In mythology and comparative religion (drawing from the work of Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade), a Gatekeeper is a guardian stationed at a liminal space—a cave, a temple door, a bridge, or an underworld entrance. This figure does not hoard power for themselves but instead tests worthiness, wards off the uninitiated, and ensures that cosmic balance is maintained. Gatekeepers are often fierce, solitary, and deeply knowledgeable about the territory they protect. Unlike a raider, who seeks personal gain, the Gatekeeper is defined by responsibility. Lara Croft, despite her reputation, consistently demonstrates this responsibility. She rarely keeps the artifacts she finds; instead, she returns them to their rightful place, destroys them to prevent catastrophe, or uses them momentarily to close a rift she herself was forced to open.
In Tomb Raider III, Lara hunted four meteorite artifacts. The meteorite was not a rock; it was a piece of a collapsed dimension. When all four pieces are united, they open a "gate" to a primordial plane of mutated creatures. As the Gate Keeper, Lara would be responsible for keeping these four pieces eternally separated. This is arguably the first canon hint at Lara as a guardian, not a predator. lara croft the gate keeper