Who is Lightning?[]
Lightning is the lead character of Final Fantasy XIII and a former soldier. She is the second female lead in a Final Fantasy game. Her real name is Éclaire Farron but she ditched it after her parents died and became Lightning. Square Enix being extremely clever decided to use those names because Éclaire is French and translates to "clear" and Farron is Gaelic for thunder and clearly that has to do with Lightning. As the game progresses, she tells the party to call her "Light" to which they oblige.
You are first introduced to Lightning on the train carrying the people to be Purged. Lightning fights her way through the PSICOM soldiers along with Sazh as they escape with the Purgees after the train is derailed. Lightning is searching for her sister Serah and is joined by Sazh, Snow, Hope and Vanille. Lightning eventually finds Serah but she turns to crystal shortly after waking up because she completed her focus. In her rage, Lightning attacks Anima and is branded a L'Cie. Lightning's L'Cie mark is located on her chest and naturally is the source of a couple of awkward scenes.
Lightning is a mix of Cloud Strife and Squall Leonhart. She has a very independent personality and she stays concentrated on her task. She can get annoyed easily. Especially when Snow calls her "sister" because he is Serah's fiancee and thus soon to be Lighting's brother-in-law. She even threw a couple of blows towards Snow because she blaims him for what happened to Serah. Despite being tough on Hope, she does allow him to follow her early on because she knows what it's like to lose a parent. Throughout the journey, Lightning eases up and becomes more friendly. In the days before the Purge, Lightning has the worst birthday ever when she finds out her sister is a L'Cie - enemy of Cocoon. Serah and Snow also decide this is the perfect time to tell Lightning they are getting married.
"Worst birthday ever."
Contest History[]
Win-Loss Record: 1-2
Winter 2010 Contest - Chaos Division - 16 seed
- Chaos Round 1 --- Lost to (1) Sonic the Hedgehog, 19335 [36.14%] - 34159 [63.86%]
- Extrapolated Strength --- 72nd Place [21.52%]
Despite Final Fantasy XIII not being available in the rest of the world, Lightning was able to make the contest through the vote-in and put up a respectable percentage against Sonic. She won the match in Asia and should be a strong competitor in years to come.
Summer 2013 Contest - Division 9 - 4 Seed
- Division 9 Round 1 --- 2nd place, 11181 [38.42%] - (15) Donkey Kong, 13316 [45.76%] - (24) Falco Lombardi, 4604 [15.82%]
There was a lot of talk that Lightning would be weaker than her 2010 self despite actually having a game released. The major thing was that Final Fantasy XIII relatively did not live up to its hype. Also over the past few years people have become increasingly upset with the way Square is being run and they tend to take out their frustration on Lightning. The board thought Lightning was lucky being given two Nintendo opponents which should have no doubt LFF each other to death. Turns out LFF was not enough to keep Donkey Kong from winning as he took the match with ease. Makes you wonder how bad he would have won had Falco not been in the match.
Fall 2018 Contest - Division 1 - 9 Seed
- Division 1 Round 1 --- Beat (8) Chloe Price, 19589 [74.19%] - 6814 [25.81%]
- Division 1 Round 2 --- Lost to (1) Dante , 9787 [34.38%] - 18682 [65.62%]
While Lightning continues to be emblematic of fans' frustration with Square, there was little doubt that she'd pick up her first win in this contest once the bracket was released, as she was up against a character both niche and hated by much of her game's fandom. Still, few predicted that she'd flirt with a tripling afterwards.