#｡･ﾟﾟ･ — 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧 : lightning

[edenfelled]

This headcanon was originally posted on @rosafulmen ! I have tidied it up for this blog.

no one look at me, i am having brainrot for a FFX failed!guardian lightning. she became a guardian for serah who desperately wanted to defeat sin, but she was ultimately unable to protect her when the time came. despite that, her skill and expertise in guardianship is second to none, and other summoners seek her out to try and assist their parties.

i've attached some other thoughts below the cut.

claire and serah grew up in luca after being orphaned at a young age. although the port doesn't have a dedicated temple, much of the people who assisted the girls during this time ( at least until claire was old enough ) were yevonites, which helped serah instil a firm belief in the religion. i don't think claire ever held an overtly negative opinion to the church, she just... didn't see the point in praying to a god who implied the reason their parents died was the result of them not being 'pure' enough. she also quickly picked up the dichotomy of acceptable and unacceptable machina, even if she wasn't allowed to talk about it.

claire joined the crusaders as soon as they would take her, mostly working odd jobs around the city. like the guardian corps, this gave her the ability to provide for her sister at the cost of her time. serah met snow during this time — and up-and-coming blizball star for the luca goers — and began to seriously consider becoming a summoner.

this was also the time where claire changed her name to lightning. it likely started as a codename she adopted and was reinforced during the pilgrimage, especially after journeying through the thunder plains.

lightning returned home as soon as she learned of her sister's plan and the two got into a massive argument. serah would not budge on her plans despite her outrage, and snow was fully prepared to drop his blizball career in order to support her. not only did lightning not approve of their relationship but she was convinced snow would get her killed. she became a guardian only to show them both how stupid the idea was.

serah attends her first temple, gains her fayth and the pilgrimage begins. there's also huge opportunity for the other cast to integrate here. maybe sazh lost his son and became a guardian for him, or maybe fang/vanille were another prototype dream before tidus? no matter who, they journey the land until they finally reach zanarkand.

serah ends up choosing snow to be her final aeon due to the love they held for each other ( i vibe with the idea that he promised to marry her after she got the aeon and... well. ) and the knowledge that lightning would completely reject yunalesca's truth. this means lightning was not privy to what went on inside the room of the fayth — she saw two enter and one leave.

i don't really know if my personal ship for snow / lightning applies in this verse but it can go one of two ways. whether she secretly loves him or she's finally accepted him as being worthy for serah, he sacrifices himself for what is ultimately a few years of peace. this nearly leads her to attack yunalesca, only for serah to intervene and remind her that all their work is for nothing if they die.

in the end, though they reached sin, serah was struck down before she could complete the ritual and dies in lightning's arms. no one really blamed lightning for being unable to protect her; the life of a summoner and her guardians is a perilous one, safety is not guaranteed, and a guardian can do everything they can and it still not be enough. lightning could not protect serah from sin itself. all it did was instil in her the senselessness of the pilgrimage.

with nowhere else to go, lightning returns to luca where she is constantly propositioned by summoners looking for an experienced guardian. she rejects every single one until yuna.

auron specifically sought her out after serah's death. as the both of them were products of a malignant belief, they vowed to undo the cycle. this means that lightning wouldn't say anything about the final aeon, despite knowing a guardian would have to die, and wouldn't interject when the others were offering themselves during zanarkand. I don't know (?) if she would know he was unsent, but it ultimately wouldn't matter to her.

i also have two ideas for snow's fayth. one, light buries it somewhere in zanarkand and gives up the location to yuna after they defeat yunalesca. though he would not be her final aeon, she is able to ensure his death wasn't for nothing and he could assist yuna during the fight with sin — ultimately freeing him and avenging serah. two, she's had it on her the whole time and basically does the same thing minus leading them to the fayth. if a baby seymour can carry anima around before a temple, so can she.

[edenfelled]

This headcanon was originally posted on @rosafulmen ! I have tidied it up for this blog.

this is my au verse for xv lightning ! like all au's, any character connections i make here do not need to be set in stone for people playing canons from the universe, but it does allow me to more seamlessly incorporate her into a universe rather than default to a 'traveller from another world' or attempt to mash the xiii lore into a blend of xv and verses xiii.

at the tender age of ten years old, claire farron's parents were killed on the outside of the crown city by an out of control daemon attack. with her and her sister ( verse dependant ) orphaned at a young age, this forced her to grow up quickly to survive.

knowing there was financial security in the ranks of the kingsglaive claire began to train in the hopes of being accepted into their ranks but was rejected on account of her age. however, her determination was quickly caught by cor who offered her a deal in exchange for her services. if she undertook all the correct training, both in combat and etiquette, he would consider giving her a place in the crownsguard as a shield for lunafreya, in the same way gladio was for noctis, once the oracle was safe in lucis. given her malleable age, he knew he had a fighting chance of shaping her to be the perfect guardian for his prince's bride.

upon accepting these terms, claire changed her name to lightning and threw herself completely into her training. throughout the years she would have seen the boys from time to time ( most often gladio, due to their training ), but her desire for strength and unbreakable will kept her at a distance and cost her a lot of chances at closer friendship. however, she would have kept regular correspondence with luna on account of her semi-official appointment and worked closely with nyx once she was in the city.

in my mind, the au then has two diverging paths — though i consider one to be more 'canon' than the other. the first, less canon path, is that light was able to help luna to escape the city and go to altissia. however, this is limiting in that it stops me from being able to roleplay light within the road trip section with the boys. if luna roleplayers are interested in that, though, i am happy to play her within that part of the verse. they would have travelled together after the events of the film until noct and the boys arrived in altissia and stayed by her side until her untimely death.

the other more canonical is that light, being a crownsguard rather than a kingsglaive, is unable to use magic. the roles of her duty pertain more to the defence of the people than the war or the killing of daemons and, from a political standpoint, she would not be able to guard luna until she and noctis were married. she would have escaped the city with cor and the other guards but, much like the boys, is waylaid from getting to luna on account of the ports and other political roadblocks. i enjoy the idea of her being an occasional accompaniment for the boys, helping out certain side quests and occasionally camping with them, but doesn't properly accompany them on account of her duties being strictly for Luna and the importance of reaching her as soon as she is able.

i also really like the idea of her owning a motorbike. she probably helps cindy procure parts for it at the beginning of the game, similar to how we upgrade the regalia, and continues to let her tweak it over the years.

after altissia and luna dying, a bruised, battered and grief striken light returned to lucis and joined the kingsglaive. there, with her expertise, she would dedicate herself to keeping her people safe and waiting for the king's return.