Ascillia, Minfillia and Thancred

[Scott]

How is this even possible. As a FF 1.0 Player I always wondered how this was possible and now in ARR and Heavensward even more.

Since Ascillia and Minfillia are the same Person for me there is one question.

How is it possible that Thancred and Ascillia meet in the 1.0 Ul'dah Opening story and many years later Ascillia is a grown woman and Thancred looks exactly the same.

Only way I see it beeing possible is for Thrancred was traveling the Echovision but as far as I know Thancred was really there and not Echoversiontraveling.

So how is that possible.

They even gave F'lhaminn new clothings and glasses to symbolise that she aged but Thancred is still the exact same model....

Is there something I'm missing?

[Kaiser-Ace]

Is there something I'm missing?

Echo-Ception is what you're missing. 1.0 was so poorly writen to where it's hard to draw the line between what was echo and what wasnt. I dont belive the echoception took place more than 3 years before 1.0 meaning Ascila could have been in her early teens while thancred and f'lahamine were in their late teens - early 20s. Thus now anouther 5 years later Minfilia is in her early 20s while Thancred and Flahamine are in their 30s. Also possible that Thancred is actually younger than Flahamine or just aged better. (Remember Flahamine did spend many years runing from assasins. Stress will kill even a young woman's looks)

[Scott]

But Minfillia was looking like this in present 1.0...... Well I think they messed the ageing process up.....

[JepMZ]

Thancred was a tall 15 year old... Maybe

[FJerome]

There's canonically something unusual going on with Thancred's lack of ageing, Minfilia thinks about it in her story during last year's Tales from the Calamity.

Perpetually passing by, Thancred had drifted in and out of Minfilia’s life for years. He had been seventeen when they first met—five years her senior. Or so he claimed.

From "The Walker's Path"

[Dererk]

I have a theory about this.

I believe that the city story quests in 1.0 had you going in and out of the echo with out you even knowing it. This theory can be strengthen by the fact that when you meet either Thancred Yoshtola and the others again in the last story quest in the original 1.0 story it seams that they don't even know you it happens again in the old 1.0 grand company story as well.

Also we didn't even know what the echo was or even that it exsisted till we go to the Waking sands in Ul Dah. So the theory that we didn't know if we were in there or just looking at the past more likely.

[treuhavik]

I believe that the city story quests in 1.0 had you going in and out of the echo with out you even knowing it. This theory can be strengthen by the fact that when you meet either Thancred Yoshtola and the others again in the last story quest in the original 1.0 story it seams that they don't even know you it happens again in the old 1.0 grand company story as well.

Well, they do give a clue as to when you enter an echo vision. It was rather subtle, but there was a SWOOSH sound and split-second camera blur each and every time. Their aim, I think, was for you to notice something wonky was going on, and for you to finally make the connection and reflect on the events you witnessed before hand once the echo is revealed at the end of your introduction quest line.

Supposedly, one who is witnessing an echo vision cannot effect the events of the time they are visiting, you're simply reliving the memories of others. People react to your presence while in the Echo, most likely, because you're misplaced in said memory. So, technically, no one should remember you.

However, there a~re several instances where it certainly seems like you are recognized from "before". Though, these cases were likely flubs by the team at the time. There were also cases in which the tell-tale SWOOSH was misplaced, but these were cleaned up a little better once the team we now know and love took over. Now, there's still nothing explaining how you're able to carry items back from memories of someone else's past, but the acquisition of these items were kinda locked into the story, so there wasn't much that could be done about it after the fact.

FUN FACT: Through the echo, your Path Companion had also met Thancred, Yda & Palapymo, or Y'shtola, depending on your city-state. But still, they too go unrecognized by the then Circle of Knowing member. This was observed toward the end of "Futures Perfect", the final Seventh Umbral Era Scenario quest


As for Thancred's appearance, we can probably chalk that up to "resource limitations". Canonically, he is 17 in the year 1562 of the Sixth Astral Era, the same year that all of the version one echo visions take place, and the same year Ascilia, aka Minfilia, was 12 years old (and she definitely didn't look her age either).

[Cilia]

Apparently, former members of the Circle know magic to halt their aging process.

So that's why none of the ex-Circle members of the Scions look older than they did in 1.x, while Minfilia has... well, grown up and filled out, for lack of a better term.

[Terrini]

To be fair, Ascillia/Minfillia isn't the only character you can find that is an overly mature 12 year old. Girls can actually start getting their growth spurts and hit puberty as early as 10, so it's not unheard of.

((All characters in this picture are 12 in the anime they're from "Loveless"))

[Cilia]

Can't really use anime as a benchmark for what age people hit puberty, and how they develop during that timeframe. (When people hit puberty, especially women, is largely dependent on their daily stress, among other factors.)

If Ascilia is ~10-12, then 1.x Minfilia would be ~15-17, which would make 2.x Minfilia ~20-22. She hit a massive growth spurt between 1.x and 2.0, while none of the other Scions aged from their 1.x appearance - because they know magic to halt their aging process (and apparently don't feel like sharing with Minfilia. Either that, or she's as magically inept as she is physically).