The importance of a rival

[Gwenkatsu]

@OP: I agree with you in that there should be a strong and interesting other person as a counterpart to our goody two shoes WoL. Neither Bakool Ja Ja, nor Zoraal Ja, nor Sphene come even close to filling that role.

I disagree with everything else you said, because pretty much this:

He was a roadblock, then he was an annoyance, then he was Fandaniel's pawn, then he was a loose end to tie up. I never felt like he had the narrative justification to call himself a real rival.

I still remember that moment at Endwalker's end where my Red Mage decided it was a good idea to throw away her enchanted rapier and duke it out with that primitive brute in a fist fight... I stared at the screen in disbelieve, then started laughing. Surely not what the developers intended, but that scene was so stupidly absurd, it just fits the whole Zenos character ("HulkZenos strong! HulkZenos strongest warrior! HulkZenos SMASH!")

[Hallarem]

@OP: I agree with you in that there should be a strong and interesting other person as a counterpart to our goody two shoes WoL. Neither Bakool Ja Ja, nor Zoraal Ja, nor Sphene come even close to filling that role.

I disagree with everything else you said, because pretty much this:



I still remember that moment at Endwalker's end where my Red Mage decided it was a good idea to throw away her enchanted rapier and duke it out with that primitive brute in a fist fight... I stared at the screen in disbelieve, then started laughing. Surely not what the developers intended, but that scene was so stupidly absurd, it just fits the whole Zenos character ("HulkZenos strong! HulkZenos strongest warrior! HulkZenos SMASH!")

Its because they cant afford to animate actual combat scenes with all the different weapons. 10 yen indie company.

[Nero-Voidstails]

Its because they cant afford to animate actual combat scenes with all the different weapons. 10 yen indie company.

well I can understand too because for some weapon it would be strange completely and they would have to remake two cutscene everytime they add a new job. so that I do understand why they made us drop our weapon instead

[Hallarem]

...Zenos was a rival? Can't say I got that impression, and Stormblood was still pretty fresh in my mind. He was just a weird nuisance that threw the whole story out of wack as literally the only reason we weren't dead after our first encounter with him is because he "picked up the idiot ball" out of nowhere and derped away instead of rightly finishing us off, and he made it impossible to take his later defeat seriously because by all accounts there's no reason we should have won because they established him as TOO strong and unbeatable, making our final victory feel like some shounen anime ass-pull with zero explanation. But then I admit I didn't find most of the villains/antagonists of Stormblood terribly enjoyable, and some were downright cringe-inducing even (like Asahi and Varis).

It made me understand why a lot of people weren't fans of Stormblood though, because for me at least it just didn't have likeable adversaries against the backdrop of the two liberations. People say it "should have been two expansions" so maybe that's why it feels like none of the villains really get to be real standouts and almost feel like they're missing scenes to make them work properly, like some kind of rush job and a general sense of "over crowding".

The "zero explanation" is dynamis. Its the cringe shonen animetrope power the writers use as a crutch when they cant write a valid reason within their lore for a fighter to be strong.
They hide it as "determination" to power up Wul Lamat in Dawntrail when she got her ass beat a few days prior to that moment. No training, nothing. Just a magical "yaaaah" anime yell and power up.
It started in Endwalker with the introduction of Dynamis and its continuing to wreck the worldbuilding cause the new writers have anime in their brain. I doubt Y'shtola will even have to research shard travel, Sharlayan can just poop spaceships on a whim, probably shard-travel ones too cause these writers dont know the concept of chill and worldbuilding. They probably dont even read their own lore when it comes to aether, thats why they fartbombed dynamis out.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I still remember that moment at Endwalker's end where my Red Mage decided it was a good idea to throw away her enchanted rapier and duke it out with that primitive brute in a fist fight... I stared at the screen in disbelieve, then started laughing. Surely not what the developers intended, but that scene was so stupidly absurd, it just fits the whole Zenos character ("HulkZenos strong! HulkZenos strongest warrior! HulkZenos SMASH!")

Look up a video of a lalafell in that scene. It's absolutely hilarious.