"The Walker's Path," and what it tells us about Minfilia
"The Walker's Path" is one of five short stories in the collection Tales from the Calamity, released for the one-year anniversary of A Realm Reborn. I was originally writing a post with my thoughts on all five stories, but as Minfilia is a favorite of mine, I found I had quite a bit more to say about this one, and I didn't want to bury it—so it gets its own post! This is in part a review of the story itself, and in part an analysis of how it fits into the larger picture of Minfilia's character.
This story explores Minfilia's history and her relationship with various other characters. Lore-wise, this story is indeed really interesting… and for that reason especially I wish it were better written.
The opening sequence is a rushed and fragmented summary of the death of Minfilia's father and her subsequent adoption by F'lhaminn Qesh. Even having some knowledge of those events, it was confusing for me to read. It leans heavily on the reader's familiarity not only with Minfilia as a character, but with the events of her father's death as seen in 1.0. I can't imagine how unintelligible this segment would be if you were a new player completely unfamiliar with the original game. It's also completely unclear why Minfilia would initially blame herself for her father's death, to the point that on a first read, when I read "My fault," I thought the story had suddenly switched to another character's POV.
After that opening sequence, the focus shifts over to Thancred. It's mentioned that it was Thancred who slew the rampaging goobbue, but it's not made clear that he was not one of the party that set it loose. I've actually seen the idea floating around that it was Thancred who killed her father, which is wrong, but if someone got that impression from reading this jumbled story, I could hardly fault them for the mistake. Especially since Thancred is framed here through Minfilia's eyes as a liar, the same way she frames the people who were responsible for her father's death.
It's kind of a mess.
That's not to say, though, that there's nothing good here; in fact there's a lot, which is why I wanted to take some more space to talk about it. It is, for better or for worse, probably the deepest exploration we get into Minfilia's interiority as a character, revealing some vital things about her that her that the game fails to convey.
Game!Minfilia is ever-giving, ever self-effacing, ever ready to throw herself on the sword for the sake of others and for the greater good. Game!Minfilia never shows anything but affection for the adoptive mother (a woman only ten years her senior) who was partially responsible for her father's death. Game!Minfilia never expresses anything but smiling gratitude to Thancred for "watching over her." One of my biggest frustrations about Minfilia's role in Shadowbringers is the way her sacrifice (and by extension, what Ryne is going through as well) is made all about Thancred's feelings rather than, you know, her own. Beyond her fierce protectiveness of Ryne's agency and her determination that she be the last child made to suffer in this way, we are given little of her own feelings—sorrows, resentments, regrets—about her fate, and the terrible choices she has had to make to keep the First from total destruction long enough for the Warrior of Light to arrive. She goes into that good night smiling placidly and thanking her friends for their love.
This story shows us a more interior Minfilia, and the emotions Game!Minfilia has seemingly learned to mask from others: anger, resentment, distrust.
Here, we see that Minfilia initially hated F'lhaminn for her part in the parade disaster, playing along with the adoption only as a means to remain in hiding from the Garleans who hunted her. It would be a lot more powerful if the story gave us any indication of how Minfilia grew to love F'lhaminn beyond "And then, one day, it wasn’t [a lie] anymore." I guess I’d rather have something than nothing—but given that Minfilia was orphaned and adopted at age 12, there’s something really grim about her being forced to form a familial bond with one of the people who orphaned her just so she could survive. I’m not saying that F’lhaminn is an irredeemable person, or that it’s implausible that Minfilia could eventually forgive her. I am saying that it would feel a lot more plausible and a lot more interesting if we had some sense of how that relationship had changed over time, and some sense of Minfilia’s own agency in forgiving her and accepting her as a mother figure.
We also see a Minfilia who is much more skeptical of Thancred, this "bard" who has "drifted in and out of her life for years." Even after all those years (she is now eighteen), Minfilia seems to doubt him, questioning inwardly whether he even is the age he told her he was, and needling him about his womanizing tendencies. When she recalls telling Thancred about the Echo, it's "in a moment of weakness." Though it's insisted to us at various points in the game that Thancred sees her as a sister, there is a strange dynamic between the two of them in this story:
As they sat down together at the quieter end of the bar, she was struck by the intimacy of their collusion, and felt a flush creep up her neck.
While this doesn’t necessarily mean that Minfilia has any romantic feelings toward Thancred, or the reverse, the writer here chooses to emphasize Minfilia’s awareness that they might be read that way. I’m not here to push for any one reading of the relationship necessarily, but I think it’s noteworthy. On the whole, this story seems to bring a sense of ambiguity to Minfilia and Thancred’s relationship beyond the sibling dynamic Thancred himself will insist that they have. I don’t think that’s a bad thing! I wouldn't mind seeing more it.
The tension between them in the story them only grows when Thancred gives Minfilia a letter from Louisoix, revealing that he has told his mentor of Minfilia's experience with the Echo without her consent. This Minfilia does not passively accept this breach of trust. She's angry. She even reaches for the dagger that Thancred himself has just given her! Though she stops short of attacking him, and consents to read the rest of the letter, it's clear that in that moment, she feels betrayed and unsafe in his presence. Even when he tells her about the Circle of Knowing, “devoid of affectation” as she has rarely if ever seen him, she still thinks he might be lying to her.
Now that's interesting. And something that the game never gives us with these two characters.
I've compared Thancred and Minfilia to Urianger and Moenbryda before, not because the relationship dynamic is the same, but because I think the latter succeeds as an onscreen relationship where the former fails. It's pretty clear that the writers assumed players already knew Thancred's relationship to Minfilia, and so it's really not developed at all in ARR. By contrast, brief though Moenbryda's time with us was, her dynamic with Urianger is vividly established onscreen—not just their affection for one another, but also their differences and the tensions between them. And fans love that tension! Whether as a romance or a friendship, so many people find that dynamic compelling.
Even a single disagreement between Thancred and Minfilia in the game could have gone a long way in making their dynamic more interesting—and showing how they do care for one another. Seeing how two people weather conflict often tells you a lot about how they love one another. How much more interesting would both Minfilia and Thancred be in ARR, if we got to see her get angry at him even once?
A running theme throughout this story is I am not ready. Young Ascilia thinks this when she witnesses her father’s death at such a young age. Minfilia thinks it again when Thancred tells her that her gift is the key to saving that world, and that she cannot run from her “legacy.”
I am not ready to face this, Minfilia thinks. But I will.
And here, we see an interesting, if brief, shift. The vast majority of this story is Minfilia reacting to outside forces, others acting upon her—her father being killed, F'lhaminn adopting her somewhat against her will at first, Thancred continually resurfacing in her life and pushing her toward Louisoix.
But now, we see Minfilia take the initiative, and make a decision. It is she, this story tells us, and not Louisoix, who first conceives the idea for the Path of the Twelve, to bring together those gifted with the Echo to share their experiences and better understand their gift. It is Louisoix who cautions Minfilia, reminding her that "many are wont to fear the gifted." He does not disapprove, but urges her to secrecy, saying, "…do not let your true intentions become known."
This caution, it is worth noting, is given to the daughter of an Ala Mhigan resistance member, who has herself lived the last six years of her life in hiding and under an assumed name. A young woman who has already learned to veil her intentions and look upon even the people closest to her with suspicion.
A girl who, since her father’s death, has been unable to fully trust anyone.
This, again, is a Minfilia I think the game largely fails to convey to us. And yet, I would not say it's inconsistent with the Minfilia we see, either.
I've written before about the frankly bizarre interactions we witness between Krile and Thancred. These characters are Minfilia's supposed best friend and self-styled brother figure—and yet they appear to know next to nothing about one another. This speaks, intentionally or not, of a person whom many people felt close to, yet who rarely spoke of herself and her life.
This is further borne out, I think, in the Warrior of Light's own interactions with Minfilia. On a few occasions she confides in them about her worries for the Scions, for Eorzea. Frequently we see her concerned for others—for Thancred, for F'lhaminn, for Krile. But rarely if ever does she willingly reveal anything about herself or her past. She does not tell us of her history with Thancred (and indeed, in the English version at least, many players seem to come away from ARR confused as to what their deal is). We only hear about her adoptive mother from Alphinaud (who is himself quite dismissive of Minfilia's feelings in ARR). In plot points related to Ala Mhigo, any mention of Minfilia's own heritage is conspicuously absent.
And this is a complicated point, because I am not entirely sure it was intentional, and even if it was, it still ties back into a pattern in FFXIV wherein female characters are afforded far less interiority—by which I mean, the writing spends a lot less time, if any, exploring their inner lives, their hopes, fears, hang-ups, and histories. When you place characters like Minfilia and Y'shtola next to characters like Urianger and Thancred, the difference in treatment is absolutely glaring. I have been and remain extremely critical of that aspect of the game.
Nonetheless, I will still take what development we get for characters like Minfilia, and I'm still interested in what conclusions we can draw from it. And what I think we can draw from Minfilia is a character whose disarming warmth and friendliness and generosity of spirit very effectively divert attention from the traumatized and deeply wary young woman who knows acutely the dangers of telling anyone too much. This is a woman who has deeply internalized that any vulnerability you reveal can and will be used, even by those who say they love you and would do anything to protect you.
This story lends some context too to the naming of the order, "The Path of the Twelve"—intended to blend in as "but one in a sea of obscure religious sects devoted to the pursuit of spiritual knowledge." Minfilia herself thinks of the order's purpose as "a lie woven with the truth."
Before she took over leadership of the Scions, in other words, Minfilia was already accustomed to guiding a covert organization. This, I think, lends a lot of context to the way the Scions are organized in ARR: they’ve moved their headquarters to a remote location at a distance from the nearest aetheryte, they use a code phrase to identify friends and allies, they have their members observe and scout potential recruits for some time before bringing them in. I’ve written before that the Scions in ARR are more akin to a resistance group than a business. And why wouldn’t they be? Their leader is Ascilia, daughter of Warburton, agent of the Ala Mhigan resistance.
Ironically, I think the extreme amiability the writers seemed to be going for with Game!Minfilia, a major quest-giver in both 1.0 and ARR, may have backfired in terms of fan reception. As a fan of her, I'll admit, I've sometimes been a bit taken aback by the sinister motives some players attribute to her warmth and friendliness. Some of that is personal taste, for sure, and some players will always chafe against a Designated Best Friend character in RPGs—even Haurchefant has his detractors, though I'd say a lot fewer of them. I would also venture to say that gender plays a role—players on the whole tend to be more hostile to female characters asking them to do things, and more receptive of male characters doing the same. All that said, there probably is something to be said for the fact that if a character seems too flawless on the surface, the audience will go looking for flaws.
In the portion of the story about Minfilia's relationship to Louisoix, there are also echoes of her earlier troubled relationships with F'lhaminn and Thancred. In light of those, it is impossible for me not to feel some ambivalence in Minfilia's coming to consider Louisoix like "family"—like a father, even. Though it is Minfilia's choice to found her order, it is Louisoix who pushes her to take up the mantle of leadership for the Circle of Knowing as well, should he not return.
Though I think we are meant to see this story as Minfilia rising to the challenges she did not choose, I remain troubled by the lack of agency it affords her, that every important thing that happens to her and every important relationship in her life is the result of someone else forcing those things upon her.
And there’s a grim reflection of this, isn’t there, in what happens to the Minfilias in the First? In her desperate efforts to hold the flood of Light at bay, Minfilia becomes the outside force shaping the lives of these young girls, imposing this destiny upon them—just as hers was forced upon her. She is fully aware of the cruelty in it—her words to Thancred say as much. Yet her own history taught her that her wishes mattered less than the greater good—that the world would not wait for her to be ready. And so it is with the young girls who bear her name, and her “gift.”
Even in the single paragraph that summarizes Minfilia’s work in the five years following the Calamity, she is framed as waiting for the one prophesied by Louisoix: “one who bears the light … who is gifted like you.”
It could have been pretty interesting to hear about the things Minfilia did during those five years, the choices she made, the progress and the setbacks as the Scions struggled to move forward. But no, all of that is just glossed over in the narrative as Minfilia awaits the next person who will shape her destiny—and only upon meeting them, thinks, at last, I am ready.
I know this is supposed to be pleasing to the player as it emphasizes the specialness of the Warrior of Light, but to a fan who is interested in the character of Minfilia for her own sake, it’s absolutely maddening.
Because of that whole sexism thing, of course, I can’t honestly say that giving Minfilia more complexity in ARR, more exploration of her past trauma and ambivalent feelings about her position, would have made her more popular—it might even have done the opposite. I do think, however, that it would have been more interesting.
And I think it sort of speaks to that failure to adequately develop her character in ARR that this short story tries to do so much—to explore such a broad span of her life and so many relationships in one short piece. That’s really the misstep here, I think—in trying to fill in the gaps ARR left, this story tries to do far too much at once. Frankly, this could be amazing had it been expanded into a series of short stories, focusing on the different relationships in Minfilia's life: her father, F'lhaminn, Thancred, and Louisoix, all leading up to her meeting the Warrior of Light. As it is, the story clearly wants to draw the connections between these relationships, but with so little space to develop them, it feels very rushed, it fails to convey some important information that new players in ARR would be missing, and in skimming over so much it ends up further emphasizing Minfilia’s lack of agency in her own story.
Nonetheless, I’m grateful for what it does give us, even as it makes me wistful for what we could have had in the game.
Edited to add: The GamerEscape wiki has the full text of the story with extensive footnotes, providing a lot of context from 1.0 that returning players would have been expected to understand, including several things I myself was unaware. Essential material if you want to understand everything this story is referring to! Thank you, loremongers and wiki editors for your service. 💙
Edited to add a link to the GamerEscape wiki's extensive footnotes on this story, which provide a lot of addition context that 1.0 players would have been expected to know. Thank you loremongers and wiki editors for your service. 💙
