[SPOILERS]Considering that new Minfilia feature.

[CaesarCV]

As about how she can come back, well, theres no need for her to go back to her position, especially considering that now shes "trapped" in First and with Scions being so scattered. She could be what Ryne is doing now, help us fight Lightwardens.

I mean, they could have brought her back for certain. I'm not denying that fact, but what would be the point other than bringing back a character? What greater thematic point would they be making with her resurrection, or what narrative purpose would it serve? What would be the resurrected Minfilia's new role in the story?

I'm very excited to hear the answer! This sort of theorycrafting is super enjoyable to me!

[RopeDrink]

Still she gets much more flak that what her writing deserves.

Try not to confuse character hate for the hate of how they are handled. I dare say that a hefty portion of people probably don't genuinely 'dislike' Minfilia in a literal sense, but most would certainly hate how she was handled. She was always pleasant, friendly, caring, with a touch of tragedy, but she was ultimately Princess Plot-Device, a veritable Princess Peach from Mario. Worse, even. A nice leader-lady who gets captured on a regular basis purely to drive the plot, never really fighting [literally, and very rarely even with words], before yet again sending you off on another errand. She deserved every shred of flak. That is not how you build an interesting character. You COULD if there were some other redeeming features, but unfortunately, being 'really nice' and being a 'leader' and having a tragedy in their lives in and of itself only goes so far. I can write something with more depth on a square of toilet roll with my eyes closed.

"Unjustified hate?" It is justified for reasons countless people have tirelessly explained, one of which includes her presence in a different game where they managed to annoy people via different reasons over time. She just wasn't popular (at least not here), on top of all the issues associated with her handling.

The issue is you're trying to defend her virtue like she's an actual person. Reality is she's a tiny cog in a content-web owned by a business that makes money from telling stories through games. They could have very easily just offed her with a much smaller whimper, yet despite how poorly she was handled up to ShB, her conclusion was good, just, and relevant. You couldn't have asked for better on such short notice with the little they had to work with, not without time and build, leading to a questionable payoff that needs to convince too many people of its worth.

We're currently now in the 3rd expansion, 4th if you include 1.0 to ARR, and next to nobody has much good to say about her due to the handling. That isn't unjustified hate, that is a majority of people unified in a particular assessment, with you being one of the very few voices in disagreement to it. If you attempted to refine her, it'd require a mostly different character to what she has been represented as for years, which means a hefty building period. Instead, they've managed to recycle her in a relevant way (and without too much fuss in between), and given us a new likeable character with far fewer flaws in the process, who will no doubt be your window into future Minfilia mentions or antics should they arise in the future of the story, ie. Minfilia isn't 'gone' gone. Fantasy games such as this are very easily capable of throwing curve-balls on a whim.

Note that I do not dislike Minfilia as a character - I dislike everything and anything about how she was utilized, ShB aside.

[YanderePrincess]

<snip>

Minfilia has always been my favorite character (though Feo Ul definitely solidly competes now), and I was really upset when she was "killed" in Heavensward. I'd been hoping for her to be returned to us as well, and so it was really disappointing for us not to truly get her back. That said, I never got the impression that any of this had anything to do with the players "hating" Minfilia. Keep in mind that they plan a lot of the story concepts and direction years ahead. And this story and send off for her was amazingly well written and they did right by her big time. As sad as I am to see her go, I'm very happy with how they did it and the interaction our WoL got to have with her right before her final ending.

[YanderePrincess]

<snip>

A lot of gross mischaracterization here. Aside from placing her somewhere extremely out of the way and making us walk there to speak with her frequently (something Urianger is far more of a problem about), they utilized her quite well throughout ARR. She was no more meant to fight than Tataru was and having her not participate in fighting was completely appropriate. She was also only captured twice in all of 2.0-2.x. I won't say she was handled perfectly, but there was nothing hate-worthy in how she was handled. Despite the jokes about "Pray return to the waking sands," I never got the impression that anyone actually hated anything about her aside from the location of the Waking Sands, which again, is more problematic with Urianger than with Minfilia.

[Vidu]

A lot of gross mischaracterization here. Aside from placing her somewhere extremely out of the way and making us walk there to speak with her frequently (something Urianger is far more of a problem about), they utilized her quite well throughout ARR. She was no more meant to fight than Tataru was and having her not participate in fighting was completely appropriate. She was also only captured twice in all of 2.0-2.x. I won't say she was handled perfectly, but there was nothing hate-worthy in how she was handled. Despite the jokes about "Pray return to the waking sands," I never got the impression that anyone actually hated anything about her aside from the location of the Waking Sands, which again, is more problematic with Urianger than with Minfilia.

The thing - at least for me - is that Tataru tries to do something. She is an active character whos actually shown working towards our common goal, by picking up jobs, even trying to become someone who can fight even if she fails.

Minfilia does nothing. Or at least we dont see her do anything, we're just being told that shes doing all the important stuff like talking to people (...in a pink leather outfit, excatly what a diplomant should wear...) but we never see her being useful. We're just told she is and now we're supposed to believe that.
For Tataru and Urianger we're being shown that they're useful - or that they're at least trying to overcome their weaknesses, specially in Tatarus case. That little lalafell doesnt has to be a fighter, just how Minfilia doesnt has to be one. But I would have liked to see her try. Shes got that dagger from Thancred and we dont see her doing anything with it - not even cutting an apple for one of the Doman Refugee kids. I cant respect Minfilia as a leader because she never seems to leave her office (I think we see her leave it once, at the end of ARR? And well, when we moved) and only commands everyone else to get their hands dirty. She doesnt has to be a fighter, but if they had given her something useful to do besides giving us our next quest I would have been way happier with her - give her a little garden where she grows food for the Scions! Let her be the one to teach Tataru how to mine! Let her strike a deal with Rowena so she can craft weapons or tools using the forge!
She doesnt has to fight, she only has to something.
But she never did.

[ern815]

Ryne is probably the best character in this expansion (Others may say the Crystal Exarch but to each their own). I can relate to her and there is good character growth and development for her which I really enjoy seeing.

Good job on developing a character with depth, Devs.

Minfilia 1.0, on the other hand, only seems to know how to command and make speeches but didn't seem to help or do much. Her willingness to help seems to be just delegation of the tasks to either the warrior of light or one of the Scions, as depicted in this fighting game scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuELXU0OEs4).

Things did improve when she became the Oracle in HW where she brought the Warriors of Darkness to their World to fend off the flood.

[QT_Melon]

A lot of gross mischaracterization here. Aside from placing her somewhere extremely out of the way and making us walk there to speak with her frequently (something Urianger is far more of a problem about), they utilized her quite well throughout ARR. She was no more meant to fight than Tataru was and having her not participate in fighting was completely appropriate. She was also only captured twice in all of 2.0-2.x. I won't say she was handled perfectly, but there was nothing hate-worthy in how she was handled. Despite the jokes about "Pray return to the waking sands," I never got the impression that anyone actually hated anything about her aside from the location of the Waking Sands, which again, is more problematic with Urianger than with Minfilia.

One of the facilities I see stated in here is that it's assumed that because a character is hated he/she is killed off. There were likeable characters in various parts of FFXIV in its entirety that I saw killed off that I personally liked. While I said earlier there's nothing wrong with doing away with a character that isn't working. There were characters that WERE working also done away with.

As far as if she did anything or not, I think it was described a few times that her character that did things that exasperated (asking us to come to explain something already communicated via LS for example?) the dislike of her. That doesn't mean she was killed off because of player hatred. Unless someone can find the source of that?

I will say one thing that bugged me throughout the game but it was MINOR. Her ARR outfit didn't look like anything that was part of the realm we were in. It was just so strange - granted it was striking, pretty and all that but I never felt it fit within the story as odd as that sounds and actually found it distracting. Granted we have more funny glamours and outfits and now 1 NPC is wearing a pig head...but I don't think he was meant to be taken as seriously as Minfilia anyways.

[Alleluia]

Well the solution for returning the Scions back to the source is already mentioned being....

that Exarch is planning to awaken G'raha Tia in the source version of Crystal Tower so he can learn to return their souls back to their body at the end of 5.0. However, he has to learn how to master the powers of the Crystal Tower to perform the Summoning skill Exarch has.

This will of course lead to events in 5.1 involving events in the Source.

Is this actually confirmed somewhere? Or is it just some people interpreting his line at the end of the MSQ and that's it? If the shot had then cut to somewhere else and showed younger G'raha awakening or CT machinery buzzing to life or something, I'd agree. As it stands, though, I don't think he was actually talking to anyone but himself there. It sounded like an "Alright, <refers to self in 3rd person>. Time to go to work!", self-motivational pep talk.

[Gula]

Just jumping in to add that my friend plays the Japanese version and according to him Minfillia and Thancred's relationship is shown as being an older brother and younger sister type scenario. I think the English translation often messes that up.

NieR Gestalt is proof that it's the perfect way to go.

[YanderePrincess]

<snip>

I was always in love with Minfilia's outfit. I wanted it for my character for the longest time.

My friends and I joke about the Pray Return To The Waking Sands thing, but I always was happy to go see her.

For the person who said she never did anything, her role was one where we wouldn't get to see a lot of it because it'd be boring to watch. Alphinaud even comments on how much behind the scenes work she had to do to make everything work and how unprepared he was for that. And Urianger did nothing except continue to force us to trek back to the Waking Sands long after everyone else had moved to Mor Dhona until 3.x, then he went back to the Waking Sands until 5.0.

It's fine for people not to be fond of Minfilia, but she is absolutely not deserving of hate.