I’ve constantly said that I couldn’t stand Minfilia in FFXIV, but I never said why so here it is.
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#ffxiv #finalfantasy14 #Minfilia
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Might sound cruel but dying was literally the best character development she ever got.
She was a miner main. I don't know what she was supposed to do about primals. She was a plot device and a classic damsel in distress. She didn't even help me learn about the echo, just pointed me at a primal and sat back down at her desk.
I’m glad some one shares this unpopular sentiment
I remember when I first started playing I liked Minfilia, but you bring up the very good point that during ARR she barely does anything worthwhile we get to see, heck it seemed to me the only reason the Garleans cared about her was because of the Echo, but turns out that Ability isn't all that rare after all.
I kind of want to compare her to Moenbryda. She gets thrown into the Story, every other Scion knows and cherishes her and then she dies not too long after. I felt so left out as WoL, with every Scion being super sad while I can just guess what Memories they had together. Same with Minfilia, really
Synodic Scribe actually did a video on why Minfilia was treated like a Damsel in Distress every time she's been captured and I think that Ryne is what Minfilia should have been all along.
I think they will do that for the coming expansion. I could see them implementing a like training zone and give us a before the fall story. This is due to them hinting a time travel, Allag and Meracydia a lot in the post shadowbringers quests, and usually they tease the expansion after the next in the post story quests
Part of the problem, I think can be equated to the fact that she is a legacy hold over character from 1.0. Similar to Papalymo and Lyse, Minfilia's entire backstory is not really ever told to us in the game and is merely hinted at. The main issue with Lyse is that they had an entire expansion of Stormblood and practically did nothing to develop her beyond her initial introduction and this was after Alphinaud's phenomenal character development throughout Heavensward and beyond, whereas Minfilia at least got some redemption through Ryne. Papalymo was a character that I felt I barely knew. Both him and Lyse felt like very distant friends of my friends instead of someone I would be willing to fight alongside like Alphinaud, Alisaie, or even Ryne. Minfilia was like the general giving orders while I was a foot soldier. The distance between us never felt very close.
If you ever played Guild Wars 2, Minfilia's character is very similar to character from that franchise, Marshal Trahearne of the Sylvari Firstborn. Everything about him is told to you, unless you played Sylvari, in which case you are given a few missions with him and only if you picked certain options during character creation. Otherwise, he suddenly pops up in the story at level 60 and you're told how great he is, how powerful he is and why he absolutely has to be the leader of the Pact because he is so knowledgeable about the enemy and is not beholden to any of the Orders of Tyria. It is of no surprise that a lot of players hated Trahearne because of a perceived "stolen credit" from the player character, despite the fact that the later base game's story revolved around you being close to him and being his second-in-command.
No one should be confused that there are people who don't like Minfilia. She got no development… she just, was. That combined with the voice acting that came out of ARR made her a very dull character to me. Like, it's nice she was so beloved by the Scions, and she was good at her job (from what I remember), but they did a lot of saying and not a lot of showing. I wonder if my mind would have changed in later expansions had she not died. I mean, I love Alphinaud now 😆
She's a boring character that's basically a plot device for further developments
when i played ARR i always felt used by her, coz me and the others always did the heavy lifting and she just gave orders. like you said Alphinaud was writen way better. Sad coz i didn't wanna dislike her. Glad i'm not alone in this one.
I can see Minfilia as an effective leader, even is she wasn't an exciting character. I can totally buy that she was an outstanding manager and networker who brought the Scions together and set up their early opportunities, and I never felt like I was doing her job for her; her problem was that she was a non-combat character. No matter how good she was at it, her work wasn't interesting to show, and thus there wasn't a chance to witness her as we do the other main characters.
Please file your complaint with the waking sands.
Friends disagree with me but I always said the biggest flaw SHB had was trying to make me care about og minfilia. She was terrible. That said, Minifilia is great.
Never liked her, even as the Oracle of light.
i'm actually planning a ff14 and xenoblade chronicles 2 fan fic and i'm planning to rectify a lot of the mistakes made with her to make her death a little more meaningful
I don't disagree with you, but looking back on it we were lucky. We were just gifted warriors like Ardbert and his friends and without the Scions (a bunch of Sharlayan Phds) we would likely have ended up screwing up in exactly the same way Ardbert did. I used to think of Minfilia and the Scions as something like the Ascians – part of this whole meta plot the WoL has to gradually reveal. But that was because I never played 1.0 so just made up my own ideas about all of it. I have wondered if the WoL was supposed to feel a bit alienated and develop their own relationships and friendships – like with Aymeric and Haurchefant – where the WoL is on their own and the Scions are missing. So the MSQ always confuses the hell out of me when its implied I feel some deep connection to one of the Scions I've barely exchanged more than a few words with. Of course they're all valuable and good people, but I barely know Papalymo and Yda for instance. And if I'm supposed to feel some deep connection to Minfilia, well I never did – but without her I'd still be running Sastasha :). And Ryne with a Gunblade leading her own parties? – Yes please :).
I love Minfilia, and def understand where you're coming from.
I wish we had like a side quest with her like a job quest that fleshed out her character more, find out more about her past(I didn't play 1.0 so idk anything about her aside from what other chara tell us.), have like a echo training montage where we learn to control the echo or at least not get headach when it activates. So much lost potential
Hoooooo boy. I'm getting flash backs to comments I got on a similar video. But you're right though.
I feel like if she had been far more active in the story then she would've been better, hell when they removed filler quests they could have instead put in place more better quests that involve minfilia where she leaves the waking sands/rising stones more than the 3 times she's gone outside in the entirety of arr (main and post), and when they began adding the trust system to older dungeons they could have added the scions to some of the dungeons! In praetorium instead of minfilia sitting by the sidelines she and the wol could have charged in together to save thancred- the man who's always watched out for her since she was a helpless kid, the man who she came to view as *her brother*. Let her get mad! Let her show the true passion she feels for her friends and her cause! LET HER KICK SOME ASS! Allow her to be worthy of the title of leader, of *friend*, allow her to be worthy of Hydaelyn's blessing and the our trust and respect.
and in the trust system make her a paladin, not only allowing her to take charge (even though the players would still have to run into packs of enemies BUT STILL) it also gives her a direct connection to not just hydaelyn but venat on a personal level. yes it would be making her more like venat but at the same time it ties into how minfilia referred to hydaelyn as "the mother", what better way to tie the two together but make daughter like mother? And minfilia could influence the wol into transitioning into being the hero/traveler they are like how venat chose azem to take her place in the convocation to travel and help people! And the dagger she had from her father could have been a hint of what her successor Ryne would have become!
i feel like this is the missing puzzle piece minfilia desperately needed so when she inevitably left us, we'd remember her as like you stated yourself we only feel bad because of how it affected thancred but as she is now we the players have no real reason to feel her loss like we do with characters like haurchefant for example, so in a hypothetical sense if square did do something like this then we'd feel more for this minfilia and not the cardboard cutout we were given
it is a very idealistic and ambitious idea and one i hardly expect for square to follow through on but it is a fun what-if i have for myself on what could have been (AND fantastic fanfiction material!)
but all in all this was a fantastic video!
I don't know…like we don't see exactly why she doesn't fight or do anything spectacular so we don't know what she was legit capable of. All we know is that she has the echo and uses it about the same way the WoL does. But if its one thing she did do right, was treat us like an actual person than some weapon a lot of the people of eorzea were keen on doing. Surely that has to count for something yes? Personally, i think she died to soon to be relevant to some degree before she could prove herself. I do understand why people don't like her, as you have shown and thats totally ok! By your points, she is quite useless. Only good at barking orders and giving up.