Quote Originally Posted by HyoMinPark View Post
Hmm. You’d have a point for antagonist in Stormblood (through, I think classifying him as a “major” one is kind of stretching it, since we spent way more time dealing with Yotsuyu as a villain versus him—and 4.x Zenos was just Elidibus in Zenos’s body)—but in Endwalker? He took a major backseat for basically the entire expansion. Fandaniel/Hermès and Meteion were the antagonists. Zenos was just that weird fanboy who harassed our character about fighting him every time he was on camera.
Even though he spends relatively little time on-screen in SB, everything that we do is to fulfill his ends; we spend more time dealing with Yotsuyu & Fordola because the entire point of the expansion is that we have nothing to offer him until after we've grown strong enough to overcome all of the obstacles he sets in our path. After all, what are Yotsuyu & Fordola doing but carrying out his will?

As for post-SB--in post-SHB, as OP said, we spent a lot of time emphasizing how important he was going to be in EW; in the promotional materials for EW, he was also heavily emphasized, suggesting that he would be important; he is also present at the lvl 90 trial, & the absolute final fight of the expac is with him. I think this is enough to say that he is--or was meant to be--a significant antagonist. Why he ended up not fulfilling that role is impossible to know, but that doesn't invalidate OP's question about why he wasn't offered the same compassion & empathy that other antagonists receive