Falcon

He ain’t a bottom.

Dude right here? Look at him asserting his authority and threatening one of the Zodiacs.

This motherfucker is a badass. Dude punched Zenji, Chrollo and Uvo. And he totally kicked Uvo’s ass to his grave (and brought a shovel).

He also yelled at Light Nostrade (his employer), his Nen teacher and the Kurta village chief. He gives no qualms about standing up against people who are supposed to be above him.

He likes to take charge, dude was a mere bodyguard, got promoted to the head bodyguard and now he’s the Nostrade Family Young Boss? He climbed up the ranks. He’s a Zodiac now too.

He’s hot-headed, stubborn and he makes sure he gets what he wants. Hear his tone when he was beating up the bullies in his flashback or that time when he was stating his demands to the Phantom Troupe when Killua and Gon got caught? Commanding and firm. TOP ENERGY.

He wanted to chain the PT before sending them to hell.

And people think he’s a bottom because of his pretty face?? (It’s okay if it’s a headcanon but he’s canonically very domineering). I think that’s supposed to be a contrast between his feminine facial features and his masculine dominant personality.

The disrespect to the one and only Akaku God. He’s the mafia daddy with a chain kink I’ve always dream of.

I've seen countless people say Chrollo isn't actively chasing Kurapika down because he secretly understands or even forgives him on some level and I couldn't disagree more. During the course of yorknew, Chrollo never even considered Kurapika as an actual person to begin with, let alone recognised him as a mirror. The reason is simple, he just didn't care. Their interaction shows that Chrollo only viewed him as an annoying external anomaly, someone who had managed to disrupt the PT and not as some fated rival. A mutual pointed out to me that in the original JP text, Chrollo exclusively refers to Kurapika as "kusari yarou" (chain user/bastard), which totally depersonalises him. This is why I think that Kurapika is entirely insignificant in Chrollo's eyes.

During that car scene, Chrollo realises Kurapika is emotionally volatile so he deliberately weaponises his own indifference to toy with him, effectively denying Kurapika any real sense of closure regarding the massacre. Chrollo might not give a fuck about Kurapika's trauma but he is great at understanding emotions and in a way, his behaviour could be read as psychologically getting back at him. Even if he didn't show it outwardly to Kurapika, Chrollo was furious about Uvogin (his tears and the requiem prove that). His attitude in the car can be considered pure pettiness to hurt the guy who killed his friend. Which yes, is truly hypocritical considering that he and his group of friends genocided Kurapika's clan but Chrollo isn't the type to lose sleep over his crimes. He has never regretted the life he chose, so why would that change now?

While I believe that Chrollo has zero interest in Kurapika as a person, I also think he holds a massive grudge towards Kurapika for the deaths of Uvogin and Pakunoda who were his closest companions but Chrollo is a pragmatist. His philosophy dictates that the survival of the spider comes before any personal vendettas. He doesn't hunt Kurapika now for the same reason he doesn't hunt Silva, pursuing them would cause the spider more harm than good and neither of them are currently active threats to the group.

When Kurapika was an active threat though, Chrollo was way more angry and emotional. This panel is so unique because it's incredibly rare to see Chrollo look this visibly frustrated. It highlights his habit of internalising blame but it also shows the deep yet quiet resentment he carries. If an opportunity arises where he can eliminate him, Chrollo will absolutely kill him or steal his ability without a second thought.

adolescence / revolution

Unfinished Oito fanart

time: 11hr 55mins

HUNTER X HUNTER No.361-370

← No.351-360 | No.371-380 →

For Chrollo, empathy is weapon he uses. He possesses empathy in the form that he is able to understand someone else's emotions without him caring about their suffering. Some examples of these are how he lured the assassins in yorknew by projecting a faint trail of bloodlust, knowing that it would compel them to seek him out, he identified Neon's loneliness, her desire to be seen as a human rather than a tool for her father and mirrored that validation to steal her ability and he weaponised Kurapika's love for his friends against him. Chrollo only allows his empathy to work in a traditional sense within the circle of the PT and MC. To the rest of the world, his ability is solely yet another tool for him to use.

Conversely, Kurapika views his own empathy as a weakness. He views himself as a man on a suicide mission and empathy is the humanity that prevents him from becoming the cold blooded executioner he thinks he needs to be. Despite his efforts to isolate himself, Kurapika's inherent goodness constantly attracts people who care for him and he views these connections as shackles that hinder his goals. During the second half of the yorknew arc, Kurapika's distress stems from his realisation that the spiders are not mindless monsters. Seeing their genuine grief for Uvogin and Pakunoda's willingness to save Chrollo, forced him to understand them. Kurapika hates his empathy because it's easier to kill a monster than a someone who feels human emotions. By understanding the spiders' humanity he is forced to acknowledge that even someone ruthless like them can love and form bonds.

I never see anyone bring this up so I’m kinda sad, but HxH, despite mostly being made up of male characters, has great female characters because instead of having girls who reject femininity, or who’s femininity is the only real substance they get, they have their femininity *be* their strength.

Take Menchi for example. Cooking is typically presented as a woman’s job/hobby, and she gets mocked for being a gourmet hunter. But she proves that it’s her strength by properly testing the examinees and having them grab spider eagle eggs. It’s dangerous work, but produces results that most would take for granted, and it’s why she takes such pride in her title.

Machi’s nen surrounds sewing and stitching, and it’s technically a healing ability as well as a deadly attack. Sewing is made to be a feminine hobby, and healing is depicted as something feminine as well, but Yoshihiro took that and made it into an unquestionable strength. Machi can literally reattach severed limbs, and also strangle or decapitated someone with her threads as well. I even love how her hair color in the 2011 version is pink, a color commonly associated with nurturing and healing, and yet she’s such a deadly threat. It’s a small detail that establishes her healing capabilities without taking away the fact that she can and will fold her opponent’s ass like a omelette.

Bisky is a gem hunter who cares about her appearance, but is a hard worker and cares a lot about strength. So much so that she trains to be stronger and have stronger nen so she can appear dainty and wear clothes she finds pretty, even creating Cookie not only for her masseuse capabilities, but also to help restore her and her body after a fight and hard training.

pakunoda is an obviously placed eye candy type of character but within the span of 3 episodes she gets so many layers that we love her for completely different reasons. shes also a coldblooded killer who is not afraid to stand on her morals regardless of who it is. phinks better back the FUCK up.

shizuku is the stereotypical ditzy girl (+ that one scene we all know what it is) but the troupe relies heavily on her abilities and makes her an irreplaceable aspect of the team. everyone acknowledged this at some point in the series.

Queen Oito- yes in caps- presented as this tragic female character, is the single most resilient woman ive seen in this series. take it into context though, she was thrust into this world she barely understood in the most complex game of 5D chess and she only had two meltdowns, one because kurapika knocked her out and the other bcs YEAH. MURDER. seriously she is handling this so well i respect her so much.

prince camilla is a fucking brat with such an ego that it translates into her talking in the third person. but. she has balls of fucking steel. not only is her ability literally begging for death as a CONDITION, she walks right up to her oldest brother and tries to kill that motherfucker. (poorly but its the effort and the audacity that counts)

prince kacho. if you dont know whats going on with her ill sum it up as briefly as possible. SHE FUCKING LOVES HER SISTER. read the manga its so much better as a first read i promise.

MORENA FUCKING PRUDO. good lord where do i start with her. quite literally the most tragic backstory we've gotten for any character so far. she is represented as a female cult leader who- honestly- i can only describe as ominous. feminine in looks alone: DEMON in every other aspect. she could have easily been placed as the tragic victim but instead she is single handedly the most complicated and hating character ive ever seen. kurapika STAND ASIDE.

honorable mentions:

ponzu - presented as a cute girl. oh my god she uses poison. but she also put herself on the front lines of a battle she didnt belong in. which is CRAZY work.

reina - one of the ONLY ants to remember her entire identity and be strong and brave enough to try and get her life back.

first queen unma - she is fucking crazy dawg. thats it shes fucking insane. i love her.