Lightning is the worst character in the history of Final Fantasy

[black orb]

>>> I think there is another guy here who like Tidus too (check the FFX forum)..

[Eagle299]

>>> I think there is another guy here who like Tidus too (check the FFX forum)..

I certainly like Tidus. He started a fairly normal guy and became a hero.

I don't like him as much as Lightning, but I don't hate him.

[Jessweeee♪]

Tidus is a favorite of mine as well!

[Zora]

I'm only got to chapter 12 (yes, I'm behind), so anything I say is a measure of her up to that point.

Overall, I liked Lightning. Even if she was a bitch, but she felt... real enough. Well, outside of that Chapter 7 epiphany scene which was all-around bad and out of character, but a lot of games, including the Final Fantasy games, have one of those scenes. In Final Fantasy IX (SPOILER)During the scene where "You're Not Alone" is played, Zidane sounds out of character. To me, it would seem like he would just say "Whatever, I'll do what I want" to Garland muttering about Zidade being created as a puppet. Granted, the scene was very memorable, but I'm not lying when I said Zidane acted very out of character there.. But even so, you see Lightning change throughout the story. She begins off cold and almost emotionless, but you also begin to see her frustration. She hates Snow at first, well along with most of the cast, but grows to appreciate him and what he's done. She begins to think more rationally rather than just fighting, and there are a few more traits that shows that she's developing. Now, I'm not saying she's an OMG amazing character, but... honestly, she wasn't that bad.

Also, people forget that fictional characters can be just as irrational as most humans are. We do misplace emotions and project stuff and deal with stuff in our own, sometimes smurfed up, ways. Heck, excluding Sazh, they were hardly adults!

Call it nit-picking, but I thought Fang was very mature too. Other than being (SPOILER)apathetic towards the destruction of Cacoon before Bahamut came up and slapped her silly, I can't think of anything remotely immature about Fang from what I've seen.

[Sword]

*Time to Rant*

And I keep wondering why so many people turn a blind eye to the fact that character weaknesses were made as a literary tool called "Character Development."

Thank you for this. I don't it would be very realistic if everyone just liked all the characters. There needs to be room for you to notice the characters' growth by maybe having your opinion of them changed. There are a lot of characters in FF games I don't like but I don't see that as a game's bad point, since they need a variety of characters and it's impossible to relate to a wide variety of personalities.

Personally I think Squall is the best case of character development in any game. Tou can really see his growth because you always know his thoughts and can compare them with how he actually presents.

In FFXIII I didn't identify much with Lightning but I enjoyed her character's growth. For me the best character in FFXIII is Hope. Best development IMO.

[Levian]

"Lightning is the worst character in the history of Final Fantasy"

Have you played any Final Fantasy games? She's not even the worst character in the game. One of the better characters imo!

[Future Esthar]

Sword,you will receive the prize of the second member on this thread to think of a very hated character as the best of a game.

I can't think of anything remotely immature about Fang from what I've seen.

Don´t forget also her apathy on the cutscene before the end.

[Eagle299]

*Time to Rant*

And I keep wondering why so many people turn a blind eye to the fact that character weaknesses were made as a literary tool called "Character Development."

Thank you for this. I don't it would be very realistic if everyone just liked all the characters. There needs to be room for you to notice the characters' growth by maybe having your opinion of them changed. There are a lot of characters in FF games I don't like but I don't see that as a game's bad point, since they need a variety of characters and it's impossible to relate to a wide variety of personalities.

Personally I think Squall is the best case of character development in any game. Tou can really see his growth because you always know his thoughts and can compare them with how he actually presents.

In FFXIII I didn't identify much with Lightning but I enjoyed her character's growth. For me the best character in FFXIII is Hope. Best development IMO.

It boggles my mind how anyone can even tolerate Hope. The kid made me want to do horrible things to him from his opening scene, and did virtually nothing to redeem himself in my eyes through out. The only thing that made his portions of the game playable was being partnered with Lightning for most of it.

After the game gave me the option to select my own party, I only willingly used him once, and that was solely to test out Alexander. After that, I just pretended I left him to be eaten by a Behemoth or something. I have never hated a character in a video game like I did Hope.

Edit: Also, Squall, my least favorite FF hero to date. Still don't hate him like I do Hope, thoug.

[Zora]

I can't think of anything remotely immature about Fang from what I've seen.

Don´t forget also her apathy on the cutscene before the end.

I haven't beaten the game yet

Almost there. I'm in the middle of Chapter 12, so yay.

___________________________________________________________________________
As for Hope, eh, I actually liked him sometime during Chapter 7 and onward. He changed a lot in that chapter, so... I don't know. I identify a lot with Hope though, being kind of shy and bottling my feelings up, which obviously is a factor. And, my standard party included Hope, Fang, and Lightning. You cover all the jobs while almost all paradigm combination are well-rounded. Really, Hope just has one of the best sets around.

[Future Esthar]

and did virtually nothing to redeem himself

You must be kidding,right?

Hope has the best character development.

He starts whiny but becames very brave on the last chapters.

Sorry to spoil the game to you Zora.

[Eagle299]

and did virtually nothing to redeem himself

You must be kidding,right?

Hope has the best character development.

He starts whiny but becames very brave on the last chapters.

Sorry to spoil the game to you Zora.

Very brave is boarding a government purge train, which as a government employee you're exempt from, and taking on dozens of heavily armed soldiers, starting the fight unarmed and handcuffed, on the off chance that you might save your sister from certain death.

Very brave is charging a millitary strong hold with your rag tag rebel group to rescue a bunch of people who your religion had declared unclean, taking on guys who are armed not only with assault rifles and riot gear, but friggin heavy mecha.

Very brave is taking on a dark god from the terrifying world below with a pair of pistols to save your only son from zombification.

Very brave is being willing to take on that nest of vipers in the air with technology beyond anything that exists in your tribal village because the gods you worthship said it blocks their view. All the while challenging enemy dieties and their servants.

Hope did none of these things. All Hope did in the later chapters was say, "Hey, lets go beat up those guys who are now unto insects compared to us."

[Wolf Kanno]

I don't agree she's the worst. Kimarhi is both poorly developed and a lousy character.

Still, I can understand the hate. She's not the worst in the game, I still feel Hope is whiny and annoying and Vanille pretty much drives the plot by being as stupid as possible meaning she combines two of my least favorite RPG cliches (stupid female leads who cause conflict by being stupid, and hyper active kooky girl) but I would say Lightning isn't far from these two.

Her only emotions in the first half of the character development section of the game is being a total angry bitch and showing off with wire-fu. She gives up on her sister and babysits Hope and then has one of the most awkward and narm inducing 180 personality changes in the series; as she gains her silly epiphany that makes her suddenly become this nurturing mother figure which comes across as badly as Squall's moment of suddenly realizing he loves Rinoa. Much like Squall, she loses a bit of her badass appeal afterwards, especially since a lot of what made her interesting in the beginning gets dropped cause she overcame them halfway through the plot.

She comes across cold and indifferent but its not really her personality that's causing it as much as its her lack of one. Squall worked cause the player could read his inner monologues which painted a much more sarcastic and interesting character but Lightning doesn't get that, so she pretty much jumps between three extremes namely: Rage, Nurturing, and Void.

Despite being Serah's sister, I never felt she had as much of a connection to her as Snow does (mostly cause the game won't let you forget they are love birds) so once Serah was out of the picture I kinda felt Lightning served no real purpose anymore. Some would say she put Hope on the wrong path and later the right one but I felt it was obvious that was where he was going anyway so adding the little push seems over-exaggerated imo. She makes a decent foil with Sahz in the beginning but once the Chapter 3 hits, that all disappears as Sahz and Vanille are stuck together. She just quickly loses her place in the cast and no longer even tries to be the level headed one.

I felt that beyond her visual flair of wire-fu and acrobatics and the amusing punch to Snow's yapping face she was sort of a non-entity who quickly gets drowned out by the overly emotional cast of characters. In a way she's like what would have happened to Squall if Square had actually really developed the rest of the cast of VIII and gave them some decent screentime. The "Brooding Badass" sort of gets drowned out by the more needy characters

[Zora]

Sorry to spoil the game to you Zora.

Eh, I did worse when I looked up the final boss on FF Wiki, not realizing the first letters were "______ is the final boss of Final Fantasy XIII." I closed the page immediately. That said, I have beaten the game now, so I can comment on that point you made:

(SPOILER)To me, it seems more like Fang was giving up when she decided to be Ragnarok again (that's what you were referring to I take it). I mean, they defeated Dysley, but what good did that do when Orphan was there? Orphan was inviting his own death, and he would have chosen someone else had they failed. At this point, I think Fang saw it that she might be able to save Van'ille (and others) by becoming Ragnarok, but not Cacoon, fearing that Cacoon was doomed anyways during this whole mess. But, eventually, after some scenes and whatnot, they decide to face Orphan again and just kill Orphan without becoming Ragnarok to do so. In the end, they became Ragnarok to save Cacoon; not destroy it.

I guess it's also possible that Fang was being preemptive and trying to become Ragnarok only to turn around and save Cacoon like she ultimately did with Van'ille, and volunteered with that in mind. Either way, it didn't seem immature as much as, well, making the most of what she thought she could do

[Iwrestledabearonce]

I loved Lightning... I know, she was incredibly cold at first, but then she realized she didn't have to be... I dunno I loved her... From how pretty she looked to the cool things she did in battle

[Future Esthar]

But unlike those characters Hope has not much of a cause to fight since something happened to him that could not be helped.

Serah and Dajh could be brought back but not Nora.

Hope´s cause is the same as Vanille and Fang.

The difference being that Vanille and Fang felt responsible for past mistakes.

Hope starts whiny and I understand how he feels.

But later he overcomes his fears.
He turns out to always be the one to encourage the others and lead the way.

The kid has it´s merits despite not being a Rambo.