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This is from a month ago I’M SO SORRY ANON! I don’t know if you will even see this, but I hope you will. Thank you for the ask.

Anyway..

How do *you* think it would have gone down if Pitou had killed Killua instead of Kite?

God, this question… why u gotta hurt us like that? (Joke, <3 you.) Anyway, since this a hypothetical this will just be my opinion, so take with a grain of salt. I think the first difference from what happened in the manga is that Gon would feel even more guilty about Killua’s death.

I mean, think about it: When Kite was killed, at first Gon was in denial about it, and then when he was confronted with what Killua called “the reality we helped create” he felt so guilty that he let zombie Kite beat him up.

Gon’s reasoning was, he - and Killua, but he never ever puts any blame on Killua, the way Knov and Morel both do when they chastise him for running away from Pitou - causes Kite to get hurt just by being there. If they weren’t there, Kite would have been fine.

The thing about this reasoning is, it is a child’s reasoning based on the idea that the adult authority figure (Kite) has absolute power and makes absolutely correct decisions. Later when he meets up with Kite again in the chapter called “atonement” Kite explains to him that it was his own miscalculation about how strong the ants would be that put all of them in that situation. He would have investigated the ant queen even if Gon hadn’t been there… and it’s possible he would have been ambushed and killed by Pitou, even if Gon hadn’t been there, as well.

In other words, Gon’s guilt over what happened to Kite is somewhat irrational. And it also follows patterns he’s shown before in the manga, where he feels the main issue is that he is not strong enough, and the solution is that he needs to train to get stronger. That’s the standard message of shounen battle manga, but Hunter x Hunter kind of re-examines that idea… first, by putting it into a more realistic psychological context, where it relates back to Gon’s issues with his dad etc etc, not being strong enough to meet his dad.

 And also, I think in Hunter x Hunter the overall stance towards these shounen messages is mixed.  Sometimes it’s a good thing to think that way, because it makes you feel better - instead of wallowing in feelings of inferiority and helplessness, you are taking active steps to fix the problem.

And sometimes, it is a child’s idea, because real life doesn’t always follow these kinds of clear moral messages from manga. Sometimes you’re just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and it’s not related to anything you did or didn’t do. Sometimes life is just unfair.

Anyway… getting back to Killua. If it was “Gon’s fault” that Kite died… wouldn’t it be even more Gon’s fault if Killua died?

I mean, think about it: Kite was just doing his job in East Gorteau, a job he would have done even if Gon hadn’t been there. But Killua was there because Gon was there. If Gon hadn’t been there, Killua wouldn’t have been there. Therefore, QED, Killua’s death at Pitou’s hards is 10,000% Gon’s fault. Not only that, but I think he’d feel retroactively guilty for taking Killua being at his side for granted, and not thinking about the danger he was putting them both in by entering dangerous situations. “I can die but you can’t”, etc.

I don’t think Killua himself, BTW, would think about it this way at all - I think in Killua’s mind, he was as good as dead living at home with his family, it was a kind of walking death. Gon “saved” him from that life, therefore Gon saved his life, therefore Killua owes Gon his life, and he’s willing to follow Gon into life and death situations in return - which is also something encouraged by the Hunter Association code, in contrast to how his family thinks. You sometimes have to take risks, including with your life, if you want to get anywhere, that’s how Hunters think - “true” Hunters anyway - but it’s not how the Zoldyecks think. So I think in Killua’s mind, it would have been a worthy death, especially if by dying he saved Gon’s life.

(Sidenote, but one of the big messages Killua takes away from this whole arc - Killua’s character growth, if you will - is that his life actually has a lot of value, because he has to take care of his sister, right?  So it would have been a problem if he’d died.  But I think he doesn’t realize that until afterward, when he’s waiting for Gon to wake up in the hospital. )

Anyway. Honestly I think Gon would react to Killua’s death the way he reacted to Kite’s death. He would see it as his fault, and feel the need to atone, including with his life if that happened to be how it played out. I don’t think he would be catatonic, not because he doesn’t love Killua enough, but because Gon is a character who externalizes his feelings (Killua is the one who internalizes them). To “fix” how he was feeling, he would feel the need to “fix” the external situation. 

(Also, Gon being catatonic would be really boring manga.  He would need to go on the revenge quest to make it more interesting for the readers.   Probably Togashi would find a way to bring Killua back from death, too, because Hunter x Hunter can flirt with dark themes at times, but it’s not that dark.)

Anyway, setting aside the genre conventions and just looking at how the characters are written… I honestly think he’d be on even more of a suicidal revenge quest, and i think it would be up to the other (adult) members of the team - Shoot, Morel and Knuckle primarily - to temper that. Maybe they would remind him that Killua died to save his life, so if he throws his life away, he’s not honoring Killua’s sacrifice. I think that might get thru to him, in a way that other arguments wouldn’t. He needs to live because that’s the choice that Killua made and that’s what Killua would have wanted.

@hxhhasmysoul no…no, you’re right.   Actually the whole “you have to live because Killua would have wanted you to!” is the kind of pat moral storytelling  - the kind of optimistic young adult fiction message - that I think Togashi specifically would avoid.

Because you’re definitely right, it’s not in character for the ethically murky Hunter Association to act that way, especially not in the arc about weighing moral decisions and taking ethically dubious actions to stop the existential threat so are the ants really worse than humanity, or are humanity the real monsters after all????   And about Gon/Killua entering the world of adult pro Hunters and being treated as adults in that world, etc.