BCC 2 Match #13 - Lightning vs. Satsuki Kiryuin (FF XIII vs. Kill La Kill)

VS.

Welcome back to another installment of BCC 2 with featured collaboration from my best friend & author of the Trueraiderlaker blog,  MechG. BCC 2 is pitting the best of the best when it comes to Videogames & Anime. The emphasis on BCC (Big-BEEWBED Catfight) is on the lovely ladies from each franchise, judging their story, personality, and appeal as the basis of the subject matter as well deciding on the consensus on whose the better woman in our personal opinion. The Videogame Babes & the Anime Cuties are tied 6-6. MechG will be deciding the consensus for this Christmas week. Today's Matchup is FF XIII's Lighting & Kill La Kill's Satsuki Kiryuin. Let's jam! 

Story (Lightning)

The eldest daughter in the Farron family, Claire had a tragic upbringing in her early life, losing both her mother and father from unknown circumstances, leading to raise her only family in her little sister in Serah. Though the loss of the parents greatly affected her, she believed she had to become an adult quickly in order to ease the pain and that’s when the legend of “Lightning” was born. After finishing high school, she enlisted in the Guardian Corps Security Regiment in Bodhum under the wing of Lieutenant Amodar and was promoted in the ranks as sergeant. Though she did this to support Serah as well as support herself, Lightning began to stray away from staying close to her sister and found less personal time with her as she worked long term hours. After realizing Serah is in danger as a Pulse L’Cie, Light resigned from the Guardian Corps to join the “purge” train. She eventually got branded by the Fal’Cie, Anima along with Snow, Hope, Sazh, and Vanille. After the completion of their focus and the crystallization of Cocoon, Lightning was dragged down to Valhalla to become Etro’s champion and do battle with Caius Ballad across the timeline. While battling Caius, Light rescued Noel from falling down Valhalla’s surface and tasked him to watch over Serah. 500 years after Serah’s death, Light was de-crystallized and called in by the almighty Bhunivelze to become the “savior” and guide the souls to a new world at the end of 13 days in exchange for Serah’s soul. She eventually took on the role, managed to do Bhunivelze’s bidding, but turned on him and defeated him, ensuring a world where gods cannot control humanity’s fate.

Story (Satsuki)

When first introduced in KLK, Satsuki was suspected to have killed Ryuko Matoi's father. Ryuko did everything in her power to stop Satsuki & her Elite 4, but when it was revealed that a even bigger threat was behind the death of Ryuko's Father, Ryuko & Satsuki find themselves having to rely on one another in order to stop the bigger target. That bigger target is revealed to be Satsuki's Mother & an even bigger shocker is Satsuki is Ryuko's long-lost older sister. The very enemy/rival Satsuki has come to known is revealed to be her sister. Satsuki was the leader of Honnoji Academy & as such, ruled with a stoic & absolute rule alongside the Elite 4. Everyone who didn't possess a Goku uniform was considered trash to her and Satsuki wasn't about to let the school's reputation go downhill just from the sudden arrival of Ryuko Matoi & her scissor blade. Ryuko & Satsuki were quick to dislike one another, but when their was bigger fish to fry (Ragyo), the duo teamed up, reconciled as sisters, & learned to put aside their differences and see the bigger picture. The world is a vast place and labels & cages shouldn't outline a person's way of living. Satsuki learned to accept Ryuko as her sister and to live life without any worriment of her mother's reign of power or Nui. 

Personality (Lightning)

When we see Lightning in the first game of the FFXIII trilogy, she’s tough, serious, and cold-hearted; she would go about her business without asking favors from someone or asking for anybody’s help. She can throw a fit when she is annoyed and irritated, specifically if she feels if someone is trying to derail her from her agenda  (Exhibit A: Snow). But as the games rolls on, she starts to develop a little camaraderie with her comrades as they were branded by L’Cie and she begins to build trust and friendship with them, especially with Snow to ensure that he keeps Serah safe and sound. She also turned Hope from being a weak-minded kid to a strong individual. Nonetheless, the main glue that elevates her personality altogether is her younger sister Serah as Lightning displays unwavering drive to protect her sister from all harm.

Personality (Satsuki)

Satsuki is a calculative, intelligent, stoic, and iron-fisted individual that was the leader of the Honnoji Academy. The only person who is unafraid of Satsuki's reign of power is Ryuko Matoi. Satsuki was a very prideful person and wouldn't allow the reputation of her school & fellow students diminish just because their was one student (Ryuko) who couldn't oblige to the rules & standards of Honnoji Academy. However, her character went through substantial change the moment her mother became the enemy & she find out Ryuko was her long-lost baby sister. Satsuki became more open with Ryuko's allies & soon learned to mellow out. She came to accept Ryuko as her sister & family and even befriended Ryuko's BFF, Mako. Satsuki went from antagonist to protagonist and that kind of transformation is just astonishing to witness 

Appeal (Lightning)

Well you guys should know my history with Lightning. If not, let me remind you: Lightis (Noctis x Lightning), my smash hit AMV tribute to her using AJ Lee’s WWE theme song “Light It Up”, coming up with one of the more ballsy, yet genius mashup ever using her theme song and mashing it up with “The Way You Move” by Ne-Yo and Trey Songz and “Gibberish” by Ryan Leslie and titling that mashup “Blinded by The Way You Move” (soon to get an AMV with that mashup up as soon as possible, hopefully). However, I’ll be honest here. I didn’t realize Lightning’s beauty until my 2nd play of XIII; she was one of those FF female characters I had to do a double take on. At first, I was like “meh Tifa and Rikku are still hotter,” but then I did a play through the 2nd time and then I realized, she’s not so bad after all. In XIII-2 and in Lightning Returns, she got a lot more beautiful and I mean A LOT more beautiful and due to Square Enix’s excessive fanservice in LR, her hotness went full overload. Lightning is what I like to call a “dual threat” female FF character. Yeah, there have been strong, yet attractive female FF characters like Tifa and Garnet and there are straight up bad@$$ chicks like Paine, but Lightning incorporates those two elements together in her appearance and characteristics. She can be attractive, “eye candy” to some and I repeat “to some” people, but she can also be a bad@$$ and a character to look up to in terms of a strong and independent personality for the ladies.

Appeal (Satsuki)

When I first started watching Kill La Kill (or KLK), I was rather fond of the protagonist, Ryuko Matoi. When laying my eyes on Satsuki, I thought she was just "okay". Her stoic nature & eyebrows kind of threw me off a bit, but overtime, I grew to admire her just like Ryuko Matoi. Much like Ryuko, Satsuki's character went through substantial change the moment they both found out their Mother was the real antagonist. Whenever they're in their Senketsu & Junketsu outfits, their "assets" & "BEEWBZ" greatly stand out. Satsuki became more appealing to the eye the moment her character went through a change and whenever she was in her Junketsu attire. I tell ya, her Junketsu attire is so awesome to look at ~ wouldn't you want to be by her side? I think she exposes a lot more of herself in comparison to Ryuko and was the first to openly be fearless to show herself in front of everyone. To me, I fell in Satsuki the moment she allied with Ryuko. She's a total bad@$$ and isn't afraid to let out her true strength. She doesn't lose her way in battle and when she does fight, I can't helpt but be in awe of both her strength and her attire. DAYUM she one fine @SS chick. 

Verdict (By MechG)
And the winner is...

The degree of difficulty to select a winner is through the roof here. Kill la Kill, besides Attack on Titan, played an intricate role for me to get back into Anime, FFXIII played an intricate role to get me back into the FF series and start re-reminiscing about VII and X as well. Aside from all its linearity and short duration to beat it, I personally liked XIII. For KLK, I had to find ways for my brain to STFU to enjoy it and put in my “like” list. Personally, I enjoy both. However, to some people’s disgust, my verdict goes to Lightning. Why? Because. And that’s my verdict. Nah I’m kidding. As much as I’d like to give it to Satsuki because they did a magnificent job of building up the twist that she is Ryuko’s sister and not the primary villain and she’s gone naked a couple of times, I just can’t sympathize with her because she has the Elite Four, the trust with them was there, and then the whole story with Ryuko. I just can’t go against how tragic Lightning’s backstory is and her $#!tty luck throughout the trilogy just to try to reunite with Serah and live a happy life. In XIII, they’re reunited and oops Serah becomes crystallized, now Lightning has to be a L’Cie and complete her focus. XIII-2, reunited and it feels so- gets dragged down to Valhalla to become Etro’s champion. LR, Bhunivelze had Serah’s soul ransomed for Lightning to become the savior and then finally “reunited and it feels so good,” they destroy the almighty god together. You also can’t deny the significant change she underwent to trust her friends more and not to go all “lone wolf” when the going gets tough.  True Satsuki had more scenes naked and she’s a lot more appealing since finding out Ryuko is her long lost sister, but Lightning just has the overall beauty; there’s something about her you can’t take your eyes off of whether you like her or dislike her. It sucks that she gets all this dislike because of the comparisons to Cloud. You can’t compare the two! Just like you can’t compare Kobe to Jordan! Although I’ll admit, none of this would happen to her if Square Enix didn’t shove her down our throats too much. I have no problem with people disliking her. I come from the Bruce Blitz way of thinking that if you like something or do not like something, more power to you and I personally like Lightning. Not everybody will and that’s understandable, I respect that from them because it’s subjective. Anyway, this dragged on too long. I love both KLK and FFXIII. Ryuko-Satsuki and Lightning-Serah are two of my favorite fictional sister combos, but at the end of the day, Lightning trumps Satsuki on this one.

So who do you think won? Lightning from FF XIII or Satsuki Kiryuin from Kill La Kill? Comment below and let me know. As always, look forward to BCC 2 Matchups on Mondays, Wednesdays, & Fridays all throughout December (3 more to go). Until then, you all stay classy now. Videogame Babes are winning 7-6 against the Anime Cuties. Also be sure to check out MechG's blog: http://trueraiderlaker.blogspot.com/ that covers sports-themed topics on the LA Lakers & Oakland Raiders.