Quote Originally Posted by Theodric View Post
There's a striking difference between a villain and an antagonist. The former tends to be lacking in redeeming qualities, whereas the latter tends to have sympathetic motives. The fact of the matter is that the likes of Emet-Selch are extremely popular. The guy beat many a fan favourite in popularity polls across all game regions. Zenos worked well, I feel, for the duration of Stormblood's base expansion. Ever since, he's felt more like a plot device than a character - and has robbed us of situations and characters that would arguably make for a more compelling story overall.

Furthermore, it's one thing to have one irredeemable villain as the focus. It's another matter entirely to have two of them. Personally I'm of the belief that Fandaniel was, in part, created just to stop scenes with Zenos being so boring given that Zenos is spending most of his time sitting around on a chair complaining about being bored.

I don't particularly like either of them at the moment. Though Fandaniel is, at least, more of an engaging presence and there's a chance he might have more compelling motives than he lets on.
Isn't that the point, though? Well, sort of. As I see it, Zenos is more a force of nature, an unpredictable wild card that drives the story and generates conflicts. I don't think they'll make him the center piece antagonist as it was in Stormblood, I think he works best when working in conjunction with, intentionally or no, of bigger problems the heroes have to solve.