Did you just say 'sex sigh-mbal'? XD A lot of critics have said that the transition from helpless girl to killing machine is indeed jarring. I'm glad they had that first kill so isolated and built-up, because it is a powerful moment, for the character, for the audience, and it would, or should be for any real person to do that. I think the necessity of surviving by fighting these people is what numbs Lara to the violence and pain she is causing. It's a necessary evil, and she can't be too bogged down by it, or else she'll start to suffer. Unfortunately, the story doesn't even imply that, at least not with any affect on Lara. The enemy dialogue often reflects the fact that she's fighting real people (well, in the fiction), and games are slowly but surely trying to acknowledge this fact, if ham-fistedly; MGR Revengenace features a sequence in which Raiden is forced to listen to the worried thoughts of the mercenaries he's fighting as they fear for their lives against this fearsome, blade-wielding shemale, wishing they could see their families again. It's not subtle, but it's a start. I've heard that BioShock Infinite will feature a (re)sensitising of violence, and I either heard or think that Elizabeth reacts to Booker differently sometimes depending on just how violent you've been. That would be a fantastic touch.