Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII)

Lightning is a playable character in Final Fantasy XIII, and the main protagonist. She is the second 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.

By her own account, Lightning cast away her true name and chose the codename "Lightning" instead after her parents died, to distance herself from her past. It is revealed later in the game that her real name is Éclair Farron (エクレール・ファロン Ekurēru Faron), meaning "flash" in French.

Story
In the web novel, it is revealed that Lighting lost her parents when she was around Hope's age, and ever since then, acted as a mother to her younger sister, Serah, even adopting her current name as a sign of her resolution. However, during her entry into the military police as a sergeant of its PSICOM division, she lost sight of her goals as she becomes acquainted with Team Nora, and her dislike of Snow is made very apparent, as she consistently refers to him as a horrible man, or a "worthless unemployed man". She even blames her lack of attention to Serah as a reason for her spending time with Snow. In the novel, Lightning's 21st birthday is approaching, and she was going to plan a small vacation with Serah in hopes of taking her attention away from Snow.

Final Fantasy XIII
Sneaking into a train holding those who are to be Purged from Cocoon, Lightning fights her way through the cars along with Sazh Katzroy, who is being sent to Pulse, rallying the Purgees as PSICOM sends its forces after the train and derail it. As the surviving Purgees escape and are found by Team Nora, Lightning presses forward to Pulse's fal'Cie with the intent of finding a way to save her sister.

However, Lightning is chosen by one of the Crystals as a l'Cie to take down Cocoon and its tyrannous government, the Sanctum. She assists in the rescuing of Oerba Dia Vanille, Hope Estheim, and other "Purgees" from the claws of PSICOM, teaming up with Snow Villiers. In the beginning, Lightning has a great distaste for Snow and clearly blames him for Serah being taken by the fal'Cie. She also doesn't like the fact that she has to protect a child, Hope Estheim, while fighting off the Sanctum, resulting with her unintentionally summoned Odin whom she tames. Overtime. Lighting begins to care about Hope when they later were surrounded by soldiers, telling him to run while she stayed to fight them although Hope refused.

In the final trailer, there is a scene in Palumpolum of Lightning with Fang explaining how a l'Cie's mark tells them how much time they have left to complete their Focus. In the E3 trailer there is a scene in the Vile Peaks area, where Lightning, in a moment of anger and distress, yells at Hope about having to protect him and collapses to the ground while clutching at her l'Cie mark. This triggers Odin to appear, and Lightning and Hope battle him to prove their strength.

Also in the final trailer, Lightning gives Hope some words of encouragement as he leads the way into the Gapra Whitewood. She and Snow are shown comforting Hope. In another scene, she is seen shedding a tear while she is behind Snow as they stand in a field on Pulse discussing whether or not they will see Serah again.

Abilities
Lightning has been shown to possess incredible power with both weapons and magic. In the first trailer, she had a 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" and is adept in magic, using various Thunder and Fire spells, as well as a new spell known as Ruin. She fights in a very fast-paced manner, moving with great speed and using her unique weapon as both a gun and sword, and she has a device on her thumb that allows her to manipulate gravity. Her Eidolon is Odin.

In the web novelization Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero: Promise, it is revealed by Lightning's superior, Sergeant Major Amoda, that Lightning's initial weapon is a gun-sword called Blaze Edge. Gun-swords are a weapon only used by the most skilled soldiers. In the game, weapons can be upgraded into any of these models


 * Magnum Blaze
 * Gladius
 * Helta Skellutra
 * Saber Carbine
 * Slash Carbine.
 * Accelerator Blade
 * Iguknight Blade
 * Knight Saber
 * Peachmarker
 * Automatic Clair
 * Durandal
 * Lionheart
 * Ultima Weapon
 * Apocalyse
 * Organix
 * Omega Weapon (Blaze Edge, Gladius, Saber Carbine, Accelerator Blade, Knight Saber, Automatic Clair, Lionheart, Organix)

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. 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.

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 will be 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. She is 5'9," while others like Aerith and Yuna are 5'3" or so in height. She is even taller than other main characters, most notably Squall and Cloud, who both stand at 5'7.
 * In the Amano artwork, Lightning is blonde instead of pink-haired.
 * The higher of the two bracelets that Lightning wears is also worn by her sister, Serah. Both wear it on their right arm.

Lightning