Tomb Raider writer Rhianna Pratchett has previously revealed that she was "not a fan of the dad plot". The rebooted trilogy often veers the narrative from Lara becoming the Tomb Raider, to her deceased father's mysterious – and sometimes shady – past. Shadow of the Tomb Raider even features flashbacks of young Lara running around her vast family estate, discovering secrets about her father. Pratchett really wants her to move on and become her own person.
Unfortunately, she won't be able to bring this change herself, as she won't be working on the recently announced, next game in the series. At the recent BAFTA ceremony, Pratchett told Eurogamer that she is "very excited to see what they do with Lara next".
"We had a really fun time evolving her character, so I would like to see probably less father issues. And that's coming from me!" she said. "I like seeing her striking out on her own and really taking some joy in what she does. Because when we wrote the reboot game, she was really on her way to becoming a tomb raider. So she was like proto-Tomb Raider. And all the the traits that you associate with Tomb Raider like tenaciousness, bravery, resourcefulness, were kind of bubbling to the surface with her."
Pratchet went on to say that she wants Lara's character to fully evolve and develop into the iconic Tomb Raider we've known and loved over the years – with sassy dialogues and everything. She mentioned that the reboot trilogy was not well received by the fans, but hopes that this latest project fares better.
As mentioned, this isn't the first time Prattchet shared her opinions on Lara's father. The last time she spoke out against Mr. Croft came as a reply to someone who ranted against the father plotline on Twitter. "Speaking as someone that often gets defined by her dad, I’ve spoken in interviews about not being a fan of the dad plot line in Rise, but it was dictated from above & I had to make peace with it to do my job," wrote Prattchet. "It’s a big reason why the comics I worked on were very non-dad focused."