Serah Farron



Serah Farron (セラ・ファロン Sera Faron) [sɛrə] is a supporting character in Final Fantasy XIII. She is the younger sister of Lightning by three years, and is also Snow Villiers' fiancée. Lightning accuses Snow of failing to protect Serah and does not initially approve of their relationship. Serah's destiny is one of the game's central plot points. She is voiced by in the Japanese version, and by  in the English version.

Appearance and Personality
Serah is an eighteen-year-old girl with the same pink tint of hair that Lightning has. She ties her hair into a ponytail on the left side of her head, much like how Lightning's hair is draped over her left shoulder. She also has blue eyes like her sister, although Serah's are a much darker shade. She wears a red plaid pleated skirt lined with black lace, a white sleeveless dress shirt, a semi-transparent pink sweeper in the same style, black thigh-high stockings, ivory ankle boots, and a bandage on her left bicep which she uses to cover her l'Cie brand. Yoshinori Kitase describes Serah as "the cutest girl" in the game.

Serah is a mature girl who shows wisdom well beyond her years, as she is able to give Vanille advice about her problems. She loves Snow and is willing to do anything to protect him, even if it meant trying to break up with him after she becomes a l'Cie. She also deeply cares for Lightning as much as Lightning cares for her. This is evident by her choice for Lightning's birthday present: a survival knife for her older sister's safety.

Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-
Serah was about to attend the university in Eden, but she fell in love with Snow during her summer vacation, much to her sister's dismay. Serah was interested in studying history, and the local landmark, the Pulse Vestige, got her attention. One day Serah noticed a door leading inside the Vestige had appeared, and curious, she ventured into the ruins. While inside, Serah was marked on her upper left arm as a l'Cie by the Pulse fal'Cie Anima that was entombed inside the Vestige. She had a dream of transforming into Ragnarok and destroying Cocoon, but initially did not realize it was her Focus. Four days later, Serah tells Snow they are breaking up and tells him it is not her choice, and that she does not want to leave him but has to, because she has been branded a Pulse l'Cie. She tells Snow he is her enemy now. He refuses to abandon her and offers to aid her in any way he can. Serah tells him she does not know what her Focus is and that she will become a monster, but Snow says l'Cie are granted eternal life after completing their Focus, reassuring Serah.

Two days later, Serah meets Vanille after the latter scrapes her leg on the beach. Serah listens to Vanille's problem about wanting to apologize to someone but never being able to find the words to do it, and tells her that if things are too much to deal with at first, she should face them later because things are easier to judge from a distance. Serah tells Vanille about her nightmare of destroying the world, and how she tried to run away from it after it scared her. She says that due to Snow coming after her, she now knows she will get through the mission with help from her friends. Vanille apologizes to Serah, since it was her fault Serah was made a l'Cie, but Serah, not knowing of Vanille's involvement, does not understand.

On the next day, Serah goes out with Snow to find a birthday present for Lightning. Unknown to her, Snow slips away and buys engagement necklaces for them. Serah buys a survival knife to protect Lightning while she is on duty. The next night, Serah attends the fireworks festival with Snow where Snow shows her the engagement necklaces and proposes to her, which she bluntly accepts. The next day, Serah and Snow tell Lightning about her becoming a l'Cie, and their engagement. This infuriates Lightning, believing Serah's lying to her as an excuse to marry Snow and drives her off. Shortly after this, Serah and Snow attempt to seek the council of the fal'Cie in the Bodhum Vestige, the one who turned her into a l'Cie, to see if there was any way to remove her brand. The Bodhum Vestige was off-limits, though, and so the couple are forced to evade the PSICOM forces chasing after them. They escape on a hover vehicle and Serah jumps onto a ledge on the Vestige as Snow tries to steer the vehicle after it is damaged, but she becomes trapped by a silver liquid substance that pulls her into the Vestige.

Final Fantasy XIII
During the Purge both Lightning and Snow make their way into the Pulse Vestige to save Serah. When Lightning finds the unconscious Serah within the Vestige, Sazh attempts to kill her after learning she is a Pulse l'Cie. When Snow arrives Serah takes his hand and asks if her hero has arrived and Lightning scolds him for not protecting Serah. Serah tells Lightning she can save Cocoon and subsequently crystallizes, leaving behind a tear-shaped crystal for Snow. This phenomenon bewilders the group, as turning to a crystal means the l'Cie has completed his or her Focus.

After the party are turned into l'Cie themselves and wake up in Lake Bresha, they eventually find Serah, who has become part of the crystallized lake. Soon after Lightning, Vanille, Hope and Sazh abandon Snow, who stays behind to try and free Serah. She is brought aboard the Lindblum along with Snow when he is captured by Fang and Cid's troops. After this, Serah mainly appears in flashbacks and continues to be mentioned by the other characters.

On the Palamecia, Barthandelus tells the group Serah's Focus was to lure more people inside the Vestige to be branded l'Cie. This revelation cripples Snow, who by that point had believed their Focus was to save Cocoon, as asking Lightning to do what seemed to have crystallized Serah. However, after meeting Cid Raines and observing him entering crystal stasis without having completed his Focus, Snow's spirits rise and he vows to follow Serah's wish to save Cocoon till the end. On Sulyya Springs, Vanille reveals to Snow that Serah saw the same dream of Ragnarok the others did, meaning Barthandelus must have lied to the group about Serah's Focus. She also says, "I think she beat it. She handed Cocoon over to us, that's why she turned to crystal."

In Oerba, Barthandelus uses Serah's guise to try and trick the party into turning Ragnarok, but they can see through the illusion. At the end of the game, Barthandelus destroys an illusion of the crystallized Serah to unnerve Snow and Lightning, but Snow, remembering Serah's crystal at Lightning's insistence, realizes it was only an illusion. After Orphan is destroyed and Vanille and Fang sacrifice themselves to keep Cocoon from crashing into Gran Pulse, Serah wakes up from her Crystal Stasis and reunites with Lightning and Snow. Snow immediately begins to plan for their wedding, and Lightning congratulates the pair.

Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-
After reuniting with Lightning and the rest, Serah and Snow talk about rebuilding around Gran Pulse. Serah decides to become a school teacher and educate people on why Cocoon fell. Shortly after, she discovers that Lightning is nowhere to be seen.

Development
According to the Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania Omega, Serah was originally planned as a playable character, but issues during development led to the decision of turning her into an NPC.

Musical Themes

 * ''Main article: "Serah's Theme"

Despite not being a playable character, Serah's leitmotif appears in several pieces of the Final Fantasy XIII: Original Soundtrack. "Serah's Theme" often plays when Serah is featured or mentioned in the story, mainly during cutscenes that show flashbacks of Serah's life before the Purge.

In the English version of the game, "Serah's Theme" is played during the scene of the fireworks festival, in place of "Eternal Love" that plays in the Japanese version.

Kingdom Hearts
Serah does not make an actual appearance in the Kingdom Hearts series, but her hairstyle is equipable for the Avatars in Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded.

Serah is also a collectible Kingdom Hearts mascot cellphone strap appearing alongside the other characters of Final Fantasy XIII.

Trivia

 * Serah is 18 years old and 164 cm (5'5") tall according to the Ultimania guide.
 * Serah's engagement pendant resembles Final Fantasy XIII's [[Media:Final Fantasy XIII Logo.jpg|logo]]. A matching pendant is also worn by Snow Villiers.
 * The armband Serah wears is also worn by her sister Lightning. Both wear it on their right bicep.
 * Serah's earrings feature the cat logo of NORA. Snow's pendant also shares this motif.
 * According to the web novellas, Serah is a straight-A student and one of her favorite subjects is history.
 * Her crystal is in the shape of a tear drop that Snow holds onto for most of the story.
 * Serah, Dajh Katzroy and Cid Raines are the only l'Cie that do not show their summons, and it is unknown if they have any. In the case of Serah and Dajh this could be justified in how they complete their respective Foci in such a short period of time, giving them little opportunity to reach the state of despair that calls forth the intervention of an Eidolon.
 * Serah is a better cook than Lightning, as mentioned in Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-.
 * In Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-, it is revealed that Serah bought Snow's NORA pendant.
 * In the web novel, Snow comments on how Serah resembles Lightning whenever she looks serious.
 * Serah shares her English voice actress, Laura Bailey, with the Cloud of Darkness in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Belle in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers.
 * In Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-, it is revealed that Serah knows about Snow staying with her at Lake Bresha, possibly due to Snow carrying her crystal tear, enabling her to hear what he heard and see what he saw.