The Reason Zenos.

[Evraeh]

I wish we get sometime a back story of Zenos in the level of Emet, to anwer why he is strong, or his personality.
Emet without any of ShB would be just bad as zenos, but now it's a whole villain that we love.

I wish to know it as well. I didn't like him in SB but since ShB, I want to know more of him. I feel him to be a great villain if we could know more of him, if he could be more related to the hero like Emet-Selch did.

[Derio]

Zenos is our only villain that last 3 expansions

[SugarPuff]

I like Zenos as a villain because his motivation hasn't been done to death. He's not another would-be world ruler, a religious zealot, or seeking revenge for anything. My take on him is that he wants to feel alive, which maybe doesn't make him fitting as an iconic villain because it's too close to a real life psychological disorder, but I feel it makes his character darker and his relationship with the WOL more interesting than that of most antagonists.

[AnimaAnimus]

I personally cannot stand Zenos in any game, but I can see why SE uses him, he is one of their cookie-cutter "neckbeard with a big sword" villains. I could totally picture him in the real world hacking at melons in his front lawn cause "katana is best sword and no one messes with me or my big katana cause I will cut you down to defend my waifu" ...you know the type. Sephirot is their biggest example of this archetype. And you can make as many arguments as you want about his motivations, but when it comes down to it, he is nothing but an incel with a big sword and mommy issues, it people eat it up for some reason.

But SE loves their cringy villains (and heroes), because they appeal to a small but very very loud and vocal group. I had hopes with Iceheart, and again with Yutsu, and then again with Emet, but nope, they are all killed off the moment their stories got really good only to be replaced with the weird Naruto kid in math class and I become the Witcher meme of "/sigh ...f---" It's like SE is scared of having a really well developed villain that had motivations beyond "look at my big sword! come at me bro! cackles in bad anime villain tropes" which is sad.

The story always gets super good, then we revert back to something like Zenos.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

I personally cannot stand Zenos in any game, but I can see why SE uses him, he is one of their cookie-cutter "neckbeard with a big sword" villains. I could totally picture him in the real world hacking at melons in his front lawn cause "katana is best sword and no one messes with me or my big katana cause I will cut you down to defend my waifu" ...you know the type. Sephirot is their biggest example of this archetype. And you can make as many arguments as you want about his motivations, but when it comes down to it, he is nothing but an incel with a big sword and mommy issues, it people eat it up for some reason.

I'll play devil's advocate for Sephiroth, even though I don't really like the villain. Spoilers for VII in the tags.

He's a purposeful parallel to Cloud. Cloud wants to be a Soldier First Class so he can keep his promise to Tifa. He fails. He then hides his face when he goes back home because he's too embarrassed, but he still moves on with his life despite failing to be who he wanted to be. After he gets caught by Hojo, he gets made to believe he was a Soldier due to his messed up memories, and his big moment of growth is addressing that he never was a Soldier and moving on past that.

Sephiroth, meanwhile, finds out the circumstances of his birth aren't what he thought and just deludes himself more and more. He points out the Makonids are just monsters, but then has nothing to say when Zack points out he's similar. So instead of addressing that fact, he tricks himself into believing he's a Cetra. That proves untrue, so now he tries to shape himself into a god because he's bigger and better than all of these "lowly humans". And then he gets killed by Cloud and Co.

The main problem with Sephiroth is that the compilation (and other guest appearances he has in games like Kingdom Hearts or Dissidia) just uses him as the "omg, he's so cool and epic" character without any of the nuance.

[Lersayil]

I'll play devil's advocate for Sephiroth, even though I don't really like the villain. Spoilers for VII in the tags.

He's a purposeful parallel to Cloud. Cloud wants to be a Soldier First Class so he can keep his promise to Tifa. He fails. He then hides his face when he goes back home because he's too embarrassed, but he still moves on with his life despite failing to be who he wanted to be. After he gets caught by Hojo, he gets made to believe he was a Soldier due to his messed up memories, and his big moment of growth is addressing that he never was a Soldier and moving on past that.

Sephiroth, meanwhile, finds out the circumstances of his birth aren't what he thought and just deludes himself more and more. He points out the Makonids are just monsters, but then has nothing to say when Zack points out he's similar. So instead of addressing that fact, he tricks himself into believing he's a Cetra. That proves untrue, so now he tries to shape himself into a god because he's bigger and better than all of these "lowly humans". And then he gets killed by Cloud and Co.

The main problem with Sephiroth is that the compilation (and other guest appearances he has in games like Kingdom Hearts or Dissidia) just uses him as the "omg, he's so cool and epic" character without any of the nuance.

Weren't those plot bits brought in later, in Crisis Core though? I still prefer him over Zenos, since he at least had goals and plans other than self-entertainment, but I do agree with the guy above... he was kinda flat (akin to Zenos) in the OG game.

[RokkuEkkusu]

I've been thinking about this for quite a while.

Back in Stormblood, the devs said that he would be one of the most hated antagonists considering his attitude toward his servants and even his own family. But that didn't stop people from praising him as a decent villian. It got to the point where his unexpected popularity got him into Dissidia of all places.

Now when Shadowbringers came out, people starting to now agree with the devs about Zenos, albeit for different reasons such as boring personality, or not being in the same league as his Great-Grandfather.

I mean, what's with the sudden change of view on Zenos all of a sudden?

[AngeliouxRein]

I still like Zenos . I always saw him as the joker of villains. We don’t really know his breaking point. Even when he states what drives him to be that way, we still don’t fully understand his drive. It’s a breath of fresh air to have someone like him that you can’t relate to in the slightest. On top of that, the devs can do a lot with him because of his joker like ways.

[Gemina]

I mean, what's with the sudden change of view on Zenos all of a sudden?

I don't know if something happened in 5.1 that changed it, but I've noticed it as well. I came into this thread expecting more replies like from AnimaAnimus. I am bit surprised by the praise he has received, but not entirely.

I hate to say it, and I also hate to make comparisons, but Zenos is refreshing. Villains like Emet who garner a ton of sympathy is used quite often. Even in this game, the motivations that drove Gaius and Nidhogg are forged from tragedy. There was a huge amount of respect towards them upon their defeat, and a wishing that it didn't have to come to that conclusion. Thordan is the only one I can think of (not using raid hosts like Nael) who are drunk off of their own power. A true tyrant.

In short, the game almost needs Zenos because I for one grow tired of the victimized villain bent on revenge, or a nostalgic driven entity living in the past. I'm not a wagon jumper though, and have always been team Zenos since I first saw him in late 3.x. I also love Evrae's signature, so I do admit to having a little bit of bias xD

[MoofiaBossVal]

When comes to XIV villains, Zenos is far and away the most iconic.

Let's go through the list of villains:

Bahamut: he was a non-character, effectively a force of nature. he only has relevance to 1.0 players and those who did the Coils, which is content the vast majority of players have never touched.
Gaius van Baelsar: Appears in a grand total of 3 cutscenes in 2.0, and isn't even the final boss.
Ultima Weapon: A non-character.
Lahabrea: is a pretty forgettable generic evil guy. Only becomes somewhat interesting in retrospect once ShB dropped.
Thordan: is a generic evil JRPG pope.
Nidhogg: is a generic evil dragon. He has so little characterization that he borders on being a non-character.
Fordola: is a lieutenant to the big bad and is more heroic than evil.
Yotsuyu: spiteful, psychotic woman who gets a sob story later on. At least she has a cool character design.
Varis Zos Galvus: Doesn't do anything of note.
Ranjit: Forgettable.
Vauthry: Served his purpose but isn't memorable.

The only memorable, good villains are Zenos and Emet. Zenos is the most classically villainous, has the most iconic character design, and has combat capabilities most adaptable for a fighter moveset. He has the most appearances of any villain, appearing across three expansions (probably four), and is treated as the WoL's arch-rival.

The jury is still out on Elidibus. He has the potential to be just as memorable as Zenos and Emet. It looks like they're setting him up to be the ultimate jerk of the XIV setting and the WoL's timeless arch-enemy. We'll see.