Natla (Original Timeline)

"It was you, you were the Queen of Atlantis?" "Once."

Jacqueline Natla is the main antagonist in Tomb Raider, and arguably Lara Croft's nemesis. She is a wealthy businesswoman and the owner of Natla Technologies.

== Biography == Natla was one of the members of the triumvirate ruling the lost continent of Atlantis. However, she was later condemned for her misuse of power and was imprisoned in a capsule by the other two rulers, Qualopec and Tihocan. After escaping from her prison in 1945 during a nuclear test in Los Alamos, New Mexico, she took on the name Jacqueline and founded her own company called Natla Technologies using her scientific expertise and cunning. In 1996 she hired adventurer Lara Croft to search for Qualopec's piece of the Atlantean Scion in his Tomb located in Peru. Shortly after finding the artifact, Lara was attacked by another adventurer Larson under orders by Natla. Knowing Natla had betrayed her, Lara went in search for the remaining two pieces in Greece and then Egypt. After obtaining the final piece, Lara was ambushed by Natla and her men. Stealing the now assembled artifact, Natla ordered Lara to be killed and left Egypt in her boat heading to Atlantis.

It is inside the Great Pyramid of Atlantis that Natla's grand scheme is revealed: to use the Scion's powers to breed a new race of mutant creatures. Realizing this, Lara made her best effort to destroy the Scion. Refusing to let her work be destroyed, Natla charged for Lara sending them both falling into a deep abyss. While Lara managed to grab a ledge, Natla continued to plummet into the lava pit below and was presumed dead. However, later on as Lara made her way through the now collapsing pyramid, she encountered Natla yet again, who was now sporting a bomb launcher and red wings similar to those of the Atlantean monsters she had encountered before. After apparently killing Natla, Lara escaped the pyramid as it was destroyed in a big explosion.

TR1 versus TRA
In TR1 (Contuinity 1) Natla is interested in genetic experiments. She tells Lara that the human race has become decadent, like the Atlanteans before them. She wants to force a rapid evolutionary change in humanity by unleashing her creations upon the world in order to ensure that only the "strong" survive. She wants to see what sort of twisted perfection will result from such an experiment. She has no regard for the moral consequences and simply explains her plan as it is to Lara, discussing it on a purely intellectual level.

In TRA (Continuity 2) Natla is given a more mystical air with an extremely feminine demeanor, emphasized by her fantasy-style ceremonial robes that she wears later on in the game, and how she was frozen in magical red crystals by Tihocan rather than the cryogenics tube from TR1. She is interested in the Seventh Age and the Wheels of Kathar, whatever the latter may be. (Tomb Raider: Underworld only explained the Seventh Age, which turned out to be Ragnarrök.) She makes no reference at all to any of the experiments that had been discussed in TR1. Instead, she tries to overcome Lara's moral objections to killing and she attempts to convince Lara to join her as a ruler of Atlantis because it takes three to rule (she does not mention who the third person is meant to be, but some thinks it is Amanda Evert, though she wasnt mentioned at all in the game).

Overall, TR1 presented the rulers of Atlantis with a more traditional science-fiction style (robotic appearances, cryogenics, genetics, evolution, etc.) while TRA presented them with a more traditional fantasy style (more human appearance, magical crystals, ceremonial robes, the Seventh Age, etc.). Natla's powers, at least in Continuity 2 (Crystal Dynamics, Tomb Raider: Anniversary), 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 (Tomb Raider, 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 Tomb Raider 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.

Appearances

 * Tomb Raider: Featuring Lara Croft

Tomb Raider

 * Atlantis (cutscenes)
 * The Great Pyramid

Tomb Raider
Intro Egypt, Canyon After Lara wakes up in Yacht Natla's Imprisonment Meeting Lara in Atlantis After recovering from being shot down by Lara
 * "Seal it, Larson."
 * "Feast your eyes on this, Lara. How does that make your wallet rumble?"
 * "Then you'll like a big park: Peru. Vast mountain ranges to cover, sheer walls of ice, rocky crags, savage winds and there's this little trinket: an age-old artefact of mystical powers buried in the unfound tomb of Qualopec. That's my interest. You could leave tomorrow. Are you busy tomorrow?"
 * "Left Larson sucking wind then, eh?"
 * "Well, your little vacation riot's over now. Time to give back what you've hijacked off me."
 * "Well? Kill her!"
 * "You morons!"
 * "Let's go."
 * "You ready yet?"
 * "You can't do this!"
 * "You can't! I..."
 * "Mindless!? Look at you! Neither of you have one squirt of inventive juice in your heads. Wasters!"
 * "Tihocan!"
 * "They're survivalists. A new generation."
 * "You won't rest either! Or your damned continent of Atlantis!"
 * "Back again?"
 * "Evolution's in a rut. Natural selection at an all time low. Shipping out fresh meat will incite territorial rages again, will strengthen and advance us, even create new breeds."
 * "A kick in the pants. Those runts Qualopec and Tihocan had no idea. The cataclysm of Atlantis struck a race of langering wimps; plummeted them to the very basics of survival again. It shouldn't happen like that."
 * "Too late for abortions now."
 * "No!"
 * "You can't bump off me and my brood so easy, Lara!"

Trivia

 * The Klaxons song "Atlantis to Interzone" is dedicated to Natla.


 * The Arabic 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".


 * Natla Drives a White Mercedes Benz S-Class 300SEL (W126) in Tomb Raider Original 1996. But in Tomb Raider Anniversary she drives a White Mercedes Benz S430 (W220).
 * Natla's cutscene model from Tomb Raider is reused as the model for Lara's mother seen in the church flyby in Tomb Raider: Chronicles. The model has been retextured apart from the face and new hair is created for the model.
 * Natla is the only Enemy to appear in two continuities of games. Being reinvented by Crystal Dynamics.

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Jaqueline_Natla Jacqueline Natla Жаклин_Натла