Now on to WHY. Well....first of all, there's the literal POWER Lina has. She can cast the Dragon Slave multiple times in one day and not even break a sweat, and that is one DAMN powerful spell. And Magic itself: well, I've always been a sci-fi/fantasy nerd and the idea of being able to cast magic is just really freakin' cool to me. And to have it to the extent Lina does...wow.

And then there's Lina's resourcefulness, her cleverness, her ability to hold it together and think on her feet. She's physically and emotionally strong. Lina comes out on top no matter how bad the situation gets.

I know, I know. She's the main character, she sort of HAS to come out on top or the series is over. But let's have a little suspension of disbelief here, hm? Lina, even at her most distraught (*cough cough* End of NEXT?), can sit down and think things through. Even guessing she often gets the correct answer (see first season - "I was just guessing, I didn't really expect to be right...").

And when all is said and done, Lina doesn't win because she knows the Dragon Slave, the Ragna Blade or even the Giga Slave. Lina wins because she's smarter than her opponent when it counts, and because she doesn't give up.

I envy Lina that, especially since she's so much younger than I am. I've never been the sort of person who was very certain about what I was doing, and I've always been pretty weak. Lina is neither of those. She makes a decision and sticks to it; if it turns out to be the wrong one, she apologizes and goes on about setting things right. Okay that plan didn't work, what's next?

She just keeps going. She is the kind of person the NEXT Opening theme, "Give a Reason" describes, and the sort of person I want to be: "I want to find my future self and give her a reason for life." In other words, "I want to find the person I know I can and will be and be her NOW, so that when I look back, I don't have any regrets, or anything to be ashamed of." That is Lina: she won't have any real regrets. Overall, she's lived her life the way she wanted to live it and she's done so much good in the world. She's had close friends and done incredible things.

So this is really why I worship Lina. She's strong, but not perfect. She's everything I want to be, but she isn't snotty about it, and she's approachable (at least as approachable as a fictional character could get).

And I'm not about to say you should worship her for the same reasons, or at all. I'm just declaring my own bias and the reason for it...just in case you missed it the first several times around. ^_~