Don't wanna waste too much time.
 

Starts as soon as you get that "Hey look you can dodge lightning" tutorial thing, but you have to talk to this guy after you get 200 dodges to get the weapon.

Yeah it's just whenever your first dodge happens to be. So long as you get 200 consecutive at any point you'll be able to unlock everything. Once you have, head to the travel agency half way through the area and speak to the guy behind the counter, though you'll still need the celestial mirror to get the final prize.

Yeah, you won't get Lulu's weapon if you don't have the mirror, but you can come back and get it after you get the mirror. If you're just getting to the Thunder Plains for the first time, you won't be getting the mirror for a while yet, so don't worry about the dodging until later.

I dunno about that. I found those few extra health spheres and all the other stuff you get was quite nice for the first 100 bolts you dodge when you first arrive there, and if you've done 100 you might as well do all 200 while you're at it.

He got worse near the end.

Not like chaos from X1 bad, but near the end, I wanted to strangle him about his Damn story.

Fucking anti-mash bitch hell shit
 

You should go pick up the consolation prizes from that guy at the Travel Agency, and then, yeah, fuck that shit. You can't even get the weapon for a long time anyway.

I need more shit.
 

Is it the one you go when Riku's scared, because I didn't see anyone who gave me shit.

I'm pretty sure that there's a dude in there somewhere who'll give you something. Just talk to everyone. It might be that it didn't register before because you didn't have enough dodges for a prize.