Minfillia Speculation

A clash between the Light side and the Dark Side. Zodiark is coming.

https://41.media.tumblr.com/43e05ff6...i7opo1_500.jpg
This showed up on my tumblr dashboard. Now I need to dig around and find full scans, because I can actually read all that unimportant text that got cut off...

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Originally Posted by DE-Roxas

Still wishing Minfilia turns evil...i would really like to take her down, she bugged me since the beginning :D

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Be careful what you wish for. If Minfilia turns evil, she'll turn into Catiua version 2, a super duper special snowflake being used by the true big bad that you're eventually supposed to empathize with after countless horrible decisions on her part.

I would much rather her stay "good" and be restricted to a role at Hydaelyn's side.

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Originally Posted by DE-Roxas

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But that's the thing. With characters like the WoDs from FFIII or Catiua from TO, you're not supposed to hate them. You're supposed to pity them for all their decisions and eventually forgive them. The WoDs were fine in my book, Catiua, however, is one of the worst characters I've ever encountered in any narrative.

I'm all for the Zodiark/Hydaelyn relationship to be less black and white, and I'm definitely on the side of "it would be a lot more interesting if Hydaelyn isn't the bestest best greatest of all great goods," but I don't think turning Minfilia evil would really be as satisfying as you think. The narrative would likely paint it more as a tragedy and she would get even more attention than she already does. So in essence, you'd end up even more annoyed.

Regarding Altima in XII.
Keep in mind the whole "Scions of Light" and "Scions of Darkness" titles. Altima was considered evil because she challenged the Gods - and lost. Recall, who were you challenging at the end of FFXII? A God, but a God who wished to free humanity from the other Gods, so he was not entirely unlike Altima, in goal of rebelling against the Gods at least.

Now, when you place it with FFT, she was probably definitely in opposition to humanity, but, uh, her being light and evil doesn't really have anything to do with Minfilia. It has more to do with Elidibus, since he intentionally invokes light in his appearance. Elidibus and Venat have way too many similarities for it to be coincidental, and I'd certainly argue that Venat was definitely not in the wrong.

FFXII, Tactics and Vagrant Story are my favourite RPG's ever. As a result I strongly approve of inspiration being taken from any of those three games. Especially in regards to delicious intrigue and themes of 'Darkness' not necessarily being pure evil and 'Light' not necessarily being pure.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

FFXII, Tactics and Vagrant Story are my favourite RPG's ever. As a result I strongly approve of inspiration being taken from any of those three games. Especially in regards to delicious intrigue and themes of 'Darkness' not necessarily being pure evil and 'Light' not necessarily being pure.

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You should probably play Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. FFT is basically the spiritual successor to TO:LuCT. Or, if you want me to be less nice and more realistic about it, Squaresoft bought out Quest after they saw the success of LuCT and had them basically remake and slightly modify the formula and then slap a FF title and FF jobs on it, rather than the original jobs.

And it worked, at least in the west. TO remains more popular in Japan.

The PS1 version has an iffy translation, though, so play the PSP version. It has the same focus on politics, but with added moral dilemmas (eg: you can choose to aid in committing genocide for the benefit of your people and it splits the story path).

Id prefer if whatever they do with Minfilia improves her character and makes her more interesting to deal with rather than killing her off or shelving her. Any time a writer obviously kills off or shelves a character because they are unpopular, it just feels lazy writing to me.

Not sure if Im a fan of the new look though.

I believe that Minfillia is still good. However, she will have to re-evaluate her view and position on the conflicts to come and those that are past. We'll... have to bring her up to speed of course.

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Originally Posted by CyrilLucifer

You should probably play Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. FFT is basically the spiritual successor to TO:LuCT. Or, if you want me to be less nice and more realistic about it, Squaresoft bought out Quest after they saw the success of LuCT and had them basically remake and slightly modify the formula and then slap a FF title and FF jobs on it, rather than the original jobs.

And it worked, at least in the west. TO remains more popular in Japan.

The PS1 version has an iffy translation, though, so play the PSP version. It has the same focus on politics, but with added moral dilemmas (eg: you can choose to aid in committing genocide for the benefit of your people and it splits the story path).

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Thanks for the heads up! I'll look into it at some point. I really miss the PS1/PS2 era since it seemed like I could get my hands on a new solid RPG every couple of weeks. Now so few are translated and released here in Europe. :(

I can't tell if my memories of 1.x Minfillia are actually accurate in assuming that she at least more or less knew what she was doing and lived up to the role she had carved out for herself back then, or if it was just the lack of the butt-gap dress that made me think so by comparison. With the new clothes coming up, will I be reevaluating her again, I wonder...