The latest Final Fantasy thread has made me realize something: Lightning Farron is the current Shadow the Hedgehog of Final Fantasy. They're both supposed to be cool and have cool designs, they're both supposed to look cool during cutscenes, they're both modeled after other characters in the series, they're both shoved into a lot of things without reason (due to 'popularity' or marketability), and so on.
I mean, I know I joke around and say that the Sonic fanbase and FF/SE fanbase have a lot of parallels between them, but man... :lol
It's like Toriyama and Iizuka are one in the same. Toriyama loves Lightning. Iizuka loves Shadow. They have lunch together.