Snow Villiers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heroesdontshave) wrote2013-09-09 09:58 pm
heroesdontshave) wrote2013-09-09 09:58 pm
(no subject)
PREEMPTIVE SIDE NOTE: I am doing my best to avoid spoilers for the upcoming third game (Square has no consideration for this). So although I cover general knowledge regarding the upcoming game, I'm not 100% up-to-date on what's been released.
OOC Information:
Name: Jax
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
onlyseesred or pm
IC Information:
Name: Snow Villiers AKA Jake Isaac Harrison
Canon and medium: Final Fantasy XIII series; video game
Age: 21 (1st game), 23 (2nd game), 523 (3rd game); he'll be 22 in game
Preincarnation Species: Human
Preincarnation Appearance: 1st & 2nd Game appearances, 3rd game
It's hard to tell unless he's standing next to someone, but Snow's a bit of a giant, standing at about 6'7". He's proportioned accordingly as well; hands, feet, arm span... he's just a generally huge guy. Being a bare-fist fighter, he's very muscular, though he tends to wear baggy clothes that hide this. He's also plagued with eternal, blond beard stubble. He has a l'Cie Brand on his left arm. In the first game, it was on his left forearm. After he got rid of that one, he gets a new one closer to his left elbow which stays on him for both the second and third game.
Any differences: Generally the same, but he keeps his hair much shorter and is actually cleanly shaven. He's also no longer such a giant (for now) and is of average size, about 5'11". He's also of average build for a man his age, though he's still muscular enough that one can easily tell he does manual labor for a living. He has no tattoos.
Preincarnated History:
(This is a generalized rundown of what happened to him personally over the course of the entire series, the final part of which has yet to be released. Even though it's super long, I still glossed over a lot of details, so more can be found on Snow's wiki page.)
Snow's canon revolves around the existence and conflict of two opposing worlds: Cocoon, a pampered, technologically advanced artificial world which relies on god-like creatures known as fal'Cie to manage every day life, and Pulse, the savage and simple planet Cocoon hovers over. Things have remained stagnant after an invasion campaign 500 years ago, but Cocoon still lives in constant fear of attacks from Pulse and the citizens have more or less been brainwashed to rely entirely on the fal'Cie and the military for everything.
Snow is a citizen of Cocoon, born and raised in the tourist city of Bodhum. An orphan who never knew his real parents, Snow was raised by the Sanctum (ie. the government, which I'm guessing just means an orphanage). There, his only sense of family came from the childhood friends he'd made. When they entered their late teens, Snow and his friends started a sort of anarchy, anti-Sanctum group called NORA (No Obligations, Rules, or Authority), which served as a sort of unofficial neighborhood watch for the city.
About eight months ago, Snow met a girl named Serah and fell head-over-heels in love. He dedicated himself completely to her and the two soon became inseparable. About twelve days before the beginning of the game, however, Snow finally met Serah's only family: her older sister Lightning, a Sanctum soldier who never approved of NORA or its idiot of a leader. She told Snow to forget about dating her sister, but he just laughed off the demands.
A few days after this, Serah tried to break up with him, later revealing that she had been Branded a Pulse l'Cie (a slave bound to a Pulse fal'Cie) and it would be dangerous to be around her. Snow decided that he really didn't care though and told her he'd stay by her side regardless. He would even help her complete the task the fal'Cie had given her so she wouldn't be turned into a monster. He reassured her everything would be fine, and to prove it, he proposed to her a few days later.
Together, Snow and Serah tried to break the news about both Serah's l'Cie status and their engagement a few days later during Lightning's birthday. Obviously, she didn't believe or accept any of this and Serah ran off, heartbroken. As Snow chased after her, the military finally took notice of her and attacked her. The two evaded pursuit, deciding to head to the fal'Cie that had Branded her in order to find out what her task was supposed to be. However, the fal'Cie simply captured Serah and held her hostage in the Pulse Vestige.
At this point, the government and the people went into complete freak out mode over Pulse forces on Cocoon. For fear of wide-spread fal'Cie magic contamination, everyone in Bodhum was to be exiled from Cocoon and relocated to Pulse. The Purge, as it was called, was stated as an exile, but considering Pulse's nature, it was more of a death sentence. The truth of the Purge's nature soon became clear when soldiers didn't hesitate to open fire on these 'tainted' civilians should they be uncooperative.
This combined with Serah's disappearance was the last straw. Realizing this whole thing was just a mass execution, Snow gathered NORA's forces together and they staged their first ever anti-government campaign: Stopping The Purge and saving the Bodhum citizens. The Purge victims themselves had started rebelling against their captors as well, and soon an all out war between military forces and citizens erupted. Inspired by the group, many of the victims NORA saved started demanding they help with the war effort as well. Snow led the civilians into combat but just got everyone killed. Among the civilians was a woman who managed to get a last request out to Snow to "get him home."
Still rocked by the horror of the massacre as well as the death of the woman, Snow managed to find NORA and the rest of the survivors. As he tried to make sense of the woman's request and come to grips with everything, the Sanctum began to move the Pulse Vestige where Serah was being held captive. He decided to push the events from his mind and hurried to the Vestige to save her.
While there, Snow found Lightning and three other people who all seemed to stumble upon Serah's body at once. She haltingly asked them all to save Cocoon, and in that moment, she turned to crystal, shedding a single crystal tear which fell into Snow's hand. Though Lightning was distraught, Snow was sure Serah was not dead but simply sleeping until she could be woken up. Together they all faced the fal'Cie who had Branded her to demand it change Serah back. But in the end, it simply Branded them all instead and the Vestige fell, crystallizing everything around it into a wasteland.
They woke up some time later and began discussing their situation, potential Focus, and what to do. They had all had the same Focus vision, evidently: a mess of explosions and limbs and bubbles which made no sense at all. Snow, however, was resolved. Obviously, their Focus was to "save Cocoon." Serah had told them as much; in fact, it had been her Focus to tell them theirs. He was now sure Serah had never been an enemy of Cocoon, and neither were they. Everyone else just figured he was nuts and was giving himself in to far too much wishful thinking.
As they wandered around, they came across Serah's still-crystallized body, which had now fused to the crystal landscape. Snow feverishly tried to dig her free but everyone else seemed resolved to leave her behind, even her sister. After protests on both ends, everyone else decided to move on while Snow stayed behind with Serah. He stayed digging there for hours until eventually a PSICOM pursuit force attacked and overwhelmed him. When he was completely cornered, the Shiva Sisters were summoned forth out of nowhere and proceeded to attack both the soldiers and Snow. He was barely able to defeat them, which was enough to impress them and allow him to summon them at will.
Snow fell to the ground, exhausted, but yet more Sanctum troops arrived. These people, however, were headed by a woman (Fang) who bore a l'Cie brand of her own. She knocked him out, and both he and Serah were taken onto a Sanctum ship. It seemed they were a Sanctum force with their own agenda regarding the l'Cie. Their leader, Cid Raines, told him the government were still pursuing Snow's friends and once they'd been captured, a public execution would be held. If Snow wanted to save them, he would have to help them find the others. In the end, Snow was forced to cooperate with their efforts.
Snow and Fang managed to find two of the four renegade l'Cie (Lightning and Hope) in Palumpolum and saved them from a PSICOM ambush. The four split up in order to evade pursuit, Snow going with Hope and Fang with Lightning. Once it seemed they were in the clear, Hope confronted Snow about his irresponsible nature and how it led to other people getting hurt/killed. Snow's guilt for the events during the Purge hit him all over again and Hope revealed he was the son of the woman Snow had gotten killed during the Purge. When Hope was mere moments away from successfully killing Snow, they were suddenly attacked again by PSICOM forces. Hope was knocked unconscious and sent flying, but Snow jumped after him and used his body to protect Hope from the impact of the fall, getting knocked out too.
Despite the line of busted ribs Snow woke up with, he carried Hope off so they could continue evading their pursuers. Hope eventually regained consciousness and Snow apologized for the death of Hope's mother, saying he'd be completely willing to accept whatever punishment Hope wanted to give him, but right now Hope needed to focus on staying alive. They were again attacked, but Lightning and Fang managed to find and save them before they could be killed.
Snow woke up (again) in Hope's house with everyone else, still injured but bandaged up. Lightning apologized to him for her behavior and they all talk to Hope's father to address the death of his wife and also discuss what to do next. PSICOM somehow managed to find them there, though, and attacked the house. This time, Snow decided to go for an entirely different approach, going out to face the soldiers with his hands up in surrender. He tried to reason with them, explaining he and the other l'Cie were just as human as the rest of them, but PSICOM didn't much care since l'Cie simply existing was a threat to their way of life. A traitor amongst PSICOM's forces (Raines' men) then attacked the rest of the brigade and allowed the l'Cie to escape back to Raines' ship.
There, they discovered the other two l'Cie (Sazh & Vanille) had been captured and were being held on a massive ship, awaiting public execution. Cocoon's leader, the Primarch, was also on board that ship, making this likely a bait to trap them all. They go anyway, managing to rescue the two and facing the Primarch to talk to him regarding their deduction that Cocoon was being manipulated by the fal'Cie it relied on. At this point, the Primarch revealed that he actually *was* a fal'Cie himself and supported their destruction of Cocoon. He explained that their Focus was for one of them to become a giant monster that would destroy the fal'Cie that held Cocoon afloat and thus kill everyone on Cocoon. Serah's Focus had only been to gather them all together.
They escaped the ship but were pursued and eventually led to an ancient artifact hidden on Cocoon known as an Ark. Snow spent most of his time here mentally shattered, completely distraught over the revelation that he and Serah had always been enemies of Cocoon and that he had been chasing a false ideal this whole time. He had been fighting because he saw their situation as one that was fixable and justifiable, but now it seemed they were doomed to either kill everyone or else become monsters, and he had no idea what to do.
Raines appeared and revealed he was a Cocoon l'Cie and explained a bit more regarding why the Primarch wanted Cocoon destroyed. He fought them and then bizarrely turned into a crystal himself. This nonsensical occurrence forced them to think their beliefs regarding the crystallization of l'Cie and how everything worked might be wrong. Evaluating Raines' situation, Snow eventually came to the conclusion that people were crystallized when they passed on their burden to someone else or are otherwise "done". Thus the Primarch lied about why Serah turned into crystal. He regained his hope that they could still make things right or else otherwise grant Serah's wish to protect Cocoon by opposing the Primarch's wishes (even if that meant turning into a monster).
They eventually found a gate to the planet Pulse itself. The gate was meant for them to go down and make themselves even stronger so they could complete their task, but they convinced themselves to go for the sake of finding an alternate solution to getting rid of their Brands. After spending some time there, the Primarch eventually tested their power and lured them to return to Cocoon by saying he'd already started a countermeasure where humans basically bring the downfall of Cocoon themselves.
They rushed back to stop him, but apparently he was lying again. Their return caused a huge invasion of Pulse forces on Cocoon and Snow's party was forced to fight both Pulse and Cocoon forces on their way to stop the Primarch. It's eventually revealed that the Primarch was actually the fal'Cie they needed to destroy in order to bring down Cocoon. The only way to do that, however, was for someone to turn into that destined monster (Ragnorak), which can only happen once someone's spirit was completely broken. The Primarch caused an illusion of killing some people, including Serah's crystallized statue, to try accomplishing this.
Sensing a weakness in Fang, he then turned everyone but she and Vanille into Cie'th (the monster they would turn into if they didn't do what they needed to). Fang did indeed break, momentarily turning herself into Ragnorak, but she snapped herself out of it. The Primarch began repetitively torturing her body to break her again, but the rest of the party members (somehow...) transformed back into their human selves and managed to help her.
Together, they fought and destroyed the Primarch and Cocoon began to fall. Fang and Vanille then became Ragnorak together in order to save Cocoon and then became a crystal pillar to keep the world from falling (thus only killing 1/3 of the population instead of everyone!)
Here's where it gets weird.
Originally, everyone crystallized into statues but woke up for no apparent reason to find themselves on Pulse with Cocoon suspended up by the crystal pillar. Serah and Sazh's son joined with them, Cocoon's populace began moving down to start a new life on Pulse, and everything seemed to be relatively okay. ...However, Snow doesn't remember any of this.
Technically, none of them were ever supposed to wake up from this crystal stasis. The goddess Etro had been the one to revive them, but in doing so, she caused a huge rift in the time space continuum that ripped Lightning away and screwed up the entire timeline. Snow doesn't remember Lightning ever having been there and assumed she was trapped in the crystal pillar along with Fang and Vanille. Serah alone remembered the correct series of events and tried to convince everyone that something horrible had happened to her sister.
Everyone mostly assumed that Serah was in some kind of grief-stricken shock and didn't take her words seriously, but she insisted on this being the truth even years later. Though Snow had no recollection of this and had no evidence to support the claim, he decided he would believe Serah's claim that Lightning was out there somewhere in trouble. He swore he would go out to find and save Lightning... and to prove his resolve, he returned his engagement necklace to her, saying he would not return and they wouldn't get married until he came back with Lightning.
What exactly happens after this isn't completely clear as he's MIA during most of the second game and what he does tell Serah regarding what he's been up to is heavily implied to be lies in order to keep her from getting worried. A supplementary novel outside game canon, however, describes a series of events that involve Snow getting repetitively distracted from his goal of finding Lightning. He ended up traveling with a lone Cactuar during these random adventures, who eventually turned out to be a Pulse fal'Cie. It tried to Brand him, but he managed to escape through dumb luck. He continued traveling with it despite this.
At some point, they came across a phenomenon of strange black mist (later known as Chaos) which was summoning forth monsters. While he attempted to lure the monsters away, he and Cactuar were engulfed by the Chaos and were sent through a time gate where he witnessed a vision of Serah dying. Panicked and desperate to prevent this from happening, he asked Cactuar to make him a l'Cie once again. There's some conflicting debate as to what his Focus is. English wiki says it's to fight with Serah in "the fated battle" but another translated source released earlier had said it was for him to protect the last remaining fal'Cie (which would make more sense). I'm personally sticking with the latter Focus unless the third game states otherwise. After becoming a l'Cie, Snow used the time gate again to try and create a timeline where Serah wouldn't die.
What happens next is really confusing, but I'll try anyway. He came out of the time gate about 300 years from when he'd left Serah behind, arriving around the base of the crystal pillar. He may or may not have gotten a vision from an entity that may or may not have really been Lightning (again, it's very heavily implied he lied about this). This supposed vision told him that the monsters located there were the ones responsible for the future downfall of the pillar, which would cause all life on Pulse to die. He was supposedly asked to stop these monsters from doing so. When she arrived at this timeline, Serah had a vision of Snow dying from this fight, so it's possible that he lost this fight at some point and was meant to die here.
Serah and her friend Noel arrived in time to save Snow and they managed to escape together. Serah and Noel then ventured to the past to make the monsters currently there more manageable to kill, but Snow ran off to fight them alone anyway and was nearly killed again. Serah and Noel once again saved him and together they managed to defeat the monsters. Snow was then given a lecture regarding his recklessness, and there was a brief discussion of what Snow's been up to all this time (which he's vague about). Eventually, Snow began to fade from existence since his presence there is now a paradox; he was supposed to be somewhere else and the correction has made it so he was no longer capable of going to this era at this time... or else the events that caused him to get sent there changed. He disappeared shortly after Serah noticed his l'Cie Brand.
Since this is the case, I actually have no idea if Snow remembers anything that happened during this section of the game. It's possible the memories for "that Snow" disappeared along with the Snow that faded. The Snow currently running around never went to the base of the pillar, never had that supposed vision, was never given that supposed mission, and was never saved by Serah and Noel, and thus has no memory of even meeting Serah again. His last memory of her is still from when he left her back home.
Snow again goes MIA after this point and it's completely unclear what he is doing. Due to screwing with the timeline and canon alternate endings, there are two possible timelines here: one that's happy and one that is completely terrible. Since the terrible one is the one followed by canon, I'm not touching the happy one at all. But at some point it was possible for this happy ending to have actually happened if something hadn't been altered to screw it up.
At some point he ended up in an alternate dimension referred to simply as The Coliseum. This was a place where warriors and monsters from multiple realities converged and fought each other for all eternity. Replicas of people he knew also appeared here (Lightning and a Bodhum soldier he knew). Somehow, Snow became enveloped by Chaos and it trapped him, binding him to The Coliseum permanently. Serah and Noel eventually found him there (this being the first time he has seen Serah since he left her) and the three battled for the sake of The Coliseum and so Serah could prove to Snow how well she could take care of herself. Snow backhandedly explained his situation afterward and Serah proclaimed that she would come back to help him. This is the last time he ever sees her.
Though he knows he's supposed to be out there, doing something to fix the timeline, he can't do anything to leave and is thus helpless to do anything to prevent Serah's death, which he knows is coming. The only reason he manages to still act normal around her and is able to let her leave is because he either thinks he has done enough to prevent it from happening, thinks it is possible to break free of the Chaos eventually, or thinks Lightning really is out there and is handling things somehow. Either way, he accepted that he was in a bleak situation but still figured everything would work itself out.
After this, Serah does end up dying, the Goddess that Lightning had been serving was killed, and Chaos proceeded to envelope the entire world. Snow was released from his prison in the Coliseum, but now it was too late to do anything.
The third game takes place 500 years after this ending. Snow is still a l'Cie, the Chaos preventing time from passing and thus making it impossible for anyone to die of natural causes or for the l'Cie Brand to advance fully. Snow has since become the protector and unwilling leader of a city named Yusnaan, where he serves as a guardian who fights back the monsters of Chaos. Somehow, everyone is aware that the world will be ending in just a few weeks and the people of Yusnaan decide to face it by living for the moment and constantly partying. Snow, heavy with guilt and despair seems resigned to wait for the world to end and for him to finally die so he can be with Serah. However, he is also aware of a legend that speaks of a Savior who will come at the end of days to save everyone's souls. Though everyone interprets this Savior in different ways, most consider this Savior to be a bad thing. Snow is, for whatever reason, aware that this Savior may possibly be Lightning, who has continued to be MIA all these centuries. After not seeing her or even being completely sure she was really alive during the entire course of 13-2 and this 500 year gap, Lightning suddenly Returns.
Reincarnated History:
Unlike Snow, Jake had parents who kept and raised him through a mostly uneventful childhood. The only real problems Jake seemed to have growing up was an overabundance of energy and nothing to really do with any of it. Although he was technically a good kid, he was a never ending cause of headaches for his parents, teachers, and anyone unfortunate enough to be charged with his safety. His entire childhood can basically be summed up as "Hey, kid! Get down from there!"
In an attempt to channel this energy more productively, his parents tried enrolling him into sports at a young age. He melded well with the social and teamwork aspects, enjoyed learning how to play, was naturally competitive, and had enough endurance to keep up with those around him easily. But after enough time had passed, all enthusiasm seemed to melt away and he didn't want to participate anymore. Usually, his parents had to force him to continue until at least the end of the year, and getting him involved beyond that was near impossible. His parents were optimistic though and figured they just had to keep trying until they found something Jake could stay passionate about.
From grade school until the first year of high school, his parents tried him out in various teams trying to find something that clicked with him: baseball, basketball, cross country, band, swimming, karate, football, and soccer were all attempted. None held his interest and he usually quit by the next year. During high school, Jake abandoned the notion of sports, but he had already fallen into a steady mindset of needing to keep himself preoccupied with something. So he tried a variety of physical hobbies like skateboarding, surfing, and video games (DDR, mostly). Again, none of these really held his interest for long before he moved onto something else.
This took a bad turn at age 16 when some friends got him into street racing. Though he knew he wasn't supposed to be driving, he didn't see much harm in it since this was done at night on lonely roads where no one could get hurt anyway. And he had enough sense to never take his parents' car, so it shouldn't have been a big deal. But one night, they were all caught by the police and inevitably dragged home to face punishment.
Had his parents yelled at him, he probably would have dismissed them as being overdramatic and would have just continued doing as he wanted. But it was worse than that. They were angry, yes, but they acted more concerned and upset... and so wholly disappointed. He got the sort of lecture anyone would expect about how he could have gotten killed or hurt someone else and so on, but the look on his parents' faces, especially his mother's, is what really got to him that night. More than thinking he did something wrong, he more thought that he never wanted to see them that upset because of him again.
This actually made him reevaluate himself to a point. It was probably the first time he really felt like the things he was doing affected other people (beyond obvious things like property damage and injuries and such). He felt like he'd been selfish and like he'd acted like an idiot, but he was still really annoyed at his parents for it all the same. He blamed himself for being stupid but blamed them for getting worked up. It was weird. Despite the conflicted feelings and the small period of mocking his friends put him through, he didn't go back to racing. Nor did he really experiment with any dangerous hobbies again. The rest of his high school career was boring, spent mostly on school work. The most he did was go out with friends to parties or just around town.
Speaking of schoolwork, this was another problem area for him. Jake was by no means stupid, but he didn't hold much passion for any subject in particular. This made school feel more like an annoying waste of time by the time he'd hit his teens. When he applied himself, he got excellent grades, but most of the time, the work felt repetitious and stupid. To make matters worse, his parents were very insistent on the idea of him going to college. So as he got older, he was hounded more persistently to decide on a career path. This was immensely frustrating for both parties since, again, he didn't really care enough about anything to make any kind of solid decision. It would have been really easy to just choose something randomly in order to make his parents shut up, but as annoying as he found the whole thing, he couldn't bring himself to live a lie even for a few years.
Despite their relentless nagging on the subject, Jake didn't go to college immediately after high school, instead simply grabbing whatever random dead-end jobs he could manage to get (none of which he could bring himself to keep before moving to another). They bothered him for about a year straight about going to college and getting a "real job" before they quite suddenly stopped. They shifted attitude entirely, seeming to take the stance that, hey, he's an adult now and it's his life. He can do what he wants with it.
To this day, Jake has no idea if they honestly felt that way or if it was some kind of demented, psychological strategy. Either way, it worked for some goddamn reason. Once they stopped pestering him, Jake reveled in the peace for a few months before slowly starting to evaluate himself again. What the hell *was* he doing with himself? He wasn't just going to bounce back and forth from job to job for the rest of his life was he? The thought was horrifying. But even still, he had no other ideas for what to do with himself.
The answer finally came to him about six months later when he'd started working as a gas station attendant. The gas station shared property with an automotive garage, several workers of which Jake ended up befriending. They unintentionally sparked his interest in the field and he eventually decided to try taking classes for it.
He figured his parents would be really supportive of him actually considering going back to school, but if anything they seemed wary and unenthusiastic. They were pretty sure this was just Jake jumping around again and didn't want to encourage him wasting money on something he wasn't going to use. Even though a part of him knew their feelings were justified, it still annoyed the hell out of him, and their behavior both before and during his schooling was perceived as a complete lack of faith in him. This was the start of him talking to them less and somewhat alienating himself from them.
The good news here is that Jake miraculously loved the classes and the work. And after he'd gotten his certification, his boss was even willing to give him a job in the garage so he could gain experience, so he didn't have to go through the pain of job hunting. He was mostly used for basic and boring things (oil changes, etc.), but was slowly given more responsibility. When one of the mechanics left, he was able to take the position for himself and was making enough that he could move out to his own place.
At game start, he's still working at the same place as a mechanic. Even though it's only been maybe two years, this is longest he's ever stayed in a steady routine and it's the most stable his life's been. Though his relationship with his parents is amiable, he still feels like they have no damn faith in him and he can get very short tempered with them. So more often than not, he's more likely to keep in touch with his sister who's at least less judgmental. He's currently going through a phase where he's between not giving a damn what anyone thinks and trying hard to seem like he's actually a responsible, reliable adult.
Most recently, he completed part time classes that certify him to care for motorcycles as well as cars, making him one of two mechanics in the garage able to fix them (he being the junior, of course).
First Echo:
He went to hang out at the mall and eventually saw a cat necklace (with a pendant similar enough to this) in a novelty shop. In canon, this necklace is the first present Snow got from his girlfriend and is something he wore constantly in 2 out of 3 games. Even if it's not as technically important as his engagement necklace, it's still incredibly significant.
Upon seeing it, he suddenly remembered the name "Serah" and the feeling that this name is very, very important to him somehow. He didn't buy the necklace and he basically waved this experience as unimportant at the time, but it had somewhat of an impact on him. For some reason, he thinks about this name regularly and keeps trying to place why it means something to him. To be honest, he really wants to just forget about it, but some instinct in him makes it feel that would be a very grave mistake. It's creepy and frustrating.
A few months ago, Jake took in a stray cat (which he tries to keep secret in his no-pets-allowed apartment) which he eventually named Sarah as a way to keep himself from ever forgetting. ...He only recently discovered Sarah is actually a male cat. Whoops.
Preincarnation Personality:
(I'm going to be covering Snow's personality over the course of all three games, and it should be noted that his personality changes quite a lot. Details regarding his personality in the third game are limited so although many things can easily be assumed, I'm going to be very general regarding that game.)
Snow actually doesn't come off as a particularly deep character, especially at first. He's a big guy with a big grin and a big ego, even when the situation is at its bleakest. Snow emits absolute confidence in both his body language and words, so much so he comes off as exceedingly arrogant. He tends to try taking charge of situations, working more as a leader than a follower. This assertive attitude makes him seem pushy and even more over confident, like he doesn't think anyone but himself could do a decent job. To make matters worse, he proclaims himself "a hero" at every given opportunity, which makes him come off as incredibly shallow, personality-wise. Some characters even blatantly say their first impression of Snow was that he was just all talk.
The best way for one to understand Snow's mentality is to think of him as a child. Snow sees things on incredibly black and white terms. Everything is categorized as good or bad, something to protect or something to destroy. Gray areas don't factor into his mind much and he often seems astonished when such possibilities are brought up. It's for this reason Snow seems to assume everyone is his friend, often treating complete strangers like they've been best buddies forever. Usually, people/things stay in these categories of good and bad unless something very big changes that.
Consequentially, Snow is incredibly loyal to those he cares about, even when the feeling is very obviously not mutual. As an orphan, he has a very loose concept of family and home, and so he considers those he cares most for as a family of sorts. It’s this dedication to filial ties that make him turn the other cheek so easily even when he’s hit, attacked, ridiculed, and mocked. An example of this immense loyalty would be that which he has for his fiancée, Serah. He loves her wholly and completely, the kind of love and dedication that can never really exist outside fairy tales (so much so, I think characters doubt its legitimacy). In fact, everything he does over the course of the game is ultimately for this girl’s sake.
He seems to dictate many of his actions on what one is "supposed" to do. He's a man, so he's supposed to be strong; he's supposed to protect people. If he loves someone, he's supposed to treat them well, marry them, have a big family with them, support them. It's in this that people feel Snow is all talk and no action. He comes across as overly idealistic, usually proclaiming monstrous, overambitious goals for himself. However, when Snow says he's going to do something, he really is going to do everything in his power to do it. He's just too short-sighted to think up details. So he's the type of guy who really would run into a burning building to save someone but would never stop to consider how he's supposed to find said person exactly or how they'd get out of there in one piece.
His plans usually consist of "go out and wing it." Snow actually works very well under this type of mentality, simply acting as the situation calls it. His assumption is that if he works toward a goal, he'll either figure out how to accomplish it midway or an opportunity will open up in time for him to do it. So he often runs into situations with absolutely no forethought or consideration of consequences. Failure doesn't even factor into his mind, so when something goes incredibly wrong, he finds himself at a complete loss, which can often make matters worse.
The core of Snow's strength stems entirely around these concepts of belief and faith in oneself. Snow does not do anything halfway: when he believes in something/someone, he believes it with absolutely every fiber of his being. There is no room for doubt. Ever. Snow is fully convinced that as long as he believes he can do something, he can definitely do it, no matter how stupid or idealistic or unlikely it may seem. This concept goes for others as well. As long as people maintain faith in themselves, they can and will do it.
It's for this reason Snow's main priority in a group is to keep spirits high. He does everything in his power to try assuring those he's with that everything will be fine, that everything will work itself out if they just keep going. In fact, he tries a little too hard and usually ends up irritating everyone around him. What he hopes will be inspiring or reassuring just comes off as bravado and naivety... more so with his tendency to act without plans.
The truth of the matter is Snow does experience doubt (even if everything about him dictates otherwise). In the first game, Snow tended to beat back his doubts with stubborn conviction, refusing to even consider negative possibilities. He tried to force his viewpoint on the rest of the party, but they had enough reason to realize how stupid and idealistic his viewpoint was and shot him down.
The only way to make him release this conviction is to present him with something indisputable to prove his belief wrong. However, once his faith has been shattered, Snow completely crumbles psychologically. He becomes quiet, lost, and listless. Without that drive, what reason does he have to continue on? How can he believe anything anymore? When this happened in game, he was actually able to bounce back and regain his hope, choosing to hold onto a different ideal entirely in order to keep himself going. This, however, was through the aid of those around him. If left to his own devices, he may have very well fallen into complete despair. He needs the support of his friends and family to keep him going in these instances as he’s not actually as strong as he tries to believe he is. (Case in point: his sorry state in Lightning Returns.)
Snow is incredibly susceptible to emotions and emotional extremes. In fact, despite the optimistic behavior, he’s probably the most emotionally sensitive character in the game. Again, however, he has a tendency to try biting these things back and not let them surface. So these instances are illustrated more with facial expressions and body language than quotes. When unsure, he has a tendency to break eye contact far too quickly, sparing glances at the ground when he can’t keep it. He’s rendered speechless when caught off guard… In fact, his reaction to emotional pain or negative emotions is either to freeze up or become angry. When he becomes angry, he uses it to fuel everything and bury any other emotion he might not want to deal with. Anger makes him appear more determined and steadfast and seems to be his default response when he doesn’t know how else to react.
Speaking of body language and nuances, Snow is a bit over active, physically speaking. He uses his hands and body far too much while talking and has a tendency to pace, cross his arms, clasp his hands behind his head, place his hands on his hips, give a thumbs up, clench his fists, and wave his arms around (sometimes all in succession). As stated earlier, Snow has a tendency to grin a lot. This smile can be very genuine some times and very obviously fake other times. When faking it, he’ll just grit his teeth together and only half his mouth will actually smile. It actually looks really retarded and I’d say 90% of the time that smile pisses whoever he’s giving it to off.
In FFXIII-2, his personality seems to be about the same, although it can be even more exaggerated at times. Based on some dialogue options one can get as well as some things revealed in one of the supplementary novels, I strongly suspect that most of his behavior during the second game is purely an act. The player is playing from Serah's POV, so much of what Snow goes through in this game is completely off stage and we are left with nothing more than his word regarding what he's been through. I strongly suspect he is actually lying about many things he tells Serah since he doesn't want to worry her. Similarly, I believe his behavior is also a reassurance for her sake. He's still trying to act like the same Snow she knew. It also probably helps him get through the mess he's gotten himself into by holding onto normalcy.
So although his personality is the same in the second game, I feel he's actually grown a lot more serious. He's been through some crazy things over the last few years and it's honestly sobered him up quite a bit. He also had to deal with the reality that Serah was probably going to die if he and Lightning didn't fix everything. And although he is trying very hard to hold onto the faith that it will all work out in the end he doesn't have a plan. It was probably very difficult for him, but he knew the most important thing was to act like everything was normal and perfectly fine for Serah's sake. And so he completely hid the dire situation he was in, didn't disclose anything about being a l'Cie, and didn't let on even once that anything was really wrong. He has grown far more aware of how his actions are affecting others and is trying to be more careful about that.
In a similar vein, he's also grown more stubborn with his less admirable traits. Namely, he has become even more determined to do everything on his own. He ventures off to find Lightning by himself and when things go wrong he just continues going on alone rather than seeking any kind of help. When he finds out Serah will die, his immediate reaction is to sacrifice himself for the sake of helping her on his own. Even when Serah and Noel save him from a fight he knows he can't win and venture off to find a way to make the fight more manageable, he goes right back to try taking care of it himself.
I also feel this shows a little lack of faith that they were even going to be coming back at all. Or if they did, an unreasonable amount of time would have passed. He's grown a little beyond the ability to have any blind faith in others just doing things as he'd wish they would, even if it's Serah. If he wants things done, he has to do it himself.
I also feel that by the time Serah comes across Snow, he has already resigned himself to a self sacrificial ending. He became a l'Cie for the sake of preventing Serah's death, a fate that cannot have any kind of happy ending. When he fades out of existence due to a corrected timeline, he doesn't seem to care much and would rather give Serah a smiling goodbye than reveal the truth behind the l'Cie mark she had noticed. He is now fighting for HER future, not THEIR future.
In Lightning Returns, Snow has had 500 long years to face the consequences of his failure to change the timeline. Serah is dead, the world was thrown into shambles, and reality itself is going to fall apart soon. He apparently holds a heavy weight of guilt due to all of this. Although he stays true to his primary goal of helping and protecting people, Snow is generally a broken man with no hope or future. The only light he sees in his future is the possibility of being with Serah when finally does die.
Any differences:
--- Since Jake grew up with a normal family under normal circumstances, he no longer has a tendency to essentially adopt his friends as a sort of makeshift family. He's still friendly and sociable, but he doesn't instantly treat strangers like they've been his best friend forever nor is he so instantly trusting of people. In fact, Jake doesn't much go out of his way to talk to people unless he's bored, he wants something, or he's working and he has to. This also means he's less likely to be as thoroughly forgiving as his pre-incarnation.
--- Jake is much less of an oblivious idiot. You could basically treat Snow like dirt and blatantly dislike/insult him to his face without him noticing or else he just lets it roll of his back. Jake would definitely pick up on negative behavior and it will change how he views and interacts with a person (a novel concept!). His patience with others really depends on the circumstances and who it is, but he's usually pretty good about keeping a level head with most people. Exceptions would be kids (the younger they are, the more he can't stand them), people who treat him like a kid or otherwise imply he's irresponsible, and his parents. He's probably most defensive and sensitive when it comes to his parents behavior, to be honest. Even just a sigh from them can get him bristling.
This being the case, he's also much less reckless than Snow is. Jake is nowhere near stupid or optimistic enough to literally run into a dangerous situation without any forethought or plan. And he's also not dumb enough to think doing everything the violent way is the best solution. He is aware that DYING is actually a possibility that can happen very easily. No, he can NOT assume that everything will just work out in the end if he tries hard enough, because holy crap that's stupid. Things don't work like that in the real world. Does Jake try to look on he bright side? Yes, he does. But he definitely can't shrug off a bleak situation under the blind faith that it'll all be fine somehow. Nor would he try to force that sort of thinking on others.
--- Jake has an annoying predispositional need to keep himself busy all the time. This is mostly a result of his parents always trying to occupy him and expend all his energy when he was a child. He ended up growing into that sort of mindset, even though he doesn't need to anymore. Because of this, he gets super focused when doing any kind physical work and is incredibly thorough. He doesn't care about cleanliness, but he'll clean if there's seriously nothing else better to do. If that's not an option he'll go out jogging or go to a bar or something. Sitting at home and watching tv is absolutely unthinkable to him. Even when he's hanging out with friends, he'd rather they were doing something like going to a club or surfing or playing a sport. Snow never had any indications of this, and in fact seemed content to just sit on the beach with his girlfriend and do nothing.
In relation to this, Jake can be really competitive. Whereas Snow comes off as the type who wouldn't really care as long as everyone's having fun, Jake always plays to win. In fact, he'll secretly make things a competition in his head just to spur himself on and make things more interesting, like trying to see if he can complete a task first or if he can do something better than someone else he doesn't even know. This doesn't mean he's a lore loser or a bad winner; this competitiveness is about making it more enjoyable to do whatever it is he's doing rather than the end result per se (though that's always a plus).
--- This one's a little more subtle but is very significant. Snow has guilt issues regarding getting people hurt due to his own recklessness and his inability to always protect those he wants to. He once dealt with this by pushing it out of his mind entirely, but later faced it head on and began accepting blame a little too well (eventually allowing guilt to consume him to the point where he can't NOT think about it).
Jake's issues circle more around disappointing his parents and being considered irresponsible in general. He still feels guilty about being a brat and basically making his parents lose all hope and faith in him (from his pov), but at the same time he's pissed off at them and annoyed in their lack of faith. As mentioned earlier, he's a little sensitive regarding things they might say or do that could be perceived as passive aggressive jabs at him. He tends to avoid talking to them if he can help it, and when he does, it's not for very long. Rather than learning how to deal with his guilt correctly, Jake is more trying to change himself so he has nothing to feel guilty about anymore.
This mostly involves his family as he's less likely to care what other people think of him, but it does make him a little sensitive to the implications of being an irresponsible kid. So although he acts like a regular guy most of the time, he will have moments of trying to be ~A REAL ADULT~ every now and then. Which is something Snow has never done.
Abilities:
There are six Roles in the first game which all characters have access to, however, how they use these roles and which they are best at differs for each. Thus, even though characters can technically use many varieties of magic and skills, you would only really use them in the same few ways. More specifics on each individual spell Snow is capable of can be found here.
>>COMMANDO - Physical Attacks / non-elemental magic
Snow is generally a tank character. He doesn't use weapons, instead just punching and kicking his opponents. He has no formal training of any kind (as is really obvious when watching him fight) so his prowess in battle really comes from raw physical strength rather than fighting ability. He's one of the strongest physical fighters in the game and will usually be placed in this role to PUNCH ALL THE THINGS. While in this role, he's also capable of punching enemies into midair, firing non-elemental energy shots, and executing his ultimate attack: Sovereign Fist... which is literally just one huge, all-out punch. Like all l'Cie, his physical strength is far beyond human capability.
>>RAVAGER - Offensive, Elemental Magic Attacks
Conversely, Snow is probably the weakest magic caster in the game. He's capable of casting high levels of Water & Ice magic and intermediate levels of wind magic. Due to his weak magic strength, casting magic spells yields lackluster results. This is why most of the time, Snow casts spells that are simply him punching with elemental abilities attached. These attacks are the only way he is semi-useful in this role.
>>SENTINEL - Defensive Role
This is Snow's absolute specialty. The entire point of this role is provoking enemies into attacking him rather than other party members and defending himself as he's attacked. Unlike other party members who are more likely to provoke and evade, Snow just stands there and takes attacks like a stubborn brick wall. More often than not, he uses the two moves (Steelguard & Mediaguard) that allow him to take damage for the longest amount of time, but he will also focus on counterattack abilities if there are fewer, weaker opponents. Snow easily has the highest HP count in the game and has an astonishing amount of defense in this role. Snow in Sentinel mode can be near invincible if developed right.
>>SYNERGIST - Support Magic
This role concentrates on making members of your own party stronger, giving members elemental attributes, and making them less susceptible to attacks or spells. There is usually a set order Syns cast their spells, but if your entire party consists of Syn roles, each character focuses on certain types of buffs first over others. Snow will always prioritize defensive support magic over others, ie making members of your party stronger against physical and magical attacks. Then he moves to making their physical and magic attacks stronger. He is also capable of making people faster and raising the success rate of their attacks. In short, his Syn abilities are strictly defensive and offensive and mostly ignore the magic side of combat.
>>SABOTEUR - Debuff Magic
This role is all about making enemies weaker, although Snow's spells are actually more about stopping the enemies' ability to attack and making them easier targets. Many of the spells also count as attacks, and Snow will prioritize these damage causing spells above all others. He is incapable of doing anything to actually make the enemy themselves weaker. Honestly, this is a terrible role for Snow since he can't do very much in it and everything he does, another character can do much better. He would rarely ever use this.
>>MEDIC - Healing Magic
Exactly as one would think. Although he's unable to learn Raise or the game's strongest healing spell, Snow is a surprisingly capable healer. Of all his non-specialty roles, this one is probably the best one for him. However, one would still rarely use him as a healer since he's just so much better when placed in offensive roles.
---
Snow also has the ability to summon the Shiva Sisters, who help by attacking foes with powerful ice spells and by healing Snow, respectively. This is done by summoning forth a heart-shaped, blue crystal from the l'Cie mark on his arm and then breaking it. The two sisters can also transform into a motorcycle which Snow can ride (seriously) and use to continue assaulting foes.
Unless there's some kind of crazy twist in the third game, most of these supplementary roles have been abandoned by him in the next two games and he takes on more of a strictly physical fighter role.
In FFXIII-2, Snow's abilities have grown even stronger and his HP has grown beyond belief. While fighting him in the arena, Snow mostly just punches everyone, though his attacks get stronger the more he focuses on one target. His Sovereign Fist is now so strong it's an instant KO attack. He is also capable of using a widespread spell known as Quake in both games, which is actually more like a series of tornadoes flooding the area. Though this is an optional ability in the first game, it's used fairly regularly here. After recruiting Snow, you can only use him in the Sentinel role. His abilities are the same as in the first game.
In the third game, little more is known other than he uses a giant ice axe as a weapon. He still punches things, but after 500 years of development, he is mind bogglingly strong. He seems to have grown in battle prowess and experience as well, seeming a bit more strategic in his attacks even as they're still focused on blunt force. His ice magic also seems to have grown incredibly.
Roleplay Sample - Third Person: Snow tries to start a riot on a bus
Roleplay Sample - Network:
[ Normally, Jake wouldn't even resort to this method, but today it's actually really important that people be able to see him. The camera comes on while he's in the middle of adjusting it, and he seems a little startled once he realizes it's on. He runs a hand through his hair, trying very hard not to seem as panicked as he actually is. ...The more he speaks the less he's able to pull this off. ]
Uh, hey. Look guys. ...I got a freaking problem. This stuff is seriously starting to freak the fuck out of me, okay? I mean, I can kinda deal with the random hallucinations and stuff if I gotta. It's just dreams and visions, right? Not like it's gonna hurt anyone.
But NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT THIS WEIRD BODY ALTERING SHIT. I mean, look at this!
[ He holds up his arm to reveal an intricate tattoo with a red eye surrounded by jagged arrows. He pulls it back down, exasperated and trying to calm down. ]
And no one tell me that it looks cool, please. Random tribal tattoos just appearing out of nowhere is not cool. It's creepy. Especially since it looks like it's looking at me.
...I feel like I've seen this in a horror movie somewhere. Maybe something with voodoo... Help me out here.
Or no scratch that. Better question: This kind of thing happen to other people a lot? What the hell is this about? Random memories are one thing, but this? Is this part of the Pulses? Or is this something else entirely?
And on that note, anyone know what this thing in particular is supposed to be? .......It really isn't voodoo, is it?
Any Questions? ...Apologies for all this tl;dr.
OOC Information:
Name: Jax
Are you over 15? Yes
Contact:
IC Information:
Name: Snow Villiers AKA Jake Isaac Harrison
Canon and medium: Final Fantasy XIII series; video game
Age: 21 (1st game), 23 (2nd game), 523 (3rd game); he'll be 22 in game
Preincarnation Species: Human
Preincarnation Appearance: 1st & 2nd Game appearances, 3rd game
It's hard to tell unless he's standing next to someone, but Snow's a bit of a giant, standing at about 6'7". He's proportioned accordingly as well; hands, feet, arm span... he's just a generally huge guy. Being a bare-fist fighter, he's very muscular, though he tends to wear baggy clothes that hide this. He's also plagued with eternal, blond beard stubble. He has a l'Cie Brand on his left arm. In the first game, it was on his left forearm. After he got rid of that one, he gets a new one closer to his left elbow which stays on him for both the second and third game.
Any differences: Generally the same, but he keeps his hair much shorter and is actually cleanly shaven. He's also no longer such a giant (for now) and is of average size, about 5'11". He's also of average build for a man his age, though he's still muscular enough that one can easily tell he does manual labor for a living. He has no tattoos.
Preincarnated History:
(This is a generalized rundown of what happened to him personally over the course of the entire series, the final part of which has yet to be released. Even though it's super long, I still glossed over a lot of details, so more can be found on Snow's wiki page.)
Snow's canon revolves around the existence and conflict of two opposing worlds: Cocoon, a pampered, technologically advanced artificial world which relies on god-like creatures known as fal'Cie to manage every day life, and Pulse, the savage and simple planet Cocoon hovers over. Things have remained stagnant after an invasion campaign 500 years ago, but Cocoon still lives in constant fear of attacks from Pulse and the citizens have more or less been brainwashed to rely entirely on the fal'Cie and the military for everything.
Snow is a citizen of Cocoon, born and raised in the tourist city of Bodhum. An orphan who never knew his real parents, Snow was raised by the Sanctum (ie. the government, which I'm guessing just means an orphanage). There, his only sense of family came from the childhood friends he'd made. When they entered their late teens, Snow and his friends started a sort of anarchy, anti-Sanctum group called NORA (No Obligations, Rules, or Authority), which served as a sort of unofficial neighborhood watch for the city.
About eight months ago, Snow met a girl named Serah and fell head-over-heels in love. He dedicated himself completely to her and the two soon became inseparable. About twelve days before the beginning of the game, however, Snow finally met Serah's only family: her older sister Lightning, a Sanctum soldier who never approved of NORA or its idiot of a leader. She told Snow to forget about dating her sister, but he just laughed off the demands.
A few days after this, Serah tried to break up with him, later revealing that she had been Branded a Pulse l'Cie (a slave bound to a Pulse fal'Cie) and it would be dangerous to be around her. Snow decided that he really didn't care though and told her he'd stay by her side regardless. He would even help her complete the task the fal'Cie had given her so she wouldn't be turned into a monster. He reassured her everything would be fine, and to prove it, he proposed to her a few days later.
Together, Snow and Serah tried to break the news about both Serah's l'Cie status and their engagement a few days later during Lightning's birthday. Obviously, she didn't believe or accept any of this and Serah ran off, heartbroken. As Snow chased after her, the military finally took notice of her and attacked her. The two evaded pursuit, deciding to head to the fal'Cie that had Branded her in order to find out what her task was supposed to be. However, the fal'Cie simply captured Serah and held her hostage in the Pulse Vestige.
At this point, the government and the people went into complete freak out mode over Pulse forces on Cocoon. For fear of wide-spread fal'Cie magic contamination, everyone in Bodhum was to be exiled from Cocoon and relocated to Pulse. The Purge, as it was called, was stated as an exile, but considering Pulse's nature, it was more of a death sentence. The truth of the Purge's nature soon became clear when soldiers didn't hesitate to open fire on these 'tainted' civilians should they be uncooperative.
This combined with Serah's disappearance was the last straw. Realizing this whole thing was just a mass execution, Snow gathered NORA's forces together and they staged their first ever anti-government campaign: Stopping The Purge and saving the Bodhum citizens. The Purge victims themselves had started rebelling against their captors as well, and soon an all out war between military forces and citizens erupted. Inspired by the group, many of the victims NORA saved started demanding they help with the war effort as well. Snow led the civilians into combat but just got everyone killed. Among the civilians was a woman who managed to get a last request out to Snow to "get him home."
Still rocked by the horror of the massacre as well as the death of the woman, Snow managed to find NORA and the rest of the survivors. As he tried to make sense of the woman's request and come to grips with everything, the Sanctum began to move the Pulse Vestige where Serah was being held captive. He decided to push the events from his mind and hurried to the Vestige to save her.
While there, Snow found Lightning and three other people who all seemed to stumble upon Serah's body at once. She haltingly asked them all to save Cocoon, and in that moment, she turned to crystal, shedding a single crystal tear which fell into Snow's hand. Though Lightning was distraught, Snow was sure Serah was not dead but simply sleeping until she could be woken up. Together they all faced the fal'Cie who had Branded her to demand it change Serah back. But in the end, it simply Branded them all instead and the Vestige fell, crystallizing everything around it into a wasteland.
They woke up some time later and began discussing their situation, potential Focus, and what to do. They had all had the same Focus vision, evidently: a mess of explosions and limbs and bubbles which made no sense at all. Snow, however, was resolved. Obviously, their Focus was to "save Cocoon." Serah had told them as much; in fact, it had been her Focus to tell them theirs. He was now sure Serah had never been an enemy of Cocoon, and neither were they. Everyone else just figured he was nuts and was giving himself in to far too much wishful thinking.
As they wandered around, they came across Serah's still-crystallized body, which had now fused to the crystal landscape. Snow feverishly tried to dig her free but everyone else seemed resolved to leave her behind, even her sister. After protests on both ends, everyone else decided to move on while Snow stayed behind with Serah. He stayed digging there for hours until eventually a PSICOM pursuit force attacked and overwhelmed him. When he was completely cornered, the Shiva Sisters were summoned forth out of nowhere and proceeded to attack both the soldiers and Snow. He was barely able to defeat them, which was enough to impress them and allow him to summon them at will.
Snow fell to the ground, exhausted, but yet more Sanctum troops arrived. These people, however, were headed by a woman (Fang) who bore a l'Cie brand of her own. She knocked him out, and both he and Serah were taken onto a Sanctum ship. It seemed they were a Sanctum force with their own agenda regarding the l'Cie. Their leader, Cid Raines, told him the government were still pursuing Snow's friends and once they'd been captured, a public execution would be held. If Snow wanted to save them, he would have to help them find the others. In the end, Snow was forced to cooperate with their efforts.
Snow and Fang managed to find two of the four renegade l'Cie (Lightning and Hope) in Palumpolum and saved them from a PSICOM ambush. The four split up in order to evade pursuit, Snow going with Hope and Fang with Lightning. Once it seemed they were in the clear, Hope confronted Snow about his irresponsible nature and how it led to other people getting hurt/killed. Snow's guilt for the events during the Purge hit him all over again and Hope revealed he was the son of the woman Snow had gotten killed during the Purge. When Hope was mere moments away from successfully killing Snow, they were suddenly attacked again by PSICOM forces. Hope was knocked unconscious and sent flying, but Snow jumped after him and used his body to protect Hope from the impact of the fall, getting knocked out too.
Despite the line of busted ribs Snow woke up with, he carried Hope off so they could continue evading their pursuers. Hope eventually regained consciousness and Snow apologized for the death of Hope's mother, saying he'd be completely willing to accept whatever punishment Hope wanted to give him, but right now Hope needed to focus on staying alive. They were again attacked, but Lightning and Fang managed to find and save them before they could be killed.
Snow woke up (again) in Hope's house with everyone else, still injured but bandaged up. Lightning apologized to him for her behavior and they all talk to Hope's father to address the death of his wife and also discuss what to do next. PSICOM somehow managed to find them there, though, and attacked the house. This time, Snow decided to go for an entirely different approach, going out to face the soldiers with his hands up in surrender. He tried to reason with them, explaining he and the other l'Cie were just as human as the rest of them, but PSICOM didn't much care since l'Cie simply existing was a threat to their way of life. A traitor amongst PSICOM's forces (Raines' men) then attacked the rest of the brigade and allowed the l'Cie to escape back to Raines' ship.
There, they discovered the other two l'Cie (Sazh & Vanille) had been captured and were being held on a massive ship, awaiting public execution. Cocoon's leader, the Primarch, was also on board that ship, making this likely a bait to trap them all. They go anyway, managing to rescue the two and facing the Primarch to talk to him regarding their deduction that Cocoon was being manipulated by the fal'Cie it relied on. At this point, the Primarch revealed that he actually *was* a fal'Cie himself and supported their destruction of Cocoon. He explained that their Focus was for one of them to become a giant monster that would destroy the fal'Cie that held Cocoon afloat and thus kill everyone on Cocoon. Serah's Focus had only been to gather them all together.
They escaped the ship but were pursued and eventually led to an ancient artifact hidden on Cocoon known as an Ark. Snow spent most of his time here mentally shattered, completely distraught over the revelation that he and Serah had always been enemies of Cocoon and that he had been chasing a false ideal this whole time. He had been fighting because he saw their situation as one that was fixable and justifiable, but now it seemed they were doomed to either kill everyone or else become monsters, and he had no idea what to do.
Raines appeared and revealed he was a Cocoon l'Cie and explained a bit more regarding why the Primarch wanted Cocoon destroyed. He fought them and then bizarrely turned into a crystal himself. This nonsensical occurrence forced them to think their beliefs regarding the crystallization of l'Cie and how everything worked might be wrong. Evaluating Raines' situation, Snow eventually came to the conclusion that people were crystallized when they passed on their burden to someone else or are otherwise "done". Thus the Primarch lied about why Serah turned into crystal. He regained his hope that they could still make things right or else otherwise grant Serah's wish to protect Cocoon by opposing the Primarch's wishes (even if that meant turning into a monster).
They eventually found a gate to the planet Pulse itself. The gate was meant for them to go down and make themselves even stronger so they could complete their task, but they convinced themselves to go for the sake of finding an alternate solution to getting rid of their Brands. After spending some time there, the Primarch eventually tested their power and lured them to return to Cocoon by saying he'd already started a countermeasure where humans basically bring the downfall of Cocoon themselves.
They rushed back to stop him, but apparently he was lying again. Their return caused a huge invasion of Pulse forces on Cocoon and Snow's party was forced to fight both Pulse and Cocoon forces on their way to stop the Primarch. It's eventually revealed that the Primarch was actually the fal'Cie they needed to destroy in order to bring down Cocoon. The only way to do that, however, was for someone to turn into that destined monster (Ragnorak), which can only happen once someone's spirit was completely broken. The Primarch caused an illusion of killing some people, including Serah's crystallized statue, to try accomplishing this.
Sensing a weakness in Fang, he then turned everyone but she and Vanille into Cie'th (the monster they would turn into if they didn't do what they needed to). Fang did indeed break, momentarily turning herself into Ragnorak, but she snapped herself out of it. The Primarch began repetitively torturing her body to break her again, but the rest of the party members (somehow...) transformed back into their human selves and managed to help her.
Together, they fought and destroyed the Primarch and Cocoon began to fall. Fang and Vanille then became Ragnorak together in order to save Cocoon and then became a crystal pillar to keep the world from falling (thus only killing 1/3 of the population instead of everyone!)
Here's where it gets weird.
Originally, everyone crystallized into statues but woke up for no apparent reason to find themselves on Pulse with Cocoon suspended up by the crystal pillar. Serah and Sazh's son joined with them, Cocoon's populace began moving down to start a new life on Pulse, and everything seemed to be relatively okay. ...However, Snow doesn't remember any of this.
Technically, none of them were ever supposed to wake up from this crystal stasis. The goddess Etro had been the one to revive them, but in doing so, she caused a huge rift in the time space continuum that ripped Lightning away and screwed up the entire timeline. Snow doesn't remember Lightning ever having been there and assumed she was trapped in the crystal pillar along with Fang and Vanille. Serah alone remembered the correct series of events and tried to convince everyone that something horrible had happened to her sister.
Everyone mostly assumed that Serah was in some kind of grief-stricken shock and didn't take her words seriously, but she insisted on this being the truth even years later. Though Snow had no recollection of this and had no evidence to support the claim, he decided he would believe Serah's claim that Lightning was out there somewhere in trouble. He swore he would go out to find and save Lightning... and to prove his resolve, he returned his engagement necklace to her, saying he would not return and they wouldn't get married until he came back with Lightning.
What exactly happens after this isn't completely clear as he's MIA during most of the second game and what he does tell Serah regarding what he's been up to is heavily implied to be lies in order to keep her from getting worried. A supplementary novel outside game canon, however, describes a series of events that involve Snow getting repetitively distracted from his goal of finding Lightning. He ended up traveling with a lone Cactuar during these random adventures, who eventually turned out to be a Pulse fal'Cie. It tried to Brand him, but he managed to escape through dumb luck. He continued traveling with it despite this.
At some point, they came across a phenomenon of strange black mist (later known as Chaos) which was summoning forth monsters. While he attempted to lure the monsters away, he and Cactuar were engulfed by the Chaos and were sent through a time gate where he witnessed a vision of Serah dying. Panicked and desperate to prevent this from happening, he asked Cactuar to make him a l'Cie once again. There's some conflicting debate as to what his Focus is. English wiki says it's to fight with Serah in "the fated battle" but another translated source released earlier had said it was for him to protect the last remaining fal'Cie (which would make more sense). I'm personally sticking with the latter Focus unless the third game states otherwise. After becoming a l'Cie, Snow used the time gate again to try and create a timeline where Serah wouldn't die.
What happens next is really confusing, but I'll try anyway. He came out of the time gate about 300 years from when he'd left Serah behind, arriving around the base of the crystal pillar. He may or may not have gotten a vision from an entity that may or may not have really been Lightning (again, it's very heavily implied he lied about this). This supposed vision told him that the monsters located there were the ones responsible for the future downfall of the pillar, which would cause all life on Pulse to die. He was supposedly asked to stop these monsters from doing so. When she arrived at this timeline, Serah had a vision of Snow dying from this fight, so it's possible that he lost this fight at some point and was meant to die here.
Serah and her friend Noel arrived in time to save Snow and they managed to escape together. Serah and Noel then ventured to the past to make the monsters currently there more manageable to kill, but Snow ran off to fight them alone anyway and was nearly killed again. Serah and Noel once again saved him and together they managed to defeat the monsters. Snow was then given a lecture regarding his recklessness, and there was a brief discussion of what Snow's been up to all this time (which he's vague about). Eventually, Snow began to fade from existence since his presence there is now a paradox; he was supposed to be somewhere else and the correction has made it so he was no longer capable of going to this era at this time... or else the events that caused him to get sent there changed. He disappeared shortly after Serah noticed his l'Cie Brand.
Since this is the case, I actually have no idea if Snow remembers anything that happened during this section of the game. It's possible the memories for "that Snow" disappeared along with the Snow that faded. The Snow currently running around never went to the base of the pillar, never had that supposed vision, was never given that supposed mission, and was never saved by Serah and Noel, and thus has no memory of even meeting Serah again. His last memory of her is still from when he left her back home.
Snow again goes MIA after this point and it's completely unclear what he is doing. Due to screwing with the timeline and canon alternate endings, there are two possible timelines here: one that's happy and one that is completely terrible. Since the terrible one is the one followed by canon, I'm not touching the happy one at all. But at some point it was possible for this happy ending to have actually happened if something hadn't been altered to screw it up.
At some point he ended up in an alternate dimension referred to simply as The Coliseum. This was a place where warriors and monsters from multiple realities converged and fought each other for all eternity. Replicas of people he knew also appeared here (Lightning and a Bodhum soldier he knew). Somehow, Snow became enveloped by Chaos and it trapped him, binding him to The Coliseum permanently. Serah and Noel eventually found him there (this being the first time he has seen Serah since he left her) and the three battled for the sake of The Coliseum and so Serah could prove to Snow how well she could take care of herself. Snow backhandedly explained his situation afterward and Serah proclaimed that she would come back to help him. This is the last time he ever sees her.
Though he knows he's supposed to be out there, doing something to fix the timeline, he can't do anything to leave and is thus helpless to do anything to prevent Serah's death, which he knows is coming. The only reason he manages to still act normal around her and is able to let her leave is because he either thinks he has done enough to prevent it from happening, thinks it is possible to break free of the Chaos eventually, or thinks Lightning really is out there and is handling things somehow. Either way, he accepted that he was in a bleak situation but still figured everything would work itself out.
After this, Serah does end up dying, the Goddess that Lightning had been serving was killed, and Chaos proceeded to envelope the entire world. Snow was released from his prison in the Coliseum, but now it was too late to do anything.
The third game takes place 500 years after this ending. Snow is still a l'Cie, the Chaos preventing time from passing and thus making it impossible for anyone to die of natural causes or for the l'Cie Brand to advance fully. Snow has since become the protector and unwilling leader of a city named Yusnaan, where he serves as a guardian who fights back the monsters of Chaos. Somehow, everyone is aware that the world will be ending in just a few weeks and the people of Yusnaan decide to face it by living for the moment and constantly partying. Snow, heavy with guilt and despair seems resigned to wait for the world to end and for him to finally die so he can be with Serah. However, he is also aware of a legend that speaks of a Savior who will come at the end of days to save everyone's souls. Though everyone interprets this Savior in different ways, most consider this Savior to be a bad thing. Snow is, for whatever reason, aware that this Savior may possibly be Lightning, who has continued to be MIA all these centuries. After not seeing her or even being completely sure she was really alive during the entire course of 13-2 and this 500 year gap, Lightning suddenly Returns.
Reincarnated History:
Unlike Snow, Jake had parents who kept and raised him through a mostly uneventful childhood. The only real problems Jake seemed to have growing up was an overabundance of energy and nothing to really do with any of it. Although he was technically a good kid, he was a never ending cause of headaches for his parents, teachers, and anyone unfortunate enough to be charged with his safety. His entire childhood can basically be summed up as "Hey, kid! Get down from there!"
In an attempt to channel this energy more productively, his parents tried enrolling him into sports at a young age. He melded well with the social and teamwork aspects, enjoyed learning how to play, was naturally competitive, and had enough endurance to keep up with those around him easily. But after enough time had passed, all enthusiasm seemed to melt away and he didn't want to participate anymore. Usually, his parents had to force him to continue until at least the end of the year, and getting him involved beyond that was near impossible. His parents were optimistic though and figured they just had to keep trying until they found something Jake could stay passionate about.
From grade school until the first year of high school, his parents tried him out in various teams trying to find something that clicked with him: baseball, basketball, cross country, band, swimming, karate, football, and soccer were all attempted. None held his interest and he usually quit by the next year. During high school, Jake abandoned the notion of sports, but he had already fallen into a steady mindset of needing to keep himself preoccupied with something. So he tried a variety of physical hobbies like skateboarding, surfing, and video games (DDR, mostly). Again, none of these really held his interest for long before he moved onto something else.
This took a bad turn at age 16 when some friends got him into street racing. Though he knew he wasn't supposed to be driving, he didn't see much harm in it since this was done at night on lonely roads where no one could get hurt anyway. And he had enough sense to never take his parents' car, so it shouldn't have been a big deal. But one night, they were all caught by the police and inevitably dragged home to face punishment.
Had his parents yelled at him, he probably would have dismissed them as being overdramatic and would have just continued doing as he wanted. But it was worse than that. They were angry, yes, but they acted more concerned and upset... and so wholly disappointed. He got the sort of lecture anyone would expect about how he could have gotten killed or hurt someone else and so on, but the look on his parents' faces, especially his mother's, is what really got to him that night. More than thinking he did something wrong, he more thought that he never wanted to see them that upset because of him again.
This actually made him reevaluate himself to a point. It was probably the first time he really felt like the things he was doing affected other people (beyond obvious things like property damage and injuries and such). He felt like he'd been selfish and like he'd acted like an idiot, but he was still really annoyed at his parents for it all the same. He blamed himself for being stupid but blamed them for getting worked up. It was weird. Despite the conflicted feelings and the small period of mocking his friends put him through, he didn't go back to racing. Nor did he really experiment with any dangerous hobbies again. The rest of his high school career was boring, spent mostly on school work. The most he did was go out with friends to parties or just around town.
Speaking of schoolwork, this was another problem area for him. Jake was by no means stupid, but he didn't hold much passion for any subject in particular. This made school feel more like an annoying waste of time by the time he'd hit his teens. When he applied himself, he got excellent grades, but most of the time, the work felt repetitious and stupid. To make matters worse, his parents were very insistent on the idea of him going to college. So as he got older, he was hounded more persistently to decide on a career path. This was immensely frustrating for both parties since, again, he didn't really care enough about anything to make any kind of solid decision. It would have been really easy to just choose something randomly in order to make his parents shut up, but as annoying as he found the whole thing, he couldn't bring himself to live a lie even for a few years.
Despite their relentless nagging on the subject, Jake didn't go to college immediately after high school, instead simply grabbing whatever random dead-end jobs he could manage to get (none of which he could bring himself to keep before moving to another). They bothered him for about a year straight about going to college and getting a "real job" before they quite suddenly stopped. They shifted attitude entirely, seeming to take the stance that, hey, he's an adult now and it's his life. He can do what he wants with it.
To this day, Jake has no idea if they honestly felt that way or if it was some kind of demented, psychological strategy. Either way, it worked for some goddamn reason. Once they stopped pestering him, Jake reveled in the peace for a few months before slowly starting to evaluate himself again. What the hell *was* he doing with himself? He wasn't just going to bounce back and forth from job to job for the rest of his life was he? The thought was horrifying. But even still, he had no other ideas for what to do with himself.
The answer finally came to him about six months later when he'd started working as a gas station attendant. The gas station shared property with an automotive garage, several workers of which Jake ended up befriending. They unintentionally sparked his interest in the field and he eventually decided to try taking classes for it.
He figured his parents would be really supportive of him actually considering going back to school, but if anything they seemed wary and unenthusiastic. They were pretty sure this was just Jake jumping around again and didn't want to encourage him wasting money on something he wasn't going to use. Even though a part of him knew their feelings were justified, it still annoyed the hell out of him, and their behavior both before and during his schooling was perceived as a complete lack of faith in him. This was the start of him talking to them less and somewhat alienating himself from them.
The good news here is that Jake miraculously loved the classes and the work. And after he'd gotten his certification, his boss was even willing to give him a job in the garage so he could gain experience, so he didn't have to go through the pain of job hunting. He was mostly used for basic and boring things (oil changes, etc.), but was slowly given more responsibility. When one of the mechanics left, he was able to take the position for himself and was making enough that he could move out to his own place.
At game start, he's still working at the same place as a mechanic. Even though it's only been maybe two years, this is longest he's ever stayed in a steady routine and it's the most stable his life's been. Though his relationship with his parents is amiable, he still feels like they have no damn faith in him and he can get very short tempered with them. So more often than not, he's more likely to keep in touch with his sister who's at least less judgmental. He's currently going through a phase where he's between not giving a damn what anyone thinks and trying hard to seem like he's actually a responsible, reliable adult.
Most recently, he completed part time classes that certify him to care for motorcycles as well as cars, making him one of two mechanics in the garage able to fix them (he being the junior, of course).
First Echo:
He went to hang out at the mall and eventually saw a cat necklace (with a pendant similar enough to this) in a novelty shop. In canon, this necklace is the first present Snow got from his girlfriend and is something he wore constantly in 2 out of 3 games. Even if it's not as technically important as his engagement necklace, it's still incredibly significant.
Upon seeing it, he suddenly remembered the name "Serah" and the feeling that this name is very, very important to him somehow. He didn't buy the necklace and he basically waved this experience as unimportant at the time, but it had somewhat of an impact on him. For some reason, he thinks about this name regularly and keeps trying to place why it means something to him. To be honest, he really wants to just forget about it, but some instinct in him makes it feel that would be a very grave mistake. It's creepy and frustrating.
A few months ago, Jake took in a stray cat (which he tries to keep secret in his no-pets-allowed apartment) which he eventually named Sarah as a way to keep himself from ever forgetting. ...He only recently discovered Sarah is actually a male cat. Whoops.
Preincarnation Personality:
(I'm going to be covering Snow's personality over the course of all three games, and it should be noted that his personality changes quite a lot. Details regarding his personality in the third game are limited so although many things can easily be assumed, I'm going to be very general regarding that game.)
Snow actually doesn't come off as a particularly deep character, especially at first. He's a big guy with a big grin and a big ego, even when the situation is at its bleakest. Snow emits absolute confidence in both his body language and words, so much so he comes off as exceedingly arrogant. He tends to try taking charge of situations, working more as a leader than a follower. This assertive attitude makes him seem pushy and even more over confident, like he doesn't think anyone but himself could do a decent job. To make matters worse, he proclaims himself "a hero" at every given opportunity, which makes him come off as incredibly shallow, personality-wise. Some characters even blatantly say their first impression of Snow was that he was just all talk.
The best way for one to understand Snow's mentality is to think of him as a child. Snow sees things on incredibly black and white terms. Everything is categorized as good or bad, something to protect or something to destroy. Gray areas don't factor into his mind much and he often seems astonished when such possibilities are brought up. It's for this reason Snow seems to assume everyone is his friend, often treating complete strangers like they've been best buddies forever. Usually, people/things stay in these categories of good and bad unless something very big changes that.
Consequentially, Snow is incredibly loyal to those he cares about, even when the feeling is very obviously not mutual. As an orphan, he has a very loose concept of family and home, and so he considers those he cares most for as a family of sorts. It’s this dedication to filial ties that make him turn the other cheek so easily even when he’s hit, attacked, ridiculed, and mocked. An example of this immense loyalty would be that which he has for his fiancée, Serah. He loves her wholly and completely, the kind of love and dedication that can never really exist outside fairy tales (so much so, I think characters doubt its legitimacy). In fact, everything he does over the course of the game is ultimately for this girl’s sake.
He seems to dictate many of his actions on what one is "supposed" to do. He's a man, so he's supposed to be strong; he's supposed to protect people. If he loves someone, he's supposed to treat them well, marry them, have a big family with them, support them. It's in this that people feel Snow is all talk and no action. He comes across as overly idealistic, usually proclaiming monstrous, overambitious goals for himself. However, when Snow says he's going to do something, he really is going to do everything in his power to do it. He's just too short-sighted to think up details. So he's the type of guy who really would run into a burning building to save someone but would never stop to consider how he's supposed to find said person exactly or how they'd get out of there in one piece.
His plans usually consist of "go out and wing it." Snow actually works very well under this type of mentality, simply acting as the situation calls it. His assumption is that if he works toward a goal, he'll either figure out how to accomplish it midway or an opportunity will open up in time for him to do it. So he often runs into situations with absolutely no forethought or consideration of consequences. Failure doesn't even factor into his mind, so when something goes incredibly wrong, he finds himself at a complete loss, which can often make matters worse.
The core of Snow's strength stems entirely around these concepts of belief and faith in oneself. Snow does not do anything halfway: when he believes in something/someone, he believes it with absolutely every fiber of his being. There is no room for doubt. Ever. Snow is fully convinced that as long as he believes he can do something, he can definitely do it, no matter how stupid or idealistic or unlikely it may seem. This concept goes for others as well. As long as people maintain faith in themselves, they can and will do it.
It's for this reason Snow's main priority in a group is to keep spirits high. He does everything in his power to try assuring those he's with that everything will be fine, that everything will work itself out if they just keep going. In fact, he tries a little too hard and usually ends up irritating everyone around him. What he hopes will be inspiring or reassuring just comes off as bravado and naivety... more so with his tendency to act without plans.
The truth of the matter is Snow does experience doubt (even if everything about him dictates otherwise). In the first game, Snow tended to beat back his doubts with stubborn conviction, refusing to even consider negative possibilities. He tried to force his viewpoint on the rest of the party, but they had enough reason to realize how stupid and idealistic his viewpoint was and shot him down.
The only way to make him release this conviction is to present him with something indisputable to prove his belief wrong. However, once his faith has been shattered, Snow completely crumbles psychologically. He becomes quiet, lost, and listless. Without that drive, what reason does he have to continue on? How can he believe anything anymore? When this happened in game, he was actually able to bounce back and regain his hope, choosing to hold onto a different ideal entirely in order to keep himself going. This, however, was through the aid of those around him. If left to his own devices, he may have very well fallen into complete despair. He needs the support of his friends and family to keep him going in these instances as he’s not actually as strong as he tries to believe he is. (Case in point: his sorry state in Lightning Returns.)
Snow is incredibly susceptible to emotions and emotional extremes. In fact, despite the optimistic behavior, he’s probably the most emotionally sensitive character in the game. Again, however, he has a tendency to try biting these things back and not let them surface. So these instances are illustrated more with facial expressions and body language than quotes. When unsure, he has a tendency to break eye contact far too quickly, sparing glances at the ground when he can’t keep it. He’s rendered speechless when caught off guard… In fact, his reaction to emotional pain or negative emotions is either to freeze up or become angry. When he becomes angry, he uses it to fuel everything and bury any other emotion he might not want to deal with. Anger makes him appear more determined and steadfast and seems to be his default response when he doesn’t know how else to react.
Speaking of body language and nuances, Snow is a bit over active, physically speaking. He uses his hands and body far too much while talking and has a tendency to pace, cross his arms, clasp his hands behind his head, place his hands on his hips, give a thumbs up, clench his fists, and wave his arms around (sometimes all in succession). As stated earlier, Snow has a tendency to grin a lot. This smile can be very genuine some times and very obviously fake other times. When faking it, he’ll just grit his teeth together and only half his mouth will actually smile. It actually looks really retarded and I’d say 90% of the time that smile pisses whoever he’s giving it to off.
In FFXIII-2, his personality seems to be about the same, although it can be even more exaggerated at times. Based on some dialogue options one can get as well as some things revealed in one of the supplementary novels, I strongly suspect that most of his behavior during the second game is purely an act. The player is playing from Serah's POV, so much of what Snow goes through in this game is completely off stage and we are left with nothing more than his word regarding what he's been through. I strongly suspect he is actually lying about many things he tells Serah since he doesn't want to worry her. Similarly, I believe his behavior is also a reassurance for her sake. He's still trying to act like the same Snow she knew. It also probably helps him get through the mess he's gotten himself into by holding onto normalcy.
So although his personality is the same in the second game, I feel he's actually grown a lot more serious. He's been through some crazy things over the last few years and it's honestly sobered him up quite a bit. He also had to deal with the reality that Serah was probably going to die if he and Lightning didn't fix everything. And although he is trying very hard to hold onto the faith that it will all work out in the end he doesn't have a plan. It was probably very difficult for him, but he knew the most important thing was to act like everything was normal and perfectly fine for Serah's sake. And so he completely hid the dire situation he was in, didn't disclose anything about being a l'Cie, and didn't let on even once that anything was really wrong. He has grown far more aware of how his actions are affecting others and is trying to be more careful about that.
In a similar vein, he's also grown more stubborn with his less admirable traits. Namely, he has become even more determined to do everything on his own. He ventures off to find Lightning by himself and when things go wrong he just continues going on alone rather than seeking any kind of help. When he finds out Serah will die, his immediate reaction is to sacrifice himself for the sake of helping her on his own. Even when Serah and Noel save him from a fight he knows he can't win and venture off to find a way to make the fight more manageable, he goes right back to try taking care of it himself.
I also feel this shows a little lack of faith that they were even going to be coming back at all. Or if they did, an unreasonable amount of time would have passed. He's grown a little beyond the ability to have any blind faith in others just doing things as he'd wish they would, even if it's Serah. If he wants things done, he has to do it himself.
I also feel that by the time Serah comes across Snow, he has already resigned himself to a self sacrificial ending. He became a l'Cie for the sake of preventing Serah's death, a fate that cannot have any kind of happy ending. When he fades out of existence due to a corrected timeline, he doesn't seem to care much and would rather give Serah a smiling goodbye than reveal the truth behind the l'Cie mark she had noticed. He is now fighting for HER future, not THEIR future.
In Lightning Returns, Snow has had 500 long years to face the consequences of his failure to change the timeline. Serah is dead, the world was thrown into shambles, and reality itself is going to fall apart soon. He apparently holds a heavy weight of guilt due to all of this. Although he stays true to his primary goal of helping and protecting people, Snow is generally a broken man with no hope or future. The only light he sees in his future is the possibility of being with Serah when finally does die.
Any differences:
--- Since Jake grew up with a normal family under normal circumstances, he no longer has a tendency to essentially adopt his friends as a sort of makeshift family. He's still friendly and sociable, but he doesn't instantly treat strangers like they've been his best friend forever nor is he so instantly trusting of people. In fact, Jake doesn't much go out of his way to talk to people unless he's bored, he wants something, or he's working and he has to. This also means he's less likely to be as thoroughly forgiving as his pre-incarnation.
--- Jake is much less of an oblivious idiot. You could basically treat Snow like dirt and blatantly dislike/insult him to his face without him noticing or else he just lets it roll of his back. Jake would definitely pick up on negative behavior and it will change how he views and interacts with a person (a novel concept!). His patience with others really depends on the circumstances and who it is, but he's usually pretty good about keeping a level head with most people. Exceptions would be kids (the younger they are, the more he can't stand them), people who treat him like a kid or otherwise imply he's irresponsible, and his parents. He's probably most defensive and sensitive when it comes to his parents behavior, to be honest. Even just a sigh from them can get him bristling.
This being the case, he's also much less reckless than Snow is. Jake is nowhere near stupid or optimistic enough to literally run into a dangerous situation without any forethought or plan. And he's also not dumb enough to think doing everything the violent way is the best solution. He is aware that DYING is actually a possibility that can happen very easily. No, he can NOT assume that everything will just work out in the end if he tries hard enough, because holy crap that's stupid. Things don't work like that in the real world. Does Jake try to look on he bright side? Yes, he does. But he definitely can't shrug off a bleak situation under the blind faith that it'll all be fine somehow. Nor would he try to force that sort of thinking on others.
--- Jake has an annoying predispositional need to keep himself busy all the time. This is mostly a result of his parents always trying to occupy him and expend all his energy when he was a child. He ended up growing into that sort of mindset, even though he doesn't need to anymore. Because of this, he gets super focused when doing any kind physical work and is incredibly thorough. He doesn't care about cleanliness, but he'll clean if there's seriously nothing else better to do. If that's not an option he'll go out jogging or go to a bar or something. Sitting at home and watching tv is absolutely unthinkable to him. Even when he's hanging out with friends, he'd rather they were doing something like going to a club or surfing or playing a sport. Snow never had any indications of this, and in fact seemed content to just sit on the beach with his girlfriend and do nothing.
In relation to this, Jake can be really competitive. Whereas Snow comes off as the type who wouldn't really care as long as everyone's having fun, Jake always plays to win. In fact, he'll secretly make things a competition in his head just to spur himself on and make things more interesting, like trying to see if he can complete a task first or if he can do something better than someone else he doesn't even know. This doesn't mean he's a lore loser or a bad winner; this competitiveness is about making it more enjoyable to do whatever it is he's doing rather than the end result per se (though that's always a plus).
--- This one's a little more subtle but is very significant. Snow has guilt issues regarding getting people hurt due to his own recklessness and his inability to always protect those he wants to. He once dealt with this by pushing it out of his mind entirely, but later faced it head on and began accepting blame a little too well (eventually allowing guilt to consume him to the point where he can't NOT think about it).
Jake's issues circle more around disappointing his parents and being considered irresponsible in general. He still feels guilty about being a brat and basically making his parents lose all hope and faith in him (from his pov), but at the same time he's pissed off at them and annoyed in their lack of faith. As mentioned earlier, he's a little sensitive regarding things they might say or do that could be perceived as passive aggressive jabs at him. He tends to avoid talking to them if he can help it, and when he does, it's not for very long. Rather than learning how to deal with his guilt correctly, Jake is more trying to change himself so he has nothing to feel guilty about anymore.
This mostly involves his family as he's less likely to care what other people think of him, but it does make him a little sensitive to the implications of being an irresponsible kid. So although he acts like a regular guy most of the time, he will have moments of trying to be ~A REAL ADULT~ every now and then. Which is something Snow has never done.
Abilities:
There are six Roles in the first game which all characters have access to, however, how they use these roles and which they are best at differs for each. Thus, even though characters can technically use many varieties of magic and skills, you would only really use them in the same few ways. More specifics on each individual spell Snow is capable of can be found here.
>>COMMANDO - Physical Attacks / non-elemental magic
Snow is generally a tank character. He doesn't use weapons, instead just punching and kicking his opponents. He has no formal training of any kind (as is really obvious when watching him fight) so his prowess in battle really comes from raw physical strength rather than fighting ability. He's one of the strongest physical fighters in the game and will usually be placed in this role to PUNCH ALL THE THINGS. While in this role, he's also capable of punching enemies into midair, firing non-elemental energy shots, and executing his ultimate attack: Sovereign Fist... which is literally just one huge, all-out punch. Like all l'Cie, his physical strength is far beyond human capability.
>>RAVAGER - Offensive, Elemental Magic Attacks
Conversely, Snow is probably the weakest magic caster in the game. He's capable of casting high levels of Water & Ice magic and intermediate levels of wind magic. Due to his weak magic strength, casting magic spells yields lackluster results. This is why most of the time, Snow casts spells that are simply him punching with elemental abilities attached. These attacks are the only way he is semi-useful in this role.
>>SENTINEL - Defensive Role
This is Snow's absolute specialty. The entire point of this role is provoking enemies into attacking him rather than other party members and defending himself as he's attacked. Unlike other party members who are more likely to provoke and evade, Snow just stands there and takes attacks like a stubborn brick wall. More often than not, he uses the two moves (Steelguard & Mediaguard) that allow him to take damage for the longest amount of time, but he will also focus on counterattack abilities if there are fewer, weaker opponents. Snow easily has the highest HP count in the game and has an astonishing amount of defense in this role. Snow in Sentinel mode can be near invincible if developed right.
>>SYNERGIST - Support Magic
This role concentrates on making members of your own party stronger, giving members elemental attributes, and making them less susceptible to attacks or spells. There is usually a set order Syns cast their spells, but if your entire party consists of Syn roles, each character focuses on certain types of buffs first over others. Snow will always prioritize defensive support magic over others, ie making members of your party stronger against physical and magical attacks. Then he moves to making their physical and magic attacks stronger. He is also capable of making people faster and raising the success rate of their attacks. In short, his Syn abilities are strictly defensive and offensive and mostly ignore the magic side of combat.
>>SABOTEUR - Debuff Magic
This role is all about making enemies weaker, although Snow's spells are actually more about stopping the enemies' ability to attack and making them easier targets. Many of the spells also count as attacks, and Snow will prioritize these damage causing spells above all others. He is incapable of doing anything to actually make the enemy themselves weaker. Honestly, this is a terrible role for Snow since he can't do very much in it and everything he does, another character can do much better. He would rarely ever use this.
>>MEDIC - Healing Magic
Exactly as one would think. Although he's unable to learn Raise or the game's strongest healing spell, Snow is a surprisingly capable healer. Of all his non-specialty roles, this one is probably the best one for him. However, one would still rarely use him as a healer since he's just so much better when placed in offensive roles.
---
Snow also has the ability to summon the Shiva Sisters, who help by attacking foes with powerful ice spells and by healing Snow, respectively. This is done by summoning forth a heart-shaped, blue crystal from the l'Cie mark on his arm and then breaking it. The two sisters can also transform into a motorcycle which Snow can ride (seriously) and use to continue assaulting foes.
Unless there's some kind of crazy twist in the third game, most of these supplementary roles have been abandoned by him in the next two games and he takes on more of a strictly physical fighter role.
In FFXIII-2, Snow's abilities have grown even stronger and his HP has grown beyond belief. While fighting him in the arena, Snow mostly just punches everyone, though his attacks get stronger the more he focuses on one target. His Sovereign Fist is now so strong it's an instant KO attack. He is also capable of using a widespread spell known as Quake in both games, which is actually more like a series of tornadoes flooding the area. Though this is an optional ability in the first game, it's used fairly regularly here. After recruiting Snow, you can only use him in the Sentinel role. His abilities are the same as in the first game.
In the third game, little more is known other than he uses a giant ice axe as a weapon. He still punches things, but after 500 years of development, he is mind bogglingly strong. He seems to have grown in battle prowess and experience as well, seeming a bit more strategic in his attacks even as they're still focused on blunt force. His ice magic also seems to have grown incredibly.
Roleplay Sample - Third Person: Snow tries to start a riot on a bus
Roleplay Sample - Network:
[ Normally, Jake wouldn't even resort to this method, but today it's actually really important that people be able to see him. The camera comes on while he's in the middle of adjusting it, and he seems a little startled once he realizes it's on. He runs a hand through his hair, trying very hard not to seem as panicked as he actually is. ...The more he speaks the less he's able to pull this off. ]
Uh, hey. Look guys. ...I got a freaking problem. This stuff is seriously starting to freak the fuck out of me, okay? I mean, I can kinda deal with the random hallucinations and stuff if I gotta. It's just dreams and visions, right? Not like it's gonna hurt anyone.
But NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT THIS WEIRD BODY ALTERING SHIT. I mean, look at this!
[ He holds up his arm to reveal an intricate tattoo with a red eye surrounded by jagged arrows. He pulls it back down, exasperated and trying to calm down. ]
And no one tell me that it looks cool, please. Random tribal tattoos just appearing out of nowhere is not cool. It's creepy. Especially since it looks like it's looking at me.
...I feel like I've seen this in a horror movie somewhere. Maybe something with voodoo... Help me out here.
Or no scratch that. Better question: This kind of thing happen to other people a lot? What the hell is this about? Random memories are one thing, but this? Is this part of the Pulses? Or is this something else entirely?
And on that note, anyone know what this thing in particular is supposed to be? .......It really isn't voodoo, is it?
Any Questions? ...Apologies for all this tl;dr.