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@active-dragoon-face
"Give me a Zenos with extra redemption arc"
"Extra redemption arc..."
"And hold his general indifference to the world"
"Hold his general indifference to the world??"
"And hold his lack of emotions"
"HOLD HIS LACK OF EMOTIONS?? Hey, Ishikawa, give me a Zenos with nothing"
"Nothing??"
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One thing I find particularly interesting about the dragons of FFXIV is that they are very much beings of intent. How they mature is based on how they choose to grow, meaning that a group of sibling dragonets could all take on vastly different forms when they grow up
Even having babies at all is a choice! One that any dragon can make, with or without a consort in their lives, thanks to them reproducing asexually and also off of vibes
And let's not forget about how this power of intent affects their very blood. Not just any dragon blood will cause the changes into aevises, syrictae, or diresaurs that those descended from the surviving members of Thordan's twelve knights are capable of. It must be willingly and deliberately given for the purpose of transforming them—though while the dragon offering it must choose to do so, there is no such choice on the part of whoever consumes it, as we see in the Heavensward dragoon quests
(BTW, this is why it's safe for people to consume the dragon blood used in the various draconian potions we can craft)
Nobody is doing it like the FFXIV dragons, man
Y'know, I never really cared for Zenos as a villain in Stormblood. When he came back to life, I rolled my eyes. Really? This was the villain we needed more of?
Of course, I also rolled my eyes at Emet-Selch's introduction, so maybe that was foreshadowing. Because once Endwalker rolled around, every single scene with Zenos was goddamn incredible.
I know his return in the story and his role as the final boss of the Hydaelyn/Zodiark arc are controversial. I know of at least one person in a community I used to post in who quit the game completely over the fact that they were "forced to give Zenos what he wanted." But I'm sorry, the way he repeatedly fails to hijack the role of main villain, the way he denies the very concept of a sympathetic motivation while all the other antagonists are revealed as tragic figures, the way the story ends with a duel at the end of the universe where the only stakes are survival and personal joy--that shit slaps.
ZenosWoL mixtape Vol. 2
neutron star
mood: fuck or be fucked, hunt or be hunted. collision music. dark but not without irony.
genres: rock/punk/alternative/industrial. mostly 90s.
Notes: 60min tape this time. these mixes are a partial soundtrack to a terrible brainworm fic i’ve been trying to spit out for the last few months. right now it keeps stopping me in my tracks at the grocery store. i stand there staring at and rotating a can of coke in my hand like ryo from shenmue and thinking of dynamis and blasphemies and cascading golden hair and nesting and being DONE with this man i stg
Zenos starring in study of a Lestat scene.
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sometimes two characters are codependently, toxically enmeshed, doomed to mutually define and haunt each other forever. and not fucking.
If your OC dressed up to go city to city for treats or tricks, what are they rocking?
Vampire
Voidsent
Ghost
Insectkin
Animal
A famous celebrity or figure in public
Matching outfits with their partner
Sexy (Insert Profession here)
You has money to dress up?
Low Effort
Visual Pun
Figure from myth, legend, folklore, or story
If you ever wonder what I mean by the game does a good job of Showing Zenos' internal self but fails at Telling it is: Unlike with Yotsuyu, who you not only get to see the past of but you also get told about it from her and other NPCs that knew her closely, Zenos gets next to nothing OTHER THAN assumptions by characters who don't have clear pictures of him themselves.
But like. First scene. Guy talking to him. Mentions an ambush and only one survivor. You can HEAR in his voice that Zenos is impressed by the enemy. Which lets you draw a conclusion that his sense of morality? Of allegiance? Very fluid. Very whatever he wants it to be. Because any actual die-hard Garlean military leader would be pissed or appalled that their men were attacked, their men lost, etc. but Zenos is just like, "Oooh. Good for them. Well done."
And then. The survivor. Zenos kind of, "There's nothing wrong with having a desire to live." So, whereas Garlemald typically treats desertion as a capital crime, Zenos just shrugs. Again: Zenos doesn't care about the usual rules. He is, in fact, quite disrespectful of Garlemald. You can FEEL IT.
And then of course you get the cowards line. Where the commander is all, "Yes. The XIIth is no place for cowards." And there's a PREGNANT pause that you instantly understand as this man signing his own death warrant. Because you already know HE'S the coward. You can already tell Zenos is going to remove the actual coward from the ranks.
The cinematography, the pacing, the use of well-known tropes with the character. I found it very easy to read Zenos from the visual cues and such I was being given.
But not everyone is good at that. And when they try to use the information given to them via text, by ignorant characters, they get a skewed idea. Which becomes the wrong idea.
In Stormblood, there's a scene that reveals Zenos saving Asahi. You know the one. Where Asahi falls madly in love with the man. Because he's big. And strong. And saved his life.
But for Zenos, it was Tuesday.
Anyhoo, I got to thinking about that scene because it has a mirror to it in Endwalker.
See, in the Stormblood scene, Zenos just swooshes his sword and knocks out these resistance fighters of ol' Kaien's. He isn't even doing a light jog to get to them. Just swish and they're no longer a problem. And he obviously didn't do it to, like. Save Asahi. Asahi just happened to be saved. All Zenos is doing is His Duty, which is to take out the enemy soldiers on the battlefield.
In Endwalker, the mirror to this scene is when he kills the blasphemy that's about to strike down a Thavnarian refugee. Thankfully, the NPC doesn't fall madly in love with him this time. But, again, for Zenos...it's a Tuesday.
And when asked, "Why are you here?" he's just like, "There are beasts here to kill. So I killed them. ...They suck, by the way."
It kinda makes me laugh. On the one hand, "Oh, Zenos. Still being Zenos," but also, on the other.
This is not that different from any time the WoL does a Duty where you have to go kill all the soldiers, or kill all the monsters, or kill whatever, saving innocents in the process, and then later on down the road, in some side quest or role quest or job quest, there's NPCs like, "Hey! Remember me! I was this person you saved this one time at band camp!" And your options are like, "Oh. Yeah. That Guy." Or, "Smile and wave, boys. Just smile and wave."
Because for WoL, it was also Tuesday.
But the WoL is happy they were able to save NPC whilst Zenos is like, "I forgot I even did that, like, 10 minutes after I did it. And I don't care now. Good for you, though, I guess."
okay my shipping hot take is that zenoswol doesn't work if they're not both insane. give me more freak4freak and stop watering down zenos. unless it's one sided both of them need to be crazy.
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it will always be hilarious to me that ardbert's weapon is bravura atma, which is one of the ARR relic steps but specifically the one you have when you're on the book step. ardbert really got to the books and went "no fuck that i'm out"
Started thinking about how much Emet-selch loved Azem and actually teared up irl. Help.
"Herein I commit the chronicle of the traveler. Shepherd to the stars in the dark. Though the world be sundered and our souls set adrift, where you walk, my dearest friend, fate shall surely follow. For yours is the Fourteenth seat—the seat of Azem." That is the most beautiful and loving thing I've ever read. I want to die.
I wish dawntrail would have been more willing to talk about the "ugly" parts of the wol. (I'm going to just talk about my wol bc I don't want to insert my thoughts on to other ppls wols lol. )
Because to me, it seems like the Ayla is kind of in denial up until the end parts of Endwalker that she is a killer - someone who loves a good challenge - someone who loves the THRILL OF BATTLE and pushing her body to its limits. She knows that this part of her exists, but she doesn't acknowledge it. Like, she kind of sees herself as being better than that for a huge chunk of the story, and believe that her motivations to be the warrior of light and to do what she does is solely based on her wanting to do what's right. But somewhere during the end of Endwalker that facade starts to crack. Ayla agreeing to fight Zenos in Ultima thule is the final nail in the coffin for her, it's her fully accepting that part of herself. She accepts that fight because she wants to - it's fun, she knows that he's right and she knows that it's selfish of her and stupid but it's what she wants to do. She wants to have that moment with him. He's the only one who's ever been close to being her equal. And I wish we could see more of that after the Zenos fight OTHER than very short lived moments of "ooooh everyone can just FEEL that the wol is sooo badass and strong and cool" LIKE MAKE ZENOS PROUD !! HE DIED FOR YOU!! KILL SOMETHING WITH YOUR TEETH!!!!!!!!!!!!! AYLA CMON!!!
This is a bit of a tangent but I am cursed to never not be able to talk about Zenos and his relationship w/ the WOL: I think that's why I've started to kind of like the fact that most of the time you're not really able to be nice to him in the game. His speech both before his fight with the wol at the Royal menagerie is just him confronting the wol with the fact that: yeah, they're a killer - they enjoy violence - they enjoy being the strongest - they feel the same way he does in many ways. "Man should fight for the joy of it. To live, to eat, to breed—lesser beasts snap and howl at one another for this. Only man has the wisdom and the clarity to embrace violence for its own sake. For we who are born into this merciless, meaningless world, have but one candle of life to burn." And of course, once the fighting is over "Men die that others may live. Those who survive are stronger for it. Not that you could ever understand. To have stood upon this great stage of fools...to have played my part to perfection... Oh, this...this moment...let it be enshrined in eternity. My heart...beating out of time... So clear, so vivid, so real... So real. Farewell, my first friend. My enemy." And Ayla does recognizes herself in those statements. And it changes things for her forever. It gives her actual pause. Obviously she doesn't feel AS EXTREME about it as he does - but from that moment, he represents a part of Ayla that she wishes didn't exist. Obviously we spend the rest of the game, up until almost the end of Endwalker with Zenos just stumbling through different bad attempts to make the WOL confront him - because even though he IS RIGHT in saying that they are alike - that they mirror each other in many ways - they are not the same. She cares about the fate of the world - and he doesn't. And so he uses that against her - tries to make her come running to him. For him to once again get to bask in her sunlight. In Endwalker, you kind of get the feeling that the wol doesn't hate Zenos - they're more...sad for him. Upset with him. Disappointed in him. As much as she personally doesn't accept that they're alike - that feeling irks her. It lives in the back of her head. And it hurts her to see him never choose to better himself. I think that's why - at the moon, Ayla kind of has this moment where she just tires of his bullshit. She can't do this anymore. It's too much for her - the weight of it all gets too heavy. "Hope will win the day." she tells him, and then just ignores him. And you can tell by the way he looks at her that he...somewhat realizes that he crossed the line. He fucked up - the sun will no longer shine its light on him. And after that point he's just kind of lost in darkness once again. The wol doesn't have it in them to care about what he does - he's done enough. Alisaie being right about what the wol needed from Zenos for them to let him in again is so good. A part of me will always be sad that we'll never get an Alisaie and Zenos friendship. I feel like other than the wol she's like the one person who ever gave enough of a care to hope that Zenos could improve himself. ( But at this current moment i'll take the wol and him being able to understand each other in a way no one else could. No one else gets him - and no one else truly gets the wol. ) Zenos being the only person who could do what he did and use the form of Shinryuu to travel across the universe to help the wol is so iconic and ONCE AGAIN such a great way to prove that HE IS THEIR MIRROR. Just like how the wol is the only one who could defeat the Endsinger, he's the only one who could motivate them and carry them to that destination. And that act of good, him proving to her that he has that in him, is what finally helps them accept this fact. It's what leads to the "that I can't deny" moment - and makes it so good. Like Zenos says "Acceptance, at long last." He finally cracked the code. Ayla finally gets it. Zenos finally gets it. They're finally in sync - mirrors of each other.
Can't get over Zenos being in ultima thule, not truly dead, all alone. It would be a fitting punishment for what he did - at least for a while.
This post was brought to you by Alisaie telling him that he'll be alone forever if he carries on the way he did in Endwalker being one of the few things that we've seen affect him. That and the wol rejecting him after the events on the moon.
He's not afraid of most things but the thought of forever being rejected by the one person he likes scares him.
I know that him basically finally letting the wol go in the end by saving them from dying next to him in Ultima Thule is supposed to be his big final redemption. I get that.
And I know that in the post ew patches it's shown that the wol does ponder on their friendship and what they meant to him, and what he meant to them.
It's sad that in the end he finally does get that acceptance and that mutual sense of kinship from someone that he appears to have been looking for his whole life, but only when he's no longer able to experience it for himself.
A part of me likes this end for him - in a way I get it 100% bc ...he does deserve to pay for what he did. He did suffer throughout his life of course, we all know that Varis mistreated him. As privileged as he should have been and was, Zenos did not have an easy life in many ways. But his actions in Endwalker are beyond evil. He SOMEHOW even manages to turn him risking his own life to save the world into a semi-selfish action. Nothing we see from him in the game is enough of a redemption for him. (I'd argue that he does it for the WOL - not just because he wants to fight them. Because he listened to Alisaie and realized that he could do something FOR THEM and not just for himself. But I also know that I look at him and the wols interactions with my Zenoswol tinted glasses and my tinfoil hat ON. )
Rather it feels like his final actions in Endwalker, him thinking back on his life - his understanding of others (or rather his lack of understanding.), him trying to connect with the wol, sharing his feelings with them, asking them questions - is the START of a redemption. One that we so far have not gotten. His final words being cut off really feels like a fantastic representation of where his story is at right now. Like it's currently holding its breath.
" Never have I understood those around me. Understood their obsessions.
Besieged by their banality, the world was a mire of tedium and trivialities.
But in these fleeting moments, there is...a spark. Blinding, brilliant...
Gone...too soon...
What of you, my mirror? Born into this world, bestowed name, bid to seek out strife and adventure...
Was this life a gift...or a burden?
Did you find...fulfillment? I... " I think, for a character who spends 99% of his on-screen time being nothing but selfish, only acting in his own interests and being willing to hurt anything and anyone to get what he wants - it's very interesting that he spends his final moment asking the wol questions. Relatively caring questions, I might add. Like, in his absolute final moment, all he cares about is the wol and how they're feeling.
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gender is NOT the same as sex. gender is what you identify as, while sex is what I'll be having with Zenos Yae Galvus tonight. stay tuned
When Thancred fights Ran'jit on the First, he goes invisible several times. Each time he does, he becomes weaker. I found myself puzzling about how he was able to go invisible when he can't cast spells, and rogue stealth is not the same as a true invisibility (Ran'jit would have had no trouble seeing through rogue stealth).
So I looked at the abilities and the debuffs:
Perfect Deception is the skill - it conceals him by restricting the flow of life-sustaining aether.
When he's using this skill, he receives the debuff Fading Fast, which places a strain on the body and will cause him to pass out if the debuff runs out before it's removed.
Okay.
At the end of the fight, Ran'jit has gotten wise to him and is able to see through his Perfect Deception, preventing him from using it.
So Thancred steps up his game:
Souldeep Invisibility doesn't just severely restrict the flow of aether - it completely cuts it off. Not only is he risking being knocked out - which would be death for him, because Ran'jit is not going to be merciful - but he's also damaging his body's vital functions. At this point, he's going to die from the strain, not Ran'jit.
But how does it work? Why does it work? How does severing one's aether cause one to go invisible?
Then I remembered: Thancred is a soul. His body is literally corporeal aether in a [pleasing] form to house his soul. His real body - his flesh-based body - remains back on the Source. So by cutting off the flow of aether from his corporeal shell, he basically causes it to dissipate temporarily.
Scary.
But now the question begs: How the hells did he learn to do this? Did he just think it up on the fly? Is it an adaption of a technique he uses when he has a flesh-based body? What does it do then? Can he still use it when he's in a flesh-based body? Can he still strain his soul to go invisible?
The rabbit holes you jump down when planning out a cute gpose scene. XD
