Read hxh succession war and talk about it

you’d think living for so long with no consistency would eventually drain an individual, result in some sort of identity crisis (like it was the case for a couple of other characters) or make them power hungry, but neither of that is existent in the Kenny we know. they do even understand the human heart better than most of the characters in the story, which is very interesting.

May 26th Togashi tweet!!

Togashi says, "No. 421, manuscript completed.

Gon indeed has some selfish tendencies, but rather than being selfish he is more goal-oriented to the point he gets tunnel vision and fixates on one thing at a time.

Many people describe his behavior during the CAA as selfish due to him pushing Killua away and throwing away his life in the process of getting revenge.

What needs to be taken into a consideration though is that Gon is not only a kid dealing with the loss and grief of a mentor figure who was his first inspiration ever in life, but he is a kid whose sense of feeling inadequate comes to the surface more than ever as he fully takes on the responsibility of Kite's death that it is not his to assume in the first place.

Gon is willing to kill Pitou at the cost of throwing away his life in order to compensate for Kite's death as he sees it as his fault. Gon diminishing his life like that is tragic rather than selfish, because he reduces the importance of his own life so consequently he is not thinking how his death would affect Killua, because deep down he sees no value in his life.

The same can be said about Killua, too. These two are more similar than they realise. Killua not only pushes Gon away unintentionally by keeping secrets about many important stuff that involve both, but he also goes on a solo mission and being adamant he works better alone only for him to nearly die if it was not for Ikalgo.

If Gon doing basically the same thing is deemed as selfish, the same could be said about Killua's decision. Of course we can argue that the difference is that Killua's actions come from a place of love, however I think it is overlooked that while Gon's actions derive from a deep-seated lack of self-value and guilt, they also derive from grief which stems from fondness and attachment that have nowhere to go anymore and that is more of a humane behavior rather than a monstrous one.

In reality, both incidents are equally tragic because as Killua bleeds out and he feels his life fading away all he thinks of is Gon, which while on one hand it demonstrates his deep love and unwavering loyalty, on the other hand it exhibits that, similarly to Gon, he also does not value his life and reduces its importance without fathoming the pain his death would bring upon Gon.

The crucial difference here is that Gon was unware of Killua almost losing his life, while Killua ended up witnessing his best friend throwing away his life to the point he was unrecognizable.

This crucial difference highlights the reoccurring theme of how Killua always ends up sharing Gon's pain whereas Gon is ignorant to Killua's pain due to Killua being secretive and leaving Gon in the dark, perfectly highlight their striking difference in personalities where one is open about his emotions. Gon will declare his love, he will share his goals, he will openly cry in front of others, but Killua despite wanting to be close to Gon he will not allow him to be close enough to see the depths of his heart despite him be willing to tear his heart out and give it to Gon, if that meant Gon's happiness and safety, still he would never let Gon know about it.

It is grueling and arduous to love someone who does not love themselves or does not know how to accept love and that is what makes the relationship between Killua and Gon challenging. They are both reading the same book but they are not on the same page yet, and it requires a great amount of effort, vulnerability , communication and self-reflection from both sides to finally reach that same page at the same time.

That is why I need people to stop treating Gon as if he did something irredeemable or as if he single-handedly ruined his relationship with Killua without a chance of it ever recovering.

If Gon was truly selfish he would blame Killua about Kite's death to the same extent he did for himself, but he values Killua's life way more in contrast to his own to even think about that.

Not to mention that even if Gon killing Pitou was more personal than a sense of duty towards the world, the reality is that he is the only hunter who killed a royal guard by himself contributing this way to the rescue of humanity and even Kite acknowledges that and it's why the hunter association treated Gon as a hero and tried to save him to the best of their ability.

Surely, if the majority can sympathize with Meruem, who used to eat human brains, spit them out and killed kids or people without batting an eye, and still wish he had a happy ending, then they certainly can sympathize with Gon who is but a young kid experiencing the cruelty of the world that adds to his underlying mental issues, while trying to gain the approval of the father who abandoned him, right?

I wonder if their similarities to gon and killua will come into play.

so i’m actually just at the beginning of my succession war reread right now so i won’t answer this as thoroughly as i’d prefer, but kacho and fugestu are definitely two of my favorite characters in the succession war (kacho in particular) and have been for years! i love how kacho willingly takes on the brat princess trope for the sake of her sister and how like killua for gon she’s very willing to absorb hatred as long as it means fugetsu will be protected.

i’m generally of the opinion at least 3 or 4 princes will survive the succession war and that the kakin empire will collapse under the weight of its bubbling class struggle without an heir to king nasubi ever rising to power. it seems to me the black whale—carrying the pillars of the kakin empire—is imminently going to sink and the succession war won’t have the opportunity to be concluded. of these 3 or 4, i definitely think two of the survivors will be fugestu and woble, because hxh has a thing for the “weakest” either truly being the most powerful (komugi and alluka) or enduring through horrific circumstances (shidore) because togashi is deconstructing the idea that strength should or even can conquer all.

it looks to me like fugetsu has some of the most analytical hunters rallying behind her, and i think melody’s protection of her could easily become intertwined with kurapika’s protection of woble and whether everyone lives or dies could come down to whether or not he pursues vengeance.

two cruel, murderous hedonists, unable to empathize with those around them (goes without saying). both need to be number one, have mutual beef with benjamin. both drawn to aesthetics (camilla's penchant for fashion and luxury, tserriednich's fascination with 'art'). both treat people like disposable objects (camilla and her human voodoo dolls, tserriednich and his serial killer flesh collection). overpowered asfff: they both got two-nen beasts (camilla's self-developed cat who lived a million times + seed urn-given nen beast, tserriednich's original seed urn beast plus whatever the fuck else he managed to manifest in the background). then there's the fact that they both possess abilities to reverse death... and they both require them to be in a state of zetsu (kitty cat vs king crimson). i would also say that they both had their emotional growth stunted as a result of growing up Like That (camilla's whole talking about herself in third person and acting like a stubborn child, tserriednich having no emotional regulation as we see with his tendency to last out after morena's betrayal and whatever happened in his youth with the marksman competition)....

Idk about you, but for me, going through Hunter X Hunter again after reading chapters 395-97 is to take emotional blow after emotional blow ;-;

So let's highlight those moments of pain! Because in this house we are masochists and we regularly invoke suffering upon ourselves

(Also I did say I would make this post at some point, so I'm trying to stick to my resolutions)

A few things I want to note first though

This "list" won't be in a strictly chronological order but rather in the order that I happened to come up with as I wrote (which just so happened to be chronological at first before I went off course). What it will be is heavily Chrollo-centric because I am nothing if not biased and especially unwell about him. The second part will be a bit more balanced. I think.

For the sake of not having to go over to the desktop version to upload a bunch of images (you can only upload 10 per post on the app version RIP) I have decided to split the post into 2 parts. In the past I have unwittingly gone down the road of uploading a dozen or so extra images via desktop and the experience was nothing short of a trial of patience (I wanted to rip my hair out). Maybe this solution is for the best though since the post would be ungodly long otherwise.

Without further ado, here are the moments that puncture my heart upon reread/rewatch

⸸ "Uvo-san, can you hear us? We are playing a requiem for you"

I can't go through the above moment anymore without immediately recalling this panel from chapter 397

The "Uvo-san" makes my heart hurt. 15 years on and that is still how Chrollo thinks of Uvogin, and how he refers to him away from the Troupe (aka as close to his true self as he gets). A decade of being Uvogin's boss never lessened the respect he holds for him.

I also think about this panel of them smiling at each other.

I think about how happy they made each other. How much they loved each other all the way until the end

he still has a very romantic view of the hunter world—though he does not consider himself to be apart of this valiant legacy. to avenge the kurta, he sacrifices his honor, inverts the nobleness of the hunter world he was so enamored with as a child. he uses the license for murder (though it disgusts him), torture, mafia dealings, etc, because he believes his suffering has locked him out of that sort of goodness. he pushes away gon, killua, and leorio, as if shoving them towards the direction of the “good” hunter world he admires, as he suffers in the darkness. if they were by his side still he feels it’d be impossible to accomplish his life’s mission of eliminating the spiders and reclaiming the kurta eyes at any cost.

in hxh, being a “hunter” can mean many things depending on who is asked. many take on the risks of the job for legacy, or money, or honor. it’s realistically a pretty horrendous system that incentivizes violence to accomplish your goals. i wonder then about kurapika, seeing the violence of the hunter world, and if he still sees a distinction between “honorable” hunters and hunters like himself or if he thinks the system of hunters encourages dishonor generally. i’d wager he does still think it encourages honor, and just doesn’t believe he’s deserving of it. he can’t be like d-hunter because he thinks the weight of his world is too heavy to rise into the light.

he wishes so badly to be a hunter like the one he saw in gon, but ironically, he’s the one who really introduces gon to the idea of self destruction through revenge. this “goodness” he’s seen the possibility of never seems to fully last so of course he tries not to get invested. i’d be really interested to see elaboration on his thoughts about what happened to gon in CAA and if he feels he bears any responsibility for leaving him as leorio clearly does.

He's a murderous pedo with super powers who never dies and is present in every arc. Writing a story is making a series of choices, so why make the choice of including this character and writing him this way?

While Hisoka connects with hxh's broader themes of humanity being conflicted, a mix of highs and lows, his main function I feel is rooted in storytelling.

In the most basic shonen story structure, a (young, male) character steps into a world of magical adventure, where their innate specialness allows them, through grit and willpower, to achieve their dreams.

Hisoka exists as a counter to the fantasy of one's specialness.

You can learn skills quickly? Hisoka can learn skill instsntly.

You want to win at Heaven's Arena? Hisoka is already undefeated there.

You're a kid. He's a grown up.

The same licence that means you can adventure without worry means he can kill without consequence.

The same power that you can use to protect yourself, he can use to hurt you.

Shonen is fundimentally mostly about being a shark in a sea of minnows. Putting you in the place of someone special and powerful, surrounded by lesser characters. Some may take work to overpower, and some may be out of reach right now (think of whales in the ocean metaphor), but no matter what all will ultimately fall to our protaganist's quick wit, iron will, and gay friendships.

Hisoka exists to ask the question: What if there was another, bigger shark? Would you still want to be in the ocean?

From there, Hisoka's actions and desires snap into clear focus: he must be obsessed with the struggle of equal power so he does not immidiately devour our protaganist. that leads to another obvious question. His obsession is framed as deeply erotic, in an otherwise asexual story stucture. Why?

Many shonen feature "sexy" women, but none of them are as unrepentantly sexually and physically agressive as Hisoka. His sexuality exists in a pocket of sexual horror that Togashi loves to draw from in hunterxhunter. The nudist lobotomy of pokkle, the human pets of the chimera ants, Tsrreidnich in general. Consistantly, sexuality is invoked during the of violating of body or mind.