6.0 Predictions: Will it be Garlemald, Sharlayan, or Meracydia?

[Cilia]

Realization strikes me:

Fandaniel is the Kefkaesque (pun intended).

Kefka is from VI.

Azys Lla is a giant shout-out to the Floating Continent of VI from which Kefka hails.

Most if not all of the stuff on Azys Lla is Meracydian in origin.

CONNECTION?!

(Either way, if Zenos has assumed the throne he better watch his back... we all know what Kefka did to Gestahl...)

[Kesey]

(Either way, if Zenos has assumed the throne he better watch his back... we all know what Kefka did to Gestahl...)

I feel like what makes Zenos/Fandaniel dynamic work is who will betray who first and who will have the upper hand after.

[Rosenstrauch]

Kefka-stuff

I'd always assumed Zenos was the Kefka analogue in this game. He ticks off pretty much every box except the part where he acts like a clown. I guess he and Fandaniel really are made for each other.

[Cilia]

I feel like what makes Zenos/Fandaniel dynamic work is who will betray who first and who will have the upper hand after.

Dunno if Zenos has any designs to backstab Fandaniel. There's nothing to gain in so doing, and Zenos hasn't been shown to care all that much about status.

The opposite is also true, though given Fandaniel was ecstatic to be off of the Paragons' leash, I'm much more inclined to believe he's no interest in genuinely being someone else's toady again and is just setting Zenos up for something.

I'd always assumed Zenos was the Kefka analogue in this game. He ticks off pretty much every box except the part where he acts like a clown. I guess he and Fandaniel really are made for each other.

Yes and no. Replace "destruction" with "violence" and you've got the same basic concept, but Kefka spends all his time on screen enjoying himself; Zenos is bored all the time except when battles require exertion on his part. There's also Castrum Abania, which pretty much is the Imperial Magitek Research Facility with the serial numbers filed off.

Fandaniel is a magically powerful, formerly normal person who chews the scenery every second he's on screen, rejoices at the death of his superiors because it lets him act freely, and doesn't appear to have any designs beyond causing as much death and destruction as possible. Genuinely unhinged, probably.

Zenos and Fandaniel are like two sides of the same coin, almost. One's just manic while the other's depressive.

[LineageRazor]

Dunno if Zenos has any designs to backstab Fandaniel. There's nothing to gain in so doing, and Zenos hasn't been shown to care all that much about status.

The opposite is also true, though given Fandaniel was ecstatic to be off of the Paragons' leash, I'm much more inclined to believe he's no interest in genuinely being someone else's toady again and is just setting Zenos up for something.

Eh, there's lots of reasons Zenos could turn on Fandaniel - most notably, if any of Fandaniel's machinations threaten his violent reunion with the WoL. If such an occasion arises, however, I see him as being just as likely to stab him in the front than in the back. You know, whatever side's convenenient at the time.

I agree, though, that Fandaniel could come up with an assortment of reasons to stab Zenos in the back (which would, of course, be another prime motivation for Zenos to stab him instead), but I doubt he would be successful. Zenos is the Villian Sue to the WoL's Mary Sue - the only one in the game whose unexplained invincibiilty and powers of plot contrivance could possibly rival our own! Wacky, capering Ascians may come and go (RIP, Emet), but Zenos will never die (for good) until he has his Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny with the WoL.

The foreshadowing of this is so strong, that even if they DID pull a curveball and have Zenos bite it before the final act, I can't help but feel that it would seem... weird.

[Cilia]

Eh, there's lots of reasons Zenos could turn on Fandaniel - most notably, if any of Fandaniel's machinations threaten his violent reunion with the WoL. If such an occasion arises, however, I see him as being just as likely to stab him in the front than in the back. You know, whatever side's convenenient at the time.

I agree, though, that Fandaniel could come up with an assortment of reasons to stab Zenos in the back (which would, of course, be another prime motivation for Zenos to stab him instead), but I doubt he would be successful. Zenos is the Villian Sue to the WoL's Mary Sue - the only one in the game whose unexplained invincibiilty and powers of plot contrivance could possibly rival our own! Wacky, capering Ascians may come and go (RIP, Emet), but Zenos will never die (for good) until he has his Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny with the WoL.

The foreshadowing of this is so strong, that even if they DID pull a curveball and have Zenos bite it before the final act, I can't help but feel that it would seem... weird.

Of course it's a possibility, but there's nothing at the moment suggesting Zenos is gonna backstab Fandaniel. He's let him act freely thus far; of course he'd turn on Fandaniel if the latter jeopardized his plans for the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny with his proclaimed bestie, but there's no other reason he'd do so since Zenos literally doesn't care about anything else. Even sowing chaos and starting or continuing wars are just a means to an end to him; all he wants is the PC.

There is the problem of Zenos being the PC's shadow archetype (in the sense he's a photonegative of the PC; one was born into utmost privilege while the other drifted into a city-state with nothing but the clothes on their back, one struggles for their strength while the other is preternaturally talented, one helps others while the other exploits them, one's Echo is natural while the other's is artificial, etc.) and their great clash being heavily foreshadowed, but I'm hoping that "subversion of expectations" includes Zenos getting offed in 5.5(5) and Fandaniel taking center stage. I'm just so tired of Zenos' one-note villainy antagonism and one-track mind; I'd much rather have an unknown like Fandaniel at center stage, because he's unpredictable (at the moment) and thus interesting to me.

... and of course there's still the question of why he'd defer to Zenos when he was chafing at Elidibus' and Emet-Selch's oversight. There are just many more questions surrounding Fandaniel than Zenos, which leads me to believe he's going to play a bigger role than being Zenos' toady.

(Granted I do still expect that Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny Zenos wants so bad being the 6.0 end boss or even the 6.3 "6.0 True End" boss, but I'm really hoping he gets offed in 5.5(5) cuz again, really tired of his presence on the stage when he's already played his part.)