Wuk lamat ruin EW/ShB legacy

[ZXN]

I actually love how Square Enix took the criticism people had of Zenos and actually turned that into sort of a character arc for him - where he learns that while the WoL is his world, he is not the WoL's, and has to come to terms with it. It was actually made quite nicely, and I loved the finale of it all. In the end, Zenos was a good antagonist I find.

I'll admit I liked his character from the start. I loved that he beat the WoL to a pulp because at that point we just kept winning because of the plot armor of the blessing of light (and I mean, I get it, we are the player, we can't really lose), and it was nice to be kicked down a few notches, showed that the WoL while OP, is not infallible.

When it came EW, his arch was an improvement of something I like... like adding chocolate syrup on top of dulce de leche icecream and the fact that the WoL didn't end up completely unscathed, even if we had just defeated despair was just such a perfect way to close that chapter.

And now, the one that will follow us like a very crappy Majima screaming in lower case and hiding in a garbage bin is... Poochie...

To call that a downgrade it's underselling it.

At least Zenos is able to walk by HIS OWN LEG.. without the need for us to sooth him to do so

I loved Zenos' character. I can understand why some people hated him as at a glance he is a pretty "simple" villain: a character who revels in the simplicity and rawness of his desire to face someone strong and that's it. What "made" him though was how they developed him and presented him as a character. EVERYTHING he does is just for that fight with you. Right to the end, he sticks to his own morals and mindset and never truly deviates from it. There isn't even a true "redemption" arc for him: he ultimately helps you during Endwalker despite being a reason the Final Days even occurred because assisting you with stopping the Endsinger is simply the best way to get your focus back onto him.

While I despise Endwalker, they absolutely did Zenos justice with how he was presented in that expansion and all the buildup was, for me personally, definitely worth the payoff.

Then Dawntrail decided to make Zoraal Ja a watered down bootleg version of Zenos, with comically bad levels of buildup or pay off, who was specifically made just so Wuk Lamat had a "rival" to beat that was opposite her own mindset and give her "character growth" when she finally triumphed.

[Xieldras]

Then Dawntrail decided to make Zoraal Ja a watered down bootleg version of Zenos, with comically bad levels of buildup or pay off, who was specifically made just so Wuk Lamat had a "rival" to beat that was opposite her own mindset and give her "character growth" when she finally triumphed.

Zoraal Ja wasn't even given the opportunity for nuance in the political arc of an expansion. We were told in 6.55 that he's a villain because he opposes Wuk in ideology. There was only ever one path writing-wise, and it was shown within the first 2 zones of Dawntrail where Wuk had "character growth" without even trying.

I mean hurray I guess, but what victory is there to be had in no challenge? The writing never challenged her proper so it all feels shallow and performative.

[ZXN]

Zoraal Ja wasn't even given the opportunity for nuance in the political arc of an expansion. We were told in 6.55 that he's a villain because he opposes Wuk in ideology. There was only ever one path writing-wise, and it was shown within the first 2 zones of Dawntrail where Wuk had "character growth" without even trying.

I mean hurray I guess, but what victory is there to be had in no challenge? The writing never challenged her proper so it all feels shallow and performative.

It's unfortunate since I REALLY wanted to like Zoraal Ja. The problem is the writers thought it was a real good idea to put ALL of Zoraal Ja's actual backstory and lore in discrete context clues you have to just pick up on, like his hallucinations during his trial fight for example. Meanwhile those same writers who decided that also decided it was a real good idea to use all of Zoraal Ja's actual on-screen time when he talked in the MSQ to build him up as...some generic Edgelord McEdgerson with daddy issues who wants a war to teach people war is bad. They even made this man give us a massive text dump out of nowhere before/after his trial fight, when during the entire MSQ they made him say absolutely nothing of value.

Hard to take a character like Zoraal Ja seriously, or even remotely attempt to call him "Wuk Lamat's Zenos", when the writers wrote him the way they did.