The importance of a rival

[MoofiaBossVal]

I liked Zenos' character design and English voice, but I never felt that Zenos was a "rival". There is no relationship or competition between him and the WoL. It is not like they were both students under master Musosai, or both junior adventurers at the same guild branch in Limsa/Gridania/Ul'dah before parting ways. He is just some enemy general you were working against and only bumped into a couple times before the allied forces invaded his territory and you dealt the coup de grace. Then later he gets rezzed and talks about fighting you... but spends years sitting around doing nothing. That is not a rivalry. That is a wasted character and plotline.

However, I did like the idea that there were other people out there in the world doing their own thing and with the potential to shape the world independent of what we are doing and the
characters we are interacting with . The Zenos scenes starting in the post Stormblood patches were interesting because of that.

[Kohashi]

I personally loved Zenos. Unapologetically evil, simple, without a sob story, and straight to the point. For me, it was a breath of fresh air in between all that drama/trauma dumping that msq was doing.

[Basteala]

People are hating on Zenos but it's pretty important for the main character of the story to have some manner of foil to their ideology, and even better if that relationship is personal in some manner. Emet Selch did it, Zenos tried to do it (success certainly seems to vary from person to person for the latter), and I think there's a reason--like them or not--that they are among the most memorable of the villains we run into.

[ovIm]

Honestly, I liked Zenos. He was a good Rival in a sense that he was able to match the WoL in terms of strength and fighting prowess. That paired with Zenos obsession for fighting the WoL, with everything else being deemed boring, made him a proper antithesis to our WoL - a walking nuke, but without the moral desire to help people.

That being said, a lot of the criticisms surrounding the irrelevance of Zenos in the grander story were true, and here is where Ishikawa (i think this was her doing, at least) gave us a very cool moment in Endwalker: when Alisae confronted Zenos with his irrelevance to the story, the writers turned the criticism of the players into a short story arc for himself. That was pretty cool imho.
Also, him uttering "Would you be "happier" had I a "good reason"?" was bone chilling.

Overall though, I believe that there is a time and space in which a villain or a rival can be retired. Zenos had his run, and its actually good that his time in the spotlight is over. Looking forward to the next BBEG we may encounter.

[Hallarem]

Please. Do not. Make this game into a shonen superhero knockoff. Zenos was poorly implemented, poorly written too because they didnt give him a Garlemald expansion.

We do not need a rival, we need a nuanced villain who challenges our ideals. Hell, Gabranth from Bozja wouldve been perfect if they didnt ruin his side by inserting some cartoonishly evil villains on his side.

[Nero-Voidstails]

I loved zenos myself I also thing he made a great villain/rivals he was. I fear sadly the sphene will take his place but I don't think it will work at all.

I just think we need a rival that appears in DT and maybe not for us but for the rival itself like they want to challenge us want to be stronger then us could be evil or not I don't mind just need more in that point.

[Kaurhz]

I think he was OK in Stormblood, where he was actually power-checking us.

After this, it just got a bit obnoxious really.

[BelegErkhten]

If you want a rival, I recommend playing PVP and then just pay attention to the names of the people who beat you.

[AstreaLove]

I think that was the point with Bakool Jaja, and/or Zoraal Ja.
They opposed the main character, but overall they were pretty weak.

While yes I can see your point that a rival could help move the plot forward, but what the story really needs is a villain with a compelling argument to why they could be right.
This game need someone like Garrosh Hellscream (from WoW) someone who's overpowering everyone else, but also someone who's written with strong, compelling arguments that their actions potentially could be seen as good, like for instance Thanos.

[Kohashi]

I loved zenos myself I also thing he made a great villain/rivals he was. I fear sadly the sphene will take his place but I don't think it will work at all.

I just think we need a rival that appears in DT and maybe not for us but for the rival itself like they want to challenge us want to be stronger then us could be evil or not I don't mind just need more in that point.

Imagine Zenos returning by using Sphene's body! hahah. That would probably be the first time the story was not predictable in an obvious way..lol.

He did have capabilities of transcending bodies so...