Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII)

Lightning is a playable character and the main protagonist in Final Fantasy XIII. She is the second central female protagonist in the main series (the first being Terra Branford of Final Fantasy VI). She wields a gun-sword that can switch between its forms. She is shown to be a cold person, who distances herself from her companions. During the game it is revealed that Lightning's real name is Éclair Farron.

Appearance and Personality
Lightning has light pink hair and blue eyes like her sister Serah. She wears a light brown turtleneck shirt along with a necklace with a lightning bolt pendant underneath a white solider uniform adorned with a green metal plate over her left shoulder with two glowing yellow stripes symbolizing her rank, a long flowing red cape attached to her back on the left side, and a brown belt around her waist. She also wears two blue gloves with gold plates over her knuckles, a long black sleeve over her left arm that begins from her bicep, a brown mini-skirt with a black case that holds her Blaze Edge dangling behind her, a storage pack on her left hamstring attached from her skirt, and two knee-high leather boots. Her l'Cie mark is on her chest, but remains hidden beneath her shirt.

Lightning's personality is determined, concentrated, independent, and cunning. Lightning has a straight forward persona with a lone wolf attitude, while she was working with Sazh, she was determined to complete her mission in finding the Pulse fal'Cie. She was also easy to annoy, for example, when Snow called her "sister" due to his relationship with her sister, Serah, she yells at him and at one time, nearly pummels him to submission. However, Lightning wasn't completely heartless; she cared deeply for her sister's safety. After their parents died, Lightning looked out for Serah like she was her daughter. She also comforted Hope after the loss of his mother; it is possible that she sees Hope as a kindred spirit because of how they both lost their families.

Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero: Promise
In the web novel, it is revealed that Lightning lost her parents when she was around Hope's age, and ever since then, has acted as a mother to her younger sister, Serah. However, during her entry into the Guardian Corps Bodhum Security Regiment as a sergeant under Sergeant Major Amodar, losing sight of her goals as she becomes acquainted with NORA. Lightning's dislike of Snow is made very apparent, as she consistently refers to him as a "worthless unemployed man". She even blames her lack of attention to Serah as a reason for her spending time with Snow. As Lightning's 21st birthday is approaching, and she was going to plan a small vacation with Serah to Bodhum in hopes of taking her attention away from Snow. While attending the Bodhum fireworks, Lightning learns of a Pulse-related incident being kept under wraps which Amodar warned her not to get involved in and focus on getting promoted and her sister's happiness. The next day, her birthday, Lightning learns her sister became a l'Cie and thought she was lying as a excuse to marry Snow. It was only after driving her sister off that Lightning learns the truth as Bodhum is placed under lockdown for Purging. Soon after Serah is trapped in the Pulse fal'Cie, Lightning resigns from Guardian Corps to make her way into the train holding those who are to be Purged from Cocoon in a plan to save her sister.

Final Fantasy XIII
As the train enters Hanging Edge, Lightning fights her way through the soldiers along with Sazh Katzroy, her accomplice, rallying the Purgees as PSICOM sends its forces after the train and derail it. As the surviving Purgees escape and are found by NORA, Lightning presses forward to Pulse's fal'Cie with the intent of saving her sister. However once she and Sazh find Serah unconscious, Sazh reaches for his gun as Pulse l'Cie are enemies of Cocoon. After Lightning asks him if she should kill Serah out of love, Serah wakes up. Then Snow arrives with Vanille and Hope, and rushes to Serah's side. When he says that he will take Serah home, Lightning objects saying that she will take Serah as Snow couldn't protect her as he said he would at their last meeting. After Serah tells Lightning to save Cocoon, she asks if that was her Focus. Suddenly, Serah's l'Cie mark glows and crystallizes. With Snow at her side, Lighting takes Serah's crystallization hard and takes her anger out on Snow after learning that he was still going to marry her sister. Driven by grief to destroy the fal'Cie Anima as her way of honoring her promise to Serah of saving Cocoon, Lightning is made into a l'Cie.

Coming to at Lake Bresha, Lightning leads the group before she and Snow go their separate ways after finding Serah and Lightning regretably accepts her sister's fate, to Snow's dismay. Ending up at the Vile Peaks area, Lightning goes ahead of the group with Hope following. As they get separated from Sazh and Vanille, in a moment of anger as her l'Cie power manifests, Lightning yells at Hope about how she can barely protect him when she can hardly keep herself alive, collapsing to the ground as it triggers Odin to appear. Lightning and Hope battle then him to prove Lightning's strength to the Eidolon. After the battle, Lightning apologizes to Hope for what she said and tells him that she will train him to make him stronger. When they reach a deserted area, Lightning tells Hope to stay and rest while she checks out the area. After she returns, she finds Hope fast asleep. As she watches him, he utters "Mom", she asks him about his mom but doesn't get an answer. As Lightning and Hope are about to enter the Gapra Whitewood, Lightning tells Hope that she will lead and he will be her backup. When Hope asks her if he can lead instead, she asks him if he can handle it. After he reassures her, Lightning smiles, gives him the nod to go ahead, then tells him to look forward and she will guard his back. She eventually gives him the knife Serah gave to her as a birthday present to borrow as a good luck charm. As they proceed further, Lightning asks Hope why he is so irritated. After he responds when she mentions Snow, she asks if something happened between them. Hope tells her that Snow caused his mother's death, and that he wants to make Snow remember. When Lightning and Hope come across unconscious PSICOM soliders, Hope tries to examine them but Lightning pulls him back to the ground. She tells him not to go easy on them or let his emotions get in the way if he wants to survive. Then she suggests that Hope thinks of it as a survival plan, and he creates Operation Nora in his mother's honor. Lightning asks Hope if he wants revenge against Snow, and tells him that the Sanctum killed his mother and not Snow. After they escape the Gapra Whitewoods and see Palumpolum in the distance, Lightning suggests that she and Hope visit his house, as he needs to tell his father about his mother.

In Palumpolum, Lightning follows Hope through tunnels leading underground in order to evade PSICOM soldiers. After Hope tells Lightning that the fal'Cie possibly view humans as pets living off of them, she realizes she was a fal'Cie pawn even before being a l'Cie. "I was born into a fal'Cie world, raised on a fal'Cie's leash. Without a master to follow, my life had no purpose." Then she tells Hope to abandon Operation Nora, as she resorted to fighting everything she faced as a way to avoid reality. When he tells Lightning that she's abandoning him, Lightning tells Hope that she was not abandoning him and promises to protect him. She eventually reveals to Hope the reason she changed her name as a way to be stronger for Serah ever since their parents died. After returning topside, they are surrounded by soldiers led by Yaag Rosch. She tells him to run while she stayed to fight, although Hope refused. As Snow and Fang attacked the soldiers riding Shiva, Lightning attacks them while protecting Hope. She leaves Hope in Snow's care and runs off with Fang behind her. While with Fang, Lightning learns of the latter's connection with Vanille. Lightning tells her that if it weren't for Serah, she would have been hunting l'Cie as a soldier. After Fang asks Lightning if she has seen Vanille's l'Cie mark and Lightning says no, Fang explains to her how a l'Cie's mark can tell how much closer one is to becoming a Cie'th.

Late in the game in Oerba Village, it is revealed by Galenth Dysley, posing as Serah, that Lightning's real name is Éclair Farron. During the confrontation with Orphan, Lightning along with Sazh, Hope, and Snow tried to stop Fang from invoking Ragnarok, and the four of them turned into Cie'th. However, Lightning and the others have their focus changed at the last moment, seeing a vision of smiling people in the future and their happy times as a party much like the initial focus briefing of Ragnarok at the start, indicating their focus is this time the happy future of everyone. Focus changed, they revert from their Cie'th forms and are permitted to live as humans. After Orphan's defeat and the crystallization of Cocoon, Lightning reunites with Serah, and also seems to accept Snow and Serah's relationship.

Abilities and Equipment
Lightning has been shown to possess incredible power with both weapons and magic. She has a military-issue gravity control device called a Gravity Bomb, activated by small imprints on her right thumb and index finger, which allowed her to perform feats normally impossible, including attacking while upside down in the air and landing safely from leaps otherwise impossible to survive. She can also create an "electrical shield".

She is a powerful Commando, having rather high physical and magical attack stats compared to most of her companions. As a Ravager she is quite utilitarian, able to use all four elemental "-strike" attacks, all elemental magic to the "Ra" rank, as well as casting Thundaga. Lighnting's full ATB Ravager skill, Army of One (known as Scene Drive in the Japanese version), is a series of strikes from Lightning's weapon. She fights in a very fast-paced manner, moving with great speed. Her Eidolon is Odin; upon its transformation into Gestalt Mode, Odin becomes the horse Sleipnir which Lightning rides on while wielding two massive swords.

Lightning's initial weapon is a gun-sword called the Blazefire Saber (Blaze Edge). Gun-swords are a weapon only used by the most skilled soldiers. In the game, gun-swords has a number of models:


 * Flamberge (Magnum Blaze)
 * Axel Blade
 * Enkindler (Ignite Blade)
 * Edged Carbine (Saber Carbine)
 * Razor Carbine (Slash Carbine)
 * Lifesaber
 * Peacemaker
 * Gladius
 * Helter-Skelter
 * Ogrenix
 * Apocalypse
 * Hauteclaire
 * Durandal
 * Lionheart
 * Ultima Weapon
 * Omega Weapon

Design
Lightning's visual design is influenced from Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII, as Tetsuya Nomura was asked to design a female version of him to be the protagonist of Final Fantasy XIII. However, Yoshinori Kitase has contradicted this, saying the only similarities between the two are their pasts as soldiers, as Lightning has a more fragile side to her that Cloud does not.

In another connection to Final Fantasy VII, Lightning is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto, who previously voiced Aerith Gainsborough in Advent Children, Crisis Core, and the Kingdom Hearts series, in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII.

Etymology
Éclair is a French word that means "Lightning,". The surname "Farron" comes from the Gaelic language, meaning "thunder." The combination of the two references thunder coming after the lightning.

Early in development, Lightning's real name was going to be "Averia", referring to a species of flowering plants. At this stage, "Éclair" was used during auditions in place of Averia to keep the name secret.

Musical Themes
In Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning's Theme is an acoustic orchestral version of the main battle theme "Blinded by Light".

Trivia

 * Lightning's facial structure has changed during development. In the early materials, she had slightly less feminine traits and her hair was a faded crimson color rather than pale pink.
 * Tetsuya Nomura wanted to include Lightning in Dissidia Final Fantasy as a character, but felt that this could have affected Final Fantasy XIII in the process by locking down the image of the character's skills and so forth. Instead, two mugshots of her appear as Player Icons, along with Icons featuring Noctis Lucis Caelum, representing Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and the card-wielding character of Final Fantasy Agito XIII.
 * A special edition PlayStation 3 featuring an image of Lightning was released on December 17th in Japan.
 * Lightning's initial weapon, Blaze Edge, has an inscription that reads "White Flash. Call upon my name."
 * An odd fact is that Lightning is quite tall compared to other female characters in the series. She is 5'10", while others like Aerith Gainsborough and Yuna are 5'3" or so in height. She is even taller than other main characters, most notably Squall Leonhart and Cloud Strife, who both stand at 5'8".
 * The higher of the two bracelets that Lightning wears is also worn by her sister, Serah. Both wear it on their right arm.
 * Lightning's crystal has taken a shape of a rose, and the rose petals can be seen when Lightning summons Odin and also during Odin's change into horse form in his Gestalt Mode.
 * In the Japanese language version, different characters call her differently -
 * Serah always addresses her Onee-chan ("elder sister").
 * Her superior officer, Sergeant Major Amodar, calls her Sergeant Farron.
 * Snow calls her Nee-san ("elder sister", written as 義姉さん, "sister-in-law", though the actual Kana for "義姉" should be Gishi,) as he is already treating her as his sister-in-law, usually to Lightning's irritation ("Who's (your) Nee-san!?" is a recurring response from Lightning). In the English language trailers whenever Snow originally says "Nee-san", he is localized to say "Lightning", except one time in Chapter 2.
 * Sazh often calls her Nee-chan, though in his context it is more like calling a woman, "Miss", informally. This is the same for him to call Snow Nii-chan (bro / brother).
 * Hope and Fang each originally calls her Lightning, but sometime later are asked by Lightning to just call her "Light" for short.