Minfilia or Lyse?

[Brynne]

I don't dislike either of them, but I lean towards Lyse over Minfilia. Lyse wasn't given enough character development, yeah, but Minfilia wasn't given any from what I could see. I don't feel like I knew her, just... an idea of her, more or less. And I liked that idea, but she didn't feel like an actualized character. When she disappears, I'm more concerned with the impact her absence has on the other characters than in her being absent.

Regarding Lyse...

On a re-play for a datacenter alt, at least until Yanxia I'm finding Lyse more likeable / believable than her reputation. I know much of it has to do with Conrad foisting her up around Ala Ghiri, but I recall being more annoyed by the personality change the first time around.

This, pretty much. I've played through SB twice. The first playthrough, I had high expectations for Lyse's character development and her rise to being a great leader (like Hien, or Aymeric) and I was severely disappointed. On the second playthrough, I had zero expectations because my opinion was the same as most people here (great potential, zero payoff) and I was pleasantly surprised to note that Lyse DOES go through character development, even if it doesn't exactly qualify her in the way the story tries to force. She starts off not understanding why anyone would NOT want to fight back and refusing to acknowledge the validity of opposing POVs, and by the end she's trying to reconcile those different perspectives to come to mutual understanding. She's capable of relating to others and inspiring them to fight on a personal level, and in that respect she makes a decent figurehead leader. As noted by a few people in this thread, though, she's overshadowed in practically every aspect by other characters like Hien and Raubahn, making her growth seem redundant by comparison. And she is hyped up by people like Konrad WAY too much, in a way that doesn't feel earned. But I also found her relatable in her insecurities and uncertainty, and therefore she was likeable.

I simply didn't feel that way with Minfilia at all.

[Insertcoins]

None. Both of them were basically useless (not just combat wise), causing more trouble than they solved, and served no purpose other than stealing the focus from the individual that was doing everything for them (namely, us).

Other scion characters like Alphinaud, Thancred, or even Yda, are/were way more loveable than Minfilia or Lyse. And if we talk about leaders, Hien, Raubahn, Nanamo, and Aymeric, for instance, beat them by far too.

Aymeric? You mean the spoiled guy who does literally NOTHING for you until you're forced to go to his homeland and does nothing then but sit in a seat and give you random task like .. every other NPC ever? Why he gets a pass but Min doesn't is deyond me. Least SHE was there for us i nthe beginning until she was kidnapped by the mother crystal. Where was pretty boy? - hiding behind a big wall. :/

[Ameela]

Aymeric? You mean the spoiled guy who does literally NOTHING for you until you're forced to go to his homeland and does nothing then but sit in a seat and give you random task like .. every other NPC ever? Why he gets a pass but Min doesn't is deyond me. Least SHE was there for us i nthe beginning until she was kidnapped by the mother crystal. Where was pretty boy? - hiding behind a big wall. :/

I too remember when Minfilia tried stopping the main villain of the story on her own without even asking for our help, or leading an assault against her own rogue troops to save a little peasent girl, or accompanying the Warrior of Light to a trial to determine whether she was worthy of facing one of the strongest wyrms alive and thus ending a thousand-year conflict...

Damned Aymeric why is he so useless smh

[Insertcoins]

I too remember when Minfilia tried stopping the main villain of the story on her own without even asking for our help, or leading an assault against her own rogue troops to save a little peasent girl, or accompanying the Warrior of Light to a trial to determine whether she was worthy of facing one of the strongest wyrms alive and thus ending a thousand-year conflict...

Damned Aymeric why is he so useless smh

Joke all you want, but nothing and I mean NOTHING gets done unless WE do it. So again by that logic all of them are useless. oh boo hoo he saved a child. I'm the main character and I saved the PLANET, get on my level. But none of the NPCs will cause they are nothing but quest givers at the end of the day. So why hate one when they all do the same thing. provide quest for YOU to do on your own. :/

[Keddera_StormMoon]

Regarding - Minfilia - aka "Princess Peach" after I had to rescue her a couple times.

I can only say - Good riddance - she was starting to annoy me at the end there.

[Violet_Galaxy]

who do you prefer Minfilia or Lyse as a character both felt underutilized within the game and want to hear what you all think?

I prefer Minfilia as i felt she actually did more(abiet behind the scenes) / deserved to be there in the story not once in SB have i felt Lyse earned her the screentime she has had despite someone who can actually join us in fights.

Neither one. Minfilia made me teleport back and forth to Horizon and Lyse is still the sorriest excuse for character progression in this game.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Do you really think the organization just runs itself? Someone has to make sure all the employees get paid, and that the rent is paid, and that the Rising Stones break room is stocked, and that all the investors are still happy, and that those two scouts who hate each other don't get assigned to the same recon team, etc... All that and a million other little things that keep the place going. We just don't see any of it because of the vast majority of the day to day is boring and unimportant to us.

And that someone is Tataru, going by all in-game dialogue.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

Minfilia at least has some value as character.
Yes, she is not a fighter, but she is a a commander, and the scions actually depended on her organization skills, yes, some bad stuff happens (the story has to move forward) and the quests might have been a bit too tedius after 50 levels. But she fulfilled a valuable role in the storyline and lore.

Lyse on the other hand.
First off, we lost Yda which was great, and fun, and great. Then we get this poster girl that is ABSOLUTELY irrelevant to the storyline, like, she could perfectly NOT BE THERE and everything would be the same. Like, i got so pissed when SHE walked in front of ME or EVERYONE ELSE THAT DID ACTUALLY HELP RETAKE ALA MHIGO and she did what, be the daughter of someone important, wtf.

I sincerely hope Lyse dies, really, i would even make youtube videos to celebrate it.

[Yshnal]

Aymeric? You mean the spoiled guy who does literally NOTHING for you until you're forced to go to his homeland and does nothing then but sit in a seat and give you random task like .. every other NPC ever? Why he gets a pass but Min doesn't is deyond me. Least SHE was there for us i nthe beginning until she was kidnapped by the mother crystal. Where was pretty boy? - hiding behind a big wall. :/

He's the same guy that took Haurchefant's place in being one of the very few real friends (how many of those we actually have? we can count with one hand the people that love the WoL as an individual, and not as a weapon/tool) that will support us no matter what (something that he did from the start, but more so as time passed), even confronting his own people. You can't just go and start fighting like a mad man (or woman, in Lyses' case), and Aymeric showed us that he can be patient despite everything that he had on his shoulders, both from responsibility and also from his own family issues. And regardless of that, he was also working behind the curtains as much as he could to make things change in a place with such stubborness for "tradition" and "they did something to us but we don't know what anymore" like Ishgard. He's also the first of Ishgard's leaders that was open and wise enough to accept peace with the dragons, to open the city-state towards the rest of Eorzea, and that made it join the Eorzean Alliance once more. All that done by a man that doesn't want the power, and that is still working to make a new form of government where he is not needed, despite people wanting him to stay. I think that he has done more than enough, even almost dying while doing it and still working for what he believed in with the wound still fresh. It doesn't look like what a spoiled guy would do.

On the other hand we have Lyse, who did literally nothing useful other than tagging along while the rest of us (WoL, Alphinaud, Hien, Yugiri, Gosetsu, M'naago, Arenvald, etc.) did everything in Gyr Abania and Othard. And after that she gets appointed as the Resistance leader, and a key person in Ala Migho because of reasons (just because her dad and her sister, Yda, actually did things?), instead of giving that position to someone more experienced, who had more knowledge, and who deserved it more.

Let's be honest here. If both Minfilia or Lyse hadn't been part of the story, everything would've happened the same way. Well, outside of having to rescue them or fixing their mistakes, of course. And of the WoL having to travel around less, in Minfilia's case. They are not key, or needed, but the game tries to keep telling us that they are without showing us why. Even Tataru has done more than both of them combined.

I don't hate them, but I find it hard to like them either because of the way that they've been written. Especially when you compare them with other characters that have even made me care about them with their actions (this includes enemies).

[LaylaTsarra]

I like Minfilia and never really could warm up to Lyse all that much.