[Spoilers] Why Zenos is the most important character moving forward

[Jaywalker]

I can’t reply to all of this rn because phone lol, but short version—agree with most of this and love the dramatic irony angle, disagree a little on the last presented point on how he achieved power compared to us and the nature of his difference as well as his might makes right philosophy.

I can type this ‘til my fingers are just sad little stumps and it will still end up lost for a bunch of folks lol, but seriously. For people who are annoyed and think Zenos is flat and just evil for evil’s sake—the most important thing about him and the entire reason he is an interesting and believable character is because he operates from the point of view of someone with no empathy. He is a serial killer above all else, morality in the sense of right and wrong aren’t even part of the equation for him. He also is an interesting kind of serial killer in that the rush he gets is NOT from killing people or inflicting pain, but from being in the thick of battle and actually working as hard as he can with failure as a real possibility.

Like. I really really think this might be a thing where you gotta know exactly what to look for going in or something. When you don’t know he’s confusing and weird, once you do everything clicks seamlessly and he becomes fascinating as all out. Saying this not to be dismissive or be like "you must love him", but because I figure it's more fun to see why something works than be left going "X seems pointless".

From everything I've seen, the way Zenos thinks about things is almost like he’s an alien. There are certain experiences that a normal person will have that he has never experienced and is incapable of understanding. He does not feel emotional attachment to others on a personal level. There is nothing they can say to emotionally hurt or bolster him. He likes roles, and roles can be filled by whoever fits the criteria. Individual identity is completely insignificant to him, maybe excepting (in the case of Fordola) when he he imagines he can see traces of himself in others. He gets no reward from personal relationships in any way. This includes the Warrior of Light, who he really doesn't know a thing about besides our combat prowess. Things that would give pleasure or pain to an ordinary person are empty and dull to Zenos. He doesn’t even feel sad, just painfully bored and apathetic. He might not spell it out in the way I am right now by going “I feel x” but seriously, if you look at his dialogue and behavior in every single scene he’s in it is very very obvious and consistent. I remember the Royal Menagerie cutscenes had a lot of pieces of evidence for what it’s worth. Not all of it, but a lot.

Being constantly bored and feeling nothing at all from the personal (even insofar as himself—his value is as a functionary role to be performed just like everyone else in his eyes), he was someone ready to latch onto anything that could give him a sense of drive and purpose. For him, that came from combat and trying to get better in the face of someone who could keep pace with him. Literally everything he inflicted on Doma and Ala Mhigo, all of the times he spared the WoL, was with the goal of engineering that opponent for himself. Think of it almost in the same way that Omega attacked WoL’s friends to induce a state of distress and desperation so we would fight harder. It’s the same kind of principle. Except Zenos isn’t doing it to return home or anything, he’s doing it purely so he has something, anything to strive for in life that makes him feel. He wants a sense of purpose. The rush of adrenaline and possibility of dying when he faces someone who can beat him actually let him feel something and he’s addicted to that.

Frankly, with all of this going on I am willing to bet that the elder primal Zenos tries to control is going to be Hydaelyn. She's actually accessible and not fragmented. Zodiark is harder to get ahold of and might full well be seen as the "weaker" of the two by Zenos anyway since Hydaelyn defeated him. We might get hit with top tier irony going foreword if we need to draw from Zodiark to deal with Zenos. Additionally, Elidibus mentioning us dealing with Warriors of Light could full well be that he plans to enable Zenos feeding on Hydaelyn.

I am pretty much 99.9% sure Elidibus is going to massively regret using Zenos though, this is like biggest mistake level stuff. He made the choice to enable him in a very desperate, cornered-animal way where there was no plan to speak of beyond “go wreck stuff”

[Daralii]

I am pretty much 99.9% sure Elidibus is going to massively regret using Zenos though, this is like biggest mistake level stuff. He made the choice to enable him in a very desperate, cornered-animal way where there was no plan to speak of beyond “go wreck stuff”

I'm pretty sure that's all he wants. His monologue on the moon was really just him lamenting his loneliness and how events had spiraled too far out of control for him to predict or influence toward any kind of goal. He's a broken man running on spite.

[Jaywalker]

I'm pretty sure that's all he wants. His monologue on the moon was really just him lamenting his loneliness and how events had spiraled too far out of control for him to predict or influence toward any kind of goal. He's a broken man running on spite.

I do agree with you, but I also think he underestimates what telling Zenos to go wreck stuff means.

I'm trying to think of the best way to put this lol... basically, I think Emet-Selch dying/the First being saved would be like Elidibus being stabbed. He's pretty upset about being stabbed and thinks things can't possibly get worse. Except then he basically gives the knife to Zenos, and Zenos is someone liable to twist it.

I don't think he realizes that things can still get worse. Zenos is very much worse, now potentially on a cosmic scale beyond all reckoning for everyone.

All that said, I suspect that if there's any saving grace to be found for Elidibus it's probably with Unukalhai. And even if that's not the case, I'm veeeeeery curious how Unukalhai is going to tie into future events.