#shiracirca

When I hit the final third of Lightning Returns I kind of hit a point where I realize that I loved it, and I adooored the ending a lot wow.  It’s kind of made me re-evaluate how I feel about the series as a whole, because before I just thought of my love of FXIII-2 as a fluke, but loving 2 out of 3 games in a series kind of changes that.

There are a number of things that I’m never going to be okay with, specifically half of the outfits you get for Lightning make me incredibly uncomfortable.  I’m still torn between totally dismissing Snow, and almost sort of being pulled into kind of caring about him.  For all of his posturing about his love of Serah, Serah and Snow’s relationship never hits any kind of development it should considering how important it is within the story.  And despite learning a little more about Yeul in Lightning Returns, she still comes across as a human manifestation of Chaos more than an actual character, and I would love to care about her more as a person if she was actually allowed to be a person within the narrative.

BUT ALL OF THAT OUT OF THE WAY

What Lightning Returns did successfully for the series was that it really cemented Lightning’s story within the 3 games.  FFXIII and FFXIII-2 felt like very different beasts next to each other, but Lightning Returns helps create a better connection between the three games.  There are a whole lot of call backs to the first game and Lightning’s development from that game.  At the same time, the time travel/ world destruction/ overall world interaction/ as well as consequences from FFXIII-2 make Lightning Returns what it is.  

Right now I’m honestly debating whether I should replay FXIII or maybe rewatch cut scenes?  It’s gotten to the point where FXIII feels like an origin story, and FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns is where the characters reach beyond their origins.  The development that these characters go through over the course of the series makes me want to revisit what they were like at the start of their journey.  I still think FXIII is very obtuse overall, but by developing the gods in Lightning Returns and giving Lightning real relationships with Etro and Bhunivelze I care much more about the world building of the series than I did before.  When before I just let things I didn’t understand about FXIII’s plot go, now I actually want to connect the dots.

BUT LET’S TALK ABOUT LIGHTNING

The side-effect of FFXIII-2’s plot was that it make Lightning a very distant character, a greatly adored person, but she had reached this point of being beyond human and only speaking to people in elusive, mysterious dialogue.  Considering FXIII ended with increasingly less emotional weight as the game went on, it kind of seemed like a trend that Lightning would become more distant and harder to connect with as a player.  I AM REALLY HAPPY THAT LIGHTNING RETURNS COMPLETELY CHANGES THAT.

Gosh I love Lightning as a main character in Lightning Returns.  I love that she’s been through a lot, she no longer even knows if she knows how to be or feel human, but that interacting with the people she’s charged to help brings her humanity out of her.  She gets mixed up in all kind of random problems just because she wants to see how other people’s happiness plays out.  All the while she talks to Hope about how she’s “not really going to do it” or she “doesn’t know why she’s doing it” and Hope just keeps needling her into admitting that she cares.  Lightning really begins to feel like the heart of the series, you start to know exactly why she is the main character and how all these characters connect to each other through her, whether it be her choices in the past (like Noel and Mog) or through her familial connection to the characters of FFXIII.

I love that Lightning spends the entire game seeking to see Serah again because she knows that that is where her happiness is, and no matter how great and super-human Lightning becomes, she has always just craved to BE BACK HOME AND WITH THE PEOPLE SHE LOVES

HAhahaha also also IF THE GOD SHE SERVES LIES TO HER SHE WILL TEAR HIM DOWN.  SO. FREAKING. HARD.

Also also also can we talk about how the conclusion of the story relies on Lightning admitting to herself that she’s allowed to be weak and that she doesn’t have to be alone???  CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOPE HEARING HER FEELINGS AND COMING BACK FOR HER?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT LIGHTNING USING HOPE’S OWN LAST RESORT ATTACK TO FIGHT A GOD AND SAVE HOPE’S SOUL HAHAHA

ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH LIGHTNING REGRETTED NOT TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT HOPE WAS DEALING WITH UNTIL HOPE CAME TO TELL HER GOODBYE

I thought I was going to have to live with cute dialogue interactions for Lightning and Hope and that was the most I would get UNTIL I GOT TO THE ENDING HAHAHAHAHAHHA wow

Also FANG AND VANILLE WOOOOAAAH

VANILLE TRYING TO TAKE ON THE WEIGHT OF THE SORROW OF ALL OF THE DEAD BECAUSE SHE FEELS LIKE SHE OWES THEM AND WANTS TO HELP THEM.

FANG GUARDING TOMBS FOR YEARS JUST SO THAT VANILLE WILL CONTINUE TO LIVE

VANILLE HAVING THE UNPRECEDENTED POWER TO SAVE ALL THE SOULS OF THE DEAD AND FANG HELPING HER WOOOOAH

AND THEN EVERYONE IS REBORN WHERE THEY CAN BE HAPPY WITHOUT THE MEDDLING OF GODS WHO MADE THEIR LIVES A MESS YEEAAAAAHHH