Zenos Appreciation Thread [Massive Spoilers]

[All_Nonsense]

Based necro-post. Zenos turned out to be an amazing character in the end, and I loved that he was the only one who truly acknowledged why most of us are even here in the first place:

"But there is more to you than that. You know this to be true. As surely as you know the thrill of pushing your body and soul to their limits. Of confronting ever-mightier foes, dancing ever closer to the precipice, wondering if this will be the one to finally, finally...fill the void. Such pleasures, you seek for their own sake, and no other reason. Is this not so...adventurer?"

And he finally gives us an opportunity to say it at last: "That, I can't deny."

Here's to the only character in the game who truly understood us. Our one true friend.

[Turtledeluxe]

I think Zenos has tropey moments and some tropey dialogue, but I also think he's one of the most consistent and well developed characters in the entire game. The end of EW doesn't just come out of nowhere or feel unearned, it's the culmination of what he has really been saying even since the end of STB. That's a long time to not have the writers totally fumble and ruin the character. So nice job imo.

In relation to DT, Zenos is like the opposite of Zoraal Ja. Instead of being defeated by alienation, it became intrinsic to his own sense of purpose. Zoraal Ja is sort of embarrassingly unaware of what he's even doing, moreso a generic victim, while Zenos was self admittedly a bored psycho. But I think what makes his admission about it so good is that his dialogue and tone also clue us in that he has the intelligence and self awareness to know that he is an atypical personality and perhaps even harbors a tiny doubt about his own projected comfortability with that truth. His "I...." at the end was perfect imo. The whole game he's been an unflinching monster but at the very end we see that he did have some doubt.

One of the best lines of dialogue in XIV honestly. And it's just "I..." lol. Sometimes leaving things ambiguous and unresolved can say more than loaded exposoiton.

[All_Nonsense]

One of the best lines of dialogue in XIV honestly. And it's just "I..." lol. Sometimes leaving things ambiguous and unresolved can say more than loaded exposition.

I think what makes it so effective is how it leaves so much at the end that we can wonder about. A lot of plausible things can come after that. Him saying "I think you did" or "I certainly did" or "I don't know" or anything in-between fits in the narrative. It was more fitting for him to die before he could convey his "Answer" (the whole theme of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark story arc) because it embodied his character perfectly. Someone who burned their candle at both ends, someone who shined as bring as magnesium reaching the culmination of their journey and finding their answer, but fading out just as they were about to tell us what it was. 10/10 huge risk and a huge narrative investment that paid off big time for the writers.

[localareanetwork]

Would it make you "happier" had I a "good reason"?