCannon: Lara can dish out ridiculous amounts of damage with the arsenal she carries, but she cannot take nearly as much herself.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Not by the time she gets her hands on a [[StuffBlowingUp grenade launcher]], it isn't.
-->'''Lara:''' That's right! Run, you bastards! ''I'M COMING FOR YOU ALL!''
* GunsAkimbo: [[spoiler:Steals Mathias' gun along with using [[KarmicDeath Roth's own gun]] to finish him off.]] Although it's used more as a MythologyGag than anything else. [[RuleOfCool Albeit an awesome one at that]].
* HarmfulToMinors: She was the first person to discover her father's body after [[spoiler:Trinity's staged suicide]] and she's only about 11 at the time. Still working through her emotions with regards to her mother's death, this did not do her any favors.
* HealItWithFire: At one point, she cauterizes her side wound with a heated arrowhead. It's ''extremely'' painful, of course, but it works.
* HeroicBSOD: A brief one following [[spoiler:Roth's death. She snaps out of it when she realizes that the key to escaping the island is whatever the Stormguard is protecting in the monastery]].
* IWorkAlone: By ''Rise'', she's taken this attitude, in part due to [[spoiler:being betrayed by her old friend Ana]]. She [[YouAreNotAlone learns otherwise]] over the course of the game.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: After escaping from her first predicament, Lara falls on a piece of rebar, which goes straight through her side. And a lot of the possible deaths she might meet throughout her ordeal have this happen to her.
* ImprobableUseOfAWeapon: The stealth kill animations show Lara using her bow as a makeshift Garrotte to choke out enemies. Who ever thought to use a bow in this manner?
* InTheHood: She wears a hooded parka while in Siberia in ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider''.
* ItsAllMyFault: This happens once a game, with increasing severity:
** She blames herself for the predicament she got the crew and herself into in the first game, as it was her suggestion to take an alternate, off-the-beaten-path route to the island that winds up shipwrecking the ''Endurance''. Though Roth and the others continually tell her they don't blame her for what's going on, considering they were headed to the island anyway.
** In ''Rise'', she blames herself for Trinity reaching the Valley and attacking the Remnants, as they only found the place after stealing her research confirming the location.
** And in ''Shadows'', she (more justifiably) blames herself for starting [[ApocalypseHow The Cleansing]] and subsequent loss of life, as it only started because ''she'' pulled the Key from its resting place to keep it from Trinity. [[spoiler: Somewhat unsurprisingly, she's [[DeathSeeker willing to die]] if it means stopping the Cleansing.]]
* ItGetsEasier: The first time she kills a person, it's a horrifically traumatic event that signals the start of her development to becoming an ActionGirl. She then proceeds to slaughter hundreds of people throughout the rest of the game. She even mentions that it is "scary" how easy it was to kill someone.
* ItsUpToYou: Hope you weren't expecting anyone to be actually useful to you for more than five minutes, Lara. She seems to become attuned to this, as, [[spoiler:at the end of the game, Reyes and Jonah offer to come with her to the final showdown with Mathias, but Lara instructs them to stay behind to guard their escape route. [[HoldTheLine They do]] so [[OffScreenMomentOfAwesome spectacularly]]]].
* LetsGetDangerous: "That's right! Run, you bastards! I'M COMING FOR YOU ALL!"
* LonelyRichKid: Lara grew up with pretty much her parents not being around, causing her to find solace in books. This explains her introversion and going on adventures.
** ''Shadow'' has a flashback level of a young Lara having an adventure inside her own house to "rescue the White Queen," which leads into her mother's studio.
* MacGyvering: In ''Rise'' she can learn to craft a whole bunch of weapons from resources she gathers during gameplay.
** Examples of improvised equipment include turning gas canisters into devastating fire bombs, enemy radios into proximity mines, tin cans into smoke bombs or high-ex grenades, and dead Trinity mooks into lethal gas traps that silently kill anyone who tries to investigate the body.
** On top of that, Lara can learn how to craft special ammunition like hollow-point bullets for her handguns, dragonfire shells for her shotguns as well as grenades for her assault rifles' under-barrel grenade launcher, plus of course her assortment of [[TrickArrow Trick Arrows]], and all of that can be done on the fly without the need for tools or a camp fire.
** Last but not least, she's capable of assembling fully functional modern-day firearms from parts she finds in trunks that were left behind by the ''Soviets''. These guns she then upgrades extensively with bits of scrap she salvages from wooden boxes that may date back as far as the 10th century.
* MadeOfIron: Lara takes a ''lot'' of damage in this game, and it affects her sometimes, but for the most part she's still as physically capable as ever. For instance, she gets impaled in the first 10 minutes and STILL makes it through the entire game. Without any visible medical aid of any kind.
* MsFanservice: Massively and intentionally downplayed. While still a beautiful woman, her sex appeal is toned down significantly in order to fit with the setting of the trilogy games.
* NiceGirl: From beginning to end, she's much nicer than the Lara of the previous two continuities. Needless to say, however, GoodIsNotSoft. Even after cutting down an army of the Solarii [[spoiler:and some of the Stormguard]] and commenting that it was so easy to kill people and that the ease of it genuinely frightened her, her dedication to and concern for her friends never wavers.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The plot of ''Shadow'' is kicked off when Lara takes an ancient dagger from a Mayan temple, and ends up triggering a MayanDoomsday.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Is on the receiving end of a ''savage'' one midway through the game after slipping into the Solarii stronghold where Sam is due to be sacrificed to Himiko. After shooting the mook about to immolate her, Lara is thrown down and literally beaten to a bloody pulp by Dimitri and Nikolai in retribution for their brother's death; the two are only stopped from killing her outright by Mathias, and by then, she can't even lift her head by herself afterwards.
* NonIdleRich: After her parents are presumed dead and she inherits their vast fortune, she decides she doesn't even want to touch it and takes several jobs to pay her way through the University College of London (instead of utilizing the money to get easy instant enrollment in Cambridge). One of these jobs is in a seemingly rather rowdy ''pub''. That's right, the Tomb Raider herself has been pulling pints.
** WordOfGod states that some part of her feels that if she were to use the inheritance for herself, it would be like admitting her parents are really gone, so she leaves it tied up in trust funds and investments that prevent any kind of temptation on her part.
** The one time she attempts to access her inheritance, in the comics, it is to [[spoiler:fund a rescue attempt for Grimm, who then turns out to be Grimm's twin brother]]. Her uncle refuses to give her access, however, on the grounds that she is unstable from her time on the island. So it seems that even if she wanted the money it would be difficult to get to.
* {{Omniglot}}: Over the games, she's shown to be able to speak, as well as learn English, Japanese, Latin, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Mayan, Aztec and Inca.
* OneWomanArmy: Lara [[TookALevelInBadass evolves into one]] as she makes her way across the island, and she takes the trope up to eleven in ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'' ([[StuffBlowingUp cluster grenade arrows]], anyone?). The Solarii even lampshade this;
-->'''Solarii''': C'mon, she's just ''[[JustOneMan one]]'' little girl!\\
'''Second Solarii''': Yeah? Well that "one little girl" is ''[[MuggingTheMonster kicking our ass!]]''
** Over the course of ''Rise'' and ''Shadow'', she's evolved into this, being able to take on Trinity soldiers, many of them recruited from special ops units.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: This continuity's Lara is noticeably smaller than virtually everyone else she comes into contact with. It's especially noticeable in [[VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider the sequel]] where men in particular tend to tower over her, often by [[OneHeadTaller one head or more]]. Still doesn't prevent her from tearing all of them several new ones if need be, as mentioned above.
* PragmaticHero: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructs]] what kind of [[TraumaCongaLine trauma]] would turn a ClassicalAntiHero like Lara into the morally ambiguous AdventurerArchaeologist from the other ''Franchise/TombRaider'' games.
* ProperlyParanoid: She suspects that Whitman may betray the group, but is dismissed. After she is proven right when Whitman kidnaps Sam and hands her back over to Mathias, everyone, especially Reyes, apologizes for not heeding her warnings about him. She also is immediately suspicious of Mathias when she encounters him with Sam, posing another "survivor" of the ''Endurance''. Unfortunately, sheer physical and mental exhaustion causes her to pass out before she can act upon her suspicions.
* RedBaron: Becomes frightfully known as "The Outsider" once the body count starta stacking up. It happens to the point where Lara even [[BadassBoast taunts]] the Solarii, after taking down a shield bearing GiantMook.
-->'''Mook''': Oh, shit, she's still alive?! Run!\\
'''Lara''': Yes... still alive.
* RightManInTheWrongPlace: Even though it's Lara's theories about the location of Yamatai that leads to the ''Endurance'' being shipwrecked, it's ultimately just chance that the crew winds up stranded there. And between her pedigree and education, (and the fact that her mentor is just a narcissistic showman rather than a ''competent'' archaeologist) she's the only one that ''truly'' pieces together the centuries-old mystery of the island.
* RoaringRampageOfRescue: For the majority of the game, Lara is on one of these for Sam, tearing her way through whole hordes of Solarii and countless Stormguard warriors who try in vain to stop her. The combination of rough terrain, [[HostileWeather supernatural storms]] and aforementioned enemies barely even manage to slow her down. Once, she also goes on a rescue rampage for [[spoiler:[[LoveMakesYouStupid Alex]], but [[HeroicSacrifice with more tragic results]]]].
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: In ''Shadow'', when [[spoiler:Rourke gloats over the radio that he killed Jonah]], Lara visibly snaps, grabs a machine gun, drops a ClusterFBomb and cuts a bloody swath through a platoon of Trinity mooks including a heavy attack helicopter.
* ShellShockedVeteran: A crewman aboard the fishing boat which picks up the survivors takes note of Lara's ThousandYardStare, and WordOfGod states that her drive to continue her adventures after escaping the island is partly to "keep running" and not have to come to terms with the things that happened to her.
* ShowsDamage: Before the game reaches its climax, Lara visually has badly ripped clothes with cuts and bruises all over her body. The model viewer even has three different versions of Lara showing the three extreme states she can be in during her journey across the island, from "innocent" Lara used for flashback scenes on the ''Endurance'', to "survivor" Lara which is the used model up to the very final cutscene.
* SpannerInTheWorks: Lara ends up as this for both the Solarii and [[spoiler:Himiko]] in the first game. She then does it again magnificently to Trinity and [[spoiler:the Deathless Ones]] in ''Rise''.
* TheStraightAndArrowPath: A bow and arrow is the first weapon Lara obtains, and despite finding several firearms later on, the bow and arrow remains very powerful as a stealth weapon.
* SurvivorGuilt: Feels personally responsible for everyone who dies on the island, considering they arrived there on her suggestion. By the end of the game she's noticeably numb to any given WhatTheHellHero she receives, with a ThousandYardStare in the final scene to boot.
* TerrorHero: Lara's always been frightening to her enemies, but ''Shadow'' sees her weaponizing it. She uses hallucinogens to turn enemies against each other, leaves enemies hanging from trees to frighten others, and prefers to stealthily pick off soldiers one by one. She's very much TheDreaded to Trinity at this point, after taking out so many of their cells, and she's more than happy to exploit it.
* ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself: [[spoiler:Invokes this at the end the game just before going to rescue Sam. Lara tells Reyes and Jonah that they need to remain behind to guard the escape route. She tries to [[IWorkAlone invoke this]] in the next game, but [[YouAreNotAlone the Remnants and Jonah won't have any of that]].]]
* {{Tomboy}}: Lara's pursuits--her books, learning wilderness survival with Roth, her love of archaeology, and preference for exploring ancient ruins over partying at clubs--are definitely not traditionally "feminine."
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: The tomboy to Sam's girly girl. Sam is a bit boy-crazy, loves to go out clubbing, and [[WordOfGod obsesses over designer clothes]], while Lara is a {{Bookworm}} who prefers her books and exploring ancient ruins. And of course, Lara completely dominates the scavengers on the island OneWomanArmy style, with Sam acting as the DamselInDistress to motivate her.
* TomboyishPonytail
* TookALevelInBadass: Goes from a NaiveNewcomer just out of school at the start of the game to an AdventurerArchaeologist by the end. This even extends to the sequels where Lara is shown being bolder, more hypercompetent, and having moments of being one step ahead of her enemies when compared to how she was even in the later half of the first game.
* TraumaCongaLine: The entire game puts her through one.
* TranquilFury: In ''Shadow'', when led to believe that [[spoiler:Jonah is dead]], Lara snaps and embarks on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge on Trinity, mowing mooks down with a machine gun while swearing in an eerily calm voice she's coming for Commander Rourke and going to kill him.
-->'''Lara''': You can't hide from me, Rourke. You are ''fucking '''dead'''''.
* TrickArrow: Though she seems to have to make them herself, she has at least a rope arrow ([[RuleOfFun with a seemingly limitless amount of rope to make them]]) and a fire arrow (formed using a lighter and a normal arrow). In addition, with the right bow upgrades and enough XP, which most players won't get on an initial playthrough, you can create explosive arrows, napalm arrows, and a "penetrator" mod that punches through armor.
* VillainKiller: In this DarkerAndEdgier trilogy, Lara is a OneWomanArmy that is almost completely unstoppable to anyone and anything that gets in her way. In [[Videogame/TombRaider2013 her very first adventure]], she takes down a Japanese sorceress queen with power over weather, her maniacal lackey, said lackey's army of fanatical murderers and an army of undead samurai warriors. In her [[Videogame/RiseOfTheTombRaider second adventure]], she faces off against an entire branch of the AncientConspiracy Trinity, killing all of them except for the leader herself. In [[Videogame/ShadowOfTheTombRaider her final conflict against Trinity]], she eventually [[spoiler: kills their leader while he ''possesses the power of a Mayan god'']]. And all of that was in her first major conflict with a huge group.
* VirtualPaperDoll: Lara can change into alternative outfits at campsites. These will be worn in cut scenes.
* WellDoneDaughterGirl: In ''Rise'', she's driven to find the Divine Source by a desire to redeem her father's name and prove the existence of immortality, and in essence live up to him after his death.
* WorstAid: When she gets stabbed through the gut straight through at the beginning of the game, Lara is seriously dumb enough at that moment to pull the spike out. Only PlotArmor or sheer dumb luck was what most likely prevented her from bleeding out right then and there. The wound getting aggravated or worse impedes her progress more than once over the course of the game.
** This same wound is apparently still giving her trouble in the second game, as she can often be seen holding this particular side after large tumbles or firefights.

* HurtingHero: [[MadeOfIron Aside from the obvious]], Lara is suffering from some extreme SurvivorsGuilt by the end of the game.

* HurtingHero: She hides it a lot better than Lara for the first three arcs of the comics, but it becomes very clear that she is suffering major trauma from everything that's happened to her over the course of the series.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Shown throughout the remainder of the game after his first appearance.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: One can't help but cheer when she is finally able to [[spoiler:fight through Himiko's control and make the former big bad scream in terror as Sun Queen comes face to face with the very item she used to remove the souls of her former hosts]].

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:He tricks Whitman into approaching the Stormguard to distract them and slips by with Sam while he's getting chopped up. Considering that Whitman had previously been outed as a {{narcissist}}ic, [[DirtyCoward cowardly]] {{Jerkass}} who betrayed Lara's group by handing Sam back over to Mathias in the first place, it certainly counts as this, with a dash of RewardedAsATraitorDeserves thrown in for good measure.]]

* TheChick: While Sam is by no means the only woman on the team Lara associates with, she encourages Lara as often as she can, be it sharing Lara's ideas on where Yamatai is located or giving her the courage to perform on stage. She helps keep Lara from JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. She is usually a very nice person but can be brave when the situation calls for it.

* TeasingParent: In the flashbacks in ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheTombRaider'', it can be seen that Lara Croft's father used to create mysteries around Croft Manor, including hand-drawn treasure maps and secret rooms in the house that he fully expected for Lara to explore.

** There are also strong shades of this in her reasoning for her attitude towards Lara what with her [[spoiler: resenting Lara and Roths' almost father/daughter relationship, due to him having an actual daughter with Rayes, despite the fact that ''she had never told him'' her daughter is his]], making her come across as abrasive and needlessly cruel rather than sympathetic.

* GagBoobs: Averted. Her bust is still above average (for comparison, her bust is about the same size as ''VideoGame/{{Bloodrayne}}'''s), but she has dropped at least three cup sizes during the reboot. The Lara from the original games would not be able to squeeze her rack through some of the narrow gaps this Lara crawls through. Her size is also much more appropriate for a woman of her level of athleticism.[[note]]Athletic women have less body fat, thus tend to have smaller breasts.[[/note]]