Is Zenos Sephiroth?

[Theodric]

I think that characters such as Zenos can work but they need to be handled a certain way to truly feel intimidating. The super powerful swordsman who is merciless and only feels alive when he's in the middle of battle is not a rare trope, especially where JRPG's are concerned. Yet as it stands, Zenos simply leeches a lot of what makes the Garleans and Ascians compelling and gets in the way of their stories. There's a good reason why the likes of Regula van Hydrus and Emet-Selch are generally considered to be deeper and interesting characters than the likes of Zenos.

To counter the inevitable, I will also agree that not every antagonist/villain needs to be sympathetic. Yet if they're not going to be sympathetic, they need to be entertaining. Zenos spending a great many scenes accomplishing little beyond complaining about being 'bored' didn't exactly help to make him compelling. Now anything he does do is going to be attributed to Fandaniel.

Media Tour Spoilers:

With Garlemald being unveiled as a level 83-85 zone, I'm hoping that means that Zenos will be dealt with around that point. He already served as the final boss of Stormblood, essentially. We've had multiple fights with him outside of his time as Shinryu. We're inevitably fighting him at least one more time during Endwalker...but I do hope there is a twist and he turns out to be a useful idiot or liability strung along by Fandaniel and then gives way to some other, bigger threat.

Personally, I don't see many similarities between Sephiroth and Zenos beyond some very light coincidences. I think they're very different characters, ultimately.

[Cleretic]

Media Tour Spoilers:

With Garlemald being unveiled as a level 83-85 zone, I'm hoping that means that Zenos will be dealt with around that point. He already served as the final boss of Stormblood, essentially. We've had multiple fights with him outside of his time as Shinryu. We're inevitably fighting him at least one more time during Endwalker...but I do hope there is a twist and he turns out to be a useful idiot or liability strung along by Fandaniel and then gives way to some other, bigger threat.

...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.

[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