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Lightning is a Better Character than Cloud
- Thread starter The Pet of the Month
- Start date
Lightning doesn't have a soupçon of the character development that Futaba has
Lightning was a joke. She was a boring copy of cloud with no character development or emotion. Lame lead for a lame entry in the franchise. Christ I'm glad that trilogy is behind us...I won't lie though the music was good.
I want to call bullshit on your thesis, OP, but FF13 was bland enough I've entirely forgotten it and I've never touched the sequels. So it's entirely possible you are right but I will never know it because I strongly disliked the game she was in.
Cloud is a dork and his entire story is the deconstruction of the cool protagonist.
Lightning is just the cool protagonist played straight. The well never goes that deep for Lightning.
Lightning is just the cool protagonist played straight. The well never goes that deep for Lightning.
Honestly can't tell if this is a troll post.
That's the basic arc of Cloud.... in Disk 1. He then has crazy development in the rest of the game. I mean, if you think Lightning is "cooler" then by all means. But to say she is a more developed character, and your example is only a fraction of Cloud's arc..... that's hilarious.
It's really weird/sad that this flies over some people's heads.
It's the whole point of Cloud's character.
It's like saying G Gundam is more thought provoking than NGE, because the fights are cooler (???)
All I remember from Lightning in XIII is "worst birthday ever" so I can't even pretend to entertain the OP's notion. XIII is not a good game and its story and characters are easily the worst part. If Lightning does indeed have an arc in XIII, it's buried under a mountain of fal'cie/l'cie bullshit.
I only played half of XIII-2 and never made it to Lightning Returns so I dunno, maybe she gets better in the 1.5 games I didn't play. But just like Gran Pulse, for a lot of people that's asking for way too much of your time to see really Lightning is a great character once you play through the start of the trilogy.
I only played half of XIII-2 and never made it to Lightning Returns so I dunno, maybe she gets better in the 1.5 games I didn't play. But just like Gran Pulse, for a lot of people that's asking for way too much of your time to see really Lightning is a great character once you play through the start of the trilogy.
Lightning is shockingly unlikeable and I think her hair looks like she tried to cut it herself while extremely drunk.
Cloud isn't an amazing character, but at least he has more going for him than "is grumpy" and "likes sibling".
Cloud isn't an amazing character, but at least he has more going for him than "is grumpy" and "likes sibling".
I didn't realize it was a reference to the MMO so i'll concede that knock on Lightning. Still though, she, similar to Cloud, was ruined in each subsequent game. He at the very least wasn't terrible in his debut or CC. If they ever tried to remake 13 so much legwork would be needed to make Lightning not only likeable, but relatable in any way shape or form. Like, the premise of a hardened character softening up as they spend time with their party is so simple and yet they went about it in the most obtuse and unlikeable way possible.
I've been replaying OG FFVII for the first time in like a decade, and the one thing that stands out to me is that none of the characters seem to speak like people since the English translation is so bad. For that reason, I feel like I can't judge Cloud's character, because I don't feel like I have a good impression on what sort of tone he's supposed to have.
FFVII RE Cloud is pretty bland, though we'll have to see how his personality develops after he remembers who he really is on the 4th disk of the 8th installment of the third trilogy of the remake
Lightning is pretty bland too. But that feels more like a product of her environment rather than an indictment on her character.
Answer is Thor 2
FFVII RE Cloud is pretty bland, though we'll have to see how his personality develops after he remembers who he really is on the 4th disk of the 8th installment of the third trilogy of the remake
Lightning is pretty bland too. But that feels more like a product of her environment rather than an indictment on her character.
Answer is Thor 2
Lightning is a better character than Cloud IF you consider just the original FFXIII. But the following games don't do her any favours, and you can't just ignore two games when deciding who's better between the two. Not to mention, with the stellar portrayal of Cloud in the FFVII Remake...
I adore FFXIII, but I gotta give it to Cloud.
I adore FFXIII, but I gotta give it to Cloud.
The only Lightning I really liked were Lightning Returns Lightning and Dissidia NT Lightning. Especially NT Lightning since she is much kinder with everyone in comparison to Dissidia 012 Lightning.
Whoa there, fellas.
You're getting some things in reverse here. The game does want you to think that at first but then it pulls a reverse Uno on your ass. It's just that the when they explained the reverse UNO in the English version, it wasn't translated well.
The Japanese version makes it more clear that's not the case.
It's actually the Jenova personality that gets melded back into the real Cloud or potentially even dies hence Cloud being a vegetable because that's what Cloud is without the artificial personality. Jenova! Cloud is who we play as for most of the game and is just a puppet a la the Riku Replica from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. It's the real Cloud inside Cloud that Tifa rescues in the Lifestream Sequence. You stop being able to make dialogue choices once the real Cloud comes back because you, the player, were pretty much the Jenova Cells dictating Cloud's personality. The real Cloud is his own character. So rather than Jenova!Cloud deciding to live as Cloud, it's really Cloud growing as a person from Jenova!Cloud's experiences. That might not be as interesting to you guys though.
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Lighting is an ok character in a bad series of games,
To be honest I dont even know what she is anymore. Is she a goddess now? Is she immortal? Is her sister alive or dead? Those games are such a clusterfuck of random ideas, I am not even sure they can be called games anymore.
FF13 is basically Lighting cosplaying as Cloud. The games are more interested in showing cool poses in fancy dresses that actually making sense.
To be honest I dont even know what she is anymore. Is she a goddess now? Is she immortal? Is her sister alive or dead? Those games are such a clusterfuck of random ideas, I am not even sure they can be called games anymore.
FF13 is basically Lighting cosplaying as Cloud. The games are more interested in showing cool poses in fancy dresses that actually making sense.
I played Ff7 for the first time just before the remake came out, so I don't have any real nostalgia for the game when I can tell you the cloud is great and his personal character arc is, by far, the most compelling thing about 7. Almost made up for how disappoint sephiroth was.
Crisis Core Cloud is a sweet cinnamon bun and I will not let you slander him.
So you basically saw what amounts to the 5 hour prologue of FFVII.
OP
OP
Ngl this applies to every FF game but sequels or prequels to the mainline games always amount to fan fiction. Crisis Core stinks :)Crisis Core Cloud is a sweet cinnamon bun and I will not let you slander him.
So you basically saw what amounts to the 5 hour prologue of FFVII.
I wouldn't go that far but I definitely unironically think FFXIII Lightning is a great character
Cloud has more endearing qualities but tbh I don't remember much about Eclair other than being cold. Never got through Lightning Returns though.
Your 7 year old ROCKS and his Cloud drawing is fantastic.
He also has good taste.
I really like Lightning, but this statement just goes to show how few good female protagonists we have in video games, if Lightning is considered one of the best. Can't wait till Friday.Lightning is also one of the best female protagonists.
I think the fact that we have these debates about the nature of Cloud and who Cloud actually is a testament to how interesting his character is. It makes the comparison to Lightning completely absurd when you stack them up side by side. I don't even hate Lightning, she just isn't much of a character while Cloud has all of these interesting complexities and has an actual character arc.
Lightning is an alright character, but she ain't no Cloud when it comes to character development.
True, there's a lot of ambiguity around Cloud's character that makes him fun to talk about.
My image of Cloud before having played FFVIIR (and now OG FFVII) was a generic anime emo twunk from the 90's/early 2000's era.
What we actually get is a very endearing tryhard twunk who subverts a lot of these tropes and has a legitimately interesting character arc.
So yeah, I stan my boy Cloud.
What we actually get is a very endearing tryhard twunk who subverts a lot of these tropes and has a legitimately interesting character arc.
So yeah, I stan my boy Cloud.
What would be the point in explaining that? This kind of threads is always filled with extremely reductive takes from people who don't like game X and protagonist Y, so it's really daunting writing an explanation about how saying "Cloud and Lightning are the same" does a huge disservice to both characters. So it's best to not take it seriously. That's my opinion anyway.
Gez....
I didn't need to vote to see that Thor 2: Dark World would be a better choice instead of Lighting.
This thread is going to opposite direction OP. You could say Lighting looks better than Cloud, I would totally agree but.... better character.....
I didn't need to vote to see that Thor 2: Dark World would be a better choice instead of Lighting.
This thread is going to opposite direction OP. You could say Lighting looks better than Cloud, I would totally agree but.... better character.....
Lightning is alright (at least in the first game), but Cloud is better. Though it obviously helps that he is in a better story..
The thing that always gets me is the whole "Cloud is a deconstruction of the cool protagonist, he's actually a dork" is always lost on me when literally every other depiction in subsequent media post FF7 of Cloud is him being "the cool protagonist"
Noctis is a giant dork, and he isn't ashamed of it.
Noctis is a giant dork, and he isn't ashamed of it.
Dunno if they are being ironic, or if the actual only reason they like her is because she is hot.
It's really not a translation issue, the original Japanese version was no less vague and ambiguous and left a lot for the player to piece together and figure out. I agree 100% w/ what Kuro said, but it's not that easy to "prove" using the game's script. All I know is that I had replayed the game like four times before I really felt like I understood the truth about Cloud, Sephiroth, Jenova, etc.
Also, shouldn't the better character be the more memorable character? Lightning is forgettable as fuck.
Basically. They're extremely similar characters but she's easier on the eyes.