Welcome to the debate. You know, usually when
we look at a historical monument, we see it as
something fixed. A bronze statue in a city square,
right? Solid, immovable, entirely immune to the
weather. Yeah, just standing there forever. Exactly.
We look up at it, we read the little brass plaque,
and the story it tells is simple, clean, and
heroic. But then you start chipping away at that
bronze, and you realize it is, well... It's entirely
hollow inside. And within that hollow space,
the actual history is incredibly messy, complicated,
and sometimes quite dark. That is honestly the
perfect framing for where we are right now. We
all like our heroes cast in solid bronze, but
the reality is always an alloy of some kind,
you know, mixing nobility with immense compromise.
And honestly, we caught a major glimpse of that
messy history last time. We really did. So just
a quick recap of episode 15, we tackled the character
of Zerarilli and the specific mechanics of his
spatial manipulation. Right, the localized vacuums.
Yeah, how he creates that localized vacuum in
the void. And we debated a really fundamental
question. Was that ability physically the weakest
elemental art in the book just because it lacks
kinetic stopping power? Or was it structurally
the most consequential catalyst that shaped the
entire timeline? Right, because Zara Rill's time
-folding catalysts, like that simple act of creating
a vacuum to fold space, is exactly what allowed
a despot grandson to step out of his own era
and physically meet his legendary grandfather
on a historic battlefield. Which is just wild
to read. It completely broke the timeline wide
open, yeah. And it proved that sometimes the
quietest elemental arts have the loudest echoes.
And it is that exact moment of time folding that
forces us to reevaluate everything we thought
we knew, which pivots us right into today's central
question. Based on the text by Neogentrix, is
the original whistling swordsman Zeon Clerics
the quintessential hero that the title promises,
or is his life ultimately a tragic cautionary
tale? The big question. Exactly. So I am going
to argue that Zeon Clerics is the quintessential
hero, a man whose life -affirming elemental arts
and enduring legacy drive the entire narrative
forward. And I will argue that he is a massive
cautionary tale. I believe his life proves that
being a legendary warrior for Pico Dash often
comes at the devastating cost of being a good
father, leaving behind nothing but a wake of
generational trauma for his family. Well, when
I look at the text... I just cannot see the purely
tragic figure you do. To me, he is the absolute
heroic ideal. But, you know, you have to start
by looking at the sheer weight of what Zeon Clerics
accomplished in his time. I mean, sure, he did
a lot. He did everything. When you evaluate the
geopolitical reality of Pekodesh during his era,
you are looking at a continent being systematically
crushed by the tyranny of Aeon Pax. In that context,
Zeon Cleric stood as an immovable bulwark in
the Congo War. He was definitely a major player.
Right. And we don't just have to take the myth's
word for it. The texts provide specific physiological
evidence of his character. His mastery of the
green wind isn't just a combat technique. It
is literally life -affirming. But, and this is
a big but, having a gentle power doesn't make
someone a flawless hero. No, but you have to
look at how that power operates. The green wind
creates cellular harmony. It revitalizes the
environment around him. And his heroism wasn't
dependent on having a sword in his hand or being
on a battlefield. Hang on, look at the chapters
where he is held captive in a damp stone prison
cell, right? He's surrounded by the ash and ozone
of war. Even stripped of his weapons, he remained
a mentor. He was a beacon of hope to the other
prisoners. It is precisely that mythic, undeniable
legacy of goodness that serves as the sole engine
carrying Zeon through the absolute darkness of
Book One. I get why you say that. And the mythology
is undeniably blinding. It is a great story.
But I look at the systemic aftermath of his life,
and I see an unacceptable cost exacted on his
own bloodline. Define unacceptable cost, though.
The reality is that because of his unresolved
wars and his overarching commitment to the continent,
his grandson, Xeonyx, was forced to grow up in
total suffocating isolation on the outskirts
of Solkar. To keep him safe. But was he safe?
Seriously, was he? He spent his childhood worshipping
a hollow myth rather than having a present, living
family member to guide him. And the tragic irony
here is staggering. Xionic clerics fought a massive
war to save the world, but his own brother, Ioliot,
spent 20 years orchestrating the psychological
and physical destruction of that very grandson.
Through Malamar. Yeah. Right. Through the sleep
rage at Malamar. The text ultimately proves that
you cannot be a legend for Pekadesh and a safe
harbor for your family simultaneously. The two
roles are mutually exclusive. And his family
paid the price for his legend. I see why you
think that. But let me give you a different perspective
by looking at the fundamental nature of the elemental
arts themselves. In Neogentric's world, elemental
arts are not just, you know, random spells you
memorize from a book. No, they're tied to the
person. Exactly. They are an interface with the
soul. They require a biological and spiritual
alignment to manifest. Zeon Cleric's command
of the green wind proves his inherent goodness,
because it is fundamentally an elemental art
of protection. I agree it's an art of protection,
but how does that negate his actions? Because
the green wind isn't just about blowing leaves
around or creating a breeze, right? It literally
forces the cells of living things to regenerate
and resist entropy. It requires the user to harmonize
with the breath of the earth to sustain life.
Sure. In a war where Eon Pax is actively harvesting
biological material, Zeon Clerics isn't just
fighting, he is actively curing the battlefield
as he walks through it. You compare that directly
to Iolite's corrupted, suffocating red wind,
which is a physical manifestation of forced entropy
and decay. And the moral contrast couldn't be
clearer. Zeon clerics wielded the power of cellular
harmony to push back against an entire system
of death. You make a fair point about the nature
of the green wind, but I come at it from a different
way. Because possessing a, you know, quote -unquote
gentle elemental art doesn't magically erase
a warrior's ruthless wartime pragmatism. I wouldn't
call it ruthless. You are focusing entirely on
the color of his wind, but you need to look at
his actual administrative actions during the
Congo War. Do you remember Kenshin's revelation
to Zeonics midway through Book 1? You mean about
the brokering? Exactly. Kenshin explicitly states
that Zeon clerics operated as a loan shark. Those
are his exact words. He was brokering force,
leveraging favors, and trading in blood debts.
Well, it was a war. We have to remember that
the Congo War wasn't just a battlefield where
armies lined up and fought with honor. It was
a violent, complex economy. Eon Pax's empire
operated by harvesting biological capabilities
from subjugated peoples, and Zeon Clerics was
essentially acting as a central banker of violence
within that dark economy. A central banker. Yes.
He made deals. He traded lives for strategic
positioning. Hold on. You cannot call a man who
brokers blood debts a pure hero, no matter how
much cellular harmony he projects when he swings
his sword. Wait. Lone Shark is a really harsh
way to frame it. And I think that's Kenshin projecting
his own cynicism onto the past. That's an interesting
point, though. I would frame it differently.
How so? You are judging a wartime commander by
peacetime standards, which is a luxury none of
these characters had. Let me offer an analogy
to ground this. Think of Xeon clerics not as
a corrupt banker in a suit, but as a surgeon
operating in a massive, chaotic triage tent.
A triage tent? Yes. Imagine the casualties are
flooding in, the medical system is collapsing
under the weight of Eon Pax's armies, and people
are dying in the dirt. A surgeon in that environment
doesn't have the luxury of keeping their scrubs
clean. That's true. Right? You have to operate
in the mud, in the blood, making... agonizingly
pragmatic choices about who gets a tourniquet,
who gets medicine, and who you have to leave
behind. Yes, he traded in force and favors. Yes,
he leveraged assets. But he did it to keep the
patient, the entire continent of Pekodesh alive.
The green wind is the truth of his soul. The
loan sharking was simply the tragic necessity
of his environment. That is a compelling argument.
But have you considered that his triage approach
is exactly what caused the most devastating fracture
in the entire narrative? The fracture? You mean
with his family? Yes. If we are talking about
agonizing choices, let's look at the turning
point of his life, the betrayal in the Sholin
Timber Forest. Ah, the moment with his brother.
Right, the brothers Zeon Clerics and Io Light
lead a research team into the sacred habitat
of the Orion Mystics. And under the cover of
darkness, Iolite attempts to steal the Infinity
Crest directly from the Orion leader. Which was
a massive violation. Let's pause and remind ourselves
what that means. He didn't just try to steal
a shiny trophy. The Infinity Crest is the Earth
Hearthstone. It is the literal biological anchor
for that entire ecosystem. If you remove it,
the forest dies. Exactly. The Orion mystics die.
And what does Zeon Clerics do in response? He
doesn't just stop him. He fights his own brother.
He physically scars him for life, and he banishes
him, leaving him behind as a prisoner of the
mystics. I mean, what was he supposed to do?
Iolite was trying to rip the living heart out
of a sacred ecosystem. He would have killed thousands
of living creatures. True. I am not defending
Iolite's theft, but we have to look deeper into
the familial rot that caused that moment to happen
in the first place. Neogentrix never explicitly
states in Book 1 exactly why their father hated
Iolite and favored Zeon clerics from the very
beginning. So I have to speculate out loud here.
Let's explicitly label this as speculation, okay?
Alright, let's hear the speculation. What if
Iolite simply lacked the inherent biological
affinity for life -affirming elemental arts?
You mean he literally couldn't channel the green
wind? Exactly. If elemental arts are tied to
biology and the soul, and he couldn't manifest
the green wind of his ancestors, perhaps that
made him the family outcast from day one. Oh,
wow. Right? He grew up feeling unloved, isolated,
and completely overshadowed by his golden child
brother. By choosing to violently banish Iolite
in the Sholen Forest, rather than attempting
to rehabilitate him or heal that deep familial
wound, Zeon Clerics effectively created his own
worst enemy. That is a very sympathetic read
of Iolite. But instead of acting like a brother,
he acted like a general, and in doing so, he
handed Eon Pax the perfect aggrieved weapon.
I'm not convinced by that line of reasoning because
it entirely strips Zeon Clerics of the sheer
moral weight of his obligations. You're asking
him to put his brother above the survival of
an entire civilization. I'm asking him to be
a family member. But he had sworn a solemn, binding
oath to protect the Shaolin mystics and respect
their sacred boundaries. When his brother decided
to violate that trust, to steal the biological
anchor of the forest, Zeon Clerics was faced
with an impossible nightmare scenario. A nightmare
of his own making, partially. No, it was Iolite's
choice. Does he protect his corrupt brother out
of blind tribal loyalty, letting the forest rot?
Or does he uphold his word and protect the living
fabric of the ecosystem? But the punishment...
The punishment matched the crime. He made the
agonizing, truly heroic choice to prioritize
the safety of the world over his own familial
bias. It wasn't a lack of love on his part. It
was the ultimate demonstration of integrity.
He broke his own heart to keep his promise to
the Orion mystics. That is what a hero does.
They bear the weight so others don't have to.
Integrity on a macro scale, perhaps. I will give
you that he saved the forest. But let's look
at the micro scale. Let's look at the ultimate
cost of that legacy on Zeonix, his grandson.
I don't think you can blame him for things that
happen decades later. I'm sorry, but I just don't
buy that prioritizing the world over your family
equates to successful heroism, especially when
you look at how it thoroughly poisoned the next
generation. Let me build on your earlier points
with an analogy of my own. Zeon Cleric's legend
is like a massive ancient oak tree. Okay, I'm
listening. It is grand. It is revered. It stands
taller than anything else in the forest. But
if you are a Zeon Nyx, you are a sapling planted
directly underneath it. And because that canopy
is so dense, you get absolutely no sunlight.
Right. He was hidden away. You get no rain. Because
of the massive shadow cast by the whistling swordsman
Zeonix's parents felt completely terrified. They
were compelled to raise him in total suffocating
ignorance on the outskirts of Sukar. It's a place
deliberately removed from the elemental conflicts.
They were trying to protect him from Aeon Pax.
But they kept him painfully naive to the realities
of the elemental arts just to hide him from Aeon
Pax's forces, who were hunting the bloodline.
And because he was kept in the dark, starved
of the light of his own heritage, he became incredibly
easy prey. You're referring to the betrayal by
Malamar. Exactly. Malamar spent 20 years masquerading
as the mentor figure Kenshin. 20 years. It is
a staggering amount of time. Think about the
scale of that. That is two decades orchestrating
a meticulous psychological operation against
a child. He deliberately fed zionic half -truths
about the elemental arts. He taught him incorrect
stances to fundamentally cripple his natural
fighting instincts. Yeah, it was brutal to read.
He set him up to fail at every turn, all because
Iolite wanted long -simmering vengeance against
his brother. The legacy of Zeon clerics didn't
protect Zeonic. It painted a neon target on his
back and left him completely without the tools
to defend himself. The myth was, in execution,
a curse. It is very easy to look at the Fallout
Dickies later with perfect hindsight and declare
the man a failure. But you are completely ignoring
the most profoundly human moment in the entire
text. Oh, here we go. Not really. To understand
Zeon clerics, we have to look at the climax.
And we have to remember the strict canonical
rules of Neogentrix's universe here. The time
travel rules. Yes. Only Zeon Nix travels through
time. Nobody else. Ever. Zeon Clerics never leaves
his own fixed point in the Congo War timeline.
Right. It's a one -way bridge for the grandson.
Exactly. He does not have the luxury of reading
Book One. He doesn't know about Sukar or Malamar
or the 20 -year psychological operation. Yet,
when Zyrael folds space, creating that vacuum
we talked about, and the universe literally bleeds
together across eras, Zeon next lands squarely
in the mud, blood, and ash of that historic battlefield.
Right in the middle of the most violent clash
between the red and green winds. It is absolute
chaos. Total chaos. And amidst that absolute
carnage, surrounded by the horrors of the Congo
War, Zeon Clerics looks across the battlefield.
He sees a young man he doesn't know. but who
is fighting with a deeply familiar style. He
recognizes the forms. Yeah, and when he realizes,
when it clicks for him, that this terrified young
man is the grandson he will never get to see
grow up, what does he do? He stops fighting.
He doesn't ask for help winning the war, even
though he desperately needs it. He doesn't conscript
the boy into his army like a pragmatic loan shark
banker would, right? He smiles amidst the fire
and the blood and he begs Zianne Monix to flee.
Yeah. He orders him to get to safety and live
his life. That single fleeting moment dismantles
the idea that he was just a cold, pragmatic legend
who only cared about his duty. It proves that
beneath the myth, beneath the massive obligations
to Pico Desh and the Sholin mystics, he was a...
It is a powerful moment in the text. I will readily
grant you that. It is the one time we really
get to see the human being behind the bronze
statue, so to speak. Stripped of the title, just
a grandfather looking at his legacy. Exactly.
It completely recontextualizes everything he
did. It brings us back to how we evaluate these
figures. and why this book is so deeply resonant.
It really is. And today, we've unpacked two vastly
different perspectives on Neogentric's defining
character. I have argued throughout that Sion
Clerics is the ultimate hero, a man who utilized
the life -affirming cellular harmony of the Green
Wind to stand as a shield for a broken continent,
even when it cost him his relationship with his
own brother. And I have maintained that he operates
as a profound cautionary tale, a man whose overarching,
pragmatic commitment to the world created a massive,
suffocating shadow that starved his descendants.
It left his grandson isolated in Sukar, naive
to the world, and actively hunted by a deeply
traumatized family member. But you know, in the
spirit of this discourse, in looking objectively
at the text, I have to acknowledge the absolute
truth in your analysis of the fallout. Oh? Yeah,
I can see that the title of the Whistling Swordsman
placed an inherently unfair, lethal target on
the backs of the entire Novus family. Zeon Cleric's
outsized reputation, that massive oak tree canopy,
directly caused the suffocating environment in
Sukar. Right. They had nowhere else to go. His
inability to heal his brother is the direct catalyst
for Zeon Nyx's suffering at the hands of Malamar.
The legacy was, in many tangible ways, a profound
danger to the people he loved most. You cannot
separate the trauma from the triumph. I appreciate
that. And looking at the broader context of the
lore, I must concede your point regarding the
sheer horrific realities of his environment.
In a world as fundamentally brutal as Pekodesh
during that era, where Eon Pax was actively harvesting
the biological capabilities of innocent people
and subjugating entire populations, Someone had
to stand up. Somebody had to be the shield. Wielding
the green wind to stand against that industrial
-scale tyranny was an undeniable act of heroism.
Facing down the corrupted and tropic red wind
of Iolite to save the Earth Hearthstone, even
when it broke his own heart to banish his brother,
undoubtedly saved countless lives. He made the
impossible triage choices that a surgeon in the
mud simply had to make. Understanding both the
meth and the man deepens our appreciation of
the source material immensely. Neogentrix didn't
write a simple fairy tale with clear -cut good
guys and bad guys. He wrote a complex ecosystem
of cause and effect. It's all about consequences.
Exactly. When you look at the monument of Zeon
Clerics, you have to decide for yourself how
to weigh the solid bronze of his deeds against
the hollow, tragic spaces inside his family life.
the listener must ultimately weigh the cost of
that heroism for themselves. Because there are
no clean answers in the Congo War. There are
only enduring echoes. Which means there is always
more to explore in the material, especially when
it comes to the mechanics of this universe. So
join us next time for episode 17, where we ask,
is the whistling wind elemental system actually
fair as written? We will dive deep into the biological
toll of the kinetic arts and whether the physical
costs outweigh the benefits. Should be a fun
one. Until then, remember that beneath every
fixed statue in the square there is a very messy,
very human foundation.