#i didn't have too high expectations for this last patch considering this arc felt sort of disconnected from EW

[picaroroboto]

Particularly as of Shadowbringers and Endwalker one the WoL's key canon traits is how they attempt to understand their enemies - even if conflict is unavoidable or a villain's crimes unforgivable they still want to know who they're fighting and why. On the opposite end a core point of Zenos's character, and the source of many of his problems, is that he doesn't understand others and doesn't care to try, not until his final confrontation with the WoL and his last moments where he's asking them all these questions in an attempt to actually know them rather than just project himself on them like he's always done.

As his Voidsent Avatar, Zero's arc is an extension of this, in a way - see the way she still thinks and talks about Zenos, tries to understand him, while looking to the WoL and their friends to relearn how to human. This fully matures into her making efforts to understand Golbez, and succeeding in offering friendship to him. This is why Golbez's first steps to redemption feel more powerful and moving then if we'd simply defeated him, because it completes a closed circle of trust (doubly so if either Durante or the original Golbez is the Azem shard of the Thirteenth, as some popular theories suggest).

And all of this with the motif of hand-holding/handshakes/reaching out a hand: Zero learning the gesture from Jullus, extending a hand to help Golbez, shaking hands with the WoL as a sign of their friendship; compared to Zenos reaching out his hand towards the WoL at the end, or Durante and Golbez's original attempt to recruit Zero, both of which did not reach, but I think those connections are ultimately fulfilled by the end of this arc.