Most of the Final Fantasy games a character, usually the flagship, with a meteorological name. Why do they do this? I guess in a ham-fisted way, to inform the player of their personalities. When we’re first given Cloud, he has the ‘Thunder” and “Ice” Materia. Get it? Clouds create lightning and ice. Admittedly, it is clever and without drawing on this parallel something would seem lost. Cloud’s name puns on his identity. We don’t really know who the real Cloud is, and neither does he.

As a side note, Zack Fair knows exactly who he is and what he wants to be: a hero. His last name is Fair, as in “fair weather”. This contrast Strife, as in “difficult”.

Squall has two GF: Quezacotl and Shiva. Oooh, the Lighting and Ice theme. And this makes sense because Squall is a storm. By now, we get it. Don’t people still think of Squall as a Cloud clone? He totally was back when Final Fantasy VIII came out. But it also informs us of his turbulent nature just under the surface.

Then we have Lightning. She’s a quick fighter with a quick temper. So far just as heavy-handed as always. Of course, she specializes in Lightning magic. Obviously. And her Eidolon is Odin, a lightning elemental.

By now, you’re starting to see the pattern. The flagship characters have some type of tie to the atmosphere. Why? Well, there could be a couple of reasons. First, I’m sure Square Enix is trying to build a mythos around their characters. Maybe not one that’ll survive through time, but one that’ll bolster a meta-story in Final Fantasy. Dissidia, World of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Explorers, etc. all have the same characters: Warrior of Light, Terra, Cloud, Squall, Tidus, Yuna, Lightning.

Why these characters? Besides being the most popular Final Fantasy characters, they all have the weather theme. Clouds lead to squalls, lightning striking over the Earth. The Sun and the Moon peeking through and the light illuminates all. Something like that.

The second reason might just be to gather all of the elements. So far, we have:

Elemental	Name
Fire	Ignis
Ice	Snow
Lightning	Lightning
Water	Squall
Earth	Terra
Wind	Cloud
Light	Warrior of Light
Dark	Noctis

Only here, not all of the names are of flagship characters. Maybe we’ll see an Ice character, someone cold and icy, who has…ice magic. Maybe Agni, who’s name roughly translates to fire, might be a protagonist? Then, the elements will be complete. Question is: will Final Fantasy?