More than just not locking a story behind a physical book, if it's important to understanding the plot or characters it should be in the game itself. It's one thing to flesh out some unimportant details in a side story, do a bit of world building you don't need in the msq etc, but if it's important to understanding the major characters or plot it really should be in the game. Thankfully FFXIV handles this a lot better than another certain MMO that I don't want to derail things with comparisons to here so that's all I'll say on that.

I will give Zenos credit for having a great VA, I don't fault the actor for my lack of interest in him. But he's just not my cup of tea. Not every villain needs to be sympathetic. Fandaniel's honestly growing on me for example despite not showing any redeeming qualities yet. But Zenos for me personally just isn't offering much, aside from the admittedly good voice acting.

He doesn't have an interesting motivation (for me). Note that this doesn't mean 'sympathetic' motivation, an interesting motivation can still be selfish or evil etc. And his 'bored by everything except persuing the big fight he wants' personality doesn't grab me either. Fandaniel's theatrics are growing on me in an entertaining campy way, but Zenos isn't.

And unfortunately Zenos doesn't work for me in terms of just feeling threatening either. Oh he's strong sure. He curbstomped us twice and beats up npcs all the time. But for all his strength he feels toothless when it comes to actually hitting us where it hurts. He beats us the Reach, but the resistance doesn't even have to abandon their base. He beats us in Doma but nobody we care about dies and this actually plays out in our favor in the Steppe. Suddenly in ala mhigo the story says 'okay we gotta wrap this up he can lose now.' And then afterwards he goes back to beating up npcs. He makes Gaius and Estinien run away but they get away just fine. He kills Varis but Varis' rant at the end of the negotiations torpedoed all of the interest the first half of it had been building in his character for me so I didn't have an emotional investment in his death. His actions cause a civil war that grinds the capitol into dust more or less but we don't know anyone there, and the empire has been an antagonist throughout the whole game. If the writers want me to actually fear Zenos, they gotta step up their game. Don't just give him a high power level. Let him do things that actually matter that hurt the WOL and those they care about in tangible, irreversible ways.

I hope that 6.0 will turn things around for me. I didn't like Emet Selch pre 5.0 so there is hope. I don't 'want' to dislike Zenos, but so far he really just doesn't offer me much.