#hxh rants

[starry-toya]

i need to aggressively pet killua on the head

[cloudwifey]

muruem and killua both on their knees begging palm to save their beloved komugi and gon. I just realized this parallel today and im unwell.

togashi created palm to facilitate the new themes of love and coming of age in the chimera ant arc. and created multiple parallels between the two pairs

[nynyhaha]

Spider Themes: The illusion of false gods or why the Spider is problematic regardless of morality

Can a cause be worth dying for? Or is it the sacrifice for the sake of something that proves the thing valuable?

There’s two ways to look at the members of the Phantom Troupe, by looking at the things they do to other people,and at the things they do to themselves and each other.

Seeing how much they identify with the Spider,we can throw the theory of them just being selfish psychopaths out of the windows. Neither do they seem manic or crazy,and yet..in a way they remind us of a cult. Besides that,I’ve also found them to have qualities or the following: rebels,revolutionaries,soldiers,robinhoods,martyrs.

Despite committing so much undeniable evil,and despite them never really saying it,there’s clearly a greater good involved. This idea of something bigger is exactly what the story is subverting,and seemingly critiquing. Or is it?

It might be what makes those characters so captivating and interesting-their unquestioning devotion to the entity that is more than just the sum of themselves,what they live trough and die for - The Spider. Why would the proof of criminals like them having principles and loyalty to something be a problem? In a weird way, the Spider has an almost redeeming function - after all it’s a reason and a potential excuse for all their horrible actions. At the same time,isn’t that what makes it a bad thing? If all those people are killing because of that one cause,isn’t it what turned them into who they are now? Isn’t it what makes them do all this evil? “I wouldn’t kill for something that requires murder.” typa issue is what we got here.

The Spider as The Cause

Whether the Spider’s existence itself is what’s most important or if it is still fulfilling a purpose like it did when it was created is up for debate,in fact it’s implied that this is exactly what causes Chrollo to feel lost and unable to understand his own motives. Another reason is that rather than standing for A cause,it merely stands for THE CAUSE,much like how “god” can stand for whatever a person cares about most.

We might wonder endlessly for what reasons exactly the Spiders are doing all of that,and while there are tangible reasons given in their backstory,they work just as well to represent people who are dedicating themselves to whatever,emphasis on dedication. Regardless of specific goals,there will be sacrifices,suffering and pain following whoever cares about anything too much.

The Spider as A Team

Besides loyalty to an idea or principle,there’s also one towards one’s group,regardless of that group’s purpose or function. Without knowing anything at all about motives,backstories,aims,etc we can still see how seriously the members take it. It’s definitely a friend group,one that can’t afford to be a found family,even if that’s what they might be naturally gravitating towards.

The group or team as the greater good is even more fundamental than any additional purpose of said group,as it stays even when the purpose changes. In that regard the Spider is like any other gang,it’s in- vs outrgoup,a small team of partners in crime vs the world.

This “one for all,all for one” dynamic could exist outside of any broader context,even if since the start the Spider was meant as an opportunity for personal fulfilment (as we know now,it was quite the opposite)

The issue comes up when seeing how much the Spider setup hurts its members (as I discussed in the post about their utilitarian approach)

Since the Spider is a villain group,it’s no wonder it’s damaging to the people involved - why would it even be good for their mental health to kill that many people? Of course they’d make enemies and eventually die because of their dangerous lifestyle. But what would really change if they never walked down the path of darkness?

Beyond Morality

Had the Troupe managed to end up as not villains but heroes,would they risk their lives any less? Could they make a bigger change? Would the dynamics within the Spider even change,if it was a more benevolent organisation? Probably not,as there would still be a goal to achieve at any cost and a collective that’s worth more than the individual. Given that it’s taken seriously enough,none of the members would avoid “giving up their lives” anyway. No,they have to give everything up for something,and there we go again.

It’s tragic that Chrollo deemed it necessary to become a villain of all things,but had he decided to protect Meter City in a less brutal way,he would’ve still lost himself in this mission and Pakunoda would’ve followed him,all while vowing to never touch him and never see inside his soul💔🥀

The other side of the coin

^from the 1999 version yorknew opening

Of course it’s the people closest to one that are meant here(I think the song is talking both to Kurapika and Chrollo telling them to value their friends over their cause)

This theme runs all through hxh,it’s present from the very start as characters on a dangerous journey have to constantly chose between reaching their goal or prioritising the safety of themselves and the people around them.

Gon and Killua’s friendship and the fun they have together >> finding Ging

Meruem spending time with Komugi >> grand plans of world domination

Bonds between individual Spiders >> The entity that is the Spider

It’s as if the series is saying “purpose and happiness lies in the here and now,not in what is grand and unreachable”

Another thing supporting this interpretation is this panel from the chimera ant arc:

The tragedy stems from human inability to “just live”,instead we require a greater narrative. It’s neither virtuous nor selfish to devote one’s life to some unreachable goal or mission, but it’s shown as irresistible,as the only way to cope with extreme circumstances.

I wouldn’t say that Togashi is outright condemning hunters,Spiders and assassins in their pursuit of meaning through extreme means, but there is shown to be great harm resulting from that.

Everyone is chasing something,and there’s really no other choice. As much as we want to determine whether the cause is worthy or not (yes because outsiders shouldn’t get away with kidnapping Meteor City’s children,no because it’s no longer about that) the actual reason the Troupe exists is because none of those kids could continue their normal life as voice actors,instead starting a life of a way different format.

There’s technically nothing stopping anyone from just “retiring” in favour of peace and quiet, but in the case of the Spiders especially that’s not even an option,it will never be enough for them.

Chrollo and his friends couldn’t have continued to live normally back then,let alone do that now,but wouldn’t it be nice?

[dilfartist]

I wanna write for Chrollo so bad but he's so smart and sophisticated that I'm scarred I won't write him well, especially his diouloge. I have so many ideas, so little brain.

[tiedsuccubus]

“Im sick of an overpowered y/n so I’m gonna make her realistic with good growth 🤓👆🏾” but whole time the y/n is just pitifully weak and stays weak for like a good 80% of the story, then suddenly pops out with a random power up.

Ts be annoying me so bad. The power genuinely be so interesting and very promising, but they make her weaker than the fucking scene fillers. I understand not wanting a Mary sue ass character/ wanting the character to be op at beginning but DAMN.

Why can’t people make a character that actually has good steady growth.

[nartml]

every time someone calls gon a monster, an angel loses his wings and i get one step closer to manslaughter

[maycat-19-142]

Cuddles headcannon multiple

A/n: random headcannons are my favorite

⚠️: non i think

He pulled you to him after to drift away from him in your sleep. You were in and out of sleep so when you felt him get closer you snuggled closer. You sighed and fell fast asleep again and he just smiled

He wishes every day could be like this

Helia | kurapika | huan | shinsou |

Have a good day and night 🌙

Pixie out 🧚‍♀️

[stinkygutz]

Uvogin rant

People need to stop underestimating Uvogin just because he got killed by Kurapika so early on in such an decisive manner. Uvogin is an extremely strong character, he is the only human we’ve seen that was able to take a constant barrage of bullets, snipe to the head, and a bazooka round to his hand with no damage whatsoever while he’s only at less than half of his full power, except netero and adult Gon. Pure power isn’t everything in a fight. Kurapika won not because of strength, but because of his chain jail, a move that is basically kryptonite to any spider no matter how strong they are. Uvogin is no different. When I hear people say Hisoka can whoop him, or any Zoldyck can easily kill him, I lose a few years off my life. There is not more than 5-6 people in the series who have a 50% chance of beating Uvogin in a fight without using extremely specific conditional abilities that target him or traps that require him to fall for them in first place. Yet he’s super smart, so he’s not likely to fall for any of those traps. He’s a Troupe member, the guy loves to fight but he isn’t some big, dumb brute. Hes smart and he understands how Nen works, the fight between Kurapika does its best to show that. He can use In, which is a Nen technique used by very few in the series. He isn’t just using Aura solely to supplement his muscles. Uvogin is one of the GREATEST enhancers shown in the series but people don’t take time to realize that just because he got as they say “clapped” by Kurapika. Kurapika lacks the sheer power Gon and Killua, but he is one of the best nen users among the main cast. He is talented I’ll say that, he’s talented enough to create such strong restrictions. Kurapika had won the fight before it even started, if Uvo knew the chains were conjured I think he would have had a fair shot at killing him, but Kurapika’s clever little idea of always keeping the chains on paid off. Kurapika could’ve NEVER beaten Uvo without chain jail. -.- (not to mention Uvogin was also hella drunk during the fight)

[eternalera]

i whole heartedly believe that if illumi raised his siblings without the influence of silva and kikyo the whole family would be so much better and less problematic. cause the main thing with him that ive been realizing is that he does genuinely want to love his family and he does care for him, but he grew up thinking that in order to care for someone you had to make them the strongest at any and all costs, because those were the principles he likely grew up by. he thought that was good and then kinda just... yeah pushed it onto everyone else.

and like with alluka im 90% sure that normally he would not gaf about her being trans IF silva and kikyo most likely didnt instill that sorta thing in him already. cause the thing with illumi is that he genuinely does not give a shit about literally anything other than family. and if silva and kikyo dont consider alluka family and hes just following their lead yeah hes gonna do that. otherwise he wouldve looked at alluka and just did not care about her being trans because shes family and he cares for her.

NOW I AM NOT JUSTIFYING HIM MISGENDERING HER OR TREATING HER AS AN OBJECT/AS IF SHE WASNT PART OF OF THE FAMILY.

because honestly... yeah that was hella fucked up-

but personally i do think that if he was raised without the influence of his parents he'd be a much better person

[silverhypnos]

Sorry, a little rant

This is a tiny bit of a rant, but I struggle so hard to be cordial with other HxH fans or fans of media in general who constantly need a "moral" reason to dislike or like any characters.

I dislike Hisoka because his pedophilic nature makes me uncomfortable and on principle, I just don't like pedo characters. But sometimes I dislike characters for non-moral reasons. And I rarely like a character for moral reasons. And I don't always feel like needing to justify that.

But I would meet people who treat disliking a character as a performative way to brand themselves as a moral person. Not only do they need a moral reason, but they get so angry when other people like morally corrupt characters. They would vocalize and question the morality of a person just for liking villains. And the worst part about it is that they are so flaky and hypocritical about it. I have met a person who went out of their way to shit on me for liking the spiders because "They are mass murderers" but they seem to love Chimera Ants. As if they didn't kill a bunch of people... "Killing innocent people is wrong" except it's okay when Killua did it.

The "excuse" is that he is a child from an abusive household, but something tells me if Killua was introduced as an adult, you'd have a different excuse. Now I'm not saying liking Killua is bad, he's a well-written character, and I want him to grow up happy like the rest of ya. Obviously, the reason why you don't care that Killua killed those randos for nothing is because they are nameless randos. Had those two been a person that the viewer had time to care about, some of you might care. When you care about a character, if a character hurts them, you might hate that character. Likewise, when your favorite character hurt someone, out comes with all of the excuses. This is nothing new, every fandom is like this. I don't have an issue with people not liking the Spiders. (I only have a pet peeve when they do the blame game of blaming Chrollo for all of the Spider's crime but not the whole Spiders.) I get that most people who hate the spiders are a big Kurapika fan. I also like Kurapika a lot, but I also like Spiders a lot too. So I just choose to suffer. Likewise, if you project yourself onto characters, you are more likely to defend that character's actions. When you project a person you don't like onto a character, you are more likely to hate that character to an absurd degree. You're going to headcanon that character in the worst way possible, even if they aren't guilty of the thing you've projected them to be. I can't speak for everyone, but I like well-written villains, and I don't believe in justifying a villain's actions. I like to see a villain develop, and I like to see how the author handles the villain's downfall. I don't like characters to performatively display my moral standings. I don't want to argue with people about why it's okay for me to like villains. But a lot of people who love to show off how moral they are through the media they watch instead of like, ya know, donating to causes, working at facilities that aid the homeless, etc... (And yes, not to humble brag but I've done those things) Some of y'all can be so difficult to be cordial with. It's one thing if the person started to directly harass you first, but y'all don't need to constantly seek out people you don't like just to start an argument on the internet. Ignore the type of fans you don't like, not every disagreement has to be some dick-measuring moral competition. It would be healthier for your headspace too, constantly being angry isn't going to do you any good. Take care of your health.

[shinyjasmineee11]

TW: mentions of homophobia, transphobia, and Ging Freecss

(Note: do not harass anyone who does this, harassment doesn't fix anything and only makes things worse. I am not trying to start any drama and I just wanted to rant about it since no one else seems to talk about it.)

I was just randomly thinking about this but can we like unnormalize making characters homophobic for "angst purposes" ? Like Kurapika would NOT get pressed just because Leorio has his contact name as "Sunshine" 🙁‼️ it isn't just Leopika this happens with Killugon and other ships as well😭 not trying to start any drama or anything like that but it's a bit concerning that so many people think Kurapika and/or Gon is homophobic? They've literally never shown disdain for LGBTQ+ people (especially Gon) so idk where people get the idea that they are homophobic?? Don't get me wrong I'm all for angst and I don't wanna seem like I'm policing headcanons but in this case it's just weird, I don't understand hcing characters who've never shown disgust or irritation to the LGBTQ+ community be suddenly homophobic 😓 even if it's like a internalized homophobia thing (as someone who had that in the past + internalized transphobia) like again if they don't show any negative emotions towards the LGBTQ+ community then I don't understand someone hcing a character as homophobic! Honestly this isn't even about ship angst anymore it's just characters in general 😭 I saw someone say that they don't like Ging (I'm sorry I always come back to this fucking man I just have to include him somehow) because he apparently "would be homophobic irl and not support Killugon"..?? Which makes absolutely NO sense??? That's another thing too, headcanoning characters you dislike as homophobic. Like okay.. You don't like Ging, whatever.. But hcing him as homophobic?? What?? And not only that, but saying he wouldn't support his son's relationship?? It makes absolutely no sense?? Sorry that this slowly became me ranting but it really pissed me off and I don't see anyone talking about it😭

[0creativity0]

All these people out there calling Gon (a child) a monster for ever hurting Killua yet you never hear them comment on how tormenting Kurapika's silence must be to, not only Leorio, but to literally anybody who cares about him at all (principally Leorio though, just take a second to even imagine how terrified he must feel).

But like seriously, this fandom never changes. You guys cradle Killua like a newborn baby and tear apart anything that dares find itself in his way or push him to face his own feelings, even accidentally. You did the same thing with the Phantom Rouge movie and not only completely destroyed Retz, which could've been so fun to explore together as a community (and is one of the only girls (debatable) in the entire show) but also completely shat on how good the movie was just because you were too focused on insulting a dead child. Also, Killua character analyses are received so negatively compared to the other characters, because this fandom's all about interpretation until it comes to interpreting Killua's intentions because he's so kind and pure and perfect or whatever. So uninteresting, smh.

Ok I'm dropping the mic I just needed a minute to complain.

[cloudwifey]

because what. BECAUSE WHAT KILLUA

[killugon-truther]

ngl, i’m tired of pretending that i hate the hxh dub lmao. 💀

like, sure, it’s not “perfect” or wtv, but i honestly rly like it. 🤷

imo it’s not rly anywhere near as bad as ppl like to say it is (esp since most ppl are constantly hating on all dubs regardless, so their opinions don’t rly matter anyway 🤷), and some of the translations are actually very enjoyable. 😭

just some examples i rly rly liked off the top of my head (and yes, these are all from ep. 147… sue me):

“well, the truth is… after you told me you were gonna defeat pitou alone, not to mention that it was ‘none of my business’, i got… pretty depreeeeeeeessed.” killua teasing gon (i love petty killua & i loved the delivery. 😭 he can be such a little dickhead sometimes lmao. alluka’s “big brother!” and killua’s little evil chuckle were also so cute, i love them lol.)

“why are you just telling me that NOW⁉️⁉️” gon to killua after killua finally told him that alluka’s power (nanika) is who healed him (i just absolutely loved the delivery here, he sounded so genuinely annoyed & exasperated lmao 😭).

“it’s sort of a… complicated family thing, ya know?” killua to gon after gon’s reaction (i just absolutely love this line. 😭 it manages to be an absolute understatement while being completely accurate at the same time LMAO).

“she was locked in our house for a real long time… for the crime of being too awesome.” killua to gon abt alluka/nanika (i personally love this translation choice sm… not only was it comical, but it honestly felt like it encapsulated killua’s character & his opinion of his sisters very well.)

“wait just a minute, i don’t need you planing play dates! isn’t she great?” (one of the cutest things killua has ever said. he sounds so genuine when he says it 😭)

i also honestly think that alluka/nanika has such a cute voice, i love it sm. i honestly might like it more than their sub voice.

[musicalmoritz]

The pain of rarely hating characters in fandoms that treat stanning villains like it’s a moral issue

[concrete-3ater]

if I had a nickel for every time I was in a fandom and a child character had a breakdown and did something that accidentally hurt another character, and then the fandom all turned on the character and vilified them because they [the fandom] can’t understand that sometimes 14 year olds make mistakes when they’re going through something traumatic, I would have 2 nickels

not a lot but it really is weird it happened twice