If you could kill off one of the scions...

[Frederick22]

I respect more Alphinaud as a leader than Minfilia. So far I can see she didnt have that strenght that leaders should have, dont get me wrong guys she is a good scion and friend, but she is no leader.
The events of 2.5 were clear for me to understand is. Lots of player here can blame Alphinaud for being so blind on what was happening to the crystal braves, but to be honestly Minfilia has part of this blame too.
Even if she place the full responsability of the crystal braves to Alphinaud, she being the "leader" should have some control over this.

[Nonomas]

I wouldn't really kill anyone, since I think its super harsh to kill any of the scions because of certain low-points / flaws that they possess or that they're annoying to some people, but personally? Minfillia needs to beef up. She's good as a character, and I do like her... But I don't like how she constantly gets put in dire situations and doesn't really fight. For Hydaelyn's sake, if she poses as a leader then she should fight like one! RIP APART SOME PRIMALS....

[Belhi]

I respect more Alphinaud as a leader than Minfilia. So far I can see she didnt have that strenght that leaders should have, dont get me wrong guys she is a good scion and friend, but she is no leader.
The events of 2.5 were clear for me to understand is. Lots of player here can blame Alphinaud for being so blind on what was happening to the crystal braves, but to be honestly Minfilia has part of this blame too.
Even if she place the full responsability of the crystal braves to Alphinaud, she being the "leader" should have some control over this.

Minfilia didn't have any say or involvement with the Crystal Braves. They were affliated to the Scions but not part of them. They were entirely Alphinaud's project, designed to be a multinational GC. Beyond lending Scion facilities to Alphinaud for his project and providing moral support, Minfilia had no involvement in the running of the Crystal Braves. They didn't even answer to her. Hell, they didn't even share finances.

[Alisa180]

Minfilia didn't have any say or involvement with the Crystal Braves. They were affliated to the Scions but not part of them. They were entirely Alphinaud's project, designed to be a multinational GC. Beyond lending Scion facilities to Alphinaud for his project and providing moral support, Minfilia had no involvement in the running of the Crystal Braves. They didn't even answer to her. Hell, they didn't even share finances.

Ahem.

Alphinaud (Quest: Recruiting the Realm, at the start.)
Also, being a primarily military outfit, I mean to assuage fears of its misuse by placing the fledgling organization under the authority of the Antecedent.

Slafborn
I'm told this trial company will answer directly to the Antecedent, so I trust that means less work for you in the long run.

On the subject of Before the Fall and what happened to the Crystal Braves, what a lot of people forget is that Alphinaud *went out of his way* to try averting corruption in the Braves. I'm having difficulty articulating this, so I'll just post these quotes:

Alphinaud: ...You are concerned by the Syndicate's involvement? As was I. Thus was the origin of every coin of their contribution carefully scrutinized and recorded. This organization will not be built on corruption.

Riol: Hmph. As if I've never deciphered a moneylender's books, or had to follow a transaction back to its source...Did plenty o' that back when the Braves were gettin' started, believe me. The commander wanted assurances that we weren't takin' gil from the wrong sort o' benefactors.

What happened is Alphinaud was out-gambitted, plain and simple. Riol himself says this:

Riol: Oh, I'll give the bastard credit─he showed us up for the amateurs we are. Short o' callin' one o' his businesses the bloody “Bribery Consortium,” I don't know what more he could've done to mock our rules on financial contributions

At the point Riol dropped the above bomb, the WoL and the Scions were on the way to the banquet in Ul'dah, effectively making it too late to do much of anything before things went straight to hell. Not to mention the revelation in HW that Illberd had been working for Lolorito *before* joining the Crystal Braves, reinforcing the 'out-gambitted' thing.

Alphinaud made mistakes, no doubt, and he needed the massive humbling Before the Fall gave him. But he bears less of the blame then people assign to him. (The fact he blames himself for everything doesn't help, but that's more him being much too hard on himself.)

[Anyan]

Thancred. I hate the angsty slut trope. That needs to stop like yesterday. Oh, how I would love to smash in his disgusting face and crush his skull under my foot to end him once and for all. I was so disappointed when we saved him.

Minfilia. She's kind and all but omg what a snoozefest Mary Sue she is. She's done nothing but sit on her ass, and getting kidnapped. I don't particularly want to be the one to do it though.

[Tenkuu]

I wouldn't really kill anyone, since I think its super harsh to kill any of the scions because of certain low-points / flaws that they possess or that they're annoying to some people, but personally? Minfillia needs to beef up. She's good as a character, and I do like her... But I don't like how she constantly gets put in dire situations and doesn't really fight. For Hydaelyn's sake, if she poses as a leader then she should fight like one! RIP APART SOME PRIMALS....

As people keep pointing out, Minfilia's strength doesn't lie in any physical ability. She's not a fighter, and unless she decides to pick up a combat skill, people need to stop bringing that up as an issue. Minfilia's only responsibilities are managing the Scions' internal affairs and public relations. Everything the Scions need, she makes sure they get (including access to retainers). She makes the decisions regarding everyone's assignments and missions, and when there's a problem, she's the one who looks for a solution and seeks out others if she herself doesn't have the answer. She's also your support and confidant. Also important to remember is that people like her handle all the background stuff that makes the Scions into a relevant organization: paperwork, logistics, finances, reports, resources. Those are all the things that she and the other Scions handle for you, so literally all you have to do is go out and kill the bad guy.

Ahem.

Alphinaud (Quest: Recruiting the Realm, at the start.)
Also, being a primarily military outfit, I mean to assuage fears of its misuse by placing the fledgling organization under the authority of the Antecedent.

Slafborn
I'm told this trial company will answer directly to the Antecedent, so I trust that means less work for you in the long run.

Minfilia is to the Crystal Braves what Nanamo is to Ul'dah: literally just a figurehead with very little power. In the case of the Braves though, Minfilia was literally just a name on a piece of paper so that people would support Alphinaud who, let's face it, is pretty much an unknown in Eorzea regardless of his relation to Louisoix. Alphinaud handled everything about the Braves on his own, with Minfilia just being there to offer him her personal support more than anything else.

Thancred. I hate the angsty slut trope. That needs to stop like yesterday. Oh, how I would love to smash in his disgusting face and crush his skull under my foot to end him once and for all. I was so disappointed when we saved him.

Minfilia. She's kind and all but omg what a snoozefest Mary Sue she is. She's done nothing but sit on her ass, and getting kidnapped. I don't particularly want to be the one to do it though.

As a huge Thancred fan, I really don't see how him being a pretty normal and fallible guy makes him angsty. His mentor died five years ago and was a man he really looked up to, and a bunch of people he's closely worked with before (and who are also the men of Raubahn, a man he both respects and works with) died in an assignment that he was a part of. I'd say those are pretty good reasons to have feels. Add that to his determination that he should be protecting the others in Louisoix's absence and his feeling that he's failing on that front, and it's pretty normal that he'd have an emotional breakdown. Apart from that, look at Thancred's general interactions both inside and outside of quests post the 2.0 endgame: whenever you see him, he's either carefree or joking around with the others, or having adventures with several of his lady friends. That's hardly the mark of an angsty person.

As for Minfilia, see my above comment in the same reply. Also, don't misuse the term Mary Sue, it only applies to author-created characters in fanfics.

[Belhi]

Im hoping if and when we see Minfilia again that she will be using some of her less used skills. She is smart, resourceful and capable of operating effectively without drawing unwanted attention. Hell, Minfilia isn't even her real name. She spent most of her life hiding from the Garlean spy network. The problem is that while she was stuck behind a desk at home base she never gets to use those skills. This was sensible in one way and that's because as a leader and commander being frontline in activities is foolish, particularly when she isn't particularly skilled in combat.

Fingers crossed this whole scattering of the Scions is to allow the NPCs to break their molds a bit and allow for some development for them.

[Odds_Ends]

Someone should kill this thread instead.

[Calypsx]

I don't like giving Minfillia a free pass when it comes to combat. The leaders of both Gridania and Limsa are both very powerful in their own right and Uldah has Raubahn. Also Alphinaud has shown he can hold his own if needed.

As a leader of a group based on fighting the primal threat she needs to have some capability of fighting herself since we can't always be there to save her. What if she get attacked by an assassin or gets kidnapped again? Dangerous things can happen to a leader and they need to be prepared as much as possible. Not saying she needs to be as powerful as the other Scions but she needs something.

It also would help players respect her a little more. There's a reason the other leaders are looked more highly upon than her by the playerbase.

[Kallera]

No one person has all the resources to do the primal finding and killing all at once. That said, I still choose to kill Thancred.