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Thread: Why Do People Like Lightning So Much ?

  1. #1

    Default 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.

  2. #2

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    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



  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vyk View Post
    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
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by Vyk View Post
    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
    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.

  4. #4

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    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



  5. #5
    Skyblade's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by maybee View Post
    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.
    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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  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Skyblade View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by maybee View Post
    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.
    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.
    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.
    Last edited by maybee; 01-04-2018 at 04:02 AM.

  7. #7
    Untalented Game Designer FFNut's Avatar
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    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.

  8. #8
    Newbie Administrator Loony BoB's Avatar
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    Loony Bob (Twintania)

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    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.
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  9. #9

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    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*
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  10. #10
    Newbie Administrator Loony BoB's Avatar
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    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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  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Loony BoB View Post
    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.
    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.
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  12. #12
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    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.
    Last edited by YoshioKST; 01-09-2018 at 11:57 PM. Reason: I write too much.
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  13. #13

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    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.
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  14. #14
    Newbie Administrator Loony BoB's Avatar
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    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.
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  15. #15

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    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.
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