Is Minfilia always useless ?

[DPZ2]

Ah, the perennial post about poor, useless Minfilia.

Louisoix was a boss, sorta true, but he had few organizing skills. He certainly didn't set up the Path of the Twelve or teach those who joined how to use the Echo to bring about peace. He was the leader of the Circle of Knowing, which included all of the Archons you've come to know and love, but I don't believe he had any of the skills necessary to actually run a group like the Path of the Twelve (or, later the Scions of the Seventh Dawn). The Circle of Knowing always struck me as more a 'hands on' group than administrators.

So, anyway, without Minfilia there would be no Scions, and you, as an adventurer, would keep blacking out and wondering just how sane you were without her assurance that it was a gift, and not a curse. Unlike the Circle, most of those associated with the Scions do not have the Echo. Without her, all of those great contacts with the high muckety mucks in-game (you know who they are) would have been one-shots.

By the way, the Scions are not 'dedicated' to the Primal threat, although that is high up on their list. There are plenty of non-Echo members doing things you never know about, all under the auspices of Minfilia's leadership. Generals (with a few exceptions in Ul'dah) do not usually stand at the front of the army, why would you expect her to do so? Leaders don't have to be able to beat up a Primal -- that's your job.

(If you want to learn about the non-Archon members of the Scions, go to the room off of the Solar where they congregate and talk to them ... each and every time you come back you'll learn a bit more about the depth and breadth of this organization).

[Cilia]

I'm just going to echo sentiments: Minfilia isn't useless, but she isn't a frontline fighter, and the execution of the story necessarily undersells her strengths because as a combat-focused game an administrator's job isn't glamorous.

That's not to say she's a great character in A Realm Reborn, but she isn't as bad as people make her out to be.

[SannaR]

That is why i think Papalymo would be better. He has brains and actually isn't as naive as Minfilia and Alphinaud .

Minfillia isn't naive though? She knows exactly why the Scions as a whole turned down the "offer" they were given by Lolorito for an aetherite in Vespers Bay. Because they know he and many others would want them to do favors. Another part of Minfillia's problem is a lot of the action she was seen doing was in 1.0 where she was in charge of the path of the 12. Where she sent out others who had the echo to not only find more with it, but to research it. I know many think they would want an already sluggish quest back in 2.0 to have us arrive with delegates exiting the solar either in the waking sands or rising stones and see them grumbling and then give the WoL a look with the WoL giving them a shrug before walking into the Solar. Or have her give the WoL the one more minute gesture while she's on a linkpearl conversation that's not the two times she does so with Krile. People would complain about how an already slow thing is even slower than it needs to be. Heck one of the reasons she even gets kidnapped is due to Midgardsormr depowering our blessing of light.

[Roda]

Minfillia was betrayed by her voice direction and the story putting Alphinaud failing at her job in the spotlight while her work was always implied.

[GoldStarz]

Nanamo is only there because she is royal blood. Raubahn could do papawork all the same.

This is such a strange thing to say when Raubahn explicitly trusts and tried to politically empower Nanamo and when Raubahn's military position only exists because the two of them worked together to create it (which isn't to say he wouldn't still have political power since he is on the Syndicate).

Military might is only one of many potential qualifiers for leadership, it's a disservice to both characters to imply that it is the only qualifier.

[Scott]

Well Minfilia was always the connecting link of the Scions. The Heart of the organisation. You see that during the Later Heavensward Patches the Scions begin to drift apart without Minfilia. Only later on they finally come together as one group.

[Iscah]

I smell something fishy here. The topic starter has been registered since 2016, has previously made posts indicating they're up to at least post-Stormblood, and now they want to ask about Minfilia's role in the story?

[Bright-Flower]

While the two often go hand in hand in certain genres of fiction, being a good leader and being a badass who can fight good are not the same skillset.

[Recon1o6]

I think it boils down to three very annoying bits

1. We never see her actually doing anything that she supposedly does. Negotiations etc.
-Tataru does all the paperwork, finance, setting up meetings with everyone and being the point of contact
-Alphinaud does most of the negotiation work on camera, which is very important to the telling of the story. Show dont say
2. Despite us going out of our way to get her a custom dagger (in ARR this was longer than you think what with TP costs and penniless players during bits of the levelling process) she never once draws it or shows any combat skill and both times she was kidnapped she put up bugger all resistance.
3. She is annoying dialogie and voice wise for a lot of players

[Brightamethyst]

1. We never see her actually doing anything that she supposedly does. Negotiations etc.
-Tataru does all the paperwork, finance, setting up meetings with everyone and being the point of contact
-Alphinaud does most of the negotiation work on camera, which is very important to the telling of the story. Show dont say

They only seriously took on those roles after Minfilia was gone.

Tataru is the office manager. She's in charge of internal things like keeping everyone supplied and making sure the Rising Stones rent gets paid. Even now most of her dealings and negotiations are about how best to support the Scions themselves. She's making deals with merchants and support staff, not nation leaders.

Alphinaud didn't become the professional diplomat he is today until HW and SB. He started on that path in ARR (with disastrous results) but really only come into his own later on.