So what does Minfilia do anyway? [Main Quest Spoilers]

[MilitaryVet123]

Having played through the main quest recently, there is a character that seems out of place to me - Minfilia. I guess she is important in 1.0 or something? I am not legacy so I don't know.

I mean, she doesn't seem to do much in the story. So she is the leader of Scions? I don't see why. All she does is talk and give out missions. She have a knife but never used it, even when in mortal danger. (Where did the one the main character melded for her go anyway?)
It seems the biggest part she's in is getting kidnapped by the Empire - even then it's just because the main character was not there to be captured.

Look at everyone else in Scions.
Louisoix was bad ass as seen in "End of an Era" trailer. His grandchildren seems to talk a lot but at least one helped reform the Scions and another have something to do with Bahamut(not sure since I'm not there yet)?
Papalymo is THM with monocle, he get a pass; Yda can probably tank Livia as seen in CM; She and Y'Shtola help recovered the Ironworks guys, whom did their thing with Maggie; their boss Cid does he airship thing and is generally awesome; Thancred is the weakest final boss ever but he is badass with he knives thing. Urianger's words may need a translator to understand, but I heard he willingly act as bait to draw out the Empire's plans in 1.0. Even Tataru is a savvy HR person who link you up with the Grand Companies.
In comparsion to all of them Minfilia just doesn't compare; I guess the "High Priestess" is some kind of of middle manager, answering to Hydaelyn or something? But what power she got seems to be just a phone number compared to the main characters' Skype/other IM where you got sight, sound, vision and the whole works. Maybe she's in that position because she got connections (her gatherfather?), or just a power grab when her organization merged with others after the Calamity?

The above may seems a long rant but I am really unclear on the role Minfilia in ARR, I hope one of the loremongers here can tell us how she is badass or something.
Thanks in advance!

She does a lot. Quite a fair deal of the criticisms levied against her are misogyny.

[Gobio]

It is absolutely the writers fault.
It doesn't matter how many high level negotiation / deals she made in the background.

She is supposed to be an important character, at ARR should be the most important scion. Writers should have written plots / quest / arc about her. It is not about writing "women" either because they put obviously a lot more effort on writing nanamo then minifilia.

In stormblood, it is pretty much a whole arc about that monk lady. So they can write women, just not minfilia.

[Cilia]

Minfilia's role within the Scions is (or was) to be their manager and diplomat (until Alphinaud busted onto the scene). 1.X players will feel more connected to her because she factored into that storyline more heavily.

The problems with her in 2.X are:

1. Mostly sits behind her desk at the Waking Sands / Rising Stones. Her job is not glamorous by nature, but when you have as much screen time as the people who actually get shit done (if not more) despite being a desk jockey it's grating. Cf. Tataru: less screen time, actually tries to overcome her weaknesses (and, by Stormblood, is a competent if not exceptional Arcanist). Also cf. Aymeric: mostly a desk jockey, but willing and able to throw down when the situation calls for it.
2. Constantly calling you back to the Waking Sands in the 2.0 arc. Sometimes it feels she recalls you every half a dozen quests, and prior to the revamp giving Vesper Bay "Aetheryte" Tickets (there is still no aetheryte in Vesper Bay) you had to go to Horizon and hoof it the rest of the way or take the boat from Limsa. This is immensely annoying and really breaks up the flow of the story (granted 2.0 doesn't flow all that well; it's late and I need to hit the hay but to put it simply it's just a bunch of monster of the week episodes until you hit 45ish and then the Empire steps up to the plate for the climax).

Note the Wind-up Minfilia minion pokes fun at both of these grating tendencies.

So basically she's an annoying desk jockey who gets as much screentime (if not more) than the characters who actually get things done. Not a very endearing character, especially to 2.0 newbies who do not see her tragic backstory in so much detail.

[Riastrad]

Thancred and Minfilia were the introduction characters to every player who chose Ul'dah as their starting city (back when you could separate that choice from the first class).

As such, they hold a special place in the game. Minfilia's story in game from 1.0 to 5.0 is difficult for a number of reasons for those who witnessed it. I mean she watched her father die for a failed power grab. Attempted to lead echo users for the betterment of the realm and having that fall through due to outside influences attempting to use them for personal reasons. Merges her remaining path members with the Circle of knowing which leads to the path members getting killed. Finally sees some success in becoming a political force for good just to lose it all in another power grab by the monetarists. Loses her humanity to a (not so benevolent) god. And is then happily traded away in an attempt to stop a world not her own from being consumed by light. We then find out a hundred years have passed and that she was literally being murdered again and again because she was in no way prepared to fight gods we had trouble with (and we do it just barely) and is betrayed by the people she was trying to save and is locked away like a pet to a literal monster. Just for her to be completely consumed so a child has a chance to take her destiny into her own hands.

It's ten years of failure and heartbreak for a character that should have been, could have been, written better. They just didn't try and i'm still salty and I will always be salty.

So yeah, I'm not going anywhere. I promise you Minfilia.

[Rosenstrauch]

Wow, what an old thread. Anyways, what does Minfilia do?

She suffers, dies, and is reborn to suffer and die some more. That's been the gist of it since Heavensward. I guess that's over with now, though.

On the one hand, I haven't completely lost hope that they'll bring her back again. Though since 5.4 is just on the horizon now, and with it will likely come the end of Ryne's story, there's not much room left to reasonably work that in. On the other hand, given how dissatisfied I've been with the way she's been handled, I can't say with confidence that I'd expect good things to come from her return anyways.

At least Ryne is a great character. Shame 5.4 might actually be the last time we see her.

[Kesey]

Wow, what an old thread. Anyways, what does Minfilia do?

She suffers, dies, and is reborn to suffer and die some more. That's been the gist of it since Heavensward. I guess that's over with now, though.

On the one hand, I haven't completely lost hope that they'll bring her back again. Though since 5.4 is just on the horizon now, and with it will likely come the end of Ryne's story, there's not much room left to reasonably work that in. On the other hand, given how dissatisfied I've been with the way she's been handled, I can't say with confidence that I'd expect good things to come from her return anyways.

At least Ryne is a great character. Shame 5.4 might actually be the last time we see her.

I guess the possibility exists that if we get to speak with Hydaelyn again, she could present herself as Minfilia. But that won't really be Minfilia either.

[Gobio]

Sorry to post again.

Yesterday as I ran through shadowbringers... and I hear the word "The Minfilias"...

I am really speechless man, that is so... like... disrespectful... holy shit...

[Iscah]

Sorry to post again.

Yesterday as I ran through shadowbringers... and I hear the word "The Minfilias"...

I am really speechless man, that is so... like... disrespectful... holy shit...

She's been reincarnated multiple times and has been called Minfilia each time. It's become like a recurring position, essentially, rather than a single person's identity.

I don't see the issue with collectively referring to all those incarnations as "the Minfilias" - particularly when, as far as I recall, it was the current Minfilia talking about her circumstances compared to "the Minfilias before her", like someone in a position might talk about past holders of the same title.

[Rosenstrauch]

Yeah, the whole "the Oracles are all named/titled after the woman they get their power from" isn't really a problem. At least, not out-of-universe. In-universe, it's a pretty big can of worms that doesn't really get touched outside of Ryne's personal drama, mostly because the Oracle of Light stops mattering to the plot outside of Ryne's personal drama. But that's another matter entirely.

Really, if you want an innocuous detail that's kind of disrespectful, look at the Oracle of Light triple triad card. It's Minfilia, of course. But the card has no tribe, even though "Scion" is available as one. She is literally one of the founding members of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. Well, maybe she left, right? Giving your life to serve as a primal's puppet, then again to save another world, and finally your very existence to let your successor have your power is definitely the same thing as quitting.

Lyse left too, quite vocally, with her fellow Scions accepting this and wishing her well. She's not a Scion anymore. And when we look at her triple triad card... it's a Scion card. Lyse is still considered a Scion, even though she voluntarily left the organization. Which is nice. Minfilia, or "the Oracle of Light" is not, even though she never actually quit. I'm not so deep in the rabbit hole as to suggest that they'd spoil a potential plot twist with a triple triad card—and such a twist would be rather absurd to begin with. But it does leave me a little miffed.

[Iscah]

Really, if you want an innocuous detail that's kind of disrespectful, look at the Oracle of Light triple triad card. It's Minfilia, of course. But the card has no tribe, even though "Scion" is available as one.

I don't see that as a big deal either. In her form at that point as the Oracle of Light, she is undeniably no longer part of the organised team of people known collectively as the Scions, even if she still has deep ties to them.

Lyse on the other hand doesn't quit the Scions until after she has gone through all the events of Stormblood, and - I'm not sure which outfit she's wearing on the card, but even her more recent red dress was worn while she was still officially a member of the Scions. She hasn't changed fundamentally in some way to say the card portrays her in a "post-Scion form" that shouldn't receive that designation.

If Lyse had quit the Scions to join the Resistance in the first place, or if she gets some kind of 6.0 development and a new outfit and that version of her design gets a card, then that card maybe shouldn't get marked as a Scion card.