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

[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.