I will preference this post by acknowledging that fact that Zenos is the most polarizing antagonist, spawning from the most polarizing expansion to date and I understand peoples deep-seeded hatred for the Character as a whole. But enough about that:
In Stromblood we are introduced to Zenos Yae Galvus, Legatus of the XIIth Imperial Legion and Heir to the throne of emperor Varis zos Galvus. Zenos' relationship with his father is less than ideal, which heavily echos the relationship between Varis and His Grandfather, Solus zos Galvus. Zenos spent no time with his father and was ushered away to schooling and training. Aside from Zenos' relationship with his father, his first encounter that would lead him down a joyless life was his battle teacher. In a short story in the book Chronicles of Light, Zenos trained to master his abnormal power in swordmanship under a Ilsabardan swordsman. Whom was forced to train the boy under threat by the Emperor, when attempting to make an act on Zenos' life, the boy was forced to kill his teacher. This act sets the groundwork for the character that the Warrior of Light meets much later in his journey.
It is in the Stormblood MSQ that Zenos encounters the Warrior of Light and for the first time realizes he has a formidable foe. These encounters happen often throughout the story and the WoL is bested often, barely able to clash swords with him. Fast forwarding to the end of Stormblood, and after the fight with Zenos, he is defeated. For the first time in his life he is bested in the field of battle and instead of feeling sorrow or disappointment he decants that "there is only joy," in his time of defeat he claims that this feeling is something he has "never known" and is mesmerized by it. Following this Zenos feels as if, having everything he decides to end his own life.
For some people, they believe this was Zenos' magnum opus, this is where the character should have died and his story should have ended. However, that factor would completely and utterly ignore of the key principles of Stormblood. The act of death and the scars of the past. From the onset of Stormblood in Patch 3.5 after the death of Papalymo, we learn about the true identity of Yda. She was masquerading as her deceased sister, the first two major inclination of death being tied to the story. This factor continues to be apart of the main cast of Stormblood, from Gosetsu who tries to die in a heroic act to Yotsuyu whos death would undermine everything she did until that point; not being able to settle anything she did or dealt with in her life. For Zenos, his artifical echo, his act at playing God, thwarted his chance at bliss. In turn, it allowed him to continue on and attempt to regain the one feeling in life that allowed him to feel joy.
Zenos would continue to hop from body to body throughout the course of 4.1-5.0. At the end of 5.2 we are greeted with a very interesting dream that Zenos has, a vision of Amaurot burning to the ground. This may just seem like a dream but looking back at what Elidibus says that every single person carries around a bit of the imprinted memory of the End of Days with them, in the form of the meteor shower. Its shown to those of the Crystarium and to our WoL at the very start of ARR. However, what makes this very interesting is that, not only does Zenos see the meteor shower, he sees the entire event. A picture perfect recreation of the thousands year old catastrophe, the incident finely etched into his very being. After artificially forcing out the echo, these dreams more than likely sped up his amazing control over the power matching that of the unsundered Ascians. As of right now, we are unaware why Zenos is so heavily reminded of the events of the past but we know that this incident happened often, if not every time he went to sleep since he was a child. Combined to what happened to Zenos as a child, having to watch an entire world end and its people die around you would leave anyone without a sense or understanding of what it means to experience "joy." Zenos had to deal with the traumas of his early childhood and the horrors that awaited him when he closed his eyes.
In short, I know this will probably get lost in new and it ended up being way more rambly then I meant for it to be. This concept would probably work much better in video format but I just think Zenos is a pretty cool guy and has an extreme unnecessary hate for his character. Just because most of his events are not spelt out for you like that of Emet-selch. If you look at everything we know about him as a whole, hes a really interesting dude. And I think you should have a more open mind as more information is given to us as time progresses.
submitted by /u/MrCombineSoldier
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In Stromblood we are introduced to Zenos Yae Galvus, Legatus of the XIIth Imperial Legion and Heir to the throne of emperor Varis zos Galvus. Zenos' relationship with his father is less than ideal, which heavily echos the relationship between Varis and His Grandfather, Solus zos Galvus. Zenos spent no time with his father and was ushered away to schooling and training. Aside from Zenos' relationship with his father, his first encounter that would lead him down a joyless life was his battle teacher. In a short story in the book Chronicles of Light, Zenos trained to master his abnormal power in swordmanship under a Ilsabardan swordsman. Whom was forced to train the boy under threat by the Emperor, when attempting to make an act on Zenos' life, the boy was forced to kill his teacher. This act sets the groundwork for the character that the Warrior of Light meets much later in his journey.
It is in the Stormblood MSQ that Zenos encounters the Warrior of Light and for the first time realizes he has a formidable foe. These encounters happen often throughout the story and the WoL is bested often, barely able to clash swords with him. Fast forwarding to the end of Stormblood, and after the fight with Zenos, he is defeated. For the first time in his life he is bested in the field of battle and instead of feeling sorrow or disappointment he decants that "there is only joy," in his time of defeat he claims that this feeling is something he has "never known" and is mesmerized by it. Following this Zenos feels as if, having everything he decides to end his own life.
For some people, they believe this was Zenos' magnum opus, this is where the character should have died and his story should have ended. However, that factor would completely and utterly ignore of the key principles of Stormblood. The act of death and the scars of the past. From the onset of Stormblood in Patch 3.5 after the death of Papalymo, we learn about the true identity of Yda. She was masquerading as her deceased sister, the first two major inclination of death being tied to the story. This factor continues to be apart of the main cast of Stormblood, from Gosetsu who tries to die in a heroic act to Yotsuyu whos death would undermine everything she did until that point; not being able to settle anything she did or dealt with in her life. For Zenos, his artifical echo, his act at playing God, thwarted his chance at bliss. In turn, it allowed him to continue on and attempt to regain the one feeling in life that allowed him to feel joy.
Zenos would continue to hop from body to body throughout the course of 4.1-5.0. At the end of 5.2 we are greeted with a very interesting dream that Zenos has, a vision of Amaurot burning to the ground. This may just seem like a dream but looking back at what Elidibus says that every single person carries around a bit of the imprinted memory of the End of Days with them, in the form of the meteor shower. Its shown to those of the Crystarium and to our WoL at the very start of ARR. However, what makes this very interesting is that, not only does Zenos see the meteor shower, he sees the entire event. A picture perfect recreation of the thousands year old catastrophe, the incident finely etched into his very being. After artificially forcing out the echo, these dreams more than likely sped up his amazing control over the power matching that of the unsundered Ascians. As of right now, we are unaware why Zenos is so heavily reminded of the events of the past but we know that this incident happened often, if not every time he went to sleep since he was a child. Combined to what happened to Zenos as a child, having to watch an entire world end and its people die around you would leave anyone without a sense or understanding of what it means to experience "joy." Zenos had to deal with the traumas of his early childhood and the horrors that awaited him when he closed his eyes.
In short, I know this will probably get lost in new and it ended up being way more rambly then I meant for it to be. This concept would probably work much better in video format but I just think Zenos is a pretty cool guy and has an extreme unnecessary hate for his character. Just because most of his events are not spelt out for you like that of Emet-selch. If you look at everything we know about him as a whole, hes a really interesting dude. And I think you should have a more open mind as more information is given to us as time progresses.
submitted by /u/MrCombineSoldier
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...