Hi! 👋 I want to ask you how you feel about Tomb Raider: The Myth of El Hawa? 🏜️
I'm very happy it got made and it's so beautiful, but the story is to close to La(ra)wrence of Arabia for me? It's not bad, just not very original 🤷♀️
(I'm also glad Lara didn't become leader of the tribe, that would make it very corny and her into white-savior 😂)
Sorry about my English 🙏
😘 💞
Yeaaahhh now it's when you send me to hell because I've absolutely not watched it before due to.... personal hectic life. In fact I've watched it just now and only because you asked me to. I'm really sorry for it because my dearest @adayka who has done so much for me and my fanfics worked in this project. But you can tell how personally and mentally exhausted I've been these last years that even if I reblogged and shared the shit outta this project when it came out, I didn't take the time to watch it myself, until now.
Here I leave the thing for if someone else wants to enjoy it:
I've enjoyed it a lot, for sure. I mean, the team is a full brick of talents: Murti, who's a skilled and gifted writer, Jasmine, who has nothing to envy to TR official comic artist when it comes to draw Lara, and of course, Jonell's voice is THE voice for me. Dean Kopri is also fantastic in putting music to all this beauty.
Yet, as you say, the plot isn't original enough. It follows loyally the original idea it existed for the link between The Last Revelation and The Angel of Darkness. Most of us have used it for our fanfics. And the fact it resembles so much Lawrence of Arabia is rightfully pointed out by yourself because even Core team, back in those days, called this plot Lara of Arabia. So they themselves were the first to acknowledge it was deeply inspired in this story.
As for the plot itself, I've enjoyed it but I don't feel particularly taken away for it. The white traveler being sheltered by a POC tribe and later accepted as one of them and initiated in their lore is old as fuck and as you well say, it stinks of white saviour-ism. Efforts have been made here to disclaim it, such as Lara acknowledging that the tribe didn't need her to survive, and the fact you point out, that she finally leaves before turning herself into a leader or something.
Only she HAS turned a leader, commanding expeditions of fighters to defend the people until she's nicknamed El Hawa. It also mentions her wearing blue as a special color to distinguish her, when, in fact, blue is the traditional colour Tuaregs - not Bedouins - use in the desert of Sahara.
It is also unclear why Putai is a black woman if the Bedouins are Arabs, and thus, not black. But that's a mystery that goes back to 2003, right?
In the end, I find it quite enjoyable and we should be grateful fans and former TR members cared enough for us to bring forth this little jewel, but I'm afraid it will just be a passing thing as it happens with everything TRAOD related. Also, as a way of filling the void between TR4 and TR6, it fits a bit distorted, since it would need more fleshing out and completing to fit properly in the rest of the lore - why would she go to Von Croy in Paris if, as she claimed, she cared little anymore about it and was instead anguished to find out what happened to Putai and her people? It just doesn't make sense. Moreover, you can see that's not her attitude in TRAOD at all. But yet again... undevelopment. On the game's part, of course.
Thanks for putting me into watching this, as I had forgotten I had it on my pending tasks. And don't mind the English, for mine isn't perfect either.












