[All The Spoilers] Can we talk about Zodiark?

[haircombee]

Don't they make a point of saying that primals summoned through creation magic can't enthrall people?

[NegativeS]

Don't they make a point of saying that primals summoned through creation magic can't enthrall people?

They don't say that creation magic primals can't enthrall people, they say that creation magic, when used right, can make primals that can't enthrall people.

The Ascians taught the beast tribes some bastardized version of creation magic in order to make enthralling primals. They then use this same magic, under supervision and with foresight, to make non-enthralling primals to get us to Ultima Thule.

The Amaurotines were panicked and in fear when they made Zodiark, and likely didn't have the time to think things through.

To be fair, they didn't really develop him for 8-10 years, we knew very little about him before Shadowbringers.

They developed him through the Ascians. The more we learned of the Ascians and their purpose, the more we learned of Zodiark and his purpose.

[Jandor]

They developed him through the Ascians. The more we learned of the Ascians and their purpose, the more we learned of Zodiark and his purpose.

We didn't really learn all that much about the Ascians or their purpose before Shadowbringers either.

They wanted to restore Zodiark & they planned to do this by spreading chaos, that's about the gist of what we got through ARR, HW and StB. They were long considered the weakest part of the story for pretty good reason IMHO, Shadowbringers really turned things around for the Ascians.

[Melorie]

I felt that it was extremely rushed. I was looking forward to meet Zodiark and see another layer of the melancholy that this primal most likely had, given the history behind their creation, and explore the moon in an actual interesting way. But Fandaniel explanations were pretty meh, there was 0 emotional connection to the whole thing and the moon-bunny-base was way more time-consuming than it should have been. The moon was probably the worst map of the expansions, easily, even though it was the most hyped.

Also Zenos hanging around after the scene felt sooo out of place.

[Rokke]

Zodiark was effectively declawed the moment we killed Elidibus. There was no way he'd be the final boss after SHB.

[Hazama999]

Zodiark was effectively declawed the moment we killed Elidibus. There was no way he'd be the final boss after SHB.

This.

Honestly, I cared less and less about Zodiark as an entity the longer Shadowbringers went on. The point of interest, to me, changed from him to the ones who summoned him, and ever since they introduced the concept of a primal of such scale having a "heart", I pretty much lost all interest in Zodiark "proper" since he is pretty much just a mecha at that point. Whatever character he may have had, you could attribute it to Elidibus.

So no, I wasn't disappointed or thought they "did him dirty" in the trial. He was nothing but an incomplete vehicle to serve Amon's goal.