Is Zenos Sephiroth?

[Mansion]

...you know, I expected a disappointment with how Garlemald is being treated in Endwalker. And hearing that is going above and beyond what I expected.

Not only does Garlemald only get one zone for the big finale, it's, like, the SECOND zone. They don't even get to be a climax at that point.

Well, wasn't it expected? We expected the Moon to be the grand finale, for obvious reasons... But:

Just because we get to Garlemald early doesn't mean we deal with it for good at that time. For me, we get there for whatever reason, and see that Fanzenos have fled somewhere else, and we follow them (to the Moon I guess). Maybe we'll kill one of them by that time and deal with the other. But I fully expect a Garlemald focus in the patches of Endwalker, the rebuilding etc.

Back to the main topic, I see the resemblance because I don't think either Sephiroth or Zenos are appealing villain, but as Cleretic said they both fall under the same stereotype.

[Cleretic]

Well, wasn't it expected? We expected the Moon to be the grand finale, for obvious reasons... But:

Just because we get to Garlemald early doesn't mean we deal with it for good at that time. For me, we get there for whatever reason, and see that Fanzenos have fled somewhere else, and we follow them (to the Moon I guess). Maybe we'll kill one of them by that time and deal with the other. But I fully expect a Garlemald focus in the patches of Endwalker, the rebuilding etc.

Oh, yeah, I always knew it was getting robbed of the finale, but not that badly.

I expected them to be roughly in the place of Kholusia narratively; to get given the big leadup, but to get screwed out of the actual finale. And it's plausible it might still get that (remember that half of Kholusia is 60/61), but it sounds like the whole thing is at the same level and roughly in the same place as Il Mheg or Rak'tika.

I absolutely expect a lot of the 6.x stuff to focus on Garlemald reconstruction, but as someone who's actually more interested in Thavnair than anywhere, that's not satisfying for me, either. ...especially since it looks like Thavnair is the FIRST zone, so it probably won't get much 6.0 spotlight either. Although at least Thavnair never begged for being Finale Material, just crafting material. ...that they might also not be getting, going by some of the rooms around Sharlayan.

[GoldStarz]

Oh, yeah, I always knew it was getting robbed of the finale, but not that badly.

I expected them to be roughly in the place of Kholusia narratively; to get given the big leadup, but to get screwed out of the actual finale. And it's plausible it might still get that (remember that half of Kholusia is 60/61), but it sounds like the whole thing is at the same level and roughly in the same place as Il Mheg or Rak'tika.

I absolutely expect a lot of the 6.x stuff to focus on Garlemald reconstruction, but as someone who's actually more interested in Thavnair than anywhere, that's not satisfying for me, either. ...especially since it looks like Thavnair is the FIRST zone, so it probably won't get much 6.0 spotlight either. Although at least Thavnair never begged for being Finale Material, just crafting material. ...that they might also not be getting, going by some of the rooms around Sharlayan.

I mean there's a zone who's name we don't know and a zone we literally haven't even seen. It's still probably like the third one we're going to, assuming that we're going to Labyrinthos and Thavnair for the early MSQ split, but it was never going to be the penultimate one considering it has to compete with the moon for that spot.

[Mansion]

Oh, yeah, I always knew it was getting robbed of the finale, but not that badly.

I expected them to be roughly in the place of Kholusia narratively; to get given the big leadup, but to get screwed out of the actual finale. And it's plausible it might still get that (remember that half of Kholusia is 60/61), but it sounds like the whole thing is at the same level and roughly in the same place as Il Mheg or Rak'tika.

I absolutely expect a lot of the 6.x stuff to focus on Garlemald reconstruction, but as someone who's actually more interested in Thavnair than anywhere, that's not satisfying for me, either. ...especially since it looks like Thavnair is the FIRST zone, so it probably won't get much 6.0 spotlight either. Although at least Thavnair never begged for being Finale Material, just crafting material. ...that they might also not be getting, going by some of the rooms around Sharlayan.

I get your point yes, but I'm quite hopeful (and not bothered, most likely) because the sequence of the story doesn't mean that much in the grand scheme of things IMO. RakTikka/Il Mheg are two "passing by" zones in the story, but they get a great development through the Qitari and Pixie quests for instance. While The Tempest is the big finale, we hardly mention its first part ever again, although the side quests there have their own charm.
And Stormblood, as patchy the MSQ was, still each zone had its own thing (which saved Stormblood in my opinion), sure Ala Mhigo got the short end of the stick, but we are still getting news years later...
So I don't think X or Y zone will be less relevant because it's early or in the middle of the MSQ. I'm sure the writers won't forget anything

[MoofiaBossVal]

The resemblance to Sephiroth is superficial. Their only similarities are that they are pretty long haired bishounens who wield katanas and are the strongest men in the world. Otherwise, they're very different in characterization and in their role in the narrative. Sephiroth was a very inhuman character and spends most of the game offscreen. You don't get to see him in the present day until near the end of the story. Whereas with Zenos, he has quite a lot of screentime, and is somewhat humanized with his boredom, and his thirst for challenge and glory.

Sephiroth's menace worked because you didn't really see him, and you saw just enough of him to really scare you (ie, him massacring all of those Shinra personnel, or impaling a giant snake monster that your party struggled to kill on a stake). The biggest problem with Zenos is that for all of his screentime, he hardly feels threatening. Thus far he hasn't been allowed to kill anyone the player cares about (except Varis. RIP). If this moment had actually stuck, he'd have far more of a presence:



It also doesn't help that he has spent almost the entirety of his screentime just sitting around waiting for the WoL to come to him. He'd feel far more terrifying if he was pursuing the WoL into Mor Dhona, slaughtering anyone who got in his way.

As for his role in Endwalker, I'd rather Zenos be defeated and then become a party member half way through the story instead of turning into yet another boring god monster final boss. Having the final battle be a man to man duel with Zenos would be cool but I don't trust the writers.

[SargeTheSeagull]

Don’t be ridiculous. Zenos is Golbez. Turns out he’s actually a reincarnation/shard of Hythlodaeus and Emet’s experiments on him as a baby are what caused him to remember Amaurot, get so powerful, and obsess about us. After we fight him in the level 89 trial, he’s gonna come to his senses, apologize and he and Venat will team up Golbez-Fusoya style. They’ll go into the moon’s core just in time to watch Zodiark rejoin the other shards, cast a sealing spell that will weaken Zodiark just enough for us to kill him in the level 90 trial. Zenos (Hyth) will possess what’s left of Zodiark with just enough power to rebuild the source and shards before he and Venat enter the life stream. This incomplete reconstruction of reality’s laws is what causes the threats we will deal with in 6.1 onwards.