Is Minfilia always useless ?

[Riastrad]

How would he plan to do that, though? As far as anyone is aware at this point, living mortals cannot cross the rift without first abandoning their body. The Warriors of Darkness had to kill themselves so their souls could travel to the Source; that's not really a solution that's viable for us. It would leave our own world unprotected.

It is an option for us though. We didn't know it at the time, but the implied reason the transference works perfectly fine for us and not others is that it is Azems power working for us. Ardbert may not have had to kill himself to traverse the rift. We also know that any one can in fact travel rifts due to our experience with the Crystal Tower. Nero physically went to the Thirteenth and came out no worse for wear. We just needed someone to open the way and we could have gone in. Hydaelyn's Oracle was right there, opening a portal. As for leaving the World at risk. We left the Ala Mhigan front for a boat trip for a good amount of time. The Grand Companies held the line just fine.

He is sending Minfilia – now an aetherial being and an extension of Hydaelyn Herself – to do a job that an extension of Hydaelyn can do. And at least in its original presentation in 3.4 was supposed to involve outright fixing the First by absorbing the Light and using it to recharge Hydaelyn's failing strength. Somehow (real answer: to give us a narrative in 5.0) that part didn't happen, Hydaelyn seems weaker than ever and Minfilia could only hold back rather than undo the Flood.

That is another problem I have. Hydaelyn seems inable to draw in aether as a primal should. It almost seems as though she has either been directed to never partake of the stuff or something is sapping her of it. It could also be that she is killing herself by constantly causing the stuff to enter stasis.

He beats himself up a lot about being forced into hard decisions, as I see it. He regrets the suffering that the generations of Minfilias have gone through, but if he hadn't sent Minfilia to begin with, the whole world would have drowned in the Flood of Light a hundred years ago and they never would have been born. (And they probably didn't suffer greatly more than the rest of the people trying to fight the sin eaters anyway.) It's a bad thing that happened instead of a far worse alternative, but he blames himself for it regardless.

I stand by my statement.

Its all moot. We should have just used the Crystal Tower to drain the aether of the land and wardens after each slaying as that was the plan to begin with. It was just botched due to G'raha and Urianger wanting to do it all at once, like fools.