Is Fandaniel hiding something? (spoilers)

What is Fandaniel's endgame here? (What angle does he have?)

Personally I doubt that Fandaniel is simply a crazy lunatic that wants to watch the world burn, now that the unsundered Ascians are gone. During the few cutscenes that we have witnessing Fandaniel as a character, he has always been theatrical to a point where it is too bizarre, which makes me actually take his theatrics not so seriously.

It seems that Zenos is actually aided quite a fair deal by Fandaniel right now. I have to imagine that the towers that appeared at the end of the most recent story patch is made by Fandaniel, not by Zenos. There's also no doubt that Fandaniel's Lunar Dragon is going to be perhaps a boss on the Moon. If that's the case that means Fandaniel will likely survive all the way until we're Lv 90. I've heard that the Lunar bosses will also be part of the new raid series, which means that Fandaniel will likely stick around even in the endgame for Endwalker. But I don't see Zenos surviving all the way to the Moon, much less to the endgame.

This begs the question: Is Fandaniel actually serving under Zenos? Does he actually think of Zenos as his master? Because if he survives longer than Zenos then he must be stronger or more cunning than Zenos. So I have to believe the answer is no. Then what are his true motives? I think his theatrics are a distraction but for the life of me I can't figure out what he is hiding. What are your theories?

idk man no one even watches the cutscene

I HOPE he's hiding something and playing Zenos, using his theatrics as a sleight of hand to distract us from some other, less obvious goal.

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Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

I HOPE he's hiding something and playing Zenos, using his theatrics as a sleight of hand to distract us from some other, less obvious goal.

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This is what I'm guessing. There's no way he's just some crazy lunatic (:P). If he were then I would be pretty disappointed.

I'm still not against the idea that the end result is Zenos eating Hydaelyn, forcing us to seek out Zodiark as a counter, thus fulfilling the Ascian wish of Zodiark's return. I don't think it'll actually happen, but it'd be a funny play on Fandaniel's part.

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Originally Posted by Ilenya

I'm still not against the idea that the end result is Zenos eating Hydaelyn, forcing us to seek out Zodiark as a counter, thus fulfilling the Ascian wish of Zodiark's return. I don't think it'll actually happen, but it'd be a funny play on Fandaniel's part.

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I like that, partly because I don't really want to have those two primals to be "good" vs "evil". I, at least in personal headcannon, see that Zodiark is order and Hydaelyn is chaos, not chaos like evil, just what good and bad comes from that, or in other words we've the yin and yang Taoism sort of representations going on. Freedom free thinking stuff on Hydaelyn's side and peace at the cost of freedom at the other. At least that's how I describe what Zodiark was doing when asking for more more as well - I envision he was simply purifying everything (taking away the issues at hand, but at a cost). Meanwhile Hydaelyn doesn't demand more because she doesn't want it, also why instructions from her are pretty limited (and her voice "hear, think, feel").

Sort of Assassins vs Templars. Except maybe make the templar a bit less corrupt lol. Which isn't to say I think they are of equal faults, one side can be more worng than the other given the situation- I just mean that rather than Zodiark being just a blanket bad boii that both primals are generally the concept of order vs chaos (or maybe better sounding 'freedom').

In such a situation I imagine, perhaps after proving ourselves like Ramuh, Zodiark may just as well willingly allow us to restore order given the chaos unfolding (as it would line up with his purpose).

Aside on that I also feel it has lined up with some of Yoshida's thoughts on too much of one thing or another, and the writing of history by victors and not, that it's important to be aware of things from multiple angles and balance (well I feel that way as well. . . something we really need to inject into our media and media platforms). To be clear I'm again not saying one 'side' can't be more or less wrong on a given issue, but understanding the dynamics and how both information and perspective comes into play feels like a lost art (or perhaps was never a common art lol). So if that was what happens in the end, I'd be good with that.

The way Fandaniel acts when Zenos threatens him really makes me hope he's the one using Zenos.

And yeah I actually do not dislike Fandaniel.

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Originally Posted by Ilenya

I'm still not against the idea that the end result is Zenos eating Hydaelyn, forcing us to seek out Zodiark as a counter, thus fulfilling the Ascian wish of Zodiark's return. I don't think it'll actually happen, but it'd be a funny play on Fandaniel's part.

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That would be funny but it would also be a huge letdown and anti-climactic scene IMO. I definitely hope Zenos dies early in the next expansion.

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Originally Posted by SecretIsland

That would be funny but it would also be a huge letdown and anti-climactic scene IMO. I definitely hope Zenos dies early in the next expansion.

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God vs God would be anti-climatic scene. . . ?

Honestly I can picture asuras wrath type scenes with that- most epic and insane offerings in the game potentially. Maybe show WoW how to poke a planet.

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images...149e4f81ba.gifhttps://thumbs.gfycat.com/CookedCour...restricted.gif

Personally not in love with Zenos but god fueled hero vs god fueled hero could be absolutely insane on the scene scale. May be one of those fights that distorts and destroys reality, and only because (what I assume will happen) joining the two primals are you able to walk it back (and the power it took to join them being why you're not perma super sayian 9000 afterwards, since you used it to set the world back into motion).

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Originally Posted by Shougun

God vs God would be anti-climatic scene. . . ?

Honestly I can picture asuras wrath type scenes with that- most epic and insane offerings in the game potentially. Maybe show WoW how to poke a planet.

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images...149e4f81ba.gifhttps://thumbs.gfycat.com/CookedCour...restricted.gif

Personally not in love with Zenos but god fueled hero vs god fueled hero could be absolutely insane on the scene scale. May be one of those fights that distorts and destroys reality, and only because (what I assume will happen) joining the two primals are you able to walk it back (and the power it took to join them being why you're not perma super sayian 9000 afterwards, since you used it to set the world back into motion).

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That sort of battle has been done to death though. It's too cliche at this point. Shadowbringers showed how to make villains interesting. It's anti-climactic in the sense that it's a step down in motives after Elidibus and Emet-Selch. It is not particularly climactic to fight a boss that has really not that much lore behind him. I get that Zenos is almost a force-of-nature type of boss at this point, but Zodiark serves that role far better, given that it has an interesting backstory behind it. Zenos on the other hand is the result of Garlean engineering but that's about it. Barely any lore behind why Zenos is so strong, as compared to Zodiark, which over the story we gradually got to learn far, far more than the initial point.

Fandaniel would be an interesting final boss if there's a twist behind him, so I'm hoping for that.

I would consider the FF4 storyline on this:

Long version short, an ancient evil (Zemus) on the moon appears in the last act and had been manipulating the big bad in the game up to that point. The original big bad (Golbez) actually joined the hero’s side at the end to fight the moon entity.

So, I suppose that kind of storyline is possible, and I’m not even sure if Zenos would be the “Golbez” or the “Zemus” in this line..but hey, could happen. The names Zemus and Zenos are awefully similar...

Also it would not surprise me if Fandaniel is being controlled by some entity (as in “a branded Ascian”)

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Originally Posted by SecretIsland

That sort of battle has been done to death though. It's too cliche at this point. Shadowbringers showed how to make villains interesting. It's anti-climactic in the sense that it's a step down in motives after Elidibus and Emet-Selch. It is not particularly climactic to fight a boss that has really not that much lore behind him. I get that Zenos is almost a force-of-nature type of boss at this point, but Zodiark serves that role far better, given that it has an interesting backstory behind it. Zenos on the other hand is the result of Garlean engineering but that's about it. Barely any lore behind why Zenos is so strong, as compared to Zodiark, which over the story we gradually got to learn far, far more than the initial point.

Fandaniel would be an interesting final boss if there's a twist behind him, so I'm hoping for that.

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I wasn't really focusing on the Zenos part- I'm with you that it would be nice if something was a twist at the end. However I still think Asura Wrath like scale ending would be loads of fun, specially given this is the finale of the Ascian saga. I mean ShB kind of ends that way, just not super massive scale .. rather it's just massive scale lol.

Dirge of Cerberus Chaos VS Omega.

https://goombastomp.com/wp-content/u...0/05/Omega.gif

Fandaniel IS insane. Caligula level demented insane. I also remember what he said...he wants to die. Now with the Convocation gone, he has no checks and balances, no one to hold him back.

He's hiding more bad character writing on his part most likely- he belongs in stormblood

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Originally Posted by HeyMcFly

He's hiding more bad character writing on his part most likely- he belongs in stormblood

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He and Zenos both.

He defnitely has a hidden agenda, even the Scions are very suspicious his obvious lunacy, so there's something behind for sure.

Fandaniel could very well be the Joker to our Batman, though, unlike Batman, I can't see why we wouldn't want to kill his crazy ass. He wants to die? Good! I want him to die, too! So I'm gonna help him :)

EDIT: Going back to Yoshi P's shirts back during the Announcement Showcase, I'm suddenly drawing a connection between the grim reaper and Fandaniel. "Because I want wretched creatures who ask such meaningless questions to die!" "You! And you! And YOU! I want you ALL to die! And I want to die too! Oh yes, I want to die and take everyone with me in a paroxysm of pain and suffering!"

Fandaniel the Reaper. Children of Bodom -- Follow the Reaper. "I'll be here if you need me."

sick of dead ascians making me cry about them. i hope he doesn't have character traits that would make me upset at his passing.