Talk:Jonah Maiava/@comment-2038153-20181104084001/@comment-2038153-20181104211538

I can't agree though I do see your point of view but the reason I on't think that's the case is down to three simple reasons: the comics, the writers views and use of the characters and, as odd as this one may sound, the character's designs.

In every story where Sam has been involved the writers have openly stated to be fans of Sam and while they claim to like Jonah they don't really want to do much with him. Take the very last arc in the comics before Shadow came out, Inferno. Despite only appearing as a Hallucination Sam still ends up having more development then Jonah and is useful as she acts as the only good part of her mind that isn't trying to bury her in guilt.

Meanwhile Jonah who, despite appearing physically at the end of the comic, didn't really do anything other then nearly get himself and Lara killed because he trips and actually undoes what little development he had in his previous appearance in Survivor's Crusade.

With Sam they work to develop her character and show how far she's come as a character through the eyes of Lara as Sam is now the one trying to save Lara instead of the other way around. But with Jonah, they seemingly do the same thing only nothing about him or Lara's views on him have changed despite what the comic would have you believe. He's still the same person he was at the start of the series and he's still someone Lara has to save.

The reason I think Sam has had so much more development then Jonah is because every writer has read, by necessity of continuity, have worked to keep true to what the first writer was doing in the arc before theirs. And one thing that every writer of every arc has been putting great emphases on is Sam's character development.

Gail Simone, Rhianna Pratchett, Mariko Tamaki, Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Philip Sevy have ALL gone on record saying how much they love Sam, her character and her relationship with Lara. But with Jonah, the most we've gotten in terms of praise for him has been, "I like how muscular he is compared to Lara." "I think he's a funny guy" and "I like how he's not a love interest to Lara."

And I think this is perhaps best shown in both Sam and Jonah's character designs. With Sam she has her trademark leather jacket, black T-Shirt and jeans along with her having shorter hair then Lara. This has been her go to look with both fans and official artist of the series. This look at appeared in the first game, at the end of Choice & Sacrifice and was how Sam first looked to Lara during the hallucination in Inferno. Much like how Lara will ALWAYS go back to her trademark blue tank top and light brown pants to shorts this look for Sam is THEY look for her and is what fans will often think of when it comes to her character.

In contrast, Jonah has had THREE different designs. ALL of which have had completely different hair styles on top of it which makes him stand out less to both the fans and the people working on the series. He's had a Wolf's tail in the first game, an afro in Rise and another kind of pony tail that I don't know the name of (no it is NOT another wolf's tail as the style is completely different). He's also had a completely different color set in regards to his shirts going from red to blue to a mix of green, blue and white in Shadow in a look that is just all over the place.

The ONLY thing that hasn't changed with Jonah's design is his necklaces that I'm willing to bet no one even noticed in any of the games because it usually blends into his cloths so it's goes on unnoticed. A good sign that you'r dealing with a flat character is when you think of them and nothing about them sticks out to you either character or design wise. Because Jonah has had to set design while Sam has is, to me, a indication that no one really cares about Jonah and if he left the series I'm 100% sure that every one would forget about him in a year.

By contrast Sam is still remembered to this day and there are still thousand of fans that want her back. Even artist that CD have displayed on the TR official Twitter page have made fan art show casing Sam and wanting her back.

So while I understand and respect your opinion I don't think that if Sam was in the games she would just be doing what Jonah did as Sam was kind of in Rise and they gave her more to do. Nadia is pretty much Sam 1.0 as she has the same personality, a similar backstory and similar relationship dynamic with Lara.

And with Nadia they kept her on the radio helping Lara out by telling her what to look for next along with providing some fun dialogue and banter with Lara. She was never in danger of getting captured and was actually useful to Lara and if they had brought Sam back that might have been the role intended for her.