Snow Villiers
Kana スノウ・ヴィリアース
Rōmaji Sunou Viriāsu
Age 21 (Final Fantasy XIII)
23 (Final Fantasy XIII-2)
523 (Lightning Returns)
Weapon Wild Bear (Coat Emblem)
Ice Axe (Lightning Returns)
Ultimate Weapon Save the Queen
Eidolon Shiva Sisters
Height 6' 7" (200 cm)[1]
Laterality Right-handed
Home Bodhum; New Bodhum; Yusnaan
Crystarium Color Blue
Primary Roles Commando, Ravager, Sentinel
Exclusive Skill Sovereign Fist
Japanese Voice actor(s) Daisuke Ono
English Voice actor(s) Troy Baker
Final Fantasy XIII Character
“An irrepressible, fiery young man, Snow dives headfirst into danger using nothing but his powerful physique as a weapon. Easily swayed by emotion, he is prone to rash words and actions. Nonetheless, many are won over by his outgoing and optimistic nature.”
—Online Description
Snow Villiers is a playable character in Final Fantasy XIII who appears as a guest character in Final Fantasy XIII-2, and will make an appearance in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII as a non-playable character.
In Final Fantasy XIII Snow is determined to save his fiancée, Serah Farron, from her fate as a Pulse l'Cie despite Serah's sister Lightning's disapproval of their relationship. He is turned into a l'Cie himself, and sets on a journey to save Cocoon and reunite with Serah.

In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Snow goes off in search of Lightning who has disappeared, being the only one to believe Serah's claims that her sister is still alive, once again becoming a l'Cie in the process.

In Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Snow is the patron of the city of Yusnaan, and the last l'Cie in the world. Close to becoming a Cie'th, he awaits the time he can die and reunite with Serah.
StoryEdit
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)
Early LifeEdit
Snow is an orphan raised in a Sanctum facility. He grew up with his childhood friends, Gadot and Lebreau, in the town of Bodhum at the edge of Cocoon. He is the leader and founder of NORA, a group consisting of himself, Gadot, Lebreau, Maqui, and Yuj, that acts as a neighborhood watch group, protecting the populace from Bodhum's surrounding wildlife.
Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero -Promise-Edit

Snow promises to stand by Serah.
“I will stand by you, no matter what happens. I'm yours forever.”
—Snow, proposing to Serah
After NORA saves her from an aquatic ambush, Snow is overjoyed to meet his girlfriend's older sister, but Lightning is far from impressed. She had never approved of him or his group's unsanctioned activities and wants Snow to forget about dating her sister. Snow laughs away her demands and his flippant attitude does nothing but reinforce Lightning's original impression of him. Five days later, Serah tries to break up with Snow and shows him her l'Cie brand. Snow begs Serah to let him help her complete her Focus, but Serah is scared of what the Sanctum will do if they find out.

Snow watches the fireworks with Serah.
Three days later, while out shopping for Lightning's birthday present with Serah, Snow slips away to buy engagement necklaces; two metal sculptures of Cocoon, under the premise of giving Serah 'the whole world'. During the annual Bodhum fireworks display the night after, Snow proposes to Serah and she accepts.
The next day, Lightning's 21st birthday, Serah reveals to her sister she has become a Pulse l'Cie and accepted Snow's marriage proposal. Thinking Serah is joking, Lightning does not listen and shuts her out, and Snow is determined to help Serah alone.

Snow loses Serah in the Vestige.
Snow plans to take Serah to the Bodhum Vestige to see the fal'Cie who branded her, Anima, in hopes of revealing her Focus and getting Lightning to believe her but PSICOM had discovered the fal'Cie and placed the town under lockdown. Chased by PSICOM, Snow and Serah fly to the Vestige while under attack. Their airbike is damaged and Serah jumps onto a ledge on the Vestige. A silver liquid substance emerges from the Vestige and drags her inside as the fal'Cie's prisoner, while Snow escapes the situation unharmed. He goes to explain what happened to Lightning before rushing off to save Serah.
Final Fantasy XIIIEdit

Snow calls for volunteers in the resistance against PSICOM.
“Our Focus is to protect Cocoon.”
—Snow
As PSICOM Purges the people in Bodhum to Pulse, the Vestige is taken to the Hanging Edge with the fal'Cie and Serah still inside. Snow makes his way to the Hanging Edge and engages PSICOM, leading NORA as a resistance force. Elsewhere, Lightning and her ally, Sazh Katzroy, hijack the train carrying the Purgees and derail it, and Snow and NORA rescue the remaining Purgees. Some of them volunteer to help NORA fight against the Sanctum, including a woman named Nora Estheim. While the other Purgees are moved to another location, Snow leads NORA and the volunteers into battle. Nora saves Snow from a Havoc Skytank, but as it goes down, it destroys the bridge they are standing on and mortally wounds Nora. Nora begs Snow to "get him home" but is too weak to tell him whom she means. Then Nora dies and falls from Snow's grasp. Unknown to Snow, her son, Hope Estheim, is watching the scene from afar and blames Snow for his mother's death.

Snow begs Anima to turn Serah back.
Snow makes his way back to the rest of NORA and the surviving Purgees and uses an airbike to travel to the Vestige. Hope and his companion, Vanille, hijack an airbike and follow him. After saving them from a Cie'th ambush, Snow has Hope and Vanille stick with him for their safety. Snow makes his way to Anima's Throne to find Lightning and Sazh already there, along with Serah. Serah tells Lightning to save Cocoon, and Snow tells Serah he will save everyone. Serah crystallizes and a tear-shaped crystal falls from her grasp into Snow's hand. This bewilders the group, as turning into crystal means a l'Cie has completed their Focus.
Snow remains optimistic, sure that his fiancée will wake up. Snow believes the legends that state l'Cie who complete their Focus gain eternal life, but Lightning believes Serah to be dead. Snow begs with Anima to return Serah, offering to become a l'Cie in her stead, but Lightning and Sazh - who has his own motives for hunting down the fal'Cie - attack it. Snow joins their plight only to be branded a l'Cie along with everyone else. As the PSICOM destroys the Vestige, it releases an energy wave that destroys the Hanging Edge and falls down to Lake Bresha, crystallizing it on impact.

Snow summons the Shiva Sisters.
Snow awakens with the rest of the group in Lake Bresha, unscathed. They try to work out their Focus from a hazy vision they saw, but can only figure the legendary beast Ragnarok is somehow involved. While the others believe their Focus is to destroy Cocoon, Snow believes it is to save Cocoon as Serah asked. Now enemies of the state, they evade pursuing PSICOM troops by crossing the crystallized lake when they come across Serah's crystallized form lodged in a formation. While the others want to keep moving to evade the army, Snow doesn't want to leave Serah. As the others leave him behind, Snow stays to dig Serah's crystal out of the crystal formation. When PSICOM attacks him, Snow's Eidolon, the Shiva Sisters, are summoned.
After taming them, he is apprehended by Cavalry troops being led by another Pulse l'Cie named Fang. Along with Serah's crystal, Snow is taken aboard the Cavalry airship, the Lindblum, where Snow meets the Cavalry leader, Cid Raines, who reveals his premise to free Cocoon from the fal'Cie and the Sanctum's clutches. Raines claims the new l'Cie have been sentenced to public execution should they be caught. Fang and Raines need to track down the other l'Cie, and with Serah's crystallized form aboard the Lindblum, Snow has no choice but to comply and help them.

Snow and Fang intercept PSICOM's assault on Hope and Lightning.
When Lightning and Hope are tracked down in Hope's hometown of Palumpolum, Snow and Fang intercept PSICOM's assault on them. They split up: Snow with Hope, and Fang with Lightning, and decide on Hope's home in Felix Heights as a rendezvous point. As Snow and Hope travel through the town, Snow remains oblivious to Hope's hatred for him and continues to fuel the boy's rage with his optimism and by unknowingly insulting his mother and the events surrounding her death.
When they see PSICOM rounding up more people to be Purged, Snow tries to save them by firing a gun into the air to make them scatter. His actions are misunderstood and they return as an angry mob. After escaping the mob to the Rivera Towers and fighting an Ushumgal Subjugator, Hope confronts Snow about his mother's death, revealing himself as Nora's son. Hope blasts Snow off a building's edge and approaches him with Lightning's knife in hand, ready to kill him. A PSICOM missile attack hits the building and knocks Hope out, sending him falling over the edge. Snow catches him in midair and shields him with his body as the two fall to the streets below.

Snow atones for his role in the death of Hope's mother.
Despite being injured, Snow carries an unconscious Hope on his back to fulfill his promise to Nora to get her son home. When Hope wakes up, Snow apologizes for putting Nora in danger and being unable to save her, and Hope realizes he wanted revenge for the wrong reasons. The Ushumgal Subjugator from before returns and knocks Snow unconscious as he tries to protect Hope. Hope fights the beast alone until he is joined by Lightning and Fang, and the three destroy the monster together. Afterward, the group heads to Hope's home.
At Hope's apartment, Snow rests in a bedroom while Lightning tends to his wounds, and the two make amends after Lightning apologizes for how she treated him. Snow apologizes to Hope's father, Bartholomew Estheim, for his hand in Nora's death, which Bartholomew accepts upon learning of Snow fulfilling her dying wish. After Bartholomew exposes several flaws in the l'Cie's plan to take down the Sanctum, PSICOM attacks the apartment. Snow heads outside to face the troops, imploring them to realize he is human and they all wish to save Cocoon. He is rebutted by Yaag Rosch, who claims the l'Cie's lives are not worth the risk of sparing. The party are saved by Rygdea from the Cavalry and taken aboard the Lindblum.

Snow is shocked upon learning Serah's "true" Focus.
With the Cavalry's help, the group heads to the PSICOM airship, the Palamecia, upon learning Sazh and Vanille are being held captive onboard. They fight their way through and reunite with the prisoners before facing Galenth Dysley in his true form, the fal'Cie Barthandelus. Barthandelus claims their Focus is to become Ragnarok and destroy Orphan, the fal'Cie that keeps Cocoon afloat. Snow is shocked to hear Dysley's claim that Serah's Focus was to assemble them to bring about Cocoon's destruction.
Under Barthandelus's manipulation, they escape the Palamecia to the Fifth Ark, where Snow remains in a state of shock and disbelief. While in the Ark, the group runs into Cid Raines, who is revealed to be a Sanctum l'Cie branded by Barthandelus, whose Focus is to help them destroy Cocoon. Determined to defy Barthandelus and save Cocoon, Cid attacks the party. Cid is defeated, but turns into a crystal anyway. Snow is inspired by Cid's sacrifice, realizing they can defy their fate and still fight to save Cocoon. After Fang tames her Eidolon, Bahamut, and the group finds an airship, they descend down to Gran Pulse in hopes of finding answers.

Snow promises Lightning they will see Serah together.
Making a base camp in the Vallis Media, they search Pulse for days but find it devoid of human life. After Hope brings Alexander under his control, everyone decides to head to Fang and Vanille's old village of Oerba. They cross the Archylte Steppe, the Mah'habara Subterra and the Sulyya Springs, where Snow learns from Vanille she had met Serah. Vanille tells him Serah had the same vision of Ragnarok and must have overcome her Focus, meaning Dysley lied about it, but Snow tells Vanille he already knows. In the Skyreach, Lightning and Snow discuss Serah and promise to see Serah again together.

Snow parts ways with NORA in Eden.
The party ascends the floors of Taejin's Tower and ride a capsule down to Oerba. The dilapidated ruins hold little answers for them until they reach a run-down bridge, where Serah appears reciting the legend of Ragnarok, telling the party to destroy Orphan and save the world. The party refuses to listen and Serah's form is revealed to be another of Dysley's illusions. After the second battle with Barthandelus, they resolve to protect Orphan and fly back to Cocoon, where Dysley has resurrected Cid Raines as the new Primarch and created utter chaos in the capital of Eden.
Sazh pilots the airship into the Eden Grand Prix. After saving a racer with the Shiva Sisters, Snow accidentally shows his l'Cie brand to the cheering crowd, causing chaos to break out. He and the others escape the circuit with their Eidolons and infiltrate the city, which is soon overrun by Pulsian machines and monsters from the Fifth Ark. Snow is briefly reunited with the other members of NORA, who scold him for leaving them behind. NORA says they will support Snow regardless if he has become a l'Cie, and leaves to help the populace. Snow and the others reach Edenhall and its heart, Orphan's Cradle.

Snow and Sazh try to keep Fang from hurting Vanille.
In the Narthex Throne, Barthandelus shatters illusions of Sazh's crystallized son, Dajh, and Serah. Snow is enraged but through Lightning's help, remembers he has Serah's crystal tear, seeing through the illusion. Barthandelus is defeated and merges with Orphan. Orphan demands they turn into Ragnarok and Fang succumbs to its demands. Snow and Sazh try hold Fang back, but Orphan turns everyone but Fang and Vanille into Cie'th. Fang fails to destroy Orphan, and after Vanille refuses to follow Fang's example, Orphan explodes and sinks into a pool of silver liquid. Snow and the others return to normal claiming they have seen a new Focus. Lightning calls out their Focus is to save Cocoon and the party's l'Cie brands turn white. They defeat Orphan in its true form and Cocoon begins to descend.

Snow reunites with Serah.
As Orphan's Cradle disappears, the party is left hovering midair above Eden. Fang and Vanille become Ragnarok and save Cocoon by encasing it in crystal and forming a crystal pillar to support it above Gran Pulse. With their Focus completed, Snow is crystallized down on Pulse alongside the rest of the party. They awaken from their crystal stasis briefly after with their l'Cie brands gone. Serah and Dajh were released from crystal stasis as well, and Snow is reunited with his fiancée. As Lightning begins to apologize to Serah, Snow cuts in saying they have a wedding to plan. He promises to make Serah happy and Lightning congratulates the couple.
Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-Edit
“Right? This is our new home! Right here! From this day forward!”
—Snow to Serah
Snow recalls his vision of everyone laughing together, including Vanille and Fang, and knows it is not over yet. Snow proposes they build a city on Gran Pulse since they can find their own food and hunt monsters just like back in Bodhum. Serah tells Snow she wants to become a teacher and tell people why Cocoon fell. He supports her choice and decides to build her the largest school she can imagine.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments BeforeEdit

Snow promises Serah he will find Lightning for her.
“I always thought it would be painful for you to think back about Sis, so I could never bring myself to ask. I was ok with waiting until a little more time had passed and you became happier, before having you tell me. And so I’d ended up putting it off.”
—Snow to Serah
The timeline is altered, Lightning disappears, and Snow, along with the others, loses his memory of their reunion and believes she must be in the crystal pillar with Vanille and Fang. He, like the others, does not believe Serah when she claims Lightning was there with them but simply vanished. Over the next two years, with the Cavalry's help, Snow and the members of NORA build the coastal village of New Bodhum. They help Bodhum's former residents adapt to life on Pulse and resume their original role of protecting them from the occasional monster attack. During this time, Snow and Serah are living together, becoming among the few people who learn how to use magic, and in a matter of months, Snow delivers on his promise to Serah on building a schoolhouse for her. One day, Snow tells Serah that despite his initial doubts, he now believes her memories about Lightning. Though Serah wants to go with him, Snow does not want to expose her to danger, telling her to stay for the sake of her students. He departs to look for Lightning, leaving his engagement necklace with Serah as a promise to return. The exact course of the events is murky, as it is implied in a dialogue choice during a second playthrough of the Sunleth Waterscape in Final Fantasy XIII-2 in 300 AF that he lied about these things to make Serah feel better.
After leaving New Bodhum, Snow meets up with Sazh and Hope, who each confess their unease about Lightning's true fate, though are too busy to help him. Snow visits Rygdea, who asks Snow to do him the favor of helping search for the remnants of PSICOM to see whether they were planning an armed reprisal, to which Snow agrees. Traveling to the Archylte Steppe, he encounters a herd of Cactuars. Noticing a lone Cactuar, he tries to encourage it to join the rest and it attacks him, but stops when Snow tells it to. The herd takes off, leaving Snow with the one left behind, which stays with him instead of following the herd. Feeling guilty for distracting the Cactuar, Snow vows to help it get back to its friends. During the next few days, Snow has multiple adventures with Cactaur: being attacked by an Amphisbaena, getting caught in an old monster trap, and encountering former PSICOM soldiers in their makeshift village.

When Snow and Cactuar help them fight off Behemoth Kings, Cactaur, apparently without fully realizing it, defeats the monsters using powerful magic. It reveals a crystal on its forehead, and Snow realizes it is a Gran Pulse fal'Cie. Snow is drawn into the realm of the gods, where the fal'Cie Anima sent him to become a l'Cie. Realizing what is happening, and that Cactuar probably planned to do this ever since they met, Snow attempts to escape the alternate dimension. Before it can complete its task, Cactaur loses its strength, allowing Snow to return to Gran Pulse. The next morning, Snow resolves to find a way to not only help Lightning but Fang and Vanille as well, and continues on his journey with Cactuar.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Fragments AfterEdit
After returning to Cocoon and meeting up with Rygdea in Palumpolum, Snow boards an airship, smuggling Cactuar on board. The ship is attacked by monsters that escaped from the Fifth Ark when the Cocoon fal'Cie went dormant and Eden fell on Bodhum on the Day of Ragnarok; the ship is surrounded by a strange black mist. Snow takes a hoverbike from the hold and, with Cactaur's help, lures the monsters away from the airship. The two end up above the remains of Bodhum and Eden and are surrounded by the same black mist that came with the monsters and get trapped in an incomplete Time Gate.
They fall into the Historia Crux and emerge in the Coliseum, briefly encountering the Arbiter of Time. Cactaur remembers it is a fal'Cie, regaining its powers and knowledge of its task. It tries to make Snow a l'Cie against his will but Snow refuses on the grounds that it would not make Serah happy, and that's all he ever wanted for her; Cactaur concedes. Before leaving, the Arbiter of Time says that though Snow is not meant to be there yet, he would return. Snow and Cactuar end up in a looped time distortion and witness events from different times and locations. While most of it is a blur, Snow hears the final battle in Academia between Serah and Caius Ballad, sees Serah's death, and a vision of New Bodhum as a desolate wasteland.

Desperate to save Serah, Snow asks Cactaur to brand him a l'Cie and is given the Focus of finding Serah and fighting by her side at the fated battle. Now out of the distortion, Snow and Cactuar are back by the Ark. The now-complete Time Gate appears and they go through the Historia Crux, passing by Sazh along the way. Snow ends up in the Sunleth Waterscape in an unknown period and has a dream of Lightning telling him about the Miniflan converging into Royal Ripeness, and how it threatens to wear down Cocoon's crystal pillar. She urges him help Serah by protecting Cocoon's pillar, and in turn Vanille and Fang. Finding a Time Gate, Snow goes to the Sunleth Waterscape in 300 AF to take on the threat, with Cactuar staying behind, later being driven away by an attack from Royal Ripeness.

Final Fantasy XIII-2Edit

Serah finds Snow.
“Now you wait just a damn minute. You've been looking after Serah. And back in your time, you protected your village, and your friends. Am I wrong? Seems to me, you and I are pretty much the same.”
—Snow to Noel
Having had a vision of Snow in danger, Serah arrives to his aid with Noel. The three defeat Royal Ripeness, but the countless Miniflan reform the monster, forcing them to retreat. After Noel confronts Snow about his recklessness, Snow tells them of his mission to protect Cocoon's crystal pillar and how Royal Ripeness will wear down the pillar and cause Cocoon to fall. Guessing the giant flan to be a paradox, the trio decides to work together to stop it.

"It'll be okay. Heroes never die."
After finding two artefacts and coming at a Time Gate, Snow tries to enter it, but since the gate is not his, a forcefield denies him access. Noel and Serah tell Snow to wait for them to come back and not do anything rash. Despite promising Serah and Noel he would wait, Snow continues to fight.
After Noel and Serah resolve the anomalies in the Coliseum and the Archylte Steppe at ??? AF, stopping the mass number of Miniflan to appear in the Sunleth Waterscape and compose Royal Ripeness, they return to find Snow on the ropes in front of the monster at its reduced size. Together they defeat it for good, and after asking Noel to keep looking after Serah, Snow vanishes. Noel believes Snow disappeared because they resolved the paradox and he does not belong in this time.

Snow in the Coliseum.
Sometime after his departure, Snow finds his own gate and enters the Void Beyond. Hearing about the Coliseum, he resolves to find it by using Shiva. Snow worries what Caius is planning and once in the Coliseum, he encounters many of the residents of the world before Serah and Noel arrive.
Snow battles Noel and Serah after she decides to show him how much she has matured during her journey with Noel. After the Arbiter of Time allows the two to leave, Snow reveals he is bound to the Coliseum by chaos and promises to be with Serah again once the matter is dealt with. Until the Day of Reckoning, Snow decides to hang out with Gilgamesh, Ultros, Typhon, and the Pupu.

In the paradox ending, "The Future is Hope," Snow appears with the Guardian Corps in Academia 4XX AF, and stops Alyssa Zaidelle from tricking Noel and Serah into falling into Caius's trap. He reveals Caius is the one who caused the paradoxes before flying off with Mog and Serah on Shiva in Gestalt Mode to find thirteen crystals scattered throughout time, while Noel remains behind to safeguard Hope, whom Snow said would be assassinated in three days.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIIIEdit

Snow in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
“We all come into the world alone, and that's the way we've gotta leave it.”
—Snow
After escaping the Coliseum, Snow happens upon the city of Yusnaan. He tries to help its people, becoming the patron of the city by popular acclaim and has since been its ruler for five centuries, although nowadays his only active role is watching over the festivities. As a l'Cie, he is charged to protect the remaining fal'Cie who continue to support Nova Chrysalia through its final days.[5] He harbors regret over having been unable to save Serah, and wonders if he will see her again upon his death. When Lightning arrives in Yusnaan, she pursues Snow, but he escapes her. Lightning reaches Snow in his palace and challenges him to a battle, although the reason for their rivalry is yet unknown.