Quote Originally Posted by Anonymoose View Post
I'ma get Socratic up in this bish! About Zenos, of all things.
After The Revelation Zenos was Alive

Saw it coming. There's no way they'd have a character like this kill himself for no reason. Like us, he gets up after being knocked down. Our foil, to a T. It'll be interesting to see what comes of this.


Through 5.0

Well, I wasn't expecting him to kill the Emperor, but I suppose someone or something had to completely stop the empire from wanting to produce Black Rose. Estinien and Gaius did a good job, but the Garleans were ever a step ahead, creating more manufacturing plants for the stuff. Zenos is kind a Bizarro Superman, in that he's an unstoppable lynchpin they can have do anything, but for the antagonists. This is calculated.

5.1 to present

Hmm, so even an Unsundered Ascian that's part and parcel Zodiark cannot fully emulate Zenos's power. I guess that makes sense. This is the guy who casually superseded the will of Shinryu, a primal so powerful that even the Omega Weapon had to use the most powerful gun in its arsenal to subdue it. Don't think for a nano second that I missed the comparison of calling us a beast and referring to Zenos's strength as that of a beast's. Even in passing comments they bring the foil relationship about.

Hmm, White Dun Scaith robed Ascian huh. Well at least he's got good taste in garments. Will he subvert Zenos as Kefka did Gestahl, or will he play the role of dedicated lieutenant until he gets the spectacular death he so desires? He considers Zenos an equal or better, worthy of granting him death... hmm.

Zenos is off to get a new weapon. Job change? His Dissidia katanas(Susano and Shinryu)? Hmm... people say a scythe is leaned against his throne, and they may be right, but is it his? Will he become a "beast" hunter? He did like to call us beast, afterall.

What I'm thinking/is Zenos worthy to be big bad?

By power level, yeah, he's worth being the big bad. There's literally nothing that we know of that's stronger than him on The Source. Death has only improved him, by making him fully aware of his Resonant Echo capabilities. As we've seen, others in the Empire have used the Resonant tech, namely Misjia. This also provides an in, to tie other NPCs back into the story, such as Fordola(and her lover boy Arenvald). It could obviously still go either way, with him being the end all be all, with Fandaniel as his vehicle, or he could be the penultimate challenge. I know most people are very vocal about their dislike of Zenos as a character, but I've really enjoyed the foil aspect of him as the unstoppable antagonist. He's everything we are in strength, and makes us look at a side of ourselves that we don't like to talk about at parties. We like violence. This is a game that revolves around it.

I also sort of see it as the developer's/writer's pride. Not that Zenos is the best character they've ever written or anything, but that they've heard the responses to him. I think they're going to go all out to turn around opinion on him. I think the entire FFXIV staff is chock full of suckers for redemption arcs. Not redemption of morality, but of the quality of their product. If they succeed it will spark up every past scene as delayed brilliance. It's a tall order, I know, but I think that's what they're trying to do.