I still can’t believe they actually wrote out Zote’s fifty-seven precepts.
Prior to this playthrough, I’m not sure I ever bothered speaking with an NPC more than once. I certainly didn’t know Zote actually went and listed all fifty-seven. I imagine that Team Cherry just wrote as many things for Zote as they could and then numbered them all. Many of the precepts contradict each other (particularly the pair that tell you to live by your own rules and also follow all of Zote’s rules), but for a braggart that probably just found a corpse lying around below the Colosseum (considering we’ve never witnessed him doing anything even close to winning a fight), that’s fairly consistent with his character.
It’s nice that if you don’t strike down the Nailsmith, he doesn’t just stand on that cliff’s edge forever. Something I never did on playthroughs where I did kill him was locate his corpse, which fell in the water and eventually washes down into the Junk Pit. It’s just lying there, not actually carrying anything, but it’s something. Still, I’d much rather Sheo get a companion in his arts than kill someone who’s just momentarily lost his direction. As with giving the flower to those you’re not expressly told to find, it’s a nice little secret for the people who go exploring. (Or who look it up, in my case.) The moth doesn’t get so nice of an end in my opinion, but she seems to like it, at least.