Serah Farron

"Running away and leaving behind the people you care about? That isn't love. Though you might just want to keep them safe, shutting them out of your life only hurts them more. The point is, I have people I can count on. I'll make it through."

- Serah to Vanille

Serah Farron is a character in the Final Fantasy XIII series. She is the younger sister of heroine Lightning and fiancée of Snow Villers.

In the first game, she is a minor character that needs to be rescued in the beginning and gets crystallized throughout the rest of the game, only to be freed in the end.

Next, in the sequel, she has become a major character and fights alongside time-traveler Noel Kreiss into finding Lightning and stop Caius from completing his plan. While doing so, she eventually gets futures of the future at the cost of her lifespan decreasing; as a result, she dies in the end after seeing a vision that Caius' plan has succeeded despite being dead. In Lightning's DLC episode, she appears as a spirit to Lightning, telling her despite of getting visions of the future at the cost of her lifespan, she still chooses to save the timelines.

She is voiced by Laura Bailey in English.

Final Fantasy XIII
Serah is an 18-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. Serah has blue eyes like her sister, although Serah's are a darker shade.

She wears cat-shaped earrings representing NORA, 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, an extra matching hair tie on her left wrist, black thigh-high stockings, ivory ankle boots, and a bandage on her left bicep, which she uses to cover her l'Cie brand. She eventually wears the engagement pendant she receives from Snow. Yoshinori Kitase describes Serah as "the cutest girl" in the game.

According to Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-, Serah is a straight-A student and one of her favorite subjects is history. Serah is depicted as mature and wise, deeply caring for those around her. Despite the grave circumstances, she stays positive and believes in a better future as long as she has her friends by her side.

Final Fantasy XIII-2
Now 21 years old, Serah wears a revealing, form-fitting dress of white, reddish-pink, and gold. Her dress consists of a white top, pink sections 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 the sides of her torso, two straps that go over her shoulders into a cross-back shape, a storage pack on her right hip that hangs from her waist, pink and black thigh-high leggings, and purple ankle boots. Serah retains her earrings and engagement necklace, and also wears a pink choker, short pink sleeves under gray gloves, and two gold armbands (one on each arm), one in the shape of a bird that rests on her left bicep, where her l'Cie brand used to be. Similar to Lightning's use of a gunblade that can switch between gun and sword, Serah wields a bowsword, though its true form is that of her new Moogle companion, Mog. The symbol on the front of Serah's dress is also on Lightning's shield. In addition, Etro script is written on both symbols, the blades of Serah's weapon, the back of her dress under the symbol of Etro's throne, and her storage pack. The script on Serah's outfit translates to: Witness to Times Forgotten -- Restorer of Lines Disjointed.

In the three years that have passed, Serah retains her strong and caring personality, showing concern for Noel's well-being, sometimes offering him words of advice and encouragement, and willing to look out for him as he does for her. Serah is now a grade school teacher, and according to her students, is strict and has short temper; she does not tolerate tardiness or misbehavior of any kind, and can be scary when angered, hence her nickname, "Meanie Miss Farron".

Serah says she is strict because her own teacher was, and that Lightning must have "rubbed off on her". In the Sunleth Waterscape 400 AF, she uses her experience as a teacher to scare a pack of destructive Miniflan back in line. As noted by Snow in Episode Zero -Promise- and later by Noel, Serah resembles Lightning whenever mad or serious, appearing nice at first but can become intimidating in an instant. Serah shows she can hold her own in battle, with or without Noel, despite not having much experience in combat.