Characters / Final Fantasy XIII - Lightning

Main Party (Lightning) | Final Fantasy XIII | Final Fantasy XIII-2 | Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Eclair/Claire "Lightning" Farron

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese), Ali Hillis (English)

"It's not a question of can or can't. There are some things in life you just do."

The main character of Final Fantasy XIII. A former Sergeant of Cocoon's Guardian Corps who resigned so she could be free to rescue her beloved sister Serah from the clutches of the Pulse fal'Cie. Her weapon is a transforming gunblade called the Blazefire Saber. Her Eidolon is Odin.

She changed her name to "Lightning" after the death of her parents as part of an effort to change herself into a stronger, more confident person capable of protecting both herself and her little sister. While her new Stoic personality was perfect for the Guardian Corps, she ended up developing a Married to the Job Ice Queen persona that hindered her relationship with Serah and distanced herself from her.

The first game centers around the defrosting of this persona as she is forced to confront her failings as a caretaker and as a sister.

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General tropes and those present in Final Fantasy XIII

• Action Heroine: Throughout the games she takes down countless Mooks and destroys armies, aircrafts, and trains, all with quite some grace.
• Affectionate Nickname: In the Japanese dialogue, Snow calls her "nee-san" ("big sis") - as in "sister-in-law." Lightning dislikes this immensely.
  • While she did tell Hope to call her "Light" instead of him coming up with it himself it still counts since it indicates that she's warming up to him. Later, many of her friends, including Snow, refer to Lightning as "Light".
• Aloof Big Sister: She's very protective of Serah, but she concentrates so much on shielding her from physical harm that she neglects areas like friendliness or affection.
• Anti-Hero: Starts as an Unscrupulous Hero, very briefly dabbles in being a Nominal Hero after her Berserk Button is smashed into oblivion, and transitions into a Pragmatic Hero about halfway through when she regains her senses and undergoes Character Development.
• Badass Cape: The red cape dangling off her left shoulder is implied to not be Guardian Corps standard. Fortunately, she's fired during peaceful times that mean it's acceptable wear.
• Badass Normal: Look at the first cutscene, which is before she becomes a l'Cie. She takes on robots, monsters and Anima casually.
• Berserk Button: With Snow only, she doesn't take kindly to him calling her "Sis". Mostly because she doesn't approve of him at first (and also because it's not technically true until the wedding).
• BFS: In Gestalt mode, Lightning gets use of Odin's utterly monstrous sword Zantetsuken.
• Bifauxnen:
  • Not in-game, but in a cross-promotion. She appeared in Japanese men's fashion magazine Arena Homme Plus modeling Prada's mens' summer collection.
  • A few costumes in the third game put her in suits, putting this trope into full effect.
• Big Good: She is arguably this of the entire FF XIII trilogy despite her character flaws. In XIII She leads the party to stop Barthandelus and Orphan from destroying cocoon and it’s inhabitants, In XIII-2 She becomes the chosen champion of the goddess Etro to stop Caius Ballad from killing the goddess and in Lightning Returns she becomes the savior of the world by saving souls and bringing them to the new world, she even stops the God of light Bhunivelze from controlling the humans of the new world and turning them into his emotionless puppets.
• Big Sister Instinct: For all of her faults, she's quite protective of Serah.
• Big Sister Mentor: She acts as one for Hope and teaches him how to survive in the wild.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Serah and Snow broke the news that Serah had become a l'Cie and accepted Snow's marriage proposal to Lightning during her birthday party. Lightning dismissed their story and forced Snow and Serah to leave her home, openly declaring it to be the "worst birthday ever." Unfortunately, by the Lightning realized that Serah was telling her the truth, it was too late: the Purge of Bodhum had begun, and Serah had been taken captive by the fal'Cie that branded her.
• Blade Brake: Thrown in an uncontrolled manner by a massive Behemoth? No problem for Lightning. She'll just slam her gunblade into the ground with a single arm while flipping backwards and then proceed to steady herself quickly enough to pull off a badass pose seconds later before engaging in battle.
• Broken Bird: Lightning's opinion about her moniker at the start of the game is that it reflects how destructive "Lightning" has been in regards her relationship with her sister, Serah.
• By-the-Book Cop: One of the reasons she had such a problem with Snow was because she saw him as a jobless law-breaking thug.
• Character Focus: Final Fantasy XIII only came out at the end of 2009, but Lightning has made several appearances in other media. She's not only appeared in several spin-offs, but her outfit appears as a promotional bonus outfit for The 3rd Birthday and Final Fantasy XIV, she's the leader of the new heroes in Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, and she appears in the "Long Live Play" commercials for the Playstation 3. About the only domain left is a Kingdom Hearts showing.
• Combat Parkour: She's very acrobatic in cutscenes (back-flipping, leap-frogging over people, hopping from airship to airship during Chapter 12, etc.) as well as during combat (Army of One is full of flips and other feats and her normal combo has her backflipping while firing her gunblade).
• Cool Big Sis:
  • Serah's. Along with the overprotectiveness, strength, and lack of social grace normally given to big brothers. Heck, Snow calls her "Nee-san"! (Although in his case it is a reference to her being his (future) sister-in-law.)
  • To Hope, she's either this or a Parental Substitute.
  • Sazh refers to her as 'nee-chan' once in a while, though in his case it's less straightforward. The only time he actually says it to Lightning's face is when they've just met and he doesn't know her name — in Japan, addressing strangers as sister/aunt/grandmother depending on their age is pretty common. The rest of the time, he's talking to the others about her, which can be seen as Sazh encouraging them to think of Lightning as such.

• Custom Uniform: Her outfit is based on the standard Guardian Corps female variant◊, but with different colors, Fashionable Asymmetry, and a cape. The flavor text of the outfit in Lightning Returns calls it "Acceptable wear in times of peace", implying that if she were on the front lines, she'd probably be wearing something a bit more standardized.
• Custom Uniform of Sexy: Lightning's variation of the Guardian Corps uniform only has one pauldron, is sleeveless fingerless gloves, Modesty Shorts instead of pantyhose and no Commissar Cap.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has quite a dry wit, which feeds into her overall stoic personality.
• Declaration of Protection: makes a mutual one with Hope during Chapter 7, after he decided to abandon Operation Nora.
  Lightning: (hugging him) You'll be okay. I'll keep you safe.
  Hope: Lightning. I- me too. I mean, at least I'll try. I'll try to watch out for you, too.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: At the start she spurns everyone, especially her future brother-in-law. By Chapter 10, she advocates True Companions.
• Despair Event Horizon: Was about to cross it after Serah crystalized and Hope clung to her for help she couldn't provide, then Odin teleported to the area and smacked it out of her.
• Determinator: Her motto for living can be boiled down to: keep moving no matter what.
• Dub Name Change: Her real name, Eclair, was changed to Claire. Eclair is French for "lightning", but in English-speaking countries its better known for being a type of pastry (the name of which also derives from the French word for lightning).
• Dual Wielding: Guns Akimbo in the opening scene, and when mounted on Odin, she dual wields BFSs.
• Effortless Amazonian Lift: Easily carries around the unconscious Serah at the beginning of the game, looking rather protective.
• Elemental Powers: As a Ravager she can use them, specialising in lightning magic.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: Her brand is on top of her left breast where her heart is, hidden under her shirt. You never actually get to see it until Aya Brea wears her costume in The 3rd Birthday.
• Expy: Character designer Tetsuya Nomura stated she was created as a "female Cloud." Along with their similar facial structures and brusque initial personalities, they're both former military soldiers that have gone rogue and joined with the resistance.
• Fair Cop: She was a Sergeant of the Guardian Corps, and is quite beautiful.
• Flower Motifs: Roses turn up a lot with her; both beautiful and thorny.
• Good Is Not Nice: While she shows a large capacity for kindness and caring, she also tends to be strict (according to Serah in XIII-2), harsh (seen with Hope as she scolds and reprimands him for showing emotion upon coming across slaughtered soldiers), and generally only hands out accolades when she feels morale is low or when someone meets her high standards. However, some of her more harsh tendencies stem from the fact that the entire world and the God-like beings that run it are out to kill her and her companions as well as the fact that she and her companions are ticking time-bombs. In this scenario, you either learn how to survive quickly or you end up dead just as fast.
• Guilt Complex: She blames herself for not being around enough for Serah and she wholeheartedly believes that she failed to raise Serah; she has some serious Parting-Words Regret over the birthday incident; she comes to deeply regret accidentally putting Hope on the path to reckless revenge; in XIII-2 she blames herself for everything that has gone wrong, even though she is actively trying to protect the timeline and caused none of it to happen; the list goes on.
• Guns Akimbo: Pulls this off during the opening of XIII.
• Gun Fu: Acrobatics with with a gun.
• The Gunslinger: The woman has some Improbable Aiming Skills in cutscenes. In battle, the end of a normal combo has her shoot at the enemy. While backflipping.
• Heroic BSoD: She goes into a brief one when Serah gets captured by the fal'Cie and the Purge is about to begin.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: The further and further you get into the narrative of "The Lightning Saga", the more and more you'll discover that it doesn't matter what she does or accomplishes, Lightning will always find a way to cast herself in a negative light or at the very least downplay the whole thing. Taken even further in Lightning Returns, when she consistently claims it's her fault Serah died in XIII-2 because she requested Serah's help. In reality, Serah made her own choice to find Lightning and stop Caius and knew that she was at risk of death because of her ability to see the future.
• The Leader: Defied at first as she wanted nothing to do with the others and tried to abandon Hope. Character development makes her a Type II as she brings Hope and Snow under her wing and has the most military expertise and level-headed decision-making after cooling down.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Especially during XIII-2 where she deflects an entire energy based shockwave and an energy beam from a Chaos Bahumut with her sword.
• Improbable Aiming Skills
  • Fang's Eidolith: a small crystal the shape of a flower petal and the size of the whole bloom. Lightning's position: twenty meters away from Fang, who just flung said Eidolith into the sky. Party's current situation: falling at terminal velocity. Shots fired: one. Dragons summoned: one.
  • Even her normal combo qualifies, considering the gunshot finisher is performed amidst a backflip.
• Intimate Marks: While never shown on-screen in XIII proper, The 3rd Birthday allows Aya to wear Lightning's outfit (in turn, Lightning is able to don Aya's attire in Dissidia 012; this is because, in Japanese, they're both voiced by Maaya Sakamoto). Clothing Damage reveals that Lightning's l'Cie brand is located on the upper-left side of her chest, just above her breasts.
• Jack of All Stats: If fully developed, she has the second-best Strength and ties for second in Magic with Vanille. She also has the second-lowest overall HP, but learns Sentinel skills that allow her to dramatically increase her evasion to physical attacks, so she can step into any role easily. Even as a Synergist she has excellent offensive spells and her Saboteur skills are Boring Yet Practical. She's also easily the fastest party member.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Cold, distant, and extremely snarky to even those closest to her. However, she really does care deeply for them as she willingly joins The Purge to save Serah, is ready to sacrifice herself for Hope without a second thought, and feels so torn about Fang and Vanille's sacrifice that she immediately sets out to find a way to save them. She'll also generally try to do the right thing.
• Knight in Sour Armor: She believes in doing what's right, which is not to say she's not incredibly bitter about just about everything.
• Lady of War: Cool and collected while taking down enemies with graceful twirls and a gunblade. The clothes she wears are relatively simple, yet radiate style.
• Magic Knight: Equally skilled in sword melee and magic, and knows all four -strike moves.
• Mama Bear: For Serah (the director stated Lightning has both maternal and sisterly feelings toward Serah, so it works both ways) and Hope. For Serah, she willingly volunteers to be "Purged"; proceeds to hijack a Purge train, taking out all the soldiers on board; plows through several more platoons of soldiers/monsters on her way; then proceeds to hijack a military barge to infiltrate the Pulse Vestige where she then fights off the monsters within; and then decides to take matters straight to the God-like fal'Cie all within the first two hours of the game. And for Hope? "Start running, I'll keep em' busy. You survive!". Luckily Fang and Snow showed up just in time.
• Master Swordsman: Episode One states that only the best get to handle Gunblades.
• Married to the Job: Her dedication to the Guardian Corps is a possible reason she has no canon love interests.
• Meaningful Name: She changed her name to Lightning when her parents died to be a stronger person for Serah, but ended up alienating her and ruining their relationship. Lightning comments to Hope on this "Lightning. It flashes bright, then fades away. It can't protect. It only destroys." It is implied that Serah doesn't see it this way at all as not only does she refer to Lightning as "oneechan" in the Japanese version on a regular basis, she also hints that she saw Lightning as a role model/mentor in XIII-2 and never once gives any hint of resentment towards her elder sibling.
• The Medic: She majors in the Medic role, but is far less capable at it compared to Hope and Vanille due to her slow initial casting speed, and being unable to obtain the Curase and Curaja spells.
• Modesty Shorts: She wears black bike shorts under her miniskirts.
• Morality Pet: Serah and Hope demonstrate the heart of gold inside the jerk.
• More Dakka: During battles where melee is out of the question (the airship fight in Chapter 7 of XIII, and several other bosses in XII-2), Lightning will instead fire with her weapon in gun mode, showing a surprisingly high rate of fire in so doing.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Has no problem doing flips, backflips, high jumps, and impressive feats of swordplay despite possessing tiny twig limbs, even before she becomes a l'Cie.
• The Musketeer: When she isn't deflecting energy waves, cutting through an entire security fleet, and taking on 10 ton robotic scorpions and winning with her sword, she is shooting objects that are only a few inches in diameter, at a distance of several hundred feet while falling at terminal velocity, and only taking a second to line up the shot... without sights while upside down.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Lightning has one of these moments when she learns that Serah has been captured moments after forcing her out their home for expecting her to believe her story about becoming a l'Cie.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Serah is not marrying anybody if she has anything to say about it, and definitely not Snow!
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Lightning!
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lightning's dismissal of Serah's story about becoming a l'Cie leads to her running away from their home and getting captured.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • During the time when Hope wanted revenge against Snow, Lightning remarks how similar he is to her.
  • Noel certainly thinks Serah and Lightning are not that different from each other when they are angry after seeing her switch from being stern and focused to soft-spoken very quickly.
• Not So Stoic: Her outbursts to Snow and her demeanor just before her confrontation with Odin. She also didn't take too kindly to Cid Raines' treachery.
• One-Woman Army: Lampshaded; her signature skill is called Army of One. It's taken further in the sequel: her Limit Break is named Legion of One.
• Parental Substitute: To Hope during the time she takes him under her wing.
• Parting-Words Regret: In their last conversation, Lightning lectured Serah for expecting her to believe her story about becoming a l'Cie and forced her to leave. The next time they see each other, Serah crystallizes in Lightning's arms before the latter can actually apologize. She even tells Snow about what she had done to Serah while at Hope's home.
  Lightning: Serah... I should have listened to you.
• Perpetual Frowner: Variety 3: You can count on a single hand the amount of times Lightning truly smiled in XIII. Otherwise, her default expression is one of focus and alertness with a healthy amount of seriousness being conveyed. She smiles more frequently (or at least, more noticeably) in the Japanese version of the game. Either something got lost during the lip-synch editing for the English dialogue or it may have been an intentional decision to try and portray her as a more stoic character for Western appeal.

• Promotion to Parent: Once legally for Serah, once metaphorically for Hope.
• The Protagonist: It's her story, though the fragmented nature early on makes this difficult to see.
• Resentful Guardian: For Hope at first, as she considers him a burden and annoyance though she later becomes a Parental Substitute.
• Red Mage: In the most traditional sense, her three major classes are Commando, Medic, and Ravager (considered the party's best, in fact), as well as having nigh equal magic and attack growths from both leveling and weapons, giving her all of a traditional Red Mage's abilities. Apparently she was built for the role.
• Sergeant Rock: This was her rank in the Guardian Corps, pre-game, and she definitely has the harsh rock personality type.
• She-Fu: Lightning's fighting style involves much gymnastics with her sword and gun.
• Shock and Awe: Her magic specialty is (of course) the thunder line of spells.

• Speak Friend and Enter: In one of the early cutscenes, she pounds on a door that looks like a l'Cie Brand, and then apologizes and asks the door (or the fal'Cie controlling the door) nicely to open, which works. It is explained in Episode Zero that this door turns away those who are evil:
  “This door is a door of trials. It will turn away those who hold evil in their hearts, and lead on those who hold the holy spirit.” The girl with the eyes of an adult knelt before the door, and prayed. The girl with the eyes of a child followed suit. The symbol on the door glowed red, and the door opened.
• Spin Attack: Her Blitz skill is one of these.
• Stepford Snarker: Sarcasm is definitely part of her personality. However, as she develops, it is revealed that some of her more jerk ass comments come from her own insecurities, feelings of guilt, and anger at the situation she has found herself in. She even apologizes to Snow later on in XIII for the numerous comments and healthy amount of disdain she showed him and immediately apologizes to Hope after making some of her harshest comments.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: She quit a minute or two before she boarded the train in the opening, and didn't have time to change.
• The Stoic: She's very cold and standoffish, distancing herself from the others until she's defrosted.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Read Final Fantasy: Episode Zero. Oh, Lightning, you were never fooling anyone.
• Summon Magic: Lightning's Eidolon, Odin, who in this game is a Knight in Shining Armor instead of the Black Knight he is in previous games.
  "Odin... Cut us a path!"
• Super-Reflexes: While in Sentinel mode, she can use Elude which gives her a 50% chance of dodging an enemy attack. Wearing the Nimbletoe Boots she becomes almost untouchable against physical attacks.
• Super-Toughness: Becoming a l'Cie does this to a person as she takes a lot of hits. Taken much further in the sequel as Lightning is first slammed by a chunk of meteor, then smashed by the full force of a Chaos Bahumut punch, then takes an entire meteor to the face... and seems none the worse for wear because of it.
• Swiss-Army Weapon: Her gunblade (unlike Squall's) is a weapon which can shift between its sword form to a submachine gun instead of being a bullet-powered Vibro Weapon.
• Sword and Sorcerer: Is the sword to Hope's sorcerer in Chapters 3, 5, and 7 when they're an Action Duo.
• Third-Person Seductress:
  • A beautiful aversion in her base-game and related appearances. She's attractive but is not played for fanservice nor is her outfit particularly revealing, especially in comparison to Vanille and Fang.
  • Played with in Lightning Returns, where she can don either more revealing outfits and show off her Jiggle Physics, or wear outfits that are even more modest than her original.
• This Is My Name on Foreign: In Japanese, her new name of "Lightning" is simply the English version of her original name of "Eclair" (French for "lightning"). Averted in international releases, which change her original name to "Claire", a name which has never meant "lightning" in any language, though the etymology is vaguely related.
• Transhuman: In XIII she goes from a Human to a l'Cie. After XIII she goes from a l'Cie to a human possessing the magic of a l'Cie (according to "The Fragments After"). Just before the events of XIII-2, she goes from a human possessing the magic of a l'Cie to merging with the Goddess Etro and being called a "Warrior Goddess" at one point and having the manual state she's "something more than human... almost a Goddess herself". During Lightning Returns, she will now serve as "The Soul Liberator" and has been said to be even more powerful than before. By the end of Lightning Returns, she has been considered something of a God or somewhere close to it.
• Troubled, but Cute: She's a beautiful soldier who was forced to become the head of her house at a young age following her parents' death, and fought long and hard in order support and protect her younger sister, Serah. She puts up a cold, stern mask to hide her vulnerability, but in doing so estranges her from her sister.
• What You Are in the Dark: Due to her frustration of believing he is slowing her down on her quest, she considered leaving Hope behind for dead when Odin is summoned to kill him. It's a good thing she came around to save him and apologized for her earlier rant which led up to her summon targeting him.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Plans on pulling this for a couple of chapters. She snaps out of it.
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: She calls her 21st birthday the "worst birthday ever".

Tropes present only in XIII-2

In XIII-2, Lightning has gone missing and is assumed dead by all but her sister Serah. The reality is that she has been whisked to the timeless plane of Valhalla, where she has ascended to become the protector to none other than the Goddess Etro.

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• A God I Am Not: During the Bahamut vs. Bahamut battle, Noel asks if she's the goddess in Valhalla. Lightning's response is a gentle, but firm "I never said I was a goddess."
• Air Jousting: With Caius during the opening.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: She has been pulled to the world of Valhalla (A.K.A. Land of the Dead) to protect Goddess Etro's temple.
• Be All My Sins Remembered: Lightning considers her entire situation in Final Fantasy XIII-2 as something she deserves and feels that it will serve as her way to atone for all of her past sins.
• Being Good Sucks: Caius even tells her in The Fragments After that she could live out her life with her friends and family in happiness without anything bad happening until hundreds of years later. However, she couldn't live with herself and knows that she could never face her loved ones by making such a choice, so instead She goes though endless 900 year loops fighting each and every day of her life in an unending, ultimately lost war.
• The Beastmaster: The game's introduction shows her as The Leader of an army of monsters.
• Big Good: As The Champion for the benevolent deity in this story, she is the highest authority, the ones Serah looks up to, and the only one that can truly match Cauis in battle.
• Blade Lock: With Caius in their battles because they are equally matched.
• Chainmail Bikini: Downplayed, but her Knight of Etro armour is designed to offer protection without affecting her acrobatic ability. This means a chestplate, gauntlets, greaves, and pauldrons, but exposed joints and no codpiece (the feathery sash helps cover up a bit more).
• Cool Horse: Odin, of course, though he only appears in the prologue.
• Cool Sword: The one she has in the first game is upgraded by Etro along with her armor.
• Decoy Protagonist: Though she has a short DLC episode in the form of "Requiem of the Goddess" to explain her side of the story a bit more, this game is very much about Serah.
• Demoted to Extra: She has a scene in the prologue, provides narration at the start of most chapters, and gets a brief meeting with Serah in New Bodhum 700 AF, but otherwise she has no screen time outside of her DLC episode.
• Disc-One Nuke: In her Knight of Etro armour, Lightning is a Commando with stats at level 1 comparable to Twilight Odin's stats at level 90. The only thing standing between the player and the complete Ruinga of the difficulty curve is a spoiler alert.
• Feather Motif: Her costume and her gunblade summoning now involve copious amounts of feathers. Word of God confirms that this symbolizes a connection to the divine.
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: As part of her new Etro's Champion armor.
• Futile Hand Reach: To Serah during the Requiem of the Goddess DLC.
• Gravity Master: One of the quick time events during the opening allows for Lightning to use the Graviga spell... which causes all of the surrounding sheets of metal and scrap to collapse in on Caius, crushing him. He doesn't die. This is considered the less favorable outcome compared to the Ruinga option.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Lightning is crystallized in the ending in order to protect Serah's will, according to Word of God.
• Heroic Vow: "I made my choice. I will fight... I will never give up" This entails fighting an unwinnable battle for countless 900 year loops in which she remembers each one; leading army after army into battle; protecting every single last human across all the timelines, in every point in history; and essentially chains her to a life of death, sorrow, and hardship on top of precluding her from ever being with those she loves and cares about... heroic indeed.
• Hero of Another Story: The fragments hint at many adventures in Valhalla and imply that she built the army seen in the prologue by fighting every single monster composing it.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Calls her new gunblade from thin air.
• Irony: Clearing the DLC earns Lightning as a Paradigm Pack ally; one of her victory quotes if she gets the last kill is "I hope I did my part." Except that the difficulty of her DLC is independent of the difficulty of the main game, and Lightning is on par with most of the allies one can get at the Coliseum. If one ignores the spoiler warning and beats Requiem of the Goddess as soon as they have access to the Historia Crux, Lightning is a Disc-One Nuke that will slaughter everything.
• Legally Dead: Believed dead or crystal by everyone but Serah because of changes in the timeline. Snow and Hope eventually realize that's not the case.

• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Another upgrade from Etro; she carries a shield for defense.
• Mounted Combat: She can fight mounted on Odin and Bahamut.
• Narrator She has a monologue at the start of each chapter, and sometimes at the end.
• No-Sell: In the Requiem of the Goddess DLC, the Knight paradigm gives her the ability Immortality. Under its active protection, Lightning will block every attack that Caius/Chaos Bahamut can use and takes no damage.
• Not Quite Human: The booklet states, “…she is something beyond human, almost a goddess herself.”
• The Paladin: A knight charged with protection of the goddess Etro and her shrine.
• Pet the Dog: For Mog. Mog is known as the weakest being of all the void and has lost every fight he has ever been in. After he ended up in Valhalla... he didn't fair much better as Odin goes as far as to refuse to follow the most basic understanding in Valhalla (i.e. the weak serve the stong) since Mog was so weak and leaves him behind. Despite not wanting to fight a creature obviously so weak, she can't bring herself to humiliate him and "fights" him. After winning, rather than leaving him behind as Mog expects, she takes him in and takes care of him.
• Showgirl Skirt: It's made of Fluffy Fashion Feathers. It's an odd case because her legs are covered by greaves.
• Summon Magic: She can summon her own versions of Bahamut and Shiva now, as well as command positively massive amounts of monsters.
• Summon to Hand: Surprisingly averted. Despite her new gunblade having a Keyblade-esque dismissal and invocation, she can only use it as an alternative to carrying it around in a holster. When it gets knocked out of her hands during the opening, she has to dismount Odin and go fetch it.
• Sword Pointing: To Caius in Requiem of the Goddess.
• Taken for Granite: Happens to her in the default ending and by her own decision. In one of the fragments you can find, it says she knew she couldn't avoid this fate, so she acknowledged her defeat and crystallized, with one wish in her heart. It was revealed in an interview that her wish is to protect Serah's will. Referring to protecting the future since her crystallization is the only thing keeping the world from being completely lost.
• Transformation Sequence: How she got into all that fancy armor. It looks like a less-flashy version of a Magical Girl's transformation, complete with nudity.
• Valkyries: Certainly in terms of design and considering Valhalla is considered the "Land of the Dead" it makes sense in terms of theme.
• Vocal Evolution: Compared to the first game, Ali Hillis' Lightning is a bit deeper and raspier here, a shift that continued into the next game and Lightning's appearances in other titles.
• Wolverine Publicity: She's the one on the box-art and the logo but The Hero of XIII-2 is really her sister Serah. The game trilogy as a whole is now the "Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Saga" (Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII) and an entire event was planned during the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy to announce the third of those, also known as "...the next Lightning game...".

Tropes present only in Lightning Returns

After the events of XIII-2, she crystallized herself for five hundred years so she would come back again in a later and more proper time. Now, she has to save the world from Chaos. She is the only playable character in the game.

Her personality has changed a bit from the first two games. She now is more emotionless and distant, but she still has a kind and good heart deep within her which slowly resurfaces as she does good and heroic deeds.

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• All-Loving Hero: Her task has ultimately changed her into this. She tries to help everyone and bring the best out of everyone she meets.
• Ambiguously Human: Lightning is unsure whether she's still human after her crystallization. In addition, she states numerous times that at points where she should feel something, she isn't, and doesn't really care. Even a vision of Serah didn't get emotion out of her, she noted, and is justifiably worried. The truth zigzags this trope — she's become powerful enough to be considered a goddess in her own right, but the real reason her emotions are dampened is because Bhunivelze extracted part of her soul when he made her the Savior.
• Apocalypse Maiden: The Children of Etro view her as the harbinger of the impending apocalypse.
• Armor Is Useless: Subverted; her outfits range from showy fabric to plate mail; her default Equilibrium outfit would properly be considered "leather armour". How much damage she takes without guarding is dependent on her equipment abilities, not the design of her ensemble. How much damage she takes while guarding is dependent on her shield and ability stats.
• Badass Boast: She doesn't think much of Noel's attempt to challenge her.
  Bring It on, Noel. I've been fighting destiny for a long time now, and I'm getting good at it.
  • Another example is Bhunivelze's challenge.
  "I'll become a Goddess of death, all right. But not the one you want. I'll be the Goddess who kills you!"
• Badass Longcoat: While what she wears in her default "Savior of the World" outfit can't actually be called a coat or a Badass Long Robe, it's clearly designed to invoke the imagery of one. Some of her other outfits have the more traditional longcoat or robe.
• Broken Bird: In an interview, Yuji Abe and Motomu Toriyama state that Lightning is less rough and stoic than previous games due to her Guilt Complex finally catching up to her, and that some players might interpret that as her being more feminine.
• Cool Shades: She wears these in the opening, and can later obtain them as an adornment, in addition to some other ones. It's nighttime when she wears them in the opening, and she can wear them at nighttime as well.
• The Chosen One: She is the Savior chosen by God (I.E. Bhunivelze) to appear at the end of the world to save the souls of humanity.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She reveals in the "Stolen Things" sidequest that she always despised how people pitied her for being an orphan when she was young, so she walled away her emotions and worked to become The Stoic.
• Dude Magnet: She gets a lot of compliments from guys she meets about her looks throughout her quest. One even goes so far to ask her out on a date, which the player has an option to agree or not.
• Emotionless Girl: Lightning suspects God removed her emotions and Hope's to better go about their mission.
• Even the Girls Want Her: If she's wearing one of the "suit" style garbs, passing by some women can cause them to remark "He's a cutie!" Other outfits like her Sphere Hunter outfit go right into the trope with women complimenting her legs and saying, "Sexy!" as she runs by.
• Fanservice Pack: Square Enix increased the size of Lightning's breasts for this game since there would be outfits in that would show off more of her body than what players were used to seeing from her.
• Futile Hand Reach: During the last day, she grabs for Hope's hand...and hers goes right through his as he starts to Disappear Into Light.
• Hates Being Touched: After her reunion with Mog, Lightning gives this reason as to why she flicked him away instead of letting him hug her.
  Lightning: "I couldn't help it. I just reacted out of instinct. I don't go in for people hugging me. Or moogles. Even if I'm glad to see them."
• The Heroine: While her main motive for helping God save the souls' of humans is to save Serah, she still generally displays quite a lot of heroism throughout her quest, moreso than she ever has before - from helping anyone in need to encouraging anyone having a difficult time, and even making occasional quotes in battle such as "I fight to give people hope!" and "Evil has a price!". Fairly justified in that doing so helps her power grow. By the end of the game, she's undoubtedly a true heroine, risking everything to face the most powerful evil God in the universe to give all people a chance in the new world. Ultimately, she has ascended from being an anti-heroine from the first game into a true heroine.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: She's originally accused as being an evil savior by everyone when she first starts her quest in Luxerion, and Noel tries to kill her. Her heroic actions later change his and the others' mind.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: She clearly wants to do the right things and help others deep down, even if she claims to only be doing it for her sister. Proven for certain at the end, as she risks everything to kill the evil God Bhunivelze who only wants to let people whom he deems worthy live in his new world and kill the rest, and take his place as a new Goddess whom will allow a new world for everyone.
• High-Class Gloves: Some of her formal outfits include these such as the Midnight Mauve which is required for the Song of the Savior play and a pity date with a guy at a high scale restaurant called "Banquet of the Lord".
• Hotter and Sexier: Zigzagged. On the one hand some of her outfits are very skimpy and revealing with skirts, midriff-baring tops, and bikinis. On the other hand she can also wear more conservative and reasonable outfits that cover even more than her previous outfits.
• IKEA Weaponry: Her default Night Lotus shield neatly condenses when out of use and expands for combat, though this only appears in the opening cutscene.
• Invincible Hero: It doesn't matter if you throw a gigantic monster at her that had already killed a bunch of extremely strong warriors (which is actually a mission in Luxerion), or even the most powerful being in the universe (Bhunivelze); she'll take them all down all by herself. This is the case even against monsters that she previously needed teammates to beat. Bhunivelze himself was grooming her to take the place of Etro, a goddess, so her power in that regard is understandable.
• Jiggle Physics: In some of her outfits, mainly ones with bikini tops, to go along with her increased breast size.
• Leotard of Power: Her default outfit as The Savior is leotard. Bhunivelze must have favored unrestricted movement when he designed it.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Lightning is constantly wearing a shield in this game to protect herself from attacks. If she guards with perfect timing, she won't take any damage at all.
• Messianic Archetype: The savior of the world awakened from death to bring innocent souls to a new and better world.
• Ms. Fanservice: Some of her outfits are extremely skimpy and revealing, to an almost absurd degree, specifically the Mist Wizard and Dark Muse garb templates. The X-2 Yuna cosplay garb and the Miqo'te cosplay garb are also notable in this regard, but there's plenty more as well, some even being bikini styled. It's also worth noting that most of her sexier outfits (such as Electronia, Witching Hour, Amazon Warrior, Rhapsody in Rose, etc.) have better stats than the other ones, further encouraging players to wear them. Even her default Equilibrium garb boils down to being a leather leotard with thigh-high boots with a cape and skirt pieces trailing behind her.
• Multi-Melee Master: Her weapons are not limited to just different types of swords, she can also wield clubs, fans, axes, staves, Double Weapons and spears.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Downplayed. Weapons classified as greatswords (such as the Buster Sword or Chaos' Revenge) having her wield them one-handed while idling, but putting both hands on the grip when she is actually attacking. That being said, much like the Warrior of Light in Dissidia Final Fantasy, several of her one-handed swords qualify as zweihänders by proportions, but go one-handed in the same game that features the Buster Sword.
• Physical Goddess: By the final battle, she's been groomed by Bhunivelze to become the new Goddess of Death to replace Etro. By the end of the final battle, she actually defeats him with the help of her friends. Although she gives it up in the end when convinced by Lumina and Serah that the new world wouldn't be complete without her.
• Pimped-Out Cape: Some of her garbs, particularly her Equilibrium.
• Power Floats: Her Cosmocrator garb has this.
• Rummage Sale Reject: A few of her Garbs are pretty tatty, Dust and Shadow in particular.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: She is quite gorgeous in the Midnight Mauve garb. Practically said verbatim by Director Sarzhak.

• Shout-Out: She can wear the costumes of Faris, Locke, Cloud, Aerith, Yuna and female Miq'ote.
• Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: Lightning is all over the place with this trope.
  • Her one-handed sword combos invert it, incorporating slashes and thrusts in equal measure; several weapons in this category have flat tips that are obviously not meant for thrusting with, including her starting weapon (which gets cut flat by Lumina in the game's opening).
  • Her rapier combos avert it by Lightning showing what is effectively proper fencing form.
  • Her spear combos play it straight, with Lightning swinging them around to strike people with the shaft.
• Sticks to the Back: Lightning has foregone her visible holster and her Hyperspace Arsenal and instead just has her swords hovering slightly above her back, akin to the MMOs in the series.
• Trademark Favorite Food: A few sidequests relate to food, and Lightning mentions on several occasions she likes steak. Grilled Behemoth steak is also something she's quite good at cooking. Well, she admits to Chef Aryas it's the only thing she's good at cooking.
• Virtual Paper Doll: Lightning will have multiple costume choices as well as adornments for further visual customization.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: The garb design template which includes the Faris costume, the Red Mage costume and a couple men's suits give Lightning this vibe.
• Wrecked Weapon: the Crimson Blitz's tip gets blasted off the sword in the opening cinematic. Unlike most examples of the trope, this doesn't seem to phase Light too much as she continues to use the busted sword. Before the final battle, it can be reforged and upgraded into Ultima Weapon, a.k.a. the series' quintessential Infinity +1 Sword.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Amusingly, considering her own actions, she frequently affirms the futility of fighting fate to her opponents.

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