Varis and Zenos:

Quote Originally Posted by Alleo View Post

We learned from Thancred that Zenos is important for him (strange how he still showed no remorse for his death) because of infighting.
For me, Varis' callousness about his son's death makes so much more sense now than after the end of 4.0, because my take away was that Zenos hasn't truly been his son for a long time. Whenever Elidibus decided that Zenos would be an "irreplaceable test subject" and gave him the artificial Echo, I think it drove him insane. It makes perfect sense that Varis stopped thinking of him as his son when he realized that he was a monster, and as he noted, "monsters don't belong on thrones". As I mentioned earlier, it also makes me wonder about the circumstances of Zenos' birth. Did Solus suggest that Varis might make a better choice of heir if he had an heir of his own, fully anticipating that a child would be a useful tool, or potential host for another Ascian?

Quote Originally Posted by Alleo View Post
Its just way to early to give him a white vest just because he might be controlled now (and it really depends if he is even that much controlled).
I'm certainly not ready to call Varis a good guy, but I do have some sympathy for him that I definitely didn't previously. Yes, he's ruthless--he'd have to be to claw his way to the top of the Empire. But then he finds out that his grandfather was a meat puppet for an embodiment of Chaos and that everything he thought was true about the founding of the Empire was probably a lie. At some point his son is given an experimental treatment that turns him into a maniacal killing machine. His only real friend gets killed. I'm thinking censoring artists was largely out of spite and a desire to damage something his grand-Ascian liked. That's still not good, but it is understandable.

I liked the idea that the Empire's problems were due to human failings rather than shadowy manipulation from evil overlords. But I do appreciate that Varis now feels less like he came from the Generic Final Fantasy Evil Emperor factory and more like a character with some depth and shades of grey.