Lara Croft VS Nathan Drake

Lara Croft VS Nathan Drake is the 72nd episode and Season 4 premiere of DEATH BATTLE!, featuring gaming's greatest treasure hunters: Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider franchise and Nathan Drake of the Uncharted franchise. Lara was voiced by Eileen Montgomery (EileMonty)and Nathan was voiced by Gianni Matragrano.

Description
''These two adventurers are here to prove once and for all who's the pivotal Playstation plunderer! Lara Croft the Tomb Raider and Nathan Drake the seeker of the uncharted!''

Interlude
(*Cues: Invader - Jim Johnston*)

Wiz: Sometimes, an archaeologist needs a bit more than a shovel and brush, especially when their on the hunt for the most legendary of treasure.

'''Boomstick: Yeah, if it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. The best treasure hunters are the ones with the brawn to match their brain.'''

Wiz: Like Lara Croft, the Tomb Raider.

'''Boomstick: And Nathan Drake, seeker of the uncharted. He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.'''

Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who will win a Death Battle.

Lara Croft
(*Cues: Tomb Raider: Anniversary - Main Theme*)

Wiz: Most people spend their entire lives in pursuit of wealth, status, and power, but Lara Croft was lucky enough to be born into them. However, despite attending the best schools, and living in her own mansion, she was missing one crucial thing: adventure!

(*Cues: Tomb Raider: Legend - Main Theme*)

'''Boomstick: Man, rich people are always looking for some crazy way to help keep themselves entertained! But if you have a lot of money and you take a lot of trips, it's good odds that one of those trips is bound to go horribly wrong.'''

Wiz: And guess what? It did.

'''Boomstick: Before she was even old enough to order a drink, a crash landing left her stranded in desolation. She had to learn for herself how to adapt and survive for over a week before returning to civilization as a whole new lady.'''

Wiz: In whatever Tomb Raider timeline you're looking at, whether it's on an island or the Himalayas, Lara's destined to this life-changing fate.

Boomstick: I'm never getting on a plane with her!

Wiz: Surprisingly, Lara's experience left her far from traumatized. Instead, she was inspired, hooked by the thrill of perilous adventure. So she struck out on her own, seeking lost treasure across the globe to make a name for herself.

'''Boomstick: But Lara's no fool, so first, she made sure she'd be ready for anything. She tracked down the best teachers she could find to learn her the ways of stealth, survival, and martial arts.'''

Wiz: She became proficient in numerous types of firearms, and her martial art of choice appears very reminiscent to kickboxing. She can even fight while blindfolded!

(*Cues: Tomb Raider: Legend - Mission Summary*)

'''Boomstick: So she's basically Batman, who treasure hunts, with guns! Speaking of which, Lara is famous for her trademark dual Heckler and Codge pistols, and I'm not talking about the things under her sweater. But she's also skilled shotguns, assault rifles, submachine guns, even grenades! And she uses them to take down everything from armed thugs to T-Rexes!'''

Wiz: Lara is also skilled with a competition compound bow, perfect for stealth kills.

'''Boomstick: And she's got enough trick arrows to make Green Arrow proud. She's got fire arrows, poison arrows, explosive tipped arrows, and even rope arrows for crossing gaps or grappling things, and while her climbing axe is supposed to be used for scaling up cliffs, you can imagine what the thing does to a human skull. Oh wait, you don't have to, watch!'''

(Lara jams it into a guy's skull and throws him away with it)

Boomstick: Mmm, lovely.

(*Cues: Tomb Raider: Underworld - Main Theme*)

Wiz; Gruesome murder aside, Lara's extensive training paid off in big ways, she's discovered the legendary blade Excalibur, the Philosopher's Stone, the Ark of the Covenant, Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, and even Bigfoot, whom she also promptly killed.

Boomstick: Suck it, Sasquatch, she's survived dinosaurs, the Kraken, a Chinese dragon, and she even found the long lost Led Zeppelin song, "Stairway to Heaven".

Wiz: What? No, no, no, she found a literal stairway to Heaven.

'''Boomstick: Really?! Holy shit!'''

Wiz: For a 132 pound woman, she's surprisingly strong, she's held up a heavy gate for thirty six straight seconds, while drowning, she also regularly pushes around enormous boulders, like the giant blocks in the Pyramid of Giza. This makes her easily strong enough to, say, punch a man through a wooden beam.

Boomstick: Lara's also a crack shot, she can precisely tag multiple targets in less than a second, even if their button sized bolts or kunai flying through the air.

Wiz: She's skilled enough to infiltrate and escape Area 51, she's tenacious enough to take a bullet in the heat of battle and keep fighting, and she's tough enough to dive off a 250 foot cliff into water, with no injury whatsoever. The highest documented dive ever recorded is 193 feet, but unlike Lara, this diver underwent weeks of preparation and still broke his collarbone.

'''Boomstick: Hell, this girl can survive almost anything. '''

(*Cues: Unknown Theme*)

Boomstick: When she was younger, she got impaled by a rusty metal spike, and was still able to complete an entire adventure while in constant pain.

Wiz: She wasn't even able to properly treat it, she had to cauterize it with a burning arrow tip.

'''Boomstick; Damn, that's hardcore! I think I've found my next ex-wife, and then there was that one time she threw her climbing axe at a helicopter, and it just...it just exploded!'''

Wiz: Yeah, the only logical explanation being she threw the axe into the chopper's air intake, shredded it's internals, which caused a spark that reached it's gas tank...

'''Boomstick: She made the helicopter explode with nothing but an axe! That girl's got one hell of an arm.'''

Wiz: I think we can all agree Lara is a badass, but she thinks so too, and can get a bit reckless.

Boomstick: If she gets too full of it, she could always find herself at the wrong end of a tree branch, crushed by boulders, mauled by wolves, shot in the head, stabbed through the face, all sorts of horrific, fatal mistakes.

Wiz; Even knowing that, the risk doesn't keep her from any of her bewildering adventures.

(We see Lara in a robe, about to shower, she is about to remove it, when she stops and looks at the screen)

Lara: Don't you think you've seen enough?

(She pulls out a shotgun and fires at the screen)

Nathan Drake
(*Cues: Sir Francis Drake - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune*)

Wiz: Sic Parvis Magna. To most people, these words hold little meaning. But for globetrotting explorer Nathan Drake, it's his life motto. Greatness from small beginnings.

'''Boomstick: And beginnings don't get much smaller than his. Little Nate spent half his childhood in a boy's home, where he was raised by nuns, picked on by bullies and pretty much just hated on for every second of his life.'''

Wiz: Nathan found solace in his fascination with history, particularly the explorer who found El Dorado, Sir Francis Drake. And like his idol, Nathan dreamed of one day escaping the orphanage to go on treasure hunts of his own.

'''Boomstick: And he did, with his big brother, Sam. The treasure? Their dead mom's old journals about Mr. Drake himself. Turns out they were in some old lady's house, so they broke in, she called the cops and then immediately died from a heart attack.'''

Wiz: Obviously not wanting to be caught trespassing and standing over a dead woman when the police arrived, Nathan began a life on the run.

'''Boomstick: Talk about shitty luck. Man, all he wanted was a book!'''

(*Cues: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Main Theme*)

Wiz: Fortunately, Nathan seemed born for the treasure hunter's life. He's exceptionally athletic, has encyclopedic historical knowledge, and can find a way out of almost any bad situation with his quick wit.

Boomstick: He'd make sure that everyone would remember the name, Nathan Drake.

Wiz: After several solo adventures, Nathan eventually teamed up with Victor Sullivan, a former Navy officer turned expert con artist. Sully taught Nathan the ways of combat, both with his fists and with firearms.

'''Boomstick: Good thing too, because it seems like everybody out there wants to take a shot at Nate. He almost always has a 45 Defender or 9mm pistol on hand, as well as a couple grenades. Nate can also rack up the body count with just about any weapon he touches, including machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers, and sniper rifles. Hey, when there's a literal army of bad guys out to kill you, you gotta become a one man army yourself!'''

Wiz: Ready for anything, Nathan set out to follow in his idol's footsteps and then some, he's discovered five lost civilizations, stopped multiple world ending threats, and even unlocked the secret of El Dorado like Sir Francis Drake before him.

Boomstick: Yeah, turns out it's not a city of gold, just a dead guy that turns people into zombies!

(Gabriel Roman is infected with the virus and turns feral, he is shot by Atoq Navarro)

'''Boomstick: Didn't see that one coming. Anyway, Nate wouldn't have done any of those things if he weren't physically fit for the job, he's strong enough to move boulders twice his size, and hold up a four ton gate for four seconds. '''

(Nate holds the gate long enough for Elena to pass through, then lets it go, and somersaults out of its closing)

Boomstick: He can climb huge cliffs with nothing but his fingertips, and constantly jumps humungous gaps without needing a running start.

Wiz: The standing broad jump world record is twelve feet and three inches, in this instance,

(*Cues: Unknown Theme*)

Wiz: Nathan Drake was able to make a nineteen foot jump from a standstill, nineteen feet! And he's always clearing similar jumps throughout his adventures.

Boomstick: Nate's got hops, but he's also got an iron hide, the dude is constantly falling dozens of feet, and just shaking it off, like that time he did a forty foot belly flop and got right back up, like it was nothing, that could kill a normal guy.

Wiz: Nathan Drake is nothing if not determined, when he found himself cornered on a train and bleeding out from a bullet wound, his solution was to simply blow the whole thing to oblivion.

Boomstick: What a convenient pile of propane tanks.

Wiz: But of course, he survived the crash, and even climbed to safety, despite having no way of knowing he'd get out of this whole mess alive at all.

'''Boomstick: On top of all that, look what he's wearing! It's freezing up there!'''

Wiz: Actually, explosions seem to be his exit of choice, like when he blew up a cargo plane while flying over Saudi Arabia.

'''Boomstick: After surviving the trip to the ground, he wandered the desert for two straight days, with zero food or water, but even with all that, when he found a bunch of mercenaries who wanted to kill him, he was still able to fight them off. How is this guy real? What kind of deal did he make with Satan? Cause he should know that that stuff comes with a terrible price, believe me.'''

(*Cues: Unknown Theme*)

Wiz: All of this just proves how careless and haphazard Nathan really is, this man rarely, if ever, has a plan for anything at any point, nearly every moment of his life, whether he's in or out of danger, Nathan's philosophy insists that he simply roll with whatever punches come his way. When it comes down to it, much of his survivability can be chalked up to an abundance of good luck.

'''Boomstick: And also, his incredible knack for improvising and adapting. Lucky or not, hundreds, if not thousands of bad guys have tried to beat him to some treasure, and lost. It's good odds that if you go up against Nathan Drake, your not just gonna lose that treasure, your gonna lose your life.'''

(Nathan and Chloe Frazer bring a wounded Elena Fisher to Safety)

Chloe Frazer: What the hell did you do back there?

''Nathan Drake: Oh, you know... saved the world.''

Death Battle
A torch burns as Nathan Drake walks forward towards an ancient temple, an AK-47 on his back and a Jeep idle behind him. He scrolls through his small book as someone from a distance watches through hi-tech binoculars. After approaching a strange cage-like mechanism, Nate brushes his arm right.

''Nathan: Damn. It's cold up here.''

Nathan examines the area.

Nathan: Ok, let's try...

He takes a slow step onto a panel. The mechanism makes a noise, surprising Nate as he turns toward it. The mechanism opens up, its pieces separating into claw-like parts and spinning before folding over, revealing the Holy Grail on a small pedestal.

''Nathan: Heh, aha! Gotcha.''

Nathan swings his arm in triumph, then reaches for the Grail before he hears a gun being loaded.

''Lara: Stop! Turn around. Slowly.''

Lara Croft stands behind Nathan, his arm still stretched out, with a pistol aimed at him and a bow on her back.

Nathan: Aww crap.

Nathan turns around and puts his hands up as Lara takes out her second dual pistol. He begins walking to the side.

''Nathan: Hey there! I'm guessing the whole "finders keepers" rule isn't gonna apply...''

''Lara: Cut the chit-chat! The grail's coming with me.''

(*Cues: Final Fantasy XV - Invidia*)

''Lara Croft: Either walk away, or die right here. Choose wisely...''

Nathan: Ok missy, first rule about me...

Nathan takes out his AK-47 and aims it at Lara.

Nathan: I don't walk away...

FIGHT!

Lara moves to the side and fires her pistols as Nate moves to the side to avoid her shots. He then fires his AK-47 as the two continue running sideways to avoid each other's fire. Nate spins and gets behind a pillar for cover as Lara does the same on the other side. Nate steps out of cover aiming his rifle as Lara does the same with her pistols and fires first, forcing him back behind cover. Nate puts his arm over his head for a moment as Lara keeps shooting at Drake's location.

''Nathan: It never fails! I get to the gold at the end of the rainbow and somebody tries to kill me!''

Lara ceases fire and runs towards Nathan, who then emerges and fires his AK-47. She runs toward a pillar and runs up it for a moment before jumping off of it, avoiding Nate's fire and landing near his pillar. She then rolls out of the way of fire before charging towards Nate. Lara attacks with a low sweeping kick, which Nate avoids by raising one of his legs, followed by a jumping kick that Nate avoids by stepping backward, concluding with an upward kicks that Nathan swerves downward to avoid.

Nate prepares to fire his AK-47 when Lara's next kick strikes it, causing his single shot to miss. Before Lara can follow up with dual fire, Nathan swings his rifle at the handguns, whose shots also miss. Nathan then goes for a downward punch with his left hand as Lara swerves to the side, then prepares her handguns once more. As she fires a shot from each, she is suddenly struck by an upward swing of Nate's AK-47. After this, Nate charges forward and headbutts her, knocking her onto back as she rolls backward back onto her feet, crouched and firing her pistols rapidly. Nate rolls forward, then runs to a pillar for cover while blind-firing with his AK-47.

The Holy Grail remains standing atop its pedestal as bullets fire from Lara's side. One of her bullets strikes it, slightly tilting it, but another hits the Holy Grail as well, sending it flying off the pedestal toward the ground. Lara notices this and stops firing her pistols as Nate leaps foward to catch it, both his arms outstreched for it. Lara sees this and runs forward as Nathan successfully catches the Holy Grail in his hand, lying on the ground before getting back up.

Nathan: Heh heh, not a scratch.

Lara: Do you know what you've done!?

As Lara scolds Nathan, who looks over the Holy Grail, the pedestal it once stood upon begins shaking, then sinks into the ground. Nate takes notice of this as as the mechanism from before reemerges and closes before suddenly sinking as well, leaving a gaping hole.

Nathan: That's probably not good...

A statue-like piece of the temple falls to the ground and shatters, causing Lara and Nate to cower backward.

Nathan: Ok, that's DEFINITELY not good...

Pieces of the temple begin to crumble and break apart as Nate looks over at his Jeep towards the entrance. Nate turns backward towards Lara, who also noticed it, as the two then run for it. The floor suddenly breaks apart and falls from the hole onward as Lara and Nate both leap upward toward the remaining ground. While they were side-to-side before, Nathan's leap covers more ground horizontally.

Nathan: Crap!

Nate grabs onto the ledge, hanging on with his right hand with the Holy Grail in his left, as Lara doesn't make it and falls. He uses his left hand to help himself up as Lara continues falling fast and screams. She repositions herself in midair, takes out her climbing axe with her right hand and strikes it into the wall, slowing and then stopping her fall. She grasps the climbing axe with both hands when she hears the sound of Nathan's Jeep starting up.

The temple starts leaning forward as it crashes while Nathan escapes into the desert in his Jeep as it drives up and jumps off of a ramp-like structure. Nate steers with his left hand as he tosses the Holy Grail upward and catches it with his right hand. Lara emerges atop a yellow sports bike, positioning herself by the lower side of Nate's vehicle. She climbs over the Jeep's side rail with her left hand and with her bow in her right, landing in the Jeep's back.

She swings her bow at Nathan's head with both hands, causing Nate to place his right hand over his face. Lara reaches over the passenger's seat and snatches the Holy Grail, then turns backward to escape when Nate gets up, turns around and grabs her hand left hand with his left. She swings at him with her right, the Holy Grail still in hand, as Nate ducks, then rises with a right punch. Nathan then grabs onto her shoulders before headbutting her, then goes for a left-handed swing as Lara ducks it, then counters with a knee to the stomach. He grabs onto the Jeep's railing with both hands for a moment, then turns and draws his pistol with his right when Lara kicks it out of his hand. She then kicks Nathan in the head, knocking him into the front seats as she takes out her bow and arrow, and aims at him.

''Lara: Sorry... have to do what I have to do.''

Lara looks up and notices something: the Jeep is about to crash into some rubble. She leaps out of the Jeep as Nathan gets up and realizes his situation after Lara leaves.

Nathan: Ah crap...

The Jeep charges forward and crashes into the rubble, causing an explosion as a helicopter stands nearby. Lara starts limping forward, her right shoulder with a wound, and her left hand covering it. She looks over at the Jeep's wreckage as the smoke from the crash disappears and sees no trace of Nathan anywhere.

Lara hears a helicopter's blades spinning, and turns and seeing one beginning to take off as she covers her eyes with her left hand from the sand being brushed backward. Within the helicopter, with Croft Manor printed on the side, is none other than Nathan, who turns toward Lara and makes a taunting salute gesture with his left hand and chuckles as the Holy Grail sits in the passenger seat. The helicopter begins taking off as Lara takes out her climbing axe, lines up the shot, and tosses it at the helicopter.

The climbing axe sticks into the helicopter upper area. Shortly afterward, the helicopter explodes as Lara steps backward from the shock. Nathan screams as plummets towards the ground, landing back-first on the sandy ground hard. As he tries to get back up in vain, the helicopter's blades come spinning down and impale him on the ground, killing him. Lara recovers the Holy Grail nearby Nathan Drake's corpse and examines it.

Lara: Hm, not a scratch!

Lara walks off into the desert with the Holy Grail in her right hand.

KO!

Results
(*Cues: Tomb Raider: Underworld - Main Theme again*)

'''Boomstick: Ho ho, nice shot! Told you she had a good arm!'''

Wiz: Lara and Nathan have both displayed impressive feats of strength, durability, agility and weapon skills, but Lara tended to have the edge in every category.

'''Boomstick: Both of them were way stronger than you'd think. Nathan shoved a boulder large enough to weigh twenty tons. That means he literally had the strength of ten men. '''

Wiz: But in Lara's case, she moved several limestone blocks used in the Great Pyramids. Not only did she move them much farther distances than Nathan, but given their size and makeup, these blocks should weigh up to twenty seven tons each.

Boomstick: Lara's way tougher too, and has been through things that would've definitely taken Nate out.

Wiz: Like when she was impaled by rebar, but was still able to accomplish everything necessary to survive a hostile island for a week. Nathan suffered a bullet wound in the same area of the body, and while he powered through the pain for a short time, he soon passed out and was unconscious while under intensive care for three days.

'''Boomstick: Take my word for it, I've been through pretty much everything you could think of, and I'd rather take a bullet than rebar any day. And that rebar thing happened when Lara was pretty young. Later, she got all sorts of combat and survival training from experts, while Nate was mostly self-taught, with a few pointers every so often from a con man. Also, when the pressure's really on, Lara manages to always keep a cool head, much better than Nate.'''

Elena Fisher: So, you got a plan C?

Nate: Yeah, floor it.

Elena: What?

Nate: I'm getting on that train.

Elena: What, are you crazy?

Wiz: Nathan Drake did just about everything by the seat of his pants, and eventually, luck always runs out.

Boomstick: Yeah, she was just too croft-y for him.

Wiz: The winner is Lara Croft.

Trivia

 * This is the third season premiere to feature a male combatant and a female combatant. The first 2 were Boba Fett VS Samus Aran as the Season 1 Premiere and Dante VS Bayonetta as the Season 3 Premiere.
 * This fight was likely being done to celebrate Lara Croft's birthday, which was February 14th.
 * This match-up was previously done by the live-action versus series, Super Power Beat Down, making it the first time Death Battle's done a BatintheSun match-up.
 * Coincidentally, both fights have the same results with Lara Croft winning in both shows.
 * The song featured in the beginning and end of the trailer for this match is the Plasma3Music remix of Nathan Drake's Theme. The music in the middle is the main theme of Tomb Raider Legend, which is used in Lara's analysis as well.
 * This is the first ever Death Battle to use a new looking thumbnail, a new logo, and a new analysis design.
 * This battle has had a total of five different official thumbnails.
 * There's a Super Rad Raygun logo behind Nathan's Jeep.
 * This Death Battle is the third matchup in a row between a male fighter and a female fighter. The last two were Zoro VS Erza and Deadpool VS Pinkie Pie. Funnily enough, each fight ended with a different outcome.
 * This episode marks the first time a Square Enix character has won a Death Battle, as the previous two fighters, Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart, lost their fights against Link and Yang Xiao Long respectively.
 * This Death Battle has garnered the third lowest positive rating on YouTube at merely 65% as well as the lowest positive rating Season Premier episode. Speaking of low rating, this episode alone comes second only to Goku VS Superman and its sequel. The majority of the backlash this episode received is towards both Nathan's portrayal and the controversial ending of the fight. This, combined with the rivalry between the Uncharted and Tomb Raider fanbases, has garnered much of the episode's negative reception.
 * Towards the end of the battle, instead of going after Lara, Nathan Drake attempts to fly off in a Croft Manor helicopter, making him the first and only combatant so far who has attempted to escape from their opponent.
 * Interestingly enough, the episode features two references from Indiana Jones, who Lara and Nathan were inspired from. One is a short montage shown at the beginning of the analysis, the other is the Holy Grail, which was the main artifact in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".