Indeed she is. As the women in this series seemed to be getting progressively more either animu(Vanille) or unlikable (Ashe), it was nice to see a character that gives the likes of Celes and Tifa a run for their money as the best heroines of the series.
Yeah yeah, she was powerful, I don't know why people always make a big deal of this...isn't every FF character? I liked what a good leader she was (and not afraid to smack people around for not listening to her
) In fact, she's probably one of the more natural leaders the series has seen. I'm sure the military training has a lot to do with that.
I'm always drawn to leader characters in fiction, I don't know why - probably because I'm not a very good one. Someone like Cloud ends up being a good leader by accident do to that "from the heart" stuff, but Lightning is one of those commanding, quick with a plan leaders from the get go.
And she's got a sweet weapon to boot