Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
Bizarre as a storytelling choice. The writers have chosen to make Zodiark inert and a non-entity without his heart. After so much lead-up and talk about him they have chosen to write him as basically nothing of interest.
Honestly, I appreciate that. Having an entity that's been imprisoned for so long suddenly be the big bad would be underwhelming.

Also, this makes Zodiark better in my eyes. Lest we forget, he was created to help the world. This makes Zodiark not be the evil one like everyone might assume, but more a tool that can be used for good or bad. That's a nice implication.

It would imply that he thinks he's the real Elidibus, but that isn't a 100% guarantee that he really is. If memories can be implanted, a hypothetical "fake primal copy Elidibus" could have memories that come from his friends' memories of him. If anything that could be a really good explanation of why his memory is failing so badly – its not really his at all, but memories that have been added as part of the primal summoning, and that power is wearing away.
I would think it's clear by the end of 5.3. Personally, I think I would actually dislike it if we learn in Endwalker that 5.3 was centered around a fake. It would also be problematic for the plot moving forward with Fandaniel's actions.