Is Minfilia always useless ?

[Kenarashi]

"The strong should lead" sounds like garlean propaganda! Mask off, Gaius!

More seriously, why must she have powerful magicks to literally fill paperwork, cross intels, dispatch people, and other non-action role, in an organization all about gathering intel, watching threats and *sometimes* acting on it because they have the WoL.
To build on your Ul'dah parallel, Nanamo has Raubahn, Minfilia has us.

Louisoix was strong and yet he was totally against garlean empire.

[Brightamethyst]

The best soldier isn't always the best leader. Minfilia's strength lies in diplomacy and administration.

What we see:
"The Sahagin are trying to summon a primal. Stop them.", and then we go fight Leviathan.

What we don't see:
Minfilia sending out scouts, reading and writing reports, meeting with leaders and diplomats, hiring new employees, making sure those two scouts who hate each other aren't assigned to the same recon team, and the million other things that lead to getting that information in the first place.

We only get called in after all the ground work is done and it's time to fight something. Minfilia is actually VERY good at her job. We just don't see it very often because most of what she does is really boring to watch.

[DPZ2]

Ah, the perennial post about poor, useless Minfilia.

Louisoix was a boss, sorta true, but he had few organizing skills. He certainly didn't set up the Path of the Twelve or teach those who joined how to use the Echo to bring about peace. He was the leader of the Circle of Knowing, which included all of the Archons you've come to know and love, but I don't believe he had any of the skills necessary to actually run a group like the Path of the Twelve (or, later the Scions of the Seventh Dawn). The Circle of Knowing always struck me as more a 'hands on' group than administrators.

So, anyway, without Minfilia there would be no Scions, and you, as an adventurer, would keep blacking out and wondering just how sane you were without her assurance that it was a gift, and not a curse. Unlike the Circle, most of those associated with the Scions do not have the Echo. Without her, all of those great contacts with the high muckety mucks in-game (you know who they are) would have been one-shots.

By the way, the Scions are not 'dedicated' to the Primal threat, although that is high up on their list. There are plenty of non-Echo members doing things you never know about, all under the auspices of Minfilia's leadership. Generals (with a few exceptions in Ul'dah) do not usually stand at the front of the army, why would you expect her to do so? Leaders don't have to be able to beat up a Primal -- that's your job.

(If you want to learn about the non-Archon members of the Scions, go to the room off of the Solar where they congregate and talk to them ... each and every time you come back you'll learn a bit more about the depth and breadth of this organization).

[Cilia]

I'm just going to echo sentiments: Minfilia isn't useless, but she isn't a frontline fighter, and the execution of the story necessarily undersells her strengths because as a combat-focused game an administrator's job isn't glamorous.

That's not to say she's a great character in A Realm Reborn, but she isn't as bad as people make her out to be.

[Roda]

Minfillia was betrayed by her voice direction and the story putting Alphinaud failing at her job in the spotlight while her work was always implied.

[Beddict]

Minfillia was betrayed by her voice direction and the story putting Alphinaud failing at her job in the spotlight while her work was always implied.

I think this right here is a big one. In early ARR, Minfilia is the one giving us our missions and assigning us to work with the various Scions. After Titan, Alphinaud joins the Scions and starts bossing people around. During The Black Wolf's Ultimatum, Minfilia is the one that opens the discussion with the city-state leaders, but Alphinaud keeps jumping in. When the Doman Refugees land in Western Thanalan during The Mother of Exiles, Alphinaud is the one that immediately goes off searching for them in Ul'dah while Minfilia has no idea what's going on. When the Doman Refugees are denied by Ul'dah, Minfilia figures that Mor Dhona is the best place for the Refugees and begins to make plans to contact the Adventurer's Guild there, but Alphinaud waltzes in and says he's already gone ahead and negotiated terms with them. Hell, Minfilia came across as sarcastic to me when she said that of course Alphinaud has already negotiated the terms and conditions, and she honestly seemed bored because he's busy doing his best to steal her job. Every time we're about to see her go do something, Alphinaud is there interrupting her or announcing he's already done her job for her. It makes sense, they're busy building up Alphinaud's HW character arc by feeding him a bunch of accomplishments so that 2.55 can hit harder, but it comes at the cost of actually seeing Minfilia act as the leader of Scions, negotiating terms, and working with the city-state leaders. I wasn't around in 1.0 but apparently she was more important and more active there, but even I was disappointed to see SE effectively write her out of the story. She was the founder of the Scions and it feels like SE did her dirty.

[Scott]

Well Minfilia was always the connecting link of the Scions. The Heart of the organisation. You see that during the Later Heavensward Patches the Scions begin to drift apart without Minfilia. Only later on they finally come together as one group.

[Iscah]

I smell something fishy here. The topic starter has been registered since 2016, has previously made posts indicating they're up to at least post-Stormblood, and now they want to ask about Minfilia's role in the story?

[Bright-Flower]

While the two often go hand in hand in certain genres of fiction, being a good leader and being a badass who can fight good are not the same skillset.

[Recon1o6]

I think it boils down to three very annoying bits

1. We never see her actually doing anything that she supposedly does. Negotiations etc.
-Tataru does all the paperwork, finance, setting up meetings with everyone and being the point of contact
-Alphinaud does most of the negotiation work on camera, which is very important to the telling of the story. Show dont say
2. Despite us going out of our way to get her a custom dagger (in ARR this was longer than you think what with TP costs and penniless players during bits of the levelling process) she never once draws it or shows any combat skill and both times she was kidnapped she put up bugger all resistance.
3. She is annoying dialogie and voice wise for a lot of players