Minfillia Speculation

[Nalien]

I... Think the chains are entirely symbolic...

I'm not sure Minfilia is losing her free will or anything like that, I think her fate is tied to that of Hydaelyns (in a very specific/important way, hence Elidibus showing an interest in her, dudes obviously known this would happen for a while), and any change that occurs from here on out is a result of her learning about that fate. She's gone from bumbling around in the dark to gaining a much deeper understanding of things, and as a result she is bound to Hydaelyn. It's still her will to "do the right thing", but in learning TheTruth™ she is now in a position where she either helps Hydaelyn or she damns Hydaelyn, either way her fate is chained to Hydaelyns.

Unless Hydaelyn has intentionally been deceiving everyone, I cannot see such a radical change in personality... It's also entirely possible that, given we'll likely be finding her at the end of a dungeon in which we fight numerous Sharlayan defense systems, the chains are Sharlayan in origin, not Hydaelyns work... I mean... If you had a station monitoring God, and there was a cult of maniacs (and there are plenty of such forces in Eorzea...) you knew were trying to kill God... Wouldn't you put some kind of defense system in the way? Wouldn't you want to apprehend anyone trying to come into direct contact with God? If the chains aren't symbolic, my bet is on them being Sharlayan in origin. Hydaelyn never struck me as the bondage type...

[Cilia]

I REALLY hope one of the 'changes' in this patch brought about Hydaelyn's 'change' is a 'change' to our The Echo [sic] so we regain the ability of time travel.

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.

I... Think the chains are entirely symbolic...

Well, they're not physically literal chains. However, based on what I've seen, it's led me to the conclusion that Minfilia has been possessed by Hydaelyn during her absence from the narrative. First off, in the artwork Minfilia is not only bound by chains to the mothercrystal, close inspection shows her sort of melding into it. Second, she's wearing a very simple white dress - white is typically the color of light and associated with the divine (compare Minfilia's original rather ornate pink halter top and butt-gap skirt... thing). Third, in every image we've seen of her except the vision of her in front of the mothercrystal, Minfilia's eyes are closed. The eyes are the "windows to the soul," and her eyes are only open in a vision of Minfilia in front of the mothercrystal... hmm...

The only conclusion I can reach with this information that Hydaelyn is either piggybacking in Minfilia's body or has outright possessed her. It may have been willingly, and it may be limited to a certain area, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If it's outright possession with Minfilia's consciousness suppressed or outright extracted, I... don't want to fight for Hydaelyn anymore. Resorting to possession is a pretty immoral thing to do, necessary or otherwise. Zodiark, for all his supposed evil and malice, left the Ascians with free will; if Hydaelyn is going to go possess our close friend, is she really better?

... this is all mere conjecture, of course. Until we get the whole story it's quite rash to jump on the deicide bandwagon. Suffice to say, however, that after Bloodborne I'm quite skeptical of trusting in the absolute morality of any deity, especially when they do morally questionable acts like possessing people. Their value systems differ greatly, and they have no problem offering one person as a sacrifice for the greater good because one life is relatively inconsequential. However, what may be a single, inconsequential life to a deity is everything to that person, and it makes everyone who cares for them suffer as well...

Something something collectivist culture.

Something something hope will never die.

Our reunion will be in the depths of the Antitower, of that I have little doubt. But what manner of reunion will it be, and who will we be speaking to...?

I don't think Minfilia was kidnapped or captured by a band of Sharlayan extremists intent on performing immoral research on the Echo. Every Sharlayan but Matoya left 20 years ago with the impending Garlean invasion, and the only Sharlayans to return since were the Circle of Knowing and those tied to the AST quest (and they all became pariahs in Sharlayan as a result). Besides which, before the Isle of Val was destroyed there was a whole order of Echo users, likely close to the Sharlayan motherland, so that shouldn't have been necessary?

[Mjollnir]

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.

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.