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〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Lightning
CHARACTER AGE: Chronologically, it is extremely difficult to say. She is permanently frozen at the age of twenty-one, but has lived more years than that. Whether she’s mentally older is up to debate.
SERIES: Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Saga
CHRONOLOGY: End of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, but before her soul is delivered to the new world.
CLASS: Hero.
HOUSING: Randomize, please!
BACKGROUND: As a note, because Final Fantasy XIII is a three-game series, it comes with side materials, a set of novels, and the games themselves. I will be primarily pulling from the novels and the games themselves. As the main character of this series, Lightning has a lot of canon, but these are the primary resources.
Lightning is very much the product of a difficult upbringing. In both the prologue novel and in Lightning Returns, she indicates that because of this difficult life, she wanted to be strong. Her father, a boisterous man not unlike the man her sister would come to fall in love with, died early, and her mom died from an illness when she was around fifteen-years-old. Having lost both of her parents and trying to avoid the piteous glances from other people, the young Claire Farron decided to discard her name and become Lightning. The idea was that she would be strong, fast, and nothing would stop her. It was the very representation of her needing to be strong enough for herself—and perhaps more importantly, for her sister Serah. Soon after, she joined the Guardian Corps (think: her world’s coast guard) and did everything she could to ensure that Serah had everything she needed. Sure, she might’ve been terrible at letting people in, but at least Serah was okay. Serah would be protected.
That is, until Lightning herself failed at that task.
Too caught up in her protective instincts and scoffing at Serah’s circumstances—and her engagement to the loud and obnoxious Snow—Lightning turns her back on Serah when she needs her most. This sends Lightning into the plot of the first game, partly going on an emotional bender because of her guilt from her own failure. She joins Serah in her fate all believing that she and the other people roped in are all puppets on strings—and to some degree, they are.
Except they’re puppets who are willing to prove that even the impossible can happen. Lightning and the others end up making that come true, and they save their world … and everything is happy and ends well. Of course, if that were really the case, there wouldn’t be three games about the series.
The second game has Lightning largely absent. Mere moments after the happy ending occurs, unseen chaos (which is different from normal chaos) ends up erupting, altering events as everyone knows them, and swallowing Lightning up. She is dragged off to Valhalla out of pity and turned into the knight/warrior for the goddess of death, Etro. Determined to atone for the past she experiences on the way—essentially, Lightning can feel and hear all of the souls that died while they made the “impossible” happen—she decides to do what she feels is right. There, Lightning stands guard, hoping that she can try to set things right. In order to accomplish this, she depends on a boy named Noel who arrives, who she then sends to work with Serah so they can make things better.
In the end, this turns out to be a terrible idea. She sent her sister to her death, essentially, and it led the world to being swallowed up in chaos. Uncertain of what she’s meant to do and determined to still do right by Serah, Lightning takes Serah’s soul and allows herself to be turned into crystal for five hundred years.
After those years pass, Lightning wakes up to a world that’s been swallowed in chaos. Left without time, without new life, and without even the process of death and rebirth, the world has been left in darkness. Some reach for salvation, others reach for revelry, and others just seek the end; after all, people are not meant to be almost immortal. Lightning enters this world as the Savior, someone who is meant to deliver souls to a new destination where they will gain salvation. What she doesn’t realize immediately is two things. First, her emotions have largely slipped away, encompassed in a vessel called Lumina, meant to protect Serah’s soul. Second, that she is being tested the entirety time. Left empty, she would be intended as the next goddess of death, meant to watch over the world in the absence of the previous one.
Of course, given that Lightning’s entire story is about defying gods, she turns her back on this inevitability, realizing that her mission (which is ultimately to get her sister back) is all a lie. Lightning defies god, and in turn, leads everyone to a new world. This is ultimately who she is, and in the process, Lightning learns a lot about herself and why she was one of the few who could do this.
And most importantly, why she was one of the few who couldn’t do it alone.
Final Fantasy XIII. | Final Fantasy XIII-2. | Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
Lightning's specific wiki page.
PERSONALITY: Outwardly, Lightning has always been someone who shunned her own weaknesses. Believing that being lonely, being weak, and being vulnerable would end up working against her, Lightning cut away her weaknesses, suppressing them under a new name, and making it so that few people would be able to see the real Lightning. Claire Farron was gone, and in her place was someone stronger. This choice came at a very young age, and the fact that she made it at that age was telling. In some ways, Lightning’s growth as an individual still doesn’t allow her to grow as an adult. For as strong and relentless as she is in some ways, she is still very young. She is insecure, left lashing out when she’s uncertain and when her false front doesn’t provide her the strength she needs. Still, as a result of Lightning’s journey, she has changed a lot. She has grown up a lot, and there are some parts of her that even she is not fully aware of, parts that she still has to assess and understand.
To understand Lightning best, though, there are two simple ways to look at her. The first is to look at her love for her sister, and the second is to look at how she observes herself. Her treatment of herself in the wake of everything says a lot, and it’s important to note that despite being a very straightforward person who doesn’t always think through things carefully (she has a very A to B to C logical cycle that she depends upon), she is not very self-aware. Naturally, suppressing entire parts of yourself can lead to that.
If asked why Lightning does anything, her first response would be that she does things for her sister. Lightning does have stronger motivations beyond Serah, of course, but Serah is at the heart of everything. There is no one in the world that Lightning seeks to protect or care for more. Part of this is because of her responsibilities that she took on as a teenager, and part of this is because of Lightning’s mistakes. If she had believed Serah was a l’Cie, things would have gone differently. If she hadn’t sent Serah on a mission to change the future, altering every path along the way, things would have gone differently.
In many ways, Lightning will go above and beyond in terms of Serah, even shooting well beyond basic rationality if it means that Serah might be safe. What Lightning claims she will do doesn’t necessarily always cohere with what she will do, but the thought of protecting her sister will motivate her in a number of ways. Protect Serah, do gods’ bidding, and nothing else matters. When she loses Serah, she even falls into an obvious pit of despair, slipping into what is clearly a terrible emotional state. It is then that she is violent. It is then that she brushes other people off, trying to hone herself into a weapon to try and attack anything and everything in her way. She doesn’t care that this doesn’t make much sense, and perhaps more importantly, she’s not thinking.
The dependency the sisters have on one another does go both ways, with Serah not being able to readily let go of Lightning even when everyone claims that they should. Lightning’s behavior is far more emphatic than Serah’s in some ways, but it definitely is the result of two people heading out into the world with no one else. They depend upon one another, they love one another, and they will protect one another—at all costs.
Ultimately, Lightning does come to accept other family. She accepts Serah’s fiancé, she accepts Sazh, Vanille, Fang, and Hope, and she even comes to see Serah’s traveling friend Noel as a friend of her own. She comes to care and feel for these individuals, and the fact that she cares for them really shows how she behaves with Serah in a different light. Lightning is largely rational when approaching the others. She needs to help them. She needs to push them and motivate them to do what’s best. But when Serah is involved, rationality often goes out the window.
As much as Lightning might try to ground herself in logic and rationality, claiming that it’s normal to go about things the way she does, she’s not very good at either of them. She’s someone who believes it’s important to achieve the impossible, because anything isn’t impossible, not when someone tries. But really, her inability to ground herself in either of these things is prevalent most often in Lightning Returns, when Lightning’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities are given form in the shape of Lumina, a vessel meant to protect and seal away Serah’s soul until it’s time. Throughout the game, Lumina speaks to Lightning about her feelings, and Lightning herself denies them many times over, even as Lumina continues to taunt her and explain how she must be feeling.
Lightning’s outright dislike of Lumina is very telling from a narrative standpoint. It is very difficult for Lightning to accept Lumina, and she is even distrusting of her. Of course, Lumina is not only Lightning’s emotions—she is also chaos, so the mix of the two are very frustrating for Lightning herself. Having to deal with Lumina throughout the game agitates Lightning. Yet, at the same time, she shows that she takes Lumina at her word despite herself. She distrusts the Hope presented to her by god because Lumina says so, and she takes Lumina’s coaxing from time to time at face value. Additionally, Lumina assists Lightning by being frustrating, ensuring that chains of events happen so that Lightning can act as she would normally act in a number of scenarios. She points out Lightning’s hypocrisies, and also points out how often it is that Lightning really cares, even if Lightning herself cannot express these feelings openly.
Of course, Lumina is doing it for a reason. She would know, wouldn’t she?
It’s very telling in a number of ways. Lightning needs to be strong, so she molds herself into someone who is not in the least self-aware. She denies her vulnerabilities right up to the last second. She’s someone who cannot show uncertainty, so she acts. It’s what makes the most sense for her. What Lightning never seems to be aware of at any given moment is how emotional she is in spite of what she tries to hide away. Her vulnerabilities are always there. And she is conscious of the guilt she feels, even expressing that since her emotions are gone, she won’t crush under the weight of the guilt of her actions. Lumina being separated is there to ensure that Lightning acts on her guilt, even when she cannot. Lumina is a nuisance, because Lightning is a nuisance to herself. Lightning ultimately accepts Lumina in the end, even if she doesn’t have much time to process what, exactly, had been happening there. But even with this acceptance, there is a great understanding: no one is harder on Lightning than herself. She is the source of her guilt, her anxieties, and her massive insecurities. Lightning doesn’t like herself terribly much. Even her moments of lashing out and being angry often lead back to that in some way.
Beyond all of this, there is still very much the surface Lightning, the Lightning who remains as a product of all this. In many ways, Lightning is a very easy person to read, though she would prefer otherwise. She is easily agitated and almost fussy in the face of other people. She has grown a lot, far beyond the person who shoved people away, but she is socially awkward and blunt. She doesn’t mince words, she’s blunt, and she relies on being straight forward. She is quieter than some people, but she does try to understand people as best as she can even despite her awkwardness, and even tries to point out when people care about one another. Several of her quests in Lightning Returns are about bringing people together at the end of the world so they can be happy together—which makes sense, as she wants to be with her sister, who she loves more than anything. Some of these quests are romantic, while others are platonic and about estranged family members. Her body language is someone who is seemingly impatient a lot of the times. Even so, Lightning has fostered a dry sense of humor and an ability to have fun. It might not always be obvious, but she certainly has her moments.
In addition, Lightning acts with a lot of integrity. Despite claiming she will do a number of terrible things if it means that Serah will be back, she never seems to actively act on these things. More than anything, Lightning is a lot of talk when it comes to this. (Or if this comes up. Lightning doesn’t talk herself up in general.) Throughout the three games, Lightning is someone who keeps trying. She is determined to help other people, and her determination, even if she doesn’t realize itself, is what leads her to inspiring others. She goes above and beyond to make sure people are happy, and to deliver a world that is best for everyone. It is because of her integrity and determination that she is able to make speeches about the impossible being made to happen, and it is because of her integrity and determination that she is able to go around a dying world and help others. She messes up a lot along the way, but perhaps the most important part of Lightning is her ability to somehow keep going. She may want to give up, but she can’t. She can’t give up on Serah … and she can’t give up on anyone else, either.
As much as it is heavy-handed to call Lightning the Savior in the last game, she really is someone who fights for other people, often at the cost of herself. She even claims that she will go above and beyond if it means protecting everyone else, admitting that she would forego her own life if it was necessary. Lightning even makes that choice, right up until Lumina comes and taunts her for it. Lightning doesn’t want to live alone. She wants to live with her friends, and most importantly, she wants to live and be with her sister. She is sacrificially selfless in a number of ways, doing everything for everyone else, and very rarely acting for herself.
Lightning is stubborn, extremely difficult to reason with, and very straightforward. She is in some ways not as mature as she should be, but she is willing to do what needs to be done. She might not figure that out the first time or even the tenth time, but she will find some way to keep going. Now, Lightning just needs to accept that about herself—if that’s even possible.
POWER: As a RPG character from three games, I am going to go with the last game to best explain her abilities, in part because her boosts there are specific to her canon point.
Magic: This will incompass many of Lightning’s abilities. Lightning cannot heal without some world specific things, but she can use elemental magic (ice, fire, lightning, wind) and specific spells that weaken people. She cannot strengthen herself, however. She can make others weaker physically, magically, or even more susceptible to damage. Sometimes she can combine her elemental magic together, or even into her physical attacks.
Savior Boosts: As the Savior, Lightning is granted additional speed, strength, and durability, making it so that she can run around without sleep for twenty-four hours in a row. If she does sleep, she seems to heal up. This makes her almost god-like within her game’s context in terms of durability, but within Mask or Menace, she will just be a super durable character, albeit one that would still die if someone headshot her.
Schemata Changes/Magical Girl Lightning: Within Lightning Returns, Lightning has a number of garbs that grant her certain boosts and also range from looking really cool to looking … not cool. Within MoM, these will essentially work as costume changes that might work for specific scenarios. Essentially, Lightning can change her clothes in the blink of an eye, from an evening gown to being dressed like a “splendid admiral” to her get-up in the first game.
CHARACTER NAME: Lightning
CHARACTER AGE: Chronologically, it is extremely difficult to say. She is permanently frozen at the age of twenty-one, but has lived more years than that. Whether she’s mentally older is up to debate.
SERIES: Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Saga
CHRONOLOGY: End of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, but before her soul is delivered to the new world.
CLASS: Hero.
HOUSING: Randomize, please!
BACKGROUND: As a note, because Final Fantasy XIII is a three-game series, it comes with side materials, a set of novels, and the games themselves. I will be primarily pulling from the novels and the games themselves. As the main character of this series, Lightning has a lot of canon, but these are the primary resources.
Lightning is very much the product of a difficult upbringing. In both the prologue novel and in Lightning Returns, she indicates that because of this difficult life, she wanted to be strong. Her father, a boisterous man not unlike the man her sister would come to fall in love with, died early, and her mom died from an illness when she was around fifteen-years-old. Having lost both of her parents and trying to avoid the piteous glances from other people, the young Claire Farron decided to discard her name and become Lightning. The idea was that she would be strong, fast, and nothing would stop her. It was the very representation of her needing to be strong enough for herself—and perhaps more importantly, for her sister Serah. Soon after, she joined the Guardian Corps (think: her world’s coast guard) and did everything she could to ensure that Serah had everything she needed. Sure, she might’ve been terrible at letting people in, but at least Serah was okay. Serah would be protected.
That is, until Lightning herself failed at that task.
Too caught up in her protective instincts and scoffing at Serah’s circumstances—and her engagement to the loud and obnoxious Snow—Lightning turns her back on Serah when she needs her most. This sends Lightning into the plot of the first game, partly going on an emotional bender because of her guilt from her own failure. She joins Serah in her fate all believing that she and the other people roped in are all puppets on strings—and to some degree, they are.
Except they’re puppets who are willing to prove that even the impossible can happen. Lightning and the others end up making that come true, and they save their world … and everything is happy and ends well. Of course, if that were really the case, there wouldn’t be three games about the series.
The second game has Lightning largely absent. Mere moments after the happy ending occurs, unseen chaos (which is different from normal chaos) ends up erupting, altering events as everyone knows them, and swallowing Lightning up. She is dragged off to Valhalla out of pity and turned into the knight/warrior for the goddess of death, Etro. Determined to atone for the past she experiences on the way—essentially, Lightning can feel and hear all of the souls that died while they made the “impossible” happen—she decides to do what she feels is right. There, Lightning stands guard, hoping that she can try to set things right. In order to accomplish this, she depends on a boy named Noel who arrives, who she then sends to work with Serah so they can make things better.
In the end, this turns out to be a terrible idea. She sent her sister to her death, essentially, and it led the world to being swallowed up in chaos. Uncertain of what she’s meant to do and determined to still do right by Serah, Lightning takes Serah’s soul and allows herself to be turned into crystal for five hundred years.
After those years pass, Lightning wakes up to a world that’s been swallowed in chaos. Left without time, without new life, and without even the process of death and rebirth, the world has been left in darkness. Some reach for salvation, others reach for revelry, and others just seek the end; after all, people are not meant to be almost immortal. Lightning enters this world as the Savior, someone who is meant to deliver souls to a new destination where they will gain salvation. What she doesn’t realize immediately is two things. First, her emotions have largely slipped away, encompassed in a vessel called Lumina, meant to protect Serah’s soul. Second, that she is being tested the entirety time. Left empty, she would be intended as the next goddess of death, meant to watch over the world in the absence of the previous one.
Of course, given that Lightning’s entire story is about defying gods, she turns her back on this inevitability, realizing that her mission (which is ultimately to get her sister back) is all a lie. Lightning defies god, and in turn, leads everyone to a new world. This is ultimately who she is, and in the process, Lightning learns a lot about herself and why she was one of the few who could do this.
And most importantly, why she was one of the few who couldn’t do it alone.
Final Fantasy XIII. | Final Fantasy XIII-2. | Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
Lightning's specific wiki page.
PERSONALITY: Outwardly, Lightning has always been someone who shunned her own weaknesses. Believing that being lonely, being weak, and being vulnerable would end up working against her, Lightning cut away her weaknesses, suppressing them under a new name, and making it so that few people would be able to see the real Lightning. Claire Farron was gone, and in her place was someone stronger. This choice came at a very young age, and the fact that she made it at that age was telling. In some ways, Lightning’s growth as an individual still doesn’t allow her to grow as an adult. For as strong and relentless as she is in some ways, she is still very young. She is insecure, left lashing out when she’s uncertain and when her false front doesn’t provide her the strength she needs. Still, as a result of Lightning’s journey, she has changed a lot. She has grown up a lot, and there are some parts of her that even she is not fully aware of, parts that she still has to assess and understand.
To understand Lightning best, though, there are two simple ways to look at her. The first is to look at her love for her sister, and the second is to look at how she observes herself. Her treatment of herself in the wake of everything says a lot, and it’s important to note that despite being a very straightforward person who doesn’t always think through things carefully (she has a very A to B to C logical cycle that she depends upon), she is not very self-aware. Naturally, suppressing entire parts of yourself can lead to that.
If asked why Lightning does anything, her first response would be that she does things for her sister. Lightning does have stronger motivations beyond Serah, of course, but Serah is at the heart of everything. There is no one in the world that Lightning seeks to protect or care for more. Part of this is because of her responsibilities that she took on as a teenager, and part of this is because of Lightning’s mistakes. If she had believed Serah was a l’Cie, things would have gone differently. If she hadn’t sent Serah on a mission to change the future, altering every path along the way, things would have gone differently.
In many ways, Lightning will go above and beyond in terms of Serah, even shooting well beyond basic rationality if it means that Serah might be safe. What Lightning claims she will do doesn’t necessarily always cohere with what she will do, but the thought of protecting her sister will motivate her in a number of ways. Protect Serah, do gods’ bidding, and nothing else matters. When she loses Serah, she even falls into an obvious pit of despair, slipping into what is clearly a terrible emotional state. It is then that she is violent. It is then that she brushes other people off, trying to hone herself into a weapon to try and attack anything and everything in her way. She doesn’t care that this doesn’t make much sense, and perhaps more importantly, she’s not thinking.
The dependency the sisters have on one another does go both ways, with Serah not being able to readily let go of Lightning even when everyone claims that they should. Lightning’s behavior is far more emphatic than Serah’s in some ways, but it definitely is the result of two people heading out into the world with no one else. They depend upon one another, they love one another, and they will protect one another—at all costs.
Ultimately, Lightning does come to accept other family. She accepts Serah’s fiancé, she accepts Sazh, Vanille, Fang, and Hope, and she even comes to see Serah’s traveling friend Noel as a friend of her own. She comes to care and feel for these individuals, and the fact that she cares for them really shows how she behaves with Serah in a different light. Lightning is largely rational when approaching the others. She needs to help them. She needs to push them and motivate them to do what’s best. But when Serah is involved, rationality often goes out the window.
As much as Lightning might try to ground herself in logic and rationality, claiming that it’s normal to go about things the way she does, she’s not very good at either of them. She’s someone who believes it’s important to achieve the impossible, because anything isn’t impossible, not when someone tries. But really, her inability to ground herself in either of these things is prevalent most often in Lightning Returns, when Lightning’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities are given form in the shape of Lumina, a vessel meant to protect and seal away Serah’s soul until it’s time. Throughout the game, Lumina speaks to Lightning about her feelings, and Lightning herself denies them many times over, even as Lumina continues to taunt her and explain how she must be feeling.
Lightning’s outright dislike of Lumina is very telling from a narrative standpoint. It is very difficult for Lightning to accept Lumina, and she is even distrusting of her. Of course, Lumina is not only Lightning’s emotions—she is also chaos, so the mix of the two are very frustrating for Lightning herself. Having to deal with Lumina throughout the game agitates Lightning. Yet, at the same time, she shows that she takes Lumina at her word despite herself. She distrusts the Hope presented to her by god because Lumina says so, and she takes Lumina’s coaxing from time to time at face value. Additionally, Lumina assists Lightning by being frustrating, ensuring that chains of events happen so that Lightning can act as she would normally act in a number of scenarios. She points out Lightning’s hypocrisies, and also points out how often it is that Lightning really cares, even if Lightning herself cannot express these feelings openly.
Of course, Lumina is doing it for a reason. She would know, wouldn’t she?
It’s very telling in a number of ways. Lightning needs to be strong, so she molds herself into someone who is not in the least self-aware. She denies her vulnerabilities right up to the last second. She’s someone who cannot show uncertainty, so she acts. It’s what makes the most sense for her. What Lightning never seems to be aware of at any given moment is how emotional she is in spite of what she tries to hide away. Her vulnerabilities are always there. And she is conscious of the guilt she feels, even expressing that since her emotions are gone, she won’t crush under the weight of the guilt of her actions. Lumina being separated is there to ensure that Lightning acts on her guilt, even when she cannot. Lumina is a nuisance, because Lightning is a nuisance to herself. Lightning ultimately accepts Lumina in the end, even if she doesn’t have much time to process what, exactly, had been happening there. But even with this acceptance, there is a great understanding: no one is harder on Lightning than herself. She is the source of her guilt, her anxieties, and her massive insecurities. Lightning doesn’t like herself terribly much. Even her moments of lashing out and being angry often lead back to that in some way.
Beyond all of this, there is still very much the surface Lightning, the Lightning who remains as a product of all this. In many ways, Lightning is a very easy person to read, though she would prefer otherwise. She is easily agitated and almost fussy in the face of other people. She has grown a lot, far beyond the person who shoved people away, but she is socially awkward and blunt. She doesn’t mince words, she’s blunt, and she relies on being straight forward. She is quieter than some people, but she does try to understand people as best as she can even despite her awkwardness, and even tries to point out when people care about one another. Several of her quests in Lightning Returns are about bringing people together at the end of the world so they can be happy together—which makes sense, as she wants to be with her sister, who she loves more than anything. Some of these quests are romantic, while others are platonic and about estranged family members. Her body language is someone who is seemingly impatient a lot of the times. Even so, Lightning has fostered a dry sense of humor and an ability to have fun. It might not always be obvious, but she certainly has her moments.
In addition, Lightning acts with a lot of integrity. Despite claiming she will do a number of terrible things if it means that Serah will be back, she never seems to actively act on these things. More than anything, Lightning is a lot of talk when it comes to this. (Or if this comes up. Lightning doesn’t talk herself up in general.) Throughout the three games, Lightning is someone who keeps trying. She is determined to help other people, and her determination, even if she doesn’t realize itself, is what leads her to inspiring others. She goes above and beyond to make sure people are happy, and to deliver a world that is best for everyone. It is because of her integrity and determination that she is able to make speeches about the impossible being made to happen, and it is because of her integrity and determination that she is able to go around a dying world and help others. She messes up a lot along the way, but perhaps the most important part of Lightning is her ability to somehow keep going. She may want to give up, but she can’t. She can’t give up on Serah … and she can’t give up on anyone else, either.
As much as it is heavy-handed to call Lightning the Savior in the last game, she really is someone who fights for other people, often at the cost of herself. She even claims that she will go above and beyond if it means protecting everyone else, admitting that she would forego her own life if it was necessary. Lightning even makes that choice, right up until Lumina comes and taunts her for it. Lightning doesn’t want to live alone. She wants to live with her friends, and most importantly, she wants to live and be with her sister. She is sacrificially selfless in a number of ways, doing everything for everyone else, and very rarely acting for herself.
Lightning is stubborn, extremely difficult to reason with, and very straightforward. She is in some ways not as mature as she should be, but she is willing to do what needs to be done. She might not figure that out the first time or even the tenth time, but she will find some way to keep going. Now, Lightning just needs to accept that about herself—if that’s even possible.
POWER: As a RPG character from three games, I am going to go with the last game to best explain her abilities, in part because her boosts there are specific to her canon point.
Magic: This will incompass many of Lightning’s abilities. Lightning cannot heal without some world specific things, but she can use elemental magic (ice, fire, lightning, wind) and specific spells that weaken people. She cannot strengthen herself, however. She can make others weaker physically, magically, or even more susceptible to damage. Sometimes she can combine her elemental magic together, or even into her physical attacks.
Savior Boosts: As the Savior, Lightning is granted additional speed, strength, and durability, making it so that she can run around without sleep for twenty-four hours in a row. If she does sleep, she seems to heal up. This makes her almost god-like within her game’s context in terms of durability, but within Mask or Menace, she will just be a super durable character, albeit one that would still die if someone headshot her.
Schemata Changes/Magical Girl Lightning: Within Lightning Returns, Lightning has a number of garbs that grant her certain boosts and also range from looking really cool to looking … not cool. Within MoM, these will essentially work as costume changes that might work for specific scenarios. Essentially, Lightning can change her clothes in the blink of an eye, from an evening gown to being dressed like a “splendid admiral” to her get-up in the first game.