What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[IdowhatIwant]

Zenos said he wanted to die and even assuming he didn't quite literally "burn the candle of his life", it's stated that reaper avatars have a precedent for preying on their pact-bearers the moment their souls begin to wane, so I'm inclined to think he is actually dead and that the void shenanigans in the 6.1 trailer are linked to his avatar somehow.

That's neat and all, but shouldn't that be included in the MSQ if that is really important.

Just curious on why they want more stories centered around Zenos, it would be his avatar but still i’m sure they’ll find some way to stick him back in.He’s beyond redundant, and i don’t see what’s so compelling about him to keep making stories with him and not characters that are way more interesting like some of the ancients.

I hated Zenos redundancy until he came back at the end of endwalker and called me a loser for not killing Meteion yet. It finally gave me some sort of hope that this could be a interesting character.

[CrownySuccubus]

I hated Zenos redundancy until he came back at the end of endwalker and called me a loser for not killing Meteion yet. It finally gave me some sort of hope that this could be a interesting character.

LOL, yeah. When he said "I take it this is your prey. But what does it still live? Surely it is no match for you? I thought you above something so banal as despair." I took that personallhy. Never been so motivated to actually prove a villain right.

[PawPaw]

That's neat and all, but shouldn't that be included in the MSQ if that is really important.

Exactly. Everything that could have made the character interesting in game was relegated to side stories locked behind books that are never in print and Q&A questions that just happen to get answered. If you hadn't done the RPR questline you wouldn't even know that about an avatar and the soul. They handled his character terribly. But I still love my best friend.

I still can't believe they just casually explained him having dreams of the Final Days as "because he's Emet-Selch's great-grandson..." People were out here thinking he'd been experimented on in the womb and all kinds of wild stuff. But they never even bothered to put that information in the game, just matter-of-factly "duh, he's related to an Ascian". Imagine if no one had asked that question? We may never have known.

[Lauront]

I find Zenos preferable to the likes of G'raha or Alphinaud, but that isn't saying a great deal. Again, my enjoyment of him peaked in 4.0. His main use to me in 6.0 was a palate cleanser from all the syropy Alphirants (could be any Scion.) I really hope any future use of him is limited to his avatar, as I think his story has now had a fitting conclusion in EW.

Exactly. Everything that could have made the character interesting in game was relegated to side stories locked behind books that are never in print and Q&A questions that just happen to get answered. If you hadn't done the RPR questline you wouldn't even know that about an avatar and the soul. They handled his character terribly. But I still love my best friend.

I still can't believe they just casually explained him having dreams of the Final Days as "because he's Emet-Selch's great-grandson..." People were out here thinking he'd been experimented on in the womb and all kinds of wild stuff. But they never even bothered to put that information in the game, just matter-of-factly "duh, he's related to an Ascian". Imagine if no one had asked that question? We may never have known.

I never took that speculation too seriously, because Fandaniel was just spitballing at the end of the day. What did strike me as a possibility was that Emet-Selch may have ferried over a specific soul to become his. Some people actually think it's fact that he was experimented on, but I think they're misreading what Elidibus and Varis were discussing, certainly supported by the fact that the FR version has Elidibus attribute his use as a test subject to Varis and not the Ascians - a more logical reading of that, IMO, is that Elidibus was referring to being able to observe the outcome of Zenos's self-experimentation using the Resonance following Aulus's dismissal from the imperial court. Even if Varis thought his son was a madman, Aulus's research could (and did) prove valuable to the Empire.

Zenos would have felt threatening if he was actually doing bad guy stuff during the ShB patches, rather than just lounging around waiting for the next expac to happen (and even then, Zenos pretty much spends most of Endwalker doing nothing). Maybe he should have been trying to pursue the WoL to the First. Or maybe he would waltz into Mor Dhona or Ul'dah and start slaughtering people left and right until the WoL came. Or if the WoL was unreachable, maybe he would start hunting down Hraesvelgr and trying to derive entertainment from killing him. At least then there would have been tension from him. What Zenos did to the people of Garlemald is sad, but I literally met Jullus 10 minutes ago. For a villain so obsessed with trying to get a fight with the WoL, you'd think that he would try making the WoL extremely motivated to fight by killing the people or destroying places that the WoL cares about. But that ties back into nothing bad ever befalling heroes.

Yes, if he offed some of them and it stuck, I might've been more interested.

Zenos was a mistake. An uninteresting villain with only a mildly intriguing physical appearance. Most of his on screen time was linked to teases that went nowhere. Please do not waste my time like that again.

Aka the majority of SHB and a good chunk of EW.

As for Metetion, I had no interest in spending further time with her. Quite honestly, I'm annoyed we didn't put her down and allowed her to go free at the end to... sing more?! Cause that's not how we ended up in this mess in the first place or anything. :P Sure, she's cute and arguably innocent, but that doesn't make her not dangerous or suddenly forgiven for trying to wipe out all life in the universe. I'm particularly annoyed that she got a second chance, better antagonists than her never did.

Yeah, that's a good point. She does nothing for me as a character in all honesty. I'd rather that was the end of her.

[PawPaw]

I never took that speculation too seriously, because Fandaniel was just spitballing at the end of the day. What did strike me as a possibility was that Emet-Selch may have ferried over a specific soul to become his. Some people actually think it's fact that he was experimented on, but I think they're misreading what Elidibus and Varis were discussing, certainly supported by the fact that the FR version has Elidibus attribute his use as a test subject to Varis and not the Ascians - a more logical reading of that, IMO, is that Elidibus was referring to being able to observe the outcome of Zenos's self-experimentation using the Resonance following Aulus's dismissal from the imperial court. Even if Varis thought his son was a madman, Aulus's research could (and did) prove valuable to the Empire.

I never believed any of that "Emet-Selch experimented on Zenos" theorizing, but that wasn't a popular stance on reddit (shocker). I can't count the number of times I've seen that theory stated as pure fact. And the suppositions have almost entirely been based on Fandaniel's line of "Could Emet -Selch have found a way?". Elidibus' and Varis' conversation never meant anything other to me than what we already knew, that he experimented on himself regularly.

I assumed it was genetic because, just look at Solus' descendants; they're beyond massive. Zenos towers over most characters and Varis towers over him. And if, from reading Emet-Selch's short story, I can deduce that Varis is barely a shadow of his own father in stature then I can only imagine how abnormally large that first son must have been. With Solus musing that he and his wife were completely ordinary Garleans in terms of height and build, then I have to assume that freakish height must be genetic somehow. And if that could be passed down, they why couldn't other things?

Basically, I took Fandaniel's like to mean "Hmmm, Emet-Selch had sex and created hybrids in the process?!"

[Lauront]

I never believed any of that "Emet-Selch experimented on Zenos" theorizing, but that wasn't a popular stance on reddit (shocker). I can't count the number of times I've seen that theory stated as pure fact. And the suppositions have almost entirely been based on Fandaniel's line of "Could Emet -Selch have found a way?". Elidibus' and Varis' conversation never meant anything other to me than what we already knew, that he experimented on himself regularly.

I assumed it was genetic because, just look at Solus' descendants; they're beyond massive. Zenos towers over most characters and Varis towers over him. And if, from reading Emet-Selch's short story, I can deduce that Varis is barely a shadow of his own father in stature then I can only imagine how abnormally large that first son must have been. With Solus musing that he and his wife were completely ordinary Garleans in terms of height and build, then I have to assume that freakish height must be genetic somehow. And if that could be passed down, they why couldn't other things?

Basically, I took Fandaniel's like to mean "Hmmm, Emet-Selch had sex and created hybrids in the process?!"

I've seen it happen quite a few times on there - you get wild theories that outgrow any basis they have in the lore, and I wouldn't mind it, because speculation is all good fun, if people actually acknowledged that what they're doing is speculating. But instead they take it as established fact and tend to get mad if someone points out contradictory lore to what they're claiming.

Zenos's backstory made it out that he'd even risk injuring himself greatly to wield aether, and given how much of an affinity Emet-Selch had to that, it must've passed down to him as some kind of urge in need of an outlet.

*snip*

The Azem thing you mention is something a lot of us were expecting may be the case. I honestly would've liked this kind of scenario better.