Lightning (character)

Motomu Toriyama wanted to embody a new type of female character in Lightning, with a more athletic body and less feminine character compared to the other heroines of the Final Fantasy series ^{[1] [2]} . Giving the task to the artist, Tetsuya Nomura, he asked to make her both “strong and beautiful”, “something like a female version of Cloud Stryfe from Final Fantasy VII ” ^{[1] [3]} . With the beginning of the development of the game, many designs were completed, some of which were developed by other members of the production team. The first drafts presented her as a blonde of Asian appearance ^{[3] [4]} , later Nomura decided to make Lightning a “serious”, “inexorable”, “ruthless” and to some extent “individualistic personality”, so that her character contrasted with another character in the game - hot-tempered and erratic Snow Williers ^[5] . The final conceptual design came out less Asian than originally planned, and since Hope Estame was already blond, Lightning got pinkish hair ^{[3] [4]} . She is 21 years old in the game ^[6] .

The Lightning character has received both positive and negative reviews. Even while the game was in development, Anime News Network columnist Todd Tsiolek accused the heroine of stereotyping, noting that the chocobo cub in the hairstyle Soot even looks more interesting ^[7] . In February 2010, the Japanese magazine Famitsu put Lightning on the 34th place in the list of the best characters in computer games ^[8] . Many critics noted the similarity of the heroine with the protagonist of the game Final Fantasy VII Cloud Strife.