WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.400 Welcome to the debate. Usually when we look at 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:08.179 a physical injury, there's this expectation of 00:00:08.179 --> 00:00:11.140 precision, you know? Right. Like, you break your 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:14.279 arm, the x -ray shows that jagged white line, 00:00:14.359 --> 00:00:16.359 and the doctor just points and says, there it 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:18.440 is, that's the fracture, it's binary, clean. 00:00:18.660 --> 00:00:21.679 We like things to be visible. We want cause and 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:24.480 effect to be easily categorized so we know exactly 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:27.690 what went wrong and how to fix it. Exactly. But 00:00:27.690 --> 00:00:29.289 then you step into the world of generational 00:00:29.289 --> 00:00:32.329 trauma and family betrayal, and suddenly that 00:00:32.329 --> 00:00:34.869 x -ray machine is just completely useless. Oh, 00:00:34.890 --> 00:00:37.049 totally useless. Yeah. And we're looking at a 00:00:37.049 --> 00:00:40.909 moral landscape that is incredibly murky. A perfect 00:00:40.909 --> 00:00:42.909 example of this is a moment we discussed recently 00:00:42.909 --> 00:00:46.270 regarding the Congo War. Ah, right. The time 00:00:46.270 --> 00:00:49.049 travel paradox. Or, well, the supposed paradox. 00:00:49.329 --> 00:00:53.070 Yes, the supposed paradox. There was this lingering 00:00:53.070 --> 00:00:56.979 assumption. that when Iolite saw Xeonix on that 00:00:56.979 --> 00:01:00.240 battlefield, he somehow peered into the future 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.840 or like witnessed some mystical prophecy of his 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.659 own defeat. Which we need to be very clear about. 00:01:06.739 --> 00:01:10.359 That is entirely wrong. It is. Because if we 00:01:10.359 --> 00:01:13.540 look closely at the text, that entirely strips 00:01:13.540 --> 00:01:17.420 away his agency. Iolite does not travel through 00:01:17.420 --> 00:01:20.420 time. Nobody travels through time in this universe 00:01:20.420 --> 00:01:24.969 except Xeonix. Ever. Period. Right. So when Iolite 00:01:24.969 --> 00:01:28.629 saw Xeonix bending time using the elemental arts, 00:01:28.790 --> 00:01:31.810 he didn't see destiny. He looked at a young man 00:01:31.810 --> 00:01:34.769 fighting alongside his brother, recognized the 00:01:34.769 --> 00:01:37.849 techniques, became suspicious of the strong family 00:01:37.849 --> 00:01:41.189 resemblance, and logically deduced that his brother 00:01:41.189 --> 00:01:45.150 has or will have a family. Which is a massive 00:01:45.150 --> 00:01:49.549 distinction. It was pure, cold deduction. I mean, 00:01:49.549 --> 00:01:51.790 it grounds his character in human calculation. 00:01:52.540 --> 00:01:55.120 rather than predetermined destiny. He isn't a 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:58.120 passive actor in a cosmic play, you know? He 00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:00.480 is an active observer who puts the pieces together 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:03.200 in real time. And that active, calculating nature 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:05.640 is exactly what brings us to today's central 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:08.400 question, drawn right from Neo Gentrics' book 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:10.680 one. It's the ultimate question for him, really. 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:14.180 It is. Looking at this monumental antagonist, 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:17.060 we are forced to ask, is Iolite a sympathetic 00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:19.979 villain born of profound, inescapable tragedy? 00:02:20.590 --> 00:02:23.669 Or is he a figure of pure, irredeemable evil? 00:02:23.889 --> 00:02:26.449 The classic debate. Right. And I look at his 00:02:26.449 --> 00:02:29.530 history and I see a profound tragedy. I mean, 00:02:29.569 --> 00:02:31.990 Iolite is a brother who lived his entire life 00:02:31.990 --> 00:02:34.710 in the crushing, suffocating shadow of a legend. 00:02:35.169 --> 00:02:37.710 Everything he becomes grows out of that initial, 00:02:37.830 --> 00:02:41.150 fundamental wound. Okay. And understanding that 00:02:41.150 --> 00:02:44.610 pain is absolutely essential, even if it doesn't 00:02:44.610 --> 00:02:46.969 excuse the horrific things he ultimately does. 00:02:47.250 --> 00:02:50.310 I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that. Sympathy 00:02:50.310 --> 00:02:53.349 is a dangerous trap here. I look at the exact 00:02:53.349 --> 00:02:56.490 same history, the exact same timeline, and I 00:02:56.490 --> 00:03:01.009 see calculated malice. Malice? Over tragedy? 00:03:01.409 --> 00:03:04.530 Yes. Let me tell you why. We are talking about 00:03:04.530 --> 00:03:07.810 a man who spent 20 years patiently, methodically 00:03:07.810 --> 00:03:10.349 engineering the destruction of a child who had 00:03:10.349 --> 00:03:13.310 done absolutely nothing to him. Patience on that 00:03:13.310 --> 00:03:15.710 scale isn't the byproduct of emotional pain. 00:03:15.889 --> 00:03:19.389 It is the definition of pure evil. But you can't 00:03:19.389 --> 00:03:22.189 separate his actions from the systemic failure 00:03:22.189 --> 00:03:26.069 of his family unit. Iolite's descent isn't just 00:03:26.069 --> 00:03:29.030 a story about a bad seed randomly going rogue. 00:03:29.250 --> 00:03:33.770 A failure? How so? It is the story of a systemic, 00:03:33.949 --> 00:03:37.370 structural failure within the Novus bloodline. 00:03:37.710 --> 00:03:41.110 Imagine the sheer psychological weight of growing 00:03:41.110 --> 00:03:45.860 up constantly overshadowed by the noble... Universally 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:49.860 revered figure of Xeon Clerics. Sure. His brother 00:03:49.860 --> 00:03:53.439 isn't just successful. He is the whistling swordsman. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:57.379 He is a literal walking legend in Picodesh. A 00:03:57.379 --> 00:04:00.689 heavy shadow, undoubtedly. But living in a shadow 00:04:00.689 --> 00:04:02.930 doesn't automatically turn you into a tyrant. 00:04:03.069 --> 00:04:05.689 It does when the shadow is accompanied by total 00:04:05.689 --> 00:04:08.849 parental rejection. Beneath that public shadow 00:04:08.849 --> 00:04:12.289 is a deeply private, prevailing feeling of being 00:04:12.289 --> 00:04:15.509 entirely unloved by their father. I mean, the 00:04:15.509 --> 00:04:18.550 family dynamic was bad, yes. It was fundamentally 00:04:18.550 --> 00:04:21.089 shattered long before the first shots of the 00:04:21.089 --> 00:04:24.069 Congo War were ever fired. And what makes it 00:04:24.069 --> 00:04:27.430 a tragedy, what removes a layer of his culpability, 00:04:27.850 --> 00:04:31.550 is the presence of Eon Pax. The imperial mastermind 00:04:31.550 --> 00:04:35.689 himself? Exactly. Eon Pax is a master at identifying 00:04:35.689 --> 00:04:39.310 structural psychological weaknesses. He looked 00:04:39.310 --> 00:04:42.290 at the Novus family, saw this massive fracture, 00:04:42.509 --> 00:04:45.550 and actively weaponized him. He didn't just hand 00:04:45.550 --> 00:04:48.699 Iolite a sword and recruit him. Right. He groomed 00:04:48.699 --> 00:04:51.759 a vulnerable, neglected, desperate son. Eon Pax 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:54.259 figured out exactly what currency Iolite lacked. 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:57.560 Validation, power, a sense of belonging. And 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:00.540 he provided it solely to forge him into a weapon 00:05:00.540 --> 00:05:03.839 for his empire. You have a broken boy being manipulated. 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:07.319 You are using familial neglect as a shield for 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:10.779 atrocity. And in a universe as brutal as Picodesh, 00:05:10.899 --> 00:05:13.139 that argument completely falls apart. I'm not 00:05:13.139 --> 00:05:15.819 shielding him. I'm explaining him. Look, we all 00:05:15.819 --> 00:05:18.699 acknowledge that crimes of passion happen. Lashing 00:05:18.699 --> 00:05:21.199 out in a moment of burning jealousy. Making a 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:23.800 terrible mistake because you feel unloved. Those 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:26.379 are human failings. We can sympathize with a 00:05:26.379 --> 00:05:29.759 fleeting moment of weakness. Right. But Iolite's 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:33.670 methodology is terrifyingly patient. When he 00:05:33.670 --> 00:05:36.509 targets the Novus bloodline, he doesn't act 00:05:36.509 --> 00:05:39.509 in a fit of rage. He doesn't just throw a tantrum. 00:05:40.069 --> 00:05:44.449 His capacity to defer his gratification, to sit 00:05:44.449 --> 00:05:47.350 in the dark for decades just to maximize the 00:05:47.350 --> 00:05:49.810 suffering of an innocent person is a completely 00:05:49.810 --> 00:05:52.949 different pathology. It completely overrides 00:05:52.949 --> 00:05:55.750 whatever childhood insecurity he felt because 00:05:55.750 --> 00:05:58.529 it requires a sustained conscious choice to be 00:05:58.529 --> 00:06:01.810 cruel every single day. But that cruelty didn't 00:06:01.810 --> 00:06:04.170 manifest out of thin air. We have to look at 00:06:04.170 --> 00:06:06.529 the specific catalyst that finalized the brothers 00:06:06.529 --> 00:06:09.209 falling out. The incident in the Xaolyn Timber 00:06:09.209 --> 00:06:12.990 Forest. Oh, here we go. No, hear me out. Iolite 00:06:12.990 --> 00:06:16.149 attempts to steal the Infinity Crest. Now, Neo Gentricss 00:06:16.149 --> 00:06:18.670 actually doesn't provide a deeper backstory in 00:06:18.670 --> 00:06:21.930 the text for why the father hated Iolite so vehemently 00:06:21.930 --> 00:06:24.370 from the beginning. We just see the result. Right, 00:06:24.410 --> 00:06:26.779 the book leaves that pretty ambiguous. Since 00:06:26.779 --> 00:06:29.620 the book doesn't state why he turned on his brother 00:06:29.620 --> 00:06:34.279 initially, I have to speculate. Perhaps Iolite 00:06:34.279 --> 00:06:37.319 never had an inherent affinity for the peaceful, 00:06:37.459 --> 00:06:40.560 sustaining elemental arts that his family valued 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:43.000 so highly. You think his father rejected him 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:46.939 early on as defective? Yes. If he couldn't manipulate 00:06:46.939 --> 00:06:50.439 the environment to foster life the way Xeon Clerics 00:06:50.439 --> 00:06:53.600 could, his father might have rejected him. And 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:56.680 if a father rejects a son for his inherent nature, 00:06:56.839 --> 00:06:59.740 for something he cannot control, and that son 00:06:59.740 --> 00:07:02.920 subsequently tries to steal a source of immense 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:06.139 power just to prove his worth. You call that 00:07:06.139 --> 00:07:08.939 desperation? You have to view that theft to the 00:07:08.939 --> 00:07:11.939 lens of desperation. It's a desperate, catastrophic 00:07:11.939 --> 00:07:15.360 cry for acknowledgement. A cry for acknowledgement? 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:18.939 Are you kidding me? You are severely downplaying 00:07:18.939 --> 00:07:21.100 the mechanics of what he actually tried to do. 00:07:21.259 --> 00:07:24.639 It was a desperate act. You're talking about 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:27.139 stealing the Infinity Crest, like he tried to 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:29.240 steal a family heirloom off the mantle to pawn 00:07:29.240 --> 00:07:31.779 it. He tried to rip the living heart out of the 00:07:31.779 --> 00:07:34.540 shell and timber forest. I know the stakes were 00:07:34.540 --> 00:07:37.079 high. The Infinity Crest doesn't just sit there 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:40.120 looking pretty. It regulates the entire biosphere. 00:07:40.199 --> 00:07:43.060 It feeds the root systems. To take it is to trigger 00:07:43.060 --> 00:07:46.470 an unstoppable ecological meltdown. Well, yes, 00:07:46.730 --> 00:07:48.910 but... What he did was the equivalent of setting 00:07:48.910 --> 00:07:51.250 your own house on fire with your family inside 00:07:51.250 --> 00:07:53.490 just because you didn't get the biggest bedroom. 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:56.709 That's a huge exaggeration. It really isn't. 00:07:56.709 --> 00:07:59.670 It wasn't a cry for help. It was an act of profound 00:07:59.670 --> 00:08:02.870 sociopathic disregard for the catastrophic environmental 00:08:02.870 --> 00:08:06.149 consequences that would ravage the entire Pico 00:08:06.149 --> 00:08:08.889 -Desh continent. But... If he pulls that crest, 00:08:09.089 --> 00:08:12.389 the soil turns to ash. The elemental balance 00:08:12.389 --> 00:08:15.959 collapses. He was entirely willing to let the 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:18.959 world rot just so he could feel powerful for 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:21.740 five minutes. You are focusing purely on the 00:08:21.740 --> 00:08:24.699 external consequences and completely ignoring 00:08:24.699 --> 00:08:28.279 the internal emotional engine driving the act. 00:08:28.420 --> 00:08:30.720 You have to look at the physical manifestation 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:34.100 of his malice. The elemental arts are just tools. 00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:37.080 No, let's talk about the elemental arts themselves. 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:40.700 In Neo Gentrics' universe, the elemental arts 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:42.620 are not just physical tools. They aren't just 00:08:42.620 --> 00:08:44.580 weapons you pick up and swing. Sure, they have 00:08:44.580 --> 00:08:47.460 a spiritual component. The text makes it incredibly 00:08:47.460 --> 00:08:50.980 clear that the elemental arts are a direct physical 00:08:50.980 --> 00:08:54.220 interface with the user's soul. How you feel, 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:57.620 what you value, your psychological state, it 00:08:57.620 --> 00:09:00.240 all dictates how the energy manifests in the 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:03.139 physical world. Right. On the Congo War battlefield, 00:09:03.850 --> 00:09:06.750 we see this contrast beautifully illustrated. 00:09:07.409 --> 00:09:11.350 Xeon Clerics wields this revitalizing, gentle 00:09:11.350 --> 00:09:14.750 green wind. It breathed life into the environment 00:09:14.750 --> 00:09:17.970 around him. And pushing against it, Iolite 00:09:17.970 --> 00:09:21.070 wields this corrupted, suffocating red wind. 00:09:21.350 --> 00:09:23.490 And you think that red wind is just a symptom 00:09:23.490 --> 00:09:27.389 of his sadness? I think it is the physical manifestation 00:09:27.389 --> 00:09:31.330 of his rotting jealousy and internal pain. He 00:09:31.330 --> 00:09:34.679 isn't just casting a spell. The red wind literally 00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:38.399 taxes his own life force. It is a heavy technique, 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:43.220 sure. It is heavy. It is oppressive. And it suffocates 00:09:43.220 --> 00:09:45.399 everything it touches because that is exactly 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:48.720 what he is experiencing internally. He is bleeding 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:51.620 his trauma out into the atmosphere. The very 00:09:51.620 --> 00:09:54.379 mechanics of the elemental arts in that scene 00:09:54.379 --> 00:09:58.379 prove that he is a man in absolute unrelenting 00:09:58.379 --> 00:10:01.399 agony. I understand the mechanism. But you are 00:10:01.399 --> 00:10:05.000 entirely stripping him of his agency. The elemental 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:08.559 arts interface with the soul, yes. But the red 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:12.419 wind is a choice to embrace corruption. He cultivated 00:10:12.419 --> 00:10:15.840 that suffocating energy. He fed it. It's trauma 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:19.899 made physical. If his actions are just the flailings 00:10:19.899 --> 00:10:22.940 of a pained, overshadowed brother, if he is so 00:10:22.940 --> 00:10:26.200 blinded by his own psychological trauma, how 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:28.860 do you explain his cold -blooded deduction on 00:10:28.860 --> 00:10:31.299 that very same battlefield? Because the trauma 00:10:31.299 --> 00:10:34.539 hones his survival instincts. Let's walk through 00:10:34.539 --> 00:10:38.419 exactly what happens in the Congo War. Xeonix 00:10:38.419 --> 00:10:41.220 bends time, right? He ends up on that battlefield. 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:44.980 Iolite clashes with him. Right. Iolite is currently 00:10:44.980 --> 00:10:48.139 in the middle of a war, supposedly consumed by 00:10:48.139 --> 00:10:51.059 this agonizing red wind of jealousy. But what 00:10:51.059 --> 00:10:54.120 does he do when he locks eyes with Xeonix? He 00:10:54.120 --> 00:10:57.379 studies his techniques. He recognizes the footwork. 00:10:57.559 --> 00:11:00.159 He realizes who he's fighting. He sees the family 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:03.100 resemblance. He realizes in real time that this 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:05.820 mysterious fighter is using the Novus bloodline 00:11:05.820 --> 00:11:09.019 techniques. Right. If Iolite is just a wounded, 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:12.039 emotionally volatile victim, he should react 00:11:12.039 --> 00:11:14.919 with blind rage. He should lash out. He should 00:11:14.919 --> 00:11:17.080 have a breakdown realizing that his efforts to 00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:19.700 wipe out his brother's legacy have somehow failed. 00:11:19.860 --> 00:11:22.220 He does react. He fights him. But he doesn't 00:11:22.220 --> 00:11:24.580 fight him with blind emotion. He reacts with 00:11:24.580 --> 00:11:27.830 terrifying calculation. He stands there on the 00:11:27.830 --> 00:11:30.649 mud of the Congo War battlefield, puts the pieces 00:11:30.649 --> 00:11:34.190 together, deduces exactly who Xeonix is, and 00:11:34.190 --> 00:11:37.049 instantly formulates a multi -generational strategy. 00:11:37.409 --> 00:11:39.629 Eon Pax taught him to do that. He doesn't scream 00:11:39.629 --> 00:11:42.210 at the heavens. He thinks, my purges failed. 00:11:42.429 --> 00:11:45.009 My brother's line survives into the future. I 00:11:45.009 --> 00:11:47.850 need a new plan. That level of emotional detachment 00:11:47.850 --> 00:11:50.629 in the middle of a visceral combat scenario isn't 00:11:50.629 --> 00:11:54.470 pain. That is psychopathy. I completely disagree 00:11:54.470 --> 00:11:57.870 that it's psychopathy. That calculation is a 00:11:57.870 --> 00:12:00.889 learned survival mechanism. You have to remember 00:12:00.889 --> 00:12:04.669 who his mentor is. Eon Pax. Yes. When you are 00:12:04.669 --> 00:12:08.330 taken in and groomed by Eon Pax, a tyrant whose 00:12:08.330 --> 00:12:11.409 entire empire is built on suppressing panic and 00:12:11.409 --> 00:12:14.070 immediately strategizing, you learn to mimic 00:12:14.070 --> 00:12:16.929 that behavior. Iolite suppressing his immediate 00:12:16.929 --> 00:12:20.470 emotional reaction to plan his next move is exactly 00:12:20.470 --> 00:12:23.230 what Eon Pax trained him to do. It's a tragedy 00:12:23.230 --> 00:12:25.950 of conditioning. Then let's talk about the ultimate 00:12:25.950 --> 00:12:27.929 result of that conditioning, because this is 00:12:27.929 --> 00:12:30.769 the specific point where any argument for his 00:12:30.769 --> 00:12:34.870 sympathy completely collapses. The 20 -year grooming 00:12:34.870 --> 00:12:38.750 plan. Well, it is an incredibly dark pivot in 00:12:38.750 --> 00:12:41.970 his strategy. I won't deny that. It is the ultimate, 00:12:42.110 --> 00:12:45.309 unforgivable betrayal of Xeonix. Because once 00:12:45.309 --> 00:12:47.409 Iolite deduces the truth on that battlefield, 00:12:47.710 --> 00:12:50.389 what does he do? He orders his most ruthless, 00:12:50.570 --> 00:12:54.309 highly trained warrior, Malamar Kenshin, to infiltrate 00:12:54.309 --> 00:12:58.110 Xeonix's life. To act as a mentor, yes? He commands 00:12:58.110 --> 00:13:00.789 Malamar to step into that role, to gain this 00:13:00.789 --> 00:13:03.889 young, innocent boy's absolute trust, and then 00:13:03.889 --> 00:13:06.990 to slowly, methodically fill his path with despair. 00:13:07.350 --> 00:13:09.830 It's brutal. It is the darkest pivot imaginable. 00:13:10.409 --> 00:13:12.730 And the mechanics of how it was executed are 00:13:12.730 --> 00:13:15.309 vital. We need to be crystal clear on the canon 00:13:15.309 --> 00:13:18.139 facts of Neo Gentrics' timeline here. Right, regarding 00:13:18.139 --> 00:13:21.139 how he got there. Malamar was planted years in 00:13:21.139 --> 00:13:23.620 advance. He was never sent into the future via 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:26.759 some elemental arts manipulation. Malamar lived 00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:30.019 normal, consecutive days. He aged forward through 00:13:30.019 --> 00:13:33.440 normal time. The endurance required for that 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:37.059 kind of deception is staggering. It strips away 00:13:37.059 --> 00:13:40.279 any claim to humanity Iolite might have had left. 00:13:40.620 --> 00:13:44.049 Think about the mundane horror of it. Iolite 00:13:44.049 --> 00:13:47.450 commanded a man to spend two decades waking up 00:13:47.450 --> 00:13:50.690 every single morning, looking a growing child 00:13:50.690 --> 00:13:53.690 in the eyes, pretending to care for him. Acting 00:13:53.690 --> 00:13:56.990 as a father figure? Training him? Acting as a 00:13:56.990 --> 00:13:59.370 father figure all while secretly plotting to 00:13:59.370 --> 00:14:02.570 break his soul from the inside out. Malamar 00:14:02.570 --> 00:14:04.990 had to eat breakfast with this kid. He had to 00:14:04.990 --> 00:14:07.610 patch up his scraped knees. And every step of 00:14:07.610 --> 00:14:10.470 the way, he was reporting back to Iolite. Yeah. 00:14:10.990 --> 00:14:13.629 If Iolite just wanted to end his brother's bloodline, 00:14:13.730 --> 00:14:16.029 an assassination would have taken one night, 00:14:16.129 --> 00:14:17.870 it would have been violent, but it would have 00:14:17.870 --> 00:14:20.450 been merciful compared to this. True. He didn't 00:14:20.450 --> 00:14:23.330 want Xeonix dead. He wanted to conquer his soul. 00:14:23.509 --> 00:14:26.629 He wanted to forge him into a broken, malleable 00:14:26.629 --> 00:14:29.809 weapon, just like Eon Pax did to him. It's a 00:14:29.809 --> 00:14:33.370 horrific cycle. Waiting 20 years, knowing you 00:14:33.370 --> 00:14:36.690 are slowly poisoning a young man's mind, making 00:14:36.690 --> 00:14:39.210 him believe his master loves him when his entire 00:14:39.210 --> 00:14:43.750 life is a trap. That is pure, irredeemable malice. 00:14:43.830 --> 00:14:46.570 It takes a monster to sign off on a 20 -year 00:14:46.570 --> 00:14:49.330 psychological torture campaign against a child. 00:14:49.509 --> 00:14:54.330 You know. I have to admit, this is where my defense 00:14:54.330 --> 00:14:57.710 of his humanity hits a hard wall. I would hope 00:14:57.710 --> 00:15:00.789 so. No, truly, I will concede this point to you. 00:15:00.850 --> 00:15:04.269 This specific, methodical psychological torture 00:15:04.269 --> 00:15:07.950 of Xeonix crosses a moral event horizon. It really 00:15:07.950 --> 00:15:11.230 does. The sheer endurance required to orchestrate 00:15:11.230 --> 00:15:14.190 and sustain a lie of that magnitude for 20 normal 00:15:14.190 --> 00:15:17.429 consecutive years requires a level of premeditated 00:15:17.429 --> 00:15:21.250 cruelty that I cannot justify. The tragedy of 00:15:21.250 --> 00:15:24.250 his youth, the crushing shadow of Xeon Clerics, 00:15:24.330 --> 00:15:27.529 even the grooming by Eon Pax, none of it balances 00:15:27.529 --> 00:15:29.649 the scales against what he knowingly did to a 00:15:29.649 --> 00:15:31.929 child through Malamar. The malice outgrew the 00:15:31.929 --> 00:15:34.850 trauma. I appreciate that concession. It really 00:15:34.850 --> 00:15:38.129 is a staggering violation of trust. And the text 00:15:38.129 --> 00:15:41.070 forces us to sit with the weight of that 20 -year 00:15:41.070 --> 00:15:44.110 lie. It does. But, you know, in the spirit of 00:15:44.110 --> 00:15:46.490 intellectual charity, I will concede a major 00:15:46.490 --> 00:15:50.169 point to you as well. Oh, go ahead. Eon Pax was 00:15:50.169 --> 00:15:53.730 the necessary catalyst. He truly was a master 00:15:53.730 --> 00:15:56.429 manipulator who found the perfect microscopic 00:15:56.429 --> 00:15:59.669 crack in the Novus and Cleric's bloodline and 00:15:59.669 --> 00:16:02.139 wedged it wide open. He exploited them perfectly. 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:04.899 If Iolite had been born into literally any other 00:16:04.899 --> 00:16:08.580 family, perhaps a family in Sacar or Orion, where 00:16:08.580 --> 00:16:10.679 he wasn't constantly measured against a living 00:16:10.679 --> 00:16:13.259 saint, he likely wouldn't have become a monster. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:15.860 Right, he might have just lived a quiet, somewhat 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:18.460 bitter life. Exactly. He might have been harmless. 00:16:18.740 --> 00:16:22.139 It took the specific, intense pressure of Xeon 00:16:22.139 --> 00:16:25.159 Cleric's legend, combined with Eon Pax's predatory 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:28.220 grooming, to forge him into a warlord. So despite 00:16:28.220 --> 00:16:31.279 his ultimate descent, The environment was the 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:35.100 forge. To summarize where we stand, I maintain 00:16:35.100 --> 00:16:37.559 that the deepest roots of Iolite's villainies 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:41.639 lie as a tragic, systemic, familial wound. Right. 00:16:41.740 --> 00:16:43.940 Understanding how his feelings of inadequacy 00:16:43.940 --> 00:16:46.559 were weaponized by an empire is essential to 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:48.970 understanding the text. even if he eventually 00:16:48.970 --> 00:16:51.809 crosses the line into unforgivable territory. 00:16:52.250 --> 00:16:54.710 And I maintain that regardless of how he started 00:16:54.710 --> 00:16:57.470 or the environment he was raised in, his decades 00:16:57.470 --> 00:17:01.330 of calculated sadism override his origins. His 00:17:01.330 --> 00:17:04.250 infinite patience in destroying Xeonix proves 00:17:04.250 --> 00:17:07.470 that the trauma is no longer an excuse, the malice 00:17:07.470 --> 00:17:09.710 became his defining characteristic. Which is 00:17:09.710 --> 00:17:12.710 precisely what makes Neo Gentrics' world so brilliant. 00:17:13.259 --> 00:17:15.819 The material intentionally blurs the line between 00:17:15.819 --> 00:17:18.380 victimhood and villainy. It really does. The 00:17:18.380 --> 00:17:21.039 tension between the tragedy of how someone is 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:24.299 made and the horror of what they choose to do, 00:17:24.380 --> 00:17:27.319 it leaves us to grapple with how much weight 00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:29.960 we should truly give to a villain's origin story 00:17:29.960 --> 00:17:33.359 when their current actions are so horrific. There 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:37.059 is no easy, clean x -ray here. We have to leave 00:17:37.059 --> 00:17:39.220 the listener genuinely torn on where to draw 00:17:39.220 --> 00:17:42.220 that line. Absolutely. The deeper you dig into 00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:44.599 these character motivations, the more complex 00:17:44.599 --> 00:17:47.299 the bedrock gets. There's so much more to explore 00:17:47.299 --> 00:17:49.480 in this material, and the family dynamics honestly 00:17:49.480 --> 00:17:51.720 only get more complicated from here. Oh, definitely. 00:17:52.059 --> 00:17:54.619 In fact, that perfectly sets up our next discussion. 00:17:54.940 --> 00:17:57.299 Next time, we are going to pivot slightly and 00:17:57.299 --> 00:17:59.900 analyze the tactical nightmare of Fuse Master's 00:17:59.900 --> 00:18:02.480 weapon and how its mechanics completely upend 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:04.759 the traditional rules of elemental combat in 00:18:04.759 --> 00:18:07.309 this universe. Oh, I'm excited for that one. 00:18:07.369 --> 00:18:09.990 And what makes that upcoming discussion even 00:18:09.990 --> 00:18:13.029 more compelling is the revelation regarding his 00:18:13.029 --> 00:18:16.329 background. Fuse Master and Crater Steve are 00:18:16.329 --> 00:18:20.789 also brothers. It just never ends. It doesn't. 00:18:20.789 --> 00:18:23.509 It just reinforces this profound theme that the 00:18:23.509 --> 00:18:26.490 history of Picodesh really is a story about 00:18:26.490 --> 00:18:29.470 brothers, all the way down. Which brings us right 00:18:29.470 --> 00:18:32.230 back to that medical analogy. Right. You look 00:18:32.230 --> 00:18:34.390 at this world trying to find a simple good versus 00:18:34.390 --> 00:18:37.539 evil. a clean fracture you can point to on an 00:18:37.539 --> 00:18:40.380 x -ray. But the deeper you look into these families, 00:18:40.619 --> 00:18:43.319 the more you realize you're just staring at the 00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:46.960 infinitely complex, muddy waters of human nature.