Doppelgänger

Atlantean Lara Copy
Occurrence	Tomb Raider Atlantis Tomb Raider Anniversary Lost Island - The Great Pyramid Tomb Raider Underworld Croft Manor Andaman Sea Arctic
Enemy Type	immortal enemy
Classification	Mutants, Atlantean
Distinctiveness	Atlantean Lara Copy Tomb Raider/Anniversary: The creature copies all of Lara's moves, so Lara is safe unless she attacks it. This enemy cannot be killed by conventional means. It must be tricked to fall down a shaft hidden below a trapdoor. Doppelganger Underworld: It cannot be killed, as it is very agile. Beneath the Ashes: The end cutscene implies that it can be controlled using words inscribed on the Thrall Artifact.

Atlantean Lara Copy (also known as Bacon Lara by the fans due to its looks) is an Atlantean copy of Lara Croft.

The Lara copy is first encountered in the Atlantis / Lost Island part of Tomb Raider / Tomb Raider Anniversary. It has the red skinned, hairless appearance of all Atlantean "mutants", but is noticeably female. It mimics Lara's movements exactly, like a mirror image. It is unaggressive, and cannot be killed by conventional means, as any damage done (caused by Lara shooting at it), is inflicted on Lara as well. So if the Lara copy is killed this way, Lara dies too. Lara manages to outsmart the Atlantean by tricking it into a pit of lava covered by a trapdoor.

In Tomb Raider, it seems to shoot bullets - although it has no guns, the same animations are used for it as for Lara. However in Tomb Raider Anniversary, it appears to shoot fireballs, presumably generating them in a similar way to Natla of Atlantis.

There are differences between Lara and the Atlantean copy; one is that "Bacon Lara" does not have the equipment Lara does, like guns or backpack. More obviously it does not have hair, skin, clothing or shoes.

According to the documentation released with Tomb Raider Anniversary the Lara copy is "a hideous creature with no skin which mysteriously shares the exact physical characteristics of Lara Croft. Possessing only the most basic primal instincts, the creature mimics the actions of its adversaries. Lacking conscience, reason, and any kind of soul, the doppelganger is at once both very dangerous and also quite vulnerable." On the face of it, this makes the Lara copy from Tomb Raider an almost completely different being to the self-directing Doppelgänger that appears in Tomb Raider Underworld (see below), and it seems unlikely that the game designers planned that the Lara copy from the first game would eventually develop into the Doppelgänger[1].

The Lara Doppelgänger from Tomb Raider Underworld

In Tomb Raider Underworld, Natla and Amanda sends a doppelgänger to Lara's mansion to retrieve the Wraith Stone. The doppelgänger destroys Croft Manor, shoots Zip in the leg and kills Alister. Later, in the Andaman Sea, Lara is about to free Natla when Amanda stops her. The doppelgänger throws Amanda into the depths of the ship so Lara can free Natla, therefore allowing her to open the way to Helheim. In Helheim, the doppelgänger stops Lara from killing Natla. Ready to kill Lara, Amanda appears and uses the power of the Wraith Stone to throw the doppelgänger into the void of Jormungandr's poison, Eitr.

Unlike the Atlantean Lara copy, the Doppelgänger can scale tall walls, can move superhumanly fast, can use equipment (for example, to blow up the Croft Manor), can understand English and can fight with no need to mimic Lara's movements.

Outfit:

• Leather waistcoat with zippers
• Leather pants with a double buckled belt and dual pistol leg holsters
• Black boots and black fingerless biker gloves

Lara's Shadow

In the exclusive Xbox 360 downloadable content, Lara's Shadow allows us to play as Lara's doppelgänger.

Fan speculation

Fan opinion: This section contains personal opinions from a Tomb Raider fan.
(This notice may only be removed by a Lead Editor.)

One possible explanation for existence of the Atlantean copy of Lara is that it is a trap specifically designed by the Atlanteans and/or Natla to trick Lara into killing herself, or at least make it impossible for her to pass. However, given that Natla probably assumes that Lara has been killed after diving from the cliff outside the Sanctuary of the Scion and that the Atlanteans have never seen Lara before, it seems unlikely that the mutant would be hatched on the off chance that Lara would show up. Although the mutant mimics Lara's movements - maybe it has just hatched and is learning or "programming" itself by copying the first thing that it sees - it doesn't resemble Lara particularly in TR1, and its encounter with Lara may just be an unfortunate accident.

Gallery

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  The Lara copy in Anniversary

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  Again, in TRU

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  In Tomb Raider Underworld

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  A render of the Doppelganger from TRU