Serah Farron

Serah Farron [sɛrə] is a supporting character in Final Fantasy XIII, but a playable character and the main protagonist in Final Fantasy XIII-2. She is the younger sister of Lightning by three years, and is Snow Villiers's fiancée. Lightning accuses Snow of failing to protect Serah and does not initially approve of their relationship.

Serah's destiny is one of Final Fantasy XIII's central plot points, becoming a central character in the game's sequel.

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 black armband on her right bicep like Lightning, 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.

In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Serah now wears a slightly revealing white, pink, and gold dress. Her dress consists of a white top starting at her bust, pink sections adorned with strange symbols on the front and back connecting the top to the skirt over black shorts, cut-out sides at the waist, criss-crossing pink straps on both sides of her torso that go over her shoulders into a cross-back shape, a storage pack on her right hip, pink and black thigh-highs, and light purple ankle boots. Although retaining her earrings and engagement necklace, she also wears a pink choker around her neck, gray gloves similar to her sister's, and two armbands (one on both arms), however, the band on her right arm is now gold while a new designed gold armband now rests on her left bicep. She also gains a bow/sword transforming weapon for use in battle.

Serah is a mature and wise girl, 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. After Lightning's disappearance at the end of Final Fantasy XIII, Serah is the only one to believe that her sister is still alive, as opposed to many of Cocoon's survivors who believe her to be dead. Therefore, she is willing to go as far as join forces with a stranger named Noel in order to find Lightning.

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 but he does not believe her. She tells him it is not his 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, and runs off crying. However, 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 where she and Snow discuss her unknown Focus. Snow shows her the engagement necklaces and proposes to her, which she accepts. She tells Snow about her wish to be able to tell her sister about being a l'Cie, but he tells her that their engagement is bigger news. Snow flies Serah into the dome with the fireworks, where they almost kiss but a close call from the fireworks causes Snow to retreat back outside. Enjoying the view from their "private heaven," Serah and Snow kiss before she breaks out into tears. The next day, Serah and Snow tell Lightning about her becoming a l'Cie, and their engagement. This infuriates Lightning, believing that Serah is lying to her as an excuse to marry Snow and drives her away.

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 is any way to remove her brand and get Lightning to believe them. The Bodhum Vestige is 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, Sazh attempts to kill her after learning she is a Pulse l'Cie just before she awakes realizing that Lightning came for her. When Snow arrives, Serah takes his hand and asks if her hero has arrived and Lightning scolds him for not protecting Serah like he promised. 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 their 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. 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 until that point had believed their Focus was to save Cocoon, just as Serah asked. 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 until the end. In the Sulyya Springs, Vanille reveals to Snow that Serah saw the same dream of Ragnarok they 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 into Ragnarok, but they 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 others, 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 and becomes frantic.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
Though everyone else believes Lightning to be dead, Serah refuses to accept it. As New Bodhum is ravaged by mysterious monsters, Serah calls out for Lightning but Lebreau tells her to accept that her sister is dead. She is saved by Noel Kreiss, the man she has been seeing in her dreams. Asking her if she can fight, Noel gives Serah a weapon, enabling her to fight off the monsters with him. Joined by Noel, Serah sets out to search for her lost sister.

At one point, Serah, Mog and Noel travel to the Bresha Ruins in Cocoon through a gate, noting that it is the latter's first time there. Then an arm attached to an invisible body swipes at them, but Noel pushes Serah out of the way to safety. It knocks Noel out of the way, prompting Serah to charge it for battle. Afterward, PSICOM warships fire upon Atlas causing him to retreat further into the Ruins. Their new friend Alyssa guides them through the underground tunnels through radio communication, in order to locate a strange device that appeared with Atlas. Serah theorizes that since Atlas was a weapon built by humans, the machine will let them control him, however, Atlas's hand appears and takes the group into the Temporal Rift. Escaping the paradox causes the machine to work and slow Atlas down, enabling Noel and Serah to defeat him. Later, Alyssa shows Serah the grave of a friend she lost to the Purge.

Battle
Serah fights with a weapon given to her by Noel when they meet, which changes between bow and sword forms, and whose true form is Mog. Depending on the distance between her and the enemy, she will change her weapon's form. If the enemy is close, Serah will use its sword form, and if the enemy is far, then she uses its bow form. She has been seen operating in the Commando, Medic, Sentinel, Saboteur and Ravager roles.

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. However, she becomes a playable character in the sequel. According to issue 219 of Game Informer, Serah was given a bow able to transform into a sword as a weapon to "preserve her femininity."

According to an interview in Famitsu, Serah's clothing from Final Fantasy XIII-2 was designed by Yusuke Naora.

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 available 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.

Gallery
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Final Fantasy XIII-2

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Trivia

 * 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 but not as good as her sister in housework chores, 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.
 * Also in Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-, 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.
 * Art director Isamu Kamikokuryo consistently draws Serah and Lightning with blonde hair in concept art, despite their more "official" appearance. Additionally, Kamikokuryo's Serah concept art for Final Fantasy XIII-2 looks noticeably older and less skinny than her in-game appearance, and a few details on her outfit are different (such as a different collar).
 * In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Serah wields a bow that can transform into a sword, mirroring Lightning's use of the Gunblade that transforms from a sword into a gun.
 * In Final Fantasy XIII-2, the symbol on the front of Serah's dress is also on Lightning's shield. In addition, Etro script can be seen on both symbols and the blades of Serah's weapon.
 * Serah appears on the 500th cover of Dengeki Playstation magazine with Lightning, Noel, Noctis, Machina, and Rem.