Minfillia Speculation

[Anonymoose]

I'm actually hoping that Minfilia is bound to the aetherial realm somehow

As the images start coming out, that's something that popped into my head, as well. The hi-res art looks like it has her hair itself crystallizing or merging with it. The preview images all (so far) seem to have her floating and shoeless, as well. But this is the phase where I'm not allowed to speculate. I see an image here, I read a hint there, and suddenly my brain is going a malm a minute and I'm standing in traffic wearing (only) a darksteelfoil hat and begging passers by to assure me that it's just the heinous pixelation on the yalm-wide blown up prints making me think that the gemstone on Minfilia's new necklace is eerily familiar in shape (but not color).
It's an illusion caused by familiarity. A coincidence. Nothing more. Stop looking at it.

[CyrilLucifer]

Honestly, it probably is just SE reusing assets. They're fond of that. The vast, vast majority of players wouldn't even recognize that pendant, so they're safe in reusing it.

I totally called it. Hydaelyn's Ascians you guys. And you all thought I was taking one whiff too many of the crackpot.

[Mjollnir]

I totally called it. Hydaelyn's Ascians you guys. And you all thought I was taking one whiff too many of the crackpot.

Well her name *is* Ascilia...

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

We will VERY likely be exploring the Antitower to find her. And I suggested this elsewhere already but if the Ascians/Zodiark can create Warriors of Darkness, what's to say Hydealyn can't create an Ascian of Light with Minfilia?

[Ageofwar]

We will VERY likely be exploring the Antitower to find her.

This is a certainty even the dungeon description screams of this.

what's to say Hydealyn can't create an Ascian of Light with Minfilia?

since Hydealyn is growing weaker so she might not have the power to grant her gift to another.

When we broke Midgardsormr bind on the blessing of light the power we got back was greater than when Midgardsormr binded the blessing of light in the first place as if Midgardsormr was testing us for what Hydealyn had planned.

In the 2.55 MSQ end Minfilia responds to Hydealyn with "NO!" but then goes long with what Hydealyn says

[Fenral]

DISCLAIMER: This is the category of story development that I usually predict wrong. I see the truth for a second, very early, and wrongly dismiss it because bad flow or so lame. Like every time.

I kind of think the MSQ is one FF-game's worth of story with a ton of interim arcs breaking it up, so we haven't actually progressed that far in two years. Look at something like Babylon 5 and how long that show took to get its actual villains out there. Hell, the main character didn't even show up until season 2.

Then again, if I were writing this, I would want to make sure the players themselves believed 110% that what they were doing up until the reveal was the only right choice, but only so that they'd truly empathize with the characters when it was revealed that everything they had been doing up until now was very much the wrong thing. Then again, I'm evil.

[Theodric]

Minfilia's expression is interesting. She doesn't look like herself - so if her personality shifts considerably, too, that alone raises questions as to whether Hydaelyn's influence is truly so desirable after all.

[Lone-wolfe-02]

Please make her evil so i can finally do what i always wanted to do and kill her for being so darn useless.

[Alisa180]

Why do so many people want Hydaelyn to be a 'bad thing' in some form?

I'm hoping, praying, that won't be the case. There have been so many 'grey and grey morality' stories lately that frankly, FFXIV with some semblance of absolute black and white is actually refreshing. And it still leaves room for greyer conflict, such as the whole thing in Ul'dah.

[Fenral]

On the contrary, I think the black and white morality in FFXIV is it's worst point. That fans on the forums can find as much fault as we have with some of its more radical "white" moments is absolutely a problem. Where more carefully written stories will analyze the grey area in-depth, FFXIV has this nasty habit of simply jumping to all-too-specific conclusions and assuming everyone is naturally on board with it's "greater good" schtick.

There are serious issues with our current greater good, to the point where I've never been able to buy into if fully when usually that isn't an issue for me. Seriously. But as I've said before:

I want my discomfort to be a sign that things are going to get shaken up, not that the director is an out-of-his-gourd nihilist.