Celesta
Pro Adventurer
Warning, Lightning rant ahead
I want to play the game before saying anything for 100%. But if what One Winged Demon is saying about Serah being rescued all the time is true (and I've seen that fight between Snow and Noel, although I don't know a word Japanese so I'll have to take your word for it, that they're fighting over the right to protect her) I just find it a bit sad - but that's because I'm comparing her to Lightning, which is one of my all time favorite heroines. You never expected anyone to jump in and save Lightning, because Lightning could handle herself, and of course that's because she's been trained a a soldier and a guard, so comparing her to Serah like that is ridiculous. And I guess that's what I'm doing, I AM comparing her to Lightning, and I need to play Serah and see her "for myself" before really making up my mind about her.
I just feel very strongly for Lightning, and in my head I guess I divide heroines into two groups - there's all the others, and then there's Lightning. Even Tifa I can't put into the "can handle herself" batch because even she plays the damsel role a couple of times. Not that there's anything wrong with being rescued! It's just that heroines like Lightning, that dare to be different, are hard to come by. (Starbuck in the new Battlestar Galactica series is one other I can come up with.) I have no numbers for this but I would guess Serah is a much more likable character than Lightning (though I think Lightning was generally very well liked, if I'm not mistaken) - it's easier to like someone who's sweet and kind. And I guess there's some psych thing to that, we like people we want to be, and would you rather be a bitch than kind? So seeing that Square actually took a chance of making their female heroine less feminine, really, is a delight. They took chances with her, definitely.
That being said, it's just... Lightning's whole attitude and personality. I feel I can relate to her (more). Because being in settings with a lot of guys in my life (especially with work), I've experienced how a lot of people still question my interest and devotion as "wanting to do man stuff". Like I want to prove a point or something. With Lightning, it's just who she is. It's Lightning, in battle you can trust that she does her job, you don't have to look after her. She's skilled. She's one of the good ones. She can do what anyone can, no limits. She doesn't have to be nice and sweet and feminine, she has other values than to be a people pleaser. Still that doesn't mean she doesn't care about people or that she can't be a good friend.
I don't really know where I'm going with this rant... oh yes. Serah. Isn't there a point in the game where she says she wants to pay back Snow for what he did for her? I do hope she actually does get to pay him back, and not just by randomly saving his life (with someone else in the party). I hope Serah gets to be heroic in her own way.
And, I also hope we get to see her develop. Lightning 'came out of her shell' in XIII and learned through befriending Hope that she had been a bitch to Serah and that she was taking care of her own need to protect her more than to actually protect her by being her sister and listen to her. So I hope there's a similar kind of growth with Serah. Good storytelling requires character development.
On a side note, when people say Fang HAS to be a lesbian it makes me a little sad. Just because a woman has spine and attitude, she has to be into ladies? As a butch kid who refused to wear dresses and sit nicely at the table, well, I can see Fang as a heterosexual, she'd just be a little bit different than the other gals. She just walks straighter. (But don't worry, I still thinks the lesbianism suits her better)
I love Lightning, she's my favorite character. But I love Serah too. I think the pair represent a character foil. Lightning and Serah are both strong; their strength just manifests in different ways.
Lightning is strong in that at a very young she sacrificed the opportunity to experience a normal adolescence so that she could raise her sister on her own. She is strong willed and physically strong. However as we meet her in FFXIII she doesn't emote very well and is more quick to resort to brute force or lash out at people if she feels overwhelmed. And though she is kind at heart it takes time for her to let her guard down and show that side to other people.
Serah is just the opposite, the fact that she is sweet, open, and endearing just works better than if she were a carbon copy of her sister. Her strength is in how she cares for those around her, copes with hardship and follows her convictions.
She should be vulnerable and perceived as naive or weak where her sister is strong because Lightning raised and protected her for many years. The fact that she seems like a normal 18 year old; goes to school, has a boyfriend, is girly, is all a testament to Lightning doing her best to shelter her so that she could live a normal teenage life.
I guess SE could have made her bitter, unruly, and disgruntled as a consequence of losing her parents at a young age and not getting as much time to spend with her workaholic older sister but I'm happy they didn't go there.
I haven't seen a time where she has acted like one. Vanille was more like that to be honest, skipping around and being overly hyperactive. (not to say I didn't like her)
