Why Do People Like Lightning So Much ?

Curious here. Because.... I just don't personally "get it " ?

To me Light is such a giant bitch and she's immature. The way she treats people is just unforgivable, cold, and brutal. She's hot-tempted and aggressive, to the point that she physically attacks her allies more than once. Cloud and Squall were cold-hearted jerks, but they never went to *that * level. Unless you count the time where Cloud lost the plot and started to hit Aerith, but he was basically insane at the time.

You're not a "strong woman ", if you can't treat people like they're not punching bags.

She says that she wants to be strong for her sister, but she does the total opposite. Let's not get her started on her tantrum when Serah mentions that she wants to marry Snow.

To me, Lightning is a weak character. She's not a strong female character because of her childish attitude. Yeah, she wields a Gunblade, but that's just physical strength. Physical strength doesn't make you "strong ".

She's just a awful person.

Its one of those things where a developer can't hire a real writer, and/or the one writer they have is never contested and all their battrout craziness makes it in the game whether it makes sense or not. I'm not sure what started this, because I feel like FF4 probably didn't have a real writer, but it started an era of more "real" storytelling, which I feel like made it through FF6 and maybe halfway through 7. But 7 definitely started off another trend where things just go, and each consecutive game takes it farther. Other than the black sheep of 12 and the online games. But yeah. i don't like anyone in 13. The hallway thing was the least of their problems

They wanted to make a female Cloud, and I guess that's how they envision Cloud if he had a real personality. I guess he's brash and arrogant and beat up Zack when he disagreed with him instead of talking things out

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Originally Posted by Vyk

Its one of those things where a developer can't hire a real writer, and/or the one writer they have is never contested and all their battrout craziness makes it in the game whether it makes sense or not. I'm not sure what started this, because I feel like FF4 probably didn't have a real writer, but it started an era of more "real" storytelling, which I feel like made it through FF6 and maybe halfway through 7. But 7 definitely started off another trend where things just go, and each consecutive game takes it farther. Other than the black sheep of 12 and the online games. But yeah. i don't like anyone in 13. The hallway thing was the least of their problems

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I heard that the translation of FF13 is better in Japanese and some character development was ruined when translation. Though Light still treats Hope, Sazh, Fang, Snow and others poorly.

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Originally Posted by Vyk

They wanted to make a female Cloud, and I guess that's how they envision Cloud if he had a real personality. I guess he's brash and arrogant and beat up Zack when he disagreed with him instead of talking things out

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Never understood the whole Lightning = Female Cloud thing. They are nothing alike. Cloud cares about his friends lol.

Light saw Hope as a annoying pest, same with Sazh. Light saw Snow as a punching bag. Light slapped Fang in the face.

I don't see her as a female Cloud. But rumor has it, that was the inspiration behind her creation. To make a Cloud style character, that was female. And somehow the fudged up their cooking instructions, and Lightning is what they got out of the oven instead lol But now you have me curious what differences there are in versions, and what prompted such changes. Hmm

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Originally Posted by maybee

Never understood the whole Lightning = Female Cloud thing. They are nothing alike. Cloud cares about his friends lol.

Light saw Hope as a annoying pest, same with Sazh. Light saw Snow as a punching bag. Light slapped Fang in the face.

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Go play the opening of FFVII again. Lightning could play that role really easily.

"I don't care what your names are. Once this job's over... I'm outta here."
"I'm not here for a lecture. Let's just hurry."
"It's not my problem."
"The only thing I care about is finishin' this job before security and the Roboguards come."
"I don't have time to be messin' around with you."

Really, until he has his talk with Tifa, Cloud is pretty much a jerk to everyone. If you've only played the intro to the game, you're actually quite likely to get Lightning from an attempt to make a female Cloud.

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

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Originally Posted by maybee

Never understood the whole Lightning = Female Cloud thing. They are nothing alike. Cloud cares about his friends lol.

Light saw Hope as a annoying pest, same with Sazh. Light saw Snow as a punching bag. Light slapped Fang in the face.

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Go play the opening of FFVII again. Lightning could play that role really easily.

"I don't care what your names are. Once this job's over... I'm outta here."
"I'm not here for a lecture. Let's just hurry."
"It's not my problem."
"The only thing I care about is finishin' this job before security and the Roboguards come."
"I don't have time to be messin' around with you."

Really, until he has his talk with Tifa, Cloud is pretty much a jerk to everyone. If you've only played the intro to the game, you're actually quite likely to get Lightning from an attempt to make a female Cloud.

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That's not really Cloud Strife though. That's smurfed up Cloud who's acting what he believes what a top dog 1st Class Solider would act like. Lightning has no excuse. She's angry at the world and takes it out on others.

I mean Cecil Harvey has his game open with him slaughtering innocents, but he feels remorse, tries to stand up to his king, and climbs a un-climbable mountain to try and redeem and "clean his sins ", the whole town hates him, and if you speak to certain people you get transformed into a pig.

Zidane starts off his game with him sexually harassing girls and Princess Garnet. Garnet and the game calls out on his bulltrout, and Zidane makes a effort throughout his game to mature.

Lightning slaps or punches somebody and everybody is like " .... I forgive you Lightning "

pls.

I really hated XIII and Lightning was just part of it. I had no connection to her at all and felt forced to have her. She is not well written at all. That is just one of my many reasons this was a weak FF in the series.

I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say that 90% of people who talk of "a female Cloud" are indeed referring to Cloud as we first meet him, and as we know him through to the end of the first disc (ie, half the story). I think it's entirely reasonable to say Lightning is similar to Cloud in that regard. I also don't think it's unreasonable to say that Lightning, like Cloud, warms up to many people by the time her story is complete.

As for why people like her... because she looks cool and acts like a badass. Isn't that the standard reason large amounts of people like any lead character? Not saying it's right, but people can like what they want to like.

This entire thread proves exactly what I wrote in my "essay" about Lightning. That people don't actually take their time to understand why a character behaves in a certain way or why he/she does certain things. Most of the answers here are all just talking about Light being a cold character, which is incredibly far from the truth. And I'm not even going to comment about Light and Cloud being similar, since those two have absolutely nothing in common. *facepalm*

Oh, she's definitely cold. Coldness isn't just from the deep internal feels. It's also how you present yourself. And the way that Lightning presents herself to people she's not met before is what I would describe as cold.

I'm pretty sure both characters are described as cold in their respective games at some point.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Oh, she's definitely cold. Coldness isn't just from the deep internal feels. It's also how you present yourself. And the way that Lightning presents herself to people she's not met before is what I would describe as cold.

I'm pretty sure both characters are described as cold in their respective games at some point.

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It's not about internal feelings, it's about context. Under normal circumstances maybe you'd be right, however since Lightning is introduced while life-risking events are taking place, things are a lot different.
First of all she was being targeted by the Sanctum's army, which was trying to purge the citizens of Bodhum, so she was already fighting with her life on the line. More importantly she was rushing to the Vestige to save Serah, she literally couldn't waste a second of her time (and we know how important Serah is to her). Plus Light was already very angry at that time, and for very good reasons.
Also let's not forget that Sazh wasn't helping her at all. He was just following her around to avoid getting killed. Anyone would get pissed in that situation, not just Lightning.

Overall she does appear to be cold, but that's just until the moment you realize what was actually going on, until you're given context to those events.

Edit: Wayyy too long. Deleted some paragraphs, TL;DR at the bottom >.<

Not being a regular here, but being a lifelong FF fan and a literature major, I'll try to answer what I personally saw in her.

Claire, or rather Lightning is a character that acts through instinct. XIII's story starts off with Claire already suffering from continued shock; she has become aware of how cruel the 'safe haven' of Cocoon is since her parents died and all she has left is her little sister, she never has a lot of personal time for her sister because she went military to support the two of them on her own. She recently met 'a moron' by the name Snow Villiers, who is mobilizing a group that is surely going to cause trouble for her job. And then said little sister drops the double bomb of a) Marrying said moron, and b) Being a l'cie = being purged. The base personality Claire, is about to lose Serah, ergo she's going to lose everything she's been working for at this point.

Claire is too weak to deal with this and she knows it. So she created the Lightning personality to deal with it.Claire is scared of losing her little sister, Lightning doesn't have a plan to save Serah, but is perfectly willing to slice fal'Cie, shoot Sanctum, and punch people in the face in order to save Serah and protect what's left of Claire.

Lightning is detached and Claire is paralyzed with fear is what I'm saying. Lightning can act while Claire can feel.
Hence, Lightning has three main objectives.
1) Protect Claire from suffering as much as possible.
2) Protect Serah so Claire can be at peace
3) Should she fail to protect Serah, move on so Claire can find peace.

Claire doesn't want to think, thus Lightning isn't especially good at planning, she's good at taking decisive action. Lightning train of though goes to Goal 1) Protect Claire, by fulfilling goal 2) Protect Serah.
But once she arrives to Serah's side all she can do is watch her turn into crystal, as far as she knows she's effectively gone from her life right then and there. So her priorities switch to 1) Protect Claire, by fulfilling goal 3) Move on so Claire can find peace. If she can't save Claire's sister, maybe she can at least avenge her, thus giving Claire a small measure of justice, an even smaller measure of peace.

But she fails and is made into a l'Cie, then Lightning and Snow come upon the crystalized Serah in Lake Bresha. Snow, as the figure that feels optimism during the bleakest times, sees the crsytalized Serah and swears to turn her back.

Lightning sees her sister's corpse.

I want you to picture Claire crying over Serah's body because that's a legitimate human reaction. It doesn't happen in XIII because Lightning is there to 1) Protect Claire, through accomplishing 3) moving on so Claire can have peace. Snow works on belief, Lightning works on instinct. Snow clings to the idea that they can still save Serah, and Lightning desperately wants to move on yesterday. She beats the crap out of Snow and only stops punching when she decides it's a waste of effort and maybe he's behaving the way she should have, so to 1) protect Claire, she'll 3) move on, and just leave both of them behind. Lightning is a character that keeps acting decisively through anything; fear, shame, guilt. It's only when presented with factual evidence of l'Cie awakening from a crystal sleep that those very same goals make the Lightning persona a solution to Claire's problems.

TL;DR: Sometimes you have to act in ways you couldn't have imagined (maybe act like a "#$%) to get stuff done. To protect your loved ones if the world around you is especially cruel. Sometimes you have to stop caring about the important to get the essential done, and 'Lightning' as a personality shield for Claire, accomplishes this brilliantly. No matter what Deity, immortal, or god gets in her way, Lightning displays the guts to risk every important thing over and over again, to protect the real Claire's happiness, Serah. In the end results in saving her little sister and provide some real peace. Whether it takes either a full game or a full *trilogy*, in the end, and what keeps bringing fans back, is that she actually succeeds and it's extremely satisfying to see.

So why do people other than me like Lightning? I'm going to take a small guess; We can all admire someone who doesn't show the overwhelming fear she feels and consistently act to defend her own ideals. Maybe maybe she's too good at hiding how scared out of her mind she was during most of her ordeal, but we can all easily tell she got stuff done. By the end of FFXIII, Lightning had managed to get help from her friends (Especially Snow) and found the hope to save Serah, therefore making Claire happy. By the end of the trilogy, Claire has lost hope and clings to the feeling of guilt, that's all sorts of screwed up and mentally unhealthy, yet it pushes her to accomplish wonders; To free humanity from Bhunivelze and create a new world where Claire doesn't need Lightning anymore.

She's like the Batman of Final Fantasy; Childish, but with a powerful, absolutely obsessive persona always guarding herself, dealing with loss in the most unhealthy way possible, pushing herself until she can cope, and if she feels she fails at any point, rather than stop, her guilt pushes her to try harder. Even if she feels like crap. Especially if she feels like crap.

Oh boy, I just compared Lightning to Batman...before anybody thinks me a fanboy or anything, Edgar Figaro, Squall, Laguna, Auron, Cecil, Edward the bard, Snow, Fang, Noel Kreiss, Thancred Waters and Hien are characters that rank higher than Lightning in my personal favorites list. I just think the girl isn't a bad character and deserves fair analysis before being dismissed.

While I think your analysis is definitely interesting, there are a few basic points I disagree with.
I think you're putting too much emphasis on Lightning being, in your opinion, a personality created by Claire. That's not how it is imo. Claire doesn't "create" Lightning because she's unable to cope with some of the events that were occurring at that time. She becomes Lightning by tossing away the weak part of herself, all those feelings and emotions that could have been a hindrance to protect Serah. After that point there is no more Claire, it's just Lightning. There can be no Claire without those feelings, and in fact this is also confirmed at the end of Lightning Returns when (SPOILER)Lightning merges with Lumina, the embodiment of those emotions. Only in that specific moment Lightning becomes Claire again. Not her old self, but a new Claire, aware of everything that she was able to accomplish as Lightning.

Also I'm pretty sure that Claire becomes Lightning immediately after her parents' death, not just after Serah's birthday.

Lightning is not just a mere killing machine. She's definitely able to feel, not just to act. Throughout the course of the first FFXIII, you can see Lightning caring about Hope (so much so that she's ready to sacrifice herself to protect him as soon as they arrive in Palompolum), and thanking Snow for his optimism. Most importantly, in Chapter 6 (if I remember correctly) Lightning realizes that she was just running away through fightning, because she had no idea what else to do. She also realizes how stupid she was in thinking she could change who she was by simply changing her name. Despite all this, she still can't go back to be Claire, not until Serah is safe. And that happens at the end of LR:FFXIII.

I definitely agree that context is important etc, but being cold at the time, that's what we're primarily working from and regardless of the reasons, we do witness Lightning being a cold person. It's natural to describe someone as you see them, not as they were in the past or will be in the future. I think it's fair to call her cold because of who she is in the game, particularly when we first meet her. It's not necessarily a bad thing or a fault, it's just how she is during the game.

But if we can agree that context is important to understand a character's motives/behaviours/actions, then there is simply no ground to say that Lightning is a cold character. I see no coldness in any of her behaviours because I understand where she's coming from. The only way I can agree with you is by isolating her actions in a vacuum. But then, not even counting the fact that it would be completely unfair to her, I just don't understand what the point would be by doing so.

Yeah, she's only human. ---you know what I mean.
I don't necessarily disagree with you, Yubei, I think we see something more or less similar. I just see her as a bit more of a victim, and I'd maybe put Snow in the typical leading role instead but she's a pretty cool character.

I think the thing with her popularity is a lot of people aren't very sympathetic to characters that whine, regardless of having a good reason. Hence why you see so many complaints about Hope and his mom, and you don't see many about Sazh, who takes his tragedy in stride and is generally well-liked because of it. I'm thinking it's the same thing with Lightning; She doesn't whine from the getgo, she takes decisive action---sometimes that decisive action is smacking Sazh, punching Snow, slapping Fang. Well-deserved from her perspective at least.

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Originally Posted by YoshioKST

I think the thing with her popularity is a lot of people aren't very sympathetic to characters that whine, regardless of having a good reason.

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Thankfully that trend is starting to slow down now though, and hopefully stop. Because most the time the "whining " is because of trauma, death, or mental illness.

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Originally Posted by YoshioKST

-sometimes that decisive action is smacking Sazh, punching Snow, slapping Fang. Well-deserved from her perspective at least.

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Which is why I'm wondering why on earth she's so loved. It's not really because she's a cold-hearted character or not. It's more of the physical abuse she keeps on dealing out to other characters. Whether she saw her sister's "dead body " or not, doesn't really excuse it. Same with Snow being a naive brat. You don't treat people like that son.

Is it a "tough " character trait ? No, it's called being a asshole.

I mean Cecil kills people at the beginning of his game, and Zidane starts off as a sexual harasser, but they change/ live and learn and grow. I don't remember Light ever doing this ? Though, I could be wrong here.

I suppose a big Lightning fan would have three main reasons for liking her: Either her backstory and character, the running theme of facing overwhelming odds to protect your loved ones, another for her performance in badass feats, and a third would be her canonical power levels.

The FFXIII universe is chaotic. I'm not saying it's like FFI where the elements have stopped, or like IV where a mad king, the new captain of the Red Wings, and personal redemption are apparently most of the hero's worries. Nor is it like IX where the world has monsters, but the party has a Quest to stop a mad queen and protect her daughter. In XIII, destiny is a thing, and they're destined to get screwed. If her character developments comes from being 'able' to bear constant tragedy, and consistently push off instinct->duty->grief, in a universe that starts out bad (They're all going to die. At best.), then gets worse (Goddess dies and time collapses) and downhill from there. (Literal end of the world and god wants humanity out), then you end up with a seriously damaged character that nontheless finds inner strength to combat their grief.

I mean yes she's an abusive b- at times, but she's a b so her sister doesn't have to be. The most selfish part is punching Snow, partially out of frustration, partially because she feels they both failed her. Fang though, is told that "It's up to Serah" whether or not they're even.
I personally have an older brother, and he's as tough on everyone-- on me even, but he's proven he'd stand up to anyone to defend me if it came to that.

Should one want to give her a chance, she has sheer results to her name. Light is tough love at her best, and self-sacrificing at her worst. PalomPolum is one of those moments where she's ready to die in order to save Hope so his father wouldn't have to deal with two losses.
Yes, she punched Snow in the face, and that solved nothing--heck, Snow was right and she was wrong! but like Renegade Shep in the ME trilogy, you can famously punch a reporter in the face. Thrice. Sure, it's abusive, sure, it counts as a negative in your karma meter, and yeah, it's optional- but the reporter screwed up, and Shep is still saving the universe, so it depends on how much it matters to you as a fan or not.
But I can understand how this guy loves her because she's such a badass, and that one sympathizes with her because they have a little sister, and how this girl likes her because she's one of arguably two main FF female protagonists, and maybe because she's a deity-level powerhouse in canon.

In the end you pick what you appreciate in your favorites. Screw it if some people don't hate Snow but dude jumped off a building to save the kid who was trying to kill him, it's all about the big picture.

I also noticed that despite the low position of XIII in the FF rankings, meaning, it's one of the worst in the series, Lightning gets quite a lot of love than she deserves, and I don't get it at all.

I don't hate her, I think she's kinda cool, but not a character I would love. Deep down inside she cares for people (despite hitting some of them at times) But she doesn't care as deep as the other FF characters do, like Zidane etc. She cares deeply only for her sister, which is actually gets quite tiring as the story progresses.

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Originally Posted by maybee

Which is why I'm wondering why on earth she's so loved. It's not really because she's a cold-hearted character or not. It's more of the physical abuse she keeps on dealing out to other characters. Whether she saw her sister's "dead body " or not, doesn't really excuse it. Same with Snow being a naive brat. You don't treat people like that son.

Is it a "tough " character trait ? No, it's called being a asshole.

I mean Cecil kills people at the beginning of his game, and Zidane starts off as a sexual harasser, but they change/ live and learn and grow. I don't remember Light ever doing this ? Though, I could be wrong here.

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I totally agree, no character development whatsoever.

Seems people have a twisted understanding of "tough".

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Originally Posted by YoshioKST

Yeah, she's only human. ---you know what I mean.
I don't necessarily disagree with you, Yubei, I think we see something more or less similar. I just see her as a bit more of a victim, and I'd maybe put Snow in the typical leading role instead but she's a pretty cool character.

I think the thing with her popularity is a lot of people aren't very sympathetic to characters that whine, regardless of having a good reason. Hence why you see so many complaints about Hope and his mom, and you don't see many about Sazh, who takes his tragedy in stride and is generally well-liked because of it. I'm thinking it's the same thing with Lightning; She doesn't whine from the getgo, she takes decisive action---sometimes that decisive action is smacking Sazh, punching Snow, slapping Fang. Well-deserved from her perspective at least.

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Yeah, I think we mostly agree ;)
Personally, I really like realistic, well written and threedimensional characters. I don't really care if a certain character is badass or whiny, as long as they can back it up with some development/growth/motives/good reasons throughout the story (which is why I really like Hope for example).

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Originally Posted by maybee

Which is why I'm wondering why on earth she's so loved. It's not really because she's a cold-hearted character or not. It's more of the physical abuse she keeps on dealing out to other characters. Whether she saw her sister's "dead body " or not, doesn't really excuse it. Same with Snow being a naive brat. You don't treat people like that son.

Is it a "tough " character trait ? No, it's called being a asshole.

I mean Cecil kills people at the beginning of his game, and Zidane starts off as a sexual harasser, but they change/ live and learn and grow. I don't remember Light ever doing this ? Though, I could be wrong here.

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Physical abuse? The only time Lightning ever hits someone else is in Chapter 3 when she punches Snow. And that happens because (self-quoting):

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She was angry as hell. Angry at Snow for failing to protect Serah despite all his big talk, but mostly angry at herself for doing nothing. I think that in this regard Lightning felt inferior to Snow, a person she didn't even like to begin with. Because even though Snow failed to protect Serah, at least he tried. He did everything he could: he trusted her, supported her, and helped her constantly, no matter what the problem was. Lightning on the other hand didn't, therefore the anger, the blame, and the guilt. This also leads to the punching scene in Chapter 3, where Lightning simply couldn't take anymore of that “I'll protect Serah” bullcrap that Snow kept throwing at her all the time.

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Lightning is not perfect, she's a human and as such she makes mistakes. How many times do people get angry over some of the most stupid reasons? However, she aknowledges those mistakes and learns from them (like whe she reconciles with Snow in chapter 7).

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Originally Posted by Krizzy

I totally agree, no character development whatsoever.

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I'm getting tired of repeating the same things over and over again, it's like people refuse to listen. No character development? Have you played the game? Do I need to point out every single cutscene where Light gets dvelopment?

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Originally Posted by Yubel-Lover

Physical abuse? The only time Lightning ever hits someone else is in Chapter 3 when she punches Snow.

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http://i.imgur.com/S5GkIfp.gif

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Originally Posted by Yubel-Lover

She was angry as hell. Angry at Snow for failing to protect Serah despite all his big talk, but mostly angry at herself for doing nothing. I think that in this regard Lightning felt inferior to Snow, a person she didn't even like to begin with. Because even though Snow failed to protect Serah, at least he tried. He did everything he could: he trusted her, supported her, and helped her constantly, no matter what the problem was. Lightning on the other hand didn't, therefore the anger, the blame, and the guilt. This also leads to the punching scene in Chapter 3, where Lightning simply couldn't take anymore of that “I'll protect Serah” bullcrap that Snow kept throwing at her all the time.

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Doesn't excuse it.

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Originally Posted by Yubel-Lover

How many times do people get angry over some of the most stupid reasons?

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Angry yeah. That's human. Though punching/ slapping people when angry ? That's low.

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Originally Posted by Yubel-Lover

No character development? Have you played the game? Do I need to point out every single cutscene where Light gets dvelopment?

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Actually, that might help ? I mean, I wanna know why she's loved and so liked. Point of said thread.


From memory I got up a certain chapter and quit, because I just found the whole game too silly and too linear, and watched the rest of the game via Lets Play.

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Originally Posted by Krizzy

Seems people have a twisted understanding of "tough".

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^

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Originally Posted by Yubel-Lover

Lightning is not perfect, she's a human and as such she makes mistakes. How many times do people get angry over some of the most stupid reasons? However, she aknowledges those mistakes and learns from them (like whe she reconciles with Snow in chapter 7).

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Of course, nobody's perfect. I actually get why Lightning acts like that, I understand she was angry at Snow, and that's why she punched him. Still, I can't think of any reason to love Lightning.

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Originally Posted by Yubel-Lover

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Originally Posted by Krizzy

I totally agree, no character development whatsoever.

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I'm getting tired of repeating the same things over and over again, it's like people refuse to listen. No character development? Have you played the game? Do I need to point out every single cutscene where Light gets dvelopment?

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I'm taking that back. I realized there were some character development there, but not that much compared to the other FF series.

There's a lot of stuff in here that reminds me of the fan-theories from FFVIII. I watched a playthrough of XIII because I knew I wouldn't enjoy it myself. I agree with all the complaints about the idiocy of the characters, and their contradictory natures that The Spoony Experiment brings up. I saw very little if any character development. And I certainly don't recall a whole lot of explanation. Was any of that stuff addressed in XIII itself, or is it from supplementary material like books, wiki/codex stuff, or in the sequels (which I know next to nothing about)

Half of the claims supporting her character, I have a lot of trouble believing the writers could properly convey considering how incompetent they were in the basic plot structure, I have a lot of doubt believing they could be so adept at something as nuanced as her personality flaws being properly explained and explored and worked through

And like it or not, no matter how frequent or infrequent, she is now known for the scenes where she's lashing out irrationally. And while I may not be aware of any worthwhile explanation for it. I don't agree that hitting and slapping and yelling at your comrades is very productive and rational. So at best, she's broken and needs therapy, and at worst, she's an unhinged sociopath who doesn't know how to handle having allies

At least with Cloud there was an entire section of the game you could play through that explained what happened. I don't recall very many flashbacks, especially not playable ones(?) that justify her behavior in the base game of XIII the first one

But maybe it's been so long that I'm just focusing on the bad taste the rest of the game left and have forgotten the few redeeming qualities it may have had in its plot and characters

But honestly, if all that stuff explaining and justifying her is only found in supplementary material, then I think that's probably a pretty bad excuse to say it's okay how she behaves in the main game, when that's all we had to go on initially. But if I missed something, then I concede there may be more to it. But I would find it hard for that extra information to make me see her as a better character

In the end I think she's just a badly written character, because I know a lot of better writers would have used that material and created something more memorable out of it, assuming it's in the main base game, and I've just forgotten, that kinda goes to show how pitifully it was handled that it wasn't presented as a huge part of her story

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Originally Posted by maybee

Curious here. Because.... I just don't personally "get it " ?

To me Light is such a giant bitch and she's immature. The way she treats people is just unforgivable, cold, and brutal. She's hot-tempted and aggressive, to the point that she physically attacks her allies more than once. Cloud and Squall were cold-hearted jerks, but they never went to *that * level. Unless you count the time where Cloud lost the plot and started to hit Aerith, but he was basically insane at the time.

You're not a "strong woman ", if you can't treat people like they're not punching bags.

She says that she wants to be strong for her sister, but she does the total opposite. Let's not get her started on her tantrum when Serah mentions that she wants to marry Snow.

To me, Lightning is a weak character. She's not a strong female character because of her childish attitude. Yeah, she wields a Gunblade, but that's just physical strength. Physical strength doesn't make you "strong ".

She's just a awful person.

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See here's the thing: I find Lightning really funny to watch for all those reasons. I shouldn't, but there it is.

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Originally Posted by Vyk

And like it or not, no matter how frequent or infrequent, she is now known for the scenes where she's lashing out irrationally. And while I may not be aware of any worthwhile explanation for it. I don't agree that hitting and slapping and yelling at your comrades is very productive and rational. So at best, she's broken and needs therapy, and at worst, she's an unhinged sociopath who doesn't know how to handle having allies

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The most sociopath of the FF characters, yet one of the most loved.
The world has gone mad, it seems. :shifty:

I find Lightning an interesting character. The fact that she’s deeply flawed and, initially at least, not very likeable, doesn’t make her less interesting.

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Originally Posted by Mr. Carnelian

I find Lightning an interesting character. The fact that she’s deeply flawed and, initially at least, not very likeable, doesn’t make her less interesting.

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Pretty much. It helps that’s she’s easily one of the least grating character with her flaws. She’s a dick, but there is far more to her than that, and I still consider her one of the few redeeming qualities of this game.

Granted, the last time I played this game was when it came out; I was a Freshmen in High School, so obviously, my read of the character and the game is subject to change if I do eventually revisit it (I think the only games in the series that I've maintained a consistent opinion of throughout the years are FFIV and IX).

I think my problem with Lightning is more emblematic of a problem I have with the cast in general. They all seemed so impulsive and confrontational; acting purely on instinct with little regard for the reality of the situation they're put into. Lightning goes off to fight the Sanctum. Why? Because she's frustrated, and needs to take it out on something. Hope vows revenge on Snow for his mother's death. Why? Because it's easier to blame one man than the entire society that led to their Purge. I vaguely remember the conflict between Vanille and Sazh, so I can't really comment on that, but the inner party conflict always felt melodramatic and forced to me.

I've always seen Lightning less as a female Cloud, and more of a continuation of the "tough female" character archetype in the vein of Celes and Aya Brea, the major difference is that most of Lightning's entire character is based around how "tough" she is. Most of what I remember re: Lightning's dialogue in the original FFXIII was how she could take care of herself and how she didn't need anyone's help. She's tough because she was a Guardian, she's tough because she has to take care of Serah, she's tough because she gets into conflict with the other party members. Celes has a few moments where she references her time in the Imperial service, but she also shows moments of resourcefulness, like when she tries to con Setzer, or when she warps Kefka away in the Magitek facility.

Because I can confront any powerful enemy if I'm with Lightning, the strongest heroine.

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Originally Posted by Example

Because I can confront any powerful enemy if I'm with Lightning, the strongest heroine.

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Thankyou Toriyama. :quina:

Thinking about it, it probably helps that she's voiced by Liara. Ali Hillis has a great voice, even if the dialogue is sub-par.

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Originally Posted by YoshioKST

I think the thing with her popularity is a lot of people aren't very sympathetic to characters that whine, regardless of having a good reason.

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Most gamers and people who watch action films are young people who don't have the freedom to take what they deem heroic action and thus it becomes problematic to watch the main characters of those mediums (especially some shounen anime) complain when, in reality, it feels like this is all that many people are ever able to do. Instead, people rely on these mediums to give a glimpse of what it feels like to be in control and pretty much every young person believes it makes life easier and the main character should be happy or at least stop moaning about it.

I never saw Lightning as cold. Angry? Yes. But angry people are also hopeful people. And that hopefulness is why they're often so disappointed, and made to be angry. I prefer an angry person to a cynical one myself.

Also Lightning looks really cool and her voice actress fits her perfectly.

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Originally Posted by Lamia

Also Lightning looks really cool and her voice actress fits her perfectly.

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Fun fact: She is voiced by a lady/gentleman called Dr Liara T'Soni. She is actually a member of the Asari race and has blue skin and a smoking hot body.

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Originally Posted by Lamia

But angry people are also hopeful people. And that hopefulness is why they're often so disappointed, and made to be angry.

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https://media.giphy.com/media/27ooLubbh0pG/200.gif