Is it me, or does it seem Lightning is always PMSing?

[Gogeta]

Because it seems like she is always pissed for no reason. its very odd. Please give your thoughts on this.

[Merlin]

She was definitely fulfilling her cookie-cutter role a little too well for my tastes. Most of the times she was blowing steam out of her ass were for incredibly stupid reasons. She also flip-flopped on subjects more than a politician, making it impossible for anyone to know what to say to her and "not" piss her off. Since the time frame of the game was less than a week I believe, it's quite possible it was that time of the month. Or maybe she was pregnant? ^_^

When I get time, I'm going to write one of my famous game analyses. There are more holes in the storyline/world than swiss cheese.

[Andromeda]

How would you feel being a soldier type, who in general understands following orders and dealing with almost everything through physical or violent means, suddenly finds out that your little sister, who you've become more or less a parent to, is a l'Cie and then turns into crystal (more or less dead now since even if she does wake up you'll be long dead probably) in front of your eyes. And then to make matters even worse when you try to confront the thing that did it it makes you a l'Cie as well leaving you with two options do nothing and become a monster or do the focus (which is wonderfully vague) and quite possiblly kill millions of people just to turn into a crystal yourself. Your actual life you've been living that last 21 years is completely and utterly over and you had no choice in the matter.

I think Lightning's is well within her rights to be quite upset about the state of her life at the moment. You can go into denial, anger or depression given something like that and she picked anger which is going to be the most familiar and comfortable for her. She might have been on an anger trip for quite a bit of the game, but considering you've been manipulated most of the time and everyone in the little world of Pulse wants you dead or somewhere else its not that unexpected. She does ended up losing most of that anger though, well the anger directed at her party members, about halfway through the game. She mellows out.

I found her to be quite reasonable and probably took it realistically about as much as Hope did, despite his whiny nature.

[Merlin]

I think you are giving Square Enix too much credit. She doesn't have PTSD, she has undiagnosed anger management issues. If Cloud and Squall had a lovechild, it would be Lightning. For starters, if you want to pull the soldier card, she definitely wasn't trained in an army similar to the US. Throughout the first half of the game, she continuously gave little to no concern to anyone's safety but her own. When they first became l'Cie, they had "powers", but honestly, the only one who had any training in fighting was Lightning. The others looked to her for support and what to do. Her policy was, keep up or f#ck off. She then proceeds to deliberately cross areas where she knew nobody but herself could cross and expected everyone to follow. What kind of soldier is this? Would you want to be trapped in some foreign environment with a soldier who didn't give a shit about your well-being and left you there to die? Like I said, her training obviously was unlike that of the US, because such behavior is inexcusable here. Even an off-duty cop will help people out. They aren't being paid to do it, but it's their life.

Another interesting point about soldiers is that in the middle of battle, there are two types of soldiers. There are those who check their emotions at the door, focus on the task, and are basically "zoned in" the whole time. This is what a soldier is trained for. This is the whole point of basic training... to break down everything you know and believe in and build you up to be a focused killing machine. The other group of soldiers are the ones that cannot handle what is going on, letting their emotions control them. Their brains cannot process what is going on and shuts down. These soldiers almost surely will die.

Now, the soldiers who fall into the first group and manage to make it back home alive, end up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is understandable. The world they return to is now completely foreign to them. They are basically still following the motions of war, even though they are no longer in one. They lost the ability to live a regular life. All of that was stripped from them and reinforced through battle.

You could claim that Lightning is suffering from PTSD, because everything she knew was turned upside-down and thrown for a loop, but her behavior does not fit. Her behavior was on the lines of lashing out at anyone and everyone who wronged her. This began long before the series of unfortunate events took place. She never approved of Serah and Snow going out together and made it quite clear time and again by rubbing it in both of their faces repeatedly. Lightning has a history of anger issues, stemming from something in her past that is not revealed in the game.

So in all honesty, a lot of her anger in the first half of the game is indeed misplaced and uncalled for. Sure, you should be mad that giant robots have been secretly screwing your life over... but (and this is a big but), the rest of it was because she was being emo. You're a soldier. Grow a pair, watch GI Jane, and do something about it. Stop brooding over how your life sucks because the last thing you told your sister was to f#ck off and die... cry me a river.

I put more thought into that then SE did in making her character. "I want a character who's self-absorbed and emo like Cloud, with boobies". The problem is, I think they made her more like Squall then Cloud.

[Gogeta]

Wow, that last post was very filled with info, that amuses me seeing how they mis-took her for a "Cloud-Like" person and made her more like Squall and being very very emo. Sure she is the strongest character in the game, but I still say its PMSing because its simpler than going through all that, XD

[Merlin]

You'll have to excuse me... I'm known for getting on a soap box on certain issues. I tend to psychoanalyze FF games in great detail. That was actually just a snippet of my thoughts on the overall story of the game. ^_^

Whether I'm right or not, who knows? I didn't write the storyline. It is all up for interpretation.

[Kaiden]

I think you need to read the info in the Database from the game. It explains a lot more of the characters than what the cut scenes do. For better or worse a lot of the character's past isnt really gone over in the game its just written in the database.

Most of what you go over can be easily explained different ways, just depends on how you see the character. Look at the different stories that came out in this thread. Three different ways to explain a characters actions over one week of her life.

[Che]

Chris Crocker says leave Lightning alone.

[Gogeta]

Chris Crocker says leave Lightning alone.

Dude, Im just saying what I think, its my opinion.

[Merlin]

Oh gawd... Serah in Hit Me Baby One More Time.


And Zolpar, the reference to che's post is this.

[Gogeta]

Oh gawd... Serah in Hit Me Baby One More Time.


And Zolpar, the reference to che's post is this.

Oh, I was a little confused by Che's post, so yea, sorry

/````\
^ ^
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I failed on that face, lol

[Unknown Entity]

Lightening was uptight because she was protective of her sister. A lot of people would go into anger overdrive if someone they loved, care for, and was trying to protect went through something like being turned into a l'Cie. Especially if the last time they'd spoken had turned into a row.

I don't think that it helped that Lightening didn't seem to like Snow being with Serah all too much either.

Also, if she'd been on her period, wearing something that short and doing those fighting moves would have given her a lovely blood patch around that area. If she was pregnant, then I'm sure there's a possibility that she'd have miscarried at some point... =S

[Yuna]

Of course she is, how could you resist and smile when you have a guy like Snow around, acting like a hero all the time ? LOL

Yes, I don't like to much Snow, and I know this is not "his" topic, but one of the reason of the strange behaviour of Lightning is that guy too. She has to fight again with the weird sensation of being alone, to feel guilty for not listening to Sera when she needs help, with all her dreams and hopes faiding away, just because something (or someone) else is deciding about her life.

This is happened with her parents, and now with the sister. A mess like this can really knock you down, but she's the type who preferes to not speak, cry, smile and she likes to give a punch to someone that maybe can realize the gravity of the situation...

I think Lightning can't realize how Snow could be so happy and positive about all the situation: this is the first time for him about L'Cie and crystal, and he acts like all the things are in control. He talks about eternal life, the safeness of Cocoon, the fact he wants to marry her sister...she feels just an unbereable sorrow and loss that drives her mad...

I think she's the same of Cloud, but just for the look...Cloud was pretty different, he has no memories about the sorrow, not until Tifa helps him in the lifestream, so he was not so angry, disappointed, and for sure the two has a different way of reacting to problems...Even after the discover of the real Cloud, he asks sorry to his friends and wants to put the word "end" on the entire story...

Lightning changed her mind about her focus, spreading all the rage in every step she takes, getting Hope involved in her personal fight with the Sanctum.

[MrBawb]

Lightning has a history of anger issues, stemming from something in her past that is not revealed in the game.

Maybe, just maybe its because her mother died?

[Robbo]

I agree deeply with Merlin about the Cloud/Lightning part anywhoo i think SE made it too obvious though really so most people would hear Soldier and see that she isnt the most social person in the game and just say yes its a female Cloud. Even there names are similar they are both things related to the weather but Lightning is more like early FFVIII Squall in the way that she only wants anything to do with one person. For Squall its Ellone, For Lightining its Serah and she doesent care who else is there as long as they dont get in the way.

[Angel of Iniquity]

I don't know but I was hoping Fang was gunna knock her out after she hit her.

[CloudvsLightning]

Who knows .......... she might have anger management problems for all we know

[Angel of Iniquity]

She was like a mix of cloud squall, and a pregnant girl

[Dan558]

She was sometimes cranky but It didn't nearly bother me as much as Hopes crying, vanilles pure stupidity, Sazhs dorkiness, Snows ridiculous up-beat/oblivious attitude, or Fangs pure uselessness and blandness. She was probably the most likable character for me and probably the most down to earth considering their shitty situation.

[CrazedMonkey]

It's certainly true that Lightning comes off as fairly angry throughout the game, but in her defense, she did have to see her only sister (and only remaining family) get turned into a crystal. On top of that she had some kid following her around that was kinda throwing a pity party for a while (Hope irritated me at the begining, like him now though), and everyone on the planet is out to kill her. I thought she got a lot better later in the game, but you also have to keep in mind that she is a soldier, a seargent at that. She's probably used to a more disaplined group than what she had to work with.

[Linus Li Lelouch]

I kinda agree with Merlin on the soldier thing with Lightning, although I wouldn't consider her an early Squall at no point in time throughout the game. If I remember correctly Squall was not in anyway angry with everyone, he just never spoke to anyone (not the same as angry).
Lightning for one also talked too damn much to be considered anything like Squall, I think Lightning said more words in the first chapter of XIII than Squall said in the entire VIII game, she just needs to shut the eff up.

Although at the beginning of the game, I was impress with her, hitting snow, leaving people behind, blah blah blah, made me feel good for some reason lol (Similarity to Squall here)... then at the end of the game she gets all friendly like and shit and wants to be everyone's friend >.>

Although if you wanna look at it from a technical analysis point of view, I would conclude that SE tried to conceive Lightning from a Cloud/Squall personality mix hence the previous comments(which is kinda weird altogether)

In the end though I stopped paying attention to Lightning when I got Fang, so I'm not too sure about her towards endgame...