Difference between revisions of "Jacqueline Natla"

Revision as of 03:11, 15 November 2008

Jacqueline Natla, as seen in Tomb Raider 1 and Tomb Raider Anniversary

Jacqueline Natla's background

Natla was one of the three legendary Rulers of Atlantis, along with Tihocan and Qualopec. Together they created the Scion, a device of immeasurable power. This device was split into three parts, one for each of the rulers, representing the democracy that Atlantis lived by.

Natla abused this power, however, using the Scion to experiment in genetic engineering and create a new, improved race of Atlanteans. When they learned of this, Tihocan and Qualopec sentenced Natla to eternal imprisonment, freezing her and then burying her in present day New Mexico.

During World War II, the U.S. began testing nuclear weapons in Los Alamos, New Mexico. One of these tests happened to detonate very near to Natla's prison, freeing her from her eternal punishment.

Natla adopted the guise of Jacqueline Natla and founded Natla Technologies, a very successful company which gave her considerable financial backing. With the rest of her people long dead, there was no one to stand in the way of her experiments, and she began to research the whereabouts of the Scion.

Natla's powers, at least in Continuity 2 (Crystal Dynamics, TRA), seem to include superstrength, supernatural firepower, the ability to fly and the ability to teleport. She can also apparently shapeshift and is able to change from human to Atlantean form.

In the original game (TR1, Continuity 1) it is suggested that her wings are a mutant that she wears on her shoulders, and that her ability to shoot fireballs is due to a mutant attached or grafted to her forearm. There is no hint in TR1 that she has the ability to shapeshift or teleport, or that she has superstrength or is immortal. It is arguable that the conversion of Natla from human to superhuman in the style of a DC or Marvel Comics or Disney villianness, demonstrates the move from a British (Core Design) to an American (Crystal Dynamics) aesthetic.

Tomb Raider & Tomb Raider Anniversary

In the Tomb Raider / Anniversary storyline she hired Lara Croft to travel to Peru to uncover Qualopec's third of an artefact called the Scion, but underestimated both Lara's ability and her moral solidarity. When Larson, one of Natla's employees, revealed to Lara that there was more going on than she originally thought, Lara took up the trail of the Scion, unwilling to blindly hand over such a powerful artefact.

Lara travelled from Peru to Greece, and then to an ancient city in Egypt collecting the three pieces of the Scion before Natla could. However, Natla caught up with Lara on a cliff side in Egypt and stole the completed Scion from her. Natla travelled to the great pyramid, an ancient Atlantean construction, to finally complete her experimentation.

Lara infiltrates the great pyramid and finds the control room at the top of an enormous chasm. With Natla's experiments almost complete, Lara shoots the Scion to prevent the ability to create Natla's hideous monsters. Natla jumps on Lara, in an attempt to prevent her from shooting the Scion, but apparently falling to her death far below.

Natla's Atlantean form

However, Natla is not defeated, she reappears in a final showdown with Lara, this time revealing her true Atlantean heritage. She sports red wings and blasts fire balls at Lara. When she is sufficiently injured she plays dead, lulling Lara into a false sense of security, but will then keep fighting until she is finally killed.

Unlockable biography

Collect 41 artifacts in Anniversary and the following biography is unlocked:

• Jacqueline Natla is the owner and CEO of Natla Technologies, one of the world's largest electronics companies. She is the holder of several key computer hardware patents, and her research and development is one of the industry's most secretive and prolific innovators. Little is known about Miss Natla's private life other than she never gives interviews and rarely makes public appearances. Colleagues and business rivals alike say she is intimidatingly intelligent and a demanding perfectionist.

Tomb Raider Legend

Natla Industries crates

During the final level of Tomb Raider Legend, Bolivia - The Looking Glass crates can be seen with the Natla Industries logo. These have led to speculations if there might be connections between Natla and the storyline of Legend; something hopefully revealed in Tomb Raider Underworld.

Tomb Raider Underworld

Natla will reappear in Tomb Raider Underworld; her physical appearance has been revealed. Check the image gallery under the first spoiler.

{{spoil|Lara runs into Jacqueline Natla at the end of the Mediterranean section, after retrieving Thor's Gauntlet. She's been attacked by mercenaries and robbed of the gauntlets but was able to follow them onto a ship. She enters a cargo hold where she finds a glass tank in its centre.^[1] She approaches the glass tube and is heard saying "No..!" the screen gets dark and Natla's voice is heard, saying "I'm very pleased to see you again Lara".^[2] It is later revealed that in this cargo hold Lara runs into Amanda Evert who tries to revive Natla using the gauntlets. During this episode Natla reveals to Lara that Avalon and Helheim are the same and that her mother was sent there trough an ancient transport network (Stone Daises),she also suggests that Lara should continue her search in Thailand.^[3] Something yet untold to the public must have happened between Amanda and Natla that would make Natla unhappy, as Alister reveals in an early cutscene from Thailand, saying "I'd hate to be Amanda if Natla ever gets free" to which Zip replies "I'd hate to be any of us".However the ship explodes and Natla is rescued by helicopter. In Thailand^[4]. Lara discovers that her father,Richard,worked for Natla,when she arrives at the Yggdrasil instead of the second gauntlet of Thor she finds a message carved in the stone "Natla,I see your goal and am your puppet no longer - RJC"(Richard James Croft). Lara continues her quest to find Mjolnir,that leads her back to her manor,there she is attacked by a mysterious doppelganterwho blow up her manor,disarms Lara and shoot Alister dead.In revenge,Lara imediatly continues the search for the hammer,she then finds it and go back to Thailand to face Natla,there she demands:"Avalon,Helheim,I don't care what it's called - Where is it?",Natla replies with a question about Lara's behavior,this only enrages her,making her break the glass of Natla's prison with the Mjolnir,Amanda arrives and faces Lara,who is prevented to finish her by the doppelganger.Amanda is taken by Lara's double and Natla is left behind,Lara then shouts:"Get out of my sight".Natla acompanhy Lara to a site in the artic circle,where she finds the entrance to helheim.True to her word,Natla makes a spell that partialy opens the gate,Lara then finishes it with the hammer.However,Lara is confronted by an unexpected figure,her mother,who has been turned into an ugly [[Thrall],Lara unloads her guns on Amelia who is sent back to the void,Natla uses this moment to reveal herself and that she was responsible for Lara's misfortunes,Natla is the one who killed Richard Croft,she also confesses that in her whole life she didn't see anything more ironic and delicious than manipulate Richard Croft into finding the artifacts she required,however he turned on her,and thats when she killed him.She also reveals that her plans all along were to open the gates to Helheim and unleashe her Thrall army that would eventually lead to the ragnarok.Lara rescues Amanda(who had been kidnapped by the doppelganger)and she(Amanda) agrees to help her.She then uses the Wraith Amulet to hold of the Thrall forces while Lara confronts Natla.They battle and Natla ends up falling in the pit and being(once again)imprisoned beneath the Midgard.Lara and Amanda close the gates of Helheim and exit the underworld trough a Stone Dais that take them back to Nepal(the very same portal that took Amelia to the underworld).Amanda asks Lara if everything made sense now,and Lara replies asking if it would make if she let Amanda kill her. </b>}}

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  Natla's new look

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  Jacqueline Natla reborn

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  Close Up

Fan Speculation About Underworld

Spoiler Warning: Beware! Important story element are revealed.

Mark the text in the box below using your mouse to read the content.

• It has been revealed that Lara will be looking for Thor's hammer to kill a god, possibly Natla. It is unknown if Natla will be Underworld's main villain or if she will be the only one in the game. Natla will also be in search for the Mjolnir, which she will most likely use to bring about Ragnarok and finally start the seventh age.
• Natla is clearly still healing from her battle with Lara, but she and Amanda will still be going after her in-game. Fighting Natla will most likely be the boss fight that the cutscene names suggest.
• Some fans even believe that there is a possible relation between Natla and Amanda, as both women look similar, notably that Amanda could be Natla's daughter or sister or even a clone.
• Since Richard's death was never clearly explained,there are some speculations about Natla being his killer.

The Launch Trailer release by Eidos has shown Lara breaking Natla's holding area with the Mjolnir.

Voices

• Grey DeLisle[2] (Tomb Raider Anniversary), (Tomb Raider Underworld)

Miscellaneous facts

• A "scorched Natla" outfit is unlockable in Anniversary.
• Natla has featured in a number of Tomb Raider fan fiction stories, including "GM" and "The Dead" by Ostercy and "An Eye For An Eye" by Dr. Amazing, the latter being the winning entry in a Natla story writing competition, The Second Village of Tokakeriby TR Story Competition, 2002 [3]
• The Aramaic word "natla" (נטלא) means "the vessel used for washing hands". Another possible etymology of "natla" says it derives from "נטל " and should be viewed literally as "that which is lifted" or "that which is taken". (S. Fränkel, "Aramäische Fremdwörter im Arabischen," p. 65, and On Semitic Words in Greek and Latin W. Muss-Arnolt Transactions of the American Philological Association Vol. 23, (1892), pp. 35-156)
• There are some similarities between Natla and Ayesha, immortal anti-heroine of Rider Haggard's novel She [4]. To quote Wikipedia; In the original novel, Ayesha is to a great extent selfish and amoral, caring very little for the feelings or even the lives of others so long as she gets what she wants. However, it is evident that, in the course of writing the novel, Haggard moved away from a purer conception of feminine evil. Indeed, one sees the process of transition fossilized in this sentence from the chapter entitled “Ayesha Unveils” - "I have heard of the beauty of celestial beings, now I saw it; only this beauty, with all its awful loveliness and purity, was evil — at least, at the time, it struck me as evil."

Gallery

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  Jacqueline Natla (TR1)

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  Jacqueline Natla (TRA)

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  Jacqueline Natla talking to Lara in the holding area of the cargo ship in the Mediterranean level (TRU).

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  TRA Natla concept art, by Paul Sullivan [1]

References

1. ↑ Consoles+, Octobre 2008; French gaming magazine
2. ↑ Tomb Raider Underworld Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrPyMSEkPyY
3. ↑ Consoles+, Octobre 2008
4. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7c33jqTcUc