6.0 Predictions: Will it be Garlemald, Sharlayan, or Meracydia?

[LineageRazor]

Dunno if Zenos has any designs to backstab Fandaniel. There's nothing to gain in so doing, and Zenos hasn't been shown to care all that much about status.

The opposite is also true, though given Fandaniel was ecstatic to be off of the Paragons' leash, I'm much more inclined to believe he's no interest in genuinely being someone else's toady again and is just setting Zenos up for something.

Eh, there's lots of reasons Zenos could turn on Fandaniel - most notably, if any of Fandaniel's machinations threaten his violent reunion with the WoL. If such an occasion arises, however, I see him as being just as likely to stab him in the front than in the back. You know, whatever side's convenenient at the time.

I agree, though, that Fandaniel could come up with an assortment of reasons to stab Zenos in the back (which would, of course, be another prime motivation for Zenos to stab him instead), but I doubt he would be successful. Zenos is the Villian Sue to the WoL's Mary Sue - the only one in the game whose unexplained invincibiilty and powers of plot contrivance could possibly rival our own! Wacky, capering Ascians may come and go (RIP, Emet), but Zenos will never die (for good) until he has his Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny with the WoL.

The foreshadowing of this is so strong, that even if they DID pull a curveball and have Zenos bite it before the final act, I can't help but feel that it would seem... weird.

[Cilia]

Eh, there's lots of reasons Zenos could turn on Fandaniel - most notably, if any of Fandaniel's machinations threaten his violent reunion with the WoL. If such an occasion arises, however, I see him as being just as likely to stab him in the front than in the back. You know, whatever side's convenenient at the time.

I agree, though, that Fandaniel could come up with an assortment of reasons to stab Zenos in the back (which would, of course, be another prime motivation for Zenos to stab him instead), but I doubt he would be successful. Zenos is the Villian Sue to the WoL's Mary Sue - the only one in the game whose unexplained invincibiilty and powers of plot contrivance could possibly rival our own! Wacky, capering Ascians may come and go (RIP, Emet), but Zenos will never die (for good) until he has his Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny with the WoL.

The foreshadowing of this is so strong, that even if they DID pull a curveball and have Zenos bite it before the final act, I can't help but feel that it would seem... weird.

Of course it's a possibility, but there's nothing at the moment suggesting Zenos is gonna backstab Fandaniel. He's let him act freely thus far; of course he'd turn on Fandaniel if the latter jeopardized his plans for the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny with his proclaimed bestie, but there's no other reason he'd do so since Zenos literally doesn't care about anything else. Even sowing chaos and starting or continuing wars are just a means to an end to him; all he wants is the PC.

There is the problem of Zenos being the PC's shadow archetype (in the sense he's a photonegative of the PC; one was born into utmost privilege while the other drifted into a city-state with nothing but the clothes on their back, one struggles for their strength while the other is preternaturally talented, one helps others while the other exploits them, one's Echo is natural while the other's is artificial, etc.) and their great clash being heavily foreshadowed, but I'm hoping that "subversion of expectations" includes Zenos getting offed in 5.5(5) and Fandaniel taking center stage. I'm just so tired of Zenos' one-note villainy antagonism and one-track mind; I'd much rather have an unknown like Fandaniel at center stage, because he's unpredictable (at the moment) and thus interesting to me.

... and of course there's still the question of why he'd defer to Zenos when he was chafing at Elidibus' and Emet-Selch's oversight. There are just many more questions surrounding Fandaniel than Zenos, which leads me to believe he's going to play a bigger role than being Zenos' toady.

(Granted I do still expect that Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny Zenos wants so bad being the 6.0 end boss or even the 6.3 "6.0 True End" boss, but I'm really hoping he gets offed in 5.5(5) cuz again, really tired of his presence on the stage when he's already played his part.)

[KageTokage]

Honestly, I'd also be happy if they subverted expectations by making Zenos get offed before the end of 6.0 or at least make his plans go horribly wrong somehow.

I'm starting to doubt that's going to be the case now that they're suggesting Emet-Selch did something to him to make him "special" even before he got his artificial Echo, though.

[Morningstar1337]

Honestly, I'd also be happy if they subverted expectations by making Zenos get offed before the end of 6.0 or at least make his plans go horribly wrong somehow.

I'm starting to doubt that's going to be the case now that they're suggesting Emet-Selch did something to him to make him "special" even before he got his artificial Echo, though.

I'm starting to wonder if Zenos was the result of an attempt to clone Azem (or Hytholdaeus?), a recreation based only fromemet's memories of them?

[Vyrerus]

In my opinion it is unlikely that Fandaniel would have the means to dispose of Zenos on his own. Zenos is more a means to an end for him, if he even is a grand schemer. To me, it seems like his motivations are largely base, and that this is one reason he was probably easy to ferret out and raise into his Convocation chair. The allure of getting wealth and gold and whatever else while being largely untouchable by most people.

Given his surprise at the fact that the last Unsundered is no longer around, it could be that he aligned himself with Zenos originally in order to have a lynchpin to bully the Unsundered with, given how powerful Zenos has become. He seems to be antithetical to the Unsundered. He's sundered first of all, secondly he's the first Ascian we've been shown that wore distinctly different robes from the normal Ascian robes. I imagine he resents the idea that he's tempered by Zodiark without having even known it, before being raised to his seat.

To me these things say that rather than looking to backstab Zenos or off load him first chance he gets, that Zenos is a long-con key item for him. I believe he wishes for Zenos to take over Zodiark and then use whatever it is that Emet-selch implanted in Zenos to control him, thereby effectively controlling the god.

Surely it's longshot speculation, but I'm running with the idea that Fandaniel is heavily inspired by Kefka. Kefka's mind snapped after his magitek augmentation, and now knowing all of the legends to be true about the world he lived in, he resolved to reawaken the Warring Triad. Earlier on we find out that he's become a psychopath who we know relishes in the deaths of hundreds of people at once, "Nothing beats the symphony of hundreds screaming in unison! Uwee-hee-hee!" We've been shown that Fandaniel's mind snapped once with the zodiac stones, and it's quite possible that his mind snapped again after being re-raised to his old station, for as of now, we know not which shards were chosen to scour for individuals to raise up. I think the most concrete parallel between Fandango and Zenos is that they both have their humanity on the back burner. Though rather than being in love with death and destruction, Fandango is in love with manipulation.

There won't be any reason for Fandango to kill Zenos or vice versa if the manipulation that Fandango seeks to enact on Zenos plays into Zenos's wishes. Personally I don't think either of them will die before 6.0. I think an interesting happenstance may occur wherein the other Sundered Ascians either ally or oppose Fandango, and Fandango has Zenos start putting down the other red masks.

We might even get an Ascian on our doorstep, begging for intercession and sanctuary. If not in earnest, then perhaps in ruse.

[Riastrad]

Due to the many connections that XIV has with other FF titles, I am of the mind that he is simply using Zenos as means of getting what he desires: a mass sacrifice. I bring up the connection to previous Final Fantasies because of his connection to Hashmal, The Bringer of Order.

"Fandaniel" refers to the Scion of Light "Fandaniel, The Protector", referred to in the profile of Hashmal in Final Fantasy XII. <-- Taken from the FF Wiki, though common knowledge if you look at the Stone which bears his mark as Leo.

If you remember in Final Fantasy Tactics, Hashmal was able to summon Ultima by way of sowing chaos around Ivalice, much like Fandaniel is doing with Zenos. So to this end, as Vyrerus stated, he is playing the long game with Zenos, to use him as a conduit to amass enough death and chaos (aether) to take control of Zodiark and possibly Hydaelyn.

After you slay the first form of Ultima in Tactics, she says something funny.

"Impossible...this end to meet... I see it now, too late. In you...his blood, my vanquisher in times...long past. But not so soon...shall I accept defeat..."

She also says this exact line in the Orbonne Monastery raid in XIV to you, the WoL/WoD.

Who this references has always been a mystery to me. I wonder now though, if it has not been retconned to be Azem in the world of XIV. Knowing that the events of Tactics have already happened within the world of XIV, I have to wonder if this wouldn't be the first time he has tried this.

The description of Ultima in Tactics.

A being that has been set free from the laws that govern creation, surpassing pedestrian concepts of morality.

To be free to wantonly sow discord sounds pretty much what he wants. At least to me.

[JeanneOrnitier]

Honestly, I'd also be happy if they subverted expectations by making Zenos get offed before the end of 6.0 or at least make his plans go horribly wrong somehow.

Dear god please. I cannot deal with Zenos's terrible character after how good Shadowbringers' villains were.

[KageTokage]

I'm starting to wonder if Zenos was the result of an attempt to clone Azem (or Hytholdaeus?), a recreation based only fromemet's memories of them?

Personally, I'm thinking that Zenos ended up being the latest one inherit Hytholodaeus' soul (Largely due to him being able to perceive the "color" of Fandaniel's soul which was noted as being a very rare ability even amongst the Ancients) and Emet-Selch conferred some memories to him (And possibly more) on a whim simply because he couldn't stand the thought of his former friend being wholly oblivious to his past life.

It would make him having been viewing us as his "friend" all the more ironic if we actually were friends in another life countless millenia past.

[Rosenstrauch]

Personally, I'm thinking that Zenos ended up being the latest one inherit Hytholodaeus' soul (Largely due to him being able to perceive the "color" of Fandaniel's soul which was noted as being a very rare ability even amongst the Ancients) and Emet-Selch conferred some memories to him (And possibly more) on a whim simply because he couldn't stand the thought of his former friend being wholly oblivious to his past life.

It would make him having been viewing us as his "friend" all the more ironic if we actually were friends in another life countless millenia past.

That would be in line with the odd comment Fancy Dan made at the end of 5.2.

White-robed Figure
Indeed... Could Emet-Selch have found a way...? Precious few possess memories of the Final Days.

Though Zenos doesn't naturally possess the Echo—he had to have it implanted into him via the same process as Fordola. But maybe this business about him having memories of the Final Days is a soft retcon of that? Or maybe we don't know the whole story with the Resonant (artificial Echo bearers), or... I don't know. Other weird "that shouldn't work, but maybe?" candidates for post-sundering Hythlodaeus that I've seen floated about are G'raha Tia and Y'shtola, both of whom are closer in terms of behavior to Ol' Hythy than Zenos. But aside from Y'shtola apparently doing some of the same gestures as him there's no hard evidence and a distinct lack of the Echo in both of them.

I dunno. Color me intrigued to see if something comes of this, at least.

[Cilia]

Spoiler Alert: we aren't in Ivalice, so things there don't necessarily apply here.

Exactly what's going on with Zenos... isn't entirely clear. He claims to have had dreams of the Final Days since childhood, but has an artificial Echo. I'm not of the mind that he's an incarnation of Hythlodaeus for two reasons (it defeats the purpose of his character being the PC's photonegative and he'd be able to naturally use the Echo), and his demeanor is vastly different from what we've seen of Hythlodaeus. (Or rather Hythlodaeus' shade. But same diff, so far.)