Finn

Before I write my analysis on 402, I thought of something while reading 401 and it makes a lot of sense to me both narratively and just logic wise.

In Chapter 386, Sumidori shoots himself in Shikaku's body as per Halkenburg's orders. In a sense, I believe Basho's theory was right. He saw this as an attempt for post-mortem nen by Benjamin's guards. He also says that if this was an attempt, the curse should be visible like a Guardian Spirit beast is.

I believe that Shikaku was one of Beyond's children who carried a curse. Perhaps one of the weaker/appetizer ones since it hasn't immediately killed Fugetsu and that they have been described as low level spirits. When Sumidori shot himself in Shikaku's body, it might have triggered hist post mortem curse. We don't fully know how these post mortem curses work when it relates to body swapping, as far as we know Shikaku's consciousness is simply sleeping while Sumidori has control. So my theory hangs on the thread that simply the body's death is needed, not the entire consciousness. There is also the assumption that Benjamin's guards would have curses in it, which I find highly likely. Longhi himself crossed Benjamin off the potential Beyond's children list so having someone in his military wouldn't be a stretch. It's also HIGHLY implied that Babimya is a Beyond child just by that look he gives in the end of 401. So Shikaku being someone who was cursed makes some sense. Between Fugetsu's appearance in 383 and her reappearance 400, the only guard who died was Shikaku. Vict had his consciousness taken, but as shown later in 403 his body remains. So the only suspect for Post Morten Nen here would be Shikaku. We should also consider if this makes any narrative sense. I think it would be really ironic for Halkenburg to be causing the death of someone through his experimentation. Would add more to his themes imo. I also think it makes sense in how these storylines have been connected so far. Like Basho was the one who temporarily relieved Fugetsu and yet he is the one "keeping a watchful eye" for a curse. It feels very purposeful that the idea of Have Nots and weaponizing post mortem nen was introduced right after Shikaku's death. I feel people ruled off the idea it could have been a curse and assumed Basho was completely in the wrong because we thought the Have Nots were the only group doing this. Also ironic they plan to kill Luzurus over this (which I believe is a whole sham planned by Kacho and Melody to trap Kaiser as their reasoning for Luzurus is rather weak), the person that Basho is protecting. It just feels very closely linked together to the point where it would make narrative sense as a twist.

There is one more counter, But I think it depends on how you think the curses might work too.

Longhi says these cursed children are made after each prince was born. So wouldn't Fugetsu's curse be too young?? Well, no because of another statement by Longhi that opens this up to more theories:

Part 1 (401-404): The Somewhat Tedious and Genius Succession War Edit: 401 had a lot to cover and analyze so I only did that for this first post. I'll make another one covering 402-404!

For almost two years, no one else was in the room where it happened. Chapter 400 left us with Kurapika's reappearance and accepting Tuppeba's contract from Longhi. But that felt like a painful while simultaneously underwhelming cliffhanger. At that point, we hadn't seen Kurapika for a little over ten chapters…which for the fan base then mattered a lot as there was a five year long hiatus to get to those chapters. It also felt like a strange plot beat to end on, why would Kurapika accept a contract from Longhi when she hid the fact she used nen (making her the most possible candidate for Silent Majority)? It also felt like somewhat of an underwhelming plot thread to get back to since Tupebba so far felt like a boring prince who was already searching for some peace in the war and an alliance with Kurapika was already expected (or at least this is what I think of her). The only possibly interesting threads here are Kurapika being the collaborator for Tuppeba's nen beast or Longhi (who up to this point hadn't even spoken a line) being Silent Majority…It just felt like plot, not anything emotional to cling to with this story line!

And then 401 completely subverts everything we thought could have happened in that room by possibly making one of the most theme wise relevant chapters of the whole series, characterizing a dozen characters in one swoop, making Longhi one of the best written women in this arc, making the whole community go rabid with theories, and connecting the Succession War to the overarching Dark Continent.

Before I get really into how perfect of a twist this was, I do have to complement the dialogue and art itself. As always with this arc, characters aren't dumb. They know what the others might be thinking and usually don't make as many stupid mistakes. But they do make mistakes and like most readers theorized wrongly that Longhi was Silent Majority. So in a sense, Furykov is somewhat a stand-in for the reader in being convinced she's Silent Majority. But Longhi as a character is straight-forward, they know what they have been theorized of being and immediately disproves themselves as Silent Majority. Her dialogue is always on the defensive and in complete composure (until it's broken towards the end). A main flaw in this arc is that a person's character gets lost quickly under their long monologues. They almost feel like an inhuman smart robot and by "they" I mostly mean Kurapika. I love them to death, but it feels like for some portions we barely got to see him have personality past the first ten chapters of this arc. But in this chapter he feels appropriately snarky. Hell, he was even sarcastic!11! (Also just look at how the chain falls between them...I feel like Bateman looking at that one business card)

Longhi matches Kurapika's tempo, infact she uses his own lines against him and it works as great writing on two levels. It not only counters Kurapika's threat and establishes Longhi as perhaps similarly smart (setting off some potential parallels between the two as well), but it also might serve as foreshadowing. I think this is Chekhov's .22. We've constantly seen guns against nen users in this arc, more than in any other. We've had Theta shooting Tserrie, Musse shooting Cammy, Cammy shooting Benjamin, Halkenburg shooting his father, and Halkenburg shooting himself. It's always ineffectual and I fully believe this arc will payoff this motif by making it actually effective in killing some nen user possibly blinded by ego. Throughout the chapter, we basically see Longhi's defensive composure break down. It's not really that deep to analyze, we can just notice her breaking down as she explains the more personally affecting parts of her past. Especially, how she sees (and refuses to internalize?) how Beyond sees her.

I think that perhaps to analyze what is really going on here, we have to step back and look at the overarching themes of this arc and Hunter x Hunter...It's pretty much generational trauma. Both in a cultural sense and in the trauma our parents leave us. 1. The Dark Continent and the multiple generations that went to it beforehand 2. The Mafia War with Illegitimate Princes, the whole "carnival" system with Morena (More in the cultural sense of caste systems and being looked down on because of birth, so in effect they are affected by previous generations and their place in the world). This tie in also becomes a lot more obvious with Morena's card game with a Parent and Child. 3. The Have-Nots are another form of the caste system and a passed down trauma from their place in society 4. The Succession War is generational trauma in the most literal form of it. Whoever "wins" passes down what they went through to the next generation of children in a cynical cycle that has been going on for years. I feel like Longhi and the Beyond Children are another massive example of this theme. A person's purpose is practically decided before they were even born in Kakin. It's not just the caste system, it's so many systems of corrupt monarchy and people playing their large games without thinking of who it affects. People play along with these systems because they want to remain in their comfortable position in life (as eventually seen by Borksen). One of the large themes of this arc is the effect of these large world changing decisions we see main characters do on the fly on normal people around them. Up to this point, we really hadn't seen an exact evil that Beyond planned to do. He might bring back a calamity, but if we were against him for solely that then we would have to be against Netero who wanted everyone to also go to the Dark Continent before Beyond. I find it really genius that we first find out how evil he is by seeing how ruthlessly efficient he is in his plan. As Netero once described him, he is a better Hunter than he was. I feel being a better hunter makes you more morally questionable. We are even seeing a hunter like Ging, perhaps an ultimate epitome of a Hunter, team up with Beyond (he probably doesn't know a lot of the shady stuff or he might have something up his sleeve, but I'm just saying an example). All his plans were in some way set off by Netero not allowing him into the Dark Continent until his death. There is tons of reason to speculate that he manipulated events to lead to his father's death and now he is not only betting on a murder ritual which includes children, but also having children (Who their parents then feed propaganda to) who are nothing more than pawns to him and their utility is in death.

Finally with all this context, I can really explore the nuance of Longhi's character. At the surface it's the idea of being "fodder" or a "pawn" like so many in this arc. It's having someone else make your life decisions for you. I like this translation of it from when I first read this chapter where Longhi says "We've had our very lives and dreams manipulated by the hands of our cunning father." Her dreams come directly from her raising rather than her own self. She was raised in boarding schools and was sent to Military Schools etc and superseded any physical training due to her being born with Nen. I really like the nuance of the word "attack" here. Obviously, there are other forms of nen attacks, such as Longhi's ability. They could even be seen as positive, Beyond placed an ability that could be seen as helpful for a child's survival. However in effect, it was a literal attack on her person hood. It determined her life completely and actually it's best put as Longhi describes it, a "curse." And with that, Togashi basically characterized a ton of guards in the series. So far Guards had been usually not very individualistic. They had united goals, some seem supremely loyal such as Halkenburg's and Prince Benjamin's guards. Benjamin's guards such as Furykov go as far as to call him family and Furykov says he has had no other family except him. That just opens up so much narrative meat to these characters knowing that a lot of them (most of them unknown so far) have basically been manipulated to this position in which the point of their lives is to die and suffer on this boat. But I think this story will also be about the guards regaining their agency past generational and cultural trauma up to this point. This is the nuance of Longhi's character, she's trying to regain agency through an act of rebellion. What she truly wanted to have known what her purpose was even if her part had been the same. She was fine with being a pawn, but she didn't want to be manipulated into it. She wanted to feel like she was truly doing something important. We should also discuss the direct role of their "real" parents other than Beyond. They were in soem way bought out by the propaganda of a world united under Kakin and since they knew the plan, they perhaps felt their importance and agency in this while their child would never have it. But we also have to consider that some of these parents were "talked" into it. They might have been really poor and gave into these sham marriages as a chance for themselves. It's still selfish, but I feel Beyond would manipulate these societal weaknesses as well. But the parents also wanted their children to feel important without letting them know exactly what they were going into. So they spread propaganda to them. Inspire them with unifying the world etc and give a meaning to their lives that wasn't theirs, it was Beyond's in the first place.

Now in an act to reclaim agency for herself, she will betray Beyond's and her parent's plan. Killing Beyond's prince would the the ultimate act of rebellion as in a sense it would also release her siblings (Also on a side note, the concept of their also being "weaker curses" whose lives were basically manipulated as an appetizer rather than doing anything useful is quite disturbing too). There is one other guard in this arc that among a militia of very brainwashed feeling soldiers stands as somewhat individual. That would be Babimya.

368 had possibly one of the best moments in this arc for me. Babi turning of his en and being somewhat distraught from Oito's grief. As if he saw how cold his actions were and saw how devaluing life was in this contest and to himself. This posed no tactical advantage unless he is pretending to go easy on Kurapika which I really doubt. He stands as individual through his treatment of the other guards too. He dusts his shoulders every time another guard touches him as if he's repulsed to work with them. Why? Well this chapter gives us a hint at the answer and perhaps were his arc will go next.

Furykov is kind of our view as to what expression people are making. Like with Longhi, when she comes out of the room having told her past he asks himself if she was crying. We can't really tell that from the panel page itself, but he's perceptive enough to see it. He does the same here, he can see there's something wrong while the audience can't. Is he sad? Is he angry? We don't really know, all we know is that he has shown an emotion and then pretended not to. Almost everyone in the fandom jumped on one train here, he's one of Beyond's children. Just with this twist, so much meat is added to the character as I said. I believe he will eventually betray Benjamin and Beyond and regain his agency through empathy in this arc. Community Reactions to Chapter 401 I've really never seen a fandom so rapidly start making theories as after this chapter. It really felt like pieces of this arc were finally coming together in a way that seems fully intentional. Beyond having a child was planned from the start and people even before this chapter theorized that some prince might not be Nasubi's son based on 358s wording (Which is then referenced in this chapter). It raises a series of mysteries. Who is Beyond's Prince?? What really happened in the silent revolution thirty years ago around the same time Beyond had these sham marriages?? Which guards are Beyond's? Who will Kurapika use the week long zetsu on and if it's Tserriednich, would he become invincible? WHO DOES BEYOND WANT TO SEE?? And hell, this chapter was even fanservicey for a lot of the people who really wanted to see the Dark Continent. It actually connected the Succession War to the Dark Continent because now we wonder how Beyond having his child King would affect his plans on the continent. Oh and I forgot to mention the fucking art in this chapter. It was so glazed when it came out and everyone already knows the panel I'm talking about.