Minfillia Speculation

So, I just realized... Is Minfilia the new Rydia?

We have Antitower, with Calcabrina seemingly being a boss... Throw Derplander in as Golbez... Have him pop by at the end of the dungeon and "defeat" us (maybe he even got his own version of Midgardsormr in Shadow Dragon now!), only for Minfilia to pop back in to save us, summoning Mist Dragon.

She's even inexplicably aged a fair deal since we last saw her, based on her hair growth... Hell, if we go back to 1.0, she went from a kid (with a fairly tragic back story) to adult in our twisted Echo perception of time... If every Scion is coming back more awesome and with clearer defined Jobs, my money is on Minfilia being a true Summoner.

inb4 Ascilia and Warburton were from a secret village that knew the true way to summon Primals, and they left when the Garlean Empire stomped on it. Ascilia completely unaware of this and Warburton dying before he could pass anything on... Que today, where she meets up with Hydaelyn and learns TheTruth™. We are meant to be learning about her past... She's Rydia, Aerith and Garnet all rolled into one... Make up for being useless Minfilia, give us Primal summoning!

This is what happens when you promise me Primal summoning in... 2014? And then don't deliver on it ever...

I think it was 2013 they first mentioned it. I believe it was during the beta, actually.

My thoughts on Minfilia, well all I'll say is that I notice in one of the magazine screens it showed Krile smiling while looking up at Minfilia. I don't think she's going to be smiling for very long.

I have mixed theories, but the quote for the quest name ('as it once was - as it ever should have remained') is driving me crazy. It seems like a fitting quest name, "As it once was" representing the return to how it was before politics went and made a mess of things for the Scions, but then you take a look at it and it's a quote from best Ascian Lahabrea, and I can't just see that ending happily. At all.

well since SE has used the "God is evil" trope at lest once so far & we know Hydaleyn's blessing acts like a anti-tempering shield she could just so straight to full on tempering with Minfilia or someone could have just fiddled with her "blessing" enouf that it caused that... talk about making u'r own worst nightmare gratz random who ever u are u took a weakling, made her a super weapon & then she kills u for being dumb, big question then is will it corrupt her with time

this is if it goes the "testing/torchering the hostage" route (by hostage I mean held by an enemy or Hydaleyn)... weird twist would be amesia & a cult leader with super powers she didn't have before

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Originally Posted by Cilia

I never played 1.x, but technically literal time travel was never a function of the Echo. It was a sort of mental flashback via the memories engraved in a person's soul, exactly like we do with it now, just less clear when it was functioning.

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I know this is slightly off-topic for this thread, but from the very first scene of 1.0 you were either time-travelling or being able to reconstitute physical items from such memories via the aetherflow (as was alternatively theorised at the time). I did play back then and as the story progressed, not only were you viewing the past, you were interacting with people and objects and subjectively changing events, at one point even taking Y'shtola along on one of your journeys (and that was from within what we called back then an 'Echo' to an 'Echo' within an 'Echo'). It was a lot more complicated than a mental flashback and, once you came to recognize the *swoosh* sound that accompanied a journey (Moose's greatest moment imo!), perfectly clear when it was functioning.

That storyline, perhaps the greatest in XIV overall, was unfortunately abandoned and the causes for Hydaelyn's Gift and even, as some postulated, the existence of the player's character altogether was left unexplained.

Back on-topic, I sorely hope that rather than being abandoned and ignored as a piece of apocrypha, that storyline is revisited, expanded upon and our old The Echo is returned to us through one of the many 'changes' this patch will bring. High hopes, but I have to have them else I can't justify playing the same game of Triple Triad 500+ times without getting the damned card I need.

Fascinating stuff being discussed.

Don't really have anything to add as I'm scratching my head on several ideas at the same time.

What if Min-moo is (was, at some point) a piece of Hydaelyn, in some way, and she's returning to the "Mother" after something said to her triggered this dormant purpose in the "NO!" scene?

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Nidhogg + Bahamut = Shinryu = Omega reactivates. Epicness follows.

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Someone tells Nidhogg some fibbage about an "ancient ancestor" and how to bring him to the battle, only, what he does is awaken an interdimensional rift (that was closed by Omega once upon a 3AE?) that Shinryu emerges from?

Would be a nice way to dust off that Allagan dragon puncher and have it tear out of the place it's buried at.

I just love how much speculation comes from a single picture. It's fun to see so much passion for the story.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Nidhogg + Bahamut = Shinryu = Omega reactivates. Epicness follows.

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I've some ideas from such a union, a reborn "Chaos" Bahamut that uses his, Nidhogg's and Midgarsomnr's attacks. But that seems a lot like Raid material. I also imagined Omega as Ultima but with Shiva's, Ramuh's and Leviathan's attacks on top of the original trios (maybe Mog, Ravana and Bismarck as well) but that seems a little difficult to work in as well (unless Feast replaces Frontlines)

On-topic. Minfillia being connected to Hydealin seems likely. As is Hydealin being anywhere from Well-Intentioned-Extremists to SMT's usual interpretation of the Abrahamic God (I find the former much more likely than the latter, but anything is possible) but I wonder more about the contextual "when", and if whatever point where we learn the alleged "truth" is close to the Antitower trek

On a related note. We assume that Our Mothercrystel is higher the Primals and Eikons, but do we know if that alone disqualifies her (and Zodiark) from being in those groups? Perhaps the term "Mothercrystal" is more literal then we thought.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

That's the Scions code of conduct, not Hydaelyns... Granted, the Scions believe they're working for Hydaelyns will, but in reality they've been bumbling around in the dark .since their inception. The Scions believe that Primal summoning is harmful to Hydaelyn, but there has never been a decree from the heavens telling us to go out and put Primals down. That's on us, and I wouldn't be surprised, given that Elidibus and his Warriors of Darkness are now doing the same thing, if Minfilia comes back and tells us we've been doing it wrong. Given what we've seen with Leviathan and Thordan, Primals seem like a literal deus ex machina for dealing with the Ascian threat... I really can't help but wonder if there is something more there... Are the current Primals bad? Sure, but who has been summoning them, or better yet, who taught those people how to summon them?

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Are they bad? Look at Ramuh, he was interested in dialog, but generally, since primals are born of fervant wishes for vengeance, they generally are only interested in destruction. However we know the Ascians are the ones who taught people how to summon, and we know why, as summoning them weakens Hydaelyn. Thordan was an exception, they thought they could control him

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Originally Posted by Morningstar1337

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On a related note. We assume that Our Mothercrystel is higher the Primals and Eikons, but do we know if that alone disqualifies her (and Zodiark) from being in those groups? Perhaps the term "Mothercrystal" is more literal then we thought.

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Well, she is the one who grants a summon request..

Well from the looks of the end of the 3.2 trailer I think Minfilia pretty much got absorbed by the Mothercrystal because maybe Echo users have a lot of aether to give compared to normal people?