Is it weird that I like Zenos as a villain?

[Bright-Flower]

Snip

Hindsight is 20/20 but I think that Yotsuyu's story could have been much better with a few tweaks.

1. No murdering villagers for her own amusement or coercing them into murdering eachother. Have her be a brutal occupier, sure, but get rid of the over the top sadism and cruelty.

2. Make her older. Have abuse have been before the imperial occupation. Having suffered from the worst pits of doman society pre occupation, build the foundation that she doesn't think domans are fit to rule themselves and require order imposed by the empire. Have this play into Hien's arc where he recognizes that not all was well in Doma before the occupation and vowing to build a better nation where people like Yotsuyu don't fall through the cracks. Have the imperial rule be oppressive enough that the player still sides with the rebellion and winning freedom, but without the sadism so Yotsuyu's perspective makes more sense and isn't driven just by revenge. Have her truly believe that Doma is better off under the yoke of the empire.

3. With the above, get rid of the cheap childish amnesia Tsuyu thing. You don't need it anymore, because now you have a villain where you can use to explore some moral ambiguity. With a less bloodthirsty Yotsuyu, you wouldn't have to play with convenient amnesia when asking if she could be redeemed. You can still have her betray Doma for the empire, still have her driven to becoming a primal, but no need for plot device amnesia. You could simply have her consider the possibility of helping to build a better doma with Hien and then rejecting the idea, going along with Asahi's plan because she ultimately cannot bring herself to trust her countrymen.

Zenos' story could have been better if we say, got an echo vision or two seeing a younger Zenos and seeing what shaped him into a monster. Lyse says at the end of 4.0 that even Zenos wasn't born a monster but we don't know as of yet what made him one, despite having seen more of Yotsuyu and Fordola's backstories for how they ended up as they did.