Larson (Original Timeline)

"I'd love to join you, but I forgot my trunks."

- Larson Conway

Larson is a character from the Tomb Raider series. He first appeared in the original game as one of the mercenaries hired by Jacqueline Natla to retrieve the Scion from Lara Croft. He returned in Tomb Raider Chronicles along with Pierre Dupont, and returns in the original's remake Tomb Raider: Anniversary with a new look and personality.

Biography
Larson was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S., in 1967. In 1995, he is working with Pierre Dupont in an attempt to acquire the Philosopher's Stone in Rome. He meets with Lara during an opera performance to exchange the Mercury Stone for money. As Lara prepares to hand over a suitcase full of cash, Pierre shows up with a pistol aimed at Lara's head - planning on taking the money and keeping the stone. As Larson and Pierre prepare to leave, Lara kicks the stone out of Pierre's hand and jumps off the balcony onto the stage. Escaping the opera house, Lara rides off on a scooter with Larson and Pierre trailing behind. Sliding beneath a half-closed gate, Larson and Pierre continue after her only to crash their car. Larson and Pierre continue to stalk Lara throughout Rome as she collects three more stones to open a gateway that will lead her to the Philosopher's Stone. After finding the final stone, Lara is confronted by Larson and the two fight outside the stone gateway. Wounding Larson, Lara notices three gargoyles emerge from the stone building. Despite her warnings, Larson refuses to believe her until it is too late, and is tossed across the park. He is portrayed as being something of a halfwit, which Pierre attributes to the fact that Larson was "kicked in the head by a horse" at some point in his life.

In 1996, Larson meets with Lara in India on behalf of Jacqueline Natla, CEO of Natla Technologies. While Lara was hired to retrieve a portion of the Scion artifact in Peru, Larson was hired to ambush her and take the artifact. Lara defeats him and is told that Natla has sent Pierre on the trail for the second piece. Larson shows up again later in Egypt right before Lara was going to obtain the last piece, and she kills him in cold blood.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Larson returns in Crystal Dynamic's remake of the original game, Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Larson has a more muscular body compared to the original, now wears a black shirt in place of his red one with the vest, a belt with a buckle shaped of the state of Texas and a slightly different haircut. He is also now equipped with a shotgun.

In the opening cutscene in which Lara is hired by Natla to find the Atlantean Scion, she acknowledges Larson that they have met before. He was voiced by Dave Wittenberg.

His character was changed into a bit of a nicer guy, albeit still an enemy willing to kill, as it is his job. This is especially displayed through his disdain of killing her whenever he actually does (saying things like "It didn't have to be this way," "What a waste..." and "Damn..."), whether he does it or not. As a matter of fact, upon their encounter in Peru after Lara finds the first piece of the Scion, he and Lara engage in a battle, and he only resorts to trying to either knock Lara down, or simply stun her, and begins attempting to use his firearm only when beginning to be frustrated. After finding the last piece of the Scion in Egypt, Natla's group ambushes Lara, and as she escapes Natla's thugs, Larson pushes off "The Kid," who was preparing to shoot her, and takes aim at her. However, at the last second, he purposefully aimed to the right, away from Lara, and fired. What more, as she breaks free from their grasp, Kold and The Kid attempt to, respectively, stab or shoot down Lara, while Larson only attempts to knock her down with his firearm.

In Natla's Mines, Larson reveals himself, blocking Lara from continuing any further, confident that Lara won't go as far as to kill him for just doing his job, and because it's just not who she is. However, Lara's determination to get the Scion and stop Natla's plans from coming to fruition pushes her into proving his assumption wrong. As she fires at Larson, who between each of Lara's successfully hitting shot attempts to raise his own weapon to defend himself. Finally, he suffers one shot too many and falls down. Before quickly dying, he reaches out his hand towards Lara.

According to the commentary, Lara and Larson had some sort of chemistry, and Lara felt remorse after the act.

Beta
In some earlier screenshots of Tomb Raider, Larson appears in the City of Vilcabamba level with an untextured gun.

Tomb Raider

 * Tomb of Qualopec
 * Sanctuary of the Scion

Tomb Raider Chronicles

 * The Streets of Rome
 * Trajan's Markets

Trivia

 * In the Tomb Raider CCG game, Larson's name is incorrectly spelt 'Larsen'.
 * In the Tomb of Qualopec level, Larson's gun is brown, but in the following cutscene it is grey.
 * In the Sanctuary of the Scion, Larson wields a grey lasersight gun and is not wearing his waistcoat.

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