Let's talk about Zenos *****Spoilers******

[Neotempest]

I presented the title as is to not give an idea of what Zeno's fate is at Endwalker. What this is, anyone can say my thought is dumb and prove me wrong, is to put out my thought about the last character puzzle piece off ffxiv that is Zenos. I still am on the side that Zenos is a meta character but I wanted to jump into a rabbit hole on Zenos. As anyone knows Zenos is kinda in this nebulous state, as a character, of what he is. Some say he is a meta character and others say he is a battle maniac. Though these do all fit in some way, we can all agree there are these gaps that just don't work for his character if you take him as either side. Like when he decides to just stop fighting the WoL because the WoL has business to do outside of Zenos. So I looked at Zenos from many views and something came to mind. Remember I can be wrong in this and would appreciate other players input on this. What if, from the very beginning and even until his demise at the end, Zenos has always been a Clinically Depressed "friend" of the WoL. He doesn't use fighting for fun but it's his coping mechanism for his clinical depression.

He isn't a battle maniac because there are far to many moments he decides to not fight the WoL because he recognizes the WoL has responsibilities to the world to save it. I am assuming we all know many battle maniacs in different media. I can't really fit Zeno's with many Battle Maniacs, who are also unhinged, who will just walk away from a fight because the other guy doesn't want to right now. As for a meta character, ffxiv never wrote a character as a meta character. They have had meta questions and such but no one even close to be as a meta character as most of us have agreed Zenos is. So I dug into my own theory of what Zenos could of actually been. I am no doctor but at the same time, a lot of us are bad at realizing if a person could be clinically depressed until, out of nowhere, they decide to "Minecraft themsevles"..... We all know of streamers who looked happy or sad who could all be described as clinically depressed and I went to different sites for symptoms. Not gonna link sites here, but there are many that can be easily found through google.

A lot of these sites that describe symptoms of a clinical depressed person fit Zenos from the beginning to the end. To kind of show where I am going with this, think Zenos as someone with an eating disability to cope with depression and the WoL is a Chef. So we are giving Zenos what he wants to cope but not what he needs to get over his depression. If fighting is merely, "comfort food" for Zenos then no matter what we did, we could not help him get over his depression. There is also the state of him being a "friend" of ours.

[Neotempest]

Part 2:

From what I looked up, depressed friends can be mentally draining on their own friends. If Zenos is a friend, who can't connect with others well because of his depression, what if Zeno's thought we used "Heroism" to cope with what he may perceive as the way the WoL copes with depression. So Zenos creates all these evil plans to make the WoL look like a hero. There is the body swap scene where zenos, who took down elidibus in a basic minion body, just loses his reaper and gets pushed down by the WoL in a body far weaker then the WoL body? I honestly can't think of a moment Zenos stated he would win in a fight against the WoL, just wants a fight in general. Zeno's also speaks highly of the WoL almost any chance he gets. The same way Graha or Alisae does. Then when real heroism is required Zenos just steps back as a friend and just waits until the WoL is done so he can start again. This is when I look back at what Alisae said to Zenos. Imagine Alisaie saying her line to a clinically depressed person with eating to cope with depression. It would hit that person as much as it hit Zenos. Which would make the last encounter with Zenos who only sees himself as a person with an eating disorder and nothing else as sad.

I have thought of why Zenos didn't change into a monster and a few things do come to mind. For one there is a strong theory that Zenos also has the Blessing to protect him since he got a strong Echo. Another is that before the End of Days triggered, Zenos could be using his next fight with the WoL as his "little thing in life" to face another day. Now I can be wrong about all this but I am also curious why Zenos felt kinda "off". Like he wasn't a character in ffxiv like even Elidibus was. Think this is me being dumb and over thinking Zenos?

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/d...depression.htm If curious about a few places I went. Again not a doctor but I have never scene the ffxiv team write a character as meta.

Edit: Here is a few things that felt off to me and why I went the way I did. The body swap scene made no sense since he was in the WoL body. No way he would just fold over. He's had multiple chances to kill any scion member and just didn't do it. His final scene, wasn't glad he lost and didn't feel like a person with an "after glow" aura a battle maniac normally has. When Battle maniacs die from battle, they always die with some smile on their face or thanking their opponent in some way. Zenos did not thank the WoL for his death. I'd recommend re-watching the final scene, Zenos is in no way happy about the fight as a typical battle maniac would be.

[Krotoan]

He isn't a battle maniac because there are far to many moments he decides to not fight the WoL because he recognizes the WoL has responsibilities to the world to save it.

He isn't stopping because he recognizes the WoL's responsibilities as important in general. He understands that the WoL THINKS these are the most important thing right now and WON'T be able to focus on their fight.

He doesn't care about anything other than a "true" fight and is willing to wait , or even help remove obstacles to that fight.

[Eriane_Elis]

I don't think he was depressed. I think he was just indifferent with everything as everything bored him since he's immortal and essentially a god in the realm of mortals. The only concept that doesn't bore him is the concept of death so that's why he's so excited to duel with the WoL. He wants to die but he wants to die in battle. That's his excitement and what he looks forward to. He wasn't necessarily a monster so-to-speak, everyone on the planet is basically a familiar in his eyes, a familiar which is just drawn up energy with no actual relevance to the original beings (that he knows of). It's akin to creating a robot. Robots have in a sense the soul of the creator but nothing else. The WoL is different however since the WoL is the transcendence of an Ascian aka Hydaelin.

[Larirawiel]

Zenos is only a reflection of the player, who sits in front of the monitor.


Edit: but i am happy that he is finally dead. I did not like his character and there was no real character development on him. He was simply there and killed people.

Cheers

[Kaurhz]

To be honest we needed more on Zenos before they offed him. But to be frank if that knowing-more comes at the expense of him being alive for another expansion then no-ty.

In the end, with how they treated him and his development I feel like he served his purpose in helping to keep our 'god-slaying' character somewhat grounded, given the levels we took Shadowbringers and Endwalker, and to try and resonate with us as gamers/players/adventurers, to always seek and find that new challenge, rather than any significant story implication.

[myahele]

Maybe Zenos next story arc is him realizing that he doesn't need to fight WoL to feel something. That helping WoL save the Universe offered its own rewards that he didn't think possible. I can see him joining WoL in their next adventures.

[Neotempest]

He isn't stopping because he recognizes the WoL's responsibilities as important in general. He understands that the WoL THINKS these are the most important thing right now and WON'T be able to focus on their fight.

He doesn't care about anything other than a "true" fight and is willing to wait , or even help remove obstacles to that fight.

I agree, but how many battle maniacs do you know that fit the, "Well, I'll just stop here cause you aren't gonna give me attention right now and i'll just wait my turn sometime in the future"? The fact he does this is just weird as a battle maniac who cares only for fighting.

[OtakuSempai]

I think Zenos exemplifies the theme of the expansion quite well. Finding what gives your life meaning and purpose, even if its arbitrary and has no place in the context of everything else.

Zenos found his in challenging us, even though it seemed pointless to us and other characters given the gravity of what was going on. I think that's the point of his character, to highlight the fact that we all have things that drive us to keep on living, no matter how asinine, despite the fact that we're merely hairless apes on a pale blue dot that will eventually be consumed by an average sized star in a universe that will continually expand into cold black everlasting darkness.

[MilkieTea]

I agree, but how many battle maniacs do you know that fit the, "Well, I'll just stop here cause you aren't gonna give me attention right now and i'll just wait my turn sometime in the future"? The fact he does this is just weird as a battle maniac who cares only for fighting.

He didn't only care for fighting. He only cared for fighting *you*. And that's the big difference. Once he met you, he found his match, and he was willing to do ANYTHING to have a true battle. Even if that meant removing any pesky distractions, or waiting for months or even years. He wanted a fight to the death, and he knew that if you were distracted, you weren't going to give that to him.