>>3787927
This. Toriyama created Lightning as a gender-swapped stand-in for his homoerotic attraction to Cloud.
>When I asked Mr. Nomura to design this character, I requested someone like a female version of Cloud from FFVII.
- Motomu Toriyama - https://web.archive.org/web/20110805002459/http://www.1up.com/news/ffxiii-interview