| Japanese name: |
エクレール・ファロン |
| Nickname: |
Eclair, Light |
The main protagonist of the video game Final Fantasy XIII. She was created by Motomu Toriyama, the game's director and scenario writer, and designed by Tetsuya Nomura.
Born as Claire Farron, or Éclair Farron (エクレール・ファロン Ekurēru Faron) in the original Japanese language version, she began using her code name of "Lightning" after losing her parents to escape the vulnerabilities and insecurities of her former self and in order to become a different person -- strong enough to care for her young sister Serah. However, this choice only causes rising tensions between them as she grew up to have a rather cold personality that has a tendency to look down upon others including comrades at most times during the start of the adventure.
Concept and creationDirector Motomu Toriyama wanted Lightning to be a new type of female character, with an athlete's body and a less feminine nature than some of the previous female characters of Final Fantasy.His guideline to character designer Tetsuya Nomura was to make her "strong and beautiful", "someone like a female version of Cloud from FFVII". Multiple designs were considered for her, including some designed by other staff members. Some of her original characteristics were blonde hair and Asian-looking features. Nomura defines Lightning as "serious", "unforgiving", "relentless" and "a kind of individualistic person", in direct contrast with Snow Villiers' passionate nature. The final art was made less Asian-looking than originally conceived, while the silver hair color was given to Hope Estheim in favor of a pinker color.She was born on May 13 and is 21 years old in the game. Her pink hair color was made to reflect this more feminine side of her. Although Nomura explained that she is essentially a "cool character" and that "you can't have a cool character without anything inappropriate, it was also stated that Lightning's cool aspect was transferred to Oerba Yun Fang when the latter character's design changed from being a male character to a female. The game's producer Yoshinori Kitase also commented on the difficulty of balancing Lightning's depiction, as she is both a woman and a professionally trained warrior, and also noted that Maaya Sakamoto's acting helped bring out Lightning's feminity.
While her real name, Claire, is not related to the weather or skies, which is a common tradition of naming Final Fantasy protagonists when Tetsuya Nomura is the character designer, her alias of "Lightning" does continue this tradition. The name was not chosen by Nomura, who was surprised by it, as he was thinking about stopping this naming tradition. Eclair, the romanization of her Japanese name, is French for "lightning." According to Toriyama, there is "a strong element of mystery about her character". Lightning was voiced by Ali Hillis in English and by Maaya Sakamoto in Japanese.
Battle skillsLightning's weapon is a Blazefire Saber, known as Blaze Edge (ブレイズエッジ Bureizu Ejji) in the Japanese version, a fictional cross between a gun and a sword used by experimented soldiers. It has sometimes been called a gunblade by the gaming press in reference to the weapon which appeared in Final Fantasy VIII, although the Blaze Edge is able to shoot bullets from a distance, unlike the other weapon. Early in development, Lightning also had a Gravity Bomb device at her disposal, which could be used to generate an electrical shield in battle or manipulate time and gravity.
Early in the game, and like the other playable characters, Lightning becomes a l'Cie, a being magically marked by the god-like "fal'Cie" creatures to do their bidding. Lightning's mark appears in the middle of her chest so it is always covered within the game; it grants her superhuman strength as well as a rose-shaped crystal which she can use to summon the Eidolon Odin. In battle, Lightning can command Odin to turn into a horse-like creature that she mounts, taking up his double-bladed sword for a short amount of time. Her strongest unique special attack is called Army of One, or Scene Drive in Japanese version.
Final Fantasy XIIIWhen the train carrying the Purge exiles crosses through the Hanging Edge area of Cocoon at the start of the game, Lightning fights her way through the cars with Sazh rallying the Purgees to derail it as PSICOM sends its forces after the train. As the surviving Purgees escape and are found by NORA, Lightning presses forward to Anima and to save her sister. Joined by Snow, along with Hope and Vanille, two of the surviving exiles, Lightning finds Serah, who turns to crystal in front of her. Desperate for the crystallization, Lightning attacks Anima with Snow and Sazh's aid, and is marked as a l'Cie as PSICOM destroys the Vestige. They awake in Lake Bresha; frozen solid as a result of Anima's death. The party leaves Snow behind in a fruitless attempt to break Serah out of her crystal stasis and they try to find a way out of the crystalized lake. Soon after, the party separates following a breif ambush. Afterwards, she trains Hope to fight against the Sanctum.
During the course of the game, Lightning struggles to deal with her nature as a l'Cie while eventually realizing that she had hated herself for distrusting her sister acknowledging Snow's relationship with Serah as a result. She refuses to follow her Focus and kills Orphan. Lightning is allowed to continue her life as a human with a new Focus and ends the game reuniting with her sister and reconciling with her as a result.
Seiyuu: Maaya Sakamoto
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