Is Zenos Sephiroth?

[RicaRuin]

Of course, they miscalculated and forgot to copy any of the reasons Sephiroth is interesting, so ultmately it's less of a true recapture and more of a hollow resemblance with similar plot beats.

This, basically. Especially since the Remake makes Sephiroth seem more like a threat and moves away from the 'mommy's boy' image he had from the original game.

But yeah, I feel like they try to push Zenos as the next big Sephiroth, giving him the spotlight of antagonist in the current plot line's final expansion... but he seems so bland in contrast to some other villains we had.

(On that note, 'Zenos doesn't need a coherent reason, he just a force of nature' argument some pull to justify why he is different from same vibe Sephiroth doesn't really do the trick for me, especially after Tales of Arise. It just can be done better.)

[Cleretic]

This, basically. Especially since the Remake makes Sephiroth seem more like a threat and moves away from the 'mommy's boy' image he had from the original game.

But yeah, I feel like they try to push Zenos as the next big Sephiroth, giving him the spotlight of antagonist in the current plot line's final expansion... but he seems so bland in contrast to some other villains we had.

(On that note, 'Zenos doesn't need a coherent reason, he just a force of nature' argument some pull to justify why he is different from same vibe Sephiroth doesn't really do the trick for me, especially after Tales of Arise. It just can be done better.)

Personally, I think the remake actually made Sephiroth less interesting, but that's because I like the angle of FFVII essentially being High Fantasy The Thing; I preferred the reading that Sephiroth is nothing but a mask for an unknowable alien being, that Sephiroth himself has been dead since before the game started and we're just dealing with a horror-beast using his body as a convenient meat puppet. Which is clearly not the intended reading going by all the expanded universe stuff, but it holds up in the original story.

But I find it interesting when you see people compare Zenos to a 'force of nature' as a positive, because it actually highlights the reason he doesn't work. You wouldn't watch a movie about a hurricane because you think the hurricane is a compelling and interesting character; you watch a movie about a hurricane because you want to see how it impacts the lives of those affected. And Zenos isn't impacting anyone in a compelling way by himself; he's just getting in the way of and destroying things that actually are interesting.

Even leading into Endwalker, Zenos isn't the person setting any of the compelling parts of the upcoming situation into motion: Fandaniel is.