History Headscratchers / TombRaider2013

* Why was the rescue plane trying to land to pick up the Endurance's crew? A casual look at Yamatai Island would show any experienced pilot that there is no place on it flat enough, long enough, and sufficiently free of obstructions in which to land a four-engine aircraft, much less have it take off again. The most the pilot should have been able to do was get the GPS coordinates for the island to a boat, seaplane or helicopter, because any attempt to land to pick up survivors himself would have wrecked the plane even if Himiko had been asleep.

** Hoshi killed herself in such a way that the ritual was unable to continue or be done again (it's mentioned in a letter that this is why she killed herself during the ceremony) to spare others of her fate.

* So Queen Himiko bodysurfs between her priestesses, so that she can live forever. Hoshi puts a stop to that by killing herself. How come the people in charge of Yamatai didn't try to find another girl to replace her?

* How often do ships get wrecked in the Devil's Triangle? Matthias has several hundred mooks on the island, and many more died without joining the Solarii. Gathering that many people takes time.

''Warning: There may be unmarked spoilers below, so read at your own risk''

* How often do ships get wrecked in the Devil's Triangle? Matthias has several hundred mooks on the island, and many more died without joining the Solarii. Gathering that many people takes time.

** Pretty sure the game specifically said he was ''Maori''. Maori (as is Jonah) are from New Zealand. The Samoans are from the Samoan Islands. They may both be Pacific Islander, but that's like calling an Apache and Iroquois, just because both are Native American.

** For your first question, she probably should have bled out, but it's a video game. For your second, yes it's generally bad to pull something out that's impaling you, but you're also not supposed to move either. If she was running around with that piece of rebar or whatever sticking out of her side, it would have been reaming out the wound the whole time. If it had caught on something and ripped out her side, it would have been much, much worse.

* In the Scavenger's Den, Lara yanks out a stick thing that goes through her body, and doesn't appear to treat it until reaching the helicopter in the Shanty Town. How come she didn't bleed out at any point between then, considering all the extra-strenuous activity she does afterwards? Also, isn't it considered WorstAid to yank a foreign object out of a wound if it's impaling you?

** The storms were erratic, not constant. The helicopter pilot was lucky enough to have a moment where things weren't as chaotic as usual.

*** [[spoiler:But Jonah would have been the far better choice. Both in-story and from a meta perspective, it made no sense for Alex to go beyond the last-second revelation that he was crushing on Lara. Jonah, in the prequel comic -- which Pratchett also wrote -- is shown being able to physically beat up thugs without apparently suffering any damage himself, using a gun while saving Whitman from the mafia, being fully willing to kill people with said gun without flinching, not even hesitating to act while being shot at, and brushing off a bullet graze like it's no big deal while saying that he's had worse. He is obviously pretty used to dangerous and life-threatening situations.\\

* So how did the helicopter get in, in the first place? The plane gets shot down almost immediately but the helicopter apparently flies in, lands to pick up Roth and the hovers around looking for Lara. Only after picking her up does the storm really have any affect and it seems clear that he could have landed for a second time if he had only heeded Lara's warnings.

** You never find out, but its clear from his victims that he kills women. If you fail the QTE, he appears slightly consoling as Lara dies, suggesting that possibly he was trying to save her from the worse fate (burning or being the queen's vessel).

*** Between early 1943 and mid 1944 a US Marine Corps Battalion had a strength of approximately 1000 men. A more specific breakdown can be seen [[http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com/UnitedStates/Marine/MarineInfantry/united_states_marine_battalion%20early%201943%20to%20mid%201944.htm here]], but in 1944 you have one Weapons Company (one mortar platoon and three machine gun platoons, with bazookas held by HQ) and three Rifle Companies (each with their own mortar and machine gun sections, and three platoons of three rifle squads). The machine guns would be Browning M1917 or M1919 light machine guns (with the occasional Browning M2 heavy machine gun, generally attached to battalion HQ). Each rifle squad would have at least two [=BARs=], with the rest of the riflemen armed with M1 Garand rifles. You'd also have the occasional Thompson M1928 submachine gun or Winchester M97 (later the M12) trenchgun. A number of members of each rifle squad would also carry rifle grenades. By 1945 the separate weapons company was eliminated and its machine guns and mortars were attached directly to the rifle companies. Oh, and [[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]] were added to the battalion's arsenal as well. The amount of automatic firepower a Marine battalion could bring to bear in the latter stages of WWII was ''phenomenal''. So no. When it comes to equipment Lara couldn't even match the firepower of a single ''rifle squad'', much less an entire Marine battalion. If the Stormguard were as vulnerable to the weapons of the Marines as they are to Lara's, any assault against even an only marginally-prepared defensive position would have been a massacre (this is precisely why the Japanese abandoned the [[HumanWaveAttack Banzai Charge]] in the later stages of the war: Sending a massed body of men into a direct assault against ''that'' much firepower was like throwing meat into a grinder).