#explodes with feels

Of course, as we all know, Serah got Lightning the knife for her 21st birthday. It was meant as a gift to protect her - this is taken directly from a translation of the novel:

“And I read in a book once, that with just one knife a person can survive through lots of things.” Serah said, her tone serious. Her eyes had a faraway look. “Because of her job, she has to go to lots of different places. With her job, she doesn’t ever know exactly what will happen. I want her to be able to survive whatever happens out there, and come back home safe.”“And so you want to give her a survival knife.”“Is that strange?”“No, no it’s not strange.”

(that’s Serah and Snow talking btw lolol)

We can see the knife as a symbol of protection, because she ends up giving it to Hope in the Gapra Whitewood in order to teach him how to protect himself. She puts it in his head that, as long as he has a goal, he can keep moving. It’s motivation for him…though of course, we know that his goal of killing Snow for revenge is kind of crazy murderous lolol but who can blame the kid

I also like to think that Hope changes his mind about getting revenge on Snow because of what Snow tells him about the knife - that it was a gift from Serah, meant to protect Lightning. I believe that he realizes in that moment that it’s not a weapon that’s meant to cause harm…also that it’s something very, very special to Lightning. Perhaps he doesn’t want to tarnish its meaning? Also that, y’know, killing Snow wouldn’t help anything lol

The next time the knife comes out is during the fabulous hug scene of epicness <3333 Of course, Hope gives it back to her because he no longer feels the need to get revenge, but it’s important to note what they say:

"You’ll be okay. I’ll keep you safe.""Me too. I mean - I’ll try to watch out for you, too."

or as he says in the Japanese version:

"If possible, I want to protect you, too."

Even though he’s given the knife - a symbol of protection - back to her, essentially putting her back in the role of his protector, he doesn’t want only her to carry the burden. He wants them to be equals and look out for each other. And she doesn’t argue this at all, and instead pokes his forehead all adorably <3

The knife doesn’t show up much in XIII-2, but when it does, Hope’s there for one of those scenes

"It’s her knife. I found it at the base of the pillar."

It might’ve been a paradox that her knife was left there, since Lightning disappearing off to Valhalla was a paradox in itself…but again, the idea of it as something used for protection comes up. Hope’s the one who finds the knife. I can only imagine what went through his mind when he found it - all of them but Serah believe, in that moment, that Lightning is in the pillar along with Fang and Vanille. It could be seen that perhaps Lightning left the knife behind on purpose, in order to offer protection because she couldn’t be there.

Of course, Hope no longer needs it, so it goes to Serah, the only other person in the world - any world - that Lightning feels a strong desire to look after. But the meaning of it still remains with Hope - pretty much all of his motivation in XIII-2 is keeping to his goals: his goal of improving humanity without the fal’cie, of saving Fang and Vanille, of rescuing Lightning from Valhalla…Lightning’s lesson in that as long you have a goal, you can keep going is pretty much the driving force behind everything he does in XIII-2.

And the knife gets to be part of a fetchquest, lolol

Then, of course, in Lightning Returns, the only time the knife appears is to literally save Hope’s soul from Bhuni’s grip.

nooooooooooo my bby

Lightning literally says "This is the last soul I will save!" She doesn’t want to be Bhuni’s pawn in soul-saving for any longer, but she needs to make just one more exception.

I believe that Lightning used the knife to stab Bhuni and get Hope free because of the significance of it between the two of them. It’s basically been passed back and forth - first Serah wanted her sister to protect herself, then Lightning wanted to protect Hope, then he wanted to protect her and so on. It’s a symbol of their trust between each other. During the Meeting You scene, Lightning expressed regret about not trusting him enough to tell him what was going on in her head. I’m sure even his assurance that it was okay wasn’t quite good enough for her, because, well, let’s face it…that’s how Lightning thinks, ahaha. She wants to atone for that. She needs to save him, as much for herself as for him.

And then, guess what - he actually absorbs the knife.

(gif by ayume-hime)

The knife, a symbol of protection, is now a part of his soul. Literally. This goes with what he said all the back in FFXIII, when he wanted to protect her - now he can. It’s sort of like all of his desire to get her back from Valhalla in XIII-2 just bursts into this one moment.

And now that he has even more power to protect her, the first thing he does? He saves her.

(gif by sinaxi)

He literally became a symbol of hope for her in that moment. It’s because of him - that he heard her, that he had such a strong desire to protect her - that she was able to truly defeat Bhunivelze and go to the new world with everybody. He’s finally able to protect her in all the ways he was never able to over the centuries.

I like to imagine that the sentiment from the knife remains with him even in the new world, so they seek each other out (and it’s implied they do - Hope and Lightning both say “We’ll be together”; him after he saves her and her in the epilogue) and protect each other forever and and and /sobs

Also another interesting thing to think about - of course, the knife was originally a gift from Serah, but now it’s literally with Hope. Serah has always wanted her sister to find her own happiness, since she’ll ultimately have a family with Snow. Lightning needs someone with her - as Lumina proved, at heart, so much of her is a scared girl who just needs reassurance sometimes.

All in all, from where the knife started to where it ends, it could be seen that everything was headed towards this. Serah’s one of the most important people in Lightning’s life, no question….but it’s almost as though the ‘torch’ has been passed onto Hope in the form of the survival knife.