Posting separately from the general Lore thread in case there are people who haven't played through 3.2 (or even more importantly 2.55) yet. (I know they're around, so I don't want to accidentally ruin their day.)
We're all fairly familiar with what happened to Minfilia. At the end of 2.55, after most of the Scions apparently sacrificed themselves to buy you time to escape, the WoL and Minfilia are the only ones left.
Then Minfilia suddenly gets what seems to be a communication of some kind, and she tells the WoL to go on, while she stays behind for ill-defined reasons.
Fast forward to 3.2, when we finally discover what became of Minfilia: she had become the Word of the Mother, and Hydaelyn uses her as a spokesperson of sorts.
My questions: how, and why?
I asked this question in the Mateus RP discord (one of them, I forget exactly which), and the immediate response was that Hydaelyn was evil, lying to Minfilia and puppeteering her, so on and so forth. Which strikes me as not really supported by canon, but I was told that it totally was, so maybe I'm wrong.
For the question of "how", I'd like to know how Minfilia went from being corporeal and on the verge of escaping with us, to remaining behind (on the other side of the tunnel collapse Y'shtola caused) and somehow turning into the Word of the Mother. The answer I received was that Minfilia was told to go back to as close to Y'shtola as possible, where she got caught in Y'shtola's Flow spell, and then Hydaelyn plucked her from the Lifestream.
Which ties in to my next question: why? Why Minfilia in specific? Why that time and that place? The Scions were in danger not because of something Calamity-inducing like Bahamut, or aether-problematic like Primals, but entirely due to plain mortal politics. Minfilia was in no more danger than when the Ultima Weapon blew up the Praetorium, or when Livia slaughtered the minor Scions, and Hydaelyn did not see fit to interfere then. Why Minfilia and not, say, Noraxia?
For that matter, why Minfilia and not anyone else actually present at the time, like Y'shtola or Thancred? If the Flow theory is accurate, it is highly doubtful that Y'shtola would be aware that Minfilia would get caught up in it, making it simply due to area of effect. In which case, there are very likely several Brass Blades and Crystal Braves in the vicinity too, or Y'shtola wouldn't have bothered collapsing the tunnel.
If it's a matter of the Echo, Minfilia and the WoL are not the only ones with it. If it's a matter of people with the Echo being in life-threatening situations, there's Krile, who was present when the Isle of Val got wiped off the map.
The more I think about it, the more I'm confused.
We're all fairly familiar with what happened to Minfilia. At the end of 2.55, after most of the Scions apparently sacrificed themselves to buy you time to escape, the WoL and Minfilia are the only ones left.
Then Minfilia suddenly gets what seems to be a communication of some kind, and she tells the WoL to go on, while she stays behind for ill-defined reasons.
Fast forward to 3.2, when we finally discover what became of Minfilia: she had become the Word of the Mother, and Hydaelyn uses her as a spokesperson of sorts.
My questions: how, and why?
I asked this question in the Mateus RP discord (one of them, I forget exactly which), and the immediate response was that Hydaelyn was evil, lying to Minfilia and puppeteering her, so on and so forth. Which strikes me as not really supported by canon, but I was told that it totally was, so maybe I'm wrong.
For the question of "how", I'd like to know how Minfilia went from being corporeal and on the verge of escaping with us, to remaining behind (on the other side of the tunnel collapse Y'shtola caused) and somehow turning into the Word of the Mother. The answer I received was that Minfilia was told to go back to as close to Y'shtola as possible, where she got caught in Y'shtola's Flow spell, and then Hydaelyn plucked her from the Lifestream.
Which ties in to my next question: why? Why Minfilia in specific? Why that time and that place? The Scions were in danger not because of something Calamity-inducing like Bahamut, or aether-problematic like Primals, but entirely due to plain mortal politics. Minfilia was in no more danger than when the Ultima Weapon blew up the Praetorium, or when Livia slaughtered the minor Scions, and Hydaelyn did not see fit to interfere then. Why Minfilia and not, say, Noraxia?
For that matter, why Minfilia and not anyone else actually present at the time, like Y'shtola or Thancred? If the Flow theory is accurate, it is highly doubtful that Y'shtola would be aware that Minfilia would get caught up in it, making it simply due to area of effect. In which case, there are very likely several Brass Blades and Crystal Braves in the vicinity too, or Y'shtola wouldn't have bothered collapsing the tunnel.
If it's a matter of the Echo, Minfilia and the WoL are not the only ones with it. If it's a matter of people with the Echo being in life-threatening situations, there's Krile, who was present when the Isle of Val got wiped off the map.
The more I think about it, the more I'm confused.
