Lara Croft

Until the reboot of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and it's sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider - I frankly did not know all that much about Lara herself.  I mean I had seen the movies, known about the earlier games, but something about Tomb Raider got my interest.  It is Lara before she's become the archaeologist extraordinaire - it is more about being able to connect to the character than it is about seeing her in a fully along with her abilities as well as being confident in those abilities too.  The Lara in Tomb Raider is aboard a research vessel called the Endurance - ominous name given the history of a real world vessel by that name which was lost in an expedition to Antarctica.  This history aside - she experiences multiple trials starting with the very moment she lands on a mysterious island which turns out to be the one she's looking for yet nothing about it is welcoming - in fact it is a struggle for survival against both natural forces and supernatural forces at work there.

Her mentor Conrad Roth is one of several survivors besides her, her best friend Sam, several other expedition members, and of course the one person in the group that put me off fairly early on was Whitman though it was invariably clear that the man's motives were often selfish.

In the long term - the island's experiences for her and the others would have lasting repercussions for a long time after.

Rise of the Tomb Raider in turn sees her following the quest that was left undone by her father and that too felt connecting for me given my own turbulent history with my father.

A further story after RotTR is set in Croft Manor where Lara faces the potential loss of her late parents' estate by way of her uncle - a brother to her late mother.  Blood Ties is the story's name within the post-game events so in her exploration of her parents' history she comes to learn a great deal about them as well as about herself in relation to them.

Amelia Croft is shown to have been an artist - a painter of exceptional skills who was also an intellectual foil for her husband Richard - before and after they were married.  Of course you read about the ups and downs of their courtship as well as about their relationship to their eventual daughter.