Quote Originally Posted by Veloran View Post
The issue I think most people have with Zenos is that he really comes off as one-dimensionally evil. He has no interest in speaking to anyone about anything, his only motivation is "the hunt", and the only story avenue for his character as it is is to be put down like a mad dog. I think the fear right now is that he'll just continue sitting on his throne with a bored look on his face until WoL gets around to directly challenging him, maybe he kills some characters for drama, then he pulls out the big Primal for the final fight before inevitably losing again and dying for real this time. I'm at least hoping he mantles Hydaelyn instead of Zodiark because that at least inserts some mixed feelings into the whole thing.

They really need to pull some kind of miracle off with him to avoid Endwalker just feeling like a bunch of busywork leading to a climax that everybody can see from a mile away, which was one of Stormblood's big issues. Maybe they'll bait and switch him for a completely different antagonist halfway through or something.
He's not even a decent one dimensional villain. A one dimensional villain can still be entertaining. Final fantasy has got a long line of interesting villains of various persuasions, including some memorable one dimensional villains and recurring foes (which is one thing ff14 lacks to some). Zenos however has long outstayed his welcome and lacks the personality and player motivation needed to be a good recurring foe.

to a lot of people he's barely more than a walking plot device. If Zenos really was that desperate for another fight, he could quite easily ignore fandaniel and just carve a bloody swathe to Eorzea until the wol showed up. He was used as an excuse to write Varis out the plot before he could be confronted, and to dispose of the Black rose which shouldn't really have come up at all after it was destroyed offscreen by Gaius.

If a villain is going to be sitting on his throne, then he needs to be doing something. Plotting, ordering minions about, being used as a set piece for introducing new characters like Varis did for Emet-selch.
Fandaniel, for all his annoying tendencies, is already turning out a better villain by virtue of doing something other than sit on his arse. There's nothing more damning to a character than the audience being bored of them.