Character Analysis
aka, the TL;DR post.
"Hope is a normal boy from a normal family whose childhood on Cocoon can best be described as uneventful. Inexperienced in the ways of the world, and wont to turn to his mother for protection, he is completely unprepared for the turmoil into which his life is thrown when he is unexpectedly caught up in the Sanctum's brutal Purge." (taken straight from the FFXIII booklet)
Hope was born to Bartholomew and Nora Estheim, the former a Sanctum employee and the latter a stay-at-home mother for all intents and purposes. While nothing is known on his early life, it's heavily implied that he was your run-of-the-mill average kid- normal in all aspects, with the exception of being extremely thoughtful.
Episode Zero provided a snippet of Hope's life when he was eight years old and left Palumpolum on a field trip with the rest of his school to see the Suneth Waterscapes. It was the first time the children of his class had stepped onto dirt before, as Cocoon was such a sheltered world that the only places they had dirt around major cities such as Palumpolum that was for the decorative purposes of putting potted plants around. The snippet provided a bit of background information on his family and friends as he spent a day out of his comfort zone and almost got into trouble helping his friend Kai look for his missing camera.
Fast forward to when Hope is 14, and a lot has changed since that field trip- his two friends moved away and his father was gone more than he was home. With Nora attempting to mend the distant relationship between her husband and son, she arranges a trip for their family to Bodhum, to see the fal'Cie and Eurides Gorge and the wishing fireworks. Bartholomew continues to call in and delay his trip with them, though, until he finally admits that he's too busy with work to go at all.
And the night after his call, the city of Bodhum is purged by the Sanctum in suspicion of hosting a Pulse l'Cie- enemy of Cocoon, whose purposes were only of mayhem and destruction. Hope and his mother are herded on the train like everyone else, with Nora begging the soldiers to let her son go, to no avail. Hope is terrified, as he had grown up being taught that "Pulse is Hell", and with the information that they were all being put on a one-way trip to Pulse... well, what child wouldn't be?
The train is halted, however, by a team of ragtag rebels who are working to save those being Purged, as the truth of the matter was that it wasn't so much moving people to Pulse as it was a behind the scenes execution of all the inhabitants. In order to protect her son, Nora offers her services to the rebels, and eventually saves Snow's life, but dies right after, her last words to Snow being "get him home."
Hope sees the entire fight from a distance, including his mother's death, and blames Snow for dragging her into the fight in the first place. Lost as to what he was to do, he follows Vanille when she convinces him that he has to confront Snow on his mother's death, but is too late as Snow flies off into the heart of the Pulse Vestige, where a Pulse fal'Cie is apparently sleeping. It was that Pulse Vestige that caused the Purge in the first place, and stories told about it stated that anyone who ventured too close would eventually become Cei'th: monsters made of crystals who retained no sense of humanity left at all, only attacking people at random in their pain and suffering. However, Vanille convinces him to chase after Snow and the two of them enter the Pulse Vestige, only to be caught up in the whirlwind of events that happen after.
Needless to say, the chapter ended with everyone who stepped into the Pulse Vestige being branded as Pulse l'Cie- the very same reason why the city of Bodhum was purged in the first place. Hope is absolutely devastated; first he's on a train headed to Hell, then his mother dies before his eyes, and now he's not even considered human anymore, but the enemy of everything he's grown up to believe?
Still, the group introduces themselves to each other as now there was no one else they could trust, and attempt to figure out their Focus- as they were all given the same Focus, and for l'Cie who complete their Focus in time, they were turned into crystal and supposedly given eternal life (which was just a better way of saying death), but for those who didn't complete their Focus in time... they were turned into Cie'th, the monsters who roamed in pain and suffering. A bit of a lose-lose situation, but being turned into crystal sure sounded better than being turned into a monster.
Hope can't seem to find the moment to talk to Snow about his mother, and when the man stays behind to try and protect Serah's crystal, Hope leaves with the rest of the group to escape the Sanctum soldiers hunting after them. Eventually the group splits up, and Sazh encourages Hope to go after Lightning before she leaves him behind. He does so, fumbling after her with every step until she finally snaps that she doesn't want a kid following her around and accidentally summons Odin, who attacks the two of them (but mostly Hope- it's kind of really stupid, you don't know how many times he died in that battle).
After the battle (which Hope does most of the work, because Lightning's a commando and Eidolons are more affected by ravager attacks), Lightning finally admits that she would help Hope toughen up and survive, and she starts to teach Hope the basics of how to defend himself, and how to fight.
They pass through the Gapra Whitewoods and finally into the underside of Palumpolum where Hope suggests that he take point for the first time, and Lightning agrees, giving him tips all the while. They bond through the chapters as Light slowly tells Hope about her past as she comes to realize that perhaps turning Hope into a soldier wasn't the best idea, and Hope reveals that he plans to take revenge on Snow for getting his mom killed. Eventually Lightning confronts Hope about that idea, telling him that it's more important for him to go home and talk to his dad about what happened than to hang onto revenge.
As they're found by the Sanctum soldiers in Palumpolum, though, Lightning puts Hope under Snow's care in order to go ahead and clear the way for them, trusting onto Hope to do the right thing.
As Hope tries to talk with Snow about the consequences of his actions, though, Snow just brushes him off, and Hope becomes more and more enraged by that; as Snow talks about the family he wants to have in the future and about how Hope shouldn't put too much thought on the people left behind or else he wouldn't be able to function, Hope finally snaps and reveals that Nora, the woman who saved Snow only to die herself, was his mother, and that it was Snow's fault that she was dead. He attempts to kill Snow with the knife that Lightning had given him, and is literally stopped with a missile to the back.
As Hope falls unconscious from the building, Snow jumps off after him, finally realizing who Nora had meant when she gave him her last request. He saves Hope with some serious injuries to himself, and attempts to carry the boy to safety despite his own injuries. Hope wakes after a while to realize that Snow had saved him, and he finally breaks down when Snow hands him back the knife, admitting that he had been wrong to ignore the consequences of his actions, and that in the end, should Hope decide that he hadn't made up for Nora's death, then his life would be in Hope's hands.
It was at the point that Hope finally admitted to himself that his mother's death hadn't been Snow's fault... that he had known that from the beginning, but he needed someone to blame in order to go on. When they're attacked again, and Snow is knocked unconscious trying to protect Hope, the boy decides that Snow can't die before he atones, and fights hard to protect the man.
As powerful as Hope is with his magic, though, he's really not made to be a solo fighter, and was going to lose the battle before Lightning and Fang jump in to help and defeat the enemy. Hope gives Light back her knife afterward, declaring that his mission to avenge his mother had failed, and Lightning hugs him and tells him that it's alright and she'd protect him (honestly, I just think she was extraordinarily proud that her trust in him paid off), where Hope makes his own promise that he'd try his best to protect her as well.
Hope goes home to his father and finally makes amends, the two of them grieving over Nora's death. When Hope decides that he has to leave because the Sanctum would continue to hunt after the Pulse l'Cie, Bartholomew, in a move that surprises his son, declares that it didn't matter if he was a Pulse l'Cie or not, he would always have a place at home. He keeps to his word even as their home is invaded by Sanctum soldiers, and Hope realizes he has to leave, but promises his father that he'd make his own way and keep safe.
Leaving his father in the safe custody of the Calvary, the group of l'Cie journey off to safe Sazh and Vanille, who had been captured by the Sanctum. They succeed, but also find out that the leader of Cocoon, Primarch Galenth Dysley, was actually a Cocoon fal'Cie working to ensure the demise of the entire planet. Apparently both Cocoon and Pulse fal'Cie were working together in one objective- to bring back their lost Maker, and in order to do that, they were going to sacrifice the lives of everyone on Cocoon as an offering.
After battling and escaping Barthandelus (Dysley's true form), the group is transported to an old Pulse Ark to train up their powers, and after that, deposited on the wilds of Gran Pulse. There, they look for a way to get rid of their brands and lose their status as l'Cie, as none of them wanted to by the ones who had a hand in Cocoon's demise. Through their journey, the discover that everyone on Gran Pulse seemed to be dead, either killed or turned to Cie'th as the war 500 years ago had sought the same end- to sacrifice a planet in order to call back the Maker.
Hope's brand progresses rapidly in Gran Pulse, and despite his optimism and determination to see things through, he despairs that he's the one holding the group back- he's the youngest and weakest of all of them, and he doesn't want to be the reason they get hurt or become Cie'th, just because they always had to wait for him or cater to him. Lightning reinforces her words that they were a team and would never leave him, but Hope's despair calls upon his Eidolon, Alexander, to the game. After Alexander's defeat, though, Hope comes to realize the the Eidolons aren't there to kill them, but to guide them when they lose their way, and for them to regain faith in themselves. They battle Barthandelus once more and when the fal'Cie is finally satisfied with their progress as l'Cie, deposits them back to Cocoon.
It's there that the group of them start to demonstrate the full extent of their powers and their development. Barthandelus has unleashed the full extent of all the dangerous creatures on the Pulse Ark onto the streets of Cocoon to create anarchy and chaos, and to bait the Cavalry into attacking Orphan, the power source of all the fal'Cie on Cocoon. The group of l'Cie chase after the Cavalry with the intent to stop them, only to arrive and find out that the fal'Cie have, in one fell sweep, turned everyone in the Cavalry into Cie'th (so much for Bartholomew being safe, huh?).
The group fight through them and realize that the fal'Cie can't be allowed to rule human lives like this anymore... doing something like this whenever they felt like it, destroying human lives and manipulating people like puppets... the fal'Cie had to be stopped. And the only way of stopping them was to take out Orphan (wow, geez, sounds a lot like what Barty wanted them to do, doesn't it?)- but Barthandelus is convinced that the only way the l'Cie can defeat Orphan is for one of them to cast off their humanity and become Ragnarok.
After he gives the group a beatdown and tortures Vanille, Fang agrees to be the one to turn, in order to save the other girl. The team tries to stop her, but apparently get turned into Cie'th for their troubles. In Fang's despair and guilt for that, she turns into Ragnarok and breaks open Orphan's shields... however, she can't keep her hate long enough, as she remembers all the promises everyone made to each other, and her hate turns back to despair and she turns back, only to be tortured by Barthandelus/Orphan for failing.
As everything looks bleak, the team return- apparently the Cie'th thing had only been an illusion cast by Barthandelus to break Fang and Vanille, except for some reason everyone else returned with their brands halted- in no danger now of becoming Cie'th. Hope heals Fang and together they bring down both Barthandelus and Orphan, thanks to Fang having broken the shield as Ragnarok.
But oops, defeating Orphan means that the power supply for Cocoon is gone, and seeing as Cocoon is a planet floating in the sky of Gran Pulse off the power of Orphan... well, the planet is crashing down now. So much for saving everyone. Luckily, Fang and Vanille have that covered as the others turn to crystal from fulfilling their Focus, and Cocoon never hits the ground- rather, it is encased and balanced on the crystals that powered the l'Cie, and the people on the planet safe and sound.
And now, with the entire team turned to crystal, this is usually where I choose to take Hope from.
Hope's at the very edge of teenage moodiness a lot of times, but he's generally a very kind and thoughtful boy who's extremely sensitive to people's emotions and turmoils, and extremely non-confrontational (unless someone talks about his family- then he might get in people's faces about it). Going through his history, he's always been a very kind and quiet child, despite being stupidly sheltered and somewhat spoiled. I mean, he's a kid who's never stepped on dirt before he was eight years old, yet by that age he'll also volunteer to walk into danger to find a lost camera so his friend's little brother could see the pictures that night instead of the next day? He's a stupidly kind kid. And that stupid translates a lot into naivety. He's been described as the one who actively plays the peace-keeper when his friends start yelling at each other, and the one who's sensible and patient, and didn't mind sharing his things despite being an only child to an upper class family. He was taught as a child that promises were extremely important, so he'll do just about anything to keep his promises, no matter how small those promises are. Pre-game, he's an extremely thoughtful child who always had the right words to say when it came to cheering his mother up.
Portrayed in-game, though, Hope is more than a little socially awkward and unsure of himself, and is extremely dependent on the people around him- he was extremely close to his mother before she died (especially after being emotionally estranged with his father and losing contact with his friends after they moved away), and when she was gone, he turned to Lightning as a mentor in order to teach himself how to survive. He had a bit of teen angst with his dad for breaking promises to his mom, and went through a violent hatred phase with Snow because he blamed the man for his mother's death, but after getting through that, Hope proves to be extremely optimistic and charismatic. He's the one who gives most of the motivational speeches to the group before going into something big, and even though his words and tone are awkward since he's not used to speaking to groups of people and he still had issues with his own self-confidence, people who listen to him usually regain their determination and focus by the time he's done speaking.
This kid. He's awkward, but he makes you want to fight for the things that he believes in, even if it's only because he's so naively optimistic that you don't want to let him down. Hope draws his confidence from the people around him, though- there's a section in-game that's very telling of this: when Lightning asked him if he was scared before they were supposed to rescue two of their teammates, and he replies very honestly that he was terrified- but it was alright because she, and the rest of the team, were with him.
He's generally polite and has a good amount of respect for adults, and girls in particular, since he's been around some very strong characters. He acts quite meek, usually a little slouched and talks with his head down- he has a habit of lacing his fingers together in front of him and rocking on his heels when he's waiting for something to happen, as well as reaching out and clinging to someone's hands when he's uncertain or wants their attention. He's quite good with animals, and will generally go out of the way to make people happy- all quite child-like behaviour, but when he gets angry, he gets angry; it builds like a slow-burning flame, and when he finally snaps, he pretty much loses sight of everything else but his anger, to the point of murder (but, that will take something very, very extreme- the same way with most people, I think). Hope has a way with words- he may not use big words, he may be a awkward in speech and mannerisms, but he has a very blunt way of speaking that makes it near impossible to disagree with him- and if he's angry, and the person he's angry at has any sort of conscience at all, then those words cut extremely deep.
At this point in his life, Hope will probably oscillate between being very dependent on other people, to trying to do everything himself because he's growing up. He'll most likely be able to manage on his own, although it wouldn't be a very good experience for him. He is a character that needs other people, I can't seem to emphasize that enough, even though he'd do fine by himself. He's just... at his best when he has someone to look after him, and someone he can worry about in return.
The last point of his personality, I have a confession to make. I take a lot of deeper points that aren't expressed in the game or Episode Zero from fanfiction. Or specifically, one fanfiction. Evolution is a re-telling of the game through a much darker perspective, and seeing as I place Hope in darker games, it's near perfect for me to draw from.
But I try to draw as much from canon as I can, and then resort to the story and headcanon when the situation just isn't covered by what's placed in-game.
How does he react to people? For the most part, Hope is quiet and doesn't feel the need to reach out and talk to people unless they're already important to him or he has questions. The exception is those who are selfless, even if it's only an act. Show him the slightest bit of kindness and you've already gotten on his good side. Unless he has a good reason, he's not going to think negatively of you!
Good reasons include, of course, threatening to kill people or talking about how awesome you are by beating others up. He is Not Impressed by that. He won't reprimand someone for it... he would just make a mental note to never talk to them at all or avoid them altogether.
But if someone's talking about reaching out and helping someone else... doing a good deed... then he's more than likely to offer his help. He's got an independent streak to him now that he's gotten through most of the events that he's been through in-game, but he's still got some major self-confidence issues. He wants to measure up to everyone else, and doesn't take his own age into account... or the fact that the rest of his party were pretty exceptional. What Hope sees when he compares himself to other people is how much he's lacking, and not how much he's learned through the journey. He'd blinded to what he can do because he's constantly making a list of what he can't do.
In addition to that, he's got some serious abandonment issues going on. Without his castmates, he's fine. Because if they were never there with him in the first place, then they obviously didn't mean to abandon him, right? With his castmates, however, he will stick about them and there's a good chance that he wouldn't understand if they left... he's excuse it, write it off, justify it because people leave all the time. But at the same time, despite what he wants to feel, it would always feel like a personal betrayal when they leave (omg, not trying to guilt-trip anyone here, just saying that's what he's going to feel, doesn't matter how or why). It was the same with his mother, and with his father... Hope doesn't take well to the idea of being left behind, of people turning their back to him. His entire world turned his back to him and he never wants to deal with that again, even though he knows that the moment he gets home, he's going to have to continue to deal with that. He's determined to be strong for it, but... it still hurts.
He's not stupid. He knows what's been done (or what needs to be done), and also knows that there's barely a slim chance he'd ever be forgiven for it, much less get back to a normal life. And he liked normal. He never wanted to be anymore other than normal. Never even wanted to be exceptional. He's smart, but lacks the ambition, really. His motivations to do better had always been to make someone proud of him.
Whether it was his mom and dad before, or Lightning later on. What Hope wanted was people to be proud of him, to smile at him and assure him that they wouldn't leave him.
He's sweet, definitely, but nowhere near a saint. If anything, he's a kid just settling himself into adolescence. Uncomfortably.
At the beginning of the game, Hope has his normal boomerang skills- he has a futuristic boomerang that can fold small (to fit into his pants pocket... somewhere), and somehow, when he throws it, hits every target he aims at before it returns to him. It's hinted at in the pre-game development rumors, although never confirmed, that it was because boomerangs were a type of extreme sport on Cocoon that Hope learned (I figured it was something like skateboarding for teens). Those are normal skills that he keeps, seeing as it doesn't take much physically and nothing magically- just some extreme calculations in his mind.
When he becomes a l'Cie, though, Hope soon becomes the most powerful magical user in the team (to compensate for his low physical attack and super low HP). He starts off as a ravager- which, in-game, is the primary magical attacker. He can attack with every element in-game, from throwing Blizzard spells to Fira spells quite easily. Eventually as the game progresses, those spells become much more powerful and instead of throwing a single Aero spell, he can summon up a tornado for a brief amount of time, or bombard an entire area with lightning. While ravager spells are impressive, enemies tend to recover very quickly if they are not already stunned by a physical attack (it's the stagger meter in the game- ravager spells raise the stagger meter fast, but they do little damage and that meter goes down very quickly unless combined with physical attacks from a commando).
He gets his next class very quickly, learning to be a synergist, which is a buff class: he can cast shields, both physical and magical, and enhancements in strength and speed, as well as bravery and fortitude and raise all elemental potentials so that anyone who can attack using elemental spells would increase their attack greatly.
Last class is medic, which is somewhat self-explanatory. What's surprising is that he becomes the best medic in-game because Vanille was basically the assigned medic, but as Hope's magic surpassed hers, so did his healing spells. He has the basic cures to heal people, cura and cureja as an area of effect healing spell, esuna which rids all status effects including poisons, and eventually Renew and Raise- which are basically resurrection spells (so I never really needed to use any of my phoenix downs. I saved up a LOT of them through the game). The sadly hacks thing is that not only did he cast any and all of these spells very fast, but if he casts haste (a synergist spell) on himself, he casts even FASTER. It's not like his has a depletable mana supply, either, since his magic is constantly refilling itself.
The masterly hacks is most likely his Eidolon (his summon), which comes from the crystal in his brand/blood: Alexander, who is the largest, most powerful, and longest lasting of all the Eidolons in-game. Basically, the most powerful thing in-game, period. The only downside to Alexander is that he moves quite slowly (to compensate for the fact that he can be summoned for the longest time).
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THOUGH.
On the subject of "love". On the subject of a romantic relationship, there's very little chance of me putting Hope in one. I play him as a kid, a smart kid, who is a little oblivious (at the same time being all too aware) to the fact that he is growing up. Again, developmentally, he's the same as all the other kids his age, except he's got a huge amount of respect for the opposite sex and he's smarter about things.
One, there's just about no chance of me putting him in a sexual relationship (unless you have this amazing plot related idea, and then talk to me about it). Two, there's very little chance of him getting a girlfriend/boyfriend (again, talk with me). Yes, it's broadened to both- I'd say he likes girls primarily, but wouldn't be adverse to alternatives if he does happen to fall in love. But as I said, I play him as a kid- as such, he's only just starting to grow into himself and while I'm sure he'd have plenty of puppy crushes, he's smart enough to know the difference between a kid crush and something life changing.
Yes, I play him as having a crush on Vanille. No, he'd never act on it. She's a dear friend to him and precious to Fang and he knows better. Hope values familial relationships above all else at this stage in his life, and the entire team is like family to him- thus, he has never, and would never, even think about entering a romantic relationship with any of them. They already have the highest spots in his life, changing anything would be demeaning.
He is a teenage boy and will have the physical reactions of a teenage boy (except not nearly so bad as an older teen would have since he's just growing into that stage), so, say, if Vanille ever tried to cuddle him in her sleep, he'd be, derp, very uncomfortable about it (give him some credit- she's pretty, he already likes her, and she's scantily clad). Unless he's already asleep, in which it's just the waking up part which will freak him out.
Adults are a different matter, if only because psychologically, he still looks toward the adults to make things right- even if he keeps claiming that he's not a kid anymore. If he fell asleep next to Light, he'd just draw comfort from her presence and probably curl closer for warmth. Same with Snow, even.
Hope cares about and loves a lot of people, I mean, he's not really one to deny affection. So he'll invade people's personal bubbles a lot and if he feels that you care and wouldn't reject it, he'd probably cling to your shirt, your hand... from either insecurity or to get your attention. Hugs are very welcome, despite what he says.
Also! Lightning.
Um, so I covered Vanille a bit in the personality post, and Lightning a little bit as well. But. Other than Nora, Lightning is perhaps the most important person to Hope in-game. But I think there's barely a tiny chance he'd ever encounter Nora in RP, so I'll skip to Lightning~
First things first- he'll probably never say anything of the sort, but Hope loves Light dearly; she's his mentor and his guiding star for most of the game. He depends on her quite a bit for strength and guidance and, well, basically everything. She taught him how to fight, how to defend himself, and how to stand up against something greater and achieve the impossible. He attributes his survival to her.
She's basically everything he wants to be when he grows up. XD From his parents, Hope learned of compassion and sacrifice, but from Light he learned how to channel despair into determination- and that sacrifice doesn't have to mean the end.
She's not his mother- he loves Nora too much to ever be able to replace her, but she is his idol. He knows that she doesn't want him to follow in her footsteps and her mistakes, but more than anything, he wants Light to be proud of him. He wants to grow up and be able to protect her the same way she always shielded him. And he strives to be better and stronger all the time because of it.
If anything, she's... like the big sister he never had- someone to idolize and look up to and run to if he ever needed. To him, she's strong and brave and kind and she can do anything and he'd follow her to the ends of the earth if he could offer some help and relieve her burdens somehow.
Will I play them as a pair? Sure, if it somehow gets worked in or affects the plot. Anything's possible, and I won't discount anything. But as it stands from canon without outside influences, while she is one of the most important people in his life, it's not a romantic thing.
"Hope is a normal boy from a normal family whose childhood on Cocoon can best be described as uneventful. Inexperienced in the ways of the world, and wont to turn to his mother for protection, he is completely unprepared for the turmoil into which his life is thrown when he is unexpectedly caught up in the Sanctum's brutal Purge." (taken straight from the FFXIII booklet)
Hope was born to Bartholomew and Nora Estheim, the former a Sanctum employee and the latter a stay-at-home mother for all intents and purposes. While nothing is known on his early life, it's heavily implied that he was your run-of-the-mill average kid- normal in all aspects, with the exception of being extremely thoughtful.
Episode Zero provided a snippet of Hope's life when he was eight years old and left Palumpolum on a field trip with the rest of his school to see the Suneth Waterscapes. It was the first time the children of his class had stepped onto dirt before, as Cocoon was such a sheltered world that the only places they had dirt around major cities such as Palumpolum that was for the decorative purposes of putting potted plants around. The snippet provided a bit of background information on his family and friends as he spent a day out of his comfort zone and almost got into trouble helping his friend Kai look for his missing camera.
Fast forward to when Hope is 14, and a lot has changed since that field trip- his two friends moved away and his father was gone more than he was home. With Nora attempting to mend the distant relationship between her husband and son, she arranges a trip for their family to Bodhum, to see the fal'Cie and Eurides Gorge and the wishing fireworks. Bartholomew continues to call in and delay his trip with them, though, until he finally admits that he's too busy with work to go at all.
And the night after his call, the city of Bodhum is purged by the Sanctum in suspicion of hosting a Pulse l'Cie- enemy of Cocoon, whose purposes were only of mayhem and destruction. Hope and his mother are herded on the train like everyone else, with Nora begging the soldiers to let her son go, to no avail. Hope is terrified, as he had grown up being taught that "Pulse is Hell", and with the information that they were all being put on a one-way trip to Pulse... well, what child wouldn't be?
The train is halted, however, by a team of ragtag rebels who are working to save those being Purged, as the truth of the matter was that it wasn't so much moving people to Pulse as it was a behind the scenes execution of all the inhabitants. In order to protect her son, Nora offers her services to the rebels, and eventually saves Snow's life, but dies right after, her last words to Snow being "get him home."
Hope sees the entire fight from a distance, including his mother's death, and blames Snow for dragging her into the fight in the first place. Lost as to what he was to do, he follows Vanille when she convinces him that he has to confront Snow on his mother's death, but is too late as Snow flies off into the heart of the Pulse Vestige, where a Pulse fal'Cie is apparently sleeping. It was that Pulse Vestige that caused the Purge in the first place, and stories told about it stated that anyone who ventured too close would eventually become Cei'th: monsters made of crystals who retained no sense of humanity left at all, only attacking people at random in their pain and suffering. However, Vanille convinces him to chase after Snow and the two of them enter the Pulse Vestige, only to be caught up in the whirlwind of events that happen after.
Needless to say, the chapter ended with everyone who stepped into the Pulse Vestige being branded as Pulse l'Cie- the very same reason why the city of Bodhum was purged in the first place. Hope is absolutely devastated; first he's on a train headed to Hell, then his mother dies before his eyes, and now he's not even considered human anymore, but the enemy of everything he's grown up to believe?
Still, the group introduces themselves to each other as now there was no one else they could trust, and attempt to figure out their Focus- as they were all given the same Focus, and for l'Cie who complete their Focus in time, they were turned into crystal and supposedly given eternal life (which was just a better way of saying death), but for those who didn't complete their Focus in time... they were turned into Cie'th, the monsters who roamed in pain and suffering. A bit of a lose-lose situation, but being turned into crystal sure sounded better than being turned into a monster.
Hope can't seem to find the moment to talk to Snow about his mother, and when the man stays behind to try and protect Serah's crystal, Hope leaves with the rest of the group to escape the Sanctum soldiers hunting after them. Eventually the group splits up, and Sazh encourages Hope to go after Lightning before she leaves him behind. He does so, fumbling after her with every step until she finally snaps that she doesn't want a kid following her around and accidentally summons Odin, who attacks the two of them (but mostly Hope- it's kind of really stupid, you don't know how many times he died in that battle).
After the battle (which Hope does most of the work, because Lightning's a commando and Eidolons are more affected by ravager attacks), Lightning finally admits that she would help Hope toughen up and survive, and she starts to teach Hope the basics of how to defend himself, and how to fight.
They pass through the Gapra Whitewoods and finally into the underside of Palumpolum where Hope suggests that he take point for the first time, and Lightning agrees, giving him tips all the while. They bond through the chapters as Light slowly tells Hope about her past as she comes to realize that perhaps turning Hope into a soldier wasn't the best idea, and Hope reveals that he plans to take revenge on Snow for getting his mom killed. Eventually Lightning confronts Hope about that idea, telling him that it's more important for him to go home and talk to his dad about what happened than to hang onto revenge.
As they're found by the Sanctum soldiers in Palumpolum, though, Lightning puts Hope under Snow's care in order to go ahead and clear the way for them, trusting onto Hope to do the right thing.
As Hope tries to talk with Snow about the consequences of his actions, though, Snow just brushes him off, and Hope becomes more and more enraged by that; as Snow talks about the family he wants to have in the future and about how Hope shouldn't put too much thought on the people left behind or else he wouldn't be able to function, Hope finally snaps and reveals that Nora, the woman who saved Snow only to die herself, was his mother, and that it was Snow's fault that she was dead. He attempts to kill Snow with the knife that Lightning had given him, and is literally stopped with a missile to the back.
As Hope falls unconscious from the building, Snow jumps off after him, finally realizing who Nora had meant when she gave him her last request. He saves Hope with some serious injuries to himself, and attempts to carry the boy to safety despite his own injuries. Hope wakes after a while to realize that Snow had saved him, and he finally breaks down when Snow hands him back the knife, admitting that he had been wrong to ignore the consequences of his actions, and that in the end, should Hope decide that he hadn't made up for Nora's death, then his life would be in Hope's hands.
It was at the point that Hope finally admitted to himself that his mother's death hadn't been Snow's fault... that he had known that from the beginning, but he needed someone to blame in order to go on. When they're attacked again, and Snow is knocked unconscious trying to protect Hope, the boy decides that Snow can't die before he atones, and fights hard to protect the man.
As powerful as Hope is with his magic, though, he's really not made to be a solo fighter, and was going to lose the battle before Lightning and Fang jump in to help and defeat the enemy. Hope gives Light back her knife afterward, declaring that his mission to avenge his mother had failed, and Lightning hugs him and tells him that it's alright and she'd protect him (honestly, I just think she was extraordinarily proud that her trust in him paid off), where Hope makes his own promise that he'd try his best to protect her as well.
Hope goes home to his father and finally makes amends, the two of them grieving over Nora's death. When Hope decides that he has to leave because the Sanctum would continue to hunt after the Pulse l'Cie, Bartholomew, in a move that surprises his son, declares that it didn't matter if he was a Pulse l'Cie or not, he would always have a place at home. He keeps to his word even as their home is invaded by Sanctum soldiers, and Hope realizes he has to leave, but promises his father that he'd make his own way and keep safe.
Leaving his father in the safe custody of the Calvary, the group of l'Cie journey off to safe Sazh and Vanille, who had been captured by the Sanctum. They succeed, but also find out that the leader of Cocoon, Primarch Galenth Dysley, was actually a Cocoon fal'Cie working to ensure the demise of the entire planet. Apparently both Cocoon and Pulse fal'Cie were working together in one objective- to bring back their lost Maker, and in order to do that, they were going to sacrifice the lives of everyone on Cocoon as an offering.
After battling and escaping Barthandelus (Dysley's true form), the group is transported to an old Pulse Ark to train up their powers, and after that, deposited on the wilds of Gran Pulse. There, they look for a way to get rid of their brands and lose their status as l'Cie, as none of them wanted to by the ones who had a hand in Cocoon's demise. Through their journey, the discover that everyone on Gran Pulse seemed to be dead, either killed or turned to Cie'th as the war 500 years ago had sought the same end- to sacrifice a planet in order to call back the Maker.
Hope's brand progresses rapidly in Gran Pulse, and despite his optimism and determination to see things through, he despairs that he's the one holding the group back- he's the youngest and weakest of all of them, and he doesn't want to be the reason they get hurt or become Cie'th, just because they always had to wait for him or cater to him. Lightning reinforces her words that they were a team and would never leave him, but Hope's despair calls upon his Eidolon, Alexander, to the game. After Alexander's defeat, though, Hope comes to realize the the Eidolons aren't there to kill them, but to guide them when they lose their way, and for them to regain faith in themselves. They battle Barthandelus once more and when the fal'Cie is finally satisfied with their progress as l'Cie, deposits them back to Cocoon.
It's there that the group of them start to demonstrate the full extent of their powers and their development. Barthandelus has unleashed the full extent of all the dangerous creatures on the Pulse Ark onto the streets of Cocoon to create anarchy and chaos, and to bait the Cavalry into attacking Orphan, the power source of all the fal'Cie on Cocoon. The group of l'Cie chase after the Cavalry with the intent to stop them, only to arrive and find out that the fal'Cie have, in one fell sweep, turned everyone in the Cavalry into Cie'th (so much for Bartholomew being safe, huh?).
The group fight through them and realize that the fal'Cie can't be allowed to rule human lives like this anymore... doing something like this whenever they felt like it, destroying human lives and manipulating people like puppets... the fal'Cie had to be stopped. And the only way of stopping them was to take out Orphan (wow, geez, sounds a lot like what Barty wanted them to do, doesn't it?)- but Barthandelus is convinced that the only way the l'Cie can defeat Orphan is for one of them to cast off their humanity and become Ragnarok.
After he gives the group a beatdown and tortures Vanille, Fang agrees to be the one to turn, in order to save the other girl. The team tries to stop her, but apparently get turned into Cie'th for their troubles. In Fang's despair and guilt for that, she turns into Ragnarok and breaks open Orphan's shields... however, she can't keep her hate long enough, as she remembers all the promises everyone made to each other, and her hate turns back to despair and she turns back, only to be tortured by Barthandelus/Orphan for failing.
As everything looks bleak, the team return- apparently the Cie'th thing had only been an illusion cast by Barthandelus to break Fang and Vanille, except for some reason everyone else returned with their brands halted- in no danger now of becoming Cie'th. Hope heals Fang and together they bring down both Barthandelus and Orphan, thanks to Fang having broken the shield as Ragnarok.
But oops, defeating Orphan means that the power supply for Cocoon is gone, and seeing as Cocoon is a planet floating in the sky of Gran Pulse off the power of Orphan... well, the planet is crashing down now. So much for saving everyone. Luckily, Fang and Vanille have that covered as the others turn to crystal from fulfilling their Focus, and Cocoon never hits the ground- rather, it is encased and balanced on the crystals that powered the l'Cie, and the people on the planet safe and sound.
And now, with the entire team turned to crystal, this is usually where I choose to take Hope from.
Hope's at the very edge of teenage moodiness a lot of times, but he's generally a very kind and thoughtful boy who's extremely sensitive to people's emotions and turmoils, and extremely non-confrontational (unless someone talks about his family- then he might get in people's faces about it). Going through his history, he's always been a very kind and quiet child, despite being stupidly sheltered and somewhat spoiled. I mean, he's a kid who's never stepped on dirt before he was eight years old, yet by that age he'll also volunteer to walk into danger to find a lost camera so his friend's little brother could see the pictures that night instead of the next day? He's a stupidly kind kid. And that stupid translates a lot into naivety. He's been described as the one who actively plays the peace-keeper when his friends start yelling at each other, and the one who's sensible and patient, and didn't mind sharing his things despite being an only child to an upper class family. He was taught as a child that promises were extremely important, so he'll do just about anything to keep his promises, no matter how small those promises are. Pre-game, he's an extremely thoughtful child who always had the right words to say when it came to cheering his mother up.
Portrayed in-game, though, Hope is more than a little socially awkward and unsure of himself, and is extremely dependent on the people around him- he was extremely close to his mother before she died (especially after being emotionally estranged with his father and losing contact with his friends after they moved away), and when she was gone, he turned to Lightning as a mentor in order to teach himself how to survive. He had a bit of teen angst with his dad for breaking promises to his mom, and went through a violent hatred phase with Snow because he blamed the man for his mother's death, but after getting through that, Hope proves to be extremely optimistic and charismatic. He's the one who gives most of the motivational speeches to the group before going into something big, and even though his words and tone are awkward since he's not used to speaking to groups of people and he still had issues with his own self-confidence, people who listen to him usually regain their determination and focus by the time he's done speaking.
This kid. He's awkward, but he makes you want to fight for the things that he believes in, even if it's only because he's so naively optimistic that you don't want to let him down. Hope draws his confidence from the people around him, though- there's a section in-game that's very telling of this: when Lightning asked him if he was scared before they were supposed to rescue two of their teammates, and he replies very honestly that he was terrified- but it was alright because she, and the rest of the team, were with him.
He's generally polite and has a good amount of respect for adults, and girls in particular, since he's been around some very strong characters. He acts quite meek, usually a little slouched and talks with his head down- he has a habit of lacing his fingers together in front of him and rocking on his heels when he's waiting for something to happen, as well as reaching out and clinging to someone's hands when he's uncertain or wants their attention. He's quite good with animals, and will generally go out of the way to make people happy- all quite child-like behaviour, but when he gets angry, he gets angry; it builds like a slow-burning flame, and when he finally snaps, he pretty much loses sight of everything else but his anger, to the point of murder (but, that will take something very, very extreme- the same way with most people, I think). Hope has a way with words- he may not use big words, he may be a awkward in speech and mannerisms, but he has a very blunt way of speaking that makes it near impossible to disagree with him- and if he's angry, and the person he's angry at has any sort of conscience at all, then those words cut extremely deep.
At this point in his life, Hope will probably oscillate between being very dependent on other people, to trying to do everything himself because he's growing up. He'll most likely be able to manage on his own, although it wouldn't be a very good experience for him. He is a character that needs other people, I can't seem to emphasize that enough, even though he'd do fine by himself. He's just... at his best when he has someone to look after him, and someone he can worry about in return.
The last point of his personality, I have a confession to make. I take a lot of deeper points that aren't expressed in the game or Episode Zero from fanfiction. Or specifically, one fanfiction. Evolution is a re-telling of the game through a much darker perspective, and seeing as I place Hope in darker games, it's near perfect for me to draw from.
But I try to draw as much from canon as I can, and then resort to the story and headcanon when the situation just isn't covered by what's placed in-game.
How does he react to people? For the most part, Hope is quiet and doesn't feel the need to reach out and talk to people unless they're already important to him or he has questions. The exception is those who are selfless, even if it's only an act. Show him the slightest bit of kindness and you've already gotten on his good side. Unless he has a good reason, he's not going to think negatively of you!
Good reasons include, of course, threatening to kill people or talking about how awesome you are by beating others up. He is Not Impressed by that. He won't reprimand someone for it... he would just make a mental note to never talk to them at all or avoid them altogether.
But if someone's talking about reaching out and helping someone else... doing a good deed... then he's more than likely to offer his help. He's got an independent streak to him now that he's gotten through most of the events that he's been through in-game, but he's still got some major self-confidence issues. He wants to measure up to everyone else, and doesn't take his own age into account... or the fact that the rest of his party were pretty exceptional. What Hope sees when he compares himself to other people is how much he's lacking, and not how much he's learned through the journey. He'd blinded to what he can do because he's constantly making a list of what he can't do.
In addition to that, he's got some serious abandonment issues going on. Without his castmates, he's fine. Because if they were never there with him in the first place, then they obviously didn't mean to abandon him, right? With his castmates, however, he will stick about them and there's a good chance that he wouldn't understand if they left... he's excuse it, write it off, justify it because people leave all the time. But at the same time, despite what he wants to feel, it would always feel like a personal betrayal when they leave (omg, not trying to guilt-trip anyone here, just saying that's what he's going to feel, doesn't matter how or why). It was the same with his mother, and with his father... Hope doesn't take well to the idea of being left behind, of people turning their back to him. His entire world turned his back to him and he never wants to deal with that again, even though he knows that the moment he gets home, he's going to have to continue to deal with that. He's determined to be strong for it, but... it still hurts.
He's not stupid. He knows what's been done (or what needs to be done), and also knows that there's barely a slim chance he'd ever be forgiven for it, much less get back to a normal life. And he liked normal. He never wanted to be anymore other than normal. Never even wanted to be exceptional. He's smart, but lacks the ambition, really. His motivations to do better had always been to make someone proud of him.
Whether it was his mom and dad before, or Lightning later on. What Hope wanted was people to be proud of him, to smile at him and assure him that they wouldn't leave him.
He's sweet, definitely, but nowhere near a saint. If anything, he's a kid just settling himself into adolescence. Uncomfortably.
At the beginning of the game, Hope has his normal boomerang skills- he has a futuristic boomerang that can fold small (to fit into his pants pocket... somewhere), and somehow, when he throws it, hits every target he aims at before it returns to him. It's hinted at in the pre-game development rumors, although never confirmed, that it was because boomerangs were a type of extreme sport on Cocoon that Hope learned (I figured it was something like skateboarding for teens). Those are normal skills that he keeps, seeing as it doesn't take much physically and nothing magically- just some extreme calculations in his mind.
When he becomes a l'Cie, though, Hope soon becomes the most powerful magical user in the team (to compensate for his low physical attack and super low HP). He starts off as a ravager- which, in-game, is the primary magical attacker. He can attack with every element in-game, from throwing Blizzard spells to Fira spells quite easily. Eventually as the game progresses, those spells become much more powerful and instead of throwing a single Aero spell, he can summon up a tornado for a brief amount of time, or bombard an entire area with lightning. While ravager spells are impressive, enemies tend to recover very quickly if they are not already stunned by a physical attack (it's the stagger meter in the game- ravager spells raise the stagger meter fast, but they do little damage and that meter goes down very quickly unless combined with physical attacks from a commando).
He gets his next class very quickly, learning to be a synergist, which is a buff class: he can cast shields, both physical and magical, and enhancements in strength and speed, as well as bravery and fortitude and raise all elemental potentials so that anyone who can attack using elemental spells would increase their attack greatly.
Last class is medic, which is somewhat self-explanatory. What's surprising is that he becomes the best medic in-game because Vanille was basically the assigned medic, but as Hope's magic surpassed hers, so did his healing spells. He has the basic cures to heal people, cura and cureja as an area of effect healing spell, esuna which rids all status effects including poisons, and eventually Renew and Raise- which are basically resurrection spells (so I never really needed to use any of my phoenix downs. I saved up a LOT of them through the game). The sadly hacks thing is that not only did he cast any and all of these spells very fast, but if he casts haste (a synergist spell) on himself, he casts even FASTER. It's not like his has a depletable mana supply, either, since his magic is constantly refilling itself.
The masterly hacks is most likely his Eidolon (his summon), which comes from the crystal in his brand/blood: Alexander, who is the largest, most powerful, and longest lasting of all the Eidolons in-game. Basically, the most powerful thing in-game, period. The only downside to Alexander is that he moves quite slowly (to compensate for the fact that he can be summoned for the longest time).
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THOUGH.
On the subject of "love". On the subject of a romantic relationship, there's very little chance of me putting Hope in one. I play him as a kid, a smart kid, who is a little oblivious (at the same time being all too aware) to the fact that he is growing up. Again, developmentally, he's the same as all the other kids his age, except he's got a huge amount of respect for the opposite sex and he's smarter about things.
One, there's just about no chance of me putting him in a sexual relationship (unless you have this amazing plot related idea, and then talk to me about it). Two, there's very little chance of him getting a girlfriend/boyfriend (again, talk with me). Yes, it's broadened to both- I'd say he likes girls primarily, but wouldn't be adverse to alternatives if he does happen to fall in love. But as I said, I play him as a kid- as such, he's only just starting to grow into himself and while I'm sure he'd have plenty of puppy crushes, he's smart enough to know the difference between a kid crush and something life changing.
Yes, I play him as having a crush on Vanille. No, he'd never act on it. She's a dear friend to him and precious to Fang and he knows better. Hope values familial relationships above all else at this stage in his life, and the entire team is like family to him- thus, he has never, and would never, even think about entering a romantic relationship with any of them. They already have the highest spots in his life, changing anything would be demeaning.
He is a teenage boy and will have the physical reactions of a teenage boy (except not nearly so bad as an older teen would have since he's just growing into that stage), so, say, if Vanille ever tried to cuddle him in her sleep, he'd be, derp, very uncomfortable about it (give him some credit- she's pretty, he already likes her, and she's scantily clad). Unless he's already asleep, in which it's just the waking up part which will freak him out.
Adults are a different matter, if only because psychologically, he still looks toward the adults to make things right- even if he keeps claiming that he's not a kid anymore. If he fell asleep next to Light, he'd just draw comfort from her presence and probably curl closer for warmth. Same with Snow, even.
Hope cares about and loves a lot of people, I mean, he's not really one to deny affection. So he'll invade people's personal bubbles a lot and if he feels that you care and wouldn't reject it, he'd probably cling to your shirt, your hand... from either insecurity or to get your attention. Hugs are very welcome, despite what he says.
Also! Lightning.
Um, so I covered Vanille a bit in the personality post, and Lightning a little bit as well. But. Other than Nora, Lightning is perhaps the most important person to Hope in-game. But I think there's barely a tiny chance he'd ever encounter Nora in RP, so I'll skip to Lightning~
First things first- he'll probably never say anything of the sort, but Hope loves Light dearly; she's his mentor and his guiding star for most of the game. He depends on her quite a bit for strength and guidance and, well, basically everything. She taught him how to fight, how to defend himself, and how to stand up against something greater and achieve the impossible. He attributes his survival to her.
She's basically everything he wants to be when he grows up. XD From his parents, Hope learned of compassion and sacrifice, but from Light he learned how to channel despair into determination- and that sacrifice doesn't have to mean the end.
She's not his mother- he loves Nora too much to ever be able to replace her, but she is his idol. He knows that she doesn't want him to follow in her footsteps and her mistakes, but more than anything, he wants Light to be proud of him. He wants to grow up and be able to protect her the same way she always shielded him. And he strives to be better and stronger all the time because of it.
If anything, she's... like the big sister he never had- someone to idolize and look up to and run to if he ever needed. To him, she's strong and brave and kind and she can do anything and he'd follow her to the ends of the earth if he could offer some help and relieve her burdens somehow.
Will I play them as a pair? Sure, if it somehow gets worked in or affects the plot. Anything's possible, and I won't discount anything. But as it stands from canon without outside influences, while she is one of the most important people in his life, it's not a romantic thing.