Lightning

**Lightning**, her original name being **Claire Farron** (**Eclair Farron**(エクレール・ファロン, Ekurēru Faron?) in the Japanese version), is the main protagonist of *Final Fantasy XIII*. She is the narrator and a temporary playable character in *Final Fantasy XIII-2*, and returns as the protagonist and sole permanently playable character in *Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII*.

In *Final Fantasy XIII,* Lightning seeks to save her younger sister Serah, but becomes entangled in a plot that endangers her home of Cocoon. In *Final Fantasy XIII-2,* Lightning serves as a knight protecting the goddess Etro from her fated rival, Caius Ballad. In the concluding tale *Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII,* Lightning is chosen to be a savior by the god Bhunivelze, tasked to save the people's souls before the end of the world.

Lightning is the second main female protagonist in a mainstream numbered *Final Fantasy* game, with Terra Branford from *Final Fantasy VI* generally accepted in series fandom as being the first.

## Profile

### Appearance

Lightning is a young woman with wavy rose pink hair, and pale aqua eyes. Lightning's eye color has been officially noted to be blue, though in the FMVs and promotional art they often appear green due to green aspects around the pupil. In *Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments Before*, Serah says Lightning resembles their mother.

In *Final Fantasy XIII*, she wears a variation of the standard Guardian Corpsuniform. The green metallic pauldron over her left shoulder bearing yellow stripes denotes her previous rank as a sergeant. She carries her gunblade in a black case which hangs off her belt, and wears a necklace with a lightning bolt pendant. Her l'Cie brand is located slightly above her left breast. She has a navel piercing, although it can be difficult to spot.

In *Final Fantasy XIII-2*, Lightning wears a silver and gold Valkyrie-like suit of armor with a shield on her left arm (though in her CG render it appears on the right arm). She has a new gunblade more closely resembling a traditional doubled-edged sword, which has Etro script on it. She no longer has the navel piercing she did in *Final Fantasy XIII*. This attire has come to be known as the Knight of Etro.

During *Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII*, Lightning has a number of different costumes. Her default outfit, Equilibrium, is similar to what she wore in *Final Fantasy XIII-2*. The Night Lotus shield on her left arm and the Crimson Blitz sword in her right hand are in homage to her Eidolon Odin.[2] The symbol from the game's logoappears on her outfit a number of times: on her chest, her sword and her shield.

### Personality

 I don't have time to babysit some little kid, you'll just slow me down.

—Lightning to Hope

Lightning is determined, concentrated and independent. Initially, she is cold and standoffish, distancing herself from her companions. She only looks out for herself and doesn't care if others are left behind. Much of her motivation is fueled from what she perceives as failing to protect Serah leading her to lash out at those she believes are responsible for her fate: namely, the Sanctum, its fal'Cie and, to a point, Snow Villiers, due to his relationship with Serah and his failure to protect her as he promised. As she journeys with Hope Estheim, she acts as his mentor and surrogate mother figure. Taking him under her wing, Lightning becomes more emotionally open as Hope acts as a surrogate sibling and helps her see the errors in her approach and realize the mistakes she made with Serah. Lightning also begins to show compassion and trust others. Ultimately, she becomes the leader and, to a degree, protector of the other Gran Pulse l'Cie as they journey to challenge their fate.

In *Final Fantasy XIII-2*, Lightning has almost become a new woman due to the experiences and emotions she has endured. She has learned to trust others and ask them for help, and expresses her emotions rather than keeping them bottled up. Her recognition of her past "sins" has made her more somber.

In *Lightning Returns*, Lightning is initially cold and distant, most of her emotions sapped from her, although her memories remain intact. Her wish to save Serah remains, and she still shows concern for her former allies. Lightning and Hope demonstrate trust and care for one another, Hope promising to be by her side, helping Lightning better maintain her humanity despite her situation. She resents Bhunivelze for robbing her of her emotions and his use of her situation to his advantage.

As her quest advances, Lightning begins to show compassion toward others because of her assigned task to save their souls. Straying from her cold-hearted personality, she begins to encourage those struggling, implying Lightning unconsciously had given up her emotions, rather than Bhunivelze taking them with force, which is further suggested by Lumina. By the end of her quest, Lightning has come around from her self-imposed tough and emotionless warrior persona, as Serah and Lumina, along with all her experiences, help her realize that locking her heart away is how she threw away her happiness.

Lightning has a mischievous side, as she considered the idea of bonding with Serah through Moogle Throw as a sport.

## Gameplay

Lightning is a quick and agile fighter who wields gunblades in battle, although her new models in her follow-up appearances in *Final Fantasy XIII-2* and *Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII* only operate in the blade form. In *Final Fantasy XIII* her primary roles are Commando, Ravager and Medic. She has balanced stats, and thus the player can gear her toward a physical or magical fighter via equipment as they see fit. She is versatile as she is fairly proficient in all Crystarium roles, but as as a downside has low HP.

She is a DLC boss in *Final Fantasy XIII-2*, as well as the main playable character in the "Lightning's Story: Requiem of the Goddess" downloadable scenario, appearing both as a Commando and a Ravager as a Paradigm Pack ally. In *Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII* Lightning can customize her appearance and battle style via garbs and switch between set-ups on-the-fly via the Schema system.

Lightning's signature attack is Army of One, of which she sometimes uses a variation called "Legion of One".

## TMNT X Pokemon

Lightning is usually at the front lines during missions.

## Trivia

* Lightning is the only character in the *Final Fantasy XIII* trilogy that is playable in all three games.
* As shown in the first *Final Fantasy XIII* trailer, Lightning had a Gravity Bomb device at her disposal, which would generate an electrical shield or manipulate time and gravity.
* Lightning's eidolith is the shape of a pink rose bloom, and red petals can be seen when she summonsOdin and changes it into Sleipnir in Gestalt Mode.
* In *Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-*, it is mentioned Lightning is better at housework than Serah, but Serah is the better cook. Lightning describes their father as easy-going, passionate but not always reliable, and compares Snow to him, possibly explaining her initial hatred towards him.
* In her official CG render, Lightning is not wearing her lightning bolt necklace, though it is present in her render on the *Final Fantasy XIII* summary website.
* Art director Isamu Kamikokuryo consistently draws Lightning and Serah with blonde hair in concept art, despite their more "official" appearances. Additionally, Kamikokuryo's Lightning concept art for *Final Fantasy XIII-2* has a black armor with gold or white outlines. This may have contributed to Lightning's design in *Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII* where she has black armor.
* Lightning's render for *Final Fantasy XIII-2* has her sword and shield in opposite hands. She also holds her sword in her left hand on the cover box art for *Final Fantasy XIII*.
* Lightning on Etro's throne at the end of *Final Fantasy XIII-2* resembles the *Final Fantasy XIII* promotional artwork of her sitting in the Narthex, and the *Final Fantasy XIII-2 Ultimania Omega* has a piece of artwork depicting Lightning on Etro's throne in the same pose.
* Similar to her sister Serah, Lightning's official render isn't used in the menu screen in *Final Fantasy XIII-2*and instead an alternate render from *Final Fantasy XIII* is used.
* All models in *Final Fantasy XIII-2* are of lower resolution than those in its predecessor. The game data includes a high-res model of Lightning's *Final Fantasy XIII* appearance that is never used anywhere, which was likely used as a place-holder throughout production.

* The Lightning Mask is an adornment for monsters found in Void Beyond, if the player has a *Final Fantasy XIII* save file on the HDD before starting *Final Fantasy XIII-2*. A Lightning Mask for Lightning can be obtained in *Lightning Returns*.
* Lightning resembles a Red Mage, using primarily Black Magic and White Magic in conjunction and being balanced with physical combat.
* Two different CG renders of Lightning are used in *Final Fantasy XIII*: her main render is used for menus, while the field messages which display during the gameplay use her render from the game's cover.
* Lightning has the largest set of outfits in the series: she has over ninety different outfits including crossover and downloadable costumes.
* Lightning is Toriyama's favorite character out of those he helped create, alongside Yuna and Princess Yoyo from *Bahamut Lagoon*.[23]
* Lightning's default weapons across the *Lightning Saga* have eponymous musical themes.
* The Steam version of *Final Fantasy XIII* comes with 6 Trading Cards, all of them featured Lightning.
* The opening cinematic for *Final Fantasy XIII* includes a scene of Lightning in Palumpolum with her gunblade drawn, glancing to her right at a group of PSICOM soldiers and Flanitors. This scene doesn't appear again in the game, although a still of Lightning glancing to the side is used for her status screen image.
* Lightning makes a cameo appearance in Matthew Shezmen's FUN 'N' FANTASY XV (Final Fantasy XV Cartoon Parody) on a poster in Altissia where she is advertising on outfit for Louie Úitton, a fashion industry, a reference to the 2016 collaboration between Square Enix and Luis Vuitton where Lightning starred as a model.