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

[RopeDrink]

There's plenty of people who don't like Zenos, which is fine. There's also plenty who do, me being one of them. Not that it matters but I'll be skipping posts that speak as if 'we all hate X' is some given truth that applies to the masses. It should be a two-way discussion, not a celebration of one's own opinion, like it applies to everyone (which it doesn't).

It's also depressing when people lean so heavily on the 'can the story go forward if the antagonist wins' mantra when the game is an MMORPG that will never allow this to happen outside of duties where you might control someone else temporarily, so it's just a self-made setup that doesn't really mean much. If this was a book, or a movie, or any media which doesn't rely on the player being the ever-present Numero Uno and the biggest star of the show, then you'd be on to something. But it's not. The story will always go on with us, either as the front-runner or following beside it as a spectator. This will continue until the game dies, or they make an effort to have its characters become more equal to the WoL.

The story actually can go ahead with Zenos, provided you stop putting a magnifying glass on his self-centric goal and more on what his goals do to the surrounding world (and its characters). We've had so many villains built up over the years and the majority have (and will) end with some grandiose agenda-pushing speech before their inevitable defeat by the WoL (along with some words about how they couldn't fathom the idea of being bested by someone who has been CRUSHING EVERYTHING LEFT AND RIGHT FOR YEARS). Even Emet fell into this writing trap. Zenos wasn't one of them.

We've had plenty of Garlean antagonists, most of which have something to like and/or hate about them, but for the most part, almost all of them have had some form of agenda in the background that works through them. Zenos isn't one of them. It's funny, I've actually like the vast majority of Garlean antagonists, especially Nero, Regula, Gaius and Zenos, as well as the others, but as much as you hate him, you have to respect the simple fact that Zenos is a mile apart from all of them in almost every way.

In short, I like him because he's that huge variable. You don't have to like him to see that such a character is far more capable of unpredictability compared to the rest. He has absolutely no interest in the empire as a whole and barely ever had, which in itself is going to cause a lot of problems (assuming Varis is 100% dead). Even if Varis wasn't, this is going to cause turmoil and I suspect one of the larger themes will be the end-result of the Empire (be it totally destroyed, taken over by a new leader, or whathaveyou). Zenos being given insight about Zodi/Hyde/First thanks to Elidibus is bad-news-bears for EVERYONE on the source, more-so without the WoL. They're just lucky that his thrill-seeking doesn't involve any particular value in something disastrous like Black Rose (but I highly doubt that BRose was written in just to be cut short by Zenos. He may have little value in it himself, but he's also the type of character that will resort to anything if it helps him get what he wants). It's clear Zenos is a space-trip distance away from redemption, yet someone so unashamedly self-centred is also not destined to only do evil things. Even unintentionally, someone so self-absorbed could achieve things regardless of whether the result aligns with X bad group or Y good group, however small. If Black Rose does die out, then it'll have been mostly thanks to Zenos cutting the head off the empire out of greed.

Having said all that, I do not believe Zenos will be the primary antagonist. Just like we hunted Vauthry, only for it to result in a curve-ball and immediately point to something bigger, Zenos will likely be the face on the carton but not the contents. He'll most certainly cause a hell of a lot of trouble, but such a situation is what someone like Elidibus needs to work with and plot a bigger scheme. I doubt even Elidibus will be the one, but you can rest assured it won't be Zeno-Zeno-Zeno-Zeno-Zenobreaker for the entirety.