What are the differences between the Echo and having Hydaelyn's Blessing? [Spoilers?]

[Tenkuu]

The echo protect us from tempering, but physical damage is something different.
I'm a bit confuse, didnt you said that the blessing protect us against darkness?

The Blessing protects us generally from the power of the Dark, not its influence. In other words, the Blessing gives us an added boost of strength so that we can match up against the Ascians. As evidenced by 2.4 with Moenbryda and then later in 3.0 though, we are almost helpless first against Nabriales, then against Igeyorhm with only a very weak Blessing restored. We still remain immune to being possessed by virtue of having the Echo but we are unable to fight back against a pure blast of dark energy. So the Echo does not protect us from physical damage. So to revise what I said, you probably couldn't beat an Ascian with the Echo alone by virtue of lacking enough Light energy to finish them off, but you could likely drive them off because the Echo would at least make them unable to possess you.

If you've played through the MSQ, the nature of the Echo continues to be a mystery. I believe it's implied that the last boss of the Aetherochemical Research Facility comes about from the echo. The ability of the echo is essentially to break down the barriers of existence, hence our abliity to see into the past from other people's perspective.

The Blessing of Light seems to protect us from the Ascians, but we also saw when it protected us from the Ultima weapon. I'd say it's primay purpose is to protect people against anything that is connected to Zodiark.

It isn't implied, it's outright shown. But yes, the Blessing of Light is directly opposed to the dark, moreso than the Echo.

[Tenkuu]

I have a theory that only people who collected a complete set of Crystals of Light can then have the Hydaelyn's Blessing. Prior to that the more we collect the stronger our connection to Hydaelyn becomes.

If that were true, Igeyorhm would not have commented that our Blessing was partially restored when only a few of our Crystals were back to being activated. It seems to simply be a matter of having even a single Crystal to activate the Blessing, but with only one Crystal it is a weak Blessing that does not allow us to do much other than survive an Ascian's direct attack.

The echo is capable of doing a lot more than just preventing tempering as we see throughout the game and what the Asciens can do.

Throughout the game, what we see allowing us to do several things is the Blessing. The Echo itself, we do not use it consciously.

So I do believe that the blessing is a tool to prevent Zodiark and his minions from doing stuff to us

As evidenced by Igeyorhm commenting that even a weak Blessing protected us from being killed by her, then yes, it does protect us.

It's been mentioned that we need alot of Aether to destroy Asciens, so maybe in the future we can actively tap into Hydaelyn's blessing and use that aether for ourselves?

We already have. In Praetorium, this is what we did through our Crystals. The only reason Lahabrea was not destroyed was Thancred's dark crystal necklace, which protected him and ensured that his aether did not return to the lifestream.

[myahele]

Yeah, my theory is pretty much proved wrong due to Krile having the blessing, as well despite not having any crystals of light.

Though I suppose amongst echo wielders only a small few are truly favored by Hydaelyn enough to protect with her Blessing.

[Frederick22]

The Blessing protects us generally from the power of the Dark, not its influence. In other words, the Blessing gives us an added boost of strength so that we can match up against the Ascians. As evidenced by 2.4 with Moenbryda and then later in 3.0 though, we are almost helpless first against Nabriales, then against Igeyorhm with only a very weak Blessing restored.

The only problem is we beat Nabriales withouth the Blessing of light. Igeyorhm didnt tried to hurt us, just stop us, on that time she sence we were recovering the blessing.

[Tenkuu]

The only problem is we beat Nabriales withouth the Blessing of light. Igeyorhm didnt tried to hurt us, just stop us, on that time she sence we were recovering the blessing.

That's not what I meant. We beat Nabriales in combat, but as far as actually killing him, afterward with Moenbryda and Minfilia, we were helpless. We had no extra juice to add to that beam of Light and he would have likely beaten if not killed us. You don't actually know what Igeyorhm tried to do, she might well have wished to take advantage of our helplessness to try to get rid of us for good. Either way, the fact remains that we were helpless against a pure blast of darkness aimed at us. She only knew we were recovering the Blessing after having attacked us.

[Frederick22]

That's not what I meant. We beat Nabriales in combat, but as far as actually killing him, afterward with Moenbryda and Minfilia, we were helpless. We had no extra juice to add to that beam of Light and he would have likely beaten if not killed us. You don't actually know what Igeyorhm tried to do, she might well have wished to take advantage of our helplessness to try to get rid of us for good. Either way, the fact remains that we were helpless against a pure blast of darkness aimed at us. She only knew we were recovering the Blessing after having attacked us.

Im more confuse now, are we talking about our defences and how we fight Ascians? Or are we talking about blade of light ( the only way to kill an ascian ) ?
Why you said that we were helpless to fight Nabriales withouth the blessing, and now you say that we couldnt destroy him withouth Moen's sacrifice ?

As fas as I saw, having the blessing of light doesnt not give us the power to destroy an Ascian ( yet ), we still need sertain elements to do it. On 3.0 was Nidhoog's eye like an example.

[Tenkuu]

Im more confuse now, are we talking about our defences and how we fight Ascians? Or are we talking about blade of light ( the only way to kill an ascian ) ?
Why you said that we were helpless to fight Nabriales withouth the blessing, and now you say that we couldnt destroy him withouth Moen's sacrifice ?

As fas as I saw, having the blessing of light doesnt not give us the power to destroy an Ascian ( yet ), we still need sertain elements to do it. On 3.0 was Nidhoog's eye like an example.

I'm not sure which part you're confused by. If Ascians actually fight us with their abilities, we can fight back with only the Echo, as against Nabriales in the Chrysalis, but if they throw a beam of pure darkness at us, our only defense is having the Blessing of Light. If like with Moenbryda and Minfilia we were already on the offensive and had a beam of Light going, we could fight back without the Blessing (ie Light that came from another source than the Blessing), but without it, we were helpless. We could contribute nothing from ourselves without the Blessing. So yes, we would not have been able to kill Nabriales without Moenbryda. Also, Nidhogg can't be used as an example because his power (and his Eye's) is neither Light nor Dark. With the Eye, it was merely an amount of power (aether) that was sufficient to destroy an Ascian soul.

[Tenkuu]

Yeah, my theory is pretty much proved wrong due to Krile having the blessing, as well despite not having any crystals of light.

Though I suppose amongst echo wielders only a small few are truly favored by Hydaelyn enough to protect with her Blessing.

I think those with the Blessing are those who have acquired at least one Crystal, but not necessarily more. I think both Minfilia and Krile likely have one Crystal each, just like Ysayle did, but we did not see Ysayle's until the end.

[Frederick22]

I'm not sure which part you're confused by. If Ascians actually fight us with their abilities, we can fight back with only the Echo, as against Nabriales in the Chrysalis, but if they throw a beam of pure darkness at us, our only defense is having the Blessing of Light. If like with Moenbryda and Minfilia we were already on the offensive and had a beam of Light going, we could fight back without the Blessing (ie Light that came from another source than the Blessing), but without it, we were helpless. We could contribute nothing from ourselves without the Blessing. So yes, we would not have been able to kill Nabriales without Moenbryda. Also, Nidhogg can't be used as an example because his power (and his Eye's) neither Light nor Dark. With the Eye, it was merely an amount of power (aether) that was sufficient to destroy an Ascian soul.

Honestly I cant understand you really, why are you talking about a beam of pure dark?

[myahele]

I think those with the Blessing are those who have acquired at least one Crystal, but not necessarily more. I think both Minfilia and Krile likely have one Crystal each, just like Ysayle did, but we did not see Ysayle's until the end.

That's certainly possible. When we got the 1st Crystal of light Hydaelyn pretty much said: "Go forth and collect the remaining crystals. Destroy darkness" and in that scene we see others, as well.

With that said, Krile's Crystal may have been used up in order to save her from Nabriale's version of Ardor. Minfilia was also stated by Elidibus in 2.1 to have survived a previous attempt at an Ardor.

Still, I wold think she would have mentioned having had a crystal when she was presented with an Ancient Crystal of Light