[ENDWALKER SPOILER!] On Zenos

[iheartlove42]

I'm one of like five people who like Zenos so keep that in mind.

Zenos is this powerful because he consumed what was left of the Mothercrystal. He's also now in a place powered purely by emotional thought, and he's basically harnessed homicidal psychopath. But he's still a mortal. Also I do think you're both tired from fighting Meteion.

Zenos is the rival to the WoL because he's your opposite. You fight for those you love. He fights for the sake of fighting. But you both enjoy the fight.

I think this was a satisfying end to Zenos. I think he's well and truly dead. He was satisfied that was the fight which killed him. He wanted to know if he could just kill you himself or if you're truly his better. After watching you kill Zodiark he knew his original plan of consuming a god would be pointless. He knew you're more than capable of killing gods.

I thought Zenos was gonna merge himself with Meteion and be a final fourth trial. It's what usually happens with Final Fantasy. Instead it ends with a fist fight where you beat him to death. I thought that was a nice twist on it.

[Loggos]

I'm one of like five people who like Zenos so keep that in mind.

Zenos is this powerful because he consumed what was left of the Mothercrystal. He's also now in a place powered purely by emotional thought, and he's basically harnessed homicidal psychopath. But he's still a mortal. Also I do think you're both tired from fighting Meteion.

(Ah, I would have assumed that he burned all the aether of the Mother Crystal to summon/transform himself into the dragon primal and fuel his space travel but maybe he absorbed more than he needed.)

But back to Dynamis:

I would still argue that we have just fought a being that a) constists entirely of Dynamis if I'm not mistaken and b) has absored the despair of pretty much the whole universe which results in so much power that it can end our world and potentially the rest ofthe universe, too.

So the power Zenos can draw from his psychopathic determination would be somewhat comparable to that of The Apocalypse. It just doesn't feel fitting to me that the emotions of "I only live for the battle" are even remotely in the same league as the despair of thousands of dying civilisations - some of whom are apparently more emotionally and intellectually advanced than we can imagine.
I guess, one can write the story like that but for someone who doesn't enjoy Zenos this feels too convenient.

In addition, I would believe that we are also mentally fired up because we just received a huge dose of Hope, Love, and Friendship, and Salvation of the World (as cheesy as one may find this).

So if Dynamis runs purely on thoughts and emotions and we should have an intense emotional high after defeating one of the most powerful beings in existence (how is that for battle lust), saving the universe (and particularly our friends and loved ones) and even freeing Meteion then personally I would still feel like the Dynamis power of our own state of mind should blast Zenos into the horizon.

But most importantly, even though it would be very logical to assume that we are tired I think this would go against everything Zenos desires.

He wants to defeat us at our peak. He wants to have the ultimate thrill of the battle. It doesn't seem like him to exploit our weakness in order to get an advantage over us. He had several chances in the past to fight us where he had the upper hand but he is hunting the ultimate experience. He wants to prove that he can defeat us in our most powerful state or die by our hand. So, if we were tired this would completely undermine his own motives.

I also think that the story-telling of the last scene emphasises this. We don't "seem" tired. We seem like we are full of resolution (or even euphoria depending on what answer you pick), we Are powered up by Dynamis and the whole cinematic framing is that of two eager, powerful enemies who can't wait to battle it out. Not of two worn-out warriors (Zenos has been carrying our battle platform the whole time. I would believe this also quite tiring.)

So all in all the way I interpret it, the story is implying we are at our peak because we are finally "ready" to face of with Zenos.

Zenos is the rival to the WoL because he's your opposite. You fight for those you love. He fights for the sake of fighting. But you both enjoy the fight.

That makes sense and I agree that this contrast is in itself very effective. As I said in my original post, the idea (and the aesthetics) of the fight were great. It was just that for me Zenos could not fill the role of That Nemesis because personally I didn't think his writing and the way his motives were delivered in the past were in any way compelling or captivating enough for him to earn that spot. But again, that's my own preference.