Serah Farron

Serah Farron [sɛrə] is a supporting character in Final Fantasy XIII, but a playable character and the main protagonist in Final Fantasy XIII-2. She is the younger sister of Lightning by three years, and is Snow Villiers’s fiancée. Lightning accuses Snow of failing to protect Serah and does not initially approve of their relationship.

Serah’s destiny is one of Final Fantasy XIII‘s central plot points, becoming a central character in the game’s sequel Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Appearance and Personality

“Well, if it’s too much to deal with, face it later.“

—Serah

Serah is an eighteen-year-old girl with the same pink tint of hair that Lightning has. She ties her hair into a ponytail on the left side of her head, much like how Lightning’s hair is draped over her left shoulder. She also has blue eyes like her sister, although Serah’s are a much darker shade. She wears a black armband on her right bicep like Lightning, red plaid pleated skirt lined with black lace, a white sleeveless dress shirt, a semi-transparent pink sweeper in the same style, black thigh-high stockings, ivory ankle boots, and a bandage on her left bicep which she uses to cover her l’Cie brand. Yoshinori Kitase describes Serah as “the cutest girl” in the game.

In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Serah now wears a slightly revealing white, pink, and gold dress. Her dress consists of a white top starting at her bust, pink sections adorned with strange symbols on the front and back connecting the top to the skirt over black shorts, cut-out sides at the waist, criss-crossing pink straps on both sides of her torso that go over her shoulders into a cross-back shape, a storage pack on her right hip, pink and black thigh-highs, and light purple ankle boots. Although retaining her earrings and engagement necklace, she also wears a pink choker around her neck, gray gloves similar to her sister’s, and two armbands (one on both arms), however, the band on her right arm is now gold while a new designed gold armband now rests on her left bicep. She also gains a bow/sword transforming weapon for use in battle.

Serah is a mature girl who shows wisdom well beyond her years, as she is able to give Vanille advice about her problems. She loves Snow and is willing to do anything to protect him, even if it meant trying to break up with him after she becomes a l’Cie. She also deeply cares for Lightning as much as Lightning cares for her. This is evident by her choice for Lightning’s birthday present: a survival knife for her older sister’s safety. After Lightning’s disappearance at the end of Final Fantasy XIII, Serah is the only one to believe that her sister is still alive, as opposed to many of Cocoon’s survivors who believe her to be dead. Therefore, she is willing to go as far as join forces with a stranger named Noel in order to find Lightning.

Story

Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-

“Look. Branded by Pulse. I’m a l’Cie. Enemy of Cocoon. Danger to us all.“

—Serah to Snow

Serah shows Snow her brand.

 

Serah was about to attend the university in Eden, but she fell in love with Snow during her summer vacation, much to her sister’s dismay. Serah was interested in studying history, and the local landmark, the Pulse Vestige, got her attention. One day Serah noticed a door leading inside the Vestige had appeared, and curious, she ventured into the ruins. While inside, Serah was marked on her upper left arm as a l’Cie by the Pulse fal’Cie Anima that was entombed inside the Vestige.

She had a dream of transforming into Ragnarok and destroying Cocoon, but initially did not realize it was her Focus. Four days later, Serah tells Snow they are breaking up but he does not believe her. She tells him it is not his choice, and that she does not want to leave him but has to, because she has been branded a Pulse l’Cie. She tells Snow he is her enemy now, and runs off crying. However, he refuses to abandon her and offers to aid her in any way he can. Serah tells him she does not know what her Focus is and that she will become a monster, but Snow says l’Cie are granted eternal life after completing their Focus, reassuring Serah.

Serah talks with Vanille.

 

Two days later, Serah meets Vanille after the latter scrapes her leg on the beach. Serah listens to Vanille’s problem about wanting to apologize to someone but never being able to find the words to do it, and tells her that if things are too much to deal with at first, she should face them later because things are easier to judge from a distance. Serah tells Vanille about her nightmare of destroying the world, and how she tried to run away from it after it scared her. She says that due to Snow coming after her, she now knows she will get through the mission with help from her friends. Vanille apologizes to Serah, since it was her fault Serah was made a l’Cie, but Serah, not knowing of Vanille’s involvement, does not understand.

Serah and Snow watch the fireworks.

 

On the next day, Serah goes out with Snow to find a birthday present for Lightning. Unknown to her, Snow slips away and buys engagement necklaces for them. Serah buys a survival knife to protect Lightning while she is on duty. The next night, Serah attends the fireworks festival where Snow shows her the engagement necklaces and proposes to her, which she accepts. The next day, Serah and Snow tell Lightning about her becoming a l’Cie, and their engagement. This infuriates Lightning, believing Serah’s lying to her as an excuse to marry Snow and drives her off.

Serah is captured by the Pulse fal’Cie.

 

Shortly after this, Serah and Snow attempt to seek the council of the fal’Cie in the Bodhum Vestige, the one who turned her into a l’Cie, to see if there was any way to remove her brand. The Bodhum Vestige was off-limits, though, and so the couple are forced to evade the PSICOM forces chasing after them. They escape on a hover vehicle and Serah jumps onto a ledge on the Vestige as Snow tries to steer the vehicle after it is damaged, but she becomes trapped by a silver liquid substance that pulls her into the Vestige.

Final Fantasy XIII

“You can save us. Protect us all. Save Cocoon.“

—Serah to Lightning

Serah begins to crystallize.

 

During the Purge, both Lightning and Snow make their way into the Pulse Vestige to save Serah. When Lightning finds the unconscious Serah within the Vestige, Sazh attempts to kill her after learning she is a Pulse l’Cie. When Snow arrives Serah takes his hand and asks if her hero has arrived and Lightning scolds him for not protecting Serah. Serah tells Lightning she can save Cocoon and subsequently crystallizes, leaving behind a tear-shaped crystal for Snow. This phenomenon bewilders the group, as turning to a crystal means the l’Cie has completed their Focus.

Crystallized Serah in Lake Bresha.

 

After the party are turned into l’Cie themselves and wake up in Lake Bresha, they eventually find Serah, who has become part of the crystallized lake. Soon after Lightning, Vanille, Hope and Sazh abandon Snow, who stays behind to try and free Serah. She is brought aboard the Lindblum along with Snow when he is captured by Fang and Cid’s troops. After this, Serah mainly appears in flashbacks and continues to be mentioned by the other characters.

On the Palamecia, Barthandelus tells the group Serah’s Focus was to lure more people inside the Vestige to be branded l’Cie. This revelation cripples Snow, who until that point had believed their Focus was to save Cocoon, just as Serah asked. However, after meeting Cid Raines and observing him entering crystal stasis without having completed his Focus, Snow’s spirits rise and he vows to follow Serah’s wish to save Cocoon until the end. In the Sulyya Springs, Vanille reveals to Snow that Serah saw the same dream of Ragnarok they did, meaning Barthandelus must have lied to the group about Serah’s Focus. She also says, “I think she beat it. She handed Cocoon over to us, that’s why she turned to crystal.”

Serah appears with Dajh from Cocoon.

 

In Oerba, Barthandelus uses Serah’s guise to try and trick the party into turning Ragnarok, but they can see through the illusion. At the end of the game, Barthandelus destroys an illusion of the crystallized Serah to unnerve Snow and Lightning, but Snow, remembering Serah’s crystal at Lightning’s insistence, realizes it was only an illusion. After Orphan is destroyed and Vanille and Fang sacrifice themselves to keep Cocoon from crashing into Gran Pulse, Serah wakes up from her crystal stasis and reunites with Lightning and Snow. Snow immediately begins to plan for their wedding, and Lightning congratulates the pair.

Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-

“Snow… I’ve been thinking. I think… I want to become a teacher. Of course there’s no schools right now, not even any houses… but there are so many children. We’ll need schools and teachers. When I’m teaching them, I need to be able to tell them… why Cocoon fell, what exactly happened…“

—Serah

After reuniting with Lightning and the rest, Serah and Snow talk about rebuilding around Gran Pulse. Serah decides to become a school teacher and educate people on why Cocoon fell. Shortly after, she discovers that Lightning is nowhere to be seen.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Serah in Final Fantasy XIII-2.

 

“I saw you in my dream…“

—Serah meeting Noel for the first time

Though everyone else believes Lightning to be dead, Serah refuses to accept it. As New Bodhum is ravaged by mysterious monsters, Serah is saved by Noel Kreiss, the man she has been seeing in her dreams, and sets out to search for her lost sister.

At one point, Serah, Mog and Noel travel to the Bresha Ruins in Cocoon through a gate, noting that it is the latter’s first time there. Then an arm attached to an invisible body swipes at them, but Noel pushes Serah out of the way to safety. It knocks Noel out of the way, prompting Serah to charge it and draw her weapon for battle. Afterward, PSICOM warships fire upon Atlas causing him to retreat further into the Ruins. Their new friend Alyssa guides them through the underground tunnels through radio communication, in order to locate a strange device that appeared with Atlas. Serah theorizes that since Atlas was built by humans, the machine will let them control him, however, Atlas’s hand appears and takes the group into the Temporal Rift. Escaping the paradox causes the machine to work and slow Atlas down, enabling Noel and Serah to defeat him.

Battle

Serah fights with a weapon given to her by Noel when they meet, which changes between bow and sword forms, and whose true form is Mog. She has been seen operating in the Commando, Medic, Sentinel, Saboteur and Ravager roles.

Development

According to the Final Fantasy XIII Ultimania Omega, Serah was originally planned as a playable character, but issues during development led to the decision of turning her into an NPC. However, she becomes a playable character in the sequel. According to issue 219 of Game Informer, Serah was given a bow able to transform into a sword as a weapon to “preserve her femininity.”

According to an interview in Famitsu, Serah’s clothing from Final Fantasy XIII-2 was designed by Yusuke Naora.