FFXIV Spoiler thread

[Val the Moofia Boss]

SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRETY OF FFXIV


We used to discuss the story in the main thread since almost everybody was caught up, but lately we've had new people join who are going through the story for the first time. Moving stuff here.

[ippollite]

Val, val! Im probably totally off base here but (and its a super dumb question - shadowbringers early game spoilers):

I just met alphinaud, the source and the first are distinct, our objective is to prevent the 8th umbral calamity, i have this headcannon that the games are going to be tied together... i just do... can you tell me, without spoiling the actual game, just how many ff1 references exist in shadowbringers? I told you it was dumb. But if theres a fair few, im going with my headcannon. If its statistically irrelevant then im going to accept its a pure fiction.

Bonus question, also absurd, but Ysela used her echo crystal to become shiva. Ive got 6 of them. Everyone believes in me as an object of deliverance, what makes me distinct from her? Am i a primal as well? If its a spoiler (i cant imagine it is), then dont tell me. But if it isnt a spoiler, feel free to smack me upside my head.

Oh, and just so you have something you can answer without castigating me but want to be polite (i can read between the lines), how and when do i get the trust system?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I just met alphinaud, the source and the first are distinct, our objective is to prevent the 8th umbral calamity, i have this headcannon that the games are going to be tied together... i just do... can you tell me, without spoiling the actual game, just how many ff1 references exist in shadowbringers? I told you it was dumb. But if theres a fair few, im going with my headcannon. If its statistically irrelevant then im going to accept its a pure fiction.

There is only one obvious FF1 reference I can think of in ShB off the top of my head. There are more references to 8.

Bonus question, also absurd, but Ysela used her echo crystal to become shiva. Ive got 6 of them. Everyone believes in me as an object of deliverance, what makes me distinct from her? Am i a primal as well? If its a spoiler (i cant imagine it is), then dont tell me. But if it isnt a spoiler, feel free to smack me upside my head.

The 6 crystals were sorta forgotten after HW 3.0. They never come up again.

The only difference between the WoL and Yslaye is that the WoL has the Blessing of Light given to them by Hydaelyn, which is a vague power that's not really well defined.

You unlock the trust dungeon when you arrive at the first ShB dungeon.

[inafume]

There is only one obvious FF1 reference I can think of in ShB off the top of my head. There are more references to 8.

If it's what I'm thinking of, it's really just an extension of one from HW.

[ippollite]

There is only one obvious FF1 reference I can think of in ShB off the top of my head. There are more references to 8.



The 6 crystals were sorta forgotten after HW 3.0. They never come up again.

The only difference between the WoL and Yslaye is that the WoL has the Blessing of Light given to them by Hydaelyn, which is a vague power that's not really well defined.

You unlock the trust dungeon when you arrive at the first ShB dungeon.

thanks headcannon abandoned. (:

[grandgato]

If it's what I'm thinking of, it's really just an extension of one from HW.

I assume they meant -

The Elidibus/Warrior of Light Trial fight in 5.3

I suppose you could also say -

The entire Heroes Gauntlet dungeon has references to a number of previous FF games.

[ippollite]

Val, i have another stupid question. Im watching sloot's vod and he's at a certain point (lets just call it 3.5 so you dont click on it if you havent beaten 3.5 (this also includes all post heavensward content because the spoiler reveals something about a certain group of people, it especially includes shadowbringers)).

"Full long did i search for a means to save [the first]... and thus did i [pit] the light against the dark". So... now that ive established he is doing exactly that right now in my game, the urianger in this cutscene is in fact from our far future (as its happening)? "The instrument of the firsts deliverance would be required to journey thither... there to remain mayhap forever. One life for one world..." Oh dear god, the sheer number of spoilers. There's three candidates as i see it (i dont need to be spoiled on this, i just want validation: me, her, and the true wol (ardbert - the coolest old man name ever given to a hero in video game history))... 'and you the coin'. Now theres one? (sorry, im reacting in real time - i was fired up by that opening phrase by minfilia, she then confirmed she's the coin). Thancred (of shadowbringers) wouldnt have said what he said in that cutscene (as i understand it thus far). So he's clearly of this time. Thancred in shadowbringers right now is a prick.

Okay, so the wod's are of a pocket timeless universe. Ardbert has been chilling for 100 years on his own. So all us scions are right now. Ardbert and his crew are 100 years in the past bumping around in pocket dimensions with the help of the ascians (before the actual flood, whilst ardbert ends up a ghost in the period after the flood), whilst minfilia is a terrified teenager who stopped the flood 100 years prior, but looks like a teen and urianger is actually from a point when this was all resolved (5.58). And minfilia has to die because shes the coin that was spent and literally confirmed it. Or did she, because perhaps she was spent just stopping the wave of light? But she's dead right? Because i feel overprotective about her given how much of an asshole thancred is currently being.

Thats what im getting. Am i right? Feel free to just write 'ipps, it will all resolve itself if you'd just play the effing game and not try and spoil yourself by trying to predict whats going on.'

Ps. You can also say "go watch this cutscene in patch x.x for more hints (and decide for yourself).

[Xilurm]

Thats what im getting. Am i right? Feel free to just write 'ipps, it will all resolve itself if you'd just play the effing game and not try and spoil yourself by trying to predict whats going on.'

Pretty much this.

But if I can clarify something. Urianger in 3.4 - when he sets up the Minfillia thing and asks her to go to the First with the Warriors of Darkness to help - is present Urianger. Keep in mind that he "worked" with Elidibus since the end of ARR. He was a double agent of sorts, and his ultimate plan was to infiltrate them, gain knowledge and find out how to save the First thus saving the Source aswell. This all was happening from the end of ARR until 3.4.

As for the rest... ipps, it will all resolve itself if you'd just play the effing game and not try and spoil yourself by trying to predict whats going on.

Even the reason why Thancred acts the way he does.

[ippollite]

Pretty much this.

But if I can clarify something. Urianger in 3.4 - when he sets up the Minfillia thing and asks her to go to the First with the Warriors of Darkness to help - is present Urianger. Keep in mind that he "worked" with Elidibus since the end of ARR. He was a double agent of sorts, and his ultimate plan was to infiltrate them, gain knowledge and find out how to save the First thus saving the Source aswell. This all was happening from the end of ARR until 3.4.

As for the rest... ipps, it will all resolve itself if you'd just play the effing game and not try and spoil yourself by trying to predict whats going on.

Even the reason why Thancred acts the way he does.

Im smiling ear to ear. Thanks dude. I guess (5.0 spoiler) im hung up on the idea of fluctuating time between the reflections.

[Xilurm]

Im smiling ear to ear. Thanks dude. I guess (5.0 spoiler) im hung up on the idea of fluctuating time between the reflections.

You shouldn't worry about that. The only thing you should know is what the Exarch says at the start about the Scions arriving years apart even though in the Source it was only days apart. And that on the First a 100 years have passed since we sent the Warriors of Darkness back.

As for now, the time difference between the First and the Source is actually pretty much the same. And that's really for obvious reasons. Even YoshiP said not to think about it that much.

[ippollite]

Im gonna though. 5.0...Thancred is 5 years.. y'shtolla 3 years, the twins 1 year (all in the space of, lets say a month on the source). im gonna. Rich says "how convenient we're aligned", i say... how convenient we're aligned at this exact moment as i arrive...? but we're still moving right? At the exact same pace we were moving prior. Im genuinely amazed the crystal exarch says its unpredictable, and perhaps this is the 'out'. So if my arrival is equilibrium, every second i spend here is 10/100/1000/10000 seconds in the source, right? because we're moving forward. Assuming we hit reasonable equilibrium upon my arrival. And assuming time is flowing consistently, then every moment i exist in the first exponentially increases my coma in the source. Tataru is going to lose it.

ETA: Genuinely, thank you for not trying to spoil me, but trying to indicate where i should look even though im too dumb to do it.

[Lane]

Im gonna though. 5.0...

I'm going to be honest, I think you're ruining the enjoyment of ShB by overthinking it so much. It's making me glad when I watched the playthrough that I had no preconceptions. The story, IMO, is fairly straightforward and you're over-complicating it a lot before you've even gotten to key plot developments.

I know there's a substantial amount of filler to push through before every Lightwarden, but trust us when we say everything is fully explained. Some of it was touched upon already in Heavensward.

[ippollite]

Dont worry dude, i didnt read beyond your first point. I LOVE overthinking shit. If its confirmed i feel smug. If it isnt i get to think 'oh wow I never saw that coming!' (ETA: 50% of my enjoyment comes from solving the puzzle).
INTP rabbit. I love being wrong as much as i love being right. (The other 50% comes from playing the game and realising i was wrong).

[Inoculate]

I'm going to be honest, I think you're ruining the enjoyment of ShB by overthinking it so much. It's making me glad when I watched the playthrough that I had no preconceptions. The story, IMO, is fairly straightforward and you're over-complicating it a lot before you've even gotten to key plot developments.

I know there's a substantial amount of filler to push through before every Lightwarden, but trust us when we say everything is fully explained. Some of it was touched upon already in Heavensward.

Yeah, the writing of ff14 is far better than WoW. They are pretty good at wrapping up every thread they start. Just keep trucking along and do every side quest and the whole picture is mostly revealed.

The time thing is an Exarch byproduct as he's basically using tech and Magick that is foreign to him.

[Xilurm]

Im gonna though. 5.0...Thancred is 5 years.. y'shtolla 3 years, the twins 1 year (all in the space of, lets say a month on the source). im gonna. Rich says "how convenient we're aligned", i say... how convenient we're aligned at this exact moment as i arrive...? but we're still moving right? At the exact same pace we were moving prior. Im genuinely amazed the crystal exarch says its unpredictable, and perhaps this is the 'out'. So if my arrival is equilibrium, every second i spend here is 10/100/1000/10000 seconds in the source, right? because we're moving forward. Assuming we hit reasonable equilibrium upon my arrival. And assuming time is flowing consistently, then every moment i exist in the first exponentially increases my coma in the source. Tataru is going to lose it.

ETA: Genuinely, thank you for not trying to spoil me, but trying to indicate where i should look even though im too dumb to do it.
ETA2: YoshiP is wrong (id say he can... but that seems mean... instead he should look at thancred, then urianger and y'shtola, then the twins... then he should think 'oh, we're equalising!!! Then he should recognise the wol gets an explicit cut scene where the crystal exarch says 'dont worry, everything is aligned.'Then he should ask himself... 'hang on, if time was slower comparatively to the source, and now its in equilibrium, is there a THIRD external force making this so, or more logically is it about to speed up (and can we abuse this for dramatic porpose on the source?)). As you suggest, its plot armor. And im sort of mad at this (because it really doesnt need to be, and in fact would be way better as a literal countdown (im aging in the source whilst questing in the first). I really want it not to be this. But this is literally the only logical pattern... thus far... perhaps theres some magic lore spoiler to set me right further down the line. But with logic here's where we are: Thancred a month or so ago was kidnapped on eorzea... hes been living on the first as a crypto ghost for 5 years. Yshtolla and urianger was kidnapped a couple of weeks later. Theyve been there for three years (apparently, i havent yet met y'shtolla). The twins were barely a week ago on eorzea. Theyve been here for at least a year. FINALLY the exarch found me. Everything is in alignment. The literal idea that im doing all this shit in a day is absurd. Logic suggests time is moving faster in the first comparatively. It doesnt need to, of course, but we're hitting an equinox (upon my arrival). And i know he said its inpredictable. So perhaps it is. Perhaps upon equilibrium it reverses... but thats a whole level of bullshit, right?

Well I can't really answer any of this yet so at this point I'm gonna have to go back to your previous post and just say again "ipps, it will all resolve itself if you'd just play the effing game and not try and spoil yourself by trying to predict whats going on."

I could hint on some stuff, but I think it's best if you just find everything out by yourself. It's safe to say that most if not all of these questions will be answered.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The answer is "don't think about it too hard". No, really. FFXIV's story is better written than most, but it doesn't have Lord of the Rings levels of plotting.

The wonky time thing was never "resolved". It was a hand wave the writers hoped people wouldn't think about it. It is never brought up again.

The real answer is that when the Warrior of Darkness arc for the HW patches was being written, the FFXIV dev team didn't have any plans for Shadowbringers as it is now. They just left the door open for future 1st Shard material. After Stormblood released, Yoshi-P decided that the next expansion was going to be set on the First, and that the player would be adventuring with the Scions. This conflicted with what had been set up prior (Hydaelyn sending the Warriors of Darkness back to the First), because now the writers have to figure out how to have the player adventure with the Scions to save the First (because by this point FFXIV's writing was tending towards power fantasy, so having other heroes around would detract from that, and also the difficulty of trying to explain what the other heroes are doing), but not adventure with the WoDs as well (who would be interested in saving their own planet). So the writers came up with the 100 year timeskip so that the WoDs would be long dead by the time the player arrived, so now it's just the player and the Scions who are running around a post apocalyptic world where nobody can remember a life before the Flood.

The "Thancred spent 5 years on the First" contrivance was to justify the "Thancred is a father figure" subplot. The player travels to the First a few days/weeks after Thancred collapsed in 4.4, so it would be nonsensical for him to act as a father figure to a girl he had literally just met a few a days/weeks ago.

Just keep playing. There is more interesting story material coming up.

[Xilurm]

And that's why it's only used to get us there. The rest of the plot doesn't revolve that. The time stuff is just an instrument to guide us to a good story which is Shadowbringers.

That's why YoshiP said to not think about it. And honestly I don't mind.

[Katchii]

Im gonna though. 5.0...[spoiler]Thancred is 5 years.. y'shtolla 3 years, the twins 1 year (all in the space of, lets say a month on the source). im gonna. Rich says "how convenient we're aligned", i say... how convenient we're aligned at this exact moment as i arrive...? but we're still moving right? At the exact same pace we were moving prior. Im genuinely amazed the crystal exarch says its unpredictable, and perhaps this is the 'out'. So if my arrival is equilibrium, every second i spend here is 10/100/1000/10000 seconds in the source, right? because we're moving forward. Assuming we hit reasonable equilibrium upon my arrival. And assuming time is flowing consistently, then every moment i exist in the first exponentially increases my coma in the source. Tataru is going to lose it.

You're thinking too hard.

Time is consistent across the First and the Source right now. Just accept that. There's no crazy wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff going on right now.

ETA: Genuinely, thank you for not trying to spoil me, but trying to indicate where i should look even though im too dumb to do it.

Seriously, just play the game. Almost everything you're asking, questioning and stressing over is discussed and resolved. Enjoy the ride.

ETA2: YoshiP is wrong

[SNIP]

No, he's not. He's the game director and he says time is aligned, period. Stop looking any deeper into it, you're getting stressed out, upset, bent out of shape or whatever you want to call it...over nothing.

Seriously...stop. Just play the game, enjoy the ride.

- - - Updated - - -

The wonky time thing was never "resolved". It was a hand wave the writers hoped people wouldn't think about it. It is never brought up again.

It was just resolved very quickly and succinctly. It's outright stated that times is weird between the shards, but as of right now while you're adventuring on the First that the passing of time is equivalent, or close enough.

The real answer is that when the Warrior of Darkness arc for the HW patches was being written, the FFXIV dev team didn't have any plans for Shadowbringers as it is now. They just left the door open for future 1st Shard material. After Stormblood released, Yoshi-P decided that the next expansion was going to be set on the First, and that the player would be adventuring with the Scions. This conflicted with what had been set up prior (Hydaelyn sending the Warriors of Darkness back to the First), because now the writers have to figure out how to have the player adventure with the Scions to save the First (because by this point FFXIV's writing was tending towards power fantasy, so having other heroes around would detract from that, and also the difficulty of trying to explain what the other heroes are doing), but not adventure with the WoDs as well (who would be interested in saving their own planet). So the writers came up with the 100 year timeskip so that the WoDs would be long dead by the time the player arrived, so now it's just the player and the Scions who are running around a post apocalyptic world where nobody can remember a life before the Flood.

The "Thancred spent 5 years on the First" contrivance was to justify the "Thancred is a father figure" subplot. The player travels to the First a few days/weeks after Thancred collapsed in 4.4, so it would be nonsensical for him to act as a father figure to a girl he had literally just met a few a days/weeks ago.

I'm not saying you're wrong. But do you have a source for any of this, aside from the Shadowbringers story not being finalized until Stormblood?

As to Thancred being a father figure to Minfilia, that's a role he played and put himself into even to the Source Minfilia. He was the one who saved her when her father was killed by the Gobbue attack and he felt responsible for her ever since.

Just keep playing. There is more interesting story material coming up.

Agreed, 100%.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'm not saying you're wrong. But do you have a source for any of this, aside from the Shadowbringers story not being finalized until Stormblood?

From interviews (spoilers, naturally):

Spoiler: 

The Crystal Tower series was not planned to set up Shadowbringers.

When we first introduced the Crystal Tower series and the conclusion it had, the team did have this feeling of “Oh we would love to have him come back in some way, some time” and we still hadn’t pinpointed when we wanted to introduce him back. Those two ideas existed and when Yoshida brought up the idea of Shadowbringers, when we were trying to decide on the story and the central gimmick of where we want to take the narrative, I felt it would click to have him come back and that it was the appropriate time.

Link

When we were creating the Crystal Tower content as the alliance raid way back when, we never imagined we were going to use this character in such a storyline, and we didn't have it planned at that time.

There were considerations and discussions that if there was a case where we had to reset FFXIV in our expanding of the game and whatnot, whether we would reuse the character or not. But nothing was really set in stone.

Link



On what was planned for the First:

First and foremost, when we were thinking about Patch 3.4, around three years ago, when we were trying to decide what the story was going to be like, we did have the thought that we wanted to depict the realm being shattered. Because the realm is shattered into fourteen different worlds, including The Source, we wanted to explain that through our narrative at one point. Not necessarily for the next expansion, but we wanted to make sure we allocated some time to depict that storyline.

When we actually finalized that we’re taking our adventurers to The First for Shadowbringers was around August of 2017.

The reason why that specific timing is because that’s when I had to sit down and think about what the game design is going to be for Shadowbringers 5.0 and I had to come up with a script, or text-based storyboard, for the opening trailer.

Link



The writing team began writing the outline for Shadowbringers one month after Stormblood 4.0's release.

The outline of what we wanted to do for Shadowbringers was already being discussed a little over a month after Stormblood was released so I’m afraid not much of the feedback would have made a large impact on the framework of the narrative.

Link

The development process for Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers started in Summer of 2017 shortly after the release of Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood. Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida approached the team with a few directives: “Let’s go to the First!”, and “It would be cool to add trusts and bring the Scions into the dungeons.”

Link



On writing the outlines for an expansion's base story:

First of all, when we are thinking about an upcoming expansion, thinking about the storyline and what the purpose is going to be and what kind of situation we’re going to have, it’s all decided at this Scenario Boot Camp, as we call it. It’s a four-day, concentrated meeting session.

Of course, we say “Boot Camp”, but it would be nice if it were at some sort of nice, air-conditioned hotel or at a resort somewhere, but no. We borrow a temporary meeting room that’s off-site from our office, and we just can ourselves in there, and just discuss and hash out the scenario for four days, and a majority of what we’re going to do in the storyline and the plot is decided at that meeting.

From that discussion, we don’t suddenly just make the lore, but we want to focus on what kind of story experience we want our players to have. So we start to think about where is this going to take place? What is the drama that we want to create with the cast of characters? Or what kind of encounters we will have to face? And sort of make those as our plot, and write those out. And then we start to build the lore around it, so that we can build and excite these different plot points.

For example, we have the Rak’Tika Greatwood. We were thinking about this massive forest, and there’s some kind of old history associated with it, we would like for the players to be enthralled in that history, and that’s about as far as we talk about at the Scenario Boot Camp.

From that, we go to developing our plot. So we’ll think about, “OK, we want Y’shtola to be prominent in that area,” and we’re going to unravel the story behind those old ruins that they find in the Greatwood, and they decide the theme from there. And then we take it to the Lore Team to build the lore around it. What are these ruins that we find within the Greatwood? Since when have they existed? What kind of deity did they worship there? So we don’t necessarily build the lore first and then the game, but we take the game experience and then build the lore to support it. That’s the way we approach it.

Link



Emet-Selch did not exist in the first draft. The antagonists were the Sin-Eaters. Evidently Emet-Selch did not exist prior to Shadowbringers 5.0's story being created, in Summer 2017 after Stormblood 4.0 launched.

Her first draft of the full Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers main scenario had Ascians, Ardbert, the Crystal Exarch’s narrative and the Scions plot lines. An interesting omission from that draft was Vauthry’s sections, as the Sin Eaters were originally controlled by Eden. The idea of restoring night to the areas of the world one by one by defeating the Lightwardens was not featured at all. In fact, there was only Eden as the final boss.

Link



On the Ascians and what was planned for them:

When we developed A Realm Reborn, we chose only the Ascians' fundamental setting," Yoshida states. "When it came to things like the intent and mission of each Ascian, the scenario and lore teams sculpted those aspects through further discussion and deliberation as time went on.

Link

They didn't come up with the Emet = Solus and the Ascian-Garlemald connection until they began writing Shadowbringers. Emet-Selch did not exist until they began writing Shadowbringers.

In 5.0 we wanted to explore the Ascians and see what kind of people they are, and get a deeper understanding. Emet-Selch played a big part in this story to tell us what happened and what they want, which is why we created the character.

Eventually, because we added the crystal tower, our lore team came up with the concept of the Garlean Empire, which now links to the Shadowbringers expansion. It almost feels like it was planned, but it was more of a coïncidence that all the teams came up with ideas.

Link

Before Stormblood we thought that there should have been a link between the Ascians and Garlemald, and we realized that everything made more sense if Garlemald was actually a creation of the Ascian.

We had this ancient character, emperor Solus, and we thought that using him worked in our favor. That’s the background of the inception of the Ascian as they are now.

Ishikawa-san wished to humanize the Ascians and Emet-Selch, and to explore them as characters instead of leaving their vision unclear.

Link



The Elidibus arc and Endwalker 6.0 was written after Shadowbringers 5.0 launched, in late October.

First, to your question about Azem—as we were finalizing the main story for 5.0, we solidified the concept related to not just Azem, but also the full fourteen seats of the Convocation to a certain degree.

However, in the case of Elidibus, we hadn’t determined the flow of the story through the end of 5.3 until after the release of 5.0. While we had already decided that the battle with Elidibus would be at the end of Patch 5.3, the finer details were only finalized during the production of Patch 5.1.

Those are the interviews from 2019 onward. Yoshida does dozens and dozens of interviews every year and I probably missed some, and that's not even getting into the interviews he did in the years before (there was definitely one on the WoDs writing during HW), but I'm not going to go digging through them right now.

- - - Updated - - -

As to Thancred being a father figure to Minfilia, that's a role he played and put himself into even to the Source Minfilia. He was the one who saved her when her father was killed by the Gobbue attack and he felt responsible for her ever since.

Thancred's and Source Minfillia having a "father-figure" relationship was never really portrayed before ShB. You only see the Goobbue attack if you watch the 1.0 cutscenes on Youtube. In the FFXIV game you can actually play, the two hardly interact with each other, and when they do, they certainly don't act like they have a father-daughter relationship. Minfillia administrates the Scions as an organization and gives Thancred orders. He doesn't seem to pay more attention to Minfillia than anyone else. When we got the echo flashback of Thancred reaching out towards Source Minfillia (who was possessing Ryne), I thought he either saw her as a sister or had romantic feelings for her (that were never shown until now). Certainly not father figure.

[Katchii]

From interviews (spoilers, naturally):

This only confirms that the story and MANY of the connections and subplots weren't finalized until after Stormblood launched.

In your post, the only part confirmed is the bolded:

The real answer is that when the Warrior of Darkness arc for the HW patches was being written, the FFXIV dev team didn't have any plans for Shadowbringers as it is now. They just left the door open for future 1st Shard material. After Stormblood released, Yoshi-P decided that the next expansion was going to be set on the First, and that the player would be adventuring with the Scions. This conflicted with what had been set up prior (Hydaelyn sending the Warriors of Darkness back to the First), because now the writers have to figure out how to have the player adventure with the Scions to save the First (because by this point FFXIV's writing was tending towards power fantasy, so having other heroes around would detract from that, and also the difficulty of trying to explain what the other heroes are doing), but not adventure with the WoDs as well (who would be interested in saving their own planet). So the writers came up with the 100 year timeskip so that the WoDs would be long dead by the time the player arrived, so now it's just the player and the Scions who are running around a post apocalyptic world where nobody can remember a life before the Flood.

The "Thancred spent 5 years on the First" contrivance was to justify the "Thancred is a father figure" subplot. The player travels to the First a few days/weeks after Thancred collapsed in 4.4, so it would be nonsensical for him to act as a father figure to a girl he had literally just met a few a days/weeks ago.

--------

Thancred's and Source Minfillia having a "father-figure" relationship was never really portrayed before ShB. You only see the Goobbue attack if you watch the 1.0 cutscenes on Youtube. In the FFXIV game you can actually play, the two hardly interact with each other, and when they do, they certainly don't act like they have a father-daughter relationship. Minfillia administrates the Scions as an organization and gives Thancred orders. He doesn't seem to pay more attention to Minfillia than anyone else. When we got the echo flashback of Thancred reaching out towards Source Minfillia (who was possessing Ryne), I thought he either saw her as a sister or had romantic feelings for her (that were never shown until now). Certainly not father figure.

You're correct in that the father figure dynamic wasn't ever touched on until Shadowbringers, the story is still shown that Thancred felt that way since the Gobbue attack. The 5 years spent on the First obviously endeared the two of them to each other, but the root of the relationship existed prior to Thancred ever setting foot on the First, meaning the 5 year timeframe wasn't just a contrivance to justify that relationship/ dynamic.