Quote Originally Posted by Mansion View Post
Maybe the problem is that they sort of changed their mind about Zenos mid-way. I don't think they put a lot of depth in his character when he was planned as the 4.0 villain, and it looks like they decided to do something more of him that would happen later, and we have yet to see what it is in 6.0.
For me that's the main problem: Zenos is just there. He has not been a dynamic villain in 4.0 like Fordola and Yotsuyu have been, and the build ups (Rhalgr and the assassination in Doma) led to nothing given how plural the Stormblood sotryline was. Then his resurrection was both unsurprising and uninteresting from 4.3 to 4.5(where Elidibus and the empire were more the main threat), his parallel story in 5.0 to 5.3 was too brief to have an impact and the actually big deal of throwing the Empire in civil war has been eclipsed once again by Norvrandt story and then Elidibus. 5.4 just has yet another scene of him that is meant to be foreshadowing something.
As we know they plan the story at least 2 years in advance and generally plot 5 years ahead, I'd say this isn't true and the intention to make Zenos as valuable pawn for an Ascian was the long shot all along.

And again Zenos isn't the big bad. Fandaniel is the big bad. I don't think it will matter in the long run if Zenos gets a redemption arc, or if he picks up the weapon of the new melee class. Zenos is only an escalated threat of violence backing an Ascian we know nothing about other than he has a secret and has been playing coy in a very over dramatic sense since he walked into story.