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hello, it is 1 AM and i just formed a thought. something i find quite interesting is how a huge part of the fandom says gon is a psycopath, but doesn't give kurapika the same treatment. now HOLD ON ok, i'm not saying kurapika is a psycopath : he absolutely isn't and it would be an absolutely ridiculous perspective to take. however, i think that saying gon is a psycopath is just as ridiculous : and given the amount of parallels between gon and kurapika, i think it shows a lot about how extremely fanon this cold monster version of gon is. the mere concept of using such a strong word on a character like gon makes my ears bleed
people mostly view gon as psycopathic because of chimera ant arc, specifically his crash out in front of pitou and his transformation. they think he is "psycopathic" because of his revenge, which they find somewhat cruel, shocking to say the least. but doesn't the word revenge remind you of anyone? yeah. this is only one out of the insane number of parallels between gon and kurapika (which i think are so interesting btw, i should make a post about that).
from what i've understood, the things that make people think gon is psycopathic are : the state of rage he atteigns while waiting for pitou to cure komugi, menacing to kill komugi (an innocent person he doesn't know), and lastly giving up his life to kill pitou— making revenge his number one priority no matter what it takes.
but before using such terms to define a character, we HAVE to look at the context. we HAVE to understand who they are, and WHY they are acting the way they are acting. that is where i believe people are failing to understand gon as a human being. (but i'm no genius alr. and i'm not saying my interpretation of gon is perfect. what i'm saying is that it's always better than claiming he lost his humanity 🥀). before being a hunter or a fighter, gon is a child. that is his most important trait, because it is the source of all the interesting parts of his character : his black and white thinking, his toxic positivity, his dream to find his dad, etc. he has also never experienced grief before. and this child gets to explore the world, finding out about the beautiful side of it just as much as the cruel side. he makes friends, learns new things, yes. but he gets abused by a grown ass man, gets mauled every arc, goes to war.. his self worth is already very low, but it continues to weaken over time. he grew up with an absent father and he is so fixated on him that his self worth is dictated by wether or not he is weak. weakness = not good enough for ging = i am not good enough as a human being. he starts the story with this mindset. so every time he feels weak, he shows extreme anger. it might even be the thing he hates the most.
then he meets kite again during caa. and that's where a lot of people start to HIGHLY mischaracterize him : by watering down their relationship. kite is not just a guy gon met once as a child : kite is the source of gon's hope and dream to find his dad. kite is the reason the whole story started. he is, dare i say, more of a theme than a character of himself. he LITTERALY represents the core part of gon's character.
and then, he simply loses him. he came back just to disappear again : but this time, he's dead.
the character that represented gon's hope died. and behind this dream, this fantasy of « i'll become a hunter and find ging! », he is left with nothing but himself. "someone dear to me just died. and it is my fault. because i am weak". kite dying, out of all characters, holds deep meaning : because of what he represented in gon's life. on top of the emotional distress of losing someone, the only thing which made his life valuable (according to him) just vanished. "i was not strong enough to save kite. i am weak". even if it might not have been the main emotion he felt at that moment, it was still very present!
his rage is more than predictable : it is quite possibly the most in-character reaction he possibly could've had : this isn't him losing is humanity (🥀), this is him confirming what his character is about. therefore him menacing to kill komugi falls under the exact same justification. i'm not saying it was ok for him to say that : i'm saying that it doesn't make him a psycopath.
a psycopath by definition has distorted empathy and remorse. one of the main emotions gon felt was remorse, like bsfr for a second. he's also very empathetic and it's just so stupid to think otherwise, but we're talking caa here so i'm not gonna go too deep into that. gon feels emotions very deeply, and claiming he doesn't would be assuming he is some kind of manipulative mastermind who puts on a mask to appear kind to people. do you even hear yourself ? 😭 "there are so many characters in the hxh universe who are actually mad scary, but no, let's blame The Child 😹"
do not get me started on the bs "it was selfish to give up his life for revenge" argument. gon did not have ANY self worth left anymore, he litteraly gave up living. and you're calling him selfish?? that's straight up disgusting. like i don't even want to talk about that cause it's more than obviously fucked up to me how anyone could blame him for it. shitting on someone for litteral suicide is NOT cute.
to sum up what i wanted to say at first : gon's fight with pitou was not cruel, it did not make him a monster. it made him human. all the strong emotions he felt at that moment show who he is, it may not be sunshine and lollipops but it cannot be separated from his character arc. most importantly, it goes against the term psycopath.
now, kurapika. i may never have thought about his character as deeply as i have for gon, but...
compared to gon who has only killed ants, kurapika has killed people. (not good people, yes) but he has stated MULTIPLE TIMES how he would do ANYTHING to get his revenge, and how nothing can stop him. he is more than determined to get revenge for his clan. he also is giving up his life, by using emperor time in order to atteign his goal...
idk about you guys but this very much parallels gon to me. determined to do ANYTHING to revenge dead friends? killing yourself to do so? killing other people to do so?... and matter of fact, kurapika's character is much more about revenge than gon's character is. for gon it was only during caa, but for kurapika ? revenge is part of his arc ever since the beginning of the series. he has ALWAYS showed those exact tendencies. yet people seem to understand that he simply is a good person who has been severely traumatized. gon simply doesn't fit into the box they put him in during the first episode. it's not because gon seemed like your average "happy go lucky perfect shounen main character" that he is. he's a character who actually acts human : a child who's put through suffering and who actually ends up traumatized. by demonizing gon they are being just as cruel as the ruthless world he was thrown in, that ended up making him suffer so much.
if kurapika is not a monster or a psycho for wanting revenge, being angry, and being self-destroying ; neither is gon.
