Magical change of appearance in the lore

[MikkoAkure]

Personally I just rp my Viera as always having been one, but I personally want eorzea to be a place that just goes 'you get the body you want if you're brave enough to make the changes'

The canon police aren't going to come out if you RP or write something that stretches the lore, but I think whether fantasia are canon is going to be a controversial subject that not everyone agrees with at the same level. The closest thing we have to an answer from the devs is "maybe, but it won't work that way" and I don't think it's ever going to come up in the story anyway, otherwise it already would have.

I also think it's not a great argument to point to party finder and then say "see, everything is canon!" because there's still a whole lot of stuff that has shades of being subjectively canon, like how we suddenly forget some of our abilities every expansion or when the devs make an "adjustment". Or every mount that didn't have flying before suddenly can fly through the power of friendship, or rocket thrusters in adamantoise's case. Or the convoluted explanations for other FF crossover event things showing up with no in-world context like "portals from another world" or "tales from the far east", and not even going to get into Monster Hunter, Yo-Kai Watch, Dragon Quest, or especially NieR. And then there's how the holiday event NPCs remember us every year but time stays the same and no one ages (that's a whole other can of worms, please no one start this again).

But in that case, your answer for 'how canon you want it to be' can't be 'not', because there's a bunch of things that are first divulged in Hildibrand but then become important later, like Godbert Manderville and the truth about Sil'dih.

Given his dad is just as wacky but actually involved in ul'dahn politics that's blatantly false, and multiple characters in it appear in more serious story lines but remember you from hilde quests

I'm still of the mindset that all of the Hildibrand questline is being told by Nashu, which is why everything is so ridiculous. She IS the one who breaks the 4th wall when it comes to what to expect next from the adventures. She's eccentric enough to where certain things make no sense, but DO make sense if you look at them from a different perspective.

I guess it's not the lore forums unless people go on a tangent based on a side comment someone made.

I'm pretty sure there was a writer who was asked if Hildibrand was canon and they're response was something along the lines of "what does your heart tell you?" but I can't find that interview.

Personally I'm more along Ryu's interpretation where the events happened, but are an "artistic retelling" much like how Savage isn't canon but is much more dramatic version of it.

There's some things that are brought into the rest of the game, and gentleman zombies are one thing but then you also have stuff like Hildibrand being launched at Dalamud and surviving his initial contact with it as well as the effects of the Calamity when it exploded with him on it. Or being able to summon Mandervilles with the power of dance. Or Yojimbo being "skinny Gilgamesh" and somehow becomes fat again when he decides to reveal himself.