Thread: [spoilers]3.2 MSQ Discussion/Reaction thread

So. We regained the Blessing and used it at the end of 3.0 (if not after, such as Sephirot).

Think of this another way:

We've been using Minfilia's lifeforce as a battery to power ourselves. Hydaelyn was already waning throughout 2.X, it was apparently Minfilia that gave her that little boost that strengthened our Blessing against Best Ascian and his sidekick.

I'm suddenly quite disturbed about this Warrior of Light thing. Maybe Hydaelyn won't ask us to sacrifice ourselves, but ask others sacrifice themselves for our power.

Is the Blessing constantly draining Hydaelyn? I figured she spent some power to give us the Crystals (given Matoya's Crystal Eye is a Crystal of Light from a bygone era...) and we just harness that power. She gave us a lump sum of power up front, and we tap into that, rather than draining her constantly. Whether regaining the Blessing required new Crystals or was just us rediscovering our old ones follow Middy blocking them is up for debate, I guess.

Come to think of it... Is Hydaelyn perhaps just a really big Crystal of Light? The Mother Crystal, I mean... The Word of the Mother did say the Crystals power is spent... So the Mother Crystal is done now? This is why I'm having a hard time viewing Hydaelyn in a bad light... She is seemingly powerless at this point... After shielding us from Ultima (such and evil thing to do!) she helped us save Thancred by giving us a Blade of Light, she saved Krile, told Minfilia to run back so she could hijack Flow, and explained some stuff to us before finally running out of power and sending us back as her final act... I mean sure, sacrificing Minfilia isn't nice, but it seems more like an act of desperation to me... How the Scions react is questionable, but I can hardly fault Hydaelyn for that, and I can hardly complain at Hydaelyn sacrificing one person, when Ascians have a body count beyond counting... The alternative was to quietly fizzle out and let Elidibus have free reign to corrupt us, at least now we can have two accounts of things...

I wasn't assuming it was a constant drain, I see it as something of a pool to be drawn upon (probably mostly inadvertently) when necessary. And we definitely used it at the end of 3.0.

But still, our Blessing was strengthened to much greater heights at the end of 3.0, by word of Best Ascian. I think we have Minfilia's sacrifice to thank for that. So yes, I would say we were using her lifeforce to strengthen ourselves, because by the time you reach Antitower, she doesn't have any strength remaining again.

Originally Posted by Nalien

I mean sure, sacrificing Minfilia isn't nice, but it seems more like an act of desperation to me... How the Scions react is questionable, but I can hardly fault Hydaelyn for that, and I can hardly complain at Hydaelyn sacrificing one person, when Ascians have a body count beyond counting...

Our body count is not small, either, sorry. Not calamitous, sure, but we haven't been at it as long. There is a difference between what the Ascians do and what Hydaelyn did, and what Hydaelyn did is worse. For the Ascians, killing humans is no different than killing those claimed by a primal: just part of the war. Hydaelyn more or less ate her most loyal follower. When a villain proves how evil they are by killing one of their minions once they've served their purpose? This is that. It just happened to be the "good guys" doing it, so we want to make excuses.

Originally Posted by Fenral

Hydaelyn more or less ate her most loyal follower. When a villain proves how evil they are by killing one of their minions once they've served their purpose? This is that. It just happened to be the "good guys" doing it, so we want to make excuses.

Is it? What was Hydaelyn trying to prove by having Minfilia sacrificed? All I'm seeing is an act of sheer desperation, she couldn't even muster the power to whisk Minfilia off herself, she had to hijack Flow. All this was done simply to come into contact with us again, since she didn't even have the power for that anymore... It's certainly regrettable, but given she got cut off mid sentence as it is, it's probably best that she didn't waste any time apologizing for the obvious dick move.

I mean really... Lets forget any agenda Hydaelyn or Elidibus might have... Who benefits from Minfilia being sacrificed exactly? I'd say Elidibus, he benefits from the grief we should feel, it makes for a more compelling argument for us not to trust Hydaelyn, we wouldn't even be having this conversation were that not the case. Either Hydaelyn and Elidibus are in cahoots, or this was simply just a final desperate attempt on Hydaelyns part... By her own account she'd been failing for eras...

Originally Posted by Theodric

This also ties in with Hydaelyn's approach of shielding Krile and letting everybody else perish back in Val. I know I keep going on about it but...it's just really, really dubious. We can't save everybody, sure, but if given the choice how many lives would the Scions/WoL cast aside in favour of saving one individual?

It's a simple case of Hydaelyn being drained... She no longer has any power left, after Praetorium she wasn't even able to communicate with us anymore. Lahabrea very much succeeded in what he set out to do with Ultima. Protecting Krile (which given Krile was knocked out for all this time, seems like a significant step down from the protection we received) and telling Minfilia to run back where last ditch efforts to get us to come find her ourselves; Krile had the knowledge to figure everything out, and she knew we'd come looking for Minfilia. It was seemingly the only method of contacting us left available to her... She even failed in that arguably, I don't really feel any the wiser for our (final?) meeting... She ran out of power before telling us what to do next...

I may need to go back and check 3.0 cutscenes, but I could have sworn the Blessing was referred to similarly as the Echo. As in, we'd learned how to use it to better effect after regaining it, rather than it growing stronger as more aether was pumped into it (by Hydaelyn or Minfilia).

Come to think of it, wouldn't be be minus a Blessing right now if it worked any other way? Hydaelyn is completely spent, we've got nothing left to draw upon if that is how it works... Given Matoya's Crystal Eye is a Crystal of Light, and still has aether, I'm incline to view the Blessing as more of an aether battery in the form of a full host of Crystals of Light. Could make for an interesting transition into 4.0... We surrender our Blessing to empower Hydaelyn again in 3.55, giving us 4.0 without such a silly concept (works if we carry on to 4.0 from 2.55 as well, since we were minus a Blessing at that point, too).

I think the "We have no choice" repitition is getting to be played out, which is why Hydelyn's desperation is becoming more and more, yet people are finding it less tolerable. The negative consequences born of hijacking Minfillia body and soul will be why some will start to doubt Hydelyn's actions.
some just are weary of the whole matter, or are not convinced annihilating the Ascians is really the way to do it.
Derplander's presence doesn't clear the waters any.

Either way, Minfillia's fate is the sort of thing I'd rather not endorse. as they say: "It gets easier after the first time."