akimojo

[akimojo]

M-miss Farron...

#MISS FARRON INDEED..... OUGHDH MY GOD #LOOK AT HOW CUTE SHE IS i love how you draw her so much #reblog #final fantasy xiii

[akimojo]

oh absolutely, if we're talking about who's more revolutionary as a female protagonist of a male-dominated game franchise, lightning is 100% the one we should be looking at! she challenged male players so much that even to this day, they're still throwing tantrums whenever someone so much as mentions her lmao

i just think it's a shame that even women feel the need to base part of our opinion of a female protagonist on "well what do the men think of her?", even if it's for the sake of challenging them

men definitely found serah's character easier to digest because she's more "male-friendly", soft and feminine, but i don't want my own perception of her to be affected by what they think, and it hasn't! her arc was a lovely deconstruction of the damsel in distress trope, her unwillingness to act on her own and her heavy dependence on lightning and snow was rightfully treated as an obstacle she had to overcome so she could find her own strength and agency, and many (cough, pretty much all of them) women in the franchise don't get that same kind of liberation. in that sense, serah's arc is very much a part of the revolutionary feminist-driven narrative we love in ffxiii, but a very overlooked one on the basis that she's feminine. i've seen takes that she's just a "girly version of lightning", which completely misconstrues both characters

unfortunately her development gets swept to the side by men, maybe even more so than lightning's development since, to them, an overly dependent female character isn't seen as a character flaw, and that sucks ass. they still see her as a damsel, despite how her arc was specifically about her growing into her own person, so to see women (no one in particular in mind, just takes i've seen here and there) ignore her development too, again because she's softer and panders to the male gaze more than lightning (putting aside the fact that lightning's design most definitely panders to men as well), is frustrating to me. the growth she went through and the depth behind her character gets downplayed because of something on the surface that, if we lived a perfect world where the topic of femininity wasn't poisoned by misogynistic men, shouldn't matter

my gripe with people comparing lightning and serah is that i personally don't feel like they're meant to be compared, at least not on a question like "but who's BETTER" (especially not when that dicussion is led by men, holy shit does that get predictable). they complement each other a lot, what one lacks at first, the other might have in excess (bad or not), when one is missing, the other yearns to see her again, one is feminine, and the other is more masculine. but more than that, our opinion on who is the stronger protagonist shouldn't have to be affected by what men like. i know that's something we have to take into account when we look at their differences from a feminist perspective, which frankly fucking sucks because in doing so it almost feels like we demonize femininity, and i know that's not actually the case, but it's hard to shake off that feeling as one of those people who grew up hating pink or the idea of learning to cook for example for fear of not being taken seriously by fellow women

i want to base my understanding of lightning and serah and how they differ from each other from the perspective of their personal growth and the roles they have in the story of each game, not what roles they have among the kind of people that hated lightning for breaking out of the female ff character archetype. those people can keep shitting puking crying over it for all i care. at the same time, i'm aware that it's men that were behind both characters and that their biases bled into both of them, serah in particular. going from having lightning as a protagonist to serah can feel like a step down from progression, and in a way it was! that's beyond frustrating, but i would've personally hoped that in our own little non-male-dominated fandom space, we could look past men's perception (unless feminism is at the center of the discussion, of course) so we could actually appreciate both serah and lightning based on who they are on their own

Every time I stumble across someone trying to argue on whether lightning or serah is the better protagonist I wanna bang my head against the wall

#i feel constantly torn between wanting to love female characters based solely on their own roles #and criticising them based on whether they challenge men or not #because again i really dont want to have to make it about the male gaze lmao like i wish we could just leave that out of the equation #unfortunately its unavoidable and needs to be talked about #especially when theyre written by men #to be fair thats part of what makes feminism the complex issue it is and either way i love that we can use ffxiii as a tool to discuss it #but ideally i wouldve loved to just not give a shit about that when most of us who talk about this game to this day are women #i know thats not very progressive of me but oh lord am i sick of opinions being disclaimed with ''btw this is what men think about it'' #but also i was so young when i played xiii-2 i wasnt even aware of the male gaze yet #so in hindsight that disappointment of going from revolutionary lightning to the more on-brand serah was something i didnt experience #i should be more understanding of that #reblog #final fantasy xiii

[akimojo]

#YUSNAAN!!!!!!!!!!!!! #either that or palompolum but the culture in yusnaan is what gets me #rich people bullshit aside #luxerion is my favorite xiii city but if i lived there i would be so depressed lmao #reblog #final fantasy xiii

[akimojo]

Every time I stumble across someone trying to argue on whether lightning or serah is the better protagonist I wanna bang my head against the wall

#you fool..... you absolute buffoon... they complement each other in ways you cant even imagine #they way it usually boils down to either #''well serah is more likeable and lightning is mean so serah is better'' #or ''lightning is badass and serah is a total damsel so lightning is better'' #like..... you dont get it..... #first of all its mischaracterization #second of all theyre so motivated by each other that competitively comparing them is useless #third of all. shut up #fjhdjd theyre both incredible characters with amazing character arcs #slandering either one of them WHILE PITTING THEM AGAINST EACH OTHER is like blasphemy to me #final fantasy xiii #sorry to say the fandom is guilty of it too #except here its fsr about femininity??? like what does being feminine or not have to do with being a good character #i dont get it at all

[akimojo]

So excited to share a preview of my Serah piece for the show-stoppingly gorgeous @ffladieszine!!!

You can check it out at https://ffladieszine.bigcartel.com/

#final fantasy xiii #final fantasy xiii-2 #serah farron #ff ladies zine #my art

[akimojo]

Ah XIII-2 ~ I love this game! One of my favourite Final Fantasy’s…

#HAVE I REBLOGGED THIS YET #BC I LOVE IT SO SO VERY MUCH #ITS SO BRIGHT AND FUN i fucking love this style on them it fits them PERFECTLY #reblog #final fantasy xiii

[akimojo]

i don't mind seeing people interpret hope and lightning as having romantic connotations surrounding them in the lr lore, but i personally think claiming it to be proven as canon really undermines just how badly bhunivelze fucked with hope's head

"bhunivelze developed a romantic obsession with lightning because he absorbed hope's heart!" yes, but that's not all there is to it. you gotta keep in mind that bhunivelze used lightning to psychologically mess with hope for centuries, he used her image as a tool to get hope to obsess over the past and wish for nothing more than to be reunited with her (remember that the last time hope ever saw her was at the end of xiii, while everyone else aside from vanille and fang had come back at that point), and she had such a major hand in inspiring hope to become the person, the leader, he'd become since then

bhunivelze didn't inherit hope's emotions until after he had become obsessed with lightning as a symbol of the past. if you view hope's and lightning's relationship as platonic/familial (like i personally do) then bhunivelze becomes so much more sick, and it adds to the misogynistic undertones in his behavior toward mwynn and etro, his own family. he took something pure, the admiration a young boy had for an older woman who replaced his mom as his female role model, and twisted it into something dark, inappropriate and obsessive, something that would serve him. that's what he inherited. he was never able to love his mother or daughter, how could he possibly understand the familial love between hope and lightning?

bhunivelze's sudden feelings for lightning is, in my opinion, meant to disturb us because of how innocent hope's admiration for lightning actually is. turning hope back into a kid sells that even more, it specifically draws out lightning's maternal instincts toward him, just for her to be faced with what bhunivelze has twisted it into after centuries of torture. bhunivelze isn't representative of hope's and lightning's relationship, they're victims of his abuse of the human heart

again, interpreting them as romantic is fine and dandy if that's how you see them, but i feel like claiming it's all "proof that hope x lightning is canon" ignores a lot of important details surrounding them and bhunivelze, more specifically it downplays the absolutely devastating impact bhunivelze had on hope's state of mind, and subsequently, lightning's rage upon seeing it for herself

#im not really into the ship at all so i could be just as biased lol but thats my take on it #i havent gotten into the last two books yet so who knows maybe im missing something big #buuuuut in terms of bhunivelzes obsession with lightning? i wouldnt use it as proof of anything #bhunivelze is a sick fuck and VERY unreliable if youre looking to use his behavior as evidence of anything romantic #especially when the main takeaway from his backstory is his cruelty and indifference toward the women in his life fghjgyjh #final fantasy xiii #lightning returns

[akimojo]

There's so many reasons to be sad that opera omnia ended, but the main thing I really wanted to see if it had kept going was if they were ever gonna add hilda 😭 there's so much potential with her but ff2 alone didn't do her enough justice and agh!! she could've been so cool!!!

#its cool that they added minwu and im sure that made more sense since death was a pretty major theme in dffoo #but i wanted hilda so much more :( fdusjafds #i didnt even make it to the part where minwu gets involved but im partial ok hilda deserves some attention #imagine if hilda and the 16 cast had been added in time.... she could've had an fr ability with cid or clive... resistance leaders and all #dissidia final fantasy opera omnia #actually now that i think about it i wouldve loved to see everyone in the ff2 and 16 cast interact #out of all crossovers you can get with 16 i think that would be the most interesting one with all the similar themes and story elements

[akimojo]

HELLLOOO USER AKIMOJO!! first things first, I LOVE UR ART. wanted 2 put that out there hehe <3 also i wanted 2 ask u if u have clear references for serah, noel, and hope back n side designs? i wanna send them 2 someone in order to make habdmade figures and i would do them myself but i dont have any of the games anymore..... i just figured 2 ask u bc maybe u have em and u r like the Number 1 FF13 Artist in my head fr. hehe but yeah anyway have an amazing day, sorry 2 bother u

Oof I don't have access to the games right now either 😔 can't help you there

But if anyone who sees this is able/willing to help out, that would be super cool!

#i wish gamesfashionarchive had them but the only ff clothes they have are from x 😭 #their concept art might work but im not sure if they differ a little from canon #anyway see this as a call to action lol #ask #anonymous #final fantasy xiii

[akimojo]

#AGAIN WITH THE GORGEOUS ART #im always so obsessed with how you color hair and lips omg its so beautiful #reblog #final fantasy xiii

[akimojo]

I love how Lightning falls in a cool way in this scene and then Noel:

The way he shakes his head is just so cute <3

#and compared to serah later on he's the one who always has the cooler landings coming out of the gates 😭 he learned #reblog #final fantasy xiii

[akimojo]

how can i not be obsessed with lightning returns when it does cool shit like this

#lightning youre so iconic #final fantasy xiii #lightning returns #bhunivelze #lightning farron

[akimojo]

This whole chapter was an absolute gut punch oh my god, PSICOM sucks so incredibly bad

Leaving dajh alone with them was such a heartbreaking decision for sazh to make, but what other choice did he have 😭 he'd go to the ends of the earth even knowing he can't actually save his son, just to spare him from the worst of two evils

#sazh the man that you are #UGH I LOVE HIM SM #he'd do ANYTHING #them promising to go to nautilus together broke my heart man #knowing fully well what happens when they actually do meet up there #jesus christ this book is going right for my heart #final fantasy xiii #sazh katzroy #dajh katzroy

[akimojo]

the in-game ark bgm is amazing, but it doesn't really capture that same hollow, gut-wrenching sense of foreboding that the unused version conveys so so well

#the ticking is the cherry on top #final fantasy xiii #lightning returns #you're in what might as well be your own little heaven #but there's something so deeply off-putting about it that it weighs on you #when it's the one place you should be able to be free of burden #that's the vibe i'm getting from this version #Spotify

[akimojo]

thinking about this again because the direct parallel in these scenes makes me sick

chaos is pretty much always presented as this black mass that sorta oozes and accumulates into this cloud of fucked up-ness. it almost looks corrupting in a way, and that goes along so perfectly with bhunivelze's perception of it

chaos feels to me like sort of a narrative embodiment of bhunivelze's hatred for etro and mwynn. it comes from valhalla, where both of them reside(d) once. he doesn't understand it, he can't see it, but all humans are created with a piece of it within them. he views that chaos as impure, as if it defiles what would otherwise be a perfect creation, almost like how he would've cared more for etro if she hadn't shared mwynn's image. he became scared of what etro could be capable of; he murdered mwynn to gain control, and he's afraid of losing it. he feels disdain for humans' hearts and the chaos within them, because just like the women in his life that he cast aside, they're out of his control

but the thing is that chaos is more than that. it protects. the cluster of dead souls in luxerion's cathedral wasn't them being trapped by the chaos, they were being preserved, kept safe until they could be reincarnated along with the living. just like how lumina kept serah's soul safe within her, which just so happened to be the one thing bhunivelze was trying to keep lightning from getting back

the scene where serah is being strung up by the chaos (in this case, yeul's souls were mixed in, but they're so ingrained into the chaos i don't think it really matters) is terrifying, but really the chaos is what kept her safe. it's what let serah communicate with lightning in valhalla, and it's chaos, lumina, that took hold of her soul and kept it safe until the end. because of that, bhunivelze lost his only bargaining chip against lightning

then there's the hope scene, which is so similar but so incredibly different compared to serah's scene. they're both strung up, but bhunivelze holds hope so much more strictly than the chaos did serah, and the strings make him resemble a puppet more than anything. the light eminating from them makes it look so much more pristine and "presentable" in a way; it's a lot more controlled (and i'm just now realizing hope's pose is very reminiscent of depictions of jesus dying on the cross, goddammit the symbolism)

but despite hope's scene looking cleaner, and more ethereal because of the light, there's something much more sinister about it. serah's scene is messy, there's chaos swirling around all over the place, it's spilling out of her eyes, voices are overlapping in the creepiest way possible; but more than anything it's emotional, messy, and is meant to stir lightning

hope's scene is cold, it's calculated, it's purposeful, and it's all perpetuated by this one being who values control over all else. just like the ark, it represents bhunivelze's ideals. but this time it's not being shown to lightning to unsettle her, it's to persuade her. it's bhunivelze's way of telling her "look at how much i've sacrificed to make this perfect vessel, someone who is so free of impurity, someone who is worthy of god", and "you can be worthy too". but to lightning, it's an insult. all she sees is someone she cared for so deeply, who bhunivelze had ruined so he could use him as a puppet to manipulate her

what's even crazier to think about is that the main thing he had "extracted" out of hope, the chaos, the heart, that he deemed to be so impure and vile; made its way into bhunivelze himself. by his own standards, he was not pure anymore. and the moment when it becomes most clear that bhunivelze is experiencing emotion is when tears gush out of his eyes, and he lifts his head similarly to how serah's was tilted up when chaos was pouring out of her own

Lightning: if I had a gil for every time a loved one's lifeless body was strung up in front of me to taunt me I'd have 2 gil, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

#i feel like i lost track of where i was going with this but its 4 am and im lowkey going insane rn #THERES SO MUCH TO UNPACK!!!!! #oh bhunivelze you never fail to send me down a psychotic ramble #one of these days i'll make a post going through all of the symbolism i've noticed surrounding this fucker #there is. A LOT. #god i need to sleep #final fantasy xiii #lightning returns #hope estheim #serah farron #bhunivelze

[akimojo]

#i love the cat its everything to me #BUT #look at the lr dog #just look at it #look at its face #my soul is telling me to vote for the dog #reblog #final fantasy xiii

[akimojo]

STOP UGH I CANT HANDLE HOW CUTE THIS IS WHEN I KNOW HOW HORRIBLY WRONG ITLL GO SOON

#DAJH HAS CHOCOBO-THEMED STUFF............. OUGHH #ALSO ALSO the way sazh doubts himself in xiii and blames himself for losing sight of dajh that day kills me more now #bc something the book is really good at highlighting is just how at ease the people of cocoon are around each other #they leave crops in the open they approach strangers like its nothing etc #they feel completely safe #sazh had no reason to worry about letting dajh wait in front of the pet store #but because hes a single parent he had to suffer that loss all alone and IM SICKKK #final fantasy xiii #sazh katzroy #dajh katzroy