Lara and Werner’s relationship
So I’ve been thinking (not for the first time) about when the picture of Lara and Werner that Lara steps on in the AoD intro was taken. Because we don’t really see them have such a good relationship… well, ever. Even when Lara was a teenager (which she certainly isn’t in the photo), there wasn’t exactly friendship there, they hardly knew each other…
And that’s the other thing, it seems like they actually might not have spent much time together so why do they seem so close? And why the student/mentor relationship if it amounted to a few hours in Cambodia before all went to hell?
So, my theory (which might not be original, someone might’ve come up with it before) is that between Cambodia, VCI and Egypt, their relationship didn’t simply grow worse and worse. It was a lot of ups and downs instead, like a roller coaster. We simply don’t see the good times.
Meaning that after Cambodia (and I do hope Lara actually called for help as soon as she could after she escaped the crumbling place), maybe their relationship wasn’t very good, but Lara was still… kinder, I suppose, at that time, she could’ve felt concerned and actually contacted Werner and tried to mend their relationship. And hey, she was a kid so maybe Werner would accept it (he might just imagine she’s grovelling but whatever his imagination is, at least Lara gets what she wants… err, I mean, at least she gets her beloved teacher back).
So the student/mentor relationship actually lasts long – or more precisely makes a comeback later. But the past is still there and they are both… well, themselves, so they might have another fight soon again. Lara is only growing more confident at the stuff Werner claims to be an expert at, so the clashes might grow stronger.
Maybe there’s a longer lull as Lara’s parents don’t want her go on more such adventures, so after the next fight they don’t talk/meet until Lara is 21 and officially doing what she wants, that sounds like a good time to reconnect.
Of course that means they are now also officially rivals. Another fight can’t be far off, maybe this time over an artefact they both want, who knows.
But they reconcile again. They always seem to. They actually work together on some other finds and during one such moment of teamwork and camaraderie, the photograph is taken.
Lara steals the Iris only two years before the fateful events in Egypt, so it’s possible that after that stunt in VCI, they didn’t manage to reconcile again until… Seth.
I mean these multiple fights and reconciliations would make more sense, right? They seem to have too much of a close relationship for people who only ever spent a few hours together when one of them was a wide-eyed teenager (if brave and snarky). And not only because of the one photo, but also for Werner inviting Lara to his apartment to ask for help at all. You don’t ask that of someone who was simply your rival and mortal enemy for the past twenty years or so. And you don’t go on a wild goose chase for some artefacts just to find out who killed your rival and mortal enemy either.
Sure, people can get to know each other by being bitter rivals who run into each other, so they could know each other well without being friends, but again, then they wouldn’t care for the other so much. I mean come on, they tried to kill each other at some point or other (Werner more so, surprisingly :D ), so there must’ve been times when their relationship was better, to make them actually care. See how much Werner tried to find Lara after TR4! He wanted to help her out when the pyramid was crumbling and Lara was happy to see it was him again.
So, yeah, I think they were just their mutually incompatible selves over the years and jumped from mentor/student role to rival role to co-workers role to bitter enemies role… rinse and repeat. The whole history of their relationship could be actually really really cool!
baratheonpilled
areudirty
pixelskylines
origamiaround
titsay
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
