Talk:Samantha Nishimura/@comment-99.53.208.63-20160902215350/@comment-29952513-20160905194626

I most hearty agree with you on the point of Sam saving herself, as it would allow her to shake off her Damsel in Distress label and give the haters less ammo while also giving fans who love the character her moment in the sun we've all been waiting for. However, I vehemently disagree on how Jonah should die as it's the same problem I would have for killing off Sam. It's shoving him into the fridge to motivate Lara and Sam to take down Trinity when they already have all the motivation they need.

Personally if Jonah is to die then he should go out like Spock in The Wrath of Khan. After Sam is saved the remnants of Himiko comment one last act of defiance and there's no way for our heroes to get out in time and that the only way to stop this is for someone to die. When Lara is learning about this the scene starts to focus on Jonah and we see him come to the decision to give up his own life for his friends. There's no thought box to tell us this, he doesn't make a big speech, we hear what needs to be done and we get 3 to 5 panels on Jonah and his expression says everything we need to see.

And the reason Sam doesn't choose to do this? She's unconscious from the effort of shaking off Himiko's control, thus rendering her blameless for Jonah's death and cooling down the fires before they can start a war.

Now I do want it to be made clear that I DON'T want Jonah OR Sam to die. I want to see Jonah in the next arc making pancakes for Sam and being there for her like Lara will/SHOULD be. For him to hear what she can't tell Lara out of fear that Lara will think she is weak and for him to play the role of Shipper on Deck, with him getting this little smile when ever there is a ship tease between Lara and Sam.

However, given that the title for this arc is call Choice and Sacrifice odds are good that someone is going to have to die and if that is the case then Sam should live and Jonah should die. There are more stories that can be told with Sam, she adds more to Lara's character and she can offer more to help Lara in her battle against Trinity.

Jonah doesn't really add that much to Lara's character, the writers don't really seem to know what to do with him, (all he did in Rise was get captured and nearly killed so we could learn who Jacob was and in the Spore arc all he really does is save Lara from the river, get captured (again) and shot the leader of the Spore Knights) and there's nothing he can really do to help Lara's fight against Trinity.

BTW what foreshadowing to Jonah's death are you referring to? I think I saw some foreshadowing as well but I want to make sure we're thinking of the same thing.

Back to the title, as it is called Choice and Sacrifice then Jonah choosing to sacrifice his own life would fit right into that. Jonah getting killed by Trinity wouldn't be a sacrifice, that would be a loss and making it less of an impact. I do agree that Jonah lacks depth, his character was fleshed out in the comics along with Reyes and Alex, (post mortem and through his sister but still) but out of all the characters Sam has been given the most development, aside from Lara.

We've seen her grow from a scared young women into someone who will mock her captures. Someone who was scared to die to someone who would offer to give up that life willingly to save someone she loves. She's jumps at the call when Kaz and latter "Grim" are in danger and is the only one who can inspire Lara to do what she considers to be impossible, (like staring as the lead in a play, my favorite scene in the series btw). She even tells Lara that she who much she hates being the damsel and makes Lara confront the fact that she is a bit controlling and doesn't let anyone else be the hero or help her. And she has shown herself to be quite the planner when she came up with a way to get to Mexico without being discovered.

To further illustrate this point, in the original 18 comics, Jonah appears in 12 issues, Reyes in 5 and Kaz in 10. Sam appears in 14 issues and is mentioned in 2 that she does not appear in, was shown in 2 of the first 6 issues of the new series and the current arc is all about her and Lara dealing with Himiko. It's clear that Gail Simone, Rhianna Pratchett and Mariko Tamaki have put a lot of effort in fleshing out Sam's character and her relationship with Lara more so then with any other character in the series.

So there's are my thoughts, hope you liked reading them :)