#i love angst so this moment is peak zenoswol for me

[pennyroyal-xiv]

Hope you don't mind me spewing my thoughts on this flavored with my headcanons, I'm just feeling yappy:

I love the punch in the gut of thinking about this moment. Personally I imagine Endwalker as a disastrous miscommunication blender of unrequited feelings, I shouldn't-but-I-want-tos, jealousy, envy, bitterness, old wounds preventing progress, and emotionally-fucked-up lashing out between WoL and Zenos.

By this point in the story my HC is they've come so close to having a Real Talk And getting their feelings sorted out, but each keep fucking it up in world-endingly disastrous ways (Zenos with his dinner date and joyride - dude you gotta stop taking advice from Fandaniel!) and WoL with giving in a little to their feelings, freaking out about it, and causing Zenos to think he's being spurned when they bolt.

So when Alisaie is chewing Zenos out, it's extra painful because Alisaie definitely knows that *something* was going on between them. Of course she doesn't think he deserves the time of day from WoL, and she reads him the riot act like any good bff would to their bestie's ex who hurt them. Rightfully so, she's pissed that A) her bestie cares about this asshole, B) that this asshole doesn't care enough for her, and C) That he's causing the end of the world for selfish reasons.

But WoL is standing there feeling this utter mindfuck of horrible emotions, guilt, regret, sadness, longing, the works. They wish that things had worked out and they could have reached Zenos in time. Now they feel like there's this huge chasm between them, a gulf that cannot be crossed due to Zenos starting the Final Days in a last-ditch attempt to win the WoL's attention and affections. He went too far. Where they could have bent the rules before, could have maybe connected despite their shared history, they can no longer. Zenos knew that as soon as he crossed paths with the WoL on the moon -- he knew he was in the dog house. WoL would barely look at him. His sun, the sole source of happiness and connection in this existence, had turned away from him. Zenos was left in the dark, in the cold, alone.

When Alisaie berates Zenos, he and the WoL are both at their lowest points. Out of orbit. Thinking they'll never entangle again, maybe.

He *is* maidenless. And he's finally at a low enough point to listen to whatever wisdom will get him what he wants more than anything, his emotionally-fueled battle that will eclipse all other experiences and burn away his life in a blaze of glory. Or, what he actually wants and doesn't know that he does: true emotional human connection with someone else.

Alisaie hands him the nugget of wisdom he needs, intentionally or not. He will never get what he wants as long as he's only thinking about himself and solely pursuing his own pleasures.

To say Zenos is smart is an understatement. As soon as this clicks, that for him to get what he wants, he needs to understand what the WoL wants (to be fair he's been on the edge of this realization at least since In From The Cold), his prodigy-level mind is already whirring.

That's how we end up at the end of the universe with WoL's ex coming in at the third act at their darkest hour to help them save the day after thinking about what he's done wrong and how he can fix their relationship. Isn't it almost a classic romance movie beat? Maybe it's just me.... 😆

If you view your wols relationship w Zenos as kind of romanticesque Alisaie basically tells Zenos that he's fucking cringe + L + he's maidenless during that one part of EW