Lightning (ライトニング, Raitoningu?) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the video game Final Fantasy XIII. She was created by Motomu Toriyama, the game's director and scenario writer, and designed by Tetsuya Nomura.
Born as Claire Farron (Éclair Farron (エクレール・ファロン, Ekurēru Faron?) in the original Japanese language version), she discarded her given name after the death of her parents and chose the name of "Lightning" as a means to escape the vulnerabilities and insecurities of her former self and in order to become a different person -- strong enough to care for her young sister Serah. However, this choice only causes things to worsen between them as she grew up to have a rather cold personality that has a tendency to look down upon others including comrades at most times during the start of the adventure.
Concept and creation
Director Motomu Toriyama wanted Lightning to be a new type of female character, with an athlete's body and a less feminine nature than some of the previous female characters of Final Fantasy.[1][2] His guideline to character designer Tetsuya Nomura was to make her "strong and beautiful", "someone like a female version of Cloud from FFVII".[1][3] Multiple designs were considered for her, including some designed by other staff members.[3] Some of her original characteristics were blonde hair and Asian-looking features.[3][4] Nomura defines Lightning as "serious", "unforgiving", "relentless" and "a kind of individualistic person", in direct contrast with Snow Villiers' passionate nature.[5] The final art was made less Asian-looking than originally conceived, while the silver hair color was given to Hope Estheim in favor of a pinker color.[3][4]She was born on May 13 and is 21 years old in the game.[6] Hot pink hair color were made to reflect this more feminine side of her. Although Nomura explained that she is essentially a "cool character" and that "you can't have a cool character without anything inappropriate, [3] it was also stated that Lightning's cool aspect was transferred to Oerba Yun Fang when the latter character's design changed from being a male character to a female.[4] The game's producer Yoshinori Kitase also commented on the difficulty of balancing Lightning's depiction, as she is both a woman and a professionally trained warrior, and also noted that Maaya Sakamoto's acting helped bring out Lightning's feminity.[7]
While her real name, Claire, is not related to the weather or skies, which is a common tradition of naming Final Fantasy protagonists when Tetsuya Nomura is the character designer, her alias of "Lightning" does continue this tradition. The name was not chosen by Nomura, who was surprised by it, as he was thinking about stopping this naming tradition.[3] Eclair, the romanization of her Japanese name, is French for "lightning." According to Toriyama, there is "a strong element of mystery about her character".[8] Lightning was voiced by Ali Hillis in English and by Maaya Sakamoto in Japanese.
[edit] Battle skills
Lightning's weapon is a Blazefire Saber, known as Blaze Edge (ブレイズエッジ, Bureizu Ejji?) in the Japanese version, a fictional cross between a gun and a sword used by experimented soldiers.[9] It has sometimes been called a gunblade by the gaming press in reference to the weapon which appeared in Final Fantasy VIII, although the Blaze Edge is able to shoot bullets from a distance, unlike the other weapon. Early in development, Lightning also had a Gravity Bomb device at her disposal, which could be used to generate an electrical shield in battle or manipulate time and gravity.[8][10]
Early in the game, and like the other playable characters, Lightning becomes a l'Cie, a being magically marked by the god-like "fal'Cie" creatures to do their bidding. Lightning's mark appears in the middle of her chest so it is always covered within the game;[11] it grants her superhuman strength as well as a rose-shaped crystal which she can use to summon the Eidolon Odin. In battle, Lightning can command Odin to turn into a horse-like creature that she mounts, taking up his double-bladed sword for a short amount of time.[12] Her strongest unique special attack is called Army of One, or Scene Drive in Japanese version.
Appearances
[edit] Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero: Promise
Episode Zero: Promise is a series of web novellas written by Jun Eishima, depicting the thirteen days leading up to the events of the main game.[13][14] The first part of the series, titled "Encounter", sees Lightning opposing the engagement of her younger sister Serah Farron to Snow Villiers, the leader of the rebel group NORA.[13] Learning that her sister became a l'Cie, Lightning dismissed it as Serah's excuse to marry Snow until it was too late. Resigning as a Guardian Corps member, Lightning boards the train holding those who are to be Purged from Cocoon to make her way to the fal'Cie Anima before it is Purged.
[edit] Final Fantasy XIII
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When the train carrying those to be Purged crosses through the Hanging Edge area of Cocoon, Lightning fights her way through the cars with Sazh rallying the Purgees to derail it as PSICOM sends its forces after the train. As the surviving Purgees escape and are found by NORA, Lightning presses forward to Anima and to save her sister. Joined by Snow, along with Hope and Vanille, two of the surviving Purgees, Lightning finds Serah, who turns to crystal in front of her. Distraught after seeing her sister crystalized, Lightning attacks Anima with Snow and Sazh's aid, and is marked as a l'Cie as PSICOM destroys the Vestige. They awake in Lake Bresha; frozen solid as a result of the Fal'Cie Anima's death. The five eventually split up -- Snow stays behind in a fruitless attempt to break Serah out of her crystal stasis, while the others (Light, Sazh, Hope, and Vanille) try to find a way out of the crystalized lake. Soon after, Lightning and Hope decide to take down the Sanctum, whilst Sazh and Vanille decide to flee for their lives instead.
Over the course of the game, Lightning strives to deal with her nature as a l'Cie while coming to terms with her past actions and eventually realizing her Focus is to destroy Cocoon. Refusing to follow it as she kills the Sanctum's leader Galenth Dysley and the fal'Cie Orphan, Lightning is allowed to continue her life as a human with a new Focus as she and Snow are reunited with Serah.
[edit] Promotion and reception
Play Arts has released a Lightning action figure including her Blaze Edge sword. Square Enix has also released jewelry related to Lightning, including a key ring and the necklace she wears in-game.[citation needed]
Lightning's characters has received both positive and negative response from video game publications. When Final Fantasy XIII was still in development Anime News Network's writer Todd Ciolek expected Lightning's activities in the game to be similar to the ones from previous games, and found the baby chocobo to be more likable than her.[15] In a game review, Ciolek commented that Lightning is initially "far too distant and cold, as though the writers were so intent on creating a tough, competent heroine that they forgot to make her at all compelling". However, he mentioned that after hours of playing the title, Lightning becomes a more appealing lead character.[16] GameSpot called Lightning a "likeable, strong-willed beauty" while commenting on her interactions with the other main characters of the game.[17] Jeremy Parrish 1UP.com commented that if it were not for Lightning's scenes in which she shows a thoughtful side, she "could simply be your typical, sullen Square protagonist".[18] Videogamer.com simply referred to Lightning as the female version of the Final Fantasy VII lead character Cloud Strife.[19] UK IGN stated that Lightning "instantly endears herself" to the scenes in which she punches Snow whenever she may bothered gamers. On the other hand, they commented that due to the fact her backstory "soon gets bogged down in generic swash", the character of Sazh became more appealing than her.[20] Additionally, her backstory was deemed as regular by GamesRadar who called Lightning as one of the most notable "as one-dimensional and boring" characters from the title.[21] During February 2010, Lightning was ranked as the 34th most popular video game character from Japan in a Famitsu poll.[22]
