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luceti2011-12-29 07:59 pm
lucetimods) wrote in luceti2011-12-29 07:59 pm
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Lightning | Final Fantasy XIII-2 | canon update
Name: Anduin
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username:
E-mail: fulminary@gmail.com
Current Characters at Luceti: Lightning (
Character
Name: Lightning
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII-2
Gender: Female
Age: 22; aged from 21 in Luceti... aaaaand has now lived through a repeating loop outside of time for who knows how long.
Time Period: Time shenanigans make things complicated, but. Pre-ending; after she's spoken to Serah and Noel in New Bodhum 700AF; after the incidents that take place in the Vile Peaks.
Wing Color: Left = pure white, right = silver with gold tips on the primaries.
History: Here for canon, though considering this is a canon update, there's her time in Luceti to consider as well. I'll get to that.
Personality
When Lightning's story began, she was for the most part withdrawn, bitter, and distrustful of almost everyone she came in contact with. She was a woman who had lost sight of what was truly important to her, and although once it was taken from her she displayed a very powerful desire to get it back, she also had very little idea how to properly do so. Instead, she just charged forward, taking life as it threw things at her; aside from her sister, she cared little for what most of those around her did with themselves... as long as they didn't get in her way. One of the first things she did in the game, and what she continued doing for some time, was simply shrug off or even attempt to leave behind anyone who was being too slow or otherwise inconvenient in the pursuit of her goals. In addition, although she was clearly agitated towards the murder of innocent civilians during the Purge, in a way they were merely numbers to her, not quite as important as the loss of her sister. Needless to say, her view towards her civilization's way of life and government had turned very resentful immediately following Serah's transformation into a l'Cie.
Of course, this worsened when Serah was actually crystallized... when Lightning became convinced that her sister was gone, and that the only path left to her was one of revenge against the beings who had wronged her so gravely.
However, although Lightning may have tried her best to put up a tough façade, there was always that more fragile, insecure aspect to her as well - seen only briefly in flashbacks, and studiously hidden during the main storyline until moments of self-development. The truth is, Lightning's personality was in itself a construct created to protect herself and her sister after their parents' deaths, yet a good part of what makes her ultimately stronger is the change in outlook she undergoes over the first game's storyline- the release of that stiff front she'd built, the release of her grudges and anger and defensiveness, and truly becoming what she needed to be, rather than what she thought she needed to be.
Over time, the tenseness that constantly colored most of her early interactions with others began to fade. She started to see parts of herself and her troubles in her companions, and as they spent more time together, her view of the world and her purpose finally began to clarify. Her leadership switched from an aloof, overly forceful and blunt demeanor that the others really only followed reluctantly, to one that is more based on compassion and a solid foundation of better understanding their ultimate goals and duty. This becomes especially clear in the change in her behavior towards Hope, her apology towards Snow, and finally later when Fang's Eidolon attacks the group inside the Ark: rather than grow agitated like she might have earlier on, Lightning simply stood up for and calmly reached out to the rebellious woman, appealing that it was more beneficial to fight with them and towards their goal of freedom — for themselves and the citizens of Cocoon. By the end of the game, Lightning has accepted her responsibility in rescuing Cocoon's people from a dark fate no matter what it takes, to defy the purpose of their Focus and accomplish the impossible. Her hope that they would find a solution to their time quickly running out, find a way to save Cocoon, would see Serah again was entirely unbreakable.
Of course, she continues to change following the Pulse l'Cie's success in simultaneously saving and "destroying" Cocoon as it was under the Sanctum fal'Cie rule; although she can still be quite blunt and reticent at times, especially to those she doesn't know well or flat-out dislikes, Lightning's experiences following the fight of wills at the end of FFXIII have deeply affected her. She's experienced a brief flash of hope, a conundrum that still required solving... and then was whisked away from her moment of happiness by the repercussions of their altered fate, presented with an entirely new opportunity to carve out a purpose for herself and her new family.
As of XIII-2, she was and still is extremely passionate, although now overlaid by a quiet desperation; she is absolutely determined to fix what she believes is her responsibility in part to save: the future that is in immediate danger by the chaos held within Valhalla and Caius' plan to unleash it. Although made very powerful, she's also been extremely restricted - despite seeing the timeline, she can barely do anything herself because she also can't leave Valhalla's realm for very long at all. Her only capability is to attempt to guide those she once knew from the sidelines, unable to even directly speak to most of them. Of particular interest is, when she finally does appear to Serah and Noel, her refusal to answer Serah's wish to be together at the end of their journey with a solid answer, insisting instead on "one thing at a time." When she speaks to Serah indirectly, her words carry a strong note of sadness to them (...and perhaps even outright angst, given her surprise at finding out her old military buddies continue to honor her memory).
In any case, barring her ever-present, immense weakness for her little sister, and while she's no doubt grown more understanding, more willing to embrace calmness and patience, she can still be easy to irritate, and a bit prone to lashing out - both verbally and physically - if she's finally pushed that far. It takes a lot to change her opinion on something, and though that stubbornness in her has certainly mellowed, she can still be pretty intolerant of any conflicting views or actions. She is unerringly honest, isn't afraid to speak her mind, and has a sharp intuition for seeing more than what's on the surface and/or putting together what she already knows into a larger picture. She has every intention of using that aspect of herself and her talents to better the home she has developed a personal responsibility for, as well. She is a woman who doesn't take challenges idly.
... She's also developed a case of "speak elaborately because I know more than I should" syndrome. XIII-era Lightning would be unlikely to describe something as "a realm awash with sadness," yet with XIII-2 Lightning, this is not particularly unusual at all.
As for Luceti? During her nearly two years there, there's definitely no doubt her experiences affected her and will continue to color her thoughts and behavior. Most importantly is the fact that, whether she'd planned on it or not (spoiler warning: she hadn't), she actually managed to gain and maintain several close friendships she hadn't had before she got there. While initially determined to hold her distance until she could figure out a way back home, she still found herself developing her sense of 'family' apart from sharing blood relation, increasing her toleration for non-Serah-originating friendliness that the other l'Cie had started. Eventually, she opened up to the point of dating Zack Fair and, when Aerith Gainsborough went home, experienced the pain of losing her best friend. In addition, the sibling/guardian/partner-in-crime relationship she'd started with Hope Estheim back on Cocoon was allowed to grow as well; in-short, her people-skills are just sort of improved in general, and over time she's gotten better at communicating even with strangers without being constantly blunt and risking alienation in a small town setting.
But, there's certainly a touch of darker things in Luceti as well- namely that, regardless of any balancing her relationships with others bring to her, her guilt and fear of losing what she cares about lingers. Being a l'Cie and forced to accept that there was no way out of meeting the consequences of her time to complete her Focus running out was a heavy blow, and the fact that she very nearly lost her sanity while enduring a transformation into a Cie'th has left her mentally scarred even over a year and a half later. She's had to adapt to forced inaction or risk burning herself out, yet still Lightning as she is in Luceti is prone to a lot of frustration due to her helplessness and perceived lack of knowledge of what is going on (see also: meeting people from ~the future~ such as Noel, Hope, and even her own sister... but not being the person they expected at all). Her increased first-hand knowledge of XIII-2 should help, though of course, not entirely. The problem of wanting to return home versus finding some peace in this place will remain, even if she's likely to become more genuinely chill in general about it.
Strengths / Weaknesses
Lightning is over-powered.
Due to her time as a l'Cie, triumphing over one of the Goddess Etro's messenger Eidolons, and eventually being part of the miracle/catastrophe that was Etro saving the crystallized l'Cie from stasis, Lightning's spirit is particularly in-tune with the deity responsible for creating humanity and ruling over the connection between the seen and unseen realms. And, as a result of possessing Etro's specific blessing as her Champion, set to directly defend the sleeping deity, she is... absolutely ridiculous, overflowing with divine strength which enhances her already existing talents and experience to a crazy degree-
She is supernaturally strong and fast, and wields a large scope of magical abilities, ranging through everything from spells that allow her to attack with electricity and wind, enhance her own strength/protections, smack her enemies right in the face with various 'debuffing' ailments... to the capability of controlling gravity and inertia at will (her monster version's auto-ability of 'Immovable MAX' = good luck interrupting her attacks by knocking her down; in cutscenes she literally hangs in the air as she resists a blow) and summoning her gunblade from thin air. She also has command over any other being she defeats in Valhalla- including not just a veritable army of monsters and then her own 'Eidolon' summon, Odin, from her stint as a Pulse l'Cie, but at least two others as well: Bahamut and Shiva. Her actual manifestation of power is her Eidolith, a pink-colored crystal in the shape of a rose's open bloom; like most instances in the Final Fantasy series, this means her magic ultimately arises from a crystal-based source.
From a gameplay stand-point, her Paradigm roles and specific spells/abilities are as follows, mostly taken from the Requiem of the Goddess DLC. Asterisked abilities are specific to the monster-crystal version of her that can be added to Serah and Noel's party as a Commando. Not included: auto-abilities that involve other party members' roles (Blindside, etc.), and Gravity, although she is shown to possess it via cutscene/Live Trigger.
Even without the crazy-ass magical abilities, however (and even with the half power cap of Luceti), she's still a force to be reckoned with. As athletic and acrobatic as she is, her fighting style often includes flips and somersaults both offensively and defensively. As a former soldier, she is a stellar swords- and marks-man, and her signature weapon, a 'gunblade,' which in Cocoon's military was only issued to the most skilled, reflects both of these. She's been shown, amongst other things, using a rocket launcher, operating complicated machinery, and utilizing a personal gravity-controlling device ('AMP'-based) with expertise. Before resigning and then being marked as a Pulse l'Cie, she was a sergeant in line for a promotion and set to be trained for commissioning; likely the only reason why she wasn't already in some sort of position of prestige was because of her devotion to her sister and unwillingness to compromise in it.
Because of all of this, and her extensive research in Luceti, and her glimpse of her world's entire timeline... it's kind of safe to say there's a reason why Noel asks her if she's the Goddess of War when they meet-- and why, despite probably having a pretty good idea of who she is, her fated rival Caius specifically addresses her in this manner as well. Regardless of her current power level, she repeatedly shows the ability to make important, split-second decisions to get herself and whoever she happens to be with out of danger. Or... if the situation calls for it, into danger, of course, in the pursuit of taking down whatever she's deemed worthy of her wrath.
Emotionally, Lightning's been through a lot, and yet despite that, despite being jerked away from what she truly wanted, she remains determined to complete her goal of protecting the sleeping Goddess and reality as it stands, from the man and the forces who would gladly destroy them for their own means. She's determined and willing to act on what she believes in, up to and beyond everything ever being violently undone. Breaking her will is basically impossible. Even when she does falter, it doesn't take long for her to pick herself back up.
Weaknesses:
Physically... it's hard to say Lightning even has any weaknesses, particularly after she's been upgraded by Etro's blessing. She's ever strong and fast, remains a jack of all trades, and has even mostly lost the problem she'd had as a l'Cie in being light enough to get thrown around. In the context of her fight against Caius, her major problem there is that she simply does not have the centuries of experience he does-- and still manages to hold her own in a variety of ways anyway, of course. From a purely canonical state, in weaponless, magicless combat she would likely be at a disadvantage, but her time in Luceti solved a lot of that. So, yes.
That said, Lightning's main weakness is definitely her emotion. Initially she is driven to protect the Goddess because she senses what would happen to reality if Etro were to fade away entirely, but at her heart Lightning still cares most for her sister and loved ones; eventually it is this - in Caius exploiting her shock at witnessing a glimpse of Serah's fate, the shadowy incarnation of Yeul that insists everything going awry is the result of Lightning's actions - that brings her down. Her self-sacrificial mindset is rather ridiculous, as is her belief that she has something to atone for. It's somewhat difficult for her to connect that people are concerned about her at times because she herself gives little regard for her wellbeing except as a means to bring happiness to others.
This is on top of her pre-existing attitude. She's gotten better, yes, both canonically and by quite a bit in Luceti, but in the end she's still just not all that socially skilled. Her rarely-seen sense of humor is roughly as dry as the Sahara and can seem out of place when she decides to reveal it. She's kind of really intimidating even when she's not trying to be.
There's also certain irony in that, despite having glimpsed the entire timeline, her prolonged foresight continues to suffer; her plans typically focus on rather short-termed goals and always have, lacking an answer to the "and then what?" that would appear obvious. Case in point: what did she think would happen when Serah was plenty old enough to take care of herself? What did she think would happen once she'd taken out her revenge on the Sanctum? What did she think would happen once Serah and Noel had made it to Valhalla to help her like she'd asked? While she often thinks she knows what she wants or what is needed, she tends to live life rather in the moment. Given her time displacement now though, perhaps that's kind of apt.
Finally, while sort of an odd example of a 'weakness,' strangely enough, she's lost the ability to heal with magic- presumably because all of her powers as Etro's Champion are specialized for only what she needs, and in fighting Caius by herself, she just... flat out doesn't need that any more. Gone as well are her Water, Blizzard, and Fire skills, though she's pretty unlikely to even miss them.
Samples
First Person:
... Wow I am still ridiculously incompetent in figuring out how to do these, and too stupid to have secured a trainingwings stand-in beforehand. :( Q&A, please. HIT ME.
Third Person:
The lack of transition between one moment and another, an utter lack of coherency between knowing where you are, when you are and then being somewhere, somewhen else entirely an instant later... would more likely than not rapidly undo most people.
By now, Lightning was used to it. She pretty much had to be- Valhalla had no sense of life or death, no logical concept of such mortal issues such as the passing of time... if she remained caught up in that sort of thing, she wouldn't have survived in that place any longer than the very moment she'd appeared.
However, when she found herself lying face-down, not on lifeless stone and with a complete lack of natural light, but on grass and with the full yellow-white force of the sun blazing in her eyes... she had to admit that this time, the experience was far more alarming.
This place... it definitely wasn't Valhalla. The browned stems of some kind of weedy plant pressed between her bare fingers as she pushed herself up, pulling her legs beneath her, rising to her feet in an instant; light was filtering down around her, baking the ground outside the shadow made from a large tree standing a short distance beside her. The air was hot but stirred with a wind she hadn't felt in what seemed like eons.
"What...?" She turned in all directions, but being able to see around her didn't really help her confusion. For a moment panic threatened to spring up inside of her, but in another moment's passing she calmed herself by force, wary but steady as her eyes squinted against the midday light, revealing forest, mountains on the horizon... and buildings in the distance. She was obviously near a village.
She'd never been here before-- or had she? Memories from before she'd been seized and ripped out of time by Valhalla's briefly-freed Chaos tugged at the edges of her mind- names, faces, experiences that didn't fit right with everything else she'd done and seen... leaving even Etro's foremost champion confused and asking herself if she'd finally lost it at last.
... Worst of all, she felt her connection to the Goddess empty... and yet her power obviously lingering anyway, leaving her further disoriented, uneasy, feeling a little raw at her core. This didn't make sense. Without further ado she flung out her arm and summoned amidst a brief flurry of feathers her gunblade, turning narrowed eyes to the weapon when it felt slightly heavier than it really should have.
Well, that still worked, at least... mostly, although it didn't exactly match the fact that she was no longer adorned in the silver and gold, white-feathered armor she should have been, and didn't help her mental state half as much as she'd have liked. While she tried to regather her wits, trying to piece together why she'd be waking up in a strange place feeling stiff but not in any discomfort except for her wings, she...
She frowned, as her gaze dropped and laid fixed there on the-- her journal resting at her feet in the grass, asking herself why she felt at once sure that even deity-blessed beings such as her weren't supposed to have actual wings, yet a deep uneasiness at the mere thought of losing them.
Q&A
Answers
[ ... Tricky question, for someone who is at best literally the single most powerful human being from her world, and at worst... the second most powerful human being from her world. Her brows come together with a tiny frown- as if this kind of offends her, somehow. ]
You'd have to define 'power,' because as it stands... [ Oops, thoughtful pause right in the middle of her voice getting more heated; it's smoother, when she continues a moment later. ] I have no desire for power- at least not for anything that isn't using it as just a tool. All I want is to see things set straight... that wish is all I have. And for that... I'll do whatever it takes.
[ Aaand if that involves stepping away from the present and taking an upgrade to what is practically deity status herself? Then yeah, obviously, she's willing to pursue and then use whatever power she can get her hands on..... ]
3. How do you think you perform in a crisis?
[ B| ] Well enough.
[ No but seriously-- ] I was once a sergeant in Cocoon's military... and at that time I received training that was supposed to help prepare me for the worst. [ ... ] It wasn't until my world fell apart that I found out how... inadequate my way of going about things was. My reactions were quick, but I was failing in my goal without even realizing it. I was trying to fight my way out of it all... it was all I could think of to do.
Now I've had time to think, and to learn... I'd like to believe my mind rests more in tune with my actions now, at least.
-2. If you had to choose between saving someone else's life and saving yours, which would you choose? Why?
You want to hear, 'it depends on who it is,' don't you? [ There's the touch of ironic - perhaps dangerous - amusement in her voice, but again it sobers soon afterward. ] My goals... they're too important to lay down for the sake of my own safety... if I thought my sacrifice could benefit those I care about, if I thought my life was outweighed by what could be redeemed in its place... then it could hardly be called a choice at all.
[ And she's already tried to sacrifice herself in the pursuit of saving someone else at least once. Is anyone surprised by this? ]
4. What is your most valuable possession?
[ Well. There's kind of the part where she doesn't have any material possessions as of canon (she wouldn't say that her armor or gunblade really count because their substance as actual objects is fairly arguable...), and it remains to be seen exactly what does and doesn't stay in Luceti.
Because she's been all narrator!Lightning all up in here, she makes this one simpler. Instead she lays her hand on her chest, tilting her head down. ]
My mind, my heart... my spirit. That can't be taken from me.
[ ... Simpler, but no less cheesy. Yeah. ]
5. How have you changed since your last experience in Luceti?
[ She punched destiny in the face... and then destiny punched back so hard she fell out of history! She huffs briefly. ]
When I was in Luceti before, I was still a l'Cie; I hadn't even visited Gran Pulse for any longer than a day, hadn't come anywhere near facing our final battle with the Sanctum fal'Cie- those who wanted so strongly to extinguish all of those still living in Cocoon...
I was worried. I wanted to prepare for something that remained a mystery for me... and while eventually I did hear about what was to come, nothing could truly prepare me for facing it all head-on... for being subject to the miracles that came from Fang and Vanille's sacrifice, from the goddess Etro's blessing.
... I'd already learned the value of having others to support me... but in going to Valhalla, I realize now the weight of how important that can truly be. And now I know what must be done.
[ Also she talks like this whenever she has rein to do so. 8| She blinks, looking away. There's the whole part where the opposite is true too, that Luceti's changed her quite a bit in turn, BUT...
That's not what was asked, so she's going to stay silent on the topic as well as adding any more. This whole rambling about her feelings thing has really gone on long enough. ]
Accepted
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