I Honestly Do Not Like Alphinaud ..

[Melichoir]

My main issue with alphi before and same with minfilia is they existed only to move the plot along and did absolutely nothing interesting or worthwhile besides that. Minfilia got written off because of that eventually and they decided to make alphinaud into an actual story character which is nice. He's pretty good now to be honest, we get a lot of "lol let's do politics" which is fine but points to him actually doing things rather than "pls come here lul crystal braves, save me halp". Alisaie is kind of going through the same thing now, she was the real do nothing during stormblood (not lyse) and had her failing bit at the end so we will see how it goes. To people pointing to do coil for alisaie and such, it didn't go anywhere because they didn't want to tie the raid into the msq or character development so unfortunately it's fun but doesn't really do a lot for them as characters. You get some neat info and backstory but doesn't improve the twins at all imo.

I dunno, Alisae was always a bit better developed because of Coils and that info is semi canon (even if you dont do it, its just never really hard referenced in the MSQ IIRC). Alphinaud was a bit of a dumbass in ARR and moped around a bit in HW but kinda started coming into his own in after a while. Like it seemed like he had more purpose and actually influenced things. We were more filled in on the end results of what he was doing.

This isnt like Minfillia though. She was pretty much just a background admin that 'supposedly' did stuff. She never directly impacted things, and frankly, it just came off like "Why are you here when its clear that everyone else is far more competent and impactful than you?" It definitely is a writing issue at the end of the day, because I dont think she ever really demonstrated why shes leading the scions compared to anyone else. Urianger, if anyone, was probably best suited for it, maybe followed by Yshtola or Thancred. So it's no surprise when Minfillia "bit the bullet" that people cheered rather than felt bad. She was the useless waifu material character. She tells people what to do, gets kidnapped, and never solves anything herself. She was more a nuisance than a leader.

Alphinaud and Alisae were like that but have since moved away and became actual characters doing character things.

[Iscah]

I dunno, Alisae was always a bit better developed because of Coils and that info is semi canon (even if you dont do it, its just never really hard referenced in the MSQ IIRC).

That's how they handle optional plotlines in general. It's supposed to be canon, and it takes place at Lv50 in post-ARR regardless of when you play it... but if you haven't personally done it then it hasn't happened in your version of the timeline. Alisaie will greet you at Lv60 saying that it's the first time you've met since the Carteneau memorial service very early in the game. Or there are several variants of dialogue for that scene if you've started the first Coil, reached the final one, or completed the quest.

Your current progress is treated as the canon state of what happened when characters within the game, but for "common" stories where a single static version exists for everyone (eg. the lorebook or Alisaie's chapter of Tales from the Dragonsong War) it's assumed to have happened in its proper place.