So I have been keeping my love and enthusiasm for FFXIV alive by reading about the escapades of other WoLs (delicious fanfics), and in the current one I am reading, we are in Stormblood territory. And it is making me ponder why Zenos is so prodigiously powerful, compared to some other foes faced thus far. After some thought and poking around, I found a few things (and was reminded of one likely VERY important thing). Also, keeping in mind that I am talking "base level" Zenos, in the two fights before he became a Resonant and ate fucking primal.
So according to poking around, pure blooded Garleans are more physically powerful and faster than other denizens of Etheirys. The third eye gives them better spatial awareness and depth perception, which allows for quicker reaction times and excellent piloting capabilities. This rather makes sense, as these boons would make up for the lack of aether manipulation possessed by other residents of the star (and an interesting evolutionary branch overall).
Second, training. From the time he could hold a sword, he's been trained in combat, to the point he was besting adult masters as a boy. And he continuously trains, so he is a finely honed soldier. Now, canonically the WoL is no slouch in training (though your personal lore may tweak this), Zenos has just been doing it longer. Even with some supernatural/preternatural assists picked up so far by the WoL, there's still a gap.
So, he's big and strong, a master martialist AND he's also got his fancy-ass suit of magitek armor that at the very least also enhances his capabilities as far as strength and speed. Yea, okay cool. Now, that all tracks for him whupping our asses twice (though not as handily the second time; we got a lick in, however small). BUT. Something that came up, and I keep forgetting, is who his great-grandpappy is.
Emet-fucking-Selch.
Sort of.
See, Emet inhabited Solus zos Galvus from a very young age, to the point that as he grew up he looked like Emet-Selch/Hades as an adult, just with awful posture (I type as I sit up straight xD). I wager that being the great-grandkid of an Ascian-possessed person has to add something in there. Even if it only tweaked his default Garlean settings a bit higher.
But yea, basically his pedigree and training were enough to do what he did. And then he got a knock-off Echo, ate a Primal and died. And then refused to stay dead because he was bored (and very obsessed, like yandere-level). Until we made it stick. XD
As villains and foils go, I will say that as much as I and my WoL hate him in a Watsonian manner, from the Doylist perspective, he is one of my favorite arch-nemeses in a video game.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. XD
