That's actually why I disliked him. With everything that happened to him and given his age it just didn't work. His desire for revenge on Snow was incredibly short lived and could have been explored a bit more to see a darker (psychologically at least) side to him. Instead he quickly becomes all happy/positive and acts like the wisest member of the group comming out with all these Dawsons Creek-esque pseudo-philosophical ramblings.

I'll admit it's ages since I played the game, so I don't remember much about it but all I remember about it is him snapping out of it because Vanille effectively told him to get over it and stop casting Snow as the enemy. I might be wrong about that but I think he only put on the happy front to please Vanille but for the most part he was still hurting but learned he had to focus on the task at hand of surviving.

That rings a bell but it still felt a bit silly. Even if he did try putting up a front he should still have shown it a few times if he was hurting. I also disiked the fact that he essentially started being the guru of the group when he should still have been battling his own demons. Oh well, he was probably still one of the more interesting characters as he did evolve a lot over the game. I just think he was too emotionally mature for his age with what he'd experienced especially compared with some of the older members of the cast.

I think the reason he went silent was because by that time the story had moved on,  all I remember is him trying to play Vanille at her own game and offer her some advice. I seem to remember him being quite smart and resourceful when he wasn't crying during the earlier stages of the game (don't quote me on that as my memory of it is not that good) so maybe when his mind was clearer he was able to be more focused and be smarter.

My main gripes were with Snow (I gotta save everyone because I'm the hero!!!) and lightning (Screw y'all, you are all stupid deadweights and are slowing me down!)

I had problems with Snow and Lightning too. They didn't really develop in any way and stayed pretty boring and wooden throughout. I never quite got the point of their motivations either. At least Hope developed and if Vanille's voice didn't annoy me so much I think she was a pretty interesting character. Personally I quite liked Sazh especially in the scenes with Vanille, but they played the black sterotype a bit too much.

I never gave Sazh any time because every time I saw him, I just thought...you have a chicobo in your hair...I can't...I can't take you seriously...so I never did!

I agree about Vanille, her voice and over enthusiasm killed it for me. Especially when I realised it sounded like she was having an orgasm every time she got hit...that was weird.

Only thing i didn't like about Hope was that he let on that his dad was a dick when he really wasn't

Honestly, I don't really think any of the FFXIII characters were interesting. While they're still ahead of every FPS protagonist ever, they fall SO short of other FF game characters.

Lightning was alright, but kind of a cunt. I understood why she was like she was, but it still seemed forced and unnatural.

Snow was trying too hard, ended up seeming needy and an attention whore.

Sazh was tragic in a way, except 90% of the time he's with you, he's all happy and chipper and 'wize-crackin-black-guy", only to revert to being a tragic character when his son is brought up. It is such a strong disconnect, and it doesn't come across as "he's just trying to look tough."

Hope was an annoying twat. Yeah his life was hard, but the first half of his character made me want to stab him for hating on Snow in spite of the fact it was CLEAR snow was trying to rescue his mother. he does grow later, but once he 'gets over' his hatred for snow, there's nothing more to the character.

Fang and Vanille are the only interesting characters, in my opinion. Had a secret to hide, interesting relationship between them, but they still seem like a mass of wasted potential since I kept getting the feeling there was gonna be a huge third act betrayal/plot twist revolving around them, but that never happened. they had their "oops, we aren't who we pretended to be" scene, then...basically everything was okay.

This is the problem, if you look into the datalogs and the official information, the game has a RICH backstory, with a well fleshed out world, but it's all a lot of wasted potential, and the characters follow suit. The simple makings have all the potential to be deep and nuanced, but end up being wasted and bland, no deeper than a single paragraph worth of exposition.

I agree the vast majority of what you said. The devs spent so much time on character development yet the end result feels like eclectic mash up of cliches interspersed with depth.

The whole game is filled with unfulfilled potential.

Vanille was a fucking goddess compared to Hope who was just a little princess