Zenos: The Big Bad (The Feedback Thread, Part 1)

[KageTokage]

I'm hoping they'll at least have a solo fight against him at some point so we can actually feel like we beat him personally.

Whether it happens before or after the obligatory trial doesn't really matter to me.

[Lusavari]

Can we have the classical boss...without having the classical utterly random and inexplicable nonsense that oft comes with classical bosses? /panic

I, Zenos, Shall knock you all down.

[Theodric]

I thought it was very telling that we've had multiple teasers of Zenos doing very little aside from sitting around on a throne looking very bored...only for his big reveal in the expansion cinematic to consist of - you guessed it - Zenos sitting around looking very bored. As a character he does absolutely nothing for me. He was mildly intriguing for the duration of Stormblood's initial MSQ's but then he just started to overstay his welcome and exist at the expense of characters with much more potential and depth.

[MoofiaBossVal]

I like Zenos.

I'm tired of the mantra that "villains must be DEEP or complicated". I'm tired of the victimization of evil where villains have to have tragic backstories or be sympathetic.

I like Zenos... because he is unapologetically EVIL. He isn't fighting for some warped ideology. He isn't lashing out against the world. Zenos is just a bloodthirsty warrior who loves the thrill of living on the edge of death and that's it. He is refreshing in his simplicity.

I am fine if he turns out to be the final boss.

I thought it was very telling that we've had multiple teasers of Zenos doing very little aside from sitting around on a throne looking very bored...only for his big reveal in the expansion cinematic to consist of - you guessed it - Zenos sitting around looking very bored. As a character he does absolutely nothing for me. He was mildly intriguing for the duration of Stormblood's initial MSQ's but then he just started to overstay his welcome and exist at the expense of characters with much more potential and depth.

This is one of my problems with how he's been handled.

Zenos is at his most interesting when he is going out there and DOING stuff.

Zenos is at his most boring when he's lounging on a chair... like he did for the last 4 patches.

I'll tinfoil it up here and say that perhaps he's already Zodiark, and he's just waiting for Hydaelyn's Champion to come for him that way.

Ooooo interesting idea.

[Evraeh]

First, I didn't like Zenos in Stormblood. But after, he started to be interesting to me. His obsession for the WoL is something who makes him interesting.

Yet, the problem with him is : he is doing nothing and still have all powers/skills to beat us ? Really ? Yes, he is talented, skilled and clever. Yes, Emet-Selch did something with him probably but still, it's strange if he could do so much damage to the planet/to us just in sitting there (Or Fandaniel is doing everything and Zenos is watching/waiting) In SB, I could accept he could be better than us with all his trainings in Garlemald, but since, what did he do to be better ?
And now, I'm really like "If you want to beat us, stop sitting there and come out to fight us yourself" when I see him talking about us.
I really like him now but when we know he will just wait for us to come, I feel like "Stormblood again"...

Like Moofia said, it's not interesting to see him "waiting" for battle when we are equal to him. He need to come out and chase us himself for make his obsession for battle real. Now, maybe, that will change... I hope at least.

[Coletergeist]

Personally, imo I think Zenos does have a reasoning for his behavior, and I do think he makes a good antagonist. Not *great* but enough to make sense to me.

Like, he was raised on swordplay. It's practically all he knows. Now place that in a big mixing pot of being raised in the Garlean Empire and I mean...yeah he's an entitled handsome antagonist with pretty hair but a bad attitude.

Yeah he's bored, that's his *thing*.

I agree with MoofiaBoss that not every bad guy needs a *oh so deep tragic story as to why they're evil*.

Because there's been plenty of evil in various other stories and even actual *bad guys* (like murderers and stuff) that are evil for the sake of it. Because they *can be*.

[Coletergeist]

I hate that you can't edit posts on mobile.

But also to add. Can't an antagonist just be simply 'mentally unhinged'?

[myahele]

It's too bad that all he's been doing lately is sit and talk about being bored while occasionally killing Garleans. He was much more active in his pursuit of goals back in Stormblood. I hope he'll be more active in Endwalker.

[RyuDragnier]

It's too bad that all he's been doing lately is sit and talk about being bored while occasionally killing Garleans. He was much more active in his pursuit of goals back in Stormblood. I hope he'll be more active in Endwalker.

Hopefully he'll be killing the creatures summoned from the towers himself as a warmup for dealing with us. I mean, that would be a terrifying lead up. Having just fought a really difficult boss, and then the cutscene after you enter a room...filled with multiple ones of them killed by his hand, and him not even out of breath.

[GoldStarz]

It's too bad that all he's been doing lately is sit and talk about being bored while occasionally killing Garleans. He was much more active in his pursuit of goals back in Stormblood. I hope he'll be more active in Endwalker.

He wasn't active in Stormblood either. The closest he's ever been to being an active antagonist was the five minutes he took to launch an assault on Rhalgr's Reach. Almost every other instance, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.