It's my understanding that if my Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero dies and I respond to his trigger by casting Brought Back targeting him, that he will return to the battlefield along with all artifact and creatures put into my graveyard from the battlefield this turn.
If so, I'm hoping that someone can explain why the rules allow this. Specifically, the part that is unclear to me is why the exile clause doesn't still hit him. Is it because the exile clause is somehow tied to the graveyard and only attempting to exile a Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero from the graveyard?
Yes, that is basically the gist of it. Whenever something changes zones, it becomes a new object. The only reason the trigger can find Gerrard to begin with is because of an exception in the rules specifically allowing the game to track it:
400.7d. Abilities that trigger when an object moves from one zone to another (for example, "When Rancor is put into a graveyard from the battlefield") can find the new object that it became in the zone it moved to when the ability triggered, if that zone is a public zone.
Note that this exception only applies to the first zone change (from the battlefield to the graveyard) and will not allow the trigger to continue finding the card through any subsequent zone changes.
Also, the reason the ability still does what it can is because the returning of cards is not contingent on Gerrard being exiled. The ability does what it can so it still returns cards even if it can't exile Gerrard.
Compare Gerrard with Academy Rector, which says "... you may exile [Academy Rector]. If you do, ..." (C.R. 108.1), so that the rest of the effect of Academy Rector's triggered ability is done only if Academy Rector is exiled this way (C.R. 118.12). This is unlike with Gerrard's triggered ability, where the action of exiling Gerrard is simply ignored if it can't be done (C.R. 101.3). See also this thread.
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If so, I'm hoping that someone can explain why the rules allow this. Specifically, the part that is unclear to me is why the exile clause doesn't still hit him. Is it because the exile clause is somehow tied to the graveyard and only attempting to exile a Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero from the graveyard?
Note that this exception only applies to the first zone change (from the battlefield to the graveyard) and will not allow the trigger to continue finding the card through any subsequent zone changes.
Also, the reason the ability still does what it can is because the returning of cards is not contingent on Gerrard being exiled. The ability does what it can so it still returns cards even if it can't exile Gerrard.