Is 'Hydaelyn' a misnomer based on a misconception?

[LineageRazor]

This may be the other way around. She may be handing out power to people that she knows would follow her agenda. She may not manipulate the individual, but she is manipulating the history of millions by distribution of power. For better or worse, many would take issue with such things.

The power Hydaelyn passes out seems to be completely passive and purely defensive, and ONLY defensive against unnatural elements like Primals and Ascians. Our strength is our own, and Hydaelyn's power only comes into play when entities try to "cheat" by way of Tempering and such. She doesn't always give it to folks who follow her agenda, either. We have two cases to the contrary to consider: Saint Ajora, who summoned Seraph Ultima to the world, and Ysayle, who assisted Nidhogg's horde by summoning a Primal, of all things. Hydaelyn is clearly not all-knowing; she bestows her powers on promising individuals, but there's no guarantee that those individuals will do what she hopes they will do.

She struck the jackpot with the Warrior of Light, of course - but even the WoL frequently runs off to do things that have little or nothing to do with her agenda. Thordan may have consorted with Ascians, but that's not the reason the WoL got involved in the Dragonsong War. The WoL got involved because people were suffering, and the WoL wanted to help out. The Dragonsong War was (to our current knowledge) not influenced by the Ascians, and Thordan's plotting and eventual Primal summoning had no effect on the war at all. It took place after we'd ALREADY WON. Nidhogg was dead, his horde was in disarray, and while Nidhogg eventually resurrected himself through Estinien, Hydaelyn did not ask us to do any of that.

The only way Hydaelyn could be said to be guiding the fate of humankind is that she allows a few champions to keep living when they would normally be tempered or dead, when facing off against opponents empowered by Zodiark, individuals who wish to kill pretty much everyone to advance their goals. Once Zodiark and his allies cease to be a threat, we currently have no evidence that Hydaelyn will continue to interfere, and SOME evidence that she will NOT (e.g., Answers lyrics).

It's also worth noting that the WoL's opposition to the Garleans is not influenced by Hydaelyn. The WoL would be fighting them regardless of whether they were an Ascian puppet empire. In fact, MOST of the the conflict with the Garleans took place well before the WoL had any idea the Garleans were an Ascian puppet empire (and, for that matter, well before the GARLEANS even knew the Garleans were a puppet empire, and most of them STILL don't know). The question is, did HYDAELYN know the Garleans were an Ascian puppet empire? That's unclear; it's likely she knew the Ascians were up to something, but she might not have suspected the Garleans specifically. There's plenty of evidence that Hydaelyn is not all-knowing.

A good question to ask is this: If the WoL had never been granted the Echo/Blessing by Hydaelyn, what would they have done? Very likely, many of the same things. They'd still be a paragon of warriors, fighting the Garlean Empire on behalf of the Eorzean Alliance. The Alliance would likely steer them WELL away from any Primals - it would be disaster if such a warrior was Tempered - and the Primals would be handled by the usual ungodly costly human wave tactics. The Ascians likely wouldn't take any particular interest in the WoL; while a powerful warrior, conflict with Garlemald is a good thing in their eyes, and powerful warriors on both sides is both normal and expected.

[Lersayil]

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Good points, I must consent that she doesn't know how a WoL turns out later after she hands out the blessings, as we've already seen some that veered off the path (unless she cant forsee certain kinds of interferences like Ascians, but thats probably reading too much into it).

As for the passiveness of the blessing, are you sure? I sorta-kinda remember it having something to do with our immense aether reserves, but I might be mistaken on that. Aetherial manipulation being what it is, just having that aether pool is a vast power advantage. The echo might also affect our uncanny efficiency with job stones, though I admit this is pure speculation.

Agreed, the Garlean argument kind of hangs on how much Hydaelyn knows about Ascian movements. If she knew they were behind the Empire, she might deliberately hand the blessing to someone in the vicinity that would likely fight them? I guess that would make her speculative instead of manipulative?

And yeah, I kind of agree. The WoL would probably do more or less the same without the echo and blessing, albeit probably less efficiently. Possibly cheering for Arenvald from the sidelines? For arguments sake though, its still technically possible that the echo itself has something to do with the WoLs personality. We are lacking data and what we have is probably biased, but echo holders so far were all in some... active roles so far? Adventurers, Scions, WoLs, Ascians, Leviathan summoning fishmen. Just having the echo might compel the holder to a more "adventurous" life.

What Hydaelyn is doing then, is basically gambling on promising echo users, preferably within range of ascian plots, hoping to tip the scales. Kind of weird though, isn't it? If that is her plan of opposing the Ascians, she wasn't doing a great job of it so far... before the current WoL the Ascians were pretty much on a winning streak. Was she summoned with this plan in mind, or did something go wrong since the Sundering?