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tritoch · 3 months

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the damsel and the hero: some thoughts on minfilia and elidibus

I get why many people have (understandable, justified, legitimate) gripes to this day about how Minfilia was handled, but I think you don't have to change anything about how she's presented in game to arrive at a reading that lets her feel like more than a sacrificial victim. Within the game as it exists, Minfilia is already a rich and layered heroic character. She is not a damsel or a tragic hero but a victorious figure whose very exit from the narrative affirmed her own ideals, and she controlled her own destiny to the end. All you have to do to see this more clearly is read her against one of her underexamined foils: Elidibus.

Spoilers through the end of Pandemonium (6.4) below.

After 5.3 dropped, the devs mentioned that because they basically had to develop and pay off Elidibus in the space of a patch or two, they drew conscious parallels between him and other characters. The game highlights the G'raha parallels in the scene just before Seat of Sacrifice. There's also the parallels to Alphinaud that people have noticed in both the broad strokes of their characterization (idealistic short kings who believe in the power of rhetoric and diplomacy to achieve true and lasting understanding between people, whose mission to save the world is forever held in balance with their duty to save those they love) and in specific lines of dialogue.

But a far more direct narrative parallel than either character is Minfilia. Like Elidibus and Zodiark, Minfilia offered herself to Hydaelyn, serving as the Word of the Mother, only to be called forth once more when an intractable conflict between her allies threatened the stability of the world. Both were messianic young figures who nonetheless lead their older allies by both example and command. Both, seeing an opportunity to save not just their close friends but everyone, offered themselves up to a higher power in an act not of desperation but of deliberate will. You can even poetically gloss both Antecedent and Emissary as "The One That Goes Before."

The difference between the two of them is that at every turn, where Elidibus failed, Minfilia succeeded.

Elidibus returned to broker peace between the Hydaelyn faction and the Convocation. He failed, and the result was the Sundering. Minfilia, entreated by Urianger, came back to resolve the conflict between the Warriors of Darkness (Hydaelyn's champions and Warriors of Light themselves) and the Scions, and succeeded in saving two worlds by her actions.

But more than that, Elidibus provided us a picture of what it actually looks like to lose your identity to a primal like Zodiark. He'd lived a thousand thousand lifetimes as himself and he was so broken he could scarcely remember anything more than his name and his duty. He is one of the most explicitly tragic figures in all of FFXIV, and his final sendoff in 5.3 was an image of him plagued by unanswerable grief, which for him was a consequence of his failure: "The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it."

Meanwhile, in the preceding expansion, you actually had the chance to spend multiple scenes with Minfilia and they're all extremely clear: unlike Ardbert or Elidibus, after 100 years this was still Minfilia, she remained resolute in her mission to see the First saved, but she had not forgotten the woman she was or the people she loved. In both 3.4 and 5.0, she went out as herself, head held high.

Speaking to the Warrior of Light before she departs for the First: "So many times have I watched you depart, my heart filled with worry, and ever did you return to me in triumph. Someday, when I have found a way to free this star from Her sorrow, I promise you I shall repay the favor."

Her final words to Ryne: "No one, however powerful, is immune to the whisperings of doubt and despair. Do not give in to them, but do not deny them either. Look instead to the light within, that you may continue to serve as a beacon to others."

In both instances, we were given a Minfilia who had not merely accepted her fate, but who had chosen it of her own volition and rose confidently to meet it, even imparting to her successor some final hard-won words of wisdom. And unlike Elidibus, she met her friends again at duty's end; they live, and they are happy, and she is content. She's already heroic, but the contrast to Elidibus (and Ardbert, and Emet) underlines the extent to which we should see her as extraordinarily driven, self-possessed and ultimately victorious on her own terms.

And in making the connection between Elidibus and Minfilia, we can begin to let Elidibus's characterization inform hers in retrospect.

Elidibus as we see him in 5.3 and earlier more specifically paralleled Minfilia as the Word of the Mother. Prior to that point in her arc, Minfilia's parallel was Themis, the pre-Zodiark Elidibus we glimpse briefly in the 5.3 Echo flashbacks and would only meet properly an expansion later in Pandemonium. The important thing about Themis for our purposes is that he was not some naive or too-young figurehead tricked into serving as Zodiark's Emissary. This was not a Crystal Braves situation for him. In Pandemonium, you can see how the kind of man Themis was very clearly lead to him choosing to be offered up to Zodiark. He took seriously the principles and duties of the Convocation. He valued dearly the lives of all people generally and his friends and comrades in particular, but held those truths in balance rather than prizing one. He was rational, clear-sighted, and decisive.

All of these, obviously, were true of Minfilia. And unlike Elidibus, whose ascension into Zodiark was forever somewhat obscured by the narrative, we were quite close to Minfilia before she became the Word of the Mother. We were quite familiar with her grief and guilt over surviving where Louisoix did not, her fear that she could neither fill his shoes as a leader nor serve in action as others did. She confided in us about the difficulty of her task in serving as the pillar of strength and guiding light for the rest of the Scions. She despaired alongside the player character at both the death of Moenbryda and the disastrous events of the Banquet. We know what she believed, what she valued, what she feared, what frustrated her. When she chose to depart for the First, it paid off very directly everything else the game has said about her through 3.4. Her arc was one of trepidation and doubt, and it ended in her ultimate victory and an astonishingly clean win that compromises none of her values.

Both Urianger and some fans raised the question of whether it was wrong for Urianger to ever offer her the choice of sacrificing herself for the First at all. Minfilia, for her part, got a chance to speak to this directly: "Have we not walked together in the light of the Crystal, and at Her bidding borne witness to the joys and sorrows of this land? Each and every one of you knows my heart. If this be the price I must pay, I pay it gladly." It did not matter whether she was given this particular decision or not. You could have offered her this dilemma in a thousand different permutations in a thousand thousand different scenarios. This was the choice she made. This was her choice, forever and always: to save everyone she can, in honor of those she loves.

Candidly, I understand critiques of Minfilia's writing far better than any praise it could ever receive. Nothing I've written above answers the clear and obvious truths that she is underwritten, that she does not get much to do or much screentime for a putatively important character, that it is very easy and common to read her death as a fridging, that she is unfairly dismissed by many due to her role in the narrative and the way she leaves it. Her sacrifice plays into specific gendered tropes that are disappointingly common to see. Those things all remain true.

But I think as we remember those things we should also keep in mind that she does still get a complete arc that is interesting and thematically rich in itself, and which puts her in some senses on the same level in the narrative as characters like Elidibus, Emet-Selch, and Ardbert.

Her sacrifice continues to inform the game. Her literal ghost returns to affirm the truth and value of her beliefs and the choices she made. Her guiding words ("For those we have lost, for those we can yet save") remain a mantra not just for the Scions but specifically for the player character. They are not an empty slogan. The phrase succinctly conveys an ideal of all-encompassing humanism and compassion arising from grief. The ideal those words represent is one of many organizing principles and responses to grief that the game examines (because a lot of FFXIV is about grief and how we respond to tragedy and change), it is Minfilia who develops and articulates it, and it is the one the heroes continue to align themselves with. It is the same principle that leads her to the First, and G'raha, and us too. It is Minfilia's ideals--Minfilia's heroism--which continue to serve as the model to which the Warrior of Light aspires, in the game's text.

Truthfully, my gripe is this. I think it is very easy to imagine a male Minfilia--same lines, same screentime, same blocking, same ass cut-out--appearing in place of the Minfilia we have. And I feel quite sincerely, and quite frustratedly, that if we had Malefilia, both the fans and detractors of that character would ascribe to him more thoughtfulness and more thematic depth than the Minfilia we already have, even though their lines would be exactly the same. We are so ready to see the damsel we expect in Minfilia that we are unwilling to see her as the hero she is in the text, and my hope is that by holding her up to her mirror, Elidibus, we may see her as a rich character in her own right all the more clearly.

#minfilia #ffxiv #elidibus #and notice that i didn't have to mention the gunbreaker once!#it's kind of interesting actually; she's absolutely crucial to his arc and he's not at all critical to hers #I don't think that means she got fridged for him necessarily i just think they draw on different archetypes and have different arcs #louisoix is ultimately more important to minfilia's growth and feelings of guilt than thancred ever is #in some ways i feel how i do about minfilia how i do about ardbert #would i have liked more time and fan attention on them? sure #they both could be emet or g'raha levels of popular the bones are all there for that kind of popularity #but instead they both have really thematically resonant arcs that the game won't fuck around with anymore. that's worth a lot!

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fourteenthz · 5 months

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man...... man. 30 tags are not enough so under the read more I go

these screenshots are what ALWAYS got me about Thancred's character. like yeah all the scions trust you and all that but Thancred is just so loyal in a completely different way than others might be. specially after shadowbringers like he always try to do things together and it's always the "there's no other way" that he let's the wol do their thing - and still he's always the one to go to them after the deed is done and to sacrifice whatever it takes for the deed to,, you know, be done or whatever

and what I find sooo charming about all of it is that he's so discreet about it all. he very rarely goes out of his way to express his feelings to you or whatever but then you have moments where Ryne talks about the things he said about the WOL and he truly hates her leaving her side (because he's a terrible worrier) but MAN the trust the "As long as she accompanied you." shows just. man.

The whole "it's not about your blessing" is just such a perfect example as well, to his loyalty and faith. It was never for what the Scions had for him, just about their story together and the trust he has earned in that time.PLUS because his view of the world has slightly changed here, he's the "I've done bad things" kind of character but in a "I need to do better form now on" and not the "I'm done for" YOU KNOW? he's just so sincere in his need to just do better and half of the time that makes him have a difficult time coming to terms with that really is right but man. man. He wants to do it. The "tell me what I must do" to Minfilia is SUCH a perfect example. His sacrifice is not martyr-like, it's trial and error until he gets it right, for everybody, not just him. He's not doing it alone, he needs help!! He knows that!! And it SUCKS because he's so used to being better off alone!! But it's the entirety of shb of him saying "we're in this together" that ALMOST feels like he's convincing himself of that AT LEAST until he has to deal with it by himself, and then MAN if he DOES IT and he comes back like "now I can fix things. better even." HES SO

There are far too many traits of perfectionism in him, in the worst ways. He doesn’t know how to deal with his feeling at the beginning of shb, everything seems to get under his skin because it always keeps reminding him of the past he lived/the wrongs he has done/ the things he failed - BUT despite it all, he has time to care so deeply about the First's cause and Minfilia's and even the WOL's to the point were he is always make sure they know: they are together, that if their blessing fails they know the WOL won't, and if they do, it doesn't matter because AGAIN; they are together.

Playing ng+ and knowing how thancred ends in this expansion is so nice, you can clearly point out the signs of his change and signs that he didn't change at all. How he's always the one to take charge and lead when the WOL isn't around, he makes sure to teach that to Ryne ("Thancred once told me that if the efforts to summon you failed, it would fall to me to face the Lightwardens"), how he deals with change so promptly but fails to really express all of it ("I have no doubt that he understands. The question is how he feels.") He's flawed, he knows that but MAN if he doesn't try to fix that.

#this post makes NO sense like ALL of my tags so pls don't consider this anything formal besides me rambling #I wanted to make this unrbed BUT it's under read more and if ppl want to rb just the screenshots it's fine #I just............ UGHDFGLSFIATFG MAN. he's so HES SO #haven't even got to /his part/ in shb yet but everything he says makes me want to CRY I just ADORE him he's so tailored to me specifically #90% of this applies to my hcs abt my wol and when he turned out like that I was like “YEAH THAT'S WERE WE ARE GOING ALRIGHT”#also I'M NOT DONE WITH IT but putting this here in the tags bc endwalker spoilers bc: this is why his visit to the WOL room in EW just hits #so hard. HE KNOWS what is at stake HE ALWAYS HAD and he's so realistic about it but that was the one time he went “I need help”#he's discreet about loving the scions and his NEED to protect everybody he loves because that's how it has always been to him #(him seeing minfilia safe from work everynight when they were young etc etc)#and in ew he really goes “hey i trust you guys with my life and MAN I hope it's mutual so if it is please do this thing I can't do for me?”#IT MAKES ME SICK #i have so many screenshots this ng+ that's just text bubbles and it's mostly him and ryne talking about him and and just these points were #get “oh. there he is. my most special man.”#I'm so normal about characters that repent but not in a martyr way. YEAH LIFE IS A BURDEN YOU GOTTA LIVE IT TO MAKE THE MOST OF IT YEAH #everyday I think rn thancred is far away from the scions and ryne it makes me want to throw a fist. anyway.#kelly says #kelly plays xiv #thancred waters #(for me. I hope this doesn't appear in the tags since it's far down here LOL)#5.0 spoilers

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