Thank you so much for having me on Raidercast Chris! Had an absolute blast 🙌

Listening to Billys story in the beginning was really moving. And a perfect example of how Lara can have such a huge impact on her fans

"you broke into my house. you have killed my men." "I simplified your payroll." yeah Lara's not a good person.

Bill is so charismatic, makes you want to be friends with him

What a cool guest :) That was a fun watch, thanks to both of you

Very cool video! It's interesting to note the ways in which we can understand the villains perspectives in their villainy. I agree so much with the Amanda section! She is an antagonist but really not evil - she happens to be looking for the Dias that Lara is at the same time, and because she gets in the way, Lara kills Rutland. Really, from Amanda's point of view, Lara left her to rot in the Tomb in Paraiso, then years later comes in a ruins all her plans! I always felt like Amanda sent Doppie into the mansion to get even with Lara - get her wraith stone back and to pay her back for Rutland by killing someone close to Lara!

Himiko is a really good evil and yes Lara Croft is not an Angel but yeah, she’s also not a villain. Every “hero” is a bit of a villain in my opinion… Batman kills people, Cloud killed all those Shinra soldiers and even Simba kills fellow Lions😅 that’s it there’s a balance to be made and that’s why Lara is such a great protagonist because she also has a bit of evil on her heart. Great video! It was very entertaining, looking forward for more👏

I think my favourite villain is Mathias. I'm interested in psychology and give major props to him for being able to recruit new island entrants into a whole cult brotherhood to the point where they call each other "brother" and Mathias "father." He's a bit like Jim Jones or a really evil multi level marketing sales person, lol. Shout out goes to Amanda for the "Now we're gonna die here... ha, just like your mother." lmfao!

I would argue the most evil villain is Sophia Leigh. Her evil acts including using the power of the Eye of Isis to experiment on the Dammed are based on nothing but her own greed and vanity. Also, I've head cannoned that Amanda's desire to journey to Avalon was based on a fear of death and desire to find peace in paradise after the trauma she suffered. She went too far but after seing her friends die, being trapped, nearly drowning then discovering no attempt was made to rescue her (and then James dying) her actions were understandable.

I have always interpreted Lara as a kind of a villain - not as a Natla-esque, "let the earth be torn apart" type of villain, but as someone who is ready to commit 1000% into getting exactly what she wants and is not afraid to do terrible things while going forward. I do think she is a traditional protagonist in the sense that she is always willing to save the world, but on the other hand saving the world often seems to be almost like a by-product of getting the artifact or trinket that she is after.

Going by what Bill said, maybe Marco only tortured and killed Brother Chan because he knew he was part of the monks who killed his father. Being a man of the Gods meant nothing to him at that moment in time: in his mind, he was exacting revenge on a murderer.

Very informative video! Really enjoyed listening to you both. Billy made me laugh a lot with the cheeky comments xD

Every video you make is unique and entertaining in a completely different way from one another. Keep it on! ❤️

Loved hearing Billy’s story and how Lara has influenced your strength. I resonated with your experience, TR2 was my first TR game, I also pretended to be Lara in the playground. It was just so similar to how I grew up with Lara. Having been in a horrific car crash too, your survivor story was so moving and inspiring. Great episode!

That was so much fun!!!! It takes a lot to make me LOL at 9AM but this did it. Great job both! 👑🏃🏻‍♀️

Excellent discussion from both of you guys!! It is so wonderful to take a look at this different angles from the antagonists of the series. Top-notch as always!!

I love antagonists in Tomb Raider, they're so dofferent from one another

omg!!thank you so much for you guys for this informative video,I was just in the process of drafting the second part of my fanfic which I wanted to devote mostly for the villian Ekhardt who I was also facinated by his formula as a greedy evil character,also I think the lose of his parents as a kid maybe impacted him and initiated his selfish motives and thirst for power idk;eventhough I was bit confused how to showcase some the events from his POV,this video came in handy🤩🤩I feel so happy now & thankful .

Yes! I love these

Love the idea of the seventh age in a way that unifying the time lines could mean that Natla somehow changed the time line so that Lara grew up differently and that she wasn't responsible for the death of Richard Croft. The non canonical ending of Shadow shows a letter from Natla.

31:58 periodt!!

Joss nailed Eckhardt’s character but Adam Kuver’s performance as him also makes him sound even scarier: like a burning solid crust topped lava flow figured out how to speak.

LOVE THIS!

Souls technically aren’t magic when we consider they are nothing more than computers using hardware we don’t understand i.e. our brains. What Himeko was doing was in a sense formatting other people’s Windows and installing her own Mac or Linux in their place. Brain scanning and artificial intelligence are based on the idea we are cloning our soul and installing it in less organic machinery, but Himeko lived long before computers were invented so she improvised. Souls going to an afterlife would be them getting digitised by the gods and installed in a new, immortal body before the brain has time to decay and damage the soul inside. Bungie’s Pathways into Darkness for example shows a realistic portrayal of death (minus the fact you are talking to dead people) detailing what it would be like if we weren’t scanned into an afterlife and it’s absolutely existentially terrifying: namely you remain trapped in your dead body, unable to move, use your senses or scream for help, slowly going insane as your brain and rest of your body rot, forgetting all your memories and who you really are piece by piece unless there’s nothing left of you, body or mind but an empty skeleton. It raises the implication that cultures who first practiced cremation realised this and burned the body as a form of mercy kill.

Tbf each villain holds a power that lara probably resonates with but doesn't hold herself ,yet it is pretty much counter weights of personality traits, intentions and motives, and history. For example, Mathoios he was an expert on surviving. Whereas, lara was a fresh eyed woman trying to find her footing to survive ,yet because of her fresh knowledge/ perspective ( vs mathoios who had an old understanding of the legacy and a drive to find the chosen one)it helped her to tackle him and himiko to get off the island.

Billy Little is low key kinda cute. Lol

In Amanda's case, I always thought she had justified reasons to hate Lara. If my friend had abandoned me like that, I would have hated her too. However, she goes too far when she kills Alister. And also the fact that she doesn't even try to forgive Lara. It would have been nice if you had also talked about Dominguez because I think he had a good goal (he wanted to protect his people), but bad means. Or also Ana in Rise of the TR who just wanted not to die.

Once again late to listen to a new episode... ah, well, villains. The TR world would be so poor without them. I loved your insight, lots of people just take thme all for evil because they're antagonists, but it can be a little more nuanced than that, especially with Lara not being a shining beacon of goodness herself. This... is gonna be a long comment :D Yeah, Bartoli isn't that evil, is he? We don't know how he grew up but if what father told him was a big part of his childhood, then he'd definitely be influenced. Especially is he has this whole cult at hand which makes reaching the Dagger actually kind of possible, not just a dream. And we don't even know what he'd do as a dragon! He never mentions ruling the world or anything! We can just assume he's a huge furry and wants to become his fursona and leave it at that :P And yeah, he kills a monk but like, the monks killed his father first (even if they had a good reason) so I can't totally blame him for that one. The idea that Eckhardt was less evil before the Pit is great! I mean he was still pretty evil (and there's a hint that he might've killed his parents as a child... or maybe it really *was* an accident? Who knows...) but mabye less unhinged? He was still a chronic backstabber though, even back then, he killed the first Cabal just as he was planning with the Cabal we met. And yeah, wanted to backstab the Nephilim too. I wonder if he could've revived them without killing people, he just decided it was the most fun way :D Like, honestly, Karel is less evil than Eckhardt imo, because Karel has the "last of his kind" sympathy points at least. Good point about Mathias, that island would mess up anyone after several decades. Haha but now I would really like to see him succeed, just to see what he'd do after. Leave the island? I don't think he would have a good life if he did, the world outside would be too strange for him. I think the best way for him would be to become some sort of high priest for the newly resurrected Himiko, basically continuing the role he had learnt to live. Even if there's any family waiting for him... I think they wouldn't recognize him. And he them. And Himiko herself? Yeah she might have been "trapped" in a similar way. Because the last priestess trapped her in the dead body, she was either to suffer forever or do *something* to get herself out of that situation. Sure it was her fault in the first place because she was killing people, so she wasn't exactly normal (as Mathias probably was) before all this, buuut... killing one person every fifty years or so is pretty tame as far as dictators go, isn't it? XD Both Mathias and Natla pointing out that Lara isn't a hero... yes! She's not! I found these accusations a bit funny/annoying because Classic Lara would just shrug them off instead of having an existential crisis. I want her to be aware she's not a hero (dare to say, she's an asshole) and not caring what others accuse her of because it mgiht as well be true. Oh, as for technology and no magic, I think this was only ever claimed about LAU (and even that one really fails, I refuse ot accept all the LAU stuff is just "technology"), Classics were really a free-fo-rall, as far as I'm concerned, techology and magic galore! Ah, back to villains. Amanda. I love how you ended up rating her more or less thesame as Lara (or Lara even worse), because Amanda really isn't that evil at all. I love that you looked into her backstory, I too believe she wasnted to find Avalon because of the knowledge and spread the truth among people. Must be annoying to know there's "something more" but no-one believes you. Fuffy wouldn't even necessarily have to influence her in any way (it seems to be a guardian spirit of the Queen of Tiwanaku), it just helped her in ways she needed/wanted. And killing Alister... we don't actually know Amanda ordered that, it might've been a "kill someone if you see them, idc" order, it might've been Natla's order... I don't even know if it was Amanda's order to blow up the mansion. Amanda doesn't deny it but if she gave vague enough orders, something about "any means necessary", it didn't even have to be exactly that. But I do very much believe "I got what I wanted, isn't it all we care about" is a direct throwback at Lara killing Rutland to get what *she* had wanted. Basically Amanda telling Lara that Lara did exactly that to her in the past and she's being a hypocrite. And... Natla. Ah Natla. You were talking most about LAU Natla, who's definitely very much evil. Not only does she want to destroy everything and kill everyone (even if for a new, "better" world, that's not okay), she's *enjoying* it. She's gleeful manipulating people. She orders Doppelgänger to kill herself for something as petty as not wanting to see Lara's face again. Sure she might not think much of it, she's killed people before, but to order someone to commit suicide is especially heinous. I honstly can't think of any redeeming qualities for LAU Natla because frankly, she's a fanatic. A very fun villain, but absolutely unhinged. On the other hand, TR1 Natla

@33:52 Omg FANFIC!

So Bartoli pursues his father's work just like Lara! Lara who kills on her way to what she wants... Who's the villain?

My top picks would be in no particular order: 1. Dr Mark Willard An eccentric scientist who is not exactly evil per-se, but becomes increasingly frustrated at his American colleagues in RX Tech due to perceived incompetence and of course, Tony going nuts. We sadly don't really get a lot of evidence of how evil or not he is in the game itself during the main part of it and even some parts of the plot are exclusive to the script e.g. the reason why RX Tech workers are hostile to Lara. Still, working around all that radioactive meteorite crystal can't be good for you if Tony is any indication. By the time Lara catches up to him to deliver the artefacts, the base is mostly abandoned, damaged and temporarily out of power thanks to either his reckless experimenting on fellow scientists or the radiation from the meteorite crater affecting everyone regardless of his involvement or not, especially in the mines. Sled dogs scavenge for food and attack anyone nearby out of self defence, likely having had run-ins with mutants. The scientists are paranoid and crazy which is why they attack Lara. Maybe the crystal's effects are like the Color out of Space? Willard dismisses the mutated "brundlefly" in the cafeteria by claiming he'd have been interested in studying his own condition if he could. Despite his coldness, (har har), he does seem like he wants to make up for the mutation outbreak by offering himself as a test subject when he has the 5 artefacts (remember he had a telegram warning him to pick up the final one for use in the cavern before Sophia Leigh could steal it, which she does). He claims since everything seems to be heading in a twisted form of the right direction, he can't just abandon his project as solving both the current lack of evolution and the mysteries of immortality is far too important to let slip. When Lara pulls a gun on him and threatens to shoot him, he's forced to improvise and take the artefacts by force, hurrying to the mines without asking Lara to get the Hand of Rathmore or getting it herself. Aside from shooting at her a couple of times, he doesn't seem to try directly killing her when she catches up to him, preferring instead to show off the fruits of his labour. It goes wrong of course since he's missing the hand. Only upon mutating does he actually try to kill Lara, and it isn't clear if he's still sentient or not after becoming the spider mutant. I'd rate him a 5/10 on the Evil scale, 6 at most. 2. Joachim "Shapeshifter" Karel and possibly the Nephillim in general He is tasked by his people to make sure Eckhardt keeps his end of the bargain in saving their species and to kill him & take over his work if he tries to betray them again. As would have become clear in either AOD 2 or AOD 3, he really is just trying to help his species avoid going extinct, thawing out their queen (one of the 3 Sleepers) and the Golden Lion (another one?) to aid with their crusade. In infiltrating the Cabal disguised as a human, he lets Eckhardt get away with all the horrible things he does and as Karel the lawyer, protects him from investigation by the police when he goes on his vampiric killing sprees (both for sample gathering and sustaining his appearance). He had a pact with Boaz by the time of the game, where they'd work together to use the final Obscura Paintings as leverage against Eckhardt. In at least older drafts, he was he and Boaz who put the final painting in the Vault of Trophies, presumably back when it was Eckhardt's personal collection of weapons & things he stole from people he killed. It was this that originally led to Boaz's death, where after raging he could have had another painting only to lose it to Lara & Kurtis, Eckhardt would kill her the same way he did Luddick instead feeding her to a biopod to be transformed into an mosquito girl. In even the final game, Karel was the one stalking Von Croy prior to the opening, so he could find out about the Louvre painting and take it for himself, for similar reasons to the Vault of Trophies one. He only kills him to cover his tracks from Eckhardt, framing Lara for the kill as she happened to be there. When he sees just how persistent she is in clearing her name, he decides to use her as his trump card against Eckhardt. Noble goals or not, Karel crossed the line when he let Eckhardt do what he did and most definitely crossed it when he killed Werner. Lara herself doesn't accept his offer to help him because if he's willing to let Eckhardt do all that just to further his goals, then he must be at least as bad as him. I rate Karel about 7/10 or 8/10. 3. Core Design & Unified Timeline era Natla. Going by Natla's original appearance alone and using TRAE as her stand-in for TR1, she initially seemed to be creating mutants for the sake of saving the Nephillim/Atlanteans from being wiped out in a comet strike. However, she still broke Atlantis law to do it and crippled Qualopec. Thousands of years in cryosleep can't have been good for her mental state. She tries using the pyramid in the present to force evolution by creating a predator for humanity. When Lara thwarts this and kills her twice, Natla goes insane and tries to use a cyborg war machine to kill Lara and destroy all that's left of Atlantis, nothing else mattering to her anymore. To go by the unified timeline, we can assume her whole "7th age" and using the Jornungander mining drill in Helheim to split the world apart presumably out of spite. One wonders how her intended return in the later two AOD games would go. I'd rate her 6 /10, 7/10 or 8/10, the higher one for what she did to Richard and her Underworld stuff.

I agree that LAU Lara is essentially a villain. I don't think the writers intended for her to be as such, but Legend lacked a good villain. Only at the end did I realize that Lara herself was the villain of the game.

What exactly is your evil rubric? What is a 10? Lucifer himself? What's a 1? A middle school bully? And what is a 5? A bandit/robber?

18:00 well, Lara did the same, killing James, preventing Amanda from taking the stone, both were in the way of each other, so they both did evil things, or they both are villains, or none of them really are.

Does Amanda approves the killing of people appart from Lara? Rutland's army does it but Amanda? Also about Alister, Natla gave the order, didn't she?

💙💙🥥 ooh~

Chris you are obsessed with AOD 🤪 haha

“Face it Lara! Your heart is as black as mine!” 💠🖤💠🖤💠 No Larson and Pierre? I’d kill to see KZfaq couple Nicky and Pierre cosplay as Larson and Pierre! 😂🔥😂🔥😂

Amém, praise the Lord! He spared you in that terrible accident! God is good. It’s not an easy thing to talk about but thanks for sharing that with us, God bless….

There is clearly magic in Tomb Raider. In TR2, the Dagger of Xian is magic. In TR3, the Shiva statues are magic, apparently. TR4, of course, has all sorts of magical beings, like Set, the mummies, the tomb guardians, the spirits, undead, etc. In TR5, the Ireland levels have magical and demonic beings, like ghosts, demons, and faeries, apparently. Not to mention the spear of destiny. And, of course, AoD deals heavily with mysticism. I think the "magic is only technology we don't understand" approach is Eric Loren's idea, for LAU. Of course, that's a cop-out, because Arthur C. Clarke's third law is nonsense. If you want to write actual science fiction, then do scientific research and extrapolate on the possibilities. Don't use "science" as a post-hoc explanation for the desired plot device. That doesn't make the "magic" more believable. That makes it LESS believable.

Even in Shadow shes asked how many people she has killed...🎮 Lara Croft is like my idol pre-reboot. Personally I would of gone with Werner von Croy. We have history, relationships, (good and bad), possession, conspiracies and cross overs.