a huge part of hxh is that the spectacle of violence against children should *not* be normalized, that it leads to horrific consequences, and the romanticization of the suffering of children is deeply troubling. hisoka subverts the typical “mentor” who would groom the protagonist into violence on the basis of gaining strength trope in shounen into a very literal grooming that makes gon’s “strength” into an avenue for hisoka’s sexual gratification. gon’s personhood and story are all wrapped up in multiple forms of violence; emotional, physical, sexual, systemic.

gon justifies so much of the violence against himself because he believes it will all result in some grand climax for his adventure. but both gon and the audience he’s leading’s expectations are subverted when in reality, the abuse he suffers that stakes all of his worth on strength forces him into a place where once he feels like he can no longer give to a mentor or the association or base his worth in their praises, he tries to kill himself and then loses all of his power for the forseeable future (if not forever). the forced maturation he had to deal with was so unnatural and actually stunted his ability to grow organically. “i’m not a kid!” says the 13 year old on his way to kill an ant using rock paper scissors.

still, even once we do see killua's perspective of silva for instance, silva is portrayed by killua as pretty kind and understanding (at least for the life killua leads), but this is also another way one of the children in the story frames their abuse as natural or sympathizes with their abuser (as gon does frequently with hisoka as well). it’s only after killua is reminded of the imprisonment of alluka that he realizes his father is a “bully” just like the rest of his family, all of whom tried to “put needles in his head”. killua understands the extent of this violence only when it’s enacted against alluka, as gon does only when it’s enacted against killua.

but anyways, i feel like if you view the levels of physical abuse, sexual harassment, and actual mutilation gon experiences throughout the story as a shounen inevitability, of course you'll think him eventually lashing out is out of character or just reduce it to it being simplistically edgy (i.e. comments about how he lost his humanity just because he's actually grieving for once instead of bottling up his pain).

somehow most of the time they still act like stupid 12 year old boys who hit each other with rocks

Emperor time: can only be activated when Kurapika’s eyes are red, BUT his eyes being red does not necessarily mean that emperor time is active. If that was the case, he’d be subject to its condition every time he feels an intense emotion.

Dowsing chain: can be used on anyone, at any time. Dowsing ability works best in emperor time, however.

Chain jail: can only be used on the phantom troupe, or else Kurapika will die. This condition is what makes chain jail inescapable for the troupe. Kurapika enforces this condition by using judgment chain on himself.

Judgment chain: can be used on anyone, but only when Kurapika is in emperor time, because otherwise, his efficiency at emission and manipulation is not high enough to use this ability in a normal state

Holy chain: can be used any time, but is most effective when emperor time is active. Whether this can be used on people other than Kurapika hasn’t been definitively answered, but theoretically, I don’t see why not

Steal chain/stealth dolphin: can be used on anyone, and it appears that Kurapika can use steal chain to take an ability + force the victim into zetsu without emperor time being active. However, the dolphin and its features require emperor time.

Cnetizens: LMAO

They fundimentally don't understand that nen typing, and hatsu if you're smart, is decided by who you are as a person before anything else. They immidiately want to recreate an ability of their group member after his death, and fail to understand why an emitter's blasts may not solve Hinrigh's ability.

The Hei Lei family view nen as a tool for death first, and a tool of self expression second. They lack the individuality and the creativity of their hunter counterparts.

TOGASHI SAYS IF YOU DO NOT VALUE YOURSELF AS AN INDIVIDUAL YOU WILL FAIL TO MATCH THOSE WHO DO. IF YOU VIEW YOUR LIFE AS DISPOSABLE OR INTERCHANGABLE, SO IT WILL BECOME.