A pairing from Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2, including the characters Lightning Farron and
Hope Estheim. Other names for the ship would include hopurai and hopelight.
A rather popular ship within the FFXIII/XIII-2 fandom, the pairing depends on the timeline specified by the shipper; if from the first
game, a fourteen-year-old
Hope and a twenty-one-year-old Lightning, a pairing that is somewhat less popular due to claims of the ship being pedophilic, or being more commonly looked upon as a
brother/
sister or
friend pairing. The ship from the second
game is a bit more common as the age difference is considerably reduced, with
Hope being twenty-four/twenty-six and Lightning remaining twenty-one due to incidents in Valhalla and pertaining to time travel.
The pairing has become increasingly popular over the course of the years, reason being the sudden jump in age for
Hope, thus permitting the two characters to become more suitable for each other and allowing more chances for the ship to become canon, as he is seen being a teenage boy to suddenly becoming the twenty-four-year-old, diligent, highly respected, and attractive Director of the Academy. If one chooses to search up words such as "hoperai fanfic" or "
hope and lightning fanart", there is a high chance they will soon become engulfed by the ship - willlingly or not - given by the search results.
Example 1:
Person A: "Hey, have you seen
Hope's CGI render for Final Fantasy XIII-
2?"
Person B: "Oh my God, yes. He's so hot."
Person A: "He'd be really cute with Lightning, wouldn't he?"
Person B: "He would! They're my new otp."
Example 2:
Person A: "My favorite ship is hoperai."
Person B: "That's so cute! I ship it, too. Aren't they perfect for each other?"
Example 3:
Person A: "My favorite ship is hoperai from Final Fantasy XIII."
Person B: "Really? I think
Hope and Lightning have a more platonic
relationship, but that's okay, too. I mean, it's a ship you like, right? Nothing wrong with that."