WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.040 Welcome to The Debate. Imagine spending 17 years 00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:09.820 of your life basically worshipping a ghost, only 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:13.539 to finally meet him and realize he is, well, 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:17.339 he's just as broken, just as terrified, and honestly, 00:00:17.500 --> 00:00:22.079 just as vulnerable as you are. Yeah, it's rough. 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:26.559 It is, and that is the devastating reality our 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:30.730 protagonist, Xeonix, faces in book one. But, 00:00:30.789 --> 00:00:32.770 you know, pulling off that emotional gut punch 00:00:32.770 --> 00:00:35.990 requires a massive narrative leap from the author. 00:00:36.289 --> 00:00:38.549 And if you're listening at home, you probably 00:00:38.549 --> 00:00:41.590 remember our last discussion. We spent a lot 00:00:41.590 --> 00:00:44.850 of time digging through the literal and metaphorical 00:00:44.850 --> 00:00:48.990 ashes of the Novus family estate. Right. We 00:00:48.990 --> 00:00:50.909 really got into the weeds on that one. We were 00:00:50.909 --> 00:00:53.969 looking for any definitive trace of Milo and 00:00:53.969 --> 00:00:56.810 Florent, you know, Xeonix's younger brothers. 00:00:57.340 --> 00:01:00.979 Exactly. And we came up totally empty. We did. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:04.079 Because Neo Gentricss left their fate in that fire 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:07.040 deliberately. I mean, agonizingly ambiguous. 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:10.140 We went back and forth on the evidence for almost 00:01:10.140 --> 00:01:13.239 an hour. Like, were they tragic casualties buried 00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:16.500 in the rubble? Or, and this was my theory, were 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:19.920 they highly kinetic assets that got quietly conscripted 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:23.219 by Eon Pax's regime? Which is a terrifying thought. 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:25.980 It is. And the brilliance of the writing there 00:01:25.980 --> 00:01:28.739 is that we still do not have closure. The reader 00:01:28.739 --> 00:01:31.760 is left entirely in the dark, feeling that exact 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:34.319 same helplessness that the protagonist feels. 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:37.730 Precisely. And that lack of closure, right, that 00:01:37.730 --> 00:01:41.049 lingering, suffocating grief hanging over the 00:01:41.049 --> 00:01:43.750 entire first book, that is exactly the engine 00:01:43.750 --> 00:01:46.909 driving Xeonix to the absolute brink. I mean, 00:01:46.930 --> 00:01:49.189 it pushes him to take incredibly desperate measures 00:01:49.189 --> 00:01:52.030 just to understand his Novus family lineage. 00:01:52.329 --> 00:01:54.790 Yeah, he's desperate. Which brings us directly 00:01:54.790 --> 00:01:58.329 to today's central question, the Congo War time 00:01:58.329 --> 00:02:01.280 travel arc. Is it the undeniable emotional peak 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:03.719 of the narrative? Or, and I know where you stand 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:06.219 on this, is it a structural cheat that shatters 00:02:06.219 --> 00:02:08.979 the overarching stakes of this universe? I take 00:02:08.979 --> 00:02:11.520 the stance that stepping into the past is, frankly, 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:13.900 what gives this book its heartbeat. It takes 00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:16.780 this abstract, flawless legacy and turns it into 00:02:16.780 --> 00:02:20.000 a bleeding, fallible human being. And, you know, 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:22.120 I come at it from a completely different angle. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:25.759 I argue that introducing time travel, even temporarily, 00:02:26.139 --> 00:02:29.169 even just for a moment, lets the story dodge 00:02:29.169 --> 00:02:33.110 real, grounded consequences. Basically, if the 00:02:33.110 --> 00:02:35.990 past is reachable at all, loss simply stops feeling 00:02:35.990 --> 00:02:39.129 permanent. The tension just, it evaporates. I 00:02:39.129 --> 00:02:42.030 hear that. But let's really dig into the emotional 00:02:42.030 --> 00:02:44.650 necessity of this arc, though, because you cannot 00:02:44.650 --> 00:02:47.689 separate the plot mechanics from Xeonix's psychological 00:02:47.689 --> 00:02:50.770 state during his exile in the Pico -Dish region. 00:02:51.150 --> 00:02:54.449 Sure. Look at what the kid is carrying. He has 00:02:54.449 --> 00:02:57.189 spent his entire life suffocating under the myth 00:02:57.189 --> 00:02:59.830 of his missing grandfather. He has no parents. 00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:02.009 He doesn't know if Milo and Florent or Dad are 00:03:02.009 --> 00:03:05.030 alive. Yeah, he's totally isolated. Completely. 00:03:05.150 --> 00:03:08.090 And all he has to cling to are old stories and, 00:03:08.169 --> 00:03:11.770 you know, that broken chain dagger. Xeon Clerics 00:03:11.770 --> 00:03:14.250 is built up in his mind as this flawless legend. 00:03:14.430 --> 00:03:17.419 The Whistling Swordsman. He's this phantom who 00:03:17.419 --> 00:03:19.879 casts an impossibly long shadow over every single 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:23.120 choice Xeonix makes. I mean, he essentially idolizes 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:26.180 a ghost. Exactly. But when he finally makes that 00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:28.860 temporal leap, what actually happens? Where does 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:31.800 he find this supposedly invincible legend? Not 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:34.210 where you'd expect. I'll give you that. Right, 00:03:34.289 --> 00:03:36.889 he doesn't find him sitting on a throne or effortlessly 00:03:36.889 --> 00:03:39.629 cutting down legions of enemies. He finds him 00:03:39.629 --> 00:03:43.270 in a damp, miserable, filth -ridden stone prison 00:03:43.270 --> 00:03:46.030 cell smack in the middle of a horrific historic 00:03:46.030 --> 00:03:49.629 conflict. He watches his grandfather fight, struggle, 00:03:49.789 --> 00:03:52.689 and bleed just to survive the hour. It's definitely 00:03:52.689 --> 00:03:56.569 jarring. It grounds the entire mythos. It forces 00:03:56.569 --> 00:03:59.729 Xeonix to understand the true, agonizing burden 00:03:59.729 --> 00:04:02.300 of the elemental arts. I honestly believe it 00:04:02.300 --> 00:04:04.900 is the emotional peak because it completely shatters 00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:07.939 the myth and gives him a real, terrified human 00:04:07.939 --> 00:04:10.879 being. Look, I absolutely acknowledge the emotional 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.780 resonance you are pointing to. I do. The contrast 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:16.040 between the myth of the Whistling Swordsman and 00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:18.060 the reality of a battered soldier in a muddy 00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:21.480 trench, it's stark. It's great writing. But we 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:23.639 have to look at the structural consequences of 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:26.079 that arc on the universe Neo Gentrics has built. 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:29.920 Okay, let's look at it. This is a gritty, unforgiving 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:33.399 universe, right? It's defined by brutal, permanent 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:36.560 loss. We literally just spent an entire discussion 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:39.360 on the unceremonious burning of the Novus' 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:41.899 estate and the ruthless murder of his parents 00:04:41.899 --> 00:04:45.399 in Sacar. The violence of Eon Pax's regime has 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:49.540 weight precisely because it is final. It is final, 00:04:49.620 --> 00:04:52.620 yes. I agree with that. But then, then Zeryl 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:55.279 utilizes the void to warp space -time and send 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:57.560 someone backward. And the moment that happens, 00:04:57.740 --> 00:05:00.339 it feels exactly like a narrative escape hatch. 00:05:00.730 --> 00:05:03.189 I mean, if death and loss can be circumvented 00:05:03.189 --> 00:05:05.949 simply by manipulating spacetime, the stakes 00:05:05.949 --> 00:05:08.910 of the ongoing present -day war instantly evaporate. 00:05:08.930 --> 00:05:11.329 But, like, why should I, as a reader, worry about 00:05:11.329 --> 00:05:13.810 anyone dying if we've established that time is 00:05:13.810 --> 00:05:16.949 pliable? Because framing it as an escape hatch 00:05:16.949 --> 00:05:20.329 completely ignores the actual physics Neo Gentricss 00:05:20.329 --> 00:05:23.550 established in the text. I mean, Zeryl didn't 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:26.379 hand Xeonix the keys to a DeLorean here. Well, 00:05:26.459 --> 00:05:30.360 no, but he tore a hole in a universe that actively 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:34.079 tries to stitch that hole back together. We really 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:36.740 need to be incredibly precise about how those 00:05:36.740 --> 00:05:39.720 mechanics actually function because time travel 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:42.220 in this universe is strictly forbidden by the 00:05:42.220 --> 00:05:45.019 laws of nature. It is not just, you know, difficult. 00:05:45.220 --> 00:05:48.360 It is a fundamental violation. How does the text 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:50.759 prove it isn't an escape hatch, though? Because 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:53.199 the precedent is set the second he lands in the 00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:56.160 Congo War. If he can do that, why not just jump 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.240 back to Sacar and pull his parents out of the 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:00.319 house before the mercenary Crater Steve arrives 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:03.259 to execute his hit? That's, if you are a reader 00:06:03.259 --> 00:06:05.680 deeply invested in this tragedy, knowing that 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:07.779 Zeryl can just fold space -time completely 00:06:07.779 --> 00:06:10.410 cheapens the grief. It doesn't cheapen it because 00:06:10.410 --> 00:06:13.009 you are massively overestimating Zeryl's ability. 00:06:13.250 --> 00:06:16.389 Zeryl does not warp reality. He isn't a god 00:06:16.389 --> 00:06:19.430 altering the fabric of existence on a whim. Okay, 00:06:19.529 --> 00:06:22.810 then what is he doing? What he does is utilize 00:06:22.810 --> 00:06:26.470 the void to create a localized vacuum. And when 00:06:26.470 --> 00:06:28.829 he does that, the immense atmospheric pressure 00:06:28.829 --> 00:06:31.990 of normal space -time violently rushes in to 00:06:31.990 --> 00:06:34.889 crush that vacuum. That creates a temporary, 00:06:35.089 --> 00:06:39.970 highly unstable temporal slipstream. Fluid dynamics 00:06:39.970 --> 00:06:44.990 applied to time. Fluid dynamics? Yes. Using the 00:06:44.990 --> 00:06:47.769 void isn't like hitting rewind on a VHS tape. 00:06:47.930 --> 00:06:51.089 It is like trying to swim upstream in a flooded 00:06:51.089 --> 00:06:54.290 freezing river while carrying a boulder. The 00:06:54.290 --> 00:06:56.930 temporal current is actively trying to drown 00:06:56.930 --> 00:06:59.810 you just for being there. Okay, sure. So it's 00:06:59.810 --> 00:07:02.269 physically toxic. I get that. But he still does 00:07:02.269 --> 00:07:05.170 it. He does it once out of sheer desperation. 00:07:05.819 --> 00:07:08.759 And look at the explicit warning Zeryl gives 00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:11.139 Xeonix before the jump. He grabs him and tells 00:07:11.139 --> 00:07:15.180 him directly, if you are seen, or if you change 00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:18.980 anything, we are in serious trouble. The universe 00:07:18.980 --> 00:07:21.860 inherently rejects the paradox. It will crush 00:07:21.860 --> 00:07:24.959 them. It is a highly volatile one -time anomaly. 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:28.660 It is absolutely not a casual tool or a revolving 00:07:28.660 --> 00:07:31.899 door for fixing present -day tragedies. I'm sorry, 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:34.060 but I just don't buy that a verbal warning entirely 00:07:34.060 --> 00:07:36.300 fixes the structural problem of introducing it 00:07:36.300 --> 00:07:38.800 in the first place. Even if we accept your fluid 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:41.800 dynamics analogy, even as a one -time anomaly, 00:07:42.060 --> 00:07:45.560 you have just introduced quantum sci -fi into 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:48.519 a narrative that has up until this exact moment 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:52.860 been built on incredibly grounded tactile elemental 00:07:52.860 --> 00:07:56.259 arts. It is a shift, sure. I'll give you that. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:00.449 It is massive genre whiplash. We have spent hundreds 00:08:00.449 --> 00:08:03.089 of pages reading about the physical toll of the 00:08:03.089 --> 00:08:05.649 whistling wind style. We've read about the heavy 00:08:05.649 --> 00:08:08.290 biological cost of drawing energy directly from 00:08:08.290 --> 00:08:10.709 the Earth. I mean, we watched Shane physically 00:08:10.709 --> 00:08:12.850 deteriorating because his connection to a living 00:08:12.850 --> 00:08:15.430 gem was severed. Right. The elemental arts take 00:08:15.430 --> 00:08:17.889 a toll. Exactly. Everything in this world is 00:08:17.889 --> 00:08:20.670 tactile. It is biological. It requires sweat 00:08:20.670 --> 00:08:23.550 and blood. And suddenly, out of nowhere, we are 00:08:23.550 --> 00:08:25.310 dealing with literal space -time manipulation 00:08:25.310 --> 00:08:29.160 and localized vacuums. Doesn't that tonal shift 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:31.660 risk completely alienating the reader who invested 00:08:31.660 --> 00:08:34.340 in a grounded martial arts story? You can't just 00:08:34.340 --> 00:08:37.419 drop quantum physics into a trench war. The shift 00:08:37.419 --> 00:08:39.620 is jarring. I am not going to sit here and pretend 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:41.879 it doesn't take the reader by surprise. But, 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:44.860 uh, the emotional catharsis it delivers completely 00:08:44.860 --> 00:08:47.840 justifies the narrative risk. The payoff is worth 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:51.120 the whiplash. Is it, though? I think so. Look 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:53.600 at the specific sensory details of that exchange 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:57.220 on the battlefield during the Congo War. Xeonix 00:08:57.220 --> 00:08:59.440 is fighting shoulder to shoulder with his grandfather. 00:08:59.799 --> 00:09:02.799 They are quite literally knee -deep in mud, surrounded 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:06.019 by the absolute chaos of elemental combat, with 00:09:06.019 --> 00:09:08.759 explosions rocking the Earth. The imagery is 00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:11.480 vivid, I agree. Neo Gentrics writes a great battle. 00:09:11.580 --> 00:09:13.779 Right. And when the physical pressure of the 00:09:13.779 --> 00:09:16.120 slipstream becomes too great, when the timeline 00:09:16.120 --> 00:09:18.299 starts to violently fracture around them and 00:09:18.299 --> 00:09:20.659 Xeonix realizes he is being pulled back to the 00:09:20.659 --> 00:09:24.220 present, he breaks. He cries out, I can't lose 00:09:24.220 --> 00:09:26.320 you again. Yeah, that's a tough scene. It is 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:29.580 not the battle cry of a warrior. It is the desperate 00:09:29.580 --> 00:09:32.379 plea of an abandoned child who finally found 00:09:32.379 --> 00:09:35.639 his family. And Xeon Clerics, amidst all this 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:38.919 death and mud and fire, just looks at his grandson, 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:43.200 smiles, and tells him he has to flee to be safe. 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:46.899 It is a raw, devastating moment of human connection. 00:09:47.080 --> 00:09:51.080 It bridges a 17 -year gap of silence in a single 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:53.759 breath. You simply cannot achieve that level 00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:56.659 of profound catharsis without bridging the temporal 00:09:56.659 --> 00:10:00.070 divide. Okay, that is a compelling argument regarding 00:10:00.070 --> 00:10:04.009 the emotional payoff. The dialogue there is undeniable. 00:10:04.190 --> 00:10:07.090 And the way Neo Gentrics' rights to desperation 00:10:07.090 --> 00:10:11.330 is incredible. But, and this is a big but, have 00:10:11.330 --> 00:10:14.309 you considered the incredibly messy ripple effects 00:10:14.309 --> 00:10:17.190 this creates for the villain's motivations? Oh 00:10:17.190 --> 00:10:19.789 boy. Because this is where the time travel arc 00:10:19.789 --> 00:10:22.899 really threatens to ruin the stakes for me. If 00:10:22.899 --> 00:10:24.840 you're listening at home, you might be screaming 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:27.399 at your dashboard right now thinking about Iolite's 00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:29.899 role in all of this. I know exactly where you 00:10:29.899 --> 00:10:32.740 are going with this. It creates a closed causal 00:10:32.740 --> 00:10:35.840 loop. It completely undermines the villain's 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:38.580 agency. During that exact battle you just described 00:10:38.580 --> 00:10:41.220 in the Congo War, Iolite is fighting his brother, 00:10:41.379 --> 00:10:43.799 Xeon Clerics. And in the middle of this chaotic 00:10:43.799 --> 00:10:46.799 fight, Iolite looks over and locks eyes with 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:50.879 Xeonix. He seemingly learns the future. Wait, 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:55.029 wait. He witnesses his own defeat right there 00:10:55.029 --> 00:10:58.389 on the battlefield. And because he is given this 00:10:58.389 --> 00:11:01.409 living, breathing spoiler of his own demise, 00:11:01.669 --> 00:11:05.330 it creates his entire villainous plan. He realizes 00:11:05.330 --> 00:11:08.330 he has to send a warrior into the future to hunt 00:11:08.330 --> 00:11:11.330 down Xeonix to prevent his own downfall. The 00:11:11.330 --> 00:11:13.850 paradox creates the villain's plot, which is 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:15.830 the definition of a massive narrative cheat. 00:11:16.250 --> 00:11:18.230 Okay, I have to stop you right there. I have 00:11:18.230 --> 00:11:20.610 to vigorously correct the record because we need 00:11:20.610 --> 00:11:22.850 to strictly enforce the canon on this exact point. 00:11:22.990 --> 00:11:25.389 That is a complete and fundamental misreading 00:11:25.389 --> 00:11:27.889 of the text. How can you say that? Because there 00:11:27.889 --> 00:11:30.909 is no paradox and there is no causal loop. He 00:11:30.909 --> 00:11:33.309 looks right at him. He literally sees the boy 00:11:33.309 --> 00:11:36.250 who defeats him. Yes, he looks at him. But Iolite 00:11:36.250 --> 00:11:38.529 does not learn the future, and he absolutely 00:11:38.529 --> 00:11:41.230 does not witness his own defeat. If you look 00:11:41.230 --> 00:11:42.990 at the text, if you break down what actually 00:11:42.990 --> 00:11:45.429 happens on that battlefield, the mechanics are 00:11:45.429 --> 00:11:48.509 brilliantly grounded. Okay, explain it to me 00:11:48.509 --> 00:11:51.029 then. Picture the tempest of that fight. The 00:11:51.029 --> 00:11:54.009 pure green wind of Xeon Clerics is violently 00:11:54.009 --> 00:11:56.629 clashing with the corrupted red wind of Iolite. 00:11:56.750 --> 00:11:59.350 In the middle of that blinding storm, Iolite 00:11:59.350 --> 00:12:01.750 sees a mysterious young man fighting alongside 00:12:01.750 --> 00:12:04.590 his brother. He studies the boy's face, he watches 00:12:04.590 --> 00:12:07.090 his elemental techniques, and what happens is 00:12:07.090 --> 00:12:10.669 purely psychological. He becomes deeply, incredibly 00:12:10.669 --> 00:12:13.789 suspicious. Suspicious of what? A time traveler 00:12:13.789 --> 00:12:16.889 dropping in to ruin his life? No. He already 00:12:16.889 --> 00:12:19.309 knows that time travel exists in the universe 00:12:19.309 --> 00:12:22.250 as a theoretical possibility, but he also knows 00:12:22.250 --> 00:12:25.470 it is strictly forbidden. He assumes nobody, 00:12:25.690 --> 00:12:28.110 not even his brother, would be reckless enough 00:12:28.110 --> 00:12:30.730 to actually attempt it because the universe would 00:12:30.730 --> 00:12:34.909 crush them. So, relying on cold, calculated logic, 00:12:35.429 --> 00:12:38.309 Iolite deduces something far more grounded and 00:12:38.309 --> 00:12:41.509 terrifying. He deduces that his brother has, 00:12:41.649 --> 00:12:45.970 or will have, a family. Wait, so he just guesses 00:12:45.970 --> 00:12:49.169 he has a nephew? He connects the dots. He sees 00:12:49.169 --> 00:12:51.649 the physical resemblance in the face. He sees 00:12:51.649 --> 00:12:54.929 the exact same shared martial style. He deduces 00:12:54.929 --> 00:12:57.669 a bloodline. He does not possess knowledge of 00:12:57.669 --> 00:13:00.090 the future. He possesses a paranoid brilliant 00:13:00.090 --> 00:13:02.870 suspicion. Okay, but what about the assassination 00:13:02.870 --> 00:13:05.429 plot? He literally orchestrates the hunt for 00:13:05.429 --> 00:13:08.110 Xeonix based on that exact encounter. You cannot 00:13:08.110 --> 00:13:10.450 deny that the time travel causes the assassination 00:13:10.450 --> 00:13:14.690 attempt. He does orchestrate the hunt. Yes. But 00:13:14.690 --> 00:13:17.389 again, we have to respect the mechanics Neo Gentrics 00:13:17.389 --> 00:13:20.129 established. Only Xeonix travels through time 00:13:20.129 --> 00:13:24.090 in this story. Nobody else. Ever. Wait, not even 00:13:24.090 --> 00:13:27.299 Malamar? Absolutely not. Iolite does not send 00:13:27.299 --> 00:13:30.460 anyone to the future. Acting entirely on his 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:32.500 paranoid suspicion about his brother's bloodline, 00:13:32.620 --> 00:13:35.440 he puts Malamar in place. And Malamar is planted 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:38.639 in the past, years in advance. Malamar moves 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:41.700 forward through normal, linear time, aging day 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:45.460 by day, year by year, exactly like everyone else, 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:48.259 waiting patiently in the shadows to ruin the 00:13:48.259 --> 00:13:50.559 nephew Iolite suspects will eventually exist. 00:13:50.940 --> 00:13:55.039 Oh, wow. Wait, so he just waits? Yes. And Crater 00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:57.049 Steve? He doesn't travel through time either. 00:13:57.549 --> 00:14:00.009 Crater Steve is just a mercenary operating in 00:14:00.009 --> 00:14:02.149 the present day of Picodesh who gets hired for 00:14:02.149 --> 00:14:05.490 a hit. There is no closed causal loop. There 00:14:05.490 --> 00:14:08.649 is no paradox that magically creates the plan. 00:14:08.850 --> 00:14:12.190 It is sheer deduction and long -term calculated 00:14:12.190 --> 00:14:15.669 malice by a villain who knows exactly how to 00:14:15.669 --> 00:14:20.330 hold a grudge. I, well, if we look at it that 00:14:20.330 --> 00:14:23.580 way, that is a crucial distinction to make. I 00:14:23.580 --> 00:14:26.519 mean, if he is aging normally, if Malamar is 00:14:26.519 --> 00:14:29.480 just living day by day, year by year, aging in 00:14:29.480 --> 00:14:32.419 real time, just waiting to spring a trap based 00:14:32.419 --> 00:14:35.279 purely on a suspicion formed during a passing 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:38.419 glance on a battlefield 20 years prior. Exactly. 00:14:38.700 --> 00:14:41.659 It isn't a Sykes -Eye paradox. It's a 20 -year 00:14:41.659 --> 00:14:44.679 -long game of chess played by a sociopath. Okay, 00:14:44.740 --> 00:14:46.789 you know what? I will concede that point. And 00:14:46.789 --> 00:14:49.070 honestly, stripping away the idea of a closed 00:14:49.070 --> 00:14:51.289 time loop actually makes Iolite significantly 00:14:51.289 --> 00:14:54.330 more terrifying as an antagonist. Right? Yeah. 00:14:54.409 --> 00:14:57.429 Because the moment he locks eyes with Xeonix 00:14:57.429 --> 00:15:00.029 through that violent clash of elemental wind 00:15:00.029 --> 00:15:03.649 and deduces the existence of an entire family 00:15:03.649 --> 00:15:07.649 bloodline purely on instinct and paranoia, it 00:15:07.649 --> 00:15:10.929 is undeniably one of the most chilling, brilliant, 00:15:11.149 --> 00:15:14.850 villainous moments in the entire book. He doesn't 00:15:14.850 --> 00:15:17.470 need to magically read the future. He just needs 00:15:17.470 --> 00:15:20.169 to read his brother's face in the middle of a 00:15:20.169 --> 00:15:23.389 war. Precisely. It preserves his complete agency 00:15:23.389 --> 00:15:25.809 as a character. He is acting on his own hatred 00:15:25.809 --> 00:15:28.009 and his own intellect, not simply fulfilling 00:15:28.009 --> 00:15:30.049 a predetermined timeline dictated by a paradox. 00:15:30.519 --> 00:15:32.580 It takes the sci -fi elements of the void and 00:15:32.580 --> 00:15:34.679 grounds them firmly back into character psychology 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:37.299 and elemental martial arts. It is a great character 00:15:37.299 --> 00:15:39.759 moment, I'll give you that. However, while I 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:42.139 concede the brilliance of the deduction, I need 00:15:42.139 --> 00:15:45.360 you to concede the inherent, ongoing danger of 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:48.279 what Neo Gentrics has done here. Okay, let's hear 00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:51.289 it. Because even if the mechanics of the localized 00:15:51.289 --> 00:15:54.929 vacuum hold together cleanly, and even if the 00:15:54.929 --> 00:15:57.570 emotional payoff of meeting the grandfather is 00:15:57.570 --> 00:16:00.950 spectacular, introducing space -time manipulation 00:16:00.950 --> 00:16:04.649 via the void pulls the pin on a narrative grenade. 00:16:05.009 --> 00:16:07.029 I see where you're going with this. The author 00:16:07.029 --> 00:16:09.409 has shown the reader that the fundamental laws 00:16:09.409 --> 00:16:12.750 of linear time can be broken if you push hard 00:16:12.750 --> 00:16:15.799 enough and suffer the atmospheric pressure. If 00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:19.139 Neo Gentrics ever uses this device again to dodge 00:16:19.139 --> 00:16:22.720 a present -day tragedy, if, say, in Book 2 or 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:26.299 Book 3, Zeryl folds space to undo a death or 00:16:26.299 --> 00:16:29.759 to fix a mistake, it absolutely will permanently 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:32.139 undercut the gritty stakes of this universe. 00:16:32.539 --> 00:16:35.580 Yeah. The reader will never trust a character 00:16:35.580 --> 00:16:38.360 death again. That is a very fair critique, and 00:16:38.360 --> 00:16:40.690 I will fully concede that point. You're right. 00:16:40.809 --> 00:16:43.509 The tension of Picodesh, and honestly the entire 00:16:43.509 --> 00:16:46.490 series, relies heavily on the permanence of trauma. 00:16:46.750 --> 00:16:49.529 The elemental arts require biological sacrifice, 00:16:49.870 --> 00:16:52.590 and the Congo War left permanent bleeding scars 00:16:52.590 --> 00:16:56.049 on the continent. Exactly. By allowing Xeonix 00:16:56.049 --> 00:16:58.549 to step backward, even just to observe and briefly 00:16:58.549 --> 00:17:01.110 connect, the author has introduced a massive 00:17:01.110 --> 00:17:03.509 vulnerability into the architecture of the story. 00:17:03.710 --> 00:17:06.529 If it is overused or if it is ever used as a 00:17:06.529 --> 00:17:09.529 convenient bandage rather than a desperate, agonizing 00:17:09.529 --> 00:17:12.089 anomaly, the structural integrity of the world 00:17:12.089 --> 00:17:14.490 will absolutely collapse. It works brilliantly 00:17:14.490 --> 00:17:16.609 here because it is driven by profound grief, 00:17:16.750 --> 00:17:19.630 but it must remain an isolated anomaly. It has 00:17:19.630 --> 00:17:23.200 to. The universe has to remain dangerous. I mean, 00:17:23.220 --> 00:17:25.799 if you can just step out of the timeline whenever 00:17:25.799 --> 00:17:29.440 Eon Pax or the Fuse Master wins a battle, it 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.019 isn't a terrifying war anymore. It becomes a 00:17:32.019 --> 00:17:35.259 rehearsal. The tension just dies. It is a remarkably 00:17:35.259 --> 00:17:38.700 delicate balance, and I think that is where we 00:17:38.700 --> 00:17:41.319 find our synthesis today. I completely agree. 00:17:41.769 --> 00:17:43.970 So to pull our thoughts together, the Congo War 00:17:43.970 --> 00:17:46.410 time travel arc is arguably the highest risk 00:17:46.410 --> 00:17:49.009 narrative swing in the entire book. It flirts 00:17:49.009 --> 00:17:51.529 incredibly dangerously with challenging the gritty, 00:17:51.529 --> 00:17:54.750 permanent reality of the universe. Yet by enforcing 00:17:54.750 --> 00:17:57.309 strict physics -based rules around the void and 00:17:57.309 --> 00:17:59.630 relying on brilliant character deduction rather 00:17:59.630 --> 00:18:03.049 than lazy paradoxes, it delivers a massive, necessary 00:18:03.049 --> 00:18:06.640 emotional catharsis. It transforms a mythic grandfather 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:09.779 into a real breathing human being, and it forces 00:18:09.779 --> 00:18:12.319 Xeonix to grow up. And as always, we leave it 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:15.319 to you, the listener, to form your own conclusion 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:18.539 based on the text. Does the staggering emotional 00:18:18.539 --> 00:18:22.460 weight of that battlefield reunion justify the 00:18:22.460 --> 00:18:25.720 introduction of fluid space -time physics into 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:29.160 a grounded elemental world? Analyzing multiple 00:18:29.160 --> 00:18:32.000 perspectives on how Neo Gentrics balances these 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:35.779 mechanics only deepens our appreciation of the 00:18:35.779 --> 00:18:38.799 sheer complexity of this worldbuilding. Because 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:40.799 no matter how many times you read it, there is 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:43.619 always more to explore in the material. There 00:18:43.619 --> 00:18:46.359 absolutely is. Which brings us to our next deep 00:18:46.359 --> 00:18:49.299 dive. We spent a lot of time today circling the 00:18:49.299 --> 00:18:51.940 paranoid brilliant mind that deduced an entire 00:18:51.940 --> 00:18:54.759 family lineage from a single glance in a tempest. 00:18:54.980 --> 00:18:57.400 So next time we're looking closer at the man 00:18:57.400 --> 00:19:00.460 who started it all, Iolite, the grandfather's 00:19:00.460 --> 00:19:02.940 brother. Is he a sympathetic villain driven by 00:19:02.940 --> 00:19:06.359 neglect or pure, irredeemable evil? It's going 00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:08.779 to be a heavy one. We might need to map out the 00:19:08.779 --> 00:19:12.480 entire family tree for that. We just might. Until 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:15.400 then, keep questioning what you find in the rubble. 00:19:15.559 --> 00:19:17.960 We'll see you next time on The Debate.